Monday 7 March 2005

By Maria Ahmed, Simeon Brody, Derren Hayes and Amy
Taylor

Why are more operations being cancelled despite more cash?

For all the extra funds pumped into the NHS the number of patients
treated has not risen so sharply partly because medical costs rise
far faster than inflation.

Money has also been spent enforcing the European working directive
which prevents doctors working excessive hours.

Source:- The Guardian Saturday 5 March 2005 page 5

Kelly jeered at heads’ conference

Education secretary Ruth Kelly was accused of patronising
head-teachers and jeered during a speech at the Secondary Heads
Association conference.

Head-teachers demanded to know where the money would come from to
pay for the government’s plans to involve parents more and
teach in smaller classes.

Source:- The Guardian Saturday 5 March 2005 page 7

Man held after death of toddler shot with airgun

A two-year-old boy who was shot in the head with an airgun pellet
as he watched firefighters tackle a blaze near his Glasgow home has
died.

A 27-year-old man was arrested and will appear in court on
Monday.

Source:- The Guardian Saturday 5 March 2005 page 8

Police discipline 12 after racism expose

Twelve police officers will be disciplined following the BBC Secret
Policeman documentary that exposed racism among recruits.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission said four officers who
train recruits would receive written warnings, while seven
constables and a sergeant would receive formal advice from a senior
officer.

Source:- The Guardian Saturday 5 March 2005 page 12

Distress of 70,000 children who must make do with second
best

Parents of more than 70,000 children are being told they will not
get places at their chosen secondary school.

At least a third of families in some local education authorities
have failed to get places at their preferred schools, according to
the survey by The Times.

Source:- The Times Saturday 5 March 2005 page 4

Advice on drugs

Mothers are twice as likely to seek information about drugs as
fathers before speaking to their children, according to the
government-funded Frank campaign.

Source:- The Times Saturday 5 March 2005 page 4

Parole ruling

Four men originally sentenced to life imprisonment can apply for
parole after nine to 12 years because a stabbing attack was
“not racially motivated”.

The men from Beeston, Leeds, were convicted of the murder of Tyrone
Clarke, 16.

Source:- The Times Saturday 5 March 2005 page 8

Drugs lottery than means some pay twice as much for vital
medicines

Some chemists are charging hundreds of pounds more than others for
prescription drugs that patients cannot get on the NHS, research
has found.

Source:- The Times Saturday 5 March 2005 page 11

Jail “gladiator” claim denied

A prison officer accused of instigating a “gladiator”
game which led to the killing of Zahid Mubarek said he had been the
victim of a smear campaign.

Nigel Herring said he had not heard until years later of hostile
prisoners being put in a cell and encouraged to fight.

Source:- The Times Saturday 5 March 2005 page 13

Driven to apply ASBO sentence

A man who has received 70 motoring convictions was given an
anti-social behaviour order preventing him from driving while
disqualified by a court in Harrogate.

Source:- The Times Saturday 5 March 2005 page 13

Toddler who spent three days by dead father “fit and
well”

A boy of three who spend three days alone in a flat with his
father’s dead body was as fit and healthy as could be
expected, his family and police said.

Abraham Marshall, now an orphan, is to be brought up by his
grandmother after his father was found battered to death in
Bristol.
 
Source:- The Daily Telegraph Saturday 5 March 2005 page
10

The dentist’s tale

The NHS is short of dentists and Souad Gasmi is a dentist but she
is also an asylum seeker so instead of paying tax she receives
benefit.

Source:- The Independent Saturday 5 March 2005 page
1

How children pay the price when their mothers are
jailed

Almost 17,000 children are forced to leave their homes each year
when their mothers are sent to prison.

Almost half of women in jail lose all contact with their families
and a third lose their homes and possessions, according to Liberal
Democrat research.

Source:- The Independent Saturday 5 March 2005 page
7

New probe into asylum staff

Staff at Global Solutions, a contractor responsible for the
detention and transport of asylum seekers, is to be investigated by
the prisons and probation ombudsman.

The move comes after internal inquiries were launched into
allegations of racism at Oakington detention centre near
Cambridge.

Source:- Financial Times Saturday 5 March 2005 page
2

Keep wards small “to stop spread of MRSA”

Patients and doctors must be prevented from moving around hospitals
if the NHS is to halt MRSA, according to experts.

Source:- Daily Mail Saturday 5 March 2005 page 34

Tests to weed out the racist police recruits

Police recruits are likely to face personality tests to make sure
racists or those with “unacceptable” traits are weeded
out.

Source:- Daily Mail Saturday 5 March 2005 page 37

Top hospital forced to turn away ill children

Great Ormond Street Hospital in London has had to close up to
one-fifth of its beds, cancel operations and turn away dozens of
critically ill children because it faces severe financial
problems.

Source:- The Observer Sunday 6 March 2005 page 1

We’ll go abroad if Lords rule ‘no,’ say
gene baby couple

Shahana and Raj Hashmim, parents trying to have a
‘genetically selected’ baby to help save the life of
one of their sick children, have warned they will appeal to the
European Court of Human Rights if the House of Lords this week bans
the creation of ‘saviour siblings.’

Source:- The Observer Sunday 6 March 2005 page 2

Tramp says no to £2m

A homeless man who won the right to claim a £2 million plot of
land after squatting there for nearly 20 years today said he had no
intention of doing so.

Harry Hallowes, 68, has occupied the secluded spot on the edge of
London’s Hampstead Heath since 1987. Hallowes said he valued
his natural surroundings more than any material benefit they
bring.

Source:- The Observer Sunday 6 March 2005 page 4

Childcare shake-up will send men into the nursery

The government is to break open the female-dominated world of
childcare by encouraging men to work as childminders.

Source:- The Observer Sunday 6 March 2005 page 7

Warning on ‘rationed’ contraception

Women are being denied the contraception of their choice
because of NHS ‘rationing,’ family planning experts
warn today.

Source:- The Observer Sunday 6 March 2005 page 13

Boarding school planned for troubled pupils

Troubled teenagers will be sent to a prestigious new breed of
state-sponsored boarding schools under government plans to rescue
inner-city education.

Source:- The Independent on Sunday Sunday 6 March 2005
page 7

Children will be given classes on how to be
‘nice’

Primary school children are to be taught how to make friends,
resolve squabbles and “manage their anger” in a
£10 million scheme aimed at improving their social
skills.

Source:- The Sunday Telegraph Sunday 6 March 2005 page
1

Elderly urged to target MPs over move to ban free Alzheimer
drugs

Source:- The Daily Mail Monday 7 March 2005 page 20

Black absentee fathers should lose rights, says head of
race watchdog

Black absent fathers who fail to support their sons should be
denied “automatic” contact with them, according to
Commission for Racial Equality head Trevor Phillips. He also
suggested that black boys failing to thrive in particular subjects
might be taught in separate classes from their white
counterparts.

Source:- The Guardian Monday 7 March 2005 page 3

Teenage gangs use Islam to intimidate victims

Teenage criminal gangs in south London are calling themselves the
Muslim Boys and claiming to espouse Islam in an attempt to gain
street credibility and trade on false perceptions about links to
terrorists. Community leaders are worried about escalating violence
and the number of young with access to high-calibre guns. Met
police chiefs and Muslim leaders say the youths have no genuine
Islamic affiliations.

Source:- The Guardian Monday 7 March 2005 page 4

Report reveals “hierarchy of hate”

New figures show that there was an average of 53 racist crimes a
day recorded by police in London last year. Of these, 32% were
against people of African and Caribbean origin, 30% were against
Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis, and 22% were against white
Europeans.

Source:- The Guardian Monday 7 March 2005 page 8

Scottish newspapers

Care worker pleads guilty to having sex with girl, 15

A man who works with homeless people had sex with an underage girl
after telling her she could stay in his flat for the night.

The High Court in Edinburgh heard how Dale Benam had taken the
schoolgirl to his flat after meeting her near the Water of
Leith.

Police were called in after the girl began texting her friends the
following day to tell them what had happened, the court
heard.

Source:- The Scotsman Saturday 5 March

Calls for airgun crackdown as boy dies

Politicians, police and campaigners have demanded a review of
airgun ownership laws following the death of two-year-old Andrew
Morton on Friday.

Morton died in hospital after being hit in the head with an airgun
pellet on Wednesday evening in Glasgow’s Easterhouse
estate.

Cathy Jamieson, the justice minister, told the Scottish Labour
Party conference she was treating the incident “very seriously” and
said she was consulting the Home Office over whether any effective
measures could be taken.

A 27-year-old man has been arrested and charged in connection with
the incident.

Source:- The Scotsman Saturday 5 March

First minister vows to get tough on sex offenders

First minister Jack McConnell has promised that sex offenders
serving short sentences will no longer be released into the
community without meeting tough new conditions.

He told the Scottish Labour conference in Dundee that people
convicted of offences such as indecent exposure would be subject to
tagging and curfews before being set free. The measures are aimed
at sex offenders serving four years or less who are automatically
released at the half-way point of their sentence.

Source:- Sunday Herald Sunday 6 March

Drugs workers form alliance to challenge UN’s
adoption of zero-tolerance drug policy

A leading Scottish drugs professional is to challenge the adoption
of zero-tolerance drugs policies by the United Nations at an
international drugs conference in Vienna this week.

David Liddell, director of the Scottish Drugs Forum and chair of
ERIT, a European body working in the field of drug abuse, believes
the UN’s increasing embrace of abstinence programmes for drug
addicts is threatening harm reduction programmes in Scotland and
beyond.

Source:- Sunday Herald Sunday 6 March

Amnesty and Sunday Herald launch asylum report
contest

The Sunday Herald and Amnesty International Scotland have
launched a competition to raise awareness of issues of
asylum.
Students are being invited to submit an article on the themes of
asylum and persecution.

The best will be published on June 19, at the beginning of Refugee
Week. The competition aims to promote accurate and balanced
reporting of asylum, and will reward creative and innovative
approaches to the subject. Articles should be between 1500 and 2000
words and the deadline for all entries is Friday, May 20.

Source:- Sunday Herald Sunday 6 March

Welsh newspapers

Mum’s vision after tragic blaze kills family

A woman whose family died and home burnt down in a blaze started by
her schizophrenic son has said that she plans to make the remains
of the building into a holiday home for people with mental health
problems.

Fay Latham has been told that her insurers Legal and General will
pay for her home in the hills above Port Talbot to be
rebuilt.

Source:- Western Mail Saturday 5 March

How to cut jail drug abuse – move the yard

A large reduction in the level of drug taking among inmates at
Cardiff prison is partly due to moving the prisoners’
exercise yard away from an outside wall it has been revealed.

Friends used to throw drugs over the wall for prisoners. Since just
before Christmas the yard has been moved to out of range of the
wall.

Source:- Western Mail Saturday 5 March

Drugs bust boy facing ban

A teenage boy who was suspended from a Welsh school accused of
handing cannabis to his friends could be banned from all state
schools in Wales.

The boy could face the ban if he is prosecuted by police for giving
cannabis resin to other pupils.

He was suspended from Cowbridge Comprehensive.

Source:- Wales on Sunday Sunday 6 March

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

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