The Guardian World News

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• Staff withdrawn from Japan nuclear plant
• Rebels face last stand as troops zero in on Benghazi
• GP income could double in NHS plan
• Doctors accused over Manning
• Web is spying machine, says Assange
• Reggae star dies during police raid
• Taliban 'decimated' in Helmand
• Fast track for super-rich to settle
• Spain 'wrongly jailed' Basque leader
• Moat accomplices get life sentences
• Taxes 'must rise by £20bn a year'
• Police swoop on daffodil-pickers
• Deep and meaningful
• Why I tried the Hoffman Process
• No minorities please, we're English!
• Redford brings Sundance to London
• Biz Stone to join Huffington Post
• Harriet Fraad
• What to say about ... Flare Path

Staff withdrawn from Japan nuclear plant Posted: 15 Mar 2011 10:31 PM PDT The workers were ordered to leave the facility after the level of radiation at the plant soared to 10 millisievert per hour - above the level considered harmful to human health Read the latest updates in the Guardian's live blog Workers battling to prevent nuclear meltdown at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi plant were temporarily evacuated on Wednesday morning after radiation levels became too dangerous for them to remain. The withdrawal hampered efforts to secure the safety at the atomic power plant and avert a major radiation leak. Its operator, Tokyo Electric Power [Tepco] said it was considering using helicopters to spray the crippled No. 4 reactor with water and boric acid – a fire retardant – in an attempt to prevent more radiation leaks. The 50 or so engineers, working around the clock in harsh conditions, spent the morning trying to put out a fire at one reactor and to cool others at risk of overheating and reaching criticality. The government's chief spokesman, Yukio Edano, said Japan was considering seeking help from the US military. All six of the plants reactors are experiencing problems following last Friday's earthquake and tsunami, in which an estimated 10,000 people have died. The workers were ordered to leave the facility after the level of radiation at the plant soared to 10 millisievert per hour - above the level considered harmful to human health – possibly as a result of radioactive substances being emitted from the No. 2 reactor. The reading later fell to around 6 millisievert per hour, reports said. The evacuation followed another day of crisis at the plant, which has become the focus of the world's attention, even as rescue workers sift through the damage caused by the tsunami along a vast stretch of Japan's northeast coast. Earlier, officials from the nuclear and industrial safety agency said that 70% of fuel rods at the No. 1 reactor had been significantly damaged, as well as 33% of rods at the No. 2 reactor. The cores of both reactors are believed to have partially melted, Kyodo news agency said. "We don't know the nature of the damage," said Minoru Ohgoda, spokesman for the country's nuclear safety agency. "It could be either melting, or there might be some holes in them." Before they were moved to safety the workers had been trying to cool spent nuclear fuel pools at the No. 5 and No. 6 reactors, where temperatures have risen above normal levels. To compound the workers' problems, a fire broke out at the No. 3 reactor, where a fuel storage pool has overheated and may have let off radioactive steam. Live TV footage showing a large cloud of light grey smoke rising above the plant. Edano said that there was "a possibility that the No. 3 reactor's containment vessel is damaged". A blaze also broke out again at the No. 4 reactor, which was already feared to be at risk of leaking radioactivity. The nuclear safety agency reported that flames and smoke were no longer visible half an hour later, but were unable to confirm that the fire had been extinguished. The No. 4 reactor is an increasing cause for concern. Tepco believes that the storage pool may be boiling, raising the possibility that exposed rods will reach criticality. "The possibility of re-criticality is not zero," a Tepco spokesman said. Yesterday the government ordered 140,000 people living within a 30-kilometre radius of the plant to remain indoors after a spike in radiation levels. A further 70,000 residents had already been moved to safe distances. The government said it had no immediate plans to widen the evacuation zone. The crisis unfolding in Fukushima continued to raise anxiety levels in Tokyo, 150 kilometres to the south. Radiation levels in the capital was 10 times higher than normal on Tuesday evening, but posed no health hazard, the government said. The meteorological agency said winds near the power plant would blow from the northwest and out into the Pacific Ocean on Wednesday. The winds were expected to strengthen in the afternoon, the agency added. Japan earthquake and tsunami Japan Nuclear power Nuclear waste Natural disasters and extreme weather Justin McCurry guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Rebels face last stand as troops zero in on Benghazi Posted: 15 Mar 2011 11:18 AM PDT Government troops close in on centre of resistance as western powers continue deliberations on whether to aid oppostion Libya's revolution was facing collapse as Muammar Gaddafi's forces broke through the last major line of resistance before Benghazi, the heart of the uprising and the seat of the rebel administration. Pro-government forces pushed back the rebels in an air and land assault on the town of Ajdabiya, as the regime moved to crush the revolution once and for all before foreign powers could agree measures in support of the uprising, including a no-fly zone. The rebels had pledged a vigorous defence of Ajdabiya but swiftly lost control of large parts of the town, including the strategically important coastal road, although pockets of fighting continued. The regime's advance leaves the road open to Benghazi, 90 miles away, where there was growing alarm as word of the latest military setback spread. "The battle is lost. Gaddafi is throwing everything against us," a rebel officer who gave his name as General Suleiman told Reuters. Last night the revolutionary council, which had promised a fight to the death claimed to be in full control of Ajdabiya, but some Benghazi residents were fleeing to the Egyptian border amid considerable bitterness at the failure of western countries to back vocal support for the rebels with practical help, including a no-fly zone and military equipment to fight Gaddafi's armed forces, some trained by the British army. The assault came as the US finally joined the UK and France in supporting a draft UN resolution imposing a no-fly zone over Libya. A vote on a draft motion is expected later this week or early next week, which is likely to be too late for the rebels. Libyan state television declared: "The town of Ajdabiya has been cleansed of mercenaries and terrorists linked to the al-Qaida organisation." The setback in Ajdabiya is the latest in a series of reverses that has seen the fortunes of the revolution set back after the initial successes that had many Libyans believing Gaddafi's regime was on the brink of collapse a fortnight ago. Many in Benghazi are now fearful of retribution by the regime's agents and say they have no choice but to fight for their survival. But the rebel army does not appear to have made any significant preparations for the city's defence. The assault on Ajdabiya took on a familiar pattern with Tripoli's forces first bombing then shelling the town. Gaddafi's army then came at the town from two sides. A call went out through mosques and rebel fighters moved to the front but they said they were outgunned and began pulling back. Libya Middle East Arab and Middle East protests Chris McGreal guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

GP income could double in NHS plan Posted: 15 Mar 2011 03:54 PM PDT Andrew Lansley's plans for the NHS cause increasing disquiet among doctors as BMA demands he rethink pro-market changes • Bill will only have minor changes, insists Lansley GPs could more than double their income to £300,000 a year under health secretary Andrew Lansley's plans for the NHS, according to an analysis for the Guardian – sparking calls from top doctors for the government to reverse controversial policies that would appear to reward physicians who ration care. The revelation comes after the British Medical Association voted to scrap the "dangerous" health bill and demanded that Lansley rethink his radical pro-market changes to the NHS. GPs are central to the government's programme, and by 2013 will have to band together into consortiums before being handed £80bn of NHS funds to commission care for their patients. At the heart of many doctors' concerns lies the possibility that, under the reforms, GPs' pay will be linked to rationing patient care; in essence, being rewarded for saving the taxpayer money. Doctors' leaders warned that the public would view as "unethical" any move towards a GP's assessment of a person's medical need being coloured by a profit motive. At the start of a three-part series on the future of the NHS, the Guardian commissioned Kieran Walshe, professor of health policy and management at Manchester Business School and an adviser to the Commons health select committee, to examine how GPs could profit from the reforms. His work shows GPs could more than double their average pay of £105,000 to £300,000 a year as a direct result of the reforms. At present fewer than 3% of GPs earn more than £200,000 – but Walshe suggests such salaries could become the norm. The pay of family doctors has been a source of dispute since a 2004 deal saw the average annual salary rise from £60,000 to more than £100,000. The prospect of more cash for GPs at a time of austerity and government cuts could prove deeply unpopular with the public. According to Walshe, the most lucrative ventures would see GPs setting up private companies that would turn underspends in their annual budget – in effect, savings on patient spending – into profits. He calculates that individual GPs could net more than £140,000 a year in extra income by saving 5% in commissioning costs. Another £55,000 of income each would come from taking on the responsibility of managing their local population's needs. A quality premium is also on offer – rewarding financial performance of GP consortiums – as well as the chance for family doctors to create businesses to sell treatments to patients. Dr Clare Gerada, chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners, told the Guardian: "GPs and patients share a unique relationship of trust. If the perception of that trusting relationship is undone then that would have serious consequences for patient care." One of the key motions passed by the BMA – in its first emergency meeting for 19 years – warned that the relationship between doctors and patients "will be threatened if GP practice remuneration is dependent on rationing decisions [or] the requirement to balance commissioning budgets". The Department of Health insisted consortiums would not be allowed to make profits by underspending. A spokesperson said the bill would see the NHS regulator Monitor and the new NHS national commissioning board intervene "where there are concerns about the fairness of commissioning decisions. A consortium's commissioning budget must be used exclusively for patient care. We will not allow a situation where profits can be made at the expense of patient care or patient choice." But the BMA condemned Lansley's plans as "too extreme and too rushed … [they] will negatively impact on patient care". Some 400 representatives of local groups of doctors called on Lansley to "call a halt to the proposed top down reorganisation of the NHS [and] withdraw the health and social care bill". Labour sought to capitalise on the growing opposition to the bill, which burst open at the Liberal Democrats' spring conference, when its membership voted to amend the NHS bill so that it promoted "co-operation rather than competition" and asked for half the seats on the boards of GP commissioning consortiums to be reserved for local councillors. Ed Miliband will seek a vote on the NHS reforms in parliamenton Wednesday – hoping to draw out Lib Dem rebels. Lib Dem MPs were meeting to decide how to vote in the Commons debate, but were not expected to vote with Labour.No 10 described the BMA's general meeting as unrepresentative of its membership. Simon Burns, the NHS minister, said "it has been a day of confusing messages from the … BMA. Fortunately our policy of protecting the NHS's budget and its values remains clear." NHS Andrew Lansley Health policy Health Randeep Ramesh Denis Campbell guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Doctors accused over Manning Posted: 15 Mar 2011 11:48 AM PDT WikiLeaks suspect treated cruelly, says rights group, which accuses psychiatrists of 'violating ethical duties' A leading group of doctors in the US concerned with the ethical treatment of patients has questioned the role of military psychiatrists in Quantico, Virginia, where the suspected WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning is being subjected to harsh treatment that some call torture. The advocacy body Physicians for Human Rights has sounded the alarm over the role of psychiatrists at the brig in the marine base where Manning has been in custody since last July. The group sees the psychiatrists as trapped in a situation of "dual loyalty", where their obligations to the military chain of command may conflict with their medical duty to protect their patient. Christy Fujio, author of a forthcoming report on the issue, said the main concern was that psychiatrists were allowing Manning's continuing solitary confinement. "Even if they do not officially approve it, by continuing to examine him and report back to the government on his condition, they are effectively taking part in security operations. Their failure to call it what it is, cruel and inhumane treatment, constitutes a violation of their ethical duties as doctors." Manning has been charged with passing a mountain of digital US state secrets to WikiLeaks. He is under a prevention of injury order, or PoI, that requires him to be kept alone in a cell for 23 hours a day and to be checked every five minutes. Since earlier this month, he has also been stripped naked each night and made to parade in front of officers. Manning himself says the conditions amount to pre-trial punishment provoked by a sarcastic remark he made to guards. Last night, Manning's father, Brian, also denounced the way his son is being treated. He told the Frontline programme on US public television: "It's shocking enough that I would come out of our silence as a family and say, 'No, you've crossed a line. This is wrong.'" And he referred to the Guantánamo detention facility for terror suspects, saying: "They worry about people down in a base in Cuba, but here we have someone on our own soil under our own control, and they are treating him in this way". Official records kept at the brig, released recently by Manning's lawyer, reveal that between last August and January military psychiatrists made no fewer than 16 recommendations to their military commanders that Manning should be taken off the PoI restrictions because he was no threat to himself. Typical of the entries was that of 29 October 2010, which stated that Manning "was evaluated by the brig psychiatrist and found fit to be removed from prevention of injury classification from a psychiatric standpoint". Only once in that five-month period did the psychiatrists conclude that the prisoner should be subjected to the restrictions. Despite the clear medical opinion given, brig commanders have repeatedly ignored the advice and retained the harsh regime. That is, Physicians for Human Rights says, an indication the US government is breaking its own clear rules. The group's Susan McNamara, a doctor who works with victims of torture from other countries, said Manning's treatment appeared to be an extension of the interrogation tactics used against terror suspects in Guantánamo. "That is a huge problem, as it is designed to break a person down psychologically. Solitary confinement is a form of sensory deprivation, and if you are depriving a person of the human contact they need that can amount to torture." She added: "In the US, if a patient was treated in a psychiatric hospital in the same way the military is treating Manning, the federal government would stamp all over it … [it] is disobeying its own rules." The controversy has reached to the heart of the Obama administration. This week, state department spokesman PJ Crowley resigned, having called the confinement "ridiculous and stupid" and warned it could damage the global standing of the US. Obama himself was forced to defend the regime, saying he had been "assured" by the Pentagon it was in Manning's own interests. While the Quantico psychiatrists are given credit for having consistently argued that Manning should be removed from the current extreme regime, there are serious questions about whether they are doing enough to force change. Bradley Manning US military US national security Human rights United States Ed Pilkington guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Web is spying machine, says Assange Posted: 15 Mar 2011 02:13 PM PDT The WikiLeaks founder says he also believes the internet is not a technology that favours freedom of speech The internet is the "greatest spying machine the world has ever seen" and is not a technology that necessarily favours the freedom of speech, the WikiLeaks co-founder, Julian Assange, has claimed in a rare public appearance. Assange acknowledged that the web could allow greater government transparency and better co-operation between activists, but said it gave authorities their best ever opportunity to monitor and catch dissidents. "While the internet has in some ways an ability to let us know to an unprecedented level what government is doing, and to let us co-operate with each other to hold repressive governments and repressive corporations to account, it is also the greatest spying machine the world has ever seen," he told students at Cambridge University. Hundreds queued for hours to attend. He continued: "It [the web] is not a technology that favours freedom of speech. It is not a technology that favours human rights. It is not a technology that favours civil life. Rather it is a technology that can be used to set up a totalitarian spying regime, the likes of which we have never seen. Or, on the other hand, taken by us, taken by activists, and taken by all those who want a different trajectory for the technological world, it can be something we all hope for." Assange also suggested that Facebook and Twitter played less of a role in the unrest in the Middle East than has previously been argued by social media commentators and politicians. He said: "Yes [Twitter and Facebook] did play a part, although not nearly as large a part as al-Jazeera. But the guide produced by Egyptian revolutionaries … says on the first page, 'Do not use Facebook and Twitter', and says on the last page, 'Do not use Facebook and Twitter'. "There is a reason for that. There was actually a Facebook revolt in Cairo three or four years ago. It was very small … after it, Facebook was used to round-up all the principal participants. They were then beaten, interrogated and incarcerated." Assange said that cables released by WikiLeaks played a key role in both fomenting unrest in the Middle East and forcing the US government not to back former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak. Assange said diplomatic cables concerning US attitudes to the former Tunisian regime had given strength to revolutionary forces across the region. "The Tunisian cables showed clearly that if it came down to it, the US, if it came down to a fight between the military on the one hand, and Ben Ali's political regime on the other, the US would probably support the military." He continued: "That is something that must have also caused neighbouring countries to Tunisia some thought: that is that if they militarily intervened, they may not be on the same side as the United States." Assange, who is appealing against his extradition to Sweden on alleged sex charges, said the WikiLeaks releases had also forced the US to drop their tacit support of Mubarak. "As a result of releasing cables about Suleiman [the vice-president of Egypt under Mubarak], the US and Israel's preferred option for regime takeover in Egypt, as a result of releasing cables about Mubarak's approval of Suleiman's torture methods, it was not possible for Joseph Biden to [repeat his earlier claim that Mubarak was not a dictator]. It was not possible for Hillary Clinton to publicly come out and support Mubarak's regime." Responding to a question about Bradley Manning, the US soldier incarcerated for allegedly leaking classified information, Assange said: "We have no idea whether he is one of our sources. All our technology is geared up to make sure we have no idea." He expressed sympathy for Manning. "He is in a terrible situation. And if he is not connected to us, [then] he is there as an innocent … and if he is in some manner connected to our publications, then of course we have some responsibility. That said, there is no allegation that he was arrested as the result of anything to do with us. The allegation is that he was arrested as a result of him speaking to Wired magazine in the United States." Assange also criticised the New York Times, which he claimed had suppressed stories about secret American military activity in Afghanistan. Julian Assange WikiLeaks Internet Patrick Kingsley guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Reggae star dies during police raid Posted: 15 Mar 2011 12:10 PM PDT Police watchdog launches inquiry as 1980s reggae star dies from stab wounds The police watchdog is investigating the death of the British reggae star Smiley Culture during a Metropolitan police raid. The 48-year-old singer and MC, whose real name was David Emmanuel, died on Tuesday from a stab wound sustained as officers visited his house in Warlingham, Surrey to make an arrest. Although it is unclear how Emmanuel was injured, investigators are understood to be looking into whether the wound was self-inflicted. A Scotland Yard spokesman said: "As part of an ongoing operation, officers from the Metropolitan police service's serious and organised crime command attended a residential address in east Surrey to carry out an arrest warrant. "While they were at the address, an incident occurred during which a 48-year-old man died. Officers from Surrey police attended the incident and it has been formally referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission." The IPCC confirmed that it was looking into the death. Mike Franklin, IPCC commissioner for the south east, said: "We will be looking into the planning of the arrest, the way in which it was carried out and the actions of all the officers who were present at the time of the incident." Emmanuel had appeared before magistrates charged with conspiracy to supply cocaine last September. He shot to fame in the 1980s with songs such as Cockney Translation — an explanation of rhyming slang — and Police Officer, an autobiographical song of how he was caught in possession of cannabis but let off when the officer recognised him as a reggae artist. Although he made a cameo appearance in the David Bowie film Absolute Beginners in 1986, he went on to have little mainstream exposure. In an interview with the Guardian last year, he spoke of his time in the music business and his musical legacy. "Police Officer was a true story – the police used to take my weed," he said. "It was better than being arrested and I made that into a hit. With Cockney Translation, I was a black man talking cockney. I integrated cultures even though I didn't understand it at the time. I was invited to meet the Queen, who said she listened to my records in the palace. "Although I paved the way for people like the Streets and Dizzee Rascal, I left the music business because I wasn't rich." Ricky Belgrave, the chairman of the British Association of Static Systems, said Emmanuel's death was a sad loss for British reggae. "He was a lively personality and one of the first wave of UK talent like Maxi Priest, Tippa Irie and Aswad, to cross over to the mainstream," he said. "His tracks, like Police Office and Cockney Translation are well remembered and are still played at the Notting Hill carnival. I think there's a direct line between the UK talent of the 80s and MCs today and he did pave the way for that. We offer our condolences to his family at this tragic time." Reggae Sam Jones guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Taliban 'decimated' in Helmand Posted: 15 Mar 2011 11:12 AM PDT Special forces say they are winning the battle against Taliban insurgents in southern Afghanistan Taliban leaders are being "decimated" by special forces in Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, where more than 9,000 British troops are deployed, US and UK commanders have said. They say the next few months will test the strength of the Taliban-led insurgency. "We will see what [the Taliban] bring back to the battlefield in the spring," said Major General Richard Mills of the US marines, commander of nearly 30,000 British and US troops in Helmand. He was speaking via videolink to London. Echoing the comments, Brigadier George Norton, Mills's deputy, said the coming months would reveal how resilient the insurgency is. Major General John Lorimer, chief military spokesman for the British chief of defence staff, General David Richards, said large caches of weapons and equipment for making improvised explosive devices were discovered by 1st battalion Royal Irish Regiment in Helmand last month. More than 500 soldiers of the regiment, using 15 helicopters, with fast jets providing cover, also took part in an assault on what was described as an insurgent haven in Helmand's Nad-e-Ali district. It was the regiment's biggest operation since it crossed the Rhine in 1945, the MoD said. Mills sidestepped the question when asked when the Afghan army and police would take responsibility for Helmand's security. The Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, has said he will announce on 21 March the start of a process of transferring responsibility for security to Afghan forces. The process is due to end in 2014, when the British and US governments say their forces will withdraw from a frontline combat role. The number of UK and US forces in Afghanistan is likely to start being reduced later this summer, after a much-hoped-for success against the insurgency. The number will then be gradually reduced until the end of 2014, when the main task of all foreign troops there will be to train Afghan security forces. Taliban Afghanistan Military Richard Norton-Taylor guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Fast track for super-rich to settle Posted: 15 Mar 2011 05:05 PM PDT Migrants with at least £5m in the bank will have a shorter time to wait and entrepreneurs will get preferential treatment The super-rich are to be offered a fast track to settle in Britain under new immigration rules for high-value investors and entrepreneurs to be unveiled Wednesday. Overseas "super-investors" who are willing to keep £5m in a UK bank account are to be given the right to stay indefinitely in Britain after only three years, two years faster than the five-year wait imposed on every other migrant. An overseas investor who is willing to deposit more than £10m in the UK will win the right to stay even quicker, after only two years. The package of measures to attract the super-rich to Britain, to be unveiled by the immigration minister, Damian Green, at the London Stock Exchange, contrasts sharply with government plans to break the link with the right to settle for those who come to study or work temporarily in the UK. The rules for entrepreneurs are also to be relaxed so that they become eligible for permanent settlement rights in Britain within three years if they have created 10 jobs or achieved an annual turnover of £10m a year for their UK business. This is to encourage promising start-up companies who do not meet the investment criteria. Perhaps more importantly for the overseas super-rich, the number of days they can spend out of the country and still qualify for UK residence rights is to be doubled from 90 to 180. Alex Ruffel of Berkeley Law, who specialise in immigration matters for high net worth individuals, said she expected that the new rules will double the 275 super-wealthy investors and entrepreneurs who came to live in Britain last year. She also reports a recent surge in inquiries about coming to the UK from Middle East clients concerned at current developments in the region. The sliding scale for investors will start at those willing to deposit at least £1m in a British bank account which will secure them the right to settlement after five years, but they will enjoy an exemption from any English language test which now applies to most other routes. Further details are also expected to be announced for the new "exceptional talent" immigration route which will allow up to 1,000 migrants who have "won international recognition in scientific and cultural fields", or have the potential to do so. Unlike this category there will be no limit on the numbers of investors and entrepreneurs who will be allowed in. Ruffel said that the decision to allow high-worth migrants to be out of the country for six months a year was one of the most important elements of the package: "Currently they have to spend nine months of the year in Britain to qualify for indefinite leave to remain or to extend their visa. This can be a problem for those who are very wealthy and are in business in several countries, including their own country of origin." The shorter route for settlement will not necessarily mean that the super-wealthy will also get a fast track to a British passport as the qualifying periods for citizenship appear to be left untouched. Those who come will also have to pay UK tax on their British earnings. The announcement comes in advance of the final proposals to make deep cuts in the number of overseas students coming to Britain in order to meet the Conservative manifesto target of reducing net migration below 100,000 a year. The home secretary, Theresa May, told MPs last November that she wanted a new approach that was more selective and brought in more of those who would make a real difference to our economy: "We want to actively encourage entrepreneurs to come. As the prime minister [has] said, we will reform the rules for entrepreneurs so that if you have a great business idea, and you receive serious investment from a leading investor, you are welcome to set up your business in our country." Immigration and asylum Damian Green Theresa May Entrepreneurs Alan Travis guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Spain 'wrongly jailed' Basque leader Posted: 15 Mar 2011 11:59 AM PDT European court of human rights says Arnaldo Otegi must be compensated after being sentenced to jail for insulting King Juan Carlos Spain must compensate the radical Basque separatist leader Arnaldo Otegi after wrongly sentencing him to jail for insulting King Juan Carlos, the European court of human rights has decided. The court in Strasbourg ruled on Tuesday that Spain must pay €23,000 (nearly £20,000) in compensation to Otegi for breaching his right to freedom of expression after he accused the Spanish monarch of protecting police torturers. Otegi made his comments after police raided and closed down the Basque-language Egunkaria newspaper in February 2003. The editor, Martxelo Otamendi, and other executives, claimed they were tortured. When Juan Carlos visited the Basque country soon afterwards, Otegi said that as "supreme head of the civil guard police force", the monarch was effectively in command of those who had tortured Egunkaria staff. Otegi claimed the king "protects torture and imposes his monarchical regime on our people through torture and violence". Three years later a Spanish court found him guilty of insulting the king, handing down a one-year suspended jail sentence and imposing costs. But the Strasbourg court has decided Otegi was within his rights as a politician to air his grievances against the king, though the torture allegations were never proved. Otegi's remarks were "made in his capacity as elected member of and spokesperson for a parliamentary group …in the context of the recent closure of the Egunkaria newspaper and the complaint alleging ill-treatment", the Strasbourg judges ruled. They accepted that his words "could be understood as contributing to a wider public debate on the possible responsibility of the state security forces in cases of ill treatment". Spanish judges last year threw out a case alleging that Otamendi and other Egunkaria executives had collaborated with Eta. The decision came too late to save Egunkaria. Four civil guard police officers were found guilty last December of torturing members of an Eta unit that killed two people with a bomb at Madrid's Barajas airport in 2006. Otegi is one of a group of separatist leaders now trying to persuade Eta to end four decades of terrorism. Spain European court of human rights Human rights Europe Eta Giles Tremlett guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Moat accomplices get life sentences Posted: 15 Mar 2011 02:31 PM PDT Karl Ness and Qhuram Awan jailed for aiding Northumberland gunman during his shooting frenzy last year Two accomplices who helped shotgun killer Raoul Moat during his murderous rampage last summer have been jailed for life with minimum terms of 40 years and 20 years before they are eligible for release. The longer sentence was given to Karl Ness, 26, who was convicted of the murder of a karate instructor who was shot and killed by Moat in July 2010. His co-defendant, Qhuram Awan, 23, was given life with a 20-year tariff for conspiracy to murder, attempted murder, and robbery of a chip shop, following a five-week trial at Newcastle crown court. Ness was with Moat on the night he shot his ex-girlfriend Samantha Stobbart and killed her new boyfriend, Chris Brown – who he wrongly believed was a serving police officer – last July. He was convicted of murdering Brown and a firearms offence, even though he didn't pull the trigger. Both men were convicted of conspiracy to murder, attempted murder and robbing a chip shop that Moat held up the day after he shot and blinded unarmed police officer PC David Rathband. Mr Justice McCombe said: "Here is a case where three men formulated a plan to murder policemen indiscriminately, and then, pursuant to the plan, attempted (to within the thinnest thread of human life) to kill one officer, with appalling consequences." There was no reaction from Ness as he was sentenced. Awan smiled ruefully to his father in the public gallery as he was led away. Earlier, Rathband, the police officer blinded by Moat, had wept as the details of his injuries were outlined to the judge. The trial heard that Moat was intent on exacting revenge when he heard Stobbart had a new partner. Moat asked his friend Ness to spy on her while he was still in prison. The day after his release, the pair went looking for her and her boyfriend, Brown, 29. Moat murdered Brown and shot and seriously injured Stobbart, 22, before fleeing. Moat, a former bouncer and steroid user, was convinced Brown was a police officer, and he phoned Northumbria police to declare "war" on the force. Awan drove Ness and Moat in his black Lexus car when they chanced upon a parked police patrol car. Inside was Rathband, a 43-year-old father of two. Awan stopped and Moat crept up on the unarmed officer before twice shooting him at close range. He survived but was blinded. They later helped Moat set up a woodland camp near Rothbury, Northumberland, and went shopping for supplies for him. Although they claimed to have been held hostage, neither man alerted the authorities during these trips away from Moat. In CCTV images both men could be seen calmly browsing in shops for food or clothes. When they were arrested on the edge of the village, Moat managed to escape. The killer remained at large for another three days until he was cornered and shot himself following a six-hour standoff. He was also shot with a Taser that had not undergone proper testing. Paul Sloan QC, defending Ness, said: "Had it not been for Moat, none of these offences would have been committed." Jeremy Carter-Manning, defending Awan, also referred to the missing killer, saying: "This trial is Hamlet without the prince." He said psychiatric tests showed his client was "easily led". The hunt for Moat led to a Tornado fighter jet, normally used on covert missions in Afghanistan, being brought in to scour the area at dusk as hundreds of officers searched the countryside and woodland. Survival expert Ray Mears was brought in to advise officers after an abandoned campsite was discovered on the edge of the village. The search, costing £1.4m, was one of the biggest police operations in the UK. The fugitive's ability to keep one step ahead of the police for a week fuelled public interest in the investigation, putting pressure on detectives who knew how dangerous Moat could be. He had a history of violence and was involved in at least two road rage incidents. He regularly beat his girlfriend and was jailed for assaulting a child. For a time, the police ordered a news blackout as they thought they were dealing with a hostage situation while Moat was on the run. Yet the pair were willing participants. Outside court, Rathband branded the two conspirators "evil" and Moat a coward. Detective superintendent Jim Napier, of Northumbria police, said he welcomed the sentences, which reflected the severity of the crimes they were involved in. "Both men now have a long time in which to reflect on their cowardly actions, which left one man dead, two people seriously injured and countless others traumatised," Napier said. "Throughout that week last July, both men had numerous opportunities to stop these unfolding events and prevent people being killed and injured." However, he added, neither had taken any responsibility for their actions. Raoul Moat Crime Gun crime Helen Carter guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Taxes 'must rise by £20bn a year' Posted: 15 Mar 2011 01:28 PM PDT National Institute of Economic and Social Research says taxes amounting to 6% of GDP should be levied as soon as possible Taxes will need to rise by £82bn a year to offset the higher health costs and underfunded state pension commitments of the current generation of workers, according to a leading thinktank. Higher taxes amounting to 6% of GDP should be levied, starting as soon as possible, to prevent future generations suffering tax rises or cuts in services beyond anything contemplated by the coalition government, it says. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) warned that the total bill for pension and health costs for the UK's rapidly ageing population will dwarf the government debts caused by the financial crisis and even the £800bn deficit built up over recent decades. It has said that the UK will need to find £7tn in taxes over the next 100 years on top of the taxes already expected, based on forecasts of growth, interest rates and inflation. A child born today will pay £68,000 more in taxes over their lifetime than they get back in pensions and health services. A child born in the next decade will need to pay £160,000 extra, the report said. It continued: "One might think that, in a steady state, the net contribution would be zero. However, there is a past history of pay-as-you-go benefits, which has allowed earlier generations to receive more from the state than they have contributed over their lifetimes and it is inevitable that there is now a net contribution which has to be paid." Martin Weale, one of the report's authors and a member of the Bank of England's monetary policy committee, has argued that each successive generation is taking more out of the economy than it puts back. He said that a lack of saving by individuals and the government was forcing younger workers to pick up an increasingly large bill for pension and health costs. Rocketing land prices, leaving accumulated wealth in the hands of the over-50s, have also meant that younger workers are paying higher mortgage bills than the baby-boomer generation, those born between 1947 and 1964. The baby boomers will begin retiring this year and will all be receiving a pension by 2030. The NIESR said that its attempt to produce intergenerational accounts for the UK was based on a rate of interest of 3% and the current outlook for the economy established by the government's independent fiscal watchdog, the Office for Budget Responsibility. The accounts, which detail assumptions made by the authors on long-term trends, show that "on plausible assumptions about future spending