1. Yesterday was a beaucoup news day. It seemed like the culmination of a number of events which significantly reflected the character of society in the UK and the US too.
Rubbish collection may be moving to a fortnightly basis after government research concluded that rubbish left for two weeks does not constitute a hazard if properly bundled. This was the subject of broadcast news reports on BBC News24 along with the question about how this would impact those who live in flats since those areas currently with fortnightly rubbish collection are residential areas with homes. I sent the following Email to describe this situation here.
---------- Forwarded Message ----------
Subject: Fortnightly Rubbish Collection: Flat in the Lancaster West Estate aka the Rubbish Sink Hole Estate
Date: Friday 16 March 2007 09:41
From: Gary D Chance
To: news24@bbc.co.uk
What happens when people leave their rubbish on the floor anyway each night all night right in front of the rubbish chute door?
Last year there was an excessive amount of rubbish strewn on the floor one Monday morning. A guy in charge said it was due to the failure of the pickup service to remove the rubbish that morning in the area below where it falls when put down the chutes. The chutes were full, and everyone left the rubbish on the floor. I photographed this while he was standing there.
This might have been a problem for this particular day, but this is a persistent daily problem due to inadequate rubbish disposal facilities. People then leave their rubbish on the floor. Once this is started rubbish of all kinds is left there, and then this becomes the standard method of disposal with extra cost for the cleaners to come around early each morning to make excessive noises putting the rubbish left on the floor down the chutes.
The safety doors to these inadequate rubbish chutes are removed after being broken because the size of the chute is too small. This then becomes a safety threat for children. Such has been the case for the last three months. Wanna see the photographs? [I photographed this today after sending this Email.]
The rubbish is collected from the large bin area in the "basement" (this is actually a "road") under the building twice a week. There is no way that they could shift to fortnightly pickup for this rubbish. When they miss one day out of two pickups a week [This might be once a week. It used to be twice, and I'm assuming that this is still the case. I'll have to verify this. In any case, once a week is not enough when collection is missed], it creates a problem.
Then there is the problem with the recycle Blue Bins out front where tipped rubbish is left on the ground for extended periods of time feeding the vermin. These bins are picked up weekly. There is Saturday morning pickup for Orange Bags outside each flat door. Then, early on Sunday morning the noisy recycle Blue Bin emptying occurs outside invariably waking me if I am asleep.
Also, these large recycle Blue Bins are often not shut properly and remain open for vermin to crawl in. Until recently they have been overfilled and left like that overnight on Saturdays including some of the recyclable and other waste on the ground. I've photographed this on several occasions vermin and all. In fact, I photograph this daily to provide an ongoing record of it.
They have recently got this almost under control after years of addressing this problem, but I fear that they've just shifted the overflow elsewhere. I don't have any confidence that they will actually do anything properly.
There is no sense that certain standards with respect to rubbish disposal must be maintained by those who do the work. If this collection is changed to fortnightly for all this rubbish alternating between recyclables and garbage, it will be a far worse mess which will grow by attracting fly tipping and more of those who just dump the rubbish on the floor.
Until there are proper rubbish disposal facilities and a conscientious effort to use them properly all around, any change to fortnightly rubbish pickup would be a disaster turning this already rubbish sink hole estate into a heap of smelling rubbish with all kinds of vermin flourishing everywhere.
Addendum: the central heating has been out for the past two mornings [This was sent Friday morning]. While this has not been a problem during this warm weather, what will happen this weekend with the anticipated arctic freeze if this outage persists?
The government is creating a health and safety hazard by falsely claiming there is no health hazard for fortnightly rubbish collection alternating between recyclables and garbage [one collected each week]. They are doing this to set the stage for cost savings throughout the country by reducing rubbish collection.
I wonder if it [the government] has considered the costs that will result from safety and health hazards and a further increase in the vermin population?
*****End of the Email*****BBC News Friday, 16 March 2007, 13:54 GMT
Bin collection shake-up expected
 A third of English councils have already reduced collections |
More homes could see the end of weekly bin collections, after government research said there would be no hygiene problems if rubbish was wrapped.
Many councils have already adopted a policy of collecting general waste fortnightly - with many picking up recyclable rubbish on alternate weeks.
Ministers say the move encourages householders to recycle more.
The environment department said it had targets on reducing landfill but it did not set waste policies for councils.
Climate claim
Environment minister Ben Bradshaw said pilot schemes with fortnightly collections had revealed an increase in the amount of recycling.
 |  Axing weekly collections will hit families the hardest  Caroline Spelman Shadow local government secretary  |
He labelled recycling as a "major part of our battle against climate change".
Recycling household waste, he said, was "the equivalent of taking 3.5 million cars off the road".
The research into waste collections - funded by the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) - found that if waste was properly wrapped there should be no hygiene concerns.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6457165.stm
2. The US government has shown its true stars and stripes by refusing to participate in the coroner's inquiry into the death of a British soldier killed by friendly fire during the invasion of Iraq. In the most eloquent simple statement made by his widow on the broadcast news interview she pointed out that while Britain had gone to war with the US as a full allay in the Iraq invasion, the US had failed to cooperate when one of its pilots had killed a British soldier. Secondary status had emerged in the aftermath of death.
The US treats the UK like dirt as I am directly experiencing. The US believes that it is regent supreme and can carry on as it pleases by usurping and failing to recognise the sovereignty of the UK. Such disregard is manifested in my direct experience by the behaviour from the likes of Colonel Vine and Lt Harry Bird for over six years.
They deliberately refuse to recognise the validity of UK laws and respect their relevance to the foundation of UK democracy and justice when that does not suit their purpose despite the fact that they tread UK soil while carrying out acts of lawlessness with impunity. They tyrannically run roughshod over anything that appears to be an equal partner relationship. The US is the master. The UK is the slave. Slavery was not abolished 200 years ago but has ascended to the level of government supremacy by the abuse of power against the weak and defenceless carried out by agents of the US government in the UK.
There were cockpit videos of some duration which showed all that happened when the aircraft attacked the British vehicles. This was never known to the coroner's inquiry until a little while ago despite many requests for this evidence. There was an attempt to hide its existence. When it emerged in a newspaper, the US tried to hide behind a statement to the effect that it had cooperated fully with the UK's Ministry of Defense who went along with the charade. Finally, the US relented and allowed the video which by then had been shown publicly throughout the UK on the BBC and by the newspaper. However, it would only permit it to be shown to the coroner and the immediate family.
There was the issue of the pilots' failure to testify and bring closure to this open wound to the family of the dead British soldier. There were other issues as well. Despite repeated requests for full information some 11 lines of a 1,000 line document were blacked out and were never supplied. It leaves one with the nasty taste of guilt being hidden by the US. The US does not consider the UK to be an ally in the way the UK considers the US to be an ally. This has been made explicitly clear by the high handed and arrogant manner in which the US has acted throughtout this inquiry into the death of a British soldier. Amid much speculation the coroner's verdict was finally released. Here it is:
BBC News Friday, 16 March 2007, 16:26 GMT
'Friendly fire' killing unlawful
|  Mrs Hull said she was ready to move on |
Susan Hull reaction The death of a UK soldier when a US pilot fired on his convoy in Iraq was unlawful, a coroner has ruled.
The "friendly fire" incident which killed Lance Corporal Matty Hull, 25, amounted to a criminal act, he said.
Andrew Walker said the 2003 death was "entirely avoidable" and L/Cpl Hull's widow said the verdict was "right".
The Ministry of Defence apologised for a delay in releasing film from the US A-10 plane. The Pentagon offered the Hull family its "deepest sympathies".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6449227.stm
BBC News Friday, 16 March 2007, 18:13 GMT
US rejects ruling on UK soldier
|  Four other soldiers were injured in the attack near Basra |
The US State Department has rejected a coroner's conclusion that the "friendly fire" death of a British soldier in Iraq was unlawful and a criminal act.
Lance Corporal of Horse Matty Hull, 25, died near Basra on 28 March 2003 when a US pilot fired on his tank convoy.
US spokesman Sean McCormack said it was a "tragedy" during a time of war.
The coroner was critical of US failure to send witnesses to the inquest but the Pentagon said he had access to most information from its own inquiry.
Speaking at a State Department briefing in Washington, Mr McCormack said: "Clearly we don't agree with the assessment. What we have here is a tragedy that occurred during a time of war.
"We have conducted an investigation into the matter - our military has - they have come to their own conclusions.
