enlarge During the debt-ceiling dust up, Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) claimed the U.S. deserved a downgrade if Congress didn’t slash spending down to the bare bones. He also claimed the August 2nd date for raising the debt-ceiling was meaningless. However, Issa doesn’t mind turning a profit and availing himself much of government largesse to do so. As he votes and argues for deep cuts to government spending (and jobs) for all of us, he’s doing a wonderful job of lining his own purse. The New York Times ‘ Eric Lichtblau has some tasty tidbits in his in-depth piece on Issa : Even as he has built a reputation as a forceful Congressional advocate for business, Mr. Issa has bought up office buildings, split a holding company into separate multi-billion dollar businesses, started an insurance company, traded hundreds of millions of dollars in securities, invested in overseas funds, retained an interest in his auto-alarm company and built up a family foundation. As his private wealth and public power have grown, so too has the overlap between his private and business lives, with at least some of the congressman’s government actions helping to make a rich man even richer and raising the potential for conflicts. He has secured millions of dollars in Congressional earmarks for road work and public works projects that promise improved traffic and other benefits to the many commercial properties he owns here north of San Diego. In one case, more than $800,000 in earmarks he arranged will help widen a busy thoroughfare in front of a medical plaza he bought for $10.3 million. Lee Fang over at ThinkProgress reported on the earmarks last March. ThinkProgress has discovered more troubling evidence that Issa may have blended his work as a lawmaker with his own business empire. After founding a successful car alarm company, Issa invested his fortune in a sprawling network of real estate companies with holdings throughout his district. One of Issa’s most valuable properties, a medical office building at 2067 West Vista Way in Vista, California, is called the Vista Medical Center, and was purchased in 2008 for $16.6 million . Described as “a long-term investment,” the property was bought by a company called Viper LLC, a business entity operated by Issa’s family that Issa has up to a $25 million dollar stake in. Around the same time Issa made the Vista Medical Center purchase, the congressman began requesting millions of dollars worth of earmarks to widen and improve the highway adjacent to the building. In 2008, he requested $2 million to expand West Vista Way, the road in front of his “long-term investment,” but only received $245,000 from the government. The next year, Issa made another earmark request for improving the West Vista Way highway next to his building. He earmarked another $570,000 , bringing his total to $815,000, to add parking lots , widen the road, add bus stops, improve the sewer system, and other utility work. Most troubling to me are Issa’s connections to Wall Street. From Lichtblau’s article: And Mr. Issa is no ordinary Merrill customer. His transactions there have totaled more than a billion dollars in the last decade, records show. In the aftermath of the firm’s acquisition in September 2008, in fact, he bought and sold at least $206 million in Merrill Lynch mutual funds in the next 15 days, records show. His ties to the bank deepened last year, records show, as Merrill Lynch gave him two “personal notes” for lines of credit worth at least $75 million. Yes, this is the guy who is the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. In his tenure in that position since January, he’s gone after the NLRB on behalf of Boeing Corporation, taken aim at President Obama’s re-election campaign , attacked the Obama administration and opened an investigation over improved CAFE standards , and obliged his NRA masters by attacking the ATF and Eric Holder for “Operation Fast and Furious”. If I were the IRS, and I read any of the articles Lee Fang has written about Issa, or this article in the New York Times , I think I would be opening audits on the tax-exempt family foundation, at the very least. Darrell Issa is seems to be another example of those who condemn what they do.
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Security officials say move part of a series of measures designed to improve safety inside and outside holy site Explosives detectors are to be installed at the entrances to the Holy Mosque in Mecca as the Saudi authorities boost security around the city’s holy sites. Around 180 people work on a shift pattern to man the gates leading to the Masjid al-Haram, which surrounds the Ka’aba, the black granite cube that Muslims turn to when praying. But there are no other measures in place to screen pilgrims for weapons, explosive devices or other banned items, although there are more than 700 cameras tracking them for possible theft, pickpocketing and other criminal or immoral activity. Lieutenant Colonel Fawaz al-Sahafi, who heads the security team at the mosque, told the Saudi Gazette plans to fit “sophisticated metal and explosive detectors” at the multiple gates were under way. He also said there were proposals to monitor pilgrims’ movements and have plain-clothes officers mingling with worshippers to stop them from carrying unauthorised foodstuffs into the mosque. Another security official, Lieutenant General Saeed Bin Abdullah al-Qahtani, said cameras at pilgrims’ residential buildings, traffic initiatives and crowd management plans would improve safety inside and outside the Grand Mosque. There is a ban on private cars carrying pilgrims entering Mecca, and there will be greater intervention from guards to ease congestion and jostling. The Saudi authorities have revamped a key element of the Hajj to minimise the potential for stampedes and expedite the evacuation of worshippers, but similar initiatives have yet to materialise at other sites in Mecca. Islam’s holiest city has not experienced terrorist activity since 1979, when hundreds of people died following an armed takeover of the Grand Mosque, with overcrowding proving to be more of a threat in recent years. At any one time, almost 1 million pilgrims can fit into the Grand Mosque. It covers almost one-third of a square kilometre but, in the coming days, King Abdullah will lay a foundation stone marking an expansion project to accommodate more believers. Around 4 million Muslims visit Mecca to perform the Hajj, the Islamic pilgrimage, while millions more go there throughout the year. Islam Religion Saudi Arabia Middle East Riazat Butt guardian.co.uk
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Prime minister delivers a speech describing last week’s rioting a ‘wake-up call’ for the country and says ministers will ensure policies address the causes of ‘broken Britain’ David Cameron pledged his government would “turn around the lives of the 120,000 most troubled families” by the next election as he said his broken society analysis is “back at the top of my political agenda”. He made the ambitious commitment in a speech delivered on Monday at a youth centre in his Witney constituency in Oxfordshire, in which he described the rioting as a “wake-up call” for the country. He said his ministers were now going to use the summer to ensure their departments’ policies address the causes of broken Britain. The government has assessed there are 120,000 families across the UK that cause much of the disturbance in communities across the country – and he is now to use the government’s success in turning around their lives as a benchmark against which he should be judged in 2015. Cameron made the pledge as he reasserted his analysis that Britain is broken, but he joined Ed Miliband in drawing a link between the riots, and recent scandals in banking, parliament and journalism, his words almost precisely mirroring those of the Labour leader. Cameron said: “In the banking crisis, with MPs’ expenses, in the phone-hacking scandal, we have seen some of the worst cases of greed, irresponsibility and entitlement. The restoration of responsibility has to cut right across our society.” “Do we have the determination to confront the slow-motion moral collapse that has taken place in parts of our country these past few generations?” “Irresponsibility. Selfishness. Behaving as if your choices have no consequences. Children without fathers. Schools without discipline. Reward without effort. “Crime without punishment. Rights without responsibilities. Communities without control. Some of the worst aspects of human nature tolerated, indulged – sometimes even incentivised – by a state and its agencies that in parts have become literally de-moralised. “So do we have the determination to confront all this and turn it around? I have the very strong sense that the responsible majority of people in this country not only have that determination; they are crying out for their government to act upon it. And I can assure you, I will not be found wanting.” He rehearsed many of the policies the government already has underway that he hopes will help to improve conditions in which children are raised to drain the conditions for rioting in future, but he suggested in many areas he wanted his ministers to seek to go further. The government is bringing in a national citizens service and Cameron said he wanted to make it available to all 16-year-olds: “Teamwork, discipline, duty, decency: these might sound old-fashioned words but they are part of the solution to this very modern problem of alienated, angry young people.” City academies which he said would have higher expectations of discipline and standards. “If young people have left school without being able to read or write, why shouldn’t that school be held more directly accountable? Yes, these questions are already being asked across government but what happened last week gives them a new urgency – and we need to act on it.” Cameron said he wanted to look at making tougher the welfare reform bill going through parliament. “I’m not satisfied that we’re doing all we can. I want us to look at toughening up the conditions for those who are out of work and receiving benefits… and speeding up our efforts to get all those who can work back to work.” The home secretary, Theresa May, would be setting out on Tuesday how the government intended to overhaul policing to enable them to do less paperwork and spend more time on the beat. Cameron also suggested the government would redouble its efforts to renegotiate the relationship between British and European law whereby the government has often felt thwarted by Strasbourg legislation in implementing some of its policies. He said his government would look at the “twisting and misrepresenting of human rights that has undermined personal responsibility” and the “obsession with health and safety that has eroded people’s willingness to act according to common sense”. Nonetheless, he said he had now ordered his ministers to conduct a review of all their departments’ policies to ensure they are helping ameliorate what Cameron described as a “moral collapse” in Britain. Setting out his central argument, Cameron said: “As we begin the necessary processes of inquiry, investigation, listening and learning, let’s be clear: these riots were not about race: the perpetrators and the victims were white, black and Asian. “These riots were not about government cuts: they were directed at high street stores, not parliament. And these riots were not about poverty: that insults the millions of people who, whatever the hardship, would never dream of making others suffer like this. No, this was about behaviour. “People showing indifference to right and wrong. People with a twisted moral code. People with a complete absence of self-restraint.” “Now I know as soon as I use words like ‘behaviour’ and ‘moral’ people will say – what gives politicians the right to lecture us? Of course we’re not perfect. But politicians shying away from speaking the truth about behaviour, about morality. This has actually helped to cause the social problems we see around us.” Cameron has honed this thesis over the last five years since before becoming leader of the opposition but he is, in the words of one aide, seeking to “re-energise” his ministers in the face of opinion polls suggesting the public believe his response to the riots was unconvincing, and that he has not fully understood the causes. He addressed head on the attack made in a speech by the leader of the opposition at nearly the same time on Monday morning in which Miliband said the difference between the pair’s positions was that Cameron believed a “culture” of depravity led some people to riot, while Miliband believed issues of social deprivation needed to be considered as a context but not as an excuse. Cameron said politicians must be braver in addressing decades of erosion of social values rather than clinging to moral “relativism”. While there were local triggers, most of the disturbances had been down to “criminality” and “indifference to right and wrong”. He said: “In my very first act as leader, I signalled my personal priority: to mend our broken society – that passion is stronger today than ever.” “Social problems that have been festering for decades have exploded in our face,” he said. “Now, just as people wanted criminals robustly confronted on our street, so they want to see these problems taken on and defeated. “Our security fightback must be matched by a social fightback. We must fight back against the attitudes and assumptions that have brought parts of our society to this shocking state.” UK riots David Cameron Social exclusion Crime Ed Miliband Allegra Stratton guardian.co.uk
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Series of deadly explosions rip through cities across the country, ending period of relative calm during holy month of Ramadan Bomb blasts ripped through more than a dozen Iraqi cities on Monday morning, killing 56 people in a wave of violence that shattered what had been a relatively peaceful holy month of Ramadan. The violence struck from the northern city of Kirkuk to Baghdad and the southern Shia cities of Najaf, Kut and Karbala. The devices used included a combination of parked car bombs, roadside bombs and a suicide bomber driving a vehicle that rammed into a police station. The scale of the violence – seven explosions occurred in several towns in Diyala province alone – highlight the ability of insurgents to carry out attacks despite repeated crackdowns by Iraqi and US forces. Thirty-five people were killed in the southern city of Kut, 100 miles south-east of Baghdad, where construction workers were gathered in a market selling appliances. A police spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Dhurgam Mohammed Hassan, said the first bomb went off in a freezer. Then as rescuers and onlookers gathered, a parked car bomb exploded. Officials said 64 were injured in the blasts. In Diyala province, seven bombs struck in the capital of Baquba and towns nearby. Five soldiers were killed in Baquba; six people were killed in other attacks around the province. Just outside the holy city of Najaf, a suicide car bomber ploughed into a checkpoint outside a police building. Officers opened fire on the vehicle when the driver refused to stop and the vehicle exploded. Four people were killed and 32 injured in the blast. Among the dead were two policemen. Outside Karbala, a parked car bomb targeting a police station was reported to have killed three officers and injured 14 others. In Tikrit two men wearing explosive belts drove into a heavily guarded government compound wearing military uniforms. The men parked their vehicle and then walked to a building housing the anti-terrorism police. When the men approached the guards ordered them to stop and then opened fire. One bomber was immediately killed but the other managed to get inside the building before blowing himself up and killing three people. Ten people were also injured in the attack. In Kirkuk, one person was killed when a motorbike bomb exploded. Thirty minutes earlier in the city a car bomb blew up outside a police patrol, injuring four officers. Some 30 minutes later one person was killed when a motorbike bomb exploded. Late on Sunday, four blasts damaged a Syrian Orthodox church in Kirkuk. In Baghdad, eight were wounded when a parked car bomb exploded near a convoy carrying officials from the ministry of higher education. The blasts were the first major act of violence since Iraq’s political leaders announced this month that they would begin negotiations with the US over whether to keep a small number of American forces in the country past 31 December. The last such single bombing spree occurred on 5 July, when 37 people were killed in an explosion in Taji, north of Baghdad. US forces plan to leave the country by the end of this year but officials from both sides have expressed concern about the ability of Iraqi forces to protect the country. Iraq Middle East guardian.co.uk
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Our one-stop guide to the facts of global warming, from the science and politics to economics and technology Christine Oliver Giulio Frigieri
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Our one-stop guide to the facts of global warming, from the science and politics to economics and technology Christine Oliver Giulio Frigieri
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30-year-old man held at hospital in St Helier after deaths of six victims believed to be from same family Six people, three of them children, who were killed in a knife attack in St Helier, Jersey, on Sunday were all of Polish descent, it has been reported. They were said to come from two families, one including a mother, a six-year-old girl, a boy of 18 months, and a man, Sky News reported citing the Polish Embassy as its source. A man, another woman and a child also died. One of the women died from her injuries after undergoing surgery. A 30-year-old man in police custody at Jersey general hospital, also said to be Polish, is in a serious but stable condition after undergoing surgery. Jersey’s chief minister senator, Terry Le Sueur, said the island was “saddened and shocked”. He said the authorities would ensure support and counselling to local people as he appealed for the public not to speculate on the incident at a flat in St Helier. States of Jersey police said that officers were called to a flat in Victoria Crescent, Upper Midvale Road, in the town just after 3pm after reports of a multiple stabbing. The immediate area was sealed off while a major incident room was set up at police headquarters in St Helier. A large section of the road was cordoned off on Monday, including a grassy wooded area in front of the flats. The area, made up of smart houses with many converted into flats, was quiet on Monday morning though the scene was still guarded by police, including armed officers. A forensic team could be seen searching through undergrowth. A local resident said that on Sunday he saw a woman’s body on the ground covered in blood and watched as paramedics carried the bodies of two little girls out of the flat. “I’ve never seen so much blood. They were completely limp. The paramedics were crying. They were completely drenched in blood, one of the paramedics had to change his clothes.” He said the girls were blonde and were both wearing dresses. He said the woman was lying in the road and was also covered in blood and appeared lifeless. The man, who would give only his first name of John, said he had run to the scene after hearing a woman scream. “She shouted ‘please help me, please God help me’,” he said. Another witness, Andre Thorpe, said two ambulances attended the scene, which was within a mile of the ambulance station. “Then four or five police vehicles came,” he said. “They were trying to access a private house in the crescent. It was an old Victorian terrace – a lot of them are split into flats. “I saw police come running out with a child. It was a small child, I just saw the legs. They went off in an ambulance. When the paramedic came back, her shirt was covered in blood.” He said that the incident happened in a secluded area and not on a main road, adding: “You have to drive up a dead end to get in, you would not happen to be passing. “I was in the area collecting a friend’s car. I was first aware that something was happening when I saw people looking out for the ambulances as I walked up the road.” The attacks occurred in the flat and in the street, according to police, who are not believed to be looking for anyone else but are continuing with inquiries. A force spokeswoman said: “This is a close-knit community and we have had a fantastic response with information from locals that they believe would be useful.” The head of crime services, Stewart Gull, who is leading the investigation, said on Sunday that a number of the victims had been attacked “with a knife or knives” and that it had been a “pretty traumatic” incident for emergency teams to deal with. The deaths have shocked the community on the island, which has fewer than 100,000 residents and where crime has recently fallen to its lowest level in the past 10 years. “Jersey is an incredibly safe island, probably one of the safest places in the western world, and incidents of this nature are an extremely rare occurrence,” said Gull. “This is complex. We are trying to piece together exactly what happened this afternoon.” Gull later said that he believed the last murder on the island took place in 2004. Police figures for the first half of this year show violent crime down 20%. Nine out of 10 adults in Jersey considered their neighbourhood very or fairly safe, the 2010 Jersey annual social survey found. Gull, who led the Ipswich serial murders inquiry in 2006, said at a press conference: “It goes