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1. Malignant British police force must be held to account
It’s hard to read the news without piecing together an image of a police force stubbornly refusing to take responsibility for its actions; not just in isolated incidences but systemically, and over decades. Professionals I’ve spoken to that consistently deal with the police are remarkably candid about the police’s lack of accountability. The solicitor Raj Chada, whose practice Hodge Jones & Allen has represented numerous protesters over the last couple of years, was frank when he told me, "the police are completely unaccountable. None of the methods used to hold them to account work. They’re the last totally unreformed public service." It would be apposite to bring up the IPCC at this point: a supposedly independent body founded to "increase public confidence in the police complaints system in England and Wales." But half of the IPCC’s board of directors is made up of former police officers; its Chief Executive is a former probation officer. It’s not unreasonable, then, to view the police force as essentially self-regulating, or at least monitored by a body inclined to empathise with officers. After the failures of the markets and the press to self-regulate, shouldn’t we be asking ourselves why the IPCC has been allowed to continue as it is? In our attempts to create an institution which upholds the law, we have apparently created an institution which is virtually exempt from it. This is about a malignancy in our society. The laws we have made for public good are rendered meaningless if their enforcers break them at liberty. It’s time our society accepted that the police force cannot hold itself to account, and did something about it.
Ellie Mae O'Hagan, New Statesman
Related Links:
* Britain's corrupt police are at war with the people
David Gilbertson, The Guardian
* Police watchdog admits IPCC useless
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism
It’s hard to read the news without piecing together an image of a police force stubbornly refusing to take responsibility for its actions; not just in isolated incidences but systemically, and over decades. Professionals I’ve spoken to that consistently deal with the police are remarkably candid about the police’s lack of accountability. The solicitor Raj Chada, whose practice Hodge Jones & Allen has represented numerous protesters over the last couple of years, was frank when he told me, "the police are completely unaccountable. None of the methods used to hold them to account work. They’re the last totally unreformed public service." It would be apposite to bring up the IPCC at this point: a supposedly independent body founded to "increase public confidence in the police complaints system in England and Wales." But half of the IPCC’s board of directors is made up of former police officers; its Chief Executive is a former probation officer. It’s not unreasonable, then, to view the police force as essentially self-regulating, or at least monitored by a body inclined to empathise with officers. After the failures of the markets and the press to self-regulate, shouldn’t we be asking ourselves why the IPCC has been allowed to continue as it is? In our attempts to create an institution which upholds the law, we have apparently created an institution which is virtually exempt from it. This is about a malignancy in our society. The laws we have made for public good are rendered meaningless if their enforcers break them at liberty. It’s time our society accepted that the police force cannot hold itself to account, and did something about it.
Ellie Mae O'Hagan, New Statesman
Related Links:
* Britain's corrupt police are at war with the people
David Gilbertson, The Guardian
* Police watchdog admits IPCC useless
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism
2. Treating sinusitis: Politically incorrect drug resistance due to Pneumococcal vaccine
Meryl Nass, MD
I have treated so many patients with sinusitis in the last several weeks, I decided to review new guidelines that were issued by the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) recently on sinusitis. Wow, the changes were BIG and I had missed them. Seems the drugs I used to use don't work so well any more. Everyone has heard about drug resistance. I recently learned that 80% of the antibiotics sold in the US don't treat humans. These antibiotics are used in animal feed, enabling owners of livestock and poultry farms to crowd the animals together, where they frequently live in their own merde. Yale's Dr. David Katz notes that the use of antibiotics in farm animals is a bigger problem for drug resistance than doctors choosing the wrong antibiotics. Back to my patients with sinusitis: too many of them needed a change in antibiotic after 4 days on the first antibiotic. Good drugs for sinusitis used to include penicillins, cepha losporins, macrolides and sulfa drugs. That's four different categories of drugs. Now they are inadequate, caused by too many resistant Strep. pneumoniae and Hemophilus influenzae, the most common bacteria causing sinusitis. Now 30% of Strep pneumoniae are resistant to macrolides, while 30-40% are resistant to sulfa drugs (page e3). What IDSA didn't delve into was the fact that non-vaccine Strep serotype 19A, which is multidrug resistant, spread throughout the world as the result of the niche created by vaccination with the 7-serotype vaccine. Recently a replacement pneumococcal conjugate vaccine was licensed that includes 23 serotypes. Any unintended consequences have yet to be identified. The strains of Strep pneumoniae circulating among us have changed as a result of the Prevnar vaccine, and the new strains are decidedly more drug resistant. I'd rate this vaccine's net value a big negative.
