Salmond woos Mumsnet

ALEX Salmond pledged to maintain free education and free personalcare yesterday as he attempted to woo one of the most potentpolitical forces of recent years - Mumsnet members.

The First Minister told the popular parenting website that he wasproud of both policies and, quoting from Robert Burns's A Red, RedRose, added: "The rocks will melt wi' the sun before I'll allow anychange to them."

In a wide-ranging webchat, he also defended a pound(s)500,000donation from Stagecoach founder Brian Souter, who, in 2000,campaigned to retain a law banning schools from discussinghomosexuality in the classroom. Mr Salmond rejected a suggestion thecash would affect SNP policy, saying the party's stance on equalitywas "well known".

During the online grilling he also revealed his favourite biscuitwas a Tunnock's chocolate caramel wafer, thereby dodging one of themost potentially explosive bullets in modern politics.

Mumsnet members were en-raged two years ago when Gordon Brownseemed to avoid the now infamous "biscuit" question, over whichsnack was his favourite. The former Prime Minister was even forcedto take to Twitter the next day to answer the question, revealing itwas "anything with a bit of chocolate on it".

Mumsnet is fast becoming a major player in politics, and bothDavid Cameron and Nick Clegg have previously set out to win over itsmembers.

The internet network for mothers claims that it taps into acrucial demographic rarely heard in political debate, but whopoliticians need to secure votes from in order to clinch elections.

Its growing political influence was highlighted last month whenMr Cameron was forced to re-spond to a Mumsnet member who said thatspending cuts would mean she would be forced to put her disabledchild into care.

During his online Q and A, Mr Salmond also admitted that he hadchanged nappies in the past, although he said he did so badly.

He even apologised to a woman and her four-year-old child foraccidentally hitting them with an umbrella at the Turriff Show lastyear. "If I had realised I would have said sorry at the time," theFirst Minister said.

A number of questions centred around the Souter donationannounced at the weekend.

At one point it seemed as if the Mumsnet crowd thought the SNPleader was avoiding the question, with a few saying so explicitly.One said: "So far nothing on the Brian Souter/gay marriage question.Am I the only one who cares if that's changed SNP policy?"

Another, called Venusandmars, appeared to encourage the FirstMinister, saying: "Liking your answers Mr Salmond, and lookingforward to your reply about civil partnerships."

But Mr Salmond rejected suggestions the donation should be takenas a signal that the SNP are supportive of Mr Souter's stance onhomosexuality.

And he said that he "deprecated" comments made by Bill Aitken,the Scottish Con- servative justice spokesman, at the weekendquestioning whether a rape victim had been a prostitute.

Although he said that he did not think that the remarks "reallyrepresented" Mr Aitken's views, he added: "As for the repercussions,it seems to be the best thing is don't vote Tory."

However, the First Minister did dodge one question, refusing toreveal his racing tips to the Mumsnet faithful.

SPONTANEOUS PRODUCTIONS ; Conga lines through Faneuil Hall, pillow fights in Copley Square, skivvies-clad riders on the T - it's all in good fun and to promote...

Today's forecast: a feather storm in Copley Square, outside theLouvre in Paris, and on the steps of the Opera House in Sydney ashundreds of people merrily whomp each other with pillows.

It's glasses off and soft pillows on for International PillowFight Day, organized in 21 cities by Generation Yers who areinviting friends and strangers to come together today for wallopingfun. At Copley, the 2 p.m. communal slumber party game is hosted bythe Banditos Misteriosos, Boston's new entry to the urban playgroundmovement.

Banditos Misteriosos and a second group called the Boston Societyof Spontaneity are the latest to join the social movement aimed atgathering, surprising, and entertaining people in public spaces. ButBanditos and BostonSOS seem to plan their fun more seriously. Theyclaim larger memberships than groups like the boombox-bearingensemble 123 Party! that created a stir last year by blaring '80shits while dancing in neon-green jogging suits throughout the city.And they're better organized than the so-called flash mobs that havespontaneously assembled people in public places for purely whimsicalreasons.

"Boston is a playground," declares the Banditos website."Banditos Misteriosos is the city's mysterious playmate."

Yet despite its name, Banditos Misteriosos is not secretive. Thisgroup of a dozen 20-something planners - and more than 500 members -aims to bring strangers together with family-friendly activities inpublic spaces.

"We want people to interact in urban areas in ways they're notused to, doing events that are free, simple, open to the public, andout of the ordinary," said Ethan Feuer, a Banditos Misterioso who isa Brandeis University admissions counselor.

That's what happened Feb. 23 at Faneuil Hall during the SilentDance Experiment. More than 300 strangers milling around the SamAdams statue suddenly bopped in synch. Headphone wires swung fromtheir ears as they high-fived, danced the Swim, and played modifiedfreeze tag in unison. Bemused bystanders joined in, posing like "TheThinker" and sharing participants' headphones to hear downloadedmusic and instructions. Copious giggling and a few group cheerspunctuated the joyous scene. The silent dance ended with a costumedMoses leading a conga line into Quincy Market.

The line passed the BosTix booth, where Joe Donlavey, director ofticketing and tourism for ArtsBoston, was working. "My first thoughtwas that this was a guided tour of the Freedom Trail," he recalled."But when we saw hundreds of people coming through with hands on theshoulders of the person in front of them, one of my staffers said,`I think it's one of those impromptu meetings done throughFacebook.' It was fabulous! They did a couple of shout-outs. Thatwas the best."

The event didn't impede business, Donlavey added. "And as peoplewalked out, a few came by the booth and asked about Blue Man Grouptickets."

The Silent Dance Experiment was the first event orchestrated bythe Banditos' 12-member planning board. Feuer and two friendsinitiated Banditos Misteriosos in December by launching a website(misteriosos.org) and its first event, also a pillow fight. Thegroup's name came from characters the founders created in a collegecomedy sketch.

"A lot of us were camp counselors. We think of Boston as ourcamp, and we're going to be coming up with fun events," said BaileyTriggs, a coordinator for a branch of the nonprofit EducationDevelopment Center, who joined the Banditos planning board.

The Internet is the Banditos' primary channel for publicizingevents, though the group also posts flyers. The group wants toattract a broad age group, but that's challenging. "These types ofevents are going to be aimed more at our demographic, because it'syoung people who do this type of thing," Feuer said.

Respect for public space is one factor driving the urbanplayground movement. It's an effort to redefine public space, tofree it from "the endless creep of advertising," as theInternational Pillow Fight Day website, pillowfightday.com, states.

"Public space in urban areas has had predictable and routine usesas a way of maintaining order in a chaotic urban environment," saidDavid Cunningham, an associate professor of sociology at BrandeisUniversity. "The urban playground movement challenges that. The ideaof play is a sharp critique of the consumerized space that surroundsus, and strips away the commercialization."

The other upstart group that embraces public space, BostonSociety of Spontaneity, sprung up around the same time the Banditosformed. The groups' memberships overlap, though their goals do not.BostonSOS wants to entertain.

"We are more of an interactive guerilla theater-type group," saidJames Cobalt, who started and runs the nearly 300-member troupe. Inwhat BostonSOS called its Frozen Food mission inside Quincy Marketjust before Banditos Miseteriosos' Silent Dance Experiment, morethan 50 BostonSOS performers abruptly froze in place for severalminutes.

BostonSOS is a spinoff of New York City-based Improv Everywhere,whose website declares it "causes scenes of chaos and joy in publicplaces." Improv Everywhere has not only surprised but alsooccasionally discomfited onlookers or businesses, as when 80 peoplesporting ersatz employee uniforms wandered around a large retailstore.

"I can see why some people find it confusing," Cobalt said, "butI don't think that confusing and harmful are the same thing."

BostonSOS staged its first event in early February, the No Pantssubway ride, in which 200 people on the Red Line casually removedtheir pants while on the train. "A lot of people wore extra layersof underwear for modesty, " Cobalt said. "Very few people wereoffended."

The Banditos are mum on what's in store after the upcoming pillowfight. "We have to fall back on our name and be a littlemysterious," Feuer said with a grin.

Ellen Freeman Roth can be reached at ellenfreemanroth.com.

Fed: PM says govt will consider Labor FTA amendment

AAP General News (Australia)
08-06-2004
Fed: PM says govt will consider Labor FTA amendment

CANBERRA, Aug 6 AAP - The government appears closer to agreement with Labor over the
free trade deadlock with Prime Minister John Howard declaring he would consider the proposed
opposition amendment.

But Mr Howard said the government still believed no further change to the free trade
agreement was needed to protect the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) from predatory
drug companies.

Speaking shortly before departing for the Pacific Islands Forum in Western Samoa, Mr
Howard said it was regrettable the free trade agreement (FTA) row was heading into its
second week.

"As far as Mr Latham is concerned it does seem to me that he has shifted his position,"

he told reporters.

"He is now talking about a different kind of amendment than he was on Tuesday. The
next step in this matter is for him to produce that amendment so we can have a look at
it."

Mr Howard said the government continued to believe the proposed Labor amendment - aimed
at penalising drug companies which take out unnecessary patents aimed at stopping cheap
generic drugs from from reaching the market - was unnecessary.

"However, if the Labor Party has an amendment that is not damaging to the patent law
of this country, and that would not be desirable, well let it bring it forward and let
us have a look at it," he said.

Mr Howard said it had to be kept in mind that the FTA had not harmed the PBS.

"We would not have signed the agreement if it had. So therefore any suggestion that
it has is just not right. The PBS is rock solid dead centre in our health policy and we
have not done anything to compromise the PBS," he said.

Mr Howard said securing the agreement with the United States was far more important
than any temporary political advantage that the government or the opposition might gain.

He said the national interest required both the government and opposition to deliver
on the free trade agreement.

"Political advantage for either side, certainly in the short term, is quite secondary
to the national interest that is involved in delivering the free trade agreement."

AAP mb/it/jlw

KEYWORD: TRADE US HOWARD LEAD

2004 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

Fed: Pak authorities reject two boats of Aust wheat

AAP General News (Australia)
02-25-2004
Fed: Pak authorities reject two boats of Aust wheat

Pakistan authorities have rejected two boatloads of Australian wheat claiming they
carry a dangerous fungus.

The nation's monopoly wheat exporter, AWB, says Pakistan authorities are claiming the
two shipments are contaminated with karnal bunt.

The fungus imparts a fishy odour to contaminated wheat and does not exist in Australia.

Manager of AWB pools, DAVID JOHNSON, says AWB and Biosecurity Australia authorities
are heading to Pakistan to discuss the issue.

…

NSW: Govt has not wasted $17 mln on idol public servants

AAP General News (Australia)
01-12-2004
NSW: Govt has not wasted $17 mln on idol public servants

New South Wales Premier BOB CARR has defended claims his government has squandered
more than $17 million a year on almost 300 idle public servants.

The Daily Telegraph newspaper reports that 292 displaced public servants are earning
an average of $61,000 a year, despite having no official duties.

But Mr CARR …

Qld: Mal Colston dies: Beattie = 5

00-00-0000
Qld: Mal Colston dies: Beattie = 5

Queensland ALP secretary Cameron Milner said Dr Colston had few friends in the party.

"You don't speak ill of the dead, but in life he did us no favours," Mr Milner said.

"He did immense damage through his disloyalty to the party.

"The loyalty that party members had put in him over the years was repaid by him desertingthe Labor Party when we needed his vote most."

Former Queensland Labor Senator Margaret Reynolds today offered her sympathies to theColston family.

"Although he's been suffering from a long illness and they have been expecting himto pass on, nevertheless it's never easy when someone does leave in this way," Ms Reynoldssaid.

Ms Reynolds, who sat in the Senate from 1983 to 1999, said it was not surprising thatLabor Party members did not have a lot of positive things to say.

"Politics is like family - if a member of your family turns against you it's not easyto have a lot of positives to say and politics is much the same," Ms Reynolds.

"Regardless of enormous differences people have in political parties, there is a basicloyalty and if you breach that loyalty you can't be surprised people turn against you."

But Ms Reynolds said that before Dr Colston turned against the party "he did his bestin representing the interests of Queensland".

AAP pjo/sc/drp/bwl

KEYWORD: COLSTON 5 BRISBANE (REOPENS)

NSW: Kent Brewery workers demand entitlements guarantee

00-00-0000
NSW: Kent Brewery workers demand entitlements guarantee

By Kylie Walker, Industrial Reporter

SYDNEY, April 15 AAP - Workers at the soon-to-close historic Kent Brewery in Sydneytoday demanded Carlton & United Breweries (CUB) set up a trust fund to guarantee theirredundancy entitlements.

About 300 brewery workers met this morning to discuss their future after CUB's parentcompany Foster's Group said yesterday it would shut the brewery by 2005 and sell off thevaluable real estate in the CBD for $75 million.

NSW Labor Council secretary John Robertson said workers were worried that accrued entitlementscould be at risk if CUB undertook a corporate restructure before their jobs were maderedundant.

"The last thing we want to see is a corporate restructure that leaves the Kent Brewerya shell company with no money to pay out entitlements," Mr Robertson said.

"The delegates today called on CUB to protect their existing entitlements by placingthat money in a trust fund, bank guarantee or similar form of security.

"This is a reasonable request, given the clear intention of the company to cease tradingat the Kent Brewery within two years."

Workers also asked for an increased redundancy package of six weeks' pay for everyyear of service, compared with the current three weeks per year, and offers of redeploymentto other CUB operations around Australia.

Failing redeployment, they demanded CUB provide retraining, employment placement adviceand written references for all redundant workers, Mr Robertson said.

"CUB has an opportunity to show that not all corporations are heartless," he said.

"The Kent Brewery workers have given their all to the company - now it's the company'sturn to give a little back."

Many of the workers had spent their entire working lives at Kent Brewery, Mr Robertsonsaid, and were "understandably upset" by the news that it would permanently close.

AAP kbw/nf/ph/de

KEYWORD: FOSTERS JOBS