Pro-gay GOP lawmaker channels Gaga: ‘I’m a Republican — I was born that way’
June 22, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media Appearing at a gay rights rally Tuesday, Republican New York state Sen. Jim Alesi said that voting for marriage equality would be “the most important thing I think I can do in my 20-year career as a legislator.” “I’m a Republican — I was born that way,” Alesi said, referring to a Lady Gaga song with a similar name. Last week, another Republican lawmaker delighted advocates with his support for same sex marriage. “F**k it,” state Sen. Roy McDonald told reporters . “I don’t care what you think. I’m trying to do the right thing.” The Associated Press reported Tuesday that the New York Senate could move forward on the measure as early as Wednesday.
Continue reading …
Syria calls measures the equivalent to ‘war’ while promising to turn country into model democracy Syria has lashed out at international “meddling” in its internal affairs and lambasted new EU sanctions that also target the commander of the al-Quds force of Iran’s revolutionary guards, accused by the west of helping crush the unprecedented unrest. Walid al-Moallem, Syria’s foreign minister, called the sanctions the equivalent to “war”, while promising to turn the country into a model democracy. He accused EU states of trying to “plant strife and chaos” after they agreed to extend punitive measures against Bashar al-Assad’s regime in response to the repression of protests that has cost 1,400 lives in three months. The Guardian has learned that the sanctions target General Qassem Soleimani, commander of the elite al-Quds, who is already subject to US sanctions. Moallem denied that Tehran or Syria’s Lebanese protege Hezbollah had been involved. He singled out France for harbouring ambitions derived from its history as Syria’s colonial ruler and urged Turkey to “reconsider” its increasinglyown hostile stance. Moallem blamed al-Qaida for killings of security personnel. Around 300 soldiers and other members of the security forces have been killed, alongside civilian casualties, in this bloody chapter of the Arab spring. The minister’s comments showed the Syrian regime flexing its muscles amid the overwhelmingly negative reaction to reform proposals Assad made in his speech on Monday. The US called for “action, not words” in response to that address – only Assad’s third since the crisis began. “We will forget that Europe is on the map and we will look east, south and towards every hand that is extended to us,” Moallem said in a televised speech. Russia and China are continuing to block western attempts to pass a UN security council resolution condemning Syria. British officials dismissed his remarks. A Foreign Office spokesman said: “It is the regime’s own brutal repression of peaceful protest that is harming the Syrian people and the Syrian economy. We will continue to increase the pressure on President Assad and those around him until they recognise that the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people must be met with reform not repression.” The new EU sanctions target individuals and companies in Syria’s business community to increase economic pressure on the regime, as well as on Soleimani and two other Iranians accused of “providing military equipment and support”. Syria is no stranger to international isolation. During the 2003 Iraq war many in Washington regarded it as an easy target for criticism. Tensions were heightened in 2005 when Lebanon’s ex-prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri was assassinated – though Damascus always denied responsibility. “Most Syrians would be horrified at the thought of reliving the isolation endured by Syria in the 80s and part of the 90s,” said Rime Allaf, a Syrian analyst at the Chatham House thinktank in London. “While the idea of foreign intervention is overwhelmingly rejected by regime fans and critics alike, diplomatic pressure is to be expected from Europe.” But analysts believe the regime still thinks it can contain this crisis through a mixture of repression and reform. Moallem promised reforms that would allow Syria to “give lessons for others in democracy”. A draft law to regulate new political parties, potentially ending Ba’athist dominance, has been published. After Assad’s speech, state media announced a presidential decree granting amnesty to prisoners, excluding political detainees. But domestic opposition, which appears to be slowly growing, rejected the pledges as insincere and too little, too late. “The parties law is not bad,” said one opposition analyst who asked for anonymity. “But no one really believes that the regime will allow true power-sharing because it will ultimately lead to its downfall.” It is equally unclear who will take part in a national dialogue. The Local Co-ordination Committees (LCC), a group of grassroots opposition activists, rejected calls for dialogue as a way to “gain more time” for the regime. Veteran opposition figures who had been meeting the government, including Louay Hussein and Michel Kilo, have refused to continue. Meanwhile, the LCC said security forces had raided Damascus University dormitories on Tuesday night and again on Wednesday morning making arrests, smashing computers and leaving one student dead. The raid came after at least people were shot dead by pro-government forces in Homs, Hama and