- Tories on rise as Brown drags Labour down – poll Unpopular Gordon Brown lags behind David Cameron on every question in today's survey• Datablog: every Guardian/ICM poll result everThe prime minister's deep unpopularity is continuing to harm Labour's election chances, according to today's Guardian/ICM poll, which shows the gap between the two main parties has grown to nine points.Voters remain unconvinced by the Conservative alternative, with 29% thinking a clear Tory victory would be best. Only 18% think Britain would be best served by a strong Labour win this spring. Both groups are outnumbered by the 44% who want a hung parliament in which the government works with smaller parties such as the Liberal Democrats.Only 38% of people who voted Labour in 2005 want to see the party win a strong majority now, while 43% would prefer a hung parliament.One explanation is that many voters, even Labour ones, dislike Brown. He lags behind Cameron in every question in today's poll. The Tory leader is 11 points ahead of the prime minister as the man who most want to win and 20 points ahead as the leader best campaigning for "the votes of people like you".Cameron has a 14-point lead as the most competent prime minister, and an 11-point lead as the man most likely to lead Britain in the right direction.He also has a 31-point lead as the man who most has the support of his party – which may indicate the harm done to Brown's standing by Labour rows and plots.Today's poll puts the Conservatives on 40%, which should be enough to give the party a small majority if marginal seats outperform the rest. Uniform national swing calculations suggest the Tories would fall slightly short.The latest figures call into question recent excitement about a Labour fightback. The Tories are up three on the February Guardian poll, and up two on another more recent ICM poll last weekend.Labour, at 31%, are up one on the February poll and unchanged since the weekend survey. The party's advance seems to have stalled.The Liberal Democrats are on 20%, unchanged since the last Guardian/ICM poll, while support for other parties is 9%.Public opinion seems fixed in roughly the place it reached before Christmas. Conservative support has been within three points of 40% in all ICM polls since October. Labour support has been within two points of 30% since November. Liberal Democrats have been within two points of 20% since October. Westminster dramas over such subjects as Lord Ashcroft's tax status and the prime minister's alleged bullying have made little difference.Today's figures are an almost exact reverse of the March Guardian/ICM poll in 2005 before the May election. Then, Labour was on 40%, the Conservatives on 32% and the Lib Dems on 20%. The only difference between then and now is that the Conservative lead is one point bigger than Labour's was in 2005.• ICM Research interviewed a random sample of 1,002 adults by telephone on 12-14 March 2010. Interviews were conducted across the country and the results have been weighted to the profile of all adults. ICM is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rulesOpinion pollsLabourConservativesGordon BrownDavid CameronGeneral election 2010Julian Gloverguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
- BA vows to fly 60% of passengers Unite union says it will suspend walkouts if BA puts a previous offer back on the table for negotiationBritish Airways has pledged to fly six out of 10 passengers to their destinations as the looming cabin crew walkout escalates into a political row between the Unite trade union and Gordon Brown.Unite has offered to suspend the strikes due to begin next Saturday if BA resubmits a peace offer. Tony Woodley, the joint general secretary of Unite, told Sky News: "If the offer is back on the table there is no reason why the strikes cannot at least be suspended."BA has so far declined to reinstate the offer, which includes a partial repeal of the staffing cuts at the heart of the dispute and a three-year pay deal. "The union made the offer invalid by announcing strike dates," said a BA spokesman.BA's chief executive, Willie Walsh, has vowed to operate a significant proportion of BA's services during the first phase of the dispute starting this weekend. The airline aims to fly about 45,000 passengers per day using a volunteer cabin crew workforce of 1,000 people and 22 hired jets complete with crew. Thousands more passengers are being put on to other airlines, or BA flights on different dates. Overall it plans to fly at 60% capacity.More than 500,000 passengers will be affected by the seven days of strikes. BA has already offered full refunds to anyone booked to travel between 19 March and 31 March."We are deeply sorry that our customers are the innocent victims of this cynical attack on their travel plans by the leaders of Unite," said Walsh. "Due to the numbers of cabin crew who have called in to offer their services over the weekend, the schedule will be slightly larger than we had originally anticipated. Despite the desire of Unite's leadership to ground the airline, the flag will continue to fly."No details were provided of BA's plans for the second strike, a four-day walkout due to start on 27 March.BA's plans were announced shortly after Woodley hit back at government criticism of Unite. Responding to the prime minister's labelling of the walkout as "unjustified and deplorable", Woodley said: "It's amazing, isn't it, how many people at interesting political times jump on how many bandwagons to condemn workers."Speaking on the World At One show on BBC Radio 4, Woodley also hit back at the transport secretary, Lord Adonis, who had said he "absolutely deplored" the planned strikes."For an unelected person who hasn't got a clue about this dispute I think he would have been much better to keep his counsel," Woodley said. "We have got a man here who might be transport secretary but has no industrial experience whatsoever and didn't want to pick up the phone and find out exactly what the problem's about."Woodley accused BA of seeking a showdown with its largest single group of workers. "This company doesn't want to accept an offer, I feel. It wants a war. It wants to take on our members. I hope I'm wrong but I don't think I'm wrong," he said.Sources close to the dispute say Brown's broadside followed direct communication with Woodley over the weekend, when it is understood the discussion was less confrontational and based on finding possible solutions, including the union reconsidering the BA offer.The condemnation of Unite came from both sides of politics. The shadow chancellor, George Osborne, said: "In the end it's a question of leadership for Gordon Brown. He has to cut off the links with the Unite union, which is a party within a party now for the Labour party."Adonis rejected this and said the BA strike was an "industrial and not a political dispute".The Labour MP Jim Sheridan, joint chairman of the parliamentary Unite group, told the World At One that Adonis was "naive" to blame Unite. "The prime minister and Lord Adonis and everyone else should just take a step back and have a measured approach to this. These inflammatory comments that Lord Adonis has made are extremely unhelpful, and if the prime minister is saying the same thing then that is extremely unhelpful."Woodley has been meeting with representatives of Unites cabin crew branch, Bassa, to plan the strike. Bassa officials met police at Heathrow to discuss picket lines. It is understood there will be pickets in about seven places around Heathrow, such as Hatton Cross tube station.Bassa has sent its 12,000 members a critique of the now-defunct BA offer, which included a partial repeal of cabin crew staffing cuts that triggered the strike, alongside a three-year pay deal and a proposal to put new, lower-paid recruits on to a separate fleet of aircraft.Unite's proposal includes a one-off 2.6% pay cut this year, which matches a similar move by BA's pilots, and the return of about 700 cabin crew to BA aircraft. More than 1,100 cabin crew posts have been removed by BA since November following a voluntary redundancy scheme and a part-time working programme."In our opinion it was far from a good offer, some nice words but not much substance," said Bassa.British AirwaysTrade unionsTransportAir transportGordon BrownDan Milmoguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
- Israeli-US relations 'at 35-year low' Netanyahu makes comments after ambassador to Washington says ties with US in 'crisis of historic proportions'The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, stepped up the row over Jewish settlement plans in East Jerusalem today, saying they would not hurt the city's Palestinian residents.Speaking to Israel's parliament, Netanyahu said the construction of homes for Jews in the city's eastern sector "in no way" hurts Palestinians. His comments came after an admission by the Israeli ambassador to Washington that Israel's relations with the US are at their worst for 35 years.US officials are reported to have urged Israel to reconsider sudden plans to build 1,600 homes in the occupied area, after they were described by one of Barack Obama's closest aides as an "affront" to the US that could undermine peace efforts in the Middle East.Earlier, Netanyahu apologised for announcing the plans during a visit last week to Israel by the US vice-president, Joe Biden. "I recommend not to get carried away and to calm down," he said yesterday.But he refused to cancel the programme and his attempt to downplay the dispute was exposed today when Israel's ambassador to the US, Michael Oren, admitted that relations between the two countries had reached a historic crisis."Israel's ties with the United States are in their worst crisis since 1975 … a crisis of historic proportions," Oren was quoted as saying in the Israeli media.Unnamed Israeli officials have told Associated Press that the US is pressing Israel to scrap the building project. Israel's foreign ministry has refused to comment on either report.Senior figures in the Obama administration have been unusually forthright in expressing frustration at the plans. On Friday Hillary Clinton, the secretary of state, said the announcement was "insulting", and yesterday David Axelrod, one of the architects of Obama's election victory, said the timing was "very destructive".Speaking on NBC's Meet the Press, he said: "This was an affront, it was an insult but most importantly it undermined this very fragile effort to bring peace to that region."The announcement last Tuesday that thousands of new homes were planned in Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem came on the eve of Biden's arrival in the region for discussions to restart "proximity talks" between Israel and Palestinians, with the US mediating. Almost immediately, the news prompted Palestinian leaders to pull out of the new round of talks.Israel has agreed to slow construction of settlements in the West Bank but has refused to halt building in East Jerusalem. Israel considers East Jerusalem, which it captured in the 1967 war, its sovereign territory and Netanyahu has spoken frequently in defence of settlements there.IsraelUnited StatesPalestinian territoriesMiddle EastBinyamin NetanyahuBarack ObamaJoe BidenMatthew WeaverDaniel Nasawguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
- Labour MP Ashok Kumar found dead MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland was 53 and not thought to have any serious health problemsLabour MP Ashok Kumar was found dead today at home in his Middlesbrough constituency, it was announced today.Aides called the emergency services when he failed to arrive at his office in the House of Commons this morning. Kumar, 53, was not thought to be suffering from any serious health problem and his death was described as "sudden".A former scientist, Kumar had been MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland since 1997. At the last election he had a majority of 8,000.He was parliamentary private secretary to Hilary Benn, the environment secretary, who said he "deeply shocked and saddened by this news" and paid tribute to Kumar as a "doughty fighter for his constituents".Kumar also briefed served as MP for Langbaurgh from 1991, when he won a byelection, until 1992, when he was defeated at the general election.Announcing the MP's death to the Commons, John Bercow, the Speaker, said: "Ashok was a most assiduous member, much respected by the house and by professional background a very fine chemical engineer."I am sure members on all sides of the house will join me in mourning the loss of a colleague and extending our sympathy to the honourable member's family and friends."Benn said: "It is very hard to believe that Ashok is no longer with us."Ashok was a pioneer, a doughty fighter for his constituents and a Labour man through and through, who cared deeply for others."He was also fearless in pursuit of what he saw as right. I came to value his friendship, his loyalty and his sense of fun over the many years we worked together."Fellow Labour MP Sir Stuart Bell, whose Middlesborough constituency neighbours Kumar's, said he had an "untarnished reputation"."He has been for many years a fine parliamentarian and good constituency MP," said Bell. "He built up his parliamentary majority and had every expectation of being returned to the house at the forthcoming election."He will be mourned by his many friends and colleagues."A spokesman for Cleveland police said a body was found at 12.30pm today. He added that it was too early to say whether the death was being treated as suspicious.David Walsh, the secretary of Kumar's constituency Labour party, said: "We all mourn our loss and all our thoughts are solely with his family at this tragic time."Ashok was a fine politician who served his constituency and his constituents with diligence and unswerving commitment."He was a natural fighter and a community leader."House of CommonsLabourAndrew SparrowHaroon Siddiqueguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
- Sub crash commander 'misread chart' Commander Steven Drysdale admits charge over nuclear-powered HMS Superb's accident in Red SeaA Royal Navy commander crashed a nuclear-powered submarine into a large rock in the Red Sea after misreading a number one as seven on a navigational chart, a court martial heard today.Commander Steven Drysdale, who was in charge of HMS Superb, had ordered the vessel to take a shorter route to make sure it reached a rendezvous point in time for an operation. The submarine dived to reach deeper water so that it could travel faster, the hearing at Portsmouth naval base was told.A pinnacle jutting out from the seabed was marked as being at a depth of 123 metres, but Drysdale misread it as 723. Thinking that the boat would clear the obstruction easily, the submarine was directed towards it and it grounded.Drysdale, officer of the watch Lieutenant Commander Andrew Cutler and navigation officer Lieutenant Lee Blair all admitted at a previous hearing an offence of neglecting to perform their duty.Captain Stuart Crozier, prosecuting, told the hearing that the submarine had been suffering from technical problems, causing it to lose speed, at the time of the incident in May 2008. He said there was pressure on Drysdale to ensure the submarine arrived in the Gulf on time for planned operations.Crozier said Drysdale ordered a new route to be plotted that cut about four miles off the previous plan. He also ordered the submarine to dive deeper to where there was colder water, allowing it to travel faster.When the new route was charted by the plotting officer, who does not face the court martial, all three defendants failed to spot that the pinnacle marked on the map was only 123 metres deep, the only shallow point in the area.Crozier said that when the submarine collided with the pinnacle, the vessel was brought to an almost immediate halt. "The submarine collided with the underwater obstacle reducing its speed from 16 knots to three knots in a very short time," he said. "There was a significant amount of damage to the forehead of the submarine, but no casualties."He said all three of the accused had looked at the chart. "No thorough check was made as to the depths in relation to the decision to take the submarine to this dive depth (250 metres). The new navigational track went directly over the pinnacle which showed 123 metres."The court martial was told that checking the chart would have been made more difficult because the line of the new route had been drawn directly across the spot where the pinnacle lay on the map, making it difficult to see. The hearing was told that new procedures had since been introduced by the navy so that all depths are rechecked when a new route is charted for a submarine.Commander Alison Towler, representing Drysdale, told the court that the commanding officer had since been moved to a desk job. She said the service had also stopped Drysdale from taking up the high-profile position of Royal Navy staff officer submarines in Washington DC shortly after the incident.She said Drysdale, who has served in the navy for 25 years, had inspected the chart but had misread the depth of the pinnacle."Cdr Drysdale wishes to express his deep remorse and regret in relation to the incident which has led to this court martial. He fully accepts his responsibility in relation to this matter," she said.Commander Joe Turner, representing Cutler, said: "He regrets the incident and fully accepts his responsibility. He will have to live with what happened for the rest of his life. He expresses his full remorse."Commander Stuart Wright, representing Blair, said the navigation officer was "fatigued" at the time of the crash having lost his signal communications officer to illness.The accident damaged HMS Superb's bow and its sonar equipment, causing it to have difficulty diving. The submarine had to abandon its planned deployment but was able to return to the UK under its own power, the hearing was told.The submarine, which came into service in 1976, was decommissioned in September 2008 and the MoD has said the accident did not lead to the submarine being taken out of service earlier than planned.Drysdale pleaded guilty to failing to ensure the safe direction of the submarine, while Cutler pleaded guilty to failing to supervise the plot officer adequately. Blair pleaded guilty to failing to take into account all the dangers in or near the planned movements of HMS Superb.MilitarySteven Morrisguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
- Winslet and Mendes separate Kate Winslet and her film director husband Sam Mendes have separated after nearly seven years of marriage, their lawyer announced today.Keith Schilling of legal firm Schillings, said: "Kate and Sam are saddened to announce that they separated earlier this year. The split is entirely amicable and is by mutual agreement. Both parties are fully committed to the future joint parenting of their children."He added: "They ask that the media respect the privacy of the family."Winslet, who won an Oscar last year for her role in The Reader, married Mendes, who won a best director Oscar in 1999 film debut, American Beauty, tied the knot in a secret ceremony in the West Indies in May 2003. Later that year Winslet gave birth to the couple's son, Joe. She has a daughter, Mia, from her first marriage to assistant director Jim Threapleton. They divorced in December 2001 after three years together.Kate WinsletSam MendesCelebrityguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
- Kidnappers deny torturing Moore Iraqi Shia group's video shows captive watching television, exercising and playing with childAn Iraqi Shia group blamed for holding hostage the British IT consultant Peter Moore today denied his claims of torture and abuse and released new video footage of him apparently relaxing in captivity.The group, Asaib Ahl al-Haq, accused Moore of lying when he recounted his mistreatment to the Times and Channel 4 last week. Moore said he was beaten almost every day, hung by his arms from a door, and at one point subjected to a mock execution.The group, known in English as the League of the Righteous, said: "We deny the lies he said and assure all that we had treated him well."To confirm our position, we are showing you a video of Moore's circumstances while in custody."The 46-second video depicts Peter Moore counting prayer beads while lying on a mattress inside a simple room. He is also shown watching television, playing with a small child, eating fruit, writing, and exercising on a treadmill.Moore and his four bodyguards were taken hostage outside the finance ministry in Baghdad in May 2007 by men wearing uniforms. Moore was freed last December and returned home to Britain.Three of the bodyguards, Jason Creswell, Jason Swindlehurst and Alec MacLachlan, were shot dead and their bodies returned to Britain last year. The fourth, Alan McMenemy, is also believed to be dead.Moore described to Channel 4 News how he was led handcuffed to a mock execution, told to kneel down and felt a gun being put to his head. He said that at that moment he thought he was dead.He described how he lay on a mat on the floor, blindfolded, handcuffed and chained by one ankle to a metal grille.The Guardian reported that Moore and the bodyguards were taken to Iran within a day of their kidnapping in an operation led and masterminded by the Quds Force, part of Iran's revolutionary guard.General David Petraeus, the head of US central command, said Moore was "certainly" held in Iran for at least some of his time in captivity.But Moore believed he was held in houses in Basra and the cities of Hilla, Karbala and Baghdad during his captivity, although he conceded the men might have been driven across the border.The group's statement also denied that the men had been taken to Iran.British hostages in IraqIraqMatthew Weaverguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
- Runaway Prius story questioned Prius's uncontrollable acceleration not replicated in official tests, but driver's lawyers insist claim is genuineThe case of a runaway Toyota Prius that took its driver on a 30-minute terror ride has been plunged into controversy after an official inquiry failed to find any problem with its accelerator.The credibility of James Sikes's report is now being questioned, following a leaked memo that found that government investigators could not replicate the problem of the vehicle's uncontrollable acceleration.Sikes hit the news worldwide last week, after his Prius reached speeds of more than 90mph along a motorway outside San Diego. Sikes called the emergency services, saying that he could not stop the car, despite "standing" on the brakes. Eventually a Californian highway patrol officer had to drive alongside the Prius and tell Sikes to engage the foot brake and handbrake at the same time.The incident came as Toyota was already reeling from several safety recalls, government investigations into its conduct, and several class-action lawsuits.Last night, though, a six-page memo was published that casts doubt on Sikes's story. It follows a two-day investigation into the Prius by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Investigators took the car on a two-hour test drive, during which they could not get it to keep accelerating when they pressed both the accelerator and brake pedals at the same time – as Sikes said he had done. Toyota engineers also attended the investigation, and argued that the car's engine has a safety system that automatically cuts the engine power if both pedals are depressed at once."It does not appear to be feasibly possible, both electronically and mechanically, that his gas pedal was stuck to the floor and he was slamming on the brake at the same time," said the memo, which was published by the motoring blog Jalopnik.The memo had been sent to the US congressional committee on oversight and government reform, which recently took evidence from Toyota's president, Akio Toyoda, as part of its inquiry into the company.The investigation did note, though, that one side of the Prius's front brake pads had been completely worn away, while seven-eighths of the rear brakes had been worn off. According to the memo, "a handful of brake dust fell out" when the car's tires were removed.Sikes's lawyers insist that his ordeal was genuine. His attorney, John Gomez, said the investigation does not undermine his client's story."It's not surprising they couldn't replicate it. They have never been able to replicate an incident of sudden acceleration. Mr Sikes never had a problem in the three years he owned this vehicle," Gomez told reporters. His practice, the Gomez law firm, specialises in personal injury cases.Sikes's wife, Patty, has also defended her husband, and asked people to leave the couple alone. She told the Huffington Post: "There's no intent at all to sue Toyota. If any good can come out of this, maybe they can find out what happened so other people don't get killed."Other reports from the US have shown that the Sikeses filed for bankruptcy protection in 2008, after their property business was hit by the slump in the US housing market.Toyota, which has recalled about 8.1m vehicles to fix problems with their brakes or accelerators, has said it was confused by Sikes's tale. "I'm mystified in how it could happen with the brake override system," said Don Esmond, senior vice-president of automotive operations for Toyota Motor Sales.During his drive, Sikes was told by the emergency services to put the car into neutral, but declined, saying later that he was afraid this would cause it to "flip".ToyotaAutomotive industryUnited StatesGraeme Weardenguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
- Shakespeare's lost play 'no hoax' New evidence that Double Falsehood was, as 18th-century playwright Lewis Theobald claimed, based on Bard's CardenioIt has thrills, spills, sword fights, violent sexual assault and – to modern ears – a terrible ending, but the little-known 18th century play Double Falsehood was propelled into the literary limelight today when it was claimed as a lost Shakespeare.Professor Brean Hammond of Nottingham University will publish compelling new evidence next week that the play, a romantic tragi-comedy by Lewis Theobald is – as the author always maintained it was – substantially based on a real Shakespeare play called Cardenio.Hammond has been backed in his assertion by the Shakespeare publisher Arden and there are unconfirmed rumours that the play will open at the Royal Shakespeare Company's Swan Theatre in Stratford when the venue reopens after its four-year closure.The claim represents 10 years of literary detective work by Hammond. "I don't think you can ever be absolutely 100% but, yes, I am convinced that it is Shakespeare," he said. "It's fair to say it's been something of an obsession. You need to ask my wife but a fair few of my waking hours have been devoted to this subject."Theobald's Double Falsehood, or The Distrest Lovers was first performed in 1727 at the Drury Lane theatre in London, along with the remarkable claim that it was based on Shakespeare's "lost play" Cardenio, which was first performed in 1613. Theobald claimed to have three original texts of Cardenio.Double Falsehood went down well with audiences, but it was badly received by expert observers who dismissed Theobald as a hoaxer. Alexander Pope, in particular, was scornful but the two were committed enemies. "Theobald was the author of a volume in 1726 called Shakespeare Restored which was a hatchet job on Pope's editing of Hamlet," said Hammond. "In that volume Theobald made it pretty clear that he considered himself superior to Pope."The denunciation became accepted as fact: Theobald was little more than a hoaxer, albeit an audacious one. The play then went largely to ground apart from a performance in 1846 when – after the audience shouted "author? author?" – a plaster bust of Shakespeare was brought out. It was laughed off stage.The play reads like Shakespeare, but reworked Shakespeare. Hammond called Double Falsehood a "flawed play", adding: "This version of the Shakespeare play has been doctored. Theobald cut out material that he didn't think appropriate, but this was quite common. Shakespeare was very frequently rewritten in the 17th and 18th centuries."The play is much shorter and more bitty than a normal Shakespeare play and there are no long speeches. But there is plenty of action that centres on two men and two women, including an aristocratic villain called Henriquez who ravishes the virtuous young girl Violante. By the end he has repented and is strikingly forgiven by all.The Arden Shakespeare's general editor, Richard Proudfoot, said the play was being made accessible for the first time in 250 years. "I think Brean Hammond's detective work has been superb. He is quite open to the obvious fact that there is an element of speculation, but both of us believe that the balance of doubt lies in favour of its claim being authentic rather than a total fabrication."Over the years some 77 plays have been attributed in whole or in part to Shakespeare, about half of them wrongly. There are also plenty of theories and books published claiming Shakespeare's plays were written by Edward de Vere, Sir Francis Bacon or Christopher Marlowe.William ShakespeareRoyal Shakespeare CompanyMark Brownguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
- Woman admits killing six newborn babies Celine Lesage faces life imprisonment for aggravated homicide, after children's corpses were found at her Valognes flat in 2007A 38-year-old French woman has admitted killing six of her newborn children, at a trial in north-west France.Celine Lesage, who faces life imprisonment if convicted of aggravated homicide, was arrested in 2007 after her then partner found the babies' corpses wrapped in plastic bags in the basement of her Valognes flat.Speaking today at the opening of a four-day trial, Lesage bowed her head as the charges were read out, before responding: "I acknowledge the facts."Chief judge Herve Locu pressed her to find out whether the babies had been stillborn or born alive. After repeated questioning, Lesage responded: "They were alive."Her lawyer, Veronique Carre, said Lesage "does not contest the facts … but isn't explaining them either". Several medical and psychological experts are expected to testify at the trial."We are here to try to understand you before judging you," the judge told Lesage.She has admitted strangling two of the infants and suffocating four others, according to judicial documents. The babies were born between 2000 and 2007.Lesage told investigators that the father of five of the children was her ex-boyfriend, Pascal Catherine, who was detained for questioning after Lesage was arrested in 2007. She said the father of the sixth child was Luc Margueritte, the man who found the children's bodies, and a plaintiff in the case.After Lesage, who also has a 14-year-old son, was arrested prosecutor Michel Garrandaux said she described giving birth to the first five alone in the apartment she shared with Catherine.Garrandaux claimed Catherine was "far from unaware" of her pregnancies, but the investigation against him was dropped. He will testify as a witness tomorrow.The prosecution says when Lesage and Catherine separated in 2006, Lesage moved in with Margueritte, taking the plastic bags to her new apartment.The trial comes less than 12 months after a French woman was sentenced to eight years in prison for murdering three of her newborn children. Véronique Courjault burned one of the babies' bodies and stashed the other two corpses in a freezer, while she and her husband were living in South Korea.During the trial psychiatrists testified that Courjault suffered from a psychological condition known as pregnancy denial, and family members pleaded for clemency on her behalf.Germany saw a similar case in 2006 when Sabine Hilschenz killed eight of her newborn babies, burying them in flowerpots and a fish tank. She was found guilty of eight counts of manslaughter and jailed for 15 years.FranceAdam Gabbattguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
- Edwards mistress: Still in love, living 'truth'
(AP)
AP - The mistress of former presidential candidate John Edwards says she is helping him live "a life of truth" and the two remain in love even after their affair helped trigger his downfall from the pinnacle of U.S. politics.
- British actress Kate Winslet splits from husband
(AP)
AP - Oscar-winning actress Kate Winslet has split from her film director husband Sam Mendes, a British law firm said Monday.
- Health Care 101: A consumer primer on Obama's bill
(... AP - It took lawmakers a year to shape President Barack Obama's health care bill. If it finally passes Congress, it'll take the better part of a decade to write the user manual for consumers and doctors, employers and insurance companies.
- NASA finds shrimp dinner on ice beneath Antarctica
(... AP - In a surprising discovery about where higher life can thrive, scientists for the first time found a shrimp-like creature and a jellyfish frolicking beneath a massive Antarctic ice sheet.
- AP Exclusive: Pentagon gun was from Tenn. police
(AP)
AP - Two guns used in high-profile shootings this year at the Pentagon and a Las Vegas courthouse both came from the same unlikely place: the police and court system of Memphis, Tenn.
- Social Security to start cashing Uncle Sam's IOUs
(AP)
AP - The retirement nest egg of an entire generation is stashed away in this small town along the Ohio River: $2.5 trillion in IOUs from the federal government, payable to the Social Security Administration.
- Obama seeks to reassure seniors on health care
(AP)
AP - With a fresh sense of urgency, President Barack Obama sought to reassure seniors Monday about health care legislation approaching a final vote in Congress, pledging it would make preventive care cost-free and close a gap in Medicare prescription drug coverage.
- AP Source: Toyota to cast doubt in Prius case
(AP)
AP - A person briefed on the matter says Toyota will cast doubt on a California man's claim that his Prius sped out of control.
- Blake Shelton on marriage, breakups and bromance
(AP)
AP - Blake Shelton seems to be coping well after his recent breakup.
- US lawmakers attack China ahead of Nov. elections
(AP)
AP - China is once again the country Congress loves to hate.
- Obama slams insurers, demands health care reform The yearlong fight over health care reached a fever pitch Monday as President Obama took his call for change to the political swing state of Ohio, slamming insurance companies and repeating his call for a final congressional vote on his sweeping reform plan.
- Making first dates less painful People who say dating was fun either don't remember or are simply wrong.
- 21 top time-saving cities According to a survey by Real Simple, the living is surprisingly easy in these urban areas.
- Pope's ex-diocese suspends sex-abuse priest A priest convicted of sexually abusing children -- and whose subsequent move from one location to another the pope approved when he was a German cardinal -- has been suspended, his archdiocese announced Monday.
- Nor'easter kills seven, cuts power to 300,000 Authorities have linked seven deaths to the nor'easter affecting the Eastern Seaboard, and more than 300,000 customers remained without power Monday in the Northeast after rain and fierce winds.
- Israeli military hopes closures will end West Bank protests In a bid to end what it calls illegal riots, the Israeli military will prohibit outsider access to areas in two occupied West Bank villages one day a week, according to a statement explaining the move.
- Tropical Cyclone Tomas slams Fiji Tropical Cyclone Tomas battered Fiji's northern islands on Monday evening with gusts of up to 275 km/h (170 mph) and heavy rain, but weather officials had not received immediate reports of damage.
- Continental cuts back on free food Continental Airlines will discontinue offering free food to economy-class passengers on the majority of its domestic flights in the United States and Canada and on flights to some leisure destinations in Latin America and the Caribbean, the airline announced Monday.
- 3 people associated with U.S. consulate killed in Mexico Three people connected to the U.S. consulate in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, were killed in two drive-by shootings, a senior White House official told CNN Sunday.
- Lights back on in Chile after huge blackout Electricity was restored Monday to all of Chile after an overheated transformer caused a blackout Sunday over 90 percent of the country, an official with Chile's largest electric company told CNN's partner network in the country.
- Classmates.com tied to more dubious marketing tactics Already implicated in post-transaction marketing practices officials have called a "scam," the site is now accused of duping users into upgrading memberships.
- FCC unveils National Broadband Plan The agency takes the wraps off a major proposal, to be presented to Congress this week, that could cost as much as $350 billion of public and private money.
- Samsung slate PC coming later this year The Q1 UMPC failed, but Samsung is giving a slate-like PC another try.
- A waterfall of Pepsi at SXSWi The beverage giant has reached out to the social-media crowd like nothing else. So what does it hope to get out of its SXSWi marketing blitz?
- Microsoft races to plug IE hole after exploit code released Software giant's patch process speeds up after researcher releases code on Net that can be used to target the vulnerability and take over PCs.
- Report names 'enemies of the Internet' Reporters Without Borders names several countries, including China and Iran, as Internet enemies for clamping down on online freedom and prosecuting bloggers.
- Mog's music service comes to iPhone, Android Already a subscription service on the Web, the company will launch radio- and playlist-focused apps for the iPhone and Android platforms this spring.
- Revived PC market to enjoy double-digit growth Following a recovery in the second half of 2009, PC shipments are expected to see huge gains this year and on into 2014, says new IDC report.
- Live blog: Windows Phone takes the stage at Mix At a developer conference in Las Vegas, Microsoft is showing how developers will be able to write software for the new Windows Phone 7 Series devices due out later this year.
- A look at Windows Phone development (images) Microsoft shows prototype programs for the Windows Phone 7 Series at its Mix10 conference in Las Vegas.
- Exclusive: Yahoo's Top Ad Money-Maker Bradford Leaving fo...
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Exclusive: Yahoo's Top Ad Money-Maker Bradford Leaving for New Job at Demand Media — According to several sources, Yahoo's SVP of U.S. Revenue and Market Development, Joanne Bradford (pictured here), is planning on leaving the Internet giant to take a new position as chief revenue officer of online content upstart Demand Media.
- Netflix announced for Windows Phone 7 Series (Chris Ziegl...
Chris Ziegler / Engadget:
Netflix announced for Windows Phone 7 Series — We just got a quick at Netflix for Windows Phone 7 Series, one of the third-party apps Microsoft's showing off here at MIX10, and it looks... well, very Netflixy — it's red to the bone. Unlike other mobile Netflix apps …
- MOG launches mobile apps with unlimited downloads to your...
Kim-Mai Cutler / VentureBeat:
MOG launches mobile apps with unlimited downloads to your phone — Music streaming service MOG unveiled its mobile strategy today, laying out Android and iPhone apps that will let users get unlimited song downloads to their phones for $10 a month. — Subscribers will be able to get on-demand streams …
- Microsoft announces Windows Phone 7 Series dev partners: ...
Nilay Patel / Engadget:
Microsoft announces Windows Phone 7 Series dev partners: Sling, Pandora, Foursquare and more (updated) — Microsoft just dropped its first press release of MIX 10 on us, and in addition to detailing the Sliverlight and XNA-based Windows Phone 7 Series development situation …
- Google Director Of Project Management RJ Pittman Defects ...
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Google Director Of Project Management RJ Pittman Defects To Apple — The battle between Google and Apple continues. RJ Pittman, a prominent Director of Product Management at Google, has left the company to join Apple. We've been tipped off to a tweet he sent out two days ago that said “My last day at Google.
- Ning CEO Gina Bianchini to Step Down-Becomes an EIR at An...
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Ning CEO Gina Bianchini to Step Down-Becomes an EIR at Andreessen Horowitz — Gina Bianchini, the high-profile CEO of social networking platform Ning, is stepping down and will become an Executive in Residence at the Andreessen Horowitz venture firm. — Bianchini (pictured here) …
- For Apps, iPhone Bigger Than Facebook Platform (Om Malik/...
Om Malik / GigaOM:
For Apps, iPhone Bigger Than Facebook Platform — When it comes to apps, the iPhone platform is now bigger than the Facebook platform, according to a report by Flurry, a San Francisco-based mobile analytics company. Flurry said today that Apple's iTunes App Store has over 140,000 applications compared …
- Apple iPad orders drop sharply (Philip Elmer-DeWitt/Brain... Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Brainstorm Tech:
Apple iPad orders drop sharply — A rough three-day estimate, based on an analysis of order numbers: 152,000 units — After the initial burst of excitement on Friday that saw iPad pre-orders coming in at the rate of 25,000 per hour, there was a dramatic fall-off over the weekend.
- Twitter Expected To Take The Wraps Off Its Advertising Pl...
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
Twitter Expected To Take The Wraps Off Its Advertising Platform Today — Later today, Twitter CEO Evan Williams will be interviewed by Umair Haque of the Havas Media Lab at the SXSW conference in Austin, Texas. We'll of course be covering any announcements that will be made by Williams on stage …
- HTC shipping CDMA-version Nexus One to Verizon, says pape... DigiTimes:
HTC shipping CDMA-version Nexus One to Verizon, says paper — HTC (High Tech Computer) has started shipping CDMA-version of the Nexus One Google phones to Verizon Wireless, which will begin to market the smartphones this month or in April at the earliest, according to a Chinese-language Economic Daily News (EDN) report.
- The Coming Botnet Stock Exchange Trailrunner7 writes "Robert Hansen, a security researcher and CEO of SecTheory, has been gleaning intelligence from professional attackers in recent months, having a series of off-the-record conversations with spammers and malicious hackers in an effort to gain insight into their tactics, mindset and motivation. 'He's not the type to hack randomly, he's only interested in targeted attacks with big payouts. Well, the more I thought about it the more I thought that this is a very solvable problem for bad guys. There are already other types of bad guys who do things like spam, steal credentials and DDoS. For that to work they need a botnet with thousands or millions of machines. The chances of a million machine botnet having compromised at least one machine within a target of interest is relatively high.' Hansen's solution to the hacker's problem provides a glimpse into a business model we might see in the not-too-distant future. It's an evolutionary version of the botnet-for-hire or malware-as-a-service model that's taken off in recent years. In Hansen's model, an attacker looking to infiltrate a specific network would not spend weeks throwing resources against machines in that network, looking for a weak spot and potentially raising the suspicion of the company's security team. Instead, he would contact a botmaster and give him a laundry list of the machines or IP addresses he's interested in compromising. If the botmaster already has his hooks into the network, the customer could then buy access directly into the network rather than spending his own time and resources trying to get in."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Color E-Book Displays Coming From E Ink Next Year waderoush writes "E Ink, which makes the monochrome electrophoretic screens used in the Amazon Kindle, the Barnes & Noble Nook, the Sony Reader line, and other e-readers, is gearing up to supply manufacturers with the first color versions of its displays by early next year, according to an Xconomy interview with T.H. Peng, a vice president with Taiwan's Prime View International, which bought E Ink last year. Peng argues that E Ink has nothing to fear from the e-book apps on the Apple iPad and other devices with color LCDs, which, in his view, produce more eye strain and aren't as suitable for digital reading. Nonetheless, the company says its first color screens in 2011 will have newspaper-quality color, followed within a couple of years by improved versions that can handle magazine-style content."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- US Intelligence Planned To Destroy WikiLeaks An anonymous reader writes "This document is a classified (SECRET/NOFORN), 32-page US counterintelligence investigation into WikiLeaks (PDF). 'The possibility that current employees or moles within DoD or elsewhere in the US government are providing sensitive or classified information to Wikileaks.org cannot be ruled out.' It concocts a plan to fatally marginalize the organization. Since WikiLeaks uses 'trust as a center of gravity by protecting the anonymity and identity of the insiders, leakers or whistleblowers,' the report recommends 'The identification, exposure, termination of employment, criminal prosecution, legal action against current or former insiders, leakers, or whistleblowers could potentially damage or destroy this center of gravity and deter others considering similar actions from using the Wikileaks.org Web site.' [As two years have passed since the date of the report, with no WikiLeaks' source exposed, it appears that this plan was ineffective]. As an odd justification for the plan, the report claims that 'Several foreign countries including China, Israel, North Korea, Russia, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe have denounced or blocked access to the Wikileaks.org website.' The report provides further justification by enumerating embarrassing stories broken by WikiLeaks — US equipment expenditure in Iraq, probable US violations of the Chemical Warfare Convention Treaty in Iraq, the battle over the Iraqi town of Fallujah and human rights violations at Guantanamo Bay."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- How To Guarantee Malware Detection itwbennett writes "Dr. Markus Jakobsson, Principal Scientist at PARC, explains how it is possible to guarantee the detection of malware, including zero-day attacks and rootkits and even malware that infected a device before the detection program was installed. The solution comes down to this, says Jakobsson: 'Any program — good or bad — that wants to be active in RAM has no choice but to take up some space in RAM. At least one byte.'"
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Speed-Assembling Servers Nieriko writes "The Planet is holding competitions to speed-assemble rack-mounted servers. It's like watching latter-day Marines field-strip and assemble their weapons. There is a video on youtube about this incredible contest. Looks pretty challenging."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Iran Hacks US Spy Sites superapecommando writes "Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps hacked into 29 websites affiliated with US espionage networks, Iran's semi-official Fars News Agency reported on Sunday. 'The hacked websites acted against Iran's national security under the cover of human rights activities,' Fars reported. It did not disclose details of the attacks.
The Internet has been used by Iranian opposition groups who contested the results of last year's elections there to organize demonstrations and share information about protests and arrests. The Revolutionary Guards is a military group that was founded after Iran's 1979 revolution. The group includes conventional army, navy, air force, and intelligence units, as well as the Basij paramilitary force and various business units."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- The Seven Hidden Browsers In the Windows Ballot Barence writes "Two weeks ago Microsoft started rolling out a Windows update within the European Union, giving every Internet Explorer user the option to switch browsers. As well as the five big names, anyone who scrolls the ballot window to the right will find seven further browsers, none of which is exactly a household name. There's no quality control being offered, either — they're simply the '12 most widely-used web browsers that run on Windows 7,' based on usage share in the European Economic Area. But what are these unknown browsers actually like? To find out, seven PC Pro staff installed a browser each, used it exclusively for a day, and ran a variety of tests. The browser-by-browser verdict on the hidden seven: two are worth a look for specific reasons, the other five are only likely to give an internet novice a horribly outdated idea of what web browsing is like."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Nose Scanners — the New Face of Biometrics? An anonymous reader writes "Forget fingerprints and ID cards, this photo story shows how the latest thing in biometrics is nose scanning! Bath university researchers have claimed that the nose will soon be able to be used as a way of identifying a person. Apparently the 'PhotoFace system captures a 3D image of a person's face by taking several photos lit from different angles to throw shadows on the face and then building a model of facial features. The software determined that there are six main nose shapes: Roman, Greek, Nubian, Hawk, Snub and Turn-up.' Some cool pictures make this worth a click — but what happens if a person breaks their nose?!"
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Humans Continue To Be 'Weak Link' In Data Security ChiefMonkeyGrinder writes "Nearly 90 percent of IT workers in the UK have said a laptop in their organization has been reported lost or stolen, new research has found. Sixty-one percent said that this then resulted in a data breach, according to the '2010 Human Factor in Laptop Encryption Study: United Kingdom,' a report produced by the Ponemon Institute for Absolute Software."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- SpaceX Conducts First On-Pad Test-Fire of Falcon 9 FleaPlus writes "On Saturday, SpaceX successfully conducted a launch dress rehearsal and on-pad test firing of their completed Falcon 9 rocket, with the 15-story tall rocket held down to prevent launch (videos). SpaceX is one of several likely competitors (ranging from the upstart Blue Origin to the more experienced Boeing) in NASA's new plans for commercial crew transportation to low-Earth orbit. SpaceX has been cleared by Cape Canaveral for the Falcon 9's first orbital launch next month, carrying a test model of the company's Dragon cargo/crew capsule, although CEO/CTO Elon Musk has cautioned that they're still in the equivalent of 'beta testing' for the first few flights."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Google Says China Talks Continue, But Pullout Signs Grow SHANGHAI/BEIJING - Google says it remains in talks with Beijing about censorship of its Chinese-language search portal but is adamantly opposed to the practice amid mounting signs the company could soon shut the site.
- Apple: Free iPad With Every Replacement Battery In a support document, Apple tells us that when you eventually send your iPad in to have its battery replaced, Apple will just send you a new iPad instead. The Battery Replacement Service will cost $100.
- SXSW: Digg's Big Redesign Taps Into Social Web The upcoming radical reboot of the social news site will pull in data from Twitter, Facebook and other powerful tools to help connect users to the stories most relevant to them at any given time. Digg CEO Jay Edelson lays out the master plan.
- Red Menace: Stop the Ug99 Fungus Before Its Spores Bring ... Its spores ride the wind, wiping out wheat crops and breaching science's best defenses. Inside the race to stop the Ug99 fungus.
- New Phones Still Sold With Old Versions of Android Google has been cranking out new versions of Android operating system faster than handset makers can keep up with. As a result, the latest Android phones to hit the stores carry an older version of the OS, which means consumers often have no access to new apps or features.
- March 15, 1985: Dot-Com Revolution Starts With a Whimper A Massachusetts computer company buys the first domain name, and gets the .com ball rolling.
- IPad, SchmiPad: 10 E-Readers and Tablets You Can Get Righ... The iPad may not be out for several weeks, but there are still some excellent choices if you're looking for a tablet-like device for reading e-books. We compare 10 recent e-readers and tablets.
- Gallery: 10 Damn-Near Perfect Cars Autopia selects 10 car designs that have stood the test of time.
- Cash for Geeks: Kickstarter Connects Projects With Patrons If dipping into your life savings to develop that great idea or project isn't an option (as in, you don't have savings), the crowdsourced fundraising service called Kickstarter just might be your only financial hope.
- Gowalla Tops Foursquare at SXSW Web Awards (But Benson Sm... Winners are all over the map at South by Southwest's 13th annual awards ceremony honoring the internet's best and brightest. Thank god for host Doug Benson's satirical jabs at the contenders.
- MP Ashok Kumar found dead Tributes were paid to the Labour MP Ashok Kumar today after he was found dead at his constituency home. Anxious staff raised the alarm after being unable to contact Dr Kumar, 53, who was only the fifth Asian to be elected to Parliament since the Second World War.
- Investigation launched as MP Ashok Kumar found dead Police are investigating the death of Labour MP Ashok Kumar whose body was found by officers at his home earlier today.
- Gordon Brown leads funeral tributes to Michael Foot The Prime Minister hailed the man famed for his dazzling oratory and fiery debating skills - but who nevertheless led his party to electoral disaster in 1983 - as "one of the greatest parliamentarians ever".
- Amol Rajan: Justice to the victims I got into a bit of trouble in conference this morning for making the point - not as sensitively as I should have, perhaps - that the spectacle of grieving mothers may feed the tabloid beast, but is irreconcilable with the demands of post-modern law.
- BA plans to keep 60% of passengers flying British Airways plans to keep 60 per cent of its customers flying if cabin crew go ahead with a three day strike from this weekend, the airline said tonight.
- Teenager killed by gunshot to head A 14-year-old boy found dead at his home was killed by a single gunshot wound to his head, it was revealed today.
- Grenade found in litter bin Bomb disposal experts were called out to a remote village today when a park warden found what he believed to be a hand grenade in a litter bin.
- Labour MP Ashok Kumar found dead Labour MP Ashok Kumar has died, his office said today.
- James Bulger killers were not 'intrinsically evil', claim... James Bulger's killers were not "intrinsically evil", Ed Balls said today, as he waded into the row over trying youngsters in adult courts.
- Man denies murdering taxi driver A 28-year-old man pleaded not guilty today to the murder of a taxi driver who was stabbed to death.
- Investment surge for restive Xinjiang Beijing will sharply increase investment in Xinjiang in hopes that higher living standards for ethnic Uygurs in the restive region can quell long-standing unrest.
- Around the Nation A 33-year-old reporter from China Central Television and another man were killed when they were knocked down by a van on North Sixth Ring Road, the Beijing Times reports. Liu Wei , who used the name Fei Ya as a reporter for Weekly Quality Report, and the man were hit when they tried to check on a driver whose vehicle had crashed with theirs. Police said the three drivers were not previously known to each other.
- 'We are focusing on domestic development ... we need a pe... Premier Wen Jiabao warded off mounting accusations of China's growing assertiveness yesterday, saying that its priority was domestic development and international stability.
- Factory closes as 94 fall ill with lead poisoning Authorities in Sichuan have closed a factory after nearly 100 people – most of them children – tested positive for lead poisoning, state media said on Monday.
- 'Sub-standard' designer labels seized Authorities have impounded shipments of imported designer clothing from famous labels such as Hermes and Versace after finding they contained potentially hazardous chemicals.
- Cameroon kidnappers demand ransom The kidnappers of seven Chinese nationals abducted off the Bakassi peninsula in southwest Cameroon have demanded US$15,000 (HK$116,335) for their release.
- Wen offers his personal account of Copenhagen climate sum... Premier Wen Jiabao fended off criticism that Beijing acted arrogantly at last year's climate summit in Copenhagen, saying he had been the target of a diplomatic snub at the outset.
- Yuan policy key to recovery, Wen says Premier Wen Jiabao yesterday rejected criticism that China is keeping its currency undervalued in order to boost exports, saying the stable yuan had contributed to the global economic recovery.
- Quick action urged to save starving Siberian tigers in zoo About 20 Siberian tigers are on the verge of starving to death in a mainland zoo, where 11 others have already been found dead from malnutrition since November. "No matter who should be held responsible [for the incident], the most urgent mission for the time being is to save the 20 or so dying tigers left," Hua Ning, the director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (China), was quoted as saying on a news website.
- 'People's premier' shows he still has the common touch Wen Jiabao, who has been described as the "people's premier", showed he had lost none of his populist touch at yesterday's news conference that wrapped up the annual parliamentary meeting.
- Democratic leaders say health bill will pass
Democratic leaders scrambled Sunday to pull together enough support in the House for a make-or-break decision on health-care reform later this week, expressing optimism that a package will soon be signed into law by President Obama despite a lack of firm votes for passage.
- Obama's focus on financial rules, Supreme Court opinion ...
Despite holding high-profile meetings last week on energy and immigration reform, President Obama will focus the next few months on two issues that could help his party in November: stronger financial regulations and ways to mitigate a Supreme Court ruling that allows direct corporate spending on...
- Project to get transplant organs from ER patients raises...
In the hope of expanding a controversial form of organ donation into emergency rooms around the United States, a federally funded project has begun trying to obtain kidneys, livers and possibly other body parts from car-accident victims, heart-attack fatalities and other urgent-care patients.
- Schools, health care, public safety lose millions in Va....
RICHMOND -- The Virginia General Assembly adjourned its annual legislative session Sunday evening after adopting a two-year, $82 billion budget that cuts millions from education, health care and public safety -- curtailing state spending more aggressively than any in generations while fulfilling the...
- Newly powerful China defies Western nations with remarks...
BEIJING -- China's government has embraced an increasingly anti-Western tone in recent months and is adopting policies across a wide spectrum that reflect a heightened fear of foreign influence.
- Tests fail to duplicate acceleration problem in Prius
Investigators from Toyota and the government have been unable to duplicate the runaway acceleration in a 2008 Prius that a Southern California man said took him on a 30-mile wild ride last week, according to a draft memo from a congressional panel.
- Early races for Congress may give forecast for November
Circle May 18 on your calendar. What happens that day will tell us much about the mood of the electorate heading into the November midterm elections.
- Politics & The Nation
Curbing earmarks: It's still complicated A3 Bees are busier than ever, but their hives are besieged A5
- Corrections
-- A caption accompanying a March 11 Sports article about the Washington Redskins' signing of defensive lineman Maake Kemoeatu incorrectly identified which player in the 2004 photo was Kemoeatu. Kemoeatu was on the far left, not the right. The player identified as Kemoeatu was actually Kelly Gregg,...
- Curbing earmarks: Even with new restrictions, for-profit...
Twice in recent years, House Appropriations Committee Chairman David R. Obey (D-Wis.) helped obtain earmarks totaling $3.2 million for a home-state university to study how to make military jet fuel from plants. Standing behind that nonprofit work, however, is a for-profit Chicago firm that often ...
- Financial regulation bill unveiled Sen. Dodd combines Obama administration, GOP priorities in legislation to tame financial markets.
- Obama: 'We know what will happen if we fail' President calls status quo unsustainable, draws contrast favored by Democrats as they try to wring final votes from fence-sitting colleagues.
- Rielle Hunter finally speaks out
Reliable Source | In GQ interview about affair with John Edwards, Hunter says she's still in love with "Johnny" and believes he loves her.
- Pelosi's strategy for passage COLUMN | There are a number of options on table, but House speaker favors the "deem and pass" plan.
- 96 teams would be too many Column | The wrath a bulging bracket might bring would not be worth it. Here's why.
- Peter Graves dead; 'Mission: Impossible,' 'Airplane!' star Peter Graves, the stern-faced, square-jawed film and television actor who frequently portrayed figures of firm authority and clear competence, most notably perhaps in the "Mission: Impossible" secret-agent television series, died March 14 of a heart attack at his home in Pacific Palisades, Calif. He was 83.
- Tassie Parliament Ready For Hanging The 2010 Tasmanian state election, to be held this coming Saturday, is probably most interesting not for what has happened in the campaign, nor for what will happen at the election, but for what will happen immediately afterwards.
If the polls (few and difficult to interpret as they are) are right, Tasmania will again see a minority government with the Greens holding the balance of power. The previous occasions this has happened (the 1989-1992 Field Labor government, initially via a formal accord for the Greens, and the 1996-1998 Rundle minority Liberal government) were politically exciting times when much progressive legislation was passed, but were also fundamentally unstable.
The majority government now going to the polls under Labor Premier David Bartlett are the semi-rejuvenated dregs of the Jim Bacon administration that enjoyed extremely high public approval in its first term. Bacon would still be premier now and perhaps for years to come, had terminal lung cancer not forced his premature exit from office in 2004. Bacon’s deputy, Paul Lennon, led Labor to an easy win in 2006 but was not a natural premier, and over the past four years the party, first under Lennon then under Bartlett, has lurched from one minor governance scandal or infrastructure bungle to another, only getting some degree of clean air with a Beattie-style "listening tour" in the last few months.
Tasmanians have a record of swinging from one major party to another, generally avoiding the hung parliaments which would otherwise occur. This time however, with neither party able to mount a remotely convincing case that it will win the election outright, we are left with the rare spectacle of voters voting for what they actually believe.
That said, there is not much ideological difference between Bartlett’s broadly centrist Labor regime and Will Hodgman’s soft-Right, David Cameron-style Liberal opposition (complete with pale-blue-and-green signs and saturated with Obama-style "change" rhetoric).
As a result, the 2010 campaign has not been dominated by any particular issue. It has been about personality politics as much as about issues and policies. The state’s electoral system (in which multiple candidates from each party compete against not only the other parties but also against each other in five-seat electorates) lends itself to this, as does Tasmania’s record of supporting candidates who are a bit rough around the edges.
According to his election placards, Labor’s Bryan Green, who was forced from the deputy premiership to the backbench and inconclusively prosecuted after signing a secret monopoly deal just before the last election, is a guy who just "gets things done". Infrastructure Minister Graeme Sturges, involved in several colourful moments with constituents, is just a "fair dinkum Labor" "bloke".
In one of the more amusing moments of the campaign, young Labor candidate for Lyons Rebecca White aired an ad for herself that appeared to take a shot at two of the more venerable Labor incumbents in her electorate. The broadcast version of the ad was, of course, quickly edited (although the original can still be seen online).
Another much-noticed candidate, Liberal Adam Brooks, seems almost too straightforward to be a politician. His ads abound with single-syllable words (though he has not yet said "great big new tax"), and he comes across more like a country bumpkin or even a Tassie "bogan" (complete with the imaginative nickname "Brooksy"), than as a typical political candidate. Yet this appearance is deceptive - Brooks is a young businessman with multi-million dollar interests in a range of industries, and has plastered the north-western and western electorate of Braddon with giant placards in a campaign that has probably cost well into six figures already.
Tasmanian politics is often dynastic, and thus in the seat of Denison, those Labor voters not wishing to support the party’s three incumbents get only the choice of the son of one Labor premier (Scott Bacon) or the granddaughter of another (Madeleine Ogilvie). Bacon especially has used the family connection as a trump card in a campaign that says rather little else of note. On the Liberal side in the same electorate one finds Matthew Groom, son of former Liberal premier Ray Groom.
As a sign that not much in Tasmania ever really changes, the Mount Wellington cable car proposal, which last had state funds wasted investigating its supposed feasibility under Groom Snr, is now back on the Liberal policy platform.
As a result of the unusual dynamics of Tasmanian politics, it is rare that you find issues over which Labor and the Greens appear on one side, opposed to the Liberals on the other (although the Liberals’ proposals to introduce mandatory sentencing for assaults on police and emergency workers represent one exception). For instance, as soon as Premier Bartlett announced he would negotiate to extend the Regional Forest Agreement until 2037, the Liberals matched the promise.
Forestry is the ultimate wedge issue in Tasmanian politics, a fact that was discovered the hard way by both Mark Latham and former Liberal leader Bob Cheek (who lost his seat after trying to green-tinge his party in 2002). However, on government services issues the divide is often between Labor on one side and Liberal and Green on another - a divide reflected very often seen in votes in the House of Assembly. This divide is especially prominent over Bartlett’s reforms to post-Year-10 education. Bartlett, who is Education Minister as well as Premier, intends to press ahead - in slightly modified form - with energetic but somewhat confusing reforms that have seen public colleges rebranded as "polytechnics" and "academies". Both opposition parties intend to roll back his reforms.
The state of the Midlands Highway (the glorified goat-track connecting Hobart to Launceston) has been a longstanding issue that appears to have run out of oxygen in the final weeks of the campaign. The highway is in such poor repair in some places that a speed limit reduction has been semi-seriously mooted. For more than a year a huge sign declaring that the Liberals will turn the highway into a four-lane road has adorned a barn just south of Launceston. However the Liberal policy as released had the weakness of depending upon the election of a federal Liberal government, and it is not clear whether the Liberals have been able to convince voters that the scheme is practical and affordable.
Every election throws up a few issues out of left field. In most cases these have been candidate malfunctions, with both major parties having to go into damage control following internal bunfights and other misdemeanours, but the issue of water contamination and testing surfaced unexpectedly after the ABC’s Australian Story aired a novel "toxic trees" hypothesis by a local doctor and a scientist investigating oyster deaths and what they claim are human cancer clusters in the state’s north-east. As with many conservation issues the science of the story immediately became politicised, and it appears that the Government was successful in driving the issue off the lead pages quickly. However figures from the booths around St Helens will be well worth watching on election night for any signs of a larger-than-usual swing to the Greens or Liberals.
If the election goes according to expectations, Labor will lose a few seats to the Liberals and perhaps one to the Greens. Should this occur, the important questions for the next few years will be: which major party can govern in minority? What terms, if any, will the Greens extract from that party? And finally: how long will it last?
- Why Is Offshore Detention Popular? Finally, newmatilda.com has found a good therapist! (You wouldn’t believe the problems we’ve been having lately.) Meet Zoe Krupka, our new psychotherapist-in-residence.
Zoe’s here to answer some questions that have been bugging us — tricky ones, like: Why do we vote the way we do? What anxieties lurk behind the headlines? Are politicians abnormal — or do we share and mirror their behaviours? If so, is that okay? Who’s got issues here?
Inexpert answers to such weighty questions are tossed around the newmatilda.com office all day long — but Zoe is actually qualified to answer them, which is why we’ve asked her to consider the psychology of the news in a new segment for the site: Therapy For News Junkies. In this, her first installment, Zoe considers why Australians are comfortable with the offshore detention of asylum seekers…
John Howard used to send asylum seekers to Nauru. Now, Kevin Rudd is sending boat people to Christmas Island, where over 1600 people are currently being held.
There is no indication that offshore solutions are to be rolled back in Australia any time soon. So why is it that we continue to make those seeking asylum suffer the torture of isolation and uncertainty? And how can we make sense of this situation emotionally, psychologically and existentially?
To answer these questions, it’s useful to look at other areas in our lives where we employ similar processes. What other "offshore solutions" do we use on a regular basis?
On a miniature scale, call screening and voicemail are brilliant offshore solutions. Our friends, family members, creditors and telemarketers are given a safe, distant space in which to reside for a time — until we are ready to receive or to reject them. We can maintain our boundary from a distance — which is much less difficult than setting our limits in person. "We will decide which calls we answer and the circumstances under which we answer them!"
This process is given many names in the literature of psychology but essentially it is the creation of a false boundary or wall. We are allowing another person or object to keep out what is undesired until we are sure we are ready to receive it. This is a conscious abdication of personal responsibility. Walls can protect effectively, but they can also be harmful, particularly when we don’t acknowledge that we have erected them. Then it’s like owning a big angry dog and being surprised that people expect you to restrain it when you take it for walks.
National borders are another variety of false boundary. We pretend they are organic and that they exist external to us, when they are really constructions that we have built, and must continue to reinforce regularly in order for them to remain meaningful. Otherwise, we all become people, humans, organisms, more connected than we are separate. This connection brings joy to some, but also, I believe, it brings fear to many of us, because it has such huge implications. If we allow that these boundaries are of our own making, then we hold responsibility for them: individually, hourly, daily.
Offshore solutions allow us to dodge painful truths. When you are parked at the lights and someone is washing your window, and you’re hunting for change, do you let her see how much is in your wallet, or do you take the money out carefully, giving her what you choose as if it is all that’s there? Part of what allows offshore solutions to continue is that we find it so difficult to allow ourselves to speak openly of our fears. In the case of the woman washing my window, I could have many fears. That she will steal from me. That I will have to face how much more I have in my wallet than she has in hers — and that I can find no way to defend this inequality. Ultimately, I have to recognise that I have a choice, and that often I choose not to share enough.
Efforts to separate ourselves physically from the distress of others may also be linked to our own experiences of disempowerment, betrayal and displacement.
For most people growing up in a patriarchal culture, our experience has been either to be devalued — or to witness the life-threatening devaluation of some lives in comparison to others. We have come to see social hierarchies and their inherent betrayals as unquestioned elements of everyday life. Following this reasoning, to criticise offshore detention is also to question the fabric of our social structure. Offshore solutions then, whether personal, interpersonal or social, can be understood as strategies to manage the distress involved in living in a culture where people endure trauma and exclusion as a matter of course.
And then there is our current negative understanding of anxiety.
Quite simply, we are no longer allowed to be anxious or uncertain. An entire pharmaceutical and psychological industry turns on the management of anxiety. Whether we are mindfully meditating, taking anti-anxiety medication, or working on becoming more decisive, as a culture we have demonised the experience of anxious uncertainty. Just try for a day, when asked how you are, to answer "anxious". We tend to respond to this in a variety of ways, the subtext of which is usually "Shut up".
Finally, part of the tantalising appeal of offshore detention is that it allows us to more easily project our fears onto others. Projection is, essentially, a kind of paranoia. It helps us to feel less anxious by allowing us some expression of unacceptable thoughts and feelings — without having to be aware that they are in fact our own. Instead, we can attribute them to others. This then gives us permission to actively fear, to monitor and to exclude these dangerous and undesirable people.
In the case of offshore detention, we can project our feelings of aggression and hatred, even our hidden desire to be part of a close family, onto those seeking asylum. This leaves us free to experience those feelings as coming from outside ourselves. We’ve all witnessed someone we know criticising someone else, and suddenly being gripped by the thought, "Look in the mirror, sunshine".
That those onto whom we project all these feelings remain isolated in some way is essential for the process of projection to work effectively.
If they, the stranded, were here in our communities, we would be faced with their humanity, and our projections would undergo some blurring. They may even fail to show us the picture we were hoping to see. The picture we in fact created.
So what do we do? We don’t let them in. We get someone else to answer the door and say we’re not home.
Why do we act the way we do? What’s the psychology behind the news? If you’ve got a question for Zoe, post it in the comments below and we’ll pass it on.
- Putting The Affairs Back Into Current Affairs Sometimes a media professional has to throw insulting questions at people she clearly despises while wearing a short skirt and sexy heels. It’s not always pretty, but that’s journalism — and no one does it as well as virtuoso tabloid journalist Victoria Dynamite, on ABC1’s Hungry Beast.
Victoria took a few moments off from practicing her "concerned" expression while filming overweight people at the mall to answer 20 questions for us:
1. What’s the headline you’d most like to see on the front page of a daily newspaper?
President Obama refuses to leave Australia until he’s been through Victoria.
2. If you could oblige everyone in Australia to click through to one webpage, which one would it be?
Twitter’s a great source of reliable news and an excellent way to quote unsuspecting victims out of context.
3. What is one thing you’ve always wondered about economics but were too afraid to ask?
If there are only 60 seconds in a minute, why should there be 100 cents in a dollar? It doesn’t make sense.
4. When did you last eat a meat pie?
Please — you think I want to end up squeezed in between Britney’s thighs and Su-Bo’s chin in a New Idea celebrity obesity special?
5. What’s the oldest thing in your fridge?
My fridge is borderline bare. The only food I keep is for my cat, Walkley. I work late nights at the office and have the sound and camera operators order in food for me.
6. Has anyone got a climate change policy you agree with? Who?
Dr Larry Maldorf is a little-known scientist whose ideas about climate change solutions are incredibly ground-breaking. He believes the only way to combat our sea levels rising are to remove the entire contents of the ocean. An exclusive report on Dr Maldorf’s work will feature this Wednesday night on Hungry Beast 9pm ABC1.
7. When was the first time you changed your mind on something important?
A lot of the important decisions I have to make in my work are ethical ones. I have to ask myself — Am I right to be belittling asylum seekers? Is it okay to tease intellectually disabled people if the viewer won’t know any different? The answer is almost always Yes.
8. What’s the household chore you relish the most?
I don’t do housework. I live alone. For the rare occasions I have guests around, I call my Chinese cleaner Lin. She does an okay job, I pay her as much as I think she deserves and she complains very little.
9. What sort of shoes do you wear to work?
I wear simple black heels. A woman’s shoes can communicate so much about what she represents. Mine say "I’m professional, but I’d f*#k you for an exclusive."
10. What campaigning tactic do you most want to see in this year’s federal election?
Personally I want to see more scare campaigns. The more "gate" scandals the better. Nobody cares about climate change, education and health care systems. They’re just silly distractions from the things that really do influence people at voting time.
11. Nominate a new public holiday.
I think an entire national week of mourning should mark the tragic break up between Lara Bingle and Michael Clarke.
12. If you could go tomorrow anywhere in Australia for a holiday, where would you go?
I would travel to the nation’s poorest suburbs. Mainly because nobody holidays there anymore, and also because it could double as a working holiday. Underprivileged people say the darndest things.
13. What’s your favourite YouTube video?
I have such a weakness for demonising stories about asylum seekers.
14. If you were given $5 million, what would you spend it on?
I’d self-fund a morning show called "Victoria Dynamite Wakes You Up with a Bang". Karl Stefanovic would be my co-host.
15. Who would you most like to sit next to on a long haul flight?
Hands down, Naomi Robson — can you imagine the kind of dating and relationship advice that girl could offer on a one-way flight!
16. What trivia question/topic will you beat everyone else in the pub to the buzzer on?
I’m particularly knowledgeable when it comes to celebrity botox regimes and the diversity of hats worn by Dame Judy Dench.
17. Complete this sentence. I’d like to hear Kevin Rudd say "…"
He’d sleep with me. That would be the sort of career move that could make all my Christmases come at once.
18. Name someone in Australian public life who deserves a promotion.
Miranda Devine. That woman knows her shit. I’m for serious. We sat together at a corporate lunch and got on like a house on fire. I was like "I’m a culturally insensitive neo-right wing hero" and she was like "Whatthe? So am I!".
19. In 10 words or less, summarise your food philosophy.
Eat till your body can take no more. Have it sucked out of you and injected into your lips. That way, your food goes full circle and you get more bang for your buck.
20. What question should we ask our next interviewee?
If you were on the edge of starvation and your mother told you she had miraculously regained the ability to lactate, would you, as an adult, drink milk from your mother’s breast?
BONUS QUESTION from our last interviewee:
What are your most and least favourite technological developments of the last 500 years?
Webcams are both my favourite and least favourite. I once had a relationship with a Fox News reporter I’d met at a conference in Brisbane. He and I shared an intimate long-distance webcam relationship. It wasn’t until we’d broken up that I realised Skype can be recorded. Some advice to anyone who’s thinking of skyping themselves topless: don’t.
- Who Ordered the Henry? Cartoon by Bill Leak
- Policy On The Run Cartoon by Bill Leak
- The ABC Of Climate Denial On the internet, it has become increasingly hard to have a reasoned debate about the scientific observations relating to climate change without a parliament of denialists descending on the comments pages to fill up the thread with their endlessly recycled myths, lies and obfuscations. You’ve heard them before: the "hockey stick" is a statistical distortion (no, it’s not); "the world has been cooling since 1998" (no, it’s been warming); "Phil Jones cooked the data" (no, he didn’t), and so on.
We’ve all had the conversation, in which a seemingly sane friend or family member suddenly begins to spew denialist invective. Mine was with a wealthy second uncle who just happened to be a mining engineer. Out came all the old chestnuts: the hockey stick, cooling since 1998, the hacked emails. As I patiently tried to deal with each falsehood in turn, it quickly became obvious that I wasn’t going to change his mind: that had been made up about the time he associated the concept of "global warming" with the term "environmentalism".
It’s one thing when you hear this kind of guff from a reactionary relative. It’s quite another when it’s coming from the Chairman of the ABC in a speech to ABC management.
"Climate change is a further example of groupthink where contrary views have not been tolerated, and where those who express them have been labelled and mocked," Newman reportedly told a gathering of 250 ABC executives.
Really? "Groupthink"? The term itself is a strange one to apply to journalists, a notoriously fractious bunch. First coined by organisational psychologist William Whyte in a Fortune article in 1952, Whyte defined it as "a rationalised conformity — an open, articulate philosophy which holds that group values are not only expedient but right and good as well".
Newman seems to be arguing that the media are somehow dismissive of those who don’t subscribe to the anthropogenic global warming thesis. I find that hard to believe. Many parts of the media, especially the conservative parts, love a good denialist beat-up, as the acres of newsprint devoted to the "climate-gate" hacked emails demonstrated.
As The Guardian’s great editor C.P. Scott once said, "comment is free, but facts are sacred". Newman needs to be reminded of this remark, because he appears to have fallen prey to one of the most pervasive myths of the entire climate debate: that there is some kind of unspoken media conspiracy that favours the anthropogenic global warming thesis and locks out those with differing views.
The truth is almost the reverse: the media have given far more attention to the Australian visit of prominent denialist Christopher Monckton than they have to the Australian visit of leading climate scientist James Hansen. Indeed, the ABC, through its new opinion site The Drum, has been enthusiastic in its embrace of the views of denialists, running several pieces such as this one by Bob Carter that can only be described as loopy conspiracy theories. More broadly, the media have consistently portrayed the climate change issue as a kind of dialectic, often comparing the views of climate scientists to those of sceptics and denialists as merely opposing sides of the debate in a mistaken attempt to provide "balance".
In fact, the balance of scientific evidence is overwhelmingly on the side of the "warmist" thesis. In the mid-2000s, when the science of climate change was less firm than it is now, prominent American historian of science Naomi Oreskes examined 928 peer-reviewed scientific papers on the topic of climate change. She found that every single one agreed with the anthropogenic global warming thesis. So did the International Panel on Climate Change, whose various reports together represent one of the largest exercises in the peer-review of available scientific literature in history. Across the thousands of pages of the IPCC reports, despite all the attention and controversy, sceptics have been able to uncover only a tiny handful of errors: for instance, a referencing mistake about Himalayan glaciers, where a non-peer reviewed paper was referred to (the glaciers are still melting, by the way. Only those with an axe to grind could use this as the basis to discredit the IPCC’s overall assessment.
Of course, that won’t stop the denialists, who have long abandoned the idea of evidence and who in any case often believe that climate science is a new kind of "religion", to be foisted on the world by crusaders in white coats and koala bear outfits.
There’s no doubt that significant numbers of Australians don’t accept the science of climate change. If you believe the ABC’s Jonathan Holmes, that should be reason enough for our national broadcaster to present the arguments of denialists and sceptics. But what about the facts? Shouldn’t they take precedence over audience opinion? Veteran ABC science journalist Robyn Williams certainly thinks so. He told The Australian: "We don’t interview people who say HIV doesn’t cause AIDS, petrol sniffing is good for kids or smoking doesn’t cause cancer, but they’re out there." Perhaps it’s time for some articles on intelligent design or the flatness of the earth on The Drum?
In any case, why is Newman commenting on editorial matters at all? The ABC’s CEO, Mark Scott, is also its Editor in Chief; it’s the board’s responsibility to appoint management and supervise the governance of the organisation, not comment on editorial matters. In 2004, Newman resigned from the board after minutes from the meeting were leaked. If he feels that strongly about governance matters, why is he now flouting them to lecture his staff on how they cover one of the most important scientific issues of our time?
It’s time for a new chair of the ABC board. The current one has demonstrated he is unfit for the role.
He has also revealed he is something of a reactionary dunderhead who understands nothing about climate science. Mind you, there are plenty of those in Australian public life.
A note on terminology: I’ve referred to those who don’t subscribe to the thesis that the world is warming due to the emission of greenhouse gases (by humans) as "denialists" or "sceptics" — that is, in the sense that they deny or are sceptical of the warming thesis. I don’t think this is an insult — just as I am happy to be called a "warmist" because I do indeed subscribe to the thesis that the world is warming.
- Ah, 2003, The Good Old Days
In seven months time, give or take a few weeks, when Labor has claimed victory in the federal election, many in the party will look back and remember this last fortnight fondly as the time when things turned around.
Last week your correspondent wrote that Kevin Rudd had begun to wrestle back control of the political narrative. Rudd’s Mr Fixit, Greg Combet, has been installed to redo the insulation scheme. The National Curriculum has been rolled out. A federal quasi-takeover of health has been announced.
And then the news got even better for Labor and the strategy wonks didn’t have to lift a finger. On Monday, Tony Abbott announced a generous paid parental leave scheme that will tax — yes, tax! — big business and give stay-at-home mums (or dads) six months at home with the bub. Abbott offered much more time to prospective parents than the 18 weeks Labor put on the table with a plan that would cost $2.7 billion, making Labor’s $260 million plan look modest (and affordable).
For a moment there, life in Canberra went all topsy turvy.
Unions welcomed this new Coalition policy announcement. Rumblings from the business community were not gleeful in timbre. Bob Brown grinned as he observed that Abbott had managed to "out-green the Greens".
In Question Time a procession of shadow ministers got the opportunity to ask Labor when it was that they decided to abandon working families for the embrace of big business. Curiouser and curiouser.
When it emerged that Abbott had not consulted the full shadow cabinet before announcing his parental leave scheme, Labor MPs had a ball as they attacked the $2.7 billion "tax" as an Abbott "thought bubble". Did the relationship between Malcolm Turnbull’s failure to consult with his colleagues and his downfall escape comment? No, it did not.
In the back rooms of ALP HQ, the political strategists were rubbing their hands together with delight. From the moment Abbott took power, the Mark Latham comparison has been in circulation. Even during the early period of Abbott’s good polling numbers, Labor pundits promised that a "Latham Moment” was just around the corner for Abbott.
It was no accident, after all, that Michael Duffy wrote a biography of the pair during Latham’s leadership. And so far, the script for Abbott’s early leadership has been deliciously similar to that followed by Latham in his early days.
Abbott has had the PM on the back foot, as Latham had Howard — for a while. Ex-boxer Abbott hit the PM from the left with maternity leave, and from the right on immigration, confounding orthodox political strategy.
Just as Latham’s infamous "troops home from Iraq by Christmas” promise put some important allies offside, Abbott’s apparently extemporaneous paid parental leave scheme has knocked some noses out of joint, at least temporarily.
And like Latham, Abbott has a singular ability to cut through with a single line that plays well in the media and speaks to voters, particularly those in the key outer suburban battlegrounds where this election will be decided. But ominously for the Coalition, Abbott’s verbal dexterity and pugilistic approach to politics can get him in strife.
The political war of words over paid parental leave, healthcare, the structural separation of Telstra, the National Curriculum — and anything else you care to name — was interrupted for a day of statesmanship and ceremony when Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono came to Canberra. This provided the occasion for Labor to launch a new line of attack on Abbott.
An extraordinary press conference was called in Parliament House’s blue room on the day of Yudhoyono’s visit. Five senior ministers — Jenny Macklin, Stephen Conroy, Lindsay Tanner, Penny Wong and Nicola Roxon — stood up and charged the Leader of the Opposition with being the most "obstructionist Opposition Leader in living memory”.
It was a very clever move by Labor. Singling out the Coalition’s obstructionism turns the tables on Abbott whose robust approach has thus far been seen as a positive.
One by one the ministers stood before the cameras and outlined the legislation being delayed in their portfolios. Abbott should get out of the way, they argued, and let Labor get on with the business of governing.
Oppositions don’t get elected by being overly negative. Obstructionism aside, Abbott has more than once politicised occasions where it would have been more fitting to appear statesmanlike and bipartisan.
The first recent example was during his reply to the PM’s second annual "Closing the Gap" statement in Parliament. Abbott commended the Intervention on that occasion, reminding the House that it was a coalition policy, but then accused Labor of having gone soft on some measures, which is actually far from the truth.
The second glaring mis-step was taken just before Yudhoyono addressed Parliament on Wednesday when Abbott took a swipe at Rudd over the number of boats coming to Australian shores. Trying to score domestic political points during what was only the fifth speech by a foreign leader to a joint sitting of Parliament was petty.
By Thursday, Abbott looked like he was about to blink for the first time. Pressure building, he said the Opposition would look to amend, but would likely not oppose, the Government’s 18 week paid parental leave scheme. It’s a significant backdown and Labor strategists will be buying each other plenty of congratulatory beers this weekend as the backdown can be attributed directly to Wednesday’s outraged ministerial quintet.
That press conference did something much more significant than force Abbott to retract. It also laid the groundwork for a double dissolution election. Labor has had a double dissolution trigger since last year’s ETS debacle, of course, but you don’t pull the trigger lightly.
John Howard collected such triggers in each term he was in office. He never pulled the trigger because such a move can backfire. Typically, the "trigger” issue becomes secondary to other issues during the campaign. Even so, Labor will be wary of a double dissolution election because at this stage, the campaign would be fought on climate change.
Starting out by telling the people that Abbott opposes for opposition’s sake, however, and amassing a swag of trigger bills (all of which could be passed in a joint sitting at the end of this year), Rudd can mount a convincing argument that he has done all he can in his first term and that he needs a stronger mandate the second time around.
At the very least, the double dissolution threat is a very useful plan B. Rudd still isn’t likely to go to the polls in the first half of the year. In fact, an election does not have to be called until three years and three months after this Parliament first sat, which is May 2011. I don’t think we’ll have to wait that long.
But by continuing to collect triggers through the year, Labor could delay a double dissolution election until as late as October or November, giving Rudd three full years in office and giving Abbott more opportunities to roam off message. This may threaten the Coalition with electoral annihilation, particularly in the Senate, if Abbott continues with the current carry on.
Rudd and the ALP’s apparatchik army won’t make a decision on a double dissolution until later this year. And who knows, Abbott may adopt a more bipartisan, circumspect approach, unlikely as that seems.
Whatever the Government decides to do, it’s a reasonable bet that the message on Abbott will be simple. Rudd can take his cues from his predecessor, and ask one question, as Howard did of Latham:
"Can you trust him?”
- Why Melbourne Can't Make Money It’s a commonplace that mainstream sport is now a business. But the question is, beyond the crowds, sponsorship, media frenzies and seven-figure broadcasting rights deals, how successful a business is, say, your average football club? It’s not only a matter of idle interest among rugby league fans. It comes up regularly over beers in pubs across the eastern seaboard because the viability of clubs (or lack thereof) is so often raised as a threat to the future of the sport.
It’s also an interesting question for the way it demonstrates the complex financial synergies and licensing deals that can make or break sports, shape broadcast regimes and slowly affect the culture around them.
For league, the profitability question depends on a number of factors including the code, the club’s supporter base, and how far it is from the game’s heartland areas. Where rugby league is concerned, it might be surprising to learn that on-field success seems to be compatible with significant off-field losses.
Right now, the best example you could ask for of this complex matrix of issues happens to be — arguably — the most successful club over the last decade: the Melbourne Storm. They are the reigning NRL champions. In 11 years of competition, they have won three grand finals (1999, 2007 and 2009) and played in two others (2006 and 2008). Their extraordinary roster of talented players means they’re consistently able to offer fans a high-quality, star-studded spectacle.
But the fact is that as a business, the club is a born loser. Far from turning a profit, it’s been consistently reported that they cost their owners around $6 million dollars a year to keep afloat (although this remains conjecture, as the finances of the club aren’t directly available to the public). That’s more than the amount of the player salary cap (currently at $4.4 million).
The Storm was founded in 1998 as the code’s outpost in the AFL stronghold of Victoria. The game’s old guard in the ARL had tried to establish a team from 1996, but the group pushing for the Storm had begun doing so assuming that the club would be affiliated with the rival "Super League" competition, which was the other half of league’s messy, mid-1990s civil war. Later, when a rapprochement was reached, the Storm emerged as the Melbourne franchise for the united NRL competition. Since its inception, the club has been wholly owned by News Limited, which instigated the Super League battle and which still owns half of the NRL.
Like some other News Corporation ventures of late, though, the Storm has struggled to repay its owner’s investment. That’s due to a few factors. The biggest, perhaps, is that their attendances aren’t fantastic: with an average hovering around 13,000, they’re comparable with some Sydney sides but their numbers are far lower than in league’s other one-team towns (like Newcastle, Brisbane or even the Gold Coast or Townsville) and way behind Melbourne’s always remarkable levels of AFL attendance. Of course, it doesn’t help in building crowds that many insular Melbournians find it hard to tell the difference between the rugby codes. Part of the club’s brief, however, should be to educate potential fans, just as the Sydney Swans and the Brisbane Lions have, going in the other direction.
As a result, this main source of potential income — gate takings at the grounds — is overwhelmed by a number of costs: player salaries, ground costs, team travel and equipment, administration, etc. An additional cost that the Storm faces — which would have been addressed in more far-sighted codes — is a large promotional burden, including giving away a lot of free tickets to games. That’s because the code is invisible on telly in Melbourne in a way that AFL isn’t in the eastern seaboard cities — unlike the AFL, the NRL didn’t compel the rights holder to broadcast games at favourable times into the home market. Although the Storm were voted Melbourne’s favourite sporting team, one suspects they profited from a split vote among the various AFL tribes. In reality, they struggle to be noticed in their own seat. In some ways, up until now, the Storm’s presence in Melbourne has been a missed opportunity.
Now it looks like the consequences of this state of affairs have pushed the competition — and especially the Storm — into a new phase. The fact that running costs exceed takings means that News Limited has had to put most of its direct drawdown from the NRL — reportedly some $8 million in total — into keeping the club afloat. That figure includes profits from the successful clubs it has an interest in, like the Brisbane Broncos.
In the past, this cost may have seemed worth it. After all, everything about News’s involvement with rugby league from Super League on has been about building a subscriber base for pay television. With their interest in Foxtel, News has been prepared to wear the cost in order to promote the visibility of the code and build its prestige as a national competition. There are signs, though, that in the current era of media turmoil, where even the mighty News Corp is struggling to turn a dime, and their future at Foxtel is up for debate, this kind of largesse is starting to look extravagant.
News is now looking to get out of owning (and propping up) rugby league clubs. It’s not just the money — it’s the legal and PR headaches that the game seems infallibly to attract. Current News Limited CEO John Hartigan has, apparently, been a leading sceptic as to the continuing value of close involvement. The move to a national commission for the NRL is related to News’s desire to scale back its financial and organisational involvement. That doesn’t mean getting away from profitable businesses like the Broncos — which represents an uncommon ray of light in the gloomy world that is News Corp in 2010 — but it does mean seeking new owners for clubs like the Storm and pulling back from a major role in running the sport. News and the NRL are claiming that the Storm’s move to a newer stadium will limit losses, but they’re still dangling a sweetener to potential buyers of $20 million of News Limited cash to be doled out over a number of years.
You might argue that the Storm still need to be given time to build a following, and that even in AFL the relationship between, say, the Lions and the people of Brisbane has blown hot and cold. Unfortunately, while the Storm’s problems might be particularly acute, they’re also representative of broader issues among rugby league clubs. With the threat of pokie incomes drying up in the face of increased NSW Government taxes, clubs are feeling the pinch and only belatedly trying to build a membership culture in the code.
As the News Limited sugar daddy moves to cut off the allowance, any new commission’s first order of business must be to extract as much as possible from the next TV rights deal and balance a fair distribution of resources with the league’s ongoing survival as a national competition.
- Waiting To Exhale
Scene: A top-secret, last-minute Liberal Party policy meeting. NICK MINCHIN, TONY ABBOTT, and JULIE BISHOP.
ABBOTT: As we are just about to walk into Parliament, this would be a good time to give you a complete list of all our policies for the next five years. They’ve already been decided: I just thought them up! (Hands out an overflowing ring-binder to everyone present.) Questions? No? Good.
MINCHIN: But … how are we supposed to have time to — what is all this?
ABBOTT: Oh, just some stuff that I thought of when I was eating a snack yesterday. It was a Le Snack, if I remember correctly. Oh wait — ah — yes, definitely a Le Snack. There are two little compartments, see, and you mix —
MINCHIN: So you thought it would be a good idea to launch a surprise attack on your own party?
ABBOTT: Yeah, I thought, um, it would be pretty funny, actually.
MINCHIN: (Seething as he flicks through.) This will look very bad for us.
ABBOTT: I know, I know! (Laughs hysterically.) I’ve changed my mind about absolutely everything! It’s uncanny! Fun though.
MINCHIN: (Sniffing the air.) Have you been … smoking dope, Tony?
ABBOTT: (Distracted.) So hungry. (To BISHOP.) Can I have a Dorito? (Receives death stare.) Sorry. (To MINCHIN.) No, I haven’t, I swear. (Weeps.) We’ve been so, so cruel to everyone. We are beasts. Mere beasts!
MINCHIN: Do you realise how easy this "plan" makes life for single mothers?
ABBOTT: Well, some of them are —
MINCHIN: — undeserving hussies. You always said that, always. Let me refresh your memory. Leviticus 10:19: If thou saucy, irresistible minxes doth chose to spawn a filthy devil-child out of their pit of appalling (yet yummily tempting) lusty bits, thou art a lazy, worthless filthy swine-like shadow of a woman — remember? Tony? Tone?
ABBOTT: But I love mums.
MINCHIN: What?!
ABBOTT: They’re not virgins, usually. But … I love them anyway.
MINCHIN: (Changing topic.) Where will all this money come from, anyway? It’ll cost billions and billions! We weren’t going to do anything that costs millions or billions, for Barnaby’s sake. Remember?
BISHOP: Where will the money come from, Tony? From taxing the destitute right down to their last precious, stringy, emaciated chicken? (Thinks about this.) Actually, that sounds quite fun.
ABBOTT: I thought of that. We’ll get the money off … big business. (Laughs.)
MINCHIN: (Astounded.) What? But it’s no fun taking money off people if they don’t actually need it! You love big business. I love big business. We hate people, remember? We’re the Liberal party!
BISHOP: Wait: there’s more stuff down the back of this folder. When were you planning on sharing these … suggestions?
ABBOTT: (Casually.) Oh, just some other policies I thought up. Totally by myself.
BISHOP: (Reading aloud.) "The so-called ‘nuclear family’ is merely a patriarchal, quasi-medieval torture device. Abolish immediately."
ABBOTT: Important point, that. I read it in the Naomi Wolf book Julia gave me.
BISHOP: (Frantically flicking pages.) "The spotted hopping pigmy desert mouse needs to be protected far more vigilantly from heat stress than it currently is."
ABBOTT: The fact is, we can’t account for the decline in numbers of the pygmy mouse and it’s a travesty that we can’t. I love all of Australia’s miniature fauna equally, Julie. There are only approximately 25 million of those little hopping mice left in some smaller Australian states. They’re becoming highly agitated. Something must be done.
MINCHIN: (Weeping angrily.) The man I once knew would have thought nothing of grinding desert-mice beneath his steel-plated boot-heels, listening to the snap of their tiny, perfectly-formed vertebrae as he —
BISHOP: "May 26: propose National Pat-A-Whale-Lovingly Day." WTF?
ABBOTT: They truly are the gentle giants of the sea, Julia.
MINCHIN: (In disbelief.) But … are we not the party to put the fear of God into the unbelieving? Deep, deep down into their shrivelled, hollowed-out, damned little blasted souls, like you told us at the Friday morning pep talk? Tony?
ABBOTT: But of which God are you speaking, my friend? There are many gods, remember. Hmm?
BISHOP: Um … many?
ABBOTT: Yes, many. Each with her own beautiful, unique message.
There is a horrified pause. The door suddenly flings open violently, slamming against the opposite wall and dislodging several pieces of the Liberal Party Royal Doulton Tea Set, which smash spectacularly against the tessellated British racing green marble floor. BARNABY JOYCE enters.
JOYCE: You lookin’ for a blunderbuss in the hooter, drongo?
MINCHIN: Oh, God. Oh, God. We are all done for.
JOYCE: (Brandishing folder.) This is undoubtedly the most blundering, literally utterly confabricating spifflication that me peepers have majiggered in yonks!
ABBOTT: Barnaby, we can settle this peacefully. Just as the Buddha would have us do.
BISHOP: (Shuddering.) There’s only one thing for it, then.
BISHOP exits, then returns soon after in flowing black robe, holding gigantic silver crucifix. She looms over ABBOTT, who has now dropped to his knees in abject terror.
Hear this, Lord: Help us to cast out this pernicious spirit of compassionate conservatism entwined within this poor sinner’s soul!
JOYCE and MINCHIN: Amen! Amen!
BISHOP: Make this wretch’s spirit of compassion more barren than Julia Gillard’s fruit bowl!
ABBOTT lapses into unconsciousness, then begins to convulse wildly. His yellowed, cat-like eyes open maliciously. His breath emerges in a thick mist.
JOYCE and MINCHIN: Amen.
BISHOP: Out, out, thy devilish affection for social democracy! Return, return to him, thy utterly discredited ghost of Friedmanite supply-side economics!
ABBOTT convulses again, projectile-vomiting green soup all over the marble.
BISHOP: Awake! Awake!
ABBOTT opens his eyes slowly, looking up at his colleagues.
ABBOTT: What — uh — what happened?
MINCHIN: (Sweating with relief.) We thought we’d lost you, Tone.
JOYCE: That was more balls-up than a B&S Ball at a knacker’s yard, mate!
ABBOTT: I swear to you all: that will never happen again. Never.
MINCHIN: Ah, you’re the best, Tone! (Shyly hugs ABBOTT.)
ABBOTT: (To MINCHIN.) Fag. (To everyone.) Now. Let’s go and bust some welfare queens!
All laugh uproariously.
- Getting Two Wheels On The Road Getting ready to travel from Paris to Sydney, I imagined that my days would be filled with bike rides through the sunshine. My illusions faded on the day I arrived: there weren’t that many people cycling at all and instead of separated cycleways, all I could see were huge 4WDs and overpacked buses.
No, Sydney isn’t built quite like Paris. Yes, the little lanes winding through Paris make it easier for bikes to avoid the busiest avenues and boulevards but what really makes it easier to ride through the city of light is the cycle-friendly policies of the Mairie de Paris, the city’s council.
Let’s look at what the Mairie has done in Paris. For starters, they have built some 400 kilometres of cycling paths, comprising dedicated cycling paths and enlarged bus lanes.
By contrast, the City of Sydney has committed to the construction of a 200 kilometre cycling network with 55 kilometres of separated laneways over the next four years. If that sounds small compared to the Parisian network, bear in mind that it’s partly because the City of Sydney hasn’t found an equal partner in the NSW Government as far as bikes are concerned. While the City of Sydney is spending $70 million to extend the network, the State Government has only chipped in $13.5 million for bicycle initiatives across the whole of NSW.
The City of Sydney recently announced its plan to replace the Taylor Square Hotel on Oxford Street with a bicycle hub, complete with a bike repair centre, bike shops, parking and showers for commuters.
It all sounds good in theory but Taylor Square clearly isn’t an ideal spot for a cycle hub, says Elliot Fishman, the director of the Institute for Sensible Transport: "To maximise the investment in biking hubs and end of trip facilities, the best place to locate them is in areas very close to people’s final destinations: in the CBD, it would be desirable to be close to a public transport hub." Buses roll down Oxford Street but Sydney buses don’t carry bikes, making Taylor Square a less suitable public transport hub than, say, the precinct around Central railway station.
Similarly, the promised 55 kilometres of separated laneways sound good but when the preponderance of accidents on Sydney roads shared by cars and cyclists is taken into account, it doesn’t seem quite enough.
In fact, the major factor in fatal road crashes involving cyclists in Australia between 1996 and 2004 was the failure of cyclists and other road users to observe each other on the road. Such accidents are especially frequent in Sydney: a NSW Government report reveals that NSW commuter cyclists are more likely to be in a crash than commuter cyclists in most other states and that Sydney cyclists are in greatest danger as crashes tend to cluster around the CBD.
According to the City of Sydney, clearly marked separated cycle ways could have prevented 44 per cent of cycling accidents in the City of Sydney area between 2002 and 2007.
As anyone who has ridden a bicycle down a major road in Sydney can attest, Sydney drivers can be quite hostile toward cyclists. It is widely assumed that cyclists are responsible for accidents on shared roads and indeed they’re often depicted in the media as being dangerous. International research shows, however, that drivers are at fault in most bike-car accidents. An analysis of police reports of some 2752 bike-car accidents in Toronto, Canada, found that clumsy or inattentive driving by motorists caused 90 per cent of the crashes. It goes without saying that cyclists tend to come off worse in these encounters.
Increasing driver awareness and building separated laneways are a good way to improve the safety of cyclists. Another method is to double the number of cyclists on the road. Californian researcher Peter Jacobsen argues that this brings a 30 per cent reduction in cycling crashes with motor vehicles.
More than two years ago, the Mairie de Paris decided to do just this by launching the Vélib’, a program which allows city residents and visitors to rent bikes at open-air stations around the city and to drop them off at other stations when they’re done. It’s not the first system which offers a bicycle hire system but it’s the first one developed on such a scale. There are stations every 300 metres and more than 20,000 bikes available across the city.
The Vélib’ has been a real success: two years after its launch in July 2009, more than 50 million bicyle hires had been logged, 6 million users had taken on a short membership and a further 170,000 annual memberships. Everyday, almost 80,000 Vélib’ bikes are hired. And when the Mairie surveyed 853 Vélib’ users in July 2009, it found that 75 per cent of them were "quite satisfied" with the service and 19 per cent "very satisfied".
This is all quite understandable. This system is not only functional, it’s cheap. To become a member costs €1 per day, €5 per week or €49 per year. The first half-hour of bike use is free, the next half hour costs €1, and thereafter users are charged another €2 per half hour, thus ensuring a good rotation of the bikes.
Implementation of the Vélib’ hasn’t been entirely problem free. JCDecaux, the Vélib’ contractor, certainly didn’t expect such vandalism against the bikes. Two years after the launch, 16,000 cases of damage, 8000 thefts and 3500 complaints to the police had been logged. In addition, the company undertakes 1500 repairs per day.
Teething problems aside, Vélib’ is part of a global urban transport revolution in which flexibility is key. With the Vélib’ system, users can go to work by bike in the morning and return by bus at night. The Vélib’ ticket system is linked to other transport modes in Paris: if you have an annual Vélib’ membership, you can use the same card to withdraw your bike as you use in the subway, bus and rapid-transit rail systems.
The Vélib’ is an important element of the rise of "intermodality" in Paris. Adding new transport options to existing transport nodes — such as major rail stations — takes pressure off trains and buses and enables commuters to modulate their trips.
On the back of the success of the Vélib’, the Mairie is now planning to develop the Autolib’, a car rental system which will operate on similar principles. There are plans for 1000 Autolib’ stations, of which 700 are in Paris and 300 in the surrounding areas, which will make 3000 cars available to users.
The Parisian example has been followed by major cities around the world, including Melbourne. In November last year the RACV won the contract to provide 600 bicycles across 50 sites around Melbourne, including Federation Square, Southern Cross station and Melbourne University. The program will cost commuters roughly the same as the Vélib’: $2.50 for a daily membership and $50 for a whole year.
Elliot Fishman is certain that the City of Sydney will eventually implement a public bike system: "It is going to happen, it is just a question of when," he told newmatilda.com. Still, he points out that there are several obstacles to overcome.
First, the compulsory helmet legislation in Australia makes it harder to implement a public bike system. Tim Pallas, Victoria’s Minister for Roads, is currently searching for a contractor to provide helmets for Melbourne’s public bike hire program but he hasn’t succeeded yet. It’s likely Melbournians will have to bring their own helmet if they want to hire a bike which may reduce uptake. Fishman argues that Australia should rethink compulsory helmets as "the health benefits you get from cycling are greater than the health risks associated with riding without a helmet for an adult".
He also makes a case for a more thorough investigation of the speed limits in city centres. In Australia, cars can drive at 50 or 60 kilometres per hour on average in city centres, whereas in European cities that speed is often reduced to 30 kilometres per hour. "Above 30 kilometres per hour, a collision between a car and a cyclist becomes much more life-threatening," explains Fishman.
Finally, to get more cyclists on the road and to keep them there safely, the City of Sydney needs to commit to much stronger bicycle infrastructures: "Safety is still the paramount concern of cyclists and also of would-be cyclists," stresses Fishman. The Vélib’ system might have some problems but the City of Sydney could do worse than look to the Parisian example.
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