Following Panorama investigation, coalition announces ‘guarantee’ residents will be found alternative accommodation Downing Street moved to prevent a collapse in public confidence in the care of Britain’s most vulnerable citizens amid fears over the solvency of the country’s biggest residential home operator for the elderly and widespread horror at revelations of abuse in a private facility for people with learning disabilities. Ministers abandoned insistence that these were local issues by announcing a “guarantee” that 31,000 elderly residents of the care home chain Southern Cross would be found alternative accommodation if the company went under. The prime minister’s official spokesman said Downing Street was in touch with Southern Cross. “Our role is to ensure we keep in close contact with what is going on, and keep monitoring the situation, and we will do what we can to ensure there is protection for anyone affected by this.” The move amounted to an effective repudiation of the government’s commitment to localism. Local authority leaders, who had been told that the Southern Cross problem was a contractual issue for them to resolve, were unaware of the nature of the guarantee, but they issued their own assurance that all the company’s residents – including those who pay their own care fees – would be looked after. Meanwhile, Downing Street has demanded a full report following the disclosure by the BBC Panorama programme of systematic abuse at a unit for people with learning disabilities near Bristol run by the Castlebeck company, a firm ultimately owned by Irish tycoons JP McManus, John Magnier and Dermot Desmond. The Department of Health had been insisting behind the scenes that it was an issue purely for the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the care sector regulator, and the local authorities and NHS primary care trusts that paid the £3,500-a-week fees for the young adults they referred there. But the health department found itself obliged to step in. No 10 has asked for a detailed account of what the various agencies knew and did about the regime at the unit. The CQC, which failed to follow up tip-offs from a whistleblower who then contacted Panorama, has admitted its mistakes were “unforgivable”. For ministers there were unnerving signs that controversy over social care was seamlessly taking over from controversy over the government’s becalmed NHS reforms, now that its “listening exercise” on complaints about the reforms has concluded pending a report. The clear link between the two in the public eye is that the NHS plans include outsourcing NHS care to “any qualified provider”. Stephen Dorrell, the chair of the Commons health select committee who has voiced doubts about some aspects of the government’s NHS plans, outlined arrangements for a wide-ranging inquiry by his committee in the autumn. Dorrell, a former Tory health secretary, said the inquiry would look broadly at the process of commissioning care and support for vulnerable adults, following a report due next month from a government commission on the funding of social care, led by the economist Andrew Dilnot. “The questions will be about how can these stories of abuse arise,” Dorrell said. “There was Panorama yesterday, but also the report last week on care of the elderly in NHS hospitals, all the issues around Southern Cross and the CQC in particular. “We are talking about 70% of patient load of the health service, that is people with long-term needs and conditions, and so often we focus on waiting times for elective operations. This is a far bigger issue.” Referring to the Castlebeck case, Dorrell added: “Someone had to sign the cheque that the care home operator was being paid to provide a service of £3,000 per week. I presume the majority of those cases were paid for with public funds. The people who signed the cheque have a duty to make certain that standards are of an adequate nature.” Long-term care Social care Disability Health Health policy Liberal-Conservative coalition David Brindle Polly Curtis guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Gov. Chris Christie’s ‘CopterGate’: Uses State Police helicopter to see his son play high-school baseball
June 1, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media Christie’s CopterGate is now upon us. Gov. Chris Christie arrived at his son’s baseball game this afternoon aboard a State Police helicopter. Right before the lineup cards were being exchanged on the field, a noise from above distracted the spectators as the 55-foot long helicopter buzzed over trees in left field, circled the outfield and landed in an adjacent football field. Christie disembarked from the helicopter and got into a black car with tinted windows that drove him about a 100 yards to the baseball field. During the 5th inning, Christie and First Lady Mary Pat Christie got into the car, rode back to the helicopter and left the game. During a pitching change, play was stopped for a couple of minutes while the helicopter took off. {} Christie was ferried to the field in a brand-new AugustaWestland helicopter, purchased at a cost to taxpayers of $12.5 million. The State Police has received two of the five helicopters purchased so far, according to testimony from Attorney General Paula Dow during a May budget hearing. They were purchased to replace aging Sikorsky helicopters that the State Police have flown for about two decades. The helicopters, which can reach nearly 200 miles per hour with its twin turbo-shaft engines, are designed for homeland security duties and transporting critically injured patients. So the much-touted “fiscal conservative” uses a state helicopter designed for homeland security duties and transporting critically injured patients. Does going to see his soon play ball meet those strict requirements or is it an abuse of power? Murshed reminded me of this Nancy Pelosi smear job by Hannity over flying: Hannity, Gingrich falsely suggested that Pelosi made unprecedented use of military plane — but “practice began with Speaker Hastert” And as TPM reports, Chris Christie: No. 1 U.S. Attorney In Wasting Gov’t Travel Money Voters just don’t like governors using helicopters. It helped destroy Frank Murkowski’s run in Alaska. We’ll see how upset NJ resident are about this.
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Wall Street share sell-off is triggered by gloomy US jobs and industry figures Shares fell heavily on Wall Street on Wednesday after a gloomy report from US factories and signs of a slowdown in employment growth prompted fears that the recovery in the world’s biggest economy is fading. With weaker than expected data from Europe and China adding to the downbeat mood, the Dow Jones industrial average lost almost 200 points in morning trading in New York. Selling was initially triggered by the monthly health check on private sector job creation which showed a rise of only 38,000 last month, well down on the 177,000 jump recorded in April. Economists immediately scaled back their forecasts of a hefty increase in employment in Friday’s non-farm payrolls report to between 100,000 and 120,000. The decline in the Dow intensified with the release of the index on manufacturing from the Institute for Supply Management, which recorded a drop from 60.4 in April to 53.5, its lowest level since September 2009 and far lower than Wall Street had anticipated. On the foreign exchanges, the dollar fell against the euro and the Swiss franc on anticipation that the Federal Reserve, the US central bank, would hold interest rates close to zero until the second half of 2012. The yield on the benchmark 10-year treasury bill dipped below 3% for the first time since late 2010 as analysts pushed back their forecasts of when monetary policy would be tightened. Some predicted a third bout of quantitative easing – money creation – from the Fed. Despite the additional $600bn pumped into the economy over the past eight months, it grew at an annualised rate of only 1.8% in the first three months of this year, a sharp slowdown from its performance last year. Mike Riddell, fund manager at M&G, said: “The last month has been a horror show for the world’s biggest economy, and things are getting even worse if data released today is anything to go by. It seems that almost every bit of data about the health of the US economy has disappointed expectations recently. “US house prices have fallen by more than 5% year on year, pending home sales have collapsed and existing home sales disappointed, the trend of improving jobless claims has arrested, Q1 GDP wasn’t revised upwards by the 0.4% forecast, durable goods orders shrank, manufacturing surveys from Philadelphia Fed, Richmond Fed and Chicago Fed were all very disappointing. And that’s just in the last week and a bit.” Separate US data showed a 4% drop in mortgage applications in the latest week and a pick-up in the number of people laid off during May. Tom Levinson, an analyst at ING, said: “The US soft patch for data is clearly continuing and the market will be comfortable with its pricing for the first Fed rate hike to come only in the third quarter of 2012.” Reports on manufacturing from other parts of the world also pointed to a slowdown. China’s purchasing managers’ index fell from 52.9 to 52.0, close to the cut-off point of 50 that separates expansion from contraction, while the reading for the eurozone dropped to a seven-month low of 54.6. Spain and Greece slipped back below 50, suggesting that their manufacturing sectors were back in recession. The depressed state of the Irish economy was underlined by official figures showing that unemployment rose to 14.8% of the workforce last month. The prospect of weaker global growth dragged down oil prices. Brent crude for delivery next month fell 54 cents to $116.19 a barrel in morning trading in New York, while US US July crude fell 77 cents to $101.93 a barrel. US economy Dollar Euro Economics Currencies Recession Larry Elliott guardian.co.uk
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Global warming should be limited to 1.5C, not 2C, declares Christiana Figueres The world should agree to limit global warming to just 1.5C instead of the current target of 2C, the United Nations’ climate chief has said, in remarks that shocked the governments of developed nations. Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the UN framework convention on climate change, said: “Two degrees is not enough – we should be thinking of 1.5C. If we are not headed to 1.5C we are in big, big trouble.” Scientists estimate that 2C of warming is the limit of safety, beyond which climate change becomes catastrophic and irreversible. Last December at a UN climate conference in Cancun, Mexico, all countries reached a consensus on a 2C target, the first time the world’s governments had set a target limit on climate change. But Figueres said reaching 2C of warming would have a devastating impact, such as sea-level rises that could overwhelm low-lying islands and some coastal nations, and levels of warming in sub-Saharan Africa that could severely damage agriculture. Figueres was speaking at Carbon Expo , the annual conference of the International Emissions Trading Association . For Figueres to reopen the debate on the proposed target is regarded as dangerous by some countries, who fear that a push by the UN for a tougher target would derail the already fragile negotiations that officials have been trying to reconstruct after the 2009 summit in Copenhagen ended in only a partial agreement, amid acrimony and scenes of chaos. Developed nations and some rapidly emerging economies, such as China, want to stick to the weaker target of 2C, arguing that it would be impossible to opt for the tougher target at this stage. One participant in the talks said: “We need to be ambitious but realistic. Although it’s positive to start discussions about more ambitious targets, the UN Environment Programme concluded a while ago that countries will have to make more ambitious emission-reduction pledges [than they have done] if global-temperature rise is to be curbed at 2C.” Another participant said: “This is a big
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Loyalists mounted attacks on English press, parliamentarians and politicians before celebrating new mandate Sepp Blatter rode a crashing wave of anti-English sentiment within the “football family” to extend his presidency of Fifa for another four years. Corruption scandals have caused alarm among sponsors, national governments and fans alike, but amid an atmosphere of bridling indignation, world football’s governing body threw up the barricades in Zurich. Blatter loyalists mounted attacks on English press, parliamentarians and football politicians before celebrating his new mandate with a standing ovation. In his acceptance speech, after Blatter had won 186 out of 203 votes in the ballot of Fifa’s member associations, he thanked delegates for “your vote and your confidence” and pledged curtly to “put Fifa’s ship back on the right course in clear, transparent waters”. An hour later, Blatter revealed that former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger would head the “politicians, celebrities and former footballers” making up the “solution committee” that would address the corruption problems that have shredded Fifa’s reputation. Kissinger is a long-term associate of Blatter. The vote in the uncontested election had taken place only after an attempt by the English Football Association to force a postponement suffered a heavy defeat, by 172 votes to 17. The FA chairman, David Bernstein, said he was exercising his democratic right to propose a measure without which Blatter could not have a “proper, credible mandate”. The FA initiative drew ferocious criticism from Fifa’s second-most senior politician, Julio Grondona of Argentina. “We always have attacks from England, mostly with lies and with the support of a journalism which is more busy lying than telling the truth,” he said. Grondona confirmed his message that he would only support England’s 2018 World Cup bid if the Falkland Islands were “given back” to Argentina because they “belong to us”. He insinuated that Bernstein’s measure had been motivated by bitterness at England 2018′s failure. “It looks like this country doesn’t like it and doesn’t show goodwill. Would you please leave the Fifa family alone?” Moucharafou Anjorin, federation president of Benin, the world’s 72nd-ranked team, took the podium to say: “I’m ill at ease that this comes from a country like England with its football standing. “Some people in Africa take great pleasure from watching English football on the television. This is why I do not understand why we want to create more tensions within Fifa. England should not be conveying this message. England should not divide us.” Joining Anjorin was the Congolese Selemani Omari – his country 122nd in Fifa’s rankings – who delivered impassioned rhetoric with a veiled message to the English dissenters and media. “Fifa belongs to 208 associations, not one or another,” he said. “We’re ill at ease with people who wield unfounded accusations. He who accuses must provide evidence. “We have no lessons to take. If there is a single