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Seanad Éireann Debate on Situation in Gaza and Ukraine
What is Ireland's Position
Explanation of our HRC vote
Irish Humanitarian Aid
Seanad Éireann Debate on Situation in Gaza and Ukraine - Statement by the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Mr. Charlie Flanagan, T.D.
Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Charlie Flanagan sets out Government position on Gaza and Ukraine
Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Charlie Flanagan TD, today briefed Senators on his ongoing engagement with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, the Egyptian Foreign Minister and the Director General of UNRWA seeking a ceasefire in Gaza.
Speaking at a special debate in Seanad Éireann on the crises in Gaza and the Ukraine, Minister Flanagan said:
"I fully share the horror and revulsion of Senators and very many of our citizens at the horrendous scenes we have witnessed since the start of the Israeli military operation. This is a truly appalling situation and the Government has been quite categorical in condemning both the unacceptably high civilian casualty rate resulting from disproportionate military action on Israel's part as well as the firing of rockets by Hamas and other militants into Israel.
"The violence must stop and an immediate ceasefire must be instituted.
"Earlier this week, I spoke at length with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon about the crisis. I condemned the appalling attacks which we have seen on UN and civilian facilities in Gaza and we agreed that both sides have to cease violating international law. The Secretary General was also fulsome in his praise of the Irish Government's humanitarian efforts to date.
"On Tuesday, I spoke directly with Pierre Krahenbuhl , the Director General of UNRWA, to receive his assessment on the current humanitarian needs within Gaza. Ireland has long been a steadfast supporter of UNRWA's efforts to provide essential services to the millions of Palestinian refugees throughout the region. Ireland's direct financial support to the Palestinian people currently amounts to over €10 million per annum.
"I have met and spoken on several occasions with the Israeli Ambassador to make clear the very grave concerns and unhappiness of the Government at the disproportionate military response of Israel to Hamas' rocket attacks which has resulted in such an unacceptably high level of civilian casualties and warning against further escalation.
"On my instructions, the Irish Ambassador to Israel, Eamon McKee, yesterday visited the Israeli Foreign Ministry. In the course of a lengthy meeting, he again made clear the Government's very grave concerns and our particular appeal that there should be no escalation of the military campaign underway and the need for all violence to cease forthwith.
"I have also kept in very close touch with the Palestinian Ambassador and spoke this morning with Egyptian Foreign Minister Shoukry. I am determined that Ireland will continue to play the distinct and respected role which it always has within the EU in actively seeking the promotion of the two-State solution which ultimately offers the only remedy to all the conflict we are witnessing.
Minister Flanagan also addressed the EU decision to step up sanctions against Russia in response to the crisis in Ukraine and the loss of flight MH17.
"Despite our repeated calls, Russia has failed to use its influence on the separatists to end the violence and lay down their weapons. Instead there has been a continued flow of militants and material over the Russian-Ukrainian border. Indeed, rather than the situation deescalating, it has worsened and there are credible reports that Russia is once again massing troops on the border. This is a deeply destabilising move in an already highly volatile atmosphere.
Against this background, my fellow EU Foreign Ministers and I last week agreed on a further expansion of restrictive measures targeting individuals supporting or benefitting from Russian decision-makers responsible for the destabilisation of Eastern Ukraine. We also agreed to accelerate the preparation of sectoral sanctions which would impact on Russia's access to capital markets, arms supplies, dual use goods and sensitive technology, including in the energy sector.
Seanad Éireann Debate on Situation in Gaza and Ukraine, 31 July 2014
Statement by the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Mr. Charlie Flanagan, T.D.
I welcome the opportunity today to address this House on two major crises confronting the international community at present, namely the horrendous conflict which has erupted in Gaza and Israel over the past three weeks and the crisis in Ukraine, including the recent downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17.
Our approach to both crises has been to work pro-actively not only bilaterally but also with our European Union partners and internationally through the United Nations to urgently address these issues as effectively as possible.
Gaza/Israel
To begin with the Middle East, I fully share the horror and revulsion of Senators and very many of our citizens at the horrendous scenes we have witnessed since the start of the Israeli military operation, Operation Protective Edge, on 8 July.
The bare statistics of the conflict make grim reading.
An estimated 1,300 Palestinians killed in that period, the vast majority civilians. More than 240 children have lost their lives, including eight innocents slaughtered on Monday in what should be any child's sanctuary, the playground. Over 200,000 displaced, more than 10% of the Strip's population.
And the horror has not been confined just to the Palestinian side. Millions of Israelis have been forced to seek shelter on a daily basis from the indiscriminate firing of rockets into Israel. 55 Israelis, the vast majority IDF personnel, and one Thai national have died.
This is a truly appalling situation and the Government has throughout this crisis been quite categorical in condemning both the unacceptably high civilian casualty rate resulting from disproportionate military action on Israel's part as well as the firing of rockets by Hamas and other militants into Israel.
The violence must stop and an immediate ceasefire must be instituted. Everyone, whether Israeli or Palestinian, has the right to live in peace and security and without the threat of indiscriminate violence being visited upon them.
In many ways, the real tragedy of the current crisis is that we have seen all this horror and death before. This is the third Gaza conflict in less than six years, following similar cycles of violence in December 2008/January 2009 and in November 2012. The level of casualties we are now seeing is rapidly approaching that arising from Operation Cast Lead in 2008-9 where 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis died.
The reasons for this recurrent and utterly futile violence are quite clear.
Firstly, we have an unjust blockade imposed on Gaza which has served only to impoverish the territory and its people and promote extremism. Ireland has consistently called in recent years for the blockade to be ended and Gaza's crossings to be opened up to normal human, commercial and humanitarian traffic. The UN Security Council has also called for this in Resolution 1860 and has repeated that request only last Sunday.
The blockade of Gaza has to be ended. So too must the indiscriminate firing of rockets into Israel by Hamas and other militants including Islamic Jihad and also the building of tunnels for the purpose of attacking Israelis. Hamas must renounce violence as a means of achieving its political objectives.
While fully accepting that Israel has the right to defend itself against such rocket attacks, this right cannot negate the right of others. As was clearly set out in our statement to the UN Human Rights Council last week, any use of military force in self defence must be in accordance with international humanitarian law, and in particular must be both discriminate and proportionate. In view of the unacceptable casualty figures, it is quite clear this has not been the case.
There is no military solution to the problems confronting Gaza. They can only be resolved by dialogue and genuine negotiations.
Ultimately, Gaza is merely a symptom of the overall malaise which is the persistent failure to achieve a just and comprehensive peace between Israelis and Palestinians, based on the two-State solution.
This has been a major priority for successive Irish governments and I am determined that Ireland will remain whole-heartedly engaged in the international efforts to address and resolve the underlying issues preventing peace between Israel and the Arab world.
Since becoming Minister, I have been active in clearly setting out the Government's position on the crisis and condemning the huge civilian casualties resulting from Israeli military actions as well as the rocket attacks on Israel carried out by Hamas and others. This position is fully consistent with the long-standing approach pursued by successive Governments to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
That position, and my central message that the violence and terror being inflicted on ordinary civilians is utterly unacceptable and must end, has already been clearly spelled out in Dáil Éireann in a debate on 16 July* and in responding to Deputies' questions. I have also written directly to a number of Deputies and Senators who have been in touch with me to brief them more fully on the Government's efforts to date.
Government efforts to try and resolve the crisis have focussed on a number of fronts, including bilaterally, at EU level and internationally.
Earlier this week, I spoke at length by phone with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon about the crisis. I praised the Secretary General for the very strong leadership he and the UN are providing and for his articulating so clearly the very great anger and anguish which people feel about what is happening in Gaza. I condemned the appalling attacks which we have seen on UN and civilian facilities in Gaza and we agreed that both sides have to cease violating international law.
Secretary General Ban briefed me on all the intensive efforts in which he has been engaged in recent days to secure a ceasefire. Regrettably, all these efforts have largely fallen on deaf ears to date though the Secretary General was not deterred and believed that some form of extended humanitarian truce would eventually be secured.
We agreed that the underlying issues of security and an end to the blockade must be addressed urgently, as soon as a ceasefire is secured. The Secretary General was also fulsome in his praise of the Government's humanitarian efforts to date. I'd like at this point to acknowledge the work of Minister Sherlock in this regard, and, that of his predecessor, Deputy Joe Costello.
The current humanitarian situation in Gaza is catastrophic. Israel's military actions have greatly compounded what was already a very grave situation resulting from the effective closure of Gaza to the outside world.
I and my colleague at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Minister of State Sean Sherlock, have already on 21 July authorised the provision of €500,000 in response to the urgent appeal launched by the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for assistance to cope with the dire humanitarian circumstances on the ground.
On Tuesday, I spoke directly with Pierre Krahenbuhl , the Director General of UNRWA, to receive his assessment on the current humanitarian needs within Gaza. Senators will be aware that Ireland has long been a steadfast supporter of UNRWA's efforts to provide essential services to the millions of Palestinian refugees throughout the region. Ireland's direct financial support to the Palestinian people currently amounts to over €10 million per annum.
Mr. Krahenbuhl made clear that UNRWA is virtually at the limits of its ability to cope with the situation now prevailing in Gaza. He warned of the grave dangers of any further military escalation by Israel and I fully agreed with him that international pressure needs to stepped up on the Israeli government not to precipitate a even more calamitous and unmanageable humanitarian crisis.
I expressed my praise and appreciation to Mr. Krahenbuhl for all of UNRWA's heroic efforts, both in the current crisis and over many years, in attending to the welfare needs of the Palestinian population, some 80% of whom within Gaza are dependent on international assistance to survive. I reiterated Ireland's full commitment to continue supporting UNRWA's efforts and to provide further assistance as may be required. Clearly, once a durable ceasefire has been achieved, a major reconstruction effort will be required to remedy the damage that has been inflicted on Gaza and to renew its basic infrastructure such as schools, hospitals and other vital services.
I have also been active throughout the crisis in addressing urgent appeals to both sides to end the violence. I have met and spoken on several occasions with the Israeli Ambassador to make clear the very grave concerns and unhappiness of the Government at the disproportionate military response of Israel to Hamas' rocket attacks which has resulted in such an unacceptably high level of civilian casualties and warning against further escalation. These very clear messages to Israel to end the violence and agree to an immediate ceasefire have also been directed through our Ambassador in Tel Aviv to the Israeli Foreign Ministry. On my instructions, the Irish Ambassador to Israel, Eamon McKee, yesterday visited the Israeli Foreign Ministry. In the course of a lengthy meeting, he again made clear the Government's very grave concerns and our particular appeal that there should be no escalation of the military campaign underway and the need for all violence to cease forthwith.
I have also kept in very close touch with the Palestinian Ambassador and with our partners in the region, including Egypt which is centrally involved in current mediation efforts. I spoke this morning with Egyptian Foreign Minister Shoukry to be briefed on current ceasefire efforts and to commend the vital mediation role which Egypt is playing in the current crisis and to encourage him to continue his endeavours to achieve a sustained humanitarian truce.
I also met last week with the Palestinian and other Arab Ambassadors resident in Dublin to discuss the crisis in Gaza and receive their assessment of the situation. I will continue to keep in close touch with all sides as efforts intensify to end the carnage.
In line with Ireland's long-standing position, I also believe firmly that the EU must be centrally involved in all efforts to end the conflict and promote peace within the Middle East. This means not just supporting current efforts to achieve a ceasefire but actively addressing the root causes of the conflict.
I attended the Foreign Affairs Council on 22 July where both the Ukraine and Gaza crises were extensively discussed.
Ireland for many months has sought a substantive discussion on the Middle East Peace Process at the Council in order to review the very negative recent developments on the ground, including the appalling murders of four teenagers in June, and to press for a stronger, more active EU role in addressing the growing impediments to the attainment of a two-State solution, and not least Israel's continued expansion of illegal settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
The eruption of the crisis following the launch of Operation Protective Edge inevitably meant a focus at the Council on the violence in and from Gaza. The Council nevertheless adopted substantive Conclusions which not only addressed the immediate crisis but also made clear that the preservation of the viability of the two-State solution must remain a priority for the EU and dwelt at some length on what needs to be done to promote a resumption of substantive peace negotiations.
I believe these are important Council Conclusions in the negotiation of which Ireland was centrally involved. Indeed, during the discussions, I myself successfully pressed for Conclusions which for the first time saw an explicit condemnation by the EU of the very high number of civilian casualties resulting from current Israeli military actions in Gaza. I am determined that Ireland will continue to play the distinct and respected role which it always has within the EU in actively seeking the promotion of the two-State solution which ultimately offers the only remedy to all the conflict we are witnessing.
There also has to be accountability for what has transpired during the past three weeks of conflict. Too many innocent people have died. International law has undoubtedly been flagrantly violated.
There has been much comment on Ireland's decision last week to abstain, along with all other EU Partners, in the vote on the Palestinian resolution at the UN Human Rights Council Special Session seeking establishment of a commission of inquiry into events in Gaza.
I want to make it absolutely clear, as was stated in our national statement to the Council session last week, that Ireland fully supports and wants all breaches of international law which have occurred to be fully investigated. Ireland and our EU Partners negotiated intensively and in good faith with the Palestinians to agree a Resolution we all could support. In the end, we couldn't resolve differences over the most effective way to conduct the investigation. The EU also believed it important that any resolution comprehensively address all the violations of international law which have occurred.
The decision to abstain was a collective EU decision, only taken after prolonged deliberations. One day after the adoption of important EU Conclusions on the peace process, it would have sent a very negative signal and undoubtedly weakened EU leverage if we could not agree on a common response to the resolution. The cold reality also is that, if a common abstention had not been agreed, there was a very high likelihood of a number of our EU partners voting against the Resolution, thereby reducing overall EU influence even further.
What we are now witnessing in Gaza is a brutal and utterly futile conflict. Ultimately, both sides will have to talk and engage in negotiations of some kind to address the underlying issues. The world has been rightly appalled by the violence we have seen and by the intransigence which both sides have shown towards the repeated entreaties, most recently and tellingly by all fifteen members of the Security Council, to end the violence and declare an immediate and unconditional humanitarian ceasefire. I fear, in particular, for the damage which its continued military operations against innocent civilians is doing to Israel's international reputation and to the credibility of its repeated commitment to wish to negotiate a just peace with their Palestinian neighbours.
As I stated earlier, this is not the first Gaza crisis but we must earnestly hope that it is the last and that the underlying issues contributing to such widespread violence and appalling suffering, and in particular the long-running blockade of Gaza and the faltering peace process, are now addressed and advanced in a decisive manner.
I can assure you that both this immediate crisis and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will continue to receive my highest priority as Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade. I will continue to work vigorously to bring about the earliest possible ceasefire as well as to address the humanitarian crisis in the region. I will also continue to strongly condemn all violence and civilian casualties.
I would now like to turn to the other major crisis being addressed by the House today, Ukraine.
What we have witnessed in Eastern Ukraine over the past number of months represents the most serious crisis in recent years in Europe. I deplore the violence and the bloodshed that we have witnessed and, in particular, the suffering that has been wreaked on innocent civilians.
As Members of this House will be aware, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights released a report this week in which it is estimated that, since April, over 1,100 people have been killed in the conflict, over 3,400 injured and that over 100,000 internally displaced persons have been forced to flee the violence. This is totally unacceptable in 21st century Europe.
An early resolution of the crisis, based on a peaceful, inclusive and negotiated settlement, is an urgent priority for the entire international community. The concerns of the Irish Government have been widely reflected in the Irish public at large. Indeed, this country was directly touched by the tragedy when an Irish-born citizen lost her life in the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 on 17 July, allegedly by a surface-to-air missile.
Last week in Brussels, I had the opportunity of conveying the Government's condolences to my Dutch colleague, Frans Timmermans, on the tragic loss of so many of his fellow citizens. I take this opportunity of conveying my deepest condolences to the people and the governments of all affected countries and, in particular to the families of the victims.
Throughout every phase in this crisis, we have worked closely with our partners in the European Union and internationally through the United Nations and the OSCE to address these issues as effectively as possible. All EU Member States have been, and are, united in their views that what has happened in Ukraine is completely unacceptable and that it will have serious consequences for our relations with Russia.
From the outset, the EU has played an active role in trying to facilitate a resolution to the crisis in Ukraine. On 6 March, EU Heads of State and Government decided on a three phase approach to restrictive measures against Russia in view of its actions in respect of Ukraine.
Until now, the EU has limited itself to the first two phases - essentially involving suspension of some negotiations with Russia and a series of asset freezes and visa bans on named individuals.
I very much regret that this has been necessary. However, despite our repeated calls, Russia has failed to use its influence on the separatists to end the violence and lay down their weapons. Instead there has been a continued flow of militants and material over the Russian-Ukrainian border. Indeed, rather than the situation deescalating, it has worsened and there are credible reports that Russia is once again massing troops on the border. This is a deeply destabilising move in an already highly volatile atmosphere.
Vital opportunities, including the terms of President Poroshenko's Peace Plan and the unilateral ceasefire which accompanied it, have not been taken up in any serious manner.
The European Council took stock of the situation on 16 July and agreed to further expand the restrictive measures, with a view to targeting entities, including from the Russian Federation, that support actions undermining or threatening Ukraine's sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence.
On 22 July, I attended my first meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council where we engaged in a lengthy discussion of the situation in Ukraine. The tragic loss of the Malaysian Airlines aircraft on 17 July, with 298 people aboard, was obviously uppermost in our minds.
Together with my EU partners, I called on the separatist groups to ensure, full immediate, safe and secure access to the site and surrounding area. We emphasised the need for a viable security corridor in order to proceed with victim identification as well as to recover remains and possessions of the victims and the professional and dignified repatriation of their remains.
I myself have publicly called for a full investigation and expressed the Government's support for UN Security Council Resolution 2166 which Ireland cosponsored in New York earlier this month. Those directly or indirectly responsible for bringing down this plane must be held accountable and brought to justice. I am sure that all in this House will join me in insisting on this accountability.
The difficulty which international investigators have experienced in gaining access to the crash site is quite simply scandalous and an affront to the grieving relatives of those who perished. I know that the Prime Minister of the Netherlands has also asked President Poroshenko to do everything possible to work to bring about a sustainable cessation of hostilities which will allow the important and necessary humanitarian work to proceed. I fully endorse that call.
For my part, I stressed in Brussels that Russia must demonstrate by 'deeds instead of words' that it is committed to resolving the crisis. I also indicated that the EU must take strong action on sanctions if it to remain credible and must remain united. I stated that failure to take decisive action could embolden others to take further destabilising steps. I indicated that we were ready to support strong action, something which our citizens expect.
The proposals on sectoral sanctions were discussed by EU Ambassadors in Brussels on Tuesday of this week. In our intervention, Ireland indicated that we could agree with the package as proposed, believing it to be effective and balanced. The measures were agreed and are expected to enter into force today. They are carefully measured and can be intensified or lessened according to how developments unfold. Provision is also made for a review after 3 months. As the situation evolves, we will discuss with our EU partners what adaptations or further measures might be necessary. We believe that these measures send a strong signal that the EU is ready to take further determined action if required.
Despite the clear deterioration in the security situation, and the steps that we have taken in response, Ireland has from the outset of this crisis, consistently stressed the need for dialogue and the importance of maintaining open channels of communication with the Russian Federation. We continue to take that view. Given that we all agree there can be no military solution to the situation in Ukraine, we need to see serious engagement from all sides and a positive, constructive contribution to the lasting peaceful resolution to the crisis that we all wish to see.
As I said at the outset of my statement, the reconvening of the Seanad today is a welcome opportunity to consider two major crises confronting the international community at present – the conflict in Gaza and Israel and the crisis in Ukraine.
The Irish Government has worked extensively and constructively in seeking to address both conflicts – bilaterally, with our European Union partners and internationally through the United Nations to address these issues as effectively as possible. I stand by those actions and I believe that we have made, and continue to make, an important, distinct and worthwhile contribution.
I look forward now to listening to statements from Members of the Seanad.
* Earlier version of this speech incorrectly said 16 June.

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Parma ham is one of my favourite delicacies, so when invited to a 'cook and dine' event centred around this wonderful food I didn't hesitate in letting the organisers know that I would be there!
A tube strike in full swing on the evening didn't deter many and a warm welcome from the organisers, a glass or two of Prosecco along with nibbles of the wafer thin ham and small canapés soon made us forget about the struggle to reach the venue, the Underground Cookery School on the City Road near Old Street.
As there were quite a few participants we were divided into two groups, swapping over to make the dishes. Mine kicked off with the starter, destined to become fresh tagliatelle with black pepper, truffle oil, Parma ham and parmigiano reggiani. I was perhaps in the minority who had never made pasta from scratch before; but luckily sporting a complimentary Parma Ham apron I happily mixed the flour and egg while under the watchful eye of the chef in charge who added just a splash of olive oil to the mix; then I kneeded it until it reached the required consistency. This was an extremely effective way of dealing with the tensions of the day – all bakers should be very relaxed people! We were each in charge of our own pasta-making machine and following instructions, we started feeding the dough through it, again and again, reducing the number on the dial from 10 right down to 2 in order to reach the required thickness. Mini disasters of the dough falling apart were easily rectified by the chef sprinkling more flour on it. I think I might be more expert the next time! The machine incorporated a tagliatelle cutter, so the neat ribbons of pasta appeared in a trice; we then hung them out to dry on a washing airer, which I found to be quite novel, but very effective.
The groups swapped round and I now found myself faced with a chicken to dissect and bone until I was left with a boneless chicken breast. The very sharp knives provided had to be handled with great care but essential for the job. My rather neat piece of poultry was stuffed with a mixture of cream-cheese, onion and tarragon and then wrapped in Parma ham.
On to dessert, and after the chef had whipped up a mean meringue flavoured with lemon juice and vanilla I was given the honour (with the help of another participant) of spreading it smoothly on the baking sheet. A layer of strawberry-flavoured whipped cream was spread on top and we watched as the chef rolled it into an extremely professional-looking roulade.
We were then all invited to be seated at a long table where everyone chatted away happily. Soon our pasta starter arrived, followed by the chicken breast, succulent under its ham wrap and accompanied by a salad of new potatoes, spring onions and purple sprouting broccoli. The surprise came with the dessert, when we discovered that our lovely roulade had been top with candied Parma ham. In our leaving goody bag were all the recipes and I learnt that to make this, the ham had been placed on a baking sheet, covered with caster sugar and baked in the oven, then broken into shards when cool. I have to say that the delicate flavour of the ham was not quite so prominent here, but nevertheless quite delicious.
We all left, tired but well fed, with a souvenir apron, a booklet of tasty recipes, a folder with detailed information about the production and qualities of Parma ham, and, I'm happy to say, a small pack of superb 'prosciutto di Parma'.
We asked busy garden writer Amily Grossman, to give us some of her ideas for gifts for Fathers' Day. With a little help from friends and relatives, here is her list.
Dads can sometimes feel a little left out in the early days with mum and baby sharing so much one on one time together. Water Babies, is a leading baby swimming school with classes all over the country. Water Babies lessons are a great way to get Dad involved as little ones are able to take lessons from birth, giving Dad and baby a fantastic opportunity to bond. Our favourite Father's Day gift!
The weight of garden tools can become an issue if you frequently dig, hoe and rake. So your dad might welcome on of the new Light Gardening Tools from Fiskars. The lawn rake looks especially useful, it efficiently clears grass with much less effort than usual. The patio knife on a long handle would save a lot of back ache. Having just broken a wooden handled spade we're now seriously considering the Light spade for our own gardening activities.
My dad really likes doorstep size slices of bread, toasted muffins, toasted crumpets and fast toast. The Magimix Vision Toaster comes top in all these requirements – the chance to watch the toast cooking a plus feature.
This toaster is great for the man who is of the opinion there is no point in heating up the grill in the cooker for a couple of slices of toast – a total waste of electricity. The side by side design means it fits on the work surface neatly, although we would have it on the table for easy access. Just so you know, this toaster is a Which Best Buy and although pricey at £145 it has good user reviews.
OK, so a toaster is not appropriate for your dad. What about a book?
How about the Penguin series devoted to Simenon's books – he may well enjoy the first Inspector Maigret novel Pietr the Latvian, if only for nostalgic reasons! Penguin are publishing the entire series of the Maigret novels, so this could cover your gifts for several years!
Confessions of The World's Best Father – a tongue in cheek series of web entries that started an internet phenomenon. His bewilderment as to how to best raise a child makes Dave Engledow's book an amusing read. The photographs are pretty good too!
If you'd prefer to give a more sober present, you could go for The Death of Money. James Rickards shows how we could avoid financial collapse.
James Lovelock's A Rough Ride to the Future confirms his belief that the survival of the human race is one of the most important steps in the evolution of our planet.
With Flowers Shows happening all over the country why not get tickets?
If your dad is a keen veggie grower he might just like a copy of the Suttons Vegetable Garden Planner <suttons@growveg.com> An absolutely winner for us – it takes out all the guesswork and is an easy to refer to record throughout the year.
Backdoor shoes – if your dad is constantly in and out of the garden, he might well like a pair of lightweight Backdoor Shoes to slip on and off. Might keep mum happy too with less mud to clear up. We love 'em, ours has taken 4 years of hard wear and need replacing now. Which design to choose will be a challenge!
You could sign him up for Naked Wines. The company was started up by two former employees of Virgin Wines, with the added ethos of supporting the wine producers, all small scale but dedicated growers. You might like to make your dad a wine angel! Sounds fun? Here's a link.
Lastly, for the dad with a dog. The Forestry Commission England has created a one-stop-shop for owners and their dogs looking to take a break in and around forests and woodlands. The Ruff Guide to the Forest showcases 34 Forestry Commission locations across England, highlighting each site's trails and facilities suitable for dogs, along with dog-friendly places to stay nearby.
Phew, will have to take a break now and go for a spot of weeding! The sun's out and I'll don my Backdoor Shoes, pick up the handy trowel with its graduated scale for planting seedlings, put on my Ethel gloves and make sure the waterproof jacket is by the backdoor in case of an unexpected show.


