The remains of the man, who was reported missing in 2009, were found by members of the public in the Highlands The remains of a man who went missing from London two years ago have been found on a Scottish mountain, police have said. Members of the public made the discovery on Sron Mhic Gille-Mhartainn in the Monadhliath mountains near Laggan in the Highlands on Thursday afternoon. Northern Constabulary were alerted at around 2.20pm the same day. They have identified the man, who was reported missing from London’s Metropolitan Police area in 2009, but will not reveal this information until next of kin have been informed. The remains are said to have been present on the mountain for a long time. A report will be submitted to the procurator fiscal. London Scotland guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
Ofqual could be given the power to hand out fines to boards that make mistakes setting exams Exam boards are facing fines from the government’s qualifications regulator after a string of errors in this summer’s GCSE and A-levels. Ministers will on Tuesday propose an immediate change to the law to allow Ofqual to impose a financial penalty – capped at a certain proportion of an exam board’s turnover – if they make mistakes in the future. But the move was questioned by a head teachers’ leader, who said any fines would simply be passed on by the boards to schools, adding to already large exams bills. The boards themselves believe the move, to be introduced in an amendment to the education bill currently in the House of Lords, pre-judges an inquiry by Ofqual into this year’s mistakes, which is due to report by the end of the year. Ofqual launched its investigation in July, after this summer’s GCSE and A-level results season featured at least 10 mistakes, affecting tens of thousands of pupils. One error was a printing mistake by the AQA board, leading to some schools receiving GCSE maths papers, taken by 32,000 pupils, which included questions from a previous version of the exam. In another case, an OCR maths AS level paper with 6,790 candidates featured an impossible question worth 11% of the marks available. Four boards serving schools in England and Northern Ireland apologised for errors. Ofqual already has power to take strong sanctions against them, ultimately it can ban an exam board from setting exams. However, two weeks ago, Nick Gibb, schools minister, wrote to the boards to tell them that Ofqual’s current powers “inhibit swift action and do not serve as an adequate deterrent to problems such as we saw this summer”. He said the government would change the law to give Ofqual the power to hand out fines. The government believes that Ofqual needs additional sanctions because the watchdog’s current power to ban a board from operating is to much of a “nuclear” option, with potential to cause major disruption for pupils and schools. Brian Lightman, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “Ofqual’s review is not due to publish until December, and it seems strange to pre-empt the findings in this way. “A fine on awarding bodies will simply turn into a fine on schools and colleges, since they pay for all the costs of examinations through exam fees. Institutions are already spending large sums on exam fees, and any further burden would be a perverse consequence. It would be completely counter-productive.” Schools A-levels GCSEs Education policy Warwick Mansell guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Herman Cain Quotes Obscure 20th-Century Strike-Breaker and Misattributes it to Lincoln
October 7, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media In this brief clip from CNN, supposed GOP front-runner assails the “Occupy Wall Street” movement as a waste of time, and a front for the Democratic party and Barack Obama’s re-election hopes. What caught my ear, however, was the line he uses and attributes to Abraham Lincoln: You don’t help the poor by hurting the rich. Republicans have been using it for decades, most famously by Ronald Reagan at the 1992 Republican National Convention, when he said in his speech : I heard those speakers at that other convention saying “we won the Cold War” — and I couldn’t help wondering, just who exactly do they mean by “we?” And to top it off, they even tried to portray themselves as sharing the same fundamental values of our party! What they truly don’t understand is the principle so eloquently stated by Abraham Lincoln: “You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot help the wage-earner by pulling down the wage-payer. You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.” None of which Abraham Lincoln ever said. Those axioms were from one Rev. William John Henry Boetcker, a now obscure historical figure but in 1916 the director of Citizens’ Industrial Alliance, which later became the Citizens’ Alliance, a pro-employer organization notable for its strike breaking, anti-union efforts in the early part of the twentieth century. Snopes details this authoritatively here . I suppose none of this should come as a shock from any Republican, and especially not from a potential Republican nominee who takes his inspiration from children’s cartoons , a man who until recently seemed more interested in selling his book than actually winning the nomination. And indeed this clip, and his later interview with Lawrence O’Donnell for MSNBC were done in a bookstore, Cain hawking his book and campaigning at the same time. Republicans have been fabulously successful at creating and marketing their own mythology for at least the last forty years, unsurprisingly coincident with the decline of the middle class and ever greater wealth in the hands of the few. It’s no wonder someone like Herman Cain doesn’t understand the Occupy Wall Street movement or the real resentment out there just beginning to surface.
Continue reading …
Four police officers from Juárez, a suburb of the city of Monterrey, are being held pending further investigation Several police officers in northern Mexico allowed a violent drug gang to hold kidnap victims in the local jail while ransom payments were being negotiated, an official has said. Four police officers from Juárez, a suburb of the city of Monterrey, are being held pending further investigation, said Jorge Domene, the security spokesman for Nuevo León state. The scandal came to light this week when state and federal police freed two kidnapping victims from jail cells in Juárez. Investigators believe that the victims were abducted by the extremely violent Zetas cartel and that the officers were working for the Zetas, Domene said. Local police in northern Mexico have often been bribed or threatened into providing drug gangs with information, protecting their activities or detaining members of rival gangs. Domene noted that last weekend, the Nuevo León attorney general’s office detained 73 local policemen from a half dozen communities in the state who confessed to having performed various services for gangs, including spying, acting as lookouts, and carrying out killings and kidnappings. Authorities then conducted background checks on 99 other officers, 21 of whom were fired after refusing to cooperate. Forty-three have passed the checks so far. Local police forces in Mexico are often low-paid and poorly armed. A government report in September said many Mexican police officers still earn $350 a month or less, despite reform efforts aimed at increasing wages and reducing corruption. At another northern Mexico prison, in the border city of Ciudad Juárez, a stash of illicit weapons was found buried in a cell block just two days after authorities discovered a smaller arsenal in a separate block, the attorney general’s office of Chihuahua state said. The most scandalous case of prison corruption came to light in July 2010, when an investigation revealed that guards and officials at a prison in the northern city of Gómez Palacio had freed inmates belonging to a gang, lent them guns and sent them off in official vehicles to carry out drug-related killings, including the massacre of 17 people earlier that year. The guards allowed the inmates to return to their cells after the killings so that they would be safe from reprisals, authorities said at the time. “We have barely been in time to put the brakes on organised crime in the first stages, but in some towns, in some areas of the country, they have infiltrated authorities in a practically symbiotic relationship,” President Felipe Calderon said during a speech to members of the business community on Thursday. Mexico Drugs trade guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
President vows to defend Zimbabwe from ‘machinations of the imperialists’ Robert Mugabe, the president of Zimbabwe, has expressed sympathy with autocrats toppled in the Arab spring, blaming their downfall on the “machinations of the imperialists”. Africa’s oldest leader reportedly warned that western powers could also target Zimbabwe. “We must remain prepared to defend our country and sovereignty,” he said. “We have had good relations with those Arab countries in trouble today,” Mugabe, 87, was quoted as saying on New Zimbabwe.com , in a report attributed to Deutsche Press-Agentur. “We have sympathy with them because they did not read warnings that they should have read. That things were changing because of the wishes of their people, and because of machinations of the imperialists.” Addressing senior members of his Zanu-PF party in Harare, Mugabe continued: “The pattern has been the same … Protests against some political measure or system or wanting change. It ends up being a demand for the entire government to go.” The president, in power for 31 years, said Zimbabwe must be sensitive to this year’s events in Tunisia, Egypt, Syria and Libya, where western powers pretended “to be following the grievances of the protesters”, but were motivated by hunger for natural resources. Zimbabwe has refused to recognise the National Transitional Council and swiftly expelled the Libyan ambassador to Harare when he defected from Muammar Gaddafi’s fold to the new authority. Despite this year’s turmoil, there has been little sign of an uprising in Zimbabwe. In February, six activists were arrested and charged with treason after holding a meeting and viewing videos from the revolution in Egypt. They are standing trial on lesser charges of threatening to incite public violence but still face a jail sentence of 10 years. Mugabe, resentful of a power-sharing deal with the Movement for Democratic Change, has been pushing for fresh elections next year. But he admitted: “I am sorry we have not been in control of the mechanisms; mechanisms that we thought would lay the road to an election this year in terms of our decision taken at our last conference in Mutare (last December). The constitution-making process has been moving at a tortoise’s pace.” The Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams is due to arrive in Zimbabwe this weekend and has requested a meeting with the president. Robert Mugabe Zimbabwe Africa Arab and Middle East unrest Libya Middle East Protest Egypt Tunisia Syria David Smith guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
