A top official in Peter Mandelson's European Union trade department has leaked highly sensitive commercial information in return for the promise of financial benefit. In a six-month investigation, The Sunday Times tape-recorded Fritz-Harald Wenig, a trade director, passing secrets to undercover reporters posing as lobbyists for a Chinese businessman seeking insider information. Wenig discussed the possibility of payment or taking a lucrative job with the businessman. He said he would decide further once he had provided "results". He leaked the names of two Chinese companies likely to get special status if the EU imposes a protective tariff barrier against Chinese candle-makers. The information is potentially worth millions to those trading with these companies.
A top official in Peter Mandelson's European Union trade department has leaked highly sensitive commercial information in return for the promise of financial benefit.
In a six-month investigation, The Sunday Times tape-recorded Fritz-Harald Wenig, a trade director, passing secrets to undercover reporters posing as lobbyists for a Chinese businessman seeking insider information.
Wenig discussed the possibility of payment or taking a lucrative job with the businessman. He said he would decide further once he had provided "results".
He leaked the names of two Chinese companies likely to get special status if the EU imposes a protective tariff barrier against Chinese candle-makers. The information is potentially worth millions to those trading with these companies.
The elegant Comme Chez Soi is one of the great Brussels restaurants where businessmen on expense accounts mix with Eurocrats beneath its famous art nouveau glass ceilings. On a warm Wednesday evening in March, one of the diners turning up to sample the two Michelin star menu was Fritz-Harald Wenig, a director in the European commission's trade department. He had accepted an e-mail invitation to dine with two British lobbyists whom he had never met before. But it was one of his favourite restaurants and he was in good spirits. When the lobbyists explained that they wanted help for a Chinese client, he quipped, "We decide so after a second dinner here", before quickly adding: "No, I'm joking."
The elegant Comme Chez Soi is one of the great Brussels restaurants where businessmen on expense accounts mix with Eurocrats beneath its famous art nouveau glass ceilings.
On a warm Wednesday evening in March, one of the diners turning up to sample the two Michelin star menu was Fritz-Harald Wenig, a director in the European commission's trade department.
He had accepted an e-mail invitation to dine with two British lobbyists whom he had never met before. But it was one of his favourite restaurants and he was in good spirits.
When the lobbyists explained that they wanted help for a Chinese client, he quipped, "We decide so after a second dinner here", before quickly adding: "No, I'm joking."
To employ one of my more annoying sweeping statements, legal systems aren't about doing the right thing: They're about ensuring freedom from control for the upper classes, ensuring freedom from responsibility for the middle classes, and ensuring both apply to the lower classes. keep to the Fen Causeway
Even as EU border patrols search for some 70 migrants who went missing near Malta on Aug. 27, the people of the smallest EU state are becoming fed up with rising illegal immigration. The 70 disappeared when they were swept off a flimsy craft which capsized after it left Libya, according to eight fellow travelers who managed to cling onto the vessel long enough to be rescued. It is one of the worst tragedies involving would-be immigrants in the Mediterranean -- yet the Maltese newspaper's online readers' forum offered little, if any, compassion. Instead, anger was directed at the thousands of Africans who attempt to cross the waters to Europe. Readers' rage was also aimed at neighboring Libya, from where most of the would-be immigrants depart, and the European Union, which is perceived as turning a blind eye towards a mounting problem. In the past eight months 2,200 would-be illegal immigrants landed on Malta, the smallest and most densely-populated European Union state. In contrast less than 1,700 arrivals were recorded for the whole of 2007. Given Malta's population of 400,000, it is as if 45,000 people had landed in Germany, Maltese government officials have said.
The 70 disappeared when they were swept off a flimsy craft which capsized after it left Libya, according to eight fellow travelers who managed to cling onto the vessel long enough to be rescued. It is one of the worst tragedies involving would-be immigrants in the Mediterranean -- yet the Maltese newspaper's online readers' forum offered little, if any, compassion.
Instead, anger was directed at the thousands of Africans who attempt to cross the waters to Europe. Readers' rage was also aimed at neighboring Libya, from where most of the would-be immigrants depart, and the European Union, which is perceived as turning a blind eye towards a mounting problem.
In the past eight months 2,200 would-be illegal immigrants landed on Malta, the smallest and most densely-populated European Union state. In contrast less than 1,700 arrivals were recorded for the whole of 2007. Given Malta's population of 400,000, it is as if 45,000 people had landed in Germany, Maltese government officials have said.
How would you size the quotas? To population? To size? To proximity to the immigrants' countries of origin? According to language they speak?
Just like the "we need to nuy gas jointly from Russia" - I want specifics, not generic "we should do this"... In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
And yes, if you like, a common border requiring a common policy requires a centrally funded border coastguard & police.
However, if you're asking me to determine the specifics of that common policy, then I'm gonna take the Obama defence; it's way, way above my pay-grade. keep to the Fen Causeway
It´s not the complaining, it´s the desperate need of the rest of the world next door.
First of all, EU Justice should be investigating the mafias involved and blanking NATO should be finding the reported ´mother ship´ that drops off the boats, instead of covering the USass in Afghanistan, but there doesn´t seem to be enough interest in ´just a southern problem´.
The lives lost are priceless and so are the social costs, but the maintenance, deportation, job creation in the countries of origin, etc. do have a measurable price and I bet non-profits could tell us!
Now that we have the Shame Directive and some countries are willing to pay privateers to ´store´ people up to 18 months, I don´t even want to know how much cheaper it would be to create a job at the source. Our knowledge has surpassed our wisdom. -Charu Saxena.
Rumors that the powerful ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical Party (SRS) was splitting were confirmed when its acting leader, Tomislav Nikolic, resigned all his party posts. Nikolic resigned Saturday, Sept. 6, as the deputy of the party chief Vojislav Seselj, who has been on trial for war crimes at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) since early 2003, as well as the SRS floor leader in the Serbian parliament. SRS said in a statement that Nikolic stepped down at the party leadership meeting Friday night. The outcome indicates that the extreme hardline wing within SRS, loyal to Seselj, overcame the moderates led by Nikolic. Nikolic has led the SRS with apparently comprehensive loyalty since Seselj left Serbia to face trial in early 2003 -- yet under his leadership, the party toned down its belligerent rhetoric, softening its image slightly.
Nikolic resigned Saturday, Sept. 6, as the deputy of the party chief Vojislav Seselj, who has been on trial for war crimes at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) since early 2003, as well as the SRS floor leader in the Serbian parliament.
SRS said in a statement that Nikolic stepped down at the party leadership meeting Friday night. The outcome indicates that the extreme hardline wing within SRS, loyal to Seselj, overcame the moderates led by Nikolic.
Nikolic has led the SRS with apparently comprehensive loyalty since Seselj left Serbia to face trial in early 2003 -- yet under his leadership, the party toned down its belligerent rhetoric, softening its image slightly.
The EU must open the door to a rapprochement with Belarus and support reconstruction and peace in Georgia and Moldova if it is to counter Russia's growing assertiveness in eastern Europe, EU foreign ministers said. "We should encourage Belarus to improve the way they conduct their elections and we should give them incentives. We need a process of rebuilding trust," Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski told DPA news agency from the ministers' informal meeting in Avignon, France, on Saturday, Sept. 6. "It is a very good time to rethink our relations with Belarus. Belarus is sending desperate signals to the West," Lithuanian Foreign Minister Petras Vaitiekunas said. Officially, Saturday's talks were set to focus on the EU's relationship with Russia and Georgia following their war in August.
"We should encourage Belarus to improve the way they conduct their elections and we should give them incentives. We need a process of rebuilding trust," Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski told DPA news agency from the ministers' informal meeting in Avignon, France, on Saturday, Sept. 6.
"It is a very good time to rethink our relations with Belarus. Belarus is sending desperate signals to the West," Lithuanian Foreign Minister Petras Vaitiekunas said.
Officially, Saturday's talks were set to focus on the EU's relationship with Russia and Georgia following their war in August.
President Nicolas Sarkozy of France has enlisted some of Britain's leading architects for one of his most daring projects. He wants to make Paris more like London. Proposals now emerging reflect the French leader's admiration for Anglo-Saxon dynamism. They are likely to horrify Parisians. As part of the master plan architects are proposing high-rise suburbs modelled on Croydon, south London, and an orbital railway to link them. They will encourage the middle classes to move out of the centre of Paris and ordinary working people to move in. Professor Richard Burdett, design chief for the London Olympics and one of the experts working on the "Greater Paris" project with the Richard Rogers architecture practice, said: "The notion of mixing different types of people and activity, so that people are cheek by jowl, makes a city over time much more tolerant and resilient to change.
President Nicolas Sarkozy of France has enlisted some of Britain's leading architects for one of his most daring projects. He wants to make Paris more like London.
Proposals now emerging reflect the French leader's admiration for Anglo-Saxon dynamism. They are likely to horrify Parisians.
As part of the master plan architects are proposing high-rise suburbs modelled on Croydon, south London, and an orbital railway to link them. They will encourage the middle classes to move out of the centre of Paris and ordinary working people to move in.
Professor Richard Burdett, design chief for the London Olympics and one of the experts working on the "Greater Paris" project with the Richard Rogers architecture practice, said: "The notion of mixing different types of people and activity, so that people are cheek by jowl, makes a city over time much more tolerant and resilient to change.
ordinary working people to move in.
Paris property prices and rents will have to go down a long, long way before that happens.
Will someone unplug this catastrophe on legs? "Few can believe that suffering, especially by others, is in vain. - Galbraith"
Now that the left controls Paris and the Ile-de-France (Greater Paris) region, and Delanoe has managedto improve relations with the neighboring cities around Paris to the point that there are discussions about more ambitious cooperation, in particular on transport, Sarkozy wants to barge into the situation to (i) divide the left, and (ii) grab attention on him for the flagship projects and (iii) do whatever will help the right win in the next round of elections. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
But the president is meant to uphold the Constitution, not act as if it were irrelevant. I know it is wishful thinking these days. But it would be a great danger to become accustomed to the impostor.
By the way, this is something I thought about and started to fear. Sarkozy has been so unbelievably awful from the start that people are likely to become used to it. And it may take a colossal catastrophe in 2012 to remind them of quite how incompetent he is -especially since most of the media will play his songs even more than now. It may well be that had he been less incompetent, he would have stood a lesser chance of staying in power. As it is, the bar will be so low that people may have forgotten how angry they were about him. "Few can believe that suffering, especially by others, is in vain. - Galbraith"
But here is my comeback: at least you haven't ever elected Bush (OK, that he should get over 5% of the votes was embarrassing enough). Voter fraud took care of that, while he had lost both elections. There does not appear to have been significant fraud in France, so we must accept the fact that 'we' chose him.
Having said that, McCain appears to be leading in the polls at the moment. Ahem. "Few can believe that suffering, especially by others, is in vain. - Galbraith"
Germany's Social Democrats meet Sunday amidst a deep leadership crisis. But the party has agreed to announce Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier as its candidate for chancellor next year, say media reports. Senior leaders in the Social Democratic Pary (SPD) have decided that Steinmeier will run against incumbent Chancellor Angela Merkel in next year's federal elections, according to reports on Saturday, Sept. 6, by the Berliner Zeitung and Spiegel Online. The two Web sites reported, without citing sources, that Steinmeier's candidacy would be announced at Sunday's party conference. Though the Social Democrats appear to have reached one important decision in selecting Steinmeier, their meeting comes at a time of deep internal divisions.
Senior leaders in the Social Democratic Pary (SPD) have decided that Steinmeier will run against incumbent Chancellor Angela Merkel in next year's federal elections, according to reports on Saturday, Sept. 6, by the Berliner Zeitung and Spiegel Online.
