4,645 litres a day

The Guardian today leads with a fascinating story on the true rate of water consumption in Britain today. By calculating how much water is used to grow our food, as well as how much we consume otherwise, the report by the WWF reveals that the average person in Britain uses 4,645 litres of water A DAY! The report is released ahead of a water summit in Stockholm.

Full story here.

British Foreign Secretary Expresses Solidarity with Georgia

British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs David Miliband is in the Georgian capital Tbilisi where he has just given a joint press conference with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili.

Miliband said that he was in Tbilisi for three reasons, so that the "Georgian people... know that British people and British government stand in solidarity with them"; to report and consult with Saakashvili on the developments from the NATO meeting in Brussels today, and because of "real concern about the humanitarian situation".

At the press confernce Saakasvili said that "the only thing that I can promise to the Russians, is that we will not fall, Georgia will not fall". He also thanked Miliband for "your pledges to rebuild my country".

Saakashvili also said that Senator Joe Biden, head of the delegation sent to the area by Democartic US Presidential candidate Barack Obama, had came up with a "$1-billion plan, for Georgian economic reconstruction".

New Poll Data Makes Grim Viewing for Labour

The latest polling from the Guardian/ICM series will serve as an unwelcome interruption to Labour MP's holidays. Labour is 15-points behind the opposition Conservatives compared to 5-points ahead at the same time last year. The Guardian also shows that Gordon Brown had better be worried:

Many Labour MPs are panicking. Another August poll, that of 2006, offers some clue as to why. At that time, Labour under Tony Blair was a mere nine points behind, on 31% to the Tories' 40%. Yet those ratings, seen as damaging for Labour, encouraged supporters of Brown to pursue the September "coup" which forced Blair to announce his intention to stand down within a year. Now that Conservative lead is six points greater - incentive to a new group of plotters to challenge Brown.

However, those clever people at our favourite newspaper also did some polling on how David Miliband, Brown's heir-apparent since he threw his hat into the ring, the results:

And yet, as it stands, many more voters would prefer Cameron to be prime minister, even if Miliband was the alternative, the ICM poll suggests... In May 2006 the Guardian/ICM poll asked voters to compare Brown and Blair on the same traits as today's poll. Brown came out favourably on nine of the 11 categories.

Today Miliband wins on five... in so far as voters have formed a view of the 43-year-old foreign secretary, much of their opinion of him is positive. For all Brown's concentration on the challenges ahead, voters believe Miliband looks to the future more and is more in tune with them, particularly among the young... Among 18- to 24-year-olds, only 4% say Brown is on their wavelength, compared with 19% for Miliband.

Here again, however, more than three-quarters of voters say "neither" or "don't know". In a head-to-head with Cameron, 18- to 24-year-olds are the only category to believe that Miliband would make a better prime minister.

While I am not overly optimistic that Labour have a chance of winning the next election, I would add a cautionary note that most outside of the political class do not know much, if anything, about Miliband and, therefore, polling is unreliable for the most part when trying to predict how his approval ratings now would translate to a general election. Even so, it does not look good for Labour, not good at all.

Muslim Forces Teenagers to Beat Themselves

A Muslim man has been accused of forcing two teenage boys to whip themselves until they bleed.

44 year old Syed Mustafa Zaidi is accused of demanding that the teenage boys, one 15 the other just 13, beat themselves in the middle of a community centre in a barbaric religious ceremony. Zaidi also beat himself with a whip made of knives and chains. The practice is part of a Shia Muslim ceremony called Ashura.

Zaidi has been charged with two counts of child cruelty. Andrew Nuttall, prosecuting, said that Zaidi took the arm of the 13-year-old boy, took off his T-shirt so he was bare-chested and put the zanjeer zani (whip) in his hand and told him to flog himself.

Full story here.

Health: Not So NICE Drug Companies

The Chief of the British health watchdog NICE (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence) has hit out at pharmaceutical companies in an interview with the Observer. He attacked drug companies, which include GSK (GlaxoSmithKline); Astra Zeneca; and Pfizer, for making huge profits on the back of high prices in order to meet 'perverse incentive' targets.

Share prices were driven by profits, he said. 'Pharmaceutical companies have enjoyed double-digit growth year on year and they are out to sustain that, not least because their senior management's earnings are related to the share price. It's not in their interests to take less profit, personally as well as from the point of view of the business. All these perverse incentives drive the price up.

NICE has come under fire recently for refusing access to kidney drugs on the NHS, despite their availability elsewhere in Europe. He did, however, agree that pharmaceutical companies do invest hugely in new drugs.

'Of course, pharmaceutical companies make a huge investment into public health when they develop a new medicine: it costs on average £550m, and takes more than 10 years, to bring each new treatment to patients,' she said. 'Naturally companies will look to recoup such costs through the final price.'

A recent report by the Office of Fair trading has called in to question whether drug companies price treatments correctly.

Full interview here.

Olympic Update: UK Leaps to Third

It's been an impressive weekend for the UK, Team GB has leaped from 7th to 3rd in the medal rankings. Over the course of the weekend, Team GB has gained 8 Golds, 4 Silvers, and 6 Bronze. Well done Team GB!

Elsewhere, US Swimming prodigy Michael Phelps has finished the 2008 Olympics with a record 8 Gold medals. That puts him level with Australia, Korea and Japan in terms of number of Golds. Well done, Mr Phelps!

SNP Wins Glasgow East By-Election

The Scottish National Party has won the Glasgow East by-election after a short recount. The SNP notched up 11,277 votes compared with Labour's 10,912.

The Conservatives beat the Liberal Democrats into third place with 1,639 votes compared to the Lib Dems 915.

SNP: 11,277; 43.1% (+6,009; +26.1% on 2005)----365 vote majority
Labour: 10,912; 41.7% (-7,863; -19% on 2005)
Conservatives: 1,639; 6% (-496; -0.9% on 2005)
LibDems: 915; 5.5% (-2,750; -6.3% on 2005)
Greens: 232; 0.9%

Turnout: 42.25%

Tidbits: BBC

Every now and then I come across articles on blog sites criticising the BBC and claiming that it stifles competition. Well I've just found this, which paints a much different picture.

In Praise of Restraint

In advance of the full publication of the governments new youth crime plan on Tuesday, it was today revealed that young people who carry knives will be made to visit hospitals where stabbing victims are treated.

I have to express my relief at the simplicity of the measures. In the wake of 42-day detention and secret witnesses, I had been dreading the next set of draconian laws. However, to my surprise, the youth crime plan contains nothing of the sort. Will the new measures work, perhaps. Should we be glad that the Home Secretary has for once exercised restraint in the face of media pressure, definitely.

Crime is not a topic that particularly peeks my interest, it reminds me of the long afternoons I spent in Sociology class in the sweltering heat. However, of late, the horror of watching the government stroll off with ever more of our civil liberties has put me on edge.

David Cameron last week proposed providing anyone found carrying a knife with the expectation of a prison sentence. This would not solve anything. Many of those who are now carrying knifes are, ironically, doing so because they fear being stabbed themselves. And why not, its the media's latest fetish. Every new stabbing is broken live on the news channels and will be on the front page of the next day's tabloids. Even the main news bullions now lead with knife crime regardless of the fact that there are two wars and one potential nuclear conflict going on in the world. Just like binge drinking (started by ITV News, spread to all media) and terrorism, this is an issue that cannot be solved while the media's eye is trained on it.

I've always had a problem with the term 'War on Terror', not because I dispute the danger from terrorism but because it glamourises terrorism. Terrorists are no more soldiers in a war then any common criminal. The same is happening with knife crime. Does anyone genuinely believe that those idiots waving machetes around on the BBC behave like that after the cameras have gone home? Of course not. This will only truly be solved when the media get bored and move onto something else. That said, I dread to think what that something else will be.

PS. Welcome to my new blog!

UPDATE: Polly Toynbee has written more extensively on this topic in todays Guardian. - 15/07/08