ThinkProgress points out how little the Koch-manufactured tea party has in common with the real thing, and how the Occupy Wall Street movement embodies the real spirit: 1.) The Original Boston Tea Party Was A Civil Disobedience Action Against A Private Corporation . In 1773, agitators blocked the importation of tea by East India Trading Company ships across the country. In Boston harbor, a band of protesters led by Samuel Adams boarded the corporation’s ships and dumped the tea into the harbor. No East India Trading Company employees were harmed, but the destruction of the company’s tea is estimated to be worth up to $2 million in today’s money. The Occupy Wall Street protests have targeted big banks like Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, as well as multinational corporations like GE with sit-ins and peaceful rallies. 2.) The Original Boston Tea Party Feared That Corporate Greed Would Destroy America . As Professor Benjamin Carp has argued , colonists perceived the East India Trading Company as a “fearsome monopolistic company that was going to rob them blind and pave the way maybe for their enslavement.” A popular pamphlet called The Alarm agitated for a revolt against the East India Trading Company by warning that the British corporation would devastate America just as it had devastated South Asian colonies: “Their Conduct in Asia, for some Years past, has given simple Proof, how little they regard the Laws of Nations, the Rights, Liberties, or Lives of Men. And these not being sufficient to glut their Avarice, they have, by the most unparalleled Barbarities, Extortions, and Monopolies, stripped the miserable Inhabitants of their Property, and reduced whole Provinces to Indigence and Ruin.” 3.) The Original Boston Tea Party Believed Government Necessary To Protect Against Corporate Excess . Smithsonian historian Barbara Smith has noted that Samuel Adams believed that oppression could occur when governments are too weak. As Adams explained in a Boston newspaper, government should exist “to protect the people and promote their prosperity.” Patriots behind the Tea Party revolt believed “rough economic equality was necessary to maintaining liberty,” says Smith. Occupy Wall Street protesters demand a country that invests in education, infrastructure, and jobs. 4.) The Original Boston Tea Party Was Sparked By A Corporate Tax Cut For A British Corporation . The Tea Act, a law by the British Parliament exempting tea imported by the East India Trading Company from taxes and allowing the corporation to directly ship its tea to the colonies for sale, is credited with setting off the Boston Tea Party. The law was perceived as an effort by the British to bailout the East India Trading Company by shutting off competition from American shippers. George R.T. Hewes, one of the patriots who boarded the East India Trading Company ships and dumped the tea, told a biographer that the East India Trading Company had twisted the laws so “it was no longer the small vessels of private merchants, who went to vend tea for their own account in the ports of the colonies, but, on the contrary, ships of an enormous burthen, that transported immense quantities of this commodity.” Occupy Wall Street demands the end of corporate tax loopholes as well as the enactment of higher taxes on billionaires and millionaires. 5.) The Original Boston Tea Party Wanted A Stronger Democracy . There is a common misconception that the Boston Tea Party was simply a revolt against taxation. The truth is much more nuanced, and there were many factors behind the opposition to the East India Company and the British government. Although the colonists resented taxes levied by a distant British Parliament, in the years preceding the Tea Party, the Massachusetts colony had levied taxes several times to pay for local services. The issue at hand was representation and government accountable to the needs of the American people. Patrick Henry and other patriots organized the revolutionary effort by claiming that legitimate laws and taxes could only be passed by legislatures elected by Americans. According to historian Benjamin Carp, the protesters in Boston perceived that the British government’s actions were set by the East India Trading Company. “As Americans learned more about the provisions of the new East India Company laws, they realized that Parliament would sooner lend a hand to the Company than the colonies,” wrote Carp.
