Depending how the rest of the day goes, this may be my last post of 2012. So let me briefly take the opportunity to thank everyone who’s visited my blog this year, and especially those who’ve gone to the trouble of spreading the word on Twitter, Facebook. It’s been a tough year for the UK under its present excuse for a government, and 2013 is likely to be as bad or tougher – but if we stick together, keep fighting and keep raising awareness, the clock is ticking on the robber-barons in government and those who back them.

To all readers of good will, may you be healthy, happy and successful in the New Year and beyond. Now, on with the post.

On 27 Nov 2012, during Commons Health Questions, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt was challenged by Labour MP and former Shadow Health Minister Barbara Keeley about the impact…

Out of a desire to be sure, to my own satisfaction, about the provenance and accuracy of the ‘Plebgate’ footage that Andrew Mitchell claims ‘exonerates’ him, and which Channel 4’s ‘Dispatches‘ programme claims casts serious doubt on the police logbook’s account of the incident, I have come to two conclusions. Firm ones.

Firstly, the exterior footage shown by Dispatches is genuine footage. Secondly, the footage – while genuine – is edited and cut in such a way as to give a false impression of:

– the point at which Mr Mitchell started his ‘altercation’ with the police officers
– the amount of time he had to utter the now-infamous phrases, ‘f***ing plebs’, ‘you don’t run this f***ing country’ and ‘you should know your f***ing place’
– the number of people outside the gates as the altercation took place

I’ve watched the footage as shown by two separate…

What I’m about to write about isn’t a secret. It’s on the parliamentary record, and the occasional web or print news article has touched on it. But, as far as it possibly can, the government keeps it very much under the radar. So it may well be, esteemed visitor to this blog, that you’ve never heard about it.

If you’re a regular (esteemed) visitor, you’ll know that I’ve written frequently about the NHS and I’ve written at length about the government’s attacks, current and future, on it. I don’t work in the NHS, but I do recognise the enormous importance to our society of healthcare ‘free at the point of need’ and the doctors, nurses and other staff who provide it. I also recognise that it’s a prime target for the Tories’ state-stripping ideology.

In the course of my research for various articles over the past couple of weeks, I’ve…

This is a guest post by James Painter of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism

It’s nearly Christmas, so it must be the end of another round of UN climate talks.  One of the less reported aspects of this annual meet-up is that the 190-odd delegations often come from quite different backgrounds when it comes to popular views about climate change in their home countries.

For example, surveys show significant differences between countries as to how much people believe that mankind’s greenhouse gas emissions are the main driver of climate change.

At first this might seem odd. After all, reports from the IPCC and others are pretty good at laying out where there are core certainties and residual uncertainties.  And these reports get widespread coverage in most countries of the world.

An interesting presentation about the concerns of local residents around the City Council’s basically unannounced plans to chop down a lot of trees in Alexandra Park. (We linked to the initial petition here, and published “another view” as well – the latter is probably our most commented upon post ever).  This Dilbert cartoon may be relevant…

Alexandra Park -­‐ restoration plan concerns — meeting with Manchester City Council.

Today we met with Manchester City Council to express our concerns about the Alexandra Park restoration plan. Present at this meeting (which was invitation only at request of Manchester City Council) was:
Rionne Avis, Nadine Andrews, Jenny Trigg – local residents
Richard Sharland, Manchester City Council
Eamonn O’Rourke, Manchester City Council
Eddie Flanagan, Manchester City Council
Eunice Long, Manchester City Council
Sara Hilton, Head of Heritage Lottery Fund NW
Ten members of our group collaborated to compile a presentation…

This is a guest post by Liz Kessler who developed a strategy to improve the EC1 area of south Islington, London. 

This project features as one of the inspirational examples in Green Alliance’s new report Towering ambitions, which will be launched at the Greening towers event tomorrow.

Since 2004 much of the EC1 area of south Islington, London, has been changed from a place that felt bleak, unsafe and colourless into one that feels safer, more attractive, neighbourly and vibrant.

I’ve been mocked by a Blairite ex-Dept of Health policy advisor for my recent post on Kettering General Hospital and the lies Tory health minister Daniel Poulter told to one of his own MPs about plans to downgrade the hospital.

Joseph Farrington-Douglas, who used to be Chief Health Advisor to John Healey (when he was Labour Minister for the NHS)  tweeted this message to his followers on Monday:

Here’s his comment in plain text, in case you have any problems with the image:

Silly HIMBYist Save Our Hospital shenanigans. An MRSA on all their houses.

An MRSA is Mr F-D’s attempt at a humorous variation on ‘a plague’. It stands for ‘multiply resistant staphylococcus aureus’ – the drug-resistant ‘superbug’ that regularly kills people in hospitals – especially if the private cleaning contractors cut back cleaning to enhance profits. So it’s nice of him to wish it on people who are…

Latest Gaza Catastrophe
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The media double standards in the West on the new and tragic Israeli escalation of violence directed at Gaza were epitomised by an absurdly partisan New York Times front page headline: “Rockets Target Jerusalem; Israel girds for Gaza Invasion” (NYT, Nov 16, 2012). Decoded somewhat, the message is this: Hamas is the aggressor, and Israel when and if it launches a ground attack on Gaza must expect itself to be further attacked by rockets. This is a stunningly Orwellian re-phrasing of reality.

The true situation is, of course, quite the opposite: Namely, that the defenseless population of Gaza can be assumed now to be acutely fearful of an all out imminent Israeli assault, while it is also true, without minimising the reality of a threat, that some rockets fired from Gaza fell harmlessly (although with admittedly menacing implications) on the outskirts of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv…