Report says archaic intellectual property laws obstruct innovation and economic growth, particularly online Professor Ian Hargreaves has made 10 major recommendations to free-up restrictive intellectual property and copyright laws that “obstruct innovation and economic growth in the UK”. Hargreaves, who has today published the conclusions of a five-month review in a 123-page report, found that businesses aiming to take advantage of opportunities in areas such as the internet are being held back by often archaic laws. “Could it be true that laws designed more than three centuries ago, with the express purpose of creating economic incentives for innovation by protecting creators’ rights, are today obstructing innovation and economic growth?” said Hargreaves. “The short answer is: yes.” Hargreaves said that the single biggest failing in the current system relates to copyright – “once the exclusive concern of authors and their publishers” – for which the current laws are “falling behind what are needed”. “The UK cannot afford to let a legal framework designed around artists impede vigorous participation in these emerging business sectors,” he said. “This does not mean, however, that we must put our hugely important creative industries at risk”. The recommendations include the formation of a Digital Copyright Exchange by the end of 2012 to act as a “one-stop shop” to make it easier to get clearance for the use of copyrighted content. “This will make it easier for rights owners, small and large, to sell licences for their work and for others to buy them,” argues the report. “It will make market transactions faster, more automated and cheaper.” The new body, to be run by rights holders, would be part of the solution to the long-running issue of IP rights relating to “orphan works” – where the original musicians, writers, heirs or other copyright owners cannot be traced. The report refers to this content as a “vast treasure trove” of work that is “effectively unavailable” for use. Other recommendations aim to clear up anachronistic regulations, including getting rid of the law that makes it illegal to download a CD on to an MP3 player, known as “format shifting”. Intellectual property laws around parody, which are considerably more stringent than in countries such as the US, should be relaxed to allow comedians, broadcasters and other content creators more scope – ensuring that spoofs such as the YouTube hit Newport State of Mind are no longer removed. The Hargreaves report also pointed out that the UK “does not allow its great libraries to archive all digital copyright material, with the result that much of it is rotting away”. It argued that “taking advantage of these EU-sanctioned exceptions [to free up regulation] will bring important cultural as well as economic benefits to the UK”. “The UK should give a lead at EU level to develop a further copyright exception designed to build into the EU framework adaptability to new technologies,” the report said. “This would be designed to allow uses enabled by technology of works in ways which do not directly trade on the underlying creative and expressive purpose of the work.” While the report admitted that the creative industries need to be protected from illegal activities – such as the downloading of pirated music, film and TV material – it also said that “reliable data about scale and trends is surprisingly scarce”. The report went further, criticising industry estimates on illegal downloads in the UK and arguing that a “detailed survey of UK and international data finds that very little of it is supported by transparent research criteria”. It noted that one submission put the level of illegal downloads at 13% of the total, while another suggested it was 65%. “Meanwhile, sales and profitability levels in most creative business sectors appear to be holding up reasonably,” the report said. “We conclude that many creative businesses are experiencing turbulence from digital copyright infringement, but that at the level of the whole economy, measurable impacts are not as stark as is sometimes suggested.” The Hargreaves report rejected calls for the adoption of US-style “fair use” rules on copyrighted material. Companies such as Google and YouTube exploited US fair use law to build their digital aggregation websites without fear of prosecution for using copyrighted content. “We concluded that importing fair use wholesale was unlikely to be legally feasible in Europe,” said the report. “The approach advocated here stops short of advocating the big once and for all fix of the UK promoting a fair use copyright exception to the EU, as recommended by Google and under examination by the Irish government.” The report estimated, albeit with a “high degree of uncertainty in such projections”, that if the government adopted its recommendations this would add between 0.3% to 0.6% to annual GDP growth. Intellectual property Digital media Media law Piracy Mark Sweney guardian.co.uk
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Britain is safe from natural events similar to those that damaged the Fukushima plant, says report The UK does not need to curtail the operation of nuclear power stations after the crisis at the Fukushima plant in Japan , the nuclear chief inspector, Mike Weightman, said today. In an interim report on the lessons that could be learned from the disaster, which followed a 9-magnitude earthquake and a tsunami that battered the Japanese coast, Weightman said similar natural events would not happen in the UK. He also said existing and planned nuclear power stations in this country were of a different design from those at Fukushima, which were rocked by explosions and damage to the reactors after the tsunami shut down power to the plants, knocking out their cooling facilities. Also, flooding risks were unlikely to prevent the construction of new nuclear power stations at potential development sites in the UK, all of which are on the coast, he said. The government is planning a new suite of nuclear reactors on existing sites to maintain electricity supplies and cut greenhouse gas emissions as power stations of an older generation are shut down. Weightman said there was no need to change the current strategy for siting new nuclear power plants. But he said lessons could still be learned from the nuclear accident in Japan. The executive head of the Office for Nuclear Regulation was asked by the energy secretary, Chris Huhne, to prepare a report into the implications of the nuclear crisis in
Continue reading …Couric Fails at CBS, But Liberals Defend Her ‘Gravitas’ With…Palin-Bashing Interview
May 18, 2011 No Comment
In surveying the wreckage of the Katie Couric experiment at CBS – $75 million flushed away for a distant third-place finish each week – the liberal journalists are blaming elderly viewers for not accepting Sunny Katie. Here’s James Rainey in the Los Angeles Times: A change-averse viewership doubtless greeted the initial formatting changes for Couric's “Evening News” as confirmation that “America's Sweetheart,” straight from her sunny a.m. perch, didn't have the gravitas for the job. Actually, those impressions had little to do with the newscast that emerged over Couric's five-year tenure. And what, pray tell, proves Couric’s gravitas? Bashing Sarah Palin, of course, as uninformed. Rainey didn’t ask how Couric would have performed if the tables were turned and Palin was the one
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Police believe taxi driver whose hands and feet were nailed to a cross carried out ordeal alone as a suicide A South Korean taxi driver found dead with his body nailed to a cross in an apparent re-creation of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ probably carried out the ordeal on his own as a suicide, police have said. The 58-year-old man was wearing only underwear and a crown of thorns, his hands and feet nailed to the cross, a stab wound on his abdomen and nylon strings tied around his neck when he was found 1 May – one week after Easter – in an abandoned stone quarry in the country’s south. After days of investigation, police said they believe the man, surnamed Kim,took his own life without any assistance. Kim is believed to have nailed his feet to the cross, tied his neck to it and stabbed himself in the side. He is then believed to have drilled holes in his hands and slipped them over nails on the cross, Gyeongbuk provincial police agency officers said, describing the death under condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the press. Officials re-enacted some elements of the crucifixion and concluded that an adult male could perform the act on his own, the agency said. The man was a devout Christian, and police speculated that his “deep religious faith” may have helped him endure “immense pain”. Police said they found the man’s notes planning the crucifixion. Before his apparent suicide, Kim closed his bank account and cancelled his mobile phone contract in apparent preparation to end his life, police said. A post-mortem examination showed the man died of bleeding from the stab wound and suffocation, police said. Officers said they had no information on when exactly the man put himself on the cross and how long he might have been there before dying. Popular representations of the death of Jesus Christ depict him crucified between the crosses of two thieves, wearing a crown of thorns, a white cloth over his loins, with a wound on his side from a Roman soldier’s spear. South Korea guardian.co.uk
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• ILO measure shows drop in jobless numbers • Youth unemployment declined • But claimant count rose by 12,400 in April • Average pay up 2.3% Unemployment fell by 36,000 in the first three months of the year despite the economy’s lacklustre rate of growth, official figures show, in a rare piece of good news for George Osborne. The Office for National Statistics said the number of people out of work on the government’s preferred International Labour Organisation measure fell to 2.46m, taking the unemployment rate to 7.7%, from 7.8% in the three months to February. It marks the second successive month of declining joblessness, helping to ease the pain for households facing rising inflation and heavy debts. Youth unemployment – a potential political flashpoint for the coalition – also declined, to 935,000, though that still means one-in-five 16 to 24-year-olds are out of work. There was fresh evidence of the labour market’s continued vulnerability, however, with a 12,400 increase in the more timely claimant count measure for April, with more than three quarters of the rise accounted for by women, who tend to be disproportionately hit by cuts in public sector jobs. The number of women claiming out-of-work benefits, at 474,000, is now at its highest level since 1996. Howard Archer, of consultancy IHS Global Insight, said the jump in the claimant count in March could signal further weakness in the coming months. He pointed out that while 118,000 new jobs were created in the three months to March, most of those were in January, with just 7,000 new hires last month. “We suspect that likely below-trend growth will mean that the private sector will be unable to fully compensate for the increasing job losses in the public sector that will result from the fiscal squeeze that is now really kicking in. Indeed, we believe that private sector companies will become increasingly careful in their employment plans in the face of a struggling economy and elevated input costs.” There is still little evidence of inflation-busting wage rises, according to the ONS report – average pay rose at an annual rate of 2.3% including bonuses, or a more modest 2.1% when bonuses are excluded. Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit, said that was good news for the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee as it battles inflation; but bad news for anyone trying to sell goods and services to hard-pressed British consumers. “The advantage of low pay growth is that it will help keep the current high rate of inflation from becoming entrenched. The downside is that, with inflation at 4.5%, this means that real pay is falling at a rate of 2.3% a year, which is going to further stifle consumer spending. This weakness of the household sector may well be a feature of the economy for some time to come,” he said. Unemployment and employment statistics Economics Unemployment Job losses Heather Stewart guardian.co.uk
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Lady Gaga’s relentless, shameless, sledgehammer pop nearly always hits the spot – if you ignore the cheesy saxophones There’s an unnerving moment that occurs when hearing Lady Gaga’s second album, Born This Way, for the first time. It comes as soon as the plodding keyboard chords ring out on opening track Marry the Night and you wonder if the stage is set for this to be the first of several self-indulgent ballads. It will be a fear familiar to anyone who tuned into Radio 1′s Big Weekend expecting a rapid-fire run through her storming pop hits and was met inexplicably with several minutes of jazz trumpet. Among the madness, the Madonna-comparisons and the meat dresses has Lady Gaga lost track of what made her little monsters fall in love with her in the first place? If so, it would certainly fit the most recent narrative – Lady Gaga’s rise to the top of the pop tree has landed on a particularly wobbly branch during this album’s promotional campaign. First fans grumbled that the title track bore remarkable similarity to Madonna’s Express Yourself . Then disapproving voices in the gay community complained that Gaga had hijacked their sexuality as a marketing tool. So intense was the chatter around Born This Way, in fact, there was even a backlash over the artwork . Such fears on the musical front, however, do not last long – Marry the Night’s softer stylings are soon sent packing by what Gaga had always promised would be “sledgehammering dance beats”. It’s a pattern that holds throughout Born This Way. No matter how a song begins – pizzicato strings, operatic vocals, 80s rawk guitar – it’s soon engulfed in buzzsaw synths and robo-precise rhythms. This is shameless, club-orientated pop that aims for instant impact. Gaga has made much of the various themes on offer – religion (Judas, Bloody Mary), freedom (Road to Love), identity (Hair, Born This Way) – and these messages are hammered home rather than hinted at. Nobody expected Born This Way, hyped by Elton John as a “new gay anthem”, to reference post-queer theory texts, but it’s safe to say that subtlety isn’t one of its strong points. Elsewhere, Hair uses follicles as a metaphor for freedom – not exactly a brave new concept for anyone who’s seen the 60s musical Hair (or caught the sermon from Danny in Withnail & I for that matter). Trite lyrics abound (“I just want to be free, I just want to be me”) but these weaknesses can also be strengths, and there’s something admirable about the way the