News Category
Breast Cancer Screening – Why Should Jeremy Hunt Resign For Something Done Under Gordon Brown?
The National Health Service has never been very good at dealing with all this complicated computer technology stuff. The attempt, nuder Blair, to rewrite the computing system for the whole shebang spent billions – yes, really, billions of pounds – and ended up delivering nothing that anyone has ever used to produce anything of value. That was actually the world’s largest cock up ever. We also know why it happened. They tried to design the system, rather than just designing the rules about how systems should talk to each other.
That is, you don’t try to build a computer system for 65 million people, you only design interfaces so that different systems can communicate.
Now we’ve another dubber up in NHS computing. Something that should have been caught, this is just something that should not have happened:
Up to 270 women may have died as a result of an IT failure that meant hundreds of thousands approaching their 70th birthday were not invited to a National Health Service breast screening appointment.
It costs money to screen people for breast cancer. Therefore we only want to screen those either likely to have it or those we might be able to treat effectively if they do. Men do indeed get breast cancer sometimes but at a rate about 1% that of women. So, we don’t screen men and we do screen women. There’s absolutely nothing at all wrong with the idea that we don’t screen everyone for everything.
With breast cancer screening we go on to make another choice. This is a little more arguable, but just an extension of the same principle. Women up to 70 are offered screening every three years. Those over 70 are not. The argument being that even if a cancer is found in those over 70 then the costs of treating it won’t be worth it for the extra years of life gained. Yes, harsh, and arguable, but we don’t have an unlimited amount of money for anything and everything and so some limits do need to be imposed.
And then we get to the problem here:
Mr Hunt told the Commons the problem was caused by a “computer algorithm failure”, which led to some women not receiving their final breast screening when they were between the ages of 68 and 71. The problems happened between 2009 and the start of 2018.
The computer code which sent out the appointments for screening was wrong. It should have been sending letters, booking appointments, for women up to the age of 71 – it only sent them for women up to the age of 68. This is simply a bollix in the construction of the code. The programmers, the system designers, the managers who signed off on it, all were in the wrong. And that’s it really. Sure, mistakes happen in complex systems and this one did and shouldn’t have.
we’ve absolutely no information at all about who has died as a result of this. We think, perhaps, that some will have done. Using the same statistical models that we use to decide that screening should be done up to age 70 and not afterwards. But that’s it, we cannot say that Mr’s Smith died because she wasn’t screened, we just don’t know and never will at that level of detail.
Then we’ve got the usual interjection of politics:
The Liberal Democrat MP Norman Lamb, a former health minister, said it was essential the review investigated the use of algorithms in healthcare, saying they should be “closely monitored to ensure that we can fully trust the technology to operate in the interests of patients”.
Sigh. This isn’t an algorithm, this is a programming error. Lamb is just hitching this to all those fashionable concerns about what Facebook and Google are up to.
There are also, inevitably, calls for Jeremy Hunt to resign. Which is pretty odd, for why should a Tory Minister resign in 2018 for something which was done under a Labour Government, when Gordon Brown was PM, back in 2008/09?
Florida newspaper advertises guns under Parkland massacre story
To Fort Lauderdale, where Florida’s Sun Sentinel daily newspaper thought it ok to publish an advert for a gun show righty below a front-page story on he massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and a second story on a gunman who murdered five people at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood airport.
The Sun Sentinel has apologised. The Miami New Times has more:
“It’s a mess. It’s horrible,” says Julie Anderson, the Sun Sentinel’s editor in chief. “We’re taking every step possible to make sure our editorial staff always see ads before publication so something like this doesn’t slip through.”
In her statement, publisher Nancy Meyer said, “We deeply regret placement of a gun advertisement on our front page Wednesday morning. It has been against our policy to run gun and other types of controversial advertising on our front page.”
Looks like the Sun Sentinel editor on this page failed. A story on the victims of gun violence and they put a gun coupon on the page. WTF!!! pic.twitter.com/JTEfnTo3s7
— Fred Guttenberg (@fred_guttenberg) May 2, 2018
So who was checking? Does anyone read the paper at the paper? Can we blame outsourcing, at least partially?
Subbuteo and the FA still still women’s football as a marketing gimmick
In readiness for the 2018 Women’s FA Cup final between Chelsea and Arsenal, Subbuteo have produced a limited edition first all-female set. Marzena Bogdanowicz, the FA’s head of marketing and commercial for women’s football, tells us:
This new, all-female Subbuteo set is a reflection of the rapid growth that women’s football is seeing in the UK right now.
It is? Does anyone still play Subbuteo?
We aspire to greater equality all the way from board games to boardrooms, and every day we are striving to transform the future of the women’s game on and off the pitch.
Subbuteo advert – Shoot! magazine – 1969
James Walker, of Hasbro, which make the table-top football game, adds:
We are incredibly excited to work with the FA to place focus on female footballers in this special edition of Subbuteo. Subbuteo has a rich heritage that reflects the nation’s love of football and this all-female playset is recognition of the vital role that women’s football has in our culture.
This is a little undermined by the fact that the set is not being offered for sale. You can only get it via competitions on the FA’s social media channels. The feeling is that Hasbro and the FA see women’s football not as a viable sport, rather as an opportunity to blow their own horns about equality, and that ‘women’s football’ is something apart from ‘football’.
Posted: 3rd, May 2018 | In: Arsenal, Chelsea, News, Sports, The Consumer | Comment
Manchester United should wish Fellaini a bon voyage to China
The two words Manchester United should tell Belgium midfielder Marouane Fellaini, 30, as he haggles over a new deal are “zài jiàn”. The Sun says Fellaini has “warned” United that unless they offer him huge money he will consider moving to China.
It comes to something when an average Premier League footballer – albeit one who makes full use of his height and reach; but lacks pace, technique and poise – is firing shots across the bows of one of the world’s biggest clubs. The question is not what United should do to please Fellaini but how he ever played for United in the first place?
The Sun says it would cost £50m to “replace” Fellaini. Which invites another question: why would you want to?
