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Why target poppy fields and not breweries?
This is difficult to imagine, the world being how it is, but let's say you were pen pals with an Afghan poppy farmer and that one day he came to Britain and you took him on a jaunt to Devon, to show him the best of England's countryside. Together you eat cream teas and watch the ponies trot across Dartmoor. Then one morning you drive down the Dart valley to Buckfast Abbey, which (according to the abbey's audio-visual centre) was founded during the reign of King Cnut in 1018 by a religious fraternity who sensed that the beauty of this spot "made it a place where God might easily be found". Sunshine dapples old stone. A river ripples under the trees. Being a devout Muslim and fond of spiritual brotherhoods, your friend is impressed. Being a farmer, he has some shrewd questions. All these lovely buildings, all this well-tended land: who's paying? Where does the money come from?......
RBS seeks £40,000 from penniless girl to cover G20 damage
Debt-laden Royal Bank of Scotland yesterday tried to recoup the entire cost of damage caused to one of its branches in the G20 riots from an unemployed Scottish teenager. The 17-year-old girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said she had been "caught up in the moment" when she was seen smashing up computer equipment in the Threadneedle Street branch on 1 April. In a youth court in west London, she admitted following friends into the building after its windows were smashed. She was then seen using a keyboard to hit a computer monitor and broken window.
Home Office whistleblower sacked for exposing failures
The civil servant at the centre of a Whitehall leak inquiry was sacked yesterday. Christopher Galley, a junior official in the Home Office, lost his job following a disciplinary hearing. Mr Galley and Damian Green, the Tory immigration spokesman, were arrested by police investigating leaks from the department but were told last week they would not face charges. Mr Galley was suspended on full pay after his arrest in November but disciplinary proceedings were put on hold while the criminal investigation was concluded. The 26-year-old admitted leaking four documents, including one which revealed thousands of illegal immigrants were given clearance to work in the security industry.
Why holidays can be bad for your health
Travel is said to broaden the mind - but it can also damage it, experts say. In an unprecedented move, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has issued a warning that the stress of international travel can lead to mental disorder in vulnerable people.\nFor the first time, the global health agency has included detailed guidance on the psychological impact of travel in its annual publication International Travel And Health. Almost one billion people leave home to venture abroad each year, just over half of them tourists going on holiday, and mental problems are "among the leading causes of ill-health among travellers", it says. "Psychiatric emergency" is one of the most common medical reasons for evacuation by air ambulance, along with injury and heart disease, the WHO report says. Up to 100 patients a week are brought back to the UK by air ambulance, according to the British Ambulance Association, and many more are returned on commercial aircraft, mostly accompanied by medical staff.
Is this the secret of eternal life?
Most centenarians attribute their great age to some magic elixir or other. The longevity of the Italian scientist Rita Levi-Montalcini, who this week became the first Nobel Prize-winner to reach the age of 100, might be the result of a potion that is a little out of the ordinary: Professor Levi-Montalcini, it is said, puts her undiminished mental vigour down to regular doses of nerve growth factor (NGF) - the discovery that made her famous. She was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize for Medicine jointly with an American, Stanley Cohen, for her research into NGF: the proteins and amino-acids which enable the cells of the nervous system to grow and take on specialised tasks. Despite her age, Dr Levi-Montalcini, a neurologist and development biologist, still works every day at the European Brain Research Institute, which she founded in Rome.
We'll be lucky to get a bowl of soup
We know that senior politicians are incapable of admitting error, even when the error is of the gargantuan proportions of dropping the equivalent of a nuclear weapon on the British economy. This is partly because of the levels of mental illness and moral turpitude that are usually required to reach high office these days, and also because of the new constitutional rule - at least I assume it is a constitutional rule - that no minister is ever allowed to resign, however disastrous or bent he or she may be. So we should not be surprised that the picture of epic debt and failure that was outlined in the Budget on Wednesday was accompanied by an absolute refusal to accept responsibility by those who had caused it, either in owning up or doing the decent thing and leaving public life. These people - the Prime Minister and, to a lesser extent, his puppet Chancellor of the Exchequer - are so dishonourable as to be despicable, and it is as well to say so.
The liberal supremacists
One side-effect of the so-called war on terror has been a crisis of liberalism. This is not only a question of alarmingly illiberal legislation, but a more general problem of how the liberal state deals with its anti-liberal enemies. This, surely, is the acid test of any liberal creed. Anyone can be tolerant of those who are tolerant. A community of the broad-minded is a pleasant place, but requires no great moral effort. The key issue is how the liberal state copes with those who reject its ideological framework. It is fashionable today to speak of being open to the "Other". But what if the Other detests your openness as much as it does your lapdancing clubs? There is no quarrel about how to treat those whose scorn for liberal values takes the form of blowing the legs off small children. They need to be locked up. But socialists as well as Islamists reject the liberal state, so what is to be done about them? Are they to be indulged only until they successfully challenge the state, at which point they too will find themselves behind bars with the zealots of al-Qaida?
After the lie of the free lunch comes a real political choice
When in the grip of group think, think again. If ever there was a time to question economic orthodoxy, that time is now. Never has a profession been so discredited as the economists, who failed to see this crisis coming. Yet the same authorities carry on opining unabashed. Politicians of all parties are in their thrall, sick patients taking more leeches from the same doctors. The unwisdom of these crowds is startling. The two "truths" universally acknowledged are that borrowing is wildly out of control and that the only remedy is leeching public services and shrinking the state. With aplomb every expert intones these factoids. They are not facts, they are political choices to be made. It's up to us what we do, not some great steamroller of inevitability. Andrew Dilnot, Oxford economist and former head of the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), talks of "the hysteria in the air". The boom lasted so long, people forgot the inevitable bust. Veteran of many budgets, he points out Treasury forecasts are so wrong it's little use pondering over-much on five years ahead.
How one ordinary woman solved a murder
On the morning of August 1 she was having coffee in the local café and the waitress mentioned that a body had been found in the school playing fields nearby. It was a discovery that would change her life irrevocably. "I believe nothing happens by chance. I've often ignored instinct and regretted it," she says. "This time I let instinct lead me." Her instinct - "I can't tell you why" - was to go to see the body for herself. What she saw defied reasonable description. A female black corpse, naked, horribly burnt and bloated, the face unrecognisable.\nSusan Galbreath still does not comprehend what happened to her at that moment, but she experienced an epiphany. "Nothing prepares you for a sight like that. I started to cry. I should have been repelled and walked away but something led me there. It wasn't all over when I saw the body. It was just beginning." She didn't know who the dead girl was, she had never shown an interest in crime, but it was as if the spirit of the victim somehow entered her, eventually transforming her into an Erin Brockovich figure, quietly determined to expose something bad when all around her was incompetence and indifference.
Gurkhas up in arms over Home Office 'treachery'
Gurkha veterans accused the Government of betrayal yesterday after the Home Office issued new rules that would allow only a small number of the former soldiers to settle in Britain. Phil Woolas, the Immigration Minister, said that thousands of ex-Gurkhas and family members would benefit from the revised rules but lawyers representing the Nepalese servicemen said that fewer than 100 people would meet the requirements. Under the new Home Office ruling, ex-Gurkhas must meet specific criteria before being allowed to settle in Britain. These can include medals for bravery, service of more than 20 years or a serious medical condition linked to their time in uniform.
Cameron must put himself in sharper focus | Matthew Parris
The era of smart-casual young think-tankers in cool-framed specs with schemes for spending public money is over. The overarching question now is: "How can we cut?" The era is upon us of sharp-minded, compassionate but unsentimental people, not necessarily political or party people, who can propose and develop such thinking; and the hunt for such people and ideas is on. To the question "What are you going to cut?", Mr Cameron's implicit answer should be: "You tell me. No, really: you tell me. We Conservatives have the steel to do this, and you know we must. Now let's talk openly, without scaremongering or posturing, about how and what and when."
It needs welding - not just a pot of touch-up paint
The dire figures for UK car production yesterday helped to explain the Budget decision to offer £1,000 bungs to people trading in old bangers for new vehicles. Output in March was down by more than half on a year earlier. No wonder Alistair Darling was persuaded to press ahead with the £300 million scrappage scheme. Cars are important - in economic terms because the multiplier effects that spread prosperity into related corners of the economy are great; in political terms because the heart of the industry, the West Midlands, boasts dozens of marginal constituencies. More people would probably have benefited from a scrappage scheme for clapped-out vacuum cleaners and lawnmowers, or worn-out sofas and beds, or, indeed, threadbare shoes - but furniture makers and cobblers don't have the same influence with Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary. These schemes do seem to work: new car registrations in Germany rose by 40 per cent in March and by 10 per cent in France after each country adopted incentive schemes, albeit more generous ones.
Pregnant mother is refused free NHS maternity dental care after staff said bump, ultrasound and doctor's notes are NOT proof
A mother-to-be has been turned down for free dental treatment - because the surgery will not accept that she is expecting. Sarah Luisis, 27, who is five months pregnant, has been told she needs to provide more proof that she has a baby on the way. That is despite the fact that she has a big bump, a doctor's certificate, antenatal notes and ultrasound pictures of her unborn child.
Thieving MPs and why I was wrong... Brown will NEVER stop this culture of corruption
When Gordon Brown became Prime Minister he promised to end the squalor, sleaze and dreadful culture of cronyism that disfigured Tony Blair's government. He also pledged to restore the integrity of the Civil Service, return power to Parliament and bring back the traditional form of collective Cabinet government. I must admit that I believed him at the time. Now, however, two scandals which emerged over the past fortnight have finally, I must admit, destroyed any pretence that Gordon Brown is an honourable politician. The first of these concerned the foul smear campaign which Damian McBride, the PM's most trusted public relations aide, sought to launch against Tory leader David Cameron and his colleagues. The second scandal centres on the abuse of taxpayers' money through MPs' allowances system. Despite recent protestations to the contrary, Gordon Brown has long been one of the most significant defenders of this disgusting and corrupt system of extra payments to MPs.
Americans Accused of Stealing Fuel in Iraq
n a confidence game that made a mockery of the United States military's most secure compound in Iraq, a ring of Americans posing as contractors and their Nepalese drivers used tanker trucks, forged documents and sheer brazenness to steal at least $40 million worth of jet and diesel fuel from an Army depot. Until they were caught, the dozen or so men in the ring operated an astoundingly successful con game in a war zone, the papers contend, apparently showing up in Iraq with nothing more than fake IDs and a talent for forging official requisition forms. Each time they filled up the tanker trucks at the depot in American headquarters near the Baghdad International Airport, the men would simply drive downtown and sell the fuel on the local black market, the court papers say.
Tony Blair opposes new 50 pence tax rate for high earners
The former Prime Minister has privately expressed his despair at the Labour government's decision to target the wealthy in the Budget. Some of the leading architects of New Labour have also savaged the move, which they believe has cost Labour any hope of winning the general election. The revelation that Mr Blair has privately indicated his opposition to the headline 50 pence tax rate for people earning over £150,000 will cause consternation in Downing Street,.
Will the last person to leave Gordon Brown's Britain turn out the lights?
RIP New Labour. Born July 21 1994; died April 22 2009. Cause of death: drowning in a sea of debt. New Labour passed away surrounded by its family and loved ones. It was survived by a shattered party. Memorial service scheduled for May 2010. No flowers. The obituary writers have been hard at work since this week's Budget statement. The facts seemed clear enough. New Labour, which was born the day Tony Blair was elected leader of the party 15 years ago, had been laid to rest by Alistair Darling with a minimum of ceremony.
Police caught on tape trying to recruit Plane Stupid protester as spy
Undercover police are running a network of hundreds of informants inside protest organisations who secretly feed them intelligence in return for cash, according to evidence handed to the Guardian. They claim to have infiltrated a number of environmental groups and said they are receiving information about leaders, tactics and plans of future demonstrations. The dramatic disclosures are revealed in almost three hours of secretly recorded discussions between covert officers claiming to be from Strathclyde police, and an activist from the protest group Plane Stupid, whom the officers attempted to recruit as a paid spy after she had been released on bail following a demonstration at Aberdeen airport last month
Nobody does money like New Labour, expense fiddling while Rome burns
It is difficult to think of a more perfect testament to New Labour's intellectual shallows. On the eve of the most deadly serious budget in decades, Gordon Brown posts a YouTube video in which he announces he has scheduled some inquiry- pre-empting debate about MPs' expenses. It might as well have been captioned "I can haz bathplug?". There are those who have judged that the next day's introduction of a 50% tax rate marked the end of New Labour. But for many students of the movement, that video seemed part of an absolute continuum with the past, combining an excruciating attempt to manipulate the news agenda with a helpful reminder of the petty chiselling of the Blair-Brown years. Think of it as expense fiddling while Rome burns.
Get thee to a miserable Swiss tax haven
The disturbing thing about Alistair Darling's Budget was not that it extracted a few extra thou from the few, the fortunate 350,000 or so who already enjoy six times the average British salary. It was the implication that taxation for the rich is a punishment, some vindictive redress for the misdeeds of the bankrupting bankers called for by a torches-and- pitchfork-wielding posse, rather than what it should be, what it is for the rest of us: an enduring social obligation, a mark of citizenship, a duty. Robert Peston's book Who Runs Britain? contains an extraordinary vignette of Sir Philip Green just after he benefited from a £1.2 billion dividend, not one penny of which entered the British exchequer, since it was paid out to his Monte Carlo-dwelling wife. A £72 million corporation tax bill had arrived and Green's accountants advised him to wriggle out. But, to their bewilderment, he opted to pay. "I took a view not to poke their eyes out, the Revenue, not to be greedy and strip the corporation tax." It epitomises the boom years mentality of the super-rich: that tax is largely optional, an act of largesse, a big bill generously tossed in the collection plate.
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