Chancellor outlines proposals to keep London as a global financial centre without risking the rest of the UK economy The chancellor, George Osborne, has set out plans to tackle the “British dilemma”, saying the country needed a settlement with the City that would keep London as a global financial centre without putting the rest of the economy at risk. Adopting a conciliatory approach to bankers in his Mansion House address, the chancellor sought to draw a line under the financial crisis by announcing the sale of Northern Rock – the Newcastle-based lender nationalised after becoming the centre of the first run on a high street bank in almost 150 years. There was speculation that the government may have to sell the bank for a loss. “Images of the queues outside Northern Rock branches were a symbol of all that went wrong, and its chaotic collapse did great damage to Britain’s international reputation,” the chancellor said. “Its return now to the private sector would help to rebuild that reputation.” Osborne said the economy was “on the mend” after the deep recession of 2008-09 but warned that the weakness of the financial sector together with the crisis in the eurozone and softness in the US economy was putting a brake on UK growth. Announcing his support for plans to ringfence high-street banking operations and the toughening up of City regulation under the Bank of England, the chancellor said the country was “within touching distance” of a “new settlement” with finance. “If we achieve it, then we will have answered the British dilemma – and put our country on the path to prosperity. I want the City of London to be a thriving centre of enterprise, more interested in serving its customers than in what government might do to it next. Resolving the British dilemma is the way to do that.” Sir Mervyn King, who will chair the first meeting of the Financial Policy Committee on Thursday – the body set up by Osborne to make sure banks do not take excessive risks en masse – also warned that the City cannot be “allowed to benefit from an unsustainable dependence on the UK taxpayer”. King added: “To allow that would be unfair to millions of people, not here tonight, who are now bearing the costs of the financial crisis. It is precisely because we do want to be an international banking centre with assets a multiple of annual UK GDP that we have to find a solution to the ‘too important to fail’ problem.” Buoyed by unemployment figures showing the biggest quarterly drop in the jobless total in 10 years, Osborne said: “Output is growing. Stability has returned. Britain is on the mend. But it is taking time.” He said the economy faced the problem of unwinding debts built up over a decade. “Of all the major economies in the world, Britain’s was the most over-borrowed. Our families were more in debt than any other in the G7. Our house-price bubble was bigger than America’s. Our government deficit higher than that of Greece.” He added that the financial system, which helped fuel the boom in the middle of the previous decade, was now responsible for holding the economy back. During the past 18 months, when the economy grew by 2.5%, the financial sector contracted by 4%. “Take the financial sector out of the equation, and economic growth in the rest of the economy during the recovery has actually been above its average rate of the last two decades. Put the financial sector into the equation, and economic growth has been below trend.” The chancellor said he was working on plans to ensure that the taxpayer was no longer “first on the hook” in the event that things went wrong in the City. But as he threw his weight behind the interim report of the Independent Commission on Banking under Sir John Vickers, he faced criticism for not waiting for the final recommendations due out on 12 September. The Liberal Democrat peer Lord Oakeshott said “we can’t rule out” that a full break-up of the banks might need to be considered by the time of the final report. The banking commission was a key part of the coalition agreement signed last year, and will report back to the chancellor and the business secretary, Vince Cable, who has called for a full separation of “casino” investment banks and high street lenders. Osborne said he would publish outlining draft legislation on Thursday that would give him power to close down the Financial Services Authority and put an end to the tripartite system of regulation involving the Treasury, the Bank and the FSA. “As a global financial centre that generates hundreds of thousands of jobs, a successful banking and financial services industry is clearly in our national economic interests. But we cannot afford to let it pose a risk to the stability and prosperity of the nation’s entire economy. “We should strive for global success in financial services, but that success should not come at an unacceptably high price.” George Osborne Economic policy Financial crisis Recession Economic growth (GDP) Financial sector Northern Rock Mervyn King Larry Elliott Jill Treanor guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Rick Perry on His Unpopularity in Texas: ‘A Prophet is Generally Not Loved in Their Hometown’
June 15, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media Given a lot of Republican’s unhappiness with the current field of candidates for the GOP presidential nomination, as Karoli already pointed out , it looks like Governor “Good-Hair” Rick Perry of Texas is considering throwing his hat in the ring. During his first interview since hinting that he might be willing to run, Fox’s Neil Cavuto asked Perry about his unpopularity in his home state. As Think Progress noted, he got a rather bizarre answer out of him — Perry: Texans Don’t Like Me Because ‘A Prophet Is…Not Loved In Their Hometown’ : In his first national TV interview since presidential rumors surfaced, Perry answered Fox News’ Neil Cavuto question about why he’s so unpopular in his home state by suggesting he’s a “prophet”: CAVUTO: You have kind of like the Chris Christie phenomenon: very popular outside your state, still popular but not nearly as popular within your state. There are even Tea Party groups within your state who like you but don’t love you. What do you say? PERRY: I say that a prophet is generally not loved in their hometown . That’s both Biblical and practical. As they wrote in their post and as we’ve been following here at C&L as well , there’s a long list of reasons Texas voters might not be too thrilled with Perry. As the state’s longest serving governor in history, Perry has faced persistently low approval ratings as he’s pushed through a radical right-wing agenda that has left Texas with a record budget deficit, the third highest poverty rate in the country, and the highest percentage of uninsured residents in the country. As Think Progress has documented, Perry has a history of ducking tough questions by invoking religion, and has suggested in the past that he’s just implementing God’s will on Earth through his irresponsible governance. Perry may be answering Republicans’ prayers if he enters the race, but it’s still pretty self-aggrandizing to call himself a prophet.
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Jeremy Ractliffe, who hid uncut diamonds given by supermodel Naomi Campbell, says he has no regrets The former head of Nelson Mandela’s children’s charity, who received alleged “blood diamonds” from the British supermodel Naomi Campbell, has been cleared of wrongdoing by a South African court. Jeremy Ractliffe, founder of the charity, had been charged with illegally keeping uncut diamonds. The gems were passed to him by Campbell after she allegedly received them as a gift from former Liberian president Charles Taylor. A judge said that the case against Ractliffe, who could have faced 10 years in jail if convicted, was not proven. “Mr Ractliffe, you are not guilty and discharged,” said magistrate Renier Boshoff after hearing half a day of testimony. Ractliffe, 74, the former chief executive of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund, had been accompanied to court by his wife and five daughters, who embraced and wept after hearing the verdict. Ractliffe claimed he kept the stones and did not report them to authorities in an attempt to protect the reputations of Mandela, Campbell and the charity. He insisted that he had no regrets and did not blame Campbell for his trouble. “I was just doing my job,” he said outside court. “I did what I did for what I felt were totally valid reasons. I have always thought I was innocent and it was very nice to have this proven.” His wife, Gail, added: “My husband is a good and honourable man.” The existence of the stones emerged last year during the war crimes trial of Taylor at The Hague. Prosecutors said they were “blood diamonds” given by Taylor to Campbell in 1997 after a charity dinner hosted by Mandela with guests including the Hollywood actor Mia Farrow. Campbell testified that she received “dirty-looking stones” from three men who came to her hotel room. The supermodel said that she did not know the source of the diamonds, but other witnesses claimed she had bragged about getting them from Taylor. Campbell said she gave Ractliffe the diamonds the morning after she received them, during a trip on the luxury Blue Train, as a donation to Mandela’s charity. Ractliffe said he did not tell the foundation about the diamonds and kept them in a safe for 13 years until he handed them over to police after Campbell’s August 2010 testimony. Ractliffe had already stepped down as chief executive by last August. He resigned as a trustee after the diamond controversy became public. It is illegal in South Africa to possess a rough diamond because of its possible links to funding fighters in African civil wars, money laundering and other crimes. Taylor has denied using illegally mined diamonds to buy weapons for Sierra Leone’s Revolutionary United Front rebels during the 1991-2001 civil war. His three-year trial closed in March and judges are expected to deliver their verdict later this year. South Africa Blood diamonds Naomi Campbell Charles Taylor Nelson Mandela David Smith guardian.co.uk
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Market’s appetite for technology stocks continues as music streaming site’s worth hits more than twice the value of AOL Pandora, the music streaming company, saw its valuation rocket to $4.2bn (£2.6bn) in the first hour of trading at its flotation on the New York stock exchange – $1.6bn higher than anticipated. Shares in Pandora traded at $26 each in the opening minutes of its market debut on Wednesday, 60% higher than the loss-making company’s initial offer price of $16 . Pandora’s shares opened at $20, up 25%, and went as high as $26, briefly valuing the company at $4.2bn – more than twice the value of AOL. The share price settled back during the first hours of trading to about $22, a market value of $3.6bn. While the surge was expected – Pandora has put only about 9% of its shares on the public market and investors clamoured to get hold of the limited supply – the market’s appetite for technology stocks continues unabated. Demand mirrored the pattern seen with recent tech flotations such as LinkedIn, which saw its shares soar from $45 each to $90 in the opening minutes of trading last month. However, if the trading pattern remains true to form Pandora can expect its share price to fall back by perhaps a fifth in the coming days, in line with what occurred to LinkedIn and Russian search engine Yandex. Pandora reported revenue of $51m, with a net loss of $6.8m in the three months to the end of April. The company has 90 million registered users in the US and makes money mainly from advertising, with significant costs for music royalties to record companies – it paid out $29m in three months to the end of April. Pandora also warns that its revenue growth rate is expected to decline in the future as the business matures and encounters more competition. While investors have taken the chance to buy shares, Pandora faces competition on numerous fronts, including from satellite radio provider Sirius, music services such as Rhapsody and cloud storage services from Apple, Google and Amazon. Spotify’s long-awaited US launch is also said to be close. •
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Socialist government and conservatives opposition plot ‘grand coalition’ to deal with debt crisis amid violent strike in Athens, reports state TV Greece’s Socialist government began power-sharing talks with the opposition conservatives as violent clashes ripped through Athens , state television has reported. State-run NET television said the prime minister, George Papandreou, was in talks with the opposition leader Antonis Samaras to form a possible grand coalition government to deal with the country’s crippling debt crisis. Officials were not immediately available for comment, but several conservative MPs publicly backed the idea and called for Papandreou to step aside. “The most important member of a ship’s crew is the captain, and the captain has to go,” prominent conservative MP Theodoros Karaoglou said. “If we joined forces, we could go to our [creditors] together to negotiate and the results of course would be better.” Violent clashes lasted several hours after more than 25,000 people gathered outside parliament to protest against a new package of tax rises and spending cuts. At least 20 people were detained, police said. The rally was called during a general strike against a new wave of austerity measures worth €28bn (£25bn) to 2015, exceeding the Socialists’ scheduled term in office by two years. Papandreou has suffered plummeting approval ratings and an open revolt within his own Pasok party. One of his MPs left the party on Tuesday night and declared himself an independent, reducing Pasok’s majority to five seats in the 300-member parliament. Greece Europe Global recession Economics Global economy European Union IMF Financial crisis Banking Market turmoil guardian.co.uk
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Friends of the Earth International celebrates 40 years of environmental campaigning
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Plans to subsidise low-income families ‘not ambitious enough’, funding quango tells institutions hoping to charge £4,000 a year Welsh universities have been forbidden from charging higher tuition fees next year because their plans to encourage poor teenagers to take up places are not ambitious enough. All Welsh universities – and four of the country’s colleges – want to charge annual fees of more than £4,000 by autumn 2012. But to do this, they had to submit plans to subsidise more low-income students. These plans had to be endorsed by the quango that is in charge of allocating public funds, the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (Hefcw). However, the quango has told all 10 universities and the four colleges that their plans were not ambitious enough and that they would have to rewrite them if they were to charge higher fees. The move will be closely watched by universities in England, where the same could happen. All 123 universities and university colleges in England and a further 17 further education colleges are hoping to charge more than £6,000 a year from autumn 2012. To do so, they have had to submit targets to widen their pool of students beyond white middle-class teenagers. The Office for Fair Access is considering the plans and in July will tell universities whether it has accepted them. The English government has recommended that universities spend £1,000 out of every £9,000 received in fees on support for students. A spokeswoman from Hefcw said it had written to the universities and colleges in Wales to say that the plans, in their current form, “do not meet the necessary requirements”. She said the proposals lacked ambition in some cases, while in others the targets fell short of what was expected. Some universities did not include as much detail as the quango wanted. “We expect to receive revised plans, taking account of the concerns we have raised with individual institutions, by, or very soon after, the end of June,” she said. The quango said it would not be commenting on each university’s proposals before 11 July, when it will have made final decisions. Leighton Andrews, education minister in the Welsh assembly, said he was pleased that Hefcw had been “thorough and robust”. He said: “Plans will only be agreed if institutions demonstrate that they are meeting certain requirements, which include equality of access to higher education and improving the student experience.” Welsh universities will be allowed to charge up to £9,000 tuition fees for students from England and Wales. But the Welsh assembly government will subsidise Welsh students up to £5,625 a year for their studies. The lecturers’ trade union said Hefcw’s decision was “worrying” and “confusing” for English universities. Sally Hunt, general secretary of the University and College Union, said: “This extra confusion for English universities just adds to the mess that is the government’s failing university funding policy. Unless the government uses the imminent publication of the white paper to pause on its catastrophic reforms then it will be staff, students and the UK’s international reputation that suffer the most.” Tuition fees Higher education Students University funding Wales Advice for students Further education Education policy Jessica Shepherd guardian.co.uk
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Trebling of tuition fees and disillusionment with UK universities cited as reasons for interest in top American institutions The number of UK teenagers applying to Ivy League and top state-funded universities in the US has risen sharply in the past few years, figures show. Data obtained from seven prestigious US institutions reveals that a major drive to recruit UK undergraduates is starting to pay off. One leading headteacher told the Guardian that the growing interest came partly from a belief among parents and pupils that “UK universities were creaking at the limits”. Harvard has received 500 applications from UK students for undergraduate courses this autumn, a jump from 370 last year. Meanwhile, the University of California, Berkeley, has had 166 applications from the UK, up from 130 last year. The university said applications from other European Union students had fallen from 343 last year to 281 this year. Cornell University, which is part of the Ivy League and is based in New York, has seen applications from UK students rise this year to 197 from 176 last year. Some of the universities count only the number of students who enrol on their courses rather than those who apply. Enrolments from the UK to Yale, another Ivy League institution, have doubled in the last five years, with a large spike last year. In 2006, 15 UK students enrolled. This grew to 25 in 2009 and 36 the following year. Enrolments at Columbia, also in the Ivy League, rose from 164 in 2003 to 170 in 2006 and 178 in 2009. At Indiana, one of the top-rated US public universities, there has been a modest rise in UK applications this year – from seven to nine. Other applications from the EU grew to 50 this year from 41 last year. At Princeton, another Ivy League institution in New Jersey, enrolments from the UK have more than doubled in the last five years, from 32 in 2005 to 77 in 2010. In 2009, there were 81 enrolments from the UK. The cost of studying at an Ivy League university for a UK student can reach up to £37,000 ($60,000) a year. Most undergraduate courses last four years. Fees at state-funded universities are substantially lower, but it can be difficult to obtain a place without US citizenship. Despite this, the headteacher of a leading public school, King’s College school in Wimbledon, south-west London, said he had noticed that interest in studying at US universities was growing. Andrew Halls said the near-trebling of tuition fees was one factor: from autumn 2012, universities in England and Wales will be allowed to charge up to £9,000 in tuition fees each year. But Halls also said there was “growing disillusionment” among pupils and parents with what most UK universities could offer. “There is a bit of a sense that UK universities are creaking at the limits,” he said. “Our 13- to 16-year-olds are talking about applying to US universities much more than they used to. There’s a feeling that [if you go to a UK university that is not Oxbridge], you may not get as much teaching as you would like. US universities emphasise the ‘whole man’. They love to hear about students playing the piano and other extra-curricular activities. They want a fulsomeness that Oxbridge and others seem distrustful of. Quite a lot of parents say that it is because of this that they are prepared to make a big financial sacrifice and pay for a US university.” A report on overseas students in the US by the Institute of International Education found that in 2004 there were 8,274 UK students studying in the US. In 2009 this had grown to 8,861. Lauren Welch, head of the advisory service at the US-UK Fulbright Commission, which encourages educational exchanges between UK and US students, said many US