Education secretary accuses unions of militant strike action as Vince Cable intervenes over ‘war-like rhetoric’ A war of words has broken between Michael Gove and the teachers’ unions in an echo of the bitter divisions of the 1980s on the eve of crucial talks to avoid mass strike action on Thursday. Teaching unions reacted with anger after the education secretary accused them of risking their members’ professional reputations by taking “militant” strike action and suggested that parents could volunteer to break the strike and keep schools open on Thursday. Thousands of schools – along with colleges, universities, ports, courts and jobcentres – are expected to close in the walkout over pensions. Crunch talks with ministers are scheduled for Monday, with some unions billing them as the government’s last chance to avoid strikes. Ministers have extended the deadline for negotiations into the summer. Gove told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show on Sunday: “I do worry that taking industrial action, being on the picket line, being involved in this sort of militancy will actually mean that the respect in which teachers should be held is taken back a little bit.” He said he didn’t want to ratchet up rhetoric against unions, but added: “The public have a very low tolerance for anything that disrupts their hard-working lifestyles.” Mary Bousted, the head of the normally moderate Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), told the Guardian: “I think the threat to get parents to cover teachers is just ludicrous, the idea that children can usefully spend time in school being baby-sat ups the ante even more. This is inflammatory and it is inept. Michael Gove’s intervention is further evidence of ineptitude and cack-handedness. “The last thing my members want to do is strike. This is the first time in 127 years. We’re looking for government to negotiate in good faith.” Tensions have escalated in the runup to Monday’s talks amid renewed suggestions the government would try to change the strike laws and public funding of union activity should industrial action get out of hand. Whitehall sources confirmed that the use of public money to pay union officials to organise is now “under review” as part of a wider rethink in the civil service. Bousted said her union would challenge any attempt to toughen up strike laws – such as raising the threshold of the proportion of union members who take part in a ballot in order to trigger a strike – in the European court of human rights. But the business secretary, Vince Cable, who is responsible for strike laws, intervened to cool the rising tension. Insisting that he was speaking for the government, he said it had no plans to change strike laws and no need to prepare anti-strike contingency plans. His tone was markedly different from what he said was war-like rhetoric coming from some parts of government, including Gove. Cable told BBC Radio 5 Live: “There are people who are pushing from both sides, some people want strikes, some people want strike legislation. That’s not the way I’m going, the way the government wants to deal with this is through negotiation.” He added: “What I’m expressing is a government view. I’m not just expressing a personal or Lib Dem view. “And there is a view across government that we want to talk sensibly to the trade unions and we recognise the vast majority of trade unionist we talk to, whatever the rhetoric in public, is basically constructive and they want to avert large-scale disruption and we have to negotiate in good faith with them and will do so.” Most of the unions refused to comment in advance of the crunch talks. But Mark Serwotka, the head of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS), whose members will also strike on Thursday, said: “My prediction to you now is that they will have the shock of their lives on Thursday. “And it is just the beginning unless the talks develop. Our task is to attend those meetings, represent our members, but to organise for a sustained battle.” PCS and ATL will be joined by the National Union of Teachers and Universities and College Union on Thursday’s strike. They are calling for the government to reverse a decision to change the method of uprating pensions, which they say has already drastically reduced their members’ pension pots. They are also calling on ministers to put the question of whether their contributions should increase by an average of three percentage points from next April – not just how they go up – on the negotiating table. Ministers say contributions must go up to reduce the taxpayers’ cost and safeguard defined-benefit schemes in the public sector. Most other public sector unions – along with the professional associations representing headteachers – are poised to ballot for strike action. The British Medical Association will debate whether to ballot for industrial action at its annual conference in Cardiff this week. Tensions are also simmering between the unions and the Labour party after the head of Unison, Dave Prentis, told his conference last week that his union would withdraw support from Labour candidates who did not back their aims during the selection process. In a Guardian interview on Saturday, Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, said that this week’s strikes were a “mistake”. On Sunday, the former prime minister Tony Blair urged unions to “engage with the process of change”. He told the BBC’s Politics Show that the unions “have got to modernise” and added: “The thing about the trade unions is that they too have got to modernise. I said this constantly when I was leader and they used to think that meant I was anti-union. I’m not. I’m in favour of strong trade unions – I think it’s great. But you’ve got to understand today how fast the world is changing. “What you’ve always got to be careful of – particularly with public sector unions – is you don’t become ‘small c’ conservatives.” Francis Maude, the Cabinet Office minister, said: “I can assure the public now that we have rigorous contingency plans in place to ensure that their essential services are maintained during the strike action on Thursday.” Michael Gove Teaching Vince Cable Trade unions Dave Prentis Mark Serwotka Labour Ed Miliband Tony Blair Francis Maude Patrick Wintour Polly Curtis guardian.co.uk
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Judge has ordered the paper to hand over the tape, but Sunday Times is considering an appeal against his decision Essex police are taking legal action to seize a tape recording that might implicate the energy secretary, Chris Huhne, for avoiding taking penalty points over a speeding offence. The police have won a court order directing the Sunday Times to hand over an alleged tape recording between Huhne and his former wife, Vicky Pryce. According to an account of the conversation published by the Sunday Times two months ago, Pryce can be heard talking about her fears of a police inquiry if the claims became public. “It’s one of the things that worried me when I took them; when you made me take the points in the first instance,” she says. Huhne is non-committal about the episode, according to the published account, but urges her not to discuss the matter with journalists. The taped conversation then found its way to the Sunday Times. It is understood that after the police mounted an investigation into whether Huhne had asked his wife to take penalty points on her licence, Pryce said she was unable to provide the police with any further evidence to substantiate claims she had made in newspapers. After a private hearing at Chelmsford crown court last week, a judge ordered that the taped evidence be handed to the police. The Sunday Times has said it might appeal on the grounds of keeping sources confidential. Essex police is investigating claims that Huhne avoided a driving ban by persuading Pryce to say she was driving when his car was clocked speeding in 2003. Huhne has denied any wrongdoing. If there is sufficient evidence, either Huhne and Pryce, a respected economist, could both be charged with a criminal offence. Pryce has been involved in complex divorce proceedings, and all sides face the danger of failing to co-operate with a police inquiry. Chris Huhne Sunday Times Newspapers & magazines News International National newspapers Newspapers Patrick Wintour guardian.co.uk
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Players could enter court to a fanfare under organisers’ plans to distinguish Olympic tennis from 2012 Wimbledon tournament Its historic, manicured grounds are more accustomed to the sound of rippling applause and enthusiastic, if decorous, shouts of “Come on Andy!” But on 28 July next year, when the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club becomes the home, for two weeks, of Olympic tennis, the courts of SW19 could find themselves echoing to We Are the Champions by Queen or Tina Turner’s Simply the Best. Under plans being considered by Locog, the 2012 Olympics organising committee, players – dressed, of course, in national colours rather than “predominantly white” – could enter the courts to rousing tunes of their choice, creating arguably the rowdiest atmosphere seen at Wimbledon in its 125-year history. It is part of a strategy to differentiate Olympic tennis from the 2012 Wimbledon championships, which will have concluded just 20 days earlier. “What we don’t want is to come here and everyone say this is Wimbledon part two a few weeks later,” said Debbie Jevans, 2012′s director of sports and venues. “The championships have their unique look, a unique feel. Everything about them is completely identified with Wimbledon. “When it comes to 2012, we want the look and feel to be distinctive.” The All England Club’s distinctive livery of purple and green – reflected even in the planting of the flowerbeds at Wimbledon – will be replaced with hoardings and branding in as yet unconfirmed Olympic colours, said Jevans. She acknowledged, however, that “there are some things you can’t change: the grass is green”. More than 100 Locog staff have been on site during the championships, shadowing All England Club personnel in preparation for the wholesale handover next year. Aside from a tiny number of key personnel – including the head groundsman, Eddie Seward, who plans to resow the courts between the two events with specially pre-germinated grass seed to ensure they are pristine for the Olympics – almost all staff, from catering to security to ticketing, will be new to Wimbledon. There will be a new entrance during the Olympics, at the southern end of the site where the corporate marquees are erected, but with a much smaller programme of events: only 10 courts will be used compared with the 19 during the regular championships, and the visitor numbers will be around half. What is essentially a dry run during Wimbledon 2011 is the first of a rolling programme of test events designed to prepare the venues that will host the Games next summer. A comprehensive 12-month testing programme will cover 42 events across 26 venues and involve 8,000 athletes from more than 50 countries. Among the more high-profile test events are beach volleyball at Horse Guard’s Parade in August and basketball games in a dedicated temporary arena on the Olympic Park, for which spectators will be bussed in and out of what is essentially still a building site. The first big public test will be eventing (dressage, show-jumping and cross-country) at Greenwich Park, which takes place at the beginning of July. Tickets for the equestrian events will be given away to local residents, some of whom have been critical of the need to close the park during the Games. A total of 150,000 tickets costing between £5 and £35 will be on sale for several events, although others, such as the London–Surrey Cycle Classic to test the road race route, will be free. For spectators, perhaps the biggest difference for the Olympics at Wimbledon will be the absence of queueing, which gives even ticketless fans a chance to watch Centre Court matches if they are prepared to wait long enough. All tickets for Olympic tennis will be sold in advance. Jevans said she was examining Wimbledon’s system whereby departing spectators hand in show-court tickets for resale to ground ticket-holders. Separately, however, Olympics organisers have confirmed they are considering a similar scheme for the Olympic Park. They want to avoid the empty seats that embarrassed organisers in Beijing. The architects of the park are also studying the ambience on Wimbledon’s Murray Mound for landscaping ideas. They hope people will remain in the park to eat, drink and watch the action on big screens so that they can regulate the crowds and create atmosphere. The use of music might break Wimbledon’s hallowed traditions, but it is not entirely new. Some tennis tournaments, including the US Open and the ATP finals at the O2, already use amplified music to build atmosphere. At Flushing Meadows signature tunes are played as the players emerge and also at each change of ends. And if a particular celebrity is in the crowd, they are often greeted with a relevant burst of music, and shown on the big screen. Olympic Games 2012 Olympics 2012: Tennis Wimbledon Tennis Owen Gibson Esther Addley guardian.co.uk
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Three politicians – including 2007 challenger Ségolène Royal – vie for nomination to run against president The French Socialist party will test its reputation for inflated egos and in-fighting on Tuesday when it opens its primary race to chose a presidential candidate to challenge Nicolas Sarkozy in 2012. Recent polls have shown the Socialists would trounce the unpopular Sarkozy if an election was held now. But the French left – which has not won a presidential vote since François Mitterrand in 1988 – is painfully aware of how poll leads can evaporate at the ballot box. Its choice of candidate is crucial if it is to run a personalised campaign attacking Sarkozy as unprincipled, ineffective and power-obsessed. The left is still reeling from the forced exit from political life of its one-time favourite, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, after he was charged with the attempted rape of a New York hotel maid last month. If the party is to win the moral fight against Sarkozy, it must now have a candidate whose track record and behaviour is irreproachable. European politics in general have shifted firmly to the right. To buck this trend and get elected, the party needs to field a broad-church candidate whose appeal reaches centrists and the right. The selection contest, which begins on Tuesday and ends with a vote in October, boils down to two key characters. François Hollande, 56, the current favourite, is a former Socialist party leader and MP in rural central France who drives a moped and styles himself as an “ordinary guy”. Hollande was once seen as a portly, jovial joker before going on a crash diet and radically smartening up his look after splitting from his long-term partner, former presidential runner Ségolène Royal. His policy ideas are centre-left. His supporters argue that he is down to earth and the polar opposite of Sarkozy. His detractors say he has never held a ministerial post and lacks international experience. Hollande declared his fierce ambition to be president last March and has criss-crossed France in old-fashioned campaign meetings that won over the media and saw him ranked the most “presidential” politician in France in the latest poll for Le Monde. The party’s current leader, Martine Aubry, is expected to enter the race to challenge him. The 60-year-old mayor of Lille and staunchly leftwing architect of France’s 35-hour week, will run a campaign to be France’s first female president. One ally told the French newspaper Liberation that she would style herself as a kind of “Angela Merkel of the left”: stern, serious and slightly authoritarian. Her team thinks that in a “macho country like France”, unless she pushed herself as hard and domineering, she would be dismissed as incapable of running the country. Aubry’s first task is to convince France of her “presidential standing” and that she is genuinely ambitious. Before the Strauss-Kahn sex attack case, she had been happy to let him run instead of her and has seemed reticent about being pushed into the front line. “We know that she’s totally opposed to Hollande being the Socialist candidate, but does she actually want to be president herself?” asked one diplomat. The third main candidate is Royal, still running despite her defeat by Sarkozy in 2007. Sarkozy has seen a modest rise in his approval ratings in recent weeks, due to a slight improvement of France’s economic growth forecast and minimal drop in unemployment. speech on Monday to showcase his ideas for kick-starting the economy. But he remains widely disliked, and international efforts such as the Libya intervention have not had a significant impact on his ratings at home. France Nicolas Sarkozy Dominique Strauss-Kahn Europe Angelique Chrisafis guardian.co.uk
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Afghanistan’s interior ministry says girl died in blast after insurgents gave her a bag containing explosives Taliban insurgents used an eight-year-old girl carrying a bag of explosives to attack a police checkpost in central Afghanistan, the Afghan government said on Sunday, making her one of the youngest child bombers of the decade-old conflict. The incident took place in Char Chino district of central Uruzgan province, the interior ministry said. “The insurgents handed over a bag with a homemade bomb to an eight-year-old girl and asked her to take it to police forces,” it added. “As the girl was getting close to the police, it exploded and killed the girl.” It was the latest in a string of unusual attacks on both sides of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. On Saturday a Taliban car bomber attacked a hospital in a remote district of eastern Logar province, damaging the maternity ward and killing between 20 and 35 people, according to reports. Around the same time in north-western Pakistan, the Pakistani Taliban deployed a married couple who attacked a police station by blowing themselves up. Two burqa-clad figures made their way into a police station in Kolachi, near the Taliban hub of South Waziristan, pretending to want to lodge a complaint, police said. Once inside they opened fire with guns and grenades, capturing hostages and triggering a five-hour siege that left 10 people dead. “This shows how much we hate Pakistani security institutions,” Pakistani Taliban spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan told Associated Press by telephone. Both the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban have frequently used men disguised under burqas to mount suicide attacks but the use of women is rare. The first genuine instance in Pakistan is believed to have occurred in Bajaur tribal agency late last year, when a female suicide bomber wearing a burqa attacked a UN food distribution centre, killing 45 people. Last week in Dir district in north-western Pakistan, police defused a bomb strapped to a nine-year-old girl who said she had been kidnapped in Peshawar then set off walking towards a checkpost. “They told me: ‘You keep on reciting Qu’ranic verses till you push the button’,” she said afterwards. In Afghanistan, the Taliban have denied using child bombers, suggesting increased sensitivity to public opinion as peace talks with the US government loom. The insurgency’s conventional attacks are proving deadlier than ever. Four Nato soldiers were killed at the weekend, including two from Spain, while civilian casualties reached a decade-long high last May. The violence comes days after Barack Obama announced plans to withdraw 33,000 American troops by September 2012, and undermines his claims to have militants “on the run”. The relentless Taliban assaults are fraying nerves among ordinary Afghans as Nato prepares to transfer control of five urban centres, including most of Kabul, and two provinces next month. Afghanistan Taliban Global terrorism Pakistan Declan Walsh guardian.co.uk
