Theresa May has deserted women in hunt for cuts, says Alan Johnson

September 3rd, 2010   by Abigail

Theresa May, the Home Secretary, has relegated the fight against the ill-treatment of women under Treasury pressure to find big cuts in her £10bn-a-year budget, her predecessor in the role claims today.

In a strong attack, the shadow Home Secretary Alan Johnson said the Government was developing a "pattern of behaviour" that is anti-women. In an interview with The Independent, Mr Johnson accused the Coalition of:

* Opting out of a European Union directive on human trafficking designed to clamp down on "sex slaves";

* Shelving plans for domestic violence protection orders to force violent men to leave the family home;

* A proposal, since watered down, to allow people accused of rape to remain anonymous.

Mr Johnson said: "I don't doubt that Theresa May meant it when she said that she wanted to end violence against women and girls. But now she is going cold on it. The Government's actions show that it is not giving the same priority to it as the last government did. It should be accelerating it, not slowing it."

The former home secretary accused his successor of not fighting the Whitehall battle as aggressively as Iain Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, and Liam Fox, the Defence Secretary, as the Treasury seeks to impose cuts of up to 40 per cent in departmental budgets in the government-wide spending review to be unveiled on 20 October.

"It is poor judgment by Theresa May. She is losing arguments in Whitehall. She is the Home Secretary and she should carry a lot of clout," said Mr Johnson. "It demonstrates a lack of concern for victims of domestic violence and trafficking."

Mr Johnson accused the Government of pulling out of the directive to appease Eurosceptic Tory MPs. "I suspect the only word it didn't like in the directive is 'Europe'."

The directive would allow traffickers to be prosecuted for offences in other member states.

A Home Office spokesman said: "The Home Secretary has made clear she considers tackling violence against women a priority. This Government is committed to protecting victims of domestic violence and that is why we have continued to provide £3.5m funding for Independent Domestic Violence Advisers and Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conferences."

Whitehall sources said no final decision had been taken on whether to go ahead with pilot schemes for violent men to be banned from their homes for up two weeks, to give victims the chance to seek help. The previous government's plan is being reviewed as part of the search for cuts.

drive from www.independent.co.uk

85% of new drugs 'offer few benefits'

September 2nd, 2010   by Abigail

Drug companies were accused today of conning the public by hyping up patented medicines with little new to offer while downplaying their side-effects.

An estimated 85% of new drugs offer few if any new benefits while having the potential to cause serious harm due to toxicity or misuse, a study has concluded.
The author of the research delivered a damning attack on "Big Pharma" at a meeting of sociology experts in the US.

Professor Donald Light described the pharmaceutical industry as a "market for lemons" - one in which the seller knows much more than the buyer about the product, and takes advantage of this fact.

"Sometimes drug companies hide or downplay information about serious side-effects of new drugs and overstate the drugs' benefits," said Prof Light, a professor of comparative health policy at the University of Medicine and Dentistry in New Jersey, US.

"Then, they spend two to three times more on marketing than on research to persuade doctors to prescribe these new drugs. Doctors may get misleading information and then misinform patients about the risks of a new drug. It's really a two-tier market for lemons."

He alleged that the pharmaceutical industry owned companies in charge of drug testing and provided "firewalls" of legal protection behind which information about dangers or lack of effectiveness could be be hidden.

Companies were assisted by the "relatively low bar" for effectiveness that had to be crossed to get a new drug approved, he claimed.

Prof Light presented his paper, entitled "Pharmaceuticals: A Two-Tier Market for Producing 'Lemons' and Serious Harm" today at the American Sociological Association's annual meeting in Atlanta, Georgia.

The study includes data gathered from independent reviewers which suggest that 85% of new drugs provide few, if any, new benefits.

Yet toxic side effects and misuse of prescription drugs had made medicines a significant cause of death, said Prof Light.

The professor makes the same claims in a new book, The Risk of Prescription Drugs due to be published this autumn by Columbia University Press.

