Procrastinating Politicians

Disraeli, Manchester and one nation Toryism

2012-02-02T16:54:00.001Z

It might seem inconceivable today but back in the 1870's Manchester was a seat of Toryism.

So much so that the Prime Minister at the time Benjamin Disraeli chose the city to test out his concept of one nation Toryism.

The year was 1872 and Disraeli chose the Free Trade hall to make his speech.

It wasn't his first speech in the town,indeed back in 1843,he had shared the platform at the Atheneum club with none other than Charles Dickens and Richard Cobden.

Disraeli had been fascinated by Manchester.One of his works Coningsby published in 1844 had compared the industrial revolution in the city as being as important as the cultural one in Athens nearly 2,500 years previously

Five years earlier the Reform Act of 1867 had given the vote to working men of property for the first time,thus giving urban centres such as Manchester the right to vote.The following year Manchester returned a Tory candidate Hugh Birley who topped the poll in what was at the time a three member seat.

In April 1872,Disraeli visited the city for a week and was persuaded to address his loyal supporters and delivered a three and a half hour speech to a crowd of 6,000 whilst fortified with two bottles of white brandy.

The speech was according to Tory party historian Alistair Lexden,"a defining moment for Toryism in Manchester and throughout the country"The speech was seen as helping to promote a greater sense of social duty amongst the Conservative party,something that would not be unfamiliar to the current leader of the party.

The speech certainly struck a chord for by the time of the next election,the party had taken two of the three Manchester seats on offer and in 1876 their annual conference was held in the city.

Here is a section of the speech

Gentlemen, the program of the Conservative party is to maintain the Constitution of the country. I have not come down to Manchester to deliver an essay on the English Constitution; but when the banner of republicanism is unfurled — when the fundamental principles of our institutions are controverted — I think, perhaps, it may not be inconvenient that I should make some few practical remarks upon the character of our Constitution — upon that monarchy limited by the coordinate authority of the estates of the realm, which, under the title of Queen, Lords, and Commons, has contributed so greatly to the prosperity of this country, and with the maintenance of which I believe that prosperity is bound up.

My rant on Sir Fred and other less esteemed

2012-02-01T09:06:00.000Z

With all the media frenzy over Fred's removal from the list of the knights of the realm,the clamour for the removal of other esteemed nobles that have committed unscrupulous deeds.

Top of the list,Sir Jeffrey Archer whose spell in prison on charges of perjury have yet to result in a note for the Queen.

However the one that sticks in the throat of some is the case of Farepak chief Sir Clive Thompson who left 150,000 out-of-pocket people now facing a decidedly un-merry Christmas when their savings scheme collapsed back in 2006.

The fact that most of these people were at the low income end of society and that the scheme was for many their only hope of a decent Xmas makes his misdemeanours far wore than that of Sir Fred.

His connections to the Company led to Insolvency Service taking action to sanction him and apply to the High Court to disqualify him from being a Director of a company

And on that note,let's just get one thing straight which statements from the government seem to have overlooked.Sir Fred and RBS did not create the financial collapse.They were mere symptoms of a credit and debt bubble which had been allowed to run out of control since the mid 1980's and continues now under a fifth Prime Minister .

Joey Barton on how twitter helped me tell my side of the story

2012-01-31T09:16:00.001Z

He might get a lot of criticism over both his football and his tweeting abilities but this morning's Times carries a great piece from QPR captain and soccer wild boy Joey Barton about his use of social media.

In it he says that that the microblogging site Twitter helped him to tell his own tale,one that the journalistic community refused tt write about

It is behind the paywall but here are a couple of extracts:

I started tweeting last May having become increasingly disillusioned with the national media: their portrayal of me, their portrayal of football, their portrayal of the world. It was not completely false, but it was terribly distorted. Not that I was a saint. I had been guilty of various crimes and misdemeanours, mainly because of drunken stupidity. I take responsibility for all that. I have been punished and rightly so.

And he continues

Twitter gave me an opportunity that I could not refuse. After years of interviews, it became clear that no journalist was willing to tell my tale. Anything I said, anything I did, was given an angle to fit in with the bad-boy image. Maybe they would be ridiculed by their peers or editors? I mean, someone would look a fool, wouldn’t they? I was an enigma..

Not sure what his former manager Neil Warnock would make of all this.After all he blamed Barton's social media comments for his recent dismissal.

You can follow Joey at @joey7barton

Over half of our MP's now tweet says survey

2012-01-30T16:36:00.001Z

Back in December 2008,there were just four MP's on twitter.

That was when Tweetminster was launched-

Now a survey by the site reveals that over half of our MP's are on the microblogging site,330 in total whom you can find on this list.

The site reveals the most followed as being @Ed_Miliband @DMiliband @nick_clegg@williamjhague and perhaps not surprisingly @tom_watson

Moving up the list of popularity as being the most mentioned is again probably not surprisingly @LouiseMensch

Now how to get the rest on

All in this together? Shrinking wage pool costs workers £60bn a year

2012-01-30T13:18:00.001Z

Families in the UK are taking home £60bn a year less (in today's money) than workers did 30 years ago.

That's the findings of the latest TUC Touchstone Extra pamphlet All In this Together? which looks at how the recession and ongoing economic weakness has had an impact on different parts of the workforce.

The report shows that earnings took a sharp hit during the recession - dropping from an average increase of 4.2 per cent in 2007 to just 1.7 per cent in 2009, and there has been no post-crash rebound. In September 2011, nearly two years on from the end of the recession, 99 per cent of pay deals were below RPI inflation

At the same time the pay gap between executives and their staff has continued to widen, the report shows. While in 2000 the ratio of FTSE 100 top executive to typical employee pay stood at 47:1, by 2011 it had risen to 102:1.

The only group of workers immune from the UK's shrinking wage pool have been top execs who have weathered the recession and stock market falls to receive median pay increases of 10 per cent in 2010 and 17 per cent in 2011.

Commenting on the report,TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: 'Over the last three decades workers have become more productive and yet they have been rewarded with an ever smaller share of the wealth they've created.

'The tens of billions of pounds that workers miss out on each year has been papered over by rising credit card bills and a housing boom, but the financial crash has brought home the reality of our shrinking wage pool to millions of workers and their families.

He added:'Our current squeeze on living standards could be alleviated if the share of our national wealth that goes on wages started to return to the levels seen three decades ago.

Street Porter points the gun at the Beeb and its local news coverage

2012-01-30T08:16:00.000Z

Yesterday's Independent on Sunday carried a huge critique of the BBC from one of its former employees Janet Street Porter.

Shooting from the hip.the former champion of "Yoof TV" compared the corporation to the Titanic.

But it was her thoughts on how the service deals with local news that caught my eye.

Here is what she had to say:

Chris Patten says he wants "more specialist and local content" on the radio, and regional television current affairs protected. Has he ever seen my local news, Look North, in Yorkshire? It is appalling, presented by a weird-looking bunch of people with zero charisma. At 10.15 it regularly features just three items covering a huge part of the UK. In Kent, South East Today has an equally random pick-and-mix agenda that tries and fails to cover a region ranging from wealthy bits of East Sussex to poverty-stricken Sheppey.

adding that

Local television current affairs should be culled. Leave it to newspapers and online coverage. As for local radio – just because bands of people complain, it doesn't mean these stations have a meaningful audience. The BBC is still guilty of massive over-staffing in news and current affairs. Why do we have to have a completely different hourly news bulletin on Radio 3 from Radio 4? News is news. Local bulletins are necessary only twice a day in drivetime. The current local regions are so large as to be pointless. Community radio and television broadcast online and staffed by special interest groups is the only way forward. That way I can watch my council meetings on my laptop

Is she correct.It is an interesting point and I suppose it revolves around whether other providers can step in where the Beeb no longer goes.

That is a question that will take up far much more room than on this blog

Monday's paper-Shortcomings in the transplant industry,how the Olympics could cost us billions,prisoners using Facebook and the singer who can no longer sing

2012-01-30T08:04:00.000Z

Stephen Hester's about turn on his RBS bonus came a little too late for the early editions of the papers which this Monday morning have a wide remit.

The Times leads with an investigation by the paper which finds that healthy organs that could save lives are going to waste in hospitals as waiting lists for transplants continue to rise.

The paper finds that hundreds of potential donors are being overlooked because of shortcomings in the transplant system, and three people who might otherwise survive die every day before organs become available.

The Guardian leads with a call to end the demonising of rape victims.In an interview with the paper, Alison Saunders, the head of the Crown Prosecution Service in London says that she believed jurors were coming to court with preconceptions about women that affected the way they considered evidence.

The Independent reports that this summer's Olympics could be a disaster for the country's tourism.Its travel correspondent Simon Calder writes that top travel industry figures have warned that unwanted hotel rooms needlessly reserved for dignitaries by Olympic organisers will be a key factor in a tourism slump set to cost Britain billions this summer.

The Mail continues its assault on Social media.Its front page this morning reveals that Violent criminals have been using Facebook to taunt victims and their families from behind bars.Despite access to the internet being banned,inmates manage to get online by using mobile phones smuggled into jails.

Army matters take the lead in the Telegraph with General Sir Peter Wall, the Chief of the General Staff,telling the paper that cuts in the Army are creating gaps and leaving soldiers unsettled and frustrated.

The Express believes that tax cuts are on the way.Plans says the paper, to let people earn nearly £10,000 before they have to pay any tax are at the centre of Government thinking after a poll showed the public overwhelmingly backs the idea.

The Sun leads with the singer who can scarcely speak.The paper tells the story of Lianne Morgan who nearly joined the Spice Girls but now has spasmodic dysphonia, which paralyses her voice box

Elsewhere the Telegraph says that the Home Secretary will today that residents are to be given the power to force police to tackle anti-social behaviour and end the “horror stories” of communities blighted by nuisance neighbours.

Many of the papers report on the weekend's events in Syria.The Independent describes how the embattled Syrian regime moved thousands of its troops and tanks into suburbs on the edge of Damascus early yesterday in an effort to reclaim outlying districts from rebels, as fierce battles neared the capital for the first time.

Ahead of the EU summit,the Guardian warns that unease among Liberal Democrats has been made clear by a rare intervention by their former leader, Charles Kennedy who in a letter to the paper urges the prime minister to take an active and confident role at the heart of the European Union.

Any suggestions for a 10 minute rule bill asks MP Leech

2012-01-29T09:17:00.001Z

A new way of connecting with the community perhaps?

Withington's MP John Leech is asking asking his constituents what law they would like to see him try and change following his sucessful entry into the ballot for 10 minute rule bills.

The deadline for indicating the topic of the bill is the 6th of February, with a debate being held on the 21st Feb.

The deadline for suggestions is noon on Friday the 3rd of February.

If you want to make a suggestion go to John's blog at https://johnleechmp.wordpress.com

10 minute rule bills cannot make spending committments. A list of other rules can be sent on demand

John Leech MP said, “This is a short timetable, but I wanted to give my constituents the chance for me to highlight their concerns in parliament.”

Sunday papers-more controversy for RBS,Lammy on smacking kids and what's Denise Welch been up to

2012-01-29T08:46:00.003Z

A quick look at the front pages sees RBS boss Stephen Hester taking centre stage as the controversy over his bonus continues to rumble.

According to the Sunday Times he is in line for a new bonus worth almost £8m as the paper has discovered that the bank is to buy £4.5m worth of shares for Stephen Hester within weeks as part of a controversial long-term pay scheme.

Meanwhile the Independent on Sunday says that the disclosure of the staggering figure amounts to political dynamite as the Prime Minister fought off suggestions that he should veto the near-£1m bonus that was announced last week.

The Telegraph reports that the chairman of Royal Bank of Scotland Sir Philip Hampton has waived a share award worth as much as £1.4 million adding that Hampton felt it would not be appropriate to receive this year's share payment, which was set up as part of a "golden hello" package when he joined three years ago.

Away from the controversy the Mail on Sunday reports on the comments of Former Education Minister David Lammy who says that working-class parents need to be able to discipline their children physically to deter them from joining gangs and getting involved in knife crime.

The paper says that the ban on smacking children must be overturned to help prevent a repeat of last summer’s riots.

The Observer leads with the news that plans to commit €22bn to tackling the scourge of youth unemployment across Europe will be considered by EU leaders on Monday as international pressure mounts for action to help young people chart a way through the deepening economic crisis.

And staying at Davos,the Sunday Mirror reports that Prince Andrew is back representing Britain on the world stage there.just six months after he was forced to step down as UK trade envoy

The Telegraph says that the European Union is to gain dramatic powers to control tax and spending in crisis-hit eurozone countries under a deal to save the currency

It leads with news that Tens of thousands of patients who received hip replacements are at the centre of a major health alert over concerns they are poisoning their bodies.

An investigation by the paper has found that medical regulators are drawing up new advice for more than 30,000 Britons who have received “metal-on-metal” devices because of fears that they are even more dangerous than previously thought.

Most of the papers report the arrest of four journalists at the Sun over allegations of police bribery

The Observer says that detectives with Operation Elveden, the Metropolitan Police's investigation into illegal payments to officers, raided the Sun's offices in Wapping, east London, morning after receiving information from News Corp, the parent company of News International, which owns the paper.

The Independent asks whether French President Nicholas Sarkozy is about to thorw in the towel as speculation grows he may not run again.The paper says that he will be fighting for his political life when he makes a live appearance on French TV tonight.

The Telegraph reports the comments of General Sir Michael Jackson who tells the paper that the Falklands will be lost forever if Argentina invades again.

To the tabloids and the Sunday Mirror reports that Denise Welch has been having a secret eight-month affair with a toyboy lover behind her husband Tim Healy’s back.

Whilst the Express says that the Celebrity Big Brother winner put Reservoir Dogs star Michael Madsen in his place yesterday, saying he was “deluded” if he really believed she had tried to coax him into bed.

Staying with show business and the People reports that Amanda Holden might not have held her baby HollieRose yet.The paper says that The Britain’s Got Talent judge is still extremely weak after her three-day fight for life following the birth.

Finally the Express leads with a report that widows and divorcees are being targeted for a huge rise in their council tax bills.The paper says that Labour-run councils want the eight million people living alone to pay the same rate as couples or households with several working adults.

Call to save pubs as the hub of the community

2012-01-27T15:38:00.001Z

Community pubs are one of Britain’s oldest and most popular social institutions. However, they are currently under pressure, with 16 pubs closing every week.

A new report out this week from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) recommends a 50 per cent business rate relief for those who can prove they act as community hubs.

The report outlines the increasing acceleration of the closure of pubs in the last few years citing numerous reasons including that fact that alcohol consumption tends to rise and fall with economic prosperity and the downturn in the economy has affected pub incomes.

Pubs though are also suffering from the fact that Tastes and lifestyles have changed, with more people drinking wine and fewer people drinking beer, the mainstay of most pub income.The pub has faced competition from alternative leisure pursuits,such as the restaurant and the cinema.

There has also been a significant rise in the number of people drinking at home, rather than in pubs and bars.

However pubs are more than just private businesses selling alcohol says the report. Many pubs also play an important role at the heart of their local communities.

They inject an average of £80,000 into their local economy each year and are perceived by people to be the most important social institution for promoting interactions between people from different walks of life.

Besides the help from the business rate the report recommends that they be eligible for third sector finance and suggests that some pubs could apply to become community interest companies and apply for third sector grants and loans to develop the community-oriented side of their business.

There is no one magic bullet that will simultaneously solve the problems facing Britain’s community pubs says the authors. However, taken as a whole, the package of measures recommended here should ensure that local pubs can continue to play a role in supporting community life for many generations to come.

Lowry refuses the Queen five times

2012-01-26T09:50:00.001Z

Manchester's famous artist LS Lowry refused honours at least five times according to figures released today after an order from the information watchdog following a 15-month battle under the Freedom of Information Act.

Lowry was among 277 people including Trevor Howard, the actor, Alfred Hitchcock, the Hollywood director, Aldous Huxley, the author, and Henry Moore, the sculptor who have turned down honours.

The list shows that Lowry rejected an honour on a record five occasions, including an OBE in 1955, a CBE in 1961, a knighthood in 1968 and an invitation to become a Companion of Honour in 1972 and 1976.

Hard facts about climate change on our doorstep

2012-01-26T09:47:00.000Z

If we needed a warning about the threat of climate change on our doorsteps,look no further than the first national assessment of the risks of climate change which has been published today.

It says that the costs to the UK of flooding could rise to billions of pounds a year in the coming decades and the country will also face threats including water shortages, more droughts and diseases such as red band needle blight which could hit the timber industry in the next century.

It is not all doom and gloom as the report says that we could benefit including the chance to grow new crops and even the possibility of more tourism as temperatures get milder.

However with the rising temperatures will come 5,900 more people dying as a result of hot summers, but thousands of cold-related deaths are likely to be avoided in winter by the 2050s.

The report was conducted under the country's climate act as a legal requirement and has been produced by DEFRA

Super Thursday for Manchester's Mayor elections

2012-01-25T12:38:00.001Z

Elections for Manchester's Mayor and elected police commissioner will take place in November.

Local government minister Greg Clarke will make the announcement later today in a speech in Birmingham when he will announce that the 15th November will see elections take place across 40 cities.

Manchester votes on the 3rd May in a referendum to decide whether it wants an elected Mayor.Local politicians are against the move believing that an individual Mayor for the city doesn't make sense when the political decisions are made at a Greater Manchester level.

In a speech later,Clarke will say that elected mayors provide cities with the strong, visible leadership that can help them prosper nationally and internationally.

"This is an opportunity for each city to transform itself for the better. The world's great cities have mayors who lead for their city on the national and international stage, attracting investment and jobs. We believe that mayors can help English cities achieve their full potential too.

Cost of illiteracy in the UK is £81 billion

2012-01-25T12:26:00.000Z

A report out today from the World Literacy Foundation estimates the cost of illiteracy to the UK economy at £81 billion each year.

The preliminary report highlights the statistic that at least 6 million adults in the UK are functionally illiterate.

This,says the report, means one in five adults struggle with illiteracy and says the direct economic cost is in the individuals and businesses which lose about £58 billion through lower wages or business earnings due to poor literacy.

In addition, this does not include the opportunity cost of individual wealth creation or entrepreneurship lost because a significant proportion of the population struggle to read and write.

The social cost is represented in the £23 billion spent on welfare and unemployment benefits and social programmes related to health, crime and poverty.

Also the report says an illiterate adult will earn an income at least 30 per cent less than a literate person.

World Literacy Foundation CEO Andrew Kay called for a greater level of action from the UK Government to address the literacy crisis."The issue of illiteracy affects over six million people in the UK and almost 800 million worldwide," he said."One of the best things we can do to stamp out poverty in the world is to improve literacy. This is the key to getting people into jobs, increasing their income and enabling them to take part in society."

Support Sri Lanka's Free Media Black January campaign

2012-01-25T12:17:00.001Z

The Sri Lankan Free Media Movement are declaring today, the 25th, the day of mourning for "Black January" to mark the many journalists and media organisations who were attacked, murdered, or closed down in the month of January.

