UK : Public anger would affect for a generation [ 1113 ]

Mervyn King: Election winner will lose power for 30 years

Paul Waugh, Deputy Political Editor
Standard co.uk 29.04.10

• Blog: Was Mervyn right?

Public anger over coming austerity cuts will be so severe that whoever wins the next election will be out of power for a generation, Bank of England governor Mervyn King has warned.

American economist David Hale revealed today that Mr King had confided privately that David Cameron, Gordon Brown and Nick Clegg would face a long-lasting backlash as they squeezed public spending to balance the nation's books. A generation is regarded as being 30 years. 

I understand immigration fears - PM.....   Cameron vows to focus on TV debate.....   Working with Brown difficult: Cable.....   Angry student confronts Nick Clegg.....   Labour hopeful held after car crash.....   Greek crisis 'could trigger panic'.....   House price rises hit double digits.....   Prison officer badly hurt by inmate... 

I understand immigration fears - PM.....   Cameron vows to focus on TV debate.....   Working with Brown difficult: Cable.....   Angry student confronts Nick Clegg.....   Labour hopeful held after car crash.....   Greek crisis 'could trigger panic'.....   House price rises hit double digits.....   Prison officer badly hurt by inmate.....   Mann in final plea over deportation.....   Girl, 14, remanded on murder charge.....   

Warning: Mervyn King said that public anger over austerity cuts would affect British politics for a generation

Mr Hale told Australian TV of the remarks when he was today asked about the possible contagion to the UK from Greece's sovereign debt crisis.

He cited the high debt levels of the major developed economies, including Britain, and went on to comment on the British election campaign.

“I saw the governor of the Bank of England [Mervyn King] last week when I was in London and he told me whoever wins this election will be out of power for a whole generation because of how tough the fiscal austerity will have to be,” Mr Hale said.

The Bank of England refused to comment on the claims, but it is understood that the conversation took place in March rather than last week.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies said this week that all of the three main political parties were not being clear with voters over the scale of the cuts needed to get Britain's £167 billion deficit under control.

Among the measures that experts have warned will be needed are public sector pay cuts, frozen benefits, abolition of winter fuel payments and free TV licences for the elderly, VAT rises and a delay of Crossrail. Police and teachers' numbers could be cut and tax credits withdrawn.

The revelations of Mr King's warning came as a leading American academic who forecast the US recession predicted that Britain could soon become embroiled in a Greek-style fiscal crisis. Nouriel Roubini, a New York University professor, said the bond markets were beginning to move against the UK. He told Bloomberg: “The bond vigilantes are walking out on Greece, Spain, Portugal, the UK and Iceland.”

Ahead of tonight's crucial televised election debate on the economy, Labour and the Tories were at loggerheads over the lessons from the Greek crisis.

Labour was boosted by 100 economists praising its stance on the deficit, claiming that to cut spending this year would harm the fragile recovery.

But shadow chancellor George Osborne seized on a new letter from 50 businessmen warning of the dangers of a Lib-Lab coalition.

The entrepreneurs said that the Lib-Dem plans to raise capital gains tax were as bad as Labour's national insurance rise.

Mr Osborne said: “This warning from some of the most successful entrepreneurs that Liberal and Labour policy will make matters worse should be heeded.

“It is the Conservatives who understand that in order to create jobs we need to grow business and allow new businesses to be created.”

Trains....in trouble [ 1112 ]

Train crash pictures

(copy from  "crush stuff ", blog )

ΚΚΕ : Aπεργιακές κινητοποιήσεις του ΠΑΜΕ στα λιμάνια..[ 1111 ]

Στην αντεπίθεση το ΚΚΕ για τις κινητοποιήσεις στα λιμάνια

NAFTEMPORIKI.GR Πέμπτη, 29 Απριλίου 2010 11:22
Τελευταία Ενημέρωση : 29/04/2010 13:42

Στην αντεπίθεση πέρασε το ΚΚΕ για τις απεργιακές κινητοποιήσεις στα λιμάνια, μετά το κύμα αντιδράσεων που προκάλεσαν οι μορφές διαμαρτυρίας του ΠΑΜΕ. 

«Η κυβέρνηση, οργανώσεις του κεφαλαίου, η ΝΔ, το ΛΑΟΣ (κι από πίσω ο ΣΥΝ/ΣΥΡΙΖΑ) μαζί με τους εργατοπατέρες και τα χρυσοπληρωμένα παπαγαλάκια της πλουτοκρατίας στα ΜΜΕ, τους χρεοκοπημένους συνταξιούχους της πολιτικής που τους έβγαλαν από τη ναφθαλίνη, όλοι αυτοί χύμηξαν στο ταξικό ναυτεργατικό κίνημα, στο ΠΑΜΕ και στο ΚΚΕ, επειδή, λένε, εμπόδισαν το κρουαζιερόπλοιο - κάτεργο να αποπλεύσει στην ώρα του, δηλαδή σε ώρα απεργίας», αναφέρει σε ανακοίνωσή του το Κομμουνιστικό Κόμμα και προσθέτει: 

«Είναι οι ίδιοι που προωθούν και στηρίζουν την αντεργατική - αντιλαϊκή θύελλα, οι ίδιοι που στηρίζουν νέο πακέτο βάρβαρων μέτρων, να περικόψουν και να βάλουν πλάτη στην κατάργηση του 13ου και 14ου μισθού, στη νέα αύξηση του ΦΠΑ και άλλων έμμεσων φόρων, στην πλήρη κατεδάφιση του ασφαλιστικού συστήματος, στην παραπέρα επέκταση των ελαστικών μορφών εργασίας, στο πέταγμα στο δρόμο εκατοντάδων χιλιάδων εργαζομένων». 

«Έχουν επιστρατεύσει το ψέμα και τη συκοφαντία, την πλήρη διαστροφή της πραγματικότητας και τη χυδαιότητα, παρουσιάζοντας ως δήθεν συμφέροντα όλων, τα συμφέροντα των εφοπλιστών, των μεγαλοξενοδόχων, του ΣΕΒ και των άλλων τμημάτων του κεφαλαίου που ξεζουμίζουν τους εργαζόμενους», υποστηρίζει το ΚΚΕ και τονίζει πως τα δίκαια αιτήματα ενός κλάδου, όπως των ναυτεργατών, αφορούν όλους τους εργαζόμενους και η επίθεση είναι ενιαία.

«Αυτοί που προκάλεσαν την κρίση, τώρα θέλουν να πληρώσουν τις συνέπειές της τα δικά τους θύματα. Και "ξεχνούν" τις συνθήκες γαλέρας στις οποίες δουλεύουν οι ναυτεργάτες, την ανεργία, το ΝΑΤ που έχουν καταληστέψει, τη μαύρη εργασία και το δουλεμπόριο στα λιμάνια», υπογραμμίζει μεταξύ άλλων το ΚΚΕ.

UK ,General Elections ..[ 1110 ]

David Cameron: Give me the tools to change Britain

Joe Murphy, Political Editor
London Evening Standard.,,29.04.10

• Interview: You don’t deserve to govern if you treat people like fools

David Cameron appealed to voters to “give me the tools” today as Gordon Brown struggled to recover from the crisis brought on by his Bigot-gate gaffe.

Countdown: David Cameron, with wife Samantha, at Birmingham children’s hospital today before the leaders’ debate

In an exclusive interview with the Evening Standard ahead of tonight's crucial final TV debate, the Tory leader asked for an outright victory to lead Britain.
“Give me the tools, with a majority government, with a fresh team, new leadership to take the country in a different direction, and to confront the problems we have,” he urged. But with seven days to the election, it emerged that Bank of England governor Mervyn King has privately warned that the spending cuts needed will be so severe that the winning party may find itself cast out of power for a generation.
The Standard was with Mr Cameron at the exact moment he was handed a text revealing that the Prime Minister had called a lifelong Labour voter “just a bigoted woman”. He simply raised his eyebrows and carried on reading.
Mr Brown today faced a welter of recriminations from his own team — and signs that his victim, Rochdale widow Gillian Duffy, 66, is set to sell her story to a newspaper. She was driven from her home in a BMW, clutching a bouquet. Home Secretary Alan Johnson admitted the party's campaign had suffered a “terrible blow”. Another senior minister called it “ghastly” and another said it “could be catastrophic” for the core Labour vote.
Mr Brown visited a welding factory in the Midlands today — an ironic choice amid claims that his bandwagon was falling apart. He was chaperoned by wife Sarah and campaign strategist Lord Mandelson and was on his best behaviour, chatting and smiling with workers at the plant.
But when he told one worker her firm was doing well, she responded: “Our company's doing well everywhere but I think it's in spite of you.”
The issue dogged his morning. Trying to move the debate on, he declared: “Yesterday is yesterday. Today I want to talk about the future of the economy. I think I've apologised and I've said it was the wrong word to use.”
But he was forced to reassure workers at a Q&A session that he was listening on immigration — one of the concerns Mrs Duffy raised with him.
“I understand the worries people have about immigration,” he said. “I understand the concerns about what is happening to people's neighbourhoods.” Mr Johnson defended Mr Brown's “human” mistake” and continued the party's “hair shirt strategy” of showing maximum repentance. He went on: “I was mortified, not so much for Gordon — he's big enough and strong enough to look after himself — but for Mrs Duffy.”
“I think when you saw her face and the hurt that caused her, there was this enormous feeling of sympathy. Labour supporters, not least the Labour candidate in Rochdale, would have been horrified by that.
“This is a terrible blow. It's damaging. Mrs Duffy seems to represent the best of the pre-baby boom generation.”
Labour's hope was that voters will begin to see the furore as a media concoction if it carries on, especially if Mrs Duffy sells her story to an anti-Labour newspaper such as The Sun.
One minister said: “It was ghastly but no voter has brought it up with me yet and I was at a meeting of 200 people. The media has gone over the top and it could turn around.” The minister cited the case of Janie Janes, the mother of a dead soldier sent a badly written letter of condolence, where initial public hostility to Mr Brown turned to sympathy.
But another minister pointed out that with postal votes issued in the past three days, huge numbers of elderly voters are currently weighing up their choices and may sympathise with Mrs Duffy. “In that respect, the impact on our pensioner core vote could be catastrophic,” he said.
“For me, and many others, one of the most horrifying things was seeing the way Gordon smiled after meeting her. He didn't look like a man who was showing remorse.”
Chancellor Alistair Darling called Mr Brown's remarks “deeply regrettable”. He added: “Gordon shouldn't have said it. He's deeply remorseful.”

Read the full David Cameron interview here

China nursery school attack ... [ 1109 ]

Man stabs 28 children in China nursery school attack

Crowds gathered outside the school after the attack BBC.,Thursday, 29 April 2010 10:14 UK Twenty-eight children and three adults have been injured by a man with a knife at a nursery school in eastern China, the third such attack in a month. Officials said five children were taken to hospital in a critical condition after the incident in Jiangsu province. It follows a knife attack on Wednesday in the south of the country, in which 16 pupils and one teacher were injured. Earlier that day, a doctor convicted of stabbing eight children to death in Fujian province in March was executed. The alleged assailant in Jiangsu was named by police as Xu Yuyuan, a 47-year-old unemployed local man. Reports say he attacked the children at the Zhongzin pre-school in Taixing city as lessons began in the morning, stabbing a security guard who tried to stop him. ANALYSIS By Chris Hogg, BBC News, Shanghai The spate of attacks in schools is unsettling for the Chinese. Earlier this month the education ministry urged educational institutions to upgrade their security - teaching children safety awareness and hiring security guards. But this school had a guard who, according to reports, was injured trying to protect the children. And there is little you can teach a class of four-year-olds that will help them when an armed man bursts into their classroom. Some here are calling for more severe punishments for those who commit this kind of crime. Others suggest that not enough attention's paid to what they call "the voices of the weak". When that happens they say "they take revenge on society". Police said Mr Xu, who was detained shortly afterwards, was carrying a 20cm (8in) knife, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported. "The gate-keeper, teachers, and students were attacked. The injured are receiving treatment in hospital. We don't have any reports of deaths yet," an official with the Taixing city government told AFP news agency. An official named Zhu told AFP the critically-injured children were now in a stable condition. Most of the injured children were reported to be four-year-olds from the same class. "The injured have been sent here one after another," an unnamed official at the Taixing No 1 People's hospital told the Associated Press news agency. "The doctors are now trying their best to save them." Security fears China has witnessed several school attacks in recent years, most blamed on people with personal grudges or suffering from mental illness. CHINA SCHOOL ATTACKS 29 April 2010 - three adults and 28 children injured in Taixing, Jiangsu 28 April 2010- at least 15 children and one teacher injured in Leizhou, Guangdong 24 March 2010- eight children killed in Nanping, Fujian November 2004 - eight boys stabbed to death in a school dormitory in Ruzhou, Henan September 2004 - 28 children knifed in nursery in Suzhou and 24 children at a school in Shandong August 2004 - pre-school doorman kills one child and injures 14 in Beijing On Wednesday, at least 15 students and one teacher were injured in a knife attack at a primary school in southern Guangdong province. Chen Kangbing, 30, was a teacher at the school in Leizhou city but had been on sick leave since 2006, state media reported. He attempted to throw himself from the roof of the school before he was arrested, said the city's public security chief, Qin Zhucai. The same day, 42-year-old Zheng Minsheng was executed in eastern Fujian province for stabbing to death eight children in Nanping. Police said Zheng, who admitted to "intentionally killing" the children, had been upset about a failed relationship. He had appealed against the death sentence. The BBC's Chris Hogg in Shanghai says the attacks are unsettling in a country where such violent attacks are rare. Since a spate of attacks in 2004, many schools in China have employed professional guards but the latest incidents have led to public calls for increased security in schools. China Daily says the education ministry ordered all school to upgrade their security facilities earlier this month and employ guards. School were also ordered to teach students about safety and ensure young children were escorted home, said the report. But such measures are expensive, says our correspondent, and in reality there is little that can be done to prevent such acts of violence. The incidents have also sparked a debate about the motives of the killers, with some suggesting that rapid social change and growing unemployment has led to an increase in psychiatric illnesses.