| High and dry For decades, the clothes line has had an image problem in the US but is it about to be reclaimed? bbc.co.uk |
Background noise 'makes food taste bland' The blandness of airline meals has long been a complaint among passengers - but research suggests that the chefs may not be to blame. telegraph.co.uk |
'Surveillance state' fear as government revives tracking plan Email, text, internet and mobile phone details of everyone in Britain to be storedA £2bn plan to allow the police and security services to track the email, text, internet and mobile phone details of everyone in Britain is to be revived, the Home Office has confirmed.The coalition agreement promised to scrap the "surveillance state" plan by pledging to "end the storage of internet and email records without good reason". Both Conservatives and Liberal Democrats voiced criticism in opposition.But the project, known as the interception modernisation programme, has been quietly revived - a decision buried in the back pages of the strategic defence and security review published this week. Senior Home Office officials have confirmed that legislation is being prepared.A bill to set up the scheme was dropped by the Labour government last November after internet service providers and mobile phone companies raised concerns over its technical feasibility, costs and privacy safeguards.But Whitehall officials now say the costs – up to £200m a year over the next 10 years – has been earmarked in the Home Office's budget despite a 49% cut in its capital programme.At present many internet service providers keep all the traffic details of their subscribers' web and phone use for billing. But the legislation will also require them to collect and store for at least 12 months all third party communications data that crosses their networks.This is an enormous potential extension of the data stored for billing and will include all traffic from sources such as GMail, Skype, Facebook and Twitter.Internet service providers have questioned whether such demands are reasonable or technically feasible.The data includes all the "envelope" information such as who is contacting whom, when, where and how - but not the actual content of what was said or written. Interception of contents requires a separate warrant authorised by the home secretary.The communications companies will be required to make the data available to the police and security services on a case-by-case basis for the purposes combating terrorism and serious crime under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act.The government's defence and security review says the interception programme is required to keep up with changing technology and to protect the public.It says: "Communications data provides evidence in court to secure convictions. It has played a role in every major security service counterterrorism operation and in 95% of serious organised crime investigations."Ministers say the legislation will be compatible with their approach to information storage and civil liberties.But Isabella Sankey, policy director of Liberty, said: "One of the early and welcome promises of the new government was to 'end the blanket storage of internet and email records'."Any move to amass more of our sensitive data and increase powers for processing would amount to a significant U-turn. The terrifying ambitions of a group of senior Whitehall technocrats must not trump the personal privacy of law abiding Britons."UK security and terrorismSurveillanceTerrorism policyLiberal-Conservative coalitionUK Civil libertiesAlan Travisguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Freeze goes on as more snow due The big freeze is expected to continue overnight with temperatures plunging and fresh snow expected. bbc.co.uk |
WikiLeaks cables: Prince Andrew bats for Britain - at taxpayers' expense As special trade representative, the Duke of York trots the globe seeking business for British companiesFew of even his closest friends would ever describe the Queen's second son as Prince Charming. Prince Andrew does brusque, blunt and boorish, but very rarely charming, especially to those in inferior social positions to himself and to journalists – even those who go to interview him about his mission as Britain's special representative for international trade.It is an occupation that takes the Duke of York around the world at taxpayers' expense and often by the most expensive form of transport. Not that public criticism, or the nickname Airmiles Andy, ever deters him from taking the next privately chartered jet, or helicopter to lift him over the traffic to a golf club."It's not the quickest way – it's the most cost-effective and sensible way to use the time I have available. I probably use the helicopter less than other members of the royal family," he told the Daily Telegraph last year after taking a £2,000 helicopter flight from Windsor to Deal and back so he could spend an hour at a golf club party.Not that such jaunts are the most expensive. Last year, according to the royal public finances annual report, which details the costs of official journeys costing £10,000 or more, there was the chartered jet for the four-day trade visit to Algeria and Tunisia that cost £54,869, and the seven-day round trip that took in Canada and Baku for £94,500, or the return trip to Jeddah costing £28,767, or the Singapore-Hanoi-Bangkok charter for £46,264, or the trip to Moscow for £20,083, or the £62,092 for a four-day charter flight to Mexico and Panama, not to mention the £43,989 it cost to get him from Mumbai to Delhi and Kolkata. Or for that matter, the £11,148 to whisk him from Prestwick airport to Inverness and then down to the golf links at Dundonald in Ayrshire to attend the Duke of York's Young Champions trophy.He was batting for Britain again last week, accompanying his parents on their official visit to the Gulf. In September he was in China, and he has also been to Australia, central Asia, Malaysia, South America, the US and Italy this year."If you are a public figure you have to accept the rough with the smooth. The trouble with that particular tag [Airmiles Andy] is that, personally, I would not choose to do as many of these [foreign visits] but I am doing them because over the nine years in the job, the number of people who wish to be helped has increased, almost exponentially, through the recognition by businesses of where I can deliver," he said. "It's not only about increasing the opportunities for British businesses overseas. It is also about [supporting] business generally within the UK."The prince, fourth in line to the throne, who passed his 50th birthday in February and spent 22 years in the Royal Navy, some of that time as a helicopter pilot, has been dogged by controversy and scathing headlines from a media which clearly does not appreciate his worth. Once he was known as Randy Andy ("the press want something that rhymes … if you are in a public position, as I am, you are going to get stones thrown"); then there was the short-lived but ill-starred marriage to Sarah Ferguson. She at least remains loyal: "Andrew is a great man and a thoroughly good person ... he's a model boy. He doesn't drink, he goes to bed early," she told the Belfast Telegraph in December 2008.Business organisations like him too. His official website bears testimony to their encomiums. They say he is diligent and well-briefed, although – more privately – some speak of a tendency to harangue them about things he has only just found out, but which they have known for years. Andy Scott, the CBI's director of international and UK operations, said: "He is a good ambassador representing the UK. The royal family connection is very helpful. In a market such as China the presence of someone of his stature really counts."And yet, in recent years, the repeated, graceless remarks. He probably thinks of them as an attempt to emulate his father, although he lacks the Duke of Edinburgh's frustrated intelligence, wit or strange ethereal charm. Thus, there was the attempt to lecture America on its imperial shortcomings – "those in responsible positions in the US should have listened to the British and learned from our experiences as a colonial power", he said in 2008, shortly before embarking on a trade tour (by private jet) to woo Republican businessmen in the deep south. And then there was his assertion last year that bankers should not be demonised because "bonuses in the scheme of things are minute". Or, just a few weeks ago, castigating the Ministry of Defence for "sitting on their fat backsides" by insisting on additional safety checks on the armoured vehicles made by a Dorset firm he was visiting. So his remarks in Kyrgyzstan are just par for the course. "You have to take the bashes with the good bits and I've got a thick skin," he told CNN.Palace observers believe that the duke may be embarrassed by his lack of wealth compared with those he visits in the Middle East and former Soviet republics in the hope of boosting trade with Britain.Andrew receives an annuity of about £250,000 a year from the Queen and the cost of his official trips is borne by the taxpayer. There were more than 600 trade-related engagements in Britain and abroad in 2008 and he visited more than 20 countries. Expenses averaged £4,000 a week."I'd love to be able to say I've been responsible for £10bn of business or for another 250 jobs coming to the UK [but sometimes] the companies themselves don't know," he told the Financial Times last year. "I get paid nothing ... That's my life. That's what I expect, right? That is because of who I am ..."So to me this state of affairs is not extraordinary. To anybody else who looks in, they think I'm bloody mad. But that's what we do."Prince AndrewMonarchyThe US embassy cablesStephen Batesguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |