Friday 3 January 2003

By Amy Taylor, Nicola Barry and Alex
Dobson.

Gun crime soars as thugs seek ‘respect’

Gun carrying drug dealers and young criminals carrying firearms
to earn respect on the streets and in clubs have fuelled a 37 per
cent rise in gun crime over five years.

Figures to be issued next week by the Home Office are expected
to show new increases last year. Police fear a fall into
American-style violence and the use of guns as a fashion accessory
among inner city teenagers.

Source:- The Times Friday 3 January page 4

Labour tries to kill off right to buy for
tenants

John Prescott, the deputy prime minister, is to slow down
Margaret Thatcher’s housing revolution by making it less
financially attractive for council tenants to buy their homes.

Over 1.8 million have taken advantage of the scheme since it
started in the 1980s.

Although Prescott has shied away from changing the scheme
completely, he is introducing tough new limits on the discounts
offered to tenants buying houses in property hotspots.

Source:- Daily Mail Friday 3 January page 23

HIV tests for NHS staff an ‘attack on foreign
workers’

The Department of Health was yesterday accused of making a
politically motivated attack on foreign health workers in its
announcement that all new NHS staff working in surgery, obstetrics
or dentistry will be required to have compulsory tests for HIV and
hepatitis to prevent them transmitting the diseases to
patients.

The announcement has been prompted by the increase in
recruitment of NHS staff from overseas, a policy that has been
criticised in some sections of the media.

In some sub-Saharan African countries, which collectively
supplied over 3,000 nurses to the NHS in 2001, one in three adults
is infected with HIV. Medical organisations have said the move has
more to do with silencing critics of the NHS’ overseas recruitment
drive.

Source:- The Independent 3 January page 4

Welsh papers

Living on the poverty line

More than a quarter of Cardiff children are living in poverty,
according to a report on the Welsh capital.

The Cardiff Community Profile found that 26 per cent of young
people under 16 live in households that are dependent on income
support. The report, which was commissioned by the capital’s
health authority and local health group, described the findings as
“stark” with 16,000 children in the city on the poverty line.

Source:- South Wales Echo Thursday 2 January page 4

Jail demand for Turkish barman

A Turkish barman who has been charged with the statutory rape of
a Welsh teenager could be jailed for seven years.

Rachel Lloyd, 14, ran away from her home in Wrexham to marry
24-year-old Mehmet Ocak, who she had met while on holiday in
Turkey.

The age of consent in Turkey is 15 and although Ocak claimed
that he did not know she was only 14, prosecutors have said they
will press for a seven-year sentence.

Source:- Western Mail Friday 3 January page 1

Scottish papers 

Councillor may resign because of gangsters

The founder of Mothers Against Drugs is poised to leave Glasgow
and give up her seat on the city council because of pressure from
gangsters.

Gaille McCann, Labour councillor for Queenslie, says her family
is being compromised by her dual role. Last month McCann and her
family were forced to flee their home in Easterhouse, after a brawl
with taxi drivers linked to Glasgow’s underworld.

Source:- The Herald Friday 3 January page 11

Convicted drug dealer fights to stay in
Scotland

An illegal immigrant who has a conviction for drug dealing and
is HIV positive, fears that if she is deported her two-year-old son
who has cerebral palsy will never walk or talk.

Althea Matthan of Perth says she could not afford the treatment
her son is receiving in Scotland if she returned home to Jamaica.
She claims she turned to drug dealing in a time of desperation. A
deportation appeal is due to resume early in the new year.

Source: The Herald Friday January 3 page 8

More Britons staying single

In the future singletons could replace families as the norm in
the UK, according to the latest research.
Almost one in three British homes now has one occupant, a figure
that has almost doubled from 17 per cent in 1971 to 31 per cent in
2001.

Source:- The Scotsman Friday January 3 page 7