In particular the group are highlighting the death of Lasantha Wickermatunga, the disapperence of Prageeth Ekneligoda and the burning down of Lanka e-News.

Supported by the International Federation of Journalists(IFJ),the campaign is a response to the attacks on the media that have occurred in the month of January in the past three years, and the failure of the government of Sri Lanka to bring to account those responsible for attacks on numerous journalists.

These attacks include the murder of Sunday Leader editor, Lasantha Wickrematungain 2009, the disappearance of political columnist Prageeth Ekneligoda in 2010, the attack on Sirasa media network in 2009 and the brutal attack on television producerLal Hemantha Mawalage in 2008.

In recent years, the month of January has also witnessed the murder of Tamil parliamentarian T Maheshwaran, the abduction of Akuna journalists Sisira Priyankara, Nihal Serasinghe and Lalith Seneviratne and the former army commander Sarath Fonseka’s characterisation of certain journalist as “traitors”.On January 25, journalists and media workers all over the world will unite in observance of ‘Black January’, culminating in a series of public protests in Sri Lanka’s capital, Colombo.

The IFJ is reminding the Government of Sri Lanka of its deeply disturbing record of default in bringing to account individuals, state agencies and non-state actors who increasingly make journalism and the dissemination of information for the wider public good, a deeply hazardous pursuit.

“The violence against journalists in Sri Lanka and the continuing disregard by the government of Sri Lanka in addressing these crimes is unacceptable”, IFJ Asia-Pacific Director Jacqueline Park said.“The IFJ urges concrete action by authorities in Sri Lanka to take heed of today’s ‘Black January’ protests and address acts of violence against journalists and media workers”

Sliding into a technical recession

2012-01-25T11:20:00.000Z

0.2 of a percentage point may not seem a great deal in the context of the UK economy but this morning we now know officially that our economy is shrinking.

The fourth quarter of the year saw gross domestic product dropping by a greater-than-expected amount and appears to point to the fact that we are sliding into recession.

The reason for the worst than expected figures was that service sector output was flat during the quarter rather than up by 0.2 which is what analysts were expecting.

If we do enter recession this year,it may be more of a technical one rather a much deeper type which we experienced in 2008-2009 but nevertheless,be it recession or flat line growth(cue Ed Ball's handsignals) we are in for a bumpy ride this year and next.

Yesterday saw the IMF once again cutting its global forecasts for world growth down from four per cent to 3.25 per cent at the same time cutting its growth forecast for the UK economy to 0.6 per cent from 1.6 per cent.Speaking before the figures were the top dog at the Bank of England Sir Mervyn King gave some hope saying that there was scope for another round of quantitative easing and to leave interest rates at record lows if necessary because inflation is falling.

A small crumb of comfort maybe from the Bank but King also warned that 2012 would not be an easy year and said the recovery from the banking crisis will be slow.

Responding to the figures Ed Balls has described the figures as a damning indictment of David Cameron and George Osborne’s failed economic plan.

“And far from the eurozone crisis being to blame, it is only rising exports that kept us out of recession last year. By clobbering the economy with spending cuts and tax rises that go too far and too fast, the Government has left us badly exposed if the eurozone crisis deepens this year. This was entirely avoidable and the Chancellor cannot say he wasn’t warned." said the shadow Chancellor

Reseach finds decline In Solar Output Unlikely To Offset Global Warming

2012-01-24T09:21:00.000Z

Keeping on the green theme for today's blog,new research from the Met Office has found that solar output is likely to reduce over the next 90 years but that will not substantially delay expected increases in global temperatures caused by greenhouse gases.

The research in conjunction with the University of Reading sought to establish the most likely changes in the Sun’s activity and looks at how this could affect near-surface temperatures on Earth.

It found that the most likely outcome was that the Sun’s output would decrease up to 2100, but this would only cause a reduction in global temperatures of 0.08 °C.

This compares to an expected warming of about 2.5 °C over the same period due to greenhouse gases (according to the IPCC’s B2 scenario for greenhouse gas emissions that does not involve efforts to mitigate emissions).

Gareth Jones, a climate change detection scientist with the Met Office, said: “This research shows that the most likely change in the Sun’s output will not have a big impact on global temperatures or do much to slow the warming we expect from greenhouse gases.“It’s important to note this study is based on a single climate model, rather than multiple models which would capture more of the uncertainties in the climate system.”

The study also showed that if solar output reduced below that seen in the Maunder Minimum – a period between 1645 and 1715 when solar activity was at its lowest observed level – the global temperature reduction would be 0.13C.

Peter Stott, who also worked on the research for the Met Office, said: “Our findings suggest that a reduction of solar activity to levels not seen in hundreds of years would be insufficient to offset the dominant influence of greenhouse gases on global temperatures in the 21st century.”During the 20th century solar activity increased to a ‘grand maximum’ and recent studies have suggested this level of activity is at or nearing its end.

Framing climate change-Southern Voices on the North-South divide

2012-01-24T08:59:00.000Z

Last Saturday saw the first in a series of workshops that will be taking place across Manchester organised by Southern Voices.

Entitled Climate Violence,History and resistance the talk by Kool Chultan explored the way that the West frames the debate over climate change.

Former scientist Kool has been working on cultural projects that are related to climate and climate justice for the last couple of years.

Climate change is often framed through the eyes of the Western world often to the detriment of other parts of the world.Only this week Mozambique and South Africa’s Kruger park has been hit by unusual flooding with more rainfall predicted.

Last year the worst floods in fifty years in Thailand leaving over 800 dead 120,000 displaced.
The result of climate change?

It is says Kool,difficult to conclude because of the complexities of the world’s weather patterns.What is clear is that recorded temperatures have been rising since humans industrialised.The amount of Co2 in the atmosphere has increased by 30 % in 200 years and is at its worst levels for 150,000 years.

Most of the C02 we release today will still be in the atmosphere in 75-100 years.

The correlation between its levels and temperature is clear and the Intergovernmental panel on climate change says that on the balance of says that humans have had a great effect on the C02 levels.

But who creates the emissions,historically the big C02 emitters came from the Western world the US,Europe and the former USSR ,today China is the biggest emitter but it has only recent begun and whilst it is creating a lot of Co2,its biggest consumer is from the US.

But away from the science,The IPCC are predicting that at least a fifth of Bangladesh will be under water by 2050 if things continue with millions of people being forced to migrate.

Yet the country has contributed little to the Co2 so is this form of climatic genocide.

Back in 2005,Hurricane Katrina left 2000 people dead but it gave a strong example of how racism and poverty inter played even in the developed world.

The poor were unable to flee and a great number of those deaths could have been avoided.

Kool asked the question as to whether climate science perspectives are Western,do these explore the fundamental causes or focus on exposing the material processes and should we take notice of social political and cultural models.

Capitalism is no longer sustainable and over consumption is one of the main drivers of climate change says Kool. who also reminded us of the words of James Lovelock who claimed that if things continue three quarters of the world population will be dead by the end of the century.

People are now talking about a tipping point.At some point the amount of warming in the world will reach a level when we will be unable to alter the process.The doomsday scenario is that as temperatures warm,the sea will release more carbon which will increase temperatures and the cycle will continue.

The recent climate talks in Durban were disappointing,someone in the audience saying that essentially the countries of the world agreed to continue talking.

One of the models talked of is the equitable model which says that the North reduces a lot whilst the South increases to be more developed.
We also have carbon trading where advance countries can trade off their emissions in a complex but maybe corrupt and totally ineffective system.

We also says Kool much money being spent on climate change research whilst masking the problems of the inequality that climate change is creating.

In 2009,a group of indigenous people from across the globe met in Anchorage to look at climate change and with an agenda of trying to protect the indigenous ways of their societies.

As for tackling climate change,there is a great emphasis on us as individuals but any significant change has to be through political demands on a large scale.

Breakthrough for online streaming but traditional media continues to decline says new report

2012-01-23T09:13:00.001Z

Streamed TV is becoming more mainstream in the UK with the use of online streaming services such as BBC iplayer, ITV iplayer or 4oD on the rise, particularly among younger people, according to the latest KPMG Media & Entertainment Barometer.

Among streaming services offered in the UK, BBC iPlayer currently has the highest level of awareness with nine in ten people having heard of the online streaming service, followed by ITV player and LoveFilm.

The Barometer which surveys UK consumers every six months on media consumption trends also reveals that people are increasingly willing to pay for services. 64 percent of respondents said they would pay for films online compared to 60 percent in March 2011.

Appetite to pay for TV has also been creeping up, from 27 percent in September 2010, to 28 percent in March 2011 to 30 percent by October 2011. Among those who are or would consider becoming a paid subscriber, film, music and TV is the preferred type of content that consumers are or would be willing to pay for.

Meanwhile the usage of traditional media continues to fall.The majority of respondents said they prefer the use of “traditional media” such as reading physical books or watching TV; however the consumption of traditional media continues to be on the decline ith the exception of watching TV.

In contrast, online newspapers and magazines as well as digital books are becoming increasingly popular, a trend that appears to be driven by the expanding tablet and eReader market.

More than half of respondents said they had read online newspapers in the last month compared to 40% six months ago and 14% said they had read digital books compared to 8% six months ago. Increases in social media usage are also apparent along with online music streaming and downloads.However, money spent on both traditional and new media has remained stable.

Consumers will spend most on eBooks and music download within new media activities; most likely because these are the most expensive to access compared to streaming music/TV, which at the moment tend to be free via online services.

David Elms, Head of Media at KPMG said on the results of the survey:“We continue to see mobile media as an attractive means to monetise content, given the continuing rise in the uptake of smartphones, tablets and eReaders. Whilst consumers continue to embrace new media at a rapid pace, a “mixed ecology” persists, with a majority still enjoying traditional media such as reading books or watching TV.”

Fair to middle for Manchester in cities outlook for 2012

2012-01-23T08:58:00.001Z

The 2012 edition of the centre for cities report is out this morning and it makes some grim reading for some especially in the North Of England.

The report concludes that economic disparities among Britain’s cities are widening as they feel the impact of the downturn and that there are widening gaps in population, employment rates, private sector jobs and business start-ups between cities, and a continuing divide in skills and innovation. Many struggling conurbations are in northern England and the Midlands.

The report identifies the fact that the most troubled neighbourhood in Rochdale has six times more claimants than the most troubled neighbourhood in Cambridge whereas in February 2008, the gap in the claimant count rate between Hull which was then at the bottom of the scale and Cambridge at the top was 3.2 percentage points.

According to the report,as cities respond to the challenges of high unemployment, a declining public sector and a reduction in real wages, those that bucked the trend and performed well against the odds, such as Edinburgh, Cambridge and London, have common traits. They have strong private sectors, high numbers of skilled residents and large numbers of ‘knowledge workers’ ie people who work in professions like accountancy, law and finance.

For Manchester where you can see the full report here,the report can probably best be described as middling.

Most strikingly perhaps is the figure on real wages which fell seven per cent from 2010 and are ranked 57th of the 64 cities in the report and in welfare cuts per capita which are forecast to fall by £167 per capita by 2015,ranking Greater Manchester 53rd.

There are some good figures as well.The city is 18th in the league for knowledge intensive jobs and is ranked fourteenth for business start ups.

As for its record on the environment,the city stands 37th with 6.2 CO2 emissions per 10,000 people

Monday's headlines-

2012-01-23T04:50:00.000Z

A quick look at the top stories in this morning's papers.

The Times leads with the headline BBC bosses search for a cut price DG as the paper reports that the Beeb plans to cut “substantially” the salary for the corporation’s top job.

According to the paper,Chairman of the BBC Trust Lord Patten told the paper that an international firm of headhunters had been appointed to produce the first “succession plan” for the position. The chosen candidate, he added,would be paid much less than the £671,000 salary of the present Director-General, Mark Thompson.

The Independent leads with the continuing controversy over welfare reform saying that an alliance of bishops, senior Liberal Democrats and independent peers will today attempt to derail a key element of the Government's welfare reforms by voting against plans for a £26,000-a-year cap on benefits.

Top of the pile is former Lib Dem leader Paddy Ashdown whose presence says the paper,will embarrass Nick Clegg,after he said yesterday he would rebel against the Government for the first time over the measure because of the "unacceptable" hardship it would cause children.

Ordinary families says the Guardian are unlikely to see their earnings return to pre-recession levels until at least 2020.

The report from leading thinktank Resolution Foundation looks at the situation of 10 million adults, who crucially do not rely heavily on means-tested support from the state, and their 5.2 million children.

The Telegraph reports that Ed Miliband has challenged David Cameron to block a seven figure bonus which is expected to be paid to the head of state-owned Royal Bank of Scotland.

The paper says that RBS is said to be considering a bonus of between £1.3million to £1.5million for Mr Hester, on top of his £1.2millon annual salary.

Dehydration or malnutrition directly caused or was linked to 1,316 deaths in NHS trusts and privately run hospitals, according to figures obtained by the Daily Mail.

The revelation says the paper follows a series of damning reports accusing staff of failing to address the most basic needs of the vulnerable, particularly the elderly.

Pension boost for millions says the Express as the paper reports that millions of Britons have seen the value of their pensions soar after the stock market recorded its best start to the year for more than two decades

The past set to come alive for Manchester's History festival

2012-01-23T03:53:00.001Z

A digital treasure hunt, a rock and roll walking tour, the original plans for the Mancunian Way, a family vintage bike ride, community archeology projects, a football pub walk and the city heliport that never was are just some of over 80 events that are jostling to reinvigorate public perceptions of history as Manchester launches its second history festival next month.

The ten-day festival promises a challenging new approach to the familiar and lesser explored histories of the region.

The festival promises a journey from anarchic 19th century street gangs with brass-tipped clogs and soaped-down fringes to Turing’s work on the Enigma Code.Saturday 3 March is Celebration Day and provides a focus for the second Manchester Histories Festival. Spend the day immersed in the history of Greater Manchester at Manchester Town Hall, Friends’ Meeting House and at venues across the city.

Other highlights of the festival, which is a partnership between University of Manchester, Manchester MetropolitanUniversity and Renaissance North West, include the chance to climb 280ft to the top of Manchester Town Hall’s 134-year-old clock tower, a family cycle ride alongside penny farthing and other vintage cycles and a debate about the overseas ownership of the city’s two football clubs featuring Gary James, author of ‘Manchester A Football History’, Andy Walsh from FC United and Dave Wallace, former MCFC fan-on-the-board.

Claire Turner, festival director, said: “Manchester Histories Festival brings a new, radical approach to exploring history and is not afraid to use cutting edge technologies to engage people of all ages and historical experience, from school pupils and college students to family history enthusiasts and museum curators."

The first Community History Awards, chaired by BBC’s Ranvir Singh, will recognise and reward successful partnerships exploring Greater Manchester history between schools and community groups and an archive, gallery, library, museum or university.

o see the whole programme, visit: www.manchesterhistoriesfestival.org.uk

Mapping Manchester-Saxton's lost map and 1650

2012-01-19T08:33:00.000Z

If you haven't been following it,Manchester Archives have been tweeting a map a day to celebrate this year's history festival which is being held at the end of February.

The first published map comes from sometime in the 1600's and is reproduced here by kind permission of Chetham's Library.

You can see a better version of it HERE on their flickr site.

The date is put at 1650,although as J Lee writes in his maps of plans of Manchester,it has a somewhat confused history but there is much speculation that an earlier map of the town was produced.

According to John Dee who was as the time,master of Collegiate chapel,now better known as Manchester Cathedral,the famous English map maker,Christopher Saxton had turned his attention to what was then the small town of Manchester at the end of the 1500's.

Writing in his diary dated July 10th 1596,he says "Manchester Town described and measured by Mr Christopher Saxton.

Saxton was born in Yorkshire in the early 1540s and during his early life gained an enthusiasm for and understanding of map-making under the direction of a local vicar John Rudd.

During the reign of Elizabeth 1,he was commissioned to survey the whole of England and Wales. A huge undertaking given the times and the means available to him and he probably used a team of surveyors who may or may not have come to Manchester.

The survey was completed in 1577 and Saxton produced an atlas which comprised a general map of England and Wales and 34 others of either individual or grouped counties.

The county of Lancashire was one of the plates produced which was engraved by a
Remigius Hogenberg .It may have been this that Dee was referring to but if an individual map of Manchester was ever produced and published, it has so far alluded historians who hope that maybe it will turn up in a dark corner of Chethams.

But to the 1650 map of which no original exists but has been reproduced on many occasions.According to Lee,there is evidence that the map was produced at least two decades later than 1650 with evidence that in 1669,the Court Leets in Manchester ordered that a survey "of the land and tenemants of the said town of Manchester so that everyman should bear an equal proportion in the said taxes."

The map offers a unique perspective of a bird's eye view of the town.Centred on Collegiate,some of the roads that survive today can clearly be seen,including Deansgate,Market Street and across the Irwell Sacred Trinity Church is shown.
The course of the Irk entering the Irwell under where the MEN arena now stands can also be seen and the river which is bearly visible today can be seen meandering north through open fields.

The medieval part of the town,centred on what is now the Shambles and Exchange square is also clearly defined and somewhere where Marks and Spencer now stands was the Sessions House where the Court Leets sat.Past there to where St Ann's square now stands was Acres Field and fields also ran from Deansgate down to the banks of the Irwell

See you on Thursday

2012-01-18T00:26:00.000Z

Today sees a worldwide protest across the internet against some proposed in the US that many believe will do serious damage to the web.

The most prominent site taking part is Wikipedia which will be going dark for the day for the reasons that you can read HERE

As a small token I shall not be posting anything onto this blog for the duration-See you on Thursday

In praise of Manchester's buildings-No. 81 King Street

2012-01-17T16:47:00.000Z

As you stand at the top of King Street in Manchester today,you may spot at No 81 an elegant building.

On its ground floor you will see the pink lit windows of a lady's fashion shop and around the side an elegant cocktail bar where for seven pounds you can relax over a Black Russian,a cherry pop or a Scarlet o'Hara.

The second floor is now occupied by amongst others the city's management company City Co but 150 years ago it was the site of Manchester's reform club,in its day a hotbed of liberalism.

The club was set up in 1867 to providing a place of resort for Liberal politicians and supporters of the Liberal cause in the Manchester area.It started life in three rented rooms above the warehouse of John Bright & Brothers in Spring Gardens but at the end of the decade it had outgrown these premises and commissioned local architect Edward Salomons to design the building.

No lesser person than William Gladstone was on hand to open the building in October 1871.

It was a club for Liberal Gentlemen,indeed women were not invited to join for over one hundred years and as this piece from the John Rylands library says,its up and downs reflected those of the Liberal Party in Manchester and beyond.

After World War 2,membership had declined to such an extent that the Club was facing the real prospect of closure.
In 1967 it merged with another Manchester gentleman's club, the Engineers Club, to form the Manchester Club,

However as membership continued to decline while running costs rose and with insufficient income from its membership the Club became financially unviable, and was finally forced to close its doors in 1987.

We still though have the building.As Claire Hartnell writes in Pevsner,Solomon's work was his best city centre building in his romantic of Venitian gothic

"The two storey hall has a range of large windows,matched in the soaring oriels...beneath is a fanciful portal,richly adorned with carvings including large winged beasts,a motive repeated with variations amongst the lively foliage carvings of the freize"

Writing in 1880 an unknown writer said this about the building:

“at the very top of King Street we are met by what auctioneers would call a splendid ediface,elaborate without an luxorious within….the very porch overhanging like a beetle brow.seems to indicate that momentous subjects on which may hang the fate of nations are daily discussed within its portals”

Salomon himself was a pupil of J. E. Gregan, who designed the Mechanics Institute building on Princess Street.He set up his own practice in Manchester in 1852 and have a left a collection of buildings doted around Manchester including Trinity Court on John Dalton Street and Manchester's Jewish museum in Cheetham Hill.

He also won the competition for the masonry shell of Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition Building of 1857.He died at Ireton Bank, Platt Lane, Rusholme, Manchester in May 1906, and was cremated at the German Romanesque Manchester Crematorium

Manchester remembers the Holocaust victims

2012-01-17T15:48:00.000Z

High school children from Manchester will learn first hand about the experience of a holocaust survivor at a special event to mark Holocaust Memorial Day on 27 January 2012.

Taking place at the Cornerhouse, a special screening of the powerful and moving film 'Nicky's family' tells the story of a unique and courageous figure, Sir Nicholas Winton and his remarkable rescue mission that remained untold for nearly half a century.

This special event is organised by Manchester City Council and UK Jewish Film to an invited audience of school children and community groups.

Lord Mayor of Manchester, Harry Lyons will introduce the event and guest speaker, Lady Milena Grenfell Baines, who was nine years old when Sir Nicholas Winton organised the train which saved her life, will recount her experiences in an interview with Judy Ironside, Founder and Director of the UK Jewish Film Festival.

The film highlights the importance of this year's theme Speak Up, Speak Out. Sir Nicholas Winton, called 'Britain’s Schindler' by former Prime Minister Tony Blair, was the brains behind the Czech Kindertransport that saved 669 children in the first six months of 1939. A stockbroker of German-Jewish heritage, he refused to stand by when he saw the injustice happening and not only spoke out but helped to save the lives of hundreds of children.

This is one of a number events happening in the run up to Holocaust Memorial Day. At Manchester Town Hall on 25 January, Holocaust survivor Jack aged 83, and the only member of his family to survive, will share his story at an event supported by Hill Dickinson and hosted by Sir Howard Bernstein, Chief Executive of Manchester City Council.

At the Manchester Jewish Museum a number of events are planned including a temporary exhibition, The Windermere Boys which will open to the public on January 29 and runs until 31 May 2012.

The exhibition tells the compelling story of the 300 Jewish children who were sent to the UK for recuperation and stayed in the village of Calgarth which stood near Windermere. These children eventually found homes in the UK and many of them came to settle in Manchester.

Finally at a special ceremony on the eve of Holocaust Day the 'Souvenir d'Anne Frank' rose will be planted in the grounds of the Jewish Museum. The rose will be planted by theatre company Ensemble who will also premier a new production at the Zion Arts Centre in Hulme which tells the story about Anne, her father and the rose.

Some good news for drivers heading South from Manchester

2012-01-17T15:42:00.001Z

For those of us who make the journey out of Manchester south comes news that plans for a major upgrade of the A556 between the M6 and the M56 will be put to the public for comments this month.

A 12-week consultation on the proposals for a road scheme to relieve congestion and improve safety along the route, will start on Monday 23 January 2012 and run until Monday 16 April 2012.

A public exhibition, where people will be able to see the plans and speak to the project team, will be held at Cottons Hotel and Spa on Manchester Road in Knutsford on Saturday 28 January from 10am until 5pm, on Tuesday 31 January from 10am until 9pm and on Thursday 9 February from 1pm until 9pm.

As part of the scheme a new 4.7 mile (7.5km) dual carriageway will run between Junction 19 of the M6 near Knutsford in Cheshire and Junction 7 of the M56 near Bowdon in Greater Manchester,taking take traffic away from local villages,bypassing Over Tabley, Mere and Bucklow Hill.

The current route of the A556 is often heavily congested says highways agency, with approximately 51,500 vehicles travelling along it every day. Just over one in every ten vehicles is a heavy goods vehicle, and there have been 118 accidents along the road in a five-year period.

The new dual carriageway will run mainly to the west of the existing A556 and will be built below ground level where possible, minimising the impact on the surrounding area. As well as the two motorway junctions, there will be other junctions along the new route for access to local communities.

The road will rejoin the existing A556 for a short section north of Bucklow Hill, which will be upgraded to modern dual carriageway standards. Improvements will also be made to the layout of Junction 7 of the M56.

The part of the A556 being bypassed by the new dual carriageway will be reduced from two lanes to one lane in each direction to discourage its use by through traffic. The disused lanes will be replaced with grass verges.

Tory minister faces call for resignation after selling her house near to HS2

2012-01-16T10:43:00.001Z

I doubt very much whether Cheryl Gillan's Chesham and Amersham constituents will be particularly pleased with the revelation that she sold her constituency home,situated a mere 500m from the planned line,just weeks before it was given the go-ahead.

Now facing calls to resign,the Cabinet minister will be remembered as one of the MP's who pledged to resign rather than support the £33billion rail line.

She did quite a U turn last week after Transport Minister Justine Greening announced that the train will rarely be seen in Amersham as it will disappear into a tunnel for much of its route through the leafy suburbs.

As the Bucks Free Press reports she told her constituents that she has done everything she can for her constituents over High Speed 2 on her website last week although it makes no mention of the House sale which the Daily Mail is reporting this morning that the two-bedroom home was sold to a developer and is available to let for £1,350 a month.Read more: .

Royal Yacht-Let's hope this is just blue Sky thinking

2012-01-16T10:30:00.001Z

I sincerely hope that the rumblings of Education Secretary Michael Gove about buying the Queen a new yacht to celebrate this year's Jubilee is one of those right wing stories from the blue sky thinking of Steve Hilton

As with many of his ideas it will be tested on the public and then consigned to the waste paper bin.

If it isn't and the government believes that 60 million pounds is a good investment in the middle of austerity Britain then I worry.

Yes,we can all celebrate what will be a unique event,maybe never to be seen again in that our Queen has been on the throne for 60 years but even the most ardent royalist must surely at the cost.

I do worry that Mr Cameron and the like seem to think that the Olympics and the Jubilee will somehow see us through what could be one of the worst years for the economy.

Oh and by the way I thought we were all in this together?

Social media-The good the bad and the Indefensible-A masterclass from CityPress' Paul Smith

2012-01-16T07:37:00.000Z

As people who live and work in Manchester know-we have a lot of social media experts plying their trade.

I don't think Paul Smith of Citypress would describe himself as a social media expert but what he had to say at MMU last week in a guest lecture about social media,brands and crisis management was worth a listen.

Whether social media has changed our life,well it did for Paul who had an accident about seven years ago which left him in a wheelchair.

He found people from around the world who shared the situation that he was in and it was his first real experience of the social side of the internet.“It has so hugely changed what we do as communicators”But for brands it was an eye opener in more ways than one-they suddenly found that people were coming back to them and it was easy for rivals to set up.

The power of social media comes with a trade off and businesses have to develop a thicker skin,predict the unpredictable and be prepared to anticipate issues that they may never have thought.

Before the days of twitter,a crisis management plan gave you a certain time to respond but social media has flipped those timescales on their head.News distribution changed when the 24 hour news channels hit the airways,but the importance of news is no longer necessarily been determined by the media.

Twitter has now become part of the story now with reaction being part of the story itself.It has helped to topple regimes,that is it power so organisations need to be aware2012 is the year he says that social media will go mainstream for businesses.

Many are still ignoring it and failing to engage.The next generation of customers for these businesses are the Face book generation and will expect to be engaged in this way.Previously crisis management was a relationship with your customers engaged via the traditional media.

Social media has thrown a massive spanner in the works says Paul and the old rules of being honest,responding quickly and carefully although still applying,no longer rule the roost.

Paul told the story of the Cadbury Salmonella outbreak in 2007,before the days of corporate social media and tried to imagine what that story would have done in the age of social media.

Cadbury were not on social media then,but this week they became one of the first companies to launch a brand on Google +,how times have changed.We are still in the early days og Google + but Paul believes that brands will embrace it because it strips out any anonymity along with this week’s announcement that Google is to take more notice of + when it comes to search.But back to the strategy.It was always based on you know your critics.

Our natural instinct as a species is to seek out the alternative view and argue.The internet makes it easier to do this because we feel we can air our views without consequence.(Just read the comments on You Tube videos).

Many brands struggle with that unparalleled feedback and the skill for the next generation is how to cut through that noise.Engagement opens up a “Pandora’s box” says Smith.

GAP decided that it would rebrand its logo,going through all the cost of redesign before throwing it open to the world and ended with thousands of angry responses and decided to abandon the redesign.Rather a “kneejerk reaction according to SmithStarbucks has had four changes of logo.the first three were in the age before Social media,the fourth produced the same reaction as for GAP but decided to crack on.

A lesson to learn perhaps?

It stems from having a wider crisis management plan when it comes to social media which involves thinking of a response to every single negative question that can come out in the age of social media.

His top tips for brands in this situation is to try to respond to the questions as soon as possible because that is what people are expected and secondly where you can try to take the conversation people off line.

In conclusion says Paul,driven my the mobile revolution,social media will continue to dominate the way we communicate.

Another fine mess in Afghanistan

2012-01-12T12:45:00.000Z

We thought that we had seen the last of this but it appears that US troops can still not be trusted to police the world in the name of freedom.

A video depicting what appears to be four Marines urinating on the corpses of Taliban fighters has appeared.

Now we have to be careful to jump to conclusions,just ask Piers Morgan and the Marine Corps said it has not verified the origin or authenticity of the YouTube video.

However on the tenth anniversary of the opening of Guantanamo bay and amid continuing calls for its final closure,this is probably the last thing that the American military needed

Tesco faltering and RBS cutting as more gloom is piled on the UK economy

2012-01-12T09:47:00.001Z

Two bits of bad news for our flaying economy this morning.

Tesco reporting that it did not have a good Xmas with results for the six weeks to the 7th January showing a 2.3 percent drop in sales, excluding fuel and VAT sales tax, at British stores open a year.

The firm gave a warning about its profitability into 2012 saying that it expected minimal trading profit growth in the year to February 2013 as cash-strapped Britons have been cutting back spending on non-essential goods.

Its shares have taken a battering on the stock markets this morning after the news with its price dropping 12 percent to a 32-month low at 339.5 pence,wiping 3.7 billion pounds off its value.

Meanwhile tax payer owned RBS is to axe over 3,500 jobs in investment banking and sell or shut equities and advisory business under its 3-year plan to focus more on domestic retail and corporate banking.

According to Reuters,RBS said it is adapting to "significant new pressures" on its wholesale banking business, and the changes will make it more conservatively funded, more focused on customers and better able to deliver stable returns.

Are the media racist asks New Statesman report

2012-01-12T09:36:00.001Z

An investigation by the New Statesman magazine reveals that ethnic minorities are still largely absent from opinion pages, senior roles and staff jobs in UK press.

The report is part of the magazine's special report on race in the British media.

Columnist Mehdi Hasan writes in an essay for the special report:

What have the following five individuals got in common: Gary Younge, Hugh Muir, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Amol Rajan and India Knight? They are part of a small group of non-white newspaper columnists who appear regularly on the comment pages of our national newspapers. Well, OK, not quite. They are the small group of non-white newspaper columnists who appear on those comment pages. That's it. There's just five of them - the Guardian's Younge and Muir (both black), the Independent/i's Alibhai-Brown and Rajan (both Asian) and the Sunday Times's Knight (mixed race).It is a deeply depressing state of affairs.

The magazine surveyed surveyed the main comment pages of selected newspapers in the week between Monday 5 December and Sunday 11 December to count the number of non-white writers who appeared finding that 3 newspapers did not have a single non-white writer on the comment pages and only 5 non-white writers have a regular weekly fixed column in the British broadsheet press .

UK Comms Sector is vital in rebalancing the economy says CBI report

2012-01-12T09:12:00.000Z

The Government needs to “think big” when it publishes its forthcoming Communications Bill, and be ambitious about what one of the UK’s fastest growing sectors can achieve according to the Confederation of British business (CBI).

In a new report, called Blazing a trail the CBI says the communications industry should play a key part in rebalancing the economy. To support this, the Government must ensure that regulation is suitable for a dynamic industry, encourage competition in the communications sector, maximise export opportunities, and ensure the UK has the infrastructure it needs to compete on a global stage.

The UK,says the report is already a major global player in communications, with a sector worth at least £50 billion a year to the economy in value terms, and the potential to grow its annual exports by more than 8.7 per cent between now and the end of the decade.

However, major economies as diverse as Singapore, Sweden and China are investing in technology to compete, and the UK cannot afford to take its hard-earned position for granted.The CBI’s recommendations include ensuring that regulations are supportive of convergence, are targeted at a clear outcome and work with the grain of consumer demand as well as a thorough review of the obligations placed on Public Service Broadcasters, to ensure that they remain relevant in a convergent digital world

It also recommends the creation of a (non-binding) advisory panel, with representatives from industries within the communications sector meeting regularly to achieve progress on difficult issues.

Dr Neil Bentley, CBI Deputy Director-General, said:“The UK is known around the world for its cultural exports, whether it’s Adele topping the charts in 18 countries around the world, or Downton Abbey being screened in over 200 territories.

However it added that the UK’s communications sector is worth much more than its high profile successes. It has the potential to grow its exports faster than most other sectors over the coming decade, and can therefore play a key role in rebalancing our economy and reducing our reliance on domestic consumption.

“That’s why we need the Government to think big in its forthcoming Communications Bill. Our communications sector needs a framework in place that will enable and encourage innovation, with a clear and consistent approach to regulations.”

Scotland the brave

2012-01-11T11:48:00.004Z

If you have been reading the papers over the last few days it won't have escaped your notice that the battlelines appear to have been drawn over the debate for Scottish Independence.

In one corner Alex Salmond who has decided that the referendum will be held in the autumn of 2014 with three questions on the ballot paper.

In the other stands David Cameron and the rest of the Westminster machine which is of course firmly on the side of the maintenance of the union and wants a vote sooner rather than later believing that all this speculation is damaging the economy.

Salmond upped the anti so to speak on the Today programme this morning announcing that the referendum on Scottish independence has to "made in Scotland and decided by the Scottish people"

However those on this side of the border believe that he lacks the legal authority even to call a vote with Salmond retorting that the coalition has no mandate to intervene.

Salmond will be believing that any intervention from Westminster will play into his hands with the Scottish electorate.

Now the Prime Minister has announced that he will be meeting with the first minister in due course to discuss the controversial plans.

Romney home and dry

2012-01-11T08:27:00.000Z

So,part two of the epic that is the Republican nomination comes to a close and for some it appears that the race is all but won.

With Mick Romney the clear leader and telling his supporters to turn their fire on Barack Obama and Rick Santorum's brand of Conservatism seemingly rejected,as the players move down the coast to South Carolina,is it all over by the shouting?

The results with Romney approaching 40 per cent and Ron Paul second on about 23 per cent and former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman third on almost 17 per cent seem to suggest that.

Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich were well behind with each getting less than 10 per cent of the vote,whilst Rick Perry who is pooling all his resources into South Carolina finished with just one per cent.

However maybe the Republicans are still waiting for that magic candidate to appear.Turnout was low suggesting that the range of candidates was hardly an incentive to go out and vote.

So to South Carolina and the 21st

40 per cent of Manchester's children live in poverty says report

2012-01-10T12:52:00.000Z

Manchester has been named as the North West's child poverty capital, with forty per cent of youngsters within the area covered by the city council in families surviving on less than 60 per cent of median household income.

Moss Side is identified as the worst ward within Manchester with 59 per cent falling into the catagory.Other wards above fifty per cent include Ancoats and Clayton,Newton Heath and Miles Plating,Harpurhey and Hulme.

Across the 10 Manchester authorities in the report from the end child poverty campaign,Salford and Oldham both have 29 per cent withing the category and outside the area,Liverpool is the next worst with 34 per cent.

Commenting on the figures nationally,Alison Garnham, the Campaign’s executive director, said: “The child poverty map paints a stark picture of a socially segregated Britain, where the life chances of millions of children are damaged by poverty and inequality.“The Prime Minister should make a New Year’s resolution to keep his pledge to “make British poverty history” – so that not just children in Witney but children all over Britain can enjoy a childhood free from poverty.”

Here are the figures in full for ManchesterAncoats and Clayton52%Ardwick52%Baguley34%Bradford49%Brooklands31%Burnage37%Charlestown40%Cheetham46%Chorlton12%Chorlton Park32%City Centre13%Crumpsall32%Didsbury East14%Didsbury West9%Fallowfield43%Gorton North43%Gorton South41%Harpurhey50%Higher Blackley42%Hulme53%Levenshulme28%Longsight39%Miles Platting and Newton Heath50%Moss Side59%Moston30%Northenden38%Old Moat44%Rusholme46%Sharston41%Whalley Range28%Withington27%Woodhouse Park42%

Guardian's live Countdown blog-digital journalism in danger of being a parody of itself

2012-01-10T07:59:00.001Z

The live blog on the Guardian website yesterday attracted a fair amount of criticism across the journalistic twittersphere.

The Guardian had decided in its infinite wisdom that Nick Hewer taking over hosting duties at Countdown was such a significant event that it required a live commentary.

But has digital reporting taken a step too far?

Now I applaud many things that the Guardian does as many readers of this blog and those that follow my twitter stream know.

However the danger to me is that the organisation,and it is not on its own, is being slowly taken over by the good intentions of journalists who have been schooled in the idea that the many tools of this digital age are the salvation of the profession whilst forgetting who they are actually trying to connect with.

Yes,live blogging as one such too has demonstrated its usefulness but yesterday's choice of event to me endangers it to being a parody of itself.

As a tongue in cheek Mike Rawlins of Talk about local tweeted to me earlier on the very subject

" Next time I see a live blog like that I think I'll live blog the live blog, hopefully someone will live tweet the....."

There is a danger that journalism and journalists spend far too much time navel gazing and forget whom their real audience is,Ready to jump on tweet and blog about about what they consider the next best thing which will come to their salvation,be it data journalism,geotagging,cover it live and whatever the next dreamed up hashtag will be(anyone remember Quora which was going to solve all our problems?)

Meanwhile the Leveson enquiry continues to rumble on.In much the same way as the Countdown blog,it is in danger of becoming a navel gazing exercise.Covered in depth by the Guardian and the Independent,I speculate on whether anyone outside the profession is really that interested in its outcome.

Indeed by the time it reports,the heady days of last summer when we actually thought the world was going to change will be long forgotten to be replaced by,well who knows?

So as I prepare to live blog my expedition to the kitchen to make a cup of tea and some toast,here is an appeal to some in the journalism community-get real please.

Is a 20 hour week that much of a daft idea

2012-01-09T11:31:00.000Z

It might be seen as crack pot scheme but maybe there is some sense in the proposal from the New Economics Foundation (NEF)to shorten the working week.

The report in yesterday's Observer argued that if everyone worked fewer hours,say, 20 or so a week,there would be more jobs to go round, employees could spend more time with their families and energy-hungry excess consumption would be curbed.

It is unlikely to happen given our society's endless pursuit of growth and consumer goods but maybe this sort of radical thinking is just what the Western economy needs to shake itself out of its downward spiral.

The article goes on to say that Anna Coote, of NEF, said: "There's a great disequilibrium between people who have got too much paid work, and those who have got too little or none."

She argued that we need to think again about what constitutes economic success, and whether aiming to boost Britain's GDP growth rate should be the government's first priority: "Are we just living to work, and working to earn, and earning to consume? There's no evidence that if you have shorter working hours as the norm, you have a less successful economy: quite the reverse."

Remember when we were kids and we were sold that technology led future where machines would free us from the office and factory? What has happened is that we have quite the reverse-wonder what went wrong?

First up this week and HMV continues to decline

2012-01-09T07:56:00.001Z

It is going to be a busy week for the UK retail industry as a sting of traders report on their Xmas performance.

First up today,already under pressure HMV which has seen its sales fell 8.2 percent in the five weeks to December 31.

The group were on the brink during last year,with falling profits,saddled with 164 million pounds of debt and facing intense competition from online music sales,can take at least a glimmer of hope from the results.

The results were an improvement on like-for-like sales which were down 13.2 percent in the seven weeks to December 17,although analysts are pointing out that Xmas Eve falling on a Saturday helped that comparison.

According to Chief Executive Simon Fox,"The continuing actions to focus the business and to expand our technology offering are beginning to show through, adding that

"We are seeing a combination of a slowing of the decline in music and film, and acceleration in the growth of technology. Undoubtedly trading conditions and the consumer environment remain challenging, but we remain confident in HMV's future prospects

Meanwhile grocery chain Morrisons is forecasting a tough 2012 after reporting a slowdown in sales growth over Christmas.

The figures have surprised analysts who believed that the chain's strength in fresh food coupled with its lesser dependence than it rivals on consumer goods would see it reap the benefit of consumer cutbacks

Sales at stores open over a year rose 0.7 percent, excluding fuel and VAT sales tax, in the six weeks to January 1 but that was down from 2.4 percent growth in its fiscal third quarter.

Cameron's Tourettes Gaffe-let's get tough on bankers and the Countess and those jewels-Sunday papers

2012-01-08T08:33:00.000Z

A quick round up of what the Sunday papers are saying this morning.

David Cameron gets star billing in both the Telegraph and the Observer.

In what is going to be the big story of the day in after an interview with the Telegraph,he has issued an apology after describing Ed Balls’s behaviour in the House of Commons as like "someone with Tourette’s"

He told the paper in what has become the main story this morning that has taken any gloss away from the interview that was about a fairer Britain that "He just annoys me,but I’m very bad, in the House of Commons, at not getting distracted, and the endless, ceaseless banter, it’s like having someone with Tourette’s permanently sitting opposite you."

Meanwhile in the Observer,the Prime Minister pledges is firmly behind his business secretary's pledge to give shareholders a legal right to block sky-high pay awards to company executives under radical plans for an assault on "fat cat" earnings drawn up by the government.

According to the paper,he confirmed the move and said he was determined to end the "merry-go-round" of super-rich bosses rubber-stamping each others' inflated deals and being rewarded for failure.

The Mail on Sunday meanwhile thinks the moves will go further as it reports that growing public outrage over the severe damage caused by the banking crisis has prompted the Chancellor to prepare a new criminal offence of ‘corporate negligence’ to punish reckless financiers.

The move, adds the paper, comes just days before the annual City bonus season, which is expected to bring another round of bumper payouts despite the sluggish UK economy and families suffering a historic squeeze on household finances.

No 10 also makes in on the front of the Sunday Times as the paper claims that Gerald Ronson,was blocked by Downing Street from receiving a knighthood despite support from Liberal Democrats who saw him as an exemplar of a rehabilitated man.

According to the report,senior figures at No 10 decided that it would be inappropriate for the 72-year-old former convict, who was jailed in the Guinness share trading scandal in 1990, to be given such a high award.

The Independent on Sunday,in the wake of this week's Stephen Lawrence verdicts decides to take a look at the race issue in Britain in 2012 and concludes that some things have improved for the black and Asian communities since the murder in 1993, but Britain still has a long way to go before it can call itself a colour-blind country.

A poll in the Observer reveals our hopes and fears for the coming year.The survey by British Future thinktank paints a picture of a hopeful country at ease with itself but fearful of the consequences of its diminishing resources.

Meanwhile a poll of businessmen in the Independent reveals that more than half of Britain's top business people expect the economy to get worse over the next 12 months with less than 10 per cent believe there will be some improvement,

A former Prime Minister makes the front pages of the Telegraph.The paper reports that Tony Blair channelled millions of pounds through a complicated web of companies and paid just a fraction in tax.

Official accounts says the paper, show a company set up by Mr Blair to manage his business affairs paid just £315,000 in tax last year on an income of more than £12 million.

The People reveals the hell of Coronation Street Actor Michael Le Vell who the paper says has demanded a change in the law after he was publicly named as a child rape suspect.

The Actor says that the three-month investigation into a false claim that he had sexually abused a six-year-old girl left him contemplating suicide.

The Sunday Times can reveal that Double-decker trains with glass ceilings, luxury dining cars and play areas for children could be used on the new high-speed rail route.

The Transport Minister is due to give the go ahead for the scheme this week and in an interview with the paper Justine Greening,indicated she was attracted to the idea of double-decker trains.

The Royals make some fleeting appearances in the papers.The Sunday Mirror reporting that Kate Middleton is spearheading a mercy mission to help Britain’s abandoned war veterans.

However it is the Countess of Wessex who features in the Telegraph as the row over her acceptance of jewels from Bahrain continues,the paper says that Buckingham Palace was last night forced to defend the Countess of Wessex after it emerged she had accepted a lavish set of gems from the Bahrain royal family during a visit to the Gulf state.

Now Murphy joins the battle

2012-01-06T10:44:00.000Z

First it was Lord Glason,now shadow defence secretary Jim Murphy has questioned the party's relentless attack on spending cuts without its own solution.

This morning's Guardian quotes Murphy as saying that the party must reject 'shallow and temporary' populism.

Once again this could well be an attack not on the leader but on his shadow Chancellor.

Murphy is talking specifically about defence cuts telling the paper that he agrees with £5bn of the government's planned cuts in defence.

However the inference is there for all to see.

As Glen Ogazla has just written at Boulton and Co

Although he does not attack Ed Miliband's leadership (he was, you may remember, David Miliband's campaign manager during the Labour leadership election), Jim Murphy highlights the great problem for Ed Miliband so far: He is not getting through and not being seen as a Prime Minister in waiting.

Whilst
Peter Hoskin at Coffee hails the fact that Murphy goes beyond this simple rhetoric, becoming the first shadow minister to give some of those ‘details’ that Balls mentioned.

Whatever the behind the scenes manoeuvrings,it appears that the party may be finally getting its act into gear over its opposition to the coalition's deficit reduction strategy.

Credible fiscal alternatives rather than blazon rhetoric will win the voters to the cause

Filkin's recommendations risk a "closed shop"

2012-01-06T08:25:00.002Z

I wrote a couple of days ago about the Filkin report into the close ties between the Met Police and journalists.

The report recommended that police must keep a record of any conversation with journalists, and expect it to be subject to an ‘audit’as well as warning against loose ties and off the record conversations over drinks.

There is an interesting counter argument in the comment section of this morning's Daily Mail in which the author says that far from creating a set of satisfactory guidelines it

risks creating a ‘closed shop’ in which police are too scared to pass on information, even where it is of huge public interest, in case they are subject to a witch-hunt by senior officers who it suits to conceal inconvenient truths and restrict all communication to official channels.

Indeed it continues

Journalists will be treated as a potential enemy best avoided – despite the overwhelming majority of reporters being interested only in exposing wrongdoing, helping the police to bring criminals to justice (as the Mail demonstrated so vividly in the Lawrence case) and, vitally, defending the public’s right to know.

It seems the paper has come right out against these recommendations with its flamboyant columnist Richard Littlejohn weighing in.

You can read his synopsis HERE

Le Vell case once again questions the anonymity in sex allegations

2012-01-05T12:35:00.002Z

The cloud hanging over Coronation Street's Michael Le Vell when he found himself accused of sexually abusing a schoolgirl only for all charges to be dropped once again highlights the issue of anonymity of those charged with sexual offences.

Back in October,the media splashed across its front pages the fact that Michael who has played Kevin Webster in the long running soap for 28 years had been interviewed by Greater Manchester police for eight hours after a formal complaint by a teenager.

Earlier this week he was cleared of any offence after the CPS announced that he didn't have a case to answer.

The Coronation street team to be fair,stood by him after he assured them of his innocence but nonetheless his reputation was and has been damaged.

Writing in the Mirror this morning,Brian Reade makes the point that the case once again highlights the fact that men accused of serious sex offences should have the same rights as their accuser and only be named if they are found guilty.

He adds

None of us has a clue how it feels to be falsely accused of raping a child, fearing everyone who looks at you believes there’s no smoke without fire.Only the wrongly accused know what it’s like to see your family shamed, to have the only thing that is truly yours, your good name, stolen, and to be powerless to say anything in your defence.Why should the phrase “quizzed over child abuse” sit permanently in his press cuttings? And all because someone may possibly have invented something which left his reputation looking like child-molester Sidney Cooke’s.This law attacks our most fundamental human right – the presumption you are innocent until proven otherwise – and is nothing short of inhumane.

Shirky-Paywalls,newspapers,customers and the elephant in the room,how to make money

2012-01-05T12:18:00.003Z

It has been doing the rounds of the journalism "twitterati" this morning but I make no apologies for writing about
Internet guru Clay Shirky's piece on his blog where he asks whether it is about time that newspapers finally drop the idea of treating all news as a product, and all readers as customers.

As he points out,the model that insists that it is only a matter of time before we all have to pay for content is flawed

Commercial radio is ad-supported because no one could figure out a way to restrict access to radio waves; cable TV collects revenues because someone figured out a way to restrict access to co-axial cables. The logic of the internet is that everyone pays for the infrastructure, then everyone gets to use it. This is obviously incompatible with print economics, but oddly, the industry’s faith in ‘every reader a customer’ has been largely unshaken by newspapers’ own lived experience of the move to the web.

Thus he adds

The easy part of treating digital news as a product is getting money from 2% of your audience. The hard part is losing 98% of your advertising base.

But actually the problem in this connected world,at least in the old model is that page views = revenue streams and newspapers have begun to find out just how few people read the reports of council meetings and planning committees whilst the trivia stories hit the right notes for advertisers.

(Of course exactly how many people read adverts is another pert point but advertisers insist on clinging to the old models of page impressions = sales ignoring the trends in the this new social media connected world.).

Anyway I digress from Shirky's argument in which he says that paywalls held out the possibility, however illusory, that if all readers could be treated as customers, the organization wouldn’t have to pay much attention to them, except in aggregate.

A valid point and he continues

When a paper abandons the standard paywall strategy, it gives up on selling news as a simple transaction. Instead, it must also appeal to its readers’ non-financial and non-transactional motivations: loyalty, gratitude, dedication to the mission, a sense of identification with the paper, an urge to preserve it as an institution rather than a business.

As for the future,as I have written before,we are but a short way down the line of disruption that the internet has given to the mass media model.The model that we end up with may be something that at the moment we cannot comprehend as we try to amend the old version with stick on digital add ons.

It will take time for the economic weight of those users to affect the organizational form of the paper, but slowly slowly, form follows funding. For the moment at least, the most promising experiment in user support means forgoing mass in favor of passion; this may be the year where we see how papers figure out how to reward the people most committed to their long-term survival.

Blue Glasman turns on Red Ed

2012-01-05T08:14:00.000Z

One gets the impression that this is going to be a difficult year for the Labour leader Ed Miliband.

Already under pressure from unnamed members of his party over his performances against David Cameron and still struggling to define exactly what the party should be opposing and proposing,Maurice Glasman has taken to the pages of the New Statesman to air his concerns about t.he party's leader.

He writes that

Labour is apparently pursuing a sectional agenda based on the idea that disaffected Liberal Democrats and public-sector employees will give Labour a majority next time around

and goes on to critique what he sees as its Keynesian orthodoxy in denying that its spending policy in the latter years has not had some effect on the current state of affairs that the country finds itself in.

Some argue that his attack is not so much on Miliband but on the shadow chancellor Ed Balls.

Glasman sings praises for part of what Miliband is trying to do

He was right, too, to distinguish between predatory and productive capital. Finance capital, outside of all relationships and calling the shots, is by nature promiscuous and exploitative. We need to call time on its nasty ways.

he writes but then adds that

The problem with Brownite political economy is that, even though it was true that a 3 per cent deficit was not excessive in the context of economic growth, it was debt that was growing at the time, rather than the real economy. A vast, sustained expansion in private debt fuelled the financial sector throughout Brown's tenure as chancellor and then prime minister. There was not enough investment in the productive economy, not enough private-sector growth.

So maybe not the start to the New Year that both Eds had in mind but at least he has some supporters among the former grandees

As the Guardian reports

On Twitter, however, the former deputy prime minister John Prescott said: "Glasman. You know sod all about politics, economic policy, Labour or solidarity. Bugger off and go 'organise' some communities!"

More signs of recession?

2012-01-04T17:06:00.001Z

Over at Liberal Conspiracy,Richard Exell believes that we are definitely heading back into recession.

He cites among other things, the Financial Times’ survey of 83 economists’ expectations for the coming year and Deloitte’s survey of finance directors.

The words of the later are particularly worrying according to Excell

What we should worry about is the fact that Chief Finance Officers are drawing the obvious conclusion that this is not a good time to invest. This is depressing, because most optimistic scenarios are based on the fact that companies have plenty of cash and the hope for an investment-led boom. Well, that doesn’t look likely:

Two down-four to go after Iowa

2012-01-04T16:57:00.000Z

The Iowa caucuses have now claimed a second candidate with Michele Bachmann announcing in the past hour that she is suspending her campaign.

Bachmann finished bottom of the pile earlier today winning just five per cent of the vote and joins Texan governor Rick Perry in taking a sabbatical from the race.

So just four candidates now head to New Hampshire with Mitt Romney seemingly the favourite.

She told a room of supporters and reporters in Iowa that "I have decided to stand aside," she told a room of supporters and reporters in Iowa.

She added that she leaves the race knowing the campaign was run "with integrity." and that the country needs to "stand united behind the person our party chooses to be the standard bearer."

MP Davies throws down the immigration gauntlet

2012-01-04T16:45:00.000Z

A Tory MP has put the cat among the pigeons by speaking out against immigration.

David Davies,who is MP for Monmouth has said that immigration would fuel demand for new homes, including in his largely rural constituency.

He added that there was a danger that immigration became an issue only extremists spoke about.

According to Wales Online he said “It goes without saying that the millions of law abiding people who have come here, learned English, got jobs and integrated into society are to be made welcome and those who try to whip up prejudice based on ethnicity or where people were born should be completely condemned.

In comments that are bound to have some recuperation's he added that“At the same time we cannot escape the fact that continued large scale immigration is fuelling the demand for housebuilding, including in areas like rural Wales, even though the number of recent UK arrivals living here is small.”

Davies who is the Conservative chairman of the Welsh Affairs Committee made the comments in a letter to Greenpeace, the Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales and Friends of the Earth.

According to the BBC website,Friends of the Earth Cymru director Gareth Clubb, who said he would write back to Mr Davies, said the destabilising impact of climate change would fuel migration around the world."If David Davies is concerned about immigration to Wales his first port of call should be to support very strong climate legislation,"

Stop flirting with the media police are told

2012-01-04T13:46:00.000Z

One of the fallouts of the events over the summer over Murdochgate was the questioning of the relationship between the police and the media.

Today comes a report The Ethical Issues Arising From The Relationship Between Police And Media which has recommended that The Metropolitan Police Service has to rethink its attitude to relations with journalists and be more open about dealing with the press.

The report by Elizabeth Filkin, the former head of investigations into wrongdoing in Parliament suggested that the police should avoid drinking with reporters, make a record of all conversations and beware of potential “flirting” by journalists seeking unauthorized information.

"The close relationship which developed between parts of the MPS and the media has caused serious harm,” Filkin said in the report. “What goes on at the top affects the whole organization.”

The report was commissioned in July, after revelations that News of the World reporters had hacked into the voice mail of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler in 2002, when she was still missing.

Speaking at the press conference in London where the report was published Filkin said that “A free press is essential to a democracy as it can provide scrutiny of public institutions, such as the MPS, and is essential in providing information about what the police do." adding that “It is critical for policing legitimacy that the MPS are as open and transparent as they can be and the media plays an important part in this. On occasions the MPS has not been open enough in providing the right information to the public.”

Flirting is “often interlinked with alcohol” and is “designed to get you to drop your defenses and say far more than you intended. Be careful,” Filkin said in the report. She didn’t suggest an outright ban on alcohol with reporters.Alcohol, she said, can involve “late-night carousing, long sessions, yet another bottle of wine at lunch -- these are all long-standing media tactics to get you to spill the beans.”

Poet Laureate and Manchester Metropolitan University professor Carol Ann Duffy has won the Costa poetry prize

2012-01-04T10:16:00.001Z

Some good news for Manchester this morning.

This from an MMU Press Release

Carol Ann, who is Creative Director at the University’s Manchester Writing School, won the poetry category for her latest collection, The Bees, her first since being appointed Poet Laureate in 2009.

Andrew Miller beat Booker winner Julian Barnes to take the accolade for best novel, while debut children's writer, Moira Young, won the children's book award for Blood Red Road.There were also categories for best first novel and best biography.

All five books will now have the chance of winning the 2011 Costa Book of the Year, which will be announced in London on 24 January.

Shocking figures as millions rely on credit to help pay rent or mortgage

2012-01-04T09:26:00.001Z

Rather worrying figures this morning from the housing charity Shelter which reports that almost one million people have taken out a payday loan to help pay their rent or mortgage in the last 12 months.

The charity says that almost seven million people in total are relying on credit in some form to help pay their housing costs, using payday loans, unauthorised overdrafts, other loans or credit cards.

Campbell Robb, Shelter’s Chief Executive said: ‘These shocking findings show the extent to which millions of households across the country are desperately struggling to keep their home.

‘Turning to short-term payday loans to help pay for the cost of housing is totally unsustainable. It can quickly lead to debts snowballing out of control and can lead to eviction or repossession and ultimately homelessness adding that

‘Every two minutes someone in Britain faces the nightmare of losing their home. We urge every single one of these people now relying on credit to help pay their rent or mortgage to urgently seek advice.’

Online sales bolster results for Next

2012-01-04T09:19:00.001Z

Next has this morning become the first of the big shops to report on their Xmas trading results.

It will be an interesting few weeks of reports to see whether consumerism will keep the country afloat or whether we are going to be consigned to the doldrums for 2012.

Anyway,it is a sort of good news and bad news for the clothing retailer which says that sales are down but was cheered by the strength of online trading.

Results for its sales from August up until Xmas eve saw sales down 2.7 per cent but it was buoyed by a 16.9 per cent rise at its online and catalogue Directory business.

The firm says its post-Christmas sale period has gone well with final clearance rates slightly ahead of 2010 and as for 2012,it says it is cautious,expecting “profit before tax only slightly up on this year.

Meanwhile retail chain John Lewis have reported like for like sales up 6.2 per cent in the 5 weeks to 31 December 2011.

Its online sales jumped 27.9 per cent year on year, breaking through the £600m barrier in the year to date with the department store’s click and collect service seeing a 90 per centincrease in usage.The group though warns about the year ahead saying that 2012 will “undoubtedly be challenging”

Group MD Andy Street said: “Sales during the four weeks to Christmas Eve were outstanding." adding“The first week of clearance saw a very strong start, but against the pre-VAT increase week in 2010, it was always going to be a challenge to match sales, particularly with ‘big ticket’ items.

Iowa and your twitter stream-some thoughts

2012-01-04T09:03:00.002Z

I have had a bit of twitter conversation with two colleagues this morning about how their twitter stream was filled with reports from the Iowa Caucuses overnight and this morning.

The conversation centred around how relevant is was at such an early stage and how we in the UK were going to have put up with 10 more months of it.

My reply was firstly that it was relevant even it this early stage as Iowa set the stalls up for the rest of the campaign.

They are not a great bunch of candidates but one could be the effective leader of the Western world in less than a year,so it is important

One candidate Rick Perry have effectively thrown the towel in,another Michele Bachmann seems doomed and Newt Gingrich,whilst pressing on to New Hampshire has been given a bloody nose.

Yes,let's put into perspective.Only 120,000 voters in one of the smallest states,yet it seems that Mitt Romney,the narrow winner,who is likely later today to get the endorsement of 2008 candidateSenator John McCain,has set his flag firmly in the ground.

Runner up Rick Santorum,who probably until now few have heard of has announced to the world that he has his sights firmly set on the White House and Ron Paul,who I am afraid makes me think of the alien Paul in last years hit Sci Fi movie will continue to battle.

But back to that twitter conversation.It might well be that we have to look at our twitter stream to decide whether to carry on following individuals who keep us up to date with every single sneeze that comes out of the campaign.

We can to a certain extent do that with lists(I rarely unfollow people) but as I pointed out,it is no worse than when twitter gets taken over by people who you would regard as sensible,bleating about X factor,Dragon's Den and Masterchef.

hat,I am afraid is the social media world that we live in,but remember,if you don't like it, it's only a click away from leaving

All down to Iowa

2012-01-03T15:51:00.001Z

After much huffing and puffing the Republican nominations for Presidential candidate get under way finally today in Iowa.

The campaign has up til now been littered with gaffes,withdrawals,embarrassments with true Republicans still holding out the hope that a "proper candidate to challenge Barack Obama in November will appear.

At the moment we have six runners and riders,the front runner from the start of the campaign,Mitt Romney trying to walk the tightrope between the needs of parts of his hardline party and his real views being closely pursued at least in this state by Rick Santorum and Ron Paul.

Also still in the race and favourite amongst some parts is former congressional speaker Newt Gingrich,along with the gaffe prone Rick Perry and one time tea party favourite Michelle Bachmann.

By all accounts it is going to be a tight finish and although this is a small state,it is always seen as important as Republicans gather in their precinct caucuses to discuss who they will nominate.

It is the start of a long running battle to the summer with New Hampshire,South Carolina and Florida to follow this month.

The Iowa caucuses are really about giving the media a voter-based reason to narrow their national coverage to two or three candidates,” said Mike Murphy, a Republican strategist unaffiliated with any of the presidential campaigns. “Success is driven by the media attention, which in turn has a huge impact on fundraising and even polling numbers in the next wave of state primaries.”

By tomorrow morning we will probably have a good idea of who won't be running for President and the three names that could still be in the race.

BBC's Nick Robinson on Parliament,the lobby system,blogging and of course Mandelson

2012-01-03T12:31:00.001Z

It is not very often that the BBC's top notch political commentator Nick Robinson gives a interview.

However he has opened up to Iain Dale on his Total Politics site.

In the piece,he tells Dale that politics and parliament have become more significant since we have been in coalition

Parliament is beginning to debate the things that anger, upset, inspire our audience. And the select committees are gradually building their power.

He also tells the magazine that he was probably the first political blogger,starting in 2006 and credits the rise of online as having massively increased the speed of accountability.

He also talks about that famous encounter with Peter Mandelson days after the election as well as commenting on the Westminster lobby system

I just find the whole debate about the system of reporting in Westminster terribly anal, self-obsessed, tedium. There was a big scandal, and Michael Cockerell, to his enormous credit wrote a book about the lobby system in the early 80s. There’s basically a conspiracy of secrecy, a secret briefing, the very existence of which was an offence against this closed shop to reveal. It could be used to trash a minister’s reputation without anybody ever telling the public where it stemmed from. This just isn’t the case any more

Mensch-The Iron Maiden

2012-01-03T12:14:00.001Z

Tory MP Louise Mensch's interview with Mathhew D'Acona in this week's GQ magazine is certainly getting a fair amount of coverage this morning.

It must be a fairly slow newsday,first day back and all that.It is not online yet,although you can get a preview HEREBy all reports though the,as GQ put it,

rock-chick bonkbuster author turned backbench MP, catapulted into our consciousness in the phone-hacking scandal

has certainly put the cat amongst the pigeons,so to speak.

Here is a trailer to what the magazine is calling the Iron Maiden,no doubt timed to coincide with the release of the Iron Lady film,the following day

According to snippets in the Press this morning,the Conservative MP, has spoken of her frustration at being overlooked for promotion, claiming that female politicians were “trivialised.” adding that she hoped one day to "have a crack at International Development". However she told the magazine that given the choice between being made a Cabinet minister and having one of her books, written under her maiden name, Louise Bagshawe, turned into a Hollywood movie, she would choose the latter.

Renewables brings a £2.5b economy boost to the UK

2012-01-03T11:12:00.000Z

Renewable energy in the UK is bringing almost £2.5billion worth of investment into the country.

Figures from the department of energy and climate change released over the Xmas period by Chris Huhne revealed more evidence of the economic benefits of renewable energy as he reaffirmed the coalition’s commitment to meeting EU renewable energy targets.

The figures came on the same day that the UK published an update on progress to source 15 per centof all energy from renewable sources by 2020.
The latest research from DECC shows that so far this financial year, companies have announced plans for almost £2.5billion worth of investment in renewable energy projects in the UK, with the potential to create almost 12,000 jobs across the country.

A separate report to the European Commission on renewable energy progress in the UK showed that the country achieved a 27 per cent increase in renewable energy consumption from 42.6TWh in 2008 to 54TWh in 2010,representing 3.3 per cent of total energy consumed and that there was a threefold increase in the use of biofuels in transport from 1 per cent of total road transport fuel supply in 2007/8 to 3.33 per cent in 2010.

Commenting on the figures Chris Huhne, Energy Secretary, said:“Renewable energy is not just helping us increase our energy security and reduce our emissions. It is supporting jobs and growth across the country, and giving traditional industrial heartlands the opportunity to thrive again.

He added that:“Our renewable target is less demanding than other EU member states, but the effect is bringing real jobs and investment.“I do not want the UK to be left behind by turning our back on the green economy. The agreement to negotiate a global deal secured at Durban has reinforced major nations’ commitment to cutting carbon. We cannot afford to stand alone while the world wises up.”

UK manufacturing better than forecasts for December

2012-01-03T10:41:00.003Z

On the first working day of the new year,a little bit of hope for the battered UK economy.

Figures out this morning from a survey of purchasing managers (PMI) show that activity across the British manufacturing sector continued to contract in December, but at a slower pace.

The index for the sector rose to 49.6 from a revised 47.7 in November whereas forecasts had put the PMI at 47.3.A reading of less than 50 indicates a contraction in activity.

The figures were slightly above forecast with demand up in both Germany and China..

"It is encouraging to see output remain steady last month after the declines of recent months, but with the sector highly exposed to a shaky euro zone and reports of softening demand, ironing out economic problems in key export partners will be critical to how the sector performs," said David Noble, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply.

Youngsters need structure in their lives says new report

2012-01-03T10:31:00.001Z

A report out today suggests that growing up without a daily routine or structure such as regular bedtimes and set meal times can harm a young person’s school grades and overall wellbeing.

The report from the Princes Trust based on interviews with 2,136 16-to-25-year-olds,found that more than a quarter of young people (27 per cent) claim they did not have a set bedtime while growing up.This increases to 39 per cent among those who left school with fewer than five A*-C grades at GCSE.

Young people with poorer grades are also twice as likely as their peers to say they did not have regular meal times (30 per cent compared with 14 per cent).

The charity's fourth annual Youth Index, which gauges how content young people are across a range of areas from family life to physical health, shows a significantly lower index number for young people who claim to have “lacked structure and direction” while growing up than for their peers.

Martina Milburn, chief executive of youth charity The Prince’s Trust, says:The absence of structure and routine in a young life can have a devastating impact.

The report, carried out by YouGov, shows how almost a third of young people (31 per cent) "always" or "often" feels down or depressed, with this increasing to almost half (48 per cent) among those with fewer than five A*-C grade GCSEs.

One in three of those with lower qualifications (33 per cent) "always" or "often" feels rejected, compared to around one in five young people (22 per cent) overall.Those with poorer qualifications also score a significantly lower index number than their peers, suggesting they are facing issues across a range of areas – from their employment to their relationships with friends and even their health.

Discarded at 35,000 feet

2012-01-03T09:45:00.000Z

I always love it when I get these sort of press releases.

This from Virgin Airlines

The literary works of Lord Alan Sugar, Paul Gascoigne and Katie Price were the most readily discarded reads at 35,000 feet a new study revealed today.

A survey of Virgin Atlantic’s cabin crew over the festive period left Lord Sugar’s opinionated autobiography The Way I See It: Rants, Revelations and Rules For Life topping the charts as the book passengers left behind in their seat back pocket.

In second place is Glorious: My World, Football and Me which offers an insight into the mind of Gazza, one of the world’s greatest footballers whereas glamour model and entrepreneur Katie Price made third place with her seventh novel, Santa Baby.

Virgin Atlantic’s President, Sir Richard Branson was also amoungst the authors whose books were left behind on Virgin Atlantic aircraft as his latest book Screw Business as Usual made eighth place.

Virgin Atlantic’s top ten list of books left behind on board its aircraft over the Christmas period:

1) The Way I See it: Rants, Revelations and Rules For Life by Lord Alan Sugar
2) Glorious: My World, Football and Me byPaul Gascoigne
3) Santa Baby by Katie Price
4) The World of Downton Abbey
5) I Heart Vegas by Lindsey Kelk
6) Twisting my Melon by Shaun Ryder
7) May I have your attention please? by James Corden
8) Screw Business as Usual by Sir Richard Branson
9) An Idiot Abroad: The Travel Diaries of Karl Pilkington
10) The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Crunch time for over 100 Italian papers

2012-01-03T09:36:00.000Z

A worrying report from today's FT which says that over 100 newspapers in Italy face closure as the country gets to grips with tightening its fiscal budget.

According to the report the cuts in newspaper subsidies, from €170m in total to €53m budgeted for next year, were ordered by the previous government of Silvio Berlusconi,and confirmed by Mr Monti’s administration, which took office last month.

Other notable titles facing the chop include adds the report,L’Unita, the former communist party daily founded by Antonio Gramsci in 1924; Il Manifesto, an independent leftwing paper since 1969 and Avvenire, a popular Catholic daily.

Welcome to 2012

2012-01-02T17:24:00.001Z

Here's a view on that Mayan prediction for 21st December

Cooperative model works for this Clevedon book shop

2011-12-30T10:08:00.000Z

A great story from the South West on how the cooperative model can work.

Local residents registered as a co-operative and launched a community share issue to find the £20,000 needed to save a bookshop from closure.

For fourteen years, the bookstore in Clevedon, North Somerset,just 100 metres from the promenade,has been a popular destination for book lovers to browse in the Victorian seaside town. However, the retirement of its owner had threatened to close it.

Now, approaching 300 members have invested at least £10 to become ‘co-owners’ of Clevedon Community Bookshop Co-operative (CCBC), joining the growing ranks of those challenging the orthodoxy that the role of business is solely the relentless pursuit of profit.

Over recent weeks, the shop has felt the benefit of community co-operation with volunteers and members carrying out painting, decorating, carpentry and other tasks needed to ready the shop for its re-opening, which takes place between 12 (noon) and 4pm on 31 December 2011.

Angela Everitt, Secretary of CCBC, said: “We’ve have been overwhelmed by the support that we have received. Our aim was to attract a large number of investors who, as co-owners, will have a say in how the enterprise is run. More than 250 people invested from just £10 to raise a total of £7,500 which, coupled with loan money and grants, has enabled the community to save this store.

She added that “Members and volunteers have worked hard to refurbish the store, new flooring has gone down and the final task will be to stock our great new bookcases. We hope that members and customers alike will join us on New Year’s Eve and, this also gives any last minute investors a chance to drop off their applications.”

A great story

Anuj Bidve killing-a short comment

2011-12-29T14:28:00.002Z

It is difficult to let the events of the early hours of Boxing Day in Manchester not go without some comment.

In what is always a quiet news time,the eyes of the rest of the country and the rest of the world were focused on the tragic shooting in Ordsall of 23 year old student Anuj Bidve,a guest of Manchester,Salford and of this country.

There have now been five arrests according to Greater Manchester Police,no doubt in due course we will discover exactly what motivations lay behind the apparent shooting at point blank range of an innocent student,three years in the country who was visiting our city to enjoy Christmas.

From all the reports from family and friends and tributes from Lancaster University,a young life with so much to give has been snuffed out,simply by taking a wrong decision in a city that he didn't know to walk through a wrong area at the wrong time.

This is the fourth gun related incident in the area in just over a year.The estate sitting between Salford Quays and the bright lights of Manchester is one of the most deprived in the city.

Yet whatever the problems that occur on that estate,there is no excuse for what appears to be a blatant cold blooded shooting of an innocent.

But for now our thoughts go out to the family and friends of Anuj,the inquests into how people can be roaming the streets during the festive season carrying guns in our wonderful city can wait until the New Year.

Clitheroe's homage to astrology

2011-12-29T11:36:00.000Z

As you turn left after entering Clitheroe's magnificent Church of St Mary Magdalene,on the wall is a strange brass plaque.

The plaque is in the form of a six pointed star with various astrological symbols around and the sun in the middle and underneath is a inscription in Latin.

Its symbols are not what you would expect to see in a church that dates back over 1,000 years but it commemorates Dr. John Webster, the astrologer, who obtained celebrity by detecting the impositions of witchcraft in the seventeenth century.

Webster,who was born in around 1610 was headmaster of Clitheroe Grammar school and was the owner of one of the largest libraries in the North of England which is now at Chetham's in Manchester.

The sheer size of his library testament to his voracious appetite for knowledge.Indeed writing just a few years before his death he confessed to having led a solitary and sedentary life which had more converse with the dead than the living.

He had a varied career,serving as a surgeon in Cromwell's army during the civil war and publishing a number of books including in 1677,the displaying of supposed witchcraft in which his views on the topic were highly controversial

These were dangerous views to be had in an area still reeling from the Pendle witch trials but Webster claimed that what lay behind the hysteria was "melancholy and fancy" maybe what today we would translate as hysteria and depression".

In his later years he was to become an active practitioner of alchemy and of astrology which he defended as being high noble and excellent and in no way being offensive to God or true religion

Whilst at Clitheroe he lived next to the St Mary Magdalene church,the building no longer stands but his inscription remains to his memory

"Those who understand this figure will know me to have understood it to.Here lies a man unknown and sunken in a sea of contumely.Yet bore it well and cherished much of times gone by that he might learn the secrets of wise men and come to know what fire and water do.
John Hyphantes or Webster in Spinoza has a country house amongst the hills in a woodland Yorkshire parish where the cuckoo sings.
Born Feb 3 1610 and parted from this life at 72.And thus on his deathbed bade farewell to this world .
Golden peace to the living and eternal rest to the dead.
With fire and water he will at lats be restored to grace

Manchester chosen as pilot for community budget scheme

2011-12-21T16:37:00.004Z

Greater Manchester has been chosen as one of four areas in the country to pilot a community budget scheme.

Community Budgets pool various sources of central government funding into a single pot for local spending. Previous pilots concentrated on a single issue – problem families – but the new ones comprise four large-scale ‘whole place’ initiatives covering all public services and ten smaller ‘neighbourhood level’ plans.

Spending this pooled money in a way that better reflects local priorities can save as much as 20 per cent, the Department for Communities and Local Government said.

The pilot represents a unique opportunity for Greater Manchester and the Government to work together to reform public services, ensuring the best value for money for public spending.

The Greater Manchester pilot will focus on tackling dependency on public services and supporting economic growth.

Communities Secretary,Eric Pickles, said the pilots would end ‘silo control’, where public service investment is co-ordinated at a Whitehall level. He said this was creating unequal access to inefficient and unnecessarily expensive services.‘We need a gear change that makes “silo control” obsolete and starts a local service revolution that puts people at the heart of spending decisions and saves money,’ he said.

Lord Peter Smith, chair of the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities, said: "Greater Manchester's strong track record of cross party co-operation and private sector leadership means that we are ideally placed to demonstrate the benefits of a Whole Place budget approach.

"It is forecast that 56,000 private sector jobs will be created here in the next four years which will help support a rebalancing of the national economy so that when there is growth it will be in Greater Manchester and the North West, not just in London and the South East."But unless we can tackle worklessness, low skills and dependency on central and local government we will not be able to achieve the region's full potential. We want Community Budgets to form a central plank of our Greater Manchester Strategy to achieve prosperity for all."

Damning report finds Deregulation fails to bring competition to bus market

2011-12-20T08:55:00.002Z

On the day that rail fare increases of 5.9 per cent are announced,more bad news for public transport commuters as the Competition Commission (CC) report that twenty-five years after bus services were deregulated areas bus operators face little or no competition.

The report out today says that passengers are facing less frequent services and, in some cases, higher fares than where there is some form of rivalry.

The report also states that the way some local authorities tender for supported services—necessary bus services which would not be provided without public support—can also restrict competition.

Despite there being about 1,245 bus companies in England, Scotland and Wales carrying 2.9 billion passengers a year, the five largest operators (Arriva,FirstGroup, Go-Ahead, National Express and Stagecoach) carried 70 per cent of those passengers.

