Life sentence.
bbc
Life sentence
By Angus Stickler
Today programme
For most people, the idea of being judged insane and held in a 1950s
asylum is the stuff of nightmares. But to be locked up when you are sane
would be regarded as an appalling injustice.
And yet a BBC investigation has revealed that nearly 50 women were
locked in an isolation ward in a mental asylum in Surrey - not because
they had a mental illness - but because they carried typhoid and were
deemed a public health risk.
They were held at Long Grove Hospital - a mental asylum in Surrey -
which started admitting carriers of typhoid as early as 1907 and
continued through the 1940s and 1950s. Once admitted, those women never
left.
One former nurse says that many of those women - admitted sane -
deteriorated mentally, driven mad by the conditions they lived in.
Others remained in full possession of their senses, despite enduring
conditions such as solitary isolation.
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It was 1992 when Long Grove finally closed.
Forgotten women
Medical archives - although sketchy - are held at the Surrey History
Centre in Woking and historians working there discovered two tattered
volumes in the derelict ruins of the old Long Grove building.
Those records tell some of the story of the women who were held in the
asylum; as do the nurses who cared for them.
Jeannie Kennett started working at Long Grove in 1955.
"They are somebody's loved ones or somebody's mother or
Government blamed over fuel costs.
bbc
Government blamed over fuel costs
More than a third of people in the UK think the government is most to
blame for high fuel prices, a poll for the BBC's Panorama programme
suggests.
Some 38% said the government was primarily responsible, while 22% mostly
blamed oil producing countries, and 20% pointed the finger at oil
companies.
And 35% of those questioned said they were more likely to vote for a
party offering to lower car and fuel taxes.
Just over 1,000 people were questioned for Panorama: Can We Afford to
Fill Up?
The 1,021 people were selected at random and included 64% who described
themselves as frequent drivers.
Hitting the pavement
The poll suggests that the current high prices of petrol and diesel are
having a significant effect on how much driving people are doing - with
32% of those questioned saying they are driving less than they were
three months ago.
There is no doubt that some people are being priced off the road
Edmund King, AA president
And, according to the poll results, people are turning to other modes of
transport, with 60% saying they were walking more, 34% saying they were
using public transport more, 21% saying they were car sharing more
frequently and 20% saying they were cycling more.
Oil prices hit record levels above $147 a barrel in early July, and
though they recently dropped to about $132 a barrel, many motorists are
still feeling the pinch.
Edmund King, president of the AA, told Panorama that "there is no doubt
Irish digging their heels in. New poll finds Irish voters are strongly against a second referendum. Ireland strongly opposed.
Irish digging their heels in.
The Irish imbroglio gets ever more insoluble, it would seem.
Note here not only the Irish people's [remember them?] strengthening
opposition but the attitude of Luxembourg's prime minister and the
Irish Foreign Minister. The former hasn't grasped the idea of a
mass revolt of voters. The idea seems foreign to him to be overcome
by speakiing more s.l.o.w.l.y and loudly. And the Irish Foreign
Minister is miffed that anyone should dare to ask the people what
they think. He complains of 'outside interference' after being
responsib;e for bringing EU politicians by the coachload to urge a
YES vote in the referendum.
Democrats are not well represented amongst EU politicians. They like
the gravy train too much.
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OPEN EUROPE 27.7.08
Press Release
New poll finds Irish voters are strongly against a second referendum
PRESS RELEASE *EMBARGO: 00:01 SUNDAY 27 JULY*
New poll finds Irish voters are strongly against a second referendum -
and would vote "no" by an even bigger margin than before if one were
held
A new Red C poll commissioned by the think tank Open Europe finds
that Irish voters are strongly opposed to being made to vote again on
the Lisbon Treaty. The poll also finds that nearly two thirds say
they would vote "no" in a second referendum.
The poll of 1,000 Irish voters was carried out between 21 and 23 July
- shortly after Nicolas Sarkozy's visit to the country. It is the
Labour is finished, whoever is leader. So isn't it time the Tories set out what they really stand for?
COMMENT:
The failings of Gordon Brown and the Labour party are a commonplace
in political discussion. The general assum ption is that the Tories
will take over .
But the Tories have a very vulnerable Achilles heel (Janet Daly in
the Telegraph today is vicious about it) But here Melanie Phillips
spells out the precise areas where boldness, clarity and vision are
urgently needed.
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DAILY MAIL 28.7.08
Labour is finished, whoever is leader. So isn't it time the Tories
set out what they really stand for?
MELANIE PHILLIPS
Labour is in turmoil. The Scottish National Party's by-election
victory in Glasgow East, hitherto the third safest Labour seat in
Scotland and one of the most solid in the country, has produced
feverish talk that a leadership challenge to Gordon Brown is now a
certainty.
The piranha pool otherwise known as the Parliamentary Labour Party is
now a blur of thrashing predators, some raising their jaws from the
bloodied waters only to declare, as did Harriet Harman yesterday,
that there are no plots against the Prime Minister and Labour is just
getting on with governing the country.
Well, that would be a first.
It's the fact that Labour is so patently failing to govern the
country which makes all the speculation over who will replace Mr
Brown largely beside the point.
For Labour's meltdown is not principally the result of his
premiership. It is more that an entire flock of political chickens -
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