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Showing posts from April 6, 2013

Pattinson Stewart date

Pattinson Stewart date , Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart were seen on a date in Los Angeles, holding hands and putting at least a temporary end to the rumors that their relationship has fizzled. The two were seen out with friends is the city’s Los Feliz neighborhood, going out for sushi before taking an intimate walk together. Pattinson and Stewart held hands on their date and looked “really happy and lovey-dovey,” a witness told PopSugar. “Kristen grabbed his arm, and they were walking and joking,” the witness said. Pattinson and Stewart’s date came after a long time apart for the couple. Robert was gone from Kristen for months while filming his upcoming movie The Rover in Australia. Since then they’ve been making up for lost time, going on several dates including a March 19 trip to a karaoke bar and an appearance following the March 23 Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards. Before Pattinson’s return, the couple had been plagued by rumors of a breakup. Already on shaky ground after

NYC hepatitis scare

NYC hepatitis scare , If you ate dessert at a small plate restaurant on Manhattan's West Village, you should consider getting a hepatitis vaccine. An employee handling sweets at the Alta tapas restaurant between March 23 and April 2 was infected with hepatitis A, New York City's health department said. There are no confirmed cases of patrons contracting the disease, health officials said in a statement. But they advise guests who ordered dessert during the time in question to get a shot as a precautionary measure. The department did not say if there is concrete evidence the virus actually ended up in food. The restaurant believes that about 3,000 people ate there during that time, and about 15% of patrons -- or 450 -- ordered dessert. Hepatitis A spreads by mouth via traces of fecal matter from an infected person, the health department said. If someone with the disease does not wash his or her hands before preparing food, the food can become contaminated. The disease infects t

FBI Petraeus home

FBI Petraeus home , FBI agents met with former CIA Director David Petraeus at his northern Virginia home as part of an investigation into whether an ex-lover improperly handled classified documents, USA Today reported. Petraeus resigned in November after it emerged that he had had an extra-marital affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell, an Army reserve intelligence officer who is also married. It was a stunning downfall for a respected Army general who led troops in Afghanistan and Iraq and was considered a potential White House contender. Friday's interview was part of an ongoing investigation into Broadwell's handling of classified information, a federal law enforcement source told the newspaper. An official close to the FBI investigation told Reuters the report was "not inaccurate" but declined to elaborate. Petraeus' lawyer did not respond to requests for comment on Saturday. Agents removed materials from Broadwell's North Carolina home in Novembe

Shakira ex-boyfriend

Shakira ex-boyfriend , Shakira has hit back at her ex-boyfriend's allegations he is owed a slice of her fortune for guiding her career, insisting she was already a superstar when they met in 2000. Antonio de la Rua filed a $100 million lawsuit against the Colombian singer last November following the end of their 10-year relationship in 2010. In his complaint, de la Rua argued he is due a chunk of her earnings after acting as Shakira's manager and helping her negotiate lucrative contracts. Shakira has now submitted a request demanding the dismissal of his lawsuit, maintaining her ex-boyfriend advised her on some decisions but was never employed as her official manager. The Whenever, Wherever hitmaker, who now has a baby son with Spanish soccer star Gerard Pique, insists the only agreement she signed with de la Rua was a 2006 document stating they would both keep their own assets in the case of a split.

Kerri Walsh baby

Kerri Walsh baby , Olympic beach volleyball gold medalist Kerri Walsh Jennings and her v-ball pro hubby Casey Jennings have a brand new prize to brag about today: They're proud parents of daughter Scout Margery Jennings, born Saturday morning.  Kerri announced the news via her Facebook, sharing: "She's here! She's here! She's here! Our precious baby girl is finally here! Scout Margery Jennings is as beautiful as can be. She came in like lightening and is all ready a beautiful rainbow ;) so pink & lovely & healthy ♥ Thank you all so very much, with all my heart, for your love, support & prayers. I can't tell you how much it means to me & how very much it helped. Wishing you all a wonderful, blessed day as this day certainly is for us. Xo K." And it looks like Kerri's history-making Olympic partner Misty May-Treanor couldn't be happier! The pro tweeted: "Yeah Scout Margery Jennings. Congrats to my teammate @kerrileewalsh &

Cooper, Neeson sue

Cooper, Neeson sue , Bradley Cooper and Liam Neeson are suing two home cinema companies. 'The A-Team' co-stars have joined forces and filed a lawsuit, claiming their faces have been used in advertisements for the companies without their permission. A screen shot of the duo from the action movie is featured on a big projection screen being used to promote Vutec Corp. and First Impressions Theme Theaters. The 38-year-old 'Silver Linings Playbook' star and the 60-year-old Irish actor, who believe 'The A-Team' is an inappropriate way to sell a movie product, want the advertisements to be removed immediately and damages for being associated with the big screen companies without their permission. According to gossip website TMZ.com, the 'Taken 2' actor points out in the lawsuit that he has won many acting awards and has been nominated for prestigious accolades, including Oscars and Golden Globes, more than 30 times, making his endorsements extremely valuab

Katey Sagal Glee

Katey Sagal Glee , Katey Sagal will bring some of her biker-badness to "Glee." Show co-creator Ryan Murphy revealed on Twitter that the "Sons of Anarchy" star has joined the fourth season of Fox's musical hit to play Artie's (Kevin McHale) mother. "So thrilled to announce my friend Katey Sagal is playing Artie's mom on Glee! There is nothing this woman can't do!" he tweeted late Thursday night. Details are scant on how many episodes the former "Married... with Children" star will appear in, or when her run will begin, but McHale for one can't wait to get the mom he always envisioned for himself on the show, responding with the appropriate glee on his Twitter feed: "Wooo!" According to The Hollywood Reporter, at last summer's Comic-Con, McHale said he always pictured Sagal to play the role of his mama (we guess her parenting skills on "Married... with Children" didn't worry him). While the

N. Korea warns embassies

N. Korea warns embassies , Embassies staying put. Word of the launch delay comes amid bellicose posturing and threats that have grown more dramatic by the day on the Korean Peninsula, including North Korea's warning to foreign diplomats in Pyongyang that if war breaks out, it cannot guarantee their safety. On Friday, officials met with ambassadors to ask whether they needed help evacuating their personnel, several diplomatic missions said. The same concern apparently does not extend to foreign tourists. Amanda Carr, who works for a British travel company, wrapped up a pleasure tour Saturday of North Korea with a group of 20 tourists. Before leaving the country, they were able to take in a rally in Pyongyang. The British Embassy in North Korea gave her company, Koryo Tours, some guidance in light of the international tensions. "We've been advised to continue with the tours," Carr said. Her North Korean partners -- from the state's travel agency -- cont

Zsa Zsa Gabor mansion

Zsa Zsa Gabor mansion , The husband of ailing movie actress Zsa Zsa Gabor reached a deal on Friday that will allow the cash-strapped couple to stay in their Bel Air mansion for the remainder of her life. A Los Angeles judge ruled that Gabor's ninth husband, Frederic Prinz von Anhalt, could sell the four-bedroom, five bathroom mansion in a deferred transaction. Under the deal, the buyer will allow Gabor, 96, and von Anhalt to remain in the home for at least three years, or until the actress dies, and pay them $325,000 a year, Gabor's publicist John Blanchette told Reuters. Gabor, the Hungarian-born star of 1950s films "Moulin Rouge" and "Lili", has been in and out of hospital since breaking her hip in 2010 and having her leg amputated in January 2011. Von Anhalt put the house up for sale at an asking price of $15 million two years ago, citing financial difficulties and the costs of medical bills for Gabor. "This decision is going to make her very happ

Tim Tebow Seahawks

Tim Tebow Seahawks , Tim Tebow deserves another shot in the NFL. That shot can't come in Seattle. With Matt Flynn off to the Oakland Raiders (h/t Mike Garafolo and Robert Klemko of USA Today), the Seahawks are in need of a backup quarterback. There's plenty of options the team can try, but it has already crossed Tebow off the list, according to Danny O'Neil of The Seattle Times: There's a prominent name not mentioned in that group, one who has been rumored to be a potential target of Seattle: Tim Tebow. He's not expected to be someone the team pursues as it looks to find a backup to starter Russell Wilson. O'Neil brings up Seneca Wallace, Tyler Thigpen, Brady Quinn and Matt Leinart as viable backup choices. Any of those four would be far better than Tebow. Bringing in the former Heisman Trophy winner doesn't make any sense at all. Well, he would at least fit in with the Seahawks' running scheme. That's about the only positive you can think of in

Pete Rose 'stupid'

Pete Rose 'stupid' , Pete Rose was known throughout his career for his hard-nosed style of play, so when it comes to unwritten rules, he’s not listening. Rose recently sat down for an interview with Grantland, and he touched on a number of topics, including baseball’s unwritten rules, which seem to come to light for various reasons each season. Whether it’s throwing at hitters, bunting during a no-hitter or taking an extra base with a big lead, there’s always something that ruffles the feathers of those who consider such “rules” to be sacred. Leave it to Charlie Hustle to tell it like it is. “I used to get screwed when we had a seven- or eight-run lead, because I couldn’t bunt for a single or I’m ‘showing up the opposition,’” Rose reportedly said. “Guys that are home run hitters can continuously just swing from their ass and trot around the bases,” he continued. “I remember one time we had a 7-1 lead in the sixth inning in Houston, and J.R. Richard was pitching. I hit a sin

Josh Hamilton's wife

Josh Hamilton's wife , Katie Hamilton, the wife of Los Angeles Angels right fielder Josh Hamilton, was forced to call stadium security because of the fan abuse Friday during the Texas Rangers' home opener. Katie Hamilton and the kids remained in their seats the entire game, Josh Hamilton said, with two security guards present during the entire game. There were no ejections, the Rangers said. HAMILTON: Greeted with chorus of boos, Ks "She had to call security just because people were getting ugly,'' Josh Hamilton said prior to Saturday's game. "It's cool to get ragged on about normal things, but when you get a little swearing and jawing back at Katie, and saying inappropriate things, it's a little different story. "They were saying personal stuff, stuff that was inappropriate with kids around. It's a good lesson for the kids, just about people in general, and not putting faith in them, but the man upstairs.'' A Rangers fan holds

Kathy Griffin canceled, Bravo Shutting Down

Kathy Griffin canceled , Recently Bravo talk show is actually doing what many viewers wish they could do: shutting down Kathy Griffin. On Friday, the actress/comedienne revealed the news during her stand up show in Cincinnati. A Bravo rep tells TheWrap the network has no comment. Update 2:46 p.m.: A source close to the production confirms the cancelation to TheWrap. According to BravoRatings.com, an independent site which tracks viewership on the network's shows, "Kathy" averaged 417,167 viewers and 231,583 viewers in the ad-coveted 18-49 demo. In February, the series was moved out of its primetime slot at 10 p.m. on Thursdays to 11:30 p.m. Over its two seasons, the weekly "Kathy" saw various format changes. For the majority of Season 1, which premiered in April 2012, the series avoided the usual late night celebrity guests in lieu of a panel of "real folks" discussing TV and newsy hot topics. It changed its tune later on the seas

First time for Mormons

First time for Mormons , For the first time in the event's 183-year history, a woman has led a prayer at the semiannual gathering of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Jean A. Stevens led the morning session's closing prayer Saturday for the more than 100,000 church members gathered in Salt Lake City for the two-day general conference, and the millions more watching via satellite, radio or Internet broadcast. A feminist group launched a campaign earlier this year asking church leaders to let women lead the opening and closing prayer — a first for the conference — as a symbol of gender equality. In addition to holding other church roles, Stevens is member of a three-person board that advises and assists parents on teaching their children about the faith. Women hold leadership positions in the church but aren't allowed to be bishops or presidents of Mormon stakes, which are geographic areas similar to Catholic dioceses. In January, the "Let Women

2 dead at day care, Canada Day Care

2 dead at day care , A man shot dead another man at a day care center in Quebec then killed himself, and the 53 children present were evacuated unharmed. Police said some may have watched the killings. For a moment, Canada feared its own version of last year's deadly school shooting in the U.S., where 20 young children were killed. Police on Friday received a call about an armed man with a shotgun threatening people, Gatineau Police Chief Mario Harel said. They arrived to find one man dead with a shotgun beside him and a second man, an unidentified employee of the day care, also dead. Harel said the shooting seemed to be related to a recent separation between a couple but didn't elaborate. The Racines De Vie Montessori daycare is located in two homes, and Sergeant Jean-Paul LeMay said police found a body in each one. LeMay said the children were safe at a nearby house. Police were investigating the link between the men and the possibility of domestic violence, LeMay said

Megan Fox redhead

  Megan Fox redhead , Megan Denise Fox an American actress is a redhead! According to an April 5 report by E! Online, the brunette beauty traded her dark locks to rock a rusty red look for her new role as reporter April O’Neil in the upcoming “Ninja Turtles” movie. But will the hair color be enough to convince “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” fans that Megan was the right choice for the role? Perhaps she should have thrown on April’s signature yellow jumpsuit, because it’s unlikely that her hair color change will put an end to all the fanboy hate. She already helped to ruin one famous franchise that makes kids of the ‘80s and ‘90s feel all nostalgic by starring in a few of the “Transformers” movies, and she brought extra drama to that series of films by comparing director Michael Bay to Hitler and getting herself fired. But now all is forgiven, and Bay has invited her to help him turn the heroes in a half shell into caricatures of their old selves. But to be fair, Bay is just producin

Mike Tyson wife lawsuit

Mike Tyson wife lawsuit , Mike Tyson's wife Lakiha "Kiki" Spicer files lawsuit against someone who's sending her threatening emails. Mike Tyson's wife is suing someone -- or multiple people -- for harassing her over the Internet, according to TMZ. Spicer, 36, filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles yesterday (April 5), claiming she's receiving emails that are threatening her life and her family's life. The thing is, it's a mystery who Spicer is suing. According to court documents obtained by TMZ, Spicer says the defendant -- who can only be identified by an IP address -- is "extorting" and "making false allegations and accusations" against her. And although she has not listed any specific examples of these threats, Spicer insists the repeated contact is causing her emotional distress and has hired famed attorney Mark Geragos to handle her case.

3-year-old killed by garage door

3-year-old killed by garage door , The 3-year-old child has been killed by garage door in Maryland in what appears to be a tragic accident, according to authorities. The toddler was reportedly left unattended for a short while, and managed to start playing around with the remote control to the garage door. The young girl is thought to have been opening and closing the door repeatedly for a while when she got caught under it as it came down on top of her. The little girl's mother reportedly found her crushed and pinned down under the door. Tragically the toddler died from her injuries from the incident. According to WUSA 9, Charles County Sheriff's officials explained that the girl's mother was inside the house at the time the little girl was crushed. It is believed that the girl was originally with the mother in the main part of the house, but managed to wander off and found a way to get into the garage. There, she found the remote control to the garage door. Authorities a

Gaga $1M GOP offer

Gaga $1M GOP offer , Stefani Joanne stage name Lady Gaga turned down a $1M GOP offer to perform at the Republican National Convention. On April 5, Starpulse reported that Lady Gaga refused to reach any kind of deal that would have her supporting Mitt Romney. Despite various efforts made by Romney's camp, Gaga wanted nothing to do with any of it. Perhaps because she's a huge Obama supporter... "Representatives at the American Action Network, the group behind the convention, even tried to sway Gaga by offering to donate $150,000 to a domestic violence shelter in exchange for her participation," Starpulse reported. The money would have been great for the charity, but Gaga could easily donate that amount on her own. The Gaga $1M GOP offer was added on to that $150,000 donation -- it sounds like the GOP really wanted to do something big. Barack Obama and his camp landed Katy Perry, Beyonce, and Oprah in the past, and really there was no competition from the other side.

Stage management allowed Lib Dems to skirt real debate about economy

Choice offered delegates did not reflect real row about how to interpret fiscal mandate and whether to tolerate further cuts Share 14 inShare0 Email Lib Dem frontbenchers vote on a policy motion at the party conference in Brighton. Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images Much praise is being lavished on the Liberal Democrats' open policy-making, and how the party bravely confronted the big topic in British politics – whether to change economic course to relieve the recession. By a large margin, the conference decided to stick with George Osborne's deficit plans. That account of Monday's debate is indeed broadly correct, but for students of party democracy in the UK, the truth is also more subtle. It is an everyday story of conference stage management. A truer account goes as follows – the party's elected conference committee, as it normally does, met a fortnight before the conference to decide the amendments to be selected for debate alongside the main mot

Royal privacy: 2-1 to the Windsors (with one own goal for Harry)

The Queen is entitled to protection when she's saying humdrum things – but the same doesn't apply to Prince Charlie's commercial interests Share 18 inShare0 Email 'There good reason for the Queen keeping her political opinions to herself.' Photograph: Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images What an extraordinary tangle we seem to have created in the space of a few weeks over the thorny question of royal privacy. It's bad enough that the Guardian has to fight its way through the courts to gain access to Prince Charles's covert interventions into public policy. Now we have the BBC apologising to Buck House because one of its more distinguished correspondents let slip her wholly unremarkable view that the self-styled radical cleric Abu Hamza should be required to shut up. All this and Prince Harry's willie on display in a Las Vegas hotel, not to mention the Duchess of Cambridge's boobs not on display but photographed in the private grounds of a French chat

Politics live: readers' edition - Thursday 27th September

Share breaking news, leave links to interesting articles online and chat about the week's events in this open thread Share 0 inShare0 Email What's caught your eye today? Share your views, links and news in our open thread Photograph: Kieran Doherty/Reuters I'm not writing my Politics Live blog today but, as an alternative, here's Politics Live: the readers' edition. It's intended to be a place where you can catch up with the latest news and find links to good politics blogs and articles on the web. Please feel free to use this as somewhere you can comment on any of the day's political stories - just as you do when I'm writing the daily blog. But it would be particularly useful for readers to flag up new material in the comments – breaking news or blogposts or tweets that are worth passing on because someone is going to find them interesting. A lot of what I do on my blog is aggregation – finding the good stuff and passing it on - and you can

In cases such as the Rochdale sex gang, do we ask too much of social services?

Public servants are getting it in the neck from all quarters, particularly over child protection. But we must remember that the work they do is being threatened by ever-spiralling council cuts Share 3 inShare0 Email Shabir Ahmed was the ringleader of a gang of Asian men who groomed young white girls for sex in Rochdale and Oldham. Photograph: Greater Manchester police/PA I've just been listening to a retired social worker and Rochdale council's chief executive being harried on Radio 4's Today programme over the failure of the town's police and social services to protect teenage girls from predatory sexual exploitation. It comes as a report is published in the wake of prison sentences for nine men involved in an organised sex ring earlier this year. Alas, we're getting used to this sort of story. This week the Times, whose reporter Andrew Norfolk has done a lot of good work in this area, published a similar exposé in Rotherham, where again both social wor

Vince Cable is the answer to his own northern conundrum

Nick Clegg's leadership has run out of time to win back disaffected supporters in the north of England, says the Northerner's political commentor Ed Jacobs. Who might? Check the mirror, Vince Share 30 inShare0 Email Seeing the light. Might Cable have a chance where Clegg has none. Photograph: Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images Addressing the party faithful in Brighton this week, Business Secretary, Vince Cable highlighted the north as an example of the difficulties that the Lib Dems are facing in being outflanked by Labour on the left. Speaking of the Labour Party's 'reasonable poll ratings', he declared to delegates: We know from their union funded campaigns against us in Northern cities that Labour can still be a ruthless political machine. In light of the internal party memo leaked to the Spectator's 'Coffee House' blog this week, pointing to the party having a chronic shortage of firm data to understand what the public across the north and elsewhere

Cameron doesn't get the north, argues shadow minister

Ahead of the Labour party conference in Manchester, Michael Dugher, Labour MP for Barnsley East and shadow minister without portfolio, argues that David Cameron and his policies are all at sea in northern England. Share 58 inShare0 Email David Cameron at Barnsley College. The north is looking like an electoral wilderness for his party. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA Last week saw the news that David Cameron has allowed the appointment of Dr Tim Leunig as a new senior adviser to the education secretary, Michael Gove. Leunig was dubbed the "barmy boffin" when he co-authored a 2008 report that suggested giving up on regeneration attempts in 'failing cities' like Liverpool, Bradford, Sunderland and Hull (which he said were "beyond revival"), and switching investment programmes to booming parts of the south of England instead. But the sense that senior people in this government have a hostility to the north of England built into their political DNA is by

Where are the customers' yachts? The lawyers have them

Libor rigging may spotlight casino banking, but PPI mis-selling shows the staid high-street side is no stranger to scandal Share 1 inShare1 Email Yachts at the Monaco Yacht Show … where's ours? Photograph: Sebastien Nogier/EPA At the Lib Dem conference this week I bumped into an old chum, a financial consultant who was as keen as Nick and Vince to blame Gordon Brown and Ed Balls for Britain's debt hangover. My friend also remains an enthusiast for the euro, but there's not much we can do about that. What worries me more is that the banking crowd have shown even less repentance than the shadow chancellor for what went wrong. Patrick Wintour interviews Balls for Friday's Guardian. He's always interesting, though his insistence on spartan spending discipline remains hard to square with his and GB's expansive record at No 11. Never mind, more important is the continuing fallout from the misconduct of the banks – for which two prime pieces of evidence flo

Liberal Democrats in the firestorm - time to push the vision

As Labour gets up steam in Manchester, former Liberal MP Michael Meadowcroft urges Liberal Democrats to show faith and hold fast to the party's core beliefs, whatever the sneering of the media Share 11 inShare0 Email The greatest Liberal of them all: William Gladstone, four times Prime Minister, probably used the newspapers to line his bins. Photograph: Hulton Getty The Liberal Democrat conference went exactly as I expected. Great solidarity, determined to stick to the task of government but the party seemingly unable to tackle its key role of promoting its own vision of a Liberal society. For seventy years Tory and Labour parties did not need to focus their artillery on the Liberal party. Their political hegemony was not seriously threatened. And for all that time the press could patronise Liberals, praising their good ideas while noting their lack of serious political influence. Today it is very different. With Liberal Democrats in government both other parties desperate

Ed Balls struggles to win converts as two stage strategy ties Labour in knots

Generous Ed, who will promise spending to stimulate growth, will make way for austere Ed in run up to general election Share 0 inShare0 Email Ed Balls scored a controversial penalty as Labour MPs beat journalists 3-0 on Sunday. Photograph: Paul Ellis/AFP/Getty Images Evan Davis showed on Monday morning why he is rapidly becoming a national treasure when he declined to question Ed Balls in any depth about his announcement of the day. The Today programme interviewer had a simple argument: what is the point of talking about a policy that will never be introduced? Davis was much more interested in asking Balls what he would do if Labour wins the next general election. So, with just a few seconds left in his Today programme interview, the shadow chancellor blurted out his announcement. This is that if Labour were in government now it would use the proceeds of the 4G mobile phone sell off to build 100,000 homes. Davis, who says that economics and not politics is his comfort zone,

Is David Cameron really going to give each millionaire a £40,000 tax cut?

Reality check: Ed Miliband told the Labour conference today that the prime minister was about to write out a £40,000 cheque for every millionaire in Britain. But is he? Paul Owen checks it out Share 78 inShare2 Email Ed Miliband: 'Next April, Mr Cameron will give a tax cut of £40,000 to each and every millionaire in Britain. Not just for one year but for each and every year.' Photograph: Phil Noble/Reuters In his party conference speech today, Ed Miliband said that next April the coalition government was going to introduce a "tax cut for millionaires". What do the government choose as its priority? A tax cut for millionaires, a tax cut for millionaires. Next April, Mr Cameron will give a tax cut of £40,000 to each and every millionaire in Britain. Not just for one year but for each and every year. That is more than the average person earns in a year. So is it true? Miliband was referring to the cut in the top rate of tax from 50p in the pound to 45p, due t

Should Justine Greening resign? - poll

Should the new international development secretary resign from the cabinet after the west coast fiasco happened 'on her watch' as transport secretary? Vote in our poll Share 1 inShare0 Email Looking pretty pleased Justine Greening leaves No 10 Downing Street after meeting with David Cameron to receive her new appointment as international development secretary in Cameron's first cabinet reshuffle. Photograph: Will Oliver/AFP/Getty Images Although it was seen as a demotion, the former transport secretary Justine Greening, was moved to become the new international development secretary in the prime minister's latest reshuffle. In comments Guardian readers have been calling for her resignation from the cabinet, as the west coast mainline debacle happened "on her watch". SwindonNick writes: Bob Diamond at Barclays resigned because of what happened 'on his watch', so there must be accountability at the top. After all if you can be in charge of so

Miliband showed the vision; now to add substance and detail

How well did the Labour leader's speech address the concerns shown in polls of northern opinion last weekend? The Guardian Northerner's political commentator Ed Jacobs reflects Share 2 inShare0 Email Delegates try to catch the leader's eye. Has he finally caught the northern public's? Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA As the Labour faithful gathered in Manchester for their annual get-together, we watched a conference that seemed to be somewhat flat, apart from the keynote speech by Ed Miliband which has been generally rated excellent. Talk from last year's conference about the future of the leadership and whether Ed M could survive was non-existent, as poll ratings have consistently given the party a healthy lead over the Conservatives. If replicated at an election, this would hand the party the keys to Number 10 with a good majority. Detailed policy announcements were never likely to be made, and despite huffing and puffing from the Tories and Lib Dems about