5:12pm Wednesday 23rd February 2011 25 February 2011Note: You genuinely couldn't make it up. RH
Telegraph
Labour shadow ministers forced to ask permission to speak in public
Labour shadow ministers have been told to ask for written permission from the party’s leadership before they speak in public, it has emerged.
Telegraph
Judge criticises CPS for prosecuting man for pictures available in bookshops
A top judge has queried why a man was prosecuted for possessing "indecent" images of children - when the photos were available for sale in a string of respectable mainstream bookshops.
Telegraph
Spy row MP 'victim of election sex smear'A leading Liberal Democrat MP has been accused by an election rival of having sexual intercourse with a 14-year-old girl, a court heard yesterday.
Telegraph
Julian Assange must be extradited, judge rulesWikiLeaks founder Julian Assange should be extradited to Sweden for alleged sex offences, a judge has ruled.
Telegraph
Julian Assange extradition hearing: the key playersThe extradition proceedings for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange have attracted worldwide interest.
The world's most dangerous broadcaster
THURSDAY, 17TH FEBRUARY 2011
I have only just caught up with the BBC1 documentary on the Dutch politician
Geert Wilders that was transmitted on Tuesday evening. Did I say documentary?
‘Europe’s Most Dangerous Man' was a vicious hatchet job that was a disgrace to
journalism. More than that, it could be argued that by presenting Wilders as a
latter-day Nazi who was likely to foment war in Europe between Muslims and
non-Muslims, it was in effect inciting violence or the murder of a politician
who is already under armed guard 24/7.
There were several aspects of this programme that should have caused any
responsible broadcaster to sling it straight into the trash. First and most
fundamentally, it simply turned the people threatening the free world into
victims and the politician who is trying to defend the free world against that
threat into a fascist. Muslims were presented as universally peaceful people
signed up to democracy and human rights; Wilders was the presented as the
extremist threat to democracy and human rights. Yet as Wilders himself was
quoted as saying – even while the script was telling us that these words were
‘extremist’ – he was defending freedom against the threat from Islamists to
extinguish those freedoms.
Worse still, look at the two individuals the film-makers used to level the most
inflammatory charges against Wilders – individuals who were described as
democrats assigned up to human rights. The first, Ibrahim Mogra, is from the
Muslim Council of Britain – described by the programme as ‘an organisation
seeking to promote a distinct Muslim identity in tune with British cultural
norms and values’.
Yet this is the organisation with which the British government has twice broken
off relations on account of its extremism. The first occasion was when it
refused to take part in Britain’s Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony. The second
occasion was in response to the MCB’s deputy general secretary, Dr Daud
Abdullah, signing the Istanbul Declaration, a public declaration of support for
Hamas and call for violence against the British Royal Navy and Jewish
communities.
The film made no mention of this whatever. Instead it used the MCB man to attack
Wilders as a dangerous extremist.
The second of these ‘moderate’ individuals wheeled on to attack Wilders was
Sheikh Khalid Yasin. The film described Sheikh Yasin as ‘an American Muslim
teacher extremely popular among young European Muslims’ who ‘has embarked on a
mission to de radicalise them.’ Yasin denounced Wilders for ‘fanning hatred’.
Yet in the Channel 4 Dispatches programme ‘Undercover Mosque’ transmitted two
years ago, Yasin was recorded saying:
‘We Muslims have been ordered to do ‘brainwashing’ because the kuffaar
[non-Muslims] ... they are doing ‘brain defiling’ ... You are watching the
kaffir TVs, and your wife is watching right now, and your children are watching
it right now, and they are being polluted, and they are being penetrated, and
they are being infected, so that your children and you go out as Muslims and
come back to the house as kaffirs...The whole delusion of the equality of women
is a bunch of foolishness. There’s no such thing.’
And Wilders is called ‘Europe’s most dangerous man’?
Worse, the film then adduced as the final proof of Wilders’s perfidy that he was
a passionate defender of Israel. His crime, apparently, was to believe that
Israel was ‘the last line of the defence of Europe’ – which indeed it is – and
that to solve the Middle East impasse, Jordan should become Palestine -- which
indeed it originally was.
Worse again, however, the film suggested that Wilders was an Israeli spy – and,
in the words of Sheikh Yasin, that it was doing Israel’s dirty work for it:
‘I think that he [Wilders] has taken and embraced the idea of modern Zionism.
And he is using the platform of modern Zionism to espouse the same concepts
about Muslims in the world and the Koran, that the Jews cannot afford to say in
Israel. But Mr Wilders can do them a favour. He can go outside of Israel with
those same feelings and he can characterise the way that the Zionists
characterise the Palestinians to legitimise their power. Mr Wilders can
characterise Islam in the same way. This is what is taking place.’
So the film suggested, in effect, that Wilders was the front man for a kind of
Nazi-Jewish conspiracy -- thus defaming both him and Israel in one go. Others
smeared by association with him were the distinguished scholar of Islam (and
indefatigable supporter of true Islamic reformers) Daniel Pipes, and the heroic
Danish defender of freedom of speech Lars Hedegaard – who recently only narrowly
fought off an attempt by Denmark’s pusillanimous prosecutors to silence him
through a criminal prosecution for raising concerns about violence within some
Muslim family life.
This travesty of a documentary was made by two radical Dutch film-makers for a
production company called ‘Red Rebel’. Questions need to be asked how the BBC
could transmit something on such an inflammatory subject which ignored the most
basic standards of journalistic fairness, -- and was effectively the
broadcasting equivalent of a flier distributed by the Socialist Workers’ Party.
But of course, we all know the answer to that already. BBC ‘group- think’ means
that BBC executives will have assumed the lazy and vicious left-wing
demonisation of Wilders is axiomatically true and unchallengeable. They will
thus have suspended any critical faculties or professionalism to which they
might ever have laid any claim.
We are living in truly evil times.Why the Net Matters; The Net Delusion: reviews
Leo Hollis reviews two books about the internet: Why the Net Matters: How the Internet Will Save Civilisation by David Eagleman and The Net Delusion: How Not to Liberate the World by Evgeny Morozov.
Telegraph
Michael Grade: ageism row against BBC was nonsenseMichael Grade has some surprising views on those Top Gear jokes, the BBC Trust and Miriam O’Reilly’s tribunal, finds Neil Midgley
Telegraph
Paul Daniels accused of racism after 'Paki' tweet
Paul Daniels, the magician, has been accused of racism for suggesting that the word "Paki" is no more offensive than the abbreviation "Brit".
Telegraph
KFC abandons 'finger lickin' good slogan in a bid to boost its imageFast-food chain KFC is to replace its 50-year-old claim that its chicken fillets and burgers are "finger-lickin' good" as part of a menu of changes aimed at promoting healthy eating and combatting its negative image.
Telegraph
Meredith Kercher murder scene dropped from controversial filmA gruesome scene in which a half-naked Meredith Kercher screams for her life as she is pinned down and stabbed by her three alleged killers has been dropped from a controversial film to be shown for the first time on Monday.
Faggots email cooks up IT storm
Telegraph
Anti-abortion billboard in New York sparks outrageAn anti-abortion billboard featuring a young black girl and the slogan "the most dangerous place for an African-American is in the womb" has provoked sharp criticism in New York.
Note: Oh dear, yet another liberal bigot forgetting the pc script. RH
http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/article/TMG8347082/John-Galliano-suspended-by-Dior-following-arrest-over-anti-semitic-rant.html
John Galliano suspended by Dior following arrest over 'anti-semitic rant'
Telegraph
India to sack British football manager Bob Houghton over racism allegations
Saturday 26 February 2011
Shadow justice secretary Sadiq Khan confirmed he and his senior colleagues now had to fill in questionnaired before making public interventions.
The Tories seized on the news as a sign that the party under leader Ed Miliband was returning to the control freakery of the early days of new Labour.
The questionnaires include boxes titled “Type of intervention”, “Language for clearance”, “Issue background” and “What we have said before”.
A letter sent with the questionnaires, signed by leader Mr Miliband and Ed Balls, the shadow Chancellor, said: “Any new policy statements with spending or economic implications will be cleared with the leader’s office and Shadow Treasury teams, working closely together.
“Where there are policies with neither spending nor economic policy implications they will need to be cleared by the Leader’s office.
“Issues for clearance will include: any public statement by a frontbencher spokesperson, whether in speech or article or Press statement; any contribution to Parliament.
“It should also include public campaigns you intend to support. A template has been circulated showing the information required to facilitate sign-off.
“It is imperative that all statements made which change our existing position or language on spending or taxation are cleared in advance with the Shadow Treasury team in addition to the Leader’s office. It goes without saying that this applies...to the entire Shadow team.”
The Tories said the letter and questionnaire suggested that Labour was returning to the days of when the party was called 'new Labour' and public pronouncements were strictly controlled by Peter Mandelson and Alistair Campbell.
Robert Halfon, a backbench Conservative MP, said: “The spirit of Campbell and Mandelson lives on, control freakery is alive and well in Ed Miliband’s Labour party.
“It is a sign of how weak the Labour leadership is if they have to issue these memos. It is a sign that they have lost control of their party.”
However, Mr Khan defended the questionnaires. He told Sky News: “It's right that the shadow chancellor and the leader of the opposition should get together and make sure that we are a team.
"And before we make any announcements of policy which have a spending commitment we make sure we can afford them.
“If we make reckless commitments about spending, not unreasonably the government will say how could you be a credible government?”
Lord Justice Richards said it was "very unfair" that Stephen Neal, 59, was pursued by the law for having four artistic photo books - which prosecutors claimed contained "level one" child porn - when the books' publishers and retailers who sold them were left alone.
The judge, sitting at London's Appeal Court, said the issue of the pictures' alleged indecency was a legitimate question for a "properly directed jury".
But overturning Mr Neal's convictions and clearing his name, the judge added: "It is, however, very unfair for a person in the position of Mr Neal to be prosecuted for possession of the photographs in these books in these circumstances.
"If the Crown Prosecution Service wishes to test whether the pictures in the books are indecent, the right way to deal with the matter is by way of prosecuting the publisher or retailer - not the individual purchaser," he told the court.
Following a police search of his home, Mr Neal, of Stockfield Road, Walthamstow, east London, was convicted of five counts of possessing indecent images of children at Snaresbrook Crown Court in November and received a community sentence.
One of the books was "Still Time" - containing a varied collection of images by the lauded American photographer, Sally Mann, whose work includes photos of animals, the landscape and her own children. Another title seized was "The Age of Innocence" by David Hamilton.
Mr Neal had also been charged with possessing an "extreme" pornographic DVD, but was cleared of that allegation on the trial judge's direction.
Lord Justice Richards, sitting with Mr Justice Eady and Sir Christopher Holland, said all the books discovered at Mr Neal's home were "widely available from a number of reputable outlets".
Sally Mann's "Still Time" was also on sale at a London art gallery last summer, he added, but no action had been taken against the gallery by the CPS.
"Against this background, it is a matter of surprise that charges were brought against this individual in respect of the pictures," said the judge.
"It is legitimate to wonder if such charges would have been brought against him but for his prosecution in relation to the DVD".
Quashing Mr Neal's convictions, he said the trial judge had failed to adequately direct the jury on the correct "objective standards" to be applied when assessing whether the photos were indecent.
The Crown Prosecution Service's application for a retrial was refused after Lord Justice Richards concluded that re-prosecuting Mr Neal was "not in the public interest".
The allegation was made by a rival candidate during the 2010 General Election. Les Cummings, standing for the Justice and Anti-Corruption Party, printed and distributed leaflets which alleged that Mike Hancock was a paedophile.
The 66 year-old also claimed that the MP for Portsmouth South also shared a bed with children after flying to Romania on charity work. Southampton magistrates' court heard.
Mr Hancock, 64, came under the spotlight last year after his Russian aide was accused of spying on MPs for the Kremlin. Ekaterina Zatuliveter, 25, was arrested in December and ordered to be deported on MI5's advice. He also faced questions over his links with Ekaterina Paderina, a Russian student, after he wrote to the Home Office when she was threatened with deportation.
Mr Cummings denies making and publishing false statements in relation to Mike Hancock's personal character with the purpose of affecting the outcome of the election.
The leaflet was distributed to homes in Portsmouth, Hants, on April 22 last year. Headed ''Les Cummings is naming Mike Hancock as a paedophile!'', it made a series of allegations. One section read: "He is a paedophile who had an affair with a 14-year-old schoolgirl, whilst married to his wife Jacqui.
We have a witness who saw Hancock in a Southsea casino and he was kissing her. He has also made numerous trips to Romania and other 'Child Sex Tourist' destinations. Witnesses tell of seeing Hancock in bed with children in Romania." Mr Hancock went on to retain his seat with an increased majority. He was also re-elected as a Portsmouth city councillor. The court heard that Leo Ciccarone, Mr Cummings's election agent, resigned after he insisted on distributing the leaflet against his advice.
Alison Morgan, prosecuting, said: "Cummings is charged with making and publishing a false statement in relation to Mr Hancock's personal character, which he knew to be false, in the course of an election.
"The defendant created and distributed leaflets about the Liberal Democrat candidate Mike Hancock that stated 'Mike Hancock is a paedophile,' knowing that this is patently false.''
Miss Morgan added: "Mr Hancock accepted that he had had extra-marital affairs in the past, but he has never had a relationship with anyone under the age of 17 or with a schoolgirl. He has been to a casino in Southsea, but not for 25 years and he has never kissed anyone there. He accepted that he had been to Romania for charity work with Mencap, but had never been left alone with any children."
Mr Cummings told police he believed the statements to be ''100 per cent true'', but had no documentary evidence to prove it.
The trial continues.
District Judge Howard Riddle rejected the defence's claims that their client could not get a fair trial because of media coverage and even comments by the country's Prime Minister in Parliament.
The 39-year-old Australian faces three charges of sexually assaulting one woman and one charge of raping another during a week-long visit to Stockholm in August.
During a two-and-a-half-day extradition hearing earlier this month at Belmarsh Magistrates' Court in south London, Assange's lawyers argued that if he were sent to Sweden he would be likely to face a ''secret'' trial held behind closed doors.
They have also claimed extradition would breach his human rights and say he could ultimately be taken against his will to the United States and executed.
Assange now has one week to appeal to the High Court. He denies committing any offences and his supporters claim the criminal inquiry and extradition request are unfair and politically motivated.
Each hearing has seen a swarm of international media descend on the London court houses where his lawyers have battled to stop him being sent to Sweden to stand trial for alleged sex offences.
The crowds of journalists and supporters have been joined by a number of celebrity backers keen to help the Australian whistleblower in what some see as a politically motivated case.
Here are the key players involved:
:: The accused
Julian Assange, 39, started hacking into the email accounts of the power elite when he was part of the ''computer underground'' in his late teens.
He launched WikiLeaks in 2007 and its servers are located all over the world, with the central one based in an underground nuclear bunker in Stockholm.
He said: ''It is the role of good journalism to take on powerful abusers.''
But the sex offence allegations against him - and the resulting extradition proceedings - have left him fighting a war on two fronts: a crusade to publish material of ''ethical, political and historical significance'' and his struggle against prosecution for crimes he denies.
:: The supporter
Vaughan Smith, 47, offered his Norfolk country retreat of Ellingham Hall to Assange while he was on conditional bail.
A champion for freedom of the press, the former cameraman founded the Frontline Club in London in 2003 in honour of colleagues who died pursuing their work.
During the Gulf War in 1991, Smith bluffed his way into an active-duty unit while disguised as a British army officer, which gained him the only uncontrolled footage of the conflict.
During the 1990s he ran the Frontline Television News agency.
:: The lawyers
Mark Stephens, a partner at Finers Stephens Innocent law firm, has been a practising solicitor for nearly 30 years and specialises in libel, newsgathering, reporting restrictions, media and anti-counterfeiting.
Not afraid of stepping in front of the world's media in this case, the flamboyant lawyer has acted as Assange's spokesman, addressing the press outside court to brief them on proceedings in often theatrical language.
Geoffrey Robertson QC has fought Assange's corner in the courts, arguing among other things about the very detail of the sex offences his client stands accused of.
The high profile silk has previously acted as counsel in many landmark cases and is also a published author and well-known public figure.
:: The celebrity backers
A number of celebrities have lent their vocal and financial support to Assange since the extradition case began.
Journalist John Pilger, also from Australia, said Assange's original detention was a ''gross injustice''.
He added: ''It's outrageous the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) has gone along with this.''
The left-wing campaigner reportedly contributed £20,000 to his compatriot's surety.
Another high-profile backer is Jemima Kahn, who also offered to stump up cash to secure bail for Assange, along with film director Ken Loach.
:: The alleged victims
The two Swedish women who have made allegations against Assange met apparently by chance through his lecture circuit.
They accused the whistleblower of sex offences against them last year.
One of the two women said she met the Australian at a lecture he gave in Stockholm in August.
After the alleged offence took place, she wanted to track him down and got in touch with a woman who had helped organise the lecture. This second woman said she had been through something very similar with Assange, and they went to police.
:: Swedish authorities
Gothenburg prosecutor Marianne Ny is seeking to bring Assange back to Sweden to face the charges levelled against him by the two women.
She has featured prominently in the extradition proceedings, with one witness for the defence branding her a hardline feminist with a bias against men.
She did not appear in court herself however, a fact seized on by Assange's lawyers.
Before Ms Ny took on the case, Stockholm's senior prosecutor firmly rejected the charge when it was put to her, throwing out the case before it was even investigated and denying it was rape.
:: The US
WikiLeaks has published huge volumes of material from the US, uncovering documents largely relating to politics and the military which have caused anger and embarrassment in the establishment.
Conspiracy theorists believe Assange's arrest was orchestrated by the US government and that he is the victim of a 'honeytrap'.
Friday, 18 February 2011
The Net Delusion is a stinging rebuke to the power of the internet. Born in Belarus and now working in Washington, 26 year-old Evgeny Morozov reminds us that the web will not make us free.
He highlights a speech made in January last year by Hillary Clinton who – perhaps overexcited by the protests in Tehran – called for the power of the internet to tear down authoritarian states. The internet, she claimed, was an unbeatable weapon in the war against censorship and oppression. The recent removal of President Mubarak of Egypt might also be invoked to support her case. But Morozov is determined to prove her speech was fiction.
He makes plain the difference between our hopes of what the internet can be and the reality of what it does. He shows us that the enemies of freedom are just as smart as the rest of us in using the internet for their own ends.
Thus China encourages blogging in order to monitor the activities of dissidents; dictators are happy for their citizens to watch YouTube, because most people are more likely to watch Lady Gaga than foment revolution. In the most powerful chapter of the book, he convincingly proves that the uprising following the 2009 elections in Iran had very little to do with social media. The book is a wake-up call to those who think that the internet is the solution to all our problems.
However, because Morozov completed it before the WikiLeaks controversy, the website only gets a passing reference. This is a serious omission.
Since the arrest of Julian Assange in December, the US government that protested against the censorship policies of rogue states has now called for similar acts for its own protection.
If anything, this proves that while the political uses of the internet are in question, so is the definition of freedom that underpins it. The internet proves that you can’t have it both ways.
In contrast, while David Eagleman’s Why the Net Matters might sometimes suffer from what Morozov calls “cyber-utopianism”, there is much to be hopeful about. Eagleman is a neuroscientist whose first book, Sum, became famous following Stephen Fry’s endorsement on Twitter.
This new work, an enhanced app available only in digital form, is not quite a book – more an essay with added features. It is one of the first enhanced ebooks to come from a mainstream British publisher and offers some insight into what the future book might look like. By these standards, the future looks bright.
This is an impressive and intriguing work, albeit flawed. The content is organised so that it can be navigated in any number of ways, and each page is accompanied by impressive images and graphics, sometimes with little connection to the text.
Looking at six different ways the internet might save us from disaster, Eagleman buys into the Clinton doctrine without question. He shows how the internet will help us to combat epidemics, preserve knowledge and respond to natural disasters with websites such as www.ushahidi.com, which came into its own after the Haiti earthquake, and allowed aid workers on the ground to pinpoint in real time, using email, Twitter and SMS, where help was most needed.
What these two books prove is that we still don’t know what the internet is and what it is for. This is no bad thing. The web is a tool that may liberate the future, if not quite delivering the type of freedom that Eagleman proposes. It is at its best when it grows from grass roots and responds to immediate concerns.
Why the Net Matters: How the Internet Will Save Civilisation
by David Eagleman
Canongate (iPad only App, £4.99)
The Net Delusion: How Not to Liberate the World
by Evgeny Morozov
432pp, Allen Lane, £14.99
Buy now for £12.99 (PLUS £1.25 p&p) from Telegraph Books
HIS emollient demeanour and adept diplomacy could be the traits that helped Michael Grade to become the only man to get to the top of the BBC, ITV and Channel 4, and even helped him reach the upper house as a Tory peer.
But when it comes to scandals that have engulfed television, his mild manner gives way to passion and some surprisingly strong views.
He has critical words for the Miriam O’Reilly tribunal in which it was ruled that the BBC had to give proper procedures to avoid ageism. “I think that’s nonsense,” Lord Grade says. “You’ve got to be free. Anything that constrains the editorial chiefs having the ability to pick and choose and exercise their professional judgment about who’s right for the show is a detrimental backward step.”
What he will accept, against the BBC, is that: “If what was said to have been said to [O’Reilly] was true — about Botox and the rest of it — that was absolutely unacceptable. And she was quite right.”
O’Reilly told the tribunal she was warned that high-definition television would pick up her wrinkles and was told to consider using Botox. Lord Grade also ventures the opinion that Jay Hunt, the then-BBC One controller, had already been “damaged” by the furore over Arlene Phillips, who was sacked aged 66 from Strictly Come Dancing to be replaced by the much younger Alesha Dixon.
But his defence of the BBC quickly wanes when asked about on-screen scandals, such as the insults levelled at Mexicans a couple of weeks ago by the presenters of Top Gear. The BBC was forced to apologise when the Mexicans were referred to as “lazy”, “feckless” and “flatulent”.
“I don’t think that’s acceptable in this day and age,” Lord Grade says firmly. “That was disgraceful, it was horrible. How dare he [Richard Hammond] sit there, [on] prime-time television, casting aspersions on a whole nation. What’s he going to do next, talk about the Jews making money? Or the slitty-eyed Chinese, like the Duke of Edinburgh? I’m not a PC fascist, but it seemed to me to take us back to the dark ages of television.”
When he wants to be diplomatic, though, he’ll be diplomatic. It proves impossible to get a bad word out of him about the regime, led by Archie Norman and Adam Crozier, who succeeded him at ITV, despite the fact that they were very rude about what they inherited from him after the advertising recession. “They’re doing very well, I’m happy to say, as a shareholder,” he chuckles. He’s also very mild about the BBC Trust and its chairman Sir Michael Lyons, who tend to get an almost relentlessly bad press for trying to be both “regulator” and “cheerleader”. His only criticism of the trust is that: “It has been too reactive, it has not led the debate on the future of the BBC.”
Lord Grade’s passion and conviction for television can also been seen when he talks about the theatre, enthusiasm for which was instilled in him from childhood. “I grew up with the theatre,” says Lord Grade, a scion of the Grade entertainment dynasty. “My first experience of the entertainment industry was sitting on a bucket at the Finsbury Park Empire watching my aunt, now Lady Grade, in pantomime.” In fact when Lord Grade defected from his role as BBC chairman to run ITV in 2006, he telephoned Lady Grade, whose late husband Lew, the impresario, was one of the founders of ITV in 1955. That turned out to be Lord Grade’s last big job in television: previously, he had been controller of BBC One, chief executive of Channel 4 and ultimately BBC chairman.
“Theatre is the one area of the entertainment industry that is completely unchallengeable by the digital revolution,” he says. “You can’t steal it, nobody else can get it and sell it at half price.” Perhaps it is the freedom of theatre which he finds so appealing — a lack of the constraints that he was concerned the BBC would have to adhere to following the ageism tribunal. “One interesting aspect of the theatre always, in all its forms, is that there was an acceptance of gender differences. Women were stars long before women worked. You could dress as a woman, you could be gay.”
His passion will take him on to BBC Four with a two-part documentary, The Story of Variety, starting on Feb 28. It tells of the golden, and not-so golden, age of variety theatre after the Second World War. Lord Grade unearths Barry Cryer, Roy Hudd and even Val Doonican for their anecdotes.
Lord Grade, who has a 12-year-old son, Samuel, with his wife Francesca, has in some ways had to polish away any remaining vulgarity from his bygone years as a showbiz agent and an executive at London Weekend Television since becoming Lord Grade of Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, last month. Though his ennoblement comes a year after he left the helm of ITV, where he was executive chairman, his new legislative duties have to sit alongside a portfolio of business interests. He remains non-executive chairman of Pinewood Shepperton, the film studio company; Ocado, the Waitrose-backed online grocery delivery service, and James Grant, the talent management group.
“I wouldn’t have taken the position in the House of Lords if I didn’t intend to make use of it, play my part,” says Lord Grade. “And that means taking part in the debates, following the legislation.” Lord Grade tried to pull off a reputed £50 million deal last year when he and Michael Linnit tried to buy four West End theatres from Andrew Lloyd Webber. “It ran into the sand at the last minute,” he says, refusing to elaborate on the reason.
When asked what is on the horizon, Lord Grade, 68 next month, says: “My wife said to me, 'When will you retire?’ And I said, 'When the phone stops ringing and people keep asking me to do interesting things, then I’ll go very quietly, you’ll never hear from me again, I’ll go sailing and I’ll be happy to spend more time with my kids and grandchildren.’ But things just keep popping up that look interesting.”
Daniels, 72, wrote on Twitter during the Brit Awards ceremony last week: "What's this about 'Brit' awards? Surely not? Isn't that like calling someone a 'Paki'? Not PC dahlings."
He quickly added: "Hey, all I am saying is that I don't understand why one abbrev is OK and another isn't. It's all how you say it surely, not the ab itself."
Sam Tarry, campaign organiser with the anti-racism group Searchlight, said: "The word 'Paki' is offensive and racist, it is not something that can be compared to the word 'Brit'.
"It has been used not just to define people from Pakistan, but Asian people in general, and it has a long, nasty history. In the 1970s people used to talk about 'Paki-bashing'."
Daniels was also criticised by his followers on Twitter.
Another, Cal Lacey, wrote: "Obviously 'Brits' doesn't have the same connotation as the other word which is offensive, as you should well know!"
Daniels replied by claiming, "vowels and consonants are never racist, only stupid people", and "you are obviously not reading the full sentences. Only the bits you want to be racist. I HATE racism."
In the past Daniels has defended the use of the derogatory term.
Writing on his blog in 2009 he said that the controversy surrounding Prince Harry's use of the word to describe a friend in his platoon was overblown.
"Who cares?" he wrote at the time. "Isn't it an abbreviation of Pakistani? I know I couldn't care less if someone calls me a Brit and would think myself to be a pretty pompous ass if I did."
The slogan originated by accident in the 1950s, when franchisee Dave Harman was featured eating chicken in the background of a US TV commercial.
A viewer phoned up and complained to manager Ken Harbough that Harman was licking his fingers, to which Mr Harbough responded: "Well it's finger lickin' good." The phrase became KFC's slogan and one of the most immediately recognised. It is to be replaced by the shorter "So Good" catchphrase to proclaim a message that the taste of Colonel Sanders' top-secret coatings is just part of what goes to make KFC's food appealing and beneficial.
"'Finger lickin' good' is very good but it's very food-centric," says Martin Shuker, chief executive of KFC UK and Ireland.
"'So Good' is still about the food but it also allows us to more effectively communicate the breadth of different things about the brand, such as our people and our community," adds Shuker.
The marketing change comes alongside a planned health move to show the calorie content of all items on KFC's menus from September.
KFC's 800 outlets in the UK and Ireland will also stop using palm oil to fry its food, switching to rapeseed oils to reduce saturated fats across its range by 25pc, cut food miles by sourcing from Kent rather than Asia and make a statement against the destruction of Indonesian and Malaysian rainforests.
In addition, the company is spending £7m installing ovens in its restaurants so it can launch the Brazer, its first ever product that is griddled, not fried.
