In Today's Papers

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

Clarke reviews “too soft” law on cannabis

The government has ordered a review of its decision to reclassify cannabis as a class C drug following “emerging evidence” of a link between the drug and deteriorating mental health.

Several studies have linked cannabis use with the development of psychotic conditions later in life.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Saturday 19 March 2005 page 1

Four face life for New Year party murders

Four gangsters were facing life in prison for the murder of teenage girls Charlene Ellis and Letisha Shakespeare outside a New Year party in Birmingham.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Saturday 19 March 2005 page 1

Prescott caves in over forcing civil servants to retire at 65

John Prescott offered a “fresh start” in talks with unions in a desperate attempt to avoid a national strike over plans to raise civil servants’ pension age.

He said the government would revoke changes to the retirement age which were due to come into effect on April 1.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Saturday 19 March 2005 page 6

Virus-hit hospital closes its doors to visitors

The Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford has restricted visiting after an outbreak of the severe vomiting sickness norovirus.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Saturday 19 March 2005 page 8

Howard attacks rights act abuses

Michael Howard said a Conservative government would be prepared to scrap the Human Rights Act, which he dubbed a “charter for chancers”.

He accused the government of creating legislation that rewarded “law breakers”.

Source:- The Guardian Saturday 19 March 2005 page 1

Labour unveils “bespoke” care in bid for grey vote

Ministers are to set out a radical blueprint for a design-your-own care system to meet the needs of an ageing population.

The plans, due in a green paper on Monday, would give older or disabled people the freedom to choose their own forms of care and support once their eligibility was assessed.

Source:- The Guardian Saturday 19 March 2005 page 9

NHS overspend likely to delay planned improvements

The National Health Service will have to delay planned improvements after the election as the service looks set to fail to balance its books for the first time in years.

Source:- Financial Times Saturday 19 March 2005 page 2

First the grey vote now the gay vote

The gay vote becomes the latest political battleground as Tony Blair predicts Britain will have an openly gay Prime Minister and Michael Howard admits he was wrong to push section 28 through Parliament and Charles Kennedy dismisses Howard’s conversion to gay rights.

Source:- The Independent Saturday 19 March 2005 page 1

Jamie’s dinners push healthy school food up political menu

Almost 10,000 people have joined chef Jamie Oliver to demand that the government spend more money on healthier school dinners.

Source:- The Times Saturday 19 March 2005 page 13

Medical records are wide open to computer hackers

Thousands of patients are at risk from hackers targeting medical records stored on computer at leading hospitals. Confidential files are potentially accessibly because there is no security on new wireless computer networks.

Source:- Daily Mail Saturday 19 March 2005 page 19

Deaf victims end 40-year silence on child sex abuse

Children as young as four were serially abused by a paedophile at a school for the deaf in the 1960s. Yet the perpetrator has never been to jail

Source:- The Observer Sunday 20 March 2005 page 1, 10-11

‘Give failed asylum seekers HIV care’

Failed asylum seekers and illegal immigrants infected with HIV should receive free NHS treatment, a report by the Commons health select committee says.

Source:- The Sunday Telegraph Sunday 20 March 2005 page 2

I’ll buy houses and a flash car, says yob awarded £567,000

Carl Murphy, 18, got a £567,000 payout last week after being injured in a fall while trespassing, prompting angry protests from crime victims and politicians.

Source:- The Sunday Telegraph Sunday 20 March 2005 page 4

‘Cannibal killer’ Peter Bryan was deemed safe just hours before he struck for the second time. The psychiatric services have had similar cases in recent years, yet still they make the same mistakes.

Source:- The Sunday Telegraph Sunday 20 March 2005 page 19

Crusading cot death lawyer takes up case of ‘salt killer’ parents

Solicitor John Batt, who wrote a book about the battle of Sally Clark to overturn a conviction for murdering her two sons, is convinced of the innocence of Ian and Angela Gay, jailed for five years in January for the manslaughter of their three-year-old adoptive son Christian Blewitt.

Source:- The Sunday Times Sunday 20 March 2005 page 7

1 in 7 secondary teachers ‘attacked by their pupils’

One in seven secondary school teachers claims to have been physically assaulted by pupils at some point in their careers, according to a study to be published by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers this week.

Source:- The Sunday Times Sunday 20 March 2005 page 12

Howard stirs race row with attack on Gypsies

Michael Howard was accused yesterday of “tapping into the deepest vein of bigotry” as he tried to push the issue of unauthorised Gypsy camps into the centre of the pre-election political battle.

The Tory leader will deliver a speech focussing on 1,855 Gypsy and traveller families who have bought and developed plots of lands where they can camp without obtaining planning permits in advance.

Source:- The Independent on Sunday Sunday 20 March 2005 page 1

 As if dope smokers weren’t confused enough already

Charles Clarke’s intention to review David Blunkett’s decision of a year ago to downgrade cannabis to a Class C drug has left Britain’s five million users, not to mention police, medical experts and politicians, more unclear than ever. Is the government U-turn due to genuine health concerns over the drug’s link with mental illness, or has it got more to do with the coming election?

Source:- The Independent on Sunday Sunday 20 March 2005 page 4-5

Home Office urges US ‘prison abuse’ firm to bid to run British jails

An American company which has faced allegations of abuse against jail inmates in America is being encouraged by the government to apply to run prisons. The Management & Training Corporation (MTC) is one of three American firms expected to submit bid to the Home Office for what has been dubbed ‘prisons for profit. MTC director O Lane McCotter, was sent to Iraq two years ago to oversee the reopening of jails in Iraq, including Abu Ghraib, where abuse against Iraqi prisoners sparked a worldwide outcry.

Source:- The Mail on Sunday Sunday 20 March 2005 page 47

Two questioned over child sale

A teenage mother and her boyfriend were being questioned by police yesterday about the alleged sale of her 30-month-old daughter.

The 21-year-old man and the 18-year-old woman were arrested at a hotel in Plymouth, Devon, on Saturday night after a tip-off to police by a national Sunday newspaper, which was investigating the alleged sale. It is alleged the child was being sold by its mother and her boyfriend for £15,000.

Source:- The Times Monday 21 March 2005 page 2

The grooms who marry in fear

Asian women pressed into marriage have been able to escape to refuges – but the plight of men forced to flee from violent relatives has been largely ignored. The issue will be raised today at a conference hosted by Scotland Yard in London on so-called honour violence.

Source:- The Times Monday 21 March 2005 page 3

Cash for elderly to buy care

People receiving meals on wheels or other kinds of social assistance are to be given money instead so they can buy their own care, the government is expected to announce today.

Source:- The Times Monday 21 March 2005 page 4

Refusing to pay

A disabled driver said that he was prepared to go to jail rather than pay a fine for displaying his disabled badge upside down on his dashboard. Bill Julian, 53, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, who is wheelchair-bound, was fined £60 by traffic wardens. He refused to pay and the fine has now leapt o £140. Aylesbury Vale District Council is investigating.

Source:- The Times Monday 21 March 2005 page 4

Council tenants seen as the key to £20bn repairs crisis

Town halls are planning to sell off all or most of their council houses to avoid a £20 billion repair backlog. Liverpool, which is pioneering a scheme under which tenants manage the homes, is one of the first councils that is proposing to get rid of its entire stock.

Source:- The Times Monday 21 March 2005 page 12

Prisoner hanged

Robert Hartley, 31, was found hanging from bedsheets at his cell at Leeds prison. He was pronounced dead in hospital.

Source:- The Times Monday 21 March 2005 page 25

Councils lose £580m revenue

Local authorities in England failed to collect more than £580 million in council taxes in the 2003-4 financial year. Birmingham, with £12 million outstanding, topped the league of authorities failing to collect all the money they were due, according to figures today published by GMB union.

Source:- The Times Monday 21 March 2005 page 26

Computers “hinder progress of pupils in maths and literacy”

The less pupils use computers at home the better they do in international tests of literacy and maths, according to a study.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Monday 21 March 2005 page 1

Black pupils are still being expelled from schools at three times the rate of other children and some schools have become “institutionally racist”, according to a government-funded report.

