c.murray@unistra.fr

PLAN Court texte à traduire en français traitant de l’actualité du moment (travail collaboratif)

Mise en commun, correction et pistes à suivre

tour de table axé sur les actualités, des questions, commentaire etc.

Lecture et étude de document en anglais (thématiques concours)

Traduction de l ensemble du document.

Apport culturel

Questions, débats

SHORT TEXT

Open thread: are you in favour of English devolution? Have your say: do you think non-English MPs should be banned from voting on laws that only affect England – and how far should devolution go? What are your thoughts on devolution for England? By Olivia Goldhill 4:21PM BST 22 Sep 2014

Prime Minister David Cameron turned the debate over Scottish powers on its head when he argued that there should be English votes for English laws. Cameron said that Scottish MPs should be banned from voting on English-only political issues, adding that, “I have long believed a crucial part missing from this national discussion is England. We have heard the voice of Scotland and now the millions of voices of England must also be heard.” But the reaction to his proposals has been decidedly mixed so far. The policy is more contentious for Labour than the Tories, as Labour has 40 Scottish MPs and would see their voting powers in Parliament reduced if Cameron’s proposals are passed. Douglas Alexander, a shadow Labour Minister, told BBC Radio 4's Today pro-gramme that Mr Cameron's announcement struck him as a "fairly knee-jerk re-action which ... may well have been driven more by politics than by a considered judgement of the needs of the constitution".

NOTWFLOODS (the environment)I have heard about the floods in the south of France, it’s close to MP, and they have a lot of serious problems with damage to buildings, houses, cars and fallen trees blocking roads. In France we have a special contingency plan called “ “.

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PANDEMICS and public health

Yesterday there was another fatality due to the Ebola virus, this brings the number of deaths to two in Europe, this is the first death in Europe.The authorities fear the spread of this virus which has no cure. Other very potent strains of virus pose a serious threat to public health: notably; the plague, swine flu, avian flu (H1N1) or bird flu, not forgetting the biggest killer to date; (1918 Spanish Flu 20 000000 deaths), Mad cow disease, foot and mouth disease etc.

World PoliticsIn Brazil, the right-wing of the political spectrum won the first round of the presidential elections. The present incumbent, is the head of this party, the Labour candidate was favourite in the opinion polls in August but several errors led her to lose some votes / her lead.

LAWThere have been demos / demonstrations about the law on surrogate mothers and the right to procreate. France has forbidden GPA due to worries about the welfare of child and mother when things go wrong at the birth.

NAME :THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTH-ERN IRELAND

REGIME : A CONSTITUTIONAL OR PARLIAMENTARY MONAR-CHY (i.e. There is a king or queen and they share power with the Prime Minister of an elected parliament)

CONSTITUTION : NO WRITTEN CONSTITUTION (several different documents define the principles and laws of the state ; e.g. MAGNA CARTA / HABEAS CORPUS THE BILL OF RIGHTS ETC)

CLIMATE : COASTAL AND TEMPERATE (lots of rain)

GEOGRAPHY : INSULAR, very steep mountains though not very high, rounded hills in lower regions, plenty of low lands (good for farming) and hundreds of islands.

LANGUAGE : ENGLISH

PARLIAMENTCENTRAL GOVERNMENT FOR ALL BRITISH AFFAIRS IN WEST-MINSTER ENGLAND

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REGIONAL GOVERNMENTS FOR :

SCOTLAND (has ALL the elements of a SOVEREIGN STATE)

NORTHERN IRELAND (gained a power-sharing Regional Assembly to bring the war between Protestants and Catholics to an end)

WALES (has unique linguistic and cultural identity)

N.B. THERE IS NO REGIONAL GOVERNMENT FOR ENGLAND.

LIST OF SOVEREIGN CRITERIA /SCOTLANDREPUBLIC / GOVERNMENT OR RECOGNIZED STATEUNIQUE CULTURE:language ; flag ; history ; architecture;food ; origins ;

accents ; names ; music ; folklore ; literature ; myths and legends ; traditions etc.

INDEPENDENT LAW AND JUDICIAL SYSTEMINDEPENDENT EDUCATION SYSTEMINDEPENDENT CHURCH OF SCOTLANDUNDISPUTED BORDERS AND FRONTIERSA SPIRIT OF NATIONAL IDENTITYINDEPENDENT CURRENCY THE SCOTTISH POUND

SHORT PRESENTATIONThe Scottish referendum....towards which future ?

*(whose future ? )

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BLUFRepercussions in the UK, Europe and beyond

The Social Divide : Regional, social, ethnic, cultural, linguistic, re-ligeous identities, « British » conservatism and the desire to slow down rapid political change, together with the conser-vatives abuse of « Big Society » and the conjuntorial finan-cial crisis awake identity issues within the far flung popula-tions of the UK

*

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The process of devolution in the UKThe UK : one country four administrative regionsVariable Geometry of devolved powersThe 18th September 2014 NO 55,3 % 45 % YES (84,6 % turnout)

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THE PARTICULAR MAKE UP OF GBcommunitarismsectarianismNational assemblies The House of Lords and Tony Bliar unprecedented constitutional

change

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Unitary Authorities (EU voting facility)COSLA convention of Scottish Unitary Local Authorities (32)

ENG (46)Education and religion ? Social classes

The monarchyIt seems to me that our monarchy is the one part of our constitution which is still working more or less as it was designed to do, to the great national benefit, and to the satisfaction of all, except perhaps to a few cranks. Obviously. its continuance would be incompatible with a communist state, possibly also with a fully socialised one. But I do not

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contemplate either of these as a permanent. or even as a temporary feature of the British political landscape.Within the limitations of a mixed, free and evolving community, I can see no rival to our hereditary presidency - for that is what it is -except the so-called presidential system, in reality, of course, an elective monarchy, favoured by the United States. and now by the Fifth Republic of France. With great respect to the people of those two beloved countries, I can see nothing which would lead me to want to import this feature of their constitutions into our own. It brings, as we have seen in America, the headship of state into the cockpit of party politics and scandal. It deprives the nation which adopts it of the glamour prestige and continuity which is one of the few remaining assets of our own society. A nation cannot survive by controversy alone ; it needs cement, and that cement can, in the long run. only be afforded by tradition. And tradition needs symbols, and our symbol is the Crown, guarding and forming part of our sovereign body, the Queen in a Parliament of two houses, by which we have been ruled so gloriously and for so long. C. Lord Hailsham, The Listener, 21 October 1976.

COUNTERPOINT

SOCIAL RULES AND SAVOIR VIVREI would like to complain about noisy and inconsiderate behaviour, in the UK this is called anti-social behaviour, it is an offence and can lead to a fine in a (Justice of the Peace or JP) Magistrate’s court or even a prison sentence, up to six months imprisonment/ MC a bench

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of three non-professional magistrates who sit and render immediate justice, they are assisted in their work by a true professional: the Clerk of the Court

I think it is outrageous that the IEP coffee costs twice as much as coffee anywhere else

I would like to complain about people not making space when the tring am is crowded

I would to say that it is outrageous to see the police flaunting traffic rules they are meant to uphold, say at traffic lights, I saw a police car running the red lightsI would like to say that I am angry with the crous because they are very slow in processing grants and this is unacceptable

RacismRacism is not a side-issue in contemporary Britain: it is not a peripheral, minority affair. Britain is undergoing the critical phase of its post-colonial period.

This crisis is not simply economic or political. It is a crisis of the whole culture, of the society's entire sense of itself.

And racism is only the most clearly visible part of the crisis, the tip of the kind of iceberg that sinks ships.

You may not think of the British empire as a subject worth losing much sleep over.

After all, surely the one thing one can confidently say about that roseate age of England's precedence, when the map of half

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the world blushed with pleasure as it squirmed beneath the Pax Britannica, is that it is over, isn't it?

Give or take a Falkland Island, the imperial sun has set. And how fine was the manner of its setting ;

in what good order the British withdrew.

Union Jacks fluttered down their poles all round the world, to be replaced by other flags,

in all manner of outlandish colours.

The pink conquerors crept home, the boxwallahs and memsahibs and bwanas,

leaving behind them parliaments, schools, Grand Trunk Roads and the rules of cricket.

How gracefully the British shrank back into their cold island,

abandoning their lives as the dashing peoples of their dreams,

diminishing from the endless steaming landscapes of India

and Africa into the narrow horizons of their pallid, drizzled streets.

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No point, you may say, in exhuming this particular dead horse in order to flog the poor, decomposed creature all over again. But the connection I want to make is this: those old colonial attitudes are still in operation here in Britain - in what E.P. Thompson, on Channel 4 and in these pages last month, described as the last colony of the British empire. The British authorities, being no longer capable of exporting governments, have chosen instead to import a new empire, a new community of subject peoples of whom they can think, and with whom they can deal, in very much the same way as their predecessors thought of and dealt with "the fluttered folk and wild", the "new-caught, sullen peoples, half-devil and half-child", who made up, for Rudyard Kipling, the white rnan's burden. If you want to understand British racism - and, without understanding, no improvement is possible it is impossible even to begin to grasp the nature of the beast unless you accept its historical roots; unless you see that 400 years of conquest and looting, centuries of being told that you are superior to the fuzzy-wuzzies and the wogs, leave their stain on you all; that such a stain seeps into every part of your Culture, your language and your daily life; and that nothing much hasbeen done to wash it out. P. 417 in Salman RUSHDIE, « The New Empire within Britain », New Society, 9 Dec. 19S2. (C) NCW Statesman & Society.

SECOND TEXT IN DEPTH

William Hague throws down gauntlet to Labour

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over Scottish MPs’ vot-ing rightsOpinion poll shows nearly two-thirds of voters believe Scottish MPs should not vote on Eng-lish-only matters at Westminster

Nicholas Watt, chief political correspondent

The Guardian, Monday 22 September 2014 20.26 BST

The leader of the House of Commons, William Hague, called on Labour to clarify its thinking on the issue by the time of the general election in May. Photograph: ReutersWilliam Hague warned on Monday that the Tories were prepared to take the fight to Labour at next year’s gen-eral election on restricting the voting rights of Scottish MPs if no agreement was reached by January on a new UK constitutional settlement.

The leader of the House of Commons called on Labour to clarify its thinking by the time of the election in May, as an opinion poll showed that nearly two-thirds of voters believe Scottish MPs should be banned from voting on English-only matters at Westminster.

Hague was speaking after David Cameron hosted a meeting of Tory MPs at Chequers to discuss how to im-plement his pledge, delivered in Downing Street in the early hours of Friday morning after the result of the Scottish referendum, to answer the so-called West

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Lothian question. This addresses the anomaly whereby Scottish MPs can vote on matters relating to England at Westminster, while English MPs have no say over devolved matters in Scotland such as education and health.

Cameron made an effort to reach out to about 20 MPs, many of whom have been critical of his premiership, by laying on a reception at his official country residence, Chequers. A warm buffet lunch was served for the min-isters, who included the senior Eurosceptic back-bencher Bernard Jenkin and the sacked attorney gen-eral Dominic Grieve. The meal was followed by a meet-ing that lasted nearly two hours in the upstairs board-room, in which every MP was allowed to speak and Hague acted as note-taker.

Michael Gove, the Scottish-born Tory chief whip who has spoken strongly of the need to restrict the voting rights of Scottish MPs, attended the talks and hosted one of four tables during lunch.

The Conservative party received a boost when a Com-Res/ITV News poll revealed that 65% of voters wanted to block Scottish MPs from voting on English-only mat-ters. Only 15% disagreed with the proposal; 20% of those asked said they did not have an opinion. ComRes polled 2,048 adults across the UK.

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Today is the fourteenth of October two thousand and fourteen

The fourteenth of July seventeen eighty nine

The fifteenth of October two thousand and fourteen

2014

Twenty fourteen / fourteen in the USA

EBOLA : the first case of the virus has appeared in France, in Paris, this could be the start of a terrifying pandemic on the continent.

WEATHER: on Sunday there was a cyclone/ hurricane/ tornado/ freak storm (notice: freak result; a very im-probable result) and (at hallow’een the freaks come out on the street) the weather seems to be more and more unpredictable, no doubt due to climate change and pol-lution in general in our big cities.

Nobel Prize

A French economist has won the NP for his work on market power and regulation.

Transport

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This morning I was late because of the tramway; they were overcrowded, packed with nasty (mean) , noisy, rude, impolite, aggressive, annoying French high-school pupils and they bothered me.

World health:

Yesterday I read an article in Le Monde about starva-tion in the world; it said that one in eight human be-ings is starving now, the situation is very critical espe-cially in China (the Chinese) , India (the Indians) and Vietnam (the Vietnamese). There have been improve-ments since the nineties but starvation remains as the major killer in today’s world.

The poll came after Alex Salmond and Alistair Darling, leaders of the opposing sides in the referendum, warned at the weekend that the prime minister was reneging on his pledge to devolve further powers on tax and welfare (the Welfare State; William Beveridge) to Holyrood. They seized on Cameron’s remarks on Fri-day morning that addressing the rights of MPs from England, Wales and Northern Ireland “must take place in tandem with, and at the same pace as, the settle-ment for Scotland”.

