Premier’s words contrast with praise for Germany but he said China would send two pandas to the UK as mark of friendship The Chinese premier, Wen Jiabao, issued a diplomatic dressing down of the British government by declaring the UK should stop “finger pointing” over human rights in discussions with Beijing. Wen also suggested the UK economy needed to do better, in remarks that appeared to differ from his warm words towards Germany, which he was also visiting on his European tour. The rebukes marred the signing of some £1.4bn of trade deals, the most important being an agreement between BG, the UK energy group, and Bank of China for up to $1.5bn of funding to expand projects in China. Britain, for its part, said it would welcome Chinese investment in UK infrastructure, as well as greater co-operation over international development. At a Downing Street press conference, Wen repeatedly aired his frustration at the way the UK government and media seemed to obsess about human rights. He said: “On human rights, China and the UK should respect each other, respect the facts, treat each other as equals, engage in more co-operation than finger-pointing and resolve our differences through dialogue. China is not only pursuing economic development but also political structural reform and improvement in democracy and the rule of law.” He said China had been exposed to untold sufferings in its 5,000-year history. “This has taught the Chinese never to talk to others in a lecturing way, but to respect nations on the basis of equality.” David Cameron said: “We applaud the economic transformation that has taken place in China … But, as I said in Beijing last November, we do believe the best guarantor of prosperity and stability is for economic and political progress to go in step together.” The prime minister said no issue had been left off the table but No 10 was reluctant to detail specific human rights abuses. He said: “There is no trade-off in our relationship. It is not about either discussing trade or human rights. Britain and China have such a strong and developed relationship. We have a dialogue that covers all these issues, and nothing is off limits in the discussions that we have.” Wen did say there was “no strategic conflict” between the UK and China and that “our common interests outweigh our differences”. It was a mark of this relationship that China would be sending two giant pandas, Tian Tian and Yangguang, to Edinburgh Zoo by the end of this year – as announced by China’s vice premier, Li Keqiang, in January. Cameron also pressed China to crackdown on abuses of intellectual property and patents, saying it was “absolutely essential” because of Britain’s strength in branded goods and in film, music and the arts. A “symposium” to discuss the issue has been set up. Chinese officials, involved in a month-long crackdown on civil rights activists, expressed irritation and said Britain was viewed less favourably in Beijing than Germany, France, Italy and Spain. There is anger that Cameron may have gone further than other European leaders when in China in raising human rights concerns. In a speech to the Royal Society, Wen admitted corruption and income disparities were harming people’s lives in China. “Without freedom there is no real democracy and without the guarantee of economic and political rights there is no real freedom,” he said. “To be frank, corruption, unfair income distribution and other ills that harm the people’s interests still exist in China.” Wen also expressed his differences with the British over Libya saying the solution lay in diplomacy. “Foreign troops may be able to win war in a place, but they can hardly win peace. Hard lessons have been learned from what has happened in the Middle East and Afghanistan.” China still supported the UN security council resolution that authorised air strikes to protect civilians, but the nations involved must comply with the strict terms. Wen added: “We hope that the issue of Libya will be resolved through political, peaceful means, to reduce the humanitarian harm and in particular the harm of innocent civilians.” Wen Jiabao China David Cameron Human rights Foreign policy Patrick Wintour guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …A host of Syrian opposition figures gathered in Damascus for a meeting that actually has the blessing of Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Despite that approval, it was hard for organizers to find a venue, because many feared the government would attack the summit, the New York Times reports. Some activists have…
Continue reading …Just days after the anniversary of his death, a famed black-and-red calfskin jacket that Michael Jackson wore in the classic Thriller video has sold at auction for $1.8 million. The jacket is one of two Jackson wore during the filming of the 1983 Thriller video. The buyer is Texas…
Continue reading …The big revelation from Florence Henderson’s upcoming memoir: After a one-night stand with then-mayor of New York City John Lindsay, the Brady Bunch star got crabs. “Guess I learned the hard way that crabs do not discriminate but cross over all socioeconomic strata,” Henderson writes, adding that Lindsay sent her…
Continue reading …Philip Morris to sue if Australia puts all cigarettes in plain green wrappers
June 27, 2011 No Comment
Tobacco firm claims Canberra’s ban on logos and other packaging restrictions will lose it billions Marlboro manufacturer Philip Morris International is threatening to sue the Australian government for billions of dollars over its plan to be the first country to introduce plain, brand-free packaging for cigarettes. The row is being closely followed by politicians in Britain, Canada and New Zealand, where similar plans to curtail cigarette branding are being considered. The Australian government has drawn up some of the world’s strictest restrictions for cigarette packaging. From January 2012 it plans to stop manufacturers showing logos, branding, colours and promotional text on tobacco packaging. Cigarette packets will be a drab, olive-green colour that research has shown is unattractive to smokers. The box will also show graphic images depicting the health consequences of smoking on the front and back. Branding will be restricted to the name of the manufacturer and the name of the product displayed in a standard size and type of lettering. British American Tobacco (BAT), one of the largest cigarette firms in Australia, has already said it plans a legal challenge to the proposals, which have yet to be formally released. A spokeswoman said BAT would wait for the legislation to be issued before making any move. Philip Morris Asia is the parent company of the Marlboro firm’s Australian outpost. It claims Canberra’s proposals will violate its intellectual property rights and is taking legal action using Australia’s bilateral investment treaty with Hong Kong. The rules are designed to protect investments made by Asian companies against discriminatory treatment. “If no mutually agreeable solution is found, then it proceeds to us seeking compensation. We estimate the damage will potentially amount to billions of Australian dollars,” a spokeswoman for Philip Morris Asia told Dow Jones Newswires. “Brands are valuable intellectual property and form the basis of consumer goods businesses like ours. If we are banned from using them, our business in Australia will become commoditised and its value will be significantly impacted. “The Australian government does not have an unfettered right to confiscate [our] valuable intellectual property. Moreover, the government has failed to demonstrate that plain packaging will reduce smoking prevalence.” The company has nominated Singapore as a venue for the initial talks. The Australian government pledged to fight any legal action. The prime minister, Julia Gillard, said: “We’re not going to be intimidated by Big Tobacco’s tactics, whether they’re political tactics, whether they’re public affairs kind of tactics out in the community, or whether they’re legal tactics. We’re not taking a backward step. We’ve made the right decision and we’ll see it through.” The Australian health minister, Nicola Roxon, said the government’s legal advice was strong. “We won’t be frightened off by threats of legal action,” she said. “We will fight that action.” The Australian moves come as the UK prepares to tighten its rules on cigarette packets, with plain packaging under consideration. Last week, the US government unveiled its new packaging rules , which force tobacco firms to print harrowing images of the health consequences of smoking on cigarette boxes. Martin Dockrell, director of research and policy at anti-smoking group Ash , said he expected the Australian suit to be the first of many as governments around the world tighten up the rules on cigarette packaging. “Plain packaging would make a tremendous difference and that’s why the tobacco industry is fighting so hard to stop it,” Dockrell said. “Legal action is a standard delaying device for them. They are going to throw huge amounts of money into this.” Last year Uruguay was forced to water down tough rules on cigarette packaging after Philip Morris argued they violated Uruguay’s trade agreements with Switzerland , where Philip Morris International is based. Tobacco industry British American Tobacco Australia Advertising Smoking Health Dominic Rushe guardian.co.uk
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Source says Christopher Shale who was found dead in a Glastonbury festival toilet had felt ill the day before An aide to David Cameron who was found dead in a Glastonbury festival toilet had been feeling ill before he found out his strident criticism of the Tory party had been leaked to the press, it was claimed on Monday . Christopher Shale, the 56-year-old chairman of the West Oxfordshire Conservative Association, was contacted about the leak by senior officials from the party and Downing Street shortly before he died. But a source close to his widow, Nikki, said on Monday evening “he hadn’t been feeling great” on Saturday before he responded to calls about the potentially damaging story about to appear in the Mail on Sunday. A coroner has ordered toxicology tests after an initial postmortem examination proved inconclusive. The cause of death was “unascertained” pending further histology and toxicology tests, coroner’s officer Ben Batley said in a hearing on Monday at Wells town hall. A spokesman for Avon and Somerset police said the results could take seven to 10 days to come back. Batley said there was “no suspicion of foul play” and that it was common for such tests to be ordered even when it was thought death was due to natural causes. Tony Williams, the coroner for East Somerset, said he was confident it was appropriate to release the body to the family, who live near the small village of Over Worton, around six miles from the prime minister’s constituency home. Shale was pronounced dead at 9.17am on Sunday by an ambulance service worker, the inquest heard. He was identified by his wife, who had alerted police to his disappearance on Saturday evening. Shortly after his body was found, the festival organiser, Michael Eavis, told a press conference the death appeared to be suicide, but this was quickly dismissed by police and friends of Shale, who said he appeared to have suffered a heart attack. Glastonbury officials said on Monday that Eavis had not been briefed before he made the statement and the remark may have been informed by the Glastonbury rumour mill and was not supported by evidence. It is understood he apologised to Shale’s family. Details emerged on Monday of Shale’s last hours. At just before midday, Richard Langridge, the deputy chairman of the West Oxfordshire Conservative Association, had left a message on Shale’s mobile phone asking him to call back. At around 12.30pm Shale told his wife he needed to make a call and would be back for lunch. Langridge