Dementia tax could wipe out up to half the value of average family home

It comes after Amber Rudd said the Conservatives did not know what a future cap on social care costs would be, while refusing to rule out that it could be as high as £200,000 or £300,000.

The analysis reveals that:
• If a cap was introduced at £200k, the costs of care for those with long-term conditions could wipe out over half of the value of an average family home

• If a cap was introduced at £150k, the costs of care for those with long-term conditions could wipe out around a third of the value of an average family home

• In Theresa May’s constituency of Maidenhead, the dementia tax could wipe out 40% of the value of an average home if a cap of £200k was introduced.
Liberal Democrat Shadow Health Secretary Norman Lamb said:

“These figures show Theresa May’s dementia tax could devastate hard-working families, with a cap on costs in the hundreds of thousands.

“Across the country, people risk seeing over half the value of their homes taken to pay for care costs.

“Theresa May’s stubborn refusal to set out the full details of the dementia tax shows she has no plans to ditch it.

“She is showing contempt for vulnerable older people who have developed a condition like dementia through no fault of their own.”




News story: UK Armed Forces recognised for support to UN Peacekeeping

Today (29 May) is the annual International Day of UN Peacekeepers, which was marked by a number of events in London on Wednesday.

The day also commemorates those who have lost their lives while serving on Peacekeeping operations. Over 100 UK service personnel make up part of more than 3,500 personnel from around the world who have died serving as UN Peacekeepers since 1948, and they were remembered during a ceremony and wreath-laying at the Cenotaph.

Commander of Joint Forces Command General Sir Chris Deverell and Foreign Office Minister for Asia and Pacific Alok Sharma laid wreaths during the event, and wreaths were also laid by representatives from nearly 100 Embassies and High Commissions, the Chief Inspector of the Constabulary, UN Veterans Association, widows and schoolchildren.

The Band of the Welsh Guards performed at the wreath-laying, and Wednesday’s events also included a Conference at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI), opened by Vice Chief of the Defence Staff General Sir Gordon Messenger.

Vice Chief of the Defence Staff General Sir Gordon Messenger opened a conference at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies. Crown Copyright.
Vice Chief of the Defence Staff General Sir Gordon Messenger opened a conference at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies. Crown Copyright.

Over 690 UK military personnel are currently deployed in support of multiple UN Peacekeeping missions, the majority in South Sudan, Cyprus and Somalia. The largest of these deployments, with nearly 400 British troops now deployed, is in South Sudan to support the UN’s mission in country.

Commander of Joint Forces Command General Sir Chris Deverell said:

Today, on the International Day of UN Peacekeepers, we pay tribute to the 3,500 personnel from over 120 countries who have died while serving the United Nations. When peacekeepers deploy they do so on behalf of the international community and in support of efforts by previously warring parties to find a path to peace. I am grateful to each person who deploys, and very proud that over 690 members of the UK Armed Forces are currently deployed as part of this effort.

The UK contribution to the UN Mission in South Sudan includes engineering tasks and the construction and running of a temporary field hospital, to be followed by a permanent facility which will provide medical care for over 1,800 UN Peacekeepers and UN staff.




Clegg: May’s approach to Brexit is a threat to national security

The Schengen Information System (SIS II) is an EU-wide database on organised criminal and terrorist suspects across 28 countries, including 35,000 people wanted under a European Arrest Warrant. It includes alerts on suspected ‘foreign fighters’ – people who have travelled to Syria and elsewhere to fight for ISIS.

• UK police and security services queried the database over half a billion times in 2016 – equivalent to 16 checks a second.

• 53 people are detained and questioned under anti-terrorism laws at ports and airports every day, where they can be checked against the database by UK Border Force officers.

• In April 2016, the UK received 25 hits on alerts issued by other participating countries in relation to individuals who could pose a risk to national security.

• The UK would lose access to the database under Theresa May’s plans to leave the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice. Unless this position changes, UK authorities will see their access to the database cut off on 29th March 2019.
Nick Clegg has challenged Theresa May to answer three vital questions:
1. How will we maintain access to SIS II without accepting the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice?

2. What contingency plans has she put in place to mitigate the loss of this information on the movement of terrorist suspects across the continent?

3. How will we issue instructions to other EU countries to stop and question terror suspects if we are no longer part of this system?
Nick Clegg commented:
“Theresa May’s extreme approach to Brexit will have the direct consequence of severing our ties to a fantastically useful weapon in our armoury against terrorism.

“By refusing to accept a role for the European Court of Justice in policing this European-wide database, she has ruled out our future participation it.

“It is hard to overstate the importance of this database. We check it 16 times a second, looking for security threats that have been flagged to us by other European countries. And we use it to tell other countries to stop and question people who we think are potential terrorists.

“This is euroscepticism gone mad. If she fails to back down, Theresa May’s approach to Brexit poses a direct threat to our national security.”




New Chairperson of EIGE’s Management Board Prof Kalliope Agapiou Josephides takes office

The new Chairperson of the EIGE Management Board for 2017 – 2019, Kalliope Agapiou Josephides from Cyprus, took office in May 2017.

She has extensive experience in the field of gender equality at the international, national and regional level: management of institutions dealing with gender equality and human rights (former Vice-President of the European Inter University Centre for Human Rights and Democratisation in Venice, EIGE Management Board Member); good knowledge of the EU policies and politics (Jean Monnet Chair Holder, University of Cyprus). As an established international expert she has been serving as academic convener/speaker in high-level international events, providing advise and training for institutions and leaders as well as teaching and research. She holds a PhD in Political Science from the Paris I Panthéon – Sorbonne University.

For the complete list of Management Board members see the EIGE website.




Terror cannot triumph

There are times when words simply cannot do justice to the enormity of events or to the depth of human emotion they can provoke.