The primary site for this blog mirror is HERE. Dissecting Leftism is HERE (and mirrored here). The Blogroll. My Home Page. Email me (John Ray) here. Other mirror sites: Greenie Watch, Political Correctness Watch, Education Watch, Immigration Watch, Food & Health Skeptic, Gun Watch, Socialized Medicine, Dissecting Leftism, Recipes, Tongue Tied and Australian Politics. For a list of backups viewable in China, see here. (Click "Refresh" on your browser if background colour is missing) See here or here for the archives of this site
****************************************************************************************



19 March, 2010

The sky really has fallen: Some incompetent British social workers have been fired

Six social workers at a Birmingham City Council, criticised over the death from starvation of a seven-year-old girl have been sacked, after they showed "no sign whatsoever" of meeting expected standards. It emerged this morning that the staff at Britain’s biggest local authority were dismissed over the past year for not doing their jobs properly at the council which is taking part in a serious case review into the death of Khyra Ishaq. The girl died in May 2008 from starvation; her mother and stepfather were both jailed last week for her manslaughter.

Colin Tucker, director of children’s social care at the council who was brought in last year after Ofsted inspectors branded aspects of Birmingham City Council’s children’s department as "inadequate", told BBC news: "We are not appointing some staff, as well as that we have dismissed six staff in the last year. "There is a clear indication we are serious about our standards. "They did not adhere to standards and expectations that we laid down. "They showed no sign whatsoever that they were keen to do so, so we dismissed them."

The dismissals at the council follow a number of child deaths over recent years, although they are not believed to be directly linked to Khyra's death. More dismissals could follow once the serious case review is published.

An official report last year on child protection services in Birmingham written by the council's own councillors condemned them as “not fit for purpose" after the spate of young deaths. The criticism was made after eight children known to social services died in only four years after suspected neglect and abuse. The report found that there had been “a decade of underperformance”, with dozens of initiatives and projects being launched and then shelved, resulting in little improvement.

Lack of senior management was a “major risk” and a shortage of experienced staff “hampered progress”. One in five social workers was off work sick at any one time, undermining any continuity of care for children at risk.

Khyra Ishaq died when her body succumbed to an infection after months of starvation at her home in Handsworth, Birmingham. She had been removed from school in December 2007 and social workers made several attempts to visit her home. Her mother, Angela Gordon, was jailed last week for 15 years over her death, while her former partner Junaid Abuhamza was jailed indefinitely with a minimum term of seven-and-a-half years.

During the trial, judge Mrs Justice King said "in all probability" Khyra would not have died had there been "an adequate initial assessment and proper adherence by the educational welfare services to its guidance".

SOURCE



British woman harassed because she was pregnant

A Mothercare worker claims she was ‘bullied’ into keeping silent about her pregnancy in case it upset colleagues who had experienced abortions or miscarriages. Traci Winchcombe, an assistant manager with the baby clothing giant, says she was told not to mention she was expecting in case it hurt the feelings of staff who had suffered birth traumas.

She told a tribunal that her former store manager's attitude towards her ‘changed’ when she broke the news that she was pregnant in March last year. An assistant at Mothercare claims she was asked not to discuss her pregnancy at work in order to avoid upsetting her colleagues. The 32-year-old said Jacque McDonald suddenly became ‘abrupt’ and ‘rude’ in her dealings with her at a high street branch of the store in Canterbury, Kent.

Ms Winchcombe, from nearby Westgate-on-Sea, said she was reduced to tears after the harassment she received daily at work got ‘worse and worse’. She told an employment tribunal in Ashford: ‘I didn't understand why I was not allowed to mention my pregnancy. ‘This really upset me - I felt I had been singled out. I was three months pregnant and felt some of my staff should know - I was beginning to show. ‘I felt Jacque and Mothercare wanted to get rid of me because I was pregnant.'

Ms Winchcombe claimed she was ordered not to discuss her pregnancy with other members of staff who had suffered abortions or miscarriages because staff were 'getting fed up with it'.

Mrs McDonald denied asking Ms Winchcombe not to mention her pregnancy but said she did request that she stop discussing abortions in front of staff, some of whom had suffered miscarriages. She added: ‘I found out from one of my staff members that she had been discussing abortion on the shop floor. ‘I felt this was inappropriate and asked her to refrain from these conversations on the shop floor. ‘I was aware of one employee in the store who had suffered two miscarriages.’

Ms Winchcombe was dismissed from her post in May after a series of administrative mistakes - unrelated to the bullying claims - over her handling of till procedures and gift cards. She was fired after admitting her performance had been at ’50 per cent'.

Whilst accepting those failures, Ms Winchcombe still alleges she was singled out and treated differently to other staff who were less harshly dealt with for similar breaches. And she insisted when she sent a text message to Mrs McDonald - informing her about her pregnancy - that the treatment towards her ‘deteriorated’ further. She added: ‘I don't know why she was like that - her attitude just changed. ‘It was fine when I first started but after I told her I was pregnant everything just got worse.’ ‘She would frequently shout at and abuse me in front of staff and colleagues.’

One colleague supported Ms Winchcombe's claims, saying she overheard ‘coarse to the point of shocking’ treatment directed against her. An internal review by an area manager found no evidence of bullying or discrimination.

Mrs McDonald said she had offered Ms Winchcombe the company's ‘maternity matters’ guidance and made sure she was not required to do any heavy lifting. ‘I deny my treatment changed in any way - I did not frequently shout at or abuse Traci in front of customers. ‘Given the nature of our business, a number of female staff become pregnant - I am well used to them taking maternity leave. ‘We talked about her pregnancy and we went through the maternity matters pack. I am abrupt and can be direct at times but only if someone does something wrong.

Chris Thompson, representing Mothercare, added: ‘Particularly in a store like Mothercare if there are conversations about abortion it's probably not a very sensible topic for the shop floor.’ He accused Ms Winchcombe of lying. A decision on the case is expected within six weeks.

If successful Ms Winchcombe - who is not claiming unfair dismissal - could be awarded a compensation sum up to £25,000 for ‘injury to feelings’.

SOURCE



Brits finally grow tired of the bumptious Susan Greenfield

The smart Jewish girl who got herself made a Baroness but still wanted more attention. As I also have said on various occasions, her colleagues say that she was more interested in self-promotion than in science. The last sentence below is a polite version of my view about the crap she speaks

During her 12 years at the helm of the Royal Institution, Susan Greenfield has come to be known as “anything but beige”. Undeniably a gifted communicator, she was seen by many as a breath of fresh air blowing through a stuffy establishment when appointed as director. Her supporters see her as an inspiration to aspiring young scientists, a campaigner against sexism in the lab and a smart businesswoman.

However, she has accumulated at least as many enemies as fans. Her detractors accuse her of being more interested in self-promotion than science promotion.

Lady Greenfield has maintained a research career as Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Oxford, where she focuses on brain physiology and has founded three biotechnology companies investigating diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

In 1994, Lady Greenfield became the first woman to give the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, and in 1998 she became its first female director. She has appeared frequently on television, written several popular science books and was a recipient of the Royal Society Faraday Medal for science communication. She is probably also the first female scientist to have appeared in photoshoots for Hello! and Vogue and is known for her flamboyant dress sense.

After criticising the Royal Society, Britain’s national academy of science, for not having enough female fellows, she was nominated for fellowship in 2004. But some who felt that her scientific credentials were unworthy leaked her candidacy, details of which are normally kept secret, and she was subsequently turned down.

Most recently, Lady Greenfield has courted controversy by warning that the internet — in particular social networking sites — may harm children’s mental development. Others argue that there is insufficient evidence to back the claims.

SOURCE



A spineless British council allows a State school to be taken over by aggressive Muslims

A headmistress forced from her job after a campaign by two Muslim governors to give Islam a greater presence in a state school is entitled to £400,000 damages, the Court of Appeal has ruled. Erica Connor, 57, left the New Monument primary school in Woking, Surrey, because of stress after she was accused of Islamophobia. A deputy High Court judge ruled in March last year that Surrey County Council had failed in its duty to protect her and to intervene when the actions of the governors created problems. He awarded her £407,700 damages. The council had appealed against the ruling, claiming it was not liable in law and had not acted negligently in dealing with the problem.

Lord Justice Laws, giving a ruling on Thursday, said that Mrs Connor, who was promoted to head of the school in 1998, had suffered psychiatric damage and had to stop work in 2005 and retired a year later on ill-health grounds. The school had a 80-85 per cent Muslim intake and problems began in 2003 when Paul Martin, a Muslim convert, was elected a parent governor and Mumtaz Saleem was appointed as a local education authority governor. Mr Martin started making allegations about anti-Muslim comments by members of staff, which led to an investigation by Mrs Connor. She found that all the staff denied the allegations, which she said had demoralised them. An official review also found no evidence of deliberate racism or religious bias but said the governing body had become dysfunctional. The High Court had been told Mr Martin tried to stir up disaffection in the community against the school and Mr Saleem was verbally abusive in school meetings.

Although during the first five years that Mrs Connor was in charge of the school there had been good relations with the local Muslim community and improved results, the situation changed when the two men were elected as governors. Judge John Leighton Williams ruled in the High Court that the men had an agenda to increase the role of the Muslim religion in the school and that this, combined with the authority’s failure to protect Mrs Connor, had led her to suffer serious depression.

When Mr Martin was removed from the board of governors in June 2005, he wrote a letter of complaint saying it was because he had been raising complaints of institutional racism within the school. A few days later a petition was circulated calling for Mrs Connor’s removal from the school and containing “defamatory and offensive remarks”, the appeal judges were told.

Lord Justice Laws said the High Court judge was right to find there had been negligence on the part of the council. He said it was an unusual case — “partly because of the council’s lamentable capitulation to aggression”.

Lord Justice Sedley said: “Surrey County Council found itself faced with the unenviable task of responding in an equitable fashion to an inequitable campaign designed to capture a secular state school for a particular faith which happened to be that of a majority of the families whose children attended the school.” He said the council had gone wrong by trying to compromise rather than protecting the head, the staff and the school.

“The picture that emerges from the careful and thorough [High Court] judgment is of a local education authority which had allowed itself to be intimidated by an aggressively conducted campaign to subvert the school’s legal status, a campaign which was plainly destabilising the school and placing the headteacher under intolerable pressure.”

SOURCE



British hospital trusts warned over poor infection control

Five health trusts were issued with warnings about serious breaches in hospital infection control by the health regulator last year.

An assessment of hospital infection standards resulted in the five warnings from the Care Quality Commission but the trusts responded quickly to all five warnings, which are no longer in a “red flag” category on the issue, the regulator said.

In last year's infection assessment 42 of 167 trusts were found by the CQC to be in "breach" of NHS registration requirements, although the regulator said all but five were minor breaches.

Ambulance services in the north-west, east of England and east Midlands were the worst offenders, and received formal warnings for the state of vehicles and stations. The regulator said all had responded and now met the requirements in follow-up assessments.

The CQC carried out the assessment as part of preparations for a new licensing regime beginning on April 1. Several trusts are expected to receive conditions in the registration process because of concerns about some core care standards.

SOURCE



Incompetent butcher doctors free to work in the NHS

An elderly woman died after a German locum doctor carried out one of the “worst botched operations” seen in a British hospital, an inquest heard yesterday. Ena Dickinson, a former NHS volunteer, was left unable to walk after the locum made a series of errors during a routine hip operation at Grantham & District Hospital. Werner Kolb removed bone that should have remained intact and severed a major artery during the operation.

Mrs Dickinson, a 94-year-old former nurse and Red Cross volunteer from Barrowby, Lincolnshire, was left bleeding to death on the operating table. It was only when a consultant at the hospital stepped in that her life was saved. However, two months after the August 2008 operation Mrs Dickinson died. Kathy Ingram, her daughter, said that after dedicating her life to the NHS it had “let her down” when she needed it most.

Orthopaedic specialist Professor Angus Wallace told the inquest it was “the worst botched operation” he had seen. The professor, who is based at Nottingham’s Queen’s Medical Centre, was so concerned about the case that he reported the doctor to the General Medical Council.

Last week MPs heard how a “gaping hole” in the rules on foreign doctors working in Britain is putting patients at risk. The Health Select Committee is currently investigating out-of-hours-care following the death of David Gray in Cambridgeshire in 2008. He was killed by another German doctor, Daniel Ubani, who administered 10 times the normal dose of diamorphine. Dr Ubani had flown to Britain to provide out of hours care under a contract from the local health authority.

In 2004, ministers gave GPs a controversial new contract that allowed them to give up responsibility for out-of-hours care. The General Medical Council said it is prevented from testing the qualifications of European locums who are brought in as cover.

Dr Kolb, 51, who is based in Stuttgart, was given an interim suspension by the GMC for 18 months last year. Giving a narrative verdict, coroner Stuart Fisher described it as a “most disturbing case”.

Mrs Ingram said: “We feel let down. We don’t quite understand how he got to operate on my mother. “My mother was somebody who was involved in the NHS and supported it even into her retirement working on the tea bar at her local hospital. After all those years the NHS let her down.”

A spokesman for United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust said: “The Trust has apologised to Mrs Dickinson’s family for mistakes made during her operation. “Errors were made by the surgeon concerned which were rectified immediately by a senior member of staff. After the operation Mrs Dickinson was recovering well and assessed to be medically fit for discharge by 25 September 2008.

“The Trust has done everything possible to learn from this incident and to prevent it happening to another patient. Changes have been made to the recruitment of medical staff, including the appointment of locums, and a new surgical safety checklist produced by the World Health Organisation has now been implemented throughout the Trust.”

SOURCE



Corruption on the British Left: "The union behind the British Airways strike has received £18million from taxpayers under Labour, The Daily Telegraph can disclose. Unite, and the two unions that formed it, received the public money under two little-known funds to improve management and training for its members. It has been the biggest beneficiary of one of the schemes, the Union Modernisation Fund, and received a sixth of all the money given out under the Union Learning Fund. The figures have led to fresh claims that Britain’s biggest union has taken over the Labour Party after donating almost £30million over the past decade and employing a key adviser to Gordon Brown as its political director. It comes ahead of a planned three-day walkout by Unite members of BA’s cabin crew this weekend, which is set to cause travel chaos for thousands of passengers. Francis Maude, the Shadow Cabinet Office Minister, said: “This really looks like money laundering - taxpayers' money is being funnelled into Unite then put straight back into Labour's coffers. “It's a real racket, with taxpayers' money being round-tripped into Gordon Brown's re-election fund. We must have much greater transparency on what unions are receiving from the Labour Government in return for their backhanders.”





18 March, 2010

British High court knocks back compulsory servicing of homosexuals

High Court reverses ban on Catholic Care’s anti-gay adoption policy. Other Catholic agencies have cut their ties with the Church or given up adoption

A Roman Catholic child-adoption society has won a landmark High Court battle that could allow it and other Catholic agencies to discriminate legally against gay couples. Catholic Care, which serves the dioceses of Leeds, Middlesbrough, and Hallam, South Yorkshire, launched the legal action in an attempt to continue its work finding homes for children.

Catholic Care, which provided adoption services only to married couples in keeping with current Catholic doctrine, was seeking an exemption from the Sexual Orientation Regulations. The 2007 regulations made it unlawful to discriminate on the ground of sexual orientation in the provision of goods or services to the public. The Government previously rejected appeals for an exemption for Catholic agencies but ministers gave them a 20-month transition period, which ended last year. Other Catholic agencies have already given up adoption or cut their ties with the Church.

Catholic Care argued at the High Court that it had achieved particular success in finding adoptive parents for “hard to place” children. The support after adoption, funded by giving from within the Church, also meant that its adoptions had a lower failure rate.

Mr Justice Briggs, sitting in London, allowed the charity’s appeal and ordered the Charity Commission, which made the original decision against Catholic Care, to reconsider. The Charity Commission was ordered by the judge to pay the legal costs of Catholic Care, which is linked to the Roman Catholic diocese of Leeds, unofficially estimated at more than £100,000.

Arthur Roche, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Leeds, welcomed the ruling. He said: “We look forward to producing evidence to the Charity Commission to support the position that we have consistently taken through this process that without being able to use this exemption children without families would be seriously disadvantaged. “Catholic Care has been providing specialist adoption services for over 100 years. We have helped hundreds of children . . . as well as offering ongoing and post-adoption support to families.”

Jonathan Finney, head of external affairs at Stonewall, the gay rights charity, said: “It is clearly in the best interests of children in care to encourage as wide a pool of potential adopters as possible. All religious adoption agencies receive funding or subsidy in some form from the public purse. There should be no question of discriminatory behaviour by any organisation that benefits from the taxpayer.”

Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, said: “It is unfortunate that the court has enabled Catholic Care to exploit what was obviously an error in the drafting of the equality legislation. The loophole this created was never intended to be used this way.”

The Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement also condemned the decision. The Rev Sharon Ferguson said: “We do not doubt that Catholic Care has done good work in the past but it should only continue to do so within the current legal framework. It makes no sense and is entirely unjust to allow exemptions of this nature. Would Mr Justice Briggs have reached the same decision if Catholic Care had asked to be allowed to discriminate against couples on the grounds of their race or physical ability?”

SOURCE



Lazy British social workers let another kid die

If only they had been told that the offender disliked homosexuals, they would have LEAPT into action



Children's services today blamed 'human error' for failing to act on information about a man with a history of violence who then went on to kill his new-born daughter. Christopher Sellman, 24, had a conviction for assault and had been cautioned for child neglect before he was found guilty of killing 25-day-old Tiffany Sellman Burdge.

Social services in Kent were contacted by a relative before she was born informing them that Sellman's partner was pregnant with his child. But a failure to register the information meant Sellman went unchecked and he went on to kill Tiffany, who died from a fractured skull and bleeding to the brain. The baby girl died at Kings College Hospital, in London, on November 1, 2008, after Sellman called an ambulance earlier in the day telling the operator that she was losing colour and had 'gone floppy'. Tiffany was taken to the Kent and Sussex Hospital in Tunbridge Wells, before being transferred to the London hospital where a CT scan showed the extent of her injuries.

Sellman was arrested and charged with her murder, but it was reduced to manslaughter part-way through his trial at Maidstone Crown Court. He was convicted yesterday.

Today, Kent County Council conceded that an independent review of the case had identified a 'missed opportunity' within children's social services to share information. Rosalind Turner, managing director of children, families and education at the council, said: 'This was an isolated example of human error. 'We have a comprehensive training and professional development programme in place to make sure our social workers are equipped to do the difficult and challenging task that they are required to do.'

Ms Turner said the death was 'deeply distressing' and that the council had worked with the local safeguarding children board to examine the build-up to her death and identify lessons to be learned. She added: 'Human error is always a possibility. In this case, on a single occasion, a member of the family mentioned to the social worker that Christopher Sellman's partner was pregnant. 'The social worker, who had a 30-year career with an exemplary record, was not dealing directly with the young woman who was pregnant and this information did not get registered. 'We deeply regret this.'

David Worlock, chair of the Kent Safeguarding Children Board, said: 'This is a very distressing case and I would like to express my sadness at Tiffany's death. 'The death of any child is deeply upsetting and when a child dies in these circumstances it is only right for all of the agencies involved to look at their practices and seek to learn lessons wherever possible.

'An independent expert from the NSPCC was commissioned by the Kent Safeguarding Children Board to take a thorough and impartial look at all of the agencies' actions to identify what lessons could be learned. 'The findings have been accepted and several recommendations made, all of which are being acted on. 'The Kent Safeguarding Children Board will monitor the impact of these on practice in Kent. The board has an important role to play in evaluating how effective safeguarding arrangements are in Kent. 'Along with all local safeguarding children boards, it will be strengthening this quality assurance role to help improve the safety and well-being of Kent children.'

Every year, between 17,000 and 20,000 children are referred to Kent children's social services. In the year to March 2009, the total number of referrals was 17,358 children, of which 1,233 were children with child protection plans. In the case of Sellman, the court heard that throughout their investigation, police found he failed to give an accurate account of what had happened to Tiffany before his 999 call. It was also established that he told a number of people at least five different versions of events.

During the trial, which began on February 1, he denied both the murder and the manslaughter of his daughter, claiming that he had accidentally dropped her. Sentencing of Sellman, previously of Tunbridge Wells, was adjourned until April 28.

Following yesterday's verdict, Detective Chief Inspector Dave Chewter, of Kent Police, said: 'Tiffany was a well cared for baby, her mother Pamela looked after her with love and devotion. 'She left her daughter with Christopher, Tiffany's father, on just this one occasion whilst she visited family for the first time since the birth. 'When she left the house, Tiffany was well and had just been fed. She left her daughter in the hands of someone who should have been there to protect and keep her safe. 'Pamela's life has been turned upside down and to this day she continues to struggle with her terrible loss.'

The baby's mother, Pamela Burdge, said: 'The loss and pain I feel as a result of my beautiful daughter Tiffany's death is indescribable, I will never get over it. 'I will never be able to understand why Chris never told the truth, but I am relieved justice has been served.'

SOURCE



Lazy British teacher lets boy die -- but no penalty



A boy of 11 who suffered an asthma attack at school was left dying in a corridor because a teacher was allegedly too busy to call an ambulance. Doctors believe Sam Linton could have been saved if he had received treatment sooner. Instead, he was left alone and gasping for breath because, it was claimed, his form tutor, Janet Ford, 46, refused to help him because she was in a meeting.

The teacher - who has not been suspended - allegedly told two of Sam's concerned friends to 'go away'. He was taken to hospital when his mother picked him up from school, but died hours later. Last night Sam's devastated parents, Karen and Paul Linton, launched a furious attack on staff at Offerton High School in Stockport after an inquest jury ruled their son was the victim of systemic failings and neglect. Mrs Linton, a company managing director, said she and her husband, a double glazing engineer, would take legal action against Stockport council.

She said: 'I am angry, very angry. When I arrived (at school), Sam was worse than I have ever seen him before. 'As soon as I saw him, I knew it was serious. He had a grey tinge to his skin and his mouth was blue. I had never seen him like that before in all of the 100 or so attacks he'd had. 'The fact that no one called an ambulance during the hours that Sam was suffering from a prolonged asthma attack is truly astounding and very troubling for all parents. 'When you send your child to school you believe they will be looked after and cared for.'

The inquest heard that, despite suffering from asthma all his life, Sam was a keen footballer and had a black belt in tae kwon do. On the day he died in December 2007, Sam was seen struggling for breath during the lunch hour. However, he appeared to recover, before suffering a full asthma attack in a lesson with Miss Ford at 2.15pm. After the lesson, Miss Ford telephoned the school's student services department, who were responsible for first aid, and was told to send him to them when he got his breath back and his symptoms had calmed down. She failed to do so, and went into a meeting. Sam was found at the end of the school day gasping for air on a bench by friend Paris Rafferty, who was so concerned she interrupted Miss Ford.

However, the court heard that Miss Ford told Paris to 'go away', adding: 'I know Sam is there and he will have to wait.' Instead, Paris went to find Sam's older brother, Jacque, then 13. Jacque told Miss Ford she needed to call an ambulance, but the teacher refused. Even though Sam could not walk unaided, she told Jacque to take him to the staff room and call his parents.

Mrs Linton took Sam to Stepping Hill Hospital, Stockport, at 5.20pm but he died two hours later in the presence of his parents. Dr Charlotte Doughty, who treated Sam, told the hearing that he may have survived had an ambulance been called earlier. She said: 'The people I have seen die from asthma attacks are the people who have delayed their attendance to hospital.'

Giving evidence, Miss Ford denied the pupils' accounts of events but admitted being 'vague' on school policy, which said an ambulance should be called if a pupil's condition did not improve within 10 minutes. ''In hindsight, I would have done things differently,' she added.

Giving their verdict of neglect, the jury listed 12 separate failings on the part of the school, ten of which 'caused or significantly contributed to' Sam's death. These included failing to put in place an adequate asthma policy or sufficiently training staff to help children with the illness. The jury was asked to consider whether Sam had been unlawfully killed, but dismissed this verdict, which means it is unlikely anyone will face a criminal prosecution.

A Stockport Council spokesman confirmed no one had been suspended following Sam's death, but added: 'We are now considering the inquest verdict and the recommendations of the coroner.'

SOURCE



Mother's outrage as healthy five-year-old son weighing 58lb is branded obese by British health Fascists

With an active lifestyle and diet rich in fruit and vegetables, five-year-old Cian Attwood would appear to be the picture of health. So his parents were astounded to receive a letter from the NHS saying he is 'clinically obese'. It warned that he is in the fattest one per cent of his age group and risks heart disease, cancer and diabetes.



Cian is 4st 2lb when the recommended weight for his age is between 2st 13lb and 3st 11lb. But he is 3ft 10in, taller than average for a five-year-old, and is clearly not fat.

His mother Kriss Hodgson, 27, warned that labelling children as obese while they are still growing could make them anxious and lead to anorexia. 'There's not an ounce of fat on Cian,' she said at the family home in Overdale, Shropshire. 'When he takes his top off he has a concave tummy and you can see his ribs. 'The NHS is making everybody think they need to be celebrity size zero and it's going to give people eating disorders.'

Miss Hodgson and her partner John Attwood, 34, gave permission for their son to be weighed at his primary school last month. A letter from NHS Telford and Wrekin was delivered two weeks later with a chart showing that Cian is 'very overweight - doctors call this clinically obese'. Miss Hodgson added: 'Cian walks into town with his dad and that's a four-mile round trip. He also likes bike riding, fishing, running around the garden and football. 'His favourite foods are peas, sweetcorn, broccoli, chicken and grapes. When I said he'd been called obese our GP laughed in my face.'

Cian is one of thousands of children being weighed as part of the Government's National Child Measurement Programme. It is part of a wide-ranging campaign to combat child obesity, which also led to this week's announcement by chief medical officer Sir Liam Donaldson that secondary-school pupils would have to take an annual fitness test.

Mary George, from the eating disorder charity BEAT, said: 'Some of the messages these letters are sending out are not necessarily right for young people who are vulnerable-to pressure to have the right body image. 'If a friendly nurse could speak to parents directly, it might do more good. But such officialdom is a scare tactic that takes things to extremes.'

Clare Harland, spokesman for the NHS trust, said: 'Every year children in reception and year six are weighed and measured in school as part of the programme, which is now in its fifth year. 'The data is used locally and nationally to set goals to tackle obesity and deliver the right services to the right people. 'The height and weight measurement is carried out by trained staff and the families of any child can opt out.'

