New York Times

Please share this widely. It’s absolutely crucial for the future of Stafford hospital and of the wider NHS.

An important new academic paper was published this week by the Oxford University Press‘ Oxford Journals on the subject of Hospital Standardised Mortality Ratios (HSMRs). This paper, by a team of respected academics from the ‘Primary Care Clinical Sciences’ and ‘Public Health, Epidemiology and Biostatistics’ departments of the University of Birmingham is titled:

The findings of the Mid-Staffordshire Inquiry do not uphold the use of hospital standardized mortality ratios as a screening test for ‘bad’ hospitals

This paper examines the findings of the Francis Report into events at Mid Staffs NHS Foundation Trust – and reaches two findings that are absolutely vital for the proper public understanding. The whole paper can be read here, but the key conclusions – quoted from the report with the permission of its principal author – are as follows:

Targeting…

It’s been a big day. My articles on the fake psychometric ‘test’ that the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) is forcing unemployed people to take on pain of losing their benefits were picked up by the Guardian’s Shiv Malik, and subsequently by the Huffington Post’s Felicity Morse. As a result of Shiv Malik’s article, the Guardian asked me to write a brief piece for its ‘Comment is free’ section – my first ever piece of mainstream journalism.

Malik’s article was the most-read of the day in the newspaper’s ‘Society’ section. Clearly the unethical actions by the DWP have struck a chord in people – and rightly so. It’s been great to see such a spotlight shone on such a fundamental issue as the way in which the government is cynically manipulating – and nakedly threatening – disadvantaged people.

However, it appears that the government’s behaviour in this…

Ask the Indian Prime Minister: Does he know why the crowds protesting the gang-rape of a 5 year old child in Delhi are so angry with his government? 

Please join us in our demand the PM immediately fire the Delhi Police Chief, Neeraj Kumar, by signing our petition below.

The rape of child is heinous! The fact that the government’s own data shows that one in every two children in India is sexually abused in some way is even more angering.

But ask what the public in India now is starting to ask more and more loudly: Can a corrupt and violent police force control or stop rape and other forms of violence against girls and women — violence that has now reached

“The Deficit was caused by Labour’s runaway public spending and failure to deal with a ‘something for nothing’ culture”

In the last year before the Financial Crisis, public spending stood at 41% of GDP and national debt was just 44.1% of GDP.

According to the National Audit Office, the Bank Bailout increased the National Debt by £1.5trn.  The National Debt now stands at 73.5% of GDP and is expected to reach 101% by 2015.

Throughout this time, public spending has stayed roughly the same, rising to 44% of GDP under the Coalition government.

The deficit and the increase in national debt are the results of the Bank Bailout and Austerity (which has choked off economic growth).

“Our benefit reforms reward hardworking people”

The government has been caught making wildly inaccurate claims about the efficacy of its benefit reforms to contribute to a myth that benefits are soaring because of…

The paper Re-Imaging the Commons as ‘The Green Economy’ was presented at the International Environmental Communication Association’s 2013 conference Environmental Communication: Participation Revisited: openings and closures for deliberations on the commons in June. This paper can be downloaded on www.academic.edu and on the EcoLabs website.

ABSTRACT: The United Nations’ green economy programme radically re-imagines the commons as a space where ecosystems services will be quantified, marketised and traded. This paper will examine issues with this version of the green economy for environmental communicators. It will review the etymology of the concept, examine contested ideas on what a green economy would entail and situate these proposals in relation to different economic approaches to the environment. It will suggest strategies for communicating the contested nature of the proposals and exposing obfuscations. This paper will argue that in stark opposition to green economics with its focus on participation and democratic processes, the UN’s…

This post by Robin Webster was first published on The Carbon Brief

The UK’s dependence on energy imports has increased to its highest level since 1976, according to statistics released by the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC). Here’s the story of the UK’s dependence on imported fuels in eight graphs.

DECC released the data at the end of March, about a month after the chief executive of energy regulator Ofgem warned that the country’s dependence on imported fuels could drive up consumer energy bills.

I had the privilege yesterday of meeting some of the nurses from Stafford hospital. I’ve written various articles about what has gone on at and around Stafford hospital, from the massive media and political misrepresentation of the mortality statistics to the Tories’ cynical use of Stafford as a tool to hammer the wider NHS in spite of ludicrously-flawed data, to Jeremy Hunt’s remarkable omission in his statement on the lessons of the Francis report and the near-flawless assessment of the hospital’s performance in two recent inspections by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), and far more besides.

I’ve also written a couple of pieces titled ‘A day in the Life of an NHS nurse’ and one on the crucial importance of context for a proper understanding of any story or situation – context ignored by the media.

If you were to believe what you read or hear in much of…