We’ll be here
WOMAD 2009, Charlton Park
Then near here
Bordeaux
And final near here
Tours
We’re On Holiday
Monthly Archives: July 2009
UK Justice is An Illusion
The Liverpool captain and England midfielder Steven Gerrard was cleared of affray today after a row over controlling the music playing in a bar.
Liverpool crown court heard that Marcus McGee, 34, was punched in the face by the footballer in a brawl at a bar in Southport last December.
Gerrard admitted hitting McGee three times but denied affray, saying he had been acting in self-defence as he thought the other man was about to strike him.
The case centred on whether the jury believed Gerrard had been acting in self-defence. Helen Carter, The Guardian.
Here’s a video from The Guardian.
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Did the Jury watch the same video? Seems like money, talks the guilty free.
Forced Marriages Act Upset
Adam Wallis and Rochelle Roberts
Adam Wallis and Canadian Rochelle Roberts, who married in the UK a week after her visa ran out, face an enforced year and a half of separation until she is 21.
Their plight is the result of the Forced Marriages Act, which has increased the minimum age for spousal visas to 21 in an attempt to reduce the possibility of forced marriages. Mark Tran, The Guardian.
On of those great-and-good:
Keith Vaz, the chairman of the Commons home affairs select committee, said last night the case could prompt a change in the law, adding: “This is clearly a case which needs to be looked at by a minister.” Mark Tran, The Guardian.
The Home Office responds
“Rochelle Roberts was refused permission to remain as a spouse because she came as a visitor and remained here illegally after her visa expired.
“The immigration rules are clear that those people who arrive as visitors and those that remain here illegally cannot remain in the United Kingdom as a spouse. Rochelle Roberts’s age was not the reason her application was refused.
“As a measure to protect young people from being pressurised into sponsoring a spouse from overseas, we have raised the age for sponsorship for a marriage visa from 18 to 21 … overall, we believe there are various benefits outweighing the drawbacks.” Mark Tran, The Guardian.
Personally I find a 26-year-old man dicking around with a 17-year-old teenager pretty creepy, but hey maybe that’s just me. And anyway what’s wrong with applying for another visa and then getting married?
Wireless Power
Charging and powering equipment through thin air seems pure fantasy. However:
A system that can deliver power to devices without the need for wires has been shown off at a hi-tech conference.
The technique exploits simple physics and can be used to charge a range of electronic devices.
Eric Giler, chief executive of US firm Witricity, showed mobile phones and televisions charging wirelessly at the TED Global conference in Oxford. Jonathan Fildes, BBC.
If you’ve an ancient house like mine the only question you’re going to have is when can I install it?
Conor Oberst to Retire Bright Eyes
Yesterday, The Omaha World-Herald (sounds like something outta a Marvel Comic, don’t it?), spoke to Robb Nansel, who runs Bright Eyes’ label, Saddle Creek and he made this grand confirmation:
“I think he feels like Bright Eyes has a certain association, for better or worse. I think he’s trying to distance himself a little bit from what that means to people.”
However, Nansel did continue to say that Oberst plans to record a final Bright Eyes album during the first half of next year, with a projected fall 2010 release date. DiS would presume/demand there will be one last tour. Sean Adams, Drowned in Sound.
In recent years Bright Eyes have produced some brilliant albums, such as Cassadaga
Some Hope and No Hope
Bank bosses who allow their firms to devise schemes to help customers avoid paying tax could face sanctions from the Financial Services Authority.
The City regulator is considering its position on the government’s new code of conduct on tax after Nigel Harper, banking adviser at HM Revenue & Customs, took the unusual decision of raising the matter at regulator’s annual public.
The code, which is out for consultation, is intended to be voluntary and is designed to save the taxpayer billions of pounds lost through complex but legal avoidance schemes operated by some banks. Jill Treanor, The Guardian.
Voluntary! No hope then.
America Politics is Full of Religious Nutters
The Christian right is making a fresh push to force religion onto the school curriculum in Texas with the state’s education board about to consider recommendations that children be taught that there would be no United States if it had not been for God.
Members of a panel of experts appointed by the board to revise the state’s history curriculum, who include a Christian fundamentalist preacher who says he is fighting a war for America’s moral soul, want lessons to emphasise the part played by Christianity in the founding of the US and that religion is a civic virtue.
Opponents have decried the move as an attempt to insert religious teachings in to the classroom by stealth, similar to the Christian right’s partially successful attempt to limit the teaching of evolution in biology lessons in Texas.
One of the panel, David Barton, founder of a Christian heritage group called WallBuilders, argues that the curriculum should reflect the fact that the US Constitution was written with God in mind including that “there is a fixed moral law derived from God and nature”, that “there is a creator” and “government exists primarily to protect God-given rights to every individual”.
Barton says children should be taught that Christianity is the key to “American exceptionalism” because the structure of its democratic system is a recognition that human beings are fallible, and that religion is at the heart of being a virtuous citizen.
Another of the experts is Reverend Peter Marshall, who heads his own Christian ministry and preaches that Hurricane Katrina and defeat in the Vietnam War were God’s punishment for sexual promiscuity and tolerance of homosexuals. Marshall recommended that children be taught about the “motivational role” of the Bible and Christianity in establishing the original colonies that later became the US.
“In light of the overwhelming historical evidence of the influence of the Christian faith in the founding of America, it is simply not up to acceptable academic standards that throughout the social studies (curriculum standards) I could only find one reference to the role of religion in America’s past,” Marshall wrote in his submission.
Marshall later told the Wall Street Journal that the struggle over the history curriculum is part of a wider battle. “We’re in an all-out moral and spiritual civil war for the soul of America, and the record of American history is right at the heart of it,” he said. Chris McGreal, The Guardian.
As I said American politics is full of religious nutters.
Fuck It – We’ll Pay Bonuses Anyway
Morgan Stanley is setting aside a huge sum to pay out bonuses despite posting its third consecutive quarterly loss and admitting it is disappointed with key departments.
The US bank’s latest results show it is allocating $3.9bn (£2.36bn) for paying out to staff, 72% of its net revenues. That dwarfs the percentage of revenue set aside by arch rival Goldman Sachs, where workers are on track for large bonuses after record results last week.
Morgan Stanley extinguished the tentative flames of optimism among US banks today when it posted a loss of $159m for April to June and said it was not satisfied with its performance in fixed income trading and in asset management.
News of the bank’s loss unsettled traders on Wall Street, whose view of the banking sector’s prospects was brightened last week by Goldman’s surge in profits and further upbeat news from JP Morgan, Citigroup and Bank of America. Katie Allen, The Guardian.
What did we expect? If we don’t apply the stick then they’re going to continue to eat all the carrots – financial regulation now! Although the proverbial horses have bolted with taxpayer’s money – we’ve been had again – let’s not let it happen again.
Three Billion Pound Bonanza
Britain’s biggest pharmaceutical company is preparing to sell £3bn worth of swine flu drugs this year, it emerged today.
GlaxoSmithKline revealed its vaccine, one of the world’s first, could be available by September after the UK government placed advance orders for 60m doses.
It also disclosed that international governments were stockpiling large supplies of GSK’s anti-viral treatment Relenza, which can relieve swine flu symptoms.
Worldwide sales from the two drugs are expected to reach £3bn by January, but the company rejected claims it was exploiting the pandemic – stressing that profits would be much lower once development costs were taken into account.
It also said poorer nations would receive the vaccine for free with 50m doses to be donated to the World Health Organisation. More could follow, depending on demand. Richard Wachman, The Guardian.
Profit’s for misery and anyway is most of the development done at publicly funded universities – not much development costs there and any incurred are subsidised by the state and tax deductable– or perhaps we’re talking about their PR developments telling us how wonderful they are and look they really don’t make that much money and hey look at the charity work we do – Smashie and Nicey anyone?
Then on Radio 4 John Oxford Professor of Virology at Bart’s and the Royal London Hospital Said.
This swine H1N1 will be less deadly and less virulent than the 1968 pandemic which in itself was less deadly and less virulent than the 1957 one which preceded it which in itself was less deadly than the 1918 I think we are at the tail end here and I think this pandemic will go down as the most mild pandemic ever experienced in living memory. Radio 4.
Still that’s not a view you hear a lot of – I guess it would eat into profits too much – OK, OK maybe to cynical.
MPs Investigate Sexism
Sexism in the City and pay inequalities faced by women working in financial firms are to be investigated by the Treasury select committee of MPs as part of its attempt to prevent another financial crisis.
The committee, which includes just one woman, is calling for evidence on the role of women in the City and information about the proportion of women occupying senior positions in leading financial firms. Jill Treanor, The Guardian.
One woman on the committee to investigate sexism in the city just typical of the male culture that prevails in our government. It’s high time government stopped such ridiculous investigations into something everyone is aware happens and instead took actions to address the issue of sexism – not just in the city but in the Houses of Parliament themselves.