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30 September, 2009

Britain's NHS? It's about as good as the health system in Slovenia

The National Health System is on a par with Slovenia and the Czech Republic, according to an analysis by European researchers. The NHS came 14th out of 33 European countries, making it one of the worst systems in Western Europe. The study - the Euro Health Consumer Index - found the NHS performed particularly badly on waiting times, even though these have fallen thanks to Labour targets. The survey says that the NHS is dragged down by waiting lists but the Department of Health claims the report is 'flawed'

It is also one of the least efficient, delivering less service per pound put in. The annual survey is by HealthConsumer Powerhouse, which campaigns for social insurance type systems rather than nationalised models such as the NHS. It ranks 33 systems on 38 factors such as patient rights, waiting times and access to medicines. Total possible score is 1,000 points and the Netherlands tops the list with 875, followed by Denmark (819) and Iceland (811). The UK, with 682 points, ranks just behind Ireland's 701. Lowest ranking of all was Bulgaria's 448 points. The NHS ranking was just above former Communist states Slovenia and the Czech Republic but below France, Germany and Ireland. It did rank better than Italy however.

The Netherlands is the only country which has consistently ranked in the top three during the five years the survey has been carried out.

But the UK's has been steadily increasing. It could have been higher this time, but the report comments: 'A mixed performance is shown by the UK: the overall UK score is dragged down by waiting lists and uneven quality performance'.

A spokesman for the Department of Health said: 'Once again, the European Consumer Health Index report is based on flawed methodology and old data. 'There is a lot of credible and up-to-date evidence available showing just what great strides have been taken, on the back of record investment, in improving NHS services across the country. 'The NHS is treating more people and saving more lives than at any time in its history with waiting times at their lowest levels since records began.' 'Twelve years ago it was not uncommon for patients to have to wait over 18 months for an operation. 'Record investment and dedicated staff have given patients the shortest waits since NHS records began with average waits from referral to start of treatment at around eight weeks for admitted patients and four weeks for non-admitted patients.' [We won't mention the many "fudges" used to produce those figures]

SOURCE



Senior British hospital doctor could face charges after jury rules patient died of gross neglect

A consultant could face a manslaughter investigation after a cancer patient died when she was mistakenly prescribed a lethal overdose of chemotherapy, an inquest heard. Anna McKenna, 56, was given four times the recommended daily amount of Idarubicin to treat her bone marrow cancer. Mother-of-five Mrs McKenna should have taken 60mg of the drug over four days, but was told to take 60mg per day.

Yesterday Avon Deputy Coroner Brian Whitehouse heard a jury return a narrative verdict of manslaughter due to gross neglect after a jury returned a majority decision of eight to two. The ruling now means that the CPS will review its decision that there was no criminal case to answer.

Anna's family told the five-day hearing that blundering doctors ''panicked'' and tried to ''cover up'' the error by refusing to tell them she had been given the wrong medication. The overdose destroyed Anna's infection-fighting white blood cells, leaving her immune system powerless against disease. She developed renal failure and died at the Bristol Oncology Centre three weeks later on April 18 2006.

Dr Jacqueline James, a consultant haematologist at Frenchay Hospital in Bristol, admitted the blunder at the inquest and said she was ''very sorry'' for what happened. Recording a verdict of manslaughter due to gross neglect yesterday, Avon deputy coroner Brian Whitehouse said: ''I offer my sincere condolences to the family."

Mrs McKenna, a housewife from Knowle, Bristol, was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a cancer of the bone marrow, in March 2006 and prescribed a course of chemotherapy tablets. Her condition was terminal, the treatment was administered in the hope of prolonging her life. Without the medication, doctors gave her just two years to live. But Mrs McKenna was given a prescription for 60mg of Idarubicin per day, instead of the usual 15mg or 20mg per day. The drug left her in agonising pain, suffering with vomiting and diarrhoea. It also sparked a high fever and led to renal failure.

Her daughter Nancy McKenna said: ''It was such a traumatic experience for my whole family seeing our mum like that. You wouldn't treat your dog the way they were treating her. ''Mum was rushed to hospital after being so ill for many days. When we got there we told the doctor that she had been given an overdose and she told me to go home and bring in the medication mum was on. ''I brought it in and the doctor looked at it. I kept on and on as did the rest of the family about the fact she had been overdosed but no one was listening. ''We told the doctors treating mum that we thought she had been given the wrong dose of Idarubicin and we maintain that."

Dr James admitted prescribing four times the recommended dose and said: ''I am very sorry that a mistake was made.'' Verdict: Manslaughter due to gross neglect.

Outside court a family statement, read by solicitor Kerstin Scheel, said: ''The family of Mrs McKenna have been absolutely devastated by her sudden and unnecessary death in April, 2006. ''They feel extremely angry not only that such a serious mistake was made in her prescription but also that this was not found by the pharmacist who was supposed to act as a safety net to the patient. ''They greatly hope that this will never happen again to another patient and that the new safeguards in place will make a difference for others in the future. ''Anna was a devoted wife, mother and grandmother and is sorely missed by her whole family.''

Chris Burton, medical director of North Bristol NHS Trust, said: ''North Bristol NHS Trust would like to take this opportunity to repeat it's sincere apologies and condolences to Mrs McKenna's family and friends. ''The trust has cooperated fully with external investigations into the circumstances surrounding Mrs McKenna's death. ''Patient safety is our priority and following Mrs McKenna's death we made immediate and significant changes to our procedures around prescribing and issuing Idarubicin.''

A spokesman for Avon and Somerset police said: ''South Gloucestershire police investigated the circumstances surrounding the death of Anna McKenna in 2006 and prepared a file for the Crown Prosecution Service. ''After consideration by specialist lawyers, the CPS decided that there was not a criminal case to answer and police submitted a file to the coroner. ''Following the verdict of unlawful killing, the case will be reviewed in liaison with the CPS. South Gloucestershire police again offer their sincere sympathy to the family of Anna McKenna for their loss.''

SOURCE



British school admissions reforms 'failing'

A £15m Labour plan to get poor pupils into the best state schools has had a “minimal effect”, according to research. But if it had succeeded, the schools concerned would no longer be "best". Feral students will destroy any school in the absence of strict discipline and strict discipline is a distant memory in British schools

The reforms – introduced in 2006 – have benefited less than one child in 100 and are just as likely to help pupils from middle-class families, it was disclosed. Every local council in England is required to run a team of “choice advisers” to make the school admissions system fairer.

Under plans, they are supposed to advise parents about secondary school admissions policies, help them fill out forms and provide information on uniform policies, the curriculum, term dates, travel details and understanding league tables and Ofsted reports.

Launching the programme four years ago, ministers said they would “have a real impact on ensuring that all parents are armed with the information they need to find the right school for their child”. They were introduced alongside a more stringent system of school admissions rules to stop head teachers selecting bright pupils from middle-class backgrounds.

But a study by Sheffield Hallam University said the high-profile reforms had an “incommensurate” impact. “The proportion of children benefiting from the service is, and in any likely policy context could only ever be, tiny,” it said. “While it substantially benefited a small group of parents, some of whom were very needy, it had a minimal effect on the numbers of poorer parents gaining entry to the more popular schools.”

This year, one in six children failed to get into their preferred secondary school. In some areas, such as London, where parents face the stiffest competition for places, up to half of 11-year-olds missed out.

Researchers led by Professor John Coldron, from the centre for education and inclusion research, studied the impact of choice advisers in 15 local authorities. The report said 73,000 children transferred between primary and secondary schools in the affected areas but only 602 had contact with a choice adviser. It represented 0.8 per cent of parents, but only half of those were from the poorest families, the study said.

Researchers suggested other parents taking advantage of the additional help were from middle-class backgrounds. “We dubbed them ‘well-informed, but anxious’,” said Prof Coldron. “They were parents who wanted to ensure no stone was left unturned in their attempt to make sure children got into the best schools.”

The report said the initiative had failed because it ignored the fact that postcode was the “main driver” of school “segregation”. It suggested that – even with the help of advisers – many poor families could not get into the best state schools because they did not live in the catchment area. The study also found that many parents did not want to send children several miles to sought-after schools, preferring the local comprehensive irrespective of quality. "While the choice advice service has delivered a valuable service to a few needy families, the proportion helped was so small it could not make any significant impact on the larger process of segregation of schools and therefore had a minimal impact on the fairness of admissions," it found.

A spokeswoman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families said: "We’ve outlawed covert selection and given all parents a fair and equal chance to get into a school of their choice through the mandatory admissions code. Choice advisers target families that need the most help with the application and appeal process – it was never designed to deliver fair access for all parents so it is disingenuous for this research to claim it was.

"Parents now have more choice because there are undeniably more good schools and standards have gone up across the board.The vast majority of parents will get a place at a school of their choice - most at their first choice school. We have given the admissions watchdog real teeth to police the system and crack down on unfair admissions.”

SOURCE



"Green" British councils escalate their war on garbage

Worried residents thought their rubbish was being stolen when council 'spies' dressed in hoodies started rifling through their bins. Concerned neighbours saw mysterious men emptying their bins into black sacks and loading them into an unmarked white van. When homeowners questioned the official binmen an hour later they learned their council was conducting a survey of what was being thrown away.



The 'spies' were part of a week-long waste analysis study by the Northamptonshire Waste Partnership, a collaboration of eight local authorities working to reduce rubbish going to landfill. An external contractor was told to go through the bins of residents. One thousand houses were targeted as part of the survey, including 780 in Northamptonshire.

But none of the inhabitants of Cedar Close, Irchester, near Wellingborough, Northants, had received any notice from their council about what was going on. Resident Gillian Barnett, 61, said the snoopers made her feel 'very uncomfortable'. She said: 'Three young men parked outside my house and just started going through my bins - I thought they were pinching my rubbish. It was very suspicious. 'We haven't had a leaftlet or a letter, all my neighbours were going round asking each other what was happening. 'If they'd had "County Council" marked on their van it would have been less concerning but as it was nobody knew what was going on. 'It made me worry about what I had put in the bin - I didn't know I was going to be fined or what. 'I heard this was happening in nearby streets like Pine Close too.'

Another resident, who asked to remain anonymous, slammed the council for using 'Big Brother' tactics.

Corby, Kettering and Wellingborough Borough Councils have authorised waste experts Resource Futures to go through the bins of people living in their boroughs as part of this survey. This was to provide Project Reduce - a £138million government-funded enterprise headed by Northamptonshire County Council and Milton Keynes Council - with information about what was being sent to landfills.

Matthew Elliott, chief executive at the TaxPayers' Alliance, condemned Northampton County Council for what he described as an 'aggressive' campaign. He said: 'This sneaky behaviour on the part of the council is underhand and alarming. 'Taxpayers are sick and tired of being spied on by their councils, it is an infringement of both their dignity and personal space. 'People are doing all they can to recycle, if they are throwing something away it's because they have to. 'This approach is unnecessarily aggressive and a waste of taxpayers' money and precious resources.'

But a Northampton County Council spokeswoman insisted the survey was purely for informative purposes. She said: 'This is not a punitive measure and all data gathered will be kept strictly confidential. 'We just want to gather more information about what people are throwing away so we can target our resources to better meet their needs.'..

Corby Council lead member for the environment Cllr Peter McEwan said: 'Landfill charges are currently in excess of £60 per tonne and rising. 'It is vital that we continue to search for cleaner, greener ways to treat and dispose of our rubbish.'

SOURCE



BROKEN BRITAIN -- THE PRODUCT OF A CHAOTIC AND PERVERSE LEGAL SYSTEM

Seven articles below on where the complete destruction of moral and ethical standards by 12 years of socialist rule leads -- where "There is no such thing as right and wrong" and the criminal needs "assistance", not punishment. In their hatred of their own society, the Left are good at making criminals out of ordinary people, though. They make right wrong and wrong right and seem to think that is clever. Havoc in many people's lives is the result

Lazy British police blamed in car blaze deaths

The woman should have told the cops that the thugs were using hate speech. Then they would have been there like a shot. Only political crimes interest them. They have no time for real crime

Police and council failings led a mother who had been terrorised by a gang of youths for years to kill herself and her severely disabled daughter, a jury decided yesterday. Leicestershire Constabulary’s failure to respond properly to Fiona Pilkington’s repeated pleas for help contributed to her decision to set fire to her car when she and her daughter Francecca, 18, were inside it.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission last night launched an investigation into the way that officers handled more than 30 pleas for help from Ms Pilkington, while Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary, said that the force and council had “some hard lessons” to learn.

During the six-day inquest at Loughborough Town Hall, the jury heard how Ms Pilkington, a 38-year-old single mother, had been petrified about the future for her daughter, who had a mental age of 3. Francecca had left her special-needs school and required round-the-clock care.

Her mother’s fears were compounded by the thuggish behaviour of a gang that repeatedly targeted the family. The inquest heard that Ms Pilkington rang police 33 times in ten years to plead for help. Some of the gang were members of the Simmons family, neighbours said last night.

It was on October 21, 2007, that Ms Pilkington gave Francecca the family pet rabbit to hold, drove to a secluded lay-by at the side of the A47 near their home in Barwell, doused old clothes with petrol and set them alight. The explosion killed them both.

In returning their verdicts yesterday, the inquest jury listed a catalogue of errors by the police force, the borough council and county council social workers, and concluded that they had “contributed” to the deaths of Ms Pilkington and her daughter.

Chris Eyre, Chief Constable of Leicestershire, issued an “unreserved” apology last night, adding: “The vulnerability of the family was not picked up. We recognise that we need to have a better response to low-level antisocial behaviour.”

Mr Johnson described the case as “shocking and immensely distressing”. The Home Secretary added: “For more than a decade, the Pilkington family suffered intimidation at the hands of a local gang, culminating in a sustained level of abuse that no family should have to tolerate.”

The jury’s findings are highly damaging to the Government’s policy on policing, in which every neighbourhood has a dedicated team of officers. Each team is expected to respond to local residents’ problems and deal with antisocial behaviour before it grows into serious criminality.

Although both Labour and the Conservative Party remain committed to neighbourhood policing, the evidence raises questions about whether the theory is being reflected in practice and also whether police and local councils are serious about dealing with antisocial behaviour.

It is also embarrassing for the Government and police that the failures occurred in Leicestershire, where the Chief Constable until recently was Matt Baggott, the architect of the national neighbourhood policing strategy. Mr Baggott is now Chief Constable of Northern Ireland. [Baggott the maggot]

More HERE



British police not interested in crime by the young

Don't call us for help about yobs - hooligans are councils' problem, says top police officer

Dealing with antisocial behaviour and ' low-level' hooliganism is no longer the responsibility of the police, a senior officer said yesterday. Superintendent Steve Harrod, speaking at the inquest of a mother and her disabled daughter who were hounded to their deaths by yobs, said it is now the responsibility of local councils since a law change in 1998.

The officer, head of criminal justice at Leicestershire Police, said officers were allowed to hand out only reprimands and 'final warnings' to young thugs unless their offences were 'serious'. He said: 'I'm not sure if people know, but low-level anti-social behaviour is mainly the responsibility of the council.'

His evidence led jurors to openly question the police's strategy at the inquest into the deaths of Fiona Pilkington, 38, who died with her daughter Francecca, 18, when she turned their car into a fireball to escape a decade of abuse from feral youths in her street in Barwell, Leicestershire.

The youths, some aged only ten, had laid siege to their house and thrown stones and eggs at their windows, and at one point her son Anthony was marched at knifepoint to a shed. Police had repeatedly ignored their cries for help, dismissing the despairing mother as 'over-reacting'.

Mr Harrod appeared to blame the 'frustrating' judicial system for the failure to tackle the yobs who made the family's life hell. He told the hearing at Loughborough Town Hall that it was 'difficult' for officers to tackle ever-changing gangs of children. He said: 'I am not saying that officers do not get frustrated with not being able to do some things. It is extremely difficult.'

A new way of dealing with youth offending was ushered in with the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, he said. Instead of locking up young offenders, there is now a sliding scale that starts with a 'reprimand' for a first instance of offending, and moves up to a 'final warning'. A criminal charge is considered only if these options have been exhausted several times. Mr Harrod said: 'It is still possible to jump straight to a charge for a serious offence, but if it is only anti-social behaviour, this would be highly unlikely.'

He said the purpose of the new system was to prevent youngsters from being 'criminalised' - prompting one juror to ask: 'If they commit a crime, do they not bring the criminality on themselves?' The policeman replied: 'From a police point of view, what we want to do with any criminals is to prevent re-offending. From my personal experience, if a juvenile goes in to detention, they are likely to mix with like-minded people during their time there and they are more likely to reoffend.'

The policing of anti-social behaviour and abuse by young people has been a key issue at the inquest into the deaths of Miss Pilkington and her severely disabled daughter.

Their bodies were found in a burned-out Austin Maestro in a layby close to their home on October 23, 2007.

Miss Pilkington felt 'under siege' for more than ten years from a gang of 16 young people, who pelted the family home with stones, mocked and taunted Francecca and threatened and assaulted Anthony, now 19.

She recorded in a diary of despair how she used to sit in the dark in her lounge until 2.30am willing the young thugs to move away from her house.

Police were called 33 times but no one was ever charged with a criminal offence in connection with the harassment.

The only action taken against the yobs was eight days after the deaths when the council took a 'problem family' to court. The family was given an injunction after Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council applied to Nuneaton County Court.

The children in the family were reported as 'engaging in name-calling, taunts, damage to the family property and threats to the children to the extent that the family felt effectively prisoners in their own home'.

The inquest heard that attempts by police had failed to deal with the family, who 'refused to accept that their children had done anything wrong'.

The inquest heard that Leicestershire County Council launched a serious case review into the way the authorities handled the care of Miss Pilkington, her teenage daughter and severely dyslexic son Anthony, now 19.

It found there were a number of failings including a failure by the county council, Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council and Leicestershire Police to share information about the family, their disabilities and the abuse they were receiving.

The inquest was adjourned until Monday when it is expected to deliver verdicts.

SOURCE



British police tell mother attacked by yobs at home: 'We won't send anyone... it may escalate the problem'

A mother who was punched to the floor in her own home by yobs was stunned when police advised her not to call officers to her house - because it would 'escalate' the problem. Nikki Collen, 39, begged officers for help after a thug kicked in her front door and punched her to the floor in her hallway. After her attacker fled, Nikki rang Warwickshire Police who promised to send an officer to her home in Kenilworth.

But an hour later she received a phone call from a woman police officer who told her it would be better if police did not attend because it might inflame the situation.

Mother-of-two Nikki, who is studying an Open University degree in nursing, said: 'I couldn't believe it. 'I was attacked and wanted to report it but the officer was persuading me not to press charges. 'She even told me that if the bullies saw a police officer at my home it could escalate the problem further. 'I was so scared I asked what I should do and she told me to try and sort it out on my own. I was really upset and felt really alone. 'It's a horrendous way to live and has got to the stage where I fear going out because of the abuse I will get. 'I can't cope with it and need some help from authorities. I've just had enough and need to move. Why should I put up with this?'

Nikki, who lives with her son Josh, 17, and daughter Demi, 13, have been subjected to a terrifying campaign of harassment after a minor dispute over a bottle of hair conditioner last December. Since then the family have been sworn at, had used condoms hurled at their house, had their windows smashed and graffiti scrawled on their home. Nikki said the police had been called on numerous occasions but no charges had ever been brought against the bullies.

She added: 'I am on anti-depressants, my nerves are shot to pieces and I'm terrified of walking out my front door. 'This is no way to live. When it's got really bad, I have to admit I have thought about ending it but I'm determined not to be beaten by the bullies who are acting like they are above the law. 'All I want is a bit of support from the police.'

The family's problems have haunting comparisons to the case of Fiona Pilkington and her disabled daughter Francecca Hardwick, who were driven to their deaths after an 11-year bully campaign. Nikki said: 'I've read in the papers about Mrs Pilkington and just think the police simply don't care. 'If they can ignore that family for 11 years what hope have I got?'

A Warwickshire Police spokeswoman confirmed a female officer had spoken to Nikki about the attack on Saturday, September 19. She said: 'The policing team have had some involvement in ongoing issues in the street. 'We have also been working closely with the local authority regarding tenancy agreements and ongoing neighbour disputes.' [In other words they only want to relocate the bullies. No thought of prosecution]

SOURCE



Two policewomen's crawling babies are nothing to do with Ofsted

A government’s job is to protect us from strangers, not our mates

No, really, this is it. Bring on the revolution. Man the Lego barricades! Devise Pampers dirty-bombs! Send in stormtroops to smear puréed apple and vomit over the concrete barricades of Westminster! Ofsted, that giant mutant Godzilla of the education world, has finally stepped over the last line and shown how deeply the State despises us.

Two young detective constables in Aylesbury became pregnant at the same time and agreed to apply for a job share. Each would look after the other’s infant during the long, sometimes unpredictable shifts. It suited the police work and the children; the babies grew up in homely sibling amity for two and a half years. The officers, relaxed and reassured, were presumably all the better at tracking down Buckinghamshire felons.

Then, DC Leanne Shepherd sadly relates, “an Ofsted lady came to the door” and accused her of illegal childminding. Because the arrangement was deemed a “reward”, she should have been registered, inspected and compelled to deliver and record the 65 targets of the new early years curriculum. Ofsted considered the private friendly swap no different from a commercial enterprise. DC Shepherd says that she was not even given grace to go through the hoops, but had to put her crying, baffled child into a nursery to complete her police work. Result: unhappy child, anxious mothers, wasted fees.

Ofsted was too chicken to reply on the Radio 4 Today programme, but piously stated in writing that arrangements in common between friends are fine as long as the childcare was not for more than two hours, or 14 days a year.

Gordon Bennett! What has an “office for standards in education” to do with babies crawling around in their mums’ friends’ houses anyway? Government and its regulations exist to defend us from incompetent or bad strangers, not from our mates.

Twenty years ago, under the supposedly bossy Tories, a local artist and I were abandoned simultaneously by our helps, and decided to pool our limited patience with preschool rampagers. So for two mornings and lunches a week Rose got underfoot in her studio, and for two more she and her pal Zoe roared around within earshot of my study.

Both mothers had two peaceful work spells and two less so. As the years went by I can remember few summer days when I did not have either an unnaturally quiet house or a maelstrom of little boys and girls. It went over 14 days a year for sure. And yes, we paid one another back in similar favours — or “reward” if you are from Ofsted. Today, it seems, ordinary life has been made illegal. Do you remember voting for that?

SOURCE



British planners ban family from their own barn conversion... but rule holidaymakers CAN live there

When Jonathan and Emma Jones spent £100,000 converting an old barn, they thought they had created the perfect countryside home for their family. Their dreams were shattered when they were banned from living in it by the local council. But the couple were told they could still rent it out to holidaymakers - because it would 'diversify the rural economy and support the tourist industry'.

Their home in the picturesque village of Rhos, near Neath in South Wales, was classed as a new build rather than a barn conversion after structural problems required extensive rebuilding work. They had to re-apply for planning permission, but this was rejected. Instead, they were told they could complete the project only for use as a holiday let to encourage tourism.

Mr Jones, 33, said: 'We had permission for a dwelling but planners were not happy with some of the work I carried out. They then told us the house would not be granted planning permission as a dwelling - though we would get approval for its use as a holiday let. 'To cut our losses we went ahead with the change of use which left us stranded and now we don't have a home. 'We are faced with the ludicrous situation of handing the keys to holidaymakers to stay in the dream home we have built for ourselves.'

The couple sold their former home to finance the conversion to a four-bedroom house, which used stone and other materials from the old barn so it looked just the same.

Mr Jones and his 34-year-old wife are now living at his parents' farmhouse with daughter Ffion, two, just a few yards away. 'We look out on it when we get up every morning knowing that we can't live there,' said Mr Jones, a telecoms manager. 'It has led to a lot of stress for myself and my family. 'The council basically had to choose who they would rather see stay in the house. 'Would it be a young family born and bred in the area who work locally or strangers from outside the area?'

The couple's dreams were scuppered by planners at Neath Port Talbot Council. A report by the council's planning department said that the conversion 'would result in an unjustified form of development within the open countryside'. Mr Jones has now lodged an appeal with the Welsh Assembly.

A council spokesman said: 'While Mr Jones was working on the original building at some point - for whatever reason - he demolished part of the existing barn and built a replica of it. 'At that point we could not consider any new application as a conversion because this was now treated as a new property.'

Council planning chief Geoff White said: 'The site is in the open countryside where there are strict policies controlling development. 'Approval was granted for the retention and completion of the building as holiday accommodation.'

SOURCE



Image isn’t a public good

Abercrombie & Fitch is being sued by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for not hiring a Muslim teenager because she wears a hijab. A garment that doesn't fit in with the 'image' that A&F is trying to portray while selling its branded style of clothing.

In these multicultural, omnipotent public sphere times a private company is a fantasy. Only after government imposed laws and regulations have been put in place can you legally trade. Playing by their rules not the consumers'. Any person living in the real world is aware of the 'image' that A&F tries to portray. It's preppy and extremely homo-erotic. Given that their advertising is practically everywhere you'd have thought it would be noticeable that it's not aimed at certain market sections. Yes A&F is exclusionary: they wilfully choose not to sell to certain parts of the marketplace. Why then should they be forced to employ someone who, let's face it, isn't part of their ideal customer base?

Private companies have a right to choose. They should be able to decide based on any reason as to why they don't employ someone, be it religion, sex, race, skills, education, attitude etc. When a person isn't chosen for a job they have been discriminated against, that's an unfortunate consequence of competition. It happens on a daily basis across the globe. There is nothing that can be done to stop people being different from one another. It's those differences and their continual impact that makes life interesting. Cases like this and others retard our individuality and seek to impose a blanket of sameness upon us all. In the meantime let people discriminate. Without it we end up with burqua'd waitresses in Hooters...

SOURCE



The British Disease

By THEODORE DALRYMPLE

Whenever I am in Amsterdam, I stay in a small, elegant and well-run hotel. The excellent and obliging staff are all Dutch.

Whenever I am in London, I stay at a small, elegant and well-run hotel. The excellent and obliging staff are all foreign—which is just as well, for if they were English the hotel would not be well-run for long. When the English try to run a good hotel, they combine pomposity with slovenliness.

Perhaps this would not be so serious a matter if the British economy were not a so-called service economy. It has been such ever since Margaret Thatcher solved our chronic industrial relations problem by the simple expedient of getting rid of industry. This certainly worked, and perhaps was inevitable in the circumstances, but it was necessary to find some other way of making our way in the world. This we have not done.

Incompetence and incapacity are everywhere. Despite ever-rising local taxes, town and city councils are either unable or unwilling to clear the streets of litter, with the result that Britain is by far the dirtiest country in Europe.

Although we spend four times as much on education per head as in 1950, the illiteracy rate has not gone down. I used to try to plumb the depths (or shallows) of youthful British ignorance by asking my patients a few simple questions. Fifty percent responded to the question "What is arithmetic?" by answering "What is arithmetic?" It is not that they were good at doing something that they could not name: When I asked one young man, not mentally deficient, to multiply three by four, he replied "We didn't get that far."

This is the result of 11 years of state-funded compulsory education, or rather attendance at school, at a cost of between $100,000 and $200,000. The government's response has been to raise the school-leaving age to 18, thus making total ignorance even more expensive.

This is at the bottom rung of society, but incompetence starts at the very top. It is doubtful whether any major country has had a more incompetent leader than Gordon Brown for many years. The product of a pleasure-hating Scottish Presbyterian tradition, he behaves as if taxation were a moral good in itself, regardless of the uses to which it is put; he is widely believed to have taken lessons in how to smile, though he has not been an apt pupil, for he now makes disconcertingly odd grimaces at inappropriate moments. He is the only leader known to me who combines dourness with frivolity.

Early in his disastrous career in government he sold the country's gold reserves at a derisory price, against all advice, driving the price lower by the manner in which he arranged the sale. A convenience-store owner couldn't, and almost certainly wouldn't, have done worse.

After 12 years of ceaseless Brownian motion, British public finances have gone from being comparatively healthy to being catastrophically bad. In order to expand vastly the public sector in which he is a true believer, Mr. Brown has raised taxes by stealth, undertaken government obligations that appear nowhere in the accounts and that will weigh on future generations, and eased credit to encourage asset inflation and give people the illusion of prosperity. For the duration of his time in government, Britain has been like a consumptive patient, with an excess of bogus well-being shortly before expiry. If the world is an opera stage, Britain has been playing Violetta or Mimi in the last act.

What, then, of the opposition? Surely it has managed to hit a few of the easy targets with which the government has so thoughtfully supplied it?

No words of mine can adequately convey the contempt in which the Conservatives are now, rightly, held by almost everyone. I do not recall meeting anyone who thinks that David Cameron, their leader, is anything other than a careerist in the mold of Tony Blair. The most that anyone allows himself to hope is that, beneath the thin veneer of opportunism, there beats a heart of oak.

But the auguries are not good: Not only was Mr. Cameron's only pre-political job in public relations, hardly a school for intellectual and moral probity, but he has subscribed to every fashionable policy nostrum from environmentalism to large, indeed profligate, government expenditure. Not truth, but the latest poll, has guided him —at a time when only truth will serve. However, he will be truly representative as prime minister. Like his country, he is quite without substance.

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29 September, 2009

Plans for swingeing hospital cuts as British system on brink of 'Armageddon'

Health service managers warned of an "Armageddon scenario" facing NHS finances as they draw up secret plans for swingeing hospital cuts. Senior officials have set "aggressive" targets to reduce the number of patients referred to specialists, or treated in Accident and Emergency departments, while GPs will be asked to cut down on the amount of time spent in consultations.

The plans are being issued as senior managers warned that the NHS is about to face the greatest financial pressures since its inception. They fear that when the current spending round ends in 2011, the impact of an anticipated real terms freeze or cuts – coming as the demands on the NHS of an ageing population increases – will be devastating.

The NHS Confederation, which represents NHS managers, will tell this week's Labour Party conference that the impending challenge is so great that hospital closures and job cuts must be enforced across the country. It comes as two leading think tanks predict a future funding gap of between £20bn and £40bn within six years of 2011. Regional health authorities have ordered hospitals and primary care trusts to draw up plans for cuts worth billions.

In London, NHS trusts have been told to divert more than half of A&E patients, and those seeing specialists, to cheaper "polyclinics" run by groups of GPs. Meanwhile, family doctors will be asked to speed up their consultations, reducing the average time per patient from 12 minutes to eight.

The instructions drawn up by NHS London, and seen by The Sunday Telegraph, order trusts to demonstrate that they can deliver an "aggressive scenario" in response to funding pressures. Under its "affordability assumptions," already controversial plans to reduce the number of patients treated in hospital are given more demanding targets in an attempt to cut costs.

Sixty per cent of activity which now takes place in A&E departments should happen in community clinics within five years, the document says, along with 55 per cent of outpatient treatment. Thirty per cent of outpatient appointments will be stopped altogether. Managers say not all appointments are necessary, though many doctors argue it is impossible to know in advance which patients do not need to be seen. The number of diagnostic tests carried out will be cut by 15 per cent, while the amount of surgery will be reduced by seven per cent.

Although the "polyclinic" model, to reduce demand on hospitals, is supposed to shift more treatment into the community, GPs will be told to reduce their average appointment time by one third, from 12 minutes to eight.

Senior managers in other regions, who will draw up their own plans later this year, said rural communities faced particular pressures, with small maternity and district general hospitals likely to struggle in the funding crisis.

In a speech tonight to the Labour Party conference in Brighton, the NHS Confederation will warn that the service across the country faces unprecedented difficulties, which require "bold and decisive measures". Its policy director Nigel Edwards told The Sunday Telegraph: "The NHS has never experienced a financial challenge of this magnitude or duration in its history". He said improving the operation of the NHS, and treating more patients earlier in primary care, would not be enough to balance the books. Delegates will be told: "Savings only start to become available when we can shut entire buildings, sites and reduce staffing numbers."

The organisation, which represents NHS managers, will also call for "uncomfortable decisions" to be made to limit staff pay. Under a three year deal already agreed, nurses will receive a rise of 2.25 per cent in April. Sir Robert Naylor, chief executive of University College Hospital in London, said pay should be frozen for NHS staff after that point. If it was not, every one per cent pay rise could cost 10,000 job cuts, he said.

The chief executive said that while he supported plans to treat more patients in the community, he was concerned that PCTs were planning to cut back on hospital services before alternatives were put in place. "The investment in those services has to come first or where do the patients go?" he said, criticising "over simplified" analyses which failed to take into account of increasing public demand.

Dr Laurence Buckman, chairman of the British Medical Association's GP committee, described the plans as "desperate and inadequately thought through". Dr Buckman, who works as a GP in London, said targets to reduce outpatient appointments by 30 per cent would put patients at particular risk. He said: "All this means is that those people who are refused a referral to a specialist will be forced to go privately, or go nowhere. This will be difficult for doctors, but patients will be the real victims." While some specialist referrals turn out to be unnecessary, GPs only asked for a specialist opinion when they needed it, Dr Buckman said.

A study by the King's Fund and the Institute for Fiscal Studies forecasts a funding gap of between £20bn and £40bn by 2017, if funding for the NHS receives no increase, or gets a real terms freeze which only keeps pace with inflation. Sue Slipman, director of the Foundation Trust Network, which represents the best hospitals, warned of an "Armageddon scenario" which could unfold without decisive action on pay, and terms and conditions. She said: "There is a trade-off between saving jobs, and pay increases, and in the current climate, protecting jobs needs to be a priority."

Katherine Murphy, from the Patients Association, accused NHS managers of wasting billions on management and repeated organisational restructuring during the boom years of record investment. She said there was no evidence that plans to shift patients into the community would provide safe care. "Elderly patients often require intensive support which often means lots of staff, in hospitals. The need is only going to get greater – these plans look like madness," she said.

A spokesman for NHS London said its documents provided planning scenarios, rather than forecasts, to cope with a changing economic environment. He said the NHS was investing heavily to ensure care was provided in the most appropriate setting. [Blah, blah, blah!]

SOURCE



British policewoman banned from babysitting for her friend says she would not have any more children

What a horrible country left-run Britain is: Petty bureaucrats empowered to wreck the lives of ordinary decent people. Britain protects real criminals (see second post below) while making criminals out of decent people

A policewoman who was banned from looking after her colleague’s child has said the experience was so traumatic that she would not have any more children. Detective Constable Leanne Shepherd, 32, who has a two-year-old daughter Edie was ordered to end her childcare arrangement with her friend DC Lucy Jarrett who also has a toddler, Amy, aged three. The pair, who share a full-time job, had been looking after each other’s children for two-and-a-half years so both could work 10 hour days, twice a week.

But following an anonymous complaint, Ofsted told the mothers their arrangement was illegal because they are not registered childminders. In a threatening letter, they said the policewomen could be prosecuted and would be put under surveillance to make sure they did not continue helping each other. An unannounced visit was made to her home in Milton Keynes and DC Jarrett’s home in Buckingham earlier this month.

Ofsted rules state that friends can not gain a ‘reward’ for looking after a child for more than two hours outside their home. Although no money ever changed hands, the fact both mothers were able to enjoy free childcare for their daughters was judged to be a reward.

DC Shepherd has now put Edie in a private nursery at a cost of nearly 500 per month - half her salary - and has had to claim childcare benefits to foot the fees. The women could look after the children in each other’s homes – but as both had a half-hour commute to Aylesbury Police Station for a 7am start it was not possible.

DC Shepherd said yesterday: ‘This arrangement was perfect for both of us as we were friends for many years while sharing a job and then we both had little girls. ‘The girls were together all day and grew up like sisters. I couldn’t believe it when an inspector turned up on my doorstep and said I was running an illegal childminding business. I thought there had been some mistake. ‘It was devastating, I was crying all day. Every day Edie says ‘going to see Amy?’ but it’s just not possible. ‘There must be so many thousands of women must be in this situation. Ofsted really need to change the rules.’

DC Shepherd, who is separated from Edie’s father DC James Shepherd now works three days per week and she and her ex-husband take turns to pick Edie up from nursery. She added: ‘It’s been very traumatic. The first week Edie was at nursery it was a big shock she was crying and not sleeping and I didn’t know if I could continue in my career. ‘I’m separated and it’s not in my plan to have more children, but I also feel I’ve been through so much trauma already. It’s just too stressful.’ ‘I used to take Edie over to Lucy’s in her pajamas and would pick her up bathed and ready for bed. I have no complaints about the nursery but you don’t get that there. I felt really happy leaving Edie with a friend and she loved being at Lucy’s house. ‘I’ve now had to completely change my hours to fit around taking her to nursery instead. Now Edie is used to it I can’t change back again as it would be too disruptive for her. But I want other women to be able to benefit from a change in the law and not go through what has happened to us.’

Edie was born in January 2007 and DC Shepherd returned to work part-time two months later as a trainee detective constable. Lucy who was doing to same job had her daughter five months earlier and DC Shepherd and the pair were delighted to have a permanent childcare arrangement.

An Ofsted inspector paid DC Shepherd a surprise visit on July 10 to say she was running an illegal childminding business and faced prosecution if it continued. It is believed to have been in response to a tip-off from a neighbour. The visit was followed up by an official ‘enforcement notice’ two weeks later.

An Ofsted spokesman said yesterday: ‘Ofsted applies the regulations in the 2006 Childcare Act. We are discussing with the Department for Children, Schools and Families the interpretation of the word ‘reward’ to establish if we might be able to make a change’.

To be registered as childminders the mothers would need to undergo training. DC Shepherd added: ‘We’ve thought through all the loopholes and it just wasn’t possible. ‘To be a childminder you need to take exams and make modifications to your home such as blocking up fireplaces. I already have a career and my home is perfectly safe but those are the rules for people who are looking after lots of children professionally.’

DC Jarrett, who lives with her husband Inspector Bob Jarrett has also put her daughter in a nursery.

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Mark of madness: British police refuse to show suspect's birthmark in ID parade... because of his human rights

The usual love of criminals in politically correct Britain

When Tracy Ryan spotted a suspected burglar emerging from the dog sanctuary where she works, she thought she would have little problem pointing him out to police. After all, he had a large port-wine stain on his face. But when police set up an identity parade, they refused to take the man's distinctive birthmark into account - in case it infringed his human rights.

An officer from the Nottinghamshire force explained that the mark was too rare to be included in a profile of the burglar when it was entered into a computer database. It would leave only a small pool of potential suspects in the electronic ID parade, he said, breaking police rules.

Under laws designed to take into account 'the rights and freedoms of the public', witnesses must be shown a minimum of 12 photographs before they are allowed to identify a suspect. These are selected from a database of people who have passed through custody in Nottinghamshire, in the hope that the burglar is already known to police. Because only a handful of people on a database had a birthmark or port-wine stain, the characteristic gave fewer than 12 results. The characteristic was subsequently removed and the search was broadened. This forced Mrs Ryan, 39, to examine the faces of 93 suspects, none of which she recognised.

It was on August 25 that £300 in charity donations was stolen from the Crossing Cottage Greyhound Sanctuary in Sutton on Trent, Nottinghamshire. Mrs Ryan noted that, apart from his birthmark, the suspected culprit was tall and wore a white tracksuit. She also took his car registration number. Police have subsequently made an arrest and Mrs Ryan is due to attend a second identification parade which will include the suspect, who is on bail. He will be pictured alongside 11 people of a similar appearance. But if he has a birthmark, it will still be kept secret. The suspected thief and the other participants will be made to cover one side of their face.

Mrs Ryan said: 'Surely an unusual characteristic like a big birthmark should help a police investigation? 'If there were just four or five people on the database with such marks, all the better. 'I understand police have to follow procedures, but to me the rules are flawed and amount to a pretty lame excuse.'

Her boss John Morton, who manages the home for 30 former racing dogs as part of the Retired Greyhound Trust, said: 'The police are saying they can't infringe human rights. But what about our human rights? 'We are law-abiding people who have been victims of crime, and the police have a responsibility to maximise their chances of solving that crime. If this is the law, it has to be changed.'

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NHS dental crisis: Can the rot be stopped?

As new figures reveal over 40 per cent of the population has no NHS dentist can a new review finally fix the system once and for all?

Not that long ago we were queuing in the streets for an NHS dentist, with scenes of hundreds of patients camping overnight likened to the January sales. Now, new figures suggest that many of us have given up, and are paying for private treatment or simply going without care if we cannot afford it. Data from the NHS Information Centre released last month shows that only 58.3 per cent of the population saw an NHS dentist in the two years ending March 2009, with the number of complex treatments, such as root canals and crowns, falling dramatically, by 40 and 50 per cent respectively, since 2004.

Ironically, the parlous state of NHS dentistry seems to have been exacerbated by the very attempt to overhaul it – the 2006 dental contract. The new contract was intended to end the old "drill-and-fill" practice whereby dentists were paid for each treatment they carried out, so the more procedures they undertook the higher their earnings. The idea behind the new contract was to encourage dentists to spend more time on preventative work, teaching patients how to care for their own teeth, thereby reducing future treatment.

Dentists are now paid a fixed contract value for the amount of work they do each year. Work is measured in UDAs (units of dental activity). Dentists now essentially have "UDA targets" to meet each year. Under the new contract, their salaries have not been cut as they had been in the early Nineties, which led to an exodus to the private sector. Dentists are free to choose whether to provide NHS or private treatment, or a combination of the two. While many NHS dentists' basic pay is around £90,000 in large practices, but in areas where NHS practitioners are few and far between, they can make a lot more.

Around 400 practices earn up to £300,000 a year, shared among several dentists. Private dentists earn little more – one survey in 2005 by the Health and Social Care Information Centre estimated the gap at no more that £800 a year. Most claimed to have left the NHS due to the pressure of working harder for less money, with less time to spend on each patient.

Local Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) were given responsibility for providing dental care in their areas. It is they who employ dentists, and it means that managers can offer incentives to dentists to work in their area, and thus increase patient access, eradicating once and for all the problem of how to get on an NHS dentist's list.

But, despite these good intentions, the situation appears to have deteriorated further. According to figures from the NHS Information Centre, last year nearly 50 per cent of NHS dentists did not take on any new patients. In addition, 2,000 dentists have left the NHS since 2006. So what has gone so badly wrong?

The flaws are fundamental, says Liberal Democrat health spokesman Norman Lamb. "Many good dentists have become fed up with NHS bureaucracy, voted with their feet, and left the profession. So there is a danger that while not all the NHS dentists left are second rate by any means, we could end up with a two-tier profession."

Lamb believes that the financial disincentive to carry out complex work is so serious it threatens to "de-skill" the profession and that far from encouraging the public to look after their teeth, "there is no incentive for the dentist to do preventative work at all."

The public are not happy, says Dr Anthony Halperin of the Patient's Association."Simple procedures can end up costing the patient more than before, while there is no incentive for dentists to perform complex and time-consuming treatment. Most of all, the overwhelming public complaint is access."

The majority of dentists are unhappy, too. One complained: "If you take on a new patient who has not been to the dentist for a few years, they might need a lot of work, and you are effectively penalised for doing it. Under the new contract, whether a patient needs one filling or 10 fillings, the dentist gets paid the same."

Another said: 'Dentists are unwilling to take on new patients whose teeth are in a poor state. They know they will be paid the same as if they treated a patient who needs very little work. This is very sad for patients. It means that those who are most desperate for treatment are finding it most difficult to get a dentist."

Dr John Milne, chair of the British Dental Association, the professional association and trade union for dentists, adds that many complain that "the target-driven nature of the existing contract has made life difficult". If a PCT has set targets for the number of procedures it expects to be completed, many dentists are left with no time to teach their patients about hygiene.

So what is the answer? Professor Jimmy Steele, Head of the School of Dental Sciences at Newcastle University led the recent independent review of NHS dentistry, which has just published a set of recommendations aimed at redressing the problems of access and receiving appropriate treatment (for patients) and bureaucracy and pay (for dentists). It has been Prof Steele's unenviable task to pick apart the 2006 contract and put it back together, making it work at no extra cost to the taxpayer.

"The 2006 contract was intended to make fundamental changes in thinking. Dentistry had been pretty much unaltered since the birth of the NHS in 1948," he says. "The idea was that the PCT would be able to buy what they wanted on behalf of their patient, making better use of resources. Previously dentists had been able to move around to where they wanted there was no ability to fit services to local needs."

In effect, dentists could set up an NHS practice where they wanted to live, not necessarily where one was needed. "The idea of local commissioning is sensible," he adds. "Access problems should have been addressed in time."

The new contract also aimed to simplify payments. Previously, dentists billed the NHS centrally for any one of 400 different procedures. The more work they did, the more they got paid. "The new system, where contracts are paid on UDAs in three bands is probably too simple," says Prof Steele. "The payment bands are wide and differ depending on where the dentist is located, on their history, sometimes on their negotiating skills."

Dentists earn one UDA (worth between approximately £17 and £40) for a simple procedure such as a check-up, three UDAs (worth about £75 on average) for any number of fillings (in one appointment), or 12 UDAs (worth about £300) for crowns or dentures, in addition to any other treatment.

"The system is open to misuse," says Prof Steele. "It is possible to take one tooth out and make an impression for a denture and then charge 12 UDAs which is clearly not as complex or difficult as root canal work which pays only a quarter of the fee."

Incentives to take on new patients are not having the desired effect. Far from encouraging dentists to see more patients, it has become easier to make a living seeing existing patients more often. One of the biggest problems is taking time to put a mechanism in place for centrally collecting data, so it is difficult to know where and how the system isn't working.

So do we need to start again from scratch? Prof Steele thinks not: "When we carried out the review it became clear that access is improving, but there is a communication problem. The public didn't know how to find an NHS dentist. Meanwhile the PCT claimed that they were running plenty, and that all the public needed to do was ask. The public would then be saying, 'what's a PCT?' Better communication could sort that problem out easily."

Prof Steele is also recommending improvements in payment methods. "We need a blended contract, where a dentist is paid for every person on his list, and also for every treatment he carries out. We don't want people under-treated any more than over-treated. There also needs to be a reward for quality so we need to get data back into the system."

While Prof Steele approves of the scheme of local commissioning, Norman Lamb warns that PCT managers may not be ready. "We need to train them better, a lot of them are far too passive. You do get pockets of excellence but many don't have the skills they need."

Shake-ups, however worthy, cost money, and increased investment is unlikely. Dentistry is threatened by the spectre of financial cuts, as part of cuts in public services, regardless of who wins the next election.

So while the Patients Association has welcomed Prof Steele's review, Dr Halperin, a dental surgeon who does both NHS and private work in central London, says: "We are concerned that because of funding problems, once again there will be no real improvement in the dental contract and subsequently no improvement to the services for our patients."

The biggest challenge says Dr Milne, is to get all political parties to recognise the value of Prof Steele's report. "We need to embrace it; it is our best chance of providing a dental service of which we can all be proud."

Dr Milne is also optimistic: "The number of dentists in training is increasing, but we need to make the NHS an attractive place to work. And dentists who have left will only return if the NHS offers them the chance to treat their patients properly. Some might even be quite excited at the chance."

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Stupid play-acting from British border control agency

The unprecedented numbers of foreigners that Brits see among them are no mirage. The agency is not dispelling myths. It is trying to dispel reality. The British government would serve the country better by doing more about the half-a-million "asylum seekers" who have been denied asylum by the courts but who are still in the country. Try to dispel that reality!

At the end of a week in which the government's most senior lawyer, the attorney general Baroness Scotland, was embarrassed by revelations that her Tongan housekeeper was working illegally in the UK, confidence in the country's immigration system could be at rock bottom.

So some may find it reassuring to learn that the government agency charged with protecting the UK's borders has embarked on an extraordinary PR blitz to give the public a taste of what can happen to those who fall foul of fortress Britain.

A series of UK Border Agency roadshows at country fairs around southern England have seen children fingerprinted, pensioners handcuffed and families locked into immigration service "cell vans" as part of a drive to dispel what it says are "myths that surround immigration issues".

The initiative, featured in Interact, the newsletter for UKBA stakeholders, describes events at the Kent and New Forest and Hampshire county shows in which members of the public were briefly locked in "cell vans", placed in handcuffs and dressed up as "arrest officers" by UKBA staff keen to show they mean business. Children made "fingerprint paintings".

The newsletter concedes that "immigration staff knew they would have to overcome initial hesitation from the public" to being confronted by "fully-kitted arrest team officers".

However it concludes the roadshows were a "great opportunity to explain the importance of our work". According to the UKBA, at the end of the shows, 239 visitors had improved their opinion of the work of the service, while 13 said it was the same.

But last night migrant support groups questioned the rationale behind the PR campaign. "We appreciate UK immigration officers do a hard job in difficult circumstances," said a spokesman for Refugee Action. "But we remain to be convinced the way to dispel myths about immigration is to dress members of the immigration service up like extras from The Sweeney whilst running around fingerprinting children, handcuffing pensioners and locking families in arrest vans."

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British science uptake figures are 'science fiction', says report

Lies never stop from a Leftist regime

Labour has been accused of fiddling the figures on the number of students studying science and maths, covering up the nation's skills crisis. The Government has trumpeted a "significant increase" in the numbers of pupils taking separate GCSEs in physics, chemistry and biology.

But a new report claims the rise is accounted for, in part, by the growth in the number of 16-year-olds, while the proportion studying science A-levels has dropped since 1997. At university level, big increases in the number of undergraduates studying science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) subjects are also a "fiction", according to the study.

The Government now includes as "science", courses such as nutrition and complementary medicine, geography studies, sports science, nursing and psychology, even though in dozens of universities it is classed as an arts degree. "The Government is deliberately trying to make the statistics on STEM subjects appear better than they really are," said Anna Fazackerley, the head of education at the Policy Exchange think tank, which produced the report. "This must stop. We must have a sound picture, based on consistent and meaningful data, of what is really happening to these skills in our schools and universities."

Industry experts insist that Britain need more science skills if it is compete internationally. According to the Confederation of British Industry, 92 per cent of firms across all sectors require employees with science, technology engineering and maths skills but nearly two thirds have problems finding them. By 2014, there will be more than two million extra jobs which need STEM skills.

Ministers have acknowledged their importance and in 2007 designated STEM as "strategically important subjects" to the economy. Since then, they have claimed success in boosting the numbers studying the subjects. But the new report, due to be published tomorrow, said the figures do no stand up to scrutiny.

In 2006, Gordon Brown pledged that all children achieving high grades in science tests at 14 would be "entitled" to study three separate sciences at GCSE. But less than half of state schools entered at least one pupils for the traditional science GCSEs last year. [Not even ONE student!] The percentage of pupils studying three separate sciences barely improved from 1997 to 2007, rising from 6 per cent to 8 per cent. Instead, the vast majority of pupils take a single science GCSE which focuses on scientific literacy and issues that are in the public eye, such as global warming and mobile phone technology.

Teachers and academics warned that the qualification, taken for the first time in 2008, was a "dumbed down" version, needing little scientific knowledge and understanding. One question in a recent science paper asked "why is wireless technology useful?" - the correct answer was: "no wiring is needed". Earlier this year, the exam regulator Ofqual admitted there were serious problems with the exam and ordered it to be redesigned.

At A-level, the percentage of pupils taking biology, chemistry and physics has actually fallen since 1997. In 2008, 6.5 per cent of students were studying biology, down from 7.2 per cent in 1997, while 4.9 were studying chemistry, down from 5.5 per cent. The proportion studying physics fell from 4.3 per cent to 3.3 per cent in 2008.

University level STEM subjects seemed to be rising. The number enrolled has grown from 370,000 to 515,000 in just over a decade. Even when converted to a percentage, they are still increasing, from 38 per cent in 1997 to 42 per cent in 2008. But analysis by the think tank shows that study of the traditional subjects of biology, chemistry and physics has barely changed over this period. Biology has actually fallen, from 13,923 students in 1997 to 12,515 in 2008. The dramatic increase in science numbers has been driven partly by the growth in new subjects and the manipulation of what counts as science.

The Government's classification is now much broader and includes subjects such as sports science, forensic science and complementary medicine. Psychology students have been included as "biological science" students since 2003, adding more than 13,000 students to the STEM total. Even students at universities which classify psychology as an arts degree are included.

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Britain: University terms begins again, and the Chinese are back

I was in Sainsbury’s yesterday afternoon. Looking around me I might have been in Guangzhou Tesco. The occasional foreigner (as they will insist on calling us, even in our own country), but otherwise wall-to-wall the sons and daughters of the Middle Kingdom. And then I remembered; it is the end of September, and I live in a small university town.

Yes, around this time of year we go Chinese. I merely observe; I have no racist reactions, and nor does anyone else. Firstly, this is the era of globalisation; virtually a quarter of the world’s population is Chinese, and why shouldn’t that be the case here? Secondly, these are all bright and valuable undergraduate and postgraduate students; they’re not on the dole, and if you get beaten up late at night it won’t be one of them who does it. No doubt they keep our university afloat with the fees they pay. (Economists often complain about the high Chinese savings rate; I wonder if they realise what a large proportion of those savings go to British and American universities, to educate the savers’ grandchildren.)

The strange thing is that Chinese universities are riding high in the world rankings. Only the very best UK/US places of learning can compete with the best of Beijing and Shanghai. So why are so many Chinese parents so keen to send their kids to our universities?

Partly, of course, because the top universities in Beijing and Shanghai are not so easy to get into. The word is that it doesn’t exactly depend on school results. Natives of those cities enjoy a built-in advantage, and good connections also help. Chinese who don’t enjoy these advantages feel better off sending their kids to Western universities than second-rate Chinese ones. Western education, you see, still carries a certain innate cachet. In a society where “face” is everything, it’s interesting to see that our products are seen as automatically superior, however debased we may sometimes feel it is. The Chinese theoretically believe their culture is superior to all others; but they are voting with their feet, or at least their children’s and grandchildren’s feet – and long may it remain so.

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Is the definition of autism too broad? NHS claims one in 100 adults is autistic in some form

One per cent of the adult population is suffering from a form of autism, research has revealed. The study – the first of its kind – found that autism and related conditions such as Asperger’s syndrome, are as common in adults as in children. The finding is important because it had been suggested that the measles, mumps and rubella combination jab fuelled a rise in cases of the disorder after its introduction in the early Nineties.

If this were the case, rates of autism would be higher in children and young adults than in older age groups. But with the rate similar across all age groups, it seems that any rise in cases of autism in children can be attributed to better diagnosis and greater awareness of the condition.

As with children, the disorder is much more often found in males than in females. The Department of Health-funded research also found rates to be higher among single people and among men who haven’t been to university.

But the findings are likely to be seized upon as evidence that the definition of autism is now too broad. In the 1990s there was a huge surge in the number of autism cases reported in children, after a wider diagnostic definition of the condition was introduced.

The study found no evidence that rates of autism are on the rise and failed to find a link between the mumps, measles and rubella (MMR) vaccine and the condition. If there was a link with MMR, people aged in their early 20s or younger would expect to have higher rates of autism because they have had the jab, the report said. However, Jackie Fletcher, from vaccination awareness group Jabs, said: 'We're concerned the Department of Health is extrapolating from surveys not designed to find vaccine damage to bolster the uptake of MMR.'

Although rates of autism in children have been widely researched, the latest study is the first to attempt to set a figure for adults. Little was known about how autism affected people over the course of a lifetime.

Autism spectrum

1) Classic autism: The most severe form. Problems relating to people. They can be hypersensitive to their environment and be upset by certain colours and shapes. Often cling to rituals.

2) Asperger's syndrome: Milder form. Can be socially awkward and lack empathy.

3) Nonspecific pervasive developmental disorder (PDD-NOS): Shows some but not all the symptoms of classic autism

4) Rett syndrome: Rare condition that usually affects girls and is marked by poor head growth. May have poor verbal skills and make repetitive movements.

5) Childhood disintegrative disorder: Develops in children who previously seemed perfectly normal. Can stop talking and socialising.

Researchers asked more than 7,000 men and women 20 questions designed to pick up traits linked to autism and related conditions. Topics covered included attention to detail, ability to handle social interactions and ability to read emotions. After several hundred were put through a second, more stringent, assessment, the researchers estimated 72 people of those tested had autism or a related condition. If the results were extrapolated across the population as a whole, an estimated 1 per cent of adults would fall into the category. Three studies of children in England have come up with a similar rate, although other research has theorised the number numbers could be as high as one in 60.

Tim Straughan, of the NHS Information Centre, which carried out the study, said: ‘While the sample size was small and any conclusions need to be tempered with caution, the report suggests, despite popular perceptions, rates of autism are not increasing.’

Worryingly, the study also found men and women with the condition are no more likely to use services for those with mental or emotional problems than other adults. Mark Lever, of the National Autistic Society, said services and support for adults with autism were ‘woefully inadequate’. He added: ‘Nearly two-thirds (63 per cent) of adults with autism told us they do not have enough support to meet their needs. ‘This study gives us further evidence to demand that more vital support is put in place.’

SOURCE



Two troops for every civil servant in Britain's defence ministry: "Britain has more military bureaucrats for every active serviceman than any of its Nato allies, it can be disclosed. Figures obtained by the Daily Telegraph show that the 27 other western alliance countries, including the United States, all employ proportionately fewer civilians in their defence ministries. While Britain has just two active troops for every civil servant in the Ministry of Defence, France has almost five, Spain has almost eight and several smaller countries have many more. The MoD employs 85,730 civil servants. Separate figures showed that the MoD spent more than £61 million on public relations last year – enough to pay the annual wage bill for 3,656 new privates in the Army. The Conservatives last night accused Bob Ainsworth, the Defence Secretary, of running a “bloated administration” while troops in Afghanistan faced equipment shortages. The bureaucracy figures will put pressure on Mr Ainsworth to divert funds to the front line or cut the MoD’s budget by reducing the number of officials in his department."

Obama rudely twists the lion's tail: "Barack Obama, as my Examiner colleague Byron York has noted, has been snubbing British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. This strikes me as highly regrettable and foolish in the extreme. Does Obama have some gripe against the British related to his Kenyan colonial heritage? If so, it’s time to get over it. Britain has been by and large an exemplary ally. It is one of the few nations in the world with a significant out-of-area military capacity, it maintains constructive ties with its former colonies through the Commonwealth, it shares with us an Anglospheric heritage based on common law and individual freedom which is of priceless value."





28 September, 2009

British police picking on the innocent again

Police are threatening to report motorists to insurance companies if they leave valuables, CDs or even old coats on show in their cars. They are planning to sneak around car parks and streets checking vehicles for anything that could catch the eyes of thieves. The idea by South Yorkshire police means motorists could face the prospect of having invalid insurance when they try and make a claim or have their premiums increased.

In hundreds of letters sent to drivers parking in Doncaster town centre police said they would be carrying out spot checks to make sure belongings were not left on view after a number of thefts.

The letter from Mark Artley, Police Community Support Office for the town centre Neighbourhoods Team, said: 'If items are on view a form is submitted for action stating your vehicle was left in a vulnerable state. This form can then be forwarded to your insurance company for their actions. 'This can result in your premiums going up or potentially your company refusing to pay out should a break-in to your vehicle occur.'

The letter, handed out to drivers parking in Doncaster's Chappell Drive car park, also warns motorists not to leave stereo accessories or old coats in their car, saying: 'The thief may think there may be a wallet or some cash in the pockets or if nothing else a packet of cigarettes. '

Philip Gomm, a spokesman for the RAC Foundation accused police of penalising innocent motorists instead of criminals. He said : 'This is an outrageous letter. Criminals commit car crimes, not honest motorists. 'The vast majority of drivers make sure their vehicles provide slim pickings for thieves, but we all make mistakes and there are times when something will be left on display. 'For the police to scare motorists with the threat of having their insurance invalidated is at best ill-judged and at worst a dereliction of duty. 'Since when is it a crime to leave something in your car? A friendly warning would be more than adequate. 'The police should remember exactly what their role is - to catch criminals and protect the public.'

A South Yorkshire Police spokesman said the letter was particularly intended for students at Doncaster College, close to Chappell Drive car park. He said: 'Police will be carrying out spot checks around the town centre as part of their 'vulnerable vehicle scheme' to make people aware of the need to protect their vehicles.'

Sgt Steve Butler from Doncaster Police said : 'Safer Neighbourhood Teams actively encourage crime prevention and look at ways that they can help the public reduce thefts from cars. 'The vulnerable vehicle scheme is just one of several initiatives that are geared towards preventing crimes of this nature.'

SOURCE



The myth of the smoking ban “miracle”

Restrictions on smoking around the world are claimed to have had a dramatic effect on heart attack rates. It's not true. See also some prior comments elsewhere on 15th.

‘Heart attacks plummet after smoking ban’ declared The Sunday Times earlier this month, as it reported that England’s smoking ban has ‘caused a fall in heart attack rates of about 10 per cent’ (1). A few days later, The Scotsman upped the ante, informing its readers that ‘Smoking ban slashes heart attacks by up to a third across world’ (2).

Tales of heart attacks being ‘slashed’ by smoking bans have appeared with such regularity in recent years that it is easy to forget that there is a conspicuous lack of reliable evidence to support them. It is almost as if the sheer number of column inches is a substitute for proof.

The most recent reports are a case in point. Although The Sunday Times claimed a 10 per cent drop in heart attacks, nowhere in the 500 word article was a source mentioned and no one was quoted giving this figure. The ‘study’ the newspaper referred to does not exist, and the anti-smoking pressure group Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) – not renowned for downplaying the risks of passive smoking – went to the unusual lengths of posting a notice on its website the following day to point out that ‘the figures reported in The Sunday Times yesterday (and now circulating elsewhere) are not based on any research conducted to date’ (3).

Although the story quickly went around the globe, no one seems to know where the figure came from. It’s all rather strange. Basing journalism on anonymous sources is commonplace in the world of politics, but it is surely not necessary in the realms of science.

The second story – reported by a host of news organisations, including the BBC – also had no new data to report. Instead, it took its cue from an article in the journal Circulation which examined previous smoking ban/heart attack studies. If nothing else, the Circulation paper offers an opportunity to reflect on just how feeble the collected evidence is on this issue (4).

The first study to make the claim that smoking bans ‘slash’ heart attacks was met with howls of derision when it was published in the British Medical Journal in 2004 (5). Studying the modest population of Helena, Montana – where the number of monthly heart attacks seldom strayed into double digits – the study’s authors made the astounding claim that the town’s smoking ban had led to the rate of acute myocardial infarction (heart attacks) plummeting by 40 per cent.

Dubbed the ‘Helena miracle’ by a legion of sceptics, the 40 per cent finding was damned by its very enormity. Since the authors were adamant that the drop was due to secondhand smoke (rather than smokers quitting), the finding required the reader to believe that 40 per cent of heart attacks in pre-ban Helena had been solely caused by passive smoking in bars and restaurants. To understand quite how miraculous the Helena miracle was, one must bear in mind that around 10 to 15 per cent of coronary heart disease cases are attributed to active smoking. That passive smoking could be responsible for a further 40 per cent strains all credibility.

Despite the inherent implausibility of the hypothesis, further studies were swiftly commissioned. If smoking bans could be shown to immediately save lives, it would be a compelling reason to implement bans elsewhere and expand those already in place. And since all that was required to ‘prove’ the hypothesis was a rough correlation between a declining heart attack rate and the start of a smoking ban, the prospects were good. Heart attack rates had been falling for years in most countries and there were plenty of smoking bans to choose from. The law of averages dictated that another heart miracle would soon come to light.

Flawed though it may have been, the Helena research was followed by several studies that displayed such a cavalier approach to the scientific process that they bordered on the comical. Researchers in Bowling Green, Ohio, for example, saw a large rise in heart attacks during the first year of the smoking ban. Side-stepping this awkward fact, they simply redefined year two of the ban as the ‘real’ post-ban period and, since that year followed an abnormal peak, there was naturally a decline in the heart attack rate. As a consequence, the researchers could triumphantly declare that the smoking ban had led to a 47 per cent reduction in heart attacks (6).

In the Piedmont region of Italy, there was an inconvenient rise in heart attacks amongst those over the age of 60 after the ban, and so those people were simply ignored. In a study that was trailed by the BBC (‘Smoking ban reduces heart risk’), the researchers focused entirely on those under 60, thereby recording an 11 per cent drop in cases (7).

Studies such as these form the basis for the recent reports of smoking bans slashing heart attacks by ‘up to a third’. The Circulation paper gathers them together and concludes that, on average, smoking bans cause rates of acute myocardial infarction to fall by 17 per cent. It includes the studies from Ohio and Italy, as well as three studies that have never been published and have only been ‘reported at meetings’.

The paper does not, however, include a mammoth (published) study of the entire United States, which concluded: ‘In contrast with smaller regional studies, we find that workplace bans are not associated with statistically significant short-term declines in mortality or hospital admissions for myocardial infarction or other diseases.’ (8)

Nor does it include an (unpublished) paper which found no statistically significant fall in heart attacks amongst the entire populations of California, Florida, New York and Oregon (9).

Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the ongoing heart-miracle farrago is the eagerness to focus on small studies when complete hospital data is so freely available. It is extraordinary that no BBC journalist, for example, has thought of taking a few minutes to see how many people were rushed to hospital with acute myocardial infarction before and after the smoking bans of England, Scotland and Wales. If they did so, they would see that smokefree legislation has had no tangible influence on heart attack rates at all.

The graphs below show the number of emergency admissions for acute myocardial infarction, with the arrow indicating the start of the smoking ban. What is abundantly clear in each case is that the number of heart attack admissions has been falling for some time. Far from causing further dramatic cuts in heart attack rates, the bans had no discernible effect.

Publicly accessible hospital admissions data is like kryptonite to those who are so eager to believe in miracles. In most epidemiological studies pertaining to secondhand smoke, the raw data is not published. Here, it is open to all and shows quite clearly that the long-term downward trend in heart attacks has not been affected in any way by the implementation of smoking bans. It provides such a simple and straightforward rebuttal to the heart attack ‘slashing’ hypothesis that one wonders what level of hubris drives those who still espouse it.

The three graphs above cover a population larger than the sample groups in all the studies reviewed in Circulation combined, but no matter how much empirical evidence exposes the fantasy of the Helena miracle, it may be too late for the anti-smoking lobby to back down on this issue. Too many reputations are at stake.

After five years of covering these stories so uncritically, the same may be true of the media. One can scarcely blame newspapers for covering stories that offer such dramatic conclusions as the heart miracles. The irony is that if they dug just a little deeper, they might find a more interesting, and more believable, tale of human folly.

SOURCE (See the original for graphics)



Some British students go to America for more generalist degrees and keener teaching

Growing numbers of school-leavers are going to the United States to take their degrees because of “apathetic teaching” and “faceless, sprawling campuses” at too many British universities, a leading head teacher will warn this week. Andrew Halls, headmaster of King’s college school in Wimbledon, south London, believes there is a “growing sense of panic” about whether British universities are places of learning or “vocational conveyor belts” for job applicants.

The vehemence of his comments is rare among head teachers, who are often deterred from speaking publicly by fear that negative remarks may damage the university chances of their pupils. Halls, whose independent school is ranked 18th in the country in The Sunday Times Parent Power league table, will make his comments at a conference he is hosting to promote American higher education.

Halls is among those who believe American universities, usually with more lavish facilities than those in Britain, often give a far broader education: “I was at a meeting where a UK admissions tutor told hundreds of pupils that his university had ‘no interest whatsoever’ — his words — in anything beyond their academic ability.”

He will add in his speech that British universities have been “bullied [by the government] to the very edge of a precipice”. He will warn of grade inflation, “dumbed-down teaching, often provided by dumbed-down graduates” and “worst of all, apathetic teaching, often in groups so large no one actually knows if you are there or not”. “No wonder so many boys and girls at our schools are beginning to say, ‘Does it have to be like this?’,” Halls will say.

Fears about quality have been highlighted by a Commons report and by student protests at universities such as Bristol and Manchester.

However, a report this week by the Higher Education Funding Council for England is expected largely to clear universities of “systemic” failings, finding most claims of poor standards are anecdotal. It will nevertheless recommend that parents and applicants should be given clearer information on how courses are taught and suggest changes to the way the quality of degrees is policed.

The growing popularity of American degrees, particularly at Ivy League universities, is reflected in new figures. At St Paul’s, the boys’ school in London ranked seventh by The Sunday Times, a record 28 of this year’s leavers have gone to America, up from about 20 last year. St Paul’s girls’ school sent 14 pupils to the US, twice the total two years ago.

Other independent schools reporting steady growth in interest include Cheltenham ladies’ college, where 18 pupils have applied to study in the United States next year, a 50% increase on this year. Ten are applying from Halls’s school for entry next year, up from seven. At Wellington college in Berkshire, which is co-hosting Halls’s conference, 25-30 pupils have expressed strong interest in studying in the US next year, up from 15.

There is growing state sector interest. At Monkseaton high school in North Tyneside, six pupils plan to apply, up from two last year. It came to prominence in 2000 when Oxford’s rejection of Laura Spence, a pupil there, resulted in a political row over “university elitism”. Spence went to Harvard.

US universities are reporting growing interest from Britain — Yale received 308 applications for entry this year, up from 257 the year before. It gave places to 26. Harvard reports a rise in state sector applicants.

Britons studying in the US include Felix Cook, a pupil at Wellington who turned down a place at Oxford, in favour of a liberal arts degree at Harvard. A month into the course he is enjoying the breadth of study: “I’m doing English literature but I’ve also got the chance to do Mandarin and sociology. I’ve met a much more diverse range of people than I would at Oxford.”

Celia Harrison, a former Cheltenham pupil now at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, said she found the range of activities “inspiring” although going there was a “major culture shock”. [I believe that!]

One deterrent to studying in the US is financial. Harvard costs more than £40,000 a year in fees and accommodation. But lavish bursaries are available at the richest institutions and even families with incomes of £120,000 have to pay only about £12,000 of the cost at Harvard.

Stephen Spurr, headmaster of Westminster school, which sent 12 pupils to the US this year, said: “As fees go up in this country, as they almost inevitably will do, the gap between the cost of studying in the US and here will narrow still further.” However, Paul Ingham, head of careers at Hills Road sixth form college in Cambridge, warned: “There’s a lot of interest, but when the universities tell you about the scholarships they offer they don’t say how difficult it is to get them.”

SOURCE



Unruly British pupils 'expelled by the back door'

The appalling British school discipline scene again

Schools are expelling thousands of children “by the back door” to ensure they do not appear in official statistics, it has been disclosed. Up to 7,000 pupils a year are transferred to other schools as part of a “managed move”. It is almost the same as the number of children permanently excluded every year – suggesting the real expulsion rate is around twice the official total.

Parents’ groups claim that unruly children are being foisted onto other schools to give the false impression that behaviour is under control. It is also feared that the most disruptive pupils are not being given the support they need. Figures suggest as many as a quarter of children shifted to other schools are eventually forced to move back.

Adam Abdelnoor, a child psychologist and founder of Inaura, a charity promoting policies to keep pupils in school, said: “Heads have to stop passing the buck.” So-called "managed moves" – when pupils are transferred between schools – are supported by many headteachers. They see them as cheaper, less time-consuming and less bureaucratic than permanent exclusions, which can be challenged and overturned.

But pupils transferred in this way do not count in official exclusion data, suggesting figures are being kept artificially low. In 2007/08 just 8,130 primary and secondary school children were expelled in England – a fall of more than 4,000 in a decade.

Ministers claim the reduction is due to Government behaviour initiatives and the use by schools of the "short, sharp, shock of suspension" which "nips problem behaviour in the bud". But research by Mr Abdelnoor suggests figures could be much higher. He surveyed almost 300 schools and more than half conducted managed moves. Extrapolated nationally, research suggests as many as 7,000 managed moves took place over a 12 month period, according to the Times Educational Supplement.

Previous research has shown how pupils suspected of serious offences have been allowed to move to another school under the rules. Among the pupils moved between schools in 2007 were two teenagers from Barnsley who had brought weapons into school. In Bristol, a 15-year-old who attacked a pupil, verbally abused teachers and brought drugs and alcohol into school also escaped expulsion and was transferred. In St Helens, Merseyside, a 12-year-old was moved after threatening a classmate with a knife, as was a 15-year-old who brought a meat cleaver into school.

SOURCE



Don't regulate banking – liberalise it

Comment from Britain: It's ludicrous to call the current financial system in Britain or the USA laissez-faire

Barack Obama's speech on Monday to Wall Street outlines an overhaul of the regulatory regime. On the anniversary of the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, politicians from both sides of the Atlantic are looking to remodel capitalism. The thirst for greater regulation is strong, united around Gordon Brown's judgment that "laissez-faire has had its day … the old idea that the markets were efficient and could work themselves out by themselves are gone".

The notion that the present financial system is "laissez-faire" is, of course, ludicrous. At present, we have a nationalised organisation that holds a state-granted monopoly on the issuance of currency. If this were any industry other than finance, the Bank of England would be seen as the Soviet-style planning board that it is.

Defending laissez-faire is therefore not a defence of the status quo; it is a positive prescription for a totally new regime. Here are three courses of action that would liberalise the banking system:

1. Legalise insider trading. The regulators have failed spectacularly. They did not foresee the systemic risk created by excess credit creation and over-leveraging, and it would be naive to expect any single organisation to steward an entire industry. Demonising hedge funds and banning short-selling miss the point since these are the ultimate protest vote for market participants. The meltdown of a year ago would not have happened had protesters been truly able to act on their knowledge; legalising insider trading would allow asset prices to integrate as much information as possible.

2. Repeal legal tender laws. When sovereigns control currency, they debase gold coins to augment their own coffers. When politicians control currency, they print money to monetise their debts. Even by giving control to independent central banks, we haven't found a way to protect the value of money, since there is still a monopoly provider with an incentive to inflate. The best form of consumer protection is competition, and commercial institutions should be allowed to offer currency to allow markets to determine the most effective medium of exchange.

3. Eradicate crony capitalism. The official narrative is that when Lehman Brothers failed, it sparked a crisis of such proportions that state action was the only way to prevent another Great Depression. But as we start to learn more about what went on behind closed doors, things become murkier. The haphazard manner in which some banks went bankrupt and others were bailed out probably has more to do with personal networks than economic necessity. But even if you have faith in the government to exercise its powers in the public interest, it simply doesn't have the knowledge to act. It's understandable that Hank Paulson put more emphasis on Wall Street than on conservative banks that spend less on lobbying, because that's the world he lives in. For the rest of us, these deals create regime uncertainty and weaken the power of markets.

These radical proposals challenge conventional wisdom and, in doing so, manifestly demonstrate that the present system is not laissez-faire. We have just scratched the surface of a free-market alternative, and critics have an intellectual obligation to admit this. Let's open the debate to a free market in money.

SOURCE



An epidemic of OCD: Obsessive Carbon Dogma

From living in virtual darkness to minutely measuring their water-use, greens’ fixation with carbon counting is verging on a mental illness.

It was the seventieth anniversary of Sigmund Freud’s death yesterday. Despite the work of Freud and others, it is tragic that many people are still debilitated by the affliction known as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Freud characterised it as Obsessive Neurosis. Others describe OCD – a disorder that compels a person to commit ritualistic actions – as a physiological disorder caused by neurological triggering mechanisms in the brain. Whatever the cause, the sufferer’s repetitive behaviour is intended to reduce anxiety, but can still lead to depression and thoughts about self-harm.

Like ME (Myalgic Encephalopathy, also known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome), OCD is regularly caricatured as one of the ailments of our modern, materialistic Western societies, endorsed by the fact that it has some curious symptoms and some celebrity sufferers. Cameron Diaz says that she habitually rubs doorknobs before opening doors. Leonardo Di Caprio forces himself not to step on chewing gum stains on the pavement. Daytime TV ‘therapist’ Jeremy Kyle licks his mobile phone every time it rings and Labour MP Sir Gerald Kaufman says that he has ‘self-diagnosed OCD’ whereby he needs to eat the same breakfast every morning from £220 Waterford crystal bowls, hence their inclusion on his expense account.

For some celebrity hypochondriacs, OCD has become a fashion statement, for others it is just a chain around their neck. But there is one major obsessive compulsion that has become a central feature of all our lives to the extent that there is real kudos in becoming its victim. Far from reducing anxiety, the latest OCD – Obsessive Carbon Dogma – actually raises anxiety in order to give itself some therapeutic rationale. Fear of rising tides, of population growth, of China and India, of motor cars, of energy use, and of most other aspects of contemporary society, has led us to develop an infatuation with carbon and the mindless repetitive trivia of everyday life. Such is the extent of this compulsion that it has even become government policy in many developed countries.

Paul Kelly, the Australian newspaper’s editor-at-large, says that ‘carbon is the currency of a new world order’; UK foreign secretary David Miliband thinks that ‘the idea of a personal carbon card is pretty iconic’; and Canadian opposition leader, Stephane Dion, has a dog called Kyoto. Meanwhile, the town board of Woodstock, New York, has adopted a Zero Carbon initiative, in what Councilman Stephen Knight called a therapeutic step towards ‘rescuing the nation from embarrassment’.

Nowadays, we are all encouraged obsessively to check what is euphemistically called ‘our waste stream’; to worry that the gas fire or bath taps are turned off; compulsively to monitor our CO2 usage and to assess our carbon footprint. We are collectively developing a carbon foot fetish. These days, many of us cannot leave the room without frantically switching off the lights, appliances and standby buttons in an obsessive, ritualistic frenzy.

So while genuine sufferers of OCD try to cure themselves, everybody else is being encouraged to suffer the Obligatory Carbon Diet. As such, many people take perverse pleasure in performing mundane tasks many times over – it seems to give them a high level of confidence and satisfaction, but in fact it locks them into a depressing, navel-gazing psychosis.

Tony Sanders, described by the Sun newspaper as ‘Britain’s greenest homeowner’, happily spends two hours a day sorting out his rubbish. But you’re never too young to be allowed into the fanatical fold. Sara Pearson, a pre-school practitioner at a nursery for three-year-olds in Barrow, England, says that her pupils ‘have all been looking forward to the trips to the recycling bins’ (1). This means that families that are outside the mainstream education system in the UK are likely to be slightly off-message. For example, in a BBC report on Romanian traveller communities, a British gypsy commented: ‘[There are] children from seven to eight years old up to maybe 12 years old, playing and sorting out rubbish. Obviously I wouldn’t want my children doing that.’ (2)

Get with the programme! All of us are told in no uncertain terms that we must carbon count, carbon trade, carbon monitor, carbon ration or carbon audit. We can track our carbon, assess it, compare it, or trade it. We can, in fact, watch every aspect of our once meaningful lives reduced to a carbon calculation and then we can spend all of our remaining time looking to see if it all adds up. As the ultimate symbol of Obsessive Carbon Decadence, we can even offset our carbon by paying someone in the Third World not to develop on our behalf (see Is carbon-offsetting just eco-enslavement?, by Brendan O’Neill). We have become a carbon-infatuated society.

It is now commonplace to insist that homeowners habitually measure their waste and carbon production, energy and water usage as if these were the most important activities in life. Rummaging in bins and parcelling up your garbage is deemed to be the new cultural highpoint of the carbonista lifestyle. Haverford College in Pennsylvania celebrates ‘an entirely student-designed-and-executed initiative’ focusing on ‘composting’.

Some acute sufferers are severely afflicted to the extent that it affects their judgement. Victoria Clarke from Stockport, for instance, was so keen to sort her rubbish that she left several bin bags on the pavement a day earlier than necessary. She was offered shock therapy in the form of a £700 fine for ‘advancement of waste’. The Ecologist magazine describes life in an OCD home: ‘I was unpacking a delivery of seasonal veg with my five-year-old daughter’, says a desperate father, ‘when I looked round and saw that she’d peeled a couple of leaves off a cabbage and was fashioning them into a pair of shoes’ (3).

Whatever help there is for these sufferers tends to remind us that we are, in fact, morally fallible and predominantly a lost cause. One private company that writes school lesson plans wants students to ‘examine their role in polluting the environment’. A British Carbon Rationing Action Group - which is a support group for carbon obsessives – reminds us that: ‘Carbon criminals leave lights on. Turn them off, even if you’re only leaving the room for a short time.’ As we can see, OCD is one of the most intrusive ailments of our time. It invades our privacy and encourages the authorities to pry into our daily lives. Under new UK guidelines, for example, each occupier of a truly zero-carbon home should flush the toilet no more than 1.46 times per day! Carbon counting is sending us all round the bend.

Many have gone over to the dark side – literally – and may never recover. In 2007, Peter and Sarah Robinson explained to BBC News how they get up early in the morning, but refuse to put the lights on. They open the curtains just enough to let sufficient daylight into the room to help them navigate their furniture safely, but not so much that too much heat escapes. In the dark mornings of winter, they see by the borrowed light from a streetlamp fortuitously placed outside their window. They own no television and their children are allowed to watch DVDs only on the weekend and only if the brightness control is turned down.

Most evenings, the family spends its time in the kitchen in order not to have to switch ‘more lights on than necessary’ in other rooms. Mr Robinson’s Obligatory Carbon Doctrine started after he visited a prison with a group of psychology students. He noticed the repetitive routine that warders used to unlock and secure doors and he was lulled into performing his own rigorous lock-down activity at home. Because of OCD, the Robinsons have turned their home into a personal prison (4).

There is a simple cure for OCD sufferers and it is up to us who haven’t succumbed to the Obsessive Carbon Delusion to save them from themselves. We simply need to argue for rationality and reasoned debate. We should point out that not only should our world not revolve around reducing carbon emissions, but it is, in fact, CO2 that makes the world go round. Humanity is not simply the sum total of its carbon emissions – in fact humans make carbon meaningful. We would be nothing without expending energy, and lots of it, to transform the world and to make us what we are.

Even if carbon emissions are causing global warming, and even if global warming has the potential to cause dangerous sea-level rise, it still doesn’t follow automatically that we should use less carbon. Maybe we should use more carbon. More carbon energy to create flood defences, build escape roads, construct new cities, expand cheap flights to improve the ability of people to choose where they live. Unfortunately, the more that we become blinded by a carbon infatuation, the more we are in very real danger of losing sight of our options and our humanity. The cure for OCD is to use, create, invent and develop more things. Rather than keeping our heads stuck in our bins, this is the creative way to solve problems.

SOURCE





27 September, 2009

One in 12 British secondary schools 'failing'

One in 12 secondary schools could be closed or merged unless they hit GCSE targets next year. As many as 270 secondaries, including 40 of Labour’s flagship academies, fell short of the Government’s strict exam benchmark last summer. Those failing to improve by 2011 could be shut, merged with better performing schools nearby or turned into academies, which are sponsored and run by the private sector.

Ed Balls, the Schools Secretary, warned that academies which have been open for at least three years could also have their sponsors replaced if they did not show "clear evidence" of improving results.

The Government also announced that it would send expert advisers into a series of local authorities to raise standards. It includes Kent, which has a selective education system that includes grammar schools and secondary moderns.

Mr Balls has previously criticised academic selection, insisting pupils who did not win grammar school places at 11 were made to feel like “failures”.

On Tuesday, he said: “I've always said that non-selective schools in selective areas face extra challenges. It's harder but it's not necessarily harder because there's more deprivation or it can't be done.

“There's no doubt in my mind that if you have a new cohort of young people who have all arrived in secondary school having been told that they didn't succeed then you have greater issues around aspiration and belief.”

Under the National Challenge initiative, every school must ensure at least 30 per cent of pupils gain five A* to C grades at GCSE, including the key subjects of English and maths. They are supposed to meet the target by 2011.

Every school below the benchmark was told it would receive extra funding to help boost scores. The number of schools failing to hit the target has dropped from 638 two years ago to around 270.

Around 40 academies are still below the 30 per cent benchmark, according to the Department for Children, Schools and Families. Of these, around 10 have been open for at least three years, before National Challenge began.

The DCSF said today that it had "concerns" about the performance of a "handful" of these, because their results had either stalled or fallen.

Nick Gibb, the Conservative shadow schools minister, said: “There are still far too many schools where fewer than a third of children reach the basic standard of five good GCSEs including English and maths, and it is the poorest areas that are worst affected.

“We urgently need a different approach with more powers for teachers to keep order, more highly qualified people encouraged into teaching, and making schools answerable to parents instead of bureaucrats.”

SOURCE



Fears that NHS switch to cheaper drugs could put millions of British patients at risk of side-effects

Millions of patients could face life-threatening side-effects under a scheme which will swap branded drugs for cheaper versions. More than five million asthma sufferers and up to 500,000 with epilepsy could be hit by the change, while patients with conditions such as Parkinson's, bipolar disorder and hypertension may also be affected.

Pharmacists will be expected to substitute a brand of drug written on a prescription with a generic, cheaper version. For the first time, outside an emergency situation, they will not have to consult with a doctor to change a patient's prescription. The plan is expected to save the NHS up to £70million a year, but critics claim it may end up costing more in treating side-effects unless certain medical conditions are exempt from the rules.

Generic products are developed to cash in when branded drugs lose patent protection. Although generics are meant to be identical, the active ingredients can vary within an agreed percentage and inactive ingredients, such as colourings, may also differ.

In epilepsy even tiny changes in bioavailability - the amount of active medication absorbed into the body - can have serious consequences. NHS guidelines on epilepsy drugs currently warn against changing the brand for individual patients because of 'increased potential for excessive side-effects'.

Doctors claim it is vital the 5.4million asthma sufferers in the UK are protected from having their inhalers automatically switched to cheaper versions. Dr Mike Thomas, chief medical adviser to the Asthma UK charity, said: 'Patients should only be swapped to another inhaler in a face to face consultation with a doctor or nurse. 'Generic substitution means asthma control may be lost and asthma that is not well controlled puts the patient at risk of an attack. 'An opt-out scheme will not be good enough, we need asthma inhalers to be exempt from the regulations.'

And Simon Wigglesworth, deputy chief executive of Epilepsy Action, said a survey of members revealed around 10 per cent had suffered more seizures as a result of changes to their anti-epileptic medication. 'We know people's epilepsy gets worse after their medication changes and seizures are life-threatening,' he said. 'Epilepsy patients should receive the same version of an anti-epileptic drug whenever they get a repeat prescription, from the same manufacturer and the same country of manufacture. 'The only safe way to bring in this scheme is to exempt anti-epileptic medication. 'The financial savings to be made from prescribing generically rather than by brand may not outweigh the cost of extra A&E admissions and hospital stays.'

Other countries with generic substitutions allow doctors to tick a box to indicate that a branded drug must not be changed. Around 86 per cent of NHS prescriptions are already written for generic drugs and Britain has one of the lowest levels of spending on drugs per head of any developed country.

David Fisher, of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, said savings from using cheaper drugs must go back to the NHS.

A spokesman for the Department of Health said: 'Currently, there is nothing to prevent the prescribing of a particular generic or brand of drug if the prescriber considers it essential for the patient to receive a specific product. Our proposals for implementation of generic substitution will maintain this position.'

SOURCE



Northern Ireland public hospitals cannot afford treatment that patients need

Patients being treated in the Belfast Health Trust will no longer be referred to the private sector for operations because the Trust cannot afford them. Patients throughout NI are often referred to private clinics for knee, hip, heart and cataract operations, helping to reduce waiting lists. The trust's Chief Executive William McKee said the move was temporary but it would impact on waiting times.

The Vice Chair, Eileen Evason, said the health service was "in real trouble". She said: "I don't think we can manage financially. We cannot sustain the service unless we get help and get it soon." The Belfast Trust paid for 7,000 private operations last year and commissioned another 4,000 so far this year.

Mr McKee said: "It doesn't appear, at this stage, we have enough money to meet the activity we were able to do last year." He told BBC Radio Ulster: "This is hopefully a brief pause while we take stock of how much money is available and how much more we can do internally." He admitted that the trust was finding things "very difficult" financially and said hard choices would have to be made.

The Trust needs to save £130m over the next three years. Earlier this week it emerged it may cut 152 beds at two hospitals in the city.

SOURCE



Bureaucracy gets ever more oppressive in Britain

They basically want to abolish all human feelings and substitute regulation. Now mothers are banned from looking after each other's children!

Two working mothers have been banned from looking after each other's toddlers because they are not registered childminders. The close friends' private arrangement had let them both return to part-time jobs at the same company. However, a whistleblower reported them to the education watchdog Ofsted and it found their informal deal broke the law.

This was because little-known rules say friends cannot gain a 'reward' by looking after a child for more than two hours outside the child's home without agreeing to a number of checks including one from the Criminal Records Bureau. Although the mothers never paid each other, their job-sharing deal was judged to be a 'reward'. Campaigners fear thousands of working families could be innocently breaking the rules by relying on close friends for informal childcare.

A Downing Street petition in protest at the treatment of the two mothers has already received 1,600 signatures. Educational campaigner Dr Richard House labelled the case as 'absolutely scandalous'. He said: 'There is no conceivable rationale behind it. It's like making the assumption that all parents are paedophiles and they have to prove that they aren't. As soon as we create a society like that then family life ceases. Parents have to have the confidence to make their own choices about their own children. This is absolutely extraordinary.'

The women, who have not been identified, had given birth at similar times. When their daughters passed their first birthday, they decided to return to work part-time at the same firm. The colleagues agreed to look after each other's children as part of the job share. They are said to be 'very good friends' and the girls were so close they had grown up 'like sisters'. However, it is understood that someone believed they were acting illegally as childminders and reported them to Ofsted.

The women have now put their girls into official childcare 'meaning they can't work as they wished due to the elevated costs', friends say.

Ofsted regulations state that where a person cares for at least one child for 'reward' in their own house for more than two hours in any one day they must be registered with them as childminders. Reward is interpreted as 'the supply of services or goods' or 'reciprocal arrangements, not just money changing hands. The rules particularly affect close friends because relatives, such as grandparents, do not have to register with Ofsted. Nor do nannies as they provide childcare in a parent's house.

Some 1,654 people have signed the No10 petition, calling for a change of the meaning of 'reward' to 'money and gifts' in the Childcare Act to allow reciprocal deals. A circular with the petition says: 'Caring for a child for reward is classed as childminding and requires the carer to be registered with Ofsted. In this case, Ofsted say that the reward is free childcare when the mothers themselves go to work!' It adds: 'In an age when the Government want women to return to work, why is it made so difficult for people?'

An Ofsted spokesman confirmed it had been called in after a complaint. Children's Minister Vernon Coaker said: 'The legislation is in place to ensure the safety and well-being of all children. But we need to be sure it does not penalise hard-working families. My department is discussing with Ofsted the interpretation of the word "reward".'

SOURCE



British councillor cleared of witchcraft allegation

We read:

"A Liberal Democrat has been cleared of insulting a Conservative colleague by calling her a witch - after a taxpayer-funded investigation. Pat McCloud, who represents a ward in Forest Heath district in Suffolk, was initially found guilty of accusing Cllr Lisa Chambers, 39, of witchcraft by the council’s standards committee. But the decision was overturned on appeal by the Adjudication Panel for England after an investigative process costing more than £3,000.

The controversy centred on comments that Cllr McCloud, 77, made in an email to council staff following a dispute involving the pair in a council meeting. Cllr McCloud, who felt he had been prematurely interrupted at the meeting, wrote: "How could [Cllr Chambers] possibly know what I was about to say, how could anyone know until I finished, you know they used to burn witches at the stake for having such abilities.”

Chris Hughes, chairman of the Adjudication Panel for England, said that although the comments were inadvisable, they did not constitute personal abuse.

Source

The local Wiccans also think it's no insult to call someone a witch, funnily enough.





26 September, 2009

Paedophile fears are 'driving male teachers from British primary schools'

More than a quarter of state primary schools have no male teachers, partly because they have been deterred from working with young children for fear of being labelled paedophiles, an expert claims. The result is that thousands of boys are being taught solely by women and have no educational male role models. The trend is fuelling concerns that a generation of boys is growing up without an authoritative male figure in their lives.

Teaching remains a predominantly female profession, data published today by the General Teaching Council of England confirms. Only 123,827, or 25 per cent, of the 490,981 registered working teachers are men, with the majority in secondary schools and further education. Male teachers make up just 13 per cent of state primary teachers (25,491) and three per cent of state nursery school staff (43). Of 16,892 state primary schools in England, 4,550 have no male teachers - around 27 per cent.

