Retail prices index, which includes housing costs, hit 5.5% – its highest level since July 1991 UK inflation rose to 4.4% last month, its highest level since October 2008, as rising heating and clothing costs continued to drive up the cost of living. February’s consumer prices index reading, which was higher than the City had expected, pushed the pound to a new 14-month high of 1.6377. The retail prices index, which includes housing costs, hit 5.5% – its highest level since July 1991. Economists believe the rising cost of living will force the Bank of England to hike UK interest rates above the current record low of 0.5%, with several some expecting a rise in May. However, Bank governor Mervyn King has repeatedly insisted that CPI will fall back to the official target of 2% in the medium term . King has also pointed out that many of the causes of the rising cost of living, such as the high oil price and record commodity and food costs, are external factors that would not be significantly affected by a change to the cost of borrowing. Inflation Economics Bank of England Interest rates Graeme Wearden guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Retail prices index, which includes housing costs, hit 5.5% – its highest level since July 1991 UK inflation rose to 4.4% last month, its highest level since October 2008, as rising heating and clothing costs continued to drive up the cost of living. February’s consumer prices index reading, which was higher than the City had expected, pushed the pound to a new 14-month high of 1.6377. The retail prices index, which includes housing costs, hit 5.5% – its highest level since July 1991. Economists believe the rising cost of living will force the Bank of England to hike UK interest rates above the current record low of 0.5%, with several some expecting a rise in May. However, Bank governor Mervyn King has repeatedly insisted that CPI will fall back to the official target of 2% in the medium term . King has also pointed out that many of the causes of the rising cost of living, such as the high oil price and record commodity and food costs, are external factors that would not be significantly affected by a change to the cost of borrowing. Inflation Economics Bank of England Interest rates Graeme Wearden guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Retail prices index, which includes housing costs, hit 5.5% – its highest level since July 1991 UK inflation rose to 4.4% last month, its highest level since October 2008, as rising heating and clothing costs continued to drive up the cost of living. February’s consumer prices index reading, which was higher than the City had expected, pushed the pound to a new 14-month high of 1.6377. The retail prices index, which includes housing costs, hit 5.5% – its highest level since July 1991. Economists believe the rising cost of living will force the Bank of England to hike UK interest rates above the current record low of 0.5%, with several some expecting a rise in May. However, Bank governor Mervyn King has repeatedly insisted that CPI will fall back to the official target of 2% in the medium term . King has also pointed out that many of the causes of the rising cost of living, such as the high oil price and record commodity and food costs, are external factors that would not be significantly affected by a change to the cost of borrowing. Inflation Economics Bank of England Interest rates Graeme Wearden guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Retail prices index, which includes housing costs, hit 5.5% – its highest level since July 1991 UK inflation rose to 4.4% last month, its highest level since October 2008, as rising heating and clothing costs continued to drive up the cost of living. February’s consumer prices index reading, which was higher than the City had expected, pushed the pound to a new 14-month high of 1.6377. The retail prices index, which includes housing costs, hit 5.5% – its highest level since July 1991. Economists believe the rising cost of living will force the Bank of England to hike UK interest rates above the current record low of 0.5%, with several some expecting a rise in May. However, Bank governor Mervyn King has repeatedly insisted that CPI will fall back to the official target of 2% in the medium term . King has also pointed out that many of the causes of the rising cost of living, such as the high oil price and record commodity and food costs, are external factors that would not be significantly affected by a change to the cost of borrowing. Inflation Economics Bank of England Interest rates Graeme Wearden guardian.co.uk
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Britons bin millions of tonnes of food each year – a crime compounded by the waste of all the water used to grow it As consumers throw millions of tonnes of uneaten food into the bin each year, few give a thought to the hidden cost of such waste – the water that it took to grow the food. But new research shows that we throw away, on average, twice as much water per year in the form of uneaten food as we use for washing and drinking. What is worse, increasing amounts of our food comes from countries where water is scarce, meaning the food we discard has a huge hidden impact on the depletion of valuable water resources across the world. According to the first comprehensive study into the impact of the “embedded water” in the UK’s food waste on world water supplies, more than a 5% of the water used by the UK is thrown away in the form of uneaten food. The research was carried out by the government’s Waste and Resources Action Programme (Wrap) and the green campaigning group WWF, and is published with the title: Water and Carbon Footprint of Household Food Waste in the UK. The water used to produce food thrown away by households in the UK amounts to about 6.2bn cubic metres a year. That represents 6% of the UK’s total water footprint, which includes water used in industry and agriculture. About a quarter of the water used to grow and process the wasted food originates in the UK, but much of it comes from countries that are already experiencing water stress. Green campaigners have for years called for more attention to be paid to “hidden” or “embedded” water – water that is used in the production of all sorts of goods, from food and clothing to cars and furniture, and which represents a hidden cost on exports. As more countries suffer from water scarcity, these exports can further deplete natural resources and cause environmental problems such as salination – which can render land unfit for growing crops – and higher prices for water to poorer consumers. Food waste carries another environmental cost: it accounts for about 3% of the UK’s annual greenhouse gas emissions, equivalent to the amount generated by 7m cars each year. That is enough to cancel out the greenhouse gases saved each year by British households’ recycling efforts. Liz Goodwin, chief executive at Wrap, said: “These figures are quite staggering. Although greenhouse gas emissions have been widely discussed, the water used to produce food and drink has been overlooked until recently. “However, growing concern over the availability of water in the UK and abroad, and security of the supply of food, means that it is vital we understand the connections between food waste, water and climate change.” She said the organisation – which is threatened with budget cuts – would work further with retailers, food and drink companies and local authorities to reduce the amount of food wasted. David Tickner, head of freshwater programmes at WWF, said consumers could make a “small but very significant” contribution to reducing water stress if they tried to avoid wasting so much food. Water Food Recycling Waste Climate change Ethical and green living WWF Agriculture Fiona Harvey guardian.co.uk
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Regulator aims to enable high-speed internet connectivity around UK while also guaranteeing competition The communications regulator Ofcom is planning its largest-ever auction of mobile phone spectrum in 2012 with the aim of enabling high-speed internet connectivity around the UK while also guaranteeing competition. The rights to “fourth generation” (4G), also known as “Long-Term Evolution” (LTE), radio spectrum – which enables connections at speeds of up to 100Mbps, about 25 times faster than the average broadband connection now in use at home – will be auctioned off in five chunks. Ofcom says that to guarantee competition in the future market it will limit both the minimum and maximum amounts of spectrum that any bidder can win. That, it says, should ensure that a balance of competition is maintained between the existing four mobile networks – Vodafone, Everything Everywhere (Orange and T-Mobile), O2 and 3. The spectrum to be auctioned is being freed up by the “digital switchover” from analogue to digital TV which is being rolled out across the UK now. The UK was one of the first countries to auction off 3G spectrum in 2000, which raised £22bn. However it has since fallen behind other countries, where 4G LTE systems have been installed and used: in the US the Verizon network has this year introduced LTE connectivity, and Germany has had a successful auction of frequencies that can be used for it. In the UK the auction was delayed by mobile phone companies which objected to Ofcom proposals for the auction. Despite offering a larger amount of bandwidth – about 180MHz of spectrum split between the 800MHz, 1.8GHz and 2.6GHz frequencies – the 4G auction is not expected to raise anything close to the amount raised by the 3G auction of 100MHz of bandwidth. Mobile networks are more cautious now about spending projections, although 4G connections could enable high-speed connections almost all over the country. A key factor will be which companies gain access to low-frequency bandwidth around the 800MHz mark, which is more effective for connections over long distances such as