23-Jul-10
So let's focus on the positive, what have I personally done this month to advance the cause for equality. Sure, there's only so much one person can do but I think it illustrates what can be achieved if we all do a little to fight for it. Together we can make a difference.
1) Your Freedom submission. On the 1st of July I entered the first request on the new Government website announced by Nick Clegg in support of marriage equality. The request stands at 194 ratings and has an average rating of 4.5 which is actually fairly high for the site.
2) Letter writing. I've written letters this month to Lynne Featherstone, David Miliband and Ed Miliband. These letters were written seeking clarification of their expressed views on marriage equality. Only Lynne Featherstone, a Minister, had the courtesy to reply (and understanding the Miliband's may have been busy with the leadership fight I directed the letters to their campaign offices for a reply but still nothing). Her reply was merely an acknowledgement that she had heard my views but hey, it's a start.
3) Questioning. It was I who asked the question and received the reply from Simon Hughes about marriage equality that made various news stories a couple of days later.
I also asked a question of Ed Miliband via a Labour Uncut interview, and received his less than inspiring reply.
I've also asked David Miliband a question via Yoosk. I'd be grateful if you were to click that link and rate it up in order for it to be asked next month during their "Yoosk hustings".
Personally I think that's a fair bit for a one man mini-campaign! I shan't be slowing down and plan to double my efforts in August to get this issue out there. I'm not expecting any amazing legislative action. I'm just trying to get the idea into MPs heads that civil partnerships are not equality. If we can win that battle, I think we can eventually win the war.
If you feel benevolent and particularly generous, this writer always appreciates things bought for him from his wishlist
I was incensed to read the comments made by Newcastle-under-Lyme Councillor Ashley Howells in today's Sentinel.
He said:
[quote]"I am extremely sorry that I made a personal response on Twitter which has been misinterpreted and then sadly misrepresented by others.
"My comments were in response to reading a highly political anti-Coalition Government comment about public expenditure cuts, which alleged that Stoke-on-Trent has been and will be disproportionately affected.
I came across a very interesting tale in the archive of the Leek Post and Times of a formidable woman who perhaps deserves far more recognition in her home town than she gets. The story came from an article in the Post and Times dated January 31st 1980 and is headlined Harriet Ann- a dedicated woman.
It is a very interesting tale, which I will restate augmented by addition information from the Internet gathered in the 30 years since the article was written.
I would imagine the debate would have been more heated still had councillors been privy to the news released by Durham Constabulary today that it is issuing 90 day redundacy notices to all of its 1160 civilian staff, which include its community support officers. The BBC website says that it is expected that 200 will lose their jobs.
To quote from the press release in full;
"Durham Constabulary, along with all other public sector bodies, is considering its budget for 2010/11 in line with the government's comprehensive spending review which will be announced in the autumn.
"We expect that some jobs will go; how many depends on the outcome of the comprehensive spending review which reports in October.
"In preparation for this, all 1,160 members of police staff employed by Durham Police Authority are being issued with notices advising that their posts are being considered for potential redundancy and that the statutory 90 day consultation period has started.
"This does not mean that all 1,160 police staff posts will go. "It means that when we are in a position to consider where cuts will be made, the formal process will already have been underway for some time."
Assistant Chief Officer, Gary Ridley, said: "Despite undertaking a range of actions to save money, such as freezing recruitment, offering early retirement, voluntary redundancy and centralising functions within its HQ site at Aykley Heads, it is clear that compulsory redundancies need to be considered in light of likely future reductions in the amount of government grant the constabulary receives.
"We are working closely with the Police Authority and Trade Unions to try and minimise the impact on our staff whilst maintaining a service to the people of County Durham and Darlington."
From my perspective as a ward councillor, the community officers perform a valuable role in tackling crime and responding to concerns, and we will all be watching the situation closely. No-one should be in any doubt either of the importance played by civilian staff - they free up officers to work on the front line, and from my own experience politically and professionally, I kmow how they help keep the public safe, albeit not in a way many will appreciate on a day-to-day basis.
Another bleak day. But believe me, this is just a taste of what is to come over the next few months.
"As developing countries face increasing local demand for energy in rural areas, they also must deal with both economic and environmental pressure on agricultural lands in general," the authors say. "The possibility of growing energy crops such as Jatropha curcas L. has the potential to enable some smallholder farmers, producers and processors to cope with these pressures."
At the same time, the report stresses that jatropha is still essentially a wild plant sorely in need of crop improvement, and that expecting it to substitute significantly for oil imports in developing countries is unrealistic. It adds that many of the actual investments and policy decisions on developing jatropha as an oil crop have been made without the backing of sufficient science-based knowledge. "Realizing the true potential of jatropha requires separating facts from the claims and half-truths," states the report.
Source: http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=35392&Cr=energy&Cr1=
The Kalahari Bushmen are to appeal against a decision by the Botswana high court forbidding them to use a well in the central Kalahari game reserve, one of the driest regions in the world, a spokesman announced today. The Bushmen, Africa's oldest inhabitants, won a ruling in 2006 against eviction from the game park, hailed as a victory for indigenous peoples around the world. Hundreds returned to their home villages but they have been prevented from reopening the well or drilling a new one.
The government argued that the Bushmen's presence in the reserve was not compatible with preserving wildlife and that living in such harsh conditions offered few prospects. The Bushmen took their case to the high court, and the judge this week ruled against them. "The decision doesn't make any sense," said a community spokesman, Jumanda Gakelebone. "We are going to appeal." For now, the 500 Bushmen have to truck in water from the nearest settlement with a public borehole, 300 miles away.
Survival International, a British charity that supports indigenous peoples' rights, described the decision as outrageous and accused the Botswana government of wanting to drive out the Bushmen. "The government wants them out," said Fiona Watson, its Africa expert. "They have contempt for the Bushmen's way of life."
The government capped a borehole in 2002 to drive the Bushmen out of the reserve. Despite the 2006 ruling, the government banned recommissioning of the borehole, leaving the Bushmen facing what the UN's top official on indigenous peoples, James Anaya, described as "harsh and dangerous conditions" due to a lack of access to water". Meanwhile, the Wilderness Safaris Company opened a luxury tourist lodge, complete with bar and swimming pool, on Bushman land; the government drilled boreholes for wildlife with funding from the Tiffany & Co Foundation; and Gem Diamonds was cleared to mine in the reserve on condition that the Bushmen could not use its water.
More: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/22/kalahari-bushmen-bostwana-well-court-appeal
Lessons about sex, relationships and health are not good enough in 25% of schools in England, inspectors suggest. Teacher embarrassment and lack of knowledge were often to blame, Ofsted said in a report based on findings at 92 primary and 73 secondary schools. It said in many secondary schools, pupils were taught about the biology of sex but not relationships.
The government says all young people should have high-quality teaching in this area. It will take Ofsted's findings into consideration in its review of the curriculum. Ofsted looked at personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education in 165 schools in England. The subject has been part of the timetable in most schools for about a decade.
Almost one in five girls say they have been pregnant at least once by the age of 18, according to a Government survey published today. Just under half (46 per cent) decided to keep their baby, while more than a third (36 per cent), had an abortion, the figures show.
Of these, almost eight in 10 (79 per cent) had been expecting a baby on just one occasion, nearly one in five (18 per cent) had been pregnant twice, and 3 per cent had been pregnant at least three times. The survey concluded there was a "noticeable trend" between the young women who fell pregnant by 18, and their GCSE results.
Readers may also wish to look at some other government statistics on the subject which are not entirely consistent: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/hub/population/births-and-fertility/conception-and-fertility-rates/index.html (Click on tab ‘Overview')
A major climate change bill that would have capped carbon emissions has been abandoned by Democrats in the US Senate in the face of opposition from both sides of the house. Under pressure from falling popularity ratings, Barack Obama had hoped the bill would add to the two biggest legislative successes of his presidency: the comprehensive health care bill and reform of the US banking and financial sector.
Democrats have been trying to pass a plan that charges power plants, manufacturers and other large polluters for their carbon dioxide emissions, the leading contributor to global warming, for more than a year. But it ran into opposition from Republican senators, as well as Democrats eager not to jeopardise their chances in November's midterm elections. Republicans said the bill would create a "national energy tax", warning costs would be passed to consumers in the form of higher electricity bills and fuel costs that would lead manufacturers to take their factories overseas, putting jobs at risk.
The failure to pass sweeping energy legislation is likely to weaken the US negotiating position heading into the international climate negotiations in Mexico at the end of the year.
More: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jul/23/us-senate-climate-change-bill
Viet Nam's population is entering a period of "demographic bonus", in which the number of people of working age is larger than that of the dependants. "While this is a phase of unique opportunities in terms of human resources, which is a great advantage to the country's socio-economic development, it could pose employment, education and social welfare challenges in the future," said Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung.
The national census data, which was officially released yesterday, indicated that by 2009, the number of youths aged under 15 had fallen to under 30 per cent, while the proportion of the population aged 65 and over was still under 15 per cent. "This demographic bonus could pose employment and social security challenges in the future unless the young emerging workforce is provided with education, training and job opportunities now, which in turn will ensure the improved well-being of the whole population in the future," said Tran Thi Van, assistant representative of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Viet Nam.
Hung, who is also the chairman of the Central Population and Housing Census Steering Committee, said Viet Nam had not only made great efforts in reducing the birth rate and maintaining and stabilising the pollution size, it had also fostered advancements in improving the population quality. He made the statement while speaking at the national conference on the dissemination of completed census results and a review of the 2009 population and housing census yesterday in Ha Noi.
The 2009 census reported that the rate of literacy had increased much more quickly than that of the previous, which was conducted in 1999, and had risen to 94 per cent of the population over 15 years of age. Life expectancy had also continued to rise, reaching 72.8 years. When the census results were completed on April 1, 2009, Viet Nam's population was 85,846,997 people-- an average increase of 952,000 people each year from the last census.
More: http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/Social-Isssues/201769/Young-workforce-poses-challenges.html
Women discussing at the rural women's conference at the Botanical Beach Hotel in Entebbe
Uganda has not ratified the Maputo Protocol which calls for the promotion of African women's rights over abortion. The protocol, which calls for women's civil, political and reproductive health rights, also calls for a blanket right to abortion.
The gender and culture state minister, Rukia Isanga Nakadama, yesterday said abortion was a very controversial issue, which had raised opposition from different groups of Ugandans. "Some articles in the protocol call for abortion but religious and cultural groups want them amended before we can ratify the protocol," she said. "This protocol will help us to improve maternal and child health in our country. The contentious article has been revised according to the Ugandan laws and we are going to ratify it soon."
The minister was attending the regional rural women's conference at the Imperial Botanical Beach Hotel in Entebbe. The meeting is expected to make resolutions on issues affecting women and forward them to the African Union Summit for consideration. Nakadama also launched the Uganda baseline survey on the African women's rights protocol, which seeks to change negative power relations, gender inequality against African women and also guarantee their rights.
Uganda is one of the 22 African countries that signed the protocol but have not yet ratified it. About 27 nations signed and ratified it while four have neither signed nor ratified it. The Maputo Protocol urges countries to provide adequate, affordable and accessible family planning, prenatal, delivery, post-natal, health and nutritional services. "Research shows that 80% of maternal deaths could be averted if women had access to essential maternity and basic health care services," the UNFPA gender advisor for Africa, Miriam Jato, said.
Mmm, well this is one approach to take to the internet:
TERMS & CONDITIONS
...
Do you want to add a link from your website to the Shropshire Council website? Do you want us to add a link to your website through our Community Directory?
Please email the Community Directory Officer (community.info - community.info.hat.shropshire.gov.uk.spam.com (this is spam bot hidden email address, replace .hat. with @ and remove .spam.com for the real one)) with ALL the following details:
link TO www.shropshire.gov.uk or a link FROM www.shropshire.gov.uk?
organisation
job title or position
name
address (including postcode)
telephone (including area code)
domain name of your website
brief description of the purpose and contents of your website
reasons for requesting a link
Alas, Shropshire Council have so far declined to respond to my request for a comment explaining the reason for this policy. Far be it from me to ignore it though, so if you want to find the source of the above copy and paste this address: http://www.shropshire.gov.uk/websiteinfo.nsf/open/2F5121395E2D0EE5802574C20047E748
Time methinks for a freedom of information request asking for the number of such requests the council has received and how many times it has taken action for links that don't meet these conditions...
(For my previous post along similar lines about Hyndburn see here.)
I don't think it's acceptable for them to have done this, particularly when the voters have had to choose between two parties now in national Coalition together. The Coalition gives us a clear way back in in places that have been Con vs LD fights, but to capitalise on that we have to be on the ballot paper.
I will be using my position on the London Regional Board, and if elected to the NEC my position there, to push for Labour's HQ and regions to make it an absolute priority to field candidates in every single council by-election going forward - and in every ward that we possibly can in the main council elections each May. This will require considerable organisational support and a good deal of friendly persuasion for weaker CLPs but it is vital to getting us back into power that we show we are a national party with no "no-go" areas for our candidates.
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201011/ldbills/016/011016.1-i.html
For more information and links see:
http://ukip.org/content/latest-news/1794-ukip-push-for-inquiry-into-cost-of-eu
An unnamed goat has stormed ahead in Facebook fans stakes by comprehensively bleating the government's Spending Challenge website yesterday.
Prime Minister David Cameron recently launched a collaboration with Facebook, to much fanfare, to encourage FB users to suggest ideas to cut government spending on a special page.
Despite the media blitz, and a special video stunt discussion with Mark Zuckerberg on YouTube, the Spending Challenge page on Facebook has a paltry 81 followers.
In contrast, the goat, who might be named Billy (but the lefties who adopted it couldn't decide on a name and soon started accusing each other of betrayal), managed to attract over 500 fans in just one day.
The goat was unavailable for comment, but spokesperson Clifford Singer from the Other Taxpayers Alliance said: "Billy [the name's not decided yet dammit! - ed] passionately believes the government should focus on growing the economy not cutting spending."
The Scottish government is resisting pressure to attend a senate committee that wants to question the decision to release the Lockerbie bomber. Is there a case to answer?
Despite encouraging signs of economic recovery, the looming public sector redundancies are making business nervous
Today's GDP data confirmed the recovery had taken quite a hold in Labour's final months of office. National output was up by a huge 1.1% in the second quarter of 2010 with good growth across the board. Services output was up 0.9%; government and other services rose 0.9%, production output rose 1.0%, manufacturing was up 1.6% and construction output was up a huge 6.6%. So, the question now is what kind of recovery lies ahead?
If growth carries on at last quarter's pace we could start to see unemployment coming down fairly soon. And this week there was some news to support the idea that economic momentum was gathering. The CBI's industrial production figures showed this week that more firms were feeling a rise in local orders and exports, and retail sales - perhaps boosted by the World Cup - beat analysts' expectations.
But a couple of big problems loom. First, it's hard to tell just how high growth needs to go before unemployment starts falling.
During the recession, firms have been "hoarding labour". Instead of laying people off, workers have been put on shorter hours. As growth now returns, we're seeing a sharp rise in productivity as output goes up - but hours stay fairly fixed. The ONS has a neat summary. Simply put, firms are getting more out their existing workers; they're taking new people on. We just don't know how long this "unhoarding" is going to take.
Second, and just as serious is the weak state of confidence now acting as a hand-brake on business investment and consumer spending.
Abroad, there are siren voices warning that co-ordinated austerity is damping down global growth, which could hit UK exports.
Nouriel Roubini, an economist who can boast he predicted the crash, warned this week that global growth was heading for a sharp slowdown towards the end of the year and in testimony to the Senate Banking Committee this week, Fed chief Ben Bernanke said the economic outlook looked "unusually uncertain".
In the UK, the minutes of July's Monetary Policy Committee released on Wednesday, concluded that the economy had now "deteriorated a little". Bank of England officials said that while the impact of the budget measures on the economy were "hard to gauge", it was "likely that they had pushed down a little on the most likely path for output". The medium-term outlook for growth "might have weakened too".
None of this is good for confidence. In the boardroom "private sector thrift" is still halting a flow of new funds into the kind of investment we need for future growth (on which there is a good discussion at the Economist) as British industry gets cold feet about the future. This, as Robert Skidelsky explained this week, is simply a consequence of the new unease triggered by the government's economic plan:
"'We have as a rule only the vaguest idea of any but the most direct consequences of our acts.' [wrote Keynes]. This made investment, which is always a bet on the future, dependent on fluctuating states of confidence. Financial markets, through which investment is made, were always liable to collapse when something happened to disturb business confidence."
So, why is business worried? Quite simply because the government is about to sack potentially hundreds of thousands of public sector workers. If there aren't private sector jobs for them to go to soon, then unemployment is going to liable to rocket.
We already know that consumers who are lucky enough to have a job are not seeing the recovery fatten up their pay packets. Last week we learned that average earnings growth, including bonuses, decreased in the year to May 2010, from the April rate of 4.1% to 2.7% in May 2010. That doesn't bode well for a bounce back in consumer spending.
Yet it could get even worse. The government's economic plan needs a very fast revival in the private sector's animal spirits to create jobs for potentially hundreds of thousands of layoffs from the public sector. In Birmingham for example, a 9% cut to the city's 156,000 public service workers could put unemployment to almost 18%. Without opportunities to go to, unemployment in towns and cities across Britain is set to spiral to levels seen in countries like Spain.
If one word captured the business discussed by the Metropolitan Police Authority yesterday it is "efficiency" - or a lack of it. In its plural form, of course, the word often serves as code for financial cut backs, and the threat of those ran through most of the proceedings.
Sir Paul Stephenson framed the big picture against background talk of public spending cuts of 25 percent. The idea that such a reduction could be made to the MPS budget "without touching people," would be "an absurd notion," he said. He went on: "The one thing I am fairly confident of is that the Met will shrink, if that is the scale of the cuts."
How frightened are you feeling? Call me blase, but I'm not quaking just yet. I've yet to find a remedy for my old time lefty view that the relationship between levels of crime in any society and the numbers of police officers employed is not straightforward. The same goes for the latter's deployment against crimes causing particular concern.
Criminologist Marian FitzGerald's recent research into the Mayor and the Met's stop-and-search campaign against knife crime bears this out. In Southwark, where the tactic has been used liberally, knife crime rose. In Islington, where it was used sparingly, it fell. This doesn't prove that stop-and-search is worthless, but it usefully reminds us that throwing cops at a problem doesn't automatically solve it.
Sir Paul's comments came shortly after Ken Livingstone had presented a petition:
We call on the Tory led Metropolitan Police Authority and the Tory Mayor Boris Johnson to reverse the decision to cut 455 police officers and guarantee the future of London's dedicated 630 safer neighbourhood police teams.
During the 2008 election campaign one of Ken aides described himself to me as "a bit of a Tory on crime". Ken himself might be characterised in that way too and his instigation of SNTs under Sir Ian Blair seen as an expression of his faith in a George Dixon policing model recalled from his Tulse Hill youth.
Tory MPA members, however, did not see Ken's initiative as a chance to unite with him on common ground. Tory bloggers - including two I've always got on well with, MPA member James Cleverly AM and Iain Dale - had already published a variation on a line Boris Johnson has been using in the (rather tiresome) "police numbers" context since the beginning of the year.
This holds that the projected reduction of 455 officers is a result of an initiative - Project Herald - introduced under Livingstone's last mayoralty, and that his petition was therefore a stunt rendered ridiculous because it criticised his own policy. Steve O'Connell advanced the same argument in the chamber. Team Ken and Team Labour both say that Project Herald has nothing to do with it and that the Tories are in a spin and, well, spinning accordingly.
The dispute presents me with a dilemma: the familiar, well-balanced Dave with his sound grasp of priorities and proper sense of proportion - not getting ahead of myself, am I? - thinks this is a bit of a sideshow; the pathetic, obsessive Dave wants to burrow pitifully into the small print and see who's right. The outcome of this internal struggle will become evident over the next few days.
For now I'll simply place on record my agreement with two of the MPA's independent members, Clive Goodwin and its vice chair Reshard Auladin, who presided yesterday in the absence of a holidaying Kit Malthouse. To paraphrase, both said that more than ever the debate shouldn't be about numbers but about effectiveness and, yes, efficiency. The trouble is, there are fewer votes in it.
Not until the last half hour of the meeting did we get to the part that had prompted me to put it my diary in the first place - the discussion of the report of the Race and Faith Inquiry, which I've followed with interest since Boris Johnson commissioned it in October 2008.
It won't surprise you that Sir Paul welcomed it. It didn't surprise me that James Cleverly did too, praising what he called its "constructive tone" which he believed meant the Met was more likely to take it seriously. I wasn't surprised, either, that Jennette Arnold - in line with the thinking of the MetBPA - thought it too soon to dispense with the label "institutional racism", as the report recommends.
Whatever the merits of that argument, it's fair to say that the report builds much of its case around the idea that London will be better policed if it changes to ensure that BME officers are more effectively recruited and retained and that the management of career progression is fair, transparent and seen to be so (a point which white officers who helped the inquiry made too). Sir Paul said he thought that being wise to diversity issues was integral to police professionalism in London. Alas, he also remarked, though not in so many words, that things like recruitment and promotion tend to slow up when you're skint. Efficiency is such a versatile word.
Footnote: You can watch a webcast of the entire meeting via here.
Barring Nick Griffin from the Queen's garden party ignores his mandate as an MEP and allows the BNP to play the victim card
It appears to have come as a double-whammy for Nick Griffin, first a dismal performance in the general election, and now getting barred from the Buckingham Palace garden party. The BNP and its leader appear to be on a slippery slope heading south.
While it has to be acknowledged that, as an MEP, Griffin was entitled to expect to be invited to this year's garden party, his blatant efforts to gain political mileage from this experience prompted the Palace to withdraw his invitation. Whether or not any pressure from the wider circles of power was exerted on those responsible for managing the garden party guest list is best left to one's inference.
No matter how repugnant BNP's stated position is on those considered non-British, or how vile Griffin's thoughts may be about Muslims in general, barring him from attending a party hosted by the Queen, will have undesirable repercussions. One of the reasons cited for this ban has been that of potential discomfort to many of the guests who were due to attend.
It would appear that the guests who would have felt rather uncomfortable due to his presence are of the same ilk as those who walked off the platform back in June 2009 in protest at Nick Griffin's democratic victory in the last MEP elections. Such aversion to Nick Griffin due to his contentious political beliefs sadly counters the democratic principles that this country has upheld until now. It allows the BNP to play the victim card, and to draw more support from the disgruntled middle England, something which is being tapped by the more radical EDL in the recent past.
The majority of the people in this country rejected the far-right party earlier this year in the general elections, yet the fact remains that until the BNP is voted out of the European parliament, it retains its two MEP seats and are thus elected representatives for the thousands from whom they managed to gain support. It is this mandate that ought to be respected and tolerated in the spirit of democracy and common decency.
Griffin's dismal performance on the BBC's Question Time last year is evidence enough that offering him the microphone does indeed have its own merits. Not only do such opportunities oblige the BNP leader to defend the indefensible; he ends up exposing himself and the deeprooted desire of his party to cleanse the country of all things and persons they deem "unBritish", whatever that means. At the same time, such events allow much needed debate on certain core issues with the major stakeholders, including the BNP.
The wider British public and politicians need to get over their allergy to the BNP and all those who hold controversial, unpalatable and borderline offensive views. Without engaging and challenging the far right and religious extremists within our communities, democracy will slowly lose its meaning and we might one day become as intolerant as some of the countries and cultures we so detest.
I would suggest that the growth figures in the next few quarters will be more instructive as to whether we are on the right track now rather than what we have seen today.
Mmm, well this is one approach to take to the internet:
TERMS & CONDITIONS
...
Do you want to add a link from your website to the Shropshire Council website? Do you want us to add a link to your website through our Community Directory?
Please email the Community Directory Officer (community.info - community.info.hat.shropshire.gov.uk.spam.com (this is spam bot hidden email address, replace .hat. with @ and remove .spam.com for the real one)) with ALL the following details:
link TO www.shropshire.gov.uk or a link FROM www.shropshire.gov.uk?
organisation
job title or position
name
address (including postcode)
telephone (including area code)
domain name of your website
brief description of the purpose and contents of your website
reasons for requesting a link
Alas, Shropshire Council have so far declined to respond to my request for a comment explaining the reason for this policy. Far be it from me to ignore it though, so if you want to find the source of the above copy and paste this address: http://www.shropshire.gov.uk/websiteinfo.nsf/open/2F5121395E2D0EE5802574C20047E748
Time methinks for a freedom of information request asking for the number of such requests the council has received and how many times it has taken action for links that don't meet these conditions...
(For my previous post along similar lines about Hyndburn see here.)
...This is Labour's problem when opposing the cuts now. Their own policy, on which they fought an election, was to halve the deficit over four years. As the Institute for Fiscal Studies demonstrated, this would mean public spending cuts, for each department, in the region of 20 per cent. Nonetheless, Labour tried to fight an election on the investment vs cuts narrative. With no credibility on the deficit, it is hardly surprising their campaign was a disaster (as Mandelson freely admits in his book).
Now Labour's leadership candidates find that the debate has moved on. The coalition government has persuaded the public that cuts are inevitable, that Labour was profligate and had turned public spending into a false idol. The Lib-Con government is thereby absolved of all responsibility for these cuts. So when the axe starts to fall in the autumn, with the 25 per cent cuts that the Chancellor warned about in the Budget, Labour will have difficulty complaining given that their own plan was for cuts of a similar magnitude.
Some of the leadership candidates believe they can argue that Labour's cuts would have been more compassionate, in contrast to the ideologically driven and unfair cuts being planned by the government. Some candidates are striking out to the left. Ed Balls, for a few weeks now, has been saying he regarded the Brown-Darling deficit reduction plan as too aggressive. This frees him to oppose government cuts now.
Another leadership candidate (with a better chance of winning) is, I understand, developing a similar stance on the public finances. To the all-important question — where to find that clear, red water — he proposes a simple solution. First, he would declare that the public finances are better than Labour had thought when it drew up its own deficit reduction programme. So, it can be argued, Labour's cuts would not have been so harsh as it had previously imagine. Next, propose higher taxes, thereby reducing the need for further cuts.
But whoever is elected Labour leader on 25 September will face a substantial logistical problem. By then, there will be just four weeks remaining until George Osborne announces his spending review. It is a tight deadline on which to forge an economic policy, especially if the new leader has to wait until the results of the shadow Cabinet elections to find out who the shadow chancellor will be.
Labour's leadership contest has been very uninspiring. None of the candidates has even tried to think the unthinkable or launch a real 'change' manifesto. It's 'same old same old' from all of the main four contenders. Most of them still act as if there in government and as if the deficit hardly exists, and if it does, it's not their fault.
Compare this with the Tory leadership contest in 2005. That contest captured the imagination and lots of new ideas were batted around. It showed a party wanting to learn from its past and move on to a new future. The 'change' message was one which the party responded to, even though it knew it could be an uncomfortable journey. Ed Miliband is possibly realising this at last and adopting the same message as the Cameron campaign in 2005 - Change to Win.
But is it too late? Will anyone notice if they have been switched off already?
Crispin Blunt is right to have rescinded Jack Straw's order banning arts and comedy courses in prisons. I first wrote about this back in 2008...
So Jack Straw has banned prisoners at Whitemoor Prison from learning about how to write a comedy script or do stand up. They were taking part in an eight day course as part of an education programme. What harm can possibly be done by learning about comedy script writing and improvisation? I'd have thought learning how to diffuse potentially harmful situations by the use of humour was a good thing. Instead, Jack Straw has jerked his knee and responded to synthetic tabloid outrage. Not only that he's ordered an inquiry! you couldn't make it up.
Prison is a balance between punishment and rehabilitation. I don't believe in going soft on people in prison - but nor do I believe that activities which make them want to learn and develop should be discouraged.
And then last October I appeared in a cabaret at the Tory conference, the aim of which was to demonstrate how comedy can help in prisoner rehabilitation. I wrote...
Jack Straw cancelled all arts projects in HMP Whitemoor and issued a Prison Service Instruction to all Governors, telling them that, when making decisions about arts interventions, they must ensure projects "meet the public acceptability test" and consider how the activity might "be perceived if open to media scrutiny."...
Surely if rehabilitation is to mean anything, the arts have a key role to play in helping prisoners discover some self esteem and maybe a talent they never thought they had. Our prison system is set up for punishment, but rehabilitation takes a back seat.
I hope under a Conservative government that will change. Being tough doesn't just mean locking people up and throwing away the key. A tough politician will take tough choices - and that means locking fewer people up and devoting more resources to preparing prisoners for life on the outside. Only in that way will reoffending rates drop.
The Daily Mail has predictably gone OTT and Downing Street are distancing themselves from Blunt, briefing that the speech wasn't properly cleared with them.I wonder how many people who are slagging off Crispin Blunt today have read the actual text of his speech. Do youself a favour and click HERE to do so. The whole speech is a very good statement of aims for the new government with regard to the balance between rehab and punishment. But it is this para which has caused the uproar.
I want to mention one other proposal from Churchill that struck a chord with me. Churchill noted that
'we have got a class of men in our prisons who need brain food of the most ordinary character.'He notes that
'There have from time to time been occasional lectures given in the prisons, and a few months ago the Somerset Light Infantry, quartered near, had their band in Dartmoor Prison and it played to the convicts. It was an amazing thing the effect which was produced on all these poor people, and their letters for a month after had been eloquent in recognition of the fact.'
I have to say that not all Members of the Commons were quite as enthusiastic about military music with one suggesting that:
'The music will be an added punishment to some.'
But there is a serious point here. We recognise that arts activities can play a valuable role in helping offenders to address issues such as communication problems and low self-esteem and enabling them to engage in programmes that address their offending behaviour I confess before getting this job I was not aware of Prison Service Instruction number 50 of 2008, though was vaguely conscious of some row in the tabloids about offenders being recorded as enjoying themselves. As a measure it was typical of the last administration's flakiness under pressure. At the slightest whiff of criticism from the popular press policy tended to get changed and the consequence of an absurd overreaction to offenders being exposed to comedy in prison was this deleterious, damaging and daft instruction. I'm pleased to have marked the actual day of the 100th anniversary of Churchill's speech on Tuesday by rescinding it.
I'm glad he did that. It was the brave and the right thing to do.
So, go on, call me a woolly liberal, or a LibDem. It'll be water off a duck's back. We need to run our prisons policy very differently. It is not working, and we need to think more about the kind of person we put back into society at the end of their sentences. At the moment the majority can't read or write and they're hooked on drugs. Is it any surprise that they then reoffend? it's all very well saying that we should keep offenders in prison for longer, so they can't offend, but we will be heading for a situation where the prison population heads for 200,000. We simply cannot afford that, even if we thought it was a good idea. And it isn't. The key to lowering reoffending is to improve in-prison rehabilitation. And education via courses like arts and comedy courses is all part of it.
There might have been giants! Or there may once have been a 20ft sculpture called Giant's Chair. This six mile Dartmoor walk takes in the site of the soon to be former modern masterpiece as well as a tragic legend, an ancient cross and the Bronze age settlement of Grimspound.
The day started at Jay's Grave with a legend. The story of Kitty Jay is one of the more well known ones on Dartmoor and local award-winning musician Seth Lakeman even wrote a song about it.
In brief the legend says that in the late 18th century unmarried farm girl Kitty Jay became pregnant and after being left with no home and no reputation she committed suicide. In those days suicide victims were buried at crossroads to ensure that their restless souls didn't wander and disturb the living. Every day fresh flowers are left on the grave and no-one knows who leaves them there.