Professor Alan Smithers, director of the Centre for Education and Employment Research at Buckingham University, said the figures were concerning. 'It's a sad comment on society that more men aren't attracted into teaching in primary schools. In part, this is due to concerns in society about paedophilia. Men are receiving the signal that it's more appropriate for them to teach in secondary schools than primary schools.'

The 'feminisation' of the curriculum, which includes an emphasis on coursework rather than 'sudden death' exams, is already believed to be responsible for a widening gender gap at secondary level.

Professor Smithers said: 'There's a danger that boys could grow up thinking that education is sissy. 'When it comes to reading, they might be offered what appeals to the female teachers whereas male teachers often have different interests in reading. 'Similarly, in interpreting what's been read, there are distinct male and female points of view. Both these views need to be offered to boys.'

GTC chief executive Keith Bartley said: 'We should focus on attracting the best recruits to teaching, regardless of gender. 'If men do not believe that teaching is a worthwhile career option for them, or worse still, if their interest in teaching is viewed with suspicion, then children potentially miss out on a huge pool of talent.'

Only two men under the age of 25 work in state-run nurseries in England, according to the GTC register. One of them, 22-year-old Jamie Wilson, from Merseyside, insists that children need to be taught by male and female teachers. He said: 'I am firmly of the belief that gender should not be an issue when it comes to early years and primary teachers. Why should it matter? 'However, I have found that it has been an issue in my own experience. Even within my first week I encountered anxiety from a parent who was reluctant to leave their three-year-old in my care because I am a male in a female-dominated environment.'

SOURCE



Oxbridge: one student explodes the myths

Students have less than a month to get in their applications for Oxford and Cambridge . The fact that the two universities, generally seen as the "top" places to study in the UK, have a different application deadline from other universities, just adds to the aura around them.

Costas Pitas is studying History and French at Balliol College, Oxford. As someone from a grammar school, he says he didn't know what to expect when he applied, and is keen to help others to, as he says, "explode the myths". In fact, he says that Oxbridge should be "at the top of every working class child's UCAS form." Over to Costas....

"There are many misunderstandings surrounding Oxford and Cambridge. You don’t need to be a Lord, or the son or daughter of one, you don’t have to live in a gold-encrusted palace or have a double-barrelled name. In fact, in my view, Oxbridge should be at the top of every working class child’s UCAS form, and not at the bottom. It’s the best place to study if your worried about finances and fancy the shortest term times of any universities. If you’re predicted the necessary grades, or even just short, here are some myth-busting facts to prove why you shouldn’t think twice about applying.

Myth one: the fees are more expensive

FALSE: For most people Oxbridge is actually the best value-for-money choice you could make. On tuition fees, 99 per cent of courses across the country at every uni will charge £3,225 for this coming academic year. Oxford and Cambridge charge the same. When you consider that the pair continually top The Times Good University Guide, and are among the best-performing institutions in the world, it’s surely a bargain price for the best education money can buy.

Myth two: it’ll cost you more to study

FALSE: Oxford and Cambridge have the best libraries of any universities in the country. The Bodleian in Oxford, for example, is a copyright library which means that it has the right to every book published in the UK. With central libraries, faculty libraries and college libraries, Oxbridge has got to be the place where the need to buy your own reading materials is at its minimum. Plus, many of the colleges and faculties offer book-buying grants to students.

Myth three: it’ll cost more to live

FALSE: Research conducted by the National Union of Students shows that students in London will face living expenses of £8,375 per year, whilst those out of the capital save a cool £1,300 a year, down to £7,011. Furthermore, a combination of generous benefactors, rich alumni and a social guilty conscience means that Oxford and Cambridge offer the most generous financial support anywhere in the country. With a household income of up to £25,000, Cambridge will award a bursary of £3,250 per year, whilst Oxford will splash out the same each year plus a potential £875 in your first year to the poorest students. Any household income under £50,000 will entitle you to hundreds or thousands of pounds worth of non-repayable grant.

Myth four: all the students are snobby

FALSE: OK, of course you’ll find some people who believe God reports to them. However, that applies to all walks of life and my experience of Oxford has been entirely positive. Many people at my college come from schools such as Eton, which you might consider to be the crème de la crème of toff towers, but are anything but. In fact many worry that other students will have a whole truckload of preconceptions about them. Roughly 55 per cent of students at both universities come from state schools, so even if you consider snobby synonymous with independent schools that accusation doesn’t stand up either. My experience shows it to be untrue anyway. Ultimately, everyone’s in the same boat on day one of freshers’ week. It took me the week to find my friends, but the vast majority of people do fit in just fine.

Myth five: they’re all…boring

FALSE: There does seem to be a concern that Oxbridge types are, to quote My Big Fat Greek Wedding, ‘toast. No honey No jam just toast, dry toast’. (I wish I could convey the thick Greek accent in text). A small minority may prefer the lecture theatre to the dance floor but in general that is far from the truth. The parties are some of the most extravagant you’ll find anywhere in the world. College balls are renowned for their grandeur and almost every society, of which there are dozens, will throw in a free chocolate fountain here or free drinks there, as a matter of course. Not that I’ve done this with friends, but the sheer amount of corporate sponsorship, means you can pull up to some amazing events, feign interest in corporate law and enjoy a boat party or drinks event with no charge.

Myth six: they’re all right-wingers...or left-wingers

FALSE: Bizarrely, I’ve heard both stereotypes, which is probably the best proof that they’re wrong. Whether you’ve got a photo of Margaret Thatcher on your wall or in your furnace, Oxford is home to a wide range of political viewpoints. The major political parties have their own groups, the Oxford Union sustains debate, and gossip, uni-wide and the Student’s Union takes on welfare and pastoral issues. Each college’s students have their own committee and, in all, if you’re a lefty or a righty, there’s wide scope to get involved. Equally, if you decide that your free time is for fun and games and not more brain power, then you can easily avoid the whole lot of them!

With the most generous bursaries, the best value-for-money tuition fees and great parties, students shouldn’t be on the look out for largely unfounded stereotypes on why not to apply. Instead they should be fighting to print off the application form."

SOURCE



Budget constraints bring some realism to British government Green dreams

The carbon capture and storage (CCS) industry has expressed grave concerns at reports the government is considering scaling back its £10bn plan to fund a series of CCS demonstration plants in the UK as part of its efforts to restore health to the public finances. The Guardian reported yesterday that Treasury officials have warned that the government plan to fund the development of up to four CCS plants could be cut as a result of renewed spending constraints.

Luke Warren, International Policy Executive at the Carbon Capture and Storage Association, warned that any such cuts could jeopardise both the UK carbon emission targets and the health of the country's emerging CCS industry. "If these report are true they make for dismal reading," he said. "The UK government has been a leader on CCS but it is now in danger of falling behind the pack in the race to develop this crucial technology."

The government is officially committed to funding one plant entirely through its CCS competition – an award expected to be worth around £1bn. In addition, earlier this year climate change secretary Ed Miliband said the government would fund between one and three further CCS plants and that no coal power plant would be given the go-ahead in the UK without CCS attached.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Energy and Climate Change attempted to dopwnplay the reports insistig there had been no official change to the government's CCS funding plans. "The UK has set out bold proposals for coal and CCS – they are a world first – and our ambitions remain firm," she said. "We're determined to drive the development of CCS as part of the transition to a low carbon economy."

However, industry sources noted that the government had never officially committed to funding all four proposed plants and that as a result it could cut the number of demonstration plants back to two without technically reneging on its promises.

More HERE





25 September, 2009

‘Egg whisk’ pioneered by doctor helps pump blood during heart surgery



A miniature “egg whisk” that rotates faster than a high-speed food blender has been pioneered by a British doctor to help the heart to pump blood round the body during life-saving surgery. The ground-breaking procedure, which involves passing the fold-up whisk through the body to a site next to the heart, allows patients with weak hearts to have an artery unblocked without the risk of kidney failure or cardiac arrest.

More than 100,000 patients undergo artery-clearing angioplasty annually, but many remain at high risk of serious complications because of their problems pumping blood. But now Professor Martin Rothman, a cardiologist based at the London Chest Hospital, has completed the first human trials of the revolutionary whisk, which is inserted via a catheter through the groin shortly before the angioplasty takes place.

The procedure, which has not yet been licensed, has proved so successful in patients to date that it was broadcast live yesterday to a key conference in San Francisco attended by 10,000 cardiologists. The whisk, called the Reitan catheter pump, is inserted in a tube via the femoral artery and manoeuvred up to the aorta, where it folds out to form a plastic cage encasing two stainless steel propeller blades of about 8mm in length.

Once switched on — a wire running down the catheter allows it to be powered electrically — the device rotates at up to 12,000rpm, enhancing the pumping action of the heart by drawing blood down from the aorta to the arteries. This keeps vital organs, such as the kidneys, working as the patient undergoes angioplasty.

Professor Rothman told The Times that the device effectively “unloaded the heart”, reducing the risk of heart attack, kidney failure and cardiogenic shock — when reduced blood flow causes multi-organ malfunction. Once the angioplasty is completed, the Reitan catheter pump can be removed.

Professor Rothman said that with up to one in ten patients who need angioplasty being at risk of cardiac and renal failure, the device would bring benefits for thousands of patients every year and even appeared to improve severe kidney problems. He added: “This technology offers real opportunity for sick patients to undergo a very important procedure — patients who, were you to blow a balloon up in their arteries, would otherwise likely be pushed over the edge. “The pump is incredibly powerful — if you stuck it in a bucket of water it looks like the whole thing is boiling. It helps people with heart failure survive this procedure better and with less risk.”

Professor Rothman carried out the first trial after discovering the device, designed by Øyvind Reitan, a Swedish cardiologist and engineer, a few years ago. To date, the British doctor, who works in Barts and the London NHS Trust, has carried out 17 procedures, with published data on the first ten. While a pump would cost about £1,000, and can be used for only one procedure, the savings of preventing a patient from ending up on kidney dialysis are substantial. Three days on dialysis would cost about £10,000.

For the surgery last night, Professor Rothman operated on a woman, 79, who had blockages in her right coronary artery and proximal left anterior descending artery. As a diabetic with high blood pressure and raised cholesterol, the woman had been refused angioplasty by other cardiologists. She is now back on the ward.

Describing the notion that it might reverse kidney failure as a “Star Trek moment”, Professor Rothman said that his team were examining evidence collated so far. One case involved a woman who was only able to pass 10ml or urine per hour in the two weeks before the operation because of poor kidney function, who passed ten times the amount with the device in place.

“It was a revelation to see that patients who had a chronic or long-term impairment of the kidney could actually have that state reversed using the pump,” he said. “That was amazing. We saw the data and it made a lot of us think again. You think most people who have chronic kidney failure have exactly that. You don’t expect them to impove their function and that’s what we have seen.”

Ellen Mason, a cardiac nurse with the British Heart Foundation, described the work as pioneering. She said: “It is great to see a British cardiologist leading the way in the field of international cardiology. “The application would be in people with cardiogenic shock which is usually fatal, or severe heart failure probably due to a heart attack. The hope is that they would be able to undergo urgent treatment for heart attack, when before it would have been too risky. “The data from these trials will determine whether this will become more widespread in the UK and the rest of the world.”

A representative for Barts and The London NHS Trust, which includes the London Chest Hospital, said that it fully supported Professor Rothman’s work. “The trust is committed to providing first class clinical care to all its patients. Our support of cutting-edge research work such as the Reitan Catheter Pump System, is just one example of our ongoing work to help patients to live better, fuller and longer lives.”

SOURCE



Corruption behind a firing at a British school

'Bully' named by fired dinner-lady is school governor’s son. The school initially tried to cover up the assault until the dinner lady spoke to the mother of the bullied girl. The school then fired the dinner lady for breaching some imagined code of Omerta

A governor at the school where a dinner lady was sacked for telling parents about alleged bullies is the mother of one of the four boys involved, The Times has learnt.

Angry parents are demanding the resignation of the headmistress and governors of Great Tey Primary School, Essex. Some are threatening to remove their children if Carol Hill, 60, is not reinstated. Mrs Hill, who was dismissed this week, has since been banned from a voluntary post in the Beaver Scouts and the local youth group because of the decision. The grandmother has spent thousands of pounds on legal fees and is preparing to take further action against the school.

The headmistress, Deborah Crabb, the governors and the local vicar, John Richardson, struck off the dinner lady for a breach of pupil confidentiality after she informed the parents of Chloe David, 7, that the girl had been tied up and whipped by a group of boys at playtime.

Parents questioned whether the decision was influenced by the fact that Kathryn Spicer, a parent governor who did not take part in the disciplinary hearings, is the mother of one of the four boys accused of tying Chloe’s wrists and ankles with a skipping rope.

Sarah Harris, 36, who has two children at the school, described the treatment of Mrs Hill as terrible and unfair. “Maybe this would have been dealt with differently had a governor’s child not been involved,” she told The Times. “You put your trust in these people not only to teach your children but to keep them safe and look after their pastoral care. I am worried and very concerned as to what else may have been covered up.”

Ms Spicer has been a governor at the school since 2006 and has two children there. She refused to comment yesterday. Mrs Crabb, 35, has been headmistress for three years. She was previously a reception teacher at the school, which has 60 pupils.

Sue Dyer, who has five children at the school, said that she no longer trusted the headmistress or the governors and called for Mrs Crabb to step down. Her husband, Ivan, said that parents had been concerned over the headmistress’s level of experience.

Mrs Hill is preparing a case against the school. Her lawyer was not permitted into the dismissal hearing on Monday but the school’s legal representatives and a human resources adviser from Essex County Council were present to advise the board.

Mrs Hill said that she was not able to comment until her appeal. Her husband, Ronald, 65, said: “She is a very strong person but this has got her down. She really loves her job.”

SOURCE




Kiddy "bang, bang" game deemed politically incorrect in sick England

Now the deranged headmistress is lying in her teeth about her actions

Excited by stories of the Second World War during school classes, Steven Cheek did what generations of young boys have done before him. Making an imaginary gun with his fingers, the nine-year-old pointed it at a classmate and said: 'We've got to shoot the German army.' Moments later he found himself in front of the deputy head, who accused him of racism because his 'victim' had been a Polish boy.

He was made to stand in front of the class and make an apology while his mother, Jane Hennessey, was called in by the head of Purford Green Junior School in Harlow, Essex. She was informed that a permanent record of her son's misconduct would be placed on file.

Miss Hennessey yesterday accused the school of overreacting. 'Steven has always wanted to join the Army when he grows up,' she said. 'That's his burning ambition and he loved learning about the war in class. 'In the week leading up to what happened, the school had been telling the children about the history of the war and he had come home every night talking about it.

'He's not a racist. He's only nine years old and he didn't single out the Polish boy, who is one of his good friends. This just happened to be who he was playing with. The deputy head shouted at Steven and said, "That's racism", which is ridiculous because Steven has a Polish aunt and they were on our side during the war. 'He didn't understand what he had done wrong. He was just playing a game like kids always do. He came home after being told off and said, "Mum, what's racism?" The school has overreacted and been very heavy-handed. They could have quietly told him off instead of turning it into a big issue.'

Miss Hennessey, 37, who lives in Harlow with Steven's father Darren Cheek, 39, an electrician, said her son got carried away during a class where the war was being discussed. He had never been in trouble before and had been bullied by other pupils since having to make the public apology.

'My main concern is that this will stay on his record and count against him when he goes to secondary school.' Miss Hennessey added: 'Other teachers have told me that they think he has been harshly treated. Everything was blown completely out of proportion. 'This young Polish child had only started at the school in September and I thought he and Steven got along well. 'He speaks perfect English. I don't think Steven even really knew or understood he was Polish and from another country. Children don't see differences between people like adults do.'

Nick Seaton, of the Campaign for Real Education pressure group, accused the school of 'absurd political correctness'. He said: 'It's a shame that teachers these days all too often fail to crack down on real problems like bullying but overreact to a child with a healthy imagination. Boys will be boys and what the teacher should have done was ask Steven not to play in the classroom, instead of sending him to the deputy head who then humiliated him in front of his class.'

The school, which has around 175 boys and girls aged between four and 11 and was rated 'good' in its last Ofsted report, yesterday claimed Steven's class had been learning about space, not the war, when he was reprimanded and denied he had been accused of racism. Headmistress Viv Perri said: 'When a pupil uses inappropriate language or terms that could be offensive, we have a responsibility to explain to them why their behaviour is wrong. 'We want to give all our pupils the best possible start in life which can mean educating them about knowing right from wrong. 'The incident in question involved a short conversation with a pupil to explain the inappropriateness of his comments and then a meeting with the parent to explain the context.'

SOURCE



The old "people are pollution" mantra of the '70s is back

To heck with carbon dioxide. A new study performed by the London School of Economics suggests that, to fight climate change, governments should focus on another pollutant: us. Every new life, the report says, is a guarantee of new greenhouse gases, spewed out over decades of driving and electricity use. Seen in that light, we might be our own worst emissions.

The activist group that sponsored the report says that birth control could be one of the world's best tools for fighting climate change. By preventing the creation of new polluters, the group says, contraceptives are a far cheaper solution than windmills and solar plants. It is an unorthodox -- and for now, unpopular -- way to approach the problem, which can seem so vast and close that it is driving many thinkers toward gizmos and oddball ideas.

"There is no possibility of drastically reducing total carbon emissions, while at the same time paying no attention whatever to the drastic increase in the number of carbon emitters," said Roger Martin, chairman of the Optimum Population Trust, a British nonprofit that sponsored the report and whose goal is to rein in population growth in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. "For reasons of an irrational taboo on the subject, [family planning] has never made it onto the agenda, and this is extremely damaging to the planet."

It is nothing unusual, of course, to think that the Earth could really use fewer of us. In the 1700s, Thomas Malthus worried that population growth would outstrip the food supply. And a decade ago, writer Bill McKibben connected environmental concerns to his decision to have one child in a book called "Maybe One."

What is new, in the British study and a separate report from Oregon State University, are statistics that show exactly how much each life -- and especially each American life -- adds to the world's emissions. In the United States, each baby results in 1,644 tons of carbon dioxide, five times more than a baby in China, and 91 times more than an infant in Bangladesh, according to the Oregon State study. That is because Americans live relatively long, and live in a country whose long car commutes, coal-burning power plants and cathedral ceilings give it some of the highest per-capita emissions in the world.

Seen from that angle, the Oregon State researchers concluded that child-bearing was one of the most fateful environmental decisions in anyone's life. Recycle, shorten your commute, drive a hybrid vehicle, and buy energy-efficient light bulbs, appliances and windows -- all of that would cut out about one-fortieth of the emissions caused by bringing two children, and their children's children, into the world.

"People always consider the financial costs, and they consider the time cost," said Paul Murtaugh, one of the Oregon State researchers, who said that he does not have children but that he is open to the idea despite his research. "We're just attempting to put on the table the ballpark estimate of the environmental cost."

So what, exactly, is the world supposed to do with this information? The researchers behind both studies are emphatic that they do not want people to be forced not to have children. But Martin, whose group sponsored the British study, said governments could help stop unwanted pregnancies by offering contraception and in some rare cases, abortion.

The British study found that $220 billion, spent over the next 40 years, might prevent half a billion births and prevent 34 billion tons of carbon dioxide. The cost, measured in 2020, would be about $7 for each ton reduced, the report said -- far cheaper than solar power, at $51, or wind power, at $24.

But, for now, the world does not seem very interested. "I don't know how to say 'No comment' emphatically enough," said David Hamilton of the Sierra Club. "I don't want to rain on anybody's parade, but the primary solutions to climate change have to deal with what we do with the people who are here," such as pushing for more renewable energy, and a limit on U.S. greenhouse gases.

The Obama administration declined to comment when asked about the family-planning idea. At the United Nations, which is overseeing global negotiations on reducing emissions, an official wrote in response to a query that "to bring the issue up ... would be an insult to developing countries," where per-capita emissions are still so low compared with those in the United States.

SOURCE



Another false rape claim in Britain

Arrogant council bureaucrat fires a man on the basis of an uncorroborated complaint and without any shred of due process -- and the taxpayer foots the resultant bill

A senior council official accused of violently raping a colleague has been awarded £25,000 in damages. The man, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was awarded the payout after successfully suing his bosses for wrongful dismissal. He was sacked on the spot by the council's chief executive after his alleged victim, a director of a separate department, claimed he had attacked her.

Although she refused to give police a formal statement the council chief, a close friend, was convinced she was telling the truth. He told Mr A, an assistant director, he believed that 'in all probability' he had 'raped and sexually, physically and mentally assaulted, harassed and abused' his colleague. He was then refused a disciplinary hearing on the basis that he would only deny the attack.

But when the police decided to take no further action due to a lack of evidence Mr A launched legal proceedings against his former employers seeking damages. After a six day hearing at Newcastle's employment tribunal last August he was awarded damages for wrongful dismissal and sex discrimination.

It was only at the end of an appeal hearing, that details finally emerged of his compensation payout. Documents revealed he was originally awarded £25,000 for wrongful dismissal and a further £16,385 for sex discrimination. After the appeal hearing, however, the council's claim against the award for sex discrimination was upheld.

The allegations against Mr A first surfaced in July 2007 when Mrs X, his alleged victim, told the chief executive she had been violently raped six weeks previously. 'She said that this was the culmination of a series of incidents of sexual harassment,' said Mr Justice Underhill, who heard the appeal. 'She told him that she had not at that stage said anything to the police, and she made it plain that she was not prepared to make any formal complaint; but he persuaded her to permit him to speak to the police informally in order to seek advice.'

Days later the council's chief executive met with Mrs X and a police sexual offences liaison officer who listened to a fuller account of the alleged rape. She claimed she was pushed into a disabled toilet by her alleged attacker who, she said, held his arm across her neck, before raping her. He told her that no one would believe her if she ever spoke out and left. She returned home, showered several times and placed her clothing in a black bin liner which she threw into a skip outside her property. The police informed the council that they believed she was telling the truth and that there were reasonable grounds to arrest Mr A on suspicion of rape.

On July 30 Mr A, who earned in excess of £70,000 and had worked for the authority since 2005, was summarily dismissed. He was handed a letter by the council's chief executive which read: 'The reason for your immediate dismissal is that I believe that you have, in all probability, raped and sexually, physically and mentally assaulted, harassed and abused X. 'My belief is based upon recent discussions that I have had with X who has advised me of your actions and behaviour towards her since January of this year. 'I have had several meetings with X during which she has advised me of a specific incident of rape, another specific incident of physical assault and abuse and repeated incidents of serious harassment and abuse. 'These matters are clearly of the utmost seriousness. X has also spoken to the police who have indicated to me that her story is entirely credible. 'In most potential disciplinary situations, I would envisage offering the alleged perpetrator a hearing to respond to allegations and provide his/her account before reaching any decision. 'Were I to follow that course in this matter, I would expect you to categorically deny the allegations. The decision I would have to make would be whether or not to believe X. 'I say without hesitation that I accept what X has told me, as I believe do the police.'

Mr A was later arrested and interviewed. He denied the attack and the police took no further action due to lack of evidence as the woman still refused to give a statement. Nor would she give evidence at the tribunal hearing. But the tribunal described the council's decision to deny Mr A the right to a disciplinary hearing as 'shocking'.

Describing the case as 'unusual' and 'disturbing' Mr Justice Underhill, in his judgement, added: 'We also wish to make clear that the Claimant (the alleged rapist) was in this case very unfairly treated. 'The Claimant was summarily dismissed...for offences of the utmost gravity without any notice whatever of the allegations against him and without any opportunity to answer X's accusations - being told, indeed, that nothing he could say would be believed anyway.

But Mr Justice Underhill upheld the appeal by the Council and its Chief Executive, ruling that the man would not have been treated differently by them had he been a woman.

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24 September, 2009

British social-class hatreds still thriving

Traditional Leftist hatred of the middle class: "Today" programme’s jobless bank worker ‘ineligible for help’ because he lives in a nice middle-class house

An unemployed bank worker who was promised help with finding a new job after he appeared on Radio 4’s Today programme has claimed he was dumped by a Government-backed recruitment agency because the area where he lives is too middle-class. Alan South was made redundant 18 months ago after a 30-year career in the City as an administrator in banks and stockbroking firms. His plight came to national prominence after he agreed to let the BBC track his job-hunting progress for a series of features on the flagship breakfast show about people who lost their jobs in the recession.

On last Tuesday’s edition of the programme he accused Working Links, a company that is paid millions of pounds by the Department for Work and Pensions to find placements for the long-term unemployed, of doing ‘absolutely nothing’ to help him. The 50-year-old divorcee, who has two teenage daughters, believes Working Links lost interest in him after discovering that he lived in a relatively prosperous part of North London, had no history of alcohol or drug abuse and had never been out of work before.

Despite an unsolicited approach from Working Links after his appearance on Today, and an initial offer of help from the company’s employment experts, he was eventually told he was ineligible for assistance unless he signed on at a Jobcentre more than four miles away in Tottenham, one of the most deprived and crime-ridden areas of the country.

After Working Links made its approach in April – through a PR company – Mr South was invited to a meeting with three Working Links career advisers. Mr South told The Mail on Sunday last night that he left the meeting feeling greatly encouraged. He said: ‘They said they would market me as “transfer-compatible” so that I could work in other industries, including the public sector. I was quite pumped up about it because this was just the sort of boost I was looking for. ‘They were saying all the right things and I was pretty sure I’d be back in work in a few weeks. Working Links were very keen to promote their services but I think all they were looking for was a bit of free publicity because it all came to nothing.

‘They showed me a Press release about a project they’d worked on in Glasgow involving a group of unemployed people with alcohol and drug problems. I got the impression that it was these kind of people they were targeting.’

Mr South, whose last job was as operations manager at the London office of a French bank, claims he heard nothing from the recruitment agency for more than a month. With no job offers coming through, he decided to register with Working Links through normal channels by signing on at his local Jobcentre. When he gave the Jobcentre adviser his address, however, he received another disappointing rebuff.

Mr South said: ‘He said Working Links wouldn’t be able to do anything for me because the part of Enfield where I live hadn’t been designated an area of special economic need by the Government. ‘It’s true it’s a pleasant middle-class area but I don’t think these things should be decided by postcode. I qualify as long-term unemployed because I’ve been out of work for more than a year, but the system doesn’t seem geared up to help professional people like me.’

Working Links is one of several recruitment firms being paid by the Government to find jobs for the long-term unemployed. Last year, it made an operating profit of £1.3million and turnover rose by 11 per cent to £86million. Company accounts show that the highest-paid director – thought to be managing director Breege Burke – is on an annual salary of £222,000.

Last night the agency, which is one-third Government-owned, strongly denied letting Mr South down. A spokesman said: ‘When we approached the BBC, we honestly thought we could help Alan find a job. We would dispute any suggestion that, having said we could help him, we left him in the lurch. We followed the meeting up with emails and phone calls. ‘The problem with where he lives is that the Jobcentre he is registered with falls outside the geographic remit of our employment-zone contract with the Government. We have offered Alan as much support as we can and given him advice on how to develop his CV.’

Over the past 12 months, the company claims to have helped 16,700 people back into work, a seven per cent increase on the figure for 2007-08.

SOURCE



Politically correct parents ditch 'offensive' traditional fairy tales

This story is from months back but better late than never -- JR

For most, they are innocent tales that define childhood. But some parents are ditching fairytales, believing they are politically incorrect or 'too dark' to read to children, a survey has found. One in four mothers has abandoned the likes of Cinderella and Rapunzel in favour of The Gruffalo or The Very Hungry Caterpillar, written in 1969 by Eric Carle.

One in ten parents even said Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs should be re-titled - because 'the dwarf reference is not PC'. Rapunzel is considered 'too dark' and Cinderella outdated, because she is forced to do the housework.

The poll of 3,000 British parents, carried out by TheBabyWebsite.com, revealed 66 per cent believe traditional fairytales have stronger morality messages than modern equivalents.

But many feel they are inappropriate to soothe youngsters before bed. Most of the tales were made popular by the brothers Grimm in their Grimms' Fairy Tales, published in 1812. However many were around long before that, including a version of Snow White from the Middle Ages and a Cinderella story first told in Ancient Greece.

A spokesman for TheBabyWebsite.com said: 'Fairytales take children to a land of makebelieve where they can use their imaginationsand where generally the goodies beat the baddies. 'Children love being read a variety of stories and it's a great shame that so many of today's PC mums and dads are rejecting fairytales which have stood the test of time, entertaining children for hundreds or thousands of years.'

A fifth of parents said fairytales were no longer politically correct, while 17 per cent worried they would give their children nightmares.



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NHS vendetta against whistleblower

No concern over whether staff were qualified, apparently. "Shoot the messenger" approach instead

A senior NHS nurse faced a “witchhunt” and was threatened with having her house burnt down if she did not drop a complaint against a colleague, an employment tribunal has been told.

Jenny Fecitt, who worked at an NHS walk-in centre in Wythenshawe, South Manchester, said that at the time of a phone call in which the threat was made she was in dispute with her employer after raising concerns over another nurse’s qualifications.

Mrs Fecitt had complained to bosses at NHS Manchester over one of the staff on her team, Daniel Swift, whom she claimed “misrepresented” his training and should not have been treating adult patients. But her concerns were ignored by trust bosses, it is alleged, and she was subjected to a “character assassination” before receiving the threatening call. “The substance of the call was if I did not drop the case against Daniel Swift that our house would be burnt down,” Mrs Fecitt told the employment tribunal, sitting in Manchester.

Mrs Fecitt, along with Annie Woodcock and Felicity Hughes, her fellow nurses, is taking NHS Manchester to the tribunal, claiming that they were victimised after voicing their concerns. The tribunal heard that problems began on March 3, 2008, after Mrs Woodcock approached her about Mr Swift’s qualifications.

Mrs Fecitt said that during a casual conversation among staff he maintained that he was qualified as both a child and adult nurse. She called the Nursing and Midwifery Council and was told that he was qualified to treat only children. Mrs Fecitt spoke to her line manager and, the next day, Mr Swift is alleged to have called her in an “aggressive and confrontational” manner.

She told the tribunal that it was her “moral and professional” obligation to report Mr Swift to the nursing council. She also contacted the trust’s officer responsible for corporate governance and whistleblowing in April 2008 and an investigation was started. But the following month she was relieved of her management responsibilities.

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The Leftist war on British education continues apace

Sacked for exposing the bullies: Dinner lady fired for telling parents girl had been whipped. If you can't prevent violent behaviour, cover it up is the British response

A school dinner lady who told the parents of a seven-year-old girl that she had been viciously bullied in the playground has been sacked. Scott and Claire David were simply informed in a letter home that their daughter Chloe had been 'hurt' in an incident with a skipping rope. In fact, she had been tied to a fence, whipped by four boys, had to be dragged to safety and suffered burns to her wrists.

But the attempted cover-up was exposed when Carol Hill - the dinner lady who saved her from further injury - bumped into Mr and Mrs David and told them what really happened. Mrs Hill, 60, was suspended after the incident in June and yesterday it emerged that she has been fired by a disciplinary tribunal for breaching pupil confidentiality at Great Tey Primary School, near Colchester, Essex.

The decision has been condemned by the girl's family, who were prevented from giving evidence on Mrs Hill's behalf. Other parents at the school are considering withdrawing their children in protest.

Friends say that Mrs Hill, from Great Tey, who has worked at the school for almost eight years, is 'shocked and very disappointed' but is planning to appeal. One said: 'She thinks she's been treated really shabbily but she insists that if she saw a child being bullied again she would definitely step in like she did.' Her husband, Ron, said: 'She's not been eating and has been really down. I can't describe how cross I am. I can't believe it's got this far. She's done nothing wrong.'

Mrs Hill has previously told how another pupil alerted her to the bullying incident. She found Chloe bound up and terrified. She said: 'She had eight knots around her wrists and had been whipped across the legs with a skipping rope. I took her back into the school, along with four boys who had been seen with her. Two admitted it.'

Mr and Mrs David say Chloe, who had rope burns to her wrists and whip marks on her legs, was sent home with an accident notification letter. They could not find out what exactly had happened as she was in shock and refused to talk about it. Later that evening, Mrs Hill was helping at a Beaver Scouts meeting and went over to Mrs David to say she was sorry about what happened. Speaking in July, she said: 'As I was talking to her it became clear she did not know the whole story. I had to tell her because she then realised there was more to it.'

Mr and Mrs David have since withdrawn Chloe and their five-year-old son, Cameron, from the school. They say that if Mrs Hill had not told them, they would never have been alerted to what had really happened. They later demanded to see the school's accident book which stated that Chloe had been tied up.

Mr David, 33, a steel worker, said last night: 'I'm disgusted and shocked that Mrs Hill has been sacked and I'm disgusted that the school has been able to cover everything up. 'It was her job to make sure that children's welfare was being looked after. That's what she did but she's now being punished for doing her job properly. 'We back Mrs Hill totally. She did not realise we did not know all the facts. We should have done - we should have been called into the school.' He added: 'Chloe seems to be doing OK now. She seems to have bounced back better than us. We're still trying to cope with what happened.'

Many parents are backing the dinner lady and want her to be reinstated. Sue Dyer and her husband Ivan, 50, a horticultural engineer, have five children at Great Tey Primary School. Mrs Dyer said: 'The way Carol's been treated is totally unjust. I would put total trust in her ability to look after my children. 'Carol is 100 per cent for children, she is a very popular figure in the village and the school. 'The children think Carol's coming back - they keep asking, when is Mrs Hall back?'

Mrs Dyer said that if the headteacher had informed Chloe's parents about the full extent of the bullying in the first instance, the trouble would have been avoided. Margaret Morrissey, of family campaign group Parents Outloud, said: 'I'm absolutely sure she was just trying to act in the best interests of the child. 'I doubt if there's anyone who knew what had happened who wouldn't want to sympathise. I'm sure that parents will be very upset to hear that she's lost her job over it.'

Headmistress Debbie Crabb has insisted that Chloe's parents were told of the incident according to school 'accident and first aid procedures'. But she said the procedures would be reviewed. She said yesterday: 'We can confirm that subject to any appeal Mrs Hill will not be returning to work at Great Tey Primary School.'

SOURCE




Britain 'won't take Calais migrants'

Home Secretary Alan Johnson has denied that Britain will be forced to take migrants from the "Calais Jungle" camp which has been shut by French police. "Reports that the UK will be forced to take illegal immigrants from the 'Jungle' are wrong," he said. Mr Johnson said refugees should apply for protection in the first EU country that they reach.

Migrant groups say the camp closure will only shift the problem elsewhere in Europe. The makeshift camp has replaced official centres like Sangatte as a gathering point for migrants hoping to cross to Britain.

Mr Johnson welcomed the "swift and decisive" clearance, and said Britain was working closely with France to prevent illegal immigration and people trafficking.

Immigration minister Phil Woolas said the migrants had no right to claim asylum in the UK, and he questioned whether they were genuine asylum seekers. "If they were fleeing persecution they have the right to claim asylum in the first country of entry as they leave their own countries," he told the BBC.

However, Sir Andrew Green, chairman of the Migrationwatch think-tank, suggested that Britain's immigration policy was part of the problem. "This is a welcome decision but it will not tackle the root cause of the problem, namely that Britain is regarded as a 'soft touch'. "Why else would people be queuing up in Calais?" he added. Sir Andrew said the government should be more serious about removing failed asylum seekers, and rule out absolutely any talk of an amnesty.

Richard Ashworth, Conservative MEP for South East England, said the decision to close the camp was long overdue, but the French government needed to do more if the situation is to be resolved. "It is now incumbent on the French government to deal with illegal immigration at the point of entry into France, and not simply funnel them through creating this sorry bottleneck along the Pas de Calais and Normandy coasts," he says.

The UK Independence Party (UKIP) Euro MP Nigel Farage told the BBC that the government needs to take a tougher stance, and stand up to France.

Refugee campaigners have welcomed the closure of the camp, but warned that the problem will shift elsewhere. "It is quite right that it should be shut down," said Dan Hodges from the charity Refugee Action. "But while it is possible to sweep away the camp, you can't simply sweep away the problem."

Makeshift camps sprang up in Calais following the closure of the Red Cross camp in Sangatte in 2002. Some observers fear that things will be no different this time. "I remember seven years ago when former home secretary, David Blunkett, and the then French minister of the interior, Nicolas Sarkozy, congratulated themselves on the closure," said Keith Best of the Immigration Advisory Service. "But the hundreds of asylum seekers merely moved to the dockside of Calais. The liquidation of the jungle will have the same transitory effect," he suggested. Mr Best said it was very difficult to claim asylum in France, and the French were not playing their part despite obligations under the Geneva Convention.

Donna Covey, chief executive of the Refugee Council, said the closure was dealing with symptoms rather than the cause, and the big question was what happened to the migrants now. "We hope that all the people, including the very vulnerable, like women and children on their own who are trying to get to a place of safety, are given access to an asylum system. "This is a European-wide problem which needs a solution at European level," she said.

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British universities to end 'irrelevant' research

This is reasonable as long as basic science is not affected

The days of university researchers developing formulas for the perfect cheese sandwich or signing up for David Beckham studies may be numbered after the government’s higher education funding body announced plans to tighten its criteria for research grants. Academics will be required to demonstrate that their research is relevant to society in order to be allocated public funds and the biggest grants will go to projects likely to influence the economy or public policy. Critics say the plan, due to come into force in 2012, will sacrifice academic freedoms to market forces.

The plans are due to be announced today by the Higher Education Funding Council for England. It will allocate £1.76bn a year in government funds for academic research under the Research Excellence Framework. From 2012, university departments must submit their work to be rated by a panel of academics. Marks will be awarded, 25 per cent for the impact the research will have and 15 per cent for the department’s research strategy, staff and student development and its engagement with the wider world.

The Hefce said the system would pay out for research in the arts and humanities as well as science and technology.

But Sally Hunt, general secretary of the University and College Union, told The Guardian: “Academic research should never be at the behest of market forces. “History has taught us that some of the biggest breakthroughs have come from speculative research and it is wrong to try and measure projects purely on their economic potential.”

David Sweeney, Hefce’s director for research, said: “The Research Excellence Framework will recognise and reward excellent research and sharing new knowledge to the benefit of the economy and society, and will ensure effective allocation of public funds. “It will encourage the productive interchange of research staff and ideas between academia and business, government and other sectors.”

Under the previous funding allocation system, universities were able to take on star academics at the last minute to boost their research performance.

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British study finds no evidence of autism surge in children

Autism is as common among adults as it is among children, a study has found, dispelling fears of a link between the MMR vaccine and the condition. A study of rates of autism spectrum disorder among adults suggests that one in every 100 people over the age of 18 has the condition — broadly the same as that cited for children.

The data, collected by the NHS Information Centre, is the first to show how autism affects people over the course of a lifetime, concluding that it is similar across all ages.

People in more than 4,000 households in England were asked a series of questions aimed at assessing their psychiatric health. The results were used to identify adults with an autism spectrum disorder, including Asperger’s syndrome.

The centre said that the study found no evidence to support claims of a link between the MMR jab given to children and the development of autism: if the vaccine was to blame, autism rates among children should be higher because the MMR has been available only since the early 1990s.

The study — the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey 2007 — was funded by the Department of Health. It found that rates of autism were higher among men (1.8 per cent) than among women (0.2 per cent). This reflects studies in children, which have shown higher rates among boys than girls.

The report also found higher rates of autism among single people, among men with no university degree and among men who rent their homes rather than those in other types of housing. [The poor have worse health: The old, old finding]

Tim Straughan, chief executive of the NHS Information Centre, said: “This landmark report is the first major study into the prevalence of autism spectrum disorders among adults to be carried out anywhere in the world. “The findings do not support suggestions of a link between the MMR vaccine and the development of this condition.” Mr Straughan said that while the sample size was small and any conclusions needed to be treated with caution, the report suggested that, despite popular perceptions, rates of autism were not increasing.

The MMR jab was first introduced in the UK in 1988. Concerns over the vaccine were sparked by a paper published in The Lancet in 1998 by Dr Andrew Wakefield. The research has since been discredited.

Mr Straughan said that the findings backed those from the National Audit Office (NAO) that more was required to support people with autism through adulthood. The NAO found there was very little recognition and service provision by local authorities or the NHS for adults with autism spectrum disorder.

The NHS Information Centre report found that people with autism do not access support services for mental or emotional problems in any greater numbers than the general population. “This does beg some questions about whether services, as currently configured, are meeting the needs of this group of people,” Mr Straughan said.

Mark Lever, chief executive of the National Autistic Society (NAS), said that his organisation had long campaigned about awareness of “woefully inadequate” services and support for adults with autism. “Nearly two-thirds of adults with autism told us they do not have enough support to meet their needs. “Many thousands feel isolated and ignored and are often completely dependent on their families. This study gives us further evidence to demand that more vital support is put in place.” Mr Lever said that the report was the first part of a much more detailed research project into the prevalence of autism in the UK. “While we welcome this initial report, it only underlines the scale of the task that lies ahead and the importance of the forthcoming adult autism strategy in tackling the devastating lack of support and services,” he said.

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23 September, 2009

Ass-backwards British policing again

Father arrested for carrying out citizen's arrest on yobs 'who threw apples at him and his wife'. But, as usual, publicity seems to be producing some backpedalling. Too bad if you can't get a newspaper to take up your case in Britain. The police are your enemy in Britain if you try to defend yourself

When police failed to help after Roland Digby's house was repeatedly pelted with apples by a gang of youths, the father-of-three tried to perform a citizen's arrest. But instead of the yobs, it is he who has been left facing court. He was arrested and charged with common assault after allegedly placing his hand on a 16-year-old's shoulder to restrain him. The youth swore at him and a scuffle broke out, so Mr Digby put him in a 'full-nelson' behind-the-back armlock 'to make sure he didn't get away'.

About 15 other teenagers then joined the fray, which ended after several minutes when Mr Digby escaped with a 'clipped lip'. But despite four 999 calls no officers turned up to his house. When they did arrive five days later, it was Mr Digby that was arrested.

The courier driver, 49, said: ' People who stand up for their own rights face a criminal record, while the perpetrators get off. I am totally disgusted by this. The police have just hung me out to dry. 'When I was young, if someone told you to disappear, you would, but now people say you can't touch them or you'll get in trouble. 'I have lived in this town for 25 years and used to run an off-licence [liquor shop]. I always complied with enforcing ID checks and I had a good relationship with the police. 'They know me well but I am shocked by what has happened.'

Mr Digby, from Royston, Hertfordshire, says his property had already been targeted twice in a week by youths throwing dozens of crab apples from a nearby BMX bike track. Despite calling 999 each time, police only turned up hours after the incident, when the teenagers were nowhere to be seen.

After a third night of harassment on September 3, when more than 20 teenagers pelted him and his wife Janette with apples as they sat in their garden, Mr Digby called the police at 8.30pm and went to confront the group.

Mr Digby complained to two passing policeman on the way home after he broke free from the scuffle. They told him to go back to the house and wait, but at 11pm he received a call saying no officers would be able to attend that evening. When he was arrested Mr Digby refused to accept a caution and was charged.

He will appear in Stevenage Magistrates' Court tomorrow, but is unrepentant and plans to plead not guilty. He said: 'I don't even know if the kid complained about me or if police finally went to investigate my complaint and arrested me as a result of his story.'

The law allows any person to make a citizen's arrest as long as they use only 'reasonable force'. It is understood that the level of force Mr Digby used to restrain the boy will be at the centre of the court case. None of the youths have been arrested but police are investigating Mr Digby's claims about the apple-throwing and scuffle.

A spokesman for Hertfordshire Police said: 'This is a matter reviewed by the CPS who felt there was enough evidence to bring charges against Mr Digby. 'However, we have not lost sight of the circumstances surrounding this incident which are still under investigation and are committed to resolving the complexities of this case with all parties involved.'

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Cyclists can do no wrong?

You never hear them say 'thank you'. If they say anything, it's either a warning as they approach or an expletive as they pass. And they are a daily hazard of life on the average urban or suburban pavement. Wheeling a pram through West London the other day, I met them twice in less than an hour. On each occasion, I had to steer the pram to the side of the pavement to make way for an oncoming cyclist who simply could not be bothered to go through the irksome business of using the road.

I could have stood my ground, I suppose, but I'd rather not use my daughter as a roadblock. I could have pointed out they were breaking the law on pain of a £30 fixed penalty. But why invite a stream of invective or saliva - or both - in front of a child?

So I just did what most people do in 21st-century Britain when faced with low-level anti-social behaviour and zero expectation of any police support. I stepped aside. I do exactly the same when I'm driving, too. If I'm about to turn left or right and I see cyclists in my wing mirrors tearing up from behind on either side, I pause to let them past. By rights, they should observe my indicator light and wait for me to move, but life's too short for the abuse and the kick in the door or the thump on the window. I may be in the right, but I cannot be bothered to have a showdown. Besides, I have no wish to inflict harm on these people, however objectionable their behaviour. The odds of cyclists hurting or killing themselves are bad enough already. No wonder members of the medical profession refer to them as 'donors'.

I prefer to think of them as the Mai-Mai, the Congolese militia who believe that they are endowed with magical qualities making them immune to bullets. I sense a similar contempt for human mortality when I watch a pumped-up Lycra lout bombing through the London traffic in the belief that he (and it's usually a he) is some sort of superior being with a superior ideology - two wheels, good; four wheels, bad.

To question this orthodoxy is, simply, environmental heresy. And now the zealots want it enshrined in law. This weekend, the Government's chief cycling quango demanded that, henceforth, cyclists should be treated as blameless Kings of the Road. Philip Darnton, the chairman of something called Cycling England, has insisted that, in future, the car driver should be deemed the guilty party in any accident involving a car and a bicycle - or a pedestrian for that matter. 'I would like to see the legal onus placed on motorists when there are accidents,' he told a Sunday newspaper as he outlined his organisation's vision of a new, more bike-friendly Britain.

So, in the case of a law-abiding driver who runs into a meandering two-wheeled moron bursting out from a side street with no lights, the law will clobber the driver. If you drive through a green light when a cyclist has decided to ignore a red - or a drunk rider falls into your path - it's your fault. You (or your insurance company) can foot the bill. This would be a very serious affront both to natural justice and common sense. But, according to Mr Darnton, such a measure will help to persuade more people to take up cycling.

Really? That argument is either naive or deliberately misleading. The wholly predictable consequence of such a law is that some cyclists will take even more risks with the traffic in the knowledge that the law is on their side regardless. It will make the dangerous cyclist even more convinced of his own invincibility. There will be even more Mai-Mai on our roads and even more yobs pedalling nonchalantly down our pavements.

Now, if Mr Darnton was just another evangelical cyclist, I'd not be too bothered. But he is the chairman of a government-funded organisation which spends a hefty £47million a year of taxpayers' money to promote getting on one's bike. And very cosy it is, too, since he also happens to be a former chairman and chief executive of Raleigh, the bicycle manufacturer.

When I called Cycling England yesterday, I was surprised to discover that there was no one capable of discussing this matter. Mr Darnton has gone off to a 'conference' in Canada where he is, apparently, unable to receive phone calls. All questions are steered towards a swanky London public relations company which has been hired, no doubt at considerable expense, to speak on his behalf. But it has nothing to say on the matter and suggests I call the Department for Transport.

There, a spokesman says that it is 'absolute nonsense' to suggest that motorists will become 'automatically liable' in the event of accidents. And yet its chief two-wheeled adviser is proposing something pretty similar.

If this is how Cycling England cares to spend its £47 million, it should be right at the top of the queue for David Cameron's proposed 'bonfire of the quangos'. Except, of course, Mr Cameron is an ardent fan of the bicycle. So, too, is his Conservative confrere, Boris Johnson, Mayor of London. Cycling has never had such influence in high places (even if an official limo is usually close at hand to transport the suit jacket and briefcase for the saddle-sore VIP).

Everyone wants to flaunt their cycling credentials. In the more liberal regions of polite society, it is now more socially acceptable to break wind at a dinner party than to leave the party by car rather than bike.

Now I am certainly not antibicycle. Cycling is, unquestionably, a good thing. It is good for the body and every traveller on a bike is one less exhaust fume for the pedestrian. With British cyclists grabbing fistfuls of gold medals at last year's Olympics and a new velodrome taking shape for the London Games in 2012, Britain has much to be proud of in the pedalling department.

But cycling still remains a dangerous business. Last year, 115 cyclists were killed on Britain's roads. And while this figure was down on the 2007 total of 136, the number of serious injuries rose by one per cent to 2,450 and the total number of cycling casualties was up by a similar amount to 16,297. Although London has seen cycle journeys increase by 60 per cent since 1997, national figures show a steady decline.

To its credit, the Government has started beefing up cycle proficiency in schools, with an extra 100,000 children getting proper training every year. Only this weekend, much of Central London was shut down for a cycling free-for-all which pulled in 65,000 cyclists of all shapes and sizes. All this is entirely commendable. For a child, riding a bike is a vital first step to independence. If more adults used bikes for modest journeys, urban congestion could be slashed. And if the whole world could do more pedalling and less vroom-vroom, then I am sure it would be good news for the rain forests and polar bears.

But that is precisely why we should be teaching cyclists that they have responsibilities as well as rights. We know what happens when people are taught that they are always victims, that everything is someone else's fault. They cease to have any grasp on reality. Demonising drivers is not the answer. And nor is putting cyclists above the law. After all, there are quite enough of them who think they are there already.

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Lazy, illiterate teachers, cynical heads who have given up, and pupils who treat them with contempt. A horrifying portrait of the British schools failing young boys

It's the most disturbing social issue of our age - why Britain is plagued by a generation of violent, barely literate young men living outside the normal bounds of society. For nine months, a leading investigative journalist has been examining their world for the Mail. Here, in the third part of our exclusive serialisation of her findings, she takes on our failing schools.

When Darren was 14, he became one of the bad boys. Barely able to read and write and unable to keep up in the classroom, he started truanting with nine other pupils who also felt school had nothing to offer but humiliation. Trashing bus shelters and stealing anything for kicks soon progressed to stealing in earnest when they discovered a fence in their small town in the Midlands. They'd have the wheels off a BMW and £100 in their pockets within the space of an hour. Then they moved into drugs, selling cocaine and ecstasy to the queues outside nightclubs.

Weren't they afraid of getting caught? Oh no, getting arrested was 'part of the game', said Darren, now 21. Half the time, the police would let them go; otherwise they'd usually get away with a £50 fine in the youth courts. Once, he remembered: 'Four or five of us were arrested three times in two weeks. In fact, Darren found himself at his local police station so often that he used to say breezily to the charging sergeant: 'No worries. I'll take myself down to the cells. I know which cell to go to.' The charging sergeant would shout after him: 'Don't forget to shut the door!'

Darren, however, doesn't have much to laugh about now: he may have given up crime, but he lives on benefits and can't get a job - despite being obviously bright. The wrong turning he took at 14, when he abandoned school, has probably wrecked his life. Even so, he's done better than his nine mates who arrived with him from primary school all barely able to read and write. Two of them are dead - one committed suicide in prison and the other smashed a stolen car into a bus shelter at 80mph. Two are serving long prison sentences - one for stabbing someone in the neck. The fifth is a 'very bad' alcoholic. Three now control the drug scene in the town. And Darren's closest friend, a gifted football player, is homeless, hooked on crack and weighing just 7st.

Why do so many boys from poor backgrounds go so catastrophically off the rails in their mid-teens? The trend in education and sociology circles is to point the finger at parents, violent DVDs or deprivation. What they never mention is school.

The link between illiteracy and delinquency is beyond doubt: when 14-year-old boys such as Darren and his friends can no longer keep up in class, they misbehave and often drop out.

Despite the Government's Literacy Hour and a massive increase in spending on schools, a third of all 14-year-olds have a reading age of 11 or below. One in five has a reading age of nine. This is an extraordinarily high level of failure. After all, learning to read is a routine business managed by countries a lot poorer than ours. Cuba, Estonia, Poland and Barbados, for example, all boast higher literacy rates than ours, despite spending far less on education. We wouldn't accept it if one in three everyday hospital operations ended in failure - so why do we accept it in our schools?

The age of 14 is when children are most likely to play truant, disrupt classes or face exclusion from school. And those most likely to do so are the black Caribbean and white working-class boys, who are, in turn, more likely to join gangs and terrorise their neighbourhoods.

To find out why this is happening, I spent nine months talking to black and white working-class teenagers from low-income families, as well as youth-club leaders, teachers, school inspectors and charities. The more I found out, the clearer it became that poor schools lie behind most of the statistics on crime, social disorder and drug abuse.

Educationalists argue that schools cannot compensate for the failings of society. But this is exactly what schools should be doing. School is our one opportunity at social engineering. It is our one chance of transforming the future of boys with chaotic home lives. Yet all over the country, schools are failing them - for reasons that could so easily be put right.

Certainly, for the majority of the boys I interviewed, school was part of the problem and not the solution. Most, such as Darren and his friends, hadn't been taught to read and write properly at primary school and were at best semi-literate. For such boys, their lives are all but finished before they have really begun. The effect on society is devastating, too: feral gangs roam our streets and many people are scared to leave their homes. How has this been allowed to happen?

At one comprehensive I visited, I was surprised to find the headmaster in a jubilant mood. Not because his pupils were doing particularly well - but because he'd just discovered a GCSE English exam that didn't require them to read a single poem or book. 'You have to be ahead of the game,' he told me. As far as he was concerned, he was perfectly justified in 'ducking and diving' between exam boards in a quest to increase the number of pupils scraping by with a pass (grade C) - and so fulfil that all important Government target. Many were barely able to read and write when they arrived at his comprehensive - despite passing SATs tests after much coaching - and their chances of ever learning were already ebbing away.

Why? Because this same headmaster has given up on them, claiming he lacks the funding or the staff to help them catch up. Breathtakingly cynical? Certainly, but his attitude isn't uncommon in schools across the country. Heads are judged on how many good A-C grades their pupils get at GCSE, not on how many disadvantaged boys they turn around. Better that the bad boys drop out than drag down a school's results.

One problem is the sheer numbers who arrive from primary school without the ability to read and write properly. Time after time, as I visited comprehensives across the country, I was told that there was no chance of giving the new intake the extra lessons they needed. Even at one predominately white suburban secondary school, the man in charge of teaching literacy skills told me 40 per cent of the first-years were 'at least' two years behind in reading or spelling or both. He'd worked out he had five minutes a week for every pupil who needed help.

A science teacher in an inner-London school told me: 'I am so used to teaching 14-year-olds who have a reading age of seven that I don't even think of it as strange anymore. It's become the norm rather than the exception.' Last year, almost 250,000 children - 40 per cent - started GCSE studies without having achieved the level of reading, writing and maths needed to cope with the course.

So what's the solution? Four years ago, the Government announced that schools would be switching to the most successful method of teaching children how to read - synthetic phonics - in which children are taught letter sounds and blending skills. But it didn't quite work out that way. Instead of introducing this tried-and-tested method, which has had spectacular results with boys from disadvantaged backgrounds, a new phonics-based method was devised, which is not as effective. And, still, some teachers are not even using that. They prefer pupils to try to pick up the meaning of words from looking at pictures. Or, as a school inspector remarked: 'The child is put in a corner, surrounded by books and assumed to be able to read by osmosis.'

For Jake, 14, who was in the top maths and science sets for his first two years at an East Anglian secondary school, this has been a disaster. In the end, he told me: 'The lack of reading and writing kills you in every subject. Even in maths, you need to be able to read the question.' His school never addressed the problem.

Like phonics, the concept of sitting pupils in rows of desks facing the teacher is widely considered too didactic. Now, most primary schoolchildren sit at tables scattered about the classroom, as I saw for myself when I sat in on one class for a week in the East End of London. On my table, the three children giggled, kicked each other and chatted. Their attention lay on what was immediately in front of them: themselves. Somewhere on the periphery of our vision, the teacher walked about, struggling to keep order. Somewhere else, behind our heads, hung a white board with work upon it, gleefully ignored by my table.

When I blamed the children's poor discipline and concentration on the layout, the teacher looked at me with horror. 'The pupils are working together, directing their own learning,' she said emphatically.

The educational establishment emphasises what ought to work; it doesn't investigate or accept the evidence of what actually works. As one science teacher in the East End told me: 'I'm instructed to put into place initiatives for which there's no educational evidence whatsoever.' Another complained: 'Education is an evangelical movement - evidence has nothing to do with it.'

Children are now expected, for example, to be 'independent learners' in charge of their own education. ('Why do teachers keep asking me what I want to learn? How am I supposed to know?' one boy asked me in exasperation.)

This approach has a disastrous effect on the academic achievement of boys from poor backgrounds. Yet faced with a pupil who's incapable of directing his own learning, teachers and psychologists question what's wrong with the child, not what's wrong with the teaching.

The school regulator, Ofsted, has proved remarkably toothless - indeed, two of its own inspectors are so disillusioned that they risked their jobs to talk to me. Instead of concentrating on the basics, they said, they have to check that schools are complying with the latest educational ideology and Government initiative. Both inspectors have been shocked by the low standard of writing, even in good schools - which one of them blamed squarely on poor marking (never to be done in red ink). Many teachers, they noted, had stopped correcting children's grammar, spelling and speech at all, for fear of discouraging them. But when one of the inspectors complained about a school's marking policy to her boss at Ofsted, he replied: 'I don't have a problem with that.'

In any case, the inspector continued, teachers at some of the schools she visits are poor at spelling and grammar themselves. Examining the work of one form, she found the teacher had made numerous spelling mistakes and marked one essay with the comment: 'You need more stuff.'

The Government, as we constantly hear, is on a mission to improve our schools. How? Well, this year, the emphasis is on promoting healthy eating and 'community cohesion'. Indeed, every single school I visited had material on these two topics prominently displayed on their noticeboards. What a pity that some of their pupils were unable to read it.

One of the inspectors told me: 'I spend more time looking in children's lunchboxes than testing their literacy.' Someone, she said despairingly, needs to make children sit down, work hard and learn to concentrate.

Schools are also failing boys from deprived backgrounds in less obvious ways. Recent research has produced compelling evidence that self-discipline is more than twice as important as IQ when it comes to doing well in exams. Even more surprisingly, self-motivation has a bigger impact than even reading ability on future earnings.

Application and self-discipline, of course, are not dictated by intelligence, class or privilege. So the failure of schools to teach them is condemning boys from poor backgrounds to a lifetime of wasted opportunities. They have been crippled as surely as if someone had hacked off a limb.

I met many men in their 20s and 30s who had never experienced the repetition and effort needed for schoolwork. 'No one ever made me sit down and learn,' said one. 'I never caught the habit.' This meant they'd never learnt self- discipline or how to concentrate. Consequently, they don't know how to turn a burst of enthusiasm into the day-to- day effort required for success.

Bright boys from chaotic backgrounds are almost totally dependent on their teachers for that first step to a different life. Yet, shockingly, some teachers saw their educational and social status not as a cause of inspiration to their pupils, but of shame. 'My main focus is not to offend my pupils,' said one. 'I don't want to push my middle-class values on them.' So when a bright pupil told this teacher he'd probably end up stacking supermarket shelves, she didn't urge him to think about an alternative career. Instead, she told me: 'I pointed out to him the many positive aspects of the supermarket job - meeting people and so forth.'

Another teacher told me firmly it wasn't 'his place' to encourage a bright pupil to move from his area or live in anything but a council house. With such an appalling lack of encouragement, it's little wonder that so many 16 to 18-year- old youths - about one in ten - are neither in education, jobs or training, and have little aspiration to succeed.

Were they at school today, the chances of David Lloyd George, the nephew of a cobbler, and Aneurin Bevan, a poor miner's son, rising to become Prime Minister or a Cabinet minister are almost nil. Like so many of the bright young men I interviewed, they'd probably end up in prison or on the dole.

A decent education broadens horizons; it should also provide authority, moral leadership and - through sport - an appropriate outlet for aggression. Then it has the power to transform lives, even the most unlikely.

Take Jason, whose earliest memory is learning how to roll a spliff. His father is a drug dealer, and his home in the North of England is a hangout for addicts - among them schizophrenics, who regularly drop round to exchange their medication for drugs. Against a home background that also included violence and incest, Jason found school a welcome contrast. He joined everything on offer, including the choir and the Boy Scouts - and he was lucky enough to have good teachers. 'I didn't miss a single day,' said Jason. And now? He's training to be a teacher himself.

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One in six NHS patients 'misdiagnosed'

As many as one in six patients treated in NHS hospitals and GPs’ surgeries is being misdiagnosed, experts have warned. Doctors were making mistakes in up to 15 per cent of cases because they were too quick to judge patients’ symptoms, they said, while others were reluctant to ask more senior colleagues for help.

While in most cases the misdiagnosis did not result in the patient suffering serious harm, a sizeable number of the millions of NHS patients were likely to suffer significant health problems as a result, according to figures. It was said that the number of misdiagnoses was “just the tip of the iceberg”, with many people still reluctant to report mistakes by their doctors. There was a call for better reporting methods to ensure that each misdiagnosis was recorded and monitored properly.

Prof Graham Neale, of the Imperial Centre for Patient Safety and Service Quality at Imperial College London, who is carrying out research into cases of misdiagnosis in the NHS, said it was a problem that was not being adequately dealt with. “There is absolutely no doubt that this is being under-reported,” he said. “But more importantly they are not being adequately analysed. “Trainee doctors are too quick to judgment, that is one of the problems that we face.” He added, however, that in many cases, the medical errors were rectified within 48 hours.

The experts drew on research published in the American Journal of Medicine that estimated that up to 15 per cent of all medical cases in developed countries were misdiagnosed.

Earlier this year, the Healthcare Commission found that missed or wrong diagnoses were a major cause of complaints to the NHS. Of more than 9,000 complaints analysed, almost one in 10 related to a delay in diagnosis or the wrong diagnosis being made. Separate research also suggested that one in 10 patients in hospital was harmed because of the care they received.

Peter Walsh, the chief executive of Action Against Medical Accidents, a campaign group, said his charity received 4,000 calls a year from people who thought that their condition had been misdiagnosed. “This is just the tip of the iceberg,” he said. “There is no mandatory reporting of missed diagnoses so the true scale cannot be known. “There are very few reports to the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) and we would like to see it become a legal requirement for all missed diagnoses to be reported.”

Dr Robert Hendry, head of medical services at the Medical Protection Society, said misdiagnosis was a factor in two thirds of complaints against GPs. “It’s a very significant problem for the NHS,” he said. The NPSA runs a database that records medical errors, patient incidents, mistakes in medical notes and near-misses on a voluntary basis. Between April 2008 and March 2009 there were 39,500 reports of incidents involving clinical assessment. Those included missed or wrong diagnosis but also related to scans that could have been misinterpreted or where the wrong body part was scanned or tests where patients’ samples could have been mixed up.

Dr Kevin Cleary, the medical director of the NPSA, said there were a number of reasons that a diagnosis could be missed or be inaccurate, including a lack of training, test results that were misinterpreted, poor communication and diseases that had similar symptoms. “Missed diagnosis is one of the most complex issues in medical reporting,” he said. “There are some illnesses, like flu for example, where the symptoms for a number of conditions are very similar, especially early on, so it is not always possible to make a diagnosis immediately.”

A spokesman for the Department of Health said more than one million “patient safety incidents” were reported every year, the vast majority of which caused patients no harm. “We are examining a move to obliging the NHS as a whole to report to the National reporting and learning system run by National Patient Safety Agency,” the spokesman said. “The NHS already collects data on safety incidents including misdiagnoses through the National Patient Safety Agency's reporting system and uses this data to learn from incidents."

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NHS farms surgery out to cowboy private operators

They were trying to get a cheap deal by bypassing the established private hospitals and a cheap deal they got -- not so cheap in the long run, though

People having hip replacements at private treatment centres brought in to cut waiting times are up to 20 times more likely to need painful and expensive repair work. Many operations are having to be redone in NHS hospitals, at great cost and with serious staffing implications for the health service.

A study by orthopaedic surgeons in Cardiff found that of 113 hip operations on patients sent from their NHS trust to Weston-super-Mare NHS Treatment Centre between 2004 and 2006, two thirds showed clear evidence of poor surgical technique, such as poor cementing of the hip. In the three years since the operation, 18 per cent had undergone revision or were awaiting an operation — 20 times the 0.9 per cent NHS-wide revision rate at three years. A study on knee operations at the unit, conducted earlier this year, recorded a tenfold increase in revision rates.

Since the Independent Sector Treatment Centre (ISTC) programme was introduced in 2003, dozens of centres have been set up, mainly conducting orthopaedic surgery, cataracts and diagnostic screening. A total of 44 are described as NHS centres — though they are often staffed by independent sector contracts — and 23 are provided by private companies.

Leading surgeons said that this new data underlined the need for a significent overhaul of the multimillion-pound programme, which was introduced with great fanfare by the Government to reduce waiting times and increase patient choice.

They said a total lack of supervision of the sector and its clinical outcomes was a dereliction of duty by the Government, which had put a premium on reducing numbers rather than patient care. Early concerns about poorly vetted overseas doctors carrying out the work had not been addressed, they said.

The Cardiff study, published in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, offers the most compelling evidence to date of problems with care in the sector, and the lack of proper auditing.Surgeons told The Times that the data backed anecdotal reports from elsewhere in the country, although it was likely to be at the high end. They said that NHS trusts were being left to manage the extra workload created.

While a hip replacement costs £6,000, the more complex repair operations, with more expensive implants, bone grafts and longer hospital stays, cost between £10,000 and £15,000. In an accompanying editorial in the journal, Fares Haddad, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon based at University College Hospital, London, says that the whole programme is in jeopardy because of the lack proper audit and follow-up. He adds that were such performance data available — and even if revision rates were lower — it would still “make the economic argument for ISTCs untenable”.

Mr Haddad told The Times that the disruption caused by the errors had an acute impact on hospitals, budgets and patients. He said that a revision rate of 3 per cent would still be unacceptable as it was “200 per cent greater than the NHS norm”, and even more so given that most treatment centres were sent the easier orthopaedic cases. “We all want to cut waiting lists and give excellent care to patients,” he said. “But this was introduced without data to show that it worked. We are now seeing the studies to show that.

“We have all had work increased by this, and the cost implications are huge too. Revision work costs two or three times the cost of a primary replacement. What is more, the failure of a joint replacement is often worse than the arthritis that led to the original operation. Mr Haddad added that if it were compulsory to register every operation on the National Joint Registry, trends would quickly emerge. “We would start picking up on those that were failing,” he said.

Tony Hui, chairman of the British Orthopaedic Directors Society, which represents heads of NHS orthopaedic departments, said that care in his area of South Teesside had also been affected. “We are seeing patients that have been treated elsewhere and they have problems and end up back at the NHS. The work has been suboptimal, and we have to do the revision which is time consuming, risky and expensive. With each case that comes along it’s another half day of operating — which could be two other patients.”

Steve Cannon, a surgeon at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, Stanmore, northwest London, said the scheme had been about “speed of getting through the numbers” and was an “iniquitous waste of money”.

David Worskett, director of NHS Partners Network, which represents independent providers, said that the sector was being unfairly portrayed by surgeons and many were offering care of an excellent standard. He said that he could not comment on the case of Weston-super-Mare because, although private provision of care was involved, it was organised by the NHS.

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BRITAIN'S GREENEST MAJOR NEWSPAPER LIKELY TO CLOSE BY DECEMBER

Independent News & Media (INME.I) is likely to close its flagship London title The Independent by Christmas, the publishing group's second biggest shareholder Denis O'Brien said on Friday. "There's no point in us as a company subsidising a newspaper that really nobody wants to read in the United Kingdom," O'Brien told Bloomberg TV in an interview on the sidelines of the Global Irish Economic Forum.

"It's not a relevant newspaper anymore and this newspaper's going to be closed by Christmas,"said O'Brien, who has been at odds with the company's board over plans to refinance a 200-million-euro debt issue that was meant to be paid in May...

"This is not a personal thing," O'Brien said. "I've made a substantial investment in the company and I have said ... we need to reduce our costs, get out of loss-making business and restructure."

More HERE





22 September, 2009

British universities to axe places for UK students and take more foreign students

Remarkably perverse

LEADING universities are drawing up plans to slash thousands of places for British undergraduates and replace them with foreign students paying far higher fees to cope with an expected cut in government funding of 20%-25%. They argue that reducing admissions is preferable to making deep cuts to staff numbers and harming the quality of teaching, for which universities have recently faced fierce criticism.

The plans have been disclosed by Michael Arthur, vice-chancellor of Leeds and the new chairman of the Russell Group of elite universities, in an interview in The Sunday Times today. “It is very, very worrying,” Arthur says. “The general view round the table is it is better to cut places than to cut [funding per student].” Arthur, who fears cuts of 20%-25% in government spending on higher education after the election, believes the number of people going to university has peaked and says the government’s target of 50% of school-leavers taking degrees is unlikely to be reached. Last week, even Gordon Brown, the prime minister, admitted for the first time that cuts in public spending would be necessary.

Arthur argues for a rise in tuition fees to at least £5,000 to make it financially worthwhile to take on British undergraduates. The current level is £3,225, but those from outside the European Union pay at least three times this amount. Imperial College London says it loses £2,500 a year on every British undergraduate.

One recently retired vice-chancellor described educating UK students as “the charity end of the business”, adding: “We do want to educate them and we have to but in financial terms they are nothing but a drain.”

Bahram Bekhradnia, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, said: “If cuts happened on any scale, it is likely that significant numbers of the most prestigious universities would take fewer cut-price British students and more of the overseas students.” Some already plan growth in overseas numbers, partly to earn money. They include University College London (UCL), Leeds, Lancaster and Newcastle. UCL plans to cut 600 British and EU students by 2012, 6% of the total, and replace them with overseas undergraduates and with postgraduates.

Lancaster plans to freeze UK numbers and increase its overseas contingent by half by 2015. Currently, nearly 900 of its 8,800 undergraduates and almost 1,400 of its 3,100 postgraduates are from outside the EU. Newcastle this year increased recruitment of overseas students by 26% to shore up its finances. Bristol, Leeds, Manchester, Reading and Sheffield are among those cutting hundreds of jobs. Sheffield is shedding more than 300. Exeter is cutting spending by 5% this year, as are Imperial and Warwick. King’s College London is reducing spending by 10% even before the scale of government cuts is known and has announced the closure of its engineering department.

Institutions now disagree on what to do next. Many former polytechnics and other new universities believe it must be a priority to increase the numbers of people taking degrees especially during a recession, even if the amount available to teach each one falls as a result.

Traditional universities in the Russell Group and 1994 Group want to preserve what they spend on teaching each student. They have been stung by criticism that the quality on which they trade to attract foreign students is declining. Concerns have been highlighted by student revolts at universities such as Bristol and Manchester and by a scathing Commons report.

While most vice-chancellors have denied there are any problems with the quality of teaching, David Lammy, the universities minister, warned them this month: “Even if you aren’t complacent about quality, you sometimes appear to be. I think you have to recognise that and deal with it.”

Steve Smith, vice-chancellor of Exeter and president of Universities UK, which represents campus executive heads, said: “There comes a point when if you cut [funding per student] it will damage quality.”

Some are worried cuts could devastate institutions. The last time funding fell steeply was in the early 1980s, with a 15% overall reduction. Salford university lost more than 40% of funding.

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Would-be immigrants forced out of Calais 'Jungle' set up new camps, mayor admits

Immigrants due to be evicted from the notorious "Jungle" shanty town in Calais are setting up alternative camps, the port's mayor has admitted. Natacha Bouchart, a member of France's ruling UMP Party, said: "Hundreds of migrants have already disappeared from the Jungle, but we're aware of a multiplication of squats in the centre of town."

The Jungle, an area of wasteland full of improvised shelters, kitchens and even a mosque close to the town's ferry port, currently houses around 800 men and women who want to claim asylum in Britain or disappear into the black economy. They play a nightly game of cat and mouse with the police as they try to board lorries and trains heading for Dover.

The French government announced last week that the Jungle would be razed to the ground by this coming Friday at the latest as the fist step in a bid to make Calais "watertight" to the 2,000 odd migrants currently in the area who want to get to Britain. Police sources in the town have confirmed that CRS riot control officers, supported by soldiers, would move in to the camp, the largest of many, with batons and flame throwers on Tuesday - the day after Ramadan ends. "Many of those in the camp are Muslims from countries like Afghanistan and Iraq who want to get to Britain," said one senior officer. "We don't want to offend them by approaching the camp during Ramadan."

But the local authorities admitted that the announced closure of the camp would simply move the problem to a different area. William Spindler, spokesman for the Calais office of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, said: "The migrants who feel terrorised have fled The Jungle to avoid being arrested." Catholic abbot Jean-Pierre Boutoille, of the immigrant charity C-Sur, added: "All the government is doing is displacing the problem."

More than 50 migrants were arrested close to the Jungle on Thursday alone, just a few hours after French immigration minister Eric Besson announced the destruction of The Jungle on national television. The clearance is expected to take four days, with the site eventually being cordoned off by barbed wire

It came as Europe's Justice Commissioner prepared to demand a change in the law to allow asylum seekers into the UK more quickly. Jacques Barrot, a former French minister, believes the reform will assist all the migrants who are currently sleeping rough around Calais. He said he particularly wants to see a "significant number" of those evicted from The Jungle moving to Britain.

Under current law they are supposed to be returned to the country where they first entered the EU, which in the case of Afghan and Iraqi migrants is usually Greece or Italy. But, referring to a proposal which would allow foreigners to claim asylum in any EU country they want, Mr Barrot said: "I've had a lot of difficulties getting this law passed and this problem comes from the fact that the United Kingdom and other countries have not understood that there should be a solidarity within the EU over asylum. "In order for the closure of the Jungle in Calais to make sense, it is neccessary to share the burden between France and Great Britain, at least when it comes to asylum seekers. "National solutions to the problem are not viable. The people in Calais have crossed Europe and have one obsession - to get to Great Britain."

Mr Barrot's controversial proposal will be discussed by European interior ministers at a meeting in Brussels held to discuss immigration and asylum issues. It follows a call by the United Nations for Britain to accept some migrants from the Jungle when it is burnt to the ground this week. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said the British government should be prepared to allow migrants with large families already in the UK to enter the country.

The fact that illegal migrants can only claim asylum in the first EU country they come to has offered huge protection to the UK as it tries to stem the tide of those drawn by generous welfare benefits and jobs in the black economy. But with both the European Commission and United Nations calling for a change in the law, thousands could soon be allowed to make straight for the UK.

Mr Barrot, Brussels commissioner for freedom, security and justice, is a member of French President Nicolas Sarkozy's ruling UMP party. He made his comments about Britain's asylum system to French journalists in Calais prior to Monday's meeting.

Any further influx of asylum seekers under his plan would come at a time when asylum applications to the UK are already rising. Recent Home Office figures show that a total of 25,930 asylum applications to come to Britain - excluding dependents - were made last year, compared with 23,430 in 2007. Around one in seven claimants is granted the right to stay.

SOURCE



British hospital bans nurse’s crucifix

What bulldust! A small crucifix is a health risk?? But a Muslim headscarf is OK!

A NURSE says she has been banned from working with patients because she refuses to remove her crucifix necklace on the wards. Shirley Chaplin is taking her local NHS trust to an employment tribunal after the Royal Devon and Exeter hospital in Exeter took her off duty in July when she refused to remove her cross. Hospital chiefs said she had to take off the pendant or pin it inside her clothes because of health and safety risks.

Chaplin is reportedly claiming at the tribunal that she has been targeted because of her faith. She will meet her employers tomorrow to discuss her future. She is said to have been threatened with suspension or told she must accept an administrative role if she refuses to comply.

The Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust confirmed that a nurse had been requested to remove her necklace in line with uniform policy, but said she had not been suspended.

Her case is the latest example of an employee claiming victimisation because of wearing a crucifix. Chaplin is being advised by Paul Diamond, a human rights barrister specialising in the law of religious liberty. He also advised Caroline Petrie, a nurse who was suspended in February this year at a hospital in Weston-Super-Mare for offering to pray for a patient. She was later reinstated. In 2007, Nadia Eweida, a British Airways worker, appealed unsuccessfully to a tribunal against the airline’s decision to ban her from wearing her cross pendant in public.

Chaplin, 54, a married mother of two, has worn the crucifix since she was confirmed 38 years ago.

A spokeswoman for the Devon and Exeter trust said: “Regardless of what might be attached to the pendant, we have a duty of care towards both our patients and staff and the trust considers the wearing of any pendant to be a risk, albeit a small one, because patients, particularly those who are confused, might grab for items.”

“It is perfectly acceptable if they pin the crucifix on the inside of their lapel or pocket. Our policy does recognise that there may be cultural or religious reasons why a member of staff may wear an extra item of clothing such as a [Muslim] headscarf, and that also gets risk assessed, for infection control.”

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Christian hotel owners face ruin after 'defending their faith' in row with a Muslim guest

It started as a religious discussion over the breakfast table at a private hotel. Several months later, the Christian owners face ruin after a Muslim guest complained that she had been insulted. Ben and Sharon Vogelenzang are being prosecuted under controversial public order laws designed to target yobbish and abusive behaviour on the streets. If convicted they face a fine of up to £5,000 and a criminal record. They have also lost 80 per cent of their bookings and have been forced to put the business up for sale.

The charges relate to a heated conversation the couple had with the guest at their hotel in Liverpool in March. On her final morning before checking out, she came down to breakfast wearing a hijab, the traditional Muslim headdress. The unnamed woman had been staying at the Bounty House Hotel near Aintree racecourse for four weeks while receiving treatment at a local hospital, but the couple had never seen her wear her religious clothing before.

It is alleged they suggested that Mohammad, the founder of Islam, was a warlord when the guest challenged them about their Christian beliefs. The woman also claims that the couple, who vehemently deny the allegations and say they were simply defending their faith, described her traditional dress as a form of bondage. The guest complained to police and the Vogelenzangs were charged with using 'threatening, abusive or insulting words' which were ' religiously aggravated'.

The hospital where she was treated routinely referred outpatients to stay at the hotel. But when management found out about the court case they decided they could no longer recommend the Bounty House, leading to the catastrophic drop in bookings.

The conversation was overheard by several guests in the restaurant of the nine-bedroom hotel, which charges £92 a night for a double room.

Mrs Vogelenzang, 54, who has run the hotel with her 53-year-old Dutchborn husband for six years, said they had been warned not to talk about the case until it reaches court in December. But a source close to the couple said: 'They wouldn't have said anything offensive. They are very mild-mannered people.' A number of Church leaders in Liverpool have written to Keir Starmer, the Director of Public Prosecutions, calling for the case to be dropped.

The couple, who are members of the Bootle Christian Fellowship, are receiving financial backing and support from the independent lobby group, the Christian Institute. Spokesman Mike Judge said: 'Important issues of religious liberty and free speech are at stake. We have detected a worrying tendency for public bodies to misapply the law in a way that seems to sideline Christianity more than other faiths. 'Nobody was being threatened and while the Vogelenzangs were fully aware that a robust exchange had taken place and the woman had been perhaps a little offended, they were shocked when the police became involved. 'We feel their treatment has been heavy-handed and it is not in the public interest to go ahead with this prosecution. People see the police standing by when Muslims demonstrate holding some pretty bloodthirsty placards, but at the same time come down hard on two Christians having a debate over breakfast at a hotel. 'We are just hoping the magistrates use their common sense and find them not guilty.'

The Public Order Act 1986 is designed to help police arrest those inciting disorder on the streets, through violence or abusive behaviour. 'It should never be used where there has been a personal conversation or debate with views firmly expressed,' said Neil Addison, a leading criminal barrister and expert in religious law. 'If someone is in a discussion and they don't like what they are hearing, they can walk away.'

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Doctors warn on climate failure

They say that climate change will increase rates of malnutrition but ignore the fact that more CO2 makes crops grow bigger and faster and that there will be more rain overall as a warmer ocean evaporates off more moisture. And, of course, warm weather is a lot more benign to health than cold weather is. Why else is there more illness in winter? There is not a shred of intellectual honesty to be found below

Failure to agree a new UN climate deal in December will bring a "global health catastrophe", say 18 of the world's professional medical organisations. Writing in The Lancet and the British Medical Journal, they urge doctors to "take a lead" on the climate issue.

In a separate editorial, the journals say that people in poor tropical nations will suffer the worst impacts. They argue that curbing climate change would have other benefits such as more healthy diets and cleaner air [How?]

December's UN summit, to be held in Copenhagen, is due to agree a new global climate treaty to supplant the Kyoto Protocol. But preparatory talks have been plagued by lack of agreement on how much to cut greenhouse gas emissions and how to finance climate protection for the poorest countries.

"There is a real danger that politicians will be indecisive, especially in such turbulent economic times as these," according to the letter signed by leaders of 18 colleges of medicine and other medical disciplines across the world. "Should their response be weak, the results for international health could be catastrophic."

Earlier in the year, The Lancet, together with University College London (UCL), published a major review on the health impacts of climate change. Some of the headline findings were that rising temperatures are likely to increase transmission of many infectious diseases, reduce supplies of food and clean water in developing countries, and raise the number of people dying from heat-related conditions in temperate regions.

But it also acknowledged some huge gaps in research - for example, that "almost no reliable data for heatwave-induced mortality exist in Africa or south Asia". Nevertheless, the main conclusion was that in a world likely to have three billion new inhabitants by the second half of this century: "Effects of climate change on health will affect most populations in the next decades and put the lives and wellbeing of billions of people at increased risk".

The current Lancet and BMJ editorial that accompanies the letter from doctors' organisations argues that climate change strengthens the cases that health and development charities are already championing. "Even without climate change, the case for clean power, electric cars, saving forests, energy efficiency, and new agriculture technology is strong.

Written by Lord Michael Jay, who chairs the health charity Merlin, and Professor Michael Marmot of UCL, [Not the Marmot again! What an inveterate crook he is! He is associated with the dubious WCRF and some equally dubious dietary claims] the editorial argues that there are plenty of "win-win solutions" available. "A low-carbon economy will mean less pollution. A low carbon-diet (especially eating less meat) and more exercise will mean less cancer, obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. [A myth. There's no good evidence for that at all. Traditional Eskimos eat meat and fat almost exclusively but have LOW rates of cardiovascular disease etc. See also here]

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THERMAGEDDON? POSTPONED!

Last week a UK tribunal ruled that belief in manmade global warming had the same status as a religious conviction, such as transubstantiation.

True believers in the hypothesis will need mountains of faith in the years ahead. The New Scientist has given weight to the prediction that the planet is in for a cool 20 years - defying the computer models and contemporary climate theory. It's "bad timing", admits the magazine's environmental correspondent, Fred Pearce.

Mojib Latif of the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences at Kiel University, quoted by the magazine, attributes much of the recent warming to naturally occurring ocean cycles. Scientific study of the periodic ocean climate variability is in its infancy; for example the PDO or Pacific Decadal Oscillation, was only described in the late 1990s. It's the Leibniz team which predicted a forthcoming cooling earlier this year - causing a bullying outbreak at the BBC. "We have to ask the nasty questions ourselves or other people will do it," Latif told the magazine.

A historical comparison of recent warming contrasts the UN IPCC accounts of Thermageddon - based on climate models - with the post-1800 trend which shows a gradual warming. Little seems out of place in recent times except the predictions, says Dr Syun Akasofu, Founding Director of the International Arctic Research Center of the University of Alaska Fairbanks and former director of the Geophysical Institute. Aksasofu says multi-decadal oscillations, discovered within the past decade, account for the variability.

Earlier this summer a mathematical study also predicted cooling, and won an unusual endorsement from the Real Climate website, the blog founded by Al Gore's PR company and staffed by advocates of the manmade climate change theory. In a paper entitled Has the climate recently shifted? Professor Kyle Swanson and Anastasios Tsonsis, mathematicians at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, accepted for publication in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, the authors engage with the problem that temperatures have failed to follow the predictions made by computer climate models.

It excited climate sceptics, but I'm not sure why. In the paper, Swanson and Tsonis correlated data from the ENSO, the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, the North Atlantic Oscillation, and the North Pacific Index and found that synchronisations occurred four times - in 1910-20; 1938-45; 1956-60; and 1976-1981. After three of these, the climate shifted too. When coupling between the systems was high, climate invariably changed.

The recent cooling, which they suggest started in 2001, is an indicator of a phase shift. (Others point out that discounting the freak El Nino weather event of 1998, which raised temperatures by 0.2°C, there has been no statistically significant warming since 1995.)

This cooling, which appears unprecedented over the instrumental period, is "suggestive of an internal shift of climate dynamical processes that as yet remain poorly understood," they wrote.

"The apparent lack of a proximate cause behind the halt in warming post 2001/02 challenges our understanding of the climate system, specifically the physical reasoning and causal links between longer time-scale modes of internal climate variability and the impact of such modes upon global temperature... the possibility of near constant temperature lasting a decade or more into the future must at least be entertained...

This overshoot is in the process of radiatively dissipating, and the climate will return to its earlier defined, greenhouse gas-forced warming signal. If this hypothesis is correct, the era of consistent record-breaking global mean temperatures will not resume until roughly 2020," Swanson wrote.

The confidence that higher atmospheric CO2 levels will result in significant long-term increases in temperature is founded on knock-on effects, or positive feedbacks, amplifying the CO2 effect. Large positive feedbacks imply "runaway" global warming - aka Thermageddon.

But even the basics are fiercely contested. Does a warmer climate mean more or fewer clouds, and do these trap even more heat, or act as a sunshade, cooling it back down again? Clouds are so poorly understood, you can take your pick. So if the climate isn't getting warmer, the theory requires the view that the energy must be "hiding" somewhere, mostly likely in oceanic heat sinks.

But neither the feedbacks, nor the oceans, are currently being kind to contemporary climate theory.

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GETTING GOD TO DO THEIR DIRTY WORK

In seeking to use religion to force people to change their eco-unfriendly behaviour, greens are debasing both religious belief and scientific truth

Frank Furedi

We live in world where the cynical manipulation of people's fears and anxieties often overrides informed public debate. Principles and beliefs seem to have become negotiable commodities, and all too often the search for truth gives way to doing 'whatever works'. In recent decades religious figures have, at various times, embraced the authority of science, therapy and the environment as a way of communicating their messages. Indeed, the old statement 'our faith demands...' has increasingly given way to the claim that 'the research shows...'. If Christian fundamentalists can reinvent their dogma in the language of 'creationist science', how long before atheist scientists seek to justify their moral crusade in the language of religion?

Well, Lord May, president of the British Science Association, has risen to the occasion with his call last week to mobilise religion as part of the crusade against global warming. May said that mainstream religions should play a key role in convincing people to become more aware of environmental issues and to change their behaviour in order to 'save the planet'. By making this opportunist demand for the effective rehabilitation of God, an atheist moral entrepreneur has shown that it is possible to debase both religion and science at the same time.

May's call to use religion to promote the cause of climate change awareness is the logical conclusion to a project - environmentalism - which in every respect is a moral crusade. Back in September 2003, the late American writer Michael Crichton characterised environmentalism as a powerful new religion. He was possibly thinking of the Lord Mays of this world when he said that 'environmentalism seems to be the religion of choice for urban atheists'.

Old-fashioned religious themes are continually recycled by greens. Some environmentalists may joke about 'green sins' but they are deadly serious when they denounce evil polluters and deniers. In this contemporary urban religion, the carbon footprint symbolises human transgression, though absolution can be gained through carbon offsets. Green judgements on our diets, our procreation habits and our everyday behaviour are possibly even more intrusive than the pronouncements of medieval religious figures. Old-fashioned prophecy and divination have given way to speculation and alarmist warnings based on computer models. And the medieval inquisition that targeted heretics and witches has got a new lease of life in the current crusade against sceptics and so-called deniers.

Many intelligent observers of today's green theocracy argue that it represents an answer to humanity's need for religion. No doubt we all need to believe in something, but the current embrace of religion by Lord May and other green-leaning atheists is driven by simple opportunism rather than a genuine crisis of belief. The attempt to recruit God to the anti-climate change campaign is driven by a desire to influence all those people who currently are not responding to the moral crusade to save the planet. The turn to God is underwritten by a strong feeling of contempt towards both religion and the public.

Many environmentalists believe that ordinary people are too selfish and too stupid to pay attention to the lofty message about saving the planet. Leading green commentators bemoan people's short-termist and irrational behaviour. One British eco-columnist wrote about how 'depressed' he felt about 'the epidemic of mass denial' in Britain, where ordinary people simply refuse to take climate change seriously. 'Up to a point, laws can be passed to combat climate change, and offenders who don't conform can be punished', he casually observed, before noting that, in the end, people will have to understand 'the dangers and threats we face' (1).

Activist-scientists like May seem to believe there are two ways of influencing the public: by making fear appeals or using a form of moral blackmail. Apocalyptic warnings about the future of the planet have become the bread and butter of the crusade against climate change. These alarmist messages are promoted in the most simplistic and emotive terms. 'I liked it. It does emotionalise the debate, but it seems that it has to do that' - that was the verdict of Rajendra Pachauri, head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, on Al Gore's film An Inconvenient Truth. American environmentalists often give a deeply contemptuous assessment of their audiences. According to one green activist, 'the "issue" of climate change must be defined for Americans' in 'uncomplicated, black-and-white terms' (2).

More HERE



British chemical warfare centre helps with war on wrinkles

For almost a century Porton Down has been Britain’s nerve centre for chemical warfare. Now one of its discoveries has been sent into battle against crow’s feet and wrinkles. Cosmetic surgeons are switching to a Botox-type drug developed by the biological research laboratories in Wiltshire. They believe the treatment lasts longer than Botox and is both more effective and less painful.

The drug, Dysport, was developed in the 1970s by a civilian arm of Porton Down. It drew on second world war research into botulism, a condition caused by a bacterium that can lead to organ failure.

Treatment with Dysport, as with Botox, involves the injection of tiny amounts of botulinum toxin, which relaxes muscles by blocking the nerve impulses that cause contraction. This removes wrinkles and lines for several months.

One of the doctors switching to Dysport is Nick Lowe, a consultant dermatologist at the Cranley clinic in London, who counts Anne Robinson among his celebrity clients. He has conducted comparative studies on more than 100 patients and is now writing a scientific paper. He found that Dysport worked faster than Botox and the effects lasted longer. “It has been shown that with Dysport you get an ever so slightly greater spread — it has a wider effect than the same injection of Botox. I think that is one reason why it can give a slightly more natural look,” he said.

Nigel Horlock, a consultant plastic surgeon in Southampton, said: “I’ve had patients with Dysport who’ve said it works in three days and another patient who had it five months ago and it was still working.”

Dysport was developed to treat a range of illnesses including dystonia, which causes spasms. Its name is a contraction of dystonia and Porton Down. The cosmetic potential of the drug was recognised in America, and it was licensed for use in Britain this year.

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Britain's socialist "centrist": "Nick Clegg is turning his fire on the super-rich, revealing proposals to hit owners of million-pound houses in the pocket under Liberal Democrat plans to overhaul the tax system. In an interview with The Independent, he argued that the wealthiest in society had profited from soaring property prices and tax dodges. His solution is to make them pay their fair share, promising that the extra cash collected would be channelled back into tax cuts for low- and middle-income homes.”





21 September, 2009

Thousands of British pupils receiving police escorts home in anti-social behaviour crackdown

What an appalling sign of social breakdown. Leftist leniency on crime bears fruit

Thousands of pupils are to have police escorts home because of a surge in youth crime. Patrols by community support officers will provide 'visible reassurance' to pupils and the public, according to Whitehall officials. The patrols started in high-risk areas four years ago and are in place in all major cities and 12 London boroughs.

To date, 65 local authorities in England have carried out 15,292 patrols covering 1,632 primary and secondary schools, according to figures from the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF). Some 64,017 pupils have been spoken to by officers, the figures show, and 2,497 have been referred to other services, including drug and alcohol services, or activities in their area. As about 5,000 schools already have a dedicated police officer linked to them, it means many children are effectively being policed from the start of the school day, until evening.

It is believed that police have been focusing their efforts on areas where there have been reports of violence or anti-social behaviour caused by rival gangs meeting up after school. In Wood Green, North London, extra police and support officers are on duty for three hours protecting pupils at the end of lessons. Officers based in secondaries escort children on to buses or walking home from lessons.

Ian Kibblewhite, of the Metropolitan Police, said: 'The idea of a visible presence is to keep a lid on things. 'We don't want to arrest anybody - if that happens we've failed. 'This is preventative work to stop us having to respond to trouble.'