The CC also found that head-to-head competition between operators is uncommon and that—on average—the largest operator in an urban area runs 69 per cent of local bus services.

It has identified a number of factors that restrict entry and expansion into local areas by rivals and otherwise stifle competition

Jeremy Peat, Chairman of the local bus market investigation Group, said:

" Competition and potential competition can drive standards up for passengers—that was the intention behind deregulation. We have seen evidence how competition can, for example, increase service frequencies but the reality is that in too many areas of the country, competition has stagnated and the incumbent providers know that they face little in the way of serious challenge."

He added:

" As such, the incentive to increase services, innovate and even lower fares is absent. On the occasions when there are outbreaks of rivalry, they don’t tend to last and passengers are quickly returned to something like the status quo without any enduring improvement in services."

Manchester pilot scheme leads to 100 violent partners banned from homes

2011-12-20T07:12:00.001Z

A pilot that gives police the power to ban violent partners from the family home is being hailed a huge success in Greater Manchester.

More than 100 violent partners have been barred from their victim’s homes in Manchester, Salford, Bolton and Oldham as part of a new weapon in the fight against domestic abuse The Domestic Violence Protection Orders (DVPOs) have been granted by magistrates since July, banning perpetrators from contacting the victim or entering their home, giving victims of domestic abuse the time, space and support to plan a safer future.

Any abusers who have breached their Order have been sentenced for up to six weeks in prison. One lady who has been able to turn her life around thanks to a DVPO is a 64 year old from Greater Manchester. She received a DVPO after reporting the abuse to the police for the first time since it began 21 years ago, “The DVPO has changed my life and allowed me to be free from abuse and start a whole new life for myself. I would urge any other victims to report abuse as there really is help out there.”

Over the Christmas period, when there are more cases of domestic abuse than at any other time of year, the DVPOs will allow senior police officers to act instantly to safeguard families living in Manchester, Salford, Bolton and Oldham.

The Orders will be used to intervene in cases where police are worried about violent behaviour within a household, where a criminal justice outcome is not possible and where a DVPO would be appropriate.

Detective Superintendent Philip Owen, GMP’s Public Protection Division, said: “Thanks to these new powers, more than 100 victims of domestic abuse have been given the chance to break the cycle of abuse and start a new life free from fear. “In the past where there was no other alternative, police and partners would remove the victim and their family away from their home to a place of safety. However, under this Home Office pilot, the perpetrator is the one who has to move out of the home and who is held to account, allowing the victims to stay in their own homes rather than flee to a friend's home, or a refuge, to escape their abuser.

“The courts can order the perpetrator not to go near the victim for up to 28 days and that allows the victim to take stock and decide where they want to be. They can get help from Victim Support Services, solicitors and other support services who can draw up a safety plan. “We know that a lot of victims suffer in silence but I would like to reassure them that we have dedicated and specially trained officers who work closely with other agencies, including Women’s Aid and Victim Support Service to ensure that victims are fully supported and given help and advice on how to stop the abuse. “So, even if you don’t feel able to tell the police what is happening, please tell someone who you can trust. Our overriding concern is for your safety and that of any children you might have.”

Councillor Suzanne Richards, lead member for women's issues at Manchester City Council, said: "Abuse victims often have to flee their own homes, sometimes taking their children with them and causing even more distress while their abusers remain in the comfort of their homes.

"These new orders are another tool which we as partners in the City Council are using to turn this situation on its head and help protect vulnerable people, while the fact that 100 have been issued demonstrates there is a genuine need for them."

The 12-month trial began on 1 July in Greater Manchester, Wiltshire and West Mercia. It will be evaluated by the Home Office and then it will be for Ministers to decide whether the scheme should be adopted nationally.

Double standards at HM Customs,North Korea mourns,Flu scare and the Rooneys enter the sport of kings-Tuesday's papers

2011-12-20T06:22:00.003Z

Varied headlines in the papers this Tuesday morning.

The Telegraph leads with news that HM Revenue and Customs have failed to collect more than £25 billion in “unresolved tax bills” from major firms, the equivalent of £1,000 for every British family.

The paper reminds us that the revenue has recently sought to raise hundreds of millions of pounds in extra revenues by cracking down on tax avoidance by workers. Penalties for those submitting self-assessment tax forms late are being increased and professional workers are being aggressively targeted by tax inspectors.

The Mail also lead with the same topic as it adds that in a withering attack, the Public Accounts Committee accuses HM Revenue and Customs of having a ‘far too cosy’ relationship with big firms, which are repeatedly allowed to cut their tax bills or avoid paying interest.

The death of the North Korean leader is covered in most of the papers.The Times leads with the story reporting that the world’s only communist dynasty closed its doors on the world last night, retreating into ten days of national mourning for North Korea’s dictator.

They howled and whimpered and scrubbed raw eyes with fists. They flailed their arms in grief and marched in their thousands to the capital's landmarks says the Guardian

A dictator who brutalised his people, destabilised the world, and then left it all to his son says the Independent

It leads with some rather worrying news.According to the paper,a deadly strain of bird flu with the potential to infect and kill millions of people has been created in a laboratory by European scientists.

Dutch scientists carried out the controversial research to discover how easy it was to genetically mutate H5N1 into a highly infectious "airborne" strain of human flu

The Guardian believes that an end is in sight to the public sector strikes reporting that Unison says it has signed a 'heads of agreement' with NHS employers and government over reforms to health pensionsEurope continues to dominate the stories.

The Telegraph says that a group of leading businessmen will warn today that more than 3m British jobs will be put at risk unless Britain remains at the heart of Europe.

Meanwhile the Guardian reports the comments of ECB chief Mario Draghi who warned yesterday that the eurozone debt crisis is set to spread and deepen next year on the day that Britain refused to contribute to the latest (IMF) bailout fund for distressed states.

The Express reports that in an extraordinary surrender the German foreign minister begged Britain not to turn its back on the EU.

According to the Mail,Guido Westerwelle, the German foreign minister, used a visit to London to extend an olive branch, lavishing praise on the UK as an ‘indispensable partner’ and promising a ‘hands-off’ approach to our financial services industry.

The Times reports leading British companies, including British Telecom, British Gas, Tesco and easyJet, are indirectly subsidising the UK’s multimillion-pound network of websites which allow people to illegally download films and television programmes. The paper says that The Federation Against Copyright Theft has highlighted the problem after finding dozens of “blue-chip” companies whose brand names and adverts appeared on the websites.

To the redtops and the Sun reports that Imogen Thomas's family told the paper last night of their horror at death threats they received over her affair with Ryan Giggs.

The model's sister and brother-in-law Alana and Enrique Diaz had to go into hiding after their two-year-old son was the target of sick online taunts.

And more football on the front of the Mirror which reveals how Wayne and Coleen Rooney hope to rub shoulders in winners’ enclosures with horse-racing’s royalty by spending part of their fortune on two racehorses as Christmas treats.

Elsewhere as Prince William and his wife Kate rubbed shoulders with a host of famous faces at an awards event to honour British troops,the Telegraph reports that Senior military figures have accused David Cameron of breaking Military Covenant by effectively cutting pay of the Armed Forces.

The Independent warns of a foster care crisis.Figures published today by the Fostering Network show at least 8,750 new foster families will be required by struggling fostering services across the UK in 2012 reports the paper

The reverse paywall model

2011-12-19T15:28:00.003Z

That perennial problem on how to make the media pay is addressed by media guru Jeff Jarvis on his Buzz machine blog today.

Jarvis suggests the reverse Paywall model?
What exactly is that? Well Jarvis explains it all.

Imagine that you pay to get access to The Times (That's the NY Times). Everyone does. You pay for one article. Or you pay $20 as a deposit so you’re not bothered every time you come. But whenever you add value to The Times, you earn a credit that delays the next bill.
* You see ads, you get credit.
* You click: more credit.
* You come back often and read many pages: credit.
* You promote The Times on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, or your blog: credit. The more folks share what you’ve shared, the more credit you get.
* You buy merchandise via Times e-commerce: credit.
* You buy tickets to a Times event: credit.
* You hand over data that makes you more valuable to The Times and its advertisers (e.g., revealing where you’re going on your next trip): credit.
* You add pithy comment to articles that other readers appreciate: credit.
* You take on tasks in crowdsourced journalistic endeavors: credit.
* You answer a reporter’s question on Twitter and the reporter uses your information: credit.
* You correct an error in a story: credit.
* You give a news tip or an idea for an article The Times publishes: credit.

FSA closes the doors after the horse has bolted

2011-12-19T14:14:00.002Z

It is surely beyond belief that according to the FSA,at the height of Britain's booming mortgage market, nearly half of the total amount lent was done so without any checks being made that borrowers had the income they claimed to repay their loans.

The soon to be abolished Financial regulator has published plans to prevent a return of the risky mortgage lending seen in boom times.

Their Mortgage Market Review aims to prevent a recurrence of the "irresponsible lending"which resulted in some borrowers taking on mortgages which only seemed affordable on the assumption that house prices would always rise

The result being that many of those borrowers ended up struggling to repay their mortgage and in danger of losing their home.

The review recommends that loans should only be approved where there is an expectation that it can be repaid without having to rely on "uncertain" house price rises in the future.

According to the FSA,around 15 per cent of borrowers who took out mortgages between 2005 and 2010 could be in negative equity,

Lord Turner, chairman of the FSA, said of the proposals:

“We believe that these are common sense proposals which serve the interests of both lenders and borrowers. While the excesses of the pre-crisis period have largely disappeared from the current market, it is important to ensure that better practice endures in future when memories of the crisis recede and the dangers of poor practice return.

A North Korean newsreader fights back the tears

2011-12-19T12:32:00.001Z

I doubt if you would get this on the BBC.

Lower income households paid the most on alcohol and tobacco duties as a proportion of their disposable income

2011-12-19T10:03:00.003Z

Figures out this morning from the Office of National Statistics give some interesting insights into the amounts we spend on alcohol and tobacco.

The research looks at the amounts we spend between 1995 and 2010.

It found that the richest fifth of households paid the most in alcohol duties in real terms across the 15 years though, lower income households paid the most as a proportion of their household disposable income for all periods from 1997/98 onwards.

In real terms, the average amount of alcohol duty paid per household remained relatively constant throughout this period.

Since 1995 the average amount of alcohol duty paid per household increased from £284 to £309 in 2010, expressed in 2010 prices. The average amount of alcohol duty paid by all households peaked in 2005 at £321, again, expressed in 2010 prices.

Duty on wine accounted for 30 per cent of average household expenditure on alcohol duties in 2009/10, compared with just 15 per cent in 1995/96.

Average real expenditure on tobacco duties declined for all households between 1995 and 2010, from £395 to £311 per year.

Average expenditure on tobacco duty as a proportion of household disposable income is highest for lower income households, though this proportion fell from 4.8 per cent to 3.0 per cent between 1995 and 2010

HMV faces the double whammy of falling sales and digital migration

2011-12-19T08:56:00.002Z

The battle for to cling onto sales on the high street continues this morning as music retailer HMV has announced this morning that it made an underlying pretax loss of £36.4 million pounds in the 26 weeks to October 29,£9m more than the same period last year.

Whilst telling the city that it has adequate resources to continue trading across the Xmas period and into the foreseeable future,it added that the economic environment and trading circumstances create material uncertainties which may cast significant doubt on the group's ability to continue as a going concern in the future.

Battling against music's move online the Company also faces intense competition from supermarkets and internet retailers.

Back in June,the company was forced into a £220 million refinancing deal with banks and sold its Waterstone's book chain and a Canadian arm to cut debt.

However as consumer confidence falls with sales at stores sales over a year down 11.6 percent,it is be relying on Xmas to boost both sales and turn stocks into much needed cash.

The group has tried to diversify into technology,transforming its stores into selling tablets,docking stations and moving into the top end of the headphones market but with others stores such as Comet finding that market tough,it will be interesting to see just how sales revive in this important part of the year

UK business lagging behind in its use of social media says report

2011-12-19T07:46:00.003Z

Businesses in the UK are lagging behind their peers in the emerging markets when it comes to adopting and using social media.

China, India and Brazil are, on average, 20 to 30 percentage points more likely to use social media than their counterparts in developed countries, according to a global KPMG report.

Despite the slower uptake in the developed world, social media is rapidly moving up the boardroom agenda in organizations around the world. The survey found that more than 70 percent of companies globally are now active on social networks and see social media as a viable and effective business tool.

Amongst the reports other key findings,80 per cent of UK managers in the survey said they use social media at least several times a week as opposed to 98 per cent in in China,and 95 per in Brazil.

48 per centof UK companies use external social media to communicate for business purposes such as connecting with suppliers, clients and customers compared to 72 per cent in the US and 83 per cent in China

The report also found that businesses in the retail sector use social media more than those in other sectors

80 per cent of respondents globally said that the use of social media tends to deliver significant returns to the business that outweigh the risks associated with social media use. The most quoted benefits include a wider knowledge pool, an increased public profile, increased job satisfaction and the opportunity to cultivate relationships.

The report also found that organizations that restrict access to social networks may be fighting a losing battle. One-third of employees at organizations with blocked access were not only using social media at the office, they were ‘jail breaking’ their work devices to satiate their social networking needs.

Bonfire of the generals,the king of Wencleslas and Boris on the Euro-Monday's Papers;

2011-12-19T06:34:00.003Z

The announcement of the death of the North Korea leader Kim Jong-iI comes too late for the Monday papers,which instead cover a variety of topics on their front pages.

The Guardian has a scoop reporting that over 700 top military posts are to be axed in what it calls bonfire of the generals.

A confidential document leaking to the paper says that the cull will include rear admirals, major generals and air vice-marshals, as well as scores of more junior officers, such as captains and colonels, and civilians of similar seniority as The Ministry of Defence has become so "top heavy" with senior ranking officers and civil servants.

The Independent leads with the news that Occupy London protesters are ready to leave St Paul's early next year in exchange for a scaled-down presence outside the cathedral and a "symbolic tent" within.

The news comes as a High Court challenge to evict the 150 or so camped demonstrators begins today.

The Times leads with a report from the Home Affairs Select Committee which says that MP's will challenge the use of water cannon or plastic bullets, saying that their use in the August riots that swept several English cities would have been inappropriate and dangerous.

The Guardian on the same topic reports that the Home Secretary has dismissed many of the findings of its survey into the riots arguing those involved in the trouble were an "unruly mob" who were "thieving, pure and simple".

Europe is the main topic for the Telegraph which reports that David Cameron will come under pressure today to resist demands to contribute more than £25 billion to a new eurozone bail-out.

Winter fuel folly is the Mail's top story as the paper reports that pensioners in sun spots including Spain, Cyprus, Portugal, Greece and Gibraltar receive £13.4million a year to help with the cost of heating, compared with £6.9million in 2006

The paper says that European finance ministers will aim to agree a new €200 billion loan to the International Monetary Fund as part of a deal to save the single currency.Three quarters of the money is expected to come from eurozone members, but Britain will also be asked to provide funds.

Meanwhile many papers report the remarks of Boris Johnson who yesterday declared that the euro will not last for another 12 months and that European leaders should abandon ‘hysterical’ efforts to ‘bubble gum’ the eurozone together and recognise that some countries have to drop out of the single currency.

The death of former Czech President Vaclav Havel is widely covered.He hated Communism with a passion, but it was the making of him says the Independent adding that he was a product of Prague's wealthy and cultured haute bourgeoisie, and without the Communist takeover of 1948 and all that followed he would probably have lived a life of charming bohemian privilege, a chip off the old block.

The good king of Wenceslas Square is how the Times describes him.He had been jailed for his beliefs, did not buckle, while society as a whole made its separate accommodation with the communist rulers.

Back to the UK and the Sun carries a rallying call from the Prime Minister who pledges to launch a personal crusade to make sure injured servicemen get the best medical care, housing and help to find new jobs.

The Express has discovered a magic slimming pill which switches off appetite without any side effects.

Ahead of Xmas,research by The Times has found that tens of thousands of people are at risk of becoming homeless and have appealed to their local councils for emergency help.

Samantha Cameron is breaking into Hollywood or at least Smythson for whom she works as a creative consultant reports the Independent.

Finally the Sun reveals that the showbiz world was reeling last night after kids' favourites The Krankies revealed they used to be secret swingers.

Panto veterans Ian and Janette Tough, both 64, confessed they each had a string of lovers in their '70s and '80s heyday and shared an "anywhere, anytime" attitude to sex says the paper

Pensioners to be evacuated from Spain,Clegg on the warpath and tragedy in the Philippines-Sunday papers

2011-12-18T06:27:00.004Z

The last Sunday before Xmas and the papers are not agreed on this morning's top stories.

Europe though continues to cast a shadow with the Sunday Times revealing that Britain has a contingency plan to help expats in Spain and Portugal if their banking systems collapses.

According to the paper,the Foreign Office is concerned that expats who have invested savings in their adopted countries could be left stranded, unable to withdraw cash and facing losing their homes if the banks call in loans.

The Observer reports that analysts have predicted that France could be stripped of its triple-A credit rating before Christmas, raising new doubts about the survival of the euro.

The Mail on Sunday in its latest bit of Europe bashing claims that the European Commission is considering whether to force store chains to lower the temperature of chiller units that display fresh meat, fish, dairy products and fruit juices to a distinctly cool two degrees Celsius.

Meanwhile the fallout in the coalition over Europe continues to with the Telegraph leading on the story that Nick Clegg is to attack Tory plans to introduce tax breaks for married couples, claiming ministers must not try to preserve a “1950s model” of family life in “aspic”.

The paper says that the speech designed to reassert the Liberal Democrats’ voice in government,and Clegg will also set out his vision of an “Open Society”,in direct contrast to the Big Society trumpeted by David Cameron.

But there are problems on the opposition benches as well as the Independent reports that Ed Miliband is planning a new year shake-up of his internal party structure, as criticism of his faltering leadership escalated last night.

The paper says that his performance at Prime Minister's Questions last week left some members in his party talking openly about a succession unless he improves.

Royal topics on the front of the Mail and the Express.The later says that Princes William and Harry are to make an emotional return to the home they grew up in with their tragic mother Princess Diana,whilst the Mail says that Prince Harry became embroiled in a real-life crime drama when he came to the rescue of one of his best friends after he was mugged on a London street.

The papers report on the tragedy that swept through the Philippines yesterday after least 430 people died and hundreds more have gone missing after the tropical storm Washi swept across the south of the country.

Many of the dead were swept out to sea reports the Telegraph. Others were buried alive as mud cascaded down mountain slopes. Water levels rose three feet in less than an hour, forcing thousands to climb on to the roofs of their homes where they huddled against wind speeds reaching 55 miles per hour.

The Independent leads with the trial of whistleblower,Bradley Manning.In an exclusive the papers says that startling claims by army personnel about both his mental state, and lax security at the US base from which he is alleged to have leaked a huge tranche of classified US cables, are contained in a document prepared by his defence team.

Another exclusive on the front of the Observer which reports that according to leaked advice provided by consultants to the Treasury,highly paid City traders are depriving pensioners and savers of thousands of pounds through high management fees that are often hidden.

The Sunday Times meanwhile reports that the House of Commons has drawn up plans to hire itself out as a private members’ club for corporate clients and a venue for VIP gigs, champagne tours and banquets.

A leaked copy of a blueprint to raise an extra £53m over five years warns that the proposals may force MPs to give up historic privileges “in an age of austerity where parliament needs to sweat its assets” says the paper.

The Telegraph claims that Lord Mandelson lobbied for business from Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak’s regime days before it was overthrown.The former Cabinet minister,says the paper,approached senior Egyptian officials before the uprising in an attempt to win lucrative work for Global Counsel, his Knightsbridge-based “strategic advisory” firm.

The People reveals yet more shocking pictures showing the fallout of "booze-fuelled" Christmas carnage as revellers collapse and vomit during wild benders.

It’s a sad but familiar scene across Ireland and Britain,says the paper, but the mayhem gets even worse at this time of year, creating a nightmare scenario for emergency services repeatedly called out to deal with a staggering scale of drunkeness.

On the same topic,the Independent reports that the Health Secretary insists that minimum pricing on alcohol will not beat Britain's burgeoning drink problem.Instead,Andrew Lansley, who is preparing to launch a new year drive aimed at ending the country's binge drinking culture.

Finally the country has a new strictly winner with McFly star Harry Judd winning the Strictly Come Dancing final with dance partner Aliona Vilani.

The Sunday Mirror says that Judd said after his win: "I've been on the best show on TV and I'm just honoured. I was so nervous when I first started, and I didn't think I would be able to do it.

The Iron Lady comes to Manchester Town Hall

2011-12-16T10:58:00.004Z

I didn't expect to leave Manchester Town Hall last night feeling sorry for Mrs Thatcher.

After all with clear memories of economic crisis,the death of manufacturing,rampant greed,miners strikes,the Falklands and the poll tax,those of us who were around in the 1980's would barely shed a tear for the Iron Lady.

Yet the film,on general release at the beginning of January,starring Meryl Streep as Lady Thatcher and Jim Broadbent as Denis Thatcher leaves one almost shedding a tear for a fallen warrior.

The screening,in the orange lit Great hall with Maddox's paintings offering a reflective glow,starts with a confused old lady battling to buy a pint of milk from the local shop,struggling to come to terms with her dementia.

She is not recognised and returns to her flat to a conversion with her dead husband ,brilliantly played by Jim Broadbent.

She's living comfortably but not luxuriously, surrounded by what's left of her life and an armed guard, while under the care of nursing staff.

It is Denis who almost leads the film with his continued conversation and reminiscing until at the end Margaret banishes him from the flat and her mind.

The flashback through her career are good.Her attempts to become a candidate in the 1950's finally successful in breaking into a man's world,her first appearance in Parliament,St Francis of Assisi in front of No 10 in 1979 and the Brighton Bomb where for an instance you believe that her husband has been killed.

The reason for the showing at the Town Hall was that the scenes in Parliament were filmed there,as filming is not allowed in Westminster and you get glimpses of the corridors as Thatcher hurries along,handbag waving,her able minsters behind.

It is difficult to fit the 30 year career of a top politician into an hour and a half,yet with the focus being the flat,and Denis,opportunities and events were missed.

Whilst her final downfall resulting form a virulent attack on Geoffrey Howe who had stood by her so valiantly during the economic crisis,her fallout with Nigel Lawson and Michael Heseltine,played by Richard E Grant were ignored.

The film,written by award-winning writer Abi Morgan directed by Phyllida Lloyd and produced by Damian Jones will probably go onto win awards as will the brilliant acting of Streep,who gets the voice, the intonation, the posture and the movement with breathtaking precision.

But if you want to see a better representation of her character,then take a look at BBC4's portrayal of her early career,the Long Walk to Finsbury with Andrea Riseborough as the young Mrs Thatcher

A final epitaph for the Jackal in Paris

2011-12-16T10:24:00.002Z

For anyone who grew up in the 1970's the name of Carlos the Jackal and those dark glasses will be for ever etched in the memory.

Last night juts before midnight,A French court found him guilty of organising four deadly attacks in France almost 30 years ago.

Already serving a life sentence in a Paris prison for a triple murder in 1975,the latest conviction relates to attacks that killed 11 people and injured more than 140 others in the early 1980's

The Jackal,real name Ilich Ramirez Sanchez was maybe more notorious for the raid that he led on OPEC ministers meeting in Vienna in 1975.

The goal was to take over the conference, by force and kidnap all the government ministers in attendance and hold them for ransom with the exception of Arabia's Sheik Yamani and Iran's Jamshid Amouzegar, who were to be executed during the attack

His group killed three people, and took 63 people hostage, including 11 OPEC ministers.

Calling his group the "Arm of the Arab Revolution," Carlos demanded that an anti-Israeli political statement be broadcast over radio, and that a bus and jet be provided for the terrorists and their hostages. Austrian authorities complied, and all the hostages were released in Algeria unharmed.

The guilty verdict of last night related to a orgy of terror in 1982-83,which were as a reposnse to the French government holding his then-girlfriend Magdalena Kopp,with whom he later married and had a daughter,and comrade-in-arms Bruno Breguet.

Refusing his demands,Carlos unleashed four terrorist attacks,in March 1982 on a Paris-Toulouse train,April 1982 on the Paris offices of an Arabic-language newspaper, and two attacks on New Year's Eve 1983, one on a high-speed TGV train and another on a train station in Marseille.

He acted as a freelance terrorist for various Arab groups and is suspected to have killed as many as 80 people in a chain of bombings, hijackings, and assassinations and managed to evade international authorities until 1994, when French agents captured him hiding in the Sudan.

Secretly extradited to France, he was sent to a French prison, where he lived for three years before being put on trial in 1997 for the 1975 Paris murders of two French counterintelligence officers and a pro-Palestinian Lebanese who had turned informant.

Latest economic survey for Manchester suggests we are holding on

2011-12-15T16:24:00.004Z

Greater Manchester region is performing well against the backdrop of gloomy domestic and Eurozone outlooks according to the latest report from the City's Chamber of Commerce.

The survey in which a total of 827 businesses from across Greater Manchester this quarter, found that though there has been a slight easing of demand, this has not dramatically fallen away since the Q3 survey and, as a consequence, confidence has eased but remains positive.

Understandably, says the Chamber, given the uncertainty, investment has also eased, but again it remains positive and it is investment in people that is strongest.

With the capacity to deliver growth, they add, the region is both well placed and showing the resilience to respond to the current economic challenges.

In manufacturing,the sector measures saw continued growth in the domestic market at the same level as the previous quarter,though there has been an easing of export demand.

The sector continues to see growth, albeit easing slightly over recent months.

Construction firms have had better quarter with domestic demand starting to grow again after a flat previous quarter.

In the services sector,demand is now flat after falling across the previous quarter.

The chamber welcomes the actions of the chancellor in last month's fiscal statement.particularly that more has been done to support exporters to access
emerging markets

It also welcomed that the statement had put in place the plans for infrastructure investment which it says will be a key element of driving demand in the region’s economy and establishing the longer term attractiveness of the region
for inward investment.

Household energy bill increases caused primarily by rising cost of gas, not environmental policies

2011-12-15T13:56:00.002Z

A report out this morning from The Committee on Climate Change suggests that evidence suggests that recent bill increases are not due to environmental policy costs but instead are primarily due to increased wholesale gas costs.

The report found that up to 2020,policies to achieve a low-carbon economy will add
around £110 to bills, with scope to offset this if energy efficiency can be improved.

The Committee’s analysis focuses on the 84% of UK households (21 million) that
have dual-fuel energy bills that is that they use gas for heating rather than electricity or other fuels.

For these households, energy bills increased from around £605 per household in
2004 to £1,060 in 2010

Of this increase, around £380 (84%) was unrelated to low-carbon measures, with £290 due to increases in the wholesale costs reflecting increases in the price of gas and supplier costs, £70 due to increasing transmission and distribution costs, and £20 due to VAT.

Around £75 (16%) was due to policies that reduce carbon emissions, including £30 to support investment in lowcarbon power generation, and £45 for funding energy efficiency improvements in homes.

Lord Adair Turner, Chair of the Committee on Climate Change said:

“We were keen to provide a dispassionate analysis of household bill impacts in what has become a politically controversial area. We found that bills have increased primarily in response to increased wholesale gas costs and not due to environmental policies. Over the next decade, we anticipate a rise of around £100 in the average bill as a result of investment in low-carbon power capacity, which will benefit the UK in the long run. And if we introduce new polices to stimulate energy efficiency improvement then bills in 2020 could broadly be contained at current levels.”

Government announces plans to tackle 8,090 troubled families in Greater Manchester

2011-12-15T13:52:00.002Z

Plans to radically transform the lives of the country’s most troubled families were today announced by the Prime Minister David Cameron and Communities Secretary Eric Pickles.

Indicative numbers of troubled families in each local authority area have also been published based on previous government research, which show an estimated 8,090 families in Greater Manchester.

Almost £450million has been made available in a new, determined, cross-government drive to turn around the lives of 120,000 of some of the country’s most troubled families by the end of this Parliament. New figures show that troubled families cost the tax payer an estimated £9billion per year, equivalent to £75,000 per family.

This is spent on protecting the children in these families and responding to the crime and anti-social behaviour they perpetrate. The costs are exemplified by the fact that children who live in troubled families are 36 times more likely to be excluded from school and six times more likely to have been in care or to have contact with the police.

A new Troubled Families Team based within the Department for Communities and Local Government and headed by Louise Casey CB, has been established to join up efforts across Whitehall, provide expert help to local areas and drive forward the strategy.

The £450million means the Government will offer up to 40 per cent of the cost of dealing with these families to local authorities, but on a payment-by-results basis when they and their partners achieve success with families.

The new programme will also fund a national network of Troubled Family 'Trouble-Shooters' who will be appointed by local councils. The trouble-shooters will oversee the programme of action in their area.

The Prime Minister, who formally launched the programme in the West Midlands this morning said:

“Last year the state spent an estimated £9 billion on just 120,000 families, around £75,000 per family. Our heart tells us we can't just stand by while people live these lives and cause others so much misery. Our head tells us we can't afford to keep footing the monumental bills for social failure. So we have got to take action to turn troubled families around.

“This immense task will take new ways of thinking, committed local action, flexibility and perseverance. But I know too that it's a task we can't shirk. People in troubled families aren't worthless or pre-programmed to fail. I won't allow them to be written off. So we must get out there, help them their lives around and heal the scars of the broken society.”

New report reveals surge in secret executions for drugs offences in Iran

2011-12-15T09:02:00.002Z

The report released today by Amnesty International,says that this year has seen a dramatic rise in the number of people executed for drug offences in Iran.

The organisation said that at least 488 people have been executed for alleged drug offences so far in 2011, a nearly threefold increase on the 2009 figures, when Amnesty recorded some 166 executions for similar offences.

Amnesty says that during the middle of 2010 it began to receive credible reports that a new wave of drug offence executions was taking place.

These included reports of secret mass executions at Vakilabad Prison in Mashhad, with one,on 4 August 2010,involving over 89 individuals.

The Iranian authorities officially acknowledged 253 executions in 2010, of which 172 were for drug offences - almost 68% of the total - but Amnesty received credible reports of a further 300 executions, the vast majority believed to be for drug-related offences.

In 2011, taking together both official and unofficial sources, it is believed that there have now been at least 600 executions (up to the end of November), with around 81% for drug-related offences.

The organisation called on the Iranian authorities to end the use of the death penalty against those accused of drug offences.

In most cases executions have followed grossly unfair trials, and the families and lawyers of those accused have often received little or no warning that executions were imminent. Members of marginalised groups - including impoverished communities, ethnic minorities suffering discrimination, and foreign nationals, particularly Afghans - are most at risk of execution for drugs offences. Afghan nationals appear to be particularly poorly treated by Iran’s justice system and as many as 4,000 Afghans could be on death row for drugs offences. Amnesty has received reports of some Afghans being executed without even a trial, these apparently only learning of their impending execution from the prison authorities.

Meanwhile, Amnesty continues to receive reports of executions of child offenders for alleged drug-related offences, despite Iranian officials claiming that these no longer take place in the country.

Amnesty International Interim Middle East and North Africa Deputy Director Ann Harrison said: “To try to contain their immense drug problem, the Iranian authorities have carried out a killing spree of staggering proportions, when there is no evidence that execution prevents drug smuggling any more effectively than imprisonment.

"Drug offences go much of the way to accounting for the steep rise in executions we have seen in the last 18 months.

“Ultimately Iran must abolish the death penalty for all crimes, but stopping the practice of executing drug offenders, which violates international law, would as a first step cut the overall number significantly.”

Iran has the fourth highest rate of drug-related deaths in the world, at 91 per one million people aged 15-64, and the country is a major international transit route for drug smuggling.

Papua New Guinea-Strange goings on in paradise

2011-12-15T08:25:00.004Z

Two prime ministers, two parliaments, two governors general and two police chiefs.

Yes that is the current political situation in Papua New Guinea,the Eastern part of the Island sits between the Coral Sea and the Pacific Ocean east of Indonesia.

It boasts one of the most diverse populations on Earth, with more than 850 indigenous languages It is one of the Earth's least explored terrains and biologists believe many plant and animal species in the rugged interior remain to be discovered.

However the paradise sits on the brink of a political storm,facing its worst constitutional crisis since 1975, and as a member of the Commonwealth the Queen could unwittingly be dragged in to break the deadlock.

The dispute is a battle over two political giants.76-year-old Sir Michael Somare who was removed from office while getting medical treatment outside the country by his rival Peter O'Neill.

On Monday,Monday,its Supreme Court ruled that O'Neill's election by parliament in August was unconstitutional and said Somare should be reinstated as prime minister.

However lawmakers loyal to Peter O'Neill have passed retroactive legislation recognizing him as leader.

Now O'Neill has ordered police to take control of government offices, including the prime minister's office, where Somare and his followers were working.

The governor general and representative of the Queen,Governor-General Sir Michael Ogio swore in Somare's Cabinet,a move that preticipated the storming of the embassy by O'Neill's backers who later voted to suspend Ogio and replace him temporarily with Speaker Jeffery Nape.

Nape then swore O'Neill in as prime minister.Got it so far?

What lies behind the crisis is internal political wrangling?

Papua New Guinea's politics are highly competitive with most members elected on a personal and ethnic basis within their constituencies rather than as a result of party affiliation
During Somare's absence due to illness O'Neill served as works minister under acting prime minister Sam Abal.

In August 2011 he joined with opposition MPs to topple Abal,whilst Somare was recovering from heart surgery in Singapore.

Sir Michael then lost his seat in September for missing three sessions of parliament while he was in Singapore, but that has been challenged in the courts by Sir Michael's supporters, who say he only missed two session without leave and was granted permission to miss a May session.

The latest is that the standoff continues.The two attorney's general from the rival factions have taken part in a live debate with the pair agreed to look into the possibity of holding a meeting to resolve the crisis.

Time names the protester as its 2011 person of the year

2011-12-14T16:29:00.004Z

Time magazine has announced its person of the year for 2011 as the "protester"

As the weekly magazine says

No one could have known that when a Tunisian fruit vendor set himself on fire in a public square in a town barely on a map, he would spark protests that would bring down dictators in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya and rattle regimes in Syria, Yemen and Bahrain

adding that

Protests have now occurred in countries whose populations total at least 3 billion people, and the word protest has appeared in newspapers and online exponentially more this past year than at any other time in history.

Its runner up was Admiral William McRaven, who was commander of the US raid that killed Osama Bin Laden.

It is not the first time in recent history that the magazine has chosen a group.In 2006 itchose "You" as the Person of the Year to reflect the growing power of social media.

Big Society-No agenda,not communicated and won't happen overnight says report

2011-12-14T15:39:00.004Z

Remember the Big Society?

Well it doesn't do enough to help 'the little society',without a coherent implementation plan, there is confusion over message,and smaller charities face barriers in contracting and commissioning policies.

That's the findings of The House of Commons Public Administration Select Committee NAVCA) which has published its report into the Big Society,one of the cornerstones of David Cameron's election manifesto.

The report says that the Big Society will not occur overnight, it will take a generation.

It says that the government has failed to communicate this and the public are confused by it.

The Work Programme has also caused the voluntary and community sector to express serious reservations about the implementation of the Government's ambitions in practice.

It calls for a single Big Society Minister with a cross-cutting brief, to drive through the Big Society agenda and an impact assessment, applied to every Government policy, statutory instrument, and new Bill, which asks the simple question: "what substantively will this do to build social capital, people power, and social entrepreneurs?"

The report warns that without this the Big Society agenda will fail.

Bernard Jenkin MP, Chairman of PASC, said:

"The Prime Minister has placed the Big Society project at the centre of his political agenda and it occupies a central place in the Coalition Agreement.

"However, so far, the government has not been clear enough about what the Big Society means in practical terms. There is a lot of confusion among the public and the new providers how the Big Society policies are expected work in practice. Not all public services are suitable to be delivered by charities and not all charities are willing or capable of delivering services."

More shopping,social networking and advertising online for the UK says Ofcom report

2011-12-14T10:04:00.004Z

New figures this morning suggest that the Brits have become a nation of online shoppers.

A new Ofcom report reveals that we also watch more TV online, use our mobiles more to go online and play more games on our phones.

Ofcom’s sixth International Communications Market report also reveals that the UK customers are paying lower prices for their communications than many consumers across the world.

The report found that eight in ten UK internet users (79 per cent) said they had ordered goods or services online in 2010, higher than any other European country.,

UK internet users were also more likely to visit retail websites online than other countries, with nine in ten (89 per cent) claiming to do so in 2011.

As well as more UK consumers shopping online, they also spent more time on retail sites,an average of 84 minutes in January 2011,compared with around 20 minutes for consumers in Poland and Italy.

Smartphone ownership nearly doubled in the UK between February 2010 and August 2011 (from 24 per cent to 46 per cent) and take-up was higher in the UK than among the other European countries surveyed .

The number of people using their mobiles to go online was also higher in the UK with nearly half (46 per cent) of UK internet users using their phones to go online in October 2011.

UK consumers were also more likely to play games on their phone (34 per cent compared with 16 per cent in France).

A quarter (25 per cent) of UK mobile users accessed news content on their mobiles, significantly higher than in other European countries.

They were less likely, however, to use the internet to make phone calls than in other countries. Just under a fifth (19 per cent) of UK broadband subscribers used services such as Skype to make internet phone calls, compared with 28 per cent in Italy and 26 per cent in France.

More and more advertisers are flocking to the internet across the globe, with the UK leading on the total proportion of advertising spent on the internet (29 per cent) – almost double the level for global internet advertising (15 per cent).

UK online advertising spend in 2010 was almost the same as TV advertising (30 per cent), increasing by 16 per cent to reach £4.1bn.

