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Russia's Sergei Lavrov Says Obama's State of The Union Address Proves America Wants 'World Domination'

January 21, 2015, 7:41 am
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Russia’s foreign minister has lambasted President Obama’s State of the Union speech, suggesting the address proved America wants “world domination”. In Tuesday’s oration to a joint session of Congress, Obama referred to the conflict in Ukraine, citing western sanctions against Russia as emblematic of the principle that “bigger nations can’t bully the small”.

However Sergei Lavrov hit back on Wednesday, telling a news conference that the speech showed Washington was on a “course of confrontation”. Lavrov said: “Yesterday's speech by the president shows that at the centre of the US philosophy is only one thing: ‘We are number one and everybody else has to respect that.’”

He added: “It shows that the United States wants all the same to dominate the world and cannot merely be a first among equals. I would prefer all countries to adopt the philosophy of co-operation, not diktat. The Americans have taken the course of confrontation and do not assess their own steps critically at all."

During his 60-minute address on Capitol Hill, Obama touched on foreign policy, highlighting the fight against the Islamic State, as well as increasing tensions with Moscow sparked by the annexation of Crimea last year, and Russia's subsequent military backing of Ukrainian separatists.

sergei lavrov
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov gives his annual press conference in Moscow on January 21, 2015, ahead of a summit in Berlin


Obama said: "We're upholding the principle that bigger nations can't bully the small - by opposing Russian aggression, supporting Ukraine's democracy and reassuring our NATO allies. Last year, as we were doing the hard work of imposing sanctions along with our allies, some suggested that Mr Putin's aggression was a masterful display of strategy and strength. Well, today, it is America that stands strong and united with our allies, while Russia is isolated, with its economy in tatters."

Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko revealed to the World Economic Forum on Wednesday that Russia had 9,000 troops on Ukrainian soil. Speaking in Davos, Switzerland, he called for Moscow to withdraw its troops and artillery, stating: "If this is not aggression, what is aggression?”

Last week, Obama and David Cameron agreed to maintain sanctions on Russia over its aggression in Ukraine. Speaking at a joint press conference in Washington on Friday, Obama said: "We agree on the need to maintain strong sanctions against Russia until it ends its aggression in Ukraine, and on the need to support Ukraine as it implements important economic and democratic reforms."

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NASA's Top Spinoffs 2015 Include Space Shuttle Shock Absorbers

January 21, 2015, 7:55 am
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What's NASA ever done for us - except put our representatives on the Moon?

Well what about earthquake protection systems modelled on shock absorbers invented for the space shuttle? What about cabin pressure monitors for aircraft, or bacteria tests for water quality, or finding water in the driest places on Earth?

All NASA.

The space agency has unveiled the 2015 edition of its ultra cool 'Spinoff' guide, listing the ways it has changed the real world in the last twelve months.

The guide has been produced once a year since 1976 and looks at how its "initiatives in aeronautics and space exploration have resulted in technologies with commercial and societal benefits across the economy, in areas such as health and medicine; transportation; public safety; consumer goods; energy and environment; information technology; and industrial productivity".

Let's face it though - it's also fairly passive aggressive. It's a bit like your flatmate leaving a note outlining exactly what cleaning jobs they did last night, just in case you forgot, and so don't dare be late with the rent or I'll stop spotting asteroids.

"NASA enjoys a large and varied technology portfolio unlike any other in existence,” said Daniel Lockney, NASA’s Technology Transfer program executive. “And the range of successful technology transfer documented in Spinoff each year is as diverse as NASA’s many science and exploration missions.”


You can check out the guide in full over at NASA's website (the highlights are above).

There's also a "Spinoffs of Tomorrow” section, which looks at ways NASA tech currently in development (and available for licensing) could be used if and when industry decides to pick up the idea.
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'Star Wars' Creator George Lucas Admits His Ideas For 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' Were Ditched By Disney

January 21, 2015, 7:57 am
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'Star Wars' may have been originally been the brainchild of George Lucas, but the veteran director has revealed that his ideas for the rebooted franchise were turned down by its new owners, Disney.

READ ALSO:
EXCLUSIVE: 'Star Wars' Actor Oscar Isaac Tells HuffPostUK Of JJ Abrams' Stunning Reaction To Harrison Ford's Accident

The legendary filmmaker sold his company LucasFilm, including the rights to his timeless trilogy back in 2012, for the princely sum of £2.5billion.

Now it seems that, in that bag of goodies, has gone his chance of bringing his ideas to screen.

He tells CinemaBlend: “The ones that I sold to Disney, they came up to the decision that they didn’t really want to do those.

“So they made up their own. So it’s not the ones that I originally wrote [on screen in Star Wars: The Force Awakens].”

star wars
George Lucas surveys one of Star Wars' most distinctive characters


Despite this omission by the film's owners - or possibly because of it - one of the stars of the new film, Oscar Isaac assures fans ’Star Wars’ is in safe hands with JJ Abrams, who previously successfully rebooted ‘Star Trek’ for the big screen.

Oscar told HuffPostUK: “The sets are everything you can imagine, there are the returning characters, but people will also be astonished by the care and love that JJ has paid to this project. That’s what I can’t wait for them to spot.”

With fans waiting on every fresh glimmer of news ahead of the film’s arrival in cinemas on Boxing Day, the latest titbit is that we may see our first ever female stormtrooper, after BBC entertainment writer Lizo Mzimba tweeted that this would be played by British actress Amybeth Hargreaves, quoting the actress's Spotlight page.



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Did Instagram Ban This Account Because Of A Photo Showing Women's Pubic Hair?

January 21, 2015, 7:59 am
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Women are being penalised for sporting pubic hair - or so Instagram's latest antics would lead us to believe.

An image posted by Sticks and Stones Agency showing two models, unedited, in all of their natural beauty has caused the fashion agency's Instagram account to be deleted.

One explanation may be due to the free-flowing pubic hair emerging from the sides of their bikinis (either that or the tiny bit of nipple on show).

This has led the Australian company to speculate over whether it was indeed the models' pubic hair which caused such drastic action from the social media giant. As let's face it, deleting someone's account (106K followers and all) is pretty drastic.

sticks and stones agency

The controversial move comes after Instagram caused widespread outrage with their strict regulations surrounding posting pictures of women's nipples. (For those not in the know, women's nips = instant deletion.) Yet men remain free to bare theirs.

Following on from #FreeTheNipple, a campaign fighting for equal rights for women when it comes to baring their chests - nips and all - it looks like #FreeTheBush could be next on the feminist agenda.

So why does Instagram have such an aversion to the lady garden?

SEE ALSO:

The Sun Replaces Topless Page 3 Girl... With Celebrities In Bikinis: Is This Really A 'Victory' For Women?

#AskHerMore: Red Carpet Feminist Movement Hopes To Stop Sexist Questions On The Red Carpet


One could argue that Instagram deleted Sticks and Stones' image due to the minor nip slip. But then other case studies prove otherwise.

At the beginning of the month, the creative director for LiveFast magazine took down a post which showed a woman's pubic hair. There was no nudity involved, so in this case it was definitely the bush that caused offense.

Meanwhile, Petra Collins found a similar image of her own body - from the waist down - caused Instagram to delete her account.

She wrote on Huffington Post: "Recently, I had my Instagram account deleted. I did nothing that violated the terms of use. No nudity, violence, pornography, unlawful, hateful or infringing imagery. What I did have was an image of MY body that didn't meet society's standard of femininity."

"Unlike the 5,883,628 bathing suit images on Instagram, mine depicted my own unaltered state - an unshaven bikini line."

Ainsley Hutchence, the director of Sticks and Stones Agency, resonates with Collins. In an interview with Mic she says: "Unfortunately Instagram has ruled out natural hair that appears on all bodies of women that don't trim their bikini lines. This hair occasionally does spill out of the sides of swimwear as it does on men in their underwear.

"But Instagram seem to be okay with man pubes."

"Clearly this is absolutely sexist. Instagram believes that women should wax or get off their platform," she added.

We contacted Instagram for comment but have yet to hear back.

It seems that whatever beef Instagram might have with the bush needs to be ironed out pronto.

After all, what kind of world allows images of Kim Kardashian's over-edited and well-oiled bum (funnily enough that Paper magazine cover wasn't banned from Instagram), but disallows photos of a woman's body in its most pure and natural form?

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Charlie Hebdo and the Clash of the Caliphates

January 21, 2015, 8:18 am
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The essential problem with thought today is that as things get more complex people start to think in ever more simple ways. The more we are confronted with an economy and society which demands extraordinary amounts of nimble-footed intellectual effort in order to keep on top of its twists and turns, the more we retreat into black and white certainties. In the latest political crisis too, one is required to be either in favour of free speech and therefore must support Charlie Hebdo or one does not support them and is therefore some sort of ISIL fifth columnist. There is very little space for those who maintain that it is necessary to be both in favour of and against something at the same time. Je suis indeed Charlie but I am also not Charlie. The arrogant idea that values of freedom and enlightenment are somehow only "western" values is an insult to the rest of the world far worse than a few juvenile cartoons. This is precisely where intellectual activity comes in. You do not have to be a dialectician to know that nothing can be understood in simple binary terms, but it helps.

For example; one can be absolutely in favour of Charlie Hebdo's right to print its rather teenagerish attempts at frightening the horses by printing cartoon images of Mohammed with his trousers down and indeed be in favour of defending to the death their right to do so. But it is not a contradiction- or at least not one which cannot be reconciled - to be opposed to them doing so. We have to have absolute freedom to upset and offend and oppose the most fundamental religious sentiments but at the same time question whether it is sensible to do so.
At base this is a political question and not a theological one.

The reason for the appearance of fundamentalist Islam as a significant social phenomenon is explicable by recourse to the old Benjaminian notion that every fascism represents a failed revolution. I do not favour the term Islamo-fascism because its use implies that there is something specific to Islam which lends it to fascism. Fascism of the Nazi or Italian version is not called Christo-fascism, despite the fact that many within the hierarchy of various Christian churches - predominantly the Catholic church - supported and even encouraged fascism as a way of channeling age-old traditional antisemitism. And yet one of the most renowned anti-nazi groups - die weisse Rose, led by the Scholls - was also motivated by its Christian and indeed Catholic faith. The pope himself seems to represent this dialectical character in one figure. When he was first elected it was feared that someone with a history which connected him to some of the worst excesses of South American military dictatorships would taint and tarnish him, and yet now the main criticism seems to be that he is a liberation theologist, nay, a Marxist.

Again this can only be understood as a result of binary thinking. Everything must be either A or B, nothing must be presented that asks one to think that everything is a little bit of A and a lot of B or vice versa.

This is not such a new notion after all.

Let us look back just 160 years or so at the writings of Marx, where we find that capitalism is presented both as something which has liberated the productive forces to an unimaginable extent and in doing so has objectively propelled human society - indeed the human species - forward into a realm of new possibilities. At the same time it contained within it the seeds of its own destruction in the form of those whom it exploited. Central to the consideration of any system is the recognition that it is in permanent flux and change.

Everything carries within it its own sublation, its own overcoming, and this is certainly as much the case with fundamentalist Islam as it was with European fascism.

However, in both cases there are indeed similarities to be noted:

Firstly radical Islam was - as were the Nazis in the 1920s and early 30s - supported by corporate interests while they seemed to be doing the work of those corporations. Where were the outraged protests when it was young Soviet conscripts who were having their heads sawn off by the Taliban and the Mujahedin in the late 1970s? Oh, that's right - there weren't any. Instead they were invited to the White House and lauded as the new "founding fathers" of a new order in the Middle East. Well, actually that was correct. They were the new founding fathers of today's radical Islam. But now they have turned on their own fathers in a way which even Freud would have found amusing.

Secondly, just as the Nazis became a Frankensteinian monster that it was no longer possible to control, so the very forces which anti-communism have unleashed cannot be put back in the bottle and now we stand effectively on the threshold of a new World War, fought this time with new weapons and new techniques but with the same old aim of putting the genie back in the bottle.

To dig even deeper, one further point about this is that the current struggle is not something new, but a continuation of the transition from an old imperial order to something new. Fascism in its 1930s guise was, amongst other things, the attempt by German imperialism to carve its own space in the hinterlands of central and eastern Europe by means of military conquest. The logic was that pursued already by Germany when, in 1897, von Bülow demanded a "place in the sun". Fascism mixed in a dose of virulent racism against eastern European Jews as a way of dehumanizing and degrading a racial group before exterminating them. Of course there was a particular pathological content to Hitler's antisemitism which cannot be put down simply to imperial interests, but for many in the West a blind eye could be turned as long as he focused his attentions on the East and the Soviet Union. Let's not forget the Daily Mail's infamous "Hurrah for the Blackshirts" headline.

And what does ISIL want today? A caliphate in which old imperial borders and zones of interest are wiped away in favour of a "New Order". The straight lines on the map drawn up in the imperial meeting rooms of London and Paris in the 19th century mean nothing more to them than the borders of Eastern Europe meant to Hitler. The slogan Hitler used of "heim ins Reich" (bringing all Germans home) is essentially identical with the idea of a caliphate; namely the establishment of a state of all the Germans regardless of arbitrary borders drawn up in various imperial meeting rooms. ISIL wants the same thing for all Muslims today, whether all Muslims want it themselves or not.

Paradoxically, however, those borders should mean nothing to us either.

What we should be fighting for is a redrawing of the map that has nothing in common with the insane fantasies of the Jihadis. At the same time, however, we must not think that the old or new imperial order can simply be reimposed and borders stabilized under the auspices of some New World Order dreamed up in Washington. Being against ISIL and the Hebdo murderers does not require us to show uncritical support for our masters in the West.

