Wiltshire town holds sunset ceremony before mourning of war dead moves to Carterton in Oxfordshire The pattern was a familiar one. The bikers turned up first and parked next to the war memorial. Regulars who had travelled from far afield grabbed a cup of tea and a sandwich before making sure of their places. The locals came last, arriving by car, foot and mobility scooter to take part in a ceremony to mark the passing on of a sad honour. As the sun set on Wootton Bassett, the Wiltshire town that, over the past four years, has become a focus for the nation’s grief at the loss of the lives of service personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan, the union flag fluttering next to the war memorial was lowered. It was carefully folded and left overnight on the altar of St Bartholomew’s church before being handed over to the people of Carterton across the border in Oxfordshire, the town which will, from now on, bear witness to the return of coffins carrying men and women killed while on active service abroad. “I’m sure the people of Carterton will do them proud,” said Ken Scott, 95, who made it his job to collect and preserve the messages, cards and photographs left at the memorial by bereaved families and friends. “It doesn’t matter whether they come back through Wootton Bassett or wherever. What does matter is that those poor boys and girls are honoured.” Since 2007, the bodies of service personnel have been repatriated via RAF Lyneham and taken on to a hospital in Oxford via Wootton Bassett’s high street. To honour the dead, the people of Bassett, as everyone here calls it, took to pausing in their everyday life when a cortege passed. Over the months and years they were joined by an ever-growing number of bereaved families, veterans’ groups and ordinary people (including a fair few leather-clad bikers), some of whom travelled many miles to pay tribute. By 2009, at the height of the conflict in Afghanistan , thousands of people were lining the streets of this modest little town. Lyneham is closing – the coincidence of more RAF and army job losses being announced was not lost – and a new repatriation centre has been opened at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, along with a memorial garden in Carterton where that union flag will be hoisted. David Cameron led the praise for Wootton Bassett, sending a “heartfelt thank you” to its people. “I think they have done a magnificent job. What happened at Wootton Bassett was spontaneous. It was a very beautiful thing,” said the prime minister. The Wootton Bassett phenomenon has been extraordinary. It began almost by chance when a former mayor, Percy Miles, was out shopping with his wife in the spring of 2007. Someone from the town council ran out to tell him that a cortege was coming through. Nothing had been planned but he dashed home, put on his mayoral robes and stood to attention as the body was driven through. “I was amazed it became such a huge thing. Bassett has done wonders over the years,” said Miles. “I didn’t go to all of them because it hurt too much and I won’t go to Brize Norton for the same reason. I get too emotional. I feel strongly we shouldn’t be out in Afghanistan in the first place.” Everyone has their own vivid memories of repatriations. Kevin Dunn, a window cleaner from Swindon, has only missed five of the 167 repatriations (comprising 345 men and women as many involved more than one body). He recalls in particular the return of a Fijian soldier’s body. “His whole village was there by the town hall, it seemed. They sang from 9am to 5pm without stopping for a drink or food – amazing.” Wiltshire councillor Allison Bucknell remembers watching a group of young men mourning one of their friends. “They didn’t know what to do with their grief. I just walked over with a packet of tissues and handed it to them. I didn’t know how else to help. I was a soggy mess myself afterwards,” she said. Wootton Bassett’s current mayor, Paul Heaphy, admits there was a fear that the “repat days” had become too big. “In 2009, when casualties were coming back in horrific numbers, the world’s media caught hold of it and we were accused of being ghoulish and turning the whole thing into a circus,” he said. “But it was always just about paying respect to the fallen and giving the families the support we could.” There was also a time when some people were uneasy about the very public expressions of grief shown by some bereaved families. It became common for flowers to be thrown on to hearses and for the corteges to be applauded as they passed. But the Wootton Bassett residents never tried to stop the public outpourings. Bereaved families were grateful and many joined the prime minister to pay tribute. Terry