Archive 14
UkTabloid
The People's News Portal
Wednesday 10th December 2008
As dole queues lengthen Labour's at it AGAIN:
A New influx of immigration is needed to spur Britain out of recession, a think-tank with close links to Downing Street will say today.
A report to be delivered to ministers claims migrants are an “essential part of the UK’s economic recovery”.
It will demand “more flexible immigration policies” to encourage another wave of newcomers, particularly to boost the building industry.
The report – from Labour’s favourite think-tank, the Institute for Public Policy Research – is bound to enrage critics as dole queues grow.
And it comes after Immigration Minister Phil Woolas admitted it was “too easy” for illegal immigrants to remain in Britain.
Lisa Harker, co-director of the IPPR, said: “It is more important than ever that the Government does not use the recession as an excuse to restrict the numbers of migrant workers coming to the UK. Our research shows that migrant workers are essential in key construction projects that will help boost local economies.”
The report will say that construction projects such as the Olympics will require an additional 40,000 workers a year until 2012.
But the Immigration Minister sparked anger yesterday when he admitted the UK’s border controls had been too relaxed over the past decade.
Gaffe-prone Mr Woolas said: “It has been too easy for illegal immigrants to stay in this country. We have not counted them in and out.”
And Pigs will Fly
Under new proposals, immigrants would face a five-year period of “probationary citizenship” before getting a passport, he said.
Woolas added: “Entitlement to benefits should be for citizens of our country, not other people.
“If you are a citizen you have earned the right to benefits. People must show they are here to work. We only need foreign workers if there is a clear skill shortage.”
The Tories rubbished Labour’s plans as an attempt to sound tough while leaving the UK’s borders open.
Mr Woolas has been under fire for claiming Britain’s population – currently 61million – should be capped at 70million. His claim appeared to conflict with Government policy, which rejects any official limit on immigration.
But Mr Woolas was yesterday unrepentant about his tendency to make outspoken remarks.
“If I lose my job, I lose my job,” he said.
Responding to the IPPR, Sir Andrew Green, of Migrationwatch, said: “It is frankly absurd to be advocating yet more immigration when the dole queues are lengthening by the day.”
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Anyone who doubts that the Police State does not exist should think again. A BNP-supporting publican has been arrested because of commercial newspaper cuttings he pasted up on his pub walls which a visiting senior police officer did not like.
Mr Peter Mailer, owner of the Black Bull in Warkworth, Northumberland was arrested on ‘suspicion of committing a racially-aggravated public order offence’ because of newspaper clippings on the wall.
Mr. Mailer was arrested after a complaint from a senior Nottingham Police officer who visited the pub while on holiday.
Mr Mailer, who is an active supporter of the British National Party, was hauled into the nearby Alnwick Police Station.
He has been bailed to return to the station on December 23, when he will learn whether or not the Crown Prosecution Service will charge him.
The 52-year-old said he was stunned to learn that the complaint had been made by the Notts officer.
He said the officer had been in the pub with a friend and their wives. They chatted to him, but never mentioned the cuttings, which are mainly from national newspapers.
Three days later, police arrested him and took everything off the walls.
The newspaper cuttings were all from commercially published daily newspapers. Journalists from the papers who read this, had therefore better be aware that the state which they have helped to create, will ultimately come for them as well. News Source
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You obviously didn't understand it the first time, Paddy, so go away and try harder.
Such is the EU's message to the people of Ireland. The Irish government, shamefully, is siding with the Euro-elites against its own population.
Will the Pro-Treaty Forces be any more successful this time? The Taoiseach is placing his hopes in the financial crisis which, he believes, will make Irish voters feel grateful that they are part of something big. But this could play both ways.
By next year, voters might have reached the conclusion that the euro was part of the problem, forcing Ireland keep interest rates artificially low during the boom, and so ensuring that the crunch, when it came, was the more painful.
They might have noticed the EU's fury when their government sought to guarantee bank deposits. And, more widely, they might have spotted that the people telling them to vote for the European Constitution Lisbon Treaty are the same ones who presided over the collapse - in Brussels as well as in Dublin.
Brian Cowen, in short, is taking a colossal risk - which is why, even now, I shouldn't be at all surprised if he finds a way to sidestep a second referendum if, when the time comes, the opinion polls are still dicey.
The costs and benefits, after all, are not symmetrical: if he wins, he'll get a few slaps on the back in Brussels, and then it'll be back to business as usual.
But if he loses, he'll have to resign. Remember that he fought the first referendum during his political honeymoon, and that he went into that campaign with a lead of 18 per cent (rather than 4 per cent, and on the basis of a loaded question) and still lost on the day.
Still, that's his problem. What I find most objectionable is the EU's attitude, its refusal to take "No" for an answer, its insistence that public opinion should be treated as an obstacle to overcome rather than a reason to change direction.
Not for the first time, I leave you with the words of Bertolt Brecht: "Wouldn't it be easier to dissolve the people, and elect another in their place?"
Dissolve and elect? What does one think ''Social Engineering'' is? Change the face of a country and you create an electorate of your own choosing! (Ed)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Today is the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, from which sprang the European convention a few years later. In 1998, Labour brought in the Human Rights Act (HRA), to make the convention rights justiciable in British courts, rather than exclusively in Strasbourg.
The Home Secretary of the day hailed the HRA as a "landmark (that) will be seen as one of the great legal, constitutional and social reforms of this government".
Yesterday, however, the current Lord Chancellor voiced his frustrations at the way the Act had operated. On both occasions, the minister was Jack Straw, once again responsible for constitutional matters.
Ten years ago, Mr Straw blithely dismissed warnings that a dangerous imbalance between rights and responsibilities was being introduced into British law, yet now he understands people's concerns and acknowledges that the HRA is regarded by many as "a villains' charter".
Might this have something to do with the approach of a possible election year and Labour's parlous position in the polls? When the party was riding high because the economy was growing, it did not give a fig for "people's concerns" about the Human Rights Act. Now Mr Straw wants to "rebalance" the legislation with new "responsibilities".
It is hard to know whether to welcome Mr Straw's belated open-mindedness or to marvel at his brass neck. Most galling of all is that Labour has sought to parade its human rights credentials while seeking to trample roughshod over some of this country's ancient liberties, such as habeas corpus and rights to privacy, by detaining suspects for 42 days without charge, imposing ID cards, planting a forest of CCTV cameras and retaining the DNA of innocent people. News Source
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Commuters walking home late at night should be able to call police to ask for the safest route, according to Gordon Brown.
The Prime Minister said the idea would tackle the 'last mile home syndrome' when travellers, especially women, felt most at risk.
In an interview for Glamour magazine's January edition, he said it would resemble a ' personal police service'.
'I'm really aware that these are issues for young people who rightly want to have the chance to be out late at night,' he said.
'Once you get off the bus or the Underground, how safe are you in this last mile home?'
There was no indication of how the phone service would be funded by already cash-strapped police forces and opposition politicians were quick to rubbish the idea.
Chris Huhne, LibDem home affairs spokesman, said: 'Surely the best way of making people feel safe on the streets is to put more police on the beat.
'This is a half-baked idea which has got as much chance of being put into practice as the ludicrous suggestion of marching offenders to cash machines.
'The police have better things to do than act as a glorified travel consultancy.'
David Ruffley, the Tories' police spokesman, said: 'Instead of the police offering a travel line for commuters, Gordon Brown should cut red tape so more of them can get out on to the streets to tackle crime. This idea will never be delivered.'
A Home Office spokesman said the scheme was 'a vision for where neighbourhood policing could go in future rather than a fully developed policy'.'
We cannot say when it is going to happen or say what the details would be,' he added.
In his interview with the magazine - aimed at young women - Mr Brown said judges should never accept mitigating circumstances for rape - including a drunk victim.
'There is no justification, no excuse and no mitigating circumstances for rape,' the Premier insisted.
'Unless we make that message absolutely clear we will drift into something unacceptable.'
The interview is evidence of Downing Street's attempts to make Mr Brown connect more with female voters.
Meanwhile, a scheme in which drunken students are given lifts home by police has been attacked as a waste of public money.
Merseyside Police launched the £75,000 trial as part of a crackdown on crime in student areas.
Measures include issuing safety advice, a dedicated burglary hotline and visible patrols with officers giving some worse-for-wear and vulnerable students a lift home.
A spokesman for the Taxpayers' Alliance described the scheme as a ludicrous example of the nanny state.
But the police said anti-social behaviour had been halved and robberies were down 80 per cent. News Source
Oh' how they spin and massage figures! Utter Rubbish! Social Engineering, Political Correctness and Human Rights have created the violent and no Morals society we have today! Do you remember how Britain was much, much safer prior to Labour? If you are of a certain age, you probably do. (Ed)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cameron yesterday stepped up his call for the hated Human Rights Act to be scrapped.
The Tory leader demanded action after Justice Secretary Jack Straw admitted the law had become a “villains’ charter” used by the courts to put the rights of criminals first.
Mr Cameron said the admission showed the Strasbourg-inspired Act needed to be replaced by a new British Bill of Rights more attuned to the country’s needs and traditions.
In a speech to mark the 60th anniversary of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Mr Cameron said: “We have seen a lack of proportion and common sense.
“I believe we now need a home-grown British Bill of Rights.”
He said the Human Rights Act introduced by Labour in 1998 had been used to ban police from “naming and shaming” yobs on posters.
The legislation had also prevented Britain from dealing with illegal migration and from deporting suspected terrorists.
Cameron said that countries had “every justification in distinguishing between granting permission for someone wholly innocent to remain on the grounds of having established the right to family life and, on the other hand, granting such permission to someone who has engaged in violent crime”.
He added that the Act had not stopped genuine rights and civil liberties being “whittled away” under Labour.
He spoke out after Mr Straw admitted being “frustrated” by the way the Act was being interpreted by judges.
He confessed the Act needed to be “rebalanced” and admitted judges had been too “nervous” in failing to deport suspected Islamic terrorists.
Mr Straw said: “There is a sense that it is a villains’ charter or that it stops terrorists being deported or criminals being properly given publicity.
“I am greatly frustrated by this, not by the concerns, but by some very few judgements that have thrown up these problems.”
Prison Officers Association national chairman Colin Moses said: “For too long prisoners have used the Human Rights Act to undermine prison staff and prevent them fulfilling their full role. I hope that Mr Straw brings about change which will empower prison staff to fulfil their role and protect the public.”
But civil rights campaigners last night expressed concern that Mr Straw’s comments signalled more Government tinkering with the rights of British citizens.
Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, said: “The public will have to judge this latest headline and decide if Britain’s freedoms are safe in Mr Straw’s hands.
“They will notice the sheer cheek of a Government that has passed mountains of legislation seeking to rebalance power still further so that we owe them even more responsibilities.”
Liberal Democrat justice spokesman David Howarth said: “Labour has allowed the Human Rights Act to become the scapegoat for everything unpopular.
“People will be worried that their rights are not safe in this Government’s hands and would be abolished under the Tories.”
“If Jack Straw was serious about rebalancing our rights, he could start by not making us all carry an ID card.”
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A 'Chav' nativity play where Jesus turns water into strong lager and the three wise men bear gifts of Adidas and Burberry clothes was handed to teenagers to learn at a school during a drama lesson, it was revealed yesterday.
A relative of one of the youngsters described the text of the play as 'disgraceful' and said it gave completely the wrong impression of the nativity.
Michelle Taylor, 35, said she was stunned when a pupil at the Oakwood School in Bexley, Kent, showed her the play.
'I couldn't believe what I was seeing,' said office manager Michelle yesterday. 'You try to encourage your children to speak properly and then they get given this sort of thing at school. I know some young people do speak like this sometimes but the school should not be condoning it in any way.
'In one scene they have Mary and Joseph breaking into a garage because there is no room at the inn. That is not right. 'The pupil I spoke to thought it was highly amusing that Mary and Joseph were being portrayed as Chavs, but I didn't.'
The school where the play was handed out is a mixed day school of 51 pupils for students experiencing 'emotional and behavioral difficulties.'
One section of the play talks about the police killing 'bay-bees' and another about the extra benefits Mary and Joseph will get after baby Jesus is born. A statement issued by Bexley Council said: 'It was never the intention of Oakwood School to use this script as its nativity play.
'This piece of work was part of a sketch four year nine students were looking at during a drama lesson on the use of language. 'This is definitely not the kind of language that the school would ever encourage or endorse. 'The school apologises for any upset this confusion may have caused parents. We are proud of our school community and our relationship with parents and pupils and would never knowingly cause distress to either.
'The school's annual nativity play will be a traditional take on the Christmas story and will involve pupils from every year in school. As usual, family members, members of the community and friends will be invited to take part in the performance.' Continued
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Someone somewhere is being attacked, mugged, Raped, and Abused
Meanwhile
A scheme that ensures drunken students are given lifts home by police has been attacked as a waste of taxpayers' money.
Merseyside Police claim it has led to a successful crackdown on crime in one of Liverpool's student hotspots.
Measures include issuing safety advice, a dedicated burglary crime hotline and visible police patrols with officers giving a 'handful' of worse-for-wear and vulnerable students a lift home each week.
Half the 1,500 properties in the area known as The Dales, in south Liverpool, are occupied by students.
The council-funded scheme has cost around £75,000 over the past two years, including a £5,000 contribution by Liverpool University, but police claim it's been a success.
Antisocial behaviour has been halved, violent crime is down 40 per cent, robberies have dropped by 80 per cent and criminal damage is 30 per cent down since it was launched.
But a spokesperson for the Taxpayers Alliance described the scheme as 'ludicrous', saying it was another example of the 'nanny-state'.
Neighbourhood inspector Stuart Quirk, of Merseyside Police, said the idea of giving students a lift home was 'not a taxi service' but designed to help those who were vulnerable because they were drunk or alone.
A Merseyside Police spokesperson added that lifts were given to students in only 'a handful of cases'.
Other recent schemes aimed at late-night revellers have also blasted by campaigners.
Last month, Devon Police launched a £30,000 scheme to target party-goers in Torbay which included handing out flip-flops to stop drunken women in high-heels from falling over.
Earlier this month, Bolton council revealed police community support officers would hand out bubble blowers to drinkers over the festive period in an attempt to cut violent incidents. News Source
See Also:
The number of police available to deal with crime on the streets is falling, a high-powered academic report revealed yesterday. It said the ranks of fully-trained police constables have been thinned out in favour of more community support officers, middle management and civilian back-up staff.
Forget more police officers on the streets and tougher sentences - the latest weapon in the war on binge-drinking youths is bubbles. Revellers out drinking in pubs and clubs will be encouraged to blow pretty bubbles instead of picking fights.
Itsh not their fault, you shee. Itsh the shoesh. Drunk women who stagger about in high heels are to be protected - at public expense - from twisting their ankles. They will be handed flip-flops to wear by police outside nightclubs as they wend their way home. The scheme is part of a £30,000 drive by police and councillors to prevent 'alcohol-related harm'.
A senior police officer has accused former Metropolitan Police chief Sir Ian Blair of putting his force 'in the pocket of New Labour'. Tarique Ghaffur said that Sir Ian had politicised his organisation and said he was glad that his former boss had lost his job.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Forget harsher sentences or even stun guns to clamp down on the drunks in Wimbledon this festive period - police will be armed with lollipops instead.
Antisocial behaviour has escalated in the town centre forcing even the council’s street cleaners to wear stab proof vests on Friday nights.
One residents’ association has even started patrolling the Broadway to keep a log of the drunken behaviour blighting their lives.
But police believe revellers causing trouble will be placated by sucking on a lollipop.
Chief inspector Mark Payne of Merton Police, said: “Unfortunately, some people do occasionally have too much to drink, and end up ruining the night for others.
“Lollipops have proved to be an excellent way of calming people down and reducing violence breaking out at closing time.”
Research has showed the sugar in the sweets stabilises the behaviour of people who have drunk a lot of alcohol, while also curbing their noise levels.
Thames Valley Police reported a 10 percent drop in violent assaults when they introduced the measure, and Leigh Terrafranca from the Wimbledon East Hillside Residents’ Association welcomed the move.
She said: “It might be different but I don’t have a huge problem if it works.
“To be honest we’re just praying it’s freezing cold and the weather’s miserable this Christmas because that way there won’t be as many drunks outside making it impossible for us to sleep.”
Safer Merton successfully bid for £11,000 from the home office, paying for police and door staff at Wimbledon’s clubs to hand out lollipop and information leaflets.
But Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the Taxpayers’ Alliance, called for the money to be handed back to taxpayers.
He said: “This is a ludicrous waste of money. People want the police fighting crime, not handing out nursery school gimmicks.”
Merton Council’s cabinet member for community safety and engagement Councillor Tariq Ahmad said: “The cost of a lollipop is only around 3p.
“This is one of a range of schemes to come from the funding and it isn’t going to mean police spend their time handing out sweets instead of fighting crime.” News Source
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An Indian Court has been called to ban Google Earth amid suggestions the online satellite imaging was used to help plan the terror attacks that killed more than 170 people in Mumbai last month.
A petition entered at the Bombay High Court alleges that the Google Earth service, "aids terrorists in plotting attacks." Advocate Amit Karkhanis has urged the court to direct Google to blur images of sensitive areas in the country until the case is decided.
There are indications that the gunmen who stormed Mumbai on November 26, and the people trained them, were technically literate. The group appears to have used complex GPS systems to navigate their way to Mumbai by sea. They communicated by satellite phone, used mobile phones with several different SIM cards, and may have monitored events as the siege unfolded via handheld Blackberry web browsers.
Police in Mumbai have said the terrorists familiarised themselves with the streets of Mumbai's financial capital using satellite images, according to the sole gunman to be captured alive. The commandos who stormed the Taj Mahal Palace hotel in Mumbai said the militants had made a beeline for the building's CCTV control room.
The legal petition also follows unconfirmed reports that Faheem Ahmed Ansari, a suspected militant who was arrested in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh in February, said he was shown maps of Indian locations on Google Earth by members of Lashkar-e-Taiber, the Pakistan-based terrorist faction that Indian officials are convinced was behind the Mumbai attacks.
Ansari was carrying a fake Pakistani passport and a list and maps of nine targets in southern Mumbai, including the Taj Mahal hotel and other sites attacked last month, a senior police officer told The Times.
Security agencies have called for the wealth of data available on Google Earth to be limited for several years amid fears the freely available application may prove invaluable for militants planning terrorist attacks.
South Korea and Thailand also complained after the layout of air bases was revealed.
The Mumbai terrorists concentrated their attacks in south Mumbai, a popular tourist location. However, the plea filed with the Bombay High Court claims that Google Earth includes "absolutely no control to prevent misuse or limit access" to details of nearby sensitive locations, such as the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre.
The complaint comes just weeks after India said it would launch its own version of Google Earth.
The project, dubbed Bhuvan (Sanskrit for Earth), is being developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), which is based in Bangalore, the Silicon Valley of the subcontinent.
It comes as India redoubles its efforts to reap profits from its 45-year-old space programme, long criticised as a drain on a country where 700 million people live on USD2 a day or less. Continued
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Speaker Michael Martin today assured MPs that police did not have access to their confidential files during the raid on shadow minister Damian Green's office.
Allaying fears officers could have seen private correspondence with constituents, Mr Martin revealed they had not been allowed into the central Parliamentary server.
In a brief statement to the Commons this afternoon, he also stressed that from now on police would have to have a warrant to be allowed to search Parliamentary property.
'No access was given to data held on the server... No access will be given unless a warrant exists and I approve such access,' he told the House.
Mr Martin, in his second statement on the row in a week, repeated that he would be personally responsible for ensuring a warrant existed and approving police access.
It came as an influential committee of MPs announced it was launching its own probe into the affair which saw Mr Green arrested and his home and offices searched.
The shadow immigration minister was held for nine hours over alleged leaks from a Home Office whistleblower containing information embarrassing to the Government.
His arrest and the way centuries of Parliamentary tradition was trampled on when officers raided his office without a warrant horrified MPs from all sides.
Speaker Martin has been left fighting for his job over the row, and before his statement today there was speculation he might have signalled he was about to quit.
Although this was not the case, he was still facing more pressure on the issue after the Home Affairs Select Committee announced its own investigation.
Committee chairman Labour MP Keith Vaz, who chairs the home affairs select said:
'This is an important inquiry and it is vital that the issues of political involvement in police matters and the process of arrests of this kind are thoroughly examined.
'This inquiry is very much in the public interest.'
The terms of reference are yet to be decided but will cover 'the police processes and the involvement, if any, of political figures in these matters'.
Mr Vaz said: 'I hope that we can conduct the inquiry quickly and efficiently in order to ensure that best practice recommendations can be made as soon as possible.'
Another planned parliamentary inquiry into the matter instigated by the Speaker is mired in chaos after both the Tories and Liberal Democrats said they would boycott it. Continued
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A Health trust which will not pay for a five-year-old’s false leg spent £30,000 on a champagne party for 420 staff.
Revellers at the black tie ball were each asked for a nominal £5 for a three-course meal, DJs, and performers.
NHS Blackpool held the bash at the resort’s Hilton Hotel.
But Elaine Oakey — whose son Jamie is missing a foot and part of his right leg — said: “We have to beg people to donate things to raffles.
“We raised £40,000 in five years. They have blown just short of that in one night.”
She said she was told Jamie could not get a prostethic limb on the NHS because a loophole meant he is not officially classed as disabled.
NHS Blackpool chairman Roy Fisher said the party celebrated the service’s 60th anniversary and staff “deserve recognition for their efforts”. News Source
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I’ve bought some extra wrapping paper this Christmas. I’m going to wrap myself up in it to keep warm.
Every time the heating comes on I see a tenner disappearing from my pocket. Why aren’t power bills coming down? We’re being royally ripped off.
The power firms say their charges are linked to the price of oil. Oil is down from 150 dollars a barrel to 40 dollars.
Yet our bills remain sky-high. It costs at least £30 a week and often more to heat a home in winter.
How pensioners manage is beyond me. The gas companies are charging us DOUBLE the amount they pay their own suppliers.
None of the power firms have any excuse for such outrageous profiteering.
Their main defence is that they have to buy their supplies a long way in advance, and it takes time for lower prices to make their way through to the consumers.
That simply won’t wash any more.
The Big Six power firms who dominate the domestic market have had access to cheaper gas (down 50 per cent since the summer) and cheaper electricity (down 44 per cent) for months but have made no attempt to pass on these savings.
The power firms point to the need to rack up profits to invest in much-needed new nuclear power stations.
That’s true, but they would still make good profits even if they slashed their prices.
Just as bad is the shameful way some firms are sneakily upping the direct debits they take from customers’ bank accounts.
Tales abound of people getting smarmy letters (they often begin with the phrase “Good News!) telling them in a roundabout way that there might be a slight change to their debits.
When these poor folk take a look at their bank account they find the amount being siphoned off has soared. That is robbery. And as for petrol, don’t get me started. In America, when the price of oil falls, petrol comes straight down.
Here we have to wait weeks or months for a grudging drop of a penny or two. Most of the petrol price is tax — which Brown is putting UP.
And why is diesel so much dearer now than petrol? It used to be cheaper, and we were all encouraged to buy diesel cars. Now many people are saddled with diesels that have turned out to be very expensive to run.
Trucking companies and tradesmen are desperate for lower fuel bills. British Gas says it “might” lower its prices. But not till the Spring. When it’s warmer. Yeah great when we don't need to heat our homes as much! (Ed)
By then we may all have frozen to death. News Source
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
First there was the shock of learning that local councils had placed – and then lost – millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money in Icelandic banks.
Now we learn that Lancashire County Council, believe it or not, has been lending money to other councils. To be precise they lent Birmingham City Council almost £8 million this year.
Contrast this with the saving Lancashire County Council could have made if they had taken up our 10 per cent challenge.
Yes, by cutting 10 per cent from three areas of non-essential spending, they could have saved £8 million to return to the taxpayer in lower council tax.
Instead they increased council tax and decided to play around with £8 million that was eventually loaned to another council.
Talk about priorities! This council made a choice to lend to another council rather than give Lancashire taxpayers their money back and they should be held to account on that.
But having lost £10 million in Iceland and now doling out money like some back street loan shark, Lancashire County Council clearly isn’t putting local taxpayers first in this economic crisis.
If you live in Lancashire you can email the leader of Lancashire County Council, Cllr. Hazel Harding, to ask why Lancashire County Council would rather lend your money out to other councils than give it back to you in lower council tax. News Source
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A Councillor arrested over a leaked BNP membership list received threats after it was published, it has been claimed.
Sadie Graham is planning to leave her Notts home and move south with her family, according to a close friend.
The friend told the Post that the threats to the former BNP member of Broxtowe Borough Council, who now sits as an independent, began when the list appeared on the internet last month.
Coun Graham was one of two people released from custody on police bail over the weekend after being arrested at her home in Church Lane, Brinsley, last Thursday.
Her friend said: "I spoke to her last Tuesday and she said she had received threats and needed to look after herself and her daughter. She was worried about the safety of her family.
"To hear the police had gone in and arrested her was shocking. She said she had been waiting [at home] for her husband's brother to come down with a van to take things down south."
The friend said she understood Coun Graham was staying with family in the south of England after her release from police custody.
She and another person were arrested last week by Notts police officers, acting on behalf of Dyfed Powys Police, in connection with alleged offences under the Data Protection Act.
Coun Graham was kicked out of the BNP last December after alleged involvement in an internet blog which, the party claims, had tried to "attack and smear fellow party officials".
A BNP spokesman said he was not aware of threats made to Coun Graham since the unauthorised publication of the party membership list.
"It's unfortunate. Thousands of our members have received threats and those threats are being looked into by the police," he said.
"Even call centres have been used to issue threats."
Despite attempts by the Post to contact her, Coun Graham has been unavailable for comment. News Source
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A council has launched an investigation after the private details of thousands of children were found on a memory stick.
A USB stick dropped by a Leeds City Council employee was found in a car by a member of the public. It had been reported missing but its owner told the council it did not contain any sensitive information.
In fact the unencrypted data on the device included the names, dates of birth, ethnicity, addresses and telephone numbers of around 5,000 nursery-age children living in the Leeds area.
It also contained confidential information about child protection and whether or not the children's parents claimed state benefits.
A Leeds City Council spokeswoman said: "We take issues of information security very seriously and are very sorry that this breach has occurred. We have guidance in place which seeks to prevent such incidents occurring including advice on using memory sticks.
"The loss was immediately reported by the employee concerned to their line manager and inquiries were made to recover it. Regrettably it could not be located. At the time, it was understood that no sensitive or confidential data was on this stick, so no further action was taken. Unfortunately, once recovered, it became apparent the memory stick did have sensitive information on it that should not have been there.
"As soon as we were made aware of the content, a full investigation into the circumstances of this case was launched and an immediate reminder to all staff is being issued regarding the security of personal and sensitive information. We are grateful to the member of the public who found and returned the memory stick."
The stick was reportedly found by an unnamed Leeds resident while cleaning a second-hand car bought from a taxi driver.
It was returned to West Yorkshire Police and then to the council, but he said he was worried about who could have seen the information before him.
"It's information that should not be on a memory stick," he told the York Evening Post. News Source
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In a stunning admission, the head of the Indo-British Friendship Society has boasted to the India-Asian News Service (IANS) that the Asian Community in Britain is able to determine who governs Britain.
“No political party can govern if they upset the Asian vote,” India-born Rami Ranger, who heads the Sun Group of Industries, told IANS in an interview here.
Ranger, who visited India earlier this month as part of a delegation accompanying British Immigration Minister Liam Byrne, was commenting on the controversial set of proposals that could mark the most comprehensive revision of British immigration rules in 45 years.
“Britain, which is seeking to overhaul its immigration policy, cannot afford to upset the Asian community because of its increasing electoral clout,” he said.
“We can elect 40 to 50 members of parliament from several inner cities… They cannot afford to go wrong,” said Ranger, 60, who migrated to Britain in 1971.
He was referring to some key proposals that have raised hackles in the South Asian community. These include halving the visa period to three months and mandatory deposits for “high-risk” relatives.
The proposals are amongst several others that have been proposed in a Visitor Consultation Paper released by the British Home Office to review immigration rules.
Before their visit to India, Ranger and other team members were informed of the large number of immigration frauds that take place in India. “We were shown examples of fraudulent applications by the British Home Office. We saw how one bank statement was used again and again for 10 visa applications.”
Most of the fraudulent applications originated from Punjab, he said, adding that several gangs operating in the state even supplied sponsors for potential immigrants.
Ranger said he was concerned that the proposed visa policy would hit the economically backward sections of the Asian community. Another proposal seeks a deposit of 2,000 pounds ($3,922) for a relative visiting Britain.
“Often, young boys, who have just completed their education, do not get visas to visit their relatives as they are perceived to be in the ‘high-risk’ category. In such cases, bonds will be helpful. But we envisage it only as a last resort.” He, however, pointed out: “Poor sections (of the community) should not be penalised.”
A lifelong Conservative Party supporter, Ranger was impressed by the Labour minister’s ability to lend an ear to their worries. “He is listening.”
Ranger also suggested to the minister that a new category of visas could be introduced to address a problem peculiar to Asians in Britain. “We have asked (the government) for special visas for ‘pujaris’ (priests). It is an important function for our community, with priests combining several events at different households and temples in the same visit.”
* One cannot imagine the uproar in India if a British person could boast in public that British people could determine who controlled the political process in India. They would call it colonisation and in all likelihood demand that the colonisers be thrown out. News Source
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Speaker Martin and the Serjeant at Arms, Mistress Pay, sat in silence, listening to the often vehement debate about their uselessness.
I don't for a moment want you to feel sorry for either of these bungling, neglectful, indolent, armpit scratchers, but the experience must have been humbling - like standing beside your mother when you were young, listening to her discuss your bedwetting habits with one of her girlfriends in the queue outside Mac Fisheries.
Labour Whips had ensured that the governing party was present in citadel-defending force. Bob Marshall-Andrews (Lab, Medway), who is sensible enough seldom to obey the Whips, was angered by this clumsy warping of the debate by Gordon Brown's thugs.
Says it all, really. This was meant to be a Commons debate about Commons matters. The Government executive, which only ignited the police investigation because it was furious about dissent (how dare anyone dissent?!) from inside Whitehall, wants to run everything. It's an old Trot trait.
Harriet Harman made a terrible speech and sat down as fast as she decently could. Good thinking, gal. I suspect she has hated this whole affair and wishes Labour were on the other side of the argument.
The one thing to be said in Miss Harman's defence was that she did not make the weakest speech. That dishonour fell to an embarrassingly doddery Dame Gerald Kaufman (Lab, Gorton), who seemed to suggest that any civil servant who leaked documents deserved to be arrested - even though it is only a criminal offence to do so regarding matters of national security. Great age seems to be making Dame Gerry intolerant.
Labour Whips were yet again out in force. One, Claire Ward, even made it her business to sit in an upstairs gallery where Labour MPs could see her easily. She was taking down names on a list. Chilling.
Miss Ward, in private, is not an entirely bad egg. She must surely recognise that this sort of behaviour does not tally with freedom of expression.
Every fresh ratchet of inexcusable authoritarianism by Labour at this stage in the electoral cycle is only likely to backfire. Don't Labour grasp what a disaster all this could be? Another Labour Whip, some lurker named Watts, leaned a casual hand against the side of the Speaker's Chair. This gave the impression that Speaker Martin is now a fully-owned subsidiary of the Government.
John Prescott (Lab, Hull E) put in a rare appearance and sidled up to Speaker Mick for a laff 'n' a chat.
Dobson (Lab, Holborn) casually suggested that Damian Green had his leaky civil servant friend 'on a Standing Order'. If said outside the Chamber this would surely be highly slanderous.
Gordon Brown's friend, Ian Austin, patrolled the aisles, arms folded, barking suggestions to pliant Labour MPs. This sort of low-life oikishness is going on all the time.
Our system will only start to improve when people on the inside of the Government start to recognise just how ugly their conduct has become. Every junior minister should be given a mirror for Christmas. Lots of Labour MPs tried to argue that the leak case was sub judice. David Davis (Con, Haltemprice) pointed out that this was poppycock because no one had yet been charged.
Elfyn Llwyd (Plaid, Merioneth) made the brilliant point that the whole thrust of the Government's recent case on 42-day detention was that MPs would have to debate the guilt of people arrested without charge. Labour didn't seem so agin the idea then!
Sir Ming Campbell (LibDem, NE Fife), who may fancy his chances of ousting Gorbals Mick, tried to come over all statesmanlike - and to a small degree succeeded.
But the speech of the day came from Andrew Mackinlay (Lab, Thurrock), so caught up with emotion that he was shaking as he laid down the case for Parliament's sovereignty.
Mackinlay for Speaker? He may not be quite composed enough, but he at least understands the significance of that Sweeney-style raid by the cops. News Source
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cameron today launched a vicious attack on the Government's plans to help the UK through the recession, claiming its 'borrowing binge' was a 'massive mistake' that could cripple the country for generations.
The Tory leader took a huge gamble by setting himself firmly against what he dubbed Labour's 'spend now and forget the future' approach and calling for a snap election based on the economy.
Battling a resurgence in popularity for Gordon Brown and his party since the economic crisis hit, he claimed the Government's high-borrowing, high-tax strategy could make the recession worse and risked leaving Britain with the 'public finances of Italy'.
On the same day as a poll showed Labour is still more trusted on the economy, he accused Gordon Brown of 'extreme, reckless action' and branded the £20billion mini-Budget last month a 'superficial giveaway'.
Labour's plans to keep spending high and then introduce swingeing tax cuts in two years had 'grievous, urgent implications' that risked creating a 'lost generation', he claimed in a major speech on the financial crisis.
'This Government is intoxicated with profligacy and the bill for their binges adds up by the minute,' he said at the London School of Economics.
'Every week the Government is in power, it is mortgaging the future and doing it in a bigger and bigger way. Every week the debt gets larger, every week the burden on our children and future generations [grows].'
The Tories would start slashing spending in 2010, a year before Labour, meaning tax rises pencilled in for 2011 by the Government might be avoided, he revealed.
Calling for an election now, he said: 'This is too important a choice to be delayed. I think we should let the people decide.'
He bitterly summed up Labour's reign as a 'decade of reckless spending' during which it had been 'shockingly casual' with public money.
'Monopoly money, frankly, gets more respect', he said, while pledging that a Tory administration would bring back 'good housekeeping'.
He accused Chancellor Alistair Darling of suspending 'all reasonable fiscal principles' and promised his party would 'get a grip' on spending.
'The argument is that the exceptional crisis we face today excuses the most extreme, reckless action - and tomorrow can take care of itself,' he said.
'This is the justification for the VAT cut and the massive tax rises that will compensate for it in years to come but this strategy is seriously flawed.
'Not only does escalating debt leave an unfair burden on our children and undermine the recovery with higher taxes... but the knowledge that the debt has to be paid off is undermining people's confidence right now.'
Labour unveiled a £20billion 'fiscal stimulus' package last month, with tax cuts now but then tax rises and cuts in public spending from 2011, by which time it hopes the economy will be recovering. News Source
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Industrial production has fallen at its fastest pace in six years, prompting fears the recession will be even worse than has already been predicted.
Manufacturing output, which makes up a massive 25 per cent of the country's overall GDP, is down 4.9 per cent year-on-year - its biggest plunge since June 2002.
In the eighth consecutive monthly drop - the longest decline since 1980 - it fell by 1.4 per cent in October, according to the Office for National Statistics.
The economy was thought to have shrunk by 0.5 per cent in the third quarter but taking into account today's dire figures, it is believed it actually contracted by 0.6 per cent.
Experts fear it could shrink by at least another 0.8 per cent in the final three months as the slowdown gathers pace.
This would confirm that Britain is in the middle of a crippling recession - defined as two quarters of negative growth.
Overall industrial production - which also includes the mining and utility sectors - fell 1.7 per cent between September and October at the peak of the financial crisis.
Paul Dales, of Capital Economics, said 'activity all but fell off a cliff' at the start of the final quarter.
This follows a 0.5 per cent drop in output between July and September - the first in 16 years - as the ailing UK economy lurches into recession.
'The recession is clearly deepening and the downside risks to our forecast that GDP will fall by 1.5 per cent next year are growing,' said Mr Dales.
Declines across the manufacturing sector were widespread, with transport equipment the worst hit.
Meanwhile, the UK's trade gap in goods widened to a bigger than expected £7.8 billion in October compared with £7.4 billion in September as exports declined more quickly than imports.
Total exports of goods fell 3.5 per cent to £21.2 billion - heavier than a one per cent fall in imports to £28.9 billion - as hopes of a boost to exports from a weaker pound are outweighed by a global slowdown.
In a sign of the struggles faced by the world's three largest economies, the three months to October saw exports to the US fall by £500 million, Germany by £200 million, and to Japan by £200 million, the ONS said.
'Manufacturers are feeling little benefit from the 20%-odd fall in the pound,' Mr Dales added. News Source
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The plunge in property prices has accelerated despite evidence lending is finally rising and buyers are returning to the market, new figures revealed today.
Government data shows the rate at which property prices are falling increased in October despite mortgage lending being up 14 per cent that month.
The annual rate of decline hit 7.4 per cent compared to 5.1 per cent in September, with houses losing another 2.5 per cent in value.
This leaves the value of the average British home at £203,539, according to the Department of Communities and Local Government.
The south west of England and East Midlands were the second worst hit with falls of 9.5 per cent, according to the Government data.
Scottish homes were the lowest fallers, down just 4.5 per cent.
All types of houses from flats and bungalows to terraced or detached homes are down on last year.
Since the beginning of January, the value of the average home has plunged £100 every day, knocking around £33,500 off the price of the average home.
The steep fall, which is the largest ever witnessed in this country, is proving to be a double-edged sword.
Homeowners are losing out because of the huge drop in their property's value but the falling prices are finally starting to attract buyers.
Figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders, published today, show 39,900 mortgages worth £5.5billion were handed out in October.
Around 39 per cent were first-time buyers - the highest proportion since May 2006 and an increase of 15 per cent on the previous month.
Although still less than half the amount given in October 2007, this represents a 10 per cent increase by value than in September. Continued
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In a move which triggered a furious backlash, Ministers have tightened the rules on the widely-condemned Home Information Packs.
They will now have to be available on the very first day a house goes on sale, rather than 28 days later.
And they have been made even more complicated with the addition of a six-page questionnaire.
Experts described the rule changes to the £300 packs as 'absolutely farcical' and 'utterly bonkers'.
The shock announcement by Housing Minister Margaret Beckett was said to show 'a complete lack of understanding' of the paralysed property market.
Experts said homeowners already desperate to sell, such as young couples starting a family who need a bigger home, will be horrified that it could become even more difficult.
Those waiting for a better time to put property on the market could be further deterred.
By a bleak coincidence, the bad news on HIPs came as the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors offered a glimmer of hope for the housing market. RICS said continuing price falls had finally sparked a small increase in expressions of interest from potential buyers - the first for two years.
But the decision to tighten the HIPs rules enraged the industry. Experts said it ran completely counter to other policies such as pumping billions of taxpayers' money into the banking system, Gordon Brown's mortgage bailout pledge and stamp duty holiday schemes.
Every single region is suffering falling prices. Northern Ireland homeowners were the biggest losers with values down by a fifth (20.5 per cent) over the past year.
Ministers claim research on 16,000 transactions showed they were completed up to to six days earlier when a HIP was available.
But Tory spokesman Grant Shapps said: 'The housing market is on its knees and Labour's response is to make it more difficult and more expensive to sell your home.
'If anything, Ministers should be using their emergency powers to suspend HIPs and provide a shot in the arm to the ailing market.'
Peter Rollings, of estate agency Marsh & Parsons, said his clients see HIPs as a complete waste of time and money.
About 150 homes go on sale at his chain every month, but he has never heard of a buyer asking to see a HIP.
'It is utterly bonkers and absolutely ridiculous,' said Mr Rollings. Continued
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A Tory tycoon was under pressure to quit as Boris Johnson's key Olympics adviser this afternoon after he was embroiled in a shares scandal.
David Ross, the co-founder of Carphone Warehouse, stood down from the high street giant this morning after misusing £130 million in shares.
The Mayor was locked in crisis meetings over the future of his 2012 financial adviser while David Cameron was also under pressure to cut his links to the businessman.
According to Electoral Commission registers, Mr Ross, 43, has given more than £140,000 in cash and "gifts in kind" to the Tories in recent years.
He took Mr Cameron in his private jet to the England-Sweden match during the 2006 World Cup in Germany. The Conservative leader also used Mr Ross's helicopter to fly to Halifax in October to meet workers at HBOS threatened with job losses.
Mr Johnson described Mr Ross in glowing terms when he appointed him as his representative on the 2012 Olympics organising committee this year.
The move was widely seen as a coup which would help Mr Johnson earn the respect and trust of the City.
Today Carphone Warehouse chief executive Charles Dunstone said it was a "great personal sadness" that his schoolfriend, with whom he founded the company in 1989, had quit.
Mr Ross admitted he had used his holding in the firm to guarantee personal loans without telling the company.
It then emerged that he had similarly used share stakes in other major companies where he is a director as guarantees against loans without telling them.
These include National Express where he is chairman, storage company Big Yellow and ship supply group Cosalt. He is also a director of newspaper group Trinity Mirror. In total he has pledged shares today worth more than £200 million against personal loans. But two and half years ago when he first began guaranteeing loans with shares they would have been worth considerably more.
Carphone shares fell 31/2p to 891/2p today but in March 2006 they were three times that price at 309p, making his stake worth
£531 million.
Mr Ross — who was estimated to be worth more than £900 million — is believed to have used the shares to guarantee loans he took out to invest in commercial property at the top of the property boom.
But the credit crunch appears to have hit his holdings and forced the disclosure of the loans to Carphone Warehouse and the other companies. Mr Dunstone told the Stock Exchange that he had only learned yesterday of the share misuse and that it appeared to be “an oversight”.
He said: “The company hadn't been aware of this until this time. As a result of that, David has tendered his resignation to the board. I believe it was a misunderstanding or an oversight on his part.”
Mr Ross owns 20 per cent of the shares in Carphone and Mr Dunstone has a 32 per cent stake.
Fears that up to a fifth of the company's shares could suddenly be dumped on the Stock Exchange were the major reason for today's share price fall. Mr Ross has recently put his country home, 1,500-acre Manor Farm estate in Northamptonshire, on the market for £7.75 million. Two years ago his stepsister and her boyfriend were murdered there by her estranged husband.
At his peak two years ago Mr Ross was one of the top 100 richest people in the country. It was then that he set up a massive property joint venture with investment bank Morgan Stanley into which he injected his private property portfolio, Kandahar Real Estate, worth £243 million.
Today's string of revelations are believed to have come to light as banks undertook a review of Mr Ross's businesses and investments.
Under the rules of the UK Listing Authority, part of the Financial Services Authority, directors of quoted companies must make it public when they use shares in those companies as security against borrowings.
The FSA said today that using shares as guarantees was effectively the same as trading them.
The fact that Mr Ross has done so for the last three years without making any declaration is a major breach of listing rules.
Failure to disclose share information by a director could be viewed as market abuse by the FSA which has the power to fine and bar directors from public office.
It is also particularly odd because in 2002 and 2003, when Mr Ross first used some of his Carphone shares to guarantee loans, he disclosed the information fully.
Carphone's statement said that Mr Ross had said that “none of the loans is currently in default and that he has no current intention of selling any shares in the company”.
Mr Ross also told the company that he would facilitate an orderly market “where possible” for any future disposal of his shares. Meanwhile Green Assembly member Darren Johnson said of Mr Ross's role as a 2012 adviser: “It certainly raises questions. Is he really a suitable man to keep the Olympics budget under control?”
Labour Assembly member John Biggs added: “Boris is at risk of putting too much faith in City whizz kids.”
Mr Johnson was forced to sack his chief political adviser, James McGrath, in June after the former Central Office aide suggested black people should “go home” to the Caribbean if they did not like Tory-controlled London. The following month, deputy mayor Ray Lewis was forced to resign after allegations over financial irregularities. News Source
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A £1.75million Heathrow robbery case ground to a halt for a third time today, leaving taxpayers to foot an estimated £22million bill.
Alleged robber John Twomey, 60, will now face a fourth trial over the hold-up of Menzies World Cargo warehouse at the airport in February 2004. Judge Jeremy Roberts told Old Bailey jurors in the latest trial that he was discharging them five months after proceedings began. The judge said he was taking the decision only after much 'heart-searching' and despite the 'enormous cost to the public'.
He said: 'I don't quite know how to say this because it is the last thing I wanted to tell you but I am afraid we are not going to be able to continue with this trial.
'In the course of a major criminal trial like this one, events sometimes occur which create the risk of real injustice or unfairness to one side or the other and sometimes those events are so serious that the trial cannot continue. 'That is what has happened in this case. It wouldn't be appropriate for me to give you any further information about what has occurred.'
Jurors looked stunned as the judge informed them of his decision and excused them from serving again for 10 years, while one woman member of the panel shook her head angrily as she walked from the courtroom. The judge added: 'Everybody is devastated by the fact this has happened. I have tried everything to avoid this conclusion and I very much regret that it has been necessary to take this action.'
During the airport raid, six masked men rounded up members of staff at gunpoint and stole £1.75million in an alleged 'inside job', the court has heard. Twomey first faced trial in 2005 when proceedings against him were stopped for health reasons.
He then faced a fresh trial, which began in February last year and lasted six months, alongside co-accused Peter Blake and Barry Hibberd, but jurors were unable to reach a verdict.
Twomey faced the charges for a third time in the dock of the Old Bailey in July this year, this time with a fourth defendant, Glen Cameron, alongside him.
All four are due to appear at the court next week for a hearing to set a date for a fourth trial. All four men were bailed. They deny charges including conspiracy to rob and to possess firearms. News Source
Tuesday 9th December 2008
Suspicions that Labour is plotting to ditch the pound increased last night after the party’s official European manifesto praised the euro.
The pound is not mentioned anywhere in the 15-page document which is packed with hard-Left commitments.
The manifesto seeks to tear up Britain’s right to set its own policies on a host of issues, including immigration.
Last night Conservatives said that Gordon Brown was steering a dangerous course on Europe.
Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague said: “This manifesto is an extraordinary lurch to the Left with statutory pay caps and a level of government regulation we last saw in the 1970s – not to mention a handover of our asylum and immigration system to the EU.
“Labour is now charting a dangerous course in Europe, praising the euro without a mention of the pound, and with no qualms about calling for yet more top-down EU control over our lives.
“That Gordon Brown has given his backing to this charter for the hard Left shows how dead New Labour is.”
Details of the manifesto emerged just days after more indications that Labour is plotting to use the economic crisis as an excuse to dump the pound.
Tomorrow the Prime Minister will meet European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso in London – shortly after the Spaniard claimed that key people in Britain were now backing the UK joining the Euro.
Business Secretary Lord Mandelson confirmed last week that signing up to the single currency remained Labour’s long-term policy.
The manifesto was formally agreed by all European socialist parties at a meeting in Madrid last weekend.
Labour is committed to fighting next June’s European elections on its various planks.
The document says the euro has played a very effective role in protecting European economies in the context of the global financial crisis.
Alongside such warm words for the single currency, the manifesto includes a barrage of measures that would massively increase Brussels control over virtually every aspect of British life and hamper business with even more red tape.
These include a European Social Progress Pact, which would set standards for social, health and education policy.
The document also demands workers’ rights to information and consultation and gaining work experience with a European Charter for Internships.
On the economy it demands pay caps for the successful, proposing that limits are also needed on top executive pay and bonuses, notably so that earnings reflect losses as well as profits.
Most controversially, the document demands more EU control over Britain’s right to its own immigration policies.
A new European Migration Policy would set common standards and include a European Charter for the Integration of Migrants.
If any of the polices were adopted, they would smash Britain’s opt-outs secured since the Conservatives signed the Maastricht treaty in 1992.
Timothy Kirkhope, Conservative leader in the European Parliament, said: “For the past four years of this Parliament, Labour MEPs have consistently voted for Socialist policies that damaged Britain’s political and economic interests.”
A Downing Street spokesman said that the Government’s long-standing position was that in principle there were benefits to the UK in euro membership, But, he added, the Government’s conditions for membership had so far not been met.
On social issues, the spokesman said: “We will always do what is best for the British people and the British economy.”
And he added that Britain’s opt-outs were safe. News Source
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At least 100 police and prison staff, many dressed in riot gear, were deployed to the Aylesbury Young Offenders' Institute after a large group of Asian prisoners ran riot inside the centre.
Sources said that they broke into the officers' mess and workshops and armed themselves with hammers, saws and chisels.
The incident, described by the Prison Service as 'concerted indiscipline', was believed to have broken out during protests as Asian inmates celebrated the festival of Eid, which marks the end of the Ramadan fast.
Early reports that the rioters may have taken five people hostage - including a prison service Imam, were denied by a spokesman for the Prison Service.
Police said that support officers from across Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire were being sent to the young offenders' institute in Bierton Road, Aylesbury, to assist prison staff in quelling the dispute.
Trouble broke out at the centre, which houses about 400 young prisoners, just before noon. The insitute is home to some of the most violent young inmates in Britain and about 10 per cent were understood to be lifers.
A prison source said that about 80 inmates, aged bertween 17 and 22 years, were taking part in the riot which culminated in them battering their way into the workshops where a range of tools were stored.
'They have apparently managed to grab hammers, saws and other implements and then gone to the Officers' Mess where they have taken sets of knives.
'They are now in a stand-off with prison officers who are working out a co-ordinated plan of intervention to try to restore order,' said the source.
A spokesman for Thames Valley Police said that police from across the Thames Valley were being taken to the scene to the help the prison service.
Some were also using vans to take special metal-detector arches for use when the prisoners were overpowered.
A source said: 'They will need to get each and everyone of them to go under the arch to make sure they haven't hidden any weapons on their bodies for use later.'
Tonight the prison governor David Kennedy was co-ordinating the efforts to restore order and was not available for comment.
Thames Valley Police were first called at 11.46am to the incident , a spokesman said.
There were no reports of any injuries to offenders or staff, she added.
A source said that 'substantial' damage had been caused to the workshops where the large group had barricaded themselves in.
A spokesman for Thames Valley Police said that an investigation into the incident had been launched by senior detectives from the Thames Valley Police Major Crime Team.
'We are happy to report that no one has been injured in the incident and that order has been restored," said the spokesman. News Source
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Demonstrators set fire to a flag outside the Greek Embassy in London Monday to protest the fatal police shooting of a teenager in Athens over the weekend.
The crowd removed the Greek flag from a pole in front of the embassy, setting it on fire before raising a red and black anarchists' flag in its place.
The group also hung a banner protesting the death of 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos.
The police shooting has sparked three days of riots in Greece.
In Holland Park, west London, officers blocked off the street after responding to calls from inside the embassy.
Five demonstrators were arrested on public order offences after resisting police attempts to move them from the steps of the embassy to behind a temporary barricade on the street.
'We just want to bring a peaceful end to it,' said David Morgan, an inspector with the Kensington police.
'At the end of the day, it's a diplomatic facility.'
Morgan said about 40 people protested. He said the group wanted to talk to officials in the embassy and planned to stay outside the building for the rest of the day.
The protesters had asked to meet the ambassador, but the request was rejected, said a spokesman for the embassy.
British tourists in Greece have been warned to take care as protesters planned more riots.
Dozens of stores, banks, and cars have been torched or smashed since the fifteen-year-old boy was shot late Saturday in Athens.
Tonight protesters are planning demonstrations in at least five Greek cities including Athens and Greece's second largest city of Thessaloniki.
The country's Police Officers' Association has apologised to the boy's family, and President Karolos Papoulias sent a telegram expressing his condolences.
Greece's conservative government appealed for calm yesterday after the riots shook several cities. News Source
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The council that failed to protect Baby P spent £19,000 on spin doctors hired to rebuild the image of former head of children’s services Sharon Shoesmith, it emerged today.
The money was used to train her and other Haringey colleagues on how to answer probing questions from journalists following the Baby P tragedy.
The 55-year-old, who was suspended last week but who is still picking up her £110,000 salary, was given role-play exercises by up to three external firms as part of the package - even though the north London local authority has its own communications team.
This came after she twice refused to apologise at a press conference for her department’s failure to save the 17-month-old who was tortured to death by his mother, stepfather and a lodger.
Liberal Democrat MP Lynne Featherstone said: ‘It is absolutely outrageous that this money has been wasted on spin doctors.
‘Every penny of this cash would have been better spent on improving our children’s services.’
The spending was revealed in a written question tabled by the LibDems to council leader George Meehan before he resigned.
It also emerged today that Haringey council is at the centre of another abuse scandal after claims a five-year-old boy was beaten while in its care.
Police are investigating allegations of serious abuse against a victim known as ‘Child C’.
The child was snatched from his home in Africa and handed to a follower of self-styled archbishop Gilbert Deya, who has been at the centre of investigations into a ‘miracle baby’ child-trafficking scandal, with infants allegedly stolen and passed to infertile women who were then convinced they had conceived through prayer.
Once in the UK, the follower adopted the five-year-old, but he was seized by police in 2003 and taken into care where he has passed through six different sets of carers.
The authorities were alerted when concerns were raised by a consultant child psychiatrist after the boy was taken to hospital.
Police were called in after Shoesmith was handed a dossier of evidence claiming the youngster was being abused.
Haringey council has been slammed for its failure to protect Baby P, who died despite 50 visits from social workers and other agencies.
Meanwhile, councils are being deterred from taking abused children into care by soaring family court fees, Britain’s leading QC claims.
Desmond Browne, the new chairman of the Bar Council, said that the Baby P case had exposed how town halls were put off by the court costs of intervening to protect youngsters.
Browne said that this year court fees in some child cases had risen from £150 to £5,000 as Justice Secretary Jack Straw slashed family legal aid. News Source
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sharon Shoesmith, the head of children's services at Haringey council has been sacked in the wake of the Baby P abuse case, the authority said tonight.
The 55-year-old, who was suspended last week as part of the investigation into the case, will also not receive any compensation or payment in lieu of notice and was dismissed 'with immediate effect', the authority confirmed.
A short statement released by the north London council said: 'Sharon Shoesmith has been dismissed from Haringey Council with immediate effect.
'The decision was taken today by a panel of councillors.
'Ms Shoesmith will not be returning to work in Haringey. She will not receive any compensation package. She will not receive any payment in lieu of notice.
Children's Secretary Ed Balls removed Sharon Shoesmith from her post on December 1 after a damning report into her department's shortcomings.
But she remained on full pay while the council considered her case.
The senior council manager provoked widespread anger for the way she responded to revelations that Baby P was killed while on the child protection register.
At a press conference at the end of the trial, she said: 'The very sad fact is that we can't stop people who are determined to kill children.
'I am satisfied that the action that should have been taken was taken.' Continued
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As this paper has always argued, the Human Rights Act turns justice on its head by putting the rights of criminals above those of the law-abiding.
Now, at last, a minister has had the honesty to admit as much.
Not just any minister, either. As Tony Blair's first home secretary, Jack Straw was the man who piloted this disastrous Act on to the statute book ten years ago.
Today he confesses, in words that will resonate with millions of Britons: 'There is a sense that it's a villains' charter.'
We couldn't put it better ourselves. This is the Act under which Islamist extremists have successfully claimed a right to remain here, preaching hatred and the overthrow of our society while they and their families live on state benefits.
Prisoners have abused it to demand (and receive) huge damages for being denied illegal drugs in jail - cashing in on a ruinous compensation culture spawned by the Act and ruthlessly exploited by unscrupulous no-win-no-fee lawyers.
Travellers and squatters have also invoked it to avoid being evicted from other people's property, while this same legislation has prevented the police from identifying murderers on the run.
As if all this were not bad enough, the Act gravely undermines our democracy by giving unelected judges the power to make laws on such hugely sensitive matters as individual privacy and the freedom of the press.
The Mail rejoices, therefore, that in his new role as Justice Secretary, Mr Straw acknowledges the Act has flaws and vows to put them right.
Some may wonder if it is really enough, as he suggests, to amend the law by laying down 'responsibilities' as well as rights.
After all, as long as we remain signed up to the European Convention, won't this simply mean litigants will appeal over the heads of our courts to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg?
Mr Straw would do even better to withdraw from the Convention and tear up the Act altogether. But recognising how wildly the scales of justice have swung out of balance is a good start. News Source
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A Pub landlord has been arrested on suspicion of committing a racially-aggravated public order offence because of newspaper clippings on the wall.
Peter Mailer was arrested after a complaint from a senior Notts Police officer who visited the Black Bull in Warkworth, Northumberland, while on holiday.
Mr Mailer, who admits he is an active supporter of the British National Party, was hauled into the nearby Alnwick Police Station.
He has been bailed to return to the station on December 23, when he will learn whether or not the Crown Prosecution Service will charge him.
The 52-year-old said he was stunned to learn that the complaint had been made by the Notts officer. He said the officer had been in the pub with a friend and their wives. They chatted to him, but never mentioned the cuttings, which are mainly from national newspapers. Three days later, police arrested him and took everything off the walls. News Source
Whatever next? Are they going to attempt to charge you for reading a newspaper next if you are a member of the BNP? (Ed)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Government accused of 'clampdown' on debate
- Clarke insists Speaker should have stopped police raid
- Martin's son rules out replacing him at next election
- Harman suggests protection of MPs may be increased
The Government was today accused of trying to clamp down on the row over the arrest of Tory MP Damian Green by curtailing a Commons debate to help save the Speaker.
Furious MPs rounded on Labour in Parliament at the start of an emergency debate about the police raid on Mr Green's Commons office two weeks ago.
Politicians from both sides of the floor accused the Government of a 'cover-up' and trying to delay the inquiry to avoid more embarrassment over the affair.
An emergency debate was organised amid fury that the Speaker and his chief official, Serjeant at Arms Jill Pay, allowed Scotland Yard detectives in without a warrant.
But in bitter exchanges, the Tories immediately tabled an amendment in a bid to force a six-hour debate over the row instead of the three hours set aside by Labour.
They were defeated by 308 votes to 234 - a majority of 74 - amid claims the Government had all but imposed a three-line whip to ensure victory.
There was also anger that the inquiry committee would be created to reflect the balance of the House - meaning it would be skewed in Labour's favour.
Tory former minister Douglas Hogg accused the Government of 'concealment, duplicity, whitewash and cover-up'.
Ministers were 'frustrating' the Speaker's own wish that the committee report as soon as possible, he claimed, and said Labour was 'seizing control of the programme' in a way that was wholly wrong.
Bob Marshall-Andrews, who was the first Labour MP to call publicly for Mr Martin to quit, claimed the Government had effectively forced its own party to support ministers.
The outspoken backbencher told the House Labour had imposed a 'thinly disguised three-line whip' for the debate and the votes to ensure they would win.
'It is wholly inappropriate that Parliamentary business of this kind should be conducted under a three-line whip,' he said.
Leader of the House, Harriet Harman, opening the debate later, recognised that MPs wanted the inquiry into the raid to happen now and not wait until after the investigation. Continued
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Speaker, insist his defenders, is doing a difficult job. Really? He has only one task to perform in return for his £78,575 salary (£141,866 including what he earns as an MP): he must embody the dignity of Parliament. Had he succeeded in this task, almost everything else would be pardonable.
Michael Martin may, as his critics complain, be vain, greedy, touchy, stupid, nasty to his staff and out of his depth in the chamber. But none of these is a resigning offence. He is on trial now, not because he is unpopular but because he has failed spectacularly to discharge his primary function: to defend the prerogatives of his chamber.
Members of Parliament on both sides must now search their consciences, for their reputations are at stake. Mr Martin has seen Parliament slide into ignominy. Never have MPs been so disdained. While it would be silly to lay all the blame for this at the Speaker's door, he has worsened matters by failing to assert parliamentary privilege against the Executive while defending MPs' perks from public scrutiny.
Two forces may yet keep him in the Chair of which he is so jealous: Labour tribalism and Tory tribalism. Some Labour MPs persist in believing, despite all the evidence, that Mr Martin is a victim of snobbery - although it never crossed anyone's mind to argue that George Thomas or Betty Boothroyd were insufficiently grand for the office. Conversely, some Conservatives want to keep the Speaker in place until the next election, in the hope that they can then replace him with a Tory, rather than another Labour placeman.
It is precisely such manoeuvring that has turned people against Parliament. MPs need to wake up to the precariousness of their position. The usual channels should open immediate discussions about a swift and orderly replacement. Nothing less than the authority of our legislature is in the balance. News Source
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Traditional subjects such as history and geography will be scrapped in a radical overhaul of primary education.
Theme-based lessons on topics including healthy living and the environment will be introduced alongside more time for children to play under the plan.
The Government believes teachers need extra freedom to help pupils manage their emotions and develop good attitudes in a dramatically slimmed down national curriculum.
The plan comes amid growing evidence that progress in raising standards in the "three Rs" has stalled. One in five 11-year-olds leaves primary school unable to read, write and add up properly despite billions spent on education in the last decade.
Ministers hope the sweeping reforms will reinvigorate primary education and give teachers more time to focus on English and maths.
But critics will seize on the plans as marking a return to the trendy, child-centered teaching methods of the Sixties and Seventies, when education experts believed that children would learn if they were left to explore topics for themselves.
From 2011, six areas of learning will replace the 11 compulsory subjects which make up the primary school national curriculum under the plan.
The new themes are: understanding English, communication and languages; mathematical understanding; scientific and technological understanding; human, social and environmental understanding; understanding physical health and well-being; understanding the arts and design.
The plan was drawn up by Sir Jim Rose, a former Ofsted director of inspection. Ministers ordered him not to review Sats, despite concerns that children spend too long preparing to take the tests.
Publishing his interim proposals ahead of a final report next year, Sir Jim said the primary school curriculum must be less prescriptive. "If we are to establish a world class, high quality curriculum, we must face the reality of prescribing less so that teachers can better teach and children can better learn," he said.
"Good primary teaching deepens and widens children's understanding by firing their imagination and interest in learning. The primary curriculum needs to be forward-looking.
"Advances in technology and the internet revolution are driving a pace of change which we could not have imagined when the national curriculum-was introduced twenty years ago."
Schools Secretary Ed Balls, who commissioned the Rose Review, said he wanted to "create fresh momentum in our primary schools that will ensure that all children reach their potential".
But the Conservatives condemned the plan and warned that abandoning traditional subjects such as history and science would undermine standards.
Shadow children's secretary Michael Gove said: "The move away from subject areas towards topic based learning will lead to a further erosion in standards.
The danger is especially acute in science and maths where the World Economic Forum says we're 47th in the world. We need more rigour in the curriculum, not less."
Under the plan, schools will be expected to give children more opportunities for play, especially in the first years of primary education. Children born in June, July and August could also start primary school part time a year early - after their fourth birthday. News Source
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A drink-driver who killed a father and son in a motorway crash was performing a sex act on himself minutes before the collision, a court heard.
Imran Hussain was driving at speeds of up to 120mph minutes before he ploughed into the back of a Fiat Punto carrying the Proctor family, from Wakefield.
Gary Proctor, 47, and son James, 16, died in the smash on the M62 motorway near Rochdale, on 3 August.
Hussain, of Bradford, was jailed for eight years at Manchester Crown Court.
Death threat
The 32-year-old, of Como Avenue, pleaded guilty to two counts of causing death by dangerous driving and one count of driving with excess alcohol at a previous hearing.
The court heard that Hussain's erect penis was exposed when motorists came to his aid after the crash.
Judge Andrew Blake told him: "At the least it must have been a symptom you were not giving your full attention to driving."
He sentenced him to eight years for each of the two counts of causing death by dangerous driving, to be served concurrently.
Hussain, a car dealer and father-of-four, was also banned from driving for 15 years.
Prosecutor Andrew Nuttall said Hussain had rowed with his wife hours before the crash and left the family home on Como Avenue for a night out with friends in Leeds.
He later stopped at a service station in Leeds in the early hours, where he was described as "staggering and clearly drunk".
When challenged about ripping open a bag of crisps, he told the cashier: "I'll find out where you live and will kill you." Continued
Reader Submitted Link. Thank You Rod
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nine members of a braying schoolboy rape gang who carried out a horrifying punishment attack on a 14-year-old girl to were behind bars tonight.
The boys were as young as 13 when they took it in turns to assault their defenceless victim while recording it on a mobile phone.
The rapists were a junior branch of a notorious east London gang known as the Kingzhold Boys.
Ringleader O'Neil 'Hitman' Denton, 14 at the time, ordered his sniggering friends to snatch the girl from Hackney in east London.
Denton forced her to perform oral sex on him, joined by Weiled Ibrahim, 17, 16-year-olds Jayden Ryan, Yusuf Raymond and Jack Bartle, and 15-year-olds Alexander Vanderpuije and Cleon Brown.
The attack was carried out in blocks of flats in Hackney's Frampton Park Estate.
Denton had ordered she should be put through the sexual ordeal as punishment for insulting him to his girlfriend, Snaresbrook Crown Court heard.
One of the gang told the terrified victim, now aged 16: 'I can't help you now, I'm with my boys.'
Up to 15 boys were present during the sickening attack and parts of the girl's 90-minute ordeal were filmed on mobile phones.
In an impact statement the victim told how she has since attempted suicide, cannot leave her home alone and constantly has to look over her shoulder.
The nine teenage boys, including two aged 14 and 16 convicted of rape on the basis they 'aided and abetted' the attack, were given terms ranging from two years and five months in secure accommodation to indeterminate terms for public protection.
Judge Wendy Joseph QC sentenced Denton to an indeterminate term of detention for public protection and told him: 'You had power over the others.
'The pre-sentence report points to motives of revenge, sexual gratification and exercising a power over both your victim and your gang.
'Accordingly I sentence you to detention for public protection.'
Judge Joseph ordered him to serve at least three years and eight months before he can be considered for release.
Ibrahim received an identical term to Denton; Raymond received nine years in a young offenders' institution; Ryan was given eight years in a young offenders institution while Bartle, Vanderpuije and Brown were all locked up for six years.
The 14-year-old was locked up in 'secure accommodation' for two years and five months because of his age while the 16-year-old was given three years and nine months in a Young Offenders' Institution.
Nicola Merrick, prosecuting, said: 'This was an enterprise embarked upon because the complainant insulted the leader of a local gang and the victim was punished by that gang for her misdemeanors. Continued
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In her day job she was a dedicated uniformed public servant in her role as WPC Victoria Thorne.
But in her other guise, it is alleged, she offered services of a far more personal nature - as a £100-an-hour, high-class call girl.
Yesterday Thorne, 28, appeared in court accused of misconduct in a public office.
The petite brunette, who was based at the police station in Houghton-Le-Spring near Sunderland, entertained up to 20 clients a week as part of the Notorious Girls escort agency, it is alleged.
She is said to have appeared on the agency website in a series of provocative poses wearing only underwear and operating under the working name Kelly.
On her profile, she proclaims herself to be 'very eager to please' - though she refuses to wear a uniform or serve clients from the Sunderland area. The Northumbria Police officer, of Washington, Tyne and Wear, was held by colleagues in August then suspended.
Yesterday, wearing black trousers and a green jacket, she stood before Newcastle magistrates alongside four others who are charged with offences relating to prostitution.
WPC Thorne did not enter a plea and the case was adjourned until December 22 when she will appear at Newcastle Crown Court.
She is accused of advertising herself with around 70 other women on the website, which was run by Neil Lock and his wife Natalie. The Notorious Girls website boasts: 'We promote the finest selection of escorts throughout the North East and North West.
Notorious Girls offer the finest value for money and exceptional professionalism. They possess natural beauty, intelligence and are enthusiastic about their chosen career. 'Rest assured that high quality is for certain and your satisfaction is guaranteed.'
WPC Thorne was among eight women and six men arrested by officers investigating organised prostitution and corrupt public officials across Northumbria, County Durham, Greater Manchester, Cleveland and the Scottish Borders-The year-long investigation into the escort agency was headed by her own Northumbria Police force.
Alongside her in the dock were Neil Lock, 27, Natalie Lock, 28, both of Galashiels, Nigel Lock, 59, of Manchester, and Osher Marks, 56, from Gateshead.
They are charged with conspiracy to manage brothels for prostitution and conspiracy to control prostitutes for gain. Mr Lock is also accused of procuring misconduct in a public office. News Source
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Britain could be signed up to a controversial European Union Constitution within a year, it has emerged.
Ireland - which derailed the so-called Lisbon Treaty when voters rejected it in June - has been forced into holding a second referendum on the agreement.
One diplomat said: 'There is still some tweaking to do, but there is an understanding.'
Critics say that the Treaty is almost identical to the EU Constitution, rejected by the French and Dutch in 2005.
The EU insists that the document is needed to help ease decision-making in Brussels, but opponents say it will hand over sovereign powers to bureaucrats.
All 27 member states must ratify the treaty before it comes into force.
Ireland, the Czech Republic and Poland are the only nations which have not yet agreed to do so. Labour had promised British voters a referendum on the constitution - but reneged on that when the document was re-fashioned as a treaty.
This means that UK citizens will not have the opportunity to vote on whether to adopt the legislation.
Ireland's Prime Minister Brian Cowen will this week confirm that a new referendum on the Treaty will be held next year.
He will not give a firm date, but experts say that October is the most likely time.
Diplomats said that the Treaty would come into force by January 2010 if the Irish voted 'Yes' this time around.
The Irish Government is hoping that the financial crisis will encourage people to vote for the Treaty.
They will argue that Ireland would have been in a worse position if it had not signed up to the euro. It is likely that they will also claim that the Treaty will speed up decision-making, which will help tackle the economic downturn.
Dublin is set to be offered a series of concessions in return for staging another poll - including independence from the Treaty in sensitive areas such as tax and abortion. It will also retain the right to name an EU Commissioner.
At the moment, each member state is able to appoint its own candidate. But the number of commissioners will be reduced by a third if the Treaty comes into force.
Mats Persson, from the independent think-tank Open Europe, said: 'Ever since the Irish voted No to the Lisbon Treaty in June, politicians in Ireland and across Europe have tried to find ways to force this unwanted document through - against the clear will of the people.
'It's a sad day for democracy when Europe's politicians gang up on their citizens, rather than trying to win over their trust.
'This Treaty has been voted down three times already. It should be dead.
'If EU politicians succeed in bullying the Irish people to reverse their decision, Britain will be forced to accept a Treaty that will weaken the power of ordinary voters in this country and across Europe.'
Tory Europe spokesman Mark Francois added: 'The people of Ireland have already rejected the Lisbon Treaty in a free and fair referendum so it remains to be seen whether their politicians will dare to ask them to do this again.
'In any event it would be very odd if the Irish people are asked to vote twice before the British people are even allowed to vote once.' News Source
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The number of police available to deal with crime on the streets is falling, a high-powered academic report revealed yesterday.
It said the ranks of fully-trained police constables have been thinned out in favour of more community support officers, middle management and civilian back-up staff.
The findings challenge the longstanding Labour claim that police numbers have been greatly increased and that crime has fallen partly as a result. Researchers said Government crime policy was 'mired in contradiction'.
The report from the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies at King's College London said details of police numbers show 'the way in which the Home Office has relied on the recruitment of less qualified and lower paid auxiliary staff to boost the visible policing presence'.
And it revealed that the number of police constables dropped by nearly 1,500 - more than 1 per cent - between 2006 and 2007.
The past five years has seen the number of superintendents increase by 16 per cent and the ranks of chief inspectors swell by almost 20 per cent.
Over the same period the amount of taxpayers' money used to fund police forces has risen 20 per cent.
The report's findings are borne out by Home Office figures on police numbers published earlier this year. These show that the number of constables peaked at 109,037 in 2005, dropping by nearly 2,000 to 107,048 in March this year.
In the same timescale the number of community support officers leapt from 6,201 to 15,883.
The figures drew an alarmed reaction from opposition politicians.
Shadow Home Secretary Dominic Grieve said: 'This undermines all Labour's rhetoric about record police numbers.
The fact is that because of Labour's target culture our police spend just 14 per cent of their time where the public want them,which is on the streets.'
Liberal Democrat justice spokesman David Howarth said: 'The report rightly points out how incoherent policy from a Government obsessed with looking tough has left staff at the sharp end of the criminal justice system confused and overworked.'
But the Home Office insisted that spending on additional staff has meant fully-qualified officers can spend more time combating crime.
A spokesman said: 'Time spent by officers on frontline duties has increased each year since 2003 - equivalent to 5,340 more police officers.
Additional police staff are freeing officers to return to the front line.' News Source
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Men are at risk of being "feminised" by thousands of "gender bending" chemicals that are changing the behaviour of humans and animals, according to a report.
Scientists are warning that manmade pollutants which have escaped into the environment mimic the female sex hormone oestrogen.
The males of species including fish, amphibians, birds, and reptiles have been feminised by exposure to sex hormone disrupting chemicals and have been found to be abnormally making egg yolk protein, normally made by females, according to the report by Chem Trust, environmental group.
The authors claim that the chemicals found in food packaging, cleaning products, plastics, sewage and paint cause genital deformities, reduce sperm count and "feminise" males.
Fish have been specifically affected by the gender changing chemicals. In one study, half the male fish in British lowland rivers had signs of being feminised - as chemicals which block the male hormone androgen had been released- leading to the development of eggs in their testes.
Although the report only looked at the impact of gender bending chemicals on the animal world, its authors say the findings have disturbing implications for human health.
Gywnne Lyons, a former Government advisor on chemical pollution and author of the report, said: "Urgent action is needed to control gender bending chemicals and more resources are needed for monitoring wildlife.
"If wildlife populations crash, it will be too late. Unless enough males contribute to the next generation there is a real threat to animal populations in the long term," she added.
The paper lists the affected species and include, flounder in UK estuaries, cod in the North Sea, cane toads in Florida, peregrine falcons in Spain, and turtles from the Great Lakes in North America.
Some male roaches have changed sex completely after exposure to oestrogen from the Contraceptive pill pouring out of sewage works. News Source
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A child born to a poor family in Britain has less chance of escaping poverty than one born almost anywhere else in the world, the Tories will say today.
The claim comes in a report spelling out the party's policy changes it says will help 'socially immobile' families get out of benefit dependency and educational failure.
It proposes a 'whole family' approach to ending benefit dependency, with welfare to-work advisers expected to find jobs for unemployed parents, while ensuring their children are not being damaged by the low aspirations of the adults.
Tomorrow Labour sets out its plans for welfare reform, with a warning that almost all welfare claimants will have to do some kind of work or prepare for a job to continue receiving state benefits.
Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell will unveil proposals including: docking benefits for claimants who fail to attend official interviews and reforms to housing benefit to stop jobless claimants living in large houses at the taxpayer's expense.
Also compulsory training or work experience for single mothers of children as young as one and medical tests for more incapacity benefit claimants. News Source
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A hoax telephone call made during the height of the terror attacks in Mumbai brought Pakistan and India to the brink of nuclear war, it has been revealed.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari took the call from a man pretending to be India's Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday, November 28, the second day of the terrifying attacks that killed 171 people.
In the confusion of the attacks he took the call without it having gone through the usual verification process, officials and Western diplomats on both sides of the border said.
The caller threatened military action against Pakistan in response to the attacks. Mr Zardari responded by placing Pakistan's Air Force on high alert and called U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Dr Rice then called Mr Mukherjee - who insisted he had not made the call.
'It's unbelievable, but true,' a Western diplomat told The Times. 'It was a little alarming to say the least.'
The incident may be the closest the world has come to nuclear war since the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The astonishing revelation came as a man suspected of helping to plan the terror attack in Mumbai was arrested in Pakistan.
Pakistani troops seized a camp used by Laskhar-e-Taiba, the extremist group blamed in the Mumbai attacks, and arrested more than 12 people yesterday.
The raid was the first known action by Islamabad in response to the attacks, which have sharply heightened tensions between nuclear-armed rivals Pakistan and India.
India says the Mumbai siege was carried out and plotted by Pakistani militants belonging to the banned Laskhar-e-Taiba. It and the United States are demanding Pakistan crack down on the perpetrators.
Troops briefly exchanged fire with people at the camp during Sunday's raid close to
the town of Muzaffarabad in the Pakistani part of the disputed Kashmir region, the militants said.
A senior intelligence official, who confirmed the raid and arrests, said the detainees were being questioned over any possible links to the Mumbai attacks and several injured people were being treated at a military hospital.
The militants said the camp was used until 2004 by Laskhar-e-Taiba to train recruits to fight Indian rule in its section of the Kashmir. More recently, it was used by Laskhar's parent organisation Jamaat-ud-Dawa for education and charity work, they said.
Analysts say Laskhar-e-Taiba was created the with help of Pakistan's intelligence agencies in the 1980s to act as a proxy fighting force in Indian Kashmir.
Many suspect elements within the agencies keep some links with Laskhar and other militants in the country, either to use against India or in neighbouring Afghanistan.
The New York Times reported today that Laskhar has gained strength in recent years with the help of Pakistan's spy service, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence.
The newspaper claims the ISI has shared intelligence to and provided protection for the outlawed group, though there is no evidence to link the spy service to the Mumbai attacks.
Islamabad's young civilian government has denied any of its state agencies were involved in the Mumbai attacks, but said it was possible that the militants were Pakistanis.
Pakistan and India have fought three wars over the last 60 years, two over Kashmir. In 2001, an attack by suspected Laskhar-e-Taiba militants on the parliament building in New Delhi brought the countries close to conflict.
Pakistan has experienced a surge in militant violence since it sided with the United States after the September 11 attacks. As part of the alliance, it allows NATO and America to truck supplies to their forces in Afghanistan through the country.
Early today, militants in the northwestern city of Peshawar attacked a terminal for the supply trucks, torching scores of military vehicles waiting shipment.
The attack was the second in as many days on the supply line in the city, showing its vulnerability to militants that control large swaths Pakistan's lawless regions close to Afghanistan.
Up to 75 percent of the fuel, food and other logistical goods for Western forces battling Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan currently pass through Pakistan. News Source
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The boss of the controversial organisation behind the abolition of weekly rubbish collections received a bonus of £30,000 last year.
Liz Goodwin, the chief executive of WRAP, was rewarded for spreading the doctrine of compulsory recycling.
The payment took the value of her pay and perks to more than £200,000 – outstripping the Prime Minister’s salary of £189,994.
Three other directors of WRAP – the Government’s wheelie bin and rubbish advice body – also picked up big bonuses.
A £14,000 bonus went to recycling chief Philip Ward, taking his pension and pay to £140,000.
A similar bonus was paid to financial chief Hugh Etheridge, whose package totalled £141,000. Another executive, policy director Ray Georgeson, was paid an £8,000 bonus even though he was away on sabbatical for half of 2007.
WRAP, which cost the taxpayer nearly £80million last year, has become an increasingly controversial body over the past five years.
It was the quango that pressed councils to abandon weekly rubbish collections and replace them with fortnightly bin pick-ups, with households compelled to follow
complicated recycling rules.
WRAP advised councils to introduce fortnightly collections during winter, so no one would notice the smells until it was too late to protest, and to avoid bringing them in at election times, to prevent voters having a say.
Its activities allowed ministers at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which pays for WRAP, to imply that the introduction of fortnightly collections had nothing to do with them.
The high levels of pay, bonuses and pensions for WRAP bosses provoked criticism from MPs and pressure groups.
Tory environment, food and rural affairs spokesman Peter Ainsworth said: ‘There is a great deal of public money at stake here and it is essential that the proper checks are in place to ensure that it is managed appropriately.
‘This has revealed some very significant causes for concern.’
Mark Wallace of the TaxPayers’ Alliance said: ‘The world of quangos is so unaccountable that a damaging culture of massive rewards irrespective of performance has developed.
‘In these tough times of economic crisis, the taxpayer can no longer afford to keep bankrolling these fat cats.
‘It is crucial that there is total transparency and detailed scrutiny of WRAP to make sure the taxpayer is getting true value.’
WRAP is currently focusing on helping councils to find warehouses or space on military bases to store the rubbish carefully sorted for recycling by millions of families.
The recyclable waste is piling up in council depots because prices for it have collapsed. The demand from manufacturing for such material has slumped because of the financial crisis.
WRAP has also been involved in attempts to persuade people to buy less food.
Recently it advised office workers to bring in their own sandwiches rather than buy them from shops, in the hope of creating less rubbish.
A spokesman for WRAP said: ‘Any bonus is discretionary and is not a natural entitlement.
‘Objectives are set for each director at the start of the year and their bonus is awarded based on achievement against those objectives.
‘Part of the directors’ job last year was to steer WRAP successfully through a sudden and unexpected budget cut of 30 per cent, which needed tough decisions including, sadly, job losses. ‘Those decisions were hard to make and hard for those who lost
their jobs.’ News Source
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some of Britain's best loved shrubs and trees are under threat from two new deadly plant diseases, the National Trust has warned.
The new strains of the fungus Phytophthora appeared in the UK in the early 2000s, and are spreading so quickly that they could be in every garden within 20 years, killing magnolia, viburnum, camellia and rhododendron.
Unless action is taken to stop the diseases, they could devastate Britain's heathlands, moors and woodlands, the charity says.
The fears surround Phytophthora kernoviae and Phytophthora ramorum, or sudden oak death - relatives of tomato and potato blight which are spread by fungal spores in soil and water.
Initially the diseases infected ornamental and garden plants in the UK, but have spread to native countryside plants.
In a development described as 'deeply worrying', the National Trust says it found P. kernoviae - on bilberry at two sites in Cornwall and on the Isle of Arran in Scotland.
The National Trust and Natural Trust for Scotland have written to environment ministers in London and Edinburgh to call for urgent action to halt their spread.
Fifteen National Trust gardens have been infected with the virulent diseases so far, while four National Trust for Scotland gardens in the west of Scotland have been contaminated.
National Trust disease expert Ian Wright said: 'The fact that Phytophthora kernoviae has made the jump to heathland is deeply worrying.
'It has been estimated that within 20 years this plant disease could be in every garden in the UK and have a severe impact on our lowland and upland heath.'
Jan Haenraets, head of gardens and designed landscapes at the National Trust for Scotland, added: 'Without concrete action the spread of these diseases poses a real threat to our native plant and species in our gardens, woodlands and heathlands.
'This would have a serious knock-on effect for the environment and local economies.'
The trusts want the UK and Scottish governments to spend more money tackling the diseases and controlling their spread. They also want cash to help clear the countryside of Rhododendron ponticum - an imported plant which has escaped from gardens and thrived in parts of the UK. It acts as a host for the two strains. Continued
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Taxpayers in Essex could face a bill of £7.6 million to finish an ambitious new art gallery which is already a year overdue and will cost double the original estimate.
Colchester's "visual arts facility", to be called Firstsite, was conceived in 2003 with a budget of £16.5m and was to have opened in 2007. Changes to the design and another round of public consultation have delayed the project, which will now cost £25m and has left Colchester borough council with a £7.6m black hole.
It already plans to commit a further £2m to keep the project afloat – equivalent to £21 for every Band D taxpayer in Colchester – and hopes the rest can be found from private donations or Essex County Council.
It has also emerged that the original contract with developers drawn up by the council did not have an end date for completion of works and was even unclear about the total bill.
Fund-raising efforts to meet the spiralling cost of the project have included a reception at the House of Lords and a dinner in New York for potential donors hosted by then-Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell.
Bob Russell, Liberal Democrat MP for the area, blamed the council's Conservative administration which began the project before losing control of Colchester in May 2008 elections.
He said: "This is absolutely scandalous and the worst financial mismanagement I have witnessed in forty-five years of politics. I will always support Colchester but this project is too big for the town and I have warned from the start that it is unsustainable.
"It will cost £600,000 a year of public money to run so this is not even the end of it. If the council can't raise the remaining money it will have to pass on the cost to taxpayers or cancel the project and pay a £15 million penalty to developers. The whole thing is a fiasco."
A spokeswoman for the council said it was urgently seeking ways of finding the remaining money from other sources.
Another £100,000 of public money is to be spent by a health trust on an ocean-going yacht to improve the lives of unemployed youths.
NHS Hull has already been criticised for spending £400,000 on the 72ft vessel, which will sail with crews of teenagers into the North Sea and around Scandinavia, teaching them engineering skills and the benefits of healthy living.
The purchase was thought to be worth £400,000 but it has since emerged that the yacht, of the type once used in a round-the-world clipper race, will cost an extra £10,000 and a further £90,000 will be spent on safety equipment and other improvements.
The annual running costs of £1.3 million are being picked up by the quango One Hull, which is part-funded by the government.
A spokeswoman for NHS Hull said: "We believe that by addressing the causes of ill-health and the factors which contribute to it, such as lack of skills and unemployment, we will really begin to improve health outcomes in the city."
Mark Wallace, of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "It is lunacy, and the fact that the cost has risen illustrates how these managers are out of touch with reality."
Plans to erect four life-size statues at Wigan Pier, at a cost to the public purse of £36,000, have been criticised as wasteful.
The Wigan Pier Quarter Interpretation Project will see four figures of a pit brow lass, a bargee, a mill worker and a boatbuilder – each costing £2,520 – installed alongside information panels. The Heritage Lottery Fund provided grant aid of £24,000, while £6,905 came from the European Regional Development Fund, leaving Wigan council to pay the remaining £5,095.
The council says the money will be found from the sale of a nearby mill.
Robert Bleakley, a Liberal Democrat councillor, said: "At a time when rent arrears and repossessions are up, this will be seen as Wigan Council wasting public money. It's all very well putting new art work there but the canal is still full of rubbish when you walk past."
Wigan council said the scheme had been approved by its community consultation group. A council spokesman said: "We believe it is an exciting and original scheme that celebrates an important part of Wigan's heritage, and so do our partners within the local community.
"While it is easy to be critical about public art, this scheme will significantly enhance the internationally-recognised Wigan Pier Quarter. The grant money could not have been spent on an alternative initiative and would have been lost to the borough had it not been used on this project." News Source
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Middle class professionals such as lawyers and hospital consultants are among millions working in the “black market” as the recession bites, MPs are set to warn next week.
Hospital consultants, barristers and footballers have allegedly joined gardeners and hairdressers in the £6.1billion a year "hidden" economy - but chances of them being prosecuted are virtually nil, a report will show.
Evasion can range from casual moonlighting and cash in hand work to claiming welfare benefits fraudulently, tax evasion and organised crime.
Two million people - just over one in 20 of the adult population - are estimated to be involved in evasion.
Most of them are small time offenders such as gardeners and hairdressers, but a significant minority are white collar professionals.
MPs on the Public Accounts Committee, which is publishing its findings officially on Tuesday, are likely to highlight the case of a number of barristers who are being investigated by HMRC but have not yet been found to have been guilty of wrongdoing.
Inspectors are also examining the tax records of medical consultants who have allegedly not been declaring thousands of pounds they earn as private income, on top of their jobs at NHS hospitals.
Pressed earlier this year by MPs to name them, HMRC declined. Labour Ian Davidson MP said it was "unfair".
He said: "If one of my constituents was caught stealing £5 from a post office, they would undoubtedly be prosecuted and there would be consequences of publicity."
He added: "It does seem a trifle unfair, does it not?"
The HM Revenue and Customs spends £41million a year trying to track down the tax dodgers. HMRC has even set up specialist investigators to investigate groups like television entertainers. Other inspectors are employed to check luxury yacht registers with local harbour masters to see if the owners are paying their fair share of tax.
The amount of cash channelled through the hidden economy is also set to rise. Continued
Monday 8th December 2008
I’M baffled. Over the last 20 years, various governments have told us that there isn’t enough money in the pot to build better roads or improve the NHS or give the Army anything other than toy guns and string vests.
But now, all of a sudden, Mr Brown seems to be rolling in it.
It turns out the country can afford to cut interest rates to two per cent, bail out the banks, buy every house in the country, pay every laid-off worker a living wage and rescue the car industry. And there’s still enough left over to find out how many people in Britain like to sleep with farmyard animals.
Sadly, I’m not joking.
Anyone taking part in Government surveys will soon be asked whether they are heterosexual, gay, bisexual or “other”.
A woman from the national office of prying into our lives at every possible opportunity said the “other” category had been included because some people said the first three choices did not fit the bill properly and they would prefer to use another term.
At least that’s what she heard them say. But I bet it was difficult to be sure because of all the mooing and hee-hawing coming from the bedroom.
Still, at least she assures us the information we give about our love for donkeys, petrol pumps, space monsters and the like will be treated in confidence. Right up to the moment when some dozy civil servant leaves his laptop on a train.
Sheep
Suddenly the whole estate will know Mrs Miggins from No42 is having a passionate affair with her toothbrush.
We are also assured the survey will have a point.
According to the Government woman, it will help us understand, analyse and address inequalities in society. I’m sure it will but you don’t need a Government department, several million pounds and a clipboard army to do that. Just a bit of common sense.
Someone with a face like a butchered ape and a bottom bigger than most solar systems is never going to be a model.
Someone with ginger hair is never going to be taken seriously.
Someone with “eff off” tattooed on their forehead is not going to be employed as a hotel doorman and someone who likes to sleep with sheep is going to be a laughing stock.
I’m never going to get a job as a circus midget, a woman’s never going to fly a fast jet because her womb will come off and no one’s going to reach high office in government unless they are Scottish.
Life’s tragic. It always has been and it always will be. And the sooner the Government understands this, the sooner they’ll stop wasting money they don’t have on surveys which prove nothing except that more expensive action is needed to address a problem that can’t be solved.
The only result of this survey is that our children will end up paying for it in 30 years when the world bank comes knocking on the British Government’s door saying: “You know all that cash you borrowed in 2008. Well, now we want it back.” News Source
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brown will this week be told he could SAVE the country £15BILLION a year — if he abandons national targets, red tape and highly-paid quangos.
The PM could then get rid of TENS OF THOUSANDS of civil servants tied up with this work, says a report by a leading think-tank.
It calls for an end to the “spider’s web” of controls centred on Downing Street and demands the running of public services be left to local people.
The report by the influential Centre for Policy Studies also exposes massive waste in government departments. It says £15billion could be saved by:
- AXING central targets for policing, health, schools and universities along with quangos such as the National Police Improvement Agency and Regional Development Agencies.
- PUTTING local councils and Parliament in charge of all inspections.
- FARMING out 80 per cent of London- based civil service jobs across Britain.
- LETTING local citizens make their own decisions on how best to deliver services like policing, healthcare and education.
To illustrate how Whitehall’s “obsession with targets” isn’t working, the report points to the health service.
Paperwork
It says NHS productivity fell by two per cent a year between 2001 and 2005— although the budget more than doubled.
The report also warns that one in five 11-year-olds still leaves primary schools without basic literacy and arithmetic skills. And more than half of teenagers leave school without five good GCSEs (C to A* grade), including English and maths.
Mounting paperwork means that the police now spend just 13.8 per cent of their time actually on patrol—or 1 hour 39 minutes in a 12-hour shift.
The report’s author William Mason says taxpayers will only ever get value for money if Gordon Brown ends his obsession with setting targets.
“Radical structural reform is needed,” said Mr Mason. “Centrally imposed targets, financial controls, guidance and codes of practice must be replaced by local and Parliamentary accountability.
“Decisions made by professionals on the spot tend to be better than those mandated from afar. Local citizens should have the information and ability to challenge those who provide public services.”
Unemployment To Reach £2m By Christmas
The number of people out of work will top TWO MILLION before Christmas, according to Government figures — turning vast swathes of major cities into jobless zones.
A quarter of people in Liverpool and Glasgow and a fifth of those in Manchester and Birmingham are already on the dole. The number of jobless increased by 140,000 from July to September to 1.82 million, the highest quarterly figure since 1.87 million in 1997.
Some economists predicted unemployment would top two million in the New Year but the latest figures seen by ministers last week show job losses are rising far faster than expected.
Peak
In a further blow, 25 top economists consulted by the Treasury every week say unemployment will continue to rise for the next two years. They say the Recession Budget was no help.
And accountants Deloitte say the total will peak at THREE MILLION just as it did under the Thatcher government in 1983. The difference now is the figure will be on top of at least three million on incapacity and lone parent out-of-work benefits.
Deloittes economist Roger Bootle said: “Unemployment is about to soar.” News Source
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Almost all welfare claimants will have to do some form of work or prepare for a job if they want to keep receiving state benefits, the Government has warned.
Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell is due to set out his plans for reform of the welfare state in a white paper to be published this week.
He said: 'Virtually everyone will be doing something in return for their benefits.'
The measures in the white paper, which builds on last summer's green paper, include proposals to reform housing benefits to prevent jobless claimants living in large houses at the taxpayer's expense.
Single mothers of children as young as one will be required to go on training courses and work experience or face a cut in benefits while incapacity benefit claimants will have to undergo medical tests.
But in an interview with the Sunday Times, Mr Purnell said his scheme was 'not about stigmatising anybody'.
He sought to reassure parents of young children that they would be given assistance to find childcare.
'The conditionality would be very different for a one-year-old compared to a six-year-old,' he told the Times.
Mr Purnell used the example of Karen Matthews - convicted of kidnapping her daughter Shannon - who had seven children, never worked and received £400 a week in benefits.
He said the new approach would make women like Matthews work rather than rely on welfare.
Also under the Government plan, companies will be allowed to bid for contracts to place the long-term unemployed in work and US-style 'workfare' schemes will be introduced forcing claimants who turn down jobs to work in return for benefits.
But the shake-up could trigger a backbench rebellion when it is debated in the Commons.
Terry Rooney, the Labour chairman of the work and pensions select committee, said the proposed changes would lead to a 'bureaucratic nightmare' with tens of thousands of people being called for an interview.
He said for lone welfare parents, childcare was 'in most cases' unavailable, making it difficult for them to sustain employment.
The Conservatives held similar reservations about the shake-up.
Chris Grayling, the shadow work and pensions secretary, told the Times that he did not think the measures would work, but the country still needed welfare reform to end the 'entitlement culture'. News Source
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Margot Wallström , the European Commission’s Vice-President responsible for “communication”, has expressed concerns about the next Europarl elections next year.
In a letter to the Parliament’s President she wrote: “In next year’s elections, the legitimacy of your parliament, and that of the Union as a whole, is at stake.”
The Commission is intervening for the first time in the 30 year history of European elections because of a high risk that steeply declining voter turnout for the unpopular EU assembly will fall to an all-time low.
The turnout for the last European elections in 2004 dropped to 45 per cent, just 38.9 in Britain – rates that are almost a fifth lower than during the first poll held in 1979.
Officials are concerned that if participation drops further then EU institutions will be exposed as unpopular or irrelevant to voters. Something that must be hidden at all costs! News Source
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In Ireland 80 per cent of the laws that go through the Dail (the national parliament) originate from non-Irish MEPs in Brussels.
European Union member states are being ruled by an unelected body of elites in Brussels, without the right to reject or significantly modify 80 per cent of their laws, an EU parliamentarian said late last week. Mrs. Katherine Sinnott, the Member of the European Parliament for Ireland South, told a conference in Rome that the European Parliament has become a profoundly anti-democratic institution that threatens the rights of the unborn and the family.
Sinnott, a disability rights campaigner and MEP since 2004, told the 5th conference of Catholic Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, organized by MaterCare International (MCI) near the Vatican on Thursday, that in the Republic of Ireland, 80 per cent of the laws that go through the Dail (the national parliament) originate from non-Irish MEPs in Brussels. In Germany the estimate is 83 per cent.
In recent years, the EU has significantly shifted the process of lawmaking in Europe away from democratically elected individuals at the national level, to a small group of ideologically left-leaning elites who are fundamentally opposed to democratic principles, the sovereign rights of individual nations and to natural marriage and the right to life.
“Lawmakers increasingly are anyone above the citizens and those that they directly elect,” she said. “And we have to point out that this is true even at the national level.”
“It is only transpositions of laws already passed in Brussels” that come into effect in Ireland, she said. And Irish lawmakers have no right to vote to reject these laws. “Only 20 per cent or less of the laws in the national parliament, created by the people we actually elect, are original laws.” Furthermore, those laws that are passed in Brussels and transposed to the member states may not be significantly changed, and only those changes that are approved by the EU Commission and Council are tolerated.
In addition, she told the conference, there is little hope of an objective or unbiased judiciary at the international level. “The actual stated job,” she said, “of the European Court of Justice, the EU’s court, is to promote the ‘European project’.”
The Court of Justice, she said, is an ideologically motivated body that will use international agreements and treaties and decide the interpretation that “will promote the European project. Not, ‘what do those words truly mean’ and ‘what do case law tell us about them’.”
Sinnott said that this situation represents a significant threat to the legal protections for the unborn that are written into the Irish constitution. She told LifeSiteNews.com that this threat was a critical factor in the rejection of the proposed Lisbon Treaty by the Irish referendum in June.
Sinnott also observed that the increasing influence of the EU poses a threat to the rights of children and families in a variety of other ways. The rights of the child, for example, are interpreted by the EU in a way that excludes any mention of the right of a child to be reared within the context of a loving natural family. She cited the work done on a committee report on the rights of children, based on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. In the published report, she said, “the word ‘family’ was never mentioned’.”
“It took me 13 amendments to get the word ‘family’ in twice. I am still not sure that the word family will stay in past the Council or it will be those 20 per cent of amendments that are removed.” Continued - Please Read News in Full
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Next step in the erosion of Britain!
Words associated with Christianity, the monarchy and British history have been dropped from a leading dictionary for children.
Oxford University Press has removed words like "aisle", "bishop", "chapel", "empire" and "monarch" from its Junior Dictionary and replaced them with words like "blog", "broadband" and "celebrity". Dozens of words related to the countryside have also been culled.
The publisher claims the changes have been made to reflect the fact that Britain is a modern, multicultural, multifaith society.
So will they be removing references to Islam. Sikhism, Buddhism and many other religions too? Not on your life! (Ed)
But academics and head teachers said that the changes to the 10,000 word Junior Dictionary could mean that children lose touch with Britain's heritage.
"We have a certain Christian narrative which has given meaning to us over the last 2,000 years. To say it is all relative and replaceable is questionable," said Professor Alan Smithers, the director of the centre for education and employment at Buckingham University. "The word selections are a very interesting reflection of the way childhood is going, moving away from our spiritual background and the natural world and towards the world that information technology creates for us."
An analysis of the word choices made by the dictionary lexicographers has revealed that entries from "abbey" to "willow" have been axed. Instead, words such as "MP3 player", "voicemail" and "attachment" have taken their place.
Lisa Saunders, a worried mother who has painstakingly compared entries from the junior dictionaries, aimed at children aged seven or over, dating from 1978, 1995, 2000, 2002, 2003 and 2007, said she was "horrified" by the vast number of words that have been removed, most since 2003.
"The Christian faith still has a strong following," she said. "To eradicate so many words associated with the Christianity will have a big effect on the numerous primary schools who use it."
Ms Saunders realised words were being removed when she was helping her son with his homework and discovered that "moss" and "fern", which were in editions up until 2003, were no longer listed.
"I decide to take a closer look and compare the new version to the other editions," said the mother of four from Co Down, Northern Ireland. "I was completely horrified by the vast number of words which have been removed. We know that language moves on and we can't be fuddy-duddy about it but you don't cull hundreds of important words in order to get in a different set of ICT words."
Anthony Seldon, the master of Wellington College, a leading private school in Berkshire, said: "I am stunned that words like "saint", "buttercup", "heather" and "sycamore" have all gone and I grieve it.
"I think as well as being descriptive, the Oxford Junior Dictionary, has to be prescriptive too, suggesting not just words that are used but words that should be used. It has a duty to keep these words within usage, not merely pander to an audience. We are looking at the loss of words of great beauty. I would rather have "marzipan" and "mistletoe" then "MP3 player."
Oxford University Press, which produces the junior edition, selects words with the aid of the Children's Corpus, a list of about 50 million words made up of general language, words from children's books and terms related to the school curriculum. Lexicographers consider word frequency when making additions and deletions.
Vineeta Gupta, the head of children's dictionaries at Oxford University Press, said: "We are limited by how big the dictionary can be – little hands must be able to handle it – but we produce 17 children's dictionaries with different selections and numbers of words.
"When you look back at older versions of dictionaries, there were lots of examples of flowers for instance. That was because many children lived in semi-rural environments and saw the seasons. Nowadays, the environment has changed. We are also much more multicultural. People don't go to Church as often as before. Our understanding of religion is within multiculturalism, which is why some words such as "Pentecost" or "Whitsun" would have been in 20 years ago but not now."
She said children's dictionaries were trailed in schools and advice taken from teachers. Many words are added to reflect the age-related school curriculum.
Words taken out:
Carol, cracker, holly, ivy, mistletoe
Dwarf, elf, goblin
Abbey, aisle, altar, bishop, chapel, christen, disciple, minister, monastery, monk, nun, nunnery, parish, pew, psalm, pulpit, saint, sin, devil, vicar
Coronation, duchess, duke, emperor, empire, monarch, decade
adder, ass, beaver, boar, budgerigar, bullock, cheetah, colt, corgi, cygnet, doe, drake, ferret, gerbil, goldfish, guinea pig, hamster, heron, herring, kingfisher, lark, leopard, lobster, magpie, minnow, mussel, newt, otter, ox, oyster, panther, pelican, piglet, plaice, poodle, porcupine, porpoise, raven, spaniel, starling, stoat, stork, terrapin, thrush, weasel, wren.
Acorn, allotment, almond, apricot, ash, bacon, beech, beetroot, blackberry, blacksmith, bloom, bluebell, bramble, bran, bray, bridle, brook, buttercup, canary, canter, carnation, catkin, cauliflower, chestnut, clover, conker, county, cowslip, crocus, dandelion, diesel, fern, fungus, gooseberry, gorse, hazel, hazelnut, heather, holly, horse chestnut, ivy, lavender, leek, liquorice, manger, marzipan, melon, minnow, mint, nectar, nectarine, oats, pansy, parsnip, pasture, poppy, porridge, poultry, primrose, prune, radish, rhubarb, sheaf, spinach, sycamore, tulip, turnip, vine, violet, walnut, willow
Words put in:
Blog, broadband, MP3 player, voicemail, attachment, database, export, chatroom, bullet point, cut and paste, analogue
Celebrity, tolerant, vandalism, negotiate, interdependent, creep, citizenship, childhood, conflict, common sense, debate, EU, drought, brainy, boisterous, cautionary tale, bilingual, bungee jumping, committee, compulsory, cope, democratic, allergic, biodegradable, emotion, dyslexic, donate, endangered, Euro
Apparatus, food chain, incisor, square number, trapezium, alliteration, colloquial, idiom, curriculum, classify, chronological, block graph. News Source
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pensioner fined for littering after police knock cigarette from his hand while arresting shoplifters
A grandfather was left humiliated after being handed a £60 litter fine when his cigarette was knocked out of his hand as he walked past a scuffle between police and shoplifters.
Lazaris Michael, 76, had taken a single puff before his smoke was sent flying as officers apprehended two girls who were trying to flee a branch of Boots.
But the pensioner did not have time to bend down and pick it up before a council warden pounced on him and hit him the fixed penalty for littering in front of a large crowd.
When he begged the council to show common sense and drop the case they responded by threatening him with an even bigger fine if he does not pay up.
Mr Michael, a retired restaurateur from Margate, Kent, said: 'I am well known by the residents of this town and this was utterly embarrassing.
'I've been shopping on this street for half a century and this has never happened before. I never drop litter.
'I was on my way to pick up a prescription for my wife when two policemen were apprehending two girls and bringing them out of the shop.
'This was causing people to crowd round and in the bustle someone pushed into me and I dropped my cigarette.
'I wasn't littering - it was a full cigarette. But before I had a chance to pick it up the warden had come up to me and asked me to come with him.
'I didn't know what he wanted so I went to talk to him. He gave me the fine and didn't give me a chance to explain.
'If he hadn't come over to talk to me I would have bent down and picked it up without giving another thought. 'I wouldn't waste a full cigarette.'
Mr Michael, who has three grandchildren, said the worst thing about the incident last week was that many in the crowd wrongly believed that he was involved in the shoplifting.
He has since written to the council asking them to investigate the case, which he says was the result of an 'over zealous' council warden.
But he has been told the fee will be increased to £80 if he does not pay up.
Thanet Council's environment chief Shirley Tomlinson said: 'We are happy with the process that has been followed.
'Thanet Council's campaign warns people the council will take a zero tolerance approach to anyone who drops litter, including cigarette butts and chewing gum.
'If spotted, no excuses will be accepted. You will be handed a fine.
'It is therefore important to dispose of any litter in the right way.
'Our wardens have been doing what they have been instructed to do and we cannot make any allowances.'
Councils across Britain were given powers to issue fines for littering in 2006.
Since then 'offenders' have included an 11-year-old boy fined when an apple core fell out of his pocket, an apprentice gas fitter who poured a bucket of soapy water down a drain and a couple who dropped a handful of seed to feed birds.
Schoolgirl Sorrell Walsh from Stalybridge in Greater Manchester was handed a £75 fine for leaving a wooden ice cream stick on a wall in 2006.
Mother- of- three Hilary Buckland, 46, was fined £75 by Luton Borough Council after she threw a Wotsit crisp out of her car.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Greece's conservative government appealed for calm today after the country's worst riots in years shook several cities, sparked by the shooting of a teenage boy by police in Athens.
The protests began in Athens late yesterday soon after the boy was killed, with youths throwing petrol bombs at riot police, smashing shop windows and burning several cars.
They quickly spread elsewhere, including Greece's second city of Thessaloniki, and the holiday islands of Crete and Corfu.
Athens was peaceful again today, though barricades erected by protesters and charred vehicles remained on some streets, while broken bottles and rocks littered the main avenues.
Left-wing groups called for protests later today in the capital.
'Regarding the planned demonstrations, everyone has the right to protest but not by destroying property or turning against innocent people,' Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos told a news conference, defending the police's track record.
'No rage, even if justified, must lead to protests like those we saw yesterday. Such actions are against human rights.'
Pavlopoulos said he offered to resign but this was rejected by Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, whose fragile government has lost three ministers to scandals in the last year.
Fire services said they tackled blazes in 16 banks, about 20 shops and more than a dozen cars in Athens alone. Police officials declined to give figures for the number of people arrested or injured.
'It is the first time in my life that I have seen the city ravaged in this way. The government is to blame,' said Ioannis Damascos, 59, surveying the damage in central Athens, where passersby used handkerchiefs to hide the smell of lingering tear gas.
A police spokesman said it was the first time since 1985 that police had killed a minor in Greece. That killing sparked months of almost daily clashes between police and protesters.
Greece has seen a wave of anti-government strikes and protests in recent months as the global economic crisis has started to bite.
A 24-hour strike is scheduled for Wednesday to protest privatisations, pension reform and the cost of living in a country where one in five live below the poverty line. Continued
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The controlled media have excelled themselves once again by simply ignoring the real cause of the violent riots currently sweeping Greece, despite the facts being well-known and distributed via the Press Association newswire.
In their coverage to date, the media have all claimed that ‘youths’ are responsible for the violence in Athens and other parts of Greece and that it started after police shot and killed a ‘youth.’
The Press Association however reported a full day ago that the spark which led to the current unrest was caused by asylum seekers rioting after being told that no more applications were being processed that week.
According to the PA report, “Hundreds of migrants waiting to submit asylum applications rioted in central Athens, setting fire to rubbish bins and attacking passing cars.
“Protesters said the riot began when one man fell into a nearby canal after authorities told the crowd that no more applications could be submitted. Only a small number of applications can be submitted each week.
It was not immediately clear how the man fell into the canal. Police said he was injured and was taken by ambulance to a hospital. They said they were investigating the incident.”
The PA report continued: “Outraged asylum-seekers began setting fire to rubbish bins and throwing them into the street, and ripped branches off trees to set them alight. A smaller group threw rocks at passing cars, stopping some vehicles and banging on them with their hands.”
The BBC itself, while refusing to link the current unrest to the asylum seekers, carries a video report dealing with Pakistani asylum seeker unrest in Athens here.
The actual cause of the unrest — asylum seekers — has so far only been repeated by non-European media such as Turkey’s Hurriyet Daily News.
The Greek far left, who have in the past been closely allied to the far left in Britain, has now seized upon the initial asylum seeker unrest and started riots of their own, providing the controlled media with a perfect excuse to hide the cause of the violence.
Backgrounder to the situation in Greece: Extract from the October 2008 book, The Immigration Invasion:
In 2008, the mayor of Athens, a socialist from the left-wing Pasok party, Yiannis Sgouros, appealed to the Greek government for help in solving what he called an “explosive problem” in the heart of the capital. “Illegal immigrants are becoming pawns to local drug barons and are forming gangs,” Sgouros wrote in a letter to the Prime Minister. “Something has to change or the area will become an arena for race clashes and gang wars.”
Police figures show that most immigrants arrested on drug-related charges in central Athens in 2008 were from the Sudan, Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan.
Until two decades ago, Greece had virtually no immigrant community of any significance. In the past 20 years, that has changed considerably.
As of 2006, the number of foreigners in an estimated total of 11,148,533 people was 695,979 or 6.24 percent.
By 2008, one out of every ten residents in Greece - and almost one in five in the centre of Athens - was foreign born. The majority of these foreigners came from neighbouring Albania, but just under half came from Third World regions such as West Africa, China, Pakistan and the Middle East.
The total Third World-origin population of Greece, as of 2008, was therefore estimated to be in the region of five percent.
Turkish groups dominate illegal immigration routes and regularly import Asians to Greece. Up to 500 immigrants illegally cross Greek borders each week, and that is only in the Eastern Aegean front of the country. In 2004, it was reported that over one million illegal immigrants were in transit from Turkey towards Western Europe.
In 2007, at least 100 Turks in Greece were arrested and charged with people smuggling, along with several Pakistanis and Iraqis who appeared to be the main source of forged documents.
The extent of Greece’s ’springboard’ status is illustrated by the statistics of illegal immigrant arrests in that country. In the 15-year period up to 2000, some 2.2 million illegal immigrants were detained in Greece, along with 150,000 arrests for narcotic related offences. This figure is astounding when it is borne in mind that Greece’s entire population is a little over 10 million.
In 2006, Greek authorities estimated that about 80,000 illegal immigrants had settled in Greece that year alone, and that the total illegal population could be close to a million in total.
This influx of Africans, Middle Easterners and assorted origins, has transformed many areas of central Athens. It is not uncommon to see street fights between gangs of Afghanis, Iraqis and Africans, with the intensity of the clashes already causing ethnic Greeks to start leaving certain parts of the capital.
Attempts to legalise immigrants in Greece - residence permits were granted to 500,000 undocumented foreigners since 1997 - have failed to solve what has become an ever-growing problem. News Source
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Damian Green case has taken a new twist after it emerged that ministers plan to legislate to make it easier for state officials to raid MPs' offices without a warrant.
A new Bill outlined in last week's Queen's Speech contains small print which would allow officers of the Electoral Commission unfettered powers to search MPs offices or homes.
If the Commons' Speaker tried to stop the searches, he would be committing a criminal offence.
The details of the Political Parties and Elections Bill, seen by The Sunday Telegraph, appear to blow out of the water claims by Michael Martin, the Speaker, that in future no MP's office will be able to be searched without a warrant.
Mr Martin, who is clinging to his job in the wake of the police raid on the office of Mr Green, the Conservative immigration spokesman, made his claim during his statement on the affair in the Commons last week.
Last night Francis Maude, the shadow minister for the Cabinet Office, branded ministers's new plans "alarming" and said they were a further blow to parliamentary privilege.
Currently, Electoral Commission officials are allowed to make unannounced raids, without a warrant, on the offices of political parties, to search for information or documents.
The new Bill seeks to widen these powers to apply to the offices or homes of "regulated donees", which include MPs. No warrant would be needed – just a "disclosure notice" issued by the commission itself. The new laws could also apply to the homes and offices of anyone who has ever made a donation to a political party.
The Speaker told the House of Commons in his statement last week that "from now on a warrant will always be required where a search of a Member's office or access to a Member's Parliamentary papers is sought. Every case must be referred for my personal decision as it is my responsibility." However, under the new proposals, he would not be consulted and he would face arrest if he resisted. News Source
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When police raided Tory MP Damian Green’s home, they ‘sheepishly’ asked whether children were present before ransacking it. His wife assumed they were being polite. But, under sinister new guidelines, officers must assess all children they encounter – including while ‘searching premises’ – for a police database called MERLIN.
This, in turn, feeds into a giant new Whitehall database on Britain’s children, Contact Point, which goes live nationally in January.
The Tories have vowed to scrap it, arguing that it threatens family privacy and children’s safety. But civil liberties campaigners say we must resist it now, before it is too late.
Since April 1, hundreds of thousands of State employees, from police to teachers, youth and nursery workers, social workers and sports coaches, have been entitled to interrogate children aged up to 19, using the ‘Common Assessment Framework’ (CAF), a creepy, eight-page, 60-section questionnaire.
CAF includes eyewateringly intimate questions about children’s sexual behaviour, their family’s structure, culture and religion, their views on ‘discrimination’, their friends, secret fears, feelings and family income, plus ‘any serious difficulties in their parents’ relationship’.
How has such a terrifying intrusion into private life crept, almost unnoticed, under the radar? The answer is New Labour has cleverly packaged CAF as an aid to ‘child protection’ and delivering better services as part of its Every Child Matters project (ECM).
The £224million programme has been beset by delays, incomprehensible acronyms and New Labour gobbledegook. But let us not be deceived – it is about control, not care, and spying, not safety.
ECM claims that nearly half of Britain’s 11million children have ‘additional needs’, so must continuously be assessed for the giant database at the Government’s Department for Schools and Families.
CAF questionnaires will be kept until they are 19, or for 75 years if they have been in care, and can be accessed electronically by hundreds of thousands of staff in other agencies.
Contact Point will also store information from databases kept by the NHS, GPs, schools, the Child Benefit Agency and the National Pupil Register. The potential for sensitive material about our children falling into malevolent hands is enormous.
Incredibly, parental consent is not often required
for this intrusion into children’s lives.
Youngsters from the age of 12 are deemed mature enough to agree to being CAF-ed – whatever their parents’ objections. But campaigners stress that families should teach their children to say No: submitting to CAF is, currently at least, voluntary. The Government claims that the database will identify children at risk of poverty, abuse or future criminality. But since when did filling in endless forms release funds for frontline services, rather than divert them?
By bizarre coincidence – or not – this assault on treasured British notions of privacy and propriety was devised by the woman responsible for Britain’s most notorious social-work scandal. ECM was launched in September 2003 by Margaret Hodge, Tony Blair’s shocking choice as Britain’s first Children’s Minister.
Her main ‘qualification’ was being his pal and running Islington Council when its 12 children’s homes were awash with paedophiles and sympathisers of the ‘Left-wing’ Paedophile Information Exchange. This campaigned for sex to be legalised with children from the age of four.
One can only wonder how many Pervy Petes within childcare today will relish being actively invited to ask children about their sexual behaviour (CAF seemingly views this as normal), the ‘sleeping arrangements’ at home and how they feel about ‘changes to their body’.
I have been exposing child-abuse scandals for nearly 20 years and believe that this new Stalinist bureaucracy will not save a single child. Many of the paedophiles I exposed in Hodge’s homes ‘groomed’ children for eventual abuse through precisely such questions. Hodge claimed that constant State monitoring of children was justified by the Victoria Climbie scandal.
Yet adequate powers to protect genuinely endangered children already exist. Why, then, did the appalling mothers of Shannon Matthews and Baby P retain their children? The problem was not lack of paperwork but too many stupid, politically correct people reading it and failing to act.
CAF will not mean that the State now swoops on the demonic families in flea-infested homes with rottweilers and broken-backed babies. No, just as with the Government’s fearless war on pensioner recycling ‘louts’, they will instead target and terrorise ordinary, decent families.
Why? One reason is simply to control people. Many of today’s New Labour MPs are ex-Marxists and radical feminists who still believe that the family poses the greatest potential opposition to the strong State.
The Government’s decreed desirable ‘outcomes’ for children are so frighteningly broad that many decent parents could find themselves labelled failures or abusers.
Everyone involved with children – including volunteers, and police on raids – is now expected to use the Government’s ‘Pre-Assessment Checklist’, to see if they are achieving these five ‘outcomes’ – being healthy, staying safe, enjoying life, making a ‘positive contribution’ and achieving ‘economic well-being’.
Even parents working desperately hard to feed their children and keep them safe could be classified as failing them. The questionnaire asks if children’s parents are ‘over-protective’, and whether work leaves them ‘too tired to pay attention to your needs’. CAF practitioners are also taught specifically to ask if parents ‘promote a healthy lifestyle’ and oppose ‘bullying and discrimination’.
An increasingly rigid State already rejects potentially loving foster and adoptive carers who smoke or have politically ‘incorrect’ views because they are Christian.
How long until natural parents are also found guilty of thought crime?
Might Damian Green have been considered guilty of encouraging discrimination, through challenging the Government on immigration?
The worst thing is that Every Child Matters has made real protection work harder – the highly effective Child Protection Register was abolished in April and social workers are now drowning in paperwork about entirely innocent families.
A suppressed University of York study found it took them a day to enter data electronically on just one child.
Terri Dowty, director of Action on Rights for Children, says: ‘People should fill in CAF questionnaires only if they have a real, defined need – for example, a disabled child and they need equipment – and then answer only strictly relevant questions. Otherwise, parents should teach their children that if they are asked at school to fill in these forms to say that they want first to go home and discuss it.’
Dowty fears that the new State questionnaire is ‘designed to teach children to accept being interrogated and classified from the earliest age, by anyone and everyone. It is truly frightening’. No one, supposedly, can be forced to fill in a CAF. But practitioners are advised to report the family to the local safeguarding children team ‘if a common assessment is refused and you are concerned’. They may also store the CAF centrally even when permission is refused.
Campaigners are considering challenging CAF in the European Court of Human Rights, which has thrown out Britain’s attempts to store innocent citizens’ DNA. But they desperately need benefactors and lawyers prepared to fund test cases and support innocent families under pressure.
Tragically, Britain, the cradle of parliamentary democracy, is becoming notorious worldwide for snooping on its citizens. Professor Nigel Parton, NSPCC Professor of Childhood Studies at Huddersfield University, warned a recent international conference in Finland that the Every Child Matters agenda means what we are witnessing is the emergence of the ‘preventive-surveillance state’, with ‘major implications for the civil liberties and human rights of the citizen, particularly for children and parents’.
Once, people who warned of a growing police state seemed paranoid. The Damian Green raid was a wake-up call. Let us now protect our children, our and our country’s future, with all our might.
Paranoid? Nationalists have seen this coming for a very long time! (Ed)
Disclaimer: This News Item has been duplicated in its entirety to serve as public information
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Christian policeman sacked after a row over gay rights has told how his dismissal after 15 years in the force has ‘devastated’ his family.
As The Mail on Sunday revealed in the summer, Graham Cogman objected to being ‘bombarded’ at work by emails and posters promoting events such as Gay History Month.
He responded to the ‘politically correct’ campaign by sending emails to colleagues quoting Biblical texts suggesting that homosexual sex was sinful.
But he faced accusations of homophobia and a series of disciplinary hearings, culminating 12 days ago in his sacking by Norfolk Police for misconduct.
The twice-commended officer said yesterday: ‘I am totally devastated. It was a job I loved. This is destroying me and my family.’
He admitted he had ‘stupidly’ breached a ban by using the internal communications system to post a link to an American Christian organisation, but said the force’s decision to sack him was ‘harsh and disproportionate’.
Mr Cogman, 50, accused the police service of becoming so sensitive to the rights of gays that Christians could no longer safely express their views.
Speaking at his home in Sea Palling, Norfolk, which he shares with his wife Elaine, 46, and his two children, Mr Cogman said: ‘In the service in general there is a feeling of fear. There is a definite bias against faith – any faith – if it takes a critical view of homosexual sex.
‘The easy option for me would have been to keep quiet but when there is such prejudice towards one point of view, how can that be right? That doesn’t sound like equality and diversity to me.
‘I don’t have any worries with what people do in their private lives – if they are gay, that’s fine. I haven’t gone after anyone maliciously.’
Mr Cogman, backed by the Police Federation, is appealing against his sacking and is planning to take his force to an employment tribunal next year, funded by the Christian Legal Centre.
He said he had received a huge amount of support both from within and outside the force.
Last week the Rev Martin Young, vicar of St Andrew’s church in Norwich, wrote an open letter to Norfolk Police protesting that it had ‘manifestly failed to uphold PC Cogman’s right to express his Christian faith’.
The vicar added: ‘His views are not extreme or unusual. They are consistent with the published understanding of the Church of England, of which he is a member.’ Mr Cogman said he had no problems with colleagues until gay liaison officers circulated an email to officers in early 2005 encouraging staff to wear a pink ribbon on their uniforms during Gay History Month. Continued
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A council opened three 'phantom libraries' to try to convince inspectors it was meeting Government targets on increasing residents' access to books.
Lambeth Council in South London set up makeshift libraries in two youth centres costing £62,000. they were then closed just six weeks later - and only 25 books were loaned.
One email from a council official, released under Freedom of Information legislation, said: 'Will the Audit Commission buy these as being libraries?...If it was as simple as what we're doing wouldn't everyone do it?'
The Audit Commission which monitors council spending, is investigating the matter. The council denies any wrong-doing. News Source
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A Conservative government would bring back weekly bin collections and promote recycling without penalising people.
Labour has presided over the slow death of the weekly rubbish collection. Ministers and their quangos have successfully bullied 225 councils across the country into adopting fortnightly collections, with 20 million people in England alone now deprived of a basic weekly service. There is even serious talk by the government's bin quango, WRAP, of a move to monthly collections.
What has become clear is that after more than a decade of Labour rule the voice of the people is being disregarded. Research by Ipsos-MORI has found that 73% of the public who currently have a weekly collection oppose the introduction of fortnightly rubbish collections, and only 14% support fortnightly collections. Yet the government still presses ahead with culling this vital service, without any proper debate.
To add insult to injury these cutbacks have been against a backdrop of council taxes more than doubling in the last decade. So you pay more and get less under Gordon Brown. Labour ministers claim that this is a matter for "local discretion", yet Whitehall guidance recommends that the bins are emptied fortnightly, and councils are financially penalised if they keep weekly collections. The government's own waste prevention strategy explicitly advocates cutting the scope and frequency of bin collections.
Government ministers have tried to peddle the myth that there is "no evidence in published studies" to indicate a link between cuts to weekly collections and increases in flies and vermin. Yet recent parliamentary questions have forced the government to admit it has undertaken detailed research into the health and environmental impacts of vermin and insects from waste by the Central Science Laboratory, an executive agency of the government. The government's own scientists state: "Regular weekly collections particularly during summer months will reduce [fly] infestation rates".
Worryingly, Rentokil estimate that there are now 80 million rats on our streets - more than the population of Britain.
It used to be the case that you were only ever six feet away from a rat.
Now it appears that thanks to Labour, rodents are inching even closer. Labour's cutbacks have also fuelled a wave of fly-tipping, leaving indelible scars on the country's landscape.
Official figures show that fly-tipping has soared, adding a massive £213m to council tax bills over that period and damaging to the environment.
So what would a Conservative government do? We have set out fully funded proposals to help deliver weekly rubbish collections, ending Labour's unpopular cocktail of bin cuts, bin fines and bin taxes.
There is another way: one that rewards recycling rather than penalising people, and which works with how people actually live rather than fining them into conformity. Experience has shown that if you treat the public with respect they will respond.
A Conservative government would change Whitehall policy so that there is an expectation that councils should offer full weekly collections, reversing the Labour policy. Central funding will be offered for all councils to provide a weekly collection of organic waste, as well as comprehensive recycling collections. This will be provided by scrapping a series of unelected quangos and local government bureaucracy.
Councils, subject to the ballot box, will still have the final decision on what services to offer, but they will no longer be forced and bullied into cutting services because of Whitehall diktats. We want to hand power back to local communities. Cutbacks and stealth taxes do not have to be inevitable. If the Conservatives win power, the needs of local people will not be sidelined: they will be at the forefront of everything we do. News Source
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Britain is to spend nearly £500m on schools and hospitals in Pakistan in a bid to quell the extremist forces blamed for the attacks in Mumbai last month.
Ministers will outline their plans in Glasgow this week to double the aid already given to Pakistan.
Much of the cash will be spent on improving education in the border areas of the country to tackle the near non-existent levels of schooling.
The sum was agreed well before the attacks on Mumbai last month, but the atrocity in India has served to focus more attention on the need to counter extremist influences in Pakistan.
Indian authorities believe the banned Pakistani-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba trained the gunmen and plotted the attacks, which left 171 people dead. Yesterday they announced that one of two people arrested for illegally buying mobile phone cards used by the gunmen in the attacks is a counter-insurgency police officer, who may have been on an undercover mission.
In total, the UK will spend £480m over the next three years in Pakistan, making it the second-biggest recipient of British aid after India.
The funds are expected to be focused in Pakistan's north-west territories bordering Afghanistan, long singled out by authorities as the lawless region where the Taliban and al-Qaeda have formed a base.
The plans will be outlined this week in Glasgow when ministers will consult the local Pakistani community to discuss ways of delivering the cash effectively.
International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander said: "The single biggest factor holding Pakistan back is terrorism and religious extremism, and the best long-term solution is to create stability."
He added: "We see the support that we are offering as being a commitment to tackling poverty, supporting democratic reform and economic growth in the region." News Source
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The soaring number of gender bending chemicals in our food, water and air are triggering an infertility time bomb which could disrupt evolution, scientists are warning.
They say wildlife is being 'feminised' by a host of common man-made pollutants which escape into the environment and mimic the female sex hormone oestrogen.
The chemicals - found in food packaging, cleaning products, plastics, sewage and paint - trigger genital deformities, reduce sperm count and even turn males into females.
Dozens of species - including polar bears, fish, bald eagles, otters and whales - are suffering, they say.
Although the report, published by the environmental group ChemTrust, only looked at the impact of gender bending chemicals on the animal world, its authors say the findings have disturbing implications for human health.
Gywnne Lyons, a former Government advisor on chemical pollution and author of the report, said: 'Urgent action is needed to control gender bending chemicals and more resources are needed for monitoring wildlife.
'If wildlife populations crash, it will be too late. Unless enough males contribute to the next generation there is a real threat to animal populations in the long term.'
The report looks at the effect of hormone disrupting chemicals - including phthalates added to plastics such as PVC and glues, and bisphenol A used in the linings of food cans, plastics bottles and dental sealants.
'Males of species from each of the main classes of vertebrate animals (including bony fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals) have been affected by chemicals in the environment,' the report said.
'Feminisation of the males of numerous vertebrate species is now a widespread occurrence.' Continued
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The boss of a UK energy firm has said suppliers will not pass on all of the savings they make on cheaper wholesale gas and electricity to consumers.
In the week oil tumbled to just above 40 US dollars a barrel, EON UK chief executive Paul Golby said the industry needed to protect profit margins. This was in order to invest an estimated £100 billion in new wind farms and power plants and to meet environmental targets, he told the Observer newspaper.
"If wholesale gas prices have fallen by a third, it does not mean retail prices will go down by the same amount," Mr Golby said.
In the last year, energy companies have increased bills by about a third on average, blaming the doubling in the cost of wholesale gas and electricity. Wholesale prices have fallen back in recent months, but suppliers have yet to cut bills across the board.
EON profits in the UK fell by 25% to £650 million in the first nine months of the year, reflecting its decision not to pass on the full cost of wholesale price rises earlier in the year.
Mr Golby said profits needed to be higher in order to invest in new plant: "Profits are not high enough to match the cost of capital needed for investment, for example in new plants. I accept that the group profit figures we report look large, but we need capital to invest."
He added: "It's difficult to finance (the investment needed) in the current financial environment if the Government makes us reduce already lower-than-needed profits. Where will the investment come from? The Government won't build nuclear plants or wind farms." News Source
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Britain's economy has been overtaken by France and could fall behind Italy's next year, according to leading economists.
New figures show that the economic crisis has pushed Britain well down the international league table.
The UK is now the sixth largest economy in the world, behind America, Japan, China, Germany and France.
Economists said the fall reflected the pound's slump to record lows against the euro.
A year ago the UK economy was 8 per cent bigger than that of France, measured by gross domestic product (GDP).
Now it is 14 per cent smaller, according to figures from the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR).
"An overvalued sterling has inflated the UK's claims to be among the top five world economies," said Ben Read, an economist with the CEBR.
"The drastic reduction in sterling's value has accelerated the inevitable process of the UK falling down the league table of world economies, as India and Brazil catch up and overtake the UK's national output.
"Where the UK's comparative output 'benefited' from sterling's rapid rise up to 2007, we now see the UK overtaken by France, despite both countries seeing a fairly similar economic performance over the past year."
At present Britain's GDP is 6 per cent bigger than that of Italy. But according to CEBR, it will drop below Italy's next year.
Britain became a bigger economy than Italy in the final months of John Major's government in 1997 and two years later became a bigger economy than France, thanks to strong British growth and a high pound.
For most of Tony Blair's time as prime minister, Britain's was the fourth largest economy in the world, before China overtook it in 2006. News Source
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Secretary of State for International Development Douglas Alexander launched the UK Aid for Trade StrategyPDF document(2 mb) during the Follow-up International Conference on Financing for Development in Doha on Monday.
Mr Alexander launched the Strategy in a speech to more than 70 stakeholders, which included ministers from developing countries, high level representatives from the World Trade Organization (WTO) and development banks, Members of the European Parliament and civil society organisations.
The Secretary of State announced the UK’s intention to spend at least £400 million per year on Aid for Trade by 2010.
The event was co-hosted by EU Development Commissioner Louis Michel, and attended by Malawi’s Minister of Finance Goodall Gondwe, and the Tanzanian Minister of Finance and Planning, Mustapha Mkulo. The UK’s Strategy will feed into EU and G7 commitments to increase Aid for Trade to $2 billion and €4 billion per year, respectively.
Douglas Alexander also pledged to deliver more Aid for Trade resources, calling on others to do the same:
“It is more important now than ever that the international community keep our pledges on the quantity and quality of aid we provide to the developing world. Aid for Trade will not only help to provide a route out of poverty for developing countries, but is also an investment in all our futures.”
A key aspect of addressing the current financial crisis, he said, involves helping to ensure that countries are able to trade competitively in the global market. For this to be achieved, we need to fight protectionism and create a more free and fair global trading environment – something that successfully completing the Doha round of trade talks as soon as possible could help to do. Continued - Please Read News in Full
Reader Submitted Link. Thank You Rod
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A senior police officer has accused former Metropolitan Police chief Sir Ian Blair of putting his force 'in the pocket of New Labour'.
Tarique Ghaffur said that Sir Ian had politicised his organisation and said he was glad that his former boss had lost his job.
Assistant Commissioner Ghaffur - who has been embroiled in his own controversy over his tribunal claim against the Met for racism - also said that Sir Ian had manipulated the cash-for-honours inquiry into alleged Labour corruption in order to win leverage in the Home Office.
Mr Ghaffur's charges against Sir Ian were made in an article in the Mail on Sunday less than a fortnight after the settlement of his race claim against his employers.
His accusation that the Metropolitan Police is working at the Government's command will provide fresh evidence for MPs who are complaining at the harassment of Tory frontbencher Damian Green, his arrest, nine-hour grilling by police, and the search of his Commons office.
Mr Ghaffur retired from the police last month after the his race case against the Met was settled out of court.
He accepted a £280,000 settlement, although he had originally wanted £1.2 million in compensation.
Sir Ian stepped down as Commission in October, saying he did not have the confidence of London mayor Boris Johnson.
Sir Ian, who once allowed Labour election posters to appear on a Metropolitan Police car, complained that the Tory mayor was wrongly bringing political influence into policing.
Mr Ghaffur, whose family fled from Idi Amin's Uganda in the 70s, was the country's highest-ranking Asian officer before his falling out with Sir Ian.
He said: 'I accuse his leadership of two things: first, that he transformed the Yard into a corporation, almost too busy running itself to fight crime; and second, he politicised the force, putting it in the pocket of New Labour.
'On both counts I find him guilty as charged.'
He cited Sir Ian's 'shameful' publicly-expressed support for Labour's ID card scheme during the 2005 general election campaign.
'I was shocked,' Mr Ghaffur said. 'Of course the Met should be politically accountable but I did not believe it should be politically driven.
'It seemed to me he was acting as a cheerleader for the Home Office when safety and security has always been, and should still be, a neutral agenda.'
Mr Ghaffur said he was kept in the dark about the cash-for-honours inquiry into the exchange of titles for donations by Labour, which was dealt with inside his own department at Scotland Yard, because the inquiry gave Sir Ian leverage at the Home Office.
With the inquiry taking a year during the row over the shooting by Met officers of Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes, Sir Ian benefitted because 'nobody in Whitehall would want to antagonise him', Mr Ghaffur said.
He called Sir Ian 'a silken political creature' who threatened to sack him because he challenged Labour's call for a 42-day period of detention without trial for terror suspects.
Mr Ghaffur said his job was threatened 'because I had dared to put the needs of the police and public ahead of the wishes of the Government.'
He added that his own race tribunal claim had contributed to Sir Ian's downfall and added: 'I take no personal pleasure in that but professionally I am relieved his tenure is at an end and that the Met can now move on.'
Sir Ian had encouraged a generation of police officers who were no more than fraudsters, Mr Ghaffur said.
'He has bred a generation of officers who, like him, are focused on planning and fulfilling performance targets.
'This new breed of career cop secures one job and then immediately starts plotting their next promotion - they are nothing more than serial fraudsters.' News Source
Sunday 7th December 2008
June Edmunds' research doesn't tell the real story: radical Islam is alive and well in UK universities
On Wednesday, newspapers gave wide coverage to a report produced by researchers at Cambridge University which found that "British universities are not hotbeds of Islamic radicalism" and that "most young British Muslims are opposed to political Islam".
The report, principally authored by Dr June Edmunds, was promptly – and deservedly – trashed by Professor Anthony Glees for its methodology (it was based on just 26 interviews at three universities, out of a total Muslim student population of 89,000).
I spent several years in Hizb ut-Tahrir and sat on its national leadership committee. During this time I regularly visited and spoke at least a dozen universities promoting Islamist thought.
I can assure Edmunds that Islamist radicalism remains a problem at these and other universities – partly thanks to my recruitment activities. Let's look at the three universities where Edmunds conducted her research.
Take Bradford, where I often spoke about the need for Muslims to reject democracy. Until recently, Bradford University's Islamic Society (ISOC) was run by Hizb ut-Tahrir (it is now run by Deobandis instead).
The website of Bradford's ISOC shows how these same members prepared themselves for Edmunds' October 31 2007 focus group, warning each other to "be careful what you say".
No wonder her focus groups produced little of value or interest. In 2007 four Bradford university students were put on trial for terrorism offences.
Although they were acquitted in 2008, their possession of vast libraries of pro-jihadist material was not disputed. Or take the London School of Economics.
A regular speaker at LSE's ISOC is Hizb ut-Tahrir's Reza Pankhurst, previously convicted in Egypt of seeking to overthrow the government.
Other speakers favoured by the LSE ISOC include Kemal Helbawy, the Muslim Brotherhood leader who is not allowed to enter the US. Radicalised alumni include Omar Sheikh who brutally killed reporter Daniel Pearl in 2001.
Or take Cambridge University, where Edmunds herself is based. Currently, Bilal Abdulla is on trial for attempted to carrying out bombings in central London and Glasgow, targeting a nightclub and an airport respectively.
His friends have testified that he was largely radicalised through his contacts with Hizb ut-Tahrir members from Cambridge University.
Other universities overlooked by Dr Edmunds are Middlesex, Bristol and Nottingham Trent, where Hizb ut-Tahrir and other radical groups control ISOCs and seek to impose their agenda and ideologies not only on other Muslim students but on the entire student body.
Other London universities such as Imperial, City, and Queen Mary regularly host extreme Wahhabite speakers.
Another example of Islamist influence is Manchester University, where Islamists in 2006 gained control over the student newspaper and promptly removed the paper's dating column – to the ire of other students.
But if academics are going to conduct their research based on small samples susceptible to Islamist influence, why not save time and energy by cutting out the academic middle man altogether?
Some branches of government have already embraced this pioneering form of "engagement".
The Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills has recently worked with Fosis to carry out a poll of Muslim students' opinions. The head of Fosis, Faisal Hanjra, laid out his progressive and forward-thinking ideas while he was head of Queen Mary ISOC last year.
At his ISOC's events and talks, women were typically sat at the back of the hall and had to write down questions for speakers in case their voices caused men to be distracted from the serious business of Islamism. Is this really the version of Islam that the British government wants to promote? News Source
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Probe over council official who allegedly evicted pensioners - then moved into their homes An investigation has began into why a council official allegedly evicted elderly tenants from their homes - only to move into one of the properties at a low rent.
Norwich City Council wants to discover how Kristine Reeves, who has responsibility for helping the homeless, has become the tenant of a one-bedroom bungalow with a £47 a week rent. Ms Reeves, 38, is the £52,000 a year head of neighbourhood and strategic housing.
A newspaper investigation has claimed that council officials decided to let the vacated sheltered housing in a prime city-centre spot to their colleagues and advertised them on the council's intranet - without seeking the approval of elected councillors.
Ms Reeves now lives at one of the properties - formerly a home for the elderly - with a fellow senior housing officer, according to the newspaper. She has defended the move saying that it had the merit that it would "continue the rent roll."
However, she declined to discuss details of her property or who she lived with. "I'm very surprised that you're looking into my personal details like that," she said.
Private one-bedroom flats in Norwich usually cost between £350 and £750 a month to rent, yet Ms Reeves is apparently paying around £200 a month for the small bungalow.
Former residents of Greyhound Opening, a postwar sheltered housing scheme, say they were distressed at having to leave their homes, neighbours and gardens. They have been transferred to old people's accommodation around the city.
Ida Hall, 89, whose husband was a prisoner of war, said: "I didn't want to leave. I liked my little bungalow. It was lovely."
Norwich City Council, whcih is Labour-run, confirmed that Ms Reeves had moved into the former home for the elderly two months ago. "An investigation is now taking place into the process by which units were allocated to staff," a spokesman said.
Abigail Davies, the head of policy at the Chartered Institute of Housing, said: "A bit of transparency doesn't go amiss." However, she declined to comment on the individual case. News Source
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When three police officers came knocking at Brett Duxfield's door at 8am, he could not imagine what he had done wrong.
The 39-year-old Hartlepool lorry driver was arrested, taken to the police station, questioned and kept in the cells for 10 hours. His alleged crime? Lighting a bonfire on the village green in Elwick, where he used to live. On Bonfire Night.
It turned out that this breached an ancient, but recently revived, by-law. So he was charged with arson, for which the maximum penalty is life in prison.
This kind of disproportionate reaction is becoming something of a habit for the police. When Inspector Tony Green, of Cleveland Police, announced, "We are duty-bound to follow a complaint through", he was using almost exactly the same words as the Metropolitan Police did to justify arresting Damian Green, the Tories' front-bench spokesman on immigration, as well as searching his offices, seizing his computer, rifling through his private papers and freezing his email account.
Since when were the police "duty-bound" to behave like this? In what way does "following a complaint through" require three police officers to arrest someone who may have acted anti-socially, detain him for 10 hours and charge him with an offence that was once a capital crime?
Or a dozen more, attached to the anti-terrorist command, to invade the offices and property of an MP - or anyone else - without obtaining a warrant, in the investigation of what was pretty obviously a disciplinary rather than a criminal matter?
Sir Paul Stephenson, the acting commissioner of the Met, claims: "The police must be able to act without fear or favour in any investigation, whomsoever may be involved, where there are reasonable grounds to suspect they may have committed criminal offences."
But that is not the point. It is not why they acted, but how they acted. The police now promote a relatively new doctrine: that when they are engaged in an investigation, they have the absolute freedom to do as they see fit and pursue it to the bitter end, provided that it is covered by the provisions of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984.
Like the rest of the public sector, they are governed entirely by procedure, with no room for discretion - or common sense.
To some extent, of course, they must follow that path, because to stray is to risk having a case thrown out. One reason that the Pace (Police and Criminal Evidence) Act was introduced was that the police used not to follow any rules at all.
In the late Seventies and early Eighties, there was a series of scandals involving the alleged fabrication of evidence against criminals and terrorists, a problem compounded by the fact that police officers acted as prosecutors in magistrates' courts and framed the charges against suspects.
The objective of Pace, according to the Home Office, was "to encourage effective policing with the consent and co-operation of society at large". Yet far from reconnecting the police with the community, it has served, along with the creation of a culture based on targets rather than crime-stopping, to alienate the police from the people they now refer to as "customers".
Why, if there are more officers than ever, do we feel we hardly ever see them on the streets? Why are police stations too far away, closed at night or shut down altogether? Why, when the police tell householders not to tackle burglars, but to dial 999 and await the officers' arrival, are they are greeted with a hollow laugh?
An institution that a few years ago was held in public esteem is now derided, even feared. There is a feeling that the police are not on our side. And this is largely the fault of some of the country's most prominent senior officers.
Sir Ian Blair, the recently retired commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, personified the type that has risen through the ranks since the Seventies: he - and very often, she - is usually university-educated or with a degree in law or criminology obtained after joining the force. He or she is also far more political (as well as politically correct).
Police chiefs have supported every encroachment on civil liberties: the expansion of the DNA database to include innocent people, ruled unlawful this week by the European Court of Human Rights; the increase of detention without charge to 90 days and then, when that was rejected, to 42 days, despite clear parliamentary opposition; the extension of summary powers to arrest and fine on the spot; bans on happy hours, ID cards and many more. Continued
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Through the smoke of battle surrounding the police raid on Damian Green's parliamentary offices, hold on to one simple point. This would never have happened before 1997.
Until the era of New Labour, the conventions were understood. The police, without being constitutional experts, knew instinctively not to bring handcuffs into political matters.
The Civil Service, though rightly furious about leaks, was cautious when it came to investigating elected politicians. The Government itself, getting wind of trouble, deployed the ancient concept of the "quiet word" to discourage too much zeal by the constabulary.
And if, nevertheless, the police had come to the Commons authorities with their proposal to raid, the Speaker would have seen at once that such a request touched on the vital rights of Parliament. He would have wanted to know the precise nature of the accusation (on Privy Council terms), and would almost certainly have prevented the raid. Why is it different now?
There are several reasons.
1. Terrorism. Since September 11, 2001, the threat of terror attacks has been very real. New laws have been required to deal with it, but terrorism has become a too convenient excuse for any form of intrusion that the authorities desire - ID cards, council surveillance of rubbish bins, helicopters etc.
In her redesigned role, more limited than that of her predecessors, the Serjeant-at-Arms, Jill Pay, spends most of her time dealing with matters of security, and therefore hobnobbing with the police and MI5. She probably knows them much better than she knows MPs. She was too ready to believe the "anti-terrorist" police when they came to her about Mr Green, invoking national security.
2. Inverted snobbery. New Labour dislikes the "Men in Tights", the public schoolboys/ex-top brass who have traditionally been the officers of Parliament. Its modernising agenda was supposed to blow away the cobwebs of class.
In 2000, the Speaker, Michael Martin, was pushed into the post by the government whips, against the long-standing convention that the parties take it in turn, so he was never really endorsed, as the Speaker needs to be, by the free will of the whole House.
Once appointed, Mr Martin cast aside the traditional wig, breeches, and therefore tights. In the process, he also cast aside a body of knowledge about how Parliament works. Thinking himself patronised by people he regarded as "snobs", Mr Martin got rid of the Men in Tights, and appointed Mrs Pay as Serjeant-at-Arms.
When the police came to Mrs Pay about Mr Green, she gave in to them without seeming to understand what was at stake. And although Mr Speaker had himself appointed her in the name of egalitarianism, he did not ask her the right questions about the raid and did not stand up for her when it all went wrong.
The important surviving Man in Tights in the Palace of Westminster is Black Rod, Lt-Gen. Sir Michael Willcocks, who is in charge of matters in the House of Lords. It was Black Rod, you may remember, who had the guts to uphold the constitution and prevent Tony Blair from muscling in on the Queen Mother's funeral. If the Met had come to his House, rather than to Mrs Pay's, you can be sure that the rights of Parliament would have been asserted.
3. The politicisation of the police. Since the Macpherson report on the death of Stephen Lawrence, when they were told that they were institutionally racist, the police have known that they can only gain promotion by being politically correct and ingratiating themselves with their political masters. The disastrous career of Sir Ian Blair is a case study - a weird mixture of trying to be the agent of social change (sucking up to Muslim extremists) on the one hand, and of using heavy-handed powers (the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes) on the other.
In the life of the modern senior policemen, no one bulks larger than Sir David Normington, permanent secretary at the Home Office, the man responsible for calling the police in to the leak investigations. Sir David chairs the body that will select candidates to replace Sir Ian as head of the Met. Like those knights trying to please Henry II by killing Thomas à Becket, ambitious senior officers rushed after Mr Green at Sir David's behest, apparently without reflecting that we live in parliamentary democracy. I almost find myself agreeing with the old IRA jibe that the "British state" is run by "securocrats".
And once the police lost their historic distance from politics, they went in up to their necks. Most of the anti-Labour press was delighted when the cash-for-honours affair led the police to interview the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, under caution. It seemed to betoken police independence. Actually, it was just the flipside of what had gone wrong - a doomed attempt to interfere in political matters that would never stand up in a court of law and was therefore pointless. It degraded all involved.
4. The weakening of Parliament. Governments always want to bypass Parliament, but before 1997, the conventions were upheld, more or less, by both parties. The power of Parliament to hold the executive to account relies on control of the timetable.
Under reforms posing as "family-friendly", the Commons gave up the power to spin out debates through the night, to make sure that Bills would fall if uncompleted at the end of a session and to debate constitutional matters without a "guillotine". The Government can now, therefore, get what it wants almost every time. No wonder, when you glance at the television screen, that you see the green benches empty.
In this situation, the Speaker may not have ultimate power, but he can have moral influence. If, for example, Mr Martin had complained when the Government leaked its own pre-Budget tax changes before telling Parliament, he could have embarrassed it into backing off. But he didn't, and doesn't. Even in the Green case, he has already accepted a government motion for Monday which will delay the inquiry until the police have done their work, though this goes against what he called for himself in his statement to the House on Wednesday.
Mr Martin does what so many MPs have done in the face of the draining of powers to Europe, Whitehall, the courts and the media. He has settled for bigger offices, more pay, larger expenses and a massive pension - preferring a mess of pottage for himself to the birthright that is ours.
It has been saddening in this rumpus to see how little the general public seem to mind the mistreatment of Parliament - saddening, but understandable. We believe less and less that it belongs to us: we are right.
When New Labour won in 1997, I don't think it wanted to undermine parliamentary democracy, but it harboured a destructive hatred for the institutions, conventions and traditions of this country. Now we see the bitter and oppressive results.
In his famous poem about Oliver Cromwell, Andrew Marvell saw how Cromwell's ambition would "ruin the great work of time". Such ruin is taking place before our eyes. News Source
Disclaimer: This News Item has been duplicated in its entirety to serve as public information (Ed)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A Labour backbencher has become the first of his party's MPs to call for the resignation of Michael Martin, the Commons Speaker, over the police raid on the offices of Damian Green, the Tory immigration spokesman.
Bob Marshall-Andrews said Mr Martin had lost the confidence of the House after allowing police to enter the Commons without a search warrant.
The veteran Left-winger is the first Labour MP to call publicly for the Speaker to stand down, following two Tory MPs who have demanded his resignation.
Mr Marshall-Andrews said Mr Martin's handling of the affair represented a "deplorable breach of his duties" to the Commons. "That is very serious and, frankly, I do not think he can continue," he told Radio 4's Today programme.
Last week Mr Martin attempted to pin the blame on the Serjeant at Arms, Jill Pay, who signed the consent form allowing police to enter the House and search Mr Green's office.
"She told the Speaker throughout. It is the Speaker's responsibility," Mr Marshall-Andrews said. "One of the worst things about this was the nature of the statement that he made which was a straightforward passing of his responsibilities to the Serjeant at Arms.
"He knew what was happening and he should have taken action to stop it. In those circumstances, the confidence of the House goes, and without the confidence of the House he cannot do his job."
Sir Menzies Campbell, the former Liberal Democrat leader, said that Mr Martin was unlikely to be forced from his post - largely because the Government would be determined to avoid a by-election in Mr Martin's Glasgow North East constituency.
He said: "If the Speaker steps down, by convention he or she leaves the House of Commons and goes to the House of Lords. I can't imagine Gordon Brown looks forward with any enthusiasm to fighting another difficult by-election in Glasgow. I think Mr Martin will remain in the Speaker's chair until the end of this Parliament."
Dominic Grieve, the shadow home secretary, said that the junior civil servant at the centre of the Home Office leaks inquiry should be sacked if he had "done the leaking".
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Mr Grieve said that the Home Office was entitled to dismiss the official concerned - Chris Galley - if he was responsible for the leaks.
"If he's done the leaking, it's quite clear the department has a right to dismiss him. Of course it does. It's a breakdown of trust. He's made a choice, and he will have to live by that choice," he said. News Source
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hard working Brits face huge council tax rises to pay for a “massive influx” of immigrants.
Local authorities are struggling to provide health care, housing and education for foreigners entering the UK, so taxpayers will foot the bill.
More than 80 per cent of councils have blamed the proposed tax rises on changes in their population since 2004, when new laws allowed immigrants from Eastern Europe.
However the real and biggest influx is that of 'Third World migrants behind our 2.3m population boom' but they seem to want this information kept covered up! (Ed)
Now 67 per cent of council leaders plan to make up the cash shortage by increasing charges for services such as sports centres and libraries. More than half have treatened to cut the services altogether.
The news comes a week after it emerged tax rates could go up by £120 per household after councils lost money in failed Icelandic banks. Russell Hobby, of researchers the Hay Group, said councils needed to consider how to save money.
“This should be based on straight-talking about costs and sacrifices,” he said.
Last night the Local Government Association said: “Government funding has not kept pace with demand. It is inevitable council tax bills must go up.”
Sued
Meanwhile it emerged yesterday firms could discriminate in favour of black workers.
A new Equality Bill going through Parliament would prevent companies being sued for turning down a white man in favour of an ethnic minority candidate or a woman. News Source
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hundreds of migrants waiting to submit asylum applications rioted in central Athens, setting fire to rubbish bins and attacking passing cars.
Protesters said the riot began when one man fell into a nearby canal after authorities told the crowd that no more applications could be submitted. Only a small number of applications can be submitted each week.
It was not immediately clear how the man fell into the canal. Police said he was injured and was taken by ambulance to a hospital. They said they were investigating the incident. News Source
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The head of Ofsted has claimed that Haringey Council and other local authorities are misleading its inspectors by 'hiding behind' false data to earn a good rating on child protection services.
Pledging to shake up inspections, Christine Gilbert has acknowledged mistakes were made in the monitoring of Haringey Council, which received a 'good' rating just weeks after Baby P's death.
Ms Gilbert said she was 'concerned' there were other local authorities also supplying incorrect data in an effort to demonstrate that their child protection services were adequate.
This week's review of Haringey Council showed managers had used tactics to mislead Ofsted.
For instance, there were claims that children were assessed promptly when the files revealed that those assessments were in fact incomplete.
Files also revealed that assessments were often carried out in the presence of a parent or guardian, when they could be the person harming the child.
It wasn't until inspectors began pulling children's files from the office shelves in the town hall that they realised the extent of the deceit, it was reported in The Guardian.
In an interview with the UK newspaper, Ms Gilbert said:
'I think if the grades that we gave last December gave a false assurance we have to take some responsibility for that.
'That's one of the reasons that I'm saying we're looking again at our proposal (to reform inspection). We need to do all we can from our position so I'm not washing my hands of it.'
Meanwhile, the Daily Mail has reported that Shannon Matthews was taken off the child protection register on the orders of social services' managers despite warnings from social workers.
The social services department at Kirklees Council, in West Yorkshire, was under pressure to meet an Ofsted target to reduce the length of time children were kept on the register.
Nine-year-old Shannon was taken off the register because she was deemed to be no longer at risk of harm.
Her mother Karen and an accomplice then kidnapped and drugged her in the hope of gaining a reward on her reappearance.
Last year Ofsted glowingly rated both Kirklees and Haringey, as Grade Three, 'a service that consistently delivers above minimum requirements for children'. News Source
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Labour's plans for the economy will leave the average family paying almost £1,500 more a year in taxes than when the party came to power, experts have said.
Britain's most respected economic forecaster said a double-income couple with children would lose £1,467 more to the taxman in 2011 than they did in 1997.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies said double-earner couples without children would fare worse, being £2,209 out of pocket in real terms.
And by 2011-12, the average household pay £385 a year more, according to its detailed analysis.
The biggest winners are out-of-work couples with children, who will be £2,901 better off, and unemployed lone parents, who will pay £2,492 less.
The tax burden is set to rise because of the Government's planned half-penny increase in National Insurance contributions in 2011.
The Government says the hikes are needed to help pay for the current 2.5 per cent cut in VAT, which is aimed at increasing consumer spending and easing the impact of the recession.
But the Conservatives seized on the findings as evidence of a 'tax bombshell' at the heart of Labour's plans.
Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury Philip Hammond said: 'This report exposes the scale of Gordon Brown's stealth tax raids on Britain's families.
'And thanks to the Prime Minister's secret plan to hike VAT to 20 per cent, hard-pressed households will know that yet more misery is on the way.'
The Treasury has denied plans to raise VAT above 17.5 per cent following its temporary cut, despite leaked documents suggesting it was considered.
The IFS analysis of last month's emergency mini-Budget also again dismisses the Government's claim that only those earning £40,000 or more will be hit by planned National Insurance hikes.
It insisted that proper comparisons showed that all those earning £20,500 or more will be worse off.
On the Government's new 45p top rate of tax, it said the fact that high earners could avoid the measure by simply paying more into pensions means Treasury forecasts that the move will raise an extra £1.6billion are 'subject to an extremely wide margin of error'.
The Treasury dismissed the IFS analysis, saying the figures took no account of growth in incomes since 1997 and calculated the tax burden based on payments by both households and businesses.
It said that, in fact, families with children would be, on average, £2,100 a year better off in real terms by 2011. News Source
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Blundering social services staff were involved with Karen Matthews since the birth of her first child 12 years ago.
The extent of their dealings with her came to light as it was announced an independent review has been ordered into the way the authorities dealt with the family before daughter Shannon was kidnapped.
The move came after the Dewsbury MP Shahid Malik demanded an independent review.
It was also revealed that Matthews will be put into solitary confinement in jail for fear of revenge attacks.
A prison source said it is rare for female prisoners to need such protection.
Yesterday it emerged that the moment Matthews’ first child was born, concerns were raised and social workers from Kirklees Council first became involved with her.
As the work-shy redhead went on to give birth to six more children with five men over a 10-year period, social service files on her family became “voluminous”.
Shannon was made the subject of a child protection order in 2002 but this was withdrawn after social workers ruled that the family was “making good progress”.
But while the order was still in place the council commissioned a psychological report.
When finally published, it warned social workers that Matthews was unable to place her children’s needs above her own. It added that Matthews “would require constant monitoring and support throughout her children’s lives”.
But Shannon had already been taken off the child protection order. And though social workers continued to receive damning reports from teachers and neighbours, they failed to take action. Continued
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Youths are evading police metal detectors by carrying knives with carbon fibre blades and manufacturing their own stabbing weapons out of plastic rulers.
Police in London report growing numbers of the weapons surfacing in weapons sweeps, amid growing fears that knife crime is spiralling out of control in Britain.
Schoolchilden are fashioning stabbing implements out of 15 centimetre and 30 centimetre perspex rulers which can be bought for as little as 10 pence, police say.
The trend has developed because youths have become cautious of the police's wide-ranging deployment of metal detector arches and hand-held "search wands", which puts them at risk of detection and prosecution.
One officer in north London said: "We've found these kids with blades made out of school rulers.
"These are weapons they've made themselves, because they hope they'll get through the metal detectors."
Youths are believed to be using simple workshop tools and fine sandpaper to fashion rulers into rudimentary but potentially lethal weapons.
Head of Scotland Yard anti-knife project Operation Blunt 2, Commander Mark Simmons, said: "We have had some finds of non-metallic knives.
"The numbers are not vast at the moment, and they do not start me thinking that there is a major new trend.
"We have seen some made out of carbon fibre, a type of hard plastic. A few of those have been found."
He added: "People will be ingenious about this sort of thing, and there will always be individuals thinking of different ways around a new policing tactic. Continued
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The British economy has been mismanaged to the point where its total liabilities amount to 205 percent of its Gross Domestic Product, Croydon BNP was told at its latest meeting.
More than 50 people turned out to hear Mr Peter Phillips explain how the country had reached such dire financial straits. “The country is hopelessly in debt and the government has no hope of paying back the debt,” Mr Phillips said.
“There is also no chance of the country balancing the trade deficit as our industrial base has been destroyed,” he added.
Mr Phillips then went on to list the economic liabilities facing the state, including PFI and public sector pensions. The total bill came to £3 trillion, or 205 percent of the GDP.
“There is a solution to the economic crisis,” Mr Phillips continued. “Stopping mass immigration, pulling out of the EU, stopping wasteful government non jobs, foreign aid, quangos, and foreign trade barriers will all contribute,” he said.
In addition, a nationalist government would tackle the social security culture and rights culture, provide proper vocational training where people are encouraged into education that actually has a realistic chance of a job at the end, and would dismantle the lawyer driven compensation culture. Finally, the tax threshold would be raised to £15k. News Source
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mandleson has been accused of bully-boy tactics after it was claimed his lawyers sent a threatening letter to those against the HBOS merger.
Lawyers for the business secretary invited the Scotland-based Merger Action Group to end its protest. MSPs Alex McNeil and Margo MacDonald, said the move was "extraordinary".
But the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (Berr) said the offer had been aimed at saving the group legal costs.
The Merger Action Group (MAG) was formed to mount a last-ditch legal challenge to the deal involving Lloyds TSB and HBOS.
It is due to have its case heard on Monday at the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) - a specialist legal body whose function is to decide appeals on competition issues. Continued
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
One of Britain's biggest banks found itself in the dock yesterday accused of hounding a dying customer to repay a few thousand pounds.
Halifax had been accused of bombarding David Lloyd - who has terminal cancer and may have just days to live - with 762 calls over an unpaid debt.
It had twice promised not to contact him again, but yesterday its representatives appeared before a judge to explain why it had breached those undertakings.
The bank admitted sending another letter over the debts last month but blamed it on a computer error and was given a final chance to fulfil its promise.
As well as preparing for his final days, Mr Lloyd and his wife, Annette Edwards, 58, are now preparing a claim for damages against the bank over their ordeal, which they say has left them both traumatised.
Mr Lloyd, 62, who has terminal lung cancer, and his wife said they received around five phone calls a day from debt collectors over a seven-month period in 2006.
After changing their number they say Halifax called their daughter, Stefanie Moore, 29, around 100 times in an attempt to reclaim their debt.
The problems began after Mr Lloyd, a former telesales representative from Sale, Greater Manchester, was diagnosed with terminal cancer in January 2006 and gave up work.
Mrs Edwards said she informed the Halifax of her husband's diagnosis the next day and also advised that they were now unemployed and needed some time to sort out their financial affairs.
She said that they had to wait for benefits and payment protection insurance they had purchased from the Halifax, and that in the meantime they got behind on loan and credit card repayments and their joint current account became overdrawn.
Mrs Edwards said she owes the bank around £762 but said it is pursuing her for £4,000 including charges.
She claims the phone calls resulted in her suffering from anxiety and depression and her husband developing a stammer and a telephone phobia.
They are also traumatised by the sight of the Halifax logo on letters, she said.
On one occasion she claims she told the bank employee she was awaiting a life-or-death hospital call with news of her husband, to which she was told: 'I'm sorry to hear that, can I remind you of your responsibility to pay the bank, and which credit card you are going to use?'
Last year Mr Lloyd told the Daily Mail: 'We never denied we owed the bank money but they called us four or five times a day, day after day.'
Yesterday at Manchester's Civil Justice Centre, James Counsell, for Halifax, offered an unreserved apology for last month's letter, saying it was 'a matter of great and genuine regret'.
The couple's barrister sought an injunction to stop the firm contacting them again, but Judge Richard Holman instead accepted a third pledge.
He also appealed to both parties to come to an agreement, adding that Mr Lloyd 'has got better things to do with the last days of his life'.
The hearing cost the bank £12,000 in costs and the couple £18,000, the court heard. Their harassment claim is due to be heard in the new year.
A spokesman for the bank said they could not comment on the case at this stage as it was part of ongoing legal proceedings. News Source
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
She was chatting to her cousin on her mobile phone when she turned into her street. Her front door was in sight. There was going to be a barbecue and her mother had told the 14-year- old girl, whom we shall call Jenny, not to be late.
Suddenly, however, Jenny saw four boys walking towards her, blocking her path. 'Oi, come here,' one of them snapped.
The voice, she realised, belonged to someone she knew. O'Neil Denton, also 14, was tall for his age, more than 6ft. His nickname was Hitman. Jenny is barely 5ft 5in. Her hair was in a ponytail.
Denton liked the odds. Four of them against one girl. Soon four would become nine.
There was a scuffle and shouting. 'Are you OK are you OK?' Jenny's increasingly worried cousin kept asking down the phone when she overheard shouting in the background. But Jenny didn't reply. Then the line went dead.
This is how it began late one afternoon in April last year.
Jenny knew Denton's girlfriend. She had made the mistake of telling her that she did not like him. When the two subsequently fell out, the girlfriend told Denton what Jenny had said.
In a different place, the bad feeling between them would probably have ended in nothing more serious than an argument.
But she lived in Hackney, East London, where a recent internal police report highlighted the growing menace of 'predatory' gangs intent on 'committing the most disgusting acts of violence'.
Denton was the leader of such a gang - the Kingzhold Boys, whose 'territory' extended either side of Well Street, a half-mile stretch in E9 which passes the boarded-up Frampton Arms pub.
Here, like in many other areas of Britain, a burgeoning underclass of youths - devoid of any sense of right or wrong - exist outside of conventional society's moral boundaries.
For many, family ties and friendships have been replaced by a perverted sense of loyalty to the gang, underpinned by the fear of reprisals should anyone break ranks, the urban equivalent of Lord Of The Flies.
Violent, degrading group sex, if not gang rape, is often a rite of passage for members or 'soldiers' as they style themselves - such as losing your virginity or going to the pub would be for other young men.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The building of huge mosques throughout Germany is nothing short of a “a bid for power and influence, a land grab”, according to Ralph Giordano, 85, the German Jewish writer and Holocaust survivor, in an interview with The Times that is likely to stir Muslim anger.
The comments from Mr Giordano came as the Muslim community of Cologne – about 120,000 strong – prepared to lay the foundation stone for yet another giant mosque, one of more than a hundred that are being planned or built across the country.
Barely six weeks ago another mosque, capable of accommodating 1,200 worshippers, was opened in Duisburg in the nearby Ruhr region of northwest Germany.
Spiky minarets are starting to punctuate the German urban skyscape – and the rumble of discontent from non Muslim Germans is growing louder. One result is that the issue of immigration seems sets to be on the agenda in the general election next year.
The Christian Democrats resolved this week that the German language should be anchored in the constitution – seen as a slight by the three million Turks who live in the country.
“When I first saw the blueprints for the grand mosque in Cologne, I was shocked,” said Mr Giordano, who is now very active in the campaign against Turkish mosque-building.
“It sent a completely wrong signal, it was a bid for power and influence, a land grab, not a place of prayer, so I told the mayor: Stop this mosque now!” That was in a public discussion that was filmed and placed online. The result was, he says, an avalanche of many hundred of supportive letters.
“They all struck the same note: Mr Giordano we are afraid as you are of this creeping Islamification but we can’t say anything in public because we will end up being branded as neo-Nazis.”
The novelist and essayist pauses for effect. “Well, that’s something that cannot be pinned on me!”
Mr Giordano finds himself in the company of far-right activists. “Of course, you have to distance yourself clearly from these people – obviously their racist, neo-Nazis arguments are quite different from mine – but I am not going to be muzzled just because people are fighting on the same issue with false arguments and a false ideology.”
Fritz Schramma, the Mayor of Cologne, argues that the mosque will become a tourist attraction and that it will be integrated into the urban culture. “It’s not right that Muslims should have to pray in old factory warehouses,” he said.
There is a hope too that if Muslims are allowed to become part of the urban landscape rather than hidden away there will be less risk of furtive fundamentalism. News Source
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The One Law for All campaign — supported by the National Secular Society — is to be launched in the House of Lords on International Human Rights Day, 10 December.
According to campaign organiser, Maryam Namazie, “Even in civil matters, Sharia law is discriminatory, unfair and unjust, particularly against women and children. Moreover, its voluntary nature is a sham; many women will be pressured into going to these courts and abiding by their decisions. These courts are a quick and cheap route to injustice and do nothing to promote minority rights and social cohesion. Public interest, particularly with regard to women and children, requires an end to Sharia and all other faith-based courts and tribunals.”
The campaign has already received widespread support including from AC Grayling; Terry Sanderson, Keith Porteous Wood, Ayaan Hirsi Ali; Bahram Soroush; Baroness (Caroline) Cox; Caspar Melville; Deeyah; Fariborz Pooya; Gina Khan; Houzan Mahmoud; Homa Arjomand; Ibn Warraq; Joan Smith; Johann Hari; Mina Ahadi; Naser Khader; Nick Cohen; Richard Dawkins; Shakeb Isaar; Sonja Eggerickx; Stephen Law; Tarek Fatah; Tauriq Moosa; Taslima Nasrin and others.
It has also received the support of organisations such as the National Secular Society; Children First Now; Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain; Equal Rights Now – Organisation against Women’s Discrimination in Iran; European Humanist Federation; International Committee against Stoning; International Humanist and Ethical Union; Iranian Secular Society; Lawyers Secular Society; and the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan.
The campaign calls on the UK government to recognise that Sharia law is arbitrary and discriminatory and for an end to Sharia courts and all religious tribunals on the basis that they work against and not for equality and human rights. The campaign also calls for the Arbitration Act 1996 to be amended so that all religious tribunals are banned from operating within and outside of the legal system. Continued
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Power companies are under increasing pressure to pass on the benefit of the plummeting price of oil.
Watchdogs are angry that domestic energy bills have continued to rise sharply since the summer even though wholesale prices have nearly halved.
Millions of families are desperate for gas, electricity and heating oil bills to fall as their household incomes are squeezed elsewhere.
Despite falling inflation, families still face rising food costs and hefty council tax increases next spring.
And pensioners, who already spend a major proportion of their cash on heating their homes, are seeing their savings income slashed by interest rate cuts.
Yesterday oil closed at below 45 dollars a barrel, more than 100 dollars below its July peak, and experts predict that it could drop as low as 25 dollars.
David Hunter, of energy consultants McKinnon & Clarke, said the 'big six' firms - British Gas, E.ON, Scottish Power, Scottish & Southern, EDF Energy, and npower - enjoy a 'stranglehold' on the power market, and claimed: 'The market isn't working.'
He insisted the firms should have room for 'double digit' cuts as soon as next month.
Mr Hunter said: 'It is clear there will be room for reductions in prices, and there will be huge political pressure for them to act.'
Gas and electricity prices are inextricably linked to the price of oil, and utilities say it takes time to pass on lower wholesale costs to customers because they buy power and gas several months in advance.
But the cost of wholesale gas and electricity has tracked the fall in oil prices. Continued
Sunday Roundup
of the News this week
It is commonplace among the political elite to talk about the “immense benefits” that flow from Britain’s membership of the European Union. But when pressed to specify what those benefits might be our politicians usually seem stuck for an answer. The events of recent days show why.
A Secretive Government unit is spending tens of millions of pounds on preparations to join the euro.
At least £43million has been lavished on the project, according to official figures. Some of the money is believed to have gone on upgrading benefit systems and the figure only covers the amount spent up to 2004. The operation is being run by the Euro Preparations Unit, which exists deep within the Treasury. The revelation of its spending will fuel fears that Labour wants to use the economic crisis to force Britain into signing up to the euro.
The Crown Prosecution Service is institutionally anti-white, lies about the true nature of racial crime in Britain, and is overtly politically biased, according to a new study of that body. “The CPS uses deeply flawed analysis to hide the fact that a hugely disproportionate number of victims of racist crime are white,” said Mr Tony Shell of DarkLake Synectics, an independent, non-political research organisation, which produced the report.
Jeff Randall criticises the "progressives" who would rather suppress inconvenient facts than confront reality. As Harriet Harman slithered on the thin ice of dissemblance, cracks in her conviction were palpable. Blinking furiously, she appeared as someone who would rather plunge into freezing waters of ridicule than succumb to truth.
The perfectly proper furore stemming from the hounding and arrest on a trumped-up charge of Tory immigration spokesman Damian Green leaves one yawning gulf and one crucial question unanswered. There is a gulf between passing genuinely classified information under the Official Secrets Act, whose release would hurt the nation, to an unauthorised person (that is, espionage and treason) and receiving from a whistleblower a tip-off about a bureaucratic fiasco which would be deeply embarrassing to the politicians and of. cials responsible for it in the first place.
Companies will be free to discriminate in favour of women and black job candidates under proposed ‘equality’ laws. The move allows employers to give preferential treatment as long as applicants are equally qualified. It is designed to boost the proportion of female and ethnic staff, as well as thrusting more of them into senior posts.
Peter Hain, the former Cabinet Minister, will not face criminal action over donations given to his campaign to become Labour's deputy leader. Almost a year since he stood down as Work and Pensions Secretary, the Crown Prosecution Service will not be taking the matter further.
The arrests follow an investigation into an internet blog which published the names of thousands of BNP supporters last month. It sparked a media storm and saw an award-winning radio presenter sacked from his job after his name appeared on the list. Dyfed powys police said: "We can confirm that last night Nottinghamshire Police arrested two people as part of a joint investigation with Dyfed Powys Police and the Information Commissioner's Office in conjunction with alleged criminal offences under the Data Protection Act.
Nearly a million innocent people could have their records taken off the national DNA database after a landmark court ruling yesterday. It stated that keeping the records, which police use to beat crime, breaches human rights. Now stored fingerprints could also be challenged. The European Court of Human Rights condemned the “blanket and indiscriminate nature” of police powers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland to take and hold DNA samples from people, even if they are then released or cleared.
The future of Commons Speaker Michael Martin is in growing doubt today after a war of words broke out between him and Scotland Yard over the arrest of senior Tory MP Damian Green. A poll suggested two-thirds of MPs think Mr Martin should quit after police were allowed to trample centuries of Parliamentary privilege by raiding the Commons without even being asked for a search warrant.
The price of oil has plummeted below $45 a barrel after plunging almost 20 per cent in just one week. Prices are now on course for their steepest weekly decline since March 2003. Today, London Brent for January was up 47 cents to $42.75 and US light sweet crude rose 49 cents to $44.16.
Government pen-pushers will demand to know the bedroom habits of millions of Britons in an unprecedented intrusion into private life. Anyone questioned about their job, the contents of their food basket or fuel bills, will soon also be asked whether they are straight, gay, bisexual or 'other'. The Government's most senior statistician confirmed that the new question on sexual preference will be included in all major national surveys from next year.
Two in three local authorities are planning council tax rises to cover sudden growth in population, a study has revealed. They say they will increase the size of bills to cover the extra demands on public services, including schools, hospitals and transport. Councils are also being forced into the unpopular position of raising charges for services - or making cuts.
High immigration in Grampian has been partly blamed for the doubling in tuberculosis (TB) figures since 2000. Figures released by Health Protection Scotland yesterday reveal that TB cases rose from 21 in 2000 to 41 in 2007 while other health board areas remained fairly stable. The annual report for TB in Scotland stated that at-risk groups included those who misused alcohol, worked in healthcare, suffered from immunosuppression or lived in a residential care home. People born outside the UK numbered almost 43% of cases – rising from 24% in 2001.
The Government's high-profile national DNA database was in tatters today after a landmark ruling by the European Court. In an unprecedented move, judges decided that keeping samples of people with no criminal convictions on file is a breach of their human rights. The verdict could force the Government to remove the DNA details of hundreds of thousands of Britons from the current total of about 4.5 million held on the England, Wales and Northern Ireland database.
A School at the centre of a controversy after postponing its Christmas play says it has received complaints from the BNP. Greenwood Junior School in Sneinton received calls yesterday after writing to parents on Monday to tell them the show had been moved to the new year because of Eid celebrations. Parents of pupils were angry it could not run alongside the school's calendar of Eid events. The school now says the play was cancelled not just because of Eid but because it was "over-ambitious" and performers had not learned their lines.
A gifted teenager killed himself with an overdose of painkillers after his comprehensive school sidelined Christianity in favour of 'alternative religions', an inquest heard today. Tragic Harry Tucker, 15, read the Bible at home because he believed his religious studies teachers focused on the teaching of Islam and Sikhism.
Mandelson yesterday admitted he still wants Britain to join the euro. The Business Secretary said that Labour was clinging on to its long-held ambition to join the single currency, but he acknowledged that now was not the right time. Ministers were accused of drawing up secret plans to abandon the pound after the European Commission president recently said that the UK was 'closer than ever' to joining the euro. Jose Manuel Barroso said he had held private conversations with 'the people who count in Britain' and knew that they were now ready to move into the euro-zone.
Some forty percent of all new homes built in Britain over the last decade have been given to immigrants, according to official figures. The dramatic evidence of how native Brits have been pushed to the back of the housing queue due to the immigration invasion has been released by the Home Office. Nearly 600,000 properties have been needed to house immigrants since 1997 — an average of 66,000 each year from 1997 to 2005 (the latest year figures are available for) — making a total of 592,000 homes.
Israel is preparing to go it alone in a military strike against Iran's nuclear facilities, it was reported yesterday. Officials in the Israeli Defence Ministry told the Jerusalem Post that while they prefer to act in consultation with the U.S., they were preparing plans that would allow them to act in isolation. 'It is always better to coordinate,' a senior Defence Ministry official told the newspaper. 'But we are also preparing options that do not include coordination.'
A night out with friends ended in the arrest of Sukhveer Sohal when he hurled racist abuse at police. Sohal, 28, of St Martin's Grove, Chapeltown, Leeds, appeared in court at Harrogate to plead guilty to racially aggravated threatening behaviour. Prosecutor Stephanie Waite said two police sergeants, investigating a complaint of assault in Oxford Street, Harrogate, in the early hours of September 21, had found Sohal in nearby King's Road.
This is the first picture of the train steaming gang known as The Untouchables as they gather menacingly to pick out a new target. Strutting and intimidating, they took their name from their belief that they would never be caught. As the gang today start their jail sentences totalling 23 years, the threat of violence they posed to commuters is clear.
As a family of travellers with no place to call home, the McCanns have always fiercely defended their right to settle on a sprawling illegal camp. So much so that they have fought bitterly with a local authority through the court system to keep their two plots of land. At present, they are locked in battle with Basildon District Council at the Court of Appeal in London, funded by legal aid, claiming an order to move them from Hovefields in Essex would breach their human rights. But the family matriarch, Cathrine McCann, was facing difficult questions yesterday after it emerged her name was on the title deeds of a five-bedroom £230,000 home a stone's thrown from their 'official' residence.
State officials are to be given powers previously reserved for times of war to demand a person's proof of identity at any time. Anybody who refuses the Big Brother demand could face arrest and a possible prison sentence. The new rules come in legislation to be unveiled in today's Queen's Speech. They are presented as a crackdown on illegal immigration, but lawyers say they could be applied to anybody who has ever been outside the UK, even on holiday.
A primary school infuriated parents after cancelling the traditional Christmas nativity play to make way for the Muslim festival of Eid. Parents at the Nottingham school were told that the planned performance had to be pulled because some of the pupils wanted to celebrate Eid at home with their families. In a letter, sent by the staff at Greenwood Junior School, mothers and fathers were told: 'It is with much regret that we have had to cancel this year's Christmas performances.
The Queen opened a new session of Parliament yesterday, and politicians and their outriders are agog to know what the Government will unveil at the start of this last full term before the next general election. With the country in recession, how can Labour trump the Tories? However, the truth is that the deepest divide in British politics today is not between Labour and the Tories; or between Speaker Michael Martin and irate backbench MPs; or between members of Gordon Brown's Cabinet and each other. It is between Britain's whole political class and the great majority of the British people. On the far side of a chasm stand politicians of all parties and their hangers-on. On the near side is almost everyone else.
The vast majority of the real racism that scars Britain involves white victims from the indigenous community. Whether you are English , Scots, Welsh, Irish or from Ulster, being white makes you a target, being white means you’re guilty. You wouldn’t know this if you believe the propaganda of the mainstream media or the lies of the old party politicians. But most people who live in the real world will already have experience of being discriminated against. We all know that ‘positive discrimination’ denies perfectly well-qualified individuals a fair chance when it comes to a job or promotion. We all know that Labour, Lib Dem and Conservative politicians use our money to give asylum-seekers luxury homes while homeless ex-servicemen sleep on the streets.
Employers have been warned not to act in haste against staff who have been exposed as British National Party (BNP) members, following the recent publication of a leaked BNP membership list on the internet. The list includes the names, addresses and job details of around 12,000 people in the UK. Some members of the far–Right party have reported fears of a backlash at work, including the possibility of disciplinary action. However, legal experts have cautioned against a knee–jerk response, and warned employers to tread carefully to avoid the risk of unfair dismissal or discrimination claims. Mark Higgins, employment law partner at law firm Ralli said:
Companies will be allowed to favour female or black job candidates ahead of white men without the threat of legal action, under a new equality law. The move allows firms to use "positive action" when recruiting staff to posts which are under-represented by women or ethnic minorities.
To the outside world she was the model of middle-class suburban probity. As the education chief of a Conservative council, Maria Gatland was one of the most respected members of her community. Until, that is, she was exposed as a former terrorist gun runner for the IRA. Now, having resigned as a Cabinet member on Croydon Council, further details have emerged about her fascinating past - most notably from a 'kiss and tell' account she wrote of her time with the Provisionals.
Gordon Brown was last night facing embarrassing new questions about his involvement in secret talks to scrap the pound. Senior Tories yesterday received reports that the Prime Minister has held private talks on the economic crisis with the President of the European Commission at Downing Street. They are demanding to know whether a move to sell out Britain to Brussels and adopt the euro was on the agenda.
Britain's identity is in danger of being lost for ever, swept aside by a tidal wave of change. The disappearance of such iconic images of our heritage as the red telephone box and the local pub is being mourned by millions. They also worry that the gradual decline of services such as the village post office and milkmen on their daily round with the doorstep pinta are changing how the country looks and feels.
Power and food bills in the UK are rising at twice the rate they are in the European Union. A report from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development yesterday showed that British bills surged at the fastest rate of any EU nation in October. Energy costs rose by 24.2 per cent compared with the same time last year, the OECD said. That was twice the gain in Finland, which recorded the second highest rate of power price inflation. And UK grocery bills gained 10.1 per cent, a rate matched only by Finland.
A suspended social services manager at Haringey Council posed topless wearing striped shorts in a bid to become Mr Gay UK. Clive Preece, who is Head of children in need and safeguarding, boasted that he wanted 'to look as good as Joan Collins at 63'. He entered the competition 11 years ago, when he was aged 34. As he posed for judges including drag queen Danny La Rue at The Dome nightclub in Birmingham, crowds yelled 'get em' off'.
Religious tensions erupted last night in London’s East End when a senior Tory councillor was accused of ‘Islamophobia.’ Tory Opposition deputy leader Tim Archer was angered by the accusation levelled at him when he tried to block the sale of a Tower Hamlets council building to a private Muslim girls’ school. He was challenged by the leader of MP George Galloway’s Respect group on the council, Abjol Miah, at a meeting of the authority’s scrutiny committee, demanding to know whether the Conservative front-bencher had “a problem” with Islamic education.
Two thirds of the public have no confidence in the Government's handling of immigration or crime, according to the Home Office's own research. A third of people think there are too many migrants and illegal immigrants here while the numbers worried about knife crime have more than doubled. The stark picture came as it emerged hundreds of illegal immigrants and foreign prisoners facing deportation are being handed free mobile phones while they are locked up.
Ministers are secretly plotting to scrap the pound and force Britain into adopting the euro, the top bureaucrat in Brussels revealed yesterday. The President of the European Commission admitted holding talks with “the people who matter in Britain” about the country joining the European single currency. He claimed senior figures in the Government felt that the move could prevent a sterling crisis and help to ease the effects of recession.
The deputy mayor of Harrogate has been sentenced to eight months in prison for attempting to groom a 13-year-old girl for sex. Morris Lightfoot, of Dryden Close, Bilton, Harrogate, was caught in a sting operation by an administrator on a social networking site. The 55-year-old admitted three charges of asking the girl for sex, and was placed on the sex offenders register. The judge at York Crown Court also banned him from working with children.
Six social workers who failed in their duty to protect Baby P are still receiving full pay despite the publication of a "devastating" report into their blunders. Sharon Shoesmith, the head of children's services at Haringey council, is being paid almost £2,000 per week despite attempts by the Children's Secretary, Ed Balls, to have her sacked.
Ministers ploughed ahead with the 2012 Olympic bid despite their own experts warning it would bring little economic or social benefit, it emerged last night. A strategy document signed off in December 2002 by Tony Blair found the main improvement to hosting The Games would be cheering the nation up. None of the much-vaunted economic returns or increases in people playing sport would come about, the document by leading economists and civil servants found.
Two Islamic terrorists planned "murder on a terrible scale" with a series of car bombings across Britain, a jury was told. The accomplished NHS doctors wanted to "kill and nothing else" in revenge for the invasion of Iraq, Woolwich Crown Court heard yesterday. Jonathan Laidlaw QC said the men dreamed of grabbing headlines around the world with al-Qaeda inspired improvised car bombs.
Muslim prayer rooms should be opened in every Roman Catholic school, Church leaders have said. The Catholic bishops of England and Wales also want special toilet facilities in schools to be adapted for Islamic cleaning rituals. Their demands will shock both Catholic parents and the Government because they go way beyond the legal requirements on catering for the rights and needs of religious minorities.
Two asylum-seekers have been accused of compiling a "hit list" and bomb-making instructions from their homes in London in an attempt to stir up murder and revolution in Pakistan. Faiz Baluch and Hyrbyair Marri were allegedly supporters of the Baluchistan Liberation Army (BLA) which was fighting for the independence of a province of Pakistan. Max Hill QC, prosecuting told a jury at Woolwich Crown Court in south London: "These defendants were actively engaged in encouraging and planning terrorist activity in their homeland. They did so from the safety of Ealing and Wembley.
Households face soaring energy bills and higher taxes sparked by the fight against climate change, a Government adviser warned yesterday. Former CBI chief Lord Turner predicted gas and electricity prices could rise by about 25 per cent over the next decade as Britain tries to cut the pollution blamed for global warming. That could slap another £500 on the average household bills. It will push another 1.7 million households into fuel poverty, forcing them to spend 10 per cent or more of their income on energy bills by 2022. This is on top of the 4.5 million mainly elderly households thought to be struggling to pay their bill.
One of the most disturbing developments in Britain over the past 30 years has been the loss of confidence which many ordinary law-abiding citizens have in our police. Many of us no longer regard the police as being necessarily on our side. We often read about, and may sometimes personally experience, instances of the police alienating people who should be their friends, often by behaving with disproportionate force.
Racism, incitement to hatred, apology, denial or trivialization of genocide will soon be punishable by one to three years in prison throughout the European Union, today announced Friday the Commission European. The European Ministers of Justice have agreed on Friday to establish penalties in their laws. It took nearly seven years of negotiations to achieve this, "said European Justice Commissioner Jacques Barrot, presenting the decision to the press following the meeting.
Anti-Terror police hope to participate in role-reversal sessions with Muslims in an attempt to ease concerns about the "harassment" of Scottish Asians travelling through Glasgow Airport. The away-days are designed to improve relations between police and the Muslim community and reach a common understanding about the need to question people at the airport.
The United States can expect a nuclear or biological terror attack before 2013, a commission will tell the Obama administration today. Its study suggests that the incoming government must bolster efforts to counter and prepare for germ warfare by terrorists. 'Our margin of safety is shrinking, not growing,' states the report, which is not due to be released publicly until tomorrow.
The global credit crunch has sparked a debate about joining the euro among "people who matter in Britain," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has said. Speaking on a French RTL radio and LCI television show on Sunday (30 November), Mr Barroso argued that the entry to the eurozone of some EU member states who had previously strongly opposed the move is "now closer than ever before."
ID cards along with CCTV cameras and DNA databanks. Even, the, 90-day detention. What law-abiding citizen could object to these new weapons against terrorists, rapists and murderers? Nothing to hide, nothing to fear. Not after the death of innocent Jean Charles de Menezes or the pointless shooting of drunken barrister Mark Saunders by two police marksmen. Not after the inexcusable bugging, strip-searching and futile £1million vendetta by police against journalist Sally Murrer for revealing officers had lost the keys to the local nick – a case which was rightly dismissed last week. And certainly not after the Stasi-style raid by anti-terror police on an MP I know to be above reproach.
Having dragged our nation to the brink of financial ruin his Government now seems deter- mined to trash our democracy. The arrest of Conservative immigration spokesman Damian Green is nothing less than an act of brute political intimidation designed to silence Labour’s critics. this is the sort of conduct we expect from Mugabe’s tyranny in Zimbabwe or Putin’s regime in Russia, not in a supposedly open Parliamentary system like ours.
Footage of Gordon Brown disclosing details of a government document leaked to him from a civil servant while in opposition was broadcast last night. The clip, taken from an interview on BBC Breakfast in July 1985, shows how the future Prime Minister furthered his career with the aid of political 'dark arts'.
I've never actually seen a cabinet minister caught on camera with his (or in this case, her) eyes tightly closed before. When Andrew Marr began addressing the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, yesterday morning, she looked as if she was desperately trying to catch up on the sleep she had lost over the past three days.
In an incident linked by police to the leaked BNP membership list, a pro-Labour supporter has been arrested following an abortive attack on a BNP member’s house in Leeds. The arrest — the first of many being planned by police — took place during the early hours of the morning of 28 November. The individual in question, whose name is known to BNP News, has been charged with causing criminal damage and will be appearing before Leeds Magistrates Court on 5th December.
A complaint has been made to police about £250,000 spent by the council which has not been fully accounted for. The report centres on money hastily spent in the wake of the terrorism arrests in 2006 on the One Community Campaign. Auditors found a number of incomplete files marked ‘social cohesion’ while carrying out a review of council spending under the Better Neighbourhoods Initiative (BNI).
A French charity has enraged UK officials by setting up a camp to help illegal migrants bound for the UK. The centre is in the northern French town of Steenvoorde, which is on the main motorway heading to the ports of Calais and Dunkirk. It has marquees with beds, toilets and kitchens. It was set up by Terre d'Errance Steenvoorde, a new charity and is designed for the thousands of migrants who regularly make their way to Channel ports in the hope of reaching the UK by ferry or train.
Counter-terrorism investigators believe an Islamic terrorist was planning a Mumbai-style massacre in Britain. Kazi Nurur Rahman, from east London, was associated with the same terrorist group that is accused of the attack in India which killed almost 200 people. He was arrested in a sting operation as he tried to buy three Uzi submachine guns and 3,000 rounds of ammunition. He had talked of buying up to five weapons, hand grenades and as many bullets as possible along with Russian-made rocket-propelled grenades and SAM-7 surface-to-air missiles.
Over 5,000 butchers from Pakistan would get employment in the halal meat industry of UK through Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between National Halal Foods Group (NHFG) of UK and Overseas Employment Cooperation of Pakistan. The MoU has been signed here at the Pakistan High Commission, London Friday.
A banned Islamic terrorist group funded with cash raised in British mosques is believed to be behind the Mumbai attacks. Kashmiri separatists Lashkar-e-Taiba, ‘The Army of the Righteous’, which has strong links to Al Qaeda, is accused of previous terrorist outrages in India. And intercepted telephone and radio communications before and during the latest attacks apparently suggest a link. Indian officials say at least one of the gunmen captured after the attacks is part of a Lashkar network. The group last week denied any responsibility and the unknown group Deccan Mujahideen said it was behind the atrocity.
Anti-terror police were last night investigating a “British connection” with the Mumbai fanatics. They were examining links between Britain?s Islamic community and the killers who slaughtered at least 160 victims. Highly-placed sources in India claimed that at least seven of the killers, who caused carnage in India?s commercial centre, had strong British connections.
British security forces would not be able cope with a Mumbai-style terrorist attack, according to the chair of an influential parliamentary committee. Patrick Mercer said a new anti-terror unit was needed with "a battalion's worth" of 500 highly specialised policemen and soldiers who could be called upon in case of attack. The chair of the Commons counter-terrorism sub committee said the Olympics in London would be a "magnet" for terrorists and attacks like the one seen in India "could just as well happen" in UK cities.
It is shocking but not altogether surprising that British-born Muslims were involved in the terrible slaughter in Mumbai. For years Britain has been an exporter of Islamist terrorism. The Government has shamefully failed to prevent hardline clerics coming to Britain to pollute young minds with their hate-filled creed. It has also failed to prevent young British Muslims travelling to madrasas in Pakistan for radicalisation and terrorist training.
A shop assistant was trampled to death by a stampede of bargain-hunters at a store advertising a weekend sale in a New York suburb. Police said an ‘out-of-control’ mob of more than 2,000 frenzied shoppers smashed through the doors of a Long Island Wal-Mart at dawn on Friday, knocking over Jdimytai Damour. As Damour, a 34-year-old Haitian immigrant, gasped for air, shoppers continued to surge into the store, which is owned by the same US company as Britain’s Asda chain.
But Queen's Speech will contain legislation forcing single parents back to work. Alistair Darling warned last night that he will "almost certainly" have to inject yet more money into the economy to steer Britain out of recession. The Chancellor admitted that his £20bn spending package may not be enough to rescue the country from the financial crisis.
And lets not forget Lies, Propaganda, Spin and misinformation! The arrest of Damian Green has sent shockwaves through our increasingly fragile democracy. If he were a drug dealer or people trafficker, the tactics deployed by the police might be defensible. As more details emerge, however, it is clear their actions were a disgrace. The Home Office tried to stem a series of leaks by ordering the seizure of a whistleblower who was placed in a safe house and, it is now claimed, induced to float a call to Mr Green in an attempt to entrap him.
Three police officers are being investigated after a soldier claimed he was repeatedly beaten while being pinned to the ground. CCTV footage shows Lance Corporal Mark Aspinall, who was praised for his bravery against the Taleban in Afghanistan earlier this year, being held down by two officers while a third appears to hit him on the back. Mr Aspinall, 24, was later found guilty of of assaulting the police offices but the convictions have been quashed on appeal after a judge watched a video of the incident. The nine-minute video, obtained by the Sunday Mirror, shows a drunken Mr Aspinall gesticulating at three police officers in Wigan, Lancashire, in July.
Cabinet Ministers are facing criticism over the extent to which they have protected themselves from new tax rises for the rich. Punitive increases announced by Chancellor Alistair Darling in his Pre-Budget Report last week will hit those earning more than £140,000 hardest. From 2011, big cuts in personal allowances and an increase in the top rate to 45p will effectively push the rate of tax for those on £140,000 to 60p in the pound – the highest since 1988.
One of the most agreeable privileges of belonging to the House of Lords is that one can listen to any of the great debates in the House of Commons. Since the glass security screens were put up, the Lords' Gallery has been moved to the left-hand side of the Speaker; this allows one to see the Government Front Bench but obscures one's vision of the Opposition.
The son of a second world war hero and leading Tory industrialist who was a close friend of Margaret Thatcher is to stand for the BNP against Gordon Brown at the next election. Michael Smith, who will be the far-right party’s candidate in the prime minister’s Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath constituency, is the son of Sir Alan Smith, a distinguished RAF pilot who fought alongside Douglas Bader, the legendary fighter ace. Sir Alan, 92, who was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for valour, was a prominent businessman and a friend and supporter of Margaret Thatcher, the former Tory prime minister.
Nick Clegg's relations with his front bench team were in crisis last night after he attacked key rivals as 'useless' and blurted out plans for a reshuffle. The Lib Dem leader issued a series of damning verdicts on his colleagues on a flight to Scotland, unaware that he was overheard by a journalist.
Thirteen British National Party (BNP) members arrested on suspicion of giving out racist material in Liverpool have been released without charge. The men were arrested by Merseyside police on 22 November after leaflets were distributed in the Whitechapel area of the city. A police spokeswoman said they were released after consultation with the Criminal Prosecution Service (CPS). Nick Griffin, BNP chairman, said the booklets were anti-racist in content
Police have dropped all charges against the BNP’s ‘Liverpool 13?, admitting that there is no evidence to substantiate any of the allegations of ‘racism.’ The remarkable move came early yesterday morning (Saturday 29th Nov), when all thirteen men were hand delivered letters by members of the Liverpool constabulary. The letters, which formally advised the men that there was ‘insufficient evidence’ to pursue charges, were pushed through their doors by policemen, who then quickly left before being forced to talk to anybody to explain.
Racism allegations made against trade union leaders have sparked a protest in central London. Onay Kasab, secretary of Greenwich Unison and Bromley secretary Glenn Kelly were due to attend a disciplinary hearing at the London Hilton in Edgware Road, on Monday. More than 50 union members picketed outside Unison's Euston headquarters to protest their innocence. The hearing was later cancelled for the third time.
MPs demanded protection from a 'police state' last night after the heavy-handed arrest of a Tory frontbencher shocked Westminster. Extraordinary details of four simultaneous raids on immigration spokesman Damian Green's homes and offices raised urgent questions about the independence of Parliament. The Oxford-educated father of two girls, who denies any wrongdoing, was fingerprinted and required to give a DNA sample before being released on bail after nine hours.
Few would regard Damian Green, the mild-mannered Tory MP for Ashford, and Shadow Home Office spokesman, as the most likely of criminals. An Oxford graduate, he went on to be a business journalist before working for John Major in the Downing Street Policy Unit. While he covers the controversial brief of immigration, he is careful to adopt a measured tone and is on the 'mainstream' of the Conservative Party.
News that Jacqui Smith feels obliged to order another 10,000 Tasers at a time when the government coffers are empty has to be worrying for the British public. Whilst we know that this government doesn’t really care about how much of our money they spend, because they can just put up our taxes, the timing is very interesting and surely cannot be a coincidence.
Two weeks ago, a letter from the local council arrived at David and Marilyn Pepper's home in Waltham Abbey in Essex. It was no more than a few paragraphs, but by the time Mrs Pepper, 67, had put it down, her hand was shaking. 'I just felt sick,' she said. Only a hypocrite, or to be more precise, a politically correct hypocrite, could fail to sympathise with Mrs Pepper and her 69-year-old husband. But, then, in one way or another, the pernicious culture of political correctness is at the heart of this story.
More than 4,000 British Muslims have passed through terrorist training camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan, according to security agencies, providing a fertile recruitment pool for the Islamist international jihad. Men from the UK's Kashmiri community have joined groups such as Lashkar-e-Toiba, the prime suspects in the Mumbai attacks, which have been fighting against Indian forces in Kashmir. Others from a Pakistani background are in the ranks of the Taliban and other groups taking part in action against British and Nato forces in Afghanistan.
The Prime Minister said today that now is the time to speed up the pace of reform as the country faces the global economic crisis. He attacked the Conservatives as stuck in the past and called them the 'do nothing, uncaring party'. 'Doing nothing is not an option,' he told Labour party members at the annual Progress conference in London today. 'This is the biggest New Labour project of all: to give people confidence and hope that we can build through this downturn into a better economy and society.
The so-called 'Blunkett's bobbies' will be given extended powers, including being able to detain suspects, under plans unveiled yesterday. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith wants to give police community support officers (PCSOs) the power to hold a criminal until a police officer arrives, impose fines for graffiti and disperse troublemakers. The proposals alarm critics who believe that PCSOs – also dubbed plastic police – have been brought in to provide policing on the cheap.
Saturday 6th December 2008
It is commonplace among the political elite to talk about the “immense benefits” that flow from Britain’s membership of the European Union.
But when pressed to specify what those benefits might be our politicians usually seem stuck for an answer. The events of recent days show why.
It's like the benefits to Economy from Migrants. We too are told they benefit us but we are never told what these benefits actually are or given any examples. However are these the benefits or simply the lie of the government as below? (Ed)
See
The Reality is
However we are told
Never mind the British job loses
And of course back to the EU
Back to news Item
First we learn from the President of the European Commission that the secret mission to bully the British people into surrendering their national currency is back on again.
Next it emerges that the net contributions of British taxpayers to Brussels are expected to treble in the next two years to more than £6billion because of France’s determination to thwart proposed reforms to the Common Agricultural Policy.
Finally, the EU’s Justice Commissioner has taken it on himself to interfere in the policies of member states towards asylum seekers.
Jacques Barrot says countries such as Britain should not hold asylum seekers in detention, should give them improved housing, cash payments and healthcare and should allow them to work while their applications are considered.
Such policies would be an open invitation to new waves of would-be economic migrants to come to Britain and abuse the asylum system in order to remain in this country. that would be an absolute disaster for race relations, which are already under growing strain.
This newspaper has always seen merit in William Hague’s preferred formula of Britain being “in Europe but not run by Europe”. News Source
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A Secretive Government unit is spending tens of millions of pounds on preparations to join the euro.
At least £43million has been lavished on the project, according to official figures.
Some of the money is believed to have gone on upgrading benefit systems and the figure only covers the amount spent up to 2004.
The operation is being run by the Euro Preparations Unit, which exists deep within the Treasury.
The revelation of its spending will fuel fears that Labour wants to use the economic crisis to force Britain into signing up to the euro.
Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague said last night: “It is absurd for Labour to waste any taxpayer money on preparing Britain to join the euro when that policy is adamantly opposed by the vast majority of the British people.”
News of the unit’s spending comes days after it emerged Gordon Brown held secret talks with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso – and Business Secretary Peter Mandelson’s admission that joining the euro was still Labour’s long-term plan.
Mr Barroso said at the weekend that he has discussed the UK joining the euro with “the people that matter in Britain”.
He said senior Government figures believed Britain would be “better off” without the pound and that UK membership was “closer than ever”.
Mr Barroso and Mr Brown will meet again in London on Monday.
Labour has promised there would be no changeover without a referendum. But early plans by Euro Preparations Unit involved propaganda to swing public opinion behind the currency.
They included a law to change the school curriculum to make children learn about the euro in class.
Leaked documents also discussed using TV shows like Big Brother and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? to promote the euro.
Joining the currency was last formally rejected by the Government in 2003.
The last Commons committee to investigate the cost of Britain joining put the total bill for the UK economy at £40billion at 2008 prices – roughly double the total amount of Mr Brown’s recently-unveiled economic stimulus package.
When other European countries changed currencies in 2002, shoppers there saw huge increases as businesses rounded up prices in the new money.
Mr Hague demanded last night that Labour comes clean. He has tabled a series of Commons questions to Mr Brown, Lord Mandelson and Foreign Secretary David Miliband, including whether Mr Brown has discussed scrapping the pound with Mr Barroso and when the Cabinet last discussed UK membership of the euro.
Mr Hague said: “Scrapping the pound would mean losing control of our interest rates.
“That would do serious damage to our economy. That is why no Conservative government would ever think about joining the euro.”
A report by the eurosceptic Bruges Group claims EU red tape holds back the UK economy by £28billion a year.
It says lifting the burden on British business would create enough growth and extra revenue to make a 6p basic rate income tax cut.
A Treasury spokesman said: “The Government’s position on the euro is unchanged. The last assessment was conducted in 2003 and there is no new assessment scheduled.” News Source
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Crown Prosecution Service is institutionally anti-white, lies about the true nature of racial crime in Britain, and is overtly politically biased, according to a new study of that body.
“The CPS uses deeply flawed analysis to hide the fact that a hugely disproportionate number of victims of racist crime are white,” said Mr Tony Shell of DarkLake Synectics, an independent, non-political research organisation, which produced the report.
“The CPS also attempts to falsely characterise racist crime as an activity committed exclusively by white people, and has abandoned colour blind law enforcement in favour procedures to the disadvantage of the white community,” Mr Shell said.
The report, entitled ‘The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and Racialist Policy,’ makes an incisive analysis of the racial attitudes of that body by using its own published papers and commentary.
“The CPS’s own papers give an insight into its perception of racism within society, and allow us to look for evidence of institutional racism within the CPS itself,” Mr Shell continued.
According the CPS’s own documentation, racist crime in the UK is ‘typically’ a crime perpetuated by a white person on an ethnic minority victim.
“There is persistent reference to institutional racism as being characteristically a problem of persecution only for the ethnic minorities (i.e. non-white) population,” Mr Shell said.
“There is a danger that this may give a misleading impression of the nature of racism within the UK, and needlessly encourage a feeling of victimisation within minority groups.”
Mr Shell points out that no account appears to have been taken with regard to the demographic distribution of UK ethnic groups. “For example, when factored in to the crime survey figures from the CPS, the Police, the Home Office and the British Crime Survey, the perception of racism as being ‘typically’ a crime committed by white people is shown to be bogus.
“Given the population demographics for the first set of results for the period 1995/1996, the actual reported figures show the white community actually experiencing levels of racist crime some 100 times greater than should be expected (compared to the other, minority ethnic communities.)
“Similarly, given the population demographics for the second set of results for the period 2002/2003, the actual reported figures show the white community actually experiencing levels of racist crime some 36 times greater than should be expected (compared to the other, minority ethnic communities).
“This is a situation not reported by the authorities (the Home Office and the CRE). Indeed the manner in which they present the ‘evidence’ tends to give exactly the opposite impression.”
Mr Shell said even more recent analysis of BCS crime data for 2004-2005 showed that the white community experienced levels of racist violence some 72 times greater than should be expected, compared to other ethnic communities.
“In terms of interracial murder, both in terms of suspects and convicted offenders, it is the white community that suffers most from interracial murder — more white people are murdered by members of the ethnic minority community than vice-versa.
“This is despite there being approximately ten times more white people than there are people from the minority (BME) communities. Therefore a consistent picture is emerging in terms of the victims of this category of murder — proportionately speaking, the white community experiences approximately 30 times more victims of interracial murder than should be expected, when compared to that experienced by the ethnic minority communities.”
“A similar pattern of behaviour emerges when we analyse the criminal data relating to racist murder. Over the last nine years more white people have been victims of racist murder than people from the ethnic minorities.
“On a proportionate basis, the white community experiences approximately 60 to 90 times more victims of racist murder than should be expected, when compared to that experienced by the ethnic minority communities.
Mr Shell also reveals in his report that the CPS has adopted the Macpherson definition of ‘institutional racism’, to the exclusion of all other alternatives. This is, he said, a non-evidential, and therefore a conveniently unchallengeable definition, based on psycho-sociological ideology.
In addition, Mr Shell continued, the CPS shows an “arrogant dismissal of all contrary views and analysis. No justification or reasoning given other than characterising contrary arguments (of researchers, workers within the legal and law enforcement professions) as ‘indicative of institutional racism.’”
The shocking document, which should be required reading for all those seeking an understanding of the mindset which has helped to create the anti-white establishment under which we live, can be downloaded here. Highly recommended! News Source
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jeff Randall criticises the "progressives" who would rather suppress inconvenient facts than confront reality.
As Harriet Harman slithered on the thin ice of dissemblance, cracks in her conviction were palpable. Blinking furiously, she appeared as someone who would rather plunge into freezing waters of ridicule than succumb to truth.
Asked by Jeremy Paxman on Newsnight to affirm her confidence in Michael Martin, the Commons Speaker, Miss Harman skated round an honest reply numerous times until falling over her own feet with a sullen confession: "I am not saying I have got full confidence in anything or anybody."
It was the kind of encounter to which British viewers have become inured: in effect, a current affairs entertainment show, with a celebrity presenter posing questions and a slippery interviewee defying clarity through a fog of non-answers.
As a society, we have not just stopped expecting veracity from elected representatives, but we have also been brainwashed into believing that harsh realities are to be avoided lest they damage confidence, disturb sensibilities or upset the growing number of delicate flowers who protect themselves from legitimate criticism with the prophylactic of grievance.
It is as though there has been a conspiracy between disingenuous politicians, campaigners for political correctness and a malleable electorate to accept deliberate omissions and distortions as valid currencies of exchange for public discourse, while banning the gold standard of fact.
Ministers who either routinely lie or make unsustainable promises – Tony Blair (Iraq), Lord Mandelson (mortgage) and Gordon Brown (tax) – invariably keep their jobs and go on to better things.
But woe betide anyone in high office who has the courage to speak openly on matters that discomfort either those deemed to be above scrutiny or their agents in the welfare lobby.
At many levels, we are being infantilised by a "progressive" agenda that would rather suppress inconvenient truths than confront reality. Worse still, both main parties are guilty of playing this cynical game: trying to steal advantage by burning integrity at the stake of expediency.
Back in August, Alistair Darling came clean on the sharp deterioration of the British economy, declaring that conditions were "arguably the worst they've been in 60 years" and that the downturn would be "profound and long-lasting". The Chancellor's admission was overdue. The Government had been in denial for at least 12 months, with the Prime Minister incanting that Britain was "well placed" to weather the storm.
Nevertheless, the reaction to Mr Darling's statement of the obvious was outrage. He was accused of sparking a further slide in the value of the pound and "talking the economy down" by David Cameron. The Opposition's attack was a cheap shot. Are we, the electorate, not entitled to an honest assessment from the man in charge of our finances? Did Mr Cameron not share Mr Darling's gloomy prognosis? We know the answers; it was all a pathetic ruse.
Ten weeks later, the wheel of torment spun the other way. George Osborne warned that Britain was heading for a "collapse of sterling" if the Government persisted with trying to borrow its way out of trouble. He said: "Sterling has devalued rapidly against the euro and the dollar. We are in danger, if the Government is not careful, of having a run on the pound."
All true, of course. But, like the pound, plain-speaking has been devalued. One day's traction in the opinion polls is all that counts. Labour aides said it was "unbelievable" that Mr Osborne would discuss sterling's weakness at such time and ripped into the shadow chancellor for "lacking judgment" by risking a self-fulfilling prophesy. What a joke.
Sterling is in the toilet because Britain's finances have been flushed away by a profligate administration whose Budget is in tatters. In America, when John McCain insisted on Meltdown Monday that the American economy was "fundamentally sound", markets laughed in his face. Were Mr Osborne to make bullish noises about the pound, he would suffer a similar fate.
In a serious comment on the misery caused by recessions and the worrying impact that they often have on mental wellbeing, shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley said that, perversely, there was an upside to tough times because studies show that "people tend to smoke less, drink less alcohol, eat less rich food and spend more time at home with their families".
Once again, all true. Even so, Downing Street's attack dogs raced into action. Mr Lansley's comments were labelled "shameful" and "out of touch". David Cameron wobbled and Mr Lansley was forced to withdraw his comments and apologise "for any offence this has caused". What offence? Who are these people who are crossing the road to have their feelings wounded? How could anyone be hurt by the truth that enforced abstinence is not all bad?
On the subject of health, Tory peer Lord Mancroft complained that the nurses who had looked after him in a hospital in Bath, unlike those who had delivered "wonderful care" to him at the Chelsea & Westminster, were "grubby, drunken and promiscuous". He concluded that these nurses "were an accurate reflection of many young women in Britain today".
Fury erupted. The Royal College of Nursing said the peer's comments were "grossly unfair on nurses across the UK" and amounted to a "sexist insult about the behaviour of British women". It's possible, I suppose, that Lord Mancroft has a pathological hatred of NHS staff and made up the slurs. But, if his observations were true, are we saying that nurses are beyond rebuke?
As for his alleged sexist condemnation of "many British women", research published last month by Bradley University, Illinois, revealed that British women (and men) are the most promiscuous of those from big industrialised nations. And a survey by Company magazine, albeit five years ago, reported that two thirds of British women who responded had experienced "blackout drinking", ie, waking up the next day with no recollection of the night before.
But if it's destruction of debate you are looking for, there is nothing quite like the issues of immigration and race to bring out those who prefer to move the lens away from what is really happening.
Before the local elections of spring 2006, Barking Labour MP Margaret Hodge warned that many white families in her constituency were tempted to vote for the British National Party because "no one else is listening to them".
Her reward for pointing out this truth (the BNP won 11 of the 13 council seats it contested) was to be savaged by a cross-section of Labour supporters and anti-BNP activists for "encouraging" racists. I'm no fan of Mrs Hodge, but did her critics really believe that democracy would be served by a pledge of silence about the BNP?
Pretending that a problem doesn't exist is not the same as addressing it. If you're in any doubt, have a look at Miss Harman's obfuscation on the BBC website. News Source
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The perfectly proper furore stemming from the hounding and arrest on a trumped-up charge of Tory immigration spokesman Damian Green leaves one yawning gulf and one crucial question unanswered.
There is a gulf between passing genuinely classified information under the Official Secrets Act, whose release would hurt the nation, to an unauthorised person (that is, espionage and treason) and receiving from a whistleblower a tip-off about a bureaucratic fiasco which would be deeply embarrassing to the politicians and of. cials responsible for it in the first place.
This second function is the very essence of holding the Government to account for the way it spends our money and that is what an Opposition is supposed to do.
That is why I say the allegation against Damian Green for exposing one cock-up after another in the Immigration Department of the Home Office is a trumped-up charge.
Please do not think the other offence never happened. In the early Seventies I was smuggled into Brixton Prison to interview William Owen, a Labour MP charged with espionage.
He had used his position on the Commons Defence Committee to pass seriously damaging secrets to Czech intelligence, which of course went straight to the KGB in Moscow.
I was told in a whisper that MI5 knew of at least four Labour MPs spying for Moscow and 20 (at least) "agents of influence" who used their high positions knowingly to spread Soviet propaganda.
Even that excluded the hundreds who had swallowed the propaganda hook, line and sinker and claimed they were working for world peace, the usual "front" for Soviet agitprop.
Back then, the Labour and trade union movements were rife with fellow travellers.
What has happened here is a thousand miles from any so-called "misdemeanour" against our country.
It is about embarrassing revelations against a dim and mendacious Government.
The investigator was Assistant Commissioner Robert Quick of Scotland Yard. I find it mpossible to believe that he thought he had the right to hound and arrest a senior shadow minister, raid both his homes, confiscate his papers and computers, detain him in a cell, invade the Palace of Westminster and strip out the man's parliamentary office unless he had received specific authorisation to do so.
We still do not know the full story.
Who authorised it? W