The DCSF said it would support patrols in any area that it is deemed necessary, but added they did not expect them to be used around every school. But Will McMahon, of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies at King's College, London, warned: 'More behaviour will be criminalised.'

Government grants of up to £765,000 per district are on offer to fund the patrols.

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Senior British politician chooses private hospital rather than the NHS

NICK CLEGG, the Liberal Democrat leader, last night admitted he had paid for private healthcare partly because of his frustration at NHS waiting times.

Clegg, who said he had occasionally “coughed up” so one of his sons could see medical specialists quickly, becomes the first political leader to break the Westminster taboo about going private. “I understand the sensitivity but I feel fervently that I am a dad before I am a politician,” said the Lib Dem leader in an interview with The Sunday Times.

Clegg’s admission contrasts with the position of Gordon Brown, who has always used the NHS for his two sons, one of whom has cystic fibrosis. Similarly, David Cameron, the Conservative leader, has praised the way the NHS treated his disabled son Ivan, who died earlier this year. However, other members of the Tory front bench have refused to say whether they pay for medical insurance.

Clegg, 42, who is married to a high-flying Spanish lawyer and has three young sons, said his family did not have private health cover. But he added: “If you ask, has there been an occasion where we have paid for a consultation, then the answer is yes.” Asked why he had opted out of the NHS, he said: “Because we were very keen to see a particular consultant for a particular problem very quickly.” He refused to elaborate on the details of the medical problems concerned. “As far as my children’s health or education is concerned, I am simply not going to hold them hostage to make political points,” he said.

Speaking on the eve of the Lib Dem annual conference in Bournemouth, he claimed both Labour and the Conservatives were ducking serious discussion on the future of healthcare. “Why on earth is the NHS as centralised as it is? Why is there layer upon layer of centralised bureaucracy?” he said. He asserted that while the NHS had areas of excellence, there were also serious failings. “Mental health, for example, is a Cinderella service,” he said.

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After 216 years Britain's "elf 'n' safety" mania strikes a clock tower

For more than 200 years the church clock of St Michael's has kept the good people of Helston in Cornwall up with the times. And for all that time, a volunteer warden has trudged up the tower on his own to wind the mechanism that keeps it ticking.

Now a tradition that dates back to 1793 is coming to an end - because of the health and safety brigade. Warden Roger Nott has been told the job is too dangerous because he has to climb a ladder and reach out to wind up the clock. The church will now have to find £5,000 from its funds for a machine to do the job.

Mr Nott, 63, said: 'To wind the clock is a simple operation carried out up a ladder and involves reaching out from the top in order to reach the winding mechanism. 'This is now considered to be a health and safety risk. We must conserve the clock mechanism and fit an automatic winding system which complies with the guidelines.'

Mr Nott has been 'captain of the tower' for three years, and has never had an accident. He said: 'I turn the keys on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday and there's never been a problem. 'Because the clock is built like an old grandfather clock it would just stop working if I didn't wind it up. I take six or seven steps up the ladder, around 8ft. I'm not bothered about the height, I've been doing it for years.

'My predecessor retired when he was 82 and he still managed it fine. He'd been doing it for around 40 years. I'm 63 and I like to think I've got another ten to 15 years left in me. I'm more than capable. 'I do love doing it. It's like being part of the history of the town, the date on the back of the clock is 1793. 'It's remarkable to think it's been going so long. I'm happy to do whatever as long as it keeps going. 'But the diocese say we have to have two people in the bell tower at all times, but that's not possible. 'So the only option is for it to wind automatically so we have to conform to that.'

A spokesman for the Truro Diocesan Guild of Ringers said Mr Nott was given the health and safety advice from its maintenance manager. He said: 'Unfortunately many people who wind clocks up aren't getting any younger and their safety is important.'

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20 September, 2009

Fertility correctness in Britain

Very arrogant to criticize a transaction freely entered into by both parties. Women would not go overseas for IVF at all except for "Big Brother" British legal restrictions and a penny-pinching NHS. Why can't these petty dictators keep out of other people's lives? People do a lot of things that can harm their health. Is the b*tch below going to stop men from playing football codes such a Rugby League and Rugby Union? There are plenty of injuries to players there. And while she is about it, maybe she could ban alcohol and tobacco! As a typical Leftist sociologist, she is just bitter that people can occasionally escape the Big Brother State that the Left have created in Britain. For Leftists, it's all about control -- control of other people. Calling egg-donors prostitutes is just typical of the vile rhetoric and flimsy arguments that one hears from the Left

British couples who travel abroad for IVF treatment and buy other women’s eggs are engaging in a form of prostitution, a fertility conference was told yesterday. In an attack on the “fertility tourism” industry, Naomi Pfeffer warned that increasing numbers of “vulnerable women in developed countries” were being exploited by Westerners who were desperate to conceive.

Professor Pfeffer, who researches controversial developments in medicine, told the Motherhood in the 21st Century Conference at University College London: “The exchange relationship is analogous to that of a client and a prostitute. It’s a unique situation because it’s the only instance in which a woman exploits another woman’s body.” Her comments, likely to reignite the debate on the ban on paying for eggs and sperm in Britain, were backed up by Lord Winston, the fertility expert and broadcaster. He told The Times: “She’s right, basically. It’s a form of exploitation.”

A recent study revealed that hundreds of British couples were travelling to Europe for IVF treatment every month. University College London researchers have estimated that at least 20,000 to 25,000 cross-border fertility treatments are being carried out on the Continent each year. Donors, in destinations such as Spain, the Czech Republic, Romania and Ukraine, are paid hundreds of pounds for their eggs. Professor Pfeffer said that these women were often vulnerable, desperate and willing to take health risks to make sizeable sums of money.

She said: “Most of these women are in developing economies where access to healthcare is limited by their ability to pay. They are often vulnerable women and it’s a very unequal economic relationship. “These women are being encouraged to take real risks with their health through ovarian stimulation and egg retrieval. It commodifies women’s bodies and treats their reproductive capacities as a service.”

Egg donors typically undergo a donation cycle of three to six weeks, during which time they take contraceptive pills to control their natural fertility cycle. Usually during the first week the donor sniffs a hormonal nasal spray, which is followed by two to four weeks of self-administered hormonal injections to stimulate egg production. The egg-harvesting procedure takes about 30 minutes and is carried out under a light anaesthetic. A needle is guided by ultrasound through the vaginal wall to retrieve follicles containing eggs from both ovaries.

Professor Pfeffer said that even using the term “donation” in relation to the exchange of eggs was inappropriate. “It sounds as though it’s a gift. But these women are not doing it for altruistic reasons — they are doing it for money. We shouldn’t talk about them as egg donors.”

Furthermore, she said, it raised questions for the child who was conceived. “What can you tell a child when half their genetic make-up came from a woman in Romania? A woman who was so poor that she was prepared to enter [into egg exchange]? What does that child think of its social mother, a woman who was prepared to exploit another woman?”

She said that British parents should face up to the consequences of their actions. “They should know that they are using vulnerable women. These women who are buying eggs have to appreciate that the eggs don’t appear from a stork or from under a gooseberry bush.”

A private IVF cycle costs at least £4,000 in Britain but is half the price in parts of South and Eastern Europe. A recent survey showed that two thirds of Britons engaging in fertility treatment in Europe were aged over 40 because they did not qualify for free treatment on the NHS.

Professor Winston said that British doctors were fuelling fertility tourism by referring their patients to European clinics for IVF treatment because the industry was less regulated. “That is not a way for us to be behaving,” he told the conference.

Several other experts agreed that the increasing popularity of the fertility tourism industry needed to be urgently addressed. Professor Sammy Lee, one of the country’s leading experts on fertility, said that there needed to be a debate on the British ban on buying eggs and sperm. “This issue needs to be addressed,” he said. “One of the reasons people are going to Europe is that it is so hard to get eggs in Britain. It’s going to happen more because people are looking for areas where the law and guidelines are less strict, where they can pay donors and donors are more available.”

In July the fertility watchdog, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, said that the longstanding British ban should be reconsidered to try to reduce the number of people going abroad for treatment. [That's the first sensible statement I have heard from them]

SOURCE



Bungle after bungle kills woman in British public hospital

Woman bleeds to death after doctor accidentally punctures jugular while inserting a drip - and no blood is available for transfusion

A young woman died in hospital after waiting almost two hours for a blood transfusion that could have saved her. Sally Thompson, 20, bled to death after a doctor accidentally punctured her jugular vein during a bungled procedure. Despite an urgent request to the blood bank at Manchester Royal Infirmary, she died one hour and 45 minutes later, before any arrived.

Speaking after her inquest, her father John, 62, said she would still be alive if the blood had been available sooner. The retired farmer said: 'This hospital is supposed to be the cornerstone of the NHS in Manchester, but they couldn't get any blood for two hours. 'We have never had any answers about why it took so long. I feel very let down by the hospital.'

Coroner Nigel Meadows said the inability to supply the blood was a 'significant failure' and he would write to hospital bosses. If a patient needs a transfusion, blood is tested first by type and then further tests, known as crossmatching, are performed to check antibodies in the blood. But in an emergency when there is no time for crossmatching, blood of the same type as the patient's - in Miss Thompson's case O-negative, one of the most common types - can be given. The inquest was told that doctors did eventually request non-crossmatched blood, but by then it was too late.

Miss Thompson, an administration assistant for Rochdale Council, had suffered from a rare blood disorder, hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH), since she was eight. The condition caused her immune system to fail and doctors said she would eventually need a bone marrow transplant.

On August 22, 2005, she collapsed at home in Middleton, Manchester, and was admitted to the Royal Infirmary. Doctors stabilised her, but two days later she had a series of fits and was transferred to intensive care. The following evening, and with the fits still going on, doctors decided to start her on a course of chemotherapy. They decided to insert a tube called a central venous catheter into her jugular vein to administer the chemotherapy drugs directly into her bloodstream.

Dr Jaydeep Mandal, a critical care specialist registrar, who no longer works at the hospital, used a technique known as 'landmark' to find the blood vessel. But when the tube was inserted, it caused internal bleeding.

The inquest heard that the landmark technique, which involves mapping out the features of the neck to find the vein, was contrary to guidelines, which recommend using an ultrasound scan to find the vein. Ultrasound equipment was available.

However, Dr Mandal had used the landmark technique 300 times and consulted colleagues before it was agreed that it should be used on Miss Thompson, the inquest was told.

Her father said: 'It punctured Sally's vein and, unbeknown to them, she was bleeding into her chest cavity for almost an hour. 'When they did find out they sent an order down for blood but the bank said they were having trouble finding any crossmatched blood because of her disorder.'

Miss Thompson died before any blood arrived after having a heart attack caused by the internal bleeding.

Coroner Mr Meadows, who recorded a narrative verdict, said he would ask hospital bosses to review the procedure relating to central venous catheters. 'No crossmatched or uncrossmatched O-negative blood was supplied, despite it being requested during the resuscitation, and this was a significant failure,' Mr Meadows said. 'Blood salvage was organised but not initiated until towards the very end of attempts to resuscitate the deceased.'

A hospital spokesman said it had reviewed procedures concerning CVCs and was investigating why no blood was ever supplied for a transfusion.

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Government Medicine vs. the Elderly

Rarely has the Atlantic seemed as wide as when America’s health-care debate provoked a near unanimous response from British politicians boasting of the superiority of their country’s National Health Service. Prime Minister Gordon Brown used Twitter to tell the world that the NHS can mean the difference between life and death. His wife added, “we love the NHS.” Opposition leader David Cameron tweeted back that his plans to outspend Labour showed the Conservatives were more committed to the NHS than Labour.

This outbreak of NHS jingoism was brought to an abrupt halt by the Patients Association, an independent charity. In a report, the association presented a catalogue of end-of-life cases that demonstrated, in its words, "a consistent pattern of shocking standards of care." It provided details of what it described as "appalling treatment," which could be found across the NHS.

A few days later, a group of senior doctors and health-care experts wrote to a national newspaper expressing their concern about the Liverpool Care Pathway, a palliative program being rolled out across the NHS involving the withdrawal of fluids and nourishment for patients thought to be dying. Noting that in 2007-08, 16.5% of deaths in the U.K. came after "terminal sedation," their letter concluded with the chilling observation that experienced doctors know that sometimes "when all but essential drugs are stopped, 'dying' patients get better" if they are allowed to.

The usual justification for socialized health care is to provide access to quality health care for the poor and disadvantaged. But this function can be more efficiently performed through the benefits system and the payment of refundable tax credits.

The real justification for socialized medicine is left unstated: Because health-care resources are assumed to be fixed, those resources should be prioritized for those who can benefit most from medical treatment. Thus the NHS acts as Britain's national triage service, deciding who is most likely to respond best to treatment and allocating health care accordingly.

It should therefore come as no surprise that the NHS is institutionally ageist. The elderly have fewer years left to them; why then should they get health-care resources that would benefit a younger person more? An analysis by a senior U.K.-based health-care expert earlier this decade found that in the U.S. health-care spending per capita goes up steeply for the elderly, while the U.K. didn't show the same pattern. The U.K.'s pattern of health-care spending by age had more in common with the former Soviet bloc.

A scarcity assumption similar to the British mentality underlies President Barack Obama's proposed health-care overhaul. "We spend one-and-a-half times more per person on health care than any other country, but we aren't any healthier for it," Mr. Obama claimed in his address to Congress last Wednesday, a situation that, he said, threatened America's economic competitiveness.

This assertion is seldom challenged. Yet what makes health care different from spending on, say, information technology —or any category of consumer service —such that spending on health care is uniquely bad for the American economy? Distortions like malpractice suits that lead to higher costs or the absence of consumer price consciousness do result in a misallocation of resources. That should be an argument for tackling those distortions. But if high health-care spending otherwise reflects the preferences of millions of consumers, why the fuss?

The case for ObamaCare, as with the NHS, rests on what might be termed the "lump of health care" fallacy. But in a market-based system triggering one person's contractual rights to health care does not invalidate someone else's health policy. Instead, increased demand for health care incentivizes new drugs, new therapies and better ways of delivering health care. Government-administered systems are so slow and clumsy that they turn the lump of health-care fallacy into a reality.

According to the 2002 Wanless report, used by Tony Blair's government to justify a large tax hike to fund the higher spending, the NHS is late to adopt and slow to diffuse new technology. Still, NHS spending more than doubled to £103 billion in 2009-10 from £40 billion in 1999-2000, equivalent to an average growth rate of over 7% a year after inflation.

In 1965, economist (and future Nobel laureate) James Buchanan observed of the 17-year old NHS that "hospital facilities are overcrowded, and long delays in securing treatment, save for strictly emergency cases, are universally noted." Forty-four years later, matters are little improved. The Wanless report found that of the five countries it looked at, the U.S. was the only one to be both an early adopter and rapid diffuser of new medical techniques. It is the world's principal engine driving medical advance. If the U.S. gets health-care reform wrong, the rest of the world will suffer too.

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BRITISH PUBLIC RESENTFUL AND BORED BY CLIMATE CHANGE, WARNS IPPR (Institute for Public Policy Research)

The general public are resentful, cynical and resigned when it comes to the issue of climate change, according to an IPPR report. Unless they can be persuaded to adopt lower-carbon lifestyles, it will be impossible to meet new emissions targets, says the report.

An approach based on saving the public money, and giving them greater control over energy bills and independence from suppliers would be more effective, say report researchers.

'Success will lie in convincing consumers that in adopting lower-carbon lifestyles they can save money and have control in a chaotic world, and they can do the right thing and look good without being an environmentalist,' said IPPR associate director Simon Retallack. 'If we can achieve that, while putting the policies in place to ensure that lower-carbon options are affordable, attractive and visible, we will have gone a long way towards mobilising the power of consumers in the battle against climate change,' he said.

The report, 'Consumer Power: how the public thinks lower-carbon behavour could be made mainstream', was based on workshops and in-depth interviews in late 2008 and early 2009. Researchers also visited interviewees' homes to gauge their reactions to energy advice.

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19 September, 2009

The helpful British police again

They've got plenty of time for speech crime. They take that "very seriously". But no time for a lot of real crime

A mother who killed herself and her disabled daughter had been terrorised by a gang of youths and had her repeated pleas for help ignored by police, an inquest was told yesterday. Fiona Pilkington, 38, burnt to death with her daughter, Francecca Hardwick, 18, after dousing the parked car that they were in with petrol and setting it alight.

The single mother, her daughter and teenage son, Anthony, had endured ten years of being virtual prisoners in their own home as a gang of up to 16 “street kids” tormented them for simply “existing”.

Despite Mrs Pilkington and her family repeatedly calling the police and reporting that they had received death threats, she was told to close her curtains and ignore the children, a jury was told. A Leicestershire Police log shows that she called them more than twenty times in seven years to say that her severely dyslexic son’s life had been threatened, her daughter, who had acute special needs, was being bullied and her house was under attack from the gang of youths. But none of the gang, which included girls and some boys as young as 10, was arrested, charged or prosecuted.

The inquest at Loughborough Town Hall was told how an officer was rarely sent to the house, even when one neighbour dialled 999 claiming that the family was cowering inside as the gang lay siege. Instead, the majority of police logs showed that no officer was available and ended with the words “incident closed”.

It was only when Mrs Pilkington wrote to her MP to say that she could not protect her own children and her hair was falling out from the stress that police began to try to tackle the problem. Mrs Pilkington had “given up”, however, believing that nothing could be done.

She took her daughter and the family’s pet rabbit and drove at night to a secluded lay-by on the A47 near Earl Shilton in October 2007. She emptied the fuel from a ten-litre petrol can into the inside of her Austin Maestro before igniting it. Their charred remains, discovered by a lorry driver, had to be identified from DNA samples.

Mrs Pilkington’s mother, Pamela Cassell, 72, who had moved into her daughter’s home to offer support, received a letter from Mrs Pilkington explaining her actions. Mrs Cassell, who had been looking after Anthony at the time, also found her daughter’s house keys in the envelope.

She said that Mrs Pilkington was terrified by Hallowe’en and Guy Fawkes Night because it was then that the gang stepped up their campaign, pelting her home in the village of Barwell with stones, eggs and flour and then urinating against the walls. Medical records showed that Mrs Pilkington suffered depression as a result of her ordeal.

Mrs Cassell said that her daughter decided to kill Francecca “rather than let her face the world on her own”. Describing Mrs Pilkington as shy and vulnerable and Francecca as bullied because she had special needs that were never properly diagnosed, Mrs Cassell said: “They taunted them for being there, for existing. There was something they took exception to.” She said that the gang “ran the street” and had tormented at least six families. She added that their bullying continued to this day.

Each November Mrs Pilkington sealed up the letter box to prevent children firing fireworks into the house. At one point her son was threatened with murder at school before being forced into a shed at knifepoint.He had to shatter a window to escape, cutting himself. “The family never had the curtains open, always half closed so nobody could see in,” Mrs Cassell said. “On the day they died she rang the police and told them two girls were walking on her hedge. They told her to ignore them. “The girls were taking the mickey out of the way Frankie walked. I asked my daughter why she had closed the curtains and she said because the police had told her to so she couldn’t see the children outside.”

She said that Mrs Pilkington would contact the police ten times a year and also approached Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council for help. “She wanted them to wield some sort of authority and do something. I don’t know if it didn’t sink in or if they just thought it was petty,” Mrs Cassell said.

As Anthony, now 19, listened to proceedings, his grandmother said that the children’s mother was the full-time carer of Francecca, known as Frankie, because she was doubly incontinent and mentally far younger than her teenage years. She said that her daughter was in “absolute despair” and had carried out a trial run of the killings also with Anthony in the car.

Chris Tew, the assistant chief constable at the time, said that it was difficult to bring a prosecution if the person alleging an offence did not want to proceed. He said: “This was a woman who may have been terrified, who may have been vulnerable and not the best person to make the decision about the prosecution under the circumstances.”

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'Disgusting' British hospital food gets a serve on 'bingo' blog

A British hospital patient was so disgusted with the quality of his food that he took photos of the meals, posted them on the internet and asked people to guess what was dished up. His followers failed to identify correctly half of the 35 meals he posted on the Hospital Food Bingo game that he has featured on his blog.

The patient provided a daily review of the dishes, along with the photos taken on his mobile phone, and described one attempt at macaroni and cheese as something that "could have been used as wallpaper paste".

"You could have slapped a splattering of the stuff on to a pair of white overalls, stuck them on the underside of a plane and then zipped a man into them before taking off for a spin and a couple of loop-the-loops," he wrote.

The patient, who has only identified himself as Traction Man, has been in hospital since February suffering from a rare bone infection.

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Once upon a time there was a subject called history . . .

A profound and pitiful ignorance of Britain's national past is the shameful legacy of so-called progressive educationalists, says Dominic Sandbrook

In April 1942, the Luftwaffe launched a series of night bombing raids against the historic cathedral cities of Exeter, Bath, Norwich, York and Canterbury. The targets had been picked out of the Baedeker Guide to Britain, not because they were militarily important or commanded crucial transport routes, but because they represented something vaguer but more profound.

The Nazis' aim was to smash Britain's moral and historical heritage – and, of course, they failed. More than 1,500 people were killed, but York Minister and Canterbury Cathedral still stood proud and unbowed amid the flames, symbolising the long centuries of England's past. Not even the might of the Nazi empire, it seemed, could break the thread of our national history.

What a tragic irony, then, that where Hitler's bombers failed, a generation of home-grown political meddlers and "progressive" educationalists have succeeded all too well. For to anyone with even a passing interest in the teaching, reading and writing of our national past, the Historical Association's massive new survey on history teaching in secondary schools reads like the report of some callous, devastating military barbarism.

Across the board, history teaching is in retreat. Seven out of ten teenagers say they enjoy the subject, yet barely three out of 10 study it to GCSE level. Among younger children, the hours set aside for history are being slashed to make way for supposedly vocational subjects. And almost unbelievably, 12-year-olds in half of Tony Blair's beloved academies study history for just one hour – one! – a week.

An entire generation, in other words, is leaving school ignorant of what their parents and grandparents once took for granted: the solid, reassuring knowledge of what we all once recognised as our national story.

Terrible as they are, the Historical Association's figures come as little surprise. A few years ago, when I was a lecturer at one of northern England's biggest redbrick universities, I quickly realised that it was a mistake to assume any prior knowledge of British history on the part of our 18-year-old students. Most had studied the Nazis and the American civil rights movement in great detail at A-level, but few had heard of, say, David Lloyd George or Stanley Baldwin, or could explain why Britain had won and lost a global empire.

They were bright and keen to learn, but had been betrayed by a system that fed them titbits of knowledge, and by a culture of continuous testing that left little time to appreciate the broad sweep of our national past. But by today's standards, they were lucky. For as the Historical Association points out, if the trend continues, history may well decline into virtual irrelevance as a school subject, overtaken by Media Studies and Beauty Therapy.

It is too easy to blame the students, who find themselves under intense pressure to get the best possible grades for their university applications – which inevitably means that they pick subjects that are seen as "easier" or that offer more "value". And it is too easy, I think, to blame their teachers.

Whenever I give sixth-form talks, whether in private or state schools, I am always struck by the sheer love of history shown by most teachers, whose attitudes often put academics themselves to shame. Only a few weeks ago, giving a lecture to a talented and engaging group of A-level students on the Isle of Man, I felt almost humbled by the enterprise and sheer commitment of their history teachers, a husband-and-wife team who might have been an advertisement for education as one of life's most enriching vocations.

But there is no doubt that something has gone badly wrong when seven out of 10 schoolchildren are no longer studying history at the age of 16, when two out of 10 think Britain was once occupied by the Spanish, and when some identify Sir Winston Churchill as the first man on the moon. And the blame lies at the very top, shared by politicians of both parties, who have been systematically cheating and betraying our children since the 1980s.

During the Thatcher years, it was meddling from the top that downgraded history from a compulsory to an optional subject at the age of 16 – which, because it was seen as "difficult", made it easy pickings for Mickey Mouse subjects such as Beauty Therapy. It was supposedly "progressive" interference, meanwhile, that did away with old-fashioned essay questions and replaced them with empathy exercises and multiple-choice quizzes that sacrificed any sense of intellectual depth or discipline.

And perhaps above all, it was in Westminster and Whitehall that officials designed our absurd Yo! Sushi approach to history, in which schools randomly pick unrelated historical topics like saucers from a conveyor belt, instead of studying our national story as a continuous narrative, which is how any sensible person sees it.

What makes this betrayal all the more depressing is that in society at large there is clearly such an eager appetite for historical narrative. Even now, 20 years after I was forced to do empathy exercises ("Imagine you are a housewife in Hamburg in 1932 …") as part of my history GCSE lessons, British readers devour more popular history than almost any other nation, helping to keep Andrew Roberts in silk pyjamas and Simon Schama in leather jackets.

With almost four million members happily forking out to visit its country houses, castles, factories and workhouses, the National Trust is the biggest membership organisation in the country. Even the latest Booker shortlist reflects our deep shared thirst for history, from A S Byatt's lovingly evoked Edwardian social landscape to Sarah Waters's haunting recreation of Attlee's Britain and Hilary Mantel's coruscating portraits of Thomas Cromwell and Henry VIII. And, of course, it was the readers of this very paper who contributed £25,000 to the reprint of H E Marshall's Our Island Story, the children's history of England first published in 1905 that still gives a more entertaining overall account of our national story than most modern textbooks, even if it is a bit dated.

Any sensible government, recognising the extent of the popular enthusiasm for history, would have intervened long ago to restore the subject as a central, compulsory element of the national curriculum. Instead, Labour have flapped and floundered, bleating about Britishness lessons and citizenship classes instead of doing the one thing guaranteed to inculcate a sense of community and identity: teaching children their national history.

One reason that America has proved so successful as a melting pot for immigrants, after all, is that its schools give their children a solid and reassuring sense of themselves as Americans, embedded in a shared national past which is studded with patriotic landmarks from the Declaration of Independence to the Gettysburg Address. And we have only to look across the Irish Sea, where schools in the Republic patiently trace their national story from Ireland's first Christian missionaries to its bloody struggle for independence, to see that teaching your national history from start to finish is hardly rocket science. Nor is it necessarily reactionary or old-fashioned or even conservative, as its critics suggest. It is simply common sense.

"The past is a foreign country," L P Hartley famously wrote at the beginning of his great novel The Go-Between. "They do things differently there." Exploring that vast and impossibly rich continent ought to be one of the most exciting intellectual adventures in any boy or girl's lifetime: a chance not just to tread the fields of Hastings or Bosworth, or to see Shakespeare and Milton at work, but to encounter an enormously, uproariously diverse range of characters, to make lifelong acquaintances, to draw lessons and parallels, to meet humanity in the raw.

In any sane and decent society, that journey ought to be the centrepiece of the education system, a long and thoughtful expedition, not a botched and half-hearted day-trip to which most children are no longer invited. And one day, I suspect, we will look back and judge that our Government's ignorance and neglect of that wonderful, dazzling, irresistible country was among the greatest of its failures and the most unforgivable of its many betrayals.

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BBC: AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING

The global warming narrative - that mankind's addiction to burning fossil fuels is rapidly changing the climate - may be about to go seriously off message.

Far from suggesting the planet will get warmer, one of the world's leading climate modellers says the latest data indicates we could be in for a significant period of steady temperatures and possibly even a little global cooling.

Professor Mojib Latif, from the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences at Kiel University in Germany, has been looking at the influence of cyclical changes to ocean currents and temperatures in the Atlantic, a feature known as the North Atlantic Oscillation. When he factored these natural fluctuations into his global climate model, professor Latif found the results would bring the remorseless rise in average global temperatures to an abrupt halt. "The strong warming effect that we experienced during the last decades will be interrupted. Temperatures will be more or less steady for some years, and thereafter will pickup again and continue to warm".

With apologies to Al Gore, professor Latif's finding is something of an "inconvenient truth" for the global warming debate. And the timing couldn't be much worse. World leaders are due to meet in Copenhagen in December to hammer out an agreement on cutting greenhouse gas emissions to replace the Kyoto Treaty. It certainly won't help if there are a couple of inches of snow on the ground outside the convention centre, and climate models are predicting a sustained period of steady, or even falling, global temperatures.

Professor Philip Stott believes climate sceptics may seize on the research as evidence that the whole global warming hypothesis is fundamentally flawed: If natural cycles can interrupt, or even reverse climate change, maybe we don't need to take it so seriously.

It's not a view shared by professor Latif, who points to the resumption of warming as the cycle completes itself in a few years. The best we can hope for, he says, is a brief respite from global warming.

But the complex message professor Latif's research confronts us with, points up another issue debated on the programme this morning: The thorny issue of the media's handling of science.

The Science Minister Lord Drayson sparked a row when he claimed that the coverage of scientific issues was in rude health at the World Conference of Science journalists. Ben Goldacre, the author of "Bad Science" took exception, arguing that most editors were only interested in revolutionary cures for cancer, or whether coffee made you fat. After a heated exchange in the blogosphere the two have agreed to debate the issues at the Royal Institution tonight.

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Comment from Benny Peiser: "This is fair and balanced BBC report about a controversial climate change issue. It's nothing sensational because it's elementary journalism - written in a format that good science journalism should approach whenever there are reasonable scientific conflicts and debates. Why then are we pleasantly surprised whenever we witness such rare occasions of BBC fairness and balance? Makes you wonder what's wrong with today's environmental and science journalism, doesn't it?"



British council bans Christian group from putting up notices about its meetings

And they are not backing down.

"A Christian campaign group has been banned from pinning up notices about its meetings in libraries or community centres. The activists were told their posters advertising talks about climate change could not be shown in public because they mentioned Christianity and God.

Officials declared that the flyers for a talk on 'climate change is a Christian issue' and and another by a spokesman for the Christian Ecology Link were in conflict with town hall policy against the promotion of religious ideas.

The ban in Camden in North London bemused campaigners from the Roman Catholic Our Lady Help of Christians parish church - not least because they were told they could display posters advertising green rallies so long as they did not refer to God.

There was also confusion among the greens that while borough officials insist they cannot lend a hand to a Christian group, it provides for inquirers details of no fewer than 13 mosques, Muslim study groups, and Islamic social groups.

Miss Siedlecka said she asked her local library to use its distribution service to put up flyers throughout the borough giving notice of the talks. 'A lady in a yashmak, a Muslim lady, told me that they could not advocate religions and that they could not promote religious ideas.

'Then I spoke to officials at the town hall who told me again that they could not promote a religion. They said they would be very happy if it was green, but it could not be Christian.'

Mike Judge of the Christian Institute said: 'This is another case of Christians being told to go to the back of the class. 'It is prejudice against Christianily. Christians run huge numbers of community projects and they pay council taxes. 'They are not promoting their religion at the expense of anyone else and they are entitled to put their posters up. It is time Camden got a grip.'

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Hands off my camera!: "Since the Counter-Terrorism Act 2000 came into force, many amateur and professional photographers have found themselves questioned, manhandled and detained by police who have received extended stop and search rights. … As many photographers have experienced, cameras — especially if they are professional-looking or are mounted on a tripod — are now often deemed ’suspicious articles.’ More and more professional and amateur snappers are being stopped by police while documenting everything from demonstrations to bus stations and street life in Britain. … In response to this mood of suspicion and to growing restrictions on individual and press freedom, the newly formed campaign group, I’m a Photographer, Not a Terrorist, staged a photography ‘flash mob’ on Reuters plaza in Canary Wharf, east London, on Saturday.”

Call to punish police without ID: "A watchdog said it was ‘extraordinary’ that officers caught policing protests without wearing their ID badges were escaping with ‘a slap on the wrist.’ The Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) said senior officers must ensure frontline colleagues can be identified. Some officers were photographed without ID badges during April’s G20 protests. Assistant Commissioner Chris Allison of the Metropolitan Police said discipline may not be appropriate for officers who sometimes forget to attach their ID.”





18 September, 2009

School's lunchtime curfew to encourage "healthy" eating

This most likely means that the kids will pig out as soon as they get out of school -- and have a lifetime aversion to the "correct" food. Coercion rarely works out well

Lunchtime at All Saints Secondary School in Glasgow was an unusually well-attended affair yesterday. Hundreds of pupils sat down to a piping hot meal of chicken curry with rice, baked potatoes with an array of fillings, and salad-filled baguettes. Then again, most had little alternative. All Saints is one of eight secondary schools in the city participating in a pilot scheme aiming to improve the diets of students. The idea is simple: keep children on school premises to prevent them from accessing artery-clogging junk food such as greasy chips and burgers, all too readily available outside.

The scheme, the first of its kind in Scotland, involves about 1,000 first year pupils. The initiative began in August and will run until the end of the school year before an evaluation study is carried out to decide whether it should be rolled out to all first year pupils in Glasgow secondary schools.

Although the scheme is operating on the basis of presumption, rather than enforcement, staff have taken to patrolling the gates in some schools. To discourage pupils from reaching the stage of attempting to sneak out, a wide range of lunchtime activities have been introduced especially for first years, including games, music, film clubs, art clubs, and even “chill-out zones” with access to iPods, Playstation and Wii games.

Steven Purcell, leader of Glasgow City Council, who attended All Saints yesterday to launch the scheme, said he had been compelled to take strong action by the city’s renowned reputation for poor health. He also told of how many parents had complained about burger vans targeting schools. “If the pilot isn’t successful, we will be honest about that, but I think most people will recognise that we’re trying to do something about the appalling health record in Glasgow,” he said.

Mr Purcell said that other local authorities have expressed interest in the scheme. A number of nearby councils have asked for details of the initiative, while others have asked for a copy of the evaluation report.

Gerry Lyons, the headteacher at All Saints, said the school spent months consulting with parents and pupils, while they were still in primary seven (P7), before introducing the scheme. With the information they gathered, the school invested in new equipment, including pogo sticks, balls, and tennis racquets, to entertain those banned from going out. “The way we are getting cooperation is designing it around them,” he said.

Mr Lyons acknowledged there had been some concerns about the children being deprived of their freedom, but said the pupils “wanted” to stay on the premises. “The great thing is they are enjoying it,” he said. “It is part of the fabric of the school.”

The main goal of the scheme is to engender among children a lifelong habit of choosing healthy food, but it is also hoped that eating more nutritionally-balanced meals will improve their behaviour. Research conducted among primary school children in Hull suggested that children who eat a healthy lunch are better behaved, better able to learn and more likely to see their general health improved.

The local authority is also keen to improve uptake of school meals. Scottish government statistics show that the uptake of school lunches by primary pupils in Glasgow is one of the highest in the country at 59 per cent, compared with a nationwide average of 48 per cent. Yet that figure falls off dramatically for secondary pupils in the city, with just 30 per cent opting for school lunches compared with a nationwide average of 39 per cent.

Theresa Harran, chairwoman of All Saints’ parent-teacher council, said the feedback from parents about the scheme has so far been positive. However, she warned against extending it to senior pupils, pointing out it could infringe the rights of children aged over 16. “We need to embed it and make it part of the school culture, then we can see what interest there is in the upper school,” she said.

Amy McLeod, a first year pupil at All Saints, was enthusiastic about being locked in school at lunchtime, believing there is a greater choice of healthy food. “My favourite is the turkey meatballs with pasta,” the 12-year-old said. Darren Brady, 11, admits he was less convinced, but came round after the introduction of a few incentives. “I would rather be outside,” he said, “but when they started the activities, like football, and scooters, I began staying in”.

Mr Lyons happily conceded the trial has not been without its problems. “There are bigger queues now,” he said. “A fifth year came up to me and said, ‘Sir, the first years have eaten all the pickled onions. Can you do something about that?’.”

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Lucky Brits: The government is at long last thinking of giving them a choice of doctor

Patients will be able to register with a GP anywhere in the country in a radical move to abolish restrictive catchment areas, Andy Burnham, the Health Secretary, will announce. GP practices often run very tight boundaries and refuse to take patients who live even 100 yards too far away or on the wrong side of the road and people who move house are forced to change their surgery. But within the next year patients will be able to choose to remain with a favoured doctor when they move house or register with one near work or school if they choose.

Under new plans to be announced in a keynote speech in London Mr Burnham will say GPs will not be able to refuse to take patients because they live too far away. The changes aim to drive up quality of care by prompting more competition between doctors to attract patients with the most successful practices being able to expand. Meanwhile patients will have more choice and control over their own healthcare.

The idea was proposed in the review of the NHS led by Sir Ara Darzi, a surgeon and until recently a junior health minister. It is envisaged that most patients will still want to register with a GP near home for convenience, especially those with long-term illnesses, but some will want to see a doctor near work or family and others may want to remain with a favoured family doctor even when they move house.

Mr Burnham will say: "In this day and age I can see no reason why patients should not be able to choose the GP practice they want. "Many of us lead hectic lives and health services should be there to make things easier. A busy mum needs flexibility – she may want to register at a practice near her children’s school. "Equally, a commuter may want to register near to work. I want to them to be able to do this whilst ensuring that access to home visits won't be affected, wherever someone ends up registering."

The details are still being finalised but it is thought patients who want to register with a surgery a long way from their home may have to accept some services such as home visits are not practical.

A large proportion of practice income is based on the number of patients on its list so funding will increase with the number of patients but new patients are worth less to surgeries than existing ones. Some popular surgeries will be unable to expand for logistical reasons and will have to close their lists to new patients.

In his first major speech as Health Secretary, Mr Burnham will set out his vision for the future of the health service at the King's Fund think tank, saying although it is now unrecognisable from the "poor state it was in 12 years ago" more reform is needed to ensure patients have greater choice and improved quality of care.

As well as changes to primary care, Mr Burnham wants to see hospital trusts rewarded for providing good care and penalised financially for poor treatment. Trusts that provide a high quality patient experience from the way patients are spoken to by NHS staff, to clinical quality, to compassion and respect will be reflected in payments made for treatment. But it means that budgets will suffer at hospitals that receive low ratings and where patients report poor care.

Mr Burnham will add: "In the last decade, the NHS has gone from poor to good. In the next, I want to help it go from good to great. "That will mean a relentless focus on quality and people-centred care. I also want to use financial incentives to change the way care is provided – for example it can often be cost effective and better quality to provide dialysis or chemotherapy in people's homes."

Dr Laurence Buckman, chairman of the General Practice Committee at the British Medical Association said GPs will support the moves but added that the law, the National Health Service Act, will have to be changed to allow the people to have a GP who would not be able to visit them at home. He said: “The idea of getting rid of practice boundaries altogether has been discussed many times in the past, and we are happy to discuss it again. “However, major logistical barriers would need to be overcome. “Home visits with a GP a long way away would become difficult, and costly for the NHS to fund. “Practices in rural and suburban areas could lose significant numbers of young, healthy, patients, destabilising their funding and threatening their viability. "Meanwhile, city centre practices would be inundated with requests for appointments at lunchtime and evenings, which would effectively limit patient choice."

He said other services like district nursing still have defined boundaries. “These problems are not insurmountable but will need a lot of careful thinking if they are to be solved,” he said.

The plans were welcomed by patients groups but there was a call for more information to help patients choose their surgery more effectively. A spokesman for the Patients Association said: "This idea was proposed years ago so we need a clear timetable for introduction-it can't fall by the wayside again. "Action speaks louder than words. Patients do not have easy access to meaningful information so choice at the moment is relatively meaningless as it focuses on things like convenience and location. "We welcome the proposal but there needs to be real progress on information to support genuine patient choice."

Andrew Lansley, the shadow health secretary, said the Tories have already announced similar plans. He said: “We’ve always argued that it was ludicrous for the Government to talk about giving people a choice of GP when they restricted that choice based on their postcode. That is why we announced plans to abolish practice boundaries two years ago. “So this is a step in the right direction, but just a small one. It is only a small part of the much bigger package of reform that we need to make to our system of family doctors.

"We need to remove the perverse disincentives that currently exist which dissuade doctors from taking on new patients. We also need to give GPs much greater responsibility for managing their patients’ care when they refer them on for hospital treatment, including control of the money that funds that treatment."

Norman Lamb, the Liberal Democrat health spokesman, also supported the changes. He said: "The current system breeds complacency, there isn't any effective competition which can potentially drive up standards and ultimately it gives the patient no choice. "There is a certain reality that in rural areas, in particular, the extent to which patients have a real choice is inevitably limited by geography, for the elderly especially and there are limits on how far you can expect GPS to go on home visits. "But in general it must be right that individuals should be able to choose which practice they want to register with and the money should follow the patient."

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That compassionate, sensitive British socialist system again

'I only wanted to change the appointment': Dementia patient's wife asked to see doctor nearer home ... hospital wrote back asking for his brain for research

The wife of a television comedy writer now suffering from dementia was shocked to receive a letter from his consultant asking if they'd donate his brain for research after he died. Mike Craig, who worked with the likes of Morecambe and Wise and Ken Dodd during a long showbusiness career, needs to be looked after around the clock after developing a rare condition called Pick's disease.

But when the 74-year-old's devoted wife Susan called the hospital he attends to say he was too ill to travel there, she was shocked to receive a reply asking her to consider brain donation.

Yesterday she said that while she understood the need to carry out research on sufferers' brains, the letter was deeply insensitive as all she had wanted to do was find a doctor closer to their home.

Mr Craig worked as a producer or writer on more than 1,000 classic episodes, helping to script such much-loved moments as Angela Rippon's 1976 appearance with Morecambe and Wise. He also worked with Des O'Connor and Roy Castle and went on to become a popular after-dinner speaker, making appearances on cruise ships talking about his experiences in the 'golden age of comedy'.

However around seven years ago his family became worried that his behaviour was becoming rambling and obsessive. He was eventually diagnosed with Pick's disease, a rare and terminal form of dementia which initially targets the personality more than the memory. There is no medical treatment available, and Mr Craig has to be watched around the clock by his wife as he his liable to turn the gas on or leave taps running.

He continued making once-a-year trips to a consultant at the brain unit at Salford Royal Hospital, six miles from his home in Timperley, Greater Manchester. But when his wife was notified of an appointment there next January, she rang to say he had deteriorated and was too ill to travel there. However she was shocked to receive a letter which said they had changed hospital records to note that he 'will no longer be coming here' in future.

The consultant went on: 'Having perused Mr Craig's notes I don't think that we ever discussed the brain donation research programme with you and your family. 'I wonder whether it would be in order for us to contact you to discuss this issue?'

Yesterday Mrs Craig said she was horrified to have the question of donation raised so baldly and without any offer of alternative medical support or monitoring. 'I am all for research and I would be happy to discuss tissue donation with Mike's children because I would support anything which might help find a treatment for this awful disease, but I was shocked to get this letter,' she said. 'I thought the doctors might make alternative arrangements to see Mike. We were surprised they would write to us about tissue donation rather than speaking about it in person or on the phone. 'I would have thought if they want him to be part of a research study it would be important for them to see him regularly, to chart how the condition affects him.'

Last night the hospital apologised, saying the letter had been sent by mistake and that the sensitive issue of brain tissue donation always ought to be raised face-to-face. A spokeswoman said: 'We are very sorry to have caused Mrs Craig any distress through our recent communication, we acknowledge that this was insensitive and we would like to offer assurance that this will never happen again.'

Medical campaigners say new guidelines are needed on how to encourage the families of people with dementia and similar conditions to agree to donate their brains after their death without making the trauma they face even worse.

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Top British official accused of saying: "Blow Israel off the face of the Earth"

What he said would probably not be illegal in America but it shows appalling judgement for someone in his position. He should lose his job for that reason, not because he was racist. Arab-lovers are however something of a tradition in the Foreign Office. Empathy with the secretive but widespread homosexuality among Arabs is alleged to be the cause.

The British establishment generally is very antisemitic (See here and here and here), so he will probably escape any serious penalty.

"A Foreign and Commonwealth Office civil servant told a Jew that the Israelis should be “blown off the face of the Earth” during an altercation at a gymnasium, a court was told yesterday. Gideon Falter claimed that Rowan Laxton, 48, was also heard to shout “f***ing Israelis, f***ing Jews” while watching a television news report about Israel bombing Gaza as he worked out on an exercise bicycle.

Giving evidence at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, Mr Falter said he arrived at the London Business School gym shortly after 8am in January and overheard the outburst. “I started to work out,” he said. “I heard someone shout, ‘F***ing Israelis, f***ing Jews’.

“I could hear that it came from above me. I wanted to see who shouted. I couldn’t see anyone who was particularly aggravated. Mr Laxton came downstairs to the lower part of the mezzanine and I spoke to him.”

Mr Falter claimed that Mr Laxton, head of the South Asia desk in the Foreign Office, admitted that it was him who had launched the tirade before allegedly adding: “It’s not racist. If I had my way, the international community would be sent in and if the Israelis got in the way, they would be blown off the face of the f***ing Earth.”...

The court was told that Mr Laxton had settled a “difficult” divorce with his Muslim wife on the same morning as the incident....

When interviewed by police after his arrest, Mr Laxton said: “I was horrified by what I saw and I said, ‘I’m sorry I said it’. I said ’f***ing Israelis’.”

Mr Laxton, who answers to David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, has been suspended from his £70,000-a-year job and could be dismissed if found guilty.

Source

Soviet-style history in Britain

Margaret Thatcher omitted from British government history of women in politics while all sorts of nonentities get a mention:

"Harriet Harman has been accused of airbrushing Baroness Thatcher from an official government document saluting the role of women in politics in the last 100 years.

The paper, Women in Power: Milestones, listed 28 of the most significant events between 1907 and 2008 involving women on the political stage.

The milestones included the election of the first female Head of Government – Sirimavo Bandaranaike, the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka in 1960 and Britain's first woman councillor Reina Emily Lawrence in 1907.

The document, produced by the Equality Office which is run by Miss Harman, the deputy leader of the Labour Party, highlights the role of Nancy Astor who was the first woman to take her seat in parliament in 1919, the election of Dianne Abbott the first black woman MP in 1987, and victory in 1999 of Neena Gill the UK’s first Asian female MEP.

But there is no mention of Lady Thatcher becoming the first female leader of a British political party when she replaced Edward Heath in 1975, or the fact that she was the longest serving prime minister in the 20th century, and won three general election victories. The only reference to her is: “1979: UK’s first woman Prime Minister.” But her name is pointedly omitted. By contrast Shreela Flather is mentioned twice as the first Asian woman councillor and first Asian woman peer. Britain’s first black woman mayor Lydia Simmons is also given a name check.

Lady Thatcher’s office declined to comment but a friend of the former Prime Minister said: “Miss Harman cannot bear the fact it was the Conservatives who elected the first woman leader back in 1975 long before anyone had even heard of positive discrimination and all women shortlists. "Margaret got there on ability and went on to become one of the great Prime Ministers because of what she stood for not because she wore skirts. We also elected the first Jewish leader in Michael Howard but I imagine that will be airbrushed too when Harman's Equality Office does an ethnic history of political parties.”

Source

17 September, 2009

British government unveils plans to close Britain's 'libel floodgates'

About time -- and they could do a lot more

Plans to clamp down [a little] on internet libel and libel tourism will be unveiled by ministers today. Newspapers at present face the prospect of endless libel suits which can be lodged every time an article is downloaded, even many years after the event. Editors and lawyers have warned that the rise in actions has a chilling effect on free speech. Ministers are also concerned about libel tourism, with many litigants choosing to come to London - now the “libel capital of the Western world” - to bring libel actions that have little to do with its jurisdiction.

Internet libel and the permanence of articles on the web is spawning a whole new defamation industry against newspapers and other publishers of electronic material.

The proposed reforms, contained in a consultation paper to be published by Bridget Prentice, Minister of Justice, are expected to propose the introduction of time limits to stop the possibility of people launching libel suits many years after an article was originally published. At the same time, ministers will suggest reforms to stop articles being open to a libel action each time they are downloaded. Normally people must lodge libel actions within a year. But with the internet, each fresh download triggers a new one-year time limit.

One option is to give articles that have been online for more than a year an automatic archive defence of qualified privilege. If no law suit was lodged in the first year after hard copy publication, a libel action could only be brought later if the newspaper had been negligent or refused to publish a suitable retraction or correction.

Earlier this year, the European Court of Human Rights dismissed a test challenge brought by Times Newspapers over internet libel. But the judges also said that the cases indicated the need for time restraints. They said: “While an aggrieved applicant must be afforded a real opportunity to vindicate his right to reputation, libel proceedings brought against a newspaper after a significant lapse of time may well, in the absence of exceptional circumstances, give rise to a disproportionate interference with press freedom under article 10.”

The Times argued that the present law, enabling a new libel suit to be lodged every time an article is downloaded, even years later, was “an unjustifiable and disproportionate restriction on its right to freedom of expression”. The test challenge arose over two articles about the Russian-born businessman, Grigori Loutchansky and his financial dealings. Each article was posed on the newspaper’s website on the day it was published in print.

In December 1999 Mr Loutchansky brought libel proceedings over the two articles. The newspaper accepted they were defamatory but relied on the defence of qualified privilege, arguing that they were of such a kind and seriousness that they had a duty to publish, and the public a right to know. While the proceedings were ongoing, the articles remained on the newspaper’s website and in December 2000 Mr Loutchanksy lodged fresh libel proceedings over the internet publication.

Mr Loutchansky won his action but the newspaper appealed the High Court ruling over “single publication,” arguing that articles are only actionable when first posted on the internet.

At the heart of the issue is a Victorian case dating back to 1849, involving the Duke of Brunswick, which said that each publication is a new publication. The exiled Duke heard in 1848 that he had been defamed in a London newspaper, the Weekly Dispatch, 18 years earlier in 1830. Because the six-year limitation period that then existed for bringing libel suits had long since expired, he sent out a manservant to find him a copy of the newspaper.

The manservant duly found one at the British Museum. Armed with a copy of the original article, the Duke sued for libel and was awarded damages of £500, now nearer £50,000. In the internet age, that means each hit on a website, Times Newspapers argued, enabling people to sue for libel well beyond the usual one-year limitation period.

Mark Stephens, head of media at Finers Stephens Innocent, said: “Ministers will also want to restrain libel tourism cases - by trying to insist there is a tighter threshold on bringing defamations here. “Why should the taxpayer pay the costs of running a court for a Ukranian businessman to sue a Ukraine language website that virtually no-one has heard of?”

SOURCE



We must curb Scotland’s drink problem, says BMA boss

Is this the ultimate do-gooder nonsense? Nothing will separate the Jimmies from their whisky and beer. Getting drunk and sticking shivs into one another on Saturday night is a grand old Scottish tradition -- particularly in Glasgow, where half of Scotland's population lives. Amusing that the Scottish doctor quoted below admits that he himself likes a drop

Alcohol now pervades everyday life and has become the hidden problem of middle-class, leafy suburbs, according to the new leader of Scotland’s doctors. Brian Keighley, the new chairman of the British Medical Association in Scotland, said yesterday that issues with alcohol affected hard-working, respectable citizens who were drinking at home just as much as it did those receiving ASBOs on Friday night.

In the wake of a controversial report from the BMA supporting alcohol restrictions, Dr Keighley made clear how compelling the argument had become. He said: “If you look at what’s happening in terms of per capita consumption, it’s clear that we have a growing problem, and that’s not just about the people you want to serve ASBOs on a Friday night. “This is about the fact that alcohol is now next to the butter and the vegetables. The stigma about buying alcohol has gone, it’s now a normal part of everyday life.

“We know that people who are ostensibly good citizens — hard working, all the rest of it — are drinking more and more at home and we know that consequently the amount of cirrhotic liver disease is going up year on year. There were figures last week to say that in one in 15 surgical deaths alcohol was significantly involved.”

Dr Keighley, 61, who has been in general practice for 37 years in Stirlingshire and was also a police surgeon, spoke of the irony of being warned by the BMA, 30 years ago, not to prescribe barbiturates: “Now the most prevailing drug in Scottish society is that of alcohol and it’s more hidden in the sense that it’s everywhere, in the urban centres and the leafy suburbs like Bearsden. It’s all over Scotland.”

The BMA’s research, by the University of Stirling, called for a ban on alcohol advertising and sponsorship of sport and music events — such as T in the Park — in order to address the soaring cost of alcohol-related harm. It calculated that the drinks industry spent £800 million a year promoting alcohol in the UK. Dr Keighley said other measures to restrict alcohol consumption, such as warning labels on the bottles, did not work.

Irresponsible marketing and pricing were the issue. “We are finding that people are front-loading before they go out — front-loading on alcohol bought from supermarkets that is actually cheaper than a bottle of water. That can’t be right. “The BMA are not killjoys. We are not against alcohol. I don’t know many teetotal doctors. But it’s not up to us. We have a duty to lay in front of the general public the facts, and now, whilst we can say what we think should happen, it’s up to the public.

“There has also been criticism of our stance on advertising at social, cultural and sporting events. Well, society will have to decide. It just may not the most sensible thing to associate sport with things that actually militate against the ability to carry out those sports. It’s like putting the fox in charge of the chickens.”

Dr Keighley said a change in culture towards alcohol was essential. “Things have changed about the acceptability of drinking, about drinking in public and drinking to excess. We know people think we are conniving with the nanny state, but the people who criticise us are not the people doing what I’ve done which is to go to fatal road accidents or see the drunks in the police station or work in casualty.

“To be honest I would like to see more restrictions and more and more government interference. I would like to see a change of culture, but also by a realignment of the attitude of the public towards alcohol through education and through fiscal means.”

SOURCE



Key master gene that can KILL cancer identified by British scientists

This sounds like a two-edged sword. What boosts the fight against cancer could lead to auto-immune diseases -- such as diabetes and asthma. Not a very promising approach

A 'masterswitch' in the body's battle against cancer has been identified by British scientists, raising hope of new treatments. The key gene triggers the production of blood cells capable of fighting - and killing - tumour cells. The cells form part of the body's natural armoury against disease and we all have some.

But making more could bolster our defence, saving some of the 155,000 lives lost each year to cancer in the UK. The findings could also shed light on the immune system's role in other conditions such as diabetes and multiple sclerosis.

Infusions of natural killer cells donated from volunteers are already given to some cancer patients. However, because they come from another person, they are not a complete match and so do not work as well. The discovery of the 'master-switch' - a gene called E4bp4 that causes 'blank' stem cells to turn into natural killer cells - paves the way for a drug to boost the patient's own stock of the cells.

Researcher Hugh Brady, of Imperial College London, said: 'The natural killer cell was like the Cinderella of the white blood cells, we didn't know very much about them. 'We knew a little bit about how they work but we didn't know where they came from. 'We stumbled on this when researching childhood leukaemia. We thought the gene was involved in that. It turns it probably isn't but it has a very important role in the immune system. 'With a bit of serendipity we have found the key to the pathway that gives rise to natural killer cells.'

To investigate the role of the gene, Dr Brady genetically engineered mice who lacked it. The mice made other types of blood cell as normal but did not make any natural killer cells. This proves the gene to be pivotal in the production of natural killer cells, which fight viruses and bacteria as well as cancers, the journal Nature Immunology reports.

The researchers are now hunting for a drug that could increase cancer patients' production of these natural killer cells, and, it is hoped, their odds of beating the disease. A drug that boosts natural killer cell numbers is likely to be especially powerful against breast, bowel, lung and blood cancers. However, it would have to through numerous lengthy health and safety trials before reaching the market.

The benefits of the breakthrough do not end there. Rogue natural killer cells have been implicated in diseases in which the immune system attacks the body, including diabetes and multiple sclerosis. Further study of the gene's role could shed new light on these conditions. Abnormally high levels of natural killer cells have also been implicated in recurrent miscarriages.

Dr Brady said: 'Since shortly after they were discovered in the 1970s, some scientists have suspected that the vital disease-fighting natural killer cells could themselves be behind a number of serious medical conditions when they malfunction. 'Now finally, we will be able to find out if the progression of these diseases is impeded or aided by the removal of natural killer cells from the equation. 'This will solve the often-debated question of whether NK cells are always the "good guys", or if in certain circumstances they cause more harm than good.'

SOURCE



British education unions don't like incentive pay

It offends against their Leftist obsession with equality

The bonus culture is creeping into state schools as a result of market values being imported into the public sector, unions warned today. Education union representatives told the TUC that the public sector risked a rise in the very culture of the finance sector that had contributed to the economic crash.

Unions want current measures that allow school leaders to receive unlimited additional pay on top of their salary to be switched in favour of clearly defined limits, with criteria set down for any additional payments made.

Hank Roberts, from the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, warned of the perils and told delegates how he was temporarily suspended for whistleblowing after he discovered the headteacher at his school was receiving thousands in bonuses on top of his salary of more than £100,000, backed by the chair of governors, who said he was "worth every penny".

In one year alone, the head had been paid more than £400,000 – more than twice what the prime minister earns. He also said other payments to a tiny handful of staff brought the total to almost £1m.

Roberts said the root of the problem was that state schools are responsible for their own budget. "If you set up a system that multiplies the opportunities for graft and corruption, you will get more graft and more corruption," he said.

The proliferation of rising pay differentials was part of the privatisation agenda infecting state education, he added. "There have to be limits on the pay of public servants or they will no longer have it as their priority to serve the public interest, but will substitute it for the serving of their own."

Ed Balls, the schools secretary, has previously backed bonuses for headteachers if linked to their performance.

Brian Cookson, from the NASUWT, said there was "no place" for the bonus culture in the public sector. "It allows individuals to abuse the system and put self interest at the expense of children," he said. "We need to learn the lessons from the behaviour which contributed to the global financial crash. We need to be clear the bonus culture has no place in the state education system."

Unions also backed calls of a government review of the financial accountability for schools, including academies [charter schools].

SOURCE



Warmist delusions getting worse

They seem to think that if you shriek loudly enough, people will believe them. More likely to have the opposite effect in my view. But the stuff below is full of "ifs" anyway. I could do some pretty good "if"-case predictions myself if I wanted to. Let me try one: If scientists stuck to the known facts, there would be no global warming scare. That "if" is roughly as likely to come about as the stuff below -- even though it should not be an "if" at all

Deadly tsunamis like those that have hit Asia may be heading to Britain. From tsunamis in Britain to huge avalanches in the Alps and volcanic eruptions in Germany, some of the world's top geologists are warning these potential natural catastrophes could become reality, if global temperatures continue to rise. ["Continue"?? They stopped rising in 1998]

At a three-day conference starting today at University College London (UCL), scientists will show how alterations in the earth's crust could trigger unexpected events. They say evidence from the past reveals that times of dramatic climatic change are characterised by heightened geological activity. For example, 10,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age, melting ice and rising sea levels triggered a significant rise in volcanic activity.

Professor Bill McGuire, Director of the Benfield Hazard Research Centre at UCL warned earth's future could be explosive. He told Sky News Online: "Climate change is very doom and gloom I'm afraid and it's one of those problems that the closer we look at it the worst it seems to get. "If you want some faint glint of good news from this I suppose that if we see a big volcanic response, the gases pumped into the atmosphere will cool things down at least temporarily, but that's not recommended. "We need to be cutting emissions, not waiting for all the volcanoes on the planet to erupt."

As the Arctic ice melts, geologists are particularly concerned that the planet's deposits of methane - a greenhouse gas 25 times more powerful than carbon dioxide - are stored underneath the permafrost. As the ice melts, a build-up of methane hydrates in the atmosphere would accelerate the process of climate change.

Droughts may hit too. Other experts warn that disintegrating glaciers could cause earthquakes, triggering tsunamis off Chile, New Zealand and Canada, perhaps even sending one across the Atlantic capable of reaching British shores. Professor David Tappin of the British Geological Survey said: "If the temperatures warm and the oceans warm then the hydrates at the sea bed will melt. "They will melt catastrophically and in so doing they'll be forced into the atmosphere but also, they will create submarine landslides which could trigger a tsunami."

The geological conference is the latest in a series of scientific gatherings organised in the run up to the UN's climate change conference in Copenhagen in December. More evidence, many climate experts now believe, for the international community to reach a strong global emissions reduction agreement sooner rather than later.

SOURCE



Wise after the event

Warmists have just found that their models can be made to fit current climate events -- even if no model ever predicted what has been happening in the last 10 years. One wonders what else they will find in their models. I think it shows that you can get anything you like out of models -- except accurate predictions. If it was in the models all along, how come nobody predicted it? Note that small changes in the model assumptions -- say a reversal of the dubious assumptions about clouds -- would cause the models to predict global cooling. The latest attempt to wriggle out of the non-existent predictive skill of the models below

Do global temperature trends over the last decade falsify climate predictions?

By J. Knight, J. J. Kennedy, C. Folland, G. Harris, G. S. Jones, M. Palmer, D. Parker, A. Scaife, and P. Stott

Observations indicate that global temperature rise has slowed in the last decade (Fig. 2.8a). The least squares trend for January 1999 to December 2008 calculated from the HadCRUT3 dataset (Brohan et al. 2006) is +0.07±0.07°C decade–1—much less than the 0.18°C decade–1 recorded between 1979 and 2005 and the 0.2°C decade–1 expected in the next decade (IPCC; Solomon et al. 2007). This is despite a steady increase in radiative forcing as a result of human activities and has led some to question climate predictions of substantial twenty-first century warming (Lawson 2008; Carter 2008).

El Niño–Southern Oscillation is a strong driver of interannual global mean temperature variations. ENSO and non-ENSO contributions can be separated by the method of Thompson et al. (2008) (Fig. 2.8a). The trend in the ENSO-related component for 1999–2008 is +0.08±0.07°C decade–1, fully accounting for the overall observed trend. The trend after removing ENSO (the "ENSO-adjusted" trend) is 0.00°±0.05°C decade–1, implying much greater disagreement with anticipated global temperature rise.

We can place this apparent lack of warming in the context of natural climate fluctuations other than ENSO using twenty-first century simulations with the HadCM3 climate model (Gordon et al. 2000), which is typical of those used in the recent IPCC report (AR4; Solomon et al. 2007). Ensembles with different modifications to the physical parameters of the model (within known uncertainties) (Collins et al. 2006) are performed for several of the IPCC SRES emissions scenarios (Solomon et al. 2007). Ten of these simulations have a steady long-term rate of warming between 0.15° and 0.25ºC decade–1, close to the expected rate of 0.2ºC decade–1. ENSO-adjusted warming in the three surface temperature datasets over the last 2–25 yr continually lies within the 90% range of all similar-length ENSO-adjusted temperature changes in these simulations (Fig. 2.8b). Near-zero and even negative trends are common for intervals of a decade or less in the simulations, due to the model’s internal climate variability. The simulations rule out (at the 95% level) zero trends for intervals of 15 yr or more, suggesting that an observed absence of warming of this duration is needed to create a discrepancy with the expected present-day warming rate.

The 10 model simulations (a total of 700 years of simulation) possess 17 nonoverlapping decades with trends in ENSO-adjusted global mean temperature within the uncertainty range of the observed 1999–2008 trend (?0.05° to 0.05°C decade–1). Over most of the globe, local surface temperature trends for 1999–2008 are statistically consistent with those in the 17 simulated decades (Fig. 2.8c). Field significance (Livezey and Chen 1983) is assessed by comparing the total area of inconsistent grid boxes with the range of similar area values derived by testing the consistency of trends in each simulated decade with those in the remaining simulated decades. The 5.5% of the data area that is inconsistent in the observed case is close to the median of this range of area values, indicating the differences are not field significant. Inconsistent trends in the midlatitude Southern Hemisphere strongly resemble the surface temperature pattern of the negative phase of the SAM (Ciasto and Thompson 2008), which did indeed show a negative trend in the last decade.

These results show that climate models possess internal mechanisms of variability capable of reproducing the current slowdown in global temperature rise. Other factors, such as data biases and the effect of the solar cycle (Haigh 2003), may also have contributed, although these results show that it is not essential to invoke these explanations. The simulations also produce an average increase of 2.0°C in twenty-first century global temperature, demonstrating that recent observational trends are not sufficient to discount predictions of substantial climate change and its significant and widespread impacts.

Given the likelihood that internal variability contributed to the slowing of global temperature rise in the last decade, we expect that warming will resume in the next few years, consistent with predictions from near-term climate forecasts (Smith et al. 2007; Haines et al. 2009). Improvements in such forecasts will give greater forewarning of future instances of temporary slowing and acceleration of global temperature rise, as predicted to occur in IPCC AR4 projections (Easterling and Wehner 2009).

SOURCE (Above is extracted from a PDF so there may be minor errors. See the original for graphics)



If British children are taught that patriotism is wrong, Britain's very identity is at stake

One of the most startling aspects of our society at present is the way things that were once considered to be virtues have now become the object of intense disapproval, and vice versa. A recent survey of teachers by London University's Institute of Education found that some three-quarters of them believed it was their duty to warn their pupils about the dangers of patriotism.

Once upon a time, loving your country enough that you were prepared to die for it was held to be the highest virtue. Indeed, without patriotism there would be no one serving in the Armed Forces. For the past 1,000 years, it has given the people of these islands the strength and courage to repel invaders and defeat the enemies of liberty. Is it not extraordinary that such affection for your country should now be considered so objectionable that children should be told it is positively dangerous?

One teacher said that praising patriotism excluded non-British pupils. 'Patriotism about being British divides groups along racial lines, when we aim to bring pupils to an understanding of what makes us the same.'

But on the contrary, patriotism is what binds us together through a shared sense of belonging and a desire to defend what we all have in common. What this teacher seemed to be saying was that children from immigrant backgrounds can't have that shared sense of belonging because they are not really British. Is that not itself a racist attitude? And if such children really are merely foreign visitors, it is even more extraordinary that teachers should tailor the education of children who are British to suit the few who are not.

But then, some of these teachers seemed unwilling to acknowledge the concept of citizenship at all, spouting idiotic nonsense instead about promoting 'universal brotherhood' or the need to 'identify as humans'. With no awareness of any irony (they probably don't understand what that means either) some said promoting patriotism was a form of 'brainwashing'. So what, pray, is promoting 'universal brotherhood'? Planet earth to teachers: make contact, please!

As the researchers who conducted this survey point out, much of history and politics is incomprehensible without understanding the power of patriotic sentiment. Accordingly, they say, schools should ensure that pupils not only understand what patriotism is, but are also 'equipped to make reasoned judgments about the place it should occupy in their own emotional lives'.

Surely that's the point. Teachers should not set out to put across one point of view, which replaces education with propaganda. Instead, they should be giving pupils both knowledge and the ability to think about it and learn from it so they can arrive at their own conclusions.

But on the grounds that love for your country is wrong, many teachers have long stopped passing on to children the knowledge they need if they are to admire and identify with Britain. Somehow this has got mixed up with racism, xenophobia and the BNP.

Perverse though this may seem, it is not actually a surprise. It is merely the latest stage in the deconstruction of education that has been going on for the past three decades - and at the heart of which lies the teaching of history. Back in the Eighties and Nineties, history teaching was at the centre of a tremendous battle over British national identity. In one camp were those who believed that it meant transmitting to pupils the story of this nation and its institutions; in the other camp were those who said that to do so was racist.

That was because they subscribed to the view that Britain was itself intrinsically racist: that it had a history of colonial exploitation and that a new society had to be created that would treat the culture of every incomer as equal to the culture of the indigenous British. More fundamentally even than that, they believed the very idea of a nation with a distinct identity at all was racist.

According to their reasoning, the nation led to nationalism, and nationalism led to prejudice and war. So destroying national identity would eradicate all such horrors and create the brotherhood of man on earth.

Of course, this was ridiculous. Such a utopian vision was likely to result in more prejudice and war, since without the glue of shared national identity a society fragments into warring factions. Moreover, the pose of 'neutrality' that teachers adopted in denouncing patriotism did not prevent them from telling children that Britain had a past of which it should be ashamed.

Despite their Far Left provenance, these destructive, even nihilistic views captured the education world. In part, this was a reaction to mass immigration. Teaching Britain's national identity was thought to discriminate against foreign-born children. But the surest way to ensure that immigrant children are excluded from a society is to fail to teach them to know and admire the country of which they are now citizens.

Native-born children have been left equally bereft of anything in their country with which they can feel a proud sense of identification. These teachers have produced equality, all right: an equality of rootlessness. They have also produced widespread ignorance. No longer telling the coherent story of the nation, history teaching took instead the form of disconnected episodes that made little sense.

No wonder a major study is now warning that in some state secondary schools the subject faces extinction altogether. Thousands of pupils are being allowed to drop history at the age of 13, with fewer than a third of pupils studying it to GCSE. This ignorance is affecting even the intellectual cream of the crop. Professor Derek Matthews, an economics lecturer at Cardiff University, was so concerned at his students' lack of historical knowledge that he set them four simple questions.

He discovered that only one in six knew that the Duke of Wellington led the British Army in the battle of Waterloo; only one in ten could name a single 19th-century British prime minister; some of his students had never heard of the Reformation; and one thought Martin Luther was an American civil rights leader. Yet these students were probably in the top 15 per cent of their age group for educational success.

Despite - or perhaps, because of - this collapse of knowledge in the schools, there is a tremendous appetite for history among the general public. TV historians turn into superstars; genealogy has become a craze as more and more people search for their family histories, and even the six novels shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize are all in different ways rooted in the past. People are usually desperate if they cannot root themselves. Yet for ideological reasons, the teaching world decided unilaterally to deprive children of the ability to do so.

Gordon Brown has spoken in favour of encouraging pupils to be patriotic, calling for 'Britishness' lessons to be part of the curriculum. He is right to be concerned about the erosion of national identity. What he is reluctant to acknowledge, however, is that the root cause of this is the promotion of multiculturalism, which has turned patriotism into a dirty word.

But without patriotism, a society starts to die. If the core purpose of education is to transmit a culture down through the generations, it is not patriotism that is a menace to this country, but the teachers whose real target is Britain's identity itself.

SOURCE



Look, vulnerable people! Quick draft a daft law

Have the architects of the cockamamie child vetting scheme actually met a child? Their lack of realism suggests not

It is not difficult to elicit howls of rage from libertarians over vetting, databases and state nannying. Matthew Parris’s magnificent denunciation in these pages of the new Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) and its vast powers to screw up youth groups with compulsory certificates of innocence and £5,000 fines was only the first fleck of the weekend’s foaming outrage. Nor is it difficult to get John Humphrys’ dander up by confronting him at dawn with a moronically droning civil servant repeating empty formulas about “our children”.

However, when the chorus of outrage is joined by Esther Rantzen (“We have to be sensible and I don’t think we are”), the NSPCC (“We are getting a bit too close to the line”), and the President of the Royal College of Paediatrics (“A real danger”), then government faces a perfect storm. By the time you read this Gordon Brown may well have shuffled backwards into consultation and delay, at least until election day.

The critics are quite right. It’s a stupid, excessive scheme, and its big sister the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) has little to be proud of either. But the criticisms so far have focused on intrusiveness, the insult to all adults, the barrier of fear between generations, the appalling fact that this organisation can use hearsay and unproven allegations, and the obvious point that most child abuse takes place in the home — so the cost of the ISA (£77 million set-up, plus £40 million a year) would be better spent improving social work.

All true. But what puzzles me most about this cockamamie scheme, and many others devised by supposedly intelligent human beings in government, is the extraordinary lack of daily realism. It is as if the word “vulnerable” has a mystical power to suspend all reason. As soon as any group is named vulnerable, no law is deemed too daft. Employment law now states that if you’re not gay, but think that your boss might think you are and dislike you for it, then even if the said boss has never in fact given it a thought and merely resents your idling, you — not he — are in the right. Persecution mania trumps everything: the law now defines racism, disability discrimination and religious insult as anything “perceived” to be such by the victim “or any other person”. It is a paranoid’s and busybody’s charter.

The latest category of vulnerable victims, we learnt on Saturday, is the otherwise healthy, but determined, binge boozer. Despite clear laws against being drunk and disorderly in a public place, the lurching drunk must now, under guidelines issued to the weary 3am copper, be treated as a person “in need of medical assistance”, rather than being shoved in a cell to sleep it off — under half-hourly supervision — and face charges in the morning.

But to return to the ISA, the new vetting-and-barring authority. One of the weirdest aspects of it, as of the CRB, passes unremarked. When droning bureaucrats and drippy ministers wave tiny shrouds and prate about keeping “our children” safe from snatchers and groomers, what do you visualise? Toddlers? Madeleine McCann? Small girls like Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, bright-faced lads in the under-10 football team? You perhaps forget that a child is legally defined (under the UN Convention) as “any person who is under the age of 18 years”. You can have spent nearly two years earning, married, imprisoned, serving in the Forces or sailing round the world alone and still anybody having contact with you must be vetted, because you are so very Vulnerable.

Once you pass 18 you are on your own. Unless you join another “vulnerable” group. The definition of the v-word, in which condition we must meet only people with government certificates of non- wickedness, is alarmingly loose. Not only the extremely frail, demented or seriously ill are included but anybody who “misuses drugs and/or alcohol” or has “emotional problems”. Gosh. I was very emotional all last week after an extremely sad funeral and I may well have misused some whisky. Yet I cannot be sure that the parcel man who had “contact” with me at the door carried a certificate to prove he would not cause me emotional (“or developmental”) harm while I signed his chit.

OK, I stretch it to the absurd: go back to the solid, worrying matter of the ISA and children. Anyone who has actually met a child might notice that their capacities change with time. The architects of the scheme do not. There is an obvious case for taking close care about who has power over very small children, too young to be warned against sexual dodginess or told that they can safely report to a trusted carer anything that makes them uncomfortable. There is, equally, a need to exclude provenly violent or coercive criminals from getting even biggish teenagers alone in a car or tent. The CRB is meant to do that (even so, it made 1,500 serious errors last year). But as children grow into reasonableness, their safety is best promoted by frankness: by teachers, doctors and mentors who talk straight and listen properly, and by decent street lighting and beat policing. Not by excluding them from ever meeting anyone without a certificate.

None of that growing-up process is reflected in the new regime. Nothing suggests that Philip Pullman reading a story to a class of Year 7s, or a willing mum helping to shepherd GCSE trips to the Natural History Museum, presents less of a peril than handing babies over to an unchecked playgroup volunteer. It assumes that teaching navigation to 30 hulking sea cadets in a Portakabin offers precisely the same opportunity for wickedness as giving a lone three-year-old a lift in your car. Admittedly, if the new rules had set an age limit of say, 12 years old, there would have been a case in the Daily Mail the following week of an evil volunteer driver grabbing a particularly traumatisable 13-year-old footballer’s thigh instead of the gearshift. But hard cases make bad law.

One other thing baffles me. How can it be healthy to keep shovelling off the responsibility of professionals on to layer upon layer of distant agencies? If there were no ISA, or indeed Criminal Records Bureau, it would be incumbent on schools and groups to check several references properly and personally, to exert strong canny judgment and to keep a close eye on their staff, paid and unpaid. But ask anyone in the sector: these days they hardly do.

It’s all in the paperwork. No time to look up.

SOURCE



"Most appalling" poster?





An English commentator with no apparent appreciation for wordplay has nominated the placard above as the most appalling among the many that were displayed at the recent anti-Obama protests.

Whether or not it is appalling is a value judgement that I will not go into but I note that truth is a defence so is Obama an African and did he lie?

People with genetics like Mr Obama's are commonly referred to in the USA as "Africans" or "African Americans" (though the simpler "black" now seems to be the dominant usage). Referring to someone of his ancestry as a "half-breed" or "mulatto" is long gone. You only need part-African ancestry to be described as an African. Nobody talks about Half-breed Americans.

And it is also true that Obama is a liar. In his recent speech to Congress he said that Republicans were not making any positive proposals about healthcare reform when they have in fact offered quite a few plans -- just not ones that Mr Obama likes. See here and here.





16 September, 2009

Nasty British bureaucracy again

It seems to have become part of the culture -- as I observed way back in 1977 during my Sabbatical year in Britain. They are so used to being bossed around that they jump at any opportunity to boss others around: A poisoned culture

Security guards reduced a nine-year-old boy to tears after banning him from sailing his toy boat on a pond because it 'frightens the fish'. Noah Bailey was distraught after staff at Chiswick Business Park, in west London, stopped him playing with his model of the German battleship Bismarck.

The corporate film director, who lives in Chiswick, said: 'On several weekends over this summer I have walked with my grandson, Noah, the out of the way pond to enjoy sailing his toy battleship. 'We were sat on the grass happily sailing the boats when a security man armed with a walkie-talkie approached and asked what we were doing.

'We were informed that the business park had rules, albeit undisplayed, and they had to be enforced and that included toy boats and dogs paddling. 'I quizzed him as to what was the reason for this embargo on toy boats and he replied that "it frightens the fish". 'It's just nonsense. How can it frighten the fish? It has only got a tiny electric engine. It gets overtaken by the ducks!'

Mr Fabricius then asked the guard who he should make a complaint to, but he refused to give the name of anyone in management or a contact number due to 'security considerations'.

He said: 'As we trudged dejectedly home with Noah clutching his battleship he burst into tears. 'He thought this was the end of what had become a highlight of his weekends and he would never sail his toy ship again. 'It would be nice if the management would focus their energies on speeding cyclists on the footpaths and drunken youths and allow small boys to sail their toy boats instead of making them cry.'

A spokesman for the security team at the park said: 'We have had quite a few people come to the lake to use their model speedboats which is unacceptable. 'We have even had people paddling in the lake. Anything to do with the lake, we try to nip in the bud. 'However, if this toy boat didn't have a motor engine I can't see a problem. Personally, I don't see anything wrong with it. 'It seems a bit pathetic.'

SOURCE



Police expert attacks British Government’s new "Big Brother" laws

The man who led the investigation into the Soham murders has attacked the Government’s new vetting scheme, which will force 11 million adults to have formal criminal record checks. Retired Detective Chief Superintendent Chris Stevenson said that “no amount of legislation, record keeping or checking” could prevent future murders of children by paedophiles. He accused ministers of creating a state of paranoia after the deaths of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in 2002.

Mr Stevenson said that he felt compelled to voice his criticism after being ordered to stop taking pictures of his grandson at a village football match. He said that efforts to keep paedophiles at bay had gone too far and needed to get “back on an even keel”.

His opposition to increased checks came as the Government ordered a surprise review into its controversial scheme to vet adults who work with children or vulnerable adults. Ed Balls, the Children’s Secretary, said that he wanted to look again at the scope of the Independent Safeguarding Authority to make sure that the “right balance” had been struck on how many people needed to register and have their criminal records checked. It is the first acknowledgement by the Government of public anger over the scheme.

Last week The Times revealed that parents ferrying children to Brownies or football matches were the latest group to be affected. That led to criticism from Sir Michael Bichard, whose report into the murders of Holly and Jessica led to the creation of the authority. The girls, both aged 10, were murdered by Ian Huntley, a school caretaker. At the weekend the NSPCC children’s charity also questioned if the authority was going too far.

Writing in The Times today, Mr Stevenson says: “The furore that has gripped the nation since [Soham] has made us all paranoid. Is it in the interests of children? “Commentators keep referring back to Huntley and the events in Soham, citing this as the cause. I am sure Sir Michael Bichard did not intend this wave of recrimination over one case.”

Mr Stevenson said that his criticism was triggered by an incident on a family day out last weekend when he was celebrating his grandson’s ninth birthday. Watching him play in goal for his Oxfordshire village football team with the rest of his family, he took some photographs. He was approached by one of the managers and told that he would have to get permission from every parent of every child playing if he wanted to keep them. Mr Stevenson said: “I felt humbled. I am now a suspected paedophile. Along, I suspect, with millions of other parents and grandparents.

“I looked at the pictures I had taken. They were of my grandson making several saves as his team were under pressure. I am sure he would have liked to look back on them in the future. I deleted the photographs, never to reach my computer screen. “I suppose there was an element of embarrassment. It just never crossed my mind that you were not allowed to take pictures and it was contrary to the regulations. This was not what Bichard wanted; it’s an overreaction to the situation. I just said, ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upset anybody’.”

Mr Stevenson is at pains to point out that Huntley did not have access to the girls because he was a caretaker but because his partner was their teacher and they had gone to see her at the house that she shared with Huntley, but she was away. “What he did to Holly and Jessica was as high as you can get on the offending scale, but did he come into contact with them through his appointment as a caretaker? Not exactly. You see he was caretaker of Soham Village College, the senior school for over 11-year-olds.

“How do we prevent such chance encounters happening? You can’t. No amount of legislation, record keeping or checking can ever totally prevent this type of crime. Thankfully they are extremely rare. “Are we feeding the paranoia that stops a grandfather taking a picture of his nine-year-old grandson playing football? Surely this cannot continue, someone needs to put things back on an even keel.”

The office of the Information Commissioner has made clear that there is no law preventing people taking pictures of children performing in events or taking part in sport. David Smith, the Deputy Information Commissioner, said this year that parents should be free to capture significant moments on camera: “We want to reassure them and other family members that, whatever they might be told, data protection does not prevent them taking photographs of their children and friends at school events. Photographs taken for the family album are exempt from the Act and citing the Data Protection Act to stop people taking photos or filming their children at school is wrong.”

Andrew Flanagan, chief executive of the NSPCC, said last night: “Ed Balls has made the right decision to check the vetting and barring scheme to ensure it strikes the right balance. “People want to make sure children are protected but need to understand fully and buy into any major new plan that helps to do so. This review and improved information about how it works will hopefully allay confusion and misunderstandings about what the scheme is meant to do and lead to its successful introduction.”

SOURCE



More NHS arrogance and negligence

Treatment was "negative, unhelpful, almost inhuman"

Two devastating strokes had left him paralysed and barely able to speak, let alone feed himself. Following surgery to stop further bleeding on the brain, pop star Edwyn Collins also developed an MRSA infection. There was no denying he was desperately unwell - yet, once he was out of intensive care, he found his problems had only just begun.

The singer, who'd written the global hit A Girl Like You, spent six months in hospital. And while his family have nothing but praise for the emergency health care he received, they were alarmed and frightened by the neglect he and other chronically ill patients suffered on the wards afterwards.

'I'd come in at the beginning of visiting hours and Ed would be filthy, with an oozing head wound that was encrusted with muck, and then I'd find he hadn't been given his antibiotic,' recalls Grace Maxwell, Edwyn's partner and manager for more than 20 years. 'We saw the NHS at its brilliant best when Ed's life was in danger. But the less-glamorous, long-term therapeutic care was scarily inconsistent. And when I tried to step in and help, the nurses' response was: "Don't tell us how to do our job."

When she tried to find out more about Edwyn's treatment, the clinicians also seemed to take it as a challenge to their authority. Doctors were 'aloof, imperious, brusque - you had to screw up all your courage to persist with your questions, to face them down' - while nurses routinely treated her 'as a nuisance, as though I was making trouble for the sake of it,' she says.

In particular, no one seemed interested in treating Edwyn's aphasia, a relatively common stroke-related condition that left him unable to use or understand language. 'I have read the so-called "evidence" that people with aphasia almost never improve after the first six months,' says Grace. 'Yet no one seems to ask the question: why? What sort of therapy were these people getting? Were they feeling marginalised and withdrawn? Is that why they made no progress?'

Faced with a beloved partner apparently consigned to the scrap heap, Grace felt she had no choice but to quickly learn to play the system, using a mixture of heavy-handed buttering-up of ward staff, along with occasionally 'blowing my stack' to ensure that Edwyn's care was adequate.

Once, when Edwyn managed to yank out his much-hated feeding tube late on a Friday afternoon, it was Grace who discovered he was being put at the end of a queue to get it replaced with specialist equipment - and that if he wasn't seen quickly, he faced the risk of a weekend without food, water or drugs.

Unable to convince the junior doctor of the urgency of the situation, she recalls: 'I hauled that doctor into the corridor and threatened to go up like a rocket in a way that would completely spoil his boss's weekend.'

And when she found there was no prospect of Edwyn getting speech and language therapy for his aphasia on the stroke unit, Grace sweet-talked the ward sister to allow her to bring in a private therapist every week.

Then when another ward sister on the rehabilitation unit told her there was no possibility of switching off the heating on a boiling hot May day 'even though all the patients would soon be on drips for dehydration', Grace phoned the hospital press office and threatened to call the media. 'Heat off by close of play. Staff amazed,' she noted in her diary.

Yet she didn't always win. The rehabilitation ward's 'seemingly arbitrary' ban on visitors until 4pm was intractable because of the 'intensive' rehabilitation patients were undergoing - even though this turned out to involve long periods of inactivity, with only one or two 45-minute therapy sessions a day. Indeed, by the time she arrived, Edwyn would be mentally 'climbing the walls', having been woken at 6.30am and then spending endless hours marooned in a wheelchair, prevented by his condition from reading or even switching on his Walkman to pass the time.

'If I hadn't been there, battling daily on his behalf, I can't help feeling Ed might not have survived,' Grace says. 'I had to use every trick in the book to make sure he was looked after properly, for ever biting my tongue to avoid a stand-off with staff. I'd see other families having fierce rows with ward staff often enough to know that it was the worst possible thing to do.'

This kind of exhausting tightrope act will be familiar to anyone whose loved one has spent a long time in hospital. Not only is there the stress and anxiety of their illness to deal with, but the feeling that, as far as many medics go, you're just an irritation.

In fact, this goes against the long-established principle that hospital patients recover faster when their loved ones are involved in their care. In the mid-Eighties a key study by the Harvard Medical School showed that people get better more quickly when they are treated as human beings 'with acknowledged social and emotional needs' - and central to this is the daily involvement of family and friends.

This is something experts in the UK acknowledge. 'Patients recover more rapidly when they are less anxious, and that's more likely to happen when their relatives are involved in their care,' says Jocelyn Cornwell, director of the Point of Care programme run by the NHS think-tank the King's Fund. 'We know that is true for children in long-term care in hospital as well as in obstetrics, intensive care and post-surgery. I believe the involvement of relatives is crucial to the wellbeing of all patients in long-term care.'

Dr Mike Dixon, chair of the NHS Alliance, agrees, adding: 'Hospital patients today need their relatives to be there for them both as advocates and as daily carers more than ever before. Yet this growing concern about poor nursing seems to be making hospital staff ever more defensive in the face of criticism from relatives.'

Sometimes, however, relatives are able to provide care for their loved one almost by default. Diana Jakubowska, 57, from Cambridge, was shocked by the poor standard of nursing care when she spent three months in hospital with Guillain-Barre syndrome. 'The nursing staff were simply not interested in looking after their patients, whether because they didn't have time or they didn't care,' she recalls.

Diana's sister visited every day after work, staying until the late evening, despite having three young children. 'Hearing my sister's heels clip-clopping along the corridor was the best noise in the world. These daily visits reminded me I was a human being with a wonderful life that was waiting for me. With my family, there was never any question that I would not get better - yet I never once got that feeling from the nurses.'

It wasn't just the psychological boost this provided, but the actual care she received from her sister that made all the difference. 'Without her help I sometimes wouldn't have had my teeth brushed or my body washed,' says Diana.

The King's Fund Point of Care programme is testing ways to encourage the involvement by patients' relatives. 'We know there are no easy solutions.' says Jocelyn Cornwell. 'Nurses already feel plagued by fielding constant telephone calls from relatives. And while each family is focused on getting the best care for their own loved one, the nurse has to juggle equally important demands from all the patients on the ward.'

The answer, she says, is for staff to learn to put themselves in the shoes of those families. 'It took decades of campaigning before parents of children were made welcome in long-stay paediatric wards. It mustn't take so long with equally vulnerable adults.'

For Grace Maxwell, it wasn't simply a case of being welcomed, but actually taking on elements of Edywn's care. 'The doctors were telling me there was no chance of him having any meaningful recovery. Of course, I didn't accept that for a minute.' She refused to believe that more couldn't be done to restore the man she'd met in the mid-Eighties when he'd been the idol of the pop scene, celebrated for his songs, dandy looks and scathing wit, as she puts it.

Grace worked with the speech and language therapist, bringing in a flask of ice to stimulate sensation on the right-hand side of Edwyn's face and showing flash cards. 'Mostly, I would talk to him lots and lots.' More practically, she developed a new competence in 'changing the sheets on a bed with an immobile 6ft 1in man still in it' and becoming 'an expert shaver of a man's face'.

She noted with delight his first whispered sentence - 'Be careful with William' - a reference to their son, now 19, and a signal that both Edwyn's language and sense of family was returning. But his recovery was far from easy. Despite her efforts, when he was discharged from hospital in September 2005, Edwyn appeared to have made little progress: he was still barely able to speak, couldn't walk read or write and was unable to recognise his own home from the outside.

And so Grace insisted on a regimented programme of 'stimulus overload all the way', including speech therapy, regular walks and daily reading lessons, starting with infant readers' material. And an extraordinary 18 months later, Edwyn was back on stage, at Camden Lock in North London, earning five-star reviews for singing favourites from his repertoire.

Four years after leaving hospital, he remains partly paralysed on his right side, but sufficiently mobile to tour with his band, reliant only an elegant silver-topped stick, with eight new songs already written and plans for the future.

He is lucky, says Grace, to have been able to afford extra therapy and to have the family and friends to provide the support. But she knows only too well that the plans for new songs and tours and the fact that 'these days, we walk in the sun' is largely down to her determination to be an effective partner in his longterm hospital care. 'We are grateful for Edwyn's treatment in hospital,' says Grace. 'But large parts of it were negative, unhelpful, almost inhuman. Without me to fight his corner, our lives would be incomparably worse today.'

SOURCE



Beliefs About the Environment Ruled as Equivalent to Religious Beliefs

A British tribunal has ruled that employers must treat strongly held views on climate change practices the same as they would religious beliefs

Senior executive Tim Nicholson claimed he was unfairly dismissed by a property investment company because his views on the environment conflicted with other managers’ “contempt for the need to cut carbon emissions”.

In the first case of its kind, an employment tribunal decided that Nicholson, 41, had views amounting to a “philosophical belief in climate change”, allowing him the same legal protection against discrimination as religious beliefs.....

“[My belief] affects how I live my life including my choice of home, how I travel, what I buy, what I eat and drink, what I do with my waste, and my hopes and fears,” he said. “For example, I no longer travel by plane, I have eco-renovated my home, I compost my food waste and encourage others to reduce their carbon emissions.”

Judge David Sneath said at the employment tribunal: “[Nicholson] has certain views about climate change and acts upon those views in the way in which he leads his life. In my judgment his belief goes beyond a mere opinion.”

The decision, which is being challenged by the company, comes two years after the law on religious discrimination was changed so that beliefs no longer had to be “similar” to religious faith to receive protection in the workplace.

Under the new law “philosophical belief” is protected by the law alongside religious belief if it passes a legal test requiring it to be cogent, serious and “worthy of respect in a democratic society”....

I have no problem with a belief system being treated with the same deference and respect as established religions—provided they are willing to submit themselves to the same scrutiny and evaluation of how they are allowed to be applied in the public square. For example, if believing in climate change is a protected belief, then its antithesis—disbelief in climate change—must also be protected. Is that really the game environmentalists want to play?

More HERE



CARBON-TRADING MARKET HIT AS UN SUSPENDS CLEAN-ENERGY AUDITOR

A new Wall St extravaganza?

The legitimacy of the $100 billion (£60 billion) carbon-trading market has been called into question after the world’s largest auditor of clean-energy projects was suspended by United Nations inspectors.

SGS UK had its accreditation suspended last week after it was unable to prove its staff had properly vetted projects that were then approved for the carbon-trading scheme, or even that they were qualified to do so.

The episode will be embarrassing for European lawmakers in the run-up to the global climate summit in Copenhagen, where they will attempt to lure big polluters such as America and China into a binding agreement to replace the Kyoto protocol. SGS is the second such company to be suspended – Norway’s DNV was penalised last November for similar infractions.

The EU’s carbon-trading system, which puts a price on pollution through carbon permits that can be bought and sold, is the key element in Europe’s fight against climate change.

About a fifth of the $100 billion of credits traded annually come from projects funded under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). The heavily criticised programme allows industrialised countries to offset their pollution by buying “certified emission reductions credits” generated by low-car-bon schemes in the developing world. China and India are the biggest generators of the credits: more than 900 projects are now running, producing billions of credits, with thousands more in the pipeline. Critics say the system is not sufficiently policed and allows western polluters to buy their way out of more costly carbon-cutting measures.

All such schemes must first be approved by organisations such as SGS. DNV was the single biggest auditor until it was suspended last year, when much of its workload was shifted to SGS, which was simply unable to cope.

