All posts tagged: schemes

Badenoch vows to ‘end blanket 20mph schemes’ for drivers as Tories aim to ‘get Britain moving again’

Badenoch vows to ‘end blanket 20mph schemes’ for drivers as Tories aim to ‘get Britain moving again’

Published by Daniella Wilson

Stay on top of the latest political news with our View from Westminster newsletter Get the latest political headlines with our free email Get the latest political headlines with our free email Speed limits “widely ignored” by drivers would be raised under a Conservative government, the party has said. The pledge to review 20mph limits is part of a six-point Plan for Drivers announced by the Tories to “get Britain moving again”. This includes a commitment to “end blanket 20mph schemes”, which have been imposed by “Labour and their councils” across “entire towns and cities with no meaningful evidence base”. Schemes to cut speed limits to 20mph are increasingly common across the UK and Europe, often implemented to reduce crashes and injuries. Wales has 20mph as the default in built-up areas, and the Scottish Government committed to implementing the limit on “those roads where it is appropriate to do so”. Charity Living Streets reports 62 of 153 local authorities in England have adopted similar policies. Widespread 20mph speed limits have been blamed by location technology …

Friends with benefits: how referral schemes can really pay off | Consumer affairs

Friends with benefits: how referral schemes can really pay off | Consumer affairs

Published by Sam Flores

How much do you love your energy company – enough to recommend it to a friend? How about if £50 was up for grabs? Richard from Suffolk is a customer of Octopus Energy, and now eight of his family and friends are, too, after he recommended the provider to them all through its referral scheme. “I really think [referral schemes] are a good idea. It’s an incentive to swap – without it, I think people wouldn’t bother switching and would carry on as they were,” he says. For each referral, Octopus gives £50 of credit to the referrer and the referee. Richard says his dad was delighted with this arrangement. “That paid for a month’s worth of electricity for my dad, which he was really happy about,” he says. Across energy, banking, shopping and entertainment, there are lots of companies and brands offering existing customers perks for bringing in new business. How it normally works is that a customer shares a link or code with a friend or family member, and then the referred friend …

Gang leader sentenced to 9 years after running illegal gambling and extortion schemes

Gang leader sentenced to 9 years after running illegal gambling and extortion schemes

Published by skeptic

A gang leader has been sentenced to 9 years in federal prison for orchestrating a 2023 gambling operation and heading up a list of extortion schemes. The man identified as Luis Ramirez, head of the Los Angeles Riverside County-based street gang, has been found to have organized the illegal activity while already incarcerated on separate charges. Gang leader sentenced for extortion plot U.S. District Judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr., who ordered that Ramirez’s federal term run consecutively to his existing life sentence in California state prison, determined that he broke multiple laws whilst incarcerated. Ramirez allegedly continued to organize and control the Westside Riva (WSR), a Jurupa Valley-based street gang, and carried out the acts as part of a wider swathe of violence and criminal intimidation. Leader of Inland Empire street gang sentenced to 9 years in federal prison for ordering 2023 kidnapping in Riverside https://t.co/w2mxcOy9pi — US Attorney L.A. (@USAO_LosAngeles) January 13, 2026 This included, says the Department of Justice (DoJ) publication, that the WSR under his command “conducted, managed, and supervised an illegal gambling …