VW emission scandal

I was reading an article the other day in the online edition of BBC News and it talks about the VW emission scandal.

I thought you might be interested because one of the most successful carmakers has caused an immense damage.

It has now been a topic for many days which directly affects 363,000 vehicles only in Austria.

Basically, the article reports that Volkswagen manipulated the exhaust values of 11 million vehicles worldwide.

It also says that VW did this due to heavy regulations in the US. The persons responsible admitted that there have been manipulations since 2008.

As you might know, the current crisis is not only a severe shock for VW but for the whole industry. There are rumours that the scandal could hit the brand VW very hard in the long-term.

What interested me most was that the share has fallen by approximately 37 percent since the beginning of the crisis.

What shocked me most was that in 2016 in Austria 363,000 vehicles will have to be repaired.

What do you think about the scandal?

Regards,
Julian

Advertising

Hi everybody!

In our last English lesson we were talking about advertising. I have found a nice advertisement, let me describe it:

In the ad a product is advertised. The advertiser is the International Watch Company (IWC).

A picture, two texts, two colours a slogan and a brand name are used.

The ad contains a picture of an IWC clock, a headline, and a product description.

The ad tries to convey the message that the IWC clocks are quality goods and luxury watches.

The ad employs a lot of text. The ad uses mainly two colours, black and white. It looks gallant.

The ad tries to catch the attention with the help of the misogynistic headline.

Hope you enjoyed my post.

Regards,

Julian

Local elections in Perg

Hi everybody!

On September 27^th, 2015 the mayoral election, the local election and the state election took place in Upper Austria. Today I especially talk about the result of the local election.

The local parliament in Perg has 37 seats. With 78,45% the voter participation was below the average of 80%. In total 6,403 people were entitled to vote.

Here is the result of 2015:

Here is the result of 2009:

In 2015 the People's Party won the election. With 2,418 votes they reached 49,8%. However, there was a decrease in the number of votes by 5.54% compared to 2009.

The Freedom Party reached the second place with 21.17%. They got 1,028 votes which represent 21.17% of all votes. They are the big winner of the election because their number of votes increased by 9.81% compared to the last election in 2009.

On the third place there are the Social Democrats. They are the big loser of the election because they lost 14.43% of their votes compare to 2009.

With 493 votes the Green Party reached 10.15% in 2015.

Here is a list of the seats in the local parliament:

People Party reached	19
Social Democrats reached	7
Freedom Party reached	8
Green Party	3

Regards,

Julian

The Upper Austrian statehouse

Hi everybody!

Last week our class visited Upper Austria's parliament, the "Landtag", in Linz.

I thought you might be interested because it is impressive how Austrian politicians work.

We had the pleasure to listen to a plenary session. In this session the politicians discussed about interesting topics and voted on different issues.

Discussed topics were:

• horse breeding in Stadl Paura
• asylum application, tent camps, opening of barracks
• train ticket for traveling within Austria

In the end, we had the chance to discuss with four politicians. We asked interesting questions and had a nice discussion with them.

It was a nice day in Linz and I enjoyed it.

Regards,

Julian

General Election 2015 in the UK

Hi everybody!

I was reading an article the other day in the online edition of BBC News and it talks about the election in the United Kingdom.

I thought you might be interested because it is an up to date topic and it concerns all citizens of the European Union.

I will now summarize the political situation in Great Britain:

The initial situation was that the conservatives, with their prime minister David Cameron, were in power. They promised a referendum in 2017 to decide if Great Britain should leave the European Union.

Then there was the election on the 7th May 2015.

David Cameron is the winner of the election. His party reached 36.9 % of the votes. The conservatives won the election and reached an absolute majority of 11 seats.

The European Union is not very delighted of the result of the election. Since David Cameron is an opponent of the European Union, Brussels fears that the United Kingdom will leave the union.

Below you find a short overview of the British parties:

Conservative Party:

• The Conservative Party is the big winner of the election 2015.
• The referendum about leaving the European Union will be discouraged.
• David Cameron has been prime minister since 2005.
• After the election the Conservatives reached 331 seats in the parliament.

Labour Party

• Labour is the big loser of the election 2015.
• Their leader Ed Miliband retired after the election.
• After the election the Labour Party reached 232 seats in the parliament.

SNP Party

• Nicola Sturgeon is the leader of the SNP Party and the successor of Alex Salmond.
• After the election the SNP Party reached 56 seats in the parliament.

Liberal Democrats

• The leader of the Liberal Democrats is Nick Clegg
• After the election the Liberal Democrats reached 8 seats in the parliament

Greece asks public agencies to hand over reserve cash

I was reading an article the other day in the online edition of “BBC” and it talks about Greece which is running out of cash.

I thought you might be interested because it has been a topic for many years now and the topic directly affects every European citizen.

As you might know, Greece has been in economic troubles for a long time. Since they are running out of cash, the Greek government is unable to finance public services (i.e. health care, salaries, etc.).

Basically the article reports that the Greek government asked public agencies for money.

It also says that Greece could go bankrupt and exit the Eurozone.

What interested me most was that the UK betting office William Hill has already stopped offering to bet on chances that Greece leaves the European Union.

What do you think about the situation in Greece?

Regards,

Julian

Fairtrade in Hofkirchen

I was reading an article the other day in the printed version of OÖ Nachrichten. This article talks about Hofkirchen, a small town in Upper Austria, which becomes a “Fairtrade-Municipality”.

I thought you might be interested because it is a current topic which concerns social responsibility. Fairtrade is a label which guarantees that products are produced under fair circumstances and are sold at fair prices.

Basically what the article says is that the municipality’s goal is to make its citizens buy more fair trade products.

It also says that the municipality’s representatives drink fair trade coffee during proceedings and meetings

What surprised me most was that a small municipality like Hofkirchen is going to buy expensive Fairtrade products in these times where municipalities have to save money.

I personally think that is a good idea to pay Fairtrade products. These products assure not only high quality and fair products they also ban child labour. I hope that Hofkirchen is a model for many other municipalities.

What do you think about the Fairtrade products?