Former health secretary says revisions to proposed reforms have ‘the makings of a policy disaster for the NHS and, maybe in time, a political disaster for the government’ Follow the latest developments in the NHS reforms live blog Alan Milburn, a former Labour health secretary, has described the coalition’s watered-down NHS reforms as the “biggest car crash” in the service’s history. Milburn, who is currently advising David Cameron on social mobility, said taxpayers faced writing “a very large cheque” as billions of pounds in efficiency savings would not be achieved as a result of “the screech of skidding tyres” caused by the government’s U-turn. Milburn, who stood down as Labour MP for Darlington at the last general election, used an article for the Daily Telegraph to condemn the revised health plans unveiled earlier this week following pressure from the Liberal Democrats and the health lobby. Milburn, who served as health secretary for four years under Tony Blair, wrote: “The government’s health reforms are the biggest car crash in NHS history. The temptation to elevate short-term politics above long-term policy proved too much for both David Cameron and Nick Clegg. “Many in both camps inside the coalition consider the U-turn a triumph. But it has the makings of a policy disaster for the NHS and, maybe in time, a political disaster for the government. It leaves both health policy and British politics in a very different place.” Milburn said Cameron was likely to be seen as more “protectionist” than either of his Labour predecessors, despite his insistence that the changes were pro-market. The promise of the coalition was that it would go where New Labour feared to tread when it came to public service reform. There would be no no-go areas,” Milburn wrote. “In fact David Cameron’s retreat has taken his party to a far less reformist and more protectionist position than that adopted by Tony Blair and even that of … Gordon Brown.” Milburn described the new policy as the “biggest nationalisation since Nye Bevan created the NHS in 1948″. Cameron had handed over control to “the daddy of all quangos”, the NHS Commissioning Board. The ex-cabinet minister said scrapping the 2013 deadline for giving GP consortiums control of commissioning would result in a “patchwork of decision-making for years to come”. Turning to the need to make £20bn of efficiency savings, he asked: “So how will the NHS books be balanced? By the usual device which policymakers have deployed every decade or so in the NHS: A very large cheque. “It was precisely the situation David Cameron and George Osborne were trying to avoid. Sorry George, but the cash you were saving in your pre-election budget for tax cuts will now have to be spent on a bail-out for the health service.” Milburn, who introduced a greater degree of private sector provision in the 2000 NHS Plan, said government backtracking on reforms presented an “open goal” for Ed Miliband’s Labour party. He levelled criticism at Labour for showing signs this week of a retreat into the “comfort zone” of public sector protectionism and threw down the gauntlet to the Labour leader to champion progressive radical reform. “It would be unwise in my view for Labour to concede rather than contest the reform territory,” he warned. “It now has an opportunity to restake its claim to be the party of progressive, radical reform.” NHS Health Health policy Public services policy Alan Milburn Hélène Mulholland guardian.co.uk
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John Ruggie, UN special representative for business and human rights, warns justice minister changes will be damaging A senior UN official has warned the government that cuts to legal aid and changes to lawyers’ fees will prevent claims, such as those in the Trafigura case, being brought against multinational businesses. Professor John Ruggie, a Harvard University lawyer who is the UN secretary-general’s special representative for business and human rights, wrote to the UK justice minister Jonathan Djanogly saying he was concerned about the “disincentives” being introduced. The letter, sent last month, is a damaging critique of Ministry of Justice plans to cut £350m a year from the legal aid budget and reform conditional fee agreements so claimants would have to use any compensation to pay their lawyers’ success fees. Ken Clarke, the justice secretary, has made clear his desire to reduce “spiralling legal costs” and restrict no win, no fee agreements. A sentencing and legal aid bill is expected to be introduced into the Commons in the coming days. Ruggie’s letter, passed to opposition justice spokesman Andy Slaughter and seen by the Guardian, is a clear attempt to deflect the government from what he fears will be a damaging outcome. “Three related aspects of the proposed reforms could, when implemented together, constitute a significant barrier to legitimate business-related human rights claims being brought before UK courts in situations where alternative sources of remedy are unavailable,” he wrote. “Legal aid is no longer available in the UK for many cases against multinational enterprises and most such cases are currently funded through conditional fee agreements.” The plans would render such agreements too costly for claimants, he said. “It is quite possible that in complex human rights claims against businesses, the success fee could equal or even exceed the compensation awarded, given the financial risks for law firms of bringing such claims,” Ruggie explained.” Similar problems could deter personal injury claimants who might, even if successful, “walk out of court no better off than at the start of the litigation …The impact of this reform is likely to be significant.” It will be a “real disincentive to what is already a very small pool of lawyers willing to take on human rights-related cases against multinational enterprises”. The letter does not refer to Trafigura, but his concerns clearly encompass future similar cases. The British oil trading company was sued in a class action brought on behalf of thousands of west African victims who claimed they had been harmed by waste dumping in Ivory Coast. Martyn Day, a senior partner at the law firm Leigh Day & Co, which brought the case, welcomed Ruggie’s letter. “We acted for 30,000 impoverished Ivorians – the no win, no fee scheme was the only way we could bring the case,” he said. “We were facing Trafigura – one of the largest private companies in the world, worth many billions – and the costs in the case were astronomic. The expenses we had to pay out alone ran to many millions and we had a team of 50 lawyers working on the case. We simply could never have run the case if we did not have the prospect of obtaining the success fee from the defendants. There is no question but that our Ivorian clients would never have received justice if the proposed bill was in place at that time.”Slaughter said: “If cases like Trafigura aren’t brought to justice, it sends the worst kind of signal. Corporate wrongdoing will flourish around the world and lives will be lost. “It is yet another sign of extraordinary incompetence by Ken Clarke. This policy needs to be withdrawn and drastically revised before they try and force it through parliament.” The Corporate Responsibility coalition, which campaigns to hold multinationals to account, said it believed many similar actions against UK companies, including claims by South African miners for asbestos-related diseases, would no longer be feasible. The Labour MP Lisa Nandy, who campaigns on legal issues, said: “This government has ignored the views of NGOs and leading experts and chosen to plough ahead with proposals which will be devastating for victims of human rights abuses. “Structures for holding companies like Trafigura to account are few and far between. If the coalition is committed to human rights, the minister should be looking at how these can be strengthened, not weakened.” Clarke maintains that the British legal system is one of the most costly in the world and is determined to reduce the cost to the taxpayer of litigation. The MoJ has declined to confirm precisely when the bill will be published. Legal aid Trafigura Kenneth Clarke Owen Bowcott guardian.co.uk
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Bin Laden’s second-in-command to lead global terror group, says al-Qaida-affiliated website • Bin Laden’s inner circle An al-Qaida-affiliated website says Egypt-born Ayman al-Zawahri has succeeded Osama bin Laden as head of the terror network. Bin Laden was killed in a US commando raid in Pakistan last month. Al-Zawahri, who will turn 60 next week, had been Bin Laden’s second-in-command . He is the son of an upper middle-class Egyptian family of doctors and scholars. His father was a pharmacology professor at Cairo University’s medical school, and his grandfather was the grand imam of Al-Azhar University, a premier center of religious study. The announcement was posted on Thursday on a website known to be affiliated with the terror network. al-Qaida Global terrorism Egypt Middle East Osama bin Laden guardian.co.uk
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Education secretary Michael Gove targets schools that have fallen below the government’s minimum standard The 200 weakest primary schools in England will be placed under new management by the beginning of the next school year, the education secretary Michael Gove will say on Thursday. It is the most direct interference in primary schools by a government that has, so far, been mainly focused on intervention on secondary schools. Gove will announce the weakest 200 primary schools will become academies in 2012. He is to target those schools that have, for five years, fallen below the government’s “minimum floor standard” (less than 60% of the children reaching a basic level in English and Maths at 11, and where children make below-average progress between seven and 11). Local authorities with particularly large numbers of struggling primaries will be identified for urgent collaboration with the Department for Education to tackle a further 500 primaries. On the basis of 2010 results, there are about 1,400 primary schools below the primary minimum floor standard. Of those, about 500 have been below the floor for two or three of the last four years. A further 200 have been below standard for the last five years and 120 of those have been below the floor for more than a decade. Gove will initially target the 200. Citing the shift of political and economic power to Asia, Gove will tell his audience in Birmingham: “We have just suffered the worst financial crisis since 1929. Our economy is weighed down by a huge debt burden. Europe has major problems with debt and the euro. “Meanwhile there is a rapid and historic shift of political and economic power to Asia and a series of scientific and technological changes that are transforming our culture, economy and global politics. If we do not have a school system adapting to and preparing for these challenges, then we will face even worse crises in the years ahead.” Justifying his intervention, Gove will state “there is only so much you can do between 11 and 16,” arguing that the fate of a pupil may well be settled by the time they reach secondary school. Education policy Schools Primary schools Michael Gove Patrick Wintour guardian.co.uk
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Liberal radio host Thom Hartmann insisted on his Tuesday afternoon show that Republicans are promoting “a satanic agenda” with an elephant symbol with upside-down (satanic?) stars, allegedly promoted by George W. Bush. First there, is the “pure star” with
Continue reading …Banned in Boston: MBTA Rejects Scott Brown Ad For Being "Too Political". WTF?