candidate also sometimes it is because we are satisfied with the candidate.” In an attack on the English media that he did not seek to conceal, Costakis Koutsokoumnis from Cyprus (89th) said: “Allegations. What a beautiful English word. We must not allow people outside this room to enter Fifa’s agenda.” There had been only one name on the ballot papers after the Qatari challenger, Mohamed Bin Hammam, after withdrew in an effort to clear his name amid allegations of vote buying. Bin Hammam and the Fifa vice-president, Jack Warner, have been suspended from the federation. On the platform Warner and Bin Hammam’s seats, as well as those of two other members of the ruling executive committee serving similar bans, remained vacant throughout the proceedings. Although football’s political structures showed faith in the man at the helm, there are questions whether the storm has yet abated. Theo Zwanziger, the chairman of Germany’s federation, called for an inquiry into the process that led to Qatar winning the right to host the 2022 World Cup. Zwanziger’s words carry the force of a serving Fifa executive committee member after he joined it upon the retirement yesterday of Franz Beckenbauer. However, there were messages of defiance from other of football’s senior politicians who bristled at the allegations swirling around Fifa. “It is enough,” said Angel Maria Villar Llona, a former Spanish international who heads Fifa’s legal committee. “Let us not be led by these people. They are assaulting us with crimes we’ve not committed. They assault our freedom.” Before the vote, Blatter spoke of being the “captain of the Fifa ship”. He only had to make modest concessions: future World Cups will be selected by the whole Congress instead of the 24-strong executive committee; an internal committee will examine Fifa’s corporate governance; and the ethics committee will be strengthened, once again an internal process. But his message of triumph was more one of congratulation for delegates’ defensiveness. “I am happy we are able again today to bring this solidarity and unity which allows us sufficient courage and also a positive standpoint,” Blatter said. “Something marvellous has happened today in this solidarity.” Fifa Sepp Blatter Switzerland Europe Matt Scott guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Jon Stewart slams CNN for their coverage of Anthony Weiner: CNN handled this with their trademark ‘I guess we’ll never know’
June 1, 2011 No CommentAfter the latest Breitbart smear of Rep. Anthony Weiner , it’s no surprise that Jon Stewart would take to the airways and defend the Congressman who’s an old friend of his. And all jokes aside on the controversy, Stewart’s sharpest criticism was aimed squarely at CNN for their terrible job of “reporting” on the matter and for allowing Andrew Breitbart to come back on the air to further smear the Congressman unchallenged. STEWART: I don’t know what the hell this is. I don’t know what’s going on. I really hope it’s not for real. Obviously Weiner insists his Twitter account was hacked. If only there was a trusted name in news. Name the most trusted name in news who brings to media editorial gravitas and insightful reportage to this mess. Cut to CNN pretending they have no way to find out what the facts are on the story. STEWART: Well I guess that’s the end of it. By the way, those liberal and conservative blogs having an all out war, they’re probably not doing anything about this story, except showing that the EXIF tags from the photo don’t match the camera Weiner normally uses, although analysis of the actual yfrog image shows no signs of manipulation although it’s very odd that the only person who image in the tweet has a history of sending harassing messages to the woman who had received the tweet and others who follow the Congressman on Twitter. Wow, those blogs, that sounds a lot like reporting. Slow down Woodward and Blogstein let the big boys at CNN handle this with their trademark “I guess we’ll never know.” To be fair, they’re not just going to let a guy come on and speculate saying Congressman Weiner might be some sort of sexual predator or pedophile, particularly if the accuser is someone who has openly and publicly sworn that his life’s mission is to destroy those people on the institutional Left. Oh but sadly, that’s exactly what they did . Once again, the Comedy Central fake news show does a better job of honestly reporting on a story than CNN does. Updated to correct transcript.
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Schools located near the nuclear plant have removed and buried the topsoil from playgrounds amid concern over the risk to pupils At first sight, there seems little out of the ordinary on this wet afternoon for the pupils of Oyama primary school. They wave from classroom windows as they rush to finish the day’s cleaning chores; outside, the wind and rain sends the school’s pet rabbits into a retreat deep inside their hutches. But buried beneath the surface of the school playing field is evidence that life in this village, about 40 miles from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, is far from normal: a large quantity of radioactive soil, wrapped in tarpaulin. Health concerns for the school’s 225 pupils, aged between six and 12, centre on the radioactive isotopes released by the plant, whose operator has been criticised for failing to prepare for the 11 March tsunami. In a preliminary report released on Wednesday, inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency said Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) had underestimated the risk of the giant tsunami, although they praised the plant workers’ post-disaster response. “The tsunami hazard for several sites was underestimated,” the report said. “Nuclear plant designers and operators should appropriately evaluate and provide protection against the risks of all natural hazards.” The inspectors also urged authorities to closely monitor the health of plant workers and members of the public, including thousands of vulnerable children. In April, Japan’s government sparked anger when it raised the upper limit of safe radiation exposure for children from 1 millisievert (mSv) a year to 20mSv a year, the same level the International Commission on Radiological Protection recommends for nuclear plant workers. The decision prompted Toshiso Kosako, a Tokyo university professor, to tearfully announce his resignation as a government nuclear adviser, describing the revised upper limit as “intolerable”. Ignoring official assurances that the exposure limit and current radiation readings in the area pose no threat to children’s health, parents and teachers in Otama and five other communities in Fukushima prefecture started removing and burying topsoil from school playgrounds. At schools where mechanical diggers were in short supply, parents shovelled the soil themselves. The cleanup drew a dismissive response from Yukio Edano, the government’s chief spokesman. “Based on guidelines by the education and science ministries, there is no need for [soil] removal,” he said. But Oyama’s principal, Hiroyuki Ando, said parental pressure, and the fear of the possible effects of long-term exposure to contaminants in the soil, had left him with no choice. “We were worried about high radiation levels, particularly caesium in topsoil, so we consulted scientists and the local education authorities and removed the soil ourselves,” he said. The steps produced immediate results: radiation readings in topsoil outside Ando’s school dropped from 1.32 mSv to 0.25 mSv an hour, compared with a pre-disaster reading of 0.04 mSv. Under government standards, children should not play outdoors for more than one hour a day if radiation levels exceed 3.8 mSv an hour. “Even though the readings are better, they’re still much higher than they were before the accident. I don’t think we’ll ever be able to get back to those days,” said Ando, adding that pupils would have to take swimming lessons at a nearby sports centre this summer due to concern about possible contamination of the school’s outdoor pool. Last week the education ministry conducted a partial volte face, announcing it would aim to reduce the exposure limit for children at school to the previous 1 mSv a year. Officials also promised to foot the bill for the removal of topsoil from outdoor play areas in the region where levels exceed the limit. “We have taken the measure so children and their parents can feel relieved,” the education minister, Yoshiaki Takaki, told reporters.Many residents of Otama feel anything but relieved. The Fukushima effect is being felt throughout this picturesque village of 8,600, where the rice – farmers have all but given up hope that nervous consumers will buy this year’s crop – is considered among the best in Japan. “We are not in the least bit reassured by what the government tells us,” said Yuki Watabe, as she and her son arrived at the supermarket wearing surgical masks. “I wear this when I go out and wash fruit and vegetables thoroughly. I don’t hang the laundry outside to dry and the children have to play indoors for the time being.” Others accuse their neighbours of over-reacting. “I don’t think it was necessary to remove the soil,” said Miwa Takeda, as she waited outside the school for her nine-year-old daughter. “Radiation levels haven’t exceeded the daily limit, so why bother? My husband worked at the Fukushima Daini plant until the day after the tsunami and he hasn’t bothered undergoing a radiation check. We eat the local vegetables and our kids play outside for as long as they like.” Ando says that data proving radiation levels are safe does little to counter public unease about the future. “Most of the parents here were adamant that we did this, even though the government keeps saying there is no risk. You don’t know what effects radiation will have 10 or 20 years down the line. It’s not just about safety, but about reassuring people.” Schools throughout Fukushima prefecture are stepping up their response to the accident in the absence, they say, of satisfactory information from Tepco and the government. On Wednesday, when most Japanese children changed into light summer uniforms, schools in Fukushima asked pupils to stay wrapped up in their winter clothes to reduce their exposure to atmospheric radiation. Dosimeters to monitor radiation in pupils have been distributed to teachers at more than 1,600 kindergartens and schools in the prefecture. One school in Koriyama city, 37 miles from the nuclear plant, publishes regular radiation updates on its website, which receives 4,000 hits a day. As they count the cost of the disaster in anxiety and possible damage to the local economy, Fukushima’s infamy weighs heavy on the people whose home has become synonymous with radiation. “To be mentioned in the same breath as Chernobyl is a source of great pain for us,” Ando said. “It is all very well the government telling us that we’re over-reacting, but this is where we live. This is where our children go to school.” Japan disaster Japan Nuclear power Energy Natural disasters and extreme weather Health Schools Justin McCurry guardian.co.uk
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Grain traders ADM, Bunge, Cargill and Dreyfus deny charges by Argentine government of substantial tax evasion The world’s four largest grain traders, responsible for the vast majority of global corn, soya and wheat trading and processing, have been accused of large-scale tax evasion in a landmark series of cases being brought against them by the Argentinian government. In an interview with the Guardian, Ricardo Echegaray, the head of Afip, the Argentine revenue and customs, has given a detailed account of the charges his department is bringing against ADM, Bunge, Cargill and Dreyfus. “These companies have gone into criminality,” Echegaray said. “2008 was when agricultural commodities prices spiked and was the best year for them in prices, yet we could see that the companies with the biggest sales showed very little profit in this country.” The Guardian has learned from separate sources that Afip is seeking to claim $476m (£290m) for what is says are unpaid tax and duties from Bunge, $252m from Cargill, and $140m from Dreyfus. The companies have all denied all the allegations and have said they will defend themselves vigorously. With the global food system and who controls it under intense scrutiny in recent weeks, thanks to record prices, the legal battle between Afip and the big “ABCD four”, as they are known, has taken on heightened significance. Oxfam, in a report earlier this week, warned of spiralling prices and a huge increase in global hunger over the next two decades, and said that corporate concentration in the global food trade was a structural flaw in the system. Echegaray said he had begun investigating Argentina’s large business taxpayers towards the end of 2008, cross-checking information given to his authorities with information from other countries where their exports were destined, by making use of tax information exchange treaties – some of which have been newly signed. He also cross-checked declarations made to Argentinian customs with corporate income tax returns. He said he had evidence from that detailed investigation that all four traders had submitted false declarations of sales and routed profits through tax havens or their headquarters, in contravention of Argentinian tax law. He also alleged they had on occasion used phantom companies to buy grain. He further alleged that they had inflated costs in Argentina to reduce taxable profits or claim tax credits there. The Afip inquiry has focused on the traders’ sales to Uruguay, among other low-tax jurisdictions. Echegaray said Bunge had set up an office in the tax-free zone of Montevideo through which it began routing its exports after 2007, from which point it declared no gains in Argentina. He alleged his checks had revealed that Bunge employed only a handful of people in Uruguay’s capital, and that it had no real imports or exports from that office other than small items for those few staff. Bunge was expelled from the Argentine exporters’ register last week. Bunge denied the allegations absolutely and was adamant it had broken no laws or tax rules. “We believe that we have done nothing wrong and that our past tax payments are complete. This is an issue that is not unique to Bunge, or even our industry. We will continue to take the appropriate legal steps to defend ourselves,” it said in a statement. Echegaray alleged that Cargill had also used Uruguay and Switzerland subsidiaries to evade taxes in Argentina. Cargill, ADM and Dreyfus were all suspended from the exporters’ register by the government earlier this year as a result of the investigation. Cargill said: “All the allegations made about Cargill are false. Cargill complies with all Argentine tax and customs regulations. We are vigorously defending various tax and customs audits and litigation.” ADM responded that it “conducts business in accordance with the laws, including those governing tax obligations, in the countries where we operate. We are co-operating with Afip to successfully resolve this situation.” Dreyfus declined to comment, but according to Ciara, the grain exporters’ trade association in Argentina, it too denies all the charges. Ciara’s president, Alberto Rodriguez, commented that the government’s charges of tax evasion against all four traders was political posturing. Tax avoidance Argentina Food & drink industry Food Food security Farming Uruguay Felicity Lawrence guardian.co.uk
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“It was unexpected because I really didn’t think that anybody would notice — except now that I see the bus, I could see how it would attract attention.” — SALLY HEATH, Sarah Palin’s mother, on the media circus surrounding her daughter’s “learning tour” through various historical sites on the East Coast (via Swampland)
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President under shadow of impeachment in latest spat with the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is locked in confrontation with MPs after being warned he acted illegally by declaring himself caretaker oil minister in what his critics called an unconstitutional power grab. Iranian media reported that the majlis (parliament), which has repeatedly clashed with the president over key policy issues in recent weeks, voted 165-1 to approve a report by its energy committee, which declared Ahmadinejad’s move an “obvious violation of law”. The vote was triggered by the president’s sacking of the oil minister, Massoud Mirkazemi, which was part of a plan to merge eight ministries into four to cut their overall number to 17. Observers said it was unclear whether there was now a real threat that Ahmadinejad could be impeached. But it was the latest spat in an increasingly ugly struggle between the president and his onetime mentor, the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Aides to Khamenei have castigated Ahmadinejad’s controversial chief-of-staff Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaie as representing a “deviant current” moving Iran away from Islamic principles. Accusations of “perversion”, witchcraft and exorcism have been bandied around – as well as more conventional complaints of corruption. The majlis vote was spearheaded by the speaker, Ali Larijani, who was sacked by Ahmadinejad as Iran’s national security chief in 2007 but is seen as a prospective candidate for the presidency in 2013. Ahmadinejad’s original bid to streamline his cabinet was blocked by Khamenei. Ahmadinejad fought back by dismissing three ministers and temporarily taking over the oil ministry, but drew furious criticism from Khamenei’s camp. The move by MPs reflects mounting alarm by Ahmadinejad’s rivals in the country’s conservative ruling elite, including hardline clerics and the elite Revolutionary Guards, especially since it involves the hugely important energy sector – the source of 80% of Iranian state revenue – and because Ahmadinejad is famous for his populist economic policies. Late last month parliament voted to investigate allegations that the president had misused state funds as effective bribes by giving $80 (£48.80) each to 9 million voters before the 2009 presidential election. To complicate matters further, Iran is also the current chairman of Opec, although Ahmadinejad has said he will not attend its summit in Vienna next week. “This illegal and hasty action will undermine the Islamic Republic of Iran’s interests on the international level,” the conservative-dominated parliament said in its report. “Mr Ahmadinejad as oil minister has issued some orders and will continue to issue orders which are obvious examples of illegal interference with governmental financial resources.” Ahmadinejad has the power to remove ministers and put caretakers in place for up to three months before having to consult parliament and insists that no-one should have been surprised by the reshuffle. Iran’s constitutional watchdog, the guardian council, has already called his takeover of the oil ministry illegal. The final say on the ministry lies with Khamenei – whose wholehearted backing for Ahmadinejad since his disputed re-election two years ago can clearly no longer be taken for granted. In recent months, Ahmadinejad has sought to assert the presidential prerogative in hiring and firing ministers. He got his way in December, sacking the foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, a Khamenei favourite, without warning. But tensions exploded in April when Khamenei stopped Ahmadinejad from dismissing the intelligence minister, Heydar Moslehi, in a public intervention to limit the president’s power. That provoked Ahmadinejad into a bizarre 11-day refusal to appear in public or carry out any duties. The escalating power struggle in Tehran comes less than a year before parliamentary elections – due in March 2012 – in which prominent opposition figures are unlikely to be allowed to run, and rival conservative factions will battle for control of the legislature. Presidential elections are due in 2013. Iran Middle East Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Ian Black guardian.co.uk
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