SLEAZE – and the government that’s up to its neck in it

Lib Dem donor on the run forced to surrender false passport

Michael Brown, the conman who gave the Lib Dems £2.4m, has passport seized after business dispute in Dominican Republic. Guardian http://bit.ly/nAFD6a

Tory party donations by insurance firms in marked increase since 2005

According to an investigation by the Guardian, financial firms with insurance interests have given the Tories £5.4m in the last decade, £4.9m of that since David Cameron became leader in December 2005. Guardian  http://bit.ly/nJ90AE

 

Conservative MP piloting legal aid cuts may profit from the changes

 
The Conservative justice minister piloting controversial plans to cut legal aid and curb payouts that could benefit the insurance industry to the tune of a billion pounds a year will personally profit from the changes, a Guardian investigation can reveal. Guardian http://bit.ly/o95NoE

Government intent on wiping out 10 million (Labour) voters from electoral register

As many as ten million voters, predominantly poor, young or black, and more liable to vote Labour, could fall off the electoral register under government plans, the Electoral Commission, electoral administrators and psephologists warned. The changes will pave the way for a further review of constituency boundaries that will reduce the number of safe Labour seats before the 2020 election.

MPs on the political and constitutional reform select committee only realised the implications of the plans following three evidence sessions with election experts over the past week to examine the white paper which proposes to introduce individual electoral registration rather than household registration before the 2015 election.

The committee chairman, Labour MP Graham Allen, said they were "genuinely shocked". Even Tory members such as Eleanor Laing expressed surprise. The policy has been described by Jenny Russell, the chair of the electoral commission, as the biggest change to voting since the introduction of the universal franchise.

Ministers have unexpectedly proposed that it should no longer be compulsory to co-operate with electoral registration officers (EROs) when they try to compile an accurate register, in effect downgrading the civic duty to engage with politics. Russell warned: "It is logical to suggest that those that do not vote in elections will not see the point of registering to vote and it is possible that the register may therefore go from a 90%completeness that we currently have to 60-65%."

Monkey Dust - Government School Targets

Proposed boundary changes for Brighton and Hove

The following is an extract from the Boundary Commission's proposals for Brighton and Hove.

33. There are currently 25 constituencies in 
this sub-region. Of the existing constituencies, 
10 have electorates within 5% of the electoral 
quota (Bexhill and Battle; Brighton, Pavilion; 
Canterbury; Dartford; Eastbourne; Hastings 
and Rye; Rochester and Strood; Sittingbourne 
and Sheppey; Tunbridge Wells; and Wealden). 
Of the remaining constituencies, 13 have 
electorates that are below the 5% limit, and 
two are above it. We propose to reduce the 
number of constituencies to 24.

34. We considered whether we could 
leave unchanged any of the 10 existing 
constituencies that have an electorate 
within 5% of the electoral quota. However, 
in developing proposals in which all the 
proposed electorates are within the 5% 
limit, and taking account of the reduction 
in the number of constituencies in this subregion, 
we propose changing all but three 
constituencies (Eastbourne, Hastings and Rye, 
and Sittingbourne and Sheppey). We propose 
only minor changes to the constituencies 
of Ashford, Dartford, Dover, Folkestone and 
Hythe, Gillingham and Rainham, Gravesham, 
and Rochester, with two wards or fewer 
altered from the existing constituencies.

35. The existing constituencies of Hove and 
Brighton, Kemptown have electorates which 
are below the 5% limit. We therefore propose 
a reconfiguration within the City of Brighton 
and Hove.

36. We propose a constituency that 
includes three wards from the existing Hove 
constituency, four wards from the existing 
Brighton, Pavilion constituency and the 
Queen’s Park ward from the existing Brighton, 
Kemptown constituency. We consider that 
this constituency brings together the central 
elements of the city. For reasons of clarity, we 
have taken a policy decision not to include 
commas in the names of constituencies. We 
therefore propose to name this constituency 
Brighton Pavilion and Hove.

37. We propose a Brighton and Hove North 
constituency which includes six wards from 
the existing Hove constituency and three 
wards from the existing Brighton, Pavilion 
constituency, including the Patcham area.

38. Due to the small electorates of the 
neighbouring Lewes and Brighton, Kemptown 
constituencies, we propose a Lewes and 
Brighton East constituency that contains 
eight wards from the existing Brighton, 
Kemptown constituency, four of which are 
City of Brighton and Hove wards, and four of 
which are District of Lewes wards. In addition, 
our proposed constituency includes a further 
eight wards of the District of Lewes, from the 
existing Lewes constituency. It broadly follows 
the path of the River Ouse along the eastern 
boundary and both parts of the constituency 
are accessed by the A27 road.


Et voilà.

Homosexuality more dangerous than terrorism, says Republican

On the eve of the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States, Republican member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives Sally Kern renewed her claim that homosexuality has killed more people in the United States than terrorism.

In 2008, Mrs Kern was secretly recorded giving a speech where she said that homosexuality is “deadly and it’s spreading, and it will destroy our young people. It will destroy this nation. Studies show that no society that has totally embraced homosexuality has lasted more than, you know, a few decades.” She became a nationally lampooned figure after lesbian chat-show host Ellen DeGeneres left her a voice mail and broadcast it on her television programme. Now promoting a book, The Stoning of Sally Kern, the politician says that as a result of HIV/ AIDS, homosexuality has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans.

In an interview given to Peter LaBarbera of anti-gay campaign group Americans for Truth, Mrs Kern said: “You know if you just look at it in practical terms, which has destroyed and ended the life of more people? Terrorism attack here in America or HIV/AIDS? In the last twenty years, fifteen to twenty years, we’ve had maybe three terrorist attacks on our soil with a little over 5,000 people regrettably losing their lives. In the same time frame, there have been hundreds of thousands who have died because of having AIDS. So which one’s the biggest threat?

“And you know, every day our young people, adults too, but especially our young people, are bombarded at school, in movies, in music, on TV, in the mall, in magazines, they’re bombarded with ‘homosexuality is normal and natural.’ It’s something they have to deal with every day. Fortunately we don’t have to deal with a terrorist attack every day, and that’s what I mean.

“It’s [homosexuality] more dangerous [than terrorism], and yes I think that it’s also more dangerous because it will tear down the moral fibre of this nation. We were founded as a nation upon the principles of religion and morality, if we take those out from under our society we will lose what has made us a great nation, we will no longer be a virtuous people, which we see happening already. And without virtue this nation will not survive.”

Pink News

Localism Bill: Peers vote to cut tenants' access to ombudsman

An amendment to the Localism Bill that would have preserved the right of tenants to complain directly to the housing ombudsman has been defeated in the House of Lords. It follows a campaign by the National Housing Federation (NHF) - supported by 24housing magazine - opposing plans that will see tenants having to go though either MPs, councillors or tenant panels to have their complaints heard from April 2012.

The amendment called for tenants to be given the choice to involve an elected representative if they wished. Introduced by Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Lab), the amendment pushed the peers to a vote where it was defeated by 207 votes to 183. Following pressure from peers, however, Baroness Hanham (Cons) has agreed to discuss issues around whether it should be a requirement for the MP, councillor or tenant panel to have the final say of when a matter is then passed on to the ombudsman.

Introducing the amendment, Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town said there were "several reasons for resisting" the move, not least because of the conflicts of interests that could occur. She said: "The first is the role of MPs untrained in this area and the conflicts of interest that might be involved, which I think are fairly obvious. It would be a brave MP or councillor who rejected a complaint maybe three weeks before an election. The councillor could, of course, be the provider of housing, which would be a serious conflict of interest."

In an emotive address Hayter referred to expert opinion, including that of the Law Commission, opposing the plans, adding that "there is no evidence of a problem from the right of direct access to the Housing Ombudsman". She said: "Without these amendments tenants will lose that choice and will lose access to justice. Residents who just happen to be in social housing will be further stigmatised. No other category of citizen is having their right to an ombudsman removed in the course of remedying a perceived democratic deficit. In the light of that, I hope we can retain the right of direct access to the Housing Ombudsman. I beg to move."

GP fury as Cameron claims their support

Chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners, Dr Clare Gerada, has reacted furiously to David Cameron’s claim during Prime Minister’s Question Time yesterday that doctors and nurses, and specifically the RCGP and RCN, fully back his Government’s plans for health reform. The Health and Social Care Bill was being debated in the House of Commons; it was later cleared for passage to the Lords, by a margin of 65 votes.

Dr Gerada said: “To reiterate our position; the College supports putting clinicians at the centre of planning health services. However, we continue to have a number of concerns about the Government’s reforms, issues which we believe may damage the NHS or limit the care we are able to provide for our patients. These concerns have been outlined and reiterated pre- and post-pause.

“As a College we are extremely worried that these reforms, if implemented in their current format, will lead to an increase in damaging competition, an increase in health inequalities, and to massively increased costs in implementing this new system. As independent research demonstrates, the NHS is one of the most efficient healthcare systems in the world and we must keep it that way.”

Royal College of Nursing chief executive and general secretary Dr Peter Carter added: “While we acknowledge that the Government have listened to our members in a number of areas, we still have very serious concerns about where these reforms leave a health service already facing an unprecedented financial challenge.”

GPs and medical and nursing colleagues are also furious about comments made by health minister Lord Howe in his speech to private sector healthcare groups yesterday, apparently in support of private providers. The BBC reported that he told delegates: “To be honest I don’t think it should matter one jot whether a patient is looked after by a hospital or a medical professional from the public, private or charitable sector”, as long as care remains free at the point of delivery.

Lord Howe is the minister who will back the Bill during its passage through the House of Lords, where it is expected to meet further resistance. BMA chair Dr Laurence Buckman told the BBC: “Lord Howe’s comments betray how deep the Government’s misguided obsession with competition goes. Encouraging private providers in, in this way, to compete against other providers will only make it harder for clinicians to work together effectively – and it’s that, not competition, which improves patient care and the cost-effectiveness of the NHS.”

MPs back Health Bill despite BMA warnings

The Health Bill is one step closer to becoming law, after MPs backed the reforms in a key vote on Wednesday

A total of 316 MPs voted in favour of the Health Bill yesterday, while 251 voted against the changes. Despite attempts by Labour to convince them to rebel, just four Liberal Democrat MPs out of 57 voted against the Bill. The Bill will now move to the Lords where it will be further debated. Many are hopeful that the Lords will provide an opportunity to get the Health Bill substantially amended.

Ahead of the Health Bill vote, prime minister David Cameron claimed in the Commons that the RCGP supported the NHS reforms, sparking an angry rebuttal from College chairwoman Dr Clare Gerada. Days earlier, the RCGP and BMA had joined forces to warn that the Health Bill could destabilise the NHS.

Speaking before the vote, Labour shadow health secretary John Healey told MPs that the government was in ‘denial about the damage it is doing to the NHS and the scale of criticism and opposition to it'. He said: ‘This government and this Bill are giving health reform a bad name. The Bill is unwanted and unnecessary. It is reckless to force through the biggest reorganisation in NHS history at the same time as finances are tight and pressures on the health service are growing.’

But health secretary Andrew Lansley said the reforms aimed to ‘safeguard and strengthen the NHS’. ‘Of course, the Bill has been through a long passage,' he said. 'There have been questions and new ideas, and many concerns and issues have been raised. We have done throughout, and will continue to do, what all governments should do: listen, reflect, then respond and improve.

‘Patients know that it is their doctors and nurses - the people in whom they place their trust - who make the best decisions about their individual care. The Bill is about helping those people to become leaders.

‘It is not about turning medical professionals into managers or administrators, but about turning the NHS from a top-down administrative pyramid with managers and administrators at its zenith into a clinically-led service that is responsive to patients, with management support on tap, not on top.’

Sunset over Holcombe Hill

by Ian D B

Franck Ribery sports the new French away kit

Eleven days ago, I asked who had designed the new football kit for France (sadly, nobody's owned up to it), and said that I could not wait to see what Franck Ribery looked like in the away kit. Well, I need wait no longer. My worst fears have been realised. You too can share them with me.

Le fin

Hurricane Irene

as seen from the International Space Station

Use boats to ease housing crisis, minister says

Local authorities should encourage residents to live on boats to ease Britain’s lack of affordable housing, the Housing Minister has said

Grant Shapps said that boats with residential moorings could be used to allow people to live in areas of the country where they could not afford to do so otherwise. Around 15,000 people live on the UK’s waterways and many more “would like to do so”, the minister said. Half the population lives within five miles of one of Britain’s waterways.

Mr Shapps said that new moorings could be eligible for the Government’s New Homes Bonus, meaning that councils could receive funds to invest in waterside areas. The UK’s current housing shortage requires around 60,000 new homes to be built per quarter for the shortfall to be met. Mr Shapps said that houseboats are an example of how “unconventional housing” can be used to tackle the crisis.

“Whilst they will never overtake bricks and mortar in putting a roof over the heads of families, innovative new ways of housing families – such as residential moorings – play an important role in allowing people to live near to their place of work, children’s school, or family, and where perhaps they would not be able to afford to otherwise,” said Mr Shapps.

He said that the Government’s localism agenda could be an opportunity for houseboats to be given “a new lease of life”. Sally Ash, head of boating at British Waterways, said: “The number of people visiting and enjoying our canals and rivers has grown in recent years and this waterways renaissance has triggered strong demand from people wanting to live afloat. We welcome the minister’s encouragement to local authorities to support the creation of purpose built residential mooring sites.”

Alan Wildman, chairman of the Residential Boat Owners’ Association (RBOA), said: “Living afloat is arguably the most sustainable, lowest impact way to live.”

Can you think of any other examples of “unconventional housing”, children?

Private investors could profit from projects aiding troubled families

Private investors will be encouraged to fund intensive help programmes for troubled families under a trial launched by the government on Friday, writes Randeep Ramesh in the Guardian.

Ministers want philanthropists, charities and other organisations to plough cash into projects for 120,000 families to reduce the number of days their children spend in care, lower the rate of teen pregnancy and cut the number of visits to hospital accident and emergency wards.

Investors who put cash into a "social impact bond" will be paid a dividend for any successful project. Nick Hurd, the minister for the big society, says £40m could be raised by four bonds to be launched in pilot schemes in the London boroughs of Hammersmith & Fulham and Westminster and in Birmingham and Leicestershire.

These areas contain more than 6,000 "troubled families", leading such chaotic lives that taxpayers fork out more than £100,000 a year per family. But this cost can be shrunk by a dedicated team working intensively with the families to keep children in school, end domestic violence, force adults to kick drugs and drink and deal with mental health issues. Last week, in a response to the riots, David Cameron said all such troubled families would be helped within four years.

Although such "family intervention projects" were introduced by Labour more than five years ago in the four boroughs now targeted by the government, ministers said fewer than 150 families had been aided. The first of the new schemes will be running by April 2012. Investors will take a share of savings made by the government in a four-year period.

These profits could be substantial, with a pilot scheme in Westminster showing that £20,000 "invested" in a problem family could save £40,000 that would have been spent deploying social workers, police and child protection staff.

"We want this to take off pretty quickly," said Hurd. "I have had meetings with all the banks representing high net worth individuals who all wanted to talk about social impact bonds. Eventually we want a new asset class, social ISAs, where even me with my paltry savings could invest and get financial and social returns."

Hurd said the new bonds were a step change for the idea of social finance, with only one other bond proposed by the government. That first £5m bond, backed by the Ministry of Justice, aims to resettle 3,000 ex-offenders in Peterborough and reduce reoffending. If crimes committed by the former offenders fall by 7.5%, the funders could see an £8m payout.

Natasha Bishop, head of family recovery at Westminster council, told the Guardian that its scheme had been successful enough to bring more than a dozen families into work. "The biggest issue for us in Westminster was controlling the domestic violence issue. "We worked hard with police on getting information from families on how many times people had been hit or throttled."

She said the bonds would help councils recoup their own investments. "However, in the evaluation for our cutting-edge pilot with 50 families, the council helped to save 42% of the costs but received zero return on our investment. That will change."

Portraits of Cameron: Blue Eyes

Who designed France's new football shirts?

Ok, the story goes that Nike won the contract from Adidas back in 2008, when France were half-decent and had just enjoyed a hugely successful ten years. But since then, France walked out of the World Cup and their players were all banned from playing for France, by their own country, for a year, making them an international laughing stock. 

This is Nike's first ever kit for France and it's the most expensive football kit of all time - however, I don't think it's going to do much to stifle the laughter. It cost Nike around €300m (€42m per year until 2018) to buy the rights to dress the French team with a swoosh. But who the fuck designed the shirts? Apparently Karl Lagerfeld launched the kit but had nothing to do with the design of them - or at least he's not admitting to it and who can blame him.

The blue home shirt looks more Azzurri than Puma's Italy shirt and what's with the ridiculous little collar?!

As for the away kit, surely it wasn't Gaultier, was it? Or rather, Topshop does Gaultier. It doesn't look too bad on, say, Antoine Griezmann (below) but I can't wait to see it on the likes of N'Zogbia or Diarra or even Ribéry. Querelle de Brest he ain't!

Does anyone know who the designer was? 

She's a Model

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So is your Blackberry secure? (part two)

So is your Blackberry secure?

"Not only are Rim (Research in Motion, Blackberry's owner) the most secure messaging operator, they're also the most fastidious - they log everything. If you were a looter using a Blackberry, you're going to get found out. The police have the power to serve Rim with an order to reveal information. Under the same law, Rim are barred from disclosing whether they've done so or not.

But although Rim can't say it themselves, I can say with confidence that they'll be doing everything they can to help. It's a reputation issue - these people are a tiny minority of their users and they want the remainder to see them doing all they can to track them down.

Rim don't need to reveal the actual contents of messages in order do that. They can tell police who sent a message to whom and when. The police can then ask the network operators where that was done - and the sum total will probably be enough to be used as evidence.

If you know a Blackberry belonging to a suspect sent a message to 45 other Blackberries and then those 45 owners all turn up in Ealing or Tottenham an hour later, it's clear what's going on."

Ben Wood, mobile technology expert, BBC News website

The future is orange for rioters

A slew of punishments and deterrents have been suggested by politicians looking to ensure last week's riots are not repeated. If Cameron, Clegg and Co have their way, future rioters could end up ...

Losing benefits: Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith has led the charge here, telling the BBC Radio 4 Today show that if we already accept that people who don't bother to look for work should have their benefits removed, the same should apply to those convicted of rioting.

Wearing orange suits: Deputy PM Nick Clegg said today that those rioters convicted but not imprisoned should have to return to the areas they vandalised and carry out their community service in "orange clothing".

Being banned from social media: David Cameron told Parliament last week that "when people are using social media for violence we need to stop them. So we are working with the police, the intelligence services and industry to look at whether it would be right to stop people communicating via these websites and services when we know they are plotting violence, disorder and criminality."

Being forced to face their victims: Another suggestion by Clegg, whose wide-ranging speech today focused on how to make criminals "change their ways", was to force convicted rioters to "look their victims in the eye". He explained: "They should have to see for themselves the conseqences of their actions and they should be put to work cleaning up the damage and destruction they have caused so they don't do it again."

Being removed from school: London mayor Boris Johnson has urged justice secretary Ken Clarke to let the courts take convicted young rioters between the ages of 11 and 15 out of school and into pupil referral units (PRUs). The Mayor said this "would isolate them from their peer group during the school day, preventing bragging rights on school premises, and sends a salutary warning to other pupils that such behaviour will result in temporary ejection from the school community".

Doing national service: David Cameron has refloated his idea for 16-year-olds to take part in non-military National Citizen Service. "Teamwork, discipline, duty, decency: these might sound old-fashioned words but they are part of the solution to this very modern problem of alienated, angry young people."

First Post

Idiot let loose in London

London “mayor” Boris Johnson has suggested he will be providing a measured analysis of the week’s events, saying: "There are rich ideological pickings for both left and right. And there are issues here that can cause heart-searching on both sides of the political argument. I do not think we can simply ascribe it to wanton criminality or simply ascribe it to 'Tory cuts’ or whatever."

 Oh, how we laughed

Hope

After Tottenham, unrest spreads to Enfield

Groups of youths attacked shops and damaged a police car in north London on Sunday as police sent in reinforcements to prevent more rioting on the scale that laid waste to another area of the capital twenty-four hours earlier. Scattered incidents broke out on Sunday evening in Enfield, a few miles north of the deprived London neighbourhood of Tottenham, which was hit by some of the worst riots seen in London for years on Saturday night after a protest over the fatal shooting of a man by armed police a few days earlier turned violent.

Police Commander Christine Jones said the police had "extra resources" on duty across the capital on Sunday. "Anyone else who thinks they can use the events from last night as an excuse to commit crime will be met by a robust response from us." she said in a statement. Three shops were damaged, and two of them looted, in Enfield and the rear window of a police car was smashed, police said, adding that several people had been arrested.

Local pharmacist Dipak Shah told the BBC he and his brother had barricaded themselves in their shop after fifteen youths smashed the window and tried to break in. "It was very threatening. It felt as though they could have actually killed or maimed somebody," he said. Also, a Reuters photographer at the scene said a jeweller's shop window was broken but that riot police had flooded the centre of the suburb and youths, who had earlier hurled missiles at police, had dispersed.

Amid rumours there could be more flare-ups on Sunday, police Commander Adrian Hanstock told Reuters there was "a lot of ill-informed and inaccurate speculation on social media sites" that could inflame the situation. In Tottenham, an area with large numbers of ethnic minorities and high unemployment, workers began cleaning up shops trashed by looters and police sealed off a main street to investigate crime scenes after rioters throwing petrol bombs set fire to police patrol cars, buildings and a double-decker bus.

