Paul Marsden

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• What is the explanation behind the domino effect of current dictators receiving so much attention recently? What started it? | 28-02-11
  Paul Marsden added an answer.
  
  
  Paul Marsden, British Member of Parliament between 1997 and 2...

  
  Education and modern communications have been the two key components to why young people have risen in protest and delivered peaceful revolutions in North Africa and parts of the Middle East.
  
  With most of these countries filled with majorities of young people under 25 years, there has been a huge pool of vibrant debate under the surface on-line. These young men and women have been educated and as a consequence have learnt about how a better quality of life could be enjoyed. The young people developed a vision of social justice and economic opportunities in contrast to the police states, brutal dictatorships and economically poor countries they live in. The youth want their voices heard through democracy and were simply waiting for the moment to arrive when they could speak out.
  
  When Mohamed Bouazizi killed himself after the way he had been treated in Tunisia, the news reverberated igniting protests. The youth were emboldened by the lightening success in Tunisia, which created a momentum in other countries. 
  
  The young people have understood that their grand-parents and parents have been subjugated through fear, ignorance and a muted press. It simply took a trigger for this generation to confront their Governments.
  
  The powerful medium of new technology including social media such as Twitter have allowed rapid, concise communications. Uploaded video on YouTube have enabled powerful videos to be seen by the masses. Accurate information allows better and faster organisation. Images can motivate and enrage where once a previous generation was ignorant of atrocities, missing persons and human rights abuses. Whispered rumours are a poor substitute for YouTube. 
  
  Technology allows a greater efficiency and spontaneity for protesters to come together. It assists in developing on-line courage between strangers and newly formed friendships.  
  
  Some countries can withstand the domino effect if the standard of living is higher and the grip on the state is tight but as democracies increase in number and credibility so even neighbouring states in North Africa and the Middle East that think they can ride out the storm will come under greater pressure to reform.
  
  References
  
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/201...
  
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• What was it like for Paul Marsden to stand up to the full force of the government to oppose the military actions following 9/11? | 19-02-11
  Paul Marsden added an answer.
  
  
  Paul Marsden, British Member of Parliament between 1997 and 2...

  
  Thank you Craig for the question. 
  
  When I saw on TV those planes hit the Twin Towers, the smouldering Pentagon and the debris of the remains of United Flight 93 in Pennsylvania, I was deeply shocked and my heart went out to all those victims. The next day I attended a remembrance service at Shrewsbury Abbey and laid a red, white and blue wreath in memory of all those innocent victims of 9/11. As I turned over in my mind in the hours after the Towers had been brought down I knew I had to make an appeal (however futile or innocuous) when I stood in front of the service and spoke to the congregation. I didn't know what the mood would be that day but I sensed that people wanted to hear that the deaths of the innocent had stopped in the US and not that more innocent people would be killed in far away places.
  
  When I spoke I spoke from the heart, from the soul and from logic. IThe counter attacks were being reported as hitting Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Sudan and many places. Based on past record whilst claims would be made (quite rightly) that terrorists would be killed, there was almost a certainty that men, women and children who had absolutely no connection and may well hate al-Qaeda would be killed by the blunt strategy of high level bombing. 'Smart bombs' are not very smart. For every terrorist turned into a martyr another ten young boys would take their place and take the battle into our own counties again and again.
  
  My speech was quietly well received in Shrewsbury and I pledged to my congregation and to my God that I would do everything humanly possibly to show the British and American Governments that in the grief and rage of wanting revenge, they would only get it wrong. 
  
  Parliament was on its long summer recess so when it was recalled on 14th September, I spoke to a moving, subdued House of Commons and gently but firmly cautioned against 'acting out of revenge and not justice'. I was brushed aside by the Prime Minister that my concerns that military action could be taken against Afghanistan and Iraq and other places was merely 'wild speculation'. Clearly it was not.
  http://hansard.millbanksystems.c...
  
  I was the last MP to be called to question the Prime Minister that day and I was greatly perturbed. We were sent home and there was no indication that the House would be recalled again in any great hurry. Here was the greatest attack on the USA since Pearl Harbour and the British Government was supporting a new war in Afghanistan and yet did not want the Commons to sit and deliberate. It was a disgrace and the Prime Minister was riding roughshod over parliament. I wrote to the Speaker and urged a recall. Like other MPs I demanded that we be allowed to speak. Finally on 4th October we were recalled again but this time I was not called. Given the subtle influence the Whips have over who might 'catch the eye' of the Speaker, I started to sense that my anti-war views were not looked favourably by the establishment. I crossed a Rubicon. I would not be silenced. I had now come to the firm conclusion that when I went to my grave, I had to look my children in the eye and say, 'I did everything I could to stop a war that I knew was coming'. I was utterly resolute that it was the right action to take whatever the consequences to any Ministerial aspirations I held. I held the granite like resolution that it should be Parliament who authorised a war and not a Prime Minister.On 8th October I was prepared. I had sat down and spoken at length with the Clerk of the House who knows the rules of Erskine May inside and out. There was a technical way to force a vote on the 'adjournment'. By intervening when the formality of an adjournment was proposed I could attempt to put it to a symbolic vote as long as everyone in the Chamber knew that it was a vote on whether we should go to war. I rose and this time caught the Speaker's eye (the Clerk had obviously spoken to him) and he knew that to ignore me risked provoking a point of order. He gave me the opportunity to question the Prime Minister and I urged that Parliament should be given a vote on the war. The PM casually swept it to one side and said it was for a discussion on another day.
  http://hansard.millbanksystems.c...
  
  I remember listening and thinking, 'No, it should be discussed today. The bombs are dropping and people are dying. War is a matter for the democratically elected representatives to take that decision as well as a Prime Minister'. A few minutes later the questions finished and the Prime Minister was about to escape out of the chamber. I rose swiftly and on a point of etiquette he had to sit back down and I could see he was furious. I asked the Speaker if it was indeed in order to put it to a symbolic vote. There was uproar (recorded in Hansard as an 'Interruption'). I was a young whipper snapper now challenging the Prime Minister. The Speaker now tried to make a joke of it but as the House jeered I looked up at the microphone and recalled the parliamentary statesmen, Tony Benn tell me, 'don't worry about them jeering you those microphones carry your message to the people.'
  http://hansard.millbanksystems.c...
  
  What followed next was a whirlwind. I tabled motions demanding a vote and then I was hauled up in front of the Labour Chief Whip. She was appalling in sitting there an idly accusing me of being an 'appeaser' and 'war was not a matter of conscience'. I was utterly flabbergasted at her lack of comprehension for what happens when a war is launched. She was living in a parallel world of clean kills that get the bad guys and then going home at night and sleeping without a care in the world. When we finished our surreal conversation, I retreated to the House of Commons library and looking over the River Thames wrote out every last word of what she had said. I wanted a record in case I was smeared or castigated by the Whips. When a reporter asked about the meeting I let him have the transcript. 
  http://www.guardian.co.uk/politi...
  
  My world lifted into another orbit when it was published.
  
  I was one of those invited to lead an anti-war demonstration in London. I could speak out but the Whips were circling me and I knew that things were going to hot up. They couldn't control me and I organised and winged a visit to Pakistan and the Afghan border. I wanted to see for myself how the effects of war. It was a terrible sight to see refugee camps filled with terrified innocents who had lost everything. The stories they told were horrific; of bombs blowing the legs off a boy who wanted to play football in England and a bus hit by a bomb that evaporated and left nothing but a scorched shadow on the earth. I came home and I knew I was right. Those responsible for 9/11 should be brought to justice and their terrible deeds shown to the world and punished. 
  
  In the same way I opposed the war in Iraq. It was based on falsehoods by an American President and British Prime Minister totally obsessed with a crusade to fight another war based on a deluded vision of what was right. They bent and broke the truth and shredded constitutions to have their way. They have wrecked their own legacies in pursuit of war and have tried to re-write and re-write history again to justify their twisted reasons. They killed tens of thousands of innocent, decent people.
  
  We should show how strong we are as sophisticated democracies that we can pursue a diligent and fair justice. That we will not allow crimes to go unpunished but we will also not succumb to the temptation to destroy all before our angry eyes. We are better than that. From the times of Greece we have evolved a beautiful concept of justice based on the laws of the people. I am no longer an MP because I paid a heavy, heavy price for daring to challenge the system. Some of that price was my own responsibility due to my human failings but most is down to determined opponents working to protect vested interests in Government. I felt the strength of the peace movement behind me and I will always treasure the support and love of many, many fellow peace campaigners who fortified me with belief and a willingness to go on.
  
  When you are faced with rejection, intolerance and anger, there can be only one course of action: total defiance in pursuit of what is right. 
  
  So I will still go to my grave and when my children and grandchildren ask why there were terrible wars after 9/11, I will hold my head high and say a prayer for all the innocent who have died from New York to Kabal to Baghdad. I will explain to them that they are going to build a brave new world. That one day the guns will fall silent forever. Just think of it. Humans will evolve to a species that solves the puzzle of cancer, crack the endless hunger of Africa and discover new worlds on new planets. Humans will one day find the DNA to peace. 
  
  We simply have to believe in ourselves.
  
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• Should Switzerland join the EU? | 18-02-11
  Paul Marsden voted up an answer.
  
  
  Rupert Baines, Proudly European. Lived & worked in UK, Spain, ...

  
  It is somewhat more complicated than that.
  
  Although Switzerland is not formally or in a treaty (de jure) sense a member of EU, it has negotiated treaties which de facto manner give it most of the obligations and benefits of membership.
  
  Specifically:
  

  • It is a member of Schengen area (free movement, unified visa). Intererestingly, UK is not part of this.
  • EU Law applies, including free-movement of goods, services & capital
  • Switzerland pays into the EU budget

  
  It has accepted by treaty the agreements of EEA, making it a ''virrtual member''.
  
  However, Switzerland does not support the free movement of people, which would allow residence to all EU citizens.
  
  It is not a member of single currency, although in practice the Euro is accepted.
  
  It does not have representation in European Parliament, Commission or Council.
  
  
  A supporter of this arrangement would argue that Switzerland gets the benefits of membership (free trade, etc) without sacrificing sovereignty.
  
  A critic might say that Switzerland is obliged to pay contributions and obey laws it has no influence over.
  
  Personally, I think the status quo is something Switzerland is happy with and there is no especial reason to change it. In practice, Switzerland would have little additionasl influence as a small country out of 28, and the ability to influence legislation is not worth the perceived loss of sovereignty.
  
  Some details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swi...
  
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• What is the best name for a social network product from Google? Explain why? | 31-01-11
  In Google: Paul Marsden added an answer.
  
  
  Paul Marsden, Business Consultant & former British MP.

  
  Google Unite - brings people together on the same side.
  
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• Paul Marsden voted up a post on Posts. | 31-01-11

• Which US Senators (past or present) are genuinely good guys—good people, motivated to do good? | 31-01-11
  In U.S. Congress: Paul Marsden added an answer.
  
  
  Paul Marsden, Campaigned in Michigan for John Kerry in the Pr...

  
  The implication of the question is that some US Senators are not 'good guys' and are not motivated to do good. I do not believe anyone; Republican, Democrat or Independent puts themselves forward to serve the American people badly but rather some of their actions may be perceived to be less progressive.
  
  Donald R. Matthews attempted to measure the performance of US Senators in 1960 and another study by David M. Olson and Cynthia T. Nonidez in 1972 attempted to do the same for the House of Representatives.
  http://www.jstor.org/pss/2110060
  
  The paradox is that objective measures do not necessarily align with people's perception of US Senators, who may convince voters that they are doing a good job but without quantifiable measures. 
  
  A recent poll suggested that 59% of mainstream voters think the current Congress is performing poorly.
  http://www.rasmussenreports.com/...
  
  Yet the collective approval ratings rarely square with individual approval ratings.
  For example an approval ratings survey of US Senators in 2006 showed that all but four of the 100 US Senators are positive approval ratings. It varied from -9% through to +54%, which suggests that generally voters are much happier with individual Senators than the Congress as a whole. It also suggests arguably that this is one method for measuring the voter's perception of 'good guys'.
  http://www.surveyusa.com/50State...
  
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• What was John Nash like as a professor? | 31-01-11
  Paul Marsden voted up an answer.
  
  
  Ben Golub, Economics Ph.D.m Stanford [GSB]

  
  
  "As I said, this problem will take some of you a few months to solve; for others, the rest of your natural lives." -- from the film A Beautiful Mind; not quite a quotation from the real Nash, but not that far off.
  
  ==
  
  Nash disdained teaching and amused himself by behaving in a "flamboyant" and "mischievous" way. According to a contemporary at MIT, he tended to lecture about subjects that were "either irrelevant or far too advanced" for his classes. He gave extremely difficult exam problems and was a tough grader.
  
  The above tidbits about Nash as a teacher, as well as those that follow, are from Sylvia Nassar's biography. [1] She found them by interviewing mathematicians who knew Nash during the time when he was teaching.
  
  

  • The majority of the formal teaching John Nash has done happened at MIT, where he went in 1951 as a C.L.E. Moore Instructor; he resigned from the MIT faculty in 1959. [2] Sigurdur Helgason, a professor there, recalled that Nash advised colleagues at MIT to "forget about teaching" and focus on research. He taught mainly undergraduate classes. An undergraduate analysis course he taught in his first year decreased from about thirty to five students from the first semester to the second.
  • His lectures were "closer to free association than exposition". Arthur Mattuck recalls:
    
    

    Once he described how he planned to teach complex numbers to freshmen: "Let's see... I'd tell them i equals the square root of minus one. But I'd also tell them that it could be minus the square root of minus one. Then so how would you decide which one..."

  • He gave problems on exams that were far beyond what his students could do, and sometimes beyond what was known. He asked undergraduates to prove on a final exam that the fractional parts of the numbers (for k = 1, 2, 3...) form a dense subset of the [0,1] interval, which is an open problem. [3]
  • Another Nash antic is recounted by a student:
    
    

    He gave a one-hour test. He handed out blue books where you filled in your name and the course number on the cover. [...] There were four problems. Problem number one was, "What is your name?" The other three problems were fairly hard. Since I knew by then how his mind worked, I made sure to write next to number one, "My name is Joseph Kohn." People who assumed that writing their name on the cover was enough got twenty-five points taken off.

  
  ==
  
  [0] Photo credit: Universal Studios, via http://moviescreens.tripod.com/a...
  
