Partial preliminary figures show high turnout and favour eliminating restrictions on political rights and civil liberties Partial referendum results from a third of Egypt’s provinces yesterday showed a massive turnout and a vote overwhelmingly in favour of constitutional changes to eliminate restrictions on political rights and civil liberties . According to results issued by judges at polling centres, 11 out of 29 provinces showed between 65% and 90% of voters were in favour of the changes. Opponents feared the referendum’s passage would allow the Muslim Brotherhood to win out over Egypt’s dozens of new political parties in the forthcoming presidential and parliamentary vote. The partial preliminary results also showed 70% turnout at many polling centres, a massive showing after decades of political apathy in response to repression. Millions of Egyptians voted freely on Saturday for the first time in more than half a century, having waited for hours to cast their ballots on the package of constitutional changes. Young people traded mobile phone pictures of ink-stained fingers that proved they had voted. Others called relatives to boast of casting the first vote of their lives. In the well-off Cairo neighborhood of Maadi, a man hoisted his elderly father on his shoulder and carried him to a polling station. The first test of Egypt’s transition to democracy offered ominous hints of widening sectarian division, however. Many were drawn to the polls in a massive, last-minute effort by the Muslim Brotherhood after the widely despised National Democratic Party (NDP) of former president Hosni Mubarak, who was ousted last month in a national popular uprising. Critics say that would allow the Brotherhood and NDP to easily beat the dozens of political groups born out of the anti-Mubarak uprising, dividing power between former regime loyalists and supporters of a fundamentalist state – a nightmare scenario for both western powers and many inside Egypt. Among those most fearful of the Brotherhood’s rising power are Egypt’s estimated 8 million Coptic Christians, whose leaders rallied the faithful to vote against the changes. The NDP is blamed for corruption and fraud that marred every election during Mubarak’s 29-year rule, and its members have been accused of attempting to disrupt Egypt’s transition to democracy for fear of losing further power. The constitutional amendments were drawn up by a panel of military-appointed legal scholars and were intended to bring just enough change to the current constitution – which was adopted in 1971 and suspended by the military after it came to power – to ensure that forthcoming presidential and parliamentary elections are free and fair. In an interview with Egyptian newspaper El-Shorouk, a top member of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces said that the council will issue ‘a constitutional declaration’ just after the announcement of the final vote to lay down next steps. He said that if the results were in favor of change, then a timetable will be set for parliament and presidential elections. If the majority voted against, the armed forces might remain in power for up to two years. Voters were asked to vote yes or no for the whole package of nine changes, which would also impose presidential term limits and curtail 30-year-old emergency laws that give police near-unlimited powers. Of the 10 provinces, 90% of voters in Fayoum were in favor of the constitutional changes, while 60% of el-Wadi el-Gedid voted against. On Saturday, reform campaigner Mohamed ElBaradei and a group of his supporters were pelted with rocks, bottles and cans outside a polling center at Cairo’s Mokattam district in an attack he blamed on followers of the old regime. The day was otherwise almost entirely peaceful. Hundreds of Egyptians formed lines outside polling centers before they opened. They snaked along the streets in Cairo and other cities, with men and women standing in separate lines as is customary in the conservative and mainly Muslim nation. Saturday’s vote was by far the most free since the military seized power in a 1952 coup, toppling the monarchy and ending decades of a multi-party system that functioned while Britain was Egypt’s colonial master. Only men with military backgrounds have ruled Egypt since. While Mubarak’s departure has left Egyptians euphoric about their newfound freedoms, many are also worried about the potential for social tensions and instability. Christian-Muslim clashes this month left at least 13 killed and more than 100 wounded in the worst sectarian clashes in years. On 1 January, a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a church in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, killing at least 22 worshippers and wounding scores. A few days later, a policeman shot dead an elderly Christian man on a train. The Brotherhood, which has strongly campaigned for the adoption of the changes, advocates the installment of an Islamic government in Egypt. The ambivalence of its position on what role women and minority Christians play under their hoped-for Islamic government – such as whether they would be permitted to run for president or be judges – worry large segments of society. In the province of Luxor, thousands of Muslim Brotherhood supporters and Salafis, zealous adherents to practices from Islam’s early days, held separate demonstrations in the city center to campaign for votes in favour of reform. Churches handed out leaflets to worshippers calling on them to vote against reform. To the north in the province of Assiut, home to one of the country’s largest Christian communities, priests organised buses to ferry worshippers from churches to polling centers to cast their no votes. Islamists using loudspeakers in pick-up trucks roaming Assiut’s streets were calling on voters to vote in favour of reform. The attack on ElBaradei, the former head of the UN nuclear watchdog agency, forced him to flee without casting his ballot. The crowd smashed his car windows and shouted: “You traitor– we don’t want you”. ElBaradei supporters at the scene retaliated by chanting: “We want you”. The Nobel laureate later tweeted that “organised thugs” were to blame for the attack. In a second Twitter posting, he said Mubarak regime figures were seeking to undermine the revolution. More than half of Egypt’s 80 million people are eligible to vote. Egypt Middle East Muslim Brotherhood guardian.co.uk
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George Osborne’s reform of taxation could create new system of winners and losers, tax experts warn Government plans to merge national insurance and income tax expected in this week’s budget could be “politically explosive” and create a new system of winners and losers, tax experts have warned. The chancellor, George Osborne, will signal his intention to reform the two taxes as part of a drive to simplify taxation for business by reducing bureaucracy and cutting costs when he unveils his budget for growth on Wednesday. Reform will be trumpeted by Osborne as a way for people to see more clearly how much they are being taxed. Mike Warburton, tax director at Grant Thornton, the accountancy firm, said: “The plan is a good one in principle as it can’t be right that people’s earnings are subjected to two different taxes. But the issue is politically charged because an amalgamation of the two taxes would mean basic rate taxpayers would see their income tax jump from the current rate of 20% to 32%, to take account of the 12% NI rate that comes into force on 5 April. Psychologically, that could be difficult to swallow, so changes would have to be very carefully explained.” Higher rate taxpayers would see their rate jump from 40% to 52%. Over the years, Conservative and Labour governments have increased national insurance to avoid being accused of raising personal taxes. Warburton said the reality was “there is no separate national insurance pot that goes towards paying unemployment benefits or the state pension; NI is all part of general taxation”. He said that merging income tax and NI could create winners, such as stay-at-home mothers, whose state pension would no longer be linked to how much NI they pay. But losers could be pensioners or individuals who do not work, whose savings would be taxed at a new, higher rate of income tax. It could also hit people who pay the full amount into their pension over their working lives, as they would no longer qualify for an “enhanced’ state pension. Trade unions have warned that tax shakeups for workers must be carefully scrutinised as reform could be used as a way to increase tax receipts. Chris Sanger, head of tax policy at Ernst & Young, said reforming the system could be “politically sensitive” as employee taxation would be more visible and people would have a clearer idea of their tax bill. But he supported the idea as it would cut costs and paperwork for businesses. “It is pointless to have two separate employee taxes with two different sets of rules and regulations. Many millions of pounds could be saved and the government are absolutely right to look into it.” Sanger said employer NI contributions could be scrapped and replaced by an additional payroll tax. Experts point out there is no way that employer NI could be scaled down as the ration of pensioners to people of working age is forecast to jump from 25% to 43% over the next three decades. In a report on small business tax commissioned by the chancellor last July, the Office of Tax Simplification called for an end to the parallel systems of NI and income tax. “The overwhelming conclusion is that genuine and long-lasting simplification can only be brought about through structural change to the entire UK tax system,” the report said. Income tax George Osborne Budget National insurance Tax Richard Wachman guardian.co.uk
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enlarge Credit: Courtesy of Huffington Post (Jerry Moran/Stuart Smith oilspillaction.com) While the media is busy assuring their audiences that we still need nuclear energy despite catastrophic accidents potential, environmentalists would like you to remember we still have issues in the Gulf of Mexico from another one of our short-sighted energy policies . The Coast Guard is investigating reports of a potentially large oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico not far from the Deepwater Horizon site. According to a knowledgeable source, the slick was sighted by a helicopter pilot on Friday and is about 100 miles long. A fishing boat captain said he went through the slick yesterday and it was strong enough to make his eyes burn. According to the Times Picayune, the Coast Guard has confirmed they are investigating a potentially large 100 mile slick about 30 miles offshore. They are going to a site near the Matterhorn well site about 20 miles north of the BP Deepwater Horizon site, according to the paper. The Matterhorn field includes includes a deepwater drilling platform owned by W&T Technology . It was acquired last year from TotalFinaElf E&P. I’m sure that the GOP will insist that this has nothing to do with the Deepwater Horizon site and is strictly a coincidence. And of course, by no means should this force us to reassess the wisdom of deep water drilling. To which, you can be sure, the administration will shrug and acquiesce. Because why should we worry about a fragile eco-system and search for alternative fuel sources (thereby adding jobs and strengthening the economy) when we can instead live in the back pocket of Big Oil?
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Ministers resign from Yemeni government and even the president’s traditional tribal supporters begin to turn against him Tens of thousands of mourners flooded the streets of the Yemeni capital on Sunday in a mass funeral for 52 protesters killed on Friday in a sniper attack by government loyalists . The 150,000 turnout for the funeral at Sana’a University was by far the largest gathering seen in Yemen since protests against President Ali Abdullah Saleh began in earnest over a month ago. Dozens of bodies were wrapped in Yemen’s tricolour flag and hoisted on to the shoulders of young men who paraded the bodies through the streets shouting, “There is no God but Allah” and “Ali Saleh the tyrant is the enemy of God.” A two-hour power cut prevented many in the capital from watching televised footage of the mile-long funeral procession, which carried the dead from the morgue of a local hospital back to the heart of the tent-filled square at Sana’a University where they were killed. After praying for the dead, protesters tore down a barricade used to trap them in Friday’s assault and replaced it with a memorial; a mound of flowers and photos of those who had died. “The massacre has moved our revolution into its second phase,” said 29-year-old medical student Mohammed Al-Iryani, whose 12-year old brother Fares was killed in Friday’s violence. Politicians and civil society representatives joined the throng. Ali Abed Rabbo al-Qadi, the head of the independent parliamentary bloc who was in the crowd, said those behind the killings must be “held responsible for every drop of blood that has been shed”. Most of the injuries on Friday were caused by plainclothes gunmen crouched on the roofs of nearby houses who sprayed bullets down on the crowd. On Saturday protesters said they had captured five snipers carrying government identity cards, but Saleh has denied this, blaming the violence on “unknown armed civilians”. A government spokesmen said late on Sunday night that 16 suspects had so far been arrested for orchestrating the shooting. Saleh declared Sunday a national day of mourning for the “martyrs for democracy”, while blaming the opposition for “incitement and chaos” that had led to the killings. The bloodshed has prompted a string of defections from Yemen’s government; in a move echoing the early days of Libya’s uprising, Yemen’s ambassador to the UN, Abdullah al-Saeed, quit on Sunday citing Friday’s brutal crackdown. His resignation followed that of four government ministers, including Huda al-Ban, one of only two female ministers in the government. Her deputy, Ali Saleh Taisir, also resigned in reaction to what they termed as a “gross use of violence” again peaceful demonstrators. Yemen’s tribes, one of the few remaining bastions of the embattled Saleh’s rule, appear also to be turning against him. Sadeq al-Ahmar, the leader of Yemen’s most powerful tribal confederation, issued a statement on Sunday asking Saleh to respond to the people’s demands and leave peacefully. Meanwhile, troops and security forces moved into the capital on Saturday to enforce a state of emergency declared by Saleh. Tanks were also deployed across the city for the first time in five weeks of civil unrest in which over 70 people have died. In addition, hundreds of soldiers moved into the streets to set up checkpoints and enforce a ban on carrying firearms in public. The opposition says the president – a key US ally in the war against al-Qaida in the region – must resign this year, but he has refused to leave until his term expires in 2013. He has also offered to devolve power to parliament under a new constitution, a pledge rejected as “too little, too late” by the opposition which says the president cannot be trusted to honour his promises. “The chances of reaching a meaningful political solution are minute now,” said opposition spokesman Mohammed al-Sabri. Saleh has promised to protect the right to peaceful assembly, but as the death toll soars he seems unable or unwilling to honour his pledges. Yemen Arab and Middle East protests Middle East Protest guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Ministers resign from Yemeni government and even the president’s traditional tribal supporters begin to turn against him Tens of thousands of mourners flooded the streets of the Yemeni capital on Sunday in a mass funeral for 52 protesters killed on Friday in a sniper attack by government loyalists . The 150,000 turnout for the funeral at Sana’a University was by far the largest gathering seen in Yemen since protests against President Ali Abdullah Saleh began in earnest over a month ago. Dozens of bodies were wrapped in Yemen’s tricolour flag and hoisted on to the shoulders of young men who paraded the bodies through the streets shouting, “There is no God but Allah” and “Ali Saleh the tyrant is the enemy of God.” A two-hour power cut prevented many in the capital from watching televised footage of the mile-long funeral procession, which carried the dead from the morgue of a local hospital back to the heart of the tent-filled square at Sana’a University where they were killed. After praying for the dead, protesters tore down a barricade used to trap them in Friday’s assault and replaced it with a memorial; a mound of flowers and photos of those who had died. “The massacre has moved our revolution into its second phase,” said 29-year-old medical student Mohammed Al-Iryani, whose 12-year old brother Fares was killed in Friday’s violence. Politicians and civil society representatives joined the throng. Ali Abed Rabbo al-Qadi, the head of the independent parliamentary bloc who was in the crowd, said those behind the killings must be “held responsible for every drop of blood that has been shed”. Most of the injuries on Friday were caused by plainclothes gunmen crouched on the roofs of nearby houses who sprayed bullets down on the crowd. On Saturday protesters said they had captured five snipers carrying government identity cards, but Saleh has denied this, blaming the violence on “unknown armed civilians”. A government spokesmen said late on Sunday night that 16 suspects had so far been arrested for orchestrating the shooting. Saleh declared Sunday a national day of mourning for the “martyrs for democracy”, while blaming the opposition for “incitement and chaos” that had led to the killings. The bloodshed has prompted a string of defections from Yemen’s government; in a move echoing the early days of Libya’s uprising, Yemen’s ambassador to the UN, Abdullah al-Saeed, quit on Sunday citing Friday’s brutal crackdown. His resignation followed that of four government ministers, including Huda al-Ban, one of only two female ministers in the government. Her deputy, Ali Saleh Taisir, also resigned in reaction to what they termed as a “gross use of violence” again peaceful demonstrators. Yemen’s tribes, one of the few remaining bastions of the embattled Saleh’s rule, appear also to be turning against him. Sadeq al-Ahmar, the leader of Yemen’s most powerful tribal confederation, issued a statement on Sunday asking Saleh to respond to the people’s demands and leave peacefully. Meanwhile, troops and security forces moved into the capital on Saturday to enforce a state of emergency declared by Saleh. Tanks were also deployed across the city for the first time in five weeks of civil unrest in which over 70 people have died. In addition, hundreds of soldiers moved into the streets to set up checkpoints and enforce a ban on carrying firearms in public. The opposition says the president – a key US ally in the war against al-Qaida in the region – must resign this year, but he has refused to leave until his term expires in 2013. He has also offered to devolve power to parliament under a new constitution, a pledge rejected as “too little, too late” by the opposition which says the president cannot be trusted to honour his promises. “The chances of reaching a meaningful political solution are minute now,” said opposition spokesman Mohammed al-Sabri. Saleh has promised to protect the right to peaceful assembly, but as the death toll soars he seems unable or unwilling to honour his pledges. Yemen Arab and Middle East protests Middle East Protest guardian.co.uk
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Local representatives of the president’s party are leaving the party logo off election material to avoid ‘punishment’ vote Nicolas Sarkozy is braced for his last political test before next year’s bruising presidential race as local elections this weekend are expected to expose France’s vast disillusionment with its ruling class. Half of France will vote on Sunday to appoint about 2,000 local councillors in cantons, the smallest segment in France’s labyrinthine local administration. But the first round vote was expected to show abstention hitting record levels of over 50%. By 5pm, there had been a turn-out of only 36%, low for a local vote. One year before the presidential vote, local representatives of Sarkozy’s ruling right-wing UMP party are so fearful of a backlash “punishment” vote against Sarkozy that many of them have deliberately left the party logo off their election material and beseeched party leaders not to canvas on their behalf, embarrassing the government. At one meeting last week in Le Raincy, a right-wing residential town surrounded by the neglected high-rise ghettos that saw France’s worst urban riots in 2005, the higher education minister Valerie Pécresse tried to rally the troops by quoting Winston Churchill on the need for courage. She blamed the financial crisis for the nation’s extreme pessimism, arguing that Sarkozy was still the best hope for the 2012 presidential race. “When a country goes through a storm it needs a captain to steep up to the bridge,” she said. Imploring candidates to remind voters that Sarkozy had succeeded in changing France, she cited only three reforms, the raising of the pension age, an overhaul of universities and compulsory minimum service on public transport on strike days, which means France can no longer be paralysed by industrial action. The Socialist party hopes to detract attention from its own bitter-infighting over who it will chose as its presidential candidate and capitalise on the mood against Sarkozy. Before the military invention against Libya, the president was