| PM pledges dissident terror fight The prime minister David Cameron pledges to fight the "increasing" threat from dissident republicans. bbc.co.uk |
My dogs are optimists | Michele Hanson We don't need scientists to tell us that some dogs are grumpier than others. For my happy hounds, the bowl is always half fullScientists at Bristol University, examining the behaviour of dogs when separated from their owners, have found that some dogs seem gloomier that others. I already want to bang my head against the wall. Did the scientists expect all the dogs to behave in the same way? Do they have dogs of their own? Have they not noticed that dogs each have their own little foibles? All dogs are different.Dogs that are calm when left alone have an optimistic attitude, suggest the scientists, but dogs performing "undesirable separation-related behaviour (SRB) … vocalising, destruction and toileting" while alone, have a more "pessimistic cognitive bias". Well, you would have, wouldn't you? If you were a dog. Imagine it. You've been living in a dogs' home (all 24 dogs in the experiment were in animal re-homing centres), you're taken into a strange room where a person hides behind a screen with you, then you're allowed to come out and find your dinner in a bowl. The bowl could be anywhere in the room, some days it's here, some days it's there. Some days it's full, some days it's empty. You may keep optimistically dashing to the bowl hoping your dinner's in it. You may get hacked off with being jerked about and decide not to bother. Either choice is reasonable, for a dog.It's the owners who sound barking in this study. Some apparently think a dog who shreds their sofa, craps on their carpet or barks incessantly while they're out is "fine" or "happy" or even spiteful, some get rid of the dog, a "few seek professional help". Thank heavens the scientists have concluded the dogs' behaviour and "underlying emotional state … requires elucidation".But I am cheered, in some ways, by these findings. They prove, at least, that a) dogs have "emotional states" and that b) many dog owners are fairly brainless and unfit to have a dog at all. They don't understand their doggie, they can't be fagged to keep it if it's trouble, and they don't even know that dogs prefer not to be left alone for too long in a boring house, unable to snack, play or relieve themselves. They are naturally scavengers and parasites. They need to be busy doing their job, scavenging or parasiting: begging for food, waiting for treats. If there's no one around, they're unemployed, which is no good for anyone.We did once have a dog who was very upset by the sight of suitcases. He knew they meant we were going on holiday and abandoning him. Even though a kind and familiar friend came to stay with Lusty in his own home, nothing could relieve his "pessimistic cognitive bias". He pined, was despondent, ate hardly a scrap and was always skeletal by the time we returned.Luckily, my two dogs do not pine or perform undesirable SRB when left alone. They remain calm and asleep. They are an optimistic pair, always expecting the next happy event: dinner, a snack, walkies, an adoring visitor, a brush, a lie in the sun. Sometimes they are overly optimistic. They think they will catch that squirrel, or that crow that is taunting them from the tree, or that they will dig fast enough to catch the vole. A million futile attempts have taught them nothing. They live in hope that one day the bird will not fly away, the vole, squirrel, rat or cat will not escape. They even look forward to visiting the vet. They forget the pain and just anticipate the liver treat. Sometimes they look a little glum, if their dinner's late, if their walkie is postponed and, of course, if they're left alone. But they just accept it and have a kip.I'm lucky. But if you have a dog with undesirable SRB, there are ways of dealing with it. Ask the vet. Or the scientists. Pick an optimistic one.Animal behaviourPsychologyPetsMichele Hansonguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
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Boys held over murder of girl, 15 Two 15-year-old boys are arrested on suspicion of murder after the body of a teenage girl is found in woods near Bridgend. bbc.co.uk |
Ed Miliband's New Labour economics | Eamonn Butler In his speech to the CBI Ed Miliband has said Labour's business strategy will be different, but it looks a lot like Gordon Brown'sHaving told Andrew Marr that "the era of New Labour has passed", Ed Miliband was surprisingly kind to the project when he addressed business leaders today. New Labour recognised the importance of economic efficiency as well as social justice, of wealth creation as well as the distribution of wealth, he told the CBI."Enterprise and job creation are fundamental to the good economy and good society, and I will lead a party that understands that at its core," he said. It would be pro-business (the CBI loved that, naturally) – but "in a different way".I wonder if it will. Of course, when you talk to the employers' trade union you have to be nice about business and employers. But is there a real change under the skin of Labour? Is there even a real change under the skin of Ed Miliband?His solutions sounded – well, distinctly Brownian. A bit of subsidy here, a little tax rebate there, a support somewhere else, and firmer regulation all over.And, of course, a Miliband administration would seek to "create jobs in the industries of the future". Whatever they are. If you or I could predict what the industries of the future were, we'd be billionaires. I'm not quite sure how Miliband proposes to identify them.Indeed, it all took me back to the Wilson government's attempts at "picking winners". That economic "strategy" was based on the absurd idea that a few distant government politicians and officials knew what we should be investing in better than the millions of specialists, entrepreneurs and financiers whose careers and livelihoods depended on betting correctly on the future.All the more surprising that Miliband thinks he can identify "the industries of the future" when he believes his predecessors got it wrong. They engineered, he told the CBI, an over-reliance on the financial services sector, which left us painfully exposed when the whole thing fell in ruins. Manufacturing, he argued, deserved more emphasis, and "government needs to step in". And Britain should be going for the high-skill jobs, not the grunt work. (I thought that pitching us more towards high-end skills and away from metal-bashing was what Blair and Brown had in mind when they boosted the financial sector. This version sounds rather like "the white heat of the technological revolution" all over again.)So a Miliband government would "step in" to force the banks to lend to small businesses, and so on and so on. There's no obvious end to it.But if I ran a manufacturing business and government offered to "step in", I'd run a mile. I'd remember the scores of little schemes and incentives and tax allowances that Gordon Brown extended to business, hoping to push it where he thought it should go, and all the distortion and confusion and form-filling that they produced. But here is Miliband promising more of the same – new schemes for job training, encouraging employers to raise the skills base, and so on. Re-skilling Britain may be a worthy objective, but it's more likely to be achieved by officials and politicians butting out, cutting the burden of regulation and taxation, and letting business people get on with the wealth-creation job that they know far better than any government ever will.Ed MilibandEconomic policyLabourConfederation of British Industry (CBI)EconomicsEamonn Butlerguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |