Infoman

Member since 2017-07-15T03:50:57Z. Last seen 2025-01-02T20:05:01Z.

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  Infoman

  Strapped Ranches Tap Into Tourism 沒落牧埸轉型旅遊業

  JIM CARL­TON

  The Wall Street Journal 15/9/2023

  In Mon­tana and other states, own­ers oblige city folks’ in­ter­est in West­ern way of life

  GALLATIN GATEWAY, Mont.—Fifth-generation rancher Bayard Black has a lot of city folks looking to pay top dollar to rent his spread in the mountains near Yellowstone National Park. He can thank John Dutton in part for that.

  The runaway popularity of the “Yellowstone” TV series, starring Kevin Costner as rancher patriarch Dutton, has helped spur interest among tourists to spend time on real ranches. Black is charging visitors for everything from traipsing his property in search of elk antlers to bird watching and fishing.

  His motivation is the same as for many other ranchers: getting extra income to help offset rising costs, including a 61% jump in property taxes since 2021 spurred by the hot real-estate market in nearby Bozeman.

  “We’re just trying to figure out how to keep the ranch in the family,” Black said.

  Ranchers have for years occasionally allowed outsiders to hunt or fish for a fee, but they have begun adding more activities as the demand to spend time on their property has grown, which people in the industry attribute to “Yellowstone,” as well as increased interest in the outdoors following the pandemic.

  A startup called LandTrust has increased its number of rental listings, most of which are ranches, from 140 covering 300,000 acres in 2020 to 427 on 1.2 million acres currently. Many are in Montana, where “Yellowstone” takes place.

  Chief Executive Nic De Castro said his Bozeman, Mont., firm, which has raised $10 million of funding, has recently added offerings including overnight stays in RVs.

  In all, landowners have earned $1 million from LandTrust rentals, according to the company.

  Western ranchers have been caught in a squeeze they say was brought on, in part, by the prolonged drought in the U.S. West in recent years.

  That has pressured them to reduce their herds at the same time prices have gone up for essentials. Hay, for example, has more than tripled in price over the past five years as increased wildfires and other factors have made it harder for ranchers to grow their own.

  “When there’s no hay, it’s expensive to feed animals in the winter,” said Sigrid Johannes, director of the Public Lands Council, a nonprofit ranching group.

  Explore Ranches, based in Austin, Texas, started in 2018 with a roster of seven ranches in Texas and Colorado willing to rent out to large groups, and has since expanded to 20 in six Western states, said co-founder Allison Ryan. The firm specializes in upscale ranch stays.

  “Everyone wants their ‘Yellowstone’ moment,” Ryan said.

  The new breed of visitors is often looking for an authentic ranch experience rather than a simplistic simulation or an opportunity to fish and hunt.

  That’s what Jett Ferebee and his sons, Joseph and John, did in August when they paid $4,485 to spend five nights on the Mahlstedt Ranch in the rugged badlands of Eastern Montana and got to help herd cattle.

  “We didn’t want a dude ranch with trail rides,” said John, a 25-year-old law-school student.

  Tana Canen, who helps oversee her family’s ranch, said she and her husband Ross decided to list the property with LandTrust last year after a series of droughts beginning in 2017 crippled their crops, including barley, and forced them to deplete some $200,000 in savings to feed their animals.

  “When your crops fail and you have to buy feed, you have to look at other options,” said the 53-year-old, whose family first homesteaded the land in 1912.

  Since then, she said the ranch has hosted dozens of visitors, providing enough extra income to help make payments on a 4,000-acre addition to the property in 2022.

  At the Black family ranch, one recent customer was Bozeman resident Marciela Ross, who paid $287 for all-day family access as a Father’s Day gift for her husband, Michael. He spent the day fishing with his family members, while his wife hiked with their two young children and chased butterflies. Bayard Black, as he often does, left them on their own for the day.

  “There’s something special,” said the 47-year-old Ross, “just knowing you are the only people in this place right now.”

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  2023/09/15
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  Infoman

  NEXT SHOES ~ 3D printing

  Wall Street Journal 15/9/2023

  From an early age, Salehe Bembury could see the sneakers of the future. In childhood sketchbooks he morphed the shapes of dinosaurs and praying mantises into intricate, tubular shoes, with strap closures and cupped soles. They were like nothing the market had seen before.

  Today, Bembury, 36, continues to give the footwear buyers something novel with each box-breaking shoe he rolls out. In a market worth at least $70 billion and as much as $130 billion, the native New Yorker is something of a sneaker oracle—the designer responsible for some of the most inventive, forward-thinking products of the past several years.

  He worked at Kanye West’s Yeezy on shapely military boots that looked beamed in from a yet-to-be-made “Blade Runner” sequel. At Versace, he brought to life the gold-necklace-inspired Chain Reaction sneaker with its colossal chain-imprinted outsole, helping to usher in the trend of chunky dad sneakers.

  Under his own name, he collaborated with New Balance on a sly update of its 574 model, giving it a functional whistle on the back. He’s responsible for Crocs’s wildly successful Pollex, a closed-heel clog that drew its spindly, textured design from Bembury’s own fingerprint.

  So where does Bembury, the pragmatic sneaker-savant, think the footwear world will navigate next?

  Personalization was his immediate answer. “The future of shoes might fall into the hands of the individual,” said Bembury.

  He cited Nike ID, the pioneering* do-it-yourself program that launched in 1999, allowing shoppers to select each shade of a Dunk sneaker and stitch their initials on the back heel, as a possible template. Beyond choosing colors, the next frontier could place the power of choosing the actual sole’s composition, upper materials and the shape of lace loops in the consumers hands. Imagine a Build-A-Bear-Workshop in sneaker form. You want a lavender mesh sneaker sitting on an outsole the size of a Subway sub? You got it.

  3-D printing might well hold the key to maximum personalization. Bembury acknowledged that thus far the technology is too creaky— printing a single design takes an inordinately long time, even longer, in his estimation, than sampling a new shoe model by hand. But he is optimistic it will catch up and get brisker.