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The self-styled lord, whose home was used to film The King’s Speech, was the mastermind of an ‘advanced fee fraud’ scheme An entrepreneur whose lavish home was used in scenes from the Oscar-winning film The King’s Speech and for a less mainstream “porn disco” has been jailed for a multimillion-pound fraud. Self-styled “Lord” Edward Davenport, 45, was the mastermind of an “advanced fee fraud” scheme in which scores of businesses were ripped off. Davenport – who owns Sierra Leone’s former High Commission in west London – set up Gresham Ltd in 2005 and pretended it was a respectable business with 50 years’ experience of sourcing huge commercial loans. “To outward appearances it was long-established, wealthy and prestigious,” said Simon Mayo QC, for the prosecution at Southwark crown court. “It operated from expensive London premises and had a balance sheet showing significant assets. “It had a flattering corporate brochure and used headed notepaper that lent an image of corporate credibility. “That image, however, deliberately cultivated by these defendants, was entirely false. “In truth it was a company which had only been set up by Edward Davenport in late 2005. “It was essentially worthless. Its only business was fraud.” Davenport, of Portland Place, central London, was jailed last month for seven years and eight months along with his lieutenant, Peter Riley, 64, of The Old Bakery, Brentwood, Essex. They were convicted of a single count of conspiracy to defraud along with Borge Andersen, 66, of Roland Gardens, south Kensington, south-west London. Andersen was jailed for 39 months at the same court on 12 September. He was also disqualified from being a company director for seven years under Section 2 of the Directors Disqualification Act. Their convictions, following a three-month trial, can be reported for the first time after a judge lifted an order. Davenport hit the headlines last year when Westminster council banned him from using his historic home for activities including a “porn disco”, a sex party and pole dancing lessons. The five-storey, 110-room house was also used for film shoots, a fashion show, a wedding, a nightclub and a masquerade ball. His swimming pool was reportedly filled with Cognac so revellers could row through it. But the Serious Fraud Office arrested him in December 2009 after gathering evidence that Gresham had promised to fund loans worth £500m. From 2007 to 2009 Gresham Ltd had received more than £4.5m from unsuspecting clients. The fraudsters made their money by fooling clients into paying tens of thousands of pounds for due diligence and deposit fees. Across the world businesses were collapsing after entering into big deals on the false promise from Gresham that their money was only days away. In Austria, two victims had contractors waiting to start work with diggers after Gresham promised to find €32m (£27.4m) to fund a leisure resort. No money materialised. In India a businessman from Bellary Steels paid Gresham £285,000 to finance €183m. Nothing materialised and the victim “suffered crippling losses” of £825,000 and now owes €11m, the court heard. There were at least 51 victims. Davenport, known as “Fast Eddie” and pictured on his website with dozens of celebrities including Simon Cowell, the actor Hugh Grant, Sarah Ferguson and the justice secretary, Kenneth Clarke, kept his distance from the legwork and operated under a false name, James Stewart or Stuart. He launched the fraud, remained in overall charge and did not “leave many footprints in the snow for himself”, not wanting to risk his champagne lifestyle which included parties with the stars and a property in Monaco. Davenport, supported in court by his girlfriend and 78-year-old mother, was happy to give orders to Riley, the son of an alcoholic schoolteacher. Judge Peter Testar described Riley as “an accomplished conman” who could lie with incredible ease and skill to clients desperately waiting for their money. Riley blamed many of the delays on a lawyer in Monaco called Louis Martin. But Martin did not exist – it was Riley introducing one of many fictitious characters to aid the scam. Riley set up an email address for the non-existent Martin and to add credibility wrote emails from him in broken English. The judge said of the grandfather-of-one: “He strung along borrowers on a huge scale with bare-faced lies.” Of the victims, he added: “The stress and anxiety these people suffered were enormous and their lives have been grievously affected by this fraud. “Some of them will never recover from that … It was a professional and sophisticated fraud which had a great impact on the victims and each of these two defendants had a significant role to play.” Andersen, a Danish national, will be sentenced after his defence obtain medical reports for his various illnesses. He was “generally perceived as the most articulate and plausible of the fraudsters”, said Mayo. He made loan offers and provided bogus explanations for delays with money. According to internal Gresham accounts created by Riley, Andersen received £159,564 from the fraud, Riley £695,407, and Davenport £773,000. The court heard that £349,025 has vanished from the accounts and cannot be traced. Davenport and Riley were banned from being company directors for 10 years after their release and a confiscation hearing was listed for 2 May next year. Crime guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …The self-styled lord, whose home was used to film The King’s Speech, was the mastermind of an ‘advanced fee fraud’ scheme An entrepreneur whose lavish home was used in scenes from the Oscar-winning film The King’s Speech and for a less mainstream “porn disco” has been jailed for a multimillion-pound fraud. Self-styled “Lord” Edward Davenport, 45, was the mastermind of an “advanced fee fraud” scheme in which scores of businesses were ripped off. Davenport – who owns Sierra Leone’s former High Commission in west London – set up Gresham Ltd in 2005 and pretended it was a respectable business with 50 years’ experience of sourcing huge commercial loans. “To outward appearances it was long-established, wealthy and prestigious,” said Simon Mayo QC, for the prosecution at Southwark crown court. “It operated from expensive London premises and had a balance sheet showing significant assets. “It had a flattering corporate brochure and used headed notepaper that lent an image of corporate credibility. “That image, however, deliberately cultivated by these defendants, was entirely false. “In truth it was a company which had only been set up by Edward Davenport in late 2005. “It was essentially worthless. Its only business was fraud.” Davenport, of Portland Place, central London, was jailed last month for seven years and eight months along with his lieutenant, Peter Riley, 64, of The Old Bakery, Brentwood, Essex. They were convicted of a single count of conspiracy to defraud along with Borge Andersen, 66, of Roland Gardens, south Kensington, south-west London. Andersen was jailed for 39 months at the same court on 12 September. He was also disqualified from being a company director for seven years under Section 2 of the Directors Disqualification Act. Their convictions, following a three-month trial, can be reported for the first time after a judge lifted an order. Davenport hit the headlines last year when Westminster council banned him from using his historic home for activities including a “porn disco”, a sex party and pole dancing lessons. The five-storey, 110-room house was also used for film shoots, a fashion show, a wedding, a nightclub and a masquerade ball. His swimming pool was reportedly filled with Cognac so revellers could row through it. But the Serious Fraud Office arrested him in December 2009 after gathering evidence that Gresham had promised to fund loans worth £500m. From 2007 to 2009 Gresham Ltd had received more than £4.5m from unsuspecting clients. The fraudsters made their money by fooling clients into paying tens of thousands of pounds for due diligence and deposit fees. Across the world businesses were collapsing after entering into big deals on the false promise from Gresham that their money was only days away. In Austria, two victims had contractors waiting to start work with diggers after Gresham promised to find €32m (£27.4m) to fund a leisure resort. No money materialised. In India a businessman from Bellary Steels paid Gresham £285,000 to finance €183m. Nothing materialised and the victim “suffered crippling losses” of £825,000 and now owes €11m, the court heard. There were at least 51 victims. Davenport, known as “Fast Eddie” and pictured on his website with dozens of celebrities including Simon Cowell, the actor Hugh Grant, Sarah Ferguson and the justice secretary, Kenneth Clarke, kept his distance from the legwork and operated under a false name, James Stewart or Stuart. He launched the fraud, remained in overall charge and did not “leave many footprints in the snow for himself”, not wanting to risk his champagne lifestyle which included parties with the stars and a property in Monaco. Davenport, supported in court by his girlfriend and 78-year-old mother, was happy to give orders to Riley, the son of an alcoholic schoolteacher. Judge Peter Testar described Riley as “an accomplished conman” who could lie with incredible ease and skill to clients desperately waiting for their money. Riley blamed many of the delays on a lawyer in Monaco called Louis Martin. But Martin did not exist – it was Riley introducing one of many fictitious characters to aid the scam. Riley set up an email address for the non-existent Martin and to add credibility wrote emails from him in broken English. The judge said of the grandfather-of-one: “He strung along borrowers on a huge scale with bare-faced lies.” Of the victims, he added: “The stress and anxiety these people suffered were enormous and their lives have been grievously affected by this fraud. “Some of them will never recover from that … It was a professional and sophisticated fraud which had a great impact on the victims and each of these two defendants had a significant role to play.” Andersen, a Danish national, will be sentenced after his defence obtain medical reports for his various illnesses. He was “generally perceived as the most articulate and plausible of the fraudsters”, said Mayo. He made loan offers and provided bogus explanations for delays with money. According to internal Gresham accounts created by Riley, Andersen received £159,564 from the fraud, Riley £695,407, and Davenport £773,000. The court heard that £349,025 has vanished from the accounts and cannot be traced. Davenport and Riley were banned from being company directors for 10 years after their release and a confiscation hearing was listed for 2 May next year. Crime guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Pentagon cuts mean US can no longer bail out Nato, defence secretary says
October 5, 2011 No Comment
Leon Panetta exhorts allies to work together more or lose ability to mount missions such as that in Libya Budget cuts mean the US will no longer be able to make up for the significant shortfalls that have plagued Nato’s operations in Libya and Afghanistan, the US defence secretary, Leon Panetta, has warned. He also exhorted allies to work together or risk losing the ability to take on such missions. In a carefully calibrated speech just before the opening of a Nato defence ministers’ meeting in Brussels on Wednesday, Panetta praised the joint effort in Libya. But he said the allies must better share the security burden in order to survive global financial pressures that are slicing into defence spending. Panetta, who has held his post for just three months, stopped short of the blistering critique delivered by his predecessor, Robert Gates, in June. Then Gates questioned the alliance’s viability and bluntly warned that it faces a “dim, if not dismal, future” . Panetta echoed many of the same frustrations. “There are legitimate questions about whether, if present trends continue, Nato will again be able to sustain the kind of operations that we have seen in Libya and Afghanistan without the United States taking on even more of the burden,” he told Carnegie Europe . “It would be a tragic outcome if the alliance shed the very capabilities that allowed it to successfully conduct these operations.” With the Pentagon facing $450bn (£290bn) in budget cuts over the next 10 years, allies cannot assume that the US will be able to continue covering Nato’s shortcomings, Panetta said. And with other countries facing similar pressures, he said the countries must co-ordinate cuts and pool their capabilities in order to continue. “We cannot afford for countries to make decisions about force structure and force reductions in a vacuum, leaving neighbours and allies in the dark,” he said. America’s alliance with Europe emerged out of necessity in the cold war era, but it has lost support and many, particularly in the US, question its purpose. But while western states are no longer faced with the threat of a Soviet invasion, they do face escalating terrorist threats, possible cyberwarfare and rising nuclear worries about Iran. These have elevated fears and propelled the alliance into new and changing conflicts. A political awakening rippling across the Middle East has led to uprisings, including the one in Libya. And while the US took a larger role early on in the conflict to protect Libyan citizens, it scaled back its operations as coalition partners – including the UK, France, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Italy, Canada, Jordan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates – took a bigger role. Now, with the ousted Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in hiding and Libya’s rebel forces surrounding his Sirte stronghold, Nato can finally point to fragile progress in the six-month-old mission. France and the UK have now flown a third of the overall sorties and attacked 40% of the targets, Panetta said. The conflict, however, has reinforced the need to involve non-Nato allies to spread the burden. To face the growing threats, Panetta said, Nato must address some of the problems that have dogged the Libya and Afghanistan military campaigns. In Libya, he said, there had been a big shortage of intelligence and surveillance capabilities, including drones and experts who can interpret data and translate it into targeting lists. The US has had to shift drones from other critical regions in order to meet the needs of the Libya mission. Panetta also pointed to shortages of ammunition and supplies as well as refuelling tankers – all gaps the US had to fill. And he repeated US complaints that allies have failed to provide needed trainers and money to the war in Afghanistan. While the Afghan war is being run under Nato’s flag, the US has carried the bulk of the load – deploying nearly 100,000 troops there during the difficult years of the surge in order to counter Taliban violence. The allies, meanwhile, have struggled to maintain a force of about 40,000. “We are at a critical moment for our defence partnership,” Panetta warned, stressing the need for other nations to share the burden. “While these warnings have been acknowledged, growing fiscal pressures on both sides of the Atlantic, I fear, have eroded the political will to do something about them.” H added: “I am convinced that we do not have to choose between fiscal security and national security. “But achieving that goal will test the very future of leadership throughout Nato.” Nato Libya Arab and Middle East unrest Afghanistan Middle East Africa US military US foreign policy Europe guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Pentagon cuts mean US can no longer bail out Nato, defence secretary says
October 5, 2011 No CommentLeon Panetta exhorts allies to work together more or lose ability to mount missions such as that in Libya Budget cuts mean the US will no longer be able to make up for the significant shortfalls that have plagued Nato’s operations in Libya and Afghanistan, the US defence secretary, Leon Panetta, has warned. He also exhorted allies to work together or risk losing the ability to take on such missions. In a carefully calibrated speech just before the opening of a Nato defence ministers’ meeting in Brussels on Wednesday, Panetta praised the joint effort in Libya. But he said the allies must better share the security burden in order to survive global financial pressures that are slicing into defence spending. Panetta, who has held his post for just three months, stopped short of the blistering critique delivered by his predecessor, Robert Gates, in June. Then Gates questioned the alliance’s viability and bluntly warned that it faces a “dim, if not dismal, future” . Panetta echoed many of the same frustrations. “There are legitimate questions about whether, if present trends continue, Nato will again be able to sustain the kind of operations that we have seen in Libya and Afghanistan without the United States taking on even more of the burden,” he told Carnegie Europe . “It would be a tragic outcome if the alliance shed the very capabilities that allowed it to successfully conduct these operations.” With the Pentagon facing $450bn (£290bn) in budget cuts over the next 10 years, allies cannot assume that the US will be able to continue covering Nato’s shortcomings, Panetta said. And with other countries facing similar pressures, he said the countries must co-ordinate cuts and pool their capabilities in order to continue. “We cannot afford for countries to make decisions about force structure and force reductions in a vacuum, leaving neighbours and allies in the dark,” he said. America’s alliance with Europe emerged out of necessity in the cold war era, but it has lost support and many, particularly in the US, question its purpose. But while western states are no longer faced with the threat of a Soviet invasion, they do face escalating terrorist threats, possible cyberwarfare and rising nuclear worries about Iran. These have elevated fears and propelled the alliance into new and changing conflicts. A political awakening rippling across the Middle East has led to uprisings, including the one in Libya. And while the US took a larger role early on in the conflict to protect Libyan citizens, it scaled back its operations as coalition partners – including the UK, France, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Italy, Canada, Jordan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates – took a bigger role. Now, with the ousted Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in hiding and Libya’s rebel forces surrounding his Sirte stronghold, Nato can finally point to fragile progress in the six-month-old mission. France and the UK have now flown a third of the overall sorties and attacked 40% of the targets, Panetta said. The conflict, however, has reinforced the need to involve non-Nato allies to spread the burden. To face the growing threats, Panetta said, Nato must address some of the problems that have dogged the Libya and Afghanistan military campaigns. In Libya, he said, there had been a big shortage of intelligence and surveillance capabilities, including drones and experts who can interpret data and translate it into targeting lists. The US has had to shift drones from other critical regions in order to meet the needs of the Libya mission. Panetta also pointed to shortages of ammunition and supplies as well as refuelling tankers – all gaps the US had to fill. And he repeated US complaints that allies have failed to provide needed trainers and money to the war in Afghanistan. While the Afghan war is being run under Nato’s flag, the US has carried the bulk of the load – deploying nearly 100,000 troops there during the difficult years of the surge in order to counter Taliban violence. The allies, meanwhile, have struggled to maintain a force of about 40,000. “We are at a critical moment for our defence partnership,” Panetta warned, stressing the need for other nations to share the burden. “While these warnings have been acknowledged, growing fiscal pressures on both sides of the Atlantic, I fear, have eroded the political will to do something about them.” H added: “I am convinced that we do not have to choose between fiscal security and national security. “But achieving that goal will test the very future of leadership throughout Nato.” Nato Libya Arab and Middle East unrest Afghanistan Middle East Africa US military US foreign policy Europe guardian.co.uk
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Pioneering folk guitarist dies following two-year battle with cancer Bert Jansch, a leading figure in the British folk revival of the 60s and one of the most respected musicians of his generation, has died aged 67 following a long battle with cancer. A founding member of Pentangle, Jansch was also renowned as a guitar virtuoso and was sometimes hailed as a British Bob Dylan. Born in Glasgow on 3 November 1943, he released 23 solo albums, the last of which, The Black Swan (2006), featured collaborations with Beth Orton and Devendra Banhart. Jansch was the recipient of two lifetime achievement prizes at the BBC Folk awards – one for his solo achievements in 2001 and the other, in 2007, as a member of Pentangle. The band reformed in 2008. In June 2009, he discovered he had a golf ball-size tumour on one of his lungs following what was at first a routine visit to the dentist. Following treatment, he went on to co-headline a US tour with Neil Young. Jansch had recently been forced to cancel a live show in Edinburgh due to ill health and was living in a hospice in north London at the time of his death. Those he influenced included Jimmy Page, Nick Drake, Graham Coxon, Donovan, Bernard Butler and Paul Simon. According to fellow guitarist Johnny Marr: “He completely reinvented guitar playing and set a standard that is still unequalled today … without Bert Jansch, rock music as it developed in the 60s and 70s would have been very different.” Jansch told this newspaper last year : “I’m not one for showing off. But I guess my guitar-playing sticks out.” Bert Jansch Pentangle Folk music Caspar Llewellyn Smith guardian.co.uk
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Damien Fowkes to serve 20 years for attempting to murder the Soham killer and manslaughter of child murderer Colin Hatch A psychopathic prisoner who slashed Soham murderer Ian Huntley across the neck with a makeshift knife has been jailed for life. Damien Fowkes, 36, was ordered to serve a minimum of 20 years for attempting to murder Huntley and for the manslaughter of child killer Colin Hatch in a separate attack. Fowkes, who is serving a life sentence for armed robbery, admitted at Hull crown court on Tuesday that he tried to kill Huntley at Frankland prison, Durham, in March 2010. He also admitted to the manslaughter of Hatch, whom he strangled with ligatures torn from bed sheets, at Full Sutton prison, near York, in February. The wound to Huntley’s neck required 21 stitches, and Fowkes asked prison officers if his victim had died and expressed regret that he had not. Fowkes was initially charged with Hatch’s murder, but his plea of guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility was accepted by the court. The judge Mr Justice Coulson expressed concern about the attacks within high-security prisons, especially in the light of another death of a prisoner at Frankland in recent days. He added: “While everyone is acutely aware of the costs of monitoring vulnerable and high-risk prisoners, from what I have seen in this case it appears that the management systems currently in place require urgent review.” The court had been told that Fowkes has strong psychopathic tendencies and a particular hatred of child killers. Hatch had a string of convictions from the age of 15 for assaulting young boys before he was jailed for the murder of seven-year-old Sean Williams in Finchley, north London, in January 1994. In the attack on Huntley, Fowkes targeted the Soham killer after he finished his shift as a cleaner. Huntley is serving a life sentence for the murders of Jessica Wells and Holly Chapman, both 10, in Soham, Cambridgeshire, in 2002. Graham Reeds, prosecuting, said: “The first Huntley knew of the attack was when the defendant approached him without any warning at all and slashed his neck with a home-made weapon.” It was fashioned from a razor that was melted on to the handle of a plastic knife or other utensil. The court then heard that Fowkes chased Huntley, trying to stab him again. “He tried several times to stab or slash Huntley in the chest but Huntley managed to get away,” it was told. Evidence from Huntley’s bloodstained shirt showed that “two blows were struck, one to the neck and one to the chest.” A prison officer arrived and distracted Fowkes by telling him to drop the weapon. Huntley threw furniture at Fowkes and barricaded himself behind a door, which his assailant tried to force open. More prison officers arrived and Fowkes gave himself up, “saving Huntley from further attack”, after he first threatened to cut himself. Later, the court heard, two weapons were found on Fowkes, one constructed from a razor and the other a utensil sharpened to a point. The prosecution said Fowkes asked a prison officer: “Is he dead? I hope so.” When he asked if he had killed Huntley and was told he had not, Fowkes replied: “I wish I had.” Reeds described Huntley as a “notorious child killer, both inside prison and in society in general” and added: “The defendant has since expressed a particular hatred for child killers.” The judge was told he killed Hatch on D Wing at Full Sutton, a unit for vulnerable prisoners, where Fowkes had been placed after self-harming. Fowkes barricaded himself and Hatch into a cell and told prison officers he would not kill him if they stayed outside. The officers dealt with the incident as a hostage situation. But, with the officers unable to enter, Fowkes killed Hatch using strips of bedding. At one point, Fowkes told officers: “He’s a nonce. He doesn’t deserve to live.” He later claimed Hatch had contacted him by telepathy, asking Fowkes to kill him. Reeds said Fowkes claimed he was motivated to commit both attacks because “they were offenders against children.” He said Fowkes remarked: “They just do my head in. It was the same when I did Huntley.” The court heard that Fowkes has a long criminal record dating back to 1990, mainly robberies and weapons offences. Three psychiatrists and two psychologists have examined him and agreed he has a “deep seated disorder of great severity”. Fowkes had a severe personality disorder and “is, and will remain, a danger”. Crime Soham murders Helen Carter guardian.co.uk
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Director general Mark Thompson may use his address to staff on Thursday to reveal plans to quit west London Mark Thompson, the BBC’s director general, is considering announcing that the BBC will quit its entire west London home – possibly selling it to a football club – as part of radical plans that could see more staff moved out of the capital. The corporation is also planning to concentrate out-of-London production into fewer locations, with a plan to shut down the factual department in BBC Birmingham being mooted. England’s second city was once a key BBC centre, and is home to programmes such as the BBC’s Chelsea Flower Show coverage. BBC chairman Lord Patten and Thompson are addressing corporation staff on Thursday to tell them the results of the long-awaited “Delivering Quality First” cost-cutting strategy , which will see nearly 2,000 more jobs going at the public broadcaster. The BBC’s best-known west London home, Television Centre, is up for sale and it is thought the corporation has been in talks with both Queen’s Park Rangers and Chelsea football club about the clubs moving to the site. Chelsea in particular is looking to develop a larger stadium in the west London area. Television Centre is home to what is now called the BBC’s Vision division, including TV channel controllers, commissioning executives and production departments such as drama and entertainment. The site is also home to studios used for programmes such as Strictly Come Dancing, which are operated as a standalone BBC commercial subsidiary. The corporation is vacating the doughnut-shaped TV Centre by 2015, with its several thousand staff due to move to the refurbished Broadcasting House in central London or around the country to sites such as Salford. There have also been rumours, which the corporation has previously denied, that BBC drama could move to Cardiff. However, because parts of TV Centre are listed, the football clubs have expressed an interest in the BBC’s adjacent White City offices instead, which could be knocked down. The White City building – part of the overall White City office complex – is where Thompson and BBC Worldwide are based. One source said that BBC executives are deliberating whether or not to reveal the latest developments in the sale of Television Centre and possible move from White City at Thursday’s announcement. There is also spare capacity at the BBC’s new headquarters in Salford, which is the new home of children’s, sport, learning, parts of Radio 5 Live, future media and technology and BBC Breakfast. It is understood that despite the upheaval of those departments, they will not escape the DQF cuts, and that some of the vacancies created by people choosing not to move from London to Manchester will not be filled. BBC sources say that the 2,500 job losses being proposed include the 650 cuts to the World Service already announced. It is expected that the remaining redundancies will be “back-loaded”, so there will only be a few hundred during the first year or so, with the rest to come after that. About 50% of the cuts are due to come from non-programming areas, with the remaining half from programming. BBC Birmingham is expected to be scaled back, although it is understood that daytime drama Doctors and The Archers will continue to be made there. According to sources, there is a proposal that BBC Birmingham’s factual department is to be closed and its responsibilities, such as Chelsea Flower Show, moved to BBC Bristol. •
