Wednesday 24 August 2005

Asbo threat to man who races tides

A marathon runner who trains by racing the tide at an estuary could
receive an anti-social behaviour due to sparking a number of calls
to emergency services.

A number of passers by have become worried by Karl Fursey’s
running at the Duddon Estuary, Cumbria. 

The local councillor, Frank McPhillips, said that an Anti-social
behaviour order might be the only way to stop him. Fursey said he
was fed up with people becoming concerned when he was fine.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph, 24 August, Wednesday

No frills’ banking still fails the poor

Basic ‘no frills’ bank accounts are still
failing to tackle financial exclusion among the poorest more than
five years after their introduction, according to research from the
National Consumer Council.

Source:- The Financial Times, Wednesday 24 August 2005,
page 4

Probe on drowning

Gwynedd county council is to launch an inquiry into how a
12-year-old girl in care drowned on a day out with her foster
family. A strong tide swept away Sarah Roberts after she swam from
a beach which has no lifeguards.

Source:- The Daily Mirror, Wednesday 24 August 2005, page
8

Tot’s death ‘avoidable’

The death of a toddler who drowned in the bath could have
been prevented, says a child protection committee report. Alcoholic
childminder Wendy Barlow, 37, of Clithroe, Lancs, was jailed for
the manslaughter of 19-month-old Joshua Massey-Hodgkinson. The CPC
report said Ofsted should have refused her a licence as she
confessed to drinking binges.

Source:- The Daily Mirror, Wednesday 24 August 2005, page
11

Anthony: two in court

Two men are charged with the axe murder of teenager
Anthony Walker appeared in court via video link yesterday. Michael
Barton, 17, and Paul Taylor, 20, spoke to confirm their names at
Liverpool crown court.

Source:- The Daily Mirror, Wednesday 24 August 2005, page
12

Hunt is on for killer of Rory, 11

Schoolboy Rory Blackhall was murdered, police revealed
yesterday. They have not ruled out the possibility that Rory, 11,
was abducted or suffered a sex attack before being killed. His body
was found three days after he vanished in West Lothian.

Source:- The Daily Mirror, Wednesday 24 August 2005, page
1

Gipsy ‘invasion’ to close school

A village school “taken over” by gypsies is
facing closure. Every one of its 40 pupils is from a
travellers’ family. Locals appalled by the
“invasion” have moved their children to other schools.
And education chiefs said the future of Braybrooke primary in
Northamptonshire is being reviewed because of the “serious
problem.” County council leader Jim Harker said he would not
rule out closure so the gipsy pupils could be scattered fairly
among other schools in the district.

Source:- The Daily Mirror, Wednesday 24 August 2005, page
11
 
Half of boys are unable to write properly at 11

Almost half of boys are unable to write properly when they
leave primary school, the government revealed yesterday. Despite
Labour’s flagship literacy hour to improve standards, rising
numbers are struggling to spell, use basic punctuation and write
legibly by eleven.

Source:- The Daily Mirror, Wednesday 24 August 2005, page
17
 
Tories want inquiry into ‘child
snatching’

Tory MPs last night demanded a Commons inquiry into the
adoption system. The call came from the three Conservatives on the
education committee in the wake of allegations that children are
being unfairly removed from loving families. Rob Wilson and his two
party colleagues spoke out after the Daily Mail
highlighted claims that social workers have taken away children
deemed ‘not clever enough’ to raise them.

Source:- The Daily Mirror, Wednesday 24 August 2005, page
18
 
Asylum claims fall but deportation still a problem

The government looks set to miss a much-trumpeted target
for removing failed asylum seekers, despite a sharp fall in the
numbers claiming refuge in Britain. Asylum applications have
dropped by 21 per cent over the past year to just over 2,000 a
month and have fallen by three-quarters since their peak in 2002.
But the fall was tarnished by the admission that only about 1,000
failed asylum-seekers were being deported a month, slightly below
the figure a year ago.

