• Disturbances ongoing in Hackney, east London • Looting had spread to Enfield, Brixton and Walthamstow • Home secretary criticises “sheer criminality” • Blackberry messenger used to co-ordinate trouble • Acting Met chief promises ‘robust’ response 6.51pm: The news channels are showing pictures of fires having broken out in Lewisham. It appears a car and a row of bins, all along the same street, have been set ablaze. The footage shows police officers dragging large wheely bins which are not on fire away from the others, as officers with shields and Nato helmets form a line behind them. From the helicopter footage there is no sign of any people in the immediate area. 6.45pm: Dave Hill, the Guardian’s London blogger, is in Hackney, east London, where skirmishes have been occurring this afternoon. A local police officer said shops in Hackney began closing their shutters after hearing “rumours” of trouble initially emanating from BlackBerry Messenger exchanges. Most had locked up by early afternoon as support officers began arriving in increasing numbers in the vicinity of Hackney Central railway station and three masked youths riding bicycles appeared on the main shopping thoroughfare of Mare Street. A series of stand-offs with members of the public began shortly after a large group of police detained two men against the wall of Hackney’s Old Town Hall building, now a betting shop, and a crowd gathered to watch, many of them photographing the events. After some brief skirmishes and an angry verbal tirade against a police cluster by a young woman in the graveyard to the rear of the betting shop, an officer shouted to a colleague to “get the Natos,” a reference to riot helmets. Police vehicles and officers in helmets holding riot shields eventually blocked off access to Mare Street south of its pedestrianized Narrow Way section and the railway bridge, as buses backed up along adjoining Amhurst Road and a helicopter buzzed overhead. Reactions of onlookers varied from a man telling an officer moving a youth on to “get your hands off him, pig,” to an afterschool club worker declaring to police that “these kids shouldn’t be out here, they should be back in their yard,” and saying that if she was in charge of dealing with rioters she’d “tear gas their asses”. 6.41pm: PenGuy has used Blottr to post photos from Lewisham . The images show groups of youths, and police, on the streets. In one a chair appears to have been thrown across the road. On Twitter @gillianhawke has posted an image from Lewisham showing a police line blocking a road. The line appears to be preventing a bus from passing. Officers are not wearing riot gear, suggesting the disturbances may be low level at the moment. 6.36pm: Matt Wells writes that there are developments in a number of areas around London at the moment. Two Guardian reporters have been in touch with news of a large disturbance in Peckham, south-east London. Police are blocking the main street in the area. Adam Vaughan says there are about 50 young men, some in ski masks and balaclavas on Rye Lane. James Walsh is hearing reports of shops shutting down across the city, including those around the Angel, Islington, in north London as well as Stoke Newington, to the north-east, Wood Green – scene of looting on Sunday morning– and Lewisham, in the south-east of the city. In Islington, branches of Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Waitrose and the Co-operative have all closed their doors. On Stoke Newington High Street, the Sainsbury’s store has pulled its shutters down, as have some of the smaller shops and corner shops. “There’s a really odd, gloomy feeling – everyone is just standing around talking about when it will kick off here”, James says. The Victoria line has been suspended between Stockwell and Brixton “due to civil unrest”, according to this picture. 6.30pm: Good evening. After two nights of violence and looting following protests at the death of Mark Duggan on Saturday, police and residents are again bracing themselves for disruption. • There have been skirmishes in Hackney, east London this afternoon, with police in riot gear confronting groups of youths. There have been skirmishes on Mare Street, with television pictures of youths using sticks to try and break windows of buses and shops. Our reporter Mark Brown says the disturbances had begun to fizzle out at around 6pm, although there remain sporadic outbreaks of stone-throwing. • Trouble spread to many parts of London last night as disturbances continued across the capital. There was violence in Enfield, Walthamstow and Brixton, with instances of looting and vandalism. The acting Metropolitan police commissioner Tim Godwin pledged a robust response to what he described as “pure criminality” seen in recent days. The Met said Twitter users could face arrest for inciting violence. • The home secretary, Theresa May, has condemned the “sheer criminality” of the riots. She said at least 215 people have been arrested, with 27 people charged. May, who returned from holiday today, praised the bravery of the police, saying: “The violence we’ve seen, the looting we’ve