It’s also utter tosh. Fellaini joined a desperate United from Everton in 2013 for £27.5m. Since then, United have splashed out on the following talents:
Juan Mata (Chelsea) £37,100,000 – 25 Jan, 2014
Ander Herrera (Ath Bilbao) £29,000,000 – 26 Jun, 2014
Luke Shaw (Southampton) £27,000,000 – 27 Jun, 2014
Andreas Pereira (PSV Eindhoven) – 01 Aug, 2014
Marcos Rojo (Sporting) – £16,000,000 20 Aug, 2014
Angel Di Maria (Real Madrid) – £59,700,000 26 Aug, 2014
Daley Blind (Ajax) – £13,800,000 01 Sep, 2014
Victor Valdes (Barcelona) – Free 08 Jan, 2015
Memphis Depay (PSV Eindhoven) – £25,000,000 11 Jun, 2015
Matteo Darmian (Torino) £1 -2,700,000 11 Jul, 2015
Bastian Schweinsteiger (Bayern Munich) – £14,400,000 13 Jul, 2015
Morgan Schneiderlin (Southampton) – £25,000,000 13 Jul, 2015
Sergio Romero (Sampdoria) – Free 27 Jul, 2015
Anthony Martial (Monaco) – £36,000,000 01 Sep, 2015
Regan Poole (Newport Co) – £100,000 01 Sep, 2015
Eric Bailly (Villarreal) -£30,000,000 08 Jun, 2016
Zlatan Ibrahimovic Paris St-G. Free 01 Jul, 2016
Henrikh Mkhitaryan (B Dortmund) -£26,000,000 06 Jul, 2016
Paul Pogba Juventus (£89,300,000) – 08 Aug, 2016
Victor Lindelof Benfica (£31,000,000) – 14 Jun, 2017
Romelu Lukaku (Everton) – £75,000,000 10 Jul, 2017
Nemanja Matic (Chelsea) – £40,000,000 31 Jul, 2017
Alexis Sanchez (Arsenal) – Player plus cash – 22 Jan, 2018
And in that same period: Manchester City bought Kevin De Bruyne for £55m in 2015; Liverpool bought Mo Salah for £39m in 2017; and Spurs bought Del Elli for £5m in 2015.
But for £50,m you can get another Fellaini. If you’re not careful you can, yes.
Here’s Fellaini:
“I went to see the manager last year, and said I wanted a new contract. I then had a second meeting, but I’m not going to ask ten times. Since then I have become important for the team – and it costs £50m minimum to buy a good new player.”
No. It doesn’t. As Jose Mourinho put it on May 1:
“My Player of the Year has to be Scott McTominay.”
He cost United nothing in transfer fees. He’s 21. He’s dynamic. He’s hungry. And never once has he sounded as if he was doing the club a favour.
Best of luck in China, Marouane. Close the door on the way out…
Posted: 3rd, May 2018 | In: Back pages, manchester united, News, Sports | Comment
Age of Abstinence: Tesco makes bottles smaller to charge more for your wine
It’s not exactly a surprise that food portions are getting smaller. Public Health England is insisting that we should all be eating less, drinking less. We should all be having less fat, less sugar, less alcohol. So, what is a supermarket or food producer to do? Some things just cannot be made with less salt – it’s essential to make bread rise for example. And there’s really not that much point in an energy drink like Lucozade if it doesn’t contain any sugar. Nor, obviously, booze if it doesn’t contain any booze.
So, what to do? Why, just make the package size smaller of course! Which is exactly what Tesco is doing with it’s own brand wines:
One of Britain’s biggest supermarkets has announced shock plans to make wine bottles smaller.
A new 50cl bottle contains the equivalent of four or five glasses of wine while a 37.5cl one – half the size of a standard sized bottle – holds three or four.
It means shoppers will be able to crack open their favourite tipple without being tempted to drink a full sized bottle.
Well, OK, those for whom own brand Tesco wine is a favourite tipple – rather than an any port in a storm sup – have their own problems. And the idea that a half bottle holds four glasses is true only of those who serve in sherry glasses. Actually, I’ve found that full bottles of sherry can hold only six glasses but there may be an influence of journalists and booze occurring there.
It is however The Sun which manages to get things entirely wrong here. For it’s not just smaller portions leading to less consumption going on. There’s also the manner in which things become more expensive:
The 50cl bottles are cheaper – the Rioja Reserva is £6.25 and 75cl is £8.50. But it remains to be seen whether shoppers will be tempted by the slimmer containers.
Well, no, the smaller bottles are more expensive. The full bottle size is 1.5 times the 50 cl one. 1.5 times £6.25, some quick mental maths, umm, £9.3750 for the same amount of booze we can get in the 75 cl bottle for £8.50. That’s more expensive, right? 87.5 pence more expensive in fact, and to pull out the calculator, that’s 10.3% more expensive.
Which is why we’re not hearing all that many complaints from the supermarkets about the insistences of PHE. For PHE have indeed said that their demands that we all have access to less sugar, less fat, less booze, can be met by portions becoming smaller. Without the correct reductions in price to take account of how we’re getting less. The supermarkets love this, they get to sell us less food at not a correctly less price, that means profit! And everyone else has to do the same because it’s the public health wallahs insisting upon it.
The worst part about this rip off is that we’re paying for it through our taxes. Yup, you pay taxes, I do, to pay for Public Health England, who then demand that the supermarkets make our booze and sweeties more expensive. Be easier and simpler, surely, to bypass the bureaucracy and w all just eat and drink what we want, no?
Posted: 1st, May 2018 | In: News, The Consumer | Comment
Right-wing tabloids use Piers Morgan’s impotent tool to bash Diane Abbott
As the Government inches towards its removal targets for people unsuited to their environment – farewell, Amber Rudd – the Press look around for the next scalp. They spot Diane Abbott, the Labour shadow home secretary. The Sun thunders “DIANE DISASTER “, zooming in on Abbott’s “car-crash interview” with TV’s Piers Morgan. Lest the paper’s position be unclear, it adds: “The disastrous interview came after the resignation of Amber Rudd as Home Secretary.”
Says the Sun:
Pressed on the [illegal immigration] issue, Ms Abbott refused EIGHT times to lay out exactly what her solution would be if she got into power.
As ever, the non-event on mid-morning telly between Paxman-lite and Blinky hits Twitter:
Viewers watching will make their own mind up about what you were trying to do. As for me I will keep campaigning for justice, not treating the #Windrush generation and others who have a right to be here as if they were illegal.
— Diane Abbott (@HackneyAbbott) April 30, 2018
The Mail analyses the facts.
Diane Abbott refuses SIX TIMES to say what SHE would do with illegal immigrants in her latest car crash interview
We know journalists are rubbish at sums but surely the Sun and Mail can decide if Morgan repeated himself 6 or 8 times? (The Mirror says it’s 6.) You can watch the video of the chat if you can stand it – but you might wonder if repeating the same line of questioning is more vainglorious balls than an actual attempt to get an answer. But the poor questioning and the non-answer gets the headlines – no fewer than three times on the Daily Express website:
STORY 1: “What is Labour immigration policy? Piers Morgan frustrated as Diane Abbott fails to answer”
STORY 2: “‘You couldn’t give me a straight answer’ Morgan hits back at Abbott after fiery TV clash”
STORY 3: “Piers Morgan Twitter: Good Morning Britain star continues HEATED debate with Diane Abbott”
Good to see the country finally having a sensible debate on immigration – not.
Oh, go on, here it is.
Diane Abbott repeatedly refuses to say what should happen to illegal migrants in car-crash interview with Piers Morgan. https://t.co/f7ayYJ9Gna pic.twitter.com/PjG1MWM18F
— Ben (@Jamin2g) April 30, 2018
Posted: 30th, April 2018 | In: News, Politicians, Tabloids | Comment
Liverpool: Klopp isolated after his ‘master of training’ leaves
Liverpool will be moving on without Zeljko Buvac, the sallow one with the indy band hair sat next to Jurgen Klopp in the dugout. Liverpool’s 56-year-old assistant manager has left until the end of the season for “personal business” – it’s personal and it’s none of your business.
Although the Daily Record says Buvac (aka ‘The Brain’) and Klopp fell out. The Sun notes: “The relationship had broken down, and the players have been told Buvac is gone.”
Buvac, who became Klopp’s assistant at Mainz in 2001, has made no comment. Liverpool says he’s still employed by the club.
It’s an odd time to change the hierarchy. The pair were so tight having been at three clubs together over 17 years. Buvac once told the Sunday Express: “Both of us were looking to become managers and we promised each other, ‘If I am the first manager, I will take you and if you are the first manager you will take me’.” Klopp called Buvac the “master of every form of training”.
Who next?
Posted: 30th, April 2018 | In: Back pages, Liverpool, News, Sports | Comment
Michelle Wolf didn’t go far enough
Michelle Wolf’s standup gig at the annual White House correspondents’ dinner on Saturday night was joyous. Wolf’s most memorable comments were pointed at press secretary, Sarah Sanders, and Trump’s daughter, Ivanka.
Smoke roasted
Not everyone shares Wolf’s sense of humour. White House adviser Mercedes Schlapp and her husband, Matt Schlapp, who chairs the American Conservative Union, left early. The man with the ear of the most powerful man in the free world later tweeted about a stand-up comic: “Enough of elites mocking all of us.”
You set ’em up, Matt and Mercedes. We’ll knock ’em in.
Watching a wife and mother be humiliated on national television for her looks is deplorable,” wrote MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski.
Sanders looked unimpressed. What did she expect? If you can take Wolf’s voice, which should be bottled and sold as a contraceptive device, listen in:
Did Wolf go too far?
Here’s Michelle Wolf’s take on White House press secretary Sarah Sanders. https://t.co/9Hn6dbt9Mw
— Meg Wagner (@megwagner) April 29, 2018
That bit about the “smokey eye” is nasty. But Jean Hannah Edelstein tells Guardian readers that “Wolf was in fact complimenting the appearance of Sanders’ makeup”. Yeah, right… (Rolls eyes.)
Posted: 30th, April 2018 | In: News, Politicians | Comment
Amber Rudd quits over Windrush; the front pages
Amber Rudd is no longer the Home Secretary. The newspapers lead with the story of the Windrush scandal. Rudd said she “inadvertently misled” MPs over targets for removing illegal immigrants. “Oh Ruddy Hell,” says the Sun as Remainer Rudd is kicked out. “Good Ruddance,” says the Mirror. The Daily Mail calls it “a huge blow for the prime minister.”
But it’s a boon to Labour and anyone seeking a ‘harder Brexit’ – or Brexit, as most voters thought it to be. One of their removal targets has been met.
The Times says Rudd’s “departure robs Mrs May of a key ally before a crucial week in which the prime minister faces a revolt by Brexit-supporting cabinet ministers over her plans for a customs partnership with the European Union.”
Labour senses it can now get at May. It should be wary what it hopes for. May leads an ineffectual government marching in circles. Any PM worth the stripe, one possessed of talent and a human touch, would pose a real threat to slippery Jeremy Corbyn and his flakey shadow Cabinet.
Change at the top is needed. Let it come soon…
What next, then?
Biased Reporting: Jose’s ‘masterstroke’ helps Manchester United block Arsenal
Manchester United’s “never-say-die streak” saw them beat a much-weakened Arsenal side at Old Trafford – it was the Gunners’ youngest Premier League starting XI. The official Manchester United website says Jose Mourinho “outsmarted” Arsene Wenger by bringing on the very tall Marouane Fellaini late on and lobbing the ball towards his bonce. It was Jose’s “masterstroke” that Fellaini scored with his head against two young Arsenal centre backs who’d never played together before, including one making his debut.
The official Manchester United organ’s blinkered match report makes no mention of the fact that Arsenal’s goalscorer, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, used to play for the club – also not noting that Jose Mourinho shunted him out, just as he got shot of the Kevin De Bruyne and Mo Salah, when he thought neither of this season’s star turns for Man City and Liverpool, respectively, was good enough for his Chelsea.