There were plenty of flowers and even coins on Jay's Grave (SX 732799), as I paid my respects and started on the footpath behind it towards Giant's Chair.
After 0.6 of a mile Giant's Chair (SX 733799) isn't difficult to miss (unless you get here and it's already been taken down). The 20ft sculpture was made from local oak by Henry Bruce in 2006. It was in a beautiful location overlooking the west Webburn valley. It's also on private land so please be respectful if you take a closer look.
After taking my fill of photos I carried on along the footpath until I reached a gate and crossed a small road and through another gate, back on to moorland.
Here I ignored the signpost and kept left on a track which took me through a marshy area where lots of dragonflies and damsel flies kept me entertained while I tried to get some good shots with my zoom lens.
If you keep following this track on and then diagonally left it will take you on to the top of Hamel Down where you can join up with the Two Moors Way. This is the easier option, but I decided to follow the line of boundary stones up the ridge, so I found an animal path that took me right and over to Berry Pound (SX 713803) - the remains of a pre-historic enclosure.
After enjoying the view from Berry Pound I headed up the ridge and found Blue Jug boundary stone (SX 708803). This is at the head of the east Webburn river and is quite a boggy area so it might be prudent take the easier route if the weather has been wet.
These boundary stones mark the edges of the old Natsworthy estate and a little further on is the Grey Wethers boundary stone. Carry on up and you'll meet a path.
Go left for a visit to Broad Barrow (SX 706799), one of the largest barrows on the moor, which is marked with a 19th century stone inscribed Broad Burrow.
Two Moors Way runs through this barrow and if you look towards the cairn on Hameldown Tor you'll see it as the left path - the right being the one you just walked.
Follow the Two Moors Way along and on the left you'll spot the remains of Hamel Down Cross (SX 704801). It is inscribed HC (Hamel Down Cross), DS (Duke of Somerest) and 1854.
Head towards Hameldown Tor (SX 703806) and admire the cairn, trig station and views. From here you have a steep descent to Grimspound (SX 700809) - a well-known Bronze age settlement of around four acres containing about 24 hut circles. The pound is large enough to go in and have a wander around with the dramatic backdrop of Hookney Tor opposite.
Heading away from Grimspound the path splits into two so take the left one. This will take you to Heathercombe and down through the tranquil forest, ending up at the small road and gate which will take you back past the Giant's Chair and then to Jay's Grave.
Thinking of going on this walk? Check out the Giant's Chair video!
o Want to take this walk with you? Use our 
option. Or download it to your phone to check on the way.
Watch Seth Lakeman's song Kitty Jay
View East Dartmoor: Giant's Chair and Grimspound in a larger map
o When walking on Dartmoor please ensure you take the right equipment with you, eg, waterproof, walking boots, water, a map, plus your common sense.
"There are two possible Labour candidates, Ken Livingstone and Oona King, and I am supporting Oona King..."
The endorsement of Lord Mandelson of Memoirs does Oona King no favours, and gives Ken Livingstone a new line in applause-grabbing gags, in the battle to be Labour's candidate as Mayor of London.
Two things struck me. Firstly, the label of Blairite candidate does her no favours in London and Mandy reinforces it(as did her earlier failures to condemn unequivocally Post Office privatisation). And secondly, Mandy's a Labour leper since his book created such a stink, all five runners in the leadership race criticising the Prince of Darkness last weekend at Unite hustings I chaired. Will Ms King disown her champion? With a friend like Mandy, she could make a lot of enemies in the Labour Party.
I'd noticed at Labour hustings Frank Field was the party's bogeyman for benfiting the ConDems. Over the past fortnight Field's been usurped by Mandy, a full-throttle denunciation of the PoD going down well with the party voters activists.
I've just caught up with Mandy's endorsement of King on Five Live on Monday. You can hear it here until the BBC takes it down from iPlayer. It's 97 minutes into a programme hosted by the always entertaining Colin Patterson.
Poor History Boy David Cameron. I hear the Prime Minister isn't coping well with the ridicule after he thought the US entered the Second World War in 1940 instead of 1941. Downing Street officials are also suffering a sense of humour failure, saying they hope there'll be no more mocking the PM.
I'm tempted to say Cameron's error doesn't say much for an expensive private education at Eton or three years at Oxford, supposedly one of our elite universities. But I say that most days. So, instead, I've devised a test for Cameron to prove he knows his history. I've pitched it at the Prime Minister's level to give him a fighting chance of getting some of them right. Good luck, Dave...
The Cameron History Test:
1) In which year was the 1066 Battle of Hastings?
2) Nelson's column was named after which famous British Admiral?
3) Over which islands was the Falklands War of 1982 fought?
4) Hadrian's Wall was built by which Roman Emperor?
5) The Great Fire of London of 1666 was in which capital city?
6) The Anglo-French Entente in 1904 was between which two nations?
7) Which came first: the First World War or Second World War?
8) The Seven Years' War of 1756-63 lasted how many years?
9) How many Henrys were there before Henry VIII?
10)The Six-Day War of 1967, involving Israel, lasted how long?
Ken Livingstone, the Labour candidate who wants his old job back as Mayor of London, is hoovering up the affiliated union nominations on what used to be known(and still is to some) as the industrial wing of the labour movement.
Unite, Unison, GMB, Ucatt and Tssa all support Red Ken's bid with party rival Oona King yet to get a score on the union door, although she may get Usdaw while he's likely to add the CWU to his list.
Unions in London flocking to Livingstone is a sharp contrast with the Labour leadership where they've split: David Miliband(Usdaw and Community), Ed Miliband(GMB and Ucatt), Ed Balls(CWU), Diane Abbott(TSSA and Aslef) while Andy Burnham is in King's position and awaits his first.
Unite and Unsion have yet to declare and I'm chairing the Unite hustings with the five tomorrow, which you can watch from 10am at UnitetheUnion.org There'll be no vote at the end. Alas.
I've advocated the Alternative Vote for 30 years but reckon it'd be easier
to organise the No campaign in the May 5 referendum.
The Tories will be overwhelmingly against and Labour split. Electoral
reform sceptic Jack Straw knows reducing Labour Parliamentary seats will
sway many in his party into the No camp. Labour reformers will be
unenthusiastic about asking for a Yes vote to keep Nick Clegg in his job as
Deputy PM when the ConDems are cutting the jobs of hundreds of thousands of
people.
The Yes camp is also mad if it really thinks putting a cut-happy business
figure such as ex-CBI boss Sir Digby Moans in charge.
I hope it'll be a Yes vote. Britain needs a fairer, more democratic
electoral system. But I bet I'm not the only reformer who feels queasy
about Clegg using the referendum to hang on to his post by keeping going a
coalition which could collapse if the Lib Dems fail to get what they really
want.
I may have to put a clothes peg on my nose before I go to vote under these
circumstances.
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This is the United Kingdom 2010. 'Walking the dog' is no longer the low-tech activity it used to be. If you are lucky enough to avoid the marauding transvestites intent on introducing your Pekinese pooch to the finer details of alternative sexuality, then your next task is to find a suitable lamp post. Assuming you [...]London's political leaders today wrote in unison to the Communities Secretary Eric Pickles to enact legislations to devolve more power to the capital.
In the letter, London's senior leadership laid out specific proposals which aim to deliver a more efficient system of governance in London and deliver savings for the public purse. The detailed proposals laid out by the co-signatories, Boris Johnson, Mayor Jules Pipe and Dee Doocey AM , can be found here:
The Government today released the Public Sector Procurement Expenditure Survey 2009 which provides a comprehensive account on how the government and wider public sector has spent 86,833 million from the public purse on procurement. The procurement spend by English local authorities and the Department of Health have also been published for the first time as well.
City of Lincoln Council received a top accolade for its Apprenticeship scheme at last week's Apprenticeship Awards, organised by the National Apprenticeship Service (NAS). The award recognises the council's success in using apprentices to meet the needs of its business and the community it operates in.
A new national survey released by the DCLG shows that a majority of people in England are "satisfied" with their communities despite accepting that they have minimal influence on local decision making.
Responding to the publication, today, of the Government's consultation on the future direction of skills policy, CMI (Chartered Management Institute) warns that an opportunity to drive economic growth could be missed.
The poorest in Britain have 2:1 chances of dying before the age of 65 than the richest, and the health gap could get worse, according new research unveiled today.
Skills Minister John Hayes has today invited employers, individuals, colleges and training organisations to share their ideas on how they would like skills policy to be set out in the future.
The consultation document Skills for Sustainable Growth outlines BIS's vision for skills and what are expected to be the key elements of a strategy for delivering it.
Welcome to a series where old posts are revived for a second outing for reasons such as their subject has become topical again, they have aged well but were first posted when the site's readership was only a tenth or less of what it is currently or they got published and the site crashed, hiding the finest words of wisdom behind an incomprehensible error message. Today's is about Google. I've updated the social network usage figures.
Google dominates the search engine market, both in the UK and internationally. Although there are some countries where a local search service has the lead (e.g. Russia), overall Google is undoubtedly number one.
The world however is full of companies which used to be massive, even dominant, but fell from grace. Remember the days when Novell dominated the server market? Or watch Blade Runner and look at the brand names used back then, firms so big that it was easy to believe the future would include them. Names such as Pan-Am.
So could Google too fall from grace? And if so how?
Google gets a case of commercial madnessNo matter how big the company, a domineering chief with a kooky business plan can bring it to its knees. Think RBS. Think Marconi. It may be very much a long shot that Google will commit commercial suicide in this way, but it is not completely unthinkable. (And the highly implausible has a nasty habit of happening now and again. After all, who until a few weeks ago would have thought that one wrong character in one file could break Google's search engines for a few hours?).
Google gets regulatedThe repeated skirmishes between Microsoft and regulators haven't brought Microsoft to its knees. They have cost the firm in fines, legal costs and reputation, but Microsoft is still one of the commercially most successful companies in the history of the IT industry.
Other firms have though been dismembered by regulatory action; IBM comes to mind most notably.
Could Google ever face such a fate? Its increasing dominance of online advertising markets could leave it open to anti-trust / anti-monopoly action, especially if the economic downturn and resulting advertising squeeze makes its advertising rivals turn up the pressure for intervention.
Google loses the privacy battleMuch of Google technical and commercial success relies on gathering bucket loads of data from us. Lots and lots and lots. And the putting that data to work to improve its services even further and to tie us in to them.
But what if there is a move to give people much more control over what is done with their data? This could cause serious damage to the Google way, and it appears to be the line of attack that Microsoft is taking.
Microsoft has been signing up some of the best privacy talent in the business to work for it. All done in the name of helping to improve its own services of course, but if Microsoft can get public and regulatory opinion on its side, we could see a move towards much greater individual control over data that could seriously damage Google.
Someone does a better search engine than GoogleThere have been, and are, lots of new search services which try to find an approach that Google doesn't cover, such as clustering search results around themes or providing visual representations of the results.
This is an area where Google can feel confident, because not only is it their own core area of expertise, but Google has the huge financial resources to buy or replicate any ideas other people have which take off.
Moreover, Google is now so deeply embedded into people's habits and systems, that even if a better search engine came along (and several around at the moment argue that they are better), Google has a huge incumbency advantage. To illustrate this, imagine if you invented a superior taste for a cola drink this weekend. What would you actually then start doing on Monday morning to topple Coke or Pepsi? It's not trivial task to knock an incumbent off their perch, even online.
We stop needing GoogleA bigger risk, though, is that people move to using search services built into other services which are beyond Google. This is what was happening with YouTube - until Google purchased it. YouTube has become the second most popular search site on the internet, after Google itself. It may only return video results, but its content is so popular that people are often happy to only be searching that, leaving the rest of the internet alone.
With YouTube, Google's money snuffled out the threat. But why shouldn't search migrate in future to another site stuffed full of content? And if that other site, having captured people's attention with the ability to search its own content, started adding in search results from the wider internet...
Consider social networks, which now get more internet traffic in the UK than search engines.
Or consider Microsoft's move to turn its extremely widespread Office software suite into a web-based software service. Microsoft's own search engine has failed to dent Google's dominance, but imagine a world where Microsoft migrates millions of users around the world to using Office online, making its Office services some of the most heavily used sites on the internet. Drop a search box on to them and it'd be time to start selling Google stock.
There are good reasons to think that each of these futures might not happen. Just as Microsoft has largely successfully seen off wave after wave of competitors, Google might too. But even if the odds of any one method of downfall are low, for Google to continue to dominate, it has to be the case that none of them happens - and that's a much less likely prospect.
I doubt David Cameron was watching Channel 4 last night, away as he is in America. But his aides ought to save the 4OD link for him.
I'm talking about Undercover Boss, which followed Kevan Collins - Chief Executive of Tower Hamlets Council - as he became "Colin" and met people doing frontline services in his borough.
It was remarkable.
There was Chris, who delivers meals on wheels to the elderly. She used to stay for a cup of tea and a chat, but now finds it hard because cut-backs mean she has more deliveries in fewer hours. It breaks her heart - especially at Christmas - because most of the elderly are alone and she is the only person many see all day. Yet she meets them all with a smile, a kind word, and a parcel of food which literally keeps them alive.
There was Malachi, who works with those about to be made homeless who desperately need help. He's only on a temporary contract, but he would like to do this permanently and gives it his all. "It's important to treat the people who come in with respect" - he says - "because after all they are human beings, and it could be you on that side of the counter one day".
Or what about Tim, who works in pest control. Not a glamorous job, killing rats. But Tim does it and he does it well, seeking out the holes and drains that are off his beat but also the real sources of infestation. "A private company wouldn't do this extra bit" he notes off-hand, "they just go for the profit".
Shazz works the Whitechapel street market - where he grew up as a kid - daily ensuring the regulations are kept to. But in his own time he and some friends have been designing plans for the Olympic area renovation, which they have dreams of putting forward. They'd like to look back and know they've made their area a better place.
Even Del and Mark - the somewhat overzealous community enforcers who hand out 40 fines for dropping fags down drains - hit the streets every day for 10 hours. They try to bring order to one of the most socially deprived, and sometimes chaotic, boroughs in the country.
Which got me thinking: if there is a "Big Society" it looks suspiciously like it resides in places like Tower Hamlets Council and its frontline services.
The Conservatives tell us that the state gets in the way. That by hacking away with enormous spending cuts spontaneous voluntary work will make Britain into a modern Shangri-La. Well Channel 4 neatly showed what a load of bullshit that is.
The ‘Big Society' is already here. It's Chris squeezing a few extra minutes to chat to a lonely pensioner. It's Tim going the extra mile to keep people's homes vermin free. It's all the countless other unsung heroes we never hear a word about. Professionals providing public services, adding the human touch that makes the extra difference.
But the Big Society is under-resourced, over-worked and operating above-capacity.
If Dave and Co.'s rhetoric was anything more than a front for an ideological agenda, they'd be getting ready to reverse that. Instead, they're deciding to make it worse.
Alistair Darling MP, Labour's Shadow Chancellor said:
"Today figures show the results of the Labour Government’s approach to supporting the recovery.
"This is the fastest growth we have seen for over four years. It shows that confidence was returning. And you can see the success of maintaining support for important sectors like construction.
"And this is the final nail in the coffin of the Coalition’s argument that things are worse than they believed before the election. Today’s figures show that growth was twice as fast as expected. The Coalition’s economic policy is not inevitable – it’s the choice they’ve made.
"And they will have to accept responsibility for the risks they are taking with the economy. "
Kenny MacAskill, who released Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, will not fly to US for Senate foreign relations committee
The Scottish justice minister has been accused of "running a mile" from a US inquiry into the release of the Libyan jailed for the Lockerbie bombing.
Labour and Tory leaders said Kenny MacAskill, of the Scottish National Party, had no justification for refusing a "perfectly legitimate" request to give evidence before a powerful US Senate committee on Abdelbaset al-Megrahi's release next week.
The Senate foreign relations committee is to hold hearings next Thursday into allegations, ignited by the Gulf oil spill controversy, that the British oil giant BP influenced a UK government prisoner transfer treaty with Libya to win lucrative contracts there.
The hearing has reignited the controversy over al-Megrahi's compassionate release from Greenock prison last August, partway through his life sentence for planting the bomb which killed 270 mainly American passengers and crew on a Pan Am flight to New York over the Scottish town of Lockerbie.
Al-Megrahi, who still insists he is innocent, had been fighting an appeal against his conviction but dropped it two weeks before his release because he was terminally ill with inoperable prostate cancer and wanted to return home to die.
Richard Baker, Labour justice spokesman at the Scottish parliament, said: "There is a legitimacy for the US senators, they represent so many of the families who lost loved ones on that flight, I think it's a perfectly legitimate request."
Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland, Baker added: "I think it speaks volumes about the lack of confidence [MacAskill] has now in his own decision that he is running a mile from any scrutiny of it."
It emerged yesterday MacAskill has been invited by the committee along with former UK justice secretary Jack Straw, the Scottish prisons' head of medical affairs, Dr Andrew Fraser, and Tony Hayward, BP's chief executive.
Reports that Tony Blair had been invited were denied by committee officials. Last night, a spokeswoman for senator Robert Menendez of New York, the committee member who sent the invitations, refused to confirm whether other ministers or senior figures in the affair had been invited.
Straw and Hayward are considering the invitation, but the Scottish government had refused the request on MacAskill's and Fraser's behalf.
A spokesman said there was "unequivocally" no connection between the compassionate release of al-Megrahi and BP's oil contracts - the issue central to the senate committee's hearing. The prisoner transfer route negotiated by UK ministers with Libya was rejected by MacAskill. Al-Megrahi was released solely using Scottish prison service procedures because he is terminally ill with prostate cancer.
MacAskill said today: "I am elected by the Scottish people, I am accountable to the Scottish parliament, I have appeared before a Scottish parliament committee and indeed before a Westminster committee. That is where I am required to be held to account and indeed I am happy to do so."
He insisted the release of the only man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing was "the right decision", made for "the right reasons".
Scottish officials fear privately that MacAskill could be used as a whipping boy by the Senate committee, but also argue there is no constitutional basis for a foreign legislature to cross-examine a British politician.
The al-Megrahi affair has been investigated by a Scottish parliament committee, which could not reach agreement on whether it was justified.
The Scottish Tory leader, Annabel Goldie, said last night this would increase suspicions about the affair. "A no-show would only fuel suspicion that they have something to hide," she said. "We need clarity, not confusion."
Baker said MacAskill's refusal to fly to Washington and meet US senators face-to-face contrasted starkly with his decision to meet al-Megrahi in person in Greenock prison last year.
Baker said: "He shouldn't just go to see the senators, we think he should take the opportunity to go to the families of the victims in the United States. He met after all personally with al-Megrahi in making the decision. He didn't meet with them, he just met a few of them by webcam.
"I think it's time for him to go to meet them personally and not only to explain his decision, but now offer an apology for making such a bad decision, which clearly was very wrong."
