Lib Dem council leader questions ‘front-loading’ of savings forcing services to be slashed ahead of local polls Nick Clegg’s closest ally in local government has questioned the decision by the coalition to “front-load” spending cuts, forcing councils to slash services on the eve of the local elections next month. In remarks that go to the heart of the battle in this year’s elections on 5 May, the Liberal Democrat leader of Clegg’s own council in Sheffield said he would have liked savings to have been spread over a longer period. Paul Scriven, who is facing a tough challenge from Labour, said: “Clearly, like most people, I would have liked to see savings over a longer period of time.” The remarks by Scriven highlight the main battleground between the coalition parties and Labour across England ahead of the largest of the four-yearly local elections cycles, when 31 million voters will be able to decide on 9,396 of the country’s 18,225 council seats. Labour under Ed Miliband is hoping to win a string of councils, from Ipswich to Blackpool, as voters express unease at the decision of George Osborne to impose the heaviest local government cuts in the initial phase of his five-year deficit reduction plan. Under pressure from Labour, which hopes to unsettle Clegg by unseating the Lib Dems in his backyard of Sheffield, Scriven acknowledged the impact of the cuts. “Any reduction in money is difficult and not something any politician wants to do,” he said. But Scriven, who showed his loyalty to Clegg on cuts when he declined to sign a letter by more than 90 Lib Dem leaders in February criticising the scale of the reductions, was careful to qualify his remarks. “Those who have studied how you reduce public sector funding [have found] you have got to pressure in right at the beginning, otherwise you get slippage, which you can’t make back up towards the end because the opportunity has gone,” he said. Scriven occupies one of the most politically sensitive posts in local government. Losing office in Sheffield, where the Lib Dems run a minority administration, would be a symbolic blow to Clegg who is MP for Sheffield Hallam. Sheffield is one of the main targets for Labour, which can hope to gain 1,000 council seats across England on 5 May, according to Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher of Plymouth University. They say Labour will be in the strongest position of the three main parties on 5 May because the same seats were last contested in the troubled spring of 2007 as an impatient Gordon Brown waited to succeed Tony Blair. In today’s Guardian/ICM poll, Labour is on 37%, up one point on last month’s poll, giving it a two-point lead over the Tories who are down two points on 35%. The Lib Dems are down one point on 15%. It is difficult to make predictions about 5 May on the basis of today’s poll because the findings are based on a question about a hypothetical general election. But Rallings and Thrasher made their forecast on the basis of a succession of opinion polls that show a consistent lead for Labour. Labour believes the 1,000 prediction is over-optimistic and says it is on course for a “fair” result of 400 gains or a “good” result of 600. Labour is making this calculation on the basis of local byelections in the past year in which it has secured more modest swings of 4.1% from the Tories and 4.3% from the Lib Dems. Labour’s lowering of expectations is dismissed by the Tories. Sources say that even the 1,000 prediction is too low; they suggest Labour should gain about 1,800 seats on the basis of the party’s national poll ratings. But this figure is based on a Sun/YouGov poll in March which gave Labour a 10-point lead. The Tories are playing down their own prospects as they point out that governing parties always take a hit in local elections. A source said: “We are expecting to take a hammering.” David Cameron has other factors counting against him next month. The Tories are defending 5,029 of their 9,396 council seats (55% of their total) and they control 156 of the 279 councils where elections are taking place. Tory sources predict they will lose control of 35 councils while Labour, defending 30, should gain 45. The Lib Dems face the toughest battle of all as their usual pavement style of politics, suitable for a party of protest, faces its first local election campaign in 60 years as a party of government. There is drop in the number of Lib Dem candidates, though party sources say this is just 4% of the total and is among paper candidates who stand no chance. From his spacious suite of offices in Sheffield, which boasts the last great Victorian town hall built in 1897 just four years before the Queen’s death, Paul Scriven outlines the challenge facing his party. “Clearly it is different for the Liberal Democrats in the sense that it is the first time we’ve been defending the council when we are also in government,” he says. Sheffield has been run as a minority administration by the Lib Dems since Labour deprived them of control last year. The Lib Dems have just one more councillor than Labour – 41 to 40. A third of the council’s 84 seats are up for election in Sheffield which would return to Labour control on a swing of less than 4% if it makes three gains in the city. Emotions have been running high in the city which is facing £80m cuts this year as the “front-loading” takes effect. This is the first tranche of £215m in cuts that must be imposed by the city over the next four years. Canvassing in Sheffield is an exhausting business as candidates stride up and down the city’s seven hills in search of votes. Nikki Sharpe, a trade union lawyer standing for the first time for Labour in the marginal ward of Walkley, received an enthusiastic reception from one voter enraged with the Lib Dems. “I voted Liberal Democrat at the general election because Gordon Brown had made a mess,” Val Grantham told Sharpe. “I was disgusted when Nick Clegg went in with the Tories. What we needed was another party with Labour.” But all is not lost for the Lib Dems. “I hope you don’t clobbered because of Nick Clegg,” Anne Awdas told Jayne Dore, standing for the first time in the Nether Edge ward whose three councillors are currently all Lib Dems. Julie Dore, leader of the Labour group, believes the local Lib Dems will be punished for failing to challenge Clegg after a £80m loan to Sheffield Forgemasters was cancelled last June. “We have a Liberal Democrat council defending every single thing the coalition government does,” Dore said. “They are not standing up for Sheffield.” David Blunkett, the former home secretary and MP for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough, who made his name as a leftwing leader of the council in the 1980s, warned that the city could face a “post-Soviet” meltdown in which people have to fend for themselves. Scriven dismissed Blunkett for attempting to revive the era when he used the council as a “political battering ram”. He believes voters will be more understanding of the Lib Dems, whose innovative approach to the cuts means no library is closing, though their hours have been reduced and the number of mobile libraries has been cut from four to one. “I don’t detect from knocking on doors the kind of frothing at the mouth that some of my Labour opponents suggest is happening towards the Liberal Democrats,” Scriven says. “Yes, there is a little bit of fear about the unknown because of the financial reductions that are having to be made to clear up Labour’s mess nationally. But actually people are engaging on the doorstep and beginning to talk about what kind of council we want.” Local politics Local government Nick Clegg Liberal Democrats Nicholas Watt guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Lib Dem council leader questions ‘front-loading’ of savings forcing services to be slashed ahead of local polls Nick Clegg’s closest ally in local government has questioned the decision by the coalition to “front-load” spending cuts, forcing councils to slash services on the eve of the local elections next month. In remarks that go to the heart of the battle in this year’s elections on 5 May, the Liberal Democrat leader of Clegg’s own council in Sheffield said he would have liked savings to have been spread over a longer period. Paul Scriven, who is facing a tough challenge from Labour, said: “Clearly, like most people, I would have liked to see savings over a longer period of time.” The remarks by Scriven highlight the main battleground between the coalition parties and Labour across England ahead of the largest of the four-yearly local elections cycles, when 31 million voters will be able to decide on 9,396 of the country’s 18,225 council seats. Labour under Ed Miliband is hoping to win a string of councils, from Ipswich to Blackpool, as voters express unease at the decision of George Osborne to impose the heaviest local government cuts in the initial phase of his five-year deficit reduction plan. Under pressure from Labour, which hopes to unsettle Clegg by unseating the Lib Dems in his backyard of Sheffield, Scriven acknowledged the impact of the cuts. “Any reduction in money is difficult and not something any politician wants to do,” he said. But Scriven, who showed his loyalty to Clegg on cuts when he declined to sign a letter by more than 90 Lib Dem leaders in February criticising the scale of the reductions, was careful to qualify his remarks. “Those who have studied how you reduce public sector funding [have found] you have got to pressure in right at the beginning, otherwise you get slippage, which you can’t make back up towards the end because the opportunity has gone,” he said. Scriven occupies one of the most politically sensitive posts in local government. Losing office in Sheffield, where the Lib Dems run a minority administration, would be a symbolic blow to Clegg who is MP for Sheffield Hallam. Sheffield is one of the main targets for Labour, which can hope to gain 1,000 council seats across England on 5 May, according to Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher of Plymouth University. They say Labour will be in the strongest position of the three main parties on 5 May because the same seats were last contested in the troubled spring of 2007 as an impatient Gordon Brown waited to succeed Tony Blair. In today’s Guardian/ICM poll, Labour is on 37%, up one point on last month’s poll, giving it a two-point lead over the Tories who are down two points on 35%. The Lib Dems are down one point on 15%. It is difficult to make predictions about 5 May on the basis of today’s poll because the findings are based on a question about a hypothetical general election. But Rallings and Thrasher made their forecast on the basis of a succession of opinion polls that show a consistent lead for Labour. Labour believes the 1,000 prediction is over-optimistic and says it is on course for a “fair” result of 400 gains or a “good” result of 600. Labour is making this calculation on the basis of local byelections in the past year in which it has secured more modest swings of 4.1% from the Tories and 4.3% from the Lib Dems. Labour’s lowering of expectations is dismissed by the Tories. Sources say that even the 1,000 prediction is too low; they suggest Labour should gain about 1,800 seats on the basis of the party’s national poll ratings. But this figure is based on a Sun/YouGov poll in March which gave Labour a 10-point lead. The Tories are playing down their own prospects as they point out that governing parties always take a hit in local elections. A source said: “We are expecting to take a hammering.” David Cameron has other factors counting against him next month. The Tories are defending 5,029 of their 9,396 council seats (55% of their total) and they control 156 of the 279 councils where elections are taking place. Tory sources predict they will lose control of 35 councils while Labour, defending 30, should gain 45. The Lib Dems face the toughest battle of all as their usual pavement style of politics, suitable for a party of protest, faces its first local election campaign in 60 years as a party of government. There is drop in the number of Lib Dem candidates, though party sources say this is just 4% of the total and is among paper candidates who stand no chance. From his spacious suite of offices in Sheffield, which boasts the last great Victorian town hall built in 1897 just four years before the Queen’s death, Paul Scriven outlines the challenge facing his party. “Clearly it is different for the Liberal Democrats in the sense that it is the first time we’ve been defending the council when we are also in government,” he says. Sheffield has been run as a minority administration by the Lib Dems since Labour deprived them of control last year. The Lib Dems have just one more councillor than Labour – 41 to 40. A third of the council’s 84 seats are up for election in Sheffield which would return to Labour control on a swing of less than 4% if it makes three gains in the city. Emotions have been running high in the city which is facing £80m cuts this year as the “front-loading” takes effect. This is the first tranche of £215m in cuts that must be imposed by the city over the next four years. Canvassing in Sheffield is an exhausting business as candidates stride up and down the city’s seven hills in search of votes. Nikki Sharpe, a trade union lawyer standing for the first time for Labour in the marginal ward of Walkley, received an enthusiastic reception from one voter enraged with the Lib Dems. “I voted Liberal Democrat at the general election because Gordon Brown had made a mess,” Val Grantham told Sharpe. “I was disgusted when Nick Clegg went in with the Tories. What we needed was another party with Labour.” But all is not lost for the Lib Dems. “I hope you don’t clobbered because of Nick Clegg,” Anne Awdas told Jayne Dore, standing for the first time in the Nether Edge ward whose three councillors are currently all Lib Dems. Julie Dore, leader of the Labour group, believes the local Lib Dems will be punished for failing to challenge Clegg after a £80m loan to Sheffield Forgemasters was cancelled last June. “We have a Liberal Democrat council defending every single thing the coalition government does,” Dore said. “They are not standing up for Sheffield.” David Blunkett, the former home secretary and MP for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough, who made his name as a leftwing leader of the council in the 1980s, warned that the city could face a “post-Soviet” meltdown in which people have to fend for themselves. Scriven dismissed Blunkett for attempting to revive the era when he used the council as a “political battering ram”. He believes voters will be more understanding of the Lib Dems, whose innovative approach to the cuts means no library is closing, though their hours have been reduced and the number of mobile libraries has been cut from four to one. “I don’t detect from knocking on doors the kind of frothing at the mouth that some of my Labour opponents suggest is happening towards the Liberal Democrats,” Scriven says. “Yes, there is a little bit of fear about the unknown because of the financial reductions that are having to be made to clear up Labour’s mess nationally. But actually people are engaging on the doorstep and beginning to talk about what kind of council we want.” Local politics Local government Nick Clegg Liberal Democrats Nicholas Watt guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Lib Dem council leader questions ‘front-loading’ of savings forcing services to be slashed ahead of local polls Nick Clegg’s closest ally in local government has questioned the decision by the coalition to “front-load” spending cuts, forcing councils to slash services on the eve of the local elections next month. In remarks that go to the heart of the battle in this year’s elections on 5 May, the Liberal Democrat leader of Clegg’s own council in Sheffield said he would have