City’s “top figures” want more money, not to stimulate the economy
The Telegraph today faithfully splashes in support of the top 1%, who are on the breadline. They need a tax break you see, otherwise life might remain slightly uncomfortable.
In a letter to the Chancellor, more than 30 of the City’s top figures agree that the “current turmoil in southern Europe” means that the Government must take “immediate actions” to boost confidence. They call for the immediate scrapping of the 50p rate to attract entrepreneurs to Britain and a £1,000 increase in the tax-free personal allowance.
I don’t have a problem with such calls at all.
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Film on Iraq war protest looks for support
It was the biggest protest in the history of mankind: 15 February 2003, an estimated 30 million people in over 700 cities around the world.
Filmmaker Amir Amirani wants to make a documentary titled ‘We Are Many‘ about this landmark day of protest, though crowd-sourcing.
The blurb says:
We Are Many is a documentary about one of the landmark moments of people power – the protest against the Iraq war, which has gone down in the record books as the largest protest in history.
…
The question of whether the protest could have stopped the war continues, and the film will reflect that. We now know that in fact the war was planned at least a year in advance. Some argue that more could have been done to harness the power of the millions who marched, and the millions for whom 15 February 2003 was their first-ever protest. What has gone unnoticed is that the day marked not only the birth of a new kind of global movement, but set in motion changes that are being felt to this day.
Watch a trailer
He adds:
The story of this march is remarkable – for its scale and significance, the inside story of the organization behind it, the unfolding events of the day itself, and its extraordinary legacy. This story that has never been told on film – until now. You can make this happen.
More about the film and the donation page here.
European Commission expects no growth, and no hope
Reading through the European Commission’s Autumn Forecast for 2011-2013 doesn’t inspire too much by way of optimism.
The recovery of the EU economy, as it points out in the first line of the press release, has stopped.
Growth for 2012 is forecast as half a per cent, rising by 1 per cent in 2013. Investment will either be postponed or cancelled, banks will restrict lending, confidence will only return once these problems are rectified and we are facing a mutually afflictive “viscious cirlce”.
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Watch: Jon Stewart on Herman Cain allegations
Jon Stewart of the Daily Show tackles Herman Cain’s attempts to deflect allegations of sexual harassment.
Funny as always.
Should we be wary of private companies’ involvement in healthcare?
contribution by Melanie Newman
“Wariness of private companies’ involvement in healthcare is a British obsession and an irrational one,” proclaimed the Times in an editorial yesterday, accompanying a lengthy article by Camilla Cavendish on the NHS.
Cavendish’s piece began with an almost delirious appraisal of Circle Health, the private healthcare operator that is 50% owned by its staff.
Circle’s hospital in Bath is “designed by Lord Foster, there is a grand piano in the front hall and the NHS patients get the same fluffy white dressing gowns and ensuite rooms as the private patients,” Cavendish gushed.
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Daily Mail admits Mel Phillips got it wrong
In late September, the Daily Mail’s resident conspiracy theorist Melanie Phillips wrote an article titled: ‘Our language is being hijacked by the Left to muzzle rational debate‘
Soon after, she was emailed by blogger Kevin Arscott who pointed out inconsistencies in her article.
She eventually hit back with threats of libel
Your blog post about me is highly defamatory and contains false allegations for which you would stand to pay me significant damages in a libel action
Fancy that – talking of libel damages after an article complaining how the left was trying to ‘muzzle rational debate’!
Kevin had simply pointed out that the Winterval example she used was an urban myth.
Phillips had actually replied with these words:
Winterval buried ‘Christmas’ and replaced it in the public mind. Your message is therefore as arrogant and ignorant as it is offensive.
Guess what? The Daily Mail have now updated her article. It now states at the end:
A previous version of this article stated that Christmas has been renamed in various places Winterval. Winterval was the collective name for a season of public events, both religious and secular, which took place in Birmingham in 1997 and 1998. We are happy to make clear that Winterval did not rename or replace Christmas.
So…erm, it turns out Kevin Arscott was right all along.
How embarrassing – even her own paper admits she got it wrong. Pwned.
The Euro crisis could set back the left for more than a generation
It now looks more likely than not that the Euro will collapse in some form or another. Italy’s debt is unsustainable and they still haven’t solved the Greece problem yet.
Martin Wolf at the FT says we have to start ‘thinking through the unthinkable‘. Paul Krugman isn’t hopeful of the Euro surviving either.
Put aside the technical questions of how all this might play out and let’s focus on the political ramifications, for this exercise.
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How the government is quietly squeezing local authorities of money
contribution by Cllr Jason Kitcat
The government is dramatically cutting funding for local councils. You may be aware of the headline figures but these don’t adequately reflect the depth of the devious ways in which this money is being clawed away from local services and kept by the Treasury in Whitehall.
For example over 4 years Brighton & Hove City Council’s Formula Grant from central government will be reduced by 33%.
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First NHS hospital gets privatised; no mention of Tory interests
The Telegraph today discloses that a private company will become the first to take over an NHS hospital.
The government line is that the hospital is being ‘saved’ because it was going ‘bankrupt’.
Apparently, keeping it under public ownership as new management turn it around is not an option.
In a landmark decision, the running of Hinchingbrooke Hospital in Cambridgeshire will be handed over to Circle, one of Britain’s most prominent health care providers, which operates a John Lewis-style partnership model for its employees.
Although private firms already own and run limited units for the NHS — such as treatment centres which carry out specific operations like hip replacements — none has ever taken over a complete hospital.
But the Telegraph article carefully avoids mention Tory links to Circle.
As Labour MP Jamie Reed tweeted last night:
Former Tory Health team member Mark Simmonds MP is also a paid strategic advisor with Circle. Coincidence?
And then added:
Two of Circle’s major shareholders are Tory Party donors. Coincidence?
In fact, emails released to the Guardian (by SpinWatch) in July this year showed Circle was part of a lobby group that took the NHS regulator to expensive gala dinners.
In January 2010 the Telegraph revealed that Andrew Lansley was ‘bankrolled by private healthcare provider‘.
The paper now reports that this opens the way for other ‘financially failing hospitals’ to be run by private firms.
Around 20 are thought to be candidates for a takeover. The privatisation of our hospitals is taking place in front of our eyes.
Watch: Rick Perry blow up at GOP debate
This is the highlight of the Republican CNBC debate last night – effectively ending any chance of Rick Perry becoming the candidate.
His debate performance has gone from bad to worse… which is quite a feat in itself.
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» The real agenda behind Telegraph’s abortion investigation
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