Archive 10
UkTabloid
The People's News Portal
Sunday 15th June 2008
On the second floor of the £1bn European Parliament building in Brussels, in a corner of Room 2-A20, there is an unmarked and utterly nondescript grey filing cabinet. Its contents, though, are fascinating.
Inside, you will find four blue ringbinder folders marked 'United Kingdom'. They contain the register of interests of our 78 serving MEPs. Over the past week, the files have yielded some decidedly sleazy secrets.
MEPs are supposed to declare, on public record at least once a year, the financial benefits they enjoy as our elected representatives in Europe.
Look at the files, however, and it is clear that, until now, most have simply seen fit to register the bare minimum. A free FA Cup final or Wimbledon ticket; a luxury hotel room or airfare paid by a sponsor during a 'fact-finding' trip with the wife; even, in one instance, a flight in a glider over Cambridgeshire.
What has gone habitually undeclared is the massive financial gain many of them reap from exploiting the European Parliament's lavish and largely unaudited expenses regime.
This week, as the scandal broke and awkward demands for transparency and accountability came from London party leaders, new pages were being hurriedly (and, one imagines, reluctantly) submitted for inclusion in the cabinet's four blue folders.
'They are literally arriving by the hour,' the female bureaucrat in Room 2-A20 said.
What's noticeable about the fresh submissions, unlike the identical pages the MEPs signed off just months ago, is that crucial sections no longer contain that old Brussels lie 'nothing to declare'.
I spent two days this week looking at every MEP's filed declarations. And what was immediately apparent was the cynicism with which many members had treated the register of interests.
Just one Reason Why they need You in the EU!
For instance, as has now been revealed, the Labour MEP and former EastEnders actor Michael Cashman felt moved to declare receipt of a gift set of The Lord Of The Rings stamps signed by Sir Ian McKellen, but not, until compelled, the fact that the EU coffers were paying his civil partner £30,000 a year.
There is the often comical desperation of others' written mitigations, having been forced to admit questionable ethical behaviour. The files show that almost one-third of British MEPs now admit to employing relatives out of the public purse.
We shall identify them and their excuses later. But the most worrying aspect is how much of this rotten accounting still remains secret. There are few, if any, checks. And the figures are dizzyingly generous.
Each MEP can pocket nearly £360,000 - yes, £360,000 - in pay, perks and pensions annually and not have to account for a single penny.
On top of their £61,820 salaries - the same as a Westminster MP - they get a daily £229 allowance to pay for hotels and meals (the equivalent of another £41,220 just for clocking on over 40 weeks).
MEPs can also claim £700 for each trip back to the UK, whether they drive, go by train or take a low-cost flight. A further £3,194 a year can be claimed for travelling to other parts of the world, including luxury sunshine destinations, if the trips are classed as EU business.
There is a £162,000-a-year allowance for secretarial services and an office allowance of £38,836 a year. This is paid automatically and MEPs do not have to provide a single receipt.
Nice work if you can get it. But the no-questions-asked expenses bonanza hit trouble in January when it was revealed that the Westminster Tory MP Derek Conway had paid members of his family £374,401.73 in public money since 2001. Continued
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Another batch of secret Government files has been found on a train, it was reported tonight.
The Independent on Sunday said that the papers - which were handed in to it - covered the UK's policies on fighting global terrorist funding, drugs trafficking and money laundering.
The paper said that they were discovered on a train bound for London's Waterloo Station on Wednesday.
The documents apparently include briefing notes for a meeting of the international Financial Action Task Force to be held in 11 Downing Street next week.
A Treasury spokesman said: 'We are extremely concerned about what has happened and we will be taking steps to ensure that it doesn't happen in the future.'
The papers were found on the same day that another batch of secret papers relating to intelligence assessments of Iraq and al Qaida were handed to the BBC after being left by a senior official on a train from London to Surrey.
The file, which should never have left the official's Whitehall office, was discovered by a commuter.
Police officers are now considering whether the official should face prosecution for breaching the Official Secrets Act.
And on Wednesday deputy chief constable of Avon and Somerset, Rob Beckley, who has access to counter-terrorist intelligence, had his lap top stolen from his car outside Central London's Marylebone station. News Source
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A special prison service riot unit known as the Tornado Team was sent into a controversial detention centre yesterday to quell a violent stand-off between staff and illegal immigrants awaiting deportation.
The 50 elite officers – dressed in Robocop-style black boiler suits and helmets and carrying batons and shields – marched into the Campsfield centre near Kidlington, Oxfordshire, after an initial disturbance when several fires were started.
Crews from 15 fire engines tackled the blazes which caused thick black smoke to billow from one of the detention buildings.
The Tornado Team was supported by about 50 police officers – some, equipped with riot gear and dogs, entered the camp while others secured the perimeter as a police helicopter hovered overhead.
All the 200 inmates were herded into the camp’s exercise yard while fire crews took two hours to put out the blazes and make the area safe.
But the detainees, all men, then refused to return to their buildings – creating another stand-off.
At one point the illegal immigrants could be heard violently hammering on the 25ft high steel fence that surrounds the yard.
A senior prison officer said outside: ‘No one in there is going anywhere.’
The Home Office said last night: ‘The UK Border Agency asked police for assistance and officers have secured the perimeter, which has not been breached.
Campsfield has been dogged with controversy since it was converted from a youth detention centre to handle illegal immigrants in 1993.
Last year alone, there were two other disturbances not including the breakout.
It is run by the UK subsidiary of American company the GEO Group, which signed a five-year contract in March, 2006.
The Home Office said all the detainees were being escorted back to their accommodation blocks by 7.30pm.
A spokesman added: ‘The situation has calmed down. There has been no resistance from the detainees to going back to their rooms. The operation is being wound down at the site.’ Continued
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Brown was blasted last night after he ploughed on with the hated EU Treaty — even after a huge "No" vote in Ireland's referendum left it dead in the water.
Despite the extraordinary Friday the 13th massacre, the Prime Minister vowed to push the Lisbon Treaty through Parliament.
Meanwhile arrogant European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso insisted the reform package was still ALIVE — while Foreign Secretary David Miliband confirmed Britain would press ahead with ratification.
Their actions followed astonishing scenes in Ireland, where Finance Minister Brian Lenihan was heckled at one count centre by voters singing "No, no, there’s no Lisbon" to the tune of the 1993 chart hit No Limit.
The Lisbon Treaty was rejected by 53.4 per cent to 46.6 per cent — a majority of nearly seven per cent.
Under EU rules
This means the package, which would create an elected EU president and an EU foreign minister while cutting the number of national vetoes, is officially dead. It would need to be ratified by all 27 member states to become law.
But last night EU chiefs were plotting to shame the Irish, led by Prime Minister Brian Cowen, into holding a RE-RUN to squeeze out a "Yes" vote.
President Barroso said: "We should not rush to conclusions. Prime Minister Brian Cowen believes the Treaty is not dead.
"I believe it is alive and we should try to find a solution. When 27 governments decided to adopt the Treaty it wasn’t for fun. They did it because they believed there was a problem.
"The problem is still there. We cannot avoid it. We should go on trying to find a solution to make Europe more effective.
Respect
"This result is of course important and we should respect it. But we should not pretend it in itself solves the problem."
The bombshell "No" result is the THIRD time the Lisbon Treaty has been rejected by voters.
It was booted out by the French and Dutch in 2005, when it was called the EU Constitution.
Yet Mr Brown still rang French President Nikolas Sarkozy and assured him Britain will press ahead.
Last night the PM — who has refused to give the British a say — was accused of ignoring the will of the people.
Furious shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague fumed: "If Gordon Brown presses ahead with the renamed EU Constitution it would be a demonstration of his extraordinary contempt for voters.
"Once again he would be treating the British people like fools. If he had any guts or any honour he would now hold the referendum that he promised voters and which the British people deserve."
Former minister and Labour MP Frank Field said: "The result speaks volumes. The people in the one country given a chance to vote have clearly rejected the Treaty.
"The Government must withdraw its Bill ratifying the Treaty, which should now be dead."
The "No" campaign seized victory from an arrogant "Yes" body made up from mainstream political parties and the majority of the media.
But voters kicked the Treaty into touch because they wanted to keep Ireland’s right to make its own laws.
The result will send shockwaves through Brussels’ corridors of power.
Mr Brown had the option of declaring the Treaty dead in the water.
But as jubilant "No" campaigners celebrated in Dublin AND Brussels, No.10 confirmed he will go ahead with putting it on the UK statute book.
It will go to the Lords next week for its third reading.
Mr Brown and the rest of Europe’s 26 Premiers and Presidents will hold crisis talks next Thursday in Brussels.
Bullying
Yet they have already privately agreed to isolate and embarrass Dublin into holding a re-run to get the "right" result.
President Barroso continued: "This vote should not been seen as a vote against the EU. The ratification process is made up of 27 processes. The European Commission believes the ratification procedures should continue to take their course."
Miliband said: "I think it is right we follow the view that each country must see the ratification process to a conclusion. I believe it is right we continue with our process."
But he made clear that a British referendum was not on the cards.
He said: "Our Parliament has been able to give this 30 or more days of very careful scrutiny.
"I think that, around Europe, has been recognised as the right way to look at a very detailed treaty."
However, a spokesman for independent think-tank Open Europe said: "Irish voters faced down a bullying campaign by Europe’s political elite to intimidate them into voting ‘Yes’.
"They’ve shown immense courage in rejecting a Treaty that would make the EU even more centralised and unaccountable. This is a resounding victory on behalf of ordinary people over an out-of-touch political elite."
Irish voters rejected the Nice Treaty in 2001 in a referendum.
Premier Bertie Ahern later held a re-run and won a "Yes" vote. He quit this year in what many saw as a bid to clinch a referendum Yes.
But even that tactic failed to work as the Irish gave the constitution a giant two-fingered salute. News Source
Disclaimer: This News Item has been duplicated in its entirety to serve as public information (Ed)
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Germany and France today moved to isolate Ireland in the European Union, scrambling for ways to resuscitate the Lisbon treaty after the Irish dealt the architects of the union's new regime a crushing defeat.
Refusing to take Ireland's no for an answer, leading politicians in Berlin and Paris prepared for a crucial EU summit in Brussels this week by trying to ringfence the Irish, while demanding that the reform treaty be ratified by the rest of the EU.
The scene is set for a clash between the Irish and their European partners after a Dublin minister and sources in the ruling Fianna Fail party ruled out any chance of a second Irish referendum on the treaty.
The integration minister, Conor Lenihan, said it was unlikely the treaty would be put to the republic's electorate again. Senior strategists in Fianna Fail said it would be "politically impossible" to try to repeat what happened in 2002, when Ireland voted in favour of the Nice treaty 12 months after having rejected it.
"This time around, the turnout was high, so there can be no justification for it. The government is caught in a political trap," one senior Fianna Fail source said.
"There are local as well as European elections in Ireland next year and Fianna Fail will not risk having to hold another referendum. Within the next 12 months, at the very least, there is absolutely no chance that Ireland will re-run Lisbon."
France's Europe minister, Jean-Pierre Jouyet, said a search was on for a way to accommodate the Irish verdict without derailing plans to implement the treaty, which aims to reform the way the EU is run and gives the union its first sitting president and foreign minister.
The Franco-German plan, to be refined at this week's summit, is to have all 26 other EU states ratify the treaty as soon as possible to quarantine the Irish, and then come up with some legal manoeuvre enabling the treaty to go ahead.
It is not clear yet how or whether this will succeed. "The legal situation is clear," said a European commission official. "Unless the treaty is ratified by all, there is no treaty."
Jouyet said "specific means of cooperation" could be invoked to deal with Ireland.
"The most important thing is that the ratification process must continue in the other countries, and then we shall see with the Irish what type of legal arrangement could be found," he said.
"We're sticking firmly to our goal of putting this treaty into effect," said the German foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier. "So the process of ratification must continue." Continued
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Unraveling the EU
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Blair Watch: There is much debate over the Irish rejection of the Lisbon treaty, but what I’m finding interesting is how a democratic decision by an electorate is regarded in the EU institutions.
Remember, most nations have ratified the treaty by shoving it through their national parliament, often with little debate.
How people respond and react will say a lot about how democratic Europe really is. This is a little difficult, with the Eurosceptics being too hungover to speak and many others keeping their heads down, but let’s see if we can round-up the blogs etc and see what we find.
Earlier I said how I overheard Andrew Duff, leader of the Liberal Democrats say ‘We will not accept this decision’. So far there is no confirmation that ZANU-PF have offered him a job as Press Spokesman.
Tory MEP Richard Corbett has a thoughful piece wondering where to go from here, but pointing out that Ireland must have an internal debate about what they want from a treaty and how to address these concerns. Stanley Crossick thinks
We already knew that the referendum is not an appropriate mechanism for approving a complex treaty. We already knew that the European Union has not successfully been ‘sold’ to its citizens. We already knew that a veto is unacceptable in a union of 27.
One wonders if he would have written the same thing about the mechanism if the vote has been Yes, but the fact that the EU hasn’t been ’sold’ is the key point.
Aiden Gibson makes a case for a Pro-Europe No vote. EU Observer supports the Lisbon treaty but reflects that the EU hasn’t made enough progress on improving democracy, thansparency or efficiency. A very interesting article.
In a disturbing development, the Irish Daily Mail has published a secret memo where EC Vice-President Margot Wallstrom will ‘tone down or delay and pronouncements from Brussels that may be unhelpful’. Bruno Waterfield of the Daily Telegraph takes up the story.
More comment is here. We will add links as we find them, please leave your suggestions in the comments.
So what’s really going on?
Today things are different. Politics has changed, on the one hand many parties have moved to the centre and blurred the lines between them. Younger readers may not know this, but in the UK there once was a very real difference between Labour the Conservatives. Really.
Faced with a preceived lack of difference or choice, allied to the rise of the internet, people became disillusioned and cynical. They also felt less involved, less interested. One aspect is the rise of single issue politics, either as a simple “Out of Europe Now’ or protests against veal calf exports, road building etc.
People still have some sort of connection to their MP, but not to their MEP’s who have unmanagabley large constituencies. They are also working in Brussels and Strasbourg, physically remote from their constituents. Indeed one reform that could be helpful is to close down Strasbourg and have one seat of government.
The Irish citizens, like a great many other countries inhabitants, would if they were allowed to, have given the EU a bloody nose. Not entirely because they want out of the EU, but they want an accountable and democratic EU.
The message is clear:
“We’re here, take notice of us”.
Will Europe make real and serious attempts to be open, transparent and above all, democratic?
The replies of Eurocrats and Brussels insiders to the referendum will be the earliest indication.
Watch them like hawks. We disagree with UKIP as we feel there is a chance, albeit slim and against massive odds, to build an open Europe, but an essential requirement is that those employed or funded by the European institutions must be willing do do whatever it takes to ensure these fundamental reforms are discussed and implemented, and we mean a lot more action than writing meaningless, bland and turgid press releases and reports that essentially say as little as possible or occasional maealy mouthed press conferences.
Jean -Paul Satre Famously said ‘Hell is other people’, If he’d been still around he would realise that Hell is in fact reading EU documents.
We need a real commitment to transform the European Project from a top-down institution to a bottom up one. News Source
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There is a big, big fuss in Ireland after the leak of a secret British Foreign Office memo updating London on Dublin’s tactics for a referendum on the new European Union Treaty.
The leaked email, from a secure Foreign Office network, is a clear statement of an outlook shared by most EU governments and institutions.
In a nutshell, the Irish government, with the active connivance of other EU institutions and players, is doing its best to make sure that Ireland’s referendum is less a debate than a foregone conclusion.
It is simple: they do not want us to talk or think about what Europe is for.
For constitutional reasons the Irish are the only EU electorate to get a vote on the Treaty that was crafted to replace the Constitution rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2005. The Irish might be getting have got to vote but Ireland’s rulers were doing their utmost to ensure there will not be a full or passionate debate.
This appears to be main outcome of a confidential briefing by Daniel Mulhall, Director-General on the EU at the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs to a British diplomat Elizabeth Green. Read the Irish Daily Mail’s story, with extracts, and some of the furious debate, here.
The leak, which presumably came from London (no doubt there are red faces in King Charles Street) rather than Dublin, is a fairly frank assessment of the “not in front of the children” approach the EU takes to voters. It surely can not be a unique text.
Perhaps the most domestically incendiary revelation is that timing of the Irish vote (presumably mirroring a similar, though parliamentary, timetable in the UK) has been pushed forward to June 12 to avoid any inconvenient discussion over the implementation of the Treaty when France takes on the EU’s rotating presidency later this year.
“Mulhall said a date in October would have been easier from a procedural point of view. But the risk of unhelpful developments during the French Presidency – particularly related to defence – were just too great. Sarkozy was completely unpredictable,” wrote Green.
The French will this autumn bring forward Treaty plans for increased European defence cooperation. Probably involving Germany, France, Britain, Spain, Poland and Italy (possibly with Hungary and Lithuania too), the new structured “European army” will be organised around euro-style convergence criteria such as defence spending. This is a dynamite issue in neutral Ireland, earlier moves to EU military cooperation in the Nice Treaty were blamed for a Irish referendum defeat in June 2001.
The memorandum notes (something that everyone just “knows” in Brussels), that the European Commission, and other EU institutions have a moratorium on new proposals that could spark debate – and we don’t want that, do we? Plans for an health services directive, harmonisation of corporate tax calculations, the EU’s COSI interior security committee, a job description for the new President and much, much more are all on hold – until after the summer, and ratification, are finished.
The memo is also littered (according to the extracts) with contemptuous references to the capacity of Irish people to decide on an EU Treaty that “is largely incomprehensible to the lay reader”. “Most people would not have the time to study the text,” it concludes at one point. This is a common analysis made by many MPs, ministers, officials, diplomats, Euro-MPs and other great and good opposed to a UK or other referendums. It is, of course, really nothing more than a deeply held wish or fantasy (you lot get on with your busy lives and let us get on with ruling you) because real experience shows otherwise.
During the French referendum, copies of the EU Constitution, a weighty and deeply dull document, became best-sellers as voters rushed to read it. Valéry Giscard D’Estaing, the Constitution’s architect, actually blamed Jacques Chirac, French President of the day, for encouraging people to pick it up. “The discovery of this document was felt by many voters to be an aggression and a threat. It consolidated the negative attitude that the Constitution was too ‘complicated’, that reading it was reserved to specialists,” he wrote in Le Monde two weeks after the No vote.
The truth of the matter is that Europe’s elites do not want people to read a text that was not written for them in the first place.
By attempting to kill off the debate that surrounds a referendum (apathy really is their preferred option), our rulers remove a great chunk of political life from the public sphere, where it can be contested, to the cosy consensus world of officialdom. That is what the EU and this leaked memorandum is about. News Source
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(Recap: From the Brussels Journal)
Vladimir Bukovksy, the 63-year old former Soviet dissident, fears that the European Union is on its way to becoming another Soviet Union.
In a speech he delivered in Brussels Mr Bukovsky called the EU a “monster” that must be destroyed, the sooner the better, before it develops into a fullfledged totalitarian state.
Mr Bukovsky paid a visit to the European Parliament on Thursday at the invitation of Fidesz, the Hungarian Civic Forum. Fidesz, a member of the European Christian Democrat group, had invited the former Soviet dissident over from England, where he lives, on the occasion of this year’s 50th anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian Uprising. After his morning meeting with the Hungarians, Mr Bukovsky gave an afternoon speech in a Polish restaurant in the Trier straat, opposite the European Parliament, where he spoke at the invitation of the United Kingdom Independence Party, of which he is a patron.
In his speech Mr Bukovsky referred to confidential documents from secret Soviet files which he was allowed to read in 1992. These documents confirm the existence of a “conspiracy” to turn the European Union into a socialist organisation.
I attended the meeting and taped the speech. A transcript, as well as the audio fragment (approx. 15 minutes) can be found below. I also had a brief interview with Mr Bukovsky (4 minutes), a transcript and audio fragment of which can also be found below. The interview about the European Union had to be cut short because Mr Bukovsky had other engagements, but it brought back some memories to me, as I had interviewed Vladimir Bukovsky twenty years ago, in 1986, when the Soviet Union, the first monster that he so valiantly fought, was still alive and thriving.
Mr Bukovsky was one of the heroes of the 20th century. As a young man he exposed the use of psychiatric imprisonment against political prisoners in the former USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, 1917-1991) and spent a total of twelve years (1964-1976), from his 22nd to his 34th year, in Soviet jails, labour camps and psychiatric institutions.
In 1976 the Soviets expelled him to the West. In 1992 he was invited by the Russian government to serve as an expert testifying at the trial conducted to determine whether the Soviet Communist Party had been a criminal institution. To prepare for his testimony Mr Bukovsky was granted access to a large number of documents from Soviet secret archives.
He is one of the few people ever to have seen these documents because they are still classified. Using a small handheld scanner and a laptop computer, however, he managed to copy many documents (some with high security clearance), including KGB reports to the Soviet government.
An interview with Vladimir Bukovsky Listen to it here
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(Recap: March 2008)
Helga Zepp-LaRouche, a journalist, who is married to economist Lyndon LaRouche and the leader of the anti-EU movement Bürger Solidarität and founder of the Schiller Institute , being one of the world´s greatest Friedrich Schiller experts.
“I think that Europe is confronted with a much bigger danger than the average person knows. In November, French President Nicolas Sarkozy had a closed meeting in Strasbourg with some French European Parliamentarians, and said that if there were a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, in every country where such a referendum would take place, it would be lost. (He added:" There is a cleavage between people and governments. A referendum now would bring (our) Europe into danger.")
So, on Dec. 13, the heads of state had the summit in Lisbon and signed the so-called reform treaty, the Lisbon Treaty. And there can be no doubt that the strategy was to say, "Let's ratify it as quickly as possible, through the parliaments, without public debate—neither in the media nor in the parliaments—of any significance, because if such a debate would take place, it would not go through."
This is confirmed by the leaked email as seen below
The most important is, that it would change the relation of the European states, from an alliance of states into a single federal state, which from that point on, once it's ratified, would be ruled as an oligarchy, without the participation of the national parliaments.
For example, the so-called General Clause means that the European Council and the European Commission would have to decide policies in all areas, except foreign policy and security policy.
The European Parliament would be heard, but have no say, and the national parliaments have no say whatsoever. So parliamentarians, rather than fulfilling 80% of the Brussels guidelines, would fill 100% of the guidelines.
Then you have the so-called Solidarity Clause, which really is a bombshell, because it means that if there is the need to fight against terrorist actions in any country—and the notion "terrorist action" is not defined,
it's a very vague notion—each country, even if it disagrees, has to participate in military action, in wars of aggression, in peace missions in third countries—so, out of area of the European Union—and it basically means there is no more veto right for those countries that do not agree. So, without public debate, or debate in national parliaments, the European Union is being transformed also into a defense alliance with the explicit obligation for rearmament and out-of-area interventions.
Now, if you look at the fact, that of the 27 European Union countries, 22 are also in NATO, where the Solidarity Clause naturally exists also, you have an intertwining of NATO and the European Union, in an almost 90% fashion, and that, if you think about the implication of that, then you understand why
Russia and China have, for a while, equated NATO's eastward expansion with the European Union's eastward expansion. The Russians, I know from many discussions, look at NATO's policy of encirclement of Russia as the potential road to World War III.