aforementioned trio of tracks address confused teenagers in search of their identity. Bad Kids, in particular, is a Vince Clarke-esque stormer listing a series of flaws (“I’m a jerk”, “I’m a bitch”, “I’m a selfish punk”) that places Gaga, like Pink, as a mainstream pop star addressing outsider America. That said, when the music drops out midway, Gaga could have come back with a slightly more hard-hitting line than “I’m a twit”. Born This Way boasts a pop vision flexible enough to be both serious (Americano embraces Latino sounds to tackle Arizona’s immigration laws) and surreal (Road to Love is Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’ only, er, about unicorns) yet it almost always hits its target. Scheiße might be influenced by the decadent Berlin techno scene but, crucially, it has a ridiculously catchy chorus. Indeed, anyone disappointed with the singles from Born This Way, none of which lived up to Bad Romance or Poker Face, can take comfort in the fact that they are by no means the standout tracks here. So relentless is the pace, in fact, that towards the end of this mammoth album (14 songs, plus bonus tracks), when those sledgehammer beats bash you one too many times, you do start to wish for a nice little piano ballad as a breather. That finally comes with the penultimate Yoü and I , which aims for a Hey Jude style singalong but – owing to its determination to have someone playing kitchen sink in the background – ends up as bloated as Oasis’ All Around the World. The occasional drift towards indulgence is not a total surprise. With release dates given away as “gifts” on Twitter, gigs that start out in embryonic eggs and the release of the album as a stream with an arguably bizarre choice of newspaper group , Born This Way is by far the most hyped album of 2011. Clearly one to play this down, Gaga told fans last year: “I promise to give you the greatest album of the decade.” This is not that album, even by the standards of a pop star who thrives on stretching the imagination. Gaga has surrendered her artier leanings in the quest for a pure pop record, the consequences of which are that it occasionally strays too far into cheese territory. The saxophones on Edge of Glory, for instance, are apparently a homage to Bruce Springsteen but would be equally at home on Take That’s Million Love Songs. Marry the Night, meanwhile, doesn’t quite shake off the feeling that its chorus had a previous incarnation as Dr Alban’s It’s My Life . But then this, perhaps, has always been the thrilling paradox of Lady Gaga – that she can be the most exciting, confounding and mind-bogglingly creative artist on planet pop while still sounding like an early-90s Tampax advert. Rating: 4/5 Lady Gaga Pop and rock Tim Jonze guardian.co.uk
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TV network says Dorothy Parvaz is safe and well three weeks after apparently being detained and sent to Iran An al-Jazeera journalist who went missing in Syria three weeks ago has been released after she was apparently detained and sent to Iran, the Qatar-based television channel said. Al-Jazeera assigned Dorothy Parvaz to the capital, Damascus, to cover protests that have posed the boldest challenge yet to 41 years of rule by President Bashar al-Assad and his family. Al-Jazeera posted a statement online regarding Parvaz, who has US, Canadian and Iranian nationality. “On Wednesday morning, the al-Jazeera network confirmed that she had been released and was safe and in good health,” it read. “She landed in Doha, Qatar on 18 May on a flight from Iran.” The company added that Parvaz had not been allowed contact with the outside world after her flight landed in Damascus on 29 April. Her disappearance sparked widespread online calls for her release, including a Twitter hashtag and a Facebook page entitled “Free Dorothy Parvaz”. Al-Jazeera said that Parvaz’s fiance posted on Facebook: “She is safe in Doha and will be coming to Vancouver, BC soon. We can’t wait to see her.” Al-Jazeera Syria Iran Middle East Arab and Middle East unrest Protest Television industry TV news guardian.co.uk
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In stance that directly opposes Andrew Lansley’s, Clegg says NHS regulator should protect interests of patients and push collaboration rather than promote competition Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister, has set himself on a collision course with the health secretary, Andrew Lansley, by signalling his determination to veto a key plank of the government’s controversial NHS reforms. Clegg has singled out the role of Monitor, the NHS regulator, as the area of the embattled NHS bill that needs the “most substantial changes” and has said descriptions of the body as an economic regulator should be removed on the grounds that the NHS cannot be regulated as if it were just a utility “like electricity or telephones”. In the blueprint of his health and social care bill, Lansley proposed that Monitor, which currently scrutinises hospital finances, is also given the duty of promoting competition in the provision of health services. However, in a stance which directly opposes the one taken by Lansley, Clegg believes Monitor should instead promote and protect the interests of the patient, and push NHS collaboration. Simon Burns, a Conservative health minister, sought to play down the impact of Clegg’s opposition to the idea of an NHS regulatory body, insisting that it would not derail NHS reforms. “No it doesn’t at all,” he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme. “As you know, we have a pause at the moment, we are listening, we have set up an independent future forum that is going and talking to and talking to people in the NHS, to the Royal Colleges, others who have an interest and involvement in the National Health Service seeking constructive ideas in which we can continue to improve and strengthen the bill.” Burns said that the idea was one of many put forward as part of the listening exercise designed to improve the bill. “The deputy prime minister had a meeting, I understand, with his members of parliament last night, discussed this, they have come up with some ideas, like a load of other people throughout the NHS, and all those ideas will be considered when listening process is over, and the decision will be taken that will be aimed at improving, strengthening the bill, and making sure that patient care is first class.” Evan Harris, a former Lib Dem MP and vice chairman of the party’s federal policy committee, said Burns was “wrong” to say Clegg’s comments were simply a contribution to the listening exercise. “We have made very clear that there will be no government majority for things not in the coalition agreement, like this mass marketisation of the health service, without Liberal Democrat MPs and peers,” he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme. “They will not vote for Monitor to be an economic regulator so this is a veto.” In a presentation by the deputy prime minister to the weekly meeting of his parliamentary party and leaked to the Guardian, a page-long policy document signed by Clegg set out how he believes the regulator should be reconceived. “Instead of having a duty to promote competition, Monitor’s main duty should be explicitly to protect and promote the interests of patients,” Clegg wrote. A new role for Monitor has long been a running sore in the health secretary’s plans. Last week Steve Field, the man appointed by David Cameron to oversee the “pause” in the health legislation, said he also thought the proposed new role for Monitor should be scrapped. Instead, it should promote co-operation and collaboration and the integration of health services. Addressing fellow Liberal Democrat MPs and peers at a meeting last night, Clegg said he would “never let the profit motive get in the way of the essential purposes of the NHS”. The policy document said: “We cannot treat the NHS as if it were a utility, and the decision to establish Monitor as an ‘economic regulator’ was clearly a misjudgment, failing to recognise all the unique characteristics of a public health service, and opening us up to accusations that we are trying to subject the NHS to the full rigours of UK and EU competition law. Tory backbencher Peter Bone accused the Lib Dems of trying to exploit the issue for political reasons, having previously backed the reforms in cabinet and the House of Commons. Bone told Sky news that Clegg’s position as deputy prime minister meant he should be supporting government policy. If a Conservative minister had opposed the NHS reforms as Clegg had done, “he would have been fired by now”, said Bone. “Every minister must support it. If you can’t support the decision, you must resign from the government. Having voted for it in parliament, the only thing that seems to have happened is that the Liberal Democrats lost very badly in the local elections, lost the AV referendum and this seems to be more about shoring up Nick Clegg’s position as party leader rather than anything to do with improving the health bill.” The deputy prime minister should “row in” behind reforms which he said were in the interest of not only the country but of the patient as well. “It is right that we should listen and scrutinise the bill, but the idea that competition does not improve the health service is ridiculous. It drives up efficiency and makes NHS hospitals more effective. “Getting better value for money in the health service, and people getting treated better and quicker must be right. You have a prime minister who loves the NHS who made his first priority the NHS. “You have a health secretary with more experience than any other politician. Those are the people who should be listened to, not someone who is trying to do it for party political reasons, such as the deputy prime minister.” As Clegg seeks to establish a more distinct identity on issues like NHS reform after their dismal poll results earlier this month, former cabinet minister David Laws cautioned his Lib Dem colleagues not to put the coalition at risk by sniping at their Conservative partners. Laws’ comments, in his first interview since being barred from the Commons for seven days on Monday, will be seen as a warning to ministers like Chris Huhne and Vince Cable who have gone public with criticisms of Tory colleagues. Laws, who was suspended after the parliamentary standards commissioner found he breached expenses rules by claiming the rent he paid his male partner of nine years, said: “Our continued effective delivery of policies depends not just on shouting and our public profile, but on a trusting relationship between the key people in the coalition. “We could get our way over one or two key issues by storming off, voting against them, briefing against them, whatever. But when the next key issue is on the table and we need the co-operation of everybody in the coalition, will we get it? Maybe we won’t.” And he added: “The opportunity to make a difference in national politics is a very special one and we shouldn’t be sitting around in the corner of the political room sulking about the fact that we are in government and looking forward to the opportunity when we can return to the splendid irrelevance of opposition.” Health policy Health Public services policy NHS Nick Clegg Andrew Lansley Liberal Democrats Hélène Mulholland Allegra Stratton guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …In stance that directly opposes Andrew Lansley’s, Clegg says NHS regulator should protect interests of patients and push collaboration rather than promote competition Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister, has set himself on a collision course with the health secretary, Andrew Lansley, by signalling his determination to veto a key plank of the government’s controversial NHS reforms. Clegg has singled out the role of Monitor, the NHS regulator, as the area of the embattled NHS bill that needs the “most substantial changes” and has said descriptions of the body as an economic regulator should be removed on the grounds that the NHS cannot be regulated as if it were just a utility “like electricity or telephones”. In the blueprint of his health and social care bill, Lansley proposed that Monitor, which currently scrutinises hospital finances, is also given the duty of promoting competition in the provision of health services. However, in a stance which directly opposes the one taken by Lansley, Clegg believes Monitor should instead promote and protect the interests of the patient, and push NHS collaboration. Simon Burns, a Conservative health minister, sought to play down the impact of Clegg’s opposition to the idea of an NHS regulatory body, insisting that it would not derail NHS reforms. “No it doesn’t at all,” he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme. “As you know, we have a pause at the moment, we are listening, we have set up an independent future forum that is going and talking to and talking to people in the NHS, to the Royal Colleges, others who have an interest and involvement in the National Health Service seeking constructive ideas in which we can continue to improve and strengthen the bill.” Burns said that the idea was one of many put forward as part of the listening exercise designed to improve the bill. “The deputy prime minister had a meeting, I understand, with his members of parliament last night, discussed this, they have come up with some ideas, like a load of other people throughout the NHS, and all those ideas will be considered when listening process is over, and the decision will be taken that will be aimed at improving, strengthening the bill, and making sure that patient care is first class.” Evan Harris, a former Lib Dem MP and vice chairman of the party’s federal policy committee, said Burns was “wrong” to say Clegg’s comments were simply a contribution to the listening exercise. “We have made very clear that there will be no government majority for things not in the coalition agreement, like this mass marketisation of the health service, without Liberal Democrat MPs and peers,” he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme. “They will not vote for Monitor to be an economic regulator so this is a veto.” In a presentation by the deputy prime minister to the weekly meeting of his parliamentary party and leaked to the Guardian, a page-long policy document signed by Clegg set out how he believes the regulator should be reconceived. “Instead of having a duty to promote competition, Monitor’s main duty should be explicitly to protect and promote the interests of patients,” Clegg wrote. A new role for Monitor has long been a running sore in the health secretary’s plans. Last week Steve Field, the man appointed by David Cameron to oversee the “pause” in the health legislation, said he also thought the proposed new role for Monitor should be scrapped. Instead, it should promote co-operation and collaboration and the integration of health services. Addressing fellow Liberal Democrat MPs and peers at a meeting last night, Clegg said he would “never let the profit motive get in the way of the essential purposes of the NHS”. The policy document said: “We cannot treat the NHS as if it were a utility, and the decision to establish Monitor as an ‘economic regulator’ was clearly a misjudgment, failing to recognise all the unique characteristics of a public health service, and opening us up to accusations that we are trying to subject the NHS to the full rigours of UK and EU competition law. Tory backbencher Peter Bone accused the Lib Dems of trying to exploit the issue for political reasons, having previously backed the reforms in cabinet and the House of Commons. Bone told Sky news that Clegg’s position as deputy prime minister meant he should be supporting government policy. If a Conservative minister had opposed the NHS reforms as Clegg had done, “he would have been fired by now”, said Bone. “Every minister must support it. If you can’t support the decision, you must resign from the government. Having voted for it in parliament, the only thing that seems to have happened is that the Liberal Democrats lost very badly in the local elections, lost the AV referendum and this seems to be more about shoring up Nick Clegg’s position as party leader rather than anything to do with improving the health bill.” The deputy prime minister should “row in” behind reforms which he said were in the interest of not only the country but of the patient as well. “It is right that we should listen and scrutinise the bill, but the idea that competition does not improve the health service is ridiculous. It drives up efficiency and makes NHS hospitals more effective. “Getting better value for money in the health service, and people getting treated better and quicker must be right. You have a prime minister who loves the NHS who made his first priority the NHS. “You have a health secretary with more experience than any other politician. Those are the people who should be listened to, not someone who is trying to do it for party political reasons, such as the deputy prime minister.” As Clegg seeks to establish a more distinct identity on issues like NHS reform after their dismal poll results earlier this month, former cabinet minister David Laws cautioned his Lib Dem colleagues not to put the coalition at risk by sniping at their Conservative partners. Laws’ comments, in his first interview since being barred from the Commons for seven days on Monday, will be seen as a warning to ministers like Chris Huhne and Vince Cable who have gone public with criticisms of Tory colleagues. Laws, who was suspended after the parliamentary standards commissioner found he breached expenses rules by claiming the rent he paid his male partner of nine years, said: “Our continued effective delivery of policies depends not just on shouting and our public profile, but on a trusting relationship between the key people in the coalition. “We could get our way over one or two key issues by storming off, voting against them, briefing against them, whatever. But when the next key issue is on the table and we need the co-operation of everybody in the coalition, will we get it? Maybe we won’t.” And he added: “The opportunity to make a difference in national politics is a very special one and we shouldn’t be sitting around in the corner of the political room sulking about the fact that we are in government and looking forward to the opportunity when we can return to the splendid irrelevance of opposition.” Health policy Health Public services policy NHS Nick Clegg Andrew Lansley Liberal Democrats Hélène Mulholland Allegra Stratton guardian.co.uk
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David Norris and Gary Dobson are accused of being part of a racist white gang that ‘targeted and killed’ black teenager Two men are to stand trial accused of being part of a racist white gang that “targeted and killed” the black teenager Stephen Lawrence because of the colour of his skin, the court of appeal today said. The killing in 1993 in Eltham, south-east London, is one of the most high-profile unsolved murders in Britain. The men charged are David Norris, who has never before been charged over the stabbing, and Gary Dobson, who stood trial previously and was found not guilty. Dobson was acquitted of killing Lawrence, 18, after a private murder prosecution brought in 1996 by the parents of the talented youngster who dreamed of being an architect. A new law established in 2003 abolished the longstanding ban on people being retried for the same crime after being found not guilty, if “compelling” new evidence came to light. The appeal court agreed on Wednesday that new evidence was compelling enough to allow Dobson’s acquittal to be quashed. In effect, the appeal court, in a ruling by the lordchief justice of England and Wales, wiped the legal slate clean. This means Dobson and Norris will stand trial for the murder of Lawrence. Vikram Dodd guardian.co.uk
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