British athletes will definitely know the words to the national anthem before the London Games, says UK Athletics head coach Charles van Commenee.
The Dutchman believes the step is necessary to head off potential criticism over "plastic Brits" - or athletes who have switched allegiance to represent Team GB at the Olympics.
"They know the words, or they will," said Van Commenee.
"If they don't, somebody will make an issue of it."
Asked if it should matter whether athletes know the words to the national anthem, he added: "That's a different question.
"I'm not going to rehearse everybody because we have 90 athletes, but people that matter... let's say the relevant ones, the ones on your radar (will rehearse the anthem)."
Van Commenee's choice of United States-born Tiffany Porter as team captain for the World Indoor Championships in March sparked the "Plastic Brits" row after she declined to sing God Save the Queen at a news conference ahead of that meeting.
Porter, who qualifies for Britain through her London-born mother and has held a British passport since birth, said she knew the words but questioned her singing ability.
Charles van Commenee“This is nothing compared to what football managers have to go through, but at least it tells me that athletics is worth talking about”
"I do know the first lines," she said at the time. "I know the whole of God Save the Queen."
Van Commenee, who insists he would only know the first two lines of his own national anthem, believes the "Plastic Brits" row is not important in the scheme of things.
"I know in Olympic year all sorts of rubbish comes up," he said.
The 53-year-old claims he had far more important matters to deal with when he was technical director of the Dutch Olympic Committee for the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
"In the lead up to Beijing, there were lots of issues around Taiwan, Tibet, smog, human rights, not having the ability to express yourself in public, child labour," he said. "All these things had to be addressed by me.
"The issues I deal with now are partly not serious, but it comes with the job. This is nothing compared to what football managers have to go through, but at least it tells me that athletics is worth talking about.
"When you are in the spotlight then yes, you get issues to talk about."
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
Business travel key to Cape Town to London flights - Independent Online
More business travellers are needed to increase the economic viability of flights between the city and London, Cape Town Tourism said on Wednesday.
“The business traveller is a major contributor to covering flight expenses, which points to a need to work hard on forging stronger business ties in addition to the leisure market,” CEO Mariëtte Du Toit-Helmbold said.
“Airlines must make economic sense. When a flight is cancelled this is the reason. Decreased business travel, as a result of troubled economies, continues to plague key source markets.”
She said more energy would be directed to making Cape Town a competitive and year-round business tourism destination.
Marketing would need to be consolidated between different spheres of government, agencies and the private sector.
SA Airways announced on Tuesday that it would scrap its 20-year direct route between Cape Town and London from August 15. Instead, passengers would have to catch a flight from Johannesburg.
It cited declining passenger numbers to the United Kingdom and increasing airport taxes in that country as some of the reasons for ending the route.
SAA planned to re-deploy some of it planes to its growing Accra, Mumbai and Perth routes and add Abidjan to the network.
Du Toit-Helmbold said SAA had confirmed it would continue to use Cape Town as a draw card in its marketing promotions and campaigns.
Wesgro, the official marketing, investment and trade promotion agency for the province, said the Cape Town-London route still held strong economic value.
“International airlines identified this and are increasing their capacity during peak season,” Wesgro CEO Nils Flaatten said.
“Many business and leisure travellers from the United States are using London as a connecting flight into Cape Town and we are at risk of losing these visitors, as the travelling time has been extended even further.”
He called for an urgent national debate on flights into Cape Town and other regional airports. - Sapa
Source: www.iol.co.za
London Luxury-Home Price Gains Slow After Property-Tax Increase - Businessweek
Luxury-home prices in central London rose the least in nine months in May, after the British government increased a tax on purchases of 2 million pounds ($3.1 million) or more, Knight Frank LLP said.
Values of houses and apartments costing an average of 3.7 million pounds climbed 10.7 percent from a year earlier, the London-based broker said in a report today. That was the smallest gain since August 2011. Prices rose 0.7 percent from April, bolstered by buyers from mainland Europe.
Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne raised the tax, known as stamp duty, to 7 percent from 5 percent in March. The threshold for the new tax rate is now the average asking price of a home in Kensington and Chelsea, one of London’s most affluent neighborhoods, property-listings website Rightmove Plc said when the government announced the change.
“The market has absorbed the 7 percent duty rate fairly well,” Liam Bailey, head of residential research for Knight Frank, said in the report. Prices for homes valued at more than 2 million pounds rose 1.6 percent in the past two months, while those for all luxury properties gained 2.7 percent, he said.
Europe’s debt crisis has prompted overseas investors to acquire real estate in London to preserve their wealth. Luxury- property prices in the city have increased about 12 percent since the market’s peak in 2008, including 4.7 percent this year, as a scarcity of homes for sale drove up values.
German Buyers
“We are now seeing a noticeable uptick in interest from France, Italy, Spain and even German-based purchasers,” Bailey said in the report. That contributed to the 19th monthly price increase in a row.
The crisis, now in its third year, threatens to destroy Europe’s 17-nation currency union as Greece contemplates exiting the euro and Spain sees its bond yields rise and banking industry falter. The euro zone’s collapse could cause prime central London property values to fall as much as 50 percent, Development Securities Plc (DSC) said in a May 31 report, as capital flows out of the city to less expensive markets.
“The ‘safe-haven’ effect has clearly played its role in attracting foreign money into London’s most desirable post codes,” Chief Executive Officer Michael Marx said in the report. “However, the property industry knows -- perhaps better than most -- that nothing goes on forever.”
Foreign Residents
Foreign buyers accounted for about 60 percent of home purchases in London’s most expensive districts in the four years through 2011, according to London-based Development Securities. As a result, more than half of the residents of Kensington and Chelsea and the City of Westminster are from outside the U.K.
House prices across the country rose in May for the first time in three months as a lack of homes for sale supported values, Nationwide Building Society said May 31. Values gained 0.3 percent from April and fell an annual 0.7 percent to an average of 166,022 pounds.
Knight Frank compiles its luxury-homes index from its own appraisal values of a sample of the same properties in the 13 most expensive neighborhoods of central London, including Belgravia and Knightsbridge.
To contact the reporter on this story: Chris Spillane in London at cspillane3@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew Blackman at ablackman@bloomberg.net.
Source: www.businessweek.com
Mental health budget alert by Sussex NHS trust (From The Argus) - The Argus.co.uk
Mental health budget alert by Sussex NHS trust
6:20pm Tuesday 5th June 2012 in News By Siobhan Ryan, Health Reporter
The amount of money being spent on mental health in some parts of Sussex is not enough to meet people’s needs, a report has warned.
Research by the Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust looked at public health reports published by East and West Sussex county councils and Brighton and Hove City Council.
It found that in Brighton and Hove, high levels of mental health need were linked to a similar high rate of spending on mental health.
However, in East and West Sussex figures suggested spending is well below the national average despite these counties having higher levels of dementia and depression.
Trust executive director of strategic development, Richard Ford, said: “People with mental health problems can be supported to stay well, to be full members of their community or to hold down jobs.
“If we do not tackle mental health needs we are letting down the people we are here to serve and storing up major social and economic problems for the future.”
Mental health spend
The national average primary care trust spend on mental health services is about 12% of their budget.
Brighton and Hove spends just over £27 million a year, or 14.6%.
However East Sussex Downs and Weald and Hastings and Rother spend just over £18 million each, about 10% of their budget.
West Sussex spends about £16 million a year, which is 9.1%.
An NHS Sussex spokeswoman said: “We continue to work with the trust partnership trust to make the best use of limited NHS resources.
“We also recognise the excellent work done by other providers of mental health services, including our partners in the voluntary sector who provide very good and effective support for people with mental health needs.”
The partnership trust provides mental health services across the county.
Source: www.theargus.co.uk
Labour MP: Jubilee stewards left by roadside at 3am in London - ITV
Edward: Duke 'getting better'
The Duke of Edinburgh remains in hospital today after being admitted with a bladder infection on Monday. On Tuesday, his son Prince Edward, the Earl of Wessex, said the Duke was "getting better" after visiting him.
Source: www.itv.com
Comment now! Register or sign in below.
Or