| Miliband: Don't cut child benefit Labour's new leader Ed Miliband opposes coalition "unfair" plans to axe child benefit for higher rate taxpayers, saying all families should be supported. bbc.co.uk |
Britons use three times the planet's resources People in Britain are consuming three times the resources than the planet can provide, according to a new study. telegraph.co.uk |
Mobo awards crown Tinie Tempah as best newcomer Grime MC honoured alongside JLS, Eminem, N-Dubz, Professor Green and Plan B at Mobo awards in LiverpoolIn sequins and satin, sharp suits and high heels Liverpool helped the Mobo Awards celebrate its 15th anniversary in style last night.London grime MC and rapper Tinie Tempah showed himself to be a worthy successor to the current king of UK urban Dizzee Rascal as he was named best newcomer, after a year that has seen him move seamlessly from the grittier edges of the underground scene to the mainstream.The 21-year-old, whose real name is Patrick Okogwu, also took home the award for best video for Frisky featuring Labrinth, although he missed out on best song and best UK act.Accepting the award, Tempah said he had been at the event last year as a spectator. "It's nice to be nominated and its nice to finally win something," he mumbled into the mic.At the Echo Arena, Strictly Come Dancing's Alesha Dixon hosted the music of black origin awards alongside Radio 1 chart show presenter Reggie Yates.Boyband JLS took home two awards for best UK act and best album.Best song went to N-Dubz's Playing with Fire featuring Mr Hudson while best UK hip hop/grime act went to Hackney-born Professor Green, aka Stephen Paul Manderson.East London continued to punch above its weight as Forest Gate's Ben Drew, better-known as Plan B, was awarded best Best UK R&B/Soul Act after seeing his critically lauded second album The Defamation of Strickland Banks go straight into the UK album chart at number one earlier this year.Best international artist went to Eminem, whose seventh studio album Recovery stayed at number one on the US chart for five consecutive weeks, also achieving the top spot in the UK.Before the awards, ticket holders streamed up to the gates of the Echo Arena. Michelle Dalrymple, a local government worker from the city was there with her eight-strong clan. "We're black, we're Scouse and we're proud," she said in glittering golden heels. "Liverpool has a brilliant up-and-coming music scene and this is a boost to urban music in the city."The crowd continued their raucous form inside the arena, jumping, singing and screaming through performances from Tinchy Stryder, who was joined on stage by the evening's golden boy Tinie Tempah, as well as Professor Green, Devlin and American rapper Nelly.Dixon also made a quick role change from presenter to performer, bounding around the stage in spiky shoulder pads and scorching pants. She was a brief reminder of the female dimension of the UK urban music scene, with each of the 14 awards throughout the evening given to men.As the event came to a close, its founder Kanya King took a moment to bask in the adulation of both acts and audience. "If someone had told me 15 years ago that the Mobo awards would have grown to this scale I don't think I'd have believed them," she said. "But over those years we've had some of the biggest acts on our stage and we've championed young artists and watched them grow to international super stars … and of course we've partied like there was no tomorrow."She wasn't above a little light gloating. "Now here we are 15 years later and urban music is the new pop music and I hate to say this, but we told you so."Despite criticism about the event being held outside London for the first time last year, organisers this year decided to hold the event in Liverpool.That is thanks, in no small part, to an 18-year-old from the Toxteth area of the city. Ben Osu and his friend Denise Janiece watched the event in Glasgow on television, and decided it would be the perfect means to boost the profile of urban music in a city better known for its rock bands.They launched a Facebook campaign gaining over a 1000 members in a week, before "bombarding" King with reasons why the event should be held in Liverpool."Liverpool had the slave trade and even though a lot of people might not want to remember that, we wanted to celebrate that it is a diverse city," said Osu, speaking to the Guardian before the event. After witnessing an audience that very nearly outshone the performers, his final reason for bringing the awards to the city was difficult to argue with: "It's just Liverpool, isn't it? It's one of the best cities in the world."MobosTinie TempahEminemPlan BJLSUrban musicAlexandra Toppingguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Two swine flu cases are confirmed Two cases of swine flu have been confirmed in Northern Ireland, the Public Health Agency (PHA) has said. bbc.co.uk |
In the shadow of the Shard | David Shariatmadari Skyscrapers with silly names are sprouting in London again, but is this 'boom' really a positive economic sign?There's a mini-boom in construction. You may not have realised this. But I'm surrounded by it, and have a good idea of what kind of boom it'll turn out to be. I live halfway between a building named for its resemblance to an electric razor, and one known as the Shard. Twice a week, I cycle over London Bridge, and risk life and limb craning my neck to look at a megastructure taking shape in front of the 1866 train sheds. Its bottom half is now sheathed in glass, a concrete core sprouting from the centre. On this, stencilled in blue, are the floor numbers – if I squint, I can see we're up to about 56, out of 72. Guys hospital, the Shard's next-door neighbour, for a long time the tallest building in the area, now looks a bit stumpy.This is London's most Bladerunner-esque building, looming over a neighbourhood of narrow streets and ancient relics. It is as incongruous as anything I've seen, the steeples of local churches offering up their own attempts at awe-inspiring height and seeming feeble in comparison. But this is increasingly how the capital is going to look. A predicted shortage of commercial office space in the coming years has seen property developers asking architects to dust off their plans. Those buildings that skyscraper geeks (a rare but dedicated sub-category of internet obsessive) swooned over have been resuscitated. Their silly names, meant to give the impression that they're held in some affection by the public, but probably dreamt up by PRs, are in the papers again: the Cheesegrater, the Walkie Talkie, the Pinnacle.The aesthetics range from the intimidatingly impressive to the grotesque: together, they look dizzying, hard angles jarring with biomorphous curves. What happens when you put a load of "icons" together? Do they cease to be iconic? Do they look ridiculous? Londoners are about to find out.The way buildings look, which is always what monopolises the debate, isn't everything. Of course aesthetics are important – they play a huge part in how we experience the places we live. And in one sense, these buildings are seductive. They have the ability to make you stare up at them in wonder, gigantic public sculptures that dazzle for existing so far beyond the scale of everyday life. But what are they really? Strip away the shiny skin and you have humdrum offices piled on top of one another – in Owen Hatherley's memorable phrase, "the aesthetic tuning of stacked trading floors". People, in this context, are reduced to the level of worker ants, expensive but necessary components in the enterprise of making money. If you remember the scene at the end of Working Girl, where the camera pulls back to reveal that Melanie Griffith's hard-won office is one of hundreds, all exactly the same, you'll know what I mean.So from my bicycle, this "boom" doesn't look like its fruits are going to be evenly spread. And construction analysts seem to agree: the most visible signs of the upturn so far are in and around the City of London, and in that it reflects the imbalances in our economy as a whole. Will growth be driven again by a frothy financial services sector, with all the risks that entails? Skyscrapers may sprout like mushrooms (smaller versions might even spread to cities such as Liverpool, Leeds and Manchester, as they did at the height of the last bubble). But will there be anything in it for us, apart from the thrill of looking up at some new glass spike, and feeling small?Construction industryReal estateCommercial propertyLondonArchitectureDavid Shariatmadariguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |