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Text of Conservative Letter re Newsnight revelations

  • Paul Mason
  • 15 Jan 08, 06:51 PM

Lisa Klein
Director of Party Funding
The Electoral Commission
Trevelyan House
Great Peter Street
London SW1P 2HW
Tuesday, 15th January 2008

大象传媒 Newsnight last night drew attention to three flights taken by David Cameron in October 2005 which were declared in the Register of Members鈥 Interests but not to the Electoral Commission.

Continue reading "Text of Conservative Letter re Newsnight revelations"

Tuesday, 15 January, 2008

  • Newsnight
  • 15 Jan 08, 06:43 PM

Good evening,


As I write we're working on what could be a big terror-related story for tonight's programme. Watch tonight and see the results.

POLISH DOCTOR
doctor203x100.jpgIn 2004 GPs voted on a new contract. One of the provisions was the opportunity to opt out of providing "Out of Hours" care. Ninety per cent of doctors voted to take up this new option, which meant that NHS Primary Care Trusts now had the task of filling doctors' surgeries at nights and weekends. Who is doing that work? More and more of the shifts are being filled with doctors from throughout the European Union, especially Poland. Some are even commuting from the continent to work in Britain at weekends - they can earn in one shift what they would take home in a month in Poland. But could all the travelling make these doctors too tired to treat patients? And who is responsible for them?

NORTHERN ROCK
Northern Rock shareholders have largely voted to reject plans that could have limited management powers to find a rescue deal for the business. Northern Rock said shareholders had defeated all but one of the resolutions proposed at its extraordinary meeting. The bank's chairman said the resolution passed would not be a "material restriction" to a rescue deal. The resolutions were put forward by two major shareholders, hedge funds SRM Global and RAB Capital. "Whilst we are pleased that all but one of the resolutions proposed by SRM and RAB Capital were not carried, we recognise that a material number of shareholders did vote in favour of these resolutions," said Bryan Sanderson, Northern Rock's chairman. Economics Editor, Stephanie Flanders will tell us where this now leaves Northern Rock.

UZBEK COTTON
Newsnight report leads to a ban on Uzbek cotton
Tesco has banned "all cotton sourced from Uzbekistan for its clothing range, homeware and corporate purchases" after a Newsnight investigation exposed the use of child labour. In October revealed how many of the UK's top High Street stores were selling clothes made with Uzbek cotton. His investigation of cotton production in Uzbekistan found that the use of children to harvest the crop was widespread and systematic. Tesco said the Newsnight report had "exposed the continued use of state-sponsored child labour in Uzbek cotton fields" and has now announced a complete ban on the use of Uzbek cotton. The retail giant is telling suppliers that "the use of organised and forced child labour is completely unacceptable and leads us to conclude that whilst these practices persist in Uzbekistan we cannot support the use of cotton from Uzbekistan in our textiles". Watch Simon's report on tonight's programme.

Read the reactions of the High Street stores..

Latest from Conservatives on Cameron's flights

  • Paul Mason
  • 15 Jan 08, 06:42 PM

For those of you glued to your PCs over the issue of David Cameron's non-declared flights, as reported below and on Newsnight last night, the Conservatives have now responded, registering the Dewsbury flight and correcting the name of the donor on another flight. In future David Cameron will register all flights with the Electoral Commission. The text of the CCO letter below, and now, Mr Hain, about that 108,000....

Continue reading "Latest from Conservatives on Cameron's flights"

Newsnight report leads to cotton ban

  • Newsnight
  • 15 Jan 08, 06:15 PM

cotton203x100.jpgTesco has announced it is banning "all cotton sourced from Uzbekistan for its clothing range, homeware and corporate purchases" after a exposed the use of child labour.

The original report by Simon Ostrovsky revealed how many of the UK's top High Street stores were selling clothes made with Uzbek cotton - which had been harvested by forced child labour.

Below is today's statement by Tesco - along with how Asda, Arcadia Group (Burtons and Top Man), and Matalan reacted to Tesco's decision:

Tesco
"As a founder member of the Ethical Trading Initiative, Tesco seeks to put ethical trading at the very heart of its operations.

Following ongoing discussions with campaign groups on the subject of cotton production and the use of child labour in this part of the supply chain, we feel the need to re-iterate Tesco鈥檚 deep concern at the use of child labour.

We realise that this is a complex issue with many causes which we acknowledge are hard to address individually.

However, the use of organised and forced child labour is completely unacceptable and leads us to conclude that whilst these practices persist in Uzbekistan, we cannot support the use of cotton from Uzbekistan in our clothing.

To this end, we now require our suppliers to identify the source of raw cotton used in all Tesco clothing 鈥 and we will randomly audit records to ensure our requirements are being met."

Asda
"We were very interested to hear the commitments being made by Tesco today, but we're even keener to understand how they plan to meet those commitments.

At ASDA we are determined to ensure that fabric used by George suppliers comes from ethical and traceable sources.

However we make no bones about the fact that the international supply chain for cotton is extremely complicated. Full traceability of where raw cotton (used in yarn, cotton fabrics or garments) originates from is very difficult to achieve.

So at this time we do not believe a boycott of cotton from Uzbekistan is achievable, but more importantly we are not convinced it will improve the lives of those who work in the industry.

We will continue to work with the Government and our suppliers to discuss what further pressure we can apply to bring about an improvement in the conditions of people working in the cotton industry in Uzbekistan."

Arcadia Group (Burtons and Top Man)
"Further to the 大象传媒 Newsnight programme, we have contacted all of our suppliers and
informed them of your findings.

We have re-iterated to them our code of conduct which can be found on our group web-site www.arcadiagroup.co.uk.

We have requested that our suppliers check on their raw cotton sources, and nothing
untoward has been reported to us by them, nor have we found anything untoward
ourselves at this time."

Matalan
鈥淢atalan is taking the issue seriously and is in consultation with its suppliers to understand the extent of the issue. Appropriate action will be taken after the inquiry, which will be finalised in the coming weeks.鈥

Cameron's choppers

  • Paul Mason
  • 15 Jan 08, 04:14 PM

Here at Newsnight we are currently engaged in a theological dispute with Conservative Central Office of the 鈥渁ngels on a pinhead鈥 variety. Namely, how many members of the Conservative Party have to be in a helicopter before the trip falls below the eligibility criteria for registration as a donation with the Electoral Commission....

Continue reading "Cameron's choppers"

Prospects for Tuesday, 15 January

  • Newsnight
  • 15 Jan 08, 10:34 AM

Robert Morgan is today's programme producer. Here is his early email to the team.

Good morning everyone,

There's quite a bit around this morning. Richard Watson could have a big story which I'll speak more about in the morning meeting. There's obviously Northern Rock's EGM, EMI, food prices, and a possible Uzbek cotton follow up. Is it worth us previewing Michigan? Do come to the meeting armed with great ideas.

Rachel Wright and Neil Drake have a great film which needs a Government response off the back. Are foreign doctors working too many hours in the health service?

In 2004 GPs voted on a new contract. One of the new provisions was the opportunity to opt out of providing "Out of Hours" care. Ninety per cent of doctors voted to take up this new option. Which meant that NHS Primary Care Trusts now had the task of filling doctor's surgeries at nights and weekends. More and more of these shifts are being filled with doctors from throughout the new expanded European Union, especially Poland. Some are even staying in their home country and commuting over at weekends. After all they can earn the same amount in one shift as they can in a whole month in Poland. But does commuting make these doctors too tired to treat patients and who is responsible for them? Rachel Wright made the trip with one Polish doctor to find out.

Playout ideas welcome.

Robert

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