Procrastinating Politicians

Wednesday's papers

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Barlow) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 04:20:00 +0000

A poll in the Independent this morning suggests that the main justification offered by the Government for keeping troops in Afghanistan is rejected by the majority of British people

Four out of five of those questioned do not believe that British involvement in the conflict, with its rising toll of casualties, is keeping the streets of Britain safe from terrorist attacks.

The Times meanwhile reports that President Obama is to ask members of Nato to provide up to 4,000 more troops to help to break the deadlock in Afghanistan.The paper concludes that

His appeal is set to be largely ignored, however. At present only two Nato members have offered more troops — Britain and Turkey — and no other country is expected to come up with any,

Meanwhile the debate continues about Gordon Brown's letter to the mother of a dead soldier

Admitting he was shy, Brown gave an extraordinary personal confession at a Downing Street press conference after the Sun published extracts from a phone conversation between him and Jacqui Janes, the mother of a soldier, Jamie, killed in Helmand five weeks ago.

says the Guardian

It leads with political problems for the PM as it reports that

Nine former ministers today rounded on Gordon Brown's plans to cut childcare, warning the prime minister that he is threatening marginal Labour seats in the runup to the election by axing popular support for hard-working parents.

More problems looming in the Telegraph as the paper says that Professor Sir Ian Kennedy, the head of the new watchdog charged with cleaning up Parliament, has refused to publicly endorse the recommendations of an independent inquiry into reforming the system of MPs’ expenses.

Meanwhile many of the papers report that

Alan Johnson failed in an attempt to defuse the damaging row between the Government and Britain's top scientists after three more of his drugs advisers resigned last night.

All this on the day that David Cameron launched his plans for a more equal Britain

Cameron's speech, delivered as the Hugo Young lecture at the Guardian, was an attempt to rebut critics who claimed his party conference speech represented an embrace of rightwing Reaganite ideology, far more explicit about the need to reduce the state than on what should replace it. reports that paper

The Independent says that

the Tory leader rejected both a return to Thatcherism and New Labour's vision of a "smarter" state. He said voluntary groups and charities could take on a key role in helping people to escape poverty.

Father gives up court battle to keep his disabled boy alive is the main story in the Mail.In the end says the paper,the young father could fight no longer.

For more than a year he had made daily visits to the hospital bedside of his chronically-disabled son.
For six emotional days in the High Court he had battled against the hospital - and the baby's mother - who were reluctantly seeking the right to withdraw life support.
Finally, faced with overwhelming evidence, he made the 'agonising' decision to let his beloved son go.

According to the Times,Ofsted hid crucial evidence on the Baby P sacking

The childcare watchdog has admitted withholding crucial evidence that could potentially hand Sharon Shoesmith, the former head of children’s services at Haringey Council, hundreds of thousands of pounds in compensation.

The Telegraph reports that knife killers will face at least 25 years behind bars as Jack Straw pledged to crack down on those who take to the streets armed.

The Justice Secretary has raised the minimum tariff for murderers who use a knife or other weapon such as baseball bat from 15 to 25 years in the wake of the outrage following the killing of Ben Kinsella.

The winners of the biggest lottery haul are revealed to the press and the Sun leads with the story as it reports how

JOBLESS Les Scadding was the luckiest man alive yesterday after beating cancer and winning a record £45.6million EuroMillions jackpot.
Grandad Les, 58, survived testicular cancer five years ago.

Meanwhile the Mail reports how, 19-year-old Alex Parry

opted not to go to university because she was worried about getting into debt.
But yesterday she was reassessing that decision after she landed £6.5million on Euromillions.

Finally Xmas is approaching and the Times reports that families are about to reap the benefits of a supermarket price war in time for Christmas.

Leading grocery executives said that they were increasing their promotional activity to gain market share in what will be a fiercely competitive period, while analysts said that falling food price inflation would give supermarkets a “war chest” to allow for reduced prices.

Turesday's papers

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Barlow) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 06:03:00 +0000

According to the Times Britons are now more optimistic about the economy than at any time in the last 18 months.

That's the result of a Populus poll for The Times today.

Its findings come as the best October high street sales for seven years have fuelled hopes that a pre-Christmas surge in spending could confirm the country’s emergence from recession.

Both the Telegraph and the Independent home in on the big brother state.

According to the later

Plans to store information about every phone call, email and internet visit in the United Kingdom have in effect been abandoned by the Government.

adding that

The Home Office confirmed the "Big Brother" scheme had been delayed until after the election amid protests that it would be intrusive and open to abuse

.

However the Telegraph claims that

Despite widespread opposition over Britain's growing surveillance society, 653 public bodies will be given access to the confidential information, including police, local councils, the Financial Services Authority, the Ambulance Service, fire authorities and even prison governors.

The Sun continues its attacks on Gordon Brown and Afghnanistan reporting that the Prime Minister

had an amazing late-night phone bust-up with a grieving Forces mum, The Prime Minister had outraged Jacqui Janes by mis-spelling her and her dead son's names in a note of condolence.

According to the paper

In it, heartbroken Jacqui - whose boy Jamie, 20, was killed by a bomb in Afghanistan - tells the Prime Minister: "Mr Brown, listen to me... I know every injury that my child sustained that day. I know that my son could have survived. But my son bled to death."

Meanwhile the Times reports that Britain is to help to train 10,000 extra Afghan soldiers to serve in Helmand to bring forward the date when British troops can be withdrawn from parts of the province and replaced by Afghanistan’s national army.

Under an Afghan-surge plan being discussed between Washington and London, British and American troops in Helmand would split the responsibility 50-50, taking part in an accelerated programme to boost the number of Afghan soldiers and police in the province to more than 17,000.

According to the Guardian,The world is much closer to running out of oil than official estimates admit,

The senior official at the International Energy Agency claims the US has played an influential role in encouraging the watchdog to underplay the rate of decline from existing oil fields while overplaying the chances of finding new reserves.

Meanwhile the Telegraph reports on Britain's attempts to move away from oil as it is announced that 10 new nuclear power stations are to be built.

Ed Miliband, the Energy and Climate Change Secretary, announced the expansion of Britain’s nuclear power capability yesterday in the face of opposition from environmentalists and concern from consumer groups, who warned fuel bills could rise to pay for building programme.

The Times adds that

The announcement comes after a radical shake-up in planning laws. Under powers awarded to the Government last month, local authorities have been stripped of the right of veto over new nuclear plants and other key energy projects. Decisions will instead be taken by the Infrastructure Planning Commission, which was created to slash the period required to secure consent for energy projects from seven years to one year.

The Guardian reports that Barack Obama will travel to the climate summit in Copenhagen next month if the countries involved are on the verge of a deal and he thinks his presence will help to clinch agreement, he said in an interview last night.

Jackpot Valley strikes again!is the headline in the Mail.

A husband and wife will today be propelled into the ranks of the super-rich when they are named Britain's biggest-ever lottery winners.
The couple are to be handed a EuroMillions cheque for £45.5million at a press conference in a Cardiff hotel.
They are from Newport in 'Golden Gwent', which had already produced an astonishing six lottery millionaires in three years.

Whilst the Express leads with the other winners

A GROUP of call centre workers and a married couple were celebrating last night after jointly winning Britain’s largest ever lottery prize of £91million.
Amid emotional scenes, the seven or eight members of the syndicate only became aware of their massive £45.57million win after arriving for work yesterday morning.

Female doctors working in the NHS are paid thousands of pounds a year less than their male colleagues as a result of widespread discrimination and a "hostile culture" at work reports the Guardian adding

The research, to be published on Friday, is the first to investigate differences in doctors' salaries.

David Cameron will set out a blueprint to tackle poverty which is expected to include allowing benefit claimants to keep more of their state handouts when returning to work.says the Telegraph

The Conservative leader has asked Iain Duncan Smith to “review the benefits system, with a focus on marginal withdrawal rates and making work pay”. The former Tory leader has recently backed plans to give benefit claimants hundreds of pounds if they return to work.

Finally according to the Times,British households are pouring £470 million worth of wine down the plughole every year.

The figure has been collated for the Waste & Resource Action Programme (Wrap), advisers to the Government, which is urging people to freeze leftover wine and use it in cooking sauces and casseroles as part of the campaign to cut the nation’s carbon footprint.

Monday's papers

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Barlow) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 07:14:00 +0000

An array of stories on the front pages intertwinned with scenes from the Cenataph and memories of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The Sun leads with the headline Bloody Shameful as it reports that

GORDON Brown was accused of disrespecting our war dead yesterday with TWO shameful blunders.
He got a dead soldier's name WRONG in a letter to the hero's mum - and FAILED to bow at the Cenotaph.

