Fabrice Muamba clings to life in London as British football fans show their support for stricken Bolton midfielder - "Pray for Fab"

Channel 4 News (U.K.) video: Fabrice Muamba heart 'failed for two hours'.
March 18, 2012 evening broadcast. http://bcove.me/aklqtj7q


Articles at: http://www.channel4.com/news/fabrice-muambas-heart-failed-for-two-hours
http://www.channel4.com/news/fabrice-muamba-collapse-leaves-players-stunned

So very, very distressing to see and to contemplate...

This morning on BBC Radio 5 live during Victoria Derbyshire's program, Bolton Wanders captain Kevin Davies said that any discussion of the team's competing in future FA Cup matches while teammate Fabrice Muamba clings to life, were completely irrelevant.
http://www.thefa.com/TheFACup/News/2012/Mar/fa-cup-semi-final-draw.aspx

The latest report this morning from London Chest Hospital was that Fabrice Muamba is stable but remains critically ill. http://www.bwfc.co.uk/page/General/0,,1004~2664324,00.html

Saturday's game against Blackburn Rovers may be abandoned, and Tuesday's match against Aston Villa has already been postponed thru mutual agreement. 
http://www.skysports.com/video/inline/0,26691,12602_7608945,00.html
http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11672/7608766/Davies-holds-Muamba-hope

Wanders officials encourage fans around the world wanting to send support and encouragment to forfabrice@bwfc.co.uk or Tweeting the club's official account @OfficialBWFC.

You can also see some of the received messages on their website: 
Fabrice Muamba - Messages Of Support
http://www.bwfc.co.uk/page/General/0,,1004~2665159,00.html

-----
Channel 4 News catch up service: http://www.channel4.com/news/catch-up/

Sky Sports http://www.skysports.com/

Pre-Christmas Businessman's Special: Channel 4's "Business Mouse" is the 21st Century 'Man in the Gray Flannel Suit''; VIP tour of Hearst Media's NYC HQ

Channel 4 video: Business Mouse, Episode 1: Business or Leisure?
Comedy Blaps, November 11, 2011. http://youtu.be/Hr3eT3kZz4A

Business Mouse has no problems in being characterized by some as the 21st Century 'Man in the Gray Flannel Suit.' 
In fact, he relishes the comparison.
He loves his business suits and he is bold and savvy where others are cautious and dithering -like Obama.


Chicken or the egg?
As you can see from below, in Episode 2, he believes in the profit margin of both! 



Channel 4 video: Business Mouse, Episode 2: All Eggs and No Basket
Comedy Blaps, November 17, 2011. http://youtu.be/8wABw3YFUAk



Channel 4 video: Business Mouse, Episode 3: Portfolio Expansion Programme
Comedy Blaps, December 15, 2011.  http://youtu.be/T4ah3LmqRrA

Speaking of the fashion magazine publishing world as we just were in Episode 3 with Condé Nast's Vogue, let's take a look at the home of one of their competitors...
Mediabistro.tv's Cubes video series: Hearst Media - Zanna Roberts Rassi, a Senior fashion Editor at Marie Claire gives us the VIP treatment in her tour of the Hearst Tower on West 57th Street. That corporate cafeteria of theirs, Cafe 57,  is one of the most famous and most-written about in NYC.
http://bcove.me/hl5xlklv
Article at: http://www.mediabistro.com/agencyspy/cubes-takes-a-vip-tour-of-hearst-tower_b25974


http://www.hearstcafe57.com/

http://art8amby.wordpress.com/2011/12/05/marie-claire-us-2011-covers-recap/

Trailer: The Man In The Gray Flannel Suit (1956) -Starring Gregory Peck, Jennifer Jones and Frederic March.
http://youtu.be/BfrqYr58st0


HBB Trivia: I had a girlfriend at IU who used to frequently buy me Grey Flannel cologne by Geoffrey Beene.


More Comedy Blaps at: http://www.youtube.com/user/channel4#g/c/179EDAD1ACB1B501


http://www.youtube.com/user/channel4


http://www.marieclaire.com/

Channel 4 video: The Great British Property Scandal series starts Wednesday; host George Clarke pines for days of pre-Thatcher nationalized housing

Channel 4 video: Architect and campaigner George Clarke invites you to join the campaign to fill Britain's empty homes.

http://youtu.be/GnGo_C7sDY0

Newer longer video at: http://youtu.be/GnGo_C7sDY0

The Great British Property Scandal | George Clarke | Channel 4

http://youtu.be/e82xiYVHLzQ

While I can understand how, in the face of lots of seeming misery, it's easy for the host to throw stones and pine for the days of pre-Thatcher nationalized housing, that's hardly the answer now, anymore than simply allowing squatters in the U.S. to "occupy" expensive homes in Cambridge, Chevy Chase or Santa Monica that have been foreclosed, but which still have value, is the answer here for inadequate housing for some.

Thatcher's efforts, while frequently knocked and reviled now among the professional Left, would NOT have been possible without her and the Conservative Party having had something positive and tangible to offer by way of a public policy that the majority of the British people believed was long overdue

And what was that you ask?

Yes, the 'legal right' to buy the council homes they lived in.

How normal.

But THAT is what the Labour Party was vehemently opposed to.

Think about the ethical contortions you have to bend yourself into in order to justify that sort of anti-social policy.

Telegraph TV video: Prime Minister David Cameron -pictured here alongside coalition partner Nick Clegg of the Lib Dems- discusses the government's £400m investment in housing, 95% mortgages, and principles of home ownership. November 21, 2011.

http://youtu.be/XDU5RFp0VoQ

My own experience in living in different parts of the U.S. -with often very different norms and customs- is that the one constant in this country regardless of where you are in the social order is that most people who are given something for nothing -or almost nothing- rarely fully appreciate it or properly maintain what they are given as long or as well as people who actually earned it.

And the same with their kids.

The Telegraph

The Great British Property Scandal, episode one, Channel 4, review

Andrew Marszal reviews the opening episode of The Great British Property Scandal, part of Channel 4's week-long focus on the nation's housing shortage.

By Andrew Marszal

10:00PM GMT 05 Dec 2011

Margaret Thatcher’s time in office left many enduring legacies – crippled unions, privatised industry, even a pop at a third Oscar for Meryl Streep. But few can be as divisive as her “right-to-buy” policy of selling off government-owned council houses, which is now being revamped for the twenty-first century by David Cameron.

Read the rest of the review at:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8936067/The-Great-British-Property-Scandal-episode-one-Channel-4-review.html

George Clarke's official website, full of more info about this effort, is at:

http://georgeclarke.com/

This website should be working soon: www.channel4.com/propertyscandal

I've already alerted my stealthy covert affairs team members in Chelsea and Notting Hill to record the show and try to get it to me in fairly short order, though I strongly suspect that some vids of it may start appearing on YouTube within the week before they are pulled off for copyright violations.

As always, if members of the team are captured, the secretary will disavow all knowledge of their actions.

----------

http://www.youtube.com/user/telegraphtv

How the U.K. & Miami are alike: Whilst "good journalists remain in the majority" elements of the press have become "putrid"; that £100k offer

Channel 4 News video: Alastair Campbell slams 'putrid press.

Correspondent Andy Davies reports on what the former Tony Blair press guru said on Wednesday to Lord Justice Leveson's inquiry on media hacking and ethics.

He also reports on complaints about lax action by the official media watchdog, the Information Commissioner's Office's (ICO) by a former high-ranking official there, Alec Owens, even when there was clear evidence of wrong-doing.

http://bcove.me/17xpks6a

Story at: http://www.channel4.com/news/alastair-campbell-slams-putrid-press

How England and Miami are alike: Whilst "good journalists remain in the majority" elements of the press have become "putrid."

Except here in South Florida, as I've pointed out here to a fair-thee-well, and as I and many of my friends and fellow bloggers know from personal experience, they're actually in the minority, and are often too lazy to show-up at actual news events without being handed the pre-digested facts on a silver platter by a PIO before showing-up.

That is, IF they show up at all.