in rural areas. The higher-frequency bandwidth will be more effective for higher-speed connections over short ranges, such as cities. Two of the mobile operators, 3 and Everything Everywhere (the combined Orange and T-Mobile) protested in January, after Ofcom allowed the two oldest networks, Vodafone and O2, to “re-farm” low-frequency spectrum that they had been allocated when the mobile networks were first set up in the 1980s for 3G connections. The other two networks, and especially 3, which gained its bandwidth at the 3G auction in 2000, say that gives the two older networks an unfair advantage in the race to offer 4G. However Ofcom does not seem to have allowed for this in its rules for the auction. “Our role as the independent regulator is to award this spectrum in a way that secures the best use of the spectrum for the benefit of citizens and consumers in the UK,” the Ofcom chief executive, Ed Richards, said. “That is why we are proposing to design the auction in a way that not only encourages investment but also promotes competition and delivers wide coverage of services.” The auctions will have “floors” that will mean that auctions in which at least four companies do not win enough spectrum to provider higher-quality data services will be re-run. There will also be “caps” on the amount of low-frequency spectrum that any bidder can win, and on the total amount of spectrum any bidder can win. Ofcom is running a consultation on the terms of the auction on its website . Mobile phones Internet Telecoms Telecommunications industry Orange T-Mobile Ofcom Digital media Charles Arthur guardian.co.uk
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Dallas Wiens, disfigured after being electrocuted, had practically whole new face grafted on in first US full transplant surgery A Texas construction worker horribly disfigured in a power line accident has undergone the nation’s first full face transplant in hopes of smiling again and feeling kisses from his three-year-old daughter. Dallas Wiens, 25, received a new nose, lips, skin, muscle and nerves from an unidentified dead person in an operation paid for by the US military, which wants to use what is learned to help soldiers with severe facial wounds. Wiens will not resemble “either what he used to be or the donor,” but something in between, said plastic surgeon Dr Bohdan Pomahac, “The tissues are really moulded on a new person,” he added. Pomahac led a team of more than 30 doctors, nurses and other staff at Brigham and Women’s hospital during the 15-hour operation last week. Wiens was listed in good condition at the Boston hospital on Monday. He did not appear at a news conference with the surgeon. The Fort Worth man’s features were all but burned away and he was left blind after hitting a power line while painting a church in November 2008. The transplant was not able to restore his sight, and some nerves were so badly damaged from his injury that he will probably have only partial sensation on his left cheek and left forehead, the surgeon said. “When I saw Dallas for the first time I was worried that there may not be much we could do,” said Pomahac. Wiens has been able to talk to his family on the phone, said his grandfather, Del Peterson, who attended the news conference on Monday. After the accident, Wiens said “he could choose to get bitter or he could choose to get better. His choice was to get better. Thank God today he’s better,” Peterson said. In a YouTube video last year, Wiens spoke poignantly about why he wanted a transplant and how he wanted to smile again and feel kisses from his daughter, Scarlette, who turns four next month. Face transplants give horribly disfigured people hope of an option other than “looking in the mirror and hating what they see,” he said. He said that his daughter and his faith have kept him motivated. “She says, ‘Daddy has a boo boo, but God and the doctors are making Daddy’s boo boo all better,’” Wiens said. “She doesn’t care and she never has since day one that I was disfigured.” No details about the donor were disclosed. The hospital said the match was based on gender, race, age and blood type. Peterson said his grandson hopes to become an advocate for facial donations, and he thanked the donor family, saying: “You will forever remain in our hearts and our prayers and we are grateful for your selflessness.” The surgery was paid for by the defence department, which gave the hospital a $3.4m (£2.1m) research grant for five transplants. The new federal healthcare law also helped Wiens by allowing him to get insurance coverage under his father’s plan for the expensive drugs he will have to take for the rest of his life to prevent rejection of his new face. He will be covered until he turns 26 in May. He expects to be eligible soon under Medicare, which insures the disabled as well as those over 65. Wiens had no insurance when he was injured; Medicaid covered about two dozen operations in Dallas until his disability payments put him over the