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News Editor
Written by the news editors of The Independent this blog brings you the stories behind the headlines, the raw footage of events as they happen and an insider guide to the most interesting news from across the internet. Use the blog to contact the paper directly with your stories and comment on the major issues of the day.
In The Independent today:
SAFETY QUESTIONS OVER SWINE FLU JABS
It's already throwing GP surgeries into chaos and shutting down schools. Now the first doses of swine flu vaccine will be given to the public before full data on its safety and effectiveness becomes available, doctors confirmed yesterday. Our health editor Jeremy Laurance looks at a worsening crisis.
HAZARDOUS WASTE FROM UK "DUMPED IN BRAZILIAN PORT"
More than 1,400 tonnes of waste - including bags of blood, used syringes, car batteries, soiled nappies and waste electronic equipment - has been sent back to Britain from Brazil after it was exported illegally across the Atlantic disguised, ironically, as recyclable plastic.
THE DAY LIVE MUSIC DIED
Care for some live music with your beer? Tough. Andy McSmith reports on a new layer of government bureaucracy is threatening to pull the plug on pub rock.
Today, we're delighted to announce a partnership with Tweetminster, a web-based service that allows people to follow MPs and UK politics on Twitter, to launch a media utility that uses the power of Twitter to connect people the politicians, commentators and media stories that shape UK politics.
The service, called Livewire, works within the internet browser to allow users to track the tweets of MPs and Prospective Parliamentary Candidates, as well as follow political journalists, commentators and news sources from mainstream media to blogs. Filtering relevant tweets in real time around trending topics on Twitter, Livewire also recommends new users and helps discover new content, all while acting as typical Twitter client through which users can follow their friends. A built-in search engine lets you browse tweets by politician, party or source, and the service includes insight and analytical tools which users of a statistical bent can employ to determine the occurrence of terms over time and help understand the sentiment around issues, real-time trends and popular links. The free service is supported by advertising and users can login using their Twitter log-in.
It's fantastically useful for anyone interested in politics, so get using it!
In The Independent today:
FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE: A PROPHETIC WARNING OF CHECHEN REPRESSION
The Independent reveal an exclusive report by the late Natalya Estemirova, the Russian activist recently murdered in Chechnya as she investigated human rights abuses.
ELEVEN MILLION NAMES ON SCHOOL DATABASE
Following the news that some of Britain's top authors and illustrators plan to boycott schools over the government's proposed sex-offence register, Chris Green reports on how 11 million records could be stored on file in the next five years.
CAN ANYONE STOP BLAIR BECOMING THE FIRST PRESIDENT OF EUROPE?
It's the worst kept secret in EU's capitals: Tony Blair wants to become the first president of Europe. But how can he secure the post if he doesn't campaign actively? Andrew Grice reports on the former prime minister's silent search for another seat of power.
FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE: A PROPHETIC WARNING OF CHECHEN REPRESSION
The Independent reveal an exclusive report by the late Natalya Estemirova, the Russian activist recently murdered in Chechnya as she investigated human rights abuses.
ELEVEN MILLION NAMES ON SCHOOL DATABASE
Following the news that some of Britain's top authors and illustrators plan to boycott schools over the government's proposed sex-offence register, Chris Green reports on how 11 million records could be stored on file in the next five years.
CAN ANYONE STOP BLAIR BECOMING THE FIRST PRESIDENT OF EUROPE?
It's the worst kept secret in EU's capitals: Tony Blair wants to become the first president of Europe. But how can he secure the post if he doesn't campaign actively? Andrew Grice reports on the former prime minister's silent search for another seat of power.
In The Independent today:
AUTHORS BOYCOTT SCHOOLS OVER SEX-OFFENCE REGISTER
A group of Britain’s most respected authors and illustrators - including Quentin Blake and Philip Pullman - have boycott a government scheme that requires visitors to schools to register on a database in case they pose a danger to children. By Chris Green.
DAVID CAMERON: WHAT I LEARNED AS THE FATHER OF A DISABLED CHILD
David Cameron reveals the five lessons that he learned from his late son and how they have helped to shape his parties welfare policy.
PICASSO’S RED PERIOD
Picasso’s decision to become a Communist was mocked at the time, but it inspired some of his most acclaimed work – as a new exhibition at Tate Liverpool will demonstrate. Jonathan Brown reports.
As a medium, microblogging phenomenon Twitter might seem more likely than most to sidestep the dangers of live broadcasting; after all, with only 140 characters to play with, what can go wrong? As in so many other matters, the House of Commons had its own ideas however, and seemed determined to throw a spanner in the works of our live Twitter interview with Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, when the Division Bell sounded to indicate it was time to vote on the fate of poor old Gary McKinnon. Gary, this one's for you -
In The Independent today:
REVEALED: THE DEADLY TIMEBOMB FOR BRITAIN'S CAMPAIGN VETERANS
Britain faces a "ticking timebomb" of mental illness and suicide among young Army veterans returning from combat in Afghanistan, warn the Conservatives, as the bodies of eight more soldiers return back to the UK. By Nigel Morris and Kim Sengupta.
AFTER 54 YEARS TOGETHER, THEY DECIDED TO DIE TOGETHER
One of Britain's greatest conductors and his wife ended their lives in a Swiss clinic, watched by their weeping family. Jonathan Brown reports.
AND FINALLY: WELCOME TO THE COUNTRY HOUSE OF SIN
Jerome Taylor lifts the lid on the Somerset Countryhouse where wealthy guests sipped champagne until the stroke midnight, when things suddenly got a whole lot spicier...
We've just launched an enhanced video news offering following an innovative distribution deal with the Press Association and Octopus Media Technology.
Press Association video journalists will be supplying over 100 voiced packages a week to the website covering news, sport and entertainment. Each package will be around 90 seconds in length and cover a single story with voice over where appropriate. In addition, a further 100 short 20 seconds clips on single stories will be provided for use alongside text and pictures as part of the digital storytelling process.
The solution from video specialists Octopus Media Technology allows the Independent to integrate the high quality video easily into their website with improved quality, functionality and user experience.
It's all very exciting. Have a look at the offering on the home page and tell us what you think.
It's all very exciting. Have a look at the offering on the home page and tell us what you think.
Twitterers and readers of the Independent are to interview Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg on Wednesday, in a question and answer session delivered purely through Twitter. It will take place live on Wednesday July 15th at 4pm (BST).
So we're looking for Twitterers around the world to join with us to help put questions to Mr Clegg - we are working with Tweetminster, the estimable company that focuses on UK politics and brings news and commentary together with its Twitter service (of which, more soon), and we will launch the first ever (well, so far as we know) Twinterview* with a major political figure. The idea is to bring politicians and citizens closer, using the mechanisms of the web to open up new channels between them. So please ask your questions and get your followers and fellow twitterers to do the same.
To ask Nick Clegg a question simply tweet your question to @IndyPolitics with the hashtag #tweetclegg . Questions will be filtered by @IndyPolitics and answered by Nick through his account @Nick_Clegg. Tweetminster (@tweetminster) will be re-tweeting all the questions and answers too. To follow the Twinterview make sure you’re following all the accounts involved (@IndyPolitics, @Nick_Clegg and @tweetminster).
You can start sending your questions in now and also tweet them in live during the interview.
The transcript of the Questions and Answers will also be aggregated and published by the Independent and by Tweeminster following the interview.
Nick Clegg said: “Reaching out to people, listening to them and explaining what we stand for is a vital part of my work as Leader of the Liberal Democrats.
“Whether it’s travelling round the country holding town hall meetings as I do most weeks or answering people’s questions on Twitter, engaging with people is also essential to fixing our broken political system.
“I’m looking forward to responding to people’s concerns about the issues that they are most concerned about, and perhaps unusually for a politician, doing so succinctly.”
We’re hoping that Tweetminster and ourselves will be following the interview with Nick Clegg with a series of exclusive Twinterviews aimed at connecting people directly with politicians. Watch this space.
*Twinterview - forgive us
*Twinterview - forgive us
You should play with our new widget.
We’ve launched our new Newzdog widget today, so you can have the news you’re interested in delivered to your desktop.
Effectively, it’s a simple and easy to use desktop alert notification system enabling you to receive news and information that is relevant to you – you log on your favourite topics so that when news on that topic is published by The Independent, you are instantly notified.
To use the widget, you instal the widget and searches for topics of interest, and saves those topics if you are interested in receiving further updates. Once installed, you can minimise it so it sits in the system tray as a yellow star. When a story is published of relevance to the search, a small pop-up window will alert you, and the star turns red. To read the story, you simply click on the star and the story emerges in a Newzdog page – with all links and video fully functional.
You can add as many alerts as you like, effectively designing your own news service, so if you want to know about diverse subjects such as Harry Potter, Manchester United and Barack Obama, you can set up news alerts for all three and be alerted the instant articles are published
Whatever the facts of the case (and other doctors’ medical knowledge) his death will worry other GPs treating people with suspected swine flu – and make it much more likely that situations such as those described by bloggers like Dr Crippin here will occur.
Maybe it is time that those who said swine flu was over-hyped by the media to think again.
There were hoary old anecdotes from the back table at any cricketing dinner, but are always worth re-hashing – at least you thought so as you read our ‘Best insults in cricket’ round up more than anything else last week. Other than than that, you care a lot about the transfer market…
Howzat! The best insults in cricket
The ten worst rock’n’roll comebacks
The worst transfer deals in Premier League history
The players itching for a transfer move
Just 96 months to save the world, says Prince Charles
The Apollo hoax theories
The best transfer deals in Premier League history
The unseen photographs that throw new light on the first world war
If only – the transfer deals that failed to materialise
The daily cartoon
Howzat! The best insults in cricket
The ten worst rock’n’roll comebacks
The worst transfer deals in Premier League history
The players itching for a transfer move
Just 96 months to save the world, says Prince Charles
The Apollo hoax theories
The best transfer deals in Premier League history
The unseen photographs that throw new light on the first world war
If only – the transfer deals that failed to materialise
The daily cartoon
The Guardian’s coverage of the News of World’s use of bugging and other underhand investigative tactics in the pursuit of stories is fascinating.
But perhaps for the sake of full disclosure Nick Davies (the author of the story) should ask staff in the Guardian’s employment whether they have ever done anything similar. He will get some revealing answers.
A press release – ridiculously not for use until Friday (sorry) – arrives in our inbox. It reveals that 40 years on from the moon landing, “an online survey commissioned by TV Licensing”, found that 2000 adults felt it was the most iconic TV moment ever.
Surely the public’s money should be spent on improving their television broadcasting, rather than asking what we enjoyed watching in the past.
And in light of the recent outrage over MP’s and BBC expenses, one would think that all organisations funded by the tax payer would striving to save money.
UPDATE: Having expressed outrage at their profligacy over the phone…this email arrives from their press office.
“I know you expressed a concern about the cost, so I should perhaps clarify that we very rarely conduct research for our public awareness campaigns. This survey, which helps us highlight the need to be licensed when watching TV online, cost £500 +VAT.”
So that’s alright then.
And just to get full licence fee payers money (early) here is the full press release below....
EMBARGOED FOR PUBLICATION OR BROADCAST UNTIL 00.01 HOURS ON FRIDAY 10 JULY 2009
On 40th anniversary - moon landing still most iconic TV moment for 1 in 4 people
Almost 40 years since Neil Armstrong took "one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind" one in four UK viewers still rate the moon landing as the most iconic TV moment of all time.*
In an online survey commissioned by TV Licensing, 25 per cent of people questioned picked the first moon landing, which took place 40 years ago this month, as the most iconic historical moment broadcast live on TV. Young and old recognised the power of the historic footage, with 20 per cent of those under 45 choosing the moon landing as their most iconic moment, despite many not having been born at the time.
The moon landing came second after 9/11, which was picked by 35 per cent of the 2,000 adults polled. [See appendix for full top ten].
TV Licensing commissioned the research as part of its campaign to raise awareness of the need to be covered by a TV Licence when watching live TV, whether it's on a TV set, computer or mobile phone.
A range of well-known figures have shared their most iconic TV moments with TV Licensing, including Alan Hansen, Gary Lineker, Sophie Raworth and Maggie Philbin.
John Humphrys, presenter of BBC Radio 4's 'Today', recalled his memories of watching the moon landing. He said:
"I am not proud of this, but my daughter was due to be born on the day man landed on the moon so I faced a choice: hospital or home, watching the telly. I'm ashamed to say that the telly won. Still ... I was only 23 at the time and it's not as if she was my firstborn. She's forty now. I THINK she understands."
[See below for additional quotes]
Joanna Pearce, TV Licensing spokesperson, said:
"A lot has changed in the 40 years since Neil Armstrong first set foot on the moon, not least how we watch TV. A great example is that many people will have gathered round a computer - rather than a TV set - to watch the most recent event in our top 10, Barack Obama's inauguration.
"As TV evolves, it's important that people understand when they need a TV Licence. No matter what channel you watch, or whether you watch on a TV set, computer or even a mobile phone, if it's a live broadcast you're watching, you must be covered by a licence."
Iain Logie Baird, Curator of Television at the National Media Museum in Bradford and grandson of John Logie Baird (inventor of the first television), said:
"A large part of television's power lies in how it is able to transmit vision and sound instantaneously. Moments like the Moon landing are ephemeral - they can be experienced only once in real time. This unpredictability unleashes a sense of mass anticipation: everyone is watching the same historic events unfold. Watching TV images from the moon was a completely new experience for viewers and still exerts a powerful hold over our collective imagination."
What's your most iconic historical moment broadcast live on TV?
Gary Lineker, BBC 'Match of the Day' presenter and former footballer
Moon landing, 1969
"I remember all the family huddled round the television and the excitement when that first step was taken. One of man's greatest achievements."
Alan Hansen, BBC 'Match of the Day' pundit and former footballer
World Cup Final 1970: Italy v Brazil
"I remember watching the World Cup Final in 1970, Italy versus Brazil, the fourth goal, and at that moment, knew that I wanted to be there myself, playing in games like that in a World Cup. I will never forget watching that game".
Sophie Raworth, Newsreader
September 11th 2001
"I'd just got home after a morning presenting BBC Breakfast when a girlfriend rang, shouted at me to turn on the television and hung up. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. The twin towers on fire, then crumbling live in front of my eyes. I stayed in front of the television for hours, transfixed and hardly moving. I couldn't take in what was happening or the horror of it all."
Maggie Philbin, BBC radio presenter and former presenter of 'Tomorrow's World'
Moon landing, 1969
"I watched the moon landing on old black and white set with my Mum, Dad and younger sister Nickie. In 1969, it was the only set in the house, so we were all sat in front of it, my Dad passing round a tin of Quality Street, my Mum holding a glass of sherry ready to celebrate. Across the world, 500 million people did the same. It was an intimate, powerful, shared experience which was to inspire many future scientists and engineers."
To find out more about TV Licensing and buy a TV Licence online, visit www.tvlicensing.co.uk/info<http://www.tv
- END-
Top ten iconic TV moments:
Order TV moment Percentage
1 9/11 (2001) 35%
2 Man sets foot on the moon for the first time (1969) 25%
=3 Funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales (1997)
Fall of the Berlin Wall (1989) 8%
5 Obama election victory/inauguration (2008/9) 7%
6 John F. Kennedy assassination (1963) 5%
7 Nelson Mandela leaves prison (1990) 3%
8 England 1966 World Cup victory (1966) 2%
=9 Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer marry (1981)
Live Aid (1985) 1%
Craigg Newmark, of Craigslist fame, contributes to the ReBoot Britain debate on Wordia with his definition of community.
We've not had one for a while, so here's a little gem that landed in our inbox this morning, sent by Sarah Park, the senior media consultant at Mason Media. Now I know she's only doing her job, which is to promote her clients, but has a story like this ever appeared in The Independent?
Not one for us, thanks, Sarah, although it has at least filled the "ridiculous press release of the week slot"
Women getting married this summer will have spent more than 200 hours of their boss’s time preparing for their wedding day during the past year.
WAG-style weddings and easy access to the internet mean that Brides-to-Be are turning into “Bone Br-Idles” and spending an average of one and a half hours a day gossiping about and planning for their big day.
There’s only place to blog, of course – the Independent Minds platform, but who are the movers and shakers in amongst the discerning bloggerati who grace our web pages?
These are the top ten most read bloggers in June. If you want to join such distinguished company, you can start your own blog here.
The Independent on Sunday’s annual ‘Pink List’ – the top 100 most influential gay men and women in Britain, topped the viewing by some way this week, rendering any imposition of any kind of pattern on your reading even more futile than usual.
Expect lots of blogging from ReBoot Britain today, including this offering from Paul Miller, CEO and co-founder of schoolofeverything is here to kick off Reboot Britain week with his ideas on ‘start up’, as told to to Wordia.
The death of Mollie Sugden, battleaxe comedy actress of great repute, was announced yesterday. A long and distinguished career in the mud and nettles of British situation comedy will be reduced to a single entrendre. But the sheer gall of this long-running gag in Are You Being Served can still raise a smile. Or is that just me?
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Page Summary
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kdutta : Safety concerns over swine flu jabs [+0] - jleach : Launching Livewire - the twitter service to end them all [+2]
- kdutta : A searing indictment on Putin's reign of terror [+0]
- kdutta : Anthony Horowitz: "£64 to prove I'm not a paedophile" [+0]
- j_riley : Behind the scenes of the Nick Clegg 'twinterview' [+0]
- kdutta : The bleak future awaiting our Army veterans [+0]
- jleach : Independent launches new video player and content deal [+0]
- jleach : Twitterers join with The Independent to interview Nick Clegg [+4]
- jleach : Play with our new Newzdog widget [+0]
- owright : GP becomes latest swine flu death [+0]
- jleach : Every time I read it, she gave me a biscuit [+1]
- owright : The Guardian and a glass house [+1]
- jleach : ReBoot Britain: Julie Meyer [+0]
- owright : Top ten iconic TV moments [+0]
- jleach : ReBoot Britain: Craig Newmark on community [+0]
- emmabamford : Ridiculous press release of the week [+0]
- jleach : The top ten bloggers on Independent Minds [+0]
- jleach : It’s all gone pink – what you read last week [+0]
- jleach : More from ReBoot Britain [+0]
- jleach : RIP Mrs Slocombe's pussy [+0]
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