festering at his lowest ever approval ratings in the polls, 29%, with two polls showing him knocked out of the first-round presidential race by the extreme right Front National. The left, which trounced Sarkozy’s party in the regional elections last year, currently holds 58 department councils up for election and wants to push above 60. The right holds 42 councils and could lose 12 of them, including La Sarthe, the rural fiefdom of the prime minister, Francois Fillon. The much-reduced Communist Party is battling to hold onto the last vestige of the “red” working-class suburbs of Paris, Val-de-Marne, in the east. The vote is the first electoral test for the new Front National leader, Marine Le Pen. Seven out of 12 polls in a space of eleven days showed her getting through to the final round of the presidential race in 2012. But the local “cantonales” elections have never been an easy ground for the party, which currently has no local councillors at this level. The FN is keen to make ground in the old mining communities of Pas-de-Calais where Le Pen made her name. However it is Le Pen’s rhetoric against immigration and the “islamification” of France that has dominated public debate in the run up to the elections and set the tone for Sarkozy’s UMP party which has tried to win back ground by organising a controversial debate on islam and secularism for April 5. When the new interior minister and former Sarkozy advisor Claude Gueant said last week that “French people no longer feel at home in France” he was lampooned by the left for veering onto extreme right territory. If the left do well in the local elections, it could have a direct bearing on the French senate and cause another headache for Sarkozy. Half the senatorial seats are up for renewal in September, voted for by local representatives. A surge in the left at the local level could make it hard for the right to keep hold of the senate, causing difficulties for Sarkozy’s ability to govern in his final months. France Europe Nicolas Sarkozy Angelique Chrisafis guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Local representatives of the president’s party are leaving the party logo off election material to avoid ‘punishment’ vote Nicolas Sarkozy is braced for his last political test before next year’s bruising presidential race as local elections this weekend are expected to expose France’s vast disillusionment with its ruling class. Half of France will vote on Sunday to appoint about 2,000 local councillors in cantons, the smallest segment in France’s labyrinthine local administration. But the first round vote was expected to show abstention hitting record levels of over 50%. By 5pm, there had been a turn-out of only 36%, low for a local vote. One year before the presidential vote, local representatives of Sarkozy’s ruling right-wing UMP party are so fearful of a backlash “punishment” vote against Sarkozy that many of them have deliberately left the party logo off their election material and beseeched party leaders not to canvas on their behalf, embarrassing the government. At one meeting last week in Le Raincy, a right-wing residential town surrounded by the neglected high-rise ghettos that saw France’s worst urban riots in 2005, the higher education minister Valerie Pécresse tried to rally the troops by quoting Winston Churchill on the need for courage. She blamed the financial crisis for the nation’s extreme pessimism, arguing that Sarkozy was still the best hope for the 2012 presidential race. “When a country goes through a storm it needs a captain to steep up to the bridge,” she said. Imploring candidates to remind voters that Sarkozy had succeeded in changing France, she cited only three reforms, the raising of the pension age, an overhaul of universities and compulsory minimum service on public transport on strike days, which means France can no longer be paralysed by industrial action. The Socialist party hopes to detract attention from its own bitter-infighting over who it will chose as its presidential candidate and capitalise on the mood against Sarkozy. Before the military invention against Libya, the president was festering at his lowest ever approval ratings in the polls, 29%, with two polls showing him knocked out of the first-round presidential race by the extreme right Front National. The left, which trounced Sarkozy’s party in the regional elections last year, currently holds 58 department councils up for election and wants to push above 60. The right holds 42 councils and could lose 12 of them, including La Sarthe, the rural fiefdom of the prime minister, Francois Fillon. The much-reduced Communist Party is battling to hold onto the last vestige of the “red” working-class suburbs of Paris, Val-de-Marne, in the east. The vote is the first electoral test for the new Front National leader, Marine Le Pen. Seven out of 12 polls in a space of eleven days showed her getting through to the final round of the presidential race in 2012. But the local “cantonales” elections have never been an easy ground for the party, which currently has no local councillors at this level. The FN is keen to make ground in the old mining communities of Pas-de-Calais where Le Pen made her name. However it is Le Pen’s rhetoric against immigration and the “islamification” of France that has dominated public debate in the run up to the elections and set the tone for Sarkozy’s UMP party which has tried to win back ground by organising a controversial debate on islam and secularism for April 5. When the new interior minister and former Sarkozy advisor Claude Gueant said last week that “French people no longer feel at home in France” he was lampooned by the left for veering onto extreme right territory. If the left do well in the local elections, it could have a direct bearing on the French senate and cause another headache for Sarkozy. Half the senatorial seats are up for renewal in September, voted for by local representatives. A surge in the left at the local level could make it hard for the right to keep hold of the senate, causing difficulties for Sarkozy’s ability to govern in his final months. France Europe Nicolas Sarkozy Angelique Chrisafis guardian.co.uk
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Click here to view this media Glenn Beck summarizes the terrible news that Socialists are now demonstrating in Chicago, the camera pans to a sign calling for the US to open their f*&king borders at about 8 seconds in. Accidental or on purpose? Of course, he behaves as though it’s a complete accident, facepalming and saying “Oops, don’t show that to my audience!” In my opinion, it was entirely intentional to drive home his theory to his fearful doddering audience that Socialists are crude, profane, anti-American idiots. I included the rest of the clip here, because the next part is just bizarre. Evidently in Beck’s world, electric power and heat are privileges. His reasoning for this seems to be related to the fact that there was no electric power or heat in the United States when it was formed. Um…ok. I use Beck as a bellwether for the next wave of conservative lunacy, and more is coming. As usual, the targets are those least able to defend themselves — the poor. Beck kicks off the meme with this: Not good. They’re ready for revolution, and they’re ready for revolution now. It’s not good. In Detroit, the Committee Against Utility Shutoffs has staged a protest. The Committee is a branch of the Socialist Equality Party and they are saying now utilities are also a social right. I’m not sure exactly how that works because — [stutters] — except for the last 150 years we didn’t have any power at all, so how is that a universal right? I guess Glenn wants us to go back to huntin’ bear and dressing in bearskin, eh? As utility companies are increasingly privatized and/or run by private concerns, rates go up. As rates go up, those least able to afford them are shut off. Programs like LIHEAP are stretched beyond their capacity as it is, and speculators continue to drive prices up, shutting more and more people out of their ability to pay. Watch for it to become the next big target. First they come for the jobs. Then they hit the pensions, home equity and savings. Finally, they shut off the lights. And Glenn Beck laughs.
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Click here to view this media Glenn Beck summarizes the terrible news that Socialists are now demonstrating in Chicago, the camera pans to a sign calling for the US to open their f*&king borders at about 8 seconds in. Accidental or on purpose? Of course, he behaves as though it’s a complete accident, facepalming and saying “Oops, don’t show that to my audience!” In my opinion, it was entirely intentional to drive home his theory to his fearful doddering audience that Socialists are crude, profane, anti-American idiots. I included the rest of the clip here, because the next part is just bizarre. Evidently in Beck’s world, electric power and heat are privileges. His reasoning for this seems to be related to the fact that there was no electric power or heat in the United States when it was formed. Um…ok. I use Beck as a bellwether for the next wave of conservative lunacy, and more is coming. As usual, the targets are those least able to defend themselves — the poor. Beck kicks off the meme with this: Not good. They’re ready for revolution, and they’re ready for revolution now. It’s not good. In Detroit, the Committee Against Utility Shutoffs has staged a protest. The Committee is a branch of the Socialist Equality Party and they are saying now utilities are also a social right. I’m not sure exactly how that works because — [stutters] — except for the last 150 years we didn’t have any power at all, so how is that a universal right? I guess Glenn wants us to go back to huntin’ bear and dressing in bearskin, eh? As utility companies are increasingly privatized and/or run by private concerns, rates go up. As rates go up, those least able to afford them are shut off. Programs like LIHEAP are stretched beyond their capacity as it is, and speculators continue to drive prices up, shutting more and more people out of their ability to pay. Watch for it to become the next big target. First they come for the jobs. Then they hit the pensions, home equity and savings. Finally, they shut off the lights. And Glenn Beck laughs.
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Feral German child who was kept as a pet in George I’s court had Pitt-Hopkins syndrome, research into portrait suggests The condition that affected Peter the Wild Boy, a feral child found abandoned in a German forest and kept as a pet at the courts of George I and II, has been identified more than 200 years after his death. Peter’s charming smile, seen in his portrait painted in the 1720s by William Kent on the king’s grand staircase at Kensington Palace, was the vital clue. Lucy Worsley, the historian at Historic Royal Palaces who has been researching Peter’s strange life, suspected from contemporary accounts that he was autistic. She showed the portrait and gave the description of his physical characteristics and odd habits to Phil Beale, professor of genetics at the Institute of Child Health. Beale ran the symptoms through his database of chromosomal disorders, and came up with a diagnosis of Pitt-Hopkins syndrome, which was identified in 1978, centuries after Peter’s death. Its most distinctive effect is clearly shown in Peter’s portrait, his curvy Cupid’s bow lips. Other Pitt-Hopkins symptoms shared by Peter included short stature, coarse hair – the portrait shows him with a thick, curly mop – drooping eyelids and thick lips. He was also said to have two fingers fused together, which may have been clubbed fingers, also sometimes a symptom. His mental development would also have been affected. Together his symptoms explain to Worsley – who will discuss the discovery on the BBC Radio 4 Making History programme on Tuesday – how he ended up alone and naked in a forest. “Certainly this was enough to explain why he was abandoned by his family, and once captured in the forest like a wild animal, why he was thrown into the local house of correction with the vagrants and thieves,” said Worsley. “He was actually quite lucky that King George I heard about him, and summoned him to court, even though there he was treated like a performing dog rather than a damaged little boy.” Worsley uncovered Peter’s history while researching the courtiers and royal servants who appear in Kent’s wall painting at Kensington Palace for her book Courtiers, published last year. The last piece of the puzzle has been solved now. Worsley says she has been fascinated by Peter, who capered like Shakespeare’s Puck in the solemn and etiquette stifled court. The servants had difficulty persuading him to walk instead of scuttling about on hands and knees, to sleep in a bed and to wear his green suit and red socks – he was terrified when he first saw a man taking off stockings, believing he was peeling off his skin. George I gave Peter to his daughter-in-law Caroline, who was interested in science and philosophy, at a time when debate was raging about nature versus nurture, rational intelligence and the soul. He lived on at court when she became Queen. Although he was treated kindly by his guardian, the Scottish doctor John Arbuthnot – by his side in the painting – he never learned to speak more than his name, and he wore a brass collar like a slave or a dog so he could be restored to his “owners” if he wandered off. When he first came to England he was a media sensation in Georgian London, the subject of newspaper articles, poems and ballads – often satirising the extravagance and tortuous etiquette of the court. One mockingly described him as “The Most Wonderful Wonder that ever appeared to the Wonder of the British Nation”. When Jonathan Swift – suspected as co-author of the wonder pamphlet – was called to meet Caroline, he commented that since she was interested in a wild German boy, she also wanted to meet a wild Irish cleric. Peter long outlived his royal patrons, and after Caroline’s death in 1737 was sent to live on a farm in Hertfordshire owned by a retired courtier, where he lived into his 70s on a pension of £35 a year. He was buried in the churchyard of St Mary’s at Northchurch near Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire. His simple gravestone reads: “Peter the Wild Boy 1785″. Worsley said: “He was a famous figure in Georgian times and he hasn’t been forgotten today, people still lay flowers on his grave. “It’s hugely satisfying to winkle another secret out of the painting, which I’ve been obsessed with for some years now.” Painting Monarchy Germany Radio 4 Genetics Maev Kennedy guardian.co.uk
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