Well done

I travelled myself sitting next to a child and nothing happened. Not every adult man is a pervert. I hope BA will pay every cent.

Businessman sues BA 'for treating men like perverts'

By SOPHIE BORLAND

Mirko Fischer claims BA brand all men as potential sex offenders

A businessman is suing British Airways over a policy that bans male passengers from sitting next to children they don't know  -  even if the child's parents are on the same flight.

Mirko Fischer has accused the airline of branding all men as potential sex offenders and says innocent travellers are being publicly humiliated.

In line with the policy, BA cabin crew patrol the aisles before take-off checking that youngsters travelling on their own or in a different row from their parents are not next to a male stranger.

If they find a man next to a child or teenager they will ask him to move to a different seat. The aircraft will not take off unless the passenger obeys.

Mr Fischer, a 33-year-old hedge fund manager, became aware of the policy while he was flying from Gatwick with his wife Stephanie, 30.

His wife, who was six months pregnant, had booked a window seat which she thought would be more spacious. Mr Fischer was in the middle seat between her and a 12-year-old boy.

Shortly after all passengers had sat down, having stowed their bags in the overhead lockers, a male steward asked Mr Fischer to change his seat.

Mr Fischer refused, explaining that his wife was pregnant, at which point the steward raised his voice, causing several passengers to turn round in alarm. He warned that the aircraft could not take off unless Mr Fischer obeyed.

Mr Fischer eventually moved seats but felt so humiliated by his treatment that he is taking the airline to court on the grounds of sex discrimination-He is paying all his own legal

If he wins at the hearing next month at Slough County Court, BA will have to change its policy.

He has promised to donate any compensation to the NSPCC.

Mr Fischer, who lives in Luxembourg with his wife and their daughter Sophia, said: 'This policy is branding all men as perverts for no reason. The policy and the treatment of male passengers is absolutely outrageous.

'A plane is a public place  -  cabin crew regularly walk down the aisles and passengers are sat so close to each other. The risk of any abuse is virtually zero.

'Furthermore statistically children are far more likely to be abused by a member of their family. Does that mean that BA are going to ban children sitting next to their own parents?'

'I was made to feel like a criminal in front of other passengers. It was totally humiliating. Neither myself or my wife dared to speak to the boy in case the cabin crew forced us from our seats. The poor child must have thought we were extremely rude and unfriendly.'

Claude Knights, of the children's charity Kidscape said: 'The airline should have procedures in place to avoid this sort of situation.

'If the airline is that concerned they should sit unaccompanied children with cabin crew who have no doubt been thoroughly vetted.'

A BA spokesman said: 'As this is case is subject to court proceedings, it would be inappropriate for us to comment at this time.'

 

Ops, the SoB!

Prime Minister Gordon Brown with his special adviser Damian McBride at the Labour Party conference 2007, in Bournemouth. Photograph: Martin Argles/Guardian

Key Brown aide quits over Labour sex smear scandal

Adviser resigns over leaked emails, MPs targeted in 'gutter' allegations
Gaby Hinsliff, political Editor

Source: The Observer, Sunday 12 April 2009



Gordon Brown was engulfed in crisis last night after a key aide resigned and the Tories threatened legal action over explosive leaked emails discussing how to attack senior Conservatives, including David Cameron and his wife, Samantha, with smears about their private lives.

Damian McBride, one of the prime minister's closest advisers, quit over his exchange with the Labour blogger Derek Draper, in which the two discussed setting up a website to publish scurrilous allegations about opponents. The idea was still being actively discussed until a fortnight ago, the Observer has learned.

Tom Watson, the Cabinet Office minister, was also facing questions after it emerged that McBride referred in one of the emails to Watson "looking at other stories for LabourList", Draper's website. However, Downing Street sources insisted Watson had been discussing an entirely separate story about Labour party staffing to be posted on Draper's conventional website, rather than being involved in the secret gossip project known as RedRag.

Brown yesterday moved rapidly to distance himself from the affair, saying there was "no place in politics for the dissemination or publication of material of this kind". Downing Street insisted that neither the prime minister "nor anybody else in Downing Street" knew about the emails.

Senior Tories last night demanded a public apology and assurances that Watson was not involved in dirty tricks, while the shadow home secretary, Chris Grayling, accused Downing Street of descending "into the gutter". Charles Clarke, the former Labour cabinet minister, said McBride had brought "shame" on the party.

Stories proposed by the two men in their emails include false rumours that David Cameron had an embarrassing medical condition, suggestions that George Osborne took drugs with a prostitute - an old allegation in the public domain which Osborne has flatly denied - and a final allegation involving the Tory backbencher Nadine Dorries and a fellow MP which the Observer understands is without foundation. Another supposed story involved a Tory MP allegedly getting publicity for a firm run by his partner. There is no evidence that any of the claims are true.

Dorries said yesterday that she had consulted a lawyer and was prepared to sue. "I am incensed. I wonder how Gordon Brown would feel if a Conservative Central Office employee sent emails with slanderous 100% lies about Sarah Brown?" she said.

When the existence of the emails emerged on Friday, Downing Street dismissed them as "juvenile and inappropriate", the result of two friends messing around with a subsequently abandoned idea for a gossipy blog rivalling that of Guido Fawkes, the Westminster blogger whose real name is Paul Staines.

In a statement last night, McBride said he was "shocked and appalled" that Staines had obtained the emails and handed them to newspapers, insisting that he and Draper had already decided that "Derek should not take his online efforts down to the level of Guido Fawkes" and that their ideas would not be used. Draper said yesterday McBride had paid a "high price" for an idea that never happened.

But RedRag was registered and set up last November, and while the leaked emails date from January, the Observer understands the plan was only placed on ice this month. McBride's emails even set out the format in which the stories could be written up, suggesting pictures to accompany them.

Senior Tories are particularly furious that Samantha Cameron and Frances Osborne, wives of the leader and shadow chancellor respectively, are believed to have been targeted. McBride confessed in the emails that most of the stories were "gossipy and intended to destabilised the Tories", according to the News of World, and admitted using "a bit of poetic licence".

The plan is understood to have been discussed with at least two other people including Brown's former spin doctor Charlie Whelan.

Draper suggested last night that his computer may have been hacked to get the emails. No breach of security at Downing Street was found

Sisco tells you why...

The uplifting truth about Britain’s youth, Sisco went off the rails when his friend Damilola Taylor was killed. Now he mentors other children at risk.

Source: the Indipendent

By Nina Lakhani and Jack Sidders

Sisco Augusto, 15, a former gang member from London, counsels youngsters against becoming involved in crime

When Damilola Taylor was murdered by two young brothers in the stinking stairwell of a south London housing estate, there were many victims: "Sisco" Augusto was one of them.

Ten-year-old Damilola had befriended Francisco Augusto at primary school shortly after Sisco arrived in Camberwell from war-torn Angola. Damilola's death left Sisco, then aged seven, without a mentor. Alone and angry, he was seduced by the camaraderie of a local gang.

His violent behaviour escalated until a youth worker persuaded him he was heading towards prison, or an early death. Sisco, now 15, is studying for nine GCSEs while volunteering to advise children against being coaxed into gangs – one of scores of youngsters The Independent on Sunday has interviewed and whose inspiring stories challenge the assumption of Britain's teenagers as feckless, lazy and rude.

A celebration of our teenagers
Anthony Seldon: Feral? No! Our kids are better than ever
After a week in which two brothers, aged 11 and 10, were charged with the attempted murders of two young boys in Doncaster, adults might be forgiven for thinking young people are violent – and getting worse.

Only 9 per cent of adults believe young people make a positive contribution to their local communities, while nearly two-thirds believe young people are less prepared for the world of work than they were 10 years ago, according to research obtained by The Independent on Sunday. The survey, commissioned by the Prince's Trust, found widespread fear and dislike of young people among 2,488 adults across the UK. The majority had unfounded fears about levels of youth violence,crime and unemployment, fears that prompt one in 10 adults to cross the road to avoid young people.

The findings come just days after shadow Home Secretary, Chris Grayling, said it was "time to reclaim the streets" from gangs of youth, in a speech which marked the party's final break from David Cameron's hug-a-hoodie stance on youth crime.

But, writing in the IoS today, James Purnell, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, accuses the Tories of exploiting the Doncaster tragedy. Research by the IoS has uncovered an army of young people, from all walks of life, who help others and who contribute the equivalent of tens of millions of pounds every year through voluntary work. Gordon Brown today announced that compulsory community service for young people would be included in Labour's next general election manifesto, with the aim of every teenager completing 50 hours by their 19th birthday.

The IoS' findings paint a different picture from that of another study last month which revealed more than half of all stories written about young people in newspapers are negative and focused on crime. Teenagers are frequently referred to as "yobs"; "feral"; "hoodies" and "scum". The best chance they have of receiving sympathetic coverage is to die, according to research commissioned by Women in Journalism.

According to experts, the media's vilification of all young people is unfounded, and has a damaging effect on young people and society more widely. A spokesperson for the Prince's Trust said: "Reading the great British press, it would be easy to think that all our teenagers are involved in gangs and wielding knives. There is a problem with youth crime in some parts of the UK, but the word 'youth' shouldn't be interchangeable with 'yob'. Teenagers are more likely to volunteer than any other age group, while nearly two-thirds of 10- to 15-year-olds have raised money for charity."

Many of them are like Sisco, whose story is an example of the potential in many young people. The teenager and his family came to England to escape civil war in Angola. Life was fine at first: his father found work as a security guard and Sisco found a friend in Damilola Taylor. "Damilola was a couple of years older than me but because he'd come from Nigeria, he knew what I was going through," he said. "He acted like my big brother in the playground; he became like a mentor."

Like Damilola's family, Sisco was left devastated by his gentle friend's death. Unlike the Taylor family, he wanted some kind of revenge. A few months later his parents separated and he moved to neighbouring Mitcham with his mother, elder brother and baby sister. Contact with his father has been erratic since. By the time Sisco started secondary school he was a member of a gang. "Nearly everyone on our street was in a gang so I didn't really have a choice. All my friends were into it and we'd go to Wandsworth looking for a fight. If we got really beaten up we'd go back and tell the 'elders'; then people would get badly hurt."

Sisco was excluded from secondary school in his first week of year seven after two fights with the same boy. Two years later he was excluded again after stabbing a boy with scissors. His behaviour deteriorated until Roger Jilal, a youth worker born and brought up on the same estates, noticed Sisco. The two started up a friendship.

"Jilal had been through similar things, and made me understand that if I kept with gang life, I was going to end up in prison or stabbed," said Sisco. "He really showed me a different perspective."

Slowly the teenager separated from his gang and now mentors at the Stuarts Road Adventure Playground in Stockwell with Community Service Volunteers. His work entails helping kids as young as eight who are being cajoled into carrying knives by older gang members.

"The media don't help the situation," he says. "Yes, there are plenty of young people doing bad things and that deserves to be reported, but when I see people who have been through much more than me and have picked themselves up and are helping others, it makes me think where is their credit; when will people write about them?"

A shitty law for an undemocratic country

Facebook Says Italy’s Plan to Block Web Content Goes Too Far

Source: Bloomberg
By Steve Scherer and Giovanni Salzano

Feb. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Facebook Inc., the world’s largest social-networking site, said that it is concerned about Italy’s proposed law to force Internet providers to block access to Web sites that incite or justify criminal behavior.

“We have not seen the language of the bill, but reports about it concern us,” said Debbie Frost, a Facebook spokeswoman, in an e-mail. The legislation is “akin to shutting down the country’s entire railroad network because of some objectionable graffiti in one train station.”

The bill, passed in the Senate last week, would give the Interior Ministry the power to order Internet providers including Fastweb SpA, Telecom Italia SpA or Tiscali SpA to remove criminal content within 24 hours or face a fine as high as 250,000 euros ($320,850). Prosecutors would have to verify criminal content before the ministry can act, according to the bill.

Italian Senator Gianpiero D’Alia introduced the measure after the Italian press, including the country’s biggest newspaper Corriere della Sera, reported that there were fan groups on Facebook for convicted Corleone-born mafia bosses Salvatore Riina and Bernardo Provenzano, who have been convicted of dozens of homicides and are serving multiple life prison sentences.

“We take content that incites violence very seriously and we will work quickly to remove it,” Frost said. “For every piece of controversial content posted to Facebook there are literally thousands of positive interactions fostering communication, fellowship, and commerce.”

Sainthood for a Murderer

While a fan group invoking “sainthood” for Provenzano -- with 433 members -- was still posted today, Facebook also has a group hailing as heroes Palermo prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, who were assassinated on the orders of Riina after successfully prosecuting hundreds of mobsters. That group has 369,463 fans.

The aim isn’t to block sites like Facebook or YouTube totally if they contain criminal content, D’Alia said yesterday in an interview. Instead, the law is intended to force them to remove individual pages or groups, the senator said. The language of the bill itself doesn’t distinguish between blacking out pages or entire Web sites.

The legislation is flawed because Internet providers aren’t able to eliminate single elements from Web sites, Marco Pancini, European Public Policy Counsel for Google Inc., which owns YouTube, said yesterday in an interview. That will lead to the blocking of entire platforms if the law is passed, Pancini said.

Mediaset, YouTube

YouTube has the ability to eliminate potentially criminal or offensive material, Pancini said, adding that laws regulating criminal content in Italy already exist. An April 2003 law says that material must be removed immediately once a Web site is informed of illicit material in its domain.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, whose allies in the Senate helped pass the measure, owns Mediaset SpA, the country’s largest private broadcaster. Mediaset in July said it sued YouTube and Google for illegally distributing the television company’s content, seeking “at least” 500 million euros in damages.

Berlusconi has campaigned every weekend for the last month for his candidate, Ugo Cappellacci, against rival Renato Soru in the elections for governor of the island of Sardinia, which are scheduled to be held on Feb. 15 and 16. Soru is the founder and owner of 17.7 percent -- through a blind trust -- of Internet- service provider Tiscali.

The Internet legislation was inserted as an amendment to a bill aimed at cracking down on crime that the Senate passed on Feb. 5. The measure still must pass in the Chamber of Deputies without being changed to become law.