Meryl Nass, MD
3. Hacking and the Northwick Park drug trial
More than a year ago the rumour first circulated that among those hacked by the News of the World were victims of the disastrous Northwick Park Hospital drug trial. The latest list of people suing News International over hacking suggests that the rumour may have been accurate. Friday’s Guardian reported: “The list of new claimants also features Michelle Bayford, the former girlfriend of the victim of the 2006 so-called ‘elephant man’ drug trial case. Her then boyfriend, Ryan Wilson, spent three weeks in a coma and lost all his toes and parts of his fingers to gangrene.” Now, if the girlfriend’s phone was hacked, who might have left voicemail messages for her? Ryan Wilson perhaps. Or distressed friends of the couple who had visited him in hospital. Or, conceivably, hospital staff passing on confidential medical information. Imagine wanting to eavesdrop on those. And how likely is it that if Bayford was a News of the Worl d target, she was the only one among those connected to the trials? In many other cases clusters of numbers were hacked, no doubt giving reporters a fuller picture. Now she is suing we will find out what sort of respect the News of the World showed to her in her distress.
Brian Cathcart, Hacked Off Campaign
4. DWP Corruption and Official Secrets
An eagle eyed campaigner has discovered that staff at Quarry House have been buying up domain names featuring the words ‘DWP’ and ‘corruption’ since 2007, including www.dwpcorruption.com , www.dwpcorruption.org.uk and www.dwpcorruption.net. They were much too late to get the .co.uk version however. This has belonged to one John Richard Jones since February 2006. We’d be fascinated to hear from anyone who has registered other domain likely to cause panic domain name buying at the DWP. Meanwhile, the Guardian has revealed that Atos health professionals are obliged to sign the official secrets act before beginning work for the company, Atos claims that it is following best practice in obliging all staff to sign the same set of documents if they handle confidential information. One doctor working for Atos, however, says that the use of the act may discourage health professionals from raising matters of public concern because of the "threat of sinister, treason-like charges".
Steve Donnison, Benefits and Work
5. Military judge won't dismiss charges in Bradley Manning leak case
Army Pfc. Bradley Manning is escorted out of a courthouse in Fort Meade, Md.
A military judge is refusing to dismiss all charges against an Army private accused in the biggest leak of government secrets in U.S. history. Army Col. Denise Lind denied the defense motion Wednesday during a pretrial hearing at Fort Meade in the court-martial of Pfc. Bradley Manning. The ruling means the hearing will continue. It's scheduled to run through Thursday. The defense has filed a separate motion seeking dismissal of the most serious charge, aiding the enemy. That offense carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. Lind tentatively scheduled the trial to run from Sept. 21 through Oct. 12. Manning is accused of sending hundreds of thousands of sensitive documents to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks.
Associated Press, CBS News
Related Links:
* Manning Says Secrecy Dooms Fair Trial
Adam Klasfeld, Courthouse News Service
Meryl Nass, MD
I have treated so many patients with sinusitis in the last several weeks, I decided to review new guidelines that were issued by the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) recently on sinusitis. Wow, the changes were BIG and I had missed them. Seems the drugs I used to use don't work so well any more. Everyone has heard about drug resistance. I recently learned that 80% of the antibiotics sold in the US don't treat humans. These antibiotics are used in animal feed, enabling owners of livestock and poultry farms to crowd the animals together, where they frequently live in their own merde. Yale's Dr. David Katz notes that the use of antibiotics in farm animals is a bigger problem for drug resistance than doctors choosing the wrong antibiotics. Back to my patients with sinusitis: too many of them needed a change in antibiotic after 4 days on the first antibiotic. Good drugs for sinusitis used to include penicillins, cepha losporins, macrolides and sulfa drugs. That's four different categories of drugs. Now they are inadequate, caused by too many resistant Strep. pneumoniae and Hemophilus influenzae, the most common bacteria causing sinusitis. Now 30% of Strep pneumoniae are resistant to macrolides, while 30-40% are resistant to sulfa drugs (page e3). What IDSA didn't delve into was the fact that non-vaccine Strep serotype 19A, which is multidrug resistant, spread throughout the world as the result of the niche created by vaccination with the 7-serotype vaccine. Recently a replacement pneumococcal conjugate vaccine was licensed that includes 23 serotypes. Any unintended consequences have yet to be identified. The strains of Strep pneumoniae circulating among us have changed as a result of the Prevnar vaccine, and the new strains are decidedly more drug resistant. I'd rate this vaccine's net value a big negative.
Meryl Nass, MD
3. Hacking and the Northwick Park drug trial
More than a year ago the rumour first circulated that among those hacked by the News of the World were victims of the disastrous Northwick Park Hospital drug trial. The latest list of people suing News International over hacking suggests that the rumour may have been accurate. Friday’s Guardian reported: “The list of new claimants also features Michelle Bayford, the former girlfriend of the victim of the 2006 so-called ‘elephant man’ drug trial case. Her then boyfriend, Ryan Wilson, spent three weeks in a coma and lost all his toes and parts of his fingers to gangrene.” Now, if the girlfriend’s phone was hacked, who might have left voicemail messages for her? Ryan Wilson perhaps. Or distressed friends of the couple who had visited him in hospital. Or, conceivably, hospital staff passing on confidential medical information. Imagine wanting to eavesdrop on those. And how likely is it that if Bayford was a News of the Worl d target, she was the only one among those connected to the trials? In many other cases clusters of numbers were hacked, no doubt giving reporters a fuller picture. Now she is suing we will find out what sort of respect the News of the World showed to her in her distress.
Brian Cathcart, Hacked Off Campaign
4. DWP Corruption and Official Secrets
An eagle eyed campaigner has discovered that staff at Quarry House have been buying up domain names featuring the words ‘DWP’ and ‘corruption’ since 2007, including www.dwpcorruption.com , www.dwpcorruption.org.uk and www.dwpcorruption.net. They were much too late to get the .co.uk version however. This has belonged to one John Richard Jones since February 2006. We’d be fascinated to hear from anyone who has registered other domain likely to cause panic domain name buying at the DWP. Meanwhile, the Guardian has revealed that Atos health professionals are obliged to sign the official secrets act before beginning work for the company, Atos claims that it is following best practice in obliging all staff to sign the same set of documents if they handle confidential information. One doctor working for Atos, however, says that the use of the act may discourage health professionals from raising matters of public concern because of the "threat of sinister, treason-like charges".
Steve Donnison, Benefits and Work
5. Military judge won't dismiss charges in Bradley Manning leak case
Army Pfc. Bradley Manning is escorted out of a courthouse in Fort Meade, Md.
A military judge is refusing to dismiss all charges against an Army private accused in the biggest leak of government secrets in U.S. history. Army Col. Denise Lind denied the defense motion Wednesday during a pretrial hearing at Fort Meade in the court-martial of Pfc. Bradley Manning. The ruling means the hearing will continue. It's scheduled to run through Thursday. The defense has filed a separate motion seeking dismissal of the most serious charge, aiding the enemy. That offense carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. Lind tentatively scheduled the trial to run from Sept. 21 through Oct. 12. Manning is accused of sending hundreds of thousands of sensitive documents to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks.
Associated Press, CBS News
Related Links:
* Manning Says Secrecy Dooms Fair Trial
Adam Klasfeld, Courthouse News Service
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