Appearing on Monday's NBC Today to discuss the debate over reducing the nation's debt, CNBC host Erin Burnett declared to co-host Matt Lauer: “The problem is our revenue, what the government takes in, in taxes. What you pay every month out of your paycheck is way smaller, in fact, it's only somewhere around $2 trillion a year.” After Lauer asked about the relationship between government spending and the debt, Burnett acknowledged: “They are related, but really, to tackle this issue, we do have to tackle entitlements. When you look at Medicare and Social Security, it's 40% of our budget.” However, she quickly denounced Republican attempts to use a raise in the debt ceiling to cut such spending: “Those are the questions we have to answer, but not through playing chicken on the debt ceiling.” Near the end of the segment, Burnett remarked that the United States is “…a very wealthy country. If you look at our assets, we could pay down the debt tomorrow. We choose to borrow because we can borrow at incredibly low interest rates.” By “assets,” Burnett seemed to be referring to the income of all Americans (unless she plans to auction off the Statue of Liberty to pay our bills). Here is a full transcript of the April 11 Today segment: 7:13AM ET MATT LAUER: Let's try to explain it more. Exactly what is the debt ceiling and why does it matter to you? Here to explain, CNBC's Jim Cramer and Erin Burnett. Good morning to both of you. JIM CRAMER: Good morning. ERIN BURNETT: Good morning. [ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Dealing With the Debt Ceiling; How Does Government Borrowing Affect the Economy?] LAUER: Who wants to take the shot at this? What is the national debt ceiling? JIM CRAMER: This is how we – our nation pays its bills, but we borrow money to pay our bills. It's not like you and the mortgage, we're you can continue to borrow, you get one shot at it and if we don't raise the debt ceiling, then we're going to default. You just have to look at what Greece is doing, these countries – Portugal. These are countries that are all on the verge of default. And they can't borrow, then high rates.
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A theatre critic has caused controversy by snoring through Terence Rattigan’s Cause Célèbre. But surely there are worse things than a mid-show snooze. Aren’t there? Poor Paul Taylor. There the Independent’s theatre critic was, settling into his nice comfortable seat at London’s Old Vic for the opening night of Terence Rattigan’s Cause Célèbre , getting out his notebook and pen; feeling the lights dim, hearing the soft hush of anticipation, and then …. Zzzzzz. He’s out for the count. And afterwards, to make matters worse, he suffers the indignity of a confrontation in the foyer with James McAvoy – who has, by a nasty quirk of fate, been sitting in the same row and taken exception to Taylor’s, er, lack of focus on the performance of his wife, Anne-Marie Duff . Or so, at least, we understand from a diary item in the Daily Telegraph today , in which an unnamed theatregoer also at the show’s first night claims that Taylor’s snoring was distinctly audible. “The noise was deafening,” says the mole (who should try listening to my dad). “He was clearly in a very deep sleep indeed and, to be fair to the play, he had nodded off before it had even begun.” Of Taylor’s encounter with McAvoy , he or she adds: “There was a right rumpus. McAvoy was absolutely furious.” McAvoy’s alleged fury is understandable – falling asleep during his partner’s big moment is surely on roughly the same level of rudeness as dropping off over dinner while your mate’s boyfriend is showing you their fascinating snaps. But the key fact here, of course, is that Taylor is a critic, and was meant to be sitting in judgment on Duff and the rest of the cast – to pay due attention to the play is surely the minimum expected. According to a spokesman for the Independent, Taylor will not now be reviewing the production. But he offered a good excuse: “Mr Taylor,” he says, “who has a medical condition, is under the care of a doctor and is currently on medication, was ill during the performance.” If this is the case, Taylor surely deserves understanding rather than opprobrium. So what about the rest of us – the non-critics? Is falling asleep in the theatre really as rude as all that? I’ve never actually fallen asleep during a show, though I’ve sometimes felt like it (especially during The Pitmen Painters at the National, which I found interminable, and the excruciating opera Le Grand Macabre at the Coliseum: in both cases, it was more the noise and lights that kept me awake than any interest in the onstage action). I can imagine that, for actors, looking down on a sea of sleeping faces could be more than a little disconcerting – but I’d argue that the very act of falling asleep could be a useful critical barometer. Theatre should entertain, and ideally keep audiences on the edge of their seats. The playwright Alan Ayckbourn knows more about this than most, and summed up this point brilliantly an interview last year. “You’re asking people quite often to sit in the same seat for two hours plus, with just a brief interval for drinks,” he told me. “You’ve got to give them a feeling that if they leave the auditorium at any second they’re not going to be happy, because they want to know what happens next.” If a show is regularly inducing snores in a significant section of the audience, the director should surely take the hint. There are, anyway, much worse things you could do to show your lack of appreciation. You could throw rotten vegetables at the stage (luckily for actors this tradition is almost nonexistent these days; in Shakespeare’s time it was de rigueur). You could laugh loudly at moments that aren’t meant to be funny: the appearance of two actors dressed as a polar bear during Greenland at the National was apparently quite often greeted with giggles, though it was meant to be a poignant moment. You could talk all the way through, or take a call on your mobile, though you risk angering the actors: Kevin Spacey, Richard Griffiths, Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig have all harangued audience members for precisely this crime. Or, of course, you could just get up and leave. Doing this in the middle of a performance is the height of rudeness – other members of the audience might be enjoying it, after all, and however much you hate the show its yawn-inducing dullness may well not be the actors’ fault. The alternative is to leave during the interval – something I have, I admit, done twice. On both occasions I felt bad about it, but the shows were really so awful that I decided my time was better spent elsewhere. So let’s get this into context. I suspect that falling asleep during a show is rather less rude than getting up and leaving. But surely it’s less dispiriting for a cast to perform to an auditorium full of people, asleep or otherwise, than to come back after the interval to find that half the seats have mysteriously been vacated? Theatre James McAvoy Laura Barnett guardian.co.uk
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A theatre critic has caused controversy by snoring through Terence Rattigan’s Cause Célèbre. But surely there are worse things than a mid-show snooze. Aren’t there? Poor Paul Taylor. There the Independent’s theatre critic was, settling into his nice comfortable seat at London’s Old Vic for the opening night of Terence Rattigan’s Cause Célèbre , getting out his notebook and pen; feeling the lights dim, hearing the soft hush of anticipation, and then …. Zzzzzz. He’s out for the count. And afterwards, to make matters worse, he suffers the indignity of a confrontation in the foyer with James McAvoy – who has, by a nasty quirk of fate, been sitting in the same row and taken exception to Taylor’s, er, lack of focus on the performance of his wife, Anne-Marie Duff . Or so, at least, we understand from a diary item in the Daily Telegraph today , in which an unnamed theatregoer also at the show’s first night claims that Taylor’s snoring was distinctly audible. “The noise was deafening,” says the mole (who should try listening to my dad). “He was clearly in a very deep sleep indeed and, to be fair to the play, he had nodded off before it had even begun.” Of Taylor’s encounter with McAvoy , he or she adds: “There was a right rumpus. McAvoy was absolutely furious.” McAvoy’s alleged fury is understandable – falling asleep during his partner’s big moment is surely on roughly the same level of rudeness as dropping off over dinner while your mate’s boyfriend is showing you their fascinating snaps. But the key fact here, of course, is that Taylor is a critic, and was meant to be sitting in judgment on Duff and the rest of the cast – to pay due attention to the play is surely the minimum expected. According to a spokesman for the Independent, Taylor will not now be reviewing the production. But he offered a good excuse: “Mr Taylor,” he says, “who has a medical condition, is under the care of a doctor and is currently on medication, was ill during the performance.” If this is the case, Taylor surely deserves understanding rather than opprobrium. So what about the rest of us – the non-critics? Is falling asleep in the theatre really as rude as all that? I’ve never actually fallen asleep during a show, though I’ve sometimes felt like it (especially during The Pitmen Painters at the National, which I found interminable, and the excruciating opera Le Grand Macabre at the Coliseum: in both cases, it was more the noise and lights that kept me awake than any interest in the onstage action). I can imagine that, for actors, looking down on a sea of sleeping faces could be more than a little disconcerting – but I’d argue that the very act of falling asleep could be a useful critical barometer. Theatre should entertain, and ideally keep audiences on the edge of their seats. The playwright Alan Ayckbourn knows more about this than most, and summed up this point brilliantly an interview last year. “You’re asking people quite often to sit in the same seat for two hours plus, with just a brief interval for drinks,” he told me. “You’ve got to give them a feeling that if they leave the auditorium at any second they’re not going to be happy, because they want to know what happens next.” If a show is regularly inducing snores in a significant section of the audience, the director should surely take the hint. There are, anyway, much worse things you could do to show your lack of appreciation. You could throw rotten vegetables at the stage (luckily for actors this tradition is almost nonexistent these days; in Shakespeare’s time it was de rigueur). You could laugh loudly at moments that aren’t meant to be funny: the appearance of two actors dressed as a polar bear during Greenland at the National was apparently quite often greeted with giggles, though it was meant to be a poignant moment. You could talk all the way through, or take a call on your mobile, though you risk angering the actors: Kevin Spacey, Richard Griffiths, Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig have all harangued audience members for precisely this crime. Or, of course, you could just get up and leave. Doing this in the middle of a performance is the height of rudeness – other members of the audience might be enjoying it, after all, and however much you hate the show its yawn-inducing dullness may well not be the actors’ fault. The alternative is to leave during the interval – something I have, I admit, done twice. On both occasions I felt bad about it, but the shows were really so awful that I decided my time was better spent elsewhere. So let’s get this into context. I suspect that falling asleep during a show is rather less rude than getting up and leaving. But surely it’s less dispiriting for a cast to perform to an auditorium full of people, asleep or otherwise, than to come back after the interval to find that half the seats have mysteriously been vacated? Theatre James McAvoy Laura Barnett guardian.co.uk
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Christopher Riley describes the making of First Orbit, which uses footage shot from the International Space Station and original mission audio to recreate Yuri Gagarin’s historic first space flight • Follow Yuri Gagarin’s flight, live from 7.07am on Tuesday • Read an interview with Yuri Gagarin’s daughter • Watch a preview of First Orbit There comes a time in the history of a planet when any technologically advanced life forms that have evolved on its surface decide to send one of their species into space. Planet Earth had to wait over 4.6bn years for this moment, and when it came 50 years ago there were no cameras on board the spacecraft to capture for posterity the first spaceman’s view of his home. Rather than being an oversight, this probably had more to do with the fact that filming technology had been left behind by our sudden leap into the Space Age, and there simply wasn’t enought room inside the cramped Vostok 1 capsule for Yuri Gagarin to wield a primitive, bulky TV or film camera. So in early 2010, with the new giant cupola window installed on the International Space Station , and with digital filming technology now firmly in the Space Age, I began to wonder if it might be possible to trace Gagarin’s pioneering orbit around the Earth once more – and this time to film it. With the enthusiastic backing of the European Space Agency , the idea moved into its mathematics phase: to work out if the space station ever even crossed the same ground path as that of Vostok 1. Armed with the orbital elements of both spacecraft, Esa engineer Gerald Ziegler calculated that every six weeks we would get chances to film over the same ground and at the same time of day as Gagarin’s flight. The filming Using a transcript of Gagarin’s original mission communications, I began to story-board the film, listing the different camera angles we’d need from the cupola to illustrate what he’d seen. Working closely with Esa mission directors, we then began to translate these camera directions into technical procedures for the space station crew, using the language of modern space flight and the space station users manual as our guide. Esa astronaut Paolo Nespoli was scheduled to be on board the space station at the end of 2010, and would act as our director of photography, filming the scenes. Paolo is an experienced photographer and has worked with film cameras and dark rooms since he was a boy. He was due to reach the ISS in November, and if we were going to get the film finished in time for the 50th anniversary we would have just one opportunity to film our “first orbit” at the end of December and during early January. . Working closely with Ziegler and the mission directors, we refined our filming times every few days as the orbit of the space station shifted with each visit from a Soyuz spacecraft or a space shuttle. Through Christmas 2010 our master spreadsheet of camera instructions was tweaked and changed as we struggled to keep up with the drifting windows of opportunity for filming, trying to embed last-minute requests for Paolo into an already full crew schedule, and hoping for good weather around the entire planet on the days we would film. Due to the differences in flight path between the ISS and Vostok 1 we filmed our orbit in five different segments, each single camera take sometimes covering more than 10,000km of ground. Back on Earth, in the edit, the task of matching up these camera takes began, using Google maps to identify coastlines and eyeballing sun angles to guide our construction of the film. The music It quickly became apparent that to make the film more engaging I needed over 100 minutes of new music to go with the pictures and so, not really having a budget, I sent a cheeky email to composer Philip Sheppard – whom I’d collaborated with on the film In the Shadow of the Moon back in 2007. I didn’t expect a reply: Philip is very busy and in great demand. But he did write back – and emailed me a few tracks soon afterwards. They came from an album he’d been working on called Cloud Songs which was inspired, coincidentally, by space flight. And even more coincidentally it turned out that the tracks were already on the International Space Station. Philip is a friend of the husband of Nasa astronaut Catherine Coleman – who flew up to the station with Paolo in November – carrying Cloud Songs on her iPod. So at one end of the station Catherine was listening to the First Orbit music, while at the other end of the station Paolo was filming First Orbit, without either of them knowing. Philip’s music has been an invaluable part of the project and sets the different moods for the film, from the launch and flight over frozen Siberia, to the approach of the terminator and dusk, through the long dark night over the Pacific Ocean, to dawn breaking and the welcome return of the sun just south of Argentina. Then on into the morning light of the South Atlantic, Africa and the Middle East to re-entry and landing. Mission audio The third element of the film is Yuri Gagarin himself. From the start of the project we had transcripts of what he said during the mission and one of our goals was to track down the mission audio to incorporate into the film. Little did we know how hard it would be to find. Almost a year of enquiries by the Russian-speaking space flight consultant Dr Iya Whiteley eventually located it in the Russian State Archive, and with further assistance from the Russian Space Agency Roscosmos and the British Council , we managed to marry up Gagarin’s commentary with the new pictures. Hearing Yuri’s excited voice describing his first view of the Earth and his first experience of the weightlessness of space flight is mesmerising and places him and Sergei Korolev firmly back at the centre of this recreation of one of the most significant moments in the history of life on Earth. First Orbit will have its planet-wide premiere from 7.07am British Summer Time (6.07am GMT) youtube.com/firstorbit and on over 600 screens around the world in 60 countries . In the UK the BBC will screen it on their giant city centre screens across the country at exactly the same time as Gagarin made his flight 50 years ago – 07:07 BST on 12 April. Guardian Science will also host the film in conjunction with a live feed of mission updates and comms (via Twitter) in sync with the original flight. There is more information at firstorbit.org . And you can follow the Vostok 1 mission comms in real time on Twitter with hashtag #orbit1 and through the iPhone and Android Apps ‘First Orbit’. • Dr Christopher Riley is the producer and director of First Orbit and founder of the online film archive Footagevault Yuri Gagarin Space Documentary guardian.co.uk
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Natori in Miyagi prefecture was one of the areas worst-hit by the quake and tsunami on 11 March, see how it has fared in our series of photos
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There’s plenty that links the two – not least their umbilical link with communities. Is it time to think more creatively about what libraries can do? The words on the page fade to white. A voice in my ear instructs me to keep reading. There’s something impish about this voice, a private soundtrack in this place of supposed silence and study. I am sitting in Bishopsgate Institute Library, listening to The Quiet Volume , a piece of audio-theatre designed by Tim Etchells and Ant Hampton for libraries. Participants are first paired up; then they don headphones and sit side by side with a small stack of books at each person’s elbow. The voice invites them to look around at their fellow readers and to become more conscious of their own “reading voice”; in this way both the act of reading and the space in which they sit becomes defamiliarised, alien, exciting. The piece asks its participants to consider why they read and how they read; it also tries to make them aware of what it is to no longer have that ability. The voice is at times soothing and reassuring, but also at times unsettling as it shifts out of sync with the printed words. The resulting experience is at once meditative and playful, making it impossible not to view both libraries and the process of reading with a greater degree of wakefulness. Libraries – their necessity, their undiminished importance – unite many of the events at this year’s London Word festival , an annual celebration of words, books and language, which runs at various venues in east London until 5 May. The Quiet Volume is being hosted by several very different London libraries, including Hackney Central Library and Senate House Library, while a panel discussion, No Future, So Charming, on 21 April at Bethnal Green Library will look at the evolution of book borrowing. The social role of libraries, their function and power, is an issue that remains as relevant as ever, even though the number of libraries under threat has been reduced somewhat. Currently just under 500 libraries across the UK (including mobile libraries) face closure . The loss might not be cataclysmic, but it will be socially erosive. As Philip Pullman said in response to proposals to close 20 of Oxfordshire County Council’s 43 libraries , “it’s a kind of inward loss, a darkening of things, a narrowing of horizons that will gradually make us a less informed, less intelligent, less aware, less useful, less imaginative, less kindly people than we might have been”. A piece like The Quiet Volume enables its participants to look at these spaces afresh. Even a project like Laughter in Odd Places , a series of comedy gigs in unexpected venues, run by Terry Saunders and Tom Searle – now sadly dormant – did this to an extent. It began life in a library in Camberwell. Surely the relationship between libraries and theatres is one that could be mined further. The Quiet Volume’s co-creator Ant Hampton describes how a book could “be seen as the ultimate portable theatre or event space; a compressed, codified version of the ‘black box’ theatre or the ‘white cube’ gallery, flattened into white squares and black lines”. There is an affinity between libraries and theatres, both are places of gathering and connection. (There’s a nice circularity to the fact that the Bush theatre’s new west London home will be in a former library building). Perhaps the idea of library theatres, or theatre libraries, is one that should be pursued further. We already have plenty of pub theatres. Maybe library theatres could be next? Theatre Libraries Arts funding Natasha Tripney guardian.co.uk
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• How can I assert myself for an upcoming role? • I’m full of career ideas but lacking clarity At the start of each week, we publish the problems that will feature in this Saturday’s Dear Jeremy advice column in the Guardian Work supplement, so readers can offer their own advice and suggestions. We then print the best of your comments alongside Jeremy’s own insights. Here are this week’s dilemmas – what are your thoughts? Problem one: How can I assert myself for an upcoming role? I’m 28 and moved to London from New Zealand late last year. Since January I have been working in publications/editorial at a university. My official role on a two-month contract was assistant editor, a big step down from my previous job, but I knew I would enjoy the work. My contract expired in February and HR told me they would need me to stay on and that a new contract would be forthcoming. However, it hasn’t appeared. The publications manager also had to leave unexpectedly and I have taken on her responsibilities, being the only other person on the “team”. Meanwhile, the company is recruiting a new publications manager, and to my surprise did not bring this up with me. While I’m enjoying the extra responsibilities, I feel very nervous that I still don’t have a contract and my increased workload has not been acknowledged in any way. How can I assert myself here? I know I need to speak up for myself, but to be honest I don’t know where to begin. Problem two: I’m full of career ideas but lacking clarity My contract is coming to an end and I need to find a job, but I’m struggling with what I want to do next. So far I have worked as a chef and run my own catering business. I gave that up because I wanted to work in large organisations, develop my management skills and learn from others. I then fell into teaching in a local college, which I enjoyed and was great for my self confidence. I really enjoy organising and problem solving, so moved on to working on projects in the education and local government sector, as well as a nine-month stint on a large project for a well-known retailer. I took my current job, working on local government projects, for the sake of having a job, but feel like I want more. I want to find something I care about. I have spent lots of time reflecting on what inspires me, have made endless notes and have done a little research. The problem is I need to pay the bills, so feel I have to be practical. I’ve been applying for project-related jobs that leave me cold. What I’d really like to do is get into a more creative field, such as interior design, and start up another business. However, getting an interim job in a field like this would mean a drop in salary that I cannot afford. I feel I now have enough experience to be working at managerial level and feedback I have received indicates that others agree. As well as being very practical I’m also analytical, and am studying part time for an MSc in global politics. I’m also considering possibly developing this as a career. Can you suggest anything to help me find some clarity? What are your thoughts? • For Jeremy’s and readers’ advice on a work issue, send a brief email to dear.jeremy@guardian.co.uk . Please note that he is unable to answer questions of a legal nature or reply personally Work & careers Graham Snowdon guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …There’s plenty that links the two – not least their umbilical link with communities. Is it time to think more creatively about what libraries can do? The words on the page fade to white. A voice in my ear instructs me to keep reading. There’s something impish about this voice, a private soundtrack in this place of supposed silence and study. I am sitting in Bishopsgate Institute Library, listening to The Quiet Volume , a piece of audio-theatre designed by Tim Etchells and Ant Hampton for libraries. Participants are first paired up; then they don headphones and sit side by side with a small stack of books at each person’s elbow. The voice invites them to look around at their fellow readers and to become more conscious of their own “reading voice”; in this way both the act of reading and the space in which they sit becomes defamiliarised, alien, exciting. The piece asks its participants to consider why they read and how they read; it also tries to make them aware of what it is to no longer have that ability. The voice is at times soothing and reassuring, but also at times unsettling as it shifts out of sync with the printed words. The resulting experience is at once meditative and playful, making it impossible not to view both libraries and the process of reading with a greater degree of wakefulness. Libraries – their necessity, their undiminished importance – unite many of the events at this year’s London Word festival , an annual celebration of words, books and language, which runs at various venues in east London until 5 May. The Quiet Volume is being hosted by several very different London libraries, including Hackney Central Library and Senate House Library, while a panel discussion, No Future, So Charming, on 21 April at Bethnal Green Library will look at the evolution of book borrowing. The social role of libraries, their function and power, is an issue that remains as relevant as ever, even though the number of libraries under threat has been reduced somewhat. Currently just under 500 libraries across the UK (including mobile libraries) face closure . The loss might not be cataclysmic, but it will be socially erosive. As Philip Pullman said in response to proposals to close 20 of Oxfordshire County Council’s 43 libraries , “it’s a kind of inward loss, a darkening of things, a narrowing of horizons that will gradually make us a less informed, less intelligent, less aware, less useful, less imaginative, less kindly people than we might have been”. A piece like The Quiet Volume enables its participants to look at these spaces afresh. Even a project like Laughter in Odd Places , a series of comedy gigs in unexpected venues, run by Terry Saunders and Tom Searle – now sadly dormant – did this to an extent. It began life in a library in Camberwell. Surely the relationship between libraries and theatres is one that could be mined further. The Quiet Volume’s co-creator Ant Hampton describes how a book could “be seen as the ultimate portable theatre or event space; a compressed, codified version of the ‘black box’ theatre or the ‘white cube’ gallery, flattened into white squares and black lines”. There is an affinity between libraries and theatres, both are places of gathering and connection. (There’s a nice circularity to the fact that the Bush theatre’s new west London home will be in a former library building). Perhaps the idea of library theatres, or theatre libraries, is one that should be pursued further. We already have plenty of pub theatres. Maybe library theatres could be next? Theatre Libraries Arts funding Natasha Tripney guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Mika Brzezinski: Rich White Men Need to Contribute More to Budget Solution
April 11, 2011 No Comment
Emphasizing that all but one of the top 30 income earners in the United States are white males, Mika Brzezinski clamored that it is time for the wealthy to pay their fair share and help solve the budget crisis on Monday's “Morning Joe.” Co-host Joe Scarborough and liberal New York Times columnist Charles Blow were in the midst of a debate about cutting entitlement spending when Mika chimed in. After Scarborough argued that making cuts to middle-class entitlements is necessary for the country's fiscal health, Brzezinski quipped that the rich should be contributing more to solve the budget deficit. (Video below the jump. Brzezinski's comments at 14 minutes in.)
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As the Commission now acknowledges, the warrant is only for major crimes and is being misused How is the EU going to stop the European arrest warrant, its fast-track extradition system, from being misused to prosecute bike thefts? At Fair Trials International we have been campaigning for years for a fairer European arrest warrant system, with a proportionality test to weed out trivial cases, as well as basic fair trial safeguards for people facing extradition. In a report out on Monday, the European commission acknowledges that the arrest warrant is being misused for low-level crimes. It urges European member states to sort out the problem themselves, by only using the warrant for what it was intended to do – prosecute or punish “major crimes”. However, the problem is that the law applying the arrest warrant does not say it can only be used for major crime and it contains no “proportionality test”. That is why countries such as Poland, Lithuania and the Czech Republic, with no prosecutorial discretion, must under their own law pursue every wanted person, no matter how minor the alleged crime. Take, for example, the case of a retired schoolteacher and grandfather facing extradition to Poland for going over his overdraft limit more than 10 years ago. The entire debt was repaid to the bank but he is still being sought to face trial for “theft”, although he has suffered three strokes and is in fragile health. Extradition has an enormous impact on individuals and their families, yet this “no questions asked” system leaves judges no real discretion to refuse warrants – even when there are serious human rights concerns about sending someone off to the other side of Europe to be prosecuted or imprisoned. Building a proportionality test into the system would mean amending the framework legislation by creating an amendment that every one of the 27 EU countries would then have to implement domestically. Though it has not ruled out legislative reform and has the power to recommend it, the commission would like to avoid this. The European arrest warrant is seen as an important symbol of mutual trust between EU countries, a flagship instrument forged in the wake of 9/11 in a spirit of stronger judicial co-operation across EU borders. In a union of 27 countries, all with distinct legal and penal cultures, it is not easy to build the trust necessary for this degree of mutual co-operation. The commission hopes that the slow but steady introduction of EU-wide basic defence safeguards will help to stem the growth in cases of injustice. The report recommends better statistical monitoring and more training for judges, who are asked to look at whether alternative measures are appropriate before reaching for the arrest warrant. Time will tell whether this is enough to stop the excessive use of this tick-box system by some countries (most notably Poland, which in 2009 issued 4,844 warrants compared to the UK’s 220). Although they are welcome and necessary, new EU laws guaranteeing basic defence rights such as access to a lawyer and an interpreter will not cure the flaws in the arrest warrant system nor eradicate injustice from its operation. Time is running out for EU countries to put their own houses in order. Urgent steps are needed to reform the European arrest warrant, to make sure it fights serious cross-border crime effectively without compromising fundamental rights in the process. Legislative change may be the only answer. European arrest warrant European commission European Union Europe Catherine Heard guardian.co.uk
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