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VIDEO: Missing fishermen search halted
19 May 2012 at 6:20pm
The search for two fishermen missing off the Dorset coast has been called off, after a life-raft was found with the wreck of their boat.
VIDEO: Jamie: 'I've given up on politics'
19 May 2012 at 4:39pm
TV chef Jamie Oliver says he has given up on trying to change governments' attitudes to healthy eating, as he visits New York in a bid to tackle obesity there.
VIDEO: Huge crowds greet Olympic torch
19 May 2012 at 9:08am
Sailing champion Ben Ainslie starts the London 2012 Olympic torch relay from Land's End amid tight security.
VIDEO: Chelsea fans upbeat ahead of final
19 May 2012 at 5:34pm
Thousands of Chelsea fans have been soaking up the sunshine in Munich ahead of Saturday's Champions League final.
VIDEO: Military parade for Queen's Jubilee
19 May 2012 at 5:43pm
Thousands of members of the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force have taken part in a parade and flypast to mark the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.
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Cameron backs plan to abolish social housing rent subsidy for higher earners
by Patrick Wintour
19 May 2012 at 12:03am
Fears 'pay-to-stay' scheme will drive thousands out of housing association and council properties
The government is introducing measures that could drive thousands of families out of social housing by removing any subsidy for their rent.
In what is being billed as a "pay to stay" scheme, Downing Street has swung behind plans to introduce a new household income threshold above which social tenants must pay full market rent. The government is expected to say that rent subsidy will be capped at a household income of £60,000, meaning, for example, a couple on £30,000 each could see their rent rise by about £70 a week.
The scheme, applicable to all housing association and council properties, is explicitly designed to make social housing primarily available to the poor.
The housing minister, Grant Shapps, has referred to the idea before, but Downing Street's embrace of the proposal means it will now go ahead with a consultation paper next month.
The government says it is necessary to remove an unfairness in the system and to allocate scarce housing resources more efficiently. Critics will say the scheme will give wealthier families an incentive to buy their property at discounted rates, removing social housing from the market.
The government has been accused of driving some poor tenants from properties in wealthier inner-city areas by introducing a higher rent, set at 80% of the market rent. It has also introduced a so-called spare room tax, so that under-occupying social tenants of working age are docked £14 a week for one spare bedroom and £25 a week for two. No tenant will receive more than £500 a week in welfare payments, a measure that will affect larger families on housing benefit.
The welfare cap is, in polling terms, one of the most popular policies the government has introduced, and the new £60,000 household income cap for social housing tenants is likely to win equally wide support.
A No 10 source linked the two measures, saying: "It's not right that high earners benefit from taxpayer-funded housing subsidy. Just as we have introduced a cap on housing benefit and welfare payments to make the system fairer, now we're acting on social housing too."
Government sources added that social housing should be regarded as a precious asset to be devoted to those most in need, not a cheap option for those who can afford competitive rents or their own property.
The government consultation, due to be launched next month by Shapps, will suggest a range of options for the threshold, with the lowest at £60,000.
Ministers have been looking at a range of proposals to make social housing more flexible, including the removal of so-called lifetime tenancies, replacing them with fixed-term tenancies. Social housing tenants can also no longer pass their homes to their children.
Government research shows that as many as 6,000 social rented homes in England are lived in by people who earn a combined income of more than £100,000, including Bob Crow, leader of the RMT union. At the proposed £60,000 threshold, ministers estimate as many as 34,000 social rented homes in England alone would be affected.
It is being stressed that no one would be evicted from their home, simply that they would have to pay higher rents.
The government claims the economic subsidy provided by sub-market rents for social housing is worth £3,600 a year on average, or £69 a week.
The total cost of this annual subsidy for those above the £60,000 threshold is £122.4m, and the annual subsidy for a £100,000 threshold is £21.6m.
Social rents are set on the basis of a formula linked to size of the property, its value and local earnings.
Labour has always argued that social housing should be for a mix of tenants and not seen as the preserve of the poor. The Liberal Democrats have curbed some government housing reforms, but could arguably support the measure as a legitimate restriction on middle-class welfare.
However, social housing has been increasingly taken up as an option by young professionals unable to afford to own their own home. The cost of the cheapest quarter of homes is now more than six times average household income and eight times in London.
The overall social housing budget was cut by more than 50% in the 2010 spending review, to £4.4bn, and the number of people on council waiting lists is now 1.8m, an 80% increase in the last decade.
In a report this week, Shelter, the Chartered Institute of Housing and the National Housing Federation said the government was failing on five of its 10 key indicators: affordability of the private rented sector, help with housing costs, homelessness, housing supply and overcrowding.
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Olympic torch paraded in Cornwall by David Beckham
by Richard Williams
18 May 2012 at 8:34pm
Gold-painted Airbus 319 brings flame to airbase to begin the 70-day relay around the country in the buildup to London 2012
The applause inside the gold-painted Airbus 319 was not the usual ironical salute for a bumpy landing at the start of a package holiday. Eight years after Sebastian Coe and his team set out to win the Games for London, the Olympic flame had touched down in Britain. Now the Games can begin.
This was, London mayor Boris Johnson proclaimed, the first time a naked flame had been permitted on a British Airways flight since they banned smoking on planes. And there indeed it sat, lit a week earlier by the rays of the sun at ancient Olympia but now, in quadruplicate, occupying two seats in the front row of the passenger cabin of BA2012.
It flickered bravely in four specially made lanterns, each 15in high, during the four-hour trip from Athens' Eleftherios Venizelios airport ‚built for the 2004 Olympics, to the Royal Navy's airbase at Culdrose, near Penzance.
The arrival in Cornwall preceded the start of the 70-day, torch relay around Britain, which will end on July 27, when the flame is used to ignite the cauldron in London's Olympic Stadium.
Its in-flight attendants, alongside Johnson, included footballer David Beckham, Olympics organiser Lord Coe, the Olympics minister Hugh Robertson, Princess Anne, the president of the British Olympic Association, and a small posse of track-suited Metropolitan police officers.
On landing at Culdrose, where the flight was met by Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minster, the flame was transferred to a ceremonial cauldron from which a torch will be lit early on Saturday morning and placed in the hands of Ben Ainslie, the triple gold medal winning sailor, the first of 8,000 runners. The second is Anastasia Swallow, an 18-year-old surfer from St Ives.
"So many of the people who are running will be members of the communities through which they're carrying the torch," Coe said. "Our market research says that at least nine million people will be watching, and many of them will be seeing their local coach, or teacher, or policeman."
Or perhaps their local A-list celebrity. Beckham, a member of the 2012 team since its inception, made it clear that he would relish being a torch-bearer during the leg of the relay that passes through his native east London as well as being selected for Great Britain's Olympic football team.
"I've never performed at an Olympic Games," he said. "But to be part of this is something very special. We've got some very special people carrying the torch and it's going to be a proud moment for them. If I was to be one of those carrying in London, it would be very special for me."
Cynics like to point out that the torch relay was invented for "Hitler's Games" in 1936, but torch relays played a part in the Ancient Olympics, sent out through Greek towns and villages to advertise the Games. In the modern era, the Olympic flame was re-introduced in 1928 by the peace-loving people of Amsterdam, eight years before the Berlin organisers dreamed up the idea of reconnecting Aryan supremacists with their supposed ancestors.
No one had thought to turn a flame into an Olympic symbol when London first held the Games at White City in 1908. On the second occasion, 40 years later, the torch arrived at Wembley stadium by a circuitous route in order to avoid a threat of disturbances in northern Greece, still enduring the aftermath of its civil war.
Its overland journey through Switzerland, Luxembourg, Belgium and France was undertaken in a car provided by Rolls-Royce and specially geared to proceed at a stately 8mph. The destroyer HMS Bicester carried it from Calais to Dover, where it was welcomed by a crowd of 50,000. Then it promptly went out. Officially, it was relit from a spare carried from Greece. Unofficially, a cigarette lighter was hastily employed. Eventually it was carried into the stadium by John Mack, the 22-year-old president of the Cambridge University Athletic Club, as fine a specimen of blond, strapping manhood that could be found.
This time the designated hero figure might be Johnson but is more likely to be Steve Redgrave, the owner of gold medals from five successive Games, or perhaps an east End child of symbolic mixed ethnicity. According to Coe, discussions on the identities of the final torch-bearers have yet to begin, but Beckham is unlikely to be disappointed, just as he will almost certainly be granted his wish of a place in the football squad.
He was mobbed by expats and Greek guests during a reception at the British ambassador's residence in Athens on Thursday night, but those suggesting that his selection for the team might be a ploy to use his celebrity to fill seats and sell shirts were being "a little bit disrespectful", the 37-year-old former England captain said. "Managers like Sir Alex Ferguson, Fabio Capello and Sven-Goran Eriksson, they don't pick you because they want to fill stadiums. I've always wanted to be picked for what I can bring to a team."
He had been amused, he said, to hear himself introduced as "Sir David Beckham" by the announcer during the handover ceremony in the Panathenaic Stadium on Thursday. "It made me laugh," he said. "It made everybody laugh, probably."
Looking ahead to the next 10 weeks, in which the flame will make its way around Britain, Coe was sanguine about the threat of the sort of disruption created by pro-Tibet demonstrators when the Beijing torch visited London in 2008. "We live in a country where peaceful protest is very much a part of what we are," he said before leaving Athens. "Thank goodness it is, in a way, as long as that doesn't slop over into becoming a public order issue or endangering people who are enjoying their day."
It had been instructive, he said, to watch the test event for the torch relay, which took place in Leicestershire last month. "It started at seven o'clock in the morning in Leicester and ended at five or six o'clock in the evening in Peterborough and went through little villages and small towns. In Melton Mowbray, they were four or five deep on the pavement, and that was just a test event with a cardboard torch and no actual flame. I don't sense that there's a widespread feeling that this is to be anything other than cherished. My gut instinct is that people will be quite protective."
Amid a Cornish sea-fret on Friday night, Beckham was invited to step forward and light the cauldron. It is unlikely to be his last involvement.
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UK 'may never fully recover' if Greece exits euro
by Andrew Sparrow, Helena Smith, Larry Elliott
18 May 2012 at 9:01pm
Top forecaster says Britain would face long recession as key Greek politician frames crisis as people v capitalism
A Greek exit from the single currency threatens to plunge Britain into a second recession equal in ferocity to the record postwar slump of 2008-09, according to the expert responsible for the government's economic forecasting.
Robert Chote, chair of the Office for Budget Responsibility, who was speaking to the Guardian as world financial markets staggered to the end of a week that rekindled memories of the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, warned that there was risk that a fresh downturn would do irreparable damage to the UK. Britain has made up less than half the ground lost when output plunged by more than 7% in 2008-09, and Chote said there was a risk that "you go down and you never quite get back up to where you started".
In a separate exclusive interview, Alexis Tsipras, the increasingly powerful 37-year-old Greek politician now regarded by many as holding the future of the euro in his hands, told the Guardian that he was determined "to stop the experiment" with austerity policies imposed by Germany. He described the tax increases and spending cuts as a "crime against the Greek people".
The leader of the Syriza party, whose success in last month's general election has led to political paralysis in Athens and a second general election, said he wanted Greece to stay in the euro, but was fighting capitalism. "On the one side there are workers and a majority of people, and on the other are global capitalists, bankers, profiteers on stock exchanges, the big funds. It's a war between peoples and capitalism ... it is the international financial system, and more especially banks, that are gaining most".
The head of the UK's OBR said the deepening crisis in the eurozone could force him to tear up his forecasts, made only two months ago, that Britain would post modest growth of 0.8% this year. "The concern is that you end up with an outcome in the eurozone that creates the same sort of structural difficulties in the financial system and in the economy that we saw in the past recession, and that has consequences both for hitting economic activity in the economy, but also its underlying potential," said Chote.
With economic output in the UK still 4% below its peak level when the recession began in early 2008, the prime minister and the governor of the Bank of England, Sir Mervyn King, have expressed concern in recent days about the vulnerability of Britain to the eurozone.
Chote said he was particularly concerned about the possibility that a second deep recession would leave permanent scars. "That means not just that the economy weakens and then strengthens again – it goes into a hole and comes out – but that you go down and you never quite get back up to where you started."
Shares in London closed down for a third week, with the jittery mood in financial markets pushing the FTSE 100 below 5,400 for the first time this year. German and French stock markets were also depressed, with even the much-anticipated stock market debut of Facebook in New York failing to lift spirits.
Greece's caretaker prime minister, Panagiotis Pikramenos, said the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, had suggested in a phone call to the Greek president, Karolos Papoulias, on Friday that Greece hold a referendum on its continued membership of the single currency alongside next month's elections, in an apparent attempt to encourage voters to back mainstream parties who support the current austerity programme.
The German government said that no suggestion of the kind had been made. But the Greek government was insistent, and said that Pikramenos had rejected the suggestion because he does not have the power to call a referendum.
Merkel's finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, said the eurozone crisis could last two more years, while financial market speculation that Greece's days in the euro were numbered cast a shadow over the annual gathering of leaders of the G8 western industrial nations at Camp David. Canada's prime minister, Stephen Harper, voiced his frustration at Europe's leaders, demanding tough action to tackle the crisis.
In Brussels, the European commission denied comments by Europe's trade minister, Karel de Gucht, that preparations were being made for Greece's departure from the single currency.
Meanwhile, analysts at Deutsche Bank predicted that the weak state of Ireland's banks could result in the former Celtic tiger requiring a second bailout, and in Spain there were reports that the government would call in Goldman Sachs to help sort out its banks after 16 suffered credit downgrades on Thursday.
In an echo of the months leading up to the Lehmans collapse, Mike Smith, chief executive of Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, said the turmoil in the eurozone meant Australian banks were being frozen out of money markets when seeking funds.
Chote said there were so many uncertainties around what might happen with Greece and the eurozone that trying to produce firm predictions was not "particularly helpful".
But the OBR has tried to quantify the impact of a disorderly sovereign debt restructuring in the eurozone on Britain – and the figures make grim reading. Britain would be plunged into recession for two years, according to the OBR analysis, published in its most recent economic and fiscal outlook report. There would also be deflation and unemployment would reach almost 11% by 2013-14, with debt subsequently reaching more than 90% of GDP.
Chote said these projections were of limited value because the eurozone crisis could develop in so many different ways. "For example, one issue would be, do difficulties in the eurozone make it cheaper or more expensive for the UK government to borrow?" he said. "If it makes investors more nervous about risk in general, it might make it more expensive. If they see the UK as more of a safe haven, it might make it less expensive."
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Ed Miliband set for decision on Europe referendum
by Toby Helm
19 May 2012 at 10:54pm
Shadow ministers urge leader to put pressure on Cameron by promising EU membership poll if Labour win general election
Ed Miliband is being urged by a growing number of shadow cabinet members and senior allies to promise a dramatic in-out referendum on Britain's future membership of the European Union if Labour wins the next general election.
Several figures in the party are pushing the Labour leader to make the pledge well before the next European elections in 2014 to outmanoeuvre David Cameron, who is under heavy pressure to commit the Tory party to a national vote on the issue. The Observer has been told that, after discussions with shadow cabinet members, Miliband is leaving the door open to a referendum – although he is keen to stress that the short-term focus and discussion must be on how to end the current euro crisis.
Allies of the Labour leader say pressure on him to make what would be a historic, high-risk pledge will increase following the appointment of Jon Cruddas, the MP for Dagenham and Rainham, as Labour's policy chief.
Cruddas, a long-time opponent of the euro but otherwise pro-EU, is strongly in favour of an in-out referendum as a means of ending divisive arguments on Europe once and for all. Before his appointment, Cruddas told the People's Pledge campaign for a referendum that the issue was one of "democracy", and said a referendum pledge should be made "immediately, or as quickly as we can". Cruddas is understood to think that such a move would help define Miliband's leadership as bold and distinct from the New Labour years of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
A ComRes opinion poll for the Independent on Sunday and Sunday Mirror showed how Europe is emerging as an issue that could be pivotal at the next election. The poll showed that 26% of Tories now say they will consider voting for the anti-EU Ukip compared to 11% of Labour supporters and 14% of Liberal Democrats. It also showed the extent of anti-EU hostility Labour would need to overcome if a referendum were held now, with 46% of voters saying they would vote to leave the EU compared with 30% who would vote to stay in.
If Labour did commit to a referendum, the party leadership would campaign vigorously in favour of a vote to stay in – a stance that would be supported by most Labour members.
A referendum would, however, leave the Tories divided, with the party leadership certain to campaign for a vote to remain in the EU, while many MPs and grassroots Conservatives would want to leave. One shadow cabinet member said: "We should have the confidence to say we think we can win this and get on with it. There are issues of timing, about when we make the decision and when one would be held. But it certainly is no longer heresy to talk about it."
A spokesman for Miliband did not deny that the option was being considered, stressing merely that "our position is that we don't think this is what Europe needs at the moment".
Last week, in a sign that the Labour party is gradually preparing the ground for a referendum pledge, shadow chancellor Ed Balls said there could be a case in future, for calling a national vote when the current euro crisis was over and the shape of the new Europe was known. This followed similar comments from former cabinet minister and European commissioner Lord Mandelson.
On Thursday Peter Hain, a former Europe minister who stepped down from the shadow cabinet last week but who remains loyal to Miliband, said on BBC1's Question Time that he believed the British people would deserve a say when the time was right. "I think the way things are going people in Britain probably want to make up their minds about whether to stay in Europe or not," he said. "I don't think we should be frightened about giving people a vote."
Sources said that Hain would never have spoken out on the EU issue had he felt such remarks would have been unhelpful to Miliband, or significantly out of kilter with the Labour leader's own views.
Miliband is said to be genuinely undecided and cautious – not least because of the possibility that the country could vote to leave the EU. He is also being advised by some that the move could be seen as crudely opportunistic at a time of crisis in the EU.
Others say that it could put off Liberal Democrats who might otherwise come over to Labour.
Labour enthusiasts for a referendum stress, however, that it would not in any way amount to a watering down of Labour's commitment to the EU. On the contrary, it would be an opportunity to argue the positive case for membership during a national campaign – one that would also help the party build alliances with pro-EU elements of the business community.
While a minority of Labour MPs might want to leave the EU, highlighting divisions within Labour, they say a referendum would cause far deeper splits in the Tory party.
The People's Pledge, which draws support from all political parties, has announced it will hold more local referendums in three Greater Manchester constituencies, Withington, Cheadle and Hazel Grove, asking people if they want a national vote.
The seats, one in Manchester and two in Stockport, are all represented by Liberal Democrat MPs: John Leech, Mark Hunter and Andrew Stunnell, respectively. This follows its local referendum in Thurrock last month where 89.9% of people who voted backed a referendum.
Ian McKenzie, director of the People's Pledge, said: "The people of Thurrock set the pace last month by voting in huge numbers for a referendum. Voters in Manchester Withington, Cheadle and Hazel Grove now have the chance to quicken that pace towards a national referendum for the rest of us."
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Why I want all our children to read the King James Bible
by Richard Dawkins
19 May 2012 at 9:30pm
The good book should be read as a great work of literature – but it is not a guide to morality, as the education secretary Michael Gove would have us believe
For some reason the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science (UK) was not approached for a donation in support of Michael Gove's plan to put a King James Bible in every state school. We would certainly have given it serious consideration, and if the trustees had not agreed I would gladly have contributed myself. In the event, it was left to "millionaire Conservative party donors".
I am a little shocked at the implication that not every school library already possesses a copy. Can that be true? What do they have, then? Harry Potter? Vampires? Or do they prefer one of those modern translations in which "Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, all is vanity" is lyrically rendered as "Perfectly pointless, says the Teacher. Everything is pointless"? That is Ecclesiastes, 1:2, as you'll find it in the Common English Bible. And you can't get much more common than that, although admittedly the God's Word translation provides stiff competition with "absolutely pointless" and the Good News Bible challenges strongly with "useless, useless".
Ecclesiastes, in the 1611 translation, is one of the glories of English literature (I'm told it's pretty good in the original Hebrew, too). The whole King James Bible is littered with literary allusions, almost as many as Shakespeare (to quote that distinguished authority Anon, the trouble with Hamlet is it's so full of clichées). In The God Delusion I have a section called "Religious education as a part of literary culture" in which I list 129 biblical phrases which any cultivated English speaker will instantly recognise and many use without knowing their provenance: the salt of the earth; go the extra mile; I wash my hands of it; filthy lucre; through a glass darkly; wolf in sheep's clothing; hide your light under a bushel; no peace for the wicked; how are the mighty fallen.
A native speaker of English who has never read a word of the King James Bible is verging on the barbarian. In the week after the 2011 census, my UK Foundation commissioned Ipsos MORI to poll those who had ticked the Christian box. Among other things, we asked them to identify the first book of the New Testament from a choice of Matthew, Genesis, Acts of the Apostles, Psalms, "Don't know" and "Prefer not to say". Only 35% chose Matthew and 39% chose "Don't know" (and 1%, mysteriously, chose "Prefer not to say"). These figures, to repeat, don't refer to British people at large but only to those who self-identified, in the census, as Christians.
European history, too, is incomprehensible without an understanding of the warring factions of Christianity and the book over whose subtleties of interpretation they were so ready to slaughter and torture each other. Does the eucharistic bread merely symbolise the body of Jesus or does it become his body, in true "substance" if not "accidental" DNA? Prolonged wars have been fought over how we should interpret the words allegedly uttered at the Last Supper. Three bishops were burned alive just outside my bedroom window in my old Oxford college for giving the unapproved answer. Centuries-long schisms were based on nothing more serious than the question of whether Jesus is both God and his son, or just his (very important) son. Even bloodier wars were fought against a rival religion that sees him not as God's son at all but just reveres him as a prophet.
I have an ulterior motive for wishing to contribute to Gove's scheme. People who do not know the Bible well have been gulled into thinking it is a good guide to morality. This mistaken view may have motivated the "millionaire Conservative party donors". I have even heard the cynically misanthropic opinion that, without the Bible as a moral compass, people would have no restraint against murder, theft and mayhem. The surest way to disabuse yourself of this pernicious falsehood is to read the Bible itself.
Do you advocate the Ten Commandments as a guide to the good life? Then I can only presume that you don't know the Ten Commandments. The first two – "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" and "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image" – come from a time when the Jews still believed in the existence of many gods but had sworn fealty to only one of them, their tribal "jealous" god.
"Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy": this commandment is regarded as so important that (as our children will learn when they flock into the school library to read the Gove presentation copy) a man caught gathering sticks on the sabbath was summarily stoned to death by the whole community, on direct orders from God.
"Honour thy father and thy mother." Well and good. But honour thy children? Not if God tells you, as he did Abraham in a test of his loyalty, to kill your beloved son for a burnt offering. The lesson is clear: when push comes to shove, obedience to God trumps human decency, to say nothing of obedience to the next commandment, "Thou shalt not kill". This is the only one of the commandments that many devotees actually know. Its obviousness was appropriately mocked by Christopher Hitchens, but my imagination hears the response of the Israelites to Moses in the voice of Basil Fawlty: "Oh I SEE. Thou shalt not KILL. Oh how silly of me. You see, before you came down from the mountain with the tablets, we all thought it was perfectly fine to kill. But now that we've seen it written on a TABLET, well that makes all the difference. Thou shalt not kill, well, who would have thought it? Oh silly me … etc etc."
In any case, the commandment meant only "Thou shalt not kill members of thine own tribe". It was perfectly fine – indeed strongly encouraged throughout the Pentateuch – to kill Canaanites, Midianites, Jebusites, Hivites etc, especially if they had the misfortune to live in the Promised Lebensraum. Kill all the men and boys and most of the women. "But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves" (Numbers 31:18). Such wonderful moral lessons: all children should be exposed to them.
"Sophisticated" theologians (what is there in "theology" to be sophisticated about?) now treat these horrors as parables or myths, which is just as well. But many fundamentalist Protestants still take them literally and positively state that, if God told them to kill their own children, they would obey. Hard to believe, but it is fully documented in a brilliant film, In God We Trust?, by Scott Burdick. Other theologians will accept that the Old Testament is pretty horrible but will point with pride, and nods of approval from all sides, to the New Testament as a truly righteous moral guide. Really?
The central dogma of the New Testament is that Jesus died as a scapegoat for the sin of Adam and the sins that all we unborn generations might have been contemplating in the future. Adam's sin is perhaps mitigated by the extenuating circumstance that he didn't exist. In any case it never amounted to more than scrumping or, depending on your theology, seeking knowledge – which a minister of education should surely consider a virtue. But the unmistakable message is clear. We are all "born in sin" even if we no longer literally believe, with Augustine, that Adam's sin came down to us via the semen. And God, the all-powerful creator, capable of moving mountains and of begetting a universe with all the laws of physics, couldn't find a better way to lift the burden of sin than a blood sacrifice.
In the words of Paul, the inventor of Christianity (or whoever really wrote the Epistle to the Hebrews), "without shedding of blood, there is no remission". And the scapegoat couldn't be just anybody. The sin was so great that only his son (or God himself, depending on your Trinitarian theology) would do. It was necessary for God to come "down" personally to Earth and have himself tortured and executed, after being "betrayed" (though why it was a betrayal since getting himself executed was the main purpose of the visit, is never explained, nor is the millennia-long vendetta against Jews as "Christ-killers").
Whatever else the Bible might be – and it really is a great work of literature – it is not a moral book and young people need to learn that important fact because they are very frequently told the opposite. The examples I have quoted are the tip of a very large and very nasty iceberg. Not a bad way to find out what's in a book is to read it, so I say go to it. But does anybody, even Gove, seriously think they will?
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Richard Dawkins the arch-atheist backs Michael Gove's free Bible plan
by Robin McKie
19 May 2012 at 9:30pm
Author of The God Delusion says providing free Bibles to state schools is justified by its impact on the English language
It sounds like one of the most unlikely alliances of recent years. Richard Dawkins, arch-atheist and scourge of the praying classes, has announced support for education secretary Michael Gove's plan to send free King James Bibles to every state school.
The proposal aims to help pupils learn about the Bible's impact "on our history, language, literature and democracy" and will celebrate the 400th anniversary of the authorised version's publication, Gove said earlier this year. Church leaders have approved, but the plan has fallen foul of most non-believers. An online Guardian poll showed an 82% opposition, while the National Secular Society said the £375,000 proposal wasted money and favoured Christianity in multi-faith state schools. Nevertheless, several rich Tory party donors agreed to back the plan and the first Bibles were sent out last week, to the derision of secularists – with the exception of their most prominent and pugnacious recruit: Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion and critic of all things clerical.
As Dawkins reveals in today's Observer, support for the Bible plan is justified on the grounds of literary merit and he lists a range of biblical phrases which any cultivated English speaker will instantly recognise. These include "salt of the Earth", "through a glass darkly", and "no peace for the wicked". Dawkins states: "A native speaker of English who has not read a word of the King James Bible is verging on the barbarian."
Rapprochement would seem to be in the air – until Dawkins's thesis is studied more closely. While Gove believes the Bible is a guide to morality, Dawkins is sure it is not. "I have heard the cynically misanthropic opinion that without the Bible as a moral compass people would show no restraint against murder, theft and mayhem. The surest way to disabuse yourself of this pernicious falsehood is to read the Bible itself," he says.
In fact, its pages are riddled with the advocacy of murder, slavery and theft. Hence his support for Gove's plan: opening the Bible is the surest way to put young minds off its contents. From this perspective, the Dawkins-Gove alliance looks dead before it started.
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G8 summit: Barack Obama says leaders in agreement over Iran and Syria – video
19 May 2012 at 5:56pm
The US president, Barack Obama, welcomes the leaders of the G8 countries to a summit at Camp David in Maryland
Olympic torch up for sale on eBay hours after it arrives in UK
by Conal Urquhart
19 May 2012 at 5:42pm
Souvenir has so far attracted 18 bidders, despite the fact that 8,000 identical ones will be given to bearers in coming weeks
It was meant to be a chance for ordinary people across Britain to inspire others with the Olympic spirit. But one of the torchbearers who carried the Olympic flame on its first day in Britain appears to have been more inspired by the entrepreneurial spirit, and wasted no time in putting their torch up for sale on eBay.
The torch has so far attracted 18 bidders and the price had already reached £1,550 by Saturday afternoon. But buyers may be more wary of making an investment in the London 2012 Games when they discover 8,000 torches will be will be given out to nominated bearers over the next 69 days, up until the Olympics begin.
The torch is made up of an inner and an outer aluminium alloy skin, held in place by a cast top piece and base, perforated by 8,000 circles. It stands 800mm (31 inches) high. The successful bidder will also receive an extra large torchbearer's uniform.
Torchbearers are described by the Olympic Committee as "8,000 inspirational people who will carry the Olympic Flame as it journeys across the UK. Nominated by someone they know, it will be their moment to shine, inspiring millions of people watching in their community, in the UK and worldwide."
According to the organisers of London 2012, the torches are worth £495 but the bearers paid only £215 for them, with London 2010 funding the difference.
A spokeswoman for London 2012 said the bearers were free to do what they wanted with the torches. "We just hope they go to a good home."
The torch was designed by east Londoners Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby, who won a competitive tender run by the London 2012 Organising Committee and the Design Council. It was further developed and produced by Basildon-based product engineers Tecosim, Birmingham-based LPG Gas specialists, Bullfinch and Coventry manufacturers Premier Sheet Metal.
In April 2012 the torch was recognised as the design of the year at an awards ceremony hosted by the Design Museum in London.
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Gibraltar's jubilee party sends signal to Madrid
by Tracy McVeigh
19 May 2012 at 4:46pm
Political tensions have escalated again between the UK and Spain over a territory eager to prove once more that it is 'more British than the British'
In Gibraltar, said chief minister Fabian Picardo, children learn history fast. "They can say 'the treaty of Utrecht' when they are around a year old," laughed Picardo, an Oxford-educated socialist with a picture of the Queen in his office. "We start them young."
It was that agreement, signed in 1713, that granted the 426m-high rock jutting out where the Mediterranean meets the Atlantic to the British "in perpetuity". And as Gibraltar swathes itself in red, white and blue to celebrate the Queen's jubilee, it is revelling in its reputation for being "more British than the British".
"It's about the symbolism, really," said taxi driver Eddie Castle. "We do like to irritate the Spanish when we can. But they get their own back: whenever there is a row, they get their own back by making things very difficult for people at the border."
The queues of cars waiting to cross from the tiny 2.6 sq mile territory into Spain have lengthened dramatically in the last week, as Spanish border patrols have been ordered to make things more difficult for motorists and workers, increasing security checks in a move condemned by Picardo as "childish".
The latest row in the centuries-old fractious relationship between Gibraltar, London and Madrid is, as many have been over the years, about royalty.
On Friday, the Queen held a jubilee lunch for the world's monarchs at Windsor Castle – the largest gathering of crowned heads in over 50 years, with 24 kings and queens in attendance. The one notable absentee was Queen Sofía of Spain, distantly related to both the Queen and Prince Philip, who pulled out after her government said her attendance would be "inappropriate" in view of a forthcoming trip to Gibraltar by Prince Edward and his wife.
The British ambassador was called into Spain's foreign ministry to hear of the ruling party's "disgust and upset" at the Count and Countess of Wessex's visit. So it must have been with a certain mischief that Picardo told the Observer it was a "great pity" that the Queen herself was not also coming to the island.
"She would be very welcome here. I like to think she has not come because she has been so busy. In Gibraltar, people will celebrate the jubilee whether they are from republican families or monarchist families. It's not really about that here. The royal family transcends those arguments – the Queen is a figurehead of Britishness, an important symbol for us, and I say that as the grandson of a republican."
It was the Queen's visit in 1954 that triggered General Franco's anger at the British retention of a symbol of Spanish nationalism. He called it a "dagger in the spine of Spain" and in 1969 launched the blockade of the Rock that lasted until 1985. The intention of Charles and Diana to begin their honeymoon there in 1981 resulted in the King of Spain boycotting their wedding.
"We are not an island, but we consider ourselves one," said Picardo, who believes many of the rows have been diversionary tactics. "There are tensions: generally they arise when the Madrid government has trouble and strife it doesn't want people to concentrate on. I have great sympathy for them at the moment with the financial crisis.
"When we say here 'the Spanish' in a derogatory fashion, we tend to mean your chap in Madrid, the institutions; we have no problems between ordinary people, at the human and personal level."
But there is a problem at sea: a row over Spanish fishing boats in effect breaking Gibraltar's "no net" marine protection laws while fishing in waters that Spain claims for its own. The row has had politicians scurrying back through old treaties and legal entitlements and citing everything from Napoleonic "cannon shot" rules to UN conventions, but Picardo says he is now a "hair's breadth" from creating a mechanism to try to resolve the dispute with a cross-border working party.
"We don't believe that we should just turn a blind eye to that. If we accommodate these fishermen, then we would have to change our law. Spain has 8,000km of coastline, we have three," he said.
In the Gibraltar Bookshop – its windows a tribute to the Queen's 60-year reign and displaying a poster declaring "Keep Calm and Rule Britannia" – owner Jackie Scriven is looking forward to the jubilee street party and other celebrations planned. "We have to have the Spanish respect us, from our territorial waters to our Queen," she said. "When we remember what the Spanish did to us during the blockade, it was horrendous. They didn't let us have water, blood supplies, even the sacramental wine for the churches. We had to watch the ships sailing past us with food for Morocco, we couldn't get in or out except by boat.
"We've been British for 300 years and we are really loyal subjects. Even the younger generation are enthralled: more and more they are speaking English on the streets."
The economics of Gibraltar have little to do with patriotism. Its tax status means the island has more registered companies than inhabitants. Marriages can be arranged quickly for non-residents – John Lennon married Yoko Ono here and Sean Connery married here twice – and it is a hub of offshore banking and online gambling, but Gibraltar has the air less of a European Las Vegas and more of a Torquay-by-Andalucía. Its efforts to establish itself as a telecommunications base have been hampered by Spain's refusal to recognise its dialling code.
Tentative efforts by British leaders from Margaret Thatcher to Tony Blair to broker a joint sovereignty deal have been foiled by two no votes in referendums, in 1967 and in 2002. It remains UK policy that Gibraltar's status will not change without its people's consent.
Meanwhile the cold war with the mainland goes on. Ships that have visited Gibraltar are not allowed to go into Spanish ports. Spain does not recognise the Gibraltar government and refers to Gibraltarians as "transients", on the grounds that the legitimate population was expelled in the 18th century.