Brazer options will include a burger and tortilla-style wrap containing fewer calories, salt and fat than KFC's standard offerings.
The scene showed the British student wearing jeans and a grey bra writhing on the floor while being subjected to a brutal attack by a knife-wielding Amanda Knox, Knox's Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito and an Ivory Coast national, Rudy Guede.
All three were found guilty of murder and sexual assault by a court in Perugia, Italy, where the crime took place, in Dec 2009.
The offending scene originally featured in trailers for the film but has been cut from the final version, seen by The Sunday Telegraph, following anger from the families of Miss Kercher and of Knox.
The film is to get its first showing on the Lifetime channel in the US on Monday, and the television network is in talks with Channel Five over a deal to screen it in Britain later this year. Executives at the British broadcaster have recently seen the film, The Sunday Telegraph has learned, and are "considering the next step".
A spokeswoman for the Lifetime channel confirmed that it will go ahead regardless of legal threats from the Knox and Kercher defence teams but declined to make any further comment. She said: "We expect to announce a UK broadcaster in the near future."
The Kercher family, from Coulsdon, Surrey, had trongly objected to the scenes which recreated Miss Kercher's murder, which her father John, a journalist, described as "absolutely horrific".
Arline Kercher, the murdered student's mother, said she had not seen the film, but added: "It seems very odd that they have called it after Amanda Knox when it was Meredith who lost her life. It's upsetting that the whole thing is going to be recreated on screen."
Knox's family, from Seattle, said it was inappropriate and prejudicial to screen the film in the midst of their daughter's appeal against her 26 year prison sentence.
Knox's mother, Edda Mellas, declined to discuss the film last week, but the family's media spokesman, David Marriott, said they felt "the movie is ill-timed since Amanda's appeal is under way".
Sollecito, a computer studies student whom she met at a classical music concert, is also appealing againtst his 25 year sentence.
Their appeals began in December and are likely to last several more months, after a judge in Perugia authorised a thorough review of all the DNA evidence. The next hearing is on March 12.
The made-for-television movie features the actress Hayden Panettiere, a star of the hit series Heroes, as the woman who became known around the world as "Foxy Knoxy".
It intelligently recreates the events leading up to the murder, in the Umbrian hill town of Perugia in Nov 2007, and explores the many unanswered questions in the case, some of which suggested that Knox and Sollecito knew much more than they admitted to.
The film portrays the growing tensions between Knox and Miss Kercher, who complained to the American about her leaving dirty plates in the sink, leaving the house a mess and keeping a vibrator and condoms on prominent display in their shared bathroom.
It recounts how Italian police became suspicious that a supposed break-in had been staged when they noticed that broken glass lay on top of the ransacked contents of a room, suggesting a window had been broken after, not before, the killer entered the house where the two women lived.
But the film's producers conceded in promotional trailers that "There are two sides to every story", and they include evidence which emerged during the 11-month murder trial that points to the couple's possible innocence.
Much of the dialogue of the film is lifted straight from court evidence. Panettiere repeats Knox's fear that "the mask of an assassin" was being wrongly foisted on her by prosecutors and police eager for a conviction. She tells the court that Miss Kercher was "my friend" and that she had no reason to hate her.
The film concludes that while there are gaping holes in the accounts and explanations of their innocence given by Knox and her boyfriend, there is reasonable doubt that they were the killers.
The appeals court in Perugia will give its final judgment later this year after a re-examination of some of the key forensic evidence presented at the trial.
Additional reporting: Philip Sherwell in New York and Jonathan Wynne-Jones
Note: In terms of sheer pc inanity, I think this comes second to the American public servant who lost his job because he used the word niggardly and this was deemed racist because it sounded like nigger. RH
AN Amblecote councillor was left in “disbelief” when an email she sent about traditional Black Country fodder cooked up a storm in the council’s IT department.
Councillor Pat Martin, Dudley’s former Mayor, returned an email to a friend who had been discussing the famous meatball delicacy known as faggots - only to find Dudley Council’s security software had blocked it because it contained a “profanity”.
Whilst known in these parts as a harmless term to describe the traditional Black Country dish - the word has somewhat different connotations in other parts of the world - and is used as a derogatory reference to homosexuality in America where the council’s software system Sophos was designed.
Cllr Martin the News: “I wasn’t aware Black Country faggots was a profanity. It’s hilarious. I just laughed. It’s the American system; it does pick up odd words that you wouldn’t think are offensive. It wouldn’t happen if we had an English system.”
Cllr Martin, who was Mayor from 2009 to 2010, was replying to an email sent by pal John Sanders, aged 76, about how he’d had a letter on the availability of Gentleman’s Relish published in a national newspaper.
