Mafia

Mafia

A mafia is a type of organized crime syndicate whose primary activities are protection racketeering, arbitrating disputes between criminals, and brokering and enforcing illegal agreements and transactions.[1] Mafias often engage in secondary activities such as gambling, loan sharking, drug-trafficking, prostitution, and fraud.

The term "Mafia" was originally applied only to the Sicilian Mafia and originates in Sicily, but it has since expanded to encompass other organizations of similar methods and purpose, e.g., "the Russian Mafia" or "the Japanese Mafia". The term is applied informally by the press and public; the criminal organizations themselves have their own terms (e.g. the Sicilian Mafia and Italian-American Mafia refer to their organizations as "Cosa Nostra"; the "Japanese Mafia" calls itself "Yakuza"; and "Russian Mafia" groups often call themselves "Bratva").

When used alone and without any qualifier, "Mafia" or "the Mafia" typically refers to either the Sicilian Mafia or the Italian-American Mafia and sometimes Italian organized crime in general (e.g., Camorra, 'Ndrangheta, Sacra Corona Unita, Stidda, etc.).

Etymology

The word mafia (Italian: [ˈmaːfja]) derives from the Sicilian adjective mafiusu, which, roughly translated, means "swagger", but can also be translated as "boldness" or "bravado". In reference to a man, mafiusu (mafioso in Italian) in 19th century Sicily signified "fearless", "enterprising", and "proud", according to scholar Diego Gambetta.[2] In reference to a woman, however, the feminine-form adjective mafiusa means 'beautiful' or 'attractive'.

Because Sicily was once an Islamic emirate from 831 to 1072, mafia may have come to Sicilian through Arabic, though the word's origins are uncertain. Possible Arabic roots of the word include:

ma'afi (معفي) = exempted. In Islamic law, Jizya, is the yearly tax imposed on non-Muslims residing in Muslim lands. And people who pay it are "exempted" from prosecution.

màha = quarry, cave; especially the mafie, the caves in the region of Marsala, which acted as hiding places for persecuted Muslims and later served other types of refugees, in particular Giuseppe Garibaldi's "Redshirts" after their embarkment on Sicily in 1860 in the struggle for Italian unification.[3][4][5][6][7]

mahyas (مهياص) = aggressive boasting, bragging[5]

marfud (مرفوض) = rejected, considered to be the most plausible derivation; marfud developed into marpiuni (swindler) to marpiusu and finally mafiusu.[8]

mu'afa (معافى) = safety, protection[6]

Ma àfir = the name of an Arab tribe that ruled Palermo.[9][5] The local peasants imitated these Arabs and as a result the tribe's name entered the popular lexicon. The word mafia was then used to refer to the defenders of Palermo during the Sicilian Vespers against rule of the Capetian House of Anjou on 30 March 1282.[10]

mafyá, meaning "place of shade". The word "shade" meaning refuge or derived from refuge. [11] After the Normans destroyed the Saracen rule in Sicily in the eleventh century, Sicily became feudalistic. Most Arab smallholders became serfs on new estates, with some escaping to "the Mafia." It became a secret refuge.[12]

The public's association of the word with the criminal secret society was perhaps inspired by the 1863 play I mafiusi di la Vicaria [it] ("The Mafiosi of the Vicaria") by Giuseppe Rizzotto and Gaspare Mosca.[13] The words mafia and mafiusi are never mentioned in the play. The play is about a Palermo prison gang with traits similar to the Mafia: a boss, an initiation ritual, and talk of "umirtà" (omertà or code of silence) and "pizzu" (a codeword for extortion money).[14] The play had great success throughout Italy. Soon after, the use of the term "mafia" began appearing in the Italian state's early reports on the phenomenon. The word made its first official appearance in 1865 in a report by the prefect of Palermo Filippo Antonio Gualterio [it].[15]

Definitions

The term "mafia" was never officially used by Sicilian mafiosi, who prefer to refer to their organization as "Cosa Nostra". Nevertheless, it is typically by comparison to the groups and families that comprise the Sicilian Mafia that other criminal groups are given the label. Giovanni Falcone, an anti-Mafia judge murdered by the Sicilian Mafia in 1992, objected to the conflation of the term "Mafia" with organized crime in general:

While there was a time when people were reluctant to pronounce the word "Mafia" ... nowadays people have gone so far in the opposite direction that it has become an overused term ... I am no longer willing to accept the habit of speaking of the Mafia in descriptive and all-inclusive terms that make it possible to stack up phenomena that are indeed related to the field of organized crime but that have little or nothing in common with the Mafia.[16]

— Giovanni Falcone, 1990

Mafias as private protection firms

Scholars such as Diego Gambetta[17] and Leopoldo Franchetti have characterized the Sicilian Mafia as a "cartel of private protection firms", whose primary business is protection racketeering: they use their fearsome reputation for violence to deter people from swindling, robbing, or competing with those who pay them for protection. For many businessmen in Sicily, they provide an essential service when they cannot rely on the police and judiciary to enforce their contracts and protect their properties from thieves (this is often because they are engaged in black market deals). Scholars have observed that many other societies around the world have criminal organizations of their own that provide essentially the same protection service through similar methods.

For instance, in Russia after the collapse of Communism, the state security system had all but collapsed, forcing businessmen to hire criminal gangs to enforce their contracts and protect their properties from thieves. These gangs are popularly called "the Russian Mafia" by foreigners, but they prefer to go by the term krysha.

With the [Russian] state in collapse and the security forces overwhelmed and unable to police contract law, [...] cooperating with the criminal culture was the only option. [...] most businessmen had to find themselves a reliable krysha under the leadership of an effective vor.

— excerpt from McMafia by Misha Glenny.[18]

In his analysis of the Sicilian Mafia, Gambetta provided the following hypothetical scenario to illustrate the Mafia's function in the Sicilian economy. Suppose a grocer wants to buy meat from a butcher without paying sales tax to the government. Because this is a black market deal, neither party can take the other to court if the other cheats. The grocer is afraid that the butcher will sell him rotten meat. The butcher is afraid that the grocer will not pay him. If the butcher and the grocer can't get over their mistrust and refuse to trade, they would both miss out on an opportunity for profit. Their solution is to ask the local mafioso to oversee the transaction, in exchange for a fee proportional to the value of the transaction but below the legal tax. If the butcher cheats the grocer by selling rotten meat, the mafioso will punish the butcher. If the grocer cheats the butcher by not paying on time and in full, the mafioso will punish the grocer. Punishment might take the form of a violent assault or vandalism against property. The grocer and the butcher both fear the mafioso, so each honors their side of the bargain. All three parties profit.

Mafia-type organizations under Italian law

Introduced by Pio La Torre, article 416-bis of the Italian Penal Code defines a Mafia-type association (Associazione di Tipo Mafioso) as one where "those belonging to the association exploit the potential for intimidation which their membership gives them, and the compliance and omertà which membership entails and which lead to the committing of crimes, the direct or indirect assumption of management or control of financial activities, concessions, permissions, enterprises and public services for the purpose of deriving profit or wrongful advantages for themselves or others."[19][20]

International

Mafia-proper can refer to either:

American Mafia

Sicilian Mafia (aka "Cosa Nostra")

Italy

Other Italian criminal organizations include:

Banda della Comasina, in Lombardy

Banda della Magliana and Mafia Capitale, in Lazio

Basilischi, in Basilicata

Camorra, in Campania

Mala del Brenta, in Veneto

'Ndrangheta, in Calabria[21]

Sacra Corona Unita, in Apulia

Stidda, in Sicily

Ant Middleton

Ant Middleton

Anthony Middleton (born 22 September 1980) is a British former soldier, adventurer and television presenter. He is best known as the Chief Instructor on the Channel 4 television series SAS: Who Dares Wins. Middleton also appeared as the captain in the adventure/reality-show Mutiny and the survival show Escape. In 2018 he climbed Everest for the TV show Extreme Everest with Ant Middleton.

Middleton joined the army in 1997 at the age of 17 where he served in the 9 Parachute Squadron RE and served tours of duty in Northern Ireland in 1999 and North Macedonia in 2001. After leaving the army he later enlisted in the Royal Marines in 2005. He passed out of his commando course in January 2006, winning the King's Badge, and was posted to B Company, 40 Commando. In 2007, he did his first tour in Afghanistan. In 2008 he joined the Special Boat Service, serving for four years as a point man and sniper, in this time he completed two further tours in Afghanistan.

Due to the title of the show SAS: Who Dares Wins, it is often erroneously assumed that Middleton served in the Special Air Service.

Television

Middleton is the Chief Instructor on SAS: Who Dares Wins, a reality quasi-military training television programme produced by Channel 4, which was first broadcast in 2015. The show propelled Middleton into celebrity limelight, and since its screening Middleton's popularity has increased significantly, allowing him more TV opportunities.[citation needed] Mutiny, an adventure/reality crossover show, screened on UK television in February 2017, with Middleton starring as boat captain alongside eight volunteering participants.[1] The show was a re-enactment of the infamous Mutiny on the Bounty and Middleton described the experience as, "... mentally speaking, the hardest thing I've ever done." [2]

Publications

In 2017, Middleton co-authored his first book, SAS: Who Dares Wins: Leadership Secrets from the Special Forces, with his fellow TV presenters and Special Forces colleagues Jason Fox, Matthew "Ollie" Ollerton and Colin Maclachlan. Middleton's autobiography, First Man In: Leading from the Front, was published in 2018, becoming a Number 1 Sunday Times bestseller. [3] His second book,The Fear Bubble: Harness Fear and Live Without Limits, was published in 2019, and was also No.1 on The Sunday Times bestseller chart.

Other

In 2018 Middleton climbed Mount Everest.[4]

In November 2019 Middleton was appointed as Chief Cadet in the Royal Navy's Volunteer Cadet Corps.

Personal life

Middleton was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, and brought up in France.[5] He lives in Chelmsford, Essex and is married to Emilie, with whom he has four children. He also has a son, Oakley, from his previous relationship.

In 2013, as a result of a “nightclub bust-up” in Chelmsford, Essex,[6] Middleton was convicted of the unlawful wounding of one police officer, PC Christopher Brooksbank, and common assault upon a second, PC Katherine Alison. He was sentenced to 14 months in prison, of which he served four month

Britannia Hotels

Britannia Hotels

Britannia Hotels is a British hotel group with 61 hotels across the country. Britannia operates at the budget end of the market, and includes the Pontins Holiday Park portfolio. In recent years, Britannia Hotels has been a subject of widespread criticism over the hygiene and maintenance of its locations, with the consumer group Which? declaring the hotel chain to be the worst in the United Kingdom since October 2013:[2][3] the controversies have contributed towards the growing general perception of Britannia Hotels as "Britain's worst hotel chain"

Overview
Britannia Hotels was founded in 1976 with the purchase of the Britannia Country House Hotel in Didsbury, Manchester. Its Chief Executive, founder, and largest shareholder remains Alex Langsam. Langsam is a non-domiciled taxpayer, registered as living in Austria for tax-purposes since 1999.[5] His net personal worth was valued at £90 million in 2013 by The Sunday Times.[6]

Its head office is based in the old town hall in Hale, Manchester. A large cluster of the company's hotels are located in and around Manchester.

Soon after its foundation Britannia began making a number of further acquisitions.
The second purchase in 1981 was a derelict listed building in central Manchester (the former Watts Warehouse standing on Portland Street, Manchester). After redeveloping the unit it opened in May 1982 as the Britannia Hotel Manchester. At the end of 1982 British Rail sold off its hotel division - British Transport Hotels. From this sale, in 1983 Britannia bought the Britannia Adelphi Hotel in Liverpool.
In 1987 Britannia Hotels converted an unused building in Manchester that had been the city's C&A department store - this became the Sachas Hotel.[7][8] Later in the same year Bosworth Hall, a country house style hotel in Market Bosworth Leicestershire, was purchased. Bosworth Hall was being converted from a hospital/nursing home into a hotel and Britannia took over the development from the builders who went bankrupt. In 1988 the company purchased and began development of the International Hotel adjacent to Canary Wharf in the London's Docklands. The hotel opened on 9 June 1992. A year later, Britannia took over a 187-bedroom hotel in Stockport. After a period of refurbishment the Britannia Stockport Hotel opened in 1993. In the summer of the same year the group also purchased the Europa Hotel situated close to Gatwick Airport.

In the following 10 years the group acquired 16 more hotels in locations such as Birmingham, Aberdeen and Newcastle. In November 2004 it acquired four hotels from the Grand Leisure Group: the Grand Hotel in Scarborough, the Grand Hotel in Llandudno, the Grand Burstin Hotel in Folkestone and the Grand Metropole in Blackpool. In January 2011, the company bought North West holiday camp business Pontins out of administration in a £18.5m deal which safeguarded about 1,000 jobs. Following the acquisition Britannia had to deal with a series of complaints.

From 2005 to 2015 the Group enjoyed its most rapid period of expansion acquiring 23 hotels - including the Palace Hotel in Buxton and the Basingstoke Country Hotel acquired from the Hotel Collection[17][18] and the Trecarn Hotel Torquay[19] and Cavendish Hotel in Eastbourne. In 2016, Britannia Hotels also purchased The Bromsgrove Hotel & Spa which was previously owned and operated by Hilton. Later in 2017, Britannia Hotels also acquired the Royal Hotel in Hull from the Mercure Hotel Group expanding the empire to 53 Hotels
Events
The 1988 Philip Saville film The Fruit Machine featured interior and main entrance scenes of the Adelphi Hotel in Liverpool, including a vertical pan shot past the lit marquee at night.

In 2008 as part of the Capital of Culture celebrations, a musical based on the Adelphi Hotel, written and directed by Phil Willmott, Once Upon A Time At The Adelphi, ran at the Liverpool Playhouse from 30 June until 2 August.[22]

Industry reception
In 2011, the Group Travel Awards declared Britannia to be the "Most Group-Friendly Hotel Chain or Group".[23] Two years later, The Institute of Customer Service recognised Pontins (one of Britannia's subsidiaries) as the Most Improved Organisation at the 2013 UK Customer Satisfaction Awards.[24]

Controversies
Britannia Hotels has been a subject of widespread criticism on many areas, such as hygiene and maintenance. In October 2019, consumer group Which? declared Britannia Hotels to be the worst hotel chain in the United Kingdom for the seventh consecutive year, despite a slight increase in the overall score (39%, compared to 35% in 2018).[2] Britannia Hotels had been at the bottom of the Which? hotel chain rankings since October 2013, when then-editor Richard Headland warned that other chains (such as Premier Inn) were undercutting Britannia with better service at similar prices.[3]

Hygiene and maintenance issues
In 2005 and 2006 the Grand Hotel in Scarborough and the Britannia Adelphi were investigated by the BBC over theft and hygiene.[25][26] In November 2014, an undercover investigation by the Liverpool Echo also found issues with the upkeep of both the exterior and interior of the Adelphi, warning that the ageing interiors and basic service placed Britannia Hotels at a disadvantage in the fast-evolving "cut-throat" tourism industry.[27] However, Which? journalists found the Britannia Lodge (near Gatwick airport) to be in a worse condition, reporting smells of damp because of a clogged ventilation fan, a bathroom affected by mould, and stains that only show up under ultraviolet light.[2]

Oyster.com, a hotel research and booking site, has also reviewed a number of Britannia Hotels. The website commended most of the reviewed locations for their proximity to city centres or public transport hubs,[28] as well as efforts to renovate some rooms in the Manchester location,[29] but also raised concerns about outdated interiors, inconsistent maintenance, and Wi-Fi access fees,[30] the latter generally considered to be inappropriate in a country where the internet access is a major part of daily life.

Planning issues
In the mid-1980s, Alex Langsam, owner of the Britannia Hotel Group, acquired the Grade II* listed London Road Fire Station in Manchester. Proposals were made to redevelop it into a hotel and offices, however the plans were delayed and in 2006 it was placed on English Heritage's register of "at risk" historical buildings.[31] The city council attempted to compulsorily purchase the building[32] but on 29 November 2011, their proposal was rejected.[33] In 2015 Britannia announced their intention to sell the building. It was sold to Allied London in 2015 and renovation commenced in 2018 with the building to be redeveloped as a mixed-use comprising leisure and hotel facilities.[34]

Social issues
Amid increasing pressure against Britannia Hotels over poor cleanliness, The Independent reported in October 2014 that the Home Office temporarily rented rooms in three Britannia locations (two in Bournemouth and one in Folkestone) to house asylum seekers, because of overcrowding at the detention centres in London.[35] The Daily Telegraph reported that the Home Office also rented rooms for new refugees who were waiting for long-term housing.[4]

In December 2018, the Britannia Royal at Kingston upon Hull cancelled a charity reservation for rough sleepers on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, without giving a reason. The incident led to a significant escalation of general criticism against Britannia Hotels, who were then forced to temporarily remove their presence on social media.[36] Britannia Hotels currently uses Facebook, Twitter and YouTube for social media.

Legal issues
In September 2007, Manchester Crown Court fined Britannia Hotels £39,486 for food hygiene offences at the Britannia Hotel in Stockport, shortly after TripAdvisor rated it as one of Britain's dirtiest hotels.[37] In December 2014, the Nuneaton Justice Centre also fined Britannia Hotels £25,400 for food hygiene offences, at the Royal Court Hotel in Coventry.[38]

Britannia Hotels was also prosecuted for breaking health and safety laws, after a student drowned at the Adelphi.[39] In November 2015, the Liverpool Echo investigated a guest's complaints about the Adelphi[40] In June 2017, the Adelphi was prosecuted for breaches of food safety and hygiene regulations.[41] Further issues with the Adelphi have been reported since.[42][43][44] The Liverpool Echo visited the Company's headquarters in June 2019, in order to interview a spokesperson about the complaints, but no-one would see them.[45]

In 2013 the chain was successfully prosecuted for putting guests and construction workers at risk of asbestos fibre exposure at the Grand Burstin Hotel in Folkestone.[46]

Coylumbridge Hotel, Aviemore
In March 2020, the Britannia-owned Coylumbridge Aviemore Hotel earned widespread criticism for their response to the Covid-19 pandemic. This consisted of firing approximately 30 staff without notice or redundancy pay; additionally, those employees who lived in hotel accommodation as part of their jobs were evicted with immediate effect, with several made homeless

Self-employed

Self-employed

 is the state of working for oneself rather than an employer.

Generally, tax authorities will view a person as self-employed if the person chooses to be recognized as such, or is generating income such that the person is required to file a tax return under legislation in the relevant jurisdiction. In the real world, the critical issue for the taxing authorities is not that the person is trading but is whether the person is profitable and hence potentially taxable. In other words, the activity of trading is likely to be ignored if no profit is present, so occasional and hobby- or enthusiast-based economic activity is generally ignored by authorities.

Self-employed people generally find their own work rather than being provided with work by an employer, earning income from a profession, a trade or a business that they operate.

In some countries governments (the United States and United Kingdom, for example) are placing more emphasis on clarifying whether an individual is self-employed or engaged in disguised employment, often described as the pretense of a contractual intra-business relationship to hide what is otherwise a simple employer-employee relationship.

Difference between self-employment, entrepreneurship, and startup

Self-employment provides works primarily for the founders. Entrepreneurship refers all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend to grow big or become registered, but startups refer to new businesses that intend to grow beyond the founders, to have employees, and grow large.

In summary:

self-employment: an organization created with the primarily intention to give a job to the founders.

entrepreneurship: all new organizations.

startup: a temporary new organization created with the intention to be bigger (at least have employees).

United States

Although the common perception is that self-employment is concentrated in a few service sector industries, like sales people and insurance agents, research by the Small Business Administration has shown that self-employment occurs across a wide segment of the U.S. economy.[1] Furthermore, industries that are not commonly associated as a natural fit for self-employment, such as manufacturing, have in fact been shown to have a large proportion of self-employed individuals and home-based businesses.[2]

In the United States, any person is considered self-employed for tax purposes if that person is running a business as a sole proprietorship, independent contractor, as a member of a partnership, or as a member of a limited liability company that does not elect to be treated as a corporation. In addition to income taxes, these individuals must pay Social Security and Medicare taxes in the form of a SECA (Self-Employment Contributions Act) tax.