  [1] The best information on this question appears to be on the first four pages or so of Chapter 17 in Sylvia Nassar's book, A Beautiful Mind. It includes a lot of good examples and direct quotes about Nash's time at MIT. My answer is a paraphrase of these pages, and all the attributions appear in Nassar's endnotes
  
  http://books.google.com/books?id...
  
  [2] http://nobelprize.org/nobel_priz...
  
  [3] It turns out that it is not even known whether the digit 7 appears infinitely often in the decimal expansion of pi. http://mathoverflow.net/question...
  
  See question on Quora

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• What does Downing Street know about Phonegate? | 09-09-11
  The Culture, Media and Sport's hearings into Phonegate revealed witnesses whose words and body language were filled with lies and crass arrogance.

  

  Watching Colin Myler (Former Editor of the News of the World) and Tom Crone (Former Legal Manager at News International) on 6th September in front of the Committee demonstrated the worst behaviour of people caught in a lie and still trying to talk their way out of appalling actions by their employer and other employees. Trying to wheedle out of admitting they had mislead the Committee and parliament previously, Crone was reduced to arguing over the definitions of 'secret' and 'confidential'.

  In the same way we had the haughty responses by some MPs caught stealing through the expenses system, greedy 'casino' bankers playing with the British economy like it was their own private bank and some police officers happily taking bribes, we saw individuals who would not accept that their past views were inconsistent and misleading to parliament and an utter failure to recognise the seriousness of phone hacking. Myler, Crone and others simply don't get it. Adopting the Nuremberg policy of 'we were only following orders' is pathetic. Looking at their faces you could see that they were going to fight tooth and nail in opposing inch by inch, the Committee's pursuit of the truth. Frankly, they were not believable witnesses and their words cannot be trusted.
  

  Tom Watson MP in pursuit of exposing one of the  biggest conspiracies in the past century

  On the other hand it was a pleasure watching Tom Watson MP in action tearing a part bit by bit the obfuscation. Tom has proved to be a doughty, terrier in pursuing the phone hacking and subsequent cover ups. He exudes the very finest qualities of the the best British parliamentarians. He deserves a medal for his pursuit of the truth of phone hacking and his refusal to go away when the Police, Solicitors and powerful media barons were telling him and the world that a single rogue operator was responsible for the phone hacking. Tom had rightly identified that the facts didn't stack up and sniffed out the leads and evidence to help blow open the affair.

  Andy Coulson has refused to appear before parliamentary committee

  At least Crone and Myler did show up in front of the Committee, which is more than can be said for Andy Coulson desperately fighting against appearing before the Committee. Questions remain as to what he told David Cameron. Did he hint or give any sort of impression that he thought the phone hacking extended past Goodman and Mulcaire? Did Coulson send emails or correspondence setting out what happened during his period as News of the World Editorship? Will any of the enquiries get to see those emails, notes or letters? Was a civil servant present in the discussions between Coulson and Cameron about phone hacking? If so, there would be a record made of that conversation. If there was no civil servant present, why did Cameron avoid the usual practice on such a sensitive, serious and criminal matter? What kind of Prime Minister avoids making a record? Those records could ultimately place David Cameron in a compromised position.

  What exactly did Coulson tell Cameron? Were records kept of their conversations?

  God speed the Committee and the police enquiries to put behind bars all those involved in this disgraceful conspiracy. I hope that Fleet Street will clean up its act and eradicate the illegal practices where they thought they could freely wade through people's private lives. However, seeing the attitude of Crone and Myler, the Government will need to take steps to enforce that cultural change. You can't trust these type of people to genuinely make the changes needed. 

  In the mean time, we are left wondering what records exist in Downing street about how much David Cameron knew about the extent of the phone hacking.

  
  
  

• Obama throws down gauntlet to Republicans | 09-09-11
  
  

  An assertive President Obama set out his stall for Congressto back his American Jobs Act. The interesting part of that speech was the wayit was delivered and the strong, resolute delivery of the speech. Here was aPresident facing a tough election battle as the economy has slowed and groundalmost to a halt after previously showing signs of a recovery. But more than asimple desire to win, we saw Barack Obama demonstrating leadership and purposewhich frankly has been missing at times as he has tried to grapple with theproblems of the economy and the consistent right wing attacks by GOP contenders.

  Vice President Joe Biden

  A word of merit for Joe Biden who was just behind thePresident’s right shoulder at the Congressional speech; he is an unswerving,loyal lieutenant that has proven to be a first rate Vice President. He workstirelessly behind the scenes and backs the President to the hilt. He doesn't show signs of his own ambition or politicking to undermine the President. Thatis a rare example of what a Vice President should be. He was on his feet applauding the President and Obama can be sure that Biden will use his influence to try and bring Republicans on board to get the AJA through Congress. Nevertheless, it is certain to face a very difficult ride and given the strength of the Tea Party values amongst Republicans, the AJA may well fail to pass. If so, the Republicans will play into Obama's hands. On the other hand if they successfully amend the Bill to their liking they could turn it around as a weapon against the President, which could mean he has to veto his own Bill.

  There are fourteen months to go before the presidentialelection and the President needs the economy to improve. The hard truth thoughis that his proposed jobs act will only give a mild stimulus to the US economyand the underlying problems of the energy deficit and the artificial weakening of the Chinese yuan remain. It is difficult to force the Chinese to alter theirexchange rate policy and unless there is a readiness to damage the environment then changes tothe energy deficit are limited (electric vehicle technology is being proposed as one answer to the problem) . America needs to create jobs and more wealththrough making its economy therefore, more dynamic, flexible and productive. Thereis still time for the trend to change towards reducing unemployment andincreasing the money in the wallet and purse of the average American but timeis running out.

  Governor Rick Perry

  Whilst the Republicans should be coming down the finalstretch ten yards ahead of the president remarkably the voters are reticent ofthe GOP contenders. Even Texas Governor Rick Perry can only manage a small lead in the polls and that is during his current honeymoon period before the fullscrutiny of his policies and past has been put under the microscope.  

  With some radical and even off the charts extreme policiesbeing espoused by Perry on Social Security the field is still open for Romneyor even Palin (if she finally enters the race, which I think she will) to takethe primaries. 

  US Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman Jr

  The President needs to ratchet up improvements in the economywhere he can, hope for a radical GOP candidate to face him in the election and heneeds a bit of luck. If those three things happen then Obama has a reasonablechance of success. He is a powerful campaigner and remains the favourite to wina re-election (but by a tiny margin).

  However, if a more sensible GOP candidate like Jon Huntsmanwas to pull off a miracle GOP nomination (he is polling around 1%) then I think Obama will lose. But with Rick Perry, Bachmann and Romney slugging it out that scenario of a centrist winning the nomination is not going to happen. Obama knows the GOP struggle of exposing weaknesses and extremes in the Republican candidates can only help his chances.
  

• Riot jail sentences need new radical jail life | 17-08-11
  
  

  Don't just lock them up, make them work inside. Jail should be about changing them.

  
  

  The debateabout the length of jail sentences for those found guilty of involvement andincitement of the riots has begun to take off between the doves and hawks onrestorative justice. At first glance, four years for urging a riot on Facebook (butnothing then happened) can seem harsh. Writing a few words on social media canresult in a sentence twice as longas actually looting goods from shops may seem disproportionate. Likewise,six months prison for stealingbottles of water can seem too much to some. However, if we are seriousabout puncturing the arrogant, laid back views of a minority in society who donot fear jail then these cases may start to have an effect on their attitudes. 