Burgan, whose son Lance Sergeant Mark Burgan was killed earlier this year and repatriated through Wootton Bassett, said: “It was a fantastic day. The welcome we got was overwhelming.” Former paratrooper Dave Soane said: “I think it was great that families, media, the armed services, local people were all in the same place mixing together. It’s as if barriers were broken down and that’s got to be a good thing.” The final repatriation took place on August 18 when the town marked the return of the body of 24-year-old Daniel Clack, who was killed by a roadside bomb in Helmand. Most of those at the sunset ceremony expressed mixed emotions – pride at what Wootton Bassett had achieved, sadness that it would no longer be able to offer the support it has – and some relief that the baton had been passed on. The town council will now begin planning for one last set piece event when it is accorded royal status in October. The honour, bestowed in March, was, according to Cameron, “an enduring symbol of the nation’s admiration and our gratitude to the people of that town”. After the naming ceremony, most in the town hope to bow out of the public spotlight. Canon Thomas Woodhouse, vicar of Wootton Bassett, said he felt now was time to reflect – which had not always been easy to do when repatriation after repatriation was coming through. “This is an ending of part our history,” he said. “Now we’re looking forward to getting on with the rest of our history.” Military Afghanistan Steven Morris guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Obama declares Hurricane Irene a federal disaster to release repair money
August 31, 2011 No Comment
Scale of the wreckage puts strain on resources as 2011 is set to be the most expensive year for disaster damage in US history Barack Obama has declared Hurricane Irene a “major federal disaster” in states across the eastern US, freeing relief funds for what is likely to be one of the costliest natural disasters in American history. Obama acted as people struggled with severe flooding in states along the east coast from North Carolina going north. The designation means government money can be used for temporary housing and home repairs. The president earlier signed emergency declarations for other states including Puerto Rico and Vermont, where heavy flooding has destroyed roads and left 13 towns surrounded by water. New Jersey’s governor, Chris Christie, called on the president to designate his heavily flooded state a disaster funds recipient. Thousands of people were evacuated in cities along the Passaic river, which has flooded towns along its banks. “I saw just extraordinary despair,” Christie said after visiting some affected areas. The homeland security secretary, Janet Napolitano, is visiting the state to survey the damage. The scale of the disaster is putting intense pressure on the resources of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) and has led to a political row about whether the agency will have enough money to deal with Irene’s aftermath. Fema’s disaster relief fund has less than $800m (£490m) left and could run out before the end of the current fiscal year on 30 September. Eric Cantor, the Republican leader in the House of Representatives, is pressing for budget cuts to cover the cost of cleaning up after Irene and other disasters, while Democrats argue that aid should not be delayed by political bickering. About 40 people are now believed to have been killed by the storm, which also caused damage to property estimated at more than $10bn and forced a shutdown of New York city. Insurance experts are still calculating the likely bill but Irene looks set to be one of the most costly disasters to hit the US. The most expensive disaster in US history was Hurricane Katrina, which killed at least 1,836 people and caused $45bn in insured damages in 2005, according to the Insurance Information Institute (III). The second most costly – at $23bn – were the 9/11 attacks, which the institute counts as a single event. Hurricane Andrew, which hit southern Florida and Louisiana in 1992, is the third most costly at $22bn. On current estimates, Irene would rank seventh. Even before Irene, 2011 has already been one of the most costly disaster seasons in history. According to the institute, there were 43 “severe thunderstorms” in the first half of the year, causing 593 deaths and damage in excess of $23.5bn. AM Best in New Jersey, which rates the financial strength of insurers, calculates insurance losses topped $27bn in the first half of the year and have already exceeded the total for all of 2010. Jeff Mango of AM Best said 2011 was shaping up to be a year of record losses from storm damages. He said damage from tornadoes and hail in the midwest and storms in the north-east had taken a heavy toll in the first half of the year. Massive tornadoes in Alabama left almost 300 people dead and caused billions of dollars in damage earlier this year. Mango said it was the increased frequency of events rather than their scale that was leading to record damages. “It’s hard to say yet what Irene will cost. It’s more of a flooding event and a lot of it is uninsured risk, unfortunately,” he said. US household insurance does not usually include flood damage. September is typically the biggest month for hurricanes, and forecasters have predicted an above-average hurricane season this year. “This could potentially be a record year,” Mango said. Hurricane Irene United States Natural disasters and extreme weather North and Central America US domestic policy United States Dominic Rushe guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Obama declares Hurricane Irene a federal disaster to release repair money
August 31, 2011 No Comment
Scale of the wreckage puts strain on resources as 2011 is set to be the most expensive year for disaster damage in US history Barack Obama has declared Hurricane Irene a “major federal disaster” in states across the eastern US, freeing relief funds for what is likely to be one of the costliest natural disasters in American history. Obama acted as people struggled with severe flooding in states along the east coast from North Carolina going north. The designation means government money can be used for temporary housing and home repairs. The president earlier signed emergency declarations for other states including Puerto Rico and Vermont, where heavy flooding has destroyed roads and left 13 towns surrounded by water. New Jersey’s governor, Chris Christie, called on the president to designate his heavily flooded state a disaster funds recipient. Thousands of people were evacuated in cities along the Passaic river, which has flooded towns along its banks. “I saw just extraordinary despair,” Christie said after visiting some affected areas. The homeland security secretary, Janet Napolitano, is visiting the state to survey the damage. The scale of the disaster is putting intense pressure on the resources of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) and has led to a political row about whether the agency will have enough money to deal with Irene’s aftermath. Fema’s disaster relief fund has less than $800m (£490m) left and could run out before the end of the current fiscal year on 30 September. Eric Cantor, the Republican leader in the House of Representatives, is pressing for budget cuts to cover the cost of cleaning up after Irene and other disasters, while Democrats argue that aid should not be delayed by political bickering. About 40 people are now believed to have been killed by the storm, which also caused damage to property estimated at more than $10bn and forced a shutdown of New York city. Insurance experts are still calculating the likely bill but Irene looks set to be one of the most costly disasters to hit the US. The most expensive disaster in US history was Hurricane Katrina, which killed at least 1,836 people and caused $45bn in insured damages in 2005, according to the Insurance Information Institute (III). The second most costly – at $23bn – were the 9/11 attacks, which the institute counts as a single event. Hurricane Andrew, which hit southern Florida and Louisiana in 1992, is the third most costly at $22bn. On current estimates, Irene would rank seventh. Even before Irene, 2011 has already been one of the most costly disaster seasons in history. According to the institute, there were 43 “severe thunderstorms” in the first half of the year, causing 593 deaths and damage in excess of $23.5bn. AM Best in New Jersey, which rates the financial strength of insurers, calculates insurance losses topped $27bn in the first half of the year and have already exceeded the total for all of 2010. Jeff Mango of AM Best said 2011 was shaping up to be a year of record losses from storm damages. He said damage from tornadoes and hail in the midwest and storms in the north-east had taken a heavy toll in the first half of the year. Massive tornadoes in Alabama left almost 300 people dead and caused billions of dollars in damage earlier this year. Mango said it was the increased frequency of events rather than their scale that was leading to record damages. “It’s hard to say yet what Irene will cost. It’s more of a flooding event and a lot of it is uninsured risk, unfortunately,” he said. US household insurance does not usually include flood damage. September is typically the biggest month for hurricanes, and forecasters have predicted an above-average hurricane season this year. “This could potentially be a record year,” Mango said. Hurricane Irene United States Natural disasters and extreme weather North and Central America US domestic policy United States Dominic Rushe guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Obama declares Hurricane Irene a federal disaster to release repair money
August 31, 2011 No CommentScale of the wreckage puts strain on resources as 2011 is set to be the most expensive year for disaster damage in US history Barack Obama has declared Hurricane Irene a “major federal disaster” in states across the eastern US, freeing relief funds for what is likely to be one of the costliest natural disasters in American history. Obama acted as people struggled with severe flooding in states along the east coast from North Carolina going north. The designation means government money can be used for temporary housing and home repairs. The president earlier signed emergency declarations for other states including Puerto Rico and Vermont, where heavy flooding has destroyed roads and left 13 towns surrounded by water. New Jersey’s governor, Chris Christie, called on the president to designate his heavily flooded state a disaster funds recipient. Thousands of people were evacuated in cities along the Passaic river, which has flooded towns along its banks. “I saw just extraordinary despair,” Christie said after visiting some affected areas. The homeland security secretary, Janet Napolitano, is visiting the state to survey the damage. The scale of the disaster is putting intense pressure on the resources of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) and has led to a political row about whether the agency will have enough money to deal with Irene’s aftermath. Fema’s disaster relief fund has less than $800m (£490m) left and could run out before the end of the current fiscal year on 30 September. Eric Cantor, the Republican leader in the House of Representatives, is pressing for budget cuts to cover the cost of cleaning up after Irene and other disasters, while Democrats argue that aid should not be delayed by political bickering. About 40 people are now believed to have been killed by the storm, which also caused damage to property estimated at more than $10bn and forced a shutdown of New York city. Insurance experts are still calculating the likely bill but Irene looks set to be one of the most costly disasters to hit the US. The most expensive disaster in US history was Hurricane Katrina, which killed at least 1,836 people and caused $45bn in insured damages in 2005, according to the Insurance Information Institute (III). The second most costly – at $23bn – were the 9/11 attacks, which the institute counts as a single event. Hurricane Andrew, which hit southern Florida and Louisiana in 1992, is the third most costly at $22bn. On current estimates, Irene would rank seventh. Even before Irene, 2011 has already been one of the most costly disaster seasons in history. According to the institute, there were 43 “severe thunderstorms” in the first half of the year, causing 593 deaths and damage in excess of $23.5bn. AM Best in New Jersey, which rates the financial strength of insurers, calculates insurance losses topped $27bn in the first half of the year and have already exceeded the total for all of 2010. Jeff Mango of AM Best said 2011 was shaping up to be a year of record losses from storm damages. He said damage from tornadoes and hail in the midwest and storms in the north-east had taken a heavy toll in the first half of the year. Massive tornadoes in Alabama left almost 300 people dead and caused billions of dollars in damage earlier this year. Mango said it was the increased frequency of events rather than their scale that was leading to record damages. “It’s hard to say yet what Irene will cost. It’s more of a flooding event and a lot of it is uninsured risk, unfortunately,” he said. US household insurance does not usually include flood damage. September is typically the biggest month for hurricanes, and forecasters have predicted an above-average hurricane season this year. “This could potentially be a record year,” Mango said. Hurricane Irene United States Natural disasters and extreme weather North and Central America US domestic policy United States Dominic Rushe guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …NY Times Suggests ‘Unsettling’ For GOP To Suggest Paying for Disaster Relief
August 31, 2011 No CommentIn his Wednesday report on federal disaster aid in a time of vast national debt, New York Times congressional reporter Carl Hulse treated liberal Democrats as the epitome of Washington wisdom and moderation: “ Emphasis on Federal Austerity Changes Dynamics of Disaster Relief .” While self-described socialist Bernie Sanders was only termed an “independent,” Hulse managed to put an ideological label on “Conservative Republicans” who are pushing to actually pay for disaster relief, through off-setting budget cuts. As Senator Bernard Sanders toured Vermont by helicopter on Tuesday to assess the damage from what he said could be his state’s worst-ever natural disaster, the idea of cutting other federal programs to aid towns pummeled by Hurricane Irene was stoking his outrage. “To say that the only way you can come up with funding to rebuild devastated communities is to cut back on other desperately needed programs is totally absurd,” said Mr. Sanders, an independent, responding to a call by leading Republicans to balance any financial relief with spending reductions elsewhere. “Historically in this country we have understood that when communities and states experience disasters, we as a nation come together to address those. “That is what being a nation is about,” he said in an interview. Hulse then quoted Texas Rep. Ron Paul calling for cutting the federal role in disaster rseponse (and FEMA) in particular, before bringing on Obama’s spokesman to provide sensible wisdom to counteract the “unsettling” views of some in the G.O.P. That view and the idea of offsetting the cost of relief is unsettling to those of both parties who see disaster aid as a chief responsibility of the federal government. They note that past efforts were financed through deficit spending by both parties — a fact pointedly made on Tuesday by the White House spokesman, Jay Carney, when he was asked about paying for relief efforts with corresponding cuts. …. Conservative Republicans have pushed in the past to pay for disaster relief through budget cuts elsewhere, most notably in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. But party leaders ultimately relented under political and public pressure, and much of the aid was delivered through deficit spending. Research by Senate Democrats showed that since 1989, Congress has approved 33 emergency appropriations for disaster relief without offsetting that money with cuts in other departments or agencies.
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Liberal women may not agree with her politics, but they agree with her hairstyle. In fact, overly photogenic Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachann has a hairdo coveted by women in liberal districts from Los Angeles to New York. Bachmann’s bouncy, flowing locks, in a crisp copper color, are keeping stylists busy with clients who want the
Continue reading …I would be delighted to be surprised — but I know I won’t be. President Obama talks big dreams, but gets bogged down in the daily grind of political realities. Psst, Mr. President? “Getting something done” is not the same as doing the right thing. I hope he wakes up soon: As the White House prepares to roll out its new jobs package, President Obama is under intensifying pressure from his political base to come out with an ambitious plan that puts a real dent in the unemployment rate. The White House prefers an approach that stands a chance of winning bipartisan support. But the left isn’t persuaded by this strategy. There are two ways to sway votes on Capitol Hill: lobbying members privately behind closed doors, or shaping a bottom-up consensus in the broader electorate. The president’s base believes that a substantial jobs package – one that puts people to work right away even if it comes with a high price tag – might create a public groundswell that Congress can’t ignore. That’s not how Obama has been operating over the past year. He has instead looked for elusive common ground with Republicans, putting forward ideas that square with Republicans’ economic doctrine. The reporter is too polite to say it, so I will: He’s validating every damned crazy right-wing tea party fantasy. And they hate him anyway . Great strategy, huh? Fearing that Obama will go down this road again when he delivers his jobs speech next week, his liberal base is pushing him to take a more confrontational stand. They want Obama to channel FDR, not Coolidge. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said in an interview that Obama needs to stand up for a jobs plan that is adequate to the moment. Unemployment is now 9.1%. And the jobs report that comes out Friday is expected to show the U.S. didn’t create enough jobs in August to keep up with population growth. “Who knows what’s politically achievable until we try?” Trumka said. “The president should articulate a solution of the size and scale necessary to solve the problem. We have a jobs crisis. … If you do only what you think the other side and the ‘tea party’ will agree to, then they control the agenda.” Exactly.
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Court rejects key parts of Texas governor’s anti-abortion law plans, including making women listen to baby’s heartbeat A court has blocked key parts of a Texas anti-abortion law drawn up by Rick Perry, the state’s governor and the leading Republican presidential candidate, which would force women seeking terminations to view a sonogram and listen to the heartbeat of their foetus. A federal court judge also struck down a requirement that doctors describe the unborn baby to the mother in the hope that she would change her mind about an abortion. The judge said the provisions were an unconstitutional intrusion on the rights of women and doctors. Perry designated the law, which would have taken effect on Thursday, as an “emergency issue”, fast-tracking it through the legislature earlier this year. He has a clear lead in polls of Republican primary voters as the party’s presidential candidate. Opponents say he has used the law to demonstrate his anti-abortion credentials to conservatives and the Christian right, and to create an election issue. Perry has also drawn criticism for the unusual degree of government intrusion into a personal decision, not least because he is a vigorous critic of regulation. He has promised that, if elected, he will make the government in Washington mostly “inconsequential” to people’s lives. The judge, Sam Sparks, said it was not legal to force either women or doctors to meet the requirements relating to viewing the sonogram and listening to the baby’s heartbeat. He also struck down a provision that could strip a doctor of a licence to practise for failing to comply. “The act compels physicians to advance an ideological agenda with which they may not agree, regardless of any medical necessity, and irrespective of whether the pregnant women wish to listen,” the judge said. “[It] violates the first amendment [of the US constitution, guaranteeing free speech] by compelling physicians and patients to engage in government-mandated speech and expression.” The law exempted women pregnant through rape or incest, but only if they made an objection in writing. The court blocked this part of the legislation, too. “The court need not belabour the obvious by explaining why, for instance, women who are pregnant as a result of sexual assault or incest may not wish to certify that fact in writing, particularly if they are too afraid of retaliation to even report the matter to police,” Sparks said. The Centre for Reproductive Rights, which brought the case to block the legislation, called the ruling a huge victory, saying that politicians did not have the right to interfere in how doctors practised medicine, or in women’s private medical decisions. Perry denounced the ruling, which is expected to go to the supreme court on appeal. “Every life lost to abortion is a tragedy and today’s ruling is a great disappointment to all Texans who stand in defence of life,” he said. “This important sonogram legislation ensures that every Texas woman seeking an abortion has all the facts about the life she is carrying, and understands the devastating impact of such a life-changing decision.” But the ruling is likely to help Perry by giving him fuel for the argument that power should lie with state governments rather than the courts or Washington. Critics have noted that Perry showed little interest in abortion when a member of the Texas legislature, but embraced it when he became governor in 2000. Abortion Rick Perry US politics United States Texas Pregnancy Chris McGreal guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Former Obama Campaign Worker Arrested At White House In Tar Sands Protest; Calls Pipeline ‘Dealbreaker’
August 31, 2011 No CommentI don’t know what’s the big deal with the climate change thingie. Massive blizzards, record-breaking heat and drought, powerful hurricanes — it’s just weather . Why are these tar sands people so upset? If you received fundraising emails from Barack Obama or campaign manager David Plouffe in 2008, it probably comes as no surprise that Obama and Plouffe didn’t write all of them. They began with “Friend –” and included links to credit-card donation forms. The campaign regularly blasted them out to millions of people. Elijah Zarlin, the author of many of these emails as part of Obama’s new-media campaign team, was arrested today outside the White House during a protest of the Keystone XL pipeline, a proposed oil conduit from Alberta, Canada to the Gulf Coast. Zarlin was one of Obama’s primary fundraising-email-writers, according to Zarlin and Stephen Geer, a new-media staffer on Obama’s campaign payroll. Obama must personally approve the Keystone plan, first offered in 2008. The State Department recently concluded its final assessment, recommending approval of the plan. Zarlin now works on environmental campaigns for CREDO Action, a progressive group that helped recruit attendees at today’s event. “The Keystone pipeline, if he approves it, is going to cast a huge shadow over our future,” Zarlin told me over the phone during the protest, shortly before his arrest. “It’s his decision, and this is the type of thing that when he was on the campaign trail and telling staff at headquarters that we literally had to work nonstop over the next four months, that this was a must-win election, this was one of the issues we wanted to make an impact on — climate change.” Darryl Hannah was arrested, too. Well yes, they really are making an impact. He just didn’t specify it would be a positive impact.
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Poorer white pupils under-represented, study finds, as Michael Gove scrutinised over political appointments Analysis of the catchment areas of the first 24
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