Monday 8 November 2004

By Maria Ahmed, Clare Jerrom and Amy Taylor

Cockle pickers finally go home

As Chinese families bury their dead, the battle for compensation
has just begun.

Source:- The Times Saturday 6 November 2004 page 3

Lottery cash diverted ‘to help Labour pet
projects’

As the lottery celebrates its 10th birthday, most charity leaders
oppose plans by Tessa Jowell, the culture secretary, to redirect
more lottery money to projects aligned with the government at the
expense of other good causes.

Source:- The Times Saturday 6 November 2004 page 4

Villagers reach for their cheque books to beat off
‘Gucci gypsies’

Convoys of ‘deluxe’ caravans have descended on up to 50
rural communities across England and Wales to local protests.

Source:- The Times Saturday 6 November 2004 page 9

Judge rejects jury’s ‘unlawful killing’
verdict against police

A High Court judge overturned an inquest jury’s
verdict of “unlawful killing” against eight police
officers over the death of a black mentally ill prisoner.

Roger Sylvester was arrested naked outside his home and detained
under the Mental Health Act. He died after being restrained by
police.

Source:- The Times Saturday 6 November 2004 page 15

Disability ruling

Keith Roads, a wheelchair user, won the right to force a train
company to pay for a taxi because a station had no disabled
access.

Source:- The Times Saturday 6 November 2004 page 22

Firework yobs

New powers to give on-the-spot fines to under-18s carrying
fireworks are failing to catch any offenders.

Source:- The Times Saturday 6 November 2004 page 22

Blow to fight against binge drinking

Plans to curb binge drinking by imposing minimum alcohol prices
suffered another blow when a Scottish court ruled such schemes
illegal.

Source:- The  Financial Times Saturday 6 November 2004
page 2

How ‘Mafia’ thugs are profiting from migrant
misery of Calais

Smugglers demand money to take migrants to England.

Source:- The Independent Saturday 6 November 2004 page
11

Family planning for boys aged 11

Boys as young as 11 are being given free condoms by the
state.

Source:- The Daily Mail Saturday 6 November 2004 page
1

‘Spite’ of a farmer

Farmer sells land bordering his millionaire neighbours’ homes
for a Gipsy site.

Source:- The Daily Mail Saturday 6 November 2004 page
7

Free rooms at the hotel Asbo

A family evicted from their home for suspected drug-dealing are
staying at a B&B funded by the council.

Source:- The Daily Mail Saturday 6 November 2004 page
30-31

‘Serial mums’ in teens campaign

‘Multiple mothers’ who give birth to a string of
children before they are out of their teens are to be targeted by
new government plans to slash schoolgirl pregnancies.

Source:- The Observer Sunday 7 November 2004 page 12

Asbo family facing eviction ‘are
innocent’

The family who were the first to be issued with an eviction order
without warning under new Asbo legislation have claimed they are
innocent.

Susan Hartless, who has four young children with her partner, won a
stay to remain in their home while a decision is made on their case
this month.

Source:- The Sunday Express Sunday 7 November 2004 page
15

Blunkett accused of anti-social behaviour

The home secretary David Blunkett has been accused of
“yobbish” behaviour after he told presenter Johnathan
Dimbleby to “sod off” during Any Questions on Radio
4.

Blunkett made the comment after being pressed on whether he
personally believed in the policy of regional assemblies.

Source:- The Sunday Telegraph Sunday November 7 page
2

Welcome to Crays Hill Primary School. Local Children
– 0. Gypsy children – 50

Two weeks ago the last local child was removed from Crays Hill
primary school in Billericay leaving just 50 gypsy children.

The gypsy children’s parents have set up home in the village
illegally. The school, which once had 160 pupils, has become known
as “pikey primary” over the past two years.

Source:- The Sunday Telegraph Sunday November 7 page
4

Drug-hit estate to get crazy golf ‘cure’

A crazy golf course is being built in on a housing estate in north
London in an attempt to tackle anti-social behaviour.

Camden Council is behind the plans to build a nine-hole course as a
part of a £2 million redevelopment on the Clarence Way
estate.

The course is set to be up and running by January.

Source:- The Mail on Sunday Sunday 7 November page
25

MPs call for more land for Gypsies

Councils in England should set aside land for gypsies and
travellers, a cross-party group of MPs will say today.

Although there is a shortage of legal sites, councils will only
provide more if the government tells town halls to take action,
according to the Commons local government and planning select
committee.

It claims more than 3,500 gypsies and travellers have no legal
place to park their caravans.