But there is this on the opening goal:
It didn’t take long for United to make Wenger’s last time as Gunners boss initially uncomfortable when taking a 16th-minute lead. Pogba started and finished the move. The France midfielder stroked a pass to Romelu Lukaku and went driving on into the area. Lukaku’s cross was met with a header from Alexis Sanchez. His hopes of a dream goal against his former employers were dashed as his effort hit Hector Bellerin and came off a post, only for Pogba to volley home.
It hit Bellerin?
The Daily Telegraph saw this:
Unmarked, Sanchez’s diving header was diverted onto the post by Hector Bellerin at full-stretch only for the ball to rebound to Pogba who simply volleyed it into the unguarded net.
As for the official Arsenal website, it went like this:
Alexis looked certain to score with his head at the far post, but Hector Bellerin made a superb diving block to divert his effort onto the post. Unfortunately the ball fell straight to the waiting Pogba to tap home.
What say the papers?
The Islington Gazette adds:
…the goal itself was slightly fortuitous as Hector Bellerin’s block from Alexis Sanchez’s header diverted the ball onto David Ospina’s right hand post.
The Ham & High needs a lesson in human anatomy:
Excellent block from Alexis Sanchez’s header deserved better than for it to hit the post and rebound back for Pogba to head home.
And the Manchester Evening News shoves Bellerin down the memory hole:
Great counter attack by United. Pogba out to Sanchez on his right who floats in a great cross, Sanchez header at the far post comes off the post and Pogba’s there to finish it and put United 1-0 up.
They say “volley”. You say “tap”. They say “hit. You say “superb diving block”.
One thing the Arsenal website fails to mention is the dire fact that Arsenal have now lost six successive away fixtures in the league for the first time since Billy Wright was their manager in 1966. But, yep, Jose’s the master.
Wenger OUT!
Posted: 29th, April 2018 | In: Arsenal, Back pages, manchester united, News, Sports | Comment
Fury, spin and apathy at a Daventry primary school
The Daventry Express had the news first. Ashby Fields Primary School, in Northamptonshire, is thinking about closing early on Friday afternoons in order to help its teaching staff maintain a “healthy work-life balance”. At 1:15pm, the teachers will clock off.
Headteacher Jacqui Johnson sent a letter out to parents outlining the idea. No all recipients are thrilled. Kelly Holmes, whose daughter attends Ashby Fields, wondered: “What do they intend to do to accommodate working parents?… They’re making working parents pay for extra childcare and we will have to fight it out for places.”
Currently, the teachers work a 27.5 hours a week timetable. The school’s letter told of the teachers’ “huge workload”. The teachers work “60 hours a week during term time and through their holidays to keep up”.
The letter than pitches teachers as warriors in a kind of battle zone, talking of “frontline teaching”.
“They [teachers] have the school holidays and bank holidays,” adds Holmes. “They get more days off than working parents.”
Can teachers not be working parents? And what working parents don’t fancy a longer weekend on the same money?
The school says not teaching on Friday afternoons will allow the school to “access additional staff development time to enhance the quality of teaching and learning”. Less teaching will make for better teaching and pupils will learn more. The pupils aren’t there as often, of course, but the point is that teachers will get more time away from them. Do you see?
The school’s local newspaper makes no mention of any parent being in favour of the scheme. But the Guardian says, “Parents had mixed reactions when the plan was discussed at a public meeting.” The Sun counters that with: “Parents furious as school announces plans to shut at lunchtime every Friday so stressed teachers can ‘chill out’.”
The Indy also spots those “mixed reviews”, but like the Guardian it too fails to cite any parent supportive of the idea.
Over in the Express we’re told: “PARENTS have reacted with fury after a primary school announced plans to end the week at lunchtime on Fridays – to give teachers more time ‘to chill’.”
The story is being spun. It’s not about chilling. It’s not about fury. And it’s not much about meaningful debate. It’s a small story that appeals to your prejudices:
- Do you think teachers are selfless workaholics?
- Do you think teachers are work-shy and cosseted?
Or 3. Do you wonder how school came to be such a booming industry that keeps children trapped in a corporate system until their early 20s?
Liverpool to offer Salah double yer money deal
Liverpool are keen to keep Egypt forward Mohamed Salah, 25, at the club. They’re ready to offer him a new deal worth £185,000 a week. That’s double his current wage on a contract that has four years to run.
It’s not enough. Not when you realises what Salah could earn elsewhere given his sensational form. Of course, the gamble for Liverpool and other clubs is in working out if Salah’s season is something of a freak. Can he do it again and again?
The numbers will fluctuate in the Press, of course. The Sun also notes the £185,000 weekly pay packet, but in other stories it pitches the offer to Salah at £200,000. Spanish website Don Balon says Salah is interested in playing for Real Madrid. The Sun – again – says Salah can go to Real for £166m, where only Cristiano Ronaldo will earn more.
The money is huge. But Salah is grounded. He’s just donated $450k for a water treatment plant in his home town. Sometimes you can forget that beneath all the hype, lawyers, marketeers, opportunists and greed, there’s a bloke who loves playing football and for whom money is far from being everything.
Posted: 29th, April 2018 | In: Back pages, Liverpool, News, Sports | Comment
Daily Mail: not knowing what gives you cancer gives you cancer
Lots of people wrongly believe things like stress, electromagnetic frequencies, microwave ovens, GM foods and drinking from plastic bottles cause cancer. A study in the European Journal of Cancer, by a team from University College London (UCL) and the University of Leeds surveyed 1,330 people in England. Lion Shahab, from UCL, tells media: “People’s beliefs are so important because they have an impact on the lifestyle choices they make.”
Where do people get the idea that all manner of stuff gives you cancer – that disease the slack-jawed and mentally negligible tell us people “battle” (BBC) and “Stand up to” (Channel 4)?
The Daily Mail has seen the research and tells its readers:
Do YOU know what increases your cancer risk? An alarming number of people believe in fake causes – and don’t know about the real dangers…
What are the real dangers?
…many people are still confused about risk factors, despite vast sums being spent on public health education campaigns.
A sizeable minority of the public either fail to appreciate the significance of known risk factors or hold unfounded beliefs about possible causes, such as using mobile phones or being near overhead power lines.
Who to blame for what the lack of knowledge? The Mail warns, “people increasingly getting their news from social media – sometimes from unreliable sources (so-called ‘fake news’).”
Some read the Daily Mail.
Like this – The Daily Mail’s A-Z of Things That Give you Cancer.
Posted: 28th, April 2018 | In: Key Posts, News, Tabloids | Comment
The Fight To Own Alfie Evans
Alfie Evans ( May 9 2016 – April 28 2018) has died at Liverpool’s Alder Hey Hospital, where he has been since his parents took him there in December 2016. He succombed to a degenerative neurological condition.
But… Who had control over Alfie Evans’ life? Who owned him? That was the news story. It wasn’t his parents, Tom Evans and Kate James. It wasn’t the Pope. And it certainly wasn’t Alfie Evans, not since a judge said his brain had “been wiped out… [it] is almost entirely water”.
On 1 February 2018 lawyers for the hospital told a court that it would be “unkind and inhumane” to continue treating Alfie. But – yep – his brain was “wiped out”, so what harm in trying – further treatment could cause him no physical pain? The law said Alfie was effectively no longer a person but also said that he was one and that he should be allowed to die. Confused?
On 20 February, Justice Hayden, who we just heard from, said there was no hope for Alfie and sided with the hospital. His treatment would stop. Alfie’s parents appealed. And lost. The Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights rejected their right to appeal.
Questions abounded. Who gets to decide the fate of children? What is in Alfie’s best interests? Is a judge best placed to empathise with Alfie? Medical opinion and parental rights were being weighed by the law. The legal assumption is not one of parental autonomy. That should change. The other legal assumption is not that life is always preferable.
Alarming details include claims that unauthorised doctors posed as family friends to examine both Alfie and Isaiah Haastrup. May the Evans now be allowed to escape the politicised tumult that people like Christine Broesamle drew them into and mourn in peace. pic.twitter.com/0bcCB0ZUEY
— Archie Bland (@archiebland) April 28, 2018
The story went global. And it got nasty. On 6 April, Tom Evans voiced his intention to remove his son from the hospital. Police arrived to stop him. Hospital staff were abused by Alfie’s supporters. That was disgraceful. Pro-life Christians saw a cause to get stuck in to. American Evangelists tweeted furiously. The Pope wanted to help. Italy offered Alfie Italian citizenship, allowing him to be moved to the specialist private Bambino Gesu hospital in Rome.
But he never went. In the High Court, Hayden said that sending Alfie to Italy would be wrong and pointless. The Court of Appeal judges upheld his decision. The Supreme Court said “every legal issue in this case is governed by Alfie’s best interests… There is also no reason for further delay. The hospital must be free to do what has been determined to be in Alfie’s best interests. That is the law in this country.”
But surely once the medics had debated and decided that they could do not more for Alfie, he should have been free to leave their care. His release should have been a viable option for the parents. But the hospital kept hold of him, turning a patient into a virtual prisoner. They and the courts placed themselves above the child’s parents, the people who really did love and cherish him. The parents should have been allowed to decide what was best for their son. They did not ask the NHS to continue to fund their son’s care. They wanted to know that they had tried everything.
To be denied that is cruel.
Labour kick out an alleged antisemite; Corbyn stays
A mere 22 months after the incident, Marc Wadsworth has been expelled from the Labour Party. The Momentum activist made comments at an antisemitism event – no, not a rally for Labour anti-semites, although Corbyn’s Labour could fill a large venue for that do; Wadsworth clashed with Jewish MP Ruth Smeeth at the launch of Labour’s inquiry into antisemitism. You’ll recall that Labour invited Shami Chakrabarti to investigate the rampant Jew hatred in its ranks. She joined Labour, discovered a “minority hateful or ignorant attitudes and behaviours” and was made a Labour peer and shadow attorney general. What looked like a duck, walked like a duck and quacked like a duck was a dead ermine, said Shami admiring her new robes.
But the Labour Party’s Jew haters kept popping up. Being antisemitic in Labour was not rare at all. Things came to a bit of a head when something finally stuck to nuanced and slippery Jeremy Corbyn, who admired a massive public artwork, an artwork Deputy Labour leader Tom Watson called “a horrible anti-Semitic mural”. Corbyn wanted it kept on display. The local Labour mayor thought it revolting and ordered it to be painted over.
Corbyn, who was at the launch of the party’s antisemitism drive, was filmed on camera talking with Wadsworth at the event. Both deny being antisemitic.
One paper stirred the pot, reporting:
A video has since emerged showing the Labour leader laughing along with Mr Wadsworth as they exit the launch. Mr Wadsworth can be heard saying: ‘You saw what happened.’ Mr Corbyn replies: ‘Yeah, I did.’
It’s here – but there’s very little to it. Leader meets fan might be the better description of the happening:
Wadsworth denies any wrongdoing. He says today:
“I deplore anti-Semitism, anti-black racism, Islamophobia and all forms of prejudice, bigotry and discrimination that I have campaigned against all my political life and will continue to do so.
“With my brilliant legal team, who won the arguments hands down, I will be looking at all my options to legally challenge the decision.”
The Guardian outlines the case:
Wadsworth came to prominence after he challenged Smeeth at the launch of Shami Chakrabati’s inquiry into antisemitism in 2016, accusing her of working “hand in hand” with a Telegraph journalist.
Smeeth has said she was reduced to tears by his remarks. Wadsworth, who was distributing flyers at the event, has said he did not know Smeeth was Jewish.
The matter was heard by the National Constitutional Committee (NCC), Labour’s top disciplinary body. Says Labour:
“The NCC has found that two charges of a breach of the Labour party’s rule 2.1.8 by Marc Wadsworth have been proven. The NCC consequently determined that the sanction for this breach of Labour party rules will be expulsion from membership.”
The rule states that “no member of the Party shall engage in conduct which in the opinion of the NEC is prejudicial, or in any act which in the opinion of the NEC is grossly detrimental to the Party [including actions] might reasonably be seen to demonstrate hostility or prejudice based on age; disability; gender reassignment or identity; marriage and civil partnership; pregnancy and maternity; race; religion or belief; sex; or sexual orientation… racism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia or otherwise racist language, sentiments, stereotypes or actions, sexual harassment, bullying or any form of intimidation towards another person on the basis of a protected characteristic”.
