43 dead including professional players from Germany, Sweden and Slovakia playing for the club in popular league tournament Russia is in mourning after almost the entire team of a top ice hockey club, including several foreign stars, died in a plane crash that killed 43 people. The medium-range Yak-42 aircraft crashed and burst into flames shortly after takeoff from an airport near Yaroslavl in western Russia at about 4pm local time. It was carrying the city’s Lokomotiv ice hockey team to a match in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, scheduled for Thursday night. TV showed emergency officials wading out to blazing lumps of wreckage in the Volga river, about 160 miles north-east of Moscow. Seven crew and 36 members of the team and coaching staff died. Among them were players from Germany, Sweden and Slovakia, as well as Brad McCrimmon, the club’s Canadian coach. Doctors were fighting to save the life of two survivors – crew member Alexander Sizov and Alexander Galimov, who plays for Lokomotiv and Russia’s national team. He is reported to have suffered terrible burns. Ice hockey is hugely popular in Russia and the disaster is comparable in magnitude to the Munich air disaster in 1958 that killed eight members of the Manchester United football team and several staff. Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s president, who is due in Yaroslavl on Thursday for a political forum, expressed his “deepest condolences to the loved ones of the Yaroslavl air crash victims, and to all Lokomotiv Yaroslavl fans”. David Kaminski-Morrow, an aviation expert at Flightglobal said the operator of the jet in question had come under scrutiny over safety standards from Russian and European regulators. The Yak-42, in use since 1993, took off in clear weather but reportedly struck an airport antenna. Russian media quoted a flight traffic controller saying the plane had failed to gain adequate height on takeoff. Witnesses said the plane rose no more than 10m before crashing and bursting into flames. The nose of the plane plunged into the Volga, leaving the rear part of the plane on dry land. It was the latest in a series of air catastrophes in Russia. A Tupolev Tu-134 crashed near Petrozavodsk killing 44 people in June and a Tu-154 ploughed into trees in Smolensk in April 2010, killing a Polish delegation of more than 90 people, including president Lech Kaczynski. Vladislav Tretyak, the president of Russia’s ice hockey federation, said he was devastated: “There were a lot of players who could have played in the national team, and in the future at the Olympic Games in Sochi [in 2014]. We will do our best to ensure that hockey in Yaroslavl does not die, and that it continues to live for the people that were on that plane.” Lokomotiv play in the Kontinental Hockey league, which is made of 20 Russian teams and one each from Belarus, Kazakhstan, Latvia and Slovakia. The 2011-2012 season began on Wednesday. Several members of the Lokomotiv team had previously played in the North American NHL, including Josef Vasicek, who played for the Carolina Hurricanes, Nashville Predators and New York Islanders; and Pavol Demitra who played for the Ottawa Senators from 1993-1996, the St Louis Blues, Minnesota Wild and Vancouver Canucks from 2008 to last year. Lokomotiv’s international contingent also included Stefan Liv of Sweden, Czech Republic player Jan Marek and Karel Rachunek, who played for the Ottawa Senators from 2000 to 2004. He also played for the New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils. Russia Plane crashes Europe Sweden Germany Tom Parfitt guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
Backbench Conservatives say Lib Dems wield too much influence over David Cameron A row over scrapping the 50p top tax rate is threatening to spill over into a wider Tory rebellion over whether the Liberal Democrats are wielding excessive influence over David Cameron. Backbench Tories are angry at the way Lib Dems have delayed the date of election of police commissioners, challenged aspects of the free school programme, revived doubts about the health reforms and engineered the vote against abortion reforms. They also believe Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister and Lib Dem leader, is acting as a brake on Tory attempts to take a tougher line on the repatriation of powers from the European Union, complaining Cameron should be actively dismantling the ailing eurozone. The 50p tax row was sparked by a letter to the Financial Times from 20 leading economists who called on the government to cut the top rate at the earliest possible opportunity. Led by DeAnne Julius, they claimed the 50p rate “is clearly a self-defeating way for the Treasury to raise the money and a reduction in tax avoidance would be more effective”. Julius was later unable to produce anything more than what she herself described as anecdotal evidence to justify her claim. Conservative sources insisted they had not been behind the FT letter. Cameron will try to defuse the row over withdrawing the 50p tax rate on those earning £150,000 or more by waiting for the outcome of a review commissioned by the chancellor, George Osborne, into whether the tax is bringing in the expected revenue. The review is unlikely to amass sufficient data in time for the spring 2012 budget. Downing Street confirmed that the priority set out in the coalition agreement was to increase personal allowances for the lowest-paid over the parliament. But in a sign of the simmering tensions between the two parties over tax policy, the Tory communities secretary, Eric Pickles, broke ranks by saying he thought the 50p rate, introduced in April, was probably doing more harm than good. Pickles told the BBC: “I think there is a strong and reasonable case to say, ‘Come on, this is not actually contributing very much.’ On balance, it’s probably doing more damage than it’s doing good.” He said he did believe the top rate should be “got rid of” but stressed the timing was up to Osborne. Charles Walker, vice-chaiman of the backbench 1922 committee, said a majority of Tory MPs did want the 50p rate scrapped. Osborne has repeatedly asserted that the 50p rate is temporary. But he needs clear evidence to show it is not producing revenue before he can persuade the public, let alone the Lib Dems, to back off. The Lib Dem president, Tim Farron, said that ending the 50p rate now would be a moral outrage. At a time when Osborne is being forced to admit his tax revenues are going to be lower than expected, he would need to be able to show incontrovertibly that abolition of the 50p tax rate would have little impact on the deficit reduction programme. The coalition could not remove it at least until the end of the public-sector pay freeze in 2013. The increasingly assertive Lib Dems are demanding another wealth tax – possibly a “mansion tax” – if the 50p levy is dropped before the coalition pledge to lift the threshold for paying income tax to £10,000 is achieved. In the Commons, Tory MP Nadine Dorries complained that “the Liberal Democrats make up 8.7% of this parliament and yet they seem to be influencing our free school policy, health and many issues including immigration and abortion. Does the prime minister think it is about time he told the deputy prime minister who is the boss?” Tory MP Mark Reckless complained No 10 had listened to the Lib Dems in delaying the election of police commissioners until next October – and asked if he would now also listen to his own party over a referendum on EU membership. No 10 said Cameron had been assiduous in meeting his own party in recent days, spending time in the tearoom on Tuesday and holding a large dinner for Conservative MPs on Tuesday night. No 10 recognises that Clegg is running a differentiation strategy before his own conference, and has to be given some latitude. Yet there is a cooling in relations, symbolised by the decision not to repeat last year’s political cabinet held to discuss a joint approach to the conference season. Ed Balls, the shadow chancellor, said: “If the chancellor really wants to know how effective the top rate of tax is he should immediately ask the Office for Budget Responsibility, not just HMRC, to produce a report genuinely independent of government.” The government’s current projections show the 50p rate for people earning above £150,000 will raise an additional £12.6bn over the next five years. Economic policy Tax and spending George Osborne Liberal-Conservative coalition Economics Patrick Wintour Polly Curtis guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …NY Times on Poor, Disrespected Obama: Republicans ‘Simply Do Not Like the Man’
September 7, 2011 No Comment
When President Obama announced he wanted to deliver his latest speech on the economy to a joint session of Congress on the same night as a GOP presidential debate, House speaker John Boehner politely requested the administration wait one day. Obama acceded, to the chagrin of the left and the New York Times . Reporter Jennifer Steinhauer devoted a full story to the squabble in Friday’s edition, focusing almost solely on the supposed “disrespect” shown by Republicans to poor, put-upon President Obama: “ G.O.P. vs. Obama: Disrespect or Just Politics? ” While most of those fights stemmed from deep policy divides, the relentless acrimony between President Obama and Congressional Republicans also seems strikingly personal, almost petty. And Democrats worry that Mr. Obama, hampered, too, by his own inexperience and dispassionate style, is increasingly weakened by what they fume is a party that fundamentally disrespects him and his office. They fear the outcome as Congress and the White House face off on a host of new issues: the national deficit and finishing this year’s budget, reauthorization of a controversial federal aviation bill and the fate of the cash-strapped Postal Service. The relationship was foreshadowed in 2009 when Representative Joe Wilson, a South Carolina Republican, yelled “You lie!” during a presidential address to Congress — a remarkably rare outburst on the House floor. Since then, Congressional Republicans have turned down requests for White House meetings, refused to return the president’s call and walked out of budget talks. Hmm. Just how “rare” is it for presidents to be mocked in speeches to Congress, and when does the Times decide to make an issue of it? The Times hid its indignation quite well when President George W. Bush got disrespectful hoots and hisses from Democrats for mentioning Social Security reform in his 2005 State of the Union address. Then, on Wednesday, Speaker John A. Boehner became what historians say was the first ever to tell a sitting president that no, he could not deliver an address to a joint session of Congress on the date of his choice. On Thursday, Representative Joe Walsh said in a Twitter message that he would fly home to Illinois rather than serve as “a prop of another one of the president’s speeches.” It seems they simply do not like the man. Steinhauer eventually confessed that even some Democrats found Obama’s unilateral decision on the speech timing a bit rude, before playing the tired race card. There is the persistent and deeply uncomfortable question of race. Many African-Americans, including black lawmakers, and even white Democrats, have complained that some of the disrespect for Mr. Obama stems from distaste among some whites at the idea of seeing a black man in the Oval Office.
