Forecasters predict sunny spells and scattered showers for most of British isles, but river and coastal areas at risk of flash floods Torrential rain that pounded parts of western England and Wales is expected to ease off, but people living near rivers and coasts have been warned not to drop their guard. Flood alerts remained in place on Tuesday across Devon and Cornwall, where small rivers are susceptible to flash flooding, and on the Yorkshire coast and Wear estuary where high tides threaten to combine with fresh heavy showers. The Environment Agency has increased the number of alerts – the lowest of the three stages of preparations for flooding – from 17 to 20, in spite of less damage on Monday and overnight than feared. The south-west alerts apply to east-facing stretches of coast as well as rivers, because of possible tidal surges. Yorkshire’s two biggest resorts, Scarborough and Bridlington, have been removed from the at-risk list, however, with the smaller centres of Whitby and Filey reckoned to be more at risk. The third of the area’s three current alerts applies to the coast south of Bridlington as far as Barmston. The agency expects to cut the number of warnings further during the day, as the vigour of the current wet weather front wears out, but its staff advise caution. A spokesman said: : “We had some reports of flooding to property on Monday and continued disruption to travel is possible. “Given the potential for very heavy localised downpours, small, fast responding rivers and streams are particularly prone to flooding, especially in Cornwall and west Devon. Strong winds and high tides in south Devon are also increasing the risk of localised flooding in coastal areas. Some precautionary closures of roads have been organised by local authorities.” Forecasts of rainfall reaching 100mm in some places on Monday were not realised but Cardinham near Bodmin in Cornwall had 58mm and Milford Haven in Pembrokeshire 50mm between 7am and 7pm. Winds reached 60mph in Orkney and Shetland and further gales are expected there on Tuesday. Cornwall received almost an average month’s rain on Monday and emergency services responded to more than 300 calls about flash flooding, fallen trees and blocked drains. The palm-fringed seafront at Torbay was closed to traffic because of rain, high winds and wave surges. A 13-year-old girl who went missing while walking her dog on the coast at St Agnes in Cornwall on Monday evening was later found by an 80-strong team of rescuers. She is being treated for head injuries after a fall. Forecasters say the rain will move north during the day and weaken to moderate showers, followed by mixed but generally drier weather. Billy Payne, a forecaster with MeteoGroup, said: “Today should see sunny periods interspersed with heavy showers, apart from northern Scotland, where heavy rain will continue. There is also a risk of thundery showers in the south-west and south Wales later today.” Temperatures are expected to drop from Monday’s high of 19C (66F) to a maximum 16C (61F) in East Anglia and the south-east. Wales’ last flood alert at Haverfordwest in Pembrokeshire has also been lifted. Weather Wales Martin Wainwright guardian.co.uk
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Amnesty International report says wounded protesters are being assaulted by medical staff and security personnel The Syrian government has turned hospitals into “instruments of repression” in its drive to crush opposition, the human rights group Amnesty International has said. Wounded patients in at least four government-run hospitals have been subjected to torture and other ill treatment – including by medical staff, Amnesty said in a report. Other hospital workers suspected of treating protesters and others injured during demonstrations have themselves faced arrest and torture, it added. “It is deeply alarming that the Syrian authorities seem to have given the security forces a free rein in hospitals, and that in many cases hospital staff appear to have taken part in torture and ill treatment of the very people they are supposed to care for,” said Cilina Nasser, an Amnesty researcher. Syria has intensified a crackdown on protests and an armed insurgency despite Western condemnation. The United Nations says the crackdown has killed 3,000 people. Syrian authorities say they are fighting armed terrorist groups in the central city of Homs who have killed civilians, security forces and prominent figures. Amnesty International said patients have been assaulted by medical staff, health workers and security personnel in the national hospitals in Homs, the coastal city of Banias and the border town of Tel Kelakh, and at the military hospital in Homs. One doctor at Homs military hospital told Amnesty International that he had seen four doctors and more than 20 nurses abusing patients. One man was delivered unconscious to the national hospital in Tel Kelakh on 22 August after being beaten by security forces, the report said. “There were around seven or eight security men, some carrying rifles, and nurses wearing white robes crowded around him. He opened his eyes and said: ‘Where am I?’ They all suddenly jumped on him and started beating him and hitting him,” according to a witness in the emergency room. Patients have also been removed from hospitals. On 7 September, security forces looking for an alleged armed field commander opposed to the government raided al-Birr wa al-Khadamat hospital in Homs, the report said. When they did not find him, they arrested 18 wounded people, it said. Afraid of the consequences of going to a government hospital, many people have chosen to seek treatment either at private hospitals or at poorly equipped makeshift field hospitals, Amnesty said. Syria Middle East Arab and Middle East unrest guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Mervyn King faces Treasury select committee on quantitative easing – live
October 25, 2011 No Comment
