'The author is brilliant at playing with words'

The Phantom Tollbooth is a great book that I could happily read all over again! It starts with a boy called Milo that is bored stiff about everything in life, but one day an exciting package arrives at his door step containing a life-sized toy car and an also life-sized tollbooth. Milo, having nothing better to do gets in the toy car and drives up to the empty tollbooth. After that moment disaster strikes as he travels into a mysterious world.

This book really takes things literally and the author is brilliant at playing with words. If you like a funny book filled with hilarious travels through strange towns to meet weird creatures then read this wonderful book.

Want to tell the world about a book you've read? Join the site and send us your review!

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/2011/nov/11/review-phantom-tollbooth

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Circle has little know-how on running a hospital the size of Hinchingbrooke, but that doesn't seem to bother the government

The government's decision to sign a 10-year contract worth £1bn for an untested private company to manage the heavily indebted Hinchingbrooke hospital really is the triumph of hype over experience.

The hype has come thick and fast from Circle Healthcare's smooth-talking boss, former Goldman Sachs banker Ali Parsadoust (known as Ali Parsa), who gives the impression that Circle is some kind of altruistic workers' co-operative, while in fact it is controlled by private equity and hedge funds. Far from handing control to the workers, Circle takes a negative view of trade unions and will have to resort to old-fashioned cuts in the workforce if it is to generate the "efficiency savings" it needs to put the hospital into surplus.

More hype has come from the architect of the contract, NHS East of England's director of strategy Dr Stephen Dunn, an enthusiastic advocate of private sector provision (which he denies is privatisation), whose unstinting efforts to secure this deal won him an award this year from HealthInvestor magazine.

But there is little in Circle's record to justify Dunn's belief that the company has the expertise to take on a project on the scale of Hinchingbrooke. The company has yet to make a success even of running its two tiny (30-bed) private hospitals, which were extravagantly expensive to build, and has run up six years of losses so far: hardly a good base to take on the bigger challenge of managing of a debt-ridden NHS general hospital 10 times the size and many more times more complex.

Even the NHS workforce that Circle will be attempting to manage at Hinchingbrooke is three times larger than the grand total of 568 people working for the whole Circle group. Only one of the company's senior managers has any experience of managing an NHS hospital and he has left the company to rejoin the NHS. And so far they have set out no concrete proposals on how they plan to save money and turn around the finances when they take over in February.

The uncertainty over the Hinchingbrooke contract is even greater since Circle will only be paid a share of any surplus the hospital makes. It might not make any. The PCT (and GP commissioners) are trying to cut the numbers of patients treated in hospital, and squeezing down tariffs for treatment as part of the NHS-wide drive to make £20bn of "efficiency savings" by 2014.

Far from rescuing the NHS, Circle itself is heavily dependent upon the NHS: its main current income stream comes from an NHS contract. Circle's own business plan to expand its private hospitals relies on it continuing to build a workforce by poaching consultants, nurses and other staff trained by the NHS. And now Circle's future financial health depends on drawing profits from running one NHS hospital, and hopefully generating further contract income from the NHS ? assuming Andrew Lansley's health bill successfully opens up the NHS to greater private sector involvement. Circle said earlier this year it is "primarily targeting the £82bn UK secondary acute healthcare market".

The part of the company that is proudly proclaimed as a "John Lewis-style" company, Circle Partnership Ltd, is incorporated in the tax haven of the British Virgin Islands, and is indeed owned by Circle's clinicians, employees and other "partners". It incorporates all of Circle's healthcare and medical expertise.

But overall control is firmly in the hands of a separate for-profit company, Circle Holdings. This is owned by private equity firms and hedge funds, and its directors come mainly from corporate finance: only its chief medical officer, Dr Massoud Fouladi, a consultant ophthalmologist, has any health background. He ran Nations Healthcare, which was taken over by Circle, and had two independent sector treatment centres (ISTCs), which like other ISTCs made their money selling uncomplicated elective operations to the NHS at above-NHS tariff prices.

But as it takes over Hinchingbrooke, Circle's own financial situation is worrying. It has already lost two ISTC contracts: and its £34m-a-year ISTC contract in Nottingham, currently the company's main income stream, has only two more years to run. In the last three years Circle's losses were £40m, £20m and £35m. Its new showpiece hospital in Bath has only just begun to generate a modest trickle of income.

The company will be under pressure to turn a profit. Ninety five per cent of the Circle Holdings is owned by a private equity and other city interests, including some of the world's biggest hedge funds and asset managers. Over the past six years they have funnelled a massive £140m into the company, for no return. They will want to limit further investment until they see results.

So the staff and services at Hinchingbrooke will be right in the firing line when Circle eventually takes over the reins next February.

