city:manchester

  • Dangerous associations : Joint enterprise, gangs and racism | Centre for Crime and Justice Studies
    http://www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/publications/dangerous-associations-joint-enterprise-gangs-and-racism

    This study examines the processes of criminalisation that contribute to unequal outcomes for young Black, Asian and Minority ethnic people. It has been written by Patrick Williams and Becky Clarke of Manchester Metropolitan University.

    The research draws on a survey of nearly 250 serving prisoners convicted under joint enterprise provisions. It tracks the complex process of criminalisaiton through which black and minority ethnic people are unfairly identified by the police as members of dangerous gangs.

    More than three-quarters of the black and minority ethnic prisoners reported that the prosecution claimed that they were members of a ‘gang’, compared to only 39 percent of white prisoners. This apparent ‘gang’ affiliation’ is used to secure convictions, under joint enterprise provisions, for offences they have not committed.

    The report also discusses police gang databases in Manchester, London and Nottingham, which claim to record gang association. These lists include people who ‘have no proven convictions and… those who have been assessed by criminal justice professionals as posing minimal risk’. They are also dominated by black and minority ethnic people, as a result of racial stereotyping.

    Dangerous associations: Joint enterprise, gangs and racism also forms part of the authors’ response to a call by the House of Commons Justice Committee for a rigorous consideration of the possible relationship between the disproportionate application of collective punishments/sanctions and in particular, the ieffect of joint enterprise on black and minority ethnic individuals and groups.

    The report concludes that, for all its injustices, the process of joint enterprise prosecution is not intended to be discriminatory. But in practice, young black and minority ethnic people are disproportionately at the receiving end of a series of criminal justice practices, starting with police gang databases and concluding with disproportionate joint enterprise convictions.

  • Pourquoi les étudiants britanniques croulent sous les dettes
    http://www.bastamag.net/Comment-les-etudiants-anglais-sombrent-dans-leurs-dettes
    Des nouvelles du #modele_britannique, avec plein de chiffres éloquents.

    À peine majeurs et déjà rançonnés. Cibles des politiques d’austérité des conservateurs, les étudiants britanniques paient l’éducation supérieure publique « la plus chère du monde industrialisé ». (…) Le Premier ministre David Cameron a créé une génération d’endettés à vie, et une bombe financière à retardement supplémentaire.

    21 ans et… 27 000 livres (37 000 euros) de dette. « Je viens d’une famille working class (ouvrière) : l’argent, c’est stressant », assure-t-elle, l’air blasé, avec un fort accent du Nord. En troisième année de sociologie, elle a dû, comme la plupart des étudiants anglais, débourser 9 000 livres (12 300 euros) en frais d’inscription. Trois fois plus qu’il y a cinq ans. L’emprunt étudiant qu’Emma a souscrit auprès de l’État, et auquel elle préfère ne « pas trop penser », devra être remboursé une fois qu’elle aura rejoint la vie active et qu’elle gagnera plus de 21 000 livres (29 000 euros) par an.

    « À eux deux, mes parents gagnent environ 30 000 livres par an, précise-t-elle, ils ont dû faire des sacrifices pour que je puisse étudier. Moi, je dois me concentrer sur comment me maintenir à flot, sur mon job à temps partiel et sur combien je dépense chaque jour, plutôt que sur mes études. Mais je ne me plains pas, j’ai une amie qui fait des remplacements de douze heures, la nuit, et qui a complètement abandonné sa vie sociale. » Pendant ce temps, la directrice de l’université de Manchester, Nancy Rothwell, reçoit un salaire annuel de 251 000 livres, soit l’équivalent de 29 000 euros par mois [2]. C’est d’ailleurs trois fois plus qu’un député britannique, ou qu’un président d’université française, prime comprise.

    Et une avalanche de chiffres dans ce très bon article, notamment celui de la dette étudiante en cours :

    la dette en cours dépassera les 100 milliards de livres (138 milliards d’euros) d’ici 2018 [5], soit l’équivalent du budget des retraites en 2014

  • US guards with guns to patrol UK airports to reduce risk of ISIS flying to America | Daily Mail Online
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3367396/US-guards-guns-patrol-British-airports-time-controversial-new-plans-dis

    Gun-toting US border guards with the power to search holidaymakers will be stationed at British airports for the first time, under controversial plans being discussed by Washington and London.

    The US Department of Homeland Security wants to introduce the scheme at airports worldwide, including Heathrow and Manchester, to reduce the risk of Islamic State terrorists flying to America.

    Guards from Customs and Border Protection would carry out immigration and customs checks before passengers board.

    They would be given diplomatic immunity so they could not be prosecuted for any crime committed on British soil.

  • Il était une fois #Molenbeek
    Molenbeek-Saint-Jean est l’une des dix-neuf communes de la région Bruxelles-Capitale et, depuis les attentats mortels de Paris, la cible des médias qui qualifient la « Petite Manchester belge » comme un « repaire de djihadistes ».
    https://blogs.mediapart.fr/blaz/blog/251115/il-etait-une-fois-molenbeek

    Molenbeek est condamnée à la réclusion mais Molenbeek n’est pas une île qui flotte dans le ciel. Une mécanique implacable l’inscrit dans la politique de la ville et cette tectonique urbaine la relègue petit à petit au rang de cloaque urbain. La paupérisation de certains quartiers de Molenbeek, le stigmate endossé à ces périmètres urbains réduisent cette population à se réfugier dans les liens de solidarité primaire. De la paupérisation, le quartier bascule à la communautarisation jusqu’à un stade ultime proche du ghetto. Et comme il ne faut pas prendre ce mot à la légère, il faut plutôt parler d’une tendance à la ghettoïsation plutôt que du ghetto au sens strict du terme. Effectivement, la population maghrébine et son folklore dominent le quartier, un certain entreprenariat ethnique fonctionne en autarcie dans le quartier, entreprenariat qui importe des produits bradés venus de Chine ou de l’étranger et qui a rendu dans une certaine mesure la prospérité au quartier. Néanmoins, ces quartiers ne forment pas encore un espace autonome dans la ville même si quelques pratiques exotiques témoignent d’une avancée de la duplication institutionnelle dans le quartier. Étangs noirs a des allures de ghetto mais Étangs noirs reste néanmoins ouvert sur le reste de la ville. Certains résidents communiquent et travaillent en dehors du quartier. Molenbeek n’est pas un buraku japonais.

    Bruxelles est une ville prospère et atypique. Capitale européenne, s’y déploient d’une part les institutions européennes, d’autre part, les bassins d’emplois qui attirent par dizaines de milliers les flux migratoires. Le conflit communautaire réchauffe lui la rivalité sur les emplois (Francophones versus Néerlandophones). Il résulte de cette alchimie un volume important d’emplois (750.000 emplois) qui bénéficient pour plus de la moitié à des non bruxellois. D’une part, les institutions européennes visent des profils qualifiés et maîtrisant plusieurs langues, d’autre part, les bassins d’emplois privilégiés sur Bruxelles visent ces mêmes profils hyper-qualifiés. Les populations issues de l’immigration dotées d’une formation bradée, discriminées (surtout quand elles sont instruites), sectorisées, elles sont reléguées au travail précaire, infraqualifié, aux niches professionnelles ethniques ou au désœuvrement. Si bien que Bruxelles devient une cité de transit pour les classes moyennes intermédiaires et supérieures résidant en périphérie. On travaille à Bruxelles mais on vit à la campagne. Ce que Donzelot nomme la périurbanisation.

