Unemployment November 2009

Good news for Ashford with 51 more people finding work than last month. This means that the Unemployment rate in Ashford is now 2.9%

KCC Area Summary
• The KCC unemployment rate remains at 3.3%, this is below the national rate of 4.1%.
• Six KCC districts saw an overall drop in unemployment since last month. The biggest reduction in claimants was in Dartford district which saw 91 fewer claimants than in October (a reduction of 4.3%). Dover saw the biggest increase in claimants with an additional 125 claimants, an increase of 5.6%.
• Thanet district continues to have the highest unemployment rate in the KCC area at 5.8% (4,196 claimants). Tunbridge Wells district has the lowest rate at 2.0% (1,263 claimants).

Daniel Hannan

DON'T DO AS I DO, DO AS I SAY

The department fighting climate change has spent more than £1 million on air travel in less than a year

Gordon Brown only created the Department of Energy and Climate Change in October of last year, but it has been getting through taxpayers' money at quite a rate ever since.

The Lib Dem MP Simon Hughes wondered how much of it had been spent on gas-guzzling journeys and has just had this answer back from the junior minister, Joan Ruddock:

"DECC has spent the following since its inception: (a) ministerial cars and drivers £166,305; (b) taxis for the whole Department £202,249; (c) train travel for the whole Department £557,637; and (e) air fares for the whole Department £1,179,390. The Department is not able to separately identify the use of helicopters or chartered aircraft except at disproportionate cost."

That's more than £100,000 a month on air travel - not to mention the equivalent of 5,500 return train journeys from London to Edinburgh over that eleven month period.

I daresay even more of our money is being spent on off-setting all those carbon emissions...

CONDOMS FOR CLIMATE CHANGE

According to research by the London School of Economics contraception is almost 5 times cheaper as a means of limiting CO2 emissions than conventional green technologies. Every £4 spent on family planning over the next 40 years would reduce global CO2 by more than a ton, whereas a minimum of £19 would have to be spent on low-carbon technologies to achieve the same result, according to researchers. The report concluded that family planning should be seen as one of the primary methods of emission reduction. The UN estimate that 40% of all pregnancies worldwide are unintended. If these basic family planning need were met, 34 gigatons of CO2 would be saved that's almost 60 times Britain's annual total.

Working Out !

According to local radio station KMFM Ashford bosses of a regional quango accepted gifts and hospitality valued at nearly £8,000 in a year, including tickets to Wimbledon, top rugby international fixtures, the opera and music festivals.

Senior managers and directors of the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) received £7,836 in gifts and hospitality in 2008-09, according to details disclosed to KM Group under the Freedom of Information Act.

Almost 25% of students were not in full time jobs more than 3 years after leaving university.

A fifth of those failed to secure work in graduate professions, finding work in bars,supermarkets and restaurants according to a report from the Higher Education Statistics Agency ( the what? no, me neither).

They also found that more than one in 10 students who left university in 2004-5 had been out of work at least once. The worst part of all of this is that these figures reflect the situation BEFORE the recession was in full swing.

It's getting worse, statistics published by the agency in July showed that 16,835 students leaving full time first degree courses last year were still not employed six months after graduation.