Duty of Care? They Don't Care.

SOME of the questions and discussion at the asbestos seminar I attended in Bart's hospital last year were above my head. These were seasoned campaigners and health service professionals as well as victims and relatives of victims attending the London Hazards Centre's event, on July 1.

But you didn't need to be an expert to be moved by Eileen Beadle's account of how she and her husband's plans for holidays, and looking forward to a happy active retirement, were shattered when he was taken to hospital, and died aged 54 from a painful asbestos-related condition. This had inspired her to seek out others affected, and form the East London Mesothelioma Society.

All you needed was to be a human being, unlike the two Tory pratts who had to be told to behave themselves at a mesothelioma event in the Commons in September.
('Tory 'schoolboys' disrupt asbestosis committee hearing'- Paddy McGuffin, Morning Star, September 16, 2011)

But what came as a shock to me, naievely thinking of asbestos as a problem in the building industry or factories working with the material, was when Carol Hagerdorn, the following speaker, introduced herself as a mesothelioma sufferer, and said she had been exposed to asbestos as a school teacher. As she pointed out asbestos had been used in many older schools and what were meant to be temporary classrooms, and could easily be exposed when children naturally engaged in boisterous behaviour. In one case she saw, lads bored waiting to use a pool table had poked holes in a false ceiling with their cues, unaware of what material lay above it!

Carol Hagerdorn said there needed to be a survey of schools so that authorities could take steps to remove asbestos wherever it was found.

Again, in my naievity, I had assumed that had already been done as soon as the dangers of
asbestos had been recognised, and that schools of all places would have been prioritised for its removal. We had the asbestos removers in at the block of flats where I live last year, and I know it is a tricky business, with what are like tunnels erected so it can be removed without contaminating the surroundings, and placed in a sealed skip for disposal. But if it can be done in a residential block then schools which are closed at the weekend and in evenings should be easier. They are meant to be safe places, to which parents can entrust their kids, assuming a duty of care from the authorities.

Sorry to go on about the obvious, but here's what the Independent reported this week:

The Government has deliberately excluded asbestos from an unprecedented review of the condition of the country's schools because it knows that tackling the risks to schoolchildren and teachers could cost hundreds of millions, critics claim.

Campaigners reacted with fury last night as it emerged a year-long survey of England's 23,000 schools will examine every aspect of buildings – from classroom decoration to whether fire alarms and toilets are in working order – but will specifically exclude asbestos, the most serious threat of all to staff and pupils.

An internal Department for Education email, seen by The Independent on Sunday, makes it clear that pressure to include asbestos in the assessment of the state of schools, which begins in April and will be used to inform future funding, had to be resisted due to "cost implications and the fact that asbestos management should already be carried out under existing legal requirements". The memo, dated September 2011, suggests that the survey programme "might well be able to provide some prompts and checks on that wider process, however".

The costs – and risks – of removing asbestos mean that authorities have to strike a delicate balance in managing it, and current policy is against removal for its own sake.

Critics claim the Government's attitude to the deadly disease is highlighted by comments that Nick Gibb, the Schools minister, is said to have made to asbestos campaigners three years ago. Referring to the potential costs of dealing with asbestos, at a meeting in the Commons, he is alleged to have remarked: "You are telling me that I will have to cripple the education budget to save the lives of a few thousand middle-aged people."

Mr Gibb, an opposition MP at the time of the 2009 meeting, denied the claims yesterday: "It is totally absurd to suggest that I said these things. It is not my view and has never been my view – my view is that the health and welfare of pupils and staff is absolutely paramount and should never be jeopardised."

The scale of the challenge is vast. Most of Britain's schools contain asbestos – more than 75 per cent, according to government estimates. Britain imported hundreds of thousands of tons of asbestos in the last century, when it was routinely used in construction for its fire-retardant and insulating properties. Although it was banned in 1999, a deadly legacy remains. Exposure to tiny amounts of the fibres can result in a number of diseases, some of which – like mesothelioma, a form of cancer – are fatal. Others, such as asbestosis, which permanently scars the lungs and makes it hard to breathe, have a severe impact on health.

Not everyone exposed to asbestos becomes ill, but it can take several decades for symptoms to appear.

There has been a 15-fold rise in mesothelioma deaths in Britain since 1967, with more than 2,300 in 2009 (men accounted for 83 per cent). The annual death toll from asbestos-related diseases in Britain alone is expected to be at least 5,000 by 2015.

More than 228 teachers have died of mesothelioma since 1980, according to the campaign group Asbestos in Schools, who, citing US government research, believe a further nine children will die for every teacher dying from the disease, resulting in more than 2,000 deaths of children in adulthood.

The Government admits that no national picture of asbestos in schools or the costs of dealing with it exists. It says responsibility lies with local authorities and schools. Strict controls have been in force for decades and government policy is for schools to manage asbestos – for instance, by sealing it with silicone – rather than remove it. But banging doors or bumping into walls can be enough to disturb it, and earlier this month the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) warned that school staff "should be instructed not to disturb or damage asbestos-containing materials, for example, by pinning work to walls".

The Government argues a national audit is unnecessary as the problem is dealt with locally. Despite this, it spent £4.5m on an audit of asbestos in Northern Ireland schools in 2003/04. The following year, £3.8m was allocated to pay for its removal in "top priority" cases. England has 19 times as many schools, meaning a similar exercise would cost at least £153m.

In a statement, the Department for Education said asbestos was excluded from the upcoming property surveys because any assessment could not "substitute for local asbestos surveys already required by the Control of Asbestos Regulations".

But education unions argue this policy is not matched in practice. Chris Keates, head of the NASUWT, the largest teachers' union, accused ministers of "reckless buck-passing", adding: "Local authorities have been stripped of the resources ... needed to carry out these responsibilities. While the Government behaves like Pontius Pilate, washing its hands of responsibility, the health of children and the workforce is being put at risk."

Echoing concerns over shrinking budgets, Russell Hobby, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said: "Local authorities really haven't got the resources to take the lead on this, and schools haven't got the skills, and that only leaves central government to sort it out."

A spokesperson for the Department for Education said: "The HSE is ... clear that if asbestos is not disturbed or damaged, it is safer to leave it in situ, with robust processes in place to contain and monitor it. We are working hard with the HSE to make sure asbestos is managed properly in schools, and will not hesitate to take tough action where there is danger to the welfare of pupils and staff."

But Mary Bousted, of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, warned that asbestos is "poorly managed in many schools", while Christine Blower, head of the National Union of Teachers, accused successive governments of "dragging their feet". She said pupils and teachers across the country "are daily put at risk of developing asbestos-related diseases as a result of inaction from politicians".

Schools do not have to tell people if they have asbestos, or routinely report the condition it is in. Nor do they have to remove asbestos during refurbishment, according to the HSE. Inspections of 164 schools outside local authority control, including private schools, church schools and academies, in 2010/11, found one in seven to be "below acceptable standards". And of 42 local authorities in England investigated by the HSE in 2009, a quarter received formal warnings.

The paper also quoted a few individual cases:

Susan Langthorp, 58

"I wanted to be a vet or a doctor when I was a little girl. I never thought years later I would be dying from a disease caused by going to school. I was numb when I was told in 2009 I was suffering from an asbestos-related disease. To my knowledge, I have never breathed in any dust or anything like that. I had heard of school buildings containing asbestos and found out it was in the schools I went to. I feel angry ... I fear I won't see my children married or my grandchildren. It's criminal to have asbestos in a public place where there are young children."

Sarah Bowman, 43

Ms Bowman, from London, was diagnosed with mesothelioma in 2009. She claims she was exposed to asbestos at school. Brent Council admits that William Gladstone School, since demolished, contained asbestos, but claims any connection is "highly unlikely".