  If the part of society that gave birth and nurtured theculture that created the looters, are alarmed at the length of sentence thenthe judge has succeeded in getting a message through to them. Over the past tenyears, some social media users in society have become anesthetised to communicatingresponsibly. Especially on Facebook and Twitter, communicating has become contorted for some. What they write compared to what they would say face to face hasbecome dysfunctional. The lonely and aloof aura as they type away on thekeyboard has produced at times vicious, irresponsible and even deludedmessaging. Perhaps the ‘Facebook Two’sentences will make people stop and think that they are writing in cold realityand they cannot write anything they feel in that split second.

  

  What is more important than arguing over the length ofsentences is what goes on inside those jails. If they are holding pens and eventraining camps to improve the skills of robbers to rob better or increase the environmentof aggression and hostility to inflame the gang culture, then those jails arefailing. One British jail has a re-offending rate of 74%.That is a failed system.

  As I suggested in my previous poston the riots, we need to get those prisoners out of their cells where theylanguish for up to 23 hours and get them working and exercising for say 18hours.

  The point of prison is yes to punish but also and this iscrucial, to change that offender’s behaviour. We need people coming out of jailwho will contribute back positively to society. There is no point whatsoever, ‘lockingthem up and throwing away the key’, because apart from the most violent crimesor severely mentally ill patients, the vast majority will come back out. We needthem getting jobs and not living on benefits. We need them to have learnt fromtheir spell in jail to teach youngsters to stay on the straight and narrow. Weneed those ex-offenders to be volunteering to help the local community. If theyhave few working skills, jail should be training them work and lifeskills to improve their chances of getting a job.

  That is the part of the debate, which seems to be missing.Long sentences? Fine (case by case) but we need to radically change our prisonsand construct a justice system that transforms wrong doers into stable, workingcitizens. Does Cameron have the nuanced understanding of what happened in the riots to produce that radical transformation of our prisons?

  Does Cameron understand how to transform jails?

  
  
  

• Grim lives but squalid characters - time for hard work | 13-08-11

  The faces of some alleged looters and rioters

  I lived and worked in North London between 2007 and2008. I cycled for two hours each day through the streets not far from the Tottenham riots and Icaught a glimpse of both proud, happy members of society and the sulky, bitter andintroverted lives of others.

  I lived in Lea Valley and I used to cycle each day down toIslington. I was knocked off my bicycle twice by careless drivers cutting infront of me (once without any insurance or an up to date tax disc) and both times using buslanes and when I once tried to stop off and leave my bicycle at Tottenham Haletube station, my bike was inevitably stolen. There were times when I saw gangsroaming around the streets with little to do but I never felt threatened. Infact, the most worrying time was being caught up in a huge crowd of Arsenalfans on the way to the ground and me pushing my bike through the crowd down thestreets and realising that dangling from my rucksack was my Liverpool FootballClub scarf. I got a bit of stick that evening…

  David Starkey last night on BBC Newsnight proclaimed that theviolence was down to a ‘black culture’ that had pervaded black and white, boyand girl. His bizarre and less than helpful idea does nothing to explain thereasons for the looting and that kind of pompous, ignorant and ‘white’perspective will hardly help rebuild those communities scarred by the riots.
  

  'Shopping with violence' as one commentator said

  There are grim lives in some communities and that includesnot just the cities but the towns and even parts of more rural areas. I have seen the pockets of hard deprivation in Shrewsbury when I was an MP. They areplaces where educational achievement is generally low, unemployment very highand the worshipping of celebrities and bling has intoxicated young minds. Theyseek a laser quick exit to their grim lives and have little discipline or rolemodels to make them understand that through hard work they can reach for thestars. It sounds easy and it isn’t, it is very hard. There are few attractivejobs but if these young people with little self-worth (they create anartificial self-worth through gangs and wearing branded trainers, sunglassesand jewellery) can appreciate that if they truly put their minds to work theycan slowly build decent, honest lives. The first job may not be up to much butif you work hard and put in the hours, go to college at night and get extraqualifications, save the little money you earn and invest in a car or acomputer then over time you can get a better job and earn more money.

  I know it is difficult when there are temptations aroundthrough weak willed gang members offering a quick fix. When there is no money.When the police may seemingly harass you. But watching life past by feelingconstantly angry is not going to change anything.

  The answers? Well for what it is worth, here is my two penn’eth:-

  1. The respectagenda needs to start consistently in every nursery school and be maintainedthroughout schooling. Teachers have an impossible task trying to control someteenagers and by then it is almost too late. Tolerance for others and anappreciation of everyone’s contribution to society is needed to be taught. Teachingresponsibility is crucial to making children understand how they have to followrules and undertake activities as part of growing up.
  2. The mediashould be urged to focus less on the minutiae of celebrity lives and more onsuccess stories from our communities. Given the spotlight to young peoplewho have create a business or excelled at school. To hell, with flash in thepan, can barely sing pop stars given fame and fortune. What about the quietyoungsters who put in hundreds of hours of voluntary work in communities ortransform a broken down playground or simply go from ‘loser’ status to passingtheir GCSE’s? Media space and time should reward young people and not those whoare undeserving and artificial. With all due respect, Big Brother contestantsare not heroes and the slavish coverage of their lives should end. Newspapereditors should be shook up and told to stop hacking phones of private citizensand start using their powerful and influential companies to help grow ourcommunities.
  3.  Parentsshould be held to account and there should be zero tolerance of thesmallest problems at a very young age. The rioters and looters weren’t bornrioters and looters, they became them. Some parents can’t cope with parenting. Fairenough; it’s a damned tough job at times. Some don’t have the skills to knowhow to raise a child. They should be offered help and when the child at the ageof five is out breaking up a bus shelter, then it should the parents made to attendparenting classes. The ‘system’ should be there to help but with an iron fistin a velvet glove. If the parents don’t attend, then they should face stiffpenalties. If they don’t co-operate when they do attend, they should face stiffpenalties. But conversely if they genuinely learn new skills and seek to changethe behaviour of their child they should be offered incentives. That should notmean money or materials goods (no gimmicks like filmtickets as one bright spark tried to suggest under Labour) but rather moreassistance finding work or a place doing community work with a recommendation ontheir CV. The focus should be on pushing children towards educationalachievement (vocational and academic) and parents towards work, lifelonglearning and a career path. It is changing the values away from quick ‘bling’fixes to learning and hard work.
  4.  For those hardcore, repeat offenders that are circulating through prison, the cycle mustbe broken and as a last resort, they need to be placed in a special facility which is a modifiedprison where there is very high staff ratios, high volumes of physicalactivities, a tough penalty system for misbehaviour and a reward system basedon recommendations towards finding work after they leave. Instead of spendingup to 23 hours locked in a prison cell, they should be spending 18 hours doinghard work. They should only be in a cell when they are sleeping. Some will callit a boot camp, but if it was run by ex-military staff these offenders would beplaced in a tight disciplinary regime but one that recognises changedbehaviour. It isn’t about scrubbing floors, breaking rocks or other boring, repetitivetasks. It is making sure that with a basic but decent diet and a huge amount ofphysical exercise they have no time to sit and lapse into routines of learned behaviourthrough gang culture. If they show an inclination to academic study they shouldface long hours of learning towards qualifications interspersed with thephysical exercise. If they show an inclination towards vocational learning thenthey will be taught a trade; plumbing, painting, electrical, building and otheruseful skills. Doing nothing should not be an option. They should not leavewithout additional qualifications and an agreed plan of learning or work.
  5. For those with mental health problems in our communities, they should be undercareful observation and support to identify their potential and find how theycan still contribute to society whilst having intensive support and care tomeet their needs. They need ‘buddies’ to help them day to day. They needcounselling. They also need work. Whatever type of work that is, but still work.Studies repeatedly show that those with mental health problems function muchbetter when they have something productive to do that builds self-confidenceand self-worth and gives them a routine to enjoy each day.
  6.  We need to recogniseyouth workers who are paid a pittance and yet do fantastic leadership workin our communities. They live and breathe those streets and know who are thetroublemakers and who have a great chance in life to move on up. They need tobe given central roles in community projects and actual budgets to spend, toshake up the stale, frustrating routines in communities with innovative ways toinvolve young people and keep them busy. Close liaison with communityleaders, teachers, probation officers, police officers and social workersshould require weekly meetings to identify troublemakers, recognise the decentfolk and give an impetus to being in control of those streets. Frankly itshould be part of the Big Society agenda. They also should serve as an earlywarning system to trouble.
  7. Sendthose troublemakers who show improvement and are making progress, to places where there is genuine poverty (farworse than they face back home). I am not talking about free trips to sunnyplaces to enjoy themselves but rather take them economy class to a country likeMalawi and put them to work on building a clinic, classroom or planting crops. Theyshould be sent to places a handful at a time and under supervision. Let themcreate something good. Let them sweat. Let them use their brain to figure outsolutions to problems, where there is no builder’s merchant just around the corner.Where people are starving to death. Give them a shovel and tell them if theydon’t dig a hole then that village of people will die of thirst. I’m certainthat they will swallow their pride and start digging. They will receive afantastic welcome and will receive great praise from wonderfully friendly people but there will be no hotel; they willlive in the communities in mud huts and will work 16 hours a day. They willfind out what it is really like to have little food and if you don’t plantcrops or walk ten miles to the nearest water pump, you will die. It will leavean indelible impression on those young minds of how lucky they actually are. Twoweeks sleeping on a mud hut floor, eating basic rice provisions and workinghard to build a school may just puncture that swagger and arrogance.

