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Great Works: Leviathan (1651), Abraham Bosse and Thomas Hobbes
British Museum, London
By Tom Lubbock
Friday, 20 February 2009
English illustration is a strong tradition. There are many books that can hardly be imagined without their images. Edward Lear's nonsense rhymes come with his nonsense drawings, and Beatrix Potter's tales are more than half-told by her watercolours. The world of Lewis Carroll's Alice books is partly the creation of John Tenniel's pictures - and ditto Dickens' Oliver Twist and George Cruikshank's.
William Blake is the supreme joiner of text and image. Meanwhile, there are many less graphic artists who have used their talents to visualise Paradise Lost, The Pilgrim's Progress and Gulliver's Travels. The tradition of English illustration has typically been devoted to the fantastic and visionary.
Yet one of the most fantastical and memorable examples of the tradition isn't connected to a work of imagination. It's found in a famous treatise of political philosophy - on the first page of Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan: The Matter, Forme and Power of a Common Wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil. This illustration is an Anglo-French work: drawn by a French artist, Abraham Bosse, but designed in collaboration with the philosopher. It shows a giant which represents Hobbes' idea of the absolute state.
The text along the top quotes the Latin Bible, from the Book of Job, and describes the monster Leviathan: "There is no power on earth that can compare with him." The giant wears a crown. He rises above a landscape, and wields a sword and a crozier, emblems of civil and church authority. But his most striking aspect is the way his torso and arms are made up of numerous densely crowded little figures. He is a swarm-man.
The Leviathan giant embodies the answer to Hobbes' great fear, civil war. (He was writing after the English civil war, in exile in France.) The populace agree to surrender all their individual powers. They are incorporated into an undivided, conflict-free body, the all-governing, all-embracing state.
The mass of people is gathered like a congregation. They face inwards, reverently, towards the head of the mortal god, who gazes out. The figures in the multitude are very similar, wearing the same respectable hats and cloaks. They are all male. In other words, they represent the 17th-century franchise - though within that, no class distinctions are registered. The people are equal in their submission.
But this great archetypal image can be seen in numerous ways. See it as a big body packed with little bodies: maybe it was an inspiration to pictures of the Wicker Man. The first one appeared, published by the eccentric English antiquarian Aylett Sammes, 25 years after Leviathan. Or see how the giant's body arises from behind the horizon, out of nowhere. It's the same way that The Colossus emerges beyond the landscape in the painting now de-attributed to Goya. One way or another, fantasy is this picture's destiny.
National Gallery and Tate end row over 1900
Britian's leading public art centres have reached an agreement after a row broke out over the National Gallery's plans for a Picasso exhibition, set to open next week.
Last Updated: 12:38PM GMT 20 Feb 2009
Defining any period of history is a tricky business, but when it comes to art history, fixing the dates of movements and styles can be especially contentious - with important financial ramifications for museums and galleries.
Next week, the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square opens an exhibition devoted to the work of the Spanish titan of 20th-century art, Picasso. The show is likely to be the hottest ticket in the art world this spring, bringing in substantial revenue for the museum's coffers.
And yet, according to the terms of an agreement thrashed out in 1996, the exhibition encroaches on the territory of the Tate. At that meeting, the heads of both institutions agreed upon a dividing line between the collections. The National Gallery bound itself to not show any art made after 1900, leaving Tate free to cover international art made from the start of the 20th century to the present day.
However, the agreement lapsed in 2007, leaving the NG free to mount shows of modern and contemporary art, hence its decision to bring the touring blockbuster exhibition, Picasso: Challenging the Past, to this country. Tate's director, Sir Nicholas Serota, might be forgiven for feeling piqued by his rival's decision to put on a big Picasso show - after all, in 2002, Tate Modern hosted an important exhibition devoted to those two giants of modern art, Matisse and Picasso.
Last year, however, the new director of the National Gallery, Nicholas Penny, was unrepentant. "The idea is not to have an agreement," he reportedly said in September. "We are not happy with 1900 as a final, absolute point of the end of the National Gallery." You can understand his concern, of course: these days, modern art is big business. And, from a scholarly viewpoint, limiting what you can show to an arbitrary date is highly reductive. Art historians could argue for aeons about the exact year in which Modernism started - and for many of them, 1900 wouldn't be their first choice.
So where does that leave things today? Yesterday, it was announced that a new agreement lasting until 2019 has been reached, reportedly to the satisfaction of both parties. "Following recent discussions, the National Gallery and Tate have agreed that the principles governing the historical boundaries of their two collections, which were put in place in 1996, should continue to apply for another 10 years from 2009," a statement read.
The key point, though, is that the new agreement will have a greater degree of flexibility than the old one: the NG accepts that Tate will continue to acquire 19th-century paintings by artists associated with the 20th century (such as Bonnard and Matisse), and vice versa. "It's a harmonious working out of how we're going to do things from now on," says Thomas Almeroth-Williams of the National Gallery.
Polygamy: Muslim peer says issue has been avoided because of 'cultural sensitivity'
The issue of polygamy has been avoided by politicians because of "cultural sensitivity", a Baroness Warsi has said.
Last Updated: 1:40PM GMT 20 Feb 2009
The Muslim peer, who is also shadow minister for community cohesion, said there had been a "failure" by policy-makers to take polygamy seriously.
She urged the Government to consider the mandatory registration of all religious marriages to stop men in Britain marrying more than one woman.
She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "There has been a failure on the part of policy-makers to respond to this situation.
"Some of it has been done in the name of cultural sensitivity and we've just avoided either discussing or dealing with this matter head on.
"There has to be a culture change and that has to brought about by policy-makers taking a very clear stance on this issue, saying that in this country, one married man is allowed to marry one woman.
"And that must be the way for everyone who lives in this country."
Baroness Warsi said politicians should consider whether those married in religious ceremonies in their own homes - with an "imam and a couple of witnesses there" - should be made to register those marriages within a four-week period.
She said: "If that was the case, then those marriages would have to be declared within law and if those marriages were declared within law, then clearly if the person has a first legal wife then there could be potential cases of bigamy being brought."
Tests blamed for blighting children's lives
Landmark study of primary schools calls for teachers to be freed of targets
· Polly Curtis, education editor
· The Guardian, Friday 20 February 2009
Children's lives are being impoverished by the government's insistence that schools focus on literacy and numeracy at the expense of creative teaching, the biggest review of the primary school curriculum in 40 years finds today.
Labour has failed to tackle decades of over-prescription in the curriculum and added to it with its own strategies in literacy and numeracy, which take up nearly half the school week, the Cambridge University review of the primary curriculum found.
Children are leaving school lacking knowledge about the arts and humanities having spent too many years "tied to a desk" learning times tables, the head of the review, Robin Alexander, said.
"Our argument is that their education, and to some degree their lives, are impoverished if they have received an education that is so fundamentally deficient," he said.
Professor Robin Alexander tells Polly Curtis of the damage caused by too much testing and a narrow focus on literacy and numeracy
Link to this audio
The report says schools should be freed of Sats and league tables to allow them to make more decisions about what and how they teach.
The compulsory daily act of worship should be reviewed and a curriculum that values knowledge and understanding as well as basic skills should be brought in, it says.
The review finds:
* Children are losing out on a broad, balanced and rich curriculum with art, music, drama, history and geography the biggest casualties.
* The curriculum, and crucially English and maths, have been "politicised".
* The focus on literacy and numeracy in the run-up to national tests has "squeezed out" other areas of learning.
* The Department for Children, Schools and Families and the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, which sets the curriculum, have been excessively prescriptive, "micro-managing" schools.
The review accuses the government of attempting to control what happens in every classroom in England, leading to an excessive focus on literacy and numeracy in an "overt politicisation" of children's lives. Despite this too many children still leave primary school having failed to master the 3Rs.
Sats have also narrowed the scope of what is taught in schools, it claims, concluding: "The problem of the curriculum is inseparable from the problem of assessment and testing."
The DCSF said the report would be considered by Sir Jim Rose, who has been commissioned to review the curriculum concentrating on "workable recommendations for change ... in order to give teachers more freedom and flexibility".
"Ed Balls [schools secretary] has made it clear that he wants it to be the most fundamental review of the primary curriculum for a decade," the DCSF added. "Sir Jim will publish his findings later this year."
The Tempest at Courtyard Theatre, Stratford - review
Antony Sher captures the turbulence of Prospero in this deeply felt performance of Shakespeare's great last play.
By Charles Spencer Last Updated: 8:59AM GMT 19 Feb 2009
This is as moving and beautiful a production of Shakespeare's great last play as you are likely to encounter, continually inventive, bursting with spectacle and deep emotion, and proving, yet again, that Shakespeare is our contemporary.
The play was written in 1611, as British ships explored the world, and it has become a modish critical concept to view the drama as a study of colonialism. But I have never seen the idea take such soaring flight as it does in this South African production presented by the Baxter Theatre Centre of Cape Town in collaboration with the RSC.
The Tempest becomes a potent drama about apartheid South Africa, with John Kani's Caliban inevitably reminding one of Nelson Mandela as he declares: "This island's mine." Antony Sher's magnificent, anguished Prospero, meanwhile, controls the black man he uses and abuses with a sjambok but comes to learn that "the rarer action is in virtue than in vengeance." In a remarkable and moving coup, the play's final lines, when Prospero normally addresses the audience, are delivered directly to Caliban: "As you from crimes would pardoned be/ Let your indulgence set me free." It cannot help but remind us of the birth of the new South Africa and the pressing need for reconciliation, truth and forgiveness.
Illka Louw's design creates a beautiful sand-covered island dominated by the spreading branches of a great tree, and a thrilling percussive score is performed by on-stage musicians.
The performances are outstanding. Antony Sher's Prospero - plump, massively bearded and in serious need of an anger management course - brilliantly captures the emotional turbulence of the brooding magus as he attempts to put his injured life to rights. There is a great ache of love towards his daughter Miranda, real tenderness for Atandwa Kani's charismatic Ariel, and a scary violence in his dealings with both Caliban and the "men of sin" who did him out of his Dukedom.
His movement towards forgiveness is painful, slow and deeply affecting, while Sher's delivery of Prospero's great speech of renunciation, in which Shakespeare seems to be bidding farewell to his own art, sends shivers racing down the spine.
John Kani finds great dignity, as well as a festering sense of grievance, in Caliban, lending the role a tragic depth, and in her animal-skin outfit Tinarie Van Wyk Loots makes a fabulously sexy Miranda.
Magical, magnificent and deeply felt, this is not a Tempest to miss.
Emperor penguin 'marching to extinction by end of the century'
By Steve Connor, Science Editor Tuesday, 27 January 2009
The Emperor penguin is marching towards extinction because the Antarctic sea ice on which it depends for survival is shrinking at a faster rate than the bird is able evolve if it is to avoid disaster, a study has found.
By the end of the century there could be just 400 breeding pairs of Emperor penguins left standing, a dramatic decline from the population about about 6,000 breeding pairs that existed in the 1960s, scientists estimated.
The latest assessment of the future size of the Emperor penguin population is based on the projected increase in global temperatures and subsequent loss of sea ice due to the changes in the Antarctic climate that are expected in the 21st Century, the study found.
Scientists based their pessimistic outlook on the long-term changes to the number of Emperor penguins in a colony living in a part of the Antarctic Peninsula called Terre Adelie, which has been surveyed regularly since 1962 and has experienced regional warming over the past 50 years.
The study by Stephanie Jenouvrier and Hal Caswell of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts concluded that there is at least a 36 per cent probability of “quasi extinction” of the Emperor penguin -- when the population declines by at least 95 per cent -- by the year 2100.
“To avoid extinction, Emperor penguins will have to adapt, migrate or change the timing of their growth stages,” the scientists report in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“However, give the future projected increases in greenhouse gases and its effect on Antarctic climate, evolution or migration seem unlikely for such long-lived species at the remote southern end of the Earth,” they say.
Fluctuations in sea ice during the 1970s, and the effect that it has on the penguin population, were used as a model of what could happen on a larger scale during the next 100 years or so of climate change.
Dr Jenouvrier said that if future climate change happens as predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the penguin population ion Terre Adelie will probably decline dramatically in the coming decades.
"Unlike some other Antarctic bird species that have altered their life cycles, penguins don't catch on so quickly," Dr Jenouvrier said.
"They are long-lived organisms, so they adapt slowly. This is a problem because the climate is changing very fast," she said.
Emperor penguins are renown for the way the males are left to incubate the eggs on the sea ice through the long Antarctic winter while the females return to the sea to feed.
In August, at the end of the Antarctic winter, the females return to feed the newly-hatched young as the males go to fatten up -- they lose 40 per cent of their body weight during the winter months.
In the next few weeks, both parents take it in turns to feed until the chick is old enough to join other chicks that huddle together in groups to keep warm. In December, with the winter sea ice breaking up, the entire family march together to the open sea to feed.
Times Online
Matthew Syed: United, Real and Milan are fools | David Beckham's backside: lucky to touch?
David Beckham has admitted for the first time that he is considering leaving LA Galaxy to make his move to AC Milan permanent.
The England midfielder's loan deal at the Serie A club ends in March when he is due to return to California, but his impressive performances have prompted Milan to look at the possibility of keeping him.
Beckham scored his first goal for Milan in their 4-1 victory away to Bologna on Sunday which prompted Leandro Cantamessa, the club lawyer, to add his support to the mounting campaign to keep the former Manchester United and Real Madrid player at the San Siro and the growing support has obviously turned Beckham's head. "To play here is the dream of any player," Beckham said. "But deciding is not easy, itґs a situation that requires time.
"I am under contract [with LA Galaxy] and I have a lot of respect for them. But the possibility to play at Milan is something special. I knew I would have fun but I didn't expect to have so much fun. In any case, I am a very respectful person.
"The truth is that the Americans are doing everything to improve the level and reputation of their football. The league in the USA is young. I think ten years have to go by to achieve results."
Beckham knew the level of competition in America would be poorer than that in Europe but he does not regret making the move. "I have to admit that, having played in Europe, at times it has been frustrating to take part in certain games [in the MLS]," he said. "But once in a while, going from state to state, I have also had fun."
The 33-year-old, whose wife Victoria and three children have stayed in the United States during his loan periods, first joined Milan to improve his chances of playing for England again, but his stay in Italy has also made him feel nostalgia for past glories. "I feel Milan is very similar to Manchester United," he said. "It has that kind of tradition that only great clubs have.
"Milan, just like at United, you breathe a particular atmosphere, whether it's in the training ground or the stadium. And then Milan has that trophy room - this makes you feel special.
"The first day in Milan's changing room I was very nervous, like the first day in school. But the first true emotion, I felt it when I arrived in December to Milan's training ground, when I put on the Milan jersey. My wife was sitting in front of me and when I put the jersey on and it had the Milan logo, I was in ecstasy."
Fabio Capello, the England coach, will be at tonight's game against Genoa to monitor Beckham's fitness ahead of next month's friendly with Spain.
TEXTS FOR DISCUSSION
Part II
From The Times
January 27, 2009
President Obama announces push to wean US off the gas-guzzler
Tom Baldwin in Washington
George Mitchell, the new US peace envoy, will fly into Israel today as the Obama administration signals its determination to tackle the Middle East conflict.
The veteran senator, who helped Northern Ireland end its protracted conflict, previously recommended that Israel halt settlement growth in the occupied territories and that Palestinians crack down on militant when he headed a 2001 task force to investigate the reasons for the outbreak of the Second Palestinian Intifada.
The main purpose of his first trip will be to explore the new complexities of the conflict, in particular the split of the Palestinian camp into the hard-line Islamist Hamas regime in Gaza and the more moderate Fatah administration in the West Bank.
After the latest war in Gaza, Hamas said it would consider a year-long truce with Israel, but Gazans hold out little hope for the talks and many are desperately trying to sell property in areas likely to be in the front line of Israel's next assault.
Начало формы
Ayman Taha, a Hamas negotiator, said after discussions in Egypt that Israel must lift its blockade of the impoverished territory if it wanted to avoid renewed Palestinian rocket fire into its southern towns.
"Hamas listened to the Israeli proposal presented by [Israeli envoy] Amos Gilad and with it a proposal for a ceasefire for a year and a half, but Hamas presented a counterproposal of one year only," he said. Israel refuses to open the borders as long as there are Hamas members - whom it considers terrorists - on the other side.
Various proposals are under discussion in Cairo, including motions to introduce Egyptian, EU or Turkish monitors to supervise crossings and try to inhibit Hamas smuggling in more armaments.
But the negotiations are hobbled by the fact that Israel and Hamas refuse to talk to each other, while the two main Palestinian parties, Hamas and Fatah, are still squabbling over who will is the legitimate government and who will ultimately take control of the estimated $2 billion reconstruction money needed to tackle the massive damage of Israel's three-week onslaught.
A senior European envoy inspecting the damage today expressed the EU's deepening exasperation at continually footing the bill for the seemingly intractable dispute between the two foes. "At this time we have to also recall the overwhelming responsibility of Hamas," said Louis Michel, the European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid. "I intentionally say this here - Hamas is a terrorist movement and it has to be denounced as such.
Obama seeks to repair damage in Middle East diplomacy drive
Americans are not your enemy, president tells Arabic TV network as US envoy sets out on eight days of talks
Barack Obama, interviewed in Washington by the Dubai-based al-Arabiya cable network Photograph: Al-Arabiya/AP
Barack Obama has sought to mend America's ties with the Muslim world, declaring: "Americans are not your enemy."
In a signal of his desire to repair the diplomatic damage of the George Bush era, Obama chose to give his first formal television interview since becoming US president to the Arabic cable TV network al-Arabiya. In it, he said the US sometimes made mistakes, but stressed that his administration would adopt a more open diplomatic approach than his predecessor's.