Whilst the Independent reflects

In a quiet corner of Westminster Abbey, away from the crowd gathered at the Cenotaph, Arthur Bright's voice cracked as the 11am tolling of Big Ben approached. Stood in front of rows of small wooden crosses marking the British dead from Afghanistan, the D-Day veteran said: "There was a time not so very long ago when this day was a history lesson. Not today. Young men are getting killed again. And I'm not sure why."

The Times leads with the news that a top prosecutor has demanded an end to the use of police cautions to deal with thousands of serious assaults every year amid concern that the justice system is failing to rein in violent offenders.

Keir Starmer, QC, the Director of Public Prosecutions, is seeking a review of so-called “instant justice”, with up to 40,000 assults each year now dealt with by on-the-spot cautions.

According to the Mail,A mother fears she has been 'criminalised' for giving her children a ticking-off in a supermarket.

She was secretly followed home by an off-duty policeman who overheard her threatening to smack them unless they behaved.

adding that

Six weeks later two officers came to her home and questioned her about disciplining the youngsters, a boy of 11 and a four-year-old girl. To her horror she then received a letter from the local council saying her 'chastisement' of the children had been 'put on record' for at least the next 14

years.

The Telegraph reports that

Family doctors are to be told to stop prescribing antibiotics for coughs and colds because overuse is contributing to the spread of hospital bugs and putting vital treatments under threat.

The Guardian chooses radical reforms of tax system as it reports that

A fierce debate within the government on how to tackle entrenched wealth inequality – possibly through a high pay commission or a tax on assets – is to be ignited by a report ordered by Harriet Harman, the Labour deputy leader and the minister responsible for equalities.

Whilst the Independent focuses on the comments of the Home Secretary over immigration where

In a candid interview with the paper , Mr Johnson admitted that Labour's failure to debate immigration had "probably" boosted the BNP's appeal.

As we reflect on our war dead,the Guardian reports that

Growing frustration among Britain's most senior military commanders over the government's handling of the war in Afghanistan burst into the open today as they stepped up plans to restrict the number of areas where British troops will be deployed.

Meanwhile the Times says that

A new strategy for Afghanistan that could lead to a British troop withdrawal from a former Taleban stronghold in northern Helmand province sparked immediate controversy yesterday.

At least 124 people have been killed and another 60 or more are missing after floods and mudslides in El Salvador triggered by Hurricane Ida. reports the Telegraph

The nation's Interior Minister Humberto Centeno called it "a tragedy" and said rescue workers were still struggling to reach some of the worst affected areas.

Pushed over the finish line by President Barack Obama, and marked by ferocious politicking that lasted late into the night, a bill to reform America's healthcare system is a step closer to reality after being narrowly endorsed in the House of Representatives

.reports the Independent

Mr Obama called the vote on Saturday “historic” and said he was absolutely confident that he would sign a health reform Bill by the end of the year. All eyes now turn to the next battleground — in the Senate — where passage of legislation is far from assured.

says the Times

Gordon Brown will join other world leaders in Germany on Monday for the celebrations to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. reports the Telegraph

The Independent puts the clock back 20 years reminding us

The East German government yesterday yielded to pressure from vast demonstrations and the rapid haemorrhage of its young people, and resigned to make way for change.
Shortly afterwards the Communist Party's Politburo – the real organ of power – gathered to decide on its own fate, while outside hundreds of thousands of demonstrators were chanting: "All power to the people, not to the party!"

In his speech, Mr Brown will pay tribute to the spirit of the ordinary people whose actions brought down the wall, and with it the collapse of communism, the reunification of Germany, and the end of the Cold War.

Sunday papers

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Barlow) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 05:56:00 +0000

Afghanistan continues to dominate many of the papers at the end of another awful week for the country.

According to the Sunday Times,army chiefs are drawing up plans to withdraw British troops from outlying bases in Afghanistan.

In what would be a significant change of strategy against the growing Taliban insurgency, they are considering abandoning several bases including Musa Qala, the scene of bloody battles that claimed 15 British lives. Army forces would attempt to hold only the larger towns in Helmand province.

says the paper

The Observer meanwhile reports that

America's top general in Afghanistan believes Britain's 9,000 troops should be removed out of "harm's way" because the Taliban will target them in the run- up to next year's general election, it was reported last night.

For the Independent it is simply time to leave.It dedicates its front page to Patrick Cockbourn who writes that

Britain should start withdrawing, not reinforcing, its troops in Afghanistan. Sending extra troops is unnecessary and will prove counter-effective. The additional number of British troops is small, but the US is poised to send tens of thousands more soldiers to the country. The nature of the conflict is changing. What should be a war in which the Afghan government fights the Taliban has become one which is being fought primarily by the American and British armies. To more and more Afghans, this looks like imperial occupation

Meanwhile the Mail reports how tThe grieving mother of a heroic Sergeant-Major gunned down by a rogue Afghan policeman has accused Labour of treating British troops like 'peasants'.

Meanwhile there is much coverage on the shootings in fort Hood.According to the Telegraph,Major Nidal Malik Hasan worshipped at a mosque led by a radical imam said to be a "spiritual adviser" to three of the hijackers who attacked America on Sept 11, 2001.

The massacre at Fort Hood has raised numerous issues in a country reeling from shock at the tragedy. The long, costly war of attrition taking place in Afghanistan has already taken its toll on the morale of ordinary Americans. Hasan's Islamic faith has forced uncomfortable questions over the role Muslims play in the military. His profession as a military psychiatrist has caused many to wonder at the horror of a man tasked with treating wounded soldiers turning on his comrades and slaying them. Across the United States painful topics are being discussed, political arguments fought and battle lines drawn.says the Observer.

It leads with the story that Labour has a secret plan to axe spending on training for young people

Confidential papers obtained by The Observer show that, while Brown and his ministers have suggested they are raising investment in training, skills and apprenticeships, behind the scenes they are preparing some £350m of cuts for 2010-11 that will slash the number of training places on offer by hundreds of thousands.

More problems for Gordon Brown in the Telegraph which says he is facing international embarrassment after leading nations slapped down his proposal for a tax on financial transactions to raise hundreds of billions of pounds.

The Prime Minister used a speech at a meeting of G20 finance ministers in St Andrews to call for the new tax to fund future bank bailouts – despite previous government opposition to such a move.
However, within hours of his speech, both the US and Canada rejected the plan. Timothy Geithner, the US Treasury Secretary, said: "That's not something that we're prepared to support."

Also problems for the Tories as the Independent says that

David Cameron has been given an 18-month deadline by a powerful band of Eurosceptic Tory MPs to renegotiate Britain's relationship with Brussels or face an "all-out war" for a referendum, it emerged yesterday.

Uncovered documents by the Sunday Times show that Labour's “open door” immigration policy knowingly risked allowing dangerous people to settle in Britain unchecked

The Whitehall correspondence, which was illegally withheld by the Home Office for four years, shows how ministers were told by the country’s most senior immigration official that his staff were to be “encouraged to take risks” when granting visas, work permits and extended residency to hundreds of thousands of new migrants.

The search is on the winners of the £90m Euro Lottery

Two British lottery players are unaware they are sitting on a record-breaking £90million fortune.
They each won £45,570,835.50 in Friday's EuroMillions game, making them the nation's biggest ever lottery winners, but neither has come forward to claim their prize.
The most likely explanation is that they have yet to check their numbers. However, the delay raises the dreadful possibility that their tickets have been lost, which may prevent them from collecting their winnings.

is the lead in the Mail

The News of the World has captured England captain John Terry's father selling cocaine

In scenes that will shock the millionaire Chelsea ace, Ted Terry, 55, fixed a deal to supply an undercover News of the World team with the illegal Class A drug.

The Express meanwhile wants the Maddy investigation repoened

Kate and Gerry McCann want the Yard’s renowned kidnap team to assess an avalanche of new information after last week’s emotional internet appeal, which generated five million hits from around the world.

Another case that could be reopened as the Independent reports that

Simon Mann has been urged by Foreign Office officials to remain silent about the coup attempt that left him languishing in an African prison, and settle for a "quiet life" with his wife and family in the UK,

The Observer reminds us how

it had been revealed to the British government some months before it was launched – revealed that "Scratcher" was a nickname given to Mark Thatcher and "Smelly" to Ely Calil. Hart was a former adviser to Margaret Thatcher's government. Even Lord Archer was thrown into the melee when phone records linked him to Calil and a JH Archer was found to have deposited a large amount of money into Mann's offshore bank account days before the coup attempt. Archer was also on friendly terms with Thatcher, but has refuted any link to the "Dogs of War" scheme, a denial backed by Mann.

Meanwhile according to the Times,Sir Mark Thatcher became an informer to the South African secret services in an attempt to avoid prosecution for his role in a botched coup in central Africa.

Finally according to the Telegraph,having an extramarital affair should not stand in the way of someone becoming an MP.

