Monday 25 April 2005

By Sally Gillen, Simeon Brody, Derren Hayes and Amy
Taylor

Boarding schools for state pupils to be built

Labour will increase the number of government-funded places at
state boarding schools if elected, according to Ruth Kelly. Parents
would not have to pay tuition fees but those who could afford would
be expected to meet the cost of food and accommodation.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Saturday 23 April 2005 page
1

Surgeons fear hospital closures

Surgeons fear the introduction of independent treatment centres,
set up to cut waiting lists, will lead to hospital closures and
lower standards of patient care.

Many consultants believe foreign doctors brought in to work
short-term contracts in the privately-run centres will not be as
well trained or monitored as those registered by the British
Medical Council.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Saturday 23 April 2005 page
4

Freedom for architect as legion deaths fury fails to reach
verdict

An architect was freed from court after a jury failed to decide
whether she had killed seven people who had succumbed to
Britain’s biggest outbreak of legionnaires’
disease.

Gillian Beckingham, of Grange-over-Sands, Cumbria had spent 10
weeks on trial at Preston Crown Court and had earlier been
convicted of putting the public at risk by failing to take
reasonable care.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Saturday 23 April 2005 page
10

Calling someone an immigrant can be a racial slur, court
rules

Using the word “immigrant” can justify treating an
assault as racially aggravated, the Court of Appeal has ruled. The
court decided a judge should not have thrown out a charge of
racially aggravated assault against a woman who attacked a GP after
calling him an “immigrant doctor”.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Saturday 23 April 2005 page
10

Wife “begged drug overdose husband to
live”

A woman, charged with manslaughter after being accused of watching
her sick husband die from a drugs overdose told police she believed
he would recover.

Jill Anderson said she trusted her husband Paul when he promised he
“would do nothing silly” and it is claimed she told
detectives he “had done it before and had come
through”.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Saturday 23 April 2005 page
12

Meadow gets GMC date

Paediatrician Sir Roy Meadow, who was an expert witness in the
cases of a string of women wrongly accused of killing their
children, will appear before the General Medical Council on June 21
accused of serious professional misconduct.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Saturday 23 April 2005 page
14

Blair hits back over migrants

Tony Blair accused Michael Howard of an “incoherent
babble” of divisive scare tactics over immigration.

Source:- The Guardian Saturday 23 April 2005 page 1

Infants in daycare may suffer less leukaemia

Putting a child in daycare, where it is exposed to childhood
infections among other infants, might prime the immune system and
help make it less likely they develop childhood leukaemia,
researchers said yesterday.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Saturday 23 April 2005 page
9

CBI blow to Tories on immigration

An annual cap on immigrants “wouldn’t work” and
controlled immigration was essential for a functioning economy, the
CBI has said.

Source:- Financial Times Saturday 23 April 2005 page
3

Met to spend £1m on race and gay equality
advisers

A new Metropolitan Police “citizen focus” squad will
help the force develop its internal race and gay equality policies
and give advice to officers investigating major crimes.

Source:- Daily Mail Saturday 23 April 2005 page 33

Scope’s £330,000 for new bosses as homes face
closure

Troubled charity Scope has hired four executives with charities
totaling £330,000 while planning to close some of its care
homes.

They have been appointed even though Scope is in the grip of a
financial crisis.

A spokesperson for the Charity Commission, which is investigating
the organisation’s actions, said it had yet to decide if
regulatory action was needed.

Source:- Mail on Sunday Sunday 24 April 2005 page 14

Schools slash orders for chips and processed foods

The Jamie Oliver effect is sweeping British schools, according to
figures released today. A national survey shows that orders for
chips, chocolate and frozen turkey have dropped while healthy
choices such as yoghurt have seen a sharp increase in sales.

Source:- Independent on Sunday Sunday 24 April 2005 page
5

Blair ‘misled’ public on asylum

Prime minister Tony Blair ordered two senior civil servants to draw
up an estimate of the number of illegal immigrants in Britain, a
leak memo has revealed.

The memo shows that he asked Bill Jeffrey, director-general of the
immigration service, to compile the figures more than a year
ago.

Source:- The Sunday Times Sunday 24 April 2005 page
2

Pope ‘obstructed’ sex abuse inquiry

Pope Benedict XV1 faced claims that he ‘obstructed’
justice’ after it emerged that he issued an order ensuring
the church’s investigations into child abuse claims he
carried out in secret.

Source:- The Observer Sunday 24 April 2005 page 3

Secret film reveals shocking state of chaos in British
classrooms

An undercover documentary will reignite the debate about
pupils’ behaviour.

Source:- The Observer Sunday 24 April 2005 page 7

 Injuries from violent crime fall to five-year
low

Serious violence resulting in injury has fallen 13 per cent
since 200, according to research from Cardiff University.

Last week’s figures showing a rise in violent crime
include harassment and common assault, which do not result in
injury.

Source:- The Independent Monday 25 April 2005 page
4

Electronic tags fail to prevent offenders from dodging
curfews

Electronic tagging is failing to cut crime and dozens of
offenders are breaching their curfew orders without being brought
back to court, according to probation union Napo.

Source:- The Independent Monday 25 April 2005 page
4

NHS faces recruitment crisis as nurses
retire

The number of new nurses joining the NHS needs to double within
10 years just to keep staff figures stable, the Royal College of
Nursing has claimed.