seen, the thuggery we’ve seen – this is sheer criminality, and let’s make no bones about it.” • In Tottenham, scene of the violent clashes and blazes on Saturday evening and Sunday morning, a vigil is taking place tonight in honour of Mark Duggan. The 29-year-old father of four was shot dead by police on Thursday. Doubts have since emerged over whether Duggan was killed in an exchange of fire. • The deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, has rejected claims that the government has failed to provide leadership . Many senior ministers were away from London as the rioting began. David Cameron remains on holiday in Italy. “I reject completely this notion that somehow this Government hasn’t been functioning very effectively,” said Clegg. He added that he had spoken to Cameron by phone this morning. • The Independent Police Complaints Commission issued a statement which appeared to criticise the Metropolitan police. The IPCC is carrying out the investigation into the death of Mark Duggan. Rachel Cerfontyne, the commissioner overseeing the investigation, said the Duggan family’s concerns were about “lack of contact from the police in delivering news of his death to Mark’s parents”. We’ll have the latest news from our reporters around the capital throughout the evening. London riots London Mark Duggan Protest Adam Gabbatt guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …• Disturbances ongoing in Hackney, east London • Looting had spread to Enfield, Brixton and Walthamstow • Home secretary criticises “sheer criminality” • Blackberry messenger used to co-ordinate trouble • Acting Met chief promises ‘robust’ response 6.51pm: The news channels are showing pictures of fires having broken out in Lewisham. It appears a car and a row of bins, all along the same street, have been set ablaze. The footage shows police officers dragging large wheely bins which are not on fire away from the others, as officers with shields and Nato helmets form a line behind them. From the helicopter footage there is no sign of any people in the immediate area. 6.45pm: Dave Hill, the Guardian’s London blogger, is in Hackney, east London, where skirmishes have been occurring this afternoon. A local police officer said shops in Hackney began closing their shutters after hearing “rumours” of trouble initially emanating from BlackBerry Messenger exchanges. Most had locked up by early afternoon as support officers began arriving in increasing numbers in the vicinity of Hackney Central railway station and three masked youths riding bicycles appeared on the main shopping thoroughfare of Mare Street. A series of stand-offs with members of the public began shortly after a large group of police detained two men against the wall of Hackney’s Old Town Hall building, now a betting shop, and a crowd gathered to watch, many of them photographing the events. After some brief skirmishes and an angry verbal tirade against a police cluster by a young woman in the graveyard to the rear of the betting shop, an officer shouted to a colleague to “get the Natos,” a reference to riot helmets. Police vehicles and officers in helmets holding riot shields eventually blocked off access to Mare Street south of its pedestrianized Narrow Way section and the railway bridge, as buses backed up along adjoining Amhurst Road and a helicopter buzzed overhead. Reactions of onlookers varied from a man telling an officer moving a youth on to “get your hands off him, pig,” to an afterschool club worker declaring to police that “these kids shouldn’t be out here, they should be back in their yard,” and saying that if she was in charge of dealing with rioters she’d “tear gas their asses”. 6.41pm: PenGuy has used Blottr to post photos from Lewisham . The images show groups of youths, and police, on the streets. In one a chair appears to have been thrown across the road. On Twitter @gillianhawke has posted an image from Lewisham showing a police line blocking a road. The line appears to be preventing a bus from passing. Officers are not wearing riot gear, suggesting the disturbances may be low level at the moment. 6.36pm: Matt Wells writes that there are developments in a number of areas around London at the moment. Two Guardian reporters have been in touch with news of a large disturbance in Peckham, south-east London. Police are blocking the main street in the area. Adam Vaughan says there are about 50 young men, some in ski masks and balaclavas on Rye Lane. James Walsh is hearing reports of shops shutting down across the city, including those around the Angel, Islington, in north London as well as Stoke Newington, to the north-east, Wood Green – scene of looting on Sunday morning– and Lewisham, in the south-east of the city. In Islington, branches of Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Waitrose and the Co-operative have all closed their doors. On Stoke Newington High Street, the Sainsbury’s store has pulled its shutters down, as have some of the smaller shops and corner shops. “There’s a really odd, gloomy feeling – everyone is just standing around talking about when it will kick off here”, James says. The Victoria line has been suspended between Stockwell and Brixton “due to civil unrest”, according to this picture. 6.30pm: Good evening. After two nights of violence and looting following protests at the death of Mark Duggan on Saturday, police and residents are again bracing themselves for disruption. • There have been skirmishes in Hackney, east London this afternoon, with police in riot gear confronting groups of youths. There have been skirmishes on Mare Street, with television pictures of youths using sticks to try and break windows of buses and shops. Our reporter Mark Brown says the disturbances had begun to fizzle out at around 6pm, although there remain sporadic outbreaks of stone-throwing. • Trouble spread to many parts of London last night as disturbances continued across the capital. There was violence in Enfield, Walthamstow and Brixton, with instances of looting and vandalism. The acting Metropolitan police commissioner Tim Godwin pledged a robust response to what he described as “pure criminality” seen in recent days. The Met said Twitter users could face arrest for inciting violence. • The home secretary, Theresa May, has condemned the “sheer criminality” of the riots. She said at least 215 people have been arrested, with 27 people charged. May, who returned from holiday today, praised the bravery of the police, saying: “The violence we’ve seen, the looting we’ve seen, the thuggery we’ve seen – this is sheer criminality, and let’s make no bones about it.” • In Tottenham, scene of the violent clashes and blazes on Saturday evening and Sunday morning, a vigil is taking place tonight in honour of Mark Duggan. The 29-year-old father of four was shot dead by police on Thursday. Doubts have since emerged over whether Duggan was killed in an exchange of fire. • The deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, has rejected claims that the government has failed to provide leadership . Many senior ministers were away from London as the rioting began. David Cameron remains on holiday in Italy. “I reject completely this notion that somehow this Government hasn’t been functioning very effectively,” said Clegg. He added that he had spoken to Cameron by phone this morning. • The Independent Police Complaints Commission issued a statement which appeared to criticise the Metropolitan police. The IPCC is carrying out the investigation into the death of Mark Duggan. Rachel Cerfontyne, the commissioner overseeing the investigation, said the Duggan family’s concerns were about “lack of contact from the police in delivering news of his death to Mark’s parents”. We’ll have the latest news from our reporters around the capital throughout the evening. London riots London Mark Duggan Protest Adam Gabbatt guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Wingnut and Personal Friend of the Murdochs is Guiding Investigation on How News Corp Handled Phone-Hacking Scandal
August 8, 2011 No Comment
enlarge Viet D. Dinh, former Assistant AG and the chief architect of the original USA PATRIOT Act, has had his fingers in oh, so many neocon pies. And now, he’s the man who’s supposed to bring credibility to the Murdoch clan (insert maniacal laughter here). This is the thing about corruption — even when you’re trying to simulate ethical behavior, it’s so foreign to the way you normally do things, you can’t quite pull it off. I’ll bet it never even occurred to the News Corp. people how this would look from the outside. News Corp.’s independent directors, obligated to assess Rupert Murdoch and other top executives’ handling of the company’s phone-hacking scandal, are relying for guidance on Viet Dinh, a board member with personal ties to the Murdoch family. Dinh, 43, is point man between the independent board members and a panel that New York-based News Corp. (NWS) created to cooperate with authorities probing phone hacking by the defunct News of the World tabloid and to evaluate company standards. A Washington attorney and Georgetown University Law Center professor, Dinh has been a friend of Chief Executive Officer Rupert Murdoch’s oldest son Lachlan since 2003 and is godfather to Lachlan’s second child . In 1992, a decade before they met, the South China Morning Post, then owned by Murdoch, helped Dinh free his sister from a Hong Kong refugee camp. “Usually it’s required that an investigation like this is undertaken by a committee of independent directors,” said Jay Lorsch, a Harvard Business School professor who has served on the boards of four publicly traded companies. “It’s very hard to be objective if you’re involved in any way — financially or emotionally — with the family of the chief executive you are supposed to be supervising.” Dinh will update directors on the scandal at an Aug. 9 board meeting in Los Angeles, two people familiar with the situation said. The “management and standards” committee, established by News Corp. last month, reports to board member and Executive Vice President Joel Klein, a former assistant U.S. attorney general and New York City schools chief, who then reports to Dinh, the company said in a July 18 statement.
