Showing posts with label UK. Show all posts
Saturday 4 October 2014
UK leader: British hostage's killers must be found
(AP) — The Islamic State extremists who have beheaded another Western hostage are deaf to reason and must be destroyed, British Prime Minister David Cameron said Saturday as Muslims worldwide were urged to pray for the victim on one of Islam's holiest days.
Cameron, speaking after a security briefing at his rural retreat Chequers, said Friday's slaying of 47-year-old English aid worker Alan Henning demonstrated that Islamic State militants were committed to inflicting horror for horror's sake.
Asked whether he believed Islamic State fighters would kill more hostages, Cameron said they would have to be hunted down to be stopped. He declined to say whether Britain would extend its involvement in U.S.-led airstrikes on the Islamic State group to Syria, where the hostage killings are believed to have happened.
"The fact that this was a kind, gentle, compassionate and caring man who had simply gone to help others, the fact they could murder him in the way they did, shows what we are dealing with," Cameron said. "This is going to be our struggle now. ... We must do everything we can to defeat this organization."
Henning, a taxi driver from the town of Eccles in northwest England, was abducted minutes after his aid convoy entered Syria on Dec. 26. He was the fourth Western hostage to be killed by Islamic State since mid-August, following two American journalists and another British aid worker. In their latest video, Henning's killers linked their action to a vote Sept. 26 in British Parliament to deploy the Royal Air Force against Islamic State positions in Iraq, but not Syria.
Muslim leaders across Britain urged worshippers worldwide to pray for Henning and peace in the Middle East as they gathered at mosques to celebrate Eid al-Adha, Islam's annual "festival of sacrifice."
"Millions should be praying today for Alan Henning, a good and honorable man," said Muslim peace activist Shaukat Warraich, speaking outside a mosque in the central English city of Birmingham.
Egypt's Foreign Ministry denounced what it called a "barbaric and savage act that fully contradicts Islamic religion tenets and the simplest human and ethical rules."
Britain's former army chief of staff, Lord Dannatt, called for British air power to be deployed in Syria as well as Iraq. "Dealing with half a problem is not going to solve the problem," Dannatt said.
The video mirrored other beheading videos shot by the Islamic State group, and ended with a militant threatening a 26-year-old American hostage, Peter Kassig.
"Obama, you have started your aerial bombardment of Sham (Syria), which keeps on striking our people, so it is only right that we continue to strike the necks of your people," the masked militant in the video said.
National Security Council spokesperson Caitlin Hayden confirmed that Islamic State militants had Kassig.
"We will continue to use every tool at our disposal — military, diplomatic, law enforcement and intelligence — to try to bring Peter home to his family," Hayden said.
This is the fourth such video released by the Islamic State group. Previous victims were American reporter James Foley, American-Israeli journalist Steven Sotloff and British aid worker David Haines.
FBI Director James Comey says American officials believe they know the identity of the masked militant, who speaks in a London accent. Comey has declined to name the man or reveal his nationality.
According to his military record, Kassig enlisted in the U.S. Army in 2004, served in the 75th Ranger Regiment, a special operations unit, was deployed to Iraq in 2007 and medically discharged later that year at the rank of private first class.
His parents, Ed and Paula Kassig, called for the world to pray for their son.
They said Kassig had been working for the relief organization he founded, Special Emergency Response and Assistance, or SERA, when he was captured a year ago on his way to Deir Ezzour in eastern Syria. He converted to Islam while in captivity and the family has heard from former hostages that his faith has provided him comfort.
The Islamic State group has its roots in al-Qaida's Iraqi affiliate but was expelled from the global terror network over its brutal tactics and refusal to obey orders to confine its activities to Iraq. It grew more extreme and powerful amid the 3-year civil war in Syria, launching a lightning offensive this summer that captured territory in both countries.
Islamic State militants may hold many more hostages. On Friday, the father of John Cantlie, a British photojournalist held by the group, appealed for his release in a video, describing his son as a friend of Syria.
Friday 3 October 2014
Islamic State beheads British hostage Henning in new video
(Reuters) - Islamic State militants fighting in Iraq and Syria released a video on Friday that purported to show the beheading of a man it identified as British citizen Alan Henning.
The footage on YouTube, which was linked to on pro-Islamic State Twitter feeds, showed a man in an orange jumpsuit kneeling in a landscape who was identified as Henning.
"Because of our parliament's decision to attack the Islamic State, I, as a member of the British public, will now pay the price for that decision," the kneeling man says. Another man dressed in black and wearing a balaclava stands next to him.
A male voice then says, "The blood of David Haines was on your hands Cameron,” in a reference to Britain’s prime minister. “Alan Henning will also be slaughtered, but his blood is on the hands of the British parliament."
The black-clad man later introduces another hostage who he identifies as American Peter Edward Kassig.
U.S. officials confirmed that an American of that name was being held by the militants and said they had no reason to doubt the authenticity of the video, titled "Another Message to America and its Allies."
"If true, this is a further disgusting murder," a British Foreign Office spokesman said. "We are offering the family every support possible; they ask to be left alone at this time."
It is "another demonstration of the brutality" of Islamic State militants if the video proves authentic, Lisa Monaco, assistant to the president for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, told a White House news briefing.
The beheading of Henning was the fourth such killing of a Westerner by Islamic State, which has seized large swaths of Iraq and Syria and has been blamed for a wave of sectarian violence. Previous Islamic State videos have shown the beheadings of two American journalists and a British aid worker.
Britain, a close U.S. ally, recently announced it was joining a U.S.-led air assault against the Sunni militant group's targets in Iraq, after weeks of weighing its options.
Henning, a 47-year-old taxi driver from Salford in northern England, was part of an aid convoy taking medical supplies to a hospital in northwest Syria in December last year when it was stopped by gunmen and he was abducted.
Muslim groups across Britain, including some organizations that are highly critical of British foreign policy and blame Western interference for fanning the recent crisis in Iraq and Syria, had called in vain for his release.
His wife Barbara had called him a "a peaceful, selfless man" and appealed to Islamic State to release him.
Shuja Shafi, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, the UK's largest Islamic umbrella group, called the purported beheading of Henning "a despicable and offensive act."
"It is quite clear that the murderers of Alan Henning have no regard for Islam, or for the Muslims around the world who pleaded for his life," Shafi said.
Islamic State is believed to be holding fewer than 10 Western hostages in Syria. The remaining hostages include British journalist John Cantlie, who has appeared in three Islamic State videos.
Thursday 2 October 2014
UK royals issue warning over Prince George pics
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(AP) — Prince William and his wife Kate have threatened to take legal action against a photographer they say has been monitoring their toddler son Prince George.
The couple's Kensington Palace office said Thursday the royals had "taken legal steps to ask that an individual ceases harassing and following both Prince George and his nanny as they go about their ordinary daily lives."
In a statement, the palace said the unnamed photographer was suspected of "placing Prince George under surveillance."
The statement was issued after the Evening Standard newspaper reported that a photographer had tried to take pictures of the prince in London's Battersea Park.
William and Kate, who are expecting their second child, want to spare their children intense press coverage.
Fourteen-month-old George is third in line to the throne. The statement said that the royal couple "understand the particular public role that Prince George will one day inherit, but, while he is young, he must be permitted to lead as ordinary a life as possible."
William's late mother, Princess Diana, was pursued by photographers for years before her death in a Paris car crash in 1997. Many believe the pursuing paparazzi were a contributing factor to the accident.
The British media now operate under an agreement to leave members of the royal family alone when they are children in return for regular scheduled photo shoots.
In 2012, a French magazine angered the palace by publishing photos of Kate sunbathing topless.
Wednesday 1 October 2014
Eyeing 2015 vote, Cameron pledges 7 billion pounds in tax cuts
(Reuters) - Prime Minister David Cameron promised to hand almost half the British population a tax cut if re-elected next year, a pledge he hopes will win over millions of voters and refocus debate away from a schism inside his party over Europe.
The promise, which will cost over 7 billion pounds (11.35 billion US dollar) to fund, was a calculated gambit to try to shift the narrative from one which has focussed on the damage the anti-EU UK Independence Party (UKIP) is doing to Cameron's re-election hopes by siphoning off voters and lawmakers.
It was also an attempt to kick-start his Conservative party's moribund rating in opinion polls, where it has been trailing the opposition Labour party for months, by holding out the prospect of a sweetener to balance a less enticing promise to freeze most welfare pay cheques and to slash state spending.
"So Britain: what's it going to be?" Cameron, 47, asked supporters packed inside a concert hall at his party's annual conference in the central English city of Birmingham. "I say: let's not go back to square one. Let's finish what we have begun."
In a speech which touched on Scotland's decision to remain in the UK, the threat posed by Islamic State, and Britain's Second World War role, Cameron told activists he wanted and needed to be re-elected with an overall majority so he could govern alone and not in a coalition as is now the case.
"Believe me: coalition was not what I wanted to do; it’s what I had to do," he said. "And I know what I want next. To be back here in October 2015 delivering Conservative policies."
Cameron has endured a tumultuous month taking Britain into battle with Islamist militants in Iraq, pondering his own demise if Scotland had voted to leave the United Kingdom, and watching as two of his lawmakers quit to join the anti-EU UKIP party.
In his speech he tried to strike a calm statesman-like posture as he sought to shore up his leadership, steady his party, and dangle some eye-catching promises before voters.
The centrepiece was a promise to lift 1 million workers out of tax if re-elected by allowing them to earn more before they pay any income tax, a pledge he said would also mean reduced tax bills for 30 million more people, or just under half the country's total population.
He also pledged to ease the burden on the middle class by raising the threshold for the country's 40 percent rate of income tax.
"With the Conservatives, if you work hard and do the right thing we say you should keep more of your own money to spend as you choose," Cameron told delegates to applause.
In another pledge aimed at reassuring voters, Cameron said he'd increase spending on the country's National Health Service, an issue which voters list as a priority and perceive Labour to be ahead on.
EUROPE SCHISM
Hours before Cameron delivered his keynote speech, Arron Banks, a businessman who electoral records show has given tens of thousands of pounds to Cameron's party, said he was switching his support to UKIP.
His move followed that of two Conservative lawmakers to UKIP, which wants an immediate British EU exit and sharp curbs on immigration, and ratcheted up fears in Cameron's party that UKIP will split the centre-right vote and allow the opposition Labour party to win.
Nigel Farage, UKIP's leader, hailed the latest defection as a sign his insurgent party was attracting big financial backers to bankroll what he has described as an earthquake in British politics.
"The other parties are losing Councillors, MPs and backers to UKIP, not only voters, and they are all playing their part in changing the course of politics in the UK for good," he said.
Cameron's party played down the defection and Cameron used his speech to hammer home what has become his party's main rallying cry not to vote UKIP, presenting the 2015 election as a straight choice between Cameron and Ed Miliband, the leader of the Labour party.
He and his aides have repeatedly argued that a vote for UKIP will weaken his own party - the traditional standard bearer of the centre-right - and make it easier for Miliband to win.
"It doesn’t matter whether parliament is hung, drawn or quartered, there is only one real choice. The Conservatives or Labour," said Cameron.
"Me in Downing Street, or Ed Miliband in Downing Street. If you vote UKIP that’s really a vote for Labour. On 7th May (election day) you could go to bed with Nigel Farage, and wake up with Ed Miliband."
Trailing the opposition Labour party in most opinion polls, Cameron is straining to pacify the Eurosceptic wing of his own party which wants him to offer firmer commitments on changing Britain's relationship with Europe.
He has promised to renegotiate Britain's EU ties if re-elected before holding an EU membership referendum in 2017, but has been coy about spelling out what he wants to change with some Conservatives sceptical about the strength of his resolve.
Cameron used his speech to try to calm those jitters, saying he was steadfastly committed to overhauling Britain's EU ties and would seek to alter the bloc's freedom of movement rules to curb intra-EU immigration.
"Britain, I know you want this sorted so I will go to Brussels, I will not take no for an answer and when it comes to free movement – I will get what Britain needs," he said.
"Anyone who thinks I can’t or won’t deliver this – judge me by my record."
Cameron also sought to appease the right wing of his party with a promise to scrap the Human Rights Act - domestic legislation which enshrines the international principles of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) into British law.
Senior Conservatives have been frustrated by rulings under the act which they say allow criminals to unfairly escape or delay punishment and often cite the deportation of radical Muslim cleric Abu Qatada to Jordan which was stalled for years.
Cameron said he would introduce a new rights bill in its place - a move that would give the Conservatives freedom to pick and choose which principles from the ECHR were directly enforceable through British law.
Increasingly Eurosceptic rhetoric has stoked concerns among some big business leaders who largely support Britain's EU membership.
The Institute of Directors, a lobby group for British business, praised Cameron's tax cut proposals but said the attempt to hinder the free movement of people in the European Union was disappointing.
"On Europe, it is disappointing that the Prime Minister intends to put toughening up the rules around the free movement of people at the core of his impending renegotiation strategy," said Simon Walker, its director general.
Tuesday 30 September 2014
Potential successors to Cameron position themselves before close election
(Reuters) - Eight months before a tight election, the three main contenders to succeed Prime Minister David Cameron as leader of the Conservatives wooed potential supporters at the party's annual conference with starkly different pitches.
Cameron, 47, has repeatedly said he wants to lead his right-leaning party to victory in May 2015 and to secure a majority, so it can rule alone and not in a coalition as is now the case.
But the Conservatives trail the opposition Labour party in most opinion polls and the surging anti-EU UK Independence Party (UKIP) has poached two of his lawmakers in the last month. Capitalising on disappointment among some Conservatives with Cameron's centrist policies, UKIP is likely to steal some of his voters too, making it harder for him to get re-elected.
Theresa May, the country's 57-year-old interior minister (home secretary), Boris Johnson, the 50-year-old mayor of London, and 43-year-old finance minister George Osborne have emerged as the main candidates to succeed Cameron if he loses.
All three contenders are Eurosceptics -- an important quality if they are to lead a party that is increasingly hostile to the European Union. All have professed loyalty to Cameron but none has ruled out a leadership bid either.
"This conference is to some extent a pre-audition for a leadership contest that might take place," Tim Bale, a professor at London's Queen Mary University, told Reuters.
"It's tricky for them (the contenders) to pull off. They have to lay out their credentials, while at the same time being seen as team players."
Even if Cameron wins the election but fails to get a majority there's a chance his party, which has a history of swiftly removing its leaders, could force him to step down anyway.
He mentioned all three politicians earlier in the day as potential successors, saying the party was lucky to have "a team of leaders".
May used her speech on Tuesday to offer an analysis of the dangers posed by Islamic State insurgents in the Middle East and Britain, promising she'd introduce sweeping powers to tackle extremism if her party wins next year's election.
"We must face down extremism in all its forms. We must stand up for our values. Because, in the end, as they have done before, those values, our British values, will win the day, and we will prevail," she said, before receiving a standing ovation.
Perceived to be on the right of a party that Cameron has pushed to the centre ground, she also pledged to reintroduce a law, nicknamed the "snooper's charter", giving British police and security services some of the West's most far-reaching surveillance powers.
DIFFERENT STYLES
By contrast, Johnson used his speech to showcase his eccentric sense of humour, brandishing a brick to make a point about the need for more house building, talking up the achievements of London, the city he runs, and making a joke at Cameron's expense.
"You have permission to purr," he told delegates, a cheeky reference to a phone call Cameron had with Queen Elizabeth after this month's Scottish independence referendum. Cameron, to his embarrassment, was overheard saying the monarch had purred with happiness when he told her Scots had voted "No".
Johnson, who will seek election to parliament in a safe Conservative seat in May, quoted William Shakespeare's Henry V to issue a warning to any Conservatives considering defecting to UKIP.
"He which hath no stomach to this fight, let him depart”, said Johnson, whose speech drew sustained applause.
Osborne, sometimes criticised by left-wing tabloids as being tough on the poor, delivered his own speech on Monday, spelling out plans for more spending and welfare cuts in a calculated gamble that voters would understand and even welcome his tough approach to fixing the economy.
On Tuesday, he sat down on the sidelines of the conference for an informal "conversation" with activists in which he discussed everything from his efforts to control his weight to why he had decided to change his hair style.
The events offered a glimpse of the type of leaders May, Johnson and Osborne would be if they succeeded Cameron.
May, serious, more right-wing than Cameron, and tough on law and order, a cocktail likely to appeal to the party's core supporters. Johnson, jokey and more centrist than May, a mix polls show could widen the party's appeal and boost its support. Osborne, a fiscal enforcer with a flair for political strategy whose earnest style still turns off some supporters.
When asked about her leadership ambitions after her speech, May said Cameron was doing a wonderful job as prime minister, but refused to rule out running herself in future.
"I want to see David continuing as prime minister for many years to come because I think he has done a great job for this country," she told BBC radio.
When Johnson, who said during an interview that Cameron was leader "at the moment", was teased about his own ambitions, he accused the interviewer of trying to wind him up.
Osborne's close political alliance with Cameron and his perceived coldness -- something he and his team have worked hard to dispel -- are seen as complicating a possible leadership bid.
He too was non-committal when asked about such ambitions.
"This partnership I have working with David Cameron is one that I think is really strong for the country," he said.
"He's a great prime minister and he's going to be a great prime minister in the next parliament and long may that continue, long may I work for him."
Monday 29 September 2014
City's Hart itching for return to action against Roma
(Reuters) - England goalkeeper Joe Hart will return for Manchester City in their Champions League match at home to AS Roma on Tuesday after being replaced by Willy Caballero for the last two games.
Hart sat on the bench for his team's 4-2 win at Hull City in the Premier League and Argentine Caballero, signed from Malaga this year, produced a solid display.
He was also rested for last week's League Cup thrashing of Sheffield Wednesday and while he is clearly still manager Manuel Pellegrini's first choice for the big games, he is not a fan of watching from the sidelines.
"Of course, I want to play every game, that is my nature, my professionalism," Hart told a news conference ahead of the vital game against the Italians in Group E.
"I am not the manager, just a player. I live by the decisions of the manager.
"It is hard for me to see (the positives of being rested). I am sure when I retire from football I will see them but right now I am not going to see them."
Hart was in superb form in the 1-0 defeat against Bayern Munich in City's opening game, keeping the Bavarians out almost single-handedly until a deflected winner in the dying seconds.
With Roma also winning their first match, he knows that anything short of victory will leave City with an uphill battle to reach the last 16.
"It is obviously a big game after the disappointing start we had in Munich," he said. "Roma have been doing very well. We have focused a lot more on them since they were drawn in our group. They got a great result in their opening game."
While the emphasis in Munich was very much on defence, Pellegrini believes his side have now clicked as an attacking force after a tricky start to the season.
They scored seven against Wednesday and four at the weekend and the Chilean thinks they are hitting their stride.
"I think we are playing well," he said. "Maybe at the beginning of the season we didn't score so many goals here at home, especially against Chelsea and Stoke. We scored only one goal in those two games.
"But after that the team returned to its normal performance and at this moment I have a lot of trust in the team because I think we are in a good moment."
Osborne vows crackdown on tax-avoiding tech firms
"Some technology companies go to extraordinary lengths to pay little or no tax here," Osborne told an annual conference of his Conservative Party.
"If you abuse our tax system, you abuse the trust of the British people. And my message to those companies is clear: we will put a stop to it."
Osborne did not mention any companies by name in his speech, which focused on the importance of bringing down Britain's budget deficit and promoting his stewardship of the economy as May's national election approaches.
Corporate tax avoidance has become a hot political topic following media coverage and parliamentary investigations into the arrangements many big firms use to reduce tax bills.
Osborne was among Group of 20 finance ministers who pushed the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development to re-examine international rules that allow technology companies to shift profits into tax havens.
Proposals unveiled by the OECD earlier this month could eliminate structures that have allowed companies such as Google Inc and Amazon.com Inc to shave billions of dollars off their global tax bills.
However, Osborne has also introduced new tax legislation covering overseas subsidiaries which campaigners say has made it easier for companies to avoid tax and which has encouraged a raft of companies to establish their tax residence in Britain.
Rooney apologises for red card incident
(Reuters) - Manchester United captain Wayne Rooney has apologised to his team mates after being sent off against West Ham United during Saturday's Premier League match following a rash challenge on Stewart Downing.
"It was probably the right decision," Rooney was quoted as saying on the BBC website. "Of course I did (apologise)."
Rooney, who said he would not appeal the decision, will be unavailable for his club until the derby against Manchester City on Nov. 2 as he received an automatic three-match ban for the dismissal.
Rooney's challenge was described as "crazy and irresponsible" by West Ham manager Sam Allardyce while Manchester United's Louis van Gaal backed referee Lee Mason's decision.
"I saw the West Ham player making a counter-attack and I tried to break-up the play, but I just misjudged it," Rooney said.
"I am just grateful that the lads were able to hold on."
Rooney's team sealed a 2-1 win despite playing the last 30 minutes with 10 men.
Osborne pitches welfare cuts to voters ahead of election
(Reuters) - Chancellor George Osborne sought on Monday to deflect voter attention from a Conservative party split over Europe by pledging more spending cuts to help the government's finances back to surplus.
The Conservative party's schism over Europe has marred Prime Minister David Cameron's last major party conference before the 2015 election, overshadowing Osborne's pitch of economic growth, fiscal prudence and tougher rules for welfare claimants.
Grappling with the defection of a second Conservative lawmaker to the anti-EU United Kingdom Independence Party, Osborne warned on Monday that a vote for UKIP risked allowing the opposition Labour party into power in May 2015.
In a speech that is likely to form the basis of the Conservative's election pitch to voters, Osborne claimed credit for returning Britain's $2.8 trillion economy to growth and said Labour had no plan to deal with rising state debt.
"I don't stand here marvelling at how much we have done. On the contrary: I am humbled by how much we have to do," Osborne told applauding party activists in the English city of Birmingham, in front of a slogan "Securing a Better Future".
"We here resolve we will finish the job that we have started," he said.
On entering office in 2010 as part of a coalition government, Cameron and Osborne had bet that if they could get Britain's economy growing again and reduce a record budget deficit then voters would feel richer by the election.
While the economy has recovered, the Conservatives have not yet drawn ahead in the polls, wages are rising at the slowest pace in more than a decade and state debt is forecast to peak at 79 percent of GDP in 2015-16.
Voters rate the Conservatives much more highly than the opposition Labour party on the economy, but with the public accounts still deep in the red, the 43-year-old finance minister has little room to offer major tax cuts ahead of the election.
Osborne also said he would clamp down on technology companies which "go to extraordinary lengths to pay little or no tax here" as part of his plans to fix the budget shortfall.
"FIX THE ROOF"
Britain had to run a surplus and to do so would involve 25 billion pounds of spending cuts, Osborne said, adding that working age benefits would be frozen for two years.
"Running an overall surplus is the only sure way of getting our dangerously high national debt down. Let the message go out from this conference ... we will fix the roof when the sun is shining," he said.
After double-digit rises in house prices, led by London, Osborne added that he was giving the Bank of England extra powers to curb a potential property boom and stop mortgages being given to people who cannot afford to repay them.
In a move aimed at the party's ageing supporter base, Osborne committed to abolishing before the election a 55 percent tax levied on pension pots of savers when they die.
The new pledge is expected to cost around 150 million pounds a year, according to a Conservative briefing note.
Britain's economy has staged a stronger-than-expected recovery since mid-2013. In his speech, Osborne said keeping the economy growing will be vital to create jobs, build more houses, fund healthcare and raise living standards.
"Britain still faces huge economic risks, at home where we've brought it down, there remains a large budget deficit and our national debt is dangerously high," he added. "Abroad our biggest markets in the euro zone are not growing."
Osborne said Labour had left Britain "on the floor" after the 2007-08 financial crisis that plunged Britain into its deepest post-war recession.
Last week, Labour promised to levy new taxes on homes worth more than 2 million pounds and on tobacco firms in order to pump cash into healthcare if it wins the election.
Osborne ridiculed the ideas of Labour leader Ed Miliband, saying his failure to mention the budget deficit in a speech last week disqualified him from being prime minister.
"Forgetting to talk about the deficit is not just some hapless mistake of an accident-prone politician, it is completely and totally a disqualification for the high office he seeks," Osborne said. "Labour were wrong and we were right."
Sunday 28 September 2014
Europe schism haunts Cameron as pre-election battle drums begin
(Reuters) - The British Conservative party's schism over Europe marred Prime Minister David Cameron's last major party conference before a 2015 election, overshadowing his party's attempt to pitch a growing economy and lower welfare spending to voters.
The defection of a second Conservative lawmaker to the anti-EU United Kingdom Independence Party on the eve of the conference ratcheted up the pressure on Cameron to take a tougher line on Europe, immigration and welfare less than eight months before a national election in May.
After a tumultuous month in which Cameron has taken Britain into battle with Islamist militants in Iraq and even pondered his own demise if Scotland had voted to break apart the United Kingdom, Cameron conceded it was a poor start to the conference.
"I have to admit it's not been an ideal start. I'm prepared to say that," the 47-year-old leader said when asked about the defection of Mark Reckless to UKIP that prompted a headline of "Tory Crisis" in the right-leaning Sunday Telegraph newspaper.
In an attempt to thwart the rise of UKIP, which has stoked discord over Europe inside the Conservative party by poaching voters with the promise of leading Britain out of the EU, Cameron has promised a referendum on membership by the end of 2017 if he is re-elected next year.
But Cameron, who once warned his party that banging on about Europe was a vote loser, has failed to repair a schism inside the Conservative party over Britain's relations with Europe that helped bring down two of his predecessors, John Major and Margaret Thatcher.
Announcing his defection to UKIP, Reckless cited frustration with the Conservatives' European and immigration policies, drawing a rebuke from Cameron who said the move was senseless as only the Conservatives were offering an EU referendum.
Cameron's biggest rival for the party leadership in 2005, David Davis, publicly warned the prime minister he had to take the threat from UKIP seriously, stop flirting with liberal social policies, and move sharply rightwards.
"It is time to realise the threat from UKIP is no longer a laughing matter," said Davis, who lost the leadership contest to Cameron.
"The party leadership is seen as considerably more left-wing than its support. Middle England regards modernisation as the obsession of a metropolitan elite," he said, referring to Cameron's attempts to portray the Conservatives as a more socially liberal party.
FEELING RICHER?
Cameron on Sunday urged voters to focus on the economy, which this year reached its pre-crisis peak, and said opposition Labour leader Ed Miliband had no appetite to deal with state debt, which is forecast to peak at 79 percent of GDP in 2015-16.
"The truth is these things, frustrating as they are, don't change the fundamental choice at the election which is do you want to continue with the long-term economic plan that is working ... or do you want to lurch off with Ed Miliband with no plan, no leadership, no ideas about the economy," he said.
But the defection to UKIP and a sex scandal that forced a junior minister's resignation overshadowed two major policy pledges, the first of what the Conservatives say will be a string of eye-catching pre-election promises this week.
Seeking to present himself as the heir to Thatcher's 1980 dream of widening British home ownership, Cameron pledged to build 100,000 new homes and offer them to younger first-time buyers at a 20 percent discount.
Cameron said on Sunday the party also planned to clamp down on welfare spending, a policy that has proved popular with voters. That would mean cutting a cap on the maximum annual amount a household can receive in welfare benefits by 3,000 pounds to 23,000 pounds.
New limits on young people aged 18-21 claiming benefits would also be introduced, he said.
On entering office in 2010 as part of a coalition government, Cameron and his chancellor George Osborne had bet that if they could get Britain's $2.8 trillion (1.7 trillion pound) economy growing again then voters would feel richer by the election.
The economy has recovered but the Conservatives have not yet drawn ahead in the polls and wage growth is growing at the slowest level for more than a decade.
Their record on immigration is also under scrutiny as polls show worries about the issue have shot to the top of the list of voter concerns in recent months trumping the economy.
Opinion polls on Sunday showed Labour had a lead of between 2 and 5 percentage point lead over the Conservatives, and most pollsters and lawmakers expect the election to be extremely close with a high possibility of a hung Parliament.
Nigel Farage, leader of UKIP, said both Conservative and Labour - which are both facing UKIP in by-elections on Oct. 9 - had failed voters.
"There is a great deal of disenchantment with David Cameron's leadership of the Conservative party but equally don't underestimate the fact that there are Labour backbenchers who are thinking about this as well," Farage said.
"It wouldn't surprise me if we saw more defections."
Leadership doubts overshadow Labour party before 2015 vote
(Reuters) - With his party ahead in opinion polls eight months before an election, opposition leader Ed Miliband could be Britain’s next prime minister. Yet his Labour party is in the odd position of trying to win power despite, not thanks to him.
An Opinium/Observer poll released on Sunday after his party's conference, the last before May's national election, showed Labour's lead over Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives had been cut to 2 percentage points, down 6 points in a fortnight, after Miliband forgot vital parts of his speech.
Derided by the press as a socially awkward nerd, Miliband, an Oxford-educated career politician with the demeanour of an academic, is seen by some in and around his party as an electoral liability rather than an asset.
"If they (Labour) win, they’re winning it in spite of him," Peter Simpson, a worker for a non-governmental organisation who last week attended Labour's annual conference in Manchester, northern England, told Reuters.
"Everyone is worried about real core issues like the National Health Service and the Conservatives being seen to be in the pockets of the rich. They’ll win it because of that, not because of Miliband. If anything he could lose it for them."
Anxious to defuse his image problem, something that has dogged him since he won the party leadership in 2010, Miliband took the unusual step of publicly mocking his own image in July, saying he rejected "a politics driven by image".
But Britons, and some in his own party, remain sceptical amid signs that a perception among some voters that he cannot be trusted to run the economy or to reduce immigration - two of the country's biggest pre-election issues - could be an obstacle to his party winning office.
A protege of former prime minister Gordon Brown, Miliband presents himself as a heavyweight left-wing intellectual who has a 10-year plan to rebalance the economy in favour of low-wage workers and society's most vulnerable.
Yet he frequently finds his policies overshadowed by his perceived presentational shortcomings with the press mercilessly poking fun at the way he looks, talks, walks, and even eats.
That has kept his personal ratings low.
In a YouGov poll released last week, 63 percent said they thought Miliband wasn't up to the job of being prime minister.
He polls much better when it comes to how closely people perceive him to be in touch with ordinary people, but poorly when it comes to leadership and economic competence.
'NOBODY THINKS WE ARE GOING TO WIN'
His centre-left party, most recently in power from 1997-2010, is more popular than him. Polls give it a lead over the Conservatives of between 1 and 8 points. The same polls show Cameron is much more popular among voters than Miliband.
Cameron, a former public relations executive, is a polished speaker. He has his own image problems though - some voters regard him as too keen to protect the narrow interests of the privileged part of society he comes from.
Cameron, 47, often gets the better of Miliband, 44, in weekly question and answer sessions in the parliament which are televised and shown on TV news bulletins. Miliband says he wants to change the format to place more emphasis on substance over style.
Supporters concede his image has been a problem at times.
"Party leaders don’t get it right all the time," Harriet Harman, Labour's deputy leader, told the party's conference last week. "And Ed - it's fair to say - there have been a few incidents where the photograph hasn’t quite worked out.
"But who would you rather have? A man who one day had a bad photo with a bacon sandwich or a man whose director of communications was sent to prison," she said, referring to Cameron's former spin doctor who was convicted of phone hacking.
Close-up photographs of Miliband struggling to eat a bacon sandwich earlier this year went viral and, for a few days, became a national joke.
Harman predicted that personal criticism of Miliband would intensify before the election because the Conservatives wanted to "attack the messenger" rather than the message, which she said they couldn't tackle.
Pollsters say that Labour, which sees itself as a champion of the working class, should have a much bigger opinion poll lead at this stage in the electoral cycle, particularly since most voters have yet to feel much benefit from the country's rising economy in their pockets.
Some party workers blame Miliband, believing they'd be further ahead in the polls with a different leader.
A dozen Labour activists and politicians interviewed by Reuters during the party's conference in Manchester said voters always cited doubts about Miliband's leadership when canvassed.
There was anxiety within the party about his electability, they said, and the atmosphere at conference - meant to be a big pre-election morale booster for the party's workers and a bellwether of its fortunes - was flat.
"It's because nobody thinks we are going to win,” one activist, who declined to give her name because of the matter's sensitivity, told Reuters. “Our leader is not very charismatic ... It is a real problem for me."
ANTI-BUSINESS?
The son of a Belgian Marxist intellectual of Polish origin, Miliband, the party's first Jewish leader, won the Labour leadership in 2010 after defeating his brother David, a former foreign secretary and the early favourite, in a bruising contest.
Ed triumphed with help from the party’s paymasters – the trade unions – even though David was more popular among Labour lawmakers and rank-and-file party members. His victory soured relations with his brother and left many in the party convinced they had chosen "the wrong Miliband".
Since then, he has shifted Labour to the left and away from the centre ground where one of his predecessors, triple election winner Tony Blair, anchored it.
With promises to freeze energy prices and pour extra money into the National Health Service by taxing wealthy home owners and tobacco firms, he has cast himself as the champion of low-wage employees and society’s most vulnerable.
Along the way, he has made stinging criticisms of bankers and big business, causing concern among some about what they say are his anti-business policies.
Miliband, who grew up and lives in a wealthy London neighbourhood, strongly denies that charge.
In the recent campaign to keep Scotland inside the United Kingdom, Miliband found himself overshadowed by his one-time patron, Gordon Brown, whose barnstorming speeches were widely regarded to have helped persuade Scots to reject independence.
By contrast, Miliband's own big moment, his keynote address to the party faithful at the annual conference, flopped.
He used what was billed as a make-or-break speech to cast himself as a prime minister-in-waiting, pledging to wring money from owners of expensive houses, hedge funds and tobacco companies to fund better health care.
But in an embarrassing slip, Miliband, who spoke without notes, forgot to mention what pollsters say are two of the biggest pre-election issues: Britain's sizeable public deficit and immigration. The original version of the speech showed he had intended to touch on both issues.
Dan Hodges, a commentator and a former Labour adviser, said what he called a dismal speech had aggravated existing doubts about Miliband's leadership.
"He had to show that he was a man on the threshold of 10 Downing Street," said Hodges, referring to the British prime minister's official London residence. "But instead he showed that he couldn't even get the basics right."
why is Britain having less sex?
life
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Sex
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Recessions come with
plenty of side-effects. If you read the small print of the credit crunch
malaise and its painfully slow recovery you would no doubt discover that it
brought along with it the increased risk of all manner of physical disorders:
anxiety, sleeplessness, panic attacks, depression and, therefore, as your
pharmacist might advise, a predictable loss of libido. Certainly that would
seem to be one interpretation of the results of the Observer’sSex Uncovered
survey. Before George Osborne’s age of austerity the average British adult
enjoyed sex nearly seven times a month; in 2014 that figure has apparently
double-dipped to a miserly four times – less than once a week – with a full
third of the population admitting to no sex at all in those 30 days and nights.
Previous Tory administrations may have been able to boast that you have never
had it so good; one legacy of this limp coalition era might prove to be that
you have never had it so infrequently.
The last time the Observer snuck under the
nation’s duvet and asked a representative sample of consenting adults those
$64,000 questions – How many partners? How satisfied are you with your love
life? Do you use toys? – was in September 2008, just days before Lehman
Brothers filed for bankruptcy and desperate queues began to form outside
Northern Rock. The red blood of a decade of debt-fuelled priapic growth was
still pumping in the nation’s veins. There is no direct line of cause and
effect, of course, but still, six years on, the nation’s male population in
particular appears to have lost a significant amount of horizontal confidence.
In 2008, more than half of the sexually active considered themselves to have
above average prowess as lovers; now that figure has declined to little more
than a third. Along with the GDP figures, everything appears to have been
shrinking. The average British man’s approval of the size of his manhood has
drooped somewhat alarmingly over the last half decade (though it has stayed
robust among the wealthiest category of respondents to the survey, further
proof perhaps of the growing gap in perception and optimism between the haves
and the have-nots).
You could argue that the desire for greater financial security
has invaded our fantasy lives also. At the same time as Booker prize judges
have been complaining that sex has all but disappeared from the nation’s serious
fiction (perhaps because of fears of ridicule in the Bad Sex Award), a whole
new category of bonkbuster (adult erotica) has emerged. One new question for
this year’s survey sample concerns the reading ofFifty Shades of Grey – an extraordinary 43% of
people owned up to at least thumbing through the trilogy (or its many
imitators). Its popularity, however, perhaps owed an equal amount not to its
slap-and-tickle raunch, but also to the fact that the sex came complete with
first-class travel and the temporary suspension of money worries.
EL James may have been whipping up the repressed bondage
fetishes of a receptive audience (in which 90% of Brits don’t view their actual
sex life as “very adventurous”) but at the same time she was secretly appealing
to a make-believe in which financial insecurity was suddenly a thing of the
past – her writing shared that much with Jane Austen, at least. As Andrew
O’Hagan put it in the London Review of Books: “The expensive silk
tie on the cover tells you everything about the acquisitive vibe behind the
whole thing, the appeal for mothers who wouldn’t mind a slightly naughty
son-in-law if he also had tousled hair, an Audi R8 Spyder, several apartments
and a general handiness with the black Amex … many comforts [are] offered for a
life of mild depravity: people in these novels don’t wear underpants they wear
Calvin Kleins; they don’t drink wine they have Pinot Grigio; nobody wears
sunglasses they wear Ray-Bans … It’s not that having these things is at all
unusual, but the specificity implies a desire much larger here than any desire
people might have for kinky sex. They are buying the books because the books
invite them to be submissive too, not to punishment, but to a 1980s-style
dominance of money and power and products.”
Other observers have seen even greater significance in the Fifty
Shades…phenomenon, which quickly went global. Earlier this year writer Lori
Gottlieb (bestselling author of Marry Him: The Case for Settling for Mr
Good Enough) created a Twitter-storm of controversy with a front-page New
York Times Magazine article that asked the question “Does a more equal
marriage mean less sex?” Gottlieb offered evidence that the more couples share
childcare and household jobs – the more progress that was made toward breaking
down sexual imbalance in all things – then the less sex they were likely to
have. Fifty Shades…in this context was escapism for a generation of
women who had won the battle of having husbands and partners share domestic and
family responsibilities, but who perhaps lusted toward them a little less as a
result.
Gottlieb’s argument was supported by a study called
“Egalitarianism, Housework and Sexual Frequency in Marriage”, which appeared
last year in the American Sociological Review. This research found
that when men in heterosexual couples did what researchers characterised as
“feminine” chores – folding laundry or vacuuming – then couples had sex 1.5
fewer times per month than those with husbands or partners who did what were
characterised as masculine chores, such as heavy lifting or mending the car.
The study showed that it was not just the frequency of physical intimacy that
was affected – at least from the woman’s point of view. The greater the
husband’s share of masculine chores, the greater his wife’s reported sexual
satisfaction – what you might call the Lady Chatterley argument.
The study concluded: “The less gender differentiation, the less sexual desire.”
In other words, as Gottlieb claimed, “in an attempt to be gender-neutral, we
may have become gender-neutered”.
In this context the allure of Fifty Shades… is
seen, counterintuitively, as an expression of feminism, a victory for work-life
balance and the merits of “leaning in”. American psychologist Pepper Schwartz,
of the University of Washington, argued, that, paradoxically, such fantasies of
submission reflect how much relative power women now have attained in real
life. “The more powerful you are in your marriage, and the more responsibility
you have in other areas of your life, the more submission becomes sexy,”
Schwartz claimed. “It’s like: ‘Let me lose all that responsibility for an hour.
I’ve got plenty of it.’ It’s what you can afford once you don’t live a life of
submission.”
That kind of conclusion would seem perhaps to be supported in
two other findings of this latest survey. The sexual revolutionaries of the
1960s and 70s, you imagine, would be profoundly shocked by the responses to the
question of whether it is possible to be in a happy relationship without sex
featuring at all. Just about two-thirds of British adults apparently believe
that such a relationship is perfectly feasible. Whatever became of that
philosophy expressed, for example, by the indefatigable Norman Mailer, a
vigorous exponent of marrying for passion and divorcing when it disappeared,
who contended, looking back, that “orgasm in a certain sense was the essence of
the character [and] when your orgasm was improving, you were improving with
it…”? In a list of priorities for relationships in 2014, sex comes out on top
for only one in 50 people.
And how do such findings square with the overriding anecdotal
feeling that society, on the surface at least, is becoming ever more sexualised
– that the media are saturated with sexual reference, and that our children are
confronted with twerking and worse everywhere they look? Parents – like a
proportion of all parents before them – who fear their teenagers are growing up
much too quickly might take comfort from that fact that in London, for example,
the average age for the loss of virginity is quite an abstemious 19 years old.
Is sex losing out to the virtual reality of it on smartphones and laptops?
The current survey suggests that the invasion of internet
pornography, particularly into male lives, continues its territorial advance. I
was reminded, reading some of the findings of this survey, of watching Beeban
Kidron’s fine film about teenagers and the internet InRealLife, which came out this time last
year. In particular I was reminded of her young interviewee Ryan, who quite
sweetly talked the film-maker through his ritualised internet porn habits,
their menus and the sheer volume of graphic high-definition choice that was
presented to the formative adolescent mind, and accessible any time of day or
night. Ryan, aged 15, was quite evangelical about the possibilities that had
been opened up for his viewing pleasure, but he feared seeing so much so young
“had ruined his whole sense of love”. Kidron’s camera followed Ryan out into
town, watched him chatting up girls, all the time comparing the reality with the
fantasy he shared with his computer, always feeling a little let down.
Is the digital commodification of sex ruining the real thing on
a wider scale? There is plenty of anecdotal and research evidence to suggest
that it is. Is the kind of disjunction between fantasy and reality experienced
by Ryan responsible for the falling rates of sexual satisfaction, both in the
“performance” of a partner (the word itself is loaded with depersonalised
baggage) or in yourself? Certainly there has never been a moment in human
history when we have been surrounded by so much idealised or extreme sexuality
to live up to.
Three-quarters of men (and a quarter of women) admit to looking
at online pornography. And when nothing seems off-limits online – not to
mention the intimate moments of any celebrity under the sun, or the private
photos Jennifer Lawrence makes for her lover’s eyes only – does the proper
fleshy privacy of sex with a partner lose its glamour? You would hope not.
Readers of Mariella Frostrup’s column in this paper over recent years would
have to conclude otherwise, however. A decade or more of listening to
relationship troubles led her to observe recently: “The access to and
availability of sex onscreen is, I believe, the biggest seismic change to
society in my lifetime. We should be analysing and learning from what we
discover before sex becomes simply a spectator sport, totally adrift from the
intimacies of a loving relationship.”
In our work-obsessed, time-poor culture, it would seem that
regular sex is one of the “luxuries” that we are prepared to dispense with. As
various recent reports have suggested, women in particular, given the roles and
responsibilities they have to juggle, are as likely to fantasise about proper
rest as about physical intimacy. Sleep we are told, in many working lives, has
become the new sex.
And as the boundaries between working lives and home lives are
dissolved by technology and email, the mental space in which sex exists would
seem to be constantly under threat. Perhaps not surprisingly, given our cultural
addiction to ever-longer working days, one of the few rising trends since the Observer surveys
of 2002 and 2008 concerns the fact that a greater number of people are finding
lust (and maybe love) in the workplace – often literally – and not only that,
one in five people say they would sleep with someone to further their career.
The other side of that particular work-life balance points,
however, to the office colonising the bedroom – email and text follow many of
us everywhere, more global working practices mean communicating across many
time zones. Though all sleep counsellors suggest that the bedroom should be
reserved for sleep and sex, more than half of British adults admit to taking
their technology to bed with them. Which bedside table these days isn’t a
scramble of chargers and wires? In austerity Britain in 2014 a smartphone may
well be the last thing you caress at night – and, it seems, increasingly, the
only thing that gets turned on in the morning.
Saturday 27 September 2014
Rooney deserved red, says relieved Van Gaal
(Reuters) - Manchester United captain Wayne Rooney deserved the sending-off that jeopardised his side's nervy 2-1 Premier League win over West Ham United on Saturday, his manager Louis van Gaal said.
The Dutchman stopped short of condemning the England captain for an inexplicably rash challenge, though, hailing his players' attitude to secure a "very important" victory at Old Trafford.
"It was a break-out of a set-play of ours and he makes a professional foul, I think you can call it like that," Van Gaal told a news conference of Rooney's red card.
"I don't think Wayne wanted to do it that way but he did it and you can give a red card.
"But OK, I am very happy that we hold the result until the end because it is very difficult to play against a team who have one more player but who also play a lot of high balls. I am very pleased with the attitude of my players."
After enduring their worst start to a Premier League season since the league's inception in 1992 with five points and one win from their opening five games, United's need to secure a win under new boss Van Gaal was desperate.
Rooney and Robin van Persie gave the home side an early cushion before Diafra Sakho pulled one back for West Ham before halftime.
If there were nerves at Old Trafford about the home side's ability to maintain a one-goal lead, with the capitulation from 3-1 up to 5-3 down at Leicester City last Sunday still fresh in the mind, they were made worse when United were reduced to 10 men.
There were gasps of horror when Kevin Nolan put the ball in the net for the visitors with just a minute to go but he was adjudged offside, much to the relief of Van Gaal and his team.
The ghosts of Leicester were not the only thing the United manager had to contend with as a glut of defensive injuries and suspensions meant he had to shuffle his pack.
He handed debuts to two teenage defenders, left-back Luke Shaw who joined for 27 million pounds from Southampton, and 19-year-old Patrick McNair.
"Luke Shaw was always injured (at the start of the season) but now I could play with him for 90 minutes," the 63-year-old Van Gaal said.
"He had a little cramp and it was amazing he lasted 90 minutes. Also, Paddy McNair played a very good match and I'm very pleased for him that we won."
The 20-times English champions moved up to seventh in the league table and now look ahead to the visit of Everton on Oct. 5.
Arsenal injury concerns ahead of big week
(Reuters) - Arsenal face an injury crisis as they approach two crucial fixtures over the next week following the loss of three more players in the 1-1 Premier League draw against Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday.
With his team due to meet Galatasaray and Chelsea, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has fresh concerns over Mikel Arteta (calf) and Aaron Ramsey (hamstring), who both went off before halftime in the north London derby. Jack Wilshere suffered another ankle injury in the second half.
They are sidelined along with Olivier Giroud, Mathieu Debuchy, Yaya Sanogo and Nacho Monreal, leaving Wenger to admit at his news conference: "Suddenly we are short."
Arsenal face Galatasaray in the Champions League on Wednesday and leaders Chelsea in the Premier League next weekend.
"I don't know for how long Arteta, Ramsey and Wilshere will be out, but Arteta and Ramsey are definitely out of the Chelsea game, Wilshere I don't know," Wenger said.
"Wilshere was injured in a tackle and turned his ankle over and Ramsey injured his hamstring and that is a concern.
"I don't understand it because he had a good rest this week and didn't play against Southampton on Tuesday night.
"So it's a surprise because he is usually a resilient boy.
"We lost three players today, plus two out long-term (Giroud and Debuchy) and Theo Walcott, so that is six. Abou Diaby is not ready, not match fit, so that is seven and so it has become a worry."
Wenger was also frustrated by failing to beat Tottenham who went ahead through Nacer Chadli before Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain equalised.
Spurs defended well in the face of constant Arsenal pressure, but were accused by Wenger of time-wasting.
"I have never known us to have so much possession against a Tottenham team, but you have to say they defended well.
"But they took every second they could to make the game last for as little as possible. They tried to gain time, to slow the game down.
"I would like to see an English referee act against that in a proper way. The referee is there to make the game flow, people pay money to watch football. It is respect to the people who pay money and the referee should book players straight away."
Derby spoils shared as Chelsea march on
(Reuters) - Spoils were shared in two huge Premier League derbies, Chelsea's cracking start continued with a 3-0 win over Aston Villa and Wayne Rooney produced a Jekyll and Hyde display in a nervy Manchester United victory on Saturday.
A jam-packed Premier League programme began with Phil Jagielka's stoppage-time humdinger earning Everton a 1-1 draw at Liverpool and ended with Arsenal's Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain denying Tottenham Hotspur a surprise win at their arch-rivals as the game ended 1-1 in north London.
Rooney scored in the fifth minute of United's home game with West Ham United but was later sent off for a wild challenge as his side hung on for a 2-1 victory.
Gripping as those skirmishes were, however, it was table-topping Chelsea who continued to look a cut above the rest.
Diego Costa scored his eighth league goal of the campaign and Brazilian duo Oscar and Willian were also on target at Stamford Bridge as Chelsea made it five wins from six.
Chelsea lead the table with 16 points, three more than surprise packages Southampton who beat Queens Park Rangers 2-1 and five more than champions Manchester City who had an Edin Dzeko double to thank for a 4-2 victory at Hull City.
"It's not crucial, because it's still early, but it's a gap which gives you a good feeling, it's good to be top of the league," Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho said.
Liverpool came agonisingly close to ending their long wait for a Premier League title last season but their challenge is yet to catch fire this time with three defeats already.
Steven Gerrard's 65th-minute free kick looked like giving them a deserved victory in the 223rd Merseyside derby but they were stunned in stoppage time when defender Jagielka let fly with an unstoppable volley from 25 metres.
It left Liverpool in the bottom half of the table with seven points, one ahead of Everton.
"We were very clearly the better side," manager Brendan Rodgers said. "Everton had virtually nothing in attack. To concede a goal like that so late on is obviously frustrating."
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger was also frustrated.
"We had 77 percent possession in the second half which is unbelievable," he said.
"I am frustrated because we dropped two points and I am frustrated because we didn't make enough of our set-pieces. You want to be rewarded for the work you put in."
BEST SPELLS
Tottenham, who had managed only one win in 25 matches away to Arsenal, enjoyed their best spells either side of halftime and took the lead through Nacer Chadli after 55 minutes.
However, a mistake by Erik Lamela, who had assisted in Tottenham's opener, paved the way for Oxlade-Chamberlain to thump Arsenal level with under 20 minutes left.
Arsenal, who play Chelsea next week, have 10 points along with Swansea City, who drew 0-0 at Sunderland and Villa.
Manchester United climbed to eighth, although what had looked like being a stress-free afternoon against West Ham for manager Louis van Gaal turned into a nail-biting one.
Rooney tucked away Rafael's cross after five minutes for his 175th Premier League goal and Robin van Persie put Van Gaal's side in complete control before halftime.
However, the defensive jitters evident in a 5-3 loss at Leicester last week returned as Diafra Sakho halved the deficit and Rooney was sent off for kicking Stewart Downing.
West Ham had a goal disallowed in the dying minutes as United manned the barricades.
"After the red card, we had to fight for the victory and I have said to the lads you have been rewarded today because you fought until the end - and more than that," Van Gaal told MUTV.
Referring to Rooney, he said: "I could imagine why he did it. But I think you have to do it more friendly and that is the only thing that I can say."
City also had problems at Hull having led 2-0 inside 10 minutes with goals from Sergio Aguero and Dzeko.
New signing Eliaquim Mangala scored an own goal and rashly conceded a penalty that was converted by Abel Hernandez as Hull made it 2-2 before Dzeko restored City's lead and Frank Lampard added a flourish late on after coming off the bench.
"We started very well. We were very unlucky with two individual mistakes through the game," manager Manuel Pellegrini said.
"It was very important to win three pints here because we cannot allow to drop any more points on Chelsea."
Cameron loses second MP to anti-EU party
(Reuters) - A lawmaker from Britain's ruling Conservative party defected to the anti-EU United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) on Saturday, dealing a blow to Prime Minister David Cameron on the eve of his party's annual conference.
In more bad news for Cameron, an opinion poll showed voters view him slightly less favourably than UKIP leader Nigel Farage, and a junior minister resigned over a story in a Sunday newspaper that he had sent sexually explicit pictures of himself to an undercover reporter.
The defection of Mark Reckless, the member of parliament for Rochester and Strood in southern England, is the second in just over four weeks, and comes eight months before a national election in which UKIP could threaten Cameron's re-election chances.
Reckless told UKIP's annual conference that as a Conservative politician he felt he had not been able to keep his promises to voters, one of which was to get the country out of the European Union.
"People feel ignored, taken for granted, over-taxed, over-regulated, ripped off and lied to," Reckless said. "I do feel that the leadership of the Conservative party is part of the problem that is holding our country back."
UKIP wants an immediate British withdrawal from the EU and an end to what it calls an "open door" immigration policy. It has no seats in the British parliament but won May's European elections in Britain after taking votes from the Conservatives.
Cameron has led a coalition since 2010 with the Liberal Democrats, who have suffered a sharp fall in support. If he wins power again next year, he has said he would hold a referendum in 2017 on whether to stay in or quit the EU. Before then, he has promised to try to renegotiate Britain's ties with the 28-member bloc.
SLIDE IN SUPPORT
In another setback for Cameron, Conservative MP Brooks Newmark said in a statement he was resigning as minister for civil society over a story in a Sunday newspaper. He appealed to the media to respect his family's privacy.
The Sunday Mirror said he had sent "X-rated" pictures of himself to an undercover reporter who was pretending to be a young female activist. Cameron's Downing Street office said the prime minister had accepted Newmark's resignation, but it declined to comment further.
A survey by pollsters Comres for the Independent on Sunday and Sunday Mirror showed the main opposition party, Labour, had stretched its lead over the Conservatives to 6 percentage points, with the latter down 3 since last month to 29 percent. UKIP were on 19 percent and the Liberal Democrats on 7 percent.
The poll found 26 percent of voters had a favourable view of UKIP leader Farage, compared with 25 percent for Cameron, whose party conference opens on Sunday in the central city of Birmingham.
With the latest defection, Cameron now faces the uncomfortable prospect of by-elections in two constituencies where former Conservatives will stand for UKIP. The first of these will take place on Oct. 9.
Political commentators say the setbacks could unsettle the Eurosceptic wing of Cameron's party, estimated to account for around a third of his 304 members of parliament, before next year's national election.
Internal Conservative party ructions over Europe contributed to the political undoing of the last two Conservative prime ministers, John Major and Margaret Thatcher.
A Conservative spokesman said: "Mark Reckless' decision to join UKIP is completely illogical. He says he wants action on a European referendum, tax and immigration. The only party capable of delivering on these issues is the Conservative Party."
Reckless made headlines in 2010 when he apologised for not taking part in a parliamentary vote on the budget because of the amount of alcohol he had consumed.
British fighter jets fly over Iraq, no air strikes yet
Iraq
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Middle East
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Syria
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(Reuters) - Two British fighter jets flew over Iraq on Saturday on their first mission since the UK parliament authorised bombing missions against Islamic State militants, but they did not carry out any air strikes, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) said.
The Tornado jets left the British Royal Air Force's Akrotiri base in Cyprus at 8:25 a.m. BST and returned more than seven hours later, a Reuters witness said.
"Although on this occasion no targets were identified as requiring immediate air attack by our aircraft, the intelligence gathered by the Tornados’ highly sophisticated surveillance equipment will be invaluable," the MOD said.
The jets had been ready to be used in an attack role, had appropriate targets been identified.
The United States has been conducting air strikes over Iraq since Aug. 8 and over Syria since Tuesday as part of a campaign to "degrade and destroy" the Islamic State insurgents who have captured swathes of both countries, beheaded Western hostages and ordered Shi'ites and non-Muslims to convert or die.
With Friday's parliamentary vote, Britain joined a U.S.-led coalition supported by some Gulf and European nations against the militant group. France has also conducted air strikes in Iraq, while Washington said Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates joined strikes over Syria on Saturday.
The MOD said Saturday's mission would help Britain and its partners identify future potential targets in Iraq. They were supported by an RAF Voyager refuelling tanker.
Six Tornado jets, normally based at RAF Marham in England, have been based on Cyprus since August. They have been engaged in intelligence-gathering and reconnaissance over Iraq for the past six weeks. Britain retains two military bases on Cyprus, which it ruled as a colony until independence in 1960.
Friday 26 September 2014
Britain Joins Fight Against Islamic State Group
(AP) — Britain, Belgium and Denmark on Friday joined the U.S.-led coalition of nations that are launching airstrikes on Islamic State group in Iraq, committing warplanes to the struggle against the extremists.
The European lawmakers flatly described the moves as critical to security on home soil, arguing that facing down terrorists has become a matter of urgency. British Prime Minister David Cameron made a passionate plea for action in drastic terms — noting that the militants had beheaded their victims, gouged out eyes and carried out crucifixions to promote goals "from the Dark Ages."
"This is about psychopathic terrorists that are trying to kill us and we do have to realize that, whether we like it or not, they have already declared war on us," he said. "There isn't a 'walk on by' option. There isn't an option of just hoping this will go away."
Cameron told a tense House of Commons during more than six hours of debate that the hallmarks of the campaign would be "patience and persistence, not shock and awe" — a reference to the phrase associated with the invasion of Iraq.
That unpopular intervention has cast a shadow over the discussions because critics fear that Europe will be drawn into a wider conflict, specifically taking on the Islamic group's fighters in Syria.
British lawmakers voted 524-43 for action after being urgently recalled from a recess. Belgian also overwhelmingly approved, voting 114-2 to take part, despite widespread concerns that more terrorism may follow in their homeland as a result.
In May, Belgium was shaken when a gunman opened fire at a Jewish museum in Brussels, killing four people. The suspect, French citizen Mehdi Nemouche, has been identified as a returning Islamic fighter from Syria, and leaders in Belgium and other European countries have expressed their fears that other returnees from Syria and Iraq may cause further havoc.
"We must fight against torture, against decapitations, so it's time to act," said Belgian lawmaker Veli Yuksel, a Flemish Christian Democrat
Denmark pledged seven F-16 fighter jets. Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt said her government would send four operational planes and three reserve jets along with 250 pilots and support staff for 12 months. Lawmakers in Denmark must also approve, but that is considered a formality.
"No one should be ducking in this case" she said. "Everyone should contribute."
Britain is expected to deploy Tornado GR4 aircraft, a handful of which are in Cyprus, within striking distance of northern Iraq.
The Tornados give the coalition an enhanced ability to hit moving targets with the use of the Dual Mode Brimstone missile, said Ben Goodlad from IHS Jane's. He said the weapons have a particular ability to hit convoys and fleeing targets.
The British resolution does not address any action in Syria, though many lawmakers tried to push the government to admit that this is the likely next step.
Cameron has justified action in Iraq as lawful because the Iraqi leadership has asked for help.
No European nation has yet agreed to join the U.S. and some Arab states in strikes in Syria.
The motion before Britain's Parliament set no time limit, and that caused unease. Many lawmakers suggested the fight could stretch for years.
"ISIL is a death cult, it's a gang of terrorist murderers. It's not an army and it's certainly not an army that's going to be destroyed by aerial bombardment," said legislator George Galloway, using a former name for the radicals.
Cameron ensured his success by keeping the motion narrowly tailored — staving off the defeat suffered a year ago when Parliament shot down the idea of intervening in Syria to thwart Assad's use of chemical weapons.
Defense Secretary Michael Fallon later indicated that the government might later ask Parliament for support for Syrian airstrikes.
"ISIL is based in Syria, that's where its headquarters are, that's where its resources, its people are. To deal with ISIL you do have to deal and defeat them in both Iraq and in Syria," he told BBC. "We are taking this in a calm, measured way, step-by-step, but it is clear to us that obviously ISIL, in the end, has to be tackled on a broader front."
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