Wednesday 1 February 2006

By Maria Ahmed, Clare Jerrom and Derren Hayes

Religious hate Bill lost after Blair fails to vote
Tony Blair’s authority was shaken by two surprise defeats last night that weakened his Bill to create the crime of inciting racial hatred. Key measures were lost by a majority of just one after he failed to stay for the crucial vote.
Source:- The Times, Wednesday 1 February 2006, page 1

Cannibal’s appeal
Peter Bryan, a self-confessed cannibal who ate the brains of one of his three victims, has won an appeal against an order that he remain in custody for the rest of his life. Bryan, 35, who has paranoid schizophrenia, was present at the Court of Appeal to hear the ruling that he must, instead, serve at least 15 years.
Source:- The Times, Wednesday 1 February 2006, page 2

Foster care cash
Foster carers should be paid a minimum weekly allowance of £99 by councils to cover the costs of looking after babies, rising to £112 a week for teenagers, the government has said.
Source:- The Times, Wednesday 1 February 2006, page 2

Auditor shocked by Home Office’s slipshod accounts
The Home Office has lost control of its finances and its accounts are in a mess, according to a report published by the National Audit Office.
Source:- The Times, Wednesday 1 February 2006, page 4

Hindus and Sikhs call for the right to open-air cremations
Hindus and Sikhs in Britain should have the right to cremate their dead on funeral pyres at open-air ceremonies, race relations group the Ango-Asian Friendship Society said yesterday. A ban on the use of funeral pyres dates back to 1930.
Source:- The Times, Wednesday 1 February 2006, page 5

Screams of dying boys ‘ignored by parents’
Two young brothers died from horrific burns after being trapped in their bedroom while their parents enjoyed a romantic meal downstairs and ignored their screams, Northampton Crown Court was told yesterday. The parents of Nathan and Jeremy Miller, aged two and a half and 18 months, deny two charges of child cruelty.
Source:- The Times, Wednesday 1 February 2006, page 21

Sex attack conviction is quashed
A man found guilty of sexually abusing a four-year-old girl had his conviction quashed yesterday after claiming that his human rights were breached because there were too many women on his jury. The Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh ruled that there had been a miscarriage of justice at the trial of John Brown, 50, of Dennistoun, Glasgow.
Source:- The Times, Wednesday 1 February 2006, page 21

Cannabis ‘one sign of rebellion’
Teenagers who regularly drink alcohol and smoke are just as likely as those who routinely use cannabis to engage in aggressive and delinquent behaviour, research published today in the British Journal of Psychiatry says.
Source:- The Times, Wednesday 1 February 2006, page 24

Teacher in court
Andrew Richards, 44, a former maths teacher at Malborough College, Wiltshire, appeared at Devizes Magistrate’s Court charged with ten counts of making indecent picture of a child.
Source:- The Times, Wednesday 1 February 2006, page 30

Four years for sex attack teacher
A married teacher who had sexual intercourse and improper relationships with teenage girl pupils was jailed for four years yesterday. Steven Lively, 45, head of year at Trinity School, Newbury, Berks, denied 16 charges of indecent assault between 1989 and 1996.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph, Wednesday 1 February 2006, page 10

‘Barbaric’ trips endured by pregnant prisoners
Heavily pregnant prisoners are being forced to travel hundreds of miles in claustrophobic prison vans known to inmates as “sweatboxes.” Beverley Beech, chairwoman of the Association for Improvements in Maternity Services, called for the Prison Service to stop using cellular vehicles to transport pregnant prisoners.
Source:- The Guardian, Wednesday 1 February 2006, page 5

Council splits up couple for the first time in 65 years
A couple yesterday told of their heartbreak at being separated for the first time in 65 years because social services refuse to put them in the same care home. Richard Driscoll cannot walk unaided and relied on his wife to help him get around, while Beryll Driscoll is blind and accustomed to using her husband as her eyes. A spokeswoman for Gloucestershire social services said it was unable to keep the couple together because of their differing needs.
Source:- The Guardian, Wednesday 1 February 2006, page 6

Scotland’s free personal care for elderly praised
Scotland’s go-it-alone policy of providing free personal care for older people is a lot fairer than the charging schemes operating elsewhere in the UK, according to research published today by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
Source:- The Guardian, Wednesday 1 February 2006, page 10

Reality check
The Connected Care initiative aims to enable local people to tackle acute social and healthcare deprivation in Owton, Hartlepool.
Source:- Society Guardian, Wednesday 1 February 2006, page 1

Rhyme and reason
The arts are increasingly being used to help people manage their mental health problems. But as funding cuts begin to bite, is this creative route to therapy in danger of being squeezed out?
Source:- Society Guardian, Wednesday 1 February 2006, page 3

Ragdoll riches
The co-creater of the Teletubbies tells how the millions made by the TV series has enabled her to set up a foundation to give deprived children the chance to be listened to – and to unlock their own potential.
Source:- Society Guardian, Wednesday 1 February 2006, page 5

Voices of experience
An east London initiative is at the vanguard of the government’s drive to tackle social exclusion among the over-50s.
Source:- Society Guardian, Wednesday 1 February 2006, page 7

Outside chances
The health and social care white paper plans to deliver more services away from a hospital setting. Will the proposals work?
Source:- Society Guardian, Wednesday 1 February 2006, page 6

Starved to death
The way society treats its elderly defines how civilised it is. In this shocking dispatch, a Mail writer who spent a month undercover as a care workers in outwardly comfortable old folk’s homes reveals how residents are literally being starved to death.
Source:-The Daily Mail, Wednesday 1 February 2006, page 26-7


Scottish news
Warning over council tax rises
Only a handful of authorities will meet first minister Jack McConnell’s target of a 2.5 per cent rise in council tax next year, a snapshot survey has found.
Cosla, the council umbrella body, said its poll of 27 councils found just three would satisfy the first minister’s desire for a rise in line with inflation. By contrast, six planned rises of more than double the target.
Of the 27 councils surveyed, 21 said they were struggling to keep tax rises below 5%. Six were proposing rises of 2.5% to 4%; 12 between 4% and 5%; and six planned hikes of more than 5%.
Source:- The Herald Wednesday 1 February

Radical reform needed to allow poor to prosper
Cabinet Office minister and East Renfrewshire MP Jim Murphy will today call for a more ambitious agenda to give poor people access to the same public services as the better off.
Murphy argues that high-quality, affordable child care, high quality education, particularly in primary years, is the key to stop working class children from falling in to a cycle of failure from which too few escape.
His arguments appear in a Social Market Foundation booklet.
Source:- The Herald Wednesday 1 February

Free care for elderly ‘fairer system’
Scotland’s policy of providing free personal care for the elderly has created a fairer system without undue extra public spending, according to an independent report.
Higher than anticipated costs have been balanced out by the fact more elderly people are able to stay at home for longer, while fears the policy would discourage family from helping the elderly have been dispelled.
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) study found free personal care at home and in residential nursing homes currently costs £140 million per year, but this is only 0.6 per cent of the Scottish budget.
Source:- The Scotsman Wednesday 1 February

Offenders ignoring restrictions as electronic tagging orders soar
More than half of Scotland’s electronically-tagged offenders are breaching their orders, official figures reveal.
Last year, courts imposed 1,335 restriction of liberty orders (RLOs) to tag offenders, a rise of 65 per cent on 2003-4.
In the same year 770 were breached, according to statistics released by the Scottish Executive.
Source:- The Scotsman Wednesday 1 February