Wednesday 10 March 2004

By Natasha Salari, Amy Taylor, Clare Jerrom and Alex
Dobson.

The figure for EU migrants? I’ve no idea, says
minister
The government has not yet decided how many workers it
will let in from the new EU states before restricting their
entry.
Nationals from eight eastern European countries will be able to
come and work in Britain, but some restrictions on benefits are
being enforced.
Transitional arrangements are being used in other countries to
prevent access to the Labour market for up to seven years.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph Wednesday 10 March page 10
Benefits staff set to strike at Easter
Benefits payments could be disrupted at Easter if strikes announced
by Britain’s biggest civil service union go ahead. Tens of
thousands of Department for Work and Pensions staff are due to take
industrial action over pay.
The Public and Commercial Services Union has planned the strike for
13 and 14 April, which would keep the offices shut from Maundy
Thursday until the following Thursday.
Source:- The Financial Times Wednesday 10 March page 4
Brown looks set to raise minimum wage
Chancellor Gordon Brown is set to approve a large rise in the
national minimum wage when he outlines the Budget next week.
The adult minimum wage is set to be raised by 35p an hour in
October, to £4.85.
Source:- The Financial Times Wednesday 10 March page 3
Razed expectations
Thousands of properties in the north and the Midlands are earmarked
for demolition – all in the name of regeneration. But is this an
easy way out that could result in a return to the slum clearances
that tore apart families and communities?
Source:- Society Guardian Wednesday 10 March page 2
The year the tots grew out
The year 1994 has been identified as the first that child obesity
became statistically significant, according to a study on children
in the Wirall, Cheshire.
A study recording the height and weight of three-year-olds in the
area collected by health visitors shows this to be the first time a
large amount of pre-school children were found to be
overweight.
Source:- Society Guardian Wednesday 10 March page 4
Arrested Development
Martin Narey, head of the new National Offender Management Service,
talks to Alan Travis about jail overcrowding, private prisons and
Maxine Carr
Source:- Society Guardian Wednesday 10 March page 6
Taking away troubles
Mark Lupton on how learning methods adopted from Brazil
are transforming Lancashire communities
Source:- Society Guardian Wednesday 10 March page 7
Bad care daze
Even if we spend less time choosing a residential home for an
elderly relative than on picking a holiday destination, we may
still have good cause to complain about being ripped off.
Source:- Society Guardian Wednesday 10 March page 10
Sector spectre
Local government is failing to attract a well educated new talent.
David Walker reports on why young graduates find councils so
unappealing to work for
Source:- Society Guardian Wednesday 10 March page 14
What else can I do?
Economic development is Ellie’s forte, and so she has a degree in
town and country planning. Debbie Andalo offers her tips on moving
up the regeneration ladder
Source:- Society Guardian Wednesday 10 March page 108
Forced redundancies as 3,300 Whitehall jobs
go
One in four Whitehall jobs will be axed over the next three years
under plans to make £1 billion savings to free cash for
frontline spending.
Tony Blair has ordered the health and education departments and the
Home Office to fast-track their plans to cut at least 25 per cent
of their central staff as part of a wider programme involving more
than 22,000 job losses across Whitehall..
Source:- The Times Wednesday 10 March page 2
Father ‘killed his baby daughter as family ate
lunch’
A businessman murdered his 10-week old baby by banging her head and
shaking her while the rest of the family ate Sunday lunch, a jury
has heard.
Charlotte Latta, who was later found to have 32 fractures, suffered
extensive brain damage. Mark Latta was feeding his daughter
upstairs at their home in Bishop’s Waltham, Hampshire, in
December 2001, when he allegedly attacked her.
Latta denies murder and two counts of causing grievous bodily harm
with intent to his daughter between 1 October and 2 December 2001.
The trial is expected to last five weeks.
Source:- The Times Wednesday 10 March page 7
Soham school head called to Huntley inquiry
The head teacher who gave Ian Huntley his job as a school
caretaker in Soham has been called as an extra witness to the
Bichard inquiry into the schoolgirl murders.
Howard Gilbert, the headmaster of Soham Village College, will
appear before the inquiry in central London on Friday as it
investigates how Huntley slipped through the various potential
checks to be cleared for his post, despite his past of alleged
sexual offences in the Grimsby area.
Source:- The Times Wednesday 10 March page 14
A mother’s right to decide
The mother of a profoundly disabled boy has won a landmark legal
battle against doctors who wanted to let him die.
Carol Glass took action to remove her son David from St
Mary’s Hospital in Portsmouth when she learned that staff had
withdrawn his life-saving treatment and administered strong
pain-killing drugs so he would “quietly slip
away”.
She decided to care for the 12-year-old at home and took the
hospital to court, claiming that staff had acted beyond their legal
powers.
Yesterday the European Court of Human Rights ruled in her
favour.
David, now 17, is blind and suffers from spastic quadriplegia,
epilepsy and severe learning difficulties.
Source: The Daily Mail Wednesday 10 March page 1
Labour’s ‘lost jobless
generation’
Labour policies have created a “lost generation” of one
million young people who are out of work but not registered as
unemployed, the shadow chancellor has claimed.
Oliver Letwin said that means-tested benefits had widened the gap
between rich and poor. The Conservatives estimate that there are
more than a million people aged between 16 and 24 who belong to the
third class, unemployed but not studying or claiming unemployment
benefits.
Source:- The Daily Mail Wednesday 10 March page 21
Pensioners thrown out of care home to make way for
criminals
Relatives have attacked a decision to throw residents out of a
nursing home in order to turn the building into a private secure
unit for people with serious personality disorders.
The 36 older people, who include a woman of 103, were initially
given just six weeks notice by the new owner of the home in Goole,
East Yorkshire.
At the weekend 1,500 protesters marched to demand action from the
local MP.
Source:- The Daily Mail Wednesday 10 March page 37
Scottish newspapers
£1.6m deaf toll on NHS
A total of £1.6 million a year is being lost by the NHS
because deaf patients cannot hear their names being called for
appointments, it emerged yesterday.
A new study by the Royal National Institute for the Deaf claims
that a quarter of patients missed at least one appointment and one
in six said it happened more than five times.
Last night, experts called for better technology and improved staff
training to tackle the problem.
Source:- Daily Record Wednesday 10 March page 9
Orphans in line for abuse cash
Millions of pounds in compensation could be awarded to thousands of
Irish victims of child abuse now living in Scotland.
Up to 10,000 Scots-based people, who lived in Irish orphanages and
industrial schools, have been urged to apply for compensation if
they suffered from physical, sexual or emotional abuse.
The average payment so far is £58,000.
Source:- Daily Record Wednesday 10 March page 18
Care home nurse on booze rap
A senior nurse yesterday admitted drinking alcohol in a home where
he was in charge of 30 adults with learning difficulties.
Evidence was heard by a professional conduct committee of the
Nursing and Midwifery Council, which is investigating allegations
of misconduct.
Malcolm Simpson was a staff nurse at Forse House Nursing Home in
Latheron, Caithness, when the incidents allegedly took place.
The hearing continues.
Source:- Daily Record Wednesday 10 March page 18
Council quits after ‘bullying
campaign’
The former leader of Scottish Borders Council has been accused of
“consistent abuse and harassment” by all nine members
of a community council in the Borders who have quit their
posts.
Andrew Tulley has been accused of running a campaign to undermine
the voluntary organisation. Members claim he has frequently
intervened from the public benches to criticise or challenge
decisions taken by the group.
Yesterday’s resignation leaves the second largest town in the
Borders without a community council.
Source:- The Scotsman Wednesday 10 March
Waite’s plea to help the homeless find
work
Terry Waite has urged the Scottish business community to help
create a working community for homeless people.
The plea by the former Beirut hostage, which would see the first
Emmaus Community established in Glasgow, would allow 24 homeless
people to work to get away from life on the streets.
Waite, who is president of Emmaus UK, which helps homeless people,
said that by creating a self-sustaining project in the deprived
area of Possilpark, north Glasgow, the homeless people would be
given a brighter future.
Source:- The Scotsman Wednesday 10 March
Welsh newspapers
Councillor’s suspension upheld
The six-month suspension of a Gwent councillor, who allegedly
threatened a social worker, has been upheld.
But Graham Powell, aged 78, stormed out of Monmouthshire
council’s standards committee meeting before the verdict was
given. He has claimed that the committee is a
‘kangaroo’ court and has vowed to clear his name.
Source:- South Wales Argus Tuesday 9 March page 7
Council to tackle homeless crisis
A rise in the number of homeless people in Torfaen has forced
council chiefs to come up with a five-year plan to combat the
problem.
The authority said the area is now one of the worst for
homelessness per head of the population in Wales.
The new plan will combine themes looking at prevention, support and
the provision of accommodation, and will bring agencies together to
tackle the problem.
Source:- South Wales Argus Tuesday 9 March page 9
Court bid is needle dad’s ‘last
resort’
The father of a three-year-old who was allegedly pricked by a
syringe at a Cardiff family centre has begun legal action against
the council and the children’s charity,
Barnardo’s.
The man who is unnamed, said that he is furious that neither
Cardiff Council or Barnardo’s which jointly run the centre,
have admitted responsibility for the incident.
Source:- South Wales Echo Tuesday 9 March page 12
Sick ex-miners join rush to claim
compensation
Thousands of ex-miners, suffering from the effects of industrial
disease have joined a last-minute rush to claim compensation in the
government’s multi-billion pound payout scheme.
The scheme is due to close at the end of the month, and up to
11,000 extra claims have been registered in the last two
months.
Source:- Western Mail Wednesday 10 March page 7