The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Britons

  • Chinese, Indians, Britons, others for Buildmacex exhibition

    The incessant collapse of buildings in recent times will be a major issue that will feature at this year’s Buildmacex Nigeria which holds from October18 to 20.

     The annual exhibition that serves as an integrated platform of opportunities where visitors and participants meet directly annually with manufacturers, government agencies and top distributors in the industry, according to Mr. Ayodeji Olugbade, the Managing Director of Atlantic Exhibition,the organizers of the exhibition.

     This year’s exhibitors will be coming from Turkey, UAE, China, India, United Kingdom, Lebanon, America, Ukraine, Nigeria and many other countries to showcase quality products of building materials, machineries, construction tools, water treatments and interior and exterior designs.

    The exhibition is open to the professionals of the industry like architects, quantity surveyors, interior designers, builders, distributors, wholesalers and retailers.   Olugbade also added that the reason for the exhibition is to promote the building and interior sectors in Nigeria and West Africa. The exhibition will also create avenues for questions from experts of the industry on building collapses in Nigeria, how to determine the best foundation for buildings, where to get quality products for building materials, and we will all get to know what is happening to the Millennium Tower Building in Abuja.

  • Britons choose new govt today

    Britons choose new govt today

    Party leaders and candidates yesterday made last-ditch pitch for votes on the final day of campaigning before today’s British polls open.

    Prime Minister David Cameron of Conservative Party said the country was “stronger than it was five years ago” but there was “more to do”.

    Opposition leader Ed Miliband of Labour Party urged people to vote “to reward hard work in our country again” while Nick Clegg said the Liberal Democrats would offer “stability and decency”.

    Polls suggest no party will win enough seats for an outright majority.

    Politicians, pollsters and the media were struggling to read the election, leading many to focus on what might happen if there is an uncertain result.

    Some of the pollsters suggested that the Conservative Party and Labour Party tie at 34 points apiece.

    The main party leaders were criss-crossing the country in their battle buses to drum up support.

    After starting the day in Mid Wales, Mr Cameron stopped off in the west Midlands before heading to Chester and Lancaster. He ended the day by visiting Carlisle and Dumfriesshire, where the party holds its only seat in Scotland.

    Mr Miliband visited a succession of Conservative-held marginal seats in Lancashire and west Yorkshire such as Colne Valley, Pendle and Elmet and Rothwell.

    Mr Clegg, who set off from Land’s End on Tuesday, headed for John O’Groats through Scottish constituencies his party is hoping to retain such as East Dunbartonshire and Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey.

    The Conservative Party won 307 seats in 2010 while Labour Party won 258 seats. The Lib Dems won 57 seats.

    Mr Cameron insisted a Conservative victory was “within reach” but insisted that he would put “the country first” whatever the outcome ofThursday’s poll by working to provide “strong and stable” government.

    The Conservative leader said he had achieved a lot since 2010 but was “not satisfied” with current levels of deprivation and educational under-achievement in parts of the country and wanted to push harder on welfare and schools reforms.

    Mr Miliband, who is looking to improve on the number of seats Labour won in 2010 under the leadership of former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, said his party would have more activists on the ground on Thursday helping to get out the vote than the other parties combined.

    He warned that another Conservative-led government “propped up by the Lib Dems” would “raid family budgets and cut the NHS”.

    “This is the clearest choice that has been put before the British public for a generation. Between a Tory government that is for the privileged few and a Labour government that puts working people first.”

    This is isn’t how this election was meant to go.

    It’s been marked by the lack of confidence felt by our political leaders rooted in the overwhelming lack of trust felt by most voters.

    Why else would David Cameron promise to pass a law – not mentioned in his own manifesto – which would stop himself putting up taxes he’s long pledged not to raise?

    Why else would Ed Miliband resort to “carving in stone” pledges so broad and so general that it would be almost impossible to judge whether they’ve ever been broken?

    Why else would we see the relentless political cross-dressing as the Tories promised to become the party of the workers and Labour the party of economic responsibility?

  • Britons spend more this Xmas

    Britons are the most generous Christmas shoppers among the world’s major economies, spending nearly £700 each on festive goods, according to new research from PwC. Christmas spending in the UK totalled £43bn in 2013, with consumers spending £680 on goods in the last two months of the year – a third more than the United States and beaten only by Ireland. Of the world’s richest economies, American consumers rank second in the list of the world’s festive shoppers, spending £495 per person, while France are Europe’s second most generous nation after the UK, shelling out £366, according to the Big Four accountancy firm’s latest Global Economy Watch report.

    But it is Ireland that emerges as top of the Christmas spending tree, with average per person spending topping £750 over the course of November and December last year.

    The findings are further evidence that consumer spending has been powering the British recovery.

     

  • Most Britons believe in power of prayer

    Britain’s churches may be struggling to make converts but a new survey in the run-up to Easter has found no shortage of people believing in prayer.

    The new ICM survey offers revealing insights into the issues that are on the hearts of British people and which age groups are praying more than others.

    It found that four in five British adults still believe in the power of prayer.

    When asked what they would pray for, nearly a third (31%) said world peace, followed by an end to poverty (27%).

    One in five (22%) said they would pray for healing for another person while 5% said they did not know what they would pray for. Fourteen per cent said they would never pray.

    Other subjects for prayer cited in the survey were:

    my partner (17%) less stress in my life (16%) a prayer of thankfulness (16%) prosperity (16%) healing for myself (15%)

    guidance (15%) a friend (13%)

    marriage or relationship (12%)

    forgiveness (10%) work (9%)

    my spiritual life (8%) my church (4%) my studies (3%)

    something else (6%)

    Not surprisingly, the over-65s made up the largest proportion of people praying (89%).

    This was followed by young people between the ages of 18 and 24 (85%). Less likely to pray were those between the ages of 35 and 40 (75%).

    The survey was commissioned by the Church of England and asked the views of more than 2,000 people in England, Wales and Scotland.

    The Bishop of St Albans, the Right Reverend Dr Alan Smith, said he had seen an increase in the number of people asking about prayer in light of the difficult economic climate.

    “Prayer is one of the most natural and instinctive of human responses, so I am not surprised to see these findings,” he said.

    “I come across people on almost daily basis who want to talk about prayer and how to do it. This has been even more evident recently, as many people are facing uncertainty about jobs and finance.

    “However, there has also been a desire to pray for trouble spots in the world, not least when we see the appalling photos from Syria on the television.”