The Tory's shadow women's minister Baroness Morris of Bolton,called on Tory activists not to sack a candidate who had an affair, saying that "in this day and age" it was not a reason to stop someone entering Westminster.

Saturday's papers

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Barlow) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 05:05:00 +0000

The Times, as does many of the papers, reports on the killing of 13 people at a Texas army base

Investigators have begun piecing together a harrowing story of missed clues and sudden carnage left by an army psychiatrist who gunned down more than 40 people on a Texas army base, killing 13, when faced with the prospect of deploying to a war he wished President Obama had ended.

says the paper

Whilst the Independent tries to get inside the mind of the army killer

For a few hours late on Thursday, it seemed this would follow the usual sad script of shooting tragedies in America. The "monster" assailant would turn the weapon on himself or be instantly gunned down by others. But Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist with the rank of major, survived. Felled on the scene by bullets fired by a civilian police officer, he was last night in a stable condition and on a respirator.

Meanwhile the Guardian reports that President Obama has sought to stop people jumping to the wrong conclusions over the shooting

"I would caution against jumping to conclusions until we get all the facts," Obama said. The risk of a witchhunt rose today when the commander at the Fort Hood base, Lieutenant-General Robert Cone, disclosed that wounded soldiers said Hasan had shouted "Allahu Akbar" before opening fire on unarmed soldiers at the Texas base.

According to the Telegraph though,he had come to the attention of the FBI six months earlier over possible links to extremist comments posted on the internet.

Meanwhile in this Gordon Brown gives a speech in which he says the Independent

issued a stark warning to the Afghan President Hamid Karzai that Britain will not continue to put its forces "in harm's way" in his country unless he is prepared to root out corruption.

Mr Brown defended Britain's military mission in Afghanistan, saying that the 9,000-strong UK force forms "our first line of defence" against terror attacks at home and insisting "we cannot, must not and will not walk away". says the Telegraph

The Times has come across an internal document which warns that the long-term future and reputation of Britain’s Armed Forces is at risk unless progress is made in Afghanistan.

The pronouncement by Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, the Chief of the Defence Staff, and Sir Bill Jeffrey, the Permanent Secretary, leaves no room for the possibility of early withdrawal from Afghanistan. “Planning within Defence should be based on the assumption of a rolling three-year military commitment to Afghanistan, reviewed annually,” they say in a jointly signed document circulated as guidance to MoD staff preparing for next year’s defence review.

The Guardian leads with news that

Scotland Yard faced calls for an "ethical audit" of all officers in its controversial riot squad tonight after figures revealed that they had received more than 5,000 complaint allegations, mostly for "oppressive behaviour".

The Telegraph reports that Professor Sir Ian Kennedy, the head of the independent watchdog charged with reforming MPs’ expenses and restoring public trust in Parliament, is a close friend of Alastair Campbell.

Whilst according to the Guardian he will not necessarily implement the proposals published by Sir Christopher Kelly, but will instead conduct a wide-ranging review of his own.

The Mail leads with the terrible story of the Mother who died whilst trying to save herbullied son from a blaze after a firework is pushed through their letterbox

Mary Fox pushed her teenage son through a window to safety as a blaze tore through their house.
But she was overcome by smoke and flames before she could escape herself.

The Times reports that the parents of the two French students murdered by an offender under probation supervision began a claim yesterday for “substantial damages” against the police and Ministry of Justice.

The families are seeking compensation over systematic failures and negligence in the justice system that contributed to the deaths of their sons, Laurent Bonomo and Gabriel Ferez.

Finally The Independent reports how Nick Griffin, the leader of the British National Party, paid a secret visit to a First World War memorial in Belgium ,only to become embroiled in an angry confrontation with a 13-year-old schoolboy

William Robey, was in Ypres visiting the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing as part of a school trip when he spotted Nick Griffin surrounded by some of his supporters.

Friday's papers

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Barlow) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:13:00 +0000

Fields of poppies on the front of many of the papers as a bad week in Afghanistan coincides with Rememberance Sunday

The Prime Minister is to make a speech today on Afghanistan and the Telegraph says that Gordon Brown will warn in a speech following the death of seven soldiers in six days.

Describing the Afghan mission as a “conflict of necessity not choice,” Mr Brown will insist despite growing doubts over the continued deployment of British troops, “we cannot, must not and will not walk away”.

The Sun meanwhile reports that the wife of massacred soldier Darren Chant yesterday revealed he was due to be a father again.Muslim Nausheen, 30, is six months pregnant.

It adds though that

Gordon Brown was blasted as a "ditherer" for failing to act on his vow to send 500 more troops.

Another death and a homecoming on the front of the Mail which describes how

With staggering courage and the utmost dignity, Christina Schmid pays an instinctive tribute to the fallen bomb disposal expert - with a solitary round of applause.
Wearing Staff Sergeant Olaf 'Oz' Schmid's medals proudly on her lapel, she smiles in a humbling display of personal fortitude

The Express reports that

BRITISH troops in Afghanistan were warned by their commander yesterday that the massacre of five of their comrades by a rogue policeman “probably won’t be the last”.

Meanwhile the Independent reports that

Barack Obama is coming under mounting international pressure to make an early decision on his strategy in Afghanistan amid fears of a dangerous drift as he agonises over his next moves.

And the Times reports that

The head of the United Nations in Afghanistan threatened a complete pullout yesterday after half of his staff were evacuated following last week’s terrorist attack, in which five UN personnel died.

The Guardian leads with the news that

The UN's nuclear watchdog has asked Iran to explain evidence suggesting that Iranian scientists have experimented with an advanced nuclear warhead design,

The paper adds that

The very existence of the technology, known as a "two-point implosion" device, is officially secret in both the US and Britain, but according to previously unpublished documentation in a dossier compiled by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iranian scientists may have tested high-explosive components of the design

According to the Independent,British Government officials believe there is no hope of signing a legally binding climate change treaty in Copenhagen next month.

The positions of major world powers are so far apart that another year or even more may be needed to negotiate a world climate treaty, senior British sources said at talks in Barcelona, which end today.

The Times leads with the news that sex education is to be made compulsory for all pupils,

prompting fury from faith groups which said that the move would contravene the right for children to be educated in accordance with their parents’ beliefs.

All 15-year-olds must receive at least one year of sex and relationship lessons, Ed Balls, the Schools Secretary, said yesterday. Those whose religious or moral values prevent them from attending will be classed as truants and may be punished by the school. Until now parents could opt out of lessons about contraception, sexually transmitted diseases and homosexuality until their children were 19.

MP's expenses continue to fill the papers.The Telegraph reporting that Alan Duncan, the shadow prisons minister, has been cleared of breaking the rules on expenses by a committee of MPs, despite failing to produce mortgage documents.

According to the Mail,

Women will be put off standing for Parliament unless they can hire a cleaner on their expenses, a female minister claimed yesterday.The warning by Work and Pensions Minister Helen Goodman follows a call this week to ban cleaning expenses by Parliamentary sleaze watchdog Sir Christopher Kelly.

Finally the Sun reports that a shock survey has revealed that

ONE in 20 British The same number thought the Holocaust was a celebration at the end of the war.
One in six youngsters believed the notorious Auschwitz concentration camp was a theme park - and one in 12 thought the Blitz was a European clean-up operation following World War II.

Nobody likes us we don't care

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Barlow) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:45:00 +0000

Glen Oglaza has it spot on about the Tories and Europe.

Are the Tories the Millwall of Europe: Nobody likes us but we don't care?

But here is the real point that he makes

We are in the European Union, so let's lead it from the front.

The EU should be led by Britain, Germany and France - but we always seem to be the Tail-End Charlie.
But I guess that will remain the way so long as we are not in the Euro or signed up to Shengen (uniquely difficult for the UK).
If we are staying in, let's do it properly and whole-heartedy - or let's just get out and trade with the Commonwealth instead.

Good summary of Afghanistan

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Barlow) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:31:00 +0000

The Afghan police were supposed to be layabout drug addicts and petty crooks, but that the force has been infiltrated by murderous, cowardly fifth columnists has concentrated Westminster minds. Current strategy in Afghanistan is failing.

Concise and to the point by the Spectator's David Blackburn

Thursday's papers

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Barlow) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:24:00 +0000

One story dominates the front pages as the Independent puts it,Killed by the Enemy within as five British soldiers are shot dead and others critically wounded after a rogue Afghan policeman turns machine gun on his colleagues as they relax in base

The exhausted soldiers - helping to train Afghan police - had made it back to the haven of the nick when the maniac they thought they could trust burst in.
The defenceless heroes had also taken off their body armour and helmets when the merciless renegade - secretly in the Taliban - let rip with an AK47.

says the Sun

Last night a manhunt was under way for the killer, who is suspected of having been planted by the Taliban at Checkpoint Blue in Nad-e-Ali, an insurgent-packed district in Helmand province. says the Mail

The shooting led to questions in the Commons over the West’s plan to train Afghan forces to take over security from Nato troops, and intensified calls for a clear exit strategy for British forces. says the Telegraph

Whilst the Times reports that

The shootings exposed cracks in the military alliance and domestic political unity. Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon, the former Liberal Democrat leader, and Lord Powell of Bayswater, Margaret Thatcher’s former foreign policy adviser, warned of the dangers of ebbing public support.

