Labour leader urges prime minister to meet charities to discus cuts that will hit cancer patients David Cameron was urged to meet cancer charities after he insisted he would press ahead with welfare reforms that will see thousands of seriously ill people lose up to £100 in benefits as part of a wider cost-cutting measure. Cameron appeared to be only half-aware of the proposal contained in the welfare bill, and voted through the Commons on Wednesday night, when he was challenged at prime minister’s questions by the Labour leader, Ed Miliband. Cameron accused Miliband of raising the issue as a smokescreen to justify his decision to vote against the welfare bill. Miliband hit back, saying Cameron should apologise to cancer patients for dismissing their concerns, and insisted Cameron did not seem to be aware of the detailed measure in the bill even though it has been raised for months in parliament and the media. Showing an attention to detail and more spirit than in last week’s disastrous prime minister’s questions, Miliband’s performance cheered his backbenchers and quelled mutterings about his leadership. Complex changes to eligibility for Employment Support Allowance for some groups could result in as many as 7,000 cancer patients losing up to £94 a week in sickness benefit, the Macmillan cancer charity has claimed. The government is proposing to limit to 12 months the length of time someone placed in the Employment Support Allowance work-related activity group can receive ESA without being means-tested. Anyone put into the work-related group is deemed to be fit for some work. The means testing threshold is so low that a cancer patient could lose all ESA benefit if his or her partner earns more than £7,500 per year. Critics claim the proposal means cancer victims would lose benefits a year after chemotherapy if they were deemed to be fit for work. In the Commons Miliband challenged Cameron: “When the prime minister signed off his welfare bill, did he know that it would make 7,000 cancer patients worse off by as much as £94 a week?” Miliband insisted: “These are people who have worked hard all their lives, who have done the right thing, who have paid their taxes and when they are in need, the prime minister is taking money away from them,” he said. He told Cameron to “pause, listen and reflect” on welfare plans in the same way that he had on health reforms. Cameron responded: “All we see here is a Labour party desperate not to support welfare reform and trying to find an excuse to get off supporting welfare reform.” Labour’s criticism of the bill stemmed from Miliband’s “weak leadership of a divided party”, he said. An unusually animated Miliband described the comments as “an absolute disgrace, to describe talking about cancer patients in this country as a smokescreen”. Disability groups have been lobbying on the impact of the reforms on cancer victims for months including a letter from 29 charities to the Guardian in March. On Wednesday the Disability Consortium welcomed the way in which the issue had been raised by Miliband. Liam Byrne, the shadow work and pensions secretary, urged Cameron to meet the cancer charities so he could understand their concerns: “I would urge the prime minister even at this late stage, to sit down with Macmillan, charities and campaign groups to see if we can find a way to sort this out.” In practice a climbdown is likely when the bill reaches the Lords. Overall the changes to ESA eligibility are designed to save £1.2bn annually net, with cancer patients forming a tiny part of that saving. Downing Street said the 7,000 figure cited by Macmillan was a guesstimate, and insisted the reform would go ahead, claiming there was nothing wrong in reducing benefit from someone deemed to be fit for work a year after completing chemotherapy. Labour has proposed the benefit is retained for as long as two years. Chris Grayling, the employment minister, came under pressure in a round of TV interviews when he admitted that he did not know how many cancer patients would suffer. He insisted: “The reality is we have increased the money we provide, the number of people who are going through cancer treatment who receive support from the state who receive unconditional welfare support.” “I don’t recognise the 7,000 figure. Anything in that respect is pure guesswork and estimation.” Ciarán Devane, chief executive of Macmillan Cancer Support, said: “We want people who have paid into the system before becoming ill to receive ESA for as long as they are unable to work. We will be very disappointed if the government fail to make these changes. “If the government wants a benefits system which is ‘fairer’ they must not penalise cancer patients.” Welfare Ed Miliband David Cameron PMQs House of Commons Cancer Health Patrick Wintour guardian.co.uk
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British singer Joss Stone was not at home when two men were arrested outside on the suspicion of committing robbery and murder. (June 15)
Continue reading …New York is thisclose to legalizing same-sex marriage, and if the bill comes to the Senate floor Friday, many expect it to pass. Two Republican state senators declared support for the measure this week, leaving it just one vote shy of passage, the New York Times reports. Gov. Andrew Cuomo…
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If you thought a children’s book called Go the Fuck to Sleep couldn’t get any funnier, here’s the ultimate f-bomb thespian, Samuel L. Jackson, reading it. Werner Herzog is also voicing an audiobook version of the book. (via devour ) Tags: books Go the Fuck to Sleep Samuel L. Jackson video Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : kottke Discovery Date : 15/06/2011 07:06 Number of articles : 4
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Undercover police officer raises questions about decision to charge just 26 of the environmental activists arrested before power station protest Mark Kennedy , the undercover police officer who infiltrated environmental campaign groups, has offered to co-operate with an independent inquiry into aspects of his deployment, hinting he has potentially explosive information surrounding the prosecution of activists accused of planning to break into a power station. Kennedy, who spent seven years undercover, was among 114 activists who were arrested by Nottinghamshire police two years ago during a gathering at a school, hours before some of them planned to occupy Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station. Only 26 activists were ever charged with conspiring to commit trespass. The other 87 campaigners arrested were eventually released without charge, leading some to suspect that individuals were singled out for a malicious or political prosecution. In an interview with BBC Radio 5 Live , Kennedy said the inquiry into the controversy should be expanded to consider how police and prosecutors selected those who were charged. The director of public prosecutions, Keir Starmer announced the independent inquiry last week , two days after the Guardian revealed the Crown Prosecution Service was suspected of misleading courts over the collapse of a trial against six of the activists. A retired judge is expected to investigate allegations that prosecutors suppressed surveillance tapes secretly recorded at the school by Kennedy which may have exonerated the activists. Kennedy said the inquiry – which is the eighth official investigation into the controversy surrounding undercover police officers – should go further. “If I can contribute to the independent inquiry, then I have some confidence that those questions which are being raised might be answered,” he said. “I would be interested in seeing what the decision-making process was to [charge] those 26 people out of the 114,” he said. “That would be quite interesting. I think that is an important question that needs to be asked.” Asked if he had a “private theory” as to why only 26 were charged, Kennedy said he did have information that he would convey to the senior judicial figure running the inquiry. In another interview, Kennedy suggested that police planned to “fit up” the activists involved in the Ratcliffe protest. “There was a plan that, this time around, instead of charging people for the usual offences like trespassing and minor criminal damage, which involves going to a magistrates’ court and getting a conditional discharge or a small fine, they were going to set them up with conspiracy charges which were far more serious,” he said. Rebecca Quinn, who was one of the 114 but was not charged and is involved in the campaign group No Police Spies , said: “Kennedy implies that the 26 who were charged were not selected based on the evidence, but potentially something more political, taking us into very disturbing territory indeed. Any truly independent inquiry would have to look into this aspect of the case.” The trial of the six campaigners, who denied conspiring to break into the power station, was abandoned in January after defence lawyers began requesting disclosure about Kennedy’s operation. The CPS told the court that “previously unavailable information” that could assist the defence had come to light just two days earlier. The supposedly new information is now known to be a transcript of Kennedy’s secret recordings, which police say was handed over to prosecutors more than a year earlier. Kennedy said he was “quite surprised” at the CPS claim to only have become aware of the transcript in January, saying he believes they would have known about his deployment 18 months earlier. The other 20 activists who were charged accepted they planned to break into the power station, but told a jury they were acting to prevent massive carbon emissions. They were convicted in December, but are now challenging the verdicts at the court of appeal. Mark Kennedy Activism Police Paul Lewis guardian.co.uk
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Tank columns sent north to quell opposition cities while the president sends envoys to Turkey and hints at reform Thousands of civilians fled in panic as tank columns pushed into the north-west of Syria in an expanding military campaign against the protest movement. It came as Bashar al-Assad sent envoys to Turkey for talks, and also as the president prepared to deliver a televised speech promising reforms. Reports from Ma’arat al-Numan, on the road between Damascus and Aleppo, described armoured vehicles advancing while troops were deployed by helicopter, as loudspeakers on mosques broadcasting warnings. It was a similar story in the east, on the Iraqi border near Deir al-Zor and around Albu Kamal, where mass protests began last week. In the capital, thousands turned out for loyalist rallies as a pro-government website reported that the president was to address the nation on constitutional changes “within the coming hours”. Assad has spoken twice to the nation since the uprising began, but both times his intervention was seen as too little and too late. The president has not been seen in public since 19 May, but he is thought to be firmly in charge, while his brother, Maher, is overseeing military operations. The Syriasteps website reported that the constitutional changes to be mentioned by Assad could involve article eight, which guarantees the supremacy of the ruling Ba’ath party. In London and other western capitals, diplomats said that a UN resolution condemning Syria could be tabled with the support of 11 of the 15 members of the security council, challenging Russia and China to veto it. Efforts were focusing on Brazil, South Africa and India, which have voiced reservations about a resolution drafted by Britain, France, Germany and Portugal. In stark contrast to international action on Libya, the UN has so far failed to condemn the violence in Syria, in which an estimated 1,300 people have been killed in three months. The UN’s high commissioner for human rights repeated that Syrian security forces have used executions, mass arrests and torture to repress pro-democracy protests. Pressure was mounting on Damascus from neighbouring Turkey, where Syria’s foreign minister, Walid al-Muallim, and Hassan Turkmani, Assad’s national security adviser, were holding emergency consultations. Britain and the US have been urging Turkey to get tougher. The once close relationship between the neighbours has been tested by the thousands of refugees crossing the border into Turkey, fleeing Syrian forces in the Jisr al-Shughour area. Turkey’s tone has sharpened, with prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaking of Syrian “savagery”. Ankara’s concerns are over the spreading of unrest to Kurdish areas of Syria, and in preventing a new wave of refugees. In Damascus, streets were packed and traffic blocked as crowds headed to the main highway in the upper-class neighbourhood of Mezze for a pro-Assad rally. Text messages had been sent earlier in the week to alert people to join. Many seemed eager to be there, underlining the huge divide between those for and against the regime. Young boys sat on top of cars holding up portraits of Assad on placards, lorries carrying groups of people waving national flags beeped their horns, and women old and young wearing T-shirts featuring Assad’s face over the Syrian flag rushed towards the highway. Chants of “we will die for you Bashar” and “God, Syria, Bashar – that’s all!” rang out. In stark contrast to what happens at anti-regime demonstrations, police cordoned off the road and vendors sold flags, adding to a party mood. Ambulances and buses were nearby. “We love out president, he’s smart and does what’s best, which outsiders don’t understand,” said one man, in a sign that by using the rhetoric of outside threats, from both “armed gangs” and hostile governments, Syria’s government has succeeded in rallying some to its side. “We have security here,” said another. “Even the Iraqi refugees are telling us not to go down this route of protests.” State TV carried non-stop coverage of the rally, interviewing participants young and old, and showing off the unfurling of a national flag more than 2 kilometres long stretching down the length of the highway. Pro-Assad rallies have increased in the last week, especially in front of the French and Turkish embassies to protest their governments’ angry condemnations of the crackdown. While a fair amount of orchestration goes into such rallies, the president clearly does retain support, both among those who are convinced armed gangs are roving the country and those who know there are protests but are against them. Syria Middle East Arab and Middle East unrest Bashar Al-Assad Protest Ian Black guardian.co.uk
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A former porn actress says New York Rep. Anthony Weiner asked her to lie about their online communications. Ginger Lee spoke at a news conference Wednesday in Manhattan with celebrity attorney Gloria Allred. (June 15)
Continue reading …Rick Perry on His Unpopularity in Texas: ‘A Prophet is Generally Not Loved in Their Hometown’
June 15, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media Given a lot of Republican’s unhappiness with the current field of candidates for the GOP presidential nomination, as Karoli already pointed out , it looks like Governor “Good-Hair” Rick Perry of Texas is considering throwing his hat in the ring. During his first interview since hinting that he might be willing to run, Fox’s Neil Cavuto asked Perry about his unpopularity in his home state. As Think Progress noted, he got a rather bizarre answer out of him — Perry: Texans Don’t Like Me Because ‘A Prophet Is…Not Loved In Their Hometown’ : In his first national TV interview since presidential rumors surfaced, Perry answered Fox News’ Neil Cavuto question about why he’s so unpopular in his home state by suggesting he’s a “prophet”: CAVUTO: You have kind of like the Chris Christie phenomenon: very popular outside your state, still popular but not nearly as popular within your state. There are even Tea Party groups within your state who like you but don’t love you. What do you say? PERRY: I say that a prophet is generally not loved in their hometown . That’s both Biblical and practical. As they wrote in their post and as we’ve been following here at C&L as well , there’s a long list of reasons Texas voters might not be too thrilled with Perry. As the state’s longest serving governor in history, Perry has faced persistently low approval ratings as he’s pushed through a radical right-wing agenda that has left Texas with a record budget deficit, the third highest poverty rate in the country, and the highest percentage of uninsured residents in the country. As Think Progress has documented, Perry has a history of ducking tough questions by invoking religion, and has suggested in the past that he’s just implementing God’s will on Earth through his irresponsible governance. Perry may be answering Republicans’ prayers if he enters the race, but it’s still pretty self-aggrandizing to call himself a prophet.
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Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou offered today to step down and make way for a national unity government if the opposition agreed on a clear plan on how to proceed with reforms, government sources said. Papandreou must push through a new five-year campaign of tax rises, spending cuts and sell-offs of state property to continue receiving aid from the European Union and International Monetary Fund and avoid default. “Papandreou told (opposition leader Antonis) Samaras that if there is agreement on specific targets, reforms and commitments for the big changes that must take place, then he could agree on a government in which he would not be prime minister,” a government source said. “If…
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Walmart shoppers may have been able to get their hands on the phone a few days early but, as promised , everyone else can now snag the HTC Sensation 4G direct from T-Mobile. What’s more, while the list price is the same $200 we’d heard previously (on a two-year contract and after a $50 mail-in rebate), the carrier is also offering an additional $50 off for those that order online, which brings the final cost down to the same $150 that Walmart’s been selling it for. The phone itself, of course, is the same we’ve been seeing all along: a 4.3-inch qHD screen, 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor, and Android 2.3 with Sense. Hit the link below to get your order in if that sounds alright with you. [Thanks, Mike] HTC Sensation 4G now available at T-Mobile, $150 if you order online originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Jun 2011 16:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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