Wednesday 9 February 2005

By Clare Jerrom, Lauren Revans and Amy Taylor

Howard attacks immigrant ‘chaos’

Labour’s failure to put an upper limit on immigration is
deeply irresponsible, according to Michael Howard.

The Conservative leader accuses Tony Blair of losing control of
immigration with “tragic consequences” for the
immigrants themselves. He cites the deaths of the cockle pickers at
Morecombe Bay as an example of the dangerous “chaos”
caused by government policy.

Source:- The Times  Wednesday 9 February page 2

Jail for smack

A father has been jailed for 42 days for smacking his child when
the boy failed to wipe his bottom properly.

The man, who cannot be named, admitted assaulting the boy last
summer.

Source:- The Times  Wednesday 9 February page 2

Gypsies win right to live on beauty spot

Gypsies who set up an illegal camp on a beauty spot cannot be moved
as it would breach their human rights.

Stroud district council yesterday granted retrospective permission
for the site on a three-hectare field in Gloucestershire after
ruling that the harm to their human rights of moving them would
outweigh harm to the environment and local people.

Source:- The Times  Wednesday 9 February page 11

Audit job cuts

The Audit Commission yesterday announced a 50 per cent reduction in
inspection costs involving around 50 job losses.

Source:- The Times  Wednesday 9 February page 15

Wine and women

Britons drank more than a billion litres of wine last year with the
majority consumed on girls’ nights out.

Source:- The Times  Wednesday 9 February page 15

Filthy, racist, violent – what man in charge thinks
of London jails

The former director general of the Prison Service told the inquiry
into Zahid Mubarek’s death yesterday that prisons were evil,
violent and staffed by people whose culture was “utterly
reprehensible”.

Martin Narey told the inquiry that some jails at the time of
Mubarek’s death were a nightmare and virtually unmanageable
and that Feltham YOI, where Mubarek, was murdered, was not the only
establishment dogged by problems.

Source:- The Times  Wednesday 9 February page  16

Prison staff blamed for drugs and dirt

New arrivals at the Mount prison in Hertfordshire are spending
almost a day scrubbing their cells before they can settle in, an
inspection report revealed today.

Chief inspector of prisons Anne Owers also found appalling
conditions at the segregation unit and a significant drugs problem
at the jail.

Source:- The Times  Wednesday 9 February page 16

Asylum dissent ‘not tolerated’

Officials from the Immigration Service who questioned the Home
Office’s target for removing asylum seekers whose claims had
failed were branded as troublemakers, a senior civil servant has
admitted.

Kevin Brewer told an inquiry into a fire at an immigration removal
centre that he considered the government’s target of removing
30,000 asylum seekers a “fantasy”. But he added that
reasoned debate within the Immigration and Nationality Directorate
was “forbidden”.

Source:- The Times  Wednesday 9 February page 26

Refugee appeals warning

The Law Society will warn MPs today that people with legitimate
asylum claims will be sent home to face torture or death under
plans to cut legal aid for asylum appeals.

Government plans to introduce a system that would see decisions on
legal aid made at the end of an appeal will have severe
consequences for vulnerable applicants, the society will say
today.

Source:- The Times  Wednesday 9 February page 26

Up to £6.2 bn in benefits going unclaimed

Between £3.3 billion and £6.2 billion in means tested
benefits are still going unclaimed each year.

Take up of job seeker’s allowance has fallen by 10 percentage
points since 1997 and in 2002-3 older people were failing to claim
17-28 per cent of means tested money to which they were
entitled.

Source:- Financial Times  Wednesday 9 February page
4

Seeking refuge

More than 18,500 women and 23,000 children stayed in domestic
violence refuges last year according to a report by Women’s
Aid published today.

Source:- Daily Telegraph  Wednesday 9 February page
6

Prostitutes’ support group wins £360,000 grant from
Lottery

The Big Lottery Fund has awarded almost £360,000 to the UK
Network of Sex Work Projects.

Organisers said the money would be spent on advising male and
female sex workers on their safety, welfare, health and legal
rights. It will also support prostitutes who want to get off the
streets.

Source:- The Independent Wednesday 9 February page 6

New commissioner considers controversial quota system for
ethnic minority recruits

Sir Ian Blair, Britain’s most senior police officer, has
conceded that the Metropolitan Police will fail to reach the Home
Office target of a quarter of officers coming from ethnic minority
communities by 2009.

He said he would like to be involved in discussions as to whether,
as a last resort, the law could be changed to allow positive
discrimination in order to change the make-up of the
organisation.

Source:- The Independent Wednesday 9 February page
16

UK demands crackdown on sex trafficking

Harriet Harman, the solicitor general, was due to present a
three-part plan to combat trafficking today to The Hague of
Eurojust, which brings together public prosecution services.

The plan will propose greater protection for victims of
trafficking, more effective prosecution of traffickers, and seizing
the proceeds of crime.

Source:- The Guardian Wednesday 9 February page 2

Flexible work rights ‘failing middle-aged women’

A lack of support is forcing women struggling to juggle paid work
with caring responsibilities to give up on their career ambitions,
new research has revealed.

The study finds that women aged between 50 and retirement, who are
often caring for an elderly parent, teenage children and sometimes
grandchildren, felt they were missing out on flexible working
rights now available to parents of young children.

Source:- The Guardian Wednesday 9 February page 8

Girl gang leaders get life for murder

Two Surrey teenagers were jailed for life at the Old Bailey
yesterday for kicking and beating a man to death.

The girls, who led a violent gang notorious in the area, were
ordered to spend a minimum 13 years in jail for the attack on the
father of one at a drunken party.

Source:- The Guardian Wednesday 9 February page 9

Dolly scientist wins human cloning research licence

A licence to clone human embryos for medical research has been
awarded to Ian Wilmut, the scientist of created Dolly the
sheep.
Wilmut said he planned to use therapeutic cloning to investigate
the cause of motor neurone disease.

Source:- The Guardian Wednesday 9 February page 10

Teachers offered TV ‘help’ channel

The UK’s first government-funded, public service channel went live
yesterday, promising to offer on-the-job training to teachers and
reveal what goes behind the classroom door.

Teachers’ TV will cost £20 million each year to run.

Source:- The Guardian Wednesday 9 February page 11

Lib Dems to fight on freedom platform

Charles Kennedy published his party’s five-point plan yesterday to
protect civil liberties.

He promised to strengthen parliament’s ability to scrutinise
legislation, adding that each bill would be assessed to see how it
affected individuals’ rights to privacy.

Source:- The Guardian Wednesday 9 February page 13

‘Ello, ‘ello! Cops get laddish mag

The new voice of frontline policing is a far cry from Dixon

Source:- Society Guardian Wednesday 9 February page
4

GP tries a dose of the hard life

Hand to mouth charity stunt raises cash for failed asylum
seekers

Source:- Society Guardian Wednesday 9 February page
4

Rough justice

Councillor who fought to retrieve Porter millions faces Standards
Board

Source:- Society Guardian Wednesday 9 February page
4

Attention seeker

Lindsay Boswell, head of the Institute of Fundraising, talks about
how charities can build on the public’s huge response to the
tsunami appeal

Source:- Society Guardian Wednesday 9 February page
6

Positive results

Report on a charity that is helping children to understand and cope
with being HIV positive

Source:- Society Guardian Wednesday 9 February page
7

Office block

Mismanagement of a vulnerable elderly woman’s finances has led to a
rebuke for the Whitehall body that was meant to act as her
guardian

Source:- Society Guardian Wednesday 9 February page
10

What else can I do?

With only five GCSEs, Jess fears that career paths are limited if
she moves on from her job as a CSA caseworker. What are the wider
options?

Source:- Society Guardian Wednesday 9 February page
112

Scottish news

Quarter of staff in pre-school sector still unqualified

More than 25 per cent of pre-school and childcare staff in Scotland
have no formal qualifications, figures from the Scottish executive
showed yesterday.

Source:- The Scotsman  Wednesday 9 February

Poverty-hit pensioners forced to cut back on medicine

More than 1.6 million older people have been forced to return to
work because of financial reasons, latest research has found.

The survey by Prudential UK found that 300,000 older people have
avoided the doctor and medication to save money and as many as
160,000 are turning to gambling to boost their earnings.

Source:- The Scotsman  Wednesday 9 February

Grandparents to get role in law revamp

The Scottish executive is to draw up a charter for grandparents
outlining the role grandparents can play when families break
up.

However, the announcement will disappoint campaigners who have
pressed for a legal right of contact for grandparents who can find
themselves cut off from grandchildren through no fault of their
own.

Source:- Evening News  Tuesday 8 February

Condemned estate ‘is plagued by young
yobs’

Residents on the Deans South estate in Livingston are becoming the
victims of antisocial behaviour because of the much publicised
problems. The estate faces demolition due to structural
problems.

Source:- Evening News  Tuesday 8 February

One in 100 work in childcare sector

One in every 100 jobs in Scotland is in childcare, according to
Scottish executive figures published yesterday.

The number of jobs in the childcare sector grew by 5 per cent to
28,150 last year.

Source:- The Herald  Wednesday 8 February

Welsh newspapers

What price good childcare?

On average parents in Wales pay £120 a week for full-time
child nursery places, according to a new survey from childcare
charity the Daycare Trust.

It is the first time figures for Wales have been produced by the
charity. It found that the cost of childcare in the UK has risen at
a much higher rate than inflation.

Source:- Western Mail Wednesday 9 February

Labour’s War of the Roses

The Welsh Assembly government asked the UK cabinet for nearly
£500 million ‘match funding’ for Wale’s
European aid programme but to no avail it has been revealed by
documents release to the Western Mail under the Freedom of
Information Act.

Today Plaid Cymru’s economic spokesperson Adam Price MP said
that the documents showed that the Welsh Assembly government
disagreed with the European Commission’s view that aid money
should be matched on a pound for pound basis from tax payers money
instead agreeing with the Treasury that large amounts of match
funding should be provided by the private sector.

The government failed to get all the money transferred to Wales and
the issue led the Assembly’s first leader Alun Michael losing
his job five years ago today.

Source:- Western Mail Wednesday 9 February

 

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