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Private Eye Founder Richard Ingrams On Satire, Scandal And A Woman Named Stassinopoulos

2011-10-05T14:33:36Z

In the 50 years since Richard Ingrams co-founded the satirical fortnightly news magazine Private Eye, the publication has had to deal with its fair share of libel lawsuits.

Well, more than a fair share. Several dozen times it fair share, probably, even if the pace has slowed of late.

So do any lawsuits in particular stick out in Ingram's storied memory?

"I remember one particular libel action," he tells The Huffington Post UK, in a pointed moment of recollection. "It was brought by a Greek woman called Stassinopoulos…"

"Is that right?"

"Yes, I don't know what happened to her ... Well I never heard of her again."

Private Eye is now considered to be part of the so-called "satire boom", which hit the UK in the 1960s.

But when Ingrams helped to start the magazine in 1961 with founding editor Christopher Brooker, school friends Willie Rushton, Paul Foot and others at Oxford University, he says that "nobody had heard of satire at all".

"It was only later that I think Kenneth Tynan started talking about satire that we all woke up to find that we were regarded as satirists," he said. "But that doesn't mean to say that I wasn't exposed to satirical material in my youth, because there was quite a lot of it around me. I mean the idea that it was invented in the 60s is very stupid."

What proto-satire, if anything, sticks out in his memories of childhood?

"I think there were certain things, for example Tom Lehrer's songs, which are very satirical and savage," he said. "That was when I was at school … Peter Sellers records, Bernard Levin writing in The Spectator, Malcolm Muggeridge editing Punch in the 50s, they were all very satirical."

In the five decades that it has been in publication Private Eye has been at the heart of countless government scandals, political crises and media exposes. But its ambitions weren't initially so lofty. To hear Ingrams speak of the magazine now it almost sounds as if the fact that the Eye made it to 2011 more than intact - its circulation is riding high, as is its reputation - is partly down to luck.

Indeed, it seems that Ingrams believes that one key tool every satirist needs in his bag is an ability to appear to know more than you do.

"It wasn't this great political satire that everyone, it was a kind of thing that undergraduates were doing at that time," Ingrams said. "It was very lucky that (the Eye's feared reputation) just happened. The Profumo Affair happened to come along in 1963 and that was a great boost to Private Eye. Not that we, not that we were very knowledgeable about it particularly, but people thought we were and that was, that was the key thing."

Even then the magazine came close to closing, Ingrams said.

"It did, it had a slump. I mean because it was very fashionable to start with and after the advent of the Labour government in 1964, but then the assassination of Kennedy had a sort of very dampening effect on politics generally, and the magazine wasn't all that good."

So how did it survive - both then and through its other dodgier patches?

"Well partly, I mean there isn't any competition. But also it's managed to retain its staff, including myself. I mean I've been working there for 50 years and so has Christopher Booker. A lot of old mates have died along the way, but there is this continuity which is its great strength, I think.

"Once that starts to fall apart, as it is beginning to do, it remains to be seen what will happen then. Because it relies, it relies on a very tiny little band of people."

You can't run Private Eye for 50 years without developing a thick skin. But Ingrams says it's often those who have been ridiculed that seem to have the toughest exterior. Far from feeling embarrassed about being exposed, he says some subjects actually appear to enjoy the experience.

"The depressing thing was often when you thought you were being very mean about somebody, they rang up and said how amused they were and could they have the original of the cartoon run. I mean that was a frequent occurrence.

"Generally speaking you cannot predict what the public's reaction is going to be to satire or journalism. Sometimes you think you're going to create a big stir with some article and no-one takes a blind bit of notice and sometimes a little thing that nobody paid any attention to will develop into a massive scandal, and it's very difficult to, and you know, I think the journalists, in that word, all you can do is just to do your thing and not, not be worried about what the reactions going to be, because you can't predict it."

When Ingrams stepped down as editor of the Eye in 1986 he was replaced by Ian Hislop, who has edited the magazine ever since. Ingrams, who is still chair of the Eye's holding company, is full of praise for the job Hislop does, and says he is "hardworking and conscientious".

But mostly, Ingrams says, Hislop has succeeded because of what he hasn't done:

"He hasn't changed it too much," he says. "I mean he's changed it a bit, but he's stuck to the formula, which was a sensible thing to do and he's stuck with a lot of his contributors, including myself."

In 1992 Ingrams set up The Oldie magazine. "The aim was to produce an antidote to youth culture but, more importantly, a magazine with emphasis on good writing, humour and quality illustration," Igrams writes on the magazine's website.

To an extent though The Oldie still feels like Ingrams' "new" project, even though it will celebrate its twentieth anniversary in 2012.

"It's true, and it took a long time to get going because well it always does, I think, in this country," Ingrams said. "People don't pay any attention to anything new unless it's been, until it's been going for about five years."

How does he keep his enthusiasm for editorship going?

"Well I mean I've got a new, a different ballgame here, completely, but it's always, it's always changing all the time, which is what I like about it and there are new people coming and, you know, it's, it's always interesting."

So back to Private Eye. The magazine is secure, Ingrams says, even if it is "not exactly boom time". It has around 114,000 subscribers* and the Eye is slowly looking to the future.

While it hasn't exactly embraced the open web, or the concept of giving its content away for free for greater exposure, there is at least now talk of a tablet edition.

Paid of course.

"We were talking about it yesterday actually," Ingrams said. "But people get, people in my experience get a bit obsessed by Internet. There's a tendency to think that that's the be all and end all and that's where life is lived, but it's an illusion."

For Ingrams it is the editorship which will always be more important to a publication than whether or not it can be bought on an iPad. So has he given any thought to whether either The Oldie or the Eye will last another 50 years?

"It would be easier finding an editor for The Oldie than it was to find an editor of Private Eye, because that's quite a difficult job and it involves sort of two different types of magazine, really, all in one. But The Oldie is more conventional in that way, so I don't think that if I were to fall under a bus today, they would have a problem."

But which does he expect to last the longest?

"Very difficult, I'll have to hedge my bets on that," he said.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misstated the number of Private Eye subscribers as 35,000. Private Eye has around 114,000 subscribers, while The Oldie has 35,000.

Q&A: Mashup Kings Cassetteboy On Death Threats, Politics And Patience

2011-10-04T13:30:36Z

In a world flooded by online videos, mashups, recut political speeches and have-a-go comedians, it takes something special to stand out.

Whatever that something is, the electronic musical-comedy collagists known as Cassetteboy have lots and lots of it.

In Cassetteboy's own words they "are a double act who edit footage they've nicked off the telly to make celebrities swear", and though their mission is simple they are now bona fide heroes of 'plunderphonics'.

Mike Bolton and Steve Warlin allowed their project to first emerge in 2000, only revealing their identities years later. At first they worked only with audio, producing music for various collections and two albums of their own. More recently they have moved to working mostly with video for a series of extremely popular clips including their chopped-up (and much more entertaining) take on The Apprentice, which has received more than three million views.

But while their work has most often been grounded in humour, there has always been a political aspect. So Cassetteboy's most recent project - a series of videos produced for Amnesty International - fits neatly into their portfolio.

The first of those videos, which tackled President Barack Obama's policy decisions - or lack of them - over Guantanamo Bay was controversial, and all the better for it. Their latest clip, in which the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu "plays the pipes of peace", promises to annoy and delight even more people around the world.

We asked Mike from Cassetteboy about what makes him laugh, what keeps the project moving and what's next.

Stay tuned the Amnesty TV via Facebook and Twitter for the next Cassetteboy video.

What's the last thing that made you laugh?

At the moment I can't stop listening to the audio book of Alan Partridge's autobiography, 'I, Partridge'. I've also got an insatiable appetite for American sitcoms - right now 'Parks and Recreation' is the best one by miles. Oh, and 'Louie'. And I can't wait for 'Bored To Death' to come back. You get the idea.

What's the funniest thing on YouTube?

Tom 'Ska' Ridgewell's 'ASDF Movies' are very funny, quick-fire animated gags. Harry Partridge's cartoons are also excellent, 'Stephen the Lesbian' is particularly good. 'F**k Everything' by Jon Lajoie is a brilliant comedy song.

Which other YouTube cut-n-pasters do you admire?

Swede Mason. His Masterchef cut-up, 'Buttery Biscuit Base' is incredible. DJ Rubbish, AKA Shaun Pubis, has done some good cut-ups, including the brilliant 'Wonders of the Stoner System'. Cyriak's animations are a different kind of cut and paste, his 'Cows Cows Cows' and 'Cycles' are both fantastic. Also there are lots of funny Star Wars redubs, where Darth Vader's dialogue is replaced with lines from other films. I wish we'd thought of that. The Kenneth Williams one is probably my favourite.

How do you cope with having to read so many YouTube comments? Does your brain not melt in despair?

Oh, we don't read them all. When we first put up a new video we probably look at the first hundred comments or so. It's nice when people quote their favourite joke, so we get a sense of which bits are popular - that's the closest you can get to hearing people laugh online. And it's fun to see who gets in first with "Not as funny as the Apprentice one". After that we might dip in occasionally if we need an ego boost, but it would be madness to try to keep up with them all.

Which of the current political leaders in the UK would be the most enjoyable to recut?

Nick Clegg is quite easy to cut up, because he speaks very slowly and clearly, as if talking to idiot children. I think that's why he did so well in the televised debates before the election - as the saying goes, no one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the general public. However, I think people have seen through that now, and just find him extremely patronising. I know I do.

Really, though, you should go for the one with the power, so that's David Cameron. Fortunately it's always fun cutting up someone you despise, because you don't feel obliged to pull any punches. There's a bit in a video from our live show where he says "I want to get the NHS... and set it on fire", which is a nice summary of his health policies. And you can really see the evil glittering in his eyes.

Why did you decide to work with Amnesty International?

Because they asked, simple as that. When you're asked "Do you want to do some good in the world and help fight suffering and oppression?" I'd like to think most people would say yes.

Your last Amnesty video caused quite a controversial stir - did that bother you or did you enjoy it?

I enjoyed it. If everyone agreed with Amnesty, there would be no need for Amnesty to exist anymore. So if a video creates a stir, that means it's getting through to the people who really matter, the people who disagree with you.

Have you ever received hate mail?

Yes. After our video cutting up Nick Griffin on Question Time, we received death threats from BNP supporters.

Why did you decide to play it safe and tackle the Middle East this time around?

For our Amnesty videos we try to do something topical, and something that fits in with Amnesty's campaigns. The Middle East happened to fit the bill this time round (and unfortunately will probably continue to fit the bill for the foreseeable future...)

How much work does it usually take to make one of your videos? And how often do you start one and discard it halfway through?

We've got pretty good at spotting what will be suitable material, so it's quite rare for us to start a piece and not finish it. It does happen occasionally though, and sometimes the pieces end up being much shorter than we'd planned.

The time it takes can vary enormously depending on the source material. A political speech is probably the easiest thing to cut up, as it is just one person speaking, well recorded, and often we can find a transcript, which helps enormously. So we can turn that around in a few days.

Our Alan Sugar video, for which we watched almost fifty episodes of The Apprentice, took a couple of months. Most of that time is spent collecting words and phrases that might be useful, and organising them so we can find the word "bollocks" when we need it.

As with most things, the more time you put in, the better the end results. I think we're probably more patient than most people who do similar work.

Why is making politicians say funny (or poignant) things still entertaining?

Politicians talk a lot and say very little, and they always dodge the difficult questions. So it's always going to be satisfying to see them actually speaking plainly for once, whether it's an uncomfortable truth about Guantanamo Bay or a knob gag.

Are you ever sad that producing work on political topics reduces the opportunity for innuendo, with which you have often been so enamoured?

Far from it. Although a well-crafted smutty gag is a thing of beauty, it's one of the most obvious ways to get a laugh. When we make a piece we're generally looking for any angle apart from innuendo, as the clean jokes are more difficult to construct, and therefore more satisfying for us. Ideally you combine a bit of both approaches, although that's not always possible. With the Amnesty videos, we wouldn’t want to dilute the message with a load of filth – it would give the haters a reason to dismiss the entire video, and the whole point would be lost.

Did moving from audio to video change your process, or re-inspire you to do new types of work?

Absolutely. We'd kind of given up on the whole Cassetteboy thing - our albums had run their course, and we learned video editing mainly because we thought we might be able to get proper jobs as editors.

But the immediacy of putting a video on YouTube, seeing the view counts go up and reading the positive comments was really inspiring. We reached a whole new audience, and that persuaded us that it was worth sticking with.

The format of a YouTube video was challenging in itself. Previously we'd been making albums, but a YouTube video is like a single - more tightly focussed, with no room for messing about. So that was an interesting new discipline.

Creatively the addition of a visual element is a double-edged sword. On the negative side, you can get away with editing the audio much more heavily if there are no corresponding pictures, and also some brilliant lines don't work if the camera isn't looking at the person speaking. However you can do new types of jokes with looks and facial expressions, so on the whole it's a positive development.

What will you do if working in video becomes stale, the same way that audio editing became stale?

We’ve only scratched the surface of video so far, so there's a long way to go yet. We did audio editing for 15 years before we got bored – who knows what will be possible in another 15 years time? We'll be editing thoughts, or smells, or something.

What's next for Cassetteboy?

We've got a slot at a comedy night in London in November, so that's going to be fun. We've only ever performed live at festivals and concerts until now, so it will be interesting to see how the Cassetteboy Live Experience works in a less raucous setting.

We also really want to see how the videos work stretched over a longer time period. Basically, we want to make a Cassetteboy album with pictures, which will be an insane amount of work, but could end up being quite new and unusual. So if our YouTube channel is a bit quiet at the moment, it's because we’re working with various people on some quite grand plans. Don't hold your breath though - our first album took us seven years...

Anger As Cable Theft Rises On Train Network - Even As Price Of Copper Falls

2011-09-30T11:51:46Z

The price of copper may be falling, but the increasingly brazen and aggressive thieves who are stealing it from train lines appear not to have noticed.

While investors in the highly-conductive metal feel the pinch after it lost nearly a quarter of its value in September, the biggest drop since the financial crisis of 2008, incidents of cable theft on the rail network are reaching record highs.

The latest figures show that incidents of cable theft could be up as much as 52 per cent in 2011/12 compared to two years ago.

Now Network Rail is admitting that the crime may be more organised than it first believed - and some are doubting that there's anything they can do short of praying for snow this winter to stop thieves in their tracks.

Cable theft might seem like an old-fashioned crime, but it is really in the last five years that the crime has taken hold of the UK transport network.

At first it was rural and more isolated areas in the North East - where your chances of being hit by an oncoming train are generally lower - that were hit hardest by the crooks.

But lately the areas targeted by thieves have included busy urban lines including those near London Bridge, where in one incident in September < a href="http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23985010-two-arrested-over-copper-cable-theft-which-caused-massive-travel-chaos.do">more than 10,000 people's journeys were disrupted after the theft of signal cables cancelled 146 trains and delayed 840 others.

Most recently in Rainham, Essex, cable thieves disrupted the journeys of hundreds more people on Friday morning.

And it's not just rail networks that have been hit. Internet and phone lines, energy networks and virtually any business that uses copper wires have been attacked in every greater numbers in recent months.

More than 500 incidents of cable theft have been reported to Network Rail in the first six months of the 2011/12 financial year. That's up from 996 for the whole of last year, and 656 in 2009/10.

The cost to Network Rail of these incidents have also risen dramatically.

So far this year the rail operator has paid out £5.9 million to train operators in compensation for cancelled trains. The total cost to Network Rail was £10.9m in 2009/10, and £12m in 2010/11.

"It's becoming a more endemic problem for the railway, and it's certainly escalating," said Network Rail spokesperson Rachel Lowe.

"We've always said that cable theft is about 80 per cent opportunist thieves and 20 per cent organised. There is a concern that might be now."

Network Rail is working with British Transport Police (BTP) to try and combat the problem. They have paid for extra officers, attempted to make the wires more difficult to steal by adding CCTV to lines.

Officers also say that they are working with government to find new measures to "choke off the market" for stolen metal, and in 2011 have set up a newly streamlined approach to cable theft known as Operation Leopard.

BTP say that between January and August 2011 29 people had been convicted on cable theft-related charges, including two men who were jailed after they sold cables stolen from a substation near Penge even after one of their grip was fatally electrocuted in the raid.

More recently Network Rail have introduced new cables which are easier for scrap metal merchants to identity.

Unfortunately that depends on scrupulous scrap metal merchants not accepting cables of unknown origin - and as Network Rail admit, that doesn't always happen.

"They do [depend on scrupulous metal dealers]. And there are some out there," Lowe said. "But there are also some that are not. We and BT and the Energy Networks Association, and the affected essential infrastructure providers if you will that are all being targeted with this problem meet quite regularly to discuss how we might encourage beefing up of the 1964 scrap metal dealers act because as one of our group calls it, it's Steptoe & Son legislation."

And as Lowe admits, ultimately this may be a problem that in the short term is at the mercy of the weather - and eventually the markets.

"We can track incidents against the price of copper. They do follow a graph together. We're hoping in some respects for a very bad winter as in four feet of snow they don't tend to nick it. But then that brings other challenges so it doesn't really help."

The Underground World Of Identity Fraud And How To Avoid Being Targeted

2011-09-27T16:54:38Z

There are two myths that persist about identity fraud.

The first is that it's hard. The second is that that there is anything you can do about it.

And as a new three-part documentary by Vice.com demonstrates, with unsettling bluntness, if you've ever given any information about yourself, to anyone, ever, you're probably already being targeted.

Vice gained amazing access into the underground world of fraud through Tony Sales, a convicted fraudster turned consultant who is alleged to have made between £10 million and £30 million through his life of crime.

Journalists also met Nigerian scammers who conned thousands from the IRA, bored teenagers who use their ill-gotten gains to buy Warhammer figures, career criminals like Sales and the rock-hard gangsters like South London legend Dave Courtney, whose lifestyle they aspire to match.

Sales said he was introduced to Vice through the crime writer and investigative journalist Graham Johnson, and agreed to show Vice how he used to falsify passports, utility bills and mortgage applications in order to fleece people of their identities, shops of their goods and banks of their money.

"We had all different ways of doing fraud, from mortgage fraud to high finance, asset finance - there's all different ways," Sales told The Huffington Post UK. "Finance seems to work in pretty much the same way the whole way across the board. And that's the problem for the financial services."

For Vice Global Editor Andy Capper, watching Tony at work was an unsettling insight into how porous our key institutions really are.

"It feels like the system in this country is failing on all accounts, you just don't hear about it that often," Capper told The Huffington Post UK. "And if that many people are doing it so easily that's why Tony should be employed by the government. Because people like him can tell them how to protect themselves."

As for Sales, Capper said that it was immediately obvious that he was for real.

"Over the past two years I've been done three or four times with online fraud," Capper said. "And I was like, this was the guy who probably did it. So I wanted to meet him."

"As soon as we met Tony we knew he'd be a big part of it," he added. "I prefer documentaries without presenters to be honest, and when we met Tony we knew straight away he'd be fine. … I'd say he was the lighter side of the criminal underworld."

And as for the other fraudsters - some much younger and less aware than Sales of the consequences - Capper said that for them fraud "is just a game".

"Life is a game to them all," he said. "And they don't really see it as harming anybody."

Sales might be a veteran of fraud now, but as he explains in the film he started young.

He tells Vice how he used to go door to door with sponsorship forms, taking signatures and pound coins off duped neighbours before waiting for the inevitable calls about whether the sponsorship form was legit.

Of course the calls always came to the same place - a phone box, whose number Sales had printed on the sponsorship forms. And after reassuring his donors that the sponsorship form was real he'd collect the money - and so make enough to buy a decent pair of trainers.

And Sales basically did the same thing from then on, more or less, until he was caught decades later.

"I've always had a gift for it, ever since I was a child," he told us. "I've always been able to manipulate a system to the way that I wanted it to fit me. It was always quite easy for me to do. It came like eating food to me in the end. Once you see the loopholes in a system you can manipulate them."

For a while Sales was living the good life - making as much money as he wanted, not working too hard and generally enjoying himself off the profit of fraud.

"The money takes over some times in some people's lives. It's like any crime you do, it's all about the swag, isn't it?" he said. "Your lifestyle becomes so that you need to have a lot of money to maintain the same lifestyle that you've had for however long you've been doing crime.

"What tends to happen is this: you only start to take things that you really want, so that your lifestyle is exactly the same. You know I got up at 12 or one in the afternoon. And I'd do the general things that someone who's retired would do, because I only need to work one or two days a week to nick however much amount of money I was going to nick. I knew that whatever I had to do it would only take me three or four hours to get it."

In the end, though, Sales' life of crime caught up with him. He had to go on the run from the police, and for six years lived underground under different identities. Eventually he was pulled over at a petrol station, and a check by police showed up two separate warrants for his arrest.

Sales was eventually convicted and went to prison, albeit only for twelve months, a sentence he admits was light for the offences. Now he is running a business that offers advice to companies who want to protect themselves against the same offences he used to commit. Because if there is one thing that Sales knows - and Vice reveals in its documentary - anyone can be a victim.

"It's poacher to a game keeper," Sales says of his new business. "People that come with us in the end will see that fraud dramatically reduces with us compared to people who don't."

And as for the general public? Is there anything they can really do to protect themselves from fraud?

"A lot of the stuff the government tells us about shredding information and stuff like that is false," Sales said. "When you get to a professional level of being a fraudster you're not going around searching through people's rubbish to steal their identities. It just doesn't happen like that."

In fact, Sales says, there is only one thing you can do that will help:

"Don't ever share your information with anyone, anywhere, when you don't have to. Unless you're applying for credit there's no reason you should give your information to anyone on the phone ever. I've done it many times when you ring up and you trick people into giving us your details over the phone and its only a simple phone call."

And as for using social media...

"Financial suicide," Sales said. "Who knows who you're talking to? You might be talking to a fraudster, you might be talking to that pretty girl that's on there. But the likelihood is that you're not. There are many people getting caught out doing it."

If you think you might be a victim of identity fraud, or want advice on how to protect yourself, visit identitytheft.org.uk.

UK Has 'No Defence Industrial Strategy' Expert Claims After BAE Cuts

2011-09-27T12:01:44Z

The UK has no defence industrial strategy "at all" a defence expert has claimed amid BAE Systems's announcement that 2,942 jobs will be cut from its military aircraft devision.

Confused government policy on the issue now threatens the UK's security and economic growth, said Dr John Louth, Deputy Head of Defence, Industries and Society at the Royal United Services Institute.

"The UK government now has no defence industrial strategy, at all," he told the Huffington Post UK.

"So it's very, very difficult for BAE to make mid to long-term decisions around maintaining its skills and competency base.

"That is a real consequence of the SDSR [Strategic Defence And Security Review] last year and the overall policy since then to scrap the notion of a defence industrial strategy."

While the UK's decision to cut defence spending has been reflected by weakening global demand for BAE's Typhoon fighter jet, the government still bears responsibility for failing to protect the UK defence industry, Louth claimed.

"This is a market decision, and a response to supply and demand and the pricing mechanism … but if you look at what's happening in the US and in wider Europe there are very strong demands for an overt strategy that are being answered there. It's in the UK that we think the market will provide all of our answers," Louth said.

In the longer-term, Louth said, it is possible that the defence industry will move towards cheaper, unmanned aircraft and that BAE will have to shift its business accordingly.

"Over the next 20 to 30 years we will see a migration towards cheap and cheerful UAVs and a lot of that is going to be driven by costs," he said. "At the moment we don't know what the Joint Strike Fighter is going to cost per unit, but it's going to be one heck of a big number … and if you can't afford to put it in harms way then there is absolutely no point to having an aircraft."

However in the short and medium term the UK has to maintain its capacity for building more powerful manned aircraft, else it might find itself unable to deal with a future crisis.

"It is extremely dangerous to just assume that we'll juts be able to buy off the shelf, plug-and-play and conduct your operation. The real lesson for the government is if you leave it to the market this is the sort of stuff you'll be faced with."

The long-term impact of BAE's decision could be catastrophic for the economy and for the UK's defence capacity, Louth said - especially since it is not easy to replace an engineer with 15 to 20 years training.

"It's about eight per cent of BAE's workforce that we're talking about, so it's a big deal," he said. "If we just work through the numbers, at the moment the defence budget annually about 45 per cent of that straight away drops into the industrial base. It moves through the main building straight into the contracts base and into industry.

"It matters even more when those areas targeted are the high-skill areas. 3,000 air engineers is an enormous chunk of capability being removed from the UK order of battle."

In the short term the decision could affect maintenance and modification contracts that are already in place.

"Most aircraft now are being brought to market with in-depth maintenance packages. So one question is 'who's going to be doing the maintenance then?'

"The second question is modification. Most of the equipment being used needs to be modified for the needs of the specific operation. To modify that sort of technically advanced kit you need very skilled, problem-solving individuals, and a lot of those guys aren't going to be there.

"This is a big deal for UK PLC," Louth added.

Dr Neil Bentley, who is the deputy director-general of the Confederation of British Industry said that job losses on this scale "would clearly be a blow" to UK manufacturing.

“With tighter government defence budgets both at home and abroad, the competitive pressure on companies is fierce," he said.

“This announcement highlights why the Government must publish its Defence White Paper at the earliest opportunity. It needs to set out how it will work with industry, so all companies across the defence supply chain can plan with confidence and choose to invest here.”

Jim Murphy, the shadow defence secretary, said the news was "devastating" and called for ministers to respond quickly with a "clear plan of action".

Business Secretary Vince Cable has said that government officials have been in touch with BAE to help those affected by the latest job cuts.

"Last year I set up the Skills and Jobs Retention Group, chaired by Allan Cook, to help skilled workers find new jobs in UK manufacturing," Cable said in a statement. "The Group will ensure that the shortage of engineers in UK manufacturing is not exacerbated by the loss of talented people from companies like BAE Systems."

Huhne Says Ex-Wife Has Not Accepted His Apology, Suggests Phone Was Hacked

2011-09-20T19:29:23Z

Energy Secretary Chris Huhne has revealed that his former wife of 26 years has still not accepted his apology after his affair with a PR adviser ended their marriage in 2010.

Huhne split with economist Vicky Pryce after his relationship with aide Carina Trimingham was revealed in the press.

Speaking in an Observer interview with Andrew Rawnsley at the Liberal Democrat party conference, Huhne said that he regretted "enormously" that he had put his wife through the ordeal.

He also suggested that his phone may have been hacked to break the story.

Huhne also used the interview to again deny that he asked his wife to accept speeding penalty points on his behalf in 2003, a matter now under investigation by Essex Police and the Crown Prosecution Service.

"Frankly it was an appalling set of circumstances," Huhne said. "In retrospect I can see that I was running some substantial risks, for example, in what I was doing, politically, as well.

"So in the run up to the election I was the first front-bencher to call for a judicial inquiry into the phone hacking scandal. And of course the newspaper that put people on to me and broke the story about the affair was the News of the World. So we'll have to see in the great span of things what the conclusions are from all of that.

"But I personally feel enormously regretful about what I put my family through and what happened with Vicky. I entirely understand the stress that she has been caused by this, she is a very private person, she has not traditionally been out there in public doing lots of things, unlike me as somebody who opted to be in public life. And I think it's been absolutely dreadful and I regret that enormously."

Rawnsley then asked if Huhne had apologised to his wife.

"Yes," Huhne replied.

"Has she accepted your apology?"

"No."

"Do you you think she ever will?"

"I don't know. I am always hopeful that time heals but…"

"She's still very angry."

"She is still very angry."

Huhne's wife had been attending events at the LibDem conference until today, when her former husband made his keynote speech to delegates. Huhne made his first public appearance with Trimmingham, who is now his partner, earlier this month.

Asked about the speeding points investigation, Huhne said he had "no idea" how many times he had exceeded the speed limit in his life other than "too many times", having previously lost his license.

However the energy secretary denied, as he has done previously, that he had asked anybody to accept points on his behalf.

"I am delighted to say that there is an official inquiry into all of this stuff and I hope this is going to draw a line under it," he said. "One thing I am not prepared to do after my experience with The Sunday Times is have trial by media…"

"Oh you're expecting a criminal trial then?" asked Rawnsley.

"No," replied Huhne. "I am expecting - and I hope - that the results of the investigation will draw a line under the whole matter."

"If you were charged would you resign from the cabinet?" Rawnsley pressed.

"Well we will have to wait and see but I don't foresee that as a likely outcome," Huhne replied.

After another categorical denial of the allegations Huhne drew applause from the audience of LibDem activists.

Huhne also revealed in the interview that he currently owned "a mere four" houses, having made millions as an investment banker after working as a journalist for 19 years and before going into politics.

Tim Farron Again Plays Down 'Early Divorce' Comments And Leadership Rumours

2011-09-20T14:02:24Z

Tim Farron has attempted to laugh off the controversy surrounding his claim in a speech to the Liberal Democrat party conference that the coalition could face "divorce" before 2015.

"The truth is that divorce isn't a very good way to talk about the coalition," Farron admitted at a conference fringe event on Tuesday. "I have to confess how these things work sometimes. Occasionally when I'm writing a speech I'm trying to write things that I suppose will make a point. Sometimes I make myself laugh and I'm determined to tell a joke."

Speaking in an interview with Channel 4's Gary Gibbons to be broadcast on Tuesday, a seemingly-chastened Farron said that he believed there was more chance of the coalition holding together than most single-party governments.

"But the reality is that it's a business partnership rather than a marriage," he said, adding that he had just been using shorthand for the exact period of three years and eight months until the election in May 2015.

Farron also took pains to stress the LibDem's differences with the Tories, as he did in his speech on Sunday.

Any notion of a long-term, ideological relationship with the Tories was "utter pants", he said. He also described the "brutal and appalling" Thatcher years and said it was one of the reasons he joined the Liberal party in 1986.

On the speculation that he harbours ambitions to take over as LibDem leader, or even oust Nick Clegg before the next election, Farron repeated said that there was no chance of a leadership battle.

"[Clegg] is doing an absolutely outstanding job," he said, to applause from the LibDems in attendance.

"I never thought for one second that we would ever end up in power, not really. In your heart of hearts you said I'm not sure if we'll ever make it. I wanted us to, but it was not a good career move.... Now we're in we have to do our best to support him," he said.

Explaining that his own rise to party president had always been opportunistic rather than pre-planned, Farron added that "if [Clegg] wanted to go I'd blinking nail his feet to the floor".

On tuition fees, Farron again went further than his colleagues in government to lament the loss of trust among the electorate.

"It's the trust that has killed us," Farron said. He added that "trust is hard won and easily lost" and said that he hoped the party could look for a different solution.

"We could have kept our pledge very easily by scrapping fees and replacing them with a graduate tax which is very similar to what we've got now," he said. "And I hope we can go back to that."

Farron also attempted to play down claims of a latent and growing divide within the party between the 'orange book' economic liberals, among them David Laws and Jeremy Browne, and those who felt closer to the legacy of Social Democrats and were more resistant to public spending cuts.

"We're all social liberals, and we're all economic liberals. Some people have different views, but if you look at that book - I do remember Steve Webb wrote in it and he's not an 'orange booker' but he is an orange booker because he wrote an essay in the orange book," Farron said.

Liberal Democrats Debate NHS Reforms At Tense Conference Session

2011-09-20T11:20:50Z

Liberal Democrats packed the main hall of the party conference in Birmingham for a debate on NHS reform on Tuesday, where some members attacked the controversial Health and Social Care Bill.

A heated debate on NHS reform at the party's Spring conference in Sheffield put pressure on Health Minister Andrew Lansley's original Bill, which was then overhauled following a 'listening exercise'.

Two thirds of the Lib Dem MPs who are not ministers or in government rebelled in September when the Bill was voted on by the Commons.

And while most members were restrained in their criticism, there were some signs of tension at this year's conference.

The first question asked - "Has the government got NHS reform right?" - received laughter from delegates.

Baroness Shirley Williams also received applause when she criticised the bill, asking why the changes to the NHS couldn't have been made without the "agony" of the legislative process.

"Why we've got 440 pages of totally obscure legislation I simply don't understand," she said. "What was the point of all that? Why have we gone through such agony?"

Williams said that the bill would be scrutinised in the House of Lords "in vast detail" over 10 to 12 days, and could potentially be delayed unless there were further concessions.

Backbench LibDem MP John Pugh, who has been a frequent critic of the Health Bill, also won applause when he said that while the bill had been "substantially improved by the Liberal Democrats" it still represented "a huge mistake" for the party and the government.

Pugh likened his feelings about the bill to the "sinking feeling" of missing an exit on a motorway and knowing that "it will be some time before you get on the right track again".

"We have repeated the mistake that previous governments have made and have not built on what was good about the past," he said.

The current bill was defended by Paul Burstow MP, who said that the majority of the proposals were in the coalition agreement.

"Don't just stop reading when you get to the bit you like, read some of the things you don't like," he told delegates. "They were there and that's why they are in the bill."

"We didn't stop listening when the listening exercise ended," Burstow said, adding that he expected the bill's passage through the Lords to improve the bill "which is exactly what it should do".

Liberals Or Democrats? David Laws and Jeremy Browne Debate Party's Future At Conference

2011-09-20T09:42:44Z

It is not hard to find evidence of how the Liberal Democrats have changed in government at the party's conference in Birmingham.

And not all the changes are to do with the tighter security measures at the entrance.

Take the annual business dinner, for instance, which took place on Monday evening.

A premium table of ten seats at the dinner, which offered "an unrivalled forum in which to discuss the issues that matter, with the people that matter," would have set you back £5,000.

And a single, bog-standard, 'non-premium' seat alongside the yellow great and good? £350.

Those prices are 40 per cent higher than when they were not in power, as noted by Channel Four's Michael Crick at IEA panel discussion on Monday that featured LibDem MPs David Laws and Jeremy Browne.

And as Laws and Browne admit, if the party wants to charge similar rates for a plate of food and a chat with Chris Fox in the autumn of 2015 it will have to use its time in coalition as an opportunity to define what it stands for - and resist the temptation to become an "internal" opposition obsessed with the Tories.

"When political parties move away from what has been their natural centre of gravity the risk is they return to that centre of gravity if that process is seen to have not been a success," Laws said.

"Are the changes that we've made in our policy and approach over the last few years going to be sustained in the later part of the government, and particularly as we go 2015?" he asked. "I think inevitably that depends not only on the lessons the party learns from this period of time… but also about how successful that process is, and the extent to which we in government manage to use our period not just to sort out the economic mess but to deliver on the programme of social recovery, greater opportunity in education, reform of welfare, which we're so passionate about."

The party has not changed so much that "every time we get into government in the future we're going to want to cut public expenditure by 25 per cent" Laws said. But members had to recognise that they party would now live or die on how far it could claim competence on the economy.

LibDems also face a difficult task in the North, Laws said, where its gains in local government in the Labour years were arguably not based on support for the national party.

"There will undoubtably be areas of the north where (in local government) we picked up easy winnings which were more about Labour unpopularity in government that necessarily the brilliance of everything we were doing in those areas," Laws said.

What Laws is saying is that nationally the LibDems still lack definition. And in the next three or four years, some argue, it will have to decide whether it becomes a Liberal party founded on economic competence and individual responsibility, or returns to positioning itself as a (Social) Democrat party naturally resistant to cuts and greater competition in public services.

For journalists this year's conference has arguably been something of a let down, however, because evidence of this divide between delegates and the party leadership has been fairly scarce.

Indeed even after its disastrous losses in the AV referendum and the local elections in May, and major policy setbacks over student fees and the NHS, the LibDem membership seems fairly steadfast in its support for the coalition.

For Jeremy Browne MP, minister of state at the Foreign Office, that internal stability - if it is sustained - could turn the LibDems from a coalition partner of necessity to a "natural party of government".

"Let's say our coalition partners, the Conservative party, when they gather in two weeks time in Manchester, faced the following set of circumstances. They had been on the losing side on the referendum on AV, they'd done very badly in the local council elections in May, and their party was polling less than half of what it had polled at the general election," Browne asked. "How disciplined do you think the Conservative members would be at that conference in Manchester?"

"There is one party more than any other in Britain today that has all the traits of a natural party of government," he said. "I think that party is the Liberal Democrats."

Those members who are still concerned about the voters that the LibDems have lost, or secretly suspect they may number among them, need to stop looking to the past, Browne said.

"The people who want to feel betrayed by the LibDems in government are going to spot betrayal much quicker than the people who are wiling to be convinced by our competence. It is a longer-term process. We can't just be competent for a week and then say 'job done'. We've been out of government for 70 years."

The implication of Browne and Laws' position is that conference speeches like those by Tim Farron MP, which referred to the Tory's "morally repugnant" tax policy, the "absolute nightmare" that a Tory-only government would have represented and said that when it came to coalition "divorce is inevitable" are not helping the LibDems now, and won't help it come 2015.

For Browne and Laws then the choice would appear to be clear - Liberals, not Democrats.

But whatever the LibDems ultimately decide to become it will not be an easy process - whatever the 2011 conference suggests.

James Forsyth of The Spectator magazine, also on the panel, said those tensions have made it the "most interesting party in British politics".

"In some ways it is far more radical than what Tony Blair attempted with the Labour party, even," Forsyth said. "But - as David Laws said - the danger is that if the opinion polls look bad in 2014 then the prospect of rolling over and having your tummies tickled by Tim Farron and some social democratic red meat could be very appealing to your fellow delegates."

"So I think really the question is whether you wake up to the economic reality is in your own hands."

All-Women Shortlists May Be Necessary, Senior Lib Dems Accept

2011-09-19T14:08:09Z

Senior Liberal Democrats have accepted that the party may need to resort to all-female shortlists or other tough measures to increase the representation of women and minority groups among its MPs.

The LibDems currently have the lowest number of female MPs of the major parties, with only seven women out of its 57 members of parliament (12 per cent). It's also alone among the three major parties in not having a single black or ethnic minority MP.

Even worse for the LibDems, many of the its female MPs are from marginal seats. The majority of all seven female LibDems combined (17,224 votes) is only slightly larger than Nick Clegg's majority in Sheffield Hallam.

Yet Lib Dems have generally not been in favour of all-women shortlists or other similar mechanisms to increase representation, because it is seen as anti-liberal. Activists have previously voted against the move at its party conference. Instead the LibDem prefers its candidates to emerge purely on merit.

Other parties have taken more official measures to boost the number of women and ethnic minority candidates, however, including famously the Labour party under Tony Blair in 1997, which introduced all-women shortlists.

Now the mood may be changing among the LibDems, many of whom admit to being embarrassed by its failure on representation.

Lynne Featherstone MP, who is also the equalities minister, said at a fringe meeting hosted by The Guardian that she had once considered resigning after the party rejected a move towards all-women shortlists at a previous conference.

"I am wildly off-message in terms of our party on this because I think the women-only shortlists that Labour went ahead with have seen a miraculous step-change, and I take my hat off to them for that," Featherstone said.

"I was so upset with our party (when we lost the vote at Eastbourne) that I was contemplating after a few drinks resigning in the bar," she said. "Then Shirley Williams (the LibDem peer) came up to me, she's my political heroine - and said 'Ms Featherstone, I hear you are thinking of resigning, the party needs women like you' - and it was because of her I stayed."

Featherstone said the LibDems had made a big effort in 2010 to increase its number of women candidates. However "the fly in the ointment is that we didn't win the seats".

The LibDems have recently introduced a leadership programme which they hope will redress the balance both for women candidates and for those from ethnic minorities.

"This is going to deliver women and ethnic minorities at the next election," Featherstone said. "And I can't wait for that day."

Tim Farron MP, who was also speaking on the panel, said that he was "utterly embarrassed" that only seven of the party's MPs were women.

He said:

"Over the years we've had several debates on the crushing lack of women in the House of Commons, and our zero lack of representation from black and ethnic minority communities, and the debates we've always had are about the practical way to create equality and the liberal argument about how people should get there on their own merits," he said. "Frankly I think we're beyond that time."

Admitting that other parties had been able to do "what we've failed to do", Farron, who has been widely tipped as a possible future leader of the LibDems, said that the party needed to take action.

Farron pointed to the "zipping" process adopted by the LibDems in 1998 for the European elections, in which women were put at the top of half of the party lists, with a man second. The process greatly increased the chances of women being elected in greater numbers, and the result was five women and five men becoming LibDem MEPs.

Farron said that "we should look to that" as a possible solution for the House of Commons.

"If I thought (female shortlists) would work… we should do it now," Farron said. "My great fear is that if you want to become an MP in the Labour or Tory party you get yourself put in a safe seat. Small problem for us: we have no safe seats."

Farron said that historically the LibDems have been poor at handing seats from incumbents to new candidates and that without that assurance it would be difficult to bring more women into parliament.

"The leadership programme is trying to help that, because how do you get elected as a Liberal Democrat? It's not by being put in a safe seat, it's by being an absolute nutter who gets themselves elected from the ground up. We need to enable, financially and in terms of confidence, and indeed by rigging the rules for them, a greater proportion of the natters to be women and from black and ethnic minority backgrounds."

Former LibDem leader Paddy Ashdown, who also spoke on the panel, said that the lack of women LibDem MPs winning election to parliament during his tenure was the "biggest failure" of his political career.

"I don't like women shortlists or shortlists for anybody. I find them illiberal and I find them demeaning to those who are put in that position, and I find them potentially insulting."

Interrupting applause from party activists at that point, however Ashdown added:

"The truth is that we have failed at this for too long, and if the leadership programme doesn't work then I think we should be doing this. If this is the only way, through a temporary mechanism, to crack this nut that we have singularly and shamefully failed to crack, then I'll be in favour of it."

When Big Oil Meets The Big Society: 'Oil Clubs' Save Villages Thousands

2011-09-13T16:06:23Z

If you ever drive through the village of Bunwell, about 15 miles outside of Norwich, you might notice the thatched rooftops, the picturesque post office and the fields just beyond the tree line.

You'd be forgiven, though, if you missed the fact that its residents also represent a new front in the battle against rising energy prices.

Like many villages Bunwell lacks a central gas line, which means most residents have to heat their homes using heating oil. That can be costly, especially when the oil is bought individually.

But in this village, and in many others around the country, residents are now using the power of the web to organise together and purchase oil as a group - and they're saving huge amounts of money in the process.

Since it launched about 10 years ago the Bunwell Bulk Heating Oil Ordering Scheme has added around 300 members, each of whom order an average of 750 litres of oil three times per year.

That's a total order of 675,000 litres per year, on which the club saves about three to four pence per litre through ordering in bulk.

Over a year that totals a saving of £27,000, or an average of £90 a head. Not bad for a service run by three people who give up about eight hours every three months to take orders, check market prices, negotiate a price and tell their members the good news. Organising using email and price comparison websites has only made things easier, its members say.

And at a time when most people's energy bills are rising - gas and electricity prices rose by 5.1 per cent in the 12 months to August 2011 after both Scottish Power and British Gas raised their tariffs, and the Citizens Advice Bureau have reported a rise of 78 per cent in people searching for help to saving money on heating - it's almost a miracle.

"For the pensioners who are struggling to pay heating bills, it's a real benefit to them," said Nigel Crouch, a retired resident of Bunwell who joined the scheme about five years ago and now helps to run it with two other people. "And the people who can afford it a little bit easier still get a good price as we check carefully."

The Bunwell group is growing so quickly they are looking for extra help to keep it going. And keep it going they will - because the difference it makes to the community is very real.

"It's helping the local community without a doubt," Crouch said. "There is some hidden poverty in our local villages, and those people have to buy the oil like the rest of us because we don't have the direct gas supply.

"It's a good service and it helps people. And if they're pretty elderly they also get someone they know on the phone who isn't pushing them to buy but just letting them know."

The Citizens Advice Bureau and the Department of Energy and Climate Change agree that the Bunwell scheme represents a new future for heating oil customers. The CAB already provide help and resources to get clubs started. And on Wednesday they announced a campaign to urge people to buy their heating oil early, and to get the best deal possible by joining an oil club similar to the one in Bunwell.

Gillian Guy, who is the chief executive at Citizens Advice, said: "Citizens Advice wants everyone to get the best deal they can, and our evidence suggests that the best way of doing this for people living off-grid is to buy as early as possible, and join a collective purchase initiative like an oil club.”

Around 3.6 million UK households are off-grid, according to the Office of Fair Trading and 1.5 million UK households use heating oil as their primary source of heat. More than 5.5 million households in the UK are considered 'fuel poor' and up to 30 per cent who do not have mains gas live in fuel poverty.

Unfortunately for the oil clubs it isn't as easy as it could be to find the best price for their mass purchases, even after they've organised together for the task.

A recent Office of Fair Trading investigation into the 'off-grid' energy sector (the results of which will be released in October) found that several so-called price comparison websites who purported to show the best deals for heating oil were run by … heating oil companies.

Some of those websites only displayed their own products, while others did not show the best deals.

WCF Fuels Limited, which runs fuelfighter.co.uk, claimed to make price comparisons but only showed prices of its own products. It also used false customer testimonials. Another site, boilerjuice.co.uk, was found to have obscured its links to parent company DCC plc, which owns GB Oils Limited, the largest heating oil distributor in the UK.

The businesses investigated have since voluntarily made changes to their websites. But groups such as the Bunwell oil club still say it is difficult to shop around for the best deal.

They will surely look ahead with interest to the full Office of Fair Trading report in October. In the meantime the cold is coming - and heating bills are only going up.

Charles Hendry, Energy Minister, said: "The early snow last December shows that it is better to stock up before the winter, when suppliers have spare delivery capacity and prices are likely to be lower than when demand is higher.

"Clearly, leaving orders to the last minute risks longer delivery times, especially if cold weather increases demand and disrupts transport making deliveries difficult."

The UK's Private Space Race - And Why No One Knows We're Winning It

2011-09-06T14:45:01Z

On the western outskirts of the quaint Surrey town of Guildford, bordered by fields, lies a green pond marking the entrance to a narrow side road and a nondescript V-shaped building.

What goes on inside might surprise you. For this is Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL), a company that despite its less than space-age name represents for many the beating heart of the UK space industry.

And since that industry has grown at an average of 10.2 per cent since 2006, supports 84,900 jobs and is worth more than £7.5 billion, it's time to pay attention to a success story that might (both literally and metaphorically) be our future.

But why does the UK have a problem celebrating its success in space? And what is the newly-established UK Space Agency going to do about it?

SSTL was originally spun off from the University of Surrey, but is now the world's leading small satellite company. SSTL have launched 36 satellites themselves and provided training and assistance to others including the European Space Agency, NASA and several governments.

Employing more than 350 people, with an annual turnover of more than £30 million, SSTL recently announced the successful launch of two earth observation satellites for Nigeria.

For Tim Just, lead technologist for satellite navigation at the UK innovation agency, the Technology Strategy Board, Surrey Satellites' story is being repeated around the country. Even if a little (forgive the pun) under the radar.

"It's the maturity of the space sector moving into real commercial applications," Just explains. The UK has been able to exploit the growth of both location technology and satellite broadcasting, and has carved out a versatile, and valuable, niche.

"That has created the demand for bigger and more capable satellites, and that's one of our strengths."

The applications of those technologies are many and varied. In agriculture, tractors are now linked to GPS to enable a more efficient and regulated use of farmland, he said. In transport UK trains now run in part on UK satellite technology. Medicine, haulage and local government have also benefited. Oh, and then there is the Rugby World Cup, just one of many sports events that will be sent halfway around the world thanks to UK machinery circling the Earth above our heads.

True, to fans of sci-fi those applications might not sound too exciting. But in a sense the UK's current commercial acumen in space has been built out of a more traditional, if not always spectacularly successful, history of rocket building. The UK was the third country to launch its own rocket after Russia and the United States, which sent the Prospero satellite into orbit. Once that programme was cancelled the UK space industry had to find something else to do. i.e. Making money.

"The UK industry was forced into more commercial applications which were relatively unknown at that time but have since forced the industry to focus on the telecommunications market," Just said. "So we are now a very commercially-focused sector."

In March 2010 the UK Space Agency was formed to take responsibility for the UK's key space budgets and policy, and to better co-ordinate and foster commercial growth. It was officially established as an agency in 2011, and there are early signs that it is helping to position the UK space industry to capitalise on its recent gains.

For the public, however, the existence of the UKSA is still often a surprise in itself. There is also, you sense, a peculiarly British feeling of embarrassment that such a thing exists, heightened by the fact that its headquarters are located in Swindon and its budget is around 100 times less than NASA's.

As one tech blog put it at the time: "It's clear that the UK's tentative steps towards the stars owes rather more to the 1950s Quatermass British Rocket Group than Star Trek's Star Fleet Academy".

More seriously, the astronomer royal and former president of the Royal Society Martin Rees says that the UKSA must make more of an effort to educate the public on the industry's successes.

"I think that it is a great pity that everyone has heard of NASA, a lot of people have heard of the European Space Agency, but no one has heard of the UK Space Agency," Rees told The Huffington Post UK. "I think that it is unfortunate. Whoever is in charge of it has zero public profile and I think that's a pity. We have some outstanding individuals and our research groups have a very high profile, but I think the UK effort as a whole isn't appreciated."

Fostering this appreciation for the UK's success in space isn't just a matter of who gets credit for what, but a vital element of encouraging a younger generation to continue its good work Rees says.

"It's crucial to ensure that young people are inspired to enter what will otherwise become [like NASA] an ageing community," Rees said.

David Williams, chief executive of the UKSA, accepts that the public has not yet caught up to the UK's vital role in space technology, but says the recent establishment of the agency will help to change those perceptions.

"The UK isn't involved in manned spaceflight or the space station so we don't get visibility at that level," he said. "For most people it's a matter of geeks in space doing science things. But in reality it's mainstream business - there are two FTSE 100 companies totally dependent on space for their business."

To those who claim that the UK space industry should be able to take care of itself, Williams says that it is important for the UK to make sure it retains its technical advantage, something only an agency can coordinate.

"The main criteria for requiring an agency, perhaps the main one, is that the UK as a country has got to have an intelligent handle on satellites as they're not just a civil tool ... We are in a position that whatever the rest of the world does, we can still build them."

Williams, who is also chairman of the European Space Agency, of which the UK is a member, says that international co-operation is as important as ever. Rejecting fears that a theoretical 'second space race' once China, India and other nations begin to fulfil their ambitions in that area could leave the UK vulnerable, he is instead optimistic that space will continue to present new opportunities.

"This year a UK company has managed to lease satellites to China, taking Earth observation images of one metre resolution, which is a big step forward. And it mainly involves good cooperation at the commercial level with good, open government support."

The UK Space Agency could still do more, Williams says. In particular the UK must not be afraid to provide long-term funding for space projects, even at a time when governments everywhere are being forces to tighten their belts.

"A space programme doesn't happen overnight. What you've got to be prepared to do is get through the difficult periods, because if you don't the impact is three to nine years away," he said.

"It's challenging but I'm optimistic we'll get some big decisions in both areas that will seal Europe's role in space and the UK's role within it," he said.

So while space may be dark, the UK's future in space is growing brighter by the day.

And who knows - if man ever does get to Mars then maybe, just maybe, a small piece of Surrey will be going there with us.

Police Fear Early Shut Down Of Carnival Could Backfire

2011-08-25T11:48:59Z

A senior police officer in London has warned that ending the Notting Hill Carnival early this year in an attempt to curb crime could backfire and cause greater unrest.

Some officers have also warned that any disturbances at the carnival have the potential to spread through the capital, and have called on those attending the event to stay vigilant.

The Notting Hill Carnival takes place as usual this Bank Holiday weekend, but organisers have agreed to shut down sound systems earlier than usual, with police aiming to clear the streets by 7pm.

But John Tully, who is vice chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, which represents rank and file officers, said that the decision had the potential to cause greater tension.

"There is a lot of pent up anger and frustration around certain parts of the community," he said. "It might be counter productive [to shut the event early] because a lot of people turn up after the parade after the floats, they turn up for the sound-systems, if they're closed down early we could cause problems."

Tensions have already been raised in London after it was revealed that two petrol bombs were thrown at police vans in Enfield on Wednesday evening.

Police have also made upwards of 40 pre-emptive arrests ahead of the carnival - tactics that are consistent with those used in previous years.

Up to 10,000 officers will be on the streets of the capital over the Bank Holiday weekend to keep the peace, police have said.

Upwards of 5,500 will be on patrol at the carnival itself on Sunday, increasing to 6,500 on Monday.

Tully said the police should be able to maintain an adequate presence, partly due to the fact that Scotland Yard is still receiving support from other counties.

However he warned that while crime is to be expected at an event that attracts up to a million people, any sensationalised reporting by the media could spark wider - and more dangerous - disturbances elsewhere in the city.

"It wouldn't take a massive event for it to spark things off again," Tully said. "The government are trying to address the 'sick and broken society', as the prime minister put it, but that sick and broken society are the very people who will take up any opportunity to have another go. If it's something at carnival it will be on the front pages and on the 24 hour news channels, and if people see it I regret to think we may be back in the situation we were too weeks ago."

Many officers have still not had the chance to fully recover from the strains of policing the widespread rioting and looting in London between August 5th and 9th, Tully said.

Some have been on duty without a decent break since the riots began, he added.

"Some of my members have been on duty constantly for three weeks, some of them without a day off," he said. "We spoke to the commissioner yesterday to express our concern and he has taken action to resolve that, and there is a plan in place to rest officers. But that needs to be done. We've got carnival, we've got an EDL march the following weekend if that goes ahead, and we've got the funeral of Mark Duggan on September 9."

Officers are also still lacking guidance from the Home Office about the tactics they can and can't use to stop disturbances before they get out of control, Tully said.

"We haven't really got a direction. We can be as forceful as we need to be in that situation, but that can be difficult."

Home Secretary Theresa May made a speech on August 16 in which she attempted to address Tully's previous concerns, and those of other officers.

May said that too often officers are "damned if they do and damned if they don't" and said that she would always support officers if they acted within the law.

But that's not enough for many police.

"It's not an answer to be honest," Tully said. "I would call on her to be more succinct about that."

Syrian Lawyers Break Ranks With Regime To Lead Sit-In Protests

2011-08-24T13:30:06Z

Lawyers in Syria have defied Bashar al-Assad's regime as it continues a violent crackdown against country-wide protests, by taking part in a series of co-ordinated sit-ins.

Around 100 lawyers, traditionally allies or members of the ruling Baath party, have come together under the name "Syrian Lawyers For Freedom", holding protests outside bar associations in at least four regions of the country on Tuesday.

In Damascus, the capital, around 12 lawyers led a protest in broad daylight in front of the Bar Association building, rights group Avaaz told The Huffington Post UK.

Simultaneous protests were also held in Aleppo (Syria's largest city), Hasaka, and Swaida, rights groups said. The claims were difficult to verify due to the restrictions placed on foreign media in the country.

The protests have enhanced significance given the high standing in which lawyers are held in Syria, and the fact that most - if not all - are members of the ruling Baath party due to the heavy pressures placed on them to join while in legal education.

As such while the protesting lawyers faced some intimidation from government forces, much of the opposition to the sit-ins came at the hands of other lawyers still loyal to the regime, according to rights groups and lawyers on the ground.

In Hasaka, it was reported online that the protesters were assaulted by "lawyer thugs" including the head of the Bar Association in the city.

In Aleppo too there were reports that the protesting lawyers faced verbal and physical abuse at the hands of other bar association members.

The protesting lawyers, however, are defiant and say in an online statement of their beliefs that they had a responsibility as lawyers to stand up to the abuses of the regime.

"The Syrian Bar Association long represented the regime and its security forces without commentary on Syrian society or its rights, and without invoking the legal immunities of lawyers," the statement said. "Today, as the people of Syria demand freedom and justice, and are prepared to give their souls to achieve their demands, lawyers pledge to protect the citizens of Syria to the best of their ability, and to offer what they can as a means of allowing Syrians to achieve their objectives."

One of the lawyers who protested in Damascus told the Huffington Post UK that while the protest was tacitly allowed to take place, in that it was not broken up by government forces, the lawyers fear further reprisals.

"The government didn't do anything to us, they let us do what we want," said the man, who asked to be identified as Tarek. "Because we are lawyers - not ordinary people. There were a group of regime people watching and they may have said some words, but in Damascus at least they let us protest."

The lawyers have taken to the streets, Tarek said, for the same reason as other protestors in the country.

“Freedom is our first and last demand," he said. "Because we are lawyers, we are asking that the security forces stop interfering in our lives. We ask for the defence of justice and civil rights.”

"We should do something, we can't stay watching what is happening and doing nothing. We should do anything we can. It will cost us but we should try, we should do anything. We can see people watching in the streets doing nothing."

"When I see my people being killed and sent to prison and I stand by and watch, I feel ashamed."

"It’s the smallest thing we can do, if you compare it with what other people are doing."

On the current situation in Libya, protesters told The Huffington Post UK that it gave them "hope" for their own future, but also made them fear for what would happen after the regime falls.

"It gives us hope, but we should watch what will happen after Gaddafi goes down. Are we going to a new Iraq? Or will there be a new Libya?"

"We are afraid some people think that using force is the solution. We have armed groups in Syria and they are killing both soldiers and civilians … We should be careful that the people may go with them."

For now, however, the lawyers say they are committed to the protest.

"We will continue till the end," Tarek said. "We had a dream and we should make it true."

Fighting Centres On Gaddafi's Compound As Concern Grows For Tripoli's Children

2011-08-23T12:48:20Z

Fighting between loyalist and rebel forces has intensified in Tripoli as aid organisations warn of indiscriminate attacks on civilians.

Attacks on Colonel Gaddafi's compound multiplied one day after the rebels took control of large swathes of the city.

Hospitals in the region reported a high number of casualties as Gaddafi's forces fought back, dashing any hopes that the regime would swiftly collapse. Attacks were also seen near to the Rixos Hotel, where many foreign journalists are staying, and heavy gunfire and rocket attacks erupted in several other areas of the city.

[Click Here To Live Updates As Rebels Surround Gaddafi Compound]

Reports also emerged of at least two deaths and several casualties including a young child, resulting from rocket attacks by Gaddafi's forces.

The developments came as Hassiba Sahraoui, Amnesty International's deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa, warned about indiscriminate attacks on civilians.

"We fear the civilian population is going to be held in the middle of the fighting," she said. "From what we know from the recent past absolutely no precautions will be taken [by Gaddafi] to preserve civilian life or to try and spare civilians."

Weapons already used by loyalist forces in other areas have the potential to kill or maim many civilians who are trying to shelter from the conflict, she said.

"We're talking about rocket-propelled grenades, indiscriminate attacks where soldiers shoot without any warning, or use cluster bombs. We haven't had any reports yet of cluster bombs used in Tripoli but we've have plenty of information about the use of cluster bombs in Misrata, for example."

Neither is the problem specific to Gaddafi. Rebel forces have also been known to use tactics that target civilians either directly or indirectly, Sahraoui said.

"The other concern is whether the National Transitional Council is really in control of the nebulous groups that are around the NTC. And while the head of the NTC is making the right statements regarding the protection of civilians we do feat that they are not really in control of the various armed groups that are carrying out the fighting."

"The question really to Colonel Gaddafi is, does he want to add to the already long list of crimes for which he will be held to account?"

Other groups are warning of the wider humanitarian impact of the conflict. Power, water and health care are already suffering, they say, and longer-term psychological and educational impacts are also dangerous the longer the conflict continues.

Emma Munford, humanitarian advisor for Save The Children, said: "We are concerned about any children caught in the middle, who might be hiding in buildings, or sheltering from the conflict at present. There is also a psychological impact that we will be very worried about ... Power cuts and access to drinking water in certain circumstances can be cut off, and then after or during any conflict there is a risk of unexploded ordinance posing a great danger to children before it is cleared."

At present groups like Save The Children are unable to reach the city, which they say is hampering efforts to help reduce the impact of conflict.

"What we want to do is get our team into Tripoli as soon as possible," Munford said. "We've got teams in Libya at present and they've been working in Benghazi and Misrata, who have been working to help children who have been affected by the conflict."

"A big concern for us is that the school term should start again on September 5, and we're anxious to get our teams in to make sure children can get back into school," she said.

Meanwhile, Tripoli was still in a state of some confusion after the appearance late on Tuesday of a free and defiant Saif al-Islam, Colonel Gaddafi's son, who had previously been reported arrested by the NTC and the International Criminal Court.

Fadi el-Abdallah, a spokesperson for the ICC, attempted to explain the mistake to the BBC: "What we said yesterday is that we received information about the arrest of Saif al-Islam and we were trying to confirm that by contacting the National Transitional Council in Libya, but Saif al-Islam Gaddafi was not under the custody of the ICC."