text:
Three Hours
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In rural Somerset in the middle of a blizzard, the unthinkable happens: a school is under siege.
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Wow! This is a stunner of a book. Staggeringly good
Jane Fallon
It's beautifully, elegantly written, SO gripping, intelligent, timely, affecting and moving
There's no one else writing quite like Rosamund Lupton in fiction today - the way she combines high tension with a compassionate and humane take on the world is unique. Three Hours is exceptional - at turns heart-breaking, warm, terrifying, perceptive and grippingly page turning
Kate Hamer
Three Hours is Rosamund Lupton's best book yet, and that is high praise. A monster story for our fractious historical moment -- the age of the internet and of Columbine, of terror and mass migration -- when the monsters often look an awful lot like our own children. Chilling, suspenseful, humane, and brave
William Landay
An incredible, unbelievably powerful book... I forgot how to breathe as it explored what it means to be human - for better or for worse. It's taut, it's tight, it's appalling, it's uplifting, it's extraordinary. Simply stunning
This is an incredible novel: a heady combination of elegant writing, nuanced characterisation, deep emotion and heart-stopping tension. I was torn, all the way through, between wanting to slow down in order to relish the detail, and wanting to speed up in order to find out what was going to happen'
Elizabeth Brooks
I read Three Hours in two days, in awe. It's breathtaking. A modern rumination on the issues that divide 21st century life, a celebration of refugees, of mental health, of love and hope and bravery. I loved it more than I can say'
Three Hours is about hate crime, but what rings out from its pages - what is likely to stay with you long after you've read that magnificent last line - is love. I wanted to read Three Hours slowly to savour every beautiful word, yet it is so compelling that I couldn't put it down. This one is destined for the best-sellers list, I reckon, and rightly so. It is phenomenal
Beautifully written, emotionally note-perfect and nail-bitingly tense. It's BRILLIANT
I finished Three Hoursin the wee small hours of this morning. It's mind blowing. I'm still feeling jittery. It's so fast-paced and credible that at times I felt like I was watching rolling news coverage of a real incident where I knew the victims. I had that same pulse-racing, queasy feeling - the same inability to look away. It's a horrifying story but told with such compassion and humanity. A large cast of characters and yet you feel genuinely emotionally engaged with each one... Amazing
Francesca Jakobi
Rosamund Lupton is the author of Sister, a BBC Radio 4 "Book at Bedtime", a Sunday Times and New York Timesbestseller, winner of the Strand Magazine critics award and the Richard and Judy Bookclub Readers' Choice Award. Her next two books Afterwards and The Quality of Silence (also a Richard and Judy pick) were Sunday Timesbestsellers. Her books have been published in over thirty languages.
How the victim became the heart of true crime
From Hallie Rubenhold to Rosamund Lupton, books are starting to uncover the narratives podcasts and TV often leave behind: those belonging not the perpetrator, but the people whose lives they ruin.
What I'm reading: Rosamund Lupton
The Sunday Times-bestselling author of Three Hours reveals five brilliant books she's devoured lately.
Three Hours Book Club Questions
Rosamund Lupton, author of Sunday Times Top 10 bestseller, Three Hours, has pulled together some great quotations from her novel to kick start discussions at your next book club meeting.


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SYNCH: Page 6 of 6
Monolith.
Biography Page 1 - Page 2
Issue Checklist
In the Days of Future Past reality, Synch was living in the bombed out shell of Hollywood, California, along with Jubilee and Leech. They survived by scavenging for food and avoided detection by the Sentinels using dampeners that masked their mutant signatures so long as they didn't use their powers. During their time together, Everett and Jubilee's relationship blossomed into romance. When Jubilee hooked up with Magneto and Wolverine to deal with Shinobi Shaw's Armageddon plans, Everett and Leech met up with the Sentinel resistance in Portland and the X-Men's former ally Charlotte Jones. Unfortunately, they got caught up in Shinobi's plans anyway when his secret ally, Zemo of the Sentinels' human-run Thunderbolts Gestapo, captured them in Oregon. Luckily, Wolverine freed them once they arrived at the Hoover Dam base and Synch personally took down Baron Zemo in the battle that followed. After Shinobi's plan was foiled, Synch and the others organized as a rebel unit at Emma Frost's isolated island mansion off the coast of India, planning to take action against the Sentinels. Everett's final fate is unknown.
In the reality spawned by the mentally unstable Scarlet Witch and ruled by the House of M, Synch never died and instead served as a member of the SHIELD training team called the Hellions. This team responded to a terrorist attack on the New Mutant Leadership Institute, an elite training academy for young mutants. No love was lost between the Hellions and the students at the Institute and they viewed each other as rivals. Despite this tension, a group of students joined forces with Synch and his teammates to investigate the true source of these attacks. The group traveled to Japan where they discovered a facility that was experimenting on humans with horrific results. They took down the lab and confronted Lord Sunfire. They were rushing headlong into a battle against overwhelming forces when the House of M reality warp abruptly ended.
Excalibur (1st series) #24
Professor X dislikes Lila Cheney's music. [New Mutants (1st series) #25, X-Men (2nd series) #30]


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Home/US News/Manchin and Schumer announce deal for energy and health care bill
Manchin and Schumer announce deal for energy and health care bill
But it will face furious GOP opposition.
While Manchin scuttled President Joe Biden's Build Back Better bill, the final deal includes a number of provisions the moderate from West Virginia had privately scoffed at, representing a significant reversal from earlier this month. That includes provisions addressing the climate crisis.
The agreement contains a number of Democrats' goals. While many details have not been disclosed, the measure would invest $369 billion into energy and climate change programs, with the goal of reducing carbon emissions by 40% by 2030, according to a one-page fact sheet. For the first time, Medicare would be empowered to negotiate the prices of certain medications, and it would cap out-of-pocket costs at $2,000 for those enrolled in Medicare drug plans. It would also extend expiring enhanced subsidies for Affordable Care Act coverage for three years.
The announcement comes at a crucial time for Congress, as the Senate is a little over a week away from starting a monthlong recess, when many Democrats will campaign for reelection. The news also came several hours after the Senate passed a separate bill to invest $52 billion in US manufacturing of semiconductors, sending it to the House to consider as soon as this week.
Notably, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell had previously vowed to try to halt passage of the semiconductor bill if Democrats continued to pursue their party-line bill on climate and drug prices.
Manchin's agreement represents reversal
Manchin's support is notable given his stance earlier this month that he "unequivocally" wouldn't support the climate or tax provisions of the Democratic economic package, which appeared to torpedo any hope Democrats had of passing legislation to fight climate change in the near future.
But Schumer and Manchin have been in revived talks since July 18 and locked down a deal Wednesday, according to a source familiar with the matter. Manchin had thrown cold water on doing tax and energy provisions as part of the deal, but ultimately agreed to it.
The White House has signed off on this deal, Biden said in a statement.
The deal still faces multiple hurdles before it can make it to Biden's desk, including the parliamentarian and having to pass both chambers of Congress, where practically any Democrat could sideline or delay passage.
Climate provisions 'could be a huge win'
In a statement, Schumer's office said the bill would reduce US carbon emissions by roughly 40% by 2030. Clean energy tax credits would drive the majority of those emission reductions, a Democratic aide said.
Two weeks ago, Schumer and Manchin were nearing a deal on $375 billion for the climate and energy provisions of the bill; the topline for climate announced tonight is $6 billion less than the original figure.
Still, a senior Democratic aide told CNN they were happy with the $369 billion figure on spending for the climate and energy portion of the bill, saying it was more funding than was expected to come out of a deal.
Tax credits for electric vehicles made it into the new deal, according to two Senate Democratic aides. Electric Vehicle tax credits will continue at their current levels, up to $4,000 for a used electric vehicle and $7,500 for a new EV. However, there will be a lower income threshold for people who can use the tax credits — a key demand of Manchin's. Manchin had been staunchly opposed to electric vehicle tax credits throughout negotiations.
Leaders of two prominent climate groups told CNN the latest development was unexpected.
"This is not what anyone was expecting, but we are so excited it's back on," Tiernan Sittenfeld, the senior vice president of government affairs at the League of Conservation Voters, told CNN. "Obviously it's coming not a moment too soon as families struggle from the crazy heat across the world and country."
Advocates were awaiting more details on the climate provisions, expected to be released on Wednesday evening.
"We need to see the details of this deal, especially if there's permitting reform and development of fossil fuels," Evergreen Action co-founder Jamal Raad told CNN. "We're going to need to see in the coming days modeling on this legislation."
But if the package does indeed achieve the emissions reductions Schumer is promising, Raad said it would be a hugely important step.
"If this package does that in a bold way, this could put us on the path to reaching our goals and could be a huge win," he said.
Medicare drug price negotiation provisions remain in the bill
The deal keeps the prescription drug prices changes that Manchin had previously agreed to, including empowering Medicare to negotiate the price of certain costly medications administered in doctors' offices or purchased at the pharmacy. The Health and Human Services secretary would negotiate the prices of 10 drugs in 2026, and another 15 drugs in 2027 and again in 2028. The number would rise to 20 drugs a year for 2029 and beyond.
It would also redesign Medicare's Part D drug plans so that seniors and people with disabilities wouldn't pay more than $2,000 a year for medication bought at the pharmacy. And, the deal would require drug companies to pay rebates if they increase their prices in the Medicare and private-insurance markets faster than inflation.
Altogether, the drug price provisions would reduce the deficit by $288 billion over a decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
The agreement also calls for extending the enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies for three years. The original deal would have continued the beefed-up subsidies for two years, which meant they would have expired just after the 2024 presidential election — a scenario that congressional Democrats did not want to encounter.
The subsidies were expanded through this year as part of Democrats' $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, known as the American Rescue Plan, which was enacted in March 2021. They have made health care coverage on the Obamacare exchanges more affordable, leading to record enrollment this year.
Enrollees pay no more than 8.5% of their income toward coverage, down from nearly 10%. And lower-income policyholders receive subsidies that eliminate their premiums completely. Also, those earning more than 400% of the federal poverty level have become eligible for help for the first time.
Extending the enhanced subsidies would cost $64 billion over a decade, according to the CBO.
Paying for the bill
To raise revenue, the bill would impose a 15% minimum tax on corporations, which would raise $313 billion over a decade. While details on the current deal remain scant, the House version of the Build Back Better package would have levied the tax on the corporate profits that large companies report to shareholders, not to the Internal Revenue Service. It would have applied to companies with more than $1 billion in profits and yielded a similar revenue-raising figure.
The current deal also aims to close the carried interest loophole, which allows investment managers to treat their compensation as capital gains and pay a 20% long-term capital gains tax rate instead of income tax rates of up to 37%. Eliminating this loophole, which would raise $14 billion over a decade, has been a longtime goal of congressional Democrats.
The package also calls for providing more funding to the IRS for tax enforcement, which would raise $124 billion.
Democrats say families making less than $400,000 per year would not be affected, in line with a pledge by Biden. Also, there would be no new taxes on small businesses.
Manchin said in a statement that the deal would ensure "that large corporations and the ultra-wealthy pay their fair share in taxes," though it doesn't contain the tax rate hikes on rich Americans and big companies that Democrats initially wanted to include in the budget reconciliation packages before they were shot down by Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.
Notably, Manchin also threw cold water on one of Schumer's priorities — addressing the $10,000 cap on state and local tax deductions, known as SALT, that was part of the GOP tax cut package in 2017 and affects many states in the Northeast and on the West Coast.
Many details of the current deal remain to be worked out, which could delay or scuttle it, said Howard Gleckman, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center.
In total, Democrats say the deal would reduce the deficit by more than $300 billion.
"Rather than risking more inflation with trillions in new spending, this bill will cut the inflation taxes Americans are paying, lower the cost of health insurance and prescription drugs, and ensure our country invests in the energy security and climate change solutions we need to remain a global superpower through innovation rather than elimination," Manchin said in his own statement Wednesday afternoon.
This story has been updated with additional development Wednesday.
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Op-Ed: Kristallnacht's lessons for today
Abraham H. Foxman
In the Paris suburb of Sarcelles, pro-Palestinian rioters broke shop windows and set fires on July 20, 2014. (Cnaan Liphshiz)
NEW YORK (JTA) — Each year on the anniversary of Kristallnacht, we recall the opening salvo of the violent assault on Jews that foreshadowed the Holocaust and ask ourselves what should have been done at that moment.
In thinking about Kristallnacht, we should also consider the outpouring of violence against Jewish communities in Europe this summer and draw the right lessons for today. It is rightly said that the Holocaust began not with gas chambers but with words. The significance of Kristallnacht in the history of the Holocaust is the passage from anti-Jewish legislation and anti-Semitic rhetoric to violence against Jews. And therein lies the lesson for today.
To be clear, in today's democratic Europe, there is no risk of a new Holocaust. Invoking such a possibility obscures rather than illuminates the serious situation of European Jewry. Comparisons to Kristallnacht, however, are apt.
This summer in France, Germany and elsewhere in Europe, we saw anti-Semitic rhetoric followed by assaults on Jews and attacks on synagogues, Jewish-owned shops and other Jewish institutions. The differences with Kristallnacht are stark and significant, but the similarities cannot be ignored. Not on this anniversary — not at a time of great insecurity among Jewish communities in Europe.
Two synagogues in Paris were attacked during anti-Israel demonstrations this summer. In one case, 200 Jews were trapped inside while a mob armed with bats tried to invade the synagogue. Roger Cukierman, the head of the French Jewish community, made the connection explicit: "We've never seen anything like that. It resembled Kristallnacht in 1938 in Germany."
And in Germany, where people chanted "Jews to the gas" at anti-Israel rallies and where Molotov cocktails were thrown at synagogues, Dieter Graumann, the president of the Central Council of Jews of Germany said, "These are the worst times since the Nazi era."
The British Jewish community's security agency, CST, said that July had the highest number of reported anti-Semitic incidents in any one month since it began keeping records three decades ago. The highly esteemed former Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, hardly an alarmist, wrote at Yom Kippur that the Jewish community suffers "a degree of apprehension I have not known in my lifetime. Anti-Semitism has returned to Europe within living memory of the Holocaust."
European Jews were terrorized by Kristallnacht, and among elements of society on the continent today they are being terrorized again by anti-Semitic hatred especially, but not only, linked to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The terror is not from one night but from an accumulation of incidents over the past years.
During the Israeli military's Operation Protective Edge this summer, and during Operation Cast Lead in 2009, ADL reported on anti-Semitic incidents and rhetoric around the world related to the Israel-Hamas wars. We saw incitement to violence, demonization of Jews and Israel, blood libels and other anti-Semitic vitriol. Too often these words led to assaults and vandalism.
Those attacks have caused vast numbers of European Jews to no longer feel free to live openly as Jews. The European Union's human rights agency surveyed eight major Jewish communities in Europe in 2012 and found widespread insecurity. One in five Jews had been the victim of an anti-Semitic insult, harassment or assault, and one in three worried about being physically attacked over the next 12 months. Two out of five Jews always or frequently avoided wearing a kippah or Star of David in public.
Anti-Semitism never left the continent, but its recent transformation from rhetoric to violence, including murders at a Jewish school in Toulouse and the Jewish museum in Brussels, has caused a sea change in the confidence of Jewish communities across Europe. Most European political leaders have condemned the anti-Semitic incidents in their countries, but the indifference among the public is shocking and dismaying.
If the hatred espoused and acted out by the anti-Semites and the apathy of European citizens overtake the efforts of the well-intentioned political leaders, European Jewish communities will have a dim future: communal self-segregation, individual withdrawal from Jewish communal life or emigration.
"Never again" stands. There will not be another Holocaust. But Kristallnacht is another story. Let us learn its lessons, not to avoid another Holocaust but to avoid a different disaster — the slow terrorization of Europe's Jews into permanent fear, faced with the awful choice of abandoning their identity or fleeing.
(Abraham H. Foxman is the national director of the Anti-Defamation League and a Holocaust survivor.)
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JTA or its parent company, 70 Faces Media.
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text:
Юзенів Михайло (19 грудня 1921, с. Рибники, нині Тернопільського району Тернопільської області — 10 травня 1994, США) — український громадський діяч.

З життєпису
Закінчив торговельну школу в місті Бережани.

Під час 2-ї світової війни переїхав до Німеччини, де студіював економіку в УВУ; діяльний у Пласті, співзасновник СУМ.

Еміґрував до США. У місті Нью-Йорк — зв'язковий і виховник у куренях ім. І. Мазепи, Є. Коновальця і кн. Святослава Завойовника.

Голова товариств «Самопоміч» та «Бережанська Земля», допомагав збирати матеріали для 2-го тому кн. «Бережанська Земля».

Нагороджений Срібним орденом святого Юрія.

Дружина - Олександра з дому Савина.

Література
 Б. Мельничук. Юзенів Михайло //

Пластуни
Українські громадські діячі
Уродженці Бережанського району
Випускники Бережанської торговельної школи
Випускники Українського вільного університету
Українці Німеччини
Українці США
Персоналії:Нью-Йорк

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Ancient Corinth was inhabited in the Neolithic period (6500-3250 BC). But the big prosperity begins in the 8th century, when it became a leader of the Greek world, spearheading the establishment of Greek colonies in the western Mediterranean, including Syracuse. The city remains strong as the Hellenistic period, until its destruction by the Roman general Lucius Mommios in 146 BC Sample korinithiakis leadership, especially in ancient times, is the Doric Temple of Apollo, built in 540 BC.
The town is populated again by Julius Caesar in 44 BC, is growing again and the 51-52 AD visited by the Apostle Paul. The center is organized south of the temple of Apollo and included shops, small temples, fountains, baths and other public buildings.
In 267 AD, the invasion of the Heruli, begins the decline of the city, although it survives despite repeated invasions and destructions, until it was liberated from the Turks in 1822.
Limited in scope and results of research done in the years 1892 and 1906 by A. Skia expense excavations of the area continued to nowadays, started in 1896 by the American School of Classical Studies.
The wealth of Corinth rested largely on control of trade in western Mediterranean. In the late 6th century Corinth sought to maintain this commercial hegemony by mediating conflicts arising between its neighbors, specifically Athens, Thebes and Sparta, and by contributing to the Pan Hellenistic efforts against Persian attempts to subdue Greece.
Corinth, or Korinth (Κόρινθος) is a Greek city, on the Isthmus of Corinth, the original isthmus, the narrow stretch of land that joins the Peloponnesus to the mainland of Greece. To the west of the isthmus lies the Gulf of Corinth.
Corinth is about 48 miles (78 km) west of Athens. The isthmus, which was in ancient times traversed by hauling ships over the rocky ridge on sledges, is now cut by a canal. It is also the capital of the prefecture of Corinthia. The city is surrounded by Lechaio, Kalamaki, Loutraki, Geraneia mountains, and the southern mountains.


Call of Duty: Ghosts Season Pass holders on PSN and PC will get access to the new "Ripper" DLC weapon tomorrow, April 5, developer Infinity Ward recently announced.
The weapon, available as a part of the Devastaion add-on's offerings, is a futuristic 2-in-1 hybrid weapon that fulfills the role of both a sub-machine gun and an assault rifle. It will be available early to all PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, and PC users with the Call of Duty: Ghosts Season Pass, before Devastation officially launches later this moth.
It was available earlier last month for Xbox One and Xbox 360 users. Devastation is now available to download on Xbox Live.


NZTS (now Alsco) uses huge industrial washers and dryers to provide laundry, linen and washroom services.
An energy audit by ESP led to immediate electricity savings of $40,000-$50,000 per year.
The combination of energy savings and improved power factor has reduced overall electricity demand, saving money on both energy consumption and the maximum demand charge.
These small changes had an immediate impact with reduced energy costs showing up in the very first month.


Add unique style and a homely flair with antique kitchen furniture and accessories from Olde Good Things. Our current collection includes pieces salvaged from the United States, England, France, Italy, Belgium and Czechoslovakia.
Olde Good Things' collection of vintage kitchen pieces includes well-known manufacturers such as the Coca Cola Bottling Co., Nu-Vu Manufacturing, Albert Pick & Co. of Bridgeport Inc., Ceramarte, Columbia, D. Eddy & Sons Co., Elmira Stove Works and King Seepley Thermos Co.
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Use our online search filter to find the antique kitchen equipment you need or contact us directly with your specific size and color requirements and we will check stock availability at our warehouses.


text:
The attack on justice
Policing under attack
Courts under attack
Legal aid under attack
Probation services under attack
Prisons under attack
About the campaign
Our alternative
What needs to change?
Resources and reading
Unaccountable providers, service chaos, workforce pushed to the limit: Probation after the 'reforms'
Posted on May 11, 2016 by Philip Hadley
A new report by the National Audit Office (NAO) has found that the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) does not know how well the companies responsible for running probation services are performing, due to "limitations around data quality and availability."
The findings follow controversial government reforms, in which 70 percent of probation services were privatised to new Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) in early 2015, after the service itself was split into two parts in 2014. The NAO's findings add weight to existing evidence, while independent research commissioned by trade union Napo has delved further to reveal the disastrous impact of the government's reforms on the probation workforce, including a reversal of on progress on gender equality.
The process of reform has met with serious criticism and concern by a range of organisations from the Public Accounts Committee (in two reports) to the MoJ itself. As Napo has made clear, the CRC contracts were awarded despite evidence of serious safety concerns, including that revealed by the MoJ's own testing processes. Prior to the privatisation, the service was split into 24 CRCs managing medium-low risk offenders and a new National Probation Service (NPS) managing high risk offenders, the latter remaining in the public sector. Reports appeared immediately following the reforms of a near total breakdown in communication between the two parts of the service, as well as a chaotic working environment, with IT systems failing, significant staff shortages and excessive workloads.
The new NAO report reveals that until data on reoffending are compiled in late 2017, data on performance of the new CRCs and the NPS are extremely limited, which presents a very real challenge to holding the new privatised CRCs to account. In May 2014 the Public Accounts Committee published two reports on the probation reforms, concluding the reforms carried significant risks. Back then, the PAC called for the MoJ to ensure accountability and transparency:
"The Ministry must ensure that the new contracts contain open-book accounting arrangements and allow the National Audit Office full access to contractual information, so that we can follow the taxpayers' pound and be assured that value for money is being served and contractors are not gaming the system as has happened in the past."
It appears that the committee's recommendations have not been followed, as the lack of data leaves the public without the ability to properly hold probation providers to account. The NAO report found that the National Offender Management Service (NOMS), part of MoJ, has no data for three of 24 of the CRCs, and insufficiently robust data in another two. Similarly, the MoJ has no data for five of the 25 NPS service levels and insufficiently robust data in another two.
'Payment by results': Private profit over public safety
The report also found that the CRC providers are incentivised to complete specified activities rather than to reduce reoffending per se, under the mistitled and much criticised 'payment by results' (PbR) model. This is a clear risk to public safety, as CRCs are encouraged to prioritise financial returns from particular activities over wider efforts to reduce reoffending. The government has pursued a similar model of outsourcing and privatisation in other areas of public services, for example in the much-criticised Work Programme of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). In a 2014 report on the Work Programme, the Public Accounts Committee illustrated the flaw in the PbR approach as follows:
"Evidence shows that differential payments have not stopped contractors from focusing on easier-to-help individuals and parking harder-to-help claimants, often those with a range of disabilities including mental health challenges."
Service split chaos, high workloads, ICT failures and staff cuts
As well as insufficient quantity and quality of data on performance, the NAO report revealed a series of other shortcomings in probation services, shortcomings which have been previously highlighted by the Public Accounts Committee as well as trade union Napo, whose members have been at the frontline of the reforms. The report found that the reforms have established new organisations with different incentives, creating "unsurprising frictions" between CRC and NPS staff. Further findings include staff reporting that high workloads have affected service quality, while ICT systems continue to create "severe inefficiencies."
Related to this point, the NAO report revealed that the CRCs have much lower than expected business volumes, which, if translated into income, "would affect the ability of the CRCs to transform their businesses." These income shortfalls, the NAO makes clear, would affect the CRC's capacity to "bring in new ways of rehabilitating offenders, introduce new ICT systems, implement estates strategies and reform corporate support services." In Napo's press release, they illustrate the scale of the problem, by noting that lower levels of business has resulted in "significant job losses across a large number of CRCs", with approximately 1,500 jobs lost or 'at risk' in CRCs owned by five of the providers. These are Sodexo, Working Links, RRP, Durham Tees Valley and Purple Futures.
In his November 2015 report, the independent HMI Inspector of Probation, Paul Wilson OBE, found that the communication issues between the NPS and CRCs had resulted in "too many cases without a sufficient Risk of Serious Harm screening", while within the CRCs themselves, the 'likelihood of reoffending assessments' carried out under the Offender Assessment System were sufficient in "just over half of cases." The NAO report concludes that ultimately, the success of the Transforming Rehabilitation reforms will "depend on the extent to which they create the conditions and incentives to reduce reoffending." Further, that to achieve value for money, the MoJ will need to resolve the "fundamental issues" the NAO have found in their report.
Napo research on Transforming Rehabilitation
The NAO report points to the fact that CRCs are reducing their workforce in advance of transformation, and that they met staff handling "significantly higher caseloads" than average, a workload which the staff considered prevented them from providing an adequate service. It is welcome that the NAO has acknowledged the significant burden the government's reforms have placed on probation staff, but the report could have gone further. The voices of staff at the frontline of the government's reforms are hugely important, yet the government has so far neglected to involve or consult with them.
Napo has recently commissioned independent research carried out by Professor Gill Kirton and Dr Cécile Guillaume from Queen Mary University, London, which explores the experiences and concerns of probation staff. The research focuses on employment relations and working conditions in probation services after the government's Transforming Rehabilitation reforms, with a special focus on gender and trade union effects. The primary research took place between January and July 2015, including both quantitative (a Napo membership survey), as well as qualitative (Napo interviews, focus groups and observation of union events) methods.
One of the key findings of Napo's research is compelling evidence that working conditions and employee experiences have deteriorated following Transforming Rehabilitation (TR) and the splitting of the service. The report cites a number of immediate, medium term and longer term staff concerns:
Immediate concerns: Heavy workloads, long hours working and stress
medium term concerns: Blurring of role boundaries, redundancies, workplace closures and relocation, changes to flexible work arrangements, changes to job descriptions and health and safety.
Longer term concerns: Career paths and development opportunities, pay erosion, deskilling, deprofessionalisation and "lack of job satisfaction.
The report summarises the experience of TR from the perspective of probation staff:
"The split was often described using highly emotive metaphors – 'a train crash', 'a messy divorce' – that conveyed the strength of feeling in opposition to TR. Similarly, referring to the aftermath of TR people frequently talked about 'grieving', 'mourning' and feeling 'loss'."
Fundamentally, the report finds that TR has "disrupted a well-functioning public service." One of the most prominent themes in the research was that the reforms have been "done to" probation staff, without proper consultation with those most affected and without practitioners' collaboration. The report finds that, "as with other restructuring / outsourcing programmes, the unions were marginalised throughout the process leading up the implementation of TR."
Gender effects: Erosion of progress on gender equality
Building on existing evidence which shows how privatisation and outsourcing contributes to a deterioration in employment conditions, especially for feminised professions (such as probation, where 70 per cent of staff are women), the research forecasts that the gender pay gap will likely increase in outsourced probation work, based on a finding that "TR has already caused an erosion of the overall progress on gender equality."
The public sector is a significant employer of women and has longstanding gender equality policies including, for example, additional maternity leave and greater availability of employee (rather than employer) oriented flexible work arrangements (than the private sector). Taking this into account, the authors argue that "privatisation and outsourcing are likely to have a particularly harmful effect on women's jobs and opportunities and on overall gender equality in the labour market."
While some CRCs are honouring local agreements on working conditions, others are withdrawing them. The steady or in some cases rapid erosion of such policies was illustrated quite succinctly by one probation staff member of a CRC:
"You have flexible time. So maybe you work earlier in the day rather than later and you move your hours around to accommodate your … Or you take unpaid leave. So if you've got young children you say, half term, I can't find cover, I want unpaid leave for … All of this is now being refused. (Branch officer talking about a CRC)."
Workplace effects: Staff shortages, work overload, stress and anxiety
The survey of staff revealed worsening conditions across a number of measures. Staff shortages were reported as particularly acute in the NPS, while many CRCs lack probation officers (POs) to oversee probation support officers (PSOs) work. Work-related stress and long hours in the context of unrealistic targets were also a major feature of the survey responses:
Thirty per cent of men and 33 per cent of women surveyed noted they have bigger caseloads.
Fifty-one per cent of men and 50 per cent of women reported working towards unrealistic targets.
Thirty-eight per cent of men and 35 per cent of women regularly suffer from work-related stress.
Fifty-five per cent of men and 52 per cent of women reported having insufficient staff at their workplace.
One probation staff member in the NPS illustrated the intensity of casework overload as follows:
"I mean literally my workload has virtually doubled as a result of TR. But not only doubled, it's jumped in intensity because you don't have those minor offences, you don't have the six month orders, the twelve month orders. The large majority of my cases at the moment won't terminate until 2018, 2019. I've got offenders that I will be supervising until 2027.
Now they're telling me your caseloads are going to get better and only literally over the last two weeks have I seen any kind of respite. But no one seems to be able to tell me what's going to happen to all the cases that are going to need to be allocated between now and 2027 because my caseload isn't going anywhere. There isn't the natural tail-off anymore because we're getting such beefy sentences because we're dealing with the higher risk."
As mentioned, many staff have huge concerns about their future careers in probation, with the survey revealing the following:
Seventy-seven per cent of women and 74 per cent of men feel less secure.
Fifty-four per cent of women and 56 per cent of men feel they have fewer career prospects.
Sixty-eight per cent of women and 74 per cent of men are worried their pay will worsen.
Forty-nine per cent of women and 45 per cent of men are afraid of losing their job.
Fifty-three per cent of women and 50 per cent of men are worried about workplace closures and relocation.
When the report moves on to consider the future intentions of probation staff, the tragedy of the government's reforms appears all to starkly. The survey reports that 40 per cent of CRC workers and 24 per cent of NPS workers would take voluntary redundancy if it were offered, and nearly 30 per cent of CRC workers and 24 per cent of NPS workers are already looking for a job outside of probation. Thirty-three per cent of NPS workers and 20 per cent of CRC workers intend to stay in probation. Here, the different experiences of CRC and NPS staff show that while the reforms have had hugely negative effects in both parts of the probation service, including that stemming from the decision to split the service into two, CRC staff are much more pessimistic about their future and report more negative experiences.
Many staff described de-skilling and 'deprofessionalism' since the service split and the TR reforms:
"The big thing for the people left behind [in the CRCs] is the deskilling. One of my colleagues had been a probation officer forever, she's not allowed to go to a normal hearing anymore without having someone from the NPS accompanying her and when they rang up they said it could be anybody, it didn't really matter, it just had to be somebody from the NPS to tag along. (Branch officer)."
Workplace culture: Low morale and lack of inclusion
Workplace culture was also something referred to by participants in the research, with 'recurrent themes' including "lack of inclusion, staff feeling unvalued, uncertainty, lack of consultation and low morale". All of these were sources of stress and anxiety in both the NPS and CRCs.
A key area of staff experience and concerns regarding workplace culture was the chaos caused by the division of work between the two new areas of probation. These concerns included not being able to access offender records, having no lines of communication between the CRC and NPS about particular cases, clients kept waiting for unreasonable amounts of time, and more, as the following probation worker made clear:
"People felt sort of processed and undervalued and there's this split so colleagues that you worked with very closely are suddenly in this other organisation and there are tales that if you go up on the fourth floor where the NPS are, they're supposed to turn their screens off if you go up to talk to them. You know, we've always shared information."
The NAO report points to an extremely worrying situation in which the government and the public are unable to understand how well probation services are performing, and hence less able to hold them to account. Napo's research however reveals the experience of staff at the frontline of the government's TR reforms, showing the extremely negative impact of outsourcing and privatisation on progress on gender equality, working conditions, workplace culture and a whole range of workplace and service quality issues. Both the NAO report and the independent research commissioned by Napo also reveal the very significant problems stemming from the split in the probation services.
While the government's reforms are destroying a public service and a profession, with mounting evidence of serious and negative impacts on services provided, it is important to restate that there was no evidence for the reforms in the first place. Despite this, as well as clear evidence at the time of implementation of serious safety concerns, the government pressed ahead. We also find that the CRC's have less work than anticipated, which has fueled attempts by some CRCs to cut staff as well as terms and conditions. The tragedy continues, as CRCs are incentivised to focus on seeking payment for particular activities rather than to actually reduce reoffending.
The research by Gill Kirton and Cécile Guillaume found that the reforms have proved "particularly demoralising" for staff precisely because they are "professional workers trained to and committed to working in the interests of clients and the general public." Though the unions have been marginalised in the reform process, the research points to organised resistance by Napo's members and a dedicated network of activists in the context of widespread discontent among probation workers. As Kirton and Guillaume conclude:
"The study provides evidence that an independent collective voice for probation practitioners is needed more now than perhaps ever before."
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Posted in News, Probation
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Napo Press release: Probation union gives qualified welcome to prison reform plans
Napo press release: National Audit Office – Transforming Rehabilitation
Justice is under attack
The government is fragmenting the justice system, privatising policing, probation and prison services, closing courts, slashing the legal aid budget and making drastic cuts to funding. This will undermine the system, reduce access to justice and put public safety at risk.
View our animated presentation - The Attack on Justice: Voices from the front line.
© 2019 Speak Up For Justice


I see many amateurs struggle with not hitting enough club on their approach shots. This in turn will leave them the most dreaded shot in golf "the in between shot" which is not a full swing and not a simple chip shot close to the green.
A big shot saver you might try the next time you are on the golf course is to try and hit more club on your approach shots. For example, if I was going to hit an 8 iron from 160 yards I would hit the 7 iron instead, a longer and stronger lofted club. This will increase your chance of getting the ball pin high or hole high. If you accomplish this task you just made the next shot 100% easier.
You might keep track how many times during the round you get the ball past pin high to see how good you decision making skills are coming with club selection. Another shot saver would be to make sure you use a club you know you can hit solid and get in the air when know you can't get to the green.
I see so many players try and try to hit low lofted clubs like 3 woods, 5 woods, or 3 irons from the ground with no success. These clubs are very difficult to hit solid and get up in the air even for the low handicap players, due to the low loft on the club.
Don't feel bad if you are struggling with these clubs. Join the club because 95% of all players are struggling along side of you. The next time you are on the golf course try a higher lofted club like a 7 wood or hybrid. If this doesn't seem to do the trick try more loft until you find success. Just remember a solid wedge will always go further than a whiffed or chunked 3 wood.
Play for success not failure.