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30 Nov 09
BBC News - Johnston Press websites start charging for news
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Earlier this month, News Corporation chief Rupert Murdoch said he would try to block Google from using news content from his companies.
29 Nov 09
The Safety Net - Across U.S., Food Stamp Use Soars and Stigma Fades
With food stamp use at record highs and climbing every month, a program once scorned as a failed welfare scheme now helps feed one in eight Americans and one in four children.
Ofsted’s hidden cult of failure
When I helped Cedric, the boy next to me, with his comprehension, I got a shock. He could barely read, let alone write an answer to the question. He shrugged, threw a rubber at the girl with the bobbles and was sent out of the class. It was the last straw. I liked Cedric, who was obviously bright. I forgot I was meant to be an observer and confronted the teacher. Instead of sending children out, I said, why not improve discipline and concentration? We could rearrange the tables to face her and she could stand in front of the board. She looked at me with horror. “The pupils are working together, directing their own learning,” she said, her voice almost drowned by noise. Had I not appreciated what was going on?
Our hospitals may be bad but our regulators are worse
Altogether this government’s NHS policies bring to mind an interfering child with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Since 1997 we have had six secretaries of state for health. That means an average of two years in post. It is impossible for anyone to understand the essentials of our byzantine health service in such short fits of attention. As for the regulators, including the one Baroness Young seems to think was not up to snuff, we have had at least three upheavals of regulations under Labour — the Commission for Health Improvement, then the Healthcare Commission and now the CQC. Such constant change must be at odds with good management. It is hardly surprising that the public has become so suspicious; there may not be many data about the death of trust in this country, but the anecdotal evidence is overwhelming. Who monitors the monitors? Not only hospital regulation is at issue.
Should we pull the plug on festive lights?
Your tree can twinkle in the corner so long as you invest in LEDs and a timer. After all, even we greens like a white Christmas. (MrP Says: Oh, fuck off!)
Royal Marines could have rescued pirate hostages, but the order to attack never came
The disturbing truth behind the Royal Navy’s failure to prevent Somali pirates kidnapping a British couple from their yacht can be revealed today. An investigation demolishes accounts by the Ministry of Defence and the head of the Navy which suggest that a naval vessel at the scene had no rescue force available. In fact, far from being a toothless bystander, the Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship Wave Knight was within seconds of unleashing a crack team of 20 lethally armed Royal Marines.
Secret letter to reveal new Blair war lies
An explosive secret letter that exposes how Tony Blair lied over the legality of the Iraq War can be revealed. The Chilcot Inquiry into the war will interrogate the former Prime Minister over the devastating 'smoking gun' memo, which warned him in the starkest terms the war was illegal. Attorney General Lord Goldsmith wrote the letter to Mr Blair in July 2002 - a full eight months before the war - telling him that deposing Saddam Hussein was a blatant breach of international law. It was intended to make Mr Blair call off the invasion, but he ignored it. Instead, a panicking Mr Blair issued instructions to gag Lord Goldsmith, banned him from attending Cabinet meetings and ordered a cover-up to stop the public finding out.
Gordon Brown urged to lift Iraq inquiry secrecy
Gordon Brown is facing demands to change the rules of the Iraq inquiry this weekend amid fears that the most explosive documents explaining why Britain went to war will not be made public. As the inquiry enters its second week, the prime minister is under pressure to make key evidence relating to secret government discussions public, including minutes showing how the then attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, changed his mind about the legality of the war. The demands are made in a letter to Brown from the Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg, who insists that unless the lid is lifted on secrecy, the Chilcot inquiry will fail to satisfy the public's demands for honesty.
I shan't mourn GMTV, that smarmy, padded seat of power
Naturally, none of us could bear to write GMTV's obituary prematurely. But it bestrode the world like a – well, like something that couldn't really bestride things. In an item to mark the anniversary of Disney's Snow White, presenter Fiona Phillips remarked to viewers: "The Holocaust actually began three years after Walt Disney made Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Which puts it in perspective really." You might laugh. But Fiona would soon be approached by Gordon Brown to join his "government of all the talents", with a seat in the Lords and some responsibility for public health. Even more hilariously, she turned it down, which puts a few other things into perspective really.
People with HIV alarmed by levels of stigma in UK
A damning report into the levels of stigma being faced by people with HIV in Britain has led to calls for the government to produce a strategy to tackle discrimination. Researchers found that one in five people with an HIV diagnosis had been harassed, threatened or verbally assaulted in the past 12 months. Many reported ignorance and prejudice from within the medical profession, particularly from GPs and dentists. One in five reported being denied medical treatment because they had HIV. In findings to be unveiled in parliament tomorrow, The People Living With HIV Stigma Index, a two-year research project funded by the Department for International Development and the International Planned Parenthood Federation, found that only 39% of people felt confident that their medical records were being kept confidential, with 18% saying their HIV status had been revealed without their consent. Lisa Power, head of policy at the Terrence Higgins Trust, said that the public was more ignorant about HIV than a decade ago. "This research is really important because it's about people's perception of the prejudice they face.
Climate change denier Nick Griffin to represent EU at Copenhagen
Nick Griffin, the leader of the British National party, is to represent the European parliament at the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen, which opens next week. Last night politicians and scientists reacted furiously to news that the far-right politician and climate change denier should be attending the summit on behalf of the EU. Griffin, who was elected to the European parliament in June, confirmed last night that he would attend as the representative of the parliament's environmental committee. World leaders, including Barack Obama and Gordon Brown, are hoping to forge a new global agreement to curtail greenhouse gas emissions.
Send this one back to the developers: School of Saatchi
Right, that’s it. I am unilaterally and with prejudice proclaiming an anathema on R Mutt’s bloody urinal. It’s wheeled out for every feeble-brained, finger-snapping, zeitgeisty art programme as a sort of shibboleth, a totem. I’ve been shown it three times in two weeks, and it was predictably used to explain contemporary art in last week’s School of Saatchi show. Let’s get something straight about Marcel Duchamp and his pissoir fountain, the Rosetta Stone of all modern art. It was a joke; it wasn’t even shown in a gallery. Duchamp liked puns, funny names and bawdy humour. He is famous for his ready-made found objects, which he placed incongruously — a bicycle wheel on a stool, or a commercial pot-holder. The simple point of the joke is that a urinal in a lavatory is there to be peed in, but a urinal in an art gallery is there to be talked about and genuflected over for a century.
The joke’s on us as Bling Central loses its sparkle
Dubai is wrecked but, like an old tart with a kiss-and-tell contract from the red-tops, threatens to drag the rest of us down with it. In a sense it is merely Britain writ much larger: a despised, criminally underpaid and perpetually ill-treated underclass of imported foreign labourers on top of which squats a fat, indigenous population which cannot believe its luck, doing absolutely nothing other than spending money. A property boom so absurd in its assumptions and aspirations that its imminent implosion was evident to everyone — except, of course, the bankers who mindlessly bought into the deal and funded it. And then there’s the over-remunerated elite of western European expats who are now trying to get the hell out, binning their Porsches at the airport, kissing goodbye to their obliging Filipino slaves. What’s Dubai, without its money? Some rocks, some sand, some Islam, some flies.
Schools vet parents for Christmas festivities
Parents who want to accompany their children to Christmas carol services and other festive activities are being officially vetted for criminal records in case they are paedophiles. In the latest expansion of the government’s child protection agenda, parents are checked against a database of people banned from working with children for sex offences and for other reasons. Among those affected are parents at a village primary school who have been told they must be vetted before they can accompany pupils on a 10-minute walk to a morning carol service at the local church.
BBC to review 'too white' Radio 4
Managers at the station are preparing to introduce a range of measures to address the lack of black and Asian listeners. These include commissioning more material with a distinctly ethnic angle, such as a documentary on patois that will be broadcast next month. The review, disclosed by BBC sources, has prompted fears that the station could axe some of its long-running shows as it chases a new audience. Plans also include the appointment of new presenters from ethnic minorities and the investment of more money in developing non-white talent. Despite adding more than 750,000 listeners in the last year, Radio 4 bosses are conscious that ethnic minorities represent a tiny proportion of the station's audience. (MrP Says: Not many Blacks and Asians listen to Radio 4. So what?)
Iraq report: 'Pathetic' radio failings put troops at risk
It was May 14 2004. In what became known as the “Battle of Danny Boy”, one of the fiercest ever fought by the British in Iraq, soldiers of 1st Bn, the Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment (1 PWRR), had just been ambushed by about 100 armed insurgents. They were fighting them off with close-quarter rifle fire and bayonets. They badly needed to call for help. But according to the “post-operational report” leaked to The Sunday Telegraph, their Army radios failed completely. To get reinforcements, the beleaguered soldiers – bullets whistling past their ears – had to ring the Ministry of Defence switchboard operator in London on their mobiles and ask her to pass on a message, as urgently as she could, to their own headquarters, less than 20 miles down the road from where they were. “The sitreps [situation reports] from the officer commanding in contact [in battle] were sent via the Whitehall operator to the battle group operations room 30 kilometres away from the contact point,” the report said.
Yoani Sanchez, Cuba's popular blogger, has been beaten up for describing life
Yoani Sanchez, Cuba's most popular blogger, has been beaten up by thugs for the offence of describing life under the Castro regime. With her platted hair and bookish demeanour, Yoani Sanchez does not look like a threat to the Cuban State. But her blog, an acerbic critique of the hypocrisies of life on the communist-led island might have made her just that. "Generation Y" receives about one million visits a month. It has won two of the most prestigious awards for digital journalism, and its success meant that last year Ms Sanchez was voted one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world. Now, it seems, the island's ruling Castro brothers have decided that enough is enough, and have unleashed their thugs to try to shut Ms Sanchez up.
Guantanamo Bay: depressed US towns battle to house detainees in 'Gitmo North'
Several blighted US towns are battling for the right to host Guantanamo Bay terror detainees in their own backyards in an unusual case of reverse "nimbyism". The strategy of requesting the Islamic extremists accused of some of the world's worst atrocities, including the attacks of Sept 11 2001, as neighbours may seem perverse. But local officials hope they will land a bonanza of jobs and investment by offering up their empty prisons as President Barack Obama tries to close the infamous prison camp. In the process, they have thrust themselves on to the frontline of a fierce national debate as Republicans accuse the Obama administration of endangering national security with plans to house and try terror suspects on US soil.
Shamed: the top hospitals with the worst death rates
The three hospitals with the highest patient death rates in the country can be named, amid a deepening crisis over the standard of care in the NHS. Bolton, Greater Manchester and Basildon NHS trusts have elite “foundation status”. However, The Sunday Telegraph has learned that statistics to be published this week will show a higher percentage of patients died while in their care in 2008-09 than in any other trusts in the country. With the average mortality rate set at a score of 100, Basildon scored 131, Royal Bolton 122 and Tameside Hospital, in Greater Manchester, 119.
Beefeater sacked for harassing first female Yeoman tells how her arrival caused ructions at the Tower..and cost him his job and his home
Tomorrow Mark Sanders-Crook will be forced to surrender his scarlet dress uniform and ceremonial sword and spear to a Yeoman at the Tower of London. For the former Grenadier Guardsman and his family, it will be a deeply emotional moment, and an ignominious end to a hitherto unblemished 29-year career serving Queen and country. Mr Sanders-Crook, 44, is one of the two ‘bullying Beefeaters’ sacked last week for harassing Moira Cameron – the Tower’s first female Beefeater – and, in her words, ‘causing unprecedented stress to the extent that my hair fell out’.
The case made headlines around the world, and, for some, undermined long-held notions about the jovial men in red, who nurture ravens, guard the Crown Jewels and beguile tourists with centuries-old stories.
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