The Observer view on the Tories’ shameful record on climate change | Observer editorial

November 7, 2015, 4:03 pm

≫ Next: Are pedestrian fast lanes a good thing?

Since the election, the government has performed a series of dizzying U-turns on its green policies

President Obama reputedly remarked of the forthcoming UN climate change summit: “I’m dragging the rest of the world behind me to Paris.” Later this month, 149 nations will congregate to agree national targets for reducing carbon emissions. But Britain, once regarded as a global leader, has relegated itself to the ranks of those reluctantly being pulled along in Obama’s wake.

Since the election, the government has performed a series of dizzying U-turns on its green policies. It has announced cuts to subsidies for onshore wind and solar energy; scrapped the zero carbon homes standard; ended the green deal for home insulation; and reversed its promise to exclude national parks from fracking.

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Are pedestrian fast lanes a good thing?

November 7, 2015, 8:00 am

≫ Next: British business interests must lie at the heart of Cameron’s EU negotiations | John Longworth

≪ Previous: The Observer view on the Tories’ shameful record on climate change | Observer editorial

A Liverpool shopping centre introduced separate tracks for the dashers and the dawdlers last week. Should the rest of the UK follow suit?

A fast lane not only benefits speed-walkers, it protects the less mobile and gives those at leisure greater freedom

This week, the first ever “fast track” pedestrian shopping lane has been piloted in the Liverpool One shopping centre.

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British business interests must lie at the heart of Cameron’s EU negotiations | John Longworth

November 7, 2015, 4:05 pm

≫ Next: The NHS has social objectives as well as economic ones. Can we reconcile them? | Jennifer Dixon

≪ Previous: Are pedestrian fast lanes a good thing?

Despite what Westminster and global giants argue, retaining the status quo is not an option

This month, nearly three years after the prime minister first indicated his intention to renegotiate the terms of the UK’s relationship with the EU, we will finally learn what his demands for a revamped settlement will be.

Under pressure from both Brussels and his counterparts in capitals across the EU, David Cameron will have to detail his shopping list for reform, perhaps before he was willing to do so.

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The NHS has social objectives as well as economic ones. Can we reconcile them? | Jennifer Dixon

November 7, 2015, 4:06 pm

≫ Next: The Observer view on the jihadi threat | Observer editorial

≪ Previous: British business interests must lie at the heart of Cameron’s EU negotiations | John Longworth

The health service will be £22bn in the red by 2020 and only clinical staff-led efficiencies can save it

Look beyond the headlines is always wise advice. The main story in the NHS at present appears to be a standoff between Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, and junior doctors and the BMA on pay and working conditions. But the real story has far more to do with pace of the financial squeeze on the public sector to reduce the fiscal deficit by 2020-21. And this is a political choice.

The NHS is used to an average real-terms growth of 4% per year. Since 2009-10, the figure has been cut to about 1% per annum – the most sustained period of parsimony since the NHS was formed in 1948.

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The Observer view on the jihadi threat | Observer editorial

November 7, 2015, 4:05 pm

≫ Next: God has become a political football in the presidential game | Michael Cohen

≪ Previous: The NHS has social objectives as well as economic ones. Can we reconcile them? | Jennifer Dixon

Only a truly international response can fight the growing threat posed by Isis

The crash of the Russian A321-200 Airbus in Sinai last Saturday, which killed all 224 people on board, is turning into one of the defining moments of the worldwide struggle against jihadi terrorism. Evidence that the plane was destroyed by an onboard bomb and not by a technical fault, pilot error or structural failure, is mounting by the day.

French investigators say the aircraft’s black box recorded a sudden explosion. US officials, referring to intercepts probably obtained by GCHQ’s Troodos listening post in Cyprus, say they overheard “chatter” between Islamic State terrorists in Sinai and Syria pointing to a bomb plot. American satellites reportedly spotted a flash at the moment the plane disappeared off radar screens. Russian complaints that Britain acted rashly by suggesting early last week that a bomb caused the disaster have faded amid repeated Isis boasts of responsibility. Vladimir Putin eventually followed David Cameron’s lead in suspending flights between Russia and Egypt while security was reviewed at Sharm el-Sheikh, where the plane took off, and other Egyptian airports. The US, similarly slow off the mark, has also tightened security.

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God has become a political football in the presidential game | Michael Cohen

November 7, 2015, 4:05 pm

≫ Next: Tourists can stay clear, unlike those living with terror | Will Hutton

≪ Previous: The Observer view on the jihadi threat | Observer editorial

Republicans like Ben Carson no longer merely talk about their faith; they present themselves as defenders of it against the heathen liberals

There have been so many memorable moments in the race for the Republican presidential nomination so far, but one really sticks out. Donald Trump, when asked to name his favourite book, declared: “As much as I love The Art of the Deal [the bestselling book he wrote], it’s not even close. We take the Bible all the way.”

This from a man who once called communion “my little wine and my little cracker,” and when asked if he preferred the New or the Old Testament said: “Probably equal. The whole Bible is just incredible.”

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Tourists can stay clear, unlike those living with terror | Will Hutton

November 7, 2015, 4:05 pm

≫ Next: More doctors like me will turn their backs on the UK | Nick Rhead

≪ Previous: God has become a political football in the presidential game | Michael Cohen

As Egypt joins the list of places off limits, we Europeans must be careful not to disengage with the Muslim world

The intensity and scale of Islamist terrorism is getting worse. It was only in June that we were horrified by 38 dead in a beach hotel in Sousse, Tunisia. Now the black box from the downed Russian tourist jet, with its reported recording of an explosion, seems to confirm the findings of British and American intelligence: that a terrorist bomb destroyed the plane 23 minutes after it took off from Sharm el-Sheikh airport. Up to 20,000 British holidaymakers are in limbo as flights home are suspended.

It is part of a litany of dreadful incidents. Recall the acid attacks on women tourists in Zanzibar or the terror that engulfed Nairobi’s Westgate shopping mall. Yet the magnitude of this latest crime suggests a tipping point. Islamist terrorism, with its horrifying images of beheaded hostages, or indiscriminate killing everywhere from Nigeria to Syria, is no longer something sadly to shake your head over as the TV pictures speed by.

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More doctors like me will turn their backs on the UK | Nick Rhead

November 7, 2015, 4:04 pm

≫ Next: This threat to abortion law must be fought by MPs of all hues | Yvette Cooper

≪ Previous: Tourists can stay clear, unlike those living with terror | Will Hutton

The health secretary has indulged in falsehoods such as blaming consultants and then junior doctors for 11,000 ‘excess deaths’ at weekends

When I moved to Melbourne in 2014 – to gain more experience in emergency medicine – I thought I would return home, like the majority of junior doctors before me. But the more I listen to the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, the more I think this won’t happen.

People will differ in their views on whether £23,000 is an appropriate basic starting salary for junior doctors. I am aware that we are not the only professionals to work hard, long hours. But I am unaware of other professions that are tasked with the sort of responsibilities thrust on junior doctors. By the age of 25, I had told people that they might die or that their relatives had died. I had been part of a team that treated three young men who had been shot. I had witnessed a child die suddenly and helped, unsuccessfully, to resuscitate her. I have known that, following an accident, a 30-year-old would be quadriplegic before he did and watched as he was told. These, Mr Hunt, are regular experiences for junior doctors.

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This threat to abortion law must be fought by MPs of all hues | Yvette Cooper

November 7, 2015, 4:08 pm

≫ Next: Small minds are ravaging Edinburgh’s beauty | Kevin McKenna

≪ Previous: More doctors like me will turn their backs on the UK | Nick Rhead

The Commons votes on Monday on whether to devolve abortion law to Scotland: to do so would be the thin end of the wedge

Campaigners against abortion in Britain are getting louder. On Monday, I fear parliament will play into their hands and vote to make it harder to defend a sensible framework of abortion law that gives women the healthcare they need.

Nearly 50 years ago, the Abortion Act put an end to backstreet abortions – an end to the terrible deaths of desperate women and to the imprisonment of doctors who tried to help them, perhaps carrying out abortions for victims of abuse or rape or for women with serious health problems.

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Small minds are ravaging Edinburgh’s beauty | Kevin McKenna

November 7, 2015, 4:04 pm

≫ Next: When did people on Instagram become walking adverts? | Carole Cadwalladr

≪ Previous: This threat to abortion law must be fought by MPs of all hues | Yvette Cooper

The city’s great buildings were created by people who loved the city. They are being demolished by those who don’t

A spectre, thought happily to have been exorcised from the heart of beautiful Edinburgh, is stalking the city’s old wynds and crevices once more.

In the 1960s and early 1970s, it was given licence by those entrusted with guarding Edinburgh’s built heritage to embark on a wrecking spree through the heart of the city before finally being driven out. The damage, though, is still sorely evident on Princes Street. As I observed in my report last week, the city’s planners are once more failing wretchedly to heed the lessons of the past.

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When did people on Instagram become walking adverts? | Carole Cadwalladr

November 7, 2015, 4:08 pm

≫ Next: Testing times for Tory education policies | Letters

≪ Previous: Small minds are ravaging Edinburgh’s beauty | Kevin McKenna

Forget John Lewis’s Christmas ad – the real selling power is on social media

‘This month’s Black Friday bargain blitz is going to be bigger than ever!” So ran a headline. Black what? Bargain what? I had to Google Black Friday because I couldn’t remember if it was the 1987 crash or when sterling plunged out of ERM in 1992.

Neither, it turns out – they’re Black Monday and Black Wednesday. Could it be the day Zayn Malik left One Direction? Or the day the release of a Christmas advertisement by a large retail store made headlines in every outlet in the country and what we used to call “the news” rolled over and died?

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Testing times for Tory education policies | Letters

November 5, 2015, 11:38 am

≫ Next: Reflections on Britain’s collective memory of war | Letters

≪ Previous: When did people on Instagram become walking adverts? | Carole Cadwalladr

The conclusion of Wednesday’s editorial is that the new education secretary “must listen to what she’s told” (Back to the drawing board: Nicky Morgan reinvents the wheel, 4 November).

If Morgan had had the slightest intention of basing her policies on evidence and detached professional advice, she would never have advanced so utterly stupid a set of proposals in the first place.

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Reflections on Britain’s collective memory of war | Letters

November 5, 2015, 11:39 am

≫ Next: Letter: Michael Meacher captivated his audience with zeal and determination

≪ Previous: Testing times for Tory education policies | Letters

In attacking Jeremy Corbyn’s two-year-old statement about commemorating the first world war, Matthew d’Ancona does not take full account of the context in which the comments were made.(The first world war is still with us. That’s why we remember, 2 November). Corbyn made the remarks specifically about David Cameron’s plans to spend large sums of public money to celebrate the anniversary of the outbreak of the hostilities in 1914. There may be some argument for celebrating the end of that tragic conflict, but surely not the firing of the starting pistol that lead to the four-year slaughter that followed.
Tim Matthews
Luton, Bedfordshire

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Letter: Michael Meacher captivated his audience with zeal and determination

November 6, 2015, 9:46 am

≫ Next: Here’s Robot Peston … we could easily automate newsreaders | Letters

≪ Previous: Reflections on Britain’s collective memory of war | Letters

I recall vividly the first meeting of the parliamentary environment group after Labour’s election win in 1997. Michael Meacher arrived, breathless and late, into a packed and hot committee room in parliament. He proceeded to give a sharp and detailed analysis of environmental challenges, without notes, for 40 minutes, leaving the roomful of NGOs and industry lobbyists captivated by his zeal and determination. His speech set the tone for his term as environment minister.

Short of being in the cabinet, which Tony Blair had denied him, he was determined to make the most of the job he had been given. He did just that, and can be credited with a vital role in Kyoto negotiations, as well as the delivery of a waste strategy that created thousands of jobs in the recycling industries as well as a fourfold increase in recycling rates over a decade. Best of all, he delivered into law the right to roam. That was a strong green legacy that deserves to be fully acknowledged.

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Here’s Robot Peston … we could easily automate newsreaders | Letters

November 6, 2015, 10:03 am

≫ Next: Unite’s policy on Trident is clear | Letters

≪ Previous: Letter: Michael Meacher captivated his audience with zeal and determination

I notice you didn’t include in your list of jobs that are at risk from robots (Report, 5 November) that of newsreader. I would have thought that given my smartphone can translate my voice commands into text, it would be simple to do it the other way round with a bit of facial expression added. We wouldn’t notice much difference between them and the current lot, and it would save all that boasting and seething reported in the same issue (Bong! Huw Edwards gloats as BBC beats ITV at 10).
Margaret Squires
St Andrews, Fife

• On Remembrance Day, I will wear a red poppy to honour my father and three uncles who all saw combat in the second world war. I will also wear a white poppy to honour my granddad, who robustly refused to be driven, sheep-like, to the trenches in 1914, holding that if you gave a gun to a working man and told him to kill another working man, the best thing for either of them to do would be to unite and collectively turn the guns on the bloody fat cat bosses that caused the whole thing to start with.
Judith Mackinlay
Manchester

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Unite’s policy on Trident is clear | Letters

November 6, 2015, 10:13 am

≫ Next: Ridiculous passport to gender inequality

≪ Previous: Here’s Robot Peston … we could easily automate newsreaders | Letters

I do wish Michael White would get it right (Trident opposition and Syria retreat are symptoms of a global Brexit, 4 November).

I made no intervention into the debate at the Scottish Labour party conference on Trident. I did not have to, for our union’s Scottish leaders were upholding Unite’s policy. That is, the jobs and communities of our members come first, and until and unless meaningful alternative work is on offer we will support the continuity of their employment.

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Ridiculous passport to gender inequality

November 6, 2015, 10:48 am

≫ Next: Consumers should be able to tell if UK foods have been fairly traded | Letters

≪ Previous: Unite’s policy on Trident is clear | Letters

Choosing figures from the past who can collectively represent our country is a very difficult thing, but not so difficult as to allow for selecting only two women against seven men for the “Creative United Kingdom” passport (Report, 4 November). There is a wealth of creative women to choose from; writers alone include Jane Austen, George Eliot, Virginia Woolf, Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë, Elizabeth Gaskell, Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelley, Daphne du Maurier, Doris Lessing, Beatrix Potter, JK Rowling, and Agatha Christie. And what about other fields such, as medicine? What about Florence Nightingale and Elizabeth Garrett Anderson?

Full representation is practically impossible but striking a gender balance in this case has no obstacles and it would be ridiculous to claim otherwise.
Gabriel Osborne
Bristol

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Consumers should be able to tell if UK foods have been fairly traded | Letters

November 6, 2015, 10:57 am

≫ Next: Security and liberty: Theresa May’s surveillance plans | Letters from Lord West and others

≪ Previous: Ridiculous passport to gender inequality

Today you can walk into a UK supermarket and find products from the global south carrying the Fairtrade mark but no such scheme for UK/EU farmers exists

At one level Tesco’s decision to put a new price deal to dairy farmers (Report, 4 November) is welcome; at another it is a further step towards customer confusion and disappointment for farmers.

As former head of campaigns at Christian Aid in the 1990s I was involved in the development sector work on fair trade that led to the setting up of the Fairtrade Mark. Today you can walk into a UK supermarket and find products from the global south carrying the mark but no such scheme for UK/EU farmers exists.

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Security and liberty: Theresa May’s surveillance plans | Letters from Lord West and others

November 6, 2015, 10:59 am

≫ Next: Egg freezing is developing but more knowledge is needed | Letters

≪ Previous: Consumers should be able to tell if UK foods have been fairly traded | Letters

Parliament is about to embark on the long process of producing new legislation that will replace the discredited Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa). It will address the needs for law enforcement agencies to identify and track murderers, paedophiles, criminals and terrorists across the rapidly expanding digital communications arena. We should rejoice, as it is an opportunity for our country to set a global gold standard of legislation to keep our people safe and yet take due account of individual privacy.

Far from welcoming this opportunity, I have noticed a barrage of misguided and vitriolic comment often painting our police and agencies as a risk to freedom and heaping praise on Edward Snowden (May’s new surveillance powers face opposition, 5 November). We should be clear that the men and women in the agencies and police work tirelessly to ensure our greatest freedom, that of life itself. Snowden has, by releasing masses of classified material, made it inevitable that innocents will die who would otherwise have lived. This legislation is critical for the security of our people, so let’s stop using rabble-rousing, meaningless phrases and work to ensure it is fit for purpose when it becomes an act in 12 months time.
Alan West
House of Lords

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Egg freezing is developing but more knowledge is needed | Letters

November 7, 2015, 4:04 pm

≫ Next: How to make sure that the medicine goes down well | big issue

≪ Previous: Security and liberty: Theresa May’s surveillance plans | Letters from Lord West and others

There are limits to what the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority can do

In your recent article and commentary on egg freezing (“Egg freezing is the tempting option if you’re desperate for a child; but can women be sure it’s the right choice?”, News), you make assertions about the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) that require clarification.

You say that we publish “no data on success rates by clinic”, but fail to note that, while there has been an increase in the number of women freezing their eggs, there have not yet been enough cycles performed using those eggs to produce any meaningful outcome data. The very purpose of freezing is to use eggs later and many that have been frozen have yet to be used.

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