June 15, 2011 No Comment
enlarge This is the add environmental group 350.org wanted transit riders to see as they made their way through the greater Boston area. They thought that it was important for Boston voters to know that their Senator Scott Brown — despite a bewildering amount of doublespeak — had voted against giving the EPA the authority to regulate greenhouse gases . But curiously in the age of Citizens United attack ads, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority found the ad a little too political for its taste : 350.org was given very little information regarding the rejection. I am informed that they simply received the following email, from the contractor that handles advertising for the T: From: Titan 360 Date: Wed, Jun 8, 2011 at 5:05 AM Hi All, Unfortunately, the MBTA did not approve of this creative due to its political stance, and we will not be able to install the campaign. Sorry for the long wait and inconvenience. We will issue our own internal paperwork to cancel the contract. Obviously, there is nothing indecent about the ad. Some riders may disagree with 350.org’s point of view, but so what? Do we really want the MBTA – a government agency – deciding which viewpoints are suitable for advertising, and which aren’t? You know, if the MTBA simply rejected any and all advertisement that is political or controversial in nature, it might be understandable. But look at what did pass muster with MTBA’s editorial board: enlarge [A]s you may recall, the rapture was supposed to happen on May 21, according to a rather extreme interpretation of certain biblical writings by a guy who also happened to have a lot of money. He plastered ads announcing the event all over the country, including on MBTA buses. But when it turned out that – surprise! – Family Radio also harbors certain anti-gay sentiments , the T’s general manager came out with a series of muddled responses, first saying that the T took down the ad because of Family Radio’s views, and then later claiming that the ads actually came down because the campaign expired, but that “content of future ads to undergo more scrutiny.” I’m sure that the MTBA got some complaints over those Family Radio ads, and it may be that which has caused them to be more careful about the kind of ads they will allow. But given sheer number of astroturf groups that will not hesitate to pile on Democratic candidates as we near the election, I think there needs to be a fairly consistent application of the eidtorial guidelines.
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Who would actually buy this? HeroBuilders.com, an online action figure company, now offers an “anatomically correct” doll in the image of Weiner, the disgraced congressman from New York who admitted he had tweeted explicit photos of himself to several women and repeatedly lied about it. (PHOTOS: Scenes from the Anthony Weiner Scandal) The misfit toy
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Group announces its latest attack via Twitter with message ‘Tango down – cia.gov – for lulz’ The CIA has become the latest target of self-styled “pirate ninja” hackers LulzSec. The Central Intelligence Agency website was unavailable for a few minutes on Wednesday evening as the group announced the attack via Twitter : “Tango down – cia.gov – for the lulz”. “We are looking into these reports,” a CIA spokeswoman said. The hackers, who describe themselves as “the world’s leaders in high-quality entertainment at your expense”, have gained international notoriety this month with a series of security breaches. Over the weekend LulzSec broke into a public website of the US Senate and released data stolen from the legislative body’s computer servers. Last week they hacked the website of an unnamed NHS organisation – one of England’s primary care trusts. The Department of Health said no patient’s medical records were accessed during the incident, which it described it as “a local issue” and “quite a low-level” lapse in IT security. Earlier this month LulzSec broke into the website of Sony Pictures Entertainment and exposed information from 37,000 users, including names, passwords, birthdates and email addresses. It also hacked into a webserver belonging to Nintendo in the US. The name of the group is derived from “LOL” (laugh out loud) and “security”. Hacking CIA United States Twitter Internet US national security Data and computer security David Batty guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Group announces its latest attack via Twitter with message ‘Tango down – cia.gov – for lulz’ The CIA has become the latest target of self-styled “pirate ninja” hackers LulzSec. The Central Intelligence Agency website was unavailable for a few minutes on Wednesday evening as the group announced the attack via Twitter : “Tango down – cia.gov – for the lulz”. “We are looking into these reports,” a CIA spokeswoman said. The hackers, who describe themselves as “the world’s leaders in high-quality entertainment at your expense”, have gained international notoriety this month with a series of security breaches. Over the weekend LulzSec broke into a public website of the US Senate and released data stolen from the legislative body’s computer servers. Last week they hacked the website of an unnamed NHS organisation – one of England’s primary care trusts. The Department of Health said no patient’s medical records were accessed during the incident, which it described it as “a local issue” and “quite a low-level” lapse in IT security. Earlier this month LulzSec broke into the website of Sony Pictures Entertainment and exposed information from 37,000 users, including names, passwords, birthdates and email addresses. It also hacked into a webserver belonging to Nintendo in the US. The name of the group is derived from “LOL” (laugh out loud) and “security”. Hacking CIA United States Twitter Internet US national security Data and computer security David Batty guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …In case you missed it, go look at the despicable ad John posted earlier. It’s paid for by a new SuperPAC called Right Turn USA . Because it is a SuperPAC created for the purpose of making independent expenditures on behalf of candidates, no disclosures must be made with regard to donors. However, there are some things we can learn about it from their FEC filing made earlier this week. TPM reported this yesterday: The spot is produced by Ladd Ehlinger, Jr., best known for his wildly popular Dale “Don’t Give A Rip” Peterson campaign video in the 2010 race for Alabama secretary of agriculture. Turn Right USA, the sponsor, is a brand new political action committee which only filed its paperwork with the Federal Election Commission on Monday. The paperwork indicates that Turn Right USA intends to operate as a so-called “super PAC,” capable of raising funds in unlimited amount, but will not use those funds to directly support federal candidates or committees. Claude Todoroff serves as treasurer for the group, which is based in Gardena, Calif. G. Rick Marshall serves as the group’s designated agent. Here are some additional clues as to who would be paying for an ad like this: G. Rick Marshall is active in local Republican politics in that area. In 2007, he received an endorsement from the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers’ Association when he ran for the Torrance Unified School District board. The treasurer of Huey’s campaign is David Bauer, who also served as treasurer for NOM-California and the Yes on 8 campaign. ( See affidavit here – PDF ) The bank listed for the PAC is Wells Fargo Bank, 6930 Skyway, Paradise, CA 95969. That is the same bank used for JD Hayworth’s campaign in 2010, and also Vernon Parker. The treasurer of both committees was Kelly Lawler, a former staffer for the NRCC who has a client list that includes “Defend Sheriff Joe” . Vernon Parker is the chairman of that group, too. TPM reports further: The director of “Defend Sheriff Joe” is Gary Bae, the owner of the Phoenix-based Compass Public Affairs Group, Inc. Gary Bae is the owner of that company, and also director/member of Compass Properties, LLC. He’s also a director and the secretary of Wake Up Arizona! Inc. Here is some information about Wake Up Arizona, Inc’s sponsors.: Mac Magruder, owns McDonald’s franchises Ray Arvizu, owns Arvizu Advertising & Promotions, a Hispanic marketing firm Tom Barnett, owns Good Egg and Eggery restaurants and Burger King franchises Steve Chucri, president, Arizona Restaurant Association Jim Click, Tucson car dealer Jerry Colangelo, former owner, Phoenix Suns and Arizona Diamondbacks Brian Day O’Connor, owns a commercial real estate firm and a carwash; son of former U.S. Supreme Court justice Nicole Dreier, representing Burger King franchises Barry Goldwater Jr., son of former U.S. senator Danny Hendon, owns Danny’s Family Car Washes Steve Hilton, chief executive, Meritage Homes Gordon James, owns public relations firm James LeVecke, owns Carl’s Jr. franchises Jeff Moorad, general manager, Arizona Diamondbacks Mary Rose Wilcox, Maricopa County supervisor, owner El Portal restaurant Putting the pieces together now, we can see that David Koch donated to Hayworth’s campaign , and also to Vernon Parker (see entry for Susan Pittenger via Koch Industries PAC ) During the primary, Craig Huey paid Anahita Nemat for campaign consulting. Nemat served as the press assistant for Patients First , the Americans for Prosperity project to kill health care reform. He also paid The Davis Group (Joanne Davis) top dollar for fundraising advice. Joanne was the California finance manager for the Bush/Cheney campaign in 2000, among others. It’s no secret that Craig Huey is a long-standing conservative and Tea Party advocate with heavy ties to the religious right in California. And while Huey has denounced the ad weakly, it’s equally obvious that some big money went into the production and ad buys for it. I can’t hand you a list of actual people contributing, but I think it’s fairly obvious we’re looking at the usual suspects in the arena of Tea Party funding. Wouldn’t surprise me a bit to find out after the fact to discover that Sal Russo and Co had their dirty little hands all over it, given Russo’s deep ties to the Yes on 8 campaign and other dirty enterprises. Assume there’s likely some Koch money, Perot, and corporate sponsorship involved, too, along with the Reagan remnants left here in California and around the nation.
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