Away from that story the Guardian reports that France's Europe minister says David Cameron's pledge to reclaim EU powers is 'pathetic' and will leave Britain isolated

Speaking to the paper,

Pierre Lellouche described as "pathetic" the Tories' EU plans announced today, warning they would not succeed "for a minute".Lellouche, one of the most Anglophile members of Sarkozy's government, made his remarkable intervention after David Cameron outlined a fresh Tory approach to the EU in the wake of the full ratification of the Lisbon treaty.

The Telegraph says that

David Cameron, has pleaded with his MPs and voters to allow him to concentrate on fixing the fragile British economy if he becomes Prime Minister rather than having “a massive Euro bust up” over the Lisbon Treaty.

Yesterday's other main topic is relegated from the front pages.

Sir Christopher Kelly's long-awaited plans for cleaning up the discredited allowances system demanded radical action to rebuild public confidence in Westminster.

says the Independent

MPs are to be banned from claiming mortgage interest on expenses after an "appropriate" transitional period, under the recommendations of Commons watchdog Sir Christopher Kelly published today.

reports the Guardian adding that

Members of parliament will also be stopped from employing family members by the end of the next parliament or within five years, the long-awaited report stated.

Meanwhile the Mail says that

Grasping MPs demanded a huge pay rise last night after a crackdown on their expenses brought the Westminster gravy train to a halt.
In an astonishing show of contempt for voters, ministers and backbenchers complained that their £65,000-a-year salaries will not be enough to live on.

Away from politics and the Times reports that

A nanotechnology therapy that targets cancer with a “stealth smart bomb” is to begin patient trials next year in the first clinical test of a pioneering approach to medicine

Abroad and the Independent reports that

the official commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the storming by students of the US embassy in Tehran and the start of the 1979 hostage crisis was hijacked by the opposition yesterday – for their biggest show of strength in months.

The Telegraph reports how Republicans are celebrating after winning two state governorship elections against President Barack Obama's Democratic Party.

Victory for Bob McDonnell in Virginia and Chris Christie in New Jersey was seen as a strong warning signal to Mr Obama as he labours to reform the American health care system, enact legislation restricting carbon emissions and build support for foreign policy initiatives that have so far made scant progress.

The Guardian reports that

The British mercenary Simon Mann today vowed to testify in court against Sir Mark Thatcher and the oil tycoon Eli Calil, the two men he alleges were co-conspirators in the failed attempt to take over Equatorial Guinea in 2004.

Speaking as he flew back to Britain from the west African state, Mann made clear he had no intention of drawing a line under the episode, and would welcome a fresh inquiry that could lead to him giving evidence against his two old friends.

The Mail reports that a university lecturer flew to the Channel Islands to have sex with a 13-year-old girl he met online,

A court was told yesterday that

Dr Trevor Jackson, a leading academic, groomed the girl on a social networking site.
The 46-year-old, who resigned from Newcastle University last month, travelled to Jersey five times in five months to see the girl and often met her in hotels.

The Sun reports that a gang of students battled with cops when they were told not to board a packed bus.

Riot police were called as yobs fought officers in front of horrified shoppers.

adds the paper

Finally it's bonfire night and the Independent reports that

some devotees of this home-grown festival of fire, marking the day that Protestant Britain rejoiced in its defeat of the Catholic gunpowder plot to bring down James I, fear that our long-held love affair with the death of Guy Fawkes might be in danger of fizzling out.

And the Mail has an example from Devon where there won't be any waiting around for the flames to take hold.

The blaze will be raging just as soon as the organisers press the on-button on their giant television.Thousands will celebrate November 5 crowded around a screen showing film footage of fire after organisers gave up wrestling with health and safety rules to hold the real thing.
The event - dubbed 'non-fire night' - will leave families holding sparklers and staring up at a 16ft by 12ft screen showing images of a roaring blaze.

Wednesday's papers

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Barlow) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 05:06:00 +0000

The right wing press are not happy that the Lisbon treaty will now be coming into effect.

Britain-the end says the Express as it explains that the country

was last night frogmarched into a miserable new era of meddling Brussels rule after the final remaining resistance to the hated Lisbon Treaty collapsed.

Sign sealed delivered and up yours says the Sun

THE last hope of blocking a new European constitution was snuffed out last night - the final kick in the teeth after Labour's betrayal of Britain.
The Czech Republic became the last EU nation to sign the Lisbon Treaty, which will now become law.

Britain's power to govern itself is to be surrendered increasingly to Brussels after the European Union’s Lisbon Treaty was finally ratified.says the Telegraph adding that

David Cameron, the Conservative leader, will today set out plans for an alternative Tory pledge to renegotiate several parts of Britain’s EU membership, trying to win back control over social and employment laws.

The Times reports that

Gordon Brown and other leaders hailed a new era of expanded powers for the European Union to act on the world stage after the Eurosceptic President of the Czech Republic signed the treaty. The relief across European capitals was palpable as the eight-year journey of an accord that gives Europe a president and a new chief of foreign affairs came to an end.

David Cameron will attempt to appease Conservative Eurosceptics tomorrowwhen he outlines plans to repatriate some powers from Brussels as part of a toughening of Britain's relations with the EU.says the Guardian

Whilst the Independent says that

David Cameron will now face charges of betrayal from Eurosceptics on the party's backbenches after he made a "cast-iron guarantee" to the public in 2007 that he would hold a referendum on the treaty.

It is one of the papers that doesnt lead with events in Brussels.Instead it reports that

Employees who raise concerns about their company's environmental practices won the right to legal redress yesterday after a judge ruled that green beliefs deserved the same protection in the workplace as religious convictions.

Neither does the Guardian which claims that a major fissure has opened in Labour's support for the Afghan war with a call from the former Foreign Office minister Kim Howells for the phased withdrawal of British troops from Helmand.

Writing in the Guardian, Howells, who had ministerial responsibility for Afghanistan until 2008, said: "It would be better to bring home the great majority of our fighting men and women and concentrate, instead, on using the money saved to secure our own borders, gather intelligence on terrorist activities inside Britain."

Meanwhile the Independent says that

Hamid Karzai began his new presidency yesterday with a pledge to reach out to opponents and tackle the corrosive corruption which has deeply tainted his government and led to widespread international condemnation.

however it adds that

he appeared to rule out sacking ministers and officials accused of corruption and did not say how he would tackle the systemic malpractice and criminality which has undermined governance during his tenure.

According to the Times,

Lord Mandelson will today seek private talks with the board of General Motors to discuss the future of about 5,500 Vauxhall workers in Britain after the American car giant scrapped advanced plans to sell its European business.

The Telegraph reports that every family in the country is now facing a tax liability of £4,350 to prop up Britain’s banking system after Alistair Darling announced the biggest bail-out in history.

The Mail leads with the story that Gordon Brown's business tsar Alan Sugar was under siege last night after dismissing struggling small firms as ' moaners' who lived in 'Disney World'.

The multi-millionaire claimed a mere 15 per cent of businesses turned down for bank loans had anything to complain about.The rest, he declared, needed an 'insolvency practitioner' rather than more money

A couple who wrote to the BBC to say they had chosen to take their own lives and criticised British laws on assisted suicides have been found dead at their home, police said last night reports the Guardian

American voters have delivered a sharp rebuke to Barack Obama by rejecting his allies in Virginia, the swing state that helped deliver him the White House almost exactly a year ago, and the Democratic stronghold of New Jersey. says the Telegraph

Finally the £1000 train ticket as the Independent reports that

Passengers wishing temporarily to swap the party culture of Newquay, Cornwall, for the more serene pace of life enjoyed in the sleepy coastal village of the Kyle of Lochalsh, in the Scottish Highlands, will have to pay £1,002 for the privilege after the latest round of fare hikes. Enquiries carried out by The Independent found that a passenger could opt for a one-week luxury cruise in the Caribbean instead, together with flights to and from Puerto Rico, and still come home with £50 change.

Clear your diaries for 25th March 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Barlow) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:08:00 +0000

Mike Smithson is once again specualting on the date of a general election and this time it is the 25th March.

rumours has started circulating this afternoon with suggestions that key figures within the Labour party have been told “to prepare for March 25th”.
Who has been saying what to whom I have no idea. But going a few weeks early is about the last tactical advantage that Brown can deploy and it does make a sort of sense.

Can a fall in the pound help the economy recover

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Barlow) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:59:00 +0000

One possible economic way out of our current dilema is to allow the pound to fall and as Chris Dillow reports,this is being considered by a future Tory government.

He quotes from Giles Wilkes' papers slash and burn in which the author says that

George Osborne’s determination to cut the deficit at all costs risks leaving the economy sluggish and the government still mired in debt, according to a new report from liberal think tank CentreForum.

adding that

Even with a monumental collapse in the pound, there is little reason to believe that Britain’s export sector could respond fast enough to drive economic growth. Instead, this policy may just as easily weaken confidence and drive interest rates up, which would wreck a fragile recovery

So according to Chris

Imagine it's 2010-11, and Osborne announces big spending cuts. The Bank of England responds by keeping interest rates low. However, the Fed and ECB start to raise rates. The UK could soon end up with almost the lowest rates in the world. Carry traders around the world will then short sterling. The pound will fall, possibly very sharply. This effect would almost certainly swamp any uplift the pound gets from improved confidence about the public finances.

Tony Blair finds that his backing for European President is ebbing away

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Barlow) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:45:00 +0000

Yes it is the latest downfall video

Tuesday's papers

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Barlow) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 05:11:00 +0000

The Independent call it a victory for a crooked, corrupt and discredited government.

Hamid Karzai has been declared re-elected as President of the country for the next five years though his allies inside and outside Afghanistan know that he owes his success to open fraud. Instead of increasing his government's legitimacy, the poll has further de-legitimised it.

says the paper

According to the Times

Western leaders, desperate to end a crisis that has undermined their efforts to defeat the Taleban, rushed to endorse the decision by the Independent Election Commission (IEC) and congratulate Mr Karzai.

The Guardian says that pressure was growing on Hamid Karzai today to form a unity government adding that

Diplomats and world leaders warned that he must reach out to Abdullah after the IEC, which has been heavily criticised for being biased in the president's favour, declared that Karzai would serve another five years in office.

Meanwhile its front page carries a picture of Staff Sergeant Olaf Sean George Schmid, 30,who

died instantly on Saturday while trying to make safe an improvised explosive device in the Sangin region of Helmand province,

Most of the papers carry the story that David Cameron is to tell the British people that a Conservative government will not give them a referendum on the European Union’s Lisbon Treaty.

It is the lead in the Telegraph which reminds its readers that

Mr Cameron gave voters an “iron-clad” promise in 2007 that a Conservative government would hold a popular vote on Lisbon

Mr Cameron began preparing yesterday for what diehard sceptics will see as a climbdown. He acknowledged openly for the first time that his party may not be able to hold a promised referendum on the treaty before it becomes law.says the Times

It leads with news that tThe Home Secretary admitted yesterday that the Government had made mistakes in its handling of immigration and had overreacted to the 7/7 bombings in London.

In his first speech on the subject, Alan Johnson said that ministers had ignored immigration problems and the growing pressure on jobs and services in parts of Britain. Some communities had legitimate concerns because they had been particularly affected.

Meanwhile the Guardian says that

The government had already ordered an inquiry into the future operation of the panel of scientists advising the Home Office on drug policy before the controversial sacking of its chairman,

The Independent reports that

In a letter to Mr Johnson yesterday, the council said that while it had not been possible to contact all 28 remaining members – two resigned at the weekend – "it is clear that a majority of the council have serious concerns" about Professor Nutt's dismissal and the future of the council.

Most of the papers report that Royal Mail is to face legal action over the recruitment of 30,000 agency staff during the bitter postal strike, according to the Communication Workers Union.

Meanwhile a A YouGov poll conducted for the Telegraph finds that

an equal amount of people blame the union for the action as they do the management (25 per cent each). Some 44 per cent of people said "both equally" were to blame. Only a fortnight ago, 28 per cent blamed the management and 21 the union.

A heartbroken mother took centre stage on Monday as the High Court was asked to let her seriously disabled son die.says the Mail adding that

She is backing a hospital's application for the year-old baby to be taken off life support.The baby's father, however, insists he must live and says a simple operation could even lead to him being cared for at home.

According to the lead in the Guardian

Thousands of families could lose out on free pre-school education due to a funding crisis that is forcing state-run nurseries to lay off staff, increase class sizes and in some cases close.

Miliband met by icy reception on debut mission to Moscow reports the Independent

The British Foreign Secretary's trip was the highest-ranking official British visit to Russia in years. But his Russian counterparty, Sergey Lavrov, made it clear that Mr Miliband's efforts to secure the extradition of the former security agent and current MP Andrei Lugovoi, as well as to make progress on a range of other issues that plague bilateral relations, would come to naught.

The Guardian reports that

The British mercenary Simon Mann, who was sentenced to 34 years in prison in Equatorial Guinea last year for plotting to overthrow the oil-rich country's government, has been granted a presidential pardon.

The Times says that the

Somali pirates who kidnapped a British couple last month were preparing to defend their hostages from Islamist extremists, who they said were heading to the area with plans to seize them.

4 out of 10 households get their rent paid by the taxpayer in the parts of Britain most blighted by benefits dependency.is the lead in the Express adding that

Figures released by the Conservatives last night showed that the annual cost of housing benefit has soared by an eye- watering £2.7billion under Labour, with almost a quarter of all households across London dependent on the allowance.

Finally the Sun carries the latest on Micheal Barrymore whom it says

is reduced to mucking out a pal's garage.
Barrymore, once host of ITV's prime-time show Strike It Lucky, now spends his weekends polishing cars, clearing junk and sweeping the forecourt.

Monday's papers

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Barlow) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 05:08:00 +0000

Both the Gaurdian and the Times lead with the fallout from the sacking of David Nutt,

The home secretary faces mass resignations from the government's drug advisory body over his decision to force out its chairman, who accused ministers of distorting scientific evidence on cannabis

.says the Guardian

Les King, an expert chemist, was the first to resign. He said that the Home Secretary had denied Professor Nutt his right to free speech and called for the council to become truly independent of politicians. He was swiftly followed by Marion Walker, a pharmacist and clinical director with the substance misuse service at the Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.

reports the Times

This is a war that cannot be won. And the suppression of David Nutt won't help says Bruce Anderson in the Independent

The maximum penalty for using a class B substance is five years in prison. Does anyone believe that any judge would ever pass such a sentence for smoking marijuana? So what is the point of pretending to buttress a law that is already widely flouted with even more pains and penalties which will never be enforced?

The Telegraph leads with the news that Harriet Harman has warned that radical proposals to overhaul the system of MPs’ expenses drawn up by an independent review may be blocked

She said it would not be fair for MPs to be forced to sack their spouses or other family members working in their offices.
She also indicated that plans to stop MPs living in the London commuter belt from having taxpayer-funded second homes may prove unacceptable.

According to the Times,Alistair Darling is expected to announce tomorrow that Lloyds Banking Group and RBS will be stripped down and various parts sold to new owners, creating as many as three new institutions on the high street.

The Guardian thinks that the Chancellor will need to pour up to £40bn of taxpayers' money into the banking system if he is to fulfil a pledge to carve out three new banking players on the high street in the next four years.

There is much attention on Afghanistan after Abdullah Abdullah pulled out of the second round run-off in the elections yesterday

The former foreign minister said it would be impossible to participate in the November 7 vote after the government's refusal to sack or suspend officials and ministers implicated in fraud.

says the Telegraph

The move in effect clears the way for Hamid Karzai to retain power despite the fact that he was stripped of his first round election majority because of rampant fraud. A weakened Karzai administration, shorn of electoral legitimacy, represents a major blow to Western powers as they consider whether to send more troops to Afghanistan for the military campaign against the Taliban.says the Independent

Meanwhile the focus continues on the British couple kidnapped by Somali pirates whom the Telegraph says could be given their freedom in exchange for the release of seven pirates captured by the German navy last week.

Meanwhile the Sun reports that

A BRITISH holidaymaker died yesterday when she was crushed by a landslide on a family beach on Tenerife.
Marion O'Hara, 57, was at the island's popular Playa de los Gigantes resort when rocks fell 200ft from a cliff above her.

Someone is attacked by a complete stranger every 30 seconds in Binge Britain, figures revealed last night.is the lead in the Mail adding that

There were 1,057,000 violent attacks by strangers last year - the equivalent of 2,895 a day or 120 every hour.
Opposition MPs said it was the latest proof the Government's relaxation of licensing laws had failed.

The lead in the Independent is a report that

Every adult in the UK would be legally required to decide whether to donate their organs after death, under a radical solution to the critical shortage of organs for transplant put forward by the country's oldest royal medical college.

The Sun uncovers a new phenonoma this morning,Beefgate

BEEFEATER Moira Cameron was allegedly subjected to a hate campaign that saw her uniform defaced, notes left in her locker - and a web entry about her sabotaged.
The 44-year-old bachelor girl became the Tower of London's first female yeoman warder "on merit" in 2007 after 522 years of exclusively male guards.

The Mail reports on the The Halloween slayings

A man was under arrest last night after a retired company executive and his girlfriend were found dead in a Halloween murder at a house in a quiet residential street.
The victim, named locally as 62-year-old Ken Snell, a former senior executive with mobile phone giant Motorola, was with an unnamed woman just after 9pm on Saturday at the £250,000 bungalow in leafy Cringleford, Norwich.

Police in the Ohio city of Cleveland urged families of missing people to come forward with pictures of their absent relatives yesterday after the discovery of six badly decomposed bodies at the home of a convicted rapist, prompting a mass murder investigation

.reports the Guardian

A new study on the front of the Express has found that

GENTLE exercise can dramatically cut the danger of an early death from heart disease, according to new research.
Just 30 minutes of jogging or cycling three times a week has amazing results for people with heart problems – the UK’s biggest killer

Finally the Times reports that the Army’s youngest holder of the George Cross has clashed with the Ministry of Defence over the “lack of respect” paid by ministers to servicemen who have made the ultimate sacrifice in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Former Lance Corporal of Horse Christopher Finney, 25, who left the Army in July and now works at a call centre for an insurance company, said that he was disillusioned with military life and angry with the Government, claiming more respect was shown to celebrities than to dead soldiers.

Sunday's papers

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Barlow) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 05:22:00 +0000

Top jobs in Europe.The Sunday Times reveals that Gordon Brown is secretly backing David Miliband to be the European Union’s foreign affairs chief.

Downing Street is discreetly supporting the foreign secretary as a candidate for EU high representative for foreign affairs, with Tony Blair looking increasingly unlikely to win the presidency.
Miliband’s departure for Europe would increase the chances of one of the prime minister’s chosen candidates, Ed Balls or Ed Miliband, the foreign secretary’s brother, winning a leadership contest if Labour is defeated at the general election.

says the paper and according to the Independent

The possibility of Mr Miliband departing for Brussels would have a significant impact on the career of Peter Mandelson. At the very least, he could expect to be given the job of Foreign Secretary. However, he could also parachute himself into Mr Miliband's South Shields seat in the hope of, at some stage, succeeding Mr Brown.

Meanwhile the Observer reports that

Tory donor Lord Ashcroft was embroiled in fresh controversy last night after it emerged that he accompanied the shadow foreign secretary to key meetings overseas, amid rumours that he will be given a top foreign policy role in a future Conservative government.

The Telegraph has learnt that three new banks are to appear on Britain's high streets as part of a major break-up of the sector to be announced by the Government this week,

the Chancellor, will confirm over the next few days that Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Lloyds Banking Group, both of which are majority-owned by the taxpayer, will be split up.

The new banks will be standard retail banks concentrating on deposits and mortgages and offering what ministers hope will be a better deal for the consumer with an invigorated mortgage market and more competition.adds the Observer

According to the lead story in the Mail,Tony Blair has been in talks with Tesco about helping them open supermarkets in the Middle East - allegedly in return for up to £1million.However continues the report

It is believed the discussions between the former Prime Minister, now a peace envoy to the region, and the supermarket chain, whose slogan is 'Every little helps', ended after the two sides failed to agree terms.

The Times reports that Government advisers are preparing for the mass vaccination of schoolchildren to stop the spread of swine flu.

The plans come amid growing concern about the number and severity of infections in children. Figures released last week show that children under the age of 15 account for a fifth of all swine flu hospital admissions. A total of 217 children have been treated in hospital, including 27 who are in critical care.

The Government's drugs policy has descended into chaos with advisers poised to quit over the sacking of Whitehall's chief drugs expert,reports the Telegraph.

A mass resignation is believed to be among the tactics being considered by the 30 unpaid members of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), including some of the country's leading doctors, psychiatrists, chemists and charity workers, who advise ministers on the harmfulness of drugs so that penalties can be set

proportionately.

The Independent reports that the NHS is paying millions to gag whistleblowers.

Some local NHS bodies are spending millions of taxpayers' money to pay off and silence whistleblowers with "super gags" to stop them going public with patient safety incidents. Experts warn that patients' lives are being endangered by the use of intimidatory tactics to force out whistleblowers and deter other professionals from coming forward.

Meanwhile the Times reports that

THE government has been forced to rewrite its advice on breast cancer screening after research showed that thousands of women have been misled into having unnecessary surgery.

President Hamid Karzai was involved in desperate talks last night to broker a deal with his main rival, Abdullah Abdullah, to head off another crisis in Afghanistan's presidential election saga. reports the Observer

diplomats said last-minute efforts led by Kai Eide, the senior United Nations official in Afghanistan, were under way in an attempt to stop a boycott by Abdullah of a run-off vote on Saturdaynext Saturday.

The lead in the Independent is Wildlife crime: Britain's killing fields.The paper reports that

Crimes against wildlife, including badger baiting with dogs, hare coursing, poisoning of protected birds and even trapping them to sell as caged pets have soared to unprecedented heights. New figures from the police show that the number of wildlife crimes more than doubled in the last year, from 2,177 to 5,854.

The Express reports that the EU wants to end the right of shoppers to get their money back for shoddy goods.

This would end the 100 years of protection British consumers have enjoyed.

says the paper adding that

Ministers have vowed to fight the Consumer Rights Directive but the UK Government has no power to stop the change if it is backed by the majority of European Union states.

The News of the World has the first interview with the victim of Marlon King's nightclub attack

As King, 29, began an 18-month jail sentence for groping 20-year-old student Emily Carr and punching her in the face, she told for the first time how the £35,000-a-week striker taunted and floored her in the vicious nightclub attack.

The Mail on Sunday reports some strange goings on in Vienna.

A British nuclear expert who fell from the 17th floor of a United Nations building did not commit suicide and may have been hurled to his death, says a doctor who carried out a second post-mortem examination

.reports the paper adding that

Timothy Hampton, 47, a scientist involved in monitoring nuclear activity, was found dead last week at the bottom of a stairwell in Vienna.

Finally many of the papers report that Stephen Fry has said he is going to quit Twitter after a fellow user of the popular internet site described him as “boring”.

Yesterday Fry said he was ready to silence his fingers and thumbs and stop providing his 925,000 followers with near-hourly updates on his thoughts and activities, known as “tweets”.
At 2.18pm he posted: “Think I may have to give up on Twitter. Too much aggression and unkindness around. Pity. Well, it’s been fun.”

reports the Sunday Times

Saturday's papers

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Barlow) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 07:04:00 +0000

Sacked for telling the truth about drugs is the lead in the Independent this morning as the paper reports that

The Government's drugs tsar was forced to resign last night for stating his view that cannabis, ecstasy and LSD were less harmful than the legal drugs tobacco and alcohol.

Professor Nutt was told to resign as chairman of the Advisory Council on the Misuse Drugs (ACMD) after a series of controversial outbursts including accusing ministers of ignoring scientific evidence to distort the drugs debate

.adds the Telegraph

Mr Johnson said he had "lost confidence" in him but Prof Nutt hit back claiming the decision was politically motivated and accused ministers of a "Luddite" attitude to science.

According to a Times exclusive,Patients who do not get the treatment that they need from the NHS within 18 weeks are to be given the legal right to free private care.

The Cabinet agreed this week that the legislation, placing maximum waiting times on the statute book for the first time, should be rushed through Parliament before the next election.

The Guardian leads with the story that

Leaders of three of the most powerful states in Europe have strongly criticised David Cameron at the EU summit over a Conservative attempt to scupper the Lisbon treaty.

Nicolas Sarkozy, Angela Merkel and José Luiz Rodríguez Zapatero are understood to have privately criticised the Tory leader after he sent a handwritten letter to the Czech president, Vaclav Klaus, who has been refusing to sign the treaty.

The most senior soldier to be killed in Afghanistan foreshadowed his own death in a damning memo about the shortage of helicopters.reports the Mail

Lieutenant Colonel Rupert Thorneloe told his superiors that British troops would die because they were being forced to make trips by road.Less than a month later, he was blown up by a roadside bomb.

The age of free banking is coming to an end says the Telegraph as it reports that new figures show that nearly half of all current accounts offered by high street banks now involve customers paying a fee to use them.

A combination of an expected limit on overdraft charges, falling profits and the recession is forcing banks to turn away from traditional free accounts.

Most of the papers report that Somali pirates have demanded a $7 million ransom last night for the kidnapped British couple Paul and Rachel Chandler.