    Sur le plan morphologique cette relation de la ville à ses administrés est clivante. D’un côté les communes de l’Est et la périphérie entassant les profils les plus qualifiés, les hauts revenus, les travailleurs et les propriétaires. De l’autre côté, les communes de la première ceinture bruxelloise et tous ses indicateurs au rouge : infraqualification, chômage de masse, jeunesse désœuvrée, insalubrité (logement), familles nombreuses et population issue de l’immigration. Cet apartheid qui ne dit pas son nom enferme les deux visages de Bruxelles depuis plus de 20 ans. Molenbeek est un concentré de cette relégation tenace en raison de son historicité. Déjà, au dix-neuvième siècle, la bourgeoisie catholique résidait à l’Est de Bruxelles quand Molenbeek et ses chancres industriels entassaient un prolétariat blanc et dépravé.

  • Migrant solidarity in London and Manchester

    The response to our page on Facebook was phenomenal! A deluge, hundreds of emails, making offers, asking advice, intending to start similar actions in Chester, Stoke, Merseyside, Kendal…

    Was it a reaction against Cameron’s hard-faced stance towards refugees and migrants? A UK echo, perhaps, of the success of Podemos or Syriza in Europe?

    We started with a handful of people in our front room. Some from rs21, some new faces, a couple who had formed a group called “Open Borders” who had already been to Calais with a vanload of donations and whose experience helped to keep our discussions realistic.

    https://rs21testblog.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/12064062_10153029420196010_441125835_n.jpg?w=1112
    http://rs21.org.uk/2015/11/07/migrant-solidarity-in-london-and-manchester
    #solidarité #Manchester #Londres #asile #migrations #réfugiés #UK #Angleterre #Calais

  • Female Tory MPs’ complain after being made to walk with David Cameron at party conference | Daily Mail Online
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3262835/I-didn-t-Parliament-bit-f-ing-arm-candy-Female-Tory-MPs-complaints-walk

    According to reports, there are a number of female MPs who have been told to walk alongside the PM as he makes his way around this year’s Tory conference in Manchester. Pictured: David Cameron arrives at a Conservative event in the city this week alongside Andrea Jenkyns (left) and Anne-Marie Trevelyan (right)

  • Après le « Financial Times », Pearson veut se séparer de « The Economist »
    http://www.lefigaro.fr/medias/2015/07/27/20004-20150727ARTFIG00062-apres-le-financial-times-pearson-veut-se-separer-

    L’éditeur britannique, spécialiste des contenus éducatifs, a confirmé samedi être en discussion pour vendre sa part dans le groupe The Economist, qui détient le magazine économique éponyme, dont Pearson est le copropriétaire. Sa participation, de 50 %, est estimée à plus de 400 millions de livres (environ 565 millions d’euros), portant la valorisation totale de The Economist à 800 millions de livres, soit 1,13 milliard d’euros. « Il n’y a pas de garantie que ce processus mène à une transaction », a tout de même commenté Pearson dans un communiqué. Plusieurs noms d’éventuels repreneurs ont déjà circulé dans la presse, dont les familles Schroder, Cadbury ou Rothschild.

    Lire « The Economist », le journal le plus influent du monde, par Alexander Zevin (août 2012)
    http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2012/08/ZEVIN/48061

    (…) Les médias américains tendent à accréditer l’image que The Economist donne de lui-même, celle d’un partisan de l’« extrême centre » et du bon sens économique. Dans un récent éditorial publié en soutien aux conservateurs britanniques, l’hebdomadaire affirmait ne s’être « jamais inféodé à aucun parti », tout en revendiquant son « attachement de longue date au libéralisme » — une position jamais trahie depuis sa création en 1843, quand la Grande-Bretagne était encore la première puissance économique mondiale.

    Fondé par un fabricant de chapeaux, James Wilson, pour obtenir l’abrogation d’une législation protectionniste sur le blé (les corn laws), The Economist a toujours milité avec ferveur pour le libre-échange. A l’époque, il s’agissait de défendre les intérêts des manufacturiers de Manchester contre les taxes douanières instaurées par le Parlement en 1815, après l’effondrement du prix des céréales. Le jeune lobby industriel britannique s’inquiétait à la fois pour ses exportations — frappées par des mesures de rétorsion — et pour le coût de sa main-d’œuvre, qui allait réclamer une compensation salariale pour l’enchérissement du prix du pain. La contre-offensive aboutit en 1846 à l’annulation des lois honnies. James Wilson pouvait se frotter les mains : première campagne de presse, première victoire. [#st]

    http://zinc.mondediplo.net/messages/5328 via Le Monde diplomatique

  • Royaume-Uni : Working class zero
    http://cqfd-journal.org/Royaume-Uni-Working-class-zero

    « Ce mois-ci, je dois choisir entre payer mon loyer et ma facture d’eau. » La ligne téléphonique pourrie qui vous relie à Fran, 25 ans, a au moins laissé sa colère intacte. C’est que la serveuse d’un de ces innombrables bars du quartier étudiant de Manchester, nord-ouest de l’Angleterre, est enchaînée depuis six mois à son contrat zéro heure, sans garantie de salaire fixe. Six mois de négociations permanentes avec son patron « pour demander plus d’heures » et voir s’évanouir, au bout du compte, la vie promise aux « gens qui travaillent dur » par les élites politiques de tous bords. Au XIXe siècle, les dockers londoniens attendaient chaque matin qu’un contremaître les fasse décharger les marchandises ; Fran, elle, attend chaque semaine le coup de fil qui l’enverra au turbin. « Il me faut entre 20 et 30 heures par semaine pour tenir, ajoute-t-elle. En dessous, ça devient quasi impossible. C’est très stressant, je me bats chaque semaine avec mon manager pour arriver, à la fin du mois, à payer mon loyer. »

    #travail #Angleterre

  • Manchester man draws penises around potholes so the city will fix them | The Verge
    http://www.theverge.com/2015/5/2/8535259/penis-pothole-activism-wanksy-england

    Frustrated by the number of potholes pockmarking his city streets, an anonymous man recently discovered a way to get the city to pay attention: penises. The man has been using industrial chalk to draw penises around each pothole, claiming the eyesores expedite the filling process, BBC reports.

    “[The potholes] don’t get filled. They’ll be there for months,” the artist, who calls himself Wanksy, told BBC’s Newsbeat. “Suddenly you draw something amusing around it, everyone sees it and it either gets reported or fixed.”

    The town council, unsurprisingly, says the work is both unnecessary and obscene, claiming a penis frame will not get a pothole fixed any faster than usual. But the potholes are nonetheless getting filled:

    #pénis #art

  • Devenir des femmes respectables, Classe et genre en milieu populaire
    http://agone.org/lordredeschoses/desfemmesrespectables

    « On est sorties à Manchester l’autre samedi, toutes les trois. C’était bien en fait, on s’est bien marrées. Mais à un moment on est allées dans le quartier bourge, et on se marrait devant les chocolats en se demandant combien on en aurait mangé si on avait pu se les payer, et il y a cette femme qui nous a lancé un regard. Si les regards pouvaient tuer. Genre, on était là, c’est tout, on faisait rien de mal, on n’était pas crades ni rien. Elle nous a juste regardées. On aurait dit que c’était chez elle et qu’on n’avait rien à faire là. Ben tu sais quoi, on est parties, on n’a plus rien dit pendant une demi-heure. T’imagines ? On s’est bien fait remettre à notre place. On aurait dû lui mettre notre poing dans la gueule. C’est des trucs comme ça qui te dégoûtent de sortir. Il vaut mieux rester chez soi. »

    La matière première de ce livre est une série d’entretiens menés par Beverley Skeggs avec quatre-vingt-trois jeunes femmes issues de la classe ouvrière anglaise, inscrites à une formation d’aide à la personne et travaillées par leur propre respectabilité. Abordant leur rapport à la sexualité, à la classe ou au féminisme, cet ouvrage vient apporter un prolongement essentiel aux travaux de Pierre Bourdieu et de Paul Willis.

    #femmes #genre #classe #féminisme #livre #sociologie #Agone

  • Chief constable warns against ‘drift towards police state’ | UK news | The Guardian
    http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/dec/05/peter-fahy-police-state-warning

    The battle against extremism could lead to a “drift towards a police state” in which officers are turned into “thought police”, one of Britain’s most senior chief constables has warned.

    Sir Peter Fahy, chief constable of Greater Manchester, said police were being left to decide what is acceptable free speech as the efforts against radicalisation and a severe threat of terrorist attack intensify.

    It is politicians, academics and others in civil society who have to define what counts as extremist ideas, he says.

  • Entretien / La trajectoire néolibérale de deux villes industrielles britanniques, Manchester et Sheffield Entretien croisé avec Vincent Beal et Max Rousseau : Urbanités

    http://www.revue-urbanites.fr/la-trajectoire-neoliberale-de-deux-villes-industrielles-britanniques

    Vincent BÉAL est maître de conférences en sociologie à l’Université de Strasbourg (UMR 7363 SAGE). vbeal@unistra.fr
    Max ROUSSEAU est chargé de recherche au CIRAD (UMR 5281 ART-Dev), actuellement détaché à l’Institut national d’Aménagement et d’Urbanisme de Rabat (Maroc). max.rousseau@cirad.fr
    -----------
    VOUS TRAVAILLEZ RESPECTIVEMENT SUR LES VILLES DE MANCHESTER ET SHEFFIELD. POURQUOI CE CHOIX ? DE QUOI SONT-ELLES POUR VOUS REPRÉSENTATIVES, PAR RAPPORT AUX AUTRES VILLES BRITANNIQUES ?

    Max ROUSSEAU (MR) : Sheffield est un cas d’étude passionnant parce que la ville comportait l’une des proportions les plus élevées d’ouvriers en Occident pendant la période industrielle, durant laquelle elle était d’ailleurs surnommée « la ville la plus prolétaire d’Europe ». C’est donc une ville parfaitement adaptée à une analyse en termes d’économie politique urbaine, parce qu’il s’agissait d’une ville archétypale du fordisme, non seulement en raison de sa forte proportion d’ouvriers, mais aussi du fait de sa spécialisation industrielle (la sidérurgie) et enfin en raison de la précocité de sa conversion au travaillisme, un système politique parfaitement organisé au niveau municipal, avec un étroit contrôle exercé par la base militante sur les élus du conseil municipal. La ville respectait également pleinement la division du travail régissant la régulation urbaine sous l’ère fordiste : au patronat, la responsabilité du développement local ; à la municipalité, la prise en charge de la consommation collective. Enfin, l’évolution du capitalisme à Sheffield est relativement simple à comprendre, en raison de l’archi-domination historique de deux branches : la sidérurgie d’une part, la coutellerie de l’autre, avec un patronat très ancré dans son territoire. Archétypale du fordisme, la ville l’est ensuite, évidemment, des difficultés rencontrées par les espaces d’industrie lourde à se reconvertir sous l’ère post-fordiste. Au moment de la fermeture des usines, ce bastion du travaillisme a d’abord brièvement envisagé une autre voie : c’est la parenthèse fascinante de la Nouvelle gauche urbaine, durant lequel de jeunes élus appartenant à l’aile gauche du parti travailliste et issus des quartiers les plus touchés par la récession finissent par devenir majoritaires au sein du conseil. C’est une période, au début des années 1980, durant laquelle des élus locaux, confrontés à une grave crise économique et sociale, tentent de mettre en œuvre de nombreuses mesures progressistes et innovantes : politiques de formation des chômeurs et de gratuité des transports publics, soutien au développement de coopératives ouvrières, promotion de la participation, etc. Sheffield constitue l’une des villes où le mouvement est le plus ambitieux et la ville devient le symbole de la contestation au thatchérisme, gagnant par exemple les surnoms de « Red Sheffield » ou de « Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire ». Toutefois, déjà perdante économiquement et socialement, la ville a fini par perdre la bataille politique contre le gouvernement central au moment de l’introduction du « rate capping », un système plafonnant le budget des autorités locales, les privant ainsi de leurs leviers d’action

    #urban_matter #royaume-uni #villes #agglomeration #reclaim_the_street #espaces_publics

  • Manchester: Anti-Israel Rabbi Ahron Cohen has Car Torched after Condemning Gaza Attacks
    http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/anti-israel-rabbi-ahron-cohen-has-car-torched-after-condemning-gaza-attac

    Arsonists torched a car belonging to an anti-Zionist Rabbi in Manchester who has condemned violence against Palestine and branded Israel a “festering sore.”

    A Volvo estate vehicle was doused in fuel and set alight in Salford, Manchester, in what appears to be an escalation of a hate campaign against Rabbi Ahron Cohen.

    It happened in Welbeck Grove, Broughton, after Cohen’s house was pelted with eggs by a Jewish mob for his stance on Israel’s war with Palestine last month.

    A neighbour told the Manchester Evening News that tensions in the area’s Jewish community had been inflamed by the elderly man’s condemnation of attacks on the Gaza Strip. Cohen is a top member of orthodox Jewish group Neturei Karta, which is against the state of Israel.

    The woman, who wanted to stay anonymous, said: “His views have angered a lot of people around here. A lot of families have boys in the Israeli army.”

  • 45,000 gather in London to protest Israeli action in #Gaza
    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/thousands-gather-in-london-to-protest-israeli-action-in-gaza-9630589.

    Further events in opposition to Israel’s military operation in Gaza were underway in towns and cities across the UK, including Manchester, Edinburgh, Birmingham and Newcastle.

    #soutien

  • Nous ne disions jamais « prolétariat ». Ce n’était pas les #ouvriers de Manchester, mais ceux de Detroit, qui étaient « nos » ouvriers. Ce n’était pas La condition de la classe ouvrière en Angleterre de Engels, mais la lutte du travailleur contre le travail, dans les Grundrisse de #Marx, qui nous avait conduits aux portes des #usines. Ce qui nous motivait n’était pas la révolte éthique contre l’exploitation que les ouvriers subissaient, mais l’admiration #politique pour les #pratiques d’insubordination qu’ils inventaient. Il faut nous donner acte que nous ne sommes jamais tombés dans le piège du tiers-mondisme, des campagnes qui assaillent les villes, des longues marches paysannes ; nous ne fumes jamais « chinois », et la « révolution culturelle », celle d’Orient, nous laissera froids, étrangers, lointains, plus que modérément sceptiques et, en réalité, fortement critiques. Le rouge était, et est encore, notre couleur préférée, mais quand il était porté par les « gardes » ou les « brigades », nous savions qu’il ne pouvait en résulter que le pire pour l’histoire de l’humanité. Ce qui nous plaisait, au contraire, était le fait que les ouvriers du vingtième siècle avaient rompu la continuité de la longue et glorieuse histoire des classes subalternes, avec leurs révoltes désespérées, leurs hérésies millénaristes, leurs tentatives généreuses répétées, toujours douloureusement réprimées, de briser les chaînes. Dans l’usine, dans la grande usine, le conflit était presque à armes égales, on perdait et on gagnait, jour après jour, dans une permanente guerre de position. Dans la lutte de classe, ce qui nous enthousiasmait c’était la classe en lutte. Sa forme, bien sûr, mais aussi les #rythmes qu’il fallait choisir, ou plutôt les moments qu’il fallait utiliser, les conditions qu’il fallait imposer, et donc les objectifs qu’il fallait poursuivre et les moyens mis en œuvre pour les atteindre : on ne peut rien demander de plus que cela, on ne peut rient obtenir de moins.

    #Tronti, nous opéraïstes

  • Armes anti surveillance
    http://meta-media.fr/2014/04/11/premieres-bonnes-recettes-anti-surveillance.html

    Lors de la 19e édition de Future Everything il y a quelques jours à Manchester, il y avait d’un côté les startups qui investissent sur la récupération et l’analyse de données, et de l’autre celles qui commencent à proposer des solutions anti-surveillance. Voici quelques idées prometteuses, avant leur possible interdiction :

    Très gadget et peu de renouvellement, mais il y a du potentiel !

    #Surveillance_électronique #Vie_privée #Startup

  • The Alan Turing Year - 2012 Turing Centenary
    http://www.mathcomp.leeds.ac.uk/turing2012

    Turing Year logo

    Centenary Events

    ATY EVENTS OVERVIEW

    ATY ... 2013 EVENTS OVERVIEW

    THE ALAN TURING LEGACY New!

    ATY EVENTS CALENDAR

    ATY RESOURCES

    TCAC Arts & Culture Subcttee

    TCAC Media Group

    Turing Manchester 2012

    TCAC Manchester

    Alan Turing Jahr 2012

    TCAC Germany

    Alan Turing Jaar 2012

    Alan Turing Year in Hong Kong

    AAAI Turing Lecture

    ACE 2012, Cambridge

    ACM Centenary Celebration

    AI at Donetsk, Ukraine

    AI*IA Symp. Artificial Intelligence

    Alan Mathison Turing, Roma

    Alan Turing Centenary in Calgary

    Alan Turing Centenary@Swansea

    ALAN TURING CONF, Manchester

    Alan Turing Days in Lausanne

    Alan Turing’s Legacy, in Rome

    Alan Turing Year in India

    Alan Turing Year at METU, Turkey

    AMS Special Session, USA

    AMS-ASL Joint Math Meeting

    Andrew Hodges @ Royal Society

    Animation12, Manchester

    Año Turing (ASCIE/CODDii)

    Año Turing en la ETSINF

    Artificial General Intelligence

    ATY at University of Bari, Italy

    Bangalore Turing Year event

    Barriers in Complexity Workshop

    BCTCS 2012, Manchester

    Bernard Richards@Man Lit & Phil

    BLINC Digital Arts Festival Conwy

    Bogota: Legacy of Alan Turing

    Brazilian Alan Turing Year

    Brazilian Logic Conference

    British Logic Colloquium 2012

    British Mathematical Coll 2012

    BSHM/OUDCE: ’Turing’s Worlds’

    Bulgarian Mathematicians Union

    Andrew Hodges@Canadian SHPM

    CCA 2012 in Cambridge

    CCR/Randomness Workshop

    Cesena/Urbino Celebrations

    Challenging Turing, Stanford

    CIAA 2012, Porto, Portugal

    City Univ. Edwards Lecture

    CLAM 2012 in Argentina

    CMC13/Membrane Comp Hungary

    Coimbatore Turing Celebrations

    Colloquium Logicum 2012

    COMPUTABILITY in Europe 2012

    Computability Theory

    Computational Complexity ’12

    Computer Science Logic 2012

    Computer Science in Russia

    CONCUR 2012, Newcastle

    Days in Logic 2012, Portugal

    DCM 2012 in Cambridge

    ECAI 2012 Turing Session

    Encyclopedia Show, Chicago

    Edinburgh Turing Festival

    INFTY courses at ESSLLI 2012

    EuroCrypt 2012

    European Congress Mathematics

    Gibbons Lectures 2012

    Haifa Verification Conference

    Hodges in Manchester

    Human Complexity 2012, USA

    IACAP 2012/AISB 2012, UK

    ICALP 2012, Warwick

    THE INCOMPUTABLE, UK

    Int. Mathematica Symposium

    Informatik 2012, Germany

    IJCAR 2012, Manchester

    ISCS/Complex Systems, Kos

    ISR 2012 in the ATY

    Kanpur: Turing Centenary event

    Kerala Turing Centenary day

    ITiCSE 2012, Haifa, Israel

    LATA 2012, A Coruña, Spain

    LATIN 2012 in Peru

    Lectio Magistralis di Judea Pearl

    LGBT History Month, Bletchley

    LICS 2012 in Dubrovnik

    Limits of Theorem Proving, Rome

    LOGIC COLLOQUIUM 2012

    Madrid: The Alan Turing Legacy

    MAMLS in Florida, USA

    Manchester Science Festival

    Manchester Pride Festival

    MFPS 2012 in Bath

    Monash Alan Turing Celebration

    Nancy, France - 3 Conferences

    NASSLLI Turing Centenary Symp.

    Newcastle Turing event

    Newton Institute Programme

    Odifreddi at SUPSI, Switzerland

    Over the Air 2012, Bletchley Park

    Oxford Univ LGBT lecture

    Pattern Formation

    Philosophy & Computation, Lund

    Pioneers of Comp Sc, Eindhoven

    Popularize Artificial Intelligence

    Princeton Turing Centennial

    SAS Public Opening

    Seattle Concert & Installation

    Simposio Turing 2012, Mexico

    SNiC: Turing’s Legacy, Utrecht

    SOFSEM 2012, Czech Republic

    Software Craftsmanship 2012

    T100 in Edinburgh

    TAMC 2012

    TIME 12, 12-14 September 2012

    Turing@Firenze

    Turing100 at Bletchley Park

    turing100.nl in Amsterdam

    Turing 2012 in Manila

    Turing, Apple & Quanta in Puglia

    Turing Centenary, Tartu, Estonia

    Turing Education Day (TED)

    Turing Institute ATY Conference

    Turing In Context, Cambridge

    Turing In Context II, Brussels

    IET-BCS Turing Lecture 2012

    Turing’s Economics WCSS Taipei

    Turing’s Heritage, Lyon

    Turing Trail Relay 2012

    Turing under Discussion

    Turing Year in China , Beijing

    Turing Year in Israel

    Turing Year in Reykjavik

    UAEU International Workshop

    UNAM: From Computers to Life

    Unconventional Computation

    Univ. of South Florida Turing Day

    Alan Turing at UNICAMP, Brazil

    Univ. of Tennessee at ATY

    Valencia: Turing Lectures

    Washington National Press Club

    WIC 2012 in Macau, China

    WoLLIC 2012, Argentina

    WormShop 2012, Barcelona

    ATY on Facebook and Twitter

    The Official ATY on Facebook

    The Official ATY on Twitter

    Alan Turing on Facebook

    Another Alan Turing on Facebook

    ATY in Hong Kong on Facebook

    Princeton Turing Centennial @ FB

    Turing: a staged case history@FB

    Turing Centenary on Twitter

    Turing Documentary on Twitter

    Turing Festival on Twitter

    Alan Turing on Twitter

    ATY@Science Museum Facebook

    Petitions

    Grant a Pardon to Alan Turing

    Turing for 10 pound note

    Turing Pardon - EDM Supporters

    Plaques for Alan Turing New!

    A Statue for Alan Turing

    Alan Turing in history syllabus

    Put Alan Turing on bitcoins

    Alan Turing and 4th plinth

    A Coin for Alan Turing

    Turing Petition (archive)

    Competitions

    Turing Fellowships

    Turing Centenary Research Proj.

    Mind, Mechanism & MathematicsI

    LOEBNER PRIZE 2012

    TURING100 TURING TESTS

    Codebreaker competition

    Turing Cryptography Competition

    Codebreaker Challenge

    Turing-Tape Games

    Turing Cryptography Competition 2013

    Turing Machine Award 2012, Wien

    ICO Schools’ Art Competition

    Exhibitions & Performances

    Alan Turing & Life’s Enigma

    CODEBREAKER Science Museum

    Breaking the Code in Oxford

    Cryptograph in Kansas

    ’EMINENT & ENIGMATIC’ at HNF

    Espace Turing, France

    MK Gallery - Station X

    Oslo Turing Film Series

    Turing on Channel 4

    Touring - Intuition & Ingenuity

    Legacy for Computing & Humanity

    Manchester Walks, June 23

    Melbourne Computer History Tour

    Alan Turing’s life in posters

    ART (Artists Redefine Turing)

    Breaking the Code in Europe

    ’Turings Erfenis’ in Amsterdam

    ATY in Hong Kong Exhibition

    NY Consciousness Collective

    ’ALAN’S APPLE’ in Rome

    TURING - a staged case history

    PINK MILK in NY & Chicago

    ’To Kill a Machine’ in Aberystwyth

    Alan’s Apple in Verona

    STATION X at Bletchley Park

    OTHER LIVES in Jerusalem

    Publications

    Turing Poster Exhibition

    Poem: Enigma Variations

    Alan Turing: The Enigma

    The Once and Future Turing

    Alan Turing: His Work and Impact

    A Computable Universe

    Pioneer of the Information Age

    NATURE - ’Alan Turing At 100’

    COMPUTABILITY First Issue

    Computer Journal Special Iss.

    AIECM 2012 book on AI

    Philosophia Scientiæ Spec. Iss.

    The Universal Computer

    The Universal Machine

    AT & His Contemporaries

    Alan Turing’s Philosophy

    Turing First Day Covers

    Der Spiegel: Das Phantom

    CACM: Turing’s Titanic Machine?

    Odyssey mag. special issue

    Wiley Turing Centenary offer

    Artlink Magazine special issue

    Alan Turing Bibliography

    Alan Turing Bibliography - BibTeX

    Alan M Turing by Sara Turing

    ACM interview with Robert Soare

    Rudy Rucker: Turing & Burroughs

    Quadrature No.84 features Turing

    Cryptograph Museum Catalogue

    White Cat Black Cat comic

    Blue Sky Kids, pp.46-47

    Manchester banner

    Incomputability After Alan Turing

    Alan Turing illustrated

    Turing: Phil Trans Royal Soc

    Westminster debate transcript

    the making of Alan Turing

    Computer Journal: Turing Focus

    SITN ’Flash’ Turing Edition

    Bletchley Park Turing Special

    Tom Vickers recalls Alan Turing

    GCHQ & Turing’s Legacy

    ’We need more oddballs’

    Computer Education, Tsinghua

    Take Tea with Turing

    Alan Turing Monopoly board

    Konrad Zuse und die Schweiz

    Bruderer on Turing and Zuse

    Turing & Artificial Languages

    Warren McCulloch & Alan Turing

    La strana vita di Alan Turing

    Jack Copeland: Big Question 1

    Jack Copeland: Big Question 2

    Jack Copeland: Big Question 3

    Play: A Most Secret War

    Intuition & Ingenuity Catalogue

    Davis: Il Calcolatore Universale

    The Foresight of Alan Turing

    Turing at ’Gay to Z’

    AT and Enigmatic Statistics New!

    Museums J. ’Turing Remembered’

    Historia y Vida article New!

    Capt. Jerry Roberts stamps New!

    SAPERE: Computing Nature New!

    IJSE: Turing on Emotions New!

    Audio, Video and Film

    ATY on Audioboo

    Breaking the Code

    Strange Life and Death, Pt.1

    Strange Life and Death, Pt.2

    (part) The Death of Alan Turing

    Radiolab: The Turing Problem

    Kate Russell on Turing

    Bletchley Park Post Office

    Pink Triangle: Dear Alan

    100 Years of Alan Turing

    Alan Turing Codebreaker film

    Decoding Alan Turing

    ATY Lectures from Calgary

    A Turing Phase - podcast

    ’The Creator’ at The Cornerhouse

    Rudy Rucker ’Imitation Game’

    Alan Turing - The Sacred Texts

    IEEE Interview of Andrew Hodges

    La Macchina di Turing from Pisa

    ’Intelligent machines?’ (Spanish)

    IET/BCS Turing Lecture 2012

    Turing Year on Hong Kong radio

    Public Meeting in Hong Kong, Pt.1

    Public Meeting in Hong Kong, Pt.2

    Public Meeting in Hong Kong, Pt.3

    Hong Kong Speaker Lunch, Pt.1

    Hong Kong Speaker Lunch, Pt.2

    Alan Turing Hong Kong activities

    Turing and his Times

    IEEE Computer at Bletchley Park

    Via Crucis Alan Turing

    Film: THE TURING ENIGMA

    THE TURING ENIGMA - trailer

    BBC: The Turing Solution

    Cambridge Blue Plaque

    Kasparov vs Turing

    Parliamentary Debate on Turing

    Samson Abramsky on Turing

    Martin A. Smith and Hallie

    Keith Devlin on Turing’s Work

    Firecatcher at Bletchley Park PO

    David Tranah on Sara Turing book

    Le Modele Turing

    Tartu ATY Conference film

    Dayo Wong performs for Turing

    David Leavitt Interview

    Manchester Conference videos

    US Public Radio TTBOOK on AMT

    Inria: Turing aurait 100 ans

    ICO Alan Turing Lecture 2012

    ’Panic’ poem for Alan Turing

    Rehabilitating Alan Turing

    Hong Kong Alan Turing Exhibition

    Turing’s Sunflowers Experiment

    Bletchley Park’s Lost Heroes

    LGBT History Month pre-launch

    Prof YB Yeung Turing Talk & Song

    Hong Kong Music tribute to AMT

    Der Urahn aller Computernerds

    blinc 2012 Tribute to Turing

    AT: Strange Oceans of Thought

    Homenaje a Alan Turing

    blinc Portrait in Sound & Visuals

    Turing People in Vienna New!

    Oxford: Centenary Lectures New!

    David Link’s LoveLetters video

    BCS/IET Turing Lecture 2013New!

    B. Randell: Uncovering Colossus

    George Dyson in Italy New!

    BBC Radio4: The Turing Solution

    Jack Copeland on Turing & ACE

    Janna Levin on her Turing book

    Alan Garner on Alan Turing

    Bob Lubarsky: Alan Turing’s Life

    Turing Inspired Music

    Turing Test opera

    Matmos: For Alan Turing

    Matmos: Messages from Unseen

    Skyscraper: Song for Alan Turing

    A Song for Alan Turing

    Salero: Turing Machine Opera

    Sirotti: For Alan Turing

    Sound Portrait Of Alan Turing

    Hidrogenesse: Turing Bits

    Hidrogenesse: ’El Beso’

    AT - L’attributo dell’intelligenza

    Matthew Knowles ’For AT, Part 6’

    Composer Barry Truax work

    Chinese Song for Alan Turing

    Chinese Song for Alan Turing/mp3

    Loke Lay score Alan Turing Song

    Loke Lay score AT Song, Eng. Yb

    Eli Fung sings Alan Turing Song

    Binaerpilot: Songs for Alan Turing

    Barry Truax: Enigma premiere

    Truax: From the Unseen World

    Hong Kong Music tribute to AMT

    PSBs Memory Of The Future

    Supporting Organisations

    ACM

    ACM History Committee

    Assn for Symbolic Logic

    Alan Turing Institute Almere

    British Computer Society

    BCSWomen

    BCTCS

    Bletchley Park Trust

    Brazilian Computer Society

    Brazilian Logic Society

    British Logic Colloquium

    British Math Colloquium

    Bronstee.com

    BSHM

    Chatbots.org

    Computability in Europe

    Computer Conservation Soc

    Computing at School

    CODDII: Informatics in Spain

    CS4FN

    CSHPM

    Computer Society of India

    Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica

    EACSL

    Elsevier

    Enigma and Friends

    European Assn for TCS

    European Mathematical Society

    FoLLI

    German Mathematical Society

    Gesellschaft für Informatik

    Heinz Nixdorf Museumsforum

    Hong Kong Computer Society

    IACAP

    IACR

    ICGA

    IET

    IFCoLog

    Informatics Europe

    Interaction-Design.org

    IOS Press

    Kurt Gödel Society

    LABORES

    LICS

    London Mathematical Society

    Manchester University

    Manchester Met. University

    Microsoft Research

    MOSI, Manchester

    National Physical Laboratory

    Oxford University Press

    Plus Magazine

    Pride in Plymouth

    Rainbow Radio, Australia

    Royal Society of Edinburgh

    Royal United Services Institute

    SCIE - CS Society of Spain

    Sherborne School

    SSAISB

    John Templeton Foundation

    UK Mathematics Trust

    Wolfram Research

    Other External Links

    Alan Turing Home Page

    AMT at The National Archives

    Chatbot Chaturing

    Digital 60 Manchester

    The Drama House

    Enigma Machine

    Enigma and the Bombe

    Jewish personnel at BP

    A Julius Turing genealogy

    NAHC

    Natl. Museum of Computing

    Plaques for Alan Turing New!

