Newslinks for Thursday 21st August 2008

Brown Afghanistan trip

“Gordon Brown compared British troops to Olympic heroes today as he made a surprise visit to a British base near the frontline in Helmand, Afghanistan” - Guardian

“Gordon Brown made an unexpected stopover in Afghanistan this morning en route to Beijing, and told UK soldiers serving at Camp Bastion that their achievement surpassed even those of Britain’s Olympic heroes” - Times

Gordon Brown breaks silence over criticism of his leadership

“Gordon Brown has spoken out for the first time over his beleaguered leadership, insisting that David Miliband does not pose a threat to his position and that he will lead Labour to victory in the next general election” - Telegraph

Thousands of NHS operations cancelled

“Thousands of NHS operations were cancelled last year, many because of shortages of staff, beds or equipment, figures suggest” - Times

Miliband backs Georgia and widens Nato split

“The foreign secretary, David Miliband, said yesterday that Nato had this week launched Georgia on the path to membership, delighting Georgians but raising eyebrows in Brussels and contradicting the western alliance’s secretary-general” - Guardian

Ann Cryer to quit Parliament at next election

“Mrs Cryer, 68, who was elected together with her son as New Labour came to power in 1997, has told members of her constituency party that she will not fight for her seat again” - Telegraph

Scrap the census, says leading Brownite thinktank

“Britain’s next census in 2011 should be abandoned because it wastes hundreds of millions of pounds and fails to take account of the hundreds of thousands of immigrants coming to the UK, according to a leading Brownite think tank” - Telegraph

Schools

“The schools minister Lord Adonis has told the Guardian that the 20% of pupils who leave primary school lacking basic skills in reading, writing and mathematics is the biggest failure of the Labour government’s education policies” - Guardian

MI5 report challenges views on terrorism in Britain

“MI5 has concluded that there is no easy way to identify those who become involved in terrorism in Britain, according to a classified internal research document on radicalisation seen by the Guardian” - Guardian