Have you been one of the people buying promotional banners, branded flags and other printed noise making equipment? If yes, maybe you were one of the many evicted peace protesters who have been camping in Parliament Square since May.

Last week the Court of Appeal rejected an application by demonstrators at the camp, dubbed the Democracy Village, who wanted to be allowed to remain. Bailiffs and police moved in at about 0100 BST, although a handful of activists tied themselves to scaffolding and trees. They have now been removed and a fence has been put up around the square.

London mayor Boris Johnson, who took legal action to remove the Democracy Village, had criticised the spectacle as “nauseating”. While protest organiser Chris Knight said: “This is part of a much wider protest”…”We’re not going very far and we’re not going away.” Some protesters have promised a wave of further demonstrations, dubbing the campaign “Operation Rolling Thunder”.

If you’re part of Operation Thunder and require some more promotional products to get your point across, contact the friendly team over at Gift Selection and Promostore.

We’re all up for some self promotion here, one way another, you can get your message across. It doesn’t necessarily mean it will be well received though, as the Senegalese people will tell you.

Senegal has inaugurated a new monument, higher than the Statue of Liberty, costing a bargain £18m. The 49m (160ft) Monument of African Renaissance has been unveiled in Dakar as the highlight of the nation’s 50th anniversary of independence, but has drawn huge criticism over its cost and symbolism.

The Soviet-style bronze statue, built by North Korean workers, is the idea of President Abdoulaye Wade, who not one to miss an opportunity, said he should take 35% of the revenue generated by the monument because it was his idea.

Nineteen heads of state, including Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe and Ivory Coast’s Laurent Gbagbo, attended the statue’s inauguration, which coincided with the country celebrating 50 years of independence from France.

Deputy opposition leader Ndeye Fatou Toure said the statue was an “economic monster and a financial scandal in the context of the current [economic] crisis,” AFP news agency reported. Not only that, but now most of the Muslim community has got the hump, as scholars have labelled its scantily clad figures un-Islamic, while others said it was a waste of money and ‘idolatrous’.

On the eve of the celebrations, the Reuters news agency quoted a leading imam, Massamba Diop, as telling worshippers at a mosque in the capital: “We have issued a fatwa urging Senegal’s imams this Friday to read the holy Koran in the mosques simply to ask Allah to preserve us from the punishment this monument of shame risks bringing on Senegal.”

Apart from that, the ceremony went down very well. If you have a budget of £18m, or even less, talk to the promotion experts at Gift Selection who will share their expert advice.

Promotional products can be of one aspect of a marketing strategy for practical any organisation. If done well, they can be a great PR tool, which will raise the businesses profile to a great degree.

However your public’s perception of you can easily be blotted! Take the Conservative party for example, with their constant stream of PR stunts they hatch (watch David Cameron at home on Youtube – great), you’d think we’d all be voting blue this May.

More than a third of voters feel the Conservative Party’s reputation has been hit by recent stories about the tax s­tatus of deputy party chairman Lord Ashcroft. A PRWeek poll of 3,000 people found 51 per cent were aware of such stories. Some 37 per cent of people said the Ashcroft coverage had damaged the Tories’ reputation.

Quick, we’ll need more press released images of David Cameron in a polo shirt before we can forgive them for Lord Ashcroft’s antics!

The Government’s plans to reward eco-friendly households, has received a muted welcome for not being generous enough.

The clean energy cash-back plan, known as “feed-in tariffs“, offers incentives from April onwards, for those who install small scale renewable on their homes such as solar panels. The UK gets about 5.5% of its electricity from renewable sources, and in order to hit green targets in 10 years’ time, this would have to rise to 30%, which I just can’t see happening.

“Ministers have been far too timid with a policy that could make a significant contribution to cutting emissions and boosting energy security,” said Dave Timms, of Friends of the Earth. The Solar Trade Association said the rate of return was half of that seen under other schemes.

To be fair to the government, more is on its way. Proposals for a second incentive scheme for renewable heat, with people being paid to install technology such as ground source heat pumps and biomass boilers are on the agenda for the 2010 Budget.

Another way the government could reduce Britain’s carbon footprint, is to insist on all new promotional products be eco friendly. One quality distributor of eco friendly promotional products is ecoproducts2order.

They are able to supply a complete solution to your promotional product needs, from traditional eco friendly cotton shoppers to more unusual green corporate gifts. Eco friendly promotional products don’t have to be the usual recycled pen and pencils. They can take many forms, my favourite being the eco friendly promotional piggy bank!

Yesterday it was banning smoking in Finland; today there are calls for tighter labelling of alcohol here in the UK. The Tories are proposing to swap the system of using units to tell consumers how much alcohol their drink contains, for one focused on the metric volume of alcohol and the calorie content.

What I want to know is, how come dingy pubs are full of thin and weary looking men, if they’re drinking calorie packed pints every minute they are open. Anyway, the Conservatives plan to negotiate a voluntary agreement with the drinks industry should it come to power this year, as part of its health manifesto laid out by shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley.

Their policy has arisen from Health Select Committee’s report on alcohol abuse last week. Several of the report’s recommendations could affect the drinks industry, including restrictions on advertising and sponsorship as well as a minimum price per unit.

If you’re looking for promotional products that may require special information by law, rest assured a quality corporate gift supplier like Gift Selection will have everything you need to know.

When the Tories win the next election, millions of middle-aged workers will be forced to wait an extra year before collecting their state pension. It is certainly a bold move, which risks alienating voters currently in their 50s. Surely it is simply a matter of necessity? Something must be done to aid the countries failing finances, and that a planned rise in the pension age from 65 to 66 must be brought forward by up to a decade.

Great Britain currently runs on an eye watering deficit, while these plans will apparantly help to reduce this by £13 billion a year. Under current Government plans, the pension age is set to rise from 65 to 66 in 2026. The women’s pension age will start rising next year from 60 until they are gradually aligned with men’s.

With this in mind it might be a good time to start handing out branded piggy banks from Gift Selection. A branded piggy bank is just the sort of promotional product that this country seems to need. Admittedly probably not as handy as branded ISA, a branded piggy bank is not without its uses.

It doesn’t matter if you’re looking for a; branded ceramic piggy bank, branded metal piggy bank or a branded plastic piggy bank – there is a promotional money saver to suit you. A promotional money saver is a novelty item, but still has a practical element to it. With their quirky appeal and great branded potential, they might just save your bacon.

A recent study carried out by Soc­ial Media Affairs (SMA), found 19 per cent of bloggers identified as Conservative Party supporters, compared with 16 per cent each for the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats.

With perpetual PR disasters for Gordon Brown and his cabinet, I’m surprised that the deficient isn’t double this. However Labour bloggers have refuted this claim, with one of their parliamentary candidates Lucy Powell hitting back: ‘I thought we’d moved on from social media in politics being about how much traffic one blog gets versus another and towards how we actually adapt to a completely new social environment.’

As far as the actual councillors, it is the Liberal Democrats who are the happiest to type away. Amongst all Liberal Democrat bloggers, 55% are councillors, compared with 19% of Conservative bloggers being councillors and 18% of Labour bloggers…

If you’re business is looking for some printed or engraved pint glasses, then The Mugstore has recently re-vamped that section of the site, making it much more user friendly.

Printed pint glasses will add a touch of class to any hotel, bar or cafe. While an engraved pint glass works well for special events, and could even become a collectors items. The Mugstore can supply every kind of printed pint or half pint glass you could wish for.

Traditional printed conical or tulip pint glasses are there, as well as more European style branded lager glasses. Having your corporate pint glass, printed with official measurements or arriving in special presentation box is no problem. If you have a particular branded glass in mind, then contact the friendly team at The Mugstore who will be able to help you out.

Since 1995 British goods sold in Europe have had to display metric weights and measurements. But imperial versions were also allowed in Britain under a deal in 1999 to calm the anxious British public, who didn’t want to loose their quirky measurements.

Controversy reached its height when the ‘metric martyrs’ lost a battle to trade only in pounds and ounces. Steve Thoburn, who unfortunately passed away in 2004, was convicted in 2001 for selling bananas by the pound without giving their metric equivalent. However rejoice as the British pint is free from the clutches of Europe and is here to stay. Cheers!

As the well documented MP expense row continues, many peoples blood is still boiling over tax payer money being spent on everything from trouser presses and sanitary towels, to chandeliers and moat cleaning. As a nation we are understandably shocked to discover our MPs were routinely expensing claims for gardening services, swimming pool maintenance and interior decorators.

All this political sleaze has inspired me to have a little luxury of my own, and go for a corporate golf day. If your business is looking to invest in some promotional items for your next corporate golf trip, then Gift Selection is one supplier who had a full range of printed goods.

There is everything from promotional golf tees, to printed golf umbrellas to fit all budgets and tastes. They even have personalised awards and trophies, which are ideal to give out as fun prizes for your next corporate golfing event. If you require a specific promotional item to do with the world of golf, let the friendly team know at Gift Selection, and they will source it for you.

The drinks industry has understandably voiced their concern over the Scottish government’s proposal to take further action to try to curb their all encompassing drinking culture.

The government is proposing a minimum price per unit, as well new restrictions on using promotional incentives and point of sale materials. As GMTV this morning pointed out; “pubs were literally on their knees”, I’m not sure about that,  but times are no doubt tough for the pub trade. Is this the end for promotional products linked with Scottish drinks industry? Will we be seeing the last of an engraved whiskey tumbler or a promotional coaster?!

Promotional products have always been popular with the the drinks industry. Regular readers will remember back to the 3rd of December, when Guiness invested £3millions in a range of promotional items and incentives.

David Poley, head of the Portman Group which was set up by the drinks industry to promote sensible drinking, said the Scottish government was ‘not listening to reason’. I have to agree with David’s point of the plans will punish sensible drinkers, and not educating alcoholics or binge drinkers. Despite my criticism of the proposal it should be stated that Scotland is said to have a £2.25 billion alcohol misuse problem, which obviously needs to be addressed.

Thankfully there are no plans for the English government to follow suit.