liked savings to have been spread over a longer period. Paul Scriven, who is facing a tough challenge from Labour, said: “Clearly, like most people, I would have liked to see savings over a longer period of time.” The remarks by Scriven highlight the main battleground between the coalition parties and Labour across England ahead of the largest of the four-yearly local elections cycles, when 31 million voters will be able to decide on 9,396 of the country’s 18,225 council seats. Labour under Ed Miliband is hoping to win a string of councils, from Ipswich to Blackpool, as voters express unease at the decision of George Osborne to impose the heaviest local government cuts in the initial phase of his five-year deficit reduction plan. Under pressure from Labour, which hopes to unsettle Clegg by unseating the Lib Dems in his backyard of Sheffield, Scriven acknowledged the impact of the cuts. “Any reduction in money is difficult and not something any politician wants to do,” he said. But Scriven, who showed his loyalty to Clegg on cuts when he declined to sign a letter by more than 90 Lib Dem leaders in February criticising the scale of the reductions, was careful to qualify his remarks. “Those who have studied how you reduce public sector funding [have found] you have got to pressure in right at the beginning, otherwise you get slippage, which you can’t make back up towards the end because the opportunity has gone,” he said. Scriven occupies one of the most politically sensitive posts in local government. Losing office in Sheffield, where the Lib Dems run a minority administration, would be a symbolic blow to Clegg who is MP for Sheffield Hallam. Sheffield is one of the main targets for Labour, which can hope to gain 1,000 council seats across England on 5 May, according to Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher of Plymouth University. They say Labour will be in the strongest position of the three main parties on 5 May because the same seats were last contested in the troubled spring of 2007 as an impatient Gordon Brown waited to succeed Tony Blair. In today’s Guardian/ICM poll, Labour is on 37%, up one point on last month’s poll, giving it a two-point lead over the Tories who are down two points on 35%. The Lib Dems are down one point on 15%. It is difficult to make predictions about 5 May on the basis of today’s poll because the findings are based on a question about a hypothetical general election. But Rallings and Thrasher made their forecast on the basis of a succession of opinion polls that show a consistent lead for Labour. Labour believes the 1,000 prediction is over-optimistic and says it is on course for a “fair” result of 400 gains or a “good” result of 600. Labour is making this calculation on the basis of local byelections in the past year in which it has secured more modest swings of 4.1% from the Tories and 4.3% from the Lib Dems. Labour’s lowering of expectations is dismissed by the Tories. Sources say that even the 1,000 prediction is too low; they suggest Labour should gain about 1,800 seats on the basis of the party’s national poll ratings. But this figure is based on a Sun/YouGov poll in March which gave Labour a 10-point lead. The Tories are playing down their own prospects as they point out that governing parties always take a hit in local elections. A source said: “We are expecting to take a hammering.” David Cameron has other factors counting against him next month. The Tories are defending 5,029 of their 9,396 council seats (55% of their total) and they control 156 of the 279 councils where elections are taking place. Tory sources predict they will lose control of 35 councils while Labour, defending 30, should gain 45. The Lib Dems face the toughest battle of all as their usual pavement style of politics, suitable for a party of protest, faces its first local election campaign in 60 years as a party of government. There is drop in the number of Lib Dem candidates, though party sources say this is just 4% of the total and is among paper candidates who stand no chance. From his spacious suite of offices in Sheffield, which boasts the last great Victorian town hall built in 1897 just four years before the Queen’s death, Paul Scriven outlines the challenge facing his party. “Clearly it is different for the Liberal Democrats in the sense that it is the first time we’ve been defending the council when we are also in government,” he says. Sheffield has been run as a minority administration by the Lib Dems since Labour deprived them of control last year. The Lib Dems have just one more councillor than Labour – 41 to 40. A third of the council’s 84 seats are up for election in Sheffield which would return to Labour control on a swing of less than 4% if it makes three gains in the city. Emotions have been running high in the city which is facing £80m cuts this year as the “front-loading” takes effect. This is the first tranche of £215m in cuts that must be imposed by the city over the next four years. Canvassing in Sheffield is an exhausting business as candidates stride up and down the city’s seven hills in search of votes. Nikki Sharpe, a trade union lawyer standing for the first time for Labour in the marginal ward of Walkley, received an enthusiastic reception from one voter enraged with the Lib Dems. “I voted Liberal Democrat at the general election because Gordon Brown had made a mess,” Val Grantham told Sharpe. “I was disgusted when Nick Clegg went in with the Tories. What we needed was another party with Labour.” But all is not lost for the Lib Dems. “I hope you don’t clobbered because of Nick Clegg,” Anne Awdas told Jayne Dore, standing for the first time in the Nether Edge ward whose three councillors are currently all Lib Dems. Julie Dore, leader of the Labour group, believes the local Lib Dems will be punished for failing to challenge Clegg after a £80m loan to Sheffield Forgemasters was cancelled last June. “We have a Liberal Democrat council defending every single thing the coalition government does,” Dore said. “They are not standing up for Sheffield.” David Blunkett, the former home secretary and MP for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough, who made his name as a leftwing leader of the council in the 1980s, warned that the city could face a “post-Soviet” meltdown in which people have to fend for themselves. Scriven dismissed Blunkett for attempting to revive the era when he used the council as a “political battering ram”. He believes voters will be more understanding of the Lib Dems, whose innovative approach to the cuts means no library is closing, though their hours have been reduced and the number of mobile libraries has been cut from four to one. “I don’t detect from knocking on doors the kind of frothing at the mouth that some of my Labour opponents suggest is happening towards the Liberal Democrats,” Scriven says. “Yes, there is a little bit of fear about the unknown because of the financial reductions that are having to be made to clear up Labour’s mess nationally. But actually people are engaging on the doorstep and beginning to talk about what kind of council we want.” Local politics Local government Nick Clegg Liberal Democrats Nicholas Watt guardian.co.uk
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Heart expert Kevin Channer appears to dispute cause of death of newspaper seller hit by PC Simon Harwood at G20 protests A leading heart specialist appeared to rule out the theory that Ian Tomlinson died of a heart attack at the G20 protests, at the inquest into his death has . Tomlinson, a newspaper seller, collapsed and died less than three minutes after being hit with a baton and pushed to the ground by a police officer, PC Simon Harwood, during the demonstrations near the Bank of England. He had been trying to get home from work at around 7.20pm on 1 April 2009 when he encountered the Metropolitan police officer. Paramedics were unable to resuscitate Tomlinson, a father of nine, who was pronounced dead more than an hour later. Prof Kevin Channer, a heart expert at Royal Hallamshire hospital, was asked by the inquest to analyse chart readings from a defibrillator that was used on Tomlinson by paramedics. Channer’s expert evidence, contained in a report to the inquest, was that the electrocardiogram (ECG) data obtained by paramedics as they fought to resuscitate Tomlinson was inconsistent with an arrhythmic heart attack. The heart pulse data was however consistent with the 47-year-old dying of internal bleeding, Channer said. The medical cause of Tomlinson’s death has proved a key area of controversy in his inquest, which is now in its fourth week. The first pathologist to examine the body, Dr Freddy Patel, said that when he was unable to find a source of the bleeding in Tomlinson’s abdomen, he concluded “through a process of elimination” that the newspaper seller must have died of an arrhythmic heart attack. Patel, who is no longer on an accredited list of pathologists, said the type of heart attack would have resulted from Tomlinson’s coronary artery disease and could have occurred at any time. However, his evidence is contradicted by three forensic pathologists who examined the body and found instead that Tomlinson was likely to have died as a result of internal bleeding. They include Dr Nat Cary, who also gave evidence at the inquest on Monday. He said Channer’s report meant there was now “only one real possibility. “It doesn’t matter how you look at this case, whether you look at the heart and the coronary arteries or heart, you look at the ECG traces and clinical status, you come to the same view,” Cary said. “Mr Tomlinson did not die due to a so-called heart attack, or arrhythmic heart attack, due to coronary artery disease.” Cary previously told the inquest that he believed that Harwood’s violent shove of the newspaper seller was likely to have been the cause of his death. He said video footage showed Tomlinson’s elbow was caught between his body and the ground, which would have been sufficient to cause a “blunt force trauma” internal injury, most likely to the liver, which was badly diseased. When Patel was presented with Channer’s findings, he appeared to alter his explanation of a heart attack, indicating that Tomlinson may have suffered a “very transient” form of arrhythmic heart attack and then recovered spontaneously, before then losing consciousness. He also introduced an previously unmentioned explanation for the death: hypoxia, or the deprivation of adequate oxygen supply. Paramedics previously told the inquest that they had ruled out hypoxia when they went to Tomlinson’s aid. Patel confirmed to the judge that he had made no prior mention of hypoxia as a cause of death in his two official postmortem reports. When it was suggested the to Patel that he was introducing a entirely new cause of the death in his fourth day of evidence, he momentarily fell silent. The jury was previously told that Patel has since September been suspended twice by the General Medical Council, including for professional misconduct and dishonesty. Matthew Ryder, counsel for the inquest, said: “I am sorry to say, Dr Patel, I suggest you are reaching for options because you know, now, or you realise now, the conclusion that you have put forward is not a solid one, and cannot be sustained.” The pathologist replied: “I do not agree with that at all.” Earlier, a consultant liver expert, Dr Graeme Alexander, told the jury his view was that Tomlinson had died of internal bleeding in the abdomen, caused by trauma to his liver after his fall. He said that Tomlinson’s serious liver disease would have made him much more susceptible to collapse from internal bleeding than another person. Alexander added that Patel’s suggestion that an absence of damage to a capsule surrounding the liver indicated it could not have been the source of bleeding was “not a relevant argument at all”. “I have a ward full of patients with liver disease, and if they have a cardiac arrest on the ward it is safe bet that they have bled,” Alexander said. The inquest continues. Ian Tomlinson London Police Protest G20 Dr Freddy Patel Paul Lewis guardian.co.uk
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Heart expert Kevin Channer appears to dispute cause of death of newspaper seller hit by PC Simon Harwood at G20 protests A leading heart specialist appeared to rule out the theory that Ian Tomlinson died of a heart attack at the G20 protests, at the inquest into his death has . Tomlinson, a newspaper seller, collapsed and died less than three minutes after being hit with a baton and pushed to the ground by a police officer, PC Simon Harwood, during the demonstrations near the Bank of England. He had been trying to get home from work at around 7.20pm on 1 April 2009 when he encountered the Metropolitan police officer. Paramedics were unable to resuscitate Tomlinson, a father of nine, who was pronounced dead more than an hour later. Prof Kevin Channer, a heart expert at Royal Hallamshire hospital, was asked by the inquest to analyse chart readings from a defibrillator that was used on Tomlinson by paramedics. Channer’s expert evidence, contained in a report to the inquest, was that the electrocardiogram (ECG) data obtained by paramedics as they fought to resuscitate Tomlinson was inconsistent with an arrhythmic heart attack. The heart pulse data was however consistent with the 47-year-old dying of internal bleeding, Channer said. The medical cause of Tomlinson’s death has proved a key area of controversy in his inquest, which is now in its fourth week. The first pathologist to examine the body, Dr Freddy Patel, said that when he was unable to find a source of the bleeding in Tomlinson’s abdomen, he concluded “through a process of elimination” that the newspaper seller must have died of an arrhythmic heart attack. Patel, who is no longer on an accredited list of pathologists, said the type of heart attack would have resulted from Tomlinson’s coronary artery disease and could have occurred at any time. However, his evidence is contradicted by three forensic pathologists who examined the body and found instead that Tomlinson was likely to have died as a result of internal bleeding. They include Dr Nat Cary, who also gave evidence at the inquest on Monday. He said Channer’s report meant there was now “only one real possibility. “It doesn’t matter how you look at this case, whether you look at the heart and the coronary arteries or heart, you look at the ECG traces and clinical status, you come to the same view,” Cary said. “Mr Tomlinson did not die due to a so-called heart attack, or arrhythmic heart attack, due to coronary artery disease.” Cary previously told the inquest that he believed that Harwood’s violent shove of the newspaper seller was likely to have been the cause of his death. He said video footage showed Tomlinson’s elbow was caught between his body and the ground, which would have been sufficient to cause a “blunt force trauma” internal injury, most likely to the liver, which was badly diseased. When Patel was presented with Channer’s findings, he appeared to alter his explanation of a heart attack, indicating that Tomlinson may have suffered a “very transient” form of arrhythmic heart attack and then recovered spontaneously, before then losing consciousness. He also introduced an previously unmentioned explanation for the death: hypoxia, or the deprivation of adequate oxygen supply. Paramedics previously told the inquest that they had ruled out hypoxia when they went to Tomlinson’s aid. Patel confirmed to the judge that he had made no prior mention of hypoxia as a cause of death in his two official postmortem reports. When it was suggested the to Patel that he was introducing a entirely new cause of the death in his fourth day of evidence, he momentarily fell silent. The jury was previously told that Patel has since September been suspended twice by the General Medical Council, including for professional misconduct and dishonesty. Matthew Ryder, counsel for the inquest, said: “I am sorry to say, Dr Patel, I suggest you are reaching for options because you know, now, or you realise now, the conclusion that you have put forward is not a solid one, and cannot be sustained.” The pathologist replied: “I do not agree with that at all.” Earlier, a consultant liver expert, Dr Graeme Alexander, told the jury his view was that Tomlinson had died of internal bleeding in the abdomen, caused by trauma to his liver after his fall. He said that Tomlinson’s serious liver disease would have made him much more susceptible to collapse from internal bleeding than another person. Alexander added that Patel’s suggestion that an absence of damage to a capsule surrounding the liver indicated it could not have been the source of bleeding was “not a relevant argument at all”. “I have a ward full of patients with liver disease, and if they have a cardiac arrest on the ward it is safe bet that they have bled,” Alexander said. The inquest continues. Ian Tomlinson London Police Protest G20 Dr Freddy Patel Paul Lewis guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Heart expert Kevin Channer appears to dispute cause of death of newspaper seller hit by PC Simon Harwood at G20 protests A leading heart specialist appeared to rule out the theory that Ian Tomlinson died of a heart attack at the G20 protests, at the inquest into his death has . Tomlinson, a newspaper seller, collapsed and died less than three minutes after being hit with a baton and pushed to the ground by a police officer, PC Simon Harwood, during the demonstrations near the Bank of England. He had been trying to get home from work at around 7.20pm on 1 April 2009 when he encountered the Metropolitan police officer. Paramedics were unable to resuscitate Tomlinson, a father of nine, who was pronounced dead more than an hour later. Prof Kevin Channer, a heart expert at Royal Hallamshire hospital, was asked by the inquest to analyse chart readings from a defibrillator that was used on Tomlinson by paramedics. Channer’s expert evidence, contained in a report to the inquest, was that the electrocardiogram (ECG) data obtained by paramedics as they fought to resuscitate Tomlinson was inconsistent with an arrhythmic heart attack. The heart pulse data was however consistent with the 47-year-old dying of internal bleeding, Channer said. The medical cause of Tomlinson’s death has proved a key area of controversy in his inquest, which is now in its fourth week. The first pathologist to examine the body, Dr Freddy Patel, said that when he was unable to find a source of the bleeding in Tomlinson’s abdomen, he concluded “through a process of elimination” that the newspaper seller must have died of an arrhythmic heart attack. Patel, who is no longer on an accredited list of pathologists, said the type of heart attack would have resulted from Tomlinson’s coronary artery disease and could have occurred at any time. However, his evidence is contradicted by three forensic pathologists who examined the body and found instead that Tomlinson was likely to have died as a result of internal bleeding. They include Dr Nat Cary, who also gave evidence at the inquest on Monday. He said Channer’s report meant there was now “only one real possibility. “It doesn’t matter how you look at this case, whether you look at the heart and the coronary arteries or heart, you look at the ECG traces and clinical status, you come to the same view,” Cary said. “Mr Tomlinson did not die due to a so-called heart attack, or arrhythmic heart attack, due to coronary artery disease.” Cary previously told the inquest that he believed that Harwood’s violent shove of the newspaper seller was likely to have been the cause of his death. He said video footage showed Tomlinson’s elbow was caught between his body and the ground, which would have been sufficient to cause a “blunt force trauma” internal injury, most likely to the liver, which was badly diseased. When Patel was presented with Channer’s findings, he appeared to alter his explanation of a heart attack, indicating that Tomlinson may have suffered a “very transient” form of arrhythmic heart attack and then recovered spontaneously, before then losing consciousness. He also introduced an previously unmentioned explanation for the death: hypoxia, or the deprivation of adequate oxygen supply. Paramedics previously told the inquest that they had ruled out hypoxia when they went to Tomlinson’s aid. Patel confirmed to the judge that he had made no prior mention of hypoxia as a cause of death in his two official postmortem reports. When it was suggested the to Patel that he was introducing a entirely new cause of the death in his fourth day of evidence, he momentarily fell silent. The jury was previously told that Patel has since September been suspended twice by the General Medical Council, including for professional misconduct and dishonesty. Matthew Ryder, counsel for the inquest, said: “I am sorry to say, Dr Patel, I suggest you are reaching for options because you know, now, or you realise now, the conclusion that you have put forward is not a solid one, and cannot be sustained.” The pathologist replied: “I do not agree with that at all.” Earlier, a consultant liver expert, Dr Graeme Alexander, told the jury his view was that Tomlinson had died of internal bleeding in the abdomen, caused by trauma to his liver after his fall. He said that Tomlinson’s serious liver disease would have made him much more susceptible to collapse from internal bleeding than another person. Alexander added that Patel’s suggestion that an absence of damage to a capsule surrounding the liver indicated it could not have been the source of bleeding was “not a relevant argument at all”. “I have a ward full of patients with liver disease, and if they have a cardiac arrest on the ward it is safe bet that they have bled,” Alexander said. The inquest continues. Ian Tomlinson London Police Protest G20 Dr Freddy Patel Paul Lewis guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Moammar Gadhafi’s second son was supposed to bring reform to Libya. But now Seif al-Islam Gadhafi is defiant, insisting Gadhafi’s forces have not killed any civilians, and vowing to put down the rebel uprising. In his view, the opposition is made up entirely of terrorists led by al-Qaeda, and he…
Continue reading …Newly released diplomatic cables show that the US State Department has secretly funded opposition groups in Syria, as well as a London-based satellite TV channel that offers anti-government programming. The cables, released by WikiLeaks, show that the State Department has given as much as $6 million since 2006 to the…
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Demonstrations follow claims that security forces killed at least 25 people in Homs and further five in Talbisseh Thousands of people chanting for the toppling of the Syrian regime took to the streets of the country’s third largest city for mass funerals, as activists denied any US role in the uprising. Rights groups say security forces killed at least 25 in Homs on Sunday night as protests erupted despite president Bashar al-Assad’s offers of reforms in a bid to quell unrest. A further five people were killed on Sunday night in the nearby town of Talbisseh, and there were also unconfirmed reports of four dead in Latakia, rights activists said. Residents of Homs and Talbisseh told news agencies that the cities were tense following funerals for at least 8 of the victims. The injured were refusing to seek medical treatment for fear of being arrested, they said, while reports suggested a sit-in was being staged. Despite a reduced level of violence during Friday’s protests and a pledge to lift emergency laws within the week, protesters turned out on Sunday for Syria’s independence day which commemorates the departure of the last French soldier in 1946. Protests also took place in Daraa, Duma and Latakia on Sunday, and Daraa again on Monday]. Amateur footage suggests a rapidly growing number of demonstrators are calling for the toppling of the regime rather than freedom. Amid the funerals, internal activists stressed the grassroots nature of Syria’s uprising after the publication of a US embassy cable leaked to Wikileaks on Monday saying that the US had channelled funds to Syrian pro-democracy groups. The cableclaimed that, since 2006, $6m (£3.6m) had been channelled to groups including the Movement for Justice and Development, a moderate Islamist party based in London, and Barada TV. The Syrian government – who said one policeman had been killed and 11 injured in Talbisseh at the hands of an armed gang – has repeatedly blamed the past month of protests on armed gangs linked to outsiders, from Lebanese enemies to exiled opposition. “Even if the US gave money to these groups, it has no bearing on the protests,” said one independent activist in Damascus. “It is clear that this movement was started by normal people, not the opposition – which barely exists anyway – and not even us activists.” Ausama Monajed, an activist helping to publicise the protests, is a member of the party, but said his work was run by volunteers only. Few people in Syria watch Barada TV, preferring the Dubai-based Orient TV or al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya, while Syria’s weak, and mostly exiled, opposition has little influence inside the country. While on Sunday some in the capital expressed positive views over Assad’s speech, which was seen as targeting the silent majority who have yet to come out in the centres of Damascus and Aleppo, the renewed use of violence may have caused a resurgence of discomfort. Since the violence of 8 April, a growing number of women have staged protests. On Saturday an unknown number of Syrian students posted a statement on Facebook condemning the violence used against protesters and calling for a three-day boycott of lectures starting on Tuesday]. Some students have been referred to the punishment committee of Damascus University after a small protest last week. Katherine Marsh is a pseudonym for a journalist living in Damascus Syria Middle East Protest Katherine Marsh guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Suicide bombers detonated two explosives-packed cars outside Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone today, killing at least nine and wounding 23, officials said. The blasts marked the start of a violent day in the Iraqi capital, where another bombing and a jewelry heist left three more dead and 13 wounded. The…
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