In Today's Papers

By Maria Ahmed, Derren Hayes and Amy Taylor

Girl aged six ‘unhappy with weight’

By the age of six, most girls are now dissatisfied with their bodies and want to be thinner, researchers have claimed today.

Hayley Dohnt and Marika Tiggemann from Flinders University, South Australia said the girl’s belief that “thin is beautiful” can stem from watching pop stars on television or comments made while trying on clothes.

Source:- The Independent Tuesday 8 March 2005 page 8

Surrender to the Gypsies, Prescott orders town halls

John Prescott yesterday told town halls to go easy on Gypsies who set up home in defiance of planning rules. Travellers and Gypsies may be suffering racial discrimination at the hands of planners, the Deputy Prime Minister’s Office said. It suggested councils grant

Gypsies special rights to build homes in the countryside and draw back from evicting those who build camps or homes.

Source:- The Daily Mail Tuesday 8 March 2005 page 2

You betrayed thousands of disabled children, Mr Blair

The mother of an autistic boy launched a devastating attack on Tony Blair yesterday, saying she would never trust him again. Maria Hutchings accused the prime minister of betraying her 10-year-old son and thousands of disabled pupils by denying them proper special needs education.

Source:- The Daily Mail Tuesday 8 March 2005 page 16

Why nursing homes could be swamped

Thousands of Alzheimer’s sufferers will be forced into nursing homes earlier in their illness if a ban on drug treatment is approved, warn doctors.

Source:- The Daily Mail Tuesday 8 March 2005 page 24

Immigration service is forced to compensate migrant over ‘unfair treatment’

An Albanian asylum seeker has been awarded £6,000 compensation from the government over its attempt to deport him.

Source:- The Daily Mail Tuesday 8 March 2005 page 35

Who says my life is worthless?

Doctors told her parents to let her die. Today, she’s one of the wittiest and outspoken figures in the House of Lords. Baroness Chapman attacks the cruel folly of Labour’s euthanasia Bill.

Source:- The Daily Mail Tuesday 8 March 2005 pages 40-41

Scottish newspapers

Cities seek tougher stance on beggars

Glasgow Council wants the Scottish Executive to change the law on street trading so that Big Issue sellers, market researchers and buskers would need a licence.

In a separate move, Edinburgh has started a public consultation on a proposed civic code which would alter the capital's by-laws allowing officials to deal with public drinking, begging and other street nuisances.

Officials in Glasgow said they had received a flood of complaints from the public, but there was little they could do because they had no enforcement powers.

Source:- The Herald Tuesday 8 March

Care home assault inquiry dropped

An investigation into claims that care home staff physically assaulted pupils in their care has been dropped.

The procurator-fiscal has decided not to proceed, following the claims made against staff at the Kibble education and care centre, Paisley.


Dozens of staff, pupils and former pupils were questioned by police after a staff member made the claims last July.

Source:- The Herald Tuesday 8 March

Family barred from own home under Antisocial Behaviour Act

A nuisance home owner has been banned from his house for three months under new powers being used for the first time in Scotland.

Andrew Gordon and his son Phillip are banned from entering the Dunfermline house under an antisocial behaviour order, following two years of noise and disruption caused by visitors.

The action came after neighbours had to suffer drinking, drug-taking and fights between youths who used the house while Phillip Gordon’s father was away.

Source:- The Scotsman Tuesday 8 March

Nurse fought off knife woman

A woman who had already served two prison sentences for stabbing a doctor and a social worker has admitted a third attack on a nurse.

Joan McGlone, who has a pathological hatred of the medical profession, sneaked into Monklands Hospital in Airdrie and attacked Monica McCafferty with a knife.

The High Court in Glasgow heard that McCafferty had to fend off the attack with a zimmer frame.

Source:- Daily Record Tuesday 8 March

Welsh newspapers

Doctors prescribe for Wales

Doctors have called on politicians to guarantee that they will provide public health policies to eradicate the health inequalities that exist in Wales.

The call comes in the British Medical Association’s pre-general election manifesto which outlines key areas of improvement for the NHS.

Source:- Western Mail Tuesday 8 March

Overworked women facing health worries

Welsh women trying to combine long working hours with bringing up a family could be putting their physical and mental health at risk the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists warned today.

The warning has been prompted by new figures revealing that full-time women workers are doing as many as 39.2 hours at work in Wales.

Source:- Western Mail Tuesday 8 March

Anger over Scope’s ‘betrayal’

Disability charity Scope has announced plans to shut down its last homes in Wales to focus on campaigning.

The 11 flats, located in the upmarket Cyncoed district of Cardiff, are being shut down and the land sold off. The residents had been under the impression that their homes were going to be redeveloped on the same site.

Source:- Western Mail Tuesday 8 March