There is always a new way for conning money out of us.
A constituent has been caught in one that is entirely new to me. We could all innocently walk into this or a similar trap. He writes
“In May I booked a theory test on line for my granddaughter and was charged £48. Unbeknown to me the company advertising the theory test was an agency that charged £17 extra for merely receiving my payment. The theory test is a fixed amount and is outsourced to one provider. Why do the Ministry of Transport allow various companies to advertise on the web as theory test providers when all they are doing is getting an extra £17 for nothing.”
He continues. “This is terribly misleading and no government department offering an on line service should allow outsiders to reap the benefit from unsuspecting members of the public.”
I have follow up the agency details and the complaint seems to be entirely justified. The agency role seems to be wholly parasitic – adding £17 to the bill without providing any benefit.
Anyone know of any similar scams on the public offering services on passports or visas? I have taken this one up with the Ministry of Transport.
Pol Flin
A message unlike any other I have ever received, was e-mailed to me today from a constituent.
It started, “Petisiyanı imzalamış Britaniya millət vəkillərindən Pol Flin (Paul Flynn) redaktorumuz Yohannes Dellin Britaniyada bu tipli siyasi tənqid nə dərəcədə normal sayılır sualına belə cavab verib.”
It’s in the Azeri language and is printed from the multi-lingual BBC website. I approved of the Pol Flin spelling. It saves two letters. It’s an account of an interview I did for the BBC World service this afternoon. My EDM has now been signed by 20 MPs and it is making big waves in Baku.
On a site name Media Helping Media, the two imprisoned men Adnan Hajizada and Emin Milli, are described as youth movement leaders, civil society activists and citizen journalists. According to reports on several blogs, Facebook and postings on Twitter, the charges against the two could result in their imprisonment for up to two and a half years.
According to Human Rights House Network, the two were sitting in a restaurant with other young adults, discussing the activity of youth organisations related to the Internet when two men told them to stop talking politics and then attacked them.
They are in prison and likely to be charged with hooliganism. Another human rights campaigner is serving a four-year prison sentence for the same 'offence'. He was arrested in identical circumstances. It is believed that the provocateurs were special police.
The blogging world is mounting an international campaign that is seriously embarrassing the oppressive President Aliev.
This is multiple blogging at its most impressive.
See no truth
Another tragic death. Another day of distraction away from the deepening futility of Afghanistan. Last year, blaming the foreigners for not sharing the burden was the excuse for not facing reality. Now, it’s putting the boot into the Government on helicopters that is throwing dust into our eyes.
It’s all escapism. Eventually the country must face the ugly reality of wasted lives, impossibilist aims, Karzai’s corruption and cruelty and NATO’s abject failures. Meanwhile, the cry is to send more troops as targets for the Taliban.
One day truth will dawn.
Equality
Dozens of sports offer great benefits to schoolgirls. They teach discipline, self-control, and athleticism and should be promoted.
Why is someone named Frank Collinson promoting a sport that inflicts brain damage on its participants? He is encouraging schoolgirls in Manchester to take up boxing. I doubt whether the idea of broken noses, black eyes and training in sweaty gyms really holds much appeal for the fairer sex. But these are days of equality.
Females should have the same right to be afflicted by brain damage as males have.
In connection with your note of the driving test scam, surely this should be no surprise since the DVLC happily sells drivers' details to crooked clampers.
Posted by: Richard T | July 19, 2009 at 08:52 AM