without saying that when you are dealing with multiple deaths of men and women and, in particular, young children, you would be inhuman not to be shaken yourself.” Le Sueur said: “I was deeply saddened and shocked by yesterday’s tragic events and I would like to extend my sincerest condolences to the friends and relatives of those involved. “This is now a police inquiry and we fully support States of Jersey Police officers as they carry out their investigations. “I have every confidence in the ability and professionalism of our police force in handling this investigation. We must now avoid speculation and allow them to continue with this important work. “Jersey is a very safe place and events of this terrible nature are very rare. This has greatly shocked the island’s community. Many will need support and counselling in the days ahead and we will ensure this is provided,” Le Sueur said, thanking emergency services and “especially paramedics and hospital staff for their tireless work”. Monsignor Nicholas France, head of the Catholic church in Jersey, said there was “great distress and anxiety” at the horrifying attack, and that prayers had been offered at a Polish mass on Sunday night for those involved. He told BBC Breakfast: “One’s picked up a great sense of sadness that this could happen, especially to a family. On a small island like this it’s a wound for the whole family, the whole community. The hospital’s emergency department was closed for more than two hours due to the volume of victims being admitted, and staff were called in on days off to help stretched colleagues. A number of witnesses who have come forward have been interviewed by police, who have urged anyone with information to contact them on 01534 612612. Jersey Channel Islands Europe James Meikle Ben Quinn guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …30-year-old man held at hospital in St Helier after deaths of six victims believed to be from same family Six people, three of them children, who were killed in a knife attack in St Helier, Jersey, on Sunday were all of Polish descent, it has been reported. They were said to come from two families, one including a mother, a six-year-old girl, a boy of 18 months, and a man, Sky News reported citing the Polish Embassy as its source. A man, another woman and a child also died. One of the women died from her injuries after undergoing surgery. A 30-year-old man in police custody at Jersey general hospital, also said to be Polish, is in a serious but stable condition after undergoing surgery. Jersey’s chief minister senator, Terry Le Sueur, said the island was “saddened and shocked”. He said the authorities would ensure support and counselling to local people as he appealed for the public not to speculate on the incident at a flat in St Helier. States of Jersey police said that officers were called to a flat in Victoria Crescent, Upper Midvale Road, in the town just after 3pm after reports of a multiple stabbing. The immediate area was sealed off while a major incident room was set up at police headquarters in St Helier. A large section of the road was cordoned off on Monday, including a grassy wooded area in front of the flats. The area, made up of smart houses with many converted into flats, was quiet on Monday morning though the scene was still guarded by police, including armed officers. A forensic team could be seen searching through undergrowth. A local resident said that on Sunday he saw a woman’s body on the ground covered in blood and watched as paramedics carried the bodies of two little girls out of the flat. “I’ve never seen so much blood. They were completely limp. The paramedics were crying. They were completely drenched in blood, one of the paramedics had to change his clothes.” He said the girls were blonde and were both wearing dresses. He said the woman was lying in the road and was also covered in blood and appeared lifeless. The man, who would give only his first name of John, said he had run to the scene after hearing a woman scream. “She shouted ‘please help me, please God help me’,” he said. Another witness, Andre Thorpe, said two ambulances attended the scene, which was within a mile of the ambulance station. “Then four or five police vehicles came,” he said. “They were trying to access a private house in the crescent. It was an old Victorian terrace – a lot of them are split into flats. “I saw police come running out with a child. It was a small child, I just saw the legs. They went off in an ambulance. When the paramedic came back, her shirt was covered in blood.” He said that the incident happened in a secluded area and not on a main road, adding: “You have to drive up a dead end to get in, you would not happen to be passing. “I was in the area collecting a friend’s car. I was first aware that something was happening when I saw people looking out for the ambulances as I walked up the road.” The attacks occurred in the flat and in the street, according to police, who are not believed to be looking for anyone else but are continuing with inquiries. A force spokeswoman said: “This is a close-knit community and we have had a fantastic response with information from locals that they believe would be useful.” The head of crime services, Stewart Gull, who is leading the investigation, said on Sunday that a number of the victims had been attacked “with a knife or knives” and that it had been a “pretty traumatic” incident for emergency teams to deal with. The deaths have shocked the community on the island, which has fewer than 100,000 residents and where crime has recently fallen to its lowest level in the past 10 years. “Jersey is an incredibly safe island, probably one of the safest places in the western world, and incidents of this nature are an extremely rare occurrence,” said Gull. “This is complex. We are trying to piece together exactly what happened this afternoon.” Gull later said that he believed the last murder on the island took place in 2004. Police figures for the first half of this year show violent crime down 20%. Nine out of 10 adults in Jersey considered their neighbourhood very or fairly safe, the 2010 Jersey annual social survey found. Gull, who led the Ipswich serial murders inquiry in 2006, said at a press conference: “It goes without saying that when you are dealing with multiple deaths of men and women and, in particular, young children, you would be inhuman not to be shaken yourself.” Le Sueur said: “I was deeply saddened and shocked by yesterday’s tragic events and I would like to extend my sincerest condolences to the friends and relatives of those involved. “This is now a police inquiry and we fully support States of Jersey Police officers as they carry out their investigations. “I have every confidence in the ability and professionalism of our police force in handling this investigation. We must now avoid speculation and allow them to continue with this important work. “Jersey is a very safe place and events of this terrible nature are very rare. This has greatly shocked the island’s community. Many will need support and counselling in the days ahead and we will ensure this is provided,” Le Sueur said, thanking emergency services and “especially paramedics and hospital staff for their tireless work”. Monsignor Nicholas France, head of the Catholic church in Jersey, said there was “great distress and anxiety” at the horrifying attack, and that prayers had been offered at a Polish mass on Sunday night for those involved. He told BBC Breakfast: “One’s picked up a great sense of sadness that this could happen, especially to a family. On a small island like this it’s a wound for the whole family, the whole community. The hospital’s emergency department was closed for more than two hours due to the volume of victims being admitted, and staff were called in on days off to help stretched colleagues. A number of witnesses who have come forward have been interviewed by police, who have urged anyone with information to contact them on 01534 612612. Jersey Channel Islands Europe James Meikle Ben Quinn guardian.co.uk
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Blasts in city south-east of Baghdad wound at least 60 people Two explosions have hit a crowded market in a city south-east of Baghdad, killing 34 people. The blasts in Kut, 100 miles from Baghdad, went off as construction workers were gathered in a market selling generators and other appliances. A police spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Dhurgam Muhammad Hassan, said the first bomb went off in a freezer. Then, as rescuers and onlookers gathered round, a car bomb exploded. According to the region’s top medical official, Diaa al-Aboudi, 34 people died in the explosion. Hassan put the number of the wounded from the blasts at 60. The Kut explosions were the first major act of violence since Iraq’s political leaders earlier this month announced that they would begin negotiations with the US over whether to keep a small number of American forces in the country past 31 December. All US forces are to leave the country by the end of this year but both Iraqi and US officials have expressed concern about the ability of Iraqi forces to protect the country. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the Kut attack. In July, 37 people were killed during an explosion in Taji, north of Baghdad. Iraq Middle East guardian.co.uk
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Rolling coverage as the PM and Labour leader make speeches setting out their competing analyses of the riots and looting 9.41am: “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste,” Rahm Emanuel, Barack Obama’s former chief of staff, famously said (as you can watch for yourself on YouTube ). And today David Cameron and Ed Miliband are going to embrace the Emanuel spirit by delivering big speeches on the riots designed to reap some political capital from last week’s mayhem on the streets. As an opposition leader Cameron argued that parts of society were “broken” and that Britain needed some big society-led moral renewal. Today he’s going to revive that campaign, arguing that the riots were a “wake-up call”. Miliband has also been calling some kind of ethical renaissance, centred around the theme of responsibility. He has accused bankers, MPs and journalists of all failing to act responsibly (see, for example, the speech he gave during the phone-hacking crisis ) and today he will link this kind of professional immorality with the behaviour the rioters. For both leaders, these are arguments that go to the core of why they’re in politics. Matthew D’Ancona interviewed Cameron in the Sunday Telegraph yesterday and D’Ancona said he had never seen Cameron “so animated, so consumed by a sense of urgency”. Toby Helm accompanied Miliband on a trip to Tottenham for the Observer and he said that Miliband could not walk more than a few paces without residents “grabbing his arm and pouring out their hearts”. Last week Cameron and Miliband largely avoided partisan comments on the riots, instead focusing on condemnation and on the importance of order being restored. But now ideology and party politics are back in business. Cameron is due to speak at 10am and Miliband at 10.30am. We’ve already got a story up containing extracts from their speeches , but I’ll be covering both of them live and providing a full analysis afterwards. Last week Nick Robinson (and others) predicted that that the riots were going to dominate the leaders’ speeches at the party conferences. Those speeches are often the most important in the political calendar. Today it will be as if we’re getting a preview. UK riots Ed Miliband David Cameron Crime Police Metropolitan police Andrew Sparrow guardian.co.uk
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