Hague insisted that the two processes – devolving fur-

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ther powers to the Holyrood under a committee chaired by the crossbench peer Lord Smith of Kelvin, and examining how to restrict the voting rights of Scot-tish MPs at Westminster on a cabinet committee chaired by Hague – should take place in parallel. But he said that the processes were not conditional on the other, which means that powers will be devolved to the Scottish parliament regardless of the negotiations on the status of Scottish MPs.

But Hague warned that Labour would pay a price if it did not agree to the changes by May. He said: “If other parties make it impossible to deal with this issue in tandem, then it will be an issue at the general election in May and the people of the country will decide. It is then very important for all political parties to decide where they stand on this, including the Labour party meeting in Manchester this week.”

The leader of the Commons directed his remarks at Labour. But Danny Alexander, the most senior Liberal Democrat minister on the cabinet committee, which will hold its first meeting , said he wanted to secure Labour’s approval for the plans.

Tory MPs at the Chequers meeting described it as good-natured. There was consensus that the issue, known as English votes for English laws, needed to be addressed. But there were differences.

Some MPs accepted the proposal by Sir William

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McKay, former clerk of the House of Commons, who has proposed a “double majority” voting system at Westminster. In a report commissioned by the govern-ment before the referendum, McKay said English MPs should sit on the committee stage of a parliamentary bill that related only to England.

This legislation could only be passed if it wins the sup-port of the majority of English MPs and the majority of the Commons as a whole. But other Tories called for a ban on Scottish MPs voting on English matters.

James Wharton, the Tory MP for Stockton South, who attended the meeting, told the Guardian: “There was unanimous agreement that it is time that English votes for English laws should be enacted. As further powers are devolved to Scotland we must address the English question and find a lasting settlement.”Wharton also raised the challenge to the north-east posed by further devolution to Holyrood which could give Scotland a competitive advantage. “I wanted in particular to raise the question of the challenge to the north east posed by further devolution to Scotland. My concerns were listened to and taken on board.”

Government, citizens and rightsOverview of the UK system of government

The United Kingdom is a parliamentary democracy with a constitutional monarch. A king or queen is the head of state, and a prime minister is the head of government. The people vote in elections for Members of Parliament (MPs) to represent them.

ConstitutionThe United Kingdom doesn't have a single, written constitution (a set of

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rules of government). But this doesn't mean that the UK has an ‘unwritten constitution’.In fact, it is mostly written – but instead of being one formal document, the British constitution is formed from various sources including statute law, case law made by judges, and international treaties.There are also some unwritten sources, including parliamentary conventions and royal prerogatives.MonarchyPolitics in the United Kingdom takes place within the framework of a constitutional monarchy, in which the monarch (Queen Elizabeth II) is head of state and the prime minister is the head of the UK government.Prime Minister and CabinetThe Cabinet is a formal body made up of the most senior government ministers chosen by the prime minister. Most members are heads of government departments with the title 'Secretary of State'.Formal members of the Cabinet are drawn exclusively from the House of Commons and the House of Lords.Parliamentary democracyThe UK is a parliamentary democracy. This means that:members of the government are also members of one of the two Houses

of Parliament (the House of Commons and the House of Lords) – al-though there are rare exceptions to this rule

government is directly accountable to Parliament – not only on a day-to-day basis (through parliamentary questions and debates on policy) but also because it owes its existence to Parliament: the governing party is only in power because it holds a majority in the House of Commons, and at any time the government can be dismissed by the Commons through a vote of ‘no confidence’

Parliamentary sovereigntyThe UK Parliament is a ‘sovereign parliament’ – this means that the legislative body has ‘absolute sovereignty’, in other words it is supreme to all other government institutions, including any executive or judicial bodies.This stems from there being no single written constitution, and contrasts with notions of judicial review, where, if the legislature passes a law that infringes on any of the basic rights that people enjoy under their (written) constitution, it is possible for the courts to overturn it.In the UK, it is still Parliament (and not the judges) that decides what the law is. Judges interpret the law, but they do not make the law.Royal PrerogativeTraditionally, the Royal Prerogative is a body of customary authority, privilege and immunity, recognised in common law jurisdictions possessing a monarchy as belonging to the Crown alone.Today, most prerogative powers are instead directly exercised by ministers, rather than the Crown. They relate to areas including the regulation of the Civil Service, certain areas of foreign and defence policy, and the granting of appointments and honours.

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These powers are beyond the control of the House of Commons and the House of Lords. This means that if, for example, the British government wanted to put British troops into action, this would not formally require the consent of Parliament – even if, in practice, a debate might actually take place in Parliament before such an action was taken.Unitary government and devolutionThe UK has a unitary system of government, meaning a system where power is held in the centre, although some powers have been devolved to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.Permanent and impartial civil serviceThe UK has a civil service that acts impartially and doesn’t change when the government changes.Impartiality is not the same as neutrality. Civil servants work for ministers in the government of the day. Impartiality means that, while working for current ministers, civil servants retain the confidence of the opposition parties to work for them if they come to power.

The Civil Service

The Civil Service carries out the practical and administrative work of government. Civil servants are politically impartial employees, who carry out the policies of the government departments under the control of elected ministers. Find out more about the Civil Service and how to apply to be a civil servant.The role and management of civil servantsCivil servants are servants of the Crown - in effect, they work for the UK government, the Scottish Government and the National Assembly for Wales. The Crown's executive powers are exercised by government ministers, who answer to the appropriate Parliament or Assembly. There is a separate Northern Ireland Civil Service.The duty of civil servantsThe Civil Service has no separate constitutional personality or responsibility. The duty of a civil servant is to the minister in charge of the department where they are serving. A change of minister does not involve a change in staff.The Civil Service Code states the role and responsibilities of civil servants. It was introduced in 1996 and revised in 1999 to take account of devolution. The Code includes an independent line of appeal to the Civil Service Commissioners on alleged breaches of the Code.As Minister for the Civil Service, the Prime Minister is responsible for central co-ordination and management of the Civil Service. He is supported by the Head of the Home Civil Service, who chairs the Civil Service Management Board.The Cabinet Office oversees the management of the Civil Service. Day-to-day responsibility is with departments and agencies, and with the Scottish Government and the National Assembly for Wales.Where civil servants work

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About half of all civil servants provide services direct to the public. These include paying benefits and pensions, running employment services, staffing prisons, issuing driving licences, and providing services to industry and agriculture.Around one in five are employed in the Ministry of Defence and its agencies. The rest are divided between central administrative and policy duties, support services, and services that are largely financially self-supporting, such as those provided by the Royal Mint.About 80 per cent of civil servants work outside London.RecruitmentThe Civil Service Commissioners are responsible for ensuring that recruitment to the Civil Service should be on merit and based on fair and open competition.The Commissioners, who are independent of government, produce a mandatory recruitment code and audit the recruitment policies and practices of departments and agencies to ensure that they comply.They also approve appointments through external recruitment to the Senior Civil Service, and hear and determine appeals in cases of concern about propriety and conscience under the Civil Service Code.

GLOBAL WARMING VOCABULARY1. Floods / flash flood2. Landslides3. Freak storms / freak wave / freak show / this is freaky!4. Mudslides5. Tidal wave6. Heat wave / cold snap7. Drought8. Rainy season9. Dry season10. Gyres (plastic continent)11. Earthquake / a quake12. Earth tremor13. Hurricane14. Storm clouds15. water shortage / water is scarce / water surplus16. Green house effect17. Ozone layer18. Polar ice cap19. Desertification

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20. Deforestation

A good year for nature: after frostiest March for 50 years, a wildlife explosion

GALLERY Hot summer helped ensure that 2013 was an excellent year for British wildlife – especially insects

MAP GR 1 WORK ON PENGUINS FOR NEXT WEEK

Kerry tells Indonesia: climate change is a 'weapon of mass destruction' The US Secretary of State John Kerry has warned Indonesians that man-made climate change could threaten their way of life, deriding those who doubted the existence of “perhaps the world’s most fearsome weapon of mass destruction”.

California opens world's largest solar power farm - as evidence emerges that it leaves birds who fly over 'scorched'

Cooler Pacific Ocean is causing global warming 'pause'

Deaths caused by heat will rise to average of 7,000 a year in 2050

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MAP GR 1

21 10 2014

NOTW

LAW AND JUSTICE

Today is the sentence hearing in South Africa for OP, who was charged with the murder of his girlfriend whom he allegedly shot in self-defense.

This trial has taken eight months to complete, and the verdict should be announced today; whether he is guilty or innocent of manslaughter.

OP pleaded self-defense, in SA, armed response is commonly taken for granted when burglars break into a home.

He could be sentenced to ten years imprisonment if he is convicted.

(notwithstanding his right to appeal against the decision)

Yesterday the chief of the 28 states of the EU had a summit meeting in LUX to take measures against Ebola and help African states

I have heard that people who are guilty of harassment on the internet in the UK could face sentences of up to two years in jail/ in prison.

Some people stalk their victims through social networks

(to stalk v, a stalker = someone who follows and hunts his prey)

The latter are taken very seriously in the UK

The latter/ the former

An internet stalker

Sexual harassment (the four second rule)

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I have another piece of news, some people are terrified in France because young people dressed as clowns have been scaring them.

FP October the seventeenth, a Russian submarine is reported missing, after picking up a distress signal in the vicinity of the Swedish coast

TRANSLATION

Climate change 'killing baby penguins' in Argentina, scientists say

1. TRANSLATE INTO FRENCH2. PREPARE A BRIEF WRITTEN PRESENTATION OF THE MAIN POINTS / Use

the simple guide as a base for your work

1. WHAT HOW WHY2. WHAT : Write a sentence to identify the document N.B. not an introduction: e.g.

“This text, entitled “ killing baby penguins” , written by ……….., published online in the Telegraph Online, on the 21st October two thousand and fourteen, deals with the question of………

3. HOW: the main ideas in this article are:4. WHY : the intention of the author is to draw our attention to…………….

YOUR FINISHED PROPOSITION

“This text, entitled “ killing baby penguins” , written by ……….., published online in the Telegraph Online, on the 21st of October two thousand and fourteen, deals with the question of………the impact of climate change on baby penguins

There are two main ideas in this text, firstly, the idea of climate change and secondly, the star-vation of penguins.

So climate change has a bad impact on penguins and especially on chicks who are more vul-nerable or more likely to die from starvation due to the fact that their natural habitat (the sea ice) is in danger.

MAP GR 1

21 10 2014

HAVE A GOOD HOLIDAY AND PREPARE THE TEXT ON

Cloncurry: A town in the Queensland outback that is so dry it may run out of people

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FOR THE LESSON AFTER THE HOLIDAYS

Exclusive: Climate scepticism blamed as Owen Paterson slashes spending   on global warming

Climate change: Rainforest absorption of CO2 becoming erratic

Extreme El Niño events could double over next 100 years, climate experts warn

Pine Island Glacier melting past 'the point of no return'

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Climate change 'killing baby penguins' in Argentina, scientists say

New studies show what experts say is the direct consequence of global warming on Magellanic penguins in South America

Adam Withnall

Thursday, 30 January 2014

Penguins in South America and Antarctica are struggling to cope with extreme environmental conditions linked to climate change, research has shown.

Two separate studies have been published which scientists say are evi-dence of the increasing plight felt by the animals as a direct result of global warming.

According to one of the projects, climate change is killing off chicks from the world's biggest colony of Magellanic penguins in Argentina.

The penguins' home at Punta Tombo in the south of the country has suffered from an increased rate of powerful rainstorms and blistering heatwaves.

In the one extreme, the chicks' thin, downy coats mean they struggle to cope and can often be abandoned when a heavy downpour hits the colony.

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At the other end of the weather scale their lack of waterproofing means they cannot swim to cool off if it gets too hot.

Dr Ginger Rebstock, from the University of Washington, US - who took part in a 27 year-long study of the 400,000-strong Argentinian colony, said: “We're going to see years where almost no chicks survive if climate change makes storms bigger and more frequent during vulnerable times of the breeding season, as climatologists predict.”

During the course of the study, an average 65 per cent of chicks died each year, with some 40 per cent starving.

Climate change was blamed for an average 7 per cent of chick deaths, but in some years was the most common cause of death. In one year, 43 per cent of all chick deaths were attributed to climate change and in another 50 per cent.

Starvation and the weather were likely to interact increasingly as the climate changed, accord-ing to the researchers.

“Starving chicks are more likely to die in a storm,” said Professor Dee Boersma, also from the University of Washington, who led the study.

Meanwhile, at Ross Island in Antarctica, Adelie penguins are struggling to feed themselves as melting sea ice breaks away into giant icebergs.

Scientists have spent 13 years collecting data on the foraging ability of chick-rearing Adelie penguins, which are dependent on year-round sea ice.

They found that under “normal” conditions they were able to cope with changes in sea ice concentrations.

But the appearance of giant icebergs reduced their chances of catching fish prey. How well they would be able to survive if such conditions became more common was unknown.

“If the frequency of such extreme events increases, then it will become very hard to predict how penguin populations will buffer future sea ice changes,” said lead researcher Dr Amelie Lescroel, from the Centre d'Ecologie Fontionnelle et Evolutive in France.

Both studies appear in the latest edition of the online journal Public Library of Science ONE.

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Fantasy policies will not solve our energy crisisOur power stations are ageing fast and replacements are urgently needed. Yet for years, our politicians have failed to actThe Didcot fire raises serious questions for Ed Miliband, who lumbered us with the Climate Change Act in the first place 

By Telegraph View6:10AM BST 21 Oct 2014

55 Comments

The fire at Didcot B power station is not going to bring the National Grid to its knees. But in combination with other fires at Ironbridge and Ferrybridge power stations, and problems with the Heysham and Hartlepool nuclear reactors, it will chip away at our surplus generating capacity, to the point where blackouts will become, if not likely, then far more likely than they should be.The underlying problem, as Brian Wilson spells out on the opposite page, is simple. Our power stations are ageing fast. We have eked out their lifespan for longer than expected, but replacements are urgently needed. Yet for years, our politicians have failed to act, promoting costly and over-subsidised renewables rather than building new gas or nuclear plants. To make matters worse, much of our capacity has been scrapped, in compliance with environmental restrictions set in Brussels.If things continue as they are, the prospect has been raised of Seventies-style restrictions on energy use, even rolling blackouts. That is a grim prospect for a 21st-century economy. To avoid it, we first need to get serious about energy efficiency. Even if they do not help to save the planet, measures such as better insulation, or more watchful monitoring of the electricity meter, would make sound financial sense. Unfortunately, it seems to go against the spirit of the times to put on a jumper to cope with the chill; it is far easier simply to turn up the thermostat.Beyond that, there is an obvious need for more generating capacity. New

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nuclear plants are at last being approved, but they are expensive to build and take years to construct. There is also a case for suspending the provisions of the Climate Change Act, to buy Britain some time to get itself out of this mess: given the amount of CO2 emitted worldwide, it will hardly doom the planet if we take off our hair shirt for a spell. We should also consider the proposal by Owen Paterson, the former environment secretary, that we build small-scale nuclear reactors rather than pointless offshore wind farms.The Didcot episode also raises extremely serious questions for Labour. Ed Miliband, who lumbered us with the Climate Change Act in the first place, has repeatedly promised that Labour will decarbonise the electricity supply by 2030. As the Didcot accident makes clear, it will already cost tens of billions just to keep the lights on – so where on earth would Mr Miliband find the tens of billions more to replace our coal and gas capacity completely? And what source of power would he use instead? This is fantasy policy, on an issue that could not be more important to Britain’s citizens, or Britain’s future.

Britain needs political climate change to cut soaring energy billsTargets for renewables are unattainable, futile – and will cost us trillions of poundsOwen Paterson, the former environment secretary, has described the renewable energy targets as “the single most regressive policy we have seen in this country since the Sheriff of Nottingham” Photo: REX

By Charles Moore8:44PM BST 17 Oct 2014

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It is surprisingly common for our main political parties and policy-makers to agree about something. When they do, they are usually wrong; the longer they agree, the wronger they get. Few important people dare challenge them.Forty years ago, all three parties thought that you could control inflation only by having prices and incomes policies. The government, businesses and trade unions negotiated the levels of both. The guru economist JK Galbraith announced that such policies would “last forever”. Then Mrs Thatcher questioned them. By the turn of the century, no free country in the world had prices and incomes policies.Some time in this century, we reached a similar state of clever-silly unanimity over green policies, especially carbon emission controls and renewables targets. All parties (except five brave Tories voting against) voted for the second reading of the Climate Change Act in 2008.I have just re-read the environmental sections of the three main party manifestoes at the last general election. Although they lay in to one another (“Labour have said the right things about climate change, but these have proved little more than warm words”), they are comically interchangeable. They all want the same policy – answering 15 per cent of energy demand from renewables by 2020, and making the British economy “carbon-neutral” by 2050. The latter target is agreed by all EU states, but only Britain, in that Act, actually made it law.In any subject involving “science”, we voters still respond more deferentially than we do to ordinary political discourse. So, for some years, we humoured the climate-change lobby, and nodded our heads gravely when experts told us we must help save the planet. But most of us behaved like churchgoers listening to boring sermons. We accepted what we were told, on the unspoken assumption that it wouldn’t make much difference to anything and because the vicar (originally the Rev T Blair) seemed quite a nice chap.

Ken Clarke: 'Immigration cap would put economy at risk'Former Home Secretary urges Prime Minister David Cameron to 'ignore daft ambitions of people whose main interest is getting out of Europe'

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Former Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke Photo: Clara Molden

By Matthew Holehouse, Political Correspondent8:19AM BST 21 Oct 2014

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David Cameron's plans to restrict migration from Europe would put the economy at risk, Ken Clarke, the former Home Secretary, has warned as he urged the Prime Minister not to “compete with bigotry”.Mr Clarke said some Conservative MPs pushing for a harder line on EU migration belong in Ukip, as he urged David Cameron to “ignore the daft ambitions of people whose main interest is getting out of Europe”.There is a “wave of hysteria” over immigration, he said.Nick Clegg last night warned that curbing EU migration could result in "tit-for-tat" measures that would punish British expats in Spain.Mr Cameron is reported to be considering restricting the numbers of National Insurance numbers to low-skilled European migrants.Related Articles

  Migrants storm UK-bound lorries at Calais 20 Oct 2014France proposes to bar 'undesirable' EU migrants on terror grounds 20 Oct 2014PM: British people are 'the boss' 20 Oct 2014Sooner or later, David Cameron is going to have to deal with Ukip 20 Oct 2014

Jose Manuel Barroso, the outgoing president of the European Commission, has warned the move would be an illegal breach of freedom of movement.Mr Cameron said on Monday he was determined to address the issue. “We need to address people’s concerns about immigration," he said."I’m very clear about who the boss is, about who I answer to and it’s the British people. They want this issue fixed, they are not being unreasonable about it, and I will fix it.”

