13-May-08
Ever wanted that few minutes of fame, or a chance to put your point across to a few of the country's politicians? Well, BBC Newsnight is coming to Crewe & Nantwich to host a special edition from the constituency two days before next week's by-election.
The special programme - broadcast live on Tuesday 20th May - will be hosted by Jeremy Paxman alongside a panel of senior politicans and an audience of voters from the constituency.
The Newsnight team want to hear from Crewe & Nantwich voters across the political spectrum on the issues that matter to them, from tax to immigration, the cost of living to crime and the campaign itself.
Places are limited, so those interested in joining the studio audience should get in touch for more details by emailing Natasha.Mardikar@bbc.co.uk or by calling 0208-624-8200 and leaving a message with their contact details so that the team can call them back.
The special programme - broadcast live on Tuesday 20th May - will be hosted by Jeremy Paxman alongside a panel of senior politicans and an audience of voters from the constituency.
The Newsnight team want to hear from Crewe & Nantwich voters across the political spectrum on the issues that matter to them, from tax to immigration, the cost of living to crime and the campaign itself.
Places are limited, so those interested in joining the studio audience should get in touch for more details by emailing Natasha.Mardikar@bbc.co.uk or by calling 0208-624-8200 and leaving a message with their contact details so that the team can call them back.
Up to 200 people gathered at Arbour Hill in Dublin on Saturday (May 10) to pay tribute to James Connolly one of the founding fathers of Irish socialist republicanism.* A lone piper and three person colour party led the crowd through the gates and onwards towards the final resting place of James Connolly, Pádraig Pearse, Thomas Clarke and many of the other leaders of the 1916 Rising.
éirÃgà activists and supporters from all four provinces converged on one the most hallowed of republican sites to pay their respects and re-commit themselves to the objective of an Irish socialist republic. Two activists, who had made the journey from south Derry, read out excerpts of Connolly's writings on the importance of the revolutionary party and the need for the unification of the aspirations of national independence and socialism.
Between the readings, Brian Leeson, who had earlier in the day been re-elected as éirÃgà chairperson, gave an oration dealing with the current state of the struggle against the British occupation. Brian was brutally honest in his assessment:
"Radical, revolutionary, separatist, republicanism is far weaker now than what it was a decade ago - in both political and organisational terms. Acceptance of this fact is the first necessary step in the process of reorganising and re-building a diverse social movement for the combined objectives of British withdrawal and social and economic justice.
"From our foundation, we in éirÃgà have believed that very little good can come from dwelling on the past and that the only long term-beneficiaries of inter-republican recriminations will be the ruling classes in both Britain and Ireland. Instead of such recrimination we need to make a cold, accurate, objective assessment of where republicanism now stands and from there plot a course for expansion, popularisation and ultimately for victory."
He continued: "Within that process there are difficult personal choices for us all to make. Individually, we each must choose to draw a line under the betrayals and disappointments of the past. Individually, we each must choose to recommit ourselves to the objective of an Irish socialist republic. Individually, we must again begin to believe that we can achieve that objective through a movement of ordinary Irish women and men working together in political struggle and, individually, we must choose to commit of our time and energy through certain hard times in the months and years ahead.
"Then, finally and collectively, we must choose to act.
"Our actions and our tactics must be appropriate to their time - recognising that, while republicanism has been weakened over recent years, the enemies of republicanism have grown proportionately stronger. We should neither overstretch nor undersell ourselves, but instead set about taking realistic steps to incrementally strengthen republicanism across the island."
Next to speak was former H-Block hunger-striker and current Independent Workers' Union organiser Tommy McKearney.**
Tommy gave an overview as to why the ideas of Connolly are still vitally important to the Ireland of today, and why organised labour is an essential component of any national liberation struggle.
Speaking after the commemoration, incoming éirÃgà general secretary Rab Jackson said the party was delighted with the turnout.
"This is the third year in a row that éirÃgà has organised the James Connolly Commemoration - and the numbers in attendance have risen steadily each year.