Osborne flagship policy ‘a total flop’

A flagship £1billion government scheme to promote growth and jobs in the private sector is set to cost more to administer than it has paid out to support small businesses. Mr Osborne used his first Budget last June to announce a "National Insurance holiday" which he said would benefit around 400,000 new business start-ups outside London, the South East and the East of England.

The scheme which exempted new businesses from up to £5,000 of employers' National Insurance contributions for each of the first 10 employees they hired in their first year of operating - saving them up to £50,000. Ministers hoped the holiday would help create around 800,000 new jobs over three years and said it could end up seeing £940million paid out by The Treasury.

However, since its launch last September just 5,137 firms have benefited, helping to create just over 10,000 jobs, according to figures supplied by David Gauke, the Treasury minister. With an average benefit per business of £2,000, that means around £10.3 million has been paid to companies – less than the £12 million the Treasury says the scheme will cost to administer.

Ed Balls, the Shadow Chancellor, said: "George Osborne hailed this flagship policy last year saying it could create 800,000 private sector jobs. But it's turned out to be a total flop."

The Sunday Telegraph

Vidic presents Manchester United’s new mascot

Christmas comes to Harrods

Mrs and Father Christmas taste the twelve ice creams of Christmas at the opening of Christmas World in Harrods yesterday. Yes, the twenty-eighth of July ffs.
 

This localism bill will sacrifice our countryside to market forces

The government's 'sustainable' new planning policy invites corruption and will sink us in urban sprawl, writes Simon Jenkins in the Guardian

With parliament in recess the government this week sneaked out the most astonishing change to the face of England in half a century. A "national planning policy framework" replaces all previous regulation and encourages building wherever the market takes it, crucially in the two-thirds of rural England outside national parks, green belts and areas of outstanding natural beauty. Farms, forests, hills, valleys, estuaries and coasts will be at the mercy of a "presumption in favour of sustainable development". The "default response" to any planning application is to be "yes".
 
The word sustainable should never appear in an act of parliament. It is a weasel word, an adjective not qualifying a noun but lightly dusting it with vague political approval. Sustainability is the sort of Blairism that gave us downsizing for sacking and humanitarian intervention for war. The only sustainable meadow is a meadow. Sustainable development is a contradiction in terms. It means development.

The localism bill now before parliament is a straight developers' ramp. Drafted by the local government secretary, Eric Pickles, and the business secretary, Vince Cable, it stresses business and "national economic policy" over conservation at every turn. It is the outcome of intense lobbying by the construction industry. Pickles and Cable are mere purveyors of building plots to the capitalist classes. The words development and business occur in the bill 340 times, the word countryside just four.

The bill and addendum breach the core principle of planning, that the long-term use of land, the scarcest of resources, should take precedence over an owner's right to profit. That is why there are no bungalows on the white cliffs of Dover and no wind farms on the Chilterns. It is why, when you look out over the Severn valley, you do not see Bristol merged with Gloucester.

Selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership – yeah, right

The committee on standards in public life has been sidelined at the time we need it most, writes Peter Preston in the Observer.

Take a few fine words. Say, selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership. Then wonder where you've heard them before. Ah yes! They're the seven principles of public service, as promulgated by the committee on standards in public life, the standing commission of the great and good set up by John Major – in a "cash for questions" tizz – in order to sweep Britain's grubby cupboards clean. And, by and large, from the founding chairman Lord Nolan to the current chief Christopher Kelly, that's been done: local government has been a sight less seedy and scandal-prone.

Paul O’Grady

But pause, there's something missing here. Another squalid crisis; more dilemmas, this time involving prime ministers, top policemen and big, bruising newspapers; a judicial inquiry into almost everything anybody can think of; and no mention, start to finish, of the committee supposed to keep us safe. Where are honesty, openness and the rest when we need them? Come to think of it, where is Sir Christopher Kelly?

One dead bat answer suffices. His committee is toiling over a mammoth report on political party funding, due to be delivered in the autumn. Perhaps David Cameron doesn't want to distract it by lobbing in Andy Coulson? But on closer examination, such defences don't wash. The watchdogs are being allowed to fade from sight. Governments can't abolish "standards in public life". Think of the horrendous headlines. But letting a mist of obscurity drift over them is politics by the playbook.

And this is a lesson for our times. The committee started with a rush of reports that made a difference. But in 2000 a Cabinet Office review pronounced the "ethical environment" cleansed. Now the committee could step back, go quiet, stop making waves. But enter, as the next chairman, Sir Alistair Graham, a master wavemaker. He took on No 10 over crucial questions (such as whether Tony Blair, prime minister at the time, was ministerial misconduct supremo of last resort) – but he lost. He started to deliver annual verdicts on New Labour Britain. He found sleaze seeping back, and promptly failed to get reappointed.

You Gotta Have A Gimmick - from 'Gypsy'

If you're gonna pump it, pump it with a trumpet ...

Amy Winehouse

1983 - 2011

The Ying Tong Song - The Goons

Murdoch Public Relations Exercise 1 – 0 Parliament

Do not be fooled for one minute by Rupert Murdoch's new friend, Humility. Less than a week ago, Murdoch told the Wall Street Journal that News Corp had made only “minor mistakes” in handling the crisis that had forced the closure of the News of the World and scuppered its bid for British Sky Broadcasting.

