LED Lighting News

As the Royal Navy officer responsible for the delivery of the Astute submarine programme, I must respond to your claims about the performance and potential safety of HMS Astute (Report, 16 November). All those involved in the delivery of our submarines have a duty to the submariners that serve on them to ensure that we provide a safe environment in which to live and work. As a submariner myself, I am acutely aware of the need to meet the exacting safety standards we demand and we are committed to meeting them both for HMS Astute and for the remaining submarines in the class.

I would never allow an unsafe platform to proceed to sea and the purpose of the extensive sea trials HMS Astute is undertaking is to test the submarine in a progressive manner, proving that the design is safe, that it has been manufactured correctly and that she is able to operate safely and effectively. This process reflects the nature of HMS Astute as both a prototype and an operational vessel. We have always known that it would be necessary to identify and rectify problems during sea trials and this is what we have done. All the issues noted in the story have either already been addressed or are being addressed. In particular, while we do not comment on nuclear propulsion issues, or the speed of our submarines, I can assure you that, once HMS Astute deploys operationally, we do not expect there to be any constraints on her ability to carry out her full combat role for the Royal Navy.

I invite the Guardian to spend time on HMS Astute with me to see at first hand the professionalism of the crew, the confidence they have in their boat and the rigour with which sea trials are carried out and problems addressed.
Rear admiral SR Lister
Director submarines, Ministry of Defence

Article source: http://feeds.guardian.co.uk/~r/theguardian/uk/rss/~3/D6fAZ53Qvos/astute-sea-trials-rectify-problems

It’s not every day that one hears the manager of the England football team describe an opponent’s winning goal as a “work of art”. Then again, it’s not exactly normal to see a big Swede leaping backwards like a giant salmon and bicycle-kicking the ball 30 metres over the head of a stranded England goalkeeper. One only needed to see the Swedish reaction to Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s fourth goal on Wednesday to realise something remarkable had occurred. Even the England fans were wreathed in smiles. Roy Hodgson’s generous response was understandable.

But is football really art? Did Ibrahimovic’s combination of delicacy and daring add up to a masterpiece? Where does it stand in the pantheon of football’s most beautiful moments? Was it as spine-tingling as Pelé’s dummy of the Uruguayan goalkeeper in 1970? As jaw-dropping as Maradona’s dribble through the entire England defence in 1986? I’d say not, but these are questions of personal taste.

Football can be many things: quasi-religion, politics by other means, a locus of local and national identity. But we also instinctively understand the game to be, on occasion, numinous. That’s why Stoke City’s Tony Waddington called it “the working man’s ballet”.

Indeed, aesthetic considerations crop up in discussion of everything from tactics to fan songs. At peak moments such as world cups, football reveals its power as a story form that holds entire nations rapt. That was one reason Stanley Kubrick was fascinated by it. Characteristically, he preferred the dark psychology of Italian defending to the “facile” prettiness of Brazilian or Dutch attacking. On retirement, Ruud Krol, one of the stars of the “total football” movement of the 1970s, spent three years visiting the art galleries of the world. “Football is not art,” he declared enigmatically, “but there is an art to playing good football.”

Excellence certainly comes in numerous styles and flavours. Much like George Best or Lord Byron, Ibrahimovic fits the profile of the moody, impulsive romantic hero. The son of Yugoslav immigrants, he developed his baffling array of flicks, feints and juggling skills on the streets of Malmö, and embodies the idea of the creative footballer as maverick individualist.

However, he also spent unhappy years with Ajax in Holland and at Barcelona, where a very different aesthetic prevails. Ibrahimovic was baffled by the no less lustrous positional game, which is built on passing and geometric patterns of movement.

The English, meanwhile, traditionally viewed football as a rumbustious fighting game. Our best-loved heroes were not ball artists in the Zlatanian sense but oak-hearted warriors such as Nat Lofthouse, the “Lion of Vienna“. There was beauty in that too, as there was in the generosity of Hodgson’s comments, which recalled the warmth in 1953 for the Hungarians who won 6-3 at Wembley to end England’s unbeaten home record. Rather than resenting the defeat, English fans fell in love with “the Magical Magyars“.

In the beginning, as they say, was the word, and it seems there may be some connection between the ability to talk about the game in an original and beautiful way and to play it in an original and beautiful way.

Dennis Bergkamp was one of the most interesting of all footballing artists. Arsenal supporters voted his goal at Newcastle in 2002 the best they had ever seen. But he dissented. “It was not pure,” he explained. If the defender had anticipated the touch and spin he could have stopped the goal.

And while the English fall back in amazement at the skills of Ibrahimovic, Johan Cruyff – perhaps the greatest and certainly the most influential footballer of modern times – was less impressed. “For a bad player his technique is rather good,” he said in 2010. “And for a good player his technique is rather bad.”

Article source: http://feeds.guardian.co.uk/~r/theguardian/uk/rss/~3/O42IoXvXlBk/zlatan-ibrahimovic-byronic-bicycle-kick

This week, the word “omnishambles” was named word of the year by Oxford Dictionaries. It’s a bizarre accolade – one that makes this random noun sound like it is about to do a photoshoot for FHM magazine and start dating Katy Perry before developing a drug problem, going into rehab and appearing on I’m a Celebrity Word … Get Me Out of Here. But where did it come from?

In episode 1, series 3 of The Thick of It, Malcolm Tucker is in the middle of lambasting new minister Nicola Murray. He gets in a lift, expecting her to get in with him just so he can keep shouting at her. She doesn’t. When Malcolm asks why, she tells him it’s because she’s claustrophobic. It’s the last straw for Malcolm. “Jesus Christ, you’re a fucking omnishambles – that’s what you are.”

The Thick of It is a team-written show. The writers take it in turns to be on set for any last-minute changes that might be wanted. While we’re there we give a final polish to scenes that will be filmed in, say, two days’ time. As these scenes tend to already be in pretty good shape, the notes from the creator, Armando Iannucci, at this stage are normally pretty brief – “better”, “shorter”, “funnier” – that kind of thing. Sometimes, due to the sweary nature of the show, you might get “de-fuck”, “un-shit” or “way too much piss”.

On this particular occasion he was in a hurry and all he said was: “Take a look at this.” It was a scene written by one of my co-writers, Simon Blackwell. I looked at it. And then came to the conclusion that (a) it was great and (b) all I could do was make it worse. I made a couple of tiny cuts. And then, desperate to do something else, I added Malcolm calling Nicola an omnishambles.

In a weird way, this single word is an example of Armando’s unique team-writing ethic. It came about partly because Armando is constantly trying to make every scene, every line of dialogue, the best it can be. It came about partly because Simon had written a brilliant exchange that forced me into writing something I wouldn’t have normally. And it came about partly as a homage to fellow writer Ian Martin, who, among his many talents, has a unique way with compound words – clitwart, twatbubble, mimsy bastard quisling leakfuck – to name but a few.

That episode of The Thick of It went out in 2009. Earlier this year Ed Miliband used the word omnishambles in prime minister’s questions to describe the government’s budget. Since then it has mutated. Mitt Romney’s disastrous overseas trip during his doomed presidential campaign was dubbed a Romneyshambles; the Independent ran a front-page story on the miscalculation of university fees under the headline Unishambles; Alex Salmond is apparently involved in a Scomnishambles (a Scottish omnishambles); and the coalition’s reversal of policy on its proposed badger cull (blamed on bad weather, the Olympics and getting the number of badgers wrong) was called Omnivoreshambles. There have been some omniscandals too. Right now someone is probably starting a company offering multi-directional Westminster walking tours called Omnirambles. Omnishambles is omnieverywhere.

The way it’s been co-opted by politicians is the weirdest example of this. A Labour MP taking an insult levelled at their fictional equivalent and using it against their real-life opposite number in a way you can imagine their fictional equivalent doing in an episode of the show that they were quoting is slightly mind-bending. As Armando said recently, this combined with the fact that a large number of storylines in the most recent series ended up happening in real life almost immediately after they had aired, might signal that it’s a good time to stop the show in order to, as government communications director Stewart Pearson might put it, “reassess the reality-fiction interface”.

So, the fictional word omnishambles is now a reality. Why has it become so popular? I have no idea. Maybe it’s just a handy new insult for politicos. Or maybe it’s a cynical attempt to co-opt external criticism which the political class hopes to take ownership of, repeat ad infinitum and ultimately render meaningless. Or maybe it’s the media that have made it popular. Maybe it suits headline writers because it’s short and not too sweary. So when they want to write Clusterfuck! in big letters on the front page but can’t because it’s a bit rude they can now reach for an alternative.

Perhaps its appeal lies in the fact that it’s so malleable – it’s omniflexible. Or maybe it’s just because it’s a silly word and as a nation we like having fun with silly words. I’d like to think that’s the reason. To paraphrase The Simpsons, embiggening made-up words can lead to them becoming perfectly cromulent words. And surely that can only enbrizzy the human mip.