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Authorities delay giving go-ahead to talks between more than 150 intellectuals and activists in Damascus Plans for the first open opposition meeting in Damascus for more than a decade are in jeopardy, with Syrian authorities yet to give permission for the gathering to go ahead. More than 150 intellectuals and activists were planning to meet in a hotel in downtown Damascus on Monday in what had initially been seen as a sign that the troubled regime was prepared to cede part of its absolute control in the country’s affairs and allow some organised political dissent. Some opposition figures refused to attend, fearing that any sanctioned meeting in the midst of a brutal crackdown on the four-month uprising would be used by the government to establish new credentials for openness without actually committing to widespread reform. International pressure on the regime to give ground to demonstrators who continue to take to the streets of Syria’s towns and cities remains intense, despite Damascus insisting at the weekend that frequent outbursts of deadly violence across the country were being caused by a large foreign-backed gang that is outmanoeuvring its formidable military. Some foreign reporters have been allowed to enter Syria, although most are working with government minders and do not have freedom to move around the country. President Bashar al-Assad said last week he had met some opposition members and citizens who had presented grievances he described as “legitimate”. Maan Abdul Salam, an activist in Damascus, said: “The street has opened a space for us and we plan to claim back political life, which has been underground for years. We need to have an open discussion about what is happening in the country and not focus on what the government is saying.” Monday’s scheduled meeting is due to involve veteran figures including Michel Kilo and Aref Dalila, both of whom met government emissaries last month but have refused further meetings while the killing continues. Those who are refusing to attend cite the possible presence of pro-regime intellectuals, the lack of young activists and the ongoing denial of the crisis by Syrian officials. They fear the government will present the conference as a dialogue or tosuggest that it is allowing freedom of association. “This is not the environment to hold a conference,” said veteran intellectual Fawaz Tello. “The government still won’t admit there is a conflict going on.” Tensions with Turkey continue to run high after reports said Syrian troops moved into Najia on the northern border late on Saturday night. Almost 12,000 Syrians have crossed into Turkey but state media agency Sana reported 730 people had returned to the town of Jisr al-Shughour. Activists reported: • Arrests were continuing in Barzeh, close to Damascus, Idleb and Homs, • Students have protested in the northern town of Deir Ezzor. • Refugees were heading to Lebanon as troops moved into the town of Kseer, close to the Lebanese border. • Kisweh, close to Damascus, had a heavy security and army presence around it. • Five people were killed at funerals in Homs on Saturday. Small demonstrations now take place every day, in defiance of the regime’s call for people to stay at home, but most are peaceful. However, there are rising fears of sectarianism, protesters fighting back and of groups taking advantage of the protests, all of which would play into the government’s narrative that the uprising is being manipulated by outsiders. Other activists said they backed the conference, even if they would not be attending. “Any future opposition must include the local co-ordination committees,” said one young activist, referring to a grassroots network that is becoming increasingly organised. “But they are trying to break a taboo that the opposition can meet in Syria and that is positive.” In an interview this weekend with CNN, which has been allowed into Damascus, deputy foreign minister Faisal Mikdad again denied there was a crackdown and blamed violence on gangs. The “national dialogue” talked about by Assad in last Monday’s speech has not yet been convened. Most opposition figures have rejected the dialogue, in which 100 people will be picked by the government to participate, insisting the crackdown must end first. Nidaa Hassan is the pseudonym of a reporter working in Damascus Syria Middle East Bashar Al-Assad Nidaa Hassan Martin Chulov guardian.co.uk
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US raid on bin Laden compound thought to be reason for expulsion of team of military advisers Pakistan has expelled a team of British military trainers sent to help with the fight against the Taliban and al-Qaida, as the fallout from the US raid that killed Osama bin Laden continues to rock relations between Islamabad and its western allies. The Ministry of Defence confirmed that at least 18 military advisers, deployed as part of a £15m programme to train the paramilitary Frontier Corps, have been withdrawn from Pakistan. Most are already back in the UK. Their removal is seen as an indirect casualty of worsening relations between Pakistan and the US over the 2 May Navy Seal raid in Abbottabad, which was conducted without Pakistani consent. Although British relations with Pakistan are warmer, the embattled army, stung by a barrage of public criticism, is keen to demonstrate its independence from all western allies. Since Bin Laden’s death, Pakistan has sent home at least 120 US military trainers, most of whom were engaged in training the FC. The British team, a mix of seasoned officers and NCOs, had been stationed at a British-funded FC base near the capital of Balochistan, Quetta. The training scheme began last August and was scheduled to run until at least summer 2013. The MoD hopes to redeploy the team once the tensions abate. In an email statement, a spokeswoman said the trainers had been withdrawn “on a temporary basis” at the request of the Pakistani government in response to “security concerns”. “The training teams will continue their own training and will be ready to redeploy at the first possible opportunity,” she told the Bureau of Investigative Journalism . The 60,000-strong FC, which is deployed along the length of the 1,600-mile border with Afghanistan, has long been in the frontline of Pakistani efforts to combat Taliban militancy and flush al-Qaida from its tribal havens. But its troops are considered under-trained and ill-equipped, and Pakistan’s western allies have in recent years prioritised a multimillion pound effort to bolster their skills and equipment. That programme has now virtually collapsed as US-Pakistani relations fall to their lowest point in a decade. The trouble began in January after a CIA contractor, Raymond Davis, shot dead two men in Lahore, prompting the withdrawal of a quarter of the US training force. The reductions accelerated following the Bin Laden raid, as the military sought to signal its displeasure with its western allies – in particular the CIA – and to boost its faltering public support. After a 9 June meeting to discuss the crisis, the military leadership issued a statement in which it disputed American claims of $15bn (£9.4bn) in aid over the past decade, and suggested that future US military assistance should be diverted to civilian economic programmes. CIA drone strikes were “not acceptable under any circumstances,” the military said. The US says it wants to rebuild the relationship, deemed “too important to fail” but tensions have erupted at ground level. Last week the Pakistani media reported that US trainers had clashed with base guards when prevented from retrieving personal effects after being ordered to leave. The US embassy in Islamabad denied the incident. The FC, which draws its recruits from the Pashtun tribes along the Afghan border, has suffered heavy losses in recent years. Its paramilitary troops have led assaults on mountainous Taliban strongholds and been targeted in numerous suicide bombings. In May, a large attack on a training centre of the related Frontier Constabulary killed 100 young recruits. But the FC has also been accused of numerous human rights violations, particularly in Balochistan where the British base is located. Human rights groups say the FC has played a central role in a vicious crackdown on Baloch nationalist insurgents, who are unrelated to the Taliban, that has resulted in hundreds of illegal abductions and extra-judicial executions. Dawn newspaper has reported that at least 170 suspected nationalists, many abducted by FC personnel, had been killed since July 2010. Most bore the marks of severe torture. A furore erupted last month after video footage showed FC troops shooting dead five unarmed Chechens, including a pregnant woman, at a checkpost in Quetta. The government says it is investigating the incident. The British team at the Quetta camp was reportedly working alongside six US advisers, helping to train 360 recruits at a time on 12-week courses. The US has funded a much larger FC training centre on the outskirts of Peshawar. A military spokesman in Islamabad said between 200 and 300 US military personnel remain in the country. Pakistan al-Qaida Taliban Osama bin Laden Terrorism policy US foreign policy US military US national security CIA Military Declan Walsh guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Things are getting heated in Wisconsin: State supreme court justice Ann Walsh Bradley yesterday accused another justice of putting his hands around her neck in a “chokehold,” reports the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel . The incident allegedly happed on June 13, when six of the state’s seven supreme court justices gathered in…
Continue reading …A 16-year-old basketball star is in critical condition after surviving his second plane crash, reports the Chicago Tribune . Austin Hatch’s father, who was piloting the single-engine plane, died in the crash, along with his stepmother. Austin had previously survived a 2003 plane crash killed his mother and two siblings. Dr….
Continue reading …James Bond meets The Mummy —sort of. Rather, Daniel Craig quietly married Rachel Weisz in a small ceremony in New York, with just four witnesses, including the stars’ two children from previous relationships, reports the Daily Mail . Craig and Weisz married Wednesday, after dating since last year. “They are madly…
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