Media Bias On Crimea - medialens

Prior to the March 16 referendum, the BBC website reported: 'Crimeans will vote on whether they want their autonomous republic to break away from Ukraine and join Russia.'
The title of the news report indicated the focus: 'Is Crimea's referendum legal?'
The answer: 'Ukraine and the West have dismissed the referendum as illegal and one that will be held at gunpoint, but Russia supports it.'
Legality was not an issue in BBC coverage of the January 2005 election held in Iraq under US-UK occupation. This was accepted on the main BBC evening news as 'the first democratic election in fifty years'. (David Willis, BBC1, News at Ten, January 10, 2005)
And the Iraq election was held in the middle of a ferocious war to crush resistance to occupation. Just weeks before the vote, American and British forces had subjected Iraq's third city, Fallujah, to all-out assault leaving 70 per cent of houses and shops destroyed, and at least 800 civilians dead.

Voting At Gunpoint - The Jaw-Dropping Media Bias On Crimea by David Edwards - medialens

Green Party Autumn 2013 conference

Poster for the Food Poverty and Benefits Cuts at the Green Party Autumn 2013 conference where I was a main speaker on austerity cuts to social security, alongside Green Party leader, Natalie Bennett, and A Girl Called Jack.

Disability Rights UK webinar videos for advisers on Mandatory Reconsideration

Here is a link to my webinar which covers:

1. the rules about mandatory reconsideration
2. problems with mandatory reconsideration
3. potential remedies and challenges to these problems

It is designed for support workers and advisers and anyone in the voluntary sector who is advising and assisting claimants with challenging decisions on social security benefits. The recording of the main presentation is in three parts, all on YouTube.

Osborne's welfare cap is a poverty-producing policy

From New Statesman blog - 
The cap locks in these cuts for perpetuity and denudes future spending decisions of any ambition. Want to improve work incentives through changes to Universal Credit? Sure – but you have to cut elsewhere. Want to ensure people with disabilities can participate fully in society? Yes – but another group will take a hit. Think it’s a good idea to end child poverty? Why not - but others will be impoverished in the process.

Flapjacks

Delia Smith's Book of Cakes, p69

Cranks Nut Roast

Serves 5 - from The Cranks Recipe Book, p113-114.