universities and colleges saw this year as “an unprecedented opportunity to recruit British students”. “They know that tuition fees are increasing threefold in just one year and that places will be capped on places for UK students, and they want to take advantage of this chance to make students aware of the American alternative.” Welch added that the profile of students who went to study in the US was changing. “They were primarily from greater London and the south-west and attended an independent or international school,” she said. “We are now seeing more and more students apply to the US from state and grammar schools and from a much wider spectrum of the British population.” King’s College school is holding a conference – the American Dream – this September for headteachers and pupils to discuss applying to US universities. Higher education University teaching Student finance Students United States Jessica Shepherd guardian.co.uk
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Public and Commercial Services union members to join teachers and lecturers for 30 June walkout A quarter of a million civil servants are to join striking teachers for a mass walkout on 30 June, bringing schools, colleges, universities, courts, ports and job centres to a halt. Up to 750,000 state employees are expected to take part in the strike, over the government’s pension reforms, after members of the Public and Commercial Services union voted by 61.1% in favour of strikes, and by 83.6% for other forms of industrial action, on a turnout of 32.4%. Mark Serwotka, the general secretary of the PCS, said the action was principally against cuts but also against the coalition’s public service reforms. “The clear majority in favour of a strike shows that public servants – who provide vital services across the country – are not prepared to stand back while everything they have ever worked for is taken from them,” he said. “The government claims this is about rebalancing pensions, but it has already admitted that the money it saves will go straight to the Treasury to help pay off the deficit in what amounts to nothing more than a tax on working in the public sector. “I have been at every one of the negotiating meetings with the government, and what we’ve been told is that they won’t budge on increasing the pension age, they won’t budge on their plans to double or triple contributions, and they won’t budge on the value of our members’ pensions being slashed. “In reality, the talks are a farce and, faced with mass job cuts, the pay freeze and the biggest raid on pensions in living memory, it’s not surprising that people want to defend themselves.” Francis Maude, the Cabinet Office minister, has repeatedly called on the unions to await the outcome of the pensions talks that are currently under way before striking, calling those going ahead with industrial action “irresponsible and wrong”. But on Wednesday, it emerged that a second headteachers’ union, the Association of School and College Leaders, was also moving towards a ballot for strike action. Three teachers’ unions – the National Union of Teachers, the Association of Teachers and Lecturers and the Universities and College Union – have all said they will strike this month. Nearly every major public sector union has now indicated that it is likely to ballot once the talks conclude this summer. Insiders say negotiations are all but at a stalemate, with ministers and unions failing to agree on even basic principles. It means there could be rolling strike action across the public sector in the autumn, which could profoundly disrupt the work of the state. Maude told MPs during Commons questions that “rigorous contingency plans” were in place should a walkout go ahead. He said: “We are engaging in discussions with the TUC at the behest of the TUC – those discussions are continuing. There’s much still to be sorted out. “It was Lord Hutton, the previous Labour pensions secretary, who recommended these reforms to make public sector pensions schemes sustainable and affordable for the future. That’s what we’re determined to achieve. “Any union or any public servant contemplating strike action at the moment is really jumping the gun – there’s a long way to go on this yet.” He added: “I am sorry that a handful of unions are hell-bent on pursuing disruptive industrial action while those discussions are still continuing, though we have rigorous contingency plans in place to minimise disruption in the event of industrial action.” Trade unions Mark Serwotka Public sector cuts Public services policy Public finance Public sector pay Public sector pensions Polly Curtis guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …*Conservatives from The Weekly Standard and The Daily Caller admit to host of The Big Picture, Thom Hartmann, that closing the gun show loophole would be a good idea. Somehow, between breathless fanboy posts alerting his readers to the every movement of Rick Perry (he sure is dreamy!), The National Review’s Kevin Williamson found time to prostrate himself (not once , but twice ) before National Rifle Association (NRA) talking points, support the interests of al-Qaeda, and fit multiple lies all into one little screed. Pretty impressive work, especially when you factor in his limited availability. I mean, those Rick Perry posters aren’t going to just stare at themselves. In these pieces, al-Qaeda Tool Williamson did what gun fetishists and NRA apologists always do when inconvenient truths about the blood already on their hands, or yet to come, are presented to them: He threw out random vituperation (even attacking one of his colleagues at NRO who happens to have more common sense than he could ever possess–he must be an absolute joy to work with!), and some misdirection that would make Houdini proud. My problem, of course, is that I don’t much like wannabe-bullies. Especially those who view the NRA like David Vitter does a lady-of-the-night with extra Huggies in hand, even more so when they lie and attack my friends at Media Matters on an issue I work on and care about, with Bachmannian reasoning to boot. So I thought I might respond, you know, for fun. The crux of our story is that Adam Gadahn, the American-born al-Qaeda spokesman, made a statement that was 90% correct about the easy availability of firearms for terrorists in the US (because of people like Williamson and the NRA), so this al-Qaeda Tool, of course, chose to focus on the 10% that wasn’t accurate. Here is our own David Neiwert’s explanation of what set off this jack-in-the-box originally: That popping sound you hear is the heads of NRA loyalists exploding from massive cognitive dissonance, all because of the release this week of a video showing a spokesman for al-Qaeda, Adam Gadahn, urging would-be jihadis to go out and stock up on as many guns as they can get their hands on — through the gun-show loophole So what do you do when you’re a shill for the NRA and have to explain why you don’t support the simple common sense of 69% of NRA members and 85% of Americans , (in a poll conducted by known liberal Frank Luntz for Mayors Against Illegal Guns) all of whom want to close the Gun Show Loophole? The one that Al Qaeda thug Gadahn spoke about. The one that has allowed everyone from Hezbollah to Pentagon shooter John Patrick Bedell to the Columbine killers to arm themselves–and provided a nice source of income for Timothy McVeigh. The one that sadly, as the thug Gadahn points out, would allow any Ayman al-Zwahiri to walk into a gun show in the 33 states that have not closed it, and buy a gun from “private sellers” without any kind of background check. What you do is lie of course, and portray private sales of firearms as “Uncle Bubba,” deciding “to swap his deer rifle to Otis for $100 and a case of Bud.” Here, I’d like to take a moment to thank Mr. NRA-talking-points dispenser for the oh-so-clever and folksy narrative, but in the real world where guns are used in mass murders, “Uncle Bubba” sometimes sells 348 guns in less than a year using that very loophole in our law for which our favorite al-Qaeda Tool has donned his usually-reserved-for-Rick-Perry knee pads. Perhaps more hysterically, useful idiot that Williamson is, he compares the private sale of guns to the private sale of automobiles. You know, those things that require licenses to drive and registration, all that crazy regulation that would obviously place us squarely on the road to serfdom if even mentioned in the same breath as his beloved firearms. Nicely played, Kev. So let’s quickly point out to our “drooling and comtemptible” readers here (his words regarding liberal blog readers at Media Matters–don’t be jealous, he likely thinks of you the same way), the myriad lies Williamson committed to blog when defending the NRA and the rights of al-Qaeda adherents across this vast land to arm themselves with as little hassle as possible. He engaged this little game of obfuscation when attacking Chris Brown of Media Matters , whose cardinal sin was to point out what all the falsehoods in Williamson’s original digital reach-around to the NRA. Not surprisingly al-Qaeda’s man with the plan gets the facts wrong again and again and again: 1. Media Matters said conversation kits are available at gun shows, not that they are perfectly legal. The GAO and any number of individual accounts, like Mark Potok’s , tell the simple truth that conversion kits are available at gun shows. No points on that one, Williamson. 2. Media Matters didn’t cite al-Qaeda as a source on gun laws. They pointed out that al-Qaeda was instructing terrorists to carry out mass murder by exploiting a well known loophole in US gun laws. Strike two, tough guy. 3. Media Matters said that conversion manuals, not kits as you claimed, are easily obtained online. Third time’s most definitely not a charm, Kev-o. So it would seem Williamson is either a dunderhead who lacks basic reading comprehension or a professional prevaricator who simply makes stuff up when his arguments fail on their merits. Likely, our hero is some combination of the two. I am sure Williamson will soon once again inform us of his warped views on this subject among his published pablum–he may even say mean things about me! After all, Rick Perry might take a day off for vacation, or perhaps due to self-inflicted visual impairment at the hands of a sticky LA Looks nozzle, and then what will Williamson be left with but NRA talking points tattooed on his biceps and a whole lot of excess stupid. I can be followed on Twitter @cliffschecter – Come on by, and I’d love to hear from you
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