Cllr Martin explained: “I always send him an email of congratulations if he manages to get a letter published, he sent me a thank you back and it mentioned food and how his mother used to buy faggots and when I sent an email back I had a warning pop up to say it wouldn’t be allowed through because of a profanity.”
Mr Sanders, a retired solicitor from Wollaston, dubbed the matter “stupid political correctness” and said: “I couldn’t believe what she was telling me, I collapsed with laughter on the phone. I absolutely howled.
“It’s total absurdity. My mother would have said what absolute nonsense.
“I pay good money with my taxes, council tax, business rates etc and it is spent on equipping Dudley Council with the kind of IT system that can’t fathom out our own beautiful language.”
The poster advertises a Texas-based group called Life Always, which campaigns against what it calls a "genocidal plot" against unborn babies. It is on display in the SoHo area of Manhattan.
On its website, Life Always states: "Abortions among African-American women are three times that of the rest of the population. Over 25 per cent of the next generation is being wiped out as we speak".
Bill de Blasio, the city's public advocate, described the advertisement as "grossly offensive to women and minorities". "This billboard simply doesn't belong in New York City," said Mr de Blasio.
"Common decency demands it be taken down." Christine Quinn, the Speaker of New York city council, said: "To refer to a woman's legal right to an abortion as a 'genocidal plot' is not only absurd, but offensive to women and to communities of colour".
Stephen Broden, a member of Life Always's board of directors, said the billboard – which has been timed to coincide with Black History Month – would be the start of a nationwide advertising campaign.
John Galliano, the fashion designer, has been suspended from Christian Dior following his arrest for allegedly making anti-Semitic remarks towards a couple at a Paris cafe.
The fashion house said he would be asked to stay away from work pending the outcome of the police investigation, raising doubts over the Christian Dior fashion show planned for March 4.
He is believed to have been drinking heavily in a local bar on Thursday evening when he launched the alleged attack.
Witnesses called police during the incident, which took place in front of dozens of astonished revellers in a busy covered terrace.
A police source said: 'We arrived extremely quickly and managed to break up the disturbance. The man involved was briefly arrested and then released pending charges for assault.
'Witnesses said he swore heavily, using anti-Jewish insults, before attacking a couple. Both have provided witness statements, as have a number of other people at the bar, including staff.'
The source confirmed that Galliano, who has been chief designer at Christian Dior since 1996, was the only person arrested in connection with the incident.
Galliano, who was born in Gibraltar and then brought up in South London, is often seen in the bars and café of the Marais.
Galliano, who regularly performs his trademark 'rock star' poses at the end of fashion shows, is one of the world's foremost celebrity designers.
Close personal friends include pop star Kylie Minogue, for whom he has designed clothes for tours. Madonna has also visited him regularly in Paris.
His 'set' in the French capital has also included supermodels like Kate Moss, Helena Christensen and Naomi Campbell.
They are always so enthused by his creations that, it has been claimed, they regularly waive their usual couture appearance fees to appear in his clothes.
Private clients for his hugely expensive clothes included the late Princess Diana, who also loved his work.
A friend of the designer in Paris said: 'Women love John because he has a very feminine side. Reports of this assault are so out of character. I've never seen him being violent towards anyone.'
Galliano produces work under his own label, as well as Dior's. He produces six couture and ready-to-wear collections a year.
He has appeared on the Independent newspaper's Pink List for being one of "the most influential gay people in Britain'.
A Paris police spokesman confirmed that Galliano was facing criminal charges and would appear in court on a date to be fixed.
Bob Houghton, the British manager of India's national football team, could be sacked over allegations that he made racist remarks to one of the country's top referees.
Mr Houghton, who won admirers throughout the game when he took Swedish underdogs Malmo to the 1979 European Cup Final against Nottingham Forest, is accused of complaining about "bastard Indian referees" during an argument in October last year.
The All India Football Federation said its investigation had confirmed the allegations, which it has now referred to a lawyer to establish whether they are sufficient grounds to terminate his contract.
Kushal Das, the AIFF's general secretary, told the Daily Telegraph the comments allegedly made by Mr Houghton were "purely a case of racial abuse" and that they could lead to a charge of "bringing the Federation into disrepute."
Mr Das said Federation executives were also angry at Mr Houghton's criticisms of Indian football facilities. He had said the national team is forced to train outside the country, India has only one proper stadium which is not used for football, and that it's players are expected to play on surfaces "no self-respecting top player would play on."
But there has been resentment over his salary package – considered excessive in India, while low by English Premier League standards – and anger over public criticisms he made last month over the poor state of training facilities in India.
A statement by the All India Football Federation confirmed its executive committee had expressed it's "unhappiness regarding the conduct and derogatory remarks made by Mr Bob Houghton." "The Executive committee has unanimously decided to seek legal opinion regarding its course of action," it said.
It is understood Mr Houghton, who was unavailable to answer questions, has not yet been given an opportunity to respond to the allegations.
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