C & H

Whiplash

Ken Clarke, the justice secretary, and transport secretary Justine Greening will this week outline a tougher accreditation system for doctors who assess whiplash claims in the hope of stamping out "crash for cash" scams.  The move is one of a series of new measures aimed at catching fraudsters amid fears that Britain has become the "whiplash capital of Europe".

Personal injury claims arising from traffic incidents have increased by 70% during the past six years, despite the number of casualties dropping by almost a quarter over the same period.  Insurers say the trend can be blamed on the growing use of no-win no-fee lawyers, with injury claims costing the insurance industry £2 billion last year.

The new government strategy will also include tougher regulations on reaching out-of-court settlements with insurers.

Great idea, shame nowt will change.  All gob and no action as usual.

TTel

Welcome to Britain

Heathrow approached “breaking” point last week, with passengers left so frustrated by delays that they resorted to storming past officials without showing their documents and slow hand-clapping staff in immigration halls.  Several times last week delays were reported in Terminal Five of up to two hours.

On the weekend, BAA, the owner of Heathrow, tried to defuse tensions with a leaflet apologising to passengers for the “very long delays” and saying people entering the country “deserved a warmer welcome”.  The leaflet suggested that passengers should complain to the Home Office.

How does that help the passengers in any way?

More details at TTel

Suckered

Who Wants to be a Billionaire?

The richest people in Britain got even richer last year, with the UK's 1 000 wealthiest people sharing a record £414.26 billion fortune according to the Sunday Times Rich List.  There were 77 billionaires in 2012, two up from the previous high set in 2008, while the threshold to be included in the top 1 000 rose £2 million to £70 million.

Top ten UK billionaires

1 - Lakshmi Mittal and family - £12.7 billion
2 - Alisher Usmanov - £12.3 billion
3 - Roman Abramovich - £9.5 billion
4 - Sri and Gopi Hinduja - £8.6 billion
5 - Leonard Blavatnik - £7.58 billion
6 - Ernesto and Kirsty Bertarelli - £7.4 billion
7 - The Duke of Westminster - £7.35 billion
8 - David and Simon Reuben - £7.08 billion
9 - John Fredriksen and family - £6.6 billion
10 - Galen and George Weston and family - £5.9 billion

Copy Cats

Premier League's top-selling shirt names

• 1 Wayne Rooney
• 2 Steven Gerrard
• 3 Fernando Torres
• 4 Cristiano Ronaldo
• 5 Frank Lampard 

"Rooney" has been revealed as the top-selling name on the back of Premier League replica shirts over the past 20 seasons.

Erm, hasn't Ronaldo been at Real Madrid since 2009?

So, We're Stuck with Redknapp?

Bollocks.  :-(

M And Ms

Man City meet Man Utd in what will no doubt decide the Premiership tonight.  Not in the vaguest bit bothered and there is no way I will be watching the game live tonight.  KO is at 02:00 local time...

Dilbert

A Hole

Sorry, typo in the title, but why does Cole insist on keeping the "A"?  There's no one left in the Chelsea squad that shares his surname, so is it because the shirts are already printed?

Knowing Premiership clubs love for flogging new Ts at any given excuse, you'd have thought they'd quickly rush out an "A"less shirt and charge the punters another forty sovs...

Socks Over Knees

Along with fluorescent, day-glo boots, WTF?

You're football players, not ballerinas. 

Socks reach to the knees and are then folded over.   Anything else is simply unacceptable.

Roy Hodgson

For Team Eng-er-land?

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAHHHAAAA...  :o)

Happier Again- But for How Long?

Barclays Premier League Table

Pos		Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts	Last 6
1		Manchester United	35	26	5	4	86	32	54	83
2		Manchester City	35	25	5	5	87	27	60	80
3		Arsenal	36	20	6	10	68	44	24	66
4		Tottenham Hotspur	35	18	8	9	59	39	20	62
5		Newcastle United	35	18	8	9	53	46	7	62
6		Chelsea	35	17	10	8	62	39	23	61
7		Everton	35	14	9	12	46	38	8	51
8		Liverpool	35	13	10	12	43	37	6	49
9		Fulham	35	12	10	13	45	48	-3	46
10		West Bromwich Albion	36	13	7	16	41	47	-6	46
11		Sunderland	36	11	12	13	44	43	1	45
12		Swansea City	36	11	11	14	43	49	-6	44
13		Norwich City	36	11	10	15	47	63	-16	43
14		Stoke City	35	11	10	14	33	49	-16	43
15		Aston Villa	36	7	16	13	36	50	-14	37
16		Wigan Athletic	36	9	10	17	38	60	-22	37
17		Queens Park Rangers	36	9	7	20	40	63	-23	34
18		Bolton Wanderers	35	10	4	21	41	69	-28	34
19		Blackburn Rovers	36	8	7	21	47	75	-28	31
20		Wolverhampton Wanderers	36	5	9	22	38	79	-41	24