In both his paper and the book, he describes the "risk proliferation syndrome" involved in drug marketing. This is said to arise from maximising the number of patients exposed to the side effects of new drugs of dubious efficacy.

Hyping a drug began with clinical trials designed to minimise evidence of harm and published literature that emphasised its advantages, said Prof Light.

Building on this foundation, pharmaceutical companies staged massive campaigns to sell the product, when a controlled limited launch would allow evidence of its effects to be gathered, he argued.

Leading clinicians were recruited to try using the drug for conditions other than those for which it was approved, and to promote "off-label" or unapproved uses, Prof Light maintained.

Physicians inadvertently became "double agents" - promoters of the new drug, yet trusted stewards of patients' health.

When patients complain of adverse reactions, studies show that doctors are likely to discount or dismiss them, according to Prof Light.

He accused companies of conducting a "swamp the regulator" policy - bombarding the bodies that award drug licences with large numbers of "incomplete, partial, sub-standard clinical trials".

drive from www.independent.co.uk

Mustard century dents Notts' hopes of title

September 1st, 2010   by Abigail

The temporary stand was already in place at the home of the outgoing county champions yesterday, in readiness for the first of the end-of-season, 50-over, one-day internationals here on Friday week. In fact, with 15,000 tickets sold, provision has been made for an additional 1,000 pale-blue seats to be added at the back of the makeshift terrace. Whether there have been any takers for them since the News of the World rolled off the presses last weekend is open to question.

By the time Pakistan hit Chester-le-Street there is a possibility that the County Championship trophy will be on its way from the Riverside (or the Durham Emirates International Cricket Ground, to use its official name these days) to Trent Bridge.

Nottinghamshire arrived here yesterday with a 16-point lead in the First Division and in the game they have in hand over Somerset and Yorkshire in second and third respectively, with two each left to play thereafter, they have stretched their room at the top to 18, courtesy of two first-day bowling points.

Not that Nottinghamshire – who entertain Yorkshire in their penultimate fixture next week – can take the 16 points from a victory for granted. Not by a long chalk. They may have had Durham up against the ropes before lunch, at 53 for 3 and 76 for 4, but the reigning champions fought back to 347 for 6 by the close of play, Phil Mustard leading the resistance with a captain's knock of 117 not out.

In the corresponding fixture last season Durham wrapped up the title (with two matches to spare), thanks to a first innings tally of 648 for 5 declared that opened with a stand of 314 between Michael Di Venuto and Kyle Coetzer. Yesterday they had just four extras on the board when they lost their first wicket, Ryan Sidebottom trapping Di Venuto lbw with the sixth ball of the day. In last year's encounter Durham's Tasmanian opener carried his bat through the first day for 219. This time round he went for a duck – after surviving a spilt catch by Andre Adams from the previous delivery by Sidebottom, who will leave to join the England Twenty20 squad at stumps today and is to be replaced by Darren Pattinson.

Durham need points to avert the lingering threat of relegation and they struggled to reach 95 for 4 at lunch, Gordon Muchall and Dale Benkenstein both falling for 13 and Ben Harmison for two. It was Mark Stoneman who steadied the home ship with a contribution of 67 runs – and a fifth-wicket stand of 87 in the company of Ian Blackwell – before falling lbw to Adams.

Blackwell went for 59, bowled by Adams, leaving Durham on 188 for 6. It was to be their final loss of the day, though. By stumps, they had three batting points in the bag and were just three runs shy of a fourth. Mustard, the sometime England one-day wicketkeeper, was sharing a seventh-wicket partnership of 159 with Scott Borthwick. The 20-year-old all-rounder finished unbeaten on 54, his joint-highest first-class score.

drive from www.independent.co.uk

Secret services 'must be made more transparent'

August 31st, 2010   by Abigail

The secret services must become more transparent if they are to halt the spread of damaging conspiracy theories and increase trust in the Government, claims a leading think tank.

A Demos report published today, The Power of Unreason, argues that secrecy surrounding the investigation of events such as the 9/11 New York attacks and the 7/7 bombings in London merely adds weight to unsubstantiated claims that they were "inside jobs".

It warns of the dangers posed by conspiracy theories – from hindering counter-terrorism work by reducing public trust in the Government, to encouraging new alliances between extremists based on such theories – and recommends the Government fight back by infiltrating internet sites to dispute these theories.

Jamie Bartlett, the author of the report, said: "Less-secret services could make Britain safer. The more open the Government is, the harder it is for extremist groups to make stories out of silence."

The Royal United Services Institute warned last week that the UK may soon face a new wave of home-grown terrorists, when criminals who have been targeted by jihadists while in prison are released.

Demos also recommends that the National Security Council publish an annual report of its proceedings and that it makes details of counter-terrorism investigations available to selected individuals.

A Home Office spokesman said: "The Government has prepared the groundwork in being more open by having a review of counter-terrorism powers."

drive from www.independent.co.uk

British Chamber of Commerce predicts faster UK economic growth

August 30th, 2010   by Abigail

The UK economy will grow faster than first thought this year, the British Chambers of Commerce predicts today, but the threat of double-dip recession remains as government cuts bite and unemployment rises.

Following news last week that the UK economy enjoyed its fastest growth in almost a decade this spring, the BCC has raised its 2010 forecast to 1.7% growth from the 1.3% expansion pencilled in three months ago. But that will be quickly followed by a sharp slowdown in growth at the start of 2011 as spending cuts and a VAT rise are felt, the business group warns in its economic forecast today.

"If successful, the forceful deficit-cutting strategy announced in the emergency budget would put the UK on a path of sustainable and affordable recovery, and could help create a leaner and fitter economy. But, the scale of fiscal retrenchment, and the decision to cut the deficit at an accelerated pace, will inevitably increase dangers of a double-dip recession," according to BCC chief economist, David Kern.

The BCC puts growth at 2.2% in 2011, up from its earlier 2% but is still downbeat on the medium-term. Over the next four to five years, GDP growth is seen averaging just under 2% per year, compared with a 3% average between 1993 and 2007, before the credit crunch.

In the short-term, sharp falls in sterling and the rebuilding of stocks at companies who wound down their inventories during the recession will help keep the pace of growth "satisfactory", said Kern. But although a weaker pound has boosted the competitiveness of UK exporters, the business group is concerned that demand from overseas will wane amid signs the global recovery is losing steam.

Official UK data last week showed GDP growth rising to a quarterly 1.2% in the second quarter. But in the US growth over the same period was revised sharply lower.

The BCC also sees a number of pressures from within the UK and is particularly downbeat on the labour market outlook. It predicts unemployment will increase over the next 18 months and peak at 2.65m people, or 8.3% of the workforce, in the first half of 2012. That compares with 2.46m now.

Given the risks facing the economy, it wants the Bank of England to keep interest rates at their record low of 0.5% until the second quarter of 2011 at the earliest and to consider more quantitative easing (QE) if the economy weakens. The central bank's own forecast for 2011 growth is a higher 2.8%. But policymakers' recent remarks have left the door open for more QE, which is a way of pumping money into the economy and keeping market rates low with bond purchases.

The BCC is also calling on the government to provide a "coherent growth strategy" alongside its deficit reduction measures.

"Deficit reduction on its own will not deliver a sustainable recovery," said BCC director general David Frost. "We need policies that rebalance the economy towards wealth-creating businesses, and enable the private sector to invest, export and create new jobs. Failure to get this right poses the biggest risk to recovery."

drive from www.guardian.co.uk

Grape fun: wine harvest festivals

August 28th, 2010   by Abigail

There's never a bad time to visit a vineyard, but one of the best is harvest time, when there are festivals, tasting events and even the chance to help pick the grapes

Vendimia festival, Jerez, Spain

Three weeks from Saturday, 4 September
Jerez de la Frontera in Andalucía, sherry capital of the world, becomes a hive of wine-related activity and parties from the first weekend in September to celebrate the Vendimia festival. There's bullfighting (including a comedy bullfight), motorcycle racing and flamenco dancing, as well as grape picking. The family friendly festivities kick off with the Queen of Sherry parade, when she tosses a bunch of grapes into a press for four workmen to tread for the first official pressing of the vintage, and children run after her chariot to catch the sweets she throws. Then the party begins, with events in town and at the bodegas.
• See andalucia.com and turismojerez.com for details and accommodation. Casa Vina de Alcantara (vinadealcantara .com; doubles €160) is an elegant house in an arboretum, with 10 rooms and a pool, a short drive from the town centre
Marathon du Médoc, France

10-11 September
Thought marathons were all about sports drinks and energy bars? Not so in this event, where there are wine stops for runners pounding the pathways and roads of the Médoc region, passing 50 pretty chateaux and vineyards that are preparing for their autumn harvest. As well as the 8,500 or so runners, it attracts 50,000 spectators, many in fancy dress (comicbook heroes is this year's theme), and food stalls along the route offer oysters, steak, ice-cream and cheese (obviously no one is there to beat their personal bests).
On the eve of the race the area's estates open up their cellars and grounds and one property holds a Repas des Mille Pâtes (A Thousand Pastas' dinner), which is reputedly great fun, and includes a cocktail hour. In the town of Pauillac, particularly along the quays of river Gironde, the party continues into the night. On the morning after the race, there is a 10km walk (the Ballade de Récupération), which provides an opportunity to taste more of the region's wines.
OK, it's the weekend after next, so if you haven't registered yet, you're off the hook, though you can still go and watch. And if you're planning to run a marathon next year, this one has more of an incentive than most.
• marathondumedoc.com sells packages to the event and lists accommodation
Festa dell'Uva, Impruneta, Tuscany, Italy

26 September
The oldest grape festival in the region and one of a slew of harvesting events in Tuscany, the Festa dell'Uva in Impruneta pays homage to the region's prized chianti and other varieties, with parades, dances, shows and food stalls. You can catch a bus from Florence to Impruneta.
• lafestadelluva.it. Tourist information: +39 055 231 3729, presidentefestauva@yahoo.it. Castello di Cafaggio (020-7193 1363, icastelli.net; from €90 per night) is a gorgeous 14th-century estate set in vineyards a few minutes from the village
Paso Robles Harvest Wine Weekend, California, USA

15-17 October
The small Central Coast town of Paso Robles celebrates the new vintage with more than 130 wineries holding their own events during the third weekend in October. A notably cool summer coupled with a slighter later bud break from a sluggish spring has the local wine industry predicting a much later harvest, possibly into November, but the festival dates remain the same and it won't be any less fun. Wineries hold their own individual events, everything from novelty grape stomping to intimate winemaker dinners and wine seminars. The area also has hot springs (such as franklinhotsprings.com) if you need a different sort of liquid therapy afterwards. The drive to Paso Robles from either San Francisco or LA, along the Pacific highway, is truly spectacular.
• pasowine.com. Most of the vineyard accommodation is fully booked for this year, so you would be better off hiring an RV or camping. The Springs at Borrego (springsatborrego.com) has its own natural mineral baths and star parties with an astronomer, and weekly wine tasting. See tinyurl.com/3az3lhu for more campsites

drive from www.guardian.co.uk

A showbiz reception for the tycoon who fled in secret

August 27th, 2010   by Abigail

It must have been a sobering sight for the British officials who spent 17 years trying to bring Asil Nadir to justice, having to watch the fugitive businessman finally fly in yesterday in the company of the combative Sky News presenter Kay Burley.