"What we want to do is promote not just a knowledge and understanding of what James Connolly did during his short life, but, also, promote a knowledge and understanding of how his writings are still relevant in modern Ireland. The beliefs of James Connolly are no good when left abstract, we need to make them living breathing ideas and initiatives."
Rab continued: "I would like to commend people for refusing to be intimidated by the presence of the Garda Special Branch here today and for giving these goons a worthy response - a dignified commemoration for a revolutionary hero.
* http://eirigi.org/latest/latest130508.html
** View Full Speech here. http://eirigi.org/ArdFheis08/comm_mckearney.html
The chancellor prepares to set out "significant" plans to "fix the political problem" over the 10p tax rate.
House prices could fall "at best by 5-10%" this year, photos of a minister's briefing notes reveal.
UK consumer inflation hits 3% in April, its highest level in 13 months, on food and fuel costs, official figures show.
A young offenders charity is given £400,000 to help run a mobile training camp to tackle the causes of crime.
Chancellor Alistair Darling will make an "interim" statement to the Commons on compensation for people affected by the scrapping of the 10p rate of tax.
Full details will be revealed in the pre-Budget report in the autumn.
Plus Adam Boulton will conduct a one on one interview with the Chancellor after 1630.
Watch it all on Sky News and here on the website.
Caroline Flint's carelessly exposed speaking notes reveal extent of minister's concern over downturn
Ministry of Defence contract would implement joint venture between VT and BAE Systems
Middle East envoy hails Israeli agreement to scrap one checkpoint this week and remove or relocate several others
The chancellor, Alistair Darling, will unveil further details of the government's plans to compensate those who have lost out from the abolition of the 10p starting rate of tax in a statement to MPs this afternoon
PM hopes to lift his flagging fortunes with 10p compensation package and a 'citizen empowerment' bill
Great outdoors to turn young tearaways into model citizens [ 13-May-08 1:00am ]
[ T ]
[ G ]
[ N ]
[ L ]
TEENAGERS who keep getting into trouble with the police are to be sent on adventure courses to give them a fresh start.
THEIR coalition to run the Capital has seen its share of drama - and now Steve Cardownie and Jenny Dawe are starring as Romeo and Juliet in protest leaflets about the decision
Death of Iraq expert left Blair 'distraught', says Cherie [ 13-May-08 1:00am ]
[ T ]
[ G ]
[ N ]
[ L ]
CHERIE Blair revealed today that Tony Blair was "distraught" when he discovered that the government expert at the centre of the row with the BBC over the Iraq war doss
CLAIMS that Edinburgh's planned tourist tax is "dead in the water" were today branded premature.
PLANS to create a Scottish web domain are being looked at by MSPs.
A CONTROVERSIAL nursing home has had an application to extend its capacity rejected by the Scottish Government.
A LOTHIANS MSP is one of 13,000 people to have already signed up for this year's Edinburgh Marathon.
LIVINGSTON Labour MP Jim Devine has welcomed government moves to take legal advice on whether Farepak directors should face legal action over the collapse of the Christmas sav
A GROUP of MSPs was on a fact-finding visit to East Lothian today as part of an inquiry into affordable housing in rural areas.
NEW figures released by the city council show that 92.7 per cent of street light repairs are made within seven days.
DRAMA students staged a protest outside the Scottish Parliament today.
A REVIEW of the council's community and special needs transport services has been launched.
"The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish." —Albert Einstein
Let's go green and scrap it!
Having been alerted to the activities and emergent popularity of Boris johnson and his latest moves to both save money and improve London's environment, i thought perhaps we ought to be doing the same sort of things in South Tyneside.
"There was little commitment of resources from Ken Livingstone to reverse [...]
Cllr. Khan "stressed"
Following the acrimonious court cases and challenges to the result of the 2007 election in the Beacon and Bents ward of South Tyneside, the newly elected Cllr. Ahmed Khan made an application to the High Court in London to withdraw his election petition relating to the 2007 result, one week before this year's [...]
Bloggers4Labour waking up, Conservatives look at real change too.
Tygerland quoted on the front page of Bloggers4Labour
Liam Murray has an excellent post on how Labour - and the left in general - just don't 'get' the reality that David Cameron's new "compassionate conservatism" is real, rooted in history, and ideologically sound.
Of course it's still hard, for [...]
Cllr. Jimmy Foreman in new role
Did anybody see South Shields Labour Cllr. Jimmy Foreman having whopping great big bags of fun with the big boys toys on television last night?
Some guys get all the luck yeah?
Jimmy was "dragged up" (as he would admit himself) on the Cleadon Park estate in South Shields, as was Mrs. [...]
Attention all entrants in the Great Manchester Run: do NOT let Sir Richard Leese break the 50 minute barrier...
"It seems almost impossible to believe today, but Harvey's description of the circulation of the blood and the heart's role in it met large objections in his day" - Brian Iddon speaks out on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill...If it did not rain,
Then why would we need a drain,
If it did not rain,
We would lose this water chain.
But if it did not rain,
Then life would be a pain,
As if he did not have rain,
There would be no water to sustain.
If the earth did not have rain,
The earth would lose it's water vein.
If we did not have so much rain,
It would cause a collpase in the food chain.
And we would all have a drought,
Of that there is no doubt.
Why do Red Indians do a rain dance,
It is not for a joke they do such a Prance.
The rain in Spain,
Falls mainly on the Plain,
Spanish people would be a angry if it did not
As the rain makes up for it being so hot.
Then why would we need a drain,
If it did not rain,
We would lose this water chain.
But if it did not rain,
Then life would be a pain,
As if he did not have rain,
There would be no water to sustain.
If the earth did not have rain,
The earth would lose it's water vein.
If we did not have so much rain,
It would cause a collpase in the food chain.
And we would all have a drought,
Of that there is no doubt.
Why do Red Indians do a rain dance,
It is not for a joke they do such a Prance.
The rain in Spain,
Falls mainly on the Plain,
Spanish people would be a angry if it did not
As the rain makes up for it being so hot.
Put that Ed Balls had just said that there was a desire to show what could be done quickly in relation to the 10p tax rate, the Prime Minister's Spokesman (PMS) repeated what he had said at the morning press briefing; as and when the Treasury were in a position ...
Asked if the Prime Minister planned to take Frank Field's advice, the PMS replied that the Prime Minister would not be distracted by these sorts of questions and was focusing on the important issues facing the country and the international community. For example, the Prime Minister had been focusing today ...
Asked if the "Show Racism a red card" reception at No 10 had something to do with football and if any footballers were attending, the PMS replied that it was to do with football and that a number of footballers would be attending.Asked for the Prime Minister's reaction to David ...
Civil Society at the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity: [ 13-May-08 10:18am ]
[ T ]
[ G ]
[ N ]
[ L ]
The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Alliance has launched a media advisory highlighting ten of civil society's most pressing concerns to be discussed at the upcoming Convention on Biological Diversity. Almost all of the world's governments will gather in Bonn, Germany to debate, negotiate, and hopefully take decisive action for life - both human and non-human - on earth.
First ever campaign to get Wales talking about organ donation [ 13-May-08 10:13am ]
[ T ]
[ G ]
[ N ]
[ L ]
The Donate Wales - Tell a Loved One campaign, funded by the Welsh Assembly Government and led by the Kidney Wales Foundation, sees nine major charities come together for the first time in the UK to tackle the shortage of donors. It's also the first time there's been an organ donation campaign unique to Wales.
Six hospitals in Scotland's remote and rural areas will provide an enhanced range of services under an action plan that will secure their futures and provide more specialised healthcare locally.
Updated Microsoft Health Common User Interface Furthers Clinical Effectiveness, Increases Patient Safety [ 13-May-08 10:06am ]
[ T ]
[ G ]
[ N ]
[ L ]
Healthcare developers can take the next step toward increasing patient safety and clinician effectiveness with the new version 1.3 of Microsoft Health Common User Interface (CUI), available today from Microsoft Corp. A portfolio of user interface guidance, software toolkit controls and showcase demonstrators, the Microsoft Health CUI supports software developers in delivering safe and effective clinical applications. Based on a set of patient safety principles, the guidance and controls from CUI are available at no cost and are focused on medication management, patient record noting, hand-over of care, consistent navigation and patient identification -- all areas of potential patient safety risk. Version 1.3 also provides an 18-month road map of product releases and substantial guidance updates, and utilizes Microsoft Silverlight technology to showcase the latest demonstrators.
Developed in collaboration with and in use today at the National Health Service (NHS) in England, as well as a growing worldwide community of healthcare providers and developers, the CUI became available to all healthcare developers worldwide in July 2007.
Careful examination of the photographic evidence reveals that it is the manicured finger of Ms Flint that is holding this morning's Cabinet briefing* for public viewing. She should be charged under Section 8 of the Official Secrets Act 1989 for failing "to take such care to prevent its unauthorised disclosure as a person in his/[her] position may reasonably be expected to take."The final sentence visible concludes, in bold type, that most importantly: "... it is vital that we show that at this time of uncertainty we show that we are on people's side". You see that is the thing with New Labour politicians, what they care most about is covering their arse. Not that they would think to introduce an emergency growth package as Bush has done in the U.S., or cut taxes to boost growth like they have elsewhere in Europe. No, the most important thing is that they push their disingenuous spin slogan that they are "on people's side". That should do it...
*They don't have a clue - 5%, 10% or more falls in property prices possible. Government has of course guaranteed the mortgage market with taxpayers money.
The official report of yesterday morning's Lobby briefing is the usual waste of time and evasive non-answers from the PMS. However this bit of obsfucation amused Guido:
Asked if the Prime Minister was happy, the PMS said that the Prime Minister, as he had said himself before, believed that he had the best job in the world and he was focusing on meeting the priorities of the British people; that's what we were doing today and what we would be doing for the days and weeks ahead.
The baseline rate of inflation is now 3% and the headline 4.2%. This will clobber workers already suffering pay cuts and Victorian working conditions. The BBC says that the proportion of incomes going on essential goods has risen to over 30% - I don't know where these statistics come from, because in my household, what with the cost of rent, food, clothing, energy, water, council taxes and so on it has always been closer to 75%, and it's higher now. New Labour's neoliberal policy package relies on its promise to keep inflation down, not just as a means of suppressing pay demands, but also as a promise to voters that their incomes won't suffer sudden, big real terms cuts. Aside from everything else that was wrong with the policy, it was always an illusory idea when commodity prices are determined by global speculation without large-scale state intervention. Governments worldwide are talking about raising export tarrifs and price controls, given the furious social upheaval that rising costs have unleashed. Even Hillary Clinton is proposing temporary price controls on petrol and mortage interest (for this, liberal Obama-supporters upbraid her for failing to understand "basic economic theory"), while McCain is co-sponsoring a bill with Ted Kennedy to control prices on medicines. These are hardly radical measures, but don't expect New Labour to imitate them. Any help this government offers with the bills will be strictly in the form of modest tax-cuts, but as tax receipts fall with the economic downturn, the temptation would surely be to raise the shortfall through indirect measures such as VAT, or by borrowing billions. Either way, the Tories - whose past record in government is gradually sliding down the memory hole - are likely to hammer them for this.
Since these price increases are coming at the same time as New Labour pay cuts for the public sector, I would expect an increased tempo in industrial action. In 2007, the number of working days lost to strike action grew 20-fold over the year, with Prison Officers, Royal Mail workers, civil servants, lecturers and others out on the picket lines. It was the second highest rate of strikes in a decade. Although New Labour's early rule was characterised by a decreasing incidence of strike action, a momentum has built up since the firefighters dispute in late 2002. It's pretty far from the peaks of industrial action in the 1970s and 1980s, but as unions increasingly co-ordinate their actions in response to a co-ordinated offensive by the government, last year's record could well be broken. That changes matters. The Tories might like to capitalise on fears of a new 'winter of discontent', but this also serves to remind people of the hated Thatcher years that followed. Given that Cameron's strategy is to try and woo working class voters suffering, and pose as a 'progressive', he won't necessarily do himself any favours with loud union-bashing. Of course, talking to business audiences, the Tories are all for breaking the public sector unions, but in the context of strikes that will widely be seen as legitimate, they may decide to restrain their rhetoric a bit.
Union leaders are pleading with the government to tax the rich and forge a new election deal, modelled on the Warwick Agreement, in advance of 2010. But if New Labour failed to uphold its promises last time round, there is no reason why anyone should believe them this time. And why on earth would union members want to be party to an ass-saving deal with a government that gratuitously attacks them? Fortunately, the PCS is looking at further national strike action at its upcoming conference. Healthcare workers are being balloted on the government's pathetic pay offer, and if they vote against it, they may be out as well. Further education unions have rejected their pay offer. The NUT's recent, highly successful national strike action is likely to result in further action. If you want your money back, you better hope for a big co-ordinated stoppage, and soon.
Since these price increases are coming at the same time as New Labour pay cuts for the public sector, I would expect an increased tempo in industrial action. In 2007, the number of working days lost to strike action grew 20-fold over the year, with Prison Officers, Royal Mail workers, civil servants, lecturers and others out on the picket lines. It was the second highest rate of strikes in a decade. Although New Labour's early rule was characterised by a decreasing incidence of strike action, a momentum has built up since the firefighters dispute in late 2002. It's pretty far from the peaks of industrial action in the 1970s and 1980s, but as unions increasingly co-ordinate their actions in response to a co-ordinated offensive by the government, last year's record could well be broken. That changes matters. The Tories might like to capitalise on fears of a new 'winter of discontent', but this also serves to remind people of the hated Thatcher years that followed. Given that Cameron's strategy is to try and woo working class voters suffering, and pose as a 'progressive', he won't necessarily do himself any favours with loud union-bashing. Of course, talking to business audiences, the Tories are all for breaking the public sector unions, but in the context of strikes that will widely be seen as legitimate, they may decide to restrain their rhetoric a bit.
Union leaders are pleading with the government to tax the rich and forge a new election deal, modelled on the Warwick Agreement, in advance of 2010. But if New Labour failed to uphold its promises last time round, there is no reason why anyone should believe them this time. And why on earth would union members want to be party to an ass-saving deal with a government that gratuitously attacks them? Fortunately, the PCS is looking at further national strike action at its upcoming conference. Healthcare workers are being balloted on the government's pathetic pay offer, and if they vote against it, they may be out as well. Further education unions have rejected their pay offer. The NUT's recent, highly successful national strike action is likely to result in further action. If you want your money back, you better hope for a big co-ordinated stoppage, and soon.
...'cos the face sure ain't listening.How dare the millionaire left-wing Labour Party fantasist Neal Lawson claim the moral high ground and demand in The Independent that Gordon should step down and return to The Treasury?
How dare he claim in The Guardian that the local elections saw the final collapse of the New Labour project?
How dare he fill the columns of The Spectator blog this morning under the banner Brown loses his Compass?
Ed Balls is right - it's all the fault of Darling and Field and they'll have to go, along with Lawson. Once we've thrown them out of the Party, we can get back to listening.
As long, of course, as it's not listening to Cherie.
The genuine Luke Akehurst blog site about Luke Akehurst - reject all Luke Akehurst imposters!
Mippin: SMS more expensive than transmitting data from space [ 13-May-08 11:27am ]
[ T ]
[ G ]
[ N ]
[ L ]
Channel 4's Dispatches reported that it costs approximately £8.85 per megabyte to transmit data from Hubble Space Telescope to Earth. A 140-byte text message costing 5p comes to £374.49 per MB.
The reasons are many, Bryan Gould rightly claims... with so many of our reforms being rightwards, there is little that will make New Labour stand out in history, and with those to the left being largely timid, we leave no irreversible change. I regard this as a massive overarching failure of third way philosophy. You vote Clinton, and ten years later you've removed a big redistributive chunk of welfare, only to get tax cuts for the rich and a whopping budget deficit which needs to be remedied. Hopefully future governments from parties of the left will make more leftwards changes on a scale which is tougher to undo. In any event, it must be recognised that the third way goal of homogenising the electorate lies in ruins everywhere it has been tried. You cannot dominate through tactical shifts. Learn from Thatcher. You can only do it through populism tempered with principled conviction.
If current global sales of the Gillian McKeith Food Bible are anything to go by , it would unsurprisingly seem that Food Guru Dr Gillian McKeith PhD is soon set to become one of the Greatest Health Authors of all time.
Click here to grab your very own copy of the Number 1 Bestseller today.
More details coming soon.
Watch this:
Is it me or does this come across like the dress rehearsal for a valedictory address? Is Clinton readying herself and campaign for defeat? Or is she just showing a 'softer' side as a campaign tactic?
Join us for a public meeting on May 21, 7pm at Oxford House (Bethnal Green Tube) to discuss how to stop the BNP and why a left alternative is needed now more than ever.
Bucking the trend: RMT to ballot 17,000 maintenance and signalling staff [ 13-May-08 2:15pm ]
[ T ]
[ G ]
[ N ]
[ L ]
Things are gradually getting better for pedestrians in Norwich -- but there is still a long way to go... [ 13-May-08 2:15pm ]
[ T ]
[ G ]
[ N ]
[ L ]
To mark the success of the three-year 'Spatial Metro' programme, delegates from all over Europe, including Norwich's twin cities of Koblenz and Rouen, will take part in a conference at St Andrew's Hall from Thursday 15th to Friday 16th May.
The Spatial Metro EU project has brought real benefits to Norwich,
transforming places like the Lanes and St Andrew's Plain into spaces people want to spend time in.
The conference will draw on these achievements, other international success stories and the experiences of the Spatial Metro EU project and offer creativity, expertise and practical solutions to improve cities for pedestrians.
The Green Party supports these pedestrian-friendly measures that have happened and supports the Spatial Metro project, but believes that Norwich still has a very long way to go, particularly with promoting pedestrian safety and good crossing facilities across the city.
As our Party's Transport Spokesman, I'm pleased that this Conference is happening in Norwich, and we are pleased with the real improvements for pedestrians that have taken place in parts of the city in recent years, as a result of certain street closures and pedestrianisation measures. But, until Norwich has 20mph limits in residential areas, until more key zones of the city centre – such as Westlegate – are pedestrianised, and until there is proper funding available to implement pedestrian crossings all over the city where they are needed, then Norwich cannot rest on its laurels. The Green Party wants to see far more done to benefit pedestrians, and this would be a priority under a Green-Party-led administration...
As regular blog readers will know I have requested that this planning application for a mast is withdrawn from the delegated schedule on grounds of visual impact. I am awaiting confirmation but below is my objection to the mast - see also previous blogs about correspondence and more issues raised.Photo: Google earth of the site - to the left of the letter 'S' in Stroud
If anyone wants to make comment on the mast please do - the details are now on the District Council's website - see here.
Letter of objection
Re: Proposed Radio Base Station, Land Adjacent Ash Lane, Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL6 6EX
S.08/0862/FUL
I also now wish to formally object to the planning application by Orange PCS Ltd. on the land at Ash Lane, Randwick. My objection is on grounds that this application, if successful, will have a seriously detrimental visual impact over a wide area. The mast although only 15 metres high will be visible from many locations in the area and will impact negatively on the ANOB, a Conservation Area, extensive National Trust Woodland area, Cotswold Way, and the nationally renown viewpoint at Ash Lane.
I would also like to note that the entrance to the site, as proposed, will provide an area which could encourage fly tipping and illegal parking which has been the experience at other gateways in the area. Indeed several areas have faced noise from people parking late at night and listening to music loudly and leaving litter from their take-aways.
Lastly I note that the Planning Inspectors comments in a recent appeal dismissal of development at near-by Glenfield in Ash Lane notes the 'qualitites that create a distinctive and most attractive local character' as the retention of 'natural looking traditional landscape feature' rather than 'something altogether more urban and artificial in appearance'. I would suggest that a mast on this landscape would be 'urban and artificial'.
While I acknowledge the need for telecommunication facilities I do not consider this is a suitable site on grounds of it's serious negative visual impact on a sensitive area. I also do not consider the evidence provided of possible alternative sites for this mast, is sufficient.
Cllr. Philip Booth,
Stroud District councillor for the Randwick, Ruscombe and Whiteshill ward
Published and promoted by Philip Booth, Lark Rise, 2 The Laurels, Bread Street, Ruscombe, Stroud, Glos. GL6 6EL
Mysteries Of Water - a talk by Simon Charter will be on this Saturday - don't miss. "Fluoride - A toxic poisonous by-product of the fertilizer industry" From Stroud based Scribbler - Russell
Plus Water Fluoridation reduces your IQ? A talk by Bernard Seward. Followed by discussion on the current position on Fluoridation of our water plus A.G.M Safe Water Campaign for Avon, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire on Saturday 17th May at 1.15pm Painswick Inn, Gloucester St, Stroud. Food & Drinks available from Star Anise Cafe. Below is some of our latest edition of the newsletter of the Safe Water Campaign with some of what we have been doing. See more at:
http://safewatercampaign.blogspot.com/
What we have been doing in the last year
At our 2007 A.G.M. we had an in depth presentation on the contra -indications of fluoride from homeopath Risa Mohabir and a brief presentation by Bernard Seward about his near half-century involvement with raising the awareness of the dangers of fluoridating our water supplies.
Through the year we have kept a watchful eye on areas such as Southampton and Manchester, which are doing feasibility studies on the costing of water fluoridation. We submitted letters to the Nuffield Council on Bioethics where in their issue of Nov. 2007, one of the topics was the fluoridation of our water supplies. Although they seemed biased towards accepting fluoridation on the grounds of helping children in poor areas and deprived families [at the expense of possible health issues which they suggested were unproven] they did, however, publish a graph showing the continuing decrease in the number of bad teeth in twelve year old children in almost all European countries whether fluoridated or not. In fact if the indicated trend continues, most children would have no bad teeth in a decade or so!!
Bernard attended a conference in London on the contents of this Nov. 2007 issue but as he put forward the suggestion that the source of the H2SiF6 was a bi-product of the artificial fertilizer industry, he had the microphone snatched from his hand before he could say any more!!
We have continued to write letters in response to false information on fluoridation and to try to keep up a high profile for our case with letters to the press whenever possible. With a further recent push by the government health minister Alan Johnson, early in February on fluoridation of our water supplies, we were pleased to see many articles in newspapers with doubts and objections. This is good publicity for us, as the Strategic Health Authority will have to consult the public before any fluoridation can take place.
Thank you to those who have written to their Primary Care Trust and or their Strategic Health Authority. It is still not too late to do so, or even to write again. You will find a letter written originally to the newspaper from which you can get ideas if you wish. We continue to meet monthly and would welcome new people to our committee. Rob Mehta
Published and promoted by Philip Booth, Lark Rise, 2 The Laurels, Bread Street, Ruscombe, Stroud, Glos. GL6 6EL
Samizdata has now been going for more than half a decade, and since what I am about to say has been becoming ever more true throughout that time, I may have said what follows before. So if you have already read, marked, learned and inwardly digested all of this, apologies, and on to the next posting. I want to make a point about the nature of voting in British general elections. It now looks as...
God is "an incarnation of the most childish superstition" - Albert Einstein
Discuss.
The fratricidal aggression between Sunni and Shia Islam is a major force shaping our world. It's not just Iraq and Lebanon with this sectarian fighting but also Yemen. There could easily be more problems in Bahrain and eastern Saudi Arabia.
On the rise of Shia Islam in the late 20th and early 21st century read Vali Nasr's excellent Shia Revival
N.B. The photo is certainly not my position. It is the example of the inter-sectarian hatred.
Benedict Brogan reports, and has a photo, of a mistaken leak by Caroline Flint, Housing Minister, on the housing market. Oh dear, oh dear.
Oh, and Neal Lawson, of Compass, has now called for Brown to go.
Kathy G makes an heroic effort to attack economic fundamentalists' opposition to the minimum wage. I fear, however, that this is the wrong ground for left economists to fight on, for two reasons.
First, rises in the minimum wage are a bad way to help the poor (pdf) even if they do have no impact at all upon labour demand. This is partly because such rises are often clawed back by losses of tax credits and benefits, and partly because the overlap between the poor and the low-paid is weak; many of the poor aren't in work, and many of the low-paid are second or third earners in middle-income households.
There are, surely, many better ways of helping the worst-off than minimum wages.
Second, there are bigger flaws in orthodox neoliberal economics than the idea that higher wages cut the demand for labour, for example:
1. The notion of an identifiable and differentiable production function is pure bull.
2. Competitive forces are just not strong enough to weed out rent-seeking by private sector managers.
3. This being so, higher top-rate taxes might be efficient precisely because they do reduce labour supply, if they reduce the amount of rent-seeking.
4. It is at least plausible that, under certain circumstances, profits arise from exploitation.
5. Human capital theory (pdf) is, at best, woefully incomplete (pdf). Income inequalities cannot be fully explained by differences in skills.
I'm sure this list is incomplete. I'm just not sure how high on it the neoliberal view of minimum wages should be.
COMMENT: Gay marriage in America - two steps forward, one step back I'm not a big game show watcher. But I do know that you get to spin big wheels on The Price is Right and Wheel of Fortune. Sometimes you hit the jackpot, sometimes you land in a good spot and sometimes you get skunked. Other posts in opinion COMMENT: Gay press calls on Hillary to stand aside Stonewall's ten month battle for hate crimes legislation INTERVIEW: The master of homoerotic horror "Russian Madonna" reluctant to b
COMMENT: Gay marriage in America - two steps forward, one step back [ 13-May-08 1:27pm ]
[ T ]
[ G ]
[ N ]
[ L ]
Clinton on course to win West Virginia Though polls can be deceiving, according to a Suffolk University study, Hillary Clinton is heading into today's West Virginia primary with a stellar 36 percent lead over contender Barack Obama. Human fertilisation bill passes first Commons test MPs have voted in favour of a major update to human embryology laws despite opposition from religious MPs. Police warn clubbers after ecstasy death A man in his thirties has died after taking what
Belgian surgeons to perform Cuba's gender reassignment operations The head of Cuba's National Centre for Sexual Education, Mariela Castro, has revealed that 30 gender reassignment operations have been approved. She told AFP "we're getting ready a team of surgeons from Belgium" to perform the procedures. opinionuk-newsworld-newspoliticslawhealthfinanceentertainment COMMENT: Gay marriage in America - two steps forward, one step back I'm not a big game show watcher. But I do know that y
In UK, Conservative MP Blames Youth Crime Surge on Video Games [ 13-May-08 1:11pm ]
[ T ]
[ G ]
[ N ]
[ L ]
In UK, Conservative MP Blames Youth Crime Surge on Video Games May 13th, 2008 A Conservative Member of Parliament has pointed to mature-themed video games as contributing to a surge in juvenile crime in the UK, particularly among girls. As reported by the Daily Mail, MP David Ruffley (left) said: Selling 18+ rated violent computer games such as Grand Theft Auto IV to underage children is more likely when many retailers have no fear of being caught, as my figures demonstrate. This poor enfo
Let's turn to domestic politics. John Rentoul remarks on the sheer speed of the implosion of Gordon Brown's government, while Daniel Finkelstein recalls a dispiriting precedent for the rhetoric employed in Labour's by-election campaigning: "In December 1976 the Labour Party televised a broadcast making a nakedly class based appeal. It satirised 'Algernon' a boy who went to an expensive school, who doesn't need social security and doesn't need to work.... Now all these years later the same mis
This delightful (and genuine) piece of irony via Guido.
Harriet Harman has ordered Labour MPs and Ministers to help out in the Crewe and Nantwich by-election. I bet they are chuffed about that. "What, me? Face the voters? Are you mad? they'll tear me apart. "Anyway, why do I have to go if Gordon is bottling out?" If I were a Labour MP, I'd be avoiding the public like the plague. And if I was a journalist, I'd be following them with great interest. Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device