Minister flies to Brazil to recruit fee-paying foreign students in a ‘desperate’ ploy to balance the university funding books Ministers have been accused of seeking to plug a black hole in university funding by arranging for 10,000 fee-paying Brazilians to study in the UK. David Willetts, the universities minister, flew to South America last month to arrange a deal that he hopes will be highly lucrative at a time of cuts to state funding for higher education. The Brazilian government is planning to provide up to £18,700 a student. Universities UK, the representative body for universities in this country, said it welcomed the plan, which promised “rich rewards”. The development follows a £200m cut by the coalition government to state funding for higher education, which will mean 24,000 fewer places for UK and EU students, including teacher training allotments, over the next two academic years. Figures published last week also suggested that 220,000 UK and EU students would be unable to attain places this autumn following a 1.4% year-on-year increase in demand for university places as of the end of June. While the Brazilians will not take places otherwise available to British and EU students, concerns were raised last night that the government’s funding model for higher education is becoming increasingly reliant on attracting overseas nationals who, if they had been born in the UK, might have struggled to attain a place at a university in this country. Brazil does not have a single institution in the Times Higher Education Supplement list of the world’s 200 top universities. Willetts’s mission also appears to fly in the face of a vow by the home secretary, Theresa May, earlier this year to bring in regulations that would result in 85,000 fewer non-EU nationals coming to the UK to study each year as part of plans to curb immigration. Sally Hunt, general secretary of the University and College Union, said: “UK higher education benefits massively from having staff and students from across the world. However, the government must not use overseas students as cash cows, and as a way of bailing out its flawed university funding plans. “With hundreds of thousands of domestic students set to miss out on a university place this summer, ministers shouldn’t be looking to ration access on the basis of who can pay the most. “If the UK wants to remain competitive in the global knowledge economy, we should be following the example of competitor nations and expanding student capacity for both home and overseas students.” The shadow universities minister, Gareth Thomas, said Willetts’s trip to Brazil was a “desperate” move. He added: “I am all for increasing exports, but with the government having cut teaching funding by 80% and funding for world-class facilities by 40%, this looks like a desperate attempt to help universities balance their books. “With David Cameron and David Willetts having axed almost 24,000 domestic student places, many English families who see loved ones turned away from university this summer will wonder if the government has got its priorities right.” Usman Ali, vice-president for higher education at the National Union of Students, said: “Instead of spending his time touting for a Brazilian bailout to the student funding chaos he created, David Willetts should reverse the cut he imposed to domestic student numbers that risks leaving many without a place this summer.” The deal was discussed at a roundtable meeting in Brazil attended by Willetts, Brazilian ministers, and 13 British university vice-chancellors, including those from Birmingham, Warwick and Nottingham. The details have yet to be finalised, but it is expected that the Brazilian undergraduates would stay in the UK for nine months, although the British government is also exploring the possibility of offering postgraduate courses. Non-EU students pay fees of up to £26,000 a year and are not counted within the allotment that each university is allowed to take on each year. It is estimated that the numbers of overseas students being educated in the UK could double in four years as universities seek sources of revenue amid a squeeze on central government funding. Durham University is expecting a 97% rise in the number of international students between now and 2014-15, and Exeter anticipates a 73% rise across four of its colleges. Figures show that the number of British students gaining places on degree courses starting last autumn fell by 0.1%, from 425,063 to 424,634. But the number of non-EU students rose by 7.8%, from 32,984 to 37,088. There was a 27.8% increase in students from China and a 20.4% rise in students from Singapore, although the improvement of higher education in both of these countries could see a future fall in numbers. A government spokesman said that talks over the Brazilian deal were at an early stage. A statement from Universities UK – whose chief executive, Steve Smith, joined Willetts in Brazil – said: “The scholarships are for a period of under one year and will not mean fewer places for UK students. “A successful scholarship programme will bring clear benefits to the UK and Brazilian HE sectors and their wider economies, contributing to the knowledge base in both countries, encouraging collaboration in world-class research and facilitating staff and student exchange.” University funding David Willetts Higher education Brazil Daniel Boffey guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Jose Vargas joins fight for immigration reform after he admits: I am an illegal alien
