• Send your thoughts to gregg.roughley@guardian.co.uk • Look in on the FA Cup semi-final between Bolton and Stoke • And check all of today’s results and live scores here 21 min: Not very surprising news dept: Aurelio’s hamstring goes for the 457th time in his career and the 17-year-old left-back Jack Robinson replaces him. Jens Lehmann is five years older than Flanagan and Robinson combined! 19 min: “The boy Spearing, he looks a bit like he’s had Jim Fix It for him to play for Liverpool for the day. Odd lookin’ fella,” offers Steve Waterhouse. Walcott drifts over to the left and bursts past Carragher and plays a very dangerous ball in towards Van Persie, but Reina is electric off his line and gathers comfortably. 18 min: Arsenal are turning the screw. Van Persie whips in another fantastic free-kick towards Koscielny again after Aurelio gave away a free-kick on the right, but this time Skrtel leaps highest and clears the danger. 16 min: Arsenal hit the bar! Reina looks shaky again as he comes to punch clear a Van Persie corner, but the pace of the delivery catches him out and Koscielny gets to the ball before him and sends a powerful header thumping against the woodwork. 14 min: How good is Andy Carroll then. To answer Summer, in my opinion, Carroll is like a really powerful engine that’s full of dirt. Polished up a bit he could be very, very good. But, it’s still very early days in his career. 13 min: Arsenal are pressing Liverpool much more aggressively now. Reina is forced to clear long, with no options in midfield. 10 min: Reina spills a Walcott drive from 25 yards. At first look it looks like Reina has made a pig’s ear of it. At second look the ball swerves dramatically in mid-air and means Reina can only palm it away. Flanagan clears the danger. 9 min: Carroll gets his head to the corner but sends it high over the bar. On a second look at the Spearing penalty claim it looks like he had a good shout. Djourou’s tackle was clumsy, his knee knocking Spearing into, and then over, Carroll. “How good is Andy Carroll,” asks Summer Hayles. That’s a big one for an MBM Summer. 8 min: Corner for Liverpool. 7 min: It’s been a racey start this. Both teams moving the ball quickly on the floor. 5 min: Jay Spearing (he’s an odd looking lad isn’t he? Like David Thompson and an egg had relations) appeals for a penalty after Suarez crosses towards Andy Carroll and the midfielder latches on to the knockdown, but it looks like he trips over Carroll if anything. Suarez then wins a free-kick and sends it tamely into the arms of Szczesny from 25 yards. 3 min: Arsenal win a free-kick on the left. Nasri whips a brilliant ball in towards the penalty spot, where Diaby leaps highest and sends the ball scooting a foot past Reina’s right-hand post. It was a perfectly-weighted ball from Nasri. 2 min: “Stan Kroenke. All that money and he can’t afford a decent wig. How unfortunate.” Oh you cruel man Luke Stevenson. Arsenal set the early tempo, with Fabregas and Wilshere combining in midfield to set Walcott off down the right, but Aurelio makes a decent tackle. He’s fit today, so goes the rumour. He’s never really fit though. Aurelio that is. 1 min: We’re off. Liverpool win an early free-kick after a late tackle by Samir Nasri. 4.02pm: Impeccably observed. It’s time for kick-off. 4.01pm: There’ll be a minute’s silence for Danny Fitszman, the former Arsenal board member and visionary, who died this week, and for the 96 Liverpool fans who lost their lives against Nottingham Forest at Hillsborough in the FA Cup semi-final in 1989. 3.59pm: “This title race needs a back pass from Carragher I think,” offers Jake Watson building up to something. “It’s a shame Gerrard isn’t playing today as he did a wonderful job of stopping Man United winning the title last season .” 3.56pm: Hmmm. For those who are wondering, I’m afraid the auto-update button isn’t working so you’ll have to hit F5 or really stretch yourself and use your mouse to hover over refresh and click it. I can assure you I have it switched on but technical gremlins have effed it up. 3.52pm: Djourou has recovered very quickly from his dislocated shoulder. I imagine Carroll will test his fitness out to the fullest today. An unfit Djourou is still less dodgy than Squillaci, I suppose. Although that’s not saying much … 3.50pm: Here’s Gary Naylor … “Liverpool don’t miss Steven Gerrard do they? When King Kenny played, he was a huge individual talent who, through his positioning, movement and vision, made everyone around him play better. When his successor as captain plays, he is a huge individual talent who, through his positioning, movement and vision, makes everyone around him play worse.” Against Manchester United Gerrard brought the best out of the players around him Gary, largely because he was carrying an injury and held his position in a holding role. So, I kind of agree with you. Perhaps next season he may be more disciplined as age and injury start to rob him of his mobility. 3.43pm: “Great to see you MBMing a Liverpool game Gregg! Thought that MBMs might have to declare their allegiance and be allowed to officiate neutral games only, as happens with refs (in England, up here in Scotland refs are free to be secret Masons, Knights of St.Columba etc and so on),” writes Ryan Dunne. “As for Liam Gallagher: surely being like Austin Powers is a step up from being in a band that aimed to be The Beatles and ended up as Status Quo?” Erm. Surely you’re not suggesting I might have some kind of preference for one team over another today Ryan. What an earth could make you think that? 3.38pm: John Bishop’s got ridiculously LA teeth. He’s from Runcorn. Nobody in Runcorn has teeth that white. 3.33pm: Musical hilarity section: When did Liam Gallagher become the new Austin Powers? 3.29pm: An early email: “As much I would enjoy seeing Arsenal really pushing United to the very end, I just don’t think they’ve got the bottle,” writes Rob Cobourne. “Liverpool are in fairly good form and I think Arsenal will crack under the pressure today before winning a couple at the end of the season when it’s too late. Suarez to star in a 2-1 Liverpool victory… bye bye record league titles!” 3.28pm: If Liverpool do win it will be bittersweet for many fans, as they’ll effectively be doing that funny brushing thing they do in curling to allow Manchester United a smooth run through to a record 19th title. This could be a very narrow match. Arsenal will likely line-up in a 4-3-2-1 formation with Walcott and Nasri as the wide men drifting inside to support Van Persie. Meireles and Kuyt won’t give Liverpool much width either hence my prediction of a tight 1-1 draw. Liverpool are unchanged from the match against Manchester City in a likely 4-4-2 formation with Suarez just behind Carroll. They have the 18-year-old John Flanagan at right-back again. He did very well on his debut last Monday but he’ll need every high-pitched squeel of advice from Jamie Carragher as he comes up against Arsenal’s best player this season, Samir Nasri. Teams Arsenal: Szczesny, Eboue, Koscielny, Djourou, Clichy, Diaby, Wilshere, Walcott, Fabregas, Nasri, Van Persie. Subs: Lehmann, Song, Squillaci, Arshavin, Gibbs, Chamakh, Bendtner. Liverpool: Reina, Flanagan, Carragher, Skrtel, Aurelio, Kuyt, Spearing, Lucas, Meireles, Suarez, Carroll. Subs: Gulacsi, Cole, Kyrgiakos, Maxi, Ngog, Shelvey, Robinson. Referee: Andre Marriner (W Midlands) Preamble If Arsenal win today they close the gap to Manchester United to four points. Beat Spurs at White Hart Lane on Wednesday and they’re only a point off the top with Bolton at the Reebok sandwiched between United’s visit to the Emirates on 1 May, a match in which they can show the world that they do have the balls to win the title but probably won’t because they’ll probably draw with Liverpool, beat Spurs and lose away at Bolton beforehand . Anyway, much has gone on since Arsenal drew with Liverpool 1-1 on a balmy sunny day at Anfield last August: Javier Mascherano has taken his hairy legs to Barcelona, Crazy Jens is back at the Emirates, Roy Hodgson was a Liverpool manager for 48 seconds, someone was shot dead for eating popcorn too loudly , Jack Wilshere proved that Englishmen can pass, Kenny Dalglish set a new Dubai to Liverpool world record, Colonel Gaddafi proved once and for all that he is definitely more cranky than Sir Alex Ferguson, Fernando Torres made himself about as popular on Merseyside as the Tories, and as for them … let’s not go there. But for all that, I reckon the score will be exactly as it was on the opening day: Arsenal 1-1 Liverpool The greatest ever Arsenal v Liverpool match: Final score 11-10 Premier League Arsenal Liverpool Gregg Roughley guardian.co.uk
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Lib Dem MP John Hemmings fears reporters could face imprisonment simply for asking questions, creating a ‘recipe for hiding miscarriages of justice’ An MP who is launching an inquiry into excessive and possibly unlawful court secrecy says a new type of gagging order is hampering the work of investigative journalists. John Hemming said the new breed of injunction, which was used in relation to a case in the high court in London last week, meant journalists could face jail simply for asking questions. “This goes a step further than preventing people speaking out against injustice,” said Hemming, the Liberal Democrat MP for Birmingham Yardley and a longtime campaigner against secrecy . “It has the effect of preventing journalists from speaking to people subject to this injunction without a risk of the journalist going to jail. That is a recipe for hiding miscarriages of justice.” Hemming has labelled the new gagging order the “quaero injunction” after the Latin word “to seek”. “It puts any investigative journalist at risk if they ask any questions of a victim of a potential miscarriage of justice … I don’t think this should be allowed in English courts.” There has been growing concern over the use of gagging orders in UK courts. It is not known precisely how many superinjunctions have been issued, but an informed legal estimate is that as many as 20 have been granted in the UK over the last 18 months. In the most notorious case, the oil trader Trafigura last year briefly obtained a superinjunction against the Guardian to suppress a leaked report on its toxic waste dumping, which even prevented reporting proceedings in parliament. Earlier this month, Hemming highlighted a new type of hyperinjunction which forbids the recipient talking to their MP. He says he is now launching an inquiry in parliament into excess court secrecy and is planning to collect a range of gagging orders that he will then analyse and present to the justice select committee in a number of “parliamentary petitions” later this year. “What is clear is that almost all of the superinjunctions and hyperinjunctions have no public judgment,” Hemming said. “That means that they are not compliant with the rules for a fair trial. There is also the question as to whether there should be an automatic time limit on an interim order. Many cases have an interim order and no final hearing. This is clearly wrong. “We also need to know what the costs are both for the applicant and for the media in defending these orders. It is wrong to have a system whereby people can buy the sort of justice they want. That is a contravention of clause 29 of Magna Carta 1297, which is still in force.” Hemming is asking anyone who is subject to a gagging injunction that they would like to be included in the review to forward the information to him at the House of Commons. Media law House of Commons Liberal Democrats Freedom of speech Freedom of information Press freedom Newspapers & magazines Newspapers Matthew Taylor guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Lib Dem MP John Hemmings fears reporters could face imprisonment simply for asking questions, creating a ‘recipe for hiding miscarriages of justice’ An MP who is launching an inquiry into excessive and possibly unlawful court secrecy says a new type of gagging order is hampering the work of investigative journalists. John Hemming said the new breed of injunction, which was used in relation to a case in the high court in London last week, meant journalists could face jail simply for asking questions. “This goes a step further than preventing people speaking out against injustice,” said Hemming, the Liberal Democrat MP for Birmingham Yardley and a longtime campaigner against secrecy . “It has the effect of preventing journalists from speaking to people subject to this injunction without a risk of the journalist going to jail. That is a recipe for hiding miscarriages of justice.” Hemming has labelled the new gagging order the “quaero injunction” after the Latin word “to seek”. “It puts any investigative journalist at risk if they ask any questions of a victim of a potential miscarriage of justice … I don’t think this should be allowed in English courts.” There has been growing concern over the use of gagging orders in UK courts. It is not known precisely how many superinjunctions have been issued, but an informed legal estimate is that as many as 20 have been granted in the UK over the last 18 months. In the most notorious case, the oil trader Trafigura last year briefly obtained a superinjunction against the Guardian to suppress a leaked report on its toxic waste dumping, which even prevented reporting proceedings in parliament. Earlier this month, Hemming highlighted a new type of hyperinjunction which forbids the recipient talking to their MP. He says he is now launching an inquiry in parliament into excess court secrecy and is planning to collect a range of gagging orders that he will then analyse and present to the justice select committee in a number of “parliamentary petitions” later this year. “What is clear is that almost all of the superinjunctions and hyperinjunctions have no public judgment,” Hemming said. “That means that they are not compliant with the rules for a fair trial. There is also the question as to whether there should be an automatic time limit on an interim order. Many cases have an interim order and no final hearing. This is clearly wrong. “We also need to know what the costs are both for the applicant and for the media in defending these orders. It is wrong to have a system whereby people can buy the sort of justice they want. That is a contravention of clause 29 of Magna Carta 1297, which is still in force.” Hemming is asking anyone who is subject to a gagging injunction that they would like to be included in the review to forward the information to him at the House of Commons. Media law House of Commons Liberal Democrats Freedom of speech Freedom of information Press freedom Newspapers & magazines Newspapers Matthew Taylor guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Peggy Noonan Pretends That Birthers Only Make Up a Small Part of the GOP Base
April 17, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media While discussing whether this birther nonsense is ultimately going to harm the Republican Party once their presidential candidates get through the primary race and have to start campaigning in the general election, Peggy Noonan did her best to downplay just how much of the Republican base believes that Barack Obama was not born in the United States. She also tried to blame the media for “whipping up” the story to make the conservative base look bad. NOONAN: I think it is an issue that speaks to a small but passionate part of the anti-Obama base. I’m a little surprised over the years at how it’s taken off. I think Donald Trump has taken to whipping it up and so people talk about it. But I don’t think that it is a serious issue that will make anybody feel pro or anti-Obama. It doesn’t change anything. It’s too bad that no one on the panel asked Peggy Noonan if she’d seen this recent report from Public Policy Polling : Birthers make a majority among those voters who say they’re likely to participate in a Republican primary next year. 51% say they don’t think Barack Obama was born in the United States to just 28% who firmly believe that he was and 21% who are unsure. The GOP birther majority is a new development. The last time PPP tested this question nationally, in August of 2009, only 44% of Republicans said they thought Obama was born outside the country while 36% said that he definitely was born in the United States. If anything birtherism is on the rise. And I’d love for her to explain why Donald Trump is seeing a huge rise in the polls since he started going out there spouting this birther nonsense — Obama Birth Certificate Issue Turns Trump into Big Problem for GOP : The Barack Obama birth certificate controversy may or may not impact the 2012 election. Since those outside of the tea party aren’t focused that much on the birth certificate — or alleged lack thereof — it probably won’t get anyone elected president. However, the Republican primary is only for GOP voters, so if the issue is going to resonate, it would do so there. As such, new numbers about Donald Trump’s rise in the polls, after outing himself as a “birther” send a troubling message to the mainstream GOP. Republicans as a whole are being blamed for the issue, as asking these questions about Obama strikes many as racist. But most Republican candidates who aren’t tea party icons aren’t touching it since they know it is unlikely to come off well in a wider presidential election. Yet it now seems it can help someone in a Republican primary, however. Rather than acknowledge that the problem is the wingnut Republican base and their primary voters, Noonan blames the media. NOONAN:I think birthers stuff is confined mostly to people who really hate Obama and it’s their number four reason for hating him. Do you know what I mean? They’ve sort of got a list and it’s part of the list. But it’s not this positive for anybody. I often think that the mainstream media whips it up because it makes the conservative base look bad. Yeah, that’s the ticket. It’s a plot by that evil liberal media that wants to attack conservatives. Sorry Nooners, but they’re doing a good enough job of that own their without any help. Scarborough went on to complain about how unfairly all of those poor TeaBirchers out there protesting were being treated compared to the evil dirty hippie union thug protesters. Scarborough thinks his show is the only place that showed offensive signs from the union rallies and that the media only focused on showing signs from the “tea party” protests. Apparently he doesn’t watch Fox. And no one had to make an effort just to find at few offensive signs at those “tea party” rallies. They were all over the place.
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ABC to axe two of its longest-running daytime soaps and replace them with ‘lifestyle’ programmes featuring reality TV stars All My Children has survived Vietnam, abortion, teen prostitutes, murder and cocaine addiction. Erica Kane, the soap’s biggest star, has seen off 10 husbands and once took on a grizzly bear while dressed as a nun. Now the 41-year-old show has met its match – in reality TV. ABC is to abandon All My Children and rival daytime soap opera One Life To Live, two shows that have been running for a combined 83 years, this summer. They will be replaced by “lifestyle” programmes starring hosts made famous in reality TV shows. Only four daytime soaps will remain, down from 20 in their heyday. The remaining programmes – General Hospital, The Bold and the Beautiful, The Young and the Restless and Days of Our Lives – are slashing costs as audiences desert them for increasingly popular reality shows such as Jersey Shore. Lynn Leahey, editor of Soap Opera Digest, said the news was “very painful”, adding that changing demographics were partly to blame. “Women are not at home in the same numbers they used to be … Mothers used to pass the soap-watching bug on to their daughters – that just doesn’t happen now. “Facebook is the new soap. It gives you that same sense of intimacy, of catching up with people’s lives, seeing their weddings, their children being born and growing up, that people got from soaps.” Kelly Ripa, one of the biggest US television stars, got her break in All My Children. She said she felt “heartsick” at the news. “All My Children was more than a job,” she said. “It was my family. It was there that I met my husband, it was there when my first two children were born, it was there where I met many of my lifelong friends.” Other stars showed their anger after they were reportedly told the news via texts and calls from journalists. “If you’re not an over-tanned guido who gets drunk and punches someone in the face where do you fit into television any more?” one star said on Fox News. Soap operas began in the 1950s as vehicles for advertisers, including soap companies, to pitch their wares to stay-at-home mothers. They had their heyday in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when their stars were some of the biggest names in the US, inspiring night-time successes like Dallas and Dynasty. When General Hospital’s “supercouple”, Luke and Laura Spencer, got married in 1981, 14 million people tuned in to watch. Hollywood heartthrob James Franco recently did an eccentric stint on GH, but even his star wattage could not drag the show out of the emergency room. It now averages between 2.5 million and 3 million viewers, while the latest season of Jersey Shore debuted with 8.45 million. Soaps as a springboard Footloose star Kevin Bacon, to whom everyone is related by six degrees of separation, got his big break as teenage alcoholic TJ Werner in Guiding Light, America’s longest-running soap opera, which was cancelled in 2009. Julianne Moore, fashion plate, constant Oscar runner-up and star of The Hours, The Kids are Alright, Magnolia, etc, played troubled sisters Frannie and Sabrina Hughes (both of them) in As the World Turns. The show was axed last year. Before Top Gun, When Harry Met Sally and Antonio Banderas, Meg Ryan was Betsy Stewart Montgomery Andropoulos in As the World Turns. Tommy Lee Jones, the Men in Black hardman and former Harvard pal of Al Gore, got his first lead role as the murderer, adulterer and blackmailer Dr Mark Toland on One Life to Live. Demi Moore played ace reporter Jackie Templeton on General Hospital in 1982. Just long enough for Hollywood to spot her and launch a career that started with St Elmo’s Fire and Ghost and ended with Ashton Kutcher. US television Television US television industry Television industry Soap opera Drama Dominic Rushe guardian.co.uk
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Vincent Nichols, the archbishop of Westminster, says the government must not wash its hands of its responsibilities The head of the Roman Catholic church in England and Wales has said David Cameron’s “big society” has no teeth and must not be used to mask cuts. Vincent Nichols, the archbishop of Westminster, said the government must not “wash its hands” of its responsibilities, indicating the substantial unease among church leaders who fear that the new political emphasis on communities acting for themselves may hit the poor hardest. The archbishop said the prime minister’s project was at a critical stage. “It is all very well to deliver speeches about the need for greater voluntary activity, but there need to be some practical solutions,” said Nichols. “At the moment the big society is lacking a cutting edge. It has no teeth,” he told the Sunday Telegraph . Nichols, like the Anglican archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, has spoken of the potential of the big society, with its emphasis on handing greater responsibility to communities. The government’s localism bill , introduced last December, gives them influence over council tax increases and the option of taking over state-run services. Nichols warned however: “Devolving greater power to local authorities should not be used as a cloak for masking central cuts. It is not sufficient for the government, in its localism programme, simply to step back from social need and say this is a local issue. “We’re now at a very critical point, with the philosophy of the big society getting clearer but on the other hand the effects of the cuts becoming real, and there’s real pressure about what will happen on the ground.” Nichols added that “a government cannot simply cut expenditure, wash its hands of expenditure and expect that the slack will be taken up by greater voluntary activity”. “The poorest are taking the biggest hit while at the same time you see huge bank bonuses and profits and this is not right,” he said. The archbishop expressed his disappointment with the last Labour government in a previous interview with the Sunday Telegraph last year, saying it was “too overarching”. He said that “in attempting to create a state that provided everything, it ended up losing touch with the people it was trying to serve”. The Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude said the government was “upfront about the need for cuts” and was ready to launch more “tools” such as the big society bank and training for 5,000 community organisers. Rowan Williams warned last summer that the big society must not be used as a smokescreen for cuts and the bishop of Leicester, Tim Stevens, made a similar point in December, saying the Church of England would not “collude in government neglect” . However, Williams also said in a lecture last month that the big society represented “an extraordinary opportunity” even if it had “suffered from a lack of definition about the means by which ideals can be realised”. This meant big society rhetoric was “all too readily heard by many as aspirational waffle designed to conceal a deeply damaging withdrawal of the state from its responsibilities to the most vulnerable. But cynicism is too easy a response and the opportunity is too important to let pass.” Catholicism Public sector cuts David Cameron Christianity Religion James Meikle guardian.co.uk
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This may sound like Abbott & Costello doing their famous “Who’s On First” routine, but it’s not. No, it’s actually Colorado Rep. Cory Gardner grilling EPA Assistant Administrator Mathy Stanislaus. Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : I Hate The Media Discovery Date : 15/04/2011 19:42 Number of articles : 4
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Tepco reveals two-stage process to bring Fukushima plant under control but would not say when evacuees can return home The company at the centre of Japan’s nuclear crisis has said it hopes to bring the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant under control in six to nine months, but could not say when tens of thousands of people forced to evacuate the area would be able to return home. In the first indication of how long the operation to stabilise the plant will last, the Tokyo Electric Power Company [Tepco] revealed on Sunday a two-stage process it hopes will end with the safe “cold shutdown” of the plant’s stricken reactors. Tepco’s announcement came as the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, arrived in Tokyo to pledge Washington’s support for Japan as it recovers from the worst disaster in its postwar history. “Economically, diplomatically and in so many other ways, Japan is indispensable to global problem-solving,” she said. “We are very confident that Japan will recover and will be a very strong economic and global player for years and decades to come.” Clinton pledged “steadfast support” for Japan in the face of “a multidimensional crisis of unprecedented scope”. Japan and the US announced the creation of a public-private partnership to spearhead the reconstruction effort. “We wish to enhance co-operation between Japan and American businesses,” Clinton said. Tepco officials said the two most urgent tasks were to prevent hydrogen explosions at three of the plan’s six reactors, and to secure storage for tens of thousands of tonnes of contaminated water that has built up in turbine buildings. The firm had been pumping low-level radioactive water into the sea, angering neighbouring China and South Korea. It said it would need three months to achieve a steady reduction in radiation, and another three to six months to bring levels firmly under control. “We will do our utmost to curb the release of radioactive materials by achieving a stable cooling state at the reactors and spent fuel pools,” Tepco’s chairman, Tsunehisa Katsumata, told reporters. “The company has been doing its utmost to prevent a worsening of the situation. We have put together a roadmap and will put all our efforts into achieving these goals.” The prime minister, Naoto Kan, welcomed Tepco’s roadmap as “a small step forward”. Earlier, he said in a newspaper editorial that last month’s natural disasters and the ensuing nuclear crisis presented Japan with “a precious window of opportunity to secure the ‘Rebirth of Japan’”. Tepco warned that plans to stabilise the plant were subject to “various uncertainties and risks”, and was unable to give a time frame for the return of evacuees. The trade minister, Banri Kaieda, suggested that some residents would be able to return as soon as the operation to stabilise the plant had ended. But Katsumata, who admitted he was considering resigning over the crisis, said only that he hoped people would be able to return “as early as possible”. Tepco said it would monitor radiation levels in affected towns and villages once the plant has stabilised and liaise with the government about a possible lifting of the evacuation order. Pressure has mounted on Tepco and the government to give evacuees an idea of when they might be able to return to their homes. At the weekend, Kan was quoted as suggesting that they may have to wait as long as 10 or 20 years. He later insisted he had been misquoted. “We would like to present the facts to help the government make a judgment and provide an outlook on when evacuees can go home,” Katsumata said. Japan disaster Japan Nuclear power Energy Hillary Clinton US foreign policy Justin McCurry guardian.co.uk
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Engineers continue to tackle problems caused by scrapyard fire as thousands flock to capital for FA Cup semi and marathon A seven-mile stretch of the M1 southbound into London may remain closed until Monday morning, forcing thousands of football fans travelling to London for the second FA Cup semi-final on Sunday to take other routes. Only one lane northbound was open as engineers continued to tackle the problems caused by a fire in a scrapyard early on Friday. A second influx of football supporters from Bolton and Stoke follows those who watched the Manchester derby at Wembley on Saturday while thousands more people have come to watch the London marathon. The Highways Agency said urgent repairs were needed before the rest of the motorway could be reopened. “The viaduct does need to be reinforced before it can carry the weight of traffic and we are putting in supports so we can reopen the road as soon as possible,” said a spokesman. “At the same time we are continuing our investigations to determine what remedial work needs to be carried out.” A number of gas cylinders were involved in the blaze and a hazard zone was set up in case they exploded in the heat, London Fire Brigade said. Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson had complained about the matches being held in London soon after the draw was made, saying the decision to make four northern clubs play in the capital was “quite incredible”. Transport FA Cup London Marathon James Meikle guardian.co.uk
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