Source:- The Independent Monday 25 April 2005 page
4

Boy, five, still critical after being shot in
playground

A five-year-old boy shot in the head in a primary school
playground in Co Fermanagh, by what police believe may have been
stray bullet from a hunter’s gun, was still in a critical
condition yesterday.

Source:- The Independent Monday 25 April 2005 page
6

UK low in social mobility league, says
charity

Children born to poor families in Britain are less likely to
fulfil their potential than in other developed countries, according
to a report by the London School of Economics.

Source:- The Guardian Monday 25 April 2005 page 8

Trust sued over twin born after abortion

A mother who gave birth to a twin girl following an incomplete
termination is suing Perth Royal infirmary, where she had the
procedure, to help with the cost of raising the child.

Source:- The Guardian Monday 25 April 2005 page 10

Hundreds more heroin addicts to given a fix on the
NHS

Hundreds more heroin addicts, who do not respond to other
treatments such as methadone, will be able to get the drug free on
the NHS as part of pilot schemes starting in June.

If the pilots in Manchester and South London are successful
wider prescribing of the drug will be extended.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Monday 25 April 2005 page
11

Yob culture “learnt in the
classroom”

Classrooms are a spawning ground for the rude and violent
behaviour of Britain’s children, documentary film maker Roger
Graef claimed yesterday.

Graef said problems of discipline have to be tackled in school
and not just on the streets with Asbos.

Source:- The Times Monday 25 April 2005 page 5

Just a day in jail for ASBO thug

A teenager who was warned he could be jailed for up to five
years if he ignored an asbo banning him from a Suffolk village was
locked up for just 24 hours when he did so.

Source:- Daily Mail Monday 25 April page
27                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

Scottish newspapers

Autistic schoolchildren treble to over 3,000

The number of schoolchildren suffering from autism has broken
through 3,000 for the first time as campaigners called for more
resources to tackle the condition.

Ministers and doctors insist the more than threefold rise in the
past six years is entirely due to increased awareness and better
diagnosis of the condition.

But campaign groups insist that the statistics reveal an “autism
epidemic” which may actually be even higher than the statistics
show.

Source:- Scotland on Sunday Sunday 24 April

Departing council boss hits out at ‘poverty
industry’ failure to tackle city deprivation

Charlie Gordon, who stands down as leader of Glasgow Council
next month, has hit out at the political system and ministers for
failing to tackle poverty properly.

Rather than focusing on getting people into work, he says the
Scottish executive is obsessed with buzzwords such as
“communities” and “social inclusion”, both
of which require “co-ordinators” and
“programmes”.

In an interview in the Sunday Herald, Gordon says economic
development is more important to me than social inclusion and
environmental sustainability.

Source:- Sunday Herald Sunday 24 April

School bullies should go into care, urges
official

A senior education official has suggested that persistent school
bullies should be removed from their families and placed in foster
care.

Reverend Ewan Aitken, education spokesperson for the local
authority umbrella group COSLA, will make the controversial call at
a conference in Edinburgh today.

Aitken, also Edinburgh Council’s executive member for
education, will say that putting bullies in foster care would allow
the child and their family time and space to resolve any problems
they have at home.

Source:- The Scotsman Monday 25 April

‘Uninformed’ ministers closed youth project

An independent report into the closure of a groundbreaking
residential project which attempted to prevent re-offending among
high-tariff young male offenders is expected to be highly critical
of ministers.

Hugh Henry, the deputy justice minister, was responsible for the
decision to withdraw Scottish executive funding from the Airborne
initiative.

He is accused of giving in to “nimbyism” from residents in the
surrounding area who wanted to see the project closed down, and
allowing himself to be influenced by a critical BBC documentary
into the programme.

Source:- The Scotsman Monday 25 April

Community halves crime by hiring police
force

Hundreds of housing association tenants have nearly halved crime
in their community by hiring police officers to patrol the
streets.

Reidvale Housing Association, which manages 950 properties in
Glasgow’s Dennistoun area, has paid Strathclyde police
£15,000 to provide two hours of additional policing, two
nights a week, over the past 12 months.

The scheme, which costs each household 30 pence a week, has
resulted in a dramatic fall in crime, particularly in reducing the
incidents of fighting in the streets.

Source:-The Scotsman Monday 25 April

Welsh newspapers

Charity cool or just a wristbandwagon

Children wear wristbands because they want to support charities
rather than to make a fashion statement experts said this
week.

Next month the children’s commissioner for Wales is launching
two free bands with the slogan “Everyone has rights” on
them.

Source:- Western Mail Saturday 23 April 

Family’s fury over dad’s death

The family of a man with mental health problems who died after
trying to hang himself have said that the care he received was
inadequate.

David Edmund Zasikowski died from a heart attack the day after his
suicide attempt in October 2004.

Speaking after the inquest, which took place at Cardiff
Coroner’s Court, his daughter Victoria Zasikowski said that
she felt that her dad’s death may have been avoided if his
care and monitoring had been better.

Source:- Western Mail Saturday 23 April

Alzheimer victim ‘abandoned in car park’
claim

An investigation has been launched after the family of an older
women with Alzheimer’s disease alleged that she was left
alone in a supermarket car park while her carer went
shopping.

The family claim that 81-year-old Iris Davis was left in a car
outside Tesco Superstore in Station Yard, Merthyr Tydfil. They say
Davies was found wandering around the car park alone by
shoppers.

Merthyr Tydfil Council has launched an investigation.

Source:- Western Mail Saturday 23 April