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EU leaders agree tough rules for eurozone countries and set up a permanent fund to support the euro, as they aim to avoid another financial crisis.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono visited the tsunami-hit islands
Hopes are fading for more than 300 people still registered missing after Monday’s tsunami in Indonesia, as the death toll climbs to 394.
Disaster official Ade Edward says the 3m (10ft) surge is likely to have carried many of the missing out to sea, or buried them in the sand.
The first major aid ships reached the worst-hit Mentawai Islands on Thursday.
The government has pledged millions of dollars for the relief effort, but activists say more needs to be done.
Aid agencies said people on the islands still urgently needed to food and shelter, three days after a 7.7-magnitude undersea earthquake triggered the tsunami.
Indonesia is also struggling with the devastation caused by this week’s eruption of Mount Merapi in central Java, which killed more than 30 people.
As the scale of the tsunami disaster became clear on Thursday, Mr Edward painted a bleak picture of the chances of finding more survivors.
“Of those missing people we think two-thirds of them are probably dead, either swept out to sea or buried in the sand,” he told the AFP news agency.
“When we flew over the area yesterday we saw many bodies. Heads and legs were sticking out of the sand, some of them were in the trees.”
He estimated that a further 200 people may have been killed.
Indonesia’s state-run news agency Antara reported that 468 houses had been completely destroyed by the wave.
Village chief Tasmin Saogo told the BBC’s Indonesian service that the islanders have begun to bury their dead.
“In the village of Sadegugung, there aren’t any body bags. In the end we just lifted them and we buried 95 people today,” he said.
“There are still may bodies lying about, underneath coconut trees and in other places.”
Meanwhile, the party of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has been trying to defuse a growing political row over comments made by one of its senior members
In comments translated on the Jakarta Globe website, House of Representatives Speaker Marzuki Ali suggested relocating people living next the sea, adding: “Anyone who is afraid of waves shouldn’t live near seashore.”
Survivors have been moved into temporary shelters Rival politicians criticised his statement as insensitive, and the party has apologised.
Earlier, Mr Yudhoyono cut short a trip to Vietnam to oversee the rescue effort, flying in a helicopter loaded with food and other basic necessities to the remote and inaccessible islands.
Indonesian officials said locals had been given no indication of the coming wave, as a high-tech tsunami warning system installed in the wake of 2004’s giant Indian Ocean tsunami was not working.
The vast Indonesian archipelago sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire, one of the world’s most active areas for earthquakes and volcanoes.
More than 1,000 people were killed by an earthquake off Sumatra in September 2009.
In December 2004, a 9.1-magnitude quake off the coast of Aceh triggered a tsunami in the Indian Ocean that killed a quarter of a million people in 13 countries including Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand.
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Most defence experts think the balance between ground, air and sea capabilities is inappropriate The strategic defence review missed a chance to radically rethink the UK’s role in the world, a survey suggests.
The independent defence think-tank, the Royal United Services Institute, (RUSI) asked more than 2,000 defence experts to assess the impact of the cuts.
About 68% considered the review a lost opportunity for a more challenging re-assessment of the UK’s role.
And there were “deep concerns” the efficiency of forces was being pursued at the detriment of strategy.
More than 90% of the 2,015 people questioned in the RUSI survey thought the government was right to make defence part of a wider review of national security.
‘Perennial problems’
“The review may have concluded, but the process goes on and it will still be painful and divisive”
Professor Michael Clarke RUSI
Only a third believed the review of defence and security had kept the appropriate balance between ground, air and sea capabilities.
The majority, though, agreed it was right to make the frontline in Afghanistan the main defence priority up to 2015, when the next review will take place, even if that meant greater cuts to other areas.
RUSI director Professor Michael Clarke said the responses revealed relief the cuts were not higher than 8%, but disappointment the review had not really settled any of the defence arguments.
He said: “The review may have concluded, but the process goes on and it will still be painful and divisive as it does so.”
He pointed out that the “perennial problems” still have to be tackled, namely:
Over-committed forces;The need to get Afghanistan right before any other serious adjustments;The debate over maritime and ground-based strategies partly reflected in the carrier discussions;The right balance of forces; andThe effect of the review on defence relations with the US and France
Two-thirds of the experts also thought the review struck a reasonable balance between cuts in the defence budget and in other public services.
The Royal Navy, Army and RAF are to lose 17,000 service personnel, including the entire Harrier force, while 25,000 civil service jobs are also due to be cut a result of the review.
The Navy’s flagship HMS Ark Royal and planned Nimrod spy planes are also being axed.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
More evening daylight could help children do the recommended daily hour of exercise in winter Not putting the clocks back this weekend would help people exercise more and stay healthier, says an expert.
Dr Mayer Hillman, a public policy specialist at the Policy Studies Institute wants the UK to keep British Summer Time in winter.
In the British Medical Journal, Dr Hillman suggests being two hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time in spring, giving more chance to exercise outside.
But psychologist Dr David Lewis said there were flaws in the idea.
Dr Hillman, senior fellow emeritus at PSI, is concerned by surveys that show a trend towards declining fitness and predictions that more than half the population will be clinically obese by 2050.
He proposes not putting the clocks back in October in one year, but still putting clocks forward in the subsequent spring.
This would put the UK one hour ahead of Greenwich Mean Time in the winter and two hours ahead in summer, known as Single/Double Summer Time, adopting the same time as France, Germany and Spain.
Dr Hillman says that the extra hour of evening daylight would give everyone more opportunities to be active outdoors, and help us become fitter and healthier.
“The common reaction to the prospect of less daylight and sunlight when the clocks are put back at the end of October – signalling as it does the end of outdoor activity and the onset of a largely indoor leisure life – is a negative one,” Dr Hillman writes.
“The additional hours of daylight would considerably increase opportunities for outdoor leisure activities: about 300 more for adults and 200 more for children each year, given typical daily patterns of activity.”
Physical exercise has been shown to improve cardio-vascular health, reducing the risk of heart disease, obesity, diabetes and some cancers.
Research also shows that people feel happier and more energetic during the longer, brighter days of summer.
During the shorter, duller days of winter, however, mood tends to decline.
“The additional hours of daylight would considerably increase opportunities for outdoor leisure activities”
Dr Mayer Hillman Policy Studies Institute
Dr Hillman concludes: “Adopting this proposal for a clock change is an effective, practical, and remarkably easily managed way to better align our waking hours with the available daylight during the year.”
British Summer Time was established in 1916 to give farmers more daylight hours to work in their fields.
Scottish farmers, particularly, have always been opposed to changing the current set-up because they would have to deal with an extended period of morning darkness.
Dr David Lewis, a chartered psychologist who has done research into the effect of sunshine on our well-being, says there are arguments for both sides.
“If people can be persuaded to get out more and exercise after school and work, they are more likely to do it if it’s light, than if it’s dark.”
“But there is a danger that people leaving for work in the morning don’t really wake up properly if it’s not light.”
Dr Lewis agrees that anything that gives people the opportunity to exercise more is a good idea.
“As people get older, they should maintain a certain level of physical health. The costs of obesity to society are great and growing.”
Exercising during daylight is “more likely to elevate mood, improve sense of well-being and help people get to sleep”, he says.
A Department of Health spokesperson said: “It is recommended that adults do 30 minutes of exercise five times a week and children do 60 minutes each day.
“There are lots of activities to do in the winter, like swimming, dance, using the gym, or taking up an indoor sport. People can still do exercise outdoors like taking a walk or riding a bike with lights.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Nigel Lawson was one of those calling for the public to be “educated” about economic matters The Thatcher government planned a campaign to “educate the public about the economic facts of life” soon after taking power, new documents reveal.
Amid concerns about inflationary pay settlements, ministers wanted to “dampen down” expectations that average incomes should rise every year.
Departments were also asked to draw up plans to cut staff and quangos as part of efforts to rein in public spending.
But the Treasury’s top official said a proposed 20% budget cut was “nonsense”.
Government papers newly released by the National Archives show how Margaret Thatcher’s administration sought to get to grips with inflation and other economic problems facing the country after it took office in May 1979.
Senior ministers, led by the then industry secretary Keith Joseph, decided action was needed to “change public attitudes to pay” to ensure future public sector settlements were affordable.
In a letter to prime minister Margaret Thatcher on 23 July, Mr Joseph set out plans to persuade teachers, nurses and other public sector workers about the economic damage “unjustified” settlements could do.
There was a need to “dampen down deeply entrenched expectations among the public that their money income should increase each year”, he wrote.
“We have to take account of deeply ingrained social attitudes and too heavy an assault on such attitudes could engender a spirit of resistance”
Keith Joseph Former Industry Secretary
A “carefully planned” campaign must be drawn up to sell the government’s message about the “economic realities” to union officials, business leaders and other opinion formers, he argued, while advertising and direct mail could be used to influence the public.