income limit. About a dozen face transplants have been done worldwide, in the US, France, Spain and China. This was the third in the US and the second at the Boston hospital. The previous one was in April 2009 – the partial replacement of the face of a man who was injured in a freak accident. In 2008, Connie Culp became the nation’s first partial-face transplant recipient. She underwent surgery at the Cleveland Clinic. Pomahac said one of the two people on the waiting list in Boston for a face transplant is Charla Nash, the Connecticut woman who was mauled and blinded by a friend’s 200-pound chimpanzee. The animal ripped off Nash’s hands, nose, lips and eyelids. She is also waiting for a hands transplant. The world’s first face transplant, also a partial, was done in France in 2005 on a woman mauled by her dog. Doctors in Spain performed the first full face transplant last March, for a farmer who was unable to breathe or eat on his own after accidentally shooting himself in the face. United States guardian.co.uk
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Crackdown on the better-off will be announced as government seeks higher tax revenue to close budget deficit A £4bn crackdown on tax avoidance by the better-off will be announced by George Osborne on Wednesday as the government seeks higher tax revenue to close the UK’s budget deficit. The chancellor will announce plans to prevent wealthy individuals disguising their true level of earnings to avoid paying income tax at 50%. Osborne will say HM Revenue & Customs will be able to boost tax receipts by £1bn a year over the next four years by action against so-called “disguised remuneration”, where tax is avoided by the use of employment benefit trusts and pension schemes. A range of measures are expected to be announced, although the details will not be released until the budget speech to prevent the tax-planning industry finding ways round the rules. Despite an improvement in the public finances since the record peacetime borrowing of 11% of GDP in 2009-10, the chancellor is concerned that the better-off are able to find ways round the 50% top rate of income tax introduced by Alistair Darling in the Labour government. He announced tax avoidance measures in December designed to boost tax receipts by £2bn over the next four years, but now believes tougher enforcement by HMRC and the additional measures will double that figure. In a separate move, the budget will be used to announce plans forcing executives and celebrities who use private jets to pay air passenger duty for the first time. Osborne plans to consult on the details but hopes the proposals will raise tens of millions of pounds. The budget will also see a further £100m provided for local authorities to repair potholes caused by the severe winter weather. On top of the funding already announced by Phil Hammond in February, this would mean a total £200m package to help fill in the damaged roads. The Institute for Fiscal Studies, meanwhile, has warned that low-income households were already suffering from the Treasury’s austerity measures before the impact of the cuts planned for April. The average British household has seen its real-terms income fall by £365 since 2008 in the worst three-year squeeze since the early 1980s, the research said. It found that the income of the median UK household had fallen 1.6% over the period. The respected thinktank said its study, commissioned by the BBC to examine the effects of cuts, showed pensioners and low-income workers were among the worst hit by the recession. The bottom 10% of households saw their real income fall by 2.1% between 2008 and 2011, the IFS said. Pensioner households saw their average income fall by 2.4%. But the richest households are even harder hit in percentage terms by a combination of the 50p tax rate and a reduction in tax relief on pension contributions, sending their income down by 3.8%. Cuts in housing benefit and tax credits from April are expected to make the situation worse for many families who have relied on state welfare to cushion the blow from cuts in working hours and pay following the financial crisis. However, the IFS said these changes to tax and benefits would be offset by the increase in personal allowances. A separate report on Monday from the Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation said that despite the government’s “harsh programme” of budgetary austerity there was a good chance of the UK escaping a double-dip recession. The paper identified seven factors that have influenced the success or failure of attempts to repair public finances around the world in the past and found five of them were favourable for the UK. These included the size of the deficit, the credibility of the government’s plan, the skewing of the deficit reduction towards spending cuts rather than tax increases, and the depreciation of sterling before and after the programme was announced. The two factors that pointed in the opposite direction were that fiscal consolidations were less effective when other countries were also cutting back and worked best when there was scope for interest rates to fall. “Reduced planned spending cuts would not necessarily increase short-term growth”, the Centre for Business Taxation said. Budget 2011 Tax avoidance George Osborne Budget Larry Elliott Phillip Inman guardian.co.uk