  Kanyopola in Malawi, 2002 during famine

  For those that say, 'we shouldn’t be spending money on thesetroublemakers', well guess what, we already are spending money on them. We spend billions onwelfare and placing them in prison. It costs up to £140,000per year per young criminal.
  
  

  It is time to spend a little on strengthening core values insociety:

  • Zero tolerance of bad behaviour
  • Teach respect and responsibility throughout life
  • Invest in youth and community workers
  • Reward academic and vocational achievement
  • Put the media spotlight on youngster successstories
  • Focus energy, time and money on making peoplework, work and work
  • Push the troublemakers into seeing and feelingthose starving to death
  • Introduce new facilities to make criminals work18 hours a day and they don’t leave until they have shown real progress inattitude by learning a new trade or achieving academic qualifications

  Malawi 2002 - hope with clean water

  
  
  

• Privacy vs Public Interest - Ryan Giggs vs Imogen Thomas | 09-08-11
  Arguments continue to rage about whether super-injunctions should be allowed to protect any form of reporting about certain issues (including the fact an injunction even exits). It seems that the debate is polarised and causes immense passion on both sides. Sometimes super injunctions are needed to protect people from the worst excesses of the media. On the other hand, some of those super injunctions are designed by the rich to buy them greater legal protection than is available to the vast majority and there is not a sufficient reason to justify imposing such sweeping censorship.

  Imogen Thomas is unable to comment due to the court order

  Lately,  Ryan Giggs has allegedly secured a super injunction to stop any mention of an affair with Imogen Thomas. Yet Twitter users have apparently ignored the injunction and made a mockery of the courts and the system of super injunctions by naming him. We will wait and see if Giggs denies the allegations. If he does, then his name has been badly smeared. The worry is that it is left to the users of social media to push back against over zealous courts in an erratic, unregulated manner. Jemima Khan was left furiously denying any affair with Jeremy Clarkson after being falsely named on Twitter.

  Ryan Giggs has allegedly secured a super injunction against Imogen Thomas

  For those that argue that anyone in the public eye should be open to any form of press scrutiny, I can see the logic of their puritanical (if simplistic) argument but it would allow anyone even forced into the public domain, such as a rape victim, to have to put up with paparazzi photographs. That would be grotesque and outrageous. So after that simplistic argument, the question is where do you draw the line before you reach the other end of the spectrum with press censorship by the rich and the powerful?

  
  

  Hugh Grant has taken a tough stance against press intrusion

  Hugh Grant takes a view that if his job requires certain publicity such as attending a film premiere that should not give the automatic right to the press to be able to route through his bins and lie in wait outside his house or when he goes shopping. That sounds reasonable. Likewise, just because someone walks down the street and is photographed with their children, does not mean that they have necessarily invited the photographers to come and take their photo (although some celebrities and their agents apparently tip off the press on their whereabouts specifically so they can appear in magazines such as OK! and Hello).

  John Terry took out a super injunction in 2010

  However, the use of super injunctions does cause real concern. There is little doubt that only those who are rich and famous can afford to go to court and seek such overbearing and prescriptive orders. The argument that they are the only kinds of people who need them and Mrs Smith from Burnley who is a clerk in an office would never need one, is not the point. Mrs Smith should not be told that some parts of the law are off limits and that she had better pray that she doesn’t need to get a super injunction because she can’t afford one, is a dangerous precedent for a law that should be blind to who you are and the size of your wallet or purse. No, it would be better that parliament set the rules on privacy vs public interest rather than judges listening to super rich lawyers earning six figure salaries on behalf of rich people earning seven or eight figure salaries.
  Yet, Lord Neuberger's recent report on this issue seems to conclude that parliamentarians should be gagged by taking away their privilege to report any such injunction in parliament. That is a scary statement from a senior judge who is Master of the Rolls. MPs rarely use such privilege and understand the responsibility of using it. However, the fact a judge wishes to stop MPs openly challenging the courts demonstrates that it is the courts that need to be reminded that it is parliament who is the sovereign body in this country and not judges.
  

  Lord Neuberger wants to gag MPs in parliament

  Some will argue that there should be no right to telling the press what they can and cannot print given that sometimes individuals invite the press into their private lives and then five minutes later complain bitterly that they do not want to be photographed or door stepped. Well frankly, why not? Just because I agree to shop in Sainsbury’s one week should not force me to go next week. My ‘contract’ is in fact a freedom to choose who I do business with. Therefore, there should be a respect for when it is agreeable for the press to arrive to take photographs and when they are not welcome.

  The BBC's Andrew Marr was embarrassed by taking out an injunction

  I have suffered first hand from a journalist screaming abuse at my young son through my letterbox threatening to print a story if he didn’t go and persuade his daddy to come to the door. I have seen the belligerent tactics of a press who have not a care in the world for family members. As an MP, I even had one heated conversation with a regional newspaper editor who said, “your wife is public property and I’ll print what I like about her”. A charming man. On other occasions I have endured a journalist from the News of the World repeatedly ringing a family member posing as a policeman from “Belgravia Police Station” and saying I was involved in a car accident and he urgently needed my address. Of course, I had not been involved in any accident and the 'policeman' upon checking, did not exist. Another time a journalist posed as my sister and rang up the hospital where a family member was seriously ill, to try and get medical information. Fortunately, a sharp minded nurse gave the woman short shrift.
  There are some members of the press who know no bounds of living in the gutter to get any information that they can use. They will twist around information to talk up to sound like a thriller story that will grip readers, regardless of facts. The trail of havoc though that they lead behind them, lasts forever. Would I have taken out a super injunction to protect my family in those circumstances and I had the money? Yes, in a heartbeat. But the injunction would be based on stopping photographs of my children appearing in the press, untrue liaisons with other women or medical details of my family. The problem lies in the way the press will gossip, smear and use innuendo which is not in the public interest. The rules are grey and unenforceable and every case is unique. That is where clarification is needed to cut through to say, "Is this story really in the public interest?".
  

  For those in the public eye being scrutinised under genuine public interest (and not because it is interesting to the public) then the rules are different. If a politician has defrauded the taxpayer then it is reasonable to investigate them and ask them for comment and take their photograph. If an actor stars as a policeman on TV and makes his name and fortune in a role that is demonstrating he is a law enforcer, then it seems perfectly reasonable to highlight the fact he was caught speeding in a car. If a footballer who makes money from his family image and pretends to be happily married and yet has a six month affair, then yes it is right the press explains to the public that he is misleading them.
  However, in each of those cases, I fear for the impact on the families of those individuals who are innocent victims. They will pay for the rest of their lives for the mistakes of the individuals and perhaps the tenacity of the media.

  For the record, I think most journalists in the UK are respectable, reputable professionals who are a true asset to our democracy. Unfortunately there is a small minority who are truly undesirable individuals who need to be reined in.

  The problem is that some in the media sometimes don’t just push against the boundaries of decent behaviour or slightly bend the rules in pursuit of a public interest agenda, they sometimes utterly disregard them and have no problem in wreaking people’s lives in order to get a story that will improve ratings on TV or sell more newspapers. It is the recklessness that some wish to curtail and given the repeated number of times some in the media over step the mark, a voluntary system of enforcement is worthless.
  

  David Cameron needs to come up with new legislation on the boundaries for protecting privacy

  The Government should look at now designing a sensible system of legislation that gets the balance right. Otherwise, more injunctions will be taken out by the rich and they will be able to protect more than their privacy and no doubt use the legal tactics to prevent the public finding out wrong doing. The leaking and breaches of court injunctions seem the only defence against the onerous court orders and yet it should be the responsibility of parliament to take action rather than those using social media. With rich footballers now hounding Twitter to reveal user information to pursue individuals that breach injunctions, this argument will continue to rage until the Government stops ducking the issue and takes action. The current situation is an utter mess and it will only spiral further out of control with even more zealous courts and social media users determined to name and shame regardless of the consequences. David Cameron needs to get off the sidelines and bring forward new legislation that sets out the red lines of where privacy should be protected.

  
  
  

• Super injunction absurdity | 09-08-11
  After my Blog last Saturday, the cat was finally out of the bag yesterday when John Hemming MP mentioned in parliament the rich footballer as Ryan Giggs who had taken out a super injunction affecting Imogen Thomas about allegations that he had an affair with her. To date Giggs has apparently not denied it.

  John Hemmings MP

  At one point, there was the absurd situation with the Sunday Herald placing a huge photograph of Giggs wearing a Manchester United shirt, on their front page with a tiny blacked out strip across his eyes saying 'censored'. The Herald claimed they were unaffected by the super injunction in Scotland.

  Cameron also finally began to wake up to the mess and ordered a committee to convene to look at potential solutions to the current debacle of judges making up censorship laws as they go along and Twitterers blatantly ignoring them.

  Was it opportunistic of Hemming to mention Giggs and breach a court order knowing he was safe from prosecution under parliamentary privilege? Yes, of course, but frankly the surreal situation of thousands of people being criminalised by gossiping that Giggs may have taken out a super injunction was fast becoming untenable. Would the courts try to force Twitter to hand over user names and identify those who may have breached the order? 70,000 people could have ended up in court. It simply was not going to happen. The courts have better things to do with their time.

  Sunday Herald front page

  As I mentioned in my Blog on Saturday 21st May, there are rare circumstances when I think a private individual should have the right to take out a super injunction but those circumstances should be exceptional and not just for the super rich to protect them from gossip. My Blog hit the front page of searches over the weekend for people searching to find out who was the footballer at the centre of the controversy.

  I sincerely hope Cameron's new committee will rapidly come up with a set of proposals so that parliament can vote on them in the Autumn and gain Royal Assent by the end of the year. This issue is not going to go away sometime soon. There could still be various criminal cases involving Imogen Thomas, Piers Morgan, Dom Joly, Boy George, Toby Young and many others accused of allegedly leaking the information on Twitter and possibly others (your truly may be?).
  
  
  

  Banning the book simply pushed up sales

  The situation reminded me of the 'Spycatcher' affair. The book was banned in the UK and in the days before the Internet it was a lot harder to find a copy of it overseas.
  

  Nevertheless, I tracked down a copy to a book store in the US and purchased it. After reading it, I did wonder what the fuss was all about. Likewise, I am sure that Ryan Giggs will wonder whether the hyper-speculation over many weeks and the final outing has propelled his private life ironically into the spotlight far more than if he had taken the hit many months ago and issued a short statement about the alleged affair.

  
  

  
  

  Imogen Thomas

  It is interesting to draw an analogy between phone hacking and super injunctions. In 2006, the police refused to fully investigate obvious, serious breaches of privacy affecting hundreds of people when their phones were hacked on an 'industrial scale' and then covered up by Executives and senior managers in the News of the World and other newspapers.
  

  Now the CPS and police are being ordered by the courts to rapidly bring cases to try and criminalise anyone who even passes a view on an injunction (and not even on the substance of the allegation) which are currently designed to hush up indiscretions of the rich and the famous. Sorry but clearly the law is an ass. Don't get me started on gung ho judges wanting to shut up democratically elected MPs....

  
  
  

• Bring war criminals to justice | 09-08-11

  General Ratko Mladic

  The news that Ratko Mladic has been found and arrested is a positive reminder of international justice working. Mladic was indicted for the slaughter of 7,500 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica in 1995 and his day in court is long overdue. 

  Cemetery at Srebrenica-Potocari

  Just like the Nuremberg trials in 1945-46, it is very important to demonstrate that those who commit crimes against humanity, genocide and war crimes are found and publicly tried.

  Nuremberg Trials

  I remember writing to the British Prime Minister, John Major demanding that something be done to end the massacre and receiving a typically bland reply and thinking that his weak, hand wringing was utterly unacceptable. I had grown up with the images of Jews being hunted and murdered by Nazi thugs and here on European soil was another genocide being practised. Major's letter to me was one of the galvanising forces that led me to throw my hat into the ring for the Labour candidacy a year or so later and led me to winning the seat of Shrewsbury and Atcham in 1997.