The governor of the Bank of England is being asked questions on quantitative easing – the Bank extended its programme of money printing by £75bn this month 10.57am: So while we seek clarity from the Bank of England about where King is catching a flight to, the main points from that appearance: • A robust and at times irritable defence of QE – both of the first £200bn round and the new £75bn • Without QE the economy would have slowed, but more QE could not be initiated without an assessment of the impact on inflation. The crisis in eurozone eventually forced the MPC’s hand. • A jibe at the government (both the current one and the previous Labour administration) not to put more pressure on the state backed Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group to lend to SMEs • The new credit easing programme being set up to encourage small business lending should be the responsibility of the Treasury, and hence taxpayers, not the Bank • Confidence that inflation will fall back from 5.2% as the impact of the VAT rise and energy price rises fall away next year • When gilts mature, the Bank might use them to buy more gilts. 10.55am: On this point about SME lending, King is making it clear that the responsibility lies with the Treasury to encourage banks to lend to SMEs. Tyrie is thanking King and Bean for their appearance. 10.48am: King is worrying about his flight… Even so, John Thurso is getting his turn to ask questions. King is stressing that the UK economy is regarded as strong and the credit default swap rate – the cost of buying insurance against default – of the UK is lower than Germany for the first time. King reckons that banks aren’t just restricting credit to SMEs. It is an industry-wide impact from reducing the size of their balance sheets. Michael Fallon asking the questions now. Why not set up a lending agency, as suggested by one of his colleagues on the MPC, Adam Posen, to bolster lending? King is, again, arguing there is no time to set this up. 10.39am: King is explaining that the first tightening of monetary policy could have a “too large” impact on the economy if the moment is not handled carefully. King said I don’t think this unique. It a long history of monetary economics David Ruffley is asking if inflation is having a “crippling effect” on household incomes. I certainly accept what is happening in the economy now is a real squeeze on household incomes. King said the cause of the squeeze is the changes in world prices of energy, consequences of higher VAT, food prices and a fall in the exchange rate that was needed to rebalance the economy. Ruffley wants to know if King feels responsible for this rise in inflation (it is 5.2%) He said that hiking interest rates would have pushed the economy into recession. The key point for us if we had done that and inflation were a little lower, come next year you’d be giving us a hard time for inflation being well below the target. King stresses he is “not at all happy” that inflation is above the 2% target. King is confident inflation will come back down. He cites the impact of the VAT rise will drop out of the comparison. Commodity prices are also falling back – 10 to 20% over the last couple of months after rising 30 to 40% a year. Also, through the next two years the spare capacity in the economy should help to negate any further inflation. King is refusing to score himself between 0 and 10 on his forecasting abilities. 10.35am: Andrea Leadsom MP is asking the questions now and wants to know about the losses that might be made on gilt purchases. King reckons it is irrelevant but says that the time to assess that will be when the government decides to reverse policy – that is by hiking rates. He is saying that the government does not want to hold gilts to maturity. In response to an earlier question about whether the BoE would use the proceeds of matured gilts to buy new assets, King said That’s conceivable. That’s what the Federal Reserve has done with some of its transactions and it’s up to the Monetary Policy Committee at the time to decide. But he stresses the first tightening of monetary policy will be indicated by a rise in interest rates (currently at the historic low of 0.5%). 10.29am: King is stressing that the deterioration in the eurozone became very acute in August. Will the MPC have extra amounts of QE for the future? King said: We will do what is appropriate at the time John Mann, MP, asks was the £75bn figure for new QE “plucked out of the air”. King gets Charlie Bean to answer. He says that assessments were made about a couple of things, including the 1.5% impact on inflation from the £200bn purchases already made. So, inflation will go up another 1.5%? asks Mann. Bean says, no, the extra £75bn will put half a percent on inflation and “somewhat more” than half a percent on GDP. (Inflation is running at 5.2%.) Employment should go up by half a percent too but Bean explains that this is not entirely clear at the moment. 10.24am: MP Stewart Hosie wants to know why the MPC waited to re-launch QE until now. King is saying the concern was about inflation but that these fears are now fading. King adds Wage inflation has remained subdued But he stresses The thing that really made the difference was the change in the outlook for Europe… Hosie is saying there were signs of the economy slowing before the European problems arose. King is again stressing the assessment that needed to be made about inflation. The international picture is highly relevant, said King, as the government is seeking an export-led recovery rather than one driven by domestic consumption. 10.21am: King says he is asked about inflation when he visits SMEs. He also has no doubt that there is a contraction of credit to SMEs. “What we have to do is to find ways to give incentives to existing banks (to lend),” said King. Setting up a bank would take too long – 18 months – to make a difference. Again he mentions the state-backed Lloyds and RBS. The government does of course own two of the biggest lenders in the country. He seems to be implying that the government should be putting more pressure on Lloyds and RBS to lend to SMEs but has not been asked the question directly (yet). 10.18am: King reckons the fall in bank lending would have been worse if the Bank of England had not been embarking on asset purchases. (Interestingly he is avoiding using the phrase QE, instead preferring the technical name of asset purchases.) King points out the state of the banking industry when the QE programme started. Banks had a leverage ratio of 40 to 1 and it now 20 to 1. King said I’d like it go lower The point is, though, that the reduction in the leverage ratio means that banks are likely to be withdrawing loans from the economy. 10.12am: King is stressing again that the bank has not withdrawn from buying commercial paper. King is now being asked how the bank actually buys gilts. He explains a series of auctions are announced, the size of the auction and the gilts that the Bank of England wants to buy. King says It will have an effect on the price on bonds. King is explaining that the Bank does not buy bonds with a maturity of less than three years. King said: The first one we own matures in 2013 It is at that point the Bank needs to decide whether to tighten monetary policy again. Good question about the Bank of England having to potentially sell off the £275bn of gilts it is expected to buy, at the same time the government is trying to issue new debt. King said. No doubt the consequence will be to push down the price of gilts and push interest rates to up. That is one of the consequences of reversing QE, said King. 10.06am: King said: SMEs are too small to find it easy or cost effective to issue large amounts of paper…If you want to help SMEs you need to look at the source from which they obtain