In his speech to the Conservative party conference, the prime minister said that there was ‘too much sogginess around’ David Cameron has urged Britain to shun “can’t-do sogginess” and instead lead itself from recession by tapping into Britain’s indomitable bulldog spirit. Speaking against a chilling backdrop of ever gloomier economic news, on the day that new official figures showed Britain’s economy had flatlined over the past nine months, he sought to lift the country’s mood by saying: “Let’s show the world some fight”, adding: “We can turn this ship around.” Closing his party’s conference in Manchester, the prime minister said: “Frankly there’s too much can’t do sogginess around. We need a sharp, focused, can-do country” that would form the basis of a new economy built on fairness. In a patriotic speech suffused with one nation rhetoric and promises to tear down educational “apartheid” in Britain, he repeatedly hailed the country’s historic capacity to recover from reverses, such as the loss of empire, the threat of communism, or economic decline in the 1970s. “Britain never had the biggest population, the largest land mass, the richest resources – but we had the spirit,” he said. “Remember it is not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog. Overcoming challenge, confounding the sceptics, reinventing ourselves, this is what we do.” He said: “It’s called leadership,” a phrase that occurred 17 times in his speech. The attempt to offer optimism, as well as a portrait of a Tory purpose that goes wider than deficit reduction, ran the risk of appearing out of touch with the depth of economic crisis. Cameron fervently argued that Britain should not be paralysed by gloom and fear, saying it was “possible to turn this time of challenge into a time of opportunity”. His officials privately admitted it had been a difficult speech to pitch with Cameron only 18 months into government, the crisis in the euro overshadowing all else, and the need to balance optimism with realism. Cameron also had to tweak the speech at the last minute after an earlier draft appeared to instruct the entire country to pay back their credit card debts, a move that some calculated would shrink GDP by 15% at a stroke. Despite a string of right-of-centre policy announcements during the week the prime minister was firmly camped on the compassionate centre ground, defending the international aid budget, more help with parenting, and legalising gay marriage as “a way of strengthening the ties that bind us”. He declared: “I don’t support gay marriage despite being a Conservative. I support gay marriage because I am a Conservative.” He also promised a new focus on getting very young children out of state care by allowing black children to be adopted by white families. “We’ve got people flying round the world to adopt babies while the care system at home agonises about placing black children with white families.” He also defended the way in which he had distributed the pain in the spending cuts, claiming controversially: “This is a one nation deficit reduction programme – from a one nation party.” Similarly he promised that the new economy he was in the process of building would be a different economy, built on solid ground and working for everyone. But he offered little fresh detail on how growth was to be achieved, apart from the familiar litany of deregulation, controlling debt, tax breaks for enterprise and a determination to push through planning changes to give industry the space to grow. Ministers are increasingly confident that the argument over planning reform is being won, with Cameron angrily telling his implacable critics: “Take your arguments down the jobcentre. We’ve got to get Britain back to work.” In probably the strongest section of his speech, he claimed “something massive” was already under way in schools as standards and aspiration rose. “Rigour back in learning. Standards back in schools. Teachers back into control. Yes, the Conservatives are back in government.” An old Etonian, he demanded private schools take greater responsibility, by starting or sponsoring more academies: “The apartheid between our private and state schools is one of the biggest wasted opportunities in our country today, so let it be this party helps tear it down.” To some of his loudest applause he said: “Believe me, I do understand and I am disgusted by the idea that we should aim for any less for a child from a poor background than a rich one. I have contempt for the notion that we should accept narrower horizons for a black child than a white one. Yes, it is the age-old irony of the liberal left: they practise oppression and call it equality.” Without mentioning Ed Miliband, he accused Labour of giving Britain a casino economy and welfare society. He said the government’s deficit reduction programme was “just one big bail out of the last Labour government”. Labour was “on a sort of national apology tour”, he said, adding: “There has not been a peep on the one thing they really need to say sorry for – wasting billions and billions of your money.” Miliband, preparing to reshuffle his shadow cabinet, was struck by the number of themes he set out in his speech last week, including attacks on personal irresponsibility and vested interests, that reoccurred in Cameron’s.But Cameron also offered a stronger defence of liberal interventionism than Miliband by defending the British leadership role in Libya: “This is a party – ours is a country – that never walks on by. Earlier this year some people said to me: ‘Libya’s not our concern’, ‘don’t start what you can’t finish’, and even – ‘Arabs don’t do democracy’. “But if we had stood aside this spring, people in Benghazi would have been massacred. And don’t let anyone say this wasn’t in our national interest … let’s be proud of the part we played in giving the Libyan people the chance to take back their country.” David Cameron Conservative conference 2011 Conservative conference Conservatives Economic policy Welfare Tax and spending Foreign policy Patrick Wintour guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …‘It’s a dream-sharing’: Can Occupy Wall Street spark a broad-based movement?
October 5, 2011 No Comment“More and more people are joining the Wall Street occupation,” an article in the Occupied Wall Street Journal, the new house organ of the nascent protest movement, reports.”They can tell you about their homes being foreclosed, months of grinding unemployment, or minimum-wage dead-end jobs, staggering student debt loans, or trying to live without decent healthcare.”
Continue reading …The anti-Wall Street protests that started three weeks ago in New York have spread to other major cities–including Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and Chicago. But the protesters in Los Angeles scored an institutional coup yesterday, with a visit from several members of the L.A. city council. Kate Linthicum of the Los Angeles Times reports that
Continue reading …In an effort to combat widespread absences, Alabama’s top education official is urging parents not to fear a new immigration law requiring students to provide a birth certificate when they enroll in school. State Superintendent Larry Craven told parents in a notice in Spanish and English that Alabama schools would not turn away any children
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Price Tag singer is big winner at 16th annual ceremony, with Adele, Tinie Tempah and Rihanna also honoured Critics had complained about Jessie J leading the nominations for this year’s Music of Black Origin awards, but the 23-year old – who is white – was the big winner at the ceremony in Glasgow on Wednesday night. The singer, whose hits include the No 1 single Price Tag, triumphed in four of the five categories for which she was nominated at the Mobos, including the prize for best UK act. In the buildup to the event, now in its 16th year, questions had been raised about the preponderance of white acts among the nominees. Another winner on the night was Adele, for best R&B/soul act. She had been nominated for a further three awards. A recent editorial in the Voice newspaper asked whether the Mobos were “doing a disservice to black artists” by using white singers to promote the awards, but Kanya King, who established the Mobos in 1995, said before the show started at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre that “most forms of pop” have their heritage in black music. “The awards reflect what is happening in the UK music scene right now,” King added. “Now more than ever, urban music is prevalent.” The most disappointed artist at the Mobos was Wretch 32. The rapper from Tottenham had been nominated in four categories but failed to win in any. The award for best hip hop/grime act was won by Tinie Tempah. Jessie J also won the awards for best newcomer, best song for her hit Do it Like a Dude, and best album for Who You Are. Released in March, Who You Are has already sold 600,000 copies in the UK. Earlier this week, it was announced that the Redbridge-born singer is to be a coach and mentor on the BBC1 show The Voice, which is billed as a rival to The X
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Atlantic Bridge dissolved by trustees after Charity Commission criticism raises questions over Fox’s link with Adam Werritty A charity set up by Liam Fox, the defence secretary, has been dissolved by its trustees after criticism by the Charity Commission. The Atlantic Bridge, which had already been suspended for promoting Conservative party policies in defiance of regulations, was founded by Fox and run by his close friend Adam Werritty. Fox’s relationship with Werrity was drawn into question when the Guardian revealed Werritty had visited Fox at Ministry of Defence offices 14 times in the past 16 months. Fox installed Werritty, his best man and former flatmate, as the executive director and sole employee of the charity in 1997. The charity was wound up by its trustees on Friday, following the commission’s demand last summer that its “current activities must cease immediately” because “the activities of the charity have not furthered any of its other charitable purposes in any way”. The trustees decided to dissolve the charity rather than address the commission’s concern that its primary objective appeared to be “promoting a political policy [that] is closely associated with the Conservative party”. A string of senior Tories, including George Osborne, William Hague and Michael Gove, have served on the advisory board of the charity, which was closely linked to neocons in America. Baroness Thatcher was the honorary patron. The Atlantic Bridge hosted the New York launch of Hague’s biography of William Wilberforce. The charity said its mission was to promote the “special relationship” that flourished between Thatcher and President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. Kevan Jones, a Labour MP and former armed services minister, said the dissolution of the charity raised serious issues. “We need to know who funded this organisation and exactly what Liam Fox and Adam Werritty’s roles were,” Jones said. “David Cameron has talked about transparency and openness but that is being undermined by Liam Fox. “This raises yet more questions about the connection between Fox and Werritty and people will expect full answers sooner rather than later. We need to be clear that the activities of the Atlantic Bridge