integrity
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Today I belatedly came across a tweet by Jon Baines ( @bainesy1969 ) on the subject of the Op Motorman evidence being presented at the Leveson Inquiry : Op Motorman, in my mind, is key to the unravelling of the whole phone hacking scandal, and I was fascinated to hear Alex Owens’ evidence to the inquiry. It is clear Owens feels let down by his former bosses at the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). He claims he wanted to pursue the journalists requesting information from Steve Whittamore et al, and the answer, from above, was a clear 'No'. On Wednesday 30 November Owens described the Deputy Commissioner at the time, Francis Aldhouse, as saying of the media “We can't take them on, they're too big for us”, a claim roundly denied by Aldhouse on Monday. Perhaps the evidence of the former commissioner Richard Thomas on Friday will shed some light.
@jules_lewis on posterous - 140 characters isn't always enough...
MP Nadine Dorries claimed she 'didn't know' who funds the Right to Know group that supported her bid to restrict abortion counselling. Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian Nadine Dorries won't answer it. Lord Lawson won't answer it. Michael Gove won't answer it. But it's a simple question, and if they don't know it's because they don't want to.
Secretive thinktanks are crushing our democracy | Comment is free | The Guardian
That leave be given to bring in a Bill to make provision for the collection from the UK banking sector of financial inclusion audits and data on financial transactions, including commodity trading; to make provision for further obligations on the appropriate financial regulator regarding financial consumer protection and education; and for connected purposes. The Bill aims to improve the level of disclosure within our financial system. It would improve disclosure on how banks are addressing financial exclusion as well as improve disclosure within the UK’s commodities markets in the hope that we can rebuild trust in our banking system.
Hansard - Commons | Houses of Parliament, Today in the Commons (7th September 2011): Page 6
Have you heard that the devastating riots across England were caused by a chemical deficiency in the brain? Or that we will soon be able to cure such behaviour with a nasal spray? Over the past two weeks, such news stories have been read by potentially millions of people across many countries on at least three continents.
Riot control: How can we stop newspapers distorting science? | Science | guardian.co.uk
As chancellor, Gordon Brown thought it important to flatter the books – and the private finance initiative helped to do just that. Photograph: Danny Lawson/PA In a destructive relationship you shut your eyes to problems, dream up plus points, and lie about your motives. As in love, so – it transpires – in infrastructure. But just as Whitehall is rekindling its ruinous romance with private finance, the Treasury select committee last week decided to speak like a true friend, and confronted the interminable excuses.
PFI: the conjuring trick exposed | Tom Clark | Comment is free | The Guardian
Wrong Answers in Britain - NYTimes.com
The perpetrators must be punished, the police must improve their riot control techniques, and Prime Minister David Cameron’s government must do all it can to make such episodes less likely in the future. We are more confident about the first two happening than the third. Mr. Cameron, a product of Britain’s upper classes and schools, has blamed the looting and burning on a compound of national moral decline, bad parenting and perverse inner-city subcultures. Would he find similar blame — this time in the culture of the well housed and well off — for Britain’s recent tabloid phone hacking scandals or the egregious abuse of expense accounts by members of Parliament? Crimes are crimes whoever commits them.
I could pretend that it made me think, wow - that's shocking news! But because it is just way, way, way too far fetched to be remotely believable, it immediately made me think, oh dear, somebody's made a major gaffe. The previous day (Thursday 11 August), the Department of Health had released the latest A&E performance data, covering Quarter 1 of the 2011/12 financial year (1 April 2011 to 30 June 2011). The previous Government's target was for a four-hour maximum wait in A&E from arrival to admission, transfer or discharge. In practice, this used to be measured by using a 98% threshold - in other words, an NHS trust was deemed to have achieved the target if 98% or more of people attending A&E waited less than four hours. With the change in Government, the 'target' remained.
Once, twice, three times a headline
Governing in the private interest? « Alex's Archives
The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerated the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself. That in its essence is fascism: ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power. Franklin D Roosevelt Anyone interested in the health and sustainability of liberal democracy should be concerned if the levers of government come under the control of concentrated, sectional interests. That is the case whether the interest is corporations, the military, trades unions, bureaucrats, or organised religion.
The Daily Mail knowingly and commercially used my photos despite my denying them permission. - Wonderland
A few days ago, I snapped a picture in The GAP on Oxford Street: their ALWAYS SKINNY mannequins' legs are not only always skinny, but anorexically/starved so. I tweeted it , and TwitPic'd one picture. Then Cory BoingBoing'ed it . Then the WashPo emailed, asking permission to reprint, and asked for a quote or two . I said yes.MAX BROCKMAN clearly has designs on the family business. While his literary agent father John represents many of the big beasts of science writing - the Richard Dawkinses and Steven Pinkers of this world - Max focuses on nurturing the stars of the future. This collection of essays follows the blueprint of 2009's What's Next? , in which 19 young scientists had a crack - often a first crack - at popularising their work for a wider audience. But while that volume was deservedly well received ( New Scientist , 22 August 2009, p 45 ), I can't help but think that Brockman Jr has been struck by a curse known in the music business as the "difficult second album". That is not to say that Future Science is bad - just that it doesn't quite live up to expectations.
CultureLab: Science straight from the source
Stop Coddling the Super-Rich - NYTimes.com
OUR leaders have asked for “shared sacrifice.” But when they did the asking, they spared me. I checked with my mega-rich friends to learn what pain they were expecting. They, too, were left untouched. While the poor and middle class fight for us in Afghanistan, and while most Americans struggle to make ends meet, we mega-rich continue to get our extraordinary tax breaks.I have had many emails in response to my open letter to Baroness Greenfield . All but one have been approving. The one exception is an eminent Professor who has chided me for misrepresenting her views. I am reproducing here our unedited email correspondence. I have anonymised the name of the correspondent, as he has not given permission for it to be used, though I will happily break the anonymity if he wishes me to do so, so he can take credit for his arguments. As a non-celebrity scientist, I would like to get on with my day job and do some data analysis, and so have decided to reproduce the debate here, so that others can pursue it.
Susan Greenfield and autistic spectrum disorder: was she misrepresented?
Many may not have rationalised it. May not even understand, may not be able to articulate it. But they feel it. It therefore conditions and colours their social attitudes. Alienation expresses itself in different ways in different people. It is to be found in what our courts often describe as the criminal antisocial behaviour of a section of the community.
Still irresistible, a working-class hero's finest speech - UK Politics, UK - The Independent
Top Gear's electric car shows pour petrol over the BBC's standards | George Monbiot | Environment | guardian.co.uk
Jeremy Clarkson test drives the Leaf electric car Photograph: BBC What distinguishes the BBC from the rest of this country's media? There's the lack of advertising, and the lack of a proprietor with specific business interests to defend. But perhaps the most important factor is its editorial guidelines , which are supposed to ensure that the corporation achieves "the highest standards of due accuracy and impartiality and strive[s] to avoid knowingly and materially misleading our audiences." "We will be rigorous in establishing the truth of the story and well informed when explaining it.policy based evidence
individual integrity
Institutional integrity
Journalistic integrity
Beyond individual span of time and space