"I was 41 when I was diagnosed, You can't tell someone they are going to die at 41. I'd never even heard of mesothelioma. I had heard of asbestos and knew it was no good for you, but I didn't know it killed you. When I was diagnosed my world blew apart, I felt very alone, very scared. They know there was asbestos in the school I went to. I'll take this as far as I can. I remember one time when a kid threw a chair and it stuck in the wall and we all laughed – but now I know it's enough to disturb the asbestos, just like putting drawing pins into the wall.

"I think the Government should be more honest about the risks. They should manage it correctly and label it so that everybody knows about it.

"Asbestos is 'safe if it is managed correctly', but how can it be? Kids slam doors, that's what kids do, and that's enough to disturb asbestos."

Carole Hagedorn, 61

Ms Hagedorn lives in Chelmsford, Essex. After decades of teaching, she was forced to retire early when diagnosed with mesothelioma in 2008.

"All of the schools that I've worked in have been of a certain age and have all had asbestos. I've had no other career so I am convinced I was exposed at schools. The worst thing about it is the shock because you don't expect to get an industrial disease from working in a school; your life changes shape, becoming a round of treatments and operations.

"The Government has played down the risks over the years. The bottom line is that it is very expensive to remove asbestos, but there has to be a phased plan of removal; working out which are the worst schools and dealing with those first. There needs to be some kind of commitment from the Government.

"I feel like I'm collateral damage, and I will not be the last – there will be more. Far too many schools are failing to manage their asbestos and are putting the lives of staff and children at risk."

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/asbestos-new-blow-to-victims-of-a-shameful-legacy-6296347.html

http://www.lhc.org.uk/http:/www.lhc.org.uk/asbestos-in-schools-new-blow

http://www.lhc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/London-Hazards-102.pdf

http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2011/12/06/mesothelioma-victims-take-fight-for-compensation-to-the-supreme-court-92534-29900776/

Like I say, I had always associated asbestos issues with the building industry. Maybe that is because building workers I know have been among those campaigning on the issue, and coupled with the high number of serious and often fatal accidents on sites, it is one of the things motivating the Construction Safety Campaign (CSC).

CSC has been to the fore in organising a march each year in London on International Workers' Memorial Day, April 28. Maybe this year it would not be a bad idea for teaching union members and come to that school students and parents to join the march?

No Minister!

Meanwhile Tory Education Secretary Michael Gove, the man who considered it his business to send Bibles to schools, with his own introduction, and is busy removing vocational subjects from school exam league tables while proclaiming that schools should be "free", has taken a dim view of parents who, promised their say, have said things he does not like.

"When Mr Gove was asked about a campaign against turning Downhills Primary School in north London into an academy, he accused the protesters of being linked to the Socialist Workers Party - and described them as the "enemies of promise". "It's a pity that the Labour party hasn't spoken out against this Trot campaign," ...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-16809400

Oh dear! Just can't the lower orders under control these days!

Let's give Mr.Gove a real dose of the "Trots" and get him and his government running.

Release Bahraini Teachers' Leader!

MAHDI 'ISSA MAHDI ABU DHEEB TRADE UNIONISTS and supporters of political freedom are being urged to join an urgent online protest to get Mahdi 'Issa Mahdi Abu Dheeb, the President of the Bahraini Teachers Association (BTA), released from jail. Friends say Mahdi's health is rapidly deteriorating and the authorities have refused him access to medical treatment. He was unjustly jailed for ten years for legitimately leading his union during the nation-wide protests of March 2011. The Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) has called for the release of all political prisoners like Mahdi - a recommendation the authorities continue to ignore. The BICI report also describes detention and torture methods that have been inflicted on Mahdi and other detainees by the authorities. His retrial is on 19 February. According to Amnesty International, Mahdi and Jalila al-Salman (the BTA's Vice President) appear to have been targeted solely for their leadership of the BTA and for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly. The Bahraini authorities have cracked down on teachers and trade unionists through arbitrary arrests, military prosecution, investigation, suspensions, dismissals, salary cuts and torture. While some workers have been reinstated in response to the global outcry, the situation remains dire for most. None of the 55 trade union leaders - including six national leaders - have been reinstated. The Education International (EI) which unites teachers' unions in many countries is calling on the Bahraini authorities to immediately release on bail Mahdi 'Issa Mahdi Abu Dheeb, President of the Bahraini Teachers Association (BTA), given his deteriorating health condition. The EI says: "The appeal of Jalila al-Salman and Mahdi 'Issa Mahdi Abu Dheeb, Vice-President and President of the BTA, held on 11 December, was adjourned by the Supreme Court of Appeal to 19 February, consequently prolonging the detention of Mahdi. Jalila, who is currently freed on bail, reported to EI that there are serious fears regarding the condition of the BTA President's health which is reported to be deteriorating day by day since he was transferred to Jaw Prison in October. "Officials continue to deny him the medical help he urgently needs. The request of the BTA lawyers to release Mahdi on bail, given the state of his health, was rejected by the court. The report of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) describes detention and torture methods that have been inflicted on Mahdi and other detainees by the authorities. The BTA lawyers asked the court to include the BICI report as evidence in the case. They also requested for the so-called „ "confessions" obtained from both activists under torture to be dropped. "Jalila and Mahdi are appealing the decision of the military National Safety Court that, in September, sentenced them to respectively three and ten years imprisonment, for unwarranted accusations, including inciting others to commit crimes, calling for hatred and overthrow of the ruling system, leaving work on purpose and encouraging others to do so and taking part in illegal gathering. Their strong involvement in the peaceful protests of March 2011 led to a crackdown where teachers and trade unionists became subjected to arbitrary arrests, military prosecution, investigation, suspensions, dismissals, salary cuts and torture. "EI also condemns the dissolution and the arbitrary procedures against the BTA which are in clear violation of the free exercise of human and trade union rights in Bahrain, and violate Bahrain's own labour laws as well as Bahrain's obligations as a member state of the International Labour Organisation". Please sign the labourstart action calling for his release. For more information see: Amnesty International (21 December 2011), Health fears for Bahraini teacher Education International (9 December 2011) Bahrain: Drop all charges against teachers, unionists and student Briefing document (300 words) issued 27 Jan 2012

Costs of the Newt's Crusade

ALTHOUGH US Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich is thankfully still a long way from the White House, let alone the war that he would like to wage, some Americans may already be counting the cost - for themselves - of getting caught up in the Newt's Crusade.

New York City police commissioner Raymond W. Kelly issued an apology through a top aide, on Tuesday. regretting that he cooperated with the makers of “The Third Jihad”, a film which purports to expose a Muslim conspiracy to “infiltrate and dominate America.”

Although not officially adopted by the police department, the film was shown on continuous loop in a room where police officers were filling out paper work or were on break from training, for an extended period in 2010, Kelly acknowledged in a statement. More than 1,400 officers may have seen it. It was stopped after an officer complained.

The anti-Muslim film shown to police officers was first reported a year ago in the Village Voice. But it has become a topical and controversial issue because it is being linked to those financing Newt Gingrich's campaign, and because Ray Kelly, who appears in the film,been interviewed for the film has not made a good job of dissassociating himself from it.

In fact Kelly denied at first having been interviewed for the film, claiming that clips of him had ben culled from elsewhere. That was on Monday, after the New York Times ran the story. But on Tuesday, after the film makers said they had met the police commissioner, Kelly's spokesman Paul Browne revised that earlier statement, saying he was approached in 2007 by Erik Werth, a reporter and former policy adviser under President Bill Clinton, to interview Kelly about “foiled terrorist plots and the current threat matrix” for a video Werth was making for cable TV"

Also on Tuesday, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a longtime Kelly ally, said that in showing the film, “Somebody exercised some terrible judgment. Bloomberg, who has been under fire for some of his associates and appointees, may be under pressure to dump Kelly.

The New York Police Department was already facing criticism from Muslim and civil liberties groups over a CIA-advised program that involved "mapping" the city's Muslim enclaves, and some reports say 'The Third Jihad', which depicts even moderate Muslims as taking part in a centuries-old plan for world domination, was shown to thousands of officers as a training video.

The New York Times' report connects The Third Jihad, and its shadowy sponsor, The Clarion Fund, to the 2012 election:

The 72-minute film was financed by the Clarion Fund, a nonprofit group whose board includes a former Central Intelligence Agency official and a deputy defense secretary for President Ronald Reagan. Its previous documentary attacking Muslims' "war on the West" attracted support from the casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, a major supporter of Israel who has helped reshape the Republican presidential primary by pouring millions of dollars into a so-called super PAC that backs Newt Gingrich.

The United States, though opposing Palestinian recognition in the UN, is still officially committed under President Obama to the so-called Two State solution meaning that a Palestinian state would be set up alongside Israel. But Gingrich has come out as a champion of the extreme Zionists' belligerent line that Palestinians are just an "invented" nation. The suspicion is that those who start by denying a people's existence move on to trying to wipe them out physically.

Gingrich isn't the only candidate with links to the Clarion Fund. One of Mitt Romney's Middle East advisers, Walid Phares, was a political adviser to the right-wing Christian Lebanese Forces which carried out atrocities during Lebanon's long civil war, before going on to be an "anti-terrorism" expert in the United States, and he remains on Clarion's adisory board.

The former Massachussetts governor has made an effort to quietly acknowledge those who believe American Muslims are quietly working to replace the Constitution with Taliban-style Islamic law (and force all of us to eat halal turkeys at Thanksgiving) by picking one of their more scholarly cohorts as an adviser on the Middle East, according to Mother Jones magazine's Washington DC correspondent Adam Serwer.

Neverthess, Gingrich's links with the Islamophobes and far Right Zionists seem strongest, and underwritten with financial backing. A report by Gal Beckerman in the Jewish daily Forward
says:

"It is safe to say that without multi-billionaire Sheldon Adelson’s help the chances of Newt Gingrich becoming the Republican nominee for president would be zero — and consequently the race itself, going into Florida at the moment, would not be the competitive, drag-out fight it has become. Adelson, the hotel and casino magnate, has kept Gingrich alive, first through an infusion of $5 million into a super PAC, which allowed the former speaker to defend himself against attacks by Mitt Romney and led to Gingrich’s thumping victory in South Carolina. And now we know that Adelson’s wife, Miriam, has committed another $5 million to the cause of Newt.

"One of Adelson’s passions — and a reason for his desire to play such a big role in American politics — is undoubtedly Israel. And his positions are unambiguously right-wing and hawkish to the extreme. When it comes to the Palestinians, there is no one to be trusted. The New Yorker quotes him as calling Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian prime minister widely respected in the West, as being one of the “terrorists” running the Palestinian Authoriy. Even AIPAC was not far enough to the right for him. After being a diehard supporter — funding a new building in Washington, D.C. — he split with the group in 2007 when it decided to support a congressional initiative, backed by the Israelis, to increase economic aid to the Palestinians. “I don’t continue to support organizations that help friends committing suicide just because they want to jump,” he said at the time by way of explanation. He had the same reaction when Ehud Olmert, whom Adelson had once befriended, came to the conclusion that he had to pursue negotiations with the Palestinian leadership.

"In short, Adelson does not believe in the two-state solution. As he told The Jewish Week last year, 'The two-state solution is a stepping stone for the destruction of Israel and the Jewish people.'

"What does it mean to have someone with these views have such an outsized influence on a candidate and the race he is in? Well, for Gingrich it seems this has translated into him tripping over himself to prove his pro-Israel bona fides, to the point where he was willing to say, this past December in an interview with the Jewish Channel, that the Palestinians were an “invented” people who “had the chance to go many places.’’ No Palestinians, no need to negotiate a state. And Adelson clearly showed his satisfaction with Gingrich’s line. As he told a group of Birthright participants at a Hanukkah party a few weeks later, 'Read the history of those who call themselves Palestinians, and you will hear why Gingrich said recently that the Palestinians are an invented people'.

"As Wayne Barrett recently reported in The Daily Beast, there has been a marked turn in Gingrich’s positions on Israel since his political life began depending on Adelson. Not that long ago, in a 2005 Middle East Quarterly article, Gingrich urged the “Palestinian diaspora” to invest in “their ancestral lands,” and even proposed that Congress “establish a program of economic aid for the Palestinians to match the aid the U.S. government provides Israel.”

"You will not hear anything like this from Gingrich again any time soon.

"But the greater concern is that because of his influence on Gingrich, Adelson has turned the Republican contest into a competition of extreme rhetoric, in which there is no room for compromise or diplomacy, and the only answer to any international problem is unmitigated toughness. No one wants to be outflanked by the right when it comes to foreign policy (no one, I should say, besides Ron Paul) and so Gingrich’s apparent parroting of Adelson’s hardline attitudes about Israel — and, I should add, Iran — means that the whole tone of the race is affected."

Like George Dubya before him, the Newt seems eager to afford other Americans the opportunity to participate in war, without having himself experienced it. Though raised partly by a stepfather who was in the military, Gingrich went to France, obtained deferment as a student, did not enlist and was not drafted during the Vietnam war. "Given everything I believe in, a large part of me thinks I should have gone over," he declared in 1985.

Still that dues not prevent him advocating war now, whether in the Middle East or elsewhere. In a recent debate in Florida, Gingrich advocated a war with Cuba to deal with the problem of Fidel Castro. Romney, keeping up with the spirit of the game, asserts that he would not be negotiating with the Taliban. When asked by Brian Williams, “Governor, how do you end the war in Afghanistan without talking to the Taliban?” Romney simply said, “By beating them.”

Rick Santorum, a former lawyer putting himself as the "True Conservative" said recently that he would demand the Iranians open up their nuclear facilities, “or we will degrade those facilities through air strikes — and make it very public that we are doing that.” This is one of the implicit options in Obama's repeated threat that “all options are on the table.” But for Santorum there seems to be no other option. Like the Islamophobes training for war at home, Santorum too has pointed to a domestic enemy, denouncing left-wing academics whom he alleges are "indoctrinating students".

Romney says that “if you elect Mitt Romney, Iran will not have a nuclear weapon,” and calls for regime change as well as “covert and overt” actions. Gingrich says he would “break the Iranian regime” within a year by “cutting off the gasoline supply to Iran and then, frankly, sabotaging the only refinery they have.”

Talk is cheap, though in America it is also very expensive. Were any of these gentlemen to gain office ordinary Americans, as well as people in other countries, could find themselves paying a much higher price than officials careers or the millions that have gone into the candidates' coffers. Hopefully anough Americans will sober up to see the danger when the war hysteria primaries are over.

Read more: http://www.forward.com/articles/150258/#ixzz1ka2Q3Cvw

http://online.wsj.com/article/AP49ec28cdf38a4361beea1ff00a170c49.html

http://motherjones.com/mojo/2012/01/gingrich-anti-muslim-adelson-clarion

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/25/nyregion/police-commissioner-kelly-helped-with-anti-islam-film-and-regrets-it.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=Third%20Jihad&st=cse

http://www.metro.us/newyork/local/article/1080575--ray-kelly-nypd-police-chief-regrets-role-in-the-third-jihad-controversial-islamic-film

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/24/bloomberg-assails-showing-of-anti-muslim-film-to-police/?ref=islam

Destroying homes and, like thieves in the night, bulldozing peace chances

NIGHT OPERATION . Israeli troops ready for action...

Their target a family's home.

Jeff Halper, secretary of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, sent this message out to friends last night:
"Its 11 at night here on a cold, rainy night in Palestine. I just got a phone call from Salim Shawamreh, a Palestinian comrade, that Israeli army bulldozers have arrived at his home and have begun demolishing it and the home of his neighbor as well. Salim's home, which has been demolished already four times because the Israeli authorities refuse to grant Palestinian building permits, is one of 26,000 homes that Israel has demolished in the Occupied Territories since 1967. I'm rushing out there, but it will probably be destroyed before I get there. There isn't much to do -- you feel so powerless in these circumstances -- but at least you now know. I'll stay in touch with you. The American-European supported Occupation goes on..... "

For some reason Jeff's message was delayed in getting through. As was the media in covering what was going on. Western media usually is. And it was dark. But the bulldozers lost no time in getting to work.



By the morning, Jeff reports, eight homes had been reduced to rubble, and about 80 people were homeless. Like Arabiyeh sitting on her furniture out in the cold.




It was only the fifth time the home had been demolished.

"As its name suggests, Beit Arabiya is a home belonging to Arabiya Shawamreh, her husband Salim and their seven children, a Palestinian family whose home has been demolished four times by the Israeli authorities and rebuilt each time by ICAHD's Palestinian, Israeli and international peace activists, before being demolished again last night.

"At around 11p.m. Monday, a bulldozer accompanied by a contingent of heavily armed Israeli soldiers appeared on the Anata hills, to promptly demolish Beit Arabiya, along with residential and agricultural structures in the nearby Arab al-Jahalin Bedouin compound. 3 family homes were demolished along with numerous animal pans, and 20 people including young children were displaced, left exposed to the harsh desert environment. While standing in solidarity with Palestinians, ICAHD staff and activists were repeatedly threatened by Israeli soldieries. ICAHD Co-Director Itay Epshtain was beaten and sustained minor injuries.


"Beit Arabiya was issued a demolition order by Israeli authorities back in 1994, following their failure to grant a building permit. It has since been demolished four times, to be rebuilt by ICAHD activists. Following a reissue of the demolition order last Thursday, came last night's fifth demolition. ICAHD Director, Dr. Jeff Halper, standing astride the ruins, vowed to support Salim and Arabiya in rebuilding their home. "We shall rebuild, we must rebuild forthwith, as an act of political defiance of the occupation and protracted oppression of Palestinians" said Halper."

http://www.icahd.org/?p=8107

Reports by European Union officers and heads of missions in Jerusalem and Ramallah have criticised house demolitions and said the Israeli government is forcibly driving Palestinians from areas under Israeli control. in other words, "ethnic cleansing".

Warning that this would endanger chances of a "two state solution" the EU's latest report promises support to the Palestinians trying to keep their ground in the West Bank.

http://www.icahd.org/?p=8028

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/eu-report-israel-policy-in-west-bank-endangers-two-state-solution-1.406945

Whether this good intention will become real support remains to be seen. Interestingly, the British government, though it has abstained on Palestine's UNESCO membership, recently tried to arrange a meeting between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and UK Jewish leaders during his visit to London. It was rebuffed by the Board of Deputies, the main Jewish community body, on instructions from the Israeli government. Some members of the Board who only heard about this after the opportunity had been rejected may be asking what is the use of a "representative" body that takes orders from Netanyahu.

The head of the Jewish National Fund in Britain rejected calls from Jewish peace groups that it should stop funding development schemes in the Negev that involve evictions of Bedouin.

One group of people who don't seem to let small matters like the demolition of family homes or he arrest of Palestinian students for boycotting a lecture by Israeli president Peres bother them are the leading lights of the Labour Party students in Britain. No reality tours with the ICAHD for them, nor volunteering spells with the International Solidarity Movement. They enjoyed an all expenses paid trip to Israel and its illegal settlements in the West Bank, covered by the pro-Zionist Union of Jewish Students (UJS), itself subsidised, which as they admit "set the agenda".

Apparently the highlights included a meeting with Tony Blair, and Israeli officers, but all their rigorous "fact-finding" left students like Ruth Brewer from Liverpool Uni with time to tweet home about cocktails in Tel Aviv and what fine fellows the Israelis were.

Palestinian students have complained, but it's us who on past performance are likely to meet these bright young things in future making their careers as Labour candidates or even union officers. Still, things are changing and their prospects might not be the same now.

http://electronicintifada.net/content/uk-labour-party-student-officials-face-backlash-over-free-tour-israel-settlements/10819

More information about ICAHD and its support group in the UK.

http://www.icahd.org/

http://uk.icahd.org/icahdukdev/eng/

Bosses get off -for now. But workers get ready for another round by celebrating ground they have gained.

FUNNY, does not look like the face of defeat! Raising a glass with supporters yesterday, Dave Smith (centre) says fight will go on. Next stop Strasbourg?
(photo by Frances McGinlay)

LONDON building worker Dave Smith was celebrating with friends and supporters yesterday afternoon, even while the tribunal which had heard his case against major building and civil engineering contractor Carillion was still deliberating in chambers.

Dave, a qualified engineer who was denied employment for years under the blacklist, had little illusion about the likely outcome. He and his dedicated lawyers had presented evidence showing how information about him - some of it false - was secretly circulated among building firms to effectively punish him and his family for his legitimate union activity and concerns about safety, by making sure he could not get work.

Carillion was unable to deny what it did. The company won, because it argued, and the tribunal evidently accepted, that it could not have infringed Dave Smith's rights, because he was - like a large proportion of Britain's workforce today - employed via an agency, and had no rights.

That is apparently the state of affairs under British law as it stands. It might not be the case under higher, international laws on human rights to which Britain is supposed to adhere.

As Dave Smith remarked on Facebook, "it's not a battle, it's a war". He is considering going to the human rights court in Strasbourg, and meanwhile a bigger case involving 100 workers is looming in Britain. Dave's parting shot, for now, in the Blacklist Support Group, on Facebook:
"Let's put it like this: I bet Carillion didn't have a celebration party".

Here is a press release from the Blacklist Support Group:

Agency workers have no legal protection against blacklisting by multi-national firms according to a shock decision in the Central London Employment Tribunal today. The court found that Dave Smith (an engineer) had been blacklisted by the respondents Carillion (JM) Limited and Schal International Limited (a wholly owned subsidiary of Carillion) because he raised concerns about asbestos on building sites and because of his trade union activities.

The firms actually admitted that their managers had supplied the malicious information to Mr. Smith's blacklist file in a signed statement to the court.

David Renton (pro-bono barrister for Mr.Smith) argued that the blacklist was a major breach of the Human Rights Act and therefore the law should be interpreted in such a way as to protect all "workers" including agency workers. However the court found that because Mr. Smith was employed through an employment agency, UK employment law does not protect him (or millions of other agency workers), so on that point alone the multi-national constrcution firms won on this legal technicality.

Mr. Smith said outside the court:

"The blacklisting conspiracy is a deliberate breach of human rights by big business. Human Rights are supposed to apply to everyone but Carillion and their subsidiaries have got away with systematic abuse of power simply because I was an agency worker. If the British justice system does not protect workers rights, then we will be taking our case direct to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg"

A secret blacklist file collated by the Consulting Association was presented as evidence and contained Mr. Smith's photograph, address, National Insurance number, work history, car registration, union credentials, information about his family and pages of information about times when Mr. Smith had raised concerns about poor toilet facilities or asbestos on building sites. This information was secretly supplied to the blacklist by managers from major building companies. The blacklist file was covertly shared amongst the 44 largest construction firms in the UK and resulted in periods of unemployment.

Despite the result, the evidence that came out in court about including invoices and hundreds of blacklist files is almost certain to become a key element in a larger "class action" style claim being brought to the High Court by 100 blacklisted workers in the next few months with representation by Hugh Tomlinson QC (the barrister representing celebrity clients in the News of the World phone hacking cases).

There is more to this case still. The evidence which has come up shows that spies attended union meetings and gathered information about people outside work.

Dave Clancy said in the hearing under oath:

"There is information on the Consulting Association files that I believe could only be supplied by the police or the security services"
He also told the court that the Consulting Association held information on elected politicians, journalists, lawyers and academics.

Dave Clancy is the Head of the Investigations Team at the Information Commissioners Office, the man who led the raid on the Consulting Association premises and discovered the blacklist. He is an ex-police officer.

Labour MP John McDonnell said after hearing these revelations:

“I am calling upon the Government to launch a public inquiry into the full extent and impact on people’s lives of blacklisting. These revelations are truly shocking and warrant a detailed and open, public investigation."

Mr. Smith was represented by: David Renton (barrister) and Declan Owens (solicitor) on a pro-bono basis via the Free Representation Unit


More reports:
http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=27291

http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/investigations/2011/08/ten-years-of-pain-for-blacklis.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2012/jan/17/multinational-admits-engineer-blacklisted-uion

report on earlier hearing:

http://www.hazards.org/blacklistblog/2011/09/01/judge-backs-worker-against-blacklisting-carillion/

Blacklist case could break new ground

WORKERS fighting the employers' blacklisting of those who stand up for their rights will know by the end of Friday afternoon whether or not they have won a historic case against a major construction company.

Carillion plc boasts of employing around 50,000 people, and having annual revenue of around £5bn, with operations across Britain and in Europe, Canada, the Middle East, North Africa and Caribbean.

Dave Smith is a skilled engineer who found himself blacklisted and unable to get work for which he was qualified, after he had raised concerns about asbestos and poor toilet facilities when he was a safety representative for the building trade union UCATT.

Dave was fired from a Schal site after presenting a petition from 150 workers complaining about “pigsty” toilets. One manager filmed Dave as workers protested against his dismissal from the Schal job in 1999. Schal and Mowlem are both part of Carillion now.

This week the Holborn employment tribunal has been hearing from Dave and his legal representatives, about how he and his family were affected by the blacklist, and from Carillon defending its part. When I managed to look in on Wednesday the room was packed, with a number of workers having come to support Dave Smith and follow the case. Dave's lawyer David Renton was attempting to elicit from Carrillion management an acknowledgement of responsibility for agency staff employed on their sites.

Two years ago the Information Commissioners Office(ICO) which is concerned with data protection ordered a raid on the Midlands offices of the Consulting Association(CA), a business established by a former officer of the notorious right-wing Economic League, whose anti-union, witch-hunting and intelligence gathering activities went back to 1919.

What they uncovered was a collection of confidential files on workers, to which companies could provide information, and which could then be circulated to those who subscribed, ennabling them to maintain a blacklist. This is particularly effective in the construction industry, where workers have to apply for work as it arises, but can find that a black mark against their name for whatever reason can affect them from way back. (By contrast, workers affected in later life by health problems such as caused by exposure to asbestos may have difficulty tracing past employers such as sub-contractors who are no longer in business, in order to pursue compensation claims).

In July 2009, Ian Kerr, the private investigator who ran the CA, was fined £5,000 under the Data Protection Act. But in the previous five years firms which subscribed had paid £500,000 to the CA for its services.

Evidence disclosed by the ICO investigation showed that senior managers from Carillion and two subsidiary companies, John Mowlem and Schal, gave information to the illegal CA operation which could be used in the blacklist.This information was circulated among the 44 largest contractors in the UK building industry. They used it to deny people like Dave work in the industry. An estimated 3,200 workers were effected by the blacklist, and doubtless many still are.

Dave Smith was the first person allowed to view the entire CA blacklist, without restrictions. He found that his own file, including information on his wife and friends, was 36 pages long. Dave is accusing Carillion of victimisation, and says he and his family were made to suffer as a result of his perfectly legitimate activity as a trade union representative concerned over health and safety. For over ten years he could not get work in construction or earn a decent wage.

As Dave says, “I was a qualified engineer during one of the longest building booms this country has ever known. My children were on milk tokens.”

In his closing submission today, David Renton said:. "This case is about companies telling lies about a worker. Lies that caused that worker detriment. Even now the companies are still not prepared to fully come clean about what they have done"

Besides being able to cite over a hundred files that show the extent of the blacklisting of which his was one case, Dave Smith could be breaking new ground for workers' rights under law. He argues that the blacklist breached Article 8 (right to privacy) and Article 11 (right to association) of the European Convention of Human Rights.

Under current UK law, only direct “employees” are entitled to legal protection at work. But the possible human rights breaches call for the Employment Tribunal to interpret legislation in such a way to cover all workers. A victory for Dave would set a precedent.establishing rights for for Britain’s 1.6 million agency workers, who are currently deprived of employment law rights.i
"If we win - we're told it will be a landmark decision for agency workers and blacklisting
If we lose - we're off to the European Court of Human Rights, " Dave promised yesterday.

There is more to this case still. The evidence which has come up shows that spies attended meetings and gathered information about people outside work.

Another Dave, Dave Clancy said in the hearing under oath:

"There is information on the Consulting Asociation files that I believe could only be supplied by the police or the security services"

He also told the court that the Consulting Association held files on elected politicians, journalists, lawyers and academics.

Dave Clancy is the Investigations Manager at the Information Commissioners Office, the man who led the raid on the Consulting Association and discovered the blacklist. He is an ex-police officer.

Labour MP John McDonnell said after hearing these revelations: “I am calling upon the Government to launch a public inquiry into the full extent and impact on people’s lives of blacklisting. These revelations are truly shocking and warrant a detailed and open, public investigation."

With thanks to Simon Basketter (Socialist Worker ) and John Millington(Morning Star) for their coverage of case.

http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=27223
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/news/content/view/full/114294

IF CARLSBERG MADE PROFITS......Baltic trouble brewing

THE well-known Carlsberg beer ads alomg the "If Carlsberg made ...(e.g. cars)" theme, suggesting that whatever the Danish brewery turned its mind to would excel, were amusing. Its lager isn't bad either, I've got a few cans waiting in my fridge right now. But as Carlsberg has gone global in pursuit of greater profit, its reputation as an employer is going a bit off.

Carlsberg is attacking trade union rights in Lithuania with the support of the country's legal system, which has declared beer production an "essential service". Since they were not only freed from the Soviet Union but brought into the European Union, the Baltic states seem to have become a laboratory for undermining workers rights, so we best sit up and pay attention.

Here is a report from the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel and Allied Workers(IUF):

On June 10 last year members of the IUF-affilitated Lithuanian Trade Union of Food Producers (LPMS) voted in favour of strike action at the Carlsberg brewery in Lithuania in support of their demand for a decent company-level collective agreement.

Management sought to stop the strike and applied to the court with a petition to declare the strike ballot procedure invalid and the strike illegal, and demanded compensation for litigation costs. The company not only tried to stop the strike and declare it illegal but also argued that no strike action was possible until the "high season" had passed.

The Klaipeda district court on June 20 suspended the start of the planned strike for 30 days based on a dubious determination that the production of beer was recognized as 'vitally essential' in Lithuania.

On the July 5, 2011 the Klaipeda city district court ruled that the strike was legal. Carlsberg Lithuania management appealed this decision. On August 5, 2011 the Klaipeda regional court annulled the decision of the lower court, ruling that the brewery strike announced in June was illegal.

The court decision to rule the strike illegal is based on the following astonishing grounds: "The collective agreement is in compliance with the Labour Code because the wages of Carlsberg employees are above the market level, jobs are maintained and wages are not reduced." With this absurd ruling, the court is attempting to legitimize Carlsberg's attempt to freeze wages for three years by declaring a legitimate strike unlawful.

The union has appealed the regional court decision to a higher court, where it is still under appeal, and submitted a complaint to the ILO which the IUF has formally supported and which will now be examined by the Committee on Freedom of Association.

The brewery sector is unlikely to be considered an essential service by the ILO Committee on Freedom of Association! We therefore expect the ILO to condemn a court decision to suspend a strike for an unreasonable period as denying the right to strike in contravention of international labour standards

Carlsberg Lithuania management has stepped up its anti-union aggression by pressuring union leaders and activists at the plant through disciplinary action. Furthermore the company initiated a police enquiry against workers who joined the picket line to protest the suspension of the strike. Since then, 9 workers who were active in protest actions have been dismissed on the grounds of 'lost production'. These 9 dismissed workers are now reengaged, but on temporary contracts, punishing them for their union activities in the plant.

Carlsberg's healthy 2011 profits have produced global job cuts and attacks on trade union rights in Lithuania. You can support the Lithuanian beer workers' struggle by sending a message to Carlsberg, the 4^th largest global brewery, and the government of Lithuania calling on the company and government to stop violating fundamental trade union rights in Lithuania. Use the form below to insist they act to ensure that rights are respected.

Click here to send a message.
[1]

Apparently Carlsberg's subsidiary in Cambodia has also run into trouble. Women employed to promote the brew demanded overtime payments, and thanks to support from hotel workes and bars deciding not to stock the disputed brew, and the local authority in Phnom Penh saying the workers should be paid in the interest of public order, the workers appear to have won.

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php?option=com_jcs&view=jcs&layout=form&Itemid=458

http://www.scandasia.com/viewNews.php?coun_code=dk&news_id=9289

If we don't want workers' rights in the European Union to fall behind those in poor Cambodia then the Lithuanian brewery workers must get wide support. And whatever we think about beer as an "essential service", I don't mind doing without my Carlsberg if need be to help the strike.

"We are not dogs!"

LONDON Mayor Boris Johnson will have to face some dogged questions when he and a couple of acomplices come to Hendon next Tuesday. The Mayor and his Transport Deputy, Isabel Dedring, are due to participate in a "Talk London" panel being held in Simpson Hall, at the Peel Centre on Aerodrome Road, Colindale. Barnet and Camden Greater London Assembly member Brian Coleman, who is also a Barnet councillor, is acting as chair.

Talk London is inviting people to ask questions about "investing in London". The trades unionists and campaigners coming to confront Boris and chums want to know what they are doing about investing in the people who provide essential services for the capital, ennabling its commercial and cultural activities to function. They want to raise the issue of facilities for their essential functions.

Not far from where Broris and co. are speaking, Brent Cross shopping centre boasts 120 stores, a huge car park, and a bus station with four stands served by several routes, some ranging from Barnet (326) Ealing (112), Finsbury Park (210), Hammersmith (266), Harrow Weald (182), Oxford Circus (189) and Watford (142). Besides acting as a terminus for the shopping centre, Brent Cross bus station is an important place for changing buses if you want to cross north London. I sometimes went this way from Stonebridge to Turnpike Lane when I had friends in Tottenham. Also to attend Peter Fryer's funeral at Islington cemetery which is in East Finchley.

Four bus companies use Brent Cross, under the overall aegis of Transport for London (TfL). But outside shopping hours, when the centre is shut, the bus station is lacking in vital facilities.

The "We are not Dogs" Campaign which intends to lobby Boris Johnson is protesting against the closure of the Brent Cross toilet and for decent toilet and messroom facilities for the bus drivers. In a statement it says:

"For years now Transport for London has treated Brent Cross drivers like dogs. They close the only toilet the male and female drivers have at the slightest excuse and force both sexes to use the bushes near the Brent River to relieve themselves when the Centre is closed. A driver was fined £80 for this last year at the Spires in Barnet because he had to use the bushes. The health and safety implications are obvious; must we wait until a woman is raped or killed to expose these shocking social attitudes from TfL?

"Since 28th November they have closed the toilet three times (25 out of 37 days on 4 January), and say it cannot be opened now until February. TfL are threatening to close it permanently unless “we” stop misusing it – just because some unknownperson, driver, member of the public or even a TfL official has carved swastikas on the wall we are “all” not responsible enough to be given this basic human right! The toilets have been fully functional during all this time, only closed to “teach you a lesson” as one official put it.

"A driver asked TfL official Mick Foley why he kept the fully functional toilet closed on New Year's Day when the drivers had nowhere else to go because Brent Cross Shopping Centre was closed? He said 'I know it is fully functional, Gerry. You will have to do something about it'

"So he knows of the petition and our complaints to the GLA members and he is laughing at us. They will close that toilet at random (apparently the graffiti now is a Christmas tree) and there is absolutely nothing the drivers can do about it, they are all totally confident.

"TfL closed the toilet at Turnpike Lane station for months also citing graffiti. An elderly driver from Ponders End garage on the 221 route arrived there late at night desperate and began to wet himself when he found it closed. He relieved himself into a bottle to make less mess. TfL forwarded the CCTV of his humiliation to his garage and they sacked him for it. Apparently these TfL officials enjoy their sadistic "right"to humiliate drivers like this all over London".

We demand:

1. The toilet be opened immediately and kept open while it is functional.

2. The present unventilated fly infested broom cupboard “mess room” is converted into expanded toilet facilities, properly ventilated and available at all times for the drivers.

3. A Muslim shower and prayer area. As the Qur'an advises Muslims to uphold high standards of physical hygiene and to be ritually clean whenever possible, bathrooms should be equipped with a Muslim shower situated next to the toilet, so that individuals may wash themselves. This ablution is required in order to maintain ritual cleanliness.

4. Proper mess room facilities for the 70 odd drivers who have to take their meal breaks at Brent Cross, either a room within the Centre or a portacabin with drinks machine, television and rest facilities. We cannot wait for 5 or 7 years for the new Centre, as they tell us, only to be put in another broom cupboard.

London Mayor Boris Johnson is holding one of his "TalkLondon" events in Barnet on Tuesday 17 January. We intend to hand our “We are not dogs” petition signed by as many bus drivers as possible to the Mayor at this meeting. As many busdrivers as possible need to attend this picket and meeting in uniform and ask as many questions of the Mayor as we can:

● Why do you punish all drivers for the graffiti of one?

● How can you make 70 drivers take their meal breaks at an unventilated, fly-infested converted broom cupboard?

● Why can they not afford to give us decent toilet facilities from the hundreds if not thousands of millions of pounds the customers we bring to Brent Cross spend at the Centre?

● Why do professional drivers get treated like dogs in 2012 in this ‘great city’ showcasing the Olympics?"

It seems that TfL officials are now claiming that damage to the toilets was worse than thought, and that closure was needed before contractors could put it right. One even quoted a figure of £5,000, which the drivers very much doubt. Oddly enough I hear that when Brent and Harrow GLA member Navin Shah visited the bus station and asked to see the damage for himself, the TfL officials would not permit this elected representative to access the toilet.


Who do these officials think they are? Who gave them the right to treat an older worker the way that man was at Turnpike Lane, and get away with it? Maybe they should adopt the swastika from graffiti to serve as TfL management logo, if this is how they treat the workers and our elected representatives.

Navin Shah has given his support to the workers, and Ken Livingstone, who is hoping to be returned to the mayor's job for Labour has added his name to the drivers' petition. Barnet trades union council is supporting the drivers campaign, as is Brent, and I assume my union Unite which represents most bus drivers will taking up the issue with TfL. At least I hope so.

The We Are Not Dogs campaign will be out next Tuesday, January 17 from 18.00 to 19.00 at

Metropolitan Police training college, the Peel Centre, Aerodrome Road, NW9 5JE

(nearest tube Colindale).

All welcome who support the workers and basic human rghts.

http://www.navinshah.com/news/article/109/lack_of_facilities_angers_bus_drivers
http://citizenbarnet.blogspot.com/2012/01/brent-cross-bus-drivers-demand-to-be.html
http://www.london.gov.uk/next-event/getting-there

Incidentally, Tory councillor and GLA member Brian Coleman is better known for taking taxis than for taking an interest in bus services or workers' conditions. But he is very keen on a more ambitious waste disposal project at Brent Cross. Maybe we'll hear this too raised on Tuesday.
http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/brent_cross/4678948.Expert_claims_Brent_Cross_plans_include_incinerator/

High Street Robbery

SOME stories illustrate what the government is doing to young people. First there's Cait Reilly. This 22-year old studied geology at university, but found she could not get a job in her field. So while she had to sign on and claim unemployment benefit, Cait volunteered to help in a museum.

It seemed like a sound move. It might not bring any more money. but besides giving her some interesting activity it would be relevent experience to put in her CV when applying for a suitable job.

But the authorities had other ideas. At the suggestion of her Jobcentre Plus adviser Cait attended a retail jobs ‘open day’, which she was told would lead to a period of training and a job interview.

Miss Reilly and other candidates were sent to an employment skills training workshop for a week, aimed at improving attributes such as communication skills, followed by the five-hour-a-day stint at Poundland near Miss Reilly’s home in King’s Heath, Birmingham, in November.

She and five other claimants spent their time on the placement sweeping up and stacking and cleaning shelves, before they had to attend a final week of training under the ‘sector-based work academy’ scheme (SBWA). The promised job interview never materialised.

As she said: ‘I was actually doing something that was helping me work towards a job and was taken away from that to do something of no value to me. It was very frustrating.’

Under the scheme that is supposed to "encourage" the unemployed off benefits, claimants are being required to take part in an Employment, Skills and Enterprise Scheme in order to receive their Jobseekers Allowance (or dole as we old timers used to call it). The Department of Work and Pensions says that candidates who ‘express an interest’ in doing unpaid placements will lose their JSA if they pull out after the first ‘cooling off’ week on the scheme. But Cait Reilly says she was not informed about any cooling off period.

She said she felt she had to do it because ‘without my Jobseeker’s Allowance, I would literally have nothing’. She believes the placement allowed Poundland to use her as ‘free labour’ in the run-up to Christmas. She has now returned to her voluntary role at the city’s Pen Room Museum of writing and pen trade memorabilia, still looking for paid employment.

Cait is now pursuing legal action against the government. Her solicitor, Jim Duffy, said the practice contravenes article 4 (2) of the Human Rights Act, which states: ‘No one shall be required to perform forced or compulsory labour. ...This Government has created – without Parliamentary authority – a complex array of schemes that allow Jobcentres to force people into futile, unpaid labour for weeks or months at a time".

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2085142/Unemployed-graduate-sues-ministers-forced-stack-shelves-Poundland.html#ixzz1jCAInzrG

Talking about this case soon brings people relating similar experiences. One friend's son is doing a plumbing course at college but has been sent to fill shelves in Tesco. A well-known chain laid off all paid staff in the run-up to Christmas and relied on those working for their dole. God bless us all, said Tiny Tim.

Poundland says it had a ‘positive experience’ of the work placement programme which was ‘designed to provide on-the-job training for those looking to retail as a career opportunity’. Poundland's press website says the chain, which was recently acquired by Warburg Pincus, a leading global private equity firm, aims to continue its impressive growth with plans to open a further 50 new stores in 2010/11, creating an additional 2000 jobs.

"Highlights for the year ending 28 March 2010: Operating profit of £21.5 million - up 81.5 per cent (2008/9 £11.8million)• Turnover £509.8 million (net of VAT) - up 28.7% (2008/9 £396.2 million)• c2,000 new jobs created". It does not say how many were paid. It also boasts that £180,000 was raised for Macmillan Cancer Relief. So perhaps young people like Cait Railly should put down their shelf-filling stints on their CV as "working for charity".

http://www.poundland.co.uk/press-centre/2010-press-centre/full-year-results/

Meanwhile to see how the problem is people on the dole not wanting to go after jobs, we go over to Llandudno, north Wales, where DFS the furniture store is due to open a new branch on February 18. So far the company has received 1,385 applications for the 16 jobs that it advertised.

Latest figures from the Office for National Statistics show that 9.1 per cent of Wales’ workforce were unemployed in the period of August to October 2011 - up from 8.4 per cent between May and July last year.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2085142/Unemployed-graduate-sues-ministers-forced-stack-shelves-Poundland.html#ixzz1jCAzVOfy


In these troubled times it is not just "ordinary" folk who are getting in trouble. Take TV chef Anthony Worral Thompson. As a friend on Facebook comments, "Millionnaire AWT, a Tory party fundraiser, was caught five times stealing food and wine from Tesco’s worth around £100. He got off with a warning. Nicolas Robinson, a 23-year-old student, was arrested for stealing water worth £3.50 from Lidl during the London Riots. He was given a 6 month prison sentence."

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/anthony-worral-thompson-arrested-for-shoplifting-cheese-and-wine.html
http://politicalscrapbook.net/2012/01/anthony-worrall-thompson-ybf/

Others have chipped in to cite the person who was jailed for receiving a tee shirt that had been nicked,and the juvenile sent down for stealing a plastic dustbin. Some even recalled AWT denouncing the rioters last Summer.

Now come on, fellows, let's be fair. Anthony Worral Thompson could presumably have afforded to pay for the wine and cheese he stole from the store in Henley on Thames, but had his mind on other things. Whereas the people who were sent to jail could not prove their families did not need what they stole, and anyway, the government had told the magistrates what kind of sentences it expected them to pass after the riots. And there were no riots in Henley on Thames, were there?

Seems AWT is still down to speak in schools and colleges for the Tory Young Britain Foundation (unlike those trade unionists I know who have prepared talks to give in schools explaining about trade unions, but find they can't get invited). So he will be able to explain why shoplifting like his is different.
http://politicalscrapbook.net/2012/01/anthony-worrall-thompson-ybf/

If this seems like a recipe for discontent, even disorder, let us note that the government is being asked to consider other means, besides punitive sentences, for teaching the 'oiks' their place.

Plans to open military-run academies in deprived areas were condemned as "national service for the poor" today.

Right-wing think tank Respublica urged the government to open a pilot programme of military academies in underprivileged areas to "tackle poor discipline and educational failure" in the wake of last summer's riots.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

It claimed the academies "would open up new opportunities for those lacking hope and aspiration. They would change the cultural and moral outlook of those currently engulfed by hopelessness and cynicism."

http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/content/view/full/114063

Yeah right. Stand up straight there and speak when you're spoken to! Get in line there!
Not that I suppose they will be giving out any proper military training and hardware to practice with in those deprived areas? That would be dangerous.

"It will be all right by the Olympics" . Mayor Boris faces Concrete Problems

CYCLISTS were staging a road safety protest by Kings Cross yesterday evening. If they caused any disruption to traffic, motorists may not have noticed. At least not those trying to get in or out of the capital to the west, where five-mile long tailbacks were tending to gridlock, and all due to closure of the main artery linking London with Heathrow and the West.

On TV we saw Transport for London officers answering questions, but in a year that sees both mayoral elections and London hosting the Olympics, we were bound to hear in other reports from Tory London Mayor Boris Johnson:

Hammersmith Flyover 'will reopen before Olympics start'

The mayor of London's office has said it will know in a week whether the Hammersmith Flyover in west London can be reopened to traffic while critical repairs are carried out to strengthen it.

It gave assurances that the A4 route would be in full working order by the time the Olympics start on 27 July.

Boris Johnson said it would not be shut "one day longer than necessary".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-16440285

Boris Johnson took charge of the crisis on the Hammersmith flyover today as it emerged that the bridge could partially reopen to traffic within three weeks.

Mr Johnson visited the west London flyover and said he wanted to reassure drivers "suffering traffic hell" that he is doing everything in his power to ensure it is open again as soon as possible.

Transport for London today admitted that the crisis on the flyover was continuing and said it would be at least another week before engineers can decide whether the bridge is strong enough to support even light traffic.

But sources today told the Standard there are hopes the flyover can be at least partially reopened within two to three weeks. The Mayor gave his assurance that it would be fully reopened in time for the Olympics.

The 50-year-old flyover, which carries the A4 over the centre of Hammersmith, was shut suddenly on December 23 when steel cables were found to have been corroded by salt water from grit laid during successive winters.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard-mayor/article-24025913-boris-pledges-to-sort-flyover-crisis.do

The Hammersmith flyover was completed in 1962. According to Wikipedia, " it was one of the first examples of an elevated road employing reinforced concrete balanced cantilever beam supports with a single central column. The deck spine and wings are of hollow prestressed concrete design, with each span being tensioned by longitudinal tendons (four clusters, each of sixteen 29mm steel cables). The flyover was designed by G. Maunsell & Partners, Consulting Engineers, led by Peter Wroth.

Marples, Ridgway and Partners, a Westminster-based civil engineering contractor, built the flyover at a cost of £1.3 million. The then Conservative Transport Minister Ernest Marples had been a Marples, Ridgway shareholder. To avoid a conflict of interest Marples undertook to sell his controlling shareholder interest in the company as soon as he became Minister of Transport in October 1959, although there was a purchaser's requirement that he buy back the shares after he ceased to hold office, at the price paid, should the purchaser so require."

I'm no enginer, but it sounds to me like the bridge is actually built employing the technique of post-stressed concrete, whereby cables are tightened within the concrete after it is laid. Back in the early 1970s I was sharing a house up North with a couple of friends, one of whom was employed as a technician on motorway construction. One day Steve came home not his usual carefree self, and told us that he had been testing the grout, a mixture of cement and sand in water, that was used to surround cables embedded in concrete, in order to seal them from the elements. Finding a batch that was not of the proper consistency - I think it was meant to be cement-rich - he had reported this, only to be told to let it go.

Steve explained that if the cables were not properly grouted and sealed, rainwater permeating through the concrete would cause them to rust, and you might eventually have lumps of loosened masonry from bridges falling down on to the motorway.

I told him somewhat naievely that he ought to go to the press with his story. He replied that if he did that "it would be the end of my career in civil engineering and construction". He was probably right. He won't mind me telling his story now, as last thing I heard he had gone into teaching instead.

In the case of the Hammersmith flyover however, there has been an anonymous whistleblower, who contacted the Hammersmith and Fulham Chronicle to tell them the flyover was unsafe, on December 14. While the most that Transport for London would admit was that it needed some repairs, the Chronicle’s source insists the:

post tensioned strands are severely corroded and in some cases completely severed… these temporary solutions [TfL] are considering involve temporary propping which any structural engineer with half a brain will tell you is almost impossible to do correctly with a structure of this kind. It’s not a question of whether the structure will collapse, it’s a matter of when

http://londonist.com/2011/12/hammersmith-flyover-is-unsafe.php

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-16316283

It is reported that the original design of the flyover provided for under-floor heating to keep the surface ice free in Winter. But instead the authorities have relied on putting down grit and salt. (which is more than some London roads have enjoyed !) This has resulted in saltwater seeping down which is far more corrosive to the cables.

The flyover was closed on the 23rd December 2011 after structural defects were discovered, Transport for London estimated that repairs would last until at least January 2012. Well it is January 10, and the flyover is still closed, causing chaos both to commuters and commercial road transport. If it reopens within a few weeks heavy vehicles may still be prohibited from using it.

Mayor Boris Johnson has only promised it will be alright by the Olympics. He may be hoping to take credit, but have to back away from taking responsibility if the problem proves as bad as some fear. Meanwhile, London bus drivers are hoping to tackle Boris over another pressing issue when he visits Hendon next week. They have no toilet facilities at Brent Cross. Of this more anon. Perhaps he'll promise they'll be opened before the Olympics. Boris is good at taking the piss.

A long way from Levenshulme to Liechtenstein

MENTION of Marples Ridgway will bring back memories of Ernie - not the fastest milkman in the West but a Tory minister with that touch of cheek that is supposed to entertain the electorate.

Ernest Marples had a respectable enough background. He was born in Levenshulme, Manchester, in 1907. His father was an engineering charge-hand and Labour supporter, and his mother worked in a local hat factory. Marples attended Victoria Park Council School and won a scholarship to Stretford Grammar, he even became involved in the Labour movement. He was selling fags and sweets to football crowds by the time he was 14, and playing football himself in a YMCA team.

He worked variously as a miner, a postman, and accountant and a chef, but it may have been the army that started him on the wrong path. Commissioned in the Royal Artillery in 1941, he rose to Captain before he was dischargd on medical grounds in 1944. That year he joined the Conservative Party, and in 1945 he was elected to MP for Wallasey In 1951 Winston Churchill appointed him a junior minister, and he remained a minister under Harold MacMillan and Sir Alec Douglas Home.

In 1957 Harold Macmillan appointed Marples Postmaster General, and as the telephone system was controlled by the GPO in those days, Ernest Marples was able to take credit for the introduction of Subscriber Trunk Dialling (STD), which gradually replaced the need for phone operators. On 2 June 1957 Marples started the first draw for the new Premium Bonds. The equipment housed at Lytham St.Annes was also called ‘ERNIE’ to represent ‘Electronic Random Number Indicator Equipment’,,

Macmillan made him Minister of Transport in 14 October 1959, and Marples remained in this post after Alec Douglas-Home succeeded Macmillan as Prime Minister in 1963 and until the Conservatives lost the general election on 16 October 1964.

As Minister of Transport, Marples oversaw the introduction of parking meters and the provisional driving licence. The 1960 Road Traffic Act brought the MOT test, yellow lines and traffic wardens,

It was Ernest Marples who appointed Dr Richard Beeching as chairman of British Rail The Beeching Report ;in 1963 recommended closure of a further 6,000 miles (9,700 km) of the remaining 18,000 miles (29,000 km) of Britain's railways, and closure of approach routes, which was made up for by motorway expansion and more work for Marples Ridgway.

Marples had set up this company with Reginald Ridgway in 1948. Although it began small it grew with contracts for powers stations and roads in Britain and abroad. When he became a junior minister in 1951 Marples resigned his directorship of Marples, Ridgway to avoid a conflict of interest. When he was made Minister of Transport in October 1959, Marples further undertook to sell his shareholding in the company to avoid a conflict of interest. However, there was a purchaser's requirement to sell the shares back to Maples after he ceased to hold office, at the original price, if Maples wished this. The purchaser was later revealed to be Marples' own wife.

In 1959 Marples authorised the first section of the M1 motorway, Britain's first inter-city motorway, between London and Nottingham. Marples, Ridgway was given the contract. Marples, Ridgway built the Hammersmith Flyover in London at a cost of £1.3 million, immediately followed by building the Chiswick Flyover.

When Lord Denning investigated the security aspects of the Profumo Affair in 1963, and the rumoured affair between the Minister of Defence, Duncan Sandys, and the Duchess of Argyll, he confirmed to Macmillan that a rumours that Ernest Marples was in the habit of using prostitutes appeared to be true. The story was suppressed and did not appear in Denning's final report.

In 1974 Marples was elevated to the peerage, and his wife Ruth Dodson became Lady Marples.

Early in 1975 Lord Marples suddenly fled to Monaco. Among journalists who investigated his unexpected flight was Daily Mirror editor Richard Stott:

"In the early 70s ... he tried to fight off a revaluation of his assets which would undoubtedly cost him dear ... So Marples decided he had to go and hatched a plot to remove £2 million from Britain through his Liechtenstein company ... there was nothing for it but to cut and run, which Marples did just before the tax year of 1975. He left by the night ferry with his belongings crammed into tea chests, leaving the floors of his home in Belgravia littered with discarded clothes and possessions ... He claimed he had been asked to pay nearly 30 years' overdue tax ... The Treasury froze his assets in Britain for the next ten years. By then most of them were safely in Monaco and Liechtenstein."

As well as being wanted for tax fraud, one source alleges that Marples was being sued in Britain by tenants of his slum properties and by former employees. He never returned to Britain, living the remainder of his life at his Fleurie Beaujolais château and vineyard in France. He died in 1978.

He is buried in Southern cemetery, Manchester.

Info.from:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Marples