  “There will be a time where maybe your consumer can print a shoe in his own home,” said Bembury, who currently 3-D prints experimental shapes and ideas for presentations with potential collaborators. “At the end of the day, people want to feel like they are an individual, and brands need to give them the tools to do that.”

  As for that marquee technology of the moment, artificial intelligence, Bembury has just begun sprinkling it into his process. “It really comes down to the amount of time it takes me to come up with ideas compared with the amount of time it takes AI to come up with ideas,” he said.

  Bembury projects that soon, AI will be able to train itself on his design language and spit out hundreds of options of color schemes that channel his sensibility. “That would probably save me a week of playing around with color,” he said.

  Bembury often looks at each component of a shoe individually, to spot where he can stretch the form. Take the attached whistle detail on his New Balance 574 Yurt. The idea sparked when he was wearing the Nike Vomero 5, designed by A Cold Wall designer Samuel Ross, which featured a blocky, functionless cube jutting out from the heel.

  “People would always ask like,

  ‘Hey, what’s that do? Does it light up?’ And I would tell them no,” said Bembury.

  But then he thought, well, why shouldn’t it do something? An avid hiker, Bembury figured he could add a molded plastic whistle to the back of a shoe. “It could potentially be a lifesaving tool,” he said. At the time he was working on a design for New Balance and decided to give it a go. Bembury has been tagged in Instagram videos of people blowing the whistle on their hiking trails—a new form of flexing that you own a rare piece of footwear.

  Bembury, who sketches by hand and uses the Adobe design suite to execute his ideas, brings a healthy heap of realism to his designs. “What’s important at the end of the day, is a shoe has to work,” he said.

  His designs come to life in a plantstuffed Los Angeles studio brimming with curios that reflect his achievements and influences. There’s a chair by artist Tom Sachs, a figurine of Louis Vuitton designer Pharrell Williams and cartoony collectibles by Japanese artist Takashi Murakami. There are also shoes of his own design, displayed like proud trophies.

  Bembury studied industrial design at Syracuse University, conscious that a career in sneakers specifically might not pan out. His early jobs were at high-volume labels like Payless and Cole Haan. He continues to have an “extreme focus on satisfying a customer because it all really comes down to sales.”

  In recent years, the sneaker industry has been awash with what appear to be paradigm-shifting, futuristic innovations. Nike and Puma have brought the automatic self-lacing sneaker, once a mere “Back to the Future” fantasy, to life. And earlier this year, Dior 3-D printed an intricate, spider-webby iteration of classic derby dress shoe.

  But those are mostly marketing exercises. According to Dior, just one of those shoes took 12 hours to print. And good luck finding self-lacing shoes at your local Nordstrom. Nike only releases its “HyperAdapt” motorized-lacing sneakers in small batches, and those models have packed a staggering $720 price tag.

  “You could probably have some sneakers that make you hover over water, but you’re probably paying like $400,000 for them,” said Bembury. “A sign of a good designer is the ability to exercise restraint.”

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  2023/09/15
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  Infoman

  Health worsens for 40% in NHS queues

  Shaun Wooller Health Ed­i­tor

  Daily Mail 13/9/2023

  MORE than 40 per cent of patients admitted to hospital for planned treatment say their health deteriorated while on the NHS waiting list, a major survey reveals.

  Some 24 per cent of those questioned said their health got a ‘bit worse’ while waiting, and 17 per cent said it became ‘much worse’.

  Many also complained that they were unable to access the food and medication they needed while in hospital due to staff shortages. The Care Quality Commission’s annual inpatient survey looked at the overall experience of more than 63,000 people who stayed in one of 133 acute and specialist NHS trusts in England for at least one night during last November.

  The damning findings, which come as waiting lists stand at a record 7.6million patients, show 39 per cent of respondents would have liked to have been admitted sooner – up from 35 per cent the previous year. A total of 34 per cent of all those admitted for planned or emergency treatment said they had to wait too long for a bed once they arrived at hospital.

  Among these, those that said they had to wait ‘far too long’ increased from 8 per cent in 2020 and 15 per cent in 2021 to 18 per cent last year.

  Only 70 per cent of patients reported always getting help to wash or keep themselves clean (unchanged from 2021, but down from 75 per cent in 2020), and just 75 per cent said they were always offered food that met their dietary needs or requirements.

  A quarter said they could never get hospital food outside of set mealtimes and 17 per cent said they did not get enough help from staff to eat. One in 20 patients also said they were not given enough to drink.

  Despite the criticisms, the CQC found most patients were still positive about their experiences.

  Most (81 per cent) said they always had confidence and trust in the doctors treating them, while 82 per cent said they were always treated with dignity and respect – both unchanged from 2021.

  When asked to rate their overall inpatient experience, the proportion of people who gave a score of nine or higher out of 10 fell to 50 per cent last year, down from 56 per cent in 2020. Labour health spokesman Wes Streeting said: ‘ Patients are being left for months or even years, and their conditions are worsening as a result. This is bad for their health, and it increases the overall bill for their care to the taxpayer.’

  Dr Sean O’Kelly, chief inspector of healthcare at the CQC, said the survey was ‘testament to the efforts of frontline healthcare professionals working tirelessly to provide high quality care to those that need it’.

  ‘However, the lack of improvements in areas such as discharge arrangements and in people feeling like they were given enough information is disappointing and highlights the need for us to do more.’

  An NHS England spokesman said: ‘While the vast majority of patients responding to this survey reported a positive overall experience and a high level of trust in doctors and nurses, the results also reflect the

  ongoing pressures the NHS is under. During November 2022, when respondents were surveyed, the NHS was treating an average of 5,000 covid-positive patients in hospital a day and more than 13,500 beds were occupied by patients medically fit to leave each day. Staff treated more than 1.5million patients last month and the longest waits are now down more than half since their peak.’

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  2023/09/13
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  Infoman

  Labour bows down to the union militants

  Daily Mail 13/9/2023

  WE know from experience that when Labour politicians start talking about a ‘New Deal’ it’s time to count the spoons.

  With Tony Blair, it presaged a £5.6billiona-year tax raid on final- salary pensions from which the industry never recovered.

  The result has been that virtually the only defined-benefit pension schemes left are those in the public sector, which are directly funded by the taxpayer.

  Angela Rayner’s New Deal, outlined at the TUC annual congress yesterday, is not such a direct assault on private savings, but could ultimately prove just as costly.

  To cheers from the comrades, the party’s deputy leader promised that a Labour government would bring forward an employment rights bill in its first 100 days.

  More power to unions, more collective bargaining, an end to zero-hours contracts. Plus, inevitably, the scrapping of laws requiring minimum levels of service to be maintained during strikes in key industries such as the railways.

  Perish the thought that unions should have to show any sense of responsibility to those who pay their wages.

  Striking, said Ms Rayner, is ‘a fundamental freedom that should be respected’. She might try telling that to passengers who have given up travelling by train because of constant walkouts.

  Or the hundreds of thousands of patients left in pain and discomfort as their operations were cancelled because of strike action first by nurses and then by doctors. What price their fundamental freedoms? We learned in the 1970s what happens when the combination of a socialist government and over-mighty unions take control of British industry.

  Productivity crashes, profit becomes a dirty word, growth and eventually business viability are crushed.

  By 1979, Britain was universally regarded as the sick man of Europe. It took the courage of Margaret Thatcher to stand up to the union militants and administer the necessary economic medicine.

  Significantly, New Labour did not repeal any of the union laws that she brought in when the party came to power – including the legislation that outlawed secondary picketing.

  But this is not New Labour. Despite Sir Keir Starmer’s attempts to shift to the centre ground, it remains the party of Jeremy Corbyn, for whom Miss Rayner was one of the main cheerleaders.

  This New Deal for workers is straight out of his hard-Left playbook.

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  2023/09/13
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  Infoman

  Ignore the naysayers who insist we’re too weak to stand up to China. We need the courage to get tough, just like Australia hasby Bob Seely MP ■ BOB SEELY is MP for the Isle of Wight. He sits on the For­eign Af­fairs Com­mit­tee and is an ex­pert in hy­brid war­fare.

  Daily Mail 13/9/2023

  THE 21st century will see a fierce struggle between two visions for humanity. One embraces openness and democracy, the other authoritarianism and oppression.

  Unless we want to live in a society where rulers are above the law and flagrantly exploit AI and big data to oppress their own populations, this is a battle we cannot lose.

  This is why Chinese spying is serious. It is part of a much larger threat to our way of life. We know, from Chinese Communist Party (CCP) documents, that they wish to challenge and dominate Western democracy, rather than live in harmony with it.

  And so the news that a parliamentary researcher, working within the Palace of Westminster, has been arrested on suspicion of spying for Beijing, has left me and my fellow MPs shocked and appalled.

  Threat

  The Westminster Parliament is a symbol of our profoundly stable democracy. If the operative of a hostile state can access our distinguished chambers armed with nefarious intentions, that is a threat to our democracy.

  Although the suspect’s name is widely available online, the Speaker of the House, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, has advised MPs not to name them. As frustrating as this is, there are good reasons for this informal embargo, and it is one that I — like this newspaper — am happy to accept out of respect for the Speaker. Furthermore, the individual has not been charged, and has issued a strong statement protesting their innocence.

  Lessons must be learned from this scandal, and that means for MPs, too. So, now that we hear this warning shot loud and clear, how do we protect ourselves and our institutions for the battle ahead?

  There are several China ‘interest groups’ in Parliament: the China Research Group, which I believe has seven members in the UK, and there is also the international Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), which I understand has 600 MPs across 32 counties.

  In the past, Chinese and Soviet regimes have attempted to infiltrate organisations such as these in order to gain influence within political systems. They use them as fronts to discredit anyone holding them to account. Firstly, we must ensure that any attempts to exploit parliamentary groups is impossible.

  Equally, MPs need to be mindful that we may be targeted ourselves. Nefarious agents typically seek to find vulnerabilities in MPs: Selfimportance, ego and ambition can all be exploited so that MPs and other public servants, wittingly or unwittingly, become, in Lenin’s phrase, ‘useful idiots’. I sometimes receive emails that come from suspect sources, and which aim to develop relationships for what iniquitous purpose I don’t know.

  Our Deputy Prime Minister, Oliver Dowden, was right to imply this week that much has changed since the early 2010s when David Cameron famously took President Xi Jinping for a pint in his local boozer.

  Thankfully, we are getting tougher — Rishi is getting it right, but there is more to do.

  We need to understand the threats that face us and resolutely counter them.

  For example, China’s Confucius Institutes in the UK are widely thought to be used to spy on their students studying here. The centres are funded by the Chinese government, and supposedly promote its language and culture abroad. However, they are alleged to be Trojan Horses for spreading propaganda and censoring Chinese nationals. That is unacceptable.

  Nor must these centres be allowed to intimidate brave Hong Kong activists who have sought sanctuary in our country. If these institutes can’t obey our rules, we should shut them down, like Sweden has.

  Our universities must also be wise to Chinese students who come here to steal our ground-breaking research in science and technology.

  Sadly, some seem utterly blasé about this threat, perhaps so blinded by their dislike of the Government, too consumed by political correctness and wokery, that they see a moral equivalence between imperfect dem- ocracy and authoritarianism.

  However, by far the greatest danger we face is our economic dependence on China.

  Every year, that dependency increases, and yet we seem unwilling to understand its significance, nor take measures to stop it. I have repeatedly asked the Government to make an annual ‘statement of trade dependency’ in order to enhance transparency. We still don’t have one.