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But Mr Clarke said he wanted to see a “sensible” migration policy and urged the Prime Minister to eschew Ukip’s “nonsense”. The numbers of eastern European migrants has fallen since 2007.“We must get back some common sense," he said. “There isn’t a politician who isn’t in favour of controlling immigration."What we mustn’t do is starting competing with ignorance and bigotry , and what we mustn’t do is start doing damage to our economy by imposing restrictions on people we need to come here in an international economy.“In the Western world, everyone has foreigners coming here to work.“There’s no point in putting an arbitrary figure on it. We need people here contributing to our economy.”He added: “Most of my friends have children who are working abroad… In the modern world you have to get used to that.”He said Tory right-wingers are trying to push Mr Cameron in making demands that are incompatible with EU membership.On the Tories’ Eurosceptics, Mr Clarke added: “I always thought some of them ought to be in Ukip rather than our party. Two of them have gone and neither of those have surprised me very much.”Mr Clegg told the ITV Agenda programme: "Do we really think the Spaniards, once we have chucked them all out, do we really think that 400,000 Brits that are in Spain are not going to be subject to some tit for tat?"Mr Barroso told The Telegraph that the late Baroness Thatcher would have rejected Ukip, being a supporter of EU enlargement and open markets.He said: "It is a mistake to give in to those negative forces of protectionism - because this is a form of labour market protectionism. I am not surprised at the protectionism in some other countries, but in Britain I am surprised. Your tradition is exactly the opposite."As a friend of Britain looking from the outside, I remember well Margaret Thatcher. I worked with her when I was young, as deputy foreign minister of Portugal. The Conservative sentiment was a sentiment of openness. So I am surprised when I see so many Conservative politicians surrendering to the arguments of Ukip.

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"What I remember about Margaret Thatcher, she was for enlargement and for fighting protectionism. I don't remember her defending labour market protectionism. On the contrary she was for opening markets. From what I remember of Thatcher she would not be surrendering to these arguments."Mr Clarke agreed the Thatcher governments were in favour of the free movement of people and goods within the single market.Grant Shapps, the Conservative Party chairman, said Mr Barroso’s remarks proved European officials are “much too bossy, interfering and out of touch”, adding: “They need to wake up and smell the coffee.”He wrote in City AM: “I wish Barroso a long and peaceful retirement. But let me gently remind him that our Prime Minister doesn’t answer to him, or to the European Commission. Our Prime Minister has only one boss."That boss is the British people. So if the British people want greater control over our borders and a say on Europe, that is what our Prime Minister will fight for. No ifs. No buts.”

Patients in mass exodus to England: As Labour blocks international inquiry into crisis-hit Welsh NHS, thousands cross border for life-saving treatment Number of cancer 'refugees' quadrupled in a decade to 15,450 last

yearNearly four times as many Welsh patients cross over as

English ones doOne woman in labour travelled 55 miles to avoid birth in

Welsh hospitalChiefs cancelled visit by international OECD group at

'very short notice'Figures come on Day 2 of Daily Mail series on Labour-

run Welsh NHSBy JAMES CHAPMAN and SAM MARSDEN and INDERDEEP BAINS and EMILY DAVIES and GUY ADAMS FOR THE DAILY MAILPUBLISHED: 22:32 GMT, 20 October 2014 | UPDATED: 08:06 GMT, 21 October 2014

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Desperate: Coral Wilson, 24, travelled 55 miles while in labour to avoid giving birth in a Welsh hospitalPatients are so desperate to flee the crisis-hit Welsh NHS they are going private or moving to England, it emerged last night.Tens of thousands cross the border every year to escape lengthy waiting lists or access life-saving drugs. Nearly four times as many Welsh patients are treated in England as the other way round, official figures show.The number of cancer sufferers travelling to England has quadrupled from 3,471 a decade ago to 15,450 last year. The statistics emerged on the second day of a Daily Mail series exposing the inadequacies of the Labour-run health service in Wales.Campaigners and politicians have called for a full-scale investigation of the problems.Today the Mail can reveal that Labour is facing damaging claims that it has delayed a major international inquiry into the Welsh NHS until after next year's general election.In a letter to Welsh health minister Mark Drakeford, seen by the Mail, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt expressed concern that the Cardiff government cancelled a visit by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development at 'very short notice'.The international watchdog is planning a comparative study of the health services in the four nations of the UK.In last night's letter, Mr Hunt said there had been 'hard work and planning on behalf of all our countries' to reach an agreement on the study – with a final report supposed to be available by February.'The OECD inquiry presents an opportunity for a completely independent look at whether the NHS is better run by Labour in Wales, or the Conservatives in England,' said Tory MP David Davies.'You would have thought Labour, who pride themselves on being the party of the NHS, would be delighted to take part in such an inquiry, but they are doing everything possible to avoid it.'Today's Mail investigation has uncovered shocking stories of 'NHS refugees', including:A new mother whose father drove her 55 miles to an English maternity unit when she

went into labour in an attempt to avoid her giving birth in a Welsh hospital;A cancer sufferer forced to register with a doctor in London to get the drug Avastin,

which can extend the lives of patients by years; An artist who had to pay thousands of pounds for private treatment in Bristol to diag-

nose her life-threatening pancreatic condition. 

The Labour leadership of the Welsh government yesterday sought to dismiss yesterday's revelations by issuing a lengthy rebuttal of ten statements that the Mail stands by.First minister Carwyn Jones said: 'To suggest that the NHS in Wales is somehow in

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every way in a more difficult state than in England is quite simply wrong.' Mr Jones admitted he had not read the Daily Mail's exposure of failings in the Welsh NHS before dismissing the investigation out of hand.

Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones said: 'To suggest that the NHS in Wales is somehow in every way in a more difficult state than in England is quite simply wrong'. He admitted he had not read the Daily Mail's exposéHe told a press conference yesterday: 'I understand that what was reported today was mainly stuff that goes back months or years, not anything that's particularly current – matters that have been dealt with already.'But health campaigner Gareth Williams, whose 82-year-old mother Lilian suffered alleged neglect before her death in hospital in 2012, said: 'It isn't the media denigrating the NHS.

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'People have told us time and again that they intend to sell up and leave Wales

because they are desperately concerned for their health and the health of their loved

ones.'It is most important that a bright light is shone into the corridors of the NHS in Wales, and I welcome the Daily Mail's scrutiny of the Welsh health service.'Kirsty Williams, the Liberal Democrats' leader in Wales, said: 'Labour's running of the NHS in Wales is nothing short of a national scandal. If English voters want to see what a Labour health service will look under Ed Miliband they should look no further than Wales.'

Denied vital drug: Cancer patient Annie Mulholland, from Cardiff, travelled to London to obtain AvastinSome 31,626 people registered with the Welsh NHS received treatment in England last year, but just 8,037 English patients went the other way to be seen by medical staff in Wales.

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Welsh patients were admitted to hospital in England 53,457 times in 2013-14, official figures from the Welsh Assembly show.By contrast, English patients had only 10,940 stays in Welsh hospitals over the same period. The discrepancy is only partly down to the fact that some big city hospitals in England are larger and have more specialist facilities than those in Wales.Around 20,000 English patients choose to register with a Welsh GP in order to take advantage of the fact that prescriptions are free in Wales. They will also use Welsh hospitals if they are nearer their border-region homes.The Welsh government rejected Mr Hunt's claims that it was obstructing the inquiry. A spokesman for Mr Drakeford said: 'This is politically-motivated nonsense. 'Wales is fully committed to an OECD quality review of our NHS and has not pulled out. The OECD visit has been postponed because it became clear that the UK Government were putting party politics ahead of good scrutiny. 'If they continue to renege on the agreed terms of the review then an OECD quality review of Wales will be commissioned separately.'A Welsh government spokesman said: 'To describe patients from one country being treated in another as 'refugees' is insulting and ignores the relationship people living on either side of the border have with the two health services.'Some Welsh patients, especially those who live close to the English border, will find it easier and quicker to access routine NHS hospital services in England because they are closer to their homes than facilities in Wales.'An urgent independent inquiry into the Welsh NHS is being demanded by the British Medical Association, the Conservatives, Welsh nationalist party Plaid Cymru and Welsh Labour MP Ann Clwyd. 

Health refugees forced to sell up and move to England for life-saving careBy GUY ADAMS It's the shocking series that demolishes Ed Miliband's claim that only Labour can be trusted on health. Yesterday, we highlighted cases of patients in Wales who died needlessly. Today we reveal the 'health refugees' fleeing the Welsh NHS...Less than two miles from Mariana Robinson's stone cottage in the pretty village of Llandogo is a sign informing motorists they are crossing the border between England and Wales. Her home sits a few hundred yards above the western bank of the River Wye, in an ancient woodland that has, at different points in history, belonged to each of the two countries.Today, however, Llandogo is part of Wales. And that unfortunate geographic fact last year left Mariana facing a £3,000 medical bill. The reason? Serious bowel and stomach problems, which had left the 60-year-old artist suffering constant pain.

Frontier: Mariana Robinson, who lives just two miles over the Welsh border, sought treatment in Bristol

Mariana Robinson travelled to Bristol for treatment

After waiting an astonishing ten months to see a Welsh NHS gastroenterologist, she resorted in October 2013 to paying to see private specialists over the Severn Bridge

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in Bristol. There, after a series of tests, doctors concluded Mariana has a rare and life-threatening pancreatic condition.They duly recommended that she undergo an urgent biopsy in order to get a full diagnosis and outline a full treatment plan.That was a year ago. Since then, Mariana — who cannot afford to pay to have this second round of treatment privately — has been waiting for the Welsh NHS to carry out her supposedly 'urgent' biopsy.So far, she's had precious little success, aside from being offered an appointment to see an NHS specialist in December — some 24 months after she first sought treatment

It's ludicrous, and the thought of it breaks my heart because I love my house - but the Welsh NHS has deteriorated rapidly in the past few years. You don't know who you are going to see, or when, or whereAdding insult to this injury, she has recently learned that England's NHS would be willing to carry out the procedure in a matter of weeks. But Mariana's local health authority, the Aneurin Bevan Health Board, refuses to foot a bill for her to be seen more quickly outside Wales.Despite suffering daily pain, Mariana is therefore now 'seriously considering' selling her home and moving across the border, believing it to be the only way to secure acceptable health care she so urgently needs.'It's ludicrous, and the thought of it breaks my heart because I love my house,' she says. 'But the Welsh NHS has deteriorated rapidly in the past few years. You don't know who you are going to see, or when, or where.'Mariana is also now deeply concerned about what might happen to her in the event that her condition leads to a medical emergency. After all, the College of Emergency Medicine warned recently that Welsh A&E Departments are 'at the point of meltdown'.'There have been many occasions, in recent months, where I've been so very sick, and have been tempted to call an ambulance,' she says. 'But I'd rather die at home in my bed than on some trolley queuing for a hospital bed in Cardiff.'So far, so outrageous. But perhaps the most depressing aspect of Mariana's situation is just how common it has become.Official figures show that an extraordinary total of 31,000 Welsh patients are now travelling to England for treatment each year.

Mariana's MP David Davies, left, dubbed her part of a growing band of 'NHS Refugees' crossing the border for better care, while Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, right, said he was concerned about a cancelled OECD visitMeanwhile, after 15 years of Labour rule, the Welsh NHS is facing 'imminent meltdown', according to a British Medical Association report published last month, which called for 'an urgent and full-scale independent inquiry into all NHS services throughout Wales'.Little wonder that in April, when Mariana's case was raised in the Commons, her MP,

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David Davies, dubbed her part of a growing band of 'NHS Refugees' crossing the border in search of better care.'The tragedy of her situation is just how common it is,' says the Conservative MP for Monmouth.'Most of my constituency lies a short drive from England. Every few days, I hear from yet another person who has been forced to pay for private treatment there, or who is considering moving home because of the dire state of the Welsh NHS.'Many seek access to routine surgery. In Wales, you must wait on average 170 days for a hip or knee replacement, according to a recent Nuffield Trust report. In England and Scotland that figure is a mere 70 days.

Waiting lists are longer in Wales.  Healthcare spending is going down there, and yet it's going up in England. The system is in crisis' David Davies MP 'Waiting lists are longer in Wales. Healthcare spending is going down there, and yet it's going up in England,' adds Mr Davies. 'The system is in crisis. I liken the border to a sort of Iron Curtain; when it comes to healthcare, people will do anything to get to the other side.'David Cameron clearly agrees. Earlier this year, he described Offa's Dyke as a 'line between life and death' thanks to the 'national scandal' of the Welsh NHS. The service has been entirely run by Labour since Welsh devolution in 1999.Between 2010 and this year, the party cut Welsh NHS budgets by eight per cent, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, even as the Tory-led government in England increased NHS spending there by one per cent above the rate of inflation each year.Against this backdrop, tales abound of so-called 'health refugees' crossing between the two systems.Take Annie Mulholland from Cardiff, who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2011. Like many patients, the 61-year-old grandmother wished to take Avastin, an expensive but potentially life-saving drug which is widely available in England through the NHS's Cancer Drugs Fund.In Wales, though, there is no Cancer Drugs Fund because the Labour administration believes that, among other things, it enriches drug companies.The vast majority of health boards (which are largely run by Labour activists and local trade unionists) refuse to endorse the drug, for similar reasons.As a result, Annie was forced to register as a resident of her daughter's cramped home in Brixton, South London, and sign up as a patient of a local GP to receive the drug.She is currently undergoing Avastin treatment at the Royal Marsden Hospital in Fulham.'In the NHS in Wales,' she says, 'no one tells you anything. Patients are left completely in the dark.'Your care is something that happens to you, something that's inflicted upon you, not something you have a say in.'