Article source: http://feeds.guardian.co.uk/~r/theguardian/uk/rss/~3/yw_-aowG94Q/omnipresent-unlikely-accolade

David Cameron’s plans to democratise the police have been met by overwhelming voter indifference

Article source: http://feeds.guardian.co.uk/~r/theguardian/uk/rss/~3/v8Wyld__3V0/police-commissioner-elections

The first ever elections for police and crime commissioners are on track for the lowest turnout for a nationwide set of elections in British history, leading to fears for the legitimacy of the new police watchdogs.

Turnout based on returns from 30 of the 41 police force areas averages just 15%, below even the most doom-laden predictions, ranging from 12% in the West Midlands to 19% in Humberside and Avon and Somerset. In Gwent, one Newport polling station had no voters at all.

Downing Street blamed the fact that the £75m elections were “a brand new idea” and a lack of coverage in the “London-based media” for the poor turnout. David Cameron insisted the new police watchdogs, who have the power to hire and fire chief constables, would have a mandate because they were “replacing organisations that weren’t directly elected at all”.

The Electoral Commission confirmed it would carry out an inquiry into the low turnout, saying the elections had been run in a number of ways they did not agree with.

The early results saw an existing Conservative police authority member and accountant, Angus Macpherson, declared the first police commissioner in Britain since 1835 after he was elected in Wiltshire on a 15% turnout. Just 8% of those eligible to vote backed him. Macpherson said his first priority was to implement savings in his force’s budget. He will have to resign as a magistrate to take the job.

There were 2,683 spoilt ballot papers in Wiltshire, or just over 3% of the votes cast, suggesting a significant number of people wanted to show that protest rather than apathy lay behind their decision to “abstain in person”.

A second Conservative commissioner, Christopher Salmon, was narrowly elected with a 1,114 majority over Labour in a straight two-party fight in Dyfed-Powys, mid-Wales. “I am listening. We have lessons to learn,” said Salmon of the low turnout on his election.

The former Labour minister Jane Kennedy became the first Labour PCC when she was elected with 56% of the vote on the first count in Merseyside.

Early indications showed that the dismal turnout had opened up the opportunities for independents despite the lack of a free mailshot for candidates. A former detective, Martyn Underhill, unexpectedly topped the poll in the first round in Dorset, while Mick Thwaites, a former chief superintendent, was in a strong second place in Essex. Both went into a second round against Conservative opponents.

Fears that the far right would benefit from the low turnout however were dealt a strong blow when the English Defence League’s candidate in Bedfordshire, Kevin Carroll, was eliminated after a first round in which he secured 10% of the vote.

Jenny Watson, chair of the official watchdog, the Election Commission, said the low turnout was a concern for everyone who cared about democracy and confirmed that the watchdog would conduct an inquiry, reporting early next year.

“The government took a number of decisions about how to run these elections that we did not agree with,” said Watson. “But what is important now is that the right lessons are learned: we will talk to voters, candidates and returning officers to understand what worked and what didn’t. The commission is going to undertake a thorough review, and we will present our findings to parliament in early 2013.”

Labour insisted that the “dismal turnout” had not only been a shambles but had damaged the legitimacy of the new job and raised serious questions about their mandate.

The former home secretary, David Blunkett, said a 15% turnout meant the commissioners lacked legitimacy: “It is going to be very difficult for a police and crime commissioner. They now will not be able to say to their chief constable: ‘I have an overwhelming mandate, you’ll do as I tell you.’”

The new commissioners will face a tight timetable to submit a budget for their police force, set a figure for the police share of council tax bills and draw up a four-year strategic plan to tackle crime and antisocial behaviour all by a deadline of 31 January. Twelve of the new PCCs are facing short-term decisions over whether to confirm their “temporary chief constables” in their posts while several others are facing an urgent hunt for a new recruit.

Jon Collins of the Police Foundation thinktank said the low turnout would “raise inevitable questions about the legitimacy and credibility of the incoming commissioners”.

He said they must hit the ground running and demonstrate to the electorate they can make a real difference.

“All successful PCC candidates must recognise that the vast majority of people have not taken part in this election and ensure that they do everything possible once they are in office to engage the public in a meaningful debate about the policing of their local area.”

The home secretary, Theresa May, is to meet all the new PCCs in London on 3 December at a “welcome event” at the Home Office.

Article source: http://feeds.guardian.co.uk/~r/theguardian/uk/rss/~3/m_vy_rSHJ1c/police-commissioner-elections-lowest-turnout

The BBC has apologised to the chief rabbi, Jonathan Sacks, after Radio 4‘s Today presenter Evan Davis asked him a question about the violence in Gaza without telling him he was live on air.

When Sacks finished his Thought for the Day on Friday morning, Davis asked him to comment on the Gaza situation before he left the studio.

Sacks, seemingly unaware that he was live, said “I think it’s got to do with Iran, actually”, before Davis’ co-presenter Sarah Montague whispered: “We, we’re live.”

His tone then changed markedly and he called for “a continued prayer for peace, not only in Gaza but for the whole region, no one gains from violence”.

According to a number of BBC sources, Sacks was said to be “angry” about the incident and made his feelings known to Today’s production team.

The BBC said that Davis had apologised to Sacks and the corporation also issued a statement: “The chief rabbi hadn’t realised he was still on air and as soon as this became apparent, we interjected. Evan likes to be spontaneous with guests, but he accepts that in this case it was inappropriate and he has apologised to Lord Sacks. The BBC would reiterate that apology.”

However, according to one senior BBC executive, the incident reflects the chaos at BBC News. “This is another cock up for BBC News – they are a law unto themselves on this one,” said the source.

“It is a cardinal law that you don’t do that to a Thought for the Day presenter – that’s a separate thing and you don’t ask them questions like that.

“Lord Sacks is the chief rabbi. You show him some respect. This may also fuel the idea in some people’s minds that the BBC is anti-Israel.”

• To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly “for publication”.

• To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook.

Article source: http://feeds.guardian.co.uk/~r/theguardian/uk/rss/~3/401yUmX97-4/bbc-apologises-chief-rabbi-jonathan-sacks-gaza

Labour has gained its first seat from the Tories in a byelection since the eve of its landslide victory in 1997, after capturing the bellwether seat of Corby.

In a significant boost for Ed Miliband’s leadership, Andy Sawford overturned a Tory majority of 1,951 to win Corby by 7,791 with a total of 17,267 votes. Christine Emmett, the Tory candidate, came second on 9,476; Margot Parker for Ukip was third on 5,108.

In a blow to Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat candidate, Jill Hope, came fourth with 1,770 votes and lost his deposit by 14 votes. The count was delayed after Labour demanded a series of recounts.

Miliband planned to visit the Tory-supporting rural areas of the constituency on Friday afternoon to declare that Labour was in serious contention in the sort of middle England seats that were crucial to Tony Blair’s three successive general election victories. Corby has been won by the governing party in every election for the past three decades.

The Tories moved quickly to blame the result on Louise Mensch, the author and A-list candidate who resigned the seat over the summer after deciding to relocate to New York.

Mensch helped the Tory defence by tweeting overnight: “Election result will not be a verdict on either Christine, or the Conservatives, but only on the decision I took to step down mid-term.”

But Labour said the Tories would be making a grave error if they thought the departure of Mensch explained the Tories’ first loss of a seat to Labour in a byelection since Wirral South in February 1997. Ben Chapman won three months before Labour’s landslide general election victory.

One Labour source said: “Louise Mensch barely came up on the doorstep. People were much more concerned about jobs and the future of [nearby Kettering] general hospital. Corby is a microcosm of the country. The Tories should be worried.”

Ministers are planning to turn on Chris Heaton-Harris, the party’s campaign manager, who was secretly filmed admitting that he encouraged an anti-windfarm candidate to stand in the byelection. A Tory source said: “I think you’ll find that Chris will not be rebelling for a while.”

Sawford is the son of Phil Sawford, who held the nearby swing seat of Kettering for Labour between 1997-2005.

Labour’s victory in Corby followed overnight wins in Cardiff South and Penarth and in Manchester Central. It was also leading in the polls for the first police and crime commissioner elections.

Lucy Powell held the Manchester Central parliamentary seat for Labour with 11,507 votes on a turnout of 18.16%, below the previous record low for a parliamentary byelection of 19.9% in Leeds Central in 1999. The Conservative candidate, Matthew Sephton, lost his deposit after securing just 754 votes, less than 5% of the total turnout. The swing away from the Liberal Democrats was 16.77%.

Stephen Doughty retained Labour’s Cardiff South and Penarth seat after winning almost half of the votes cast on a turnout of 25.65%, with a swing from the Conservatives to Labour of 8.41%.

Article source: http://feeds.guardian.co.uk/~r/theguardian/uk/rss/~3/919oLOJziRQ/labour-snatches-corby-tories

Three by-elections were fought yesterday: Corby, Cardiff South Penarth and Manchester Central.

Despite small turnouts the results are taken as a verdict on the Government. We’re still waiting for Corby, but the results so far, show Labour victories: