I was anxious what TV would have done to my baby in the BBC’s adaptation, but its new artistic guardians have treated it very well indeed A few days ago, watching a TV show, I got tears in my eyes. That doesn’t happen very often. For a start, I haven’t watched television for many years, and also, it takes a lot to make me cry. My own private sorrows can make me weep, and occasionally a song can penetrate my defences (June Tabor’s “A Proper Sort of Gardener” does it to me every time), but when it comes to novels or on-screen narratives, I’m tough to crack. Pathos and poignancy are, to me, tactics and techniques; in my work as a writer, I fetch them from my toolbox and use them as required. Show me a tear-jerking movie, and I’ll sit stony-faced, analysing the hell out of it. “Oh yes, this is the bit where they hope people will start sniffling. Not badly done at all, I suppose, for this sort of thing. I’d rate it a 6/10. Maybe even a 7.” Yet a few days ago, sitting in front of the TV, I got choked up. Does it change anything if I tell you that the TV drama which moved me was an adaptation of my own novel The Crimson Petal and the White ? My wife and I watched it on a home-made DVD that was posted to us by the film-makers. It was episode four, the final instalment. We’d seen episodes one to three some weeks before, fresh from the cutting room. All four discs captured the production in an almost-but-not-quite-finished state, with missing voiceovers and the odd “note to self” jotted in subtitles, reminding boffins and dubbers to fix this or that. But the crucial things – the script, the acting, the direction, the cinematography – were all there. I was hugely impressed. Parental pride at seeing “my baby” up there? I don’t think so. The mere fact of my novel being filmed means very little to me. For a long while after The Crimson Petal ‘s publication in 2002, it looked as though Hollywood was going to adapt it. The production team responsible for the Spider-Man franchise had bought the option, and rumours abounded that Kirsten Dunst would play my heroine Sugar. I could not have been less interested. Receiving updates on it from my publishers was like receiving news about a fashion expo in Taiwan. Who cares? The producer emailed me, asking me a trivial question about the Victorian era which I interpreted as a feeler to test whether I might get involved in some capacity. Mindful that Hollywood has a long history of wasting authors’ time, flattering them into writing screenplays which then get rewritten by half a dozen hacks, I responded with polite standoffishness. The project never got off the ground. But listen: I want to tell you a story. Imagine a girl who’s been abused all her life, firstly by her mother and then by everyone else she meets. By the time she’s 19, she’s already been a prostitute for years. But she’s smart. Very smart. One of her clients falls in love with her (or does he?) and puts her intelligence to good use helping him run his business. Lots of other stuff happens – it’s a long story and I don’t have much space to tell it – but after a while, this prostitute finds herself looking after a six-year-old child. Mothering her, if you like. But we all know that the cycle of abuse is vicious. Will she poison the soul of this little girl, the way her own mother poisoned hers? Last week, I watched this drama being acted out on TV. I saw a young woman embracing a child and I could tell, looking into that young woman’s eyes, that she would sooner kill herself than harm that child. And my own eyes
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Maxwell Cook found not guilty after two and a half day trial A kitchen porter at a top public school has been acquitted of attempting to poison the pupils’ soup. Maxwell Cook was accused of pouring a bleach-like cleaning product into the carrot and coriander soup at Stowe School, Buckinghamshire. But after 2½ hours deliberation, the jury of 11 women and one man found him not guilty of attempting to administer poison with intent to injure, aggrieve or annoy. Cook, 58, slumped back in his seat with a look of relief as the verdict was read out. A cry of “yes” was heard from the public gallery. During the 2½-day trial at Aylesbury crown court in Buckinghamshire, trainee chef Louise Samples, 21, told the jury she had seen Cook in the kitchen lacing the soup with a sanitising destainer on 11 March last year. The soup was destined for about 100 pupils and staff at the £27,000-a-year school. But the cleaning product was detected during a routine tasting and no one was injured. Robert Spencer-Bernard, prosecuting, said the soup would have had “detrimental effects”. The toxic liquid was used to unblock drains and could cause irritation, vomiting and swelling of the throat. A spokeswoman for the school said: “We are completely satisfied with all kitchen procedures and there was never a risk of the contaminated soup reaching the dining hall. Pupils’ safety at Stowe remains paramount.” Cook, from Brackley, Northamptonshire, was dismissed after the incident. Stowe alumni include business tycoon Sir Richard Branson, Prince Harry’s on-off girlfriend Chelsy Davy and jazz musician George Melly. Crime Private schools Schools guardian.co.uk
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News of police breakthrough emerges after nationalist leaders joined police at the Catholic officer’s funeral Police investigating the murder of police officer Ronan Kerr in a car bomb attack in Northern Ireland have arrested a man in Scotland. Strathclyde police said the suspect was detained in Renton, Dunbartonshire. Kerr, 25, was killed when a booby-trap bomb exploded under his car in Omagh on Saturday. News of the police breakthrough emerged after nationalist leaders joined police in a symbolic show of unity at the Catholic police officer’s funeral in the village of Beragh , Co Tyrone. Officers have also seized a major arms haul in east Tyrone described as the “most significant in recent years”. The murder has been blamed on dissident republicans opposed to the peace process. A spokeswoman for Strathclyde Police said: “Strathclyde police can confirm that a 26-year-old male was arrested at approximately 1.10pm on Main Street, Renton, Dunbartonshire. “This arrest was made by Strathclyde police officers in relation to an ongoing investigation led by the Police Service of Northern Ireland.” Northern Ireland UK security and terrorism Police Northern Irish politics guardian.co.uk
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WikiLeaks founder says being forced to go to Sweden to face sexual assault allegations would breach his human rights Julian Assange has been given a date for his appeal against extradition to Sweden, where he faces allegations of sexual assault. A two-day hearing has been listed at the high court in London beginning on 12 July, it was announced on Wednesday. The WikiLeaks founder is appealing against a ruling by Judge Howard Riddle at Belmarsh magistrates’ court in south London that extradition would not breach his human rights. The 39-year-old Assange, described the ruling as “rubber stamping” and the result of a “European arrest warrant system run amok”. He denies the allegations against him and believes they were politically motivated, particularly after WikiLeaks’ publication of leaked American diplomatic cables that rocked the US government. The Australian national faces three allegations of sexual assault and one of rape in Stockholm in August last year, made by two female WikiLeaks volunteers. His lawyers accused the Swedish prime minister, Fredrik Reinfeldt, of creating a “toxic atmosphere” in Sweden and damaging his chances of a fair trial by portraying him as “public enemy No 1″. At a hearing in February, Riddle dismissed all of Assange’s arguments that he could not get a fair trial and rejected his claim that extradition to Sweden would violate his human rights. Assange has said he fears extradition to Sweden could be a stepping stone to him being sent to the US to stand trial on fresh charges relating to WikiLeaks, and that he could even face the death penalty. About a dozen supporters demonstrated outside the Belmarsh courthouse wearing masks, costumes and Guantánamo Bay-style orange boiler suits. If his appeal is unsuccessful, Assange could take his case to the supreme court, the UK’s highest court. Julian Assange WikiLeaks Crime Sweden Europe Extradition UK criminal justice guardian.co.uk
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Libya rebels accuse coalition of standing by as Misrata assault continues, saying air strikes have abated since Nato took charge Muammar Gaddafi’s forces are using civilians as human shields to foil Nato air strikes, France said after rebels accused the western-led coalition of standing by while government troops continue their assault on Misrata. The French foreign minister, Alain Juppé, conceded that the position of rebel-held city – under daily shelling and sniper fire from the army – was intolerable but said there was little more which could be done immediately. “We’ve formally requested that there be no collateral damage for the civilian population,” he told France Info radio . “That obviously makes operations more difficult.” The head of France’s armed forces gave a similar response to complaints from rebels that the pace of air strikes has abated since Nato took over control of Libyan operations from the US, France and UK on 31 March. “I would like things to go faster, but as you are well aware, protecting civilians means not firing anywhere near them,” Admiral Edouard Guillaud told Europe 1 radio . “That is precisely the difficulty.” He said Nato was concentrating operations on Misrata, where rebels hold the port zone, while also trying to prevent the transit of new weapons to Gaddafi’s power base in Tripoli. The comments follow a scathing reprimand for the alliance by General Abdel Fatah Younis, leader of the ramshackle rebel forces. He said: “Nato blesses us every now and then with a bombardment here and there, and is letting the people of Misrata die every day. Nato has disappointed us.” Younis, formerly Gaddafi’s interior minister, said there had been a marked slackening of operations since Nato took over: “The reaction of Nato is very slow. One official calls another and then from the official to the head of Nato and from the head of Nato to the field commander. This takes eight hours.” He disputed Nato’s reasoning for limiting air strikes on Misrata: “Nato says Gaddafi’s forces are hiding among civilians. But we tell them that there are no civilians left in the areas where the Gaddafi forces are positioned. We urge them to destroy civilian property to take out the snipers and armed gangs.” Following an initially rapid to-and-fro which saw the rebels swiftly advance before being pushed right back, the battle for control of the country has become bogged down in a near stalemate between Tripoli and the rebels’ base in the eastern city of Benghazi, one maintained by Nato’s enforcement of a no-fly zone and attacks on Gaddafi’s forces. The latest fighting, according to rebels, saw resupplied government forces push eastwards out of the oil port of Brega. Pick-up trucks loaded with machine guns and rocket launchers headed west from Ajdabiyah while several families fleeing the fighting in cars loaded with their belongings passed them in the opposite direction. Hossam Ahmed, a defector from Gaddafi’s army, said the frontline was 40-60km (25-37 miles) west of Ajdabiyah, saying the retreat “wasn’t a full withdrawal”, it’s back and forth. Ajdabiyah, gateway to Benghazi, is about 80km east of Brega. Like other rebels at Ajdabiyah’s western gate, Ahmed expressed frustration at the lack of Nato action. “There have been no air strikes. We hear the sound but they don’t bomb anything,” he told Reuters. Another rebel, Khaled al-Obeidi said: “What has Nato done, what has Nato bombed?” Thus far, air strikes have removed almost a third of Gaddafi’s military capacity, Brigadier General Mark van Uhm, a senior Nato staff officer, said in Brussels. He also said that remaining government forces were often hiding in populated areas: “When human beings are used as shields we don’t engage.” Amid the stalemate there has been increasing focus on diplomatic efforts, such as encouraging key Gaddafi loyalists to defect. Gaddafi is seemingly attempting to play the same game. Libya’s official Jana news agency said that he had sent a message to Obama “following the withdrawal of America from the crusader colonial alliance against Libya”. The US played a key role in early air strikes before Nato took over. Libya Middle East France Nato Muammar Gaddafi Arab and Middle East unrest Peter Walker guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Democratic National Committee Chairman and former Virginia Governor Tim Kaine said Tuesday that he’s running to be the next senator from Virginia. In a newly released online video , Kaine announced that he was seeking the seat currently held by Democratic Sen. Jim Webb, who is retiring after just one term. “I’m running for the United States Senate because America has big challenges,” Kaine said. “I’m convinced that Virginia has answers to help strengthen our nation… Thankfully, we still have a tradition of balance and civility here that is sadly disappearing from Washington.” “We’ve got to be unified and creative in this tough and completive world to expand jobs and educational opportunities in a fiscally responsible way,” he added. “That’s what I did as governor and that’s what I’ll do as your senator.” Kaine is seen as the Democrats’ best hope for keeping control of the Virginia seat and helping to maintain a majority in the Senate in 2012. Politico reported Saturday that former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland was seen as the logical replacement for the DNC chairman. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), who is popular among Democratic and independent women, was also in contention for the position. “Some of us are just sick of there never being a woman at this table and on TV,” one well-connected Democratic woman told Politico. The 53-year-old Kaine was picked by President Barack Obama as DNC chair in 2008 while he was still serving as governor. The Virginia governor was one of Obama’s earliest supporters and was widely credited with helping to deliver the state’s 13 electoral votes.
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Family’s QC accuses officer of talking ‘rubbish’ over claim that newspaper vendor was walking into a police line The officer who pushed and struck Ian Tomlinson shortly before his death has been branded “absurd” after telling an inquest that the newspaper vendor was “almost inviting physical confrontation” during the G20 protests in London in April 2009. Giving evidence for a third day, PC Simon Harwood was adamant that he had not pushed Tomlinson from behind – despite video footage that appeared to contradict his claims. When the officer repeated his claim that Tomlinson had been walking into a police line before the encounter, the family’s lawyer, Matthew Ryder QC, replied: “I suggest to you the answer you are trying to give is absurd.” However, Harwood insisted that “from his angle”, the 47-year-old had not been moving away. “That is rubbish, I suggest to you, PC Harwood, and you know it,” said Ryder. “I was there and I saw what I saw,” said Harwood. In an earlier statement, the officer had maintained that Tomlinson was “almost defiant in that his hands remained in his pockets and he looked at police officers approaching him as if he was simply intent on remaining where he was”. He stood by that claim in his evidence today, despite being reminded by the acting deputy coroner, Judge Peter Thornton QC, that he need not answer any question that tended to incriminate him. Harwood again responded by saying that he was “here to help” – a claim that reduced family members, including Tomlinson’s widow, to tears. Harwood also accepted that he had not given Tomlinson any warning before pushing him and told the court that he believed that he was entitled, as a police officer, to strike someone even if he had judged them not to pose a threat. Ryder asked: “Does your training tell you if someone is not a threat to you or any other person it is acceptable to baton them? Is that your training? “Yes,” replied Harwood. He also said that he did not consider his push to be any harder than that of a fellow officer who had pushed Tomlinson seconds earlier. Another officer, however, had described Harwood’s push as being “in a different league of force”. Harwood said he had not expected Tomlinson to fall to the ground as a result of the push. “Someone who has his back to you, you push him with that force, from behind and you didn’t expect he might fall to the ground?” asked the barrister. “No,” said Harwood. “I suggest that is a lie.” “No it is not,” replied Harwood. Ryder then asked if he had been trying “to make an example of” Tomlinson. “Because that would be a pretty horrible thing to do, do you agree? Just to make an example of them. Do you agree with that?” “Yes,” said the officer. The inquest continues. Ian Tomlinson G20 Sam Jones Paul Lewis guardian.co.uk
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David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Andrew Lansley launch two-month ‘listening exercise’ on plans to reform the health service, but warn ‘no change is not an option’ David Cameron and Nick Clegg have cast the government’s listening exercise on the NHS as an opportunity to “pause, listen, reflect and improve” the NHS modernisation plans but warned: “No change is not an option.” Amid mounting criticism of the coalition’s controversial NHS reforms, the prime minister stressed that modernisation was “essential” but conceded that NHS workers needed to be “really on board” in order to make the plans work. Clegg, who is under pressure from his own party over the details of the reform, stressed that he cared “more about getting this right than just getting it done” and insisted that the plans would not lead to creeping privatisation of the health service as some feared. Speaking at the launch of the government’s two-month listening exercise, which was also attended by the health secretary, Andrew Lansley, the prime minister led the launch at Frimley Park hospital in Surrey, telling NHS staff: “We want to work with you, not against you.” He added: “We will listen, and we will make any necessary changes.” The trinity of ministers took turns to spell out the need for reform amid fears that Lansley’s failure to explain the reforms has provoked a damaging backlash among voters and NHS staff. Describing himself as “passionate” about the NHS, Cameron said it was Britain’s “most precious national asset” and that he as prime minister had no intention of putting it at risk. But he stressed that “no change” was not an option in light of the two-pronged pressures to make it a more effective health service and to prepare for the demographic changes. He said hundreds more lives could be saved every week if the NHS was performing at world class level, claiming that about 5,000 more lives could be saved from cancer every year, as well as an extra 2,000 from respiratory diseases, as a result of the reforms. The other reason for modernisation was that the number of people aged over 85 was set to double in the next 20 years while the cost of advances in treatments and medicines was adding £600m of extra funding pressure every year. “Pumping in a bit more money and sticking with the status quo is not going to work,” Cameron said. Lansley was forced to take the rare step on Monday of making a statement to MPs, during the middle of a passage of a bill through parliament, to announce that the government would “pause” proceedings to listen to people’s concerns. Cameron told NHS workers that this offered a “natural break” before the legislation reaches its final stages in parliament. “We are taking this time to pause, to listen, to reflect and to improve our NHS modernisation plans. “Let me be clear: this is a genuine chance to make a difference. Where there are good suggestions to improve the legislation, to improve the changes, those changes will be made. “But let me equally be clear: the status quo is not an option. Modernisation is not just a good idea to save money and build a better health service. It is in my view essential for a better NHS for our future.” Many critics, including unions and patient groups, are opposed to major parts of the bill, particularly the increased role for the private sector. Other concerns relate to the accountability of GP-led consortiums. Clegg echoed Cameron on the need to modernise, while admitting that the “unusual” step of reflecting again on the plans showed that government had not got every detail right. He said that while the NHS could not “stand still”, the coalition would not “mess around with the basic principle” underpinning the service. Addressing some of the concerns, Clegg said on the issue of accountability: “It’s right that family doctors are in the driving seat; they know their patients best. But there have to be safeguards. And there will be. “Proper transparency, proper scrutiny and proper involvement of patients, other health professionals and local leaders. And that’s something we take very seriously.” On privatisation, Clegg went on to say that charities, social enterprises and the private sector had been used in providing care in the NHS ever since it was founded. “While we say yes to strengthen that role, we say no to allowing private companies to cherry-pick services, so undermining hospitals. “We say yes to a family doctor choosing a nurse’s co-op to visit you in your home, we say no to a US-style healthcare system where they check your credit card before they check your pulse. “Yes to patient choice, no to selling the NHS off to the highest bidder.” NHS Health Health policy David Cameron Nick Clegg Andrew Lansley Hélène Mulholland guardian.co.uk
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Video: Jonathan Glancey talks to the architect David Chipperfield about the new cultural centre on Margate’s seafront, inspired by JMW Turner’s legacy in the town Jonathan Glancey Ken Macfarlane Felix Clay
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Video: Jonathan Glancey talks to the architect David Chipperfield about the new cultural centre on Margate’s seafront, inspired by JMW Turner’s legacy in the town Jonathan Glancey Ken Macfarlane Felix Clay
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