Deir Ezzor on Tuesday amid rising tensions as pro-regime rallies and anti-regime demonstrations poured onto the streets. Nida Hassan is the pseudonym of a journalist working in Damascus Syria European Union Iran US foreign policy Middle East Europe Ian Black Nidaa Hassan guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Syria calls measures the equivalent to ‘war’ while promising to turn country into model democracy Syria has lashed out at international “meddling” in its internal affairs and lambasted new EU sanctions that also target the commander of the al-Quds force of Iran’s revolutionary guards, accused by the west of helping crush the unprecedented unrest. Walid al-Moallem, Syria’s foreign minister, called the sanctions the equivalent to “war”, while promising to turn the country into a model democracy. He accused EU states of trying to “plant strife and chaos” after they agreed to extend punitive measures against Bashar al-Assad’s regime in response to the repression of protests that has cost 1,400 lives in three months. The Guardian has learned that the sanctions target General Qassem Soleimani, commander of the elite al-Quds, who is already subject to US sanctions. Moallem denied that Tehran or Syria’s Lebanese protege Hezbollah had been involved. He singled out France for harbouring ambitions derived from its history as Syria’s colonial ruler and urged Turkey to “reconsider” its increasinglyown hostile stance. Moallem blamed al-Qaida for killings of security personnel. Around 300 soldiers and other members of the security forces have been killed, alongside civilian casualties, in this bloody chapter of the Arab spring. The minister’s comments showed the Syrian regime flexing its muscles amid the overwhelmingly negative reaction to reform proposals Assad made in his speech on Monday. The US called for “action, not words” in response to that address – only Assad’s third since the crisis began. “We will forget that Europe is on the map and we will look east, south and towards every hand that is extended to us,” Moallem said in a televised speech. Russia and China are continuing to block western attempts to pass a UN security council resolution condemning Syria. British officials dismissed his remarks. A Foreign Office spokesman said: “It is the regime’s own brutal repression of peaceful protest that is harming the Syrian people and the Syrian economy. We will continue to increase the pressure on President Assad and those around him until they recognise that the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people must be met with reform not repression.” The new EU sanctions target individuals and companies in Syria’s business community to increase economic pressure on the regime, as well as on Soleimani and two other Iranians accused of “providing military equipment and support”. Syria is no stranger to international isolation. During the 2003 Iraq war many in Washington regarded it as an easy target for criticism. Tensions were heightened in 2005 when Lebanon’s ex-prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri was assassinated – though Damascus always denied responsibility. “Most Syrians would be horrified at the thought of reliving the isolation endured by Syria in the 80s and part of the 90s,” said Rime Allaf, a Syrian analyst at the Chatham House thinktank in London. “While the idea of foreign intervention is overwhelmingly rejected by regime fans and critics alike, diplomatic pressure is to be expected from Europe.” But analysts believe the regime still thinks it can contain this crisis through a mixture of repression and reform. Moallem promised reforms that would allow Syria to “give lessons for others in democracy”. A draft law to regulate new political parties, potentially ending Ba’athist dominance, has been published. After Assad’s speech, state media announced a presidential decree granting amnesty to prisoners, excluding political detainees. But domestic opposition, which appears to be slowly growing, rejected the pledges as insincere and too little, too late. “The parties law is not bad,” said one opposition analyst who asked for anonymity. “But no one really believes that the regime will allow true power-sharing because it will ultimately lead to its downfall.” It is equally unclear who will take part in a national dialogue. The Local Co-ordination Committees (LCC), a group of grassroots opposition activists, rejected calls for dialogue as a way to “gain more time” for the regime. Veteran opposition figures who had been meeting the government, including Louay Hussein and Michel Kilo, have refused to continue. Meanwhile, the LCC said security forces had raided Damascus University dormitories on Tuesday night and again on Wednesday morning making arrests, smashing computers and leaving one student dead. The raid came after at least people were shot dead by pro-government forces in Homs, Hama and Deir Ezzor on Tuesday amid rising tensions as pro-regime rallies and anti-regime demonstrations poured onto the streets. Nida Hassan is the pseudonym of a journalist working in Damascus Syria European Union Iran US foreign policy Middle East Europe Ian Black Nidaa Hassan guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
Click here to view this media Looks like our George W. clone, Gov. “Good-Hair Rick Perry, who’s thinking about tossing his hat into the 2012 GOP presidential primary doesn’t quite have that whole social networking thing down just yet. TPM has the whole clip if you can stand to sit through it. Rick Perry Implores Conservatives To Follow Him On ‘Tweeter’ (VIDEO) : Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R), who’s been publicly considering a run for the White House in recent days, will probably want to outsource the social media component of his presidential campaign if he does decide to run. In a video address recorded for attendees at the Right Online conference in Minneapolis this weekend, Perry offered up more of the anti-federal government rhetoric that’s made him something of a rockstar among conservatives eager for somebody to shake up their boring presidential field. He also reminded them “you can always follow me on Tweeter.” Read on… Ironically as they noted, Perry was accepting Right Online’s award for new media activism when he made this clip, but it didn’t seem to phase the audience there. h/t Scarce
Continue reading …Did you launch a racist, antisemitic rant? I can’t remember, Galliano tells French court
June 22, 2011 No Comment
Shocking nature of alleged outburst captivates France as fashion designer could face six months in jail The British designer John Galliano told a Paris court he remembered nothing of an alleged antisemitic, racist rant in a bar because of his triple addiction to alcohol, valium and sleeping pills. The flamboyant couturier, who faces up to six months in jail and €22,500 in fines, told the court he had been “pushed to the edge” by financial and emotional pressures. The case has captured France’s imagination, both because it involved a fallen British fashion star – Galliano was immediately sacked from the top job as creative director of Paris fashion house Dior – and because of the shocking nature of the alleged racist and antisemitic ravings by a supposedly inclusive designer in the heart of Paris’s historic Jewish district. Galliano, 50, was dressed in billowing black satin trousers, a black waistcoat, jacket and silk scarf, but no shirt as he arrived in court to face the charges of making “public insults” based on origin, religion, race or ethnicity . He stared determinedly ahead, composing himself, swallowing hard and clenching his jaw during evidence, but he looked frail after two months in an Arizona rehab centre. He is currently attending a daycare centre for recovering addicts in Switzerland. Under French law Galliano is not required to enter a plea. The judge asked Galliano about the incident on 24 February when a French couple having a beer outside a bar in Paris’s Marais district claimed he repeatedly insulted them with lines including “dirty Jewish face”, “fucking ugly Jewish bitch” and “fucking Asian bastard” . He replied “I have no recollection.” Asked why he couldn’t remember, he said had a three-fold addiction to alcohol, sleeping tablets and valium. He said there were many reasons for his addiction, including the success of Dior. He started drinking “in a cyclical way” in 2007. “After every creative high I would crash and the drink would help me to escape. At this point I had managed to turn creativity into a billion dollar business at Dior. Then the financial crash happened,” he said. He described having “two children”: Dior and his own label Galliano, owned by same group. To save them from the financial crisis, he had to sign deals with “businessmen” and branch out into a bewildering list of new lines, including menswear, kidswear, beachwear and perfumes. He described a manic schedule of working through the night then going directly to early morning starts on shoots, meetings and endless haute-couture fittings. In 2007, his assistant and closest friend, Steven Robinson, died and he lost a kind of “protection”. Galliano said: “With his parents, I buried him … then I went back to do my fittings. The same happened with my father’s death, I had to bury him and then come back that very night and work on the haute couture … I really didn’t take time to mourn.” Galliano said his body became so used to prescription pills, he increased his intake. “I actually can’t remember how many I was taking”. He said he needed sleeping pills to sleep but took them in the day, too. He went into rehab at the end of February after he was arrested by police following the alleged bar altercation. He said his reasons for rehab were various: “I started having panic attacks, I couldn’t go to work unless I had taken some valium.” Geraldine Bloch told the court she was sitting on a terrace at La Perle bar in February when Galliano sat a table near them, drinking a mojito, and quickly said: “Could you shut up please, I can’t stand your voice, fucking bitch,” before insulting her clothes, hair, thighs and make-up. She said he used the word “Jewish at least 30 times” including calling her a “fucking Jewish bitch” and “Jewish cunt”. She argued back at Galliano and refused to move table. Galliano’s driver came over and gave her a mobile, saying it was the designer’s lawyer trying to defuse the situation, but she refused to talk to him. She said Galliano had not seemed drunk but was acting weirdly. Her friend, Philippe Virgitti, told the court Galliano called him a “fucking Asian bastard” and threatened to kill him. He thought the designer used the world “Jewish” 10 times while insulting Bloch. He admitted threatening Galliano with a chair. The court also heard the case of another women who claimed that in the same bar in October 2010, Galliano had called her a “fucking ugly Jewish bitch.” Asked in court about a separate video in which he insulted a bar client and said “I love Hitler”, Galliano replied: “These are not views that I hold or believe in … I see someone who needs help, who’s vulnerable. It’s the shell of John Galliano. I see someone pushed to the edge.” The judges are expected to deliver a verdict at a later date. Several French anti-racist associations have also lodged civil complaints against the designer. John Galliano France Europe Angelique Chrisafis guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
• Transport secretary says deal ‘sticks in the gullet’ • Departed chief executive warned over pay last year Transport secretary Philip Hammond has condemned Network Rail for handing former chief executive Iain Coucher a £1m payoff, warning that it will “stick in the gullet” of taxpayers and farepayers. The government-backed owner of Britain’s rail tracks and stations will stoke the row over public sector pay by announcing a payoff of more than £1m for Coucher on Thursday. Coucher stepped down as chief executive last year after a three-year reign that was peppered with complaints from trade unions and politicians about the company’s remuneration regime. Network Rail’s annual report, published on Thursday, will reveal that Coucher received just over £1m as part of a package that included a year’s pay in lieu of notice and a settlement related to the company’s long-term incentive plan. Fellow executives are also expected to receive sizeable payments under the plan. Hammond weighed into the debate on Wednesday in apparent fury that his public warnings last year over Network Rail bonuses had been ignored. He said: “This payoff will stick in the gullet of every farepayer and taxpayer who think they pay too much to use our railway. The payoff is based on his contractual rights but most people will feel it doesn’t sit well given the difficult times most families are facing. “I will be seeking assurances that this is the last chapter in the sorry saga of the old Network Rail as set up by Gordon Brown. We have made clear that any future incentive system should focus on rewarding exceptional and sustained long-term outperformance and be based on the principle that bonuses are not an automatic right.” Network Rail relies on the taxpayer for its funding and received £3.7bn from the Department for Transport last year in a financial arrangement that regularly exposes its executive team to pay rows. In 2010, Coucher received a salary and bonus package worth £1.25m, drawing an intervention from Hammond, who questioned whether it was “appropriate” for Network Rail executives to share more than £2m in bonuses when the rest of the population was entering a period of austerity. However, Coucher has consistently argued that Network Rail needed to reward managers charged with turning round a railway system that was on its knees when the company inherited Railtrack’s responsibilities in 2002 following the botched privatisation of the rail network. The announcement comes a month after Coucher was cleared of misusing public funds following an independent investigation. Antony White QC, an expert in asset tracing and employment law, was appointed by the company to investigate allegations that public money had been spent illicitly on perks. White severely criticised the “astonishing” behaviour of Peter Bennett, Network Rail’s head of human resources, who called an employee complaining of sex discrimination a “silly cow”. Network Rail’s chairman, Rick Haythornthwaite, has moved to answer concerns over the company’s governance by requesting another review. The review’s author, Saratha Rajeswaran, a former adviser to rail minister Theresa Villiers, said the company had a “real problem” with accountability to the rail industry and government, adding: “Network Rail has been insulated from real-time economic and political concerns – leading to criticisms that it is arrogant or out-of-touch with the reality for the industry, passengers, the government and taxpayers.” However, the review does not recommend radical changes to the governance of Network Rail, which is technically a private business as a company limited by guarantee, meaning that it has no share capital or shareholders. The role of the latter is performed by Network Rail’s 92 “members”, who are drawn from the transport industry and the public. The Rajeswaran review does not call for an enhancement of members’ powers over pay, instead leaving their role as a purely symbolic one with a vote on the remuneration report at the annual meeting. Nonetheless, the review warns that bonuses will continue to be a “contentious” issue. Meanwhile, Network Rail is now beginning formal discussions over its next funding settlement under its new chief executive, Sir David Higgins, former chief executive of the Olympic Delivery Authority. The company is under pressure to reduce costs following an independent report into rail industry expenditure by Sir Roy McNulty, former chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, who has recommended cutting £1bn from the sector’s annual expenditure by the end of the decade. Nonetheless, Network Rail is optimistic that it can secure a funding settlement for 2014-2019 that is similar to the £30bn it won for 2009-2014 at the height of the previous government’s public spending largesse. Network Rail Executive pay and bonuses Travel & leisure Transport Dan Milmo guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
China’s best known artist, looking thinner after 81 days in detention, says ‘I’m fine … I’m on bail. Please understand’ After 81 days in detention, China’s best-known artist, Ai Weiwei, returned home a considerably thinner and noticeably quieter man. “I’m fine. I’m out,” the 54-year-old artist told the Guardian in a telephone call shortly after his release on bail. “I’m back with my family. I’m very happy.” The state news agency, Xinhua, said police had released him “because of his good attitude in confessing his crimes” and a chronic illness. Speaking from his home in north Beijing, the usually outspoken artist said he could not comment any further, adding: “I’m on bail. Please understand.” Ai’s sister Gao Ge said: “I’m very, very happy … we thank everyone, including our media friends, for all their help and support so far.” His mother, Gao Ying, told NPR that the family “won’t sleep tonight”. The artist’s disappearance on 3 April sparked international condemnation, with political leaders calling for his release and sustained protests throughout the art world. He vanished after he was stopped by officials at Beijing airport, where he was due to board a flight to Hong Kong. Officials later said police were investigating him on suspicion of economic crimes, although police never formally notified his family of his detention, which they are supposed to do within a day of seizing a suspect. The Xinhua report on Ai’s release said: “The decision comes also in consideration of the fact that Ai has repeatedly said he is willing to pay the taxes he evaded, police said. The Beijing Fake Cultural Development Ltd, a company Ai controlled, was found to have evaded a huge amount of taxes and intentionally destroyed accounting documents, police said.” Ai’s works include helping design the Olympic Bird’s Nest stadium in Beijing and last year’s Sunflower Seeds installation in Tate Modern’s turbine hall. But he has become as well known for his activism as for his art – although he suggested it was not easy to draw a line between the two. He is the most high profile of dozens of activists and dissidents arrested, detained or harassed in recent months in what campaigners called China’s most severe crackdown on human rights in over a decade. Several are still held and many of those who have been freed are understood to have been released under strict conditions. The decision to bail Ai comes days before Chinese premier Wen Jiabao visits Europe, where leaders were expected to press the case for the release. It is impossible to know whether the events are connected. Although China has often released dissidents on the eve of major political visits, it has not done so recently. A message on the official Twitter feed for the EU president, Herman Van Rompuy, read: “Happy to learn that Ai Weiwei has been released.” Ai’s only contact with the outside world during his detention – a brief 20-minute visit by his wife Lu Qing – was arranged by police on the eve of Van Rompuy’s visit to China last month. At the time Lu said he had looked mentally conflicted and tense despite appearing to be in good physical health and receiving treatment for diabetes and high blood pressure. Nicholas Bequelin, Asia researcher for Human Rights Watch, welcomed Ai’s release. “His detention was political and his release is political. It is the result of a huge domestic and international outcry that forced the government to this resolution … I think Beijing realised how damaging it was to hold China’s most famous artist in detention,” he said. Although in theory police are able to take further action on a case for up to a year after a suspect is bailed, in practice detainees who are released do not usually face trial unless they are judged to have reoffended. Bequelin said Ai would probably have to report to police and would probably not be allowed to travel abroad without official permission. US state department deputy spokesman Mark Toner told a news conference: “It’s always a good thing when an individual who is only in prison for exercising his internationally recognised human rights is released.” Speaking before Ai’s release, Germany’s foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, said it “would be a big relief for the artist and his family, even though the reported circumstances of his release on bail continue to appear depressing”. Patrick Poon, executive secretary of the Chinese Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group, tweeted: “It’s ‘good news’ for Ai Weiwei and for all of us who support Ai Weiwei and other human rights defenders, but the Chinese government’s handling of Ai Weiwei’s case once again proves that China is miles away from the real ‘rule of law’.” The Chinese government has said Ai’s case was nothing to do with human rights, while his family believed it was retaliation for his social and political activism. But some human rights campaigners thought the economic allegations offered officials room for manoeuvre, whereas they would not have felt able to drop political charges. Catherine Baber, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific deputy director, said: “Ai Weiwei must now be granted his full liberty, and not be held in illegal house arrest as has been the pattern with so many others recently released from arbitrary detention.” She also called for the immediate release of his four associates – Wen Tao, one of his friends, Zhang Jinsong, his driver and cousin, Hu Mingfen, an accountant, and Liu Zhenggang, a designer – who went missing shortly after him . Wen’s girlfriend Shi Jing, who had volunteered at Ai’s studio, said: “For both [Ai's] friends and family, it is positive news. “As for Wen Tao, his family hasn’t got any information so far … I still feel anxious, but since Ai is going to be bailed, there will probably be information about the others. They got into this because of Ai’s case, so there should also be news about them.” Ai Weiwei China Human rights Tania Branigan guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
Former business secretary and pension reform architect calls for deal with unions and says coalition risks exodus from scheme The former Labour business secretary who designed the coalition’s contentious public sector pension reforms will warn ministers on Thursday that their plans are risk becoming so punitive they could force people out of pension schemes altogether. Lord Hutton of Furness will warn of a “serious” risk of a mass exodus from the local government pension scheme – which is funded and has 3.5 million members – if contributions are raised too high and no other compensation is provided. But he will also urge the unions and ministers to get back round the negotiating table to thrash out a deal. “If these reforms have any chance of succeeding then people need to know that they are being treated fairly … there should be full and proper consultation and discussion with the trade unions,” he will say. “That is how we do things in Britain – the public would take a very dim view of any government that fails to honour this basic requirement. “We must try and avoid the confrontation and division that marked previous decades and must not turn the clock back.” Danny Alexander, the chief secretary to the Treasury, sparked a union backlash last week by unilaterally announcing plans to increase contributions for public sector workers and raise their pension age to 66 by 2020. Ministers have also accused some unions of undermining talks by announcing strike action on 30 June before the negotiations conclude. Hutton, who was work and pensions secretary in the Blair government, will speak at the Institute for Public Policy Research thinktank in London. He will stress that there is no choice but to reform pensions as people live longer. “This issue is coming down the track at us whether we like it or not and we can’t afford to duck it or fudge it,” he will say. He will question the coalition’s moves – under the “fair deal” consultation that ended last week – to allow private companies to drop public sector pensions when they take over a state service in an outsourcing arrangement, saying: “We have to avoid a new race to the bottom here.” On the risk of opt-outs, Hutton will urge ministers to consider alternatives being proposed for local government workers. His report to the government in March urged caution about the risk of members pulling out more generally, but on Thursday he will highlight the plight of the local government pension – a self-contained, funded scheme unlike the majority of public sector pensions, which rely heavily on the Treasury. Ministers have acknowledged the risk of the welfare system being left to pick up the pieces after a mass opt-out from public sector pensions. Last week Alexander announced that those earning under £15,000 a year would be exempted from the 3.2 percentage point average increase and for those under £18,000 it would be limited to 1.5 percentage points. But that underpinning means even bigger increases for higher earners, including teachers, doctors and managers. A survey by the GMB union suggested that about 50% of middle earners in local government could opt out as a result of higher contributions. Delegates at Unison’s annual conference in Manchester on Wednesday heard appeals for co-ordinated walkouts in the first week of October to disrupt the Tory party conference should the talks on pensions, due to resume on Monday, collapse. Unison, the biggest public sector union, voted to mandate its general secretary to ballot for strike action at any point, with some members calling for a strike to disrupt the Tory conference in October, which is also in Manchester. Amid defiant warnings that state employees would not be railroaded into changes, John McLoughlin, a delegate from Tower Hamlets council, London, said: “We should come back to this city, and when Cameron and George Osborne get up to speak they should be met with resistance.” David Cameron’s official spokesman said on Wednesday the government wanted to avoid strikes. “Our objective here is to protect public sector pensions in a way that is fair to public sector workers but also fair to taxpayers,” he said. Public sector pensions Danny Alexander Welfare Trade unions Liberal-Conservative coalition Conservatives Polly Curtis Dan Milmo guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
Former business secretary and pension reform architect calls for deal with unions and says coalition risks exodus from scheme The former Labour business secretary who designed the coalition’s contentious public sector pension reforms will warn ministers on Thursday that their plans are risk becoming so punitive they could force people out of pension schemes altogether. Lord Hutton of Furness will warn of a “serious” risk of a mass exodus from the local government pension scheme – which is funded and has 3.5 million members – if contributions are raised too high and no other compensation is provided. But he will also urge the unions and ministers to get back round the negotiating table to thrash out a deal. “If these reforms have any chance of succeeding then people need to know that they are being treated fairly … there should be full and proper consultation and discussion with the trade unions,” he will say. “That is how we do things in Britain – the public would take a very dim view of any government that fails to honour this basic requirement. “We must try and avoid the confrontation and division that marked previous decades and must not turn the clock back.” Danny Alexander, the chief secretary to the Treasury, sparked a union backlash last week by unilaterally announcing plans to increase contributions for public sector workers and raise their pension age to 66 by 2020. Ministers have also accused some unions of undermining talks by announcing strike action on 30 June before the negotiations conclude. Hutton, who was work and pensions secretary in the Blair government, will speak at the Institute for Public Policy Research thinktank in London. He will stress that there is no choice but to reform pensions as people live longer. “This issue is coming down the track at us whether we like it or not and we can’t afford to duck it or fudge it,” he will say. He will question the coalition’s moves – under the “fair deal” consultation that ended last week – to allow private companies to drop public sector pensions when they take over a state service in an outsourcing arrangement, saying: “We have to avoid a new race to the bottom here.” On the risk of opt-outs, Hutton will urge ministers to consider alternatives being proposed for local government workers. His report to the government in March urged caution about the risk of members pulling out more generally, but on Thursday he will highlight the plight of the local government pension – a self-contained, funded scheme unlike the majority of public sector pensions, which rely heavily on the Treasury. Ministers have acknowledged the risk of the welfare system being left to pick up the pieces after a mass opt-out from public sector pensions. Last week Alexander announced that those earning under £15,000 a year would be exempted from the 3.2 percentage point average increase and for those under £18,000 it would be limited to 1.5 percentage points. But that underpinning means even bigger increases for higher earners, including teachers, doctors and managers. A survey by the GMB union suggested that about 50% of middle earners in local government could opt out as a result of higher contributions. Delegates at Unison’s annual conference in Manchester on Wednesday heard appeals for co-ordinated walkouts in the first week of October to disrupt the Tory party conference should the talks on pensions, due to resume on Monday, collapse. Unison, the biggest public sector union, voted to mandate its general secretary to ballot for strike action at any point, with some members calling for a strike to disrupt the Tory conference in October, which is also in Manchester. Amid defiant warnings that state employees would not be railroaded into changes, John McLoughlin, a delegate from Tower Hamlets council, London, said: “We should come back to this city, and when Cameron and George Osborne get up to speak they should be met with resistance.” David Cameron’s official spokesman said on Wednesday the government wanted to avoid strikes. “Our objective here is to protect public sector pensions in a way that is fair to public sector workers but also fair to taxpayers,” he said. Public sector pensions Danny Alexander Welfare Trade unions Liberal-Conservative coalition Conservatives Polly Curtis Dan Milmo guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Story of Sri Lankan maid comes amid bitter row between Indonesia and Saudi Arabia over execution of Indonesian maid Authorities in Saudi Arabia have discovered a Sri Lankan maid who had been kept against her will without pay for nearly 14 years by her local employers, in the latest case of abuse of domestic workers in the kingdom. The discovery comes amid a bitter diplomatic row between Indonesia and Saudi Arabia following the execution of an Indonesian maid at the weekend. The Saudi authorities are sensitive to the global reaction to the execution and may hope the apparent rescue of the Sri Lankan maid helps to deflect some of the negative headlines. According to local news reports, the 45-year-old was found in the south-western Jizan province following a tipoff from a neighbour and her employer was arrested. Family members contacted by local journalists said they had not heard from the woman for so long that they thought she was dead. “I am very happy to know that she is living and we want her back home as quickly as possible,” her husband told the Jeddah-based Arab News. The Indonesian government on Wednesday told Saudi Arabia it would allow no further workers to the country until a deal on migrant labourers’ protection was
Continue reading …