Continue reading …Wingnut and Personal Friend of the Murdochs is Guiding Investigation on How News Corp Handled Phone-Hacking Scandal
August 8, 2011 No Comment
enlarge Viet D. Dinh, former Assistant AG and the chief architect of the original USA PATRIOT Act, has had his fingers in oh, so many neocon pies. And now, he’s the man who’s supposed to bring credibility to the Murdoch clan (insert maniacal laughter here). This is the thing about corruption — even when you’re trying to simulate ethical behavior, it’s so foreign to the way you normally do things, you can’t quite pull it off. I’ll bet it never even occurred to the News Corp. people how this would look from the outside. News Corp.’s independent directors, obligated to assess Rupert Murdoch and other top executives’ handling of the company’s phone-hacking scandal, are relying for guidance on Viet Dinh, a board member with personal ties to the Murdoch family. Dinh, 43, is point man between the independent board members and a panel that New York-based News Corp. (NWS) created to cooperate with authorities probing phone hacking by the defunct News of the World tabloid and to evaluate company standards. A Washington attorney and Georgetown University Law Center professor, Dinh has been a friend of Chief Executive Officer Rupert Murdoch’s oldest son Lachlan since 2003 and is godfather to Lachlan’s second child . In 1992, a decade before they met, the South China Morning Post, then owned by Murdoch, helped Dinh free his sister from a Hong Kong refugee camp. “Usually it’s required that an investigation like this is undertaken by a committee of independent directors,” said Jay Lorsch, a Harvard Business School professor who has served on the boards of four publicly traded companies. “It’s very hard to be objective if you’re involved in any way — financially or emotionally — with the family of the chief executive you are supposed to be supervising.” Dinh will update directors on the scandal at an Aug. 9 board meeting in Los Angeles, two people familiar with the situation said. The “management and standards” committee, established by News Corp. last month, reports to board member and Executive Vice President Joel Klein, a former assistant U.S. attorney general and New York City schools chief, who then reports to Dinh, the company said in a July 18 statement.
Continue reading …NewsBusters Publisher Bozell to Media: Don’t Endorse John Kerry’s Crusade Against the Tea Party
August 8, 2011 No CommentJohn Kerry is on a crusade to destroy the Tea Party. To blame the Tea Party for the S&P downgrade is like blaming the Betty Ford Clinic for alcoholism. The entire existence of the Tea Party movement has been based on an attempt to stop the runaway spending of Washington – by the likes of John Kerry. Any media outlet that features his outrageous blame game remarks without challenging his serial dishonesty is giving aid and comfort to the crusade to vilify and extinguish conservative thought. If this is the ‘Tea Party downgrade’ then I’m the fairy godmother. No, this is a well-coordinated effort by the left-wing to deflect bad news – very bad news – away from their very left-wing President Obama. Let's not forget the conservative movement’s position on the debt. The only legislation that would have met the criteria to avert a downgrade was the Cut Cap Balance proposal. It included $5.8 trillion in cuts, easily more than what S&P required. But President Obama vowed not to sign it, and the John Kerry Senate Democrats refused to consider it. The liberal media largely ignored this reality, too. So nice try, left-wing propaganda machine. The President and his left-wing allies in Congress have earned their position in the hot seat. The left-wing media are aiding and abetting blatant falsehoods unless and until they call out Senator John Kerry as a deliberate liar.
Continue reading …NBC’s Ann Curry Fought With Navy Dad on Vietnam; Oozes We’re ‘Evolving’ in Compassion
August 8, 2011 No Comment
NBC Today co-anchor Ann Curry is the cover story of the September issue of Ladies Home Journal and discussed how she fought with her U.S. naval officer father about the Vietnam War, (unsurprisingly) taking the liberal, Walter Cronkite-inspired anti-war position: “When I was a teenager,” she says, “Dad and I would have dinner table debates about the Vietnam War. I was deeply affected by Walter Cronkite's reports, and I questioned our country's role. Sometimes our discussions got so heated my siblings would leave the table. At the end of those conversations my dad would say, 'I don't always agree with you, but I'd still vote for you for president.' “I knew he was proud of me for caring about something bigger, something beyond my day-to-day life. It tied in to what he always told me: 'Do something of service, Ann, so that at the end of your days, you'll know your time here mattered.'” Curry also spoke about her motto that “Journalism is an act of faith in the future,” which sounds sunny, but also quickly turns political: that journalism is all about hope and change and a liberal black president and “evolving into a more compassionate species.” “It used to be that genocide and rape were facts of war, and now they're crimes against humanity. It used to be that children could be begging in the streets of lower Manhattan, and