SOURCE



British job centre not tolerant enough



A JEDI believer won an apology from a Jobcentre which threw him out for refusing to remove his hood. Star Wars fan Chris Jarvis, 31, was told he would have to leave if he did not take it down.

Chris is a member of the International Church of Jediism - based on the sci-fi films - whose doctrine states that followers should be allowed to wear hoods. But when he protested, security escorted him from his local branch in Southend, Essex.

He filled out a complaint form - and received a formal letter from the JobCentre Plus branch's boss just three days later. Wendy Flewers apologised, adding: "We are committed to provide a customer service which embraces diversity and respects customers' religion."

Chris said: "I was just standing up for my beliefs. "Muslims can walk around in whatever religious gear they like, so why can't I?"

Southend Jobcentre Plus refused to comment yesterday. A Department for Work and Pensions spokesperson said: "Customers may be asked by Jobcentre staff to remove their helmets and hoods for security reasons."

SOURCE



SOCIALIZED MEDICINE IN PRACTICE

Below are five reports from just ONE DAY in Britain

Terrifyingly inept foreign doctors are a symptom of a sickness in the NHS - not the cause

By Professor Karol Sikora

When a supposed cure has instead become a new kind of sickness, then surely something is badly wrong. Yet that is what has happened in the modern NHS. The target culture brought in to benefit patients is having fatal consequences. A system that originally aimed to improve performance and efficiency is now threatening patients' lives, distorting clinical priorities and encouraging the use of foreign doctors, who may be too inexperienced or unqualified for the jobs they have been given.

The tragic case of 94-year-old Ena Dickinson is a heart-rending example of what can go wrong in a health service that puts compliance with political requirements above the real needs of patients. Mrs Dickinson, a Lincolnshire grandmother, died in 2008, soon after she underwent a hip replacement operation which was carried out at Grantham Hospital by a German locum surgeon, Dr Werner Kolb. In an appalling series of errors, Dr Kolb cut through the wrong muscle, severed an artery and used the wrong cutting tool, with the result that Mrs Dickinson lost almost half her blood in an operation that should have been routine. One witness, another doctor from the hospital, said he was 'horrified by what I saw', while an expert surgical witness, Professor Angus Wallace, told the inquest on Tuesday that he 'could not believe the level of neglect in the operation'.

The episode raises troubling questions about the NHS's increasing reliance on foreign doctors, both from the European Union and from further overseas, a practice that has been driven partly by the Government's fixation with meeting targets and partly by an inadequate supply in the number of domestic trained doctors.

We do not, of course, live in an insular world and overseas doctors have long been an integral part of the NHS. Indeed, when I first worked in the NHS in the early Seventies, I saw that the service would not have been able to function without the support of doctors from Asia. And, whether we like it or not, Britain is part of the European Union, one of whose guiding principles is the free movement of labour throughout the member states. So, without drastic political changes to the very nature of our society, we would not be able to adopt a siege mentality when it comes to employment in the NHS.

Nevertheless, the disastrously botched operation that Mrs Dickinson suffered highlights a worrying trend, where too often foreign doctors have been imported to provide cover in the NHS, without any proper checks on their background, their ability to speak English, their experience or their competence.

According to reports about Dr Werner Kolb, he had actually performed few hip operations during his career and had spent most of his recent years giving lectures, hardly a record to inspire confidence in the operating theatre. Dr Kolb's negligence may be particularly graphic, because of the way he sawed through the wrong muscle, like some grotesquely inept carpenter.

Some might argue, therefore, that it is particularly dangerous to let foreign doctors carry out surgery without rigorous monitoring. But this would be a fallacy. Every branch of medicine, from general practice to pathology, has the potential to do mortal harm because of its intimate connection with the delicate structure of the human body. In my own field of cancer care, disasters can occur because of a misdiagnosis or the administration of the wrong dosage of drug.

The calamitous risks of incompetence by GP locums were illustrated in early 2008 by Dr Daniel Ubani, who flew in from Germany to Cambridgeshire to provide weekend cover for a local practice, only to end up killing one pensioner, David Gray, by accidentally giving him ten times the maximum dosage of diamorphine. The coroner then said Mr Gray's death had been caused by 'gross negligence', words that carry a chilling echo in the Dickinson case.

One of the key problems is that, under an EU directive of 2004, doctors who qualify in any EU country can move to work in any other EU state without even the most limited examination of their skills, aptitude or language. In contrast, foreign doctors (ie from outside the EU) must pass a skills and English language test - yes, even the Australians and Americans.

EU countries are also not forced to provide information on their doctors' professional histories - for example, whether they have been struck off for committing a criminal offence or killing a patient through negligence.

There are estimated to be around 20,000 EU doctors registered to work in the NHS, a quarter of them from the former Eastern Bloc countries.

Now the vast majority of them are certainly perfectly competent, but, even so, difficulties will inevitably arise over language and culture. Every nation, for instance, has its own medical hierarchies, differing relationships between doctors and nurses, or unique approaches to patient care.

Moreover, foreign doctors without a sound grasp of English will not understand what their patients are telling them, something that is a particular concern in GP services.

It is telling that EU doctors are twice as likely to face disciplinary hearings before the General Medical Council as their British counterparts, in which foreign doctors from outside the EU are three times as likely to be struck off the medical register - statistics that point to the laxity of checks.

We cannot blame foreign doctors for wanting to work in the NHS. Britain has one of the best-rewarded medical professions in the world, with GPs earning on average over £100,000-a-year and leading consultants far more. These are incredible riches for doctors from the old Soviet sphere of influence. In Poland, where my family has some of its roots, a doctor is likely to earn around £500 a month or £6,000-a-year, a sum that can be made with a few weekend or holiday stints in Britain. As a consequence, one in six of Poland's doctors now works abroad.

Nor is the NHS management entirely to blame for the catalogue of controversies that has arisen from the employment of foreign staff. NHS bosses are under tremendous pressure to meet waiting lists targets set by the Government, so they will take any action, bear almost any cost, to achieve this. So rather than postpone operations during periods when staff are on leave, they bring in foreign doctors to keep the conveyor belt moving.

In Ena Dickinson's case, it would not have mattered if her hip replacement operation had been delayed by a week or two, but no doubt the management of Grantham Hospital was appalled at the idea of slipping behind the Government's arbitrary 18-week deadline for such routine surgery. So, in a disastrous misjudgment, Dr Kolb was brought in so the needs of bureaucracy, if not the patient, could be met.

The problem has been compounded by the Government's failure to assess correctly the needs of the NHS for doctors, with the result that foreign doctors have been brought in to cover gaps in supply. It must be admitted that the demands on the NHS have grown enormously in recent years as a consequence of increasing numbers of elderly patients, a growth in the British population and advances in medical care. Twenty years ago, the idea of carrying out a hip replacement operation on a 94-year-old grandmother would have been unthinkable.

Moreover, the EU working time directive drastically reduced the number of hours that any doctor could be on duty, which meant that more staff had to be made available. But the need to increase the supply of doctors only emphasises the need to scrutinise their competence more vigorously. What we need, therefore, is an assessment of their skills by practical and verbal demonstration, accompanied by checks on their background and a basic language test. We're doing it for our own graduates, after all. That is what our NHS patients deserve. We cannot allow any more tragedies like that of Ena Dickinson.

SOURCE



Killer Muslim doctor with repeated disregard for patients is suspended for just FOUR MONTHS by British regulators

A doctor with a 'disregard' for patient safety was suspended for just four months today for sending home a baby girl who died the next day from blood poisoning. Dr Salawati Abdul-Salam failed to spot little Aleesha Evans' deadly condition and sent her home saying she had a viral infection that needed only Calpol and Nurofen. She died the next day.

A year before the baby's death, another of Abdul-Salam's patients died after a wrong diagnosis, while a pensioner suffered a collapsed lung under the trainee's care. GMC panel chairman Professor Denis McDevitt said the doctor's actions demonstrated a 'total lack of attention to detail' and a 'serious degree of carelessness.'

Colin Perriam, 66, had died after Abdul-Salam analysed six-month old blood samples, then wrongly diagnosed a ruptured ulcer as constipation. Mr Perriam was discharged from Cardiff's University Hospital of Wales on December 15, 2004 with a prescription of laxatives.

Widow Pamela Perriam had told the hearing: 'She said that he was suffering from constipation. 'We were given some powders that you mix with water for mild constipation and we were not given any other instructions. 'We were not given anything else except to say that it was mild constipation and mild laxatives should deal with the problem.'

But the next day Mr Parriam could not get out of bed and when his stomach appeared swollen and blotchy the following evening, his wife called an ambulance. By the time it arrived her husband was unconscious. Mr Parriam underwent emergency surgery but never recovered and died the next day on February 5, 2005.

A month earlier, Abdul-Salam gave a 79-year-old woman an unnecessary chest drain after reading the wrong x-ray. She had to apologise after the elderly woman's lung collapsed.

On August 9, 2006, Aleesha Evans was rushed to the Royal Gwent Hospital in Newport, Wales, vomiting with a rash and a temperature of 37 degrees. But the trainee specialist registrar did not even examine the baby and discharged her two hours later after noting her condition was 'unremarkable.' The doctor had seen the patient by this stage and noted she appeared to be better than she had been and that she was playing. But her heart rate was still high and her temperature had risen to 39 degrees, the hearing was told. The baby was discharged at 11pm with a diagnosis of viral illness.

But she was suffering from meningococcal septicaemia - blood poisoning - and died the following day. Abdul-Salam was placed under supervision at the Princess of Wales Hospital in Bridgend after Aleesha's death. She was only allowed to perform three hours of clinical work a day and had to sign every patient off with a supervisor. But within three weeks Abdul-Salam had broken the terms of her training and more than a third of her patients had been discharged without her superior's consent.

One of these patients was a 10-year-old girl with a broken wrist who attended A&E on 22 September 2008. The child required treatment under anaesthetic but Abdul-Salam discharged her to the outpatient fracture clinic.

Prof McDevitt told Abdul-Salam: 'The panel has concluded that you have not yet fully appreciated the magnitude of your deficient performance and misconduct. 'You demonstrated poor judgment when under pressure. Your lack of careful clinical method resulted in the inadequate assessment and management of patients and you failed to appreciate fully the discordance between the patients' clinical condition and the results of investigations. 'The panel considers there remains of risk of you repeating errors and exercising poor judgment, particularly if you were to return to work in a more pressures environment than you are currently exposed to.'

Prof McDevitt said the panel had considered imposing conditions on Abdul-Salam's practice but concluded her actions involving baby Aleesha Evans were too serious: 'Taking all the factors into account, the panel concluded that your registration should be suspended for a period of four months. 'Your misconduct was sufficiently serious to undermine public confidence in the profession. It is also important that you, and the medical profession, are left in no doubt that such behaviour, which clearly had consequences for patient safety, is unacceptable.'

The doctor had been working as a locum at the Kent and Sussex Hospital in Tunbridge Wells, Kent for the last five months, but she will now be unable to keep her job.

SOURCE



British doctors who wouldn't listen allow little girl to die

An eight-year-old girl with an acute fear of dentists who starved to death after her milk teeth were taken out under anaesthetic died because of a “lack of communication” between health agencies, an investigation has concluded.

Sophie Waller refused to open her mouth even to eat after the operation. She had developed her phobia at the age of four when her tongue was scratched during a routine check-up. When she refused treatment after cracking a tooth on a boiled sweet her parents became so concerned they took her to their GP who referred her to the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro.

Surgeons decided to remove eight remaining milk teeth under anaesthetic to avoid problems in future. But she was left so traumatised by it she refused to open her mouth to eat or drink.

A report by the Local Safeguarding Children Board has now found there was a “lack of clarity” from the agencies responsible for Sophie’s care after her discharge from hospital. She was sent home despite her condition and her parents did not know who to turn to when her health deteriorated.

By the time of her death in December 2005 Sophie, from St Dennis in Cornwall, was severely malnourished and weighed just 22kg. Her parents had been feeding her a diet of yoghurt and mashed fruit and tried to get help from their GP and the hospital but were instead referred to a child psychologist.

She was found dead in bed by her mother four weeks after her discharge and the cause of death was given as kidney failure as a result of starvation and dehydration. An inquest in February 2009 found there was no blame attached to her parents who had tried to get help for their daughter.

The serious case review found of a lack of communication between all the health agencies involved in her care. The report says: “No clear written plan was made on discharge and there was lack of clarity about responsibility for medical review following discharge.

“The clinical psychologist made telephone contact with the child’s parents in the week after discharge but did not see her again. “There was a lack of clarity over the open door arrangement which was intended to allow the child’s parents to bring her back in the week following discharge. When they phoned for advice on the seventh day, they were referred back to the psychologist for support.”

Her mother Janet Waller, a nursery school teacher who has two other children, said the report highlighted how their pleas should have been heard. She said: “All we’ve wanted all along is for people to listen to us. People ask me how many children I have, I say three, but technically I haven’t any more. I’ve got to live with this for the rest of my life.”

At Sophie’s inquest in February last year the Cornwall coroner, Dr Emma Carlyon, said that the Royal Cornwall Hospital was guilty of a number of failings which led to Sophie’s death. She said: “The severity of her malnutrition and dehydration was not recognised. This prevented her from receiving the medical support that could have prevented her death.”

Dr Ellen Wilkinson, Medical Director of Royal Cornwall Hospital Trust, said: “We would like to apologise to the family of Sophie Waller. Everyone involved in her care was saddened by her tragic death. This was a very unusual case. “There were shortcomings in the communication between the health organisation and Sophie’s parents.”

SOURCE



'Blood-spattered walls and mouldy equipment': How a quarter of British government hospitals fail to meet basic hygiene tests

A quarter of NHS hospital trusts are failing to meet basic hygiene standards, with some treating patients on blood-spattered wards or with dirty equipment, a damning report has found. A third of ambulance trusts have also missed the targets set, according to the Care Quality Commission. The watchdog's report follows the introduction of tough new hygiene standards after a series of scandals at hospitals in Maidstone, Basildon and Stafford.

It also came as a survey of NHS employees found many are too overstretched to do their jobs properly because of staff shortages.

On hygiene, the CQC found 42 out of the 167 NHS trusts inspected were in 'breach' of registration requirements by failing to meet standards, with some hospitals being warned over blood-spattered wards and dirty equipment. In Basildon, where at least 70 patients died as a result of poor hygiene last year, investigators found a commode soiled under the seat and 'procedure trays, used by staff to carry equipment when they take blood samples or give injections, had blood spattered on them'.

At children's hospital Alder Hey, in Liverpool, the inspection revealed dirty toys, hair stuck to medical equipment and 'nappy changing mats stored on the floor next to a toilet'. Water 'ran brown' from taps in patient areas.

A total of 36 trusts did not provide areas to decontaminate instruments, three trusts failed to flush unused water regularly to control legionella outbreaks, and a dozen failed to keep clinical areas clean. The situation was so bad at four ambulance trusts that they were given written warnings about the state of their vehicles and stations.

Nigel Ellis, the CQC's head of inspection, said: 'We have on rare occasions found evidence of a direct risk to patients and have intervened using our enforcement powers to ensure swift improvements were made. 'In over half of trusts we have made some suggestions or requirements for improvements to ensure their practices are the best they can be.'

A spokesman for the Department of Health said: 'There's no doubt that the trusts rose to the challenge --we've seen swift and tangible improvements in their performance, and on follow-up meetings all met the required standards.'

Meanwhile, half of NHS workers claim that staff shortages are stopping them doing their jobs properly. Of the 160,000 workers questioned by the CQC, 46 per cent said they were unable to do a proper job.

SOURCE



One in ten doctors in Britain is foreign and untested

Almost one in ten doctors on the medical register comes from the EU and has not had to take any language or competence tests before working in Britain. The shocking figure exposes the lax controls over European locums taking up hospital posts in the NHS and providing out-of-hours GP cover. Unlike doctors from elsewhere in the world - who are forced to prove language skills and medical knowledge before being registered - such testing is forbidden for doctors qualified in Europe and Switzerland.

Campaigners want a complete overhaul of the system after the death of a grandmother following appalling blunders by a German surgeon flown in by the NHS. Ena Dickinson, 94, lost nearly half the blood in her body during what was meant to be a routine hip operation at Grantham Hospital in Lincolnshire. Werner Kolb, who had been working in the NHS for three weeks, severed an artery and became so flustered he started speaking German in the operating theatre.

An expert witness described it as the worst case of negligence he had come across - yet Dr Kolb, pictured today for the first time, was left free to work in the UK for a further eight months before being suspended by the General Medical Council.

Dr Kolb, who had been mainly lecturing for four years before the tragedy, refused to attend the inquest and denied his conduct had anything to do with Mrs Dickinson's death eight weeks later from pneumonia. Last night a colleague at Bethesda Hospital in Stuttgart insisted: 'I find it hard to reconcile the words said against him in Britain with the precise surgeon I know.'

But Mrs Dickinson's daughter Kathy Ingram, 57, said: 'The system is disgraceful and clearly isn't working. NHS trusts have to assume that locum doctors' qualifications from Europe are reliable without doing their own checks. 'You trust your doctor because he's in authority but if he hasn't been verified and isn't monitored, you never know what standard of treatment you'll get. The law has to be changed so that there is closer monitoring.'

Figures show there are more than 230,000 doctors on the GMC register of which 21,451 - almost 10 per cent - gained their qualifications in other EU countries. The ban on checks comes from a European directive ordering member states to allow workers free movement. This means the GMC is forced to accept qualifications at 'face value', according to its chief executive Niall Dickson.

The GMC has protested about the rights of doctors to work freely across Europe being put ahead of a patient's right to safe treatment. In a presentation to the EU's Green Paper on the European Workforce for Health, it said: 'Legislation must be amended to allow healthcare regulators across Europe to establish that a doctor has the level of language proficiency necessary to practise safely. 'We are also prevented from adopting a general requirement to prove competence and cannot specify the standard of acceptable competence. 'The current situation is profoundly at odds with the pursuit of safe and high quality health care.'

Dr Vivienne Nathanson, head of science and ethics at the British Medical Association, said: 'Whilst it is essential doctors are able to communicate with their patients and the regulatory authorities are able to assess fitness to practise, it is also important we don't make it impossible for those that do have the appropriate skills to work in the UK.'

SOURCE





17 March, 2010

British police being held accountable? Is the sky falling?

It's just a charade, most likely

Ten police officers are being investigated over the way they handled the case of a mother and her disabled daughter who suffered years of abuse from youths and were found dead in a burnt-out car, a watchdog said yesterday. Police were contacted 33 times in 10 years about yobs bullying Fiona Pilkington, her daughter Francecca Hardwick, 18, and her severely dyslexic son Anthony, 19, in the street where they lived in Barwell, Leicestershire. But despite repeated pleas for help, Ms Pilkington, 38, received only eight visits from police officers and was not offered sufficient protection.

Ms Pilkington, a single mother, became so depressed with the repeated failure of the police to respond to her pleas that she doused her car in petrol and set it alight. She was found dead alongside her daughter in the car, which was parked in a lay-by on the A47 in nearby Earl Shilton, in October 2007.

An inquest in September last year found that the failings of the police contributed to their deaths, the inquest jury ruled. After the inquest, the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said it would look into the way Leicestershire Constabulary dealt with the family’s complaints in the years before their deaths.

Yesterday, the IPCC said that police and council officials had co-operated fully with its investigation. The officers under investigation range in rank from constables to inspectors. The statement added: “We have now served advisory notices on a total of ten Leicestershire police officers and this situation is being kept under review. “Such notices are not judgmental in any way, but are required under police misconduct regulations, and served on officers to advise that their conduct is under investigation.”

It added: “This complex inquiry is going back over police contact with Fiona Pilkington, her daughter and neighbours over a period of several years. “We are assessing information from family members, neighbours, the authorities involved, records of police contact, and the accounts of relevant police officers themselves. “The extensive nature of the investigation means there is still substantial further work to do, and enquiries to be made by the IPCC. “We are progressing this rigorous investigation as swiftly as possible and will make our findings public in due course.”

SOURCE



Grandaddy of green, James Lovelock, warms to eco-sceptics

Just occasionally you find yourself at an event where there is a sense of history in the air. So it was the other night at the Royal Society, when a small gathering of luminaries turned up to hear that extraordinary nonagenarian, the scientist James Lovelock.

They had all come: David MacKay, chief scientist at the Department of Energy and Climate Change; Michael Green, Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge; Michael Wilson, producer of the James Bond movies; Chris Rapley, director of the Science Museum; and more. You knew why they had answered the Isaac Newton Institute’s invitation. They wanted to learn where one of the most interesting minds in science stood in the climate debate.

Lovelock has been intimately involved in three of the defining environmental controversies of the past 60 years. He invented an instrument that made it possible to detect the presence of toxic pollutants in the fat of Antarctic penguins — at roughly the same time as Rachel Carson wrote Silent Spring, her hugely influential book about pollution. In the 1970s the same instrument, his electron capture detector, was used to detect the presence of chlorofluorocarbons — CFCs — in the atmosphere. Although Lovelock mistakenly pronounced these chemicals as no conceivable toxic hazard, the scientists F Sherwood Rowland and Mario Molina later won the Nobel prize in chemistry for proving they were destroying the ozone layer.

Then, in 1979, Lovelock published the book-length version of his Gaia theory, which postulates that the Earth functions as a kind of super-organism, with millions of species regulating its temperature. Despite initial scepticism from the Darwinists, who refused to believe that individual organisms could act in harmony, the Gaia theory has been widely accepted and now underlies most atmospheric science.

What, I wondered, would be the great man’s view on the latest twists in the atmospheric story — the Climategate emails and the sloppy science revealed in the reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)? To my surprise, he immediately professed his admiration for the climate-change sceptics.

“I think you have to accept that the sceptics have kept us sane — some of them, anyway,” he said. “They have been a breath of fresh air. They have kept us from regarding the science of climate change as a religion. It had gone too far that way. There is a role for sceptics in science. They shouldn’t be brushed aside. It is clear that the angel side wasn’t without sin.”

As we were ushered in to dinner, I couldn’t help wrestling with the irony that the so-called “prophet of climate change”, whose Gaia theory is regarded in some quarters as a faith in itself, was actively cheering on those who would knock science from its pedestal.

Lovelock places great emphasis on proof. The climate change projections by the Meteorological Office’s Hadley Centre — a key contributor to the IPCC consensus — should be taken seriously, he said. But he is concerned that the projections are relying on computer models based primarily on atmospheric physics, because models of that kind have let us down before. Similar models, for example, failed to detect the hole in the ozone layer;

it was eventually found by Joe Farman using a spectrometer.

How, asks Lovelock, can we predict the climate 40 years ahead when there is so much that we don’t know? Surely we should base any assumptions on things we can measure, such as a rise in sea levels. After all, surface temperatures go up and down, but the rise in sea levels reflects both melting ice and thermal expansion. The IPCC, he feels, underestimates the extent to which sea levels are rising.

Do mankind’s emissions matter? Yes, they undoubtedly do.

No one should be complacent about the fact that within the next 20 years we’ll have added nearly a trillion tons of carbon to the atmosphere since the industrial revolution. When a geological accident produced a similar carbon rise 55m years ago, it turned up the heat more than 5C. And now? Well, the effect of man-made carbon is unpredictable. Temperatures might go down at first, rather than up, he warns.

How should we be spending our money to prevent possible disaster? In Britain, says Lovelock, we need sea walls and more nuclear power. Heretical stuff, when you consider the vast amount that Europe plans to spend on wind turbines.

“What would you bet will happen this century?” a mathematician asked him. Lovelock predicted a temperature rise in the middle range of current projections — about 1C-2C — which we could live with. Ah, but hadn’t he also said there was a chance that temperature rises could threaten human civilisation within the lifetime of our grandchildren?

He had. In the end, his message was that we should have more respect for uncertainties and learn to live with possibilities rather than striving for the 95% probabilities that climate scientists have been trying to provide. We don’t know what’s going to happen and we don’t know if we can avert disaster — although we should try. His sage advice: enjoy life while you can.

SOURCE



Big rise in complaints about NHS nursing care

But complaints are usually responded to by bureaucratic coverups and there are no apparent changes

For 12 months, while her son Kane underwent treatment for cancer, Rita Cronin sat by her youngest child's bedside. She fed him, gave him drinks, washed him and ensured he had a bedpan. And if Rita was unable to be there, husband Peter, daughter Emma or other son Matthew would take over the nursing duties.

'We'd learnt, quickly, that if we didn't carry out his basic care then we couldn't rely on the nurses to do so,' says Rita, 50, a civil servant from Balham, South-West London. 'It wasn't just Kane who was affected. We saw buzzers being left out of reach and patients missing meals, as no one had the time to feed them. 'The attitude was that patients had to wait. That nurses had other, more important, things to do. The more you asked for things, the more irritated they seemed to become. The night nurses were the worst - they were always "too busy" even to bring a bedpan. But the day ones were often unhelpful, too.'

St George's hospital, in Tooting, where Kane was a patient, 'is an award-winning hospital, yet we may as well have been in a third-world country for the nursing care my son got,' says Rita.

Strong words, but Rita is, tragically, qualified to say them. For three days after being admitted to the hospital for a hip replacement, her 22-year-old son was dead from dehydration. Kane had suffered brain cancer - while treatment was successful, the chemotherapy and radiotherapy had weakened his bones, causing him to the need the surgery. The cancer had affected his pituitary gland, which regulates the body's mechanisms, such as hydration. So, Kane was on desmopressin, medication to control the flow of fluid in his body. We later discovered that the day Kane was admitted in to hospital was the last time he took desmopressin,' says Rita.

Following his hip operation, a routine test showed Kane's sodium levels were high; his fluid levels were out of balance. A ward nurse was told this by the hospital lab, but she went off duty without sorting out treatment. He began begging for water. When his requests were turned down he became - understandably - aggressive. Inexplicably, instead of reading his notes which would have indicated the problem, nurses called security staff who restrained him.

An increasingly desperate Kane then rang the police and begged for help to get a drink. The police turned up, but were sent away by nurses who reassured them Kane was confused.

By the time Rita went to see him before work the next day, it was clear her son was very ill. 'The night nurse was standing outside the room handing over to the day nurse and I said I thought Kane was really ill,' she says. 'It was clear she thought I was being neurotic and said he was fine.'

It wasn't until the ward doctor appeared on his rounds, nearly 15 minutes later, that suddenly everything changed. He took one look at Kane and quickly called for help.'

The post mortem revealed Kane had died from dehydration. Rita has other ideas, and so, it seems, does the coroner who adjourned the inquest, calling the police in to investigate.

'Kane died because of sheer incompetence of the nurses who failed to do their job,' says Rita. 'I found out later that the nurses were offered counselling. They should have been in another job.'

Over the past few years there have been far too many similar accounts. Despite all the money poured into the NHS, and the proliferation of training, job titles and initiatives, it seems patient experience is not improving. Poor nursing care was a key factor in the 400 deaths at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, according to the recent official investigation. Staff numbers were allowed to fall 'dangerously low', causing nurses to neglect the most basic care. While many staff did their best, others showed a disturbing lack of compassion to patients, said Robert Francis QC, heading the inquiry.

Basic nursing care and lack of hygiene have also been blamed for 70 deaths at Basildon University Hospital, where the Care Quality Commission, the health service regulator, found, among other basic failings, blood-splattered equipment and patients lying on stained and soiled mattresses.

And statistics would suggest they are not one-offs. Complaints about nurses have risen by 18.9per cent in the past year, according to the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) , the profession's regulatory body. Although the organisation points out that this figure represents just 0.2 per cent of their total membership, the fact is complaints investigated by them have risen by 30 per cent since 2005.

Experts think the problem is actually far more endemic than even these figures suggest, as many people don't know about the NMC - and instead complain through the hospital system. 'Even then, many incidents are not investigated properly,' says Vanessa Bourne, of the Patients' Association. 'Answers to complaints generally fall into one of two categories; either the letter will say: "You haven't been able to name the nurses responsible so we can't investigate". Or, "you have named the nurses responsible, but they deny any wrong-doing, so we can't take the investigation further".

'The NHS managers and nursing bodies like to say this poor treatment is from a minority of nurses, but it is more about a fundamental lack of decent nursing leadership and a refusal to admit that mistakes are being made. 'When the Staffordshire scandal broke last year, we were inundated with a deluge of heartbreaking cases where people had received careless, sloppy or even rude and cruel treatment at hospitals up and down the country, and where no investigation had ever been carried out. 'The Department of Health bring out endless guidelines and initiatives on patient satisfaction and safety, but our complaint rate doesn't drop.'

Nurses themselves are also concerned about levels of care. A recent survey for the Nursing Times found that only a third of nurses were confident the poor standards at Mid Staffordshire weren't being repeated to some degree in their own hospitals.

Last week, the government published the first comprehensive report on the profession in 40 years. The Commission into the future of nursing and midwifery made some recommendations on how nursing could be improved for the 'new challenges ahead'.

While it was initiated before the recent scandals broke, there's no doubt those events were key to its proposals. 'Events like Mid Staffs do tend to focus the mind,' says Heather Lawrence, a former nurse, now chief executive of Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and a member of the commission. 'And I would agree that in some areas of the country - not all - patient trust has been eroded. As a result there has now been an acceptance within the NHS that the way some wards have been managed has not always been in the patients' best interests.'

In order to help restore patient trust, the Commission wants all nurses to pledge their "commitment to society and service users... to give high-quality care to all and tackle unacceptable variations in standards". 'The Commission is clear that high-quality, safe and compassionate care must rise to the top of the agenda for a 21st-century worldclass NHS,' said health minister and commission chair Ann Keen.

It begs the question: if high-quality, safe and compassionate care is not a priority for some nurses, why are they nursing at all? 'We welcome the pledge, but it is a sad indictment that there is a need for one in the first place,' says Vanessa Bourne. 'Patients should expect compassion.'

'The bottom line is that in Mid Staffs - - and we believe in many other hospitals, still - - there was a culture of nurses saying "its not my job". But if everyone says that, then the job - whether it's feeding a patient, or getting them a bed pan simply doesn't get done. 'Nursing is about rolling up your sleeves and caring and too many nurses seem to forget that. 'Our response would be that if you don't want to do the nitty-gritty of spoon-feeding an elderly patient or changing soiled sheets, then don't go into nursing.

'Employers also have to accept that not everyone who comes into nursing will be cut out for the job. I was told by a university nursing tutor that some trainees on her course who were clearly not suited to nursing and not interested in caring, but it was impossible to remove them because of funding complications.

So what is the solution? The official response is that we need better leadership - giving ward sisters more authority. 'One of the things we found was that on many wards there was no one figure who had the authority to properly lead the ward,' says Heather Lawrence. 'In the Mid Staffs inquiry it was discovered that one nursing sister was in charge for three wards - an impossible task.'

Nurses acknowledge leadership is part of the problem; and the solution. The Nursing Standard magazine (the nurse's own trade magazine) is campaigning to boost the authority and status of ward sisters. 'All these NHS scandals have a common theme,' says editor Graham Scott. 'There was not a clear, identifiable person in charge of the ward. 'We have ward sisters, specialist nurses and nurse specialists, nurse consultants and modern-day matrons. No wonder people get confused about who is in charge.'

But will such a simple solution make the wards a better and safer place for patients? According to Graham Scott, it will. 'Research shows that on a ward where there is an identifiable - and, most importantly, accountable - person in charge, patients have a much better experience,' he says.

The finger of blame is also being pointed at healthcare assistants, who do the basic caring jobs, such as washing, feeding and changing bedpans. 'Some NHS Trusts do train nursing assistants properly,' explains Graham Scott. Others don't. Cleaning, washing and feeding a patient are actually quite complex tasks.'

The Commission recommended these staff need some form of regulation to ensure high-quality care. 'We have to be careful about blaming the healthcare assistants,' says Bourne. 'After all, they are supposed to be supervised by the nurses.'

But will any of this make a real --difference? It seems there will be no legal recommendations to abide by the regulations. 'We do tend to raise our eyebrows at these recommendations,' notes Bourne. 'There is a big noise about them, and then everything goes back to how it was. We still get horror stories like poor Kane's. We are told things will change and they don't.'

Indeed St George's has told Rita Cronin they've made changes to ensure what happened to her son can never happen again. 'But what exactly are these changes?' she asks. 'My son suffered a needless death. How I do know that the same thing isn't happening to someone else?'

A spokesman for the hospital said: "We are extremely sorry about the death of Kane Gorny. 'From the investigation it was clear that there had been failures in communication between clinical staff. Disciplinary action did result from our findings and a number of important changes have been introduced to help prevent such a tragic incident from happening again.'

SOURCE



More than half of final British High School exams sat at private schools are graded A

More than half of A-level examinations sat at independent schools are graded A, new figures indicate.

They also show the extent to which fee-paying and selective schools dominate the best grades at A level, and the extent to which intensive coaching can help students to achieve top marks.

The figures, from Cambridge Assessment, one of the main examination boards, were released as a survey showed that pupils from independent schools were expected to do exceptionally well in achieving the new A* grade at A level this summer. A survey of A-level marks at 20 schools, conducted by the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference of leading independent schools, found that between almost a third and two thirds of students were expected to achieve A* grades. Half of students sitting A levels in further mathematics at several of the most selective independent schools, for example, had already achieved high enough marks to guarantee A* grades.

Students who sat maths Alevel modules in January, and who received their marks late last week, will be awarded A* grades if they achieved at least 90 per cent in each of their A2 modules. They must also have scored at least 80 per cent overall, including at AS level.

The Cambridge figures also showed that more than one in eight A-level candidates now achieve three A grades. Yet of this group, more than a quarter went to grammar schools — which teach fewer than one in ten of the school population. At the same time, more than a third of students achieving straight A grades were from independent schools, which educate just 13 per cent.

The Cambridge figures showed that, overall, the number of A-level candidates awarded an A grade rose by about one percentage point every year between 2006 and 2009. There was a corresponding increase in B grades, and a fall in papers graded C, D, E or U.

At City of London School for Boys, 67 per cent of students sitting further maths have already achieved an A* grade in maths. A similar proportion did so at Magdalen College School, Oxford, while between 60 and 65 per cent did so at Manchester Grammar School, whose High Master, Christopher Ray, conducted the survey.

Candidates studying further maths are likely to be among the brightest candidates. The figures suggest students from leading independent schools will continue to win disproportionate numbers of places at the most selective universities.

SOURCE



Britain's yellow and not so pleasant land: Freezing winter leaves countryside looking ragged around the edges

England's green and pleasant land is looking a little faded around the edges right now. And the countryside of Wales and Scotland isn't faring much better. After the coldest winter in three decades, huge areas of Britain's pastures, meadows and downs have emerged bedraggled, tired and brown.

The problem is most noticeable in the South West, where normally glorious verdant fields look like they have struggled through a harsh summer drought. In Dorset's Hardy Country, the mighty Maiden Castle, an enormous fort built by ancient Britons, is perched on a murky brown mound. And the centuries old Cerne Abbas Giant - famously carved on a chalk hillside - is barely visible against the yellowing grass.

The phenomenon means dairy farmers will have to feed forage to their cattle until spring arrives and sheep will be eating last year's grass during the lambing season. Farmers believe the seasons are about three weeks later than usual, but they say that when the sun comes out, the colour will return to the fields in days.

Traditional British grasslands usually fade and turn yellow over winter. Unlike the grass varieties used in gardens, they are not hardy enough to survive persistent sub-zero temperatures. But after the mild winters of the last few years, the scale of the brown fields has come as something of a shock. Chris Barber, 45, who farms 35 acres in Martinstown, Dorset, said: 'It happens every year to a degree, but nothing like this. 'It's because we've had such a long spell of cold and the grass wants to grow, but there's no warmth or sun to do so. 'When there is a bit of warmth it will come back quickly with the photosynthesis. 'It's more common this year in the permanent pastures which is unusual. It does mean that during the lambing season the ewes are eating last year's grass. 'We had a good summer last year so there is plenty of food about. I would say we're three weeks later than usual.'

Mike Pullin who farms nearby said: 'The grass is actually a purple-red colour. What happened was the roots became wet and that froze, making the grass dormant. We've had frost and snow for long periods and that means we will be later turning the cattle out.'

Over the last 30 years, spring has arrived earlier and earlier and now typically arrives three weeks sooner than it did in the 1960s. However, this year's cold winter has delayed the first signs of spring, restoring the seasons to their pre-1970s pattern.

SOURCE





16 March, 2010

Betrayal of 20,000 cancer patients: British rationing body rejects ten drugs (allowed in Europe) that could have extended lives

Up to 20,000 people have died needlessly early after being denied cancer drugs on the NHS, it was revealed yesterday. The rationing body NICE has failed to keep a promise to make more life-extending drugs available. Treatments used widely in the U.S. and Europe have been rejected on grounds of cost-effectiveness, yet patients and their loved ones have seen the NHS waste astronomical sums. Last week it emerged that £21billion - a fifth of the entire annual budget - was spent on failed schemes to tackle inequality.

NICE, the National Institute of health and Clinical Excellence, promised a year ago to make it easier for drugs for rarer cancers to be approved. But since then four drugs which could have benefited 16,000 people have been turned down outright and a further six which could have helped 4,000 more have been provisionally rejected. Just five drugs have been accepted - benefiting 8,500 people - says a damning report by the Rarer Cancers Forum. Drugs for rarer forms of cancer are often much more expensive than those for common tumours because pharmaceutical companies cannot make economies of scale.

NICE's promise to approve more drugs was in response to widespread anger over its rejection of sunitinib, also known as Sutent, for advanced kidney cancer - even though it had been proved to double the life expectancy of patients compared to standard treatments.

Andrew Wilson, chief executive of the Rarer Cancers Forum, said: 'Although progress has been made, there is still more to do. 'It is unacceptable that thousands of patients are still missing out on the treatment they need, and their doctors want to give them, because NICE has decided that their treatment does not meet some arbitrary criteria. 'The changes introduced by NICE should be benefiting more patients than they are. An urgent review of NICE's processes is needed.'

The RCF also says NICE works so slowly that it takes 21 months to decide on a drug, during which time many patients die. This is despite promises from NICE bosses to get the decision time down to six months by the end of this year. Mike Hobday, head of campaigns at Macmillan Cancer Support, said: 'The system is failing people with rarer cancers. It's time for a more flexible approach.'

NICE's treatment of rarer cancer drugs contrasts sharply with its breast cancer drug herceptin, which has received far more funding following successful campaigns. If a patient is refused a drug, they are allowed in many cases to appeal to their primary care trust. But the RCF report uncovered a huge postcode lottery, with some trusts much more likely to back down on appeal. Of 62 PCTs, 11 approved all drugs and two approved none. And while 26 per cent of English patients have their 'exceptional case' requests rejected, the figure in Scotland is just 11 per cent.

The RCF says appeals are so expensive in terms of staff time that it would be cheaper just to give everyone the drugs they want. Its report also warns: 'PCTs are frequently using inappropriate processes to determine funding applications and a small minority of commissioners may be breaking the law by operating a blanket ban on the funding of treatments outside their licensed indication.'

In Bromley, for example, cancer treatments were less likely to be funded than cosmetic procedures. Another difference between PCTs is that some reimburse the cost of any private treatment but others do not.

NICE said last night: 'We have introduced significant additional latitude in appraisal of treatments for cancer, particularly where they are designed to extend life. 'Our End of Life Treatments protocol, introduced at the beginning of 2009, has already made it possible for very expensive cancer treatments to be recommended when our standard approach would have resulted in more cautious guidance.'

SOURCE



British retirees died after 'hospital staff ignored warnings over their conditions'

Two patients died after hospital staff repeatedly ignored warnings over their conditions, including one who choked on his false teeth, nursing chiefs admitted. Staff at Royal Sussex County Hospital, in Brighton, East Sussex, “could have done better” to prevent the deaths of two pensioners last year after failing to follow basic procedures, officials admitted.

After a corner’s damning ruling that staff at the hospital were guilty of repeated mismanagement and miscommunication, officials have made "major changes" [major bulldust, more likely] to nursing care and apologised to the patients' families.

An inquest at Hove Crown Court had heard that Brian Waller, 72, died after falling out of bed in April last year while a month later Edward Warneford, 66, died in the same ward after choking on his false teeth. In her ruling Veronica Hamilton-Deeley, the local coroner, strongly criticised the Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust, and said changes needed to be urgently made.

The inquest last month heard that Mr Waller, who was being treated for heart problems, fell out of his hospital bed despite wearing a wrist band with "risk of falls" written on it. He had landed on his head, broke his neck and suffered a massive bleed on his brain, which led to his death six days later. It was later discovered one of the guard rails on his bed had been left down. A doctor had also allegedly missed the fracture in his neck and cleared him to return to his ward, the inquest heard.

Mr Warneford, a former engineer, from Hove, East Sussex, died because staff did not even realise he was wearing dentures, his sister claimed. April Moss, 62, from Gosport, Hampshire, claimed her brother, who had alcohol problems, then choked on them as he ate, causing him to have a fatal heart attack.

Sherree Fagge, Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals’ chief nurse, admitted on Friday that staff could have done better. "We are however profoundly aware that for both Mr Waller and Mr Warneford we could have done better and we have met with both their families to apologise, listen to their concerns and assure them that lessons have been learned,” she said. "We have introduced some major changes focused completely on the quality of our nursing care. Every week all of our most senior nurses, including myself, are working on the wards undertaking direct patient care alongside front line nursing staff. "What I see … is that the majority of our nurses are working hard and carrying out their duties with the kindness and compassion we would want for our own families.”

SOURCE



Warning - your child is unfit: Parents of British pupils who fail school fitness tests to get letters from health police

Parents of children deemed unfit are to be sent warning letters from schools. Secondary pupils will be forced to take an annual fitness test. If they fail, their parents will be told they are at risk of heart disease, brittle bones and obesity. The scheme was outlined yesterday by the Government's chief medical officer, Sir Liam Donaldson.

He warned that lack of exercise is placing a greater burden on the economy than smoking - costing £8.3billion a year compared with £5.2billion. But the initiative was criticised by campaigners as yet another example of Labour's 'nanny state' interference in family life. Opposition parties said it also showed ministers' plans to improve school sport had completely failed.

The proposal is expected to be piloted at a small number of schools before being extended across the country. Under the scheme pupils will take so-called 'bleep' exercise tests which will see them perform a series of shuttle runs used to measure stamina and fitness.

Sir Liam also revealed ministers were planning to unveil recommendations on the amount of exercise children aged three and four should be doing, because 'many spend too much time on sedentary activities'. He acknowledged his plans would be 'shocking' to many parents, but insisted action was needed. His official annual report, entitled On The State Of Public Health, revealed only a third of adults meet the recommended amount of physical activity - 30 minutes at least five times a week.

It also found that overall child fitness is falling by up to 9 per cent every decade. Sir Liam said the situation was 'startlingly' bad, with only a third of schoolchildren doing the recommended 60 minutes of activity a day. Pupils are supposed to do at least two hours of PE a week, according to Government guidelines. But 10 per cent of children are not even getting this amount of school sport. Critics say Labour is to blame, particularly as since 1997 around 2,000 school playing fields have been sold off.

Parents in England are already sent letters about their children's weight as part of the National Child Measurement Programme. They are informed if their children are overweight for their height in their first and last years in primary school.

But the scheme has been heavily criticised for stigmatising children and labelling them as fat at a young age. In one recent example, five-year-old Lucy Davies, from Poole, was told she was at risk of health problems despite weighing just 3st 9lbs and standing 3ft 9 ins tall.

Parents said they feared their children would be bullied and made to feel inadequate by the new fitness tests. However, Sir Liam said: 'We might get a few shocks in some parts of the country but I think it's well worth doing....

In 2003, physical fitness testing became mandatory for 10 to 15 year olds in California. Each year, more than 1.3million students are assessed in six fitness areas. The children are each given a score representing their level of fitness. Over three years, an improvement of 8.2 per cent has been seen in the level of these scores. In 2007, a similar mandatory test was introduced in Texas for children aged eight to 17.

His report said if everyone did the recommended physical activity, heart disease would fall by 10 per cent, stroke by 20 per cent, type two diabetes by up to 50 per cent, breast cancer by 30 per cent, and osteoporosis-related hip fractures by 50 per cent.

But Margaret Morrissey, founder of the Parents Out Loud pressure group, described the warning letters as 'absolutely disgusting'. 'If the Government goes any further they will be completely intrusive in every aspect of the way parents bring up children,' she added. 'If they were to suggest that about my child, I would probably sue them for defamation of character for basically calling me a poor parent. 'Every child is different; they all have different genes. If you have the wrong genes, the chances are you won't conform to Government targets.'

Dylan Sharpe, from campaign group Big Brother Watch, said: 'While it is important that children are fit and healthy, these proposed annual tests are yet more Government interference and yet more tests for a generation of children who are already constantly under assessment.'

LibDem health spokesman Norman Lamb said: 'Sir Liam Donaldson is right to raise concerns about the state of our children's health but routine "bleep tests" won't by themselves solve the obesity crisis facing the country.'

The Department for Children, School and Families said: 'We think it's an interesting idea and we will consider it.'

SOURCE



This lunacy about Latin makes me want to weep with rage

How can we understand our world unless we understand the ancient world first, asks Boris Johnson. I am a much more amateur Latinist than Mayor Johnson but I share his feelings about the importance and utility of Latin. Just for starters, it is a must for any lover of classical music. To understand what is being said in the wonderful "Stabat Mater" by Pergolesi is to double one's enjoyment of an already great work -- JR

Being an even-tempered fellow, and given that we have already put up with so much nonsense from the Labour Government, I find there are very few ministerial pronouncements that make me wild with anger. We have learnt to be phlegmatic about the mistakes of a government that has banned 4,300 courses of human conduct, plunged this country into the deepest recession in memory, and so skewed the economy that 70 per cent of the Newcastle workforce is in the pay of the state. But there are times when a minister says something so maddening, so death-defyingly stupid, that I am glad not to be in the same room in case I should reach out, grab his tie, and end what is left of my political career with one almighty head-butt.

Such were my feelings on reading Mr Ed Balls on the subject of teaching Latin in schools. Speaking on the radio, Spheroids dismissed the idea that Latin could inspire or motivate pupils. Head teachers often took him to see the benefits of dance, or technology, or sport, said this intergalactic ass, and continued: "No one has ever taken me to a Latin lesson to make the same point. Very few parents are pushing for it, very few pupils want to study it."

It is nothing short of a disaster that this man is still nominally in charge of education, science, scholarship and learning in this country. He is in danger of undoing the excellent work of his predecessor, Andrew Adonis, and he is just wrong. Of course he doesn't get taken round many Latin classes in the state sector. That is because only 15 per cent of maintained schools offer the subject, against 60 per cent of fee-paying schools. But to say that "very few" want to study the subject, to say that there is no demand for Latin – it makes me want to weep with rage. The demand is huge and it is growing, and I don't just mean that the public is fascinated with the ancient world – though that is obviously true, and demonstrated, for instance, by the success of Robert Harris's Cicero novels.

There is a hunger for the language itself and, thanks to the efforts of a small number of organisations and volunteers, Latin is fighting its way back on to the curriculum. The Cambridge Classics Project did a 2008 study that found that no fewer than 500 secondary schools had started teaching Latin in the past eight years. That is a fantastic thing. Those schools deserve support.

What do they get? The tragic and wilful ignorance of the Secretary of State – and in the face of such wrong-headedness it is hard to know where to begin. I suppose it is too much to hope that Balls would accept the argument from utility – passionately though I believe it to be true. Latin and Greek are great intellectual disciplines, forcing young minds to think in a logical and analytical way. They allow you to surprise your family and delight your friends by deciphering inscriptions.

They are also a giant universal spanner for other languages. Suppose your kid scrapes her knee on holiday in Italy. You are much more likely to administer the right first aid if you know that caldo means hot rather than cold – as you will, if you know Latin. Suppose you are captured by cannibals in the Mato Grosso, and you find a scrap of Portuguese newspaper in your hut revealing that there is about to be an eclipse; and suppose that by successfully prophesying this event you convince your captors that you are a god and secure your release – I reckon you would be thankful for your Latin, eh?

And even if you reject any such practical advantages (and, experto crede, they are huge), I don't care, because they are not the point. The reason we should boost the study of Latin and Greek is that they are the key to a phenomenal and unsurpassed treasury of literature and history and philosophy, and we cannot possibly understand our modern world unless we understand the ancient world that made us all.

If Ed Balls is still unconvinced, then let me make one final point, and remind him that in his supposed anti-elitism he is being viciously elitist. Like me, Ed Balls was lucky to be educated at a wonderful fee-paying school where they taught us Latin. For the past 30 years children from such schools have dominated the study of classics at university. They have a ladder up to follow great courses, under brilliant men and women, at some of the best universities in the world – and to go on to good jobs. How mad, how infamous, that a Labour minister – a Labour minister – should seek to kick that ladder away for children less privileged than him.

Ed Balls should remember that some of the greatest socialists of the past 100 years were classicists, from Denis Healey to Geoffrey de Ste Croix, the formidable Marxist historian and author of The Class Struggle in the Ancient Greek World. What would Ste Croix have made of a government that actively tried to restrict the study of a great and profitable discipline to the bourgeoisie? He would have denounced it as an act of class war, and he would have been right.

It is thanks to the efforts of hundreds of dedicated teachers and volunteers that the tide is now turning. This Government places insane obstacles in the path of all who want to teach Latin in the maintained sector. Labour refuses to recognise Latin as a language for Ofsted purposes, and even though 60 Latin teachers are retiring every year, the Government will find funding for only 27 teachers a year to graduate with a PGCE enabling them to teach classics. That is 27 for the entire country.

In spite of these restrictions, and in spite of all the snootiness of Ed Balls, the enthusiasts are winning. For the first time in decades there are now – in absolute numbers – more state schools than private schools that teach Latin. Ed Balls should be proud of that achievement. He should celebrate it, and encourage it in the name – if nothing else – of social justice.

SOURCE





15 March, 2010

British health clubs that warn women not to lift heavy weights face prosecution under equality laws

Endless meddling from Britain's Leftist government

Staff in sports clubs who warn women not to lift heavy weights could be prosecuted under new equality laws. Legislation set out under Harriet Harman's forthcoming Equality Bill says that insinuating a woman might not be able to lift the same size weights as men could be considered 'unlawful sex discrimination'.

A code of practice drawn up by the Equality and Human Rights Commission explaining the legal implications of the Bill lists ways in which women might be unfairly stereotyped. It includes a long list of examples of 'unintentional less favourable treatment' including what might happen to a woman when she joins a gym and begins lifting weights.

It states: 'A general stereotype about men and women is that in terms of physique, most men are stronger than most women. 'Nevertheless it is likely to be unlawful sex discrimination for a gym to test every woman's strength but not every man's before allowing them access to weight-lifting facilities.' The code goes on to say that it will not be seen as an excuse if the motive of the gym staff is to help a woman or save her from injury.

The Bill could also make adverts giving preferential treatment to men or women illegal. This could signal the end of 'ladies' nights' at clubs, when women receive cut-price drinks but men pay full price.

SOURCE



Baby twins put in NHS hospitals 50 miles apart

Because of very limited facilities for premature births

The parents of two-month-old twins have criticised the NHS for placing their poorly daughters in separate hospitals, 50 miles apart. Stephanie Dawson, 25, and her partner Martin Collins, 38, have to take a 121-mile trip to visit Ruby and Krystal Dawson-Collins, which they said leaves them with just 10 minutes with each daughter.

The twins were born at just 26 weeks in Maidstone Hospital, Kent, weighing 1lb 9oz and 2lb 4oz respectively. They were suffering from Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome, where one twin gets more blood in the womb than the other. Following their birth by Caesarean section on January 18 they were transferred to a specialist neonatal unit at St Peter's Hospital in Chertsey, Surrey. After a few days Krystal was deemed well enough to be transferred to Pembury Hospital in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, and split up from her sister.

Her parents, who do not have a car, said they were struggling to visit each baby while still caring for their two other children Mitchel, 10, and Kym. They said that even with the help of friends and family the distance means they can only see their frail daughters twice a week as they cannot leave their Maidstone home until they have collected Mitchel from school. Mr Collins said: "We only get about 10 minutes with each of them, a quick update and a stroke of their heads, before we have to get going.

"It is so awkward getting up through Pembury then into Surrey. "I would have thought it was better for them to be together and it would be easier for us if they were in one place, even if that was in Surrey. "It's like no one realises we are miles away and don't have a car. It is a real struggle, but for the sake of our family, we cannot lose it."

