Tory MP for Mid Bedfordshire says society ‘saturated in sex’ and teenagers should be taught the ability to ‘just say no’ Teenage girls must be given lessons in how to say no to sex, a Conservative MP has told parliament. Speaking in the Commons on Wednesday, Nadine Dorries, the MP for Mid Bedfordshire, proposed that would result in classes in abstinence, but only for girls aged 13 to 16. She said society was “saturated in sex” and teenagers should be taught that it was as “cool” to say no to sex as to know how to put a condom on their boyfriend. The latest data from the Office for National Statistics show teenage pregnancies are at their lowest rate since the early 1980s. The under-18 conception rate for 2009 was 38.3 conceptions per 1,000 women aged 15 to 17. This represents a fall of 5.9% compared with 40.7 conceptions per 1,000 women aged 15 to 17 in 2008. However, Dorries told MPs the sale of porn magazines in newsagents, and high street shops selling padded bikinis for seven-year-old girls showed “how far the sexualisation of young girls has gone in our society”. “The answer to ending our constant struggle with the incredibly high rate of teenage sexual activity and underage pregnancies lies in teaching our girls and boys about the option of abstinence, the ability to ‘just say no’, as part of their compulsory sex education,” she said. “Peer pressure is a key contributor to early sexual activity in our country. Society is focused on sex. Teaching a child at the age of seven to apply a condom on a banana is almost saying: ‘Now go and try this for yourself’. “Girls are taught to have safe sex, but not how to say no to a boyfriend who insists on sexual relations.” But Chris Bryant, a Labour MP who has investigated Britain’s high rate of teenage pregnancies, said Dorries’ 10-minute rule bill was “the daftest piece of legislation” he had seen. He said: “I am a gay man, so I’m not exactly an expert on heterosexual sex, nor on sex with girls. But … this is not the way to solve any of those problems – for a start, it’s just about girls. You’ve got to talk to the boys and the girls.” He said there was no evidence that teaching abstinence would lead to fewer pregnancies or sexually transmitted diseases. “The single most important thing we can do for any young person is give them the self-confidence to be able to make good decisions for themselves,” he said. He added that he had never understood why teaching pupils how to put a condom on a banana or a cucumber was “of any use to anybody”. Dorries has courted controversy as one of England’s most outspoken politicians. The former nurse has criticised David Cameron’s proposal to create all-women shortlists for prospective MPs, and has been attacked for allegedly claiming expenses for furniture and gardening. She denied this, saying her patio furniture was a present from her mother. Dorries has also campaigned to reduce the time during a pregnancy when an abortion can take place from 24 to 21 weeks. In 2009, she was involved in a motion, discussed at the Trades Union Congress, to reduce the number of women wearing high heels at work. High heels give women lower limb pains, which mean they take time off work, the motion said. MPs voted 67 to 61, majority six, in favour of allowing Dorries to bring forward her bill. It will receive its second reading in January, but is unlikely to become law without government support. Conservatives House of Commons Sex education Schools Sexual health Health Young people Jessica Shepherd guardian.co.uk
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Gaddafi regime systematically opened fire on peaceful protests, says international criminal court prosecutor The Gaddafi regime has committed war crimes against Libyan pro-democracy protesters, opening fire “systematically” on peaceful demonstrations, according to a report to be issued today by the prosecutor for the international criminal court, who will seek arrest warrants against top members of regime later this month. The prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, has said he will ask judges at the court in The Hague for up to five warrants. He has not named his suspects but in his report to the UN security council today, he will indicate that they include people who gave orders for the alleged atrocities. “It is indeed a characteristic of the situation in Libya that massive crimes are reportedly committed upon instruction of a few persons who control the organisations that execute the orders,” the report says. “Arresting those who ordered the commission of crimes, should the judges decide to issue warrants, will contribute to the protection of civilians in Libya.” In the course of a two-month preliminary investigation, Moreno-Ocampo’s investigators found widespread evidence of crimes against humanity. “Concerning the manner and nature of the crimes, the shooting at peaceful protesters was systematic, following the same modus operandi in multiple locations and executed through security forces,” the report says. “The persecution appears to be also systematic and implemented in different cities. War crimes are apparently committed as a matter of policy.” As well as the use of live ammunition against unarmed demonstrators, the ICC investigation found evidence of a range of abuses including torture, systematic rape, the use of cluster munitions and other heavy weaponry in urban areas, the use of civilians as human shields and the blocking of humanitarian supplies. It says “civilians in Tripoli and other areas are reportedly subject to different forms of persecution because of their suspected association with the uprising. Systematic arrests, torture, killings, deportations, enforced disappearances and destruction of mosques have been reported in Tripoli, al-Zawiya, Zintan and the area of the Nafousa mountains. The victims are allegedly civilians who participated in demonstrations or talked to international media, activists, journalists, as well as citizens of Egypt and Tunisia that were arrested and expelled en masse because of their perceived association with the popular uprising.” The ICC prosecutor’s office is also looking into several reports that anti-government crowds attacked and killed dozens of immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa, who were suspected of being pro-Gaddafi mercenaries. “A number of sub-Saharan Africans were allegedly arrested by the new authorities in Benghazi and it is unclear whether they were innocent immigrant workers or prisoners of war,” it says. The report was commissioned by the security council on 26 February when it referred the case to the ICC. The investigation is highly significant politically as Nato went to war in Libya on “humanitarian grounds” on the strength of security council resolution 1970 authorising “all necessary measures” to protect civilians. If the court approves the arrest warrants it will help insulate the alliance against international criticism of his prolonged campaign in Libya. Moreno-Ocampo will present his first application for an arrest warrant to the ICC’s pre-trial chamber in the next few weeks. “It will focus on those most responsible for crimes against humanity committed in the territory of Libya since 15 February 2011,” he will tell the security council today. The prosecutor told Reuters news agency on Monday that he would initially ask for up to five warrants. If the judges grant his request, the question will be who should carry out the arrests. Moreno-Ocampo will say today that if the Libyan government fails to act, the security council itself “should evaluate” how to do it. It is unclear whether Russia or China would veto the authorisation of Nato to carry out the arrests. That would most likely involve sending troops into Tripoli. Libya Middle East Muammar Gaddafi Julian Borger guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …An artist who shot dead a dog for an “art film” has been commissioned to create new sculptures that could end up at a Manhattan public library branch—and New Yorkers are rabid about it. Brooklyn sculptor Tom Otterness adopted a small black-and-white dog from a Brooklyn shelter in 1977,…
Continue reading …Did waterboarding finally nail Osama bin Laden? Intelligence leading to the killing of the terror mastermind gleaned from prisoners, possibly during “enhanced” interrogation techniques, is reigniting debate about waterboarding. US officials learned the identity of bin Laden’s key courrier from Guantanamo Bay inmates, and tracking that courrier led to bin…
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Departing director of conservation at RSPB vents anger at neglect of UK’s environment A leading green campaigner has sparked a row over the cause of declining wildlife in the UK by accusing farmers of being “fundamentally anti-environment.” Mark Avery, who last week left his post as director of conservation at the RSPB , also says environment ministers have brought little knowledge or enthusiasm to their jobs, attacks successive governments of “muzzling” state agencies meant to protect wildlife, criticises global “over-consumption” in a Guardian article on Wednesday that looks back on 25 years at the charity. Avery attacks “conservative” farmers for what he sees as their failure to reverse the massive population declines in farmland birds – numbers are now at their lowest levels in England since formal attempts to record them began in 1966 – before criticising the body that represents them in England. He says that “at almost every opportunity, the [ National Farmers Union (NFU) ] chooses the option which will harm the environment – it is weak on greenhouse gas reduction measures, in favour of biofuels, argues against improving the effectiveness of farming grants, is against clamping down on pesticide use and wants its members to carry out what will be an ineffective cull of badgers. “The NFU lacks a coherent view of what the future of farming should look like except that the cheques must keep coming from the taxpayer.” Politicians also get short shrift, apart from Conservative John Gummer , now Baron Deben, who was agriculture minister then environment secretary between 1989 and 1997, and Michael Meacher, who never made a Labour cabinet and was sacked as environment minister of state after serving for the first six years of Tony Blair’s tenure as prime minister. “In contrast to today’s politicians, they were keen to set targets for wildlife recovery. Both had a passion for wildlife and both got things done,” Avery goes on, adding that the current Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs incumbents Caroline Spelman and Richard Benyon might too “provided they are given time to deliver”. Government agencies such as Natural England “have been neutered, muzzled and tied up out of harm’s way”, says Avery. Without their leadership or critical comment, non-governmental agencies must speak out about “how nature is threatened and where government is failing”. But ordinary people are rebuked too. “Tigers and skylarks get rarer because of the way we live on this planet – putting biofuels in our cars, eating too much meat from livestock fed on grain and just sucking up the world’s resources too quickly and too carelessly. “Rarely does someone shoot a skylark or stamp on its nest but our over-consumption drives species’ declines much more certainly than could a man with a gun.” The attack on farmers drew a furious response from Peter Kendall, the NFU president. “In Mark Avery’s time at the RSPB fertiliser use has reduced by 33%, pesticide use has declined steadily and water quality has improved dramatically. Although some farmland bird populations have dropped, his children have more opportunity to see goldfinch, greenfinch, reed buntings and whitethroat which have all increased in numbers.” Kendall said there had also been drops in populations of some woodland and urban species. “No one has provided a satisfactory explanation for all these changes. Avery has, however, relentlessly pedalled the line that agriculture is the primary cause. Was it because some of the other known factors- domestic cats and dog-walking- are less palatable to RSPB members or was it simply his prejudice against productive agriculture? “We know that the world demand for food will continue to increase while its capacity to produce it will be impaired by issues like water availability and climate change. We believe this country could and should produce more – indeed has a moral duty to do so.” The way forward was “sustainable intensification,” said Kendall. “I want farming to be in a place where it is much less reliant on public support. Ironically, it is Mark himself who wants to make farmers less able to respond to the market and operate efficiently who is guilty of wishing to perpetuate a dependency culture.” He hoped that with Avery’s departure, “the RSPB and the NFU can have a more constructive relationship, and the RSPB will find it possible to celebrate achievements rather than endlessly harping on the negatives.” RSPB Farming Birds Wildlife Conservation Green politics James Meikle guardian.co.uk
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Has Doctor Who become too full of cheap shocks for its family audience? Two dads debate whether the programme is safe to watch with their kids Yes: Clever writing, but not great for getting the kids to sleep The new Doctor Who is too dark and convoluted. I’m a lifelong Whovian, but in the Matt Smith era there’s been too much doctorin’ of the Tardis by Steven Moffat and his writers. The opening scene of the new series had the Doctor being shot by an impossible astronaut and dying before he could regenerate. Yes, it was in the future and he may be rescued by a plot twist, but this would be deeply unsettling for young children (and indeed middle-aged dads). Most kids care more about the Doctor than God, and he shouldn’t die just for the sake of a clever plot. There’s too much sex, too. The Doctor should be a father figure, but now every assistant seems to fall in love with him and on Saturday he was snogging River Song. My 10-year-old daughter had to turn away during this section with a cry of “Eerrgh! Yuk!” The Silence – who erase your memories of seeing them – were a classic Who creation and my 12-year-old daughter now has symbols on her arm to remember if she’s seen them (three so far). The series has become increasingly reliant on the internal fears of children. The crack in the bedroom wall that is really a tear in space and time and the Weeping Angels that send you into the past when you blink. Clever writing, but not great for getting the kids to sleep. In the Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker eras, there was a clearer realisation that the monsters were men in rubber suits. It was fairly easy to explain to a child that a church gargoyle was not that likely to come to life and inspire the Brigadier to order “Jenkins, chap with the wings there, five rounds rapid!” The Doctor should be a maverick wanderer, a rebel with a Tardis console, not a superhero. Now every plot seems to centre round the Doctor or his companions as being crucial to the very fabric of the universe. At the end of the David Tennant era the stars went out and the Earth moved, while in the last series we had the Tardis exploding and destroying the universe, at least until some more infuriatingly complex time hopping by Matt Smith. The death of Rory Williams was more gratuitous sensationalism; nice guy Rory is shot and falls through a crack in space and time and is then bought back as an Auton with Rory’s memories who shoots Amy. Sometimes you just yearn for aliens invading a home counties quarry, and a simple good versus evil plot – and with proper Daleks, not the redesigned Teletubby versions . The Christopher Eccleston story The Doctor Dances had it right: scary gas mask monsters but at the end the nanogenes repair the dead, and the Doctor exclaims: “Just this once, everybody lives!” At present the writers seem intent on proving how clever they are through too much complexity and too many cheap shocks. Pete May No: It’s important for kids to learn about fear My seven-year-old son fancies himself as fearless. All it has taken to disprove his belief in his own bravery these past couple of weeks has been to turn on BBC1 on Saturday tea-time. He’ll crouch down at one end of the sofa, curling himself into a ball, until I ask if he wants a cuddle. He’ll scuttle over, and squeeze himself into me, without ever daring to take his eyes off the screen. What’s scared him so much, of course, has been The Silence , the swollen-skulled, black-suited monsters of the opening episodes of the new series of Doctor Who: a bizarre almagam of Reservoir Dogs and John Merrick. Matt Smith, the actor who plays the current Doctor, has already claimed they’re the scariest ever Who monsters . But too scary? Nonsense. Doctor Who’s great gift has been to introduce generations of kids to dread, with the safety net of knowing, first, that the Doctor and his assistants will prevail, one way or another; and second, that the fear will pass in less than an hour. It’s important for kids to learn about fear, to experience the rush of adrenalin it produces, to recognise their own reactions to it, and there’s no better way than Who. It’s in the same family of experience as learning about risk: after a couple of decades of trying to eliminate that factor from play by sanitising playgrounds, it’s now understood that children need to learn to assess risk, and so playgrounds are becoming more challenging again. The similarity between the two experiences lies in the elimination of hazard, that being a danger that cannot be assessed. There’s no hazard in Doctor Who: if it’s too scary, a child can leave the room, or turn off the TV, or hide behind the sofa, like an older generation did when the Daleks rolled on to the screen. Yes, today’s monsters are creepier than the Daleks, but so what? The Hammer version of Dracula was terrifying once, but now it’s about as unsettling as Anne of Green Gables. The threshold of horror rises with every passing generation and always has done, but there’s no reason for Doctor Who to remain stuck in the past. And just as kids like the thrill that comes from leaping around a good playground, so they like being scared. Not too scared. Not so scared they can’t sleep at night, but just so scared they can’t quite tear themselves away from what frightens them. That’s certainly how my son reacted to The Silence. What the best Who monsters do is teach our children that the world is an uncertain place, that there can be dangers in our everyday world. That is true; it’s also something most parents teach their children. What Who also does is remind kids that there is someone doing their best to protect them from these dangers, again something most parents happily do. But the scariest-ever Who monsters? Has Matt Smith already forgotten the Weeping Angels ? Michael Hann Doctor Who Television Science fiction Fantasy BBC1 BBC Television industry Michael Hann Pete May guardian.co.uk
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Labour says police forces are forcing 2,100 of the most experienced officers into early retirement, some of whom are then being asked to rejoin on a voluntary basis Police officers with more than 30 years experience who have been forcibly retired because of budget cuts are being asked to return as part-time volunteers, Labour has disclosed. The shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, said 13 police forces have so far confirmed plans to force more than 2,100 of the most experienced police officers in England and Wales into early retirement by 2015. A further nine forces are considering similar action. Chief constables have no legal powers to make police officers redundant, but can forcibly retire those with more than 30 years service with 28 days notice under an obscure A19 provision of the police pension regulations on grounds of efficiency of the force. A Labour survey of current police budgets reveals that 13 out of the 43 forces, including the West Midlands, North Yorkshire and Surrey, have already decided that 2,124 officers should be compulsorily retired using the A19 regulation by 2015 in order to make up for 20% cuts in Whitehall police funding. The issue was raised at prime minister’s questions by the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, who cited the case of PC Martin Heard, who is being forcibly retired after 32 years as a neighbourhood officer in Wolverhampton. Heard received the “Copper’s copper” award from the Police Federation last year, and some weeks after he was forced to retire, he got a letter asking him to rejoin the force as a special constable on a part-time unpaid basis. He was among a group of experienced officers being retired under A19 due to meet the home secretary, Theresa May, today. Others included Detective Constable Tim Kennedy, a recognised specialist in serious acquisitive crime, Sergeant Dave Hewitt, who is 48, with 32 years service, and is one of the youngest officers in the country to be retired, and Inspector Mark Stokes, a leading specialist in crime prevention. Cooper said Heard was not alone in being asked to rejoin on a voluntary basis, adding: “You couldn’t make this up. “Senior, experienced