If you have a Bloomberg (New York´s mayor and billionaire) fascist government in the United States and a Lisbon dictatorship in Europe, I have the distinct fear that we are on a road to World War III. And how quickly this can go, you not only see in the demand of U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates for more troop engagement in Afghanistan in the south; you see it in the quick action of the European Union in moving on the independence of Kosovo, long before the independence of Kosovo was declared, and where you had complete disagreement among European Union members, but the European Union bureaucracy anyway deployed 1,800 soldiers and police, and therefore, they said, "We don't care what the opinion of the members is all about."
Death penalty in case of crime against the EU state
Professor Schachtschneider pointed out that it also reintroduces the death penalty in Europe, which I think is very important, in light of the fact that, especially Italy was trying to abandon the death penalty through the United Nations, forever. And this is not in the treaty, but in a footnote, because with the European Union reform treaty, we accept also the European Union Charter, which says that there is no death penalty, and then it has a footnote, which says, "except in the case of war, riots, upheaval"—then the death penalty is possible.
Schachtschneider points to the fact that this is an outrage, because they put it in a footnote of a footnote, and you have to read it, like really like a super-expert to find out!”
Now referenda on this treaty are being effectively blocked by European politicians , who prefer to keep the contents of the treaty secret, which they can easily do, since the system is apparently in complete control of our astonishingly silent media. One reason for keepimg the Treaty secret may be the selfamending clause in article 48, pieces 6 and 7 making it possible to change the Constititutional Reform Treaty to the liking of the eurocrats at any time without asking us.
This Treaty makes the EU dictatorship legal!
[...]
In an attempt to rally support for the treaty, Merkel delivered a pro-European speech at the National Forum of Europe in Dublin on 14 April, saying that "the Lisbon Treaty offers the best preparation for Europe's future" and allows the EU to "continue to flourish".
Promises from Margot Wallström leaked
Bertie Aherns likely successor, former foreign minister Brian Cowen, has pledged to make securing a "Yes" vote his top priority
His efforts might, however, be complicated by an Irish government memo leaked to the Irish Daily Mail on Monday (14 April).
The document stated that Commission Vice-President Margot Wallström had told Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern "that the Commission was willing to tone down or delay messages that might be unhelpful" in advance of the referendum.
Margot Wallström notes that the media have been relatively quiet on the rtification process so far. “We need to remain close touch considering the media crossover”.
If any one has forgotten it: Margot Wallström is the 1 vice president of the EU Commission - and the supreme in charge of EU Communication!!! In fact she is the supreme in charge of EU censorship. Any similarity to Carlo Pontis Queen of Heaven is EU-intended!
Declan Ganley, chair of anti-treaty organisation Libertas, said that the most damning part of the email "was the admission that the Government hoped that very few people would actually read the text of the Treaty, and would simply vote with the politicians they trust."
The memo according to an article in the Irish Daily Mail on Apr.14, 2008
According to this article the Irish government has elaborated a plan to deceive Irish voters through a misinformation campaign to make sure the Lisbon Treaty is passed, when it is put to the public. Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern has been assured that the EU will tune down or delay any announcements that would be “unhelpful” Amongst the items reported in the memo are:
- 1. The Government have ruled out a delay in the referendum to October for fear of the French Presidency . They fear “unhelpful developments” during the French presidency. (The email noted that French president Sarkozy was considered "completely unpredictable).
- 2. That Dermot Ahern has sought - and received -guarantees that the European Commission will tone down or delay any announcements that might damage the Yes campaign.
- 3. That developments in the area of Common Defence pushed by the French Presidency would damage the Yes campaign. (Irish voters rejected the EU's Nice Treaty in 2000 largely on the back of a heated debate about neutrality and European defence issues.)
- 4. Concerns of losing support by the Agriculture community as a result of the latest WTO discussions.
- 5. An intention to not discuss the treaty but focus on the overall benefits of EU membership
- 6. A plan to fool No campaigners over the date of the referendum by playing with the date of the referendum - the memo suggests May 29th as the referendum date.
Bruno Waterfield of The Telegraph confirms the story on Apr. 15, 2008, adding: “The fact that the EU Commission is “willing tone down or delay messages” is firmly denied here in Brussels, though often with a knowing simper or wink. Confirmation on the policy is mounting up.
On Tuesday, there was more evidence of operation apathy with the announcement that a consultation on EU budget reform (that’s farm subsidies and Britain’s £3 billion annual rebate) was being extended until June 15 – after the Irish referendum. The extension means the cancellation of a “political conference” that had been scheduled for May 27 – an event that would meant pushed an intense EU policy debate into the public realm”. The rebates are expected to be cut.”
Comment: Ireland is, in fact, the key to our future. Here is a video : "The End of Nations" (1 h. and 22 min.) from the Irish No-Campaign. If you see the video from the 58 minutes point to the end, you will see the shocking explanation for the EU being so keen on this treaty - a necessity for coming enlargements. News Source
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A fresh row has erupted over the number of children affected by the current drought in Ethiopia.
In a BBC interview, Ethiopia's health minister labelled claims by the UN children's fund that 6m children need urgent help as a "fabrication".
There is no doubt about the severity of the current Ethiopian drought. A joint appeal this week by the UN and Ethiopia put the total number affected at 4.5m.
Unicef's Ethiopia head Bjorn Ljundqvist denies causing confusion.
A press release issued late last month by the UN's children's fund said: "An estimated 120,000 children are in need of urgent therapeutic care for severe malnutrition.
"Unicef Ethiopia today cautioned that up to 6m children under five years of age are living in impoverished, drought-prone districts and require urgent preventative health and nutrition intervention."
'Completely exaggerated'
The international media took that to mean that 6m children were threatened by drought.
The government accepts that tens of thousands of children are so malnourished they could die, without immediate attention.
But Health Minister Dr Tedros Adhanom told the BBC: "The 6m children issue is completely exaggerated and actually a fabrication. Six million children are not affected."
Clearly the wording used by Unicef clouded the issues and has left a bitter rift between the UN and the Ethiopian government. News Source
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The so called anti-racist, anti-BNP Tory: Gotcha!
A Tory candidate at the next General Election was forced to apologise live on air after he likened Italians to 'greasy wops' during a radio show.
Alun Cairns, who is also a Welsh Assembly Member, made the gaffe while taking part on Radio Cymru's weekly discussion show Dau o'r Bae.
Towards the end of the show, contributors were asked to say who they would be supporting in the Euro 2008 tournament.
One mentioned she had written a note saying 'boring' next to Sweden and 'nice flag' next to Portugal on a list of teams.
When she added that she had written 'nice food' next to Italy in the list, Mr Cairns said: 'I've written greasy wops'.
Presenter Vaughan Roderick immediately invited the Tory politician to apologise, which he did, and the programme, ended.
Mr Cairns, who is described as a 'conviction politician and has a record of standing up for what he thinks is right' on his own website, was said to be regretful of the comment made on Friday.
A spokesman for the Welsh Conservative Party said: 'Alun apologised on air. He very much regrets making these comments and apologises to anyone who may have taken offence. The comments do not reflect his views on Italy or Italian people.' News Source
Reader Submitted Link. Thank You
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Regular visitors will be familiar with what we consider to be the outrageous dismissal of the complaints lodged by some 180 people against the leader of the Tory Party in Wales, Nick Bourne, by the Standards Board of Wales.
The complaints were in respect of his published reference to BNP supporters in derogatory terminology - including the Nazi-term “sub-human”.
The Board concluded that although Bourne had overstepped the mark, that the matter was trivial and should be dismissed out of hand!
So who constituted this Board you may be wondering?
The answer, from the Wales Assembly today, is given in the following response:-
“I refer to your e-mail of 12 July regarding the decision of the Standards Committee in relation to this complaint. The names of the members of the Committee are: Jeff Cuthbert (Chair), Christopher Franks, Brynle Williams and Kirsty Williams.”
Could Jeff Cuthbert be the same Jeff Cuthbert – who happens to be the Labour Assembly Member for Caerphilly?
Could Christopher Franks be the same Christopher Franks - who happens to be Plaid’s Assembly member for South Wales Central?
Could Brynle Williams be the same Brynle Williams – who happens to be the Tories Assembly Member for North Wales?
Could Kirsty Williams be the same Kirsty Williams – who happens to be the Lib-Dem Assembly Member for Brecon and Radnorshire?
Still can’t imagine why the Board dismissed 180 complaints? News Source
Reader Submitted Link. Thank You
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The long-term partner of a man who died after being punched in the head in a supermarket queue-jumping row today described the ME sufferer a "lovely man and a great dad.
Josephine James, who had a five-year-old daughter with victim Kevin Tripp, said: "I never thought this could happen. I still cannot believe he has gone. My Kev was the sensible one in our relationship, always there with good advice not just to me but to others."
She added: 'Kev was a lovely man, a great dad, a wonderful brother and he will be so, so missed especially by me, his daughter, brother, sisters, nieces, nephews and by all who knew him.'
Yesterday Antoinette Richardson, 37, appeared in court, 24 hours after her boyfriend, Tony Virasami, was also charged with murdering former structural engineer Kevin Tripp.
Father-of-one Mr Tripp - who suffered from the debilitating illness ME - fell heavily after being punched at Sainsbury's in Merton, South West London, on Tuesday night.
The slightly-built victim, who overcame polio as a child, lapsed into a coma and later died of massive head injuries in hospital.
It is alleged that Virasami, also 37, of Catford, South East London, hit Mr Tripp after mistaking him for another man who had caused a row at the store.
Virasami was remanded in custody on Thursday to appear at the Old Bailey on September 18, also charged with murder.
Yesterday, jobless Richardson, also of Catford, was remanded in custody by magistrates in Sutton, Surrey. She will appear at the Old Bailey on the same date as Virasami. Continued
The society the Lib Lab Cons created!
A Woman told yesterday how she was repeatedly raped for two hours AFTER calling police for help.
She said she dialled 999 and begged for assistance when a man who had tricked his way into her room started becoming aggressive.
But she said an operator told her that the call “didn’t sound urgent”.
When a pair of officers turned up two hours and 40 minutes later, she had been repeatedly beaten and raped.
The 24-year-old, who cannot be named, said:
“They arrested him but I had been repeatedly raped. I was naked and covered in blood. I feel so let down by the police.”
A man of 28 has been charged with rape after the incident in Leicester, and the Independent Police Complaints Commission is probing the police response.
The woman said the man, who pretended to be a friend of a work colleague, arrived at her home at 12.30am.
They chatted until 4am, after which she said she tried to get him to leave.
She added: “He started becoming aggressive so at 6.04am I rang the police and said I needed help.
“But the man was in the background and the woman on the other end said it didn’t sound like he would cause me any problems but she’d send a colleague to ‘pop over’.
“About ten minutes later he slapped me and 15 minutes after that the assault began.”
Two cops eventually arrived at 8.40am.
An IPCC spokesman said the matter had been referred to them by Leicestershire Police, adding: “We are looking at the circumstances surrounding the force’s response.” News Source
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More than 50 police officers swarmed on a 12-year-old boy accused of stealing a £10 note which was hanging out of a cashpoint.
The army of officers was called after a row broke out when a woman, 27, accused Pascoe Petgrave of stealing the tenner from an HSBC bank machine in Thornton Heath, south London.
Pascoe, who stands at just 4ft 7in, said he had been given his mum's bank card to withdraw money when he spotted the note - but the woman who had been nearby claimed it belonged to her.
Pascoe's cousins - two women aged 21 and 28 - stepped in to stand up for him and a large crowd gathered before the trio were arrested on suspicion of theft.
The boy's mother Maxine, a 38-year-old nurse, who was called to the scene by the cousins, then watched in astonishment as her son was handcuffed and taken into police custody. All three cousins have since been bailed while enquiries continue.
Mrs Petgrave said yesterday: 'He's never been in any trouble before. This was a horrific ordeal for my 12-year-old boy, he was handcuffed and put into a headlock.
'When my house was burgled a year ago I wish they had sent just one of those officers. How did a row over a £10 note hanging out of an ATM machine get to that point?'
A Croydon police spokesman confirmed they were investigating an allegation of theft of £10.
When asked why 50 officers had been present, she added: 'Police attended the scene and during the course of investigating the matter, a large crowd had gathered.
Elements of this crowd were hostile to police activity which resulted in a call for further assistance being made. That was answered by other colleagues, who subsequently attended.' News Source
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A 16-year-old girl is fighting for her life today after being shot in the head.
The girl is said to be in a critical condition, following the shooting just after 6am in Manchester.
Greater Manchester Police said that they were called to an address in Gorton, Manchester, shortly after 6am today following reports of a shooting.
The girl, who has not been named, was found with a gunshot wound to the head.
A 19-year-old man was arrested nearby on suspicion of attempted murder and remains in police custody where he is being questioned.
Superintendent Simon Barraclough, of GMP's South Manchester division, said: 'I would like anyone that witnessed the incident or who knows anything about what happened, to contact us.
'This would appear to be an isolated incident, however there will be extra patrols in the area to reassure residents.' News Source
Reader Submitted Link. Thank You
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A teenager has been raped by a man who offered to walk her home from a nightclub in Greater Manchester, police said.
The 19-year-old met her attacker in the Mad Jacks venue in Ashton-in-Makerfield at about 3am on Saturday.
After leaving the bar to walk home, the man forced the woman into the town's Jubilee Park where he raped her.
He then walked off towards Bolton Road, Greater Manchester Police said.
The man is described as Asian, in his mid 20s to early 30s, 5ft 6in tall, of slim build with dark brown hair in a Mohican style.
He was wearing a red T-shirt and blue jeans.
Detective Sergeant Clare Devlin of Wigan CID said: "The man offered to walk the victim home and she agreed.
"He has then broken that trust in the most horrendous way and attacked her. Continued
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A British teenager faces deportation from Jamaica after her mother was jailed for attempting to smuggle drugs from the country.
Charges against 17-year-old Toni Bellamy, of Ettington Avenue, Park End, Middlesbrough, were dropped on Friday at a court in Montego Bay and she was ordered to be sent back to the UK, a spokesman for HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) said.
But her mother, Andrea Henry, 39, also of Ettington Avenue, was sentenced to six months imprisonment for attempting to smuggle cocaine.
Henry's partner Wayne Walshaw, 32, of Saltburn, Cleveland, was sentenced to 12 months for the same charge.
The trio were arrested at Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay on Sunday on suspicion of swallowing packages of cocaine, the spokesman said.
They had been due to board a flight to Manchester.
On Friday night a neighbour of Henry and Ms Bellamy said he expected the teenager would be looked after by relatives on her return to the UK.
Lawrence Kavanagh, 47, who has lived next door to the mother and daughter for five years, said: "She will probably come home and there is her grandparents there and her brother."
He said the teenager's brother Scott, who is thought to be 19 or 20, was looking after his mother's house while she was in Jamaica.
Mr Kavanagh described Toni as a friendly girl. "She is quite pleasant and always says hello," he said. "It will be a terrifying experience for her but I dare say she would cope. But without her mother I can't say." News Source
.... International ....
The three are accused of attacking a twelve-year-old girl suffering from mental disturbances. Her father did not immediately report the crime because of threats; thanks to the support of Christian activists, he is now asking for justice. The girl will be cared for at a centre of religious sisters specialised in psychological illnesses.
Last May 25, a group of three Muslims allegedly raped a girl with psychological problems in Lahore. At first the family, who are Christian, did not want to file charges because of the threats and pressure against them; later, thanks in part to support received from two Christian lawyers, they presented themselves to the authorities, and the three suspects were arrested.
Khalil Tahir, a Christian lawyer and president of the Adal Trust - an NGO that offers free legal assistance to the poor - will represent Elishba, 12 years old and affected by mental disturbances, during the trial: "The little girl", the lawyer tells AsiaNews, "comes from a very poor Christian family: they live in a rented home, and the father is a manual labourer.
Last May 25, Niamat Masih, returning home from work, discovered that his daughter was not at home. He immediately went out looking for her, but could not find her. Passing by a house not far from his own, broken down and with no doors, he heard some noises coming from inside". At that very moment, a young Muslim - Muhammad Badshaw, one of the members of the "pack" - appeared in the doorway, and when he saw Elishba's father, he ran away.
"After entering the house", the lawyer continues, "Masih saw two other young men run away, and then found his daughter lying on the floor, unconscious and with her clothing torn. After returning home, at first he thought of filing charges, but he failed to do so because of the threats he received and because of the high costs of a trial".
The support he received from Khalil and from Kamran Michael, the local government official for human rights and minorities, convinced the father to denounce the crime and have the three arrested; the family was also assigned a police escort to protect them. Khalil Tahir stresses that "medical examinations revealed that the girl had been gang raped", that still today "she has not completely recovered", but says that he is "optimistic" that "the family may receive justice in court". After her initial treatment, Elishba will be sent to a care centre in Lahore, run by religious sisters and specialised in the treatment of patients with mental problems.
Kamran Michael emphasises the difficult conditions of the "Christian minority", which is subjected to violence of this kind "because of the extreme poverty in which it lives. We will make sure that our cry of alarm is heard, so that these brutal attacks may not be repeated, during the next meeting of the Punjab Assembly". News Source
.... Armed Forces ....
Two British Paratroopers killed in a firefight with the Taliban in Afghanistan were named last night as Lance Corporal James Bateman and Private Jeff Doherty.
The latest losses mean five Paratroopers have been killed in the past seven days - the regiment's worst week of losses since the Falklands conflict a quarter of a century ago.
As tributes were paid to the young soldiers, U.S. officials revealed that the coalition death rate in Afghanistan exceeded that in Iraq for the first time last month, with 18 killed fighting the Taliban compared with 16 in Iraq.
L/Cpl James 'Jay' Bateman, 29, and Pte Jeff 'Doc' Doherty, who celebrated his 20th birthday two days before his death, were part of a foot patrol from C Company, 2nd Battalion the Parachute Regiment.
They were ambushed by Taliban gunmen near the forward operating base north of Gereshk, on Thursday morning.
Their deaths took the British death toll in Afghanistan to 102.
It is the first time in more than nine months that the Taliban has shot dead any British troops in Afghanistan, with the insurgents preferring to use booby-traps and roadside bombs rather than confronting the better-armed and trained UK forces on the battlefield.
Commanders are now assessing whether the latest attack marks a shift back to the use of conventional tactics and large-scale attacks. Continued
.... NHS / Health ....
The Armed Forces would struggle to cope if the country was hit by a pandemic flu, with more than 50 per cent of military personnel laid low, an internal Ministry of Defence document indicates.
The Royal Navy, Army and RAF would be so badly hit in the “worst-case scenario” because of their close working environment, particularly on warships, that no military personnel would be available to help the civil authorities, the study says.
“The priority ... will be maintaining critical military operations with little or no spare resource to provide military assistance to the civil authorities,” says the internal MoD document, which is in the form of a guide for defence personnel.
In past crises, ranging from floods and foot-and-mouth disease to national strikes by firemen and petrol tanker drivers, the Armed Forces have played a key role in assisting the civil authorities.
However, with dire predictions of heavy flu casualties - up to 750,000 deaths and more than one million people needing hospital treatment - it is accepted officially that the Armed Forces would have to spend all their time ensuring that there were sufficient personnel to carry out basic military tasks and maintain operations abroad.
Experts have predicted the inevitabiity of another flu pandemic - there have been three global outbreaks in the past 100 years - and that it might come in several waves of three to six months over two years. News Source
Saturday 14th June 2008
Euro sceptics pronounced the controversial Lisbon Treaty dead today after it was thrown out by voters in Ireland.
Gordon Brown faced immediate demands to halt the process of ratifying the treaty as the latest attempt to reform the European Union was thrown into turmoil.
Critics insisted a 'No' vote in the Irish referendum represented the same fatal blow to the Lisbon Treaty as was dealt to the EU Constitution by French and Dutch voters in 2005.
The final result revealed 53.4% of voters said 'no' to the controversial treaty.
To the Extreme undemocratic and Corrupt EU
Which Part of 'NO!' Do you not understand?
European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso called for other states to continue their ratification processes and said a solution should be sought.
The treaty must be ratified by all 27 members. Only Ireland has held a public vote on it. More than half of Ireland's 43 constituencies returned a No vote in the referendum.
Downing Street declined to comment on reports that the Prime Minister had called French president Nicolas Sarkozy to assure him that British ratification would continue.
The House of Lords this week cleared the way for Parliament to ratify the treaty when it rejected a Conservative bid to force a referendum.
But prominent eurosceptic David Heathcoat-Amory insisted today the Government must 'go back to the drawing board' and respect the voters of Holland, France and Ireland.
'Of course (ratification) must be halted,' the Tory MP told BBC Radio 4's The World At One.
'The Bill before the British Parliament must be withdrawn because under the European Union's ''OWN LAWS'' this cannot proceed now. The Lisbon Treaty is dead.
'When the French and Dutch voted "no" in 2005 the British Government did halt that particular Bill.
'If they don't do the same this time it'll be quite clearly because they want to put pressure on Ireland and the people of Ireland to change their mind.'
Open Europe, a think tank which opposes the treaty, warned Mr Brown it would be 'electoral suicide' to proceed with ratification without regard for the views of the public.
Ministers have steadfastly refused to grant a British referendum on the treaty, despite promising to grant one on the now-defunct Constitution.
They say that the two documents are substantially different, and that a plebiscite on the treaty is unnecessary, but eurosceptics insist they are the same in all but name.
Democracy exists only in Ireland
Ireland is the only country holding a referendum on the treaty, which supporters maintain is essential to streamline decision-making after the EU's expansion to 27 member states. All 27 must ratify the document.
Open Europe's director, Neil O'Brien, said: 'This is a resounding victory on behalf of ordinary people across Europe over an out-of-touch and arrogant political elite.
'If supporters of the EU Constitution cannot even win in Ireland - one of the most pro-EU countries in Europe - it is clear that their vision for the future of Europe is now discredited in a most fundamental way.
'It would be tantamount to electoral suicide for Gordon Brown to ignore the Irish result and try and force through the Lisbon Treaty regardless - as the British Government has already said it would.
'The argument for a referendum in Britain is now overwhelming.' Conservative MEP Daniel Hannan hailed the apparent rejection of the treaty as a 'victory for Ireland and for Irish democracy'.
'People have defied the hectoring and bullying of almost all their political parties, almost all the Irish media, and political leaders from across Europe,' he said.
'They have struck a blow for freedom throughout Europe. Truly, today, we are all Irish.'
Bob Crow, general secretary of transport union the RMT, stepped up demands for a British referendum in response to the Irish result.
The EU Constitution, whatever it may now be called, is an anti-democratic privatisers' charter and would have undermined the right of working people to defend their jobs,' he said.
'The Irish referendum result is a massive victory for democracy and the Constitution is now dead in the water, despite our own Government's attempt to railroad it through without the referendum the British people were promised.'
Spreadbetting tycoon Stuart Wheeler, who is awaiting a High Court verdict on his legal challenge demanding a referendum, said: 'The winner of today's vote in Ireland is democracy.
'Regardless of the result, the people of Ireland have at least been given a voice.
'Gordon Brown, on the other hand, has denied the people of Britain the chance to have their say on Lisbon.
'This is a vote that the overwhelming majority of people in the UK have repeatedly demanded.'
Many economists attribute Ireland's long boom to its relationship with the European Union. The country's economy grew at about six per cent per annum throughout the 1990s, far above other European Union member countries.
More than 70 per cent of the country's exports go to EU member states, while EU subsidies and grants make up two per cent of Ireland's GDP. News Source
Disclaimer: This News Item has been duplicated in its entirety to serve as public information (Ed)
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Breaking their own Laws '
The Bill before the British Parliament must be withdrawn because under the European Union's ''OWN LAWS'' this cannot proceed now.
However the communist Milliband says the UK must ratify the EU Treaty despite its rejection by Irish voters.
If you had any doubt that we don't live under a dictatorship,
this should open your eyes wide open!
We MUST Demand a referendum NOW!
Foreign Secretary David Miliband says the UK must ratify the EU Treaty despite its rejection by Irish voters.
The result of the Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty should be "respected and digested" but the UK "must keep the ratification process going", he said.
EC President Jose Manuel Barroso said it will be discussed next week but the Tories said it must be "declared dead".
Ireland was the only member state to hold a public vote on the treaty, which must be ratified by all 27 countries.
The British government says the Bill to ratify the treaty will continue its progression through Parliament - despite 53.4% of Irish voters rejecting it in the referendum vote.
Mr Miliband said the Irish result should be respected but there should also be a "British view" on the treaty.
"I think it is right that we follow the view that each country must see the ratification process to a conclusion," he said.
"I believe it is right that we continue with our process and take up the Irish offer of further discussions about the next steps forward."
Mr Barosso called on other members states to continue ratifying the treaty insisting it was "alive and we should now try to find a solution". Continued
How can anyone ever trust our Government or the EU now?
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Thank heavens for the robust scepticism of the Irish. By rejecting the Lisbon Treaty (aka the European Constitution) they have not only created a political earthquake, but struck a much-needed blow for democracy.
Of course, nobody in Brussels dreamed the Treaty would suffer such an embarrassing setback.
Thus it sought to chill the blood by warning of 'chaos' if it wasn't nodded through. Thus it tried to prevent further defeats by discouraging referendums.
So in 26 of the EU's 27 member states - including Britain - the issue is being left in the hands of politicians.
Could there be a more depressing example of the damage being done to our democracy than the way Labour has broken its promises of a referendum?
Or anything more unedifying than the squalid performance of the Lib Dems who promised a referendum, abstained when the issue came up in the Commons and voted against it in the Lords?
So the stage seemed set for another European stitch-up. Only the Irish would hold a referendum, because they are bound to do so by their own constitutional laws. And anyway, nobody expected little Ireland to cause problems.
But something quite astonishing has happened. The Irish have become ever more disenchanted by a political elite that - as in Britain - is remote, unresponsive, and up to its neck in sleaze.
Voters were even more disenchanted with a Treaty that nobody understood and that even Prime Minister Brian Cowen said he hadn't read properly.
This wretched document does nothing about EU corruption or waste, the disgrace of the Common Agricultural Policy, the ruinous fisheries policy or the embezzlement that is being covered up, as we reveal on Pages 30-31 today, in a European parliament riddled with sleaze. No wonder the Irish rebelled.
And now? In theory, the Treaty should be as dead as a dodo. The measure can't come into force until it is unanimously accepted by all its members.
So can we now expect a contrite Brussels to abandon its imperial pretensions? Dream on. Continued
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Cameron last night demanded Gordon Brown scrap his plans to ratify the EU treaty.
The Tory leader said he was “delighted” that the people of Ireland had voted the treaty down.
He accused Mr Brown of “arrogance” after the Prime Minister vowed to press ahead with approving the document despite the Irish rejection.
Cameron said: “By all rights now it should be declared dead.
“If it is not dead, we must be able to have a referendum in this country so that we have the chance to pass judgment on this treaty and put the final nail in its coffin.”
In the only referendum to be held in Europe on the controversial document, the Irish voted against the treaty by 53.4 per cent to 46.6 per cent, plunging the EU into crisis.
The result was announced in Dublin Castle amid noisy jubilation from the No camp. The Lisbon treaty must be ratified by all 27 member states for it to come into force as planned on January 1, 2009 – and opponents say the Irish vote should kill it off, as the rules state.
Cameron said: “People in Ireland have sent the clearest possible message that they do not want this treaty, they do not want this constitution.
“The French said ‘No’ to it, the Dutch said ‘No’ to it, then it was brought back and the only people who have been given a chance to pass judgment on it, the Irish, have now said ‘No’ to it.
“The elite in Brussels have got to listen to people in Europe who do not want endless powers being passed from nation states to Brussels. They do not want these endless constitutions and treaties.
“It is the height of arrogance for Gordon Brown and our Government to press ahead with ratifying this treaty, flying in the face of public opinion.”
Cameron demanded that Mr Brown make a statement in the Commons on Monday about the next step.
Last night Tory peer Lord Tebbit said: “Perhaps now both the European Union and the British Government will understand that wherever the treaty or the constitution have been put to the people, the people have rejected it.
“The people of Europe are not prepared to go further and deeper into the process of creating a European state.” Nigel Farage, of anti-Brussels party Ukip, said the Irish people had “kicked the treaty into the long grass”. But he warned: “I suspect that the EU extremists will simply try to ignore it.”
Gerry Adams, of Sinn Fein – the only party in Ireland to back the No camp – said: “It was very much a David and Goliath contest – and in this case Goliath lost again.”
Former Labour minister Frank Field said: “The result in Ireland speaks volumes. The people in the one country given a chance to vote have clearly rejected the treaty. The Government must now withdraw its Bill ratifying the treaty, which should now be dead.”
But Foreign Secretary David Miliband insisted the ratification process must continue.
He said the Irish vote should be “respected and digested”, but added: “It is right that we continue with our own process.”
And European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso insisted: “I believe the treaty is alive and we should now try to find a solution.”
EU leaders, including Mr Brown, will hold talks at their summit in Brussels next week on the way forward. News Source
See Also: Miliband To Continue With EU Plans
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England will have to make room for 10million extra people in less than 25 years' time, official figures predicted yesterday.
The population is expected to top 60million by 2030 - as many as live in the whole of the UK now.
The rise is equivalent to a city the size of London, or the populations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland put together.
Most of the new residents will be immigrants, who are already adding 191,000 a year to the population, according to current Government figures.
Their children are also likely to form a large part of the surge, as birthrates among newly-arrived groups are higher than among the existing population.
The figures, from the Office for National Statistics, brought further warnings from critics of large-scale immigration.
Sir Andrew Green of the Migrationwatch think- tank said: 'Some 70 per cent of this population increase will be a result of immigration. This is clearly unsustainable from the point of view of public services and infrastructure, and, even more importantly, from the point of view of the cohesion of society.'
The projections are based on population and immigration estimates from 2006, which put the number of people living in England that year at 50,763,000.
The ONS says that figure is likely to pass the 55million mark in 2017, and by 2031 England will be home to 60,432,000.
The biggest rises in that period are expected to be in the South-East (nearly 1.6million more residents), the East (gaining 1.4million) and the capital (1.3million more Londoners).
Other regions will be less popular with immigrants and less subject to population pressures, the figures say. The North-East is expected to take little more than 200,000 extra people.
By Numbers:
If England's population rises by 10 million
- 5 Million homes would have to be built for the newcomers
- 23,000 Extra doctors would have to be trained for the NHS
- 28,000 More Policemen would be needed to deal with crime
- 4,152 New primary and secondary schools would be required
The statistics are the latest to suggest that Whitehall expects recent very high population increases to continue in the coming decades.
Last month, ONS figures said the population has risen by a million in just three years - a faster rate than when today's big cities took shape at the height of the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century.
Some Government-sponsored projections put the UK population as high as 100million by the end of this century.
The new arrivals will add to a growing housing crisis, with the Government struggling to meet existing demand for homes.
Its latest proposals to build a series of 'eco- towns' have already provoked protests from MPs and those alarmed that massive estates are going to spring up on their doorsteps.
The Department for Communities and Local Government says that a third of the number of new homes that need to be built are needed to house immigrants.
When this estimate is updated shortly, it is expected to say that at least 38 per cent of new homes will be built for immigrants. News Source
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The suicide bomb belt lies beside the body of the man shot in Lashkar Gar in Southern Helmand today.
Among the trail of clothes around him is the women's burqa with which he had disguised himself as he set out, explosives strapped to his chest, towards the police compound that was his target.
“He was shot in the forehead after he ignored warning shots and was killed on the spot,” said Hussain Andiwal, provincial police chief. “When we took off his burqa we found he was a man with a suicide vest tied around his body.”
“It was an 18 volt battery concealed under his clothes,” said a spokesman for ISAF, the International Security Assistance Force.
The latest suicide attack follows the death of three British servicemen from the 2nd Battalion The Parachute Regiment last weekend. In that incident a 12 man platoon spotted an Afghan man behaving oddly ahead of them as they returned from a patrol to their remote operating base, known as Inkerman, north of Sangin in Helmand province.
When Private Daniel Gamble, one of the regiment’s small number of Pashtu speakers, approached him to ask him what he was doing, the man reached under his cloak and detonated a concealed explosive vest, killing Private Gamble instantly and fatally wounding two other members of the patrol.
On this occasion, however, the Afghan officers guarding the compound shot the man after he refused to freeze and instead started running towards the building, according to Mr Andiwal. The explosives were never successfully detonated and there were no other casualties. Continued
Frightening prospect is that this kind of technique could be used in the UK. (Ed)
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Violence has flared across Europe as hauliers, fishermen and taxi drivers protest against rising fuel prices they say are crippling their industries.
Some of the worst outbreaks were seen in Spain where prime minister José Luis Rodriguez pledged "zero tolerance" of any disruption by 90,000 striking lorry drivers.
His warning came after a driver breaking the strike was burned when his lorry was set on fire. A British father and his son feared for their lives when a mob of Spanish truckers hurled rocks at their van.
David Copestake, 40, and son Dylan, 12, were pelted as they drove on a dual carriageway. Mr Copestake, who has a chain of estate agencies in London, said: "It was terrifying. One rock smashed into the windscreen heading straight for my head." Spain's road system was returning to normal after the interior ministry ordered police to get tough.
The government has reached a deal with most of Spain's hauliers on relief from rising costs. In Portugal, lorry drivers agreed to lift road blocks after their union accepted a deal with their government. But it followed the death of a man near Lisbon on a picket line. In France, hauliers mounted protest drives on motorways. News Source
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Violence has flared across Europe as hauliers, fishermen and taxi drivers protest against rising fuel prices they say are crippling their industries.
Some of the worst outbreaks were seen in Spain where prime minister José Luis Rodriguez pledged 'zero tolerance' of any disruption by 90,000 striking lorry drivers.
His warning came after a driver breaking the strike was burned when his lorry was set on fire.
A British father and his son feared for their lives when a mob of Spanish truckers hurled rocks at their van.
David Copestake, 40, and son Dylan, 12, were pelted as they drove on a dual carriageway.
Mr Copestake, who has a chain of estate agencies in London, said: 'It was terrifying. One rock smashed into the windscreen heading straight for my head.'
Spain's road system was returning to normal after the interior ministry ordered police to get tough.
The government has reached a deal with most of Spain's hauliers on relief from rising costs.
In Portugal, lorry drivers agreed to lift road blocks after their union accepted a deal with their government.
But it followed the death of a man near Lisbon on a picket line.
Spain's road system was returning to normal after the interior ministry ordered police to get tough. The government has reached a deal with most of Spain's hauliers on relief from rising costs.
In Portugal, lorry drivers agreed to lift road blocks after their union accepted a deal with their government. But it followed the death of a man near Lisbon on a picket line.
In France, hauliers mounted protest drives on motorways. set alight in violent protests Protests have now gone worldwide, with the Philippines and Thailand also seeing angry workers taking to the streets.
Spain appears to have been worst hit, with lorry drivers on either side of the dispute paying with their lives. Continued
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Shoppers face the threat of empty supermarket shelves as petrol tanker drivers begin a four-day strike today.
The walkout by 640 Shell drivers, who last night turned down a 7.3 per cent pay offer, will also cut supplies to one in 10 British fore courts.
As panic-buying began last night, these scenes from Spain give a taste of what may be to come. Shops there have been hit by severe shortages as picketing hauliers threaten to cripple the country’s economy.
The Spanish strike, over soaring fuel costs, has paralysed the road network, cut off ports and sparked panic-buying of food and petrol. It is costing Spanish businesses an estimated £350million a day.
Lorries have been given police escorts to ensure some vital supplies reach major cities.
Similar chaos could now hit the UK, with industrial action by British drivers which started yesterday at dawn. Union leaders last night warned that supplies at Shell petrol stations would run out “almost immediately”.
Long queues built up at garages last night even before the strike was confirmed after 11th-hour talks broke down. Road Haulage Association chief executive Roger King warned: “If people panic then within a very short period of time the haulage industry could be affected and with it supplies to shops, factories and so on.
“I hope it doesn’t come to that and the industry can work around it but these things have a horrible habit of escalating and nobody knows how to stop it.”
Shell last night warned it was “inevitable” that the walkout will have a “significant impact” on its 1,000 petrol stations in the UK.
Striking tanker drivers will picket fuel depots, which could limit supplies to other forecourts.
The walkout was confirmed last night after talks between the Unite union and two haulage firms broke down. Gordon Brown had earlier appealed for the two sides to reach a resolution.
He pledged that the Government was willing to do “everything we can” to stop petrol pumps running dry.
Tesco, the UK’s biggest supermarket chain, said: “Our supply is normal and as long as people carry on buying as normal there won’t be any problem.”
Foreign truckers using cheap fuel could drive British hauliers out of business under new EU rules, bosses warned yesterday.
European transport ministers will today discuss plans to open up the movement of lorries working abroad.
But the Freight Transport Association said foreign lorries would fill up on cheaper diesel in France before heading for the UK to offer work at lower rates than UK firms can match.
But earlier Government appeals for motorists to continue buying fuel as normal prompted a 30 per cent surge in sales. Motoring groups last night condemned the strike, saying it would create fresh problems for drivers already paying record prices for their fuel. Continued
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The Army is being put on stand-by to intervene in the petrol tankers' driver strike amid fears it could snowball beyond a trucker dispute into a widespread protest.
Troops are being poised to take to the wheel of tankers if ambulances, fire engines and police cars begin to run out of fuel.
Emergency powers could also allow police, already on guard at the picket lines, to surround depots in order to protect essential supplies.
Brown has condemned the strike and Downing Street has said the Government's response will be proportional to the level of disruption.
Ministers believe they can hold out to the end of the four-day strike without calling on Army drivers or a major police operation - as long as it remains a trucker' protest.
But there are fears the 500 strikers could be joined by other groups, including protesters against high fuel taxes who brought the country to a standstill in 2000.
Tanker drivers from other companies have already been showing their solidarity with the Shell workers after they walked out in a pay dispute at 6am this morning.
Many were seen turning away from refineries today because they did not want to cross the picket line.
Petrol stations across the UK have already started to run dry, with Shell predicting every single one of its outlets will be closed by the end of the first 24 hours.
The military would not be used to fill stations but only to ensure emergency services were not affected. Continued
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Laughing stock at the Eurovision?
That was Nothing compared to what this is going to be!!!
Connoisseurs of political embarrassment might remember the toe-curling scenes as Tony Blair and the Queen grimaced their way through Auld Lang Syne in the Millennium Dome eight years ago.
But that’s nothing compared with what awaits Gordon Brown and Boris Johnson at the Beijing Olympics closing ceremony.
They will be ‘treated’ to a group of hoodies gyrating to hip-hop music – in a segment intended to celebrate our national identity.
For the British political delegation, it will be a test of nerve – do they dare to stay stony-faced as Rap-on-zel, Jaxx and DJ Spinderella rap about life in an inner-city tower block?
Or do they attempt to muster some enthusiasm for the high-tempo show, and risk looking ridiculous?
Olympic protocol means that at the close of each Games, the next host city has eight minutes to put on a performance.
Organisers of the Sydney Olympics produced inflatable kangaroos on bicycles to mark the handover at the 1996 Atlanta Games, while the Greeks kept things traditional four years later by sending on Athenian women in historical garb.
Britain’s effort on August 24 will feature performers from ZooNation, an ‘urban dance squad’ acclaimed for a West End musical which features gangster rap and a drug-dealing pimp.
The choice has disappointed some commentators, who claim that hip-hop is inextricably associated with the U.S. and does not represent the UK.
Branding expert Peter York said: ‘The visual language belongs to America and it is something Britain has no particular purchase on.’
But supporters said the performance would reflect London’s vibrancy and diversity.
Alistair Spalding, said: ‘It is a positive choice and reflects an aspect of London that people don’t often think about – a multicultural city with a vibrant youth culture.’ Continued
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A drug addict will cost the nation an astonishing £833,000 in their lifetime.
This includes the burden they place on the Health Service and the criminal justice system, as well as their loss of earnings and productivity and the cost of putting any children into care.
It is equivalent to almost £5,000 out of the pockets of every man, woman and child in Britain.
The figures, released in a Whitehall study, show that Britain's 350,000 drug addicts will cost the nation £291billion.
Successfully weaning one 21-year-old male addict off drugs would save the country £730,000, the study authors claim.
Male drug addicts cost an average of £827,000. The figure for women is £859,000 because this includes the cost of children being taken into care.
The extraordinary figures reveal how the damage caused by drug abuse spreads far beyond the individual user, increasing the burden on a range of public services and chipping away at Britain's economic strength.
The study by consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers, commissioned by Justice Secretary Jack Straw, warns that the £833,000 figure is likely to be too low due to 'conservative' estimates used.
The PWC report cites recent research putting the number of 'problem drug users' at 350,000, and says most are addicted to heroin or cocaine - particularly crack cocaine.
The report, which was ordered to come up with solutions to drugs in jail, warns that prisons without narcotics are an unrealistic goal and raises some radical potential solutions. Continued
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Almost all this week's political drama concerned the vote about 42 days' detention without charge and David Davis' histrionic resignation.
But the really toxic story lurked elsewhere: a full-scale economic recession of a kind not seen since the 1970s which now looks all but certain.
Until last week, ministers could dismiss the crisis in financial markets as something which did not affect ordinary people. The vast majority were still in work, salary cheques kept coming in, people could pay the mortgage, do their shopping and enjoy an annual holiday.
However, all these normal cosy guarantees are now suddenly in doubt. Instead of being a theoretical threat safely located in Wall Street and the City, the crisis has come home to roost, and it will have serious effects on everyone.
Unemployment, after 15 years of steady decline, is on the rise. According to figures released on Wednesday, it increased by 38,000 over the early months of the year and it looks as if a worrying trend has established itself. Meanwhile, oil prices surge forward by leaps and bounds - up by a spectacular $11 on Friday of last week alone.
Such dramatic rises have a paradoxical effect. On the one hand, stronger fuel and commodity prices suck demand out of western economies and are hugely deflationary and damaging to growth. On the other hand, they perversely cause the rate of inflation to rocket.
Next Tuesday may well see the official announcement that inflation has risen to more than three per cent - a frightening level at which the Bank of England governor, Mervyn King, will be obliged to write a statutory 'letter of explanation' to Chancellor Alistair Darling, in which he will have to account for why it has broken through the upper limit.
Of course, the effect of these new inflation fears is very dramatic. Until last week, markets were projecting that the Bank of England would try to head off the looming recession by cutting interest rates. But now, the City believes that the next move will be upwards - chilling news for millions who are already worrying how to pay their mortgages. Continued
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Let me take you to a fantasy land. A land where the people trust their politicians, where a decent man can make a principled stand and not be ridiculed, where courage is respected.
Well, it isn't Britain 2008, if the knee jerk response to David Davis's resignation as Shadow Home Secretary is anything to go by.
The Pavlovian reaction of the Wesminster village was to say either that he had fallen victim to vanity or insanity. No matter that Davis was standing up for civil liberties that have served this country so well for centuries.
Seven years ago, William Hague warned of the threat to our national identity as Tony Blair sold us off piecemeal to Europe. He said our very Britishness was at stake.
He was right. Except that today, that threat comes from closer to home. This week's railroading of 42 days' detention without charge smashes one of the main pillars of our ancient, hardwon rights.
The result of all this? After 11 years, the Blair/Brown legacy is that people have not one shred of confidence left in the political process nor in the integrity of our MPs.
As a people, we have become utterly cynical about our democratic institutions, so the automatic response to a politician like Davis, who takes a principled stand and risks everything for the sake of his beliefs, is to question his sanity.
I concede that he has a big ego (show me a politician who hasn't). But having known Davis well for more than a decade, I know he genuinely cares about the erosion of our civil liberties with a passion almost beyond reason.
Vain? Of course. Insane? No. He has taken the gravest risk with his own career to fight for his convictions.
Only time will tell if it was the right decision, but let's at least credit him with some integrity.
Unemployment up; child poverty increasing; 300,000 more OAPs slipping into poverty; a million working days lost as unions start taking control again.
Is it any wonder the Prime Minister wanted to remind us of the menace of Al Qaeda and ram through 42 days detention rather than let us dwell on the more immediate threat to our day-to-day life... namely, his Labour Government.
Yes, Gordon Brown won the vote - but only by resorting to bribery of the Democratic Unionists. The result? His moral standing has been damaged yet further. He has snatched humiliation from the jaws of defeat. News Source
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David Davis yesterday branded the Prime Minister a “coward” for hinting Labour would not contest a by-election that was forced by his resignation.
Mr Davis said: “If they choose not to take part in this democratic process, they are going to show they are ashamed of their own policies.
“Frankly it’s contemptuous of the British electorate if they do that. If it comes to it and they don’t run, I will think that’s just another piece of cowardice by Gordon Brown.”
The former Shadow Home Secretary stunned Westminster on Thursday saying he would quit his Haltemprice and Howden seat.
He pledged to fight for it back in a one-man crusade against Labour’s “strangulation’’ of civil liberties.
The Lib Dems are to stay out of the poll in support of his stance opposing new laws allowing terror suspects to be held for up to 42 days without charge.
Mr Brown refused to commit Labour but said: “I think everyone now recognises that this is a stunt that has become a farce and has revealed the deep divisions of the [Tory] party.”
Deputy Labour leader Harriet Harman also insisted the by-election – which could cost up to £80,000 or even more of public money – was “not necessary” and that it was about divisions among Conservatives.
That's rich coming from a Labour leader whose MPs have squandered Taxpayers money in expenses abuse, frauds and sleaze!!! (Ed)
Mr Davis denied a split or that he was undermining David Cameron, who beat him to the leadership in 2005.
“On the issue of substance, there is not a cigarette paper between us,’’ Mr Davis said.
Mr Cameron pledged to campaign for Mr Davis but was not consulted and is said to have been angered.
He acted swiftly to find a new Shadow Home Secretary and is being urged to go for a full-scale reshuffle.
Mr Davis denied being on an “ego trip’’ or that he was suffering a mid-life crisis – but conceded his frontbench career may be over.
He hailed positive reactions from the public, including “thousands’’ of congratulatory emails and support from contributors to the Conservative Home Tory website, whose poll suggested 65 per cent of members were “inspired’’ by his move.
But comments on the site yesterday also included sharp criticism. Continued
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Are Britain's Senior civil servants
really this absurdly Inadequate?
Child benefit discs fiasco, NHS details gone, terrorism documents left on train,
and now this! It's one blunder after another!!!
A Laptop belonging to a senior police officer who has access to counter-terrorist intelligence has been stolen.
The computer, which was owned by Rob Beckley, deputy chief constable of Avon and Somerset, was taken from his car outside Marylebone railway station in Central London on Wednesday.
It is believed his police driver was distracted by one thief while another made off with the laptop.
Mr Beckley was not in the vehicle at the time.
Police sources say Mr Beckley, a former member of the terrorism committee of the Association of Chief Police Officers, had insisted on using his own computer when he joined the force last year.
As a result, none of the information accessible from the machine - which includes anti-terror details, private information about individual officers, and details of criminal investigations, suspects and undercover operations - is encrypted.
Details of the theft emerged yesterday as police launched an investigation into how a senior civil servant left a key counter terrorist document on a commuter train from London to Surrey earlier this week.
The file, which should never have left the official's Whitehall office, was discovered by a commuter and handed to the BBC.
Officers are now considering whether the mandarin should face prosecution for breaching the Official Secrets Act.
Yesterday, Mr Beckley said IT experts were working to ensure no one outside the force would be able to use the computer and log on to police servers.
'Broadly speaking, there was no sensitive information on that laptop but, of course, it poses a security risk,' he added.
A police spokesman said the laptop was not targeted, but taken by an opportunist thief.
'We are confident that there has been no breach of the force's network as a result of this theft,' he added.
But he refused to discuss why Mr Beckley had insisted on having his own laptop and why information had not been encrypted. News Source
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Petrol pumps began running dry within hours of the start of the tanker drivers' strike yesterday.
'Sold out' signs appeared at garages as motorists ignored the Government's plea not to panic buy.
There were reports of drivers topping up their tanks with small amounts of fuel or filling spare cans.
The AA warned car owners 'not to waste a single drop' as union officials said the strike would further strangle supplies over the weekend.
People attempting to fill up in more remote areas suffered the worst shortages yesterday but even in London there were garages that sold out.
Experts said up to 1,000 petrol stations could be left without fuel by next week, pushing the price of diesel past the £6-a-gallon mark.
Analysts Petrolbusters.com also warned of 'profiteering' by some garages as supplies become scarce as a result of the four-day strike.
Last night it appeared the misery is set to be repeated as the union Unite gave Shell bosses notice that they plan disruption again from next Friday.
Hoyer UK and Suckling, the two firms contracted by Shell to deliver fuel, said Unite had notified them last night 'that they plan to strike across the UK again next weekend'.
By law the union must give seven days' notice of action. Continued
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A one-legged Royal Navy veteran has been arrested after he rescued his neighbour from two men. Stephen Beerling, 52, dialled 999 and went to help his female neighbour after hearing her screaming during the night.
But the have-a-go hero was then arrested himself when officers spotted a rusty truncheon he had put in his pocket for self-defence. Mr Beerling, a Liberal Democrat councillor, was arrested, locked up for 12 hours and charged with possessing an offensive weapon.
He told of his ordeal after learning the Crown Prosecution Service had decided to drop the charge against him. Mr Beerling, of Maidstone, Kent, said: 'I am relieved, but very disappointed that it even came to this.
'I don't blame the police but maybe they should have used their noggin. Perhaps they were a little inexperienced. 'For me the blame lies entirely with the CPS - I just cannot understand why they wanted to press charges.'
Mr Beerling said the drama began at 2.30am on March 19 when he was woken by screams from his next door neighbour and her baby, and the sound of men shouting. He called police and strapped on the false leg he has worn since his leg was amputated in March 2004, when he was still serving with the Royal Navy.
Aware he was probably outnumbered, he picked up a telescopic truncheon and put it in his back pocket in case he needed it for protection. Mr Beerling then raced downstairs and went outside to help, and said his neighbour was being harassed by two men.
He tried to calm the men down while he waited for police, who later arrested both men and charged them with affray. But when officers spotted the truncheon in his back pocket he was also arrested, taken to Maidstone police station, kept in the cells overnight and charged with possessing an offensive weapon. Continued
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A senior judge today called for tougher censorship of violent internet images after four teenagers were jailed for a "sickening" assault filmed on a phone.
Paul Vickers, 40, was left paralysed and blind in his right eye after being beaten with a metal wheel brace and stamped in the head as he slept.
Judge David Rennie said the attack was inspired by violent images said to be easily accessible on the web and itself intended to be uploaded to the net.
He told the Old Bailey: "I believe this was copying and adding to the violent images already in circulation.
"I am not sure if there is any sufficient censorship of material before it finds its way into the public domain.
"I would urge the Government to continue to investigate this problem to see if there is anything else that can be done to protect people from images which are so shocking that they should never be seen."
Mr Vickers was attacked early in the morning of July 24 last year as he slept in a bus shelter in Fishbourne, near Chichester, West Sussex.
Oliver Skeggs, 17, of Velyn Avenue, Chichester, was given an indeterminate sentence with a minimum term of 13 years after being convicted of attempted murder and admitting an attack seven days earlier when a wheelchair-bound man was robbed. Continued
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A Somalian bus driver who killed a grandmother when his bus ploughed into three generations of the same family was jailed for four years today.
Ismail Ahmed, 43, of Emerald Square, Southall, had denied causing death by dangerous driving, but was found guilty at Kingston Crown Court last month.
The 65-year-old woman was with her 35-year-old daughter and two-year-old granddaughter when they were hit by Ahmed's bus at Mortlake bus station on April 25 last year.
The toddler had half her leg amputated after the crash, which was caused when Ahmed became frustrated because he could not find a parking space for his single-decker bus.
In the trial the 35-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said: "I don't know where it came from.
"I was behind the barrier and I was squashed against the barrier with my left leg up and my right leg under the bus.
"I think to mount the kerb and hit us with such a ferocious manner, I have always anticipated the bus was moving from stationary to 60mph."
She explained she saw her mum fall and said: "I said, Mummy don't die'."
Speaking through an interpreter, father-of-four Ahmed then said: "I'm not that sure how it happened but my foot slipped from the accelerator pedal and got under the brake pedal. Continued
Reader Submitted Link. Thank You
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A family moved into their new home only to discover 12 illegal immigrants living in the roof.
Lee Bradley was inspecting the loft of his rented terraced house when he made the shock discovery.
Under the roof, a colony of Kosovan migrants had knocked down the wall between his house and the two adjoining properties to create living space for several families.
They had even brought in several deck chairs and a cupboard and the floor was littered with children's toys. Mr Bradley, 33, found them eating sandwiches.
The migrants - including a baby - had also managed to install a light in the roof and there were several boxes containing their belongings.
Mr Bradley, a father-of-four, called the police but within 20 minutes the immigrants had fled the property in West Bromwich.
Mr Bradley, who had just moved in with his wife Caroline, 32, and their children, told The Sun: 'I decided to look in the loft space and popped my head through the hatch.
'There was a light dangling from the roof and about a dozen people - men, women and a baby who started to cry when she saw me. 'They were eating sandwiches and just stared back at me. I was scared and shut the hatch straight away.
'The police were here within 20 minutes but the people had gone. They'd taken their mattresses and bedding but left behind a table, chairs and toys.
'The police think they're illegal Kosovan immigrants but God knows where they are now - they just vanished.' At first his wife thought he was joking when he came downstairs with news of his discovery.
Mrs Bradley added: 'Lee came in ashen-faced and said 'There are a lot of people living in the loft. 'I thought it was a wind up. But it scared me to death to think we moved in with them up there.' Continued
Reader Submitted Link. Thank You
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Robert Mugabe warned today that the opposition would never be allowed to rule Zimbabwe as his war veterans said they were ready to take up arms ahead of the presidential runoff.
In what diplomats said was another clear indication of the threat to opposition supporters, the 84-year-old president claimed members of the feared war veterans had gone to his office asking, 'Can we take up arms?'
Mugabe told them that he did not want the country to go back to war but said Zimbabwe would never be ruled by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, the state-controlled Herald newspaper reported.
'It will never happen that this land, which we fought for, should be taken by the MDC so that they can give it back to our former oppressors, the whites,' the paper quoted him as saying.
Originally, the war veterans comprised those who helped Mugabe force independence. But now they are populated with a new generation of vicious thugs notorious for their attacks on anyone opposing the man who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence 28 years ago.
The threat of their intervention comes 48 hours after the BBC obtained documents showing the role of the military and war veterans in harassing opposition supporters in the build-up to the June 27 presidential run-off.
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, human rights groups and Western powers accuse Mugabe of unleashing a brutal campaign to win the run-off.
Mr Tsvangirai says 66 of his followers have been murdered in recent weeks and hundreds beaten or abused.
Zimbabwe's police yesterday impounded two campaign buses used by Mr Tsvangarai, who has been detained four times in the past week while campaigning. Continued
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Farmer Eric Smart has only been to London once in his life and that was on a bus 45 years ago.
So when the 74 year old received a letter at his home in Derbyshire informing him he had been issued with a fine for parking his vintage tractor in the capital last month he was surprised to say the least.
The letter from Transport for London said the fine for his supposed offence in Wandsworth has now risen to £180 because he had not paid in time.
The vehicle in question had the registration SWA 525, which is indeed the same as that of great-grandfather Mr Smart's old Massey Ferguson tractor - which he says has not left his barn for the last 14 years.
It is the second time in 18 months that Mr Smart has been hit with a fine for supposedly parking his tractor illegally in the capital.
Last year he was told he owed £100 for unloading it in Sloane Square - an area where most would agree that 4x4 'Chelsea tractors' are a common enough sight but Massey Fergusons seldom seen.
It is thought that he may be the victim of a cloned number plate. Continued
Friday 13th June 2008
What are they afraid of?
If isn't broken why attempt to fix it?
The ancient laws of treason could be scrapped under plans to simplify the legal system.
Offences relating to crimes against the Royal Family, some of which date back to 1351, are a "motley lot" whose usefulness is "questionable", according to the Law Commission.
It proposed a "simplification" and "pruning" of the historic laws as part of a comprehensive reform programme.
The review could also see the repeal of the offence of public nuisance, a new definition of the insanity defence and a new crime of ransom kidnapping.
The Law Commission's reforms could also see "pre-nup" agreements between engaged couples becoming legally binding, while reviews will take place of the law regarding people who die without making a will and the "antiquated" legislation covering level crossings.
It also seeks to create an "ambitious" single law covering all aspects of adult social care including nursing homes, community care and support for carers, in order to protect elderly and vulnerable people.
The commission's report, drawn up after consultation with government departments and judges, said that criminal law needs to be simplified because so many archaic offences remain on the books.
It said: "Changing political and social conditions mean that criminal offences that once served an important purpose have ceased to do so."
Those that could be abolished are high treason, which includes "violating various members of the Royal Family, murdering various members of the Royal Family and levying war against the Sovereign".
The review said that modern offences concerning riot and terrorism are better suited to deal with civil unrest.
It also suggested more clear guidelines on suspects who claim that they are unfit to stand trial because the test dates back to 1836 when "psychiatry was in its infancy".
The common law offence of "public nuisance", in which a community suffers damage rather than an individual, may also have "outlived its utility", according to the Law Commission.
However, it said that there is a need for a new offence of ransom kidnapping because at present offenders face a range of charges such as false imprisonment, kidnap, blackmail or threats to kill. News Source
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Yesterday we Linked to:
A BNP festival will go ahead this summer despite an application to provide entertainment and sell alcohol being withdrawn at the last minute.
Certain restrictions included a demand to be placed in place such as a seven-metre-high fence around the site.
Before the meeting, police had not objected but changed their position following new intelligence. Craig Sutherland, the force's solicitor, told councillors at Ripley Town Hall: “We have received information that:
Left-wing groups would be mobilising for the purpose of demonstration and some are going to seek violence and attack the BNP.” Continued
Today we hear:
Several members of the Right Wing political party had their cars vandalised whilst the group held a meeting in a village near Norwich, it has emerged.
Windscreens were smashed, paint was sprayed across vehicles and paint stripper was poured over three cars parked at the Stoke Mill Conference Centre and Restaurant in Stoke Holy Cross.
Around 100 supporters and members of the British Nationalist Party (BNP) had gathered at the venue for a meeting on Monday evening.
But whilst the meeting was going on, vandals went into the car park and carried out the attack.
A Stoke Holy Cross villager, who did not want to be named, said: “I was cycling past and looked at the car park as there were so many cars parked there. I noticed that one vehicle, a Mitsubishi 4x4, was really badly damaged and another had what looked like goo all over it.
“The third had abuse directed at the BNP sprayed on it. Today, Nick Griffin, the BNP's leader who was famously cleared of inciting racial hatred in 2006 after attacking Islam, said there had been a lot of support for the group at the Norfolk meeting and they had not received an attack of this kind for years.
He said: “The last time something like this happened was in Halifax three years ago. It's no particular surprise among older hands.”
Police were called to deal with the criminal damage and confirmed that three vehicles had been targeted.
A spokeswoman for Norfolk Constabulary said: “The damage happened between 7.35pm and 8.10pm.
Two of the vehicles had windows smashed and all three had what is believed to have been paint stripper poured onto them. This is an area frequented by the public and in particular by local dog walkers.
“Anyone who witnessed any damage being caused to vehicles parked in this area or who has any information about these incidents should contact police on 0845 4564567 or alternatively ring Crime stoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.” Continued
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Plans to set up a secret Islamist state in Scotland were discussed by two supporters of jihad, a court has heard.
The pair said it could provide a safe haven for those who felt "oppressed", London's Blackfriars Crown Court heard.
Aabid Khan, from Bradford, West Yorkshire, said the only problem was the availability of weapons, the court was told.
The 23-year-old and three others deny terrorism-related counts of possessing articles or documents.
In the dock are Mr Khan and Sultan Muhammad, 23, also from Bradford, Ahmed Sulieman, 30, from Woolwich, south-east London, and Hammaad Munshi, 18, from, Dewsbury, West Yorkshire.
Incriminating material
Jurors heard the state would also be run according to Sharia law and eventually be used as a base to "discreetly train" for attacks against non-believers.
The court heard the online exchange was part of a "mass" of allegedly incriminating material found by police during a series of swoops in Bradford and London two years ago.
Prosecutor Simon Denison said the MSN exchange between Khan and Muhammad about the secret Islamic state in Scotland occurred on 12 November 2005.
He said it began with Mr Muhammad explaining how he and work colleagues had allegedly been chatting about "hijrah" or emigration for Muslims feeling oppressed in Britain.
He then continued: "So like maybe a remote part of Scotland - people were like 'What the hell?' - at least to a place where there were Muslim communities."
Sharia law
Mr Khan is said to have replied: "A group of Muslims can go to a remote place and set up a mini Sharia state and they can rule according to Sharia law, like this and stay there, building them up and their children up, preparing for fitness, and then launching jihad once they strengthen themselves."
Mr Denison claimed he then added: "In the UK you can isolate with a group discreetly and train, but better in the US as they have weapons there. Over here weapons is problem."
All defendants deny possessing articles or documents likely to be useful to terrorists in 2005 and 2006.
Mr Khan and Mr Muhammad also deny possessing articles for a terrorist purpose. The trial continues. News Source
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(Recap: 9th June 2008)
Muslim extremism in Britain will grow unless the Government and society learn to understand Islam, Malaysia's prime minister has warned.
Abdullah Badawi claimed that the legacy of Britain's imperial past has hampered its ability to appreciate its Islamic population.
In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, the prime minister urged Gordon Brown to allow the country's Muslims to live under sharia law, but also said that they must prove their worth to society.
His comments are set to fuel the debate over the role of Islam in Britain following the Church of England's attack on the Government for already giving more attention to Muslims than Christians.
A report, commissioned by the Church and published today, accuses ministers of paying only "lip service" to Christianity and marginalising the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches, while focusing "intently" on Islam.
However, Mr Abdullah argues that the Government must do more to ensure Muslims don't feel discriminated against if it is to tackle the rise of radicalism.
Submit to Islam
"The failure to understand Muslims is driving a divide between the communities," he said. "Gordon Brown must encourage a better understanding because Britain must appreciate its Muslims."
Mr Abdullah argued that Britain needs to come to terms with being home to immigrants from countries that it used to rule over. "The British Empire expanded in Asia, everywhere, throughout the Muslim land, through the land of Hindus and the land of Buddhists.
He said that Muslims in Britain were more likely to be radicalised because they feel ignored rather than due to religious reasons. "Is it because of poverty, social unrest, deprivation, feeling discriminated against, thinking people don't care much because of the colour of their skin. The could make them to decide to be extremist, not necessarily because of his religion."
Incompatibility
Mr Abdullah, who was talking on the eve of a landmark summit of world leaders, echoed the calls of the Archbishop of Canterbury earlier this year for Muslims to be able to live under sharia law.
"They should abide by the law of the land, but they should also be able to follow their religious observances and beliefs, to express their duty to God.." Continued
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Brown has praised the work of an international Muslim group marking the anniversary of its Caliphate.
Mr Brown congratulated the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community on reaching 100 years of progressive spiritual leadership in Islam known as Khilafat, or Caliphate.
In a message to a celebration held on 10 June 2008 at the QEII Centre in Westminster, London, he also commended the valuable contribution to the UK of Ahmadi Caliphs and their followers and sent his best wishes and support to the community as it marked a historic milestone.
Jack Straw, Justice Secretary who was representing Mr Brown at the event, said:
"All of us hugely admire the work of the Ahmadiyya community in the UK and across the world.
"The central message of faith is of peace and brotherhood and that is why I am so delighted to be here. I have huge respect for the work you are doing day by day to make a reality of peace and brotherhood across this country and across the world."
The present head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and fifth Caliph, Hadhrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, delivered the keynote address in which he highlighted how the community practised Islam as a true religion of peace and tolerance. News Source
Reader Submitted Link. Thank You
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Britain has been told to get rid of the Queen in an official United Nations report.
The UN Human Rights Council says the UK must “consider holding a referendum on the desirability or otherwise of a written constitution, preferably republican”.
The demand by the council, which includes regimes like Saudi Arabia and Cuba among its 29 members, caused outrage last night.
Advisers to the Queen refused to comment publicly. But privately they admitted being astonished. One senior Palace official said: “People here certainly haven’t detected any appetite for a referendum.
“The Queen is a focus for national unity, identity and pride.” Royal commentator Robert Lacey said the report showed a complete lack of understanding of the British system.
“Parliament could change the law and abolish the monarchy tomorrow,” he said. “We don’t need a referendum to do that.”
Even campaigners representing hard-pressed taxpayers said yesterday they felt no need to get rid of an institution that costs each adult in Britain around 62p a year.
Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “With so many human rights abuses around the world, the UN should be busy reporting on issues of starvation, execution and the denial of the vote to huge numbers of people around the world.
“Saudi Arabia and Cuba should pay a little more attention to their own human rights record.”
The UN comments about the Queen were included at the request of the council’s Sri Lankan envoy, Dayan Jayatilleka.
Amnesty International revealed last week that hundreds of people have been kidnapped and murdered in Sri Lanka by shady forces allied to the government. But it is not the only country with an appalling record of its own queueing up to have a go at Britain.
The UN report also includes criticisms of the UK’s record on treating migrants from Sudan – whose government stands accused of killing at least 200,000 people in Darfur.
Syria, whose previous president killed 25,000 in suppressing an Islamist rebellion in Hama, accuses the UK of discriminating against Muslims.
And most bizarrely, Iran – where a woman was stoned to death for adultery last year – takes issue with Britain’s record on tackling sexual discrimination. News Source
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Worldwide protests over the rising price of fuel escalated today, with the Philippines presidential palace besieged by lorries, fishermen burning their boats in Thailand, and Spanish petrol stations running dry as hauliers blockade major roads.
Violence has already claimed lives of lorry drivers on either side of the dispute, while one haulier was nearly burned to death in his cab by strikers.
Hundreds of lorries and minibuses blocked roads in Manila leading to Malacanang Palace today to demand the lifting of a 12 per cent sales tax on fuel. Petrol prices there have risen about 24 per cent this year.
Traffic ground to a halt as anti-riot police halted the convoy, including about 500 tuk-tuks, Manila's three-wheeled taxis.
In Thai capital Bangkok, tens of thousands of heavy lorries are threatening to cause havoc while farmers are demonstrating and fishermen have begun burning their boats in nationwide protests against soaring prices of fuel and other essentials.
Lorry drivers' leaders warned the government that it has until next Tuesday to subsidise their fuel or face at least 100,000 vehicles rumbling into Bangkok.
A half-day strike yesterday by lorry drivers who parked their vehicles on roads across the country was only a prelude to next week's possible push into Bangkok, they said.
Finance Minister Suraphong Suebwonglee said there were plans to help reduce transport costs.
'I am not concerned about the lorry drivers' threat to strike because the government is seeking to subsidise the transport sectors as the whole,' he said.
One fishermen's group said more than half of the 50,000 fishing boats under its wing are being kept ashore because of the high cost of diesel.
Thai Airways International raised its fuel surcharges by up to 100 per cent yesterday day due to the rising cost of jet fuel. Continued
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Is the media attempting to portray Junkie Winehouse as a Victim?
A man and a woman have been charged with conspiracy to supply drugs to troubled pop star Amy Winehouse.
John Blagrove, 34, and Cara Burton, 22, both of Queensbridge Road, Dalston, east London, have been charged with two counts of conspiracy to supply Class A drugs, namely cocaine and MDMA, Scotland Yard said.
The charges follow a video obtained by The Sun, published in January, which appears to show the Rehab singer inhaling fumes from a crack pipe.
Winehouse was arrested and interviewed by police last month and later released on bail. She has not been charged.
The couple have been bailed to appear at Thames Magistrates' Court in east London on July 1.
The Grammy award winner's appearance and behaviour have sparked concerns about her wellbeing from family and friends recently.
In February, it appeared that things were turning around for her when she won five prizes at the Grammy awards, despite being absent from the ceremony.
Her problems began to spiral publicly last year. The 24-year-old star, who is said to be worth £10 million, was admitted to hospital last August after a reported overdose of heroin, ecstasy, cocaine, ketamine and alcohol.
Fans were shocked to see the singer bloodstained and covered in scratches, wearing blood-soaked ballet shoes, and with bruises to her neck, bandages on her arms and make-up smeared down her face after she quit rehab with her husband Blake Fielder-Civil.
Her father, Mitch Winehouse, once said he was so concerned about his daughter that he wrote a eulogy he expected to deliver at her funeral. News Source
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As usual the worst of society are rewarded!
Heroin addicts who kick their addiction will be given up to £200 each.
They will be given vouchers to buy such things as clothes and bicycles as a reward for not taking any more drugs.
They will also be able to buy food, bus passes and pay their gas and electricity bills.
Initially,some 1,000 addicts will be offered the incentives for six months. But if successful, it could be extended to 50,000 addicts nationwide.
Public health minister Dawn Primarolo said no cash would change hands.
She added: 'This trial will investigate whether certain incentives will encourage drug users to re-establish their lives and stay off drugs.
'It will be fully evaluated to see whether or not it could be implemented nationally.'
Critics have questioned the wisdom of lavishing funds on heroin users – whose condition is self-inflicted – while denying drugs to those with other crippling conditions.
Sufferers of Alzheimer's disease, for example, have faced a long and bitter fight over a decision to deny them a prescription of £2.50-a-day tablets which alleviate the devastating symptoms of the disease.
Mark Wallace, campaign director of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: 'Why should law-abiding taxpayers have to foot the bill for bribing drug addicts? There is already a large budget for drug rehabilitation without adding rewards on top.
'No one gets a reward for not becoming a drug addict in the first place.'
But Dr John Dunn, consultant psychiatrist and clinical adviser to the National Treatment Agency, which is running the scheme, said: 'This new approach is a way of helping people regain control over their chaotic lives.' News Source
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Even Eurosceptics admit that the EU has been crucial in Ireland's transformation to a wealthy modern state that can compete on the world stage.
Why then might this country, which is popularly regarded as the economic miracle of the EU, vote against the Lisbon Treaty today - even though all the major political parties want it to vote Yes?
Essentially, the Irish are veering towards No for two reasons: they don't trust their own politicians, and they feel Brussels has got too big for its boots.
They changed their prime minister recently and haven't really taken to the new man, Brian Cowen, the former finance minister who succeeded the well-liked if rather dodgy charmer Bertie Ahern.
Cowen and the uncharismatic leaders of the other major political parties are poor salesmen whose absence of substantial arguments have exposed the vacuity of the pro-Treaty case.
There are No voters who don't care one way or the other about the EU but who just want to give the government a bloody nose. But there are many more who were once Euro-enthusiasts but are increasingly worried that unelected bureaucrats are stealthily grabbing power that should remain with nation states.
It is an appalling reflection on the EU that Ireland is the only country putting the Treaty to the electorate and that it is doing so only because this is a constitutional requirement.
The fact is that, of the half-a-billion or so European citizens who will be affected if the Treaty goes through, only one in 100 - the Irish - have the right to vote on it.
Many Irish citizens realise this is an awesome responsibility and a referendum that really matters.
They know perfectly well that their political leaders are furious that they could not avoid the constitutional requirement to have a vote because they are terrified of losing it.
They know, too, that the eyes of the European political establishment are on them.
Bernard Kouchner, the French foreign minister, is the latest outsider to attempt to bully the electorate.
A No vote would be greeted with 'gigantic incomprehension', he said.
'The first victims would be the Irish.'
Such interventions have served only to boost the No campaign.
Another factor that has helped the No cause is the deeply unimpressive admission of the Irish PM that he hasn't even read the Treaty.
It is true that most of those who have tried to read the 287-page document have given up because it is so impenetrable. But an ever-growing section of opinion is now saying firmly that only mugs sign up to anything they don't understand.
In fact, some polls suggest that the single biggest reason for voting No is that people do not know what effect the Treaty might have on them.
The lamp-posts of Dublin are festooned with posters. Those from the Yes side feature photographs of prominent politicians with bland messages like 'Good for Ireland and Good for Europe'. 'Trust us' is the theme.
The message is: 'Don't worry your pretty little heads about the issues. This is just a tidying-up operation.'
But many voters believe they are being bamboozled.
It is striking that the No campaign is bewilderingly varied so often contradictory - with various factions, for example, attacking the Treaty simultaneously for being socialist and capitalist, or both too pro and too anti union rights.
This is proof positive that no one really understands what the Treaty entails.
Although the Irish are well aware that a nation with a history of large-scale emigration should be hospitable, voters see the Treaty as opening the floodgates to migrants.
Over the past four or five years there has been a massive increase in foreign job-seekers and, as the credit crunch hits, the pressure on public services caused by Poles, Lithuanians and all manner of other European citizens is causing tension.
Then there's the perception that Brussels is corrupt and corrupting. Irish voters who follow British politics are watching with interest the sleaze allegations about greedy MEPs which are presently embarrassing the Tories and will shortly be troubling Labour and the Lib Dems.
Many voters see all too clearly the irony of their leading politicians telling them to put their faith in the unelected bureaucrats of a profoundly antidemocratic Brussels.
EU legislation is now such a complex area that there is probably no one who fully understands it. As in Britain, where increasingly courts over-rule Parliament, Ireland is realising that it could, in future, be at the mercy of foreign judges.
The voters in Ireland may not understand the Treaty, but they understand the erosion of sovereignty. That is why Brian Cowen and his opposite numbers in the big parties have been reduced to begging the voters to say Yes.
The feeling in the streets is that they are more likely to say No. Continued
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Officials in Brussels are working on plans to ensure that the European Treaty is still implemented elsewhere if Ireland votes against it in the referendum.
Although measures such as creating an EU president, "foreign minister" and European diplomatic service may be delayed, they are still expected to be introduced.
One diplomat said a "bridging mechanism" was being discussed. If Ireland rejects the treaty, it may simply be removed from the list of signatories and will not be legally obliged to abide by it.
By late 2009 or early 2010, when Croatia joins the EU, an amending "Accession Treaty" will be signed by all members including Dublin.
Incorporated into it would be a series of protocol texts giving paper "opt-outs" on controversial Irish EU issues, such as taxation powers or greater military co-operation.
Such texts would be similar to Britain's existing protocol opt-outs on the Charter of Fundamental Rights and social issues in the Lisbon Treaty text being ratified in Westminster.
Ireland, like the rest of the Europe, does not hold referendums on EU enlargement treaties and with new protocol opt-outs Dublin may get a new Accession Treaty past the Irish parliament without a popular vote.
"This mechanism would be no more incomprehensible or legalistic than the Treaty itself," said one official.
"It is probably no more difficult than the legal footwork necessary to turn the Constitutional Treaty into [the] Lisbon [Treaty] after the French and Dutch rejected it. The issue will be timing."
In recent weeks, Irish officials have held secret talks to implement the Lisbon Treaty regardless of any referendum on the text.
During talks to create an EU diplomatic corps on May 7 and May 13, Irish diplomats presented a position on the composition of the European External Action Service and role of the EU's new "foreign minister".
Secret minutes seen by The Daily Telegraph show that Ireland's EU ambassador, Bobby McDonagh, pleaded with his colleagues to keep the talks and Dublin's position confidential. "[We] have to remain cautious in presenting these issues [referendum]!," the minutes record.
The House of Lords rejected a Conservative bid to force a British referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, with Liberal Democrat peers siding with the Government to defeat the move by 280 votes to 218. News Source
Why would anyone in their right mind want to belong to the EU especially as the threatened Ireland and now would use this undemocratic dictatorial act to get what they want? (Ed)
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Liberal Democrat peers last night helped the Government to deny Britons a say on the EU constitution.
A Tory attempt to force a referendum on the re-jigged treaty in the House of Lords was defeated by 280 votes to 218, a majority of 62.
The result kills off any hope that Labour will honour its manifesto pledge to hold a national poll over handing vast swathes of powers to Brussels.
Three months ago, Nick Clegg had ordered his party to abstain on a similar vote in the Commons. He sacked three members of his frontbench who refused to do so.
The LibDem leader even led his MPs in a Commons walkout after the Speaker refused to put their amendment for an 'In or Out' EU referendum to a vote of MPs.
But last night, the party's peers sided with the Government over the constitution, now renamed the Lisbon Treaty.
During last night's debate, Tory foreign affairs spokesman the Lords, Lord Howell of Guildford, claimed that voters had been hoodwinked by the Government, which insists the treaty is different from the constitution.
'We are told again and again that this treaty is different when we can plainly see that it is the same,' he said.
'All three parties faithfully promised to grant the public a say on such a fundamental and overtly constitutional project. The Government has now defaulted.'
Tories claimed last night's U-turn was evidence of Mr Clegg's collapsing authority within his party.
They say he was forced to back down after senior pro-European LibDems, including the party's Lords leader Lord McNally, refused his demand to abstain.
But the LibDem whips office in the Lords said they had decided to vote against the Tories' referendum amendment because the Commons had already made its position clear - and that took primacy. Continued
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British politicians are the welfare scroungers of our public life.
Just as in the twilight world of the dependency culture, Westminster and Brussels are rife with financial deception and the serial abuse of taxpayers’ money.
Dodgy expenses are the moral equivalent of social security fiddles, while too many MPs, like benefit claimants, have a grotesque sense of personal entitlement to the hard-earned cash of others.
The welfare parasites have developed all sorts of scams to exploit our taxes for personal gain. This week, it was revealed that the number of people receiving incapacity benefit for so-called “stress” has increased by 800 per cent under Labour, with 52,000 claimants given £122million a year for their “stressed-out” condition. Depression, drug abuse, even alcoholism are routinely used as excuses to avoid work. There are in Britain today more than 2.7 million people enjoying sickness handouts totalling £12billion.
Yet our politicians, who should be reforming this corrupt system, are just as guilty of taking advantage of the taxpayer, perpetrating a wide range of dodges so they can enhance their lifestyles.
They claim home improvements on expenses, dish out vast sums to members of their families, charge mortgage payments on second homes to the public purse, revel in freebie holidays, and exploit travel allowances.
Yesterday we learnt that Labour MEP Michael Cashman pays gay partner Paul Cottingham £30,000 to be his secretary in Brussels, even though Cottingham is the boss of a PR firm. Nor are Tories immune.
...MPs endlessly prattle about the “service” they provide to constituents, though so much of their political activity is only designed to boost their profile and ensure their re-election so they do not have to get off the gravy train.
Just as the welfare state has actually worsened poverty by encouraging mass idleness, so the Parliamentary funding racket has worsened the governance of Britain.
Thanks to the surrender of our sovereignty to the unelected bureaucracy of the EU, Westminster has become increasingly irrelevant, with more than 80 per cent of our laws now originating in Brussels.
So in order to justify their cushy existences, MPs indulge in endless stunts, extensions of bureaucracy and bossy interventions in our lives.
Politicians have become little more than expensive nuisances, self-important mediocrities filled with greed and insecurity. Their lucrative earnings have done nothing to improve their calibre. At the end of the 19th century, when MPs were not paid, Britain had the largest, most successful empire the world has ever seen.
Today, our economy is sliding into crisis, our nationhood has evaporated and our public services are in a mess, and this is largely thanks to our over-paid political class, most of whom are professional apparatchiks without any experience of the real world. Never was a supposed elite so second rate.
Whenever a scandal occurs over political expenses, there are the usual calls for the rules to be tightened. This tinkering with the regulations will not work. Just as the endless benefit “crackdowns” have done little to reduce fraud in the welfare system, now costing more than £3billion a year, so the vast machinery of Parliamentary scrutiny has failed to stem the tide of exploitation. We have endless committees, watchdogs, commissioners, rule books and audits, yet MPs and MEPs are abusing the system on a greater scale than ever.
But they couldn’t do it if we didn’t pay them. In that simple truth lies the solution to abuse in both social security and the political system: remove the elaborate structure of allowances and the scope for fraud disappears. In welfare, claimants should be told that their benefits will cease after a year, with no exceptions made for those moaning about depression or drug abuse.
The expenses racket for MPs must be abolished. They should be paid a basic salary, no more than £65,000 a year, plus travel allowance if their seat is outside London and that’s it; no more second mortgages, luxury flats, family recruitment and expensive vehicles courtesy of the taxpayer.
If MPs don’t like it, they don’t have to stand for Parliament again. The Commons is meant to be about public service, not self-enrichment. By slashing allowances, we would put an end to the insidious professionalisation of politics, where being an MP is seen as lucrative job rather than a democratic calling. Instead, we might attract older, more experienced people who have gained success in other fields and are more interested in giving something back than in endlessly taking from the public purse.
Dragging politicians out of their cocoon of subsidy would force them to live in the real world. They would not be so keen to heap extra burdens on the taxpayer if they had to start paying their own way. News Source
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British food will be off the menu within 27 years if farming continues to die out, experts warned yesterday.
Shops would stock only imported food – so the typical full English breakfast would feature eggs from Spain and bacon and sausages made from Chinese pork.
The industry is on the decline as youngsters reject the lifestyle, said Lantra, the farming skills council.
A spokesman said: “With the industry losing 15,900 workers per year, we predict that by 2035 the farmer could be extinct, meaning Britain will lose its self-sufficiency.”
It came as the Tories hit out at the Government’s plan to rely heavily on imports to safeguard Britain’s food supply. Official policy states: “Domestic production is neither a necessary nor sufficient condition for food security.”
But Shadow Agriculture Minister James Paice said yesterday: “This approach threatens to exacerbate the food shortages around the world. We should be looking to optimise domestic production.” News Source
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Farmhouse bed and breakfasts are under threat of closure because of an EU ruling which bans pet dogs from their owners' kitchens.
Farmers say the sight of the family dog lounging by the Aga at breakfast time adds to the rustic charm for visitors.
But according to officials, the animal poses a potential health and safety hazard to guests' food.
So health inspectors are using new EU food hygiene laws, which put small B&Bs into the same category as hotels and restaurants, to have pets banned from kitchens.
Tourism bosses fear that because most farmers only run B&Bs as a side business, many will chose to close rather than exclude their pets.
The ruling emerged after one B&B owner in Dorset had to give assurances to his local authority that his dog would not be in the kitchen at breakfast time.
David Weston, chairman of the British Bed and Breakfast Association, said he had never come across any previous case of food poisoning by dog hair before.
He added: 'This new law covers food businesses and because a bed and breakfast serves food, they fall into that category.
'The regulations weren't designed to cover people's homes, which is essentially what a bed and breakfast is.
'Most of our members practise good standards of cleanliness anyway. We think the regulations should be enforced in a commonsense way.
When there is a dog in the corner of the room and nowhere near the food surface area, then we don't feel that is a threat or a danger to health.
'A few owners have made comments that if it came to not allowing the dog in the kitchen or to get rid of it, they would close the business because it is not worth it.' Continued
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Local authorities that volunteer to store nuclear waste will receive extra Government funding, the Environment Secretary said yesterday.
Hilary Benn, launching the Managing Radioactive Waste Safely white paper, said it was 'only fair' to reward councils with support for infrastructure projects in return for taking waste that remains deadly for hundreds of thousands of years.
But critics called the scheme a 'bribe' that would add to the clean-up cost for radioactive by-products, already expected to rise well beyond the official estimate of £72billion over 20 years.
'Any community that ultimately hosts a facility will fulfil an essential service to the nation,' Mr Benn said.
'To this end there may be other benefits identified and developed through discussions between the community and Government.'
Critics dismissed the deal. LibDem environment spokesman Steve Webb said: 'The bill for cleaning up our past nuclear waste is soaring astronomically.
'These sweeteners to bribe communities into taking a new waste dump will increase costs further.'
Greenpeace's nuclear campaigner, Nathan Argent, said: 'Nuclear waste is a financial and geological nightmare. This white paper is not about finding a solution for nuclear waste. It's about bribing a community with £1billion of taxpayers' money to bury waste in their back garden.'
Energy Secretary John Hutton pledged yesterday to make the UK the most desirable site for firms seeking to build the next generation of nuclear power plants.
'We must do everything we can to ensure new nuclear power stations are available as soon as possible,' he told a conference in London yesterday. 'Nuclear has proved to be dependable, affordable and safe source of low-carbon energy.'
According to the Government, investment in atomic energy will create at least £20billion and 100,000 jobs. It wants at least ten new reactors to start operations by 2020.
Gordon Brown defended the determination to press ahead, telling a press conference in Downing Street yesterday that some experts believed 1,000 more plants were needed worldwide.
'Expansions of nuclear, like the 700 per cent growth of renewables, will lessen our addiction on oil,' he said. News Source
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Families could suffer from years of high oil and food prices, a Government report has suggested.
The Treasury warned that rapid growth in the world economy and population, coupled with supply shortages, will prevent commodity prices from falling back to their previous-levels.
This will be a further-blow for families who are suffering a painful squeeze on their living standards because of rising borrowing costs, utility costs and shopping bills.
Yesterday's Treasury report said that while there is some scope for energy and agricultural prices to retreat from current near-record levels, the longer-term outlook is grim.
It said: 'Expert views and market expectations reviewed here suggest that prices are likely to remain higher than their historical averages, if lower than today's levels, with continuing and perhaps more frequent shocks.'
This is being driven 'by continuing strong demand and a continuing slow supply response', the report said.
'It will be an ongoing challenge for supply to match demand at affordable prices.'
The research comes after oil prices doubled in the past 12 months, trading at $132 a barrel yesterday. Wall Street analysts have warned that crude costs could continue to surge, reaching $200 a barrel.
UK wholesale gas prices have risen 250 per cent over the same period, and customers are facing a new round of energy price hikes this year.
Meanwhile, a range of agricultural products have seen double- digit increases this year, leading to swingeing increases in shopping bills.
The Treasury said recent estimates suggest grain production will have to rise by 50 per cent between now and 2030 to meet soaring global demand. This will sustain upward pressure on food costs.
The world will also need an extra 30.5million barrels of oil per day by 2030 - a third more than current levels - the report said, citing predictions from the International Energy Agency.
Economists warned yesterday that continued gains in food and energy prices could ultimately push UK inflation beyond 5 per cent. Continued
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A four-day strike by fuel tanker drivers will go ahead today after talks to avert the crisis broke down.
The action by just 650 Shell employees is expected to disrupt supplies at up to 1,000 filling stations.
This could escalate rapidly if tanker drivers from rival oil companies decide not to cross picket lines at major refineries and depots.
Both Shell and the Government conceded that widespread disruption is 'inevitable'. Airport supplies of aviation fuel will also be hit.
Gordon Brown yesterday refused to rule out sending in the Army if emergency contingency measures fail to keep supplies running to the nation's forecourts.
The Government has urged motorists not to panic, but the oil industry body UK-PIA revealed yesterday that there had been a 30 per cent jump in demand at filling stations for fuel since the warning.
The strike could also send oil prices on international markets soaring as speculators 'talk up the price' - leading to further increases at the pumps and possibly sending petrol through the £6-a-gallon barrier.
Business Secretary John Hutton said: 'The strike will have a disproportionate effect on people in Britain and cannot be justified. Our advice to motorists now is just to buy the fuel they actually need.'
Ministers have invoked emergency measures, including suspending competition rules to allow rival companies to share information and quickly supply areas suffering shortages. If that fails - especially on motorways and in rural areas - petrol rationing will be introduced, with drivers restricted to a £20 fill-up.
Ministers can also invoke the full National Emergency Plan for Fuel, prioritising fuel for
'essential users' such as police and the emergency services and allowing the police to clear illegal blockades. Continued
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The public expects the cost of living to soar at more than double the pace of official targets in the coming year, according to the Bank of England's latest survey today.
Most respondents put the average rate of inflation at 4.3 per cent in the next year, the Bank's quarterly attitudes survey found - more than double its 2 per cent benchmark.
The figure is another headache for policymakers keen to rein in expectations for fear of fuelling higher wage demands and increasing inflation risks.
But the results reflect the growing pressure on the public from surging petrol, food and energy costs at a time when banks hit by the credit crunch are hiking mortgage rates.
The survey put average estimates of the current rate of inflation at 4.9 per cent - compared with its actual 3 per cent level. Continued
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The quango charged with promoting British ideas around the world spent £50,000 of taxpayers' money on a new typeface for its pamphlets.
The British Council claims the unique text style created by consultants will help establish its 'identity'.
But last night critics said the 'British Council Sans' font was an absurd waste of money when dozens of others are available for free.
The British Council - which was founded in 1934 and receives £200million a year from the Government - is headed by the former Labour leader Lord Kinnock.
It has already been accused of squandering £85,000 on a new logo which consists of four blue dots on a white background and is supposed to symbolise the four countries of the UK.
The TaxPayers' Alliance pressure group, which used Freedom of Information laws to uncover the cost of the new font, called it a 'total waste of money'.
Spokesman Matthew Elliott said: 'It's bad enough that quangos like the British Council spend so much of our hard-earned taxes, but they certainly shouldn't be frittering them away on things like this.
'This money could have spent on essential services, but instead it has been thrown away.' Continued
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Youngsters are being turned into a generation of neurotic under-achievers by the craze for encouraging them to talk about their feelings, it is claimed.
Instead of deepening their knowledge, pupils and students are being given 'circle-time' and lessons in happiness, warn academics.
The 'therapy culture' spreading through schools and universities means they are also encouraged to seek marking allowances and extra help for conditions such as reading difficulties dressed up as dyslexia.
In a new book, two academics say the craze for giving pupils therapy through education is leaving a generation self-obsessed, introverted and unable to take criticism.
Marxist Ideology!
Pupils are left 'infantilised', 'hapless' and unwilling to accept challenges to their ideas, according to Dr Dennis Hayes and Professor Kathryn Ecclestone of Oxford Brookes University.
Their stinging criticism in a book titled The Dangerous Rise of Therapeutic Education follows the introduction of lessons in 'social and emotional aspects of learning' in primary and secondary schools.
Ministers back the classes in the hope they will improve well-being and cut bullying and bad behaviour.
Teachers are meant to set aside classroom time for children to explore their feelings and develop self-awareness and empathy.
Building a Nation of Tree Huggers!
Primary schools are increasingly introducing 'circle time' which is described on the Government's teachers' website as individuals ' sitting down together with the purpose of furthering understanding of themselves and of one another'.
But the academics claim the initiatives risk backfiring.
Dr Hayes told the Times Higher Education journal: 'Therapeutic education promotes the idea that we are emotional, vulnerable and hapless individuals. It is an attack on human potential.'
Expressions of emotion are too often valued as highly as expressions of ideas, he warned.
In one case highlighted in the book, a child was found to be crying at night and when asked what was troubling her, replied that she wasn't sure but had to put something in the school's 'worry box' the next day.
Growing numbers of schools are said to be hiring 'life coaches' and one unnamed college in the Midlands instructed teachers not to write comments on students' work in case it makes them feel vulnerable.
Secondary students are expected to learn more than 100 'feeling' word definitions ranging from abandoned and frightened to proud and loved.
At university, 'the infantilisation of students reveals itself in the increased presence of parents on campus', said Dr Hayes.
Dr Hayes went on: 'This is happening across the board. Children are told to build their self-esteem and confidence before learning, instead of learning from the outer world and gaining confidence that way.
'Children are becoming neurotic and introverted. The more you obsess about your difficulties, the harder they are to put behind you.' News Source
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A Judge overseeing a pornography case suspended an obscenity trial after revelations he posted sexually explicit photos and videos on his own website.
Judge Alex Kozinski, chief judge of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals, granted a joint prosecution and defence motion to suspend the trial after prosecutors said they needed time to look into the issue.
The jury was ordered to return on Monday.
"I’m not going to say anything. The trial is ongoing," reports claim Kozinski said.
Kozinski heads the nation’s largest federal appeals court, serving nine western states, the territory of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands commonwealth.
He is presiding in a case against a porn movie distributor.
Fetishes
The defendant, Ira Isaacs, 57, is accused of violating obscenity laws by selling movies depicting bestiality and extreme fetishes involving faeces and urination.
Opening statements were under way yesterday morning when the Los Angeles Times’ Website reported that Kozinski’s personal site contained explicit material and that public access to it was blocked after he was interviewed about it.
Kozinski, 57, told the Times he thought the material, which included a video of a man cavorting with a sexually aroused farm animal and a picture of nude women on all fours painted to look like cows, couldn’t be seen by the public.
The judge said he didn’t believe any of the images were obscene.
"Is it prurient? I don’t know what to tell you," he told the newspaper. "I think it’s odd and interesting. It’s part of life."
The Times also described a wide range of other types of sexual imagery. Continued
The society the Lib Lab Cons created!
A mob of nearly 40 girls surrounded two schoolchildren on a bendy bus in south London and tried to drag them into the street, it emerged today.
The girl gang allegedly attacked a bus worker on the vehicle who intervened to protect the two victims, aged 13 and 14.
The woman staff member was beaten and severely bruised and was treated in hospital.
Eight children, seven of them aged 14, were reported to be at the centre of the trouble and are all believed to be from the same school.
The 40 children in the mob - which included two boys - are believed to have marched to Old Kent Road from their school.
They are suspected of carrying out another attack on a pupil in a nearby street before they ambushed the 453 bus which runs from Deptford to Marylebone.
The gang boarded the vehicle and attacked two pupils, attempting to drag them off the bus. The bus worker who intervened was said to be so traumatised by the attack in February that she could not work for a month.
Officers from the Met's Transport policing unit examined CCTV footage during an inquiry into the incident.
The assault comes amid fears of rising anti-social behaviour on London's buses.
Mayor Boris Johnson has made tackling the problem a priority and has funded an extra 490 Police Community Support Officers and police officers to patrol buses and stations.
Eight children, seven aged 14, are to appear at Camberwell Green Youth Court next week charged with affray. News Source
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After a lifetime of debilitating illness, he had finally achieved the happiness he craved.
A childhood polio survivor and long-term ME patient, Kevin Tripp had been given a new lease of life through the birth of his daughter Rianna five years ago.
But his years of painful struggle ended in appalling tragedy when he became the latest victim of Britain's yob culture - killed by a single punch after an alleged row over queue-jumping.
Police believe Mr Tripp was wrongly accused of queue-jumping at a supermarket checkout.
Mr Tripp, a slightly-built former structural engineer, suffered horrendous head injuries in the senseless attack at Sainsbury's in Merton, South-West London, on Tuesday night.
The 57-year-old died early yesterday after a life-support machine was switched off.
Yesterday his long-term partner Josephine James - Rianna's mother - sobbed uncontrollably outside the family home as a man of 37 appeared in court charged with murder.
His heartbroken daughter simply clutched a cuddly toy.
As they grieved, details emerged of how Mr Tripp had made the most of his life before being killed in front of shoppers and store staff.
His childhood friend Martin Godbold, 57, said: 'I've known Kevin since I was seven. He was a great guy, very clever, interested in everything and always willing to help you out. He suffered from polio as a child and was always very slight. I can't imagine anyone seeing him as a threat.' Continued
.... International ....
The wife of a Zimbabwean opposition party member has been brutally murdered in what is being labelled as one the most grotesque atrocities yet committed by Robert Mugabe’s regime.
Dadirai Chipiro, wife of Patson Chipiro who heads the Zimbabwean opposition party in Mhondoro district, had a hand cut off as well as both of her feet before a petrol bomb was thrown through her window.
The three men who pulled up outside her house were looking for her husband, who was in Harare, and left before coming back an hour later to kill her.
Her body was so badly burnt that she was not able to be properly placed in a coffin as her arm was burnt rigid.
Last Friday's killing was carried out as violence worsens in the run-off presidential elections in two weeks time.
It also follows the chilling brutality methods of Sirrra Leone rebel leader Foday Sankoh, whose trade-mark was to chop off hands and feet.
Pamela Pasvani, the 21-year-old pregnant wife of a local councillor in Harare was killed in a similar attack, which also claimed the life of the councillor six-year-old son.
Meanwhile local MDC supporters gathered around Mr Chipiro’s in a bid to protect him.
Mr Chipiro, 51, arrived back from Harare to find his three brick huts on fire.
“I was trying to put the fire out,” he said. “I thought my wife was hiding in the bushes.”
The Times said his four-year-old nephew, Admire, heard him calling her. “He ran to me. He said, ‘Auntie has been beaten and they threw her in the fire’.”
Officials also initially refused to give Mr Chipiro a copy of the police report which listed the cause of death.
“I am very frightened,” he said. “They want to kill me. But I have no alternative. My presence here as a leader is very important.
"If I leave, everyone else will leave. I intend to fight the battle, from here.” Continued
.... Money Matters ....
A record number of pensioners are getting jobs or staying in work because they cannot afford to retire, official figures revealed yesterday.
There are now 1.3million Britons who have reached the state pension age of 60 for women and 65 for men but still have to get up most days to go to work.
They make up the fastest-growing age group in the workforce, according to the Office for National Statistics.
In the last three months, they accounted for 46 per cent of the country's entire 76,000 increase in employment.
Experts said suggestions that these pensioners were all choosing to keep on working because they enjoyed the stimulation and the sense of achievement were wrong.
In reality, poor pensions, tiny savings and the soaring cost of living mean many simply cannot afford to retire unless they are prepared to live on the breadline.
Roberta MacCallum was among those. She retired from nursing three years ago but found herself back at work six months later.
She found the combined incomes of her state and NHS pension were not sufficient to pay her living costs.
The 64-year-old widow now works about 35 hours a week as an auxiliary nurse at Billericay Community Hospital in Essex for £1,000 a month. Continued
.... Armed Forces ....
Dozens of soldiers who took part in heavy firefights in Afghanistan have suffered hearing problems and may never be able to return to the frontline.
Around 240 troops from the 1st Battalion of the Royal Anglian Regiment - known as the Vikings - underwent hearing tests and 35 have been referred to specialists.
The problems were caused by the soldiers' close proximity to high-velocity machine-guns, mortars and anti-tank weapons during a series of intense battles with the Taliban last summer.
Defence experts said loss of the experienced soldiers at a time when there is a chronic shortage of combat troops would exacerbate what is already a "crisis" in troop numbers.
Earlier this month, defence figures disclosed that almost one thousand servicemen have left the Armed Forces since the start of the year.
The figures followed a report by the Commons Defence Committee which said it was "deeply concerned" that the forces had been operating above their resources for seven of the past eight years. Continued
.... NHS / Health ....
Tens of thousands of baby milk cartons have been recalled from shop shelves after it emerged infants are in danger of becoming violently ill.
A batch of more than 40,000 cartons of baby milk has been recalled after customers complained that the product had curdled, the Food Standards Agency said today.
SMA Nutrition has pulled 40,530 1 litre packs of SMA Gold ready-to-use liquid infant milk off shop shelves following 11 complaints.
The batch was delivered to stores across the UK. The packs have a best before date of 12 March 2009 and carry the code 06033G.
A spokesman for SMA Nutrition said customers complained of opening the packs to find the milk had separated and curdled.
Most customers did not use the milk, but two babies refused to feed and one vomited immediately after drinking the product.
The contaminated milk was still on supermarket shelves this morning, although the company became aware of the problem and alerted the FSA earlier this week.
One mother, Ellen Porritt, said her nine-month-old baby Ruby was "violently ill" after drinking the milk.
She said: "She was very sick three or four times. I thought it was a 24-hour bug.
"I gave her milk from a new carton the next day and she was repeatedly sick, projectile vomiting, all day."
The following day a third unopened carton exploded in her kitchen after she noticed it had started to expand.
SMA Nutrition told her to return the empty cartons by post and contacted her yesterday to confirm there was an unexplained problem with the product. Continued
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Almost £1 billion spent increasing choice and competition in the health service has not delivered any significant benefits for patients, an official report published today says.
Changes intended to introduce "market style" reforms in the NHS have delivered some improvements, the Audit Commission and Healthcare Commission concluded.
But there was still "some way to go before patients see any significant benefits", said Ian Kennedy, the chairman of the Healthcare Commission, who co-authored the report.
Around half of patients are still not being offered a choice about where they would like to be treated, the report found.
The changes have also failed to increase the number of patients being treated outside hospital, one of the key aims of the reforms.
Although there have been "significant improvements" in some areas, the report concluded that progress was "behind" what it might have been.
The reforms, brought in at different points since 2000, include allowing patients more choice about which hospital they visit, increased use of the private sector and paying hospitals a set rate for each procedure, encouraging them to treat more patients more efficiently.
But they were introduced with no clear "vision", the report found, and no system was set up to monitor or evaluate if they were working.
In 2006 ministers announced that patients would be allowed to choose between a limited number of hospitals for their care, a policy extended to all hospitals earlier this year.
However, the report found that only 50 per cent of patients were being offered any choice at all, well short of the government's target of 80 per cent.
The health service also does not collect enough information to allow patients a true choice, the report found. Continued
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A virulent "superbug" has killed eight patients at the same hospital in the past six months.
An investigation into cases at the Vale of Leven Hospital in Alexandria found that eight of the 54 patients who contracted Clostridium difficile, or C. diff, had died as a direct result.
The infection was a contributory factor in a further eight deaths and a review of hygiene procedures and the use of antibiotics - which can harm the body's defences against infection - is now underway.
A further six patients who contracted C. diff later died although the infection was not responsible.
The investigation by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde revealed that of the 54 patients treated for the superbug, 13 had it when they were admitted to the hospital.
It launched the inquiry in May amid fears that the infection had been passed between the Vale of Leven Hospital and the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley.
Dr Syed Ahmed, of the outbreak control team, said: "The overall number of C. diff cases within the six-month period is higher on average than we would expect, but we are particularly concerned about the number of deaths due to this infection. Continued
Thurssday 12th June 2008
The Government is expected to table a last-minute compensation deal to help push through the proposed 42-day detention without charge of terror suspects.
Home Office minister Tony McNulty said he was optimistic "common sense will prevail" but signalled the fresh concession by suggesting that terror suspects who were eventually freed without charge could be paid compensation.
It would provide for any suspect held for more than the current 28 days and subsequently not charged to receive £3,000 for each extra day they were held in custody, the BBC reported.
Frantic last-ditch negotiations are continuing as Prime Minister Gordon Brown's anti-terrorism measures approach their moment of truth in a key Commons vote.
Wednesday night's vote remains on a knife-edge, with Labour rebels insisting their numbers were holding strong.
The DUP - whose nine MPs could swing the result - will meet on Wednesday morning to discuss their course of action. There has been speculation that they are on the verge of doing a deal to back the extension - which would almost certainly prevent a Government defeat.
Government whips were said to be offering potential rebels their "heart's desire" in return for supporting the controversial proposals.
They are rumoured to have promised one backbencher that ministers would make representations at the United Nations over easing sanctions against the left-wing Cuban regime.
Another has apparently been offered extra help for miners affected by lung diseases.
"It's basically your heart's desire," said one leading rebel. "The idea is that people can back down with honour." News Source
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British Muslim parents are to blame for leaving their children open to the lure of Islamic extremism, according to an influential academic
Dr Farhan Nizami CBE, a key adviser on Islam to the Prince of Wales, accused British Muslims of failing to make sure their children learn to speak English or supporting them in their education.
He said this leaves them alienated from mainstream society and exposed to being groomed by radical Islamic groups.
It is the first time Dr Nizami, the director of the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, which has links with Oxford University, has spoken out about the failure of Muslims to integrate with British society.
The academic institution, whose patron is the Prince of Wales, carries considerable influence and aims to build bridges between Islam and the West.
His comments come just weeks after the Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, warned that radical Islam is filling the "moral vacuum" created by the decline of Christian values in Britain.
Despite the fears over the threat posed by foreign imams such as Abu Hamza and Omar Bakri, Dr Nizami claimed homegrown Muslims can be even more dangerous.
The four suicide bombers who murdered 52 people in London on July 7, 2005, were all born in Britain while the four Islamic terrorists jailed for plotting to blow up Bluewater and the Ministry of Sound with half a ton of fertiliser were all raised and schooled here. Continued
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Top-secret documents detailing the Government's latest intelligence on Al Qaeda were left on a train in a security blunder.
A senior official working in the Cabinet Office apparently left the highly sensitive material on a train from London to Surrey.
Across Whitehall, there was horror and disbelief that such classified information could have been so casually mislaid in the latest of a series of Government data lapses.
A police inquiry has been started.
In recent months, the personal details of 25million child benefit claimants, millions of learner drivers and hundreds of thousands of people who applied to join the Armed Forces have gone missing.
The latest loss was a huge embarrassment on a day that ministers were pushing contentious anti-terror laws through Parliament.
Security sources said the documents – prepared for the
Government's Joint Intelligence Committee – were of a type that should have left official premises only 'in locked boxes'.
One said: 'The number of people permitted to see this sort of material is very limited, around two dozen.'
A massive search was launched by the Metropolitan Police after the papers were reported missing on Tuesday, but they could not be found.
In the event, a passenger on the train spotted an orange envelope containing the papers abandoned on a seat and handed the documents to the BBC.
They included a top-secret assessment of Al Qaeda's 'vulnerabilities' and a separate 'damning' review of Iraq's security forces.
Classified as 'UK Top Secret', the intelligence on Al Qaeda is so sensitive that every document is understood to be individually numbered and marked 'for UK/U.S./Canadian and Australian eyes only'.
Security sources also expressed concern that informants and British security personnel on the ground could have been compromised if the documents had fallen into the wrong hands. Continued
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Gordon Brown scraped through a nail-biting vote on terror last night to win himself some desperately needed breathing room.
He narrowly escaped a catastrophic defeat that would have plunged his leadership into crisis after an epic day of horse-trading at Westminster.
But he was forced to rely on the votes of all nine Democratic Unionist MPs, who provided his entire majority when the Commons voted by 315 to 306 to extend terror detention.
The Speaker was forced to intervene after the vote when outraged Tory and Lib Dem MPs shouted "you've been bought" at the Northern Ireland MPs led by Rev Ian Paisley.
With an estimated 37 Labour backbenchers defying his Whip, Mr Brown had to settle for a win based on the votes Opposition MPs.
Last night MPs said victory had come at a considerable cost to his authority after he was forced to haggle with his own MPs to save his majority.
Everything from help for arthritic knees to the governorship on Bermuda was said to be up for grabs as Downing Street scrambled to avoid a disaster.
There were rumous of peerages and knighthoods on offer, while another MP was said to have secured a pledge that Britain would review sanctions against Cuba. News Source
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RAF Harrier jump jets were called in to bomb 236 tons of cannabis unearthed by British and Afghan commandos.
The haul, believed to be the biggest volume of drugs ever discovered, had an estimated street value of £225million.
Buried in vast trenches in the desert, it was found close to the Pakistan border.
Members of the Special Boat Service had brought petrol to burn the drugs. But when they saw the extent of the haul, they called up the RAF to bomb it.
Afghanistan's deputy Interior Minister, Lieutenant General Abdul Hadi Khalid, said yesterday: 'This is a new world record in the global war on drugs.'
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Radical British Muslims have formed chatrooms to discuss adopting orphans and bringing up children to be Islamic fighters, a study has found.
Discussions on a number of radical websites have asked how children should be brought up to be "mujahideen" and whether they should be pulled out of mainstream schools.
Other participants boast of how their children threaten to kill "kuffar" [non-believers] and complain that the Shakespeare being taught in schools is "full of homosexuality, fornication and adultery."
The Centre for Social Cohesion says radical Muslims are using the internet to create a "virtual Islamic caliphate" and calls on the government to launch a crack down.
According to the Centre for Social Cohesion, a think tank which has been monitoring radical websites, users of a site called www.islambase.co.uk discussed the possibility of adopting children and bringing them up on May 3 this year.
The site, which is based at a post office box in Glasgow and protected by a password, is used by the followers of the radical preacher Omar Bakri Mohammed, who lived in North London until he fled to the Lebanon in 2005.
"Hamza", one visitor to the site on 23 March this year, wrote about a friend's account of what his nine-year-old son, Rashid, had told him he would say if his father was killed by the kuffar [non-believers].
He said the boy told him: "I don't care if you kill me cause I'm not afraid of you or to die for Allah, and I'll have a lot of wives in jennah [heaven] insha allah and I'll be with my dad in jennah too and we will have fun doing what we want there if Allah lets us. Continued - Please Read News in Full
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Police community support officers have had little effect in reducing crime, according to a scathing new report
It said PCSOs - nicknamed Blunkett's Bobbies after the Home Secretary who created them - spend too much time filling out paper work in the office, rather than walking the streets.
A policemen's leader even described the civilian officers as a 'failed experiment' and called for money to be spent on 'real police officers instead'.
Shocking figures released last year showed that, on average, each PCSO solves one crime every six years.
The civilian officers hand out fines for anti-social behaviour, public disorder or motoring offences at a rate of one every four months.
In several areas, PCSOs failed to detect a single crime or write a solitary fixed penalty notice over the past year.
A fully-sworn police officer detects an average of 11 crimes a year.
Yesterday's report, by Kent Police Authority, endorsed those findings.
It said: 'Other than for vehicle crime, there appears to be little relationship between the presence of a PCSO and a reduction in crime.'
Of those members of the public questioned, 'only about six in ten felt that PCSOs represented value for money. Reasons for this included lack of powers, high staff turnover and restricted deployment hours.'
The report also said that PCSOs, 'do not appear to be the best option currently for reducing negative perceptions of anti-social behaviour'. Continued
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Clogthorpe District Council's Ways And Means Committee met in secret emergency session last night to discuss the growing wheeliebin crisis and its possible detriment to public order.
Chair (Cllr Bulge), opening proceedings, said that the peace had already been disturbed by a dustbin half full of potato peelings being chucked through the windows of the Civic Centre.
Chair wouldn't care, but it wasn't even a Tuesday, the day designated by Council for the disposal of kitchen waste in blue bins.
On a point of information, Cllr Mz Roz said she would remind Chair that potato peelings were not kitchen waste.
As pointed out in the four-colour leaflet Waste Not, Want Not, the final draft of which Cllr Mz Roz had edited herself, potato peelings were classed as pig food, and thus put out for collection every third Friday.
Cllr Nepworth said he blamed the binmen. In Cllr Nepworth's day, there had been no such thing as dustbins, of whatever colour.
There was a brick-built structure at the end of each terrace, called a midden. And into the midden went potato peelings, tea leaves, cinders, and what had you. And when the midden was full, workmen with shovels came round and emptied it into the corporation dustcart.
That's what these picky binmen ought to be doing. Shovelling up dead rats. That would learn them. They did not know they were born.
Cllr Hopcraft said it had little or nowt to do with bolshie binmen, it had everything to do with Brussels.
These jumped-up Europeans had only to snap their podgy fingers and say: 'Right, we want them green bins of sustainable turnip tops emptied every second Wednesday and not before', and Clogthorpe had to jump to it, by order.
Chair said it was a pity there was no EC ruling for some councillors he could name to keep their traps shut. Clogthorpe's bin policy had nowt to do with Europe and all to do with council guidelines, as from time to time modified.
Chair responded that, no, it bloody wasn't. Guidelines were brought in to be followed, not having a coach and four driven through them.
The public would just have to learn, same as a dog had to learn how to do new tricks. They had to know who was boss.
Cllr Mz Roz said while she was in favour of educating the public to within an inch of its life, wasn't all this talk about dogs learning tricks a shade too near Animal Farm for popular consumption?
Chair said yes, Cllr Mz Roz was not the only one to have seen Clogthorpe puts the lid on the wheelie-bin crisis Animal Farm.
It was this cartoon show, wasn't it, where these animals take over the farm. It had seemed a bit far-fetched to Chair when he had seen part of it on rental DVD.
But for Cllr Mz Roz's information, they was not dogs, they was pigs, so what was she rabbitting on about?
Cllr Boothroyd said putting dogs and pigs aside, what all this came down to was who was running the borough, its democratically elected council or the vociferous minority what went around putting bins out on the wrong day and sticking empty sauce bottles in the wrong containers? They wanted dealing with.
Chair assured Cllr Boothroyd that they would be dealt with, Committee need fear not.
Take that woman in Conurbation Parade what had refused to pay a £100 on-the-spot fine for her bin being overflowing, just because it hadn't been emptied for three weeks.
She was up in court tomorrow, when she would be lucky to get away without a custodial sentence.
Cllr Boothroyd said not only that, she had been in the media and made a laughing stock of Clogthorpe District Council. Couldn't owt be done about that state of affairs?
Chair said powers were being sought to prevent local authorities being made a laughing stock of, either over wheelie bins or owt else, with mandatory sentencing starting in the range of a £5,000 fine and/or 12 months' imprisonment.
Cllr Boothroyd said he would drink to that. Anybody for the Limping Cockroach?
Meeting adjourned, and was immediately mobbed by angry council tax payers over their bins not being emptied since April. News Source
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Reader eMail Comment
After reading about the refusal to empty wheelie bins because of it being too heavy/lid open/wrong type of waste etc. last week here in North Yorkshire the bin man took out five sacks of rubbish from my storage container and put them into a wheelie bin (the wheelie bin is my own private property).
He then took it out off my driveway and down to the end of the street, about 100ft away, took out the sacks and disappeared leaving the wheelie bin at the end of the street, i would not have minded him using it if he had brought it back.
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Thousands of young thugs convicted of sex offences and violence get off with community sentences, shock figures reveal.
Less than half are locked up, despite the seriousness of their crimes. The revelations will fuel fears teenage louts get off lightly.
A total of 860 young offenders were sentenced for sex attacks in 2006, but 474 – 55 per cent – were given community sentences. A further 15,016 under18s were found guilty of violent offences, but 8,372, or 56 per cent, got off with a community sentence.
Shadow Justice Minister Edward Garnier said: “The public has little confidence in community sentences – and victims rarely see them as appropriate.”
But the Ministry of Justice said: “For many offenders, community-based punishments are proven to be more effective.” News Source
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Labour was accused of being in “absurd” denial last night as it prepares to officially slap down a devastating House of Lords report on the impact of mass immigration.
Liam Byrne, Immigration Minister, will tomorrow claim that the findings of a powerful group of peers were “overspun” from “under-done” analysis.
In April, the House of Lords report ripped to shreds every economic argument the Govern-ment has put forward for its open-door policy and called for an annual cap.
But Mr Byrne will once again insist that immigrants are an economic benefit and will try to shrug off the study, which was compiled by leading economists and two former chancellors.
Despite this, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith yesterday admitted to the Cabinet that immigration had impacted on public services.
see even though: Labour finally admits minuscule benefit each migrant brings to Britain - just 58p a week
And in a speech today the Communities Secretary, Hazel Blears, will set out how the Government plans to deal with that impact – a clear acknowledgement that immigration has had an effect.
She revealed in April that one in four people living in Boston, Lincs, were from eastern Europe – believed to be the highest proportion of immigrants in any town or city in the country.
Shadow immigration minister Damian Green said last night that Mr Byrne was “floundering in the face of the evidence, denying the facts while still trying to sound tough.”
Mr Green said: “This cross-party committee, filled with senior Labour peers and experts, has made it clear that the basis of the Govern-ment’s arguments are wrong and that Labour’s weakness has let down the country.
“The committee even supported Conservative calls for a limit on immigration.”
And Sir Andrew Green, chairman of Migrationwatch UK, said: “This is an absurd attempt to counter-spin.
“This committee is one of the most authoritative in parliament.”
Mr Byrne, who attended yesterday’s Cabinet meeting, has already clearly signalled his view. In a speech last week he said the Lords’ Economic Affairs report was wrong.
And he added: “No matter which way you look at it, there is a good economic case for carefully controlled migration.”
A Downing Street spokesman said yesterday’s Cabinet meeting was “mainly on the potential benefits” immigration brought to the country and the economy, but “also relevant for ministers round the table was the impact on public services”.
The Lords’ report provided a point-by-point destruction of the supposed benefits of immigration to the UK.
It concluded there was no economic benefit and called on the Government to impose a limit, which ministers repeatedly ignore.
It said immigrants themselves were the “biggest winners” of current policy and dismissed claims that migrants were needed to fill jobs and support the growing demand for pensions.
It further warned that the in-flow could be forcing up unemployment among young Britons and pushing down wages.
The committee included two former Tory Chancellors, Lord Lawson and Lord Lamont, and leading economist Lord Layard. News Source
Reader Submitted Link. Thank You
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Police and hospitals struggling to cope with an unprecedented influx of migrants will be denied extra Government cash, Communities Secretary Hazel Blears said today.
Pubic services had been promised a share of the 'tens of millions' raised by a new Migration Trust Fund, dubbed a 'tax' on new arrivals.
Announcing the plan in February, ministers indicated it would help schools, health authorities and town halls finding it hard to cope with a sudden surge in foreign workers.
After crisis talks with chief constables in April, police forces were also told they would be able to bid for a share of the cash, raised by increased charges on visa fees and other migrant services.
But Mrs Blears today said the cash should instead be spent on integrated websites for migrants, on English language training or other, broader, projects.
Making a major speech on immigration in Haringey, north London, she said: 'I think we can make the most of it by not providing bits and bobs to individual hospitals and local police forces.'
It is certain to disappoint Chief Constables, who believed they had scored a significant victory after holding talks with Home Secretary Jacqui Smith in April.
Cambridgeshire chief constable Julie Spence indicated at the time that Miss Smith had said police forces would be entitled to some extra cash from the fund.
Blears admitted in the speech that some parts of the country needed special help to cope with the influx from overseas, mainly Eastern Europe.
Specialist teams will be sent into hotspots, with the first deployed later this summer.
A rural council in Norfolk will receive three experts from the Department for Communities and Local Government to ease the problems associated with new arrivals from abroad.
Mrs Blears said she was confident that the specialist cohesion teams would successfully tackle immigration related problems.
The first pilot team will begin working in Breckland District Council in the summer and will remain there for about three months.
Activists?
We are sending in some specialists who have a background in grassroots activism.
'They want to learn from the good things that are going on in Breckland but also help to build new relationships and make a better atmosphere in that town.' Continued
Immigrant experts drafted in to help councils cope with influx?
Would that be activists that are experts in shutting up those with legitimate concerns to Immigration perhaps? Why not send in the EU Gestapo next and be done with it! (Ed)
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Arrogant Government's Final Insult!
Low-skilled Britons are out of work because they lack motivation and 'employability', not because of competition with foreign workers, the Government said today.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) insisted that the arrival of a million eastern Europeans in the last four years has not damaged wages or led to an increase in unemployment among natives.
But some Brits were on the dole because of 'issues around basic employability skills, incentives and motivation', its report said.
The attack on the native workforce came as separate Government research indicated that immigration has contributed £1,650 to every British person's output over the last 10 years.
Official research in the wake of a critical House of Lords report indicated that last year immigration added £300 to Britain's gross domestic product per capita.
Really? See: Migrants claim £170 million in benefits
It followed a £30 increase 10 years ago, followed by nine further years each seeing an additional rise of £30 a year, giving a grand total of £1,650, the Government economists said.
The research will be interpreted as an attempt to undermine the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee report, published in April.
It said said there had been 'little or no impact' on economic wellbeing as a result of immigration, and called for a cap on numbers allowed into Britain.
The parliamentary inquiry, which included two former Chancellors and several other Cabinet ministers, was widely seen as a blow to the Government's stance on immigration.
GDP per capita is the value of all goods and services produced within a nation in a year divided by the average population for the same year, and is often taken as an indicator of wages.
The report looked at the impact on native workers of the European Union expansion in 2004 to include the so-called 'A8' countries, such as Poland.
It added: 'A first look at the data suggests that there is no evidence of any clear or strong association between A8 migration and native labour market outcomes, whether measured by employment or wages - even among those (low paid and low skilled) workers, where we would expect the largest impact.'
Sir Andrew Green, chairman of Migrationwatch, which campaigns against mass immigration, said: 'The very limited economic benefits of immigration need to be weighed against the massive impact on our society.
'For most of us, it's clearly not worth a candle.' Continued
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An influx of hundreds of thousands of foreigners is fuelling social tensions in parts of the country which were totally unprepared for large-scale immigration, the Government has admitted.
Hazel Blears, the Communities and Local Government secretary, said teams of Whitehall officials were being sent to areas where there was "friction" caused by the arrival of large numbers of foreigners.
A Government study looking at the social impact of migration found that new immigrants to the UK accounted for nearly half of the population growth over the past five years.
Some 860,000 people swelled Britain's population from European Union countries, as well as Commonwealth and other states, it said.
It acknowledged that the scale of this migration had increased public concern in some parts of the country which were unused to large communities of foreigners. Schools and hospitals were often hardest hit.
The report - Managing the Impacts of Migration - A Cross-Government Approach - found large scale migration "has affected many areas with little previous experience of large migrant communities".
It said: "In some places it is the pace and scale of change which have an impact on local communities and services", while "other places experiencing significant migration for the first time may not have the institutions and programmes in place to help them manage that change."
Particular pressure was being felt in schools and hospitals, where migrants were failing to register with their local GP and instead going for basic treatment to Accident and Emergency departments in hospitals.
The report acknowledged there were concerns about "health tourism" - where migrants come to the UK specifically to take advantage of free health services on the NHS. Continued
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The Home Office squandered £29million of taxpayers' money on a flagship giant asylum centre which was never built - including hiring in a 'financial advisor' who charged almost £16,000 a month.
A scathing report from MPs exposes a catalogue of costly blunders and lambasts the failing department for a 'startling absence of common sense' in one of its most embarrassing fiascos of recent years.
Seven years after officials started working on the ambitious plans to house thousands of asylum seekers on a former RAF station at Bicester, Oxfordshire, the site remains empty and derelict with 'no benefit' to the taxpayer.
Vast sums were paid to consultants, private advisors and contractors and when ministers pulled the plug on the entire project in 2005 they were forced to hand over millions more in cancellation fees.
Officials failed to understand how fierce local opposition and legal challenges would drag out the process, and made no attempt to plan for future uses of the site or the risk that other immigration policy changes would scupper the scheme.
Last night the Home Office claimed the disaster had led to an 'overall positive impact for the public' because officials had learned important lessons. Continued
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Taxpayers are forking out £28million a year to keep Britain’s 78 Euro MPs on the Brussels gravy train.
The Sun reveals today how they can pocket up to £360,000 each in pay and perks without having to account for a penny. That doesn’t even cover the cost of their chauffeur-driven limos, subsidised restaurants and jet-set junkets in the European Parliament.
We uncovered a string of ruses some MEPs use. Astonishingly, most are above board.
On top of their £61,820 salaries - the same as a Westminster MP – they get a daily £229 allowance each time they turn up. That is £ 45,000 just for clocking on over 40 weeks.
They can also claim £700 to travel home, whether they drive, go by train or take a low-cost flight. There is £162,000-a-year for secretarial services, which some pay to family.
And they get £39,000 for office costs, and a general allowance of £30,833 for “office management expenditure”.
Tory leader David Cameron sent a sleaze-buster to Brussels yesterday to lay down the law to his 28 MEPs.
Hugh Thomas was drafted in after leader Giles Chichester and chief whip Den Dover were forced to quit after being caught with their noses in the trough.
Neil O’Brien, of think-tank Open Europe, said: “Sooner or later MEPs will have to come clean about their expenses.
"Any who milked the system will be found out." News Source
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A Secret handbook for all 785 MEPs reveals they can claim a total of £150million a year between them in expenses.
With all allowances, fiddles and subsidised perks, we fork out £2BILLION – or £2.6m for each MEP. Five senior Tories have already been accused of milking the expenses system.
Critics say the only way to halt the abuse is to force MEPs to show expense receipts. But one MEP said: "I can’t live on a £61,000-a-year salary.
"If they want to cut our exes, we’ll need a considerable pay rise." News Source
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Lancaster Unity Spreading misinformation
This evening Ripley council refused the application for the Red White and Blue festival
The BNP got a sharp kick in the teeth once again this evening. The Amber council sitting in Ripley Town hall, refused the application for a licence to hold the RedWhite and Blue festival in Denby Village in August.
LIES / MISLEADING: As above, only a licence for entertainment and alcohol was refused!
Local residents and objectors from round the country turned out to the Council chambers to oppose the fascists. At least 40 police and fit team made a cordon to keep left and right apart.
LIES / MISLEADING: According to ''this is Derbyshire'' Security at the meeting was tight with 30 police officers on patrol, some with recording equipment filming the protesters. (Not keeping the Left and Right apart) Also they should learn to count, at least 40 police officers?
Durring the application the police stated that due to the obvious confrontation that would ensue between left and right during the gathering they were opposing the event, unless a Glastonbury style 10 feet high wall is errected with floodlights and so many badge security per 100 attendees.
REASON: Craig Sutherland, the force's solicitor, told councillors at Ripley Town Hall: “We have received information that left-wing groups would be mobilising for the purpose of demonstration and some are going to seek violence and attack the BNP.”
This proves that Lancaster Unity are nothing more than Marxist propaganda peddlers and wouldn't know the truth if it hit them in the nugget! Furthermore what civilised person would physically attack an event using violence were children would be present! Hmn' regular Marxist heroes eh?
The BNP spat their dummies well and truly out on the floor and stormed out. Alan Warner the Denby Parish councilor former tory and BNP convert who has hosted the event in the past scurried away with his body guard Clarke in tow.
Now now children' behave!
Clarke in his ill fitting suit, whilst sweating profusely claimed loudly to the council that the police were clearly in cahoots with the left.
Strange' no mention of this in ''This is derbyshire''
Members of the BNP whilst hiding behind their children at the front of the town hall looked on in despair at yet another victory for local residents and the Nottingham Stop the BNP and anti fascists across the country.
LIES / MISLEADING: Not a victory considering the BNP decided to withdraw the application themselves! “We have come to the conclusion that this whole process has now become a farce,” he said. “We have been forced to jump through even more hoops. “We are going to withdraw this application and this event will go ahead without a licence.” Mr Walker and five other members of the BNP then walked out of the meeting.
You can read the Real News Report here
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Conservative MEPs gave warning yesterday of a “timebomb” of further damaging disclosures about their expenses when they are forced to apply Westminster-style transparency.
Some complained about the levels of openness being demanded by Hugh Thomas, the party’s head of compliance, who was sent to Brussels after the resignation of Giles Chichester, the Tory group leader, for channelling £445,000 to a company of which he was a paid director.
With half a dozen MEPs already facing questions over their use of EU expenses, The Times understands that bitter infighting broke out at the MEPs’ private meeting with Mr Thomas yesterday.
Some have blamed a think-tank with close links to William Hague, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, for fuelling a witch-hunt. Older hands fear that damaging disclosures are being encouraged to prepare for the sackings of several MEPs seen as too comfortable in Brussels and not sufficiently Eurosceptic. One MEP said: “I am hearing that they want to remove the whip from two people, which will then be seen as a strong response to all the revelations.”
David Cameron is understood to be angry that the Conservative lead over Labour in opinion polls could be jeopardised by the revival of allegations of Tory sleaze against his MEPs. Continued
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An Asian police officer who has won more than £300,000 in three payouts from the Met over racial discrimination is today seeking more compensation, a week after his last victory.
Detective Sergeant Gurpal Virdi, who won an apology from former Met Commissioner Sir John Stevens, now claims he is being victimised after returning to work.
He claims that officers are determined to hold back his career.
He also has two further claims outstanding.
The 49-year-old Sikh, from west London, says he has been ostracised and that appraisals - on which a future bid for promotion would be based - did not reflect his work.
Last Tuesday Det Sgt Virdi, who has worked for the Met for 26 years and is in the Specialist Crime Directorate, won £70,400 in compensation after being passed over for promotion to detective inspector.
In August 2000, he was awarded £150,000 by another tribunal for racial discrimination when he was unfairly dismissed by the Met.
Today's case in Central London Employment Tribunal in Holborn relates to the first four months after he returned to work last July.
His solicitor, Arpita Dutt, of Russell, Jones and Walker, said: 'It's not about the money - it's about what's happened.
'He believes he has been treated differently as a result of him bringing the most recent proceedings.
'This has resulted in him being held back in terms of career and development.
'He has tried to resolve that internally but to no avail and therefore feels he has no option but to return to the employment tribunal and challenge the organisation, expose the victimisation and gain justice which he feels he is not getting within the Metropolitan Police Service. We are confident of success.' Continued
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The world's most stupid thief? Mugger snatches necklace on tram then admires reflection in CCTV lens
This is the moment when a mugger provided police with an unmistakable clue to his identity - by admiring his reflection in the lens of a CCTV camera.
The image shows the thief moments after he had stolen a £200 silver necklace and bracelet from a 16-year-old boy.
Rather than escape, he decided to try on the jewellery, apparently unaware - or unconcerned - that he was being filmed by the camera he was gazing into.
The resulting image shows his face clearly.
Today, detectives appealed for anyone who can identify the mugger to come forward.
The robbery happened on a tram in Bromley. The victim was with his girlfriend and another boy when they were approached by the youth.
The mugger demanded that the boy show him a bracelet he was wearing, then grabbed it before asking to see the necklace, which he also snatched.
After putting on the jewellery, the robber took at least 15 seconds to admire his reflection.
When he made to get off the tram his victim asked for his jewellery back but the youth claimed he had a knife and would stab him.
Police said the boy is very upset as the necklace was given to him by his late mother and so has huge sentimental value.
Dc Dan Arundell, of British Transport Police's robbery squad, said: "The CCTV images are very clear.
"It was quite clear that he was checking himself out in the reflection of the CCTV camera.
"The general consensus is that he is not the brightest spark. He was there for a long time and either didn't care or wasn't aware he was being filmed." Continued
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Amy Winehouse's husband tried to silence a pub landlord he had attacked with a £200,000 bribe, a court has heard.
Blake Fielder-Civil, 26, attacked James King at his pub, The Macbeth, in Hoxton, east London, along with Michael Brown.
But their victim was ready to be "bought off" and accepted the bribe to save his attackers from jail despite suffering a fractured cheekbone, Snaresbrook Crown Court heard.
Prosecutor Sean Larkin said that King, 36, from Risley in Derbyshire, had agreed to "effectively throw the case and not turn up" so both men would be found not guilty of grievous bodily harm with intent.
Mr Larkin said: "What we can say based on the evidence is that the deal was that Mr King would prepare what is known as a withdrawal or retraction statement saying he no longer wished to pursue the prosecution, that he would not turn up to give evidence to the trial, that he would leave the country so that the court or the police would not be able to find him to bring him to court for the trial."
Two middle men, Anthony Kelly and James Kennedy helped to broker the deal, the court was told.
Mr Larkin added: "Mr King expected to be paid something in the order of £200,000 and the middle men, Mr Kelly and Mr Kennedy obviously expected to get a cut of it. There was talk of £20,000 and the attackers Mr Brown and Mr Fielder-Civil expected to be found not guilty and that was their private deal."
King later told police he had been intimidated.
The alleged plot came to light when a tabloid newspaper was contacted by Kelly and Kennedy.
Aware that Fielder-Civil had "news value" through his Grammy winning wife, the men told the Daily Mirror there was a "bigger story" than the beating and claimed that King was being paid to skip town to save the attackers jail, Mr Larkin told the jury.
The brawl, which happened in June 2006, was caught on CCTV and Kelly and Kennedy allegedly tried to sell those images to the paper. Continued
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A shopper was fighting for his life last night after being viciously attacked by a man who accused him of queue-jumping in Sainsbury's.
Horrified customers, including young children, saw the 57-year-old man punched to the ground and left unconscious in a pool of blood.
Detectives were preparing to open a murder investigation last night as the unnamed victim - who has a young child - was not expected to survive massive head injuries.
The sickening attack happened at the Sainsbury's superstore in Merton, South West London shortly after 7pm on Tuesday.
A row apparently broke out when a woman accused a fellow shopper of queue-jumping as she lined up at the check-out.
CCTV reportedly shows her phoning her boyfriend, who arrived a few minutes later. The woman then allegedly pointed to the man she thought had pushed in.
The victim, who was with a group of people, had no chance to defend himself.
He was knocked down by a powerful punch and suffered horrendous injuries as his head hit the floor.
He was briefly resuscitated in hospital but lapsed into a coma.
A police source said: 'There can be no more chilling example of yob Britain than an innocent man being subjected to a vicious attack in a supermarket over something so trivial.
'The victim is in a very poor way and it will be an absolute miracle if he lives.'
A man said: 'The victim was simply standing at the entrance to the shopfloor. He was hit once with a powerful punch and slumped to the floor.'
Security guards were surrounding the two-storey building yesterday as detectives examined CCTV footage of the incident.
The victim, who is believed to live locally, was on a life support machine at St George's Hospital in nearby Tooting. Continued
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Petrol stations will run dry over the weekend causing havoc for motorists if a tanker drivers’ strike goes ahead.
About 1,000 Shell garages – one in 10 of all filling stations – will be hit by the four-day walkout due to start on Friday.
The strike would be a disaster for motorists because fuel shortages could push record petrol prices even higher. With non-Shell outlets braced for a rush of extra customers, Gordon Brown and the petrol industry urged motorists not to panic buy.
In an attempt to prevent the chaos spiralling out of control, the Government yesterday moved to reassure the public by invoking emergency measures to try to safeguard petrol supplies.
But, despite the frantic preparations behind the scenes to minimise disruption, some forecourt's will inevitably run out of fuel.
The Unite union and two haulage firms are holding talks with Acas today in an attempt to thrash out a pay deal. The drivers want a 13 per cent pay rise while their employers are offering 6.8 per cent.
PetrolPrices.com founder Brendan McLoughlin warned: “If the dispute isn’t resolved, this could be a disaster for motorists.
“Even the Government have admitted that some stations will run dry, which will inevitably push prices up even further.”
A Business Department spokesman agreed it was “inevitable” that some petrol stations would run out of fuel if the strike goes ahead.
“If the strike were to affect other retailers it would have a more significant impact,” he added. News Source
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Striking tanker drivers plan to cut off supplies from major oil refineries in an attempt to escalate a dispute that has already led to queues on the nation's forecourts.
The drivers for Shell will urge unionised tanker drivers for rival oil companies not to cross their picket lines during the four-day action starting on Friday.
This threatens to multiply dramatically the effect of the disruption caused by only 650 Shell workers.
Union organisers believe a picket-line blockade of terminals, depots and refineries could lead to a crisis not seen since the fuel protests of autumn 2000.
Airports will also be hit. Luton, which is understood to be supplied by Shell, is among those being targeted.
Members of the Unite union employed by two firms working on Shell contracts - Hoyer UK and Suckling - are due to walk out over pay from 6am on Friday until 6am the following Tuesday.
By law, only six pickets can protest at their place of work - which for many drivers includes refineries and oil terminals.
But strikers from Unite believe that drivers for other companies will back the Shell drivers by refusing to cross picket lines where they share facilities.
Among the depots at risk are Kingsbury terminal in Birmingham, Killingholme refinery near Hull, Stanlow refinery at
Ellesmere Port in the North West and Grangemouth in Scotland.
Last-ditch talks, led by conciliation service ACAS, are being held at a secret location, understood to be a hotel in Hook, Hampshire. Continued
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Brown was given an embarrassing warning by the EU yesterday because his budget deficit broke its rules.
Brussels started disciplinary proceedings because the difference between spending and revenue hit 3.2 per cent of national wealth in March, above the three per cent cap agreed to help keep Europe's economies in shape.
It could rise to 3.4 per cent next year because of the Government's 'fiscal relaxation', a routine report on the UK economy predicted.
The EU allows for 'exceptional' short-term jumps in national deficits. But the European Commission said Britain's economic situation does not qualify.
The Commission monitors the economies of all 27 EU countries as part of a growth and stability pact.
It cannot fine the Treasury because Britain is not part of the euro but it warned Mr Brown to curb borrowing, cut spending or both.
Britain is the only EU country to face censure this year but warnings have been issued to France and Germany in the past and Hungary is also running an excessive deficit.
Eurocrats blamed the Prime Minister's plans to finance income tax cuts through extra borrowing. News Source
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Unemployment rose at its fastest rate for two years as Britain's economic crisis starts to claim its victims, official figures revealed today.
The number of people who do not have a job - but want to work - jumped 38,000 to 1.64million in the three months to the end of April.
Today economists warned this is the calm before the storm, a major worry for cash-strapped families already struggling to make ends meet.
Vicky Redwood, UK economist at Capital Economics, warned: 'The recent rises are likely to be just the tip of the iceberg.
'The risk of a vicious circle of falling house prices and rising unemployment is growing by the day.'
By the end of next year, she predicts unemployment will hit 2.3million, the highest level since 1996 when John Major was still in power.
Today's figures, from the Office for National Statistics, follow warnings from the Bank of England that unemployment could rise sharply.
A recent survey by the Bank found the number of bosses planning to recruit new workers had dropped to its lowest level since records began in 1997.
It also found evidence of bosses refusing to fill job vacancies which come available when a person resigns, retires or dies.
Other examples of desperate cost-cutting include bosses relying on cheaper temporary workers, even in management roles.
In a red alert, the Bank said: 'There was more evidence this month [May] that the labour market was starting to turn.'
One of the worst hit sectors will be the property sector, which includes everybody from estate agents to housebuilders. Continued
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A Tory councillor was forced to apologise today after blaming immigrants for littering.
Lucy Ivimy, who sits on Hammersmith & Fulham council, was accused of racism after sending an email calling for Indians to be taught that throwing rubbish from windows is "not acceptable behaviour".
But local residents at Woodford Court estate, a high-rise tower block in Shepherd's Bush, said there was no proof that Indian immigrants were responsible for tossing rubbish from windows into the communal gardens below.
The littering prompted Miss Ivimy, 53, to send an email to housing officials following a residents' association meeting last week in which she wrote: "I think we need to a) sort out some regular cleaning up of the garden and b) conduct an educational exercise to tell people not to throw stuff out of the window - particularly foreign-born residents.
"I know that in India throwing rubbish out of a window and total disregard for the cleanliness of a public area is normal behaviour and I dare say a number wou ld change behaviour if firmly told that in London this is not acceptable behaviour."
The email, however, drew widespread criticism from opposition councillors and residents on the estate.
Stephen Cowan, leader of the Labour group on the council, said Miss Ivimy had no proof to back up her claims.
He said: "Across the board it's a minority of residents who throw rubbish out of windows and leave it in corridors.
"They are from all backgrounds and there is continuous education about what is acceptable behaviour, but it is completely wrong to say it is just people from India and all this shows is her inherent prejudice." Continued
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The French Government has apparently decided that it doesn’t much like being democratic, and that it would rather like to censor the Internet instead.
Not content with simply limiting itself to blocking despicable child sex abuse, a move three major ISPs in the US also agreed to today, the French government feels it necessary to go a radical step further and decide for its citizens whether or not they can view content it considers inappropriately racist and or linked to terrorism.
This is the real cloak and dagger stuff! Websites that may be anti-Immigrant, Anti-EU or speak out against the EU / Government will be labeled as ' Race hate Site' that’s a fact! Why? Because apparently UKTabloid falls under this category on some Internet protection software!
Recently when I purchased a Laptop I tried to access UKTabloid and found it was blocked, In the Security software which was already installed on the laptop I had to access the option and click on the Race Hate check box to unblock the access! The security software accesses an Internet database online, checks and updates the software on your computer.
This means that anyone can accuse a website such as UKT or any other that's providing information to the public of being Racist, Hate crime etc and get them blocked!
How UKTabloid could have fallen under this we don't know considering we provide just a news summary and a link to a news item already published by the mainstream media! That makes every news media out there guilty of being racist in that case does it not?
They can now effectively censor anyone and simply use the hate crime excuse to do so! Of course if UKT was really racist it would have been prosecuted years ago! Welcome to George Orwell's 1984 It's already here in the UK! (Ed)
In fact, worse still is that any site is now game for a French blockade, as Sarkozy’s government is inviting people to send in huge long lists of sites which offend their delicate sensibilities. The French government, which will purportedly be able to receive complaints from Internet users in real time, will be able to add sites to a so called “black list”, which it will then force national ISPs to block.
The move, announced by France’s Interior Minister, Michel Alliot-Marie, is France’s way of showing it is indeed taking a strong stand against cyber-criminality, but it seems that the line between ‘strong’ and ‘authoritarian’ is a little fuzzy on this one.
Alliot-Marie, only caring to justify the block on child sex abuse sites, noted “Other democracies have done it. France could wait no longer". She added that all of France’s Internet Service Providers had agreed to comply with the new regulations which go into effect as of September.
The minister vehemently denied that the French government was turning itself into "a Big Brother of the Internet" and promised that the "fundamental liberty that is Internet access" would continue to thrive. As long as people only see the sites the government allows them to see, of course. News Source
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.... International ....
A barely-veiled threat by Robert Mugabe promises more violence in the run-up to the second round of Zimbabwe's presidential election.
The ZANU-PF leader said more war 'veterans' would be sent to campaign in some opposition areas in the run-up to the June 27 vote which has already been marred by bloodshed and murder.
Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has accused ZANU-PF of widespread attacks on his supporters, but says he is still confident he will win after beating Mugabe in the first round.
ZANU-PF officials in the southern Masvingo province, where the ruling party lost several supposedly 'safe' parliamentary seats told Zimbabwe state television they had stepped up their campaign against "troublesome spots where MDC structures had taken root".
Major Alex Mudavanhu, ZANU-PF chairman for Masvingo, said: "We are setting up units of war veterans to go to those areas to fan out the MDC, to campaign for President Mugabe, to confront and talk to some company managers who are openly supporting these MDC structures. Continued
.... Health 'n' Safety ....
Fireballs and collapsing masonry may be among the hazards facing firemen, but it seems a greater threat to their health is sport - in particular volleyball.
A list of injuries reported to Health and Safety officials for one county's firemen shows that more than one in three were sustained in the gym or on the sportsfield.
Of 73 incidents disclosed by Essex County Fire & Rescue Service last year, 17 took place while fighting fires or rescuing members of the public.
However, 25 involved exercise, with group games of volleyball particularly hazardous and blamed for eight injuries.
The report shows that a fireman broke his neck and left shoulder playing football, while a five-a-side game ended with a man with broken ribs.
Another hurt his hand after tripping over an exercise mat and a second injured his back on a rowing machine.
Officers rushing to answer their pagers led to four injuries, including one officer falling from a kerb.
The figures released under the Freedom of Information Act also reveal that a fireman strained his lower back while carrying a ladder during a cat rescue last summer. Continued
.... NHS / Health ....
It gets you good grades at school, improves your prospects at work and makes you more attractive to the opposite sex.
And as if all that weren't enough, being brainy could add 15 years to your life, a study suggests.
Researchers found those with rogue copies of a gene linked to intelligence are unlikely to survive beyond the age of 85.
However, those blessed with good versions of the gene could live to be 100.
The gene governs an enzyme which destroys a chemical known to dampen brain activity and cause drowsiness.
The enzyme - succinic semialdehyde dehydrogenase, or SSADH - also detoxifies the brain by getting rid of excess acid, protecting cells from damage which can accelerate ageing.
The gene comes in two common forms, with the so-called 'T' version working 20 per cent less well than the 'C' variety. Previous studies have shown that men and women with two copies of the 'T' version do less well in IQ tests than others.
But only now have scientists made the link to life expectancy, this week's New Scientist reports. Continued
.... Rest of the News ....
A hotline set up to catch income tax cheats has been flooded with calls from people making malicious and unfounded allegations, MPs have been told.
One woman made 68 calls to report her husband - none of which had led to an investigation, the Public Accounts Committee was told.
Dave Hartnett, acting chairman of HM Revenue and Customs, said he was "disappointed by the quality" of calls.
But he said figures for the current year had shown an improvement.
Mr Hartnett told the committee there were up to two million people in the "hidden economy" in the UK - about 80% of whom were "small time" tax evaders in low paid jobs such as hairdressing, gardening or cleaning.
But there were also examples of higher earning offenders, including medical consultants and 57 barristers who were "in the hidden economy at some time not paying any tax".
The committee was told 28,000 people were investigated each year - but Mr Hartnett denied claims by chairman Edward Leigh that the chance of being caught were "virtually nil".
He said "we are getting better and better at catching people" but conceded that only two cases per thousand were successfully prosecuted. Continued
Wednesday 11th June 2008
Britain's chief sleaze buster today announced an inquiry into the London mayoralty in the wake of the Lee Jasper affair.
Sir Christopher Kelly, chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, unveiled proposals to investigate "controversies" over the governance and accountability of the London Development Agency and the Greater London Authority.
The LDA was at the centre of revelations during the mayoral contest over £2.5 million in grants to organisations with links to Mr Jasper, Ken Livingstone's former policing and equalities adviser.
Sir Christopher said: "The run-up to the Mayoral and Assembly elections in London... suggested potential weaknesses in the governance arrangements and standards established by the GLA Act 1999... now that the elections are finished, the implications for public standards of the accountability arrangements for elected mayors in general will be a strong candidate for further committee consideration."
LDA chief executive Manny Lewis and GLA chief executive Anthony Mayer announced they were quitting within days of Boris Johnson being elected Mayor of London.
The committee's annual report highlighted its plan to launch a full-blown inquiry or a less in-depth review.
It said local government usually had systems to safeguard public money but some had limits on outside controls. "Clearly there may be risks of inadequate control and standards of behaviour resulting," it added.
In London, it said "media claims about financial and other irregularities in organisations accountable to the Mayor have damaged public trust in aspects of local government ... and may well have influenced the outcome of the 2008 elevations for Mayor.
"Given these developments the committee will be seeking a closer understanding of the accountability and governance arrangements applicable to London in particular and to elected mayoralties more generally."
The committee aims to draw up guidelines for elected mayoralties, and how to hold them to account, rather than to probe any particular allegations of wrongdoing.
Mr Johnson has launched an inquiry into the LDA which is set to cut funding for some community organisations. Mr Jasper denies any impropriety.
Sir Christopher today slammed senior MPs, led by the Speaker Michael Martin, for banning outsiders from a review of their expenses. "It is difficult to see how the results can be expected to command full public confidence," he said. News Source
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Funding for a racial equality group is being withheld as an investigation is launched into how it is managed.
The trustees of Harrow Council for Racial Equality (HCRE) have already suspended Prem Pawar, its director, and Harrow Council is now examining whether the organisation has breached the terms of an agreement.
Councillor Chris Mote, responsible for community and cultural services, said: "We feel it is the right course that an independent expert looks into these very serious claims."
The investigation, which is expected to report within a month, will look at how the organisation is run, how it meets targets and how a £57,585 grant from Harrow Council is spent.
Mr Pawar was suspended on full pay after being accused of misconduct over the management of the organisation's finances.
Khurshid Ahmed, a former member of the Commission for Racial Equality, which also funds HCRE with a £23,075 grant, will be leading the enquiry. News Source
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A specialist prison for foreign nationals released inmates into the community without proper preparation because it wrongly assumed they would be deported, the Chief Inspector of Prisons has said.
The study into HMP Bullwood Hall by Anne Owers found the prison was changed from a women's prison to one which took mainly foreign nationals at short notice and with little guidance from Government agencies.
Misunderstandings about the needs of foreign prisoners meant there was not a proper resettlement strategy to prepare inmates for life in the community and to prevent reoffending.
"The absence of a central strategy and guidance at national level had made their task much harder and had seriously inhibited effective resettlement work, for those prisoners released into the UK as well as those being released abroad," the report said.
"As we have frequently said, national standards for the management and support of this group of prisoners are much-needed and long overdue."
"The most acute problem had been in the area of resettlement. In the absence of any national guidance, regional and area managers had taken the view that no resettlement resources or strategy were needed, since all prisoners would face imminent deportation," the report said.
"This, however, was not the case. As at Canterbury (another prison for foreign nationals), a significant proportion of prisoners were not deported, either because of the short length of their sentences combined with lengthy residence and ties in the UK, or because they were European Union (or in some cases even British) nationals." Continued
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The True Face of the European Union!
ARROGANT France told the Irish yesterday that they would be the “first victims” if they vote against the EU treaty on Thursday.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said the EU had helped Ireland, who would “be punishing themselves” if they vote no.
This was seen as a warning that Ireland could lose EU funding. Neil O’Brien of think tank Open Europe called it “a despicable threat”.
Latest polls put the yes and no camps neck and neck.
Meanwhile, millionaire Tory donor Stuart Wheeler went to the High Court in his bid to force a judicial review into Labour refusing a referendum on the treaty. He said they had broken a promise. News Source
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A Muslim "dedicated to violent holy war" held information about members of the royal family alongside instructions on how to kill "non-believers", a court heard today.
Aabid Khan, 23, was found with details about several royals' lives, including where they lived, it was claimed.
Simon Denison, prosecuting, told London's Blackfriars Crown Court the material was among a "mass" of files, videos and other documents found on the 23-year-old when he was detained at Manchester airport on the way back from a trip to Pakistan two years ago.
Khan is in the dock accused of terrorism alongside Sultan Muhammad, 23, both from Bradford; Ahmed Sulieman, 30, from Woolwich, south-east London, and Hammaad Munshi, 18, from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire.
"Is he [Khan] a royalist, is he fascinated by the royal family?" the barrister went on. "Or is there some other reason why he has collated that information?"
He said the details were contained on two computer hard drives in his suitcase which were analysed by police experts.
During the second day of his opening address at the beginning of a two-month trial of the former fast food worker and three co-defendants, who were detained later, he explained how Khan's "terrorist encyclopaedia" contained instructions on how to carry out surveillance, prepare explosives, use poisons and advised on preparing for "martyrdom".
He said one document spoke of "assassinating named personnel as well as foreign tourists and freeing captured brothers from the enemy".
It also backed the "spreading of rumours" and "blasting and destroying places of amusement, immorality and sin", as well as embassies, "vital economic centres" and bridges.
The barrister said another file spoke of the maturity, obedience and "willingness" a jihadist required to martyr himself for his goal of establishing the global rule of Islam.
So, too, were "guidelines to beating and killing hostages", something Islamic scholars had ruled was allowed if they "insisted on withholding information from Muslims". Continued
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A police website has been taken down after it was hacked by a programmer who published a cartoon and Muslim prayer on its site.
All the pages on Bedfordshire Police's site were replaced by an animated man carrying a Tunisian flag.
Underneath was a green symbol and a Muslim prayer written in Arabic.
Arfaoui Firas, whose website suggests he might be a 17-year-old computer programmer living in the US, claimed on the pages to have hacked the site.
Bedfordshire Police said they were aware of the incident and IT staff had taken the site down temporarily.
A spokeswoman said: "I am not technical but I am sure they will be able to restore the site and return it to normal operation soon."
Operations were not affected by the hacker, the spokeswoman added.
The hacker gave a website address on the hacked pages, which directed viewers to a games and films sales organisation.
The spokeswoman said: "The website is hosted externally, away from all other police systems so no personal or confidential data could have been obtained.
"Bedfordshire Police take security extremely seriously, which is why the website is hosted independently and outside all other IT systems."
A full investigation into how the hacking attack happened has been started. News Source
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The West is becoming obsessed with Islam at the expense of the other world religions, the Vatican has warned.
Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, head of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue, said that the Church “has to have regard for all religions" and that the West's fascination with Islam was putting inter-faith dialogue at risk.
Cardinal Tauran said the council had this week discussed new guidelines on how to achieve this.
He added that Islam should not monopolise inter-faith dialogue and that it was just one of the world's many religions.
No' but it's one ideology that wants to dominate the World! (Ed)
"Sometimes there are priorities because of particular situations, but we mustn't get the impression there are first-class religions and second-class religions."
The Cardinal also criticised countries such as Saudi Arabia for not allowing Christian worship.
“What is good for me is good for the other, so if it's possible for Muslims to have a mosque in the West, we should have the same in Muslim countries. This is not the case in many countries," he said.
Cardinal Tauran's comments come in the lead up to an inter-faith meeting in Amman, the capital of Jordan, later this month.
“What was interesting about our discussions was that we did not concentrate on Islam because in a way we are being held hostage by Islam a little bit."
Pope Benedict XVI has also convened a Catholic-Muslim forum for October in a bid to compensate for a controversial speech he gave two years ago when he suggested that Islam was "irrational and inherently violent". News Source
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Christianity is being sidelined in Britain because Labour is concentrating on minority religions such as Islam, it was claimed yesterday.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, said the revelations in a new academic report were “depressing”.
It claimed Labour is taking for granted the good work done by the Church of England.
It highlighted the bias towards religions such as Islam, and said the Charity Commission focused on what minority communities achieved “to the relative exclusion of the Christian church”.
The report said: “We encountered on the part of Government a significant lack of understanding of, or interest in, the Church of England’s contribution in the public sphere.
“Indeed, we were told that the Government had consciously decided to focus its evidence gathering almost exclusively on minority religions.”
Reacting to the findings, Dr Williams said: “It reveals a depressing level of misunderstanding of the scale and quality of contribution that faith-based organisations make to the civil and civic life of our nation – our common good.
“This is particularly true in relation to the contribution of the Church of England.”
The report said: “Despite this immense and long-standing involvement by the Anglican Church, the Government, with notable exceptions, has consistently failed to pay more than enthusiastic lip service to its role in society.” Continued
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They were happy to fly the flag of St George on the patron saint's day.
But it seems ministers aren't quite so keen to put their money where their mouths are. For, in the past five years, Labour has spent just £230 promoting St George's Day.
In 2008 they spent £116. In 2007, £114... and in the previous three years, nothing was spent at all.
This April, Downing Street proudly raised the flag, and Mr Brown's spokesman said: 'The prime minister's view is that of course we should celebrate our Britishness, but celebrating our Britishness does not mean we cannot also celebrate our Englishness, Scottishness, Welshness or Northern Irishness.'
Justice Secretary Jack Straw urged the English to reclaim the day from 'bigots'.
'Anyone proud to be English is equally proud of St George and what, down the ages, his myth and his flag have come to represent for this nation within the United Kingdom,' he wrote in the Daily Mail.
But yesterday, Margaret Hodge, the culture minister, admitted how little had been spent actually promoting the day.
Her department started flying the flag on the patron saint's day in 2007.
The figures were revealed in a written answer to the Commons following a request from the Tories.
Critics rounded on the Government's lack of funding. Tory MP Andrew Rosindell said: 'We must be the only country in the world that spends nothing or virtually nothing on celebrating its national day. I was expecting it to be low but not that low.
'There needs to be a change in the culture of Government in the way it approaches something like this,' added Mr Rosindell, who is chairman of the all-party St George's Day group.
Lord Tebbit, who is patron of the group, said: 'This marks the final abandonment of the culture of England.
I'm quite sure the Government is spending lots of money on other cultures' celebrations.'Last week, they announced plans to make the August Bank Holiday a national celebration of 'Britishness'. Continued
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left-wing groups are mobilising for the purpose of demonstrating and to seek violence and attack the BNP Family Festival.”
The True Face of UAF and Searchlight supporting Marxist Thugs!
Something they don't like? Violence is their Answer!
The Cheap Cider brigade and Coke sniffing Junkies
intend to attack an event where children will be present!
A BNP festival will go ahead this summer despite an application to provide entertainment and sell alcohol being withdrawn at the last minute.
Organisers of the Red, White and Blue event walked out of a meeting of Amber Valley Borough Council's licensing panel last night after more than two hours of representations.
The application for a premises licence, which would allow music to be played and alcohol sold at the three-day event in Denby, was withdrawn after Derbyshire police objected.
Before the meeting, police had not objected but changed their position following new intelligence.
Craig Sutherland, the force's solicitor, told councillors at Ripley Town Hall: “We have received information that left-wing groups would be mobilising for the purpose of demonstration and some are going to seek violence and attack the BNP.”
Members of the BNP who attended last night's meeting were greeted by more than 30 members of Derby Unite against Fascism and Nottinghamshire Stop the BNP campaign, who protested with banners outside the town hall.
Security at the meeting was tight with 30 police officers on patrol, some with recording equipment filming the protesters.
The three-day event is due to take place in Codnor-Denby Lane, Denby from Friday, August 15, and is expected to attract 5,000 people. Last year, the first time the event was held, 800 people attended.
British Democracy for You!
Mr Sutherland said that police started to receive information towards the end of last month that some left-wing groups wanted to “shut down” the festival.
“We have got two dramatically opposing groups and it could lead to violence and disruption,” he said.
Mr Sutherland also said that, if the licence was granted, police wanted to see certain conditions adhered to by the organisers.
These included a seven-metre-high fence around the site, increasing the number of security staff to one per one hundred people and that the festival should only be one-and-a-half days long.
After listening to the police's position and opposition from local residents, representatives of Codnor and Denby Parish councils and Heanor and Loscoe Town Council, John Walker, national treasurer for the BNP, said the application would be withdrawn.
“We have come to the conclusion that this whole process has now become a farce,” he said. “We have been forced to jump through even more hoops.
“We are going to withdraw this application and this event will go ahead without a licence.”
Mr Walker and five other members of the BNP then walked out of the meeting.
A spokesman for the borough council said an official statement on the withdrawal was expected today. News Source
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It has been revealed today that dozens of police stations in Greater London are to close, this despite crime being at unprecedented levels and irrespective of what Government “massaged” statistics may suggest!
Of course, the police these days have to contend with problems virtually nonexistent some fifty years ago – such as trying to understand what a witness or suspect is telling them!
A report that appeared in the Daily Mail on Saturday provides an insight into this issue and the staggering cost to taxpayers arising from it.
The article begins:-
“Chief Constable Julie Spence is singing the praises of one of the most ‘crucial’ members of her Cambridgeshire policing team.
Not a brilliant detective or a resourceful community liaison officer, instead she goes by the title of Translation Services Manager.
‘She speaks five languages, and used to work as a translator for us,’ Mrs Spence explains. ‘When everything started running away with us, I got her in to help recruit community support officers with language skills. She has been invaluable. In fact, I gave her an award the other day.
‘At one point, when we were buying in the vast majority of our translation services, I realised the bill was going to reach £1 million, but she managed it down, mostly by making sure we can handle 20 languages in-house. We still have to buy in translation services for the other 70-odd languages, but the bill isn’t as crippling as it could have been.’
Hold on a minute. A near £1million translation budget? The need to ‘handle’ 90-plus languages?”
If the bill for providing translation services was approaching £1 million in rural Cambridgeshire then, what pray, is the cost to the public in the West Midlands, Greater London or the Thames Valley?
Nation-wrecking immigration – a growing disaster for Britain.
More here . News Source
Reader Submitted Link. Thank You Barry
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It is reported in the Berkshire media that families are angry with Slough council following the discovery that a popular children’s play area has been earmarked for housing development.
This being part of Labour’s plans to build several million new homes to house the 5 million migrants expected over the next twenty years.
Parents in Upper Leas Road, Slough, will appeal to Labour MP Fiona Mactaggart and organise a protest petition to Slough Borough Council. This comes after the council says the area has been returned to People 1st, which manages council housing, where it will be redeveloped, along with the garages, for homes.
The row poses a political dilemma for the new Labour leadership, who favour more homes for migrants, while Ms Mactaggart claims to be a campaigner for more play space for kids.
Labour deputy leader, Cllr James Swindlehurst, blames the previous ruling coalition for surrendering the lease.
Cllr Swindlehurst, also the borough’s commissioner for neighbourhoods and renewal, said: “I have only just heard of this so we will look into the plans. It is one of the sites which the last administration, including the Independent Britwellians, had earmarked among their plans to redevelop vacant garage sites and it is not one we have chosen.”
Residents say swings and slides were removed without warning by workmen last year.
Barbara Barton, 48, one of the protesters, says no notice was given to people when playground equipment was removed around March 2007.
She said: “I brought up four sons and they all used that play space. We feared the council had flogged it off for housing and it looks like we were right, which means the kids will have nowhere to play around here. It will mean more danger and more pollution.” Mrs Barton and her husband, Garry, say the loss of the field, plus the sight of eight boarded up garages nearby, has ‘blighted’ the vicinity.
She added: “Ms Mactaggart has been campaigning for more parks for kids, so here is a perfect example for her to focus her efforts.”
We agree – leave our playing fields alone – the only housing we should be providing is for the sons and daughters of local people – not migrants! News Source
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Three Muslim men have been jailed for life for beating an 18-year-old to death in a street in Milton Keynes.
Atiq Rehman died two days after being attacked with a snooker cue last May at The Square at Wolverton, Milton Keynes.
Bilal Zaman, 21, and Usman Ali, 20, of Cambridge Street, Wolverton, pleaded guilty to murder and were both ordered to serve a minimum 13-and-a-half years. Ghur Rehman, 26, also from Cambridge Street, was convicted by a jury last month and was given the same sentence.
It was alleged in court the killing followed a long-running dispute over a power struggle at Wolverton Mosque. The two men who pleaded guilty told probation officers it was not about the mosque, but was a family feud.
Prosecutor Ben Gumpert said Atiq Rehman had been playing snooker on the day he was attacked. He realised some of the people he was in dispute with were outside.
Luton Crown Court heard he sought refuge in a Costcutters shop but was dragged outside. The court was told that during the attack, Mr Rehman’s head was smashed on the pavement. He was taken to hospital but died without regaining consciousness.
Taxi driver Ghur Rehman told the jury he was trying to pull Atiq Rehman free, not attack him. News Source
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The Serious Fraud Office is ineffectual and mired in a 'pass the buck' culture, an official report said today.
A review of the SFO, set up 20 years ago to investigate and prosecute major frauds, found senior managers lacked skills, knowledge and perseverance.
Some SFO staff even abused the internal complaint process by filing grievances against line managers who had handed out 'frank assessments', the study found.
It said the organisation's success rate was woeful compared with that of similar agencies in the U.S.
While the SFO prosecutor charged seven defendants in five years, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York alone charged 50.
The SFO's conviction rate for 2003 to 2007 was 61 per cent, compared with 92 per cent for the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, it added.
'A criminal justice system that produces this little cannot be said to be effective in deterring, detecting or punishing criminals who commit serious white-collar crimes,' said the report's author, former senior U.S. prosecutor Jessica de Grazia.
She said 'insufficient innovation' in the SFO was partly to blame and warned that the lack of focus in investigations was 'a matter of grave concern'. Continued
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A Labour minister has blamed council tax rises for an unexpected increase in the number of pensioners living in poverty.
Pensions Minister Mike O'Brien indicated it was one of the central reasons why 300,000 more elderly people have fallen below the poverty line.
The total number of poor pensioners is now 2.8million.
Mr O'Brien's admission appeared to be an indictment of Labour's 'steal