  Slobodan Milosevic

  In 2003 on the second anniversary of 9/11, I visited The Hague to see the trial of Milosevic and watched him behind the glass screen. He was brazen, confident and tried to impose his personality and will on the court. The judges were not impressed and would repeatedly correct his behaviour. The mistake was to allow the trial to drag on for more than five years and give the former President of Serbia so much air time. His early death of natural causes in custody robbed his victims of seeing him found guilty but at least he was forced to endure a trial and face his accusers in court.
  Justice can still be done if proceedings are clearly given boundaries and a trial of even one year should have been enough. I was incredibly impressed meeting the legal team for the prosecution who were working with very limited budgets and having to fly witness around the world from for instance Sarajevo to Geneva to Paris and then The Hague so that the neighbours back home did not know they were appearing as witnesses against Milosevic. It took a huge amount of resource to make justice work and for it to be seen to be working.

  But what remains in my mind is the terstimony of one witness who appeared cloaked behind a curtain. She was crying and whispered the story of how the Serbian soldiers had arrived in her village and picked out men and boys to kill. They then found two women hiding in a toilet block and casually tossed in two hand grenades. They walked away laughing to the screams of the women dying an awful death. 

  Humans can be the most amazingly kind, generous protective creatures who can love and care for the vulnerable and the sick. Yet the same species can also be unspeakably cruel, devious and wicked. What happened in the Former Yugoslavia (on all sides) were acts of genocide and crimes against humanity. It is right and proper to hunt down those responsible. They can and will have a fair trial and the opportunity to defend themselves but that is the best way to deal with them.

  Osama Bin Laden

  The killing of Osama Bin Laden was different. American Special Forces had split seconds to decide on foreign soil if they could take him alive and President Obama had made clear in his orders (no one could imagine President Bush seriously considering international law) that if possible he should be arrested. It was highly likely that given the risks involved the most likely outcome was that Bin Laden, a self confessed terrorist, would be shot and killed with the clock ticking down until all Hell let loose in Pakistan.
  

  ICTY building in The Hague

  Mladic will hopefully be handed over to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [corrected from original article that stated International Criminal Court] in The Hague peacefully, just like Milosevic was before him. There is time to carry out the indictment and time for justice to be smoothly practised. 

  It has been a bumpy road but I trust that the trend towards indicting, arresting and putting on trial where-ever possible will continue for those who carry out atrocities. As democracy flourishes and grows the values of justice under the auspices of the United Nations, will push back the evil that humans do until one day I hope such acts will banished into the mists of time.
  

• News of the World closes but 'Phonegate' goes on | 09-08-11
  After years of denial, obfuscation and lies, News of the World has been forceably closed down by James Murdoch, Chairman of News International today. Phonegate had degenerated into hourly revelations of gratuitous phone hacking of 7/7 victims, Milly Dowler's phone and servicemen and women.  

  

  The British press has taken a rightful battering for the industrial scale use of direct phone hacking and the use of private investigators to listen into private voice-mails to glean a quick story or a morsel of information.

  The police must also be brought to account for the grossly incompetent and negligent first investigation in 2006 that repeatedly denied any wrong doing outside the original court case of two men. The reality was that evidence was hidden and ignored implicating many others. After hearing that police officers were indeed on the payroll of the News of the World, British justice has also taken a hammering. Can the police be trusted to carry out their work and not take bribes?

  Police officers may have accepted over £100,000 in bribes, although Met Commission (above) Sir Paul Stephenson had said the sums were 'small'

  The Guardian has revealed that perhaps 4,000 victims are listed in the evidence and after the then Assistant John Yates had dismissed the newspaper for claiming in 2009 that between 2,000 and 3,000 might have been victims, it shows the deliberate misleading and perhaps untruths that were told by senior police officers.

  Now the heat will be turned up on Rebekah Brooks and whether she knew more than she claims about the scandal. It seems like a question of time before she will be forced out. Murdoch has had enough and is now purging his media empire of those tarnished by Phonegate.

  Rebekah Brooks with Rupert and James Murdoch - clock ticks to her firing?

  The repercussions of this scandal will reverberate for generations to come but maybe it will be the catalyst to clean up journalism and end the dirty tactics of dish the dirt on anyone at any cost. However, it will take a long time for the public to forgive the excesses of this scandal. With ongoing police enquiries involving dozens of police officers sifting the evidence and new charges being brought regularly against employees of News International, this is far from over. Perhaps the worst is still to come out about what these disgraceful individuals did to the innocent? How many lives have they ruined in pursuit of a so called 'exclusive'?

  News of the World - the end but the scandal goes on

  

• Phonegate - John Yates should resign | 09-08-11

  John Yates listing his excuses to the Home Affairs Committee for not looking at 11,000 pages of evidence in 2009

  Assistant Commissioner John Yates failed miserably to adequately investigate systematic, widespread criminal phone hacking on a massive scale. His pathetic excuses in front of the Home Affairs Committee today must assume that MPs are idiots. 

  To point the finger at News International and say "It is a matter of great concern that for whatever reason the NOTW failed to cooperate... with the relevant police inquiries... they have only recently provided evidence that would have had a significant impact". Poppycock Mr Yates, you are a police officer. Politicians can try and wriggle around and point the blame at others, but you were paid by the public to investigate. When you are sitting on 11,000 pages of evidence that is a pretty good start to join up the dots and haul in journalists and private investigators to demand answers. If you thought that the evidence was too big to handle for your officers you should have asked for more resources and asked for more time. You didn't. You ignored criminal activities and misled the public, parliament and the rest of the media that there were no other phone hacking other than the original Mulcaire-Goodman case. 

  At best, the Met officer was grossly incompetent and negligent in overseeing the investigation in 2009 or (given the recent allegations of £130,000 of bribes paid to police officers) was dissuaded from investigating by vested interests, which makes him a fool. Either way, the man is not someone the British public should have in a senior position protecting them from criminals. John Yates should resign or be sacked.

  The police found 11,000 pages of evidence from the original phone hacking cases and a cursory glance shows that there were many other victims who may have had their phones hacked. Andy Hayman was in charge of the 2009 investigation on the ground and promised to "leave no stone unturned". He then brazenly and misleadingly stated that: "The Guardian has said it understands that the police file shows that between 2,000 and 3,000 individuals had their mobile phones hacked into, far more than was ever officially admitted during the investigation and prosecution of Clive Goodman. Yet, my recollection is different. As I recall the list of those targeted, which was put together from records kept by Glen Mulcaire, ran to several hundred names. Of these, there was a small number — perhaps a handful — where there was evidence that the phones had actually been tampered with."

  Clearly that is not the truth, when the Met have now admitted 4,000 names are in the evidence and after a thorough investigation it is likely that a substantial number will be found to be directly hacked or attempted to be hacked.

  Former Assistant Commissioner Andy Hayman grossly misled the public

  Mr Hayman no longer works for the Met so can't be sacked but he too should face an investigation for either blatant lies or at best, grossly misleading the public. However Mr Yates is still in place and needs to be held to account. Keith Vaz MP, Chair of the Home Affairs Committee was withering in his dismissal of the credibility of Yates as a witness today and warned him about misleading parliament. Yates is likely to be recalled to the enquiry.

  Yates supplied a letter to the Home Affairs Committee prior to attending and giving oral evidence today. He stated (in reference to advice from the Prosecution Counsel about the 2009 investigation) that: "It is appreciated that such a review is always undertaken in relation to relevance in respect of the indictment. However, in a written memorandum, dated 14th July 2009, Counsel stated: (the underlined aspects are my emphasis)

  
  

  …'we did enquire of the police at a conference whether there was any evidence that the Editor of the News of the World was involved in the Goodman-Mulcaire offences. We were told that there was not (and we never saw such evidence).We also enquired whether there was any evidence connecting Mulcaire to other News of the World journalists. Again, we were told that there was not (and we never saw such evidence).'