July 9, 2011 No Comment
Pulitzer Prize winner sets up lobby group Define American A Pulitzer prize-winning US journalist who caused a sensation in America by revealing he was an illegal immigrant is now openly campaigning for immigration reform in the United States. Jose Vargas recently stunned the worlds of American politics and journalism by writing a lengthy confessional piece, revealing that he had been unwittingly smuggled into the country as a young boy from the Philippines. He went on to forge an illustrious reporting career at some of the country’s best known publications and has now set up a campaigning group to press for immigration reform. The development turns Vargas from journalist into advocate and plunges him into one of the most contentious debates in American politics. There are an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the US. In recent months several states have passed strict anti-illegal immigrant laws that some activist groups say amount to racial profiling. Advocates of a crackdown, however, say illegal immigrants have played the legal system and taken away American jobs. Vargas has now set up an organisation called Define American that aims to lobby for reform and fight prejudice about who makes up America’s huge population of illegal aliens. In a video on the group’s website, Vargas tells how he discovered his papers were fake when he was 16 and went on to lead a secret life as someone who had no legal right to live in the US, but was a very successful professional. “I pay taxes. I am self-sufficient. I am an American. I just don’t have the right papers. I take full responsibility for my actions and I am sorry for the laws that I broke,” he says on the video. Campaigners have welcomed Vargas’s stance. “Jose is just one of many people who were brought here as children and who now want to legalise their status. He puts a face on a story and counters some of the ugly arguments made by anti-immigrant groups,” said Tyler Moran, policy director of the National Immigration Law Centre. Campaigning groups are currently focused on the so-called Dream Act, a piece of legislation aimed at allowing students who graduate from high school in the US but who arrived illegally as children to be granted permanent residency rights. At the moment there are numerous cases of such teenagers facing deportation orders. “These are often model students in our schools,” said Moran. However, the legislation is currently held up in Congress and unlikely to pass due to trenchant Republican opposition. Many Republican politicians, motivated by a largely anti-illegal immigrant base, have moved to the right on the issue in recent months as the presidential election looms next year. Moran said there was little chance the Dream Act would pass before then. “It is impossible to do almost anything in Congress right now,” she said. US immigration New York Newspapers Paul Harris guardian.co.uk
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Click here to view this media Fox obviously can’t talk about their Uncle Rupert’s huge scandal over in the U.K., but — par for the course — they’re more than happy to spend lots of fact-free segments attacking the Obama administration for the dismal job-creation numbers. Cavuto’s fill-in Chris Cotter brought on gold trader and CEO of Swiss America, Craig Smith, who also co-authored a book with World Net Daily’s Jerome Corsi, and wrote a column back in August of 2008 calling Barack Obama “our first hip-hop president.” Media Matters has more on that here . So who better to come on Fox and regurgitate one Republican talking point after another to mislead their viewers on what’s really causing the problems with our economy? The debt limit isn’t real, the stimulus didn’t work, government “needs to get out of the way” of the private sector, Obama said something mean about big business and if he just treated them more nicely it would give them the “confidence” to create more jobs. Yadda yadda yadda. He also pretended that it would be acceptable to partially default on our debt. And this is what gets repeated all over Fox, day after day, hour after hour. And in the meantime, the kabuki theater game of chicken on raising the debt ceiling continues. There are real substantive issues to talk about with how our economy has been handled and what’s really needed to get people back to work. You’re not going to hear any of them on Fox.
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Much-loved and ‘courageous’ former first lady whose openness about her cancer and addictions brought hope to millions Tributes have been pouring in for the former US first lady Betty Ford – perhaps best known around the world for her work treating addiction – who has died aged
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Astronomers shocked by House of Representatives’ move to scrap deep-space observatory after costs soar to $6.5bn Nasa is fighting to save its next-generation space observatory, the James Webb Space Telescope. Politicians want to end the project – one of the most complex ever conceived by space engineers – even though billions of dollars have already been spent on its construction. Scheduled for launch in 2016, the James Webb, intended to replace the ageing Hubble Space Telescope, would orbit in deep space, a million miles from Earth, and peer into the dawn of the universe. Its observations would answer major questions about the structure of the cosmos, say astronomers. The cost of the observatory has soared from an initial estimate of $1.6bn (£996m) to more than $6.5bn (£4bn). As a result, budgets for other astronomical research projects have been slashed, leading the journal Nature to describe the James Webb as “the telescope that ate astronomy”. Last week the US House of Representatives’ appropriations committee on commerce, justice, and science decided that it had had enough of these escalating costs and moved to cancel the project by stripping $1.9bn from Nasa’s budget for next year. A terse statement, released by the Republican-dominated committee, said that the project “is billions of dollars over budget and plagued by poor management”. The decision still has to be approved by the full appropriations committee, the House and the Senate. Nevertheless, analysts say the telescope now faces a struggle to survive. Not surprisingly, the move to scrap the telescope, which has been under construction since 2004 and is named after a former Nasa administrator, has horrified astronomers. The James Webb was intended to be the centrepiece of astronomical research for the next two decades. Its segmented mirror would be almost three times the diameter of the Hubble telescope’s, and because it would orbit outside Earth’s atmosphere it would be able to make observations of unprecedented accuracy. This would allow it to capture images from a time when the first stars and galaxies lit up the universe. Tod Lauer, of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Tucson, said: “[Cancellation] would be an unmitigated disaster for cosmology. After two decades of pushing the Hubble to its limits, which has revolutionised astronomy, the next step would be to pack up and give up. The Hubble is just good enough to see what we’re missing at the start of time.” The James Webb would be able to fill in those gaps, he added. The problem for engineers working on the telescope has been the complexity of its design. It will primarily gather infra-red radiation because most objects that interest astronomers emit light at these wavelengths. But this is a tricky process. The telescope must be cooled so that its own heat does not interfere with incoming infrared light. Similarly, it must be shielded from radiation from the Earth and the Sun, and so placed in deep space far beyond the point where it can be reached by astronauts. Axing the project would have an impact beyond the US, however. Many other countries have committed large amounts of time and money to building components for the telescope. One example is the Mid-Infrared Instrument (Miri), which would analyse light gathered by planets forming from dust clouds around stars. This is a joint US-European project which has two project leaders, one British and one American. Sarah Kendrew, a member of the Miri team, said she had been working on the project for four years. “We should be ready to ship the instrument to Nasa by the end of the year,” she said. “All we can do is finish the job, I suppose, and give as much support as we can to our colleagues over there.” Space Hubble space telescope US economy United States Robin McKie guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Sharron Angle and Sean Hannity have a big bowl of sour grapes over her 2010 election loss to Harry Reid
July 9, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media Sharron Angle went on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show last night to promote her new book, ostensibly, but really, it was mostly a long session kvetching about Angle’s loss to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid: HANNITY: You lost a tough election. That was, for me, one of the harder ones. I wanted him beaten so bad. ANGLE: Everybody did. You know, I had a 7-year-old boy say to me, I’m so sorry you lost. And I have lots of people coming up. And all I can say is, I’m sorry too. But life isn’t about winning or losing, it is about doing the right thing and doing your very best. And I think, that’s what we just have to continue to do as people who want to get back to the Constitution. We can’t give up, we can’t quit. We’ve got to keep in the game even if we lose one. HANNITY: Let’s talk about, did Harry Reid steal this election? Do you think he stole votes in this election? ANGLE: Well, in my book, the “Right Angle,” I do discuss that a bit. And you may know this, we have a lawsuit after Department of Justice. HANNITY: About ACORN and the SEIU? ANGLE: It’s actually about Harrah’s casino and the SEIU and their involvement and what we feel was not legitimate election conduct. Of course, Angle was making these claims even before the election, and they were every bit as groundless then, though of course you’ll never learn that while watching Hannity. Neither, for that matter, will you hear any mention of the real reasons Angle lost, beyond her utter nutbaggery — the primary one being that Republicans tried a stop-the-Latino vote campaign that horribly backfired, along with Angle’s obscene demonizing of Latinos in her campaign , followed by her hilarious flip-flopping on the subject . Result: Some 90 percent of Latino voters backed Reid, and he won going away.
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• England 1-1 France after extra-time • France win 4-3 on penalties England. World Cup. Penalties. Cruelty. Hope Powell’s side joined the long list to have suffered in Leverkusen, after Faye White missed the final spot-kick of a topsy-turvy shoot-out and France, not England, took their place in the final four. Yet again, the exit comes at the quarter-finals after being denied by an equaliser two minutes from the end of 90, hobbling, hopping and limping their way through extra-time with extraordinarily gutsy determination, taking the lead on spot-kicks before being denied at the last. With England essentially reduced to 10 players during extra-time, their substitutions used up and the injured Kelly Smith barely able to walk, the added 30 minutes was reduced to a training game. France attacked, England defended, desperately, but somehow survived to take the game into a penalty shoot-out. Then the story becomes all-too familiar. Karen Bardsley, herself struggling with a shoulder injury, saved Camile Abily’s opening penalty for France but could not get close to another. Claire Rafferty, a late substitute making her World Cup debut, skewed wide England’s fourth. Faye White, the captain in what will surely be her final World Cup game, hammered the last on to the bar before crumpling to the turf. Powell opted for Faye White’s experience over Sophie Bradley’s pace in the centre of defence, Fara Williams’s passing over Anita Asante’s defensive strength in midfield and Rachel Yankey’s nous over Jess Clarke’s youthful exuberance out wide. France reverted to the side that hammered Canada 4-0, making five changes to the team beaten 4-2 by Germany in their final group game. England’s tournament had been something of a slow burner. A deflating opening draw against Mexico in the withering heat of Wolfsburg was followed up with a lacklustre first half against New Zealand. A goal down at half-time, Faye White admitted the side had “45 minutes to save their World Cup”, and a second-half fightback put their group destiny back in their own hands. A tactically pitch-perfect 2-0 win against Japan followed and the sense was that momentum was gathering. That impression was reinforced after only 16 seconds, when Karen Carney’s curling through-ball put Smith beyond the France backline. The England midfielder skipped past the goalkeeper, Céline Deville, but was forced wide in doing so, and her attempt at goal was blocked by the retreating defender Laura Georges. France, joint leading scorers in the group stages alongside two of the big three – Germany and Brazil – with seven goals in three matches, signalled their threat early on too, Abily sending a dipping shot from distance narrowly over the bar, and 12 minutes in, it took a fine Jill Scott challenge on the edge of the England area to deny Gaëtane Thiney. Bussaglia was assigned a marking brief on Kelly Smith in an attempt to throttle England’s creativity at source, but at times in the opening quarter, Powell’s side were their own worst enemy. Possession was too often conceded in dangerous areas, attacks too often breaking down without France having to earn the ball. Bardsley was forced to pull off an excellent save midway through the half, when the impressive Thiney thumped an effort at goal from long range, and Faye White did well to deflect Marie-Laurie Delie’s effort wide just before the half-hour. From the resultant corner, Louisa Nécib, France’s star of the tournament thus far, picked up the loose ball and sent a shot whistling a whisker wide of the top corner. By the interval, France had had nine shots at goal to England’s solitary early effort, and the break did not derail Les Bleues ‘ momentum. Within three minutes of the restart, it took a fine challenge from Alex Scott to deny Delie, and the France striker seconds later skewed wide the best chance of the game. England finally mustered their second effort at goal 10 minutes into the second half and it came after Powell’s side had put together comfortably their most cohesive move of the game. Williams swept the ball wide to Yankey, her pass to Unitt was swirled into the box by the left-back and Jill Scott steered her header narrowly wide. tThree minutes later, England had a lead they barely deserved. Smith, after a hint of handball, shrugged off Georges and slipped in Jill Scott, who lofted her shot over the stranded Deville. France bristled and were almost back on level terms seven minutes later. Nécib’s effort at goal from 35 yards looked optimistic and it should have been handled with little fuss. Bardsley, though, almost allowed the free-kick to squeeze between her legs. France poured forward in search of an equaliser and the substitute Thomis forced Bardsley into another fine save. Unitt’s clearance ended a nerve-shredding scramble. Powell’s substitutions throughout the tournament have been astute and impacting but she took a gamble 10 minutes from time, bringing Steph Houghton and Rafferty from the bench for their World Cup debuts in place of both full-backs. The pressure was unrelenting, though. Bardsley somehow deflected away Thomis’s close-range effort after 85 minutes, Laure LePailleur’s goalbound header was spectacularly cleared off the line by Ellen White after 86, but after 87, France finally found a way through, Bussaglia curling home from the edge of the area. Women’s World Cup 2011 England women’s football team Women’s football John Ashdown guardian.co.uk
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Labour leader to test the strength of the coalition with Commons motion aimed at stopping buyout in its tracks Rupert Murdoch’s ambition to expand his media empire still further could be killed off by MPs this week after Labour announced plans for a Commons vote to thwart his bid for BSkyB. The move comes amid a mood of continuing public uproar over the phone-hacking scandal, which is now threatening to destabilise David Cameron’s government. The vote will present the coalition with a major test of unity as the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, seeks cross-party support for a motion in parliament which would halt progress on the takeover until the criminal investigation into the News of the World is completed. With many Liberal Democrats and Tory MPs deeply uneasy about Murdoch gaining an even bigger slice of the UK media market – and still incensed by the behaviour of News Corp executives – Labour is optimistic it can mobilise enough support to achieve a majority. Miliband will appear on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show on Sunday to announce his plan and to begin his push for support across all the major parties. He will lay the motion tomorrow and the debate and vote will be on Wednesday. If he is successful, the Labour move will drive a wedge between the coalition parties and leave Murdoch’s takeover ambition in tatters – because the police inquiry could take several years. The parliamentary debate will also give David Cameron another major headache, following the arrest on Friday of his former director of communications, Andy Coulson, who is a former editor of the News of the World . Cameron has so far refused to intervene to block the takeover. On Friday, Cameron told a press conference: “People are also asking about the prospective BSkyB bid. As I have repeatedly said, governments must follow the proper legal processes and procedures. “That is exactly what Jeremy Hunt, the culture secretary, is doing. His role is to take the advice of independent regulators and, as his department have made clear this morning – given the events of recent days – this will take some time.” On SaturdayCameron was facing growing demands to take a tougher line and tell the News Corporation chairman that the bid must be withdrawn as it would only stoke the mood of public disgust at the phone-hacking scandal. Paddy Ashdown, the former Liberal Democrat leader, told the Observer: “The public will be outraged and bewildered and trust in our politics will take yet another knock if this takeover goes ahead after what has happened. “I think Jeremy Hunt or better still David Cameron should call in Rupert Murdoch and say that this bid is no longer welcome.” Hunt has said only that he is delaying until September his verdict on whether to allow News Corporation to proceed in its bid to take full control of BSkyB, on the basis that there had been a deluge of last-minute submissions on the deal last week. However, the government insists that it would be unlawful to kill the deal on the basis of the latest furore, and that it must make the judgment on whether the deal would maintain media plurality. The fallout from the scandal is now threatening to destabilise the coalition with many Liberal Democrats determined not to be associated with a government that appears unwilling to take on Murdoch. Labour sources said that initial soundings suggested there would be strong support for the motion among Liberal Democrat and Tory MPs, as well as peers of both parties. A Liberal Democrat source said: “The party is not happy about this deal and they would welcome the chance to act.” News Corporation is in the process of trying to buy the 61% of the satellite broadcaster that it does not already own. Before the phone-hacking scandal erupted again last week, the deal had looked on course to be approved by Hunt within weeks. But in recent days there have been calls for the media regulator Ofcom to investigate whether News Corporation is a “fit and proper” owner for BSkyB. BSkyB shares closed down 12% last week in London, but News Corp shares in New York had barely changed. On Saturday Downing Street said the public inquiry into criminality at the News of the World and other newspapers would start as soon as was practical, while ensuring it did not prejudice the police investigations. It will be led by a judge and have the power to call witnesses who would give their evidence under oath and in public. The second public inquiry will seek a new framework for the regulation of the press and will be led by a panel of figures from different backgrounds. Sir Menzies Campbell, another former Liberal Democrat leader, said it would technically be possible for Cameron or Hunt to refuse the takeover “out of hand”, thereby putting the onus on Murdoch to go for a judicial review – a move he believed would further enrage the public. However, he said there were other legal avenues that could be explored because the decision to proceed this far had been based on undertakings given by people who might no longer be judged as reliable. Lord Oakeshott, a Liberal Democrat peer who is close to business secretary Vince Cable, has released the text of a letter to Ofcom’s director, Ed Richards. In it he asked if “Ofcom is satisfied that the board of BSkyB are all now fit and proper to hold a broadcasting licence, in the light of this week’s admissions of management failings by its chairman and representative of its controlling shareholder, James Murdoch, and a mountain of evidence pointing to negligence at best and criminality at worst by the senior management of News International?” Baroness Shirley Williams, a Liberal Democrat, said she was in “no doubt whatsoever that the bid should be put on the back-burner” until the police inquiry was complete. BSkyB Ed Miliband Phone hacking News of the World Labour Newspapers & magazines National newspapers Rupert Murdoch James Murdoch House of Commons Newspapers News Corporation Liberal-Conservative coalition Toby Helm Daniel Boffey guardian.co.uk
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Click here to view this media When the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded on April 20, 2010, 11 men died . Now, the man that was in charge of that disaster can’t seem to recall their names. In a deposition recorded June 8, 2011, former BP CEO Tony Hayward named one man correctly (Karl Kleppinger) and got two others wrong. He admitted that he couldn’t remember the rest at all. “Do you remember any of the names of the individuals who lost their lives?” plaintiff attorney Robert Cunninham asked Hayward. “I remember some of them: James Anderson, Gordon Clark, Karl Kleppinger, I think,” the former CEO replied. “I can’t remember all of them.” Judge Sally Shushan ordered Rupert Murdoch’s The Daily to take down the leaked video but the publication has refused.
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• Email scott.murray@guardian.co.uk with your thoughts • Full coverage of the World Cup is here 17 min: Deville has been a bit shaky so far, but here she handles a Carney cross from the left brilliantly, with Ellen White and Yankey lurking in the middle. 14 min: France are enjoying the lion’s share of possession here. Abily is seeing a lot of the ball; she swings a deep cross into the area that’s only just over the head of Thiney. It’s an open game, this, though it’s yet to take off. Incidents, please! 11 min: England’s first serious jaunt upfield since the first 15 seconds results in a corner down the left, after good work from Kelly Smith. The ball’s hung above Deville’s six-yard box, the keeper flapping hopelessly under pressure from Smith and Faye White, but the referee’s convinced she’s been blocked off, and the danger’s over. 8 min: France are turning up the heat a wee bit here. Lepailleur and Abily combine down the right to win a corner. But the set piece is hoicked straight out of play on the far side. “The odd thing about the Lyon connection is that France have left their best goalkeeper and Lyon No1 Sara Bouhaddi, at home,” notes Curtis in Minnesota, the only MBM contributor in Guardian history to sound like they could have been released on the Stax label in the late 1960s. 5 min: Williams is booked for a ludicrous late lunge on Thiney. She protests her innocence, but it’s a no-brainer for the referee. 3 min: After a shaky start, France get their foot on the ball, and stroke it around the middle awhile. Suddenly Abily cuts inside from the right, and lashes an optimistic effort goalwards from 35 yards. Some respect, please! Having said that, it nearly hits the target, only just clearing the bar, but it’s right in the middle of the goal and Bardsley is behind it all the way. 1 min: The corner’s wasted. “Recalling White might make for an entertaining game,” suggests Sören Kaschke. “I seem to remember the player with the captain’s band (must have been White) almost begging the referee in the first two games to award the opponent a penalty; unsuccessfully, but I wouldn’t count on the refs, especially after the flak they seemed to have got after some less than convincing displays in the group stage, to constantly turn a blind eye to White’s peculiar understanding of acceptable behaviour for defending in your own area.” We’re off… and what a start! Within 15 seconds, Kelly Smith rounds keeper Deville on the edge of the area, having been sent clear from a sleeping French defence by Carney, and strokes the ball goalwards. The effort’s on target, but there’s no oomph behind the shot, and Georges sticks a foot out to deflect away for a corner. Blimey. Pennants are exchanged. The one Faye White receives from her counterpart Sandrine Soubeyrand is massive . It’s like a bedspread. France win the toss, and elect to stay kicking away from the boxed monstrosity at the south end of the stadium, perhaps because they can’t bear to look at it. England will kick off. The teams are out: France are listening to their lovely anthem. It is beautiful. Best not to mention the English one, there’s no point being needlessly negative. “Lyon have ten players in the full squad, but also six in the starting lineup,” notes a slightly concerned, or possibly not, who knows, Phillipa Booth. “The goalkeeper Deville has just transferred there from Montpellier. The whole squad is made up of only four teams: the others are Montpellier, PSG and Juvisy. These are the top four in the league last season.” Referee: Jenny Palmqvist (Sweden) England Ladies (note the recalled Faye White, Bradley dropping down to the bench): Bardsley, Alex Scott, Stoney, Faye White, Unitt, Carney, Jill Scott, Williams, Yankey, Smith, Ellen White. Subs: Brown, Chamberlain, Clarke, Aluko, Bradley, Houghton, Bassett, Asante, Susi, Rafferty. France Ladies: Deville, Viguier, Georges, Lepailleur, Soubeyrand, Bompastor, Abily, Necib, Bussaglia, Thiney, Delie. Subs: Philippe, Renard, Boulleau, Meilleroux, Franco, Le Sommer, Thomis, Pizzala, Bretigny. Kick-off: 5pm in the British money. The venue: Bayer Leverkusen’s BayArena. As for France? Their squad boasts ten players from Lyon, who won the Women’s Champions League this year. Ulp. Midfielder Camile Abily is their main draw, though Louisa Necib, causing all sorts of bother just behind the strikers, has been the one to watch so far. “They’re a very good side technically and difficult to play against, and after the 2007 World Cup they’ll want revenge,” says midfielder Fara Williams. It is ON! France are up first, though. England denied the French a trip to the 2007 World Cup in a qualifying play-off, for all that means. They’re coming into form after a shaky start against Mexico: following that draw, they came from behind to beat New Zealand, and were excellent in the win over Japan. Midfielder Jill Scott and striker Ellen White have been the stars of the show, while keeper Karen Bardsley, criticised for conceding from distance against Mexico, reasserted her quality with a storming display against the Japanese. Powell has one huge problem, though: recall captain Faye White, rested against Japan, or retain her replacement, the quicker and more mobile Sophie Bradley, who was superb in that match. Anyway, so here we are, ahead of arguably England’s biggest game in their history. Would a first-ever semi-final berth in the World Cup be a bigger deal than reaching the final of the Euros in 2009? It’s a moot point, but consider: if Hope Powell’s side make the Mönchengladbach semi against either Brazil or the USA – two of the sport’s powerhouses – expect World Cup fever to sweep the nation next week. You wait and see. Hats off to the BBC, then, for finally seeing sense and putting the big game on proper telly, in place of 1970s sitcom Porridge and absurd time-frittering antique show Flog It. That they even had to think about it, though. Dear God. Eleven years into the new millennium and all. Women’s World Cup 2011 Women’s football Scott Murray guardian.co.uk
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