Tuesday 29 March 2005

By Simeon Brody, Amy Taylor and Derren Hayes

CBI fears over pace of reform

 Business is dissatisfied with the pace of public sector reform
and sceptical that the government will achieve planned efficiency
gains of £21.5 billion, according to a survey of CBI
employers.

 Source:- Financial Times Tuesday 29 March 2005 page
3

 Teachers step up attack on inner-city
academies

Teachers have accused ministers of using inaccurate inspection
reports as an excuse for replacing failing inner city schools with
academies.

Delegates at the National Union of Teachers conference voted to
send teams of activists to where the academies will be based.

Source:- Financial Times Tuesday 29 March 2005 page
4

Concern for youths not in jobs or school

More than one in 10 16 to 18-year-olds are not in school,
college or work in some areas, according to new figures from think
tank Local Futures.

Many young people are becoming locked into a life of deprivation
before Labour’s welfare to work system, which begins at the
age of 18, can pick them up.

Source:- Financial Times Tuesday 29 March 2005 page
4

Children of the Old Bailey go from victims to
knife-wielding offenders

This month alone, three schoolboy killers have been tried for
murder at the Old Bailey and in each case knives were used. The
third of these frighteningly similar trials ended with the
conviction of a 17-year-old for the manslaughter of a 15-year-old
in Fulham.

Source:- The Times Tuesday 29 March 2005 page 27

Dismay in the countryside as ministers add 29,000 to
homes target

A new town the size of Harlow is needed in the eastern counties
of England, in addition to the 478,000 new homes already expected
by 2021.

The government has told planners the provision of new homes
should be increased to 507,000 new homes.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Tuesday 29 March 2005 page
8

River killing case reviewed

The attorney general is considering whether the sentences passed
on two teenage boys convicted of the manslaughter of a 16-year-old
after pushing him into a river were unduly lenient. They were
ordered to be detained for 18 months and 8 months.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Tuesday 29 March 2005 page
8

Abandoned baby found in bushes

Police appealed for the mother of a baby placed inside a
pillowcase and abandoned in parkland in Bedford to come
forward.

A woman was seen frantically searching bushes by a footpath
hours after the baby was discovered near a health centre.

Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 29 March 2005 page 4

Calls flood in to Essex schoolgirl rape
inquiry

Detectives investigating the rape of an Essex primary school
girl as she slept in her bed have received a large number of calls
from the public in response to their detailed description of the
suspect.

Police said the attacker may have been a local gang member.

Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 29 March 2005 page 7

Tories would strand low paid, says Labour

A Conservative government would let the minimum wage
“wither away”, Labour claimed yesterday.

The party reminded voters that Conservative leader Michael
Howard has vociferously opposed a national minimum wage before and
after the 1997 election.

Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 29 March 2005 page 8

Community officer accused

Pauline Fisher, a community patrol officer hired to tackle
anti-social behaviour on Wirral, Merseyside is to appear before
Birkenhead magistrates accused of common assault and
harassment.

Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 29 March 2005 page 9

Liverpool shows how it can house travellers in
harmony

There was no hint of local vitriol at the opening of
Britain’s most expensive permanent travellers’ site in
Liverpool.

Not only is the high walled Oil Street site too far from
residential areas to offend but residents are being relocated here
from unauthorised sites elsewhere in the city.

Source:- The Independent Tuesday 29 March 2005 page
8

Prescribe exercise for depression, doctors
told

A course of exercise may be the best treatment for depression,
according to a Mental Health Foundation report.

The foundation wants the government to invest £20 million
in developing exercise referral as a treatment.

Source:- Daily Mail Tuesday 29 March 2005 page 8

Scottish news

Poverty fails to toe the party line

A pre-election look at what progress has been made in the past 30
years to tackle poverty in Glasgow, one of the UK’s poorest
cities.

Despite eight years of a Labour government, it says Tony Blair is
struggling to meet his target of halving child poverty by
2010.

Source:- The Herald Tuesday 29 March

Anger at freeze on costs for elderly

The three-year freeze on personal and nursing care costs for older
people in Scotland is being challenged by the Liberal Democrats,
who complain that the weekly payment is being eroded and the
landmark policy undermined.

Mike Rumbles, Liberal Democrat health spokesperson, has said it is
wrong to freeze the maximum weekly payment of £210.

He said that, if the amount was not upgraded, he would insist that
a full increase of the weekly payment should be a commitment in the
party’s manifesto for the Scottish Parliament elections in
2007.

Source:- The Herald Tuesday 29 March

Welsh news

Revealed the truth about Welsh teenagers

The average teenager in Wales is less likely to be pregnant or
smoke, according to new research.

The Key Data on Adolescence, by the Trust for the Study of
Adolescence, also found that suicide rates among teenage boys in
Wales are falling and the youth crime rate is falling.

Source:- Western Mail Tuesday 29 March

Depressed? Then get up and running – far better than
taking tablets

GPs are reluctantly prescribing anti-depressants for depressed
patients unaware that exercise is a good way to tackle the problem,
according to new research.

The study by The Mental Health Foundation calls for patients to be
prescribed exercise instead of pills.

Source:- Western Mail Tuesday 29 March