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Student activists draw inspiration from Egypt protests and call for 24-hour occupation of London landmark Campaigners against public service cuts are calling for a 24-hour occupation of Trafalgar Square – drawing inspiration from revolts in the Middle East – to coincide with Saturday’s trade union protest in London. Student activists who organised last year’s demonstrations say there will be a rolling programme of sit-ins and protests on the day and have called on people to occupy the central London square turning “Trafalgar into Tahrir” – a reference to the gathering point in Cairo that was at the heart of the revolution in Egypt earlier this year. “We want Trafalgar Square to become a focal point for the ongoing occupations, marches and sit-ins that will carry on throughout the weekend,” said Michael Chessum from the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts. “There are a lot of smaller scale demonstrations and actions planned and, just as we have seen in recent protests in the Middle East and north Africa, we want to create an ongoing organising hub.” Saturday’s main demonstration has been organised by the TUC and is expected to see more than 200,000 people – including public sector workers, families and first-time protesters – take to the capital’s streets to oppose government cuts. This month the TUC general secretary, Brendan Barber, promised a barrage of protests against the cuts, ranging from industrial strikes and “peaceful civil disobedience” to petitions by Tory voters in the shires. The plan to occupy Trafalgar Square is the latest in a wave of proposed sit-ins, occupations and “people’s assemblies” that activists have branded a “carnival of civil disobedience”. “We have seen time and again that marches from A to B do not achieve their objectives,” said Chessum. “This is about creating an ongoing movement that will put pressure on the government. This is the start of what is going to be a hot summer of protest against the ideological nature of what this government is doing.” The call for an occupation of the London landmark is backed by student groups, activists and two Labour MPs – John McDonnell and Jeremy Corbyn. In a joint statement they have called on people to “stay in Trafalgar Square for 24 hours to discuss how we can beat this government and to send a message across the globe that we stand with the people of Egypt, Libya, Wisconsin and with all those fighting for equality, freedom and justice. “We want to turn Trafalgar Square into a place of people’s power where we assert our alternative to cuts and austerity and make it a day that this government won’t forget.” Alongside the main march, which will set off from the Embankment before making its way to Hyde Park for a rally, anti-cuts campaigners say they plan to occupy some of the capital’s “great buildings”, close down scores of high street stores and occupy Hyde Park. UK Uncut, a peaceful direct action group set up five months ago to oppose government cuts and protest against corporate tax avoidance, is planning to occupy and force the temporary closure of scores of shops on Oxford Street on Saturday afternoon. Meanwhile, student groups will meet at the University of London student union building in Bloomsbury at 10am. Some are then expected to make their way to the main assembly point in a “feeder march”; others will peel off to take part in various “direct actions” . “Since Christmas the movement has become much more autonomous,” one veteran of last year’s protests told the Guardian last week . “There are smaller, semi-independent groups planning small-scale direct action against a range of targets. It will be a bit of a disappointment if we get to the end of the day and one of London’s great buildings is not occupied. We have to make an impact.” Online, other groups are calling for more widespread direct action on Saturday. An organisation calling itself Resist 26 claims it will stage a number of “people’s assemblies” along the route of the march. Under the banner “Battle of Britain” it is calling for a 24-hour occupation of Hyde Park and “after parties” at famous London landmarks including Piccadilly Circus and Buckingham Palace. Scotland Yard says it has worked closely with the TUC to ensure the demonstration passes off peacefully and senior officers are due to give a detailed briefing on police plans on Tuesday morning. Protest Cuts and closures London Students Egypt Middle East Higher education John McDonnell Jeremy Corbyn Matthew Taylor guardian.co.uk