Out on a main street bristling with bunting – where pubs sell British grub and M&S advertises "UK prices" next to little shops selling T-shirts saying "Proud to be British" – political views are generally relaxed. Schoolgirls in white and burgundy uniforms crowd into Top Shop chattering in a mix of Spanish and English. "I'm Gibraltarian, or maybe English, both," said Catherine, 14. "My dad would kill me if I didn't say British but I think, for me, Gibraltarian," said Rose, 14.
"Are you kidding me?" said a 15-year-old boy in designer sunglasses with a Spanish surname, when asked if he feels linked to Spain. "Nobody hates them or anything, but it's a different world in Gib." And as far as the majority of the inhabitants are concerned, it's a case of bring on the jubilee.
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Dorset coastguards call off search for missing fishermen
19 May 2012 at 4:04pm
Wreckage discovery dashes hopes that Robert Prowse, 23, and Jack Craig, 22, were able to board liferaft before vessel sank
Coastguards have stopped searching for two missing fisherman after their vessel and liferaft were discovered on the seabed.
A survey ship, Odyssey Explorer, discovered the wreck of the Purbeck Isle lying 10 miles off Portland, in Dorset, at a depth of 50 metres. It was reported missing at 5.30pm on Thursday.
The body of skipper David McFarlane, 35, was found on Friday but there has been sign of two more crewman – named locally as Robert Prowse, 23, and Jack Craig, 22.
Desperate efforts to find his two companions continued amid hopes that Prowse and Craig could have taken to the liferaft of the 36ft "potter" boat when they ran into difficulty. But the raft was discovered onboard the wreck at 11am on Saturday.
Portland coastguard's rescue co-ordination centre manager, Mark Rodaway said: "After a prolonged and extensive three-day search, sadly, the time has now passed when we could have hoped that the two remaining crew members from the Purbeck Isle would be found alive.
"Our final area of investigation was to search for the missing liferaft in the hope that they had been able to board it before the vessel sank, but sadly this new information means that this search will now be terminated," he said.
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Three people held after girl is shot dead in County Derry
by Henry McDonald
19 May 2012 at 3:46pm
Man is arrested on suspicion of murder after shooting in which another woman was badly injured
Two men and a woman are being held in custody in connection with the murder of a young woman and the attempted murder of another in County Derry.
The victim died after being shot at a house in Bellaghy village in which another woman was badly injured.
The shooting occurred at 10.40am on Saturday in the William Court area.
Around half an hour afterwards police arrested a 26-year-old man on suspicion of murder. A man and woman, both aged 28, were arrested on suspicion of helping an offender. All three have been taken to the serious crime suite in Antrim police station.
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Ben Ainslie starts Olympic torch relay from Land's End – video
19 May 2012 at 2:26pm
Three time Olympic gold medallist Ben Ainslie set off on the first leg of the London 2012 torch relay on Saturday. The Olympic flame, lit last week by the sun rays at Olympia, arrived in Cornwall on Friday. It was accompanied by the president of the British Olympic Association, Princess Anne, footballer David Beckham and chair of the Olympic organising committee, Lord Coe
Rupert Murdoch denies claims that News Corp may sell UK newspapers
19 May 2012 at 1:45pm
Mogul says News Corporation is 'firmly committed' to its papers including the Sun, Times and Sunday Times
Rupert Murdoch has denied reports that News Corp is considering spinning off its British newspapers to protect the rest of his media empire from criminal scandals.
The Daily Telegraph and the Financial Times newspapers said executives at the company were looking into ways to split off the Sun, the Times and the Sunday Times, published by its News International unit.
However, Murdoch, the chief executive of News Corp, said in a statement: "News Corporation remains firmly committed to our publishing businesses, including News International, and any suggestion to the contrary is wholly inaccurate. Publishing is a core component of our future."
British police are examining claims that journalists at the News of the World – a paper shut by Murdoch last July – routinely hacked into the phones of hundreds of celebrities, politicians and victims of crime to generate front-page stories.
They are also investigating whether staff hacked into computers and made illegal payments to public officials, including the police, to get ahead in their reporting. Rebekah Brooks, a former senior executive of News International and editor of the News of the World, has been charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice.
The Daily Telegraph and the FT said News Corp was discussing putting the News International titles into a trust.
A News International spokeswoman denied the report, saying in a statement: "There are absolutely no plans to put News International into a separate trust."
Selling the newspapers to one or more wealthy individuals was another option under consideration, the FT said, quoting two people familiar with the company.
They noted no decisions had been made and a spin-off or a sale might not happen, the FT added.
The Daily Telegraph said a proposal to go into a joint venture with a media partner was also on the table, without citing its sources.
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Seven people face terrorism charges in Northern Ireland
by Henry McDonald
19 May 2012 at 1:33pm
Charges against suspected dissident republicans follow one of biggest security operations since IRA's 1994 ceasefire
Seven people have appeared in two Northern Ireland courts facing serious charges including directing acts of terrorism after one of the biggest security operations involving MI5 and police against republican paramilitaries since the IRA's 1994 ceasefire.
In one court case in Omagh it was claimed on Saturday that four alleged dissident republicans were linked to a terrorist training camp in County Tyrone.
A detective from the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) told the court there was evidence connecting the four accused to a secret firing range near Formil Wood in Tyrone.
Among those in court was Sean Kelly, a former IRA prisoner who was freed early under the terms of the 1998 Good Friday agreement. He and a woman arrested in the MI5-PSNI operation were both charged with directing acts of terrorism.
The hearing on Saturdayopening of the non-jury trial also revealed the extent of the security forces' covert and prolonged monitoring of the suspects using electronic surveillance.
The PSNI detective told the court that conversations had been recorded between another of the accused, Sharon Rafferty, and Kelly from 2011 until April 2012, in which they allegedly discussed targeting police officers and senior prison officers, firearms training, recruiting, acquiring firearms and providing finance for an organisation.
He told the court that the pair were recorded discussing the penetrative power of a .22 rifle on a human being, "army business" and "active service units".
The two other accused in the Omagh court case are Terence Aidan Coney and Gavin Coney, both from Omagh. All four were alleged to be linked via DNA traces to bullet casings and other material found at the firing range in Tyrone.
The court heard that approximately 200 rounds were heard being fired at the site in Formil Wood on 30 March 2012, and bullet casings had been recovered from the area.
The PSNI officer giving evidence said Gavin Coney's house had been searched, revealing balaclavas, rubber gloves and four sets of waterproof clothing.
It also emerged that all four refused to speak during seven days of police interviews. They were remanded in custody although Rafferty, a 37-year-old single mother of one, applied for bail.
The four accused will appear again via videolink from prison in the Omagh court on Tuesday.
The case heard in Omagh is linked to a parallel court case in Co Antrim, where a cousin of the prominent Co Armagh republican Colin Duffy faces charges of directing acts of terrorism.
Flanked by armed police in riot gear inside Lisburn magistrates court, Paul John Duffy was charged with directing a terrorist organisation.
Appearing alongside the 47-year-old were his brother Damien, 42, and cousin Shane, 41. All three men were charged with collecting information likely to be of use to terrorists, conspiracy to murder and conspiring to cause an explosion.
A PSNI detective told the court he could connect the defendants to the charges.
Colin Duffy, who was cleared of murdering two British soldiers outside Massereene Barracks in Antrim town three years ago, was in court along with 20 other supporters of the accused.
A defence solicitor said the Duffy family felt they were being "persecuted" by the PSNI. Under cross-examination by the Duffys' lawyer a PSNI detective declined to say which branch of the security services were involved with the police in targeting and raiding the homes of the Lurgan men. The solicitor also alleged in court that police officers involved in searching the Duffys' homes had inflicted degrading treatment on children living there by recording them on video cameras during the raids.
The detention and arraignment in two courts of seven republicans suspected of terrorism is the single biggest arrest operation against any republican faction since the 1994 IRA ceasefire.
The use of legislation on directing acts of terrorism is rarely deployed in Northern Ireland since the IRA and loyalist ceasefires, and was used this time, the PSNI said, only after advice from the Public Prosecution Service.
The last prominent paramilitary to be successfully prosecuted for directing a terrorist organisation was Johnny "Mad Dog" Adair, the UDA leader on Belfast's Shankill Road.
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Queen watches armed forces parade at Windsor Castle for diamond jubilee
19 May 2012 at 1:29pm
Servicemen and women from army, navy and RAF march in royal estate, watched by monarchs from around the world
The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh have watched a parade of thousands of troops in Windsor Castle to celebrate the diamond jubilee.
Six massed bands led servicemen and women from the Royal Navy, army and Royal Air Force (RAF) in the musical pageant.
The Queen and Prince Philip were joined by other members of the royal family on a dais in the quadrangle of Windsor Castle.
Outside the castle walls thousands of people lined the streets to cheer and wave union flags as the 2,500 troops from the armed forces marched past on their way to a specially built arena in the grounds of the royal estate.
The parade and muster began with a fly-past of RAF Typhoons in a diamond formation, which drew cheers and applause from the crowds in the arena and on the parade route.
The royal family took their positions in the grandstand in front of members of foreign royal families, including the Sultan of Brunei, the Queen and Prince of Denmark, the King and Queen of Lesotho, the Grand Duke and Duchess of Luxembourg, the King and Queen of Norway, the King of Swaziland, the King and Queen of Sweden, the Crown Prince and Princess of Thailand and the King and Queen of Tonga.
Sir David Richards, the chief of the defence staff, addressed the Queen and the crowd, saying: "For six decades, your devotion to duty, sense of honour, and pride in our country have set the standards to which your armed forces constantly aspire.
"Many ships, regiments and air stations have close connections with members of the royal family and I have the honour to have two of your grandchildren serving with me today."
The Queen said from the grandstand: "It is a tradition of very long standing that the sovereign, and members of the royal family, are intimately associated with the armed forces and have been proud to serve in all three services.
"We are very proud of the selfless service, and sacrifices made by servicemen and women and their families in recent years.
"It is very gratifying to celebrate and take pride in successful achievements, but the real test of character is the ability to maintain morale and a positive spirit in bad times as well as when things are going well."
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The latest stories from the UK section of the BBC News web site.
PM: 'Good progress' on eurozone
19 May 2012 at 6:36pm
UK PM David Cameron says "progress" is being made in the G8 summit before world leaders says they want debt-stricken Greece to remain in the eurozone.
Thousands greet Olympic torch
19 May 2012 at 9:51pm
About 100,000 people thronged the streets to see the first day of the torch relay.
Chelsea 1-1 Bayern Munich (aet, 4-3 pens)
19 May 2012 at 10:32pm
Chelsea achieve a dramatic Champions League final victory over Bayern Munich following a penalty shoot-out at the home of the German side.
Missing fishermen search halted
19 May 2012 at 3:33pm
The search ends for two fishermen missing off the Dorset coast, after a life-raft was found on-board the wreck of their boat.
Armed forces in Jubilee parade
19 May 2012 at 7:05pm
Thousands of members of the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force have taken part in a parade and flypast for the Diamond Jubilee celebrations.
Twenty charged in drugs operation
19 May 2012 at 9:41pm
Twenty people are charged with drug offences following a Metropolitan Police operation in the West End.
Two further arrests over grooming
19 May 2012 at 11:41am
Two men from Rochdale are arrested in connection with an ongoing investigation into grooming and child sexual exploitation in the town.
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18-year-old woman is shot dead
19 May 2012 at 4:12pm
A teenager is shot dead and her sister is seriously wounded in County Londonderry.
Four remanded over 'terror camp'
19 May 2012 at 2:05pm
Three men and a woman appear in court in Omagh on charges linked to an alleged terrorist training camp in County Tyrone.
Rider dies in North West 200 race
19 May 2012 at 8:53pm
A competitor has been killed in an accident on the last day of North West 200 road races.
