Libel reform to be introduced earlier

by Newswire    
July 9, 2010 at 2:31 pm

The Libel Reform Campaign has welcomed the announcement this afternoon by justice minister Lord McNally that the new coalition government will prioritise and bring forward a Libel Reform Bill by the 2011/2012 Parliamentary session, after a consultation this summer.

After a national campaign that mobilised 52,000 supporters, English PEN, Index on Censorship and Sense About Science persuaded all 3 political parties to adopt libel reform in their general election manifestos.

The lack of a robust public interest defence for writers, scientists and human rights activists has led to English libel law being condemned by the UN human rights committee and Parliament’s Culture, Media and Sport select committee.

In recent years, there have been increasing instances of ‘libel tourism’ where wealthy foreign claimants use the High Court in London to silence their critics.

Another area of concern is the multiple publication rule, which counts every internet visit in a new jurisdiction as a new instance of defamation, this judicial ruling predates the light bulb yet is still used in judgements in internet defamation cases.

Currently, 90% of libel cases in England and Wales are won by claimants, taking a case here costs 140 times the European average, and in a survey of GPs, half said they do not discuss drug safety because of fear of a libel action.

Jonathan Heawood, the Director of English PEN said:

Until the Libel Reform Bill is actually passed, the right to free speech in this country will be conditional on writers or scientists having deep pockets or a willingness to fight for years through the Courts. It should no longer be a matter for judges but Parliamentarians should decide on how we balance free expression and reputation.

From a press release

The case of Linda Carty and her impending execution

by Guest    
July 9, 2010 at 1:32 pm

contribution by Michael Ezra

Linda Carty is awaiting execution as she is on death row in Texas. She was sentenced to death in 2002 for her part in the kidnapping and murder of Joana Rodriguez, a 25 year old neighbour.

According to news reports, it was argued that the intent of the murder was so that Carty could steal Rodriguez’s baby and pass it off as her own. As the Guardian reports, the latter claim does seem somewhat dubious given that baby in question was a different ethnicity to that of Carty.
continue reading… »

Can social liberals change this Coalition government?

by Guest    
July 9, 2010 at 11:38 am

contribution by James Paul

Much of the debate on the deal between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats to form a coalition government has focused on how “strange” it was for the two parties to enter a partnership.

In The Liberal Democrat Journey, published by Compass, Dr Richard Grayson details the transformation of the Liberal Democrats over the past decade and shows why the coalition is not all that alien.
continue reading… »

Should the UK press be taken seriously on climate change?

by Sunny Hundal    
July 9, 2010 at 9:45 am

On Tuesday this week the Daily Sunday Telegraph was finally forced to issue a retraction and an apology for an earlier article with false claims about the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) chief Rajendra Pachauri. You can read the apology here.

What’s unsurprising about this episode is that it’s just one in a long line of apologies forced out of the right-wing press in recent months. And yet the climate change deniers still carry on pretending they have the science and facts on their side.
continue reading… »

Ed Miliband: ‘don’t out-right the right on crime’

by Newswire    
July 8, 2010 at 9:20 pm

Ed Miliband today warned his shadow cabinet colleagues not to try to “out-right the right” on crime, but follow the lead of the Ken Clarke who wants to reduce prison sentences.

The leadership contender’s remarks differ sharply from Jack Straw, the shadow justice secretary, who said that sending more people to jail had cut crime.

“I don’t think we should try to out-right the right on crime,” Miliband said. “A lot of what [Clarke] is doing is motivated by budget cuts; but he is opening up an opportunity for us to redefine part of the debate about criminal justice.”

….more at the Guardian

But Labour’s attack on “benefits cheats” didn’t help the system

by Neil Robertson    
July 8, 2010 at 8:33 pm

Most of you will have now seen Sunny’s interview with Ed Miliband, in which he declared himself ‘the candidate of change’ and then somewhat contentiously argued that New Labour wasn’t too harsh in how it handled the benefits system.

Responding to heckles from the audience, Sunny suggests Miliband’s critics have missed the point:

Sure, New Labour did use a lot of negative language, but it’s naive to assume people won’t talk about “benefits cheats” just because the Labour government didn’t. The Daily Mail cannot be wished away. And so I’m assuming New Labour simply made the calculation that sounding harsh on benefit cheats in public would convince the public something was being done about them – and keep faith in the system. Because once that faith goes, then the system goes.

In many respects, Sunny is absolutely correct.
continue reading… »

Spirit Level authors hit back at Policy Exchange

by Newswire    
July 8, 2010 at 6:10 pm

The right-wing thinktank Policy Exchange today published a report titled Beware False Prophets – which takes aim squarely at the book Spirit Level and tries to question many of its assumptions.

In an article for Guardian Comment is Free, Natalie Evans writes: ‘A new report fatally undermines the authors’ claims about the link between income equality and social problems’.