But he said there should be no public launch, in case the press became aware of the move and it seemed ministers were “nervous and preparing for a pay freeze”.
He added: “We have to take account of deeply ingrained social attitudes and too heavy an assault on such attitudes could engender a spirit of resistance rather than a clear understanding of the ideas”.
The then Treasury minister Nigel Lawson, later to become chancellor, said the thrust of the campaign “should not be about pay but rather a sustained campaign to educate the public about the economic facts of life”.
Responding to Mr Joseph’s letter, No 10 said the then chancellor Geoffrey Howe should be given overall responsibility for the matter in Cabinet while the then paymaster general Angus Maude should plan the campaign.
The documents also shed light on the Conservative government’s early efforts to find savings in public spending.
In a memo drafted by a senior official in the then Civil Service Department, senior mandarins were asked to draw up plans for cuts in civil service staff of between 10% and 20% over the following two years.
But, in response, the then top civil servant at the Treasury raised concerns about the likely impact of such a move.
“For some departments – and this includes the Treasury – to get up to 20% would involve dropping functions which are so central to their role that it is almost a nonsense to consider them,” Douglas Wass wrote.
The current coalition government is seeking an average 19% cut in department budgets over four years.
In another echo of contemporary events, the papers highlight attempts to cut the number of quangos after the prime minister called for a review of the future of all existing bodies.
“We must constantly remember that leadership consists largely in cheering people up”
Peter Cropper Former Treasury adviser
In a letter to Cabinet ministers, Mrs Thatcher’s then principal private secretary Kenneth Stowe acknowledged “the term quango has no generally accepted definition”.
In response, the then environment secretary Michael Heseltine said he would recommend abolishing 36 bodies under his authority – ranging from the Clean Air Council to the Hadrian’s Wall Advisory Committee – but saw a continued role for a further 63.
But amid efforts to control pay and public spending, ministers were warned that they needed to make a better case for why such economic sacrifices were needed.
Writing to the chancellor, Treasury special adviser Peter Cropper noted that the government had rightly “started out by displaying the bareness of the cupboard and emphasising the size of the job ahead”.
However, he said there was no sign of the end goal that the government was striving for.
This, he suggested, should be based around giving the public “joy, wealth, national power, two acres and a cow, a second car in every garage, interesting jobs, leisure, comfortable trains, channel tunnels, atomic power stations, gleaming new coal mines, everyone a bathroom and patios for all”.
And he reminded ministers: “We must constantly remember that leadership consists largely in cheering people up, making them laugh and keeping them that way.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Protesters are reminding delegates of the need to protect plants Talks have run through the night at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity meeting as delegates tried to salvage talks on protecting nature.
Major differences remained on targets for protected areas, equitable access to genetic resources, and funding.
France followed Japan in pledging funds for conservation; but the sums were well short of what poorer nations want.
Brazil is arguing that by 2020, $200bn per year should be made available for biodiversity conservation.
By comparison, the new pledge by French Ecology Minister Chantal Joannou amounted to $4bn over a decade.
China was criticised by environment campaigners for insisting that the agreement here should call for protection of no more than 6% of the marine environment – and none at all outside coastal waters.
The current global target is 10%.
Differences on the draft agreement on ensuring developing countries receive recompense when products are made from genetic material of organisms from their territory – known as Access and Benefit-sharing (ABS) – came down to seven crucial words, according to Hugo Schally, EU lead negotiator on the issue.
“These words are not just words, they mean differences in economic circumstances,” he told BBC News.
“What material does this protocol actually apply to? That means in terms of research-based industry, in terms of… economic exchanges – they’re literally worth billions of dollars or euros or pounds, or whatever you want.”
In essence, developing nations have been demanding that the agreement cover anything made from this genetic material – technically known as “derivatives” – whereas western nations, where the world’s pharmaceutical giants are principally based, want a far smaller scope.
At one point during the negotiations, agreement was reached on this issue in a small group including Brazil, the EU, Namibia and Norway.
But other developing countries did not accept it.
“[In the] critical part of the changes, that would allow derivatives to be included, they draw the line there and said ‘no’ – so what can we do, we can only go so far,” said Gurdial Singh, chief negotiator for Malaysia.
Biodiversity is the term used to describe the incredible variety of life that has evolved on our planet over billions of years. So far 1.75m present day species have been recorded, but there maybe as many as 13m in total.
The term “biodiversity” refers to diversity of ecosystems, species and genes. In wetlands, for example, you might find different types of fish, frogs, crabs and snails; and within each species, differences in the genes which determine disease resistance, diet and body size. Research shows that ecosytems containing more variety are more productive and more robust.
Biodiversity loss affects most of the major branches of life on Earth. Amphibians and corals are among some of the most threatened. Rising human populations, habitat loss, invasive species and climate change all take their toll.
Around half of the planet’s natural environments had been converted for human use by 1990. The IUCN projects that a further 10-20% of grass and forest land could be converted by 2050.
Deforestation represents one of the most serious threats to biodiversity. The map shows the extent of the planet’s remaining frontier forests – which exist in a state untouched by human interference – and the original extent of forest cover.
The rising population and economic growth mean that natural resources are used at less and less sustainable rates. WWF calculates that by 2050, humanity’s resource use would need two-and-a-half Earths to be sustainable.“We cannot go all the way until we get no real benefit. We cannot have an empty protocol. If I take an empty bottle of beer and I go home, I cannot drink anything.”
Negotiations on the draft ABS treaty – which have been going on for nearly two weeks here, as well as in a number of preparatory meetings – were suspended by Japan, as conference chair.
A “chair’s text” is being considered as an alternative.
Failure here would be a major blow for Japan, which has invested a lot of political capital in securing a protocol with the name “Nagoya” on it.
Other delegations – most of which currently include environment ministers – seem equally keen to leave with something.
“Clearly things are on a knife-edge,” said James Leape, director-general of WWF International.
“It comes down now to whether ministers are ready to find a political deal.
“It does seem, though, that many ministers are aware there’s a need to make the most of this opportunity to go forward.”
The mood has veered between optimism and despair; and this appears likely to continue up to, if not beyond, the scheduled close at 1800 local time (0900GMT) on Friday.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Work stress has been increasing in recent months, the report says The global economic downturn led levels of work-related stress in the UK to soar, a British Academy report says.
Author Tarani Chandola, a University of Manchester sociologist, says those who kept jobs during the recession are affected as much as those left jobless.
He said that in each of the last two years, work stress levels rose by more than 4%, compared to annual rises between 0.1% and 1% from 1992 to 2009.
A CBI spokesman said businesses took staff health very seriously.
The report states that severe stress could trigger depression, anxiety, workplace injuries and suicide, and lead to a greater risk of heart disease.
Professor Chandola compiled existing evidence from peer-reviewed journals and major UK surveys to obtain a comprehensive view of work-related stress.
He told BBC News that work stress had been increasing steadily in Britain since the 1990s, but warned it had especially increased in the last recession.
“It’s likely to continue to increase because of the determinants of work stress: changes in working conditions and the government spending,” he added.
The report says that the public sector will be the most affected, and Professor Chandola said it was in the public sector that people have reported a significant increase in work hours.
The report warns job insecurity and unemployment rates tend to go hand in hand – whenever one of these factors rises, the other one jumps up as well.
“And [since] there are more women in the public sector workforce than men, that’s why we expect to see this effect hitting women workers particularly,” said Professor Chandola.
“The trouble is, there are economic consequences of work stress”
Tarani Chandola University of Manchester
He said that since there was no law in the UK that forced managers to tackle their employees’ stress levels, it was impossible to know for sure what exactly employers were doing for their staff.
The Health and Safety Executive, which oversees workplace health, safety and welfare, has set up a number of management standards on tackling work stress.
These standards suggest surveying employees regularly to keep on track of any potential problems of work-related anxiety or depression in the work force. They also propose different action plans to actively reduce stress in a company.
And Neil Carberry, of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), which represents around 200,000 British businesses, told BBC News: “Employers take the well being of staff very seriously.
“As the recent CBI/Pfizer absence and workplace health survey showed, many companies have strategies in place to address issues, such as workplace stress, and recognise the benefits of doing this for both the business and employees alike.”
Professor Chandola said employees, employers, as well as the government, have to deal with the work stress issue together.
“The trouble is, there are economic consequences of work stress,” explained the researcher, adding that the eventual cost for individuals and for wider society are usually much greater than the cost employers have to bear.
The report says many UK’s public sector workers have been worrying about losing their jobs He added that these health consequences could be huge – encompassing the costs of treatment for mental well-being and other conditions, as well as lost productivity due to illnesses, including cardiovascular disease.
Professor Chandola added there was also an effect on how people saw themselves when they were out of work. “You feel that you have less value because you’re not a productive member of society,” he said.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Scottish Labour Leader Iain Gray will address his party’s annual conference in Oban In his remarks in the agenda for the 2010 Scottish Labour conference, Iain Gray opens with a typically simple and straightforward statement:
“We must win the Scottish Parliament elections next May.”
With the party’s defeat at Westminster and at Holyrood in 2007, Labour found itself out of power north and south of the border.
But the UK election wasn’t a total disaster in Scotland, where Labour managed to hold on to all its seats, plus regain the ones it lost in by-elections during the previous parliament.
It is this achievement which seems to have kept the party going, rather than being struck down by election fatigue.
And, with the Holyrood election just a few months away, the party is going to have to stop being the official opposition in Scotland and start pushing the manifesto on which it wants to become the next government of Scotland.
Policy insights
So what are the policies? Well, some have wondered whether Labour’s only policy is putting up tax (through its position on ending the SNP’s council tax freeze) but Mr Gray is planning to give a few insights at the party’s conference, in Oban.
Key manifesto commitments include the “living wage” of £7.15 for all, although this can only be imposed by government in the public sector, and the protection of “frontline services”.
These themes are pretty much the same as the SNP’s, although Labour will be vigorously opposing the Nationalists’ plans for a referendum on Scottish independence.
Mr Gray argues the SNP government has let Scots down by arguing for an independence referendum bill which won’t now be introduced in this parliament, while thousands of public and private sector workers have lost their jobs.
Labour’s new UK leader Ed Miliband has thrown his support behind Iain Gray The leader will also attack the double whammy of what he calls the “Salmond slump” and the “Tory/Lib Dem attack on public services” – although that’s a tough message to sell when his opponents – currently forming the Scottish and UK governments – blame Labour’s economic legacy for having to make the most brutal spending cuts in decades.
And while the New Labour Scottish influence may now have gone with the departure of the likes of Gordon Brown from frontline politics, the party’s new UK leader, Ed Miliband, has thrown his support behind Iain Gray.
In an attempt to counter the perception of Mr Gray’s low public profile compared to the likes of Alex Salmond, Mr Miliband has told voters that, in these tough times, “Scotland needs a statesman, not a showman”.
Despite Labour’s Scottish turnout at the UK election, Mr Gray still knows he has a lot of tough work ahead if he is to become first minister of Scotland in 2011 – Holyrood elections are not Westminster elections, and some of the thinking behind what happened points towards a perceived desire to stop the Tories governing Britain.
The eyes of the whole Labour movement are now on Iain Gray.
As Ed Miliband puts it: “The road back for Labour runs through Scotland this May.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
The Scottish government says changing the current system would adversely affect Scotland Switching Scotland to Central European Time would reduce road casualties, improve health and boost the economy, according to new research.
A report by the Policy Studies Institute (PSI) claimed shifting the clocks forward by one hour all year round would benefit Scotland.
It said the limited number of daylight hours north of the border must be used “as efficiently as possible”.
But the Scottish government said it opposed any change.
The report has suggested a switch to Single/Double Summer Time (SDST), where winter would be one hour ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and summer time would be two hours ahead of GMT.
This would mean it would get lighter an hour later than at present in the morning, and darker an hour later than is currently the case in the evening.
The report claimed the switch would boost the leisure and tourism industries through increased revenue and job generation.
It also argued that more accessible daylight hours could improve the nation’s health by boosting opportunities for outdoor activity.
And it claimed putting clocks forward by one hour would be likely to reduce road casualties in Scotland as more journeys home in the evening would be able to be made in daylight.
The report concluded that advancing the clocks by an hour would be beneficial for Scotland precisely because of the limited number of daylight hours it receives in the winter.
It’s called Single/Double Summer Time. That’s a complicated name for a very simple concept. It means the UK would be in the same time zone as most of mainland Europe.
In the first year, the clocks wouldn’t go back by an hour in autumn. That would align the UK with the rest of Europe.
Until now, it has been widely assumed that such a change would be bad news for Scotland. The prospect of even darker winter mornings certainly doesn’t seem appealing.
But the report from the Policy Studies Institute argues that Scotland could actually benefit, often in unexpected ways.
We’re told to expect fewer road accidents, more visitors from overseas, and less ill-health.
Many of us are old enough to remember when Britain experimented with a change to the system between 1968 and 1971.
The measure was deeply unpopular and the experiment was scrapped.
But the report’s authors say Britain in 2010 is a very different place and it’s time to think again about the time.
The report’s author, Dr Mayer Hillman, said: “For Scottish children, there would be a yearly increase of about 200 daylight hours, with roughly half of these falling on school days.
“Advancing the clocks by an hour, in real terms, would bring a further 50 hours of ‘available’ sunshine for children and 75 hours for adults in Scotland each year.”
But the Scottish government said changing the current system would adversely affect Scotland.
A spokesman said: “The impact would be felt by rural communities and outdoor workers and businesses, while reduced daylight between 8am and 9am in Scotland could potentially increase the danger for children travelling to school in the dark.”
Scottish Secretary Michael Moore also opposed a shift in Scotland’s daylight hours.
A spokesman for Mr Moore commented: “The minister has sought views from a number of interested bodies in Scotland.
“It is clear that there is plenty of opposition to this proposal in Scotland.
“The majority of business and industry leaders in Scotland are against a shift to Central European Time.”
Meanwhile, farmers’ leaders said they did not believe that “sufficient justification” had yet been given to make a change to current arrangements.
Scott Walker, policy director at NFU Scotland, commented: “We remain sceptical about some of the arguments that have been offered in support of the change and nervous of the potential impacts, but we feel the time is right to conduct a full, independent analysis of the impact.”
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) welcomed the report.
It said recent research had suggested that a move to SDST could reduce UK road deaths by about 80 per year and serious injuries by about 212 per year.
A spokesman said: “The effect of SDST is to save children’s lives, even more so in Scotland than in England and Wales, because Scotland has longer, darker winter evenings, which is where the principal casualties occur.”
Dr John Sproule, head of sport and health sciences at the University of Edinburgh said: “I support the ‘lighter-later’ campaign because I believe it can enhance the health and well being of people living in Scotland.
“I think it can help increase activity levels and if current trends continue about 50% of our population will be obese by 2050.
“We need to become more proactive in trying to ensure there are more opportunities to increase activity and we know that if young people have the opportunity to go outdoors when it is lighter, then children will be more active.”
At 0200 BST on 31 October, the UK will move to 0100 GMT
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Labour’s UK leader Ed Miliband and Scottish leader Iain Gray have launched a “doorstep election” campaign Scottish Labour Iain Gray is launching his party’s “doorstep election” campaign, as it seeks a return to power at next May’s Holyrood elections.
At his party’s Scottish conference in Oban, Mr Gray will pledge to take the campaign to 100,000 homes between now and the New Year.
In his first Scottish conference speech as leader, Ed Miliband will attack the SNP over “broken promises” in power.
The party has been out of power in Scotland since the SNP’s 2007 victory.
Mr Gray is also reiterating his pledge for a “living wage” of at least £7.15 for all workers, which will form a key part of the next Scottish Labour manifesto.
And he said that during the last UK election – which saw Labour lose power but hang on to all its seats in Scotland – the constituencies which saw the biggest swing to the party were where activists spoke to the most people.
“The next Scottish election will be the doorstep election and I pledge to take Labour’s campaign to 100,000 doors,” said Mr Gray.
“We are going to get the message out that a Labour government will make sure everybody gets a fair wage.”
He went on: “There are going to be difficult decisions ahead and there will have to be pay restraint in the public sector, especially at the top, but Labour values demand we protect the lowest paid.”
‘Left behind’
Mr Gray said the living wage would be introduced in the public sector, followed by a campaign for it to be adopted elsewhere.
First Minister Alex Salmond matched the commitment at the recent SNP conference for those employed by the state.
In his speech, Mr Miliband will attack the SNP government for a record of “broken promises”, on issues such as class sizes and hospitals.
“Narrow nationalism has nothing to offer to meeting the challenges of the 21st century,” he will say.
“Let’s face it, across the world, the debate has changed since the financial crisis. Who is left behind? The Scottish National Party.
“While we’re fighting for jobs and hope, they are fighting to break up Britain.
“They have let down the people of Scotland. And Scotland deserves better.”
Mr Gray will be interviewed in a live BBC webcast from 0900-0930, using questions sent in from readers, listeners and viewers.
It can been seen at www.bbc.co.uk/scotlandnews.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Top lawyers have argued that life sentences need to be reformed Research into the sentencing of murderers has found no evidence that people support mandatory life imprisonment.
The study found that those questioned had varying views about how long to jail murderers.
The report, funded by the charity the Nuffield Foundation, said the public had limited understanding of how convicted murderers were sentenced.
Researchers interviewed more than 1,000 people across in England and Wales.
The mandatory life sentence for all murders was introduced in 1965, when the death penalty was abolished.
The study, by Coventry University’s Professor Barry Mitchell and Oxford University’s Professor Julian Roberts, found the vast majority of those interviewed incorrectly believed there were more murders in England and Wales now than a decade ago.
But they went on: “We found no evidence of overwhelming or widespread public support for automatically sending all convicted murderers to life imprisonment.
“We found considerable evidence that the public perceive significant variations in the seriousness of different murder scenarios.”
“Many of us think that that’s an aspect of the law which needs reforming, that we should have degrees of murder, rather in the way they do in the US”
Lord MacDonald, former DPP, Sept 2010Murder charge changes supported
Public support for the life sentence increased in relation to the seriousness of the crime, said the paper.
It also asked people what they thought about “joint enterprise” murders – typically gang killings where more than one member was present, but only one of them carried out the attack.
The study said that just one-fifth of those surveyed said it was right to convict someone of murder if they had not struck the fatal blow.
The authors said that their survey also indicated the public only vaguely understood that murderers released on a life licence could be recalled to prison at any time, despite having served a minimum term, known as a tariff.
“We found evidence that in relation to the more serious murders, those members of the public who favour release at some stage are content for sentencing judges to be given some measure of discretion, but would like that discretion to be limited or controlled, either through legal guidelines or through minimum and maximum periods of imprisonment,” said the report.
The research team said that if the law mirrored public opinion, then the mandatory life sentence would be reserved for the most serious murder cases – and judges would be able to sentence other murderers to different terms.
The Law Commission, which advises government, proposed such a three-tiered system in 2006 – but the then government rejected it.
It suggested first-degree murder, carrying a mandatory life sentence; second-degree murder, with a life term at the discretion of the judge plus sentence guidelines; and manslaughter, also with a maximum penalty of life.
Despite the lack of political support for such a move, top lawyers – including Keir Starmer, the current Director of Public Prosecutions, and his immediate predecessor Lord MacDonald – have continued to argue for the introduction of distinct first and second-degree murder charges.
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Mohamed’s debut novel Black Mamba Boy is published by HarperCollins An author born in Somalia has been shortlisted for the 2010 Guardian First Book award.
Nadifa Mohamed, who spent her early years in Hargeisa, Somaliland, before moving to the UK, is cited for her debut novel Black Mamba Boy.
The book, which describes a journey from her Somalian homeland to Port Talbot in Wales, is also shortlisted for this year’s Dylan Thomas Prize.
The winners of both literary prizes will be announced on 1 December.
Black Mamba Boy is one of three novels and two non-fiction works in the running for the Guardian’s £10,000 prize.
Also in contention are Boxer, Beetle by Ned Beauman, about a boxer living in the east London of the 1930s, and Your Presence is Requested at Suvanto, a novel by Maile Chapman set in a women’s sanatorium in Finland.
The non-fiction works shortlisted are Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error by Kathryn Schulz, and Romantic Moderns by Alexandra Harris.
The former is a study of why human beings make everyday errors, while the latter is subtitled English Writers, Artists and the Imagination from Virginia Woolf to John Piper.
Clare Armitstead, the Guardian’s literary editor, said the shortlist “reflects one of the year’s big literary themes – how to tell stories in our new era”.
Actress Diana Quick, journalist Ekow Eshun and the novelist and poet Adam Foulds are among those who will join her on the judging panel.
Last year’s winner was Petina Gappah for her short story collection, An Elegy for Easterly.
Mohamed is one of six writers up for the £30,000 Dylan Thomas prize, presented each year by the University of Wales.
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1971 hit Maggie May, co-written with Martin Quittenton, was a huge hit What happened to Rod Stewart the songwriter?
The last original song the man behind global smash Maggie May released was the title track of 1998 album When We Were the New Boys. It was the only original on an album full of tracks written by other artists.
Since then, Stewart has concentrated on album after album of his Great American Songbook series and other cover collections.
Maggie May was written after Faces bandmate Ronnie Wood began strumming a Bob Dylan song “You could say we’re addicted to it, really,” he says in trademark raspy voice, made hoarser by a bout of flu.
“You could go on, I could record another five – we’d never run out of songs.”
All of those cover albums to date – beginning with 2002’s first Great American Songbook – have gone platinum in the UK and the US.
Stewart’s fifth and final instalment of his lushly-orchestrated series features “good cocktail hour, dinner party music” including I Get A Kick Out Of You, I’ve Got You Under My Skin and Beyond The Sea.
Diehard Rod fans will lap it up. But don’t they also deserve to know why the 65-year-old – who wrote such hits as You Wear It Well, Hot Legs, Baby Jane and Every Beat Of My Heart – has dried up when it comes to penning his own hits?
Stewart fires back a series of explanations.
“There’s many reasons, I don’t feel the desire at the moment – I haven’t met somebody I feel I can write with.
… The Faces reunion: “We’re waiting for old mother Jagger, we don’t know what the Stones are going to do – that’s Woody’s main interest.”… not making rock stars like they used to: “Thank heavens for that – not with haircuts and noses like this.”… business: “In The Faces, I left business affairs to Woody, Woody left it to me, I left it to Kenney. There was drinking. Money disappeared.”… auto-tune: “I must admit I used it a couple of times on the album when I’ve hit a note. I say: ‘That note there, straighten that little note out.'”… modern music: “I like a blues/R&B starting point. Take That – I’m not putting them down, they keep people happy – but it goes right by me.”… why he no longer releases singles: “I’ve got no idea, mate, I couldn’t give you a clue. Nobody releases singles any more, do they?”
“It’s difficult to get the new material played with us old-timers, it really is.
“I think we’ve had a fair crack of the whip, so we can’t complain.
“I wanna do a blues album, I wanna do a country album, so maybe after all that’s done I can get someone to write with.”
His most famed composition, 1971’s Maggie May, propelled him to worldwide fame.
Although it was co-written with guitarist Martin Quittenton, Stewart says his memories of creating it begin with Ronnie Wood strumming Bob Dylan’s 1965 song It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue.
Wood, latterly a Rolling Stone, was Stewart’s bandmate in The Faces.
“I think the first two chords may be similar, the melody’s not,” Stewart says.
“We did it at Lansdowne Studios in London and it was one of those where we went round the pub first and than saw what we got.”
That’s humble beginnings for a song which was originally the B-side to Reason to Believe before it was reclassified as the A-side thanks to public reaction. It went on to top the UK and US charts for five weeks each.
“When it went to number one in Britain and America, that’s when we all went out and got drunk,” Stewart says.
“The drinking went on for a long time and why not?”
Stewart is expecting his eighth child next year He says he remembers visiting his parents shortly afterwards: “That was probably the most gratifying, more than any big cheque or new car or whatever, to know that not just my mum and dad but my whole family had stood by me.
“They weren’t the type to say ‘get yourself a day job, it’s not going to last’, which is not what you want to hear when you’re a musician.”
But will the former mod, who is due to become a father for the eighth time next year, ever again celebrate a self-written hit?
It’s only when asked if he ever writes that things become clear.
“No, never. It’s always been hard work.
“The nearest thing that this business I’m in comes to being a job is when I’ve had to write songs.”
This is not an ageing rocker with a chronic case of writers’ block. This is an ageing rocker who hates writing songs.
Stewart adds by way of a further admission: “Speak to anyone in The Faces, they’ll say ‘We had to lock him in a room and take the key away to get him to finish the lyrics to a song’.
“So it was always like being at school.”
He continues: “When you think of the minimal amount of songs that I’ve written and how many of them have been successful, you could say I’ve got an impressive strike rate.”
And while he hasn’t completely ruled out a return to songwriting – “I wouldn’t say that it’ll never happen, it could happen” – don’t hold your breath.
His coming out as a successful songwriter who detests writing songs marks him out as unusual.
But his success in recording long-established songs speaks for itself.
In the US, his last six albums have yielded two number ones, two number twos and two number fours.
And in album sales by British artists in America in the 2000s, he was outsold only by The Beatles and Coldplay.
Perhaps the real question is why would Rod Stewart bother to write another song?
Fly Me to the Moon…The Great American Songbook Volume V is out in the UK on Monday.
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A jury convicts late Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith’s psychiatrist and boyfriend on drug conspiracy charges but her doctor is cleared.
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Microsoft said it had been an “exceptional” quarter Microsoft has announced a 51% rise in first-quarter profit, thanks to higher sales of its flagship Windows and Office software.
Net profit for the three months to September came in at $5.4bn (£3.4bn).
Revenues increased by 25% to $16.2bn – a company record for the first quarter.
But Microsoft said that in the same quarter last year it had deferred some revenue from Windows sales. Had it not done so, its net profit would have been only 16% higher in comparison.
“This was an exceptional quarter, combining solid enterprise growth and continued strong consumer demand for Office 2010, Windows 7, and Xbox 360 consoles and games,” said Peter Klein, chief financial officer at Microsoft.
Windows sales rose 66% on a year earlier to $4.8bn, while Office and other business software brought in $5.1bn, a 14% increase on last year.
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