Continue reading …Director general Mark Thompson may use his address to staff on Thursday to reveal plans to quit west London Mark Thompson, the BBC’s director general, is considering announcing that the BBC will quit its entire west London home – possibly selling it to a football club – as part of radical plans that could see more staff moved out of the capital. The corporation is also planning to concentrate out-of-London production into fewer locations, with a plan to shut down the factual department in BBC Birmingham being mooted. England’s second city was once a key BBC centre, and is home to programmes such as the BBC’s Chelsea Flower Show coverage. BBC chairman Lord Patten and Thompson are addressing corporation staff on Thursday to tell them the results of the long-awaited “Delivering Quality First” cost-cutting strategy , which will see nearly 2,000 more jobs going at the public broadcaster. The BBC’s best-known west London home, Television Centre, is up for sale and it is thought the corporation has been in talks with both Queen’s Park Rangers and Chelsea football club about the clubs moving to the site. Chelsea in particular is looking to develop a larger stadium in the west London area. Television Centre is home to what is now called the BBC’s Vision division, including TV channel controllers, commissioning executives and production departments such as drama and entertainment. The site is also home to studios used for programmes such as Strictly Come Dancing, which are operated as a standalone BBC commercial subsidiary. The corporation is vacating the doughnut-shaped TV Centre by 2015, with its several thousand staff due to move to the refurbished Broadcasting House in central London or around the country to sites such as Salford. There have also been rumours, which the corporation has previously denied, that BBC drama could move to Cardiff. However, because parts of TV Centre are listed, the football clubs have expressed an interest in the BBC’s adjacent White City offices instead, which could be knocked down. The White City building – part of the overall White City office complex – is where Thompson and BBC Worldwide are based. One source said that BBC executives are deliberating whether or not to reveal the latest developments in the sale of Television Centre and possible move from White City at Thursday’s announcement. There is also spare capacity at the BBC’s new headquarters in Salford, which is the new home of children’s, sport, learning, parts of Radio 5 Live, future media and technology and BBC Breakfast. It is understood that despite the upheaval of those departments, they will not escape the DQF cuts, and that some of the vacancies created by people choosing not to move from London to Manchester will not be filled. BBC sources say that the 2,500 job losses being proposed include the 650 cuts to the World Service already announced. It is expected that the remaining redundancies will be “back-loaded”, so there will only be a few hundred during the first year or so, with the rest to come after that. About 50% of the cuts are due to come from non-programming areas, with the remaining half from programming. BBC Birmingham is expected to be scaled back, although it is understood that daytime drama Doctors and The Archers will continue to be made there. According to sources, there is a proposal that BBC Birmingham’s factual department is to be closed and its responsibilities, such as Chelsea Flower Show, moved to BBC Bristol. •
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We were not ever trying to urge people to pay their credit card bills tomorrow, Downing Street says David Cameron has hastily rewritten his conference speech to remove any suggestion that he is either urging or instructing the public to pay off their credit card bills – a move that could dampen consumer demand and worsen the recession. The prime minister’s aides said the speech would now read: “That is why households are paying down the credit card and store card bills”. The pre-briefed version of the speech on Tuesday read: “The only way out of a debt crisis is to deal with your debts. That means households – all of us – paying off the credit card card and store card bills.” A Downing Street aide said: “We are putting our hands up on this. It has been misinterpreted, and the only way to deal with it is to change the wording. We are not going to carry on when it is fairly obvious that it needed to be clarified. “People at home who are struggling cannot afford to pay off their debts, so to have an instruction from on high to do so would have been wrong. We were not ever trying to urge people to pay their credit card bills tomorrow. It was intended as a metaphor or an observation, as opposed to an instruction.” Downing Street also denied that Treasury forecasts showed household debt was set to rise, saying these figures included mortgages. A variety of papers had written up the speech as a haughty instruction from Cameron to the public to pay off their debts for the sake of the economy. On Wednesday morning, economists suggested the plan for a collective pay-off of credit card debts, if interpreted literally, would be economically disastrous as well as politically inept. The episode shows the delicate balancing act Cameron faces in trying to offer some optimism in the middle of the deepening recession. The prime minister does not want the entire Tory message to be one of gloom, deficits and debt, but fears he will be regarded as out of touch if he strays from those areas of concern. Conservative conference 2011 Conservative conference David Cameron Economic policy Conservatives Borrowing & debt Credit cards Consumer affairs Economics Patrick Wintour guardian.co.uk
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