There is growing concern that Labour party in-fighting may benefit the far right British National Party in forthcoming elections. So a media wrangler should surely have checked out the posters on display at a school the PM visited today…
The FT has an interesting story today about an investigation into Mafia involvement in multi-million-euro wind farm deals in Sicily.
Italian and EU subsidies for the building of wind farms and the world’s highest guaranteed rates, €180 ($240, £160) per kwh, for the electricity they produce have turned southern Italy into a highly attractive market exploited by organised crime.
‘Turned’? Shurely it always was…
A criminal investigation called “Operation Wind” revealed Mafia promises to local officials in Mazara del Vallo of money and votes in exchange for help in approving wind farm projects.
The Mafia suspects were alleged to be linked to Matteo Messina “Diabolik” Denaro, a fugitive clan boss on ltaly’s most wanted list.
Prosecutors suspect the hand of the Mafia in fixing permits and building wind farms that are then sold on to Italian and eventually foreign companies.
Several wind farms built by companies suspected of being linked to the Mafia have not functioned for one or two years, in some cases because of shoddy construction. “This is the amazing thing, that developers got public money to build wind farms which did not produce electricity,” the prosecutor said.
This is not the first massive scam in the renewable sector, nor will it be the last. Governments are about to throw hundreds of billions of dollars at this sector, oversight will be low, and the opportunities for rip-offs will be huge.
New York magazine has been asking celebrities how they are warding off swine flu. To select a couple of responses at random (or, more accurately, quote the only two interviewees I’ve heard of):
Helena Christensen
“I’ve been coughing in my arm, and washing my hands a lot. But I haven’t stopped kissing certain people. It’s worth it.”
Salman Rushdie
“As long as there’s no Mexicans here, I think we’re all right.”
Nice one, Salman. Really got the tone right there.
Condoleezza Rice faced another barrage of unmerciful student probing yesterday … at the Jewish Primary Day School of the Nation’s Capital. During a question-and-answer session at the school, fourth-grader Misha Lerner asked Rice her opinion of what the Obama administration was saying about the Bush administration’s interrogation methods. Teachers had Lerner remove the word “torture” from the original version of the question.
Once upon a time Dad could only buy junior the Playmobil Security Check Point (btw – read loosnut’s review) but now the creative Legofesto has gone one step further (perhaps too far?) and recreated a series of torture scenes (including waterboarding below) out of lego.
According to Wired
Flickr user Legofesto (who prefers to remain anonymous) was fed up with news outlets refusing to publish images depicting torture due to their graphic nature. So she recreated the images and first-hand accounts using Lego to protest what she saw as irresponsible censorship. The use of children’s toys is at once sanitizing and horrifying and many of the images have received thousands of views.