Interior designer accepts £60,000 plus costs, while Ashley Cole joins test cases over levels of compensation Interior designer Kelly Hoppen has settled her phone-hacking claim against the publisher of the News of the World, after it agreed to pay her compensation of £60,000 plus costs. Hoppen sued News Group Newspapers, former News of the World journalist Dan Evans and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire for misuse of private information and breach of confidence. She alleged they intercepted messages left on her mobile phone from 2004 to 2006. It emerged in the high court on Friday that NGN had admitted this in April this year. Separately, footballer Ashley Cole, who is also suing NGN, will have his case heard at trial as one of several test cases designed to set the level of compensation the publisher will have to pay to victims if they win their cases. More details soon … •
Continue reading …
Chuka Umunna and Rachel Reeves are among the rising stars given senior positions in Ed Miliband’s new frontbench A number of newly elected MPs have been promoted to the shadow cabinet in a reshuffle by the Labour leader, Ed Miliband. Chuka Umunna and Rachel Reeves are among the rising stars handed senior positions – as shadow business secretary and shadow chief Treasury secretary. It is the first time a Labour leader has had a completely free hand following a rule change which means the shadow cabinet is no longer elected by a ballot of the party’s MPs. The former minister Stephen Twigg has been brought in to take on Michael Gove at education, allowing Andy Burnham to resume the health brief he held in the last government. Caroline Flint is moved to shadow energy secretary – one of 11 women out of the 27 in the new-look top team. One of those is the deputy leader, Harriet Harman, who has swapped the international development brief for culture, media and sport. Another two female shadow ministers will attend the cabinet without being members. Miliband said: “My decision to appoint half a dozen members of the 2010 intake shows the talent that Labour has and the way in which this new generation can join us in taking Labour’s agenda forward. “Together we will show how the government are failing to help families who face a cost of living crisis, how they are failing to take action on energy bills and rail fares and failing to get the economy moving again. “They will show how we aspire to be a government not for more of the same but to deliver a new bargain for the British people.” He added: “I am determined that my shadow cabinet not only holds this government to account but speaks to the public and the country. “Families across Britain are worried about how they will make ends meet, anxious about what the future holds for their children and tired of the way irresponsibility is tolerated across our society.” New faces around Miliband’s shadow cabinet table also include the phone-hacking campaigner Tom Watson, the new shadow Scotland secretary, Margaret Curran, and the shadow Northern Ireland secretary, Vernon Coaker. Watson was a driving force in the battle to get an inquiry into allegations of phone hacking at the News of the World, and a tormentor of News International executives in his role as a member of the Commons culture, media and sport committee. He will co-ordinate Labour’s campaigning and byelection efforts in his new role, and will also remain a member of the committee. The shadow attorney general, Lady Scotland, has quit because she felt it was “time for something new”. She is replaced by the Islington South and Finsbury MP Emily Thornberry, a barrister who was previously health spokeswoman. Three MPs deemed to have been underperforming are sacked from the shadow cabinet, Meg Hillier losing the energy and climate change portfolio, Ann McKechin losing the Scotland brief and Shaun Woodward being removed from the post of shadow Northern Ireland secretary. Ivan Lewis moves from culture to international development in a straight swap with Harman. His move was widely regarded as a consequence of his ill-judged remarks at Labour’s conference earlier this month about setting up a register of journalists from which misbehaving reporters could be struck off. The proposal, which was swiftly disowned by the leadership, was thought to have made his continuing stewardship of media policy untenable. Harman’s office said she was “delighted” with her new role as shadow secretary of state for culture, media and sport. “This is an incredibly important time for sport and for our creative industries, not least the future of media regulation in this country,” said Harman’s office. “Harriet is looking forward to delivering on the media regulation framework precipitated by Ed Miliband’s strong leadership in the hacking scandal this summer. “In addition, Harriet is returning to a domestic role because of the importance of the forthcoming elections in May 2012 in which, as deputy leader and chair of the Labour party, she will have excellent support from Tom Watson MP as deputy chair and campaign co-ordinator.” Miliband’s first reshuffle sees the Labour leader lose from frontbench service two former government ministers, John Denham and John Healey, who both announced on Thursday they were standing down. On Friday morning, Denham, the former cabinet minister, announced he would leave parliament at the next election. Denham, 58, released a letter to the Labour leader saying he had decided some time ago not to seek re-election and it would be wrong to serve in the shadow cabinet if he had no prospect of becoming a minister in a Labour government. On Thursday it emerged that Denham, the shadow business secretary, and Healey, the shadow health secretary, would be leaving the shadow cabinet in the reshuffle. Labour claimed both men had told Miliband some time ago they did not want to carry on in frontline positions. The party insisted the departures were civilised and they had not been sacked. It is generally accepted in Whitehall, however, that Healey had underperformed. Sources said he stood down after he was offered a more junior role having fallen out of favour with the leadership for failing to make political capital out of the government’s NHS reforms. John Denham’s departure is more of a surprise. The former universities minister is close to the Labour leader, being one of only four shadow cabinet members to have backed Ed Miliband in the Labour leadership election. He is thought, however, to have been unhappy with parts of Miliband’s party conference speech that dealt with the business sector. On Friday Denham, who resigned from Tony Blair’s government over the Iraq war but returned to office as a cabinet minister under Gordon Brown, released the text of a letter to Miliband stressing his support for the Labour leader. “I told you some months ago that I would not be standing at the general election,” Denham said. “After 30 years’ continuous service as an elected councillor or MP I think I should move on whilst I still have enthusiasm for the role.” “We both agree that you would need to bring someone into the shadow cabinet who would be able to serve as minster in the next government.” “It has been a huge honour to be on Labour’s frontbench in government and in opposition and I have particularly enjoyed working with you over the past year as you have developed a clear, relevant and necessary vision of the way forward for Britain and for the Labour party.” Denham will take up a new post working for Miliband as his parliamentary private secretary. Miliband plans to announced the full details of his reshuffle on Friday. He hopes to go into the new parliamentary term with a fresh slate after a mixed reaction to his conference speech delivered in Liverpool a fortnight ago. Healey was the second most popular candidate when MPs stood for election to the shadow cabinet a year ago, but his performance has confirmed to Miliband the problems with those elevated to the cabinet through popularity rather than ability. Miliband is understood to believe he has been poorly served by the patchy quality of shadow cabinet members over the past year and during this year’s conference. John Prescott, the former deputy prime minister, urged him to use new rules allowing the party leader to choose his frontbench team to shake up his shadow cabinet. Having stayed away from the conference for the first time in 40 years, Prescott said: “This is a Tory government that’s doing some outrageous things and we haven’t had many words of protest. Ed, you’re the leader, get a shadow cabinet who’ll do that.” The new rules were approved by the Labour party conference and Miliband is using the last day of the conference season interregnum to assemble a stronger lineup. Labour Ed Miliband Andy Burnham John Denham Allegra Stratton Andrew Sparrow Patrick Wintour guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
As part of a series focusing on national identity and the future of the United Kingdom, we’d like to know what you think about the idea of being British and part of the UK. What sort of terms would you use to describe your nationality and how you fit into the UK as a whole? (“Liverpudlian, Welsh, Welsh-Irish, Black-british” – what words do you use if any?). Tell us a bit more about what it means to you to be British and how British you feel. Try to keep your video to a minute in length. Below you can watch the videos other people have sent us You can submit your video here or email us at your.videos@guardian.co.uk . Please read our terms and conditions before submitting your video.
Continue reading …
Defence secretary asks senior official to look into ‘wild allegations’ that he risked national security over role of his friend The defence secretary, Liam Fox, has ordered an investigation into claims surrounding the role of a controversial friend and adviser . Fox has asked his most senior official, the permanent secretary Ursula Brennan, to look into what he describes as “wild allegations” concerning Adam Werritty. But he has admitted it was “unacceptable” that Werritty was issuing business cards that identified him as a “personal adviser” to Fox. The defence secretary said he understood the business cards were no longer being used. In recent days Fox has been accused of putting national security at risk by allowing Werritty – a former flatmate who was best man at his wedding – access to the Ministry of Defence , even though he is not employed by the government. It has been reported Werritty joined the defence secretary on an official visit to Sri Lanka, despite Fox having previously said Werritty did not travel with him on official visits overseas. The defence secretary said on Friday he did attend a “private event” with his friend on the island after a picture of the pair was published in the Guardian . He told BBC News: “It was organised by Adam Werritty and Mrs [Suganthie Wijayasuriya] Kadirgamar, who’s the widow of the assassinated Tamil former foreign secretary of Sri Lanka. “I have had a long relationship in Sri Lanka, trying to get co-ordination of peace efforts there. That’s a perfectly reasonable thing to do. “Because there have been some allegations of security leaks and so on, I’ve asked the permanent secretary to look into that for me.” He added: “I’ve asked the permanent secretary to look into any of these wild allegations, and I’m very happy to stand by that investigation.” Werritty has been a controversial figure in Whitehall. Despite having no official role he is reported to hand out business cards with a portcullis logo describing himself as “adviser to Rt Hon Liam Fox MP”. Fox said: “I understand those cards are no longer used. I have made it very clear to him that it’s unacceptable to carry a card saying that he is a personal adviser.” Labour MPs have questioned Werritty’s access to the MoD after it was disclosed in parliamentary answers that he had visited Fox there 14 times in the space of 16 months. Jim Murphy, the shadow defence secretary, said it was right that an investigation had been launched. He added: “This seems like a panic measure. The secretary of state has ordered an inquiry into himself in order to prevent his top civil servant from forcing one upon him. There are events only he knows about and it would be easier if he just answered questions directly …There is evidence which appears to contradict Liam Fox’s statements. “Mr Werritty is not an MoD employee and yet he is reportedly arranging meetings for the secretary of state without officials present. He is accompanying the secretary of state during official visits. He is a regular visitor to Liam Fox’s office and he is playing an undefined role in an ongoing legal case involving the MoD. It is extraordinary that Liam Fox is unable to tell us what is going on. “We need to understand why Mr Werritty enjoys the access he does, which MoD issues he has been involved in and we need to be certain no commercial gain has arisen from his association from Mr Fox. “There is too much unnecessary uncertainty and the public should not be kept in the dark.” An MoD spokesman said: “Mr Werritty’s meetings with the secretary of state at the MoD have concerned entirely private matters, not to discuss MoD business. At no time has he had access to any classified MoD documents or information.” Liam Fox Ministry of Defence guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Defence secretary asks senior official to look into ‘wild allegations’ that he risked national security over role of his friend The defence secretary, Liam Fox, has ordered an investigation into claims surrounding the role of a controversial friend and adviser . Fox has asked his most senior official, the permanent secretary Ursula Brennan, to look into what he describes as “wild allegations” concerning Adam Werritty. But he has admitted it was “unacceptable” that Werritty was issuing business cards that identified him as a “personal adviser” to Fox. The defence secretary said he understood the business cards were no longer being used. In recent days Fox has been accused of putting national security at risk by allowing Werritty – a former flatmate who was best man at his wedding – access to the Ministry of Defence , even though he is not employed by the government. It has been reported Werritty joined the defence secretary on an official visit to Sri Lanka, despite Fox having previously said Werritty did not travel with him on official visits overseas. The defence secretary said on Friday he did attend a “private event” with his friend on the island after a picture of the pair was published in the Guardian . He told BBC News: “It was organised by Adam Werritty and Mrs [Suganthie Wijayasuriya] Kadirgamar, who’s the widow of the assassinated Tamil former foreign secretary of Sri Lanka. “I have had a long relationship in Sri Lanka, trying to get co-ordination of peace efforts there. That’s a perfectly reasonable thing to do. “Because there have been some allegations of security leaks and so on, I’ve asked the permanent secretary to look into that for me.” He added: “I’ve asked the permanent secretary to look into any of these wild allegations, and I’m very happy to stand by that investigation.” Werritty has been a controversial figure in Whitehall. Despite having no official role he is reported to hand out business cards with a portcullis logo describing himself as “adviser to Rt Hon Liam Fox MP”. Fox said: “I understand those cards are no longer used. I have made it very clear to him that it’s unacceptable to carry a card saying that he is a personal adviser.” Labour MPs have questioned Werritty’s access to the MoD after it was disclosed in parliamentary answers that he had visited Fox there 14 times in the space of 16 months. Jim Murphy, the shadow defence secretary, said it was right that an investigation had been launched. He added: “This seems like a panic measure. The secretary of state has ordered an inquiry into himself in order to prevent his top civil servant from forcing one upon him. There are events only he knows about and it would be easier if he just answered questions directly …There is evidence which appears to contradict Liam Fox’s statements. “Mr Werritty is not an MoD employee and yet he is reportedly arranging meetings for the secretary of state without officials present. He is accompanying the secretary of state during official visits. He is a regular visitor to Liam Fox’s office and he is playing an undefined role in an ongoing legal case involving the MoD. It is extraordinary that Liam Fox is unable to tell us what is going on. “We need to understand why Mr Werritty enjoys the access he does, which MoD issues he has been involved in and we need to be certain no commercial gain has arisen from his association from Mr Fox. “There is too much unnecessary uncertainty and the public should not be kept in the dark.” An MoD spokesman said: “Mr Werritty’s meetings with the secretary of state at the MoD have concerned entirely private matters, not to discuss MoD business. At no time has he had access to any classified MoD documents or information.” Liam Fox Ministry of Defence guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …