The FBI and US secret service have used the threat of prison to create an army of informers among online criminals The underground world of computer hackers has been so thoroughly infiltrated in the US by the FBI and secret service that it is now riddled with paranoia and mistrust, with an estimated one in four hackers secretly informing on their peers, a Guardian investigation has established. Cyber policing units have had such success in forcing online criminals to co-operate with their investigations through the threat of long prison sentences that they have managed to create an army of informants deep inside the hacking community. In some cases, popular illegal forums used by cyber criminals as marketplaces for stolen identities and credit card numbers have been run by hacker turncoats acting as FBI moles. In others, undercover FBI agents posing as “carders” – hackers specialising in ID theft – have themselves taken over the management of crime forums, using the intelligence gathered to put dozens of people behind bars. So ubiquitous has the FBI informant network become that Eric Corley, who publishes the hacker quarterly, 2600, has estimated that 25% of hackers in the US may have been recruited by the federal authorities to be their eyes and ears. “Owing to the harsh penalties involved and the relative inexperience with the law that many hackers have, they are rather susceptible to intimidation,” Corley told the Guardian. “It makes for very tense relationships,” said John Young, who runs Cryptome, a website depository for secret documents along the lines of WikiLeaks. “There are dozens and dozens of hackers who have been shopped by people they thought they trusted.” The best-known example of the phenomenon is Adrian Lamo, a convicted hacker who turned informant on Bradley Manning, who is suspected of passing secret documents to WikiLeaks. Manning had entered into a prolonged instant messaging conversation with Lamo, whom he trusted and asked for advice. Lamo repaid that trust by promptly handing over the 23-year-old intelligence specialist to the military authorities. Manning has now been in custody for more than a year. For acting as he did, Lamo has earned himself the sobriquet of Judas and the “world’s most hated hacker”, though he has insisted that he acted out of concern for those he believed could be harmed or even killed by the WikiLeaks publication of thousands of US diplomatic cables. “Obviously it’s been much worse for him but it’s certainly been no picnic for me,” Lamo has said. “He followed his conscience, and I followed mine.” The latest challenge for the FBI in terms of domestic US breaches are the anarchistic co-operatives of “hacktivists” that have launched several high-profile cyber-attacks in recent months designed to make a statement. In the most recent case a group calling itself Lulz Security launched an audacious raid on the FBI’s own linked organisation InfraGard. The raid, which was a blatant two fingers up at the agency, was said to have been a response to news that the Pentagon was poised to declare foreign cyber-attacks an act of war. Lulz Security shares qualities with the hacktivist group Anonymous that has launched attacks against companies including Visa and MasterCard as a protest against their decision to block donations to WikiLeaks. While Lulz Security is so recent a phenomenon that the FBI has yet to get a handle on it, Anonymous is already under pressure from the agency. There were raids on 40 addresses in the US and five in the UK in January, and a grand jury has been hearing evidence against the group in California at the start of a possible federal prosecution. Kevin Poulsen, senior editor at Wired magazine, believes the collective is classically vulnerable to infiltration and disruption.