But the authors of the book Spirit Level, Professor Richard Wilkinson & Professor Kate Pickett, responded today with a full rebuttal.

We publish their press release here:

——

• The
  Spirit Level is based on many decades of research by its authors and other respected academics – it represents a synthesis of research and critical thought that has been subjected to stringent and robust quality control before being widely disseminated.

• All analyses of income inequality and health and social problems in The Spirit Level have been either: (a) replicated by other researchers, in some cases hundreds of times, or (b) published in peer-reviewed academic journals This is fully referenced in The Spirit Level, but Peter Saunders is either unaware of this very large body of evidence or has chosen to ignore it.

• The selective removal of countries suggested by Peter Saunders does not have the effect of removing the relationship between inequality and health & social problems. The Index of Social Problems (http://www.equalitytrust.org.uk/images/index-graph-inequality.jpg) remains statistically significant even if those countries suggested for removal – Japan, Norway, Sweden, Finland, USA and Portugal – are
  disregarded.

• Peter Saunders analysis includes much poorer countries. The Spirit Level explicitly restricts analysis to rich, developed market democracies, where average levels of income are no longer related to average life expectancy, happiness or quality of life. Confining the analysis to the richest countries very clearly demonstrates the effects of relative income (Fig 1.4 in The Spirit Level) which contrast so clearly with the lack of effect of absolute income (Figure 1.3 in The Spirit Level). By including poorer countries the sharp distinction between relative and absolute income is lost.

• Saunders is wrong to claim, in analyses of the US states, that many of the associations are explained by the proportion of African Americans in each state. There is a detailed, empirical argument against Saunders’ claim and other researchers also show his analysis is incorrect.

• Saunders misunderstands the evidence that shows that almost everyone does better in more equal societies. The Spirit Level does not say that everybody in a more equal society does better than the highest social class and income groups in a less equal country. It shows that for any given social class or income level, people do better than their class or income counterparts who live in a less equal society.

• The Spirit Level is sometimes called a ‘theory of everything’ but the book makes it clear that it is a theory of problems which have a social gradient – that is, problems which become more common further down the social and income ladder. Saunders ignores this and chooses counter examples such as suicide rates which do not have this social gradient.

——–

Crisp industry takes charge of anti-obesity policy

by Dave Osler    
July 8, 2010 at 2:24 pm

Anti-obesity campaigning in Britain will soon be brought to you courtesy of Bombay Bad Boy-flavour Pot Noodles, Snickers, Golden Wonder and Fanta. Or at least it will be, if Andrew Lansley gets his way.

The Tory health secretary has today announced that the Change4Life campaign – which offers friendly advice and encouragement to those of us who really could shed a few pounds – is to be scrapped.

This is logical enough for someone in Mr Lansley’s space in the left-right spectrum. You can almost anticipate his arguments now. True, the Magna Carta did not expressly specify that freeborn Englishmen have the right to clog their arteries by overdosing on Ben & Jerry’s Chunky Monkey until their aorta explodes, but thank God we live in an open society.
continue reading… »

Campaign group asks Vince to stop Murdoch

by Newswire    
July 8, 2010 at 11:25 am

The email pressure-group 38 Degrees yesterday launched a campaign to put pressure on Business Secretary Vince Cable to stop Rupert Murdoch.

Murdoch wants to take complete control of BSkyB, which they say will “increase his stranglehold on the UK’s media”.

The owner of the Times already owns 40% of BSkyB.

“It would give Murdoch even more political influence and could open the doors to biased, right-wing news reporting, like Fox News in the US” — said 38 Degrees in an email to their 100,000 subscribers.

It also said:

Vince Cable has the power to stop Murdoch’s plan. As Business Secretary, he’s got 17 working days to call the deal in for a review. [1] If enough of us stand up to Murdoch and build a big enough petition, we can persuade Cable to make the right decision and block Murdoch’s takeover.

Take 30 seconds to sign our “Vince stand up to Murdoch” petition now:
http://www.38degrees.org.uk/murdoch

Murdoch thinks he has this deal sewn up. There are plenty of people in government who owe him big favours after his papers backed them during the election. Add to that the full force of Murdoch’s media empire and you can be sure that Vince Cable will be feeling the pressure to cave in.

We need to outweigh that pressure with people power. Thousands of us need to tell Vince Cable to stand up to Murdoch.

Sign up from here: http://www.38degrees.org.uk/murdoch

This was New Labour’s greatest achievement

by Sunny Hundal    
July 8, 2010 at 11:00 am

When talking of New Labour’s achievements of the last thirteen years, I distinctly get the impression most people don’t see it as I do. Furthermore, many lefties disillusioned with Labour can’t even bring themselves to talk of ‘achievements’.

But there is, I think, an important reason to talk about it now.

There are two battlegrounds that have defined differences between the left and right (in Western Europe and North America) over the last 70 years or so: a war over over social issues and a war on economic issues.

continue reading… »

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