had nothing to do with Liam Fox’s activities as secretary of state for defence.” MPs questioned whether Werritty, who has falsely presented himself as Fox’s official adviser, had sought to financially gain from the pair’s close relationship. Official records show a trust run by billionaire hedge fund manager Michael Hintze donated £29,000 to The Atlantic Bridge last year. The register of members’ interests show Fox travelled on Hintze’s private jet from Washington to the UK earlier this year, after giving a speech at an event to mark the 100th anniversary of former President Ronald Reagan’s birth. Hintze, who is one of the Tories’ biggest donors, runs the hedge fund CQS and is the world’s 880th richest person, according to Forbes magazine. The commission said its investigation concluded that the charity was established for charitable purposes and was “capable of operating for public benefit. However, its charitable purposes have not been advanced by any of its activities.” It said it asked the charity’s trustees to complete a review and later met them to discuss their progress. “During the meeting, the trustees raised concerns about the future liability of the charity and whether, after the review was completed, it would be able to continue to operate,” it said. The trustees later confirmed to the commission that it was “their intention to wind up the charity as they considered that it could no longer continue to operate”. The charity was removed from the commission’s register of charities on Friday. Fox and Lord Astor of Hever, a junior defence minister, resigned as trustees of the charity in May 2010. The trustees at the time of the dissolution were Andrew Dunlop, a former adviser to Baroness Thatcher, Patrick Minford, a professor at Cardiff Business School, and Kay Ord, a friend of Fox who serves with the defence minster on the committee of the Royal British Legion’s poppy ball. Liam Fox Charities Voluntary sector Conservatives United States Rupert Neate guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …The rest of the NBA preseason is officially canceled, and the first two weeks of the regular season will be as well if players and owners can’t work out a deal by Monday, Commissioner David Stern announced yesterday, after negotiations to end the league’s lockout fell apart. Players’ union president…
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Steven Greenoe bought weapons from US gun shops and smuggled them into the UK, Liverpool crown court hears Guns smuggled into the UK on commercial flights by a former US marine captain were used to carry out crimes on the streets of Britain, including a fatal shooting, a court was told. Steven Greenoe, 37, bought weapons from American gun shops, broke them down to their component parts, and smuggled them into the UK in his luggage, Liverpool crown court heard on Wednesday. Two British men were also said to have been involved in the alleged conspiracy: Steven Cardwell, 31, and Neil Copplestone, 32, both from the north-west, who, the prosecution claims, sold the guns on to criminals. The court heard that Greenoe, who is awaiting sentence in the US, bought 81 firearms from gun shops in North Carolina, and that some of them were smuggled and used in serious criminal offences in the UK. The prosecution said most, if not all, the firearms purchased by him were intended for or are now in the hands of criminals in the UK. Security staff at Raleigh-Durham airport in North Carolina found a cache of 16 weapons in his luggage when he was stopped while in transit on 25 July 2010. Neil Flewitt QC, for the prosecution, said experts had proved that guns purchased by Greenoe were used in a fatal shooting, the details of which cannot be reported for legal reasons, as well as an attempted murder in Manchester and an attempted robbery in Liverpool. The trial also heard that undercover police officers in Liverpool bought three pistols linked to Greenoe for £3,600 each. Greenoe had paid £300 per gun in the US. The court heard that between December 2009 and his arrest last year more than £67,000 had been paid into Greenoe’s bank account, mostly in cash. Greenoe has indefinite leave to remain in the UK because his wife, Elizabeth, is a British citizen. When in the country they lived in Shrewsbury, Shropshire. US authorities were carrying out undercover surveillance of Greenoe and identified 15 separate dates on which 81 firearms were purchased by him or on his behalf. Officers witnessed him dumping the boxes that held the guns and test-fired rounds which come with each weapon. These rounds were forensically matched to firearms used by UK criminals. Flewitt said Greenoe was arrested as he was about to board a flight to New York, flying on to Manchester. “At the airport he checked in four bags,” the prosecutor said. “However, when his luggage was searched the US authorities found a total of 16 firearms broken down into their component parts and wrapped separately in plastic bags, together with 32 pistol magazines.” When officers searched Greenoe’s home in Shropshire after his arrest in the US, they found a Glock pistol and two magazines stored in a canvas bag in a safe. Cartridges found at a shooting in Manchester matched guns bought by Greenoe in America, the jury was told. A gun used in the attempted robbery of a Liverpool taxi driver in March 2011 was matched to two guns bought by Greenoe in America. Cardwell, of Aintree, Merseyside, and Copplestone, of Ormskirk, Lancashire, both deny conspiracy to import, sell and possess prohibited firearms with intent to endanger life. The trial continues and is expected to last for up to six weeks. Gun crime Crime United States Helen Carter guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Iran ‘harassing’ relatives of journalists working for BBC Persian Television