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Former Pennsylvania senator, who lost seat over pro-Iraq war and anti-gay views, makes formal declaration of 2012 candidacy The former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum has joined the Republican 2012 presidential race, promising to run on a socially conservative ticket. Santorum’s anti-abortion and anti-gay views could attract support in Iowa, where evangelicals are numerous and where the first of the caucuses is scheduled to be held in February. Although he has been campaigning in Iowa and other key election states for months, he made the formal declaration that he is standing in an interview with ABC television on Monday morning. “We’re ready to announce that we are going to be in this race and we’re in it to win,” Santorum said. He has an outside chance in a field in which is still wide open. Mitt Romney, who stood in 2008, leads the polls but there is little enthusiasm for him so far among grassroot Republicans, especially rightwingers. In a recent Gallup poll Santorum, 53, was placed well down the field, recording only 2%. But a good showing in the debates, with the next scheduled for New Hampshire next Monday, could change that. He is a stubborn conservative, insisting, long after even the Bush administration had conceded the point, that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Santorum is from a Catholic family in Pennsylvania, his father an immigrant from Italy and his mother a nurse. He has seven children. He helped pass a bill banning late-term abortions, and caused anger in 2003 when he said states had the right to ban gay sex or other behaviour “antithetical to a healthy, stable, traditional family”. Such views, along with his pro-Iraq war stance, contributed to the loss of his Senate seat to the Democrats in 2006. US elections 2012 Republicans United States US politics Mitt Romney Ewen MacAskill guardian.co.uk
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Continue reading …Margaret Carlson on the Press Coverage of Trump and Palin: ‘We are Always go Going to Follow the Shiny Object’
June 6, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media While discussing the media allowing Sarah Palin being allowed to rain all over Mitt Romney’s announcement that he’s running for president this week, Bloomberg’s Margaret Carlson admitted on CNN’s Reliable Sources that our media really doesn’t have much concern for what ought to be serious topics, but instead are “going to follow the shiny object” as they have in the case of Donald Trump and Sarah Palin. Sadly between media consolidation and the merger of what passes for news being mixed in with entertainment, you could make that same statement about a vast amount of what fills our airways these days. KURTZ: Mitt Romney declared his candidacy for president of the United States in New Hampshire on Thursday. He was on page three of “The Manchester Union-Leader.” She was on page one. She’s not running, at least not now. He’s been running for a long time. He made it official. It seems like something’s screwed up here. CARLSON: Listen, we are always go going to follow the shiny object, so let’s just give that up. Donald Trump was not a serious presidential candidate. KURTZ: And got plenty of coverage. CARLSON: And got plenty of coverage. KURTZ: And got more coverage when he had pizza with Sarah Palin this week, which was this great New York photo-op. CARLSON: Oh, right, the two phenoms coming together. But, you know, of all the states in the lower 48, she picked New Hampshire. It’s not an accident. She wanted to crash his party, and she did, and she can. So, throughout this campaign, have you to feel sorry for Republicans who are serious about it. She can come in at any moment and upset their apple carts. That’s just who she is and how much coverage she can get.
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Click here to view this media Howie Kurtz did a segment on the media’s coverage of Anthony Weiner’s Twitter story on CNN’s Reliable Sources. Jeff Jarvis was the voice of reason in a lot of ways. I like Gawker and expect them to have a good time with this story–because there’s nothing Gawker likes better than a political sex scandal–and they have Maureen O’Connor defending the merits of their coverage. Kurtz set up her opening by saying that Gawker can get away with using salty language on their site and she responded by saying the word “dick” on TV and although it made it on the telecast, it was deleted out on CNN’s transcript page . Transcripts must never be seen by children. They may go blind. MAUREEN O’CONNOR, WRITER, GAWKER: Well, I personally only cover Capitol Hill for the underwear scandals. This is what we do. And, you know, is this relevant to Anthony Weiner’s career as a politician? Maybe. But it’s an interesting story. And from our perspective, this is what we do. We cover human interest stories. We cover the strange case of a person, a powerful person, ending up falling to the exact same ridiculously follies that everyone does, taking a picture of his (EXPLETIVE DELETED) and getting caught doing it. ‘Doing it’ is still not a given yet and the Congressman hasn’t admitted to that, but Howie was stunned for a second and then turned to Jarvis and asked him how journalists handled the story. KURTZ: OK. As I was saying, Gawker does have a different way of talking about these things. Not a word that I would use on the air. Jeff Jarvis, I know you’re not embarrassed to talk about these things. We’ve talked about your prostate operation on this program. How did journalists do on this story, particularly on figuring out what happens with a Twitter account, whether it can be hacked and whether a photo can be sent without your knowledge? JEFF JARVIS, FOUNDER, “BUZZ MACHINE”: Well, Howie, I disagree with you when you say the media had no choice. Yes, there’s a choice. It’s a fine story for Gawker, absolutely. It’s a fine story for Jon Stewart, who point out the bloggers actually did some reporting on this. But all in all, what’s the real story here? You know, that a congressman has a penis? Let’s stipulate that, there’s no news in that. That he wears underwear? Who cares. That he might have accidentally sent out the wrong photo on Twitter? OK, big deal. We have to find some medium ground here behind the American Puritanism of, oh, my God, congresspeople are sexual, and the European view that, of course they’re sexual. There’s some middle ground. This is not a story, Howie. The amount of effort that was put into this was just pathetic. KURTZ: Jeff, I take your point that perhaps we have overplayed it. But the reason I said we have no choice is because Congressman Weiner kept giving interviews in which he clearly could not answer basic questions, including the clips I just played about, well, I have no idea whether that guy and that picture of some guy in underwear is me. JARVIS: OK, but carry it so the extreme. So what is the story? JARVIS: If he had sexually harassed someone, then maybe there’s a legitimate story. But if, at the most, he sent out a photo from his hard drive with his photo on it, what’s the big deal? What’s the news there? What’s the impact on democracy and how we live our lives? Zippo. Jarvis tried to make some sense of the MSM feeding frenzy. But there’s little sense to be found. John Ensign, whose affair is fast becoming legendary for its insanity and depravity didn’t face the feeding frenzy that this story has. Tom Coburn has been given a pass by the MSM and it appears he was deeply involved. Murray Waas did at least get a comment out of him. The media has no idea how Twitter works and what the “Follow” function does and they immediately equated it to stalking. Most people don’t know who’s following who on Twitter and how to use the many functions available to users unless they are pretty committed to it. And with so many people online and using aliases as many blog commenters do, it would have been helpful to explain how ignorant the media is about Twitter and maybe explain how it’s used. I still ask my team a lot of questions about how to use Twitter better since I’m so busy and it’s another software platform I have to learn. As Jon Stewart told CNN, how about doing some reporting since you’re a news organization . STEWART: Well I guess that’s the end of it. By the way, those liberal and conservative blogs having an all out war, they’re probably not doing anything about this story, except showing that the EXIF tags from the photo don’t match the camera Weiner normally uses, although analysis of the actual yfrog image shows no signs of manipulation although it’s very odd that the only person who image in the tweet has a history of sending harassing messages to the woman who had received the tweet and others who follow the Congressman on Twitter. Wow, those blogs, that sounds a lot like reporting. Slow down Woodward and Blogstein let the big boys at CNN handle this with their trademark “I guess we’ll never know.” To be fair, they’re not just going to let a guy come on and speculate saying Congressman Weiner might be some sort of sexual predator or pedophile, particularly if the accuser is someone who has openly and publicly sworn that his life’s mission is to destroy those people on the institutional Left.
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Several large drug firms have announced big cuts to the amounts they charge for their vaccines in the developing world Some of the world’s leading pharmaceuticals companies have announced deep cuts in the price of vaccines for people in poor countries, in a move that will start to address a multibillion-dollar funding gap at the heart of the international effort to vaccinate children against killer diseases. GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Crucell and Sanofi-Aventis all offered new prices for vaccines that they supply to Gavi, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation body set up by Microsoft founder Bill Gates. GSK discounted by 67% a rotavirus vaccine, which protects against diarrhoea diseases that kill more than 500,000 children a year, and Merck also offered a deep discount on a rotavirus vaccine. Two other India-based firms Serum Institute and Panacea Biotec also offered vaccine price cuts. The price cuts won praise from aid agencies. But although they are likely to help save lives, they will only go a small way to help fill a $3.7bn (£2.2bn) shortfall that Gavi is facing. Helen Evans, Gavi’s interim chief executive, said: “These are promising offers that demonstrate industry commitment to work towards affordable and sustainable prices.” Save the Children’s chief executive, Justin Forsyth, called the big pharma initiative “a landmark move, potentially saving the lives of hundreds of thousands of children”. But he added: “It’s important that Gavi now uses this to spur other vaccine producers to reduce prices and work to foster greater competition amongst