Kid slave racket is smashed

Kid slave racket is smashed

Slave children smuggled into Britain and forced to beg and steal for ruthless crime gangs were freed in dawn raids yesterday. Police swooped on a series of squalid houses to rescue the boys and girls – some as young as six.

Read more on this story in The Daily Mirror today

Number of young people hanged in ‘suicide cult town’ rises to 13

The true scale of a suicide epidemic among young people in Bridgend, South Wales, was revealed yesterday.
As well as the seven deaths linked to social networking websites, a coroner revealed that a further six had also died within a year.

Read more on this story in The Daily Mail today

Drug offences soar 21% in a single year

Drug offences have leapt by 21 per cent in just one year, latest figures showed yesterday, piling more pressure on Gordon Brown to reverse the government’s “softly-softly” stance on cannabis.
The number of drugs crimes recorded by police has now leapt by more than 60 per cent in the three years since Labour relaxed the law on cannabis possession – downgrading it from Class B to Class C so that most users no longer face arrest.

Read more on this story in The Daily Mail today

Elderly at risk as councils pay carers by the minute

Councils in England are starting to pay by the minute for care that the elderly receive in their own homes.
Critics say it is not the best way to look after the frail and vulnerable, and will deter people from becoming paid carers when recruitment is a big problem and morale is low.

Read more on this story in The Daily Telegraph today

Youth and loyalty rewarded with promotion to PM’s top team

Gordon Brown last night used the resignation of Peter Hain to promote youth and loyalty to his top team. James Purnell, 37, the culture secretary, was promoted to Hain’s former job in the Department for Work and Pensions, while Andy Burnham, 38, becomes culture secretary, moving from the Treasury. “This is my dream job,” Burnham said last night. Paul Murphy also entered the cabinet as Welsh secretary.
Brown also made history by establishing the first married couple in a British cabinet. Yvette Cooper, 38, who had attended cabinet sessions as housing minister but was not until yesterday a full member, was promoted to take over from Burnham as chief secretary to the Treasury, in the prime minister’s first reshuffle. Cooper is the wife of Ed Balls.

Read more on this story in The Guardian today