Simon Shaw, chairman of EEA Fund Management, a backer of emission-reduction projects and an investor in Climate Exchange, the carbon-trading platform, said: “There was obviously a lack of resources. We knew this was coming.”

UN inspectors said they found six irregularities in a recent spot check. The firm has now rectified these, but remains suspended until the UN verifies sufficient changes have been made. SGS could not be reached for comment.

Lawmakers are expected to reform the CDM in Copenhagen in December. A research firm that tracks trends in clean energy and carbon trading has been put up for sale with a £30m-£40m price tag. New Energy Finance was set up in 2004 by Michael Liebre-ich, a former McKinsey consultant who owns a key stake.

Its backers include former Reed Elsevier boss Sir Crispin Davis and Mike Luckwell, a one-time investor in Hit Entertainment. The corporate finance firm Quayle Munro was brought in to advise on options after takeover approaches were received.

SOURCE



Why reminiscing about old times can boost your health

I suspect that this study really shows the bad effects of boredom

Uncle Albert loved to talk about the war with Del Boy and Rodney in Only Fools and Horses, and now it appears he was right to do so. Talking about the past can be good for your health, research suggests. Pensioners who got into groups and reminisced about their youth, including their wartime experiences, saw significant improvements in memory.

Like Uncle Albert Trotter, a character made famous in the popular BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses who was known for his war time reminiscences with Del Boy and Rodney, they found talking about the past comforting.

Researchers found just six half-hour chats boosted recall by an average 12 per cent - more than would be expected with any pills - the British Science Festival heard. Importantly, care home residents with dementia, including some in the late stages of the disease, also experienced big improvements, with recall around 8 per cent better.

It is thought that the simple act of swapping stories about past adventures and experiences makes use of parts of the brain that might otherwise lie dormant, reinvigorating the person's ability to remember.

However, reminiscing one-on-one with a carer was not beneficial, meaning that the sense of togetherness fostered by teamwork is important to the process, the Exeter University researchers said.

Alex Haslam, a professor of social psychology, said: 'I don't think any drug would deliver anything close to that. 'If you had a drug that could do that, you could make a lot of money. The point is that the drug is the group. 'I think our sense of worth comes from the approbation of our peers - the group gives us a reason to live and a reason to engage. 'If you are just neglected in a care home and you have no reason to engage with other people, you just atrophy.' The study adds to growing evidence about the importance of social contact to health - and the damage that can be done by loneliness.

A large-scale US study found that stroke patients who were socially isolated were nearly twice as likely to have another stroke within five years as those with good social lives. In fact, loneliness raised the odds of a second stroke more than accepted risk factors such as high blood pressure and not exercising. Other studies have found that being cut off from friends and family can raise blood pressure, stress and the risk of depression, while weakening the immune system and a person's resistance to disease.

In the latest study, 73 people living in care homes in Cornwall and Somerset, were split into three sets for six weeks. The first took part in group reminiscence sessions, in which they were encouraged to talk about their lives, starting with their school days. Researcher Dr Catherine Haslam said: 'People often say that when reminiscing you shouldn't bring up the bad stuff, don't bring up the war. But the people we spoke to were happy to bring up the war. 'It was a very interesting and challenging time for most people. While there may have been some losses, it was a very important part of their lives and who they were.

Those in the second set chatted one-one-one with a carer, and the third played group games of skittles. Group reminiscence boosted memory, while the fun of playing skittles led to improvements in overall feelings of wellbeing.

Dr Haslam said it was clear that group activities were good for health. Although some care homes already run group reminiscence sessions, more are needed. She said: 'It is something that we could be much more aware of. It is increasingly happening in care homes but the problem is resources, we don't have people to run the sessions. 'If I was going to say something to the Government, I would say, put some financial resources into this. 'This is much cheaper in the long-term in terms of maintaining health and wellbeing than putting efforts into new drugs. 'I'm not saying not to invest in drug research but there has got to be an equal balance.'

SOURCE





15 September, 2009

Rapist praised by British judge for converting to Islam

A judge lambasted a rapist for claiming his victim was a liar - then commended him for becoming a muslim. Judge Anthony Goldstaub QC sentenced Stuart Wood for seven years for the attack, then told him: 'You have turned to Islam and this promises well for your future, particularly as you are now an adherent of a religion which respects women and self-discipline.' [Whaaaat?? Respects women?? Is he insane? Has he never heard of honour killings or seen the way Muslim women have to hide themselves in enveloping garments? Goldstaub is an Ashkenazi name meaning gold-dust. Should be fairy-dust, if you ask me. Just another self-hating Jew, I guess]

Speaking at Chelmsford Crown Court, Judge Goldstaub strongly criticised Wood, 34, for pleading not guilty at his trial which meant his victim was put through the ordeal of having to tell 12 strangers 'the most intimate details'. 'This she did with dignity and courage,' said Judge Goldstaub. 'You, through your counsel, called her a liar and suggested she had invented rape.'

The judge added that Wood, who had previous convictions for indecent assault on underage girls and for violence, had shown no remorse and still protested his innocence about the attack in August last year in Colchester, Essex. He added that Wood had achieved the humiliation he intended on his victim.

Wood, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to assault causing actual bodily harm. He was jailed for seven years for rape, nine months for ABH and three months for common assault, making a total of eight years. He will be on the sex offenders' register indefinitely.

SOURCE



Stop giving ex-wives these undeserved millions, says Baroness Deech

The divorce laws are unfair to men and multimillion-pound awards are degrading to women, an expert in family law believes. Baroness Deech is calling for an end to the idea that women deserve half of their husbands’ wealth on divorce. The crossbench peer, who taught and lectured on family law for more than 20 years at Oxford University, accuses judges of developing the law in a “paternalistic and unprincipled fashion”.

In a series of law lectures starting tomorrow, Lady Deech says: “The notion that a wife should get half of the joint assets of a couple after even a short, childless marriage has crept up on us without any parliamentary legislation to this effect.” Judges are ignoring the statutory direction to try to achieve a “clean break” between divorcing couples. “It is no wonder that England is the divorce capital of Europe and out of step with other European countries,” she says.

Lady Deech believes that judicial discretion on what can be awarded should end, as should maintenance where a woman cohabits rather than remarries. Acknowledging that her view is likely to be unpopular, she says that no maintenance should be paid at all unless the spouse cannot work or has young children to care for. “The prime aim of maintenance should be rehabilitative; it should be permanent only for older women and the incapacitated who are not cared for by the state,” she says. Only assets acquired after a marriage would be divided, but with no division at all in the case of marriages of three years or less, she says.

Lady Deech says that the large sums being awarded on divorce run counter to the idea of equality of the sexes at work. The basis of the way assets are split assumes that the man is the earner and the wife the housekeeper and child-rearer, she says.

It would also be argued that “the award of large sums of their ex-husband’s money to women who have done little other than live is actually a way of punishing the men for leaving them”.

But society has changed. The majority of women, even with children, now work or are expected to. Women claim “equal pay and opportunities in employment, while there is contraception to enable a family to be planned and more women are entering higher education and the professions than men,” she argues. Family law assumes that a woman can and should stay at home and care for children and be compensated for that on divorce, but at the same time society calls for women to take 50 per cent of the top jobs.

Lady Deech, who is chairwoman of the Bar Standards Board, which regulates barristers, will deliver the first of her lectures at Gresham College in London, where she is professor of law. Current maintenance laws encourage the message that “getting married to a well-off man is an alternative career to one in the workforce,” she says.

Heather Mills was judged to be worth £24 million after three years of marriage to Sir Paul McCartney, while Beverley Charman was awarded £48 million — the biggest divorce award in British legal history — after a 28-year marriage “during which she pursued no outside employment”.

In another case, Alan and Melissa Miller divorced after three years and she was awarded £5 million. Julia McFarlane, who gave up her career as a solicitor to be a mother, was awarded half the matrimonial assets and, on appeal, maintenance for life of £150,000 unless her husband chose to alter it.

Lady Deech says the law on maintenance dates from 1969 and has failed to keep step with changes in society. The old public divorce hearings have been replaced by “an unpleasant inquisitorial procedure designed to establish the husband’s financial position and revials the old law in its depth, length, cost, temptation to lie and humiliation.”

Lady Deech also takes a swipe at the idea that women deserve half the assets because they have given up a career. “Housework has to be done, whether single or cohabiting, and for many women giving up a career on marriage is a myth,” she says. Either it was a career they would have given up “with a sigh of relief with the prospect of being kept” or it is “a free choice to opt for the home rather than the office. The choice to stay at home and care for the children is only possible if the man’s income permits and is far less likely to be available to his second wife.”

Large sums to rich women do not help the underpaid married working woman, she says. “More than that, maintenance laws cushion and legitimise the attitudes of employers who discriminate against women, because they are aware of the ’meal ticket for life’ mentality.”

SOURCE



The Spoilt Generation: Parents who fail to exert authority breeding youngsters with no respect for anyone

A growing lack of adult authority has bred a 'spoilt generation' of children who believe grown-ups must earn their respect, a leading psychologist has warned. The rise of the 'little emperor' spans the class divide and is fuelling ills from childhood obesity to teenage pregnancy, Aric Sigman's research shows. Attempts to 'empower' children and a lack of discipline in the classroom have also fostered rising levels of violence, at home, at school and in the street.

Dr Sigman, a fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, said nursery-age children are becoming increasingly violent and disrespectful towards their teachers, 'parent battering' is on the rise and the number of policemen attacked by children is soaring. Dr Sigman said: 'Authority is a basic health requirement in children's lives. 'Children of the spoilt generation are used to having their demands met by their parents and others in authority, and that in turn makes them unprepared for the realities of adult life.

'This has consequences in every area of society, from the classroom to the workplace, the streets to the criminal courts and rehabilitation clinics. Being spoilt is now classless - from aristocracy to underclass, children are now spoilt in ways that go far beyond materialism.

'This is partly the result of an inability to distinguish between being authoritative versus authoritarian, leaving concepts such as authority and boundaries blurred. 'And the consequences are measurable - Britain now has the highest rates of child depression, child-on-child murder, underage pregnancy, obesity, violent and antisocial behaviour and pre-teen alcoholism since records began.'

For his report, The Spoilt Generation, he drew on 150 studies and reports, including official figures on crime and data on parenting strategies. Taken together, they showed many of the problems blighting 'broken Britain' are linked to lack of discipline. This is being exacerbated by misguided attempts to give children more control over their lives.

Dr Sigman says youngsters' inflated sense of their own importance is fuelling the obesity epidemic, because children feel they have the right to demand foods which would once have been given as occasional treats. Some children thought to have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder might simply have never learned how to behave, he suggests.

Calling for 'commonsense policies' to put children in their place, Dr Sigman said: 'There should be an absolute presumption both in law and in policy that adults "know better'' and are in the right unless there are exceptional reasons. Teachers' authority has been vastly weakened legally, professionally and culturally. There should be a presumption that teachers "know better" and are in the right, unless it is shown otherwise.'

He also believes fathers should have more access to children following separation or divorce. 'Separated fathers must be legally recognised as being of paramount importance,' he said.

His views were echoed by experts in health and childcare. Michele Elliott, of the children's charity Kidscape, said: 'Children no longer have boundaries. It's bad for children and it's bad for parents. Some parents, due to a lack of time, pressures at work and so forth, are trying to buy their children's love, which is toxic. 'They feel guilty for not being around as often so when their children ask for things they simply say "yes" to compensate.'

Professor Cary Cooper, head of psychology and health at Lancaster University, said long workinghours had taken a terrible toll on families. 'As a result parents cannot invest the time in their kids that they should. 'With their parents out to work all the time the children are turning to their peer groups to provide them with the family they need. We have been more concerned with becoming an affluent, successful country at the expense of investing in our family and our children.'

Tim Loughton, Tory children's spokesman, said: 'We believe that parents should be taking a greater responsibility for their children and that teachers and other figures in authority should be able to exercise their powers when the parameters are broken.' He said the Conservatives were devising a National Citizens' Service for all 16-year- olds, giving them the chance to go on a summer challenge involving outward bound, team building and community engagement work.

SOURCE



British homeschoolers protest at government inspections of children

Thousands of parents are prepared to go to court over plans to limit home schooling, The Times has learnt. Parents whose children are educated at home do not have to register with their local authority and are not inspected. But proposals being considered by the Government would change this and threaten parents’ ability to choose the curriculum for their children, campaigners say. “We have a lot of problems with inspectors because they know schools and that model of education isn’t very useful when you are teaching a small number of children,” said Leslie Barson, who is organising a demonstration this week against the plans.

The home-educated child dictated what they learnt, she added. “It doesn’t matter what they learn about, as long as they think it’s a fantastic world out there. The beauty of home education is its flexibility. This would be outlawed by the local authority.”

The Badman report, published this year, recommends that home educators should be made to register with councils annually and set out in writing their plans for educating the child for the next year. They would also be inspected. Graham Badman, the author of the report, said that home education as it stood lacked “the correct balance between the rights of parents and the rights of the child either to an appropriate education or to be safe from harm”. Ed Balls, the Children’s Secretary, has said that he backs Mr Badman’s findings.

Opponents will gather in Central London tomorrow to demonstrate against the plans and have begun a petition on the No 10 website, which already has almost 3,000 signatories, asking the Prime Minister to reject the proposals. They claim that implementing the plans will cost councils £150 million a year and put extra pressure on already oversubscribed schools. Campaigners are also planning to march on Westminster next month.

“We are hoping to get it stopped at this early stage,” Dr Barson said, “But this is a fight to the death. There are people talking about civil disobedience. We would take it to the highest court that we could,” she added. It is not known how many children are home-educated because they do not have to be registered. Supporters of the plans argue that they will help to protect children who are targets of child trafficking or forced marriage.

SOURCE



The ban on public smoking in Britain has coincided with a fall in heart attack rates of about 10%

This sounds like a lot of self-satisfied nonsense to me. Rates of smoking have been dropping for decades. How do we know that this drop was caused by the ban on public smoking? And if passive smoking gives you heart attacks, how come the non-smoking wives of male smokers have a normal life expectancy? This is just do-gooder rubbish

Researchers commissioned by the Department of Health have found a far sharper fall than they had expected in the number of heart attacks in England in the year after the ban was imposed in July 2007.

In Scotland, where the ban was introduced a year earlier, heart attack rates have fallen by about 14% because of the ban, separate research has shown. Similar results are expected in Wales where a third study is still under way.

The success of the smoking ban is emerging as one of the most significant improvements in public health that Britain has seen, even measured by heart attack rates alone.

The early results of the study of England will increase calls for an extension of the ban. Ministers have already commissioned research into the possibility of banning smoking in cars, where children are at their most exposed. There have also been suggestions that parents could be banned from smoking at home in front of children. In time, the ban should bring more benefits through reductions in cancers caused by smoking and chronic pulmonary disease.

“We always knew a public smoking ban would bring rapid health benefits, but we have been amazed by just how big and how rapid they are,” said John Britton, director of the UK Centre for Tobacco Control Studies at Nottingham University.

About 9.4m British adults smoke; each year 114,000 die of smoking-related diseases. The ability of cigarette smoke to trigger heart attacks, even in non-smokers after just brief exposures, is less well known than its role in lung disease. About 275,000 people suffer heart attacks in Britain each year, of whom about 146,000 die.

Ellen Mason, a senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said: “Exposure to cigarette smoke induces rapid changes in blood chemistry, making it much more prone to clotting. In someone who has narrowed or damaged coronary arteries, smoke exposure can tip the balance and cause a heart attack.”

The research into heart attack rates in England is being led by Anna Gilmore of Bath University. “There is already overwhelming evidence that reducing people’s exposure to cigarette smoke reduces hospital admissions due to heart attacks,” she said. Gilmore’s research is incomplete and she emphasises the final results for England will not be published for several months. However, the results for Scotland, where public smoking was banned earlier, have shown the benefits.

Jill Pell, public health professor at Glasgow University, and her colleagues found that after the ban the number of people admitted to nine Scottish hospitals because of a heart attack fell 14% among smokers, 19% among former smokers, and 21% for those who had never smoked. Once other factors had been taken into account, this translated into a decrease of about 14% because of the ban.

Last week the EuroHeart conference in Brussels heard of similar results in western Europe after smoking bans. France had a 15% drop in emergency admissions for heart attacks after a year, while both Italy and Ireland had an 11% reduction.

SOURCE



British families 'kept in the dark' as government doctors make life-or-death decisions

One in four families are not informed when doctors decide that a patient in hospital is dying under a widely used NHS scheme for palliative care, a national audit has found. Less than half of terminally ill patients and their relatives are offered religious or spiritual support in their final days and hours, while a quarter of doctors are not being trained within hospitals to deal with dying patients.

The audit, seen by The Times, comes after the NHS was accused of having a “tick-box culture” of care that defines patients as dying without questioning whether they might recover. The criticism relates to the Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP), which is endorsed by the Government and many healthcare professionals as the best way to improve treatment for dying patients with cancer or other illnesses. About 20,000 people are estimated to die each year while being cared for under the guidelines.

Under the scheme, doctors and nurses collectively agree that there is no possibility of recovery. They then remove beneficial medicines and invasive medication, such as intravenous drips. They may also sedate the patients and withhold food and drink.

However, a group of leading doctors has warned that the LCP may lead clinicians to focus too much “on the outcome of death”, when some patients might recover. Peter Millard, Emeritus Professor of Geriatrics at St George’s Hospital Medical School, University of London, among a group of doctors who have publicly criticised the LCP, said: “The risk as this is rolled out across the country is that elderly people with chronic conditions like Parkinson’s or respiratory disorders may be dismissed as ‘dying’ when they could still live for some time. If patients tell their doctors that they wish to die at home, that shouldn’t be taken as an excuse not to treat them in hospital if their condition deteriorates but they still might recover with proper care.”

The National Care of the Dying Audit found that in hospitals where the pathway was used, nearly nine out of ten patients were made comfortable in the 24 hours before death, and checked at least every four hours to make sure that they were not having medication or fluids that could do more harm than good.

But the guidance is to be updated this year to remind healthcare staff to improve communication with patients and relatives and to reassess regularly the complex decisions made at the end of life so that people can achieve a dignified and painless death.

The audit, by the Marie Curie Palliative Care Institute in Liverpool and the Royal College of Physicians, obtained details from 155 hospitals in England of the deaths of almost 4,000 patients treated on the pathway last year. Of these, 39 per cent had cancer and 61 per cent had other conditions, including pneumonia, stroke, organ failure or dementia. The average age of patients was 81, and they were cared for on the LCP for an average of 33 hours before death. The audit found that 88 per cent were prescribed drugs in anticipation of the symptoms or pain that they may develop as they neared death.

A total of 83 per cent of patients either did not need intravenous medication or fluids or had them withdrawn because they were judged to be doing more harm than good, while 37 per cent were given sedatives. Mostly these were given in low doses, but the trusts prescribing relatively high doses regularly “need to review their practice”, the audit adds. At least 40 per cent of patients were reported as being aware that they were dying, but details were not available for another 39 per cent.

Although relatives or carers were informed of the plan of care in 72 per cent of cases, and told “that the patient had entered the dying phase” in 76 per cent of cases, “there is still room for improvement”. Professor John Ellershaw, director of the Marie Curie institute, said that the pathway was used when a clinical team led by a senior doctor felt they could no longer cure a patient, but could make them more comfortable. However, the guidelines were never intended as a “one-way street” towards death and did not recommend continuous deep sedation or the withdrawal of fluids or medication. Patients should be reassessed every four hours.

Before the LCP, palliative care specialists were often called when a patient was dying, only to find relatives “confused, angry and distressed”, he added. “That three quarters of relatives and carers are now told what’s going on is encouraging, but we don’t know what’s happening in the remaining cases.” He added that patients and their carers should be offered spiritual or psychological support, for example from a priest or counsellor, if they wanted it. The audit found that a patient’s spiritual needs were reported as being assessed in only 30 per cent of cases.

End-of-life care was the cause of more than half of NHS complaints about acute hospital care between 2004 and 2006. The Marie Curie Cancer Care charity welcomed the findings but called for patients and carers to be better informed and consulted on decisions made by doctors and nurses, and said that extra funding promised by the Government for palliative care needed to be properly ring-fenced.

Jonathan Potter, director of clinical standards at the Royal College of Physicians, who was also involved in the audit, said: “Much improvement is required within busy hospital schedules for communication with and support for relatives. If we can get this right, it would make a huge difference to patients and their families.”

Joyce Robins, of the campaign group Patient Concern, said she was reassured by a new version of the pathway. “We were very concerned that the LCP had been oversimplistic, a tick-box list of symptoms to say people were dying,” she said. “But the new version is transformed and is so much better. If it is rolled out and applied properly across the NHS, there would be nowhere to hide for healthcare staff who didn’t follow it.”

SOURCE



NHS to end premium-rate telephone call charges for patients

Exploiting the sick when their job is to cure them

Charges under which patients pay more than the cost of a local call from a landline are being scrapped in England after a consultation. As The Times first reported in 2007, many NHS organisations use numbers starting with an 0844 or 0845 prefix, which can be up to 30p a minute more expensive to call than a standard local number. Patients will still dial 084 numbers to get through but tariffs will be adjusted to ensure that they pay only for the cost of a local call, ministers said.

Mike O’Brien, the Health Minister, said: “We have been concerned that some people are paying more than the cost of a local-call rate to contact the NHS. For people on low incomes, and for those who need to contact their doctor or hospital regularly, these costs can soon build up. “We want to reassure the public that when they contact their GP or hospital, the cost of their call will be no more expensive than if they had dialled a normal landline number.”

A letter will be sent to NHS organisations informing them of the changes this week, while amendments will be made to GP contracts over the coming months.

Richard Vautrey, deputy chairman of the British Medical Association’s GPs committee, said: “Patients who call their surgery because they’re ill shouldn’t be penalised because they have to call an 084 number, so we’re pleased that the phone companies who supply these lines to practices have agreed to ensure that their tariffs are in line with local charges. “Combining the benefits of 084 numbers with an assurance that they won’t cost more than a local phone call is the best solution for patients and practices.”

Katherine Murphy, director of the Patients’ Association, said: “It’s great that the Department of Health has listened to patients. Asking them to pay extra costs for phone calls was unreasonable. “Patients have had to wait long enough for the ruling-let’s hope the change happens as quickly as possible.”

SOURCE



20,000 British children put at risk by bureaucratic dithering over E. coli farm

Thousands of children are at risk from E. coli because the farm pinpointed as the source of an outbreak was allowed to remain open for two weeks after it first fell under suspicion. Godstone Farm, in Surrey, where children can pet and feed the animals, was finally closed at the weekend. Environmental health officials first visited it on August 28 and then again on September 3.

Twelve children under the age of 10 remained in hospital last night; three were said to be very seriously ill. A total of 36 cases have been confirmed by the Health Protection Agency (HPA) in what it said was Britain’s biggest E. coli outbreak spread by farm animals.

Up to 2,000 people, half of whom were children, visited the farm each day during the school holidays and similar numbers have visited over recent weekends.

The HPA, which said that the first known confirmed case dated from August 8, warned parents, nurseries and schools to be extra vigilant. Professor Hugh Pennington, one of Britain’s leading microbiologists, said: “The consequences of this bug can be catastrophic in young children and it can be lethal.” It was unclear when the number of cases would peak, he said, adding that there was a 12-day incubation period for this O157 strain. The professor said that the cause of the outbreak remained a puzzle. The bacteria were carried in animal faeces and could be picked up by hands, clothing and shoes. Most E. coli cases in Britain are caused by drinking contaminated water or eating infected meat.

Richard Oatway, the farm manager, defended the response yesterday. “We were told in August [that there might have been an outbreak] and we have taken the decision to close the farm [on Saturday] until the authorities have finished their investigations,” he said.

New information released by the HPA last night revealed that one person became infected with the bug after contact between visitors and the farm’s animals had been banned.

Godstone Farm’s sister premises in Epsom, Surrey, remain open. A spokesman for Horton Park Children’s Farm said that the only link between the farms was “purely financial” and there was no contact between animals.

Graham Bickler, the regional director of the HPA, said: “It is very likely that the source was animals at the farm. We know this organism is in their faeces but we need to find out how it got into the kids.” The agency defended its decision not to ask for the farm to be closed immediately, saying the scale of the problem was not immediately apparent.

Neil Wilson, an uncle of one of the sick children, said last night: “It’s been a living hell. It seems quite surreal going in and each day seeing him getting worse and worse.”

One mother who visited Godstone Farm two weeks ago said yesterday she was concerned that her 23-month-old daughter may have contracted the bug. Evelina Niedzwiedzka, 28, from Croydon, South London, said: “If the farm did know about it two weeks ago, I’m very surprised there were no warnings, especially because children are so vulnerable.”

Neil Wilson, an uncle of one of the sick children, told Sky News: “It’s been a living hell, it seems quite surreal going in and seeing him and each day seeing him getting worse and worse, feeding tubes and blood going in. It’s just awful, it’s been an absolute nightmare.”

A spokeswoman for the HPA said last night: “We have had no new cases reported today. Twelve children remain in hospital. Of those, three remain seriously ill. Six remain stable, and three children who were being looked after in paediatric units in London have recovered sufficiently to be moved to hospitals nearer their homes.”

SOURCE



Another British computer bungle: "Hundreds of convicted terrorists from the Ulster Troubles are ‘virtually invisible’ to police in the rest of Britain because of a computer glitch. The Police National Computer is not linked to the criminal database in Northern Ireland, meaning that the criminal records of many serious figures from the province’s past, now living in England, Scotland and Wales, are not available to police officers. Counter-terrorism sources say that in light of the upsurge in terrorist activity in Northern Ireland, including the Real IRA murders of two soldiers and the discovery of a series of unexploded bombs, there are mounting security concerns about the situation.”

Clamour grows for heroin on the NHS: "A group of government-appointed drug experts will call for a nationwide network of ’shooting galleries’ to provide injectable heroin for hardened drug addicts across the country. A pioneering trial programme prescribing heroin to long-term addicts has shown ‘major benefits’ in cutting crime and reducing street sales of drugs. … The prescription of heroin to hardened addicts is one of the most controversial in medicine. Giving addicts drugs such as heroin on a maintenance basis, rather than weaning them off them, turns existing policy on its head and presents a challenge to ministers.”





14 September, 2009

Time: the future. Place: Britain

A clear starry moonless sky looked down upon a frozen Britain . A deep depression had passed through and deposited unprecedented quantities of snow on town and country. Snow ploughs and gritting vehicles had cleared a way through on the major routes, but footpaths and side roads were still not negotiable. A stationary high had now settled across the country and in the windless air the temperature was plunging steadily, already below -10C. On the hills giant wind turbines stood motionless in the still air. They were giant impotent icons of a failed religion and stark monuments to onerous and now pointless taxation over many years. In the gloom they seemed to point accusing fingers up into the sky.

At the control centre of the national Power Grid there was a nervous quiet, punctuated by short bouts of hushed conversation. They knew the crisis would occur in an hour’s time, at about 7 am. They had already made the dreadful decision as to which towns would be made to experience suffering and death by being deprived of power. This was a different world from the last time there were serious power cuts in 1970. It was now totally dependent on computer and related technologies. Owing to decisions made (or, to be more accurate, not made) in the first years of the century, the nation was grossly underpowered for such a circumstance. The domestic demand was already high, as almost everyone had left the heating on over night.

Some people had managed to get through to places of work. Cleaners turned on the lights and the great machines of industry began to hum. The power consumption crept up towards the critical point.

As it happened, pure accident relieved the men of the Grid of the responsibility of decision. In a remote rural area a giant high voltage transformer had not received its scheduled maintenance, as an indirect effect of the pressure on energy prices. Although worldwide energy was cheap and plentiful, ever-increasing green taxes, coupled with political instability, had made it otherwise. In that transformer, now working at full load, partial electrical discharges were producing solid debris and potentially explosive gases from the increasingly contaminated insulation oil. Suddenly, a bridge of conducting particles formed and a spark occurred. Into the arc poured the power supply for a whole area. The explosion was spectacular, showering the surrounding area with molten metal and blazing oil.

The adjacent area, also working at full load, experienced a surge and the automatic circuit breakers dropped out. So the dominoes began to fall across the country. By chance, an astronaut in the Spacelab was looking at a Europe whose shape was beautifully picked out by the street lights, when a black stain appeared in the middle of Britain. It spread rapidly and the entire island seemed to disappear off the face of the earth.

The first to die were among the elderly and infirm. As temperatures plunged they did not know what to do and gradually sank into a hypothermal coma. Next were younger people with disabilities such as breathing difficulties. People with gas and oil central heating suddenly had the realisation forced on them that, without electricity, their control systems did not work. Virtually untouched were people in remote rural areas, who had wood and coal burning stoves and plentiful supplies in store. Many people turned on their gas ovens and rings to try to obtain some life-giving warmth, but in consequence of the demand the gas pressure went down steadily and the distributors began to cut off supplies.

Water froze in the pipes and most households were without drinking water or sewerage. The trappings of modern civilisation, which only hours before had been taken for granted, now seemed as illusory as a mirage in the desert.

Some brave souls went out to seek supplies from the shops, but the shops had not opened. Without electricity the tills did not work and even the few who had staff who could perform mental arithmetic could not maintain accounts and stock control. Looting spread, as normally law abiding people saw the lives of their families under threat. The men at the Grid desperately tried to restore power area by area, but the consequent instant increase in demand foiled their efforts.

In hospitals emergency power generators switched in to protect those in intensive care, but some failed due to poor maintenance and the patients died. Emergency services were hopelessly overloaded and telephone networks began to break down. As local doctors’ surgeries began to open they found that they could not access patient records, which were all on computer. Seasonal flu again became a fatal disease as patients in high fever could not be kept warm.

So death and disease marched across the land. The economy collapsed and anarchy reigned. And it was all due to a Government White Paper in 2003 entitled "Our energy future – creating a low carbon economy".

SOURCE

I think that the above piece of writing is quite brillant and completely persuasive. It is certainly factually well-founded and it makes me glad that I live in sub-tropical Queensland where the winters are bright and sunny and utterly benign. The post is the work of Prof. John Brignell, in England. I am now however going to embarrass Prof. Brignell enormously (embarrassment is the English national emotion) by mentioning that he is a man in his latter years and not in good health. And, needless to say, his health needs are not well met by Britain's "National Health Service". Without being asked, I have therefore sent Prof. Brignell quite a lot of money to ensure that he can get privately what the "National Health" will not provide. And he has told me that what I have sent made a big difference. I see it as a priority to keep him alive and knowing the charitable instincts of conservative Americans, I have some confidence that some readers of this will share my view. Click here to email him.



A young British army officer who leads from the front

There's still plenty of the old fighting spirit among the Brits when it comes down to it



Lieutenant James Adamson was awarded the Military Cross after killing two insurgents during close quarter combat in Helmand's notorious "Green Zone". The 24-year-old officer, a member of the 5th battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland, revealed that he shouted "have some of this" before shooting dead a gunman who had just emerged from a maize field.

Seconds later and out of ammunition, the lieutenant leapt over a river bank and killed a second insurgent machine-gunner with a single thrust of his bayonet in the man's chest.

In a graphic description of the intense fighting in Helmand, the officer told of the moment killed the second fighter. He said: "It was a split second decision. "I either wasted vital seconds changing the magazine on my rifle or went over the top and did it more quickly with the bayonet. "I took the second option. I jumped up over the bank of the river. He was just over the other side, almost touching distance. "We caught each other's eye as I went towards him but by then, for him, it was too late. There was no inner monologue going on in my head I was just reacting in the way that I was trained. "He was alive when it went in – he wasn't alive when it came out – it was that simple."

"Afterwards, when he was dead, I picked up his PKM (Russian-made belt-fed machine gun) machine gun and slung it over my back. "We then had to wait for more of my men to join us. We thought there could be more Taliban about and we were just watching our arcs of fire, waiting for more to come out of a big field of maize which came right up to the river we had been wading through. "One of my men, Corporal Billy Carnegie, reached us, looked at the two dead Taliban on the ground and then saw the blood on my bayonet and said "boss what the **** have you been doing?"

The firefight, in July 2008, began during the middle an operation to push the Taliban out of an area close to the town of Musa Qala in northern Helmand. Lt Adamson's platoon of 25-men, which was leading the assault, had just halted their advance when they were attacked. Lt Adamson, who is single and comes from the Isle of Man, was moving between two eight man sections when a group of Taliban fighters attempted a flanking attack.

He continued: "The Taliban kept on probing us – sending in fighters to attack, first in twos then in fours. "There was a gap between the two sections and the Taliban realised this and were sending in men to get between the two groups so they could split us up and isolate us. "Myself and Corporal Fraser 'Hammy' Hamilton were wading nipple deep down a river which connected the two positions. Hammy was ahead when the Taliban fighter with the PKM (Russian machine gun) appeared from a maize field. "There was an exchange of fire and 'Hammy' fired off his ammunition and then the weight of fire coming from the Taliban forced him under the water.

"The machine-gunner had also gone to ground but was still firing in our direction periodically. I had just caught up when 'Hammy' came up out of the water like a monster of the deep. "Then another Taliban man came through the maize carrying an AK47. He was only three to four metres away. "I immediately shot him with a burst from my rifle which was already set on automatic. He went down straight away and I knew I had hit him.

"Hammy said I shouted: 'have some of this' as I shot him but I can't remember that. I fired another burst at the PKM gunner and then that was me out of ammunition as well. "That was when I decided to use the bayonet on him. It was a case of one second to bayonet him or two seconds to put on a fresh magazine.

"The undergrowth is so dense in the 'Green zone' that I often ordered bayonets fixed because you knew the distances between you and the Taliban could be very short. It is also good for morale."

More HERE



The good ol' British police and prosecutors again

Only political crimes interest them. You can (and do) get years in jail for denying the Holocaust but two thugs who punched a young man so hard surgeons had to remove half of his skull have escaped charges



Steve Gator, 26, has been told the teenagers who ambushed him will not face court after the Crown Prosecution Service dropped the case. The CPS said it did not have enough evidence to proceed but Steve's mother, Nina, expressed her disbelief at the decision. "Our boy is walking around with half a head - what more evidence do they need?" said Mrs Gator, 47. "I can't believe it."

Mr Gator, of Romford, Essex, was left seriously brain damaged following the attack as he made his way home from work on January 15. The two thugs started screaming taunts and abuse at him about his cousin but when he confronted them he was hit so hard he fell back and smashed his head on the pavement.

He was left in a coma for two weeks and his brain swelled so much surgeons removed the front half of his skull just hours after he was admitted. He now suffers frequent seizures, has difficulty talking, and lost much of his memory. Mr Gator now lives with his mother, who is his main carer as he can no longer work.

Mrs Gator said: "He's just a different boy. His sparkle is totally gone. He used to be so independent but he can't work any more and he can't drive. He's got half a head and he's completely lost his confidence. "There's absolutely nothing protecting his brain now - it's just under his skin. We're waiting for surgery for a new skull plate to be put in."

A Havering police spokesman said they had no plans to look for any other attackers in connection with the case, adding: "We gave the CPS all the evidence available and after reviewing the case they decided not to proceed with it. We adhere to their decision."

Corrine Soanders, the Crown Prosecutor for Havering, said: "Once the CPS had been supplied with all the necessary evidence relevant to this case, a full review showed there was insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction.

"This is a key test which must be met to bring a prosecution and in light of this, the case against the two defendants was discontinued. I apologise to the victim and his family for not conveying this decision to them personally. "I welcome any questions they may have and will be contacting them shortly to offer further explanation."

SOURCE



Stupid British child protection law will turn ordinary Britons into outlaws

The new quango teaches us a lesson. The more the State bosses us around, the less we abide by its rules

Only two sane responses are possible to the Government’s new vetting and barring scheme for adults who volunteer to come into contact with children. One is rage, and the other despair. I incline to despair. But permit me a moment’s rage before I do.

You will be familiar with the scheme in question, administered by the Independent Safeguarding Authority, and setting up a list of adults permitted to help children. For no particular reason the plan has hit the news this week.

In fact the enabling legislation (the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act) became law in 2006. The vetting scheme itself starts to “roll out” from next month, and will eventually cover more than 11 million people, though if public anger continues to grow then Gordon Brown will probably panic and — unable to make up his mind one way or the other — either suspend the plan pending further consultation, or try to counterbalance the ISA with an ISHVISAA: Independent Safeguarding of Harmless Volunteers from the Independent Safeguarding Authority Authority.

The whole initiative is an ideal candidate for investigation by the RRAC (Risk and Responsibility Advisory Council), the nanny to nanny the nannies that Mr Brown set up a couple of years ago to act (it was fatuously claimed) as a counterweight to the Health and Safety Executive and other horrors of the meddling State.

When an authority fails too dismally in modern Britain, another authority is established to keep it up to scratch. When an authority succeeds too aggressively, another authority is established to keep it in check. When too many of these new supervisory authorities begin treading on each other’s toes, a new umbrella authority is set up to co-ordinate their activities.

. . . So, yes, despair. Despair that arrangements that bring children into contact with grown-ups who’ve volunteered help will force those adults, on pain of prosecution, to undergo vetting and be placed on an approved list. As Philip Pullman (the children’s author who used to give talks at schools) has said, the whole idea is “corrosive to healthy social interaction”.

The other day a friend concerned about her daughter’s progress with reading asked me if we could make an arrangement for me to visit regularly and read with her. It strikes me that were I to do so, I might have to register; and that if my friend paid my taxi fare I might count as being remunerated, and have to pay £64 for my licence. In no circumstances could I see myself complying with any of this. No sane adult with any shred of self-respect would.

“Independent” Safeguarding Authority indeed! Independent of whom? Paedophile networks? One would hope so. Rather like the Independent Electoral Commission in Afghanistan (its boss appointed by President Karzai), “independent” seems to have become the adjective of choice for politicians anxious to slap a patina of objectivity on to their latest acronym.

I’ve racked my brains for sinister vested interests from which the ISA might be independent: certainly not the Home Office, which appoints its chairman. What’s the betting that when the authority stumbles, as all authorities do, and ministers seek shelter from the media storm by appointing an inquiry, it will be called the Independent Inquiry into the Independent Safeguarding Authority?

The ISA scheme and its enabling legislation were a response to the Soham murders. Those murders would almost certainly never have happened were it not for the incompetence of the police, social services and education authorities. The result is that in consequence of the failure of three state authorities, a fourth state authority has been set up.

The new authority will add quite significantly to the burdens of administrative compliance placed on citizens who have not sought the help or advice of the authorities but wish only to get on with their everyday and personal lives. They will now require some kind of permission to do so.

This consequence will spawn two consequences of its own. First, it will add (I would guess very substantially) to the numbers of people who think of themselves as law-abiding but who opt in this case to operate outside the law. It expands the grey zone where it’s acceptable, or at least unremarkable, to take no notice of the rules. An informal dimension to popular culture, beneath the radar of the State, develops: a process of respectable subversion that reached absurd proportions in Soviet Russia.

Second, it will add (if marginally) to the size of the public sector; to the cost to all of us of these bodies; and to the burden of unproductive extra work on the shoulders of those volunteers who do choose to play by the rules and submit themselves to vetting.

So there’s a subterranean triple whammy going on. The State’s reach is widening, its cost is mounting, but its grip is loosening. So much of the legislation that has disfigured recent years — the ineffectual ASBOs, the faith-hate and gay-hate laws, legislation to make child poverty “illegal”, the naming and shaming, and the itch to fiddle around with procedure and structure and uniforms and names — has been touted as “sending out a message”. Government by illustration. The gap with real lives grows.

The antidote is less, and better, law. Let me, a lifelong Tory, spell it out.

I believe in the State.

I believe in a strong State.

I believe in the State’s core purpose: to regulate and arbitrate.

I believe in the State’s power to do good; to bring justice, security and order; to defend and protect its citizens; and to make their lives better.

I believe in the State’s duty to care for the needy; to ensure that the rich help the poor, and that the weak are helped by the strong.

And I believe finally in the State’s nobility as an idea; the inspiring power of the national ideal; the tremendous possibilities unleashed by collective action; and the love and duty owed by citizens to the State.

But the incontinent expansion of the State’s reach degrades its grip. It undermines legitimacy, lowers confidence and breeds disregard. Twelve years of new Labour’s flabby-minded growth in the public sector, and the bloating of its claims on individuals’ lives, have begun to rot the whole idea of something the Left ought to believe in, and the Right do: society, and the public good.

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Yet another futile directive from the British health bureaucracy

Hospitals to be told to make patients happy. How is that going to happen given the abysmal and chaotic standard of care that is routinely provided? They are trying to run before they can walk

HOSPITALS that fail to keep their patients happy will lose money under new plans to improve the NHS. Having acknowledged that the health service is “good but not great”, Andy Burnham, the health secretary, wants hospital budgets to be linked with patient satisfaction.

The next phase of NHS reform will focus on improving patients’ “experience”, shifting the focus from basic medical care to the “extras” that help determine how happy patients are with their treatment. Ministers want hospitals to devote far more attention to issues such as the bedside manner of doctors and nurses; the warmth of welcome from receptionists; the quality of food and the cleanliness and attractiveness of wards. It will be the first time hospital budgets are affected by the “softer” aspects of patient care — as Burnham describes them.

The policy could be introduced as early as next financial year, (shortly before the likely election date) when hospital tariffs are reviewed, and is designed to end what Burnham describes as the “like it or lump it” culture in the NHS. “Sometimes hospitals are missing the point. How you are spoken to, how you are dealt with, whether you are treated in a friendly way — these things can be as important as your medical care,” said Burnham.

This new emphasis on providing “quality” care is similar to that in America, where private healthcare companies such as Premier Inc offer rewards to medical centres rated highly by their patients. It comes as Labour faces intense pressure from the Conservatives over the state of the NHS. David Cameron has sought to present the Tories as “the party of the NHS”, although many in his shadow cabinet, and backbenchers, have private healthcare.

Burnham’s assessment of the health service as “good, but not universally good” and “not yet great” marks a change of tone for the government, which previously emphasised its huge investment in the NHS, rather than acknowledging its ongoing shortcomings. Burnham’s qualified praise for the health service reflects an acknowledgment by Labour strategists that ministers need to do more than simply highlight achievements, and must set out their vision for the next stage of reform.

Burnham said that the NHS had been transformed from “poor or failing” over the past decade, but still needed to change. “Now that waiting times have come down, the NHS can start worrying about quality. We want to change the ‘get what you are given’ culture the service has bred. The NHS needs a system that pays hospitals more money when patients are pleased by their experience.”

While hospitals are already paid on results, the tariff is based on treatment and the success of operations, not on whether patients are satisfied with the way in which they were cared for. Linking payment to patient satisfaction would be a major shift in the way hospital budgets operate.

In an interview with The Sunday Times, Burnham said it was about “measuring what was truly important ... all of the softer things that contribute to the patient experience, not just hard and fast data.”

Officials have yet to determine how much hospitals would stand to gain or lose according to patient satisfaction, but Whitehall sources said “significant” sums would be involved, the new policy being at the heart of Labour’s vision for service improvement. Under a pilot scheme launching next spring in NHS Northwest, hospitals will be able to earn a premium of up to 4% of their budgets if patients are happy.

Following record investment in the health service, waiting times for operations and appointments with specialists have fallen dramatically, with waits of six months or more virtually eradicated. The catalogue of targets set by Whitehall to achieve the changes drew heavy criticism from clinicians, who claimed the pressure to “tick boxes” distorted clinical priorities. The government argues that the targets were vital and effective when the NHS was failing.

Burnham said that the target regime had now “served its purpose” and a different approach was needed to make patients happier with the way they are treated. He acknowledged that the NHS was still not as efficient as it could be, saying: “Clearly there’s a challenge there.”

SOURCE



“Inconsistent” British degrees to be overhauled

Universities are to face a reform of their marking systems after accusations that some are awarding too many first-class degrees. Vice-chancellors announced yesterday at their annual conference in Edinburgh that they had decided to review their marking to ensure consistency. It comes a month after MPs attacked universities for having wildly different degree standards.

In a separate move, the Government will expect universities to give more information to students about how many lectures they will have and their employment prospects.

In a combative speech to vice-chancellors at the event, organised by their representative body, Universities UK, David Lammy, the Schools Minister, said: “Even if you aren’t complacent about quality, you sometimes appear to be. I think you have to recognise that and deal with it. “Clear and accurate information must be a big part of that. Learners need to know what their courses will involve, how much teaching they’ll get and how they’ll be assessed.”

Announcing the evaluation of degree standards, Professor Steve Smith, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Exeter and the new president of Universities UK, told the conference: “We will lead a UK-wide review of external examiner arrangements to ensure that it is a robust system that delivers on expectations.”

The move comes after a highly critical report by MPs on the Innovation, Universities and Skills Select Committee saying that vice-chancellors were guilty of “defensive complacency” and were unwilling to address problems with degree standards. It said: “There needs to be a change of culture at the top in higher education. We found no appetite to investigate important questions, such as the reasons for the steady increase in the proportion of first-class and upper second-class honours degrees over the past 15 years, or the variation in study time by students taking the same subjects at different universities.”

Mr Lammy also told vice-chancellors at the conference that they must be more responsible for raising money, rather than relying on the taxpayer in the recession. He announced a new era of funding, with universities forced to compete for cash and concentrate on improving their own “economic outcomes”. He said: “In funding terms, universities have had it good for more than a decade. Nevertheless, current levels of public investment are unlikely to be sustainable in future.

“The sector’s future prospects depend on how you face up to the financial challenges that are coming. Not least, that includes taking a disciplined approach to pay and pensions. “But there are also more positive steps you can take, like continuing to diversify your sources of income by encouraging endowments or providing bespoke training [for companies]. “Private investment in universities has not kept pace with the huge increases in public spending that the last decade has brought. Any sensible analysis can only conclude that you need to find new ways to leverage more private money into the system.”

Mr Lammy said that a greater proportion of the public money awarded to universities in future would be “contestable”. Institutions would have to bid for it and the best bid would receive more, rather than being awarded a grant calculated according to their size. This contestable funding would favour maths, science and engineering.

Professor Smith, however, said that ministers should spend more public money on universities because of the recession. “Universities are fundamental to achieving social and economic progress and to establishing the kind of country that can compete and prosper in the future,” he said. “But for the UK to win the race to the top the university sector needs investment.” He admitted that it would be unrealistic for all of the investment to come from the taxpayer.

A review of tuition fees is due to begin this autumn and is expected to recommend lifting the £3,000 annual cap on fees, which would bring in more income from students.

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13 September, 2009

The Leftist destruction of Britain goes on apace

Now Britain's government is trying to destroy Britain's tourism industry -- which is a huge source of income for the country. We heard recently of planned new taxes on airline tickets but the email below from Pat Wadley [mjw0@sysascend.com] points out that the British government is already doing a lot to chase away tourists. Be warned!

Last year my best friend and I stopped in England on our way home from Italy. We were so looking forward to it as we have been to England twice before and we both, especially as we are Historians, enjoy each and every “adventure.” It will be, alas, our last time. I had already made all the arrangements and when I went to book the England leg of the trip I was told that there would be a $585 +/- charge for coming into the country and staying. That charge was for both of us, but we were horrified that we were being charged to spend money in England, as that was what we were doing. And it was too late to change our hotels and airline tickets. Thus we were trapped.

It greatly limited our chances at exploring new areas as our funds were limited. Thus we spent two days in London and two days in York. The shopping we had planned to do was taken off our list, as were the bookstores and the restaurants. We purchased items from a deli and ate in our room. We walked everywhere and we were so disappointed that we would no longer be coming to England.

Yes, government control is a wonderful thing, it is the first, and truly indiscriminate, destructive power. Kind of like a hurricane or a tidal wave. It gets its way and destroys everything in its way.



The bureaucratic nightmare that is Leftist Britain once again

"Green" shop owner is fined by council...for not producing any rubbish

With its emphasis on re-using old materials or selling them as scrap, Mark Howard's bicycle shop is a model of environmental efficiency. So you might have imagined that his local council would be grateful to him for enhancing the area's green credentials. But instead the father of four has been hit with a £180 fine - because officers refuse to believe he doesn't create any commercial waste. If the charge is not paid within ten days it will rise to £300, and ultimately Mr Howard could be hauled before a court.

Mr Howard stores surplus materials such as cardboard boxes and old pedals away for re-use, while bent steel or aluminium frames that can't be salvaged are sold for scrap.

The dispute centres around a certificate issued by council waste contractors Cory when businesses pay them £80 to supply 50 commercial waste bags, which can be collected when full. Five weeks ago Mr Howard, 50, who runs Sutton Road Cycles in Southend, received a letter from Southend Council asking how he disposed of waste.

When he rang up to explain, no one believed that he did not use the service and he was told that someone would visit his premises. 'An officer came round a week later but he didn't look round or ask any questions,' he said. 'He just handed me another letter which said I must pay a fixed penalty.

'They didn't give me a chance to show them what I do - which is better than the council contractor's service because their waste goes to landfill.' Mr Howard, who is married to Karen, 46, says he can prove what he does with his waste by showing council officials his paperwork. But he added: 'Despite repeated calls I was fobbed off all the time. I have tried to get an interview with the director of the department but nothing has happened. This is totally stupid. The council must have money to burn because they want this case to go to court. 'I'm not some environmental fruitcake trying to save the world. I'm just an ordinary person using my brain to avoid waste. But they don't seem to care.'

Southend Council yesterday defended its actions. Simon Crowther, group manager for waste, said: 'Mr Howard is required under the Environmental (Duty of Care) Regulations 1991 to produce evidence as to how he legally and lawfully disposes of commercial waste under his control. 'Mr Howard has been issued with a fixed-penalty fine due to the fact he failed to provide this evidence.'

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'Compassion' for a mass killer is a coup for Libya's dictator

By GEOFFREY ROBERTSON (Robertson is in general a self-satisfied Leftist but what he writes below is hard to fault. Perhaps he is becoming conservative in his old age (now in his 60s)

Colonel Muammar Gaddafi may be the worst man left in the world but last week many heads of state visited Libya to pay tribute to his 40 years of vicious dictatorship. On September 23 he pitches tent in New York to address a United Nations session chaired by Barack Obama.

His victories continue: the Swiss Government has made a grovelling apology for daring to detain one of his sons for brutally assaulting servants. His finest coup, other than that which brought him to power, has been to celebrate the Lockerbie atrocity by welcoming home from a Scottish prison the man who committed it - undoubtedly, at Gaddafi's instigation.

By what perverse process has the godfather of modern terrorism been allowed such a triumph?

At one level, the low parochial level of a Scotland recently "devolved" so it can administer its own criminal laws, Gaddafi's triumph may be put down to human error and indeed to human stupidity.

Al-Megrahi was convicted of the cold-blooded mass murder of 270 innocents on Pan Am 103. Eight years into his sentence he began a fresh appeal, and contracted prostate cancer. He made an application for bail so he could live under "house arrest" in Scotland while preparing his appeal but this application was rejected by the Scottish appeal court last November. It pointed out his condition was "very unpredictable" and "his life expectancy may be in years". A few months later an egregious politician intervened. The Scottish Secretary for Justice, Kenny MacAskill, an undistinguished lawyer, freed al-Megrahi in the name of "compassion", a virtue he claimed to be specially embedded in Scottish law.

There is a place for mercy in every justice system. Primitive countries offer arbitrary pardons to celebrate the ruler's birthday but more advanced systems require "compassion" to be rationally related to the mental state of the particular offender. It is extended either because he can be forgiven or because he is genuinely to be pitied.

Al-Megrahi, as an unrepentant and cold-blooded mass-murderer, is unforgivable. The notion he could be pitied, allowed to end his days in Libya as a national hero, was ridiculous. The pardon bestowed by MacAskill was not, in law or in logic, an act of compassion. It showed kindness to nobody and rewarded the wrongdoer.

The Justice Secretary visited the killer in prison (he did not visit relatives of his victims) and relied upon a promise from Libya that his reception there would be low-key. What sensible minister would believe the promise of an unpredictable terrorist regime? He acted with unseemly haste, making his decision less than four weeks after Libya's application. It must have been blindingly obvious that the release of Megrahi would coincide with Gaddafi's 40th-anniversary celebrations, and be hailed a triumph. It must have been equally obvious it would be an act of cruelty to all those who have suffered from Libya's terrorist crimes.

The decision was supported by a few soft-hearted and soft-headed Edinburgh clerics, entranced by the idea that it reflected forgiveness. But Bishop Joseph Butler warned against hasty and uncritical compassion, irresponsible because it compromised important Christian values such as self-respect and respect for the moral order.

MacAskill's "compassion" was irresponsible because he bestowed it on an unrepentant perpetrator of what Immanuel Kant termed "radical evil," at a time and in a way that enables him to be honoured as a national hero.

The Scottish Parliament desperately attempted to regain its reputation by condemning MacAskill's decision. But the damage has been done, especially to the worldwide campaign to abolish the death penalty for international crimes. This relies upon the validity of assurances genocidaires and torturers and terrorists will never be released. Now, such assurances cannot credibly be given because MacAskill's action so vividly illustrates the risk that, within a few years, politicians will breach them.

Was this simply an irresponsible decision by parish-pump Scottish politicians, or was the British Government really pulling their strings? There had been long-running negotiations between British ministers and Gaddafi and his son, Saif, over trade, in particular British Petroleum's access to untapped Libyan oil deposits. Al-Megrahi's release was always, as Saif admitted, "on the table", so there was suspicion it may have become the quid pro quo for the success of BP's contract bid.

If the British Government really had been orchestrating the release behind the scenes, using the Scottish National Party as cut-outs, this would have been an astounding breach of faith, since, in 1999, the then foreign secretary, Robin Cook, promised Madeleine Albright that al-Megrahi would serve his full term (27 years) in custody in Scotland.

The stakes must be extremely high before Britain will defy the US. The Labour Government shows inordinate servility. It has, for example, accepted a bullying US extradition request to put a Scotsman suffering Asperger's syndrome in prison for up to 60 years for hacking into Pentagon networks (he was searching for evidence of UFOs and left a message "Your security is crap"). No decent person in Britain believes he should be extradited and the Government has made itself extremely unpopular by insisting American wishes are its command.

Would the British Government really incur US displeasure to help British Petroleum to 590 million barrels of crude oil?

Up to a point. After a week's astonishing silence it emerged Gaddafi and son were assured, during trade talks, that although it was a matter for the local Scots, the British Prime Minister did not want him to die in prison. This wink seems to have secured the Libyan nod, and the trade deal went ahead.

The Foreign Office, always anxious that commercial interests should prevail over ethical concerns, was well aware Gaddafi was consumed with guilt over his decision to send al-Megrahi to trial, a sacrifice necessary 10 years ago for the lifting of UN sanctions crippling the country, and dangling even a possibility of al-Megrahi's release would sweeten the deal.

The British Government walked a verbal tightrope, telling the White House al-Megrahi would die in prison while secretly assuring the Libyans it did not want him to. Then, when he contracted prostate cancer, it tipped the wink to the Scots there was no national interest at stake if he were released.

The "useful idiots" in Scotland did the rest. It might have gone down in the twisted annals of British diplomacy as a great success, if only the Libyans had kept it "low key". But you cannot trust international criminals and you cannot trust Gaddafi.

Anyone who has studied Libyan governance knows if al-Megrahi's guilty, Gaddafi gave him the order. There is no way a decision to commit an atrocity of this magnitude would have been taken by his intelligence services (run by his brother-in-law) without his knowledge and approval.

For more than 30 of his 40 years in power, Gaddafi has run a terrorist state, initially sponsoring and training the most violent terrorist groups and supplying the IRA with much of the semtex it used to bomb British citizens. He ordered the assassination of Libyan opponents of democracy (calling them "stray dogs") at home and abroad. Al-Megrahi's colleagues have been convicted, by a French court, in absentia of the bombing of a UTA passenger jet. And Gaddafi has encouraged mayhem throughout Africa.

So how did he come in from the cold? Quite simply, he became afraid of al-Qaeda and the Islamic fundamentalists who despise as blasphemous his "green book" version of Islam. To preserve his dictatorship and his dynasty (Saif will succeed him) he allied himself with the West after September 11, providing intelligence about nuclear trafficking and disclosing all his dealings with the IRA.

The Bush administration decided his isolation must end. But because the US could not be seen to deal immediately with a terrorist, Tony Blair was dispatched in 2004 to welcome the colonel into the Western fold.

Blair met Gaddafi in his tent. The colonel pointed his bare feet at the prime minister (an Arabic sign of contempt) and then broke wind loudly (a sign of even greater contempt). Gaddafi's fart went unreported by the loyal Blairite press ("We were writing for family newspapers") but it lingers on as a symbol of his true sentiments towards the West and his insouciance about his past crimes.

These crimes are too distant to permit the attention of the International Criminal Court, which can only consider atrocities after 2002. But the prosecutor of the UN's war crimes court for Sierra Leone may take an interest: Gaddafi is accused as a co-conspirator with Charles Taylor, who trained in Libya along with Foday Sankoh, the leader of the rebels who razed Freetown in Operation No Living Thing. That court has held that sitting heads of state have no immunity from prosecution, so an arrest warrant might validly detain him in New York.

There are other legal possibilities. Unruly rulers (like Karadzic, Mugabe and Marcos) have been subjected to civil actions under the US Alien Tort Claims Act, although they cannot be obliged to wait around for the verdict.

There are other prosecution possibilities, yet Gaddafi struts the world invulnerable, not because of his strength but because of the weakness of international law and those who have a duty to apply it.

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Health gap between rich and poor as big as it was in 1900

What the research below has shown is that the undesirable areas of yesteryear are still undesirable today and that the poor still live in such areas. And the fact that the poor are less healthy has been shown innumerable times. Any time poverty is factored into a study it is found to be related to morbidity and mortality. There are a variety of possible reasons for that but various unwise decisions regarding drug use and the like are almost certainly involved. Gin was much deplored as the drug of abuse among the poor in the 18th and 19th centuries

The link between poverty and mortality is as strong now as it was in the Victorian age despite the enormous medical and social advances in the 20th Century, according to new research. If you live in a deprived area of modern Britain you are almost twice as likely to suffer an early death than a more affluent counterpart. In the 1900s this risk was just over double.

Social scientist Dr Ian Gregory said despite the dramatic health improvements over the last hundred years the relationship between mortality and poverty across England and Wales 'remains as strong today as it was a century ago.' And the worst regions to live have not changed either, said Dr Gregory whose findings are published online in the British Medical Journal. He said: 'Mortality rates are 1.4 times higher today in places that were the most deprived areas in the 1900s, compared with the least deprived.'

Dr Gregory, of the University of Lancaster, said only the causes of death have changed from mainly respiratory, infectious and parasitic diseases then to cancers, heart diseases and strokes now.

The experience of poverty changed too, from not having the bare necessities for existence, to a century later comparing an individual's income or deprivation with those experienced by society as a whole.

Dr Gregory said: 'In the early 1900s of course, being poor meant a real possibility of starving to death whereas that is no longer the case now thanks to things like social security. 'But narrowing the health gap between rich and poor is not a case of simply throwing money at the problem and hoping it goes away because mortality and deprivation are deeply entrenched and patterns from the Edwardian era are strong predictors of ill health today.'

Dr Gregory maintains modern diseases 'have a possible long-term link to unhealthy living conditions in the distant past.' He said: 'The strong association between modern deaths from lung cancer and 1900s mortality suggests that this might in part be a cultural effect caused by the long term prevalence of smoking in poorer areas.'

The study, the first of its kind to directly compare modern deprivation and mortality with conditions a century ago, compared deprivation and death rates in Edwardian England and Wales to premature death and poverty in 2001 by using census mortality data from 634 districts.

Dr Gregory said: 'The twentieth century saw huge improvements in mortality rates in England and Wales. People are living 30 years longer. 'In the 1900s, a third of deaths occurred in the under fives and only 13 per cent occurred over the age of 75. 'A hundred years later deaths aged under five are less than one per cent and two-thirds of deaths now occur in those over 75. Life expectancy has risen from 46 for males to 77 and 50 for females to 81.'

But despite all the improvements patterns of poverty and mortality and the relations between them remain the same, he said. Dr Gregory added: 'Despite the fact that inequalities in mortality have narrowed, the relation between poverty and mortality across the whole of England and Wales seems as strong today as it was at the start of the 20th century. 'Mortality and deprivation patterns of 100 years ago are strong predictors of these patterns today; in particular, areas with high rates of mortality or deprivation in the past still tend to have high rates of mortality today.

'Even when the effects of modern deprivation are taken into account, mortality patterns from the 1900s still have a significant relation with mortality today and this affects most major modern causes of death.'

SOURCE





12 September, 2009

Beauty therapists and bouncers used as 'cheap' cover teachers in British classrooms

Thousands of former beauty therapists, driving instructors, postmen and bouncers are being used as 'cheap labour' in classrooms. Schools are employing unqualified 'cover supervisors' with just a few days' training after ministers made a pact with teachers' unions to limit their members' workloads. The supervisors are meant to stand in for short periods only and just to keep order while pupils complete work set by teachers. But research commissioned by the Government reveals that some are taking classes for whole terms or longer.

Many had little or no link to education before entering the classroom. Some had worked in the beauty industry, Post Office and as driving instructors. Others are former bouncers, soldiers or security guards, hired for their ability to keep classes under control.

The growing reliance on unqualified helpers - who take classes of children as young as five on wages of just £6.50 an hour - follows a deal ministers struck with unions in 2003. The aim was to limit the time teachers spent covering for absent colleagues. But the research from London Metropolitan-University reveals that, instead of employing extra teachers or traditional supply staff, many schools routinely use supervisors.

The researchers, who surveyed 1,764 heads, 3,214 teachers and 2,414 support staff and studied 19 schools in-depth, found 80 per cent of state schools were using unqualified support staff to cover lessons when teachers were absent. Some are teaching assistants with 'higher level' training, which means they are allowed to teach, but many more are cover supervisors.

The report said: 'While, in theory, the cover supervisors' role was to supervise, most reported that they sometimes did more than this.' It added: 'In a minority of schools, support staff, including cover supervisors, were deployed to teach whole classes for prolonged periods of time (several weeks in primary schools, or over a whole term or more in secondary schools). 'In secondary schools, those who did this generally taught lower sets.'

One cover supervisor interviewed by researchers had worked for the Post Office for 28 years. She said she thought the work would be easier and sometimes returned home in tears after struggling to control rowdy pupils.

Research leader Professor Merryn Hutchings said: 'Cover supervisors were teaching - setting a task, giving advice and commenting on work. 'They are not trained or in any way qualified for that. It's fine to use them for short periods but we find that some in secondary schools are taking the bottom set for weeks on end. That is distinctly worrying.'

Teachers also raised concerns. One told the research team: 'I feel it's cheap labour.'

The report suggests teachers' workload has not actually reduced, because extra Government initiatives have been introduced.

Shadow Children's Secretary Michael Gove said last night: 'Raising the status of teachers is vital to raising standards. Unfortunately the Government is taking things in the opposite direction, piling teachers with bureaucracy and recruiting untrained staff.'

Schools Minister Vernon Coaker said: 'We are absolutely clear that we want teachers in front of classes, not cover supervisors. It is the responsibility of heads to make sure good practice is maintained.'

SOURCE



Nasty British health bureaucrats again refuse to approve an effective liver cancer drug

They prefer to spend the money on an army of clerks and "administrators". Only a third of NHS employees are doctors and nurses

Britain's healthcare cost-effectiveness watchdog has again rejected Bayer's drug Nexavar for treating liver cancer on the state health service, despite a revised charging scheme from the company.

Wednesday's decision is a setback for Bayer and its partner Onyx Pharmaceuticals, which have already seen Nexavar turned down by the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) to treat kidney cancer. Nexavar received a preliminary rebuff from NICE in May but Bayer had hoped to convince the agency Nexavar was worth paying after it put forward a patient access scheme that would have reduced the cost of treatment to the National Health Service.

Bayer said the decision on its drug, known generically as sorafenib, for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma was a blow to patients. "We thought we had satisfied NICE's criteria for how Nexavar would be assessed -- however, the goal posts appeared to have moved," said Nicole Farmer, the company's British head of oncology. "This proposal by NICE conflicts dramatically with the government's strategy to bring UK cancer outcomes in-line with the rest of Europe, where Nexavar is already widely available in countries such as France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Romania, and Greece."

Hepatocellular carcinoma is the most common form of liver cancer, accounting for 80 to 90 percent of all primary liver tumors. Nexavar is one of Bayer's top new drug hopes, along with anti-blood clotting pill Xarelto. It has proved successful against liver and kidney cancer and Bayer is also pursuing approvals for use against lung and breast tumors.

SOURCE



British Visa sham as just 29 out of 66,000 applicants from Pakistan interviewed despite supposed 'crackdown'

What a pack of frauds the British Labour Party government are!

Visa checks on immigrants from Pakistan have been condemned as a sham. Figures showed that just 29 out of 66,000 applicants were interviewed by officials since a 'rigorous new system' began operating last October. The Home Office set up the 'hub and spoke' scheme last year to prevent terrorists, extremists, illegals and criminals from entering the UK. The plan was to scrutinise candidates' paper work in the Middle East before they travelled to Britain. But data has revealed that just one in a thousand of those granted visas was quizzed face to face.

Home Secretary Alan Johnson has also admitted that not one applicant faced a telephone interview in the first nine months of the scheme.

The Tories said the statistics were proof that Britain's immigration controls are 'wholly inadequate'.

Gordon Brown and MI5 boss Jonathan Evans have stated publicly that militants from Pakistan are the biggest terrorist threat to Britain and the country is classified as a 'high risk' for visas by the Home Office. Under the new arrangements entry requests by Pakistani and Afghan nationals are checked for fraud and forgery in Islamabad and are then passed to a processing centre in Abu Dhabi. The Home Office said the system has raised the visa refusal rate for Pakistani citizens from 32 per cent in 2006 to 44 per cent by the end of last year.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling said: 'There are very real concerns that the system is being abused by people who have no right to come to the UK.'

Home Secretary Alan Johnson admitted in June that all passports of Pakistani applicants are checked, but not always their other paperwork. In July it emerged that the 'hubs' employ just 11 entry and clearance officers and two managers, meaning they have on average 11 minutes to examine each application. The Home Office says a further 200 backroom staff process paperwork but the shortage of frontline immigration officers contributes to the small number of applicants quizzed.

Phil Woolas, Minister of State for Borders and Immigration, said: 'Trained officers check 100 per cent of passports submitted with applications in Pakistan.'

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Childish British bureaucrats fake evidence to get their way

After 12 years of Leftist rule, Britain is a bureaucratic nightmare

Planners have apologised and paid compensation to a couple for using 'misleading' photographs in a bid to prove they were turning a field near their home into a garden. Bernard Gooch and his wife Julia were surprised to see pictures of a strange car parked on the field being used as evidence against them.n They were even more surprised when Mrs Gooch discovered the blue Vauxhall Corsa belonged to a planning official involved in the case.

Now the Local Government ombudsman has ordered Forest of Dean District Council to apologise and pay £750 compensation. Mrs Gooch, of Westbury-on-Severn, Gloucestershire, has received a personal apology from the planning committee. Some members told Mrs Gooch they were 'ashamed and appalled' at the way she and her husband had been treated.

Mrs Gooch said: 'If they had apologised when I first made the complaint I would not have pursued it through the ombudsman. I want to know that what was done to us will not be done to anybody else.'

Problems began last July when the Gooches discovered councillors were discussing legal action against them for allegedly turning farmland into part of their garden. They had not been informed about a meeting and Mr Gooch turned up to hear councillors were considering enforcement action.

The matter was put on hold for an investigation and councillors later agreed no enforcement action was necessary. Since then the district council has reviewed its enforcement policy.

Local councillor Norman Stephens said he was so embarrassed he had spent months avoiding the couple. 'This should never have happened and I hope lessons have been learned,' he said.

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All parents who take children to clubs face crime checks in "Big Brother" Britain

Parents who ferry groups of children to Scouts, Brownies or after-school sports clubs will have to undergo a criminal record check or face fines of up to £5,000. They are the latest group to fall within the scope of the Government’s vetting and barring scheme, which is due to be introduced next month. Officials estimate that more than 11 million people — almost everyone in any position of authority who comes into contact with children — will have to be registered with the new Independent Safeguarding Authority. The scheme is aimed at stopping paedophiles infiltrating children’s activities, but critics believe that far too many innocent people will be affected.

Controversially, complaints or concerns from colleagues or members of the public that fall short of prosecutions may be held on an individual’s file, which will be available for viewing by any employer or voluntary group with which the person might work.

Home Office officials said yesterday that the authority would be required to consider all information it received, regardless of the source [Even if it's false?]. Officials predict that 10 per cent of people who apply to register will have on their file information other than the result of the simple criminal records check, and so will require follow-up inquiries. That could include concerns from a colleague who did not want to take the matter to the police or local authority, to a full police investigation that did not lead to a prosecution.

The current regime requires only that employers make sure that anyone working with children has not been prosecuted for offences in relation to young people. Failure to register under the new system could lead to criminal prosecution and a court fine of £5,000. Clubs that use volunteers who are not registered face fines of £10,000.

Home Office officials said that informal arrangements between parents to offer lifts or host sleepovers would not be covered. However, parents who host foreign pupils on exchange programmes will have to have register if the exchange is organised by a school. Every school governor, doctor, medical student, nurse, teacher, dentist and prison officer will also have to register.

A Home Office spokesman said: “Anyone working or volunteering on behalf of a third-party organisation — for example, a sports club or a charity — who has frequent or intensive access to children or vulnerable adults will have to be registered with the scheme. We believe this is a common-sense approach, and what parents would rightly expect.” Registering will cost £64, or is free for volunteers. The authority starts work on October 12 but individuals will not have to register until July.

Two hundred case workers at the authority, based in Darlington, will collect information passed to them and rule on who should be barred from working with children. It is estimated that the number of banned people will double to 40,000.

The scheme was recommended by the Bichard report into the murders in Soham, Cambridgeshire, of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman by Ian Huntley, a school caretaker. He was given the job despite claims of sex with young girls in his past, which were not passed on because they had not led to prosecution.

Critics of the scheme include Philip Pullman, author of His Dark Materials. He has called the new system “corrosive to healthy social interaction” and has pledged to stop giving readings at schools. As a regular visitor to schools, he would have to be registered with the authority. The Liberal Democrats are also highly critical, calling the scheme a disproportionate response that risks deterring volunteers.

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A bowl of blueberries keeps the brain active in the afternoon

But what if it gives you cancer and shortens your life? Antioxidants have been found to do both those things. It also sounds like this was not a double blind experiment so effects from experimenter expectations cannot be ruled out. Just another rite in the antioxidant religion, I suspect



Munching a bowl of blueberries for breakfast can stop you flagging in the afternoon, a new study shows. Researchers found that a large helping of the fruit - described by some as nature's 'superfood' - boosts concentration and memory up to five hours later. In tests, volunteers who drank a blueberry smoothie in the morning did much better at mental tasks in the mid afternoon than people who had an alternative drink.

British scientists who made the discovery believe the antioxidants in blueberries stimulate the flow of blood and oxygen to the brain - and keep the mind fresh. The finding means people could use blueberries and other fruit rich in anti-oxidants to improve their chances during exams or on long, difficult days at work.

Dr Jeremy Spencer of Reading University, who carried out the study, said: 'After one hour there was little difference in the attention tests. 'But after five hours people who didn't have the blueberry smoothie saw their performance fall by 15 to 20 per cent.'

Blueberries are bursting with vitamins C and E. Nutritionists say they are one of the richest sources of cancer-fighting antioxidant called flavonoids, which are also found in green tea, wine, grapes and cocoa. Past studies have shown that flavonoids can protect against degenerative diseases and even help people lose weight.

In the latest study - presented yesterday (THU) at the British Science Festival in Surrey University, Guildford - Dr Spencer recruited 40 volunteers aged 18 to 30 and 40 volunteers aged over 65. On the first day of the experiment, they were given a standard breakfast of toast and marmalade, followed by a mid morning smoothie made from 200g of blueberries.

An hour after the smoothie they carried out 45 minutes of computer based mental tests. The tests measured their short term working memory and their concentration. The tests were repeated five hours after the smoothie. Two weeks later the volunteers carried out the same experiment - but this time drank a 'control' smoothie containing the same amount of sugars and calories but with no blueberries.

In the tests, carried out an hour after the smoothie, the presence of blueberries in the smoothie made no difference to the volunteers' performance. But as the day wore on, the volunteers who didn't have the blueberries saw their performance and concentration slipping. When they were tested after five hours their performance was significantly worse.

In contrast, the volunteers who had the blueberry drink saw no decline in their mental powers, the scientists said. Dr Spencer said the brain boosting power was not unique to blueberries. 'From our studies, other foods containing flavonoids - such as strawberries, cocoa and raspberries - would be similar,' he said. 'It's not right to single out blueberries.'

The Reading researchers believe that flavonoids in berries activate an enzyme in the body called Enos which increases the flow of blood and oxygen to the brain. Without this boost, brains become tired as the day goes on and find it harder to concentrate.

Blueberries contain a cocktail of anti-oxidants including anthocyanins, proanthocyanidins, resveratrol and tannins. The fruit are thought to protect against cancer and heart disease, and may even prevent dementia.

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British 'Worried well' are wasting £600m a year on vitamins

Multivitamins taken by millions of 'worried well' are a waste of money and may be doing more harm than good, an expert has said. Brian Ratcliffe, a former government adviser on nutrition, accused the £600million-a-year vitamin pill industry of preying on the fears and finances of people who are essentially healthy.

The tablets, on sale in every supermarket, chemist and health food shop, do little to boost health in those with no medical problems and in some cases could be dangerous. For instance, those who take fish oils as well as multivitamins could be raising their odds of brittle bones in later years because they are consuming too much vitamin A.

The health-conscious should not take any supplements without first consulting their GP or another medical expert, said Professor Ratcliffe, of Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen. He said: 'A lot of people take supplements because they are the worried well and are concerned with taking a belt-and-braces approach to health. 'So they are not thinking very carefully about why they are taking them, how much they should be taking and whether they should be taking them at all. 'They are simply wasting their money and fuelling an industry that is to some extent exploiting their fears. Then, of course, there is a chance they are dabbling in an area where there is a potential for harm.'

The professor, a former adviser to the Food Standards Agency, is not the first to raise concern about the tablets taken by 40 per cent of women and 30 per cent of men a day. Last year, a U.S. analysis of 67 studies said vitamins A and E [i.e. ANTIOXIDANTS] may shorten life, not extend it. Other studies linked the two vitamins to increased risk of cancer.

Even relatively small doses of vitamin A can be toxic, said the professor. The vitamin is found in many fish oil capsules, so those who take these alongside multivitamin pills may be getting more than they should. Too much vitamin A can cause nausea and headaches in the short term and raise the risk of osteoporosis in later years, the British Science Festival in Guildford heard.

On the other hand, high doses of vitamin C are not harmful - but up to three-quarters pass straight through the body. Even small doses may be of little benefit. A recent study found the vitamin C tablets taken by millions to ward off colds have little effect at preventing the sniffles and only marginally shorten their duration.

Professor Ratcliffe said that on average we get enough vitamin C from our diet - and it is easy to raise the amount by eating healthier food. However, some may benefit from specific supplements, including the elderly, who can be low in vitamin D, and pregnant women, who are advised to take folic acid.

Manufacturers said Government figures show that three-quarters of adults fail to eat five helpings of fruit and vegetables a day and many lack key vitamins and minerals. Dr Carrie Ruxton, of the industrybacked Health Supplements Information Service, said: 'Supplements are a useful means of boosting vitamin and mineral intakes while people are gradually improving their diets - this process takes time.'

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Britian's socialist government is bent on Britain's destruction -- as usual

As many as 900 million barrels of UK oil reserves could end up abandoned unless ageing fields are exempted from carbon trading, according to one of the industry's most senior figures.

John Manzoni, president and chief executive of Talisman Energy, told the Offshore Europe conference in Aberdeen that plans to extend the European carbon trading scheme to such fields would make them uneconomic. He estimated that this might force Talisman to abandon 50 million barrels-worth of reserves.

He said: "Older fields have higher costs with relatively low throughputs, even though they still have significant oil in place... If we have to buy carbon permits it will result in earlier abandonment."

As part of a volley of calls for looser regulation at the conference, which previously drew veiled criticism from First Minister Alex Salmond, Manzoni said his company was already investing overseas rather than in UK territorial waters because he could get "better rates of return".

Sir Ian Wood, chairman of John Wood Group, told an audience that the UK government could be missing out on a share of a £1 trillion prize unless it improved the regulatory regime. He warned tax revenues from the remaining 13 billion to 25 billion barrels of North Sea reserves would be unlikely to be extracted as things stood, comparing his industry with the "huge subsidies" received by the renewable sector.

On the basis that the lower-estimate 13 billion barrels would sell at an average $100 (£60) each, he said: "That's $1300bn over 20 or 30 or 40 years. I am going to repeat that: $1300bn of economic activity to the UK over the next period. That's something that has to be a priority [for the government] given the economic crisis."

More HERE



British students who get extra marks simply for turning up

Students are being rewarded with marks simply for turning up to university lectures. The practice has been criticised as a form of bribery and blamed for turning lecture halls into “drop-in centres”.

Frank Furedi, Professor of Sociology at the University of Kent, writing in the Times Higher Education magazine, argued that giving students marks towards their degree for attending lectures was based on the experience of secondary education and relied on compulsion and bribery.

“The real problem with rewarding timekeeping implicitly devalues the work and effort made by students who are genuinely interested in regarding the seminar room as a place of intellectual engagement rather than as a drop-in centre,” he said. Marks are awarded for attendance at a range of institutions. At the University of Kent’s English language faculty, students gain 5 per cent based on seminary and workshop attendance.

The method has also been adopted by the University of Glasgow where 10 per cent of a final mark in an English literature course is based upon attendance alone. A spokesman for the university said that the practice was employed “to encourage a culture of attendance among new students unaccustomed to the amount of responsibility for their studies that university places on them”.

Laurence Goldstein, head of the School of European Culture and Languages at Kent, said: “If a bit of coercion awakens them to the joys of learning, then it is probably justified.”

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11 September, 2009

Scum British doctors let baby die

Bureaucracy seems to destroy every shred of human decency. Baby had a strong heartbeat and was moving his arms and legs when he was born, says his mother. The baby was clearly viable and would have been saved in a private hospital



A DEVASTATED mother claims doctors refused to treat her premature baby because it was born two days early. The tiny boy from the UK - born 21 weeks and five days into her pregnancy - died just two hours after being born, The Daily Mail reports. Sarah Capewell, who has suffered five miscarriages previously, said she went into early labour and was told her newborn would be dead once delivered.

But after discovering her son, Jayden, had a strong heart beat and was moving his arms and legs, she called doctors and begged them to help. Ms Capewell said doctors refused, saying medical guidelines state that "babies born before 22 weeks are not viable and are not to be helped". She claims doctors at James Paget Hospital in Norfolk told her that they would have tried to save the baby if he had been born two days later, at 22 weeks.

According to the Daily Mail, she told one paediatrician, "You have got to help", only for the man to respond: "No we don't."

"When I went into labour I was told he would be born dead, disabled and his skin would most likely be peeling off, in actual fact he was perfect," she wrote on her website Justice for Jayden. "As you can see from his pic he was born alive, he was responsive and lived without help for nearly 2 hours. "Regardless of this doctors refused to come and see him let alone consider helping him."

A hospital official said it not to blame for setting the nation's guidelines and "like other acute hospitals, we follow national guidance". [Is the thing that said that a human being??]

Ms Capewell is now campaigning to make the Government change the law. "This is down to government legislation stating that babies born before 22 weeks are not viable and are not to be helped," she said. "Now I'm asking for your help in changing legislation so other families don't have to suffer unnecessarily."

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Back on the streets of Britain: 20 convicted Islamic terrorists freed from jail early

Dozens of convicted Islamic terrorists are back on the streets after being freed early from jail. Taxpayers now face a multi-million pound bill to keep tabs on the dangerous fanatics as 20 are set free and another 75 terrorists are due to be released over the next few years. Among them are Muslim extremists jailed for offences including planning to kill soldiers, attending terror training camps and helping suicide bombers. Most of those convicted of terrorism offences received short fixed jail terms and were released after serving two thirds of their sentence.

But because of continuing concerns about the threat they pose to national security, police and intelligence services will have to mount a huge surveillance operation to ensure that they do not plot further atrocities. At least four of the 20 released recently are said to pose a high risk to the public, requiring 24-hour supervision by police and intelligence agents. A fifth high risk offender, due to be released later this year will be placed in a hostel in the South East. But police and probation staff fear they will be stretched to the limit by the release of almost 100 terrorists in the coming years.

The news comes after three British-born Muslims were convicted on Monday of trying to blow up seven transatlantic airlines using liquid bombs disguised as soft drinks in a plot to rival 9/11. Although they face 40 years in jail, other bomb plotters are already free. At least three people convicted of helping the 21/7 suicide bomb plotters are back out on the streets.

The organisers of the Danish cartoon protests in London, when fanatics hailed the 9/11 and 7/7 attacks are also free after their sentences were cut by a third on appeal. Five Birmingham-based suspects among a gang led by Parvis Khan, convicted of masterminding a plot to behead a British Muslim soldier, have also been freed.

Around 75 Islamic extremists are due to be released in the next three to four years. Among them is al-Qaeda trained terrorist Sohail Qureshi. The East London dental assistant was arrested in October 2006 at Heathrow Airport on the way to Afghanistan where he planned to attack British troops.

Since 1999, at least 150 men have been convicted of terrorist offences, with 120 linked to al-Qaeda. Of those, 115 were given determinate sentences which means they will be released after serving two thirds of their terms, despite being refused for parole in many cases.

Napo, the probation officers' union estimates that 75 terrorists who received sentences less than 11 years will be freed in the next three to four years. On release, they will be placed in hostels around the UK and supervised by staff more used to dealing with drug dealers and thieves. Another 20 terrorists serving longer sentence of 11 to 20 years may be supervised in hostels in the longer term.

But security sources say the cost of monitoring them in the community may be more than keeping them in jail. It costs the taxpayer around £40,000 a year for a prison inmate and £25,000 for a hostel place. But those who pose the greatest risk need constant police surveillance upon release, which is extremely expensive as it involves two 12 hours shifts of 16 officers on permanent duty. Probation staff also face challenges trying to monitor radicals. They can be subject to curfews but are free during the day.

Staff at hostels regularly search their rooms, but they have been trained mainly to detect drugs and needles. There are also restrictions on the number of times they can search due to human rights considerations.

Among those recently freed, one man released on supervision in London has already been recalled because of an assault on a police officer. Another has been questioned over inappropriate internet access.

Harry Fletcher, assistant general secretary of Napo, said: 'I am unconvinced that the resources are there to supervise these people. 'There is widespread concern that there was no consultation with staff about the housing of terrorists, that no extra staffing resources appear to be being made available at all, and that the implications have not been fully thought through. 'At least 100 will be supervised in the community over the next five to six years. 'It is ironic that at a time when the demand on the Probation Service has never been greater that budgets are being cut by up to 15 per cent. 'This September up to two-thirds of the 550 trainee probation officers who will qualify are being told that there are no jobs for them and that they will go straight to the dole. 'The cuts and the redundancies are totally inconsistent with claims by ministers that the Government puts public protection first and foremost in its priorities.'

Shadow Justice Secretary, Dominic Grieve said: 'The Government needs to give assurances that everything necessary is being done to protect the public. 'With cuts to frontline probation services, Ministers must explain how they intend to ensure proper monitoring of potentially dangerous individuals that have been released.'

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British government to force public bodies to discriminate against Middle Britain

Proposals which would effectively force public bodies to discriminate against Middle Britain will be a top government priority, Harriet Harman will say later today. Labour's deputy leader will vow to press ahead with plans to make every authority legally bound to close the gap between rich and poor.

Privately-educated Miss Harman - the niece of a baroness - will say schools, hospitals, town halls, and the police would have a 'socio-economic duty' to boost services in deprived areas. She will renew her pledge at an event on how to implement the proposals, which have been nicknamed 'socialism in one clause'.

Under the Equality Bill, which brings together nine major laws, policies that currently consider race, age, gender, disability and sexuality are to be extended to include social background.

Miss Harman, the minister for women and equality, will say: 'We have put in as clause one in the Equality Bill a duty to narrow the gap between rich and poor. 'Evidence underlines that whether it's educational attainment, income, or housing, those from the most deprived backgrounds tend to do worse. 'This is what the socio-economic duty is designed to challenge. 'So the new duty will attack one of the most fundamental and stubborn of all the determinants of inequality and ensure public bodies take the action they can to tackle it.'

Under the plan, NHS trusts will be required to focus services, such as anti-smoking clinics, at those in run-down areas where smoking rates tend to be higher. Education authorities will be expected to draft policies which stop children from poorer backgrounds missing out on the best schools.

Police patrols would be targeted at deprived estates instead of the suburbs. [At least that makes sense. That is where the crims are]

Transport bosses would be ordered to provide free shuttle buses between hospitals and deprived neighbourhoods where there are few buses and low car ownership rates.

But critics warn the better-off would see a squeeze on their access to everything from healthcare to school places. They warn it could further entrench class differences and lead to an explosion in discrimination claims.

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Pill to reverse arterial plaques?

An unwise purchase until double-blind studies have been done. Saying it is as good as a Mediterranean diet is faint praise. There are many countries with longer life expectancies than Mediterranean ones. There are heaps of nonagenarians tottering around Australia, for instance, who grew up on a diet that could hardly be more "wrong" according to current wisdom -- lots of fried steak and fried potato chips, for instance -- and fried in dripping at that -- if anybody these days knows what dripping is

British scientists have developed a groundbreaking pill which provides all the health benefits of a Mediterranean diet. One capsule of Ateronon taken daily can break down fatty deposits in the arteries and help prevent heart disease and strokes, potentially saving millions of lives.

The supplement, which costs £35 for a month's supply, contains lycopene, a chemical found in the skin of ripe tomatoes.

Each pill provides the equivalent of eating three kilos of ripe tomatoes. Studies have shown eating an Italian-style diet rich in tomatoes, fish, vegetables, nuts and olive oil can significantly reduce cholesterol and help prevent cardiovascular diseases.

Heart disease is the UK's biggest killer, responsible for 120,000 deaths a year - one of the highest rates in the world - while 70,000 die of strokes.

Ateronon was developed by Cambridge Theranostics, a biotechnology company which employs scientists from Cambridge University. By combining lycopene with whey, from milk, they shrank the molecule enough for it to be easily absorbed by humans. An initial trial in 150 heart disease patients found that taking the pill once a day could not only halt but even reverse the buildup of fatty deposits on artery walls in just two months, without side-effects.

Large-scale trials of up to 10,000 patients will begin this year at Cambridge, as well as in the U.S., Italy and Finland.

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BRITISH PLANS TO PRICE THE POOR OUT OF FLYING -- From a Labour Party government!

Does Leftist hypocrisy know no bounds? Passengers face new tax to halt rise in air travel

Tens of billions of pounds will have to be raised through flight taxes to compensate developing countries for the damage air travel does to the environment, according to the Government’s advisory body on climate change. Ticket prices should rise steadily over time to deter air travel and ensure that carbon dioxide emissions from aviation fall back to 2005 levels, the Committee on Climate Change says. It believes that airlines should be forced to share the burden of meeting Britain’s commitment to an 80 per cent cut in emissions by 2050.

The Times has learnt that it may challenge the Government’s decision to approve a third runway at Heathrow, suggesting that this would be inconsistent with that commitment. The committee was established under last year’s Climate Change Act. It has a strong influence on government policy and proposed the 80 per cent target accepted by ministers.

It says that initially the cost per passenger of compensating for climate change would be small but would rise over time and eventually reach a level that would put people off flying. Industry estimates suggest that the average passenger would pay less than £10 extra per return ticket when aviation joins the EU emissions trading scheme in 2012. This would depend on the price of allowances to emit CO2, which is expected to rise over time.

The committee proposes a global cap on aviation emissions, with airlines required to buy allowances, and that the revenue generated should be given to developing countries to help them to adapt to climate change — for example, by building flood defences to cope with rising sea levels.

In a letter to the Government published today, the committee says that an increase in global temperatures is inevitable and that developed countries must pay for the consequences. It says that the EU trading scheme does not go far enough and could result in airlines making windfall profits.

More HERE



A rubbish idea in Britain



Yesterday saw the start of a new trial in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead designed to encourage recycling. Under this scheme, households will ‘earn’ vouchers to be used in local stores with each kilogram of waste that they recycle. 3,800 bins have been fitted with microchips in order to weigh household trash. There are several reasons why this trial seems somewhat idiotic.

Firstly, the council is trying to encourage its occupants to act in a ‘socially useful’ way, yet the scheme could well promote the opposite. By rewarding people for recycling as much as possible, it lowers the incentive for people to choose goods with less packaging. This distorts the market signals sent to shops and manufacturers that prompt them to cut down on unnecessary wrapping. If this were adopted nationwide, it would limit the way in which society reduces waste directly.

Such a system can be easily exploited by the placement of heavy, non-recyclable objects inside the chipped bin. While a spokesman for the trail claimed “rewards are much more effective than fines, which are complicated and expensive to administer”, the council still needs to monitor the programme, which it proposes to do with on the spot checks and the withdrawal of access to vouchers - which is likely to be costly and unproductive.

This leads on to another issue: the cost of it all. Where is the funding for this scheme coming from? Landfill tax stands at £40 a tonne and a household can earn up to £130 a year through this trial, and so the setup, maintenance and payouts of the scheme can hardly be achieved through the reduction in rubbish arriving in landfill.

No, the answer is that the money will be coming out of council tax, so in effect households will be rewarding themselves for their own good behaviour. In fact, some will be rewarding the daily life of others; those with less recycling to be done such as the elderly will be subsidising payouts to families who inevitably consume and therefore throw out more.

Once you add this to the fact that the scheme forces the residents of Windsor & Maidenhead to have their recycling movements stored on an online database (what will we have monitored next, the frequency of our showers to reduce water consumption?), it can be seen that this scheme basically stinks.

SOURCE





10 September, 2009

Muslim Post Office Manager Bans British Woman from Sending Parcel To Her Son Serving in Afghanistan

A Muslim post office manager in Cardiff has refused to serve a British soldier’s mother — because her son serves in Afghanistan. The shocking story, which shows precisely how far mass Third World immigration has created a fifth column of anti-British elements in this country, has emerged after the woman, Mrs Maria Davies, contacted the British National Party in Wales to ask for assistance.

“Mrs Davies’ 21-year-old son is a soldier in a Welsh regiment who recently began an eight month tour of duty in Afghanistan," “For many mothers with sons on active service for their country, it can be a constant worry until they return safely. It is of great importance for a mother to be able to go to her local post office to send her son a parcel or money,” he said.

“Imagine, then, Mrs Davies’ shock when the owner of her local post office in Wilson Road, Ely, Cardiff, a certain Mr Khan, asked her where her son was serving. “When she told him Afghanistan, he informed her that she was not welcome to send him anything from her post office, either packages or money,” Mr Mahoney said. He also instructed his staff not to serve her. “All this took place publicly in the shop in front of witnesses,” he continued. “It left Mrs Davies astonished, frustrated and upset.”

Even a neighbour who later offered to post her parcel was refused service because they had identified from whom the parcel was being sent.

The post office and the shop at the end of the road is a vitally important service to the local community and Mrs Davies was bewildered at being made to feel an outcast in her own country by a hostile immigrant from the Third World.

Mrs Davies then contacted South Wales BNP and was interviewed on camera by Mr Mahoney, the result of which can be viewed below. “We tried to contact Mr Khan to ask for a statement by telephoning him at his post office premises on 029 205 91511, but apparently he is away in India at the moment,” Mr Mahoney said. “We spoke with his manageress though, a June Thomas who is carrying out his instructions, but she refused to comment.

“We don’t know why Mr Khan should feel he has any authority at all to dictate to British mothers in this country that they are not allowed to post parcels to British soldiers serving in Afghanistan. Maybe it would be a good idea for the British public to ask Mr Kh