What we, the "Left" - to the extent that there is any such thing today - should be fighting for is a redrawing of the lines of the old imperial order in which at last the people truly take command of their own destinies under the control of neither the Jihadis in the Middle East nor the Cold Warriors of the West or Russia or China. The Kurds have started to show the way with this and this is precisely why Turkey and their fellow NATO members provided only limited and ineffective help against ISIL. Only when a social transformation has taken place and when people can truly liberate themselves from subjugation can the new black and white dichotomy between western corporate democracy and Jihadi-fascism be overcome.
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Not All Prices Are Falling as Cost of Childcare Is on the Rise

January 21, 2015, 8:19 am
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Hooray! Petrol, energy and food prices are coming down at long last, albeit more slowly than they should have done.

So families should have a lot more spending money. That's the theory but the reality is rather different. First wages have still not gone up in real terms for most workers. And secondly there are some costs that are still rising - housing, train and bus fares, insurance and care, particularly childcare.

The latest survey of childcare costs shows a rise of 30% in the last five years, with many parents saying they are considering reducing their working hours, according to 4Children. Many report that the second salary in a family goes entirely on paying for childcare and they have cut back on essentials to pay for a nursery or childminder.

The cost of childcare continues to be the main issue raised by parents leaving reviews of providers on Good Care Guide.

So is there any sign of respite for families on the horizon?

The short answer is no! Parents can expect to pay higher childcare bills for some time to come. Here's why.

Historically childcare has been underfunded. Childcare has been subsidised by providers and by childcare staff, many of whom have been paid at or just above minimum wage.

Childcare is labour intensive with set child-staff ratios. As childcare staff rightly get better trained, they want better pay.

In addition providers delivering the free entitlement of 15 hours childcare a week for three and four year olds (and now some two year olds) complain that they are not properly funded. They say that local authorities pay them below the real cost of providing 15 hours childcare, with some councils paying quite a bit less.

As a result providers have had to increase the prices they charge parents for any childcare they use above and beyond the free 15 hours to cross-subsidise the free provision. So parents are facing higher bills.

If free childcare is extended to 25 hours a week, as for example proposed by Labour if elected in May, then it needs to be properly funded. Otherwise the situation above will simply be made worse.

If the current government is re-elected, then they plan to introduce a 20% tax break on childcare spending up to £10,000 a year. Apart from the fact that this will mainly benefit better off families, there are fears that the tax break will drive up childcare prices.

In the meantime families on low and mid incomes are increasingly relying on a mix of free childcare where available and their family and friends, particularly grandparents, for the rest as well as working all kinds of shift patterns on low pay.

They used to say that you should work to live, not live to work. Now many parents work for childcare.
And while families shoulder the rising cost of childcare, the latest research from Age UK shows that they are also being expected to pay for or undertake more care for their elderly relatives.

This growing crisis in care for all ages is having a huge impact on working families, many of whom are facing the cost squeeze from all directions. It will be some time before most families feel their household coffers seem more than half empty.
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It Is Class, Not Gender, That Divides

January 21, 2015, 8:24 am
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In a victory for vociferous prudes, page three is no more. It's official: tits are out, and all that's left to say is thanks for the mammories... [drops mic]. Having only read the Sun in waiting rooms, or awkwardly and shamefacedly at the barbers, I won't be shedding too many tears, but the demise of this daily dose of shoddy pornography, and the campaign that proceeded it raises a couple of worrying questions about where we're headed as a society, and where our priorities lie.

Foremost, censorship of any form shouldn't be celebrated. In our increasingly cosseted, prissy age, any constraint on what constitutes "acceptable" material for publication - even if it is patently unsexy, grainy shots of surgically-enhanced twentysomethings - should be met with dismay. It's become something of a bromide to say that people are too quick to be offended in this content-saturated world, where taking issue with countless contending opinions could be a full time job. Yet there's a notion that comfort and conformity should prevail; that no-one should have to be challenged through exposure to troubling viewpoints which conflict with their own (at least without a "trigger warning"). Albeit in different guises and with divergent underlying motivations, this trend can be seen in the recent suppression of pro-life voices by Oxford university, David Cameron's porn laws, the Charlie Hebdo attacks, and the refusal of the majority of the "mainstream" parties to engage with the Greens in televised debates. In all of these instances, the frustrating, infuriating but very necessary proliferation of conflicting opinions - the very fabric of democratic society - was under assault.

One of the main problems facing feminism at the moment is that the most vocal segment is largely comprised of a cartel of white, wealthy women more concerned with bandying about hashtags and printing t-shirts than tackling the real societal structures which keep so many people (of all genders) down. There is a reason why the page three campaign was so beloved of Harriet Harman and every bandwagon-jumper among the ruling class, and that is because it was a means of paying lip service to change without effecting any radical departure from the status quo.

For the real underlying cause of every inequality is economic. Class is the universal dividing line, and false constructs like nationality and gender only serve as means of obfuscating the only true divide - that between rich and poor. Under close examination, it becomes obvious that the attacks on page three are couched in a snobbish mentality. So many powerful women hoped to see an end to a degrading page three, but when Kiera Knightly goes topless, or performers do nude in the theatre, the response is a warm celebration of the "courage" of all involved. This double standard reveals a hypocritical, patronising and quasi-paternalistic attitude to the financially disadvantaged shared by these self-proclaimed champions of equality. As they constitute a positive assertion of individual agency, the tits of the rich are allowed to be free, but those of the poor must now be covered up by department store bras.

Like a creepy uncle contemplating emigration, page three is unlikely to be missed. But the hydra-headed jubilation in some of the press is little more than an unseemly basking in a class-tinged tyranny of some people's taste over others, which distracts from an appreciation of painful economic inequality. And let's not forget, there are now a handful more women out there who have been deprived of their income.
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Novak Djokovic's 'Holistic Approach To Life' Is Responsible For The Champion's Success

January 21, 2015, 8:37 am
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The 2013 Wimbledon tournament is best remembered (by Britons at least) for the shredding of one of tennis' most notable records –- the end of long a wait for a British champion at the All England Club, a moratorium that stretched back to the 1930s.

However during the weeks prior to the final, in which Andy Murray was eventual crowned winner, reports circulated that Novak Djokovic, the current world number 1 and Murray's opponent in that final, had been visiting a Buddhist temple in London for meditation sessions.

These sessions were not a religious exercise for the Serbian (who is a devout member of the his country’s Orthodox Church), but part of what he describes as his “holistic approach to tennis and life” -- one in which meditation sits alongside yoga, specific eating habits, a set sleeping pattern and, of course, intensive tennis training.

In recent years, Djokovic has not only developed into one of the greatest players ever to pick up a racket, but has become something of an emblem for how mindfulness and wellbeing are being incorporated into top-level competitive sport -- an approach that has made the four-time winner favourite to land a fifth title at the Australian Open later this month.

If the 27-year-old from Belgrade has reached the apex of the sport through a rounded approach to life, his start in the game was down to one person, Jelena Gencic, the coach who expertly nurtured the young Serbian’s talent in the mountain resort of Kopaonik. Djokovic explains Gencic’s influence -- “one of the most important figures in my life” -- in one of three films made for Jacob's Creek ahead of the tournament in Melbourne.

Yet Gencic was more than just a coach, “looking after every aspect” of the fledgling tennis star’s “professional and private life”, a role Djokovic tells HuffPostUK that extended to what grades he received in school, to what music he was listening to, to how much he slept –- early preparation for the all-inclusive attitude that has become his mantra.

Novak Djokovic Birthed From Serbia


Before tournaments, Djokovic uses breathing techniques to help him “align with his thoughts” and “stay composed” –- an act he calls an essential part of any athlete’s preparation for competition. This is particularly necessary in tennis, he argues, as the solo player is the one that has to “handle all the pressure and expectations”.

Renowned for hitting the same assured strokes regardless of the pressure (a psychological aspect of the game most professionals battle with), Djokovic uses breathing to “reach the highest level of self-control”, though he’s quick to point out this is just “one part of the puzzle”.

“Lifestyle, training, how you approach life... it’s all-important,” he says.

Novak Djokovic Shaped by Jelena


Nutrition is another aspect that has played a huge role in the making of a winner.

Djokovic is famously gluten-free, having been diagnosed with wheat intolerance in 2009. That revelation turned a promising player, but one prone to breathing difficulties and fatigue, into a Grand Slam champion.

Writing in his 2013 book "Serve To Win", Djokovic detailed how he felt before his intolerance was diagnosed: “Every time I took a big step toward my dream I felt as though a rope were around my torso pulling me back. Physically I couldn’t compete. Mentally I didn’t feel I belonged on the same court as the best players in the game.”

His diet was subsequently overhauled, resulting in seven Grand Slam singles titles and more than 129 weeks ranked as world number one by the ATP. Djokovic now has a strict diet of organic food; he even tries to prepare many of his meals himself.

Novak Djokovic Inspired by Dreams


Sleep too is regimented, with the player aiming for “between 8 – 10 hours a night for recovery and revitalisation, especially while competing”.

"It’s hard to generalise about the formula for success,” he says, ”but I believe the holistic approach is the best possible approach you can have [to sport]. However, it’s also the most complex, requiring a lot of time to understand who you are, what your character is and the features of your character you need to strengthen.”

He concludes: “This is important to be not only the best possible athlete, but also the best possible person.”

The Jacob's Creek ‘Made By Films’ show Djokovic revealing never before told stories about his life, celebrating the people, places and passions that have made him the tennis champion he is today.
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David Cameron: I Like Nandos But Don't Understand Kim Kardashian

January 21, 2015, 8:48 am
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David Cameron has delivered a crushing verdict on the food served up by Gordon Ramsay by suggesting he would rather go to Nando's.

The prime minister appeared to snub the offerings of the celebrity chef in favour of the high street chicken chain when asked to select where he would take world leaders for a meal.

Cameron made his choice after being reluctantly tested on his "coolness" by Capital Xtra's Andre Morgan, who put a series of scenarios to him.

Asked whether he would take his international counterparts to eat at a Harvester, a Gordon Ramsay establishment or Nando's, he replied: "I've been to a Gordon Ramsay restaurant, I've been to Nando's and I've been to a Harvester.

"I think Nando's is the best value for money. I had a very good Nando's in Bristol."

Cameron famously posed for a selfie with another Nandos customer in May.




Cameron was also asked to make a choice between three reality television programmes - Keeping Up With The Kardashians, Big Brother and Love & Hip Hop, he opted for the later.

"I've just dropped the microphone in shock at that question. I'm not a Big Brother fan. I have watched it. I haven't quite got into why everyone's interested in the Kardashians, so I'm not doing very well on that one.

"So, maybe I'll try the hip hop show. That sounds a bit better. I like watching cooking programmes, I find that more relaxing."

Pressed over whether he would prefer Jay Z, Iggy Azalea or Tinie Tempah to come up with his campaign soundtrack, Cameron rejected them all and plumped instead for Bryan Ferry's Let's Stick Together - insisting "that's the message for the election".
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Ukip Election Candidate Wants To Ban Benefit Claimants From Driving

January 21, 2015, 8:55 am
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A Ukip general election candidate has come under attack over a leaflet which suggests benefit claimants should be banned from driving.

Cllr Lynton Yates, member of Leicestershire County Council and the party's parliamentary candidate for the local seat of Charnwood, made the controversial call as part of an attack on the controversial High Speed Rail 2 project, which he branded a "complete waste of money".


Post by Mum Juice.


"We could likely remove 6 million cars from the road if benefit claimants were not driving," he goes on to say.

"Why do they have the privilege to spend the taxpayers hard earned money on a car, when those in work are struggling to keep their own car on the road? These people could really catch a bus!"

cllryates Cllr Yates


Asked by the Mirror how he'd do this, Cllr Yates said: "I'm sure people will say 'what if they've got a job interview. Well I'm sure if you had nothing to do you could leave a bit earlier and get a bus."

The suggestion comes after the now infamous calls from outspoken ex-Ukip MEP Godfrey Bloom for unemployed people to be banned from voting. Ukip has also called for long-term benefit claimants to be banned from using their money to buy cigarettes, alcohol, or satellite TV subscriptions.

Liberal Democrat Simon Sansome, a councillor in the Charnwood borough, told HuffPost UK: '"Having a driving licence taken away is idiotic'. Cllr Yates is contesting the seat of Charnwood, where sitting Tory MP Stephen Dorrell is standing down after over 30 years in parliament.

Dorrell, until recently chair of the Commons Health Select Committee, also caused controversy when he announced he would be taking a role as a part-time adviser for KPMG.

In response to Cllr Yates' leaflet, Labour's shadow health minister Jamie Reed said on Twitter: "It's beyond a joke now. Not so much a political party but a stag night out of control."

Ukip has distanced itself from the leaflet, with a spokesman stressing "it's not party policy and not part of our manifesto".




Others on Twitter have claimed that the leaflet is being "put through doors in Charnwood' as well.







Cllr Yates has a particular interest in roads, sitting on Leicester County Council's transport overview and scrutiny committee, as well as its highway forum for the local village of Blaby.

"Many issues relating to Glenfield are in the domain of the Highways Department," he wrote on his website. "This is an increasingly difficult department to deal with but I will press on for the benefit of Glenfield Residents."

Cllr Yates' rogue suggestion comes as Ukip has battled to finish its election manifesto, with its policy chief reportedly stepping down after fialing to come up with any policies.

Tim Aker, feted as a rising star in the party, was supposed to have completed the policy platform on which candidates would stand on at the general election by the beginning of January, so it could be reviewed and costed by an independent think-tank.

However, concern quickly mounted among senior Ukip figures that Aker was failing to complete a final draft of the manifesto, according to the Times, with some fearing it will not be ready for the party's spring conference in Margate.

A senior Ukip insider fumed: “There was growing disquiet that none of us had seen hide nor hair on the policy front. It was especially annoying for candidates, who are banned from making any specific pledges before the manifesto is published. They don’t know what to tell voters on the doorstep.”
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This is my time

January 21, 2015, 8:59 am
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Without a doubt my 50's are turning out to be my best time of life to date. I am lucky to be blessed with good health and my business is, thankfully, the most successful it ever has been. The children have left home and I have amassed sufficient assets to feel reasonably financially secure.

I still work long hours but at a job I love and I don't skimp on the holidays. I have time to indulge in my favourite pastimes, money to enjoy the finer things in life and to help out my family when they need it, BLISS. Well it would seem so and I count my blessings.

However with this decade has come a far less tolerant attitude. I find I can't abide foul language, ingratitude, inertia and ignorant people. I also can't stand bad manners and particularly bad table manners. Eating food with your mouth open is a killer, and as for someone eating an apple or god forbid crisps near my hearing can see me going red with rage.

What is worse I have developed what I have termed menopausal Tourette's. What I mean is I find I am actually vocalising my inner thoughts, sometimes to the perpetrator and all too often to the world at large. Leaving me looking well frankly just a bit crackers!

There was one nasty occasion on the train but perhaps let's not go there. Needless to say the result of my outburst wasn't exactly overlooked by my fellow passengers who positively cheered me on but had apparently been too embarrassed to say anything themselves.

Clearly not a problem if, like me, you don't actually realise you have spoken out loud!

Of course what age also brings you is an appreciation of the little things in life that, in your younger years, just passed you by; A long hot bath with plenty of bubbles (and a glass of bubbly with it even better), being able to get lost in a great book, glancing in the mirror when all made up and ready to go and thinking "well not too bad actually", when my granddaughter recognises me on Skype from 10,000 miles away, Fridays evenings with a take away, a good bottle of red and bed by 9. Just perfect.
And, becoming just a tad sentimental, the sound of a Christmas brass band playing.

I'd like to say I am tasking myself with becoming more tolerant in 2015 but I no longer set myself impossible targets. Resolutions are for the young and inexperienced who actually believe they will keep them beyond the end of January.

Whereby those of us in our 5th decade know that that gym membership was about as useful as a chocolate fireguard and the no wine in January a complete non-starter.

The other great thing about age is it does bring a bit of the devil may care attitude with it and long may it continue. I have stopped worrying what people think about me, at anything like the rate I used to, and as Marilyn Monroe said "if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best."
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Ethics is a Global Issue

January 21, 2015, 9:08 am
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I was delighted to hear Klaus Schwab open the World Economic Forum with strong references to ethics in his commentary on bank regulation. I equally applauded when he signaled the failing trust of political leaders. Professor Schwab has put ethics on the WEF agenda for the first time. He is right that trust has suffered and that ethics is critical...with a few nuances.

• I do not see regulation as a replacement for values or the solution for trust as Professor Schwab suggests. Regulation may well need refining or extension in certain areas. But regulation will (and should) always lag behind today's complex reality. Regulators cannot create an ethical culture or make the myriad decisions that lead to ethical profit. The law will always be the lowest common denominator not the arbiter of values or the highest standard of ethical behavior in business, government, or the non-profit sector.

• We should give today's leaders credit. Ethical decision-making is on the mind of every leader at Davos as it undergirds every issue from inequality to oil prices to the Swiss franc. Ethics is not more a banking issue than an issue for a NGO or a health ministry.

• Ethics is not geographically confineable. Nor is it a western matter. We need to globalize the ethics discussion and invite China, India, Africa and others into the reflection instead of just the criticism. We need public/private engagement as much as for any other global issue. Davos seems the perfect place.

• Respectfully, I don't think it is as easy as Professor Schwab suggests in his Bloomberg interview when he says ethical behavior is "not so difficult." Whether gaining control over Ebola or stabilizing the global financial systems, ethical decisions are plunged into greater technological and risk complexity than ever before. Most importantly, leaders are asked to make ethical decisions with incomplete and rapidly obsolete information. I agree that it is essential, but it is far from easy.

• It is not about perfection. Incidents of intentional unethical or illegal behavior, or well-intentioned ethics or compliance misjudgments, will occur in any organization that mobilizes groups of human beings. Society and regulators must stop reacting to the exception with global organizational or sectorial condemnation. On the other hand, a pattern is a pattern not an exception. Beyond patterns, inequality demonstrates that left unchecked, an ethics failure defines a society.
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Riskiest Sex Positions Revealed: 'Woman On Top' May Be More Likely To Snap Your Member

January 21, 2015, 9:21 am
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Scientists have dubbed 'woman on top' as the riskiest sexual position, due to the high likelihood of penile fractures.

This was followed by doggy style (28.6%), while missionary was deemed the safest, accounting for just 21.4% of broken penises in the study.

The Brazilian scientists who conducted the study say this may be because the woman is placing her entire weight on her partner's piece, meaning she is unable to correct a "wrong way penetration" situation.



Half of people involved in the study reported hearing a loud crack, seeing swelling and feeling pain.

Anal sex was also shown to be safer for the man involved, apparently, with only 7% of penile fractures occurring during anal penetration.

More than 75% of broken penis complaints were caused by sexual intercourse, with 14.3% being down to "penile manipulation" and the rest being listed as "unclear". Which begs the question: how can anyone be in doubt about how they fractured their manhood?

The study, conducted across three hospitals in Campinas, Brazil, only featured two gay participants. One was on top when his penis snapped while the other was having doggy style sex.

The research article concluded: "Our study supports the fact that sexual intercourse with 'woman on top' is the potentially riskiest sexual position related to penile fracture.

"When the man is controlling the movement, he has better chances of stopping the penetration energy in response to the pain related to the penis harm, minimising it."

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Religion's Leaders Have a Unique Responsibility to Tackle Extremism

January 21, 2015, 9:43 am
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The 20th Century was the most secular century in recorded history, and it was the bloodiest. Two ideologies, National Socialism and Communism, swept Europe. As they eventually petered out, the West built a secular post-Christian society, where religion was not at the fore.

The 21st Century returned religion to the forefront of politics with 9/11 bringing it back to our consciousness. The wars, struggles and instability in the Middle East that followed this attack brought millions of Middle Eastern immigrants to the shores of Europe, altering the European religious and electoral landscape. As the secular European birth rate plummeted, immigration has reached unprecedented heights.

Further immigration has brought terrorism to our shores. The brutal attack we have witnessed in the last few days at Charlie Hebdo and the hostages scenarios that followed are the latest in a series of attacks on European soil.

As a result many Europeans have taken a strong disliking to Islam. A few weeks ago fifteen thousand Germans demonstrated in Dresden against the "Islamization of Europe". According to an Ipsos/Le Monde, poll, 74% find Islam "intolerant" and what is most important, 53% of Germans foresee a collision between Islam and Christianity.

They are wrong. It is not a battle between Islam and Christianity, but between Islam and a growing intolerant militant secular Europe. The situation today in Europe can be described as two trains racing with ever increasing speed towards each other on the same track.

On one hand, minorities are being attacked by extremists in many European Countries. A quarter of respondents in a survey of Jews from nine European countries said, they avoid visiting places and wearing symbols that identify them as Jews for fear of anti-semitism. This is one train.

On the other hand, old Europe is again manifesting relatively new forms of disguised and politically correct discrimination against minorities that had remained largely latent since the Holocaust.

I would like to stop these moving trains, before it is too late. As the representative of one of the oldest European minority faiths on this continent, I want to reach out to the diverse Christian communities, the diverse Muslim communities, secular groups, governments and politicians, to help us stop this growing trend of antagonism and conflict. I believe that we have the responsibility to recreate an atmosphere of tolerance and mutual respect between the secular modern state and religious movements, in order to make sure that the experiment, which we call Europe, is not going to fail.

Islam is practiced peacefully by millions of people who are calling Europe their new home. The ones to be targeted, if we want to live without fear of attacks such as who perpetrated the attacks in Paris, are extremists. The distance between radical Islam as practiced by Isis, Hamas and Al Qaida and mainstream Islam, is as far as the distance between moderate nationalism and National Socialism.

Instead of alienating the great majority of peaceful Muslims, who live peacefully in Europe, with broadside attacks against the soft target religious symbols of Islam such as halal, and the burka. Radical Islamic preachers, websites, movements and cells should be diagnosed, isolated and destroyed. The cheap point scoring of the extreme right against Muslim immigration not only fails to solve the problem, but pushes the moderate immigrant into the claws of the extremists.

We have to isolate and stop the extremist among us and we propose that the EU and the member countries work to create a core set of basic European values all faiths can subscribe to, similar to the program which has been released as the "Manifesto for Combating Religious Extremism" by the Conference of European Rabbis. Religious leaders must take the lead and they have a unique responsibility to preach an ideology of peace and tolerance.

There is no hope for humanity, if we do not tolerate each other, and if we do not respect each other's differences. Europe is not going to be saved by European countries adapting Middle Eastern practices of intolerance towards minorities, but by introducing new Europeans to the values of pluralism and mutual respect, expelling from our midst those voices which call to destroy our common home.

The voice, which calls the faithful in a mosque to bomb planes, and the voice, which calls on ending freedom of religion in Europe, are both equally dangerous to the future of Europe. Let us stop both trains and tell the people to step out engage in dialogue and respect each other.
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Johann Hari Apologises To Nick Cohen And Francis Wheen For 'Cowardly' Wikipedia Vandalism

January 21, 2015, 9:51 am
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Journalist Johann Hari has apologised to two other reporters for making "cowardly" anonymous online attacks against them.

Mr Hari made a very public exit from journalism in 2011 after being caught plagiarising and anonymously vandalising the Wikipedia entries of journalists he had public disagreements with.

Now, he has apologised to columnist and author Nick Cohen and Private Eye deputy editor Francis Wheen, who were among his victims.

Mr Cohen said the Wikipedia edits depicted him as "a probable alcoholic, a hypocrite and a supporter of Sarah Palin". Former deputy editor of The New Statesman Christina Odone, another target, said she was accused of "homophobia and anti-semitism" in her Wikipedia entry.

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Johann Hari


Mr Hari is promoting his book 'Chasing The Scream' about the war on drugs. While the book has been well received, some journalists have expressed discomfort at the accompanying, apparent rehabilitation of his image.

He made the apology on books podcast Little Atoms.

Host Neil Denny asked: "Personally, some friends were hurt.. you haven't necessarily apologised... Would you commit to apologising specifically to Nick Cohen and Francis Wheen for the Wikipedia instances?"

Mr Hari said: “I did two things that were really awful things to do. One was when I interviewed people, sometimes I would use material they had spoken elsewhere or written down and acted as if it had been said directly to me.

"Also on Wikipedia sometimes, I would edit other people’s entries under a pseudonym and I was horrible and nasty about some of them. Those are both awful things to do.”

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He claimed to have previously written to Mr Cohen and Ms Odone and had a friend post the letter - but Mr Cohen did not receive it. Ms Odone received the letter and "kindly" accepted the apology, he said.

Mr Hari asked Mr Denny if he would deliver new letters to Mr Cohen and Mr Wheen, who have previously been guests on the podcast, to ensure they reached them.

He added: "It's a very cruel thing to do to edit someone pseudonymously, it's cowardly, it's a nasty thing to do, so of course I'll write to them both."

Mr Denny said: "It's a small gesture but I think it's symbolic. I do think people will think that's a great thing to do."

The host then described Mr Hari's new book as "brilliant... exciting, shocking, terrifying".
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Mystery 'Goo' Kills 200 Birds In San Francisco Bay Area

January 22, 2015, 8:54 am
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Tests are being carried out on dead seabirds found coated with a mysterious substance that looks and feels like dirty rubber cement.

About 200 dead birds have been found along the San Francisco Bay Area’s shorelines, said Andrew Hughan, spokesman for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The goo covers their feathers, and the birds lose their ability to insulate themselves. They eventually freeze to death.

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Tests are being carried out on the unidentified substance which has so far claimed the lives of 200 seabirds


Hughan said the wildlife agency's preliminary tests show the gray gunk is not a petroleum-based substance or an organic product like vegetable or fish oil. Final results might not come until later this week.

"You can't rush science," Hughan said. "It will be what it is, when it is."

Officials say the substance is not a public health or safety risk to humans.

They are investigating whether it could be polyisobutylene, a sticky, odorless and largely colorless material that killed thousands of seabirds in the United Kingdom in 2013.

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Even when the pollutant is identified, it could be longer before officials pinpoint its source.

Hughan said 315 live birds have been taken to the International Bird Rescue to be cleaned.

Workers at the Fairfield center use baking soda and vinegar to loosen the sticky substance before washing it off with dish soap.

The birds - surf scoters, buffleheads and horned grebes - began turning up on a beach Friday.

Since then, volunteers have combed shorelines looking for and trying to catch living birds.

The dead ones were found along the shorelines in Alameda, Foster City, San Leandro and Hayward, east of San Francisco, Hughan said.

"We don't expect to find any more live birds," he said.
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Channel 4 Regrets Letting Ex-CIA Agent Claim Baghdad Massacre Would Have Been 'Ideal'

January 22, 2015, 9:08 am
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Channel 4 News has admitted it could have "challenged more strongly" the views of an ex-CIA officer, who told the programme the best solution to violence in the Middle East was for Muslims to kill each other until they "bleed each other white".

Michael Scheuer, who was in the CIA from 1982 and 2004 and was involved in the hunt for Bin Laden, said Sunni and Shia Muslims should be left to fight each other, adding the situation was "ideal" when the brutal Islamic State (IS) was advancing on Baghdad and poised to carry out a massacre.

He also referred to "problems that have been created by multiculturalism and diversity in our own countries" but was not asked to elaborate on what he meant.

michael scheuer
Michael Scheuer on Channel 4 News


A spokeswoman for the programme told Huffington Post UK: "We accept this could have been challenged more strongly in order to make clear that these views are in no way endorsed by Channel 4 News."

When he appeared on the show on Tuesday evening, Mr Scheuer told host Cathy Newman that the West was "being beaten hands down" in its fight against radical Islamists, such as those from IS, also known as ISIS or ISIL.

Michael Scheuer: We've never been able to beat anyone with air power. We've proven conclusively we're unable to train foreign armies to defend themselves so, we're in a real fix I think.

Cathy Newman: So you're saying 'send in Western ground troops' then?

Scheuer: No ma'am, I think we should back away from the whole thing. The thing was ideal when IS was advancing on Baghdad because Sunnis were killing Shias. That's exactly what we need. We've proven that we're just militarily incompetent or that the military is so shackled by its political leaders, that it can't defeat these people. But our best hope right now is to get the Sunnis and Shias fighting each other and let them bleed each other white.

Newman: There's no hope of that happening though is there? I mean, President Obama's talked about being involved in this war for many years.

Scheuer: No, Mr Cameron and Mr Obama and most Western leaders seem to love the idea of us being bled to death by them, rather than the other way round. And we have the problems that have been created by multiculturalism and diversity in our own countries, in Europe more severely than ours but it's coming our way too.


The segment then moved on to the issue of internet snooping powers.

Ms Newman found herself copied into angry tweets criticising her perceived failure to challenge his views.

She answered one of them, saying: "We hear all views on Channel 4 News."










The Channel 4 News spokeswoman said Mr Scheuer was one of "a number of speakers we have on... sharing diverse opinions on jihad over a long period of time".

She said: "As a news organisation, we always try to strike a balance between unduly sanitised and excessive information in our news programming.

"This was a live interview with a former CIA Intelligence Officer Michael Scheuer and explored the issues surrounding the new security situation post the Paris attacks, the rise of ISIS and its claim on an Islamic Caliphate.

"Michael Scheuer is one of a number of speakers we have had on the programme sharing diverse opinions on Jihad over a long period of time.

"These were the personal opinions of an individual with experience and knowledge from within the intelligence fraternity in the United States."

She added: "However, we accept this could have been challenged more strongly in order to make clear that these views are in no way endorsed by Channel 4 News.

"This subject is a matter of significant general public importance and our role as a news organisation must be primarily to inform the public on what is happening."

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My Three Words for Davos this Year

January 22, 2015, 9:44 am
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Universal Health Coverage will be high on the agenda at this year's meeting, and rightly so. No country can say that it perfectly fulfils the World Health Organization definition of "access to key health interventions for all at an affordable cost, thereby achieving equity in access" and at least 60% of the world's 192 countries are thought to be a long way off.

Currently, more than one billion people lack access to even the most basic healthcare, and over 100 million are pushed into poverty each year through catastrophic healthcare costs.

In the last few years the global consensus has shifted significantly from a humanitarian rationale for UHC to a case built on powerful economic and political imperatives. One study I was involved in with our team in South Africa suggests that a one year increase in life expectancy can increase GDP per capita by 4% in the long run, while improved health in the workforce can improve productivity by a massive 20% to 47%.

Recent events have also seen countries recognize UHC as an essential component of their future political and social stability. This is a large part of the rationale for the huge investments being made into health coverage in China, Indonesia, Brazil and many other nations.

Chatham House, UK, recently estimated that the minimum public expenditure for which basic universal health coverage could be achieved is $86 per person per year. That compares to over $5,600 in Switzerland and less than $6 in Senegal. This demonstrates that money isn't everything - it's where it goes that makes the more important difference.

To explore the areas where emerging nations can avoid costly "mistakes" and even leapfrog traditional high-cost models of care, our global team published a report titled, Necessity is the mother of innovation. This report includes the adoption of mobile technology for health; task sharing with patients, communities as care givers as well as new types of health workers; strong primary and community care; and an intolerance of waste at every level of the delivery chain. The next big ideas in healthcare are coming out of Asia and Africa, not Europe and America.

In virtually every country where UHC has been advanced, political vision and will have been essential, along with economic growth. Courage is needed to overcome powerful vested interests (which unfortunately too often includes medical representative bodies) and convince emerging middle classes to support a system based on solidarity rather than self.

As well as bold government, the private sector also has a vital role to play in rapidly scaling up access to affordable, high quality healthcare around the world. There has been a lot debate about the importance of Public Private Partnerships in recent years, but insufficient attention to the practical realities of getting effective collaborations to work at scale.

To help advance the conversation on UHC, KPMG will bring together leaders from government, business and international development to talk about what the private sector is doing to achieve universal health coverage - and how to expand the best of these ideas.

Universal health coverage is an audacious goal, but one whose time has come. My hope for the week is that together we can use Davos' unique concentration of ideas and influence to make it a reality for more people.
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A Nightmare Made Real: A Mother's Account of Life in Donetsk

January 22, 2015, 9:53 am
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Svetlana is a young mother, in her late twenties. In her hometown of Donetsk, she worked as an accountant. With the crisis currently engulfing her home, she is unable to work, and when the conflict intensified around her, she became afraid for her family's lives. She fled with her children to a neighbouring village. We sit together in a crowded family shelter as she tells me her story.

"I left my parents behind in Donetsk. I was there only three days ago - it is a nightmare made real. In some areas, the destruction is total. The people there...they look like shadows."


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Svetlana volunteers at a shelter for displaced families, helping to register them for aid. Credit: Cat Carter/Save the Children

"Shots ring out constantly. It's so dangerous to move around. You cannot walk the streets in search of food. Only the poor remain there now - those who cannot afford to rent an apartment outside the city, or cannot afford transport. When you hear the blasts you run to the basement and cower there. My daughter's knees were constantly bloodied, from tripping down the stairs when she ran to our basement."

"We left our lives in Donetsk"

Svetlana pauses for a long time, staring out the window. She seems lost in thought, and I'm about to ask a follow-up question when she continues, her voice heavy with sadness.

"Many people there are very weak now, so it's difficult for them to find food - if you are strong enough, you can stand in line for hours, for the meagre supplies available, but otherwise you stay where you are and slowly waste away.

"We left our lives in Donetsk. I was an Accountant, but here, I am nothing. My husband looks for odd jobs to support us. The winter is very harsh, and both of my children became sick - we think from the cold."

Cash programming - providing essential economic support

The conflict is just one reason that Save the Children is here. The harsh winter weather is another. Taken together, the impact on families can be fatal. More than 300,000 children have fled the contested areas now, and that figure is rising daily. Often fleeing with nothing, many displaced families need everything.

Local capacity to cope with the influx is overwhelmed, and international aid agencies, Save the Children among them, have moved in to help. But, wherever markets are functioning, or have the capacity to recover, traditional mechanisms for delivering aid don't make sense. This is particularly the case in a middle-income country like Ukraine, where it would be highly detrimental to undermine those markets with aid, or to give families like Svetlana's clothes that are too small or large, or medicines that they don't need. Instead, we're using cash programming -the fastest growing method of delivering aid of in humanitarian responses, which not only can support families' like Svetlana's, but also stabilise local markets.

We supported Svetlana with a one-off cash grant of $280, to enable her family to buy winter supplies, such as blankets, warm clothes and waterproof boots. There are many reasons why, in the right context, and particularly in developed economies, cash is more effective and appropriate than other means. It is less visible than other forms of aid (think of the alternative - lorries full of food or goods being trucked huge distances, or making refugee children all wear the same 'standard' clothes - for example a bright red jacket). This then helps to reduce risks to recipients and staff, and offers flexibility - both in terms of its use, and its withdrawal. In Ukraine, our cash transfers are delivered through a bank transfer system, which communities can then withdraw in their own time, in a local branch.

Cash is more dignified


It's also more dignified - as another Mother, Marina, explained: "one reason that we are so grateful for this cash from Save the Children and ECHO, is because my husband is very ashamed of receiving charity. He is a proud man, and to take hand-outs or old clothes, he would not do it. Money is different - we can then go and spend money, and choose exactly what we need. It gives us back something." Recipients of cash grants are chosen carefully, based on what we term 'vulnerability criteria', both demographic - for example if a mother is alone with her children, or pregnant, or has several children relying on her, and their economic status. In Ukrainian society, women are often in charge of the household and finances, so they find it easy to ensure the money on the most pressing needs of their family.

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Mother of three Marina, looks out at the street from the one room she shares with her family. Credit: Cat Carter/Save the Children

Local markets: a lifeline in any emergency

Critically, cash programming supports local markets, instead of undermining them. Flooding any community with aid automatically means that the people receiving the aid will have less need for the local market - in turn meaning that the local market becomes less stable. Supporting crisis-affected communities with cash means that this money is spent in local markets, helping them to remain strong - a life-line in any emergency.

Cash is also more flexible. No two families are the same. One family I've spoken to spent the money on winter clothes and nutritious food, while another family spent it on warm, waterproof boots - vital for the sub-zero temperatures here. Svetlana spent it on warm clothes for her children and medicine.

"I spent the money on medicine and health care for my children. I also managed to buy some warmer clothes for them. This kind of cash grant is so much better than receiving goods - we can choose what we need. For example, clothes for my children - they are such different sizes and keep growing! Having cash means we can keep up with their needs, and not be dependent on others."

As with any aid, we must guard carefully against the cash grant being used inappropriately. We do this by working with the families before, during and after the fund allocation, and by running monitoring and evaluation sessions, to ascertain how the money was spent.

"There are many people in need here"

As my conversation with Svetlana comes to an end, she is almost embarrassingly effusive in her thanks. I explain that I wish we could do more, but the needs are great and the funding is small. She nods, understanding. "There are many people in need here." she says quietly.

I ask how she is keeping herself busy, given that she cannot find work here. She brightens instantly. "I am volunteering, here in the shelter! I am making sure that all families who come here know what aid is available - they are all so delighted and amazed that someone outside of Ukraine cares about us".
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Save the Children has been working in Ukraine through partners for the last seven years, and has been directly implementing since September 2014. We have been working in eastern Europe for more than 20 years. The UN also increasingly recognises the growing importance of cash in emergencies. Read more here.
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Lord Brittan's Death Triggers Uncomfortable Public Reaction In Midst Of Child Abuse Scandal

January 22, 2015, 9:54 am
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Lord Brittan's death has already begun to trigger an uncomfortable public reaction.

A lawyer and an MP have called it a setback to examining the Westminster child abuse allegations the former home secretary was embroiled in.

While the death of someone who was home secretary 30 years ago could be buried deep in a newspaper or limited to the obituaries section, the 75-year-old's death from cancer is likely to attract huge coverage in Friday's papers.

Lord Brittan's public profile shot up after he was accused of failing to act on evidence of child abuse by senior figures in Westminster in the 1980s, when he was home secretary in Thatcher's government.

In 1984, Lord Brittan was handed a 40-page dossier by Tory MP Geoffrey Dickens alleging high-level paedophile activity in Westminster, which came to be known as the "Dickens dossier". The dossier has since gone missing.

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Lord Brittan has died aged 75


Simon Danzcuk, the Labour MP who has fought for justice for child abuse victims, said Lord Brittan "should have faced questions" before the inquiry into the alleged Westminster abuse that has repeatedly stalled.

"(His) untimely death is a loss to the inquiry that the Home Secretary ordered into establishment child abuse," Mr Danczuk said.

"Only this morning we were debating the lack of progress in the inquiry and Sir Leon is someone who should have faced questions and been compelled to give evidence to the inquiry over his role as home secretary in the 1980s when a dossier containing allegations of establishment child abuse was handed to him."

Alison Millar, from law firm Leigh Day, who is representing victims of abuse, said: "Our clients will be disappointed that Leon Brittan, as a witness at the centre of the issues the inquiry is to examine, is now not able to answer questions about what he knew about allegations of child sexual abuse.

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"It is absolutely vital that fresh efforts are now put into preserving his documents and files to enable the inquiry to learn more about what he knew about abuse amongst establishment figures during his time in Government."

Labour MP Tom Watson, who has fought to publicise allegations of child abuse within Westminster, wrote simply "Hmmm" in response to a tweet announcing Lord Brittan's death.




Dame Fiona Woolf, the second person appointed to chair the Westminster child abuse inquiry, was forced to resign over her links to Lord Brittan.

In October, Labour MP Jim Hood used parliamentary privilege to air claims that Lord Brittan himself had been linked to child abuse.

He told the Commons there were "reports about child abuse being linked with" Lord Brittan circulating in 1984.

Last June, Lord Brittan was reportedly interviewed under caution by police in connection with the alleged rape of a 19-year-old student in his central London flat in 1967, before he became an MP.

He confirmed he was interviewed by police about a ''serious allegation'', but insisted that the accusation was ''wholly without foundation''.

Tim Shipman, political editor at The Sunday Times, hinted at the uncertainty among journalists about how to approach a recent death that carried such far-reaching implications for so serious an issue.




Comedian Al Murray tweeted about how Lord Brittan's death placed him beyond the reach of libel law, which previously obliged the media handle allegations against him very delicately.


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