Then somebody with a lot more business sense than him decide to bring in Edelman, the largest independent PR agency in the world.  Within two days, Brooks had resigned, Murdoch apologised to the Dowler family and full page 'apology ads' appeared in every major newspaper in the country. Murdoch even interrupted his son's first answer to say that this was the "most humble day of my life". He later went on to say: "I would like to say just how sorry I am and how sorry we are to particularly the victims of illegal voicemail interceptions and to their families."

However, the constant slamming of his hands on the desk in front of him showed a man irritated by having to explain his actions to someone, a man used to being in charge and getting his own way. At one point his wife, and very own Charlie's Angel, leant forward to try and curtail him. Edelman had probably warned him about this prior to the hearing.

"I was absolutely shocked, appalled and ashamed when I heard about the Milly Dowler case two weeks ago," he told MPs. In fact he was so shocked, appalled and ashamed by the news that he didn't think to apologise until ten days later. On the instruction of Edelman, presumably.

Sadly, the 'comedian and UKUncut member' only served to advance Edelman's good work further by giving Murdoch the chance to continue heroically with the hearing, jacket off, shirtsleeves showing, in full view of the watching millions. It's hard to believe but Murdoch had actually managed to cut it with the sympathy vote.

Moment of the Day: was obviously when Mrs M, having sat through the entire proceedings resembling an oriental tribute to Princess Diana’s fashion sense, proceeded to throw the Edelman Finishing School pamphlet out the window and completely chavved it. Class, as they say.

NHS services to be opened up to competition

More than £1bn of NHS services are to be opened to competition from private companies and charities, including wheelchair services for children, writes Randeep Ramesh in the Guardian

The government will open up more than £1bn of NHS services to competition from private companies and charities, the health secretary announced today, increasing fears that it will inevitably lead to the "privatisation of the health service". In the first wave, beginning next April, eight NHS areas – including musculo-skeletal services for back pain, adult hearing services in the community, wheelchair services for children and primary care psychological therapies for adults – will be open for "competition on quality not price".

If successful, the policy, known as "any qualified provider", would see non-NHS bodies allowed from 2013 to deliver more complicated clinical services in maternity and "home chemotherapy". Admitting that the government's initial plans for competition in the NHS were too ambitious – and stung by criticism by Steve Field, the senior doctor called in by David Cameron to review the government's reforms, that the proposals were "unworkable", Andrew Lansley has slowed down the roll-out of competition in the health service.

The health secretary said his plans would now "enable patients to choose [providers] ... where this will lead to better care". Critics, however, warned of "huge dangers lurking in the plans". The trade union Unison said that "patients will be little more than consumers, as the NHS becomes a market-driven service, with profits first and patients second. And they could be left without the services they need as forward planning in the NHS becomes impossible."

A spokesman for the British Medical Association questioned "the assumption that increasing competition will always mean improving choice. The ultimate consequence of market failure in the NHS is the closure of services, restricting the choice of patients who would have wished to use them."

John Whittingdale’s Facebook friends include Elisabeth Murdoch and Les Hinton

By Jane Merrick, Brian Brady, James Hanning and Andy McCorkell of The Independent

The MP who will lead the attack on Rebekah Brooks and Rupert and James Murdoch this week over their roles in the phone-hacking scandal has close links with the media empire, it is revealed today. John Whittingdale, the Conservative chairman of the Culture, Media and Sport committee, admitted he was an old friend of Mr Murdoch's close aide, Les Hinton, and had been for dinner with Ms Brooks.

The Independent on Sunday has also learnt that Mr Murdoch's daughter Elisabeth, seen as the future saviour of the company, has also met Mr Whittingdale a number of times. Among her 386 "friends" on Facebook, the only MP she lists is Mr Whittingdale. He is also the only MP among 93 Facebook "friends" of Mr Hinton, who resigned as chief executive of Mr Murdoch's Dow Jones company on Friday. It is also understood that the MP for Maldon was invited to Mr Hinton's wedding reception in 2009 but declined to accept in light of the committee's ongoing investigation into hacking.

While there is no suggestion of impropriety on the part of the Tory MP – an aide to Margaret Thatcher when she was prime minister – the disclosure will fuel the sense that all the key players in the scandal are inextricably linked as members of the Establishment. It follows revelations that senior police officers, including Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, had dinner with senior executives from News International.

"These are people who I've met," Mr Whittingdale said last night. "I've only met Elisabeth Murdoch a couple of times. Les, I've known for about 10 years, and I've been for dinner once or twice with Rebekah. I wouldn't say they are close friends but you can't do the job I've done for six years without having them as acquaintances. It doesn't suggest close intimacy."

Googie Withers

1917 - 2011

Murdoch, like Napoleon, is a great bad man

by Conrad Black [yes, that Conrad Black]

Rupert Murdoch is probably the most successful media proprietor and operator in history. There is no possible argument about his boldness, vision and skill of execution in conquering the British tabloid market, leading vertical media integration by uniting film studios and television stations, cracking the US television triopoly, being one of the great pioneers of satellite television and founding a conservative-populist American news network. (It was to reduce News Corp’s dependence on Roger Ailes’ Tea Party Fox News Network that he was so eager to spend £8.3bn ($13.3bn) buying all the shares in BSkyB and laying hands on all its income.) It must also be admitted that the Wall St Journal is the only quality product Mr Murdoch has ever bought and actually improved.

He was sometimes very fortunate, especially when Margaret Thatcher exempted his satellite telecasting from regulation (though she was just repaying the favours of The Sun); that his bid for MGM was unsuccessful just before his near-mortal financial crisis in 1990; and that British Satellite Broadcasting was so ineptly managed by Granada and others that it collapsed into his arms 20 years ago. But luck is a small part of the explanation for his success.

It is unlikely that Mr Murdoch, his son James, or Les Hinton committed crimes (Mr Hinton is a very decent man). Discerning people should not be impressed by the process familiar to me and other victims of it, of hostile media solemnly citing law professors and retired prosecutors and sources who spoke on condition of anonymity (usually tendentious fantasies of the journalists themselves), to comment on the Murdochs’ legal problems. No one should begrudge The Guardian, the BBC, CNN, The New York Times and others their fun at his expense, nor take it too seriously. He is, as Clarendon said of Cromwell and the British historian David Chandler updated to Napoleon “a great bad man”. It is as wrong to dispute his greatness as his badness.

Murdoch-bashing has, until very recently, generally been a disreputable activity, chiefly engaged in by the envious, the far-left and the commercially uncompetitive, all almost incapable of disinterested comment – but not always. It is, on this subject at last, a time for truth. For decades Britain’s establishment professed to despise Mr Murdoch but appeased and grovelled to him, (“I thoroughly disapprove of Rupert, but I quite like him,” was the tedious refrain), as when it became clear that most of opinionated London expected him to prevail over The Daily Telegraph in the price war that he launched in 1993. It is a matter of some pride to those of us at the Telegraph then that he did not. As I commend a robust response to the British, I shall not practise unilateral verbal disarmament myself.

Hospital wins right to challenge closure of children's heart surgery unit

The Royal Brompton hospital in London has won permission for a judicial review of what it argues are "fundamentally flawed" NHS plans that threaten to close its children's heart surgery unit. The hospital stands to lose its unit under proposals to reduce the numbers of hospitals carrying out children's heart surgery from eleven to six or seven. Experts agree that children will be safer if heart surgery is concentrated in fewer, larger units where surgeons are more experienced.

However, the proposals put forward by the 'Safe and Sustainable' NHS review, run by a joint committee representing all primary care trusts, have outraged the Royal Brompton, which is one of three hospitals in London undertaking this very specialised surgery and the only one earmarked for closure in the capital. Their services would be merged into those of Great Ormond Street and the Evelina children's hospital.

The Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust has now been granted permission to proceed to a full judicial review later this year by Mr Justice Burnett at the high court. It argues that the process leading to the public consultation (which has just ended) on a number of different closure options was fundamentally flawed.

"This is extremely good news, first and foremost for patients," said Bob Bell, chief executive of the trust. "We have always supported the principle that all babies and children who undergo heart surgery deserve the best possible care, but decisions about the future of such vital services have to be made on the basis of sound, objective evidence and the decision-making process must, of course, be entirely transparent. These conditions were not met by those responsible for this review."

However, the trust did not succeed in getting the reorganisation stopped in its tracks. Mr Justice Burnett said it "is desirable for the joint committee to continue its work of improving paediatric cardiac surgery for the nation". It was with "some hesitation" that he agreed that the Brompton had an arguable case, he said.

The Brompton claims that the decision to reduce London centres from three to two was not based on any evidence, but was an attempt to ensure London shared "the pain of closure" with other units around the country. The trust also argues that it was not represented on the decision-making body, while the other two London centres were. It says its results are very good and that closure of the heart unit would have a damaging impact on its other services, including adult heart surgery.

Hospital reorganisation plans are invariably hard fought and the Brompton is not the only centre to campaign against the proposed closure of its children's heart surgery unit, but it is the only one to take legal action. Others have sent in mass petitions and MPs from Leeds succeeded in obtaining a debate on the floor of the House of Commons. There have been 70,000 responses to the public consultation exercise, including 20,000 text messages.

Jeremy Glyde, programme director for 'Safe and Sustainable', said: "The rationale for change is supported by medical experts, professional associations and leading national heart charities. Pooling expertise will help the NHS make further improvements to patient outcomes and deliver a truly excellent service." An independent panel would now look into the Brompton's claim that other services would be damaged if the children's heart unit closed, Glyde said.

Priorities

End of the rainbow

Sam Allardyce: Thatcher killed football

West Ham boss Sam Allardyce has accused former Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of destroying homegrown football talent. The Hammers' manager says Thatcher's Tories "undermined the game" by stopping teachers' overtime for taking extra sports lessons after school. "Since Margaret Thatcher stopped teachers being paid extra money for coaching sports after school, all sporting activities have diminished on a competitive basis. Thatcher killed football, no doubt about it."

Allardyce said the Tories' policy has produced "a lesser quality of players" and "unhealthy" kids. "This was a working class game but it's only at private schools where the children get the sports opportunities I had - and even then a lot of them don't play football, it's mainly rugby. Despite putting in place all sorts of advanced academy systems at clubs we are only producing half the players the school system used to. Our [West Ham] youth trainer, Tony Carr, is fighting to find the next Ferdinands and Lampards with one hand tied behind his back."

The Shard, London Bridge

Rising above the London skyline

News of the World - Memorial Edition

Steve Bell, the Guardian

News of the World: Yesterday’s news

Here’s a round up of Wednesday's main developments:

PUBLIC INQUIRY
• The prime minister has bowed to pressure to hold at least one inquiry into illegal phone hacking at the News of the World. But he and deputy prime minister Nick Clegg are wrangling over the membership and status of that inquiry and a possible separate investigation into the future of media regulation. Clegg has called for a judge to take charge but Downing Street disagrees.

FAMILIES OF DEAD SERVICEMEN HACKED
• The scandal intensified with the revelation that the families of members of the armed forces killed in Afghanistan and Iraq may have been targeted by a private investigator who hacked mobile phones for the News of the World. Officers at Scotland Yard investigating the allegations have contacted relatives.

GEORGE OSBORNE
• Scotland Yard has told the chancellor, George Osborne, that his name and home phone number appeared on notes kept by private investigator Glenn Mulcaire and former News of the World reporter Clive Goodman. A spokesman for the chancellor said there was no suggestion his phone had been hacked.

REBEKAH BROOKS
• Rupert Murdoch has said that Rebekah Brooks will stay as chief executive of News International. In a statement, he said that she will be in charge of the corporation's efforts to restore its reputation.

BORIS JOHNSON
• London mayor Boris Johnson has said that he wants the Independent Police Complaints Commission to play a role in investigating the Metropolitan police's failure to conduct the first phone hacking inquiry properly.

TOM WATSON
• Labour MP Tom Watson has said that the police should investigate James Murdoch for trying to pervert the course of justice. In a parliamentary debate on the scandal, Watson said: "It is clear now that he personally and without board approval authorised money to be paid by his company to silence people who have been hacked and to cover up criminal behaviour within his organisation. This is nothing short of an attempt to pervert the course of justice."

SHARES
• Shares in News Corp and BSkyB fell as the phone-hacking scandal put Murdoch and his bid to take control of the broadcaster under scrutiny. News Corp shares fell by 5% at one stage on Wall Street, to $17.17. BSkyB shares in London closed 2.1% lower at 827p.

ADVERTISING
• Procter & Gamble, Britain's biggest advertiser, plus O2, Vauxhall, Butlins and Virgin Holidays joined Ford in pulling ads from this weekend's News of the World.

RUPERT MURDOCH:
 "Recent allegations of phone hacking and making payments to police with respect to the News of the World are deplorable and unacceptable. I have made clear that our company must fully and proactively cooperate with the police in all investigations and that is exactly what News International has been doing and will continue to do under Rebekah Brooks' leadership. We are committed to addressing these issues fully and have taken a number of important steps to prevent them from happening again."

The Guardian

Cameron returns to News of the World bloodbath

David Cameron returns from Afghanistan today to find himself in a tight spot over the News of the World phone hacking scandal. It has been revealed that e-mails handed over by News International to Operation Weeting appear to show that the PM's former media adviser, Andy Coulson, personally approved payments to the police when he edited the paper between 2003 and 2007. This could explain how the NOTW hacker-in-chief, private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, obtained the mobile telephone numbers of some of his targets.

In the latest twist in the saga, which has turned distaste at the hacking of celebrity mobiles into public revulsion at the alleged eavesdropping on the families of murder victims, the police believe the targets included Graham Foulkes, whose son David was one of the 7/7 London bombing victims. News International insisted on Tuesday night that the payments to the police did not relate to the period from 2000-2003 when Rebekah Brooks was the paper's editor, suggesting the handover of emails may be an attempt to deflect the scandal on to Coulson.

Rebekah Brooks, now chief executive of News International, continues to insist that the use of phone-hacking during her editorship is all news to her. This is despite the Guardian's claim, published on Monday afternoon, that the voicemail of murder victim Milly Dowler was hacked into on behalf of the News of the World – thus hampering the police investigation. This revelation was followed yesterday by news that police have apparently contacted the father of the Soham twins, Holly and Jessica Chapman, to warn him that his phone may have been hacked into by Glenn Mulcaire in August 2002, before the girls were found murdered by Ian Huntley. Significantly, Andy Coulson was not told by News International about the e-mails they were passing to Operation Weeting.

News International and the Conservatives

A clip from Channel 4's Dispatches - Tabloids, Tories and Telephone hacking, discussing links between the Conservatives and Rupert Murdoch's organisation.

Anna Massey

 
1937 - 2011

The statue of Reagan that Londoners will take to their hearts - allegedly

Condoleezza Rice uncovers a 10ft statue of Ronald Reagan in the grounds of the American embassy in London to mark the 100th anniversary of the former US President's birth. William Hague told the Americans in the audience “that the people of London will take his statue to their hearts.” I don’t know what research he’s done to qualify that statement but it wasn’t round my way.

 
But it’s not just the UK that has to suffer the indignation of a tribute to Ronald Reagan; Budapest also joins in the 'celebration'.

 
Meanwhile, Prague has to suffer the humiliation of having a whole street named after him.

 
I guess all things considered, we got got off fairly lightly.

Praise the Lord: Vatican budget emerges from the red

The Vatican has announced its finances have returned to profit - after three consecutive years in the red. Its report said the Holy See saw revenues of €245.2m (£222m) against expenses of €235.3m in 2010. However, annual donations from churches worldwide - known as Peter's Pence - were down nearly $15m to $67.7m.

The Pope slumming it in the Basilica during hard times

The separately administered Vatican City State also made a €21m profit due to strong ticket sales at the Vatican Museums. The Vatican lost €4m in 2009 and was also in the red in 2008 and 2007. Most of the Vatican's outlay is to cover the activities of Pope Benedict XVI and services such as Vatican Radio which is broadcast on five continents in 40 different languages.

The Vatican began publishing annual financial reports in 1981 when Pope John Paul II set out to challenge perceptions that the Vatican was rich.