The UK’s love of TV continues, with over a quarter (27 per cent) of UK internet users saying they watched TV online every week, an increase of 3 percentage points from 2010, and higher than any of the other countries surveyed.

The popularity of a wide variety of free-to-view catch-up TV services such as BBC iPlayer has helped to drive online TV viewing in the UK says the report.

Overall, TV viewing in the UK increased by 7.6 per cent in 2010 compared with 2009, with the average person watching just over 4 hours of TV per day (242 minutes).

UK consumers are more likely to access social networking sites on a mobile phone than other countries, with 43 per cent of those with social networking site profiles saying they do so compared to just 30 per cent in the US.

However UK social networkers say they have fewer friends online (168) than Americans (198) or Italians (216) – but more than the French (108) or Germans (137).

Ofcom Chief Executive Ed Richards said:

“Across the globe people are embracing e-commerce and social media with enthusiasm. Our research shows that the UK communications market is performing well with prices, the range of services and innovation standing up well against international benchmarks." adding

“There are also issues which we will monitor carefully, such as the future roll-out 4G mobile services. We are pressing ahead with plans to release this valuable spectrum at the end of next year which will enable new mobile services for consumers.”

Unemployment continues to rise and public sector takes the brunt

2011-12-14T09:52:00.003Z

Unemployment continues to rise as figures out this morning show that at 8.3 per cent,it is now at its highest rate since 1994.

The Office for National Statistics said that the number of people out of work in the three months to October rose by 128,000 to 2.638 million, although those claiming new benefit appears to be levelling off.

Many economists had feared a much larger rise to 8.4 per cent.

Seperate figures from the ONS show that public sector employment dropped to its lowest level since September 2003 in the third quarter of 2011, falling by 67,000 to 5.987 million.

In the same period the increase in private sector jobs was barely 5,000.

Youth unemployment rose to 1.027 million, the highest since records began in 1992, beating the previous record set only last month.

Blow to the high street as Thomas Cook announces 200 store closures

2011-12-14T08:13:00.003Z

Just a day after the Portas report into our high streets and Thomas Cook's results this morning show just how dire the situation is.

The firm which delayed its results announcements earlier,having to get emergency funding to tide it over the Xmas period has reported losses of £398m for the year and it will close 200 of its under performing shops in Britain with a loss of over 1,000 jobs.

In an interview on Radio 4 about an hour ago,chief executive Sam Weihagen told the programme that the business had been hit by people booking holidays on the Internet as well as problems caused by the Arab spring and floods out in Thailand.

But in contrast, the world's biggest tour operator TUI Travel reported a better-than-expected full-year profit last week, boosted by strong online sales and demand for exclusive resorts.

Weihagen pledged that the closing of stores is part of a turnaround plan which will enable it to deliver annual profit improvements of £110 million.

Earlier this week,the group sold Spanish hotel chain Hotels Y Clubs De Vacaciones in order to reduce its debt

What did James know,tragedy in Liege,and scientists find the God particle-Wednesday's papers

2011-12-14T05:59:00.003Z

James Murdock and the elusive email return to the front pages this morning.

Both the Guardian and the Independent lead with the news that his repeated assertions that he was never shown evidence that phone hacking at his company went beyond a "rogue reporter" was dramatically undermined last night.

After says The Independent an internal email that he was sent, suggesting hacking was "rife" at the News Of The World and talking of a "nightmare scenario" of multiple victims, was released by a Commons committee.

According to the Guardian,News International's executive chairman, replied to the revealing email within three minutes of it being sent to him ,but insisted,on the day the email chain was made public by the culture and media committee for the first time – that he had only read the top of the email, not the email chain below.

The row over Europe continues to rumble on.The Times claims that David Cameron is facing a new year ambush over Europe as Conservative MPs plan to force a further Commons vote on Britain’s membership of the European Union.

Meanwhile the Guardian says that Chris Huhne, the energy secretary, told Cameron at yesterday's cabinet meeting that he had no authority from the coalition to veto a revision of the Lisbon treaty.

The Telegraph says that concerns are mounting that Britain may have to contribute a further £30bn to eurozone rescue loans through the International Monetary Fund.

The Mail claims that plans to rescue the Euro are in a tailspin as the single currency crashed on international money markets.

Tragic goings on in the Belgium city of Liege are widely reported after six deaths and least 123 people are injured as a convicted drug-dealer goes on rampage in the town's market square.

The Independent describes how the cobblestone streets of Liège were turned into a bloody battlefield and shoppers dived for cover shortly after noon as a series of explosions and gunfire erupted across the city's main square.

A tragedy closer to home is revealed in the Mirror.Under the headline senseless,the paper reports that friends and relatives were struggling to fathom why Richard Smith butchered his wife Clair, Ben, nine, and 13-month-old Aaron before killing himself in a fire a day later.

The Sun reports on another tragedy a year on as the grieving boyfriend of murdered Jo Yeates has revealed his enduring pain to the paper as he prepares for Christmas without her.

The Telegraph reveals the findings of a group of leading doctors and academics who will report today that alcoholic drinks sold at “pocket-money prices” in supermarkets are costing thousands of lives and must be made more expensive.

In a letter to the paper they urge the Government to take “bold action” and follow the lead of Scotland by bringing in minimum prices for drinks.

Families betrayed over care home funding is the Mail's lead this morning.It reports that it had been hoped a fairer system would be in place by 2015 but it emerged last night that it might take a decade longer.
In a further blow ,adds the paper, Health Secretary Andrew Lansley refused to rule out a pensioner tax to pay for old age care.

The Express reports that roads minister Mike Penning wants to close all 39 regional offices of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency slamming the government for unveiling plans to sack 1,200 civil servants just before Christmas.

Elsewhere the Independent reports on research that children from middle-income families start school with skills five months behind those of their more affluent peers.

The world is rounding on Canada after it pulled out of the Kyoto treaty.The Guardian says that China has called Canada's decision 'preposterous', while Greenpeace says the country is protecting polluters instead of people

Finally most of the papers report that scientists may have found the elusive God particle.

Two detectors at the £6 billion “big bang machine” at CERN,says the Times have independently found signals that point to the existence of a Higgs boson of a particular mass, offering the strongest indication yet that it is real.

Research suggests Manchester as one place people are most at risk of losing their home

2011-12-13T16:22:00.001Z

New research released by Shelter today highlights the areas of England where people are most at risk of losing their home.

With 1 in every 111 homes at risk of eviction, those living in London, Manchester, Slough and Peterborough are shown to be most at risk

The report also shows that areas with high unemployment tend to be hit hardest by high eviction rates, news that comes just weeks after figures revealed the highest unemployment rate since 1996.

Shelter’s statistics analysed the risk of eviction by a landlord or mortgage lender for homes in local authorities across England.

Campbell Robb, chief executive of Shelter, said: ‘As Christmas approaches, this research paints a frightening picture of thousands of families living every day with the fear of losing their home hanging over their heads. It’s sobering to see that so many communities are blighted by the risk of eviction.

‘Shelter research shows that a third of people are already struggling with their housing costs or falling behind on payments. In these unforgiving conditions, it only takes one thing – illness, job loss or relationship breakdown – to lead to things spiralling out of control and into homelessness.’

Local MP welcomes Manchester cash to end gang and youth violence

2011-12-13T16:11:00.000Z

The Government has announced 22 areas that will share £7.3 million in a bid to end gang and youth violence with Manchester getting the second largest handout.

The Ending Gang and Youth Violence Report, published last month, sets out Government plans to prioritise £10 million of Home Office investment in early intervention work in 2012-13 supporting up to 30 areas "most affected by gangs and youth violence".

Researchers used data on serious youth violence and local police intelligence on gang activity to identify 22 problem areas which were announced on Monday.

Birmingham is set to receive the most money, £1,285,036, with Manchester receiving the second biggest handout, £715,763, and Liverpool receiving the third largest amount, £566,643. The rest of the money is split across the London boroughs and across the country.

Commenting on the announcement Manchester Withington MP John Leech said,

“This is a welcome investment from the coalition government with Manchester receiving the second biggest handout at £715,763.”

“As Chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Child and Youth Crime, we have been trying to tackle early intervention and prevention offering young people a pathway out of violence and gang culture. This money will provide practical help and support and I am pleased the government are listening to groups like the one I chair and delivering real help for young people.”

Manchester on the shortlist for local TV by 2014

2011-12-13T11:44:00.003Z

Manchester has been named as one of 20 cities in the UK where local TV stations could be set up.

As well as Manchester,the local TV areas, which could have stations by 2014, will be: Belfast, Birmingham, Brighton and Hove, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Grimsby, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Newcastle, Norwich, Nottingham, Oxford, Plymouth, Preston, Southampton and Swansea.

Manchester has been put on the first shortlist as an area having good local spectrum coverage and significant levels of interest from potential operators and audiences. Ofcom will now consult on these areas and its proposed licensing process.

Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt said:

“I am confident these new stations will provide local communities with programming which is relevant to their daily lives, will support local democracy, boost the big society and enhance local communities,” said Mr Hunt.

The Government is also taking a number of steps to create a new statutory framework for licensing that will allow for transmission infrastructure to be built and the new local TV services to start operating. Spectrum will be awarded through a competitive process to a single multiplex operator to provide the distribution for local TV. The necessary enabling legislation will be laid shortly.

Flatlining job market says report

2011-12-13T09:56:00.001Z

The UK‟s Employment Outlook has slipped to its weakest level since the final quarter of 2009,according to a survey by Manpower out this morning.

The Survey, based on responses from 2,100 UK employers, asks whether they intend to hire additional workers in the coming economic quarter. The national Seasonally Adjusted Net Employment Outlook of 0% indicates that the jobs market is now flat-lining.

Eight in 10 employers are not intending to change their staffing levels in the next quarter, but the number of employers looking to hire new staff is comparable to the number expecting to cut jobs.

This compares to a marginally positive Net Employment Outlook of +1% in Q4, 2011.

Employers in the North East of England report the most optimistic hiring plans going into 2012 with an Outlook of +10%.

The North West has also witnessed a decline and is two points down on the previous quarter at -5%

Inflation falls but bad news on fuel prices

2011-12-13T09:46:00.003Z

Some good economic news for the government this morning.

Inflation is falling from its September peak with the consumer prices index (CPI) dropping to 4.8 per cent in November in what is being predicted as the start of a protracted downward slide.

Food, petrol, clothing and furniture, household equipment, and maintenance were all sighted as reasons for the fall with the broader retail prices index (RPI) falling to 5.2 per cent in November, from 5.4 per cent in October.

However some bad news from the statistics office when it said that prices of electricity, gas and other fuels rose by 20.9 per cent in November,that is the fastest pace since February 2009.

Inflation is expected to continue to fall into the new year as the affect of January’s rise in the rate of VAT to 20 per cent falls out of the figures.

N0TICE announces revenue share scheme

2011-12-13T06:14:00.004Z

The Guardian led N0tice board which I have been experimenting with for Inside the M60 has announced a revenue sharing scheme.

The model is described as for classified listings or ‘offers’, similar to the traditional yellow pages model.

The scheme on the face of it sounds good with a 85-15 per cent split with the site owner taking the majority.

Here is the full mail about it:

As a noticeboard owner, you can earn revenue by selling featured positions for classified listings or ‘offers’ as we call them, similar to the traditional yellow pages model.

You will earn 85% of the revenue generated on a noticeboard while n0tice retains 15%. There’s also options for using your earnings to support charities.

Posting an offer on a noticeboard is self-serve and free for n0tice participants. Offers can then be upgraded to a Featured placement for £1/day (or the equivalent base-level regional currency). Featured positioning includes both a visual enhancement and priority ranking on the page.

Payments are handled via PayPal which means we can support 25 different currencies around the world.

So, now in addition to already having custom design options, user moderation tools and site analytics, as a noticeboard owner, you will see a new ‘Revenue’ tab in the admin panel which tracks how much is earned.

Noticeboard owners have a pretty robust toolset now for running a community platform. The addition of an ad platform to the service should help make community management a self-sustaining activity for some and hopefully a profitable one for many.

10,000 jobs could be created if the North can become the world’s nuclear base says report

2011-12-13T06:04:00.002Z

The North of England has the opportunity to become one of the world’s leading nuclear manufacturing hubs, creating many thousands of new jobs and generating substantial economic growth for the UK, according to a University of Manchester report.

The report commissioned by the Dalton Nuclear Institute, highlights the opportunity for the Government to invest in the vast potential of the region to meet the demands of the UK’s nuclear new build and use this as a springboard for providing goods and services to the £300bn global nuclear sector.

Already a world-leading centre for the nuclear supply chain with more than 50 per cent of the UK’s nuclear workforce, the North also contains the UK’s full fuel cycle capability, uranium conversion and enrichment, fuel fabrication, generation, spent fuel reprocessing, waste treatment and storage and decommissioning.

The global market for new nuclear build is estimated at more than £800bn over the next 20 to 30 years. The UK new nuclear build programme is estimated at £40bn, with the demand potential to support the rebalancing of the UK economy.

The report claims investment in the North of England would create at least 10,000 new jobs and secure many others in manufacturing and other professional services at a time when there are cut backs in other sectors. Many of the skills in sectors such as aerospace and oil and gas could complement the nuclear skills already available and pump billions of pounds into the UK economy.

One of the reports authors,Professor Peter Storey said:

“The UK Government and nuclear industry are faced with a choice,to do nothing and possibly watch the UK nuclear supply chain lose business and economic growth opportunities to overseas- based firms, or to develop a national policy to coordinate the development of UK nuclear supply chain and position UK based businesses for economic growth in the UK and overseas markets.

“This report makes it clear that commercial opportunities do exist. With a national policy that is coordinated with the nuclear industry, these opportunities can be realised.”

Clegg's sulk,the end of the High Street,who tapped Millie's phone and those fake polar bears-Tuesday's papers

2011-12-13T05:26:00.003Z

Clegg's day of rage is how the Independent describes it as the recriminations from the EU row continue to batter the coalition.

The paper describes how the deputy Prime Minister boycotted David Cameron's Commons statement on Europe and the two men clashed over Britain's next moves in its bitter dispute with the rest of the EU.

In an astonishing gesture, Mr Clegg refused to take up his usual place at Mr Cameron's side when he explained to MPs why he had become the first British Prime Minister to veto an EU treaty. The Liberal Democrat leader, who was accused of cowardice by Conservative and Labour MPs, said he did not want to be a "distraction". But his absence also underlined his very public disagreement with Mr Cameron on Europe.

The big sulk is how the Mail describes it as it adds that Clegg took to the TV studios instead to accuse the PM of endangering the livelihoods of millions of Britons by risking isolation in Europe.

Pressed about the Deputy Prime Minister’s absence the paper says, Mr Cameron told MPs: ‘I’m not responsible for his whereabouts.’

The Guardian adds that Liberal Democrat cabinet sources described Cameron's negotiating strategy as "unbelievably cackhanded", one adding: "It is just beginning to dawn on Cameron and George Osborne just what a big mistake this is proving to be. They have tried to bounce us and there is going to be a price to be paid."

Meanwhile the Express claims that the country faces a revenge attack for David Cameron’s EU snub when a senior Brussels bureaucrat promised a new deluge of damaging red tape on UK business.

The Telegraph leads with the Mary Portas' investigation into the High streets in which she concludes that years of “erosion, neglect and mismanagement” have left many town centres and market towns on the brink of extinction.

The report,out today says the paper, will set out around 30 recommendations to halt the rapid decline of town centres.

Lives are being put at risk at leading hospitals because of a growing financial crisis that has exposed inequalities in care reports the Times.

A report out today by the King’s Fund warns that health trusts in London,are not implementing essential reforms to improve patient safety,that failing services are not being closed, and “unacceptable” variations in care quality may persist because most trusts in the capital are under an unsustainable financial burden.

The Leveson inquiry has launched its own investigation in an attemptto "get to the bottom of" fresh evidence about the News of the World's hacking of Milly Dowler's voicemail according to the Guardian.

Yesterday,adds the Independent,the Metropolitan Police ruled out the private investigator Glenn Mulcaire as the person who initially hacked into her mobile phone account.

Sir Fred Goodwin,former chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland, was able to remove crucial warnings about the risk the bank was taking from a letter sent by the UK regulator to the lender's board reports the Telegraph.

As the Times says,the FSA found that his “domineering” management style had been called into question four years before RBS was forced to the brink of collapse by its disastrous takeover of ABN Amro.

To the redtops and the Sun leads with the news that Little Mix star Perrie Edwards last night revealed she has dumped One Direction winners of the X factor boyfriend Zayn Malik.

According to the paper,the news will be a blow for Zayn, who is said to be besotted with the feisty Geordie. The pair have dated for around two months after meeting on the shoot for The X Factor charity single.

The Mirror leads with the news that Sir David Attenborough yesterday defended Frozen Planet’s fake polar bear footage.As more footage from the series was exposed as a sham,the paper reports the presenter's comments:

“The question is, during the middle of this scene when you are trying to paint what it is like in the middle of winter at the pole, to say ‘Oh, by the way, this was filmed in a zoo’.

Elsewhere the Independent reports that The Independent Police Complaints Commission has admitted it "was a mistake" to announce that Mark Duggan, who was shot dead by police officers last August sparking widespread rioting, had been involved in a firefight with officers.

Barack Obama has acknowledged a US drone was in Iranian hands for the first time and said the United States has asked Tehran to return the sophisticated spy aircraft says the Telegraph.

And some good news on climate change from Durban or as the Guardian says,at least a deal to agree a deal,but the scale of the work that still needs to be done became plain today.

Finally the Times reports that Hamleys, the country’s most famous toy store, has abandoned its traditional separate floors for boys and girls after a campaign on Twitter accused it of operating “gender apartheid”

Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority has launched its second round of community waste funding

2011-12-12T17:43:00.001Z

The authority’s £53,000 Community Fund will support community organisations that share their ambition of ‘Zero Waste to landfill’ and help deliver the 3Rs- Reduce, Re-use and Recycle across Greater Manchester.

This round of the community waste fund will focus on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE). These WEEE items (large and small), should not be ending up in the general rubbish bin, and should instead be recycled, or better still, re-used!

Research has found that approximately 6,000 tonnes of small electrical items, e.g. hairdryers, portable radios, toasters are disposed of in household bins across Greater Manchester.

The fund is inviting community organisations to come forward with ideas to help take the WEEE little and big items out of the general rubbish and back into our lives, either fixed, or reprocessed into another gadget.

Councillor Neil Swannick, Chair of Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority (GMWDA) said: “The community fund is a great initiative to help increase the amount of electrical items which are re-used and recycled. We are very pleased to support projects that will not only benefit the environment, but also, as previous projects have demonstrated, bring many positives to communities in Greater Manchester. Working in partnership with communities will bring Greater Manchester another step closer to zero waste to landfill.”

Fir more information visit www.gmwda.gov.uk for further information on how to apply for the fund, or email CommunityWasteFund@gmwda.gov.uk.