pressures, taxes and spending will need to adjust by about 6-6.5% of GDP over time, relative to the projections, to bring the generational accounts into balance". "This is mostly driven by the upward pressure on spending, especially pensions and health, resulting from demographic pressures. It is not driven primarily by the rise in the national debt resulting from the recent recession, which has had a relatively modest impact on fiscal sustainability for the long term – if there was no national debt at all, the required rise would still be 5.5-6% of GDP." Tax and spending State pensions Pensions State benefits Tax Economics Budget deficit Financial crisis Public sector pensions Public services policy Phillip Inman guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Police swoop on daffodil-pickers Posted: 15 Mar 2011 06:37 AM PDT Uniformed officers in squad car dispatched to confront family in Dorset after tip-off about actions of girls aged four and six Police rushed a pair of officers in a marked car to a park after two young sisters were spotted picking daffodils. Sienna Marengo, four, was seen picking flowers with six-year-old stepsister Olivia in Poole, Dorset. A member of the public reported them to police and two constables attended and advised the girls' mother, Jane Errington, that she and her partner, Marc Marengo, could be arrested for criminal damage. The couple expressed anger at the "heavy-handed" response and accused police of wasting time. Errington said the officers watched the family for 20 minutes before speaking to them. She said Sienna had been left too upset to return to the public park, fearing being "taken away by the police". The family had been enjoying the spring sunshine with a walk through Whitecliff Park on Sunday when the girls broke off and started to pick daffodils. Errington, who owns a property maintenance business, said: "The little ones had been riding their bikes but after a while they got bored and went to play in the daffodils. "I didn't see them pick any flowers, but the next thing we knew a police patrol car pulled up and the officers in it started watching us. "We didn't know what was going on and after about 20 minutes my partner started feeling very uncomfortable. "Two male police officers then came up to us, saying they'd had a report of flowers being ripped up. They said we had committed a crime. "The little ones were really upset and started crying. It was quite frightening for them. They did have daffodils in their hands – I'd say about 20 between them – and they had been picking them up and sorting them out like children do. "If we'd seen it, we would have stopped them, but all it needed was for whoever complained to have approached us and made us aware. "I had to explain to them that the police are friendly and it was just a mistake. I explained to them that the flowers were there for everybody and that in the future we will leave them there. "I just felt it was unnecessary and upsetting. Surely the police have better ways to spend their time and taxpayers' money?" Whitecliff Park is owned by the council and therefore removing property from it is an offence. A relative of Poole Conservative councillor Peter Adams called the police. Adams said: "The children weren't just taking one or two daffodils, it was big clumps of them. "I was surprised that the police sent a squad car with two PCs. I would have expected a PCSO [a police community support officer] to turn up and have a quiet word with them." A spokesman for Dorset police said: "We were told a significant amount of daffodils were being pulled out and thrown around. "Two police constables attended, spoke to the mother of the children and explained that as the flowers were laid by the council for the enjoyment of all, that people were not allowed to pick them. "The officers had to advise her that by law it was criminal damage, in case they were not aware." Crime Police Steven Morris guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Deep and meaningful Posted: 15 Mar 2011 02:30 PM PDT By building a replica of the Chilean miners' rescue vessel and kettling his audience in a gallery, the point Roman Ondák is making seems obvious . . . or is it, asks Adrian Searle Watching the horrors of the cumulative disasters in Japan unfold, it is easy to forget the events which held our attention but a few moments ago. Tunisia? Egypt? The ongoing battle for Libya? For a few weeks at the end of 2010, the fate of 33 miners trapped underground in Chile obsessed the world's media. That was a story with a happy outcome, if you ignored the economic and psychological repercussions for the rescued miners and their families. It was a story that hasn't quite gone away – there are books, plays, a novel and a movie or two inspired by it, even if the event has shrunk in perspective. And now there are artworks. A replica of the rescue cage that lifted the miners to safety stands in the semi-darkened main gallery of Modern Art Oxford. It's an almost perfect copy of Fénix 2, the capsule that lifted the victims, one by one, to the surface through a narrow shaft bored 700 metres into the earth. With its name and the Chilean flag painted on the welded and riveted body, the capsule looks like a lo-fi space probe, though the original was designed and built by the Chilean navy with help from Nasa. It was an object of pride as much as hope. How small the cage is, with its hopeful little canisters of oxygen. It also proved practical, efficient and, most importantly, successful. The replica was commissioned by Slovakian artist Roman Ondák, built in Chile by the fabricators of the original, and shipped to Oxford for Ondák's first major exhibition in the UK. Here it is, dramatically staged, standing in half-light in the otherwise empty space, and attached to a rope that disappears into a chimney-like metal tube set into the roof, replicating the bore-hole drilled over weeks into the desert floor. Looking up through the tube, one sees a dim bluish light, intimating a distant Atamaca sky. But if one were able to take the trip aloft in Fénix 2, one would ascend to a view of dreaming spires, shopping precincts and the flat roof of Marks & Spencer's next door. So here you are on the first floor of a gallery, trying to imagine the plight of 33 miners trapped below ground for 69 days. What went on down there? They contemplated death. They argued, tried to be stoical and wondered about cannibalism and who would draw the short straw. Me, I took the train from London. The heat. The crowding. The buffet was closed. There was a delay at Didcot. I missed the press lunch. It was terrible. I have often admired Ondák's work, especially his work for the Czech and Slovak pavilion at the 2009 Venice Biennale. He emptied the pavilion, covered the floor in earth and imported plants, bringing the greenery and underfoot leaf litter from the surrounding Giardini into the building. The visitor moved seamlessly from outside to inside, through the building then out again, barely noticing the break in the journey. As I wrote at the time, visitors "do a double-take and experience a momentary sense of confusion and wonder". I know I did. It felt like a perfect gesture. Ondák's Time Capsule strives for the same elegance. Beyond the capsule is a spooky and claustrophobic darkened corridor that leads us into the unknown. But let's get real. It leads through a small gallery, now cloaked in gloom, towards the stairs. But think spooky, think tunnel, think mine in Chile, imagine rough-hewn and unstable rocks, the pressure of the earth above, a dead canary in its cage. Once through, the empty gallery looms, dimly. A grainy film is projected on the far wall, reflecting a thin puddle of light on the wooden floor. The murky footage shows the space I am actually in. It could be surveillance footage, a live video feed from the gallery. I look for myself but I'm not there, though it is hard to tell. In the gallery I am alone, but the screen is filling up with people. Dozens, then two or three hundred. They keep cramming in and milling about. Almost 400, kettled in there. No one panics. The crowd just seems mildly amused and mystified to be part of this pointless performance. Then they leave. The crowd was filmed a week ago, just after dark. The camera picks them up in ambient half-light, illuminated here and there by the bright, annoying flicker of mobile phones. The phone glow catches downcast faces, just like in a Joseph Wright of Derby painting. Except they didn't have iPhones and Blackberrys in Wright's day, only the odd burning taper. But I digress. Strange how the mind wanders when there's not much going on. Then the crowd filters out. First in ones and twos, then a steady stream. One couple lingers until the end. Perhaps they just want to be caught on camera. It is impossible to tell. This is what's called relational aesthetics, the real purpose of being in an art gallery. People will do anything to get into the art world. The film, called Stampede, is silent. Eventually they are all gone. Down the pub, I expect. Or to the bar on the ground floor, under where the infamous San José mine should be, but isn't. Did I miss the stampede? Alone here, so very alone, one wonders what it all means. To tell the truth, I never think that. Instead, I start monitoring what my mind throws up, in case it might be useful later. Then it all starts up again. I watch a couple more circuits of the video loop, in case I have missed something important. One doesn't want to become a laughing stock, for missing a crucial five-second interlude with the hysterical claustrophobic, the sudden panic in the gallery, the stampede. There isn't one. This is an exercise in crowd control. The whole experience is far preferable to being stuck down a mine. Time's up for Time Capsule, or very nearly. Ondák's interventions are risky affairs. Time Capsule is spectacularly non-spectacular. Just as in Venice, he leads us in, then out again. Perhaps the purpose of his art is to point out how unproductive our time here really is. In Venice, Ondák led us – quite literally – up the garden path. Now he keeps us in the dark. His staging of Fénix 2 could, in another situation, be a kind of educational display. We stand and wonder at the tiny cage, recalling the plight and fear and eventual release of all those miners, some of whom had to go on a slimming regime so they could fit inside the cage. But being here has no discernible goal. There's no attempt to educate, no photographs of ecstatic miners achieving freedom, no nice cross-section dioramas, no videos of crying and praying relatives, no damning indictments of the mining company. All we can rely on is a dim recollection of an old news story. There's just a void, a gallery filling up and emptying out again, like the tide or like breathing, and an escape capsule that doesn't move. Talk about mining your own inner resources . . . and that's the point. Art Chilean miners rescue Adrian Searle guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Why I tried the Hoffman Process Posted: 15 Mar 2011 01:30 PM PDT The combination of 20 years of reporting conflict, together with scars left by her upbringing prompted Janine di Giovanni to try an intense week-long form of psychoanalysis Many years ago I went to an isolated village in Switzerland to report on a renegade Freudian psychiatrist and analyst called Dr Silvio Fanti. Fanti, now deceased, had developed a controversial technique – micropsychoanalysis – that was highly criticised at the time, but in retrospect, makes a huge amount of sense. He believed, quite simply, that life was too short to spend in analysis. So he cut the time frame drastically. Fanti would have two patients stay in his sprawling home for several months. There, they had analysis three hours a day, three days a week, rather than the traditional Woody Allen-style analysis of lying on the couch talking about one's mother for 40 years. He reported that nearly all of his patients emerged "cured" or at least relieved of their symptoms. The Hoffman Process, which has become more and more popular in Britain in the past five years, takes the Fanti approach without the Freudian spin. It has been going since the 1960s but has grown drastically in the UK, especially since various celebrities have come out and said they did it. The Hoffman uses various techniques, from Eastern mysticism to deep meditation, Gestalt, group therapy, visualisation, and allegedly condenses a lifetime of analysis to eight days. It has become, for many people, a life-changing experience that surgically removes their negative habits. Many who finish The Process, as it is known, become evangelical, as with Alcoholics Anonymous. But proselytising, in fact, is not the intention of the American founder, Bob Hoffman, who started teaching in 1967 to help people lose their "negative love patterns". Negative love is all that bad stuff those two people ("They fuck you up, your mum and dad . . .") pass on to you, intentionally or unintentionally. I found myself on a freezing train platform in Sussex very early one Friday morning with a clear personal goal: I never want to pass on to my six-year-old son all the dysfunctional stuff my own parents had generously passed on to me. Also, to address the unrecognised trauma of 20 years of reporting conflict, which occasionally manifests itself in my life in unexpected ways. I was sceptical, to say the least. I resist any "reaching out" and I am not good at "sharing" my problems. But a writer friend, who had gone through The Process, kept prodding me. "It works, it just works," she said. Over lunch, she talked me through it – although like all Hoffman graduates, she could not tell me details of what goes on. I guess if you knew what was going to happen, you probably would not go. You sign a confidentiality agreement promising not to disclose others' private stories. The one thing she told me was: "Listen. Don't intellectualise everything. They will ask you to do stupid stuff. Your brain will say: I am not doing this. But just do it. There is a reason. And, remember, it works." Another friend's 22-year-old daughter with "issues" had come out of it "totally and utterly changed". I did not need utter changing – but I did realise where my traumas lay, and thought it would be nice to shed them. Long fascinated by psychoanalysis, I also wanted to go as an anthropological exercise. So off I went with my little backpack. I thought I was prepared, having spent hours filling out forms about my emotional and psychological life, my family history, my history of trauma. I thought I was prepared: I had "done" boot camps before – yoga boot camps, ashrams, detox (of toxins, not drugs) boot camps, even SAS military boot camps to prepare me for hostile environments. But the thought of The Hoffman and all that sharing left me unnerved. AA regulars say there is nothing more powerful than a group to guide you through difficulties, to make you stronger. But I come from a long line of deniers. My mother's father died of alcoholism in his 40s and she has never once uttered the word alcoholic in connection with him. She says, "Darling, Daddy liked a drink or two." As for me, only my tiny band of intimate friends ever know what is really going on. The rest get: "Life is wonderful." It's just how I was brought up, like Scarlett O'Hara: lie about what you feel and what you think. It's not very feminine to do otherwise. Or, as a young Hoffman colleague said: "I lie to everyone. Even the taxi driver who brought me here." Inside the house where I was to spend the next eight days, I met my 23 "comrades". We sized each other up. There were businessmen and women, poets, playwrights, writers, students, an actress, a mother of five. My roommate was a quiet, northern red-headed businesswoman, who looked as freaked out as I was. There were days when we were meant not to utter a word, but both of us burst out laughing and decided to bin that behind closed doors. That first day, we sat in a circle where we would spend a lot of time that week. I looked around the room – here was a "buttoned-up public school boy"; there was an "attention-seeker"; and that woman in the corner was "a woman who does not like other women". This is part of the learning curve too: nothing was as it seemed. The readiness to judge is so linked with the negative patterns all of us had come to lose. The women on either side of me both later admitted they loathed me on sight. One, whom I grew to love dearly, said: "I thought you had no sense of physically boundaries, you kept wiggling in your chair and knocking into me." The other – a fierce-looking poet who scowled but who ended up making me laugh and laugh – thought me aloof. "But I love you now," she said. Three seats down was another woman who, like me, did not utter a word more than she had to for the first 48 hours. Later, I would realise that everything was intentional – where we sat, who our roommates and teachers were. Our teachers – we were each given one who would guide us through the week ahead – had carefully read our histories. So carefully, that when I was not "getting into it enough" during a Gestalt exercise, my teacher came over and whispered something so painful in my ear that I responded, uncharacteristically, like a maniac. Which is exactly what he wanted: to push my buttons, or to break me down, so to speak, in a controlled environment, and then to rebuild me. I think I actually saw him smile as I went nuclear. We worked long hours – from 8am until 10pm. There was no time for reading, walking or DVDs. We were meant to hand over computers, magazines, sleeping pills and telephones. I lied and kept my BlackBerry and my sleeping pills. After three days, guilt took over and I went to Matthew, my teacher, and handed them over. And that was the end of my contact with the outside world. Most of the work is in the form of powerful meditation. Visualisation plays a strong part in it; as does journal-writing and drawing, and, of course, the group sessions, which grew less painful but more challenging: admitting transference, it seems, is important. The first four days were excruciating and exhausting. No getting around it. Then it got – while not exactly easier, because every day unearthed some new layer – lighter. The final days were spent on how to deal with the outside world. By that point, I wanted to get out. It is advised that you spend the weekend after The Hoffman by yourself, listening to tapes and meditating. I knew that was not going to happen. I decided to stay with my best friends. So I got a ride with one of my comrades but when she dropped me off in London, I suddenly felt incredibly shaky. The noise was so much more potent; the people shoving and pushing on the pavements more menacing. I wished I had listened to their advice and stayed holed up in a B&B in Sussex. Months on, can I say my life is drastically different? No. Partially it is my fault. I would like to say I followed the instructions and did my meditations; checked in with my emotional, physical and spiritual self every day; and stayed in touch with my comrades. I tried, but found it another techno burden, like checking Facebook, BlackBerry and email. I don't meditate as much as I would like to. I did not go to follow-up meetings. But I did maintain something that is hard to describe. Peacefulness, more awareness, and, very specifically, the very thing I had come to lose, I did. It was – as my teacher Matthew told me – surgically removed. Or more to the point, spiritually removed. And, stranger still, on the train back home to Paris, I thought of that trip 20 years ago to Dr Fanti's mountain village. I was a young girl at the time, and not very self-aware. The analyst had grown attached to me and, at the end of my stay, we spoke for a long time. Even though I was not a patient, he had whispered some advice to me about the life that lay ahead of me: "Until you address this about yourself," he had said, about a certain "issue" of mine, "you will never find true peace." When I got home, he had sent me three dozen roses for my birthday with the message written out again in his careful script. On the train home, I realised I had at last got over the issue Dr Fanti had talked about all those years ago. So, as strange as The Hoffman is – as the devotees say, whatever works. Psychology Mental health Janine Di Giovanni guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

No minorities please, we're English! Posted: 15 Mar 2011 09:56 AM PDT Midsomer Murders producer Brian True-May's comments about the whiteness of the show's village are wildly insulting to all viewers What do incest, blackmail and homosexuality have in common? They're all ideal Sunday evening television storylines according to the suspended Midsomer Murders producer Brian True-May. Race, however is not. True-May gave an interview to this week's Radio Times in which he argued that his quaint little show would be ruined if it was forced to shoehorn in ethnic minorities characters. "We just don't have ethnic minorities involved. Because it wouldn't be the English village with them. It just wouldn't work," he said. It is of course true that the majority of Britain's ethnic minority population live in urban areas – according to the last census 45% of the non-white population live in London with most (but by no means all) of the rest in major cities like Birmingham, Leeds and Leicester. When the results of the new census come back it's fairly safe to assume they will show that the nation's non-white population continues to live mainly in urban areas, while the countryside remains a largely (though by no means exclusively) white environment. So True-May's factual point that there are few non-whites in the countryside is fair. Where his argument takes a sinister turn is his claim that Midsomer is "the last bastion of Englishness and I want to keep it that way". Leaving aside that no one seems to be able to define what "Englishness" actually is (presumably it doesn't include Welshness, Scottishness, or Cornish pasties), True-May's comments highlight his own creative shortcomings and are also wildly insulting to his audience. He is effectively telling black viewers (and actors) Midsomer is not for them, while simultaneously assuming the show's viewers are as small minded as he is. "I'm trying to make something that appeals to a certain audience, which seems to succeed. And I don't want to change it," said True-May. His argument seems to be: "Ridiculously improbable murders: Fine. Believable non-white characters? They'd never stand for it, and neither would I." It's a fact that people like to see themselves represented on screen, and in this respect middle aged white men are no different to the rest of us – after all, David Cameron famously claimed it was his favourite television programme – but is he really saying that black characters have no place on screen in anything other than gritty urban drama? If the viewer can suspend their belief enough to believe that the sleepy village of Midsomer is a hotbed of adultery and murder, surely they'd be able to believe in well-rounded non-white characters? Has True-May really never seen a black person in wellies? And even if he hasn't, does he really think his viewers would switch off in droves if he were to up the melanin a little? Please don't insult our intelligence with cries of "it's not authentic". Neither are your plot lines but that doesn't stop you. The idea that TV is so overrun with black characters that Midsomer Murders is representing a much neglected white viewer is ridiculous. What True-May seems to be saying is that non-white characters just wouldn't "fit in". That some white people think this is not news to black people. In another TV debacle only a couple of weeks ago the locals of the Yorkshire village of Grassington told black Londoners Phillip and Simone the same thing as part of Channel 4's Love Thy Neighbour series. The only difference being that Phillip and Simone are real people. When will TV types realise that a non-white character gives you more creative leeway, not less. Race adds an extra dimension to a character. Black characters don't have to be sitting at the table discussing the Brixton riots every episode, you can still do all the usual incest, blackmail, adulterous stuff but you have whole other world of storylines too. Black characters enhance drama, rather than restrict it. One of the most moving pieces of radio I've ever heard was when the Archers' Usha Gutapa realised who was responsible for racist attacks on her. That storyline was more than 15 years ago – if Ambridge can manage, surely so can Midsomer. If I was inclined to give True-May the benefit of the doubt, I'd say it's clear he believes he's simply giving his viewers what they want, which begs the question, does he think Midsomer fans are racist? Television Television industry Race issues Race & religion ITV Hannah Pool guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Redford brings Sundance to London Posted: 15 Mar 2011 01:15 PM PDT Veteran actor made plea against cutting arts funding as he revealed details of a mini-scale version of event he created He was here to announce that the Sundance festival is coming to London. But Robert Redford also took the opportunity to make a plea in solidarity with Britain's actors: don't cut the arts. Redford revealed details of a small-scale London version of the film festival he created and which has been held in the mountains of Utah since the 1980s. It will be staged at the O2 in April next year, and while there may not be the opportunity to ski down the slopes of Mount Timpanogos, Redford said he was confident the venue was the right one. He also added his voice to the campaign against cuts to arts funding in the UK: "Everbody is experiencing this austerity programme around the world, we're seeing it in America – cutbacks, cutbacks. "That's something I wouldn't attack on all fronts, other than in the arts, and I join my colleagues here – Helen Mirren, who I've worked with, Jeremy Irons and others who say you can't cut the arts because it enriches the culture. "There are also many examples where it enriches the economy. Look at the festival. It puts $70m into the local economy. You can't, unless it is an ideological argument, classify the arts as a trivial pursuit." UK arts groups will be glad of his support as they await the next round of funding decisions by the Arts Council, which had its budget cut by 29.6% last year. However, Redford's real job was to announce details of Sundance London. The 74-year-old actor said he hoped it would become an annual festival: "I've wanted to come to London for a long time and it was a question of how and when. It could only happen if there was someone here who wanted us." Although British films such as Submarine, Tyrannosaur, Project Nim and Knuckle did very well at this year's Sundance festival, Redford said that Sundance London will be a showcase for independent American films. "We want to bring a slice of our culture to this space," he said. "There will also be American music, as well as debates and panel discussions." Redford said that he set up the original Sundance festival in the mountains of Utah "because I thought it would be more weird, more odd and more interesting. I also like to ski". Clearly, the O2 will be a different prospect. "Time will tell how it works, but we're coming in very small. We're here four days, we're not bringing the full complement of Sundance – we're bringing film and American music." The Sundance Institute was founded to promote "independent storytelling to inform, inspire and unite diverse populations around the globe." Among the projects that it has helped to nurture are An Inconvenient Truth, Spring Awakening and Angels in America. From the work of the institute came the film festival, held in Park City, which has introduced audiences to movies such as Reservoir Dogs, Little Miss Sunshine and American Splendor. London Sundance will run 26-29 April 2012. Register at www.sundance-london.com How the Sundances compare Sundance Park City Largest independent film festival in US Original purpose 'Advancing the work of risk-taking storytellers worldwide' Success Impressive Notable films Reservoir Dogs, The Blair Witch Project Sundance London at O2 Arena Largest mast-supported, dome-shaped cable structure in world Original purpose 'Triumph of boldness over blandness' - Tony Blair Success Ironic Notable films Disney Channel's High School Musical 2 premiere. Past attractions The Millennium Dome's Body Zone, home to a giant Perspex testicle inside which visitors could watch a video simulation of the life of a spermatazoan. Now sadly defunct. Sundance film festival Robert Redford Festivals London Mark Brown guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Biz Stone to join Huffington Post Posted: 15 Mar 2011 07:33 AM PDT Biz Stone to become 'strategic adviser for social impact' but will keep his job at Twitter Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter, is to join the Huffington Post as the new media firm adds big names to its roster following its $315m (£196m) takeover by AOL. Stone, who will keep his job at Twitter, will act as "strategic adviser for social impact" and will work across the Huffington Post Media Group and the rest of AOL's assets. The company said Stone would be working to develop a platform to help people share their work in their local community. He will also create a video series about people and companies at the "forefront of philanthropy and corporate responsibility". The news comes days after AOL announced it will cut 900 jobs, 20% of its workforce, as it struggles to compete for advertising with Google and Facebook and continues to lose paying subscribers. The sackings include 200 US jobs in content production. Last month AOL announced a 26% drop in revenues as its dial-up internet access business continues to decline and ad sales failed to make up the difference. Advertising revenue fell 29% in the last reported quarter compared to a 30% rise at Google. Chief executive Tim Armstrong said 2011 would be "the year we stop working on the turnaround and start working on the comeback". Armstrong has said his strategy is to concentrate on content and in February he made his boldest move to date buying the Huffington Post. Its founder Arianna Huffington now heads all of AOL's editorial operations and has already moved to recruit bigger names. Eleven new recruits were announced this week including former New York Times and Los Angeles Times editor John Montorio, who will be culture and entertainment editor, and Howard Fineman, a former analyst for NBC and MSNBC, who will become editorial director of the group. Stone said: "The definition of success is changing as we begin to understand the value of helping others. Arianna and Tim share my vision for aligning