TOP 100 ENGLAND SITES
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| Iris Robinson scandal: developer donated to party funds A property developer who paid money to the teenage lover of Iris Robinson, the disgraced MP, last night disclosed that he had also donated to Democratic Unionist funds. telegraph.co.uk |
The Naked Rambler is a brazen affront to the great undressed The antics of the so-called Naked Rambler have focused unwanted attention on naturism, says William Langley telegraph.co.uk |
David Cameron's got a great new idea ... but you ain't seen him ... right? Revealed: Tory leader to address conference of California thinktank TED, but they don't want you to know thatWhen Gordon Brown addressed the global conference of the California-based thinktank TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) in July, he used it as an opportunity to call for the technology community to "fundamentally change the world", saying: "Foreign policy can never be the same again."If only he had more ambition. Today, it emerged that the man who would displace him as prime minister, David Cameron, is to deliver his own "idea worth spreading" to the prestigious talking shop on 10 February, presenting what organisers promise will be a "provocative new idea".Intrigued voters seeking clarification of the Conservative leader's provocative thinking during the frenzied weeks before a general election will be disappointed, however.Only a very select collection of 250 of "Britain's leading thinkers, doers, creators and catalysts" have been invited to the "strictly private" gathering, with the stern injunction: "Please note that David Cameron's planned presence at TED is a secret and we want to keep it that way."Happily, despite possessing ingenuity and creativity in spades, not all of Britain's leading thinkers count meek obedience among their virtues. Thus we can also reveal that the Conservative leader, who this week declared his plans for a "brazenly elitist" approach to teacher training, will be hosted at the event by Britain's best-connected PR man, Matthew Freud, multimillionaire son-in-law of Rupert Murdoch.The number of attendees has been restricted to the first 150 of the "carefully selected individuals" invited, and – rather in the manner of an illegal rave – the secret venue will be revealed only to those whose presence has been confirmed shortly before the event.Cameron has "assured" the event's organisers that his address "will not be a political stump speech" and has promised that his secret provocative new idea will take no more than 18 minutes to outline.The organisation famously insists that all speakers, from industry titans to presidents to leading scientists, restrict their talks to the same, short length.A spokeswoman for David Cameron said she was not able to give further details on the subject of his talk, but that she did not consider the wording of the invitation to be unusually secretive: "It's just an invitation that they have sent out before their event, as they would normally do."The speech will also be broadcast live by satellite to a gathering in Long Beach, California, hosted by TED's curator, the British-born former journalist Chris Anderson, along with addresses by Daniel Kahneman, a Nobel laureate who founded behavioural economics, Michael Shermer, editor of Skeptic magazine and the award-winning French economist Esther Duflo."The 110-minute session will be followed by cocktails, appetisers and a chance to converse with your fellow luminaries", reads the invitation, concluding what "promises to be an unforgettable evening". At least for those who get in.David CameronConservativesMatthew FreudGordon BrownEsther Addleyguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
The Big Issue Having been shouted down by opponents in what passes as debate for years, it was a profound relief to read Nick Cohen articulating the moral high ground on which the Iraq war was based ("Blair will never be branded a war criminal", Comment).It is so simple. The cases for going into Rwanda, Kosovo, Sierra Leone and Iraq are identical: people were being murdered in their thousands. End of story. You can't support intervention in the first three but not in Iraq. Saddam killed for 30 years and his sons were carrying on murdering.Opposition to the war is fuelled largely by anti-Americanism in general and a hatred of Bush in particular and, yes, I think he's a twerp too.But how can you possibly support such a monster by opposing his removal? How could you and then claim any moral high ground? You should be ashamed of yourselves.Alan CropperLondon SE1â– I am wholly unsurprised that Nick Cohen is not a Fern Britton viewer, but even so, Blair has now admitted the whole thing. On television.Opposition to the Iraq war was supposed to have been "antisemitic" at the time, although heaven knows how or why. Any threat to Israel would have depended on the existence of WMD, an existence believed neither by 90% of the population nor, as everyone but Cohen could tell and as everyone but Cohen now knows from the horse's mouth, by Tony Blair.But they have exhausted everything else. They have exhausted everything else on Afghanistan, so they are back to 9/11, a wholly unconnected event. And they have exhausted everything else on Iraq, so they are back to accusing that war's totally vindicated opponents of being antisemitic for never having supported the deaths of, as even Kelvin Mackenzie baldly stated it on Question Time, one million Semites. Nick Cohen is so much better than this.David LindsayLanchester, Co Durhamâ– Please give Nick Cohen a medal for consistent journalistic writing of the highest order. I do so agree with his latest article. Some years ago, I read a book entitled After Such Knowledge, What Forgiveness? My Encounters With Kurdistan by Jonathan C Randal, an American, in which he describes the gassing and persecution of Kurds. owever, sSometimes, one has to make a stand against cruelty and wickedness. We should feel proud of our armed services which participated and which are still fighting daily to preserve the freedoms we often take for granted.Annette St John HoweWoolDorsetâ– I wanted Saddam out and I was and remain against the Iraq war. How you resolve that contradiction is another question. What I cannot stomach is Tony Blair's and others' pious retroÂspective justifications of the war. We all need to step back and take a more dispassionate, historical look at things. Until then, Cohen remains just another anguished ideologue.Patrick MarmionLondon NW10â– I am not a lawyer, but I think I can help Nick Cohen with his difficulty understanding what constitutes an illegal war. A war of aggression against a country that poses no imminent military threat to you would be a good example. I would be very surprised if journalists of the calibre of John Humphrys or Jon Snow thought it worthwhile asking any interviewee if they knew this.David LynchWantageIraq war inquiryIraqTony BlairSaddam HusseinNick Cohenguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Amis in row over 'euthanasia booths' • Novelist wants euthanasia booths for elderly• Warning of 'civil war' between young and oldMartin Amis has never fought shy of an argument, whether it be with the critic Terry Eagleton (over Islamist extremism), his pal Christopher Hitchens (over Stalin) or fellow novelist Julian Barnes (over Amis leaving his agent – Barnes's wife).But none of those opponents were as tough as his new target promises to be. Now 60, Amis has picked a fight with the grey power of Britain's ageing population, calling for euthanasia "booths" on street corners where they can terminate their lives with "a martini and a medal".The author of Time's Arrow and London Fields said in an interview at the weekend that he believes Britain faces a "civil war" between young and old, as a "silver Âtsunami" of increasingly ageing people puts pressure on society."They'll be a population of demented very old people, like an invasion of terrible immigrants, stinking out the restaurants and cafes and shops," he said. "I can imagine a sort of civil war between the old and the young in 10 or 15 years' time."There should be a booth on every Âcorner where you could get a martini and a medal," he added.His comments were immediately condemned as "glib" and "offensive" by anti-euthanasia groups and those caring for the elderly and infirm. Supporters of assisted suicide, meanwhile, insisted that a dignified and compassionate end should be on offer to those who are dying.Alistair Thompson, from the Care Not Killing Alliance, said Amis's views were "very worrying". "We are extremely disappointed that people are advocating death booths for the elderly and the disabled. How on earth can we pretend to be a civilised society if people are giving the oxygen of publicity to such proposals?"What are these death booths? Are they going to be a kind of superloo where you put in a couple of quid and get a lethal cocktail?"The Alzheimer's Society said there were 700,000 people with dementia in the UK and the figures were set to rise. "It is understandable that people in the early stages of dementia may reflect on the subject of euthanasia," said Andrew Ketteringham, of the Alzheimer's Society. "However, glib and offensive comments about 'euthanasia booths' and 'demented old people' only serve to alienate those dealing with this devastating condition and sidestep the hugely important question of how we can best support those affected to live well and maintain their dignity."Amis, whose forthcoming novel, The Pregnant Widow, is due to be released shortly, stood by his comments, made in an interview in the Sunday Times.He told the Guardian: "What we need to recognise is that certain lives fall into the negative, where pain hugely dwarfs those remaining pleasures that you may be left with. Geriatric science has been allowed to take over and, really, decency roars for some sort of correction." He said his comments were meant to be "satirical", rather than "glib".His stance on euthanasia had hardened since the deaths of his stepfather, Lord Kilmarnock, the former SDP peer and writer, in March aged 81, and his friend Dame Iris Murdoch, the novelist, in 1999, aged 79, two years after her husband revealed that she was suffering from Alzheimer's."I increasingly feel that religion is so deep in our constitution and in our minds and that is something we should just peel off," he said. "Of course euthanasia is open to abuse, in that the typical grey death will be that of an old relative whose family gets rid of for one reason or another, and they'll say 'he asked me to do it', or 'he wanted to die', Amis said. "That's what we will have to look out for. Nonetheless, it is something we have to make some progress on."Answering critics who said his comments were "offensive' to older people, Amis, a grandfather, said: "Well, I'm not a million miles away from that myself."He added: "I had a friend who was desperately ill and she wanted to go to Switzerland, to Dignitas, but she was defeated by bureaucracy at this end. And, I think it is existentially more terrifying to feel that life is something you can't get out of."Frankly, I can't think of any reason for prolonging life once the mind goes. You are without dignity then."In his interview, Amis said his stepÂfather had died "very horribly". "He always thought he was going to get better. But he didn't get better and I think the denial of death is a great curse."He said Iris Murdoch, whom he had known for a very long time , was "a friend, I loved her. She was wonderful. I remember talking to her just as it started happening, and she said, 'I've entered a dark place'. That famous quote. Awareness of loss is gone, the track is gone. You don't know the day you've spent watching Teletubbies; it just vanished."The pro-euthanasia pressure group Dignity in Dying said: "Like all too many people in the UK, Martin Amis has witnessed the bad death of a loved one." But, it added: "Dignity in Dying's campaign for a change in the law is not about the introduction of 'euthanasia booths', nor is it in anticipation of a 'silver tsunami'. Our campaign is about allowing dying adults who have mental capacity a compassionate choice to end their suffering, subject to strict legal safeguards."Martin AmisOlder peopleAssisted suicideAlzheimer'sCaroline Daviesguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |