Amanda Knox...is she misunderstood or just bad?

I have followed this case from the very beginning and along the way I believe the Italian judiciary have made mistakes. But that does not excuse Amanda Knox of being guilty of murder. 

From the beginning Amanda displayed very strange behaviour and a total lack of empathy for the dead girl Meredith Kercher. 

Whether it was doing handstands for the media for falsely accusing an innocent man of murder. However she seems to retain some powerful support in the media. 

Now the Italian judiciary have found her and her ex boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito again. 

I believe other than strange behaviour if Amanda wanted to clear her name the first thing she would do is undergo a lie detector test. 

But I suspect Amanda would not agree to a lie detector as she prefers to do interviews and write books. 

All this must be very painful for the Kercher family and I sincerely hope they get the justice that they so richly deserve. 

Prime Minister Questions- 29/01/14

In Today's Prime Minister's questions Ed Miliband asked David Cameron one question on Syria and it was about the number of Syrians that Britain would be willing to accept.

David Cameron gave a strong response about how Britain would take the most vulnerable but did not specify how many. 

 

Ed moved on to Labour proposal of a 50% tax rate for millionaires and he asked David Cameron three times if it was true that the Tories wanted to further reduce millionaire's tax rate to 40%. 

Three times David Cameron refused to directly answer the question. Ed managed to get David Cameron in that political corner. Which made David Cameron look weak and indecisive. 

Ed did well this week and he asking the issues that affect people up and down the country. Whilst David Cameron was shouting out a lot of his answers today and looked little out of his depth. 

Review of the of President Obama's speech

President Obama made his State of the Union speech  last night, as I expected a large part of the speech was decidated to the US economy. 

President made an impassioned plea for better pay for low paid workers and for Congress to work with him pass some bills.

President Obama discussed the successes of the Affordable Care Act and how it was changing people lives. 

It was great that President Obama talked about the NSA and making sure that they do not over reach their power in the future.  

From an international prespective it was good that he discussed the withdrawing of troops from Afghanistan and regulating the drone programme. Giving more assistance to Syrian opposition. 

Overall President Obama made a good speech and but some pundits have said it was quite a predictable speech. 

I don't think that is always a bad thing as President Obama was developing topics from last year. 

As usual the Democrats where very appreciative of his speech whilst the Republicans looked largely unmoved by his speech. 

So it look like the  President has another partisan year of politics to look forward to. Where he will probably make some progress but with very little help from the Republicans. 

Working women and childcare

One the first policies the Coalition government put into place was to cut the child tax credit.

 This has meant many families up and down country have both parents working but are struggling to cover childcare cost. 

The childcare in the UK is expensive and the average nursery in London charge about £50 day which can work out to be over £1000 a month. 

The changes in child tax credit has meant that two parent with a joint income of over £32,000 are unable to claim tax credit. 

In London £32,000 is over the average earnings and this meant some parents are staying home unable to work due to these cost. 

Historical records have shown that with each general election the female vote is increasing. 

I think there be will women up and down the country who will be thinking about the cost of childcare before they decide whom to elect. 

As families up and down the country know that affordable and trustworthy childcare is a must before either parent can even consider going back to work. 

Preview to President Obama's State of the Union address

Tonight President Obama will make his State of the Union address and there are various topics which I think he will touch on. 

Firstly he will talk about the US economy and how things have greatly improved in the last year or so but will probably state how there is a lot more to do and this is difficult without the help of Congress. 

Secondly he might talk about the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare and how after it's initial teething problems the act is greatly benefiting many Americans. 

Thirdly on the international front he might talk about Syria and how the America needs to bring world leaders together to end the current crisis. 

The topics I hope President Obama will discuss is firstly doing more to limit access to guns and I hope he worries less about the gun lobbyist. 

Secondly I hope he will talk about the NSA and hopefully he plans to ensure they do not abuse their power. 

Thirdly I hope on international he will talk about Afghanistan and how handing of power back to the Afghans is going. 

So there is a lot for President Obama to discuss and is approval rating is back up to 50% and this means that Americans are reasonably happy with his Presidency but he has a lot of work to do! 

The rise and rise.....of food banks!

Ok I will be honest before 2010 I did not know that food banks ever existed in the UK. Now there are apparently over one thousand food banks in the UK. 

Now as a mother of one myself I can see how more and more families are beginning to rely on food banks. 

Now that we are deep into winter most people are probably wisely saving money for their heating bills. This may mean making cut backs in other areas and for some families it is food. 

These days I guess that a decent family shop for food is about £200 a month and if the family eats meat then the monthly shop might be even higher. 

When times are tough spending £200 plus a month food can be very challenging. 

At this stage it looks like food banks are to stay, unless there is a change in the economy that struggling families can benefit from. 

Yay! UK economic recovery...but who is benefiting?

So the GDP figures are out and it now shows the best growth figures since 2007! So this should be a reason for all of us to celebrate right?

Sadly even the Business Secretary Vince Cable is convinced that the economic recovery is too closely aligned with the housing recovery which is not good for the economy.

This would explain why the the average families are not feeling the benefits of this recovery. More and more families are turning to food banks to feed their families. 

I am sure the Chancellor George Osbourne will be very happy with these GDP figures and the Tories will be hoping that this good news will boost them in the opinion polls. 

I personally do not believe it will have the desired affect as too many families up and down the country are not feeling the affects of this economic recovery.