Why protests against the GM foods field trials is pro-science
contribution by James MacKenzie
There’s been a lot of fuss this week about Jenny Jones’ support for Take The Flour Back, a revival of mid-1990s anti-GM activism. On one side, so the story goes, you have plucky scientists just doing research, and on the other side you’ve got anti-science vandals and woo-merchants.
The truth is rather different, but to be fair to the skeptic firing squad, some of the Take The Flour Back logic was poor. They’re worried that one of the genes inserted at Rothamsted is ‘most similar to a cow’.
I should declare an interest, or at least some history – I was convicted in Edinburgh in 1999 for an anti-GM protest, and acquitted on appeal in 2003.
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The rise in domestic violence deaths is not an “isolated” problem
contribution by Sian Norris
Earlier in the year I noticed that by the 4th January, Channel 4 news had reported the deaths of 4 women as a result of domestic abuse. This was a lot higher than the usual reported number of 2 women or 1.5 women a week. London-based charity NIA.
The Twitter account @OneinFour noticed this too, so they started to count the number of women and girls who were murdered throughout the year as a result of domestic violence.
111 days into the year, and the number had risen to 33. One woman or girl every 3.3 days. And today, just over a month later, the number has risen above 40.
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Poll: banks not paying fair share for crisis
contribution by Anna Nolan
In his first meeting with new French President, Francois Hollande, Cameron made it clear the UK would veto any European moves towards a financial transaction tax (or Robin Hood tax).
This position is in stark contrast to opinion, as new polling from the Robin Hood Tax campaign shows most Britons think the financial sector is not paying its fair share.
The survey of more than 1,000 people across England, Scotland and Wales, carried out by Ipsos MORI for the Robin Hood Tax campaign, found that more than three-quarters (77%) of the British public think the Government has not done enough to ensure we are “all in this together”.
71% of those adults who believed the government had not done enough thought banks are “not being asked to pay their fair share”.
By comparison 67% felt that high income earners were not paying their fair share.
People are tired of seeing their schools and hospitals cut while a sector that relied on taxpayers money to survive gives lottery-sized bonuses to bankers whatever their performance.
More than two-thirds (68%) of adults thought financial donations to the Conservative party affected their decisions on regulation and taxation of the City of London.
The Robin Hood Tax campaign is calling on the Government to back international moves in Europe and beyond for a financial transaction tax (FTT).
Extending the UK’s current tax on share transactions to bonds, currencies and derivatives could raise an additional £20bn to tackle poverty at home and abroad and fight climate change.
Incidents like this shame us all
contribution by Nicky Clark
A blind, deaf, tube-fed, non verbal, disabled man from Scotland has been deemed fit for work by the DWP. As a result of not completing the form correctly, his benefits will be stopped on 7th June and he will have to access the appeal process to have this decision over-turned.
This man has to have 24 hour care and the person who had completed his form for him as his disability prevents him had not included something in the 30 page form which meant that due to that error his money will stop.
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We’re turning The Spirit Level into a film: help us in that goal
contribution by Katharine Round
Over the last few years, films like the Age of Stupid and an Inconvenient Truth tackled climate change, influencing both public opinion and policy change. More recently, the End of the Line lifted the lid on the threat from over-fishing, and successfully changed both government and business policy.
The same team are now behind The Spirit Level, a film based on the book, and our aim is no less ambitious. We want to achieve real, tangible change in policies and attitudes.
I’ve long been passionate about the role that film can play in creating social change, and this text immediately struck me as one of the most important social messages facing the developed world.
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Exclusive: Clegg ‘hasn’t seen’ snooping bill
contribution by Tom Newham
Theresa May might be at pains to persuade us a draft of the Communications Bill isn’t the sort of ‘snoopers charter’ the last government proposed, but she hasn’t yet extended the courtesy of explaining what it might entail to the Deputy Prime Minister yet.
That’s according to the influential anti-snooping Lib Dem backbencher Julian Huppert, who slammed the shadowy approach of the Home Office in an address to a group of Liberal Democrat students at the University of Warwick on Thursday.
Quite who has access to the plans is not known, but it’s clear the DPM hasn’t been enlightened, despite having assured voters he won’t stand for an assault on civil liberties.
A frustrated Huppert let slip that “they haven’t even shown Nick” details of the bill (a draft of which hasn’t been published yet), before criticising the Home Secretary for refusing to provide any substantive details in her appearance before the Home Affairs Select Committee last month.
Critics will now be inclined to ask on what grounds exactly the Deputy Prime Minister saw fit to play down the extent of the surveillance proposals, beyond the scraps of information he is allowed by May.
Huppert was keen, however, to re-iterate party chairman Tim Farron’s threat to terminate the bill if it proves to be too authoritarian. “There is no way we will allow something to happen that will make civil liberties worse”, he reassured the students, adding that killing the bill was something “we may still have to do”.
The ‘black boxes’ designed to intercept communications “themselves are a risk”, he explained, in that they provide a clear target for hackers.
One wonders how the Libdem leader will be able to stand up for liberal values in the coming debate on web snooping if, like the rest of us, he doesn’t know with any great certainty what the measures in question are.
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Tom Newham is studying History and Politics at Warwick University and writes for The Student Journals
The resurgence of bigoted conservatism in Ireland
contribution by Evan O’Quigley
All of Ireland stood and stared in confusion last month when a backbencher MP stated that ‘fornication’ was the main cause of unwanted pregnancies, as a defence against bringing in legislation that would allow for abortion under certain circumstances.
Michelle Mulherin, A TD (MP) for Fine Gael, the mainstream centre-right party, said: “abortion as murder, therefore sin … which is no more sinful than … greed, hate and fornication. The latter, being fornication I would say, is probably the single most likely cause of unwanted pregnancies in this country.”
Most were shocked; having not seen or heard this kind of language since Ireland was ruled by Bishops in the Catholic Church.
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What’s the point of being ‘British’?
contribution by Adam Wilcox
“Don’t Ever Come Back” was the headline on the Huffington Post yesterday, referring to proposed legislation from two US Senators following the move from Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin to renounce his US citizenship.
This move will save Saverin a reported $67 Million in potential taxes after Facebook went public. Some Americans seem to have taken Saverin’s decision to leave as a personally offensive.
The American pride, the American attitude of ‘America number one’ is at once amazing and disturbing.
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Will JP Morgan be able to walk away from billion dollar losses?
contribution by Iain Overton
The JPMorgan story doesn’t look like it’s going away any time soon. The losses suffered by the bank keep getting bigger and bigger. Insiders are now saying they’ve surpassed the initial $2 billion estimate by at least $1 billion.
The Federal Reserve has stepped in. It’s set out to examine the scale of the losses and the size of the original bets. It’s also going to ask whether the American bank’s chief investment office took too many risks for a federally insured depository.
One thing is clear – a serious investigation is necessary.
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We need the minimum wage for under-21s to be raised
contribution by Ian Silvera
A petition has been created to pressure the government to raise the minimum wage for under 21 year olds. The petition follows the Chancellor of the Exchequers’ announcement outlined in the budget in March 2012 that the minimum wage for over 21 (currently at £6.08 per hour) would be raised to £6.19 per hour in October 2012.
Gorge Osborne’s 11p increase will not meet inflation, as recommended by the Low Pay Commission. The minimum wage for under 21 year olds will remain frozen at £4.89 per hour, not meeting inflation.
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» Robin Hood tax: backed by the rich AND the rest, says new poll
» Criticism of Obama for its own sake: a reply to Mehdi Hasan
» Do older people really need more NHS healthcare?
» There are alternatives to the reckless ‘Plan A’
» On Beecroft: it is already quite easy to sack people
» Why Cameron’s claim of 600,000 jobs created is plainly wrong
» By using age to allocate NHS funding, Lansley rewards Tory voters
» The rise in domestic violence deaths is not an “isolated” problem
» Adrian Beecroft highlights mindset of Tory right
» The US is now a model for the Eurozone to save itself
» The IMF plan to revive the economy doesn’t go far enough
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