    Saving Bletchley Park

    Saving Turing’s Papers

    ScienceMuseum: Computing

    Turing and Morphogenesis

    Turing Archive for the History of Computing

    Turing Centres (TICs)

    Turing Digital Archive

    Turing in Hastings

    Turing Institute Almere

    Turing Machine Embodied

    Turing and Aspergers

    Turing on Wikipedia

    To link to this webpage please use the url: http://www.turingcentenary.eu - and add the ATY logo (suitably resized) to your webpage. See also pdf version or monochrome version
    If you wish to be included in the Turing Centenary email list, please enter your email address here and press Submit:
    codebreaker sunflowers

    The Alan Turing Year on Facebook - and on Twitter
    ATY Press and Media Contact - Daniela Derbyshire - email: turing @ live.co.uk

    Wagstaff

    June 23, 2012, is the Centenary of Alan Turing’s birth in London. During his relatively brief life, Turing made a unique impact on the history of computing, computer science, artificial intelligence, developmental biology, and the mathematical theory of computability.

    2012 will be a celebration of Turing’s life and scientific impact, with a number of major events taking place throughout the year. Most of these will be linked to places with special significance in Turing’s life, such as Cambridge, Manchester and Bletchley Park.

    The Turing Year is coordinated by the Turing Centenary Advisory Committee (TCAC), representing a range of expertise and organisational involvement in the 2012 celebrations. Organisations and individuals wanting to contribute ideas or support for the Turing Year are invited to contact any of the current TCAC members.

  • Le plurilinguisme dans l’Union Européenne, détour par Babel
    http://www.taurillon.org/le-plurilinguisme-dans-l-union-europeenne-detour-par-babel

    Nos langues sont parmi nos plus beaux atours. Dans l’UE, elles sont 24 à être officielles. Plus de 150 à être parlées rien que sur la seule commune de Manchester. Du turc, au yiddish en passant par l’incontournable anglais. Plus que celles que Dieu n’avait imaginées lorsqu’il punit les hommes qui bâtissaient Babel ? C’est sur cette mosaïque de sons et d’imaginaires que se construit l’Union Européenne. Plut aux hommes que l’histoire finisse mieux que le mythe. Les réflexions ci-dessous proposent quelques (...)

    #Opinions

  • Paul Flowers’ escort Ciaron Dodd reveals drug-fuelled sex in rooms paid for by the Co-op | Mail Online
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2510241/Paul-Flowers-escort-Ciaron-Dodd-reveals-drug-fuelled-sex-rooms-paid-Co-

    The rent boy and trysts in rooms paid for by the Co-op: Escort reveals Flowers sent him emails to organise drug-fuelled sex from his work account

    Ciaron Dodd said they met in plush hotel rooms paid for by struggling bank
    The £650-a-night escort revealed messages sent by Reverend Flowers
    Methodist minister used work account to arrange ’drug-fuelled threesomes’
    Mr Dodd says relationship ended when Flowers refused to pay £2,000
    Flowers allegedly met him through the escort website ‘Manchester Lads’

    By Nazia Parveen, Eleanor Harding and Sam Greenhill

    PUBLISHED: 23:15 GMT, 19 November 2013 | UPDATED: 08:20 GMT, 20 November 2013

    252 shares

    191

    View
    comments
    Ciaron Dodd said Paul Flowers was debauched and ’showered him with gifts’

    Ciaron Dodd said Paul Flowers was debauched and ’showered him with gifts’

    The humiliation of Paul Flowers worsened yesterday when a rent boy claimed the ousted Co-op chief hired him for sex.

    Ciaron Dodd, 21, said they met in plush hotel rooms paid for by the struggling bank.

    The Methodist minister, who was forced to quit his £130,000 role in June, showered him with gifts and took him for nights out to the theatre, said Mr Dodd.

    The explosive allegations came as the Labour Party faced further damaging questions about its links with Flowers.

    Pictures have emerged of a lavish reception hosted by Ed Miliband and Ed Balls at 10 Downing Street for Flowers and fellow Co-op grandees while Labour was in power.

    It also emerged that Labour knew two years ago that Flowers had been forced to resign as one of the party’s city councillors after gay porn was found on his computer.

    But it appears the Co-op was not told – allowing him to continue until June as its banking chairman, a position from which he helped to approve massive donations to Labour and Mr Balls.

    Dodd, a £650-a-night escort, has backed up his claim by producing damning messages sent by Flowers, 63, from his work email - in which he organises drug-fuelled threesomes.

    Dodd said: ‘I knew what he did for a living and couldn’t believe how debauched he was.

    ‘Every time he saw me he knew he was risking everything – but he just didn’t seem to care.

    ‘He took me to the theatre and gave me presents like chocolate and wine. I was old enough to be his grandson but he didn’t seem to think we looked like the odd couple.’

    In emails from Flowers’ work account – paul.flowers@co-operative.coop – he wrote unguardedly about sex and drugs.

    One email to the rent boy states: ‘Been waiting for you to come and have some coke (cocaine) and k (Ketamin) with me. P x.’

    More...

    Co-op Group boss dramatically quits in growing row over ex-banking chief caught buying crystal meth and cocaine
    Let’s hear it for the Crystal Methodist: Why, by tonight, Flowers will be portrayed as a hapless ’victim’ of an evil newspaper

    In another exchange, Mr Dodd asks if he can bring his friend Lucas. Flowers replies: ‘I like him a lot – but I can’t afford 2 of you this time! PXx’.

    Mr Dodd claimed the relationship ended when Flowers refused to pay £2,000 he owed.

    Another 31-year-old escort, who asked not to be named, said the bank boss often talked about his work.

    He told the Sun newspaper: ‘He said there was going to be a public announcement about how a deal with Lloyds TSB had fallen through. A few days later I heard it on the news.’

    Part-time model Mr Dodd said Flowers contacted him through the escort website ¿Manchester Lads¿ in 2011.

    Part-time model Mr Dodd said Flowers contacted him through the escort website ¿Manchester Lads¿ in 2011.

    Risking everything: Paul Flowers was forced to quit his £130,000 role in June

    Risking everything: Paul Flowers was forced to quit his £130,000 role in June

    Part-time model Mr Dodd said Flowers contacted him through the escort website ‘Manchester Lads’ in 2011.

    For their first meeting, Flowers took him to see a play, You Can’t Take It With You, at Manchester’s Royal Exchange theatre before taking him to a hotel.

    Flowers then paid £650 to hire Mr Dodd for the night and take a cocktail of drugs including amyl nitrate (poppers), cocaine, ketamine and party drug GHB, he claimed.

    The pair were soon seeing each other once a week and Flowers would regularly take his new male companion to high-class restaurants and top up his bank account with extra cash, Mr Dodd said.

    On top of his standard ‘fee’, he received almost £500 over a 28-day period and he was paid an extra £150 if he brought another rent boy along to the sex sessions.

    Mr Dodd said: ‘I would meet Paul at the Renaissance Hotel in Manchester – which was paid for by the bank – while he was in town on business.

    ‘I would also go to his house where he would hold parties with other escorts and friends. It wasn’t long after our first meeting that Paul tested the water with me in terms of drugs.

    ‘He asked me if I dabbled and before long drugs were always involved when I met with him.

    ’Paul enjoyed my company too, though. He’d like to spend hours drinking, talking and taking drugs. He would raise his glass and say, “To good health darling” before we had a drink.’

    Mr Dodd, from Manchester, said Flowers would often go to work after less than an hour of sleep.

    It has also emerged Reverend Flowers was convicted of gross indecency in a public toilet with a man believed to be a trucker in 1981.

    He admitted the offence at Fareham Magistrates’ Court in Hampshire, and was fined £75 with £35 legal costs.

    Flowers told justices he was ‘shamed and embarrassed’ about the incident but maintained he was involved ‘at the other man’s instigation’.

    Yet he was allowed to continue as a Methodist minister.

    Even then, Flowers had friends in high places. He produced a character reference from a Labour peer, Lord Soper of Kingsway, who told the court his friend had suffered a traumatic experience.

    Yesterday, Flowers stepped down from Terrence Higgins Trust’s board of trustees.

    The Tories last night urged Mr Miliband and Mr Balls to ‘come clean’ about their links with Flowers, who has been suspended from the party.

    Both men have been scrambling to distance themselves from the disgraced Methodist minister since the Mail on Sunday captured him on film buying hard drugs, including crack cocaine and crystal meth.
    Hospitality: Paul Flowers (centre) at Downing Street for the launch of a Co-op venture in 2010

    Hospitality: Paul Flowers (centre) at Downing Street for the launch of a Co-op venture in 2010

    Labour support: Ed Miliband at the same function with Co-op chairman Len Wardle (left)

    Labour support: Ed Miliband at the same function with Co-op chairman Len Wardle (left)

    But damaging details have emerged about the extraordinary position Flowers had held at the heart of Labour. At the Downing Street dinner in February 2010, he can be seen drinking wine and mingling with guests, who included a string of Labour ministers.

    Mr Miliband is pictured laughing and joking with Len Wardle, another senior Co-op figure who has quit as the group’s chairman because of ‘serious questions’ over his decision to appoint Flowers to the bank’s board.

    Mr Balls, one of 32 Labour MPs who receive financial sponsorship from the Co-op, was also pictured networking at the event, which was held to launch the ‘Friends of the Co-operative ideal’.
    BY NUMBERS.jpg

    A report of the event, in Co-operative News, reveals that Mr Miliband was ‘in demand’ from senior Co-op figures because he was in charge of Labour’s manifesto for the election that May.

    A few months later, Flowers, who describes Mr Balls as a ‘political friend’ was appointed to the Co-op’s ‘political strategy working group’.

    Along with Mr Wardle, he approved millions of pounds in donations to the Labour and Co-operative parties, including a £50,000 donation to Mr Balls.

    Despite the economic crisis – and the Co-op’s dire finances – the group has increased its political donations from £664,000 in 2008 to £880,000 last year.

    Flowers boasted to MPs earlier this month that he had helped oversee an increase in the maximum annual donations to £1.15million before stepping down.

    Following the Number 10 dinner, Mr Miliband appointed Flowers to his exclusive business advisory board.

    The Labour leader went on to hold dinners with Flowers and other business figures at Westminster restaurants in July and November of 2011.

    This March, he invited Flowers for private talks at his Commons office. The following month the Co-op Bank threw Labour a financial lifeline with a £1.2million loan.

    In a letter to the Labour leader, Conservative Party chairman Grant Shapps demanded answers to nine critical questions, including what the Labour leadership knew about Flowers’ resignation from Bradford council and what personal dealings Mr Miliband had with him while the Co-op was doling out cash to Labour.

    Mr Shapps wrote: ‘The latest revelations about the conduct and behaviour of Paul Flowers have shocked and appalled the public.

    ’They have also raised serious questions about the Labour Party to which you have not yet adequately responded.’

    Tory MP Brooks Newmark, a member of the Commons Treasury committee, which is investigating the near-collapse of the Co-op during Flowers’ time as chairman, said there were also questions about whether Labour had been involved in his extraordinary rise.

    Mr Newmark said: ‘Labour need to come clean about exactly what place Paul Flowers held in the Labour hierarchy.

    ’We know that the Reverend Flowers’ judgment was deeply flawed, no doubt not helped by whatever drugs he was taking.

    ‘But the question does arise whether, in spraying shareholders’ money around to the Labour Party, including an extraordinary gift of £50,000 to Ed Balls, was he engaged in some sort of payback for being given this £132,000 bank job for which he was manifestly ill-suited?

    ’We know there is a special relationship between Labour and the Co-op – did the Reverend Flowers receive support from Labour in getting the job?’

    Flowers was a senior Labour councillor before rising to prominence in the Co-op movement.

    The inappropriate material that cost him his council seat was found when he gave his laptop to the Bradford authority’s IT department for a routine servicing.

    Shocked council officials confronted him with the images, and he resigned immediately. But in public, he pretended he was leaving for family reasons and because of his high-pressure role at the Co-op Bank.
    Pugh

    Yesterday, a spokesman for Bradford Council said: ‘Inappropriate but not illegal adult content was found on a council computer handed in by Councillor Flowers for servicing. This was put to him and he resigned immediately.’

    Bradford Council confirmed last night that it did not inform the Co-op of the reason for Mr Flowers’s resignation because, although he had breached the council’s rules, he had not broken the law.

    At the time, the then leader of the council, Councillor Ian Greenwood, paid tribute to his work and called him ‘a highly gifted individual who has made an enormous contribution as a member of the executive’.

    Mr Miliband and Mr Balls both deny having close links with Flowers.

    Labour refused to comment in detail on the fresh allegations yesterday.

    A spokesman said: ‘Ed Miliband and the Labour leadership have been as shocked as anyone at the recent revelations regarding Paul Flowers. That is why we have taken immediate action and suspended him from the Labour Party.’

    Mr Balls was under further pressure last night to hand back a £50,000 donation from the Co-op. Mr Newmark said: ‘Mr Balls should ask himself whether it is right to accept that money and consider giving it back.’

    A spokesman for Mr Balls insisted there was no reason to return the money as it had been properly donated by the Co-op Group.

    Former Co-op bank chief caught on camera in ’crystal meth deal’
    Co-op Group boss quits in growing row over ex-banking chief caught buying drugs

    The Co-op was plunged into fresh chaos yesterday as its chairman fell on his sword for appointing crack addict Reverend Paul Flowers to head the group’s bank.

    Len Wardle’s resignation came as anger is growing among ordinary investors whose retirement incomes are being raided to prop up the disaster-prone bank.

    He admitted ‘serious questions’ were raised by the drugs scandal over former banking chairman Paul Flowers.

    Mr Flowers, a former Labour councillor and Methodist minister who was chairman of the Co-operative Bank when it ran into trouble, faces an investigation by the police after being covertly filmed counting off £20 notes to buy hard drugs.

    He was covertly filmed buying crystal meth and crack cocaine.

    More...

    Co-op Group boss dramatically quits in growing row over ex-banking chief caught buying crystal meth and cocaine
    Let’s hear it for the Crystal Methodist: Why, by tonight, Flowers will be portrayed as a hapless ’victim’ of an evil newspaper

    Resigned: Co-operative Group chairman Len Wardle has quit his job with immediate effect
    Ursula Lidbetter replaces Mr Wardle in running the troubled Co-op Group

    Resigned: Co-operative Group chairman Len Wardle, left, has quit his job with immediate effect. Ursula Lidbetter, right, replaces Mr Wardle in running the troubled Co-op Group

    The Co-operative Group yesterday launched a fact-finding investigation into ’any inappropriate behaviour’ at the group or the Co-operative Bank and a ’root-and-branch review’ of the structure of the organisation.

    There is growing incredulity that a man with no banking experience and a penchant for crystal meth and cocaine had been made chairman of a bank.

    But today Mr Wardle announced he will quit the £145,000 position he has held since 2007.

    He was due to leave next May but he said it was now right for him to go straight away, having led the board that appointed Mr Flowers.

    Mr Wardle said: ‘The recent revelations about the behaviour of Paul Flowers, the former chair of the Co-operative Bank, have raised a number of serious questions for both the bank and the group.

    ‘The recent revelations about the behaviour of Paul Flowers, the former chair of the Co-operative Bank, have raised a number of serious questions for both the bank and the group. I led the board that appointed Paul Flowers to lead the bank board, and under those circumstances I feel that it is right that I step down now, ahead of my planned retirement in May next year’

    – Len Wardle

    ‘I led the board that appointed Paul Flowers to lead the bank board and under those circumstances I feel that it is right that I step down now, ahead of my planned retirement in May next year.

    ‘I have already made it clear that I believe the time is right for real change in our operations and our governance and the board recently started a detailed review of our democracy.

    ‘I hope that the group now takes the chance to put in place a new democratic structure so we can modernise in the interests of all our members.’

    Critics have questioned how he could have been appointed given his apparent lack of experience, and Andrew Tyrie, chairman of the Treasury Select Committee, said that, even before the weekend’s revelations, it was clear he was ‘manifestly unsuitable’.

    The Co-operative Bank is facing a rescue plan which will see majority control turned over to investors including US hedge funds, after it was left with a £1.5 billion gap in its finances following the takeover of the Britannia Building Society in 2009.

    Mr Wardle’s departure will see him replaced by his deputy, Ursula Lidbetter, chief executive of the Lincolnshire Co-operative.

    The Co-operative Group said: ‘It is intended that Ursula will chair the group through the current governance review, which will include consideration of how the board is constituted and chaired.’
    ED BALLS UNDER PRESSURE OVER £50,000 DONATION FROM CO-OP

    Shadow chancellor Ed Balls is under pressure over a £50,000 donation from the Co-op

    Ed Balls has come under pressure to return a £50,000 donation backed by the former Co-operative Bank chairman hit by claims of hard drug use.

    Labour’s leadership has attempted to distance itself from Paul Flowers, a former councillor, after it emerged he attended a private meeting with Ed Miliband and both men were also present at two dinners in Westminster.

    Sources insisted he was ’neither influential nor important’.

    Yesterday the 63-year-old was suspended from the party for bringing it into disrepute following footage that appears to show him buying drugs days after being grilled by the Treasury Select Committee over the bank’s disastrous performance.

    A Labour source: ’It’s true that there was a private meeting with Ed in March of this year. There were two informal dinners - three meetings that we can find records of in the space of three years.

    Earlier this month Mr Flowers told the Commons Treasury committee said: ’My recollection is that we paid for a particular researcher to assist the shadow chancellor in the work that he needed to do, and that we believed to be a legitimate and proper use of resources.’

    Tory MP Brooks Newmark told the Daily Telegraph: ’The Rev Flowers’ judgment was clearly impaired if he was prepared to give Ed Balls £50,000.

    ’Mr Balls should now ask himself whether it is right to accept that money, and consider giving it back.’

    MPs have castigated financial watchdogs for rubber-stamping the appointment of Rev Paul Flowers, which they denounced as a farcical ‘box-ticking exercise’.

    Andrew Tyrie, chairman of the Commons Treasury Select Committee, said it was obvious when Flowers appeared before them earlier this month that he was ‘manifestly unsuitable’ to be a bank chairman.

    He called for the regulation of senior bankers to be tightened to include continuing and ‘intrusive’ supervision.

    ‘It’s been a complete disaster. Nothing less than saying that will do,’ he told BBC Radio 4’s World At One.

    He attacked the ‘approved persons regime’, whereby a City panel supposedly checked the competence of Rev Flowers, as ‘nothing more than a massive bureaucratic, back-covering, box-ticking exercise that satisfied regulators but did little or nothing to protect shareholders or customers of banks’.

    In fact Flowers was only checked by the regulator when he became a member of the Co-op board and was not re-interviewed at all when he was promoted to chairman in April 2010.

    Flowers quit his post in June this year as his ‘ethical’ bank was driven to the brink of collapse, threatening the retirement incomes of thousands of pensioners.

    Yesterday he was also suspended by the Labour Party amid embarrassment over a £50,000 donation to Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls.

    He faces a police inquiry into his use of hard drugs, and the Co-op announced a ‘root and branch review’ into ‘any inappropriate behaviour’ during the tenure of its former boss.

    Mr Wardle will be replaced by his deputy, Ursula Lidbetter, chief executive of the Lincolnshire Co-operative.

    She told BBC Radio 4’s The World At One: ’The stories (about Mr Flowers) are shocking but it’s not something that I can comment on today. There are investigations going on, it is in the hands of police.

    ’Len had already told the membership that he was going to stand down next May and in light of the review of governance, which Len started, he felt that making a fresh start with a new chairman would be the best way forward.

    ’We have to devise a governance for the Co-operative Group which is fit for the future, for the scale and complexity of the organisation. It’s an amalgamation of many, many organisations over its 150-year history, and we realise that it needs to change, it needs to be simpler, and that will mean changing many things.

    The one thing we do want to make sure is that members still have a voice at the heart of the Co-operative Group. There are seven million members and we think their voice should be heard loud and clear, but we are open-minded about how we achieve that.

    ’The review will look at absolutely everything - it will look at what went wrong, it will look at the opportunities and we will devise a governance structure that is fit for the future, involves our members and makes sure we are very efficient and highly effective in the future.’

  • Vous reprendrez bien un peu de jambon ?
    Attention, à mon avis, c’est pas du bio...

    ANGLETERRE, Manchester. Robert Forstemann, Nicholas Njisane et Shane Perkins lors de la remise des prix après la finale de la Coupe du monde de cyclisme sur piste, le 1er novembre 2013. AFP/ANDREW

    #cyclisme

  • Diffuser la culture makers au monde extérieur
    http://www.internetactu.net/2013/10/31/diffuser-la-culture-makers-au-monde-exterieur

    Quel point commun entre un projet de quartiers numériques à Lomé et le MadLab de Manchester ? En fait, tous deux se définissent comme des initiatives grassroots, et se préoccupent d’introduire le numérique dans des milieux pas forcément bien équipés en haute technologie. Alors que l’initiative de “hubcité” porté par Koffi Sénamé Agbodjinou cherche à intégrer le numérique aux modes…

    #lift #lift13 #liftfrance #liftfrance13 #produire_autrement

  • Des Nébuleuses Planétaires Etrangement Alignées

    http://drericsimon.blogspot.fr/2013/09/des-nebuleuses-planetaires-etrangement.html

    Les astronomes anglais de l’université de Manchester qui ont fait cette étude se sont penchés sur plus d’une centaine de nébuleuses planétaires des trois types peuplant la zone centrale de notre galaxie, qu’on appelle le bulbe. 

    Toutes ces nébuleuses planétaires sont issues d’étoiles sans aucun lien entre elles, sauf leur appartenance à la même galaxie. Ce qu’ont découvert Bryan Rees et Albert Zijlstra, c’est que la plupart des nébuleuses planétaires bipolaires qu’ils ont observées avec le New Technology Telescope de l’ESO et le Télescope Spatial Hubble, sont orientées dans la même direction...

    ce qui est tout à fait surprenant sachant qu’elles ont toutes une histoire et des caractéristiques différentes. Leur grand axe est orienté dans le plan galactique.
    « Alors qu’observer un tel alignement est déjà très surprenant, le voir dans la région centrale de la galaxie, très peuplée, est encore plus inattendu », précise Albert Zijlstra.

    L’alignement des résidus nébuleux de toute beauté que nous obervons aujourd’hui serait donc la signature de ces plans de rotation parallèles, eux-même signant la caractéristique du champ magnétique galactique qui existait il y a plusieurs milliards d’années et qui n’existe plus aujourd’hui.