  
  

  In other words, in whatever guise - relevance to the indictment or otherwise - that Counsel considered the unused material, they stated then in unequivocal terms that they were neither told about nor did they see any matters that appeared to merit further investigation.

  On 16th July 2009, in his own statement on the matter, the DPP stated 'it would not be appropriate to re-open the cases against Goodman and Mulcaire, or to revisit the decisions taken in the course of investigating and prosecuting them'. This led to the case remaining closed until January this year when new evidence was provided by News International which resulted in the launch of Operation Weeting."

  
  

  The utter baloney that he has written to the Home Affairs Committee is staggering. Yates looked at 11,000 pages of evidence and he and his officers decided on the narrow confines of a brief not to look for any other possible leads of criminal activity. A cursory glance would have shown highly suspicious evidence. They must though have come across examples of wrong doing but decided not to offer it up as a viable case to the CPS. The question is; why? They didn't tell the victims that their phones had been hacked or were likely to have been hacked. They didn't take even samples of the evidence to chase down to see if there could be hard evidence of hacking. They walked a tight rope of ignoring everything apart from the original case to see if there was a water tight case of further wrong doing by journalists linked only to Mulcaire and the specific case for which he was found guilty. Staggering. Absolutely staggering. By blatantly and openly ignoring the mountain of evidence, Yates gave a further green light to the media to carry on as before to hack and blag their way through people's private lives. Yates has a greater responsibility to ensure that the excesses and criminal activities of those that live in the shadows are routed out and prosecuted. He has failed miserably and should go now.
  

• Gaddafi's son's desperate pleas point to Rebel victory | 09-08-11
  

  
  

  After months of decrying the democratic rebellion in Libya asan Islamist plot, Gaddafi’s son, Saif now gives an interview urging that the extremistsshould support his father. Here is another reason to get rid of Gaddafiwhere a secular state will be replaced by a puritannical, radical state ofreligious madness.

  NATO and the West must continue to support the Rebels andstep up training and weapons supplied to them. If Gaddafi was serious about aceasefire that would lead to a stable peace then it should be genuinelyconsidered but he is an untrustworthy snake who will not abide by any ceasefireterms and will inevitably seek to overthrow an Eastern half of a democraticLibya.

  Another of Gaddafi’ssons has been proclaimed dead. Khamis was a key military leader in charge of 32^ndBrigade and has seemingly perished in a NATO airstrike. However, this was denied in Tripoli. It may be taking muchlonger than originally thought but Gaddafi’s infrastructure and militarycommand and control is systematically been destroyed.

  

  It is difficult to accurately assess the progress of the war. After the crazy first few weeks following NATO involvement when the Rebels were pushing back there followed months of stalemate with each side losing and then winning ground in a see saw backwards and forwards over the same ground in Ras Lanuf, Brega and Ajdabia. In the East, the inhabitants of Misrata suffered a brutal onslaught besieged day after day and yet their strength eventually and steadily broke out of the enclave and reinforced the belief that the upper hand was with the Rebels.

  Rebels are slowly pushing Gaddafi's army back

  The war could be over quickly, if NATO allows commanders to train the Rebel forces and modernise its equipment and weaponry. There is no sense in offering minimum air strikes and keeping fingers crossed that the Rebels will get to Tripoli. They will get there, but how many more have to die before they succeed. A swift, uplift in support by NATO could overwhelm Gaddafi's remaining forces and once a momentum builds the army will collapse into the desert. That doesn't mean it will be easy but a clear tide of support for the Rebels will swing the majority onside. Once the Rebels are in Tripoli and can demonstrate that they are fair, and just the vast majority will then begin to trust them and the fighting will end. Only then, can Libyans start to rebuild their country into a prosperous nation with a strong economy and a great future for today's sons and daughters.
  

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• England close on series victory | 06-01-11

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• New Year, new rant against MPs by IPSA | 05-01-11

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• paulwbmarsden on Paul Marsden: BA strike could damage Labour | 20-03-10

  Next 2 years could see the worst period for strikes for nearly thirty years. Labour best placed to negotiate New Deal for industrial relations, otherwise there could be chaos.

• Paul Marsden: BA strike could damage Labour | 20-03-10

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• paulwbmarsden on How realistic is The Ghost? | 19-03-10

  Truth can be stranger than fiction...

• How realistic is The Ghost? | 19-03-10

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• paulwbmarsden on 5 Things You Should Know About SEO | 09-03-10

  Search engine optimization is about setting realistic goals within respectable guidelines, seeing past short-term setbacks and targeting the phrases with the most significance (and traffic) within your market. Websites do not optimize themselves, but knowing what to expect is instrumental prior to embarking on the journey of targeting competitive keyword verticals.

• 5 Things You Should Know About SEO | 09-03-10

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• paulwbmarsden on Brazil puts trade sanctions on US | 09-03-10

  The Brazilian government has announced trade sanctions against a variety of American goods in retaliation for illegal US subsidies to cotton farmers. The World Trade Organization (WTO) approved the sanctions in a rare move.

• Brazil puts trade sanctions on US | 09-03-10

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• Greenland ice sheet future grim, | 07-01-11

  A glaciologist is warning that the Greenland ice sheet is "retreating and thinning extensively" after a year of record-breaking high temperatures.

• How Will We Know if 2010 Was the Warmest Year on Record? | 22-12-10

  Earlier this month, NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) announced that November was the warmest such month in its record books — and that 2010 overall may well turn out to be the warmest year ever.

• UK Banking Reform | 13-06-10

  Risk-free "safe haven" accounts guaranteed by the government should be set up as part of a "profound reform of the banking system", a report says. The UK's Future of Banking Commission wants improvements in saver protection and restructuring of banks.

• Polar science | 13-06-10

  Science writer and broadcaster Sue Nelson is at the world's largest polar science conference, which is taking place in Oslo, Norway from 8-12 June. Experts have gathered to discuss everything polar - from penguins and sea ice to permafrost and Inuit communities.

• Time to withdraw from Afghanistan | 11-06-10

  A troubled land

• New UN climate chief calls for more ambition | 09-06-10

  The incoming head of the UN climate convention has said rich nations must pledge bigger emission cuts if climate change is to be tackled effectively. But Christiana Figueres said she was confident that leaders would meet the challenge "because humanity has to meet it - we don't  …

• Simon Hughes elected Lib Dem deputy leader in UK | 09-06-10

  Simon Hughes has won the contest to be deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats. The Bermondsey and Old Southwark MP saw off a challenge from Tim Farron, taking the votes of 38 of the party's 57 MPs. Mr Hughes replaces Vince Cable, who stood down from the deputy leadership role l …

• Fabio Capello; gilt edged record | 09-06-10

  Oh to be the England football Manager in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

• England to win World Cup 2010? | 07-06-10

  The time draws near. The questions are being asked (again and again).

• Israel diverts Gaza aid ship Rachel Corrie to Ashdod | 05-06-10

  An aid ship intercepted by the Israeli military while trying to break the blockade of Gaza has arrived in the Israeli port of Ashdod. Israel says its soldiers boarded the Irish-owned Rachel Corrie from the sea and did not meet any resistance.

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