Unfortunately for residents like me who want to know more about what's going on here in the country's fourth-largest state -and in-depth- the truth is, South Florida is the the exact opposite of the hot-house competitive reporting atmosphere in England that brings out lots of important news stories that would otherwise never see the light of day.

Channel 4's webpage of archived stories on the multiple phone hacking scandals:

http://www.channel4.com/news/phone-hacking-media-scandal

On Monday, a media-savvy friend in England who's been following this matter a lot more carefully than yours truly, sent me an interesting email, which, for reasons of shorthand here on the blog, I'll simply call The Curious Case of Charlotte Church.

Serendipitously, in my YouTube Channel mailbox later in the day was the ITN Showbiz 411 video below, which tells you everything you need to know about her part in a strange tale.

Yes, some pretty odd and forthright stuff coming from the Welsh songbird.

ITN Show Biz 411 video: Charlotte Church 'offered £100k to sing for Rupert Murdoch -or favorable "press"'; her testimony from the Leveson Inquiry

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afCYiojhR5c&feature=youtu.be

I last wrote about Charlotte on the blog back on October 27th, 2010 in a post I titled,

The Klaxons -Twin Flames (featuring Charlotte Church) from Richard Bacon's new afternoon program on BBC Radio 5 live

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/klaxons-twin-flames-featuring-charlotte.html

-----

http://www.charlottechurch.co/

My favorite Charlotte comment from her website above?

Easy, it's from February 11th, Storm in a Tea Cup, featuring the cutting closing remark about the news media: "Still, it's always a shame to spoil a good story with the truth isn't it?"

Beautiful!

http://www.youtube.com/user/charlottechurch

Marco Rubio on dithering O: “So if Russia doesn’t care and China doesn’t care and we care but won’t do anything about it, who’s it up to, the French?”

Sen. Marco Rubio questions William J. Burns about President's Obama's "Puzzling Inaction" over Libya at Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the dithering approach to foreign policy and confuses both our allies and our enemies.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Brn-7fOGGY

Marco Rubio: “So if Russia doesn’t care and China doesn’t care and we care but won’t do anything about it, who’s it up to, the French?”
Or, "How Obama Turned France Into a Leading World Power" -and saved Nicolas Sarkozy.




Sen. Marco Rubio Questions U.S. Involvement In U.N. "Charade" at confirmation hearing of Joseph Torsella to be U.S. Representative to the United Nations for U.N. Management and Reform. March 16, 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcC0ChGuXSk

Marco Rubio's performance at these Senate Foreign Relations hearings, so many of which I attended when I lived in the D.C. area for almost 15 years, with Jesse Helms or Joe Biden as Comm. Chair, are exactly why I enthusiastically voted for him last November over Charlie Crist and Kendrick Meek, neither one of which was capable of doing that in so effective a manner.
So Florida would have a voice for common sense, effectively articulated.
Just like I repeatedly said last year, no?

It's completely impossible for me or any of my friends to think of any time since he's been in the U.S. Senate when 'nice guy' Bill Nelson has said anything nearly as pointed or effectively as what Rubio did twice this week, even when he needed to.
Just saying, compare and contrast.

Next year, my vote for Senate will be FOR people with similar intelligent and articulate views and AGAINST someone who wants to be a U.S. Senator because they think it would be cool.
That completely eliminates most of the announced candidates thus far -Connie Mack IV or the perpetually ethically-challenged Mike Haridopolos.
They are OUT!

And reformer Paula Dockery looks even better qualified than she did before this week.

And please don't publicly call what President Obama does in foreign policy 'dithering' or sleepwalking, call it quiet reflection or walking with his eyes closed -or something else.
To do otherwise hurts his supporter's feelings.
Especially his supporters in the American news media.

-----

USA Today
On Libya, how have global players done?
By Justin Paulette

On the eve of a possible war in Libya, the major players on the world stage have taken their turns and staked out their positions. Yet many players have postured themselves in ways that seem to be reversals of their usual roles. This shift in global strategy is largely the domino effect of a shift in American self-identity under President Obama, and an omen of the future under his new foreign policy for America.

The United Nations: Though espousing lofty principles of international peace and security, the U.N. has largely proved an ineffective millstone around the world's neck over the past half-century. As recently as January 2011, a U.N. report uncritically praised Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi's human rights record.

Read the rest of this Op-Ed at:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/2011-03-19-paulette18_ST_N.htm


The American Spectator
How Obama Turned France Into a Leading World Power
By John R. Guardiano on 3.20.11 @ 11:08AM

One of the more sadly amusing spectacles of the American-European-Arab dance over Libya is the complete and utter role-reversal that has taken place. Indeed, the Europeans are leading; the Americans are following; and the Arabs are applauding -- publicly!

Read the rest of this post at:
http://spectator.org/blog/2011/03/20/how-obama-turned-france-into-a


From Krishnan Guru-Murthy writing in Channel 4's Snow Mail this afternoon:

It is now more clear than ever that the Americans are in command of the attacks against Libya. And the coalition is already in trouble tonight with the Arab League chief condemning the airstrikes. The European-led narrative had been executed very well - the French jets got maximum worldwide publicity for leading the onslaught. But shortly afterwards it was American cruise missiles that did the bulk of the work against Libyan air defences. A British submarine and Tornado jets were involved too. This morning the American Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen declared the operation a success. Libya claimed sixty four people had been killed. Russia called for an end to what it called indiscriminate attacks by the coalition. And then a diplomatic bombshell from the Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa - saying he wanted civilians protected not bombed. It is hard to imagine what he thought he was signing up to yesterday in Paris - but by the time he got back to Cairo the tune was different. So it is now down to countries like Qatar and UAE to demonstrate that there is still Arab support for the action - that was a crucial part of the justification of military action for many. Tonight we'll have the latest from Tripoli, Benghazi and beyond.

You can watch the last seven days of Channel 4 News on their catch up player - available on iPhones and iPads too: http://www.channel4.com/news/catch-up/



Channel 4 News Foreign Affairs correspondent Jonathan Miller in Tripoli.
http://bcove.me/jnx5ex02


Channel 4 News Internation editor Lindsey Hilsum in Benghazi
http://bcove.me/ngr3ij6w

--

See also: Congressional Hearings Offer Opportunity for U.N. Budgetary Scrutiny
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2011/03/Congressional-Hearings-Offer-Opportunity-for-UN-Budgetary-Scrutiny

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/SenatorMarcoRubio
http://www.heritage.org/

Say hello to Florrie - She's musically ship-shape in Bristol fashion, always equipped with a beat & melody -and has a voice & face you won't forget @Florrie

Channel 4's T4: Introducing Florrie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uf4bu1O0HKs

Say hello to Florrie - She's musically ship-shape in Bristol fashion, always equipped with a beat & melody -and has a voice and face you won't forget. She's sort of like a fabulous Julie Christie-inspired musical Pied Piper for the 21st Century that you take an instant liking to.
And Florrie Arnold, she's a charmer, this one!

-----

Dolce & Gabana Channel: Their online magazine, SWIDE, scores an EXCLUSIVE interview with Florrie Arnold.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKN4CWr_UeA



Florrie - Give Me Your Love (Nottingham Rock City, September 2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5z_lxO14xcs
I just love this song and the way they perform it!
This is what LIVE performances ought to be like!




Florrie - Sunday Girl -Recorded in Paris, 2011 (Blondie cover)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaTu3yH8wKA


Florrie's official website, where you listen to her introductory EP, with FREE Downloads: http://florrie.com/

Florrie's official YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/florriemusic
Florrie's Twitter feed,  @Florrie https://twitter.com/Florrie

ii
T4's official YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/T4

Dolce & Gabana's official YouTube Channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/dolcegabbanachannel

-----



Florrie Arnold - Sunday Girl (Blondie Cover)
Musique de la publicité Nina Ricci "Nina L'Elixir"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bljxxfe8AsY




Blondie - Sunday Girl (1979)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obwanhb6kww

The only thing funnier than the beautiful & beguiling Cheryl Cole talking is Lily Allen's impression of her. Geordie in the house!

Cheryl Cole -The Flood
www.cherylcole.com

I'd been thinking about this weird musical connection, this multi-media ying-and-yang that seems to connect pop stars Chery Cole and Lilly Allen for a while, ever since my October 12th post about Taylor Swift's impression of a Minnesota soccer mom on BBC Radio's Switch with Annie and Nick
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/taylor-swifts-impression-of-minnesota.html

But my great idea hadn't reckoned on some of the videos on YouTube that I needed NOT being embeddable for my blog, so I'm afraid you have to go thru this in four steps the old-fashioned way, and sort of keep it all in your head without the visual cues the embeds give you.
But it's worth the effort.

-------
Step. #1

Cheryl Cole talks with Alan Carr about Simon Cowell - The Sunday Night Project, Channel 4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpJnm5msVBc

Marie Claire U.K. story on her TV appearance at:
http://www.marieclaire.co.uk/news/celebrity/511010/watch-cheryl-cole-s-acoustic-live-performance.html

-------

Step. #2

Lily Allen's impression of Cheryl Cole on BBC Radio's Switch

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20aTOi7oBQE
http://www.youtube.com/user/BBCSwitch

-------

Step. #3

Lily Allen Impersonates Cheryl Cole

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egrWRJquhfc

-----

Step. #4

Lily Allen Does the Cadbury Eyebrows, The Sunday Night Project, Channel 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWEOHd9JNmk


Official website: http://www.lilyallenmusic.com/lily/

-------



Chery Cole - The Flood - LIVE on Alan Carr

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jh3N6NX3PgA

Like Rust, Water ALWAYS Wins: Flash floods in Cornwall, and the real fear of flooding on The National Mall and downtown Washington, D.C.

Channel 4 News - Floods hit Cornwall
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid601325122001?bctid=678927206001

See also: http://www.channel4.com/news/cornwall-floods-more-rain-expected

Latest news on the floods in Cornwall:
http://news.google.com/news/search?aq=f&pz=1&cf=all&ned=us&hl=en&q=Cornwall%2C+floods

By the way, in case you forgot. Camilla, the wife of Prince Charles, is the Duchess of Cornwall.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camilla,_Duchess_of_Cornwall

-----

The Washington Post
A wall on the Mall protects against a long shot By Michael E. Ruane
Tuesday, November 16, 2010; B01

Eighty thousand cubic yards of dirt. Thirty steel girders. An eight-foot-high concrete wall.

All to hold back floodwaters that may, or may not, surge across the Mall in the next century or so.

But in the apocalyptic, post-Hurricane Katrina world, no chances can be taken.

So government officials announced Monday morning that work is about to start on a $9 million flood-control project that will alter the landscape of the Mall west of the Washington Monument to protect it, and part of Washington, from potential catastrophe.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/15/AR2010111507471.html

See also: National Coalition to Save Our Mall

http://www.savethemall.org

http://www.channel4.com/news/

Swiss couple humiliated at being called 'infidels' during wedding in the Maldives will get apology and satisfaction says Maldive President

Swiss couple humiliated at being called 'infidels' during their wedding ceremony at Vilu Reef Resort in The Maldives will get apology and satisfaction says Maldive President Mohamed Nasheed.
Tourism accounts for 20% of the country's GDP.

Channel 4 News video: Wedding prank in the Maldives





See Channel 4 News website article on this story at
http://www.channel4.com/news/couple-called-infidels-during-maldives-ceremony

Channel 4 News homepage: http://www.channel4.com/news/

Catch up on the latest Channel 4 news programs at:
http://www.channel4.com/news/catch-up/

David Cameron & Nick Clegg stand firm on welfare reform (incapacity benefits), & caps on housing benefits -currently costing U.K. £20bn a year

"Do you really think it's wrong for people who can't afford to live privately in those areas that the state should subsidise people to the tune of more than £21,000? I don't think so."

-Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg in the Commons on Thursday

But first... let's go back a few days in time to see how we got to this point.


David Cameron is challenged by Labour leader Ed Miliband in the Commons over the government's plans to limit housing benefit

The Guardian
David Cameron refuses to back down over housing benefit cap
Prime minister tells Commons he is sticking by controversial policy as Labour steps up campaign against cuts and lobbies Lib Dems for support
Hélène Mulholland, political reporter
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 27 October 2010 17.00 BST

David Cameron today dismissed speculation that the government would climb down over its cap on housing benefit, despite claims that the policy could drive 200,000 poorer people out of major cities.

The prime minister made clear his determination to stand firm on the controversial proposals at prime minister's questions.

His comments came as Labour stepped up its campaign against the decision to cut housing benefit for people who have been out of work for 12 months and lobbied Liberal Democrat MPs concerned by the plans.

Read the rest of the article at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/oct/27/government-committed-to-housing-benefit-cap

Video is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/video/2010/oct/27/pmqs-david-cameron-ed-miliband-video
-----

The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2010/oct/28/corrections-clarifications
Corrections and clarifications column editor
The Guardian, Thursday 28 October 2010

In a story yesterday headed Three-quarters of incapacity benefit claimants are fit to work, says DWP, the headline and opening paragraph over-compressed findings issued by the Department for Work and Pensions. And while a departmental statement made some mention of incapacity benefit, the figures at issue concerned the successor scheme – employment and support allowance (ESA), which has been in force for new claimants since October 2008. To clarify the figures: the 75% of ESA claimants characterised as fit to work actually included, as the second paragraph of our story said, people who closed their claim before medical assessments were complete. The full breakdown of how new claims were assessed between October 2008 and February 2010 was: claimants fit for work, 39%; claims closed before assessment complete, 36%; claimants unable to work now but with help could work in the foreseeable future, 15%; those unable to work now and needing long-term unconditional support, 6%; cases still being assessed, 3%. Parenthetically, a further outcome appears elsewhere in the official report from which the figures came, Employment and Support Allowance: Work Capability Assessment, October 2010. Its section on appeals notes that of people found fit for work after making a claim for ESA between October 2008 and August 2009, 33% have had an appeal heard to date; of these, the original fit-to-work decision was "confirmed for 60%"; by implication 40% of fitness rulings were not upheld (27 October, page 12).
-----

The above was a corrective to this otherwise excellent article which demonstrates that the Conservative and LibDem Coalition of David Cameron and Nick Clegg are not going to give-up on what they said they would do to put Great Britain on a sounder, fairer footing for the future, namely, increased public accountability, and for the Conservatives in particular, to fundamentally restructure the economy.

One of those goals was an end to the subsidization of certain social living arrangements in the country, wherein some people in London have gained at the expen$e of other Britons, leading to London mayor Boris Johnson's ridiculous remarks comparing this policy to the ethnic cleansing that took place in Kosovo, which he is now claiming was taken out of context.
To be exact, Johnson said "Kosovo-style social cleansing of London."

Oh, like a comparison of Serbia's policy of ethnic killing/rapes to anything in Britain is ever appropriate in some context?

See: http://www.channel4.com/news/catch-up/display/playlistref/281010/clipid/281010_HOUSING_28 and http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/oct/28/boris-johnson-kosovo-style-cleansing-housing-benefit

British taxpayers pay around £20bn a year for housing benefits, which is why many of my British friends who live outside the metropolitan areas, are forever going-on about Local Housing Allowances and how many of their former Labour-turned-Conservative friends finally saw the light for forthright reform, regardless of the agitprop from the predictable quarters, once they had a family of their own.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/housing-benefit



Video of Housing Minister Grant Shapps on housing benefit row
http://www.channel4.com/news/boris-johnson-under-fire-for-housing-benefit-comments


The Guardian
Three-quarters of incapacity benefit claimants are fit to work, says DWP
Government seeks to demonstrate momentum as Clegg rejects accusation of social 'cleansing'
Allegra Stratton, political correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 26 October 2010 21.22 BST

Three-quarters of the incapacity benefit claimants reassessed recently are able to work, the government claimed today as it sought to demonstrate momentum in the drive to reform the welfare system.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) figures showed that 78% of the 842,100 people reassessed were either fit for work or had closed their claim before medical assessments were complete.

The government is pushing ahead with the programme of reassessing those on the old-style incapacity benefit. It plans to cut back the wider benefit bill by £18bn.

The issue of caps to housing benefit, meanwhile, flared up in the Commons today.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/oct/26/incapacity-benefit-claimants-work-dwp
---

27 October 2010 Last updated at 10:54 ET
Housing benefit cuts: Who loses out?
By Ross Hawkins Political correspondent
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11637928

------

A different but well-argued point of view on the incapacity benefit was offered up by Guardian reader Melissa Viney back in July:

Draconian incapacity benefit tests are failing the sick
Inaccurate medical assessment and an inflexible benefit system are putting the most vulnerable at greatest risk
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 29 July 2010 13.30 BST

A disturbing sleight of hand within the revised benefits system has been performed on the electorate and particularly on the sick and disabled. It goes like this: Labour replaced the previous incapacity benefit (IB) with the new employment support allowance (ESA) in 2008 and introduced a fiendishly hard new medical test, followed by members of the government applauding their success in identifying record numbers of incapacity benefits claimants who are fit for work.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jul/29/incapacity-benefit-failing

The reader comments are spot-on, too, so be sure to read them. Here's a small taste, from the Viney essay: That's fine and well, but one of a number of reasons the benefit regulations are getting toughened is due to the culture of certain doctors simply signing off irritating benefit claimants. I've spoken to more than a few people who despite suffering from depression were perfectly happy to bite my head off and chat with me for a while and spend a great deal of their weekend enjoying their social lives. It was only when work was inevitably mentioned that their depression seemed to emerge.

Or as some of my friends would say, "Stop milking the bloody system!"

Or as one reader wrote, in part, at The Telegraph in response to story number one:
I welcome the housing benefits reform. Why should those of us livng and paying tax throughout the rest of the country be forced to pay for benefits scroungers and/or immigrants to live in Central London?

A similar comment by another reader was equally to the point:
If you want a house in a nice area then I’m afraid you’re going to have to work for it. And, I hate to break it to you, even then you might not be able to. Most people (myself included) working 40 hours per week can’t afford to live in a posh area so why should non-workers get to do it at taxpayers expense?

The Viney essay above is an example of exactly the sort of thing the Miami Herald and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel should've instituted years ago in order to remain relevant to public discourse in South Florida, where they are now afterthoughts -offering articulate readers the space to sound off on matters they know about, rather than the Usual Suspects.

Instead, despite new and original voices percolating out there and technology making it easier than ever to find them, the Herald and Sun-Sentinel have among the worst Op-Ed pages in the nation.
They're dreadful and often even painful!

The Herald consistently wastes space running dreadfully dull and predictable Mary Sanchez pieces from the K.C. Star, so often which are either myopic pro-amnesty or "victim" pieces.
If I see her name, I turn the page, since I've read it before -many times.
From her!


See also:

Guardian Politics Weekly podcast: Housing benefit and the 'Highland clearance' of London
Will the coalition adhere to its plans to cut housing benefit - potentially displacing hundreds of thousands of poorer people?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/blog/audio/2010/oct/28/housing-benefit-nickclegg?intcmp=239

http://www.channel4.com/news
http://www.channel4.com/news/catch-up/

BBC's U.K. Politics homepage http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/politics/

Two reasons why there'll always be a Great Britain: comedy & candor in equal measure

Two reasons why there'll always be a Great Britain: comedy & candor in equal measure

Smithy's Best Man speech - Gavin and Stacey - BBC

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGljfvdGiy4

Wedding day - Gavin and Stacey - BBC, featuring the famous line,

"Where to she now?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-T-100FEomg


Meanwhile, over at Seven Days on Channel 4, it's another beautiful morning in Notting Hill, and with Laura and Samantha, two rather obvious eaves-droppers at the diner end up getting some free candor with their coffee!
Seven Days | A Model Breakfast | Channel 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQHXy93B-ow

See also:
http://www.youtube.com/user/BBCWorldwide
http://sevendays.channel4.com/characters/samantha/thoughts/all
http://sevendays.channel4.com/characters/laura-z/thoughts/all
http://sevendays.channel4.com/