corporate resources toward meaningful change." He said his goal in teaming up with AOL was to "rally companies to think about new ways of doing business, share best practices, and strive for positive impact at all levels – from global to local." Huffington said: "Since one of our key goals is to explore and spotlight innovative ways that our company – as well as others – can do good, I'm thrilled that Biz Stone will be our strategic partner in this important endeavour." Biz Stone Huffington Post Digital media Twitter Internet Blogging AOL United States Arianna Huffington Dominic Rushe guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Harriet Fraad Posted: 15 Mar 2011 11:00 AM PDT There's a reason psychiatrists prescribe drugs rather than talking therapy: the latter makes no money for pharmaceutical firms The New York Times recently led with a front-page splash about psychiatry's propensity to prescribe pills, "Talk Doesn't Pay, So Psychiatry Turns Instead to Drug Therapy". That news is already widely known in the mental health field, but it has vast ramifications for Americans trying to maintain their sanity in our market-driven and medical system for delivering mental healthcare. What does the turn to drug therapy mean for the mass of Americans? Mental illness has not decreased with the change from talk therapy to drugs. In fact, as Robert Whitaker's book diagnoses, mental illness in America has become an established epidemic. So-called miracle drugs like Prozac are taken by 11% of the population – and Prozac is only one of the 30 available antidepressants on the market. Antidepressants are accompanied by anti-anxiety and anti-psychotic drugs. Xanax, America's leading anti-anxiety medication, is so ubiquitous that Xanax generates more revenue than Tide detergent, reports Charles Barber in his Comfortably Numb. Anti-psychotics drugs alone net the pharmaceutical industry at least $14.6bn dollars a year. Psycho-pharmaceuticals are the most profitable sector of the industry, which makes it one of the most profitable business sectors in the world. Americans are less than 5% of the world's population, yet they consume 66% of the world's psychological medications. Do these psycho pharmaceuticals work to restore mental health? Actually, the evidence is overwhelming that they fail. Antidepressants, the most popular psycho-pharmaceuticals, work no better than placebos. They work 25% of the time and stop working when the user stops taking them. In addition, they may actually harm patients in the long run. They disrupt brain neurotransmitters and may usurp the brain's organic soothing functions. Psycho-pharmaceuticals are less effective in the long run than talk therapy. Talk therapy, like drugs, does change brain and body chemistry; unlike drugs, though, talk therapy has no side-effects. Instead, talk therapy gives a patient tools that usually help to solve future problems. The latest research is most clearly expressed in both Irving Kirsch's Antidepressants: The Emperors New Drugs and Gary Greenberg's, Manufacturing Depression, both published last year. Kirsch is one of the world's leading psychiatrists; Greenberg is one of the world's most prestigious psychologists. Their views are echoed by many voices in the field of mental health. Why is prestigious and extensive research so widely ignored by doctors and patients alike? Our market-driven healthcare system gives us clues. All 30 of the available antidepressants have suffered lawsuits within five years of their appearance on the market. These suits are often settled with large payments and gag clauses. The new generation of anti-psychotics are the latest case in point. Anti-psychotics were the single biggest targets of the False Claims Act. Every major company selling anti-psychotics – Bristol Meyers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Johnson and Johnson and AstraZeneca – has either settled investigations for healthcare fraud or is currently being investigated for it. Two recent settlements involving charges of illegal marketing set records for the largest criminal fines ever imposed on corporations. Their corporate logic is expressed in the words of Dr Jerome Avorn, a medical professor and researcher at Harvard: "When you are selling a billion a year or more of a drug, it's very tempting for a company to just ignore the traffic ticket and keep speeding." There is also the widespread practice of paying physicians and psychiatrists heavy subsidies to recommend psycho-pharmaceuticals to their colleagues in small meetings at which a drug company representative is present. If doubt or criticism of the discussed drug is expressed, the doctor's stipend stops. Another legally acceptable tool is to publish praise of a company's drug in a scholarly article, which is often written by drug company personnel and simply tweaked by the physician whose name appears on the article. The physician is paid handsomely for such a service. Under the pressure of legal settlements and embarrassing disclosures, eight pharmaceutical companies began posting doctors' names and compensation on the web. ProPublica compiled these disclosures, totaling $320m, into a single database that allows patients to search for their doctor. Receiving payments for publishing articles written by drug companies is not illegal. Two doctors, Dr Joseph Biederman and Dr Timothy Wilens of Harvard University Medical School, illustrate the close and cozy relationship between medical "scholarship" and drug companies. Drs Biederman and Wilens netted $1.6m each from drug companies for their work in recommending powerful anti-psychotic drugs for children. Biederman, Wilens and other extremely well-rewarded child psychiatrists are in part responsible for giving children the diagnosis of paediatric bipolar disorder for which anti-psychotic drugs like Risperidal and Zyprexa are used. Experts agree that there is no long-term improvement in children's lives from taking anti-psychotic drugs. In fact, these drugs have a substantiated pattern of metabolic problems and rapid weight gain that often leads to diabetes. The use of bipolar diagnoses and bipolar medications is one small example of how market-driven mental healthcare works in the United States. It illustrates the transformation of US healthcare into a system dominated by some of the richest corporations in the world. Caring about profit is first, and that is why psychiatry has turned to drug therapy. Psychology US healthcare Pharmaceuticals industry Drugs United States Mental health Harriet Fraad guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

What to say about ... Flare Path Posted: 15 Mar 2011 08:50 AM PDT It's easy to be snooty about both Sienna Miller and Britain's nostalgia for its wartime heroes – but critics agree the combination makes for a jolly good show It is easy, and enjoyable, to snigger at Britain's vision of its wartime flying heroes. The awfully wholesome banter, the Mansellian moustaches, the jovially racist dog-naming, the dark emotions, sealed in concrete, buried and forgotten 50 feet below some Hampshire rugger field. Which makes it all the more remarkable that Flare Path, Terence Rattigan's 1941 play about the concealed strains of a bomber crew and their wives, had almost all the critics struggling to control their upper lips. "A masterly piece of theatre," writes Sam Marlowe of The Arts Desk. "This is essentially a shattering ensemble work, in which every detail glows with truth, compassion and humanity, and where every seemingly ordinary second of life in an existence hemmed in by the ever-present threat of death is charged with a quiet intensity." "The occasional romanticism is counterbalanced by Rattigan's genius for barely expressed emotion," agrees our own Michael Billington. "A simple exchange of goodbyes between a tail-gunner and his wife, as he leaves for a raid, brings a lump to the throat." And it does even more to Charles Spencer. "If you have tears, prepare to shed them now," he writes. "Trevor Nunn's superb production [is] a three-handkerchief weepie that somehow manages to be both profoundly moving and wonderfully funny." And to think the show's publicity revolved around its star name, Sienna Miller, about whom it is also easy to be snooty. Pretty young things made famous by their film-star former boyfriends make big targets, remember. So it is remarkable, again, that the critics (this time) held their fire. "She brings to her role just the right mixture of glacial poise and agonised tension," says Henry Hitchings in the Evening Standard. And, in the Independent, Paul Taylor agrees: "Her performance as the conflicted actress-heroine," he says, "is genuinely heart-tugging in the subtle way it communicates this young woman's struggle between patriotic duty and extra-marital desire." But if Miller did well, her castmates did better still. David Benedict singles out "a career-making performance" from Harry Hadden-Paton, "[whose] character detail is there but not on display. It's the fuel he uses to charge up his difficult, climactic breakdown." Meanwhile, Sheridan Smith (now always to be known as "Olivier-award-winning scrubber Sheridan Smith") is singled out for special praise by almost everyone. "She is wonderful as the barmaid married to a Polish airman," says Libby Purves on a page you can't read, "naive, cheerful, yet radiating immense doubt and pain in stillness." "Smith is superb," concurs the FT's Sarah Hemming. "Always warm and impish, she becomes heartbreaking as she sits, smiling determinedly through her tears, while Peter gently translates for her a letter left behind by her husband." Meanwhile, for balance, here are the views of the Express's Paul Callan, who seems to have been watching a different show from everybody else. "All these stereotypes sadly combine to show the age-lines on this play," he says. "The pace limps along like a battle-battered Wellington bomber flying on one engine." Ah well, you can't please everyone. Do say: "Chocks away!", "Pip-pip!" and "squiffy". As frequently as possible. Don't say: Er … they were, you know, dropping bombs on people and stuff. The reviews reviewed: Jolly good show. Theatre Sienna Miller Leo Benedictus guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

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