Tuesday 13 July 2004

By Clare Jerrom, Shirley Kumar and Alex Dobson

Brown keeps spending as Tories cast doubt on civil servant
cuts

The main points of spending review:

£2.2 billion for 20,000 community wardens to help tackle
anti-social behaviour.

Around 120,000 more child care places for working mothers with
pilot tests to extend nursery places for two-year-olds.

By 2008 a further £100 million will be spent on 2,500 children
centres, providing services for parents and £1.5 million
pensioners to benefit from care alarm systems by 2008.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph, July 13, page 1

Boy, 11, drowns during pool test in shallow end

Father raises the question of supervision as he reveals that his
son had been bullied.

Eleven-year-old Nathan Matthews drowned during a supervised school
swimming lesson.

Nathan from Stokenchurch primary school, Bucks, was one of 88
school children taking part in lessons at the pool in Thame.

His father said Nathan had been subjected to both verbal and
physical bullying in the months before he died. He was concerned
about the school’s supervision.

Sourced:- The Daily Telegraph, July 13, page 2

Sion Jenkins’s life ruined, says QC

The scientific case against Sion Jenkins for the murder of his
foster daughter Billie-Jo had collapsed due to unsafe evidence, the
Court of Appeal hard yesterday.

QC for Jenkins Clare Montgomery told the court he had spent six
years in prison in appalling conditions as a child killer.
The hearing continues

Source:- The Daily Telegraph, July 13, page 8

Give equal access to fathers demands Howard

Divorced fathers could have equal rights to their children under a
Tory government.

Michael Howard promised a wide ranging review of legislation that
would seek to shift the focus of access orders away from the
mother.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph, July 13, page 8

Livingstone attacks French headscarf ban

Mayor for London Ken Livingstone hosted the first conference of a
campaign to safeguard the right of Muslim women to wear the hijab
or headscarf and attacked the ban in French schools as the most
reactionary proposal since the Second World War.

Addressing the Assembly for the Protection of Hijab he also
attacked the demonisation of Islam in some British papers.

Source:- The Guardian, July 13, page 4

‘Unrecorded’ homeless hits 380,000

The housing shortage in Britain has led to around 380,000 single
people homeless without being officially classified, revealed
homeless charity Crisis.

The hidden homeless were sleeping on friend’s floors, in
squats or in hostels because they had no home of their own.

Source:- The Guardian, July 13, page 7

Prisoner sues jail again – with another
£25,000 from taxpayer

Gun man George Knights, serving nine life sentences in a maximum
security prison after shooting three police officers and support
staff is seeking £50,000 compensation after being refused
extra luxuries in his cell.

He claims his human rights had been breached when prison officers
refused to give him another mattress, cell lavatory and to be moved
downstairs because he does not like stairs.

Source:- The Guardian, July 13, page 3

Sex abuse claim

A woman won her High court case for judicial review of her criminal
injuries compensation claim after being abused by the son of her
foster mother in Blackpool between 1979 and 1981.

Source:- The Guardian, July 13, page 4

No cash for girl, 13, who ‘enjoyed
sex’

A 13-year-old girl who had sex with an older man is not due
compensation because the Judge said she enjoyed it.

Justice Silber rejected the girl’s pleas that she had been
the victim of crime and violence after she said she was plied with
drink before agreeing to sex in Wendover Woods,
Buckinghamshire.

Source:- The Guardian, July 13, page 5

Catholics admit to hidden child sex abuse

The Roman Catholic Church received 113 allegations of sex abuse
against members of its clergy, employees and volunteers in England
and Wales last year.

A report into the issue said it represents a fraction of the total
abuse.

Source:- The Guardian, July 13, page 8

Sick days plaguing efficiency of civil
service

Gordon Brown is clamping down on sick leave among civil servants as
part of the government aim of improving efficiency.

The average public sector works takes an average 11 days off sick
costing the sector £4bn a year.

The survey of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development
identified stress as the biggest cause of long-term absence.

Source:- The Financial Times, July 13, page 4

Scottish newspapers

Pensioners cash in on help scheme

Older people in north Edinburgh have claimed nearly
£45,000 in cash benefits as a result of a pilot advice
scheme.

The programme, which is designed to give older people information
on issues such as welfare rights, fuel poverty and energy
efficiency, has helped more than 70 people.

The scheme is a joint initiative between the Scottish Gas Help, the
Aged Partnership and The Granton Information Centre.

Source:- Evening News  Monday 12 July

Welsh newspapers

£3m Hope for valley towns

Four Gwent towns could be transformed if a bid for £3m of
European funding is successful. Blaenau Gwent council is bidding
for the funds from the Objective One programme to help regenerate,
Abertillery, Brynmawr, Ebbw Vale and Tredegar.

Source:- South Wales Argus Monday 12 July page 1

Why are they destroying our memories?

The family of an eight-year-old boy who died in the Aberfan
disaster have hit out at plans to bulldoze a memorial to the
children who died in the tragedy.

Pat Walters whose brother Edwin died in the disaster when a coal
tip collapsed onto the primary school in Aberfan killing 115
children and 28 adults, says that she will fight proposals to sell
off land that forms a memorial park.  Merthyr council wants to sell
the land to a housing association to build new homes.

Source:- South Wales Echo Monday 12 July page 1

Police fear for family missing for two weeks

Police are ‘greatly concerned’ about a family
of six who have gone missing from their Cardiff home.

The family disappeared almost two weeks ago and have not used their
bank accounts or mobile phones for the last 12 days.

Businessman David Fundell, 57, his wife Susan, 41 and their four
children aged from six to sixteen, went missing on July 1.

The police are said to be concerned about Mr Fundell’s state
of mind at the time of the family’s disappearance.

Source:- Western Mail Tuesday 13 July page 1

Assembly call to bring child kidney sufferers’
treatment back to Wales 

Welsh children suffering from acute kidney problems should be
treated in Wales, not England.

Politicians are to use a special Welsh assembly debate about the
state of renal services in Wales to call for paediatric nephrology
services to be included in the new Children’s Hospital for
Wales.

Source Western Mail Tuesday 13 July page 3