  The Government also needs to work with business to diversify supply chains, rather than having so much one- way traffic from Chinese ports. For example, we must do more to ensure that Chinese slavelabour products do not enter our marketplace.

  Half the global supply of polysilicon — used in solar panels — comes from Xinjiang, where the ethnic Uyghur Muslims are widely imprisoned in indoctrination camps and forced into slave labour.

  Warnings

  Further alleged atrocities against the Uyghur people include forced sterilisation and even murder. Many consider the actions of the CCP in Xinjiang to be genocide.

  We also need to get real about exporting our own industry to China. We currently virtue- signal about lower domestic carbon emissions, all while exporting our manufacturing to China, which is building two coalfired power stations a week to fulfil demand.

  Coal-fire stations are the number one man-made driver of global warming. So the outcome of this naïve policy is that we enrich a regime which seeks to intimidate its opponents, while making the world a dirtier place and hastening climate change. This is simply doolally policymaking which might as well have been written by our adversaries.

  If we fail to heed these warnings, how bad could it get?

  A worst- case scenario will see us increasingly dependent on China just as President Xi orders the military invasion of Taiwan — he wants to be ready to take it back by 2027.

  The U.S. being directly or indirectly engaged, we and other democracies will be asked to close our economies to Chinese imports. Would we refuse because the cost would collapse the global economy? If we did, the Western alliance will break, shattering the peace most of us have enjoyed since World War II.

  Britain’s naysayers say we are too weak to oppose China and must simply allow the Communist Party to steal our intellectual property, collapse Western industries, build artificial islands in the South China Sea that threaten their neighbours, and ramp up espionage operations here.

  What utter nonsense. Australia’s GDP is less than ours, their global influence weaker, and yet they are much tougher in their dealings with Beijing. They have, to put it bluntly, the political balls our Foreign Office lacks.

  Backbone

  Indeed, the Huawei rebellion to stop China-dominated 5Gtech in the UK in 2020, led by myself and other wise colleagues, was not modelled on the U.S., but Australia.

  Don’t get me wrong, I do not believe in shutting off our nation against international competitors or adversaries — the more one disagrees, the more vital it is to talk and find common ground. However, having a backbone is a prerequisite when dealing with a Communist regime.

  Under President Xi, China seeks to dominate free nations. I hope that in the future he will be replaced by a leader who understands that the greatness of the Chinese nation rests on its ability to promote harmony, not drive an imperial, authoritarian project.

  In the meantime, let’s be proud of who we are, stop talking ourselves down, and work with our allies to robustly defend our interests. It is also time for all MPs to work together to ensure we keep our Parliament safe by being the best we can.

  In doing so, we’ll be strengthening our democracy, too.

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  2023/09/13
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  Infoman

  It’s got to stop! Now Primark chief urges action on shoplifting

  Emily Hawkins and Rory Tin­gle

  Daily Mail 13/9/2023

  THE boss of Primark yesterday called for police, prosecutors and magistrates to take the shoplifting crisis ‘more seriously’.

  George Weston became the latest retail chief to speak out after John Lewis chairman Dame Sharon White warned that shoplifting has become an ‘epidemic’.

  Mr Weston said Primark had experienced rising cases of both thefts and attacks on its employees.

  He said: ‘We are having more of our clothes stolen than ever before, this is increasing. There has been an increase in anti-social behaviour, including assaults on shop staff.’

  The high street fast-fashion chain is among the stores to be issuing more body cameras to staff as well as boosting CCTV in stores.

  But Mr Weston, chief executive of Primark’s owner, Associated British Foods, said law enforcement agencies needed to take tougher action too. He said: ‘We need the Crown Prosecution Service to take theft and assault more seriously.

  ‘We will play our part but we need authorities to as well.’ Retail bosses have called for English laws to match Scottish legislation that makes the abuse of a retail worker a specific offence.

  Dame Sharon said earlier this week: ‘High streets have long represented the spirit – the centre – of local communities. Yet they risk becoming a looting ground for emboldened shoplifters and organised gangs.’

  Speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme yesterday, she lamented that some areas were now ‘shells of their former selves’ due to violence.

  Meanwhile, some shoplifters are even sharing tips on social media on which stores to steal from.

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  2023/09/13
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  Infoman

  Reliance on Chinese tuition fees ~ “cross your fingers” strategy

  Con­nor Stringer

  Daily Mail 13/9/2023

  EFFORTS to reduce UK universities’ dependence on China have come to a halt or gone backwards, a report warned yesterday.

  With international diversity among students falling, many universities have been left ‘reliant on a very small number of markets’. The report, led by former universities minister Lord [Jo] Johnson, said the challenges of ‘de-risking’ higher education with China were considerable.

  Lord Johnson, a visiting professor at the Policy Institute at King’s College London, said: ‘The sector continues to follow a “cross your fingers” strategy that decoupling is... never necessary for China, in the same ways it was for relations with Russia in February 2022.’ He said the Government ‘must urgently help’ universities manage ‘risks to national security from bad-faith actors and the dangers of over-reliance on a single country’.

  The proportion of full-time Chinese doctoral entrants – the largest group of international scholars at English universities – has risen from 17 per cent in 2017/18 to 28 per cent in 2021/22.

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  2023/09/13
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  Infoman

  Did China spy help Tory MP get job on top committee?

  Har­riet Line Deputy Po­lit­i­cal Ed­i­tor

  Daily Mail 13/9/2023

  A SENIOR Tory MP became chairman of the foreign affairs committee with help from an alleged Chinese spy, it was claimed last night.

  Sources said the parliamentary researcher, who is in his 20s, was part of Alicia Kearns’ campaign team and ‘followed her around like a flunkey’.

  She is also said to have won the chairmanship in part due to her ‘woke’ sympathies. Ms Kearns was elected to lead the Commons panel last October after beating fellow Tories Sir Iain Duncan Smith, Dr Liam Fox and Richard Graham.

  The election was triggered when Tom Tugendhat became a security minister.

  But in what one Westminster source branded a ‘bad tempered’ campaign, Ms Kearns was supported by Labour grandee Harriet Harman in gaining the votes of opposition MPs.

  Senior Conservatives said the campaign ‘wasn’t just about China’ but that Ms Kearns let it be known that she was supportive of Labour’s stance on the ‘woke agenda’. Another said she was ‘on the Left’ of the party and labelled her ‘a Wet’. She won the chairmanship with 241 votes – beating Dr Fox in second place with 200 votes. Sir Iain was knocked out in the third round.

  It was reported at the time that despite Dr Fox and Sir Iain pausing their campaigns in the wake of the death of the Queen Ms Kearns was lobbying MPs.

  Writing in the Mail yesterday , former Tory Cabinet minister Nadine Dorries said Ms Kearns’ appointment ‘came as a surprise to many of us’.

  ‘Others, who were far more experienced and alert to the dangers from hostile powers – including the wise and knowledgeable Iain Duncan Smith – had stood unsuccessfully against her,’ Ms Dorries wrote.

  ‘Now the link between Kearns and the alleged spy, who apparently lobbied his extensive network to support her appointment, is raising more eyebrows in the Commons.

  ‘Her appointment was a travesty. Now I fear that electing someone as inexperienced and, frankly, as unsuitable as Alicia to the role may well come back to haunt us.’

  It emerged over the weekend that a parliamentary researcher with links to several senior Conservatives – including Ms Kearns and Mr Tugendhat – was arrested on suspicion of spying for Beijing.

  The arrest under the Official Secrets Act revived debates about the UK’s relationship with Beijing, with some Conservative MPs pushing Rishi Sunak to label China a ‘threat’.

  Confirmation of the arrest came only weeks after James Cleverly became the first Foreign Secretary in five years to visit China, amid efforts to develop more pragmatic ties with the country.

  Mr Sunak yesterday insisted that Mr Cleverly raised the issue of Chinese interference in UK democratic institutions during his trip and that he had ‘reinforced this’ at the G20 summit in India. But MPs have questioned whether it took reports of the arrest in March to be made public for the Prime Minister to raise concerns.

  Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden signalled that ministers could consider a tougher stance on China in the wake of the row. He told MPs on Monday that there was a ‘strong case’ for designating China in the ‘enhanced tier’ of countries under the new National Security Act.

  Ms Kearns has been approached for comment. The unnamed man at the centre of the allegations has insisted he is completely innocent.

  In a statement released through his lawyers, the researcher said that he had spent his career highlighting the ‘challenge and threats presented by the Chinese Communist Party’.

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  2023/09/13
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  Infoman

  Big Ange paid homage to the comrades with a love heart. How they whooped!

  QUENTIN LETTS

  Daily Mail 13/9/2023

  THINGS were so 1970s retro at the TUC conference that the opening musical act should possibly have been a Rex tribute band rather than the young folk singer who had been booked. Once Esme and her guitar had been hastened off stage, things turned less winsome.

  There was triumphant talk of national collective bargaining, Etonian privilege and ‘wiping the smugness off the faces of senior managers’. Taxpayers needed to cough up more.

  Union leaders were returning to the cockpit of power and the Conservatives’ anti-strike laws would be binned ‘within the first one hundred days of Labour entering office’. Angela Rayner, as deputy prime minister, would ensure that the Starmer government paid homage to the unions and undid the laws that prevented militants holding the country to ransom.

  ‘That,’ said Ms Rayner, ‘is a cast-iron guarantee’. And they cheered and whooped and I saw middle-aged men with shaved heads and neckrolls of suntanned gristle – basically great ropes of Gregg’s sausage roll – exchange grim, satisfied nods.

  The unions need Ms Rayner and she, whom Sir Keir Starmer fears, needs the unions; which is why, at the end of her brisk, brusque speech, she formed a little love-heart symbol with her hands and touched her chest to signal her devotion to the cause.

  Even trade unions evolve.

  The TUC today is subtly different from that of five years ago and not at all like the gatherings of wizened pitmen and wheeltappers whose smokefilled conferences were a menacing

  part of my boyhood. Today’s unions have learned a few tricks. Image-benders have urged them to reach for sunnier vibes. ‘Winning a better future,’ read a determinedly positive slogan.

  One earnest pudding spoke of the importance of the Nolan principles in her life and how ‘they help me to check my own biases’. An Afro-Caribbean sister with Dame Edna glasses and fake eyebrows painted halfway up her forehead started quoting not from Marx but from the Jamaican reggae star Jimmy Cliff.

  A veteran trans delegate vowed to stand ‘shoulder to shoulder’ with all oppressed minorities, ‘or if you’re 6ft 5in like my husband, shoulder to ear’. I enjoyed, though could not entirely understand, a Latino lady who had a Manuel accent and a name so long, Martha Patricia Anachury De Bruxelles, that it wouldn’t fit on the hall’s screens. One desperado spoke in a black beret. Very Tooting Popular Front.

  These engaging moments were outweighed by a pervading sense of vengefulness and forced affronts. We were told of Tories ‘pursuing their ideological crusade to cut spending’. If only!

  The day’s female presiding officer, a ringer for former Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger, introduced Ms Rayner as ‘one of us’.

  Big Ange lolloped to the lectern, tossed her glistening mane and fixed them with a lively eye. I have seen her on more aggressive form but never so sleek or confident.

  SHE promised an inquiry into the confrontation at Orgreave, South Yorkshire, during the coal miners’ strike of 1984. If that was too recent for you, others mentioned Winston Churchill (‘racist’), the Battle of Cable Street (1936), Aberfan (1966) and the Thatcher government’s beastliness to gay people. A prison officer had a hearty rant against both the Blair and Sunak governments. ‘ Rishi, you had best start listening to us!’ he shrieked. ‘ We will kick you out!’ Then he remembered that revolution was no longer an entirely politic thing to mention, so he ended with ‘out with the Tories! In with a royal commission. Solidarity!’ A short debate was devoted to the social injustice of, er, sportswear firms not making separate football boots for girls and calls for women’s football to be given ringfenced slots on television. Later I went to a fringe meeting about police in Colombia shooting union activists in the eyes and locking them up for years. It didn’t half put a perspective on things. The British Left has picked clean the grievance bone. All that remains is a grouchy desire to see the Tories given an electoral spanking.