"We certainly would not agree with any conclusion that categorised this as a criminal act."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6459895.stm
3. At long last Valerie Plame emerges into the spotlight as she appears publicly to give evidence about what this administration did to her and her husband. It seems as though the US government turns on its own when those in positions of responsibility opt for the truth, objectivity and accuracy rather than to stay on message. In this case that message involved faking intelligence for supporting the invasion of Iraq. This is brutality in the extreme against those loyal to the honest interests of the US government and the people of the US. What was done by exposing her as a CIA agent was a crime under US law. The violation of this law came from the very top of the US government. What was done appears to be more consistent with an act that one would expect from organised crime.
BBC News Friday, 16 March 2007, 19:17 GMT
Ex-CIA agent blasts White House
|  Valerie Plame said her identity was 'recklessly abused' |
Secret CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson has accused senior Bush administration officials of "carelessly and recklessly" revealing her identity.
The comments were her first public statements on a political scandal which rocked Washington.
She says her identity was revealed in 2003 to discredit her husband, a former diplomat, for criticising the Iraq war.
No-one has been charged over the leak, but the vice-president's former top aide was convicted of perjury.
It was a terrible irony that administration officials were the ones who destroyed my cover
Lewis "Scooter" Libby, former chief of staff to Dick Cheney, resigned from his role as chief of staff and was convicted of perjury and obstruction in the case earlier this month.
He could face up to 25 years in prison.
A US former Deputy Secretary of State, Richard Armitage, has admitted that he first disclosed that Ms Plame was an undercover CIA agent.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6460227.stm
BBC News Friday, 16 March 2007, 20:50 GMT
Ex-spy makes tough Bush critic
| By Richard Allen Greene BBC News, Washington |
The Bush administration has, until recently, been either clever or lucky in its choice of opponents.
Saddam Hussein, for all the talk about what a threat he posed to his neighbours and the United States, proved essentially a push-over when US tanks rolled towards Baghdad.
|  Democrats may have found their messenger in Valerie Plame |
And Senator John Kerry was left standing slack-jawed when allies of the administration attacked what should have been his greatest asset in running against the president - his war record.
But things could be about to change.
President Bush's latest opponent is no ageing Middle Eastern strongman, no long-faced patrician senator, but a glamorous former spy out to tell how the White House has wronged her.
As the American networks have been putting it, Valerie Plame Wilson has broken cover.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6460053.stm
4. The killing of teenagers by teenagers comes close to home. This 16-year-old was stabbed to death on Hammersmith Grove in an area where I used to work for a translation company in 1994. He lived on Portland Road not far south of where I live now. Portland Road is an affluent area of Notting Hill and was used for location filming for part of a recent comedy series Tight Spot on BBC Four. Julie's restaurant and the surrounding roads were filmed as part of the initial comedy broadcast. It is an easily recognisable area. This teenager had also appeared on MTV just before he was stabbed to death talking about knife crime.
There has never been anything threatening or sinister about the Hammersmith Grove area as far as I was concerned. When I worked there I was coming and going at different times including weekends to help get a large project done. It is also just north of King Street in Hammersmith and on the route I took frequently when walking from here to Hammersmith and the King's Mall area. Things have happened from time to time over these years some of which have even made the news, but these have been just accidents of occurrence with respect to location as far as I was concerned. It is quite surprising to see this apparent random violence turning up in various locations around London and elsewhere.
BBC News Friday, 16 March 2007, 15:03 GMT
Tributes paid to stabbed teenager
 Kodjo was stabbed through the heart |
Teachers and friends have paid tribute to Kodjo Yenga, the 16-year-old stabbed to death on Wednesday in west London.
Paul O'Shea, principal of St Charles Catholic Sixth Form College where Kodjo was a student, called him "a friendly, gentle and peaceful young man".
Messages posted on Kodjo's personal webpage said that he would be "dearly missed" and would "never be forgotten".
Seven people, aged 13 to 21, have been arrested and are being questioned at separate west London police stations.
Kodjo, of Portland Road, Notting Hill, was stabbed in the heart during an attack in Hammersmith Grove on Wednesday evening.
Flowers and candles have been left at a makeshift shrine near the row of shops where he was stabbed.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6457081.stm
BBC News Saturday, 17 March 2007, 05:24 GMT
Four charged over stabbing death
 A makeshift shrine has been made to the teenager |
Four teenagers have been charged with murdering 16-year-old Kodjo Yenga, who was stabbed to death in London.
Kodjo, of Portland Road, Notting Hill, died after he was stabbed through the heart on Wednesday.
The four youths, two aged 13, one aged 15 and a 16-year-old, are due to appear at West London Magistrates' Court. Five other youths were given bail.
Friends of the victim have left tributes at a makeshift shrine close to where he died in Hammersmith Grove.
'Getting worse'
Kodjo was interviewed about knives on television five days before his death.
He told an MTV programme: "Stabbings are getting worse but the media is also making it bigger than what it is."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6461113.stm
5. The justice system failed. After three years in prison hell, solicitor Sally Clark was released four years ago after her conviction was overturned as "unsafe." She had been sentenced to life imprisonment for the death of her children who had most likely died from cot death or other natural causes. The conviction was based upon the statistical evidence provided by expert witness Professor Sir Roy Meadow whose expert testimony about probabilities has been subsequently discredited. There was also an issue of withheld evidence indicating that one of the children might have been suffering from a brain infection.
These convictions surrounding the testimony of Professor Sir Roy Meadows have all been subjected to review with others released who had been convicted. Now a woman herself a solicitor whose life had been destroyed by the judicial system has died of causes unknown so far. It's a great tragedy that such testimony is not challenged sufficiently during trial as finally occurred after conviction and imprisonment. Evidence had also been withheld from the defense. The essence of justice in a democratic society is that the innocent must be protected to ensure that the guilty are successfully prosecuted. This seems to be missing often in British justice with the likelihood of miscarriages of justice increasing by allowing hearsay evidence and abolishing jury trials in some instances for quicky justice.
BBC News Friday, 16 March 2007, 21:19 GMT
Sally Clark dies at family home
 Sally Clark spent three years in jail after her wrongful conviction |
Sally Clark - the solicitor wrongly jailed for murdering her two sons - has died, her family has announced.
Mrs Clark, 42, was jailed in 1999 for killing her 11-week-old son Christopher in December 1996 and eight-week-old Harry in January 1998.
A first appeal against the convictions failed in 2000 but she was freed in 2003 after a fresh appeal.
The family's solicitor said she was found dead at her home on Friday. The cause of death is not yet known.
She was not suffering from any kind of disease at the time of her death but she was not in the best of health
Family's solicitor
The solicitor's statement said she "never fully recovered" from the effects of the "appalling miscarriage of justice" she suffered, which saw her spend three years in jail.
"Sally... was a loving and talented wife, mother, daughter and friend. She will be greatly missed by all who knew her."
The statement also said the matter was in the hands of the coroner and it was too early to provide any further information.
Angela Cannings, who was herself wrongly convicted of killing two of her sons, said she was "shocked" and "angry" at Mrs Clark's death.
She said: "I'm really speechless, I'm so angry. This lady suffered so much, now she's died, I'm just shocked and stunned."
. . .
Three Court of Appeal judges eventually decided that her conviction was "unsafe".
Professor Sir Roy Meadow, giving evidence during her trial, claimed the probability of two natural unexplained cot deaths in a family was 73 million-to-one.
The Royal Statistical Society and other medical experts disputed the figure and said the odds of a second cot death in a family were around 200-to-one.
Sir Roy was found guilty of serious professional misconduct and struck off the medical register.
However, both of these decisions were overturned on appeal at the High Court.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6460595.stm
6. It will not be soon enough.
BBC News Friday, 16 March 2007, 18:00 GM
Blair exit timetable to be agreed
 Two MPs have so far declared their intention to run for Mr Blair's job |
A timetable for elections to find a new leader when Tony Blair quits is expected to be agreed next week by Labour's National Executive Committee.
Mr Blair is expected to announce his retirement as prime minister after the Scottish and Welsh elections on 3 May.
There will then be a seven-week contest for the position of Labour leader and deputy leader, the BBC understands.
Gordon Brown may still be required to attend hustings and face a vote even if he is the only leadership candidate.
So far two candidates from the left of the party, Michael Meacher and John McDonnell, have declared their intention to challenge Mr Brown for the top job.