Continue reading …Quote: Joe Biden Says Not Driving Is ‘The One Thing I Hate’ About Being Vice President
September 7, 2011 No Comment
“I’m not allowed to drive anything. It’s the one thing I hate about this job. I’m serious.” — VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN, in an interview with Car and Driver, on his love for cars and his frustration that the Secret Service forbids him to drive (via Car and Driver)
Continue reading …Top tax rate will raise £12.6bn more in revenue, official figures reveal
September 7, 2011 No Comment
Government’s own projections favour 50p tax rate for highest earners as pressure mounts on George Osborne to scrap it The 50p tax rate will raise an additional £12.6bn over the next five years even if people choose to leave the country to avoid it, according to the government’s own projections which will add to pressure on the Treasury not to scrap higher taxes. By 2015-16 the 50% tax rate for people earning above £150,000 will bring in £3.2bn more than if the tax rate had stayed at 40% – rising from £1.1bn this year and totalling £12.6bn over the five year period. Compared with a 45% rate, 50% will bring in an additional £5.3bn. The figures, contained in the government projections from last November and revealed in a parliamentary question tabled by the Conservative peer Lord Ashcroft, emerge as Osborne is coming under pressure from the City and economists to remove the 50p rate. In a letter to the Financial Times on Wednesday, 20 leading economists, including two former members of the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee called for the top rate of tax to be removed claiming it was damaging growth and failing to generate significant revenues. The chancellor is believed to be reconsidering the higher tax band and has asked the HMRC to evaluate its impact after the self-assesment deadline for its first year, in January. It should report in time for the budget. Osborne has previously said that “there’s not much point in having taxes that are economically inefficient”. New figures have emerged amid calls from Labour for the government to commission independent research into impact of the higher tax band and signals from the Lib Dems that they would oppose the scrapping of the 50p rate. Ed Balls, the shadow chancellor, said: “If the Chancellor really wants to know how effective the top rate of tax is he should immediately ask the Office for Budget Responsibility, not just HMRC, to produce a report genuinely independent of government.” Lord Oakeshott, the Lib Dem peer and close ally of Vince Cable, said: “This gives the lie to the special pleading form the super rich and the Tory right for a hand out to the top 1% of taxpayers. This official treasury estimate, including possible behavioural reactions, shows the 50p top tax rate raising £12.6bn over five years. Warren Buffet in America and business leaders in France and Germany are calling for shared sacrifice – why are Britain’s super rich so super selfish?” The Treasury prediction takes into account the fact that people could opt to maximise their pension contributions, form a company or even leave the country to avoid paying extra tax. However, the Institute for Fiscal Studies is poised to publish a paper suggesting that the impact of the 50p tax rate on the highest paid could trigger people to adapt to avoid paying the extra tax to the extent that it could even cost the country money. In its Mirrlees Review, to be published next week, it reports: “It is not clear whether the 50% rate will raise any revenue at all. There are numerous ways in which people might reduce their taxable incomes in response to higher tax rates; at some point, increasing tax rates starts to cost money instead of raising it.” The IFS paper suggests that anything above the original highest rate of 40% would prompt people to find ways to avoid paying it. However, deputy director Carl Emmerson stressed that their figures were passed on data from the 1980s that have a high degree of uncertainty. ” Even in 10 years time I don’t think there will be a definitive answer to what tax revenues in, say, 2010-11 would have been had the top rate of tax been 40p not 50p.” A Treasury spokesman confirmed that the chancellor has asked for an analysis of the revenue raised by the top tax rate. “The government is committed to a competitive tax system, but in reducing the deficit, we have always been clear that those with the broadest shoulders should carry the greatest burden.” Economic policy Economics Tax and spending Tax Income tax George Osborne Tax avoidance Polly Curtis guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …New Report Shows High Schools Are Misleading (Or Lying To) Students About Labor History
September 7, 2011 No CommentJames Loewen , author of Lies My Teacher Told Me discusses the avoidance of social class in high school history education. A new report shows major problems with the way American textbooks teach labor history to students. Specifically: The report found that these textbooks often present labor history in a biased, negative way, focusing on strikes and strike violence while giving little or no attention to the employer abuse and violence that caused the strikes. In addition, it notes that the textbooks virtually ignore: The role of unions in passing protections and reforms such as the eight-hour work day, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, occupational safety and health, the end of abusive child labor, and environmental protection; Unions’ strong support for the civil rights movement; and The role unions played in the 1960s in particular, when the rise of public sector unions brought many more Americans into the middle class and gave new rights to public employees. AFT President Randi Weingarten said the report “explains why so few Americans know much about labor’s history and contributions.” “It paints a devastating picture of distortion and omission. Too often, labor’s role in U.S. history is misrepresented, downplayed, or ignored. The result is that most American students have little sense of how the labor movement changed the lives of Americans for the better. A vital piece of U.S. history is disappearing before our eyes.” The report is from the Albert Shanker Institute and the American Labor Studies Center and furthermore reports: Many of the textbooks we reviewed do not tell the full story of the existence of the organized working women’s movement in the United States, instead often focusing on middle class women. For example, the books do not tell the full story of the Lowell Mill girls’ formation of an early, all-female union, including the awareness by the Lowell Mill girls that their union rights stemmed directly from their democratic rights, and their union’s sophistication in launching a public and political campaign against abusive mill owners. Another example: the books fail to mention important women union leaders of the 19th century, such as Kate Mullany and Augusta Lewis Troup. The books do not adequately cover key events spearheaded by women’s labor unions, such as the massive 1909 Uprising of the 20,000, led by the ILGWU. A glaring problem in these textbooks is their omission of the role that organized labor and labor activists played as key participants in the civil rights movement. For example, while coverage is thin on the relationship between organized labor and the civil rights movement in the 1940s, it is virtually nonexistent regarding labor’s extensive and sustained support for the civil rights struggle from the 1950s on. This is despite the fact that many unions (such as the UAW) and many leaders of organized labor (e.g., Walter Reuther, A. Philip Randolph) played important roles in securing the legislative and other successes of the civil rights movement. The books fail to mention Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s belief that civil rights and labor rights were naturally intertwined, and Dr. King’s own support for the labor movement. The books fail to mention the specific union involved in the sanitation workers strike that Dr. King had gone to Memphis to support when he was assassinated in April 1968, the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees. This problem is nothing new and is something that James Loewen (see video above) first began discussing in the mid-1990s in Lies My Teacher Told Me , a book you need to read if you haven’t already done so. Richard Shenkman also wrote about the problems with history education in the United States in Legends, Lies & Cherished Myths of American History and other books.
Continue reading …
The best content from guardian.co.uk is now available on and offline in a native Android app I am very excited to announce that the Guardian app for Android is now available. The app – which is free to download and is available from the Android Market worldwide – includes the latest news, sport, comment, reviews, videos, podcasts and picture galleries from guardian.co.uk . A full list of features and further information is available from our FAQs , but there are two bits of functionality that we’re really excited about. First, the homescreen is highly customisable – if you like football, you could do away with the usual mix of news and sport and instead see the top five stories from our Premier League page followed by the latest from your favourite team and then Barry Glendenning’s most recent posts. If you want in depth coverage of a particular story, you can add that topic to your homescreen – UK riots or phone hacking, for instance. This level of customisation has also influenced the offline reading options. Rather than manually selecting what you want to download, there is one button that allows you to download your homescreen and your favourites. Alternatively, you can schedule this download to take place at a certain time each day – for example via Wi-Fi before you leave the house and go offline. The app was designed and developed by an in-house team – headed by lead Android developer Rupert Bates – using the Guardian’s Content API . It is the first version of the app and we intend to make improvements and introduce new features in the coming months based on user feedback. A widget is currently on top of our to-do list and we are also thinking about ways to improve the live-blogging experience, but please let us know what you’d like us to add (or even fix!). In other news, our iPad app is nearing completion and I’m happy to report that our existing mobile products are performing really well. The mobile site, m.guardian.co.uk , now accounts for around 12% of our digital traffic on average and witnessed a record 802,975 visitors recently. The iPhone app also goes from strength to strength with a total of 480,914 downloads since its launch in January 2011. As ever, please feel free to share your feedback in the comments below, or get in touch with us on Twitter via @guardianmobile . Android Guardian app for Android Subhajit Banerjee guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
Planning row between Suffolk villagers escalates to court case after doll put on display in window It began as a planning dispute between affluent neighbours in a Suffolk village, but resulted in the arrest of a woman accused of racially aggravated harassment after she displayed a golliwog in the window of her house. Jena Mason will appear before Lowestoft magistrates on Tuesday, Suffolk police said. The 65-year-old was arrested after her black neighbour, Rosemarie O’Donnell, complained about the doll. It appeared in the only window visible from the home of O’Donnell and her husband, Stephen, the couple said, after the disagreement over planning permission got out of hand. The row between the neighbours in the village of Worlingham started after Mason and her husband, Terry, who live in a 16th century manor house, applied for permission to build new stables on their land. Their son-in-law, who also lives in the manor house, is in training for the British Olympic dressage team and is understood to need the space for his horses. The O’Donnells, who live in a £1m barn conversion next door, hired a planning consultant to challenge the application, arguing that it would lead to an increase in traffic and boundary and right of way issues as well as raising the question of how organic waste from the horses would be disposed of. A golliwog then appeared on a ground-floor window sill in the Masons’ house, near the main entrance to the barn. Rosemarie O’Donnell, a 48-year-old businesswoman with Jamaican roots, said the doll was an affront to her and her two mixed-race children, and the sight of it had left her “shocked and upset”. She took a photograph of the doll and – days after planning permission for the new stables was granted by the local council – gave it to police and made a formal complaint. A police spokeswoman said: “We have had a complaint from a member of the public, we have investigated it and both the Crown Prosecution Service and ourselves have agreed there is enough to prosecute.” James Hartley, Mason’s solicitor, said his client was “devastated by what was going on” and intended to plead not guilty because the golliwog had ended up on the window shelf as she was tidying up her grandson’s toys. “It is an innocent act which has been interpreted in a completely different way,” he said. “She does not accept that she acted in a racial manner. It is a large house, and she lives there with other members of her family and there is a grandson who is 16 months old. She was tidying up the toys.” Mason is currently on bail and faces a penalty of up to £2,500 if found guilty of the offence. On Wednesday, O’Donnell’s 54-year-old husband, an IT executive, said the couple had had a number of disputes with the Masons over the stable plans and the Masons’ dogs, but dismissed the claim that the golliwog had been accidentally put on display. “It’s not a children’s toy,” he told the Daily Mail. “You can see it has buttons and other items on it. It was clearly deliberately placed on the window sill facing out of the window. I do not believe it was casually tossed up there. It has caused immense upset. You live in the countryside and you think you have got away from all this nonsense.” The couple moved to Manor Farm Barn, a five-bedroom conversion, in 2003 from Kent. Race issues Alexandra Topping guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Andy Coulson refuses to reappear at MPs’ phone-hacking inquiry | Lisa O’Carroll
September 7, 2011 No Comment
Former News of the World editor cites concern about ‘parallel inquiries’ and ‘publicity’ Andy Coulson, the former editor of the News of the World and the prime minister’s former personal communications director, is reportedly refusing to appear before the Commons select committee that is investigating phone-hacking. His solicitors have written to the culture, media and sport committee declining an invitation to appear citing “concerns” about “parallel inquiries and investigations and the publicity generated by them”. Coulson resigned from the News International paper in 2007 after its former royal editor Clive Goodman was jailed on phone-hacking offences. He has consistently denied knowing that phone hacking took place but last month a previously unseen letter from Goodman emerged that claimed phone hacking was “widely discussed” at editorial conferences until Coulson banned mentions of it. Goodman’s letter also claimed that Coulson had offered to let him keep his job if he agreed not to implicate the paper in hacking when it came to court. The chairman of select committee, John Whittingdale, wrote to Coulson the day this letter was released into the public domain, inviting him to consider whether his previous denials of knowledge of phone hacking should be amended. Coulson’s solicitors at law firm DLA Piper reportedly said in their reply to Whittingdale: “We have expressed our concerns to you previously about the effects of the parallel inquiries and investigations and the publicity generated by them. Given those concerns … our client does not wish to make any additional comments on the evidence he gave to the committee.” DLA Piper refused to comment. • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly “for publication”. • To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook . Andy Coulson Phone hacking Clive Goodman News of the World News International John Whittingdale National newspapers Newspapers Newspapers & magazines Lisa O’Carroll guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …