Survey shows high prices and hefty deposits means two-thirds of would-be first-time buyers are unlikely to buy a home in the next five years Two-thirds of potential first-time buyers have no realistic prospect of owning their own home in the next five years and lack the long-term saving mentality they need to get onto the housing ladder, according to a report on home ownership by one of the UK’s biggest mortgage lenders. Owning a home has been a priority for most Britons since the 1950s when living standards began to rise, but the Halifax says that the high cost of property, strict lending rules and unwillingness of non-homeowners to save a deposit have fundamentally changed the attitudes of younger people towards home ownership. In a survey of 8,000 people aged between 20 and 45, only 5% of those described by the Halifax as “Generation Rent” (those with no realistic prospect of getting on the housing ladder) are making spending sacrifices to save towards their first home. The remaining 95% have no spare cash, no interest in saving or are trying but failing to save. Almost half the people questioned predicted that Britain would become a nation of renters within the next generation. The report says that such a development would have far reaching consequences for the economy and living standards in Britain. As much of Britain’s wealth is tied up in housing, an increase in the rental sector could widen the wealth gap between homeowners and non-owners. It would also have an impact on retirement living standards, as less people would have the money in their homes to support their retirement and long-term care. A rise in renters would also lead to a more transient population – although good in terms of labour mobility, the phenomenon would not encourage the building of strong communities. However, the most immediate impact would inevitably be on the housing market. The report says: “In order for the market to remain sustainable, homeowners need to be able to move up the housing ladder. Without first-time buyers, there could be a standstill in the market as many people living in their first homes would not be able to move up the ladder without a first-time buyer purchasing their home.” London is the most difficult area for aspiring homeowners to buy in, thanks to the combination of the highest property prices in Britain and increasing rental costs, reducing the amount that can be saved towards a deposit. According to recent analysis by Findaproperty.com, first-time buyers who have no financial assistance from their parents will rent in the capital for an average of 31 years (from the age of 21, based on figures from the National Housing Federation) before buying their own home, spending £308,558 on rent. The average price of a home in London for first-time buyers is £257,249. The average time spent renting in England is 16 years, taking the average age of the financially unassisted first-time buyer to 37. The National Housing Federation predicts this could soon rise to 43 as more people struggle to raise deposits. Sarrah Laspa, a 29-year-old who has lived in London for seven years, regards rent as “wasted money” and would love to buy her own home, but has no disposable income left at the end of every month with which to save a deposit. She lives in Borough, a central area of south London, which is within walking distance of her legal publishing job and spends half her monthly income on rent. “I could live further out, but then I would have to pay for public transport which would negate the benefits of cheaper housing,” she said. “And being single, it would be pointless living in the middle of nowhere.” While the main barriers to home ownership are financial, the study found that many non-homeowners are deterred by fear of the mortgage application process, with 84% believing that banks do not want to lend to first-time buyers. Many worry that if their application for a mortgage is rejected by one bank, this would stay on their credit record and hinder further attempts to borrow. Stephen Noakes, commercial director of mortgages at the Halifax, says the bank will publish more information about the criteria used to assess applications and explain that failed applications do not have a long-term negative impact. Home ownership rates have remained virtually static at 70% since the 1990′s, but the number of first-time buyers has slumped in the last few years as property prices increased and lenders began to demand much bigger deposits. According to figures produced by the Council of Mortgage Lenders, 36,200 first-time buyers bought a home in the first quarter of this year compared to 43,600 in the first three months of 2010. But both figures are dwarfed by the 167,400 people who became homeowners at the peak of the market in the third quarter of 2001. The size of deposit required to buy a first home has soared. In 2000, a first-time buyer needed an average deposit of £9,865 or 14% of the property price, but this grew to an average of £28,770 or 21% of the property price by last year. Property Renting property Housing Housing market London Banks and building societies Banking Mortgage lending figures Mortgages First-time buyers House prices Jill Insley guardian.co.uk
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LadyAtheist says: Rep. Anthony Weiner's Twitter Account Hacked, Media Goes on Rampage – murphysbride: http://tumblr.com/x0n2rgdoo2
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Specialist CEOP unit arrests more than 500 suspects in most successful year since its creation in 2006 A record number of children have been rescued from immediate danger by a specialist police unit that targets online paedophile rings, it has emerged. More than 1,000 children have been safeguarded or protected, including 414 in the last 12 months, the Child Exploitation and Online Protection centre (CEOP) said as it published its annual review. In the latest case this month, 130 children in the UK were rescued after police smashed an international paedophile ring that distributed millions of indecent images and films to 46 countries. Peter Davies, CEOP’s chief executive, said the unit was making progress but warned the battle was far from over. “Crimes against children are for me the most horrendous crimes and too often the victim suffers in silence,” he said. “We need to encourage ever more reporting and understanding, we need to work to prevent the crime happening in the first place and we need to pursue the offender no matter how complex the methods they use to hide their activity.” Figures released on Monday show CEOP has dismantled more than 394 high-risk sex offender networks since it was set up in 2006 tasked with tracking online paedophiles and bringing them to court. Of these, a record 132 networks have been dismantled in the past year as the unit’s actions led to a record 513 arrests, taking the total number of suspected paedophiles it has helped arrest in the last five years to 1,644. In the latest case four men pleaded guilty at Nottingham crown court to various charges of making, distributing and possessing indecent images of children.The Lincolnshire police force, which led the operation, said it was the biggest paedophile ring of its kind in the UK and that 132 children had been “safeguarded” and a number of paedophiles had been removed from positions of trust, including jobs as teachers, doctors and youth workers. CEOP, which is currently affiliated to the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca), will be merged with the new National Crime Agency when it is formed in 2013. The move prompted its former head Jim Gamble to resign over concerns the shakeup was driven not by child protection but by a desire to cut the number of quangos. But, as well as retaining its own budget, Davies said the unit will keep “its own brand, its own approach and its own dedication to putting the safety and wellbeing of children first”. “I think today’s figures show that we are shining light into those dark places, we are bringing this crime more into the open and are working collectively with many others to break down the taboos and obstacles that stop children getting the help and support they need,” he said. “We can do that with confidence.” In her foreword to the report, the home secretary, Theresa May, added that the move will enable CEOP to “draw on wider resources and support to help keep even more children safe from harm in the future”. The unit’s annual review also sets out plans to “address the self-generated risk that children place themselves in, understanding and working in partnership to safeguard technological advances and focusing on specialist areas such as the trafficking of children and young people”, a CEOP spokesman said. Crime Child protection Police Children Theresa May Matthew Taylor guardian.co.uk
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Move prompted by mass protests against nuclear power following Japan’s nuclear disaster Angela Merkel has committed to shutting down all of the country’s nuclear reactors by 2022, a task said by one minister to be as mammoth as the project to reunite East and West Germany in 1990. Monday’s announcement, prompted by Japan’s nuclear disaster, will make Germany the first major industrialised nation to go nuclear-free in decades. It gives the country just over 10 years to find alternative sources for 23% of its energy. The move, hammered out at a mammoth 14-hour overnight sitting at the Bundestag, came amid mass nationwide protests against nuclear power and at a low point for the chancellor’s Christian Democratic party (CDU), support for which has crumbled at the ballot box in five regional elections this year. Although the proposal was welcomed among the general population, who have long been opposed to nuclear power, it was a move derided by one of Merkel’s own MPs as “knee-jerk politics”. The plan is to keep shut eight reactors which were suspended in March in the immediate aftermath of the Fukushima disaster, and to close the rest by 2022. The phase-out must be ratified in parliament and is likely to face strong opposition from utility companies. On Monday a spokesman for the energy giant RWE said that “all legal options” were on the table. Last week, grid operators warned the phase-out could result in winter blackouts – a prospect Merkel scoffed at . She insisted the decision would not lead to Germany simply importing nuclear power. “We will generate our own electricity from other sources,” the chancellor told a press conference in Berlin. She said the plans would give Germany a chance to be a “trailblazer” for renewable energy, suggesting it could eventually earn, rather than cost, the country money. Energy firms warned that the decision – a total policy reversal – would require significant investment in energy infrastructure. Philipp Rösler, new head of the FDP party, which rules in coalition with the CDU, agreed, likening the task ahead to that which faced Germany in 1990 after reunification. A study in 2009 showed that €1.3 trillion (£1.1tn) had been transferred from the West to rebuild the East. This comparison was also made in an editorial by the left-leaning Tageszeitung newspaper on Monday, which said Merkel’s decision was “historic” and “a moment like the fall of the Berlin Wall”. The government’s vocabulary seemed to consciously echo the reunification process, with Merkel heralding an “Energie-Wende” – “die Wende” is the word for change which became shorthand for the fall of communism and reunification. Die Welt, a conservative daily, said the policy U-turn demonstrated a “creeping rejection of the economic model which has transformed Germany into one of the richest countries in the world”. The French poured scorn on Germany’s decision. “Germany will be even more dependent on fossil fuels and imports and its electricity will be more expensive and polluting,” said the French industry minister, Éric Besson. German households pay twice as much for power than homes in France, where 80% of electricity comes from atomic plants, he said. Germany last year was a net exporter of power to France, according to data from the French grid operator, RTE. This trend was reversed last month after the accident at Fukushima and Merkel’s decision to halt Germany’s oldest reactors. “Germany’s energy policy will only work if there are improvements at the same time,” the EU energy commissioner, Günther Oettinger, said on Monday. He said there was a need for better grid infrastructure, storage capacity and forward planning as well as a more pronounced rise in renewable supply. Germany plans to cut electricity usage by 10% and double the share of renewable energy to 25% by 2020. Merkel first mooted an accelerated exit from nuclear power within days of the Fukushima meltdown, ordering a three-month “moratorium” during which nuclear power could be debated. It was a remarkable U-turn. In September 2010, she had committed to extending the lives of Germany’s 17 nuclear plants. Many of her party are unhappy with her handling of the situation. “Knee-jerk politics like the reaction to Fukushima does not pay dividends,” said Mike Mohring, the head of the CDU faction in the Thuringian state parliament, last week. Among other G8 nations, only Italy has abandoned nuclear power. Germany Europe Nuclear power Energy Nuclear waste Japan disaster Helen Pidd guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Kurtz Offers Clinton, Edwards and Spitzer as Examples of Media’s Balanced Coverage of Democrat Sex Scandals
May 30, 2011 No Comment
CNN media analyst Howard Kurtz on Monday offered Bill Clinton, John Edwards, and Eliot Spitzer as examples of how the press don't give Democrats the benefit of the doubt when it comes to sex scandals. Responding to questions about why the media have either ignored or taken sides on this weekend's brouhaha surrounding Congressman Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.), Kurtz sent the following absurd message via Twitter: My first thought was that this was sent at about 5 PM on Memorial Day. Maybe Kurtz was at a picnic and had a couple too many beers. After all, it is common knowledge that Newsweek's Michael Isikoff, who was working on the Paula Jones case for the magazine at the time, had the Monica Lewinsky story ready to go only to have it squelched by top editors. If Matt Drudge hadn't broken the story, America might never have found out what was going on in the Oval Office. Is this what Kurtz believes is an example of media not giving a Democrat the benefit of the doubt on a sex scandal? As for John Edwards, the National Enquirer first broke his sordid story in October 2007. It wasn't until July 2008 that mainstream media outlets thought it was newsworthy. By then, the junior senator from Illinois had already locked up the Democrat nomination for president. Many political observers believe that if the media had jumped on this story sooner thereby knocking Edwards out of the race, Hillary Clinton would have taken the majority of his votes in the caucuses and primaries defeating Obama. Is this also what Kurtz believes is an example of media not giving a Democrat the benefit of the doubt on a sex scandal? As for Eliot Spitzer, he now has his own show on the cable news network that also employs Kurtz. If Kurtz thinks this is the way conservatives are treated when caught with their pants down, one has to seriously wonder what the color of the sky is in his world.
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A highly addictive hallucinogenic has exploded on to South America’s drug scene, with devastating consequences The snakes come at night, darting out of the shadows and into Marcelo’s subconscious. “You start thinking, ‘There are people coming! The police are coming! A snake is coming! Everything is coming!’ You panic. But there is no snake. No police. There’s nobody there. There’s nothing. You’re just tripping out.” Marcelo is an illiterate 24-year-old drug addict whose home is a sliver of cardboard on the streets of Rio Branco, a riverside city in the Brazilian Amazon. His drug of choice is oxi, a highly addictive and hallucinogenic blend of cocaine paste, gasoline, kerosene and quicklime (calcium oxide) that is wreaking havoc across the Amazon region. Oxi, or oxidado – “rust” – is the latest drug to surface in the Amazon. It is reputedly twice as powerful as crack cocaine and just a fifth of the price. “It is terrifying,” said Alvaro Mendes, an outreach worker in Rio Branco from the state of Acre’s Harm Reduction Association, the NGO that first detected the drug. “The majority of first-time users become addicted on their first contact with the drug. Most of them go seven to 10 days without sleeping, without eating. They start to go into a process of degeneration. After months of use … they go into a state where they look like zombies, wandering … in search of pleasure.” Described as a cheaper and deadlier successor to crack, oxi sells for about R$2 (75p) a rock and is smoked in pipes improvised from cans, pieces of piping and metal taps. According to Mendes, whose support group works with slum-dwellers, prostitutes, transvestites and homeless people who are hooked on the drug, oxi can kill within a year. “The difference between cocaine and oxi is like the difference between drinking beer and pure alcohol,” said a federal police operative on the Peru-Brazil border, who refused to be named. Oxi surfaced in the Amazonian border region between Brazil, Bolivia and Peru in the 1980s, and is said to have been originally used by a small number of hippies who came to the region to experiment with ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic plant native to the Amazon rainforest. In the past five years, however, its use has exploded, particularly in the slums and rural communities of Acre state in the western Amazon, where it is peddled in street-corner drug dens known as bocadas . Mendes estimates there are at least 8,000 oxi users in Acre’s capital, Rio Branco, a city of 320,000 inhabitants. But oxi is no longer just an Amazonian drug. A series of recent suspected seizures in cities such as Sao Paulo, Brasilia and Rio de Janeiro have propelled it into the national headlines. Health workers and politicians warn of a
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Nearly 3,000 contracts awarded since January prompts Treasury to clamp down on ‘use it or lose it’ spending policy The coalition has contracted private companies at the rate of nearly £56.6m a day since January, according to a Guardian analysis of government documents that casts new light on the extent of Whitehall’s reliance on firms to do its work. Nearly 3,000 contracts have been awarded this year, including a burgeoning bill for the government’s reforms. They include unexpected costs arising out of the coalition’s “bonfire of the quangos”, new Whitehall advisers for “free” schools and contracts worth hundreds of thousands of pounds to help reform GP commissioning. The Department for Education has tendered for “lead advisers” to support its reforms in free schools and academies while the Audit Commission, scrapped by the government, has had to spend thousands more because of its stalled closure. There are four consultancy contracts to “aid the transition” to GP commissioning, a central part of the health bill. They are collectively worth up to £300,000. The government is conducting a so-called listening exercise during a natural pause in the legislation, which was set up in response to widespread opposition. The details emerged amid 2,849 contracts each worth more than £10,000 signed by ministers since the turn of the year, revealing for the first time the rate and pace of government outsourcing. On average contracts are being signed at a rate of £56.6m a day. There is some evidence of a spike in spending in the runup to the end of the financial year deadline of 1 April. In March there was a small increase in the number of contracts awarded, though their value was not significantly higher. The Treasury is known to have suspected that some departments were applying a “use it or lose it” policy to their spending, and even fined one department, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, £20m based on those suspicions. On the government’s busiest day, 4 April this year, it signed 79 contracts with a collective value of £242.8m. They included contracts for handheld radios at the Ministry of Justice, toilet maintenance in Forestry Commission parks and the dispensing of HIV medicines. The bulk came from a £200m plan for apprenticeships in support services for the forces, signed by the Ministry of Defence. The details of the four new NHS contracts to “aid the transition to GP commissioning” come after the Guardian revealed last month that David Nicholson, the chief executive of the health service, had written to his staff suggesting that they should “maintain momentum” for the planned changes, despite the consultation process that is under way and signs that the legislation will be substantially rewritten. The Department of Health said the listening exercise was genuine and the contracts were “not specific” to the legislation. “They are part of our ongoing work to support and engage frontline GPs. We do this regardless of current reforms, and have done for a long time,” it said. But John Healey, the shadow health secretary, said the contracts added to confusion over the government’s plans. “It’s been clear throughout the ‘pause’ period that the government will plough on with its NHS plans. The mixed messages we’re hearing from David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Andrew Lansley are merely another part of their mishandling of the NHS.” Private contracts Treasury and culture The Treasury spent £532,767 on desks for its Westminster offices, the contracts, which span the surprising and mundane, reveal. The new workbench-style tables will allow more people to work from the 1 Horse Guards Road grade II listed building as part of a project to reduce the costs of running the department and allow for hotdesking in future years. The spirit of the royal wedding seems to have inspired the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). Last month it tendered for a contract worth £50,000 to £100,000 for “decorative rope-work flagpole adornments” for ceremonial use on The Mall. The National Gallery tendered for a £22,000 reception for its trustees described as an “evening reception for guests who provide generous support for the gallery”. Audit Commission Ministers have been forced to pay thousands of pounds after the botched closure of the local government spending watchdog. Eric Pickles, the communities secretary, announced the commission’s abolition last August. It and it was on the list of the coalition’s “bonfire of the quangos”. S, ince then the closure date has slipped repeatedly and employees of the slimmed-down operation do not know its termination date. Government contracts show that after it scaled back its human resources, it reopened its graduate recruitment scheme when it became apparent it would last a little longer and so had to pay £30,000 to an outsourced firm to conduct its recruitment process. Separately, the Department for Communities and Local Government has this month awarded a £99,838 contract to the international consultants FTI Consulting to carry out a one-month research project into the future of local audit. School Olympics The DCMS is advertising for a commercial rights adviser to sell advertising and sponsorship for the school Olympics. The contract, tendered in April, invites people to bid to run the commercial operation, meeting all the expenses of the rights operation, and being remunerated on a payment-by-results model from a percentage of the income generated.It is understood that the culture secretary has expressed an interest in Sainsbury’s being involved. It comes just weeks after the Department for Education paid £10,000 for survey work to inform an independent review, which is under way, into the commercialisation and premature sexualisation of childhood. Liberal-Conservative coalition Conservatives Liberal Democrats Quangos Polly Curtis Simon Rogers guardian.co.uk
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Nearly 3,000 contracts awarded since January prompts Treasury to clamp down on ‘use it or lose it’ spending policy The coalition has contracted private companies at the rate of nearly £56.6m a day since January, according to a Guardian analysis of government documents that casts new light on the extent of Whitehall’s reliance on firms to do its work. Nearly 3,000 contracts have been awarded this year, including a burgeoning bill for the government’s reforms. They include unexpected costs arising out of the coalition’s “bonfire of the quangos”, new Whitehall advisers for “free” schools and contracts worth hundreds of thousands of pounds to help reform GP commissioning. The Department for Education has tendered for “lead advisers” to support its reforms in free schools and academies while the Audit Commission, scrapped by the government, has had to spend thousands more because of its stalled closure. There are four consultancy contracts to “aid the transition” to GP commissioning, a central part of the health bill. They are collectively worth up to £300,000. The government is conducting a so-called listening exercise during a natural pause in the legislation, which was set up in response to widespread opposition. The details emerged amid 2,849 contracts each worth more than £10,000 signed by ministers since the turn of the year, revealing for the first time the rate and pace of government outsourcing. On average contracts are being signed at a rate of £56.6m a day. There is some evidence of a spike in spending in the runup to the end of the financial year deadline of 1 April. In March there was a small increase in the number of contracts awarded, though their value was not significantly higher. The Treasury is known to have suspected that some departments were applying a “use it or lose it” policy to their spending, and even fined one department, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, £20m based on those suspicions. On the government’s busiest day, 4 April this year, it signed 79 contracts with a collective value of £242.8m. They included contracts for handheld radios at the Ministry of Justice, toilet maintenance in Forestry Commission parks and the dispensing of HIV medicines. The bulk came from a £200m plan for apprenticeships in support services for the forces, signed by the Ministry of Defence. The details of the four new NHS contracts to “aid the transition to GP commissioning” come after the Guardian revealed last month that David Nicholson, the chief executive of the health service, had written to his staff suggesting that they should “maintain momentum” for the planned changes, despite the consultation process that is under way and signs that the legislation will be substantially rewritten. The Department of Health said the listening exercise was genuine and the contracts were “not specific” to the legislation. “They are part of our ongoing work to support and engage frontline GPs. We do this regardless of current reforms, and have done for a long time,” it said. But John Healey, the shadow health secretary, said the contracts added to confusion over the government’s plans. “It’s been clear throughout the ‘pause’ period that the government will plough on with its NHS plans. The mixed messages we’re hearing from David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Andrew Lansley are merely another part of their mishandling of the NHS.” Private contracts Treasury and culture The Treasury spent £532,767 on desks for its Westminster offices, the contracts, which span the surprising and mundane, reveal. The new workbench-style tables will allow more people to work from the 1 Horse Guards Road grade II listed building as part of a project to reduce the costs of running the department and allow for hotdesking in future years. The spirit of the royal wedding seems to have inspired the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). Last month it tendered for a contract worth £50,000 to £100,000 for “decorative rope-work flagpole adornments” for ceremonial use on The Mall. The National Gallery tendered for a £22,000 reception for its trustees described as an “evening reception for guests who provide generous support for the gallery”. Audit Commission Ministers have been forced to pay thousands of pounds after the botched closure of the local government spending watchdog. Eric Pickles, the communities secretary, announced the commission’s abolition last August. It and it was on the list of the coalition’s “bonfire of the quangos”. S, ince then the closure date has slipped repeatedly and employees of the slimmed-down operation do not know its termination date. Government contracts show that after it scaled back its human resources, it reopened its graduate recruitment scheme when it became apparent it would last a little longer and so had to pay £30,000 to an outsourced firm to conduct its recruitment process. Separately, the Department for Communities and Local Government has this month awarded a £99,838 contract to the international consultants FTI Consulting to carry out a one-month research project into the future of local audit. School Olympics The DCMS is advertising for a commercial rights adviser to sell advertising and sponsorship for the school Olympics. The contract, tendered in April, invites people to bid to run the commercial operation, meeting all the expenses of the rights operation, and being remunerated on a payment-by-results model from a percentage of the income generated.It is understood that the culture secretary has expressed an interest in Sainsbury’s being involved. It comes just weeks after the Department for Education paid £10,000 for survey work to inform an independent review, which is under way, into the commercialisation and premature sexualisation of childhood. Liberal-Conservative coalition Conservatives Liberal Democrats Quangos Polly Curtis Simon Rogers guardian.co.uk
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Military to gain a new range of offensive options to defend critical installations around the country from cyber attacks The UK is developing a cyber-weapons programme that will give ministers an attacking capability to help counter growing threats to national security from cyberspace, the Guardian has learned. Whitehall officials have revealed that the UK needs to have a new range of offensive options, and not just bolster defences around the country’s critical services and government departments, which regularly come under attack from hackers. The armed forces minister, Nick Harvey, told the Guardian that “action in cyberspace will form part of the future battlefield”, and though he said cyber-weapons would not replace traditional weapons, he admitted he now regards them as “an integral part of the country’s armoury”. It is the first official acknowledgment that such a programme exists. Recognising that there is bound to be concern about when such weapons are used and who would sanction it, Harvey said they would be governed by the same rules that apply to the deployment of other military assets such as special forces. “We need a toolbox of capabilities and that’s what we are currently developing,” he said. “The circumstances and manner in which we would use them are broadly analogous to what we would do in any other domain.” He added: “Cyber is a new domain but the rules and norms, the logic and the standards that operate in any other domain … translate across into cyberspace. “I don’t think that the existence of a new domain will, in itself, make us any more offensive than we are in any other domain. The legal conventions within which we operate are quite mature and well established.” Though the nature of the weapons being developed remains top secret, it is understood that the Cabinet Office and the Cyber Security Operations Centre at GCHQ have taken the lead on the issue, and that in time there will be some input from the Ministry of Defence. The MoD recently appointed General Jonathan Shaw to head a defence cyber-operations group, and though he does not have an IT background, his experience as a battle-hardened commander from the Parachute Regiment will help refine what might be useful to the military. Shaw told the Guardian cyberspace represented “conflict without borders”. The potential damage caused by highly sophisticated computer viruses was underlined last year with the discovery of the Stuxnet virus, which successfully disrupted Iran’s uranium enrichment programme. The Iranians have accused the Israelis and the US of designing and deploying Stuxnet, which set some of their centrifuges spinning out of control. Experts have described the virus as being so complex and technically advanced that is “beyond any threat we have seen in the past”. “Someone had the intent to weaponise a virus,” said Ilias Chantzos, a security expert. Though Whitehall officials deny Britain had any involvement in the development of Stuxnet, its discovery added to the urgency of beefing up the country’s cyber-defences. Last year’s national security strategy made cyber-security a tier one priority, and an extra £650m was found for it in the strategic defence and security review (SDSR). Harvey told the Guardian that digital networks were now “at the heart of our transport, power and communications systems”, and this reliance had “brought the capacity for warfare to cyberspace”. “The consequences of a well planned, well executed attack against our digital infrastructure could be catastrophic … With nuclear or biological weapons, the technical threshold is high. With cyber the finger hovering over the button could be anyone from a state to a student.” Though Harvey did not specify where future threats might come from, he warned that “it would be foolish to assume the west can always dictate the pace and direction of cyber-technology”. He highlighted how China, for one, is developing “modern militaries and modern technologies”. The foreign secretary, William Hague, told a security conference in Munich in February that the Foreign Office had repelled a cyber-attack a month earlier from “a hostile state intelligence agency”. Sources told the Guardian at the time that the attack was believed to be from Chinese intelligence agencies . In his Munich speech, Hague called for agreement on “acceptable rules” for how countries behave in cyberspace. On Monday night General Graeme Lamb, a former director of UK special forces, told the Guardian that, if anything, the SDSR had not gone far enough in addressing the country’s potential vulnerabilities and should have been more radical. He said that the national security council should have stopped the MoD from committing “its resources towards a more traditional defence posture”. “The emerging threats we face are … breathtakingly complicated and far more sinister, far more deadly and far, far more likely [to be used]. Modern technology increasingly allows the individual to bring to bear industrial violence against our citizens previously the exclusive right of states … complacency has dulled our vision. This reality has for some time been creeping up on us.” Professor Peter Sommer, an expert in technology and security affairs, said that it would not be difficult for GCHQ and other agencies to recast what they were doing to defend against cyber-attacks into a first-strike capability. “Any nation which carefully researches cyber-attack methods for defensive purposes has all the knowledge required for offensive activity. You can also easily argue that a well-targeted attack is low-cost, readily deniable and saves lives by disrupting the enemy. The interesting question then becomes, what are the rules for deployment? “I suspect the UK will be borrowing from the doctrines which govern our special forces such as the SAS. It will all be covert but will stop at damaging civilians and assassinating heads of state. And the detailed rules will not be published.” He also warned that the UK was in danger of having “too many overlapping and competing agencies and initiatives”. Military Defence policy Hacking Viruses Data and computer security Nick Hopkins guardian.co.uk
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Blatter insists only ‘Fifa family’ can stop him winning re-election on day of high drama in the wake of corruption allegations Fifa’s president, Sepp Blatter, has faced down a barrage of criticism over corruption within football’s governing body and vowed that only “the Fifa family” could prevent him being re-elected unopposed on Wednesday . After a day of high drama in which Qatar threatened legal action against Fifa’s secretary general, Jérôme Valcke, for implying it had bought the right to host the 2022 World Cup, Blatter defiantly insisted there was nothing for Fifa to investigate. “Crisis? What is a crisis?” asked Blatter, the day after a presidential election candidate and a Fifa vice-president became the third and fourth of Fifa’s 24 most senior politicians to have been suspended from football over corruption allegations in the past six months. Blatter’s stubbornness has been reinforced by the knowledge that he will be elected unopposed for another term on Wednesday. The same congress of national federations will now be his judge, he claimed. “They will decide if I am a valid or a non-valid candidate, or if I am a valid or non-valid president.” There were some references to reforms Blatter intends to take up. One is for Fifa’s ethics committee to be strengthened. Blatter, alone on the press conference podium at Fifa headquarters, spoke of “all the devils who are in this game”. It is not a criticism that is likely to shake the support of his member organisations. But the lack of support among football fans for his 13-year stewardship of the world game was clear as “Blatter out” became the second most popular international trend on Twitter . Fans were responding to a day of extraordinary revelations at Fifa’s $100m (£61m) Zurich headquarters. An email leaked by the suspended Fifa vice-president, Jack Warner, had earlier apparently raised the most damaging allegations of corruption surrounding Qatar’s 2022 World Cup bid. In it, Valcke, Blatter’s closest aide as secretary general of Fifa, stated that Qatar had “bought the World Cup”. Qatar quickly denied the allegations. Hours later, Valcke issued his own clarification. “When I refer to the 2022 World Cup in that email, what I wanted to say is that the winning bid used their financial strength to lobby for support,” he said. “I have at no time made, or was intending to make, any reference to any purchase of votes or similar unethical behaviour.” Blatter, who as president has a statutory responsibility for the line management of Fifa’s secretary general, refused to express any view about Valcke’s explanation. “I don’t answer that question and I ask for your understanding,” he said. “You have received the Fifa general secretary statement. I am the president; I am only here to talk about the president.” Fifa’s reputation suffered a further blow with the emergence of photographic evidence of neat bundles of cash allegedly paid to the Bahamas Football Association by the Qatari former Fifa presidential candidate and president of the Asian Football Confederation, Mohamed Bin Hammam, in an effort to garner support for his election campaign. In an almost satirical touch, the money had been delivered in a brown envelope. Chuck Blazer, the American Fifa official who is the chief accuser of the two senior figures to have been suspended this week, stated when asked if he thought Fifa was corrupt: “I think individuals are.” Like Warner, however, Bin Hammam continues to attack the process that has led to his “temporary exclusion” from all football activity. Bin Hammam has stated his intention to appeal against the decision by the Fifa-appointed ethics committee to force him out of football while investigators carry out their own inquiries into the alleged activities of Warner and Bin Hammam. Blatter’s refusal to brook any criticism of his oversight of Fifa was put in relief by the public comments of Coca-Cola, a major sponsor. “The current allegations being raised are distressing and bad for the sport,” said Coca-Cola, adding its weight to the concerns raised by Adidas last week. “We have every expectation that Fifa will resolve this situation in an expedient and thorough manner.” Though those words may seem lightweight, they are a significant departure from the usual steadfast support Fifa sponsors demonstrate for the organisation. Usually, they separate their partnership with the World Cup from any controversy at Fifa House. Now, in a potentially strong coalition of interest forming against Fifa, world governments are joining the sponsors. In addition to the UK parliamentary inquiry into football governance, the Australian government – whose 2022 World Cup bid failed against Qatar’s – has also begun to express grave concerns. Newspapers in the Middle East even likened the situation in Fifa to the Arab spring that has unseated a number of governments in the region. “If governments try to intervene in our organisation then something is wrong,” Blatter conceded. Then he added: “I think Fifa is strong enough to deal with the problems inside Fifa. I am sure that the day after tomorrow at the congress we will prove we can solve the problems – if there are any – inside the congress.” Blatter made one apparently extraordinary admission. Under his presidency the annual revenues of football’s world governing body have grown to $1.3bn as it feasts on sponsors’ and broadcasters’ appetite for the World Cup. That presidency began in 1998, making his remark revelatory. “I have to say we had no problems until 1998; this was a modest Fifa – now we are a comfortable Fifa,” he said. Although ultimately he angrily left the press conference amid journalists’ heckles, nothing appears set to discomfit Blatter. Fifa Sepp Blatter Jack Warner Jérôme Valcke Mohamed bin Hammam Qatar Matt Scott David Conn guardian.co.uk
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