After the privately chartered Airbus A320 touched down at Luton airport, shortly before 1.30pm, police climbed on board to process the immigration documents of a man accused of embezzling £34m from his Polly Peck empire in an era when a previous Tory prime minister was in Downing Street and the term Britpop was just being invented.

His arrival was hardly a surprise. Before taking off, Mr Nadir had given an interview to the Radio 4 Today programme. He brought a reporter from The Times with him on the journey back to Britain, and took advantage of a stopover in Turkey to film the second of a three-part interview with Ms Burley, the opening sequence having been shot at his North Cyprus villa.
The third section of the interview was shot mid-flight in the aisle of the Airbus, Mr Nadir leaning calmly on a headrest as Ms Burley asked him what his "over-riding emotion" was as he returned to Britain. "Anticipation," said the fugitive, barely audible over the roar of the engines. "Anticipation that I will now, for the first time after 17 years,..." "...Can I just stop you there!" interjected the Sky presenter, demanding that Mr Nadir wipe a barely visible mark from his lip before completing his sentence. It was the only hitch in an otherwise meticulously planned operation.

Although Mr Nadir remains innocent until convicted, his fugitive's return has similarities with that of Ronnie Biggs. The Great Train Robber avoided the clutches of Scotland Yard while sunning himself in Brazil for 30 years before finally returning home in 2001, in the company of a reporter from The Sun.

Given that Mr Nadir had been due to stand trial in 1993 but fled the country in a private plane to live for nearly two decades in luxury in North Cyprus, the authorities may have wanted to slap an electronic tag on him as soon as he stepped on British soil. As it was, they looked on as he jumped into a grey Jaguar and was driven with his wife, Nur, to an apartment in Mayfair. He later emerged to tell reporters: "Everybody should be deemed innocent before they are proven guilty. Why do you think I'm here voluntarily?"

Mr Nadir, who absconded when facing 66 charges of theft and false accounting, is due to attend the Old Bailey next Thursday. After the hearing it is expected that he will be fitted with an electronic tag ahead of a trial that may not take place until 2012.

Now 69, he is paying £20,000 a month for his London accommodation and has returned to Britain in the company of three bodyguards and a legal team from the London firm Bark & Co.

A former rag salesman, he built up his fruit to electronics business to become one of the wealthiest men in Britain, with a string of luxury properties and racehorses and an island in the Aegean. He was a donor to the Conservative Party, and Michael Mates, then Tory minister for Northern Ireland, had commiserated with him by giving him a watch with the engraved message: "Don't let the buggers get you down". Mr Mates resigned over the matter.

Mr Nadir claimed yesterday that he fled justice because he had been ill and could not withstand the pressures of a trial. He now feels that he will receive a fair hearing.

drive from www.independent.co.uk

All they can say in Wakefield is 'rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb'

August 26th, 2010   by Abigail

It is easy to spot the rhubarb heads, as the pointy pink batons jut out of their bags. These are the Wakefield faithful: men and women to whom Geoffrey Boycott-style gags about his mother's ability to hold off limp bowling with a stick of rhubarb fall on deaf ears. And they are in town today to worship at the temple of this peculiar pink vegetable, (not a fruit, because it doesn't contain seeds) which is enjoying a double celebration after joining the hallowed ranks of Europe's protected foods just in time for its own annual festival.

Neil Hulme, who runs one of Yorkshire's biggest rhubarb farms, E Oldroyd & Sons, admits the timing of the European Commission's decision to elevate rhubarb to the status of Champagne or Parma ham was a fluke. "We were expecting the news early March," he says, pausing to light a candle. He is in one of his own rhubarb sheds, the tiny flame illuminating a peculiar congregation of tightly bunched, rose-coloured sticks, their scrunched green tops like a frizzy head of hair on a leggy model.

These are the famous forced rhubarb sheds of the so-called pink triangle, a nine-square-mile area between Wakefield, Morley and Rothwell that is home to Yorkshire forced rhubarb, a bittersweet delicacy that marks the start of a new food year for home cooks and chefs alike.

Mr Hulme is getting ready to show some 80 people around the sheds, just as soon as his wife Janet Oldroyd-Hulme has finished her talk. The Oldroyd farm is a magnet for rhubarb fans and runs visits throughout the short forced growing season, which lasts only from January to March.

Carlton Boyce, a local dad of three, booked his family's trip six weeks ago. "They're so popular it was already nearly full," he says. He was drawn by the prospect of seeing it "growing by candlelight. And that it grows so quickly you can hear it."

He is only half correct. Although candles are lit at harvest time – and for visitors – for the rest of the crop's brief life, the sheds are kept in total darkness to force the rhubarb to grow quickly in the indoor warmth. It is the lack of sunlight that encourages the delicate pink stems to push through, the sweetness coming from the carbohydrate stored in the roots. The soft "pops" that you hear are the rhubarb buds bursting: "Like a chick hatching from an egg," as Mr Hulme describes it.

Once the coachloads of visitors are done with the farm visit, it is onwards to the Wakefield Centre, the home of the festival proper. Over the course of the event, which kicked off on Wednesday with the local author Richard Bell's "Rhubarb Triangle Walk", organiser Hazel Birdsall expects around 100,000 people to pass through, despite foul weather conditions that forced the postponement of the "Rhubarb Run", an annual race for primary school children.

drive from www.independent.co.uk

Church and state colluded to free 'IRA bomber priest'

August 25th, 2010   by Abigail

It was on the last day of the worst month of the worst year of the Troubles that three IRA bombs exploded in the village of Claudy, Co Derry.

The carnage was terrible: nine people, including a little girl, were killed, bringing the overall death toll in Northern Ireland for July 1972 alone to almost one hundred. To many, it looked as if the conflict would escalate out of all control.

Yesterday an official report confirmed that the police, the British government and Catholic Church conspired to protect the prime suspect: a Catholic priest. But it also revealed the profound moral and political dilemma which faced all those involved: the arrest of a Catholic clergyman would likely have inflamed an already dire political and security situation, but the failure to apprehend him risked hampering the search for justice for those who were killed.

Within days of the attacks, there was strong intelligence that one of the bombers was Fr James Chesney, the local republican quartermaster and "director of operations." William Whitelaw, then the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, decided in consultation with the Archbishop of Armagh, Cardinal William Conway, that the priest should not be arrested but instead discreetly transferred across the border into the Republic.

The present Secretary of State, Owen Paterson, said yesterday he was profoundly sorry Fr Chesney "was not properly investigated for his suspected involvement in this hideous crime, and that the victims and their families have been denied justice". But he added: "I recognise of course that all those involved in combating terrorism at the time were making decisions in exceptionally difficult circumstances and under extreme pressure."

The Bishop of Derry, Seamus Hegarty said yesterday he was "shocked and ashamed" that a priest would have been associated with the bomb attack, though the church insisted it had not been party to a cover-up.

The Police Ombudsman, Al Hutchinson, reported he had found no evidence of criminal intent by anyone in the government or the church, but added that he had unearthed collusion. He said the decision not to pursue the priest was "wrong and contrary to a fundamental duty of police to investigate those suspected of criminality".

Mr Whitelaw and Cardinal Conway are both dead but the Ombudsman recovered material from their files and diaries. While their exact thought processes remain unknown, the signs are they quickly agreed that Fr Chesney should be transferred.

There were many ecclesiastical precedents for moving priests – as has been seen in its reactions to various child-abuse scandals. In addition, in the months before Claudy, loyalists had begun to kill Catholics in large numbers. The emergence of an active IRA priest could quite possibly have encouraged them to kill clergy.

From the government's point of view, the idea a priest was an active terrorist would have made far more difficult its attempts to persuade Catholics and Protestants to co-operate in a new partnership government. Furthermore, the arrest of a priest could have caused uproar, since many Catholics would have found it impossible to believe he could be a bomber.

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