http://www.guardian.co.uk/society Latest news and features from guardian.co.uk, the world's leading liberal voice en-gb &copy; Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Sun, 05 Sep 2010 18:47:14 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds 15 http://image.guardian.co.uk/sitecrumbs/Guardian.gif http://www.guardian.co.uk/society http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/sep/02/hospitals-drugs-fluids-infants/print <div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.4/67180?ns=guardian&pageName=Hospitals+warned+over+doses+of+drugs+given+to+babies%3AArticle%3A1446844&ch=Society&c3=Guardian&c4=Health+%28Society%29%2CSociety%2CNHS+%28Society%29%2CChildren+%28Society%29%2CUK+news&c5=Society+Weekly%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CHealth+Society%2CChildren+Society&c6=Denis+Campbell&c7=10-Sep-02&c8=1446844&c9=Article&c10=News&c11=Society&c13=&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FSociety%2FHealth" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">The National Patient Safety Agency issues alert following death of baby girl given too high amount of dextrose</p><p>Hospitals have been told to take care when giving infants intravenous doses of fluids or drugs, after a baby girl died after a glucose overdose at Great Ormond Street children's hospital in London.</p><p>The National Patient Safety Agency has drawn the NHS's attention to the risk of newborn babies accidentally receiving large amounts of such substances.</p><p>It follows the death in 2009 of Poppy Davies, who was just a few weeks old when she was given far more dextrose than was intended to help her regain energy after an operation. There have been five other similar "near misses" involving newborns since 2003, the NPSA said today when issuing one of its periodic rapid response reports (RRRs). The alerts instruct the NHS to improve the safety surrounding a particular drug or procedure after concerns have been raised.</p><p>Doctors and nurses should be careful to check that the correct dose is being given and that syringe pumps used to administer medication are used properly, it says.</p><p>Peter Walsh, chief executive of patient safety group Action against Medical Accidents, said: "Problems with the administration of drugs is known to be one of the most common accidents causing serious harm in healthcare. With neonates the risks are obviously even higher and the consequences more likely to be very serious, so it is essential that every precaution is taken to avoid perfectly avoidable tragedies such as this. Credit should go to the coroner for raising the alarm to the NPSA."</p><p>But the NHS's poor record in implementing previous RRRs meant hospitals might not take the action recommended by the NPSA, he added. He said the Care Quality Commission, the NHS regulator for England, should ensure that alerts were acted upon. "Unless someone takes action to ensure these well intentioned alerts are actually implemented, there will be further tragedies like this," he said.</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/health">Health</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/nhs">NHS</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/children">Children</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/deniscampbell">Denis Campbell</a></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/kprSn6oappVhT1JrYxgjy9YHbvo/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/kprSn6oappVhT1JrYxgjy9YHbvo/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/kprSn6oappVhT1JrYxgjy9YHbvo/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/kprSn6oappVhT1JrYxgjy9YHbvo/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p> Health Society NHS Children UK news The Guardian News http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/sep/02/hospitals-drugs-fluids-infants Thu, 02 Sep 2010 19:56:14 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/sep/02/cuts-war-on-equality-ken-livingstone/print <div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.4/50812?ns=guardian&pageName=Coalition+cuts+amount+to+%27war+on+equality%27+says+Ken+Livingstone%3AArticle%3A1446769&ch=Politics&c3=GU.co.uk&c4=Ken+Livingstone%2CPolitics%2CUK+news%2CEquality+%28Society%29%2CSociety%2CLondon+%28News%29%2CLondon+politics%2CBoris+Johnson%2CEconomic+policy&c5=Society+Weekly%2CCredit+Crunch%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CCommunities+Society%2CLocal+Government+Society&c6=Helene+Mulholland&c7=10-Sep-02&c8=1446769&c9=Article&c10=News&c11=Politics&c13=&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FPolitics%2FKen+Livingstone" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">Former London mayor publishes report showing women are much more heavily affected by the cuts than men</p><p>London mayoral hopeful Ken Livingstone has accused the government of declaring "a war on equality" as he published a report showing that women in London are paying twice as much as men for the government's cuts in public spending.</p><p>Livingstone, who is hoping to be selected as the Labour candidate for the 2012 mayoral election in a two-horse race with Oona King, has drawn together evidence that shows women are more heavily affected by cuts in housing benefit and pension changes.</p><p>Even if cuts in child benefits and family-related tax credits are discounted, women are paying for 66% of the cuts in London, the report claimed.</p><p>The document, A Mayor for Equality, suggest women are more heavily affected by cuts in housing benefit and the switch to the Consumer Price Index for calculating the additional state pension and public sector pensions.</p><p>Livingstone also cited planned cuts in public sector jobs, where women represent 65% of the workforce, often in lower paid jobs.</p><p>The reality of women's lives would mean they would end up filling more of the gap left if public services are cut, he warned, such as caring roles for children and other family members, he added.</p><p>Livingstone has made protecting Londoners from government cuts a key feature of his campaign, as he seeks to tie planned government cuts with Boris Johnson's Conservative mayoralty.</p><p>As ballot papers for the mayoral selection begin to arrive at the home of Labour's 35,000 party members and 392,000 London party affiliates, the former London mayor, who was ousted by Boris Johnson after eight years in office, honed his message to women voters in a bid to secure a place at the 2012 mayoral election.</p><p>Promising to place equality at the heart of his mayoral programme, Livingstone outlined measures to improve the quality of life for the 3.8 million women living in London, including improving skills and training support through the London Skills Board, giving priority to tackling the growth of the sex industry and trafficking, and supporting a new London Carers Alliance to support London's 600,000 carers.</p><p>"Women in London are just over 50% of Londoners but the evidence now shows they will bear the majority of the cuts and higher fares of David Cameron and Boris Johnson," said Livingstone,</p><p>"The most cautious estimate shows women are paying for more than two thirds of the housing and pensions cuts. It is clear [the chancellor] George Osborne has not given any regard to the impact on women of his savage budget cuts."</p><p>Livingstone gave his backing the Fawcett Society, which filed papers with the high court last month seeking a judicial review of the government's recent emergency budget.</p><p>Under equality laws, the government should have assessed whether its budget proposals would increase or reduce inequality between women and men. Despite repeated requests, the Treasury has not provided any evidence that any such an assessment took place.</p><p>It emerged last month that Theresa May, the home secretary and equalities minister, had warned the chancellor that cuts in the budget could widen inequality in Britain and ran a "real risk" of breaking the law.</p><p>The letter was sent to Osborne on 9 June, less than a fortnight before his emergency budget, and was copied to the prime minister.</p><p>Last month Mark Hoban, the Treasury minister, stonewalled questions on BBC Radio 4's Today programme about whether the government had carried out a statutory assessment of the impact of the budget on women, ethnic minorities, disabled people and the elderly.</p><p>Livingstone claimed Boris Johnson, who succeeded him as mayor in 2008, has made his own attacks on equality, citing as one example a reduction in the number of women in senior positions at the Greater London authority.</p><p>A spokesman for the mayor hit back. "London is now greener, cleaner and safer than when Boris took up the tenure as mayor and he is tirelessly fighting to protect London's financial settlement and crucial transport infrastructure during the worst recession since World War II.</p><p>"We now have the lowest murder rate in the capital since 1978 and this year's Annual London Survey tells us that people feel happier and safer with 83% of Londoners satisfied with their city as a place to live which is the highest level recorded under any mayor."</p><p>Livingstone's rival in Labour's mayoral selection, Oona King, will unveil her policy on women's equality at an event in Westminster tomorrow evening.</p><p>This will include appointing an equalities adviser to work across the GLA, a kite mark for businesses that carry out equal pay audits and a drive to reduce prostitution and sex trafficking in the runup to the Olympics.</p><p>King, a former MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, said: "There's a mountain of evidence to show that men and women don't have the same life chances. This problem is worse in London than anywhere in the country, and will worsen further as the Tory cuts start to bite.</p><p>"I'm the best candidate to be mayor because I have a track record of delivering for women – my first legislation helped low-paid women, and increased workplace equalities.</p><p>"We have to make London's streets and transport safer for women, help pull women and their children out of poverty, improve jobs training, and get more women into jobs as representatives. Boris isn't interested in this."</p><p>The results of the mayoral selection will be announced just ahead of the Labour party conference later this month.</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/livingstone">Ken Livingstone</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/equality">Equality</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/london">London</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/london">London politics</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/boris">Boris Johnson</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/economy">Economic policy</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/helenemulholland">Hélène Mulholland</a></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/PTOtQpwQrUDIJyz66liTApJAZ-8/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/PTOtQpwQrUDIJyz66liTApJAZ-8/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/PTOtQpwQrUDIJyz66liTApJAZ-8/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/PTOtQpwQrUDIJyz66liTApJAZ-8/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p> Ken Livingstone Politics UK news Equality Society London London politics Boris Johnson Economic policy guardian.co.uk News http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/sep/02/cuts-war-on-equality-ken-livingstone Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:45:49 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/sep/03/caroline-mason-charity-bank-interview/print <div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.4/44471?ns=guardian&pageName=Caroline+Mason%2C+chief+operating+officer+Charity+Bank%3AArticle%3A1446608&ch=Business&c3=Guardian&c4=Ethical+business%2CInvesting+%28Business%29%2CBanking+%28Business+sector%29%2CBusiness%2CEthical+money%2CVoluntary+sector+%28Society%29%2CSocial+enterprises+%28Society%29%2CSociety&c5=Society+Weekly%2CBusiness+Markets%2CEthical+Living%2CCommunities+Society%2CSocial+Care+Society%2CInvestments+%26+Savings&c6=Katie+Allen&c7=10-Sep-03&c8=1446608&c9=Article&c10=Interview&c11=Business&c13=Friday+interview+%28Business%29&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FBusiness%2FEthical+business" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">As Investing for Good merges with Charity Bank, Caroline Mason describes her conversion from career banker to champion of social investment</p><p>Superheroes sparked Caroline Mason's conversion from career banker to champion of social investment. As the chief operating officer of <a href="http://www.charitybank.org/" title="Charity Bank">Charity Bank</a>, she now spends her time convincing people to put their money to good use, whether it is investing in Latin American farm co-operatives or funding vaccines in developing countries.</p><p>But five years ago, she was sitting in the flashy New York office of the managing director of a global finance company, 18 years into her life in banking, having an all too familiar meeting about making rich people richer.</p><p>As they talked, Mason's attention turned to the collection of superhero figures displayed around the MD's room, and the uncomfortable thought that she was stuck in an industry gripped by a "masters of the universe" complex.</p><p>"It was all symptomatic of someone who was paid obscene amounts of money for doing something really quite basic, which was pretty useless in terms of the general lives of most people. He was just an average guy. He was probably in the top 0.1% of earners globally and I remember thinking: 'This is out of control'," she says.</p><p>It was two years before the credit crunch would lay bare the failings of a sector increasingly oblivious to risk. Yet Mason says it was already apparent that banking was headed for disaster. After all, it had mutated from the simple purpose of supplying funding to businesses – what she likes to call a "utility" – to an industry obsessed with profit maximisation.</p><p>"It was really clear at the time how being in finance had changed. All the stories you hear about the excesses and the culture are actually true," she says.</p><p>"The rest of my life was pretty much aligned with my values and I realised what I spent a large number of hours doing was disconnected [from them]. All the time I was thinking, how do I extricate myself?"</p><p>When Mason realised her friend and fellow banker Geoff Burnand was feeling the same unease, they got together to found <a href="http://www.investingforgood.co.uk/about-us" title="Investing for Good">Investing for Good</a> in 2005. It has gone from a backroom business to advising on £25m of investments, sealing partnerships with the likes of Standard Chartered, and this year merging with Charity Bank, which has pioneered lending to charities and social enterprises.</p><h2><strong>Beyond philanthropy</strong></h2><p>The venture started out with the basic premise that "ordinary people generally would like to see their money put to good use".</p><p>It was a time when figures such as Scottish tycoon <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2009/jan/02/sir-tom-hunter-profile" title="Tom Hunter">Tom Hunter</a> were hitting the headlines by giving away millions, and so the Investing for Good founders first looked into offering their financial know-how to philanthropists. But they soon realised philanthropy did not fit with their fundamental goal of helping social and environmental causes along the way.</p><p>"This concept of making as much as you possibly can, irrespective of what it does, and then giving it away to try and give something back was a two-dimensional view of the world," says Mason.</p><p>And so Investing for Good turned its attention to a new philosophy of building social and environmental benefits into investment. "Broadly, it's about positive use of money as an investment rather than as a gift," she explains.</p><p>The founders went about persuading banks and wealthy individuals to let them build up portfolios based around causes investors wanted to help. It was a decisive change from the "ethical" portfolios that many financial institutions were already offering.</p><p>"'Ethical' is a negative screen. So someone may not do arms but they may do child labour. They may not do child labour but they may be ripping up the planet. Whereas this is flipping that around and saying: 'What is it that an organisation does?'" says Mason.</p><p>It is a "positive story", she insists, but it was certainly not an easy one to tell in the early days. "Before the credit crunch it was a really hard slog.</p><p>"We are both very well connected. Opening doors wasn't hard. But explaining there is an alternative is quite hard, especially for an industry that is totally processed and geared down one path, and that is profit-maximisation irrespective of the consequences. We had lots of conversations like 'Well done, you. That sounds incredibly interesting. Do let us know how you get on.'"</p><h2>After the crunch</h2><p>The credit crunch changed everything. People were suddenly more open to social investments. It was a culture change that saw institutions take up Investing for Good's services and bankers flood Mason's inbox with requests to do pro bono work.</p><p>Her main business is helping big financial names offer social investment products to their clients, usually with returns between 3% and 5%.</p><p>Investing for Good is currently talking to Coutts and already has partnerships with Kleinwort Benson and the Rockefeller Foundation. It also advises high net worth investors directly, typically senior City people.</p><p>Along the way, the group has developed a complex model for rating the impacts of various investments. "If you are saying to an investor you are investing on the basis of impact, this is a differentiator," Mason points out, "you've got to have a way of showing that that is what is being delivered."</p><p>So the traditional benchmarks of risk and return are expanded to take in "impact", which Investing for Good rates using 120 criteria. It helps Mason and her colleagues pick who to go with and lets investors choose between recipients. One of the personal favourites for Brazil-born Mason is an organisation called <a href="http://www.rootcapital.org/" title="Root Capital">Root Capital</a> that works in Latin America funding sustainable agriculture – something she says has both social and environmental benefits. It gives communities alternatives to illegal logging, helps people start paying taxes, and funds hospitals and schools.<h2><br />Merger with Charity Bank</h2><p>As the merger with Charity Bank is completed this month, Investing for Good is looking to devise sector funds for investors who would like to put money into one area, such as healthcare, for example. It also wants to use its improved clout to create products such as charity bonds to help organisations develop new ways of tapping into financial markets.</p><p>The tie-up, says Mason, came after several years working together and at a point when both groups were ready to grow. Market conditions felt right, too. She is confident that demand will grow and make a difference.</p><p>"In the UK alone you have about £3.5 trillion invested and almost £3tn more in deposits, cash. Broadly, all of that money is invested without any consideration of what it is actually doing when it hits the ground, what it is actually financing and the consequences of that," she says. "If we are talking about just 1% of that, can you imagine?"</p><p>Ultimately, she wants Investing for Good to become redundant. Rather than have a separate institution that offers "impact" as an investment criteria, Mason wants impact to be a core measure alongside risk and return in every investment case.</p><p>"Surely the function of finance and banking is to finance things for the benefit of society. It's not a thing in itself. When did money become a thing in itself? Surely, it's just a mechanism and that's what banking and finance used to be about," she says.</p><p>But with mega-bonuses returning, a new wave of merger mania and signs of a fresh appetite for risk, will banking ever really change? Mason is optimistic: "I have to believe that it will. I think we all have to believe that it will."</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/ethicalbusiness">Ethical business</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/investing">Investing</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/banking">Banking</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/ethical-money">Ethical money</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/voluntarysector">Voluntary sector</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/socialenterprises">Social enterprises</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/katieallen">Katie Allen</a></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/G2kaCJQedk_KoBe3io_BrZ3-2FE/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/G2kaCJQedk_KoBe3io_BrZ3-2FE/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/G2kaCJQedk_KoBe3io_BrZ3-2FE/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/G2kaCJQedk_KoBe3io_BrZ3-2FE/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p> Ethical business Investing Banking Business Ethical money Voluntary sector Social enterprises Society The Guardian Interviews http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/sep/03/caroline-mason-charity-bank-interview Fri, 03 Sep 2010 06:00:15 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/sep/05/transport-london-job-losses/print <div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.4/45824?ns=guardian&pageName=Job+losses+inevitable+to+fund+upgrade+of+London+transport+network%3AArticle%3A1447666&ch=UK+news&c3=Guardian&c4=Transport+UK+news%2CLondon+%28News%29%2CUK+news%2CPublic+sector+cuts+%28Society%29%2CSociety%2CBoris+Johnson%2CPolitics%2CJob+losses+%28Business%29%2CBusiness&c5=Society+Weekly%2CBusiness+Markets%2CNot+commercially+useful&c6=Dan+Milmo&c7=10-Sep-05&c8=1447666&c9=Article&c10=News&c11=UK+news&c13=&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FUK+news%2FTransport" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">• TfL's £39bn funding settlement until 2018 to be reassessed<br />• London Underground staff face 800 redundancies</p><p>The London transport network faces waves of industrial unrest amid fears that more jobs and services will be cut under Boris Johnson's funding settlement with the government.</p><p>Transport secretary Philip Hammond and Johnson, the London mayor, have identified the preservation of multibillion-pound upgrades to the tube system as a key priority. However, on the eve of a one-day walkout by tube workers over staff cuts, transport experts have warned that preserving the underground revamp will inevitably lead to deep cuts in Transport for London's operational budget – setting the mayor's TfL authority on a collision course with trade unions.</p><p>Stephen Glaister, director of the RAC Foundation and a former TfL board member, said possible cuts "will force the pace on industrial relations issues". The London Underground, which carried 1 billion passengers last year and accounts for 45% of TfL's revenues, employs about 20,000 people and would be a prime candidate for cuts if the upgrades are preserved.</p><p>"There is probably scope to reduce the cost of operations at London Underground because it is heavily unionised and has not been subjected to competitive pressures," said Glaister.</p><p>But the difficulty of carving out costs on the tube network will be underlined tomorrow, when the RMT and TSSA unions are due to begin a 24-hour strike over plans to cut 800 jobs including 450 ticket office posts. TfL says the changes will not involve compulsory redundancies, but union officials claim they are a threat to health and safety.</p><p>Tony Travers, director of the Greater London group at the London School of Economics, said TfL would have no choice but to tackle parts of the organisation where trade union representation is strongest. Up to half of the LU workforce, including train drivers, station staff and engineers, could walk out on Monday – causing massive disruption to 3.5 million tube commuters.</p><p>Travers said: "Preserving the upgrades will concentrate the reductions in spending on the parts of London Underground that are most strike-prone, which are the bits featuring the RMT, the TSSA and [drivers' union] Aslef. So it solves one problem but it creates many more."</p><p>The chancellor, George Osborne, has told departments to prepare for cuts of between 25% and 40%, with TfL facing deep cuts because it accounts for nearly a quarter of Department for Transport spending. Overhauling the Northern, Victoria, Piccadilly, Circle, District, Metropolitan and Hammersmith & City lines by 2018 will cost TfL about £10bn. Under the previous mayor, Ken Livingstone, TfL secured a £39bn funding settlement from 2010 to 2018. However, that is now likely to become a smaller four-year settlement with the fate of the £16bn Crossrail scheme to be decided by the Treasuryin a beauty contest with capital projects from other departments across Whitehall.</p><p>Government sources claim Crossrail is unlikely to be scrapped, although the scope of the project could be curtailed. Peter Hendy, London's transport commissioner, said TfL would "not cease" to make the case for the upgrades but was also determined to protect frontline services. "This includes a commitment to all stations being staffed at all times, and to protecting the quality and volume of Tube and bus services so important to our customers and to businesses across the capital."</p><p>A DfT spokesperson said: "The decision about where to make savings following this autumn's spending review will be for the directly elected mayor. However, we have a shared commitment with the Mayor to economically-important projects such as Crossrail and Tube investment."</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/transport">Transport</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/london">London</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/public-sector-cuts">Public sector cuts</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/boris">Boris Johnson</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/job-losses">Job losses</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/danmilmo">Dan Milmo</a></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/l_0yOPx_c645JTLJ0mLDDEDzcWs/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/l_0yOPx_c645JTLJ0mLDDEDzcWs/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/l_0yOPx_c645JTLJ0mLDDEDzcWs/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/l_0yOPx_c645JTLJ0mLDDEDzcWs/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p> Transport London UK news Public sector cuts Society Boris Johnson Politics Job losses Business The Guardian News http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/sep/05/transport-london-job-losses Sun, 05 Sep 2010 18:44:41 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/sep/05/food-prices-poverty-budget-political/print <div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.4/10864?ns=guardian&pageName=Food+is+a+political+issue+%7C+Bernadine+Lawrence%3AArticle%3A1447605&ch=Comment+is+free&c3=GU.co.uk&c4=Food+safety+%28News%29%2CUK+news%2CPoverty+%28Society%29%2CSociety&c5=Society+Weekly%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CCharities&c6=Bernadine+Lawrence&c7=10-Sep-05&c8=1447605&c9=Article&c10=Comment&c11=Comment+is+free&c13=You+tell+us&c25=Comment+is+free&c30=content&h2=GU%2FComment+is+free%2FFood+safety" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">Rising UK food prices mean poor families need the know-how to be able to feed themselves adequately on a tight budget</p><p>Although I was born in the West Indies, I was brought up on the back-to-back streets of Bradford in the 1950s and consider myself a Yorkshire lass. We were the only black family but we firmly belonged to our street and our community.</p><p></p><p>I can remember being hungry as a child – "breakfast" didn't mean much to me. But at infant school we would have our morning milk. You knew when it was "milk time" because you could hear the crate rattling with its load of tiny bottles. It would be so creamy, you could see the top layer of yellow above the milky white. We'd push our straws through the silver caps and suck.</p><p></p><p>Once I was so hungry that I stole a little girl's biscuits. She went crying to my teacher, who looked at me and said: "No, Bernadine would never do a thing like that!" I never stole any more biscuits after that and managed to maintain my good reputation. We weren't the poorest family on our street – there was a family up the row whose kids sometimes ran around barefoot. I'd stare in horror as they gleefully ate Mother's Pride bread filled with white sugar. Even then I had a concept of "junk food".</p><p></p><p>At home, my parents would be in the tiny kitchen above the coal cellar, fashioning out concoctions of flour, chopped onions, bits of fish, anything they could get their hands on. My father would roll them out and fry them in a skillet; he called them "Johnny cakes", naming them after my little brother who would devour them wholeheartedly. And though I was often hungry, I was always certain that my belly was going to be filled at some point, even if it was only cornmeal porridge, thickened with milk and sweetened with honey. Fortunately, I never had to suffer extreme hunger.</p><p></p><p>It is quite shocking to think that today in the UK many families are experiencing hunger and have to choose between paying their bills or eating: "broadband or food". Even worse, there are families who have no choice but to go without food – according to a recent report by a Welsh charity, a family with small children went without food for <a href="http://www.northwalesweeklynews.co.uk/conwy-county-news/local-conwy-news/2010/08/26/children-in-conwy-are-going-hungry-says-charity-55243-27136794/" title="">more than 24 hours</a>.</p><p></p><p>And yet, there is definitely a social stigma today in the UK about being poor. Poor people are made to feel like "scroungers" and appear to <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/aug/04/time-to-organise-resistance-now" title="">be</a> the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/aug/27/me-benefits-work-capability-assessment" title="">butt</a> of <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jun/24/disability-living-allowance-george-osborne" title="">every</a> government <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jun/23/disability-allowance-exists-reason" title="">cut</a>, which seems to succeed in kicking the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jun/25/budget-cuts-voter-pain" title="">most vulnerable the hardest</a>. Even the Equality and Human Rights Commission <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/aug/25/nick-clegg-budget-cuts-watchdog" title="">believes</a> that the government may have acted illegally by not taking into account exactly how its cuts are going to affect the poorest members of society.</p><p></p><p>Many poor people today in the UK would be too ashamed to admit that they often have to skip meals. Sadly, things are set to get worse for them because of rising food prices due to what I refer to as the "<a href="http://www.rnw.nl/english/article/grain-shortage-drives-price-bread" title="">global grain crunch</a>". Food prices <a href="http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23867917-shoppers-hit-by-record-rise-in-price-of-groceries" title="">went up</a> 0.7% last month, according to the Office for National Statistics, and are due to rise even higher. Basic ingredients such as eggs, milk, cheese, fish, lentils, rice and pulses have also been hit sharply, with an increase of up to <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1303418/The-food-prices-58--Cost-groceries-rocketed-2007.html" title="">58%</a> over the last three years. It is estimated that over a billion people worldwide will go hungry because of natural disasters that have destroyed vital grain crops this year. This shortage of food will have a knock-on effect globally, and means that the UK is set to experience <a href="http://www.worldhunger.org/articles/Learn/world%20hunger%20facts%202002.htm" title="">further rises</a> in food prices.</p><p></p><p>What does that mean for those at the very bottom in the UK? Obviously, they will find it increasingly hard to feed themselves adequately, not only because of a lack of finances, but also because of a lack of real know-how. A few grassroots <a href="http://www.thefoodproject.org.uk/index.html" title="">organisations</a> are trying to <a href="http://www.edinburghcommunityfood.org.uk/recipes" title="">impart</a> such <a href="http://www.goodfoodmatters.org.uk/kitchen.html" title="">knowledge</a>, but their <a href="http://www.thefoodproject.org.uk/index.html" title="">efforts</a> remain largely unrecognised – or worse, are seen as inaccessible. Without knowledge on how to eat well on a strict budget, many will be forced to go hungry or will be overfed but undernourished. Research shows that there are direct links between poverty and obesity – those on small incomes who are both cash and time poor tend to be more obese <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/may/11/obesity-epidemic-uk-poorest" title="">due to their reliance</a> on cheap, processed foods.</p><p></p><p>Food is a political issue, and an immensely serious one that connects us all. Now, more than ever, people need to know how to feed themselves on a tiny budget. At least then they will be able to fend off hunger as best they know how.</p><p></p><p>• The author comments on Cif as bernadinelawrence. If you would like to recommend topics for us to cover, please do so in the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/sep/01/you-tell-us#start-of-comments" title="">You Tell Us</a> thread.</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/foodsafety">Food safety</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/poverty">Poverty</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/lawrence-bernadine">Bernadine Lawrence</a></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/kEET4_A9tREVk_Ivm__E8L23UjI/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/kEET4_A9tREVk_Ivm__E8L23UjI/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/kEET4_A9tREVk_Ivm__E8L23UjI/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/kEET4_A9tREVk_Ivm__E8L23UjI/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p> Food safety UK news Poverty Society guardian.co.uk Comment http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/sep/05/food-prices-poverty-budget-political Sun, 05 Sep 2010 16:59:35 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2010/sep/05/graham-heale-obituary/print <div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.4/27128?ns=guardian&pageName=Graham+Heale+obituary%3AArticle%3A1447670&ch=From+the+Guardian&c3=Guardian&c4=Health+%28Society%29&c5=Health+Society&c6=Jennifer+Bradly&c7=10-Sep-05&c8=1447670&c9=Article&c10=Obituary&c11=From+the+Guardian&c13=Other+lives+%28series%29&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FFrom+the+Guardian%2FHealth" width="1" height="1" /></div><p>Graham Heale, who has died in a motorcycle accident aged 57, was one of the most highly qualified and well-respected chiropractors in Britain. He had a strong vision about the regulation, training and education within the profession.</p><p>Graham was the co-founder of Heales Medical, an occupational health company, along with his friend Eamonn Swanton. He was also director of academic affairs and chairman of the court of electors for the College of Chiropractors and he was a fellow of the college and one of the leading players in its establishment.</p><p>As president of the British Chiropractic Association (BCA) for three years, he was also instrumental in bringing about the Chiropractors' Act in 1994 which established a statutory regulatory body, the General Chiropractic Council, to register chiropractors alongside medical doctors and dentists.</p><p>Over the years, he chaired almost every committee of the BCA, and was Britain's representative to the World Federation of Chiropractic and European Chiropractors' Union in the early 90s.</p><p>I met Graham through my friend Corrie – his daughter – when I was seeking help for my long-term lower-back pain. I visited him in his Luton clinic, one of several he ran in and around Luton and London, and was immediately taken by his warmth, sense of humour and expertise.</p><p>Graham was born in Gillingham, Kent, and went to the Royal Hospital school, near Ipswich, in Suffolk. He met his future wife, Lizzie, a dental nurse, at a party when she was 18; she supported him all the way through chiropractic college.</p><p>After his graduation from the Anglo-European College of Chiropractic in Bournemouth in 1981, the couple moved to Luton and Graham set up his first practice in their front room. He later studied for a diploma in biomechanics at Strathclyde University in 1993, applying this knowledge in daily practice and in the development of ideas about chiropractic adjusting.</p><p>He also completed a PhD in 2009 after eight years of study. Graham's thesis, CPD and Practice Change: A Chiropractor's Perspective, is a detailed look at how chiropractors learn, develop and improve their practice and interact with their peers. He was proud of this achievement and knew it equipped him well for his various roles in postgraduate education.</p><p>Away from chiropractic, Graham's interests included his 1955 Vincent Black Shadow motorcycle, which he lovingly restored and even took racing round the Isle of Man grand prix circuit in the marque's centenary race in 2006.</p><p>Graham also organised annual ski ergonomics trips. These were training courses for chiropractors and others to learn about ski and ski-boot biomechanics in order to improve performance and reduce injury.</p><p>As for hobbies, he held a black belt in karate and enjoyed clay-pigeon shooting. As Bedford Fencing Club captain, he won several club and country fencing championships. More recently, he acquired a great passion for golf.</p><p>Graham is survived by Lizzie, Corrie, a magazine designer, and his son, Peter, a trainee chiropractor.</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/health">Health</a></li></ul></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/E8-cXD5jNv9i-pmxb_KcmdcR6_o/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/E8-cXD5jNv9i-pmxb_KcmdcR6_o/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/E8-cXD5jNv9i-pmxb_KcmdcR6_o/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/E8-cXD5jNv9i-pmxb_KcmdcR6_o/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p> Health The Guardian Obituaries http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2010/sep/05/graham-heale-obituary Sun, 05 Sep 2010 16:36:00 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/05/paramedics-mexico-drugs-wars/print <div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.4/43686?ns=guardian&pageName=Mexican+paramedics+run+the+gauntlet+of+gang+wars+in+quest+to+save+lives%3AArticle%3A1447637&ch=World+news&c3=Guardian&c4=Mexico+%28News%29%2CDrugs+trade+%28News%29%2CDrugs+illegal+%28Society%29&c5=Not+commercially+useful%2CCommunities+Society&c6=Rory+Carroll&c7=10-Sep-05&c8=1447637&c9=Article&c10=News&c11=World+news&c13=Mexico+drug+war+%28Rory+Carroll+three+part+series+only%29&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FWorld+news%2FMexico" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">Ambulance crews continue to aid victims of drugs violence despite their members being threatened and attacked</p><p>Ambulance crews and paramedics have learnt to distinguish between the&nbsp;handiwork of professional assassins and amateur gunmen from the carnage of crime scenes in Ciudad Juárez.</p><p>When an experienced hitman – a <em>sicario</em> – has done his job well, victims have no need of medical attention, said Benito Miranda, 30, an ambulance crew member. "He knows the key points in the body to kill immediately. All we find is a corpse."</p><p>But amid the chaos of overlapping gang wars and wild, untrained teenage gunmen, the medical teams often find survivors. "For want of experience, some of the young guys make mistakes and shoot in the wrong places."</p><p>Miranda, who worked with the Red Cross for nine years and is now a city paramedic, never imagined his home town would resemble a war zone. "When I started, our work was road accidents and sick people. But this …"</p><p>His voice trailed off as a colleague mopped blood out the doors of an ambulance that had just returned to base from the scene of a multiple homicide. Killings average more than 10 a day, and the number of wounded can vary from none to dozens. Most violence happens in the morning and early afternoon, because few people venture out after dusk.</p><p>The Mexican border city has 54 paramedics who work in three eight-hour shifts but there need to be double that, said Miranda. "We're overloaded."</p><p>The medics are also at risk. Three of his colleagues were injured by a car bomb and drug gangs make threats on ambulance radio frequencies. "They tell us to keep away, that they're going to kill us."</p><p>Miranda's family would prefer him to work in a hospital but, despite that, and the risks, he adores his £450-a-month job. "We are the first contact with injured people. What we do makes the difference between life and death."</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/mexico">Mexico</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/drugs-trade">Drugs trade</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/drugs">Drugs</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/rorycarroll">Rory Carroll</a></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/mVUpqo9lXEHULP0XfUYMr1_xPmc/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/mVUpqo9lXEHULP0XfUYMr1_xPmc/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/mVUpqo9lXEHULP0XfUYMr1_xPmc/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/mVUpqo9lXEHULP0XfUYMr1_xPmc/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p> Mexico Drugs trade Drugs The Guardian News http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/05/paramedics-mexico-drugs-wars Sun, 05 Sep 2010 16:25:30 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/05/germany-weatherman-rape-trial/print <div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.4/53247?ns=guardian&pageName=German+weatherman+faces+rape+trial%3AArticle%3A1447609&ch=World+news&c3=GU.co.uk&c4=Germany%2CWorld+news%2CMeteorology%2CRape+%28Society%29&c5=Society+Weekly%2CNot+commercially+useful&c6=Kate+Connolly&c7=10-Sep-05&c8=1447609&c9=Article&c10=News&c11=World+news&c13=&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FWorld+news%2FGermany" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">Colourful self-taught forecaster Jörg Kachelmann accused of raping long-term girlfriend</p><p>He is a household name in Germany, affectionately known for his five-o'clock shadow, kipper ties and colourful weather forecasts.</p><p>But tomorrow Jörg Kachelmann, Germany's top weatherman, is to go on trial charged with raping his girlfriend.</p><p>Kachelmann, 52, had been in a relationship with the journalist, identified only as Simone W, for 10 years. She accused him of holding a knife to her throat and raping her at her home near Frankfurt last February after she confronted him with her suspicions that she was not his only girlfriend.</p><p>Kachelmann has denied the charges.</p><p>Germany's media have raked over every aspect of the case. It has been a cover story on best-selling news magazines Spiegel and Stern.</p><p>The tabloids have been fighting to buy up the stories of Kachelmann's ex- and current girlfriends, as well as the alleged victim, and have uncovered the weatherman's complicated love life, including a penchant for S&M.</p><p>Kachelmann has not denied this, or that he had several girlfriends simultaneously, but has said no one was interested in his love life until now as long as he more-or-less correctly predicted the weather.</p><p>"When I was a mere fourth-class television celebrity, no one was much interested in my private life," he said in a recent interview.</p><p>The self-taught meteorologist owns a multi-million-euro weather service called Meteomania and is best known for his descriptions of "slurping winds" and "cauliflower clouds". In one of his more famous broadcasts, he scooped up a cat which wandered on set and held it while reading the weather map.</p><p>Kachelmann, who set up his company after becoming frustrated about inaccurate weather reports when he went sailing, beat the state-funded German Weather Service for the contract to provide forecasts for state television and hundreds of local radio and TV stations in 2002.</p><p>His company, which has hundreds of weather stations around the country, was credited with considerably increasing the accuracy of weather bulletins. It relies heavily on the British Met Office's "fine-mesh system", which produces 24-hour weather patterns. Meteomania's future has been in doubt since his arrest.</p><p>During the four months he spent in prison awaiting news of his trial, Kachelmann said he "missed the weather". "In order to see the sky I had to stand on the bed because the window was so high up," he told Spiegel magazine.</p><p>The court in Mannheim, where the case will open tomorrow amid high security, is due to hear evidence from 26 witnesses, including several of Kachelmann's former and current girlfriends. Kachelmann was arrested at Frankfurt airport on his return from the Vancouver Olympics in March. He was held in investigative custody until his release from prison in a surprise move at the end of July after the court ruled there was "insufficient evidence to continue holding him". The judge said the case would probably come down to Kachelmann's word against his girlfriend.</p><p>If convicted, he faces a year in prison.</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/germany">Germany</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/meteorology">Meteorology</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/rape">Rape</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/kateconnolly">Kate Connolly</a></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/ePfP1GuQUoauRqQBpL5ixoxfP8A/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/ePfP1GuQUoauRqQBpL5ixoxfP8A/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/ePfP1GuQUoauRqQBpL5ixoxfP8A/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/ePfP1GuQUoauRqQBpL5ixoxfP8A/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p> Germany World news Meteorology Rape guardian.co.uk News http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/05/germany-weatherman-rape-trial Sun, 05 Sep 2010 13:50:48 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/sep/05/guatemala-tax-regime-children-dying-malnutrition/print <div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.4/37993?ns=guardian&pageName=Guatemala+must+change+its+tax+regime+to+stop+children+dying+%7C+Hannah+Ric%3AArticle%3A1447359&ch=Comment+is+free&c3=GU.co.uk&c4=Guatemala+%28News%29%2CPoverty+%28Society%29%2CAid+and+development+%28Society%29%2CMalnutrition%2CWorld+news%2CSociety&c5=Society+Weekly%2CPolicy+Society%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CHealth%2CCharities&c6=Hannah+Richards&c7=10-Sep-05&c8=1447359&c9=Article&c10=Comment&c11=Comment+is+free&c13=&c25=Comment+is+free&c30=content&h2=GU%2FComment+is+free%2Fblog%2FComment+is+free" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">The Latin American country is wealthy, but the extreme gap between rich and poor causes a multitude of problems</p><p>Isabel is four years old. Her belly and ankles are swollen and she walks as if it hurts a little bit. Her family, who live in eastern Guatemala, have not had the means to feed her properly, so she is being treated for kwashiorkor – acute malnutrition.</p><p>Even though it is classified by the World Bank as a middle income country, the level of inequality in Guatemala is such that almost half its children under five suffer from chronic malnutrition. This is the fifth highest rate of chronic malnutrition in the world, higher even than that in Haiti, which is by far the poorest country in the Americas.</p><p>Isabel will stay in the clinic supported by <a href="http://www.christianaid.org.uk/" title="Christian Aid">Christian Aid</a> until she is well again. In some ways, she is lucky. At this time of year when the previous year's harvest has run out, children do die of hunger in this part of Guatemala.</p><p>Isabel will recover from kwashiorkor but she will never recover from the irreversible effects of chronic malnutrition, which severely stunts physical and mental development. There's no excuse for this anywhere, and especially not in a country with as much wealth as Guatemala. Along with the dubious distinction of having the fifth highest level of chronic malnutrition, it is also the world's fifth largest exporter of coffee and sugar.</p><p>This state of affairs is no accident. It is a direct result of the extremely regressive tax regime in Guatemala and many other Latin American countries. The poorest pay a far higher proportion of their income on the equivalent of VAT and other indirect taxes, whilst the business elite enjoy a very generous regime of tax incentives. As a result, one in 20 Guatemalan children does not reach the age of five due to infectious and diarrheal diseases that are easily preventable and treatable. Two-thirds of the country's children do not complete primary school on time and illiteracy levels are closer to the average for sub-Saharan Africa than to that for Latin America.</p><p>Guatemala stands out as much for its indicators of wealth as for those of poverty. The country with the highest number of private aeroplanes and helicopters per head in Central America is also the country with the highest rate of women dying from complications in pregnancy because they lack affordable transportation to a health centre.</p><p>In an effort to address these extreme inequalities, a Christian Aid-supported thinktank, the <a href="http://www.icefi.org/" title="Central American Institute for Fiscal Studies">Central American Institute for Fiscal Studies</a> (Icefi in Spanish), hosted an international symposium in Guatemala City last week. It was attended by <a href="http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/s/j/sjp14/" title="Simon Pak">Simon Pak</a>, an internationally recognised tax expert, with a view to strengthening the <a href="http://www.taxjustice.net/cms/front\_content.php?idcatart=2" title="Tax Justice Network">Tax Justice Network</a> in Latin America and tackling some of the more regressive policies in the region. Because Guatemala has one of the lowest tax burdens in Latin America, as well as one of the most generous regimes of tax breaks, Icefi chose to focus on the country as a <a href="http://www.cesr.org/downloads/Guatemala%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf" title="Center for Economic and Social Rights: Guatemala">case history</a> for regressive tax policies in the region.</p><p>The report focuses on three human rights – those to food, health and education – and on three serious threats to these rights: child malnutrition, maternal mortality and low primary school completion. These issues were selected because they have been declared national priorities by successive governments in Guatemala. They also represent three key fronts in the struggle against poverty, to which all states have committed through the framework of the <a href="http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/" title="Millennium Development Goals">UN millennium development goals</a>. If they are to have any hope of achieving the goals, and reducing the number of damaged children like Isabel, then governments need money. And the only reliable, sustainable source of that money is tax.</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/guatemala">Guatemala</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/poverty">Poverty</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/international-aid-and-development">International aid and development</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/malnutrition">Malnutrition</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/hannah-richards">Hannah Richards</a></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/s40TnWyJ6XVKFh3Sbs6HUZG_eW4/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/s40TnWyJ6XVKFh3Sbs6HUZG_eW4/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/s40TnWyJ6XVKFh3Sbs6HUZG_eW4/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/s40TnWyJ6XVKFh3Sbs6HUZG_eW4/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p> Guatemala Poverty International aid and development Malnutrition World news Society guardian.co.uk Comment http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/sep/05/guatemala-tax-regime-children-dying-malnutrition Sun, 05 Sep 2010 13:00:33 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/sep/05/un-millennium-development-goals-crisis/print <div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.4/98925?ns=guardian&pageName=The+UN+millennium+development+goals+can+be+put+back+on+track+%7C+Philippe+%3AArticle%3A1446959&ch=Comment+is+free&c3=GU.co.uk&c4=Millennium+Development+Goals%2CAid+and+development+%28Society%29%2CPoverty+%28Society%29%2CSociety%2CHealth+%28Society%29&c5=Society+Weekly%2CPolicy+Society%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CHealth+Society%2CCharities&c6=Philippe+Douste-Blazy&c7=10-Sep-05&c8=1446959&c9=Article&c10=Comment&c11=Comment+is+free&c13=&c25=Comment+is+free&c30=content&h2=GU%2FComment+is+free%2Fblog%2FComment+is+free" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">The financial crisis derailed the project but innovative financing mechanisms – such as an airline tickets surcharge – offer hope</p><p>The <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/credit-crunch" title="Guardian: More on the economic crisis">global economic crisis</a> has claimed many victims – unemployed workers, flooded homeowners and bankrupt pensioners – but nowhere have the repercussions been as devastating as in the developing world.</p><p></p><p>The setback to the fragile gains of recent years, particularly in Africa, threatens to return millions of people to the extreme poverty from which they had just managed to escape. In addition to the prospect of enormous human suffering, severe economic, political, and social pressures now threaten to overwhelm and destabilise developing countries, triggering conflict on an unprecedented scale.</p><p></p><p>What makes the downward spiral particularly disheartening is that the economic crisis has hit at a time of the first glimmerings of progress, notably in healthcare. Since 2000, the rate of people dying from Aids <a href="http://www.un.org/ecosocdev/geninfo/afrec/vol21no4/214-aids-declining.html" title="Africa Renewal: AIDS deaths are declining, reports UN">has declined</a>, child-killing diseases like malaria and measles are being tackled more effectively, universal primary education is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Primary_Education" title="Wikipedia: Universal Primary Education">inching forward</a>, and the targets for safe drinking water are in sight.</p><p></p><p>Now, though, the global economic crisis is sapping developed countries' shaky efforts to fulfil their commitments for official development assistance (ODA) in order to achieve the United Nations' <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Development_Goals" title="Wikipedia: Millennium Development Goals">millennium development goals</a> (MDGs). A UN report warns that annual investment from these donor countries is falling $35bn short of the $150bn goal. Unless something changes, there is little chance that the MDG targets can be sustained in the long run.</p><p></p><p>Indeed, the consequences of the fall-off in ODA are already dramatic; the number of people going hungry and in extreme poverty is now far greater than before, and the same is true of the unemployed, those who work in vulnerable jobs, or earn less than $1.25 (81p) a day. Progress in health and literacy is being undermined. World Bank data <a href="http://econ.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/EXTRESEARCH/0,,contentMDK:22523759~pagePK:64165401~piPK:64165026~theSitePK:469382,00.html" title="World Bank: Economic Crises Taking a Toll on Children">links the economic downturn</a> to an increase in mortality among children under the age of five.</p><p></p><p>Moreover, 536,000 women a year die in childbirth, and maternal health is also the one goal towards which progress has stagnated since the targets were established 10 years ago. Every minute that passes means one less mother, and it is shameful that 99% of these deaths occur in developing countries.</p><p></p><p>So should we despair of achieving the MDGs, not just by the original deadline of 2015 but even by the end of the century? Viewed through the traditional ODA prism, with its one-year budgets, public-finance constraints and competing national priorities, there seems little cause for optimism. But there is a way to replace the traditional paradigm with an internationally accepted model that has a proven record of success, particularly in healthcare.</p><p></p><p>Innovative financing mechanisms offer the means to tap incrementally into global financial flows without disrupting economic activity. Among the best-known examples is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNITAID" title="Wikipedia: Unitaid">Unitaid</a>, a UN-sponsored international drug-purchase facility funded largely through a small fee added to airline tickets, which has raised $1.5bn since 2007. This reliable funding source has spearheaded the fight on the three health-related MDGs: treating and fighting life-threatening diseases like HIV/Aids, malaria, and tuberculosis; reducing childhood mortality; and improving maternal health.</p><p></p><p>Providing funding in 93 countries, Unitaid today finances drugs for three-quarters of the children around the world who receive antiretrovirals. Widespread coverage has been achieved through Unitaid's influence on the price of life-saving drugs: it guarantees a market through long-term commitments to purchase high volumes of medicines and diagnostics – a commitment made possible by the sustainable and predictable funding of the "air tax". As a result, the price of antiretrovirals has been cut by more than 50%.</p><p></p><p>Similarly, Unitaid is attacking child mortality through Unicef's extensive programme to eradicate mother-to-child HIV transmission. By the end of 2010, 4 million African women will be screened, and tri-therapies treatment provided to 500,000 pregnant women worldwide.</p><p></p><p>Unitaid is now building on this success by teaming up with the Millennium Foundation to give individuals a chance to help fight major diseases through micro-contributions. An innovative fundraising mechanism called <a href="http://www.internationalhealthpartnership.net/en/taskforce/blog" title="International Health Partnership">Voluntary Solidarity Contribution</a> will allow air travellers and others to make a voluntary micro-donation to Unitaid simply by ticking a box when buying say, a plane ticket, and adding $2 to the total cost.</p><p></p><p>The "air tax" currently applies to only 7-10% of all airline tickets sold, yet the $400m it brings in yearly accounts for three-quarters of Unitaid's financing. With more than a billion people now travelling by air every year, and with a total of 2.2bn flights sold, extending the "air tax" approach to a voluntary contributions model would vastly multiply the programme's benefits.</p><p></p><p>Such new financing mechanisms, in addition to national ODA investments, are an important means of supporting the beleaguered MDGs. In September, Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, convenes a summit in New York to renew the drive toward reaching the MDGs, the world leaders in attendance should endorse their use to address MDG priorities in areas other than health.</p><p></p><p>When the MDGs were adopted in 2000, the sense of urgency was powered by the moral conviction that extreme poverty had become an unacceptable anachronism in our globally connected world. But more is needed, and September's summit in New York will be an important opportunity for countries to voice their full-throated support for innovative financing mechanisms, and thus give the MDGs a fighting chance.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>• Copyright: <a href="http://www.project-syndicate.org" title="">Project Syndicate</a>/<a href="http://www.europesworld.org" title="">Europe's World</a>, 2010.</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/millennium-development-goals">Millennium Development Goals</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/international-aid-and-development">International aid and development</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/poverty">Poverty</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/health">Health</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/douste-blazy-philippe">Philippe Douste-Blazy</a></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/akAnjy6DGcGBUdg1Pt5eAzjRfMk/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/akAnjy6DGcGBUdg1Pt5eAzjRfMk/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/akAnjy6DGcGBUdg1Pt5eAzjRfMk/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/akAnjy6DGcGBUdg1Pt5eAzjRfMk/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p> Millennium Development Goals International aid and development Poverty Society Health guardian.co.uk Comment http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/sep/05/un-millennium-development-goals-crisis Sun, 05 Sep 2010 11:00:33 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/poll/2010/sep/05/craigslist-internet/print <p>Under pressure of intense lobbying, the San Francisco-based global classified ads site, Craigslist, has dropped its adult services section. Are you glad to see it go?</p><br/><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/hwTKH7FQdrotmz6jhCj2iLWqfCY/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/hwTKH7FQdrotmz6jhCj2iLWqfCY/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/hwTKH7FQdrotmz6jhCj2iLWqfCY/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/hwTKH7FQdrotmz6jhCj2iLWqfCY/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p> Craigslist Internet Prostitution Technology Advertising Media Censorship United States World news Freedom of speech guardian.co.uk Comment http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/poll/2010/sep/05/craigslist-internet Sun, 05 Sep 2010 06:01:56 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/sep/05/david-miliband-unions-labour-leadership/print <div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.4/89967?ns=guardian&pageName=Unions+set+out+their+price+for+backing+David+Miliband+as+next+Labour+lea%3AArticle%3A1447559&ch=Politics&c3=Obs&c4=David+Miliband%2CLabour+leadership%2CDave+Prentis+%28Society%29%2CUnions+%28UK%29%2CLabour%2CPolitics%2CSociety%2CUK+news&c5=Society+Weekly%2CPolicy+Society%2CNot+commercially+useful&c6=Toby+Helm&c7=10-Sep-05&c8=1447559&c9=Article&c10=News&c11=Politics&c13=&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FPolitics%2FDavid+Miliband" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">Unison leader warns leadership frontrunner that he must abandon New Labour's strong preference for privatisation</p><p>David Miliband, the Labour leadership frontrunner, must ditch his attachment to Blairite policies on privatisation and globalisation if he is to avoid splitting the party, the leader of Britain's biggest public sector union insists today.</p><p>Dave Prentis, the general secretary of Unison, said that Labour was at a watershed moment in its relations with the unions and accused the elder Miliband of having been part of a New Labour elite which caused untold "trauma" to public sector workers and sought to "beat up" unions. The comments, in an interview with the <em>Observer</em> before next week's trades union congress, are part of an attempt by the unions to reassert their influence, after years of being sidelined, as the Labour party prepares to choose a new leader.</p><p>They also suggest that after the new leader is announced on 25 September, Labour will be plunged into a heated argument at its party conference on its future direction. Prentis, whose union is backing the more left-leaning Ed Miliband in the election, said that Ed Miliband reflected the values of the 1.4 million public sector Unison members "far better than the other candidates".</p><p>However, recognising that the race is tight and that David Miliband could win, he spelt out a set of clear conditions which the elder brother must meet if he was to unite the movement behind him and make Labour electable.</p><p>Prentis said he would want to work with David Miliband and rejected any suggestion that the union would threaten to withdraw funding for Labour. But he added: "At the same time he [David] is very much part of the New Labour agenda which did seek on many occasions to beat up the trade unions&nbsp;... part of a New Labour agenda which is very comfortable with our members going through the trauma of privatisation."</p><p>Prentis argues that the present coalition government, with its plans to widen private sector involvement in schools and hospitals, is in many senses a natural successor to New Labour. "What New Labour did has provided the floor for what the coalition is now doing, and David was very much part of that."</p><p>He said that the party would not stomach a return to Blairite policies that would risk plunging it into renewed infighting. The challenge, he maintained, was to renew the party at local level through returning to "our values, which are the same as Labour party values".</p><p>He added: "We will not go back to a New Labour agenda based on privatisation, and fragmentation and globalisation that we have had over the past few years." His comments show that a win for David Miliband will open the way for a difficult and tense period as the party thrashes out the direction of its policy and arguments about who determines its future direction.</p><p>Tony Blair insisted in the memoirs he published last week that Labour lost the last election because Gordon Brown rejected New Labour policies and turned to the left.</p><p>Prentis said that the unions were gearing up to regain a greater role in policymaking. He said that they would unite behind a vote allowing the Labour party conference – where they have 50% of the votes – to vote on policy rather than just make recommendations.</p><p>He also called for reform of the party's national policy forum, a body seen as toothless by the unions, to give ordinary members a greater input into policy. "We don't seek to dominate the party. We don't seek to dominate the government. But we expect to be able to play a constructive role within the party itself and stand up for our values, which are the same as the Labour party's values.</p><p>"We [the unions] can provide the organisation. We are a voice for the good in developing Labour party policy, keeping it on the mainstream," he said.</p><p>David Miliband, the former foreign secretary and a protege of Tony Blair, has insisted that New Labour remains "alive and well", though he believes the party's policy programme needs thorough renewal. He insists, however, that the era of Blair and Brown is over and that he will shun sectional politics.</p><p>Ed Miliband, in contrast, says that New Labour is dead and that the party must reject its slide towards "brutal" American-style capitalism.</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/davidmiliband">David Miliband</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/labourleadership">Labour party leadership</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/daveprentis">Dave Prentis</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/tradeunions">Trade unions</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/labour">Labour</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/tobyhelm">Toby Helm</a></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/vvbRDOc6u-esG7etlQ4ioX0lQKU/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/vvbRDOc6u-esG7etlQ4ioX0lQKU/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/vvbRDOc6u-esG7etlQ4ioX0lQKU/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/vvbRDOc6u-esG7etlQ4ioX0lQKU/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p> David Miliband Labour party leadership Dave Prentis Trade unions Labour Politics Society UK news The Observer News http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/sep/05/david-miliband-unions-labour-leadership Sat, 04 Sep 2010 23:07:24 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/sep/05/portugal-decriminalising-personal-drug-use/print <div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.4/30182?ns=guardian&pageName=Britain+looks+at+Portugal%27s+success+story+over+decriminalising+personal+%3AArticle%3A1447555&ch=Politics&c3=GU.co.uk&c4=Drugs+policy+%28Politics%29%2CDrugs+illegal+%28Society%29%2CPolitics%2CSociety%2CUK+news%2CPortugal+%28News%29%2CWorld+news&c5=Society+Weekly%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CPolicy+Society%2CCommunities+Society&c6=Peter+Beaumont%2CMark+Townsend%2CToby+Helm&c7=10-Sep-05&c8=1447555&c9=Article&c10=News&c11=Politics&c13=&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FPolitics%2FDrugs+policy" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">System would see those caught with drugs for personal use sent to a 'dissuasion board' instead of being prosecuted</p><p>British officials are examining a pioneering Portuguese anti-drugs programme that decriminalises possession of substances including heroin and cocaine.</p><p>Controversial when it was first introduced almost a decade ago, the move has turned possession into an "administrative offence", which sends those caught with drugs for personal use to a so-called dissuasion board rather than having them prosecuted.</p><p>The board, which consists of social workers and psychologists who interrogate users on their drug habit, has the power to impose a variety of sanctions, including fines, or recommend treatment. Users caught with drugs more than once are ordered to appear at police stations or a doctor's&nbsp;surgery.</p><p>According to a senior official at the institute for drugs and drug dependency at Portugal's ministry of health, it was approached by the UK government about a month ago for advice on how it had managed its drugs programme since 2001.</p><p>Home Office sources said yesterday they were looking at various models and programmes during a consultation period over a new drugs strategy and that the government was talking to a number of experts to ascertain what worked. The consultation had been expected to lead to a more abstinence-based approach to tackling drug use.</p><p>It follows the recent resurgence in the debate over Britain's drug policies which saw Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, who recently stepped down as head of the Royal College of Physicians, call for the government to reconsider "decriminalising" all drug possession. His comments followed similar remarks by Nicholas Green QC, chairman of the Bar Council of England and Wales, who said it was "rational" to consider "decriminalising personal drug use".</p><p>He added that he had also been persuaded by an article in the <em>British Medical Journal</em>, which argued that the prohibition of drugs had been "counterproductive", making many public health problems worse.</p><p>Officially, however, ministers remain resistant to the idea of decriminalisation. A Home Office statement yesterday said: "The government does not believe that decriminalisation is the right approach. Our priorities are clear; we want to reduce drug use, crack down on drug-related crime and disorder, and help addicts come off drugs for good."</p><p>David Cameron and Nick Clegg stated their support for drug law reform before entering frontbench politics. As a member of the home affairs select committee inquiry into drug misuse in 2002, Cameron voted in favour of a recommendation that the then government moved to discuss alternative policies "including the possibility of legalisation and regulation".</p><p>In the same year, Clegg also supported the legalisation of drugs – including measures for heroin to be made available under medical supervision – while he was a member of the European parliament.</p><p>The approach to Portugal, which has seen a fall in levels of petty crime associated with addicts stealing to buy drugs, as well as a drop by a third in the number of HIV diagnoses among intravenous drug users, is significant. Despite decriminalisation, it levies more fines than the UK and drug use has not increased. Those opposed to similar moves in the UK have used the same arguments as the opponents of decriminalisation in Portugal.</p><p>The drugs minister, James Brokenshire, has indicated that the ultimate aim is to help the 210,000 problem drug users in treatment to achieve a drug-free life. Most are "maintained" on synthetic opiates, rather than pushed towards abstaining.</p><h2>Experiments in tolerance</h2><p><strong>Portugal</strong></p><p>In <strong>2001</strong>, Portugal became the first country in Europe to officially abolish criminal penalties for possession of drugs intended for personal use. Spiralling addiction rates and rising costs in combating the sale and use of drugs forced politicians to act. Those found guilty of possessing small amounts are sent to a panel made up of a psychologist, a social worker and a legal adviser who will suggest appropriate treatment. Officials claim that the policy is working and that addiction rates have fallen.</p><p></p><p><strong>The Netherlands</strong></p><p>The Dutch classify cannabis in all its forms as a soft drug and the smoking of it, even in public, is not prosecuted. A system of licensed "coffee shops" is tolerated, and cannabis, although technically illegal, can be bought and sold in small amounts for personal consumption. Some Dutch politicians have moved to tighten these controls in response to worries about the approach encouraging drug tourism. The trafficking and sale of drugs remains illegal.</p><p></p><p><strong>Switzerland</strong></p><p>Zurich's Platzspitz Park allowed a needle exchange project for heroin addicts in the <strong>mid-1980s</strong>. Addicts openly brought heroin and injected themselves knowing that local police were ordered not to patrol the park. The experiment ended after the number of addicts in the park rose from a few hundred in 1987 to more than 20,000 in 1992.</p><p></p><p><strong>Colombia</strong></p><p>In <strong>February 2009</strong>, former presidents of Colombia, Brazil and Mexico said that the war on drugs was a "complete failure". César Gaviria, Henrique Cardoso and Ernesto Zedillo, all conservative politicians, called for a new strategy based on public health, including the legalisation of marijuana.</p><p></p><p><strong>UK</strong></p><p>In <strong>October 2009</strong> the UK's chief drugs adviser, Professor David Nutt, was sacked for contradicting government advice on the harm caused by certain drugs. Nutt claimed that taking ecstasy is statistically no more dangerous than horse riding.</p><p><strong>US</strong></p><p><strong>1996 </strong>Californian voters passed Proposition 215, allowing for the sale and medical use of marijuana for patients with Aids, cancer and other serious and painful diseases. The marijuana has to be recommended for approval by a California-licensed physician. The sale of medical marijuana is subject to local taxes.</p><p><strong>May 2010 </strong>President Obama embarks on an agenda for tackling drug use with greater emphasis on prevention and "harm reduction". This signalled a step change from the "war on drugs" approach favoured by President Nixon 40 years earlier.</p><p></p><p><strong>August 2010 </strong>Mexican president Felipe Calderón urged world leaders to at least debate the issue of legalising drug use. The beleaguered president spoke out after new figures showed that 28,000 people had been killed in Mexico's current drugs wars.</p><p></p><p><strong>2004</strong> In series three of the TV drama <em>The Wire</em>, right, a drugs-tolerance zone in a rundown area of Baltimore, known as Hamsterdam, is endorsed by the local police. The fictional experiment had mixed results, but the programme stirred debate with viewers.</p><p><strong>Jason Rodrigues</strong></p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/drugspolicy">Drugs policy</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/drugs">Drugs</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/portugal">Portugal</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/peterbeaumont">Peter Beaumont</a></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/marktownsend">Mark Townsend</a></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/tobyhelm">Toby Helm</a></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/K4ienzblUjzEbrrdSEBcypOSfMs/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/K4ienzblUjzEbrrdSEBcypOSfMs/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/K4ienzblUjzEbrrdSEBcypOSfMs/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/K4ienzblUjzEbrrdSEBcypOSfMs/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p> Drugs policy Drugs Politics Society UK news Portugal World news guardian.co.uk News http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/sep/05/portugal-decriminalising-personal-drug-use Sat, 04 Sep 2010 23:07:23 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/05/brazilian-immigrants-gunned-down-mexico/print <div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.4/24641?ns=guardian&pageName=Deadly+lure+of+the+US+leaves+trail+of+tears+across+two+continents%3AArticle%3A1447536&ch=World+news&c3=Obs&c4=US+immigration%2CBrazil+%28News%29%2CMexico+%28News%29%2COrganised+crime+%28News%29%2CDrugs+illegal+%28Society%29%2CSociety%2CUS+news%2CWorld+news&c5=Society+Weekly%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CUS+Elections%2CCommunities+Society&c6=Tom+Phillips%2CJo+Tuckman&c7=10-Sep-05&c8=1447536&c9=Article&c10=Feature&c11=World+news&c13=&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FWorld+news%2FUS+immigration" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">Juliard and Hermínio set out to smuggle themselves into a better life in the US. Three weeks later, the body of one, and the identity card of the other, were found among 72 blindfolded corpses in Mexico</p><p>Boston, on the east coast of the United States, was the destination when Hermínio Cardoso dos Santos and his friend, Juliard Aires Fernandes, left their sleepy rural town in south-east Brazil on 3 August. The two young men had relatives there: they dreamed of earning a good wage in a vibrant city that boasts a sizeable Brazilian community.</p><p>Warning signs litter the road they took out of their home town, Sardoá, which cuts through the mountains towards Governador Valadares, the nearest city. "Dangerous curve ahead," the rusty green signs advise. "Attention! Wild animals." But when 24-year-old Hermínio and 19-year-old Juliard boarded the bus, they could have had little real idea of the mortal danger that lay ahead.</p><p>"Hermínio left the house and said: 'Dad, God willing I'll go and work there and get some money together, and then God willing I'll come back,'" Antonio Ramos dos Santos, Hermínio's 64-year-old father, told the <em>Observer</em> at the family's small ranch. "I said: 'God be with you. Be happy'." Hermínio's sister, Marlene, fought back tears. "They both had the same dream: to go to the United States. And then this happened."</p><p></p><p>Three weeks after the two Brazilians left Sardoá, on Tuesday 24 August, Mexican troops discovered the corpses of 58 men and 14 women, bound, blindfolded and lying in the grass along the edges of a breezeblock barn in Tamaulipas state. Their bodies were riddled with bullets.</p><p>According to the testimony of an Ecuadorean migrant who escaped the scene with a bullet wound in his neck, the dead were economic migrants who were kidnapped on their way to the US by gunmen from the notorious Zeta gang; the latest victims of the brutal, frightening drugs cartels of northern Mexico. According to some accounts, they would not or could not pay a ransom to their captors. Another version suggests that the migrants refused to be recruited into the cartel. There are rumours that the killers may not have been Zetas at all, but members of a rival cartel, trying to give the Zetas a bad name.</p><p>What is certain is that kidnappings of desperate and vulnerable men and women seeking to scramble across the Mexico-US border are commonplace. Mexico's National Human Rights Commission estimated in a report presented last year that nearly 20,000 migrants are kidnapped annually, based on the number of reports it received between September 2008 and February 2009. The government disputes these figures.</p><p>Since the macabre discovery of the bodies near the Mexican border town of Reynosa, the dismal process of identifying them has begun. Six hundred Honduran families have reported relatives missing who had set out for the US. It has been established that there were also Salvadorians, Guatemalans and Ecuadoreans among the dead. And, almost certainly, two Brazilians.</p><p>The body of Fernandes, who would have turned 20 on 8 September, has been positively identified. That Dos Santos was also among the dead has yet to be officially confirmed. Mexican authorities reportedly found his identity card at the scene but have not yet been able to match it to one of the corpses.</p><p>"We don't know if he is dead or alive. We are waiting to see if they can find him. We still have hope," insisted Marlene. Seconds later, however, when asked how many brothers and sisters she had, she betrayed her family's true feelings. "There are six of us," she said, but then immediately corrected herself. "It was six with him. He was the youngest."</p><p></p><p>Sardoá is a small town lost in the rolling hills of eastern Minas Gerais state. Famed as one of the largest departure points for Brazilian migrants, the region was also home to Jean Charles de Menezes, another local boy who met an untimely end abroad when British police mistook him for a terrorist on the London Underground in 2005.</p><p>Almost exactly five years ago, Menezes's funeral cortege passed through Sardoá on its way to his hometown of Gonzaga, around 20km away, where he is buried. Then, the town's main square was decked with placards and flags in tribute. Hundreds of local people took to the streets to watch his body being driven by on top of a bright red fire engine. Now, five years on, a white banner hangs from two palm trees in the same square, a homage to the region's two latest victims. "Juliard and Hermínio," it reads. "Suddenly silence."</p><p>Growing up near Governador Valadares, a city of around 270,000 residents nicknamed "Vala-dólares" in reference to the amount of US currency supposedly flowing back to it from abroad, all three young men would have dreamed of making their fortune overseas. "Lots of people from this region go there in search of their future," said Marlene, Dos Santos's sister. "For some it works out, but others come back with nothing. It's a place that tricks you. People here think it is going to be one thing and they get there and find it is just like here, without proper work. Sometimes fathers even leave their families behind to try to offer something better," she added. "Because here there are no jobs – who wants to work for 25 reals [£10] a day?"</p><p>Amilton Leite, Sardoá's social services secretary, estimates that between 15% and 20% of the town's population, which numbers around 5,000, currently live overseas. The majority become illegal immigrants in the US, forced to risk the treacherous passage through the Mexican desert to get there. Around 80% of those who take the plunge are young men like Dos Santos and Fernandes, he believes, for whom working in the US has become a rite of passage.</p><p>"It is extremely rare for someone from Sardoá to get a visa, so 99% go through the Mexican border," Leite said. Migrants usually must work for at least 18 months just to pay off the traffickers who take them there. "It's like a gold rush. People think they will become millionaires, that their dreams will come true. But dreams don't always come true."</p><p>The fatal decision to go to the US was not the first time Dos Santos had tried his luck abroad. Growing up in the <em>roça</em>, Brazil's impoverished countryside, working the fields with his family, he had set his sights on an adventure overseas.</p><p>After dropping out of school in his early teens and being unable to raise enough money to pay the traffickers, known as <em>coyotes</em>, to smuggle him into the US, he looked to Europe. Four years ago he flew from Brazil to Italy, but was arrested by Italian police and deported within months. "He said they handcuffed him and made him sleep in the police station. When he arrived here he couldn't even move his fingers," said his father, adding proudly: "I'm 64 years old and thank God I've never ended up in a police station."</p><p>Almost immediately, Dos Santos and Fernandes turned their thoughts to America and set off in search of their local <em>consul</em> – the colloquial name given to the middlemen in Governador Valadares who negotiate migrant smuggling with their contacts in Mexico. "The <em>consuls</em> are an open secret," said Leite. "Nobody knows exactly where they live or what their full names are, but if you want to find one you can do it very quickly. You just have to ask someone: 'Who is taking [people] at the moment?' "</p><p>When the two men left their homes on 3 August and boarded the 6pm bus to Governador Valadares, they were going to meet the <em>consuls</em>. The men promised to smuggle them into the US for a fee of around 24,500 reals (£9,000). From Valadares, family members say, the two men had planned to travel to São Paulo before flying into Guatemala – a country which, unlike Mexico, does not demand tourist visas for Brazilians. In Guatemala they were to be met by a contact of their <em>consul</em> who was to accompany them to the Mexico-US border by road. Once safely inside the US, the men would head to Boston to find the relatives who would help them begin a new life.</p><p>Born and raised in a hotbed of ambition and migration, Dos Santos and Fernandes can have been under no illusion as to the risks their journey might involve. In an interview last week with <em>Brazilian Voice</em>, a Portuguese-language newspaper for Brazilians living in the US, one man from Sardoá described his 59-day struggle to cross the border three years ago alongside 22 other Brazilian immigrants. "[It is] scary. You are in a place surrounded by armed men who are forcing you to do things you shouldn't," the immigrant, identified only as "G", told the newspaper.</p><p>According to his account, the nightmare continued even after the group had crossed over into Texas. He told the newspaper that he and his comrades were "kidnapped" by armed men dressed as police officers and held captive for 13 days.</p><p>"You couldn't even sit on the sofa, or they would beat you. You couldn't turn on the tap, or anything. If you used the bathroom, they would beat you. They said if we used too much water the police would find us." Finally, G said, the group were freed after paying around $6,000 each to their captors.</p><p>But, despite the risks, family members say they thought little of the lack of contact from Dos Santos and Fernandes and were not overly worried about their wellbeing. In Sardoá, most families are used to seeing relatives make the dangerous and lengthy journey into the US.</p><p>On 25 August that sense of calm was shattered. Reports of the massacre near the Mexican border reached Sardoá via the nightly television news, and the anxiety began. "Everybody was worried because nobody knew what had happened to him," said Rosângela Marques, Fernandes's cousin, who is also a distant cousin of De Menezes. "As soon as news [of the massacre] got out we were apprehensive, fearful that he was involved."</p><p>In an interview with the <em>Estado de Minas</em> newspaper, Fernandes's aunt, Maria da Glória Aires, 48, said she believed that the immigrants had been killed after refusing to help smuggle drugs into the US.</p><p>"All we know is that their hands and feet were bound and they were gunned down," she said.</p><p></p><p>In the small, rural Brazilian community, the sense of shock and grief at the massacre in Tamaulipas is palpable. But Leite does not believe the killings will deter the ambition of Brazilians who have fallen for the American dream. "This will make people nervous but it won't stop people going," he said. "It's about necessity."</p><p>For the Dos Santos family, Hermínio's apparent death represents the second major tragedy to hit their household. Aged 23, his only brother killed himself. Their father found his body swinging from a eucalyptus tree in front of the family home.</p><p>"This is life," said Antonio Ramos dos Santos, a devout Catholic who has nailed a wooden crucifix at the side of his wooden front door. "It's God who takes care of us. It's God who decides things for us."</p><p>In the sitting room of his humble brick home, a black-bound copy of the Old Testament had been opened to the book of Ecclesiastes, chapter 29. The page lying open appeared to sound a warning to anyone tempted to risk a journey through the heartland of northern Mexico's drugs cartels.</p><p>"Better is the life of a poor man in a mean cottage, than delicate fare in another man's house," it read. "Be it little or much, hold thee contented, that thou hear not the reproach of thy house."</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/usimmigration">US immigration</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/brazil">Brazil</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/mexico">Mexico</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/organised-crime">Organised crime</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/drugs">Drugs</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/usa">United States</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/tomphillips">Tom Phillips</a></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/jotuckman">Jo Tuckman</a></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/4GChaxeGvzN4ANlR2muG4WPLcKY/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/4GChaxeGvzN4ANlR2muG4WPLcKY/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/4GChaxeGvzN4ANlR2muG4WPLcKY/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/4GChaxeGvzN4ANlR2muG4WPLcKY/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p> US immigration Brazil Mexico Organised crime Drugs Society United States World news The Observer Features http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/05/brazilian-immigrants-gunned-down-mexico Sat, 04 Sep 2010 23:07:21 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/05/portugal-drugs-debate/print <div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.4/31789?ns=guardian&pageName=What+Britain+could+learn+from+Portugal%27s+drugs+policy%3AArticle%3A1447520&ch=World+news&c3=Obs&c4=Drugs+policy+%28Politics%29%2CPortugal+%28News%29%2CDrugs+illegal+%28Society%29%2CHealth+%28Society%29%2CSociety%2CPolitics%2CWorld+news&c5=Society+Weekly%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CPolicy+Society%2CHealth+Society%2CCommunities+Society&c6=Peter+Beaumont&c7=10-Sep-05&c8=1447520&c9=Article&c10=Feature&c11=World+news&c13=The+Observer+drugs+debate+%28series%29&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FWorld+news%2FDrugs+policy" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">A decade ago Portugal took a radical new approach to illegal drugs by treating users as people with social problems rather than as criminals. Could it work in the UK?</p><p>Susannah is being treated in the physiotherapy unit of the Centro das Taipas, a vast, pink former mental institutution close to Lisbon's airport, where she is having hot towels pressed on to her lower back. Built during the second world war, the wards of wing 21B are these days committed to the treatment of drug addiction.</p><p>Susannah is a long-term drug user and is intelligent but troubled. She first smoked cannabis at 13. At 17, she began taking heroin with the father of her children. Now 37, she has been dependent on drugs – mostly heroin – for almost two decades.</p><p>"I lived in Spain for a while," she tells me. "And London for a year, working in the restaurants with a friend. I went there to try to get off drugs but ended up on crack." These days, however, Susannah, who also suffers from a bipolar disorder, is one of the beneficiaries of Europe's most tolerant drug regime. For in Portugal, where Susannah lives, drugs have not only been decriminalised for almost a decade, but users are treated as though they have a health and social problem. Addicts such as Susannah are helped by the law, not penalised and stigmatised by it.</p><p>In the midst of the recently resurgent debate in Britain about whether our drug laws are working – or require a major overhaul – the experience of Portugal has become a crucial piece of evidence in favour of a radical approach that has confounded the expectations of even its conservative critics, so much so that in the last month British officials have asked their Portuguese counterparts for advice, with the only caveat being that they avoid mentioning the word "decriminalise".</p><p>It is, perhaps, an unnecessary sensitivity. For the reality is that, despite liberalising how it regards drug possession – now largely an administrative problem rather than a criminal offence – Portugal has not become a magnet for drug tourists like Amsterdam, as some had predicted.</p><p>British officials are not the only ones who have made the pilgrimage to Portugal in recent years – health specialists, officials and journalists from around the world have all made the journey to see what Portugal is doing right, even as their own countries are still struggling.</p><p>Nor has it seen its addict population markedly increase. Rather it has stabilised in a nation that, along with the UK and Luxembourg, once had the worst heroin problem in Europe.</p><p>For Susannah – as for the many long-term addicts now on methadone replacement and other programmes, and for the country's health professionals – the country's recent social history is divided into what the world of addiction and drug use was like before Law 30 was approved in November 2000, and what it is like now.</p><p></p><p>Before the law, which decriminalised (or depenalised) possession of drugs but still prohibited their use, the story of drug addiction in Portugal was a familiar one. More than 50% of those infected with HIV in Portugal were drug addicts, with new diagnoses of HIV among addicts running at about 3,000 a year. These days, addicts account for only 20% of those who are HIV infected, while the number of new HIV diagnoses of addicts has fallen to fewer than 2,000 a year.</p><p>Other measures have been equally encouraging. Deaths of street users from accidental overdoses also appear to have declined, as – anecdotal evidence strongly suggests – has petty crime associated with addicts who were stealing to maintain their habits. Recent surveys in schools also suggest an overall decrease in drug experimentation.</p><p>At the same time, the number of those in treatment for their addiction problems has risen by about a third from 23,500 in 1998 to 35,000 today – helped by a substantial increase in available beds, facilities and medical support – with many going on to methadone replacement programmes. The consequence is that perhaps as much as €400m (£334m) has been taken out of the illegal drugs market.</p><p>But decriminalisation, as Portuguese officials and others who have observed the country's experience are at pains to point out, was only the most obvious part of what happened 10 years ago in the midst of a similar debate on drugs to the one now going on in the UK.</p><p>Then, in a moment of grand vision powered by an inquiry which recommended a wholesale overhaul of Portugal's anti-drugs policy in 1998, the government opted to make wholesale changes to the way Portugal dealt with the issue, giving a huge boost in resources to everything from prevention to harm reduction, treatment and reintegration – creating an entirely joined-up approach to drug abuse under the auspices of a single unit in the ministry of health.</p><p>It marked an acceptance that for many, living drug-free was neither realistic nor possible and that what society needed to do was mitigate the risk individuals posed to themselves and a wider population at large by helping them manage their problems.</p><p>Susannah's doctor, the head of treatment at the Centro das Taipas, is Dr Miguel Vasconcelos. He frames Portuguese drug laws in a way that I hear repeated several times. Within certain clearly defined limits – an amount equivalent to 10 days' normal use of any particular drug, ranging from amphetamines and cannabis to heroin – possession, he explains, is now considered similar to a traffic offence. It is a notion I find later described in the Portuguese drug strategy document as a "humanistic" approach.</p><p>Vasconcelos, 51, is old enough to remember what it was like before, in a country which, two decades ago, barely had a methadone replacement programme at all. In his office, decorated with artworks by his clients, Vasconcelos says: "Critics from the conservative parties were concerned that the new law would make Portugal a place like Amsterdam, but that did not happen.</p><p>"You have to remember," he says, "that the substances are still illegal; it is the consequences that are different." And for those arrested in possession of drugs for personal use, that means not a court appearance but an invitation to attend a "dissuasion board" that can request – but not insist upon – attendance at facilities such as the Centro das Taipas for assessment and treatment. "They evaluate if someone is ill or a recreational user, if a person uses sporadically," says Vasconselos. "Even then people have a choice. People can refuse to attend the dissuasion board."</p><p>For many, he believes, the experience can be cathartic and he admits being surprised by how open many of the clients who have come to his facility via that system have been .</p><p>If there has been a problem with the Portuguese experiment, he believes that it has been one largely of perception – outside Portugal – where decriminalisation has been misunderstood by some as legalisation or a step on the road to it.</p><p>Rather, Vasconcelos believes that decriminalisation is a natural consequence of a gradual shift from regarding addicts as social delinquents to regarding them as people in need of help, a view reiterated by Dr Manuel Cardoso, a board member at the Instituto da Droga e da Toxicodependência at Portugal's health ministry, which now co-ordinates the country's approach to drug abuse.</p><p>At the centre of Portugal's deeply pragmatic approach are the dissuasion boards. Lisbon's board – which deals with 2,000 cases a year – sits in a modest office on the second floor of a block above a pretty park. There are no lawyers (although they can attend) and no clerks in robes. No uniforms at all.</p><p>Last Friday, on one side of the table were Nadia Simoes and Nuno Portugal Capaz, both members of the commission. On the other was a 19-year-old barman in a white T-shirt who allowed the <em>Observer</em> to observe the confidential process but asked not to be named.</p><p>Stopped by police with 5.2 grams of cannabis, he is marginally over the limit of what can be dealt with by the dissuasion board alone and has had to appear in court as well. It is the young man's first offence. He looks nervous. But it quickly becomes clear that this is a non-confrontational process, as Simoes explains that while possession of drugs for personal use is not a criminal offence, it is still forbidden.</p><p>The man nods his understanding. Simoes explains the risks of smoking cannabis, including schizophrenia, and the sanctions the board can impose for second offences, including a fine or community service. Licences crucial to employment can also be revoked. As the process concludes, the barman looks relieved and promises to stop smoking. As he leaves, Capaz stands up and shakes his hand. The whole thing has lasted less than 10 minutes.</p><p>A sociologist by training, Capaz is a vice-president on the board. He believes that far from Portugal becoming more lenient, the reality is that the state intervenes far more than it did before Law 30 and the other associated legislation was introduced. Before, he explains, police would often not pursue drug users they had arrested, interested only in the dealers. "People outside Portugal believe we had a tougher approach under the old law, but in reality it is far tougher now."</p><p>Now everyone who is caught with drugs must go before one of the 20&nbsp;boards in the country to be categorised as either a recreational user, someone with a developing problem, or an addict. And while some 30% choose to refuse to appear at the first summons, most – when threatened with a fine for disobedience – eventually attend.</p><p></p><p>Capaz has been involved since the very beginning and is struck by two things. The first is how Portuguese society has come to accept that addicts and drug users should be treated as a social rather than a criminal problem. The second, he explains, is that under the old criminal system all of those caught were supposed to be equal before the law. "With this system," he explains, "We do it the other way. We can apply the law in a way that fits the individual."</p><p>Indeed, the law recognises that for addicts certain sanctions are not appropriate. While recreational users can be fined, the law prevents addicts from having a financial penalty imposed for fear that in trying to raise the fine they might be driven to commit a crime.</p><p>But not everyone is totally convinced. Not even among the people who have dedicated their lives to assisting addicts. Francisco Chaves runs a modern shelter for street addicts close to Casal Vendoso, a place once notorious for its drug problems. "I want to explain first that this is not my profession but a vocation," he explains by way of introduction. He wants, however, to pose a "rhetorical question" which turns out to be more passionate intervention than a debating point.</p><p>He is concerned that under the "humanistic approach" enshrined in Portugal's decade-old laws – in its concern for the human rights of the addict – perhaps too much pressure to change may have been taken off addicts. "I worry that it has become too easy being an addict now," he says. "They can say: 'I've got clean clothes. I've got food. Support. So why should I change?'"</p><p>He says this sadly, because he agrees that addicts should be treated properly but cannot avoid "the paradox of the situation". "I say it is a rhetorical question because places like this are required. It is a personal, philosophical question." But it is one without any obvious answer.</p><p>Outside his office in the large, bright space where addicts are lolling on the sofa, eating or watching television, I encounter Fernando Almeida, 31, who has been a heroin addict since he was 19. A thief – who stole to support his habit – he was recently released from prison and found a place at this centre.</p><p>When he arrived six months ago, he weighed 55 kilos. These days he weighs 73kg and appears both lucid and motivated. "In the old days I used to get hassled by the police. Now the police don't interfere with me," he says. "I used to steal. Now I'm not going to steal anymore. For me the solution is to stop. I've discovered food and small things like taking a walk and having a coffee. I'm learning how to work."</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/drugspolicy">Drugs policy</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/portugal">Portugal</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/drugs">Drugs</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/health">Health</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/peterbeaumont">Peter Beaumont</a></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/l2JRiAgzNYBOk8boZcUmT3AYv7E/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/l2JRiAgzNYBOk8boZcUmT3AYv7E/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/l2JRiAgzNYBOk8boZcUmT3AYv7E/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/l2JRiAgzNYBOk8boZcUmT3AYv7E/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p> Drugs policy Portugal Drugs Health Society Politics World news The Observer Features http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/05/portugal-drugs-debate Sat, 04 Sep 2010 23:07:18 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/sep/05/alcohol-costs-price-rises/print <div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.4/77735?ns=guardian&pageName=I+like+a+drink%2C+but+collectively+we+have+a+problem+%7C+Luisa+Dillner%3AArticle%3A1447491&ch=Comment+is+free&c3=Obs&c4=Alcohol+%28Society%29%2CSociety&c5=Society+Weekly%2CCommunities+Society&c6=Luisa+Dillner&c7=10-Sep-05&c8=1447491&c9=Article&c10=Comment&c11=Comment+is+free&c13=&c25=Comment+is+free&c30=content&h2=GU%2FComment+is+free%2Fblog%2FComment+is+free" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">Britain is on an almighty bender and only by raising drink prices can we lower consumption</p><p>I like a drink as much as the next person but the latest public health statistics are enough to make you choke on your chardonnay. Alcohol is to blame for two admissions to hospital every minute, according to data from the <a href="http://www.nwph.net/nwpho/" title="">North West Public Health Observatory</a>. The Observatory's publication of local alcohol profiles in England shows there were 954,469 admissions to hospital related to alcohol in 2009, an increase of nearly 10% from 2007/8.</p><p>Separate statistics reveal that deaths from alcoholic cirrhosis for men in Scotland have more than doubled since the late 1980s; in England and Wales they rose by around 70%. For women, rates have gone up by a half.</p><p>Professor Mark Bellis, the director of the Observatory, is keen to emphasise the ubiquitous nature of the problem. "It is time," he said, "to recognise that we are not a population of responsible drinkers with just a handful of irresponsible individuals ruining it for others." So is it time to acknowledge that we might have a collective drink problem? Almost every week sees another sector of society vilified in the media for its reckless consumption. Such unlikely drinking buddies as young women (ladettes), chavvy men, middle-class mothers, the over-65s and the managerial and professional classes have all been targeted by the media as problem drinkers.</p><p>Indeed, alcohol has been a moral stick with which to beat various sections of society for many centuries. The 12th-century historian William of Malmesbury blamed the defeat of the English at the battle of Hastings on their binge drinking the night before. In contrast, the Normans, apparently, stayed in and prayed. As a nation, we are still embarrassed by our alcohol habits, seeing our drinking as less refined than that of other Europeans, who seem able to eat a meal and drink alcohol at the same time.</p><p>It is perverse of us, then, to shriek "nanny state" at any government intervention to reduce our alcohol intake. Or to react with irritation to a public health doctor reciting the medical consequences of harmful drinking. Alcohol is arguably a fabulous drug in moderation. It helps us unwind and it lubricates social interaction. Tony Blair used it every evening to relax. Yet, for all our warm feelings towards the grape and grain, we can also be found railing against the drunken teenagers vomiting over kerbs in our town centres on a Saturday night.</p><p>Alcohol is up there with sex and drugs as a social evil, for which any government is damned if it initiates policies to control its consumption and damned if it doesn't.</p><p></p><p>But what can a government do? It can reach for obvious solutions. Putting labels on bottles of alcohol promoting sensible drinking is visible, but there's no evidence it works. Education is an even weaker suggestion. Children at school are already warned about the dangers of alcohol, drugs and unprotected sex, but believe that they are invincible.</p><p>To have a hope of managing the costs of alcohol to society, we need to grapple with the truth that our drinking habits have changed. Since the 1950s, our alcohol intake has doubled. We have desocialised drinking and taken it into the privacy and unregulated arena of our homes. It's much cheaper to drink at home, so we no longer dress up and go to the pub, but fill up our supermarket trolleys, kick off our shoes and uncork a bottle or two of wine.</p><p>We drank 760ml of alcohol at home per person per week in 2006 compared with 527ml in 1992. Outside the home, it was 733ml in 2001/2 and 443ml in 2008. So the amount we drink in pubs versus home has flipped. The strength of wine has increased from 9% in the 1970s to an average of 12.5% today, allegedly due to public demand. In bars, glasses have almost doubled in size.</p><p>Perhaps without realising it, one in three men and one in five women now drinks above the recommended level of four units a day for men (a pint of beer is 2 units and a glass of wine is 2 units) and three for women. The professional and managerial classes now drink more than anyone else and while rates of drinking among the young are slightly falling, they are rising among women and older people. Alcohol is over 60% more affordable now than it was 20 years ago.</p><p>So, given that it's as cheap as chips to get drunk, one has, regretfully, to consider whether putting the price up may reduce our consumption. There is a relatively close link between the price of alcohol and the amount a population consumes. The figures from the <a href="http://www.beerandpub.com/" title="">British Beer & Pub Association</a> suggest the recession may be reducing the amount people drink already. In Scotland, the SNP have mooted the idea of charging a minimum 45p per unit of alcohol, an idea that has support from many medical organisations but none at all from other political parties.</p><p>Opponents have argued this amounts to a disproportionate tax on the poor who, it's assumed, scream for the 10 cans for £5 offers in supermarkets, but research from Aberdeen University shows that people from all income groups buy similar amounts of cheap alcohol. Dr John Foster, from the <a href="http://www.aerc.org.uk/" title="">Alcohol Education and Research Council</a>, says that such a tax would only really hit people who drink strong beers (and cider drinkers).</p><p>Wine has about 10 units per bottle and its price would not rise dramatically, neither would that of normal-strength beer. To those who still say it is tough on poorer people, he argues that everyone has to pay the price for alcohol, be it through extra policing or the demands on the health service.</p><p>I find myself agreeing with him and I am not alone. Ben Page of Ipsos Mori says the public is divided over whether the Scottish Parliament should raise the minimum price of alcohol. A few years ago, there would have been an outcry over a price hike on our drug of choice. Sadly, the resocialising of our intake of alcohol by taking it back into locals is likely to be much harder.</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/alcohol">Alcohol</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/luisadillner">Luisa Dillner</a></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/IcfInl7PLvNtAInsWvP6-L2e8aM/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/IcfInl7PLvNtAInsWvP6-L2e8aM/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/IcfInl7PLvNtAInsWvP6-L2e8aM/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/IcfInl7PLvNtAInsWvP6-L2e8aM/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p> Alcohol Society The Observer Comment http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/sep/05/alcohol-costs-price-rises Sat, 04 Sep 2010 23:07:12 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/sep/05/men-victims-domestic-violence/print <div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.4/29486?ns=guardian&pageName=More+than+40%25+of+domestic+violence+victims+are+male%2C+report+reveals%3AArticle%3A1447468&ch=Society&c3=Obs&c4=Domestic+violence+%28Society%29%2CGender+%28News%29%2CCriminal+justice+UK+%28Law%29%2CSociety%2CLaw%2CWorld+news%2CUK+news&c5=Society+Weekly%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CSocial+Care+Society&c6=Denis+Campbell&c7=10-Sep-05&c8=1447468&c9=Article&c10=News&c11=Society&c13=&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FSociety%2FDomestic+violence" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">Campaign group Parity claims assaults by wives and girlfriends are often ignored by police and media</p><p>About two in five of all victims of domestic violence are men, contradicting the widespread impression that it is almost always women who are left battered and bruised, a new report claims.</p><p>Men assaulted by their partners are often ignored by police, see their attacker go free and have far fewer refuges to flee to than women, says a study by the <a href="http://www.parity-uk.org/" title="men's rights campaign group, Parity">men's rights campaign group Parity</a>.</p><p>The charity's analysis of statistics on domestic violence shows the number of men attacked by wives or girlfriends is much higher than thought. Its report, <em>Domestic Violence: The Male Perspective</em>, states: "Domestic violence is often seen as a female victim/male perpetrator problem, but the evidence demonstrates that this is a false picture."</p><p>Data from Home Office statistical bulletins and the British Crime Survey show that men made up about 40% of domestic violence victims each year between 2004-05 and 2008-09, the last year for which figures are available. In 2006-07 men made up 43.4% of all those who had suffered partner abuse in the previous year, which rose to 45.5% in 2007-08 but fell to 37.7% in 2008-09.</p><p>Similar or slightly larger numbers of men were subjected to severe force in an incident with their partner, according to the same documents. The figure stood at 48.6% in 2006-07, 48.3% the next year and 37.5% in 2008-09, Home Office statistics show.</p><p>The 2008-09 bulletin states: "More than one in four women (28%) and around one in six men (16%) had experienced domestic abuse since the age of 16. These figures are equivalent to an estimated 4.5 million female victims of domestic abuse and 2.6 million male victims."</p><p>In addition, "6% of women and 4% of men reported having experienced domestic abuse in the past year, equivalent to an estimated one million female victims of domestic abuse and 600,000 male victims".</p><p>Campaigners claim that men are often treated as "second-class victims" and that many police forces and councils do not take them seriously. "Male victims are almost invisible to the authorities such as the police, who rarely can be prevailed upon to take the man's side," said John Mays of Parity. "Their plight is largely overlooked by the media, in official reports and in government policy, for example in the provision of refuge places – 7,500 for females in England and Wales but only 60 for men."</p><p>The official figures underestimate the true number of male victims, Mays said. "Culturally it's difficult for men to bring these incidents to the attention of the authorities. Men are reluctant to say that they've been abused by women, because it's seen as unmanly and weak."</p><p>The number of women prosecuted for domestic violence rose from 1,575 in 2004-05 to 4,266 in 2008-09. "Both men and women can be victims and we know that men feel under immense pressure to keep up the pretence that everything is OK," said Alex Neil, the housing and communities minister in the Scottish parliament. "Domestic abuse against a man is just as abhorrent as when a woman is the victim."</p><p>Mark Brooks of the <a href="http://www.mankind.org.uk/" title="Mankind Initiative">Mankind Initiative</a>, a helpline for victims, said: "It's a scandal that in 2010 all domestic violence victims are still not being treated equally. We reject the gendered analysis that so many in the domestic violence establishment still pursue, that the primary focus should be female victims. Each victim should be seen as an individual and helped accordingly."</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/domestic-violence">Domestic violence</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gender">Gender</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/criminal-justice">UK criminal justice</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/deniscampbell">Denis Campbell</a></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/QZ-mFB7TdY5k5eMKSWNbejgrDAY/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/QZ-mFB7TdY5k5eMKSWNbejgrDAY/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/QZ-mFB7TdY5k5eMKSWNbejgrDAY/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/QZ-mFB7TdY5k5eMKSWNbejgrDAY/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p> Domestic violence Gender UK criminal justice Society Law World news UK news The Observer News http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/sep/05/men-victims-domestic-violence Sat, 04 Sep 2010 23:07:10 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/sep/05/anti-ageing-america-arlene-weintraub/print <div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.4/12092?ns=guardian&pageName=America%27s+%2488bn+anti-ageing+industry%3A+dangerous+and+with+no+scientific+b%3AArticle%3A1447446&ch=Science&c3=Obs&c4=Ageing+%28science%29%2CUS+healthcare%2CUS+news%2CWorld+news%2CScience%2CHealth+%28Society%29%2CSociety&c5=Society+Weekly%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CUS+Elections%2CHealth+Society&c6=Paul+Harris&c7=10-Sep-05&c8=1447446&c9=Article&c10=News&c11=Science&c13=&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FScience%2FAgeing" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">A new book warns that millions face serious health problems caused by the gurus of hormones and dietary fads</p><p>The desire to defy age is as ancient as human history, but in the past 10 years a multibillion-dollar industry has sprung up in America promising decades of extra life and good health beyond your 100th birthday.</p><p>However, a new book has revealed a disturbing lack of safety regulation, outrageous unproved medical claims, risky products that could cause serious health problems, and a celebrity-dominated marketing machine promising an extended youth – much of it with little science to back it up.</p><p>Arlene Weintraub, who spent four years researching <em>Selling the Fountain of Youth</em>, says the anti-ageing industry has grown from virtually nothing to a staggering $88bn in 10 years, with few products and procedures regulated in the same way as normal pharmaceuticals and medical cures. Much of it is based on replacing the body's hormones as people grow older. But it also includes extensive use of products such as Botox, vitamin supplements and dietary fads. All have become hugely popular, but there is little proof that they work – or are 100% safe. Some female users of a popular hormone therapy called the Wiley Protocol have complained about their menstrual cycles starting again, with excessive bleeding and hair loss. The creator of the Wiley Protocol, a Californian called Susie Wiley, was found to have virtually no scientific or medical qualifications.</p><p>Such alarming reports have not slowed the huge expansion of the industry. The American Academy of Anti-Ageing Medicine (known by the acronym A4M) holds annual conferences that attract thousands of businessmen, chemists and physicians, all hawking their wares. Some critics of the organisation have dubbed it "all for the money" and say it has spearheaded the idea that getting old is basically a treatable condition.Across America chains of "rejuvenation centres" have sprung up touting the latest "cures" for getting old.</p><p>Weintraub argues that the current demographics of America have made the country especially susceptible to an anti-ageing message. The "baby boomer" generation – some 77 million strong – is just hitting the retirement age and millions are looking for ways to prolong their health and lifespan. "This generation, probably more than any before, wants to grow old in a different sort of way," Weintraub said. "Boomers have seen how their parents' generation aged and are trying to avoid that scenario."</p><p>She traces the birth of the anti-ageing industry to the discovery that human growth hormones used to treat stunted growth problems in children could also be used in adults, and in many cases appeared to have a rejuvenating impact.</p><p>The industry spread to include the use of Botox, derived from the deadly botulinum toxin and originally intended to treat muscle disorders. But anti-ageing doctors also frequently prescribe hormones such as testosterone and oestrogen, that are derived from plants such as yams and soy beans. Weintraub has documented cases where people are using such large amounts of these hormones, sometimes as skin creams, that their partners are absorbing them when they lie next to them in bed at night.</p><p>She says the main problem is that government regulation is too light and safety rules not as tight as for normal drugs, which require extensive medical trials before they get federal approval. She also points out that as ageing is not classified as a medical problem – and thus is not covered by insurance companies – the anti-ageing industry is largely founded on patients buying treatments from their doctors, which can easily lead to abuse and lax safety standards.</p><p>The industry frequently has its products touted on such influential shows as <em>Oprah</em> and <em>The View</em>. It's highest-profile celebrity proponent is Suzanne Somers, a former actress on the sitcom <em>Three's Company</em>, who has written three books on anti-ageing and is a regular on the talk show circuit.</p><p>All her books promise vastly extended lifespans and good health through anti-ageing treatments. Critics say she ignores the potential health risks of the products she endorses in favour of a vision of prolonged youth.</p><p>In her latest bestseller, Somers describes herself in 2041, when she will be 94: "Most mornings start with wonderful sex with my 105-year-old husband, Alan."Weintraub sees her book as a shot across the bows of such celebrity marketing. But she has seen first hand how powerful they are. Last year she was visiting an anti-ageing clinic when Somers appeared on <em>Oprah</em>. Suddenly the clinic was besieged by phone calls from interested potential patients desperate to stop the ageing process. "Their phones were ringing off the hook. It was crazy," Weintraub said.</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/ageing">Ageing</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/healthcare">US healthcare</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/usa">United States</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/health">Health</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/paulharris">Paul Harris</a></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/r-UCS59137OUCtnzLXakkhRiiKQ/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/r-UCS59137OUCtnzLXakkhRiiKQ/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/r-UCS59137OUCtnzLXakkhRiiKQ/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/r-UCS59137OUCtnzLXakkhRiiKQ/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p> Ageing US healthcare United States World news Science Health Society The Observer News http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/sep/05/anti-ageing-america-arlene-weintraub Sat, 04 Sep 2010 23:07:07 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/sep/05/julia-finch-david-cameron-big-business/print <div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.4/24613?ns=guardian&pageName=The+Prime+Minister+demonstrates+how+he+will+%27stand+up+to+big+business%27%3AArticle%3A1447422&ch=Business&c3=Obs&c4=Business%2CEconomic+policy%2CDavid+Cameron%2CPolitics%2CPublic+sector+cuts+%28Society%29%2CPublic+services+policy+%28Society%29%2CPublic+finance+%28Society%29%2CSociety&c5=Society+Weekly%2CCredit+Crunch%2CPolicy+Society%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CBusiness+Markets&c6=Julia+Finch&c7=10-Sep-05&c8=1447422&c9=Article&c10=Comment&c11=Business&c13=&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FBusiness%2FEconomic+policy" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">David Cameron's new advisory panel is full of corporate big shots. But didn't he promise he would fight against the influence of special interests?</p><p>Just four months into the coalition and a prime minister who pledged to "stand up to big business" is instead sitting down with it. A cabal of corporate types has been signed up to provide wise counsel to David Cameron.</p><p>We have former BP chief Lord Browne, newly installed as senior non-executive director on the Cabinet Office board – whatever that means. Then there's Topshop's top dog, Sir Philip Green, as efficiency tsar, and on Friday another five were named: BT and easyJet chairman Sir Mike Rake, vacuum cleaner mogul Sir James Dyson, advertising boss Sir Martin Sorrell, CBI president Helen Alexander and Sainsbury chief executive Justin King. They will be joined by another seven big names in the coming weeks, plus a new trade minister, when someone can be persuaded to swap the chauffeur-driven company transport for one of the austerity government's pool cars and an economy-class train ticket. Two captains of industry, a banker and a shopkeeper are understood to have been approached, but each has found the offer a tad underwhelming.</p><p>Ostensibly, they are all there to advise on where the axe will fall – but every one of them would fight tooth and nail to ensure it doesn't land anywhere near their business. One of BT's biggest customers is the government. How's that going to work in practice? So much for Cameron's pre-election spiel that he would fight against the influence of "special interests".</p><p>The new panel will take over from the old one recruited by Gordon Brown, which met infrequently and produced nothing of note. One of those on the previous committee confided that the entire procedure was a charade, but a good networking opportunity.</p><p>Interestingly, one of the few businessmen who went into politics, Archie Norman, hasn't been signed up. The fact is he found Westminster like wading through treacle.</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/economy">Economic policy</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/davidcameron">David Cameron</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/public-sector-cuts">Public sector cuts</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/policy">Public services policy</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/public-finance">Public finance</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/juliafinch">Julia Finch</a></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/8E0ZF10CwBvUSttYLbPJ5Fb8B_I/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/8E0ZF10CwBvUSttYLbPJ5Fb8B_I/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/8E0ZF10CwBvUSttYLbPJ5Fb8B_I/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/8E0ZF10CwBvUSttYLbPJ5Fb8B_I/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p> Business Economic policy David Cameron Politics Public sector cuts Public services policy Public finance Society The Observer Comment http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/sep/05/julia-finch-david-cameron-big-business Sat, 04 Sep 2010 23:07:04 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/sep/05/jonathan-harvey-classical-music-etiquette/print <div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.4/91792?ns=guardian&pageName=Audience+etiquette+matters+if+the+purity+of+classical+music+is+truly+val%3AArticle%3A1447383&ch=Music&c3=Obs&c4=Classical+music+%28Music+genre%29%2CVladimir+Jurowski%2CMusic%2CSociety%2CUK+news&c5=Society+Weekly%2CClassical+Music%2CNot+commercially+useful&c6=Fiona+Maddocks+%28contributor%29&c7=10-Sep-05&c8=1447383&c9=Article&c10=News%2CComment&c11=Music&c13=&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FMusic%2FClassical+music" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">Jonathan Harvey's ideas to enliven classical music are like inviting a football match crowd to join in on the pitch</p><p>The question of concert behaviour, like most codes of conduct, depends on where you are. Who are you upsetting by ignoring etiquette? Does that etiquette have any purpose beyond crusty tradition? As far as classical music is concerned, the answer is yes. The need to sit still and pipe down is purely practical: to enable everyone to hear properly and to respect the performers, as well as fellow listeners. No one cares what you wear any more, and all that social nicety stuff is dead.</p><p>The London Philharmonic Orchestra's Vladimir Jurowski addressed this question after conducting Beethoven at a <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2010/jul/04/vladimir-jurowski-don-giovanni-fiona-maddocks" title="free-spirited beer-and-crisps concert">free-spirited beer-and-crisps concert</a> at London's Roundhouse. While he could tolerate chatting and tweeting at this non-classical venue, he conceded that at the Royal Festival Hall any unnecessary noise is a distraction. Who, of a classical tendency, hasn't sat next to someone whose noisy breathing – yes, that's how much we mind – has prompted murderous feelings?</p><p>Chewing gum fixes itself in your line of vision and the jaw action is never in tempo with the music. Fanning yourself with a programme is actionable. If you are hot in your skimpy sundress, the performers in heavy concert wear are certainly boiling. Rustling plastic bags, jangling bracelets, fiddling slowly and painfully with crackly wrappered cough sweets… don't get me going. In another life I would wear a uniform and police them all.</p><p>I am one of Jonathan Harvey's most devoted fans. His music is exquisite and delicate. Because of its experimental nature, it is often amplified, and I suppose it would be possible to hold a low conversation while it's being played, though I can't imagine wanting to. I am wholly sympathetic to his desire for adventurous collaborations to keep music alive and bring in new audiences. There are many ways. Moving around in concerts, unless advertised as a peripatetic exercise, isn't one.</p><p>Would football matches be improved for the uninitiated like me if we were encouraged to wander on to the pitch and maybe give the ball a kick? It's an idea, but I doubt it will catch on.</p><p></p><p><em>Fiona Maddocks is the Observer's classical music critic</em></p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/classicalmusicandopera">Classical music</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/vladimir-jurowski">Vladimir Jurowski</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/fiona-maddocks">Fiona Maddocks</a></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/V9pQ_9ZXdPmI9Q2-0b8mO9uDXaY/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/V9pQ_9ZXdPmI9Q2-0b8mO9uDXaY/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/V9pQ_9ZXdPmI9Q2-0b8mO9uDXaY/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/V9pQ_9ZXdPmI9Q2-0b8mO9uDXaY/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p> Classical music Vladimir Jurowski Music Society UK news The Observer News Comment http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/sep/05/jonathan-harvey-classical-music-etiquette Sat, 04 Sep 2010 23:06:57 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/sep/05/stem-cell-clinics-health-tourism/print <div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.4/74598?ns=guardian&pageName=Stem+cell+clinics%3A+experts+insist+claims+of+cure-all+are+medically+unpro%3AArticle%3A1447352&ch=Science&c3=Obs&c4=Medical+research+%28Science%29%2CHealth+and+wellbeing+%28Life+and+style%29%2CHealthcare+industry+%28Business+sector%29%2CHealth+%28Society%29%2CMultiple+sclerosis%2CParkinson%27s+disease%2CScience%2CLife+and+style%2CUK+news&c5=Not+commercially+useful%2CHealth+Society%2CHealth&c6=Denis+Campbell&c7=10-Sep-05&c8=1447352&c9=Article&c10=News&c11=Science&c13=&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FScience%2FMedical+research" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">Health tourists travel the world and spend thousands, but their hopes of being cured are likely to be dashed</p><p>For the past decade stem cells have sparked huge excitement among scientists, dramatic media coverage about breakthroughs that could mean a cure for some of the nastiest diseases, and hope – sometimes desperate – among patients that the reality will match the hype. That has fuelled a booming trade in stem cell tourism – people heading to clinics abroad and forking out large sums for what are called stem cell treatments but which are unlikely to work and possibly do harm.</p><p>It is, as some of the UK's leading stem cells experts warned last week, a world of unproven therapies, patient optimism and predatory clinicians. Despite the lack of reliable evidence underpinning the treatments being offered, the number of people resorting to stem cell tourism is growing. Experts voiced their fears and frustrations after finding that many patients, often desperately ill, were asking their advice on whether to travel overseas.</p><p>"I've made some very strong comments which could potentially land me in court, but people still go to these clinics," said Professor Peter Coffey, director of the London Project to Cure Blindness at University College London. There are now several hundred clinics around the world which claim to have turned the potential of stem cells into effective treatments. They lure those suffering from diabetes, multiple sclerosis, heart failure, Parkinson's disease, autism, HIV, eye problems, spinal cord injuries and much else besides.</p><p>Several thousand people from around the world so far are estimated to have spent up to £20,000 or more in such places. Yet while stem cells could transform medicine, there is as yet scant actual proof of their efficacy. But still the tourists come.</p><p>The fact that scientists believe it is likely to be 15 to 20 years before the continuing worldwide flurry of trials and tests results in reliable treatments has not stopped clinics from offering exactly that already. Strong regulation means there are no such places in the UK or America. But the experts did single out the XCell Centre in Düsseldorf, Germany, and Beike Technology, which runs one in Shenzhen in China.</p><p>In 2008 the Multiple Sclerosis Society warned sufferers not to be taken in by Integrated BioSciences, a company registered in the Turks & Caicos Islands, which had offices in the Seychelles, Persian Gulf and Oxford, because there was no scientific backing for the claim that stem cells could cure the condition.</p><p>People's willingness to trust their savings and their health to such clinics recently prompted the International Society for Stem Cell Research to launch a website to educate patients about the risks involved. Anyone thinking about going would be well advised to check it out and think again.</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/medical-research">Medical research</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/health-and-wellbeing">Health & wellbeing</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/healthcare">Healthcare industry</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/health">Health</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/multiple-sclerosis">Multiple sclerosis</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/parkinsons-disease">Parkinson's disease</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/deniscampbell">Denis Campbell</a></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/magNf7EMkHyAVFsCb8n77P3LfK8/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/magNf7EMkHyAVFsCb8n77P3LfK8/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/magNf7EMkHyAVFsCb8n77P3LfK8/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/magNf7EMkHyAVFsCb8n77P3LfK8/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p> Medical research Health & wellbeing Healthcare industry Health Multiple sclerosis Parkinson's disease Science Life and style UK news The Observer News http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/sep/05/stem-cell-clinics-health-tourism Sat, 04 Sep 2010 23:06:51 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/sep/05/scotland-alcohol-pricing/print <div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.4/77413?ns=guardian&pageName=Fix+poverty+before+you+go+after+the+drinkers+%7C+Kevin+McKenna%3AArticle%3A1447307&ch=Comment+is+free&c3=Obs&c4=Scotland+%28News%29%2CAlcohol+%28Society%29%2CPoverty+%28Society%29%2CSocial+exclusion+%28Society%29%2CSociety&c5=Society+Weekly%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CSocial+Care+Society%2CCommunities+Society%2CCharities&c6=Kevin+McKenna&c7=10-Sep-05&c8=1447307&c9=Article&c10=Comment&c11=Comment+is+free&c13=&c25=Comment+is+free&c30=content&h2=GU%2FComment+is+free%2Fblog%2FComment+is+free" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">Only when you tackle the alienation of people living in extreme deprivation will you begin to tackle the problems with alcohol</p><p>A curious paradox has been evident in each of the three administrations elected to run Scotland in the post-devolution era. Each has strived to showcase the country as a model of enlightened democracy where the displaced and the dispossessed can find succour and healing and be clothed again in the garments of human dignity. Where two or three are gathered together, there also will be the Scottish government protecting them, as a minority group, from discrimination and social exclusion.</p><p>It is a moral code that underpins the policy of providing free care for the elderly and compensating prisoners for abuses of their dignity; of keeping minor offenders out of jail and ensuring that our children gain access to free nursery care. It is present in our opting to welcome economic migrants and asylum seekers in healthy numbers. It informed the wise decision to grant Abdelbasat al-Megrahi a death among his people. It is on such occasions that I am proud to call myself a Scot.</p><p>The paradox, though, emerges in the eagerness with which the political classes, amid all the enlightenment that's going on, seek to ban, forbid and outlaw. Perhaps we could call it the John Knox Syndrome. A desultory glance at this index of the verboten shows that we have banned cigarette smoking in all public places and attempted to get rid of glass tumblers and happy hours in pubs and clubs. It is also being very seriously considered that we force publicans in the more unruly urban areas to stop serving alcoholic beverages in the final hour before closing.</p><p>At this rate, every tavern in the land will be compelled to introduce an unhappy hour, where customers are forced to watch reruns of Peru v Scotland in the 1978 World Cup and it is forbidden to engage in flirtatiousness with barmaids. What next – a ban on engaging in sex standing up for fear it may lead to dancing? Or dawn raids on farmyards where there is evidence of goats and sheep looking more than usually distressed and subdued?</p><p>We have also attempted to impose curfews on the lieges in some of those ugly places that our middle-class executive deem to be slightly feral during the twilight hours. At the start of the first diet of the Scottish Parliament in 2001, the MSP for Castlemilk brought a private member's bill to outlaw fox-hunting, seemingly oblivious to the fact that this redoubtable urban fastness on Glasgow's South Side may only encounter foxes as often as ospreys.</p><p>My favourite was a bill intended to ban fur-farms. The bill became law, but not before it was discovered that Scotland didn't have any of these cruel, rural charnel houses. One politician proposed that the refrigeration arrangements in the homes of poor people be inspected to ensure that they weren't harbouring any unhealthy food products. Presumably, the next step would have been a draconian "three pizzas and you're out" doctrine, where the children in the offending dwellings would be taken into care.</p><p></p><p></p><p>It has often been whispered that there exists beneath the Holyrood parliament a secret room where an all-party Star Chamber sits in permanent session, their gimlet eyes peering out over the kingdom in a perpetual and unholy vigil, seeking out new activities to curtail. They have obviously been busy following the summer recess, galvanised by an evangelical fervour to prod us into a healthy and responsible lifestyle.</p><p>Last week, we heard of plans to shut children's public play areas on health and safety grounds. Already, in the breezeblock, five-bedroom kit-home estates favoured by Scotland's sauvignon classes children are no longer trusted to get to school on their own. In the streets surrounding the primary schools it is possible to witness dozens of convoys of black 4x4s and you wonder if a G12 summit is taking place that no one has told you about. Under the unofficial minimum fruit intake scheme, we shove so many apples and bananas down their miserable little faces that soon they'll be wearing loincloths, swinging from the trees and talking to the squirrels.</p><p>And on Thursday the SNP brought forward its autumn masterplan: <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-11155653" title="">minimum alcohol pricing</a>. The Nationalists have become obsessed with making alcohol too expensive for the poor badly behaved to purchase. These plans would treble the price of a two-litre bottle of cider in supermarkets.</p><p><a href="http://news.scotsman.com/news/Sturgeon-calls-for-drink-debate.6511256.jp" title="">Nicola Sturgeon</a>, the health minister and an otherwise surefooted and responsible politician, would have us believe that this will lead to fewer hospital admissions for alcohol-related violence and reduce the number of patients suffering from booze-related diseases. In persisting with such sophistry, you wonder if the normally taciturn and elegant Ms Sturgeon has taken to the swally herself.</p><p>Characteristic of this doctrine is a false belief that only the poor and the deprived exhibit negative behavioural traits when they encounter the bevvy in copious quantities. The middle classes are just as susceptible to alcohol-related problems: they simply cover it up in more discreet ways, such as going on spa weekends and holidaying secretly in Millport instead of Marbella. Occasionally, they take turns at hosting swinging parties instead of expensive nights out.</p><p>Among the poor, who have no face to save and little income to channel it to in other ways, alcohol problems are manifest in more obvious antisocial behaviour. If the problem drinkers can no longer buy cheap alcohol in supermarkets, then they will turn to crime, directly or indirectly, in order to access it. Many will pool their resources to purchase drugs instead.</p><p>Too many Scots die prematurely of alcohol-related diseases and our prisons have too many inmates whose lives have been ruined by the consequences of intoxication. Only when we begin properly to address the increasing alienation of the young who live in circumstances of extreme poverty will we begin to tackle the causes of their drink problems. The government must invest disproportionately more money in improving schools in these areas and they must force financial institutions to help businesses in poor communities.</p><p>Do the SNP have the guts and the ability to implement a preferential option for the poor? Or will they persist in worthless, short-term political gimmickry?</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/scotland">Scotland</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/alcohol">Alcohol</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/poverty">Poverty</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/socialexclusion">Social exclusion</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/kevin-mckenna">Kevin McKenna</a></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/veWBK9uGsCJjH7MMKPRM6X9Y0oo/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/veWBK9uGsCJjH7MMKPRM6X9Y0oo/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/veWBK9uGsCJjH7MMKPRM6X9Y0oo/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/veWBK9uGsCJjH7MMKPRM6X9Y0oo/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p> Scotland Alcohol Poverty Social exclusion Society The Observer Comment http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/sep/05/scotland-alcohol-pricing Sat, 04 Sep 2010 23:06:45 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/sep/05/legalisation-drugs-antonio-maria-costa/print <div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.4/7797?ns=guardian&pageName=Legalise+drugs+and+a+worldwide+epidemic+of+addiction+will+follow+%7C+Anton%3AArticle%3A1447263&ch=Comment+is+free&c3=Obs&c4=Drugs+illegal+%28Society%29%2CHealth+%28Society%29%2CSociety%2CDrugs+policy+%28Politics%29%2CPolitics%2CDrugs+trade+%28News%29%2CWorld+news%2CMexico+%28News%29&c5=Society+Weekly%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CPolicy+Society%2CHealth+Society%2CCommunities+Society&c6=Antonio+Maria+Costa&c7=10-Sep-05&c8=1447263&c9=Article&c10=Comment&c11=Comment+is+free&c13=The+Observer+drugs+debate+%28series%29&c25=Comment+is+free%2CCIF+America+%28Blog%29&c30=content&h2=GU%2FComment+is+free%2Fblog%2FComment+is+free" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">Those who argue we should decriminalise the trade in narcotics are blind to the catastrophic consequences</p><p>The debate between those who dream of a world free of drugs and those who hope for a world of free drugs has been raging for years. I believe the dispute between prohibition and legalisation would be more fruitful if it focused on the appropriate degree of regulation for addictive substances (drugs, but also alcohol and tobacco) and how to attain such regulation.</p><p>Current international agreements are hard to change. All nations, with no exception, agree that illicit drugs are a threat to health and that their production, trade and use should be regulated. In fact, adherence to the UN's drug conventions is virtually universal and no statutory changes are possible unless the majority of states agree – quite unlikely, in the foreseeable future. Yet important improvements to today's system are needed and achievable, especially in areas where current controls have produced serious collateral damage.</p><p>Why such resistance to abolishing the controls? In part, because the conventions' success in restraining both supply and demand of drugs is undeniable.</p><p>Look first at production. Drug controls slashed global opium supply dramatically: in 2007, it was one-third the level of 1907. What about recent trends? Over the last 10 years, world output of cocaine, amphetamines and ecstasy has stabilised, and in many instances dropped. Cannabis output has declined since 2004. Since the mid-90s, opium production moved from the Golden Triangle to Afghanistan where it grew exponentially at first, but started to decline (since 2008).</p><p>My first point is factual: in the distant past as well as recently, production controls have had measurable results. What about drug-use levels? There are 25 million addicts (daily use) in the world, 0.6% of the population. Ten times as many people (5% of the world's population) take drugs at least once a year. As these amounts are relatively small, statements such as "there are drugs everywhere" or "everybody takes drugs" are nonsense. The drug numbers compare well with those of tobacco, a legal drug used by 30% of the world's population. Even more people consume alcohol. Tobacco causes 5 million deaths per year and alcohol 2 million, against the 200,000 killed by illicit drugs.</p><p>My second point is logical: in the absence of controls, it is not fanciful to imagine drug addiction, and related deaths, as high as those of tobacco and alcohol. What are recent drug-use trends? In rich countries, addiction is high but declining. In North America and Australia, it has declined in the past 10 years, especially among the young. In Europe, opiates use has declined, offset by greater cocaine sales; cannabis and amphetamines are stable or lower. In developing countries, drug use is low, but growing. In South America and west Africa, this applies to cannabis and cocaine; in Asia and southern Africa to heroin.</p><p>My third point is intuitive: rich countries are addressing the drug problem, while poor countries lack resources to do so. With the building blocks of my reasoning in place (stability of the world drug supply; alcohol and tobacco hurt more than drugs; the divergent drug trends in poor and rich nations), I find it irrational to propose policies that would increase the public health damage caused by drugs by making them more freely available.</p><p>At the same time, drug controls are not working as they should. The resulting collateral damage is the platform upon which critics build the abolitionist argument.</p><p>Let's look at health, security and human rights. Health must be at the centre of drug control, because drug addiction is a mix of genetic, personal and social factors: gene variants (predisposition), childhood (neglect), social conditions (poverty). The pharmacological effects of drugs on health are independent of their legal status. Drugs are not dangerous because they are illegal: they are illegal because they are dangerous to health. Unfortunately, ideology has displaced health from the mainstream of the drug debate and this has happened on both sides of the prohibition versus legalisation dispute.</p><p>In the past half-century, drug control rhetoric by governments has been right, but prevention and treatment programmes have lagged. Priority was wrongly given to repression and criminalisation. Similarly, those in favour of legalisation have lost sight of health as the priority. They prioritise handing out condoms and clean needles, while addicts need prevention, treatment and reintegration, not only harm reduction gadgets. In short, the debate on drug policy has turned into a political battle. But why? There are no ideological debates about curing cancer, so why so much politics in dealing with drug addiction?</p><p>But there is more. Drugs do harm to health, but they can also do good. Greater use of opiates for palliative care would overcome the socio-economic factors that deny a Nigerian suffering from Aids or a Mexican cancer patient the morphine offered to Italian or American counterparts. Yet such relief is not happening.</p><p>Next is the security question. Drugs pose a threat not only to individuals. Entire regions – think of Central America, the Caribbean and Africa – are caught in the crossfire of drug trafficking. In Mexico, a bloody drug war has erupted among crime groups fighting for the control of the US drug market. The legalisers' argument on security is striking, though it leads to the wrong conclusion. Prohibition causes crime by creating a black market for drugs, the argument goes, so, legalise drugs to defeat organised crime. As an economist, I agree. But this is not only an economic argument. Legalisation would reduce crime profits, but it would also increase the damage to health, as drug availability leads to drug abuse.</p><p>Drug policy does not have to choose between either protecting health, through drug control, or ensuring law and order, by liberalising drugs. Society must protect both health and safety.</p><p>In a world of free drugs, the privileged rich can afford expensive treatment while poor people are condemned to a life of dependence. Now extrapolate the problem on to a global scale and imagine the impact of unregulated drug use in developing countries, with no prevention or treatment available. Legalised drugs would unleash an epidemic of addiction in the developing world.</p><p>Last but not least, there's the question of human rights. Around the world, millions of people caught taking drugs are sent to jail. In some countries, drug treatment amounts to the equivalent of torture. People are sentenced to death for drug-related offences. Although drugs kill, governments should not kill because of them. The prohibition versus legalisation debate must stop being ideological and look for the appropriate degree of controls. Drug control is not the task of governments alone: it is a society-wide responsibility. Are we ready to engage?</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/drugs">Drugs</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/health">Health</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/drugspolicy">Drugs policy</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/drugs-trade">Drugs trade</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/mexico">Mexico</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/antoniomariacosta">Antonio Maria Costa</a></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/ONXuoPI0MDyxQHD2W4taVrPECbg/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/ONXuoPI0MDyxQHD2W4taVrPECbg/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/ONXuoPI0MDyxQHD2W4taVrPECbg/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/ONXuoPI0MDyxQHD2W4taVrPECbg/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p> Drugs Health Society Drugs policy Politics Drugs trade World news Mexico The Observer Comment http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/sep/05/legalisation-drugs-antonio-maria-costa Sat, 04 Sep 2010 23:06:43 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2010/sep/05/disabled-homeowners-repossession-mortgage/print <div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.4/21587?ns=guardian&pageName=Disabled+homeowners+fear+repossession+as+mortgage+interest+payments+cut%3AArticle%3A1447225&ch=Money&c3=Obs&c4=Mortgages+%28Money+-+UK+consumer%29%2CRepossessions+%28Money%29%2CMoney%2CDisability+%28Society%29%2CSociety&c5=Society+Weekly%2CPersonal+Finance%2CHealth+Society%2CProperty+Mortgages+and+Interest+Rates&c6=Graham+Norwood&c7=10-Sep-05&c8=1447225&c9=Article&c10=Feature&c11=Money&c13=&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FMoney%2FMortgages" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">Reductions to interest payments may leave the neediest struggling to cover their mortgages</p><p>Disability and housing organisations are accusing the government of potentially forcing thousands of disabled homeowners into arrears or even having their properties repossessed because of cutbacks in mortgage benefits and care packages.</p><p>The most scathing attack comes from the <a href="http://www.housing.org.uk/" title="">National Housing Federation</a> (NHF). It says some 64,000 people with disabilities now get monthly help through the <a href="http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/BenefitsTaxCreditsAndOtherSupport/On_a_low_income/DG_180321" title="">Support for Mortgage Interest</a> (SMI) system. This is a complex calculation, paid directly every four weeks by the government to mortgage lenders on behalf of disabled borrowers, currently at the rate of 6.08%.</p><p>If the 6.08% is in excess of the interest payable on a disabled person's mortgage, the "extra" goes towards paying off the principal debt; if it is less, the borrower must make up the difference or slide into arrears.</p><p>But the method of calculating the SMI – which is also paid to people who have lost their jobs – is changing and from October the amount will be set at a level equal to the Bank of England's published monthly average mortgage interest rate, currently 3.63%. This is still well above some current mortgage interest rates but far below others, even before expected base rate rises in late 2010 or in 2011.</p><p>Ministers announced the SMI change in the June emergency budget, but campaigners have only recently realised the effect. .</p><p>Some SMI beneficiaries are first-time buyers while others are existing owners who may have recently suffered a physical or mental impairment and whose properties now require substantial modification. Potential SMI income is considered by some lenders when they decide whether to grant a loan to a disabled applicant.</p><p>It is thought that the SMI recalculation will hit about 5,000 owners with profound physical and mental disabilities who have used the payments to secure niche – and expensive – mortgages on shared ownership homes. For these properties, the mortgage covers a share of 25% to 75% and the owner pays rent to a housing association for the remaining share of the property.</p><p>"This policy will hit thousands of people with disabilities, cutting off many from the prospect of owning their own home. The fact that ministers have not carried out a comprehensive impact assessment into such a major decision is very disquieting," says NHF chief executive David Orr.</p><p>Ray Boulger of mortgage broker <a href="http://www.charcol.co.uk/" title="">John Charcol</a> says the government may be financially justified in making the change, but believes the process is being mishandled.</p><p>"The 6.08% figure existed in 2008 when typical interest rates were running at 5% so there is an argument for change given the sharp reduction in rates since that time. But by not tailoring the SMI rate to the individuals' needs, there will always be some who get too much and some too little. It's disappointing that the coalition has just changed the figure and not changed the process into one that's fairer," says Boulger.</p><p><a href="http://www.disabilityalliance.org/" title="">Disability Alliance</a>, a charity working to help disabled people out of poverty, says it is discussing the SMI change with the government. "The reality is that this is just one of a series of disadvantages that disabled people have. First, it's difficult for them to find appropriately accessible property, then it's very hard to obtain a mortgage because there may be reduced earning potential," says its policy director, Neil Coyne.</p><p>Some disabled home owners and their families are now suffering additional financial problems thanks to council cutbacks. As part of attempts to cut public spending, many authorities are reviewing their facilities grants. These are discretionary sums, often a few hundred pounds, paid to owners who must install ramps or fit stairlifts when a household member becomes disabled.</p><p>Anastasia Kelly, executive director of the <a href="http://www.sheffieldcil.org.uk/" title="">Sheffield Centre for Independent Living</a>, an advice body for the disabled and their carers, says: "There's an inconsistent response from different local authorities because there are no national guidelines on how payments are made. Now we have to help a lot of people who are finding it harder to get these grants as councils review spending,".</p><p>The proposed SMI changes will also worsen the problems of those with disabilities who rent their homes.</p><p>"Because of the high cost of housing and the difficulty in getting a mortgage, especially if the earning potential is limited through disability, the majority of disabled people rent rather than own. The lower SMI payments mean even fewer disabled will secure mortgages, so the pressure on the rented sector will rise still further," says Conrad Hodgkinson of the <a href="http://www.accessible-property.org.uk/" title="">Accessible Property Register</a>.</p><p>He set up the register in 2003 to publicise homes on sale that have modifications for physically impaired owners, but he says the crisis for many is in the "pretty dire" rented sector.</p><p>"There's a lack of supply of homes to rent to begin with, plus a lack of information about whether the homes are adapted for disabled residents. Now there's the severe financial problems, made worse by the SMI issue and other cutbacks," he says. "The picture is absolutely desperate for many disabled people."</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/mortgages">Mortgages</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/repossessions">Repossessions</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/disability">Disability</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/grahamnorwood">Graham Norwood</a></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/h0mFiJLT_aV6UutAvTj4ez8j3Bo/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/h0mFiJLT_aV6UutAvTj4ez8j3Bo/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/h0mFiJLT_aV6UutAvTj4ez8j3Bo/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/h0mFiJLT_aV6UutAvTj4ez8j3Bo/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p> Mortgages Repossessions Money Disability Society The Observer Features http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2010/sep/05/disabled-homeowners-repossession-mortgage Sat, 04 Sep 2010 23:06:41 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2010/sep/05/big-issue-poverty-housing-benefits/print <div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.4/54267?ns=guardian&pageName=Tax+inheritance+and+help+tenants+to+build+their+assets+%7C+The+big+issue%3AArticle%3A1447029&ch=From+the+Observer&c3=Obs&c4=Poverty+%28Society%29%2CHousing+%28Society%29%2CSocial+mobility+%28Society%29&c5=Social+Care+Society%2CCommunities+Society%2CCharities&c6=&c7=10-Sep-05&c8=1447029&c9=Article&c10=Letter&c11=From+the+Observer&c13=The+big+issue+%28Obs+letters+series%29&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FFrom+the+Observer%2FPoverty" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">Poverty will never be truly eradicated without active state intervention</p><p>The wealth divide between home owners and social tenants is cavernous ("<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/aug/29/phillip-blond-budget-coalition-poverty" title="">We won't help the poor by increasing benefits</a>", Comment). Home owners have average unencumbered wealth of £90,000, while tenants have only £400 in average savings. To bridge this gulf, the <a href="http://www.humancity.org.uk/" title="">Human City Institute</a> proposes a "New Deal for Tenants" where asset accounts would be created for every tenant, funded from higher inheritance tax, so redistributing wealth without pushing people into unsustainable home ownership.</p><p>Phillip Blond is inaccurate when he says that poverty became entrenched under Labour. Several schemes (rebuilding public services, the minimum wage, tax credits, targeted benefits, assistance into work, Sure Start, regeneration funding and "Decent Homes") held back the tide of inequality. Compare that approach with current policies, which the <a href="http://www.ifs.org.uk/" title="">Institute for Fiscal Studies reveals</a> as regressive.</p><p>Without an active state tackling inequality, poverty and stalled social mobility, these "bottom-up" approaches will remain peripheral.</p><p><strong>Kevin Gulliver</strong></p><p>Human City Institute</p><p>Birmingham</p><p></p><p>Two major facts have been missed in suggesting the poor should fund their own salvation. First, the lowest levels of income in unemployment or in work are already creating high levels of misery and debt, which lead to household mental and physical ill-health which, in turn, create massive costs to the taxpayer.</p><p>Second, there is no affordable rented accommodation in the private sector in which the highest housing benefits are paid; the Labour government, with the local housing allowance, and now the coalition, with housing benefit caps, have created more debt by forcing the poorest households to pay rent out of already inadequate income.</p><p>Meanwhile, confidence in welfare reformers is undermined by the immediate evictions in the county courts of powerless households unable to find legal aid due to the same obsession with cuts, rather than justice, which created their unpayable rent arrears.</p><p><strong>Rev Paul Nicolson</strong></p><p><a href="http://www.z2k.org/" title="">Zacchaeus 2000 Trust</a></p><p>London SW1</p><p></p><p>Phillip Blond's description of the poor "building up networks" sounds utopian. When councils were forced to shed some in-house jobs, there were opportunities for workers to take on responsibility for providing these services, but they are now mostly provided by large organisations and not the mutuals Mr Blond thinks would develop. The workers are paid much less than they would have received if the council was paying and may in part now rely on the benefits he derides.</p><p>This was all done to minimise taxes and maximise profits and avoid Hayek's vision of "serfdom", which seems to be at the base of Mr Blond's ideas. There was a time when trade unions ensured that workers enjoyed a fair "ownership" of the profits generated by their labour. They could then afford to pay sufficient taxes to provide wider welfare services for all. That's what I call a Big Society.</p><p><strong>David Walker</strong></p><p>Dudley</p><p></p><p>Once upon a time, there was a man called Jesus, whom some called the Son of God. He said that the poor will always be with us because he knew that rich people made sure the poor stayed poor. Eighteen centuries later, a clergyman, Samuel Smiles, said that there were two types of poor people: the deserving and the undeserving poor. A century later, a man called Charles Murray said that the poor were responsible for their own plight, because they were perverse and feckless. And verily it came to pass that a right-wing economist, from a right-wing thinktank, was given the oxygen of publicity by a newspaper that should know better. Phillip Blond thinks that it is merely a case of making opportunities for people and the poor will rise from their plight and end poverty once and for all.</p><p>Jesus wept.</p><p><strong>Ian Parsons</strong></p><p>Bradford</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/poverty">Poverty</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/housing">Housing</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/socialmobility">Social mobility</a></li></ul></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/3rv-H2aDHCey31AM2gvCOArQrcQ/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/3rv-H2aDHCey31AM2gvCOArQrcQ/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/3rv-H2aDHCey31AM2gvCOArQrcQ/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/3rv-H2aDHCey31AM2gvCOArQrcQ/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p> Poverty Housing Social mobility The Observer Letters http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2010/sep/05/big-issue-poverty-housing-benefits Sat, 04 Sep 2010 23:06:33 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2010/sep/05/blair-marr-interview-traffickers-review/print <div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.4/67416?ns=guardian&pageName=Rewind+TV%3A+The+Tony+Blair+Interview+With+Andrew+Marr%3B+The+Hunt+for+Brita%3AArticle%3A1446724&ch=Television+%26amp%3B+radio&c3=Obs&c4=Tony+Blair%2CAndrew+Marr+%28Media%29%2CProstitution+%28Society%29%2CTelevision+%28Culture%29%2CTelevision+and+radio+TV%2CCulture+section&c5=Not+commercially+useful%2CCommunities+Society%2CTelevision+Media&c6=Euan+Ferguson&c7=10-Sep-05&c8=1446724&c9=Article&c10=Review&c11=Television+%26amp%3B+radio&c13=Observer+TV+reviews+%28series%29&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FTelevision+%26amp%3B+radio%2FTony+Blair" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">Freed from the constraints of office, Tony Blair proved charm personified in his interview with Andrew Marr</p><p><strong>The Tony Blair Interview with Andrew Marr |</strong> <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00tn4fw/The_Tony_Blair_Interview_with_Andrew_Marr/" title="">iPlayer</a></p><p><strong>The Hunt for Britain's Sex Traffickers |</strong> <a href="http://www.channel4.com/programmes/4od" title="">4OD</a></p><p><strong>I Am Slave |</strong> <a href="http://www.channel4.com/programmes/i-am-slave" title="">4OD</a></p><p>The smart money says we'll probably have one or two words elsewhere in the paper about Tony Blair, and that book, and his TV performance, so I'm not going to tread on the exalted brogues of those who'll be analysing the actual politics, just going to say – this was, finally, Tony Blair gone right.</p><p>It was impossible, watching <strong>The Tony Blair Interview With Andrew Marr</strong>, not to feel that this was what we'd been waiting for, for 13 years – 16, if you count the run-up to '97: to see the man behind the mask. Not exactly rightwing but no lover of the left; sharper and funnier than circumstances had ever allowed before, deeply articulate, capable, in bursts, of honesty: human and more than a little charming. It must be like those girlfriends who are convinced their men have been hiding something, either an emotional side or simply not being <em>that</em> into you, only to find out they were exactly right during that quick honest catch-up drink six months after the break-up: it's infuriatingly bittersweet but, by and large, welcome.</p><p>Freed from the shackles of party politics, ie having to lie all the time in the House, let alone being PM and thus having to lie even in his spare time, and three years away from the cameras, and presumably now letting himself relax a bit about looking after the family, what with the £20m, he allowed himself to be more of himself than we'd ever seen. He spoke, for instance, with a genuine half-smile, of the "creative ambiguity" needed for Northern Ireland, a phrase he could never have used at the time, and told a fine new story about Mo Mowlam and Gerry Adams. Asked by Andy Marr about his opposition to freedom of information, he stuck to his guns, even though he "must have been aware" that he would be condemned by lawyers, journalists and, in general, the left. "Oh, I'm sure. But they've got lots of reasons to be aghast at me, so…" The shrug was Gallic in its dismissiveness.</p><p>He had, basically, charisma coming out his ears, which are, admittedly, no less silly than before. By the end, he could have armpit-squelched his way through "Teddy Bears' Picnic" and made it sound like Pericles's funeral address to the Athenians. Say what you like about his legacy, although somehow I know what the "B.Liar" faction will say regardless – what bliss it must be to go through a life inured to nuance, swaddled in certainty – but what they say will never surprise me, and bits of what Mr Blair said still managed to.</p><p>Interview over, he and Marr shook hands, which felt like a nicely old-fashioned touch, although on further thought I don't know what era I'm thinking of. It made a change from Paxman's dismissive shuffling of papers or Jonathan Ross trying to grope someone on their way back to the green room. Courtesy and a wary mutual respect, and a nodding acquaintance with the concept of an open mind: that's what was old-fashioned.</p><p>Normal Terrace, Cheltenham, must never change its name, just to give the rest of us a giggle, though it's doubtless a tooth-grinding embarrassment to its teenagers who want to live in Blood Ditch or Scrofulous Alley. Much less fun, obviously, would be having to work there as an enforced prostitute.</p><p>According to <strong>The Hunt for Britain's Sex Traffickers</strong>, there are up to 4,000 illegally trafficked women at any time in Britain working in enforced prostitution, most of them from Eeastern Europe. Most have trusted a family friend, or even an online advert, hoping for more money here as even a cleaner, and found their trust viciously exploited. Passports are taken, debts invented and then reinvented with spiralling interest, and they find themselves lying on their backs or worse to make money for the gangmasters. The police have been seeking for three years to crack down not on the women, or even the punters, one of whom was treated here with faintly alarming police by-the-book courtesy ("we're all men, sir…"), but on those who have smuggled and effectively imprisoned them, and the operations in Luton and Cheltenham allowed Channel 4 in. The opener was great and woeful, if you know what I mean.</p><p>At one point the cops, star among them Andy Leigh (everything you'd want from a cop, courteous yet tenacious), were running round corners and barking into their lapels and saying everything three times – go go go, strike strike strike, wet wet wet; I may have misheard one – and they missed a Chinese woman pausing on her way past the raided flat and making an urgent mobile call. The documentary cameraman spotted it, and his reporter tentatively mentioned it to Leigh, who took them seriously and pounced pounced pounced. They were right: she was a gangmaster. This has been my dream, on those stories I've covered which the world comes to watch: to find the clue, spot the alley with the bundle of clothes, hear the telltale lie from the "family friend" which the police have missed, although my early chat in Soham town hall with the janitor, Mr Huntley, might technically count as a "missed chance": Channel 4 did it for real, well done cameraman, and the court result might lift a good few lives from misery.</p><p>There were no great shocks in this (apart from the fact that the real coppers looked so like TV coppers: the sharp silver-fox guy, the management-consultant boss in the office, the feisty blonde controller: have the redundant cast from <em>The Bill</em> already got jobs as real coppers?), but what was remarkable was the access Channel 4 had won. With so many police, and so much police talk, this was a little… plodding… but inordinately valuable, if rather confusing to my own mind about being a man. The venues for the sex – below a kebab shop, in a bedsit – were as "sexy" as a goat's armpits. What is<em> </em>it with these punters? What is it with men?</p><p>At least the prostitutes can, technically, escape, though few do. A different and even more harrowing side of modern slavery came in dramatic form, with the shocking, mesmerising <strong>I Am Slave</strong>, based, far from loosely, on a true story. It gave an unexplored new horror: the idea of being locked in a gated mansion in happy old north London. Malia, the Sudanese slave, played with award-winning tender anger by Wunmi Mosaku, did once manage to escape, having decided to disbelieve her rich Arab "owners" that her father would die if she ever dared, but couldn't get beyond the first half-mile – no passport, money, no anything, and no help – count it: none – from London. These things happen, and today I feel a weird shiver about my adopted city: far more subtle but in places equally as evil as the Khartoum-backed militia who took and sold the young Malia in the first place.</p><p>I sat once in a KLA camp inside Kosovo, Serbian shells raining down just far enough away for me to feel brave&nbsp;and&nbsp;know I could tell stories about it while not shitting myself, and watched a host of toasts being raised to Tony Blair and George Robertson for intervening: angry men with many guns had tears of gratitude as they lifted tin cups of goat-armpit raki. I sat once, too, in Darfur and wished there had been more intervention, after talking to Janjaweed rape victims and hearing of their friends who had been abducted, some of whom will have ended up exactly as Malia. It's a crying shame Blair diddled us so much at home, stuck us in a cruel domestic farce, when he's far more impassioned about global tragedy. He diddled with Ayckbourn while wanting to lunge towards Shakespeare or Beckett. Sometimes people simply find themselves in the wrong play.</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/tonyblair">Tony Blair</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/andrewmarr">Andrew Marr</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/prostitution">Prostitution</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/television">Television</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/euanferguson">Euan Ferguson</a></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/kDh7wYiOPgPl6tIHpb3P_RkM-iA/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/kDh7wYiOPgPl6tIHpb3P_RkM-iA/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/kDh7wYiOPgPl6tIHpb3P_RkM-iA/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/kDh7wYiOPgPl6tIHpb3P_RkM-iA/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p> Tony Blair Andrew Marr Prostitution Television Television & radio Culture The Observer Reviews http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2010/sep/05/blair-marr-interview-traffickers-review Sat, 04 Sep 2010 23:06:30 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2010/sep/05/gail-porter-tv-presenter-interview/print <div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.4/37430?ns=guardian&pageName=Gail+Porter%3A+%27What%27s+so+brave+about+going+bald%3F%3AArticle%3A1445959&ch=Television+%26amp%3B+radio&c3=Obs&c4=Gail+Porter%2CTelevision+%28Culture%29%2CProstitution+%28Society%29&c5=Unclassified%2CCommunities+Society%2CTelevision+Media&c6=Phil+Hogan&c7=10-Sep-05&c8=1445959&c9=Article&c10=Interview%2CFeature&c11=Television+%26amp%3B+radio&c13=The+New+Review+Q+and+A+%28series%29&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FTelevision+%26amp%3B+radio%2FGail+Porter" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">The TV presenter on dealing with hairy legs again,standup comedy and her new documentary on prostitution</p><p><strong>So tell me about the new hair...</strong></p><p>I know. I wish I knew how it happened. I'd been using this thing that I made up with olive oil and avocado, but no one knows really. I've not been to the doctor. I only ever went once about my hair, when it fell out, and he said it was 99% certain I'd never get it back. I had <em>alopecia universalis</em> – ie no hair, no eyebrows, no eyelashes. That was five years ago. But, hey, now I've got hair! Of course, it might fall out again. My friend, who has had alopecia since she was four, had her hair come back when she was 18 and then, after about six months of a cute little bob, it all fell out again. So I'm not getting my hopes up. It's been about nine months and I'm enjoying it while I can.</p><p></p><p><strong>Are the eyelashes real?</strong></p><p>Yes, all mine. And I've got my nose hairs back. And, look – my eyebrows have grown in a style! I've not plucked them or anything. But then there are the hairy legs and hairy underarms – I've gone swimming and suddenly thought, oh God, I'd forgotten all about that.</p><p></p><p><strong>Has coming back from baldness involved a mental readjustment?</strong></p><p>It makes me feel better about myself, but I'm not clinging to hope. I'd resigned myself to never having hair again, so I see it as a bonus – a luxury. And I enjoyed being bald. You could have fun with it – if I ever saw paparazzi following I would do the Vulcan sign. One time, I went out with my girlfriends and we all had wigs on that we took off and swapped round and freaked everyone out. Also, it was brilliant maintenance-wise – now it's back to shampoos and conditioners.</p><p></p><p><strong>How has your daughter taken it?</strong></p><p>She's great. She was a bit upset at first, because she loved the fact that Mummy was different and the kids would have great fun with my bald head – they'd rub it and make wishes. But now I think she likes my elfin-type thing. She's not sure if she wants me to have long hair, but I think that might be wishful thinking on my part anyway. I'm just going to stick with the crop at the moment. I had it cut for the first time yesterday. It was quite exciting. It's the first time I've been to the hairdressers in six years.</p><p></p><p><strong>Stress is thought to be a trigger for alopecia. Does this mean you have a less manic life these days?</strong></p><p>I hope so, but I like being busy. I've been doing this documentary about prostitution. It's not something I'd ever really thought about before – the women involved or why they're doing it. I spoke to one woman, who had been hit by her partner and her child was disabled. She'd got into prostitution to support the child and thought she'd get out of it but now she has a criminal record for soliciting and can't get out of it because who'll give her a job? The woman's eyes were filling with tears when I was talking to her. I felt really helpless listening to these stories. You felt the country wasn't doing enough for these women.</p><p></p><p><strong>Have you kept in touch with any of them?</strong></p><p>Yes. I'll be walking through Soho and it's "Hello, Monique!" I like to make friends, and they tell me all their stories over lunch. Two of them Twitter me and one of them is my friend on Facebook. She's mad as a hatter. She's great.</p><p></p><p><strong>So it's not all misery...</strong></p><p>A lot of the women I spoke to said they were happy doing the job. And I met a couple of apparently successful women who have a couple of clients a week because they choose to. But once you delve deeper you find problems in their past – there's never a straight story.</p><p></p><p><strong>You've done a number of quite serious documentaries...</strong></p><p>I did one about inter-country adoption, then another about being blind. I had to learn how to use a stick and they gave me these special glasses where I couldn't see anything. I had to find my way back from Blackpool to London. Trying to use the bathroom on a train was an absolute nightmare. And you could never get anyone to help. Some teenage girls who'd been drinking walked me into a post and ran off. I was quite tearful. I had to meet this blind guy afterwards who had lost his sight when he was 17. He told me all these stories. It was really quite emotional.</p><p></p><p><strong>In your 2007 autobiography, you wrote about depression, self-harming and anorexia. Is it helpful to make films about people less fortunate than yourself?</strong></p><p>I've just come back from Vietnam where I did a trek for the Children's Trust, a charity for children with brain injuries and life-threatening injuries. So it does help you put things in perspective. Some magazine, which I won't name, put me up for bravery awards. What's so brave about being bald? I've not fought for my country or found the cure for cancer – I've just gone out without my hat on! I told them to shove it up their jaxie.</p><p></p><p><strong>You did a standup slot at the Edinburgh TV festival this year. Were you nervous?</strong></p><p>I was, but I'd done it before. I did the Comedy Store last year and it was terrifying. I got up and just froze for about 10 seconds. I forgot everything. But then it was fine. Everyone seemed to clap – and laugh. I don't know if it was sympathy but it was great. I was sick before I went on, but it was great coming off.</p><p></p><p><strong>Did you write your own routine for Edinburgh?</strong></p><p>My friend Russell Kane, the comedian, has been my mentor. He's amazing. He said, draw on any problems you've had and I'm like... I've got a bagful!</p><p></p><p><strong>Anything else in the pipeline?</strong></p><p>There's another couple of documentaries I've been approached for. And I'm still doing things like <em>GMTV</em> and <em>The Wright Stuff </em>on Channel 5. It's like one minute I'm talking about Cheryl Cole buying a new house in America and the next minute I'll be discussing Afghanistan. I love it. When I was bald, I went through a period where I seemed to do nothing except TV programmes about being bald. So, yes, I'm happy. It's all good.</p><p></p><p><em>Gail Porter on Prostitution will be on Current TV on 13 September at 10pm</em></p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/gail-porter">Gail Porter</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/television">Television</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/prostitution">Prostitution</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/philhogan">Phil Hogan</a></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/MtAoUedlL-4LEugHnyUdFwTiffE/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/MtAoUedlL-4LEugHnyUdFwTiffE/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/MtAoUedlL-4LEugHnyUdFwTiffE/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/MtAoUedlL-4LEugHnyUdFwTiffE/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p> Gail Porter Television Prostitution The Observer Interviews Features http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2010/sep/05/gail-porter-tv-presenter-interview Sat, 04 Sep 2010 23:06:13 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/05/portugal-uk-drugs-decriminalisation/print <div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.4/66816?ns=guardian&pageName=Britain%27s+drug+policy+will+not+improve+until+we+are+bold+enough+to+exper%3AArticle%3A1447515&ch=World+news&c3=Obs&c4=Drugs+policy+%28Politics%29%2CPortugal+%28News%29%2CDrugs+illegal+%28Society%29%2CUK+news&c5=Not+commercially+useful%2CPolicy+Society%2CCommunities+Society&c6=Alex+Stevens&c7=10-Sep-05&c8=1447515&c9=Article&c10=Comment&c11=World+news&c13=The+Observer+drugs+debate+%28series%29&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FWorld+news%2FDrugs+policy" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">We can't know the potential benefits of innovations like Portugal's unless we research them, says Alex Stevens</p><p>For years, the UK government has consistently used a myth to stave off any bold innovations in our failing drug policy. It has predicted that liberalisation would inevitably lead to higher rates of drug use and related harms. The example of Portugal seriously challenges this argument.</p><p>The idea that decriminalisation increases drug problems was already on shaky ground. Several countries and US states have reduced or eliminated criminal penalties for drug possession. They do not generally have higher rates of drug use than their neighbours. The rate of cannabis use in the Netherlands, for example, is lower than in the UK, even though the Dutch decriminalised the use of cannabis in 1976. The Portuguese experience again shows that there is no necessary link between the severity of sanctions and rates of drug use. There have been some increases reported in drug use by Portuguese adults since 2001, but these are no greater than those seen in other southern European countries. More important are rates of drug use among children, as they are more vulnerable to the harmful effects of illicit drugs. In Portugal, these rates have fallen since decriminalisation.</p><p>As fewer people were arrested for drug offences, the prison population fell. So did drug use and HIV among prisoners.</p><p>Portugal has also expanded its treatment programmes, including the use of prescribed methadone. This would have reduced deaths and infections even without decriminalisation, as it has elsewhere.</p><p>There are limits to the ability of decriminalisation to deal with harm related to illicit drug markets. The policy has not cleared the dealers off the cobbled streets of Lisbon's Bairro Alto. It cannot eliminate the violence related to the unregulated economy of drug supply. Since decriminalisation, Portugal's murder rate has increased, but it is not known how much of this is linked to the drugs trade. The answer could be to take the business out of the hands of violent criminals by handing it to tightly regulated legal organisations, as has been suggested by the Transform Drug Policy Foundation and others.</p><p>The potential benefits and costs of drug policy innovations will remain incalculable as long as governments refuse to implement and research them. The Portuguese began their apparently beneficial policy only after commissioning research from respected academics. In the UK last autumn, we saw the removal of the government's leading scientific adviser, Professor David Nutt, for daring to tell the truth about its policies on cannabis and ecstasy. Labour and the Conservatives colluded in this denial of the evidence. They are now conspiring to block the creation of more effective, evidence-based policies on alcohol. They have argued against the introduction of a minimum unit price in Scotland on the basis that it is experimental. But without experimentation, how can we create more effective policies?</p><p>Politicians usually only suggest decriminalisation when they are either on the verge of retirement or at the fringes of power. As a young MP, David Cameron himself acknowledged the failures of current policies. He supported fresh thinking on liberalisation, heroin prescription and drug consumption rooms. The Portuguese example suggests he should have the courage of his earlier convictions, now that he is in a position to enact them.</p><p></p><p><em>Alex Stevens is professor of criminal justice at the University of Kent and the author of Drugs, Crime and Public Health (Routledge, 2011)</em></p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/drugspolicy">Drugs policy</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/portugal">Portugal</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/drugs">Drugs</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/alex-stevens">Alex Stevens</a></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/dzBT6Kq7nNqvtHl6_2CTEr0wfKs/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/dzBT6Kq7nNqvtHl6_2CTEr0wfKs/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/dzBT6Kq7nNqvtHl6_2CTEr0wfKs/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/dzBT6Kq7nNqvtHl6_2CTEr0wfKs/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p> Drugs policy Portugal Drugs UK news The Observer Comment http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/05/portugal-uk-drugs-decriminalisation Sat, 04 Sep 2010 23:01:58 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/sep/14/big-society-community-projects/print <div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.4/69906?ns=guardian&pageName=The+%27big+society%27+must+be+more+than+a+professional+feelgood+exercise+%7C+R%3AArticle%3A1446415&ch=Comment+is+free&c3=GU.co.uk&c4=David+Cameron%2CPolitics%2CPublic+services+policy+%28Society%29%2CVolunteering+%28Society%29%2CVoluntary+sector+%28Society%29%2CCommunities+%28Society%29%2CSociety&c5=Society+Weekly%2CPolicy+Society%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CCommunities+Society%2CSocial+Care+Society&c6=Ryan+Shorthouse&c7=10-Sep-04&c8=1446415&c9=Article&c10=Comment&c11=Comment+is+free&c13=&c25=Comment+is+free&c30=content&h2=GU%2FComment+is+free%2Fblog%2FComment+is+free" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">Give the poor and deprived a chance to lead community projects</p><p>Project Cameron needs to be more than just a rerun of one-nation Toryism: simply trusting the free market to increase revenues for the Treasury, funding welfarism for those left behind. Such paternalism is reassuring for the socially conscious middle-classes, knowing taxes and a bit of charity is supporting those less fortunate. Financial redistribution is admirable, and somewhat effective. But real, lasting impact occurs when those from the poorest backgrounds are empowered and encouraged to change their own circumstances and community.</p><p>Cameron's "big society" cannot just be a feel-good exercise for the middle-classes, jumping on the bandwagon of social justice to do their bit for the underprivileged who have been hit hard by the emergency budget. It's got to be a new chapter in Tory history. To be truly transformational, Cameronism needs to give more of those from the most deprived backgrounds the impulse and resources to volunteer and lead projects in their local estates and communities, so they make themselves more employable, inspire others, generate trust, reduce crime and increase wellbeing in a sustainable way.</p><p>It's happening already, with dedicated local people – trusted and respected in the community – achieving unbelievably positive social outcomes. But a research project jointly run by the <a href="http://www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/" title="National Council for Voluntary Organisations">National Council for Voluntary Organisations</a> and the <a href="http://www.ivr.org.uk/" title="Institute for Volunteering Research">Institute for Volunteering Research</a> has identified that those with higher qualifications, greater affluence and more managerial jobs are more likely to be formal volunteers.</p><p>To compete in the jobs market, ambitious professionals recognise volunteering can develop skills and score CV points. Three-quarters of Britain's biggest employers prefer people with volunteering experience and 90% of volunteers say it helped them get an increase in salary or gain promotion.</p><p>Robert Putnam, the author of <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bowling-Alone-Collapse-American-Community/dp/0743203046" title="Amazon: Bowling Alone">Bowling Alone: The collapse and Revival of American Community</a>, predicted more young people would volunteer once they discovered how much employers rated it. With the standardisation of certain academic qualifications – a 2:1 degree, three As at A-level – and a tough labour market, a quarter of young people seek volunteer opportunities to stand out from the crowd. And it's easier for those from more affluent backgrounds to forgo a part-time job at university, during summer holidays or even after graduating in order to volunteer.</p><p>Professionals in larger companies – who tend to be paid more – also have greater opportunities to volunteer because of the bigger budgets available for companies to prove their corporate social responsibility, crucial for recruiting increasingly ethically minded staff and enhancing brand reputation, and to provide paid leave for volunteering, realising it is a cost-effective way of training staff. The problem for smaller companies is that staff absences are felt more keenly.</p><p>Affluent professionals volunteering can yield fantastic results for local communities. But the issue is that fewer than half of volunteers do so once a month or more. Volunteering can be sporadic. There is a danger that we let recipients become reliant on well-trained, articulate professionals to catalyse civic action which is episodic or without a long-term future, losing the positivity that emerges from social action. The most successful community projects I've seen and been involved in give the reins to local people. So what we really need is activists born from the local area, providing a sustainable, tailored service that inspires others, providing regular opportunities for young people and support for the vulnerable.</p><p>Research suggests that the principal obstacle to volunteering is time. Especially for those on low incomes in London, there is a greater incentive not to volunteer but instead work further hours because of the prospect of and need for greater returns when living costs are high and rise steeply because of enormous inequality. It's somewhat easier for those on higher incomes because their employers can provide paid leave for volunteering. For the entrepreneurial who need capital to fund start-up projects, the affluent can tap into personal savings. The poorest, meanwhile, don't have this luxury, face bureaucratic obstacles for external funding, or may find investors' money drying up now budgets are contracting thanks to troubled economic times.</p><p>A new <a href="http://www.jrf.org.uk/publications/community-bradford-white-estates" title="Joseph Rowntree Foundation: Participation and community on Bradfords traditionally white estates">Joseph Rowntree Foundation report by Jenny Pearce and EJ Milne</a> examining participatory activity on low-income estates in Bradford shows residents feelings of shame because of their economic status, the fear of crime, rushing traffic, violence and lack of understanding between different ethnicities all have an impact on participation in communal life. So Cameron needs to look at policies that resolve these issues, alongside the strong financial disincentive not to volunteer or set up projects, to bolster volunteering rates among lower socio-economic groups.</p><p>The big society cannot just be a trend for cuddly, compassionate professionals, dipping in and out of civic activity. More of those on low incomes need to be empowered to lead civic activity, to be role models, build social trust and ensure long-term support in communities. If David Cameron can implement policies that will enable more people from all backgrounds to be beneficiaries and deliverers of the big society, Cameronism will truly be an innovative radical approach, not just old-fashioned paternalism.</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/davidcameron">David Cameron</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/policy">Public services policy</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/volunteering">Volunteering</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/voluntarysector">Voluntary sector</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/communities">Communities</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/ryan-shorthouse">Ryan Shorthouse</a></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/ypE6JN6MFTxxpr1ho5q_B-mlyZo/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/ypE6JN6MFTxxpr1ho5q_B-mlyZo/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/ypE6JN6MFTxxpr1ho5q_B-mlyZo/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/ypE6JN6MFTxxpr1ho5q_B-mlyZo/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p> David Cameron Politics Public services policy Volunteering Voluntary sector Communities Society guardian.co.uk Comment http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/sep/14/big-society-community-projects Sat, 04 Sep 2010 15:30:53 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/sep/04/jamie-carragher-testimonial-liverpool-everton/print <div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.4/93231?ns=guardian&pageName=Jamie+Carragher+scores+for+both+teams+in+Liverpool+testimonial%3AArticle%3A1447533&ch=Football&c3=Guardian&c4=Jamie+Carragher%2CLiverpool+FC+%28Football%29%2CEverton+%28Football%29%2CFootball%2CSport%2CCharities+%28Society%29&c5=Europa+League%2CCharities%2CPremier+League&c6=Press+Association&c7=10-Sep-04&c8=1447533&c9=Article&c10=&c11=Football&c13=&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FFootball%2FJamie+Carragher" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">• 35,631 fans come to Anfield to show support<br />• All proceeds to go to local charities</p><p>Jamie Carragher marked his big day with a goal for each side as his Liverpool team rolled back the years in beating an Everton XI in his testimonial at Anfield.</p><p>The 32-year-old defender scored from the spot in the first half for the Reds before converting a penalty own-goal for the club he supported as a boy after the break.</p><p>The England captain, Steven Gerrard, played the opening 10 minutes of the match, before being replaced.</p><p>After Luis Garcia's second-minute opener the veteran defender Carragher claimed the spotlight as he celebrated 14 years' professional service with the Reds. The teams looked one-sided as Carragher was able to call on favours from current team-mates Gerrard and Joe Cole as well as former club-mates Michael Owen, Luis García, Emile Heskey, Danny Murphy and Jerzy Dudek.</p><p>But if you were being charitable to Everton, managed by David Moyes, you could say they did not want to spoil the occasion.</p><p>Gerrard, given dispensation by Fabio Capello after featuring in England's 4-0 victory over Bulgaria last night, played the opening 10 minutes before being replaced by Murphy. On the bench the former Reds manager Gérard Houllier warmed up for a possible Premier League return with Aston Villa by sitting alongside the current Liverpool manager, Roy Hodgson.</p><p>The Manchester United striker Owen assumed the role of pantomime villain with a mixed chorus of boos and cheers from the crowd of 35,631 greeting his every touch. He played up to his new status when his shot struck Jose Baxter's arm for the 44th-minute penalty, pretending to lay claim to the spot-kick before allowing Carragher to take two steps and roll the ball past Iain Turner.</p><p>The referee Mark Halsey had previously provided the comedy moment when he delivered a slap around the head to Lee Carsley after booking the Everton midfielder for theatrically kicking the ball away.</p><p>Luis García's goal after being set up by Cole and Heskey on the right of the penalty area was a sign of things to come. Owen had a shot tipped around the post, Luis García sidefooted wide Cole's cross, Heskey – as he often did in a Liverpool shirt – squandered a great chance when he skewed well off target after being put through and Murphy also rolled a shot wide.</p><p>In the second half Cole volleyed in his first goal at Anfield – having missed a penalty at the ground in the Europa League qualifier against Rabotnicki – from Ryan Babel's cross and the reserve team striker Nathan Eccleston fired home.</p><p>In between Carragher fouled James Vaughan and saved the Everton player the trouble by shooting past Brad Jones, making his first appearance in a Liverpool shirt after signing last month from Middlesbrough. Carragher is hoping to raise £1m for his 23 Foundation from this game and a gala dinner, with proceeds going to local groups and charities.</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/jamie-carragher">Jamie Carragher</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/liverpool">Liverpool</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/everton">Everton</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/charities">Charities</a></li></ul></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" /> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/iuzdy__Qt4JRnI5AHndDgYsw1CM/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/iuzdy__Qt4JRnI5AHndDgYsw1CM/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/iuzdy__Qt4JRnI5AHndDgYsw1CM/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/iuzdy__Qt4JRnI5AHndDgYsw1CM/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p> Jamie Carragher Liverpool Everton Football Sport Charities The Guardian Editorial http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/sep/04/jamie-carragher-testimonial-liverpool-everton Sat, 04 Sep 2010 15:29:41 GMT