now it is against the law. It used to be you could legally lynch a black man in America. And now we have a black man as president. If you look at the course of history, you can't help but see that we are moving in this beautiful direction. We are evolving into a more compassionate species,” she says as she touches my arm for emphasis. The magazine discussed why Curry was passed over for the co-anchor spot before. One obvious reason – her spacey tendencies – came up: The position went to outsider [Meredith] Vieira. Why? Who knows for sure? Curry herself says she was always a “natural reporter, but not a natural anchor.” She was warm and earnest, but also a little spacey; Al Roker once called her “our ambassador from Planet Zebulon.” And she had a kind of ditzy, girlish innocence. In 1998, when I interviewed her for this magazine, a Today staffer told me how they were going to cover picture hanging on the show, and they were all discussing it. “Yes!” Curry piped up. “It's so important to be well hung.” “We all started snickering,” the staffer said, “and Ann was going, 'What? What? What did I say?'” Since Ladies Home Journal was trying overall to promote Ann Curry as a wonderful “brunette Doris Day” character, they also used the official NBC endorsement: And it is Curry, perhaps more than anyone else on the show, who connects with guests, audience members, and staffers in a way that can't be faked. “The warmth is utterly genuine,” says Lauer, who recalls how Curry was one of the few people who stopped to introduce herself when he came to work for NBC in New York City. When I interviewed Al Roker years ago, he said of Curry, “When you see her reporting a story that's tragic, you can see the pain. She is genuinely affected by what she's doing. She doesn't have a switch she can turn on and off.” A feel-your-pain journalist often ends up sounding like a liberal feel-your-pain Democrat. See Ann Curry’s profile in bias here.
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Paul Williams, 60, spied on three couples through holes he drilled in room doors at Scarborough guesthouse A bed and breakfast owner who spied on his guests through secret peepholes and made audio recordings of their intimate moments has been jailed for 18 weeks. Paul Williams watched three couple from holes he had drilled in the doors of rooms at his Sandsea B&B in Scarborough, north Yorkshire. The 60-year-old was discovered when one of his victims, a 16-year-old student, saw movement underneath a poster on the door. Her boyfriend investigated and found a hole that provided a view directly on to the bed. He then heard movement in the corridor outside, and discovered Williams. Williams pleaded guilty to charges of voyeurism and was sentenced at Scarborough magistrates court on Monday. Magistrate Kate Warnock-Smith said the offences were so serious that only a custodial sentence could be justified, adding that the aggravating factors were his breach of trust as a hotelier and the young age of some of the victims. She told the court the victims – who had friends and relatives in the court’s public gallery – had been left distressed by their ordeal. An earlier hearing was told the three couples were friends and, when the others were told, they found similar hidden peepholes in their rooms. As the guests had been drinking and could not drive home, they stayed at the guesthouse but moved in to one room. The following morning, they obtained a refund and called police. Audio recording equipment was then also discovered at the guesthouse. Guests were “sickened and horrified” when they discovered what had happened, the court heard. Williams said he had made the peepholes because some guests had left without paying. Crime guardian.co.uk
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Rhino horns stolen from museums fetch twice the value of gold for the criminal gang supplying the Chinese medicine market Rosie the rhinocerous took her last breath somewhere on the Indian subcontinent early last century. She was shot, skinned, stuffed and shipped to London. Then, in 1907, she was acquired by Ipswich Museum , which had swapped her with the Natural History Museum for a pig. For more than a century, in Ipswich, she has suffered the pats of generations of school children, her horn curling to the ceiling. Last month, however, Rosie suffered the second violation of her ignominious afterlife, almost as cruel as the first. At 12.27am on Thursday 28 July, two men forced their way through a fire escape at the rear of the museum and made straight for the rhinoceros , where they swiftly wrenched off her 18-inch (45-centimetre) horn. They paused only to collect the skull of a second black rhino, displayed on a ledge above its stuffed cousin, before fleeing in a silver saloon car. Nothing else was stolen. One might think that only a foolish criminal would bypass the lavish gold burial masks of Titos Flavios Demetrios upstairs in the Egyptian gallery, or even the priceless Hawaiian cape made from feathers of the ‘o’o bird , in favour of some century-old rhino remains. In fact, police believe these were very canny criminals indeed. The Ipswich rhinocerous-horn theft is merely the latest from museums and auction houses across Britain and Europe, driven by soaring prices for horn in the far east. According to Europol , many of them are conducted by an Irish crime gang more accustomed to trafficking in drug, laundering money, and smuggling. In February, the stuffed and mounted head of a black rhino was taken from Sworders Fine Art Auctioneers in Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex. On 27 May, a similar head was taken from the Educational museum at Haslemere, Surrey , which has one of the largest natural history collections in the UK. Last month it was the turn of a museum in Liege, Belgium; three weeks later the Royal Belgian Institute for Natural Sciences , in Brussels, suffered a similar heist, in which the head of a black rhino, dating from 1827, was stolen. According to the Metropolitan police, 20 thefts have taken place across Europe in the past six months – in Portugal, France, Germany, the Czech Republic, Belgium and Sweden as well as the UK. Scotland Yard and Europol are now advising galleries and collectors to consider locking up their rhino horn collections, keeping them away from public view. Several institutions, including the Natural History Museum and the Horniman Museum in south London, have removed their displays or replaced horns with replicas. Behind the crime wave is a surge in demand from the far east and European Asian communities for powdered rhino horn, which is used in traditional Chinese medicines, valued as a remedy for everything from fevers and headaches to cancer, and where demand is so intense it has pushed the value of horn to £60,000 per kilogram – twice the value of gold. Sworders had valued their rhino head, as an artefact, at £50,000; in the medicinal market, however, it could be worth £200,000. “It is a new crime phenomenon targeting people who may not have ordinarily been victims of crime and who are vulnerable victims,” said Patric Byrne, Europol’s head of unit for organised crime networks. “And we are not dealing with petty criminals.” The gang “of Irish ethnic origin”, which the agency has identified as being responsible for many of the attacks, has a background in violence, drug trafficking and intimidation, he said. “There is a strange and very lucrative market in Chinese medicine. They have found that this product attracts a particular premium in some Asian communities.” DC Ian Lawson, from the Metropolitan police’s Art and Antiques unit , said that the gang uses a variety of methods to steal the objects, from carefully planned burglaries to “smash and grab” raids, and police have also been alerted to “hostile reconnaissance” from gang members. Even more worrying is an associated growth in the poaching of live rhinos , according to conservation experts. “In the last three years, 800 African rhinos have been killed and experts agree that we are facing the worst rhino-poaching crisis in decades,” said Lucy Boddam-Whetham, the acting director of Save the Rhino International . Nearly 200 rhinos were killed in South Africa in the first six months of this year , compared with 125 in the same period last year. The organisation says the museum thefts are stimulating the live-rhino poaching, making their situation even more perilous. There are only 20,000 white rhinos and fewer than 5,000 black rhinos in the wild. Police tape has been removed from around Rosie at Ipswich museum, replaced by an apologetic laminated note explaining the missing horn. “People love this museum, it’s just so sad,” said Bryony Rudkin, the councillor who holds the portfolio for museums and culture at Ipswich Borough Council. “On the morning after it happened, we had a family come in – a grandmother, mother and child – and the grandmother said, ‘I remember coming when I was a child, it’s really sad, because everyone in Ipswich knows who she is.’” “It’s a bit selfish to just take the horn,” said Miriam Kendall, 10, from Dennington, visiting with her father and younger brother. Tristan, six, thought the thieves were “stupid”. At least there is some good news for Rosie. As a result of the robbery, she is to be the focus of a panel on a new civic mural to be mounted on the town’s waterfront, where she will appear not in her mutilated state but with her dignity, and horn, restored. The museum is, meanwhile, making her a replica horn, which will be screwed, very firmly, into the nose of the long-dead beast. Endangered species Crime Museums Wildlife Conservation Animals Alternative medicine Esther Addley guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Study: UK’s National Health System One Of The Best, Most Cost-Effective In Developed World…Maybe We Should Pay Attention
August 8, 2011 No CommentSo despite attempts by UK conservative politicians to insist their National Health System needed market “efficiencies,” it turns out its one of the best and most cost-effective in the developed world. If any politicians really cared about things like deficits, they’d be screaming to reopen negotiations on the health care bill and implement a nationalized health care plan like Medicare for all. But they don’t care, and they won’t even consider the cheapest, most efficient system: The NHS is one of the most cost-effective health systems in the developed world, according to a study (pdf) published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. The “surprising” findings show the NHS saving more lives for each pound spent as a proportion of national wealth than any other country apart from Ireland over 25 years. Among the 17 countries considered, the United States healthcare system was among the least efficient and effective. Researchers said that this contradicted assertions by the health secretary, Andrew Lansley, that the NHS needed competition and choice to become more efficient. “The government proposals to change the NHS are largely based on the idea that the NHS is less efficient and effective than other countries, especially the US,” said Professor Colin Pritchard, of Bournemouth University, who analysed a quarter of a century’s data from 1980. “The results question why we need a big set of health reform proposals … The system works well. Look at the US and you can see where choice and competition gets you. Pretty dismal results.” The study will be a blow for Lansley, who argues that patients should choose between competing hospital services and GPs. Pritchard’s last academic paper, which argued that surgeons were being distracted from frontline work by “unfunded” targets in the NHS, was used by Lansley to justify government reforms. Using the latest data from the World Health Organisation, the paper shows that although Labour’s tax-and-spend strategy for the NHS saw health spending rise to a record 9.3% of GDP, this was less than Germany with 10.7% or the US with 15%. Not only was the UK cheaper, says the paper, it saved more lives. The NHS reduced the number of adult deaths a million of the population by 3,951 a year – far better than the nearest comparable European countries. France managed 2,779 lives a year and Germany 2,395. This means, the paper says, that dramatic NHS improvements have led to a situation where that there are now 162,000 fewer deaths every year compared with 1980 .
Continue reading …ABC: Is Rick Perry Going ‘Too Far’ With Prayer Event? Frets ‘Even Mainstream Christians’ are Worried
August 8, 2011 No Comment
Good Morning America's David Kerley on Saturday offered up a one-sided, biased take on a prayer event led by Texas Governor Rick Perry over the weekend. The ABC graphic for the segment chided, ” Prayer Controversy: Is Rick Perry Going Too Far? ” The piece featured four clips from those hostile from the event and none in support. Yet, Kerley still attempted to speak for the faithful: “Even some mainstream Christians are concerned about the event, which is being paid for by the American Family Association, which has been called anti-gay, a cultural warrior.” Kerley touted clips from people such as Annie Laurie Gaylor of the Freedom from Religion Foundation. She derided, “What Governor Perry is doing is totally unprecedented. This goes way beyond a non-denominational proclamation.” The liberal Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, was featured in video from an opposition rally: “Don't mess with the Constitution!” How such a prayer event violated the Constitution went unexplained. Kerley lectured that, “From a political standpoint, Perry's prayer vigil could be a double-edged sword. Appealing to his base, but possibly diminishing his appeal.” Would it really have been so difficult for the ABC journalist to find one clip of someone who supported Perry his decision to speak? A transcript of the August 6 segment, which aired at 7:12am EDT, follows: ABC GRAPHIC: Prayer Controversy: Is Rick Perry Going Too Far? Governor Leads Prayer Rally BIANNA GOLODRYGA: Well, politics and religion are mixing in Texas today at a day of fasting and Christian prayer led by Governor Rick Perry. And Perry, who is seriously considering running for President, is coming under fire for his role in the event. ABC's David Kerley is back with that story. DAVID KERLEY: Just hours before Perry's prayer event- BARRY LYNN: Don't mess with the Constitution! KERLEY: A separate rally called on the Texas governor to be more inclusive. [Onscreen: Sign with a picture of Rick Perry and the words, "Please pray away this gay."] RICK PERRY: I'm inviting you to join your fellow Americans in a day of prayer and fasting on behalf of our nation. KERLEY: Critics are complaining. In fact, atheists went to court to stop Perry's involvement in his own event. ANNIE LAURIE GAYLOR (Freedom From Religion Foundation): What Governor Perry is doing is totally unprecedented. This goes way beyond a non-denominational proclamation. KERLEY: They lost. Perry says this is not a political event. But for a potential presidential candidate in a campaign expected to focus on the economy, he was asked by the Christian Broadcasting Network, what he would be praying for. PERRY: I'm going to be praying for our country's economic prosperity. There's just so many people that can't take care of their family because government's overtaxed, over-regulated over litigated. KERLEY: Even some mainstream Christians are concerned about the event, which is being paid for by the American Family Association, which has been called anti-gay, a cultural warrior. So, it's who he is associating himself with, who is associated with the event that you're troubled by. DAVID COURTNEY (People for the American Way): That, I think, is the most disturbing thing. These are the kind of people who have called the Catholic Church the great whore.
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