Thursday 8 July 2004

By Alex Dobson, Clare Jerrom, Shirley Kumar and Amy
Taylor

Blunkett exposes feared invasion of foreign benefit scroungers as
‘myth’

Worries that high numbers of benefits scroungers would come to
Britain from poor Eastern European countries have proved unfounded,
the home secretary David Blunkett said last night.

Government figures for immigration for May and June showed that a
total of 24,000 people had registered for work since the 10
accession countries joined the European Union on 1 May. Almost
15,000 of them were here illegally already.

Source:- The Independent, Thursday, 8 July, page 12

Fear on nursery care forces rethink

The government is considering taking a different tack on its
childcare strategy due to increasing evidence that day nurseries
for children under two can cause them to behave more anti-socially
and aggressive.

One of the largest international studies by the National Institute
of Child Health and Human Development in the US found that the more
time children spend in childcare when they are aged from birth to
four and a half the more they were less able to get along with
others.

Margaret Hodge, the children’s minister is also expected to
announce that extending paid maternity leave from six months to one
year today.

Source:- The Guardian, Thursday, 8 July, page 1

Prescott blocks plan for asylum centre

Home secretary David Blunkett’s plans to build a network of
units to hold asylum seekers was stopped yesterday when deputy
prime minister John Prescott rejected plans for a centre on a
disused RAF base.

Prescott rejected a planning application to turn the former base
into the second of four accommodation centres to hold 750 asylum
seekers.

Source:- The Times, July 8, page 2

Girl left alone died in fall from ride

A teenage girl with Down Syndromes fell to her death from a Ferris
wheel after an a member of staff refused to allow her mother to
ride with her in the gondola, an inquest heard.

Salma Saleem from Nelson in Lancashire was on an outing organised
by a disabled children’s group at Gulliver’s World
theme park when she fell to the death in July 2002.

The inquest in Warrington continues and is due to hear more on
training procedures and from the member of staff operating the
wheel at the time.

Source:- The Times, July 8, page 3

Three police in court on killing charge

Three Lincolnshire police officers were charged with unlawful
killing after the body of heroin addict Michelle Wood was found in
a field.
Andrew Hickinbottom, PC Ian Clark and Andrew Wood were granted
unconditional bail at Grimsby magistrates.

Source:- The Times, July 8, page 4

Father who killed

A father who battered his new born son to death was jailed for
seven years by the Old Bailey.
Stephen Hough of Luton denied murder but was convicted
manslaughter.

Source:- The Times, July 8, page 4

Sex attack alert

Women are being offered self-defence lessons after a young sex
attacker struck 11 times in four weeks in Rochdale.
More than 1,000 panic alarms have been sold or given away.

Source:- The Times, July 8, page 4

‘No’ to race case

A racial case against members of a bonfire society accused of
burning effigies of people and the number plate PIKEY has been
thrown out by the Crown Prosecution Service due to lack of
evidence.

File Bonfire Society near Lewes, East Sussex has been in dispute
over travellers.

Source:- The Times, July 8, page 4

Soham row discredits police, says Stevens

The rows between Humberside police chief David Westwood and Home
Secretary David Blunkett will discredit police and politicians,
warned Metropolitan Police Chief John Stevens on his
retirement.

He said the struggle, after the Bichard Report into the Soham
murders, should have been handled without public
confrontation.

Source:- The Times, July 8, page 6

Chief constable under fire in assault
hearing

Humberside chief constable David Westwood is at the centre of a row
over his handling of allegations by a woman police officer who said
she had been indecently assaulted by a black colleague.

Westwood is alleged to have offered the woman a promotion in
November last year when the force failed to take action against
detective Shaquille Siddiqui.

Source:- The Times, July 8, page 6

Deprived areas miss out on millions in NHS budgets

Deprived communities are missing out on millions due to
inequalities in the funding of healthcare.

The first annual report from the Healthcare Commission said there
were many disparities based on wealth, race and religion.

Source:- The Times, July 8, page 14

Judge blasts lawyers for ‘hopeless’ asylum
appeals

High Court judge Justice Collins has reprimanded human
rights lawyers for backing ‘totally unmeritorious’
claims by failed asylum seekers.

He said some legal challenges were a blatant attempt to delay a
return to the home country.

Source:- The Daily Mail, July 8, page 23

Scottish newspapers

Scotland to be testing ground for tagging of asylum
seekers

Asylum seekers in Scotland are to be electronically tagged as part
of a major security crackdown by the Home Office.

Reliance Monitoring Services will take on the contract operating a
six-month pilot scheme from September.

According to the Home Office, around 70 asylum seekers in Scotland
will be involved in the compulsory trials which will run alongside
similar projects in England and Wales before being rolled out
across the UK.

Source:- The Scotsman  Thursday 8 July

Prisons chief demands action over soaring jail
population

The Scottish executive should stop talking and start acting over
the increasing numbers of people being sent to prisons,
Scotland’s chief inspector of prisons has urged.

Andrew McLellan raised his fears in an inspectorate report of
Greenock prison yesterday which revealed the jail was running at
100 per cent capacity.

Source:- The Scotsman  Thursday 8 July

Care of elderly inconsistent

The monitoring of waiting lists for care home places across
Scotland is “patchy and inconsistent”, according to
Audit Scotland yesterday.

More than 1,800 older people were waiting for services even though
councils are spending millions on community care.

Scotland’s spending watchdog warned that information was not
being collected in the same way across the country, making it
impossible to draw up a performance league table.

Source:- The Scotsman  Thursday 8 July

Tories slam fewer jail terms plan

The Conservative Party have slammed calls for fewer people to be
sent to prison.

Justice spokesperson Anabel Goldie said experience overseas showed
prison served as a deterrent and helped reduce crime.

Her comments came after the Scottish Prison Service proposed
scrapping sentences of less than a year.

Source:- Evening News  Wednesday 7 July

Home Alone kid, six, walks icy ledge

A starving child left home alone pushed her little brother across
two busy roads to buy breakfast with 20p, a court heard.

The child was dressed in pyjamas in freezing weather. She also
walked along an icy ledge 20 feet above the ground.
Christine Carmichael, 37, admitted wilfully risking the
children’s lives at Perth Sheriff Court.

Source:- Daily Record, July 8, page 12

Cramped cells rap for prison

A prison hall contains twice as many inmates as it should,
according to a report by Dr Andrew McLellan, Chief Inspector of
Prisons.

The prison has three halls but only Alisa Hall is
overcrowded.

Source:- Daily Record, July 8, page 20

Welsh newspapers

Parents hiring tutors for their children

Increasing numbers of Welsh parents are hiring private
tutors to help their children win scholarships to top schools in
Wales.

As demand for homes within the catchment areas of popular schools
drives prices higher, parents are resorting to coaching in an
effort to gain places for their children in independent
schools.

Source Western Mail Thursday 8 July page 1

Quangos lacking in experience

Welsh assembly first minister, Rhodri Morgan says that the
country does not have enough experienced people to serve on public
bodies.

Because of Wales’ small population Mr Morgan says that there
are shortages of people below retirement age who can sit on bodies
like Local Health Boards.

Source Western Mail Thursday 8 July page 2