Tuesday 14 June 2005

By Maria Ahmed, Simeon Brody, Derren Hayes and Amy
Taylor

Best denies claim

The former football George Best strenuously denies claims that he
sexually molested a 13-year-old girl at her home.

Best was arrested by Surrey Police over alleged incident, which is
said to have occurred over the last month. Specially trained
officers have spoken to the girl but no action has been
taken.

Source:- The Times Tuesday 14 June 2005 page 4

Beer by the unit

Labels showing alcohol content in units will be on 85 per cent of
canned and bottled beers by the end of the year, according to a
survey by the British Beer and Pub Association.

It said: “We are committed to enabling people to make better
and more informed choices about their drinking.”

Source:- The Times Tuesday 14 June 2005 page 4

Squatters jailed

Two squatters who invaded an 85-year-old woman’s London home
have been jailed.

Antonio Pompili and Emmanuel Lamy, who admitted being among the
illegal occupants of Milly Martinson’s Bayswater house, were
jailed for 20 weeks and four months respectively by Horseferry Road
Magistrates.

Source:- The Times Tuesday 14 June 2005 page 25

Scotland to stop under-18s from buying cigarettes

Scotland takes a further step today towards embracing some of the
toughest anti-smoking laws in Europe with a move to bar the sale of
cigarettes to children under 18.

Ministers in the Scottish executive indicated last night that they
will accept a backbench amendment to raise from 16 to 18 the
minimum legal age for buying tobacco products.

Source:- The Times Tuesday 14 June 2005 page 27

Court offer tough love to drug-addict mothers

A family judge is hoping to begin a US-style drug dependency court
to help the growing number of babies and children who are being
taken into care because their parents are misusing drugs or
alcohol.

District Judge Nicholas Crichton, resident judge at the Inner
London Family Proceedings Court, says a project development officer
should be appointed within the next two to three weeks for the
initiative which is backed by Camden, Westminster and Islington
councils and Cafcass.

Source:- The Times Law Tuesday 14 June 2005 page 4

Glamour is simply not a factor

Barry Quirk, the national efficiency champion for local government,
is a man with an eye for detail in his pursuit of effectiveness at
a lower cost

Source:- The Times Public Agenda Tuesday 14 June 2005 page
11

Never a luxury

Stopping free newspapers for prisoners is misguided

Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 14 June 2005 page 21

‘It’s about respect’ Hoodies and
classroom violence – familiar themes that top the youth
agenda

A report on the youth cabinet, which aims to give young people a
voice ahead of the government’s youth green paper

Source:- The Guardian Education Tuesday 14 June 2005 page
9

Judge halves killer’s tariff

A judge has halved the 15 and a half years tariff that accompanied
the life sentence given to John Barrett, the mentally-ill man who
admitted the manslaughter of Denis Finnegan, 50, in Richmond Park
in September.

Source:- The Independent Tuesday 14 June 2005 page
11

State workers have the best retirement plans

Taxpayers face a £690 billion bill to fund the pensions of
public sector workers.

It emerged yesterday that the number of final salary pension
schemes in the public sector has overtaken those in the private
sector for the first time in 30 years.

Source:- The Independent Tuesday 14 June 2005 page
11

New Labour gets its hands on £700m in lottery
money

Ministers are to force the spending of National Lottery cash on
health, education and the environment.

They will be given new powers to direct the £700 million Big
Lottery Fund, a quango set up to distribute half of the money
raised every year. Critics fear cash will now be siphoned off to
fund Labour’s pet projects.

Source:- Daily Mail Tuesday 14 June 2005 page 17

Killed “out of spite”

A jealous father killed his young son by trapping him in a burning
room to punish the boy’s mother for seeing another man,
Leicester Crown Court heard yesterday.

David Brown, 70, of no fixed address, allegedly set fire to the
dining room at his former partner Ann Houghton’s home after
she spent a weekend with a man she met via the internet. He denies
murdering his son and attempting to murder his former
partner.

Source:- Daily Mail Tuesday 14 June 2005 page 27

Travellers snub order to move

Travellers living in an illegal camp in Cambridgeshire are ignoring
demands to leave.

Families at Pine View, Smithy Fen in Cottenham were ordered to move
by Saturday but yesterday at least six plots were still
occupied.

Source:- Daily Mail Tuesday 14 June 2005 page 35

Scottish news

Scottish councils urged to accept asylum seekers

Towns and cities across Scotland have been urged to join Glasgow
and open their doors to new asylum seekers from next year.

The call, from the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities
(COSLA), came as a study claimed asylum seekers generated £40
million a year for the Scottish economy and created hundreds of
jobs.

COSLA is to host an open day this summer for Scotland’s 32 councils
to encourage them to sign new Home Office contracts to become
designated recipients of asylum seekers from next April.

Source:- The Scotsman Tuesday 14 June

Headteacher gives charity wristbands the elbow

A primary school has banned its pupils from wearing charity
wristbands, claiming they encourage bad behaviour.

Glen Dawson, the headteacher at Langcraigs Primary, in Paisley,
said the bands – used to publicise the Make Poverty History
campaign and cancer charities, as well as to raise awareness of
bullying – were proving too much of a distraction to pupils, some
of whom had been “pinging” them at each other in class.

Source:- The Scotsman Tuesday 14 June

Welsh news

Council spends thousands on ‘mind gym’

There was outrage this week when it emerged than thousands of
pounds of taxpayers’ money is being spent on helping
councillors to think differently.

The “Mind Gym” workshops, being run by Cardiff Council,
will cost up to £7, 500. Conservative councillor Jayne Cowan
has slammed the plans.

Source:- South Wales Echo Tuesday 14 June

New mental health unit planned for Maelor Hospital

A new £15 million mental health unit is being opened at
Wrexham Maelor Hospital.

Plans for a new unit will be submitted to the Welsh Assembly before
September but hospital officials have said that funding may not be
available to build the unit until 2008.

Source:- Wrexham Leader Tuesday 14 June