October 5, 2011 No Comment
Head of global news at BBC says Iranian officials are targeting around 10 of channel’s staff with campaign of intimidation Iran has arrested, questioned and intimidated relatives of journalists working for the London-based BBC Persian Television in its latest crackdown on press freedom. It comes just two weeks after the arrests in Tehran of documentary film-makers accused of secretly working inside the country for the Farsi-language service. Peter Horrocks, the head of global news at the BBC, said on Wednesday that relatives and friends of around 10 of the channel’s Iranian staff who work in the UK have been approached by the authorities. He called on the Iranian government to “repudiate the actions of its officials” and urged the British government to “deter the Iranian government” from attempts to undermine free media. “Passports have been confiscated, homes searched and threats made. The relatives have been told to tell the BBC staff to stop appearing on air, to return to Iran, or to secretly provide information on the BBC to the Iranian authorities,” he wrote on the BBC blog The Editors. “Many of our Iranian employees who live in London are fearful to return to their country because of the regime’s attacks on the BBC. But although those journalists are beyond the direct reach of their government they are now subject to a new underhand tactic,” he added. Horrocks also highlighted the plight of the imprisoned film-makers who Iran said have “painted a black picture of Iran and Iranians” by supplying the BBC with reports misrepresenting the country. They have been identified as four documentary film-makers – Hadi Afarideh, Naser Saffarian, Mohsen Shahrnazdar and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb – and a producer and distributor, Katayoun Shahabi. The BBC says they are independent and have no links with the television channel. It has previously shown films belonging to some of them after buying rights but it insists they have never been commissioned by the channel. Since the arrests, several Iranian officials have stepped forward to condemn the film-makers as “a group of terrorists, Baha’is, communists” and, in the words of Iran’s minister of intelligence, Heydar Moslehi, “devil-worshippers”. BBC Persian, which has also been accused by the Iranian regime of collecting information on behalf of MI6, is blocked in the country but millions of Iranians watch satellite channels illegally. Observers have seen the recent developments as Iran’s response to the broadcast of a documentary made by BBC Persian on the Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called The Ways of the Ayatollah. The programme – produced by Iranian journalist Bozorgmehr Sharafedin and shown in mid-September – was the first of its kind to touch the taboo issue of Khamenei’s leadership. Iranian documentary film-maker Maziar Bahari, who was arrested in June 2009 and kept in jail for 118 days, said dozens of other people in Iran have also been summoned to Iran’s security departments in recent weeks after the broadcast of the documentary. “They basically want to cut any contact of the Iranians with the outside world,” he said. “They are afraid of the BBC in particular because its journalists worked in Iran until recently and have a better understanding of the Iranian society.” Bahari, who has written a book about his experience in jail named Then They Came For Me, said: “I know the imprisoned film-makers and I believe Iran has absolutely no evidence against them but is now resorting to fabricating charges in order to implicate them or make them to confess.” Bahari – whose forced confession was broadcast by Iran’s state-run Press TV while in jail – said the broadcast of the Khamenei documentary by the BBC triggered the arrests. Kamnoosh Shahabi, the sister of the imprisoned distributor, said Katayoun Shahabi had been denied access to her lawyer since her arrest: “The authorities asked us not to speak to media but we are extremely worried and we have no other choice.” She said the irony is that her sister has been praised by the Islamic republic in the past for her contribution to Iran’s film industry. Iran’s embassy in London could not be reached for comment. BBC Iran Middle East Television industry Saeed Kamali Dehghan guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Friday marks the 10th anniversary of the US invasion of Afghanistan; with an eye on the decade-long effort, the Pew Research Center asks veterans: Were the Afghanistan and Iraq wars worth it? Just 34% of post-Sept. 11 veterans say yes, while another 33% say no (Afghanistan is considered slightly more…
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