The two Web sites reported, without citing sources, that Steinmeier's candidacy would be announced at Sunday's party conference.
Though the Social Democrats appear to have reached one important decision in selecting Steinmeier, their meeting comes at a time of deep internal divisions.
Germany's Social Democrats nominated Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier to challenge Angela Merkel for the chancellorship next year. The news coincided with party chairman Kurt Beck's unexpected resignation. Germany's Social Democratic Party (SPD) reshuffled its leadership a year ahead of federal elections, during a meeting of top party leaders near Berlin Sunday, Sept 7. The party nominated Steinmeier to face incumbent Merkel in September 2009 and summoned back as chairman veteran Franz Muentefering. Making the announcement in Werder, south-west of Berlin, Steinmeier said Kurt Beck, the long-serving premier of Rhineland-Palatinate, who has led the party since 2006, had resigned as chairman.
Germany's Social Democratic Party (SPD) reshuffled its leadership a year ahead of federal elections, during a meeting of top party leaders near Berlin Sunday, Sept 7.
The party nominated Steinmeier to face incumbent Merkel in September 2009 and summoned back as chairman veteran Franz Muentefering.
Making the announcement in Werder, south-west of Berlin, Steinmeier said Kurt Beck, the long-serving premier of Rhineland-Palatinate, who has led the party since 2006, had resigned as chairman.
BERLIN: Germany's Social Democrats were thrown into turmoil Sunday after their embattled leader, Kurt Beck, announced that he would step down as party chairman and after Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the popular foreign minister, was chosen to challenge Chancellor Angela Merkel in parliamentary elections next year. The decision on Steinmeier's candidacy, to be confirmed during a special party meeting here Monday, was made after hours of intense and often chaotic negotiations in Werder, a lakeside village outside Berlin, and sets in motion the election campaign in Europe's largest economy. "The Social Democratic Party leadership today unanimously decided to nominate Frank-Walter Steinmeier as the Social Democrats' candidate for chancellor," said the party's general secretary, Hubertus Heil, adding that Franz Müntefering, who led the party in 2004-05, would replace Beck as chairman. Müntefering, 68, also held the posts of labor minister and vice chancellor under Merkel. He resigned in November 2007 to care for his dying wife and returned to political life late last month.
BERLIN: Germany's Social Democrats were thrown into turmoil Sunday after their embattled leader, Kurt Beck, announced that he would step down as party chairman and after Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the popular foreign minister, was chosen to challenge Chancellor Angela Merkel in parliamentary elections next year.
The decision on Steinmeier's candidacy, to be confirmed during a special party meeting here Monday, was made after hours of intense and often chaotic negotiations in Werder, a lakeside village outside Berlin, and sets in motion the election campaign in Europe's largest economy.
"The Social Democratic Party leadership today unanimously decided to nominate Frank-Walter Steinmeier as the Social Democrats' candidate for chancellor," said the party's general secretary, Hubertus Heil, adding that Franz Müntefering, who led the party in 2004-05, would replace Beck as chairman.
Müntefering, 68, also held the posts of labor minister and vice chancellor under Merkel. He resigned in November 2007 to care for his dying wife and returned to political life late last month.
One day after Germany's Social Democrats leaked the news that Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier would be the party's candidate for chancellor, SPD leader Kurt Beck resigned in frustration. Party bigwig Franz Müntefering may take over. For much of the last year, Germany's Social Democratic Party has been stumbling from crisis to crisis with plummeting membership and abysmal popularity. On Sunday, party leader Kurt Beck finally took the last move available to him: He stepped down. [...] On Sunday, though, Beck expressed dissatisfaction with the way the decision had been made public. In a brief written statement, Beck said that he had asked Steinmeier to become the SPD's chancellor candidate two weeks ago and that the two had agreed to announce the decision at the Werder SPD meeting on Sunday.
