I love Liverpool Football Club.....

http://www.facebook.com/LiverpoolFC

"The socialism I believe in is everyone working for each other, everyone having a share of the rewards. It's the way I see football, the way I see life."

 - Bill Shankly

http://www.spiritofshankly.com/



Ros Asquith paints a picture of Christmas.....

From An Unknown Admirer.....

Ros Asquith has been doing a weekly cartoon for EducationGuardian for more than a decade.

This is how she's seen school festivities over the years.....

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/gallery/2011/dec/08/christmas

Museums should feel free to charge admission....

Photograph by Drawsome.

We can't have museums selling off our cultural heritage to make ends meet – charging entry is a far better solution.

Britain's museums are in crisis. On the surface, things looks good. Our galleries have benefited from years of expansion. But all over Britain, a darker reality is emerging in the wake of spending cuts. A survey has shown that since the spending review 58% of museums have suffered cuts, and a fifth have been hit by devastating cuts of 25%.

On that measure, yes, 42% have not yet suffered cuts – but surely it's a policy of divide and rule, with councils, not central government, making the big decisions, and less fashionable venues taking the biggest hits (at least as far as I can see). But an overall climate of contraction will surely hit all museums and all aspects of what they do. And there is little chance of this improving in the near future.

The worst option is for museums and public collections to start selling works to pay the bills. The recent sale of a Millais by one cash-strapped council is a terrible mistake, a betrayal of our cultural heritage.

The best option, I am starting to think, may be to introduce admission fees. I spat out this notion earlier this week in the wake of the attack on two paintings recently in the National Gallery.

 The debate was taken up by the Telegraph. Obviously, attacks on art happen at museums that charge an entry fee as well as at free ones. But this is about much more than security.

I remember the drab, uncared-for feeling of some of Britain's biggest museums in the 1980s and 90s. They seemed to be eking out their time, with no big plans and no sense of splendour.

 Free museums with a supportive government are very different from free museums in a climate of austerity. Going to the Louvre or to American museums 20 years ago was like entering a different universe of cultural pride and enjoyment – these museums really wanted to thrill, and they did justice to their collections.

So do ours – right now. Britons have realised how precious our great collections are. The world shares the passion, and if you visit the British Museum this summer the sheer crowd numbers startle. How about turning that popularity into money? We can't let recent progress in our galleries and museums be destroyed by a cost-cutting mentality that first freezes, then rolls back, everything that has been achieved.

Charging for entry cannot be a taboo. I probably make more use of free entry than most people; there are obviously ways to make entrance fees egalitarian. Free entry for everyone under 20 and all students, membership schemes for the rest of us, something like the new National Art Pass for those who want to purchase annual overall access.

I think free museums are a great British tradition, but I don't want these museums to decay. Charging for entry is a better remedy than selling paintings, closing galleries or sacking staff. Might it even give visitors a keener sense of the value of some of the greatest experiences it is possible to have?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2011/jul/21/museums-charging-admission-entry-fees

Marriage confers 'little benefit' to children's development....

Institute for Fiscal studies research suggests parents' educational qualifications more influential on child development than marriage.

Marriage confers "little if any benefit" in terms of a child's development, according to new research, challenging the rationale behind the prime minister's desire to offer tax breaks to couples who tie the knot.

New research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has found "little or no evidence" that marriage itself has any effect on children's "social or cognitive" development. Before the election the Tories had made the breakdown of the traditional nuclear family a key plank of their "broken Britain" analysis.

David Willetts, the Conservative thinker on families and now higher education minister, argued that marriage in Britain was in danger of becoming an exclusive middle-class institution – and action was needed bolster it.

The idea is still floated by key Tories, such as work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith, but is opposed by Lib Dems.

The work by the IFS accepts that those who marry tend to be relatively better educated and relatively better off. But the institute points out: "differences in outcomes between children whose parents are married and those who cohabit may simply reflect these differences in other characteristics rather than be caused by marriage."

By examining data from the Millennium Cohort Study, a sample of children born in the UK in the early 2000s, the institute shows that children born out of wedlock are behind in cognitive development at three, five and seven-years-old but this is because "cohabiting parents tend to have lower educational qualifications than married parents". The same pattern is observed with "socio-emotional" development.

The thinktank said it had also repeated its work using another dataset to account for the idea that "getting married could itself lead to changes in some of the things we want to control for, like relationship quality, income and education". The results were the same.

Ellen Greaves, research economist at the IFS, and one of the authors of the report, said: "It is true that children born to married couples are on average more cognitively and emotionally successful than children born to cohabiting couples. But careful analysis shows that this largely reflects the differences between the types of people who decide to get married and those who don't."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/jul/19/ifs-marriage-little-benefit-child-development

Rupert Murdoch attacked: Wife Wendi growled at custard pie thrower in rage....

FOR more than two hours he dozed in the seat next to me, looking bored by the drama unfolding in front of him.

From time to time I glanced at the blank expression of the shabby 20-something staring without interest at the Murdochs and wondered why he’d bothered to turn up.

When five protesters stood up in the wood-panelled Wilson Room and silently unfurled their posters, he barely even looked.

And as the rest of the room sat rapt at the testimony, he registered not a flicker of interest.

ACTION
Then, as the questioning finally started to draw to a close, he tensed ready for action.

In one movement, the scruffy man leapt over my handbag and was heading towards the Murdochs.

It made me jump with fright. I tried to shout, but my mouth was dry. I tried to grab the blue bag he held, but my body wouldn’t move.

And then he was just two feet from the 80-year-old newspaper tycoon, pulling a paper plate covered in shaving foam out of the bag.

Totally silent, the stocky, unshaven man – who we later learned was comedian Jonnie Marbles – pushed the “custard pie” into Murdoch’s face, knocking off his spectacles.


Read more: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2011/07/20/rupert-murdoch-attacked-wife-wendi-growled-at-custard-pie-thrower-in-rage-as-she-hit-him-115875-23283019/#ixzz1SgvRlVtJ
Go Camping for 95p! Vouchers collectable in the Daily and Sunday Mirror until 11th August . Click here for more information

Angela Merkel dashes hopes of lasting settlement on Eurozone debt.......

Banks could be slapped with a levy of €10bn (£8.8bn) over three years to raise €30bn for another Greece bailout.

Angela Merkel has quashed hopes of a lasting solution for Greece at Thursday's crucial summit of European leaders, even as the International Monetary Fund warned of the repercussions for global economic growth if the eurozone's debt crisis was not tackled quickly.

Amid suggestions that banks could be slapped with a levy of €10bn (£8.8bn) over three years to raise €30bn for another Greece bailout, the German chancellor insisted that there would not be a "spectacular event", such as a restructuring of Greece's debt. "Further steps will be necessary and not just one spectacular event which solves everything," Merkel said.

Economists warned that indecision after tomorrow's summit could cause severe tension in the markets.

Gabriel Stein, at Lombard Street Research, said: "Ministers must come up with some solution that does not involve postponing once again the difficult positions that alone can solve the fiscal crisis. Otherwise the next eruption of the crisis won't be in the autumn, it is more likely to be next week. Moreover, each failure to act raises the threshold for what must be done next time."

Jonathan Loynes, chief European economist at Capital Economics, described Thursday's meeting as the "last chance for eurozone policymakers to get a grip on the region's debt crisis".

"Anything other than a very decisive response, which could be applied not just to Greece but also to Spain and Italy, could see the situation become irretrievable," said Loynes.

In an assessment of eurozone policies, the IMF also piled on the pressure on European leaders to act to solve the crisis and pump more money into its banks.

"It would be very costly not just for the eurozone but for the global economy to delay tackling the sovereign crisis," the IMF's Luc Everaert said.

The fund argued that the European Financial Stability Facility, set up last year to bail out troubled eurozone countries, should be increased and buy up bonds in an attempt to restore confidence in the financial markets.

But for now some European Union leaders remain in disagreement with the European Central Bank, which has been arguing that a default by Greece would mean it could no longer provide funds to domestic banks. Leaders such as Merkel believe that the private sector needs to take losses on its holdings of bonds to help shoulder the burden of rescuing Greece.

However, there was confusion in the markets on Tuesday when Ewald Nowotny, head of Austria's central bank, appeared to suggest that Greece could default on its debt without causing a crisis for its banking sector. But he later issued a statement insisting that he shared the view of the ECB that a default was unpalatable. The ECB helps to fund the European banking sector in return for sovereign bonds, but will not do so if the country has defaulted on its debt.

The confusion about the stance of the ECB towards Greece pushed yields on two-year Greece bonds through 40% as speculation mounted that a default was more likely.

With the FTSE 100 rising 37 points to 5,789, stocks recovered some of the losses after Monday's rout in financial stocks – when three top UK banks lost £5bn of their value – while yields on Italian and Spanish bonds slipped back from their record levels. Even so, Spain was forced to pay 3.912% on an 18-month bond, the highest price since 2002 and considerably more than the 3.26% since the last sale of similar bonds.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/jul/19/european-debt-crisis-greece-summit

Phone hacking: Murdochs and Brooks set to face MPs' questions.....

Rupert Murdoch, son James and Rebekah Brooks face three hours of questions over phone hacking at News International.

Rupert Murdoch, chairman of News Corporation, his son James Murdoch, and Rebekah Brooks, until a week ago the three most powerful figures in British media, will on Tuesday face an unprecedented three hours of questions over the extent to which they knew, approved or subsequently covered up widespread phone hacking at News International.

Their confrontation with the culture select committee potentially represents the most severe test of parliamentary authority since the select committee system was established in 1979. It also represents an unprecedented opportunity to cross-examine the normally unchallengeable 80-year-old Rupert Murdoch.

James Murdoch, his chairmanship of BSkyB already in question, will face a make-or-break examination of his professional reputation in which he will have to explain why he authorised payments to cover up illegal phone hacking by the News of the World.

He will also have to answer charges, laid by then Metropolitan police assistant commissioner, John Yates, as recently as last week, that the company refused to co-operate properly with the police between 2006 and 2010.

James Murdoch has admitted that he authorised out-of-court payments to silence the Professional Footballers Association chairman, Gordon Taylor, over the way in which his phone was hacked. He has said he regrets the payments, and was not in full possession of the facts when he authorised them.

It is likely that Rupert Murdoch will offer further apologies for the way in which the families of murder victims had their phones hacked. But he has adopted an erratic stance in the past week, at one point telling the Wall Street Journal that News Corp has handled the crisis "extremely well in every way possible," making just "minor mistakes".

Murdoch said the damage to the company is "nothing that will not be recovered. We have a reputation of great good works in this country." Asked if he was aggravated by the negative headlines in recent days, he said he was "just getting annoyed. I'll get over it. I'm tired."

In another sign of the uncertainty over tone within the company, the Wall Street Journal – owned by News Corporation – ran an editorial on Monday condemning the Guardian for its journalism.

But at the weekend, his British company bought adverts in newspapers to express its abject regrets at what had happened.

News Corp shares have continued to fall in the US and Australia. Murdoch has already been forced to pull out of a complete takeover of BSkyB, and one government minister, Alistair Burt, has claimed he may not be a fit and proper person to hold a broadcasting licence.

The Murdochs will be eager to isolate the crisis as a British media problem common to many tabloids, rather than an international problem specific to the culture he generates in his newspapers.

Brooks's lawyers have confirmed she will attend the select committee hearing, even though she was arrested for 12 hours on Sunday. Her solicitor, Stephen Parkinson, said she was not guilty of any criminal offence.
Parkinson angrily attacked the police for Brooks's arrest, saying she had suffered "enormous reputational damage. They put no allegations to her and showed no documents to her linking her to any crime. In time, the police will have to give their account of their actions, in particular their decision to arrest her with the enormous reputational damage this has involved."

Parkinson added: "She remains willing to attend and to answer questions. It is a matter for parliament to decide what issues to put to her and whether her appointment should take place at a later date."

She will be cross-examined separately from the Murdochs, but the questioning may fall apart if her lawyers insist she cannot answer potentially self-incriminating questions. Brooks has appointed David Wilson, chairman of the public relations agency Bell Pottinger, to act as her spokesman.

Meeting at the same time as the culture select committee, the home affairs select committee will separately grill both Sir Paul Stephenson, the outgoing Met police commissioner, and Yates, the officer responsible for deciding in the space of eight hours that the Guardian in July 2009 had published no new evidence about the scale of phone hacking.

Yates has subsequently admitted at a meeting of the home affairs select committee last week that he made an error in failing to reopen the inquiry, but blamed a lack of co-operation by News International.
Both men are now subject to referral to the Independent Police Complaints Commission for the way in which they handled the phone-hacking inquiry.

Yates will be questioned over why he failed to tell either the culture select committee or the home affairs select committee that the former deputy editor of the News of the World Neil Wallis had been employed by the Met as a strategic communications consultant. He had been cross-examined in detail in writing and orally by the MPs Tom Watson and Jim Sheridan over his relationship with Wallis, but did not mention the contract.

Watson denies Murdoch will meet his nemesis , saying the session is unlikely to match its advance billing.
"There is not going to be a killer blow on Tuesday. Expectations are way too high," he told the Guardian. "We will get the symbolism of parliament holding these people to account for the first time.
 We will look for facts, and not just offer rhetoric. This story has been like slicing a cucumber, you just get a little bit closer to the truth each time."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/18/phone-hacking-murdochs-brooks-mps

Rebekah Brooks's arrest came as a surprise despite fortnight of bad press...

Rebekah Brooks: arrest was a surprise after she met officers at a London police station on Sunday.

Rebekah Brooks did not know she was going to become the 10th person arrested in the phone-hacking investigation when her resignation as News International's chief executive was announced on Friday.

It is understood that the appointment to be interviewed by police was not in her diary until Friday evening, hours after she left the company after 22 years.

It was not until she met officers at a London police station that she learned she was being arrested on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications and on suspicion of corruption.

"It was quite a surprise," her spokesman said.

Minutes after Brooks was taken into custody at midday, David Wilson, the chairman of the public relations agency Bell Pottinger, had been asked by her lawyers to handle press inquiries.

"Over the coming weeks she will continue to press her innocence," said Wilson, who was on the PR team aiding Madeleine McCann's parents during the first weeks after her abduction. "She intends to clear her name."

It was unclear on Sunday night whether Brooks will give evidence as planned to MPs on the culture, media and sport's select committee. Members were taking legal advice. James and Rupert Murdoch are scheduled to attend.

Wilson said Brooks had been "offering since January to assist in any way that she could, and only last week the police were saying she wasn't on their radar".

He added: "Her resignation and her agreement to attend the select committee hearing on Tuesday seem to have prompted a change of tack."

Brooks – who had resigned after huge pressure, with calls from across the political spectrum for her to go – is beginning to assemble a crack team of advisers. Her legal representative is Stephen Parkinson of Kingsley Napley solicitors, whose website describes him as frequently representing "high-profile individuals caught up in criminal or regulatory investigations".

Parkinson advised Tony Blair and his cabinet on the Hutton inquiry, and Sir Ian Blair and other officers during investigations arising out of the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes in Stockwell.

Wilson and his colleagues at the agency founded by Lord Tim Bell, Margaret Thatcher's favourite spin doctor, are veteran crisis management experts, having handled everything from Eurostar trains stuck in tunnels to allegations of information theft in Formula 1.

Brooks was arrested on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications, and on suspicion of corruption, according to a statement from the Metropolitan police. She was interviewed with regard to both Operation Weeting, which is looking into phone hacking, and Operation Elveden, which is looking at allegations of payments to police officers.

The last two weeks have seen Brooks, the former News International chief executive, transformed from the Murdoch empire's closest link to Britain's political elite to an outsider facing criminal charges and fighting to salvage her reputation.

On Saturday 2 July, she was a guest at an all-night party hosted by PR boss Matthew Freud and his wife, Murdoch's daughter Elisabeth, at their Cotswolds mansion, Burford Priory. The event was nothing less than a gathering of the country's political and media masters.

The BBC director general, Mark Thompson, and his star reporter Robert Peston rubbed shoulders with Peter Mandelson, Labour leader Ed Miliband's brother, David, and the education secretary, Michael Gove.
According to reports, Brooks was not as gregarious as usual, spending much of the evening locked in conversation with her boss, James Murdoch, and other News International executives.

The following Monday, the Guardian broke the news that murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler's voicemail messages had not only allegedly been hacked, but that they may have been deleted to make room for new messages, giving her parents the false hope that she was still alive.

On Thursday 7 July, the decision was taken to close the News of the World.

Announcing his decision, James Murdoch stood by his key lieutenant, saying: "Fundamentally, I am satisfied that Rebekah, her leadership in this business and her standard of ethics and her standard of conduct throughout her career are very good."

When Rupert Murdoch flew in to London last week to take charge of the crisis, one of his first acts was to signal his full support for Brooks by taking her to dinner in Mayfair. Asked what his priority was, he replied, indicating Brooks: "This one."

Calls for her resignation swiftly followed – from Dowler's parents, the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, and Ed Miliband. By Friday morning, following further revelations and the withdrawal of News Corp's bid for its satellite TV subsidiary Sky, had fallen on her sword.

Brooks, 43, got her first job in Fleet Street while still a teenager, joining Eddie Shah's short-lived tabloid, the Post, as features secretary. After the Post closed she arrived at the News of the World's magazine, where she was quickly promoted by the then editor, Piers Morgan.

By the age of 29, she was deputy editor of the Sun. At 32, she became the youngest national newspaper editor in the company when Rupert Murdoch gave her the top job at the News of the World. Three years later she was editing the Sun.

During her six years at the helm of the paper, she made her name exposing Angus Deayton and Prince Harry's drug taking, and initiated the notorious campaign for "Sarah's law", naming and shaming sex offenders in the wake of the murder of another schoolgirl, Sarah Payne.

Her one previous arrest, in 2005, was under very different circumstances. She was picked up by police after allegedly assaulting her then husband, the EastEnders actor Ross Kemp. The TV hardman sustained a cut to the mouth but no charges were brought.

Back then, Brooks was editor of the Sun. Rupert Murdoch is said to have sent a designer suit to the police station so she would look her best when she left the cells.

 With typical bravado, she went straight to the office. After uttering the words: "Much happening today?" she took control of the news conference and ordered a carefully worded frontpage story on the incident. While the team of advisers Brooks has assembled will help to fight her corner, she can no longer command a national newspaper to back her.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/17/rebekah-brooks-arrest-surprise

Liverpool was right about News International all along.........

My song, Never Buy the Sun, pays tribute to the scousers who started their own boycott after the Hillsborough stadium disaster.

Billy Bragg

Wednesday 13 July 2011 12.14 BST

Link to this audio

For the past 22 years, people in Liverpool have boycotted the Sun newspaper because of the lies that it printed about the behaviour of Liverpool FC fans at the Hillsborough disaster.

 Ninety-six people were crushed to death at a football match at Hillsborough in Sheffield on 15 April 1989. The Sun ran a front page story that accused Liverpool supporters of variously robbing and urinating on the dead bodies of the victims as they were laid along the touchline.

The reports were totally unfounded. Since then, many people in Liverpool have refused to buy the Sun on principle.

As I listened to the unfolding reports of the phone-hacking story last week, it occurred to me that the scousers had been right about News International all along.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jul/13/billy-bragg-never-buy-the-sun

Arts Council starts urgent review after finding error in funding applications....

Some documents from applicants were not put on the computer system, but decisions were not affected, council says.

Maev Kennedy

Wednesday 13 July 2011 21.47 BST

Arts Council England has started an urgent review of the funding applications of 66 arts organisations, after it emerged that an administrative error meant vital documents, including financial statements, were never seen by the officers deciding their fate.

In a confidential internal letter, Althea Efunshile, the chief operating officer, says that in the case of 66 applicants "not all the documents supplied by them were uploaded" to the council's computer system.
It continues: "This problem was not picked up at the assessment stage and therefore those documents may not have been taken into consideration during the assessment of these applications."

The error happened in the crucial spending review, which in March led to hundreds of applicants being dropped, rejected or having their funding slashed, as the council drew up a new list of regularly funded organisations (RFOs) reflecting its own 30% cut in government funding.

