Shawn Tyson, 16, previously arrested for aggravated assault and lives in ‘close proximity’ to murder scenes Detectives in Florida are trying to establish what led two British holidaymakers from a “night on the town” in the centre of Sarasota to a run-down, crime-ridden area of the city where they were shot dead in the early hours of Saturday. The bodies of university friends James Cooper, 25, and James Kouzaris, 24, were found 15 metres apart on a street in the Newtown neighbourhood of the west coast Florida city at about 3am following an emergency call from a resident. Each of the victims – described in tributes as popular role models who lived life to the full – had been shot “more than once”, said Captain Paul Sutton of the Sarasota police department. Why they were in an area notorious for gang activity was a “key part” of the inquiry, he added. “We want to determine what would cause two people, who are here on a vacation, to travel to a residential neighbourhood at three o’clock in the morning, where there are no open businesses or bars, none of the things you would normally think might attract someone at that time of the day. “We know they were having a night on the town. They are both recent college graduates and good friends, and were having a night out. There’s some evidence they visited a couple of downtown establishments during the night before and in the early morning hours of the day they were killed.” Among the theories police are investigating is that Cooper and Kouzaris were involved in a drug deal, although they say they are looking at all possibilities including that they were victims of a robbery. No drugs, weapons or large amounts of money were found at the scene. The two, who met as students at Sheffield University, were on a three-week holiday with Cooper’s parents and were staying at an upmarket resort on the exclusive barrier island of Longboat Key, 12 miles from where they were shot. A 16-year-old male suspect arrested 24 hours after the shootings following a tip-off was named as Shawn Tyson. The teenager was previously arrested on 7 April for aggravated assault with a handgun and lives in “close proximity” to the murder scenes. Sutton said earlier much work needed to be done before details were released of how Cooper, from Warwick, and Kouzaris, from Northampton, were killed. “I’m not going to talk a lot about their injuries but I will say that each of them had more than one gunshot wound,” Sutton said. He ruled out a claim that a Newtown resident heard machine-gun fire, and corrected earlier erroneous reports that at least 20 bullet casings were recovered. “The crime scene investigators found no shell casings,” he said. At a detention hearing in Sarasota on Monday that Tyson did not attend, a judge gave prosecutors 21 days to decide if he will face trial for murder as a juvenile or adult. Florida retains the death penalty for offences including felony murder – when a killing is committed in the course of another crime – and first-degree murder. City leaders in Sarasota portrayed the killings as a rare occurrence as they promised the community’s support to detectives. Marlon Brown, the deputy city manager, said: “Any loss of life is always something we take seriously. I offer condolences to the families of the deceased and we’ll do everything in our power to piece things together and get it solved quickly.” James Roe, head coach at Kenilworth Tennis, Squash and Croquet Club in Warwickshire, where Cooper was a member, said it was tragic. “None of us are sure of the ins and outs of what went on and how he came to be in that situation,” he said. “For somebody to die in that manner, to be murdered, to be shot, it is just bizarre.” “He was a normal guy, he had a very responsible job as a coach. He was an only child and was the apple of his mum and dad’s eye,” adding that Cooper had once played against Andy Murray. Mark Tennant, a director of inspire2coach at the University of Warwick, where Cooper recently became head tennis coach, said: “We will remember James with great fondness, as a great guy, as a talented coach, a committed team member and, above all, a close friend.” Kouzaris had spent several months travelling in South America before his death, visiting Ecuador, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Bolivia. He captained a team at the Old Northamptonians Rugby Club from the age of nine until he went to university, former coach Peter Bason said. “He developed into a very fine rugby player and also a good leader, he was captain here and also at his school.” He said he had been popular and likeable. United States Florida Gun crime Richard Luscombe Helen Carter guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Shawn Tyson, 16, previously arrested for aggravated assault and lives in ‘close proximity’ to murder scenes Detectives in Florida are trying to establish what led two British holidaymakers from a “night on the town” in the centre of Sarasota to a run-down, crime-ridden area of the city where they were shot dead in the early hours of Saturday. The bodies of university friends James Cooper, 25, and James Kouzaris, 24, were found 15 metres apart on a street in the Newtown neighbourhood of the west coast Florida city at about 3am following an emergency call from a resident. Each of the victims – described in tributes as popular role models who lived life to the full – had been shot “more than once”, said Captain Paul Sutton of the Sarasota police department. Why they were in an area notorious for gang activity was a “key part” of the inquiry, he added. “We want to determine what would cause two people, who are here on a vacation, to travel to a residential neighbourhood at three o’clock in the morning, where there are no open businesses or bars, none of the things you would normally think might attract someone at that time of the day. “We know they were having a night on the town. They are both recent college graduates and good friends, and were having a night out. There’s some evidence they visited a couple of downtown establishments during the night before and in the early morning hours of the day they were killed.” Among the theories police are investigating is that Cooper and Kouzaris were involved in a drug deal, although they say they are looking at all possibilities including that they were victims of a robbery. No drugs, weapons or large amounts of money were found at the scene. The two, who met as students at Sheffield University, were on a three-week holiday with Cooper’s parents and were staying at an upmarket resort on the exclusive barrier island of Longboat Key, 12 miles from where they were shot. A 16-year-old male suspect arrested 24 hours after the shootings following a tip-off was named as Shawn Tyson. The teenager was previously arrested on 7 April for aggravated assault with a handgun and lives in “close proximity” to the murder scenes. Sutton said earlier much work needed to be done before details were released of how Cooper, from Warwick, and Kouzaris, from Northampton, were killed. “I’m not going to talk a lot about their injuries but I will say that each of them had more than one gunshot wound,” Sutton said. He ruled out a claim that a Newtown resident heard machine-gun fire, and corrected earlier erroneous reports that at least 20 bullet casings were recovered. “The crime scene investigators found no shell casings,” he said. At a detention hearing in Sarasota on Monday that Tyson did not attend, a judge gave prosecutors 21 days to decide if he will face trial for murder as a juvenile or adult. Florida retains the death penalty for offences including felony murder – when a killing is committed in the course of another crime – and first-degree murder. City leaders in Sarasota portrayed the killings as a rare occurrence as they promised the community’s support to detectives. Marlon Brown, the deputy city manager, said: “Any loss of life is always something we take seriously. I offer condolences to the families of the deceased and we’ll do everything in our power to piece things together and get it solved quickly.” James Roe, head coach at Kenilworth Tennis, Squash and Croquet Club in Warwickshire, where Cooper was a member, said it was tragic. “None of us are sure of the ins and outs of what went on and how he came to be in that situation,” he said. “For somebody to die in that manner, to be murdered, to be shot, it is just bizarre.” “He was a normal guy, he had a very responsible job as a coach. He was an only child and was the apple of his mum and dad’s eye,” adding that Cooper had once played against Andy Murray. Mark Tennant, a director of inspire2coach at the University of Warwick, where Cooper recently became head tennis coach, said: “We will remember James with great fondness, as a great guy, as a talented coach, a committed team member and, above all, a close friend.” Kouzaris had spent several months travelling in South America before his death, visiting Ecuador, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Bolivia. He captained a team at the Old Northamptonians Rugby Club from the age of nine until he went to university, former coach Peter Bason said. “He developed into a very fine rugby player and also a good leader, he was captain here and also at his school.” He said he had been popular and likeable. United States Florida Gun crime Richard Luscombe Helen Carter guardian.co.uk
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Rising food prices have pushed up the price of arable land in parts of the UK, but life is tougher for livestock farmers Agricultural land prices in Britain have hit record levels following the surge in global food prices, according to figures from Savills. An acre of prime arable land in East Anglia is fetching up to £8,500 compared with around £3,000 in 2005, with demand driven by the dramatic increase in wheat prices over the past year. Last week, feed wheat was selling for nearly £200 a tonne, a 115% gain on the £93 a tonne price British farmers were achieving this time last year. “There’s no recession in the arable land market at the moment, it’s really flying,” said Savills director Christopher Miles. “There is a lack of supply coming on to the market at the same time that farming has become a lot more profitable as commodity prices have shot up.” But while the “grain barons” of East Anglia and Lincolnshire are enjoying record prices, livestock farmers in other regions are coming under pressure. “Pig farmers are losing £20-£30 per finished animal, while dairy and beef producers are barely covering the cost of production,” said Ian Ashbridge of Farmers Weekly. A doubling in animal feed prices, plus rising fuel and haulage costs, have thrown many into losses. Land used for livestock farms sells for much lower prices, with £3,000 an acre not uncommon in northern counties. The drought-like conditions across much of Britain are piling more pressure on livestock farmers, who rely on rainfall for grass much more than the drier eastern part of the country. Savills expects a continued surge in the price of arable land, forecasting 10-15% growth in 2011, driving the highest cost per acre over £10,000. The forecast chimes with the latest Rural Land Market Survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, which found prices rising steeply everywhere in the UK except Scotland. Domestic farmers, agribusiness investors and cash-rich individuals have replaced the “lifestyle” buyers from the cities, plus the Irish and Danish, who helped drive the market before 2007. “They see it as a store of value in inflationary times, it’s gold with a cashflow,” said Miles. Supply is tightest in East Anglia, where the number of acres for sale was less than half of that for the same time last year, said Savills. “This pushed up average values by 5% to £6,553 per acre, but where competition was strongest values achieved highs of £8,500 per acre for prime arable land in the region.” Other land agents are not as bullish. Bidwells, one of the biggest agents in East Anglia, said a lot of land is beginning to come on to the market as foreign owners start to sell up. “You just need to look in Farmers Weekly where the amount of land for sale last week was probably as much as they’ve had in the last eight weeks combined,” said land agent Ben Taylor. “People are seeing the prices being achieved and are now attempting to sell. I suspect future price growth won’t be quite as fast as some are predicting, although over the long term arable is going to continue to attract investors.” He added that Britain currently has a two-tier market, with “arable very optimistic, livestock less so”, he said. The rise in agricultural land and food prices is likely to put pressure on policymakers to cut subsidies to farmers. The current single farm payment scheme gives British farmers a subsidy of around £90-£100 an acre, but it is under review and many farmers are anxiously anticipating what will happen after 2012. Some farmers argue that despite the soaring price of wheat, they have gained little because they forward-sold their supply when prices were lower. “It wasn’t long ago that famers were getting around £110 a tonne for wheat, compared to a cost of production of £105-£110 a tonne, and they sold forward,” said Ashbridge. “In the meantime, things like diesel have jumped in price, while ammonium nitrate fertiliser, while below its peak, has still doubled in price.” In reality, however, the price of agricultural land and food prices reflects global as much as domestic factors. Forward market prices for wheat remain very strong, despite a note last week from Goldman Sachs advising investors to take profits in the commodity sector. Wheat prices surged after a poor harvest last year in Russia and Ukraine prompted a temporary export ban. Demand for meat products, fed on grain, is rising in China and other emerging markets, while in the US many farmers have switched from wheat production to making bioethanol. Meanwhile, rural farmhouses remain firm in an otherwise weak residential property market. Rural specialists Carter Jonas said the average price of a farmhouse rose by 1% in the first quarter of 2011, compared with the 0.6% fall in the average house price in Britain over the same period. Commodities Property Farming Food & drink industry Agriculture Goldman Sachs Patrick Collinson guardian.co.uk
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Lib Dem council leader questions ‘front-loading’ of savings forcing services to be slashed ahead of local polls Nick Clegg’s closest ally in local government has questioned the decision by the coalition to “front-load” spending cuts, forcing councils to slash services on the eve of the local elections next month. In remarks that go to the heart of the battle in this year’s elections on 5 May, the Liberal Democrat leader of Clegg’s own council in Sheffield said he would have liked savings to have been spread over a longer period. Paul Scriven, who is facing a tough challenge from Labour, said: “Clearly, like most people, I would have liked to see savings over a longer period of time.” The remarks by Scriven highlight the main battleground between the coalition parties and Labour across England ahead of the largest of the four-yearly local elections cycles, when 31 million voters will be able to decide on 9,396 of the country’s 18,225 council seats. Labour under Ed Miliband is hoping to win a string of councils, from Ipswich to Blackpool, as voters express unease at the decision of George Osborne to impose the heaviest local government cuts in the initial phase of his five-year deficit reduction plan. Under pressure from Labour, which hopes to unsettle Clegg by unseating the Lib Dems in his backyard of Sheffield, Scriven acknowledged the impact of the cuts. “Any reduction in money is difficult and not something any politician wants to do,” he said. But Scriven, who showed his loyalty to Clegg on cuts when he declined to sign a letter by more than 90 Lib Dem leaders in February criticising the scale of the reductions, was careful to qualify his remarks. “Those who have studied how you reduce public sector funding [have found] you have got to pressure in right at the beginning, otherwise you get slippage, which you can’t make back up towards the end because the opportunity has gone,” he said. Scriven occupies one of the most politically sensitive posts in local government. Losing office in Sheffield, where the Lib Dems run a minority administration, would be a symbolic blow to Clegg who is MP for Sheffield Hallam. Sheffield is one of the main targets for Labour, which can hope to gain 1,000 council seats across England on 5 May, according to Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher of Plymouth University. They say Labour will be in the strongest position of the three main parties on 5 May because the same seats were last contested in the troubled spring of 2007 as an impatient Gordon Brown waited to succeed Tony Blair. In today’s Guardian/ICM poll, Labour is on 37%, up one point on last month’s poll, giving it a two-point lead over the Tories who are down two points on 35%. The Lib Dems are down one point on 15%. It is difficult to make predictions about 5 May on the basis of today’s poll because the findings are based on a question about a hypothetical general election. But Rallings and Thrasher made their forecast on the basis of a succession of opinion polls that show a consistent lead for Labour. Labour believes the 1,000 prediction is over-optimistic and says it is on course for a “fair” result of 400 gains or a “good” result of 600. Labour is making this calculation on the basis of local byelections in the past year in which it has secured more modest swings of 4.1% from the Tories and 4.3% from the Lib Dems. Labour’s lowering of expectations is dismissed by the Tories. Sources say that even the 1,000 prediction is too low; they suggest Labour should gain about 1,800 seats on the basis of the party’s national poll ratings. But this figure is based on a Sun/YouGov poll in March which gave Labour a 10-point lead. The Tories are playing down their own prospects as they point out that governing parties always take a hit in local elections. A source said: “We are expecting to take a hammering.” David Cameron has other factors counting against him next month. The Tories are defending 5,029 of their 9,396 council seats (55% of their total) and they control 156 of the 279 councils where elections are taking place. Tory sources predict they will lose control of 35 councils while Labour, defending 30, should gain 45. The Lib Dems face the toughest battle of all as their usual pavement style of politics, suitable for a party of protest, faces its first local election campaign in 60 years as a party of government. There is drop in the number of Lib Dem candidates, though party sources say this is just 4% of the total and is among paper candidates who stand no chance. From his spacious suite of offices in Sheffield, which boasts the last great Victorian town hall built in 1897 just four years before the Queen’s death, Paul Scriven outlines the challenge facing his party. “Clearly it is different for the Liberal Democrats in the sense that it is the first time we’ve been defending the council when we are also in government,” he says. Sheffield has been run as a minority administration by the Lib Dems since Labour deprived them of control last year. The Lib Dems have just one more councillor than Labour – 41 to 40. A third of the council’s 84 seats are up for election in Sheffield which would return to Labour control on a swing of less than 4% if it makes three gains in the city. Emotions have been running high in the city which is facing £80m cuts this year as the “front-loading” takes effect. This is the first tranche of £215m in cuts that must be imposed by the city over the next four years. Canvassing in Sheffield is an exhausting business as candidates stride up and down the city’s seven hills in search of votes. Nikki Sharpe, a trade union lawyer standing for the first time for Labour in the marginal ward of Walkley, received an enthusiastic reception from one voter enraged with the Lib Dems. “I voted Liberal Democrat at the general election because Gordon Brown had made a mess,” Val Grantham told Sharpe. “I was disgusted when Nick Clegg went in with the Tories. What we needed was another party with Labour.” But all is not lost for the Lib Dems. “I hope you don’t clobbered because of Nick Clegg,” Anne Awdas told Jayne Dore, standing for the first time in the Nether Edge ward whose three councillors are currently all Lib Dems. Julie Dore, leader of the Labour group, believes the local Lib Dems will be punished for failing to challenge Clegg after a £80m loan to Sheffield Forgemasters was cancelled last June. “We have a Liberal Democrat council defending every single thing the coalition government does,” Dore said. “They are not standing up for Sheffield.” David Blunkett, the former home secretary and MP for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough, who made his name as a leftwing leader of the council in the 1980s, warned that the city could face a “post-Soviet” meltdown in which people have to fend for themselves. Scriven dismissed Blunkett for attempting to revive the era when he used the council as a “political battering ram”. He believes voters will be more understanding of the Lib Dems, whose innovative approach to the cuts means no library is closing, though their hours have been reduced and the number of mobile libraries has been cut from four to one. “I don’t detect from knocking on doors the kind of frothing at the mouth that some of my Labour opponents suggest is happening towards the Liberal Democrats,” Scriven says. “Yes, there is a little bit of fear about the unknown because of the financial reductions that are having to be made to clear up Labour’s mess nationally. But actually people are engaging on the doorstep and beginning to talk about what kind of council we want.” Local politics Local government Nick Clegg Liberal Democrats Nicholas Watt guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Lib Dem council leader questions ‘front-loading’ of savings forcing services to be slashed ahead of local polls Nick Clegg’s closest ally in local government has questioned the decision by the coalition to “front-load” spending cuts, forcing councils to slash services on the eve of the local elections next month. In remarks that go to the heart of the battle in this year’s elections on 5 May, the Liberal Democrat leader of Clegg’s own council in Sheffield said he would have liked savings to have been spread over a longer period. Paul Scriven, who is facing a tough challenge from Labour, said: “Clearly, like most people, I would have liked to see savings over a longer period of time.” The remarks by Scriven highlight the main battleground between the coalition parties and Labour across England ahead of the largest of the four-yearly local elections cycles, when 31 million voters will be able to decide on 9,396 of the country’s 18,225 council seats. Labour under Ed Miliband is hoping to win a string of councils, from Ipswich to Blackpool, as voters express unease at the decision of George Osborne to impose the heaviest local government cuts in the initial phase of his five-year deficit reduction plan. Under pressure from Labour, which hopes to unsettle Clegg by unseating the Lib Dems in his backyard of Sheffield, Scriven acknowledged the impact of the cuts. “Any reduction in money is difficult and not something any politician wants to do,” he said. But Scriven, who showed his loyalty to Clegg on cuts when he declined to sign a letter by more than 90 Lib Dem leaders in February criticising the scale of the reductions, was careful to qualify his remarks. “Those who have studied how you reduce public sector funding [have found] you have got to pressure in right at the beginning, otherwise you get slippage, which you can’t make back up towards the end because the opportunity has gone,” he said. Scriven occupies one of the most politically sensitive posts in local government. Losing office in Sheffield, where the Lib Dems run a minority administration, would be a symbolic blow to Clegg who is MP for Sheffield Hallam. Sheffield is one of the main targets for Labour, which can hope to gain 1,000 council seats across England on 5 May, according to Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher of Plymouth University. They say Labour will be in the strongest position of the three main parties on 5 May because the same seats were last contested in the troubled spring of 2007 as an impatient Gordon Brown waited to succeed Tony Blair. In today’s Guardian/ICM poll, Labour is on 37%, up one point on last month’s poll, giving it a two-point lead over the Tories who are down two points on 35%. The Lib Dems are down one point on 15%. It is difficult to make predictions about 5 May on the basis of today’s poll because the findings are based on a question about a hypothetical general election. But Rallings and Thrasher made their forecast on the basis of a succession of opinion polls that show a consistent lead for Labour. Labour believes the 1,000 prediction is over-optimistic and says it is on course for a “fair” result of 400 gains or a “good” result of 600. Labour is making this calculation on the basis of local byelections in the past year in which it has secured more modest swings of 4.1% from the Tories and 4.3% from the Lib Dems. Labour’s lowering of expectations is dismissed by the Tories. Sources say that even the 1,000 prediction is too low; they suggest Labour should gain about 1,800 seats on the basis of the party’s national poll ratings. But this figure is based on a Sun/YouGov poll in March which gave Labour a 10-point lead. The Tories are playing down their own prospects as they point out that governing parties always take a hit in local elections. A source said: “We are expecting to take a hammering.” David Cameron has other factors counting against him next month. The Tories are defending 5,029 of their 9,396 council seats (55% of their total) and they control 156 of the 279 councils where elections are taking place. Tory sources predict they will lose control of 35 councils while Labour, defending 30, should gain 45. The Lib Dems face the toughest battle of all as their usual pavement style of politics, suitable for a party of protest, faces its first local election campaign in 60 years as a party of government. There is drop in the number of Lib Dem candidates, though party sources say this is just 4% of the total and is among paper candidates who stand no chance. From his spacious suite of offices in Sheffield, which boasts the last great Victorian town hall built in 1897 just four years before the Queen’s death, Paul Scriven outlines the challenge facing his party. “Clearly it is different for the Liberal Democrats in the sense that it is the first time we’ve been defending the council when we are also in government,” he says. Sheffield has been run as a minority administration by the Lib Dems since Labour deprived them of control last year. The Lib Dems have just one more councillor than Labour – 41 to 40. A third of the council’s 84 seats are up for election in Sheffield which would return to Labour control on a swing of less than 4% if it makes three gains in the city. Emotions have been running high in the city which is facing £80m cuts this year as the “front-loading” takes effect. This is the first tranche of £215m in cuts that must be imposed by the city over the next four years. Canvassing in Sheffield is an exhausting business as candidates stride up and down the city’s seven hills in search of votes. Nikki Sharpe, a trade union lawyer standing for the first time for Labour in the marginal ward of Walkley, received an enthusiastic reception from one voter enraged with the Lib Dems. “I voted Liberal Democrat at the general election because Gordon Brown had made a mess,” Val Grantham told Sharpe. “I was disgusted when Nick Clegg went in with the Tories. What we needed was another party with Labour.” But all is not lost for the Lib Dems. “I hope you don’t clobbered because of Nick Clegg,” Anne Awdas told Jayne Dore, standing for the first time in the Nether Edge ward whose three councillors are currently all Lib Dems. Julie Dore, leader of the Labour group, believes the local Lib Dems will be punished for failing to challenge Clegg after a £80m loan to Sheffield Forgemasters was cancelled last June. “We have a Liberal Democrat council defending every single thing the coalition government does,” Dore said. “They are not standing up for Sheffield.” David Blunkett, the former