Your business’ time to shine - Olympic Torch relay route announced

Article via http://www.portsmouth.gov.uk/London2012/torch-relay.html

The street-by-street details and proposed times for when the Olympic Flame will travel through Portsmouth have now been released.

The Olympic Flame will make its journey from Greece and arrive in the UK on 18 May 2012, ready for the London 2012 Olympic Torch Relay to begin the following day. Representing peace, unity and friendship, the Flame will start its 70 day journey around the UK towards the Stadium carried by 8,000 inspirational Torchbearers.

On Sunday, 15 July 2012, the Flame will arrive in the city by water (from Gosport) at about 6pm, and will initially travel through Portsmouth Historic Dockyard; past the world-famous naval vessels HMS Warrior 1860 and HMS Victory.

From the Historic Dockyard, the Flame will travel along Queen Street and through Portsea - one of the oldest parts of Portsmouth - towards the city centre, past St John's Catholic Cathedral, along Edinburgh Road, and on to the bottom end of Commercial Road. The Flame then travels past Portsmouth and Southsea railway station, under the civic offices on to the city's Olympic Live Site (Big Screen) at Guildhall Square at about 6:30pm.


The Flame will then cross the square and travel along Guildhall Walk and onto to Winston Churchill Avenue. The Flame then travels along Landport Terrace, Hampshire Terrace and on to Duisburg Way, before it reaches Southsea Common and the FREE evening celebrations at about 6:50pm.

When the Flame arrives at Southsea Common, Portsmouth City Council is working with the London Organising Committee of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) and the three Presenting Partners of the Relay – Coca Cola, Lloyds TSB and Samsung – to host an evening celebration to celebrate the Olympic Flame. The event will be free access and will feature locally programmed content. Details of the run of show will be released in the coming months, but the evening's entertainment is due to start at 5pm.
Early on Monday, 16 July, the city will be giving the Flame a proper Pompey send-off, with a brilliant event just for local schoolchildren at the home of Portsmouth Football Club, Fratton Park. From here, the Flame will travel past the Pompey Centre and along Goldsmith Avenue (about 7:30am) towards Fratton. The Flame will then start the final leg of its journey as it travels along Fratton Road, Kingston Road and then left on to Kingston Crescent (7:40 - 8am). From here it will be transported by vehicle out of the city via the M275 on its journey to Petersfield.

BUSINESS BULLET: Focus. Focus. Focus

Via Management Today

When you are overworked and overloaded, it's easy to get distracted, says serial entrepreneur Colin Turner. But you can only truly be your best if you learn to tune out the noise and focus on the task at hand.

If you were having an operation, would you want your surgeon to take a call while operating on you? Or to be distracted by someone making small talk as the scalpel hovered over your body?

The idea of a surgeon not finishing what has been started, to leave it to another day, to perform a rushed procedure, is anathema. Yet we do not apply the same discipline to our own professions.

Of course, most of us aren't working in the same life-threatening situations. But, by learning to focus your mind on single tasks, finish them, and then move on, you will find your working day becomes far more effective and rewarding. Instead of several half scribbles next to each item on your to-do list, you'll have ticked off the lot.

It's important to make sure that you're doing the right tasks too. Business is not about being active with minutiae. It is about being productive by doing what is important. Make sure you know the really core aspects of your role and responsibilities - the patients on the operating table, as it were - and always give those tasks your full attention.

Vane Recruitment

National Minimum Wage Set to Increase in October 2012

The national minimum wage will rise by 11p to £6.19 an hour in October, the government has announced.

The minimum wage for workers aged under 21 will be unchanged - a decision that has been criticised by union leaders.

Vane Recruitment

80% Of Those Claiming Jobseekers' Allowance Are Women

via Management Today

Having hit a 17-year high, yesterday's unemployment figures painted a grim picture of what it's like on the jobs market. But what's worrying is that joblessness seems to be hitting women disproportionately: according to figures by the Office for National Statistics, the number of women claiming Jobseekers' Allowance rose to 531,000 between November and January, while unemployment among women went up to 1.13m between November and January.

It's not just the number of women signing on that's worrying: women are also being affected by the number of badly-paid part-time roles on offer. According to a study by the Joseph Rowntree foundation and Women Like Us, the majority of part-time posts on offer are low-skilled and low-paid: only 3% of part-time jobs advertised had a salary of more than £20,000 - which puts mothers who want to spend time with their kids at a serious disadvantage.

Vane Recruitment

GREGGS Pre-tax profits are up by 15%

This profit increase does not surprise us at Vane Recruitment. We consume a rather large amount of supplies from our local Greggs! The cupcakes are a birthday treat favourite, as too are the decorated donuts.

Tesco Workers To Check Out At 67

If the move goes ahead, Tesco will be the first major British company to raise the retirement age. More than 170,000 staff will need to graft for an extra two years in order to receive their full pension. They will be able to retire, as normal, at 65 if they choose, but they will see a reduction in their pension pot.


Tesco is also planning to make another significant change: it will increase staff pensions in line with the consumer price index (CPI) instead of the retail price index (RPI). This could, potentially, leave workers worse off (according to current CPI vs. RPI rates).

But the supermarket giant, which is also Britain's largest private sector employer, insists that its staff are still getting a good deal. For one, it is one of only four FTSE 100 companies to have such benefits still in place, it says. And it is still open to new workers, unlike Unilever and Shell, for example.

'We are keeping one of the best pension schemes in Britain and making some essential changes to ensure it is sustainable for the future,' read Tesco's statement.

Vane Recruitment

UK Unemployment At 17 Year High

Unemployment rises again to 8.4%, with young people continuing to feel the brunt.

via Management Today

Following months of steady rises, the unemployment rate is now 8.4%. Almost 2.7m people are out of work, after another 28,000 people were unemployed in the three months to January. This pushed the unemployment rate up by a percentage point from 8.3% in the previous quarter, figures from the Office for National Statistics show.

It means unemployment in the UK is now at a 17-year high. And young people are finding the recruitment squeeze the hardest to crack, as employers put more value on skills and experience. The number of 18-24 year olds unemployed rose by 16,000 in the quarter to 1.04m, meaning more than one in five are out of work.

It’s not all rosy for those people in work either, who are facing pay squeezes. Wages increased by an average of 1.4% in the year to January, down by 0.5% on the previous month. With inflation at 3.6%, people are finding their take-home pay is falling in real terms.

But there is something to be positive about. The rise in unemployment is the slowest it’s been in almost a year. There has also been a rise in the number of people in work, which increased by 9,000 to 29.1m. And compared to our European neighbours, we’re holding up rather well. The unemployment rate is 10% in France, 19.2% in Greece and 23.3% in Spain.

Britain’s private sector is also bearing fruit, other ONS figures show. Employment in the private sector increased by 45,000 to 23m in the last quarter of 2011. The squeeze in the public sector continued, however: public sector employment fell by 37,000 to 5.94m. In the last year, 270,000 jobs have been lost as the government cuts public-sector spending.

So all hopes for a job market recovery are now pinned on the private sector. Although if public sector job cuts continue steaming ahead at the rate they did last year, the private sector will have quite a job of its own keeping up.

Vane Recruitment