The researchers from Canterbury Christ Church University College revealed that a “significant minority” of schools in England do not observe race relations laws.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Monday 21 March 2005 page 2

Parents wooed by jittery Blair

Labour will promise to address parents’ concerns over poor school diet, junk food advertising, a predatory internet and the illegal sale of cigarettes to children.

The party will attempt to appeal to “soccer moms” with the launch of a children’s manifesto today.

Source:- The Guardian Monday 21 March 2005 page 1

Racial abuse makes one in five minority voters consider leaving UK, says poll

Only 39 per cent of ethnic minority voters see themselves as “fully British” regardless of how long they have lived here and more than half say they have been a victim of name-calling or verbal abuse.

The issues that most concern ethnic minority voters – health, education and crime – are not that different from those of the rest of the electorate, the poll shows.

Source:- The Guardian Monday 21 March 2005 page 1

Alarm at acceptance of abuse by teenage girls

Many teenage girls experience abuse at home before becoming victims of attacks from aggressive boyfriends, a survey reveals.

One in three girls and young women who had been hit by their parents went on to be abused by their boyfriends, according to the survey by teen magazine Sugar.

Source:- The Guardian Monday 21 March 2005 page 3

Survey shows extent of classroom abuse

Teachers are becoming increasingly concerned about pupil behaviour in the classroom with 98 per cent of respondents to a survey saying they had been verbally abused.

Forty five per cent of respondents said they had been threatened with violence, according to the Education Guardian and Teacher Support Network poll.

Source:- The Guardian Monday 21 March 2005 page 6

Mental health in crisis over shortage of doctors

A crisis in recruiting psychiatrists is certain to increase the risk of violence by mental patients, a voluntary group has warned.

More than 500 consultant posts are vacant in England and another 1,000 needed over the next hours years, the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health said.

Source:- The Independent Monday 21 March 2005 page 14

Scottish news

Scots teenage girls most likely to be in violent relationships

Teenage girls in Scotland are the most likely in Britain to suffer from domestic violence at the hands of their boyfriends, according to a survey.

Nearly one in five girls who took part in the study organised by a teenagers' magazine claimed they were in a violent relationship. The findings also suggest that youngsters living north of the border face an increased likelihood of experiencing violence from their parents.

Source:- The Herald Monday 21 March

Let’s legalise heroin says TV cop Alex

Taggart star Alex Norton has called for heroin to be legalised to cut street crime.

The TV cop spoke out after he and his family and friends suffered a string of burglaries, car break-ins and robberies. He says addicts would not turn to crime to feed their habits if they got their fix on prescription.

Source:- Daily Record Monday 21 March

Welsh news

Jealous killer gets 8 years

An 18-year-old who killed her boyfriend with a carving knife after he told her he had sex with a friend was given an eight-year sentence at Cardiff Crown Court yesterday.

Hayley Wallbank had previously been cleared of the murder of Gareth Evans, also 18, but was found guilty of manslaughter.

Source:- Western Mail Saturday 19 March page 12

Would-be killer mum detained

A mother who tried to gas her three sons by running a petrol lawnmower inside a car has been placed in a secure psychiatric unit, under a judge at Mold Crown Court’s orders.

The woman carried out the act a day before she was due to appear before a county court for refusing to grant access to the father of two of the boys.

The boys escaped because she did not lock the care doors.

The woman had admitted three counts of attempted murder at an earlier hearing.

Source:- Western Mail Saturday, 19 March page 13

Anti-racism campaign launch

An anti-racism poster campaign is being launched today to coincide with the launch of the National Assembly’s race equality scheme.

The posters aim to show Wales as an inclusive nation.

Source:- Western Mail Monday 21 March

A tenth of teen girls forced to have sex

Welsh girls aged between 13 and 19 are more likely to be forced to have sex than those in other parts of Britain, according to a new survey by the NSPCC and Sugar magazine. One in 10 said that they had been forced into it.

Source:- Western Mail Monday 21 March