Clash: The Welsh government, which runs the service, issued a rebuttal to ten points in yesterday's coverageAnnie adds that her original Welsh oncologist didn't mention the possibility of being

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prescribed Avastin because she knew her health board wouldn't fund it. Annie only found out about its availability from a charity.'I was very angry that I hadn't been properly informed about what drugs are out there.'The tragic thing is that I'm not alone. I know women who are holding bake-sales to raise money to pay for the treatment. One friend raised £2,000 but it wasn't even enough for one course.'Annie's experience highlights a depressing divide between the state of NHS cancer treatment in England and Wales.'When my doctor found a lump, I had to wait 12 weeks for an ultrasound scan, and that's before they could arrange an appointment to see a gynaecologist, for cancer diagnosis, treatment and all of that,' she says.'Yet in England, I was referred within a few days after registering.'Official statistics paint a similar picture. For example, 50 per cent of Welsh cancer patients have to wait six weeks or more for crucial scans and tests. In England, by contrast, the figure is around six per cent.Cancer patients are not the only ones heading over the border, either.

NHS spending (archive)

Take Annette Humber, a 64-year-old grandmother from Porth, in the Rhondda Valley. She recently spent her life-savings, and took out a mortgage, to move and buy a £110,000 house across the Wales/England border in Gloucestershire's Forest of Dean. Annette moved after suffering constant pain for eight years while trying, and failing, to get the Welsh NHS to sort out complications with her hip.She says: 'I have been lucky to be able to fund this move; many others are not so fortunate. Moving house is of course stressful, but nothing is as stressful as being ill and not being treated.'Within three weeks of arriving in England, Annette was seen by a specialist and put on a waiting list for a ceramic hip that she believes may cure her condition. She says it would have taken at least six months for such treatment to be offered in Wales.

I feel sorry for the Welsh people. I would never go

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back to Wales to live, which is sad because it's a beautiful place. I feel safer here'I feel sorry for the Welsh people. I would never go back to Wales to live, which is sad because it's a beautiful place. I feel safer here,' she says. 'I lived in Wales when my children were growing up, and the NHS was honestly better there 40 years ago than it is now.'Another 'refugee' is Kay Smith. She is buying a house in England to avoid suffering the fate of her 80-year-old mother, Jean, who died in a Welsh hospital in 2011 after staff failed to administer blood-thinning drugs.Attempts to cover up the botched treatment led officials to send two misleading letters to her family. The hospital was later forced to apologise and pay compensation.Kay says that moving to England will give her 'peace of mind if we are ever in need of care'.'It's not something I should have to do,' she says. 'My family and I have paid a lot of taxes into the system over the years.'Perhaps the most depressing aspect of this affair is the degree to which coping with shoddy NHS care has become part of daily life.I live near Monmouth, a few miles inside the Welsh border, where a much-loved local vicar was recently forced to pay almost £20,000 for Avastin treatment denied by the Welsh NHS.I have friends stuck on endless waiting lists, and know heart-attack patients who have driven themselves to casualty to avoid relying on over-stretched ambulances.

Official figures show Welsh NHS is lagging behind England on a host of key indicators - most notably waiting times - and until recently reveal the Welsh Government has been cutting NHS funding by 1 per cent a yearAlong the M4 corridor in South Wales, it's increasingly common to hear of patients crossing the Severn Bridge to Bristol for emergency treatment.One of these is Coral Wilson, a 24-year-old from Bridgend, who travelled 55 miles to Southmead Hospital in Bristol this summer to avoid having to give birth in her scandal-ridden local Princess of Wales hospital.She undertook the car journey, while suffering contractions, in an attempt to prevent her child from being born under an NHS where she alleges that both her sister and grandmother had suffered medical blunders.But it wasn't to be: in the event, the English hospital decided that she was still in the early stages of labour and sent her home.And so, against her will, Coral ended up giving birth at the Princess of Wales.'It was horrific,' she recalls. 'The ward was dirty, there was blood all over the floor and the seat in the toilet.

Bad memories: Yvonne Mainwaring, 61, believes botched surgery cost her 93-year-old father his leg'The nurse said she would clean it, but I went back an hour-and-a-half later and it was still dirty. None of my pain relief worked, including the epidural. I don't want to have another child there.Her father, Garry, 46, adds: 'I didn't want my grandchild to be born in Wales. I can never, ever trust the Welsh NHS again.Someone else desperate to avoid the Princess of Wales hospital is Yvonne

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Mainwaring, 61, who believes botched surgery there caused a bout of gangrene which cost her 93-year-old father, a war veteran, his legShe has 'fears for her family' if they continue using local health services, and tells me she therefore intends to move home. 'We are now looking at property over the border in Ross-on-Wye.'The Welsh Government's response to criticism of its NHS is a depressingly-familiar mixture of denial and obfuscation.It emerged last week, for example, that Labour ministers are seeking to prevent the internationally-respected Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) from carrying out a 'comparative study' of healthcare in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.The OECD's researchers were due to visit the Principality this summer to carry out their report, which would be published early in 2015.However, shortly before their arrival (and after flights had been booked) the Welsh Government suddenly let it be known that they would not be welcome.Instead, they demanded that the report be delayed until after the General Election, and only published after their officials had the right to 'verify' its findings.'The Department of Health refused to give an assurance that they wouldn't use unverified figures in the General Election,' complained Carwyn Jones, the First Minister of Wales, in an interview with the Western Mail at the weekend.Maybe so. But if, as Mr Jones claims, his NHS is being so brilliantly run, you'd expect the OECD report to sing the Welsh Government's praises — meaning that Mr Jones and his party should surely be doing all it can to have it published before polling day.Meanwhile, back in Llandogo, Mariana Robinson shares a final anecdote about a Welsh NHS patient who lives near the border.A few months ago, she suffered a minor stroke while visiting a friend in Bath.After being discharged from a hospital there she discovered that her medical notes referred to her as an 'overseas visitor' due to her Welsh home address.For Mariana, that was a final insult. 'We should never have devolved the health service to Wales,' she says.'The NHS should be just that: a national health service.'

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