financing and that’s the banks. King is now being asked by George Mudie about QE was used so much to buy gilts rather than corporate bonds. King is on the defensive. The issuance of corporate bonds and corporate equity in the period since we started has been at record levels so we have managed to achieve the objective which was to ensure the market was functioning properly. The bank spent £9bn on commercial paper, said King, who is insisting it is hard to spend more on commercial paper. The exchanges are becoming heated and King is adamant that he did not refuse to buy commercial paper. King is adamant The chancellor did not ask us to keep this going indefinitely King said the authorities cannot keep intervening in the commercial paper market. Tyrie steps in and wants to know if the bank will buy more commercial paper if the Treasury asks the Bank to do so. King just said The chancellor has made it very clear he does not believe this is the function of a central bank On whether the effects of more QE on inflation were expected to be small: “Nothing to do with being small. Any monetary policy easing is going to have the effect of expanding demand, output and ultimately inflation… We did it because we thought there were real risks looking ahead of inflation falling below target.” 10.01am: Norman wants to know why there wasn’t more buying of corporate bonds. He wants to know why the government is now doing credit easing – CE – to help small businesses instead. The detail of how CE will work is not yet known and King is making it clear that he does not think CE is a job for the Bank of England. King points out that companies which issue bonds – which might have been able to be swept up by QE – are large, with more than 10,000 employees at least. “It does seem to me that the bank is set up to avoid criticism,” said Norman. King says that is not the case. “What would you have suggest we have done?,” King retorts. Norman says there should have been papers put to government about SMES. “I did give good advice to this government and previous government,” said King. A big dig at Labour from King who he says decided not to use two bailed out banks – Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group – to bolster lending to SMEs. 9.57am: Jessie Norman now. The asset purchase facility has purchased £205bn of gilts, says King. Norman wants to know about buying corporate bonds, not gilts. King is giving minute details about buying corporate bonds but this is not been done anything on the scale of the purchase of gilts. Previously the Bank has said it has spent £200bn on gilts, so King may be revealing an extra £5bn has been bought as it begins its new phase of QE. 9.55am: King, though, is saying an overall limit on lending should not discriminate against “sectors”. “Having a limit on a the total amount of borrowing does not discriminate against sectors,” King said. Tyrie is asking for more information about what King means by his concerns about discriminating over sectors. What does he mean? When asked to provide information about this, he refuses. 9.50am: So first question is from Andrew Tryie, the chairman of the committee. How did the MPC end up with a majority vote for QE in the space of just a month? The governor says that the decision was very nearly taken in September. Now being asked about “macro prudential tools” which could be given to the Financial Policy Committee – set up inside the Bank of England to look after financial stability – to help take the heat out of financial markets. King says it is up to parliamentarians to decide what powers the FPC should have. One of the items the FPC has suggested is having a power to impose restrictions on loan-to-value of mortgages, for instance. Tyrie wants to know should the Bank have such power over mortgages. King reckons is there is no view yet. “We haven’t made a decision on that yet. We have been asked to give our views on the spring of next year”. This is relevant because King has argued there should not be discrimination against different sectors – yet macro prudential regulation could require this to happen. 9.48am: Andrew Sentance, a former member of the MPC, has posted 10 questions for the committee to ask on his blog 9.45am: Bank of England governor Sir Mervyn King is being questioned over the decision to relaunch quantitative easing by the cross-party Treasury Select Committee. The decision to pump £75bn of fresh electronic money into the economy at the start of October came as King warned that Britain was in the grip of the world’s worst-ever financial crisis. He and deputy governor Charlie Bean will answer questions over the merits of the move given inflation is way above target at 5.2%. Preamble Mervyn King Bank of England Jill Treanor Katie Allen guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Mervyn King faces Treasury select committee on quantitative easing – live
October 25, 2011 No CommentThe governor of the Bank of England is being asked questions on quantitative easing – the Bank extended its programme of money printing by £75bn this month 10.57am: So while we seek clarity from the Bank of England about where King is catching a flight to, the main points from that appearance: • A robust and at times irritable defence of QE – both of the first £200bn round and the new £75bn • Without QE the economy would have slowed, but more QE could not be initiated without an assessment of the impact on inflation. The crisis in eurozone eventually forced the MPC’s hand. • A jibe at the government (both the current one and the previous Labour administration) not to put more pressure on the state backed Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group to lend to SMEs • The new credit easing programme being set up to encourage small business lending should be the responsibility of the Treasury, and hence taxpayers, not the Bank • Confidence that inflation will fall back from 5.2% as the impact of the VAT rise and energy price rises fall away next year • When gilts mature, the Bank might use them to buy more gilts. 10.55am: On this point about SME lending, King is making it clear that the responsibility lies with the Treasury to encourage banks to lend to SMEs. Tyrie is thanking King and Bean for their appearance. 10.48am: King is worrying about his flight… Even so, John Thurso is getting his turn to ask questions. King is stressing that the UK economy is regarded as strong and the credit default swap rate – the cost of buying insurance against default – of the UK is lower than Germany for the first time. King reckons that banks aren’t just restricting credit to SMEs. It is an industry-wide impact from reducing the size of their balance sheets. Michael Fallon asking the questions now. Why not set up a lending agency, as suggested by one of his colleagues on the MPC, Adam Posen, to bolster lending? King is, again, arguing there is no time to set this up. 10.39am: King is explaining that the first tightening of monetary policy could have a “too large” impact on the economy if the moment is not handled carefully. King said I don’t think this unique. It a long history of monetary economics David Ruffley is asking if inflation is having a “crippling effect” on household incomes. I certainly accept what is happening in the economy now is a real squeeze on household incomes. King said the cause of the squeeze is the changes in world prices of energy, consequences of higher VAT, food prices and a fall in the exchange rate that was needed to rebalance the economy. Ruffley wants to know if King feels responsible for this rise in inflation (it is 5.2%) He said that hiking interest rates would have pushed the economy into recession. The key point for us if we had done that and inflation were a little lower, come next year you’d be giving us a hard time for inflation being well below the target. King stresses he is “not at all happy” that inflation is above the 2% target. King is confident inflation will come back down. He cites the impact of the VAT rise will drop out of the comparison. Commodity prices are also falling back – 10 to 20% over the last couple of months after rising 30 to 40% a year. Also, through the next two years the spare capacity in the economy should help to negate any further inflation. King is refusing to score himself between 0 and 10 on his forecasting abilities. 10.35am: Andrea Leadsom MP is asking the questions now and wants to know about the losses that might be made on gilt purchases. King reckons it is irrelevant but says that the time to assess that will be when the government decides to reverse policy – that is by hiking rates. He is saying that the government does not want to hold gilts to maturity. In response to an earlier question about whether the BoE would use the proceeds of matured gilts to buy new assets, King said That’s conceivable. That’s what the Federal Reserve has done with some of its transactions and it’s up to the Monetary Policy Committee at the time to decide. But he stresses the first tightening of monetary policy will be indicated by a rise in interest rates (currently at the historic low of 0.5%). 10.29am: King is stressing that the deterioration in the eurozone became very acute in August. Will the MPC have extra amounts of QE for the future? King said: We will do what is appropriate at the time John Mann, MP, asks was the £75bn figure for new QE “plucked out of the air”. King gets Charlie Bean to answer. He says that assessments were made about a couple of things, including the 1.5% impact on inflation from the £200bn purchases already made. So, inflation will go up another 1.5%? asks Mann. Bean says, no, the extra £75bn will put half a percent on inflation and “somewhat more” than half a percent on GDP. (Inflation is running at 5.2%.) Employment should go up by half a percent too but Bean explains that this is not entirely clear at the moment. 10.24am: MP Stewart Hosie wants to know why the MPC waited to re-launch QE until now. King is saying the concern was about inflation but that these fears are now fading. King adds Wage inflation has remained subdued But he stresses The thing that really made the difference was the change in the outlook for Europe… Hosie is saying there were signs of the economy slowing before the European problems arose. King is again stressing the assessment that needed to be made about inflation. The international picture is highly relevant, said King, as the government is seeking an export-led recovery rather than one driven by domestic consumption. 10.21am: King says he is asked about inflation when he visits SMEs. He also has no doubt that there is a contraction of credit to SMEs. “What we have to do is to find ways to give incentives to existing banks (to lend),” said King. Setting up a bank would take too long – 18 months – to make a difference. Again he mentions the state-backed Lloyds and RBS. The government does of course own two of the biggest lenders in the country. He seems to be implying that the government should be putting more pressure on Lloyds and RBS to lend to SMEs but has not been asked the question directly (yet). 10.18am: King reckons the fall in bank lending would have been worse if the Bank of England had not been embarking on asset purchases. (Interestingly he is avoiding using the phrase QE, instead preferring the technical name of asset purchases.) King points out the state of the banking industry when the QE programme started. Banks had a leverage ratio of 40 to 1 and it now 20 to 1. King said I’d like it go lower The point is, though, that the reduction in the leverage ratio means that banks are likely to be withdrawing loans from the economy. 10.12am: King is stressing again that the bank has not withdrawn from buying commercial paper. King is now being asked how the bank actually buys gilts. He explains a series of auctions are announced, the size of the auction and the gilts that the Bank of England wants to buy. King says It will have an effect on the price on bonds. King is explaining that the Bank does not buy bonds with a maturity of less than three years. King said: The first one we own matures in 2013 It is at that point the Bank needs to decide whether to tighten monetary policy again. Good question about the Bank of England having to potentially sell off the £275bn of gilts it is expected to buy, at the same time the government is trying to issue new debt. King said. No doubt the consequence will be to push down the price of gilts and push interest rates to up. That is one of the consequences of reversing QE, said King. 10.06am: King said: SMEs are too small to find it easy or cost effective to issue large amounts of paper…If you want to help SMEs you need to look at the source from which they obtain financing and that’s the banks. King is now being asked by George Mudie about QE was used so much to buy gilts rather than corporate bonds. King is on the defensive. The issuance of corporate bonds and corporate equity in the period since we started has been at record levels so we have managed to achieve the objective which was to ensure the market was functioning properly. The bank spent £9bn on commercial paper, said King, who is insisting it is hard to spend more on commercial paper. The exchanges are becoming heated and King is adamant that he did not refuse to buy commercial paper. King is adamant The chancellor did not ask us to keep this going indefinitely King said the authorities cannot keep intervening in the commercial paper market. Tyrie steps in and wants to know if the bank will buy more commercial paper if the Treasury asks the Bank to do so. King just said The chancellor has made it very clear he does not believe this is the function of a central bank On whether the effects of more QE on inflation were expected to be small: “Nothing to do with being small. Any monetary policy easing is going to have the effect of expanding demand, output and ultimately inflation… We did it because we thought there were real risks looking ahead of inflation falling below target.” 10.01am: Norman wants to know why there wasn’t more buying of corporate bonds. He wants to know why the government is now doing credit easing – CE – to help small businesses instead. The detail of how CE will work is not yet known and King is making it clear that he does not think CE is a job for the Bank of England. King points out that companies which issue bonds – which might have been able to be swept up by QE – are large, with more than 10,000 employees at least. “It does seem to me that the bank is set up to avoid criticism,” said Norman. King says that is not the case. “What would you have suggest we have done?,” King retorts. Norman says there should have been papers put to government about SMES. “I did give good advice to this government and previous government,” said King. A big dig at Labour from King who he says decided not to use two bailed out banks – Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group – to bolster lending to SMEs. 9.57am: Jessie Norman now. The asset purchase facility has purchased £205bn of gilts, says King. Norman wants to know about buying corporate bonds, not gilts. King is giving minute details about buying corporate bonds but this is not been done anything on the scale of the purchase of gilts. Previously the Bank has said it has spent £200bn on gilts, so King may be revealing an extra £5bn has been bought as it begins its new phase of QE. 9.55am: King, though, is saying an overall limit on lending should not discriminate against “sectors”. “Having a limit on a the total amount of borrowing does not discriminate against sectors,” King said. Tyrie is asking for more information about what King means by his concerns about discriminating over sectors. What does he mean? When asked to provide information about this, he refuses. 9.50am: So first question is from Andrew Tryie, the chairman of the committee. How did the MPC end up with a majority vote for QE in the space of just a month? The governor says that the decision was very nearly taken in September. Now being asked about “macro prudential tools” which could be given to the Financial Policy Committee – set up inside the Bank of England to look after financial stability – to help take the heat out of financial markets. King says it is up to parliamentarians to decide what powers the FPC should have. One of the items the FPC has suggested is having a power to impose restrictions on loan-to-value of mortgages, for instance. Tyrie wants to know should the Bank have such power over mortgages. King reckons is there is no view yet. “We haven’t made a decision on that yet. We have been asked to give our views on the spring of next year”. This is relevant because King has argued there should not be discrimination against different sectors – yet macro prudential regulation could require this to happen. 9.48am: Andrew Sentance, a former member of the MPC, has posted 10 questions for the committee to ask on his blog 9.45am: Bank of England governor Sir Mervyn King is being questioned over the decision to relaunch quantitative easing by the cross-party Treasury Select Committee. The decision to pump £75bn of fresh electronic money into the economy at the start of October came as King warned that Britain was in the grip of the world’s worst-ever financial crisis. He and deputy governor Charlie Bean will answer questions over the merits of the move given inflation is way above target at 5.2%. Preamble Mervyn King Bank of England Jill Treanor Katie Allen guardian.co.uk
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Education secretary says government and backbenchers united in determination to wrest back powers from Brussels Michael Gove sought to play down the differences between the government and backbenchers after David Cameron suffered the largest postwar rebellion on Europe when 81 Conservative MPs supported a referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU. The education secretary insisted the policy differences between the government and rebels were exaggerated, and said the two sides were united in their determination to wrest back powers from Brussels. Nearly half Cameron’s backbenchers defied a three-line whip and voted in favour of a motion calling for a referendum on whether Britain should remain in the EU on the current terms, leave or renegotiate its membership. As a new opinion poll showed overwhelming support for a referendum , normally loyal backbenchers warned Downing Street that the prime minister would face further rebellions unless he takes a tough stance in EU treaty negotiations. A total of 79 Conservative MPs voted in favour of an EU referendum, while a further two were tellers for the rebels, bringing the total to 81. A further 15 abstained, meaning Cameron had failed to convince more than half his backbenchers to support the government. Downing Street attempted to reach out to the rebels, saying that it respected those who voted in favour of the referendum. Some Tories said Cameron had sanctioned an aggressive operation to persuade wavering MPs to support the government, but Gove told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme that attempts to persuade MPs to vote with the government had been cordial. He said those who decided to rebel were not disaffected Tories, but MPs who felt moved to vote “out of principle”. “Certainly there was a significant number of people who chose to take a different view [to the government], but I think that, while the numbers are significant, the difference in policy … isn’t that significant and it can be exaggerated. You have on the Conservative backbenches, and in the cabinet, colleagues and friends who want to change our relationship with the European Union. “The prime minister, not because it was wrung out of him but because he speaks from the heart, wants to refashion our relationship with the European Union. “There were a number of our colleagues who felt the motion last night provided a means to do so. I didn’t agree with them, but I respect the passion with which they put their case.” Gove admitted that MPs from the same party being divided in a vote was “less than perfect”, but said Britain’s relationship with the EU was an issue of the “deepest and most profound principle”. He said that if the government was ever in a position in which it was about to hand more powers from parliament to Brussels, a referendum would automatically be triggered. But he stressed that he was interested in the powers the government could take back from Brussels, saying the coalition agreement drawn up with the Liberal Democrats had a commitment to the “balance of competencies” between Britain and the EU. “I think we should take powers back over employment law. I think we should take powers back that affect our capacity to grow. There are some specific regulations which govern whom we can hire, how we can hire and how long they work, which actually hold us back,” he added. EU laws on employment safeguard a range of rights for workers, including a four-week annual holiday, maternity rights, parental leave and the working time directive. Asked when the government intended to claw back powers, he said: “I’d like to see that change in this parliament. “Things are changing rapidly, and the government needs to be ready to change, it needs to be ready to argue for its position.” Addressing the eurozone crisis, Gove said the government needed to ensure the problems “don’t touch us” and ensure money being spent to support eurozone countries does not come from the British taxpayer. Speaking in the Commons on Monday, Cameron said forthcoming treaty negotiations would give Britain an opportunity to further its national interest. But Mark Pritchard, one of the rebels and the secretary of the backbench 1922 committee, said that Europe as an issue would “not go away” despite the motion on a referendum being defeated in the Commons vote. Pritchard called for a “clear definition of what the coalition policy on Europe is”, telling Today: “I think that we need to have some beef on the policy – we need to have clarity. “Is it the case now, for example, that a fiscal union will not trigger a referendum under the European Union Act 2011, despite the fact that it will be a significant and fundamental change in our relationship with the European Union and with the eurozone?” David Nuttall, the Conservative MP for Bury North, who tabled the motion for a referendum vote, said Europe needed to realise that many people in the UK believe it has become too closely tied to the EU. He told Sky News: “I’m interested in trying to get a national referendum because I think that’s what the British people want. It would be one way of strengthening the prime minister’s arm in his negotiations with our European partners if he was able to go and say: ‘I have consulted the British people.’” David Davis, who faced Cameron in the final round of the 2005 Tory leadership contest, made it clear that the prime minister would have to give ground on Europe when he defended his decision to vote in favour of a referendum. The former shadow home secretary said: “We have been told this is the wrong time. This is the time when all the claims of Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel are to centralise the EU even more to create a fiscal union. “It will have an impact on Britain, as the prime minister has said. So this is absolutely the time to think about this. We should be protecting ourselves from the consequences of the eurozone.” EU referendum Michael Gove Conservatives Liberal-Conservative coalition David Cameron House of Commons Foreign policy European Union Hélène Mulholland guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Education secretary says government and backbenchers united in determination to wrest back powers from Brussels Michael Gove sought to play down the differences between the government and backbenchers after David Cameron suffered the largest postwar rebellion on Europe when 81 Conservative MPs supported a referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU. The education secretary insisted the policy differences between the government and rebels were exaggerated, and said the two sides were united in their determination to wrest back powers from Brussels. Nearly half Cameron’s backbenchers defied a three-line whip and voted in favour of a motion calling for a referendum on whether Britain should remain in the EU on the current terms, leave or renegotiate its membership. As a new opinion poll showed overwhelming support for a referendum , normally loyal backbenchers warned Downing Street that the prime minister would face further rebellions unless he takes a tough stance in EU treaty negotiations. A total of 79 Conservative MPs voted in favour of an EU referendum, while a further two were tellers for the rebels, bringing the total to 81. A further 15 abstained, meaning Cameron had failed to convince more than half his backbenchers to support the government. Downing Street attempted to reach out to the rebels, saying that it respected those who voted in favour of the referendum. Some Tories said Cameron had sanctioned an aggressive operation to persuade wavering MPs to support the government, but Gove told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme that attempts to persuade MPs to vote with the government had been cordial. He said those who decided to rebel were not disaffected Tories, but MPs who felt moved to vote “out of principle”. “Certainly there was a significant number of people who chose to take a different view [to the government], but I think that, while the numbers are significant, the difference in policy … isn’t that significant and it can be exaggerated. You have on the Conservative backbenches, and in the cabinet, colleagues and friends who want to change our relationship with the European Union. “The prime minister, not because it was wrung out of him but because he speaks from the heart, wants to refashion our relationship with the European Union. “There were a number of our colleagues who felt the motion last night provided a means to do so. I didn’t agree with them, but I respect the passion with which they put their case.” Gove admitted that MPs from the same party being divided in a vote was “less than perfect”, but said Britain’s relationship with the EU was an issue of the “deepest and most profound principle”. He said that if the government was ever in a position in which it was about to hand more powers from parliament to Brussels, a referendum would automatically be triggered. But he stressed that he was interested in the powers the government could take back from Brussels, saying the coalition agreement drawn up with the Liberal Democrats had a commitment to the “balance of competencies” between Britain and the EU. “I think we should take powers back over employment law. I think we should take powers back that affect our capacity to grow. There are some specific regulations which govern whom we can hire, how we can hire and how long they work, which actually hold us back,” he added. EU laws on employment safeguard a range of rights for workers, including a four-week annual holiday, maternity rights, parental leave and the working time directive. Asked when the government intended to claw back powers, he said: “I’d like to see that change in this parliament. “Things are changing rapidly, and the government needs to be ready to change, it needs to be ready to argue for its position.” Addressing the eurozone crisis, Gove said the government needed to ensure the problems “don’t touch us” and ensure money being spent to support eurozone countries does not come from the British taxpayer. Speaking in the Commons on Monday, Cameron said forthcoming treaty negotiations would give Britain an opportunity to further its national interest. But Mark Pritchard, one of the rebels and the secretary of the backbench 1922 committee, said that Europe as an issue would “not go away” despite the motion on a referendum being defeated in the Commons vote. Pritchard called for a “clear definition of what the coalition policy on Europe is”, telling Today: “I think that we need to have some beef on the policy – we need to have clarity. “Is it the case now, for example, that a fiscal union will not trigger a referendum under the European Union Act 2011, despite the fact that it will be a significant and fundamental change in our relationship with the European Union and with the eurozone?” David Nuttall, the Conservative MP for Bury North, who tabled the motion for a referendum vote, said Europe needed to realise that many people in the UK believe it has become too closely tied to the EU. He told Sky News: “I’m interested in trying to get a national referendum because I think that’s what the British people want. It would be one way of strengthening the prime minister’s arm in his negotiations with our European partners if he was able to go and say: ‘I have consulted the British people.’” David Davis, who faced Cameron in the final round of the 2005 Tory leadership contest, made it clear that the prime minister would have to give ground on Europe when he defended his decision to vote in favour of a referendum. The former shadow home secretary said: “We have been told this is the wrong time. This is the time when all the claims of Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel are to centralise the EU even more to create a fiscal union. “It will have an impact on Britain, as the prime minister has said. So this is absolutely the time to think about this. We should be protecting ourselves from the consequences of the eurozone.” EU referendum Michael Gove Conservatives Liberal-Conservative coalition David Cameron House of Commons Foreign policy European Union Hélène Mulholland guardian.co.uk
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• Third-quarter profits rise to $5.14bn, up from $1.8bn • Production down by 12% • Asset sales rise to $45bn BP boss Bob Dudley said on Tuesday that the embattled oil giant had reached a “definite turning point” following last year’s Gulf of Mexico disaster as he revealed a boost to third-quarter profits. BP reported profit of $5.14bn (£3.2bn) for the three months to September, compared with $1.8bn in the same period last year when BP was hit by heavy charges for cleaning up the Gulf spillage. BP said oil production over the quarter fell by 12% to 3.32m barrels due to the suspension of production in the Gulf, though BP expects production to be higher in the current quarter. Dudley has been under pressure following the collapse of a deal with Russian group Rosneft to explore in the Arctic region, but today unveiled an increase in the company’s asset sale programme from $30bn to $45bn . Dudley said he expected BP’s cashflow to grow by around 50% by 2014 – meaning greater returns for shareholders. The American, brought in to replace Tony Hayward in the wake of the crisis , said the extra cash would enable it to double its spending on new exploration and to increase its investment in its deep water operations, its giant fields and building its gas operations. The group’s payments into the Gulf of Mexico Trust Fund will end in 2012 and will provide half of the increase in cashflow, he added, while 17 new projects are due to come on stream over the next three years. The group has restarted operations in the Gulf and last week received approval for an exploration plan for the Kaskida field in the region. The cashflow forecast assumes oil prices of $100 per barrel, compared with an average of $112 so far this year, though lower production and higher maintenance activity and costs offset the benefit of higher prices in the latest quarter. For the nine months to September, BP posted profits of $15.9bn. “The company has steadied, turned round and now, this month, with high-margin assets returning on stream, we have reached a clear turning point,” Dudley said. He added that BP had lived up to its commitments in the Gulf and was putting “safety and risk management at the absolute heart of our business”. Shares rose 3% after the update. BP Oil Oil and gas companies Energy industry BP oil spill guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …• Third-quarter profits rise to $5.14bn, up from $1.8bn • Production down by 12% • Asset sales rise to $45bn BP boss Bob Dudley said on Tuesday that the embattled oil giant had reached a “definite turning point” following last year’s Gulf of Mexico disaster as he revealed a boost to third-quarter profits. BP reported profit of $5.14bn (£3.2bn) for the three months to September, compared with $1.8bn in the same period last year when BP was hit by heavy charges for cleaning up the Gulf spillage. BP said oil production over the quarter fell by 12% to 3.32m barrels due to the suspension of production in the Gulf, though BP expects production to be higher in the current quarter. Dudley has been under pressure following the collapse of a deal with Russian group Rosneft to explore in the Arctic region, but today unveiled an increase in the company’s asset sale programme from $30bn to $45bn . Dudley said he expected BP’s cashflow to grow by around 50% by 2014 – meaning greater returns for shareholders. The American, brought in to replace Tony Hayward in the wake of the crisis , said the extra cash would enable it to double its spending on new exploration and to increase its investment in its deep water operations, its giant fields and building its gas operations. The group’s payments into the Gulf of Mexico Trust Fund will end in 2012 and will provide half of the increase in cashflow, he added, while 17 new projects are due to come on stream over the next three years. The group has restarted operations in the Gulf and last week received approval for an exploration plan for the Kaskida field in the region. The cashflow forecast assumes oil prices of $100 per barrel, compared with an average of $112 so far this year, though lower production and higher maintenance activity and costs offset the benefit of higher prices in the latest quarter. For the nine months to September, BP posted profits of $15.9bn. “The company has steadied, turned round and now, this month, with high-margin assets returning on stream, we have reached a clear turning point,” Dudley said. He added that BP had lived up to its commitments in the Gulf and was putting “safety and risk management at the absolute heart of our business”. Shares rose 3% after the update. BP Oil Oil and gas companies Energy industry BP oil spill guardian.co.uk
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Libyan dictator buried at dawn after corpse’s decay forced government to withdraw it from public display, al-Jazeera reports The Libyan government buried Muammar Gaddafi in an unknown location at dawn on Tuesday, al-Jazeera television reported, citing a source in the ruling National Transitional Council (NTC). Officials from the interim government had said earlier that the ousted Libyan leader would be buried in a secret desert grave, ending a wrangle over his rotting corpse that led many to fear for the country’s governability. Government forces had put the body on show in a cold store in Misrata while they argued over what to do with it, until its decay forced them to end the display on Monday. The killing of the 69-year-old in his hometown of Sirte brought to a close eight months of war, finally ending a nervous two-month hiatus since anti-Gaddafi fighters overran the capital, Tripoli. But it also threatened to lay bare the regional and tribal rivalries that present the NTC with its biggest challenge. NTC officials had said negotiations were going on with Gaddafi’s tribal kinsmen from Sirte and within the interim leadership over where and how to dispose of bodies – Gaddafi’s son Mutassim was also on display in Misrata – and over what rebel leaders in possession of corpses might receive in return for co-operation. “No agreement was reached for his tribe to take him,” an NTC official told Reuters. With the decay of the body forcing the NTC leadership’s hand, it appeared to have decided that an anonymous grave would at least ensure the plot did not become a shrine. An NTC official told Reuters several days ago that there would be only four witnesses to the burial, and all would swear on the Qur’an never to reveal the location. NTC fears that Gaddafi’s sons might mount an insurgency have largely been allayed by the death of two of those who wielded the most power, military commander Khamis and Mutassim, the former national security adviser. Mutassim was captured along with his father in Sirte and killed in similarly unclear circumstances. The NTC official said he would be buried in the same ceremony on Tuesday. Khamis was killed in fighting earlier in the civil war. But the official said Gaddafi’s long-time heir apparent Saif al-Islam was in the remote southern desert and set to flee Libya, with the NTC powerless to stop him. “He’s on the triangle of Niger and Algeria. He’s south of Ghat, the Ghat area. He was given a false Libyan passport from the area of Murzuq,” the official added. He said Muammar Gaddafi’s former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi who, like Saif al-Islam, is wanted by the international criminal court, was involved. “The region is very, very difficult to monitor and encircle,” he said. “The region is a desert region and it has … many, many exit routes.” The death of the fallen dictator allowed the NTC to spark mass rejoicing by declaring Libya’s long-awaited “liberation” on Sunday in Benghazi, the seat of the revolt. But it also highlighted a lack of central control over disparate armed groups, and jockeying for power among local commanders as negotiations begin in earnest to form an interim government that can run free elections. Muammar Gaddafi Libya Arab and Middle East unrest Middle East Africa guardian.co.uk
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Libyan dictator buried at dawn after corpse’s decay forced government to withdraw it from public display, al-Jazeera reports The Libyan government buried Muammar Gaddafi in an unknown location at dawn on Tuesday, al-Jazeera television reported, citing a source in the ruling National Transitional Council (NTC). Officials from the interim government had said earlier that the ousted Libyan leader would be buried in a secret desert grave, ending a wrangle over his rotting corpse that led many to fear for the country’s governability. Government forces had put the body on show in a cold store in Misrata while they argued over what to do with it, until its decay forced them to end the display on Monday. The killing of the 69-year-old in his hometown of Sirte brought to a close eight months of war, finally ending a nervous two-month hiatus since anti-Gaddafi fighters overran the capital, Tripoli. But it also threatened to lay bare the regional and tribal rivalries that present the NTC with its biggest challenge. NTC officials had said negotiations were going on with Gaddafi’s tribal kinsmen from Sirte and within the interim leadership over where and how to dispose of bodies – Gaddafi’s son Mutassim was also on display in Misrata – and over what rebel leaders in possession of corpses might receive in return for co-operation. “No agreement was reached for his tribe to take him,” an NTC official told Reuters. With the decay of the body forcing the NTC leadership’s hand, it appeared to have decided that an anonymous grave would at least ensure the plot did not become a shrine. An NTC official told Reuters several days ago that there would be only four witnesses to the burial, and all would swear on the Qur’an never to reveal the location. NTC fears that Gaddafi’s sons might mount an insurgency have largely been allayed by the death of two of those who wielded the most power, military commander Khamis and Mutassim, the former national security adviser. Mutassim was captured along with his father in Sirte and killed in similarly unclear circumstances. The NTC official said he would be buried in the same ceremony on Tuesday. Khamis was killed in fighting earlier in the civil war. But the official said Gaddafi’s long-time heir apparent Saif al-Islam was in the remote southern desert and set to flee Libya, with the NTC powerless to stop him. “He’s on the triangle of Niger and Algeria. He’s south of Ghat, the Ghat area. He was given a false Libyan passport from the area of Murzuq,” the official added. He said Muammar Gaddafi’s former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi who, like Saif al-Islam, is wanted by the international criminal court, was involved. “The region is very, very difficult to monitor and encircle,” he said. “The region is a desert region and it has … many, many exit routes.” The death of the fallen dictator allowed the NTC to spark mass rejoicing by declaring Libya’s long-awaited “liberation” on Sunday in Benghazi, the seat of the revolt. But it also highlighted a lack of central control over disparate armed groups, and jockeying for power among local commanders as negotiations begin in earnest to form an interim government that can run free elections. Muammar Gaddafi Libya Arab and Middle East unrest Middle East Africa guardian.co.uk
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