| Drinking alcohol when pregnant 'is safe' Guidelines and advice on the best way to cope with pregnancy seems to be confusing, particularly on the issue of alcohol. bbc.co.uk |
Vince Cable backs Lord Browne's plan to raise university tuition fees Business Secretary says he supports the ''main thrust'' of Lord Browne's review despite his pledge to oppose fee increases. telegraph.co.uk |
Is democracy overrated? | Open thread As well as admitting to admiring Maggie, Bernie Ecclestone thinks democracy is no way to run anything – do you agree?Bernie Ecclestone, the billionaire supremo of Formula One racing (and a former donor to the Labour party) has been sharing his thoughts on politics in an 80th birthday interview with the Guardian."I get myself into so much trouble when I say these things but I don't think democracy is the way to run anything," he said."Whether it's a company or anything you need someone who is going to turn the lights on and off. We had Mrs Thatcher and when she was in charge she did turn the lights on and off. She brought the country to where it was before it got muddled up again."Besides admiring Margaret Thatcher, Ecclestone seems also to have a soft spot for dictatorship – though he thinks torture is "an old-fashioned way" of getting things done.But do you agree with him about democracy? Is it often a barrier to getting things done?Bernie EcclestoneMargaret Thatcherguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Businessman dies after shooting Mohammed Siddique dies after being shot at house in Fife, while another man is treated for gunshot wounds. bbc.co.uk |
Boris Johnson: fares package presentation skills Boris's announcement of his new public transport fares package contrasted sharply with what happened this time last year. The package for 2010 was unveiled in style at a dedicated event at a London Underground depot in Haringey. But details - incomplete ones, as it turned out - of increased fares that will hit Londoners next January were included without fanfare in a sheaf of documents handed out at his press conference last week where he responded to the government's spending review.BBC London's Tim Donovan got to grips with the issue the following day, reporting that several tariffs will go up by considerably more than the average 6.8% that Boris spoke of. Still, as Labour's John Biggs has acknowledged, "at least he has spread the pain more evenly than in 2010." That's largely to the relative benefit of bus-users, who tend to be less well-off. But the bit of media management I most enjoyed was TfL's press release headline: "Mayor confirms 2011 fares at level signalled last year." This is true: it refers to the "assumption" in the October 2009 TfL business plan that fares would need to go up in January 2011 by an amount equal to the Retail Price Index figure for July 2010, plus two percent. July's RPI was 4.8% and, well, you can do the maths yourself. However, the assumption that had been made for the hikes that came into effect in January of this year was the July 2009 RPI plus 1%. What was the July 2009 RPI? Minus 1.4%. When asked last October to justify why this January's increases - an average of 3.9% for Tube fares and a thumping 12.7% for buses - would be so much higher then the July RPI plus 1%, it was emphasised to me that this "assumption" was, you know, just an assumption. It wasn't a pricing formula, set in stone. Not sticking to it was no big deal. Settle down.Boris JohnsonLondon politicsLondonTransportTransport policyDave Hillguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |