text: Richard Burden 2015-05-28T04:02:43-04:00 Richard Burden http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/author/index.php?author=richard-burden Copyright 2008, HuffingtonPost.com, Inc. HuffingtonPost Blogger Feed for Richard Burden Good old fashioned elbow grease. Labour Has a Better Plan to Fix 'Pothole Britain' and Boost Cycling and Walking tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2015:/theblog//3.7149706 2015-04-27T04:32:20-04:00 2015-04-27T04:59:03-04:00 Richard Burden http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-burden/ Another five years of this neglect and falling investment will only make things worse. That's why Labour has set out a new and better plan to help all road users, including motorists, cyclists and bikers. We have announced that we will reprioritise transport budgets to not only fix Pothole Britain, but to give much needed extra funding to boost cycling and walking across the country. Potholes are now blighting daily journeys and risking safety for motorists, cyclists, bikers and everyone who users local roads. And these hard-pressed road users and businesses are justifiably sick and tired of having their vehicles damaged because of Britain's pothole crisis. Almost 50,000 drivers made claims for damage caused to their vehicles by potholes in the last financial year alone. And insurers estimate that potholes are costing motorists £730million a year. Overall, a third of our local roads are now in urgent need of repair. And since 2010, an additional 2,262 miles of local roads are in such poor condition that they need urgent maintenance work. But despite this growing problem, the spending plans set out by the Tories and Liberal Democrats will see funding for pothole repair fall by over £80million in the next Parliament. This will only lead to a further deterioration of our local roads. That's why Labour will fix Pothole Britain and the dire state of local roads through a fully funded £300 million Pothole Fund. This will mean we we'll be able to mend at least an extra 6 million potholes - a third more than under the current Tory and Lib Dem plans, taking the total potholes to be mended in the next five years to 24million. But as well as fixing Pothole Britain, boosting active travel is a major priority for Labour. Enabling more people to cycle and walk will not only improve the nation's health, but unclog our towns and cities, help people who are being priced out of transport and make our communities safer and better places to live. David Cameron and Nick Clegg promised a "cycling revolution", but all we've had after five years is a draft Cycle Delivery Plan that has been widely criticised. Just 2% of overall journeys are now made by bike and walking accounts for just 22% of all trips, a 30% decrease since the mid-1990s. To turn things around, Labour will go further than the Tories and the Lib Dems and create a fully funded £89million active travel fund to support a new long-term strategy for cycling and walking. This will also help to support new local investment in active travel projects and infrastructure. Crucially, rather than the Government's unfunded transport promises, Labour's plans are fully funded. By delaying just two road schemes (out of a total of 127) that do not currently meet a clear value for money or business case, we can unlock the necessary funds. Local roads are the arteries of our transport system, but David Cameron and Nick Clegg have been so out of touch that they have failed millions of motorists, cyclists and pedestrians. In contrast, Labour is committed to ensuring our local roads work for everyone who uses them. We want to see an end to Pothole Britain and to move cycling and walking from the margins to the mainstream - where it belongs. Labour is the only party with a fully funded and viable plan to make this a reality. Michael Dugher, Shadow Secretary of State for Transport Richard Burden, Shadow Roads Minister]]> Talking Immigration tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2015:/theblog//3.6620682 2015-02-05T07:45:52-05:00 2015-04-07T05:59:01-04:00 Richard Burden http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-burden/ Northfield Talks, a public discussion held at Northfield Baptist Church to talk about the early findings of a survey I launched on immigration, to hear local peoples' concerns on the issue. The idea to hold the survey and event were in response to the many emails, letters and conversations I have with local people on the doorstep. I know people are worried about the management of immigration and how it affects jobs, wages, and public services like schools, social housing and the NHS. In addition to the hundreds of people who participated in the survey, over fifty constituents braved the snowy weather to hear the findings and raise their concerns at the event. They deserve a very special thank you! The survey found a large majority (67%) consider immigration an important issue, especially in relation to wages and working conditions. Across the whole survey, the most common concern was the need to stop people's wages being undercut. 89% of people agreed there should be more resources to enforce legislation around the minimum wage and employment conditions. What that highlighted for me is that beneath people's concern about immigration are often worries about other things - about the need for better training and job opportunities for young people, about insecurity at work, about the NHS and about the shortage of good quality affordable housing. And about the fact that all too often politicians don't seem to listen. Many people recognise that parts of the media find it easier to equate all this with immigration when the reality is not so simple. Sadly some political parties too think peddling myths are a better way to get votes than discussing facts. Take the NHS. People at the event recognised that our hospitals simply would not function without doctors and nurses from abroad. But that is no excuse for the UK not to train up enough doctors and nurses here. Sadly nurse training was cut since 2010. Government needs to turn that around. Contrary to what you sometimes read in the media, many people at the event also thought it is important to maintain Britain's tradition of offering a safe haven to those genuinely fleeing torture and persecution. But they want to be assured claims are genuine and that decisions are made much more quickly. Other issues expressed in both the survey and the meeting included controls on foreign entering the UK and the importance of people from abroad learning English if they are to settle here. What people were less convinced about were that the answer was a fixed cap on numbers. Eighty-three per cent of people surveyed did not believe the Government's cap works and that it can actually stop people coming in who can make a real contribution to our economy. For example, 70% of respondents did not understand, why international students have been included in the cap. People agreed that immigration controls need to be smarter and it all underlined the need for better staffing and border controls, so we can properly record who is coming in and leaving. It's madness that we don't have that. Northfield Talks brought together a wide range of views of people from different ages and different backgrounds - in responses to the survey at the event and in the online discussion that accompanied it. It was a challenging discussion at times but an important one. We need openness to distil the facts from the myths. And it showed Government needs to do a lot more, on border controls, on banning employment agencies who only recruit abroad, on enforcing fair wages and on improving skills and training to name but a few. Keep a look out for my Immigration Report, which will give more details of the surveys findings in the coming weeks. You can follow this and my other work here.]]> By Voting Today for Recognition of Palestine, MPs Will Vote for Equality and for Peace tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2014:/theblog//3.5972804 2014-10-13T19:00:00-04:00 2014-12-13T05:59:01-05:00 Richard Burden http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-burden/ The principle at stake here is a simple but key one for anyone seeking a just a durable solution to the conflict in the Middle East. Do we treat Israelis and Palestinians as equals or not? For Israelis, recognition of their state is something they have expected from the international community as a matter of right, not as a privilege. It is something they secured bilaterally from Britain over 65 years ago. And over 20 years have passed since the PLO, representing the people of Palestine as a whole, also formally recognised the state of Israel. International recognition of Israel is not in doubt. Even so, successive Israeli governments still consider constant reaffirmation of recognition of Israel's statehood to be fundamental. So fundamental, in fact, that they insist that they will only engage in peace talks with President Abbas' PLO, which recognises Israel, not with any Palestinian faction such as Hamas which does not. "How," ask senior Israeli politicians, "can you talk with people who do not recognise your right to exist?" For them, recognition of Israel is not something to come out of in negotiations, but a precondition on those even seeking a place at the table in the first place . But when it comes to Palestinians, the equation changes. For too long those same principles - of self-determination and recognition of their independent state - have been considered matters of privilege for Palestinians, not as their right. Even today in our own Parliament, some MPs have tabled an amendment favoured by the Government of Israel which would make UK recognition of the Palestinian state conditional, not only on negotiations taking place between Palestine and Israel, but on the outcome of those negotiations. In other words, they are asking the UK Parliament to give Israel the right of veto over our own decisions. That is as unacceptable as suggesting that the Palestinians should have had a veto over UK recognition of Israel all those years ago. The UK should continue to impress on Israel the importance its recognising the State of Palestine just as the State of Palestine has recognised Israel. We should also try to convince those Palestinian and Israeli parties who still oppose mutual recognition, that they should drop their opposition. But we make our own decisions on our own recognition of both states. We do so bilaterally, as a member of the EU and at the United Nations. There is no doubt that the peace and security which both Israelis and Palestinians have been cruelly denied for so many years will only come from a negotiated settlement founded on successive UN resolutions and the principles of international law. At the centre of those UN resolutions is the principle of a Palestinian state living alongside the state of Israel. The reality is, however, that those negotiations are not happening. And the prospects for peace further recede every time new settlement expansion severs one part of the West Bank from another; every time another Palestinian family is pushed out of East Jerusalem; every day the blockade on Gaza continues; and every time a rocket from Gaza is fired into southern Israel or an Israel missile destroys a home in Gaza. By affirming without ambiguity that both Israelis and Palestinians have equal rights to statehood, international recognition of the State of Palestine can help break this impasse. That is why another amendment tabled by Jack Straw and other senior MPs makes clear that by voting for recognition today MPs will contribute to securing a negotiated two state solution. It is time to act to save the prospect of a two state solution, not to allow our inaction to collude in its slipping away. Last week Sweden became the latest country to state that it will recognise the State of Palestine, joining the 134 others who have already done so. By voting today in favour of recognition by the UK, MPs will signal clearly to the UK government that Britain should also play a leading role in establishing the principle of equality that is vital to peace. The double standards must end. For Palestine just as much as Israel, statehood, as shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander has said, "is not a gift to be given but a right to be recognised."]]> Chaotic Government Funding Fails to Fix Pothole Epidemic tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2014:/theblog//3.5898448 2014-09-29T03:41:08-04:00 2014-11-28T05:59:01-05:00 Richard Burden http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-burden/ some of the terms being used to describe the Government's approach to roads maintenance, after the Public Accounts Committee issued a damning report into funding arrangements this week. The all-party committee of MPs responsible for scrutinising public spending have concluded this Government's stop-start approach to roads maintenance funding is wasting taxpayers' money and failing to deliver better roads. Labour's Chair of the Committee, Margaret Hodge, has hit out at a Government who cut road maintenance budgets by £1.2 billion upon entering office - only to sign last minute checks on nine separate occasions because the pothole problem has got out of control. Everyone knows it is cheaper to plan road maintenance rather than patch up damage following floods, ice or storms. But by continually turning the funding tap on and off since entering office in 2010, this Government have stopped councils from planning road maintenance cost effectively. Ministers' last minute pothole pay outs mean all that councils can do is patch up damage, rather than properly preventing disrepair on our roads. The Government is not getting the basics right. Despite announcing 'jam tomorrow' with their Action for Roads strategy, Ministers are not learning the clear lessons from the past few years. Their 'roads reforms' will not fix the pothole problem because they only seem interested in new schemes, rather than long term maintenance funding for roads old and new. Under Ministers' plans spending on potholes in 2020 will be lower than it was in 2010. The problems go beyond money too. It is shocking that the Highway's Agency holds no information on 70% of its drainage systems, and that many local authorities do not accurately monitor condition of their roads. This is no way to care for our national infrastructure. The ICE State of the UK's Infrastructure Report this year was a clear warning that, with extreme weather conditions set to increase in the UK, we must prioritise the maintenance and resilience of the national infrastructure we have. One third of local roads are in urgent need of attention and public satisfaction with road condition is at a record low. So why is the Government wasting time on an institutional reorganisation of the Highway Agency instead of tackling the pothole epidemic? Changes to the Agency overseeing 2% of our road network (our motorways and "A Roads") will not fix the potholes that undermine road safety and blight everyday journeys for car drivers, motorcyclists, cyclists, and HGVs too. Potholes cost us billions in congestion, vehicle repairs, council compensation claims, higher emissions and road collisions too. But Ministers 'roads reform' proposals do nothing to improve the condition of - or congestion on - the local roads we use everyday. The Public Accounts Committee's report should be a wake up call for the Government. Sadly George Osborne's obsession with cutting ribbon on new roads means we just continue to get chaotic spending and unfinished schemes from the Tory-led Coalition. We need a clear 'fix it first' plan' to fix the roads that we all rely on.]]> Iraq - Urgent Action Needed to Stop Slaughter and Time to Face Up to the Big Picture Too tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2014:/theblog//3.5674422 2014-08-13T19:00:00-04:00 2014-10-13T05:59:07-04:00 Richard Burden http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-burden/ A humanitarian disaster is unfolding in and around Northern Iraq and the international community has been too slow to respond to it. We cannot turn the clock back on that but it is vital that international efforts are ramped up. I therefore support UK participation in those efforts, and through our role in the United Nations and other organisations, we should urgently identify what more can be done. Labour's shadow foreign secretary, Douglas Alexander MP has been active in urging the government to act on all these areas. He has called on the UN Human Rights Council to build a consensus for action on religious freedom at the highest international level and for the UK government work with the UN to provide help and shelter to refugees fleeing the region. Reports that the UK government is refusing asylum to Iraqis who have fled the country are very concerning, and I have tabled parliamentary questions to the Home Secretary on this. Churches and international charities in Britain have played a key role in raising the profile of the brutality going on in Iraq. As a former member of Parliament's International Development Committee I have seen for myself some of the consequences of war on civilians in both central Africa and the Middle East. I have been to refugee camps in Jordan and Turkey for people fleeing the civil war in Syria and I am in direct contact with some of those working on the ground to provide humanitarian relief in Northern Iraq today. There is no doubt in my mind about the scale of the crisis unfolding and about the importance of the international community, including the UK, facing up to our responsibilities. Given the scale of the crisis, it's not surprising that there are growing demands for Parliament to be recalled to debate these issues. For the humanitarian relief to be able to get to those suffering in Iraq however, IS also has to be kept away from them. I opposed the US/UK invasion of Iraq in 2003 and I believe that some of the chaos we now see in that part of the world today is, at least partly a legacy of that action. However, that does not affect the urgency of the situation in Iraq right now. As a new MP in the mid-90s, I remember being horrified by the way the international community allowed so many to be butchered in Bosnia and about the genocide which took place in Rwanda. Those massacres led to the United Nations taking on a new mandate called the "Responsibility to Protect" where crimes like these are committed. There are important differences between Iraq today both Bosnia and Rwanda in the 1990s. But there are parallels too. That is why I believe that military action is necessary to keep IS at bay while the humanitarian relief efforts go on. In the past week, in practical terms it probably had to be the USA who had to do this in the time available. However, it could easily make this worse not better if action to protect people from massacre in Northern Iraq came to be perceived or promoted in the Middle East as some sort of continuation of the 2003 US/UK invasion. So it is also urgent that everything possible is done through the UN and other international agencies to help the people of the area themselves. There are obviously calls for the UK to become directly engaged in air strikes on IS. My view is that what is going to be effective and command legitimacy is more important than whether individual countries' decide to concentrate their forces' efforts on humanitarian relief, military strikes or both. Going forward it is important for the long term that we understand that the plight of persecuted minorities in Iraq is part of a wider crisis engulfing the Middle East. As I say, I believe the invasion of Iraq in 2003 - and the way it was carried out - helped lead to years of sectarianism and growing radicalisation in Iraq. It split the international community's response to extremism, weakened the United Nations, and made intervention in line with the "Responsibility to Protect", more difficult, not less. It also reinforced the perception of that the USA - and too often the UK too - display double standards when it comes to upholding the rule of law internationally. Those allegations have particular force on the Israel-Palestine issue. That is one of the reasons I am one of those who speak out for more assertive condemnation of Israel's attack on Gaza, for an end to the blockade there and for a lasting solution to the Israel/Palestine conflict in which Israelis and Palestinians have equal rights. Unfortunately, taken as a whole, there is now no coherent, evidence-based international strategy to assess and respond to the epidemic of crises currently in the Middle East - whether that be in Gaza, Syria or Iraq. It's time for the UK government to face up to that too.]]> Gaza: Why Outrage Isn't Enough tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2014:/theblog//3.5646995 2014-08-04T19:00:00-04:00 2014-10-04T05:59:07-04:00 Richard Burden http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-burden/ Nearly 1,200 civilians killed, hundreds of them children. Some 485,000 civilians displaced as their homes are obliterated, only to find that the United Nations schools and clinics in which they have sought shelter are themselves then hit by shells and missiles. UN buildings? A few weeks ago it would have been almost unthinkable to hear of such a thing happening at all. Today the news reports are not about whether humanitarian safe places are hit, but how many have been hit. Israeli Government spokespeople sound almost Orwellian in the arguments they invoke to explain these strikes away. And before anyone asks, yes I do also condemn any Palestinian group that has hidden weapons in any such place. That however, does not absolve Israel of its own obligations under the Geneva conventions. Civilian life should not be wilfully disregarded any more than civilians deliberately targeted. Yet while we all express our horror at what is going on, the point is what are we actually doing to stop it? Calling for a ceasefire? Calling for negotiations? Yes, of course those things are right. In the meantime, though, in practice Israel is continuing its attacks with impunity. We need to do more. So what should we do? First, the UK was a prime mover in setting up the International Criminal Court to hold states and their leaders accountable for war crimes. There is prima facie evidence that War crimes are being committed in Gaza. International referral of Israel to the ICC would require the United Nations Security Council to do so. On past form there is little doubt that such a move would be vetoed by the USA, but that is no excuse for the UK to avoid doing the right think if referral to the ICC is moved. Second, the custodians of the Geneva Convention are its High Contracting Parties. The UK is one of those. Palestine's President Abbas has already called for a meeting if the HCPs to be convened. David Cameron should support that. Third, the UK and EU have some of the world's strictest rules in place for the export of arms and components. Israel already has a history of using UK-supplied arms in the Occupied Territories, including Gaza, in breach of those rules. It is an abrogation of duty that the UK has so far failed even to investigate whether UK-supplied arms and components are again being used in Gaza, as Katy Clark MP and I have asked ministers to do. If it's too difficult to do that right now, an arms embargo should be imposed in the meantime. Fourth, the EU has an Association Agreement with Israel. It's privileges bring preferential trade terms. The agreement includes responsibilities too - in particular respect for human rights. If Israel refuses to fulfil its responsibilities under the agreement, it should lose its privileges. The UK should be saying so. Fifth, the UK should ban trade and cooperation with Israel's settlements in the West Bank altogether. The UK government had always acknowledged that such settlements are not only a barrier to peace; under International Law they are illegal too. As trading with them is being complicit with that illegality, you have to wonder why UK companies have been allowed to do so until now anyway. In any event, the crisis in Gaza underlines why that trade must stop now. Call these five actions sanctions if you like. I call them insisting that international agreements should be honoured and that international law should be upheld. Finally, we need to be clear that when we talk about rights, these are indivisible. Again to quote Orwell, some are not more equal than others. First, that means the UN Security Council was right at the weekend to deplore the upsurge there has been in anti-Semitic attacks in parts of Europe. Gaza does not provide a pretext for prejudice - whether against Jews, Muslims or Christians. The second right we should uphold is the right to self-determination. That's why the UK recognises Israel -as a matter of right, not a matter for negotiation. It's time we recognised Palestine too. As Labour's shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander said last year, "not as a gift to be given, but as a right to be recognised."]]> Syria - Where Will It Go From Here? Why I Disagree With Those Urging Imminent Military Intervention tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.3831034 2013-08-28T13:36:22-04:00 2013-10-28T05:12:02-04:00 Richard Burden http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-burden/ As my name won't be recorded by Hansard in Thursday's vote, it seems doubly important to set down my thoughts on the course of action which the Prime Minister is asking Parliament to endorse. I do so still not having seen the motion that David Cameron intends to put to the Commons Thursday. With well under than 24 hours to go, it seems crazy that so many of us are still in the dark about precisely what is being proposed and what we are being asked to vote on. But that is where we are. I've visited refugee camps in both Jordan and Turkey in the last year. I've heard directly from people who have lost homes, livelihoods and loved ones in the conflict. I regularly talk with friends in the UK who still have families in Syria - or to others who stayed to work there longer than most of us would have done. I have been left in no doubt by any of them about the brutality of the Assad regime or about their fear for the future of loved ones still inside Syria, whichever side "wins" in the conflict. Thousands upon thousands of civilians have already been killed. Nearly a quarter of the population have lost their homes. That's the equivalent of over 15million people being displaced here in the UK. And now chemical weapons have been used to slaughter entire communities too. If that happened in our country, would we not want the international community to protect us? Of course we would. Ordinary people in Syria deserve no less. But if the international community has a "responsibility to protect" - as the United Nations has resolved it does - then we have an equal responsibility to identify the ways we honestly believe will stand most chance of achieving this in reality. Yelling "something must be done" out of understandable moral outrage is not enough. And that is where I part company with those urging UK involvement in an imminent military strike against Syria. Understandably trying to distance what it is proposed today from the disaster of Iraq, the Prime Minister has said action must be "legal and specific." He says it should be designed to punish the Assad regime for using chemical weapons, rather than overthrow it entirely. Not regime change but "behaviour change" - deterring the Assad regime from further use of chemical weapons. But it is not that simple. As Admiral Lord West, a former First Sea Lord, has said: "You can do a surgical strike but you need to be clear what is your whole campaign plan, where do you go from there?" And that's exactly the point. How would Assad respond? Would he sue for peace? Maybe, but unlikely on past form. Would he back off from further use of chemical weapons but otherwise continue the bombing and slaughter of his own people? Maybe, but if so does our "responsibility to protect" only go as far as protection from chemical attack? Are we saying that if it's anything else, the Syrian people on your own? That was always the inherent mixed message in President Obama's insistence that Syria's use of chemical weapons would be a "red line". A third possibility is that Assad would work out that the damage from an international military strike could be sufficient to swing the conflict militarily in favour of the rebels. If that was his calculation, what would he do faced with little to lose? How about internationalising the conflict from the other side? In Lebanon? In Turkey? In Jordan? In Israel? How about Hezbollah's wider international reach? So what is the UK's campaign plan for these or other "what if" scenarios? If we don't know, it may be that our strategy to protect innocent people in Syria and elsewhere could be based on no more than a wing and a prayer. When so much is at stake, that is just not enough. Of course, things would probably have never got to this stage if Assad's own international protectors - especially Russia and China - had been prepared to accept the need for real change in Syria much earlier. It is to their eternal shame that they did not do so. But the reality is, shameful or not, what Russia and China do or don't do remains pivotal today. If we want to end to the slaughter, rather than punish the principal perpetrators while the slaughter carries on, we cannot duck the question of engaging Russia, China and yes, probably Iran too. That is why David Cameron is right to take the issue to the UN, but it's also why we should be focusing all our efforts on genuinely trying to secure agreement on a way forward there. That's not the same as the US and it's allies going through the motions to show that all other options other than military intervention have been exhausted. What I am suggesting - a negotiated peace - would be be messy, distasteful and it may stand no more chance of success now than it did six months ago. It really should not have to be like this. But it may just be a better route to protecting Syria's civilians in the long term than UK military strikes now, however understandable the desire to kick back at a dictator as brutal as Bashar Al-Assad. The international community needs a comprehensive peace plan, not a knee-jerk moral reaction, to end the bloodshed in Syria and protect the people there.]]> Government Must Fuel UK Automotive Ambition tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.3598582 2013-07-15T10:16:59-04:00 2013-09-14T05:12:02-04:00 Richard Burden http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-burden/ Jumping from continent to continent Formula One can seem like a world away, but in fact we are home to 8 of the 11 teams. Most of the factories, including reigning champions Red Bull, are based between West Midlands and Oxfordshire in the UK's "Motorsport Valley". Our prowess for car building is not just exclusive to motorsport. The automotive industry happens to be the country's largest sector in terms of exports. With demand from Asia, America and everywhere in between, the automotive sector employs over 700,000 people in jobs ranging from design and repair to ultra low carbon innovation. The perception that UK car manufacturing is in decline is certainly worth questioning. But, as Chair of the All-Party Motor Group (APMG) and MP for Birmingham Northfield where automotive is party of the area's heritage, I know that we can't be complacent. Protecting and strengthening the automotive sector for the future requires concerted action. This week the APMG publishes its annual report, Fuelling Ambition: Investment and Strategic Direction for UK Automotive. In it we not only recognise the success of the UK car industry as a leading location for inward investment, but outline the importance of seizing new opportunities for future growth. Formally launched in the House of Commons on the 9 July, and submitted in advance to ministers, shadow ministers and the Business, Science and Treasury Select Committees, it provides a summary of our meetings over the past year, and highlights our recommendations to the Government. Central to the conclusions we drew from discussions with business leaders, academics and trade officials over the past year was the need for the government to fuel the ambition of UK automotive. The release of the Government's automotive strategy last week, which provides a comprehensive strategic framework for the industry and which we highly welcome, must now be supported with sustained investment and commitment for the long term. Overseas expansion will be crucial. The Government must focus on reducing barriers to trade and finalising priority trade deals - such as the much talked one between the US and the EU. Securing deals with emerging markets, such as the rapidly growing economies of Korea and Brazil, must also be a priority. The cross-party group of MPs and Lords also call on the Government to back research and innovation into future growth opportunities - such as sustainable technologies and evolving driver trends - with investment now. We know the UK is in pole position to accelerate its growth. But as is the case in Formula One, a driver is only as good as the team around him. For the automotive industry to continue excelling the Government must continue to play a central part.]]> UK Should Drop the Double Standards and Say an Unequivocal Yes to UN Recognition of Palestine tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.2198271 2012-11-28T04:27:20-05:00 2013-01-27T05:12:01-05:00 Richard Burden http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-burden/ The UK government is saying it may vote in favour - but only if Palestinian president Abbas promises not to apply for membership of the International Criminal Court or the International Court of Justice. In other words, to forgo the rights other equivalent members would have. Put bluntly, it is about trying to make sure that Palestine doesn't try to ask either of these two institutions to rule on Israel's actions either in the West Bank or Gaza. The bodies of those killed in Gaza and southern Israel over the last fortnight have barely been buried. Israeli ministers claimed they had no alternative but to strike Gaza because Hamas was firing rockets; that the Palestinians are not serious about resolving the differences between the two peoples by peaceful or lawful means. But when president Abbas disavows the path of violence and asks the UN for no more - in fact, a bit less - than the lawful recognition Israel itself has had from the UN for over 60 years, prime minister Netanyahu threatens retaliation. The threats include tearing up existing agreements, withholding tax revenues owed to the Palestinian Authority and annexing settlements which have been constructed illegally in the West Bank. He does so whilst simultaneously complaining of the 'damage' being done by the Palestinians 'unilateral' move at the UN. Going to the UN a unilateral move? Hands up anybody who can think of an institution more multilateral than the United Nations? President Abbas, however, shows no sign of giving in to the threats and with the debate at the UN General Assembly now imminent, all the signs are that the motion to upgrade Palestine's status will be passed comfortably. In Europe support has grown with France and Spain both declaring in the last week that they will vote in favour. By continuing to back Israel in opposing the move, the US is getting itself dangerously out of step with both a changing Middle East and international opinion. Presumably, Messrs Cameron and Hague are hoping that trying to put conditions on a yes vote - like blocking access to the ICC - could get them and the US off the hook and keep Netanyahu sweet in the meantime. It's wrong. Where else in the world would we try to suggest that a nation's membership of the UN should be dependent on their giving up access to recognised mechanisms for implementing international law? Even in that part of the world, how would Israel react to suggestions that its own recognition by the UN should suddenly become conditional on what may be convenient for the Palestinians? And what precisely are we asking the Palestinians to promise? Not to seek redress under international law for what Israel has already done - whether air-strikes on Gaza, land seizure in the West Bank or laws which discriminate against Palestinian children? Or are we asking for an open-ended promise: a permanent green light for Israel to do whatever it likes with impunity? Proper recognition of Palestine by the UN General Assembly is not the same as peace in the Middle East, but it is a step on the road. Peace can only come from negotiations between the parties and international agreements. Many of those agreements are already there but it takes will to make them stick. British collusion in double standards does not, and cannot, help achieve that. There are first principles at stake here. If UN recognition is a matter of right for Israel, it cannot suddenly become a matter for horse-trading because the request comes from the Palestinians. Labour and most UK opposition parties already support UN recognition of Palestine. The deputy prime minister has suggested that the Liberal Democrat wing of the UK's coalition government supports it too. 100 MPs from across seven different political parties have signed a parliamentary motion calling on the UK to vote yes at the UN General Assembly. It's time for Britain's prime minister and foreign secretary to drop the double standards and confirm that they will do so.]]> Gaza: Leaders Play to the Gallery, the Innocent Suffer But Will the International Community Act? tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.2135093 2012-11-15T04:18:46-05:00 2013-01-14T05:12:01-05:00 Richard Burden http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-burden/ You would think it was all some kind of spectator sport. But it is not. Innocent people are dying in Gaza - however 'surgical' Israel claims its strikes to be. Across the border, casualties in Southern Israel have so far been mercifully rare: the ramshackle nature of rockets from Gaza and the technology of Israel's Iron Dome missile defence see to that. But the fear and trauma is real. Civilians know that the sirens leave them and their children just 15 seconds to move to safety. Both sides have their narratives to excuse their actions. Israel points to the rockets. Hamas points to air strikes and the blockade which Israel has imposed on Gaza for not far short of a decade now. Both have their domestic reasons for squaring up to each other right now. Hamas wants to retain credibility on the streets of Gaza as more extreme Jihadi groups paint them as 'yesterday's men,' unwilling to stand up to Israel and not delivering for Gaza's poor. It also wants to show Hamas in Gaza as a major player as different national parts of the Muslim Brotherhood jockey for position in the region. There are some similarities in Netanyahu's reasons. He has his own election coming up and he wants to show himself the 'strong man' domestically. He also probably wants to put the USA under pressure to unequivocally back the old ally before the second term Obama presidency gets too many ideas about new ways to achieve a sustainable Middle East peace. And both Hamas and Netanyahu have a common interest in boxing in Mahmoud Abbas as he seeks upgraded recognition for Palestine at the United nations. Indeed, some senior Israeli ministers have already been bizarrely claiming that UN recognition and rocket attacks go hand in hand. Hamas, meanwhile, wants to portray Abbas' approach as irrelevant to the needs of ordinary Palestinians. So where will the latest escalation lead? To another Operation Cast Lead with thousands dead and injured and more homes destroyed? Or will we see another hastily-brokered ceasefire as we have done during other, less serious fare-ups over the last year or so, with both sides having given the their domestic audiences a glimpse of their desired images. The latter is certainly preferable to the former. Indeed the rest of us have a right to ask why Israel chose to dramatically ratchet up its strikes yesterday when Egypt had been brokering a ceasefire this week. The international community must also be clear in its call for an immediate ceasefire - that means telling friends that they must stop as well as making the demand on enemies. And it means driving forward a political solution to the conflict between Israel and Palestine. Not only in Gaza but in the West Bank too. International law, numerous UN resolutions and peace initiatives have provided the framework. But we need to mean it. Britain voting for recognition of Palestine at the UN in a few weeks time - no more than Israel demanded and received for itself as of right - would be a sign that we, at least, are serious]]> Building on the Success of the Automotive Industry tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.1661056 2012-07-10T04:22:16-04:00 2012-09-08T05:12:09-04:00 Richard Burden http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-burden/ British Grand Prix at Silverstone was won in a Red Bull, one of the eight F1 teams based here in the UK. And whilst I don't want to take anything away from Mark Webber's Australian pedigree, he too lives here in Britain. As well as Webber, Red Bull and the seven other F1 teams, the UK is also home to seven volume car manufacturers, six commercial vehicle manufacturers, 11 bus and coach manufacturers and more than 100 specialist vehicle manufacturers. The industry produces over one million cars every year and supports over 700,000 jobs. The UK has a successful automotive industry. And, representing a constituency in the West Midlands, I know how important it is to our economy. Over £5.6 billion of investment has been committed by automotive companies across the country over the last 18 months. Only yesterday, BMW announced a further £250 million investment in the Mini at its UK plants in Oxford, Swindon and Hams Hall. The industry has demonstrated that it is delivering on opportunities to advance UK ambitions as a leading manufacturing force - but neither industry nor government can be complacent. That is why a cross-party group of MPs and Peers are today calling on the government to continue to work with the UK automotive industry to establish a long-term framework for growth and ensure companies can access the finance required to deliver growth opportunities. Our report, Delivering opportunities: Automotive investment for growth, is based on the discussions of the All-Party Parliamentary Motor Group with parliamentarians, ministers, officials, industry representatives and trade unions over the last year. The report looks at both the challenges and opportunities facing the UK automotive industry including the strength of the supply chain; low carbon technology and consumer choices; access to finance and investment; and collaboration between motorsport and other industries. We make four key recommendations to the government: 1. The government should establish a structured dialogue between the financial and automotive industries in order to enable businesses across automotive and manufacturing sectors to access finance. 2. The government should bring forward innovative support to allow smaller supply chain firms to take on apprentices and increase efforts to improve science, technology, engineering and mathematics education in schools. 3. The government should bolster its offer of support for low carbon R&D and incentives for charging infrastructure, and include opportunities for low carbon vehicle purchasing in its review of procurement. 4. The government should support the motorsport industry to create a technology roadmap and collaborate with other industries including aerospace, automotive and defence. I'll say it again - the UK has a successful automotive industry. But more can, and should, be done to build on the industry's recent successes and establish a long-term framework for growth.]]> Time to Rethink the Bahrain Grand Prix tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.1406058 2012-04-05T19:00:00-04:00 2012-06-05T05:12:01-04:00 Richard Burden http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-burden/ The inquiry which the Bahrain Government set up into the events on its streets last year proved to be more independent than many expected and there is no doubt that there are those amongst the country's rulers seeking genuine reform. It is also true that not all the problems in Bahrain come from one side. In a context where genuine and sustainable reform is taking place, holding a Grand Prix could be a unifying event for the people of Bahrain as well as a positive showcase on the world stage. But things are not at that stage. Since February last year, 45 people have died on Bahrain's streets. The latest victim was killed by live ammunition only last week. Hundreds of protesters gathered at the cemetery near his home outside the capital, Manama. Reports say riot police fired tear gas and stun grenades into the crowds, setting off running street clashes. Such scenes are, sadly, not uncommon. Current UK Foreign Office Travel advice for Bahrain notes that "the risk of outbreaks of violence is ongoing and the security situation remains uncertain" and advises "visitors to avoid large crowds and demonstrations". Bahrain is nothing like as bad as the terrible situation in Syria. And F1 teams do race in other countries with unenviable human rights records. But that does not mean it is right for F1 to collude in presenting to the outside world a cocooned picture of normality at the Bahrain International Circuit, when what is likely to be going on just few miles outside the circuit could be very different indeed. No doubt the Bahrain authorities will move heaven and earth to minimise any risks to the teams taking part. But the long term damage to the reputation of F1 and motor sport in general could be considerable. In hindsight, the FIA should not have scheduled the 2012 race so early in the season. It was always going to be too early to know how far things had moved on in Bahrain since last year. F1 can't turn the clock back but, with three weeks to go before the race, it can still rethink. It should do so.]]