officers are being forced out by the pace and scale of the Tory-led government’s cuts, then asked to come back and do the same job for free because everyone knows they are needed in the fight against crime.” In the Commons, Miliband claimed the policing cuts demonstrated that the prime minister had broken his pre-election promise to send any cabinet minister who came to him with proposals to cut frontline services packing. Cameron told Miliband: “Decisions about police numbers will depend on the decisions made by individual chief constables in individual parts of the country. “The point I would make is that we see, in case after case, that there are far too many police officers in back-office jobs doing paperwork and carrying out corporate development work who should be on the front line. “Responsible chief constables are getting these police officers out on the front line to fight crime, and crime under this government is falling.” He accused Labour of “complete and utter hypocrisy” over police numbers, citing Alan Johnson’s admission when he was home secretary before the general election that he could not guarantee numbers would not fall in the event of the party remaining in power. “The question is not should the budget be reduced – of course the budget has to be reduced,” said Cameron. “The question is who is going to cut the paperwork, who is going to get rid of the bureaucracy, who is going to trust the local managers to make sure we get police on the front line? These are steps we are taking, and steps his government never took.” Police Theresa May David Cameron Labour Public sector cuts Public services policy Public finance Yvette Cooper Alan Travis guardian.co.uk
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Pakistan property experts say US government description of ‘$1m mansion’ was way off the mark, as further exaggerations come to light Osama bin Laden’s house, described by the US government as a $1m (£605,000) mansion, is in fact worth no than $250,000 say property professionals in Abbottabad, the town where he was killed. The revelation is the latest of several erroneous descriptions about the nature of Bin Laden’s hideout – and the manner of his death – which have dogged the White House in recent days. On Tuesday US officials retracted claims that Bin Laden was armed when killed, and that he had used one of his wives as a human shield . Descriptions of Bin Laden’s hideout have also been prone to exaggeration. After Sunday night’s dramatic raid by US Navy Seals, a senior Obama administration official told reporters that the property, an “extraordinarily unique compound” in an “affluent suburb”, was valued at around $1m. But two property professionals in Abbottabad – a quiet, military-dominated town – said that much of that was incorrect. Based on the size of the plot and the house, which was built in 2005, and using recent property sales as a guide, they estimated that it would fetch no more than $250,000 on the current market. “Twenty million rupees, maximum,” said property dealer Muhammad Anwar, a 22-year veteran of the local market, at his Abbottabad office. “No swimming pool. This is not a posh area. We call it a middling area.” Asked about the American estimate, he chuckled. “Maybe that’s the assessment from a satellite. But here on the ground, that’s the price.” The assessment was backed by the local branch manager of a major Pakistani bank, who himself owns land in the same locality. “If it was worth that much, we would all be multi-millionaires round here,” he said. A doctor who sold the land where the compound was built identified the buyer as Mohammad Arshad, a name that partially matches that of one of the two brothers who lived in the house – one of whom is believed to have been the courier who unwittingly led the CIA to Bin Laden. Property records obtained by the Associated Press show Arshad bought adjoining plots in four stages between 2004 and 2005. Dr Qazi Mahfooz Ul Haq said on Wednesday that he sold a plot of land to Mr Arshad in 2005. He said the buyer was a “modest, humble type of man” who claimed to be purchasing it for his uncle. The neighbourhood where Bin Laden lived, Bilal Town, was developed following the 2005 earthquake that devastated northern Pakistan, killing more than 73,000 people. People from quake-hit towns such as Mansehra and Balakot streamed into Abbottabad, seeking to build new homes in a more secure area. Many residents come from middle-income backgrounds, having built their homes with family inheritances, said Mr Anwar’s 24-year-old son, Junaid. Osama bin Laden Pakistan US foreign policy US military United States Middle East Declan Walsh guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …The rebels who have set up an interim government in eastern Libya say they’re running out of money to fund and are seeking up to $3 billion in loans. The rebel operation warns that it may soon be unable to pay public employees or provide food and medicine to civilians,…
Continue reading …Osama bin Laden didn’t want his wives to remarry or his children to become terrorists after his death, according to what a Kuwaiti newspaper says is a copy of his will. In the document—written on a computer, dated December 2001, and signed by “your brother Abu Abdullah Osama Muhammad…
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