Immigrant and ethnic minorities

Self-employment is relatively common among new immigrants and ethnic minorities in the United States. In the United States, immigrants tend to have higher rates of self-employment than native-born Americans regardless of race or ethnicity. But, self-employment in the United States is unevenly distributed across racial/ethnic lines. Immigrants and their children who self-identify as White have the highest probability of self-employment in lucrative industries such as professional services and finance. In contrast, racial and ethnic minorities are less likely than native-born Whites to be self-employed, with the exception of Asian immigrants who have a high rates of self-employment in low prestige industries such as retail trade and personal services. Much like the regular labor market, self-employment in the United States is stratified across racial lines.[3] In general, self-employment is more common among immigrants than their second-generation children born in the United States. However, the second-generation children of Asian immigrants may continue to seek self-employment in a variety of industries and occupations.[3]

Taxation

The self-employment tax in the United States is typically set at 15.30%, which is roughly the equivalent of the combined contributions of the employee and employer under the FICA tax. The rate consists of two parts: 12.4% for social security and 2.9% for Medicare. The Social Security portion of the self-employment tax only applies to the first $132,900 of income for the 2019 tax year.[4] There is no limit to the amount that is taxable under the 2.9% Medicare portion of the self-employment tax. In fact, there is an additional Medicare tax rate of 0.9% when a self-employed individual earns above $200,000 (single).

Generally, only 92.35% of the self-employment income is taxable at the above rates. Additionally, half of the self-employment tax, i.e., the employer-equivalent portion, is allowed as a deduction against income.

The 2010 Tax Relief Act reduced the self-employment tax by 2% for self-employment income earned in calendar year 2011,[5] for a total of 13.3%. This rate will continue for income earned in calendar year 2012, due to the Temporary Payroll Tax Cut Continuation Act of 2011.[6] Self-employed persons sometimes declare more deductions than an ordinary employee. Travel, uniforms, computer equipment, cell phones, etc., can be deducted as legitimate business expenses.

Self-employed persons report their business income or loss on Schedule C of IRS Form 1040 and calculate the self-employment tax on Schedule SE of IRS Form 1040. Estimated taxes must be paid quarterly using form 1040-ES if estimated tax liability exceeds $1,000.

401k retirement account

Self-employed workers cannot contribute to a company-run 401k plan of the type with which most people are familiar. However, there are various vehicles available to self-employed individuals to save for retirement. Many set up a Simplified Employee Pension Plan (SEP) IRA, which allows them to contribute up to 25% of their income, up to $54,000 (2017) per year. There is also a vehicle called the Self-Employed 401k (or SE 401k) for self-employed people. The contribution limits vary slightly depending on how your business is organized but are generally higher than the other types of plans.

A defined benefit plan is a third option that has high contribution limits and acts like a traditional pension plan. Sole Proprietors can also opt for a SIMPLE IRA, which allows them to contribute to employee retirement plans as well as their own retirement plan.[7]

Effects on income growth

Research has shown that levels of self-employment in the United States are increasing, and that under certain circumstances this can have positive effects on per capita income and job creation. According to a 2017 study by MBO Partners, the self-employed workforce generates $1.2 trillion in revenue for the U.S. economy, which is equal to about 6% of national GDP.[8] A 2011 study from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and Pennsylvania State University looked at U.S. self-employment levels from 1970 to 2000. According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, the absolute number of people registered as non-farm proprietors (NFPs) or self-employed in metropolitan counties grew by 244% between 1969 and 2006, and by 93% in non-metropolitan counties. In relative terms, the share of self-employed within the labor force grew from 14% in 1969 to 21% in 2006 in metropolitan counties, and from 11% to 19% in non-metropolitan counties.[9][10]

In non-metropolitan counties, the study found that increased levels of self-employment were associated with strong increases in per capita income and job creation and significant reductions in family poverty levels. In 1969, the average income of non-farm proprietors was $6,758 compared to $6,507 earned by salaried employees; by 2006 the difference in earnings widened to $12,041 in favor of salaried employees. The study notes that the gap could be due to underreporting of income by the self-employed. Alternatively, low-productivity workers could be losing their jobs and are forced to be self-employed.[9][10] Further, some research shows that higher local unemployment rates lead workers to self-select into self-employment, as does past unemployment experience.[11]

United Kingdom

According to a 2016 study by the McKinsey Global Institute, there are 14 million independent workers in the United Kingdom.[12] A self-employed person in the United Kingdom can operate as a sole trader or as a partner in a partnership (including a limited liability partnership or "LLP") but not through an incorporated limited (or unlimited) liability company. Where self-employment activity is operated through a company, the worker is director or shareholder rather than partner or sole trader. Personal Service Company legislation aims to tax as an employee any worker who would be an employee 'but for' a company.[13]

It is also possible for someone to form a business that is run only part-time or concurrently while holding down a full-time job. This form of employment, while popular, does come with several legal responsibilities. When working from home, clearance may sometimes be required from the local authority to use part of the home as business premises. Should the self-employed person hold records of customers or suppliers in any electronic form they will be required to register with the Information Commissioner's Office. Other legal responsibilities include statutory public liability insurance cover, modifying premises to be disabled-friendly, and the proper recording and accounting of financial transactions. Free advice on the range of responsibilities is available from government operated Business Link centres.

Many people living with disabilities choose to be self-employed.[14]

European Union

The European Commission defines a self-employed person as someone: "pursuing a gainful activity for their own account, under the conditions laid down by national law". In the exercise of such an activity, the personal element is of special importance and such exercise always involves a large measure of independence in the accomplishment of the professional activities. This definition comes from Directive 2010/41/EU[15] on the application of the principle of equal treatment between men and women engaged in an activity in a self-employed capacity. This is in contrast to an employee, who is subordinate to and dependent on an employer.

In addition, Article 53 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU)[16] provides for the free movement of those taking up and pursuing activities as self-employed people. It stipulates: "In order to make it easier for persons to take up and pursue activities as self-employed persons, the Council shall… issue Directives for the mutual recognition of diplomas, certificates and other evidence of formal qualifications".

The self-employment form of work does not group homogenous workers. As indicated by the European Commission in 2010,[17] there are "different understandings and definitions of the term self-employment across the countries, with a number of different subcategories defined: for instance, according to the legal status of the enterprise, whether the business has employees or not (employers versus own-account workers) and/or the sector in which the business operates. Some countries also make the distinction between self-employed status and the status of 'dependent self-employed' (e.g. Spain, Italy), where the self-employed person works for only one client. Others distinguish self-employment which is carried out in addition to paid employment (e.g. Belgium)".

The EN European Parliament Resolution on Social Protection for All[18] has stated that: "the absence of a clear national definition of self-employment increases the risk of false self-employment" and the European Parliament Resolution on the Renewed Social Agenda invites Member States to take initiatives that would "lead to a clear distinction between employers, genuine self-employed and small entrepreneurs on the one hand and employees on the other".[19]

Self-employment is mostly regulated at national level only. Each authority and individual body applies its own legal and regulatory framework provisions, which may vary depending on their remit or policy area (tax law, social security, business law, employment market, insurance). The provisions related to self-employment vary therefore widely between the countries. As indicated by Eurofound in 2014, the diversity of the self-employed has attracted diverse forms of regulation, mainly decided at national level: "EU employment law addresses the self-employed mainly in narrowly specific areas such as free movement and equal treatment".[20]

As recommended by the European Forum of Independent Professionals (EFIP), the EU, employers', employees' and self-employment representatives should adopt a Europe-wide joint recognition of genuine self-employment and a common definition that includes a shared terminology for the various sectors.

Wetherspoons

Wetherspoons

J D Wetherspoon plc (branded as Wetherspoon, commonly known as Spoons) is a British pub company in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Founded in 1979 by Tim Martin, the company operates nearly 900 pubs,[3] including the chain of Lloyds No.1 bars, and a growing number of Wetherspoon hotels. With its headquarters in Watford, Wetherspoon is known for converting unconventional premises into pubs. The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index

Tim Martin opened his first pub in 1979 in Colney Hatch Lane in Muswell Hill, London.[5] Many of the other early Wetherspoon pubs were also in the western part of Haringey. The name of the business originates from JD, a character in The Dukes of Hazzard, and Wetherspoon, the name of one of Martin's teachers in New Zealand.[6][7][8][9] Martin said, "I decided to call it Wetherspoon's after a former teacher – not because the teacher in question at my primary school in New Zealand had said I would never make it, as some people think, but because he was too nice a fellow to be running our particular class and he couldn't control it. So I thought: I can't control the pub, he couldn't control the class, so I'll name it after him."[10]

During the 1990s, Wetherspoon began a policy of routinely closing its smaller or less profitable outlets, often replacing them with larger premises close by. In 1998, Wetherspoon introduced the oversized pint glass to promote the "full pint".[11] This initiative was withdrawn, supposedly because customers were still asking for top-ups, but arguably because other pub chains did not follow its lead.[12]

In 2015, Wetherspoon was made to pay a total of £24,000 for "direct racial discrimination" to eight individuals who were refused admittance to one of its pubs in north London based on what a judge described as "the stereotypical assumption that Irish travellers and English gypsies cause disorder wherever they go".[13]

Decision to quit social media

On 16 April 2018, Wetherspoon deleted all of its social media profiles. Chairman Tim Martin cited the "current bad publicity surrounding social media, including the trolling of MPs and others" as a reason for the decision.[14]

Food and drink

Weekly food promotions include the Steak Club on Tuesday, the Chicken Club on Wednesday, the Curry Club on Thursday, Fish and Chips on Friday and Brunch on Sundays. Wetherspoon claims to be "the only large pub firm which opens all its pubs early in the morning", serving breakfast and coffee. The full food menu is available well into the late evening.[15][16]

Wetherspoon hosts two Ale Festivals in March/April and October each year, when a larger range of guest ales is available in each pub, and a Cider Festival in the summer.[17]

Properties and operations

Many Wetherspoon pubs are conversions of existing buildings, including banks, churches, post offices, theatres and a former public swimming pool,[18] while other properties are listed buildings.[19]

Wetherspoon bars are situated in the passenger terminals of many UK airports, including Doncaster Sheffield Airport, Edinburgh Airport, Gatwick Airport, Glasgow Airport, Heathrow Airport, and Stansted Airport, as well as at several main railway stations, including Leeds, Liverpool Lime Street, London Cannon Street, London Liverpool Street, and London Victoria,[20][21] with a new bar due to open in Glasgow Central.[22] The main station buildings at Aberystwyth railway station were converted to a Wetherspoon pub Yr Hen Orsaf The Old Station and received a National Railway Heritage Award in 2003.[23]

Wetherspoon pioneered non-smoking areas in pubs before the Smoking, Health and Social Care (Scotland) Act 2005, The Smoking (Northern Ireland) Order 2006 and the Health Act 2006 in England and Wales became law in 2006.[24][25]

The first Wetherspoon's pub in the island of Ireland was The Spinning Mill in Ballymena, County Antrim, in Northern Ireland, which opened in 2000. The first Wetherspoon pub in the Republic of Ireland, The Three Tun Tavern, opened in Blackrock, County Dublin, in 2014. Another opened in Cork City in 2015.[26][27][28]

In 2014, Wetherspoon opened a pub at the Beaconsfield motorway service area on the M40. The move was criticised for potentially encouraging drink-driving.[29]

Wetherspoon also owns a chain of hotels in the UK. In 2015, there were 34 hotels in England, Wales and Scotland, and also a pub and 100-room hotel in Camden Street, Dublin, Ireland.[30]

In 2015, Wetherspoon bought the Grade II* Listed Art Deco State Cinema in Grays, Essex which had been under threat of damage from vandalism and water ingress for a number of years.[31]

Every Wetherspoon pub has a unique carpet, drawing on the location, building and name. They are produced by Axminster Carpets and, having more than the usual six colours, have to be partially handmade on old fashioned looms, costing up to £30,000 – twice as much as stock designs.[32]

Mags Thomson visited every Wetherspoon in Great Britain from 1994 to October 2015. She reached a total of 972 which included 80 that have subsequently closed.[33]

In 2018, the company chose Wolverhampton as the location of the National JD Wetherspoon Museum. The existing pub would be expanded to take in the whole former Co-Op Department Store, to include a hotel and gift shop. In July 2019, they bought the former carbon nightclub in Galway city with the plan of opening a bar and restaurant. [34]

Brexit

The firm — whose founder is a strong supporter of Brexit — replaced champagne with British sparkling wines and Australian wines on 9 July 2018. The firm claims the goal of this is to sell cheaper drinks and to get cheaper alcohol to its two million weekly customers.[35]

COVID-19

During the 2020 coronavirus pandemic in the United Kingdom the government advised members of the public to 'socially distance' and avoid areas like pubs, clubs, restaurants and gyms. As a result many pub chains closed. However Wetherspoons owner Tim Martin rejected the government's advice and refused to close a single pub.

Animal Crossing

Animal Crossing

is a social simulation video game series developed and published by Nintendo and created by Katsuya Eguchi.[1][2][3] In Animal Crossing, the player character is a human who lives in a village inhabited by various anthropomorphic animals, carrying out various activities such as fishing, bug catching, and fossil hunting. The series is notable for its open-ended gameplay and extensive use of the video game consoles' internal clock and calendar to simulate real passage of time.

Five Animal Crossing games have been released worldwide, one each for the Nintendo 64/iQue Player (enhanced and reissued for the GameCube), Nintendo DS, Wii, Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo Switch.[4] The series has been both critically and commercially successful and has sold over 30 million units worldwide. Three spin-off games have also been released: Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer for Nintendo 3DS, Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival for Wii U, and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp for mobile devices.

Common elements

Characters

While the series features various villagers for each title, certain prominent characters return in each series installment. Tom Nook is a tanuki character who functions as both a shop owner and real estate broker, giving the player a loan for their house and allowing them to pay it back with no interest. Mr. Resetti is a mole character who appears from underground whenever players shut off the game without saving, berating them for circumventing one of the game's systems. Due to a new autosave function, he was "laid off" from his job in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, although he will be making a return in some form.[5]

K.K. Slider is a canine traveling musician based on series composer Kazumi Totaka, and plays on certain nights in the town's club.[6] Afterwards, he gifts the player a free copy of the song played, saying that his music "wants to be free". This was seen by some fans as tacit support for music piracy, although Nintendo denied that it was intended as social commentary.[7]

Gameplay

In the Animal Crossing games, the player assumes the role of a human character who moves into a rural village populated with anthropomorphic animals and lives there indefinitely. Gameplay is open-ended: players have no defined objectives, but are instead encouraged to spend their time in the village performing any number of activities, which include collecting items, planting plants or other items, and socializing with the village's residents. Animal Crossing games are played in real time, utilizing the video game console's internal clock and calendar. Thus, passage of time in the game world reflects that in reality, as well as the current season and time of day. Some in-game events, such as holidays or the growth of a tree, occur at certain times or require some duration of time to have passed.[8]

One notable feature of the Animal Crossing series is the high level of customization available, some of which affects the outcome of the game.[9] The player character is both named and gendered by the real life player at the start of the game, and their appearance can be modified by buying or designing custom clothes and accessories or changing the hairstyle (introduced in Wild World). The player's house can also be furnished, decorated, and later expanded: the player can purchase and collect furniture and place it anywhere in the house, as well as change both the wallpaper and floor designs. While its terrain, building locations, and initial residents are randomly generated when the game is first begun (except in Animal Crossing: New Leaf, in which the player decides between four given towns), the village's name and anthem, as well as some of the residents' catchphrases, are also determined by the player.[9]

Collecting items is a major facet of Animal Crossing: the player can explore the village and gather objects, including fruit from trees, seashells, and discarded items. Nearly all objects can be sold for Bells, the in-game currency. Players collect objects to obtain more Bells, which can then be used to buy furniture and clothing, purchase home expansions, invest in stocks, and play games. A number of specialized tools are available for other activities such as fishing and insect collecting. Special items, such as fossils and paintings, may be donated to the village museum. The player can choose to socialize with the other animal residents by engaging in conversation, sending and receiving letters, bartering, or playing hide-and-seek. Residents may move in or out of the village depending on the player's actions.

All installments of Animal Crossing allow some form of communication between players, both offline and online. A single village can house up to four human players, though only one can be exploring the village at any given time.[8] The players can interact via written messages through the village post office or bulletin board. The GameCube iteration allowed players to travel to other villages by trading memory cards written with the game data,[9] but all subsequent installments allow players to travel and interact online via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, although City Folk also allows the DS Suitcase to travel to others' towns

Rishi Sunak

Rishi Sunak

 (born 12 May 1980) is a British Conservative Party politician serving as Chancellor of the Exchequer, since February 2020. He was appointed following the resignation of Sajid Javid during a cabinet reshuffle in 2020. Sunak previously served as Chief Secretary to the Treasury under Javid from July 2019 to February 2020, and has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Richmond (Yorks) since the 2015 general election.

Born in Southampton, Hampshire to an Indian Punjabi family, his early education was at Winchester College. Sunak subsequently studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) at Lincoln College, Oxford, and later gained an MBA from Stanford University as a Fulbright Scholar. After graduating, Sunak worked for investment bank Goldman Sachs, and later as a partner at the hedge fund management firm The Children's Investment Fund Management.

Early life and education

Sunak was born on 12 May 1980 in Southampton, Hampshire[1][2] to Yashvir and Usha Sunak.[3] His grandparents were born in Punjab, India and emigrated from East Africa to the UK in the 1960s.[4] His father Yashvir was a general practitioner (GP) and his mother Usha was a pharmacist who ran a local pharmacy.[1][3][5] He is the eldest of three siblings.[4]

Sunak was privately educated at Winchester College, an all-boys' boarding school, where he was head boy.[6] He then studied PPE at Lincoln College, Oxford, graduating with a First[6] in 2001.[1] In 2006, Sunak obtained an MBA from Stanford University, where he was a Fulbright scholar.[1][7][8]

Business career

Sunak worked as an analyst for investment bank Goldman Sachs between 2001 and 2004.[1][9] He then worked for hedge fund management firm The Children's Investment Fund Management, becoming a partner in September 2006.[10] He left in November 2009[11] to join former colleagues at new hedge fund firm Theleme Partners, which launched in October 2010 with an initial $700 million.[12][13][14] Sunak was also a director of investment firm Catamaran Ventures, owned by his father-in-law, Indian businessman N. R. Narayana Murthy.[9][15]

Political career

Member of Parliament

Sunak was selected as the Conservative candidate for Richmond (Yorks) in October 2014. The seat had previously been held by former leader of the party and foreign secretary William Hague, who chose to stand down at the next general election.[6] In the same year, Sunak was the head of centre-right think tank Policy Exchange's Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) Research Unit, for which he co-wrote a report on BME communities in the UK.[16] Sunak was elected as MP for the constituency in the 2015 general election with a majority of 19,550 (36.2%).[17] During the 2015–2017 parliament, Sunak was a member of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee.[18]

He supported the UK leaving the European Union (EU) in the June 2016 membership referendum.[19] In the same year, he wrote a report for the Thatcherite think tank, the Centre for Policy Studies, supporting the establishment of free ports post-Brexit, and the following year wrote a report advocating for the creation of a retail bond market for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).[20][21][22]

Sunak was re-elected as MP in the 2017 general election, with an increased majority of 23,108 (40.5%).[23] He was Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Local Government between January 2018 and July 2019.[18] Sunak voted for then Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit withdrawal agreement and voted against a referendum on any withdrawal agreement.[24] He supported Boris Johnson in the 2019 Conservative Party leadership election and co-wrote an article in The Times newspaper with fellow MPs Robert Jenrick, and Oliver Dowden to advocate for Johnson during the campaign in June.[25][26]

He was re-elected in the 2019 general election with an increased majority of 27,210 (47.2%).[27] During the election campaign, Sunak represented the Conservatives in both the BBC's and ITV's seven-way election debates.[28][29]

Chief Secretary to the Treasury

Sunak was appointed as Chief Secretary to the Treasury by Prime Minister Boris Johnson on 24 July 2019.[30] He became a member of the Privy Council the next day.[31]

Chancellor of the Exchequer

Sunak was promoted to Chancellor of the Exchequer on 13 February 2020 as part of a cabinet reshuffle, after the resignation of his predecessor Sajid Javid on the same day. Javid had resigned after being asked by Prime Minister Johnson to dismiss his advisers.[32][33]

Sunak's first budget took place on 11 March 2020.[34] This included an announcement of £30 billion of additional spending of which £12 billion was allocated for mitigation of the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.[35] Less than a week after on 17 March, Sunak announced £330 billion of government-backed loans for businesses and an extension of business rates relief as emergency measures against the pandemic.[36]

Personal life

Sunak married Akshata Murthy, the daughter of Indian billionaire and co-founder of Infosys, N. R. Narayana Murthy, in August 2009.[6] They met while studying at Stanford University and have two daughters.[6][7] He is a Hindu,[4] and has taken his oath at the House of Commons on the Bhagavad Gita since 2017.[37][38] Sunak was previously a governor of the East London Science School.