Those coal miners and ex-navy personnel did not have an easy time proving that their employment conditions caused their lung diseases and most died before their cases could even be heard despite having the services of a  Mesothelioma lawyer who continued the fight on behalf of their families – the form of questionnaire issued to ex-personnel who wished to be considered for compensation back in the 80’s and 90’s was enough to discourage the most determined so detailed and intrusive were the questions. Asbestos was banned from use by the RAN back in 2004 but it has been revealed that the RAN continues to use deadly asbestos on it’s ships due to it being granted exemptions. The Australian Defence Force continues to place the health of it’s personnel at peril by it’s continued use of this material – a royal commission has been called for to seek explanation as to why it is still in use.

These days more people are turning to agroforestry with a far more positive attitude and indeed there are many ways and plans available to those who see the future in timber. In Brazil today good land that was badly cultivated in the past is now turning into a very viable means of investment with the development of specifically cultivated forests and other forestry projects. Interested…? contact Greenwood here and see how putting a tree in your pocket can turn into a nice financial return.

This article was sponsored by Greenwood Management.

This is where I have a problem with the excuse given to many diners, that they cannot have a glass of tap water due to ‘health and safety reasons’. Right, so you cannot have the tap water to drink…but them in the kitchen are using it to cook with.

In France a carafe of tap water is commonplace on your table and is even topped up – if you want speciality H2O you order fizzy mineral or still water and pay accordingly. Fair enough. Here in Northern Ireland, and as far as I have experienced in the Republic of Ireland, diners wont have a problem getting a glass of tap water however in England and Wales the law will be behind you if some restaurant manager or waiter/ress gets hoity-toity with you and refuses. Having run a hotel/restaurant myself I can understand that restaurant owners these days are anxious to make a profit and selling only meals makes that difficult – they depend on you buying drinks to reach that margin. Of course you would not sit and demand carafe after carafe of tap water, if you do why bother eating out at all, but after half a bottle of plonk – and pricey plonk at that – plain ordinary tap water should be available on request. Maybe if all restaurants and cafes simply provided a carafe of tap water on each table at the start of a meal it would avoid the difficult situation of the diner needing to request – it wont stop most people from buying alcohol or soft drink and seeing as restaurants need bums on seats now more than ever it makes for customer-friendly policy.

Better still, when reserving a table simply ask…and have a small bottle of water in your bag if they sound fussy.

For many businesses the issue of Forex margin management has become an essential part of their budget structure in that currencies have been all over the place in recent times. Normally exchange rates remain fairly static but of course the past two years have not been all that normal!

To this end, until economies get back on an even keel it remains logical to take advantage of the forex products available and keep a tight grip on the exchange rate itself.

In a similar way that Botox and other procedures smooth away wrinkles, scientists claim now to have developed a winning formula which apparently ‘fills’ holes and smooths away those tiny tears in damaged hair strands. If you have one of those convex mirrors take a good close up look at several strands of your hair and you will notice that we do all have a certain amount of ‘damaged’ strands. It’s normal.

But I suspect that if this works it could well put the airbrushing industry out of work – all those models would look perfectly coiffed and all down to ‘hair botox’!

The first thing to do is to check what currency is used at your destination. If it’s a mainstream currency such as dollars or euros then it’s best to take the money in that form. However, if you’re going off to less mainstream countries, check which of the principal currencies is most commonly used there (if in doubt, take dollars). Sometimes you can’t get the currency used outside the country or can’t get sensible amounts of it so you need to take dollars or euros eg India used to only allow you to import £5 of their currency which wasn’t really worthwhile getting.

What about taking cash? Well, if you’re in America then it’s always worthwhile to take, say, $100 with you (nothing larger than a $20 bill) and likewise for those living in euro-land. However, if that’s not the currency of the country you’re going to, it’s going to be expensive to convert to the local currency. The other option is to buy some of the local currency before you go but beware that this is usually quite expensive and not as cheap as you would think from the advertisements eg when I bought $150 for about £100 in a shop advertising that the commission was £3.50, the actual charge was over £10 ie 10%. The other main downside of cash is that if it’s stolen, it’s gone as holiday insurance rarely covers cash to any significant amount so if you are taking it, limit the amount to $100 or so. If you buy foreign currency on a card, it counts as a cash advance with all the charges that implies.

Travellers cheques (or checks) are much better than cash in that they can be replaced fairly easily if stolen (keep a note of the numbers, date bought and where you bought them). However, they are equally expensive to purchase and there is often a charge to cash them too. If you’re going to America or Canada you can use dollar cheques as though they were cash in shops (even where they say “no checks accepted”). Again, take them in the currency of the country you’re going to if it’s a mainstream one, otherwise dollars or euros. If you have any left over after your holiday, keep them rather than cash them in your bank as you can use them later (there is no expiry date) and this will save you paying the commission again. If you buy travellers cheques on a card, it counts as a cash advance with all the charges that implies. Make sure that your travellers cheques come with the Visa or Mastercard or American Express brands as others may not be accepted. You can’t use American Express travellers cheques in Cuba or Vietnam nor any issued by American banks.

Credit/Charge cards are used nearly everywhere these days. If you don’t have a card already, you should get one (Visa or Mastercard) even if you only plan to use it for emergencies. Bear in mind that not everywhere accepts them though and also that not all places take both Visa and Mastercard. If pushed, you can get cash on these cards either in an ATM or over the counter in a bank but save this for emergencies only as you’ll get charged a cash advance fee, currency conversion fee and interest. The exchange rate used is much better than you’ll get for either cash or travellers cheques so that $150 that I got would have cost me around £2.75 vs the £10 that I was charged had I used the card in a shop, around £7 had I used it to get cash (assuming I’d paid the full balance when I returned home). In those countries which don’t have ATMs, you can usually still use the card to buy things and get cash over the counter in banks. I say usually because it isn’t always the case eg in India we couldn’t use the card in shops and the banks weren’t practical either.

Credit/Charge cards come in four basic international-use versions. Visa/Mastercard are the most accepted worldwide but note that in some countries one may be more accepted than the other and in particular don’t rely on shops accepting both cards so, if you can, take both types. American Express is the next most accepted but it is widely accepted only in countries that are “American/British” influenced; the one principle advantage it has is that it can be replaced by any American Express office although note that these are not very widespread and may be difficult to get to. One thing to avoid is their Travellers Check Card: best to get one of their proper cards if you can, but only if it’s free in your country. Diners Club is very far behind Amex in acceptance worldwide and not worth paying for. You cannot use cards issued by American banks in Cuba or Vietnam which notably includes MBNA (owned by Bank of America). Discover isn’t accepted outside America. JCB acceptance is patchy: good where Japanese tourists are common, poor otherwise.

Debit cards are almost always branded Visa/Electron/Plus or Mastercard/Maestro/Cirrus and work in the corresponding systems however sometimes you may be issued with a card which can only be used in your own country: check that one of the Visa/Electron/Plus or Mastercard/Maestro/Cirrus symbols are on your card as if they aren’t you probably can’t use the card internationally. Charges are as per credit cards except that you don’t get charged interest on cash advances.

Cash cards are often limited to the country in which they are issued but if they have a Plus or Cirrus symbol on them, you can use them abroad too (this should change in 2008 with the introduction of the Single European Payment Area ie all European cards should be useable in all European countries, but don’t rely on that date). Charges are usually the same as for debit cards in ATMs. The principle advantage of having a cash card is that they are a lot less attractive for thieves as they can’t be used without the PIN.

Prepaid cards are becoming increasingly popular with travel agents, mainly because they see it as a way of getting even more commission than they can on travellers cheques. If you have a normal Visa/Mastercard credit or debit card, don’t bother with these. Charges are usually around £20 for the card, plus commission to convert to the currency of the card, plus cash advance fees ie a good deal more expensive than travellers cheques which in turn are a good deal more expensive than just using your own card. For example, had I got my $150 on a card, the cost would have been around £30 vs the £10 that it actually was and the £2.75 that it would have been on a credit card.