How hard NHS staff will want to work at making surpluses for Circle is open to doubt. How many of them will lose their jobs and how many services will be sacrificed in the bid to make surpluses we can only wait and see.

The Hinchingbrooke contract is a gamble with high stakes, and with only slim chances of success: yet remarkably it's already being discussed as a model for other struggling trusts. Don't ask for evidence, just go with the private sector hype. That's the future under Lansley's NHS.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/nov/11/andrew-lansley-nhs-private-sector-circle

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Philip Hammond joins 3,500 British troops at Camp Bastion to honour 'sacrifice that is continuing to be made'

The defence secretary, Philip Hammond, marked Armistice Day alongside troops in Afghanistan at a special parade at Camp Bastion.

The commemoration was held two days after the most recent death of a British soldier in Helmand province.

Territorial Army Private Matthew Thornton, from the 4th Battalion, the Yorkshire Regiment, was killed by an IED (improvised explosive device) while on patrol in Babaji on Wednesday. The 28-year-old's death takes the number of UK personnel killed since operations began in Afghanistan in 2001 to 385.

Hammond joined about 3,500 troops at Camp Bastion for an Armistice parade on the 93rd anniversary of the end of the first world war.

Speaking before the parade, he said: "I regard it as critically important that we're here to show how important it is to us the sacrifice that is continuing to be made.

"So the ceremonies that we will have across Britain on Remembrance Sunday are not just about the war dead from the first and second world wars, or even conflicts we've had since, but this is about an ongoing sacrifice that people here are making on a daily, weekly basis that they all live with every day.

"They get up and go out with the possibility that they may be killed or injured in a combat situation, and I think that makes this ceremony here especially poignant.

"It is now the only place in the world where British troops are in active daily danger and lives are being lost, and I think it's a way of showing the value that we at home place on the sacrifice and the dedication and the commitment that these people are showing."

The defence secretary was joined by dignitaries including Lieutenant General James Bucknall CBE, the deputy commander of Isaf and the commander of the UK national contingent; Simon Gass, the Nato senior civilian representative, and representatives of the three armed services.

They laid wreaths during the parade, with Hammond's bearing the message: "In grateful memory of those who have given their lives in the service of their nation".

On Thursday, Hammond met British troops in Afghanistan for the first time, visiting Lashkar Gah and accompanying members from 3 Scots on a foot patrol in Nad-e-Ali.

He had arrived in Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, on Wednesday, where he met the Isaf commander General John Allen, the Afghan defence minister, General Abdul Rahim Wardak, and the chief of Afghan forces, General Sher Mohammad Karimi.

On Friday, he described the visit as "fascinating", adding: "To actually come out and see what it's like on the ground, to smell it, to touch it, to talk to the people ? not the generals and the colonels who are normally briefing me, but the guys on the frontline ? to talk to them about their experiences, the things that are bothering them ? which are often quite different from the things that are worrying the generals, is really important, really interesting. It's been a really informative experience."

On Thursday, Hammond said he would "stand up for the military", adding: "But the military will understand that, if we want to be strong in the future, we have to build our military capability on the back of a sustainable budget and a strong economy."

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/nov/11/remembrance-day-defence-secretary-afghanistan

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Follow in the footsteps of Dame Judi Dench. Paint the stable. Run up some angels' wings on your sewing machine. Preparations for the biggest-ever Mystery Plays are under way

Have you fancied a spell in the garden of Eden, or wanted a captive audience for your prophetic utterances?

York is offering you a chance from tomorrow, Saturday 12 November, when auditions and drop-in sessions start for the city's celebrated mystery plays.

The performance next year is going to be lthe argest outdoor production in the known history of our county's capital city. And that is saying something; the plays, which are thought to have started as a travelling show put on by craft guilds from carts ? and indeed wains, made by my ancestors ? are the most venerable still performed in the country.

The preliminary auditions hope to fill the main roles including Adam and Eve and Mary and Joseph, so applicants will need to show some proof that they can act. Past Marys include Mary Ure and Dame Judi Dench who were both pupils at the local Quaker school, the Mount.

The drop-ins will give information about thousands of other roles; not just on stage but making costumes, helping with stage management and painting props. The plays' community producer Liam Evans-Ford says:

York Mystery Plays 2012 is looking for two brave souls with impeccable acting skills to play Adam and Eve. Both actors will be among the first to grace the stage each night ? setting the scene for the whole production in front of 1,500 people.

These first sessions are mainly for those wanting to take one of the main roles, but also for those interested in trying some acting in a relaxed and informal setting.

Don't be put off by the number of people likely to have a crack at the opportunity ? and word has spread so effectively that the first two 'main part' auditions are already booked out. Goodness, what with yesterday's Northerner story about Vindolanda's archaeolgical placements selling out in three hours, northern England is definitely the place to be.

But we know that. The point for would-be Mystery thespians is that the plays are planning to have two entire casts to allow the maximum number of performances, and mirror the way that the original mediaeval plays are thought to have involved large numbers, not just an elite. That doubles your chances, and also means you can still go on holiday for part of next August when the cycle will be performed.

Dame Judi says:

Having performed in the York Mystery Plays three times, I know the excitement that these events bring to the people of York and the important place they hold within the city's history. When I heard the Mystery Plays were returning to Museum Gardens and the scale and ambition which York Theatre Royal, Riding Lights Theatre Company and York Museums Trust have for this production, I was honoured to be asked to become a patron for 2012.

The plays will be performed from August 2 to 27, with 1000 cast members including well-known professionals in leading roles. The new adaption is by Mike Kenny, an Olivier award winner, who adapted the National Railway Museum's brilliant version of The Railway Children. Can a real steam engine somehow be involved? Probably not, but get ready for excellent effects.

Here are the audition details:

The two main part audition sessions on November 12 and November 19 are now fully booked, but an extra date has been added on Saturday 26 November at Riding Lights Theatre, Lower Friargate. People wishing to book a time should book beforehand on: (01904) 715454. Open Group auditions will also take place on the above dates from 11.30am to 1pm. These sessions are designed to be fun, with no pressure and will last no more than 90 minutes. These will also take place on:
 
Monday 14th November
Tang Hall Community Centre, Fifth Avenue
7.30pm - Open Group Auditions
 
Wednesday 16th November
Explore Acomb Library, Front Street
7.30pm: Open Group Auditions
 
Thursday 17th November
Huntington School Studio Theatre,
Huntington Road
7.30pm: Open Group Auditions
 
Drop in information sessions, for people wanting to find out more about getting involved in one of the many volunteer roles, such as stage management, stewarding, costume making and many more, can visit the same sites between 6pm and 9pm on the week day workshops and 10am and 6pm on the Saturday sessions. There will also be one on Tuesday 15th November at Tesco Supermarket, Clifton Moor.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/the-northerner/2011/nov/11/york-mystery-plays-judi-dench-mary-ure-mike-kenny

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John Abbott wants to buy his computer-game-loving grandson a laptop for around £500, but it's hard to get a PC gaming system for that sort of price

Over Christmas, I have a 13-year-old grandson visiting from New Zealand. I would like to get him a laptop that he could use for schoolwork, but his great love is computer games. Any suggestions around the £500 mark?
John Abbott

When it comes to laptops, "cheap" and "gaming" don't go together well. People who are serious about PC gaming usually go for desktop computers that have fast (and hot) processors plus even faster (and even hotter) graphics cards.

There are a few laptops designed for gaming but they tend to be big, heavy and expensive. A decent budget would be £1,000 to £1,500, and you can easily spend £2,000. You probably have to compromise at £700 to £750, with Dell's Alienware MX11x r3 being the obvious choice, and that's with an 11.6in screen. It can be a real struggle to get something good for £500 or less.

Still, any PC that can handle games such as Crytek's Crysis ? which is very demanding because of its real-time lighting and shadows ? or Battlefield 3 will easily handle the sort of programs commonly used for schoolwork.

Fortunately, there's another way to look at the problem. Almost any mainstream, multimedia laptop can play games at some level. It won't play demanding games with the greatest level of detail and a high (and therefore very smooth) frame rate such as 60 frames per second. Choosing medium or low settings for some functions (object detail, lighting etc) should provide an enjoyable gaming experience with a frame rate of 25-30fps.

The basic specification for an affordable games PC is straightforward. Look for something with a second-generation Intel Core i5 (Sandy Bridge) processor, 4GB of memory, dedicated graphics, and 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium. Multimedia laptops usually include a DVD drive. The size of the hard drive doesn't matter, but fast (7,200rpm) is better than slow (5,400rpm).

The Intel Core i3 processor is cheaper that the Core i5 but it's slower and lacks the TurboBoost feature. However, it's an acceptable compromise. It's not worth spending more on a Core i7.

Intel's Sandy Bridge chips include integrated HD Graphics: a dramatic improvement on Intel's earlier Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) system, but aimed more at decoding movies than running 3D games. A gaming laptop really needs a dedicated graphics system, preferably one compatible with Microsoft's DirectX 11.

Try to get something affordably mid-range such as an Nvidia GeForce GT 540M or 525M, AMD Radeon HD 6630M or ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650. There are slower options such as the GeForce GT 520MX and GT 520M, which are presumably better than nothing. There are faster options, such as the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870 and Nvidia GeForce GTX 460M, but I'd expect those to be out of your price range.

The Notebookcheck website has a convenient list of Laptop Video Graphics Cards ranked by performance. When you come across a laptop graphics card, search this page to see how good it is.

Find out which particular PC games your grandson plays, because Notebookcheck has a very useful page: Computer Games on Laptop Graphic Cards. This tells you which graphics cards can run which popular games at various levels of definition. The list includes World of Warcraft, Fifa 12, The Sims 3, StarCraft 2, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Shogun 2, Battlefield 3 and so on ? most of the "modern classics".

It's hard to recommend specific laptops because, lacking the opportunity to try them with different games, I don't know the best trade-offs. Also, a laptop I've ignored could become the best choice if it's offered at a good discount. However, I'll point to a few examples and trust readers with more gaming experience to suggest alternatives.

The Lenovo G560, which has a 15.6-in screen, looks a good entry-level choice because it has AMD Radeon HD 6630M graphics, good screen resolution (1600 x 900 pixels) and a better-than-average keyboard. The compromise is that it only has a 2.53GHz Intel Core i3-380M processor, but it looks good value at Amazon.co.uk's price, £429.99.

The G560 is probably a better bet than the Dell Inspiron 15R (aka N5110 FCG61), which has a 2.20GHz Core i3-2330 and Nvidia GeForce GT 525M graphics for £488.98 (including delivery) on Dell UK's website. The 1366 x 768 pixel screen resolution is lower than the Lenovo's, but gaming at the lower resolution requires less processing power. The Inspiron design is not very inspiring, and while Dell's XPS range is much more attractive, it's also more expensive.

The Medion Akoya P6627 has the advantage of including a 2.67GHz Core i5-480M processor and Nvidia GeForce GT 420M graphics, but again, the screen resolution is 1366 x 768 pixels. The Medion comes in under budget at Amazon.co.uk's price, £485.95, but only because it has been reduced from £705.95. (I've not seen one of these machines.)

You will obviously have more choices if you increase your budget. For example, you could get your grandson an Asus N53SV-SX858V with a 2.40GHz Core i5-2430M processor, Nvidia GeForce GT 540M graphics with 2GB of video memory, and a Full HD screen resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels for £615 plus delivery.

Bear in mind that, if you're buying a high-spec laptop at this sort of price, you're paying for the chips. You can't really expect light weight, long battery life or designer-styled metallic construction as well. This is not the kind of machine to pack in a school bag and chuck around.

However, before you actually buy your grandson a laptop, you must find out from what kinds of games he plays, and whether he wants to play them on a laptop rather than on a Microsoft Xbox 360 or Sony PlayStation 3. If he's a "casual gamer" or plays online games, there's no point in spending money on a laptop fast enough to run the PC titles listed at Notebookcheck.

There are plenty of good laptops for less than £500, and for schoolwork, he might well prefer a smaller, more portable laptop with a 13.3in or 14in screen to the usual 15.6in models. Finally, an Apple iPad is great for casual gaming, makes a very attractive gift, and is also within your budget.

Help wanted!

Coming up to Christmas, I've received a few queries about computers for younger children, aged 2.5 to 7. I'd usually suggest a Sony PSP or Nintendo DS Lite for pre-teen users, though I gave my own son a Psion Series 3a. A touchscreen tablet is now the obvious answer, if you can afford one. Are V-Tech's more affordable "electronic learning toys" good starter systems, and how old do you have to be to benefit from a netbook or laptop? If you have children in this sort of age range, please let me know what you think by emailing Ask.Jack@guardian.co.uk.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/askjack/2011/nov/11/ask-jack-laptop-for-gaming

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Rights group says oil giant's 2008 spills have wrecked livelihoods of 69,000 people and will take 30 years to clean up

Royal Dutch Shell's failure to mop up two oil spills in the Niger Delta has caused huge suffering to locals whose fisheries and farmland were poisoned, and the firm and its partners must pay $1bn to start cleaning up the region, Amnesty International said on Thursday.

A spokesman for Shell said the company and its partners had already acknowledged the two oil spills and started cleaning up, adding it had been hampered by oil theft, which was responsible for most spills in the Delta.

The report by the human rights group to mark the 16th anniversary of the execution of environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa by Nigerian authorities said the two spills in 2008 in Bodo, Ogoniland, had wrecked the livelihoods of 69,000 people.

"The prolonged failure of the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria to clean up the oil that was spilled, continues to have catastrophic consequences," it said.

The SPDC is a Shell-run joint venture between the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, which holds 55%, Shell, which holds 30%, EPNL 10% and Agip, with 5%.

Amnesty said the community's UK lawyers suggested the spill had leaked 4,000 barrels a day for 10 weeks, which would make it bigger than the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska.

"Those who used to rely on fishing for a living have lost their incomes and livelihoods. Farmers say their harvests are smaller than before. Overall, people in Bodo are now much less able to grow their own food or catch fish," the report said.

Shell agreed in August that a Nigerian community affected by the spill can claim compensation in a British court setting a precedent for such claims.

The Amnesty report urged implementation of a United Nations Environment Programme report in August that was critical of both Shell and the Nigerian government for contributing to 50 years of pollution in Ogoniland, a region in the labyrinthine creeks, swamps and rivers of the oil-rich Niger Delta.

The Unep said the region needs the world's largest ever oil clean-up, costing an initial $1bn and taking 30 years ? proposing that each of the partners of the SPDC pay its share, based on their stake in the operator.

Amnesty urged SPDC to set up a $1bn clean up fund, citing Bodo as an example of a place needing urgent attention.

"Bodo is a disaster ? that, due to Shell's inaction, continues to this day. It is time this multi-billion dollar company owns up, cleans up and pays up," Aster van Kregten, Amnesty International's Nigeria researcher said in a statement.

Shell stopped pumping oil from most of Ogoniland after a campaign led by Saro-Wiwa, a writer and activist, but it continues to be the dominant player in the Niger Delta.

"SPDC has publicly acknowledged that two oil spills that affected the Bodo community in 2008 were caused by operational issues," Shell spokesman Precious Okolobo said, adding Shell estimated the total size of the spill to be 4,000 barrels.

"The reality is that our efforts to undertake cleanup in Bodo have been hampered by the repeated impact of sabotage and bunkering spills," he added.

Oil is often spilled during sabotage attacks on facilities and bunkering ? tapping pipelines to steal crude. Okolobo said 150,000 barrels of oil are stolen each day in the Delta.

"If Amnesty really wanted to make a difference ? it would join with us in calling for more action to address this criminal activity, which is responsible for the majority of spills."

But Amnesty said even if some spills were caused by theft, "this does not justify a failure to clean up after an oil spill ? all oil companies are required to do so, regardless of cause."

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/nov/10/shell-nigerian-oil-spills-amnesty

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Liverpool council's leader Joe Anderson accuses the government of targeting northern cities, but promises the 'most transparent' budget-setting in the city's history

Liverpool City Council will face some massive challenges over the next six months, as councillors sit down to decide how to make £50million worth of savings to our budget. That challenge is made all the more difficult by the fact that we've already had to make £91million worth of cuts. In total, in two years we're being forced to make £141million cuts from a controllable budget of around £400million.

These cuts are punishing. They are punitive. They will have a devastating impact on the most vulnerable people in the country's most deprived city. They will hit every single resident living in Liverpool, and it's hard not to draw the conclusion that big northern cities like Liverpool have been singled out for Tory cuts.

The Government's own figures show a direct correlation between a council's deprivation, and the cuts it has to make. The more deprived you are, the bigger the cut you've got. Quite simply, where Labour once targeted investment at the most deprived parts of the country, the Tories now target cuts at the most deprived parts of the country.

In Liverpool, we've had to think long and hard about how to deliver cuts that will hit services across the board, especially on top of the massive cuts we had to make last year. We've made £30million in efficiency savings by reducing middle management, using what reserves we can and cutting executive and performance related pay. Now there isn't any fat left ? only the flesh and bones of vital services.

But we've also been clear on one other thing: we will not repeat the mistakes of previous Labour Councils in Liverpool and set an illegal budget. We will not face the spectre of being unable to pay our own staff when we run out of money. We will not let Whitehall mandarins come in and set the budget for us. We will do what we've been elected to do: we will lead.

My aim is to make sure everyone can have their say on the budget. That includes council staff, councillors from all political parties, the council's partners, service users, and residents from across the city. We've invited all parties on the council to join us in setting the budget. The Lib Dems in Liverpool have refused, preferring to isolate themselves and cut themselves off from any role in the decision making process, as opposed to actively helping to defend the services they want to defend. We are also broadcasting the budget meetings on the internet; we are holding public meetings where residents can come and have their say; we're holding mass staff meetings, which are open to all of the council's staff; and we're holding briefing sessions, where the voluntary and business sectors can have their say.

To make sure everyone knows exactly what the choices we're facing are, we've also published on the internet £90million worth of options for things to cut. We've got to choose £50million worth of these options. None of them are options we want to take. All of these are priority areas. But that's where the Government have left us ? not only with only priority services, but now having to prioritise our priorities!

In short, the most difficult budget the city council has ever had to set will also be the most transparent budget the city council has ever set, one where everyone is able to have their say.

But the fact remains that we're facing some cuts which will hurt the city deeply. The Government have made it clear that they won't back down on the cuts. We asked them to reduce Liverpool's cuts from the deepest in the country to merely in line with the average. They refused. We asked them to give us four years, not two, to phase in the cuts, allowing us time to make efficiencies and explore better ways of working. They refused.

We will continue to lead this city through these difficult times. We'll continue to find ways to boost the local economy, to provide jobs and training, to rebuild schools and houses, and to protect the council services that the most vulnerable people rely on.

But it's clear we'll do these things on our own, without any help from a Government which turned its back long ago.

The Guardian Northerner's political commentator Ed Jacobs reflects on Liverpool's plight in the previous post.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/the-northerner/2011/nov/11/liverpool-localgovernment

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The judgments for which Gordon Brown was mocked look rather different now we've seen David Cameron in action

Few arguments are more unfashionable than the one I am about to make: the case for Gordon Brown. Unfashionable because, 18 months after he left office having led Labour to its second worst result since 1918, Brown still arouses intense loathing. At the Conservative party conference I saw otherwise calm Tories foam with anger at the mention of the former prime minister, furiously tearing away at his every trait, personal and political. That hatred is outdone in some corners of the Labour forest by diehard Blairites still seething at the memory of how Brown thwarted their hero in Downing Street before chasing him out of it.

With enemies on both sides, that leaves few defenders in the press, a fact compounded by the ex-PM's near-total invisibility, his appearances in the Commons rare. The torrent of memoirs from colleagues, Alistair Darling's the latest, have only damaged his reputation still further.

Not many would attempt to push aside the mountain of anecdotes detailing Brown's impossible behaviour as both colleague and boss. Even his most ardent admirers now accept that Gordon Brown was temperamentally unsuited to the job of prime minister.

And yet posterity's judgment of leaders does not rest solely in their hands. The conduct of their successors matters too: Clinton looked better after George W. History may yet have similar second thoughts about Brown, reviewing his record in the light of what has followed.

Take last week's fiasco of a G20 meeting in Cannes, which did little to solve the crises in Greece and Italy, and whose most enduring legacy may prove to be off-mic comments made by the host, Nicolas Sarkozy. Contrast that with the meeting of the same group chaired by Brown in London in April 2009, which agreed a $5tn stimulus to the world economy and was duly hailed for preventing a global recession tipping over into a global depression. A year later the highly respected Brookings Institution predicted "that in coming years, the London G20 summit will be seen as the most successful summit in history".

Part of that was good fortune on Brown's part: in 2009 the US and Germany were in broad agreement on what needed to be done. But much of it was down to Brown's own actions as chair. The very attributes that infuriated his domestic colleagues were put to their best use: he worked around the clock preparing for that summit, hectoring, manoeuvring and bullying his fellow world leaders until they had buckled to his will. These were the same behind-the-scenes methods he had used a decade earlier as he pushed fellow finance ministers to relieve developing countries' debts. It wasn't pretty, it wasn't telegenic, but it was effective.

How very different it is today. It was ironic to hear George Osborne castigate his European counterparts for simply "waiting on developments", since that's exactly what he and David Cameron do at these international powwows. One veteran of the summit circuit says that the two Brits regularly turn up with no agenda of their own, so unlike Brown and, to be fair, Tony Blair, who almost always arrived with a plan, ensuring, in the tired phrase, that Britain punched above its weight. (I'm told that, rather poignantly, Brown is still the man with a plan: he was ready with detailed proposals on jobs and global finance had Osborne not blocked him for the top post at the IMF.)

What is even harder for the Tories to stomach is that it was Brown who delivered what they themselves long insisted was the critical policy goal of the past two decades: keeping Britain out of the euro. It was Brown and his legendary five, impossible-to-meet tests that restrained the gung-ho Blair and ensured Britain stayed out of the single currency. Absurdly, Osborne has tried to give the credit for that to William Hague and his save the pound campaign, which rather forgets that both Hague and his campaign were crushed in 2001. If Eurosceptics want to have a hero whose picture they can put on the wall alongside the sainted Margaret, I'm afraid that it's got to be Gordon. That they can't is testament to a visceral hatred not only of Brown but of his chief lieutenant at the time, whose opposition to the euro was total and decisive: Ed Balls.

Least fashionable of all is the case that Brown was right on the deficit. The coalition's entire programme is predicated on the notion that Brown was incontinent with the nation's money, running up colossal debts. But the rise in borrowing from some £40bn to £170bn was not the result of a crazed spending spree. It was the consequence of the crash of 2008 and the subsequent collapse in economic activity, consisting mostly of increased welfare payments ? including the dole for those thrown out of work ? and declining tax revenues caused by fewer people earning wages. This was a deficit created by crisis, not by profligacy.

If Brown was not the source of the disease, what about his remedy? His preferred approach ? over which he fought with, and lost to, Darling among others ? was to secure the recovery first, get the economy ticking over nicely, and only then start attacking the deficit. If the economy were growing, shrinking the deficit would be less painful; tackling it too early risked sucking out demand, choking off the recovery and so, paradoxically, increasing the deficit.

Well, guess who called it right. The last quarter with Brown in charge saw growth of just over 1.1%, surpassing all expectations, with unemployment coming down. The economy appeared to be getting back on its feet. But then the deficit fetishists of the coalition took over and the economy stalled, with more growth in that last Brown quarter than in the next four Cameron quarters combined. Suddenly Brown's insistence that growth had to come first looks prescient and wise.

Indeed, there are judgments big and small for which Brown was mocked at the time but which look rather different now. As PM, he overruled Darling, preferring to increase national insurance rather than VAT. Now, thanks to Osborne, we've seen the calamitous impact of a VAT rise on both inflation and demand. More crucially, Brown realised at the start that the economy had to be central, refusing to be diverted to other projects, however worthy, including promised constitutional reform. Barack Obama may well wish he had made the same call, putting healthcare to one side and focusing exclusively on jobs.

Of course, there was much that Brown got badly wrong. Hailing the end of boom and bust was absurd; relying on City and house price bubbles to raise cash was fatal; failing to run a surplus during the good times foolhardy.

But what's intriguing is that these were mistakes made as chancellor, on which Brown's standing remains high. Perhaps a revision is in order, downgrading his record in No 11 but upgrading his performance in No 10. The Conservatives won't ever undertake such an act of revision, the historians might not do it for decades to come. But Labour, whose future prospects partly depend on knowing what to say about its recent past, should do it much sooner.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/nov/08/eurosceptic-hero-maggie-gordon-brown

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A post-imperial virus has infected foreign policy. We've been here before, we know the human cost, and now we must stop

This time there will be no excuses. Plans for British support for an American assault on Iran, revealed in today's Guardian, are appalling. They would risk what even the "wars of 9/11" did not bring: a Christian-Muslim armageddon engulfing the region. This time no one should say they were not warned, that minds were elsewhere, that we were told it would be swift and surgical. Nobody should say that.

To western strategists, Iran today is exactly where Iraq was in 2002. The country posed no threat to the west. Yet "weapons of mass destruction" were said to be primed and had to be urgently eliminated. The offending regime could be subjugated by air power or, if not, by regime change. The cause was noble, and the outcome sure.

There any comparison ends. Iran is not a one-man, two-bit dictatorship, but a nation of 70 million people, an ancient and proud civilisation with a developed civil society and a modicum of pluralist democracy. Certainly its insecure leader, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, wants a weapons-ready nuclear enrichment programme, as next week's United Nations report by the International Atomic Energy Authority is expected to repeat. But he leads a country which, like Pakistan, Britain or Israel, craves status, prestige and the vague security that these unusable weapons seem to convey.

Nuclear dissemination is deplorable, but massively overhyped. Warheads cost a fortune to develop and keep in service. Modern anti-western aggression finds it cheaper and more effective to plan terrorist outrages. Nuclear bombs have not made Israel more secure. They have been useless to Pakistan in confronting India, and to North Korea against the south. They did not save apartheid in South Africa, or the Soviet Union from itself.

The planned attack on Iran is familiar in form. It is declared exclusively aerial, with missiles and unmanned drones deployed against nuclear and military targets. The airmen will promise, as they did in Belgrade, Baghdad and Benghazi, that bombing can do the job unaided. The enemy then digs in and fights back, the tempo of attack has to mount, and ground forces are sucked in.

We read that there are, as yet, no plans for a ground attack on Iran, though "a small number of special forces" may be required, as was required eventually in Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan. The mission will creep from wrecking Iran's nuclear capability to ensuring it cannot be rebuilt, and then to securing regime change and "freedom". We have been there so often before. The logic of war tends towards totality, without which no victory can be declared.

Total war on Iran would be a catastrophe. Every politician involved in this business should be locked in a room and forced to read the cuttings on Afghanistan and Iraq over the past decade. Ahmadinejad may delight audiences with his bloodthirsty language about the west. But the rest of the world would ask by what right are two nuclear powers using violence to stop someone else joining their weirdly exclusive club. We would have no UN support for such a venture. No one seriously supposes that Iran, under whatever ruler, would seek to wipe out Israel ? and anyway that is Israel's business.

Stopping Iran from developing a nuclear capability is and always was a lost cause. It appears to be three years from deliverable warheads and is besieged by foreign agents launching cyber-attacks, selling fake components and assassinating scientists. But Iran would be no easy target, like Libya or Iraq. The more isolated and threatened Iran is by the west, the more nuclear assertiveness attracts its leadership, and the more allies would rally to its cause.

Every expert report on Iran warns that bombing is the one thing likely to bond the unpopular Ahmadinejad to his people. The idea that they would rise up against him after the Pentagon's reported "shock and awe" three-day blitz of 1,200 targets is demented. Ahmadinejad's recent antics in New York were designed to provoke just such belligerence, to bolster his position and that of the hardliners. For rightwingers to play the enemy's game in this way used to be called treason. American presidential candidates now call it patriotism.

The wars of choice that followed 9/11 have acquired a rhythm of their own. They have yielded 10 years of rolling thunder across the Muslim world, variously proclaiming retaliation, humanity, regime change and democracy. There have been pluses ? the toppling of Saddam Hussein, Gaddafi and (temporarily) the Taliban. But the minuses have been tens of thousands killed, millions displaced, societies upheaved, billions of dollars of destruction, and a region destabilised. The wars have been a gigantic, historic tragedy. They have not advanced western security one jot.

If ever there were a country that was once ripe for soft-power diplomacy, it was modern Iran. Yet the west misread Ahmadinejad and then misread such dissenters as Mohammad Khatami and parliament's speaker, Mehdi Karroubi. It defied pleas from moderates not to impose sanctions, rejecting the argument that Iran needed a strengthened professional, commercial and academic class as counterweight to the military and the mullahs. As with the sanctions imposed on Saddam's Iraq, Gaddafi's Libya and Mugabe's Zimbabwe, they have driven Iran's rulers into a siege economy. Sanctions weaken the forces of pluralism and opposition. They are plainly counterproductive.

Revolutionary Iran should have been flooded with aid, trade and cultural attention. That is what happened in Pakistan and Indonesia. Neither is a model state, but they have a developed middle class and are not regarded as regional menaces. The US is not declaring war on Pakistan, though it and its nuclear weapons pose a far greater threat to America's interests in the region than Iran.

Western bombs cannot conquer Tehran. America and Britain might be able to invade in sufficient strength to knock out nuclear bunkers, but they could not stop rebuilding, especially after a war that would radicalise the nation and make it far more antagonistic. The outcome might make Israel feel temporarily a little safer, but it would render both Israel and the west more vulnerable to terrorist and other retaliation.

A virus seems to be running through the upper echelons of Washington and London, that of a moral duty to wage war against perceived evil wherever it offers a bombing target. Anyone watching last month's Republican primary debate in Las Vegas will have been shocked at the belligerence shown by the six candidates towards the outside world. It was a display of what the historian Robert D Kaplan called "the warrior politics ? of an imperial reality that dominates our foreign policy", a fidgety search for reasons to go brawling round the globe, at any cost in resulting anarchy. The spectacle was frightening and depressing.

British friends of America can see all the signs of another country in the throes of "losing an empire and not finding a role", of a paranoid nervous breakdown. Britain has been there before. It should never go back. It has been warned.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/nov/03/america-itch-brawl-new-target-iran

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Recession has brought higher metal prices and theft into a dangerous combination

Talking of the church and crime, as the Northerner just has been, there's an interesting conference coming up in Leeds.

Yet another unhappy effect of the recession is the rise in metal prices which is working with economic hardship to increase that old menace, theft from church roofs.

The Northerner has followed this for several years and it remains a serious problem, with centuries of beauty and craftsmanship at risk because of the trust and open-ness on which churches have so long relied. The scrap industry does its best ? I had their rules well-explained to me when I did a Radio 4 programme on the subject. But there are far too many outlets for thieves to use for a quick sale; and when you see the mountains of scrap metal bound for China at Newport docks in south Wales ? they dwarf anything Dickens imagined in Our Mutual Friend ? you can see the market's scale of demand.

So the Ripon and Leeds diocese is hoping for a good turnout on Wednesday 16 November at the diocesan office in St Mary's Street, Leeds, for a meeting on Protecting your church from metal theft. There'll be crime reduction officers there, a rep from Ecclesiastical Insurance and an historic buildings architect from English Heritage.

Alice Ullathorne, the diocese's church building support officer, says:

The continuing theft of metal from churches is a huge concern, not just for the congregations themselves but for insurers, police and heritage bodies and by bringing everyone together for this important meeting we hope that we can work together more closely to beat this menace.

Churches and others interested in taking part should contact her at alice.ullathorne@riponleeds-diocese.org.uk or phone 0113 2000544

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/the-northerner/2011/nov/10/church-roof-theft-police-ripon-and-leeds

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