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GUARDIAN Sun, 15 Jan 2012 00:05:42 GMT
Radio 4's documentary about Britain's ageing prison population made for sobering listening
Dying Inside (R4) | iPlayer
But They Are Only Russians (R4) | iPlayer
London Soundscape (R2) | iPlayer
New Year, new you! How depressing. So let's sod the yoga and stretch the carb-slugged brain instead. Give it a gentle workout with a couple of did-you-know documentaries.
First, Dying Inside, about elderly prisoners. As our sentences get ever harsher and people are put away for longer, and as DNA techniques improve, meaning old crimes can be solved, our prison population is getting older. But Britain has no national strategy for older prisoners. Rex Bloomstein visited three prisons that contain inmates of 50 years or older. Such as Daniel, 65, who'd committed rape in 1982. More than 40% of older prisoners are people convicted of sex offences. "You do think about your crime," said Daniel. "For 24 years I lived in a nightmare." You wondered about his victim, whether their nightmare......
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GUARDIAN Sat, 14 Jan 2012 18:40:00 GMT
Ma Ying-jeou struck an economic deal and established direct postal and air links with Beijing, reducing tensions in the region
The rain that swept the city streets, blurring lights and muffling the blare of klaxons, perhaps helped to dampen passions. Outside the Kuomintang's Taipei headquarters, the victors smiled under thin plastic hoods, cheering in relief as much as in celebration. Across town, the defeated opposition's supporters seemed subdued.
Taiwanese politics are vibrant, emotional, sometimes dirty and occasionally violent. Some might have expected stronger reactions after a race too close to call culminated in yesterday's re-election of incumbent Ma Ying-jeou, who has overseen an unprecedented rapprochement with China.
But the muted response to his victory – he took 51.6% of the vote to challenger Tsai Ing-wen's 45.6% – echoed an unusually calm campaign. Some observers think this youthful democracy's fifth presidential election offers hope that its politics are........
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GUARDIAN Fri, 13 Jan 2012 23:12:00 GMT
The Taiwan elections matter, especially in a region where so many of the players are going through changes of regime
The Taishang, the million Taiwanese who work in China, are rushing back home to vote in Saturday's presidential and legislative elections, urged on by their mainland bosses to vote for the incumbent nationalist candidate because he has established calmer cross-strait relations. They will be carried on their way by discounted tickets, extra flights and paid holidays, in the organisation of which China is only too keen to collaborate. How things have changed.
Not all Taishang will necessarily vote for the incumbent Ma Ying-jeou of the Kuomintang. Taiwan's founding existential issue, its relationship with China, is nowadays only one of a number on the campaign agenda. If you take China's definition of independence, both Mr Ma and his challenger Tsai Ing-wen, from the Democratic Progressive party, are pro-independence. They may disagree on the eventual long-term........
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