One day after Germany's Social Democrats leaked the news that Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier would be the party's candidate for chancellor, SPD leader Kurt Beck resigned in frustration. Party bigwig Franz Müntefering may take over.
For much of the last year, Germany's Social Democratic Party has been stumbling from crisis to crisis with plummeting membership and abysmal popularity. On Sunday, party leader Kurt Beck finally took the last move available to him: He stepped down. [...]
On Sunday, though, Beck expressed dissatisfaction with the way the decision had been made public. In a brief written statement, Beck said that he had asked Steinmeier to become the SPD's chancellor candidate two weeks ago and that the two had agreed to announce the decision at the Werder SPD meeting on Sunday.
A row has broken out in France after a court postponed a trial, apparently because it was to take place during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan. Critics say the decision is a breach of France's strict separation of religion and state. The trial of seven men for armed robbery was due to start on 16 September in Rennes. But last week the court agreed to a request from a lawyer for one of the accused to put it off until January.
A row has broken out in France after a court postponed a trial, apparently because it was to take place during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.
Critics say the decision is a breach of France's strict separation of religion and state.
The trial of seven men for armed robbery was due to start on 16 September in Rennes.
But last week the court agreed to a request from a lawyer for one of the accused to put it off until January.
Lawyers say that such postponing are routinely given for Kippour among other religious festivities.
It seems the French media and elite see Laïcité as a tool to be used against Islam rather than an end by itself, which is annoying. Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères
There were warnings today that the taxpayer may face a multi-million pound bill after the loss of a computer disk carrying personal details of thousands of employees of the National Offender Management Service - many of whom are prison officers and probation workers. Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, ordered an urgent inquiry after it was revealed that the hard drive was reported missing in July. He has also demanded to be told why he was not informed immediately of the loss. EDS, a private contractor brought in to to overhaul IT infrastructure seven years ago, told the Prison Service in July this year that the hard drive had gone astray - a year after the missing disk had last been seen. In a statement, Mr Straw said: "I am extremely concerned about this missing data. I was informed of its loss at lunchtime today (Saturday) and have ordered an urgent inquiry into the circumstances and the implications of the data loss and the level of risk involved.
There were warnings today that the taxpayer may face a multi-million pound bill after the loss of a computer disk carrying personal details of thousands of employees of the National Offender Management Service - many of whom are prison officers and probation workers.
Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, ordered an urgent inquiry after it was revealed that the hard drive was reported missing in July. He has also demanded to be told why he was not informed immediately of the loss.
EDS, a private contractor brought in to to overhaul IT infrastructure seven years ago, told the Prison Service in July this year that the hard drive had gone astray - a year after the missing disk had last been seen.
In a statement, Mr Straw said: "I am extremely concerned about this missing data. I was informed of its loss at lunchtime today (Saturday) and have ordered an urgent inquiry into the circumstances and the implications of the data loss and the level of risk involved.
Is there money to be made losingselling them?
I've met this in companies where I work. People define standards that are impractical if the job is to be done, which create logjams that themselves become problematic. Rather than simply acknowledge that the idea was stupid in the first place, management impose yet more impractical procedures. The result is that people end up either ignoring basic data security or not getting anything done.
And the worst thing you can do is tell the management why their ideas won't work. Because they then assume you're working against them and accuse you of sabotaging their great idea. And even when they and the whole world know it was a stupid scheme, they won't change it because they' know they;d lose face to staff if an underling could say "I told you so".
Course it would be nice if management were open to staff suggestions, but this is Britain and management demand the right to damage. keep to the Fen Causeway
this is Britain
Not only. This is Planet Earth.
Czech President Vaclav Klaus, an outspoken EU critic, once warned that his nation would dissolve in the European Union like a sugar cube in a cup of coffee. Now that the Czechs are about to chair the European Union, the government has turned the cube into a sweetly subversive symbol of its scepticism toward the European Union. The 30-second video, unveiled by Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek and his deputy for European affairs Alexandr Vondra, is meant to draw the public's attention to the six-month Czech presidency starting Jan. 1. The clip, airing on nationwide television since Thursday, says nothing about Prague's agenda for the 27-nation bloc.
Now that the Czechs are about to chair the European Union, the government has turned the cube into a sweetly subversive symbol of its scepticism toward the European Union.
The 30-second video, unveiled by Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek and his deputy for European affairs Alexandr Vondra, is meant to draw the public's attention to the six-month Czech presidency starting Jan. 1.
The clip, airing on nationwide television since Thursday, says nothing about Prague's agenda for the 27-nation bloc.
The European Union wants to work closely with the United States on resolving the crisis in Georgia, Italy's foreign minister said after meeting with US Vice President Dick Cheney. "This Caucasian crisis won't be resolved if there is not an intense collaboration -- that Europe wishes for, that the United States wishes for, and we will carry out," Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini told reporters on Sunday, Sept. 7, following brief talks with Cheney. Frattini also said he had informed the US vice president of the EU's plan to send civilian observers to the disputed territory in the Caucasus region to help enforce the French-brokered peace deal agreed by Tbilisi and Moscow. At an informal meeting in southern France on Saturday, EU foreign ministers laid out plans for the bloc's observer mission, which could begin as early as next month. They also called for an international probe into the cause of the five-day war.
"This Caucasian crisis won't be resolved if there is not an intense collaboration -- that Europe wishes for, that the United States wishes for, and we will carry out," Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini told reporters on Sunday, Sept. 7, following brief talks with Cheney.
Frattini also said he had informed the US vice president of the EU's plan to send civilian observers to the disputed territory in the Caucasus region to help enforce the French-brokered peace deal agreed by Tbilisi and Moscow.
At an informal meeting in southern France on Saturday, EU foreign ministers laid out plans for the bloc's observer mission, which could begin as early as next month. They also called for an international probe into the cause of the five-day war.
TSKHINVALI, Georgia: It is not easy for Ireya Alborova to root through the events that cracked this city in half, but one small bright memory stands out from 1989, when she glanced at the building across the street from her high school and spotted a flag. It was a small Georgian flag, fixed in an attic window. Alborova was an unruly 15-year-old, preoccupied with her friends and her classes, and she took it in - a small piece of information - and kept walking. But now she thinks of it as the first signal of what was coming. Most of the world now knows what happened: South Ossetians and Georgians began a drawn-out struggle to control this sleepy valley, where the main feature is a road that cuts through the Caucasian ridge into Russia. That flared into a global standoff last month, when Georgia pounded Tskhinvali, the capital of the enclave of South Ossetia, with rocket fire. Russian troops poured across the border in response. But for Alborova's family, which is partly Georgian but wound up on the Ossetian side of the conflict, the crucial event took place during the last months of the Soviet Union, when the fabric of a multiethnic society tore apart with breathtaking speed. For the past 18 years, in a city encircled by Georgian positions, the family and its neighbors have been reliving the rifts and betrayals of that period.
TSKHINVALI, Georgia: It is not easy for Ireya Alborova to root through the events that cracked this city in half, but one small bright memory stands out from 1989, when she glanced at the building across the street from her high school and spotted a flag.
It was a small Georgian flag, fixed in an attic window. Alborova was an unruly 15-year-old, preoccupied with her friends and her classes, and she took it in - a small piece of information - and kept walking. But now she thinks of it as the first signal of what was coming.
Most of the world now knows what happened: South Ossetians and Georgians began a drawn-out struggle to control this sleepy valley, where the main feature is a road that cuts through the Caucasian ridge into Russia. That flared into a global standoff last month, when Georgia pounded Tskhinvali, the capital of the enclave of South Ossetia, with rocket fire. Russian troops poured across the border in response.
But for Alborova's family, which is partly Georgian but wound up on the Ossetian side of the conflict, the crucial event took place during the last months of the Soviet Union, when the fabric of a multiethnic society tore apart with breathtaking speed. For the past 18 years, in a city encircled by Georgian positions, the family and its neighbors have been reliving the rifts and betrayals of that period.
Russia has won the support of six former Soviet nations over its war in Georgia during a meeting of member countries of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) in Moscow. Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, said that the leaders of CSTO nations signed a declaration on Friday condemning an attack by Georgia which was aimed at regaining control of its breakaway province of South Ossetia. Members of the group said they were "deeply concerned about an attempt by Georgia to solve the conflict in South Ossetia by force, which has led to numerous casualties among the civilian population and peacekeepers and entailed grave humanitarian consequences," the declaration said.
Russia has won the support of six former Soviet nations over its war in Georgia during a meeting of member countries of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) in Moscow.
Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, said that the leaders of CSTO nations signed a declaration on Friday condemning an attack by Georgia which was aimed at regaining control of its breakaway province of South Ossetia.
Members of the group said they were "deeply concerned about an attempt by Georgia to solve the conflict in South Ossetia by force, which has led to numerous casualties among the civilian population and peacekeepers and entailed grave humanitarian consequences," the declaration said.
They hold down demanding jobs but still manage to have at least two children and enjoy the highest life expectancy in Europe. Meet the so-called "Super-Frenchies", the Gallic wonder women behind France's "bébé boom". Its economy may not be much of a model, but the country is the envy of Europe when it comes to making babies. The latest statistics show that France's population went up by 300,000 in 2006 to 63.3m, the best birth rate in three decades. With a fertility rate of two children per woman, France is approaching the level needed to replenish the population, compared with 1.91 children in Britain and 1.37 for Germany. The numbers show the extent to which policies to promote childbirth, including cash payments and subsidised nannies, have paid off.
They hold down demanding jobs but still manage to have at least two children and enjoy the highest life expectancy in Europe. Meet the so-called "Super-Frenchies", the Gallic wonder women behind France's "bébé boom".
Its economy may not be much of a model, but the country is the envy of Europe when it comes to making babies. The latest statistics show that France's population went up by 300,000 in 2006 to 63.3m, the best birth rate in three decades.
With a fertility rate of two children per woman, France is approaching the level needed to replenish the population, compared with 1.91 children in Britain and 1.37 for Germany.
The numbers show the extent to which policies to promote childbirth, including cash payments and subsidised nannies, have paid off.
The challenge is to coax the idea that the world might be better off with a smaller human population and that, lordy, shrinking human populations are not necessarily a bad thing.
Yes, population must fall somehow, but pensionable age must increase and that is often unacceptable to those near pension age. Bad planning/ lack of foresight in the 50s and 60s. keep to the Fen Causeway
It's a stale old talking point. As you say, the numbers don't necessarily add up the way that CW has it.
So a good fertility rate target is not >2.1 indeed, but it's not 1.2 either. I would hazard 1.8 as a good target. I guess Russia, Germany, Italy and Spain really are rather low and will suffer, particularly in the countryside. France and the UK in particular are too high. "Few can believe that suffering, especially by others, is in vain. - Galbraith"
But there's still a big political problem, which I don't think was addressed there, namely that people usually will voluntarily support their children, even at a cost of a lower standard of living for themselves. Supporting the elderly will involve a transfer of resources from working people. These are resources that they would previously have been spending on their own children, but now have got used to spending on themselves. Raising the retirement age may be politically a lot easier than the alternatives.
Have they? We are talking about continuous transitions here.
Raising the retirement age may be politically a lot easier than the alternatives.
Raising the retirement age only makes sense if there are jobs to be taken (otherwise, we just shift the tax load from retirement contribution to jobless benefits). *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
I think so, as every childless family has more disposable income, and gets used to spending it. I agree that it's a continuous transition, but I think that's how continuous transitions work. Not that I'm not suggesting that childless families are spending lavishly - other expenses such as housing may also adjust to the ability to spend.
As to your second point, shifting the tax load from retirement contribution to jobless benefits doesn't really make sense, as you say, unless the jobs are there. But the accepted wisdom seems to be that increasing the retirement age is necessary, while increasing taxes of any kind is bad. To oppose this means going against two pieces of accepted wisdom, which will be quite difficult, though hopefully not impossible.
That's not exactly what I said. What I said was that if the jobs aren't there, increasing retirement age will, in effect, only shift the tax load from retirement contribution to jobless benefits (because more people are forced to stay in the labor force, thus more people can't find jobs). *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
Abdullah Gul, the Turkish president, has been greeted by protests after arriving in Armenia to attend a football match in an attempt to improve relations between the two countries. Gul's arrival on Saturday in Yerevan, the Armenian capital, marked the first visit to the country by a Turkish head of state since Armenian independence in 1991. The two countries have long argued over Armenia's attempt to have recognised as genocide a massacre of hundreds of thousands of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during the First World War. Hundreds of Armenians lined the route of Gul's motorcade to protest against Ankara's refusal to consider the 1915-1917 atrocities as crimes against humanity. Bardasar Akhpar, a demonstrator, said: "We are here because we want to tell the entire world that we do not forget the genocide of 1915. "We will not welcome Gul nor any other Turk until they have recognised the genocide."
Abdullah Gul, the Turkish president, has been greeted by protests after arriving in Armenia to attend a football match in an attempt to improve relations between the two countries.
Gul's arrival on Saturday in Yerevan, the Armenian capital, marked the first visit to the country by a Turkish head of state since Armenian independence in 1991.
The two countries have long argued over Armenia's attempt to have recognised as genocide a massacre of hundreds of thousands of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during the First World War.
Hundreds of Armenians lined the route of Gul's motorcade to protest against Ankara's refusal to consider the 1915-1917 atrocities as crimes against humanity.
Bardasar Akhpar, a demonstrator, said: "We are here because we want to tell the entire world that we do not forget the genocide of 1915.
"We will not welcome Gul nor any other Turk until they have recognised the genocide."
An unbridled building boom, which first turned much of Spain's once captivating coastline into a mile-wide belt of shopping malls, vacation homes and sunburned foreigners, has more recently spread deep into the country's heartland, endangered some of the most precious and diverse flora and fauna in Europe and sucked an already arid region dry of water. Nearly 30% of Spain is in the process of becoming desert, according to a report by Adena, Spain's branch of the World Wildlife Fund... Fueled by corruption, speculation and a hot market that only recently cooled, vast patches of regions such as Castilla-La Mancha are being swallowed up by enormous housing developments, often on land designated as national parks or as protected zones because of delicate ecosystems and near-extinct wildlife.
Nearly 30% of Spain is in the process of becoming desert, according to a report by Adena, Spain's branch of the World Wildlife Fund...
Fueled by corruption, speculation and a hot market that only recently cooled, vast patches of regions such as Castilla-La Mancha are being swallowed up by enormous housing developments, often on land designated as national parks or as protected zones because of delicate ecosystems and near-extinct wildlife.
Just like Britons go to Spain because they have realised it rains more reliably in Britain than in Spain, right? A vivid image of what should exist acts as a surrogate for reality. Pursuit of the image then prevents pursuit of the reality -- John K. Galbraith
My money's on galicia in the long run. keep to the Fen Causeway
And Ireland should be intensively re-foresting the west before it runs into similar problems. keep to the Fen Causeway
Trading on the London Stock Exchange was suspended for more than four hours on Monday after a computer fault led to the longest halt in cash equity trading for more than eight years. A spokeswoman for the exchange said it was investigating "connectivity issues" and that the connection would be brought back in a controlled way. She gave no details on what had caused the problem. The LSE - the world's second largest stock exchange - published a website offering live tracking of the problem.
A spokeswoman for the exchange said it was investigating "connectivity issues" and that the connection would be brought back in a controlled way. She gave no details on what had caused the problem.
The LSE - the world's second largest stock exchange - published a website offering live tracking of the problem.