told Shale that James Forsyth, a political writer on the Mail on Sunday, wanted to talk to him about a story planned for the next day’s paper which was based on a leaked report, written by Shale, which was critical of the Conservatives’ appeal to potential members. It was the first he had heard of the story, Langridge said. Shale appeared “a little bit cross and a little bit disappointed that a confidential paper had been leaked to the national press,” Langridge said, but added “he didn’t seem unduly concerned”. In the following minutes Shale spoke to the prime minister’s political agent in his Witney constituency, Barry Norton, and a Downing Street adviser to ask what he should do about the story. He was advised to contact Conservative Central Office. Gabby Bertin, Cameron’s press secretary also left a message on his mobile phone warning him not to speak to other journalists about it, but it is not known if he received it. After making his calls it is believed Shale went to the toilets where he was found shortly before 9am on Sunday with the door locked and his body slumped forward. “He was a very devoted family man,” said Lord Chadlington, a family friend who lives near Shale. “The most important thing in his life was the family and the three children. They are absolutely devastated to lose him. It is so desperately sad.” The inquest was formally opened and adjourned to a later date. Christopher Shale Conservatives Glastonbury festival Robert Booth Steven Morris guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …With owner Frank McCourt unable to meet this week’s payroll, the Los Angeles Dodgers have filed for bankruptcy. The filing bars legal action against the Dodgers’ organization for the time being; McCourt will likely hold that this means Major League Baseball can’t take over the team, notes Craig Calcaterra at…
Continue reading …Definitely the most awkward moment at last night’s BET Awards: A presenter announced that Chris Brown won the Viewer’s Choice award, corrected herself to name Brown’s ex-girlfriend Rihanna the actual winner … and after all that, it turned out Brown was the true winner after all. The presenter—Tiffany Green, who…
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UKAR chief presiding over £80bn of bailed-out mortgages says ‘tough love’ would be fairer on those struggling with payments Britain is facing a tsunami of house repossessions as soon as interest rates start to rise, one of the country’s leading bankers has warned. Richard Banks, the chief executive of UK Asset Resolution (UKAR), the body that runs the £80bn of mortgages bailed out by the taxpayer during the banking crisis, also said in an interview with the Guardian that the Labour government’s pleas at the start of the crisis for lenders to keep families in their homes was forcing some homeowners further into debt. In a warning that the industry may have been too lenient with some of its customers, he said he believed a policy of “tough love” would be fairer to people facing long-term difficulty in keeping up payments on loans taken out when house prices were at their peak and personal incomes on the rise. His warning came the day after the international bank regulator said the Bank of England, which has kept rates at 0.5% for more than two years, would have to raise rates shortly to curb inflation. The Bank of International Settlements said the policy of the Bank of England, whose rate-setting committee is split over whether or not to increase borrowing costs, was “unsustainable”. With 750,000 customers, UK Asset Resolution, set up to run the nationalised mortgages of Bradford & Bingley and parts of Northern Rock, is the country’s fifth largest mortgage lender. But 23,000 of those mortgage holders are more than six months behind with payments and Banks admitted the projections for the number of people falling behind on payments could get “scary” if lenders did nothing to prepare for higher rates. “You can see if you don’t do something about it, you can see a tsunami,” he said. “If you don’t get into the hills you could get drowned by this. If you don’t manage this properly it could get very messy.” He regards it is an industry-wide problem, albeit one that might be concentrated at UKAR as its customers include buy-to-let landlords and so-called self-certified borrowers – those without salaried income. UKAR, through three calls centres in Crossflatts, West Yorkshire, Gosforth, Newcastle, and Doxford, Sunderland, has begun cold-calling customers it believes are at risk of falling behind on payments in an attempt to keep their mortgage payments on schedule. The bank is also trying to tackle customers behind with payments for six months or more and at risk of repossession. His concern about a surge in repossessions is partly the result of moves by the industry early in the 2008 crisis to grant so-called forbearance to help customers stay in homes by, for example, reducing monthly interest payments. “We as an industry, as a kneejerk reaction in the emergence of the crisis and because the government asked us to be forbearing to customers in the hope it would all go away, we have been too lenient with some customers. “It’s a tough love approach,” he said. “It’s treating customers fairly, not nicely, because if you can’t afford your mortgage you are only increasing your indebtedness. If we allow you to increase your indebtedness, that’s not really fair to you.” Earlier this month the Council of Mortgage Lenders forecast a rise in repossessions from 40,000 this year to 45,000 next. This figure would still remain well below the 75,500 peak of 1991. The remarks by Banks follow a warning last week from the new regulator set up to spot financial risks in the system – the Financial Policy Committee (FPC) inside the Bank of England – that warned banks may be providing a “misleading picture of their financial health” if they were not making big enough provisions for borrowers in difficulty. Forbearance has been brought into play in up to 12% of mortgages, the FPC said. It also noted that the most “vulnerable” households were concentrated in a few banks. It did not scrutinise UKAR but noted that the two other bailed out banks, Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland, had the largest exposure to customers whose mortgages were bigger than their value of their homes. Last month, the Financial Services Authority issued a best-practice guide on handling forbearance in which it warned: “Arrears and forbearance support provided with due care by firms has a beneficial impact for both the firm and the customer, in that it can reduce repossessions and lower realised losses. However, where such support is provided without due care or any knowledge or understanding of the impacts, it has potentially adverse implications for the customer, for the firm’s understanding of the risks inherent within its lending book, and in turn for the regulators and the market.” Economics Interest rates Mortgage arrears Property Mortgages Borrowing & debt Jill Treanor guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …UKAR chief presiding over £80bn of bailed-out mortgages says ‘tough love’ would be fairer on those struggling with payments Britain is facing a tsunami of house repossessions as soon as interest rates start to rise, one of the country’s leading bankers has warned. Richard Banks, the chief executive of UK Asset Resolution (UKAR), the body that runs the £80bn of mortgages bailed out by the taxpayer during the banking crisis, also said in an interview with the Guardian that the Labour government’s pleas at the start of the crisis for lenders to keep families in their homes was forcing some homeowners further into debt. In a warning that the industry may have been too lenient with some of its customers, he said he believed a policy of “tough love” would be fairer to people facing long-term difficulty in keeping up payments on loans taken out when house prices were at their peak and personal incomes on the rise. His warning came the day after the international bank regulator said the Bank of England, which has kept rates at 0.5% for more than two years, would have to raise rates shortly to curb inflation. The Bank of International Settlements said the policy of the Bank of England, whose rate-setting committee is split over whether or not to increase borrowing costs, was “unsustainable”. With 750,000 customers, UK Asset Resolution, set up to run the nationalised mortgages of Bradford & Bingley and parts of Northern Rock, is the country’s fifth largest mortgage lender. But 23,000 of those mortgage holders are more than six months behind with payments and Banks admitted the projections for the number of people falling behind on payments could get “scary” if lenders did nothing to prepare for higher rates. “You can see if you don’t do something about it, you can see a tsunami,” he said. “If you don’t get into the hills you could get drowned by this. If you don’t manage this properly it could get very messy.” He regards it is an industry-wide problem, albeit one that might be concentrated at UKAR as its customers include buy-to-let landlords and so-called self-certified borrowers – those without salaried income. UKAR, through three calls centres in Crossflatts, West Yorkshire, Gosforth, Newcastle, and Doxford, Sunderland, has begun cold-calling customers it believes are at risk of falling behind on payments in an attempt to keep their mortgage payments on schedule. The bank is also trying to tackle customers behind with payments for six months or more and at risk of repossession. His concern about a surge in repossessions is partly the result of moves by the industry early in the 2008 crisis to grant so-called forbearance to help customers stay in homes by, for example, reducing monthly interest payments. “We as an industry, as a kneejerk reaction in the emergence of the crisis and because the government asked us to be forbearing to customers in the hope it would all go away, we have been too lenient with some customers. “It’s a tough love approach,” he said. “It’s treating customers fairly, not nicely, because if you can’t afford your mortgage you are only increasing your indebtedness. If we allow you to increase your indebtedness, that’s not really fair to you.” Earlier this month the Council of Mortgage Lenders forecast a rise in repossessions from 40,000 this year to 45,000 next. This figure would still remain well below the 75,500 peak of 1991. The remarks by Banks follow a warning last week from the new regulator set up to spot financial risks in the system – the Financial Policy Committee (FPC) inside the Bank of England – that warned banks may be providing a “misleading picture of their financial health” if they were not making big enough provisions for borrowers in difficulty. Forbearance has been brought into play in up to 12% of mortgages, the FPC said. It also noted that the most “vulnerable” households were concentrated in a few banks. It did not scrutinise UKAR but noted that the two other bailed out banks, Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland, had the largest exposure to customers whose mortgages were bigger than their value of their homes. Last month, the Financial Services Authority issued a best-practice guide on handling forbearance in which it warned: “Arrears and forbearance support provided with due care by firms has a beneficial impact for both the firm and the customer, in that it can reduce repossessions and lower realised losses. However, where such support is provided without due care or any knowledge or understanding of the impacts, it has potentially adverse implications for the customer, for the firm’s understanding of the risks inherent within its lending book, and in turn for the regulators and the market.” Economics Interest rates Mortgage arrears Property Mortgages Borrowing & debt Jill Treanor guardian.co.uk
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