Obama renewed his pledge to make an address in the capital of a major Muslim country, pointed out that he had lived in Indonesia for several years while growing up, and said his travels through Muslim states had convinced him that, regardless of faith, people had certain common hopes and dreams.
"My job to the Muslim world is to communicate that the Americans are not your enemy. We sometimes make mistakes. We have not been perfect," Obama said in the interview, recorded yesterday.
To Iran - which Bush declared part of an "axis of evil" - Obama repeated his offer of friendship, saying that he would set out a policy towards Tehran in the next few months.
Susan Rice, the new US ambassador to the United Nations, yesterday pledged "vigorous" and "direct" nuclear diplomacy with Iran but warned pressure would increase if Tehran refused to halt uranium enrichment.
The five permanent members of the UN security council - Britain, China, France, Russia and the US - and Germany have offered Tehran economic and energy incentives in exchange for halting its uranium enrichment programme, which the west sees as a cover to acquire a nuclear weapons capability. But Tehran is pressing on with the programme, which it says is geared toward electricity generation.
The president reiterated the US commitment to Israel as an ally, and to its right to defend itself. But he suggested Israel had hard choices to make, and that his administration would press harder for it to make them.
"We cannot tell either the Israelis or the Palestinians what is best for them," he said. "They are going to have to make some decisions. But I do believe that the moment is ripe for both sides to realise that the path they are on is one that is not going to result in prosperity and security for their people."
Obama added: "There are Israelis who recognise that it is important to achieve peace. They will be willing to make sacrifices if the time is appropriate and if there is serious partnership on the other side."
Obama stopped short of giving a timetable, but he said he was certain progress could be made.
Russia 'suspends Kaliningrad missile plan'
Wednesday, 28 January 2009
Russia has halted a plan to retaliate against a proposed US missile defence shield by stationing its own missiles near Europe's borders, a Russian news agency quoted the military as saying today.
The suspension of plans to deploy tactical missiles in the Western outpost of Kaliningrad, if confirmed, would show Russia is extending an olive branch to President Barack Obama after rocky relations under his predecessor.
"If true, this would of course be a very positive step," a spokeswoman quoted the US envoy to NATO, Kurt Volker, as saying in reference to the Russian report.
Obama spoke to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev by telephone on Monday, their first contact since the US inauguration, and the two men agreed to stop the "drift" in their countries' relations, the White House said yesterday.
Medvedev had said in November he was ordering the deployment of Iskander missile systems to Kaliningrad, which borders European Union members Poland and Lithuania, in response to Washington's plan for a missile shield in Europe.
"The implementation of these plans has been halted in connection with the fact that the new US administration is not rushing through plans to deploy" elements of its missile defence shield in eastern Europe, Interfax quoted an unnamed official in the Russian military's general staff as saying.
There was no immediate confirmation from the Russian military that the Iskander deployment was being suspended.
The issue is likely to be on the agenda if, as expected, Medvedev and Obama meet on April 2 on the sidelines of a Group of 20 summit in London.
"It (the suspension of missile deployment) is a signal to Obama of Moscow's goodwill," Yevgeny Volk, an analyst in Moscow with the Heritage Foundation think tank, told Reuters.
"In response they want a decision not to deploy the missile defence shield in eastern Europe."
Some observers believe the Kremlin may be softening its assertive foreign policy style because the economic slowdown - which has seen the rouble lose about a quarter of its value since July - has dented its confidence.
US policy shift
The administration of former US President George W. Bush angered the Kremlin with its push to deploy interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar in the Czech Republic.
It said the system was needed to protect from potential missile strikes by what it called "rogue states" - specifically Iran and North Korea.
The White House has not announced any change of policy on the missile shield, but a nominee for a top Pentagon post in the Obama administration said this month the plan would be reviewed as part of a regular broad look at policy.
Russia has argued that the proposed system would threaten its own national security and was further evidence - along with the eastward expansion of the NATO alliance - of Western military influence encroaching near its borders.
The threat of deploying the Iskander missiles was largely symbolic because, military analysts said, Russia does not have enough operational missile systems to station in Kaliningrad.
The row over the shield has helped drive diplomatic ties between Moscow and Washington to their lowest level since the end of the Cold War.
But Russian officials have said they are encouraged by early signals from the Obama administration and hopeful of a fresh start in their relations.
Since taking office, Obama has sent strong signals that he will try to repair foreign ties that were damaged under the Bush presidency.
In an acknowledgement of Washington's rocky relations with the Muslim world, Obama gave his first formal television interview as president to the Dubai-based Al Arabiya station and said the United States was willing to talk to Iran.
From Times Online
January 28, 2009
Chief Rabbinate of Israel cuts ties with Vatican over Holocaust bishop
Gledhill, Religion Correspondent and Richard Owen in Rome
In a measure of Jewish anger around the world at the decision to reinstate the four bishops of the Society of St Pius X, the Chief Rabbinate has written to the office of Pope Benedict XVI condemning Bishop Richard Williamson's comments as "odious" and "outrageous". The letter was leaked to the Jerusalem Post.
Jewish leaders in the UK have also protested at the lifting of the excommunicatons on Bishop Williamson and three other bishops.
Bishop Williamson, who was educated at Winchester and Cambridge and converted to Catholicism as a young man, has in the past endorsed the notorious anti-Semitic forgery, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. He told Swedish television that no Jews died in gas chambers, and that up to 300,000 died in the Holocaust. Historians generally accept that six million Jews died in Nazi concentration camps.
According to The Jerusalem Post, the Chief Rabbinate also cancelled a meeting scheduled for March 2-4 in Rome with the Holy See's Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews.
In a letter to the commission's chairman, Cardinal Walter Kasper, the Chief Rabbinate Director-General, Oded Weiner, wrote that "without a public apology and recanting, it will be difficult to continue the dialogue".
Meanwhile, the Pope moved today to calm tensions when he uses his weekly audience to reaffirm his "full and unquestionable solidarity with Jews" and said that the attempt to exterminate Jews in the Holocaust should remain a warning for all people.
Activists threaten to close Heathrow
By Alan Jones, Press Association Friday, 16 January 2009
Activists behind an annual climate change camp today threatened to close down Heathrow in an early sign of direct action aimed at stopping a controversial third runway being built.
Leaders of the annual event will meet later this month to discuss future demonstration, including some which they warned would be aimed at shutting the airport down completely.
The development came as a group calling itself the Climate Suffragettes smashed glass doors at the London offices of the Department for Transport (DfT)in protest at the Government's go-ahead for Heathrow's expansion.
One of the activists behind the annual climate camp pledged: "We will be the spanner in the works of third runway construction."
The group pointed out that at the 2007 camp, which was held near Heathrow, about 2,000 people decided not to shut the airport itself, but target BAA's offices.
Sally Wintour, who took part in the 2007 camp, said: "Gordon Brown is prioritising the profit margins of BAA and the aviation industry over the climate and the local community of Sipson.
"We invite anyone in the UK who has lain awake and worried about climate change and their children's future to come down and join us in using direct action to prevent this ecological and social catastrophe from unfolding."
A so-called "flashmob" will be held at Heathrow at midday tomorrow by a range of anti-aviation expansion groups and more action is being planned.
The Climate Suffragettes said three women wearing red sashes hurled bricks at the doors of DfT's Westminster building at 4am.
The bricks were wrapped in notes that read: "No third runway, the Suffra-jets are back," they said.
A spokeswoman for the group, which compares itself with the 20th century campaigners for votes for women, said: "The Government has opened the floodgates for radical action."
Conservative leader David Cameron today issued a clear warning to industry not to invest money and energy in the proposed third runway at Heathrow, as he reaffirmed his party's commitment to scrap the project if it won power.
Some observers have suggested that the green light given by Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon yesterday represented a guarantee that it would go ahead, as the scheme would be too far advanced by the time of the next election for an incoming Tory administration to halt it.
But Mr Cameron today flatly rejected this assumption, stating: "The third runway is just not going to happen."
Taxpayer faces bigger bill for 2012 Olympics
By Amol Rajan, Sports News Correspondent Friday, 30 January 2009
The taxpayer may end up paying to build every major venue in London's 2012 Olympic Games because private finance has dried up, the chairman of the Olympic Delivery Authority admitted yesterday.
John Armitt said it was possible that no private sector money would be found for the Ј1bn Olympic village in the heart of the park, the most high-profile victim of the global downturn which has already cost the taxpayer Ј326m more than was planned for.
The authority has already given up hope of securing funding for the Ј355m international media centre, which will now be paid for entirely by the Exchequer. In total, Ј496m has already been used from the Ј2bn contingency fund set aside for the project.
In an interview with The Independent, Mr Armitt admitted yesterday that there remained a chance that the no private money at all would be found for the Olympic village.
Nevertheless, Mr Armitt confirmed that the ODA could not "rule out" a complete failure of private sector funding for the village. "There remains an outside chance and it's a risk which at the end of the day will be properly considered between us and the Government," he said.
Savings that could reduce the cost of the village by up to Ј100m are currently being sought. When first planned, the site, which will comprise apartments, shops, restaurants and cafes, was going to be entirely funded by the private sector.
Over the past 18 months that figure was revised downward to half the total cost of the project. But because of the global downturn, Lend Lease, the Australian firm that is preferred developer for the project, has been unable to secure credit for the scheme.
As a result, the number of flats in the village, which will house 17,000 athletes and officials during the Games before being sold off, has been scaled down from an initial figure of 4,500. Yesterday Mr Armitt revealed for the first time that the final number of flats will be 2,873, meaning that athletes will have to be housed five to an apartment rather than four.
Mr Armitt, a former chief of Network Rail and Railtrack, also said the Olympic organisers were alive to the possibility that not all their contractors would survive the downturn. "Will we get through the next two years without any of our key suppliers getting into difficulty and us having to replace them? That's clearly a risk now that is greater than it has been," he said.
Brown leads global drive to close down tax havens
By Nigel Morris, Deputy Political Editor
Thursday, 19 February 2009
The Prime Minister Gordon Brown at Downing Street yesterday
Britain is leading moves to end the privileged status of tax havens as part of a planned “global new deal” to tackle the international recession.
Gordon Brown is believed to have won the support of other world leaders for a drive against offshore shelters used by large firms to cut their tax bills and avoid complex financial regulations. The deal could be done at a summit of world leaders in London on 2 April and form part of wider attempt to revive the global economy.
Speaking yesterday, Mr Brown said the time had come for world leaders to hammer out a “grand bargain” to rebuild the global financial system. He argued that the world had to act as one to supervise banks, including ending the practice of firms and financial institutions setting up registered offices in islands and small countries which offer lower tax rates than the countries in which they are based. Mr Brown said: “We want the whole of the world to take action. That will mean action against regulatory and tax havens in parts of the world which have escaped the regulatory attention they need.” He will face a daunting task in persuading many smaller countries that depend on attracting multinational companies to fall in line and he admitted that success depended on the “rest of the world agreeing with us that this action needs to be taken”.
But he added: “I am more confident now - having talked to world leaders - that we are in a position to take further action on this matter.”
President Barack Obama has been scathing over American companies paying tax offshore, which is believed to account for hundreds of billions of dollars lost to the US Treasury.
He said on the presidential campaign trail: “There is a building in the Cayman Islands that houses supposedly 12,000 US-based corporations. That's either the biggest building in the world, or the biggest tax scam in the world - and we know which one it is.”
Mr Brown declined to name the tax havens he had in mind, but there are several under British jurisdiction. They include Jersey, Guernsey and Alderney in the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands.
Mr Brown was speaking after talks in Downing Street with the International Monetary Fund's managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn and the World Bank president Robert Zoellick. He is due to meet European leaders in the next few days in preparation for the 2 April summit.
He defended his plans for a massive stimulus of the UK economy and said he was pressing other nations to follow the British lead. He added: “That is at the crux of how we can move towards recovery in the next few months.” A document published by Downing Street setting out its plans for the “Road to the London Summit” suggested that Britain could move to stimulate the economy - either by tax cuts or extra spending - if measures already in train were not effective.
Israel's president asks Benjamin Netanyahu to form new government
Israel's president, Shimon Peres, has asked the Likud party leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, to form the country's next government and become prime minister.
By Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent Last Updated: 1:10PM GMT 20 Feb 2009
Mr Peres called on Mr Netanyahu to establish support for his nomination as prime minister in the country's parliament after his main rival, the Kadima leader Tzipi Livni, declared that she had no desire to join a broad coalition.
Mr Netanyahu's Right-wing Likud party finished a close second in this month's general election behind the centrist Kadima party. But the vote on Feb 10 saw Right-wing parties finish with an overall majority.
"The president has made a decision regarding the formation of the government and the presidency will summon deputy Benjamin Netanyahu ... to entrust him with this task," according to a statement issued by Mr Peres's office.
The announcement came after Mr Peres held separate talks with Mr Netanyahu and Miss Livni, the current foreign minister, in an effort to persuade them to form a broad government alliance.
But Miss Livni emerged from the talks saying: "I will not be a pawn in a government that would be against our ideals."
In remarks to Jewish leaders, America's Middle East envoy George Mitchell criticised Mr Netanyahu's stance on negotiations with the Palestinians. Mr Netanyahu has derided political talks with Palestinians and has vowed to put economic improvements before sovereignty talks.
But Mr Mitchell said: "One cannot talk about economic development on the Palestinian side when you are not moving forward with diplomatic moves at the same time."
Political analysts have predicted friction between a Right-wing government and President Barack Obama's administration.
"Netanyahu is going to face big pressure from the Obama administration to at least look like he is making some movement on the peace process, and he will need Livni for that," said Shmuel Sandler, professor of political science at Bar-Ilan University.
"As for Livni, if she stays too long in opposition, she runs the risk that some of her Kadima colleagues who originally came from the Likud and remain ideologically close to the party, might decide to bolt back there."
'Unhappy US' claims over Afghanistan dismissed
By Matt Dickinson, Press Association
Thursday, 19 February 2009
The Defence Secretary John Hutton today dismissed claims that US military commanders are unhappy with the performance of the UK armed forces in Afghanistan.
A flurry of recent reports have suggested that US top brass has been left unimpressed by some aspects of the British effort in the country, with the counter-insurgency tactics singled out for criticism.
But Mr Hutton said in an interview with the Financial Times: "I do not think that is fair, nor do I think that reflects the real view in the Pentagon and elsewhere.
"There is a very high level of regard for the contribution that UK forces have made in Iraq and Afghanistan."
He said the UK - whose armed forces have suffered 145 fatalities in Afghanistan since 2001 - was open to criticism as long as it was "fair".
But Mr Hutton added: "Our reputation is very important to us. We will very strongly defend it.
"We will defend it by begin open to criticism where it is fair.
"We will not change our tactics in Afghanistan on the basis of uncorroborated and unsourced gossip from people who don't have the courage to put their names to their remarks."
The comments from Mr Hutton - who will discuss the Afghanistan mission at a meeting of Nato defence ministers in Poland today - came as President Barack Obama revealed plans to send 17,000 more US troops to Afghanistan.
Foreign Secretary David Miliband yesterday welcomed the move, saying the extra forces would play an "important and positive role" in the campaign.
Some will be deployed in Helmand province, where UK soldiers have been engaged in fierce fighting with the Taliban.
Around 8,100 British servicemen and women are currently serving in Afghanistan.
Speaking on a visit to the troubled country last night, Mr Miliband said: "I think that there is a universal recognition that these extra American troops can play, and will play, an important and positive role, when they are aligned and allied with a strategy for economic development and political development."
He also pledged that Britain would keep its troop levels "under review" - although he stressed that the prospect of an increase had not been raised directly.
"In terms of the United Kingdom we represent about 12% of the troops in Afghanistan at the moment," Mr Miliband said.
"We have had no request to increase our number of troops but, of course, we always keep the number under review."
Mr Hutton said he will raise the issue of increased troop contributions from other countries during today's meeting in Poland.
The US currently has around 30,000 troops in Afghanistan.
Mr Hutton acknowledged a shortage of troops may have hampered progress in Afghanistan and said he would press the UK's European Nato allies to provide extra military resources.
компетенция словарный речь лексический
ЛИТЕРАТУРА
1. Английский язык для пединститутов: [Учеб. пособие для неяз. фак. пед. ин-тов. В 2-х ч.] / В.А.Бойко, Л.С.Ковалевская, Е.В.Макаревская, К.Н.Сенкевич. Ч.2. - Мн.: Выш. школа, 1982. - 248 с.
2. Всемирные фестивали молодежи и студентов: Кн. для чтения в ст. классах шк. с углубленным изучением англ. яз. / Сост. Н.К.Рязанова, Г.Н.Червякова. - М.: Просвещение, 1988. - 128 с.: ил. - (Читаем по английски).
3. Гуринович В.В. Деловая переписка на английском языке / В.В. Гуринович. Новас-к: Планета. - 2006. - 187 с.
4. Левитес Д.Г. Современные образовательные технологии / Д.Г. Левитес, Т.И. Шамова. Новас-к: Планета. - 1993. - 288 с.
5. Поговорим о Беларуси: устные темы на англ. яз. = LET'S TALK ABOUT BELARUS / А.В.Конышева, О.П.Казакова. - Мн.: Дикта, 2003. - 256 с.
6. Сборник английских аутентичных текстов. 17 тем / Сост. Д.С.Седов. - 2-е изд. - Мн.: Лексис, 2003. - 376 с.
7. Седов Д.С. Сборник английских аутентичных текстов. Мн.: Лексис, 2005 - 376 с.
8. Business correspondence in English (Деловая переписка на английском языке / Larisa Vasilyeva. - Москва: Генезис. - 2006. - 134 с.
9. Topic: communication English for business: Деловой английский: Общение, А.А. Вейзе. - 119 с.
10. www.times.co.uk
11. www.independent.co.uk
12. www.guardian.co.uk
13. www.dailytelegraph.co.uk
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