Britain’s soaring population

 A STAGGERING nine in ten women are worried about Britain’s soaring population a recent poll has found. Eighty per cent want to cap immigration at 50,000 a year; ‘Townswoman’s Guild’ members polled said current levels were harming community relations. Net migration was 163,000 last year. Labour MP Frank Field said “It’s significant as women are usually softer on immigration”

   Women are twice as likely to be diagnosed with anxiety as men a study found, more than one in ten has been identified as suffering stress compared to one in 20 men. Smoking, heavy drinking and being overweight all raised chances. The report in journal Family Practice said “Despite the high prevalence these patients often do not receive as much attention as those with other mental disorders.”

Foreigners to settle in Britain

IMMIGRANTS are to be educated in how to queue properly to help them integrate. To settle here they will have to learn about the revered British practice of forming an orderly line for everything from buses to sandwiches. The art of queuing could be included in the test on aspects of the British way of life which foreign nationals applying for citizenship have to take. Ministers believe queue-jumping is damaging social cohesion as most Britons find such behaviour unacceptable, Immigration Minister, Phil Woolas, has claimed that much tension in communities is caused by foreigners not understanding they much wait in line for services rather than barging to the front as may be custom in their own culture. Surveys show that 91 per cent of Britons object strongly to queue jumping. Mr. Woolas confirmed he is pushing the idea as part of moves to ensure immigrants integrate properly.

Britons are Europe’s biggest online spenders

BRITONS are Europe’s biggest online spenders, making up a third of all internet buys across the continent, a report claims. UK consumers spent an estimated £38billion on the internet in 2009, 30 per cent of Europe’s total.

   Online sales grew 12 per cent last year and made up 9.5 per cent of all retail sales in the UK. The Centre for Retail Research, behind the report, predicts the UK online market will grow by 12.4 per cent this year to £42.7 billion. UK consumers had the highest average individual spend at £1.102. They also bought the most items on the web.

Marriage is going out of fashion

MARRIAGE is going out of fashion with fewer couples trying to tie the knot than at any time in more than 100 years. A total of 231,990 couples wed in 2008, down from 235,370 in 2007 and the lowest number since 1895, figures from the Office for National Statistics showed. Since 1981 the number of marriages has fallen by 33%. In the past 10 years the average age at first marriage has risen by 3 years 33.1 years for men and 29.9 for women, and in the past 10 years the number of church weddings has fallen 25%

   Mr. Dave Percival a pro-marriage campaigner said “Living together and marriage are increasingly seen as the same by the public yet the outcomes are radically different

 Conversation with Foreigners

CONSERVATION with foreigners could soon get easier, using a new phone that translates for you instantly.  The mobile due in two years will “learn” its owner’s voice, and instantly convert his speech into the language of his choice.  It will also automatically help him understand foreign conversations .  The technology is being worked on by Google.

   The firm’s Franz Och Said “To work smoothly you need a combination of high accuracy machine translation and high accuracy voice recognition, there has been large progress recently.”

Bicles theft riding high

THE recession has seen the theft of bicycles soar. More than 10,000 were reported stolen every month last year, 7% up on 2008.

But the real figure may be at least double as many owners feel there is no chance of getting their bike back, so do not tell police.

Weight Britain

THE obesity epidemic is getting worse with hospitals swamped by porky patients. Last year saw a whopping 60% rise in people needing treatment for being overweight. The number of tummy tucks and weight lost operations also soared 55%.

   New figures show there were almost 8,000 admissions for obesity in 2008/9, eight times as many as 10 years ago. And experts fear the fat crisis is getting even worse after the figure grew almost 59% in just 12 months. NHS weight lost surgery, including stomach stapling and gastric bands, also more than doubled.   The NHS Information Centre said there were 4,220 procedures last year a huge increase from just 2,724 in 2007/08.

   Another report revealed 2.5 million years of life are lost in England every year as people die prematurely. Medics have called for babies as young as three months to be put on diets. A study in Clinical Paediatrics Magazine claims action should be taken soon after birth to stop obesity later, it says if bad feeding habits are established early on in life, they are hard to shake off.

Long life pill hope

SCIENTISTS claim they are close to developing a drug that allows people to live beyond100.  Researchers have found three genes that extend life and prevent diseases such as Alzheimer’s.  Dr. Nir Barzilai, who led the New York study, said several labs were now racing to create a pill that mimics them.

 Chinese food is number one

CHINESE food has overtaken Indian as Britain’s favourite cuisine a survey revealed. British grub was third, then Italian and Thai in the poll of 3,000 people. American, Mexican, Japanese, Greek, and French made up the top ten.

   Brits spend an average £20 a month on cooking exotic food and £31.44 eating out the Sharwood’s survey found. A spokesman said “It’s easy to get bored of fish and chips.”