http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk 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 18:42:00 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds 15 http://image.guardian.co.uk/sitecrumbs/Guardian.gif http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/sep/04/john-prescott-phone-hacking-scandal/print <div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.4/45795?ns=guardian&pageName=John+Prescott+furious+over+unrevealed+link+to+phone-hacking+scandal%3AArticle%3A1447557&ch=Media&c3=Obs&c4=News+of+the+World+phone-hacking+scandal%2CJohn+Prescott%2CAndy+Coulson+%28Media%29%2CDavid+Cameron%2CPress+and+publishing%2CNewspapers%2CNews+of+the+World%2CNational+newspapers+UK+%28media%29%2CMedia%2CPolitics%2CUK+news&c5=Press+Media%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CMedia+Weekly&c6=Toby+Helm%2CJamie+Doward&c7=10-Sep-04&c8=1447557&c9=Article&c10=News&c11=Media&c13=&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FMedia%2FNews+of+the+World+phone-hacking+scandal" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">Documents held by Metropolitan police suggest News of the World targeted former deputy prime minister</p><p>John Prescott tonight demanded the Metropolitan police reopen its investigation into the <em>News of the World</em> phone-hacking scandal as the <em>Observer </em>revealed that Scotland Yard holds News International documents suggesting that he was a target when deputy prime minister.</p><p>Two invoices held by the Met mention Prescott by name. They appear to show that News International, owner of the <em>NoW</em>, paid Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator at the heart of the scandal, for his help on stories relating to the deputy PM. Lord Prescott spoke of his anger that the information, spelled out in a letter from the Yard's legal services directorate, emerged only after he was given a series of personal reassurances by detectives at the highest level that there was "no evidence" his phone may have been hacked.</p><p>The invoices are both dated May 2006, at a time when Prescott was the subject of intense media scrutiny following revelations that he had had an affair with his secretary, Tracey Temple. There is also a piece of paper obtained from Mulcaire on which the name "John Prescott" is written. The only other legible word on this document is "Hull".</p><p>The name "Prescott" appears on two "self-billing tax invoices" from News International Supply Company Ltd to Mulcaire's company, Nine Consultancy.</p><p>The Yard's letter, obtained by the <em>Observer</em>, states: "One appears to be for a single payment of £250 on 7/5/2006 labelled 'Story: other Prescott Assist -txt.' The second, also for £250, on 21/5/2006 contains the words 'Story: Other Prescott Assist -txt urgent'."</p><p>The legal services directorate adds: "We do not know what this means or what it is referring to."</p><p>In a statement to the <em>Observer,</em> Prescott said he formed the impression that the police were more intent on withholding information relating directly to him. "I have been far from satisfied with the Metropolitan police's procedure in dealing with my requests to uncover the truth about this case," he said.</p><p>"It seemed more about providing the least possible amount of information. I only discovered from the Metropolitan police that News International and Mulcaire were targeting me after repeated requests and in the end it came from their legal department, not the investigating officers."</p><p>Prescott said the letter showed there was "a compelling argument to reopen the police investigation and fully report on the findings to the public".</p><p>He added that he was pressing for full disclosure of all documents – including the invoices – and was prepared to seek their release through a judicial review. "We need far greater transparency to ensure not only that justice is done but that it is seen to be done."</p><p>Prescott's intervention follows a week in which the phone-hacking row was reignited by investigations carried out by the <em>New York Times</em> which raised questions about Scotland Yard's enthusiasm for pursuing the inquiry. The row has intensified the pressure on Andy Coulson, David Cameron's director of communications, who was editor of the <em>NoW</em> at the time of the scandal.</p><p>Peter Mandelson also became embroiled in the row last night with the <em>Independent on Sunday</em> revealing his mobile phone details were among lists of private data seized by police investigating illegal activity by <em>News of the World</em> reporters.</p><p>With MPs due to return to Westminster tomorrow, Labour leadership contenders Ed Balls and Ed Miliband said the allegations threw Cameron's judgment into question.</p><p>Balls called for the home secretary, Theresa May, to make an immediate statement about the phone-hacking affair to the Commons. He said: "This goes to the integrity of the criminal law, proper investigation and government communication, and there will be questions over David Cameron's judgment if he doesn't see the seriousness of this now.</p><p>"We need to know that this is going to be properly investigated. It does go to the heart of the integrity of communications in government. When there are now serious and new allegations and questions over Andy Coulson's integrity, that's something which has to be sorted out quickly and I hope David Cameron will do so. You can't just dismiss this as a piece of politics."</p><p>Miliband later said: "Instead of sending out a junior minister to just dismiss the allegations and not even engage with them, we need to hear from David Cameron and senior people in the Conservative party about what Andy Coulson's response is to these clear and detailed allegations. Until that happens, a cloud will hang over Andy Coulson, and indeed the government, because this is the man in charge of the government's media machine. He is not some junior office boy – this is someone at the highest level of government."</p><p>Prescott has placed intense pressure on the Met to reveal what material it has on him. Last September, the Met's assistant commissioner, John Yates, assured him there was no evidence to suggest his phone had been hacked. But Naz Saleh, the Met's assistant director of legal services, then admitted, following a further search, that it held information suggesting that Prescott had been a "person of interest to Mr Mulcaire".</p><p>The international development minister, Alan Duncan, said: "The Labour party – in a concerted campaign through Ed Miliband, Lord Prescott and Alan Johnson – have piled in to attack Andy Coulson about something that happened years ago in order to try to attack the government."</p><p>In a statement released yesterday, the <em>News of the World</em> said: "The <em>New York Times</em> story contains no new evidence – it relies on unsubstantiated allegations from unnamed sources or claims from disgruntled former employees that should be treated with extreme scepticism given the reasons for their departures from this newspaper."</p><p>A spokeswoman for News International declined to comment on information appearing to show it paid Mulcaire for help relating to stories about Prescott. However, NI sources said it often paid for help during its many investigations and the invoices – if genuine – were no proof of illegality.</p><p>The Met said no new evidence had emerged and "consequently the investigation remains closed".</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/news-of-the-world-phone-hacking">News of the World phone-hacking scandal</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/johnprescott">John Prescott</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/andy-coulson">Andy Coulson</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/davidcameron">David Cameron</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pressandpublishing">Newspapers & magazines</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/newspapers">Newspapers</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/newsoftheworld">News of the World</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/national-newspapers">National newspapers</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/tobyhelm">Toby Helm</a></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/jamiedoward">Jamie Doward</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/EHEPC35qLgtlsKfZB4lybcjTiNQ/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/EHEPC35qLgtlsKfZB4lybcjTiNQ/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/EHEPC35qLgtlsKfZB4lybcjTiNQ/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/EHEPC35qLgtlsKfZB4lybcjTiNQ/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p> News of the World phone-hacking scandal John Prescott Andy Coulson David Cameron Newspapers & magazines Newspapers News of the World National newspapers Media Politics UK news The Observer News http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/sep/04/john-prescott-phone-hacking-scandal Sat, 04 Sep 2010 21:39:12 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/sep/05/tony-blair-gordon-brown-uk-troops/print <div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.4/29180?ns=guardian&pageName=Tony+Blair+and+Gordon+Brown+let+UK+troops+down%2C+ex-army+chief+says%3AArticle%3A1447580&ch=UK+news&c3=GU.co.uk&c4=Military+UK%2CRichard+Dannatt%2CUK+news%2CTony+Blair%2CGordon+Brown%2CPolitics%2CLabour&c5=Not+commercially+useful&c6=Richard+Norton-Taylor&c7=10-Sep-05&c8=1447580&c9=Article&c10=News&c11=UK+news&c13=&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FUK+news%2FMilitary" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">General Sir Richard Dannatt hits out at former chancellor for failing to fund armed forces adequately and accuses Blair of lacking 'moral courage'</p><p>General Sir Richard Dannatt, the former head of the army, today unleashed years of bitter frustration at the way his troops were treated, accusing Tony Blair of lacking "moral courage" and Gordon Brown of being a "malign" influence by preventing the armed forces getting the funds they needed.</p><p>Damning criticism of his political masters, coupled with a stinging sideswipe at the present chief of defence staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, appear in Dannatt's memoirs, Leading From the Front. They reflect the turmoil at the heart of a defence establishment trying to conduct extremely difficult military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan during Labour's later years .</p><p>Dannatt, extracts of whose memoirs appeared in the Sunday Telegraph, did not make life easy for defence ministers as he publicly criticised the handling of the invasion of Iraq and its aftermath soon after his appointment as head of the army in 2006. He accepted a job as defence adviser to David Cameron, then leader of the opposition, before he left the army last year. While he forfeited potential support and influence, Dannatt's criticisms nevertheless reflect deep concerns expressed privately by many senior defence officials at the time and since his retirement. "If he felt so strongly why didn't he feel it necessary to resign?" said Colonel Richard Kemp, a former commander of British forces in Helmand, southern Afghanistan.</p><p>Lord Guthrie, a former head of the army and chief of defence staff at the time of the Kosovo war, said: "Blair was supportive, Brown wasn't. Blair did not deliver Brown." The armed forces, and the army in particular, suffered because of the damaging clashes between Blair and Brown, Guthrie added.</p><p>"History will pass judgment on these foreign adventures in due course," Dannatt wrote referring to Iraq and Afghanistan. He added: "But, in my view, Gordon Brown's malign intervention when chancellor on the [1998 defence] review by refusing to fund what his own government had agreed fatally flawed the entire process from the outset. The seeds were there by sown for some of the impossible operational pressures to come."</p><p>Dannatt continued: "Why didn't Tony Blair resolve this problem ... I was forced to the conclusion that he lacked the moral courage to impose his will on his own chancellor."</p><p>Dannatt told the Sunday Telegraph: "To me it seems extraordinary that the prime minister, the number one guy, cannot crack the whip sufficiently to his very close friend apparently, his next door neighbour, the chancellor."</p><p>He also warned the coalition government that continuing the present rate of causalities in Afghanistan – where more than 100 service personnel were killed last year – was unacceptable. "We've got to have cracked it by 2014/2015. You couldn't ask an organisation to go on taking this level of causalities for 10 years."</p><p>The Ministry of Defence announced that a soldier from the Royal Scots Borderers, serving as part of a reconnaissance force in Helmand was killed in an explosion today in the Nad-e-Ali district.</p><p>Dannatt commented in his memoirs that Stirrup was a fast jet pilot who "although brilliant at what he did, could not have been expected to understand the sights, sounds and smells or the battlefield".</p><p>He added: "You don't have time to pick up body parts and decide who lives and who dies when you're in a cockpit flying at the speed of sound."</p><p>Stirrup is to retire as chief of the defence staff next month after the conclusion of the government's defence review. He will be succeeded by General Sir David Richards, who succeeded Dannatt as head of the army last year.</p><p>Sir Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat's foreign and defence expert, told the Guardian today: "However well founded [Dannatt's] criticisms are, they will inevitably be dismissed as politically motivated." However, he added: "The current defence review must clearly take account of the volume of evidence that British forces were poorly provided for in the first instance in Iraq and Afghanistan."</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/military">Military</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/richard-dannatt">Richard Dannatt</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/tonyblair">Tony Blair</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/gordon-brown">Gordon Brown</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/richardnortontaylor">Richard Norton-Taylor</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/M76c-dn0-uFrmKxgmXKWLo04zLA/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/M76c-dn0-uFrmKxgmXKWLo04zLA/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/M76c-dn0-uFrmKxgmXKWLo04zLA/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/M76c-dn0-uFrmKxgmXKWLo04zLA/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p> Military Richard Dannatt UK news Tony Blair Gordon Brown Politics Labour guardian.co.uk News http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/sep/05/tony-blair-gordon-brown-uk-troops Sun, 05 Sep 2010 16:35:00 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.20.4/18480?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/lowqKPQLLsNK4eqSJGc7fKvM4LI/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/lowqKPQLLsNK4eqSJGc7fKvM4LI/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/lowqKPQLLsNK4eqSJGc7fKvM4LI/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/lowqKPQLLsNK4eqSJGc7fKvM4LI/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/sport/davehillblog/2010/sep/05/london-marathon-running-kew-gardens-to-richmond-park/print <div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.4/73937?ns=guardian&pageName=Running+London%3A+Kew+Gardens+to+Richmond+Park%3AArticle%3A1447674&ch=Sport&c3=GU.co.uk&c4=London+Marathon%2CRunning+%28fitness%29&c5=Triathalon%2COutdoor+and+Active&c6=Dave+Hill&c7=10-Sep-05&c8=1447674&c9=Article&c10=Blogpost&c11=Sport&c13=&c25=Dave+Hill%27s+London+blog&c30=content&h2=GU%2FSport%2FLondon+Marathon" width="1" height="1" /></div><p>I had a plan for this installment of my zig-zag run across the full and fearsome width of Greater London – part of my training programme for next year's <a href="http://www.virginlondonmarathon.com/">London Marathon</a>, if you don't mind my drawing this fact to <a href="http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/showFundraiserProfilePage.action?userUrl=DaveHillGuardian">the attention of your social conscience</a>. The plan was to strike out from Kew Gardens station in the royal borough of Richmond-upon-Thames where I'd <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/davehillblog/2010/aug/30/running-london-marathon-training-hounslow-kew-gardens">broken off a week before</a>, work my way down to the vast pampas of <a href="http://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/richmond_park/index.cfm">Richmond Park</a> and run its entire north-south length, emerging triumphantly in the neighbouring and equally royal borough of Kingston-upon Thames. It didn't work out that way. Here's how.</p><p>I should have prepared more carefully. I should have remembered that cemeteries tend to have only way in and out (except if you're dead, when your options are still more limited). I should also, perhaps, have known things weren't going to go quite right when I found even the gentle trot down Mortlake Road with which Leg 4 of Running London began quite heavy work. </p><p>That road bisects two of Richmond borough's seemingly <a href="http://www.richmond.gov.uk/home/community_and_living/deaths/burial/cemeteries.htm">numerous graveyards</a>, the North Sheen (also known as Fulham New) and Mortlake (also known as Hammersmith New) both of which are actually managed by Hammersmith and Fulham Council. I turned into the latter, partly just because I could and partly because I'm as morbidly drawn to cemeteries as the next person who's morbidly drawn to cemeteries. </p><p>I was mildly uneasy about this decision - is it disrespectful to run in a graveyard? - but there was no one else around and I've a vaguely civic sense that the unsung achievements of graveyard design deserve greater appreciation. And I did appreciate Mortlake cemetery (also known as Hammersmith New), which has a gracious circular layout at its core and no doubt plenty else to recommend it, including its <a href="http://www.mortlakecrematorium.org/">crematorium</a>. However, it did not have an entrance-and-exit facility on the side furthest from the one I'd used to get in, which meant that after heading speculatively down various avenues between headstones marbled and mossy alike I was left no choice but to loop back on myself and rejoin Mortlake Road.</p><p>Now I came to <a href="http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/media/newscentre/archive/4295.aspx">Chalker's Corner</a>, a growling five-way junction controlled by a complex configuration of traffic lights that maliciously conspires against pedestrians. Unwilling to stop running while waiting for green men to appear, I was reduced to oscillating absurdly back and forth along a pedestrian island about twenty feet in length, nervously anticipating wisecracks by idling motorists.</p><p>Clifford Avenue took me across the railway line along which South West Trains run services from Waterloo. A right turn took me along Upper Richmond Road and then I was looking for a way into the park. Another bone garden came to my aid – or so I thought. I accessed it by way of the discreet Sheen Common Drive (Or was it Kings Ride? Or both?) and then I was labouring up a gentle but long slope into East Sheen cemetery. Where was I heading apart from, quite possibly, the fires of Hell? I tacked right, passing two men leaning on shovels next to a mound of earth. There were flowers, tender messages, faded favours. I kept running. Was this really another cul-de-sac of death? </p><p>Of course it was, idiot. Too annoyed and embarrassed to retrace my steps, I spotted the border fence and plunged through head-high fronds to get to it. The wooden fence too was almost head-high. Beyond, lay houses and roads. I shinned up the fence only at the third attempt and dropped down on the other side, dreading a sprained ankle or some horrified resident shouting "Oi!" Where was I? The park was to my left, but I could see no way in. There were some grand-looking houses mustered behind grand-looking iron gates, which announced themselves as the portal to <a href="http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-26638858.html">St George's Square</a>. Not a place for loitering, even had I intended to. </p><p>I ran vaguely down whatever looked least like a dead end, then took a left and back on a non-residential road: Queen's Road, though it ought to re-named Queen's Very Steep Hill. I was close by a pub called (confusingly) the <a href="http://www.yelp.co.uk/biz/lass-o-richmond-hill-richmond">Lass O' Richmond Hill</a> when my left calf started to protest. I ignored it at first, but the nearer I struggled to the top of the hill the clearer it became that my run was about to end prematurely after just 35 minutes. I limped to the summit, hobbled through Richmond Gate and instead of striding joyful on sat down on the trunk of a fallen tree and did a spot of swearing instead. Then I dragged myself back down the hill to wait for a <a href="http://www.londonbusroutes.net/times/371.htm">Number 371</a> to rescue me. It wasn't too long coming. Well, something had to go right eventually. </p><p><strong>Margin notes</strong>: I ran this frustrating and, ah, damaged leg on Saturday 31 July, directly after appearing on Ken Livingstone's radio programme. I blame him.</p><p><strong>Training notes</strong>: Don't ask.</p><p><strong>Fund-raising notes</strong>: Inching towards that psychologically-important £200 mark as I write. Go on, <a href="http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/showFundraiserProfilePage.action?userUrl=DaveHillGuardian">bring me joy</a>.</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/london-marathon">London Marathon</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/running">Running</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/davehill">Dave Hill</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/J44Iz2HILRZuMqj4izwAm7ffxKg/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/J44Iz2HILRZuMqj4izwAm7ffxKg/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/J44Iz2HILRZuMqj4izwAm7ffxKg/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/J44Iz2HILRZuMqj4izwAm7ffxKg/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p> London Marathon Running guardian.co.uk Blogposts http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/davehillblog/2010/sep/05/london-marathon-running-kew-gardens-to-richmond-park Sun, 05 Sep 2010 18:37:01 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/sep/05/twitter-power-social-networking-music/print <div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.4/7015?ns=guardian&pageName=Twitter+power%3A+how+social+networking+is+revolutionising+the+music+busine%3AArticle%3A1447680&ch=Media&c3=Guardian&c4=Social+networking%2CMedia%2CMusic%2CMusic+industry+%28Business+sector%29%2CBusiness%2CUK+news&c5=Business+Markets%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CMedia+Weekly%2CFamily+and+Relationships&c6=Alexandra+Topping&c7=10-Sep-05&c8=1447680&c9=Article&c10=News&c11=Media&c13=&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FMedia%2FSocial+networking" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">A&R men and other traditional insiders bypassed as new sites connect artists directly to fans</p><p>In decades gone by, misunderstood teens with questionable personal hygiene would gather in cramped independent record stores to share excitement about new music, enthuse about rare singles and discover other lost souls&nbsp;with a passion for southern Californian cowpunk.</p><p>But with the number of independent record stores in terminal decline and the boundaries of the internet limitless, online music social networks have sprung up to meet the demands of gregarious music lovers who want to share ideas and loves.</p><p>Tuesday sees the launch of The Pic-Nic Village, a new social networking site created by Pete Lawrence, founder of the Big Chill festival, which will be funded and run entirely by its users – the most recent of a wave of music social networking sites that is revolutionising the way people discover music. The new social network Meanwhile Ping, launched last week and based on iTunes, has already attracted more than 1 million users, according to Apple. Ping, which focuses purely on music, lets users follow their friends and favourite artists to discover what music they're talking about, listening to and downloading. It is taking on established rivals such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.</p><p>Social networks were putting the power of discovery into the hands of fans, said Dave Haynes of Soundcloud, another social network where artists can share music. "In the past, there were just a few gatekeepers to music, and you had a powerful network of labels, A&R men, radio and TV executives and magazines who decided what you should be listening to. Now, it's so much easier to find out what your friends are listening to or what other people who like the same music on the other side of the world are recommending."</p><p>The traditional bearded men behind the counter of record stores, ready with dozens of new music recommendations, haven't gone, he said. "Lots of those men behind counters have just moved online now, broadcasting their tastes and acting as arbiters. Now they can reach a more specific and worldwide audience rather than just the people in their shop."</p><p>More artists are using social networking sites to bypass the traditional media. This weekend, rapper Kanye West took to Twitter to tell his side of the MTV Video Music awards controversy where he grabbed the microphone from country music sweetheart Taylor Swift and announced that his friend Beyoncé should have won.</p><p>On Saturday he apologised, saying as a result of the debacle he had to cancel his tour with Lady Gaga and lost employees. He wrote: "Man I love Twitter … I've always been at the mercy of the press but no more … The media tried&nbsp;to demonise me".</p><p>Music blogger Bob Lefsetz pointed out that historically in music there has been a buffer between star and audience, but thanks to social networking sites the barriers were coming down. "It was like everybody with a media profile had a coach. And if you disobeyed him, you were booted from the team," he wrote. "But now, through the magic of the web, through the magic of Twitter, a celebrity can speak directly to his audience, can tell his side of the story, sans the reinterpretation and the agenda of the media."</p><p>Sites enable smaller labels and less mainstream artists to spread the word about their talents, said David Emery of Beggars Group, a collection of independent record labels. "Word of mouth has always been incredibly important to us and now it's easier than ever to get the word out there," he said. Different networks play different roles, he added. "Twitter is great for artists interacting directly with fans, like MIA, who has millions of followers and will do things like make a video on her phone and post it on Twitter. That is so much more powerful than traditional marketing. But Facebook is a powerful method of direct marketing. It's less personal, but fans don't seem to mind that."</p><p>By collaborating with big record labels and corporate giants desperate to get hold of users' personal data, social networks risk alienating the people they are attempting to bring together, said Lawrence, whose social networking site for "creatives" launches tomorrow. Pic-Nic Village will be subscription-based but will have no sponsorship, no company with a turnover of more than £5m will be able to invest in it and no stakeholder will be able to own more than 20% of the shares – issues such as privacy, which has proved problematic on social networking sites, will be treated with great care, he said.</p><p>The Pic-Nic Village – which will be funded by its users – will try to recapture the community and village feel that was demonstrated in the early days of the Big Chill festival, where ideas were shared on the festivals forums. "Festivals are stuck in the mud, the costs are fixed and one or two companies control the whole business.</p><p>"The Pic-Nic village will help people in the community put on events for themselves."</p><p>People were becoming more concerned about data mining and heavy-handed marketing, he added. "What we are trying to do is put the heart and soul back into online music communities. People need a place where they can enthuse and discover and they are doing it for the love of it, rather than the profit factor. Music is too important to be left in the hands of the music business."</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/socialnetworking">Social networking</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/musicindustry">Music industry</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/alexandratopping">Alexandra Topping</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/4zV-xqjegHWNfl3Vuz41Vrm3rTI/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/4zV-xqjegHWNfl3Vuz41Vrm3rTI/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/4zV-xqjegHWNfl3Vuz41Vrm3rTI/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/4zV-xqjegHWNfl3Vuz41Vrm3rTI/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p> Social networking Media Music Music industry Business UK news The Guardian News http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/sep/05/twitter-power-social-networking-music Sun, 05 Sep 2010 18:14:06 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/sep/05/michael-gove-baccalaureate-gcse/print <div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.4/94447?ns=guardian&pageName=Michael+Gove+wants+baccalaureate+qualification+for+England%3AArticle%3A1447681&ch=Politics&c3=Guardian&c4=Michael+Gove%2CEducation+policy%2CPolitics%2CGCSEs%2CSchools%2CEducation%2CEd+Balls&c5=Policy+Society%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CEducation+Weekly+Education%2CSchools+Education&c6=Patrick+Wintour&c7=10-Sep-05&c8=1447681&c9=Article&c10=News&c11=Politics&c13=&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FPolitics%2FMichael+Gove" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">Pupils with five GCSEs would gain the proposed certificate as 'special recognition', says education secretary</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>The education secretary, Michael Gove, today announced plans to combat the decline in exam standards by proposing an English baccalaureate qualification to recognise the achievements of GCSE students who complete a broad course of studies.</p><p>The "English bac" would not replace GCSEs, but would be a certificate to reward pupils who pass at least five of the exams, at grade C or above including English, maths, one science, one foreign language and one humanity. "If you get five GCSEs in those areas, I think you should be entitled to special recognition," Gove said.</p><p>The details will be set out in a white paper in the autumn, but Gove will flesh out some aspects in a speech tomorrow, seen by Labour as an attempt to divert attention from the fact that he is only able to announce 17 new free schools.</p><p>Ed Balls, the shadow education secretary, said it was laughable that Gove claimed he was on course to succeed with plans for new schools set up by parents and teachers.</p><p>Gove also revealed plans to "declutter" A-levels, slimming down the number of modules and exams faced by students in order to allow them more time for extra-curricular pursuits such as art, music and sport, as well as "deep study" in their chosen subjects.</p><p>Speaking on BBC1's Andrew Marr Show, Gove said he wanted to "transform the accountability systems, the league tables, the whole qualification system in this country".</p><p>GCSE league tables obscured the exams pupils are taking and hide the flight from languages and tougher subjects such as science, his aides said. The education secretary was not seeking to instruct pupils what exams to take, but the baccalaureate would be a way of rewarding those that took a wider range of subjects.</p><p>Gove said the narrowing of the range of exams being taken was "depriving young people of the things they should get from education, which is a rounded sense of how to understand this world in all its complexity and richness. "If you don't understand science and you don't understand other cultures, you are deliberately cutting yourself off from the best that is going on in our world."Gove said he was "very attracted" by the baccalaureate systems operated by many European and Asian countries which deliver a broader educational curriculum than in England.</p><p>"One of the concerns about the English education system is that people's options are narrowed too early," he said.</p><p>"I am deeply concerned that fewer and fewer students are studying languages, it not only breeds insularity, it means an integral part of the brain's learning capacity rusts unused.</p><p>"I am determined that we step up the number of students studying proper science subjects. Asian countries massively outstrip us in the growth of scientific learning and they are already reaping the cultural and economic benefits."</p><p>The percentage of pupils gaining a baccalaureate would be included in school league tables, allowing parents to assess which schools were likely to give their children a broad academic education.</p><p>Gove's aides said the policy of "equivalence" introduced in 2004, under which vocational qualifications were given parity with academic exams when compiling league tables, had led to perverse incentives for schools to put children through easier courses.</p><p>Gove made clear that he intended to retain A-levels, but said it was important to ensure they "remain a proper preparation for university", and he has asked universities to contribute to reform of the system.</p><p>"There are parents who worry that what used to be a clear two-year run during the sixth form – when you had the chance to do sport and art and music as well as getting into deep study – has become cluttered up by too many modules, too many exams, which have led to too much time being spent weighing what you know and not enough time actually getting to grips with the subject," he said.</p><p>Balls said: "If Michael Gove was serious about making sure young people get a broad and balanced education, he would not be scrapping diplomas or saying vocational qualifications should count for less in school-to-school comparison."</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/michaelgove">Michael Gove</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/education">Education policy</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/gcses">GCSEs</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/schools">Schools</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/edballs">Ed Balls</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/patrickwintour">Patrick Wintour</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/UcurLA7nBJx_lOJZ6fJPLxaE9O8/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/UcurLA7nBJx_lOJZ6fJPLxaE9O8/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/UcurLA7nBJx_lOJZ6fJPLxaE9O8/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/UcurLA7nBJx_lOJZ6fJPLxaE9O8/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p> Michael Gove Education policy Politics GCSEs Schools Education Ed Balls The Guardian News http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/sep/05/michael-gove-baccalaureate-gcse Sun, 05 Sep 2010 17:46:26 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/sep/05/police-sergeant-suspended-assault-woman/print <div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.4/26674?ns=guardian&pageName=Police+sergeant+suspended+after+assault+on+woman%3AArticle%3A1447585&ch=UK+news&c3=Guardian&c4=Police+and+policing%2CUK+news&c5=Society+Weekly%2CNot+commercially+useful&c6=Owen+Bowcott&c7=10-Sep-05&c8=1447585&c9=Article&c10=News&c11=UK+news&c13=&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FUK+news%2FPolice" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">CCTV shows Mark Andrews dragging Pamela Somerville across lobby of police station in Wiltshire before shoving her into cell<br /></p><p>Dramatic video footage has emerged of a police sergeant dragging a women to a cell and hurling her inside, an incident which has led to his suspension.</p><p>Pamela Somerville, 57, was left with blood gushing from a head wound after Sergeant Mark Andrews pulled her by the wrist across the floor of Melksham police station in Wiltshire and threw her into the custody suite. A camera cell showed Somerville lying briefly unconscious after her head hit the floor and then staggering to her feet, dripping blood.</p><p>The officer, a former soldier, 37, was convicted of assault causing actual bodily harm at Oxford magistrates court in July, and is due to be sentenced on Tuesday. He faces a formal disciplinary hearing next month and is currently suspended on full pay.</p><p>Another officer at the police station reported the incident to a supervisor.</p><p>Somerville had been found asleep in her car in July 2008 and denies refusing a breath test. Charges were later dropped, and the police have apologised</p><p>Somerville, now 59, told the Mail on Sunday, which published the CCTV footage: "I still find it hard to watch the images of me staggering to my feet with blood pouring from a head wound, because I can remember how terrified I was. I could have died. It seems utterly that an innocent person can be treated in such a horrific and violent way and then be left alone ... the fact that someone may even have been watching the CCTV footage of me not moving on the floor."</p><p>The CCTV footage shows Andrews coming back into the cell after Somerville gets to her feet and calling for help. Another person then comes to check her, and paramedics are called.</p><p>Somerville was taken to Royal United hospital in Bath, and needed stitches in a gash above her eye.</p><p>In <a href="http://www.wiltshire.police.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2327&catid=43:news&Itemid=50" title="">a detailed statement</a>, Wiltshire police's assistant chief constable, Patrick Geenty, said: "We are very concerned when anyone is injured in our custody, and the court has decided that this injury was as a result of a criminal assault by Sergeant Mark Andrews, a member of Wiltshire police who was performing duty as a custody sergeant at the time.</p><p>"We respect the decision of the court, and the force has formally apologised to the injured lady for the assault she suffered while in our care.</p><p>"People have a right to expect that the police will always act by placing the safety and welfare of the public as their first priority.</p><p>"This is particularly so when in police custody when, irrespective of the reason for their detention, people should feel and be safe."</p><p>He praised the officer who had reported the incident, saying she had "performed her duty in accordance with the highest standards expected of a police officer in bringing this unacceptable incident to the attention of another supervisor".</p><p>Geenty said 16,000 people a year were dealt with in Wiltshire custody centres in what could be a hostile environment, adding: "Despite the rigour and effectiveness of our systems and training, it will never be possible to provide a 100% assurance that our guidelines, on occasions, will not be broken.</p><p>"Whilst that is unpalatable, the reality is that policing is complex and difficult, and again we repeat [that] there can never be any excuse for excessive behaviour by police officers or police staff."</p><p>The assistant chief constable said there had been no other serious assaults of this nature, adding: "Although there have been a total of 13 complaints of assault, none have been substantiated following investigation."</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/police">Police</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/owenbowcott">Owen Bowcott</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/iDaIY6BY3TbP8BeGGwTE8Sysfns/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/iDaIY6BY3TbP8BeGGwTE8Sysfns/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/iDaIY6BY3TbP8BeGGwTE8Sysfns/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/iDaIY6BY3TbP8BeGGwTE8Sysfns/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p> Police UK news The Guardian News http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/sep/05/police-sergeant-suspended-assault-woman Sun, 05 Sep 2010 17:07:00 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.20.4/73073?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/h45CZRj1u83NWe3GWkEw2KMWVME/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/h45CZRj1u83NWe3GWkEw2KMWVME/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/h45CZRj1u83NWe3GWkEw2KMWVME/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/h45CZRj1u83NWe3GWkEw2KMWVME/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/media/2010/sep/05/anthony-mcdermott-obituary/print <div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.4/22117?ns=guardian&pageName=Anthony+McDermott+obituary%3AArticle%3A1447643&ch=Media&c3=Guardian&c4=Newspapers%2CThe+Guardian+%28Media%29%2CFinancial+Times%2CMiddle+East+%28News%29%2CIraq+war+inquiry+Chilcot+%28news%29%2CUnited+Nations+%28News%29%2CEgypt+%28News%29&c5=Press+Media%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CCharities%2CUnclassifed+Contributors&c6=Robert+Graham&c7=10-Sep-05&c8=1447643&c9=Article&c10=Obituary&c11=Media&c13=&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FMedia%2FNewspapers" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">Leading journalist on the Middle East for the Guardian and Financial Times</p><p>It is rare for a journalist, whose profession relies on gathering and publishing information, to end their career vetting information. Anthony McDermott, who has died of cancer aged 68, followed this unusual path, and not always in a straight line. During the 1970s he established himself as a leading journalist on the Middle East, writing first for the Guardian and then the Financial Times. By the time of his death, he was working for the Foreign Office, most recently helping to sort through sensitive documents for release to the Chilcot inquiry on the Blair government's decision to go to war in Iraq. In between, he wrote books on current affairs, worked for thinktanks and suffered bouts of depressive self-doubt. In a self-effacing but scholarly way he established himself as a much-consulted expert on the minutiae of United Nations funding, especially peace-keeping ventures.</p><p>Curiously, this trajectory was almost the reverse of that of his father, Geoffrey McDermott, whom Anthony much admired. A high-flying diplomat who became the FCO's adviser to the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), Geoffrey fell out with his superiors over policy towards East Germany, believing in detente. He turned to journalism and wrote books which focused on the need to overhaul British diplomacy, especially after the Suez debacle.</p><p>Born in Ankara, Turkey, to parents who divorced early, Anthony found himself shuttling between two diplomatic families. His stepfather, Sir Anthony Lambert, with whom he got on well, was a more conventional figure holding ambassadorial posts in Finland, Tunisia and Portugal.</p><p>Educated at Eton, Anthony appeared the archetype of a successful public schoolboy: good at games, a member of Pop, the self-electing Eton Society, a place at Magdalen College, Oxford, and handsome to boot. Yet he soon defied convention, switching from modern languages to study Turkish and Arabic. Fascinated by the rise of Arab nationalism under Gamal Nasser's Egypt, he furthered his Arabic studies as a research fellow at the American University in Cairo. Here he met Ragia Abdel-Moneim el-Shazli, the daughter of a prominent Nasser general.</p><p>Ragia knew her Muslim parents would disapprove of her romance, so she stowed away clothes on her daily trips to the university over a three-month period, and then went to London. There she married Anthony months before the disastrous Arab defeat in the six-day war with Israel in 1967. Eventually his Egyptian in-laws dropped their opposition and the marriage was legalised in Egypt with Anthony converting to Islam as a formality.</p><p>Anthony began writing about Arab affairs at the Middle East Economic Digest in 1968, moving in 1970 to the Guardian as a leader writer. He was fortunate to find foreign editors both at the Guardian and the Financial Times who understood the significance of developments in the Middle East with the growing weight of Opec, the rise of the shah's Iran, the increasing militancy of the Palestinians and the cold war contest for influence in the region.</p><p>In the summer of 1972, Anthony pulled off one of those scoops dreamed of by journalists. While holidaying in Egypt, he learned through his wife's family, an uncle being army chief of staff, that President Anwar Sadat was going to expel all Russian military advisers. Their presence had been a constant factor in Egyptian policy since Nasser sought Soviet aid in 1955 to build the Aswan Dam, becoming the single biggest regional counter-balance to US backing for Israel.</p><p>The Guardian splashed on the story and waited three anxious days before obtaining confirmation for a scoop that had caused widespread disbelief at such a major geopolitical shift. His confidently submitted expenses claim was rejected on the grounds that he had visited Egypt for a holiday, not work.</p><p>On joining the Financial Times in 1977, he continued to cover the Middle East and was posted to Cairo for three years (1980-83). His grasp of the complexities of Egyptian politics resulted in a perceptive book, published in 1988, which has stood the test of time: Egypt from Nasser to Mubarak: A Flawed Revolution. He also co-authored The Kurds (1979), co-edited The Multinational Force in Beirut, 1982-1984 (1991) and wrote The New Politics of Financing the UN (1999). In 1997 he moved definitively into academic research, joining the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), focusing on conflict resolution and peace-keeping. The encyclopedic knowledge he amassed on UN funding caught the eye of the Foreign Office, which recruited him as a senior researcher in 2000. Just before his death he helped revise a new edition of A Concise Encyclopedia of the United Nations.</p><p>Appearing in New York as a British representative on a committee monitoring the UN secretary general's expenditure, Anthony was remembered by one official as terrifying because of his penetrating questions on where money had gone. But he also possessed a wry humour, and while processing documents for the Chilcot inquiry, a colleague recalls Anthony labelling one set of US papers as: "Shall we tell the Brits?"</p><p>Anthony's three marriages seemed to underscore his open-minded belief in a multinational world. His second marriage was to Margaret Hughes, a British journalist on the FT and the Guardian. His third wife was a Norwegian diplomat, Tove Kijewiski. In the past decade, he found new happiness with Jane Crellin, whom he met at the Foreign Office, and who lovingly cared for him during his illness which he endured with enormous fortitude and humour.</p><p>She survives him, along with his brothers Evelyn and Quentin, his sister Jocelyn, and his half-sisters Jane and Katharine. Another sister, Julia, predeceased him.</p><p><em> </em>• Anthony Lyster McDermott, journalist and researcher, born 11 June 1942; died 15 August 2010</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/newspapers">Newspapers</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/theguardian">The Guardian</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/financialtimes">Financial Times</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/middleeast">Middle East</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/iraq-war-inquiry">Iraq war inquiry</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/unitednations">United Nations</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/egypt">Egypt</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/Q5YP9lhTTCpAgig8QZZj4mbQxM8/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/Q5YP9lhTTCpAgig8QZZj4mbQxM8/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/Q5YP9lhTTCpAgig8QZZj4mbQxM8/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/Q5YP9lhTTCpAgig8QZZj4mbQxM8/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p> Newspapers The Guardian Financial Times Middle East Iraq war inquiry United Nations Egypt The Guardian Obituaries http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/sep/05/anthony-mcdermott-obituary Sun, 05 Sep 2010 16:43:08 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/05/catholicism-pope-benedict-church-future/print <div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.4/13418?ns=guardian&pageName=Keeping+the+faith%3A+how+bleak+is+the+future+for+Catholicism%3F%3AArticle%3A1447667&ch=World+news&c3=Guardian&c4=Catholicism+%28News%29%2CPope+Benedict+XVI%2CUK+news%2CPope+John+Paul+II+%28News%29&c5=Not+commercially+useful&c6=Riazat+Butt%2CJohn+Hooper%2CRory+Carroll%2CXan+Rice&c7=10-Sep-05&c8=1447667&c9=Article&c10=News&c11=World+news&c13=&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FWorld+news%2FCatholicism" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">On the eve of the Pope's visit to the UK, it seems that many believe that he and the church he leads are losing ground to the secular realities of modern life. But is this the full picture?</p><p>Dorcas Gichane moved swiftly through the midday bustle of central Nairobi. High above her, a billboard advertising whisky suggested "Keep Walking". But Gichane, like hundreds of other devout Kenyans on their lunch breaks, had reached her destination – the Roman Catholic basilica of the Holy Family.</p><p>With a few minutes to spare before mass, some worshippers browsed in the bookshop. Others said a quick prayer in the stained-glass-and-brick "adoration room" where the notice board featured a poster depicting Jesus and his disciples – all of them black.</p><p>After sending a quick text message to a friend, Gichane, a well-dressed insurance broker, vanished inside the cavernous concrete cathedral, which was designated a basilica in 1982. Several large, flat-screen televisions hung from the pillars. A set of hand drums stood against the wall.</p><p>Like one in four Kenyans, Gichane is a Roman Catholic. She attends the 45-minute lunchtime mass each weekday, and goes to one of the five Kiswahili and English services every Sunday morning. "Many Kenyans went to Catholic schools, so the faith begins there," she says. "And a lot of hospitals are backed by the church."</p><p>The archbishop of Nairobi, Cardinal John Njue, offers a more spiritual explanation: "One scholar [Kenyan-born John S Mbiti, the author of a seminal work, African Religions and Philosophy] said that Africans are 'notoriously religious'. And that's true. It's very deep. It's not something that came from outside. It's natural. The missionaries did not bring us God, but a new relationship with God."</p><p>In Africa, the idea of Catholicism that seems to prevail in Western Europe – that of a reactionary, declining religion – seems incomprehensible. "The church is liberal," Gichane protests. "It has rules and regulations that are always there. But it does not place restrictions on people."</p><p>In Nigeria, Archbishop Matthew Ndagosa of Kaduna, looks out on a horizon that would dazzle his Western counterparts. "The churches are full. Young people go to church. And we have the world's largest seminary, in Enugu," he says, adding that the doctrines that cause Catholicism problems in the rich world strengthen its appeal in countries like Nigeria. "In our tradition, morals are very strong. The strong rulings – on abortion, condoms, homosexuality, etcetera – in the Catholic church are a natural match."</p><p>Africa's experience highlights several points that are at risk of being obscured in the controversy surrounding Pope Benedict's visit to an increasingly secular Britain. One is that, while Western Europeans may be abandoning religion, the rest of the globe is not. Muslims are not exactly turning away from Allah. The United States remains deeply religious. Millions of people in formerly communist Eastern Europe have re-embraced Orthodox Christianity. And in many parts of Asia, an emergent middle class is finding in organised religion a spiritual counterweight for its new-found wealth (and perhaps too a badge of social respectability).</p><p>According to the World Christian Database, the proportion of the planet's population professing one or other of its four biggest faiths (Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism) rose steeply in the mid-1970s and has been climbing rapidly ever since. By 2005, the figure was 73%.</p><p>Strong in the developing world where birth rates are high, Catholicism has done well out of the contemporary "faith boom". Whatever problems Benedict may have, numbers are not yet among them. His church's statisticians estimate that the number of baptised Catholics reached 1,166 million at the end of 2008, a rise of 1.7% on a year earlier. Over the intervening 12 months, the Catholic population as a share of the global total edge up too.</p><p>The once-a-Catholic-always-a-Catholic method used for the Vatican's count is debatable: it takes no account of those who "lapse". But even by a more rigorous measure of belief and conviction, Benedict's religion is growing. The number of Catholic priests continues to rise, and in 2008 it reached almost 410,000. But while the number of aspirants to the priesthood grew that year in Africa, Asia and Oceania (and remained broadly stable in the Americas), it shrank – and at a striking rate of more than 4% – in Europe.</p><p>That points to Catholicism's outstanding challenge – the secularisation of its traditional heartland. This was the issue that weighed most heavily on the minds of the cardinals who gathered in Rome five years ago to elect a successor to John Paul II. They decided that the best man to tackle it would be the late pope's long-time collaborator, Joseph Ratzinger. And to make the point that he too saw the re-evangelisation of Europe as his top priority, the new pope took the name of the continent's patron saint.</p><h2><strong>Child abuse scandals</strong><br /></h2>Five years after Benedict's election, the state of the church in Europe is no longer a problem for the Catholic leadership; it is a nightmare. Successive scandals over the molestation and, in some cases, the rape by priests of children and adolescents in their care have led thousands of European Catholics to question, or abandon, their faith.</p><p>The impact is most clearly visible in the pope's native Germany where religious affiliation is officially registered so that the members of each denomination can pay for its upkeep. Figures published by the daily Die Welt in April showed that, in most dioceses, more than twice as many Catholics had left their church in the previous month than a year earlier.</p><p>But then the long-delayed revelations of priestly sex abuse have merely accentuated an existing trend. The German church had been dwindling for years: between 1990 and 2008, the number of registered Catholics fell by 11%.</p><p>Though the decline in other countries cannot be measured as precisely, it can be adduced from the visible evidence of poorly-attended services, half-empty seminaries and de-consecrated churches.Priests like Paul McCartney's Father McKenzie "writing the words of a sermon that no one will hear" can be found in sacristies from Galway to Graz. The only mitigating factor has been the growth of immigrant populations that, in many parts of Europe, are disproportionately Catholic. In Britain particularly, an influx of eastern Europeans, South Americans and West Africans has filled the pews, and even led to claims that Catholicism has overtaken Anglicanism as the leading national religion.</p><p>But evidence from Switzerland suggests the "immigration bonus" will be temporary. A study by the Schweizerisches Pastoralsoziologisches Institut three years ago found that, whereas in 1970 four-fifths of immigrants were Catholic, by 2000 the proportion had dropped to 44%. That was partly because a growing number of Switzerland's newcomers were from non-Catholic countries. But it also reflected a tendency identified in other countries for immigrants of all religions to give up their faith as they integrate into the increasingly secular societies of western Europe.</p><p>The departure from the Catholic church that has attracted greatest attention has been that of its most traditionalist wing. In 1988, a French archbishop, Marcel Lefebvre, the leader of the hyper-conservative Society of St Pius X, defied the Vatican by consecrating four bishops and earned for himself and his lieutenants a declaration from Rome that they had automatically excommunicated themselves.</p><p>Far more damaging in terms of numbers, however, has been the unremarked, unreported "lapsing" over the years of millions of ordinary Catholics whose faith has been stretched to breaking point by the contradiction between Vatican teaching and the everyday reality of their lives. John Paul II once decried their failure to respect the guidance of their spiritual leaders as "silent apostasy".</p><p>Christian Weisner of the progressive lay movement, Wir Sind Kirche, sees it differently. "The church leadership has lost contact with the church community," he argues. "It's not just secularisation that is responsible. And it's not society's fault that people don't go to church any more or that they don't pay church taxes any more. It's the church that has lost contact with them."</p><p>He points to two main areas of divergence. The first was created by Paul VI's 1968 encyclical, Humanae Vitae, which forbade artificial birth control. "This made many Catholics, including good Catholics, realise the church was not people-friendly," says Weisner. The second area he identifies is attitudes to women. The Vatican does not want them to marry its priests. Nor does it want women in the priesthood.</p><p>Striking evidence of the gap between the thinking of the leadership and the faithful came in a 1996 study by two American academics, Andrew Greeley and Michael Hout, who polled Catholics in the United States, the Philippines and four European countries. In America and all the European countries except Poland they found a majority supported not only married priests but women's ordination.This was true even of supposedly conservative Ireland and Italy. Backing for married priests in Ireland, at 82%, was higher than in any other country. In Italy, 58% wanted women priests.</p><p>What few hopes liberal, European Catholics may have harboured of a re-think on either issue have been stamped out this year. When in March one of his cardinals suggested that, in view of the sex abuse disclosures it might be time to revisit the question of priestly celibacy, Benedict swiftly responded with a speech lauding it as "an expression of the gift of oneself to God and others". Four months later, the Vatican announced it had bracketed the "attempted ordination" of women with clerical sex abuse as one of the gravest offences in church law.</p><p>Such moves imply monumental indifference to "political correctness" and to the sensitivities of many Catholics whose attachment to the church already hangs by a thread. But then, says Andrea Tornielli, the author of Attacco a Ratzinger, a newly-published account of Benedict's papacy, the pope "does not think of the re-Christianisation of Europe in terms of a military-style re-conquest. It is not a question of numbers". The key to his thinking, Tornielli believes, is his use of the phrase "creative minority". In a speech Benedict made last year in the Czech Republic, he argued that "it is usually creative minorities that determine the future and, in this regard, the Catholic church must understand that it is a creative minority which has a heritage of values that are not things of the past, but a very lively and relevant reality".</p><p>Some of Benedict's supporters believe he wants a smaller, but theologically more homogenous (and reactionary) group of true believers who can hunker down and wait for more propitious times. Tornielli thinks that is a misinterpretation. "The idea of a 'hard core' is essentially military and defensive. I think the pope simply believes that the only way to get the people of our times to encounter God is by bearing Christian witness, living Christian values. It is, after all, not so unlike what happened 2,000 years ago."</p><p>Seen in those terms, Britain is not such a hostile terrain for the pope as it might seem. His traditional brand of Christianity has already proved irresistible to some conservative Anglicans.</p><p>And when he talks of creative minorities, he may well be thinking of groups like the one behind Youth 2000, a five-day retreat for Catholics between the ages of 16 and 30 held at Walsingham over last Bank Holiday weekend. Around 1,000 people attended the event, to talk about holiness, prayer and the gospel.</p><p>The group's stated aim is to give young people "a gateway back to God". Father Stephen Wang, a London parish priest and dean of studies at Allen Hall seminary, says many young Catholics "want to be rooted in the Catholic faith, but want to bring it alive. Young people are searching for something more. It is not enough to be completely rootless. It is not enough in defining who you are." For earlier generations who grew up steeped in their faith, the challenge was not how to forge a Catholic identity, but a secular one. For contemporary young Catholics, the reverse was true. "These young Catholics want to deepen their interest in Catholic teaching, in Catholic worship, in Catholic morality," says Father Wang.</p><p>More than 5,000 miles away in Mexico City, a less intellectual approach to the faith is to be found inside the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Parents with sick children, students awaiting exam results and farmers fearing bad harvests, all queue before a yellow tin box with a slit and a stencilled invitation to ask for a miracle. "My daughter was ill and, after we prayed, she got better. So we're here to give thanks," said 55-year-old Angela Garduno as she paused with her family at the miracle box, clutching a knee-high alabaster statue of the Virgin bought at the gift shop.</p><p>The basilica might seem to offer comfort to Benedict. Some 20 million people come every year to gaze at a cloak in which the Virgin Mary's image is supposedly imprinted. But in Mexico City there are signs of what the Vatican fears most – that the erosion of Catholicism in Europe could prove to be a foretaste of what awaits it elsewhere. Five centuries after Spanish missionaries turned Latin America into Rome's most loyal continent, the church's dominance is faltering. From the Rio Grande down through the Andes, souls and influence are slipping away.</p><h2><strong>Gay marriage row</strong><br /></h2>In a bitter row over the legalisation of gay marriage and abortion, the mayor of Mexico City, Marcelo Ebrard, is suing Cardinal Juan Sandoval for defamation. In the gay district of Zona Rosa, the head of a civic association that offers free HIV tests, Martin Luna, echoes the complaints of liberal critics in Europe that "the church hasn't changed in all these centuries". Nearby, Geraldo Martinez, a 19-year-old philosophy student holding his boyfriend's hand during a midday stroll, argues: "The church should reflect the needs of the community."</p><p>Latin America remains steeped in Catholic tradition. Even Hugo Chavez's Marxist rhetoric is sprinkled with Catholic references. Abortion remains illegal in most countries. But Protestant evangelicals have converted millionsto a different brand of Christianity (some 15% of Latin Americans are estimated to be Protestant, with the proportion rising to 38% in El Salvador). And a secular tide is lapping at the church's foundations. An increasingly urban, educated population no longer genuflects before pulpit denunciations. "This isn't just a political struggle – it's a strategy to destroy God's plan," Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, the head of the church in Argentina, said before a recent congressional vote on gay marriage. But the law passed, and the protests against it shrivelled. Chile's president, Sebastian Pinera, has promised more rights to same-sex couples. Dilma Rousseff, who is likely to be elected Brazil's president in October, favours legalising abortion.</p><p>"The obvious success of the Pentecostal churches has shot to hell the pretence that this is a Catholic continent," says David Stoll, a US anthropologist. "If I was the pope, Latin America would be a source of great distress." But, adding a qualification with which Benedict would no doubt agree, he says: "With fewer people you have the potential for more enthusiasm and participation."</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/catholicism">Catholicism</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/pope-benedict-xvi">Pope Benedict XVI</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/popejohnpaul2">Pope John Paul II</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/riazatbutt">Riazat Butt</a></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/johnhooper">John Hooper</a></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/rorycarroll">Rory Carroll</a></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/xanrice">Xan Rice</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/IlFWuOF1eB2f7WzXI4OrViVDgfI/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/IlFWuOF1eB2f7WzXI4OrViVDgfI/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/IlFWuOF1eB2f7WzXI4OrViVDgfI/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/IlFWuOF1eB2f7WzXI4OrViVDgfI/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p> Catholicism Pope Benedict XVI UK news Pope John Paul II The Guardian News http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/05/catholicism-pope-benedict-church-future Sun, 05 Sep 2010 16:33:04 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/sep/05/british-soldier-killed-afghanistan/print <div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.4/86054?ns=guardian&pageName=British+soldier+killed+in+Afghanistan+explosion%3AArticle%3A1447612&ch=UK+news&c3=GU.co.uk&c4=Military+UK%2CAfghanistan+%28News%29%2CWorld+news%2CUK+news&c5=Not+commercially+useful&c6=Press+Association&c7=10-Sep-05&c8=1447612&c9=Article&c10=News&c11=UK+news&c13=&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FUK+news%2FMilitary" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">Soldier serving with Royal Scots Borderers killed in blast in Nad-e-Ali district of Helmand province, Ministry of Defence says</p><p>A British soldier has been killed in an explosion in Afghanistan today, the Ministry of Defence said.</p><p>He was the 333rd member of the UK's armed forces to die in the country since 2001.</p><p>The soldier, who was part of a reconnaissance force, was killed by a grenade blast in the Nad-e-Ali district of Helmand province. He was not named, but his next of kin have been informed.</p><p>Lieutenant Colonel James Carr-Smith, the Taskforce Helmand spokesman, said: "It is with great sadness I must inform you that a soldier from the Royal Scots Borderers, 1st Battalion the Royal Regiment of Scotland, was killed this morning.</p><p>"The soldier, serving with the brigade reconnaissance force, was part of an operation that was disrupting insurgents in northern Nad-e-Ali when he was killed by a rocket-propelled grenade.</p><p>"Selfless in the course of his duty, he will be missed by his many friends. He was an inspirational soldier. We will remember him."</p><p>It has been a bloody year for British troops in Afghanistan, with 88 killed in 2010.</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/military">Military</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/afghanistan">Afghanistan</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/mpWuPw5iErpNI8-efEQbRmlo3mc/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/mpWuPw5iErpNI8-efEQbRmlo3mc/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/mpWuPw5iErpNI8-efEQbRmlo3mc/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/mpWuPw5iErpNI8-efEQbRmlo3mc/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p> Military Afghanistan World news UK news guardian.co.uk News http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/sep/05/british-soldier-killed-afghanistan Sun, 05 Sep 2010 13:25:52 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/sep/05/legal-aid-self-representation/print <div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.4/25776?ns=guardian&pageName=Tricks+and+cheats+are+the+price+of+culling+legal+aid+%7C+Rupert+Myers%3AArticle%3A1447182&ch=Comment+is+free&c3=GU.co.uk&c4=Legal+aid%2CCriminal+justice+UK+%28Law%29%2CUK+news%2CLaw&c5=Not+commercially+useful&c6=Rupert+Myers&c7=10-Sep-05&c8=1447182&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">Websites offering dubious legal advice to defendants who represent themselves are filling the gap left by legal aid cutbacks</p><p>Occasionally I come across people in court who represent themselves and do a decent job of it. <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/feb/10/law-court-representation-barristers" title="Guardian: Leave it to m'learned friends">It's not the norm</a>, but when it happens I have great respect, because they are doing what the bar provides for those that can't: an articulate voice for their individual rights. Unfortunately, increasing numbers of the not-so-able are being forced into self-representation, particularly for lower level offences such as motoring cases, or prosecutions from organisations such as the <a href="http://www.csa.gov.uk/" title="Child Support Agency">Child Support Agency</a>.</p><p></p><p>You can lose your licence and thus your source of income from motoring offences; the Child Support Agency can have you sent to jail for six weeks if you don't pay child maintenance, yet these sometimes complex cases do not attract legal aid. People are forced by financial necessity to appear for themselves. The trend of <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11065204" title="BBC: Call to cut number of minor offences">creating criminal punishments</a> to enforce what might once have been considered civil matters has meant more people coming before courts, and as a result novel approaches to defence are appearing with which the system must now come to terms.</p><p></p><p><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/feb/17/jurors-trial-internet-use" title="Guardian: Trial by internet">The internet</a> has had both negative and positive effects on the justice system. The practice of throwing details of a problem open to a large group of people for solutions, known as <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8788780.stm" title="BBC: Should we trust the wisdom of crowds?">crowdsourcing</a>, is one development which has become attractive to defendants who have nowhere else to turn.</p><p></p><p>Motoring trials are more frequently now defended by people who are making use of public special-interest websites such as <a href="http://www.pepipoo.com/" title="PePiPoo">Pepipoo</a> which give advice to motorists both prior to and during a trial. Some advice is sound, some not so sound, but with the capacity to share approaches to defence has come the temptation in forums to share advice which, if followed, would result in a miscarriage of justice. One ruse I am aware of concerns <a href="http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1988/ukpga_19880052_en_13" title="Office of Public Sector Information, section 172 RTA 1988">Section 172 of the Road Traffic Act 1988</a>, which requires individuals to assist the police in identifying the driver of a vehicle at a specific time so that they can be prosecuted for speeding. Failure to comply with the requirements can result in six points on your own licence and a fine. A scam spread on the internet is to post to the police authority an empty envelope or blank piece of paper by recorded delivery. You are taken to court for failure to respond, and you produce the proof that the letter has been signed for and received, thus misleading the court into believing that you complied. This practice has become so widespread that I know of at least one police authority which now specially logs all blank messages sent to them by recorded delivery.</p><p></p><p><a href="http://www.csahell.com/" title="Child Support Agency Hell">CSA Hell</a> is one of many sites which is for parents who are being pursued for child support. The discussions taking place on their forums contain information which is at best partially correct, and may, if followed, result in costly litigation which gets defendants nowhere and uses up already stretched capacity in the courts.</p><p></p><p>In some ways sites like these are a good thing: mass participation to help individuals to establish their legal rights is laudable, but to the extent that they encourage bad-faith practices, and ultimately provide tools to undermine the already buckling justice system, they are a serious problem – a price to be paid for legal aid cuts. The insatiable demand for help with litigation has given rise to websites on which anyone can offer their opinion on the law whether it is correct or misleading. In those circumstances it's the individuals in need of help who will lose out, running trials on a hiding to nothing, which will leave them worse off than when they started.</p><p></p><p>Every case in which a defendant employs a sharp tactic to win a trial, or exploits a loophole discussed online, is one that costs the taxpayer. These websites are filling a gap left by legal aid cutbacks and a bloated list of criminal statutes. The cost to justice, at an individual and at a systemic level, of leaving online forums to fill the demand will be high. The price will go beyond the financial costs, to the very legitimacy and effectiveness of the justice system. The government must find ways to curb the spread of tricks and cheats, while replacing these sites with the benefit of reliable help for those that need it.</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/legal-aid">Legal aid</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/rupert-myers">Rupert Myers</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/4CbT9jvZU0oxfp7x4YhkVyU8s4U/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/4CbT9jvZU0oxfp7x4YhkVyU8s4U/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/4CbT9jvZU0oxfp7x4YhkVyU8s4U/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/4CbT9jvZU0oxfp7x4YhkVyU8s4U/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p> Legal aid UK criminal justice UK news Law guardian.co.uk Comment http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/sep/05/legal-aid-self-representation Sun, 05 Sep 2010 12:00:33 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/sep/05/tony-blair-interview-daybreak-itv1/print <div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.4/98665?ns=guardian&pageName=Tony+Blair+to+appear+on+first+edition+of+Daybreak+breakfast+programme%3AArticle%3A1447577&ch=Politics&c3=GU.co.uk&c4=Tony+Blair%2CPolitics%2CAdrian+Chiles+%28Media%29%2CITV%2CTelevision+industry+%28Media%29%2CMedia%2CUK+news&c5=Not+commercially+useful%2CMedia+Weekly%2CTelevision+Media&c6=Press+Association&c7=10-Sep-05&c8=1447577&c9=Article&c10=News&c11=Politics&c13=&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FPolitics%2FTony+Blair" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">Former prime minister to give first live TV interview since publication of memoirs to Christine Bleakley and Adrian Chiles</p><p>Tony Blair will join Christine Bleakley and Adrian Chiles on the sofa when Britain wakes up to a new early morning television show, Daybreak, tomorrow.</p><p>Former One Show hosts Bleakley and Chiles are reunited on ITV1's new breakfast programme, which begins at 6am.</p><p>Blair will be giving his first live UK television interview since the publication of his memoirs, A Journey.</p><p>Yesterday, the former prime minister faced a barrage of abuse when he was confronted by anti-war protesters at his first book signing in Dublin.</p><p>Bleakley said she hoped Chiles's "jolly demeanour" would help her cope with the early starts.</p><p>She said: "Not sure if I relish 3am wake-up calls, but I am sure Adrian's jolly demeanour will make it all the more enjoyable."</p><p>Prince Charles will appear on the show, broadcast from a new studio in London, on Friday.</p><p></p><p>Bleakley followed Chiles out of the BBC two months after he left when it emerged that Chris Evans was being lined up to take his place on the One Show on Fridays.</p><p>Chiles has hit out at the corporation, saying he and Bleakley were portrayed as greedy and put under "intolerable pressure" over their decision to quit.</p><p>He added: "They are trying to portray it as a classic big money move to ITV, which couldn't be further from the truth."</p><p>Daybreak replaces GMTV, which ended on Friday. Presenter Andrew Castle thanked the loyal viewers who watched it during a 17-year run.</p><p></p><p>He said: "Like all families, there have been squabbles along the way – but there has been no shortage of love, effort and perseverance, and we just want to say to the viewers who have been with us loyally, for a long time, thank you so much."</p><p>He wished Bleakley and Chiles all the best, saying: "Fingers crossed for them, really good luck."</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/adrian-chiles">Adrian Chiles</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/ITV">ITV</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/television">Television industry</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/WyRwD1DgjGkIStVMGZIdhXiRW_o/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/WyRwD1DgjGkIStVMGZIdhXiRW_o/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/WyRwD1DgjGkIStVMGZIdhXiRW_o/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/WyRwD1DgjGkIStVMGZIdhXiRW_o/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p> Tony Blair Politics Adrian Chiles ITV Television industry Media UK news guardian.co.uk News http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/sep/05/tony-blair-interview-daybreak-itv1 Sun, 05 Sep 2010 09:51:24 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/sep/05/richard-dannatt-defence-spending/print <div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.4/20593?ns=guardian&pageName=Labour%27s+policy+on+Iraq+was+%27fatally+flawed%27+says+former+army+chief%3AArticle%3A1447572&ch=Politics&c3=Obs&c4=Defence+policy%2CRichard+Dannatt%2CIraq+%28News%29%2CTony+Blair%2CGordon+Brown%2CUK+news&c5=Not+commercially+useful%2CPolicy+Society&c6=Gavriel+Hollander&c7=10-Sep-05&c8=1447572&c9=Article&c10=News&c11=Politics&c13=&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FPolitics%2FDefence+policy" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">General Sir Richard Dannatt attacks Tony Blair and Gordon Brown over split on spending levels</p><p>The former head of the army has accused Tony Blair of lacking "the moral courage" to stand up to Gordon Brown over defence spending in Iraq.</p><p>General Sir Richard Dannatt, the army's chief of general staff from 2006-09, said in his new book that Labour's defence policy was "fatally flawed" by Brown's unwillingness to provide the level of spending required and by Blair's inability "to impose his will on his own chancellor". He added that evidence for Iraq's possession of weapons of mass destruction was "most uncompelling" and labelled postwar planning an "abject failure".</p><p>In the book, <em>Leading From The Front</em>, Dannatt launched a damning attack on Labour's defence policy under Blair and Brown.</p><p>"History will pass judgment on these two foreign adventurers in due course, but in my view Gordon Brown's malign intervention when chancellor, on the SDR [Strategic Defence Review] by refusing to fund what his own government had agreed, fatally flawed the entire process from the front," he wrote.</p><p>While Dannatt claimed that 1998's SDR provided a "good framework" for the government's defence policy, it was hamstrung by underspending. "The seeds were sown for some of the impossible operational pressures to come," he said.</p><p>The accusations come in the same week that Blair published his memoirs in which he offered a passionate defence of his foreign policy.</p><p>However, in an interview in the <em>Sunday Telegraph</em>, Dannatt claimed that the Labour leadership "did not fully understand or fully appreciate the pressures the army was under".</p><p>He said: "I felt it was pushing a rock up a steep hill pretty much all the way through. It was frustrating because from the land forces' point of view, we always do our job, but we knew we couldn't do it as well because we hadn't got the resources we needed."</p><p>Dannatt also accused Brown of being "not particularly interested in defence" and Blair of being unable to impose his will on his chancellor. "To me it seems extraordinary that the prime minister, the number one guy, cannot crack the whip sufficiently to his very close friend, the chancellor, and say: 'We're doing this in the national interest, Gordon, you fund it'."</p><p>Dannatt acted as an adviser to David Cameron in the run-up to the general election but quit the post earlier this year.</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/defence">Defence policy</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/richard-dannatt">Richard Dannatt</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/iraq">Iraq</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/tonyblair">Tony Blair</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/gordon-brown">Gordon Brown</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/e5ZhDYw-ZLTRU0zUlYTssTVxEGo/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/e5ZhDYw-ZLTRU0zUlYTssTVxEGo/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/e5ZhDYw-ZLTRU0zUlYTssTVxEGo/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/e5ZhDYw-ZLTRU0zUlYTssTVxEGo/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p> Defence policy Richard Dannatt Iraq Tony Blair Gordon Brown UK news The Observer News http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/sep/05/richard-dannatt-defence-spending Sat, 04 Sep 2010 23:07:25 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.20.4/23301?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/0Tgq1NS9FH2goOGnfxhsOrpNzbw/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/0Tgq1NS9FH2goOGnfxhsOrpNzbw/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/0Tgq1NS9FH2goOGnfxhsOrpNzbw/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/0Tgq1NS9FH2goOGnfxhsOrpNzbw/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.20.4/97371?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/GtG08bvVpOHtDWYoWe3SWgBdzAA/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/GtG08bvVpOHtDWYoWe3SWgBdzAA/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/GtG08bvVpOHtDWYoWe3SWgBdzAA/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/GtG08bvVpOHtDWYoWe3SWgBdzAA/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/tony-blair-book-signing-dublin/print <div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.4/76939?ns=guardian&pageName=Tony+Blair%27s+book+signing+in+Dublin+mixes+Good+Friday+with+bad+Iraq%3AArticle%3A1447546&ch=World+news&c3=Obs&c4=World+news%2CTony+Blair%2CNorthern+Ireland+%28News%29%2CBooks&c5=Not+commercially+useful&c6=Tim+Adams&c7=10-Sep-05&c8=1447546&c9=Article&c10=News&c11=World+news&c13=&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FWorld+news%2FTony+Blair" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">Protesters chanted 'Butcher Blair', but others noted his achievements for peace in Northern Ireland</p><p>Literature and politics have always laid claim to Dublin's O'Connell Street, bookended by statues of James Joyce and Catholic emancipator Daniel O'Connell. Tony Blair, in his modest way, was no doubt hoping connections would be made with both traditions by choosing to launch <em>A Journey </em>here yesterday morning.</p><p>Easons bookshop has been on this site since 1917, the year after the Easter Rising, which began on the steps of the GPO next door. By starting his brief book tour here, the former prime minister was italicising those chapters concerning the Good Friday agreement, of which he is most proud. Having read most of memoir overnight, I would have to say the Joycean association also holds true, however. Not for the deathless prose, but for the affinities with that other rambling self-obsessive, Leopold Bloom in <em>Ulysses</em>.</p><p>All first-time authors dream of stopping the traffic; with the assistance of a security operation costing tens of thousands of pounds, Blair managed to bring a large part of the Saturday morning city to a halt. By the time he arrived in a blacked-out motorcade, and was hustled in through the bookshop doors under an umbrella and past the three-for-two offers, O'Connell Street and Dublin's main tramline had been shut all morning. The store was hemmed in on two sides. Those waiting in line at the side entrance for a chance to buy a book outnumbered those arguing that he "shouldn't be writing books, he should be doing time", out at the front, by about three to one.</p><p>Literary criticism comes in many forms, but the Stop the War Coalition are not the most nuanced of deconstructionists. As any writer will testify, the most demoralising response to a book signing is to stay away, leaving the author grinning at the back of the shop, brandishing his pen in expectation.</p><p>Instead, 100 or so protesters kept up a chorus of "Butcher Blair" for nearly three hours outside the bookshop entrance (no doubt outraged about Tony's grasp of syntax and services to cliché). A smattering of stones and coins landed around the car as he drew up and three people were arrested after a scuffle.</p><p></p><p>Blair knows this audience, he confides in his memoir, though on this evidence he seems to have given up on his confidence that even he, the great communicator, can reach them. "We are like two people standing either side of a thick pane of glass trying to have a conversation," he observed of his public at one point. "I thought and still think they could be persuaded, but when I spoke they couldn't hear me and after a time they stopped trying to."</p><p>Some were determined in Dublin that these glass walls should be broken down; a few protesters even went to the trouble of queueing to make their judgments on his book in person. Kate O'Sullivan, a 24-year-old from Cork, and a member of the "Irish Palestinian Solidarity Movement", got past the concentric rings of security that involved Garda and Special Branch and Emergency Response Units, and while Blair scribbled his signature informed him: "Mr Blair I am here to make a citizen's arrest for the war crimes you have committed." She was dragged away, she said, by five security people.</p><p>Others didn't get that far. Niall Farrell, whose sister Mairead was, he says, "killed in Gibraltar by another British prime minister in 1988", had "wanted to give Blair a taste of Iraqi hospitality by hurling his shoe" at the author.</p><p>He had worn his slip-on Birkenstocks especially, but didn't make it past the scrutiny of the bookshop muscle. "The worst of it was," he said, "I had already bought a book by the time I was turned out." After some protest he managed to secure a refund.</p><p>However, at least as many had come to support Blair as to protest. A local man named John O'Connell expressed the sentiment of several others when, clutching his book under his arm, he explained: "I know Iraq is going to be written on his gravestone, but there should be a place there on it for what he has done for peace in Ireland also."</p><p>He was glad he came, though the experience was surreal. "You hand over your wallet, your phone and your address, then you get a ticket. You exchange that for a wristband, then you are brought up to the second floor by escalator, you are taken around and around the bookstacks past a cordon of Garda and special branch, in a loop, and your book is taken off you, and he signs it and says hello."</p><p>Personal greetings were apparently outlawed, along with anything in the way of authorial small talk.</p><p>Despite an apocalyptic thunderstorm, some had been here since two in the morning. At the front of the queue a Wimbledon-style bonhomie prevailed. Third in line Patrick Marshall said he had travelled down straight after Blair's appearance on RTE's <em>Late, Late Show</em> on Friday night because he felt he wanted to show support for a man who was getting "far too much stick. I mean he was asked whether his son Leo was planned or not..."</p><p></p><p>The television interview dwelt on Blair's conversion to Catholicism, a subject of much debate among those seeking an audience in Dublin. They are disappointed to discover that, despite the spiritual connotation of his title, his book strangely doesn't do God. Though he says towards the end that "religion always interested him more than politics" there is, I tell them, not a mention of a prayer or even a biblical reference. The solitary reference to the saviour is the messiah complex that Jonathan Powell attributes to him. The only index entry under "church" is Charlotte, who once sang at a rally.</p><p>The signing lasts for two hours, during which time the protesters are joined by the Hare Krishna proprietors of an Indian restaurant, who come out to drum up custom. Among the last to emerge are two who epitomise the contradictions that Blair's book, with its curious mix of wide eyed naivety and towering hubris, seems designed to excite.</p><p>Aidan Walsh, an IT manager from Tyrone, got up at 4am to drive down to Dublin. "Because I grew up in Northern Ireland in the 1980s, I've never been to a book signing before. I went to school when the hunger strikes were on; we all knew those who had been shot and killed, and if any single man put a stop to it, it was probably him. I wanted to acknowledge what he had done."</p><p>Brendan Pierce was less enamoured. "I felt I had to go and see the gobshite in person," he said. "It's surreal in there. I had to hand the book over. He looked at me. I said to meself, 'What's he got to smile about?' I was going to throw it at him, throw it back in his stupid smiling face, but they've thought of that. They take the book off you first." As he walked away he dropped the signed first edition in the nearest bin.</p><p>The author himself appears serenely unaware of both his devotees and his critics. For a man who claims to have had premonitions of John Smith's death in 1994, who suggests straight- faced that he discovered much of his philosophy for foreign policy while watching <em>Schindler's List</em>, who is prepared to write of his sense of destiny to become prime minister "this is mine. I know it and I'll take it", none of this probably seems too unusual.</p><p>He is removed from the building without seeing the light of day, driven at high speed to the next leg of <em>A Journey</em> that shows no sign of getting less surreal.</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/uk/northernireland">Northern Ireland</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/timadams">Tim Adams</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/nnEh_zUBoWTr8OmD8qBr5wnR_ug/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/nnEh_zUBoWTr8OmD8qBr5wnR_ug/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/nnEh_zUBoWTr8OmD8qBr5wnR_ug/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/nnEh_zUBoWTr8OmD8qBr5wnR_ug/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p> World news Tony Blair Northern Ireland Books The Observer News http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/05/tony-blair-book-signing-dublin Sat, 04 Sep 2010 23:07:22 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2010/sep/05/pakistan-cricket-scandal-ipl-betting/print <div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.4/47888?ns=guardian&pageName=Indian+judge+alleges+betting+rings+are+supporting+terrorism+%3AArticle%3A1447542&ch=Sport&c3=Obs&c4=Pakistan+cricket+betting+scandal%2CPakistan+%28News%29%2CTerrorism+-+international%2CIndia+%28News%29%2CWorld+news%2CCricket%2CGambling&c5=Not+commercially+useful%2CCricket&c6=Mark+Townsend%2CGethin+Chamberlain&c7=10-Sep-05&c8=1447542&c9=Article&c10=News&c11=Sport&c13=&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FSport%2FPakistan+cricket+betting+scandal" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">Senior member of the Indian judiciary has alleged that police are allowing links between organised crime and the sport to flourish</p><p>South Asian betting rings are channelling millions of pounds into terrorism and drug trafficking with the connivance of police officers, a judge in India has warned.</p><p>As Scotland Yard continues its investigation into the alleged <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2010/sep/03/pakistan-betting-scandal-icc1" title="betting scam involving Pakistani cricketers">betting scam involving Pakistan cricketers</a>, a senior member of the Indian judiciary has alleged that police are allowing links between organised crime and the sport to flourish.</p><p>Judge Dharmesh Sharma aired his warning while hearing an appeal last week into a case involving betting on a World Cup match between Australia and South Africa in 2007.</p><p>British police and the international cricketing authorities are examining allegations of match-fixing involving three Pakistan players and an Indian betting ring after a sting operation by the <em>News of the World</em>.</p><p>The agent at the centre of the scandal, Mazhar Majeed, is reported to have told undercover investigators that he supplied information about specific incidents during games to an Indian bookmaker, who used the tip-offs to place bets on the fixed outcome.</p><p>The newspaper published further revelations today. Pakistan Test opener Yasir Hameed allegedly claimed in an interview that his team-mates were involved in fixing "almost every match". Pakistan team manager Yawar Saeed later told reporters at the team hotel in Cardiff that Hameed had denied such statements, although there is believed to be video footage of the interview.</p><p>The <em>News of the World</em> also said the International Cricket Council (ICC) was investigating a fourth Pakistan player, who has not yet been named, over match-fixing claims.</p><p>Police formally interviewed three Pakistan cricketers involved in the claims on Friday, while the ICC has already charged them under its anti-corruption code.</p><p>Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Asif and Test captain Salman Butt were all questioned by Met officers over allegations that they arranged for three no-balls to be bowled to order in return for cash. Police sources said yesterday that the trio may be summoned back for further questioning this week.</p><p>Discussions are continuing over whether there is sufficient evidence to charge the cricketers with conspiracy to commit fraud. Some reports have claimed that detectives found bundles of cash in the London hotel rooms of Pakistan players after the revelations last Sunday. Hameed, who played in the fourth Test at the Oval, allegedly told the <em>News of the World</em>: "They've been caught. Only the ones that get caught are branded crooks. They were doing it [fixing] in almost every match. God knows what they were up to. Scotland Yard was after them for ages. It makes me angry because I'm playing my best and they are trying to lose."</p><p>The newspaper will also carry reports that investigators apparently recovered between £10,000 and £15,000 in marked bank notes in Butt's room. The new allegations follow an apology on behalf of the three players from Pakistan Twenty20 captain Shahid Afridi, who also confirmed that Majeed, and his brother Azhar, were managing the trio involved. Speaking in Cardiff, Afridi said: "On behalf of these boys – I know they're not in this series – I want to say sorry to all cricket lovers and all the cricketing nations."</p><p>Detectives are also believed to be following the money trail of the alleged global betting scam to India, where betting is illegal but remains a massive industry. An estimated £277m alone was gambled on last year's Indian Premier League (IPL). Illegal bookmakers have already taken bets on the upcoming Champions League Twenty20 tournament, which starts in South Africa this Friday.</p><p>But allegations last week that much of the money was being siphoned into narcotics and terrorism, with the complicity of police officers, has focused the spotlight on the links between organised crime and betting syndicates.</p><p>Sharma, an additional sessions judge, threw out the case against two men accused of organising betting on the 2007 match, but then launched into a diatribe on the prevalence of gambling in India, describing the escalating involvement of betting rings in cricket as alarming. "The extent of money that it generated is diverted to clandestine and sinister objectives like drug trafficking and terrorist activities," he said.</p><p>Sharma claimed there were as many as 3,000 illegal bookmakers operating in Delhi alone and that the IPL was the subject of some of the heaviest betting. "This could not be done under the very nose of police without their knowledge," he added.</p><p>The IPL has been a moneyspinner for top cricketers, but not those from Pakistan, who missed out on the bonanza as a result of the deterioration of relations between the two countries over the Mumbai terrorist attacks of 2008.</p><p>Although a Pakistan international cricketer might expect to earn about £25,000 a year, that figure is dwarfed by the millions on offer through the IPL. Some commentators this week have suggested that this might be one of the reasons Pakistan's players might have been more open to financial inducements.</p><p>Amir and Asif, both bowlers, and Butt, Pakistan's captain, have also been <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2010/sep/03/pakistan-match-fixing-icc-suspensions" title="suspended from all cricket ">suspended from all cricket </a>by the ICC in the wake of the allegations. The reaction in Pakistan was one of initial shock, quickly turning to denial as the scale of the national shame became apparent. Television news was dominated by the scandal, which pushed the country's floods off the top of the agenda.</p><p>In London, the Pakistan high commissioner, Wajid Shamsul Hasan, criticised the ICC for suspending the players, describing the action as "unhelpful, premature and unnecessary".</p><p>However, the ICC mounted a robust defence of its actions. Its chief executive, Haroon Lorgat, said on Friday: "We have been clear that we will not tolerate any sort of corruption in the sport and upholding the integrity of cricket is paramount and fundamental to every single one of us."</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/pakistan-cricket-betting-scandal">Pakistan cricket betting scandal</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/pakistan">Pakistan</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/terrorism">Global terrorism</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/india">India</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/cricket">Cricket</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/gambling">Gambling</a></li></ul></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/gethin-chamberlain">Gethin Chamberlain</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/hEgv8_M-INum4sqpkUSKLgchpSw/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/hEgv8_M-INum4sqpkUSKLgchpSw/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/hEgv8_M-INum4sqpkUSKLgchpSw/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/hEgv8_M-INum4sqpkUSKLgchpSw/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p> Pakistan cricket betting scandal Pakistan Global terrorism India World news Cricket Gambling The Observer News http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2010/sep/05/pakistan-cricket-scandal-ipl-betting Sat, 04 Sep 2010 23:07:22 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/sep/05/iraq-war-inquiry-iraq/print <div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.4/59168?ns=guardian&pageName=Iraq+WMD+dossier+was+%27reviewed%27+to+match+Labour+spin%2C+memo+reveals%3AArticle%3A1447538&ch=UK+news&c3=Obs&c4=Iraq+war+inquiry+Chilcot+%28news%29%2CIraq+%28News%29%2CUK+news%2CForeign+policy%2CPolitics&c5=Policy+Society%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CUnclassifed+Contributors&c6=Chris+Ames%2CJamie+Doward&c7=10-Sep-05&c8=1447538&c9=Article&c10=News&c11=UK+news&c13=&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FUK+news%2FIraq+war+inquiry" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">Foreign Office official wrote memo in 2002 about the need to 'avoid exposing differences' on Saddam's nuclear threat</p><p>A Foreign Office official involved in drafting the discredited dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction suggested that he might have to review an assessment of Saddam's nuclear capabilities so that it was in line with briefings from Labour spin doctors, an internal Whitehall memo shows.</p><p>The March 2002 memo, written by Tim Dowse, head of the Foreign Office non-proliferation department, and sent to a special adviser to the then foreign secretary, Jack Straw, has been obtained by the <em>Observer </em>under the Freedom of Information Act.</p><p>In the memo, Dowse complains his department had been given "no forewarning" of a paper the special adviser used to brief the Parliamentary Labour Party and later the cabinet, which effectively contradicted the official assessment of Iraq's nuclear capability.</p><p>Dowse's memo, which was copied to officials including Sir Michael (now Lord) Jay, then the top civil servant at the Foreign Office, complains that while the briefing claimed that "if Iraq's weapons programmes remain unchecked, Iraq could … develop a crude nuclear device in about five years", the government's official line was that "the Iraqi nuclear programme is not 'unchecked' ". This was an acknowledgement that sanctions against Saddam's regime had constrained his nuclear ambitions.</p><p>The briefing found its way into the press with newspapers claiming that "Saddam could develop a nuclear weapon within five years".</p><p>Dowse notes that the official line on Saddam's nuclear capability is used "in the draft public dossier on 'WMD programmes of concern' which the Cabinet Office are producing at No 10's request". He adds: "We clearly will now have to review that text, to avoid exposing differences with your paper."</p><p>That dossier was the controversial document alleged to have been "sexed up" under the influence of spin doctors.</p><p>Dr Brian Jones, the former head of the WMD section at the Defence Intelligence Staff, told the <em>Observer</em>: "At first glance the Dowse memo appears to be a shot across the bows of the political wing of the Foreign Office. However, looking closer, it suggests a willingness of officials to bend intelligence assessments to fit the political requirement."</p><p>In the <em>Observer </em>in July, Carne Ross, the UK's Iraq expert at the United Nations from 1997 to 2002, said the Foreign Office tried to dissuade him from referring to the memo in his written evidence to the Chilcot inquiry. Ross said: "It's safe to assume that they realised that this document is a clearly smoking gun, illustrating how the public exaggeration of the WMD threat proceeded."</p><p>A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We are not going to comment on what witnesses might say, why the inquiry has called them, or what their lines of investigation should be."</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/iraq-war-inquiry">Iraq war inquiry</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/iraq">Iraq</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/foreignpolicy">Foreign policy</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/chrisames">Chris Ames</a></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/jamiedoward">Jamie Doward</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/ZI1txZfExjSRU2TqOMoj3JQooZ4/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/ZI1txZfExjSRU2TqOMoj3JQooZ4/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/ZI1txZfExjSRU2TqOMoj3JQooZ4/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/ZI1txZfExjSRU2TqOMoj3JQooZ4/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p> Iraq war inquiry Iraq UK news Foreign policy Politics The Observer News http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/sep/05/iraq-war-inquiry-iraq Sat, 04 Sep 2010 23:07:21 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/sep/05/google-galaxy-zoo-climate-project/print <div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.4/32034?ns=guardian&pageName=Google+and+Galaxy+Zoo+could+aid+global+climate+project%3AArticle%3A1447487&ch=Science&c3=Obs&c4=Meteorology%2CUK+news%2CEnvironment%2CClimate+change+%28Environment%29%2CScience%2CClimate+change+%28Science%29%2CGoogle+%28Technology%29%2CTechnology&c5=Climate+Change%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CEthical+Living%2CCorporate+IT&c6=Robin+McKie&c7=10-Sep-05&c8=1447487&c9=Article&c10=News&c11=Science&c13=&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FScience%2FMeteorology" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">Climate scientists meeting in Britain this week hope to build a database to predict natural disasters precisely. And records of the voyages of the Bounty and Beagle will assist them in their task</p><p>Leading climate scientists will gather in the UK this week to finalise plans for a revolutionary project aimed at transforming their ability to predict meteorological disasters. The goal is to create an international databank that would generate forecasts of unprecedented precision.</p><p>The scientists' plans include:</p><p>■ Creating a global network of weather stations that would provide daily temperature readings for any spot on the planet. At present, only monthly readings are generated for the United States and Europe, while virtually no data is provided for much of Africa, the Amazon and Antarctica.</p><p>■ Digitising old sea logs – including those of the Bounty, the Beagle and Scott's Discovery – to build up a data set of historical weather patterns.</p><p>■ Persuading many countries that currently refuse to provide meteorological information to the rest of the world to open their data banks.</p><p>■ Seeking help from web companies and organisations such as Google and Galaxy Zoo to help volunteers decode data. In this way, meteorologists hope to transform their long-term forecasts.</p><p>"It is now very clear that humanity is changing the climate through the greenhouse gases we are pumping into the atmosphere," said Peter Stott, head of climate monitoring at the UK Met Office, one of the organisers of this week's meeting. "But we don't know yet, and what we really must find out is how those changes will affect a particular area.</p><p>"We need to answer key questions such as whether the onset of the monsoon in India will be delayed, how the frequency of droughts in the Horn of Africa is changing, or whether Europe will experience more severe heatwaves in future."</p><p>In recent months Moscow has been blanketed in smog from burning peatlands, a giant island of ice has splintered from Greenland and floods in Pakistan have killed about 2,000 and left millions homeless. Scientists believe that, as climate change takes an increasingly tight grip on the planet, more and more of these events will happen. They want to learn how to predict such occurrences and give vulnerable areas accurate warnings about potential catastrophes.</p><p>However, meteorologists are limited by the lack of data they receive from monitoring stations around the globe. Although there are more than 6,000 such stations providing data about temperatures, wind, precipitation and other variables, these only generate monthly averages for a particular locality.</p><p>"We need to get daily temperature readings if we are going to make accurate forecasts," said Peter Thorne, of the <a href="http://www.nrc.noaa.gov/ci/locations/cics_md.html" title="Co-operative Institute for Climate and Satellites">Co-operative Institute for Climate and Satellites</a> in North Carolina. At the same time, swaths of Africa and Antarctica and much of the Amazon have no stations at all.</p><p>One of the aims of this week's meeting is to discuss ways in which daily readings could be generated by increasing the number of these remote, unmanned stations. It is intended to begin negotiations with countries that refuse to give out readings from weather stations on the grounds that such information could be sold. Simply opening these nations' data banks would double the information available to world forecasters.</p><p>However, it is the decoding and digitising of old logs from some of Britain's most illustrious sea voyages – a process likely to involve assistance from organisations such as Google – that promises to be of particular public interest. Throughout the 19th century and for many of the early years of the 20th century, Britain's navy ruled the oceans. Daily information about weather conditions recorded in logs gives an invaluable insight into climate patterns for these decades. Examples include the logbooks of the ships of the East India Company, which are held in the British Library, the logs of Royal Navy ships during the first world war, which are held in the UK National Archives, and those of the major Antarctic expeditions, which are currently being digitised by the Met Office.</p><p>"The problem is that the data is stored in old logbooks and it is an extremely laborious business to turn that information into digital form," added Stott.</p><p>However, recent developments on the web have provided precedents for providing help for such work. Three years ago Chris Lintott, an Oxford physicist, set up a website called <a href="http://zoo1.galaxyzoo.org/" title="Galaxy Zoo">Galaxy Zoo</a> which asked the public to help classify photographs of a million galaxies. It has turned into the biggest citizen-science experiment on the web. Galaxies can be classified as spiral, elliptical or merging. However, with images of more than a million taken by astronomers, their categorisation – crucial for understanding the evolution of the universe – was daunting until Galaxy Zoo was set up. By logging on, members of the public can classify galaxies and have proved as good as, and in some cases better than, professional astronomers.</p><p>Now meteorologists hope that Galaxy Zoo, whose organisers have been invited to this week's climate meeting, can provide a model that will allow the public to help in the massive job of digitising the weather data left by sailors.</p><p>"We need not only to create climate data sets at daily or even shorter timescales, at a resolution of a few kilometres at most, but to generate data sets as far into the past as possible," said Stott. "That is why we are planning to take all these different approaches."</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/meteorology">Meteorology</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/climate-change">Climate change</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/scienceofclimatechange">Climate change</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/google">Google</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/robinmckie">Robin McKie</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/38agCYG_8tbIvvg1CdZ26Jwedxg/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/38agCYG_8tbIvvg1CdZ26Jwedxg/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/38agCYG_8tbIvvg1CdZ26Jwedxg/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/38agCYG_8tbIvvg1CdZ26Jwedxg/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p> Meteorology UK news Environment Climate change Science Climate change Google Technology The Observer News http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/sep/05/google-galaxy-zoo-climate-project Sat, 04 Sep 2010 23:07:11 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.20.4/17560?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/NSjxOWBAww3D6iEIAOG903k8n-o/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/NSjxOWBAww3D6iEIAOG903k8n-o/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/NSjxOWBAww3D6iEIAOG903k8n-o/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/NSjxOWBAww3D6iEIAOG903k8n-o/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/music/2010/sep/05/jonathan-harvey-classical-music-amplifiers/print <div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.4/14137?ns=guardian&pageName=Composer+Jonathan+Harvey+calls+for+amplified+classical+music+to+attract+%3AArticle%3A1447451&ch=Music&c3=Obs&c4=Classical+music+%28Music+genre%29%2CProms%2CEnglish+National+Opera+%28ENO%29%2CPunchdrunk%2CUK+news&c5=Classical+Music%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CTheatre&c6=Vanessa+Thorpe&c7=10-Sep-05&c8=1447451&c9=Article&c10=News&c11=Music&c13=&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FMusic%2FClassical+music" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">Professor of music pushes 'blasphemous' idea of concerts where people can talk or walk out in middle of a movement</p><p>One of Britain's leading composers is calling on fellow classical musicians to abandon the stuffy conventions that surround the concert hall and to adopt new and "blasphemous" ideas, such as amplifying the sound.</p><p>Jonathan Harvey, whose piece <em>Dum transisset sabbatum</em> was featured in yesterday's BBC Proms matinée performance, is concerned that British youth are alienated by the traditions that still dictate that classical music should be played to rows of silent, seated listeners.</p><p>"Young people don't like concert halls... and wouldn't normally go to one except for amplified music," he says in a radio interview to be broadcast today. "There is a big divide between amplified and non-amplified music. The future must bring things that are considered blasphemous, like amplifying classical music in an atmosphere where people can come and go, and even perhaps… and certainly leave in the middle of a movement if they feel like it."</p><p>Harvey, 71, is one of the senior figures of classical music in Britain. A visiting professor of music at Oxford University and at Imperial College London, he has composed four string quartets, three operas and choral and orchestral works, including his <em>Passion and Resurrection</em>, the subject of a BBC television film. This weekend he voiced fears that if orchestras and conductors hang on to the orthodox method of performance they will end up playing to empty halls.</p><p>"Nobody should be deprived of classical music, least of all by silly conventions," he said.</p><p>But Harvey's views run against those of many evangelists for the timeless appeal of classical music. Julian Lloyd Webber, the cellist and brother of Andrew, is happy to popularise works normally regarded as "classical", but believes that to routinely amplify the sound of orchestral instruments or to allow audiences to move around would be to attack a central part of the experience.</p><p>"Tinkering around with classical music in this way is not going to do what Jonathan hopes it will," he said. "Of course I have played amplified music in concert myself, and the problem is that you are no longer in control. Even if you go through it all with the sound technicians in rehearsal, in concert you don't really know what the audience is hearing and this takes control of the performance away from the performer."</p><p>Innovative projects that have brought classical music into unlikely environments, such as those championed by John Berry at the English National Opera, are much more viable, Lloyd Webber believes. Berry's company has collaborated on unconventional work with the Young Vic theatre in London, and this summer, in partnership with the avant garde theatre group Punchdrunk, the ENO took a production of <em>The Duchess of Malfi</em> into a London warehouse.</p><p>Lloyd Webber is happy to see music played outside old-fashioned concert halls. "They have done some experiments with playing it in nightclubs, and I think that can work very well," he said. "You can pick up an idea of the music while you're walking around and I think that does introduce it to a new audience. But if you were to allow people to come and go in a concert hall, you would change the nature of the whole experience." Harvey, Lloyd Webber believes, would be throwing the baby out with the bathwater if sound systems were regularly used: "You would be in danger of losing all the sense of nuance, and that is a large part of what this kind of music is about. It is, and ought to be, a totally different experience to listening to rock music, and that could actually be part of its appeal. We should not be forced to try to turn it into something it isn't."</p><p>While Lloyd Webber agrees with Harvey that many people are not at home in the concert hall, he puts this down to failures in musical education. "Classical music does have a bit of a lost generation of forty-somethings who were just not introduced to music in school so do not think it is part of their world," he said.</p><p>A potential template for the future was seen in Dorset last month. Billed as the UK's first classical music festival, thousands of fans descended on a site outside the village of Kimmeridge to dance, drink and celebrate their favourite soprano. Visitors described scenes at the Serenata festival as being more reminiscent of a rock festival. Organisers said they wanted a more diverse audience, comparable with the folk-tinged Green Man festival in south Wales.</p><p></p><p><em>Bob Shingleton's interview with Jonathan Harvey on the FM community radio station Future Radio is broadcast and webcast on 107.8FM at 3pm today.</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/proms">Proms</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/eno">English National Opera</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/punchdrunk">Punchdrunk</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/vanessathorpe">Vanessa Thorpe</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/YzeUWFALTexh0gRYKWyu5O86W04/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/YzeUWFALTexh0gRYKWyu5O86W04/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/YzeUWFALTexh0gRYKWyu5O86W04/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/YzeUWFALTexh0gRYKWyu5O86W04/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p> Classical music Proms English National Opera Punchdrunk UK news The Observer News http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/sep/05/jonathan-harvey-classical-music-amplifiers Sat, 04 Sep 2010 23:07:09 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/sep/05/call-for-sylvia-plath-memorial/print <div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.4/76065?ns=guardian&pageName=Sylvia+Plath+fans+call+for+a+fitting+memorial+to+the+poet%3AArticle%3A1447461&ch=Books&c3=Obs&c4=Sylvia+Plath+%28Author%29%2CTed+Hughes+%28Author%29%2CPoetry+%28Books+genre%29%2CBooks%2CUK+news&c5=Not+commercially+useful&c6=Vanessa+Thorpe&c7=10-Sep-05&c8=1447461&c9=Article&c10=News&c11=Books&c13=&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FBooks%2FSylvia+Plath" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">Bid to end long-standing friction over the unassuming resting place in the Yorkshire village of Heptonstall of Ted Hughes's tragic partner</p><p>A small stone in a cemetery in the Yorkshire village of Heptonstall marks the unassuming grave of Sylvia Plath, the American poet and novelist whose fame has grown each year since her suicide in 1963. And growing every year, too, are the numbers of foreign visitors who make a pilgrimage to the grave.</p><p>Frequently they find it looking untended and unkempt, and this has prompted strong calls for a proper memorial to her life and work. "I am sure lots of people would volunteer to look after the grave regularly, as I have," said Gail Crowther, a 38-year-old Plath scholar from Cumbria. "In fact, I know that people would donate money to pay for someone to do it too."</p><p>Many great poets, from Milton to Keats, Byron and Blake, are remembered in Westminster Abbey, or with grand monuments erected by admirers. Plath's own husband, the late poet laureate, Ted Hughes, is already commemorated by a granite monolith, placed secretly, by special permission of Prince Charles, on a remote site on the Duchy of Cornwall Dartmoor estates following his death from cancer in 1998. Early next year his name will join those honoured inside the abbey at Poets' Corner.</p><p>Demands for a more appropriate memorial to Plath have been prompted by the discovery of a touching poem written by the poet's old friend Elizabeth Sigmund. The poem, published by Crowther on a <a href="http://sylviaplathinfo.blogspot.com/2010/08/two-thumps-up.html" title="popular Plath website">popular Plath website</a> last month, has become a rallying cry for faithful fans who want to make sure she is never forgotten.</p><p>Sigmund, 82, befriended Plath when they were both young mothers living in Devon in the early 1960s. The two became so close that when the writer published her highly acclaimed novel <em>The Bell Jar</em> in 1963 she dedicated it to her English confidante. "Sylvia, I think, thought of me as totally unthreatening compared to most of the women she knew," said Sigmund this weekend. "Many of them, after all, were in love with Ted. While he was wonderful, I never saw him in that way at all."</p><p>Plath gassed herself at the age of 30, shortly after her husband left the marriage to live with their friend, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2006/sep/10/books.shopping" title="Assia Wevill">Assia Wevill</a>. As a result, Hughes was vilified by Plath's followers for more than 30 years and Plath's grave in Yorkshire became a contested site. The surname "Hughes" was repeatedly hacked away from her headstone. Other Plath devotees were upset that she had been buried close to Hughes's Yorkshire birthplace, an area he once called his "tuning fork", rather than near her own roots back in America.</p><p>"I believe Ted Hughes once took up some sea shells from near their home in Devon to place on the grave in Heptonstall, but he was distressed when they were taken away by visitors, so I can see why it was difficult for him," said Crowther, who is completing a PhD about the personal impact that Plath's poetry has on her fans.</p><p>The clergyman in charge of the graveyard, the Rev Howard Pask, regularly has to remove tributes and offerings from the grave and has found it difficult to cope with the number of visitors. According to Sigmund, Pask has also been concerned not to upset the surviving child of Plath and Hughes, the poet Frieda Hughes, who has spoken publicly of her wish to deter fans from idolising her mother.</p><p>Plath, who had made an early suicide bid as a student in America, met Hughes in 1956 at a party after she came to England to study at Cambridge. The couple married four months later and moved into a home near Dartmoor to bring up their two children, Frieda and her younger brother, Nicholas. When the marriage fell apart, Plath moved back to London, but became ill and depressed. Hughes later gave his own partial explanation of his wife's declining mental health, citing the morning gaps between "one pill and the next".</p><p>The tragic waves around Hughes fanned out long after his wife's death. Six years on Assia Wevill killed herself, dying alongside her young daughter by Hughes, and last year Hughes's son, Nicholas, hanged himself.</p><p>At the age of 67, shortly before his death, Hughes finally broke his silence about his personal life in <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/may/09/ted-hughes-robert-mccrum" title="Birthday Letters"><em>Birthday Letters</em></a>, a long series of autobiographical poems. Andrew Motion, who succeeded him as poet laureate, hailed the collection as some of Hughes's best work.</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/sylviaplath">Sylvia Plath</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/tedhughes">Ted Hughes</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/poetry">Poetry</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/vanessathorpe">Vanessa Thorpe</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/9QP7lIkKW0qqUnPtc4tjTzWhzqU/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/9QP7lIkKW0qqUnPtc4tjTzWhzqU/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/9QP7lIkKW0qqUnPtc4tjTzWhzqU/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/9QP7lIkKW0qqUnPtc4tjTzWhzqU/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p> Sylvia Plath Ted Hughes Poetry Books UK news The Observer News http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/sep/05/call-for-sylvia-plath-memorial Sat, 04 Sep 2010 23:07:09 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/sep/05/wheat-price-fears-over-biofuels/print <div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.4/25419?ns=guardian&pageName=Rising+wheat+prices+raise+fears+over+UK+commitment+to+biofuels%3AArticle%3A1447418&ch=Environment&c3=Obs&c4=Biofuels+%28Environment%29%2CFood+science%2CAgriculture+%28Science%29%2CScience%2CEnergy+%28Environment%29%2CRenewable+energy+%28Environment%29%2CEnvironment%2CUK+news&c5=Environment+Conservation%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CEnergy%2CEthical+Living%2CFood+and+Drink&c6=Jamie+Doward&c7=10-Sep-05&c8=1447418&c9=Article&c10=News&c11=Environment&c13=&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FEnvironment%2FBiofuels" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">Converting up to a fifth of UK wheat into biofuel will force prices even higher at a time of food shortages, warn critics</p><p>The soaring price of wheat has raised questions about the UK's commitment to biofuels as it attempts to wean itself from its dependence on oil.</p><p>A network of biorefineries that convert wheat and other crops into bioethanol that can then be blended with petrol are being developed as the UK looks to meet its EU renewable transport fuels obligations.</p><p>But the huge amounts of wheat that will be used in the process – up to a fifth of the UK's current annual production within four years – have prompted questions about where the crop will come from.</p><p>At the end of a week in which the wheat price hit a two-year high as Russia, the world's fourth largest producer, imposed an export ban for the second year running, there were fears that the domestic move to biofuels would lead to further rises in the cost of wheat. The result would be a significant rise in shopping bills.</p><p>Currently there is only one wheat biorefinery operating in the UK. Owned by a company called Ensus, the Tees-side plant, which cost almost £300m to build and was temporarily closed due to teething problems, will use some 1.2 tonnes of wheat a year when at full capacity.</p><p>But four more plants that could use wheat, at Immingham, Corby, Grimsby and Hull, are also in development. According to the <a href="http://www.hgca.com/content.template/0/0/Home/Home/Home.mspx" title="">cereals and oilseeds division</a> of the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, the three UK biofuel refineries that are expected to be fully operating by 2014 will require 3m tonnes, one-fifth of the wheat produced in the UK.</p><p>The demand is expected to rise further as the UK tries to meet recently agreed EU biofuel targets. The UK has recently signed up to a compulsory EU target that will see 10% of its transport fuels come from renewable sources by the year 2020.</p><p>The "dash for wheat" could see large amounts of land converted to arable use both in the UK and abroad. Green groups are concerned about what this will mean for developing countries.</p><p>The World Bank, the OECD and the <a href="http://www.renewablefuelsagency.gov.uk/" title="">UK government's Gallagher report</a> all identified biofuels as a significant factor in recent food price rises. But some reports suggest biofuels could actually help to "smooth out" the peaks and troughs associated with the wheat market by providing producers with more stable demand.</p><p>Concerns about the UK's wheat supply come at the end of a week in which the <a href="http://www.fao.org/" title="">UN Food and Agriculture Organisation</a> warned that world food prices have risen to their highest level in two years. It said that the increase was due partly to a drought in Russia, where government export restrictions have led the price to surge. Speculators have also been blamed for helping to drive prices higher at a time of general uncertainty.</p><p>A spike in food prices triggered deadly riots in Mozambique last week and experts worry that other countries that saw such unrest during the last global food crisis in 2008 could be hit again. In Egypt, where half of the population depends on subsidised bread, recent protests over rising prices left at least one person dead. There are also reports of price increases in flood-hit Pakistan.</p><p>Kenneth Richter, head of biofuels at <a href="http://www.foe.co.uk/" title="">Friends of the Earth</a>, said last week's riots showed that food should not be used for fuel. "In a time of rising food prices and global shortages, it is cynical to burn wheat in our cars," he said.</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/biofuels">Biofuels</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/food-science">Food science</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/agriculture">Agriculture</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/energy">Energy</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/renewableenergy">Renewable energy</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/jamiedoward">Jamie Doward</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/IzTUPO4erugHwhvaOuHb2u5jzvw/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/IzTUPO4erugHwhvaOuHb2u5jzvw/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/IzTUPO4erugHwhvaOuHb2u5jzvw/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/IzTUPO4erugHwhvaOuHb2u5jzvw/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p> Biofuels Food science Agriculture Science Energy Renewable energy Environment UK news The Observer News http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/sep/05/wheat-price-fears-over-biofuels Sat, 04 Sep 2010 23:07:01 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.20.4/42458?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/i16F73cBvcF3PsI_H2uG6L4MlMw/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/i16F73cBvcF3PsI_H2uG6L4MlMw/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/i16F73cBvcF3PsI_H2uG6L4MlMw/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/i16F73cBvcF3PsI_H2uG6L4MlMw/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.20.4/44424?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/NRZ5IPoYAiQW0DDDyl02RU5dgOg/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/NRZ5IPoYAiQW0DDDyl02RU5dgOg/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/NRZ5IPoYAiQW0DDDyl02RU5dgOg/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/NRZ5IPoYAiQW0DDDyl02RU5dgOg/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/politics/2010/sep/05/blairs-memoirs-journey-for-all/print <div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.4/81152?ns=guardian&pageName=Tony+Blair%27s+memoirs+are+a+journey+we+can+all+enjoy%3AArticle%3A1447326&ch=Politics&c3=Obs&c4=Tony+Blair%2CPolitics%2CBooks%2CUK+news&c5=Not+commercially+useful&c6=&c7=10-Sep-05&c8=1447326&c9=Article&c10=News&c11=Politics&c13=&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FPolitics%2FTony+Blair" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">"A Journey" tells us about everything from excessive drinking to the Labour leadership</p><p><strong>It was more than a publishing event. The launch of Tony Blair's memoirs, <em>A Journey</em>, became the text through which a whole host of people could examine a whole host of subjects. Like a sacred text, with added gush, <em>A Journey</em> swiftly became all things to all people. Here's what it tells us about:</strong></p><p></p><p><strong>'Excessive' drinking </strong>(<em>Blair admitted to the occasional half bottle of wine a night) </em></p><p>"One theory I heard was that this shows Blair has been spending too much time in America, where they tend to be a bit more puritanical about these things."</p><p><strong>Andrew Sparrow, Guardian blog</strong></p><p></p><p><strong>Blair Inc</strong></p><p>"It's not about score-settling or making money. It's not about self-vindication. He's using his memoirs to build Blair Inc and he has created an extraordinary business model."</p><p><strong>Fraser Nelson, Coffee House blog</strong></p><p><strong>How the Tories are right </strong></p><p>"Tony Blair agrees, as we do, that public spending needs to be brought under control. He recognises that if the deficit remains high, that saps confidence and people think there are higher taxes round the corner. He has endorsed our view that we need to take action now to tackle the deficit and get the economy going. He is backing our view and coming out against his successor."</p><p><strong>Mark Hoban, Conservative Treasurer</strong></p><p></p><p><strong>The Labour Leadership campaign</strong></p><p>"If I was David Miliband, I would be asking Tony Blair for a period of silence. I think Tony Blair is 101% behind David Miliband because he sees David Miliband as the continuation."</p><p><strong>Leadership contender Diane Abbott</strong></p><p><strong>The revival of the word nicompoop</strong></p><p>"Freedom of Information. Three harmless words. I look at those words as I write them and feel like shaking my head till it drops off my shoulders. You idiot. You naive, foolish, irresponsible nincompoop. There is really no description of stupidity, no matter how vivid, that is adequate. I quake at the imbecility of it."</p><p><strong>Tony Blair, <em>A Journey</em></strong></p><p></p><p><strong>Credit for the Bank of England's independence</strong></p><p>"Brr Brr phone keeps ringing. All about some book. Latest call from hack says Blair claiming it was his idea to make Bank independent! LOL"</p><p><strong>Ex-Gordon Brown spin-doctor Charlie Whelan</strong></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></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/6L2VbzrBTatbK6ZHPerkFNk36Zk/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/6L2VbzrBTatbK6ZHPerkFNk36Zk/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/6L2VbzrBTatbK6ZHPerkFNk36Zk/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/6L2VbzrBTatbK6ZHPerkFNk36Zk/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p> Tony Blair Politics Books UK news The Observer News http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/sep/05/blairs-memoirs-journey-for-all Sat, 04 Sep 2010 23:06:48 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.20.4/36258?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/DMHilEhp3TyM65Uz2AWJzS6vLaU/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/DMHilEhp3TyM65Uz2AWJzS6vLaU/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/DMHilEhp3TyM65Uz2AWJzS6vLaU/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/DMHilEhp3TyM65Uz2AWJzS6vLaU/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/science/2010/sep/05/tv-not-twitter-spreads-slang/print <div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.4/34983?ns=guardian&pageName=Twitter+spreads+regional+slang%2C+claims+an+academic.+He%27s+probably+just+a%3AArticle%3A1447277&ch=Science&c3=Obs&c4=Language%2CGavin+and+Stacey%2CTelevision+%28Culture%29%2CUK+news&c5=Not+commercially+useful%2CTelevision+Media%2CTV&c6=Ian+Tucker&c7=10-Sep-05&c8=1447277&c9=Article&c10=News&c11=Science&c13=&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FScience%2FLanguage" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">Brookside and Gavin & Stacey may do more to spread local slang than social networking sites</p><p>In one school in estuary Essex in the 1980s, when you had a good time you had a "grindle", and if you had a jolly good time you had a "right ol' grindle". Yet stray outside the catchment area of the school – my old school – and no one was grindling. Some years later in the offices of a monthly magazine, anyone who was proving irritating was a "nizer". Despite nize-derived terms accounting for every fourth word uttered, it was an expression never heard beyond a work leaving do.</p><p>But last week we learned that local argot isn't staying put any more. Dialect words are spreading across the nation thanks to social networking. Dr Eric Schleef, lecturer in English Sociolinguistics at the University of Manchester, said: "Twitter, Facebook and texting all encourage speed and immediacy of understanding, meaning users type as they speak. We are all becoming exposed to words we may not have otherwise encountered."</p><p>He said that Welsh terms like "tidy" and "lush" have spread nationwide thanks to social networking, yet surely <em>Gavin & Stacey</em> might have helped via old-fashioned television.</p><p>In the 90s <em>Brookside</em> introduced the nation to Scouse and resulted in folk in Sussex paying their "leccy" bills and getting arrested by the "bizzies". Would Cockneys have described their new Nike Air Max as "mint" before <em>Shameless</em>? We tend only to social network with people we already know, who probably speak a bit like us. It takes television, film and literature to introduce us to new language.</p><p>Not that Dr Schleef denies the influence of television. He cites the use of "bootiful", a word not heard outside East Anglia until Bernard Matthews' turkey adverts. But I've not heard anyone say that outside a TV set, let alone East Anglia. Despite all the airtime, "bootiful", like "nize" and "grindle", didn't catch on, not because Twitter didn't exist but because they were just a bit "whack".</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/language">Language</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/gavin-and-stacey">Gavin and Stacey</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/iantucker">Ian Tucker</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/mky-x2vJkC0NDbp22wXkOF-3Bzc/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/mky-x2vJkC0NDbp22wXkOF-3Bzc/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/mky-x2vJkC0NDbp22wXkOF-3Bzc/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/mky-x2vJkC0NDbp22wXkOF-3Bzc/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p> Language Gavin and Stacey Television UK news The Observer News http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/sep/05/tv-not-twitter-spreads-slang Sat, 04 Sep 2010 23:06:44 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/sep/05/housebuilders-optimism-share-price/print <div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.4/99272?ns=guardian&pageName=Shareholders+fear+housebuilders%27+optimism+has+shaky+foundations%3AArticle%3A1447214&ch=Business&c3=Obs&c4=Housing+market+%28Business%29%2CConstruction+industry+%28Business+sector%29%2CInvesting+%28Business%29%2CRecession+%28UK%29%2CHouse+prices+%28Money%29%2CUK+news&c5=Credit+Crunch%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CBusiness+Markets%2CProperty+Mortgages+and+Interest+Rates%2CInvestments+%26+Savings&c6=Richard+Wachman&c7=10-Sep-05&c8=1447214&c9=Article&c10=News&c11=Business&c13=&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FBusiness%2FHousing+market" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">Bosses talk of higher margins, and more houses being built, but shares in housebuilding firms remain gloomily low</p><p>Something doesn't feel right in the housebuilding sector. Shares are languishing despite a slew of upbeat statements from industry chiefs.</p><p>If the worst of the housing downturn is over, stock prices should be heading north as confidence returns – albeit slowly. In fact, market valuations have declined by 30% over the past three months. The City doesn't believe the recovery story being peddled by the housebuilding bosses.</p><p>Investors living in fear of a double-dip recession are alarmed at the continued unwillingness of the banks to dish out mortgages. The buy-to-let market has collapsed, and an acute shortage of rental properties is looming. And commentators say that by the end of 2011 house prices could fall by 10% from the mini-recovery seen mid-way through last year.</p><p>So why are the housebuilders upbeat? The answer is that companies such as Persimmon and Taylor Wimpey have fixed their balance sheets and are building more houses than at any time since the start of the credit crunch. Indebtedness has been reduced and several firms have raised funds from shareholders to bolster capital positions that were shot to pieces by the slump.</p><p>Clearly, another financial crisis would be devastating, but few economists believe one is lurking. Nor do the housebuilders. David Ritchie, chief executive of Bovis Homes, says: "I don't think a double dip is on the cards. We could flatline for a bit, but that doesn't worry us because we are operating from a position of strength."</p><p>Housebuilders have cleared unsold stock, acquired land at rock-bottom prices and cut costs to take account of lower demand. And land acquired at inflated prices has been written down to reflect new economic realities. Even if house prices fall by 5%-8% in the next year, the big players should be able to maintain margins.</p><p>The optimism was palpable when Persimmon recently reported a surge in profits for the half-year and a restoration of the dividend after a torrid two years. Average selling prices were up nearly 9% on 2009 and completions rose by 10%. Chief Mike Farley says: "Build costs are firmly under control at the lower prices we have negotiated over the past 24 months. These lower input costs are helping us to rebuild and sustain higher margins."</p><p>There was similar optimism from Taylor Wimpey. Chairman Kevin Beeston says: "Although uncertainty remains, current trading is satisfactory and our forward order books and cautious approach to valuation provide protection."</p><p>Ritchie at Bovis adds: "We are not anticipating a housing market recovery, but we are running on the assumption that there is a stable market. We have cash on the balance sheet and can invest in assets and land without undue worry. From these levels we can make 20% from capital employed. We built just 221 new homes in 2009, but expect to build 2,000 this year."</p><p>But doubts remain. House prices have been edging down in the past few months, so property inflation will be lower in 2010. The coalition government's determination to slash benefits, increase VAT and cut jobs in the public sector is weighing on sentiment. First-time buyers cannot get mortgage finance as lenders are demanding large deposits, typically 20% of the asking price.</p><p>Housebuilders are doing their best to counter that trend. Bovis, for instance, has established a venture with Barclays that allows customers to put down a deposit of just 10%, with Bovis providing insurance for Barclays to recoup losses in the event of a default.</p><p>But Roger Humber, strategic policy adviser at the House Builders Association, is less cheerful. "New builds are still 40% below the peak," he says. "There is no real strength to the housing recovery. Banks face stringent capital adequacy requirements and must repay loans to government – about £165bn by the end of 2012. That does not augur well for a market that needs first-time buyers."</p><p>Humber says in the second quarter of 2010, the average selling price of a new build was £186,000, up 8.6%. But the much larger second-hand market was declining.</p><p>Hometrack says the decline in UK house prices overall accelerated in August, with prices falling by 0.3% last month, compared with a drop of just 0.1% in July. The average UK house is now worth £158,200.</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/housingmarket">Housing market</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/construction">Construction industry</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/investing">Investing</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/recession">Recession</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/houseprices">House prices</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/richardwachman">Richard Wachman</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/iaDqUbyC30qFyLYaSmWVcGOE3yk/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/iaDqUbyC30qFyLYaSmWVcGOE3yk/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/iaDqUbyC30qFyLYaSmWVcGOE3yk/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/iaDqUbyC30qFyLYaSmWVcGOE3yk/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p> Housing market Construction industry Investing Recession House prices UK news The Observer News http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/sep/05/housebuilders-optimism-share-price Sat, 04 Sep 2010 23:06:40 GMT