Source:- The Guardian  Monday 8 November page 8

New powers to deport fall foul of UN

Ministers have been warned that new powers to deport refugees who
are convicted of serious offences while in Britain breach human
rights conventions.

The UN High Commissioner for refugees has written to peers who are
due to vote today on a parliamentary order introducing the power to
deport those who are convicted of serious crimes.

Source:- The Guardian  Monday 8 November page 8

Hodge calls for childcare review

Margaret Hodge is set to write to social services departments
suggesting they review care cases in which a now discredited expert
witness gave evidence.

The children’s minister fears that Dr Colin Paterson’s
evidence, given over two decades, could have led courts to return
children to homes where they could be in danger.

Source:- The Guardian  Monday 8 November

Howard vows strict cap on asylum places

Genuine asylum seekers fleeing persecution could be turned away by
Conservatives, Michael Howard confirmed yesterday.

The party leader said he was committed to limiting the number of
people granted asylum every year because it was not possible to
admit everyone with a deserving case.

Source:- Daily Telegraph  Monday 8 November page 4

Drugs firm wanted to double Seroxat sales

The makers of an antidepressant drug planned to double sales by
marketing it as a cure for minor anxieties according to emerging
documents.

Seroxat would have been prescribed to treat conditions currently
treated without drugs in plans by GlaxoSmithKline.

The document has been passed to the House of Commons Health Select
Committee.

Source:- Independent  Monday 8 November page 17

Scottish newspapers

Foster care for pets lets victims of abuse escape to new life

Ninety four per cent of abused Scottish women with pets will not
leave their partners because they fear for their animals, according
to new research.

The UK’s first study into the area led to the creation of a
unique organisation which puts animals into “foster
care” while their mistresses rebuild their lives.

Source:- The Scotsman  Saturday 6 November

9 years’ jail for man who had sex with
13-year-old

A man became obsessed with a teenage girl following the death of
his wife has been jailed for nine years.

The High Court in Edi burgh heard how Daniel Smith asked the
youngster to wear make up which had belonged to his wife and would
murmer the dead woman’s name while carrying out sex
acts.

At an earlier hearing Smith pleaded guilty to charges of indecency
and having unlawful sex with the girl aged 13 when the abuse
began.

Source:- Evening News  Saturday 6 November

Church attacks sex education plan

The Scottish executive will be warned today that it risks
“undermining the morality of a generation” with sex
education plans which include handing out the morning after pill to
14-year-old girls.

Cardinal Keith O’Brien will use his sermon today to claim
that ministerial plans to improve sexual health in Scotland are
failing youngsters.

Source:- Scotland on Sunday  Sunday 7 November

Personal mentors may oust nursery nurses

A new kind of highly trained professionals should replace nursery
nurses and oversee the development of children from the age of one
to six.

Professor Peter Moss will tell the Daycare Trust’s annual
conference that British childcare should be reformed.

He suggests a model in which nursery nurses and others who work
with children, will be replaced by two new specialists:
“pedagogues” and “young children
teachers”.

Source:- Sunday Herald  Sunday 7 November

GP contracts ‘sabotaging drug treatment’

Attempts to reduce the number of drug addicts are being sabotaged
by new working conditions for GPs leaving children at risk and
causing increased crime.

GPs in some areas are increasingly refusing to take on new patients
with drug problems, according to a survey of Drug Action Teams by
the Scottish executive’s Substance Misuse Division.

Parts of Scotland are now seeing a major breakdown in services
because there are too many problem drug users and too few GPs
willing to treat them.

Source:- Sunday Herald  Sunday 7 November

Collapse in number of trials on human rights

The number of people taking human rights cases to court has
decreased despite fears the justice system would be swamped by the
impact of the legislation.

When the European Convention on Human Rights was introduced in
Scots law, there were concerns the courts system would be
overburdened. However the first study to assess the implications of
ECHR by the Scottish executive has found that since the
legislation’s first year, the number of cases has
dropped.

Source:- The Herald  Monday 8 November

Welsh newspapers

‘Invisible’ Aids patients need full support in
Wales

Wales can not afford to continue ignoring its epidemic in sexually
transmitted diseases such as HIV and Aids, a leading campaigner has
warned.

David Lynch, national director of Terrance Higgins Trust Cymru,
said that levels of HIV had doubled in Wales since 1995 and that
sexually transmitted infections were increasing across the board as
people became more sexually active.

Source:- Western Mail Monday 8 November 2004