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  2023/09/13
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  Infoman

  Rayner’s bid to drag UK back to the 70s

  Martin Beck­ford Pol­icy Ed­i­tor

  Daily Mail 13/9/2023 Labour’s deputy leader vows to hand ‘strate­gic’ power to the trade unions

  LABOUR yesterday sparked fears it wants to take Britain back to the 1970s after Angela Rayner vowed to hand more power to trade unions.

  The party’s deputy leader said a future Labour government would ‘strengthen the role of trade unions in our society’.

  She also said the state would take a ‘more strategic and active role in our economy’.

  Ms Rayner pledged to scrap recent anti-strike laws and introduce new workers’ rights within 100 days of taking office, as well as making it easier for union reps to recruit members. Under a ‘New Deal for Working People’, Ms Rayner said the living wage would rise, zero-hours contracts would be banned and employees would enjoy a range of rights from their first day in a job.

  But the plans she unveiled at the Trades Union Congress conference in Liverpool – a day after union barons branded leader Sir Keir Starmer ‘ untrustworthy’ – sparked warnings from senior Tories that they would damage the economy.

  Tory chairman Greg Hands said: ‘The mask has slipped. Despite Keir Starmer’s short-term promises to be pro-business, his deputy leader is committing to Labour’s union paymasters that they will have more control over Britain’s economy.

  ‘ Reversing anti- strike laws will mean more strikes, damaging the economy and disrupting the lives of hardworking people.

  ‘Only the Conservatives are delivering the protections we need to stop Labour-backed union leaders from trying to shut down the country.’

  Tory backbencher Louie French said: ‘Keir Starmer wants you to believe that he is leading a 1990s Labour tribute act. But Angela Rayner has let the mask slip again. Labour will take Britain back to the 1970s with their union paymasters fully in charge.’

  In her speech, Ms Rayner gave a ‘cast-iron commitment’ that Labour would introduce an employment rights bill within its first 100 days.

  She said it would also quickly repeal the Trade Union Act 2016, which increased the threshold for strike ballots, as well as the ‘ spiteful and bitter’ Strikes Act 2023 which guarantees minimum service levels in the public sector.

  ‘I make no apologies that we will work hand in hand with trade unions as we will work with business to deliver a real partnership based on mutual respect, cooperation, and negotiation,’ Ms Rayner said. ‘Labour’s New Deal for Working People will transform ordinary working people’s lives. Work will finally pay, rights will be properly enforced, and crucially it will strengthen the role of trade unions in our society.’

  A future Labour government will ‘stamp out’ blacklisting after the scandal of unionised construction workers being denied jobs, Ms Rayner promised.

  It will also support a ‘full investigation’ into the notorious police clash with striking miners in Orgreave in 1984, as well as a review into the Cammell Laird shipyard strike that led to 37 workers being jailed.

  Ms Rayner promised that Labour would give unions the legal right to access workplaces and simplify the union recognition process so that ‘gig economy and remote workers’ can set up branches.

  Starting with adult social care, she pledged to ‘boost collective bargaining’ – negotiating pay and conditions agreements for all employees in a particular sector.

  Turning to employees, she said workers would be given ‘ day one basic rights’ such as covering unfair dismissal, sick pay and parental leave rather than having to wait for probation periods to end.

  Her government would also ban ‘fire and rehire’ where staff have to reapply for their former jobs on less favourable terms. Ms Rayner was given a standing ovation in the packed hall and her proposals were praised afterwards by union leaders.

  Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: ‘The country clearly would be better off with a Labour government. There is no doubt.’

  ■ Civil servants who enjoy working from home resent being forced back to their desks by ministers, a Whitehall union leader has admitted.

  Steven Littlewood, from the FDA union, which represents senior civil servants, said: ‘ They are resentful about being forced into the office, which is what ministers seem to be intent on for political purposes.’

  His comments are the latest salvo in a battle between ministers and the civil service over the ‘ WFH’ culture that took hold during lockdown.

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  2023/09/13
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  Infoman

  Why ‘Yours sincerely’ is a farewell that’s fading

  Claire Duf­fin

  Daily Mail 13/9/2023

  PHRASES such as ‘Yours sincerely’ will die out in the next ten years as language becomes less formal due to instant messaging, a study says.

  Research into workplace emails suggests starting with ‘Dear’ will also become a thing of the past.

  Emails are now more likely to end with ‘Kind regards’ or ‘Many thanks’, with younger workers often choosing phrases such as ‘Cheers’, ‘Ta’ or ‘Speak soon’.

  A survey of 2,000 people found 37 per cent described ‘Yours sincerely’ as ‘old fashioned’. ‘Regards’ was viewed as ‘formal’ by 46 per cent, but ‘Best wishes’ was considered ‘friendly’ by 41 per cent.

  Starting an email with ‘Dear’ was branded ‘old fashioned’ by 3 per cent, while just 17 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds think starting with ‘Hiya’ is over-familiar – this soars to 34 per cent of those aged 4 to 4.

  Around four in ten said ‘Yours truly’ and ‘sincerely’ will become ‘extinct’ in the next 10 years.

  Kirstie Mackey, head of Barclays LifeSkills, who carried out the survey, said the ‘shift to more personable language is a positive one’.

  Dr Laura Bailey, lecturer in English language and linguistics at the University of Kent, said: ‘For the older generation, letter-writing etiquette might be drilled in enough that it is instinctive in any written communication, whereas for Gen Z, social media has sped up the spread of language trends.’

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  2023/09/13
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  Infoman

  Made in Britain

  John-Paul Ford Ro­jas As­so­ciate City Ed­i­tor

  Daily Mail 13/9/2023 £218bn man­u­fac­tur­ing bo­nanza lifts UK up global list

  BRITAIN’S manufacturing sector has leapfrogged France to become the eighth biggest in the world, figures showed yesterday.

  Trade body Make UK said the latest global data indicated this country’s manufacturing output was worth

  £218billion in 2021, compared with £210billion for France.

  More recent UK figures suggest it continued to grow to £224billion last year, the agency said.

  Business and Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch said: ‘ I’m delighted to see our world-class manufacturing sector back on the up and watch the UK rise up the global rankings.

  ‘This Government has a clear plan to grow advanced manufacturing in this country.

  ‘From Tata’s £4billion gigafactory announcement, to Stellantis investing £100million into Ellesmere Port, or BMW putting £600million into building electric Minis in Oxford – this good news shows our plan is working.

  ‘We are firmly backing our industries so they have access to the funding, talent and infrastructure they need to take on the world.’

  Britain had fallen behind France in 2016 amid suggestions that it was a sign of problems created by the Brexit vote.

  Now however Make UK has said that with a redoubled Government commitment to manufacturing – to rival the strategies being rolled out in the US and EU – Britain could aim to match seventh-placed Italy.

  But it cautioned that while the improved ranking was ‘encouraging’, it ‘cannot be attributed to any post-Brexit bounce or other specific factor’.

  The figures showed that China was the largest manufacturing nation at £3.9trillion ahead of the US with £2trillion.

  They were followed by Japan, Germany, South Korea, India and Italy. With the UK in eighth, the top ten was completed by France and Russia. The figures fail to reflect some major global developments such as Russia being squeezed by sanctions, trade relations between the US and China deteriorating and a multi-billionpound package of subsidies being rolled out in the States.

  Manufacturing accounts for about 9 per cent of Britain’s GDP – dwarfed by the vast services sector that dominates the economy.

  But its factories and exports remain a potent symbol of the UK’s historic industrial prowess.

  Manufacturing accounts for 2.6million jobs with wages on average 9 per cent higher than in the wider economy, Make UK said.

  The sector has been struggling as higher interest rates bite. A recent monthly business survey suggested that it shrank in August by its fastest pace since May 2020.

  However recent wins include BMW’s £600million announcement.

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  2023/09/13
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  Infoman

  Long-term sick ‘serious threat’ to UK finances

  Shaun Wooller Health Ed­i­tor

  Daily Mail 13/9/2023

  THE levels of long-term sick leave from work pose a ‘serious’ threat to Britain’s public finances, a report warns.

  Bosses at the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) also insist that standards of healthcare have declined – despite increasing amounts of funding being ploughed into services.

  The 90-page report comes after the IPPR’s Commission on Health and Prosperity conducted an audit of health and care services, which concluded that poor health is costing livelihoods as well as lives.

  Long- term sickness has become a ‘ serious fiscal threat’, the report says, with the number of people out of work due to poor health at an all-time high of 2.6million.

  It adds: ‘There is no road to prosperity for this nation without tackling the tide of sickness head-on. The number of deaths that could have been avoided with timely healthcare or public health interventions is much higher in the UK than in all other comparable European nations. If the UK had a [similar] avoidable mortality rate, around 240,000 fewer people would have died in the decade from 2010.’

  Long waits for healthcare and a failure to tackle obesity, couch potato lifestyles and smoking have fuelled the deaths, says the think-tank.

  The IPPR found the quality of care nationally has got worse despite increased spending, leading the country to ‘spend more to get less’. It is calling on the Government to take urgent action to deliver better value for money for taxpayers.

  Reforming the NHS to change it from a ‘sickness service’ to a ‘prevention service’ would ‘ avert killer costs’ and end ‘second-rate care’, it adds. Lord James Bethell, a former Tory health minister, said: ‘Sick Britain is costing us our lives, our livelihoods and harming the UK economy.

  ‘If we want to change course, we must stop pretending that the answers are always more hospitals and more acute staff. Instead, we must start taking action to reduce demand and need for healthcare, through prevention.’

  Matthew Taylor, of the NHS Confederation, which represents healthcare organisations, said: ‘Investment that keeps people out of hospital and preventing ill health will save money in the long-term, support the economy and help to secure a sustainable, flourishing future for the NHS.’

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  2023/09/13
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  Infoman

  新加坡會是下一個香港嗎？

  https://shorturl.at/oEKMT

  《金融時報》昨天發表長文報導<新加坡可以維持其亞洲「安全港」的聲譽嗎？>，指出上月破獲18億坡元福建幫洗黑錢案令人關注，新加坡一直以來的金融中心模式能否維持下去。

  這篇文章不斷兜圈，到末段才寫出這篇報導的主旨——中國熱錢流入最終有機會影響新加坡的中立。報導最重要的一段說： ＂一名在華盛頓的政策制訂者向《金融時報》說，拜登政府正在「比以往更密切地注視」中國企業和中國人移至新加坡。美國官員說：「流入的（中國）金錢和人數越多，北京便越覺得自己可以干預新加坡事務。」＂

  這篇文章不能有話直說，因為18億坡元案有點敏感。案件令人關注中國在新加坡的影響力是否上升中，並非因為10名被捕人士全是有中國護照的福建人，而是破案前5天，中國外長王毅才訪問新加坡，因此不少新加坡政治觀察家揣測，王毅施壓後才令新加坡出手；而《聯合早報》也發表了內政部長兼律政部長尚穆根（K Shanmugam）的專訪，他斬釘截鐵說拘捕行動與王毅訪新沒有關連。

  如果你是香港人，很容易明白FT報導的弦外之音。

  最終觸發國安法出台的「反送中」示威，正是源於肖建華問題，北京要捉拿逃離大陸的「貪腐」富豪，阻止「貪腐」資金流出大陸，因此借林鄭之手修改法例，當充當門面的人未能完成任務，便乾脆北京自己出面。

  正如FT報導所說，中國富豪以往把資金停泊在香港，富豪和專業人士都想拿個香港永久居民身份，隨時離開大陸，新加坡現在無意間發揮了這個角色。那麼，猜測北京近年對香港做了什麼，現在也想對新加坡做同樣的事情，這個想法很合理。

  FT也提及，（西方）投資者希望在亞洲有一個「真正開放、對所有人都可稱為主場（home to everyone）、且不被單一強國所主導」的地方，香港一早不再是這種泛亞洲樞紐。那麼，美國不容許新加坡變成第二個香港，在亞洲必須有一個類似之前香港角色的地點，因此密切注視中國在新加坡的影響力，也十分正常。

  ===== 全文可訂閱到Patreon閱讀；如果想支持網主更新本blog、Twitter、Facebook等平台，歡迎訂閱我的Patreon，月費只是7.21美元： patreon.com/dungtaai

  2023/09/12
• 
  

  Infoman

  184,000 cancer cases in UK this year ‘were preventable’

  Camp­bell Health pol­icy ed­i­tor

  The Guardian 11/9/2023

  A growing epidemic of preventable cancers will lead to an estimated 184,000 people in the UK being diagnosed with the disease this year and will cost the country more than £78bn, research reveals.

  Cancer caused by smoking, drinking, obesity and sunburn leads to £40bn a year in lost productivity, costs the people affected £30bn and takes up £3.7bn of the NHS’s budget, the study says. Preventable cancers also cost families and carers £3.4bn and the social care system £1.3bn.

  The stark findings have sparked calls by doctors and public health campaigners for a crackdown on smoking, drinking and poor diet to reduce avoidable cancers because of the huge human and financial toll.

  Organisations such as Cancer Research UK (CRUK) and the World Cancer Research Fund estimate that about 40% of all cancers, in the UK and worldwide, are potentially preventable because they are closely linked to lifestyle factors such as diet, smoking and sunburn.

  “This report is a stark reminder of the countless lives that could be saved by preventing cancer and a call to the UK government that health prevention strategies are key to relieving pressures on our NHS and economy,” said Michelle Mitchell, CRUK’s chief executive.

  She called for “bold political action” to tackle tobacco and bad diet, adding: “If recent trends continue, smoking could cause around 1m more cancer cases in the UK between now and 2040. And more than 21 million UK adults could be obese, which would increase their risk of over 13 types of cancer.”

  The findings are contained in a study of the societal and economic costs of preventable cancers in the UK undertaken by Frontier Economics for the Guardian. Frontier, a leading economics consultancy, specialises in projecting the costs of diseases using data published by government, official and medical bodies. The £78bn cost is the equivalent of 3.5% of GDP, it found.

  It estimates that on current trends the number of avoidable cancer diagnoses will rise from 184,000 to 226,000 a year by 2040 because of population changes. Between now and then, 3.7 million people will be diagnosed who would not have developed cancer if it had not been for the four known main risk factors – smoking, drinking, obesity and UV radiation. Those cases combined will cost the UK £1.26tn, Frontier believes.

  Doctors and public health experts say the government must confront powerful lobbies such as the food industry. Existing measures are ineffective and give too much influence to vested interests such as the alcohol trade, which means meaningful change is stymied, they say.

  Frontier’s report looked at the four most preventable cancers: skin, lung, bowel and breast cancer. It says 79% of the 54,500 cases of lung cancer diagnosed in the UK each year are preventable and almost three-quarters of those are caused by tobacco. For melanoma, 87% of the 20,500 cases could have been avoided if people had not been exposed to UV radiation through spending time in the sun.

  In addition, 54% of bowel cancers are deemed preventable because they are linked to a lack of fibre, processed meat intake or being overweight. Almost one in four of the 61,500 new cases of breast cancer in the UK every year are deemed preventable because they involve excess weight or alcohol.

  Overall, 97,500 of the 179,000 cases of those four cancers combined that will be diagnosed this year – 54% of the total – will have been preventable, Frontier found. The £30bn cost of avoidable cancer to individuals reflects mainly lost quality of life when they are ill (£4.3bn) and the fact that some people die early (£25.3bn).

  Last week, research reported in BMJ Oncology found the number of under-50s diagnosed with cancer worldwide had risen by 79% between 1990 and 2019. The authors said obesity, inactivity, alcohol and smoking were likely to help explain the surge, alongside factors such as pollution.

  The British Medical Association has urged ministers to take action “to reduce the availability and attractiveness of products such as alcohol, tobacco and junk food that contribute to a large number of preventable diseases, including some cancers”.

  The Institute of Alcohol Studies (IAS) said ministers should force alcohol producers to use labelling that makes clear drinking increases the risk of cancer. Dr Sadie Boniface, its head of research, said: “In 2020 alone, almost 17,000 cancers due to alcohol were diagnosed in the UK.”

  Hazel Cheeseman, of Action on Smoking and Health, said the age at which people could buy tobacco should rise to 21, and tobacco firms should face a “polluter pays” levy.

  Mitchell, of CRUK, said the government was likely to miss its target for England to be “smoke-free” by 2030, and measures to tackle obesity – such as banning multi-buy deals on junk food – had been delayed.

  Matthew Bell, a director of Frontier Economics, said: “Reducing the sizable number of people with these cancers could be a central element to reducing some costs for the NHS.”

  The Department of Health and Social Care did not respond directly to the findings, but it said it was committed to tackling the causes of preventable cancer, adding: “We have introduced calorie labelling, announced a £40m pilot [for obesity drugs] … and will help 1m smokers across England quit by giving them a free vaping starter kit. There are record numbers of cancer checks in the NHS and our major conditions strategy will set out further plans to tackle the main causes of ill-health.”

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  2023/09/11