Monday 31 January 2005

By Maria Ahmed, Derren Hayes and Amy Taylor

Citizens’ pension plan to lift nearly million out of
poverty

Nearly a million pensioners, most of them women, will be lifted
from “abject poverty” if the cabinet accepts Alan
Johnson’s plans to revolutionise Britain’s welfare
state. The work and pensions secretary plans to replace the system
of the past 50 years with a new “citizen’s
pension.” Residence, rather than national insurance
contributions, would become the criterion for a basic state
pension. The current system has an in-built bias against carers or
those without continuous full-time employment.

Source:- The Guardian January 29 2005 page 1

Parents lose court battle over keeping critically ill
girl alive

The parents of desperately ill baby Charlotte Wyatt have lost
the latest round in their legal battle to give their daughter the
chance to live.

Source:- Daily Telegraph January 29 2005 page 2

The row over sandwiches that sparked a riot

A jail riot that caused £3 million in damage began with a
row over sandwiches, Leicester Crown Court heard. Prisoners took
control of Lincoln prison for more than eight hours in October
2002, smashing everything in their path and looting the pharmacy
for drugs – with one inmate dying after an overdose. Six
rioters were jailed for nine years.

Source:- The Daily Mail Saturday January 29 2005 page
9

New inquiry into care for over-65s

The architect of the government’s plans to double spending
on the NHS will today launch an investigation into the Cinderella
services of social care. Sir Derek Wanless’s inquiry will
focus initially on the needs of older people in England.

Source:- The Guardian Saturday January 31 2005 page
2

‘Ban surrogacy’ call after mother dies in
childbirth

Pro-life campaigners yesterday called for surrogacy to be banned
after a mother of two died giving birth.

Natasha Caltabiano, 29, who had developed high blood pressure,
suffered a ruptured aorta and died 90 minutes after the boy
arrived.

Source:- The Mail on Sunday January 30 2005 page 44

Labour plays its own race card to trump Tory migration
plan

Tony Blair will steal Michael Howard’s key policy when he
launches Labour’s own crackdown on illegal immigration next
week.

The Prime Minister has insisted that an Australian-style points
system to grade would-be migrants seeking a new life in Britain is
included in a raft of measures. The deportation of thousands of
failed asylum seekers will also be made a top priority.

Source:- The Independent on Sunday January 30 2005 page
2

Brown to raise minimum wage above £5
barrier

Gordon Brown will announce that the minimum wage is to rise
above the symbolic £5 mark for the first time in a Budget
expected to launch Labour’s election campaign.

He will raise the minimum hourly rate for adult workers from
£4.85 to £5.05 in October, and to £5.30 the
following year.

Source:- The Independent on Sunday January 30 2005 page
2

Girl gang-raped

A girl, 14, was gang-raped as she walked home from the Hackney
Empire, east London.

Source:- The Independent on Sunday January 30 2005 page
2

Psychosis linked to cannabis, says studies

Mental health campaigners are calling for a government inquiry
into the effects of cannabis one year after the drug was
reclassified from Class B to Class C.

Source:- The Independent on Sunday January 30 2005 page
4

Anti-gay bullying forces thousands of pupils to leave
school after GCSEs

Homophobic bullying in British schools is forcing thousands of
gay pupils to leave school early, prompting calls from gay equality
charity Stonewall for the introduction of sexual orientation
lessons in the curriculum.

Source:- The Independent on Sunday January 30 2005 page
16

Ministers go to war on class pranksters

A war on classroom pranksters and persistent attention-seekers
will be declared by Ruth Kelly, the secretary of state for
education.

Source:- The Independent on Sunday January 30 2005 page
16

Families reunited

How would you feel if a stranger turned up out of the blue
claiming to be the son or daughter you never knew you had? Why
changes to the law will make such daunting, tearful encounters much
more common.

Source:- The Independent on Sunday January 30 2005 page
18

Row erupts over secret filming of hospital
filth

Health bosses claim that patients were ‘put at risk’
by nurses who captured appalling conditions for a shocking Channel
4 documentary. Hidden cameras were used to film Royal United
Hospital, Bath and Ealing Hospital in west London.

Source:- The Observer January 30 2005 page 5

Racism ‘ingrained into prison
culture’

Judy Clements, the prison service’s first race equality
adviser, found a deeply ingrained culture of prejudice in the
prison service, the inquiry into the death of Asian teenager Zahid
Mubarek has been told.

Source:- The Observer January 30 2005 page 15

Search for missing boy

Police are searching for Ben Wilson, 9, who went missing from
his home in Witham, Essex. He was last seen by a neighbour on
Saturday afternoon.

Source:- The Times Monday January 31 2005 page 2

Ministers may face revolt over disability benefit
cuts

The government moved yesterday to head off a backbench rebellion
over its planned reform of benefits for the long-term sick and
disabled in an attempt to reduce the £6.7 billion a year cost
of the programme. Alan Johnson, secretary of state for work and
pensions, insisted that the reforms, to be announced this week,
would not be about cutting benefit rates. But he said the design of
the benefits would have to change. Incapacity benefit is also to be
renamed and reformed in an attempt to get hundreds of thousands of
claimants back into work.

Source:- The Independent Monday January 31 2005 page
18

Scottish newspapers

Prostitution plan naïve

Proposals to legalise prostitution in Scotland will lead to a
surge in people trafficking and organised crime, child protection
experts claim.

They say the Scottish executive plans fail to take into account the
fact that a growing number of foreign women and children are being
forced to work in brothels.

Source:- Scotland on Sunday Sunday 30 January

NHS staff angry over the use of armed guards and
handcuffs for asylum seekers

Asylum seekers from the Dungavel detention centre have been
degraded and humiliated in a series of “horrific”
incidences while receiving treatment at Scottish NHS
hospitals.

Medical workers at Wishaw General Hospital and Hairmyres Hospital
have raised concerns about a number of cases including that of a
woman being shackled to her bed while awaiting surgery and a man
who was escorted from a psychiatric unit by armed guards following
treatment for mental health problems.

Source:- Sunday Herald Sunday 30 January

While we’ve been waiting for the Scottish
Executive’s sexual health strategy chlamydia among teenagers
has jumped by 50%, 38,000 teenagers have become pregnant and 16,000
of them have had an abortion. So why after all this time is it so
toothless?

Background news feature on the reasons for reforming Scottish
sexual health legislation and how the subject is taught in schools,
focusing particularly on the repercussions of the high rates of
underage sex in Scotland.

Source:- Sunday Herald Sunday 30 January

Gordon’s army of 1 millions helpers

Gordon Brown will throw his weight behind the Year of the
Volunteer campaign by launching a bid to recruit up to a million
young people for voluntary work. He says Britain’s response to the
tsunami in Asia has boosted his hopes of a good response.

Source:- Daily Record Monday 31 January

Archbishop: sexual health u-turn a victory

A war of words has erupted between a senior Catholic Church
figure and supporters of sexual health reforms.

Mario Conti, the archbishop of Glasgow, said the executive’s
support for “abstinence” was a clear rejection of the
“safe-sex” mantra that had failed Scotland. However,
one former Labour minister criticized the executive for
“caving in” to the church.

Source:- The Herald Monday 31 January

Welsh newspapers

I’ll sue cops over trial fiasco!

A victim of child sex abuse said he will launch legal action
against North Wales police after being cleared of benefit
fraud.

Stephen Messham was accused of benefit fraud to the sum of
£33, 000 between 1995 and 2000.

He has previously spoken out against North Wales Police and
Flintshire Council in an inquiry into abuse at the former Bryn
Estyn children’s home in Wrexham in 1997.

Source:- Wales on Sunday Sunday 30 January

Hunt on for mother of dead baby

Police said that they were concerned for the welfare of the mother
of a dead newborn baby whose body was found in a garden in Cardiff
yesterday. The boy was found in the back garden of a house in the
Splott area of the city yesterday by the owner of the house.

Police appealed for the mother to come forward.

Source:- Wales on Sunday Sunday 30 January

Schoolgirls’ web shock sparks warning

Parents were urged to be more thorough in monitoring their
children’s use of the internet after two Swansea schoolgirls
put sexual photos of themselves on the web.

One 13-year-old girl sent a photo of herself in underwear and with
handcuffs and a whip to a website. She had taken the photo herself
with a webcam. The other 14-year-old girl sent photographs of
herself naked, which she had taken, to her friends via an online
messaging service.

Both girls were pupils at Cefn Hengoed Community School and the
deputy head teacher Geoff Brookes urged parents monitor their
children’s online activity more closely.

Source:- Wales on Sunday Sunday 30 January

Infant’s mum ‘could be teenager’

Fears that the mother of a new born baby found dead in a backgarden
in Cardiff could be as young as 13 were being raised last
night.

Police are concerned for the mother’s welfare and are trying
to locate her.

Source:- Western Mail Monday 31 January

Mother’s ordeal while split from her baby

A Welsh nurse has described the moment that she saw her six-month
old baby for the first time in 18 days yesterday.

Diane Jelich’s estranged husband Steve went into hiding in
his native New Zealand shortly after the couple split up just
before Christmas.

Source:- Western Mail Monday 31 January

 

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