A spokesman for the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust said the girls needed very specialist care only provided in a handful of hospitals in the South East. He said: "We recognise this is a tough time for Stephanie and Martin and are helping them in any way we can."

Dr Paul Crawshaw, clinical director for paediatrics at the Ashford and St Peter's NHS Trust, Surrey, said the separation was a short-term situation. He said: "We always regret the separation of twins and are well aware of the difficulties it is causing the family. "We hope to get them reunited in the very near future."

SOURCE



British government adverts banned for overstating climate change

TWO government advertisements that use nursery rhymes to warn people of the dangers of climate change have been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for exaggerating the potential harm. The adverts, commissioned by Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, used the rhymes to suggest that Britain faces an inevitable increase in storms, floods and heat waves unless greenhouse gas emissions are brought under control.

The ASA has ruled that the claims made in the newspaper adverts were not supported by solid science and has told the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) that they should not be published again. It has also referred a television commercial to the broadcast regulator, Ofcom, for potentially breaching a prohibition on political advertising.

The rulings will be an embarrassment for Miliband, who has tried to portray his policies as firmly science-based. He had commissioned two posters, four press advertisements and a short film for television and cinema, which started appearing in October last year in the run-up to the Copenhagen climate talks. They attracted 939 complaints — more than the ASA received for any advertisement last year. The deluge posed problems for the ASA, which is not a scientific body, so it decided to compare the text of Miliband’s adverts with the reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Based on that comparison, it ruled that two of the DECC’s adverts had broken the advertising code on three counts: substantiation, truthfulness and environmental claims. Of the two banned adverts, one depicted three men floating in a bathtub over a flooded British landscape, and the text read: “Rub a dub dub, three men in a tub — a necessary course of action due to flash flooding caused by climate change.” It then explained: “Climate change is happening. Temperature and sea levels are rising. Extreme weather events such as storms, floods and heat waves will become more frequent and intense. If we carry on at this rate, life in 25 years could be very different.”

The second showed two children peering into a stone well amid an arid, post-climate-change landscape. It read: “Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water. There was none as extreme weather due to climate change had caused a drought.” It then added: “Extreme weather conditions such as flooding, heat waves and storms will become more frequent and intense.”

It was these additional claims, rather than the nursery rhymes or illustrations, that fell foul of the ASA, which ruled it was not scientifically possible to make such definitive statements about Britain’s future climate. The ASA said: “All statements about future climate were based on modelled predictions, which the IPCC report itself stated still involved uncertainties in the magnitude and timing, as well as regional details, of predicted climate change.” It added that both predictions should have been phrased more tentatively.

The ASA did, however, reject other complaints, including one suggesting the DECC adverts were misleading because they presented human-induced climate change as a fact.

Miliband said: “On the one issue where the ASA did not find in our favour, around one word in our print advertising, the science tells us that it is more than 90% likely that there will be more extreme weather events if we don’t act.”

Greg Barker, shadow minister for climate change, said: “It is so unnecessary to exaggerate the risks of global warming, and also counterproductive.”

SOURCE



French students invade UK universities to get better deal

UNIVERSITIES are facing a Gallic invasion as French students abandon their own institutions for degrees in Britain. More than 13,000 full-time students from France — enough to fill an entire university — have enrolled on British courses. They now make up the largest group of overseas students after the Chinese, with 3,194 freshers accepted on undergraduate courses last September.

The attraction of life across the Channel has been partly driven by dissatisfaction with standards at France’s state universities. However, it appears that England’s “study now, pay later” student loan system for tuition fees has also encouraged take-up. The UK is now the most popular foreign destination for French students, followed by Belgium and the United States. Numbers have risen each year since the introduction in 2006 of tuition fees that do not have to be repaid until after graduation. Last autumn’s intake was up by 18% on the previous year.

Some of the most ambitious students are using prestigious institutions in Britain, such as University College London, Oxford, Imperial College London and the London School of Economics, as a back door into France’s highly selective and independent grandes écoles. “Instead of paying for two years of prépa to prepare for the tough entrance exams to the grandes écoles, some students do a three-year degree in Britain and apply for the small number of places we have for first degree holders,” said Christine Escafit of the Grenoble Institute of Technology. “It takes a year longer but they do not have to reach the same high level to get in, as prépa is very competitive.”

British university courses that include a year at a grande école are also a draw for French students. David Chreng, 20, a Parisian studying chemistry at Imperial College, will spend the final year of his four-year degree at one of France’s leading grandes écoles. “By the end of the year I will obtain a diploma from Polytechnique Paris and a prestigious degree from Imperial,” he said.

The influx of French students at Imperial has had a typically Gallic cultural impact, with regular wine and cheese tasting sessions and organised bakery trips.

In total 8,770 undergraduates from France are studying in Britain and 4,320 postgraduate students. A further 4,000 students are on exchange courses.The University of Kent in Canterbury — one of the closest British institutions to French shores — is particularly popular, with 265 French students enrolling there last year, 165 on politics courses.

Funding issues weigh heavily on some scholars’ minds. Students from Britain and the rest of the European Union can borrow the £3,225 annual tuition fee and do not have to repay it until the April after graduation or until their earnings reach £15,000, whichever is later. Other EU countries have refused to collect repayments through their tax systems. However, court orders for non-payment can be enforced in other member states if the defaulters can be traced by the Student Loans Company.

Roxanne Jourdain, 18, a chemistry student at Imperial who comes from a village in the French Alps, said British universities often had greater international recognition than their French counterparts. “I don’t think it is any more expensive to go to the UK,” she added. “Tuition here is £3,000 a year but the fees at a private prépa are similar and the most prestigious grandes écoles can cost up to £7,000 a year.”

Student unrest and lecturers’ strikes over President Nicolas Sarkozy’s proposed reforms of French higher education are also fuelling the flight across the Channel. Students at the Sorbonne missed four months of lectures last year because of demonstrations against Sarkozy’s plan to allow the overcrowded and underfunded state universities to seek private finance.

The unrest was a deciding factor for Victor de Buisson, 19, from Lyons, who is studying computing at Imperial. He said: “I just got fed up with the French system. Striking is a big problem. In the Sorbonne last year they decided to make students take the exams without being taught properly. Friends of mine who go there hate it. In France it’s nothing to do with thinking — it’s about cramming facts into your brain.”

Chreng predicts more French students will seek a British higher education as word spreads about the opportunities, especially the links between universities and industry and the chance to do summer internships. “I found it challenging to go abroad, study in another language and have to build a new life in London,” he said. “But I do not regret my decision.”

SOURCE



There is a new lot of postings by Chris Brand just up -- on his usual vastly "incorrect" themes of race, genes, IQ etc.





14 March, 2010

British judge bans anti-immigration party from taking on any new members

In good Nazi fashion, the Leftist British establishment is using the law to hound an opposing party out of existence

The British National Party was ordered to stop taking new members yesterday after a judge said its rules were loaded against non-whites. Judge Paul Collins said that despite attempts by the far-Right group to clean up its constitution to comply with the law, the rules were still racist. While it is not illegal to hold racist views, it is against the Race Relations Act for a political party's recruitment rules to be based on discrimination, the judge said. Judge Collins instructed the party to close its membership list until the constitution had been re-written.

He told Central London County Court he believed the BNP was 'likely to commit unlawful acts of discrimination... in the terms on which they are prepared to admit persons to membership under the 12th addition of their constitution'.

The ruling and an injunction preventing new members follows a challenge to BNP rules from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC). Last month the party abandoned its whites-only policy to try to comply with the law - but Judge Collins said the move was cosmetic. In particular he pointed to new rules which require new members to be vetted by existing members in their homes.

He also referred to a series of newly established core party organisations that appear to have been set up to ensure new ethnic minority members cannot influence BNP policies or leadership. Of the first rule, the judge said: ' Unsurprisingly it was argued on behalf of the commission that the purpose of this provision was to be intimidatory.' On the second, he said that one of the new core groups was able to veto any changes to the constitution.

'This veto may have been inserted as insurance against the possibility that large numbers of non-indigenous British might join the BNP to vote its essential principles out of existence,' the judge said. He warned that any breach of the injunction on members could result in a prison sentence for officials or seizure of BNP assets.

Party leader Nick Griffin, who was jeered by demonstrators at the court, said the judgement 'has given an organ of the state the power to interfere in the aims and objectives of any political party'. Mr Griffin said people who did not agree with the party's principles would not be allowed to join.

Susie Uppal, of the EHRC, said: 'The commission is glad that the judgment confirms our view that both the BNP's 11th constitution and the amended 12th constitution are unlawful. 'Political parties, like any other organisation, are obliged to respect the law and not discriminate against people who wish to become members. 'The BNP will now have to take the necessary steps to ensure that it complies with the Race Relations Act.'

SOURCE





Britain's malignant social workers again

They let a child die -- But if you say you disapprove of homosexuality you could get your kids taken off you. Political correctness is all. Real abuse does not matter

An eight-year-old girl found hanged in her filthy bedroom had been "abandoned to her fate" despite years of involvement by social services, a court heard. Charlotte Avenall was found dead in a the "foul and disgusting" room with faeces smeared on the walls, floor, bedding, and soft toys. Neither her mother, Susan Moody, stepfather, Simon Moody, nor any other adult had set foot there for at least a month before her death on September 12 last year.

Susan and Simon Moody both admitted child cruelty between August 14 and September 12 last year when they appeared before Nottingham Crown Court. They admitted they "did wilfully neglect, abandon or expose Charlotte in a manner likely to cause her unnecessary suffering or injury to health".

It will be up to a later inquest to decide whether Charlotte's death at the family's terraced home in Moor Street, Mansfield, Notts, was deliberate or accidental. But it believed she died in her sleep after a length of cord with soft toys attached to it became tangled round her neck.

The case comes as the mother and stepfather of seven-year-old starvation victim Khyra Ishaq were jailed for her manslaughter. Angela Gordon was handed a 15 year sentence while Junaid Abuhamza was jailed indefinitely for the public's protection, with a minimum term of seven and a half years.

The latest cases have again raised questions about the efficacy of social services staff. It emerged during the trial of Gordon and Abuhamza that Birmingham City Council was aware of concerns about the child's welfare almost five months before her death.

Charlotte, who attended a special school, is also thought to have been in the habit of smearing faeces around her room. Her parents spoke only to answer to their names and enter guilty pleas as they stood side by side in the dock.

William Harbage, QC, prosecuting, told the court: "Nobody had been in Charlotte's bedroom for a period of four weeks or more before her death. "Her room was in a absolutely foul and disgusting state with faeces smeared all over the walls, floor, bedding and soft toys. Mr Harbage said the prosecution accepted Susan Moody had been "unwell" at the relevant time but the extent of that illness was "open to dispute". Mr Harbarge added: "Each parent had a duty of care for Charlotte and each should have checked the room. "If they did not do so themselves they had a duty to make sure that each other did so, or they should have made sure an outside agency did. "She did not ensure her husband did so and she did not ensure that social services or any other outside agency did so. "Effectively they abandoned Charlotte to her fate and left her at risk to health and unnecessary suffering."

Judge Joan Butler, QC, adjourned the case for reports until April 9 and granted the couple bail until then. An immediate investigation was launched after Charlotte's death when it became known she suffered from severe learning difficulties and was known to welfare services. It later emerged social services and other agencies had been closely involved with Charlotte her whole life as her mother was only 16 and living in foster care when she was born.

A spokesman for Nottinghamshire County Council said:"A serious case review is underway which is being caried out by the Nottinghamshire Safeguarding Children Board. "Until that it is complete we will not be commenting."

SOURCE



British private schools attack Government interference

Independent schools will launch an attack this week on Government interference in how they are run and what they teach. The Independent Schools Council has drawn up a manifesto demanding that the party that wins the election strips away the unprecedented layers of regulation that have been imposed on the sector. It will say that the independence of schools is being worn away by Government interference, threatening their successful running and undermining the characteristics of private education that parents value.

At its annual conference next week it will call for Contactpoint, Labour's database of all children in England, to be scrapped; the controversial new vetting and barring scheme, which regulates who is deemed to be suitable to work with children, to be slimmed down; and school inspections to be streamlined. "Our excellent results are down to our independence and our ability to do things differently," said David Lyscom, the chief executive of the Independent Schools Council (ISC). "But over the last few years we have seen that independence whittled away in all sorts of areas.

"The irony is that while promoting the idea of 'independence', the current Government has operated in the opposite direction. "We share the concerns of the state sector that layer upon layer of regulation has been added. These layers conflict and overlap and make the running of a school very, very difficult." As The Sunday Telegraph revealed in December, the deluge of new regulations dictates to schools everything from the height of site walls to the specific wording of school policies, to what has to be taught to toddlers in private school nurseries.

The ISC will also criticise the Charity Commission's interpretation of the new law which requires schools to prove they provide a public benefit if they are to continue to benefit from lucrative charitable tax breaks. Its rulings have concentrated on private schools' provision of bursaries for the poor and little else. "What the Charity Commission is trying to do is tell schools how to run themselves in terms of how many bursaries they have to offer and whether they are 100 per cent or not," said Mr Lyscom.

Claims from the left that private school elitism is undermining social mobility in the UK will also be challenged. "The whole debate on social mobility is based on a false premise – that only 7 per cent of children go to independent schools," said Mr Lyscom. "Even that figure means a lot of families but our research shows that 14 per cent of adults have had part of their education in the independent sector. "This is a big and significant minority that cannot be dismissed as rich kids in posh schools. We have 1,250 schools that range from the big-name institutions to very small local schools that charge £5,000 a year. "We have been very successful at giving individual children, whatever their background, an excellent start in life, equipping them with the right sort of skills to get them good results, get them to university and on to life. It is not about privilege."

Drawn up by the eight associations that make up the ISC, the manifesto is the first produced by fee-paying schools. It comes as the Conservatives promised that the state sector would be allowed to mirror independents by setting up "state prep schools". The "free school" policy, which encourages parents, voluntary organisations and groups to establish their own state-funded schools, would move away from the uniformity of primary and secondary schools teaching fixed age ranges. Instead, "state prep schools" catering for children from seven to 13, for instance, would be allowed to be set up.

Michael Gove, the shadow children's secretary, said: "In the private sector they keep children at prep schools until the age of 13 before they move to secondary. "As a result, they have a particularly tailored form of specialised teaching in an intimate environment which allows these children to soar. "Why shouldn't we have state preps that allow children to stay in such an environment until they reach the age of 13? "If it is right in the private sector, why wouldn't it be right in the state sector? We will give parents that choice and teachers that opportunity to innovate."

The Tories have already said they would instruct the Charity Commission to adopt a broader vision of what constitutes public benefit, including partnerships with state schools.

SOURCE



Women who use the Pill can expect to live longer, Royal College of GPs finds

Some rare realism in red below

Research involving 46,000 British women over nearly 40 years has confirmed that the Pill is not linked to long-term health risks from cancer or heart disease, according to the report in the British Medical Journal. While younger women are at slightly higher risk of suffering heart attack, stroke or breast and cervical cancers while taking the Pill, researchers say this effect is negligible, and outweighed by wider benefits.

Any adverse effects of the Pill disappear within ten years of stopping take it, and could easily be counteracted by regular checks and a healthy lifestyle, they said.

Philip Hannaford, a professor at the University of Aberdeen who led the study for the Royal College of GPs, said that over a lifetime, women who took the Pill at any stage were less likely to die from any cause than those who did not. “Our best estimate is that if you took a group of 100,000 women, and they used the pill for a year, on average you would have 52 fewer deaths in those women compared to those using other forms of contraception.”

Professor Hannaford said that the beneficial effects may only be true for women who have taken older-style pills — rather than those on newer drugs, which may have slightly different formulations. But he added that the lower risks were probably not a direct result of the Pill. “It might be that the characteristics of these women, that they are more likely to use health services, have blood checks or other monitoring means they are at reduced risk.”

The study, organised by the Royal College of GPs, began in 1968 when 23,000 women who used oral contraceptives for an average of four years, and a similar number who didn’t, were recruited from 1,400 surgeries across Britain. Early results had suggested that taking the Pill could increase the risk of death, mainly from heart or circulatory disease. The latest findings show that there were 20 more deaths per 100,000 among women younger than 30 who took the Pill, and four more deaths per 100,000 among those aged 30-39. But by the age of 50, the benefits outweighed these risks, with 14 fewer deaths per 100,000 among those aged 40-49, and an even greater effect among older women.

Professor Hannaford said yesterday that the risks were small for women under 45, and were mainly seen in those who smoked, had high blood pressure, or were otherwise at risk of heart disease. “We know that the Pill does cause changes in clotting factors and some of the factors in biochemistry, so the increased risk of heart disease and stroke is explainable,” he said. “The way to minimise the risk is that you don’t smoke, have your blood pressure measured regularly, attend the cervical screening programme and maintain a healthy diet and exercise. That will make your risk very low, and there are also benefits.”

He added that although the Pill was associated with a increased risk of breast or cervical cancer, it could reduce the chances of developing ovarian, bowel or endometrial cancer.

While women should not be complacent about taking any medication, he said: “Many women, especially those who used the first generation of oral contraceptives many years ago, are likely to be reassured by our results. “However, our findings might not reflect the experience of women using oral contraceptives today, if currently available preparations have a different risk than earlier products.”

Patricia Lohr, medical director at the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, said that the scale and length of the study was “unusual and very helpful”. “It’s reassuring to see that, over time, having used the Pill as a method of birth control is at least as safe as not having used the Pill at all,” she said.

SOURCE





13 March, 2010

The only politician with the guts to speak out about immigration: Frank Field reveals his candid opinion on the future of Britain

Surprisingly, it's not just ambitious Tory MPs with dreams of ministerial office who will be waiting by their phones the day after the General Election if David Cameron becomes Prime Minister. The maverick Labour MP Frank Field, who has had turbulent relations with Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, may also receive a call.

During Mr Field's 30 years as an MP, hundreds of ministers have come and gone - few are remembered. Field himself was a minister for only 18 months in Tony Blair's first government. But far from being an also-ran, he is now - at the age of 67 - at the peak of his powers. More pertinently, he is one of only a handful of politicians in Britain with the courage to break the cross-party silence on immigration and propel it to the centre of the political stage.

With a rock- solid Merseyside seat, and a thick skin after three decades in public life, he doesn't care who knows that he thinks Mr Brown is a disaster who should never have been Chancellor, let alone Prime Minister. They repeatedly clashed when he was the minister charged by Mr Blair with 'thinking the unthinkable' on welfare reform back in the days of the first New Labour government.

So, with no chance of a return to office under Labour, what about serving David Cameron, who has pledged to mend 'Broken Britain' by radically overhauling the benefits system? 'If the Tories want to talk to me about a job, I will be happy to,' says Field. 'My door is open to any party to develop ideas. Tory, Liberal, or my own. I will always put the interests of my country and constituents before my party. I have never refused to speak to people on the other side.'

Pressed on whether he would take a ministerial job, he says: 'I would love to be asked by the Prime Minister, especially my own, to take on a role to help convince the world we are serious about our debts, getting immigration under control, and reforming welfare. I am up for that challenge.' So why not talk to our current PM? 'I would love to talk to him,' says Field, 'but he won't speak to me.'

Mr Field tips the scales at barely 11 stone, the same weight as when he was first elected, yet he never goes to the gym. He eats too much, and likes red wine. He rarely watches TV or goes to the theatre. He prefers to relax by reading political tomes such as the latest biography on Churchill. He represents one of Labour's safest seats, Birkenhead.

Even 20 years after the fall of Margaret Thatcher, she is still a hate figure among swathes of his electorate. Yet long before Mr Brown also professed his admiration for her, Field was hugely impressed by the woman he thinks was the most radical British leader since Clement Attlee's post-war government, which created the NHS. 'I have a good relationship with her. She has become much nicer as she has got older. In fact, I'm having coffee with her tomorrow.' His late father, a building labourer, and mother, a classroom assistant, would approve. They voted Tory.

Mr Field makes no apologies for being willing to talk to the Tories. His mission has been to create a Labour Party that speaks to ordinary working people, gets the poor off benefits, reduces state spending, and has full employment as a goal - admirable objectives, which his party has failed to achieve. So if the Tories can achieve them, he will engage with them....

It's inflammatory stuff for a Labour MP. But by his own admission, Field is a serial rebel in the Commons. 'On issues I really know about, I sadly usually disagree with the Government. For that reason, I try not to find out about the other issues so I can put in a reasonable number of votes on behalf of my party.' ...

But it was his decision to set up Balanced Migration, a cross-party political group to campaign against mass immigration, which has thrust him to the fore once more. According to government statistics, one immigrant arrives every minute, and a new British passport is issued every three. In the past ten years, almost 750,000 British people have left the country, and 2.5 million immigrants have arrived. The rate of inflow is 25 times higher than any previous period of immigration since the Norman Conquest.

Last month it emerged, under the Freedom of Information Act, that far from being unexpected, this massive increase was sanctioned by the Blair Cabinet - not least to ensure a strong backing for Labour from the new immigrants at successive elections. 'You can count on less than two hands the number of brave Labour MPs who have said we have to stop growing our population by immigration,' Field says. 'For his part, David Cameron has proposed a cap on immigration. He must put a figure on that.' Field proposes cutting it to 30,000 a year from 90,000. 'When people who have worked all their lives are unemployed because of the recession, we can't continue to have free movement from the countries that have recently become a part of the European Union. We have to withdraw temporarily from that.'

He warns that unless British people are put first, the Government risks serious outbreaks of civil unrest on a scale similar to the inner- city race riots that took place under Thatcher's first administration. 'It's like a drought. The tinder is very dry across Britain, particularly in areas which are most up against it. Despite what politicians say, the NHS and education budgets will all be cut. 'Yet schools will have to find new classrooms and teachers because we continue to grow our population through immigration.

'Parents know their children are not achieving what they might, despite unimaginable increases in the education budget, because teachers are disproportionately trying to make sure the new arrivals catch up with everyone else.'

The flashpoints could come in cities such as Bradford and in East London where the BNP is seeking to capitalise on simmering unrest among workingclass whites. 'The migrants come here and then people get nasty because they have created their own local villages in the inner cities. The charge sheets for this should be laid against the political elite who allowed this. 'The headlines will be dominated in the next few years by how we survive financially. Yet we won't survive longer term unless we put down the foundations for a new citizenship. 'And that must start with the fundamental truth that until you fulfil duties as a citizen there can never be anything such as rights. You should only get rights to benefits, for instance, if you have paid your contributions.

'We should ensure that the people who come here to work don't then have 300 members of their families who want to come, too. I don't think the British voters are going to put up with this for much longer. 'There is a risk of civil unrest. We have to turn off the immigration tap, so we can say to people: "You haven't trusted us in the past, but we are at least not going to make it any worse.'' '

As the polls point to the closest election fight since 1992, Mr Field is clear that although he might consider an approach from a Cameron government, he wants Labour to win. Even under Gordon Brown? 'I am looking forward to the election of a Labour government,' he says. Yes, but what about Mr Brown personally? 'I want to see Labour win,' he repeats. With Mr Brown at the helm? 'I want to see a Labour PM.'

His point is clear. Indeed, not only will he not endorse Mr Brown as PM, he has already identified his favoured candidate if there is a change of leader after polling day. 'If we have to look for a safe pair of hands, Alistair Darling has quietly put himself into the ring. He is quietly authoritative and has stood up to Brown.'

Frank Field predicts that the country is about to enter its stormiest waters since postwar reconstruction in 1945. 'I am not sure the country will necessarily be OK. But a country that was able to stand alone and beat the Nazis must have enormous inner reserves. We're going to need them.'

Source



Once again, the British police are on the side of the criminals

Curry house owner foils burglary... and then HE'S thrown in cell when yobs complain

When a restaurant owner found two teenage yobs raiding his beer cellar, he chased them and held them while his staff dialled 999. Sal Miah assumed police would commend him for catching the young criminals. But when officers arrived, they arrested 35-year-old Mr Miah on suspicion of assault and battery.

The married father-of-five spent five hours in a police cell and had his DNA, fingerprints and police mugshot taken. Mr Miah, who has run the Raj Poot restaurant in Crowborough, East Sussex, for 14 years, was finally released at 4am after receiving a caution for assault and battery, which will stay on his record for five years.

He said: 'The system is a joke. How can a man who tries to prevent a crime in progress end up being the criminal? 'People are living in fear of these kind of yobs but when you do take a stand and try and defend your home or your business you end up in trouble. 'It's the wrong way round. These boys told the police I had punched them and they believed them. 'This country is getting worse. You see these gangs tormenting people and they are just getting away with it. But who was looking out for my interests? 'This has been an unbelievable stress and strain on my family. The uncle of one of the boys even came to the restaurant making threats that he was going to smash it up and burn it down. 'But when I reported that the police said they couldn't find him.'

Mr Miah's ordeal began a fortnight ago when he heard the teenagers trying to smash their way into the beer cellar. They fled, but Mr Miah pursued them and managed to grab them and bring them back to the restaurant, where he sat them down by the bar. He told his diners not to worry and instructed staff to call the police.

But as he did so a large group of the teenagers' friends assembled outside and started to kick the door in. Fearing for the safety of his customers, Mr Miah locked the door to prevent the 'intimidating' youths getting in, he said. He also went outside to stop them from breaking his windows and pushed several of them away. But when the police arrived the youths accused Mr Miah of punching them and he was arrested.

As officers put him in the back of a patrol car, he said the laughing yobs hurled abuse and mocked him with shouts of 'You're nicked'. Mr Miah, who has no previous convictions, said: 'I could not believe it. 'I had stopped a crime from happening and even delivered the suspects to police on a plate.'

Sussex police said Mr Miah should have 'observed from a safe distance' before dialling 999. The spokesman said: 'On no account should any attempt at aggression be made as this could easily escalate into violence.'

A boy of 13 was later arrested and charged with burglary with intent.

SOURCE



Another charming British cop -- and another senior one at that too

Police inspector 'left student to die in road after knocking him down and driving away'



An off-duty police chief inspector [above] whose car struck a university student on a dual carriageway failed to stop and claimed he thought he had hit a post, despite having the victim's blood and skin on his shattered windscreen, a court heard today. Jamie Jones, from West Midlands Police, allegedly killed Warwick University student Raymond Cheung on the Coventry-bound carriageway of the A45 in the early hours of March 8 last year. Jones, 38, carried on driving after the fatal impact, leaving the victim's body in the road to be struck by a second car, Shrewsbury Crown Court heard.

Malcolm Morse, prosecuting, told jurors that Jones was not to blame for Mr Cheung's death as the student emerged on the road just a second or two before the collision. The inspector is charged with misconduct in a public office for failing to stop at the scene and dangerous driving. The charge of dangerous driving relates not to his driving before the collision, but to the allegation that he continued to drive with a smashed windscreen.

Mr Morse told the jury that on the morning of the collision Jones was travelling along the road, which links Birmingham and Coventry, in his BMW Series 5 at a speed just below the limit of 60mph. He said the collision with Mr Cheung was ‘entirely unavoidable’, explaining: ‘He is not criminally responsible for Raymond Cheung's death, there was nothing he could have done to avoid it.’

But the prosecutor said Jones ‘must have known’ he had hit a person and failed in his duty as a police officer when he did not pull over at the scene. Mr Morse said: ‘He did not stop. There is some evidence from a taxi driver who was on the scene at the time of the collision that he actually speeded up and he drove away.’

The court heard that a number of other motorists who spotted the body in the road pulled over and put on their hazard lights to alert other drivers to the obstruction. Despite their efforts the body of Mr Cheung was struck by a Volvo car and carried for some distance along the carriageway, Mr Morse said.

The prosecutor said Mr Cheung had driven to a service station on the Coventry-bound carriageway of the road, where he parked his car, leaving his mobile phone and wallet inside. The court heard that the 20-year-old, originally from Hong Kong, had recently had a ‘falling out’ with a female student at the university and may have walked into the oncoming traffic intentionally.

Mr Morse said: ‘He crossed the dual carriageway on the Coventry to Birmingham side and made his way in some way or another, over or under or through the central reservation. ‘Mr Cheung was a pedestrian wearing black clothes who will have emerged from a shadow on an unlit road. ‘It is most likely that, at the time when the defendant for the very first time saw him, he will have had something in the region of 1.5 to two seconds to react. In other words, no time at all.

‘He did hit the student. The consequence of that impact was that Raymond Cheung suffered multiple injuries and was killed.’ The prosecutor added: ‘Mr Cheung may have stepped into the defendant's carriageway intentionally. ‘It is one of the explanations that fits with the evidence that I have outlined to you.’

Mr Morse said a post-mortem examination found evidence that Mr Cheung had been standing upright in the road when he was struck and had subsequently hit the windscreen of the BMW. He said: ‘We know his body must have done that because, later on, hair and skin and blood from him was found in the damaged glass of the windscreen.’

The court heard that after the collision Jones, of Allesley, Coventry, drove home and called a police station in the city. He told officers he needed someone to come to his home and said he believed he had hit a post. When two police officers arrived at his home he told them he had heard a ‘loud pop’ as his windscreen smashed and he hoped he had not struck a person, Mr Morse said. He added: ‘In response to their silence he said words to the effect of, “Oh God, it was a person wasn't it?”'

Mr Morse said: ‘Albeit at a time when he could do nothing about it... at a time he must have seen that there was a pedestrian standing in the road in front of him. ‘At some point his windscreen has shattered. The most likely cause for its shattering is that Raymond hit it and one of the parts of Raymond Cheung's body that hit the windscreen are his head and face.’ He added: ‘It is the Crown's case that if one stops as dispassionately as can be and then examines these circumstances by that analysis, one is driven to the conclusion that the driver must have known that he had hit a person. ‘But as I have said, he did not stop. Other people did.

‘We say that when he drove on he was making an intentional choice to drive on.’

SOURCE



Lord Rees, President of Royal Society criticized for ‘surrender to politically driven Climate Change dogma’

The feeble defence today (BBC Radio4*) of the failed science of Man-made climate change by Lord Martin Rees President of the Royal Society is a “dereliction of his duty to defend the integrity of science and a surrender to the politically driven agenda of the UN which is mounting a ‘Custer’s last stand’ review of IPCC procedures in a desperate bid to save its credibility”, said Piers Corbyn astrophysicist and founder of WeatherAction long range weather and climate forecasters.

Piers further said: “Martin Rees is a great scientist but his support today of failed science over evidence-based factual observations is a betrayal of the scientific method in favour of anti-scientific dogma. One wonders at what point should political expediency ever over-rule evidence-based science?”

“His defence of the refuted** theory of man-made climate change on the grounds that ‘CO2 has been rising recently at an unprecedented rate and very simple physics’ is without foundation.

“Firstly the claim that current rates of rise of CO2 are unprecedented is neither relevant nor justifiable. Recognized published peer-reviewed work shows:

(i) measured data over hundreds, or thousands, or millions of years proves CO2 changes have no nett driving effect on world temperature or climate, indeed the relationship is observed to be the other way around – for example at the end of ice-ages temperature rises drive CO2 rises with a lag of centuries.

This means that current changes of CO2 are also of no consequence. This is demonstrated by world cooling for the last 8 years while CO2 has been rapidly rising.

(ii) ice core data smooths out rapid fluctuations in CO2 levels which occurred in the past and other methods of measuring CO2 in more recent times show rapid changes**.

The claim of unprecedented rises in something of no consequence is scaremongering nonsense.

“Secondly the ‘very simple physics’ he claims to draw on is just too simple and leaves out other pretty simple physics.

The supposed large magnifying effect of water vapour which is a more significant contributor to infra-red absorption and emission than the trace gas CO2 has been widely challenged along with other assumptions of the CO2 centred theory. More fundamentally wherever those considerations lead a number of feedback effects totally negate any impact CO2 changes may have on surface temperatures. For example extra CO2 enhances plant growth and photosynthetic transpiration which is a powerful cooling effect and the more CO2 the more the cooling. So any extra surface warming due to extra CO2 in the atmosphere is negated by extra cooling caused by extra photosynthetic transpiration. Warming also enhances plant growth so if at one point there were insufficient plants to do the cooling and therefore warming occurred that would enhance plant growth and extend the growing season until there are sufficient plants to provide cooling to negate any warming.

“Martin Rees and the IPCC should be prepared to defend their CO2-driven climate change position but they have still failed to produce any observational evidence for their hypothesis and the BBC consistently avoids allowing any air time to Climate Realist scientists who can easily refute the CO2 hypothesis. Nevertheless I am glad Martin Rees did not repeat the banal claims of Professor Corine Le Quere of the University of East Anglia that ‘There is no other explanation for it (= recent(?) Climate change)’. Perhaps he realizes that our WeatherAction verification of predicted chains of events leading from solar activity to extreme weather events is evidence that the Sun causes ‘it’.

More HERE



British toddler died of meningitis after five doctors failed to spot symptoms

A toddler who died of meningitis after five doctors failed to spot he was suffering from the disease was "completely failed by the medical profession", his family said.

An inquest heard 21-month-old Oliver Martin was rushed to hospital by his mother, a district nurse, when he fell seriously ill at home. He was displaying several of the major symptoms of meningitis, including a rash that disappeared when pressed, high temperature, pale complexion and lethargy. But the hearing was told the illness was "at the back of the mind" of the first doctor to examine Oliver who thought he was suffering from chicken pox.

He was subsequently seen by a further four other doctors - but was not given antibiotics until eight and a half hours after his arrival at the Leicester Royal Infirmary. By then it was too late, and Oliver, of Welford, Northants, died of meningococcal septicaemia, a type of blood poisoning caused by the same bacteria as meningitis, a short time later.

Oliver's mother, Louise Martin, 27, was too upset to attend the inquest at Leicester Town Hall. But speaking afterwards, his aunt, Susan Wilson, who sat through the evidence, said: "He was failed from the moment we walked through the door. "His treatment was disgusting. The medical profession let him down. I'm very, very angry. "The Government tells us through their leaflets to trust our instincts and not take any chances, to get children to hospital and get antibiotics. "And Oliver did - but eight-and-a-half hours later, and by then it was too late.

"If his mum had kept him at home and given him a dose of Nurofen, which is basically what the hospital did, she would be on a child neglect and manslaughter charge now. "But what have the Leicester Royal Infirmary got? Nothing. We've not even had an apology. "If this inquest prevents this happening again, then it will have been worthwhile."

Leicester City Coroner Catherine Mason, who recorded a narrative verdict, criticised "poor" communication between staff at the hospital which meant vital information about Oliver's condition and symptoms was not passed on when his case was handed over. She added: "Had earlier treatment been given Oliver may still have died, but on the balance of probabilities his chances of survival would have been better."

The inquest heard Oliver was taken to the hospital by his mother at around 10am on May 13 last year, and first seen by Accident and Emergency doctor Kalmjit Kaur. She noted a number of possible diagnoses, including meningitis, but suspected it was more likely he was suffering from chicken pox. Crucially, she chose not to administer antibiotics - and instead decided Oliver's condition should simply be monitored.

He was later moved to the children's ward, where concerned nurses tried to get the duty paediatric registrar, Dr Manjith Narayanan, to re-examine him. But he failed to do so for over an hour because he had been told at the start of his evening shift that Oliver's condition was "not serious". He said: "If I had been given all of the information I would've come out of the hand-over, gone to see him straight away and given him antibiotics." Doctors eventually suspected meningococcal septicaemia and ordered a course of the anti-viral drugs at 6.30pm. But Oliver died at around 10pm.

Kevin Harris, the acting medical director at University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust said: "We accept the coroner's verdict following the inquest into Oliver Martin's death. "We would like to express our sincere condolences to his family for the upset and distress caused. "If Oliver's family have any questions following the verdict we would welcome the opportunity to discuss these with them." [In other words: So sad, too bad]

SOURCE



Britain voted worst place in developed world to bring up children (while Australia is the best)

Britain is the worst country in which to raise children, while Australia is the best, a study has found. The survey of [British] expatriates living in six different countries found there was a better standard of living Down Under, and a better quality of family life. A massive 78 per cent of children who moved there from countries such as the UK spent more time outdoors than they did before, and the majority ate more healthily.

In comparison, foreign children who moved to Britain were more likely to become lazy and inactive.

A third of parents who have moved here said their children watched more TV than they did before and 27 per cent saw an increase in the amount of time spent playing video games. Overall, Britain was also branded the most difficult country to move to. Schools were found to be less welcoming, and it was difficult to arrange child care.

A massive 45 per cent of parents said the quality of their family life had decreased since moving to the UK - just 16 per cent noticed an improvement, according to the survey commissioned by HSBC. Britain was rated the lowest of the six countries examined. The list, from best to worst, read Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, United Arab Emirates, the U.S. and the UK.

The results bode well for Leah Wood, 31, who recently emigrated to Sydney with her Australian husband Jack MacDonald and their nine-month- old daughter Maggie. Miss Wood, the daughter of Rolling Stone Ronnie said she wanted a 'fresh start'. She said: 'My husband is Australian and I love the lifestyle and the pureness of this city. It's really easy to be organic here. I want the best for my little Maggie.'

An HSBC spokesman said: 'When you're talking to an expat community you're obviously talking to people with a varied degree of experience in terms of different countries. 'The key centres around childcare and education... they were the things that were really highlighted. The UK has scored lower than some of the other countries in those respects.'

But Britain did rank highly in terms of cultural integration, with 83 per cent saying they were able to adapt to UK living 'well' or 'really well'. The spokesman said: 'The UK is a great place to be able to dip into a number of different cultural experiences.'

The Offshore Offspring report, commissioned by HSBC, examined children's integration, health and well-being by questioning 3,100 expats from 50 nations living in the six countries. In 2008, emigration from recession-hit Britain reached a record level with 427,000 people leaving, up from 341,000 in 2007, according to the Office for National Statistics.

SOURCE





12 March, 2010

British Libel laws silenced critic of lie detector system

England’s libel laws will come under fresh pressure today as a researcher tells MPs that they have been used to silence his criticism of lie detection technology on which the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has spent £2.4 million. An academic from Sweden claims that a paper challenging the principles behind the voice risk analysis (VRA) system was withdrawn by his publisher after legal threats from its manufacturer.

In an interview with The Times before speaking at a House of Commons seminar today, Francisco Lacerda, Professor of Phonetics at Stockholm University, said that libel law was suppressing information that should be available in the public interest. He said that English law was damaging science abroad as well as in Britain because English was the international language of research and many influential academic journals were published in Britain.

Amir Liberman, of Nemesysco, an Israeli company that devised the technology, said, however, that the withdrawn paper contained inaccuracies. In 2007 Professor Lacerda and Anders Eriksson, of Gothenburg University, published an article entitled “Charlatanry in Forensic Speech Science” in the International Journal of Speech, Language and the Law. It criticised the science behind VRA technologies that purport to identify stressed voices, which may indicate lying.

The VRA system is being evaluated in 24 pilot studies by the DWP, as a means of highlighting potential benefit fraud.

SOURCE



Slackers find a safe haven in the British public sector

Services are failing because it is so hard to fire poor staff

Margaret Thatcher transformed Britain. But there is one place where nothing much changed after May 1979; a lost world where strikes are commonplace and powerful trade unions still rule the roost. It’s a slice of 1970s Britain preserved in aspic, where productivity falls, pay surges and nobody gets the sack. All that’s missing are the Austin Allegros and Donny Osmond.

That place is the public sector. Review the facts: public sector productivity fell almost 4% in the 10 years after 1997, whereas private sector productivity grew 28%. Public sector pay has grown by 15% more than private sector pay. But despite that, people in the public sector aren’t happy: in fact, compared with the private sector, twice as many managers say morale is low in their workplace. Sickness rates are 50% higher and the number of days lost to strikes is 15 times higher.

What’s going on? There is no fundamental reason why a business or organisation should perform less well just because it is in the ownership of the state. But in practice they do. For years politicians have accepted this as inevitable and the strategy has been to “go around” the problem: to privatise, contract out, or introduce competition, in order to chip away at the public sector. But there are some public services that will never be privatised or outsourced. And we have avoided confronting the underlying problems.

There are many reasons why the public sector is underperforming. Four-fifths of public sector workers have their pay set not on the basis of individual performance but by national pay bargaining agreements. In much of the public sector, promotion is automatic each year and doesn’t reflect effort or ability. Public sector organisations are saddled with top-heavy management and expensive pension schemes.

Perhaps the most important reason is that it is very difficult to hire or fire anyone. Almost no one is ever sacked for underperforming in the civil service. And whole teams of people who are no longer really needed remain because it is difficult to make people redundant. According to the Cabinet Office: “There were fewer than 100 compulsory redundancies between 2005 and 2008.” That means just 25 people each year out of 525,000 civil servants.

You might think that making it difficult for anyone to be sacked or made redundant would be good for morale. In fact the reverse is true. Few things are worse for morale than having to “carry” people who are making little effort or are badly suited to their jobs. That’s why, in a survey of 60 public sector organisations conducted by the Cabinet Office, nine out of 10 employees agreed with the statement that their organisation “is too lenient with people who perform poorly”.

In 2008 the government and the trade unions agreed a “protocol for handling surplus staff situations” under which the government will almost never force through compulsory redundancies. So people have to be bribed to leave with generous pay-offs. For example, in 2005-8 almost 300 people agreed to take early retirement from the Foreign Office with an average payout of £162,000 — on top of their generous pensions.

This problem is compounded because public sector managers turn over so quickly. On average, a civil servant spends just 2½ years in a senior post. If reducing the number of staff will not “pay for itself” for many years, and their manager will be gone by then anyway, why should they bother with the hassle?

Worse still, hiring and firing in the public sector consumes huge amounts of time and money. Hiring someone in the prison service involves grinding through a gruelling 39 steps. The National Audit Office found that at HM Revenue & Customs it typically took 212 days to hire someone. Just imagine how long it takes to get rid of them. As a result, public sector managers have every incentive to allow slackly performing staff to drift on and unnecessary jobs to go on being done.

When Gordon Brown appointed Digby Jones to work in government, the former boss of the CBI said he was “amazed, quite frankly, at how many people deserved the sack and yet that was the one threat they never ever worked under, because it doesn’t exist”. There is indeed a clear link between the inflexible labour market in the public sector and its low morale and poor productivity.

Nobody wants to see people unemployed. But public services exist to serve the public, not their employees. So conditions in the public sector should be similar to those in the rest of the economy. Without a proper labour market, people coast, or remain in jobs they aren’t suited to. One in five people works in the public sector, so creating a more flexible labour market within it has the potential to boost the UK’s economic performance. But to get there we need to run public services on 21st-century principles, not the rules of the 1970s.

SOURCE



Dead body was left on bed next to me for eight hours: Patient tells of horror on packed NHS ward

An NHS patient has spoken of her horror after the body of a woman was left in an adjacent bed for up to eight hours. Sarah Stevenson, 64, said staff left the corpse on a packed ward from 1pm until after 8.30pm. Two other patients who died on the same day were also left for several hours behind thin curtains on the ward where Mrs Stevenson was being treated for pneumonia, she said. The three bodies were finally removed in front of distressed families and young children during visiting hours.

Bosses at Heartlands Hospital, in Birmingham, last night apologised. They said the wait was caused by delays in bringing specialist equipment to remove the bodies, but denied they remained for as long as eight hours.

Mrs Stevenson, a great-grandmother from Small Heath, Birmingham, was admitted to hospital on February 15 with suspected pneumonia. She was given a bed on a single-sex ward and was placed in a bay next to another woman. Two days later, at around 1.10pm, she noticed the woman had died. She told a nurse but says the body was not taken away until after 8.30pm. All that divided Mrs Stevenson - whose daughter is a nurse - and the patient was a thin curtain.

She said: 'At about 1.10pm the woman in the bed opposite me, a lady in her late-50s or early-60s, died and I had to alert the nurse that she had passed away. 'Another one died at around 2pm and the third a while later. I was upset because I was so ill myself and to lie next to a dead body all day was my worst nightmare. I don't think they showed the patient any dignity in death. My daughter is a nurse so I know bodies are only supposed to stay on the wards for a maximum of four to six hours, but it was nearly eight hours before they came to take her to the mortuary. 'It was appalling and it should never take that long. The nurses were pushed to the limit and couldn't control a lot of what was going on.'

Mrs Stevenson, who has been married and divorced twice and was a stay-at-home mother to her three children and four step-children, was discharged on February 22. Her allegations came after a damning survey revealed the Third World conditions on overcrowded NHS wards, despite the budget being tripled under Labour over the past ten years.

A survey of 900 nurses this week showed patients are routinely treated in kitchens, corridors, mop cupboards and TV rooms because wards are full. Four in ten told the Nursing Times that patients' dignity and privacy were not protected, while many spoke of chaotic mixed-sex wards where emergency buzzers were left out of reach. The shocking series of anecdotes followed a series of NHS scandals including the unnecessary deaths of up to 1,200 patients at Stafford Hospital.

The Heart of England Foundation Trust has launched an investigation into Mrs Stevenson's claims. Spokesman Charlotte Calder said: 'Three patients did die on the ward on the same day but two of those were further away from Mrs Stevenson. 'One terminally ill patient did unfortunately die in the bay where Mrs Stevenson was being treated. 'It was felt that it would be more respectful to prepare the deceased patient in the bay with the curtain drawn. 'The transfer of this patient took four and a half hours - longer than normal - due to the clinical condition of the deceased patient and the need for specialist equipment.

'We are sorry that this may have disturbed and caused Mrs Stevenson distress. 'Our stance is that no patient's body had been left on the ward for more than five hours but we are investigating the matter.'

SOURCE



NHS 'wasted £21bn tackling life gap between rich and poor'

Billions of pounds may have been wasted on a high-profile Government pledge to reduce the gap in life expectancy between rich and poor, a watchdog revealed yesterday. A total of £21billion - more than a fifth of the entire National Health Service budget - has been set aside to cut inequalities in this financial year alone. But an Audit Commission report says it can't find any evidence that it provides value for money.

The health of people in England has improved since Labour started pumping billions into the NHS, but the health of richer people has improved far more quickly than those in deprived areas. Instead of the Government meeting its much-vaunted goal of reducing health inequalities, the gap has widened.

Ministers pledged that by 2010, they would reduce by 10 per cent the gap in life expectancy at birth between people living in the bottom 20 per cent of the most deprived areas and the population as a whole. But the report has found that 'stark problems remain'. The report said: 'It is hard to see an obvious link between spending and improvement, or get any clear view of value for money. 'Progress in reducing inequalities, and in some aspects of health such as that of very young children, has been disappointing, even if general progress on, for example, life expectancy and other broad measures has been very positive. 'Without such a link, it is hard to argue that higher spending - even if it were an option - would itself result in significant gains.'

The report said problems such as teenage pregnancy 'have proved challenging, despite some progress'. 'New problems have emerged, for example obesity,' it added. 'Problems with alcohol have grown. If today's trends continue, NHS hospitals in England will admit one million patients with alcohol-related conditions in 2011.' A Government target to reduce teenage conceptions by 50 per cent by 2010 has also failed dismally. The rate has fallen by only 13 per cent and in some regions, it has soared by almost 50 per cent.

NHS spending in England rose from £40billion in 1999/2000 to £98billion in 2009/10, the report said. But it is hard to know how much has been spent on reducing health inequalities, or what the impact has been. The report said: 'There needs to be more ruthless targeting of money and services and close attention to outcomes. This requires much clearer sight of what is being spent and much sharper evaluation of its impact.'

The report did congratulate ministers on meeting targets to cut deaths from heart disease and stroke by 2010. It said life expectancy was on the up, and infant death rates were going down.

Andy McKeon, the commission's managing director for health, said: 'We know the health of the nation is improving. But variation in the health of people living in different parts of the country remains stark.'

A Department of Health spokesman said: 'We are pleased the Audit Commission recognises that life expectancy is the highest it has been and infant mortality is at an all-time low, but more needs to be done to narrow the gap between disadvantaged areas and the rest of England.'

SOURCE



British university graduates condemned to 'coffee shop jobs'

The majority of university degrees condemn graduates to menial jobs “serving coffee in Starbucks", according to a leading businessman. Good degrees from leading universities were the only qualifications with serious currency in the jobs market, it was claimed. Simon Culhane, chief executive of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment, said many teenagers would be better off taking a gap year before directly entering the industry of their choice.

The comments come just days after the Association of Graduate Recruiters, which represents 750 major employers, called for the Government to abolish its target to get half of all school-leavers into higher education. The group said that Labour’s “artificial” target had devalued degrees and pushed too many students onto substandard courses.

Mr Culhane said: “Today’s graduates have a tough time. “There are simply not enough jobs, which is why too many graduates are either serving coffee at Starbucks, or the equivalent, or have entered the employment market in jobs for which they are over-qualified.” He added: “Many aspiring students – and their parents – should be, and are, asking themselves if a degree is worth it.

“The answer may be politically incorrect and unwelcome, but if a key reason for an individual wanting to take a degree is to get ahead, then unless they are studying a relevant, vocational qualification at a top university and expect to obtain a 2:1 or better, they would be well advised to take a gap year and then enter the industry of their choice.”

The Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment is the largest professional body for investment banking and securities. But last year, City firms hired half the number of graduates they employed in 2008 because of the economic downturn.

Despite the slump in jobs, competition for university places has already reached a record high. It is feared that almost 200,000 applicants could be turned away from courses this September after demand for places surged by a quarter.

His comments follow remarks by Lucy Neville-Rolfe, an executive director at Tesco, who said British school leavers have basic problems with literacy and numeracy and have major “attitude problems”. Mrs Neville-Rolfe, an Oxford graduate and former civil servant, said students’ attitudes to their appearance, work, authority and discipline were poor.

The 56 year-old, one of the most powerful and well paid women in British business, said despite many A Level students and university graduates not being able to read or write or understand maths, more were achieving better results.

She also attacked students who felt that it was their right to gain employment. "They (students) don't seem to understand the importance of a tidy appearance and have problems with timekeeping," she said in a speech to the Institute of Grocery Distribution's conference on skills on Wednesday. “Some seem to think that the world owes them a living. The truth is that a certain humility and an ability to work hard are important for success. “More broadly, a society where people don't feel the need to work to gain material possessions will not be a stable or successful society."

SOURCE





11 March, 2010

British police told to tackle crime that destroys communities

At the moment, they are too busy enforcing political correctness to tackle real crime. Photographers are at greater risk from the police than are youth gangs

Police forces are failing to protect the most vulnerable people in society from antisocial behaviour, the police inspectorate has said. Chief constables were told that they must understand the toll that harassment, criminal damage and verbal abuse is taking on communities.

Denis O’Connor, HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary, said more than half of the 44 forces in England, Wales and Northern Ireland could not identify repeat victims, leaving officers ignorant of the plight of vulnerable victims. This was evident in the case of Fiona Pilkington, who killed herself and her severely disabled daughter in 2007. She had called Leicestershire police for help more than 30 times while being subjected to constant abuse.

Mr O’Connor said: “The police database of information about antisocial behaviour incidents is inadequate and should be improved as a matter of urgency. An awful lot of police forces have real problems. “There is a lot of antisocial (ASB) behaviour, a lot of it is under-reported and there is a problem with nailing the intelligence around it. “It is like going back to the doctor’s surgery but you see a different doctor every time. We want everybody to take this issue seriously. It undermines confidence in the police. We are a long way from a police officer on his way to a report of ASB being told that it was the eighth time police had been called.”

Mr O’Connor was talking at the launch of a new website, MyPolice.org.uk, designed to give people more information about crime and the performance of local police forces. The website, which Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary hopes will be live in the next few days, shows that only four forces recorded a mark of “excellent” across the board, with Nottinghamshire rated as the worst in the country.

Of all the ASB cases the inspectorate looked at, the police failed to attend 23 per cent of them. There were 3.6 million reports of ASB in 2008-09 but senior officials said this figure could be doubled because of under-reporting.

SOURCE



Useless British police again -- baby left outside in the cold for 80 minutes: Dies

All they are good for is harassing decent people

A baby abandoned on the steps of a mosque was left outside in the cold for 80 minutes by police officers who thought he was dead. The boy was eventually spotted breathing as forensic officers investigated the scene where he was left in a carrier bag at the weekend. He was taken to hospital where he died within the hour.

Witnesses told how the area was cordoned off and a white tent put up around the infant after police arrived at 10.30am on Saturday. Shouts for an ambulance were heard around midday before the child was taken away in a police car. By then, Staffordshire police had released a statement saying that a 'body' had been discovered at the Makki Masjid mosque in Shelton, Stoke-on-Trent.

Minutes after it was discovered the baby was still alive, an updated statement was issued to say a 'small baby' had been found and taken to hospital. The baby died at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire at 12.30pm. Staffordshire police have referred the incident to the Independent Police Complaints Commission which was yesterday investigating how officers could have failed to spot the child breathing. It is understood a note found with the child read 'Please bury him' and contained two £10 notes.

The child was found abandoned in temperatures of 5c (41f) by a teacher at the mosque's Saturday school. Detective Chief Inspector Phil Bladen, of Staffordshire police, said the baby's death was being treated as unexplained. [Really???] The force refused to comment on its initial response to the baby's discovery.

SOURCE



British social workers get it badly wrong again -- despite many warnings

Their usual indifference to the deeds of the underclass allowed a British Fritzl to get his daughters pregnant 18 times

A MAN raped his two daughters and fathered nine babies with them during 35 years of physical and sexual abuse. And he escaped detection because care professionals missed numerous chances to intervene. Agencies involved with the family repeatedly failed to take action even though the father was accused of incest on seven separate occasions, with a further 12 reported incidents of violence. Today authorities issued an unreserved apology to the abused women.

The 57-year-old man, from Sheffield, England, was jailed for life in November 2008 after one of his daughters accused him of incest. The man, who cannot be named, admitted 25 rapes and four indecent assaults, with the attacks beginning in 1980. If his daughters refused his advances, they would be punched, kicked and sometimes held in the flames of a gas fire.

The case echoes of that of Josef Fritzl, the Austrian who imprisoned and raped his daughter.

Between 1975 and 2008 the family came into contact with 28 different agencies and more than 100 professionals. A review of the case made 128 recommendations for improving understanding, practice, procedures and training into intra-familial abuse. However, no staff were sacked or disciplined as the case was seen to be a "collective failure".

Chris Cook, the independent chairman of the Lincolnshire and Sheffield safeguarding children board, said: "We are genuinely sorry. We should have protected you. "This is a tragic and complicated case. The man responsible, who intimidated and frightened his family, was convicted of multiple counts of rape and is serving a life sentence."

The case review showed that the family moved home 67 times over a 35-year period so that the father could avoid detection.

The women's brother voiced anger that his sisters had not been protected, saying: "I blame a lot of people," he said. "I blame people that were meant to be looking after children because we were all meant to be under child protection at five, so I blame the people that should have been doing their jobs looking after us," he said.

SOURCE



NHS doctors thought pregnancy was gout!

No scans, of course. They cost money



STUNNED Belinda Waite became a mum for the first time — just THREE hours after doctors discovered she was pregnant. The 21-year-old had been in and out of hospital for nine months after being told she was suffering from a severe case of Irritable Bowel Syndrome and gout. It was only after she was admitted to hospital in agony that medics realised she was expecting.

They told Belinda she was around three months pregnant and sent her back home to Bampton, Devon, just before midnight. But at 2.30am the following morning baby daughter Louise arrived weighing a healthy 8lb 14oz to the amazement of Belinda and partner Wayne Boyles, 28.

Wayne's mum Sylvia helped with the unexpected arrival and hairdresser Belinda said she had "not been feeling right" for eight months. She said: "I can't believe I was pregnant all this time - you'd have thought the doctors would have noticed something like that. "I think Wayne was even more shocked than me because we had no idea, but she is a beautiful baby and we're really happy. "I did feel like something was moving inside me as the months went on. "But I never considered I was pregnant - and it doesn't seem to have crossed the doctors' minds. "It was obviously a huge shock for us all but you have to get on with these things - and we are all really enjoying it."

Belinda gave birth after she was taken to Tiverton Hospital at 10pm on February 6 suffering with pains throughout her body. Doctors announced she was around three months pregnant and sent her home. Belinda said: "I was really shocked. They told me to get some rest and make an appointment with the doctors the following Monday. "Three hours later, Louise was born. I don't think Wayne could believe it was happening. "We hardly had time to think about it; no one believed us when we told them we suddenly had a child. "You read about these stories in magazines, but you never think they happen to real people - and I certainly never thought it would happen to me."

Belinda said Louise was perfectly healthy despite her being very active through her pregnancy. She said: "I went on rollercoasters at Alton Towers, on water slides in Spain, I probably ate all the wrong foods. Luckily I do not smoke and I stopped drinking alcohol as it made me feel sick." The hospital, run by NHS Devon, was unavailable for comment.

SOURCE



NHS hospital ignores clear suicide danger -- even after warning

A woman leapt to her death hours after her father begged a psychiatric unit not to release her. Graham Nye warned them: 'If she goes back to her flat she will throw herself off the balcony.' Just seven hours later his chilling prediction came true when Victoria jumped from her 13th-floor flat.

Mr Nye is now demanding to know why his daughter - who had a history of suicide attempts - was allowed out of the unit at the Royal South Hampshire Hospital. The NHS trust has launched an independent investigation.

Mr Nye, 55, has told how his daughter had suffered for eight years with mental illness. She was diagnosed with bipolar disorder two years ago but, after reacting badly to medication, experts told her they believed she was suffering from a personality disorder, which required separate treatment.

Miss Nye, 22, admitted herself to the unit in an attempt to turn her life around. But after a fortnight of treatment, Mr Nye claimed, she was told by psychiatrists that she 'could not be helped', despite a family doctor telling them she was in need of urgent care. She phoned her father around 5pm on March 3 to say she was being sent home. Within the hour he had called doctors asking them not to release her. He says he was told his comments would be shared with doctors. At 12.40am the next day Miss Nye's body was discovered by neighbours outside the tower block where she lived in Southampton.

Mr Nye, a freelance television producer, said: 'She said they told her they could not help her. She took this to mean that although she had something wrong with her she could not be helped. 'I have no doubt she killed herself because she felt there was no help for her.'

Dr Huw Stone, Hampshire NHS Foundation Trust's medical director, said: 'In any serious incident we always carry out a thorough investigation into all aspects of the patient's care.'

Marjorie Wallace, chief executive of mental health charity SANE, said: 'We find it unforgivable that people in distress can be discharged from hospital before they are ready to leave.'

SOURCE



Hamburgerology comes to Britain

Maccas is now handing out High School diplomas

Work experience for many teenagers involves making endless cups of tea or opening mountains of post, with no more reward than a week off school. But they will get the equivalent of a GCSE if doing a placement at McDonald’s from today, in recognition of their newly found skills.

The fast food multinational has for years been the butt of jokes about providing dead-end jobs flipping burgers and mopping floors. Yet it now has power to award its own qualifications, which include a diploma in shift management equal to an A level. It takes on 10,000 apprentices a year, thought to be more than any other company in Britain, and trains them in hospitality skills, and basic English and maths.

Now teenagers successfully completing a ten-day work experience placement, plus a lesson in school either side, will be awarded a BTEC level 2 in work skills accredited by Edexcel, one of the country’s biggest exam boards. This is the equivalent of a GCSE at grade B or C, and the first time a national qualification has been given for work experience. Academics said this devalued GCSEs, but praised the company for offering proper work placements during the recession. About a million young people are currently not in education, employment or training, and there are fears this could affect the job prospects of a generation.

The work experience is not guaranteed: pupils aged 14 upwards will have to fill out an online application form and submit themselves to interview by their local branch. Those who succeed will spend ten days being mentored by a “buddy”, working with them in every area of the restaurant. While not left in sole charge of cooking burgers, they will help for example by “preparing lettuce”, and will get to operate the drive-through window and handle money. They must also complete a work book, and attend an induction on safety, hygiene and food nutrition, and will have an “exit” interview at the end of the placement.

David Fairhurst, who is head of human resources at McDonald’s, did work experience — “many years ago” — at his grandfather’s store in Wigan. He said: “I learnt a lot of things, such as attention to detail and how to get along with colleagues when you were the boss’s grandson. Yes we will turn people down [for work experience], absolutely. We’re looking for people who’ve got the attitude to serve customers. “The students have a role to play in taking work experience more seriously than has been the case before. We have strict guidelines on supervision, every day they will have a buddy working alongside them.

“They will serve at drive-through windows, operate the till, prepare drinks from machines, and help to clear tables. It’s a big step for young people, it takes confidence to deal with customers. “We not just trying to recruit these people, we’re exposing them to the work of work, as we don’t want a lost generation of young people with no experience of the workplace.”

Mr Fairhurst defended the qualification from criticism, saying: “They’re with us for 80 hours, and do two lessons before and afterwards at school. In academic terms, 80 hours is enough for a Btec certificate — it’s a lot of time in terms of school.” He added: “The vast proportion of young people are disappointed about what they’re asked to do on work experience, either making tea or it’s unstructured or the company is surprised to see them turn up and don’t know what to do with them.”

A survey published today by Populus, for McDonald’s, found that more than half of young people believe there are not enough quality work placements available. One in five who had completed work experience felt their host employer had not planned for them well enough.

Professor Alan Smithers, director of the centre for education and employment research at Buckingham University, said: “The positive view of this is it might make work experience better for young people participating, but it’s absurd trying to value it in the terms of a GCSE. “Essentially, it’s what the experience does for young people’s future lives that matters. Schools and awarding bodies are being pushed into a situation of issuing qualifications for everything.

“There isn’t enough work experience to go round, and some schools have to resort to simulated work experience, or work-related experience such as writing about work. “Having ten days somewhere is a step forward, but making it equivalent to a GCSE is devaluing qualifications of that level, and could colour the way people view GCSEs in general.”

SOURCE





10 March, 2010

Labour Party lies about crime revealed

The true scale of how violent crime has grown under Labour has been disclosed by Whitehall officials. Violent attacks are estimated to be 44 per cent higher than they were in 1998 after research on the way police record them allowed comparisons for the first time. The study, by the independent House of Commons Library, shows violence against the person increased from 618,417 to 887,942 last year. The devastating review comes despite repeated claims by the Government that violent crime has come down substantially since it took power.

It is the first time such a trend in police recorded crime can be made because a change was made in counting rules in 2002 which ministers have always insisted meant figures before that date were not, therefore, comparable. Instead, they have always used a separate the separate British Crime Survey which suggests violence has dropped by more than 40 per cent since 1998. The Tories, who requested the new research, said the findings make a mockery of such claims and reinforce the public's fear that violence is in fact rising.

Statiticians in the Commons Library have used a previous Home Office estimate on the effect of the change in counting rules to estimate the impact on previous figures, had those rules been in place then.

Just last week, Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, said violent crime had dropped by 1.5 million offences under Labour before attempting to blame a growing fear of crime on the Tories for "ramping up" public panic.

One criminologist accused the Government of "scheming and manipulation" who knew it was in their interests to avoid historical comparisons. The figures will also be a boost for the Conservatives who were accused by the head of the Statistics Authority of damaging public trust with their use of statistics on violent crime.

Sir Michael Scholar, the head of the authority, warned Chris Grayling, the shadow home secretary, that comparisons of police information on violent attacks between the late 1990s and 2008-9 were "likely to mislead the public" as it omitted Home Office warnings that the figures for periods before 2002 were not comparable. However, that comparison can now be made and shows recorded crime has continued to rise sharply in the last decade.

The row centres on the implementation of the National Crime Recording Standard (NCRS) in 2002 which aimed to harmonise the way police recorded offences. Prior to that date, officers had more discretion to decided whether a crime had been committed and the system left the possibility of offences not being recorded. The change put the onus on recording the basis of whether the victim believed an offence had occurred, which led to an almost immediate increase in crime figures.

The research by the Commons Library uses an estimate by the Home Office that the change is likely to have resulted in a 23 per cent increase in recorded violent crime. On that basis, it estimates the official figure in 1998/99 of 502,778 would in fact have been 618,417 had the new counting rules been in force. Recorded violence in 2008/09 was 903,993 but 15,500 offences have been subtracted as they were recorded by the British Transport Police, whose figures were not included in 1998/99, resulting in the 887,942 figure.

It is in stark contrast with the British Crime Survey, which questions more than 40,000 people, which reports violent crime has dropped from 3.5 million to 2.1 million over the same period. The BCS also does not include certain offence, including murder and other homicides and offences committed by under 16-year-olds. [Amazing!]

Mr Grayling said: "This new analysis confirms that the level of violent crime actually reported to police officers in police stations up and down the country is much higher than it was a decade ago. "This just serves to underline the scale of the challenge the country faces in fixing our broken society. "Over the past couple of weeks we have seen a series of horrendous violent crimes committed around the country. Whatever the statistical debates it is absolutely clear that we have deep rooted problems that just have to be tackled.”

David Green, criminologist and director of Civitas, said the Government had a reputation for "scheming and manipulation", adding: "I think the Government knew perfectly well in 2002/03 that it would be very helpful to say 'sorry we cannot go back beyond this date' because they did not want a consistent historical series." Mr Green, who was a member of a Home Office Crime Statistics Review Group, which in 2006 recommended improvements in the collection of the crime figures, added: "It is very revealing and fits intuitively with what many people feel and what many people have been saying, if anecdotal. "For people to feel that violent crime is going up and to be told they are suffering from moral panic has always been of some concern."

In a major speech on crime last week, Mr Brown said: "Crime is falling. Fact. Down by more than a third since 1997. Fact. That’s 6 million fewer crimes each year. Fact. Almost 1 million fewer homes burgled. Fact. Almost 1 and a half million fewer violent crimes. Fact." He went on to claim the Conservatives had "cultivated" fears by abusing official statistics and claiming society was broken. He insisted that crime had come down under Labour but his own Government's figures show some forms of offences, including violence, were still on the rise.

But figures last November showed that the number of violent attacks committed by strangers had hit its highest level for at least a decade, now standing at the equivalent of 2,896 people every day. Strangers are responsible for half of all violent crime.

Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary, said: "Chris Grayling has tried to get cover for his dodgy use of crime statistics and has failed. "As Sir Michael Scholar, the head of the UK Statistics Authority, states, the British Crime Survey is widely regarded as the most accurate way of recording crime levels, "This clearly shows a reduction in violent crime of 41 per cent since 1997."

SOURCE



Leftist British government ignored safety warnings for years over children's heart surgery

Ministers repeatedly ignored warnings about the safety of Britain's child heart surgery units, it can be revealed. In 2001, a public inquiry into the deaths of dozens of babies at Bristol Royal Infirmary said cardiac units should be barred from carrying out paediatric surgery unless they met safety standards, including carrying out a minimum number of operations per year. The recommendation to ensure surgery was only carried out by those skilled enough to perform the most delicate procedures was made to prevent the recurrence of a scandal such as Bristol – dubbed "the killing fields" in the 1990s.

Later this month, the Department of Health (DoH) will say no unit will be allowed to operate unless it has four surgeons and carries out at least 400 operations a year. The ruling will mean around half of Britain's 11 child heart surgery units must close, while the remainder expand. It means departments such as that at John Radcliffe Hospital, which suspended surgery last week following four deaths, and carried out just 100 operations in the last year, could not continue in their current form.

Today we reveal how:

* Ministers dismissed a warning in 2003 by the UK's most senior heart surgeon that half of Britain's units should be closed. As President of the Society for Cardiothoracic Surgeons (SCTS) of Great Britain and Ireland, Prof James Monro was commissioned by ministers to propose changes following the Bristol inquiry, yet "the Government did absolutely nothing" about his key demand, he told The Sunday Telegraph;

* Sir Bruce Keogh, medical director of the health service, told NHS bosses two years ago that he feared "another Bristol" tragedy because specialists were so thinly spread;

* The consultant told this newspaper "there has been frankly little progress" reorganising services to make them safer since the public inquiry reported in 2001. Sir Bruce recently told colleagues that failing to make changes now would leave "a stain on the soul" of his profession.

* Britain's leading children's heart charity says Labour ministers "ran scared" from introducing an overhaul of the specialist system which could have saved lives, and prevented major disabilities.

The public inquiry into the Bristol heart deaths scandal was the most damning in the history of the NHS. It said botched heart operations killed 30 to 35 babies between 1990 and 1995, while over a longer period, up to 170 babies died who might have been saved elsewhere. Sir Ian Kennedy, the inquiry's chairman, ordered a reorganisation of services to improve safety, with each unit carrying out a specified minimum number of operations.

The DoH asked Prof James Monro, then President of the Society for Cardiothoracic Surgeons, to carry out a review, which in 2003 said the figure should be set at 300 operations annually – meaning the closure of at least half of the centres. Prof Monro told The Sunday Telegraph: "That was our main recommendation and the Government did absolutely nothing about it at all. Not a single unit was closed, and many of them should have closed years ago".

The surgeon, now retired, said he thought it was "extraordinary" that the whole process was being started again now, years after the recommendations were shelved. Prof Monro said he never received an explanation for the rejection of his report, but said "politicians had their fingers in the pie" and were fearful of making changes which might upset local constituencies. In 2003, Stephen Ladyman, the then-health minister, dismissed the recommendation claiming the report contained "no evidence" to justify such closures, despite its inclusion of studies showing higher mortality at small units.

Four years later, Sir Bruce Keogh, then President of the SCTS wrote to health service bosses, expressing concerns about the current and future safety of Britain's paediatric cardiac units. He wrote the letter because he feared several units had become perilously short-staffed. Sir Bruce told this newspaper: "A number of surgeons had retired or stopped doing paediatric work, and I was worried things were looking a bit unstable. "In short, I was worried about the risk of another 'Bristol', and I felt anxious that we had a situation where two or three units were working single-handed."

Months after sending the letter, he was appointed NHS medical director, and ordered an urgent review of the service, which will result in a blueprint for children's heart surgery, to be published later this month. The document will say each service should carry out at least 400 and ideally 500 operations a year, and have 4 surgeons, so it can provide safe around-the-clock cover and perform a larger range of complex procedures. As a result, about half of England's 11 centres will be earmarked to close.

Sir Bruce was so fearful of an immediate crisis in cardiac care that in a letter seen by this newspaper, and sent in May 2008, he warned the head of NHS specialist services to draw up a "risk strategy" in case immediate problems emerged before the reorganisation could be carried out. The letter followed his explicit warning to the NHS management board that "another Bristol" could emerge in the foreseeable future.

Anne Keatley-Clarke, chief executive of the Children's Heart Federation, said families who had experienced the trauma of high-risk surgery were furious that politicians had delayed changes which could have saved lives. "Parents who know about heart surgery are hugely angry and frustrated about this. The clinicians were ready to do this a long time ago, the parents expected it; we think the politicians ran scared and blocked it," Mrs Keatley-Clarke said. She added: "We will never know how many children these delays have affected; whether that is in terms of needless deaths, or more children ending up with learning disabilities because they suffered neurological damage which could have been avoided."

Sir Bruce said there had been "frankly little progress" to make the changes since Kennedy reported in 2001, but said it was "too easy" to blame politicians given the likelihood of fierce constituency battles once the names of the units to close become public. He urged fellow surgeons to show leadership, and support changes even if it meant uprooting themselves and moving hundreds of miles to a different unit. Any more delays would create "a stain on the soul" of his profession, he said.

The largest units at Great Ormond Street and Royal Brompton Hospital in London, and Birmingham Children's Hospital, currently carry out more than 400 operations a year, while Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool and Evelina Hospital, part of Guys and St Thomas' Foundation trust in London carry out around 350. The threat of closure looms largest over units at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, which carried out just 100 operations in the last year, while hospitals in Leicester, Southampton, Newcastle, Bristol and Leeds all did less than 300.

This review will report this autumn, after considering which hospitals can best expand, and taking into account transport links for families. However Sir Bruce indicated that the John Radcliffe, which last week suspended its service amid an investigation into the deaths of four babies operated on by surgeon Caner Salih, is at greatest threat of closure. Sir Bruce said: "All of the judgements have yet to be taken, but the eye does fall on Oxford, given it's got the lowest number of operations by far, and only one surgeon [since the departure of Salih]".

Yesterday grieving mother Aida Lo, 29, from Oxford, spoke of her shock and anger at finding out that the death of her daughter, three-week old Nathalie, was one of four cases in less than three months which will form part of the inquiry announced last week. The hospital said Mr Salih, who started work at the hospital just three months ago, has left the hospital to work elsewhere. A spokesman said his departure was not connected to the investigation.

Sir Ian, who headed the public inquiry into the Bristol deaths, has recently been appointed to run the Government panel which will decide which paediatric cardiac units can stay open. Asked about the delay of almost a decade since he made his recommendations, he said only: "I did my bit – it was for others to take action. "Obviously I made the recommendation in the expectation action will be taken; I look forward to that happening."

The DoH said it had been monitoring children's heart surgery closely, and that to date, all units were providing acceptable results.

SOURCE



NHS patients routinely treated in mop cupboards and corridors, nurses' survey says

A shortage of space in overcrowded NHS hospitals means patients are routinely treated in television rooms, mop cupboards and corridors, a survey of nurses suggests today. Kitchens and storage areas are also used while extra beds are put on wards, increasing the the risk of infections spreading.

The poll of more than 900 nurses for Nursing Times found that 63 per cent were aware of patients being placed in areas not designed for clinical care. Almost eight in 10 respondents (79 per cent) said they believed this resulted in patient safety being put at risk, due to patients not having access to call bells or water, or fire exits being blocked.

Of those who were aware of the practice, 29 per cent said it happened every day, 29 per cent said several times a week and 11 per cent said once a week. The remainder said it happened once a month or less.

Reasons cited for the use of non-clinical areas included the hospital being “full”, A&E being “under pressure” or a risk that the Government’s four hour target for people to be seen in A&E may be breached, leading to unnecessary hospital admissions.

More than 300 nurses who responded to the survey revealed specific examples of what happened to patients. One anonymous nurse said the areas had been described as an “overspill car park”, while another said: “If a patient’s condition suddenly deteriorated resulting in them having a cardiac arrest we would not be able to get the crash trolley to them.” Another nurse added: “Urine bottles are not emptied, meals are missed, as staff are not aware of the patient.”

A total of 83 per cent of nurses said they had raised concerns about the practice with senior staff but only 4 per cent said it had then been stopped. Others said the move had been authorised by senior managers, while some nurses said they had been bullied and accused of “not being a team player” for raising their concerns.

In a statement, the Department of Health said that the vast majority of NHS patients experienced good quality, safe and effective care. “However, we acknowledge there is more to do and will continue to strive to make services even safer.”” It was for local health authorities and providers to assess services locally, a spokesman added. “Every nurse must comply with the standards, performance and ethics outlined in the Nursing and Midwifery Council code. In particular, any nurse who is concerned about any risk to their patients should report their concerns to their manager, in writing if necessary.”

Katherine Murphy, director of the Patients Association, added: “Not only is this potentially unsafe, but it is completely undignified. In extreme circumstances the NHS might need to resort to this, but the results of this survey suggest it is a widespread practice.”

SOURCE



Russia's super-rich take advantage of recession to storm Britain's private schools

Note that the article below adheres in part to the old British practice of calling private schools "public" schools



While recession-hit Brits are forced to scrimp to send their children to private school, Russia’s super-rich are cashing in on the chance of an elite education. Louise Carpenter meets a woman who is grooming the offspring of oligarchs for England's upper classrooms.

She tells me that at first, when she turned up at the school gates, the other parents were wary: she looked too expensively pulled together, too exotic (the cheekbones are an immediate giveaway), but more than anything, she looked and sounded very Russian, and like a very, very rich Russian at that.

She sighs: 'I look like a damn model, which doesn't help me at all. The perception is always wrong. I am a very grounded person – and I don't even wear make-up. For the past 10 years, I have worked 16 hours a day as an international property broker. I am a single mother and I've worked in Moscow and Manhattan and I was very, very successful, so successful that in the end I set up my own company. I sleep only six hours a night and I start work very early every morning. Everything I have I have earned through hard work. My generation of Russians had to. There was no inherited wealth.'

In the next few years, if Dina Karpova's business plans come to fruition, there will be many more like her at the gates of our best public schools. While recession-hit British families remortgage their homes, sell off the family silver and consign themselves to five years of staycations to ensure their children can be privately educated, Karpova is helping her rich Russian business contacts move in on the British market.

Russian children pitching up at public schools is a growing phenomenon. Harrow, Westminster, Winchester, Shrewsbury, St Mary's Ascot – these are just some of the institutions in the sights of Karpova and her team. Where once a school's foreign 'quota' might have been filled mostly by children from China, South Korea and the Emirates, registrars are now seeing an increase in inquiries from Russians.

Karpova herself is a lesson in how a new generation of motivated Russians got rich. The daughter of two government nuclear physicists, brought up in a closed city, she trained as an aerospace engineer, specialising in life-support systems in space. She narrowly missed becoming one of a few female Russian astronauts because of her height. 'I'd love to go back into that field,' she says. The decision to go into property broking – a profession that has made her very rich – was made only because the fall of the communist regime destroyed the scientific fields for which she was trained.

Ten years on, with the advent of the global financial and property crisis, she is reinventing herself again. Jaded by the declining quality (by her standards) of Russian schools and universities, no sooner had she moved to London than the calls started coming in from Russian business contacts, many of them oligarchs, although that is not a term Karpova likes to use. ('How many oligarchs are left any more? I think the idea of an oligarch is kind of shaky now.')

Whoever her clients are, they are still very rich and their questions were the same: Which schools are the best? How can we get our children in? What is the procedure? "I said to my assistant, 'I haven't got time for all of this," ' Karpova remembers. 'And she said, "Why don't you start a website?" and what with the property market collapsing anyway, it just went from there."

Given that even the most well-adjusted British child is prone to griping about boarding school food, crammed dormitories, lack of privacy and compulsory chapel, it seems extraordinary to think of pampered Russian children living in such cheek-by-jowl conditions.

But according to Karpova, that is precisely the point: 'The education system in England is incomparable with what you find in other countries, Russia included. You have had hundreds of years of perfecting that system. It was based on when Britain was a colonial superpower and the message was, 'The world is yours!' I do think the spirit goes back to this time when English public [private] schools were trying to create world leaders to rule the colonies. It is not about wealth, it is about the spirit of taking part, of having a broad all-round outlook.'

Russians, she says, love our crumbly old buildings with history behind them. It reminds them of the long-gone tsarist lifestyle, a heritage they are now looking to reclaim. Karpova stops short of saying it, but the implication is clear: if you want to create a world leader, send your child to the kind of school with a history of creating them. And what will happen to them afterwards, I ask. "Well, I hope they will go back to Russia," she says. "I want them to give something back to my country. I hope my son will go back. We owe it to our country, if not to ourselves."

It is well known that the top schools operate a 10 to 15 per cent 'foreign' policy and that there are agents all over the world attempting to place the children of rich families whose applications are, as Karpova says, 'lumped in this pile'.

Whether a Russian child would be given a place otherwise intended for a British child is a hazy area. Karpova is adamant that the leading schools such as Westminster – there is currently only one other Russian boy there – can afford to stick to their marginal foreign quota. The other less prestigious schools are much more receptive to filling up with anybody who can pay the fees, even if they can't speak much English.

Paradoxically, these are precisely the schools that Karpova is sniffy about. "A child that I haven't been able to prepare, who will not make it to the top schools, will probably end up at a school surrounded by eastern Europeans and other Russians and Asians, and they won't get an experience of British culture at all. I think it is OK and fair that foreign kids have to perform better than their British counterparts, because that is why we come here."

Karpova, in Russia at least, has a head start. Her clever idea has been to recruit a British educational consultant called Charles Bonas, who runs a London-based 'super-tutor' and mentoring agency. His work is with children based in Britain, many with foreign parents, but also with many very wealthy English families preparing for rigorous entrance tests. As a result, Bonas knows the admissions process and cultures of all the leading schools inside out.

Nevertheless, how on earth are Russian children who barely speak English when they arrive able to be propelled to the top of the pile? This is the question a forthcoming Channel 4 documentary, The Russians Are Coming, attempts to answer – although it does so only partly successfully, due to what Karpova says is the inherent problem of her clients' privacy and their fear that their children will appear to have been 'over-tutored' and thus undeserving of a place.

Karpova is shown in the film in all her splendour, being immensely diligent and gentle with the children. She clearly has, as she says herself gesticulating madly with her hands, "a brain out here". At one point, we see her striding about in elbow-length patent gloves, hair flying, a head-turning combination for any public school headmaster.

We see her with 11-year-old stepbrothers Natan and Vassili and their father, a Russian billionaire businessman referred to only as 'Boris', during a tour of Stowe. Who is Boris, I ask Karpova. "Can't comment," she says. Is he an oligarch? "Can't comment. Can't say anything about him. The problem with what I do is that publicly my clients always want to put space between me and them. We have to be very careful."

There is a knock on the door and in putters Charles Bonas. In contrast to Karpova's exoticism, Bonas appears to have walked off the set of Jeeves and Wooster. He is small, balding and well-spoken, with an education at Harrow and Oriel College, Oxford; Karpova could not wish for a more authentic specimen of the English public school system to sell to her billionaires. It immediately becomes clear that Bonas lives in the house too. Perhaps they are a very unlikely couple? Karpova shakes her head violently. "No, no!" she asserts. "Charles is guardian to my son. He stays here when I am abroad."

This year, Karpova has about 10 children going through "the process". (Bonas snaps at me when I call it 'grooming'.) They will either be children coming over for the last two years of prep school – 'always the best way of doing it,' Karpova says – or applying for their main (secondary) school. It's a rough 60/40 ratio of boys to girls. Each child is carefully monitored by Bonas and his tutors. There are about 100 of these – teachers, writers, poets, scientists, post-graduates, doctors – 'anybody with a huge amount to offer a child'.

Many Russian children need extra tuition, provided by Bonas and this team, especially in English and in critical thinking, which Bonas says is peculiar to the English system. Some need weekly tuition, others will have a crash course in the holidays, every day, all day. (Prices for mentoring start at £600 a term and basic tuition rates are £50 an hour.)

Whatever the ability of the child, Karpova and Bonas are constantly evaluating progress throughout the term and researching appropriate future schools. 'It is a very, very hard job to go back to the parents when the school is saying, "He's perfect, he's fantastic" and we're seeing that actually he's not that perfect, and when in two years he's got to go and compete with the cream of the crop if his maths is not that great,' Karpova says.

They get to grips with the curriculum, they go to parents' evenings, they liaise between parents and teachers, they study past papers. They explain to the Russians the academic standing of a school such as, say, Harrow and they try to explain the merits of single-sex education for girls, unheard of in Russia. ('No luck yet in getting that across,' Karpova says.) And if Karpova gets to know a child very well and thinks they are being channelled into the wrong school, she speaks up.

'I had one extremely wealthy client who had a very artistic child. He was desperate for the child to study business but I explained there was no interest there. The man said, "How much will it take for you to do as I say?" and at that stage I pulled out. I want the children to be happy.'

A big part of their job is working out the subtle differences between the schools, and then matching the right school to the right child. 'I'll take Charles's opinion of a school,' Karpova explains, 'but I'll also take the opinion of at least three other people. It drives him insane.'

'That's a very communist approach,' Bonas says. 'Where the Russians score is that apart from those who want to be near Heathrow, their applications can cover a wide geographic area, whereas English families think in terms of an hour's drive. Our schools are centres of excellence. It is very difficult, if not impossible, for a child to talk his or her way into somewhere. If you haven't got a really good report from your prep-school headmaster or mistress, if you haven't done particularly well in the pre-tests, and you haven't got other things to offer, such as sport, music, drama, you are not going to get in.'

While Natan and Vassili come over very well on film – they are very game in trying to speak English to the headmaster of Stowe – there is an unfortunate sequence in which they are taken to a stately home in Dorset. This is part of a wider English Mentors programme, to which Bonas contributes, intended to help integrate foreign children into society instead of just leaving them in completely alien boarding schools like lambs to the slaughter. Academic prowess is all very well, Bonas says, but if a child hasn't got the confidence to speak up in an interview or shake a headmaster's hand with pride, he will not win the place.

The film shows a process of 'social integration' that Karpova endorses (which the Russian families also pay for). In Dorset, the brothers are instructed how to shoot and play polo. They have never ridden before, and eye the ponies nervously as Karpova tells them, 'If you play polo you will become… how shall I put it?… part of high society.' It is a toe-curling moment. The boys are then given guns, and also shown how to make a bed with hospital corners. The albeit well-meaning intention of social integration gives the film an unfortunate subtext: that in reality, however good our schools are, the new rich Russians, so at pains not to be seen as 'nouveau', are just as taken with the idea of their children hobnobbing with the aristocracy.

Surely, I say to Bonas, no head teacher will give a hoot about children boasting those sort of skills. They are completely irrelevant to an application. 'Not at all!' he says quickly. 'I can see that it might look a bit contrived, but the boys love history and they loved the house with all its old books. It is so important that a child from abroad fits into a school. Basically head teachers are looking for confident children who will get a lot out of boarding, and I say to the children we look after, "I will be just as happy when I hear you've had your first Sunday lunch with an English family as I will when you get your first academic success." It's about giving them life skills and confidence. It never ceases to amaze me how brave these children are.'

But what about the parents? 'Look,' Bonas says, 'a lot of these Russian clients aren't particularly socially conscious at all. Certainly the family on the film couldn't be more disinterested in social advancement. For other families, would it help if they looked down an intake list and saw a viscount's son there? Perhaps a bit, but not much. Teaching them basic manners, etiquette, deportment – we're not trying to turn these children into little lords. It is actually just giving them the sort of ground rules and life skills that every­body needs.'

Karpova is keen to clarify what the Russian families want. 'When I say they want to mix with "the best of British families", I mean the best in their field, whatever that is,' she says. 'Wealth has nothing to do with it, it is the culture.'

Despite her 10 years in the west, Karpova is still very Russian. It is there in everything she says, in the way she blatantly identifies power in talent and beauty. It is a refreshing change to the unspoken codes of the English, although she says that she is slowly learning those too. 'You English are so polite,' she says, 'and so humble. You don't see that humbleness in Russia at all. Not at all!'

In the film, we see her son, Ivan, fluent in English, become impatient with her because she does not understand the word 'oar' (he is an avid rower at Westminster and she does not understand that either). 'Darling, not all of us had the privilege of being educated at Westminster,' she tells him by way of defence.

I ask her about the cultural divide the success of her business will create between Russian parents and their children. She pauses. 'It is very interesting. But what happens is that the child pushes the family to learn more, to understand the culture more. It is a struggle but I believe it is very important that children do not lose touch with their families.'

Karpova will not tell me her age, but my guess would be mid-thirties. She became pregnant and married very young, while at college, left the father before the birth of her son (he went on to become a very wealthy businessman), divorced and married again – this time an American – only to divorce him too. When Ivan tried to track down his father, they found out that he had disappeared five years ago and that his family now presumed him dead. Suicide? I ask. Karpova shrugs. Murder? She shrugs.

With all the security issues attached to working with billionaires, it can't have been an easy film to make. Karpova certainly does not need the publicity. She tells me she met the documentary's director through a mutual friend: 'I have these enticing things about me,' she explains almost with a sigh. 'The way I look, the way everybody thinks I'm a rocket scientist, the way I was in the Russian Olympic biathlon team for skiing… I did this film because I'm fed up with Russian women always being portrayed as hookers or money-grabbers. There are a lot of us who are very beautiful and very clever and very hard-working with it.'

Source



Calories on menus: do they work?

Calorie counts on menus and fast food: are they a weapon against obesity, or just more nannying from the Government? Comment from Britain:

I can afford the souvlaki — but can I afford the calories? Your lunch choice is about to become anxiety-inducing. Last summer, The Real Greek became the first restaurant chain in the country to include calorie counts of all dishes on its menus. Since then, Pret A Manger, Wimpy and the Camden Food Company have followed its lead. Pizza Hut, Harvester and several pub chains are considering making local trials national. Within two years, calories on menus could be the rule.

They are all trailblazers for an initiative from the Food Standards Agency (FSA), which believes that providing calories on menus will help us to make healthy eating choices. A national consultation ends this week and, if there is enough support from health bodies, consumers and restaurants, the FSA will push for a voluntary roll-out in all restaurants from this summer.

Yet some have raised voices of concern. Actually, say some experts, putting calories on menus makes no sense if you want to create a healthy attitude to food. “Giving people information like this doesn’t change their behaviour,” says Professor Andrew Hill, an eating psychologist. And those helping people with eating disorders worry that it may promote food anxiety. “There is a real feel of nannying about this,” says Emma Healey, of the Eating Disorders Association, now named Beat. “Calorie-counting is joyless.”

Britain is looking to follow the lead of New York City, where in 2008 new laws compelled fast-food, sandwich and restaurant chains to put calorie information on their menus. Since then, similar laws have been introduced in other US cities. The British move came after FSA research suggested that consumers would like to see such information.

“Whether people are grabbing a snack, eating in a staff restaurant or out for a meal with their family, calorie labelling will enable them to see what choices are healthier,” says Tim Smith, the FSA chief executive. According to research, he claims, people shown a calorie count pick products that have, on average, 100 calories fewer than their normal purchase. His enthusiasm for the scheme has been reflected in the response of some of the 21 companies (450 food outlets in all) that piloted the scheme from June last year by displaying calorie information on menus, boards and shelf-edges. Liz Williams, managing director of The Real Greek, says that it has been “positively received” by customers, notably women on calorie-controlled diets. Clive Schlee, of Pret A Manger, says that his company rolled out the pilots nationwide “because we liked the idea so much”.

But research to back the idea has been less conclusive. The FSA has evaluated its pilots but measured only how easy it was for restaurants to implement calorie-count menus, not whether this led customers to choose healthier products.

A New York Department of Health study in 2008-09 found that customers bought food with fewer calories in nine of the 13 food chains that displayed calorie information, while a Stanford University study on calorie-posting in Starbucks reported a 6 per cent fall in average calories per transaction.

Most of the research is double-edged, though. The Starbucks study concluded that a calorie reduction of 6 per cent would have only modest effects on bodyweight, and that people may compensate by eating more at other meals. Indeed, that is what another study, published in the American Journal of Public Health, found: diners given calorie information ate about 14 per cent fewer calories at dinner but made up for it later — and ended up eating just as many calories as uninformed diners.

In another study, 30 per cent of users of fast-food restaurants in New York said that having calories on menus had influenced their meal choice. But when researchers examined their receipts, they found that they were still eating the same number of calories as before.

Neither The Real Greek nor Pret A Manger is adopting the scheme because it believes that it will make people eat more healthily. “I think calorie counts will become the norm,” says Liz Williams of The Real Greek, “but we haven’t really seen any change in what people order.”

So why is the FSA pushing ahead so hard? Catherine Collins, chief dietitian at St George’s Hospital, London, says that giving everyone the same messages about which foods are “healthy” does not take into account the importance of variety in diet, or portion size, or how each food needs to be put in the context of others. “Calories aren’t everything,” she says, adding that the FSA should promote the idea of eating the right balance of starchy foods, fruit and veg, dairy, protein, fat and sugar, and not “demonise” calorific foods. “We are losing that feeling of comfort in food, so we are either eating junk meals or making a fetish of measuring calories.”

A 2008 Ofsted survey indicated that a third of ten-year-old girls were worried about their body shape. According to Emma Healey of Beat, eating disorders are caused by genetics, personality type and “a soup of other influences, such as magazine images”. Calories on menus may add to that confusing soup, she says. “We know that for people recovering from eating disorders, seeing information on the calorie content can throw them back into a world where they obsessively counted calories.”

The FSA will announce its final recommendations in the summer. So far, dieters, trendy chains and policy people love the idea; foodies and small restaurateurs (who see it as hard to implement) hate it; junk food chains will go along with it; and those most at risk of obesity don’t really care.

As a recovered anorexic, I have long since left behind those dark days when I recorded every calorific unit that entered my body. Part of getting better was learning how to eat healthily again.

My counsellor had far better advice than to keep eating until I reached the recommended 2,000 calories a day, then stop. She simply reminded me that for every meal my plate should be balanced, with something such as a third carbohydrate, a third fruit or vegetables, then the next third should have a good chunk of protein with a bit of fat thrown in there, too. This may not be a particularly scientific way of doing it, but it does ensure nutritional balance — unlike counting calories.

Splashing the calorie content of food all over menus will only encourage an unhealthy attitude to food. Eating fewer calories is not necessarily better for everyone. What’s in those calories is just as important. Broadly speaking, people know what food is good for them and what is not. Every day most of us choose to eat food that we know is not particularly good for us. Nobody going into a burger joint is looking for a healthy meal. Isn’t it somewhat pointless, then, to display the calorie counts in such places?

And let’s not forget the “live and let die” argument. I’m not advocating that we encourage obesity and an early grave. If people want dietary advice, it should be available — there is certainly plenty of it out there. The same goes for those who want to give up smoking. But if individuals weigh up the pros and cons and decide that they would rather not restrain their eating, taking the risk of shortening their life, then that should be their choice.

The tentacles of the state increasingly threaten individual choice. Alongside a myriad health and safety measures of the no-conkers-in-the-playground type, recent suggestions range from screening the contents of children’s packed lunches to the banning of butter. For goodness sake, let each of us decide how to feed ourselves!

If your jeans are feeling a bit tight and you want to lose a few pounds, by all means hold off on chocolate, take the stairs at work or get off the bus one stop earlier. Enjoy the freedom to decide for yourself how to approach the battle of the bulge . . . if you want to. In the meantime, let’s reserve the right to dine out free from calorific judgment.

SOURCE





9 March, 2010

The British Labour Party's cult of secrecy is an insult to all Britons

Just weeks before a general election, the prime minister provides a photo-opportunity of himself, posing with our brave boys in Afghanistan. A few hours later, it is announced that no reporters will be permitted to visit the front line during that election campaign, lest what they see and hear should influence the outcome.

Justice minister Jack Straw tells parliament he will not disclose the reason why Jamie Bulger's killer Jon Venables has been returned to prison, lest this prejudice possible future criminal proceedings.

And on Sunday, the BBC's Panorama reported that more than 60 per cent of NHS hospital trusts provide the public with inaccurate information about their performance.

Here, within the space of a few days, is an extraordinary range of examples of the manner in which official secrecy routinely operates in Britain, all year round. The alleged right of the Government and institutions to withhold information - even on issues of the utmost importance to the public interest - is exercised again and again, at the convenience of ministers and civil servants.

In 21st century Britain, a chasm now exists: between the feast of information the sovereign and corporate states possess about us and the crumbs they disclose about themselves. Each of us knows that records of our phone calls, finances, household circumstances, shopping transactions and even physical movements are monitored by thousands of computers and tens of thousands of CCTV cameras.

Perhaps you, like me, have become increasingly reluctant to conduct online shopping transactions that demand, say, 20 lines of personal details. We are aware that such information is likely to be broadcast and sold to scores of other organisations, regardless of whether or not we tick the box for non-disclosure. Making such tiny gestures to protect our privacy is futile amid the floodtide of data that is already jamming networks.

The Government, in contrast, discloses information about its own workings and those of public bodies like a miser paying his bills in 10p coins on the last day of the month. It knows almost everything about us - but we are told vastly less about them than we rightfully should be. The Afghan example above is grotesque. British forces are engaged in a serious war on the far side of the world. The Government has handled it badly - recklessly, even - above all, by under-resourcing. Many soldiers are understandably bitter, as almost every day they experience the consequences of trying to do too much with too little. This is embarrassing for our Government and should be a source of personal shame to the prime minister, if he was capable of such a sentiment.

But it is extraordinary that the Ministry of Defence should deem it acceptable to deny frontline access to the media ahead of polling day, lest reporters discover things that further damage New Labour.

Such behaviour, however, is institutionalised. Take another example: in recent months, evidence has emerged that the huge increase in immigration to Britain since 1997 was endorsed by the Blair regime in pursuit of its own political ends. Some of its principals favoured immigration as a social engineering tool. Blair believed a large influx of immigrants would irreversibly alter the character of Britain towards becoming a multicultural and more left-leaning society. Not only was any hint of such motives concealed at the time, but documentation on this supremely sensitive issue remains to this day locked in Whitehall files.

It is striking to contrast the manner in which this country conducts its official business with that of the United States. Across the Atlantic, there is an overwhelming presumption in favour of disclosure. Congressional committees constantly demand - and receive - information about the inner workings of government departments that in Britain would never be revealed to their parliamentary counterparts.

In the U.S. the Freedom of Information Act really means what it claims - an ordinary individual can exercise a right to be shown material, not least about themselves, which would be denied over here.

In Britain, the demands of security are routinely cited to conceal blunders. Remember the 2008 Gulf fiasco? British sailors and Royal Marines were captured by the Iranians in an incident that became a national humiliation. Some months later, the then defence secretary, the egregious Des Browne, told the Commons that an internal inquiry had been held. But he announced that its entire report was being classified, on security grounds. The Tories limply - and quite wrongly - acquiesced in this.

There were genuine security issues in some parts of the report, which it would have been right to blank out. But concealment of the whole document was designed simply to spare the blushes of the Royal Navy's top brass. Secrecy was abused for convenience, not security. The MoD should never have been allowed to get away with hiding its dirty linen.

More recently, of course, there was last year's Commons expenses scandal. From beginning to end, MPs fought tooth and nail to prevent the disclosure of their abuse of public funds. Their rearguard action was led by the then Speaker, the appalling Michael Martin, today a peer, if you please. Day after day in the courts, at taxpayers' expense, Martin struggled to conceal first the details of his own excesses and then those of hundreds of MPs. In the end, thank goodness, he lost and we won. Every window-box and lavatory seat was exposed. But how can MPs be surprised by the public's abiding suspicion and, indeed, contempt for the system? They strove to defend the indefensible to save their skins.

Most of us find it easy to define the criteria for protecting or revealing official secrets. There is a real public interest in concealing some processes of government, especially diplomacy, for a period of time. There is, however, no public interest in protecting ministers and officials who have blundered from embarrassment.

How many people suppose the details of Jon Venables's reimprisonment are being concealed merely to serve justice? How many, instead, think the justice department's overriding concern is to shield those who released him in the first place?

No U.S. government would dare to exclude the media from the Afghan combat zone when the congressional mid-term elections loom. But our government casually imposes a ban - because it is accustomed to getting away with such abuses.

Britain in 2010 is a more open society than it was in, say, 1960, but that is not saying much. The culture of official secrecy, the belief in the Government's right not to tell us things, remains deep-rooted in every inch of Westminster and Whitehall soil. We must dig and hack at it at every turn, insisting that when ministers and officials deny us information, they are challenged.

If legal super-injunctions to protect celebrities from the exposure of their follies represent an abuse of justice, official secrecy again and again proves an abuse of democracy. Politicians will always lie. That is part of their trade, as the panel of the Iraq Inquiry can testify. But the rightful business of a democracy's media and citizens is to ensure that they cannot manipulate the machinery of government to get away with it.

SOURCE



Ten complaints a day from new mothers in NHS maternity wards

Ten new mothers a day complain about the appalling treatment they receive on overstretched and underfunded maternity wards. The catalogue of complaints ranges from patronising and rude midwives and doctors, to botched deliveries and babies being born in toilets and on reception floors. They paint a bleak picture of a hospital service that is routinely failing women and babies when they are at their most vulnerable.

Hospital spokesmen say the vast majority of new mothers are happy with the service they receive, but MPs and campaigners say the shocking figures are symptomatic of a target-driven health service dangerously short of midwives. Horror stories uncovered by a string of Freedom Of Information requests include:

* An anaesthetist who slurred his words and fell asleep twice in front of a mother-to-be.

* Women giving birth on toilets, in wheelchairs and even on the floor of the reception area.

* Midwives talking on their mobile phones while treating women and arguing with doctors in front of a patients.

* A nurse dropping a gas-and-air unit on the head of a patient.

The FOI requests to 149 hospital trusts with maternity units revealed that 2,792 complaints were lodged last year. However, just 111 trusts replied to the survey. If all had responded, the total number of complaints is likely to have reached 3,700 - or ten a day.

Almost half of the complaints related to bullying, unsympathetic, rude and apathetic staff. Seventy complaints were made about maternity care at Southampton's Princess Anne Hospital, the subject of a Channel 4 fly-on-the-wall documentary called One Born Every Minute.

The Royal College of Midwives says Britain needs another 3,000 midwives to give new mothers the one-to-one care they need. It emerged last year that the nation's midwives are more overworked than they have been for at least a decade and experts believe up to 1,000 babies a year die needlessly because doctors and midwives are too overstretched or poorly trained to detect the warning signs. Maternity units paid out almost £200million in compensation last year.

Lib Dem health spokesman Norman Lamb said the Government warned a culture of red tape and targets was putting midwives under unbearable strain. He added: 'You have good and highly dedicated people but it goes wrong if they are constantly under pressure to meet administrative requirements rather than being able to deliver the best service.'

Anna Davidson, of the Birth Trauma Association, said: 'These figures and examples are not surprising given the things we hear. 'The shortage of midwives is a real problem. We hear of women left on their own to give birth or one midwife trying to cope with eight cases at a time. 'I am sure there are examples of fantastic care and dedication, but we hear from mothers who suffer nightmares, flashbacks and panic attacks. 'They say they have suffered uncontrollable pain, haven't been listened to and were not able to follow their birth plan.'

A Department of Health spokesman said: 'The NHS delivers hundreds of thousands of babies safely every year and England is one of the safest places in the world to have a baby.'

SOURCE



What both Obama and the British Conservatives don't want you to know about green jobs and green energy

Green jobs are a waste of space, a waste of money, a lie, a chimera. You know that. I know that. We’re familiar with the report by Dr Gabriel Calzada Alvarez of the Rey Juan Carlos University in Spain which shows that for every “green job” that is created another 2.2 jobs are LOST in the real economy.

We also know that alternative energy is a fraud – only viable through enormous government (ie taxpayer subsidy) and utterly incapable of answering anything more than a fraction of our energy needs. As Shannon Love puts it here:

"Here’s a fact you won’t see mentioned in the public policy debate over “alternative” energy: There exists no alternative energy source, no combination of alternative energy sources, and no system of combinations of alternative energy sources that can fully replace a single, coal fired electric plant built with 1930s era technology. Nada. Zero. Zilch."

So why are our political leaders setting out quite deliberately to deceive us?

There have many disgustingly revealing stories this week about the dubious practices of the Climate Fear Promotion lobby, but for me the most damning of all was Chris Horner’s scoop at Pajamas Media concerning high level cover-ups by the Obama administration. Like his soul mate Dave Cameron on this side of the pond, Obama finds the narrative about global warming so compelling and moving that he doesn’t want it spoiled with any inconvenient truths regarding green jobs and green energy.

Horner, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, has discovered that when two European reports came out – the Spanish one above; and another one from Denmark on the inefficiency of wind farms – the Obama administration recruited left-wing lobbyists to attack them.

After two studies refuted President Barack Obama’s assertions regarding the success of Spain’s and Denmark’s wind energy programs, a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request reveals the Department of Energy turned to George Soros and to wind industry lobbyists to attack the studies.

Via the FOIA request, the Competitive Enterprise Institute has learned that the Department of Energy — specifically the office headed by Al Gore’s company’s former CEO, Cathy Zoi — turned to George Soros’ Center for American Progress and other wind industry lobbyists to help push Obama’s wind energy proposals.

The FOIA request was not entirely complied with, and CEI just filed an appeal over documents still being withheld. In addition to withholding many internal communications, the administration is withholding communications with these lobbyists and other related communications, claiming they constitute “inter-agency memoranda.” This implies that, according to the DoE, wind industry lobbyists and Soros’s Center for American Progress are — for legal purposes — extensions of the government.

We see something similar going on here in Britain. The taxpayer funded Quango The Carbon Trust is continually pumping out propaganda on behalf of the powerful wind energy lobby; as too is the BBC which cheerfully funded a political broadcast (masquerading as a cri de coeur) by Green activist George Moonbat on its The Daily Politics show earlier this week. In December it was discovered that civil servants working for the government had suppressed evidence that wind farms damage health and disrupt sleep.

Do our political leaders think we’re stupid? Or so supine and malleable that we simply won’t mind being lied to if it’s for our “own good”?

SOURCE (See the original for links)



British university targets have 'devalued' degrees

Labour’s drive to boost the number of teenagers going on to university has “driven down standards” of higher education, according to Britain’s biggest employers. In a stinging pre-election attack, the Association of Graduate Recruiters said the “artificial” growth in undergraduates had created problems for organisations who can no longer differentiate between courses. It also warned that targets designed to increase the number of students from poor backgrounds risked being met at the expense of maintaining high academic standards.

The group – which represents 750 public and private sector organisations including Tesco, PricewaterhouseCoopers, BP, the Crown Prosecution Service and even the Cabinet Office – called on the Government to scrap its long-standing commitment to get at least half of people into university by their 30th birthday.

Business leaders said the goal – first set a decade ago – should be abolished to allow universities to focus on “quality not quantity”. They also called on institutions to give students lessons in basic skills amid fears that too many graduates lack customer awareness, teamwork skills or the ability to communicate with colleagues.

The comments come amid growing controversy over university admissions. In the last decade, the Government has encouraged more school-leavers to strive for higher education. Tens of millions of pounds has been spent on roadshows and publicity campaigns to tempt more sixth-formers into applying and universities have been given benchmarks to raise the number of students recruited from state schools and deprived backgrounds. Almost 400,000 more students are in university this year compared with 1997.

But a sharp increase in the number of applications in 2010 – combined with a freeze on places due to public spending cuts – risks leaving hundreds of thousands without a course this September.

The AGR said that Government’s “artificial” target to raise student numbers had failed to serve the needs of teenagers or British industry. In a report, billed as a pre-election manifesto, the AGR said: “The introduction of a target to get 50 per cent of all under-30s into higher education by 2010 has driven down standards, devalued the currency of a degree and damaged the quality of the student university experience. “Growing numbers of students are studying degree courses which lack rigour in below-average institutions.

“This does not help young people’s life chances or represent a good financial investment. It also creates problems for graduate employers who can no longer be sure what the value of certain degree courses and institutions is. “The focus must shift back to quality rather than quantity, while the offering must adapt to meet the needs of a wider range of backgrounds and abilities.”

Since 1997, the overall number of 18- to 30-year-olds with a degree has increased marginally to just over four-in-10. But a study earlier this year from the Government’s Higher Education Funding Council for England showed a sharp rise in the proportion of teenagers going straight into university from school or college. Some 30 per cent of 18- and 19-year-olds went on to higher education in the mid-1990s compared with 36 per cent by 2010 – an increase of a fifth.

AGR members – which also include BAE Systems, the Bank of England, Goldman Sachs, the National Audit Office, Network Rail and the Royal Mail – collectively recruit 30,000 graduates a year. Its study – “Talent, Opportunity, Prosperity” – backed proposals from universities to introduce a “report card” to give students a detailed list of their achievements alongside raw degree classifications. The existing system of first, second and third-class degrees fails to give employers a realistic picture of graduates’ abilities, it said.

It also called for the gradual phasing out of the cap on tuition fees to allow universities to charge what they like by 2020. Families should be encouraged to save for higher education through a national savings scheme, the AGR said. The study suggested that safeguards should be put in place to encourage students from poor backgrounds to apply but insisted that university admissions should be judged on merit.

This follows concerns from private school leaders that institutions are being put under pressure to make lower grade offers to sixth-formers from poor-performing state schools. Carl Gilleard, AGR chief executive, said: “Yes, we want to see as many young people as possible progress to higher education, but, crucially, only on the basis of academic ability and achievement. Yes, we must widen participation - but not indiscriminately.”

A spokesman for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said: "The economy needs more - not less - highly skilled young people. "We have never suggested that 50 per cent of the population should go directly from school to a conventional three-year degree. Many of these people will already be in the workforce, which is why we set out the need for more flexible modes of study. "Our universities have maintained a world-class reputation for excellence at a time of rapid expansion and we continue to have high levels of graduate employability and consistently high employer and student satisfaction.

"The Government has commissioned an independent review of higher education funding and student finance chaired by Lord Browne. The panel is currently gathering evidence and we will not pre-empt the findings of the review."

David Willetts, the Conservative shadow skills secretary, said: “This is a useful report. I completely agree with the attack on the artificial 50 per cent target. People should go to university when they believe they have the ability to benefit from it – not to meet some top-down target set by Labour ministers.”

But student leaders branded the conclusions “offensive”. Wes Streeting, president of the National Union of Students, said: “The AGR does not seem to appreciate how much its own members benefit from our higher education system. “It is in the long term interest of our economy that the number of highly skilled graduates entering our workforce continues to increase.”

Sally Hunt, general secretary of the University and College Union, said: “The future for the UK is at the forefront of a high-skilled knowledge economy and we won’t get there with less graduates.” [The general secretary of the University and College Union doesn't know the difference between "less" and "fewer"? She has revealed more than she intended, it would seem]

SOURCE



There is a new lot of postings by Chris Brand just up -- on his usual vastly "incorrect" themes of race, genes, IQ etc.





8 March, 2010

The British Labour party hid the ugly truth about the National Health Service

DAMNING reports on the state of the National Health Service, suppressed by the government, reveal how patients’ needs have been neglected. They diagnose a blind pursuit of political and managerial targets as the root cause of a string of hospital scandals that have cost thousands of lives.

The harsh verdict on the state of the NHS, after a spending splurge under Labour between 2000 and 2008, raises worrying questions about the future quality of the health service as budgets are squeezed. One report, based on the advice of almost 200 top managers and doctors, says hospitals ignored basic hygiene to cram in patients to meet waiting-time targets. It says “several interviewees” cited the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells [NHS Trust in Kent where 269 deaths during 2005-6 were caused by infection with Clostridium difficile bacteria].

“Managers crowded in patients in order to meet waiting-time targets and, in the process, lost sight of the fundamental hygiene requirements for infection prevention,” the report stated. There were subsequent failings at health trusts in Basildon in Essex, and Mid Staffordshire. Filthy wards and nurse shortages led to up to 1,200 deaths at Stafford hospital.

Lord Darzi, the former health minister, commissioned the three reports from international consultancies to assess the progress of the NHS as it approached its 60th anniversary in 2008. They have come to light after a freedom of information request.

The first report, by the Massachusetts-based Institute for Healthcare Improvements (IHI), identified the neglect of patients as a serious obstacle to improving the NHS. “The lack of a prominent focus on patients’ interests and needs ... represents a significant barrier to shifting the trajectory of quality improvement in the NHS.” One heading in the report says: “The patient doesn’t seem to be in the picture.” It adds: “We were struck by the virtual absence of mention of patients and families ... whether we were discussing aims and ambition for improvement, measurement of progress or any other topic relevant to quality. “Most targets and standards appear to be defined in professional, organisational and political terms, not in terms of patients’ experience of care.”

This weekend it emerged the recommendations of the reports, intended to help the NHS improve, have not even been circulated. The stark assessments, collected from leading NHS clinicians and managers, include:

* A damaging rift between doctors and managers: “The GP and consultant contracts are de-professionalising, and have had the peculiar effect of simultaneously demoralising and enriching doctors. We’ve lost the volitional work of the doctors and far too many of us are now just working to rule.”

* Pointless new structures. “Stop the restructurings. The only thing they generate is redundancy payments.” One body responsible for improving standards reported to five different ministers and had three different names in the space of 30 months.

* A culture of fear and slavish compliance. “The risk of consequences to managers is much greater for not meeting expectations from above than for not meeting expectations of patients and families.”

The IHI report, whose interviewees included Lord Crisp, chief executive of the NHS between 2000 and 2006, also described a system of self-assessment where only 4% of trusts are externally inspected.

A similar picture emerges in the second report, by the US-based Joint Commission International. It says the “quality and integrity of [NHS]performance data is suspect”. Dennis O’Leary, its lead author and an international expert on patient safety and improvement, said it was not intended as an exposé but as a series of useful suggestions for change. “Our instructions were to pull no punches and tell it like it was, but the report wasn’t overstated,” he said. “It was how we saw things based on interviews with more than 50 people.”

The third report, by the US-based Rand Corporation, expresses surprise at the lack of a requirement to identify the specific drug involved when patient accidents are reported.

In 2008 Darzi issued his own blueprint for the future of the NHS, High Quality Care for All, but resigned from the government last July to return to his surgical commitments. Last week he said: “The NHS is continuing a journey of improvements, moving from a service that has rightly focused on increasing the quantity of care to one that focuses on improving the quality of care.

“High Quality Care for All has gone to every NHS organisation in the country where it is being implemented to ensure that the NHS delivers safe and effective treatment every time, with our patients being treated with compassion, dignity and respect when in our care." A Department of Health spokesman maintained that the three reports were never intended for “wider circulation” and said they were extensively discussed by experts advising Darzi on the production of his report.

However, Brian Jarman, emeritus professor at Imperial College London and an expert in hospital standards, said the findings should have been made available to Robert Francis QC, who led the inquiry into the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust. He said: “These reports have never seen the light of day. We desperately need a better monitoring system for the NHS which actually works.”

SOURCE



Scotland: Fashion guru urges Tories to get 'selfish' on immigration



The Conservative Party's latest high profile supporter has claimed that Britain needs to start being "more selfish" over immigration policy. Tessa Hartmann, the woman behind Scottish Fashion Week, was unveiled by the Tories yesterday as the latest influential figure to back the party north of the Border. The mother-of-four was also the writer and producer of Scotland's first 3D CGI film Sir Billi, and attracted the blockbuster talents of Sir Sean Connery, Dame Shirley Bassey and Alan Cumming.

Yesterday she entered the political sphere for the first time, declaring herself a Conservative supporter because of fears she has over the economy. She said as far as the Labour government was concerned "enough is enough", and that she agreed with the apocalyptic assessment made by the Tory leadership last week that Britain would be bankrupted with five more years of Gordon Brown in Downing Street. Ms Hartmann said: "Just look at what happened to the pound last week when we had the prospect of a Labour government again. That shows you what the rest of the world thinks of this current government."

She added: "We simply can't afford another five years of this Labour government – just look at how the value of the pound slumped when the polls gave Labour a chance. For too long they have taken the Scottish vote for granted. That must come to an end."

However, in an interview with The Scotsman she appeared to conform to the "mean" stereotype the Conservative Party's opponents have been trying to use to portray them.

Despite Mr Cameron having pledged that the foreign aid budget would remain untouched from cuts expected to bring down the national debt of over £1 trillion, Ms Hartmann suggested this was one area which should be looked at. She added that more needed to be done about controlling immigration. "We should be looking after ourselves at home to start with," she said. "We need to start being a bit more selfish."

Her comments were seized on by the Labour Party as portraying the real face of the Tories. A spokesman for Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy said: "This just shows how out of touch the Conservatives still are. Their values are at odds with the generosity of Scots. They are a risk that Scotland cannot afford to take."

Ms Hartmann's support follows the switch last year of leading Scottish QC Paul McBride from Labour to the Conservatives. The Tories hope that high-profile backing will help them in a push for 11 Scottish target seats where they need to make gains. There are fears that if once they return just one seat again north of the Border then Scottish nationalism will be given a boost with a Conservative government in Westminster.

But, Ms Hartmann said that the problem the Conservatives had was people voting traditionally in Scotland and not thinking about what the parties stand for. "Often it is a case of voting for who your grandparents and parents voted for," she said. And she also raised concerns that many would not bother to vote at all, adding: "We have got to get over the message that a Conservative vote is not a wasted vote and that it is the party that can deliver change in the UK."

SOURCE



Photography under threat: The shooting party’s over in Britain

Did you hear the one about the mother banned from taking a snapshot of her baby in the pool? Or the student prevented from photographing Tower Bridge at sunset? Be warned. The authorities now have the power to confiscate your camera — or even arrest you — for daring to take a picture in public

In the eyes of many, the camera has become an offensive weapon, as Peter Dunwell discovered when he travelled from Grimsby to London in January. Coming down by train with a work colleague, Dunwell planned to make a photo-journal of their trip. At King’s Cross he took out his Sony Handycam and started to photograph the arrivals board and station. Two police community-support officers approached and told him to stop. Sure, PCSOs are agents of the state whose job it is to stand by while others drown (as happened in the case of a 10-year-old boy) but intervene in anything none too dangerous. And yes, King’s Cross is sensitive to the threat of terrorism because the London bombers arrived there before going their separate ways on the Tube to murder 52 people in 2005. But Dunwell, a middle-aged man of middle build with middling-brown hair, doesn’t look much of a terrorist. He looks more like the manager of a Jessops camera shop, which is what he is. Though his colleague has dyed blonde hair and pierced ears, there’s no law against that, yet.

In fact, the PCSOs did not suspect him at all of plotting to blow King’s Cross to smithereens. They told him to put his camera away simply “because people don’t want you taking their photographs”. Kamera verboten.

Nobody had complained or objected. Authority had taken its own decision that the British public did not wish to appear in Dunwell’s photograph, even if only in the background. Dunwell was shocked and embarrassed. “It made me feel like I was a paedophile,” he says. “I wasn’t doing anything wrong or illegal. It says something about our attitudes, our freedoms and restrictions on life that you can’t even take a photograph.”

In the most spied-on country in the world, with an estimated 4.2m CCTV cameras tracking our moves, people are now suspicious if Joe Nikon presses his shutter button. In one way Dunwell’s incident was so bittersweet it was almost comical. He had come to London to attend a demonstration in Trafalgar Square about precisely this: the rising tide of restrictions on public photography. That day hundreds of photographers gathered in the square — where you can now only take a commercial photograph if you pay for a special permit — to protest that they are not terrorists, paedophiles or paparazzi invaders of privacy. They’re just enthusiasts pursuing life through a single-lens reflex.

The protestors came in all shapes and sizes: tall, short, fish-eyed and wide-angled. Some were as tatty as their cameras, bandaged together with tape, others were in cashmere and corduroys with the latest kit. Among them was Jane Hobson, a photography student. Shortly before Christmas, Hobson was on a student exercise taking pictures in central London. Outside City Hall, security guards ordered her to stop. “They just said it wasn’t allowed, even though I was on a public highway. Another time I was stopped while taking pictures of Tower Bridge at twilight.”

Many photographers believe more is at stake than a few lost shots of iconic buildings. Eyeing up the fading light, they see darkness falling on personal freedoms and a whole strand of social history. “Look at the Victorians and Edwardians,” says Hobson. “Photographs tell us so much of what it was like then. We’re in danger of losing that.” And Simon Moran, a photographer who hosts the UK Photographers’ Rights Guide on his website, says: “Some of the greatest pieces of photographic art we have — reportage and street photography and cityscapes — wouldn’t be possible if people didn’t have the freedom to go around and take pictures without being stopped.”

One of the most beguiling properties of photographs is their ability to expand over time. When you capture an image, often spontaneously, it is a single moment framed in stillness. A child’s innocent smile, perhaps, a lover’s glance, a silhouette etherised against a sundown sky. Look again in 5, 10 or 50 years and that image will have grown far beyond a 7x5in print into a lost world all of its own: a life that might have been; a culture vanished; a childhood of happy, crazy days. Did we really wear those fashions? And look at that hair!

From animals daubed on cave walls to Martin Parr painting modern life with a camera, man has always recorded the world around him. It’s personal memory and public history, and, say photographers, it’s under threat.

If such claims seem alarmist, consider a famous image by Jimmy Sime from 1936. It shows a group of five boys standing by the road in Eton and brilliantly portrays the social divide of the time. Three are local boys in open-neck shirts and scruffy trousers or shorts, looking agog at the other two, who are Eton pupils immaculate in top hats, ties and waistcoats, walking canes in hand. The facial expressions still speak across the years. To capture such an image now, you would need the permission of all the boys, via their parents or the school. Without it, the pixel police step in, either in person or in the form of self-censorship. When a recent BBC programme filmed Eton pupils walking along the road outside the college, it blurred the faces of every one.

Photographing adults, even our most taxpayer-funded figureheads, is also becoming off limits. In December some of Her Majesty’s loyal peasants tried to snap the Queen and members of the royal family as they were going to church near Sandringham. A heinous crime obviously — so the police moved in and confiscated their cameras. Kate Middleton, a royal-in-waiting as Prince William’s on-off girlfriend, threatened legal action after being snapped at Christmas on a tennis court close to a public footpath. Her lawyers sought damages for invasion of privacy. At the time of writing the case was unresolved, but was expected to be settled in Middleton’s favour

Many photographers blame changes in the law for the antipathy that has developed towards them. One European court ruling, involving Princess Caroline of Monaco, judged that taking photographs of her was an invasion of her privacy even when she was in a public place. Yet other celebrities court such pictures. Some photographers complain they are now uncertain where the boundaries lie.

In photography journals and blogs, professionals and keen amateurs also take aim at the Terrorism Act of 2000. Section 44 of the act gave police more power to stop and search people in specified areas. That might sound reasonable — until you learn that large tracts of London, every big rail station in the UK and many other sites have been quietly designated specified areas. To make matters more confusing, details of which areas have been designated are often not disclosed in case it might help terrorists. It’s 1984 meets Catch-22. Previously the police had at least to cite reasonable grounds for suspicion in order to stop and search you; now they don’t. If you’re wearing a loud shirt, walking on the pavement cracks, or carrying a camera, you’re fair game.

The law also allows officers to view images in your phone or camera. Officers are not allowed to delete them — but they can seize and retain any item that an officer “reasonably suspects is intended for use in connection with terrorism”.

At the same time terrorism shares a powerful characteristic with paedophilia: they both fuel a climate of fear that spreads far beyond their immediate or likely victims. In the aftermath of the child murders of Sarah Payne in 2000 and Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in Soham in 2002, local officials went to Defcon 2 on paedo-alert throughout the country. Pre-emptive bans and jobsworth enforcement have become the norm, as Kevin Yuill, a university lecturer, discovered when he picked up his daughter from a ballet class at a Durham leisure centre.

“She was 10, and for her to apply for the Royal Ballet School she had to have some pictures of certain poses,” recalled Yuill. “I’d arranged with her ballet teacher, a middle-aged woman, to help me with the poses while I took pictures. I was stopped by the manager of the centre and told I needed permission to take pictures. I said, ‘From who? Who exactly do I need permission from? I’m her father.’ She said I’d need to get central permission, from the council, to take pictures in a leisure centre of my own child.” Despite his protestations, the manager insisted Yuill took no photos. “It’s outrageous,” he says. “I’m not allowed to take pictures of my own child. And her ballet teacher, a 60-year-old woman, was there. She was outraged too. It’s not about protecting children, it’s about something else. I dislike the idea of government being the only people allowed to take pictures, which is what this appears to be.”

Age, gender and location make little difference. In Fareham, Hampshire, an older couple were stopped from taking pictures of their grandchildren in a shopping centre because photography was banned. They were ordered to leave. In a park in Oldham, a young couple were stopped from taking pictures of their 11-month-old baby when a warden told them it was “illegal”. In recent months a man was questioned by police for taking pictures of the Christmas lights in Brighton; and in Kent a man was arrested after he took pictures of Mick’s Plaice, a fish-and-chip shop. Haddock fundamentalism has yet to emerge as a major threat, but you never know.

The legal position remains badly focused. Case law on privacy is developing. Certain laws relating to private property can encompass photography — you might be pursued for trespass if you took a photograph on private property without permission. And taking photographs against a subject’s will could be held to be harassment.

The lack of any specific law banning photography in public places is little comfort. The uncertainty itself is insidious, says Hadaway. “There is this huge space for people to impose rules. The government and the police say that no, there’s no law that prevents you from taking photographs. But petty authority pushes for greater control.”

More HERE



More class size nonsense in Britain

With good discipline even class sizes of 60 can be satisfactory -- except perhaps for the very young. See here and here and here and here and here

Thousands of primary school children are being taught in supersized classes of more than 40 pupils, according to figures. At least 210 state school teachers were regularly leading lessons of at least 41 children last year, it was disclosed. In addition, around one-in-eight children in England are in classes of more than 30, despite fears pupils struggle for attention in huge lessons.

Opposition MPs seized on the disclosure, saying that Labour had failed to keep a promise made in 1997 to significantly cut class sizes. It follows figures published last year that showed the UK had some of the biggest lessons in the developed world. Only six other countries place under-11s in larger groups, it was revealed. Pupils in eastern European nations such as Hungary, Poland, Slovenia and Russia were among those enjoying smaller classes.

David Laws, the Liberal Democrat schools spokesman, said: "It's shocking that there are thousands of young children being taught in these huge classes. "Massive classes are difficult for teachers to control and children who are struggling can lose out on the extra help they need."

Michael Gove, the Conservative shadow schools secretary, said: “Parents want schools built on a human scale where heads know the names of their children. “The Government has been going in the wrong direction.”

Labour introduced legislation in 1997 making it illegal for under-sevens to be taught in large classes. According to the latest figures, some 460,000 under-11s in England – one-in-eight – were taught in groups of more than 30 last year. Some 10,070 were in classes of at least 41 pupils, it was revealed. The worst area was Manchester, where 1,367 were in huge lessons, while 1,267 were affected in Stoke-on-Trent. Hertfordshire, Hull and the London borough of Merton also had hundreds of children in large classes.

A spokesman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families said: "Over the last 10 years we have massively increased the number of adults teaching children. “Over 98 per cent of infant classes are under the statutory limit and the average size is 26.2. “We expect local authorities and schools to take their legal responsibility to limit class sizes very seriously. There can be no excuses for any infant class that is unlawfully over the legal limit.”

SOURCE







Stories from a very strange place. Not even Kafka could have envisaged a country where only 2.5% of the police force are actually available to assist the public -- but that is modern Britain. Yes: 2.5%, not 25%.


Postings from Brisbane, Australia by John Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.) -- former member of the Australia-Soviet Friendship Society, former anarcho-capitalist and former member of the British Conservative party.


Some TERMINOLOGY for non-British readers: The British "A Level" exam is roughly equivalent to a U.S. High School diploma. Rather confusingly, you can get As, Bs or Cs in your "A Level" results. Entrance to the better universities normally requires several As in your "A Levels".


Again for American readers: A "pensioner" is a retired person living on Social Security


Consensus. Margaret Thatcher in a 1981 speech: "For me, pragmatism is not enough. Nor is that fashionable word "consensus."... To me consensus seems to be the process of abandoning all beliefs, principles, values and policies in search of something in which no one believes, but to which no one objects—the process of avoiding the very issues that have to be solved, merely because you cannot get agreement on the way ahead. What great cause would have been fought and won under the banner "I stand for consensus"?


For my sins I have always loved G.B. Shaw's witty comment: "No Englishman can open his mouth without causing another Englishman to despise him". But Shaw was Irish, of course.


Britain has enormous claims to fame -- most of which the Labour goverment has been doing its best to destroy. But one glory no-one can destroy is British humour. And if you don't "get" British humour, your life is a dreary desert indeed. A superb sample here


Here is a link to my favourite British political speech since WWII. It is by Nigel Farage, the Leader of the UK Independence Party. He is referring to the Fascistic decision by the EU parliament to act as if their huge new "constitution" had been approved by the voters when in fact majorities in France, Ireland and Nederland (Holland) have rejected it at the ballot box. He points out that abuse is all they have to offer when he points out the impropriety of their actions.

Farage's expression, "A complete shower" is British slang meaning a group of completely incompetent and useless failures. It originated in the British armed forces where its unabbreviated version was "A complete shower of sh*t".


Britain appears to be the first country where anti-patriotism gained strong hold. Even Friedich Engels (the co-worker with Karl Marx who died in 1895) was a furious German patriot. Much of the British elite were anti-patriotic from the early 20th century onwards, however. The "Cambridge spies" (from one of Britain's two most prestigious universities) are a good example of that. Although Cambridge appears to have been the chief nest of spies-to-be in Britain of the 30s, however, Oxford was also very Leftist. In 1933 (9th Feb.) the Oxford Union debated the motion: "This House will in no circumstances fight for King and Country". The motion was overwhelmingly carried (275 to 153).


I have an abiding fascination with the Church of England. It is the sort of fascination one might have for a once-distinguished elderly relative who has gone bad and become a slave to the bottle. But nothing I can say about the C of E (which these days seems to stand for The Church of the Environment) could surpass what the whole of English literature says of it -- which ranges from seeing it as a collection of nincompoops and incompetents to seeing it as comprised of evil hypocrites. Yet its 39 "Articles of Religion" of 1562 are an abiding and eloquent statement of Protestant faith. But I guess that 1562 is a long time ago.


Links about antisemitism in 21st century Britain here and here and here


The intellectual Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180) could well have been thinking of modern Britain when he said: "The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."


On all my blogs, I express my view of what is important primarily by the readings that I select for posting. I do however on occasions add personal comments in italicized form at the beginning of an article.


I am rather pleased to report that I am a lifelong conservative. Out of intellectual curiosity, I did in my youth join organizations from right across the political spectrum so I am certainly not closed-minded and am very familiar with the full spectrum of political thinking. Nonetheless, I did not have to undergo the lurch from Left to Right that so many people undergo. At age 13 I used my pocket-money to subscribe to the "Reader's Digest" -- the main conservative organ available in small town Australia of the 1950s. I have learnt much since but am pleased and amused to note that history has since confirmed most of what I thought at that early age.

I imagine that the RD are still sending mailouts to my 1950s address


The kneejerk response of the Green/Left to people who challenge them is to say that the challenger is in the pay of "Big Oil", "Big Business", "Big Pharma", "Exxon-Mobil", "The Pioneer Fund" or some other entity that they see, in their childish way, as a boogeyman. So I think it might be useful for me to point out that I have NEVER received one cent from anybody by way of support for what I write. As a retired person, I live entirely on my own investments. I do not work for anybody and I am not beholden to anybody. And I have NO investments in oil companies, mining companies or "Big Pharma"


UPDATE: Despite my (statistical) aversion to mining stocks, I have recently bought a few shares in BHP -- the world's biggest miner, I gather. I run the grave risk of becoming a speaker of famous last words for saying this but I suspect that BHP is now so big as to be largely immune from the risks that plague most mining companies. I also know of no issue affecting BHP where my writings would have any relevance. The Left seem to have a visceral hatred of miners. I have never quite figured out why.


I am an army man. Although my service in the Australian army was chiefly noted for its un-notability, I DID join voluntarily in the Vietnam era, I DID reach the rank of Sergeant, and I DID volunteer for a posting in Vietnam. So I think I may be forgiven for saying something that most army men think but which most don't say because they think it is too obvious: The profession of arms is the noblest profession of all because it is the only profession where you offer to lay down your life in performing your duties. Our men fought so that people could say and think what they like but I myself always treat military men with great respect -- respect which in my view is simply their due.


Although I have been an atheist for all my adult life, I have no hesitation in saying that the single book which has influenced me most is the New Testament. And my Scripture blog will show that I know whereof I speak.


Many people hunger and thirst after righteousness. Some find it in the hatreds of the Left. Others find it in the love of Christ. I don't hunger and thirst after righteousness at all. I hunger and thirst after truth. How old-fashioned can you get?