As well as the above options you also have a choice of providers of the various methods of payment. Travellers cheques may be offered “commission free” by your bank (and the UK Post Office), although note that this is not the same as “free” eg my $150 would have cost around £7 “commission free” (vs £10 with commission).

In the UK, the Nationwide Building Society offer a totally free debit card (ie no transaction fees, no ATM fees, no currency conversion fees) so my $150 would have cost nothing; their credit card is almost as good in that it’s free for purchases but is a bit expensive for cash advances. If you like to have large chunks of cash available to you, the Egg money account is excellent (2.75% currency conversion when used in shops or ATMs) and a good alternative to a prepaid card. Most UK cheque accounts come with a debit card with Maestro or Visa Debit facilities. For a UK cash card you seem to be limited to Egg’s savings account (Plus system) and Royal Bank of Scotlands Instant Savings account (Cirrus system).

In America you can get quite a range of systems listed on the card eg NYCE, Star, etc. but in reality the only two that matter are Plus and Cirrus for cash, Visa and Mastercard/Maestro for debit/credit card use as none of the others are accepted internationally. The costs for international use are rarely clearly laid out on American card agreements and smaller banks may not even know how much you’ll be charged for using your card abroad.

If you use one of the banks within the Global Alliance banks (BNPParibas, Bank of Nova Scotia, Bank of America, Barclays, Deutsche Bank and Westpac) can use machines from one of the other Global Alliance banks without transaction charges (currency conversion fees still apply).

Some people are afraid to admit that they like to sit down and spend some time watching the television – I have never understood this because basically we are a ‘television watching nation’ and it is still the number one way to relax after work and after dinner. Getting your favourite shows when you want them is something we all want and it is even better when we can get them for free…let me introduce you to SeeSaw and the benefits that you as a discerning tv viewer stand to receive.

The range of channels and shows on offer are amazing; from a Comedy Section featuring all your favourites to up and coming sports sections, there is truly something for all the family – and for free!

And what are the benefits of a SeeSaw account…?

- You have the option of hundreds of programs to choose from at your fingertips for free

- You can also rent premium shows from both the US and the UK

- Keep up to date with 4oD and Demand Five programs

- Play all your shows legitimately and crystal clear in full screen…

- Like what you’ve seen…? then share around on Facebook and Twitter!

Sounds daunting – NOT! you get a full indexed catalogue of what’s available plus those all-important parental controls so that the kids can share in the viewing without the worries of anything that might upset them…or you. Sounds great, visit SeeSaw now and take charge of your nights in this coming winter!

Although in theory there are loads of them out there, in the UK for practical purposes there are basically two makes with a total of four models.

The Sony ones let you read PDFs and a number of other formats of which epub is the main one that they use. They have two ways of enlarging the text though the pocket edition only does the first one. The first way is through enlarging the text but not the images with the pocket edition offering effectively six sizes (three portrait, three landscape) and the touch edition ten (five portrait, five landscape) ie the six of the pocket plus four larger sizes. How this works with PDFs varies depending on how the PDF was prepared but generally you find that the photographs appear but diagrams generally don’t. The second way is a zoom facility only available on the touch edition which lets you magnify the PDF image. This would be perfect but doesn’t let you move to the next page so you’ve to unzoom the image, move to the next page and zoom it up if you want to do that. In practical terms I use the font enlargement method nearly all the time and it’s rare that I use the PDF zoom facility. You can add notes and highlighting on the touch edition which sounds useful but is very hard on the batteries and in practice I’ve never really used that facility. The pocket edition has a 5″ screen, the touch a 6″ one; it makes quite a difference to the reading with the larger screen but you get used to the smaller one and for some reason I find it easier to get through the reading with less words on the page but that might just be me. Price-wise it’s aroud £140 for the pocket edition, around £220 for the touch version.

I gather that the Amazon versions offer similar facilities using Kindle format as default but they also handle PDFs. Big plus points are that they are a lot cheaper (£109 for the basic 6″ version) and that you can buy books direct from Amazon obviously (with the Sonys you buy on your computer and transfer the books to the reader later). On the book buying front, prices are generally around the hard book price level although there are thousands of free ones (eg www.gutenberg.org has over 30,000). There’s also the Kindle DX which is around £250 and gives you a 10″ screen. They both come with a little keyboard for note-taking though as I say I’ve never really used the facility on the Sony so this isn’t a deciding point.

To transfer documents (which can include your own documents in Word and PDF form) you connect the device to your computer where it comes up as another disk drive; just drag and drop from there. In principle you can also use the supplied software (or Calibre which is free and better) but drag and drop works fine. With the Kindle you can email PDFs to your Kindle (but they charge you for that) or buy using the one-click facility. Both can charge up via the USB link but it’s much faster to plug them into the mains (you need to get a Sony PSP charger [about £20] to do that, the cheap Kindle comes with the charger).

One thing to watch is that effectively all the readers are black and white. Colour is available but at around £800 so in reality it’s probably best to wait a couple of years for that. Most of the time you don’t miss that but, depending on what you read, there are times when colour would be really handy. Due to limitations of the technology you can’t run videos. Page turning usually takes a fraction of a second but can be longer on complex pages. It’s difficult to define “complex” in this context as it depends on how the authors have prepared the page so you couldn’t tell by simply looking at a page in a book if it were “complex”.

The other major limitation if you’re buying books is that there is currently no second hand market. Basically you pay close to the full hardback price and can get nothing back if you’ve finished with a book you’ve bought.

If I were starting again I’d go for the cheap Kindle basically because it’s the cheapest.

However, do you really need one of these things? Certainly if you’re only reading the odd paperback the answer is probably not as not only are you looking at hardback prices, you also need to part with at least £109 to begin with. However, if you’re one of those people who need a few dozen paperbacks on holiday it’s a different matter as it is if you have access to a large library of PDFs like many students.

However, what if it’s a sum that lies in the middle ground and you want to send it internationally? For most people the answer isn’t nearly so cut and dried there. For instance, if you were sending EUR 200 from the UK to France or vice versa you’d be looking at around £25/EUR 20 in bank charges for the cheque or transfer and that’s before you factor in the tourist rate of exchange that you’d be getting.

If it’s a company you’re sending it to then you could use a credit/debit card of course, but that’s not really an option for an individual, is it? Well, actually these days it is as the person you’re sending it to could have a paypal account in which case, if they upgrade it to a premium account, then they could take the money off you at a cost of around 4%.

However, if it’s a family member a more practical way is to pop into the post office and pick up a travel money card and just post it to them. There’s no security risk as you can wait ’til it arrives before enabling the card. It costs around 4% to exchange the money from sterling to euros or dollars and it’ll be £5 or so two years later to renew it.

The effect of that was that, over time, the amount paid out to people on benefits gradually increased. Initially the level of benefit was set very much at the subsistance level but the amounts involved have increased over the years with the aim being to have the payments at slightly less than the average wage. However, simultaneously with those increases has come a restructuring of the benefit system ostensibly to target those most in need and that’s where the problems are becoming apparent.

For example, take a typical family of two adults and two children which is what the original welfare state calculations would have been based on. Should the man become unemployed (another welfare state assumption was that the man was the wage earner) then they would be entitled to payments of approximately £60 for the adults and £55 each for the children (including the child benefit). That’s a total of  £170/week, £740/month or £9000 per year. Since the benefits are tax-free, that’s the equivalent to a salary of around £14,000. Not great, though there would be additional help in the form of housing benefit, free school meals and a few other things.

However, let’s take an example of two adults plus ten children. Too many children? Well, no, because families of that size are increasingly common in some areas for reasons which will become apparent shortly. Each child adds £55/week so the totals now come to £600/week, £2600/month or £32000 per year. Bearing in mind that the benefits are tax-free this equates to a salary of around £50,000 and, of course, there’s the housing benefit, free school meals, etc. Even though I’m quite highly qualified, I would find it difficult to get that level of salary.

Now, I accept that people with large families don’t necessarily have them to pick up massive benefit payments but even if they don’t, surely there should be some kind of limit in terms of a maximum benefit payment regardless of other circumstances? If not, it would appear that the best plan would be to pop out kids on a regular basis: it can’t be right that the benefit system seems to be actively encouraging that.