Arts Council England has admitted the error, but says: "We are absolutely confident that our funding decisions were not affected."

None of the affected organisations contacted by the Guardian knew anything about the problem with their applications, or of the review in the past three weeks on how they were handled.

The Rose Theatre in Kingston-upon-Thames, a three year old producing and touring venue under the patronage of the renowned director Sir Peter Hall, had hoped to win Arts Council funding for the first time, but failed. Director Stephen Unwin said: "This is a slap in the face."

The Rose is funded only from the box office and from local authority and university support, and had hoped to win £400,000 in annual funding for audience development and original productions.

"What is very disappointing is that, although we were very sad about the outcome, we did believe that the process was pretty fair and transparent," Unwin said. "So to learn that there was a measure of cock-up which they had not been admitting to – well, I do find it pretty disappointing."

The 30-year-old Norwich Puppet Theatre lost its Arts Council funding in 2008, and hoped to be reinstated, but failed. The financial information was particularly important because doubts about the company's financial viability were among the factors that lost it the annual grant.

"We were very disappointed but not entirely surprised to be unsuccessful," Nic Hopkins, chair of the trustees, said, "and we would, of course, be very concerned if it was the case that information we had forwarded had not been taken into consideration."

Most of the 66 applicants – spread across London, the south-east and south-west, and the east and West Midlands, with one in Yorkshire – were small companies or venues, and most were unsuccessful. However, some on the list, including the Civic in Barnsley, and Streetwise Opera, which works with homeless people in London, did succeed and were equally puzzled to learn that this was in spite of some of their documentation being lost. The Civic, an arts complex that reopened in 2009, was delighted with its grant of about £160,000 a year, even though it was less than it had asked for.

Fergus Justice Mills, chief executive, said: "It was an incredibly difficult process for an organisation like ours, and for the Arts Council to make a completely new process work, but I am surprised that we are on this list, because we were quite satisfied with our outcome – particularly when so many equally worthy people were not as lucky."

In a statement, Arts Council England said that, during the funding process, "we discovered that in the case of 66 of the 1,333 applicants some supporting documents had not been uploaded to our internal system with the application forms.

"We undertook an immediate and thorough review of each of the affected applications. This review told us that, in most cases, we already held the information concerned and it had been considered in the assessment of the application. Where this was not the case, the additional information would have had no impact on our funding decision. As a result of this review, we are absolutely confident that our funding decisions were not affected. Measures are now being put in place to ensure this problem does not happen in the next investment process."

Summer brings endless opportunities to capture texture...

Photograph by Drawsome.

Summer presents photographers with the chance to enjoy the colours and textures that come from flowers, leaves and fruit.

Many of us will now be enjoying to those long summer days when it's light from the early hours to late in the evenings. Hopefully they will be accompanied by warm sunshine and dry days to enable us to explore the beauty of the countryside. Though for those of us who are keen to record what we see, this time of year is not without its problems.

The sun is high in the sky from early in the day, and often throws strong shadows that create intense levels of contrast between areas in shadow and those in direct sunlight. Perhaps some photographers would rather it were slightly overcast to reduce those shadows.

 However, mother nature has a mind of her own and so we must turn this challenge to our advantage and practice skills such as shooting into the sunlight (contre-jour) or using it as backlighting, especially effective when working on close-up images of flowers and leaves. For those who rise early or stay on late in the evening this is less of a problem and we can enjoy the light that is generated in those magical hours.

This time of year, after the rush of spring with new life emerging all around us, we are presented with the fruits of that rush and can begin to enjoy the glorious colours, tones and textures that come from the flowers, leaves and fruit. In addition we see the trees of our countryside in full leaf, flowers in full bloom and many textures and colours in the bark of trees and shrubs.

 For me there is no better place to enjoy this spectacle than at The National Arboretum, Westonbirt, near to Tetbury in Gloucestershire where you can enjoy over 600 acres of woodland and forestry at its best. Many of the trees and shrubs still abound with flowers, the rich tapestry of colour from the many maples are beginning to show and alongside that you have large open expanses of field, open woodland and managed forestry.

For those who enjoy close-up and macro photography there are endless opportunities for capturing texture. Even with the most modest camera it is possible to select the macro or close up facility which will enable you to go in close to your subject and capture some incredible images.

 The strong summer sun can be used to your advantage here if you allow it to backlight the subject and show the detail as it shines through the petals and leaves. You may find it necessary to bounce some light back into the subject to soften any shadows and a simple trick is to carry a white handkerchief and use this as a reflector. A small piece of white card or paper will do the same – no need to go out and buy those expensive and often large reflectors.

In addition close-up photography allows you to be creative in your use of "depth of field". By using a large aperture (around f.3.5 or f.4) and by careful focusing, you can select carefully what aspect of your shot you want to be sharp and then throw the rest out of focus.

Alternatively use a small aperture such as f.11 or f.16 and bring the majority of your subject into focus (to help make sure this happens select your focus point roughly a third into the scene. This same principle applies when shooting wider landscapes and the use of f.11 or f.16 should give you a sharp image across the scene.


With wider landscapes, try to bring a sense of scale into the frame by including a familiar object or two such as a seat or bench, a gate, some fencing or maybe a person. These are most effective if they are prominent in the foreground but not too dominant. You could use a path, fence, wall or hedgerow to lead you into the scene and this in turn also adds scale to the image.

 A good landscape is made up of three elements – foreground, middle ground and distance and the eye needs to be taken across the scene and lead us from the foreground to the beauty of the distant scene.

• Graham is a professional photographer and runs courses and workshops in photography at Westonbirt and across the country. He is also the author of a book on Westonbirt, The National Arboretum - The Wonder and Beauty of Westonbirt.

Tanzania waters down controversial Serengeti road plan....

                                                Photograph by Drawsome. Lens used:

Tamron AF 17-50mm F/2.8 SP XR Di II VC (Vibration Compensation) Zoom Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras

Tanzania's Serengeti supports a vast array of wildlife and is the setting for one of the world’s greatest wildlife spectacles, the annual migration of up to 2 million wildebeest, zebra and other mammals.

Government will now build unpaved road through national park while rangers ensure traffic does not disturb migrating wildlife.

Controversial plans by the Tanzanian government to build a road through the famous Serengeti national park have been watered down following pressure from environmentalists and the UN world heritage body Unesco.

Tanzania has adjusted its plans and the road through the park will now be unpaved, with game rangers controlling traffic with gates in a bid to avoid disturbing the annual migration of wildebeest.

The park supports a vast array of wildlife and is the setting for one of the world's greatest wildlife spectacles, the annual migration of up to 2 million wildebeest, zebra and other mammals. Conservationists say the road would impede the migration and lead to a big drop in the populations of grazing animals.

"The Serengeti road project has not been abandoned ... we have just revised it," natural resources and tourism minister, Ezekiel Maige, told Reuters.

Unesco said this week that Tanzania would reconsider the planned road which aims to ease transport problems facing poor communities surrounding the park but has been criticised by conservation bodies.

The initial plan to build an asphalt road has now been dropped.

"The project is still there without a shadow of a doubt. But the road will be unpaved, so there will be no tarmac road or highway traversing through the Serengeti national park," said Maige.

Maige said rangers from the state-run Tanzania National Parks Authority (Tanapa) would set up checkpoints and control the flow of traffic through a 53km section of the road cutting across the wilderness area.

"The road will be closely supervised. Tanapa will put up gates and carry out regular patrols to ensure no harm comes to the wildlife population as a result of vehicles that will be allowed to pass through the road," he said.

"The road passing through the Serengeti will remain under the ownership and control of Tanapa. The ownership of the road will not be transferred to the government's highway roads agency."

Roads outside the national park will be paved, but roads leading to the park and those inside the wildlife sanctuary will not be.

Unesco has urged the international community to provide support to Tanzania, which relies heavily on tourism, for an alternative route, running south of Serengeti national park and the Ngorongoro conservation area.

The World Bank said in March it had offered Tanzania an alternative to stop the Serengeti road project.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jul/01/tanzania-serengeti-road-wildlife?INTCMP=SRCH

The 50 best cameras.........

Whether you are an aspiring pro in search of a powerful piece of kit or a keen amateur, David Phelan puts you in the picture.

 

Click here to launch our guide.

Wind-power bonds offer 7.5% return.....

                                        Photograph taken with:
Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 EX DC HSM Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras

                                     Photograph by Drawsome.

ReBonds issue offers chance to invest in UK-based green energy venture.

The Wind Prospect Group aims to raise £10m to build a wind farm in Staffordshire.

If you are looking for a green investment with attractive returns, and are prepared to take a risk with your money, a corporate retail bond offered by a renewable energy company is promising to pay 7.5% annually for the next four years.

Wind Prospect Group, which has been operating for more than 15 years, has launched the bonds with the aim of raising £10m, which it will use to build a wind farm in Staffordshire. The minimum investment is £500.

Wind Prospect says its ReBonds are likely to appeal to investors looking for an opportunity to invest in green energy projects while supporting a UK-based, employee-owned business.

The bonds pay a fixed-rate return of 7.5% over a four-year initial investment period, with a slightly higher rate for larger investments. The offer is open until 20 July or it is fully subscribed.

Much of the money raised will be used to fund the first commercial wind turbines to be built in the West Midlands, on land owned by South Staffordshire College.

Crucially, the company says there is already planning consent for the two-turbine project, with construction due to start this summer. However, this is an investment for people who are happy to accept some risk.

Corporate bonds are essentially a loan to the company, where the money invested by the bondholders is repaid at maturity. If the firm went bust you could lose some or all of your cash. However, the return is better than those offered by deposit accounts.

The invitation document states: "It will not be possible to sell or realise ReBonds … [they] are an unsecured debt of the company, and there is no certainty or guarantee that [it] will be able to repay them." For more information go to rebonds.equiniti.com.

Meanwhile, Gossypium, a Fairtrade and organic cotton retailer, has launched a share offer which aims to raise at least £250,000. The money will be used to increase its range of products and franchise shops.

The shares will be issued by parent company Vericott, which is 90% owned by Gossypium founders Abi and Thomas Petit, and 10% owned by an Indian farmers' co-operative. The company aims to pay an annual dividend "that at least matches banks' savings rates", and shareholders also get 25% off Gossypium products.

