Showing posts with label Sam Jones. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sam Jones. Show all posts

Prime minister says people have failed to appreciate 'thickness of glass ceiling she broke through'


David Cameron has paid tribute to Margaret Thatcher as a remarkable leader who "defined and overcame the challenges of the age" and who had earned her place alongside David Lloyd George, Winston Churchill and Clement Attlee in the pantheon of great British prime ministers.


Not only had she won three elections and served longer than any other prime minister for more than 150 years, he told the Commons, she had also become "our first and, so far, our only female prime minister".


Cameron said people sometimes failed to appreciate the "thickness of the glass ceiling she broke through" as the daughter of a Lincolnshire grocer, and forgot that she had spent her whole premiership under direct, personal threat from the IRA, losing two of her closest friends, Airey Neave and Ian Gow, to terrorism.


Despite being "only inches away from death" when the IRA bombed the Grand hotel in Brighton in 1984, said Cameron, it was entirely characteristic of Thatcher that she "shook off the dust" and gave a great speech about the need for democracy to stand up to terrorism.


She was, he added, a woman of "great contrasts"; formidable in public and yet "faultlessly kind" to her staff and devoted to her family.


"She was a remarkable type of leader," he said, "who said very clearly, 'I'm not a consensus politician but a conviction politician.'"


Among her simple philosophical watchwords, said the prime minister, were such phrases as "sound money", "strong defence" and "liberty under the rule of law".


He also spoke of her love for, and commitment to, debate in the House of Commons, and remembered the fear he felt when tasked with helping her prepare for prime minister's questions as a young Tory researcher in the 1980s. He recalled a junior minister rushing to a meeting and being told: "Rome wasn't built in a day." Yes, replied the minister, "but Margaret Thatcher wasn't the foreman on that job".


Cameron also reminded the house that things would have been very different had the then Margaret Roberts not been turned down for a job at ICI because she was "headstrong, obstinate and dangerously opinionated". All of those qualities, he said, he been put to use for the benefit of the country, and had helped her break the state's grip on many areas of British life in the 1980s.


Nor, he added, was she one "to shy away from the fight": her commitment to democracy and freedom, said Cameron, had helped bring freedom to Kuwait, to those parts of central and eastern Europe that were once "trapped behind the iron curtain", and, of course, to the Falkland Islands.


At her funeral next week, said the prime minister, Thatcher's coffin would be "draped with the flag that she loved … in a fitting salute to a great prime minister".


He concluded: "Let this be her epitaph: she made the country great again."


Responding, the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, said that at every stage in her life, Thatcher "broke the mould".


He said: "Having broken so many conventions as a woman, it can't be a coincidence that she was someone who in so many other areas of life was willing to take on the established orthodoxies.


"Margaret Thatcher's ability to overcome every obstacle in her path is just one measure of her personal strength. And that takes me to her style of politics.


"You can disagree with Margaret Thatcher. But it is important to understand the kind of political leader she was. What was unusual was that she sought to be rooted in people's daily lives but she also believed that ideology mattered.


"Not for her the contempt sometimes heaped on ideas and new thinking in political life.


"And while she never would have claimed to be, or wanted to be seen as, an intellectual, she believed, and she showed, that ideas matter in politics."


Miliband set out areas where he agreed with Thatcher – in recognising the nation's aspiration, in economic reform, in foreign policy and particularly the Falklands and in her understanding about climate change.


"But it would be dishonest and not in keeping with the principles that Margaret Thatcher stood for, even on this day, not to be open with this house about the strong opinions and the deep divisions there were, and are, over what she did," he went on.


"In mining areas, like the one I represent, communities felt angry and abandoned. Gay and lesbian people felt stigmatised by measures like section 28, which today's Conservative party has rightly repudiated."


Miliband concluded: "Whatever your view of her, Margaret Thatcher was a unique and towering figure. I disagree with much of what she did. But I respect what her death means to the many, many people who admired her. And I honour her personal achievements.


"On previous occasions, we have come to this house to remember the extraordinary prime ministers who have served our nation. Today, we also remember a prime minister who defined her age."







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via The Guardian World News http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/apr/10/thatcher-defined-challenges-age-cameron
08:20

Edwards co-developed technique that has helped bring more than 4 million children into the world


Sir Robert Edwards, whose pioneering IVF technique has helped bring more than 4 million children into the world, has died aged 87, Cambridge University has announced.


"It is with deep sadness that the family announces that Professor Sir Robert Edwards, Nobel prizewinner, scientist and co-pioneer of IVF, passed away peacefully in his sleep on 10th April 2013 after a long illness," the university said in a statement on Wednesday.


"He will be greatly missed by family, friends and colleagues. "


In the late 1970s, Edwards and Dr Patrick Steptoe became famous after developing the technique of in vitro fertilisation, which resulted in the birth of Louise Brown – the world's first test tube baby – in 1978.


Their work won them the gratitude of many millions of people, but was criticised by the Vatican.


Edwards, who started his work on fertilisation in 1955, won the Nobel prize for physiology or medicine in 2010 "for the development of in vitro fertilisation". A year later, he was knighted for "services to human reproductive biology".


Martin Johnson, professor of reproductive science at the University of Cambridge – and Edwards' first graduate student – said: "Bob Edwards was a remarkable man who changed the lives of so many people. He was not only a visionary in his science but also in his communication to the wider public about matters scientific in which he was a great pioneer.


"He will be greatly missed by his colleagues, students, his family and all the many people he has helped to have children."


Mike Macnamee, chief executive of Bourn Hall, the IVF clinic that Steptoe and Edwards co-founded, said: "Bob Edwards is one of our greatest scientists. His inspirational work in the early 60s led to a breakthrough that has enhanced the lives of millions of people worldwide. He is held in great affection by everyone who has worked with him and was treated by him.


"For me personally Bob was a great mentor, colleague and friend. It was a privilege to work with him and his passing is a great loss to us all."






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via The Guardian World News http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2013/apr/10/ivf-pioneer-robert-edwards-dies
08:06

Afghans will determine their own fate, says defence secretary, as MPs warns country could descend into civil war within years


The defence secretary has admitted that no one can predict what will happen to Afghanistan after British, US and other Nato troops end their frontline role there at the end of 2014, and stressed that only the Afghan people can find a lasting solution to the country's violence, corruption and lawlessness.


Philip Hammond's remarks came as the Commons cross-party defence committee warned that Afghanistan could descend into civil war within a few years and suggests that the British government's attitude towards the country is one of simply hoping for the best.


Hammond told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the UK had intervened in Afghanistan to protect its national security and had never intended to stay for a protracted period.


"Afghanistan is an incredibly complex society; a multiethnic society that was very fragmented before we started," he said. "Our ability to influence outcomes is very limited."


He defended the long deployment of British troops, saying their actions had brought about "the removal of international terrorists able to use Afghanistan as a base" and helped train the Afghan national security force, which "can and, increasingly, is holding the ring" on the insurgents.


"The sacrifices have been huge and we will never forget the sacrifice that has been made to deliver the security of Britain and our allies," he said.


"It was always clear that this could not be an open-ended intervention. We had to create the conditions where we would eventually be able to withdraw and allow the Afghans to maintain their own security so our security was protected.


"While the situation is not perfect we have come a long way to being able to deliver that objective."


The defence secretary also said it was clear that "the long-run solution to security has to be an Afghan solution; it cannot be imposed from outside". History, he said, had shown the futility of such attempts.


Asked about the committee's warnings, Hammond said it had been offered a range of views as to Afghanistan's future, which ran from the overly optimistic to the possibility of civil war.


"I completely accept nobody can say with certainty what the future for Afghanistan will be, but what I can say is that the future of Afghanistan will have to be determined by the Afghan people," he said.


Former British ambassadors to Afghanistan told the Commons committee that Nato's understanding of the Taliban was limited, that "corruption and abuse of power was intrinsic in Afghan society" and that the country's economy depended heavily on the drugs trade.


The MPs warned that the start of an Afghan-led peace settlement with the Taliban was vital to ensure the country's stability and security after the withdrawal of British troops next year. But they added that coalition forces' lack of progress in reducing violence in the country "does not augur well for improving security and economic development on a long-term sustainable basis".


The committee also criticised the government for failing to combat the perception that the pullout amounted to "withdrawal through fatigue".


Publication of the report came a day after the government announced that the last group of Royal Marines to be deployed in Afghanistan was returning to the UK. Troops from 40 Commando Royal Marines were based in the Nahr-e Saraj district. The 7,200-strong Royal Marine Corps has deployed commandos to Afghanistan 12 times since 2001, and troops from 40 Commando were the first British soldiers in the country that year, securing Bagram airfield and patrolling the streets of Kabul.


The defence committee said the Ministry of Defence and the Foreign Office took an optimistic view of the future yet gave very little information about how they planned to be involved in Afghanistan beyond 2014,


James Arbuthnot, chairman of the committee, said: "We have received starkly opposing predictions for Afghanistan's outlook, post-2014. The fact is that the UK has limited influence."


The report concludes: "We hope that Afghanistan can become a secure, prosperous and flourishing country but we are concerned that Afghanistan could descend into civil war within a few years."


Some ground may have to be given in negotiations with the Taliban but the committee stressed the importance of open and free elections and said the rule of law and human rights should not be compromised in any settlement. The committee said that all Afghan people, including women, must be involved in the peace process. If women were excluded as a consequence of negotiating with the Taliban, the progress made could easily unravel, the MPs warned.


"If the UK is to continue to provide financial and training support to Afghanistan post-2014, there needs to be a clear articulation of the areas the UK will fund and support and the outcomes it expects to achieve," the report said.


"It must be clear to those engaged in the peace negotiations that, in providing support in the future, the UK will be paying close attention to the progress on the rights of women, children and minority groups, the tackling of corruption and the furtherance of the rule of law".


The report also claimed that not enough was being done to train and equip Afghan security forces properly. Concerns remained over the capability of Afghan forces to fill the gap left by withdrawing coalition forces, particularly in terms of helicopters, close air support and logistics, the committee said.


"We are concerned that the ANSF [Afghan national security forces totalling about 350,000] will reduce its strength by over a third on current plans based on the expectation that the insurgency will have been diminished," the report adds. "The government should urge the international community to develop a contingency plan in case the level of the insurgency does not diminish".







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via The Guardian World News http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/10/afghanistan-future-uncertain-hammond
08:06

Report stresses immutable definition of marriage as 'legally sanctioned relationship between a man and a woman'


The Church of England has ruled out offering blessings to same-sex couples, insisting that such public gestures belong only to heterosexual marriage.


The announcement – made in a report from the church's faith and order commission entitled Men and Women in Marriage – comes weeks after the outgoing bishop of Liverpool, the Rt Rev James Jones, suggested the church consider blessing gay couples as it should "bless true love wherever such love is found".


The report stresses the church's immutable definition of marriage as "a faithful, committed, permanent and legally sanctioned relationship between a man and a woman, central to the stability and health of human society", but recognises the existence of same-sex relationships, which it terms "forms of human relationships which fall short of marriage in the form God has given us".


The bishop of Coventry, Dr Christopher Cocksworth, who chairs the commission, repeated the church's commitment to providing "care, prayer and compassion" to those who cannot be married in church, but drew the line at blessings for gay couples. "Whilst it is right that priests and church communities continue to seek to provide and devise pastoral care accommodation for those in such situations, the document is clear that public forms of blessing belong to marriage alone," he said.


The bishop also warned that the government's plans to introduce same-sex marriages – a move opposed by the Church of England, which will in any case be legally barred from marrying same-sex couples – risked jeopardising the institution of marriage.


"The church has a long track record in conducting and supporting marriage, drawing from the deep wells of wisdom which inform centuries of shared religious and cultural understandings of marriage," he said.


"There is a danger in the current debate of picking apart the institution of marriage which is part of the social fabric of human society," he added.


While the bishop made it plain that the report does not herald a change in the church's public recognition of gay couples, he said that a commission on same-sex relationships, set up in July 2011 under Sir Joseph Pilling, would report at some point later this year.


"There is thought going on at the moment to the sort of prayer, if you like, that might be offered in that private, personal, pastoral care," he said.


Despite the church's traditional and unchanging view of marriage as the union of one man and one woman, the new archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has expressed his admiration from some same-sex relationships.


"You see gay relationships that are just stunning in the quality of the relationship," he told the BBC on the morning of his enthronement last month, adding that he had "particular friends where I recognise that and am deeply challenged by it."


The archbishop has also offered to meet the veteran human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell to discuss the church's position on same-sex marriage.






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via The Guardian World News http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/apr/10/church-england-same-sex-couples
08:06

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor says no pressure was put on the former archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh to quit


The former leader of the Catholic church in England and Wales has denied that the Vatican forced Cardinal Keith O'Brien to step down early amid allegations of "inappropriate acts" against fellow priests.


Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor insisted that no pressure was brought to bear on the former archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh to quit ahead of schedule or to stay away from the conclave to choose the next pope.


"It was up to his own conscience that he stepped down. He wasn't asked to; he decided to do that," said Murphy-O'Connor. "As he said in his statement, I think he thought it would be a distraction to be in Rome. I think that was the main reason, the media attention.


"It was his decision to do so. He wasn't forced to do so; he wasn't asked to do so. He thought that given the publicity over the allegations, which are being contested by the cardinal, that was a better thing to do."


Speaking at a press conference that had been arranged before O'Brien announced his resignation, Murphy-O'Connor declined to say whether he thought the pope had decided to bring forward the date on which O'Brien's resignation took effect in direct response to the allegations. He also refused to comment on whether the fact that O'Brien's accusers were serving or former priests meant it represented a turning point in the abuse scandal for the church leadership.


Asked whether cardinals accused of protecting or failing to investigate paedophile priests should also stay away from the conclave, he said it was a matter for the individuals concerned.


"That would be up to them, up to their own consciences whether they decided not to go to the conclave," he said. "I think I ought to say there is an obligation on cardinals to go to conclave, so it'll be a decision in their conscience."


He did, however, issue an unequivocal call for the next pope to tackle the scandals that have proved so damaging to the church.


"As you know, there have been troubles in recent years and scandals, and these have to be addressed," he said. "The pope's own house has to be put in order."


Murphy-O'Connor added that the cardinals meeting to choose Pope Benedict's successor next month would be discussing the harm done by the sexual abuse scandals and looking at ways to change and renew their church.


"There is no doubt in my mind that there has to be reform and that these issues have to be addressed at the highest level, not only by the pope but by the bishops and I think that will be one of the main things the cardinals will be discussing," he said.


The cardinal also said the new pope would need to be a strong and fearless leader.


"When a new pope is elected he will know very well what the cardinals have discussed because he will have been part of the discussions," he said. "I think the new pope will go with a very clear message and I'm sure the new pope will also be appointed with a view to a man who's capable of government … capable of the kind of reform and renewal that's needed in the church at the present time."


He added: "There have been difficulties, there have been scandals and they've got to be addressed because otherwise there's no doubt – and it's something that saddens me deeply – that not just the image of the church but the effectiveness of the church … is also affected."






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via The Guardian World News http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/26/pope-keith-obrien-english-cardinal
05:35
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