Monday 20 January 2003

By Amy Taylor, Nicola Barry and Alex
Dobson.

Phillips to head CRE after close vote

Trevor Phillips, the broadcaster and London assembly
chairperson, is to be the new head of the Commission for Racial
Equality.

Phillips, a new Labour supporter, had been the favourite for the
job. He was seen as the preferred choice of Downing Street and home
secretary David Blunkett, who announced his appointment yesterday.
The reality though was that it was a close run contest with
Phillips only narrowly beating the two shortlisted women, Naz Coker
and Zahida Manzoor.

Source:- The Guardian Saturday 18 January page 6

Myth of Sangatte mark II

The creation of a Calais welfare service led this week to claims
of a new Sangatte and the likely resurgence of the cross-channel
asylum crisis.

Source:- The Guardian Saturday 18 January page 10

Emergency aid granted to Kurds left on the
streets

Four Iraqi Kurd asylum seekers who were forced to sleep rough
since arriving in Britain last week, have won an emergency
injunction giving them basic food and shelter pending a high court
hearing next week.

The four are going against measures which came into force on 8
January denying benefits to refugees who fail to immediately claim
asylum when the arrive.

The injunction, obtained on Thursday night by the human rights
organisation Liberty, follows a high court judge’s ruling on the
same day calling for an urgent hearing for two other test cases
challenging the legality of the measures which were last minute
changes to the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002.

Source:- The Guardian Saturday 18 January page 10

Surgery for refugees angers patients who are forced to
find new GPs

Nearly 2,000 patients force to find another doctor when their
local surgery closed, were outraged yesterday by plans to reopen it
as a new service only for asylum seekers.

Around £500,000 is to be spent on refurbishing the premises
in an area of Derby where the predominantly Asian community is
furious.

The city has been designated as a centre to receive a regular
flow of asylum seekers into temporary accommodation while their
applications for refugee status are considered.

Source:- The Times Saturday 18 January page 5

We are being frozen out, say Climbie
parents

The parents of Victoria Climbie expressed disappointment and
surprise yesterday that the government had not yet invited them to
meet a minister to discuss their daughter’s death.

Francis and Berthe Climbie arrived in Britain last week to await
the report into Victoria’s death, but said they have still not
received a reply to their request to see it before publication, now
expected on January 28.

Source:- The Times Saturday 18 January page 7

Huge inquiry signals major child reforms

The inquiry into Victoria Climbie’s death, chaired by Lord
Laming, a former chief inspector of social services, was the
biggest into the death of a child and will presage major reforms in
the child protection system.

Source:- The Times Saturday 18 January page 7

Pervert won trust with Blair photo

A paedophile who used a photo of himself with Tony and Cherie
Blair to gain the trust of the mother of a nine-year-old girl was
jailed for 15 years on Friday.

Mark Tann, a churchgoing member of the Labour Party and a
fundraiser for the NSPCC, also used the party’s internet service
provider to send indecent pictures.

Source:- The Times Saturday 18 January page 7

Gun shame of boy Lawrence saved

Frances Lawrence, the widow of the murdered headmaster Phillip
Lawrence, watched at the Old Bailey yesterday as William Njoh, the
pupil her husband died trying to save, was found guilty of carrying
a loaded gun at the Notting Hill carnival last year.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Saturday 18 January page
4

They were all asylum seekers

All three men arrested at the flat where DC Stephen Oake was
killed came to Britain as asylum seekers, it emerged on Friday
night.

The refugee status of the man accused of murdering the
detective, 27-year-old Algerian Kamel Bourgass, was revealed as he
made a short appearance at a high-security court.

Source:- Daily Mail Saturday 18 January page 1

The real child porn scandal

Of 7,000 suspects just on in five has been arrested. It could be
years before the rest face justice. Meanwhile, the suffering goes
on….and all the liberals can offer is excuses for the
perverts.

Source:- Daily Mail Saturday 18 January page 20

Airport’s £55,000 jobs for refugees

Hundreds of refugees could get jobs building Heathrow’s Terminal
Five on wages of up to £55,000.

BAA, which has been in talks with the charity Refugee Aid and
Development, plans to advertise for workers in local mosques and
temples.

Contractor Laing O’Rourke has said that skilled labourers will
earn about £55,000 – far more than most accountants and
doctors.

Source:- Daily Mail Saturday 18 January page 29

Taliban who fought British troops is granted asylum
here

A Taliban soldier who fought British and American troops in
Afghanistan has been granted asylum here because he fears
persecution from the new Western backed government in Kabul.

Source:- The Sunday Telegraph 19 January page 1

Texas trail that ended with child porn arrests in
Britain

An American couple grew rich on the misery of children until a
tip-off on a post box number shattered the anonymity of the
internet.

Source:- The Sunday Telegraph 19 January page 17

Thousands more on new porn list

The names of several thousand more subscribers to internet child
porn websites are to be given to British police by America’s
Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The list is almost as large as that which led to the arrest of
Pete Townshend, The Who guitarist, who featured among 7,200 names
passed over by US agents 16 months ago.

Source:- The Sunday Telegraph 19 January page 16

Government plans to place 15% of children on new ‘at
risk’ register

Nearly 15 per cent of all five to 16-year-olds in Britain are to
be considered at risk by the government.

In addition to children at risk of physical and sexual abuse,
the register will now include truants, young girls at risk of
underage pregnancy and child tearaways involved in petty crime.

Source:- The Independent on Sunday 19 January page
8

NHS plan threatens mental patients

The best-run mental health hospitals and mental health trusts
will be able to move away from NHS management by applying for
“foundation” status in the next stage of NHS reform.

The move is part of an attempt to devolve the running of the NHS
away from London. But it will prompt fears that patients could be
left in the care of poorly run and underfunded NHS trusts while the
luckier ones are taken over by the new foundation trusts.

Source:- The Independent on Sunday 19 January page
10

Blunkett to close sex-tour loophole

David Blunkett is to toughen the laws that allow sex offenders
to travel abroad unchecked in a new attempt to tackle “sex
tourism”.

The home secretary has decided to use the forthcoming Sexual
Offences Bill to close a loophole allowing people listed on the sex
offenders’ register to travel around the world without telling
anyone where they are going as long as they return home within
eight days.

Source:- The Independent on Sunday 19 January page
13

Country hotels brought for asylum seekers

Thousands of asylum seekers are to be housed in country mansions
and former hotels being brought by property firms working for the
home office.

David Blunkett, the home secretary, has commissioned 20
accommodation and property companies to find large buildings that
have planning permission to convert into hostels.

Source:- The Sunday Times 19 January page 1

Pop stars targeted in child sex probe

Several pop music celebrities are at the middle of an
investigation into suspected paedophiles, according to leaked
documents from the National Criminal Intelligence Service. The
inquiry, conducted by Surrey police, is focusing on celebrities and
other men who went to the Walton Hop, a disco in Walton-on-Thames
in the 1970s.

Source:- The Sunday Times 19 January page 2

Refugees given health priority

The family of an ailing pensioner has made an official complaint
to health officials after she was taken off a doctor’s list to make
room for asylum seekers.

Lydia Perry, aged 88, was told that she was one of a number of
patients chosen at random to leave the surgery in Cobridge, near
Stoke-on-Trent, that she had attended all her life.

Source:- The Sunday Times 19 January page 15

Turn away all new refugees, say seven out of ten
Britons

Britain should refuse to accept any more asylum seekers until a
better system is in place to handle them, according to a poll
conducted by the Mail on Sunday.

Source:- The Mail on Sunday Sunday 19 January page
19

How British police officer set trap for
paedophiles

Operation Ore may never have happened had it not been for
crucial work by a UK detective constable

Source:- The Observer Sunday 19 January page 11

Blunkett admits influx of thousand of
Iraqis

About 1,500 Iraqis a month are seeking asylum in Britain – more
than from any other country – David Blunkett said yesterday.

Source:- The Times Monday 20 January page 3

Church has yet to unfrock jailed paedophile
priests

The convicted serial paedophile Michael Hill is still a priest
and moves to unfrock him only began a year ago.

Hill was first jailed in 1997 for sexually abusing nine boys,
but the papers to strip him of the priesthood were not sent to the
Vatican until last January.

Source:- The Times Monday 20 January page 5

Cardinal in tough stand over abuse

Roman Catholic bishops would be expected to resign if they
failed to implement the Church’s tough new child protection
guidelines, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor pledges today.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Monday 20 January page
1

Blunkett rails at ‘wild myths’ over asylum
seekers

Tighter controls are working, says home secretary

Source:- The Guardian Monday 20 January page 6

Sri Lanka police raid Kelly’s holiday home

Police and child protection officers raided the Sri Lankan
holiday home of TV presenter Matthew Kelly at the weekend and
removed videos and a computer.

Source:- The Guardian Monday 20 January page 6

The 20 vanishing terror suspects

At least 20 Algerian terror suspects have gone missing in
Britain.

MI5 and immigration officials have been trying to find the group
as part of an urgent inquiry into 500 Algerians who arrive here in
1995.

Source:- Daily Mail Monday 20 January page 4

Scottish newspapers

Row over ‘offenders’ school

A Highland residential school for children with behavioural
problems is at the centre of a row with angry residents who are
calling on the Scottish executive to intervene.

Raddery School in Ross-shire, founded in 1979, closed in June
2001 for financial reasons, but will soon re-open with improved
facilities.

Source:- Scotland on Sunday 19 January page 10

Students put life on hold over debt fears

Graduates are having to delay starting a family or buying a home
for up to a decade, due to the crippling effects of repaying fees
and loans.

The National Union of Students in Scotland says the levels of
debt experienced by students are increasingly affecting their life
choices after graduation.

Source:- Sunday Herald 19th January page 9

Charities chief says: ‘Government uses lottery for
its own ends’

The chief executive of the Scottish Council for Voluntary
Organisations (SCVO) has accused ministers of bowing to “xenophobic
hysteria” over grants for organisations supporting refugees.

Martin Sime also claims merger talks between two lottery funding
bodies are a smokescreen for government money grabbing. Sime has
called for lotto cash to become an issue in the Scottish elections
on May 1, proposing a single, independent distributor to ensure
Scotland gets a fair share.

Source:- Sunday Herald 19 January page 9

Child porn arrests ‘too slow’

Operation Ore is set to end in disaster with many suspects
walking free.

Detective chief inspector Bob McLachlan, former head of Scotland
Yard’s paedophile unit, has said the lack of urgency in
making arrests will lead to suspects destroying evidence or
downloading child pornography before they are arrested.

Source:- Sunday Herald 19 January page 1

Women had more fun in the 50s

The sexual revolution is associated with the 1960s, but women in
the 1950s were enjoying even more sexual activity than their
counterparts in career-orientated 2003, according to a report from
the Kinsey Institute.

Source:- The Scotsman Monday 20 January page 1

Pay gap between genders widens again

Women’s pay has dropped in comparison to men’s for
the first time in 20 years. In Scotland women are even further
behind.

Equal opportunities campaigners are dismayed that women have not
managed to close the earnings gap, despite having been given equal
rights in the Equal Pay Act of 1970.

Source:- The Scotsman Monday 20 January page 1

Welsh newspapers

Union backs new rules on expulsion

Teaching unions have welcomed new rules making it easier for
headteachers to expel disruptive pupils.

Under government reforms the powers of local education authority
appeal panels will be curbed, and schools will no longer have to
readmit violent or disruptive teenagers.

The final decision will rest with the headteacher, and school
exclusions will cover a wider range of behaviour.

Geraint Davies of NASUWT Cymru said the new rules were a vital
step in making schools safer.

Source:- Western Mail Monday 20 January page 5

Missing girl found safe in truancy
crackdown

A teenage schoolgirl reported missing from home has been found
safe and well by a truancy patrol officer in Carmarthenshire.

She was among a group of girls found playing truant, and she was
discovered during a four-hour patrol of the town centre.

Carmarthenshire council’s senior education welfare officer
Avril Jones said that the week’s patrols illustrated that the
campaign was proving successful.

Source:- Western Mail Monday 20 January page 9