The doctors’ union has concerns about the changes
The government’s health plans for the NHS in England need changing so much that the entire bill may need to be withdrawn, doctors say.
The British Medical Association called for a series of changes as part of its submission to the listening exercise.
In particular, the union has demanded the duty on the regulator to promote competition be dropped, something other critics have called for.
Nick Clegg and Labour’s John Healey are to make speeches about the plans later.
The deputy prime minister’s speech is keenly anticipated because he has been outspoken about the need to make significant changes to the proposals in recent weeks.
The Lib Dem leader is expected to say that change is needed and he is determined to see the “right reform” introduced.
He will point out that while the NHS has always benefited from a mix of providers, including the private sector and charities, he will not allow the NHS to be “flogged off to the highest bidder”.
“People want choice – over their GP, where to give birth, which hospital to use,” he will say. “But providing that choice isn’t the same as allowing private companies to cherry-pick NHS services.
“It’s not the same as turning this treasured public service into a competition-driven, dog-eat-dog market.”
Mr Healey, the shadow health secretary, is expected to say that the government has mishandled the NHS in its first year in power, reflecting badly on the prime minister himself.
He will say: “David Cameron is a PR man looking for a PR answer.”
The attacks come as the government’s listening exercise is drawing to a close. This week marks the end of the six-week process, which was launched last month as the government deferred its plans amid mounting criticisms.
During the process – effectively a second consultation after one last autumn – more than 200 events have been held, with ministers promising to use the suggestions put forward to improve the bill.
“The listening exercise is a genuine opportunity to improve our plans, and we look forward to hearing views from all who want to safeguard our NHS for the future”
Department of Health spokeswoman
But the BMA’s intervention illustrates just how tricky getting consensus is going to be.
As well as calling for the duty to promote competition to be dropped, the union said timetables needed to be relaxed and duties placed on GP consortia to involve other clinical staff.
There should also be much more stress on collaboration and integration, the BMA added.
BMA chairman Dr Hamish Meldrum said: “While change is necessary, this major upheaval is not.”
But the government has received more backing from a number of other groups, including Reform, a pro-market think tank, and the NHS Confederation, which represents managers.
Both argued to varying degrees in their submissions that greater competition was needed to improve care.
But the NHS Confederation said the case for the breadth of the reforms “had yet to be clearly made”, while the changes were not “sufficiently focused” on the problems facing the NHS, such as the financial squeeze and variation in standards.
A Department of Health spokeswoman said ministers had made it clear “substantive changes” would be made.
“The listening exercise is a genuine opportunity to improve our plans, and we look forward to hearing views from all who want to safeguard our NHS for the future.”
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A look at some of the art on display at the gallery’s first exhibition devoted entirely to three-dimensional works.
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New time lapse footage shows the intricate construction of the ArcelorMittal Orbit on the Olympic Park.
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Wild reindeer foraging for food on the Arctic islands of Svalbard
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Arctic reindeer can see beyond the “visible” light spectrum into the ultra-violet region, according to new research by an international team.
They say tests on reindeer showed that the animal does respond to UV stimuli, unlike humans.
The ability might enable them to pick out food and predators in the “UV-rich” Arctic atmosphere, and to retain visibility in low light.
Details are published in the The Journal of Experimental Biology.
UV light is invisible to humans. It has a wavelength which is shorter (and more energised) than “visible” light, ranging from 400 nanometres down to 10nm in wavelength.
The researchers first established that UV light was able to pass through the lens and cornea of the reindeer eye by firing light through a dissected sample. The tests showed that light down to a wavelength of about 350nm passed into the eye.
“Humans and some other mammals are actually a minority in not having UV sensitivity”
Professor Lars Chittka Queen Mary University London
They then sought to prove that the animals could “see” the light, by testing the electrical response of the retina of anaesthetised reindeer to UV light.
“We used what is called an ERG (electroretinography), whereby we record the electrical response to light by the retina by putting a little piece of gold foil on the inside of the eyelid,” co-author Professor Glen Jeffery of University College London told BBC News.
The tests showed that photoreceptor cells or “cones” in the retina did respond to UV light.
“If you’re a bumblebee, you wouldn’t think much of what this animal is doing because it’s seeing in what’s called ‘near UV’ (about 320 to 400nm), but that’s still very high energy stuff.”
UV vision might enable reindeer to “see” their traditional predator, the Arctic fox
The researchers believe UV vision could enable the reindeer to distinguish food and predators in the “white-out” of the Arctic winter and the twilight of spring and autumn.
Lichen, on which the animal feeds, would appear black to reindeer eyes, they say, because it absorbs UV light. The animal’s traditional predator, the Arctic fox, would also appear darker against the snow, as its fur absorbs UV light.
Urine in the snow would also be more discernable in UV vision, which might alert reindeer to the scent of predators or other reindeer.
Neither did the animal appear to suffer any damage as a result of seeing in UV, say the researchers, or suffer the “snow blindness” humans can experience in the UV-rich Arctic environment.
Professor Lars Chittka of Queen Mary University London, who has explored the UV capabilities of bees, said the study showed what we call the “visible” spectrum did not apply to most of the animal kingdom.
“It’s further evidence that UV sensitivity across animals is the rule rather than the exception, and that humans and some other mammals are actually a minority in not having UV sensitivity,” he said.
Professor Chittka was not surprised the UV light appeared to do no damage to the reindeer retina. He said the tests suggested the eye would only admit lower-frequency UV light (“UV-A light”) rather than more damaging higher-frequency light (“UV-B”).
Further modelling and behavioural tests would also be needed to verify that reindeer’s apparent capacity to detect UV light really did result in “better detection of predators and arctic lichens”, he said.
The same research team which conducted the reindeer tests will soon repeat the same experiments on seals to see whether they can see into the UV region. Professor Jeffery believes many Arctic animals are likely to have the capacity.
“There’s no evidence that Arctic foxes or polar bears suffer from snow blindness, so I bet you that most of the Arctic animals up there are seeing into UV.”
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Nine helicopters similar to this one have been seized by Spanish police
Spanish police say they have prevented the illegal sale of nine military transport helicopters to Iran and have detained eight people.
The operation, which took place in Madrid and Barcelona, led to the arrests of five Spanish businessmen and three Iranian nationals, reports say.
As well as the Bell-212 helicopters, police also found spare parts for export to Venezuela, police said.
Iran is banned from buying attack helicopters under UN sanctions.
The five Spanish businessmen are suspected of trying to export the US-made aircraft, while the three Iranians are accused of negotiating the purchase of military material, the AFP news agency reports.
As part of Operation Nam, police raided industrial sites in Madrid and Barcelona where they found the helicopters, reports say.
The total value of the helicopters and spares was 100m euros ($140m), they said.
The helicopters, which are used to transport troops and military equipment, and spares were being prepared for assembly and disassembly before export to Iran and Venezuela, police said.
“They tried to protect the export sale, which could have resulted in revenue of about 100m euros, under the cover of legal aviation repairs,” the statement said.
Police said they found out about the arrival in Spain of the Iranian purchasers who had come to formalise the deal which led to their operation being launched.
The Spanish companies said to be involved are accused of ignoring export requirements by failing to obtain licences for the export of military material for goods that could have military applications, police said.
Under UN sanctions adopted last year, Iran is banned from buying heavy weapons such as attack helicopters and missiles.
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Edward Stobart has been praised for his kind nature
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Haulage magnate Edward Stobart died bankrupt, it has emerged.
Documents show Mr Stobart, who built Cumbria’s Eddie Stobart haulage firm into a household name, petitioned for bankruptcy in July 2010.
Mr Stobart, who sold the company in 2004, had personal debts of £220,000 when he died on 31 March, aged 56, as a a result of heart problems.
The businessman, who lived in Warwickshire, took over a lorry trailer firm which failed in 2009.
Edward Stobart had petitioned for bankruptcy at Warwick County Court and his name is listed on the national Insolvency Register.
His occupation is listed as a company director and promoter and his status as bankrupt. This status was due for automatic discharge on 5 July, 2011.
RSM Tenon, the insolvency firm which original dealt with the case, said: “Known creditors have claims amounting to around £220,000. No material assets have yet been recovered.”
Mr Stobart took over his father’s Cumbrian firm in 1976 and built it into one of the most well-known haulage companies in the world.
The firm had eight trucks and 12 employees when he took over. By 2001, that had risen to 1,000 lorries and 2,000 staff, operating from 27 sites.
The company even had a “fan club”, which attracted 25,000 members at at its height.
A lorry-shaped floral tribute was among those left outside the cathedral
Mr Stobart was managing director for more than 30 years but sold the business to his brother William and business partner Andrew Tinkler, in 2004.
The Stobart Group said Mr Stobart’s financial affairs were “a private matter”.
The firm previously described him as a “a true legend of the haulage industry”.
Richard Butcher, chief executive of Stobart Group, said: “I worked with him for a number of years and he was an absolute gentleman. A very generous, a very kind man. A very shy man in some respects.
“He demanded the best from everyone who worked with him, but he was loyal to those who worked with him throughout his time at the business.”
The funeral of Mr Stobart took place at Carlisle Cathedral last month. The proceedings were relayed to about 200 people watching large television screens outside.
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In the recent row over injunctions and Twitter, the analogy of King Canute vainly holding back the tide has constantly been used. But is it correct?
“Who does he think he is – King Canute?” blasted one newspaper. A prominent media lawyer, Mark Stephens, said that by “trying to stop the unstoppable tide of information as it flows through the internet, [Ryan Giggs] has become the King Canute of football”.
John Hemming, the Liberal Democrat MP – who used parliamentary privilege to name the footballer who had applied for an injunction – said of gagging orders: “They are like King Canute, the tide will keep coming in no matter what they do. The problem the courts have is Twitter is not registered in the UK and is therefore outside British jurisdiction.”
In all these examples, the sentiment in the same, King Canute is being used as shorthand to describe trying and failing to hold back the tide.
Earlier this year, MP Frank Field warned David Cameron to “stop being King Canute” if he wanted to avoid being “overwhelmed by the incoming tide of local authority cuts”.
But was the legendary Viking leader and 11th Century King of England so deluded to really assume he had the powers to turn back the tide?
Ryan Giggs has been referred to as the King Canute of the footballing world
Almost certainly not. While the histories of the time are unreliable, it seems probable that King Canute was not a madman who thought he could control the tide.
The first written account of the Canute episode was in Historia Anglorum (The History of the English People) by chronicler Henry of Huntingdon, who lived within 60 years of the death of Canute (1035 AD).
According to the story, the king had his chair carried down to the shore and ordered the waves not to break upon his land.
When his orders were ignored, he pronounced: “Let all the world know that the power of kings is empty and worthless and there is no King worthy of the name save Him by whose will heaven and earth and sea obey eternal laws,” (Historia Anglorum, ed D E Greenway).
Canute set out to demonstrate that the waves would hit him, just like everybody else, says Professor Simon Keynes of the department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic at the University of Cambridge.
But most modern-day analogies of Canute turn history on its head.
“They are mostly misused in order to illustrate something being swamped like King Canute.
“It is often used about politicians who consider themselves so powerful they can stop the tide of something, such as rising wages – as arrogant as King Canute,” says Prof Keynes, who says he used to collect examples from the newspapers of those so-called Canute moments.
“Everyone always gets it wrong. The latest debate is a nice example of how legend becomes distorted when it is told and retold,” says Prof Keynes. “Every now and then someone points out that the reference is wrong, but commentators continue to do it and historians such as myself wince.”
“The story is intended to illustrate his piety – a prominent feature in his kingship,” he says. “He knows his power is nothing besides that of God.”
King Canute the GreatKing of Denmark (1018-35)King of England (1016-35)King of Norway (1028-35)Lived circa 995-1035
“The subtext is that he knows what is going to happen – he is demonstrating what he knows already.”
So while the Canute abusers regard him as a laughing stock – Prof Keynes describes him as a “remarkable king”.
“He was a firm ruler, renowned not only for actions calculated to win the support and affection of his English subjects, but also for his attempts at reconciling the English and the Danes.
“Although he had come to rule over the English by force of arms, he dealt intelligently with the situation and always acted with acute political sense.”
Of course, many historians question whether the tide episode actually happened. Would a king carry out a self-deprecating demonstration of the limitations of his own powers?
“It’s a 12th Century legend with no known basis in fact, and those 12th Century historians were always making up stories about kings from Anglo-Saxon times,” says Malcolm Godden, Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford University.
“The real Canute – or Cnut – showed no signs of such humility and ruled a vast empire using his military power and a fearsome set of bodyguards.
“There are some signs that he was good at spin, but I can’t imagine that he could afford to go around telling his followers that he wasn’t as powerful as they thought.”
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