Evelyn Grace Academy wins the 16th RIBA Stirling prize, giving Hadid top award for second year running Architect Zaha Hadid’s Z-shaped school in Brixton, south London, has beaten the hot favourite, the Olympic velodrome, to win the 16th annual RIBA Stirling prize for architecture. Victory for Evelyn Grace academy gives Hadid’s practice a Stirling prize for the second year running, although it is the architect’s first major building project in Britain. Last year her practice won for the Maxxi Museum of 21st Century Arts in Rome. “Schools are among the first examples of architecture that everyone experiences and have a profound impact on all children as they grow up,” said Hadid. “I am delighted that the Evelyn Grace Academy has been so well received by all its students and staff.” The prestigious £20,000 award, handed over by the Royal Institute of British Architects, the Architects’ Journal and construction products manufacturer Benchmark at a ceremony in Rotherham, is intended to celebrate the best new European building “built or designed in Britain”. It was expected to go to Michael Hopkins’s eye-catching east London Olympic venue, popularly known as “the Pringle”. But Hadid’s school triumphed with its bold approach to solving a difficult problem: how to bring four schools together on a small site under one “academy” umbrella. Evelyn Grace had to be squeezed into 1.4 hectares, while the average secondary school takes up more like 8ha. The school is also situated in the area of the capital with the highest crime rate in western Europe. Rather than building the sort of glass atrium that has been adopted by many new schools, Hadid’s team opted to spend the money on better-lit classrooms and corridors with more space. But her design does have one remarkable, central feature: a bright-red 100m sprint track running right through the site. There is also a multiuse Astroturf pitch, while another quiet corner is home to a wildflower garden. RIBA president Angela Brady, who chaired the judges, said: “The Evelyn Grace academy is an exceptional example of what can be achieved when we invest carefully in a well-designed new school building. The result – a highly imaginative, exciting academy that shows the students, staff and local residents that they are valued – is what every school should and could be.” The school is run by the Ark (Absolute Return for Kids) Academy organisation, a charity set up by Arpad “Arki” Busson, the hedge-fund multimillionaire. The final shortlist of the six rival structures competing for this year’s award included not just Hopkins’s velodrome, but Rab Bennetts’s careful remodelling of the Royal Shakespeare and Swan Theatres in Stratford-on-Avon, an innovative cultural centre in Derry, the re-facing and transforming of a 1980s office building in north London, and the extension of the Folkwang Museum in Essen, Germany, by David Chipperfield Architects, who have also won the Stirling prize before. This was the first year previous entrants were eligible for consideration and all six shortlisted practices had been shortlisted before. Full coverage of the prizegiving ceremony will be broadcast in a special edition of BBC2′s Culture Show on Sunday. Stirling prize Zaha Hadid Architecture Art Awards and prizes David Chipperfield Olympic Games 2012 Vanessa Thorpe guardian.co.uk
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Foreign secretary says ‘our place is in the European Union’ and describes coalition government as ‘wonderfully refreshing’ William Hague has cast off his reputation as the darling of the Tory right by describing governing with the Liberal Democrats as “wonderfully refreshing”. He also rules out a referendum on UK membership of the EU. The comments by the foreign secretary, in an interview with the Observer , will dismay the many Conservative MPs who resent the Lib Dems’ moderating influence on government policy, particularly on relations with Europe, and want their party to champion a more rightwing agenda. As the Tories gather for their annual conference in Manchester, amid calls from rightwingers for David Cameron to give less ground to their coalition partners, Hague says this administration is working better than the last Tory government in which he served. “When you sit with David Cameron and Nick Clegg and other senior colleagues examining an issue, it is a wonderfully refreshing, rational discussion, actually, in which you know your party identity is not the first consideration,” he says. “The government has a more united spirit than the last government I served in at the end of 18 years of Conservative
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Sunseekers head for the beach as temperatures reach 30C following warmest end to September for more than 100 years Most of Britain basked in glorious heat on Saturday as the mercury hit an all-time October high in several parts of the country, prompting sunseekers to head en masse for the coast. During the afternoon, the reported temperature at RAF Finningley, Yorkshire, reached 30C (86F), beating the previous record of 29.4C set on 1 October 1985, in March, Cambridgeshire. But it was not just the south that sweltered as the thermometers rose. A Met Office forecaster said that Wales also had a new national record with a temperature of 28.2C in Hawarden, Flintshire, beating the 26.4C set on 1 October 1985 in Ruthin, Denbighshire. Only Scotland and Northern Ireland missed out on the sunshine, enduring a day of relentless rain. The unseasonal weather saw people flock to the coast and the countryside in their millions. Travel information firm Trafficlink estimated there was up to 50% more traffic on the most popular summer routes, while train companies said they had carried up to 25% more passengers as people rushed to beaches and beauty spots. The weather provided a fillip for the tourist industry after a disappointing summer. The website Hotels.com said it experienced a 983% rise in searches involving top British seaside destinations, including Bournemouth and Weston-super-Mare. The most popular resort was Broadstairs in Kent, with a 275% increase in hotel searches. Other popular searches included Salcombe in Devon, Skegness in Lincolnshire, Southend in Essex and Portsmouth in Hampshire, while the Brighton Oktoberfest was a sellout. “The good weather always helps,”
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Food charity FareShare sees a 20% rise in demand, much of it from people hit by unemployment and benefit changes Britain has seen a sharp increase in the number of people unable to afford to feed themselves at the most basic level, thanks to the worsening economic climate and changes to the benefit system, according to a survey by a leading food charity. In the past year FareShare, which redistributes waste food from major food manufacturers and supermarkets to social care charities, has seen a 20% rise in the number of people it is feeding – from 29,500 a year to 35,000. And many of those, blighted by rising unemployment and business failures, are coming from the sorts of stable family backgrounds once considered immune to the worst effects of
Continue reading …enlarge Credit: Ian Murphy’s cell phone LIBERTY SQUARE, NY–despite the early morning rain, morale is high. A reported 100,000 copies of The Occupied Wall Street Journal have just arrived. The young occupiers are busy handing out the four page broadsheet to curious passersby and the protest tourists, who linger on the outskirts of Zuccotti Park, snapping photos of signs and the occasional blue-haired hippie. “The Revolution Begins at Home” reads a headline. “Learning from the World” reads another piece about Americans taking lessons from the spontaneous Arab Spring. In anticipation of an Oct 5th student walkouts and union marches, a caption reads, “New York Unites!” The rained on, camping crowd of about 200 has swelled to a respectable 400–or so–with a march planned for 3 pm, which is said will attract more. Some clothes are wet. Most clothes are wet. Everything is a little wet. Still. I’m told protesters could benefit from blankets, jackets, tarps. Anything to keep people warm and dry tonight, and into the coming…weeks? The on-sight media people — the only media to be found today, aside from freelancers — are in need of large external storage devices. They’re recording a lot of data. The first aid people say they need non latex gloves, roller gauze, medical tape and general supplies. Food is adequate, but storage containers would help organize the supplies and keep the damn pigeons off my bread. And I need Vicodin. Send Vicodin. Now. EDITOR’S NOTE: We sent New York occupiers some pizzas yesterday. And by “we” I mean you guys. We raised over $4000 yesterday (Friday) to feed the ground swell of solidarity demonstrations. If you want to send these guys a slice all amounts are welcome and appreciated!
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Woman kidnapped early on Saturday from private house on island of Manda on Kenya’s north coast Kidnappers escaped into Somalia with a French hostage on Saturday after a gun battle with Kenyan security forces. Kenya’s tourism minister, Najib Balala, said several of the gang had been wounded and they were holed up on the Somali coast about 15 miles from the border with Kenya. “Now that it is dark it is next to impossible to continue to follow. The moment is lost,” said Colonel John Steed, in charge of the UN’s counter-piracy unit in Nairobi. “Now it reverts to normal kidnapping negotiations.” The 66-year-old disabled woman – named in reports as 66-year-old Marie Dedieu – was grabbed in the early hours of Saturday from a private house on the island of Manda on Kenya’s northern coast. The victim’s Kenyan boyfriend, John Lepapa, said six masked men brandishing assault rifles had stormed their beach house. The wheelchair-bound woman was then carried to a waiting boat in the second abduction of a foreign visitor in three weeks. “They’ve crossed the border into Ras Kamboni,” Balala said, referring to the southernmost tip of Somalia that is under the control of militia fighters. “There are two aircraft on top of them monitoring their position.” The wounded members of the gang appear to be hampering its ability to move deeper inland, he said. Earlier, Kenyan coastguards surrounded the kidnappers near the border with Somalia and the bandits fired into the air in an attempt to scare off the two boats and a circling aircraft. Analysts and diplomats in the region had warned that Somali pirates were likely to turn to softer targets, such as tourists in Kenya, in response to much more robust defence of merchant vessels by private security guards. Kenya Somalia Africa Piracy at sea France Europe guardian.co.uk
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Doctors are prescribing antidepressants rather than providing counselling and other treatments Mothers with postnatal depression are being failed by the National Health Service, which is ignoring international guidelines on the condition. Researchers from the charity 4Children surveyed all health trusts in England and Wales to find out what sort of treatment was being received by the one in 10 new mothers who suffers from the condition. They found that, of those whose symptoms were recognised at all by their GPs, the vast majority were being prescribed antidepressants, against guidance from the National Institute for Clinical Excellence, which recommends “talking therapies” – counselling and cognitive behavioural treatments – for mild and moderate cases of the so-called “baby blues”. The survey, by parenting club Bounty on behalf of 4Children, also found that few health authorities were collecting information on the prevalence or severity of postnatal depression, while others seemed to have only a patchy understanding of the issue. There were vast disparities between those who did hold information – two primary care trusts claimed they had had only one case in the past year, while another reported 1,350 cases. Only 9% of health trusts were keeping track of the condition in their area. “That’s pretty unlikely given the one in 10 figure that is widely accepted for postnatal depression,” said Anne Longfield, chief executive of 4Children. “This is not a rare condition. You’d think it might have rung an alarm bell with them, but what is perhaps more astonishing is that the Department of Health holds no statistics at all.” Longfield said that the results of the report were shocking and showed that postnatal depression was not being taken seriously: “It just reveals so much in terms of lack of empathy and sympathy for these people. It’s a complete disregard for their health and wellbeing. “It seems that, from the Department of Health’s point of view, it’s not an issue; they don’t even ask the questions or collect the information. It’s seen as an everyday little personal issue and GPs, I’m afraid, are not proving very sympathetic to those mothers that are coming through their door. At the end of the day, no one is taking it seriously.” Of more than 2,000 mothers questioned, 70% were given antidepressants when they approached their doctor. The Nice guidelines recommend early diagnosis and quick access to treatment to limit the damaging effect postnatal depression has on the baby, the partner and other children in the family. The international health body states that psychological therapies should be offered as an alternative to antidepressants. “The Nice guidelines are clear, just as it’s clear they are being flouted. This report shows a massive default towards antidepressants when proper care is within the gift of health professionals,” said Longfield. Several celebrity mothers, including Gwyneth Paltrow, Sadie Frost and Zoe Ball, have testified to the damaging effects of postnatal depression: “At my lowest, I was a robot. I just didn’t feel anything,” said Paltrow. One woman, identified only as Natalie, told the researchers: “I was concerned that I was losing weight, not eating, not myself. The GP was dismissive. He said: ‘You’ve just had a baby. It’s just your hormones. Antidepressants will help you get through it.’ I felt pushed out of his surgery with a prescription in my hand that I had said I didn’t want. “I’m the single mother of three children and need to be alert if I am to look after them properly,” she said. “Eventually, I went to the health centre just to get some food vouchers. The health visitor recognised the symptoms of postnatal depression immediately and organised counselling for me. After four weeks I started to feel a great improvement, but it was sheer luck that I finally got help.” For others, help came too late. Jess Stoneham, 36, suffered postnatal depression after the birth of her baby three years ago. It contributed, she says, to the breakup of her marriage. “I knew things were very different from the first time round, but everyone just said I was more tired because I had a toddler as well as a baby. It’s true I was shattered, too tired to stand up for myself – certainly with everyone, from the doctor to the health visitor to my mother, telling me I would be fine. “Well, I wasn’t fine, but no one recognised the symptoms and it makes me really sad that my son had to be without a mother for the first year of his life because I, effectively, was a wreck. It didn’t have to be like that.” Postnatal depression Depression Mental health NHS Health Women Health policy Tracy McVeigh guardian.co.uk
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Doctors are prescribing antidepressants rather than providing counselling and other treatments Mothers with postnatal depression are being failed by the National Health Service, which is ignoring international guidelines on the condition. Researchers from the charity 4Children surveyed all health trusts in England and Wales to find out what sort of treatment was being received by the one in 10 new mothers who suffers from the condition. They found that, of those whose symptoms were recognised at all by their GPs, the vast majority were being prescribed antidepressants, against guidance from the National Institute for Clinical Excellence, which recommends “talking therapies” – counselling and cognitive behavioural treatments – for mild and moderate cases of the so-called “baby blues”. The survey, by parenting club Bounty on behalf of 4Children, also found that few health authorities were collecting information on the prevalence or severity of postnatal depression, while others seemed to have only a patchy understanding of the issue. There were vast disparities between those who did hold information – two primary care trusts claimed they had had only one case in the past year, while another reported 1,350 cases. Only 9% of health trusts were keeping track of the condition in their area. “That’s pretty unlikely given the one in 10 figure that is widely accepted for postnatal depression,” said Anne Longfield, chief executive of 4Children. “This is not a rare condition. You’d think it might have rung an alarm bell with them, but what is perhaps more astonishing is that the Department of Health holds no statistics at all.” Longfield said that the results of the report were shocking and showed that postnatal depression was not being taken seriously: “It just reveals so much in terms of lack of empathy and sympathy for these people. It’s a complete disregard for their health and wellbeing. “It seems that, from the Department of Health’s point of view, it’s not an issue; they don’t even ask the questions or collect the information. It’s seen as an everyday little personal issue and GPs, I’m afraid, are not proving very sympathetic to those mothers that are coming through their door. At the end of the day, no one is taking it seriously.” Of more than 2,000 mothers questioned, 70% were given antidepressants when they approached their doctor. The Nice guidelines recommend early diagnosis and quick access to treatment to limit the damaging effect postnatal depression has on the baby, the partner and other children in the family. The international health body states that psychological therapies should be offered as an alternative to antidepressants. “The Nice guidelines are clear, just as it’s clear they are being flouted. This report shows a massive default towards antidepressants when proper care is within the gift of health professionals,” said Longfield. Several celebrity mothers, including Gwyneth Paltrow, Sadie Frost and Zoe Ball, have testified to the damaging effects of postnatal depression: “At my lowest, I was a robot. I just didn’t feel anything,” said Paltrow. One woman, identified only as Natalie, told the researchers: “I was concerned that I was losing weight, not eating, not myself. The GP was dismissive. He said: ‘You’ve just had a baby. It’s just your hormones. Antidepressants will help you get through it.’ I felt pushed out of his surgery with a prescription in my hand that I had said I didn’t want. “I’m the single mother of three children and need to be alert if I am to look after them properly,” she said. “Eventually, I went to the health centre just to get some food vouchers. The health visitor recognised the symptoms of postnatal depression immediately and organised counselling for me. After four weeks I started to feel a great improvement, but it was sheer luck that I finally got help.” For others, help came too late. Jess Stoneham, 36, suffered postnatal depression after the birth of her baby three years ago. It contributed, she says, to the breakup of her marriage. “I knew things were very different from the first time round, but everyone just said I was more tired because I had a toddler as well as a baby. It’s true I was shattered, too tired to stand up for myself – certainly with everyone, from the doctor to the health visitor to my mother, telling me I would be fine. “Well, I wasn’t fine, but no one recognised the symptoms and it makes me really sad that my son had to be without a mother for the first year of his life because I, effectively, was a wreck. It didn’t have to be like that.” Postnatal depression Depression Mental health NHS Health Women Health policy Tracy McVeigh guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Police pay review chief faces claims report misrepresents officers’ views
October 1, 2011 No Comment
Lawyer risks being drawn into political row after Police Federation accuses inquiry of quoting officers ‘that do not exist’ The senior lawyer appointed by the government to conduct an inquiry into police pay is at the centre of a row amid accusations his report has misrepresented the views of officers, some of whom, it is alleged, do not exist. The row is threatening to become political after Keith Vaz, chairman of the home affairs select committee, suggested it might summon Tom Winsor, appointed last October by home secretary Theresa May, to explain himself. Winsor is currently conducting what is described as “the most comprehensive review of police officer and staff pay and conditions in over 30 years”. The former rail regulator has told MPs that 60% of police officers will be better off as a result of his recommendations, which follow consultations with hundreds of officers and staff. But in early July the Police Federation asked Winsor to “verify the evidence presented in your report, especially as these comments appeared to directly contradict the views of officers articulated to the Police Federation”. Now, in an explosive letter sent to Winsor and copied to Vaz, the federation says it has discovered some of the officers interviewed by Winsor and his team “do not actually exist and many of those that do have rejected the statements attributed to them”. In its letter, which was leaked to the Observer , the federation, which speaks for some 140,000 officers in England and Wales, cites several examples to back up its claims. These include two officers, purportedly from Kent police, who were named in the report but not known to the force. The letter says a third officer from Kent quoted in the report “had not spoken to you because he was on holiday”. The letter, written by Ian Rennie, the federation’s general secretary, continues: “Another officer said about the statement attributed to him: ‘It was not me … I basically told him [Winsor] I have no money as it is, and asked him not to take any more off me, as I have three children to feed and clothe.’” An officer named as being from Greater Manchester Police is not known to the force. Another quoted in the report told the federation: “I recall the meeting with Tom Winsor quite clearly. At the start of the meeting he set up a digital recorder and made it quite clear that the meeting was being recorded. I suggest he discloses its contents if he believes that we have asked for these changes.” The claims threaten to embarrass Winsor and his team, whose findings are crucial to determining the future of policing at a time when there are claims of plunging morale in the force. The federation alleges: “It would appear that you are trying desperately to present a view that officers support and welcome your proposals.” Last month the home affairs select committee issued a report suggesting Winsor should “consult with police more widely before making any further recommendations”. Winsor told the committee he had interviewed 200 police officers and staff. His first report identified 69 officers by name and rank. Winsor claimed frontline officers and staff he had interviewed had said morale was low because they were receiving the same pay, and in some cases less than those in back-office roles. Vaz expressed shock at the federation’s claims. “I was most surprised to see the letter from the Police Federation and their concerns that the evidence that Tom Winsor gave to the select committee contained information that was not accurate,” Vaz said in a statement. “I am sure that the committee will want to look at these matters again and I will be writing today to Mr Winsor to ask him to confirm the evidence he has given. If he does not do so, I will expect him to be recalled by the committee.” A spokesman for the Winsor review said it had consulted more than 200 police officers and staff and received more than 7,100 comments on the review’s website. “This is more than any other previous police pay review,” the spokesman said. “Part one of the review of police remuneration and conditions consulted widely with frontline officers and staff. All of the names were given by officers themselves or by their supervisors subsequently. The report is clear that officers who regularly work unsocial hours and who are using especially critical skills would, in general, earn more under the recommendations, if implemented in full.” Police Keith Vaz Public sector pay Jamie Doward guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Police pay review chief faces claims report misrepresents officers’ views
October 1, 2011 No CommentLawyer risks being drawn into political row after Police Federation accuses inquiry of quoting officers ‘that do not exist’ The senior lawyer appointed by the government to conduct an inquiry into police pay is at the centre of a row amid accusations his report has misrepresented the views of officers, some of whom, it is alleged, do not exist. The row is threatening to become political after Keith Vaz, chairman of the home affairs select committee, suggested it might summon Tom Winsor, appointed last October by home secretary Theresa May, to explain himself. Winsor is currently conducting what is described as “the most comprehensive review of police officer and staff pay and conditions in over 30 years”. The former rail regulator has told MPs that 60% of police officers will be better off as a result of his recommendations, which follow consultations with hundreds of officers and staff. But in early July the Police Federation asked Winsor to “verify the evidence presented in your report, especially as these comments appeared to directly contradict the views of officers articulated to the Police Federation”. Now, in an explosive letter sent to Winsor and copied to Vaz, the federation says it has discovered some of the officers interviewed by Winsor and his team “do not actually exist and many of those that do have rejected the statements attributed to them”. In its letter, which was leaked to the Observer , the federation, which speaks for some 140,000 officers in England and Wales, cites several examples to back up its claims. These include two officers, purportedly from Kent police, who were named in the report but not known to the force. The letter says a third officer from Kent quoted in the report “had not spoken to you because he was on holiday”. The letter, written by Ian Rennie, the federation’s general secretary, continues: “Another officer said about the statement attributed to him: ‘It was not me … I basically told him [Winsor] I have no money as it is, and asked him not to take any more off me, as I have three children to feed and clothe.’” An officer named as being from Greater Manchester Police is not known to the force. Another quoted in the report told the federation: “I recall the meeting with Tom Winsor quite clearly. At the start of the meeting he set up a digital recorder and made it quite clear that the meeting was being recorded. I suggest he discloses its contents if he believes that we have asked for these changes.” The claims threaten to embarrass Winsor and his team, whose findings are crucial to determining the future of policing at a time when there are claims of plunging morale in the force. The federation alleges: “It would appear that you are trying desperately to present a view that officers support and welcome your proposals.” Last month the home affairs select committee issued a report suggesting Winsor should “consult with police more widely before making any further recommendations”. Winsor told the committee he had interviewed 200 police officers and staff. His first report identified 69 officers by name and rank. Winsor claimed frontline officers and staff he had interviewed had said morale was low because they were receiving the same pay, and in some cases less than those in back-office roles. Vaz expressed shock at the federation’s claims. “I was most surprised to see the letter from the Police Federation and their concerns that the evidence that Tom Winsor gave to the select committee contained information that was not accurate,” Vaz said in a statement. “I am sure that the committee will want to look at these matters again and I will be writing today to Mr Winsor to ask him to confirm the evidence he has given. If he does not do so, I will expect him to be recalled by the committee.” A spokesman for the Winsor review said it had consulted more than 200 police officers and staff and received more than 7,100 comments on the review’s website. “This is more than any other previous police pay review,” the spokesman said. “Part one of the review of police remuneration and conditions consulted widely with frontline officers and staff. All of the names were given by officers themselves or by their supervisors subsequently. The report is clear that officers who regularly work unsocial hours and who are using especially critical skills would, in general, earn more under the recommendations, if implemented in full.” Police Keith Vaz Public sector pay Jamie Doward guardian.co.uk
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