producers to drive prices down even further and help even more children.” Oxfam and Médecins sans Frontierès, whose doctors give vaccines in the field, blame the $3.7bn black hole in vaccine funds on a system in which Gavi bulk-buys vaccination programmes at unsustainable prices from western companies. David Cameron is hosting a funding conference in London next Monday, which Bill Gates is due to address. “At a time when Gavi is asking for more money, it is very important to look at these issues,” said Daniel Berman of MSF. He believes there should be more focus on basic vaccines, such as the very effective one against measles. “In some countries there is a failure of routine immunisation,” he said. Mohga Kamal-Yanni, Oxfam senior policy adviser, said: “Gavi’s funding of immunisation programmes makes a vital contribution to improving health in poor countries. We want to see this good work continue, but they could do so much more. The high prices Gavi currently pays for vaccines is one of the reasons behind the financial pressures it faces. Publishing the prices it pays for vaccines, and doing more to negotiate lower prices would drive down costs and ensure millions more people can be immunised against killer diseases such as hepatitis B, whooping cough and measles.” In the other price cuts announced, Serum and Panacea offered discounts on the price Gavi pays for pentavalent vaccines, which protect against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, hepatitis B, and Haemophilus influenzae type B. Crucell and Sanofi Pasteur said they would extend Gavi prices on pentavalent vaccines to 16 additional countries. Sanofi Pasteur also said this would also apply to its yellow fever vaccine and a rotavirus vaccine being developed by its Indian subsidiary Shantha. Vaccines and immunisation Health Pharmaceuticals industry Bill Gates GlaxoSmithKline Aid Hepatitis B Charities Sarah Boseley guardian.co.uk
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Tales of the City, Armistead Maupin’s love letter to gay San Francisco, is now a musical – with songs by Scissor Sister Jake Shears. Hadley Freeman watches it come together at rehearsals One day in 1991, when Jake Shears was 13 years old and so far from being “Jake Shears of the Scissor Sisters ” that he was Jason Sellards and as yet unaware he was gay, he was hanging out with a gay couple, who had taken the youngster under their wing. “I think they knew I was gay before I did,” he recalls. “So, you know, they would turn me on to cool music.” One of them handed him a book, saying: “I think you’ll like this.” It was Tales of the City , Armistead Maupin ‘s much-loved saga set in 1970s San Francisco , involving a hugely diverse group of characters who are all (often unknowingly) linked, and many of whom live in a large guesthouse run by the mysterious Mrs Madrigal . The book is full of stories of bath houses and break-ups, all told in Maupin’s genial tone. “It was the first thing I’d ever read that had a positive gay perspective,” says Shears, “and two years later, I came out. Make of that what you will.” Twenty years later, Shears is repaying his debt to Tales. As he relates this story, backstage at American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco , rehearsals are going on across the hall for the musical version of Tales of the City, for which he and fellow Scissor Sister John Garden have written the music and lyrics. The libretto is by Jeff Whitty , who won a Tony for Avenue Q , and it’s directed by Jason Moore, who also worked on the coming-of-age puppet parable. “Yes, your name has to begin with J to work here,” the press officer dryly confirms. The four Js make a charmingly symmetrical double double act, with the bright-eyed and loquacious Shears and the quieter Garden in one corner; and the adorably excited Whitty and the calmer Moore in the other. “It’s been extraordinary to see the books come to life on stage,” says Maupin, “but the really moving thing has been to see how well they all get along – they are 28 Barbary Lane.” This was the address of Madrigal’s house, where the characters meet, fall in love and form lifelong friendships. In fact, the genesis of the musical could have come from the pages of Tales itself. Whitty came up with the idea five years ago on a flight to London. He called Moore who instantly said yes. “Jeff was passionate about it, and that’s all I needed.” Whitty then made a mixtape of songs that sounded like the kind of music he and Moore wanted; the only contemporary piece was by the Scissor Sisters, so he called up Shears. How did he get his number so quickly? “Oh, we met about 11 years ago when we were both go-go dancers,” Shears recalls airily. “He enjoyed pulling his clothes off and dancing on bar tops. The first time we met in New York, I was probably off my face and we both had half our clothes off.” “That,” Whitty says, “pretty much describes it. And we’ve turned it into art! No regrets ever!” The other person Whitty had to convince was his literary idol, Maupin. “I read Tales when I was 21, when I first moved to New York ,” he smiles. “I was so lonely. Those characters were my company.” So, nervously, he flew to San Francisco, where the writer lives. But instead of the “big box of crazy” he was worried about finding, “Armistead was so welcoming. We just got stoned within the first five minutes and that was it.” Maupin puts it somewhat more euphemistically: “Oh, we instantly clicked and spent about five hours gabbing.” Maupin took to Shears right away, “although it took a while to get past the eyes”. Had he been a Scissors fan? “Well, I’d heard Filthy/Gorgeous before, which I thought was grabby and fun.” On the day we meet, Shears happens to be wearing a loose vest top featuring a design by Tom of Finland , inventor of the macho gay image; he looks more like a Tales characters than the currently dressed-down actors do. “It’s always been my ambition to make a musical,” he says. “When Jeff said Tales, my heart started racing, and I thought, ‘I
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Chancellor defends his polices despite stuttering economy, saying he is providing ‘credibility, flexibility and stability’ George Osborne strongly defended his austerity measures on Monday, saying they would provide much-needed credibility and stability for the UK economy, amid growing criticism of his drastic spending cuts . The chancellor’s comments came ahead of an eagerly awaited verdict from the International Monetary Fund on the government finances at 1.30pm. The Confederation of British Industry will also deliver its verdict. In November, the IMF said the economy was “on the mend” and backed the deficit reduction programme, a mix of spending cuts and tax rises. But since then official figures have shown the economy flatlining over the fourth quarter of 2010 and first quarter of this year. Osborne defended his plans on BBC Radio 4′s Today programme, expressing confidence in the future of the British economy. “We have flexibility built into our plan. But what our plan provides is credibility where there was no credibility, stability where there was no stability, confidence that actually the British economy is getting its act together.” Some of Britain’s leading economists, including two former Whitehall advisers and two experts who had previously publicly backed the coalition’s cuts, have warned that the economy is too fragile to withstand the government’s deficit-cutting plans. But Osborne shrugged off the letter from more than 50 left-leaning academics to the Observer, which demands that the government pursue a plan B to boost jobs and growth. You can always assemble “leftwing academics” to criticise the government, he said, but they don’t necessarily represent “the consensus of opinion”. The OECD’s chief economist too has suggested that the chancellor should slow the pace of deficit reduction, having previously broadly backed the measures. Osborne claimed the remarks had been “overinterpreted” and insisted the head of the OECD had said Britain should not change course. The letter to the Observer was signed by experts including Jonathan Portes, the director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, who until February was chief economist at the Cabinet Office and Vicky Pryce, who was head of the government’s economic service before becoming a director at FTI Consulting. The signatories also include Professor John Muellbauer of Oxford University, an expert on the housing market who signed a letter to the Sunday Times last year supporting the Conservatives’ approach, and Tim Besley, a former Bank of England monetary policy committee member who orchestrated the letter. Budget deficit Economic growth (GDP) Economics George Osborne Economic policy IMF Julia Kollewe guardian.co.uk
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Soldier from 1st Battalion The Rifles killed by bomb while on patrol on Helmand is third UK soldier to die in three days A British soldier has been killed in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence has announced. The soldier, from the 1st Battalion The Rifles, was killed by an improvised explosive device on Sunday while on patrol in the Haji Kareen area of the Nahr-e Saraj (South) District of Helmand province. The death is the third announced in three days by the MoD. A Royal Marine, from 42 Commando Royal Marines, was shot dead on Sunday morning on patrol in the Nahr-e Saraj area, while Corporal Michael Pike, 26, from Huntly, Scotland, was fatally wounded by insurgents who attacked his patrol with guns and rocket-propelled grenades in the Lashkar Gah district of Helmand on Friday. Spokesman for Taskforce Helmand, Lieutenant Colonel Tim Purbrick, said: “It is with great sadness that I have to inform you of the death of a soldier from 1st Battalion The Rifles in the Haji Kareen area of the Nahr-e Saraj district in Helmand province. “The soldier was part of a foot patrol, supporting an Afghan National Security Forces operation to clear one of the last remaining insurgent safe havens in Central Helmand, when he was fatally wounded by an improvised explosive device. “Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends. “The family have been informed and have requested a 24-hour period before further details are released.” The latest incident brings the total number of UK military personnel who have died since operations in Afghanistan began in 2001 to 371. Cpl Pike died saving the lives of his comrades as he took on the enemy in a firefight, his men said. His friends and colleagues, from 4th Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Scotland, said he was killed “putting up a fight” and “saving the lives of the men he was devoted to”. They said the father-of-two was the epitome of a Highland soldier and would not have wanted his fellow soldiers to dwell on his loss. Cpl Pike, described as a “loving and caring family man”, leaves behind a wife, Ida, and two children, Joshua