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Abnormal radiation levels reported in tap water, vegetables and milk with concerns that fish may also be affected The operation to cool the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has suffered a minor setback after smoke and vapour was seen rising from two reactors, as anxiety grew over the safety of food produced in the area. Days after Japanese authorities reported abnormal levels of radiation in milk, some vegetables and tap water, the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) said high levels of radioactivity had been found in seawater near the facility, raising fears that seafood has also been contaminated. The power company said seawater samples contained levels of radioactive iodine 126.7 times the allowed limit, and caesium 24.8 times over. The firm said the quantities posed no immediate threat to health. “You would have to drink [the seawater] for a whole year just in order to accumulate one millisievert [of radiation],” a Tepco official said. Background radiation from substances in the air and soil generally emit between one and 10 mSv a year. The source of the contamination has yet to be established, but officials believe it probably came from the tonnes of seawater that have been sprayed over overheating reactors and fuel rod pools in recent days. The Fukushima prefectural government said no marine products from the region had been distributed after the earthquake. Any evidence that contamination has spread to seafood would add further misery to the region’s food producers. About 6,000 residents of a village near the plant have been told not to drink tap water, while a ban has been imposed on shipments of milk, spinach, and kakina – a leafy vegetable – produced in the area. The government said it had no plans to extend a 20km (12-mile) evacuation zone around the nuclear plant, despite elevated radiation readings outside the area. “At the moment, there is no need to expand the evacuation area,” the government’s chief spokesman, Yukio Edano, told a briefing. The government’s latest readings, taken 10km outside the evacuation zone, show radiation levels of 110 microsieverts per hour, higher than normal background levels but well below those deemed a risk to health. The Kyodo news agency quoted IAEA data showing that radiation levels 1,600 times higher than normal had been detected in a now-evacuated residential area near the crippled atomic plant. According to agency inspectors, radiation levels of 161 microsieverts per hour were detected in the town of Namie, about 20km away. Amid growing concerns over food safety, Japanese authorities are reportedly considering a wider ban on the shipment of certain foodstuffs from the affected region. “They’re going to have to take some decisions quickly in Japan to shut down and stop food being used completely from zones which they feel might be affected,” Gregory Hartl, a World Health Organisation spokesman, told the Associated Press in Geneva. The WHO said the long-term effects on health from contaminated food was of greater concern that the spread of radioactive particles in the air. “A week ago we were more concerned about purely the radiation leakages and possible explosion of the nuclear facility itself, but now other issues are getting more attention, including the food safety issue,” Hartl said. “Repeated consumption of certain products is going to intensify risks, as opposed to radiation in the air that happens once, and then the first time it rains there’s no longer radiation in the air.” The WHO said the spread of radiation into the food supply was more serious than it had first thought, although it added that no tainted products had reached overseas markets. Japan is an exporter of seafood, fruit and vegetables, and dairy products, with Hong Kong, China and the US its biggest markets. China, Taiwan and South Korea said they would tighten screening of Japanese imports. Workers at the Fukushima plant have attached power cables to all six reactors and started pumping water into one of them in an attempt to prevent overheating fuel rods from reaching the potentially catastrophic meltdown phase. “There are signs of light that we are getting out of this crisis,” the prime minister, Naoto Kan, was quoted as saying. But that optimism was tempered by the sight of what appeared to be steam rising from the No 2 reactor and smoky haze above the No 3 reactor. The latter has given particular cause for concern because it contains plutonium-uranium mixed oxide fuel – or MOX – and would release highly toxic plutonium in the event of a meltdown. Tepco officials said the emissions had temporarily halted work to cool off the reactors. The death toll from the earthquake and tsunami continued to rise on Tuesday, as more bodies were retrieved from the vast stretch of coastline hit by the tsunami. Police said 8,928 people had been confirmed dead and a further 12,664 were missing. Japan disaster Japan Nuclear power Justin McCurry guardian.co.uk
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