Labour MPs, Chris Williamson and Clive Lewis gave character references for Wadsworth. Lewis said people “do not get to be judge, jury and executioner when it comes to who’s expelled or not. Go read a history book about what happens when an accusation equals evidence.”
Smeeth is pleased – but makes no specific mention of antisemism:
My statement on today’s NCC decision: pic.twitter.com/EY7uyhjyh7
— Ruth Smeeth MP (@RuthSmeeth) April 27, 2018
But is it over? Is it there? Ken Livingstone, currently suspended from Labour over remarks linking Adolf Hitler and Zionism, tells LBC today:
“I’m not discussing anti-Semitism until after the election is all out the way because it is a complete diversion. We had this last year in the run-up to the local elections then. We had it two years ago in the run-up to the election of Sadiq Khan. It didn’t damage us at the last two local elections but it is a complete diversion.”
Ian Austin on Ken Livingstone: “Kick him out.” pic.twitter.com/6qujGBoUV7
— Ben (@Jamin2g) April 17, 2018
And on it goes in Corbyn’s Labour…
Posted: 27th, April 2018 | In: News, Politicians | Comment
Arsenal: Wenger hints at something but not that
What next for Arsene Wenger when he finally closes the door on Arsenal and we can all forget about the nine years without a trophy, signing Marouane Chamakh and watching a side with all aggression of a newborn lamb? Unless, of course, the masterful manager steers Arsenal to the Europa League title and with it Champions League qualification, and we call agree that it’d be right and proper for Wenger to remain at the club for another season. Or longer. Don’t toss way those “Wenger Out’ banners yet, Gooners.
The Express, though, is a practical organ. Everything it publishes is printed in trusty black and white. Wenger is going. End of. And today the paper delivers the news: “Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger drops big hint over next job: This is where I want to manage.”
In case you missed it there, the Express’s sister paper, the Star, also thunders: “Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger drops huge hint over where he’ll manage next.”
Where? Bayern Munich? Spurs? England? Says Wenger: “I hope these are not my last European cup games – my target is to play in Europe again.” The hint is that he cole mange for any club in Europe. In yer face, Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao.
Posted: 26th, April 2018 | In: Arsenal, Back pages, News, Sports, Tabloids | Comment
These standing seats are the plane travel of the grim future
No worries if you didn’t book a seat on your budget airline and don’t fancy the scramble to get one. This is the Skyrider 2.0 saddle seat, positioned by Italy’s Aviointeriors at “the new frontier of low-cost tickets”. The new frontier looks a lot like standing.
On the plus side, travellers sat on something that looks like those plastic mantlepieces you get to ‘rest’ on at bus stops need not worry about deep-vein thrombosis, biting their knees and asking other people to move. The Boston Globe says the Skyrider 2.0 (an upgrade on the Skyrider 0.0 (cross-legged on the floor) and the Skyrider 1.0 (tied by the wrists to the roof)) “makes perfect sense… the design allows a 20 percent increase in passengers per flight. It also weighs 50 percent less than a standard economy seat, lowering the fuel cost per passenger.”
Seats are now just 23 inches away from the row in front. More people can get on the same-sized plane.Smell that? That’s progress – and you stuck in an overstuffed flying tube like a flaying carcass.
Posted: 26th, April 2018 | In: News, Strange But True, Technology, The Consumer | Comment
Facebook Must Change Data Access Rules – But Wait, Not For Us, Not For Us!
None of us can fail to have seen all that screaming about how Facebook really must change the way that it handles data. Who gets to see it, how they get to see it, what they can do with it and all that. For the allegation is that it was Facebook data which swung Brexit and elected Donald Trump, wasn’t it? Two things so heinous, so massively against all good thinking, that we must change the world to make sure they don’t ever happen again.
So, Facebook changes what it does with data, who gets to see it and how they see it. At which point screaming again. From those who rather assumed that they would still be able to see it all, it would only be the bad thinking people who would be restricted:
A group of the world’s leading internet academics say Facebook’s decision to tighten access to user data in reaction to will actually hamper genuine research and oversight of the platform.
An open letter, signed by 27 researchers and published on Wednesday, said while the privacy changes might generate positive publicity for Facebook and its chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, they were “likely to compound the real problem, further diminishing transparency and opportunities for independent oversight”.
On 4 April, Facebook announced it would make changes to protect the privacy of users, including restricting access to application program interfaces used by third parties to access data.
What you’re seeing there is the end stage of Kip Esquire’s Law. Which states in its original form that people arguing for planning always, but always, assume that they’ll be the people doing the planning. This has wider application of course. Those arguing for more data secrecy always, but always, assume that they’ll still have access because they’re the good guys. It’s only those baddies over there who will actually be restricted, right?
That’s not quite how it all works out of course. And thus this end stage – sheer incomprehension at the thought that what they themselves were arguing for, greater privacy protections, might actually apply to themselves. I mean, how could it, they’re the good guys, right?
Snigger.
Posted: 25th, April 2018 | In: News, Technology | Comment
Hank Azaria says sorry The Simpsons Abu is upsetting
Hank Azaria says he’s “willing to step aside” from voicing the character Apu Nahasapeemapetilon in TV’s The Simpsons. Azaria is pressured by a Indian-American comic Hari Kondabolu (The Problem with Apu), who claims the Indian character who knows more about the USA than Homer Simpson (fat, yellow ignorant, child-throttling and lazy) is founded on racial stereotypes. Azaria says his “eyes have been opened” by the debate. No offence was intended. He thought it was a jokey show about a 2D family of yellow-faces and blue hair. But he now knows that The Simpsons is slice-of-life stuff.
Not a real Indian
Azaria, who also voices porcine Chief Wiggum (a snout-face, slow-witted copper), Comic Book Guy (a fat pedantic slob) and bartender Moe Szyslak (a cranky, wire-haired batchelor) could soon be out of work unless the show’s writers can shoehorn a part for a slim actor who wants to write his own lines.
Azaria goes on the record: “The idea that anyone young or old, past or present, being bullied based on Apu really makes me sad. It certainly was not my intention. I wanted to bring joy and laughter to people.”
He did. He has. He’s not the writer, though. And Azaria’s reaction to criticism explains why actors should be wary of rewriting their own parts. “I’ve given this a lot of thought, and as I say my eyes have been opened,” he continues. “I think the most important thing is to listen to Indian people and their experience with it. I really want to see Indian, South Asian writers in the writers room… including how [Apu] is voiced or not voiced. I’m perfectly willing and happy to step aside, or help transition it into something new. It not only makes sense, it just feels like the right thing to do to me.”
Hear that, Indians. Form a queue.
The Simpsons has been dying on its feet for years. As Lisa Simpson puts it in reply to this pathetic furore: “Something that started decades ago and was applauded and inoffensive is now politically incorrect. What can you do?” The camera then pans to a photo of Apu.
(Bart Simpson has been 8 for years – which is both weird and perverted!)
Posted: 25th, April 2018 | In: Celebrities, News, TV & Radio | Comment
Liverpool striker rewrites history for Mo Salah; Manchester City star never stood a chance
Mohamed Salah is the Liverpool tyro scoring goals with great awareness, no little skill and finishing with elegant panache. He’s been terrific for Liverpool all season. And he’s won an prize, taking away the PFA player of the year award. It was pretty much a toss-up between Salah and Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne, like Salah also flogged for not being good enough by monocular Jose Mourinho’s winning-is-all Chelsea. De Bruyne has been sublime, an imaginative driving force for City’s title victory. I’d have voted for him to win the award. But goal scorers get the headlines – their attributes are measurable in the baldest terms: Salah has an impressive 31 PL goals.
Choosing between the pair is hard. But not for former Liverpool player Stan Collymore, who told his Daily Mirror readers: “Mo Salah was the outstanding choice for the PFA Player of the year award. The sheer variety of goals he has scored in his debut season playing for a club where expectation levels are huge has been phenomenal.”
But were expectations all that high about a player who’d left Chelsea for Roma – a player who in the era of absurd fees came in for £36.9m – just £4m more than Liverpool paid Arsenal for the overrated Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain?
No.
On February 12, Collymore told his readers: “Harry Kane and Mo Salah have their merits as potential Player of the Year award winners. But that honour has to go to Kevin De Bruyne. He has been weighing in with goals and important assists at important times in games all season. His level of consistency has been outstanding. I saw one article saying they feel up at Manchester City that he should be in the reckoning for a Ballon d’Or shout, and I wouldn’t disagree with that.”
A short while on and Salah is the only choice.
Vote now and vote often!
Posted: 24th, April 2018 | In: Back pages, Liverpool, Manchester City, News, Sports, Tabloids | Comment
France is ethnically cleansing Jews
In France, Nicolas Sarkozy, the country’s former president, Manuel Valls, the former prime minister, Charles Aznavour, the entertainer, and Gérard Depardieu, the actor, have all added their names to a document calling on the State to tackle murderous anti-Semitism. The document signed by around 300 notables says France has mutated into “the theatre of murderous antisemitism”. Since 2006, 11 Jews having been “assassinated” because of they were Jews.
Hideous
“French Jews are 25 times more at risk of being attacked than their Muslim counterparts. Ten per cent of the Jewish citizens of the Paris region… have recently been forced to move because they were no longer secure in certain council estates. This is a quiet ethnic cleansing.”
The document says France’s long and repugnant history of far-right French antisemitism is now joined by “a part of the radical left which has found in anti-Zionism an alibi for transforming the executioners of the Jews into the victims of society”.
Sound familiar, Jeremy Corbyn and his fellow Labour apologists?
It also accuses politicians of having made the “lowly electoral calculation that the Muslim vote is ten times bigger than the Jewish vote” – there are around 500,000 Jews in France, the biggest Jewish population in any Western European country.
It’s serious. Last month, an 85-year-old Holocaust survivor was stabbed to death in her Paris flat. Her crime? Being a Jew.
Musical David Bowie MetroCards Go On Sale In New York City
There are no photos of David Bowie riding the New York City subway to and from his home near to SoHo’s Broadway/Lafayette, not far from CBGB. Undeterred by evidence – the lack of it – the city’s Metropolitan Transit Authority is selling a David Bowie-themed MetroCard for $1 a pop. It’s part of a deal Spotify to create 5 limited edition MetroCards, most with a scannable Spotify code which triggers a sound file.
Finally, here’s Bow in the Tube in…Japan:
Close enough…
Spotter: Open Culture, Flashbak
Posted: 23rd, April 2018 | In: Celebrities, Money, News | Comment
Prince Crystal Palace: Kate Middleton makes Prince Harry even less employable
Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, has had her third child. It’s a… stinking rich kid born into hereditary privilege that mocks our democracy / man of the people with the common touch. Young Prince Palace was born on the Lindon Wing at St Mary’s, Paddington. It might be the cheapest place he ever stays. Reactions to the birth have been forthcoming and fluid. No word from the PR-reared Prince Harry yet, who is now shunted one leg further down the ladder away from getting an actual job. Prince Andrew, Prince Edward – as you were.
The Indy’s clickbait factory goes with both sides of the story – having its cake and eating it; which though a very royal dish is very crap journalism:
You. Cannot. Do. Both. Stories. For. The. Love. Of. pic.twitter.com/jNhxwcUi1V
— Scott Bryan (@scottygb) April 23, 2018
The Royal Family’s fans were out in force:
"Go on, fuck off" pic.twitter.com/CPw5iCGEyr
— John Rain (@MrKenShabby) April 23, 2018
Has the young sir a name?
Great name! 👏 https://t.co/lc4LhNkCvd
— Crystal Palace F.C. (@CPFC) April 23, 2018
Scenes from outside the Lindo Wing look like something out of @Scarfolk pic.twitter.com/y0sBT6JAzv
— Chris Applegate (@chrisapplegate) April 23, 2018
Posted: 23rd, April 2018 | In: News, Royal Family | Comment
Martin Lewis Is Suing Facebook – Good Luck With That
Martin Lewis we all know as the money saving expert who set up – and made a fortune from – MoneySavingExpert. Which is why various people trying to flog scam cryptocurrencies have been using him to push their wares in Facebook ads. We know of Lewis as being pretty savvy about money so why not try to co-opt his image?
Well, one reason why not is that it will obviously piss him off:
The founder of MoneySavingExpert and well known money saving expert Martin Lewis is to began a lawsuit against Facebook in London’s High Court on Monday.
Lewis said he had taken the decision “to try and stop all the disgusting repeated fake adverts from scammers it refuses to stop publishing with my picture, name and reputation.”
There’s a problem here of course. One such being that people who saw the ads might well have been mislead into investing into entire and complete duds:
He claims Facebook has published more than 50 fake posts bearing his name in the last year, causing vulnerable people to hand over thousands of pounds to criminals.
Mr Lewis told the Press Association the legal action was the result of months of frustration with scammers piggybacking on his reputation and preying on Facebook users with outlandish get-rich-quick scams.
He said people have handed over money in good faith, only to find the advert has nothing to do with Mr Lewis or his company.
That’s a significant problem, of course it is. But there’s another one here as well:
Today (Monday 23 April), I will issue High Court proceedings against Facebook, to try and stop all the disgusting repeated fake adverts from scammers it refuses to stop publishing with my picture, name and reputation. To explain it, below is the official press release announcing the action.
You see, in law, Facebook isn’t the publisher. Therefore a claim of defamation doesn’t work. The actual publisher, the person responsible in law, is the person who wrote the post, or made the ad. Not Facebook itself. The situation here is akin to the telephone company or Royal Mail. Sure, both systems of communication can be used to do illegal things. And the people who do so are guilty of using them to do illegal things. But the systems themselves aren’t guilty. They have a legal status called “common carrier.” They’re responsible for what they do themselves which is illegal but not for what other people use the system to do.
And at least as far as we know the internet giants like Facebook are given this common carrier status.
A suit against those posting or making ads would almost certainly succeed. One against Facebook not so much. And you shouldn’t be buying cryptocurrencies because of Facebook ads anyway, no matter whose face appears in them.
Posted: 23rd, April 2018 | In: Key Posts, Money, News, Technology | Comment
Martin Lewis sues Facebook over scam ads; but who watches MoneySupermarket?
The added benefits of ‘money saving expert’ Martin Lewis suing Facebook for allowing fraudsters to use his name to trick money from people who trust him is that Facebook gets another kicking – good news for publishers jealous and wary of its power – and media-savy Lewis gets to be relevant. Lewis has built a very lucrative career advising people how to save cash. In 2012, he sold MoneySavingExert.com for £87m to MoneySupermarket.com, which runs an online price comparison service.
As the BBC reported at the time:
In the 12 months to the end of last October, MoneySavingExpert generated revenues of nearly £16m from 39 million users. Of this income, about 59% was earned from referral fees paid by MoneySupermarket.
It’s no mere tip-sheet.
In 2017, MoneySavingExpert reported:
Comparison site MoneySupermarket has been fined £80,000 after it sent an email to millions of customers who had opted out of marketing messages.
The story on MoneySavingExpert.com makes no mention of the site’s relationship to MoneySupermarket. Is that fair?
Martin Lewis at the top of a story that makes no reference to the fact MoneySavingExpert is owned by MoneySupermarket.
No mention of the sites’ relationship in the story
Promoting financial products is a lucrative business.
Lewis says Facebook earns money from the fake ads, making it is responsible for them. What’s odd and troubling is that Facebook, having taken the villains’ money, seems less bothered about punishing the crooks. How many of them just book another ad?
“It’s so distressing, when all my life I have campaigned against this kind of thing,” says Mr Lewis, whose face has appeared on over 50 different ads on Facebook, reports the Times. The social network does take them down – but as Lewis says: “It can take a couple of weeks and another one just pops up again. Why should I have to police this? Enough is enough. I’ve been fighting for over a year to stop Facebook letting scammers use my name and face to rip off vulnerable people – yet it continues. I feel sick each time I hear of another victim being conned because of trust they wrongly thought they were placing in me. One lady had over £100,000 taken from her.”
Someone invested £100,000 in a financial product they first saw on Facebook because it featured a photo of a bloke from the telly? What madness. No wonder conmen feel it’s worth having a go.
An example of a Facebook ad using Lewis’s face – and his response
“I’ve told Facebook that,” adds Lewis. “Any ad with my picture or name in is without my permission. I’ve asked it not to publish them, or at least to check their legitimacy with me before publishing. This shouldn’t be difficult – after all, it’s a leader in face and text recognition. Yet it simply continues to repeatedly publish these adverts and then relies on me to report them, once the damage has been done.”
That seems fair. Why should the victim have to report the crime to the company promoting the scam and earning money from it? And what does Facebook do with money earned from these ads?
“It’s time Facebook was made to take responsibility,”Lewis continues. “It claims to be a platform, not a publisher, yet this isn’t just a post on a web forum, it is being paid to publish, promote what are often fraudulent enterprises. My hope is this lawsuit will force it to change its system. Nothing else has worked. People need protection. And of course, on a personal note, as well as the huge amount of time, stress and effort it takes to continually combat these scams, this whole episode has been extremely depressing – to see my reputation besmirched by such a big company, out of an unending greed to keep raking in its ad cash.”
Mark Lewis, a solicitor with Seddons law firm who is bringing the case, outlines the case:
“Facebook is not above the law – it cannot hide outside the UK and think that it is untouchable. Exemplary damages are being sought. This means we will ask the court to ensure they are substantial enough that Facebook can’t simply see paying out damages as just the ‘cost of business’ and carry on regardless. It needs to be shown that the price of causing misery is very high.”
A Facebook spokesman replies:
“We do not allow adverts which are misleading or false on Facebook and have explained to Martin Lewis that he should report any adverts that infringe his rights and they will be removed. We are in direct contact with his team, offering to help and promptly investigating their requests, and only last week confirmed that several adverts and accounts that violated our advertising policies had been taken down.”
Buyer beware.
Posted: 23rd, April 2018 | In: Key Posts, Money, News | Comment