home secretary and MP for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough, who made his name as a leftwing leader of the council in the 1980s, warned that the city could face a “post-Soviet” meltdown in which people have to fend for themselves. Scriven dismissed Blunkett for attempting to revive the era when he used the council as a “political battering ram”. He believes voters will be more understanding of the Lib Dems, whose innovative approach to the cuts means no library is closing, though their hours have been reduced and the number of mobile libraries has been cut from four to one. “I don’t detect from knocking on doors the kind of frothing at the mouth that some of my Labour opponents suggest is happening towards the Liberal Democrats,” Scriven says. “Yes, there is a little bit of fear about the unknown because of the financial reductions that are having to be made to clear up Labour’s mess nationally. But actually people are engaging on the doorstep and beginning to talk about what kind of council we want.” Local politics Local government Nick Clegg Liberal Democrats Nicholas Watt guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Lib Dem council leader questions ‘front-loading’ of savings forcing services to be slashed ahead of local polls Nick Clegg’s closest ally in local government has questioned the decision by the coalition to “front-load” spending cuts, forcing councils to slash services on the eve of the local elections next month. In remarks that go to the heart of the battle in this year’s elections on 5 May, the Liberal Democrat leader of Clegg’s own council in Sheffield said he would have liked savings to have been spread over a longer period. Paul Scriven, who is facing a tough challenge from Labour, said: “Clearly, like most people, I would have liked to see savings over a longer period of time.” The remarks by Scriven highlight the main battleground between the coalition parties and Labour across England ahead of the largest of the four-yearly local elections cycles, when 31 million voters will be able to decide on 9,396 of the country’s 18,225 council seats. Labour under Ed Miliband is hoping to win a string of councils, from Ipswich to Blackpool, as voters express unease at the decision of George Osborne to impose the heaviest local government cuts in the initial phase of his five-year deficit reduction plan. Under pressure from Labour, which hopes to unsettle Clegg by unseating the Lib Dems in his backyard of Sheffield, Scriven acknowledged the impact of the cuts. “Any reduction in money is difficult and not something any politician wants to do,” he said. But Scriven, who showed his loyalty to Clegg on cuts when he declined to sign a letter by more than 90 Lib Dem leaders in February criticising the scale of the reductions, was careful to qualify his remarks. “Those who have studied how you reduce public sector funding [have found] you have got to pressure in right at the beginning, otherwise you get slippage, which you can’t make back up towards the end because the opportunity has gone,” he said. Scriven occupies one of the most politically sensitive posts in local government. Losing office in Sheffield, where the Lib Dems run a minority administration, would be a symbolic blow to Clegg who is MP for Sheffield Hallam. Sheffield is one of the main targets for Labour, which can hope to gain 1,000 council seats across England on 5 May, according to Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher of Plymouth University. They say Labour will be in the strongest position of the three main parties on 5 May because the same seats were last contested in the troubled spring of 2007 as an impatient Gordon Brown waited to succeed Tony Blair. In today’s Guardian/ICM poll, Labour is on 37%, up one point on last month’s poll, giving it a two-point lead over the Tories who are down two points on 35%. The Lib Dems are down one point on 15%. It is difficult to make predictions about 5 May on the basis of today’s poll because the findings are based on a question about a hypothetical general election. But Rallings and Thrasher made their forecast on the basis of a succession of opinion polls that show a consistent lead for Labour. Labour believes the 1,000 prediction is over-optimistic and says it is on course for a “fair” result of 400 gains or a “good” result of 600. Labour is making this calculation on the basis of local byelections in the past year in which it has secured more modest swings of 4.1% from the Tories and 4.3% from the Lib Dems. Labour’s lowering of expectations is dismissed by the Tories. Sources say that even the 1,000 prediction is too low; they suggest Labour should gain about 1,800 seats on the basis of the party’s national poll ratings. But this figure is based on a Sun/YouGov poll in March which gave Labour a 10-point lead. The Tories are playing down their own prospects as they point out that governing parties always take a hit in local elections. A source said: “We are expecting to take a hammering.” David Cameron has other factors counting against him next month. The Tories are defending 5,029 of their 9,396 council seats (55% of their total) and they control 156 of the 279 councils where elections are taking place. Tory sources predict they will lose control of 35 councils while Labour, defending 30, should gain 45. The Lib Dems face the toughest battle of all as their usual pavement style of politics, suitable for a party of protest, faces its first local election campaign in 60 years as a party of government. There is drop in the number of Lib Dem candidates, though party sources say this is just 4% of the total and is among paper candidates who stand no chance. From his spacious suite of offices in Sheffield, which boasts the last great Victorian town hall built in 1897 just four years before the Queen’s death, Paul Scriven outlines the challenge facing his party. “Clearly it is different for the Liberal Democrats in the sense that it is the first time we’ve been defending the council when we are also in government,” he says. Sheffield has been run as a minority administration by the Lib Dems since Labour deprived them of control last year. The Lib Dems have just one more councillor than Labour – 41 to 40. A third of the council’s 84 seats are up for election in Sheffield which would return to Labour control on a swing of less than 4% if it makes three gains in the city. Emotions have been running high in the city which is facing £80m cuts this year as the “front-loading” takes effect. This is the first tranche of £215m in cuts that must be imposed by the city over the next four years. Canvassing in Sheffield is an exhausting business as candidates stride up and down the city’s seven hills in search of votes. Nikki Sharpe, a trade union lawyer standing for the first time for Labour in the marginal ward of Walkley, received an enthusiastic reception from one voter enraged with the Lib Dems. “I voted Liberal Democrat at the general election because Gordon Brown had made a mess,” Val Grantham told Sharpe. “I was disgusted when Nick Clegg went in with the Tories. What we needed was another party with Labour.” But all is not lost for the Lib Dems. “I hope you don’t clobbered because of Nick Clegg,” Anne Awdas told Jayne Dore, standing for the first time in the Nether Edge ward whose three councillors are currently all Lib Dems. Julie Dore, leader of the Labour group, believes the local Lib Dems will be punished for failing to challenge Clegg after a £80m loan to Sheffield Forgemasters was cancelled last June. “We have a Liberal Democrat council defending every single thing the coalition government does,” Dore said. “They are not standing up for Sheffield.” David Blunkett, the former home secretary and MP for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough, who made his name as a leftwing leader of the council in the 1980s, warned that the city could face a “post-Soviet” meltdown in which people have to fend for themselves. Scriven dismissed Blunkett for attempting to revive the era when he used the council as a “political battering ram”. He believes voters will be more understanding of the Lib Dems, whose innovative approach to the cuts means no library is closing, though their hours have been reduced and the number of mobile libraries has been cut from four to one. “I don’t detect from knocking on doors the kind of frothing at the mouth that some of my Labour opponents suggest is happening towards the Liberal Democrats,” Scriven says. “Yes, there is a little bit of fear about the unknown because of the financial reductions that are having to be made to clear up Labour’s mess nationally. But actually people are engaging on the doorstep and beginning to talk about what kind of council we want.” Local politics Local government Nick Clegg Liberal Democrats Nicholas Watt guardian.co.uk
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Heart expert Kevin Channer appears to dispute cause of death of newspaper seller hit by PC Simon Harwood at G20 protests A leading heart specialist appeared to rule out the theory that Ian Tomlinson died of a heart attack at the G20 protests, at the inquest into his death has . Tomlinson, a newspaper seller, collapsed and died less than three minutes after being hit with a baton and pushed to the ground by a police officer, PC Simon Harwood, during the demonstrations near the Bank of England. He had been trying to get home from work at around 7.20pm on 1 April 2009 when he encountered the Metropolitan police officer. Paramedics were unable to resuscitate Tomlinson, a father of nine, who was pronounced dead more than an hour later. Prof Kevin Channer, a heart expert at Royal Hallamshire hospital, was asked by the inquest to analyse chart readings from a defibrillator that was used on Tomlinson by paramedics. Channer’s expert evidence, contained in a report to the inquest, was that the electrocardiogram (ECG) data obtained by paramedics as they fought to resuscitate Tomlinson was inconsistent with an arrhythmic heart attack. The heart pulse data was however consistent with the 47-year-old dying of internal bleeding, Channer said. The medical cause of Tomlinson’s death has proved a key area of controversy in his inquest, which is now in its fourth week. The first pathologist to examine the body, Dr Freddy Patel, said that when he was unable to find a source of the bleeding in Tomlinson’s abdomen, he concluded “through a process of elimination” that the newspaper seller must have died of an arrhythmic heart attack. Patel, who is no longer on an accredited list of pathologists, said the type of heart attack would have resulted from Tomlinson’s coronary artery disease and could have occurred at any time. However, his evidence is contradicted by three forensic pathologists who examined the body and found instead that Tomlinson was likely to have died as a result of internal bleeding. They include Dr Nat Cary, who also gave evidence at the inquest on Monday. He said Channer’s report meant there was now “only one real possibility. “It doesn’t matter how you look at this case, whether you look at the heart and the coronary arteries or heart, you look at the ECG traces and clinical status, you come to the same view,” Cary said. “Mr Tomlinson did not die due to a so-called heart attack, or arrhythmic heart attack, due to coronary artery disease.” Cary previously told the inquest that he believed that Harwood’s violent shove of the newspaper seller was likely to have been the cause of his death. He said video footage showed Tomlinson’s elbow was caught between his body and the ground, which would have been sufficient to cause a “blunt force trauma” internal injury, most likely to the liver, which was badly diseased. When Patel was presented with Channer’s findings, he appeared to alter his explanation of a heart attack, indicating that Tomlinson may have suffered a “very transient” form of arrhythmic heart attack and then recovered spontaneously, before then losing consciousness. He also introduced an previously unmentioned explanation for the death: hypoxia, or the deprivation of adequate oxygen supply. Paramedics previously told the inquest that they had ruled out hypoxia when they went to Tomlinson’s aid. Patel confirmed to the judge that he had made no prior mention of hypoxia as a cause of death in his two official postmortem reports. When it was suggested the to Patel that he was introducing a entirely new cause of the death in his fourth day of evidence, he momentarily fell silent. The jury was previously told that Patel has since September been suspended twice by the General Medical Council, including for professional misconduct and dishonesty. Matthew Ryder, counsel for the inquest, said: “I am sorry to say, Dr Patel, I suggest you are reaching for options because you know, now, or you realise now, the conclusion that you have put forward is not a solid one, and cannot be sustained.” The pathologist replied: “I do not agree with that at all.” Earlier, a consultant liver expert, Dr Graeme Alexander, told the jury his view was that Tomlinson had died of internal bleeding in the abdomen, caused by trauma to his liver after his fall. He said that Tomlinson’s serious liver disease would have made him much more susceptible to collapse from internal bleeding than another person. Alexander added that Patel’s suggestion that an absence of damage to a capsule surrounding the liver indicated it could not have been the source of bleeding was “not a relevant argument at all”. “I have a ward full of patients with liver disease, and if they have a cardiac arrest on the ward it is safe bet that they have bled,” Alexander said. The inquest continues. Ian Tomlinson London Police Protest G20 Dr Freddy Patel Paul Lewis guardian.co.uk
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Heart expert Kevin Channer appears to dispute cause of death of newspaper seller hit by PC Simon Harwood at G20 protests A leading heart specialist appeared to rule out the theory that Ian Tomlinson died of a heart attack at the G20 protests, at the inquest into his death has . Tomlinson, a newspaper seller, collapsed and died less than three minutes after being hit with a baton and pushed to the ground by a police officer, PC Simon Harwood, during the demonstrations near the Bank of England. He had been trying to get home from work at around 7.20pm on 1 April 2009 when he encountered the Metropolitan police officer. Paramedics were unable to resuscitate Tomlinson, a father of nine, who was pronounced dead more than an hour later. Prof Kevin Channer, a heart expert at Royal Hallamshire hospital, was asked by the inquest to analyse chart readings from a defibrillator that was used on Tomlinson by paramedics. Channer’s expert evidence, contained in a report to the inquest, was that the electrocardiogram (ECG) data obtained by paramedics as they fought to resuscitate Tomlinson was inconsistent with an arrhythmic heart attack. The heart pulse data was however consistent with the 47-year-old dying of internal bleeding, Channer said. The medical cause of Tomlinson’s death has proved a key area of controversy in his inquest, which is now in its fourth week. The first pathologist to examine the body, Dr Freddy Patel, said that when he was unable to find a source of the bleeding in Tomlinson’s abdomen, he concluded “through a process of elimination” that the newspaper seller must have died of an arrhythmic heart attack. Patel, who is no longer on an accredited list of pathologists, said the type of heart attack would have resulted from Tomlinson’s coronary artery disease and could have occurred at any time. However, his evidence is contradicted by three forensic pathologists who examined the body and found instead that Tomlinson was likely to have died as a result of internal bleeding. They include Dr Nat Cary, who also gave evidence at the inquest on Monday. He said Channer’s report meant there was now “only one real possibility. “It doesn’t matter how you look at this case, whether you look at the heart and the coronary arteries or heart, you look at the ECG traces and clinical status, you come to the same view,” Cary said. “Mr Tomlinson did not die due to a so-called heart attack, or arrhythmic heart attack, due to coronary artery disease.” Cary previously told the inquest that he believed that Harwood’s violent shove of the newspaper seller was likely to have been the cause of his death. He said video footage showed Tomlinson’s elbow was caught between his body and the ground, which would have been sufficient to cause a “blunt force trauma” internal injury, most likely to the liver, which was badly diseased. When Patel was presented with Channer’s findings, he appeared to alter his explanation of a heart attack, indicating that Tomlinson may have suffered a “very transient” form of arrhythmic heart attack and then recovered spontaneously, before then losing consciousness. He also introduced an previously unmentioned explanation for the death: hypoxia, or the deprivation of adequate oxygen supply. Paramedics previously told the inquest that they had ruled out hypoxia when they went to Tomlinson’s aid. Patel confirmed to the judge that he had made no prior mention of hypoxia as a cause of death in his two official postmortem reports. When it was suggested the to Patel that he was introducing a entirely new cause of the death in his fourth day of evidence, he momentarily fell silent. The jury was previously told that Patel has since September been suspended twice by the General Medical Council, including for professional misconduct and dishonesty. Matthew Ryder, counsel for the inquest, said: “I am sorry to say, Dr Patel, I suggest you are reaching for options because you know, now, or you realise now, the conclusion that you have put forward is not a solid one, and cannot be sustained.” The pathologist replied: “I do not agree with that at all.” Earlier, a consultant liver expert, Dr Graeme Alexander, told the jury his view was that Tomlinson had died of internal bleeding in the abdomen, caused by trauma to his liver after his fall. He said that Tomlinson’s serious liver disease would have made him much more susceptible to collapse from internal bleeding than another person. Alexander added that Patel’s suggestion that an absence of damage to a capsule surrounding the liver indicated it could not have been the source of bleeding was “not a relevant argument at all”. “I have a ward full of patients with liver disease, and if they have a cardiac arrest on the ward it is safe bet that they have bled,” Alexander said. The inquest continues. Ian Tomlinson London Police Protest G20 Dr Freddy Patel Paul Lewis guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Heart expert Kevin Channer appears to dispute cause of death of newspaper seller hit by PC Simon Harwood at G20 protests A leading heart specialist appeared to rule out the theory that Ian Tomlinson died of a heart attack at the G20 protests, at the inquest into his death has . Tomlinson, a newspaper seller, collapsed and died less than three minutes after being hit with a baton and pushed to the ground by a police officer, PC Simon Harwood, during the demonstrations near the Bank of England. He had been trying to get home from work at around 7.20pm on 1 April 2009 when he encountered the Metropolitan police officer. Paramedics were unable to resuscitate Tomlinson, a father of nine, who was pronounced dead more than an hour later. Prof Kevin Channer, a heart expert at Royal Hallamshire hospital, was asked by the inquest to analyse chart readings from a defibrillator that was used on Tomlinson by paramedics. Channer’s expert evidence, contained in a report to the inquest, was that the electrocardiogram (ECG) data obtained by paramedics as they fought to resuscitate Tomlinson was inconsistent with an arrhythmic heart attack. The heart pulse data was however consistent with the 47-year-old dying of internal bleeding, Channer said. The medical cause of Tomlinson’s death has proved a key area of controversy in his inquest, which is now in its fourth week. The first pathologist to examine the body, Dr Freddy Patel, said that when he was unable to find a source of the bleeding in Tomlinson’s abdomen, he concluded “through a process of elimination” that the newspaper seller must have died of an arrhythmic heart attack. Patel, who is no longer on an accredited list of pathologists, said the type of heart attack would have resulted from Tomlinson’s coronary artery disease and could have occurred at any time. However, his evidence is contradicted by three forensic pathologists who examined the body and found instead that Tomlinson was likely to have died as a result of internal bleeding. They include Dr Nat Cary, who also gave evidence at the inquest on Monday. He said Channer’s report meant there was now “only one real possibility. “It doesn’t matter how you look at this case, whether you look at the heart and the coronary arteries or heart, you look at the ECG traces and clinical status, you come to the same view,” Cary said. “Mr Tomlinson did not die due to a so-called heart attack, or arrhythmic heart attack, due to coronary artery disease.” Cary previously told the inquest that he believed that Harwood’s violent shove of the newspaper seller was likely to have been the cause of his death. He said video footage showed Tomlinson’s elbow was caught between his body and the ground, which would have been sufficient to cause a “blunt force trauma” internal injury, most likely to the liver, which was badly diseased. When Patel was presented with Channer’s findings, he appeared to alter his explanation of a heart attack, indicating that Tomlinson may have suffered a “very transient” form of arrhythmic heart attack and then recovered spontaneously, before then losing consciousness. He also introduced an previously unmentioned explanation for the death: hypoxia, or the deprivation of adequate oxygen supply. Paramedics previously told the inquest that they had ruled out hypoxia when they went to Tomlinson’s aid. Patel confirmed to the judge that he had made no prior mention of hypoxia as a cause of death in his two official postmortem reports. When it was suggested the to Patel that he was introducing a entirely new cause of the death in his fourth day of evidence, he momentarily fell silent. The jury was previously told that Patel has since September been suspended twice by the General Medical Council, including for professional misconduct and dishonesty. Matthew Ryder, counsel for the inquest, said: “I am sorry to say, Dr Patel, I suggest you are reaching for options because you know, now, or you realise now, the conclusion that you have put forward is not a solid one, and cannot be sustained.” The pathologist replied: “I do not agree with that at all.” Earlier, a consultant liver expert, Dr Graeme Alexander, told the jury his view was that Tomlinson had died of internal bleeding in the abdomen, caused by trauma to his liver after his fall. He said that Tomlinson’s serious liver disease would have made him much more susceptible to collapse from internal bleeding than another person. Alexander added that Patel’s suggestion that an absence of damage to a capsule surrounding the liver indicated it could not have been the source of bleeding was “not a relevant argument at all”. “I have a ward full of patients with liver disease, and if they have a cardiac arrest on the ward it is safe bet that they have bled,” Alexander said. The inquest continues. Ian Tomlinson London Police Protest G20 Dr Freddy Patel Paul Lewis guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Republican Montana legislator thinks gays should face felony charges for ‘recruiting’ straights
April 18, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media We’ve reported previously about how Republicans in Montana’s Legislature, completely overrun by some of the most extremist of all the Tea Party elements, have been going nuts this session, passing a variety of bills that have been so obviously unconstitutional and frivolous (not to mention downright insane) that last week the Democratic governor felt compelled to make a very public display of his vetoes — with a branding iron . But the problem isn’t merely with the legislation they’re passing. There’s also a problem with the legislation they’re refusing to pass. For instance, last month a Democrat offered up a bill that should have been uncontroversial: It would have officially repealed the state’s primitive anti-homosexuality law, already long overturned by the state’s Supreme Court. But no: the Tea-Partying Republicans running the House committee overseeing the bill simply killed it in the crib . So one of those Republicans last week explained to the Missoula Independent exactly what his thinking was: The legislature’s inaction was not, it turns out, another non-priority falling off the too-long to-do list. Rather, it’s homophobic lawmakers subtly suggesting that homosexual acts should still be outlawed, the Supreme Court—and equal rights in general—be damned. In fact, at least one lawmaker, Rep. Ken Peterson, R-Billings, an attorney, argues that the archaic law may still apply in certain situations. Which situations? According to Peterson, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, there are at least two prosecutable offenses—felonies punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $50,000 fine. One is the “recruitment” of non-gays. “Homosexuals can’t go out into the heterosexual community and try to recruit people, or try to enlist them in homosexual acts,” Peterson says. He provides an example: “‘Here, young man, your hormones are raging. Let’s go in this bedroom, and we’ll engage in some homosexual acts. You’ll find you like it.’” Peterson hasn’t actually seen this happen, he says, because “I don’t associate with that group of people at all… I’ve associated with mainstream people all my life.” The other offense, in Peterson’s legal opinion, is the public display of homosexuality, since he believes the Supreme Court’s decision only applies to private acts behind closed doors. Being gay in public, he says, is a wholly different matter: “In my mind, if they were engaging in acts in public that could be construed as homosexual, it would violate that statute. It has to be more than affection. It has to be overt homosexual acts of some kind or another… If kissing goes to that extent, yes. If it’s more than that, yes.” He went on Billings TV a little later and defended the remarks: Peterson says the law in question, which was ruled unconstitutional in 1997, still has merits. He says the Montana Supreme Court’s decision had a narrow scope limiting prosecution only in private settings. “I feel the law can still have some potential application,” he said Friday, “I don’t think it was repealed with the Grayson case, anyone that says it was repealed hasn’t read the case and doesn’t understand the case.” He says gays and lesbians can and should be prosecuted for overt sexual acts in public, and for “recruiting” members of the straight community. However, he also tried to claim that he did not say something that he in fact plainly said: Friday, he told us he stands by them, but says some were taken out of context. Specifically, he said characterizations that kissing in public could lead to prosecution were untrue. Peterson said he gets along fine with his gay and lesbian colleagues and did not intend to offend the LGBT community with his comments. Peterson, in fact, was probably one of the more thoughtful Tea Partiers who weighed in on this issue. Legislators arguing over the bill in committee were even worse : Sen. Facey said the reason he brought this bill to the legislature is because words matter. And the fact that this law remains on our books sends a message to gay and lesbian people in our state. Unfortunately, members of the committee did not hear Sen. Facey when he said “words matter.” Throughout the hearing, GOP members constantly equated homosexuality with bestiality and pedophilia. In fact, one opposing witness of the bill went so far as to say all pedophiles are either gay or bisexual. In an even more disturbing exchange, Rep. Bob Wagner (of Anderson Cooper 360 fame) asked a series of questions that were intended to imply that all homosexual men have HIV and then have to rely on state assistance for their medical care. Proponents of Sen. Facey’s bill, who have worked multiple legislative sessions, said that this hearing was the most disgusting hearing they have seen in their years at the Capitol. I sure hope Montana voters are proud of what they have wrought.
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