It was the first time that a figure had been mentioned since Mr and Mrs Chandler were captured on board their yacht off the Seychelles a week ago.
A spokesman for the pirates said that the money was only a “little amount” and would compensate for the seizures made by international anti-piracy patrols.

says the Times

THE distraught mum of tragic Ashleigh Hall yesterday blasted Facebook for failing to prevent perverts using the site.reports the Sun

Andrea Hall wept as she urged bosses to take action to stop predatory sex fiends trawling for victims.

The Independent says that John Bercow, the Speaker of the Commons, has been accused of taking his shake-up of the role too far after he unleashed an attack on the British National Party.

Mr Bercow, who was in the Speaker's chair to oversee the first ever UK Youth Parliament session taking place in the Commons, earned cheers and even a standing ovation from the delegates for his outburst. "I'm under absolutely no obligation whatsoever to be impartial as between the forces of democracy on the one hand and the forces of evil on the other," he said.

Parents who cheat to get a place at the best state schools will face fines and court orders under hardline proposals to be set out by a major inquiry on Monday.says the Guardian

The move it continues

follows an unsuccessful attempt by Harrow council this summer to prosecute a parent under the Fraud Act who was accused of lying about her address to get her child a place at a popular primary. The case collapsed, exposing the lack of legal sanctions deterring parents from making deceptive statements in their applications, and prompted the schools secretary, Ed Balls, to request the inquiry.

The Mail has been looking into the affairs of Tony Blair,

At a conservative estimate, he has made £15million from his commercial activities since stepping down as prime minister in 2007, and there is every sign that his earning capacity is increasing.
He remains in demand as a £100,000-a-time international speaker, he has contracts to provide advice with several banking institutions, he is writing his memoirs, and he has established Tony Blair Associates (TBA) to provide advice to foreign governments for money.

A couple of stories from abroad.The Telegraph reports that the teenager who fathered Sarah Palin's 10-month-old grandson has delivered a fresh blow to the former Republican vice presidential candidate by saying he will "definitely" take her to court to gain access to his child.

Meanwhile the Times says that

Jacques Chirac, the former French President, has been ordered to stand trial on corruption charges over claims that he illegally used public money to fund his rise to power in the 1990s.

Finally according to the Independent a Japanese professor claims communist dictator Kim Jong-il has been replaced after dying in 2003.

Toshimitsu Shigemura, who once claimed that the real Mr Kim died in 2003, and that everything since has been make-believe. One Mr Kim, he maintains, even flatly confessed to a Japanese visitor, "I am a double."

Friday's papers

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Barlow) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 04:45:00 +0000

Here one day gone the next as the Guardian leads with the news that Tony Blair's bid to beocme EU president has faltered badly as Sarkozy and Merkel fail to back him.

The continent's centre-right leaders made it clear one of their own must have the post

says the paper

Hours after Gordon Brown delivered his strongest statement of support for Blair – disclosing that he had spoken to him earlier this week – British sources indicated that the former prime minister was unlikely to assume the high-profile job.

According to the Independent,Gordon Brown got into a heated exchange with German politician,Martin Schultz, the leader of the Socialist group in the European Parliament. over his predecessor's chances of becoming EU President

According to the Times

Thousands of polling stations would be closed and voting hours reduced under a plan to cut the cost of elections.

adding that

The options, outlined in a working paper drawn up by the Ministry of Justice for the Treasury, are designed to save up to £65 million. They were condemned last night as a “threat to democracy that would save peanuts”.

More "democracy" in the Telegraph as the paper reports that Tony McNulty has been allowed to keep almost £60,000 he claimed in expenses for a house where his elderly parents lived just eight miles from the "main" home he shares with his wife.

The former Home Office minister was criticised by a formal inquiry for allowing his parents to live rent free at taxpayers' expense and ordered to repay more than £13,000.
But the Parliamentary committee, who decide MPs' punishments ruled he should be allowed to keep the majority of the money claimed on the home.

The Independent leads with the news that Michael Ashcroft, is caught in the middle of a legal and political storm in the Central American haven of Belize, where many of his businesses are based.

In an interview with the paper

the country's Prime Minister, Dean Barrow, has accused the billionaire Tory party deputy chairman of operating a monopoly and of trying to obscure his interests through a byzantine web of subsidiaries and trusts.

The Times reports that

Pakistani troops fighting Islamist militants in the mountains of South Waziristan have picked up the trail of a leading al-Qaeda figure wanted in connection with the attacks on America on September 11, 2001.

Meanwhile the Guardian reports that

The chances of another disastrous round of voting in Afghanistan's presidential race increased dramatically today after the country's election authority defied international pressure to cut the number of polling centres in order to reduce fraud.

Two 10-year-old boys have been arrested on suspicion of raping an eight-year-old girl in her local park. reports the Telegraph

The alleged victim, who cannot be named, returned from playing near her home in Hayes, west London, on Tuesday afternoon to tell her mother that she had been raped by two boys she knew.

The couple kidnapped by Somali pirates relived the moment when they were captured

In a brief phone call, permitted by his captors, Paul Chandlerhe told how he and wife Rachel were on the Indian Ocean in pitch darkness when gunmen hijacked their craft.
'Three boats came alongside,' he said. 'I was asleep and men with guns came aboard.'

says the Mail

It leads with the news that Nursery paedophile Vanessa George has

After months of refusing to name the children she abused, now given police a list of up to ten names of children under three.

The case of Premiership footballer Marlon King makes most of the papers.He was yesterday jailed for 18 months after he had says the Sun

denied punching a 20-year-old student after she complained he had touched her bottom at the nightspot in London's West End.Premier League Wigan immediately fired him, with chairman Dave Whelan declaring: "He is absolutely sacked."

Finally

He was 85 and frail but Norman Painting insisted on travelling to the studio to record his lines. Two days later the actor, who had played Phil Archer since the pilot episode of The Archers radio series 60 years ago, died.

reports the Times

Painting, who had fought ill health in recent years, was found at his cottage in the Oxfordshire village of Warmington by his carer yesterday morning. Ambridge addicts have followed Phil’s progress from lusty young romantic to grandfather and Archers patriarch.

Thursday's papers

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Barlow) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 04:58:00 +0000

Both the Guardian and the Independent lead with the coroner's scathing attack on the MOD in the enquiry into the loss of a Nimrod in Afghnaistan in 2006 with the loss of 14 lives.

Betrayed says the Independent as the paper says that

One of the worst disasters in recent British military history was the result of "incompetence, complacency and cynicism" by senior military figures which broke the covenant the country has with its soldiers, a devastating official report has concluded.

The report, by Charles Haddon-Cave QC, pulls no punches in describing a litany of failings, including a culture at the MoD where safety became secondary to cost

.says the Guardian

Whilst the Mail reports that

A grieving mother called last night for 'heads to roll' at the highest levels of Government after a devastating report laid bare the 'incompetence, complacency and cynicism' that caused Britain's worst military disaster since the Falklands War.

Back to the topic of the week as the Times has learnt that

Tony Blair will stand for the presidency of the European Union if its leaders agree that the role is a substantial one requiring clout on the world stage,

adding that

The position was discussed last night by President Sarkozy of France and Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, at a meeting in Paris. The signs were that France had won lukewarm backing from Germany for Mr Blair but that neither country was prepared to provoke an EU split over the matter

According to the main story in the Telegraph,more than 250,000 alleged racist incidents have been reported in schools as staff are forced to investigate every single playground spat,

The report published by the Manifesto Club says that

Primary school pupils and toddlers in nurseries are being punished for making racist insults, according to a report, even if they don’t understand the terms they use.
Teachers are being treated like counter staff in police stations as they have to fill in forms detailing name-calling and jokes.

We enter the second round of postal strikes as many of the papers report the collapse in talks

Both sides blamed each other after three days of talks mediated by the TUC collapsed without a deal being reached. As late as evening there had still been some hope that this week's strike action could be called off to relieve the pressure on Royal Mail.

says the Guardian

A bad day in the war on terror

The deadliest bomb attack in Pakistan for two years tore through the city of Peshawar yesterday just hours after Hilary Clinton arrived in the country to pledge the support of the US in a fight against militants that officials are increasingly framing as a fight for the nation's survival. Women and children were said to make up the majority of those killed.

reports the Independent

The Times reports that

The faithful had just finished their morning prayers when the crack and thump of exploding grenades echoed across Kabul. It was the first indication that at a United Nations guesthouse in a smart residential district of the Afghan capital, a deadly assault was under way.
Within a few hours the three-storey hostel would be reduced to a smouldering wreck and almost half of the more than 30 expatriates who called it home would be dead or wounded.

Meanwhile the Telegraph reports that Somali pirates who captured a retired couple on a sailing trip around the Indian Ocean have threatened to kill them and “burn their bones” if a rescue attempt is launched.

The Swiss authorities are considering changing the law on assisted suicide

Swiss authorities want to ensure euthanasia is a last resort for the terminally ill, amid fears their current laws on assisted suicide could be open to abuse. A study last year suggested more and more people seeking help to die in Switzerland did not have a terminal illness. reports the Guardian

No men OR women needed is the headline in the Mail as it reports that

Human eggs and sperm have been grown in the laboratory in research which could change the face of parenthood.
It paves the way for a cure for infertility and could help those left sterile by cancer treatment to have children who are biologically their own.

The Sun reports on the news that the Government's chief adviser on drugs caused fury last night by claiming booze and fags are more dangerous than LSD.

Professor David Nutt also said the risk of taking ecstasy was no worse than riding a horse - and blasted the decision to upgrade cannabis to a class B drug.

Finally a shopping centre in Wrexham is the site of the world's biggest Mona Lisa

The giant version of the Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece has gone on display at the Eagles Meadow shopping centre in Wrexham.
It measures 17.5m, covers 240m sq and is 50 times bigger than the 16th century original which is hanging in the Louvre art gallery in Paris.

repoprts the Telegraph

Karzai's brother is on the CIA payroll

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Barlow) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:37:00 +0000

Today's lead story in the New York Times is the revelation that the brother of the Afghan President Hamid Karzi

Ahmed Wali Karzai, a suspected player in the country’s booming illegal opium trade, gets regular payments from the Central Intelligence Agency, and has for much of the past eight years, according to current and former American officials.

Mr. Karzai is being paid for a number of services says the report

including helping to recruit an Afghan paramilitary force that operates at the C.I.A.’s direction in and around the southern city of Kandahar,

It just gets better and better

A scathing attack on the MOD

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Barlow) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:29:00 +0000

It really is pretty shocking the damning report on the crash of the RAF Nimrod in Afghanistan in 2006.

Fourteen servicemen lost their lives,the biggest single day loss of life since the Falkland's war.

Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth,was forced to make a statement in the Commons in which he said that the “MoD must take responsibility for many of the failings identified in the inquiry."

The coroner's eport was essentially a scathing attack with Charles Haddon-Cave QC said the loss of Nimrod MR2 had occurred because of a "systemic breach" of the military covenant.adding that

He blamed financial cuts within the MoD after a review in 1998 had resulted in a "cascade" of organisation changes.

Ageing components, the RAF's maintenance policy and a lack of modern fire suppressants were among the "contributing factors".

Dale is right

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Barlow) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:28:00 +0000

It is definitely my day for agreeing with Tory writers

Many MPs will be very displeased by the contents of the leak of some of Sir Christopher Kelly's proposals. However, the public are in no mood to listen to what they will see as self-interested bleatings. I think, therefore, they probably have little alternative but to go along with them. That doesn't make them 100 per cent right, though

Via Iain Dale

On a wing and a prayer

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Barlow) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:23:00 +0000

It is not often that I agree with Simon Heffer but his piece in this morning's Telegraph is spot on.

there has been a consistent, unanimous message about the political class from people who work in business: that nobody senior in any party understands just how bad things are

And even the Tories come in for stick or should I say George Osborne

Mr Osborne is set to become Chancellor of the Exchequer not because he is a great economic thinker or strategist, and not even because he understands economics, but because he is Mr Cameron's chum. There are several people on the Conservative benches infinitely better qualified to do the job, and infinitely more needed by the country at this time of severe crisis: but they don't have a prayer.

Wednesday's papers

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Barlow) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 03:58:00 +0000

According to the Independent this morning,the government wants to break up the banks

Government sources said ministers were "determined" to see more competition in the market, following the £1.2 trillion bailout of the sector which resulted in the loss of three independent banks and several building societies.

says the paper adding that

The European Union will today approve the split of Northern Rock into two sections, a "good", profitable, bank with no bad debt, and a "bad" bank. Ministers will begin exploring sale options at the start of next year when the split happens and a deal could be finalised before the general election

A different take on the story in the Guardian which says that

A tug of war has begun at the top of the government over the future of Northern Rock as senior figures argue that the Treasury's planned sell-off should be stopped so that the ailing bank can instead be turned into a building society owned by its customers.

The Telegraph leads with the news that MPs will be banned from claiming the cost of mortgages on their expenses and barred from employing members of their family under proposals in an official review of the system to be announced next week.

Sir Christopher Kelly’s inquiry into parliamentary expenses is expected to recommend that MPs should be allowed only to rent second homes in future. That would prevent politicians making windfall profits from their taxpayer-funded allowances.

The Times also leads with that story saying that MPs will be banned from claiming for a second home if their nearest railway station is within 60 minutes of the Houses of Parliament,the proposal it says

will provoke an outcry in the Commons. MPs claim that renting costs the taxpayer more than mortgage interest.

Another day,another government U turn

Gordon Brown bowed to intense pressure from MPs of all parties yesterday and personally intervened to cancel a proposal by the cash-strapped Ministry of Defence to impose a planned £20m cut in the Territorial Army's training budget,says the Guardian

The Independent reports that David Cameron claimed yesterday that some of Britain's unemployed are worse off when they accept a job,

Welfare reform was a central theme of the Tory leader's conference speech earlier this month, during which he said that some single mothers who choose to work would lose 96p in every pound they earned as a result of tax and the loss of benefits

finally appeared in the dock in the Hague and, says the Telegraph,was overheard on phone tap intercepts plotting to wipe Bosnian Muslims from the "face of the earth"

During one key telephone conversation, the former Bosnian Serb leader is said to have threatened to turn the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina into a killing zone.
"They will disappear. Sarajevo will be a black cauldron, where 300,000 Muslims will die. They are not right in the head. It is clear to everyone. It will be a real bloodbath," he said.

The Guardian leads with Iraq which the paper says goes nuclear with plans for new reactor programme

The Iraqi government has approached the French nuclear industry about rebuilding at least one of the reactors that was bombed at the start of the first Gulf war. The government has also contacted the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and United Nations to seek ways around resolutions that ban Iraq's re-entry into the nuclear field.

Meanwhile the Independent reports how

The loss of eight more American soldiers yesterday, the resignation of a highly regarded US Foreign Service officer, and new tensions over next week's Afghan election run-off have combined to intensify pressure on Barack Obama as he edges towards a crucial decision on a major increase in US troop strength in Afghanistan.

There is much coverage of the hijacking of a British yacht by Somali pirates.The Times says

The last message that Paul and Rachel Chandler posted on their blog reads simply: “PLEASE RING SARAH”. Soon after, the British couple are believed to have triggered their yacht’s emergency-locator beacon in the Indian Ocean before being kidnapped by Somali pirates.

The Mail leads with the story that a predator on the Sex Offenders' Register killed a 17-year-old girl he met and groomed on Facebook after luring her to a secret meeting.

The 32-year-old posed as a 16-year-old boy to befriend Ashleigh Hall on the social networking site.But within hours of their first meeting, the teenager was dead.

As does the Sun which reports how

Murder cops were led to the body of missing Ashleigh after a driver nicked for minor motoring offences blurted out: "I've killed a girl.

Footballers have been told to stop spitting to stop the spread of swine flu

The message comes days after revelations of outbreaks of the virus at two Premier League clubs – Bolton Wanderers and Blackburn Rovers – and Sam Allardyce's warning that Chelsea could face their own outbreak. "Spitting is disgusting at all times," a spokesperson from the Health Protection Agency said.reports the Guardian

Finally the Independent reports how

A prehistoric sea monster with gigantic jaws that could swallow a man whole and snap a car in half has been unearthed by an amateur fossil hunter at the foot of a cliff on the Jurassic Coast of southern England.

adding how

it took several years for the collector, 62-year-old Kevan Sheehan, to carefully amass portions of the fossilised jawbones and skull as they emerged from the cliff-face after a succession of rock falls. His patience has been rewarded by selling the fossil to Dorset County Council for £20,000, using money from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Make up your mind over Europe Mr Cameron

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Barlow) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:32:00 +0000

I couldn't agree more with Bagehot's post on the Economist thios afternoon.

He writes that

Time is running out for David Cameron's European policy. At his press conference this morning, he clung to his "one policy at a time", "it shall not rest" approach in regard to the Lisbon treaty, but he probably won't be able to do so for much longer. Indeed, to some the formula is already sounding more evasive than rational, precisely the sort of dodge that Mr Cameron frequently accuses Gordon Brown of making.

More tricky for Mr Cameron is the European President role

That led to two awkward follow-up questions that Mr Cameron struggled to answer. Was he really saying that Britain's interests in Europe would be better served by a foreign president than by Mr Blair? And wasn't the underlying thrust of his broader point that he wanted the job to be done badly (surely not a good thing, if it is to exist, for either the EU or Britain)?