> Why the Sudden Israel-Gaza Escalation? tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.1337840 2012-03-11T19:00:00-04:00 2012-05-11T05:12:03-04:00 Richard Burden http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-burden/ three years ago. I was part of one of the first groups of MPs to enter after Israel's Operation Cast Lead. which left over 1,300 Palestinians dead, the majority of them civilians and 352 of them children. Over 5,000 more were wounded. Although Israel kept journalists out of Gaza whilst forces were attacking by land and air, few will forget the appalling scenes brought to our screens by the few Al Jazeera and other journalists who were already there. When we got in a couple of weeks after Israel had withdrawn, we saw the scenes of destruction for ourselves; whole villages raised to the ground, homeless people living in tents, burnt out hospitals scarred by shell holes. Three years on, I had hoped by now to see how much had changed. But I write this near to - but not inside - Gaza. On Friday an Israeli air strike hit a car carrying the leader of the militant Palestinian group, the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC). Zuhair al-Qaissi and another Palestinians died in the attack. Scores of rockets were fired into southern Israel seriously wounding one person. Seven other Israelis were also hurt by those rockets, or incidents related to them. More Israeli air strikes have left a further 13 Palestinians dead so far and more wounded. Inside Gaza UN workers are under curfew. We have been advised against entering the strip until the scale of the escalation is clearer. Will tonight bring more attacks both ways and a spiralling of violence or will a kind of calm return? We wait to see if it will be feasible to enter. So what is going on? Why the sudden escalation? Increasingly, the message being promoted by Israeli government sources is that there was no alternative; that scores of rockets had been raining down on southern Israel and Israel had to defend itself. It is true that militants have been firing rockets and mortars into southern Israel. The fact that most of those rockets land in open country does not, of course, make them acceptable and the international community is right to condemn them. But had there been a sudden or serious escalation? As far as I can tell from here the answer is no. By and large, Hamas themselves have been on ceasefire and QassamCount, a website reporting rocket attacks on Israel, does not appear to have reported an escalation recently. The big surge in rockets has come since Friday - following Israel's targeted assassination of the PRC leader. It is no surprise of course that the killing of a figure like Zuhair al-Qaissi would spark precisely the response it did, putting even more Israeli civilians at risk, at least in the short term. Why then, did Israel do it? One theory is that the killing of al-Qaissi was unfinished business for the IDF who held him responsible for killings in the Gaza/Sinai/Israel border region last August. Last August - so why the retaliation now, over six months later? Some reports say the IDF killed him to thwart another such attack soon. If that is the case then provoking a predictable escalation of rocket attacks on southern Israel appears an odd way of preventing killings near the Egyptian border. For months now, there have been rumours that another Cast Lead is coming - different from before but just as ruthless. Are we seeing the start of that? Is Israel deliberately ratcheting up tit-for-tat tension to give itself the space to go in heavy on Gaza while the world's attention is understandably focussed on Syria? Was now also judged to be the right time for such an operation help Israel retake the initiative from Palestinians pondering their next move at the UN and edging falteringly towards reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah? And has Israel judged that, with elections looming in the USA and uncertainty about the future of Egypt's own transition to democracy, now is the time to act? I hope I'm wrong about all this. No doubt we will see in the coming hours and days. Either way though, the people of both Gaza and Israel deserve better.]]> Israel Release 55 But 106 Palestinian Children Remain in Jail as Shackling Continues tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.1163932 2011-12-21T19:00:00-05:00 2012-02-20T05:12:01-05:00 Richard Burden http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-burden/ Israel reserved the right to make the final decision on which Palestinian prisoners to release, and which should remain in jail. Not surprisingly then, it attracted widespread criticism when not one of the 164 Palestinians held by Israel under the age of 18 were released in the first round of the prisoner swap. This time it was different. On Sunday, 55 Palestinians aged between 14 and 17 were freed by Israel. Whether or not it took place in response to the international pressure, Israel's change of heart is welcome. But it is no more than a start. Like many other countries, Israeli law defines under 18s as children. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child requires member states to uphold standards of judicial behaviour in respect of children, including only using imprisonment as a last resort. According to Defence for Children International (DCI), however, even after Sunday, 106 Palestinian children still remain in Israeli detention. Each year around 700 Palestinian children are held by Israel. Unlike Israeli children, they are subject to military, not civil jurisdiction. Widespread concerns about their treatment have been catalogued by DCI and a range of other Israeli and international human rights organisations. Children are frequently taken from their homes in the middle of the night, without telling their parents why they are being arrested or where they are being taken. Painful hand ties and blindfolds are used for extended periods of time. Prior to interrogation, children are often not informed of their right to silence or allowed to meet with a lawyer. Rarely are they even allowed to speak to their parents. Threats and physical and mental abuse during arrest, transfer and interrogation are widespread, making prosecutions based on evidence regularly extracted from confessions more than worrying. It's shocking when you hear about these things. It's worse still when you see them for yourself and meet some of the young people who have been through it. I'll certainly never forget the sight of 13-year-old boys being led into Israel's military courtrooms at Ofer prison in leg shackles and handcuffs. The leg shackles stayed on throughout the hearing. Necessary to prevent them absconding? I don't think so; the courtroom was inside the walls of a high security prison. Last month I met half a dozen young ex-prisoners from the Hebron area of the West Bank who are now receiving support from a psychological counselling centre run by the YMCA near Bethlehem. As their answers to my questions unfolded, the sheer extent of the Israeli military's practice of shackling child prisoners became clear. I was told how some of them would be picked up from a jail near Haifa by prison vans at around 1.00am to take them to the court at Ofer. The journey should take just a couple of hours. In practice, prisoners are regularly kept in the prison vans for eight or nine hours at a time as they travel to different parts of Israel to pick up more prisoners before arriving at Ofer. By the time the vans get there, they are often overcrowded. The 14 to 17-year-olds inside are shackled throughout the journey. Sometimes they are hand cuffed together too. When I asked the young people about food, water or even how they go to the toilet during the journey, they shrugged. If you are lucky, they told me, you may get a break outside the van during the journey. Often you do not. When I raise this kind of treatment with representatives of the Israeli government, I am usually cautioned to remember Israel's security concerns, and its need to be vigilant to the threat of suicide bombs. In fact, most of the children are detained for offences such as throwing stones. But that is hardly the point. Mistreatment of prisoners - especially child prisoners - does not stop being mistreatment depending on the offence they are accused of. That is why DCI calls for Palestinian children to have the same rights as Israeli children to recognised standards of juvenile justice rather than military courts. It is why they say all children should be accompanied by a lawyer and parent during questioning, and all interrogations of children should be audio-visually recorded as a means of independent oversight. And it is why - as we approach a new year in the 21st Century - Israel's shackling of child prisoners must stop.]]> Understanding Why the Prisoner Exchange Matters tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.1027398 2011-10-23T19:00:00-04:00 2011-12-23T05:12:02-05:00 Richard Burden http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-burden/ Perhaps it is especially important that people like me understand why the five year captivity of Gilad Shalit struck such a chord with millions of Israelis, and that we understand the depth of joy at his release. Shalit is a soldier who was captured on active service during an armed conflict in which his army remains engaged. Tragic though it is when it happens, capture or, still worse, death are two of the incredibly serious risks that service personnel take on when they join up. That so many British service personnel have been killed or injured in the last decade has made people in the UK more conscious of the military covenant than at any time since World War 2 and of the massive sacrifice it involves for so many families. But in Israel it means something even more than that. Much of Israel's army is made up of conscripts. National military service is something most Israelis regard as part of citizenship for a nation born in conflict and which has never been truly at peace for over 60 years. Nearly every Israeli Jewish family beyond the most orthodox has somebody that serves in the army at some time. The Israeli Defence Force therefore occupies a very special place in Israeli life. Shalit was not treated as a Prisoner of War as he should have been. His family did not know of his whereabouts. He was denied access to many of the rights he should have had under the Geneva Convention. But I get the sense that, although unacceptable, this was not what really struck a chord with the Israeli public. Rather it was the sense that he was 'one of us'. The State of Israel's obligation to get Shalit back was an obligation to all Israelis. If it is important for people like me to understand the significance of one Israeli soldier's captivity to Israeli families, so too is it important for Israel's friends abroad to understand the personal significance of Palestinian prisoners for Palestinian families across the Occupied Territories. There are just over 3.5 million Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, there were over 7,000 prisoners in Israeli jails in 2010. Rory McCarthy, the Guardian's former Jerusalem correspondent, once estimated that one-fifth of the Palestinian population of the OPTs has been imprisoned at least once since 1967. For Palestinian families, being a prisoner is being 'one of us' in much the same way as being a soldier is being 'one of us' to Israelis. Palestinian prisoners too are daily denied access to many of their rights under the Geneva Convention. Many have been accused or convicted of heinous killings but many have not. In any case, casually using the blanket term 'terrorist' to prisoners and detainees does not absolve any state of its obligations under the Geneva Convention and other humanitarian laws. A number of Palestinian prisoners are currently on hunger strike against the conditions in which they are held. It has not had the publicity afforded to the recent prisoner exchange, but it is just as real for the Palestinian prisoners themselves and their families. The Palestinians' one Israeli prisoner is now free. So too are 477 of the thousands of Palestinians held by Israel. Another 550 are due to be released in the next two months. Although the prisoner exchange has been rightly welcomed by most, arguments are already circulating about why it has taken place now and about who has been included. Why has it taken so long when apparently there was a possible deal on the table over two years ago? For all their vitriol against each other, do the Netanyahu government and Hamas share a perverse interest in deflecting international attention away from the Palestinian bid for UN recognition of their state and the new found credibility it has generated for President Abbas amongst ordinary Palestinians? Does Netanyahu see doing a deal with Hamas as a way of keeping Palestinians divided? Why has Israel been prepared to release people it has convicted of murder as long as they are not very well known, but refuses to release someone like Marwan Barghouti who could play a pivotal role in bringing about a sustainable peace based on two independent states of Israel and Palestine? It is right that all these questions should be asked in the weeks ahead but, whatever your view on them, there is another more urgent one that should be able to unite everyone for whom humanitarian values are important, irrespective of their views on Israel and Palestine. There are 164 Palestinian children currently held by Israel - most of them accused of crimes such as throwing stones. Not one of them has yet been released by Israel as part of the Shalit deal. Discrimination against children is routine in the Israeli legal system. Israeli children accused of offences are tried by Israel in civilian juvenile courts. Palestinian children are tried by Israel in military courts. I have seen for myself some of what that institutional difference means. The sight of thirteen or fourteen year old Palestinian children shuffling into a military courtroom in leg irons is a sight I will never forget. If the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child means anything to Israel, it must change its treatment of Palestinian child prisoners. It should make a start by agreeing to the call by UNICEF and others to release the 164 children it holds in its prisons today.]]>


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Higher Education
Education ministers from 46 European countries met in London to assess progress toward the 2010 goal of synchronizing the nations' degree-granting programs so that students and faculty members could transfer easily from one institution to another. A survey of 900 universities reported that 82% had reached that goal by 2007. In an effort to raise confidence in the quality of Europe's higher education, the ministers agreed to establish a voluntary register of national accreditation agencies that met European standards.
The annual rating of American higher-education institutions in the magazine U.S. News & World Report continued to meet resistance among many American university officials. More than 60 American liberal arts college presidents refused the request by U.S. News that they judge other colleges' reputations, although administrators of the highest-ranked colleges continued to submit reputation scores. Meanwhile, the ranking practice was spreading abroad; organizations in China, the U.K., and Germany, among other countries, conducted rating surveys. A study at Ireland's Dublin Institute of Technology surveyed 202 institutions around the world and found that many made changes specifically to raise their rankings.
The Russian parliament approved a standardized nationwide college-entrance test to replace the high-school final exams and individual universities' admissions tests used since the early 1990s. The new test was expected to improve the chances for applicants from remote regions and from poor families to qualify for higher education. This new approach to testing was expected to reduce the system's corruption; for example, universities had typically required applicants to pay for supplementary tutoring in connection with their entrance exams. Also in Russia, nearly 500 foreign students at a leading Moscow university were warned to stay in their dormitories during the days leading to Adolf Hitler's birthday, April 20, because neo-Nazis commemorating that event had in the past attacked foreigners in apparent hate crimes.
Saudi Arabia sought to strengthen its education system by setting aside a record $14.93 billion for higher education. The government planned to open 11 new applied-science universities, adding to the 110 recently established postsecondary institutions. Over a four-year period, applications rose from 68,000 to 110,000.
Enrollment problems plagued institutions in Greece, Iraq, Australia, several African countries, China, and Japan. Greek universities were forced by the Education Ministry's policies to take twice as many students as they were prepared to serve. In Iraq more than 1,000 university students fled from embattled cities in the south to enroll in a Kurdish university in the north, where authorities were obliged to rent quarters for the refugees and to offer special classes in the Kurdish language for the Arabic-speaking newcomers. Although more Australian students than ever before were studying abroad, some university programs were oversubscribed while others closed for lack of students. Senegal—and other African countries where world-class universities had been built in the 1960s in the flush of postcolonial optimism and investment—faced the disintegration of institutions under the weight of burgeoning population and a lack of funding. Chinese officials were distressed to learn that about 40% of the country's most-gifted college students chose to pursue their postgraduate studies overseas. In Japan postsecondary institutions competing for a decreasing number of students sought to increase their appeal by adding attractive new living quarters or turning to specialized curricula.
Financially well-endowed American universities entered 2007 in a strong economic condition after a record year of fund-raising. The 10 institutions that received the largest amounts (in millions of dollars) from alumni, corporations, and foundations in 2006 were: Stanford University, $911; Harvard University, $595; Yale University, $433; University of Pennsylvania, $409; Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., $406; University of Southern California, $406; Columbia University, New York City, $377; Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md., $377; Duke University, Durham, N.C., $332; and University of Wisconsin–Madison, $326.
Investigators in the United States exposed corruption in the country's $85 billion student-loan industry by identifying university officials who owned stock in loan companies and were paid for advising students to borrow from those companies. Six major universities agreed to reimburse students $3.27 million for inflated loans that had resulted from revenue-sharing agreements between the loan companies and university officials. Many other universities launched internal investigations in the wake of the discoveries.
Increasingly in the United States, women were named to top positions at major universities. With the installation of Drew Gilpin Faust as the first woman to become president of Harvard, four of the eight prestigious Ivy League schools had female presidents.
Issues of academic freedom were a concern in the dismissal of faculty members in Sweden, Jordan, and South Africa. Two veteran professors—a Russian and a German—were discharged from Sweden's Uppsala University for having created discord between faculty members in a society in which workplace harmony was protected by law.
Al-Zarqa (Jordan) Private University dismissed 14 Islamist professors, most of them members of the Muslim Brotherhood, who had severely criticized the Jordanian government. Al-Zarqa's president, Adnan Nayfeh, denied charges that the firings had been politically motivated, saying, "I was hired to do the best things for students and for the academics at the university, and it was time to get some new blood."
South African universities adopted tactics to stifle criticism of administrative polices. The University of KwaZulu-Natal was at the forefront of a growing movement of repression; two professors were discharged for having damaged the reputation of the university because they criticized administrative practices in the public press. KwaZulu-Natal administrators also drafted a plan that gave the university broad powers to intercept staff and student e-mail messages.

subset: commoncrawl


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Ale Bread Rolls - made with English Ale and a mix of wholemeal and white flour. Seriously tasty!
The Ploughman's Loaf from Bread week on The Great British Bake Off! A caramelized onions, beer and cheese meal in a loaf.
Ploughman's Lunch is a cold plate of beef, cheeses, and sweet and savory garnishes fit for a King.


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The Amalfi Coast / Paris / Benidorm / Hong Kong / Black Country Stories
Martin Parr's vision of Paris.
Commissioned by the Paris Audiovisual association and the Maison Européenne de la Photographie. The work is being shown, alongside some older Paris images from Parr's archive, at the MEP in Paris. The show will take place from 26th March through to 25th May 2014.
Xavier Barral published the book 'grand paris' to co-incide with the show.


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Away mission crashes
View Single Post
Archived Post
Lt. Commander
Join Date: Dec 2007
Posts: 120
# 3
Originally Posted by
I have had this problem since closed beta! It has happened during the away missions of Starbase 24 (crashed 3 times!) and during Stop the Signal (crashed once). The game stutters for a little bit and then it says the gameclient has crashed. It seems to only happen when there is a lot going on and ONLY during away missions - e.g. 3 of us throw grenades, lots of other people being knocked back/firing weapons etc.
If I move the mouse and look in the opposite direction, the game is fine. Seems like there is an error in the game engine. Have bugged this many times, even since closed beta. I know I am NOT the only one with this problem.
Important specs:
8Gb Ram
W7 64Bit
I run a I7 920, 12 gig DDR, w/ 5970. My processor temp generally stays around 30-35C and the video card GPU's never go above 60C which is well within reasonable temps for the card when under stress, yet ONLY in ground missions I crash to desktop often and frequently...in others not at all. However in space it's 100% stable. Any clues?


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Cheap GNU to Atlantic City flights
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Route information for flights from Goodnews Bay AK to Atlantic City Intl..
3,835.74 miles
ACY - Atlantic City Intl. Airlines
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- FIFA adds prison labor to its arsenal
- Sitting on a scoop: the story behind the V-E headlines of May 1945
- Bilderback repeats at Speedway
- US permits Arctic drilling, but questions about safety remain
- ISIS takeover of Ramadi means hard choices face the Iraqi and US governments
- State Roundup: Democrat sponsored prevailing wage amendment passes
- Facebook's Instant Articles not a threat to media
- U of I expert: Rauner's pension fix 'unconstitutional'
- State Senate approves lesser penalties for marijuana possession
- State Roundup: Natural gas vehicle tax stalls in committee
The greatest travel offers the world of golf has to offer
By Doug Halberstadt
Sports Columnist
It's during these cold and snowy days of winter that many golfers yearn for the warmth and green grass that comes with the turn of a few more pages on the calendar in this region. I was reminded of that this past week when I opened up my e-mail and was the fortunate recipient of the greatest travel offers the world of golf has to offer.
I was made aware that because of my "exceptional talent" on the golf course, I qualified to partake of some of the most wonderful golf vacations that only a select few ever get the opportunity to experience.
The first trip was presented as follows: Take a trip to the World Golf Village in St. Augustine, Fla., and re-live the epic moments that made you fall in love with golf. Not only can you play at two of the best courses in the area, but you can also experience the thrill and challenge that only golf legends like Gene Sarazen, Sam Snead, Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus can offer. The Slammer & The Squire and The King & The Bear courses are located right at the World Golf Village. After playing an unforgettable round at each course, take a walk through the World Golf Hall of Fame where unforgettable moments in the sport can be revisited. The Golf Club of South Hampton is just as memorable as the World Golf Village courses, featuring views of 16 lakes and boasting more than 60 bunkers to keep you on your toes. The Comfort Suites at World Golf Village is in perfect location to each of these courses and will serve as your haven for rest and relaxation after each exciting round of golf. Sounds very nice, doesn't it? The cost for that little trip ranged from $466-$792 per person. Air fare was not included in any of the featured trips.
There were at least three other once-in-a-lifetime trips outlined. They included the "Birdies in Birmingham," the "Phoenix Fantastic Four" and the "Paradise in Palm Springs" tours. They ranged in price from $417 all the way up to more than $1,700, depending on the length of stay.
I really do appreciate being invited to participate in these great offers based on my "exceptional talent." It's obvious that whoever sent me this e-mail has never seen me play golf. I have no "exceptional talent" whatsoever when it comes to golf. But it is nice of them to assume that.
It's also obvious they haven't seen my checking account balance. As much as I'd like to take one of these trips, it won't be happening this winter. I'll patiently wait until late March or early April, when I can return to the courses around here for "Bogies and Double Bogies in Winnebago."
Doug Halberstadt can be reached via e-mail at email@example.com.


text:
Pronunciation: aceptarlo
Added on: 2010-09-19 Listened: 7 timesin: Add categories to aceptarlo
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- Pronunciation by Xime (Female from Mexico)
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Does anyone have the call in mp3 form? I clicked on a link in another thread, but the file has either been moved or removed from WLW's website.
Does anyone have the call in mp3 form? I clicked on a link in another thread, but the file has either been moved or removed from WLW's website.
I think i uploaded this correctly...
Thanks a bunch!
I was at that game, needless to say, and it was the best experience at a baseball game that I've ever enjoyed!
"Rounding Third and Heading for Home"
I get goosebumps listening to that. Thanks so much for posting it.
"I have noticed even people who claim everything is predestined, and that we can do nothing to change it, look before they cross the road." Stephen Hawking
I was there also,it was GREAT
Does anyone have an MP3 of when Dunn called Marty during a rain delay?
Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball - Jacques Barzun
"I don't want to embarrass any other catcher by comparing him to Johnny Bench."
Sparky Anderson
-LTlabnerIf you can't build a winning team with that core a fire-sale isn't the solution. Selling the franchise, moving them to Nashville and converting GABP into a used car lot is.
I loved the call of the WOGS! Listening to it over and over on the way home was awesome!
Let's make some noise!
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text:
(On my mom and 'em)
(I put that on my mom and 'em)
Fear around here, I smell death around here
(On my mom and 'em)
Don't be snooping 'round here, get dogged around here
(I put that on my mom and 'em)
from ScHoolboy Q – Raymond 1969 Lyrics on Genius
That's all they know in the hood; Murder, clothes and hoes. If they smell fear or catch you in some shit you aren't supposed to be in your gonna get caught up.
"Snoopin" and "Dogged" is a reference to Snoop Dogg, who happened to be a Crip himself
"Fear around here…death around here…snooping round here…dogged around here" may be referencing Memphis Bleek's song 'Round Here'
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