John Harris speaks to Lib Dem MP Jo Swinson, Menzies ‘Ming’ Campbell, Vince Cable and various other Lib Dem party conference-goers John Harris John Domokos
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Met paid out total of £109m for extra hours last year, with largest amounts earned by specialist protection officers A police sergeant earned nearly £69,000 in overtime last year, taking his pay to more than £110,000, official figures show. He was among Metropolitan police officers who earned a total of £109m for working extra hours in 2010-11. The unnamed sergeant, who was the Met’s top overtime earner, was paid £68,922 on top of his basic salary of about £43,000, The Sun reported . One Scotland Yard police constable received £55,186 in addition to his wages of around £31,000, the force revealed in response to a Freedom of Information request. It is understood that the large overtime payouts went to specialist protection officers who are regularly sent overseas for work. Other forces also gave their officers substantial sums for putting in additional hours, with the Police Service of Northern Ireland paying one sergeant £57,000 and a constable £43,000. A Scotland Yard spokesman said: “Overtime is called upon when it is essential to maintain operational effectiveness and, in the context of capital city policing and national responsibilities, there are times when there is a genuine need to call on officers to work beyond their scheduled hours to police unforeseen events, to provide security or public reassurance. “The few officers receiving significant payments in respect of overtime are in roles where working time is determined by the operational circumstances. “The Metropolitan police service is committed to the effective control and management of overtime in supporting the delivery of an efficient policing service and, consequently, there has been a reduction in overtime expenditure in recent financial years.” Police Metropolitan police Pay Work & careers guardian.co.uk
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In keynote speech at Lib Dem conference, business secretary says reduction in inequality is needed to turn economy around as UK faces ‘economic equivalent of war’ Follow all the latest news from the conference on our live blog Vince Cable, the business secretary, has warned that reducing the country’s “appalling inequalities of income and wealth” is essential to turn the British economy around. The Lib Dem cabinet minister said he would “tell it as I see it” as he delivered a gloomy economic forecast, predicting “difficult times” ahead. In a speech that compared the country’s economic crisis to a war situation, Cable said the only way the public would accept continuing austerity was if it is “seen to be fair”. He defended the government’s “tough approach” to deficit reduction as “unavoidable”, but said stability was just one part of getting the economy back on its feet. Stimulus to support growth and “solidarity” to give people a sense of shared society, by reducing the pay and wealth gap and creating “responsible capitalism”, were also needed, he said. “The public will only accept continuing austerity if it is seen to be fair,” he told delegates. “Yet there is currently a great sense of grievance that workers and pensioners are paying the penalty for a crisis they did not create. I want a real sense of solidarity. That does not mean that we go round in blue boiler suits carrying little red books, though I suspect that some on the right believe that is my agenda. It does mean a narrowing of inequalities.” He hailed the party’s commitment to lift low and average earners out of tax, and rounded on those who criticised the Lib Dems’ proposed “mansion tax” – a tax on properties worth over £2m – as an attack on “ordinary middle-class owners”, saying: “You wonder what part of the solar system they live in.” The Lib Dem minister unveiled plans to “call time on payouts for failure” with the launch of a consultation document that outlines plans for greater transparency on boardroom pay and shareholders having a bigger say. “People accept capitalism, but they want responsible capitalism,” he said. “It is hard to explain why shareholders can vote to cut top pay but the managers can ignore the vote. “And surely pay should be transparent, not hidden from shareholders and the public. I want to call time on payouts for failure.” Cable also used his speech to express his “regret” at the government’s failure to secure tighter control on bank pay and bonuses. “A bad message was sent: that unrestrained greed is acceptable. We know where that leads,” he said. But he went on to claim a list of achievements by the Lib Dems in power, including the expansion of apprenticeships and the green investment bank, to reassure those who, like him, had had “mixed feelings” about joining the Conservatives in coalition. Cable harked back to previous coalitions created during the war years to say the crisis facing Britain now was “the economic equivalent of war”. It had been “hard to withstand tribalism”, he said, but insisted that working in partnership during a period of crisis was not treachery but “progress”. He countered critics of the government’s deficit reduction plan by saying financial discipline was not “ideological or rightwing” but a necessary precondition for effective government. Most people understood this, he said, but some on the left and right didn’t. “This is childish fantasy,” he said. Cable also turned on tax exiles and on Conservatives calling for the 50p top rate of tax to be scrapped. “Some believe that if taxes on the wealthy are cut, new revenue will miraculously appear,” he said. “I think their reasoning is this: all those British billionaires who demonstrate their patriotism by hiding from the taxman in Monaco or some Caribbean bolt hole will rush back to pay more tax but at a lower rate. Pull the other one.” He said the Liberal Democrats understood that economic recovery had to go hand in hand with fairness. “The truth is that there are difficult times ahead, that Britain’s postwar pattern of ever-rising living standards has been broken by the financial collapse,” he said. “But we can turn the economy around. In the coalition agreement we promised to put fairness at the heart of all we do as we rebuild our broken economy from the rubble. Liberal Democrats know that you can’t do one without the other.” Cable’s comments on executive pay received a cool reaction from the Institute of Directors. Miles Templeman, IoD director general, said the business secretary should use his speeches to promote the competitiveness of British business, rather than dwelling “for political reasons” on executive pay. “We welcome that the business secretary sees the importance to economic growth of improving the planning regime. We also agree that it is right that the pay of business leaders is aligned to business performance. “Indeed, there may well be some practical improvements that can be made to the way pay levels are set in big companies by improving the performance of remuneration committees. However, it is important that ministers do not politicise a subject that is best approached in a cool, dispassionate way.” Liberal Democrat conference 2011 Vince Cable Economic policy Economic growth (GDP) Economics Equality Executive pay and bonuses Liberal Democrat conference Liberal Democrats Hélène Mulholland guardian.co.uk
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enlarge Michael Moore is on tour with his new book, “Here Comes Trouble.” He spoke the other night at Bunker Hill Community College in the Charlestown section of Boston, and the scene he described both troubled and inspired me as only Michael Moore can: As I waited backstage for the college administrator to introduce me, he launched into something I, in all my years of speaking at hundreds of American colleges, have never witnessed. He began begging the crowd for money. Money for their student body’s “Emergency Fund.” The student body consists of many who are single parents and live below the poverty line. He didn’t ask for tuition money or money for books. He begged the crowd for gas money. Babysitting money. Money to fix a car that’s broken down, or for electricity that’s been turned off. He listed all the things that cause a student to miss a class — or drop out. Students (79 percent of them) who work near-minimum wage jobs AND try to be full time students at the same time. Community college is the only escape hatch they have, and even that is a crap shoot in this 21st century kleptocracy we live in. He then told the crowd that he would hand out some envelopes and he asked them to put whatever they could in them. Welcome to America! Where schools are turned into beggars as the rich on the other side of town post record profits and bonuses and the top corporations get away with paying no tax at all. I took the stage and began a 20 minute howl rejecting the America I just witnessed. A country that puts the education of its young dead last. DEAD LAST. A country that has purposefully abandoned the human right to an education in favor of sending millions of ignorant, uneducated, lost young people out into this world. This is no accident. Those in power cannot stay in power UNLESS the population they rule over are stupid and ignorant. To be smart is dangerous — and they know that. If the ignorant were to know anything about civics (no longer taught in most schools), that could be nothing short of explosive. Because, if you are taught how to have a say, how to fight city hall, how to run for office and WIN — well, look out, ’cause you will then have democratic change. The people who would make up a smart, educated majority would then start calling the shots. And we certainly don’t want that because you know what those people from south Boston, from Toledo, from Pittsburgh, from Raleigh, from Flint are going to do? They’re going to stop the wars. They’re going to spend the money on their kids’ schools, on their parents’ health care, on laying down some railroad tracks so they can get from Chicago to Milwaukee in a half hour. That and dozens of other things that benefit the many, not the few . So last night, I just couldn’t take it, folks. I turned away from this Dickensian “alms for the poor” scene and screamed “Enough!” I asked how many in the audience had come from the “other” sections of Boston to be here tonight. About half the crowd raised its hand. I then asked them to please put as much as they could afford into those envelopes and I would match it, dollar for dollar. By the end of the night I think we raised about ten grand for the Bunker Hill Community College Student Emergency fund ( and with my match, it became a total of $20,000 ). And then I asked all who were in the arena to make a pledge with me to reject this vision of America that has been thrust upon us. Reject it, fight it, fix it — and to fix it, it will require a rumble. But hey, I was in south Boston, and if there’s anyone who knows how to rumble …! What I asked for was a nonviolent rumble of citizen participation. The crowd spontaneously got up and clapped and shouted. I asked them if they would raise a ruckus in the months to come. The crowd shouted yes. And I believe they will . Here comes trouble? Ha! The kleptocracy had better brace themselves. It won’t be long before they wish that had been just a cute title on an overpriced book.
Continue reading …Kenya kidnap: former resort employee in court over murder and abduction
September 19, 2011 No Comment
Kenyan says he went to police after gang made him co-operate at gunpoint in attack on British tourists David and Judith Tebbutt A Kenyan man has been charged in connection with the attack in which a British tourist was shot dead and his wife kidnapped. David Tebbutt, 58, and his 56-year-old wife, Judith, were staying at the remote Kiwayu Safari Village resort on the Kenyan coast near the border with Somalia when their beach hut was stormed by gunmen early on 11 September . Tebbutt, finance director at the publisher Faber & Faber, was shot and his wife was bundled into a waiting speedboat. She has not been seen or heard from since. On Monday a former employee of the Kiwayu resort appeared in court on the nearby island of Lamu to plead not guilty to charges of kidnapping and robbery. Ali Babitu Kololo, 25, told the packed courtroom that he had been forced to co-operate with the gang at gunpoint, adding that he had voluntarily gone to police the next day to report the crime. A second man, Issa Sheck Saadi, is expected to appear in court later. The Tebbutts, from Bishops Stortford, Hertfordshire, had arrived at the Kiwayu after visiting the Masai Mara game reserve and were the resort’s only guests. A team of Metropolitan police officers has travelled to Kenya to help local authorities with their investigations, while the Foreign Office has deployed a team to the area from the high commission in Nairobi. David Cameron said last week that the government was doing everything possible to resolve the kidnapping. The Foreign Office , which has asked the media not to speculate on Judith Tebbutt’s whereabouts or the identity of her captors for fear of endangering her, is continuing to call for her release. Kenya Africa Kenya Africa Somalia Sam Jones guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …NBC Relays ‘Palestinian Deam’ of State to Be ‘Free,’ Ignores Calls for Removing Jews from Palestine
September 19, 2011 No CommentAndrea Mitchell on Friday and Martin Fletcher filed reports on the NBC Nightly News filling in viewers on the Palestinian Authority upcoming plan to go to the United Nations and seek recognition of statehood or at least U.N. membership as the U.N. convenes this week. Both reports ignored last week's prediction by the Palestinian Authority's envoy to the U.N. that Jews would be removed from a Palestinian state. While Mitchell conveyed Palestinian complaints that ” they've had negotiations before, decades of them, and they have nothing to show for it,” and Fletcher similarly relayed that “Their leaders say they have no alternative but to try something new – the 20 years of peace talks have gotten them nowhere,” neither report informed viewers that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has been the major obstacle in the resumption of negotiations as he has refused to engage in talks unless the Israeli government halts constructions within the borders of already existing Jewish settlements. Although Fletcher's report did at least include a clip of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu calling for talks with the Palestinian Authority, the NBC corresondent still seemed to suggest both sides were resisting talks as he recounted that “American negotiators are still trying very hard to get Israel and the Palestinians back to the negotiating table.” And, in spite of the authoritarian nature of the Fatah-run West Bank and the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, Fletcher began his report by relaying the spin that a Palestinian state would be a place for Palestinians to be free: MARTIN FLETCHER: Palestinians call this their moment of truth. Bethlehem today kicked off a week of West Bank rallies in support of their bid to join the United Nations as a full member state, the Palestinian dream. Flag makers are working around the clock. Fawad Anid wants the Palestinian flag to hang from every car and house. UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: I'm so happy and excited at the same time because I want to have a Palestinian country to live in and to be free. Notably, in recent months, polls have shown that many Arabs living in East Jerusalem would be willing to leave their homes to remain within the borders of Israel if East Jerusalem were to be handed over to the control of a Palestinian state. Below are complete transcripts of the reports from the Friday, September 16, and Sunday, September 18, NBC Nightly News: #From Friday, September 16: KATE SNOW: Now to a threat that could put the United States in a difficult position on the world stage when the U.N. meets here in New York next week. The biggest issue on the table, Palestinian statehood. Today Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas threatened to bring the issue to the Security Council for a vote, which sets the stage for a potential showdown the U.S. and Israel are eager to avoid. Our chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell is at the State Department tonight. Andrea, what is the U.S. trying to do to stop this proposal? ANDREA MITCHELL: Well, Kate, the U.S. is working frantically in the next couple of days to try to persuade the Palestinians not to go to the Security Council. They're telling President Abbas that the way to statehood is through negotiations, through overcoming all of the remaining obstacles with Israel – like what will the borders of a new state be and who will control what parts of Jerusalem – but not by just declaring a state. That said, the Palestinians say that they've had negotiations before, decades of them, and they have nothing to show for it. The U.S. is promising this time to get those talks restarted and to fast track them. If it does go to the Security Council, the U.S. says it will veto it, but it doesn't want to be put in that isolated position, siding with Israel against the rest of the world. The fallback position for the Palestinians would be to go to the General Assembly, the much larger group. That said, it would be largely symbolic, and the U.S. doesn't want that to happen either. So this is, as you say, shaping up as quite a showdown next week. #From Sunday, September 18: LESTER HOLT: There will be high drama here in New York this week as world leaders converge for a meeting of the U.N. General Assembly. Tonight, U.S. and European diplomats are scrambling to avoid a showdown after the Palestinians announced plans to ask for statehood and U.N. membership. More now from NBC's Martin Fletcher. M ARTIN FLETCHER: Palestinians call this their moment of truth. Bethlehem today kicked off a week of West Bank rallies in support of their bid to join the United Nations as a full member state, the Palestinian dream. Flag makers are working around the clock. Fawad Anid wants the Palestinian flag to hang from every car and house. UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: I'm so happy and excited at the same time because I want to have a Palestinian country to live in and to be free. FLETCHER: But many Israelis think no good can come of this. UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: They don't want peace. UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #2: I think it will be war. FLETCHER: Israel and America warned Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas not to call for a Palestinian state in the Security Council. BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: I call on President Abbas to resume peace negotiations, direct negotiations, right now without any preconditions. FLETCHER: Inspired by people's revolts in Arab neighbors – Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, Syria, Yemen – Palestinians also want change. Their leaders say they have no alternative but to try something new – the 20 years of peace talks have gotten them nowhere. MOHAMED SHTAYEH, SENIOR PALESTINIAN OFFICIAL: We will take all measures to assembly, channel it in a way that does not lead into bloodshed. FLETCHER: This puts Palestinians into a direct confrontation with the United States. Washington has said it wants more peace talks and will veto a call for a Palestinian state. JOHN BOEHNER, HOUSE SPEAKER: Our commitment to Israel should be no less strong today, and, if anything, it should be stronger than ever. FLETCHER: American negotiators are still trying very hard to get Israel and the Palestinians back to the negotiating table. President Obama is aware that any American veto will certainly satisfy Israel but would also pit America against most of the rest of the world. Martin Fletcher, NBC News, Tel Aviv.
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Dominic Grieve and CPS would assess whether Official Secrets Act case would be in public interest before it went ahead The attorney general’s office has said he would rule on whether a prosecution of the Guardian under the Official Secrets Act was in the public interest before a case could proceed. A spokesman said on Monday that Dominic Grieve would liaise with the Crown Prosecution Service to assess whether there is sufficient evidence that the act had been breached and whether such a step would be in the public interest. “It is a matter for the police to decide how best to carry out any investigation,” he said. “If the police provide evidence that would support a charge under section 5 of the Official Secrets Act the attorney general’s consent would be required. “If that stage is reached, the attorney general, with the DPP, will consider whether there is sufficient evidence and whether the public interest is in favour of bringing a prosecution.” Scotland Yard’s decision to use the act as part of its bid to force Guardian journalists including Nick Davies and Amelia Hill, who revealed that Milly Dowler had her phone targeted by the News of the World, to reveal their sources has been condemned by rival newspapers and senior politicians. Alan Rusbridger, the Guardian’s editor-in-chief, has said the paper will resist the attempt by the Metropolitan police to reveal its sources “to the utmost”. Scotland Yard applied for a production order last week against the Guardian “in order to seek evidence of offences connected to potential breaches relating to misconduct in public office and the Official Secrets Act”. A senior investigating officer applied for the production order under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act, citing potential breaches of the Official Secrets Act, the force said. Actor Hugh Grant, who has become one of the most high-profile figures to campaign against phone hacking and media intrusion of privacy, on Sunday condemned police efforts to force journalists to disclose confidential sources, saying Scotland Yard’s decision was “worrying and deeply mysterious” . Liberal Democrat MP Don Foster, the party’s culture spokesman, also on Sunday said Grieve should use his discretion to rule that invoking the Official Secrets Act was not in the public interest . “I understand the attorney general has the opportunity to use this power,” Foster told the Guardian. “He should use it and say this is not in the public interest.” •
Continue reading …Yemeni forces kill at least 23 protesters after fresh anti-regime protests
September 19, 2011 No Comment
Sniper and artillery fire from pro-Saleh soldiers lifts number of protesters who have died in past two days to 50 At least 23 people have been killed by Yemeni pro-regime forces – including snipers – in a second day of clashes shaking the country’s capital, Sana’a, medical and security officials said. Almost 50 people have died in the two days of fighting. It is the most serious outbreak of violence in months, as frustration again builds over the president’s refusal to step down after 33 years in power. Thousands of protesters armed with sticks reportedly overran a camp belonging to the presidential guards in Sana’a. Others were said to be headed toward the headquarters of the elite force led by President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s son Ahmed in the south of the city. About 20 of those killed on Monday were on the central Hayel Street in the capital. They included a child and at least three soldiers who had defected to join the protesters. Mortar shells thought to have been fired by pro-regime forces killed at least two other people in Sana’a, said officials speaking on condition of anonymity. On Sunday, at least 26 people were killed when pro-regime snipers opened fire on tens of thousands of people who demonstrated in Sana’a to demand that Saleh step down. Apart from those killed, scores of protesters suffered gunshot wounds and were taken to hospitals, according to Mohammed al-Maqtari, a doctor at a field hospital set up by the protesters. The wounded included soldiers from Yemen’s 1st armoured division, which, along with its commander, joined the protesters more than six months ago. Witnesses said the soldiers were involved in skirmishes with the presidential guards. In the southern city of Taiz, at least one protester was killed and 15 others were wounded on Monday in clashes between anti-regime demonstrators and security forces, according to witnesses. And in the southern port city of Aden, three protesters were wounded in clashes with government forces, witnesses there said. Yemen’s protest movement has stepped up demonstrations in the past week. The rebels have been angered after Saleh deputised the vice-president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, last week to negotiate further on a Gulf-mediated, US-backed deal under which the president would step down in return for immunity from prosecution. Saleh has already backed away three times from signing the deal. Many believe the move is the latest of many delaying tactics. Saleh has resisted calls to resign. The US once saw Saleh as a key ally in the battle against a Yemen-based al-Qaida branch, which has taken over southern parts of the country under cover of the political turmoil. The US withdrew its support of Saleh as the protests gained strength. Yemen Arab and Middle East unrest Protest Middle East al-Qaida guardian.co.uk
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Click here to view this media It’s ironic that the CEO who is expected to defend his company against anti-trust allegations this week is the only person on the Sunday shows being honest about how to get Americans working again. AMANPOUR: But you say significant stimulus. Obviously, this is a political environment where the only real conversation is about cutting. Do you see any expectation or possibility of a climate for more stimulus? SCHMIDT: Well, that’s a political question, but the current strategy is ludicrous. You have a situation where the private sector sees essentially no growth in demand. The classic solution is to have the government step in and, with short-term initiatives, help stimulate that demand. If they do it right, they’ll invest in income and growth-producing things like highways and bridges and schools, new opportunities for the private sector to go then build businesses. Today not only is there no demand coming out of the government, but because of the housing crisis, nobody sees any improvement in their own liquidity, so nobody’s buying anything. AMANPOUR: So this is a pretty dark picture that you’re painting. Add to that no confidence from the consumers and businesses sitting on something like $2 trillion worth of profits which they’re not going to spend, apparently. Is the president — does he have a material problem with the business community right now? SCHMIDT: The real problem is not the business community. The real problem is the Democrats and the Republicans fight for one point or another in a political sphere while the rest of us are waiting for the government to do something concrete and predictable. What business needs is predictable, long-term plans. We need to know, where is government spending going to be; what are the government programs going to be, and off we go. Business can create enormous numbers of new jobs in America. All we need to see is more demand. What’s happening right now is businesses are very well-run; they have a lot of cash; they’re waiting for more demand. At the moment, business efficiency allows them to grow at 1 percent or 2 percent, which is what we’re seeing today. They don’t have to hire more people. And until we solve that problem, people are going to sit idle, and it’s real tragedy. Wait, what’s that? Businesses are not holding jobs hostage because they’re waiting for more tax cuts? It’s because there’s not enough demand for products and services to justify hiring new workers? Why, that’s dirty liberal talk! You know, Republicans are absolutely right that uncertainty is keeping corporations from hiring. But they have it 100 percent back asswards as to why. It’s not because they fear taxation. Hell, most corporations effectively pay no taxes at all . It’s because THERE’S NO DEMAND FROM CONSUMERS . These perennially wrong supply-siders are missing that this uncertainty is stemming from the demand side: People don’t know if they’ll be employed next year. People are living with upside down mortgages. Their real wages have remained stagnant, unlike these CEOs and hedge fund managers. In short, consumers are nervous and unwilling to spend money they think they might need for the rainy days ahead. And the Republicans in Congress, with their obstructions and filibusters and holding the country and economy hostage for partisan gain, THEY’RE the ones creating the uncertainty. But we’re not going to see that truth on the Sunday shows.
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Able Seaman Ryan Samuel Donovan admits killing Lieutenant Commander Ian Molyneux aboard HMS Astute A Royal Navy sailor has pleaded guilty to shooting dead an officer and the attempted murder of three other crew onboard the nuclear submarine HMS Astute. Able Seaman Ryan Samuel Donovan, 23, of Dartford, Kent, admitted shooting Lieutenant Commander Ian Molyneux, 36, with an SA80 rifle while the sub was docked in Southampton on 8 April this year. He also admitted the attempted murders of Petty Officer Christopher Brown, 36, Chief Petty Officer David McCoy, 37, and Lieutenant Commander Christopher Hodge, 45, during a goodwill visit to the city. Donovan fired the SA80 six times in the control room of the sub, aiming at the four named victims and killing Molyneux. It is believed Donovan was on sentry duty and the shooting happened during a weapons changeover between shifts. Hodge was also shot in the incident but he survived his injuries. The shootings took place as local dignitaries, including the city council’s mayor, chief executive and leader Royston Smith, were being given a tour of the submarine while it was berthed at the Eastern Docks on a five-day official visit to the Hampshire city. Smith wrestled Donovan to the ground soon after he started firing at around noon. Describing his dramatic involvement, he told the BBC: “Two shots were fired, straight after he entered the control room again and began shooting again. “I ran towards him, I pushed him against the wall, we wrestled to take the gun from him. “He fired again, I wrestled again to get the weapon from him. I pushed him to another wall, I wrestled him to the ground and managed to take the weapon away from him then others came to help to restrain him.” Molyneux’s widow, Gillian, described the father-of-four, from Wigan, as “utterly devoted to his family”. She added: “Everything he did was for us. He was very proud to be an officer in the Royal Navy submarine service.” Military Crime guardian.co.uk
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