November 2008 - Posts
For someone so critical of people who dismiss children as
feral, it was strange to read about Barnardo's boss Martin Narey using that
word himself in relation to the Baby P case. Read More...
The fit notes that are to replace GPs' sick notes are a sound idea in principle, saddled as we are with a system that, in theory, can keep employees away from the workplace in perpetuity. Read More...
A curious reclassification of cannabis and ecstasy could be
under way. Read More...
The Daily Mail called it "the day New Labour died" ; The
Guardian saw it as a "gamble" . Whichever you prefer, chancellor Alistair
Darling yesterday made clear his intention to protect those most in need during
this economic downturn...
What was immigration minister Phil Woolas thinking when
he derided the charities and lawyers who try to help the dwindling number of
asylum claimants? "Playing the system" was how he indelicately put it. Read More...
It has been a productive week for retro-Tories. Read More...
In this age of freedom of information legislation and
whistleblowers' rights, it is perverse that those staff who have the guts to do the honourable thing and expose wrongdoing are likely to run into a career cul-de-sac. Read More...
After their 17-medal haul in Beijing, the British
Paralympian athletes have been rewarded with a cut in funding just in time to
prepare for London 2012. Read More...
David Cameron rightly looked angry in the House of Commons
yesterday that a child of 17 months had been savagely killed. But did he have
to sound so angry? Read More...
It is now 201 years since the UK abolished the transatlantic
slave trade so one would have thought this week's decision to wind down a
police team dedicated to catching human traffickers would be based on sound
reasoning. Read More...
Was it as long ago as three-and-a-half years that the
British Beer and Pub Association announced a ban on happy hours ? Read More...
That's the trouble with the older people of today. They just
have no respeck. They sit idly around all day on park benches, swigging
Lucozade, talking about the war - loudly I might say - and waving their sticks
and pipes to emphasise some point they...
Who said this in June? "I was disappointed that child
poverty rose last year. This is a sign we have to redouble our efforts." Read More...
Stressed? You might well be, because figures from the
Employers Organisation show social services departments to be riddled with the
condition. Read More...
So pleased was I to read an article headlined "Social
mobility on the rise" that I felt compelled to find out when it was last not
"on the rise". Read More...