venerdì 26 marzo 2010

Voting System in Uk

Voting System from web site Bbc news

Who can vote?

To be able to vote in a UK Parliamentary election, you must be:
- Aged 18 or over,
- A citizen of the UK, a Commonwealth country or the Republic of Ireland,
- Resident in a constituency and on the electoral register, and Not in a category barred from voting (see below).
- In addition, British citizens who have lived abroad for up to 20 years may vote, and voters in Northern Ireland must have lived in the constituency for the previous three months.

There are certain categories of people not allowed to vote:
- Members of the House of Lords. The ejection of most hereditary peers from the Lords in 1999 means that they will be able to vote - and stand - for the first time in a general election.
-Those in prison.
- People convicted of electoral malpractice are barred for five years.
- Echoing the rather arcane language of the legislation, "idiots" may not vote and "lunatics" only during their lucid periods. Those compulsorily detained in psychiatric hospitals, for example, cannot vote.

Who can be a candidate?

There is no single document or law which defines who can stand for election as Member of Parliament.
Essentially, however, candidates must be over the age of 21 and be citizens of the UK, the Republic of Ireland or the Commonwealth.
The lack of clarity extends even to the qualifying age - it is not set down whether candidates have to be 21 by the date the election is called, or close of nominations, or polling day itself.
Those banned from becoming MPs include:
- Members of the House of Lords,
- Undischarged bankrupts,
- Seriously mentally ill people,
- Prisoners serving sentences of more than one year,
- Those guilty of electoral malpractice in the last 5-10 years,
- Traitors - ie those guilty of treason and not pardoned,
- Certain people holding offices of profit under the Crown (including holders of judicial office, civil servants, members of the armed forces, or the police forces, members of the legislature of any country or territory outside the Commonwealth, Government-nominated directors of commercial companies).
- Clergy of the Church of England, the Church of Scotland, the Church of Ireland and the Roman Catholic Church.

The clergy ban will be in force unless the Removal of Clergy Disqualification Bill receives the royal assent before parliament is prorogued. The bill removes the ban on all past and current clergy standing, unless they are also members of the House of Lords.

mercoledì 17 marzo 2010

Easter, improve your English


Un modo facile e divertente per imparare nuovi vocaboli è seguire delle istruzioni in Inglese, cioè fare qualcosa che ci diverte leggendo come fare (how to) da alcuni siti inglesi.
Ecco allora delle idee per la Pasqua, ormai alle porte.
Iniziamo con delle barzellette (Jokes):
Is it true that bunnies have good eyesight? Well you never see a bunny wearing glasses, do you?

What did the grey rabbit say to the blue rabbit? Cheer up! (C'è un gioco di parole tra BLUE colore e BLUE malinconico)


Continuiamo con dei lavoretti pasquali (da fare anche con i bambini):
- origami bunny (What's an origami?Origami is the art of paper folding. (The most strict definition precludes cutting the paper. Read HERE )
Infine, ecco una buonissima ricetta per realizzare uova di cioccolata!

Ingredients:
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup milkmixed colored candies
1 cup walnuts chopped
chocolate pudding
1 lb powdered sugar
20 marshmellows
5 squares unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled


How to make chocolate easter eggs:
-you will need melted butter. so take a 3 qt. saucepan and melt butter into it.
- when the butter is melted stir in pudding mix and blend until it gets smooth.
- you should gradually stir in milk.
- you need to cook this mixture over medium heat and keep stirring constantly.
- a little later the mixture will get very thick and start boiling.
- when it is sufficiently thick it will leave the sides of the pan and then remove the saucepan from heat.
- then you should add to it powdered sugar and vanilla. mix well until smooth and stir in walnuts.
- you should allow the mixture cool so that it is stiff enough to hold its desired shape.
so the moment the mixture is stiff enough shape it into 12 eggs, using about 2 t. for each.
- now place them on the waxed paper-lined baking sheet and refrigerate for 30 min.
- after 30 min. you need to dip each egg in cooled chocolate and place them on a cooling rack over waxed paper.
- finally it is time to arrange marshmallow flowers over the eggs. but make sure that you do it before the chocolate sets.

marshmallow flowers
- firstly cut mini marshmallows in thirds crosswise.
- then dip cut side of each piece into colored sugar.
- in order to resemble flowers you need to arrange 5 pieces, sugared side up, on each egg.
- store in the fridge.
Verbs:
to melt: sciogliere, fondere
to stir: mescolare
to blend: mischiare
to cook: cucinare, cuocere
to start: iniziare
to boil: bollire
to remove: rimuovere
to add: aggiungere
to mix:mischiare, mescolare
to allow:permettere
to shape: dare forrma
to refrigerate: refrigerare
to dip: immergere
to arrange:sistemare, predisporre
to set: sistemare
to cut: tagliare
to store: sistemare/mettere via


Approfondimenti:


venerdì 5 marzo 2010

Amanda Knox murder cas "has no holes"


Con questo post inauguriamo una nuova sezione di questo blog: cosa scrivono all'estero di noi? Ogni settimana, le notizie italiane con gli occhi degli inglesi e degli americani. Per avere una visione a 360°

Amanda Knox murder case 'has no holes'

Knox, an American from Seattle, was jailed for 26 years.
Judges in Italy have published their reasons for convicting Amanda Knox and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito for the murder of Meredith Kercher.

The judges said the murder happened without planning or grudge.
They said there were no holes or inconsistency in the evidence and that the evidence suggested there was a sexual motive in the case.

The pair were found guilty in December of killing Ms Kercher, from Coulsdon, Surrey, in Perugia in 2007.
Both Knox and Sollecito are appealing against their convictions; Knox on the grounds that the forensic evidence against her was flawed.

In the 427-page opinion document, Italian judges Giancarlo Massei and Beatrice Cristini say all their decisions were based on the forensic evidence presented.
Miss Kercher had been studying Italian on an exchange programme.
They say, for example, that one footprint found in Miss Kercher's bathroom belonged to Sollecito, whilst another in a bedroom came from Knox.

And they explain, at length, why the footprint in the bedroom is a woman's.

BBC Rome correspondent Duncan Kennedy said this suggested they had dismissed some of the more lurid claims of the prosecution, especially concerning Knox, over things like her cart-wheeling and giggling in the police station in the days after the murder.

In their explanation, the judges also say that Knox and Sollecito had staged a fake break-in to make it look as though Miss Kercher was killed by an intruder.


In part of the report, the judges suggest a sexual motive lay behind the killing.
They say that Knox and Sollecito went to Meredith Kercher's house with a third man, Rudy Guede, a small-time drug dealer, who was convicted of murder at a separate trial.

The report says that, under the influence of drugs, Knox and Sollecito "actively participated" in helping Guede subdue Miss Kercher so that Guede could "give vent to his lustful impulses" in what they called his "evil act".

The motive, the judges say, was "erotic sexual violence", where Knox and Sollecito had probably found holding Miss Kercher down was "exciting".

But, in their interpretation of events, the judges say this was a murder "without planning, without any animosity or grudge against the victim".

They say the death was the result of what they call, "purely random circumstances" that Knox and Sollecito had not gone specifically to kill Miss Kercher.

This view is reinforced by another extract from the judges' report.

It says the fact that Miss Kercher's body had been covered by her attackers showed, "a sort of regret for what they had done".
Knox was jailed for 26 years and Sollecito for 25 years in December last year.



Guede, 22, was sentenced to 30 years for his part in the murder in 2008.

The judges also noted that early on in the investigation, Knox had "freely accused" another man, Patrick Lumumba, knowing he was innocent.

Miss Kercher, 21, a Leeds University student, had been sharing a house with Knox, who was also a student, on a year abroad in the Umbrian hilltop town.

Bbc.co.uk

Vocabulary
to be jailed: essere imprigionato
judge: giudice/magistrato

evidence: prova

guilty: colpevole

forensic: forense, legale

regret: rimorso

investigation: indagine, ricerca