and Evelynn. His wife said: “My husband would want everybody to know that he died doing a job he loved and that he loved our children with all his heart and soul.” Cpl Pike, second in command of 2 Platoon, A Company, based at Check Point Pegasus, was on his second tour of Afghanistan. He was leading the patrol in the area of Pupalzay along Highway 601 when it came under attack. He fired back on the enemy and his colleagues praised his quick reactions which allowed them time to move out of danger. His platoon said in a joint statement: “He passed away doing the job he loved but he didn’t go down without putting up a fight. “He was suppressing the enemy in order to cover the lead wagon, the ground call sign and to allow other call signs to manoeuvre out of immediate danger.” And Lieutenant Robert Grant, 2 Platoon Commander, A Company, said: “The loss of Corporal Pike, one of the funniest, most life-affirming and professionally diligent men I have ever had the privilege to meet, strikes deep in to the heart and soul of all those who knew him. “An exceptional soldier and inspirational leader, Corporal Pike will be forever missed. “His death, saving the lives of the men he was devoted to, marks the tragic end of a life that has touched so many, so deeply that it seems almost unreal.” Afghanistan Military guardian.co.uk
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Rolling coverage of all the day’s political developments as they happen 9.02am: George Osborne didn’t have anything particularly new to say in his interview, but he did put on an audacious display of messenger shooting that should cheer government loyalists. I can’t remember the last time I heard a Tory minister clobber the BBC in an interview so robustly. Osborne defended his economic strategy but, in a rhetorical concession to the “plan B” merchants, he did insist that “flexibility” was already built into his plans. He also gave the impression that he’s expecting a thumbs up from the IMF when it publishes its verdict on the British e economy at 1.30pm. Here’s a full summary. • Osborne attacked the BBC for its negative coverage of the economy. It was refusing to report good news, he said: I’ve listened to news bulletins on your programme for the last year. Every time there is an unfortunate loss of jobs somewhere, a few hundred jobs, it’s on the news bulletin. I’ve not yet heard a single news bulletin that says 400,000 new jobs have been created over the last year. That just doesn’t appear on the news. Last week there was a disappointing manufacturing survey – it was on the news. Today, there is a more encouraging manufacturing survey – it’s not on the news. So I think what’s I’m asking for is a it bit of balance in the way we look at the British economy at the moment. He rejected the suggestion made before the interview started that he was “under pressure”. He said “many, many economists”, “many, many business organisations” and “all the international bodies” supported the government’s strategy. He said the comment from the OECD’s chief economist about the possible need for the government to slow the pace of defict reduction had been “over-interpreted” by the BBC. (This was unfair, because it was actually the Times that first carried the quote from Pier Carlo Padoan, the accuracy of which has not been challenged.) • Osborne defended his economic strategy. “The rock upon which the stability of the British economy rests at the moment is our credible fiscal plan,” he said. He also insisted that, although “leftwing academics” were criticising the government, that did not mean “that that is where the consensus of opinion is”. • He rejected claims that the economy was not growing. “It is not the case that all the data has shown there’s no growth in the British economy,” he said. “Actually we have seen employment rising, we have seen unemployment falling in recent months.” But he said he would like the economy to grow “even further”. • But he insisted that “flexibility” was already built into his economic strategy. Flexibility isn’t the same as having a “plan B” of the kind demanded by the experts who wrote to the Observer yesterday, but that fact that Osborne mentioned it suggests he does not want to be seen as too rigid. There is flexibility built into the plan that I announced a year ago… We’re talking about the structural deficit, so in other words we allow the automatic stabilisers to operate, which means that the economy can move up and down with the cycle, the government spending can move up and down with the cycle. We of course have an independent monetary policy committee and tighter fiscal policy gives the monetary policy committee greater freedom to operate monetary policy. We’re also planning to meet at the moment our mandate a year earlier – so we have flexibility built into our plan … This debate is quite binary … There’s an assumption that either you don’t do any cutting at all, or there’s my plan. My plan actually, I think, provides flexibility, but also stability and confidence. It’s flexible because it was very specifically designed to be cyclical. • He refused to say what the IMF would say about the British economy when it publishes a report on the subject at 1.30pm – although he sounded as if he was was expecting good news. The IMF was “the most independent of independent bodies,” he said. 8.17am: Montague asks whether Osborne will adapt his plan. Osborne says “flexibility” is built into his plan already. “Economic stablisers” will apply if growth is slower than expected, he says, adding: My plan provides flexibility, but also stability and confidence. His plan is flexible because it reflects the fact that the economy is cyclical, he says. Q: What’s your message to people? Should they be going out spending? Osborne says people need make their own decisions. And he returns to BBC-bashing. Whenever jobs are lost, that is on the news, he says. But he claims the BBC has not reported the fact that 400,000 jobs have been created. Q: Could it be worse ahead? That is not what the forecast says, Osborne replies. Q: But the spending cuts haven’t taken effect yet? Osborne says all the forecasts say the economy will grow. “That is good news.” The interview is over. I’ll post a summary soon. 8.14am: Sarah Montague, who is interviewing, says the OECD’s chief economist has suggested Osborne should slow the pace of deficit reduction. Osborne says the head of the OECD said Britain should not change course. He says the remarks from its chief economist were “over-interpreted” by the BBC. You can always assemble “leftwing academics” to criticise the government, he says, but that does not mean that they represent “the consensus of opinion”. He says businesses and families are enjoying lower business rates than they otherwise would be having because of the deficit reduction plan. That’s a “monetary stimulus”, he says. 8.12am: George Osborne is being interviewed now. He says the economy is growing. He would like it to grow faster, but it is growing. Q: Will the IMF endorse your plan? Osborne says he will not speak for the IMF. But it will be the first time the IMF has conducted an in-depth study into one of the five “systemic” economies in the world. Q: What are they going to say? Osborne say he will not speak for them, but they are one of the most independent bodies. 8.07am: It’s a busy start. George Osborne, the chancellor, is just about to give an interview to the Today programme. He will be responding to the economists and academics who wrote to the Observer yesterday saying he needs an economic “plan B”. And, after that, there’s plenty more to keep me busy. Here’s what’s coming up: 9.30am : Sarah Teather, the children’s minister, publishes the report from Reg Bailey on the sexualisation and commercialisation of childhood. As Patrick Wintour has reported, it will propose plans designed to stop retailers selling inappropriate clothes for pre-teens and to shield children from sexualised imagery across all media. Morning : Vince Cable, the business secretary, speaks at the GMB conference. As Polly Curtis reports, he will say that the government may tighten employment laws if the unions organise a wave of strikes this summer. 10am : Liam Fox, the defence secretary, speaks at the ConservativeHome conference. 11am : Andrew Mitchell, the international development secretary, speaks at the ConservativeHome conference. 1.30pm : The International Monetary Fund publishes a report on the British economy. 1.30pm : David Cameron has talks in Downing Street with the president of Romania. Afternoon : Ed Balls, the shadow chancellor, speaks at the GMB conference. 7pm : John Bercow, the Commons Speaker, gives a public interview to the Independent columnist Steve Richards. This will be out of my time, but I’m mentioning it because it sounds good and you may be interested. There are more details here . As usual, I’ll be covering all the breaking political news as well as looking at the papers and bringing you the best politics from the web. I’ll post a lunchtime summary at around 1pm, and an afternoon one at about 4pm. 8.07am: It’s a busy start. George Osborne, the chancellor, is just about to give an interview to the today programme. He will be responding to the economists and academics who wrote to the Observer yesterday saying he needs an economic “plan B”. And, after that, there’s plenty more to keep my busy. Here’s what’s coming up. 9.30am: Sarah Teather, the children’s minister, publishes the report from Reg Bailey on the sexualisation and commercialisation of childhood. As Patrick Wintour has reported, it will propose plans designed to stop retailers selling inappropriate clothes for pre-teens and to shield children from sexualised imagery across all media. Morning: Vince Cable, the business secretary, speaks at the GMB conference. As Polly Curtis reports, he will say that the government may tighten employment laws if the unions organise a wave of strikes this summer. 10am: Liam Fox, the defence secretary, speaks at a ConservativeHome conference. 11am: Andrew Mitchell, the international development secretary, speaks at the ConservativeHome conference. 1.30pm: The International Monetary Fund publishes a report on the British economy. 1.30pm: David Cameron has talks in Downing Street with the president of Romania. Afternoon: Ed Balls, the shadow chancellor, speaks at the GMB conference. 7pm: John Bercow, the Commons Speaker, gives a public interview to the Independent columnist Steve Richards. This will be out of my time, but I’m mentioning it because it sounds good and you may be interested. There are more details here. As usual, I’ll be covering all the breaking political news, as well as looking at the papers and bringing you the best politics from the web. I’ll post a lunchtime summary at around 1pm, and an afternoon one at about 4pm. George Osborne David Cameron Ed Balls John Bercow Andrew Sparrow guardian.co.uk
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