Cambridge hospital and Department of Health accused of acting unlawfully by husband of woman who died The husband of a woman who died in one of Britain’s best-known hospitals is taking its management and the health secretary Andrew Lansley to court, alleging an illegal use of “do not resuscitate” orders. David Tracey claims doctors at Addenbrooke’s hospital, Cambridge , twice put such orders in his wife’s medical notes, cancelling the first after she objected to it only to put in a second three days later without her consent or any discussion with her. Tracey alleges the hospital’s actions deprived his 63-year-old wife Janet of the right to life and subjected her to degrading treatment, while he was denied respect for his personal and family life. He is also seeking to force the coalition government to draw up a policy for England on the use of Do Not Attempt Cardio-pulmonary Resuscitation (DNACPR) instructions, and claims the present system of local policies is open to abuse. The case is likely to ignite a public debate over whether patients should have the final choice over their life and death, or whether doctors ultimately “know best” on when such treatment might be futile. Thousands of “do not resuscitate” instructions are added to medical notes each year. There is UK-wide guidance for health professionals, but the NHS in England leaves official policy to local health trusts, although there are moves at regional level to harmonise approaches. Scotland has a countrywide policy. Solicitors have lodged a claim for David Tracey and the estate of his wife Janet, the manager of Trent Lodge care home for older people in Enfield, north London, with the high court, alleging breaches of the 1998 Human Rights Act. It wants a judicial review of the actions of the Cambridge University Hospitals NHS trust which is responsible for Addenbrooke’s, and the Department of Health, both of which deny they have acted unlawfully. In February Janet Tracey, who had four daughters and seven grandchildren and had recently been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, was admitted to Addenbrooke’s after breaking her neck in a car accident. She died 16 days later. Her husband alleges the trust acted illegally by not having an appropriate policy on resuscitation decisions – and that the health secretary had not issued any “clear policy or guidance” which told patients and their families of their “rights and legitimate expectations”. David Tracey claims the lack of a standard policy is liable to create a system that is “arbitrary, variable between hospitals and open to abuse” – and, in the case of his wife, failed to offer “a minimum degree of protection” of her human rights. Tracey said: “My wife cared for the elderly all her life and her treatment at Addenbrooke’s caused unnecessary suffering to her, our daughters and me. She would have taken great pride in seeking a change to the system which would mean future patients and their families are not forced to endure the same experience.” Alison Noeland, one of her daughters, said: “We believe mum’s experience is a consequence of the lack of clear policy on decisions relating to end-of-life care. A clear and national policy is needed. It should not be the case that there is a different policy from area to area. This just does not make sense.” Noeland and her sister, Kate Masters, have also made formal complaints to the hospital. But the hospital has told them it will not respond to these until the legal action is concluded. Tracey’s solicitor Merry Varney, of Leigh Day & Co, said: “The use of DNACPR orders are widespread, yet patients and their families seem often to be unaware of the decision-making procedures, the meaning of the term and even their use. “The fact that under current policy, treatment with the potential to sustain life can be withheld without the consent or knowledge of a fully capacitated patient raises real risks of gross violations of an individual’s basic human rights, and appears perverse considering the current law regarding assisted suicide and the right to die. “Janet’s medical notes clearly stated that prior to her death she was unaware of the DNACPR on her file, which reinforces that the current system is open to abuse and can disregard patient choice. We hope to bring an end to this and seek coherent national guidance giving full information on a patient’s right to choose and be informed, and what to do if a dispute arises.” Addenbrooke’s hospital told the Guardian: “We do not agree with the account given by the family, but we cannot debate the issues involved because we are subject to ongoing judicial review proceedings. “Our clinicians followed the DNACPR policy, which remains in place.” The hospital sent the Guardian a copy of its policy, but said it did not have a patient information leaflet. The Department of Health said in a statement: “Decisions on Do Not Attempt Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation must be clinically appropriate for the individual involved, weighing up the possible benefits of CPR against any burdens or risks associated with the treatment. “Because clinical judgement is so important in these decisions, it’s our view that guidance provided by a responsible body of professional opinion, based on direct experience of the complexity and sensitivity of these circumstances, is more appropriate than the setting of national guidance by the department.” NHS Andrew Lansley Health policy Health James Meikle guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …I know many of you are worried about Susie after she went into the hospital the other day and I wanted to give you a quick update on her. She called me from the hospital a little while ago and sounded pretty good, but tired. She needs another test to hopefully rule out anything to do with her heart and may have to stay over for another night. She wants to thank all those that have shown her nothing but kindness and so do I. I expect some pretty hefty hospital bills coming out of this along with a clean bill of health and if you want to make a donation to her PayPal account, you can do it here. She’s on the east coast and as usual was worried about her Internet connection because of the approaching Hurricane. Typical blogger mentality. I’ll keep you posted.
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Former IMF chief and onetime saviour of the left will not get a warm welcome at party conference on return from US As the French Socialist party gathered for its conference on La Rochelle waterfront, the souvenir postcard stand still featured a pile of black-and-white portraits of a grinning Dominique Strauss-Kahn. But delegates seemed to be avoiding them. Days after a New York prosecutor dropped all the charges against Strauss-Kahn for allegedly attempting to rape an immigrant hotel maid, the one-time saviour of the French left remained far from welcome among his own party’s grassroots. “I’m terrified he’ll turn up here,” whispered a 50-year-old regional councillor from rural south-west France, who did not want to be named. “If he wants the party to win next year’s presidential election, he’ll stay well away,” she added. “This whole Strauss-Kahn affair is far from over. Politically, he’s fried. I don’t know how he could come back knowing what we now know about his behaviour. Whatever the truth about these allegations, the whole party was blackened by this saga, its credibility was put on the line.” Only three months ago, Strauss-Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund and a former French finance minister, was tipped to beat Nicolas Sarkozy in the presidential election in 2012. His hopes of being nominated as the Socialist’s candidate next year are now utterly dead. But released from bail, Strauss-Kahn has said he is desperate to return to France and “normal life” as soon as possible. He has been given back his passport and this weekend flies to Washington, where his millionaire TV journalist wife will put their townhouse on the market before, as expected, they return to Paris in around a week. First, Strauss-Kahn is expected to visit the IMF to say goodbye to his former staff. He had also considered speaking out about his views on the global financial crisis to claw back his economic prestige, but all this has been postponed to avoid overshadowing the Socialists’ conference. Strauss-Kahn has also promised to publicly explain himself to the French, but whether this will happen remains uncertain. Any account of events that took place in the Sofitel hotel room on 14 May would be difficult, given the public outrage about aspects of his private life. The French feminist backlash has not abated, and many continue to question how a nine-minute encounter in a hotel room between two complete strangers, a powerful man and a poor hotel worker, could have been consensual. Strauss-Kahn will not have an easy landing in France. A poll on Friday found 80% of people do not want him to play any role in the Socialist primary race to choose a presidential candidate. If the party elite confidently rushed to proclaim their joy and relief after the New York case was dropped this week, it illustrated how far they are from public feeling. French voters are sceptical over the confusing and unresolved affair. Strauss-Kahn’s private life and treatment of women has been pored over, his reputation tarnished. The French justice system also continues to investigate a complaint by the writer Tristane Banon, who said Strauss-Kahn tried to rape her during a 2003 interview. A court in the Bronx in New York is still to examine a civil case for damages by the hotel maid Nafissatou Diallo. Her lawyers have now also filed a complaint in France alleging that an official in Sarcelles, where Strauss-Kahn was once mayor, attempted to bribe one of their witnesses. They said a French woman contacted them with evidence about Strauss-Kahn’s behaviour to support their case. Her family was then contacted by an official close to Strauss-Kahn’s camp who asked “how much” she wanted to keep quiet. An inquiry for witness bribery was opened in France this week. Amid this backdrop, Socialist party activists in La Rochelle were jittery about what role Strauss-Kahn might try to play in the open primary race. The vote will take place in early October and the frontrunners, two former party leaders, François Hollande and Martine Aubry, are currently trying not to live up to the cut-throat war of personal attacks the party is famous for. Socialists fear any public comments or position taking by Strauss-Kahn will alienate voters, particularly women, and bring a new round of ego battles that the party is trying to calm. Jean Lemarié, a former France Telecom worker, Normandy councillor and party activist for 30 years said: “Judicially and politically, Strauss-Kahn can’t come back. All that we’ve learnt about his personality and behaviour these past three months, party activists and the party don’t like that. But he could play a role as an adviser behind the scenes, or even publicly.” “He’s dead, politically,” lamented one 61-year-old socialist activist who said it was a “big loss” for the party. “Finally, we had found someone who could present a moderate-left programme without scaring the right. Someone who could win. But he can’t make a come back politically before the civil case is over.” “If he had been found innocent by a jury, things would be easier,” said another activist of the prosecutors’ decision to drop charges based on doubts over the credibility of the hotel maid. “What we point out is that he has not actually been cleared by a court, the charges have been dropped on a technicality,” said Patricia Perennes, an economist and activist who was at the La Rochelle stand for the feminist group Osez Le Féminisme. But Gerard Tourette, a former post office worker and activist in Averyon, was banking on French voters’ short memories, claiming that perhaps not now but in a few years, Strauss-Kahn could be back. “We’ll need him as an adviser in the primary race. His expertise will be useful. But I don’t want him to speak publicly, everything that’s happened means he’ll have to stay in the shadows. In the future, I could see him as a minister, or senator, even head of the senate.” Dominique Strauss-Kahn France Europe Nicolas Sarkozy IMF Angelique Chrisafis guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Nuclear train route to Sellafield runs into opposition from local councils
August 26, 2011 No Comment
Trains transporting radioactive uranium and plutonium could become target for terrorists, authorities warn A plan to transport 44 tonnes of radioactive uranium and plutonium by train has run into opposition from councils worried about accidents and terrorist attacks. The government’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) plans to make about 50 rail shipments over the next five years from the Dounreay nuclear site in Caithness to the Sellafield reprocessing complex in Cumbria . It wants to process material left over from Britain’s long-abandoned fast breeder reactor programme – a class of reactors that aim to produce more fuel as they operate – to extract plutonium and uranium for re-use or disposal. But councils say this is dangerous and risks theft of nuclear material by terrorists en route, arguing the material should be treated as waste and “immobilised” at Dounreay. A consultation on the plan is due to end on 31 August, and, if agreed, shipments will begin next year. The NDA argues there is a “clear and compelling strategic case” for moving the material 500km (310 miles) south. The safety record for transporting nuclear flasks is “well proven” and the environmental impact of the shipments will be “minimal”, the NDA says. Sending the material to Sellafield will cost about £60m, compared with an estimated cost of £65m for keeping it at Dounreay. But ” Nuclear-Free Local Authorities ” a local government group, which describes itself as the “local government voice on nuclear issues” has condemned the plan for breaching important environmental principles. There are seven member councils, all in Scotland, through which the nuclear material could travel by rail, depending on the route it takes. They are Perth & Kinross, Fife, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Renfrewshire, West Dumbartonshire and Dundee. The group says the plan fails to ensure that radioactive waste is managed as close as possible to the site where it was produced. It would also lead to increased radioactive discharges into the environment from Sellafield during reprocessing, the councils argue. The risk of terrorists stealing the material in transit to make it into a dirty bomb, or even crude nuclear weapons, meant that it would have to be protected by armed guards, they claim. “I am very worried about the movement of such sensitive materials across Scotland to Sellafield,” said George Regan , the chair of the nuclear-free local authorities and a Labour councillor in Dundee. “The NDA’s proposals clearly breach key environmental principles and I ask them to think again,” he added. “As they stand, they set some very worrying precedents for the future.” A spokesman for the NDA accepted that discharges from Sellafield could increase, but insisted this would amount to less than 1% a year and be well within agreed environmental limits. He denied that armed guards would be needed for the shipment of such “lightly irradiated” material. “The transportation of nuclear materials such as spent fuel happens on a daily basis across the UK and has done so for more than half a century without incident,” he said. “The movement of materials is highly regulated by international standards and procedures. The material at Dounreay is not waste, it is a nuclear material from the fast breeder reactor programme that requires appropriate management.” The NDA spokesman added: “The NDA has discussed this study with local stakeholders in both Caithness and Cumbria and welcomes comments in advance of a decision on the appropriate way forward later this year.” Dounreay was the UK centre for developing fast breeder reactors, which aimed to create new fuel as they consumed it, until the programme was cancelled in 1988. The site is now being decommissioned at a cost of £2.6bn, with aim of finishing by 2032. Nuclear power Nuclear waste Energy Waste UK security and terrorism Rail transport Local politics Rob Edwards guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Tea Party Parrot Eric Cantor Calls for Budget Cuts Before Disaster Relief…Again
August 26, 2011 No CommentKarl Frisch talks to Keith Olbermann about Eric Cantor’s latest attempt to emulate Scrooge . And therein lies the cognitive dissonance that fails the GOP and their tea party extremists. It’s easy to say that you’re for “smaller government,” but when push comes to shove, what does that mean in reality? We can cut funding to the National Weather Service , and the Tsunami Warning System , but what do you tell Americans who face the devastation of losing everything in a natural disaster? How much more does it cost us to not act preventatively? Ask the people of the Gulf Coast. We can cut funding for the Department of Education …but are you willing to fork over the money personally for your kid’s education? No, I don’t mean private school. I had to registered my two kids this week for school. In addition to getting their classroom assignments, I got a supply list from each teacher. Not just what my kids needed, but what the classroom needed: Kleenex boxes, hand sanitizers, lined paper, etc. And they asked for donations to keep the music program at my eldest’s middle school. All in all, I forked over $800 before I bought a lunch box or backpack that my kid will personally use. Why? Because of funding cuts. And on top of that, there are already eight scheduled furlough days with the option of more to make up for budget shortfalls. We can end our space program . And sure, in these days of austerity, $1400 toilet seats seem like a bad bargain. But how many jobs did that space program provide? Not just within NASA, but with all those companies making parts for space travel and all the industries that sprung up as a result of innovations. We have double digit unemployment in many areas, think what a federal investment towards a bold space program could do, if we mandated those jobs stay here in the US. The truth is that there is much waste in our budget (can we look at how much money is wasted in no bid contracts to Halliburton/KBR/Xe, please?) that we could and should look at to make our government more efficient , but cutting out programs all over the place ? Pennywise and pound foolish. And in the richest country in the world, to say that we can’t care for our own is absolutely outrageous.
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Teasing his Friday 3 p.m. ET hour show on MSNBC, anchor Martin Bashir proclaimed that he would have a special guest on to discuss incoming Hurricane Irene: “Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin joins us to explain what leaders must do to avoid the mistakes that were made six years ago.” [ Audio available here ] Bashir was “delighted” to have Nagin on the program and began by asking about the response of political leaders to the storm: “Is it your view, sir, that they are handling preparations for this hurricane in the best way possible?” Bashir followed up by wondering: “…with the benefit of your experience, what are the critical actions that you think need to be taken to ensure that Hurricane Irene, or any other act of mother nature, does not become Katrina, Part II?” Thanks to Scott Whitlock for providing video after the jump In response, Nagin lent his “experience” to others: “I wrote a book recently…and I lay out specifically what we did. I think the most critical things are right before the storm hits, to make sure that the public understands the severity, and they start to evacuate in an orderly fashion.” During the segment, an image appeared on screen of the city school buses then Mayor Nagin allowed to be flooded instead of being used for evacuations. Bashir did eventually ask Nagin about criticism of his response to Katrina: “You, yourself, were accused of being too late in ordering that mandatory evacuation. In retrospect, and given, you know, you knew all about the circumstances in which people were living in New Orleans, do you accept that just as FEMA underperformed, you also had some failings?” Nagin acknowledged: “Well, I would tell you this, Martin, it was a historic catastrophic event and clearly I could have done things better.” But then added: “…the leader has one responsibility, but also the citizen has a responsibility to heed the warnings and act appropriately.” Here is a full transcript of the August 26 segment: 2:46PM ET TEASE: MARTIN BASHIR: I'm Martin Bashir, coming up at the top of the hour, the latest on Hurricane Irene as tens of millions of Americans get ready to hunker down for a weekend of dangerous weather. Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin joins us to explain what leaders must do to avoid the mistakes that were made six years ago. 3:06PM ET SEGMENT: BASHIR: It is almost six years since Hurricane Katrina wrought devastation on Louisiana, killing more than 1,800 people throughout the Gulf coast. It was a biblical catastrophe, punishing ordinary members of the public, but also exposing the region's poverty, long-standing corruption, and political ineptitude. And even when federal help did arrive, it was late and poorly coordinated. President Bush was roundly criticized when the White House released this infamous photo of him surveying the damage from Air Force One. And when the President did eventually set foot on the ground, things only got worse as he told then FEMA Director Michael Brown he was doing, quote, 'A heck of a job.' Within weeks, Mr. Brown was forced to resign. Another man at the very epicenter of those events was the mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin. Mr. Nagin has just published a book about those events, entitled, 'Katrina's Secrets.' And I'm delighted to welcome him to our broadcast this afternoon. Good afternoon, sir. RAY NAGIN: Good afternoon, Martin. How are you? BASHIR: Very well. You've heard Janet Napolitano, you've heard the President speaking today, you've heard mayors, governors, everybody. Is it your view, sir, that they are handling preparations for this hurricane in the best way possible? NAGIN: You know, Martin, I think they're doing an excellent job of alerting the public, which is one of the main things you need to do. One of the problems they're having in the east coast is that they haven't experienced a storm like this in so long, so there are going to be many people who may not heed the warnings or may move to late to try and evacuate and that's when the drama will unfold. BASHIR: Mr. Nagin to look back now for a moment at Hurricane Katrina, it was not only devastating for the people there, it also proved damaging for many of our elected officials, so with the benefit of your experience, what are the critical actions that you think need to be taken to ensure that Hurricane Irene, or any other act of mother nature, does not become Katrina, Part II? NAGIN: Well, you know, Martin, I wrote a book recently released on Create Space, a division of Amazon, and I lay out specifically what we did. I think the most critical things are right before the storm hits, to make sure that the public understands the severity, and they start to evacuate in an orderly fashion. The worst thing that could happen is everyone to hit the interstates at the same time. The thing that I really like that's happening right now on the east coast is that they're taking care of the senior citizens, they're taking care of the special needs, the medical patients first. And I think all of that is going to help to minimize the number of people that remain in harms way, because right before the storm is one thing, but after the storm hits, that's when the real action starts. BASHIR: In your case, sir, nobody appeared to escape without criticism and you, yourself, were accused of being too late in ordering that mandatory evacuation. In retrospect, and given, you know, you knew all about the circumstances in which people were living in New Orleans, do you accept that just as FEMA underperformed, you also had some failings? NAGIN: Well, I would tell you this, Martin, it was a historic catastrophic event and clearly I could have done things better. BASHIR: You really believe that, sir? NAGIN: Oh, absolutely. When I – now that I've had a chance to really go back and take a look, there are a number of things that I think that I could have done better. But in an evacuation situation where a catastrophic storm is approaching, the leader has one responsibility, but also the citizen has a responsibility to heed the warnings and act appropriately. BASHIR: And finally, and briefly, sir, you've been quoted in USA Today saying that the city of New Orleans is better because of Katrina. How so? NAGIN: Well, we've gone through quite a bit of pain and struggles, but we're rebuilding everything, the school system, our infrastructure. We've got young, better-educated people moving into the city, and where we used to concentrate poverty in our public housing projects, we now have mixed income communities. So we have gone through a lot of pain, but we are getting better. BASHIR: Former Mayor of New Orleans Ray Nagin. I've read your book and it's an excellent read. Thank you for joining us. NAGIN: Thank you, Martin, I appreciate that. BASHIR: Thank you.
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James Clappison seeks assurances from Dominic Grieve that normal standards of justice should apply to alleged riot offenders The attorney general, Dominic Grieve, has been asked to intervene in the row over the secret strategy adopted by the Metropolitan police during the riots to remand in custody everyone who was charged, which lawyers have claimed amounted to a blanket policy of imprisonment. James Clappison, the Conservative MP for Hertsmere, barrister and member of the home affairs committee, has written to Grieve asking for assurances that the normal standards of justice should apply to alleged riot offenders. “We cannot risk the appearance of two systems of justice,” the letter says. The prison population in England and Wales reached a record high for the third week running yesterday as the courts continued to jail hundreds of people involved in the riots. The total number of prisoners hit 86,821, higher than last week’s record of 86,654. The Guardian revealed on Monday a leaked “prisoner processing strategy” adopted by the Met at the height of the riots which revealed that a “strategic” decision had been taken “that in all cases an application will be made for remand in custody both at the police station, and later at court”. Lawyers are now seeking a judicial review of at least one case, claiming that the policy meant that not only were the police applying a blanket policy of denying bail but recommending to the courts that they did the same and even refusing to issue cautions to people accused on minor offences with no previous criminal record. The Met disputes that its officers were not giving cautions, saying that of 1,881 arrests, 17 ended in cautions, 125 people were released with no further action and 623 were bailed pending further investigations. The majority of the remainder were charged. The recommendation that those charged were remanded in custody was made “to ensure cases were dealt with quickly and again to protect the public from potential further disorder”, a spokesman said. Clappison asks Grieve for confirmation that the principles of the Bail Act will operate, meaning that in making bail decisions courts should consider both the seriousness of the offence and the defendant’s previous character in an assessment of their risk of reoffending. “Any departure from these principles and any form of blanket policy on bail would, amongst other things, create the risk of persons who are eventually acquitted in effect serving a custodial sentence prior to their acquittal in circumstances where they would not otherwise have done so,” he writes. Senior representatives of the Metropolitan police will appear before the home affairs select committee on 6 September and be questioned about their custody strategy, the committee’s chairman, Keith Vaz, confirmed. Dominic Grieve Conservatives UK riots UK criminal justice Polly Curtis guardian.co.uk
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Private investigator passes names on to Steve Coogan’s lawyers, in accordance with court order Private investigator Glenn Mulcaire has revealed the names of the News of the World staff who instructed him to carry out phone hacking, his solicitor has confirmed. The information was passed in a letter to Steve Coogan’s lawyers in accordance with a court order. Mulcaire had applied for permission to appeal against the order, which was made in February, but this was denied and he was compelled to pass over the details by Friday. His solicitor, Sarah Webb, from Payne Hicks Beach, said she could not reveal who the NoW employees were because of “confidentiality issues”. Schillings, which is representing Coogan, has agreed not to reveal the names yet, to give Payne Hicks Beach a chance to apply for a court order stopping their release. Mulcaire was ordered to reveal who instructed him to access Coogan’s voicemails, as well as those of celebrities including Max Clifford and Elle Macpherson. He was jailed for six months in 2007 for intercepting messages left on royal aides’ phones. A spokeswoman for News International said the firm had no comment. Glenn Mulcaire Phone hacking Steve Coogan Newspapers & magazines News of the World National newspapers News International Newspapers guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Fox News: Facts Don’t Matter on Global Warming – It’s What Resonates with Voters
August 26, 2011 No Comment(h/t ThinkProgress ) Facts? We don’t need no stinkin’ facts. We’re Fox News . On Fox & Friends Sunday, anchor Clayton Morris admitted that Fox News factcheckers have confirmed that man-made global warming is “certainly” real, but argued that it “doesn’t matter” because climate denial is popular among Fox News-watching conservatives. Morris contrasted Jon Huntsman’s defense of the National Academy of Sciences with Rick Perry’s claims that scientists have “manipulated data” to concoct manmade global warming: MORRIS: If you dive into the weeds a little bit on this global warming thing, you see that it seems that facts are certainly on Huntsman’s side on all of this and fact checkers have come out, we’re actually having our own brain room look look at this right now that any of Perry’s comments don’t seem to hold a lot of water . It doesn’t matter . What’s resonating right now in South Carolina is helping Governor Perry tremendously and he fired back at Huntsman on global warming and gaining traction, facts or not. Hmmm….that’s a pretty amazing admission, though sadly one that will likely pass by the notice of the Fox News viewers. Because they don’t really want to face reality, or operate in truth, they merely disregard it. That’s it. Leave it to the whiny liberals to take care of it, while Fox News hosts disparage and mock them. Once again, it’s up to the reality-based community to save the world.
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Schmidt criticises division between science and arts and says UK ‘should look back to glory days of Victorian era’ The chairman of Google has delivered a devastating critique of the UK’s education system and said the country had failed to capitalise on its record of innovation in science and engineering. Delivering the annual MacTaggart lecture in Edinburgh, Eric Schmidt criticised “a drift to the humanities” and attacked the emergence of two educational camps, each of which “denigrate the other. To use what I’m told is the local vernacular, you’re either a luvvy or a boffin,” he said. Schmidt also hit out at Lord Sugar, the Labour peer and star of the hit BBC programme The Apprentice, who recently claimed on the show that “engineers are no good at business”. “Really?” Schmidt said. “I don’t think we’ve done too badly.” Schmidt told the MediaGuardian Edinburgh international TV festival: “Over the past century the UK has stopped nurturing its polymaths. You need to bring art and science back together.” The technology veteran, who joined Google a decade ago to help founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin build the company, said Britain should look to the “glory days” of the Victorian era for reminders of how the two disciplines can work together. “It was a time when the same people wrote poetry and built bridges,” he said. “Lewis Carroll didn’t just write one of the classic fairytales of all time. He was also a mathematics tutor at Oxford. James Clerk Maxwell was described by Einstein as among the best physicists since Newton – but was also a published poet.” Schmidt’s comments echoed sentiments expressed by Steve Jobs, the chief executive of Apple, who revealed he was stepping down this week. “The Macintosh turned out so well because the people working on it were musicians, artists, poets and historians – who also happened to be excellent computer scientists,” Jobs once told the New York Times. Schmidt paid tribute to Britain’s record of innovation, saying the UK had “invented computers in both concept and practice” before highlighting that the world’s first office computer “was built in 1951 by the Lyons chain of teashops”. However, he said the UK had failed to build industry-leading positions or successfully transfer ideas from the drawing board to the boardroom. “The UK is the home of so many media-related inventions. You invented photography. You invented TV,” he said. “Yet today, none of the world’s leading exponents in these fields are from UK.” He said British startups tended to sell out to overseas companies once they had reached a certain size, and that this trend needed to be reversed. “The UK does a great job of backing small firms and cottage industries, but there’s little point getting a thousand seeds to sprout if they are then left to wither or transplanted overseas. UK businesses need championing to help them grow into global powerhouses, without having to sell out to foreign-owned companies. If you don’t address this, then the UK will continue to be where inventions are born, but not bred for long-term success.” Schmidt said the country that invented the computer was “throwing away your great computer heritage” by failing to teach programming in schools. “I was flabbergasted to learn that today computer science isn’t even taught as standard in UK schools,” Schmidt said. “Your IT curriculum focuses on teaching how to use software, but gives no insight into how it’s made.” Barack Obama announced in June that the US would train an extra 10,000 engineers a year. “I hope that others will follow suit – the world needs more engineers. I saw the other day that on The Apprentice Alan Sugar said engineers are no good at business,” he said. “If the UK’s creative businesses want to thrive in the digital future, you need people who understand all facets of it integrated from the very beginning. Take a lead from the Victorians and ignore Lord Sugar: bring engineers into your company at all levels, including the top.” Schmidt also announced that Google TV, which allows users to search the internet on their TV sets, would be launched in Europe early next year, with the UK “among the top priorities”. The product is already available in America, although sales have been disappointing. Schmidt said Google TV did not threaten broadcasters and would enable them to experiment with new formats online. He defended the company’s contribution to the TV industry, pointing out that it had invested billions of dollars in IT infrastructure that media companies use. Google also announced it would fund a new course in online production and distribution at the National Film & Television School in London for three years. Eric Schmidt Google Education policy MediaGuardian Edinburgh International TV Festival 2011 MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival Digital media Television industry Computing James Robinson guardian.co.uk
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