The minimum outlay for private investors is £500.

Investors can register their interest on the company's website.

• British Gas has launched a green tariff open to any customer which is designed to raise money to help communities generate renewable energy and improve energy efficiency.

Customers signing up to the energyshare tariff will also get the electricity they use matched with electricity from 100% British renewable sources at the same price as the British Gas standard tariff, a spokesman says.

For every year a customer remains on the tariff the company will pay £10 into a fund which will raise money for local community energy projects. The tariff is a part of energyshare, a renewable energy "community" founded by the River Cottage food empire and British Gas.

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UK swimming beaches, lakes and rivers ranked and mapped....

Tamron AF 17-50mm F/2.8 SP XR Di II VC (Vibration Compensation) Zoom Lens for Canon Digital SLR Cameras

                                      Crosby Marine Lake.Photograph by Drawsome.

Europe has ranked every bathing place, beach and swimming area across the EU. How do the UK's beaches and lakes compare? Find which are great - and which are banned.
• Get the data
• Get the map

Do you like swimming outside? But how clean is your beach?

Since 1990, the European Union has been monitoring over 21,000 beaches, lakes and rivers across Europe - anywhere where swimmers go al fresco, in fact. So that huge dataset covers Brighton Beach, the Hamsptead swimming ponds and the classic Mediterranean beaches of the South of France, Spain and Greece.

So, what does the data, out today from the European Environment Agency, show for the UK? The overall figures are good - 96.8% of our swimming areas meet the legal standards, if not the full guidelines. This is down slightly on last year - but more swimming areas are now being surveyed.

But three beaches had to be closed because standards were not high enough, including Blackpool North, Newhaven in Sussex and Tywyn in Wales.

The rankings only include outside swimming places - not man-made lidos or pools.

This is how the data looks on a Google Fusion map:

Click on a bathing area to see how it scored. Green are the best ranked. Fullscreen version

Most British bathing areas do comply - but a significant number only meet the mandatory rules, not the wider-ranging guidelines.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/datablog/2011/jun/16/uk-swimming-beaches-bathing

Pomegranate juice could reduce workplace stress.....

PA

Monday, 6 June 2011

Pomegranate juice could reduce stress in the workplace, according to new research.

The study found that having the drink every day resulted in lower stress hormones and a reduction in blood pressure.

Researchers at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, studied the physiological effect of daily consumption of 500ml of Pomegreat Pure pomegranate juice over a two-week period.

They found that all 60 volunteers - from a range of working environments - reported being more enthusiastic and less distressed after having the drink.

Dr Emad Al-Dujaili, who led the study, said: "On the basis of these findings there is a justified argument for busy workers to drink pomegranate juice to help alleviate chronic stress and maintain good health.

"There is a growing body of evidence that pomegranate juice delivers wide-ranging health benefits that merit further research.

"It is very rare indeed for an all-natural juice to offer the range of health benefits that we are seeing in pomegranate juice."

The study was funded by the Pomegreat drinks company.

Private Medical Cover from £30 per month with Independent Compare

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/pomegranate-juice-could-reduce-workplace-stress-2293638.html

Britain's rivers 'being ruined by demands of water companies'....

                            Photograph taken with:
Tamron AF 17-50mm F/2.8 SP XR Di II VC (Vibration Compensation) Zoom Lens for Canon Digital SLR Cameras

                               Photograph by Drawsome.
Study says extraction causing harm, but warns cost of remedy may be passed to consumers

By Jane Merrick, Political Editor.

Water companies are draining the nation's most at-risk rivers dry, causing environmental damage, death to wildlife and the build-up of chemicals that upset fragile aquatic ecosystems, all of which could result in ever-higher bills for consumers, a damning report will say tomorrow.

Current abstraction by firms from rivers and groundwater sources is so high that it would take the equivalent of 23 million people to stop using water every day to get back to environmentally sustainable levels.

The report by Policy Exchange, David Cameron's favourite think-tank, calls for the UK's water companies to be charged more for using the most environmentally vulnerable rivers and boreholes, with cheaper rates for those that frequently flood.

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This would force companies to use the most at-risk sources less often, and allow those rivers to eventually return to environmentally sustainable levels, the report argues. There would also be higher charges for abstraction during droughts.

Without action, the report says, current practices will cause "serious damage to river and wetland ecologies" and water bills will soar.

The study, by Dr Simon Less, a former director of Ofwat, also recommends households be fitted with smart meters charging higher rates for water at peak times and when water is most scarce, during summer and droughts.

 A White Paper to be published in November is expected to propose smart metering in homes.

The calls for higher charges for abstraction are bound to prompt fears that water companies will try to pass on the cost to consumers.

 Average water bills are already set to rise by around 4.6 per cent to £356 this year, yet the report says there should be no extra cost to firms if the charging regime is simply restructured.

The driest spring for decades has left several rivers, mainly in the south and east of England, dry and has triggered an increase in deaths to wildlife and eradicated banks of wild flowers. It was reported last week that 200 swans have died on the Thames alone in the past six months from drought and other factors.

But the report, Untapped Potential, argues that even before this spring, the long-term effects of climate change and increasing demand by soaring population rates have caused water levels to drop significantly.

Some rivers dry up completely for long periods of the year, and just 15 per cent of the country's river network is in a condition to support a "healthy ecosystem", Dr Less, head of Policy Exchange's Environment and Energy Unit, told The Independent on Sunday last night.

The report says: "Many rivers and natural environments are suffering damage on a regular basis as a result of over-abstraction of water, and not leaving enough to maintain a healthy ecosystem. Some rivers are drying up completely at certain times, which can be fatal for the wildlife that relies on them. But also significant water-level drops can mean sewage and chemical contaminants become more concentrated, rivers slow down, fill up with sediment and may get warmer, all of which severely affect habitats for fish, insects, animals and plants, sometimes irreversibly."

At present, the UK's 26 water companies are permitted, for a fee, to take water from rivers whether they are environmentally at risk or not.

The Environment Agency operates around 20,000 abstraction licences in England and Wales, with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency operating a similar system that allows holders to take water from rivers or boreholes.

The report says the "cheapest sources of water are generally exploited first" – with water companies using rivers and boreholes close to infrastructure, regardless of how low the levels are, rather than reservoirs further away, which is more expensive to transport.

The report says: "Signalling environmental costs through the structure of abstraction charges would influence water companies' operational decisions. Where they had a choice of sources, companies might be incentivised to use environmentally sensitive, but cheap, sources less often."

The report suggests that the overall cost of abstraction licences to water companies, around £95m in total, would not need to change.

Dr Less said: "Only 15 per cent by length of UK rivers are in a condition to support a healthy, vibrant ecosystem. At the current rate of progress in tackling over-abstraction, it could take centuries to address current problems. On top of that, population increases and potential changes in rainfall patterns risk more rivers drying up and greater ecosystem damage within the next couple of decades."

How can I help save our bees?

The British bee is still in decline, but home hives may not be the answer.

THE DILEMMA I'm terrified by the news that the honey bee is in decline. I live in a town and have limited space, but should I set up a hive to help the bees?


The quote (often attributed to Einstein) "If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, man would have only four years to live" is no doubt ringing in your ears. Given that experts suggest that one-third of global farm output depends on animal pollination, this is not hyperbole. Wipe out bee pollination and we lose about 35% of our calories, for starters.

In America, bee colony populations are thought to have halved through Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) in which the worker bees from a hive suddenly disappear. Campaigners seem convinced that CCD has been triggered by the use of neonicotinoid pesticides, which are thought to impair bees' ability to forage. Retailer and activist Sam Roddick and nealsyardremedies.com have launched a campaign and petition to ban neonics under the Bee Lovely banner.

Four years ago British beekeepers were losing one in three hives. This rate has slowed, but there's no cause for celebration: the annual survey measuring losses over winter puts this year's bee losses at 13.6%. The British bee decline is often attributed to a resistant parasitic mite, the varroa, that spreads viruses among bee colonies. But researchers, such as those at Newcastle University, think the principal threat is the intensification of agricultural environments.

So it's tempting to don a beekeeping suit and offer a live/work unit to these hard-working insects. However, when the London mayoral office launched Capital Bee, aka Boris's bees, to promote inner-city beekeeping, beekeepers threw up their smokers in horror. Inexperienced urban beekeeping wouldn't help, they said.
Actually Capital Bee has promoted 50 community hives and new London beekeepers are in training, but there is a lesson here. We would have more answers to CCD and other causes of downturns in bee populations if research hadn't been so woefully underfunded. That's why I like the British beekeepers association's AdoptaBeehive.co.uk programme, where you can support research and experienced beekeeping.

So don't set up a hive. If you have a garden, your responsibility lies in making it bee friendly. Set your lawn mower on a higher setting so it won't cut down clover (bees love clover), plant native garden flowers and wildflowers rather than imported species that offer little nectar or pollen, and leave gardens ungroomed, with bits of rotting wood and mouse nests that may be used by nesting bees.

Given that only one in six pots of honey eaten in the UK is from British bees, buying local honey in order to support local beekeepers gives you a short and sweet remedy.


Lucy Siegle's book To Die For: Is Fashion Wearing Out the World? (£12.99, Fourth Estate) is out now in paperback

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jul/03/lucy-siegle-british-bee-hive

Liverpool....the worlds biggest village....

        Liverpool. Albert Dock, looking north. Photograph:Paul Hughes.

MatthewWorthington.

Liverpool is the biggest village in the world. It is big enough to feel like a city, and small enough to feel welcoming. Despite the stereotypes, Liverpool is a city that entertains you just by walking around it, and listening to people talk.

Everyone I know is suprised when they come to Liverpool, by the fact it's so small, so friendly, and so modern. They all agree that the best thing about this city, apart from its people, is the nightlife, and this is certainly true. Whether you want hip neon-lit, chrome bars, spit and sawdust pubs, old men's boozers, or student cheese, then you will find it in Liverpool.

Afternoon pint? no problem. All night dancing, follow me mate! Oh, and you are never short of a drinking buddy or two...

http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/places/united-kingdom/liverpool/profile.jsp