Leave London and you may find

Leave London and you may find the English, London is a dirty filthy place

Britain and Ireland were known as the tin islands........to the greeks ........................The Codex = Ptolemy's map of the British Isles

Albion (Ancient Greek: Ἀλβιών) is the olde known name of the island of Great Britain.

Today, it is still sometimes used poetically to refer to the island. The name for Scotland in the Celtic languages is related to Albion: Alba in Scottish Gaelic, Albain (genitive Alban) inIrish,Nalbin in Manx and Alban in Welsh, Cornish and Breton, These names were later Latinised as Albania and Anglicised as Albany, which were once alternative names for Scotland.

take the kids into care

No payout for 'stolen' Aborigines

Aborigine communities have comparatively low life expectancies

Thousands of Aborigines who were removed from their families as children will receive no compensation, the Australian government has said.

Campaigners for the so-called Stolen Generations had asked for a reparation fund of almost A$1bn ($870m; £443m) as part of a promised official apology.

But indigenous affairs minister Jenny Macklin says money will instead be put into health and education schemes.

Many Aboriginal children were handed to white families from 1915 to 1969.

They were brought up by white people in an attempt by the government to assimilate the white and Aboriginal populations.

Even though they've changed the saddle blankets we're still dealing with the same horse Sam Watson Aborigine activist

The country's new Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, has promised to apologise formally to the victims of the assimilation policy.

And campaigners felt that the Stolen Generations should have received damages as part of the apology.

"People get paid crimes compensation for victims of crime," Lyn Austin, head of Stolen Generations in the state of Victoria, told local radio.

"You are looking at the gross violation and the act of genocide and all the inhumane things that have happened to our people."

Protests promised

But Ms Macklin instead pledged to invest in initiatives which she said would improve life expectancy for today's Aborigines.

"What we will be doing is putting the funding in to health and education services, and providing additional support for services needed for counselling, to enable people to find their relatives," she said.

"We think the best way to give force to the apology is to provide funding to close the gap in life expectancy between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians.

"So we won't be creating a compensation fund."

Aboriginal campaigners have promised to protest against the decision.

Brisbane-based activist Sam Watson said the new Labor government was following the same policies as their predecessors.

"Even though they've changed the saddle blankets we're still dealing with the same horse," he told Australian broadcaster ABC.

social care

Australia apology to Aborigines

Kevin Rudd's apology represents a break from previous policies Parliament statement

The Australian government has made a formal apology for the past wrongs caused by successive governments on the indigenous Aboriginal population.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd apologised in parliament to all Aborigines for laws and policies that "inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss".

He singled out the "Stolen Generations" of thousands of children forcibly removed from their families.

The apology, beamed live around the country on TV, was met with cheers.

But some Aborigines say it should have been accompanied with compensation for their suffering.

'Indignity and degradation'

In a motion passed unanimously by Australian MPs on Wednesday morning, Mr Rudd acknowledged the "past mistreatment" of all of his country's Aboriginal population.

For the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry Text of parliamentary motion Full text of apology Ceremony in pictures Apology accepted?

"We apologise for the laws and policies of successive parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians," the motion said.

Mr Rudd said he apologised "especially" to the Stolen Generations of young Aboriginal children who were taken from their parents in a policy of assimilation which lasted from the 19th Century to the late 1960s.

"For the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry."

Aborigines are the most disadvantaged sector of society

Australia has no Aboriginal members in parliament, but 100 leaders of the community and members of the Stolen Generations were present for the historic apology.

The leader of the Liberal opposition, Brendan Nelson, said he "strongly" welcomed the apology.

He decided to take a different position on the issue than his predecessor, former Prime Minister John Howard, who refused for over a decade to apologise to the Stolen Generations - a stance supported, polls suggest, by about 30% of Australians.

Mixed response

The government hopes the apology will repair the breach between white and black Australia and usher in a new era of recognition and reconciliation.

The parliamentary session was shown live on television as well as on public screens erected in cities across the country.

Mr Rudd received a standing ovation from MPs and onlookers in parliament, and cheers from the thousands of Australians watching outside.

Blackfellas will get the words, the whitefellas keep the money Noel Pearson Aboriginal leader

Michael Mansell, a spokesman for the rights group the National Aboriginal Alliance, said the word "sorry" was one that "Stolen Generation members will be very relieved is finally being used", reported Associated Press news agency.

But the refusal to accompany the apology with any compensation has angered many Aboriginal leaders, who have called it a "cut-price sorry".

"Blackfellas will get the words, the whitefellas keep the money," summed up Noel Pearson, a respected Aboriginal leader, in The Australian newspaper.

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I think the apology is the right thing to do, but personally don't understand why it was debated for so long

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Mr Rudd has also outlined a new agenda on Aboriginal issues, including a commitment to close the 17-year life expectancy gap between Aborigines and other Australians within a generation, was well as halving Aboriginal infant mortality rates within a decade.

Australia's 460,000 Aborigines make up 2% of the population and are the most disadvantaged group.

They have higher rates of infant mortality, drug abuse, alcoholism and unemployment than the rest of the population.

social care australia

Gap dividing Aborigines growing

By Nick Bryant BBC News, Sydney

Some indigenous Australians say the National Day is actually 'Invasion Day'

A national report on Aboriginal social and economic trends in Australia has shown their condition has deteriorated.

In particular it showed that the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous citizens has grown wider in areas like child abuse and domestic violence.

It revealed that Aboriginal children are six times as likely to be abused as non-indigenous children.

The Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said it was a devastating report on an unacceptable situation.

The new government report contains a grim inventory of statistics, which indicate that the longstanding gap in living standards between black and white Australians is, if anything, getting wider.

One finding, that Aboriginal children are six times more likely than non-indigenous children to be abused, represents a significant increase.

The report also revealed that the indigenous homicide rate was seven times higher than the non-indigenous rate; and that Aboriginal people were 13 times more likely to end up in jail.

The report measured 50 key indicators of disadvantage, and found that there has been no improvement in 80% of them.

There have been no gains, for instance, in literacy or numeracy rates.

In an otherwise bleak assessment, one of the few areas of improvement was employment.

Mr Rudd started his term in office with an apology to Aborigines for past injustices and pledged that his government would aim to close the gap.

Speaking in the country's Northern Territory, the home to many Aborigines, Mr Rudd called this a devastating report which was unacceptable and required decisive action.