Source:- The Independent, Wednesday 24 August 2005, page
6
 
Tearful father of Piano Man baffled by son’s
behaviour

The story of the mysterious “Piano Man” moved
from a Kent psychiatric hospital yesterday to a remote Bavarian
farmhouse. Andreas Guest, 20, whose four-month silence in a British
hospital spawned elaborate theories of a troubled musical genius,
took refuge in his family home as the reality of his life story
began to emerge.

Source:- The Independent, Wednesday 24 August 2005, page
7
 
Wealth gap between rich and poor has widened since
1997

The gap between rich and poor has widened under Labour,
new figures revealed last night. A report by the government’s
own statisticians shows the difference in disposable income between
the richest and poorest has grown by £91 a week since the
mid-1990s.

Source:- The Independent, Wednesday 24 August 2005, page
7
 
Disabled woman sets solo sailing record

Hilary Lister yesterday sipped and puffed her way into the
record books, becoming the first quadriplegic to sail solo across
the English Channel. Lister, who is able to move only her head,
eyes and mouth, used two straws to navigate her eight-metre boat
through one of the busiest and most dangerous shipping channels in
the world.

Source:- The Guardian, Wednesday 24 August 2005, page
1
 
Family again faces deportation after minister rejects
appeal

A new appeal against the deportation of a family of five
asylum seekers from Malawi was last night rejected by the
immigration minister Tony McNulty. Verah Kapetcha and her four
children, Natasha, 21, Alex, 17, Tony, 16 and Upile, 11, now face
being escorted by immigration officers to Heathrow tomorrow despite
a passionate campaign by local people to let them stay in their
adopted home of Weymouth, Dorset.

Source:- The Guardian, Wednesday 24 August 2005, page
2
 
Britons drink more alcohol as French cut intake

The hard-drinking British increased their consumption of
alcohol by 5 per cent over the past five years while the French and
Germans were sharply cutting back their intake, market researchers
reported today.

Source:- The Guardian, Wednesday 24 August 2005, page
7
 
Stage to be set for public sector reform

The government will today renew its efforts to push
through a radical reform of public services. Cabinet office
minister John Hutton will set the stage for this autumn’s
white papers on education on health with a key speech to the Social
Market Foundation, arguing that only by introducing competition and
choice can Britain secure the values on which the welfare state was
founded. He will also announced that league tables that compare
public services based on consumer experiences are to be drawn up by
the government in the next few months.

Source:- The Guardian, Wednesday 24 August 2005, page
9
 
TUC urges action on Muslim plight

Muslim communities in Britain have faced too many
“cheap calls” to integrate since last month’s
attacks and should instead receive government funding to tackle
widespread poverty and poor health, TUC leader Brendan Barber said
yesterday. Publishing a report saying that people of Pakistani and
Bangladeshi origin are among the most deprived in the UK, Mr Barber
warned that greater social inclusion was being jeopardised by high
levels of poverty.

Source:- The Guardian, Wednesday 24 August 2005, page
10
 
Chemical neglect

Pharmaceutical heroin has helped some of the most hardened
addicts rebuild lives and families. But a shortage of the drug is
having a profound human cost.

Source:-  Society Guardian, Wednesday 24 August 2005, page
2-3
 
Befuddled by alcohol

Government ‘ignored’ overseas evidence on the
real effect of extended drinking presented in a new study for the
International Journal of Drug Policy led by Martin Plant, a
professor at the University of the West of England’s Centre
for Public Health Research.

Source:-  Society Guardian, Wednesday 24 August 2005, page
2-3
 
Recipe for activism

Members of Women’s Institute these days are more
likely to be stirring protest than cake mixes, according to Barbara
Gill, chair of the organisation.

Source:-  Society Guardian, Wednesday 24 August 2005, page
6-7
 
We can work it out

Residents in a deprived area of Derby have initiated a scheme to
help their neighbours find employment.

Source:-  Society Guardian, Wednesday 24 August 2005, page
7
 
Behind the lines

The Daily Mail’s recent coverage of a
controversial adoption case is both vicious and misleading.

Source:-  Society Guardian, Wednesday 24 August 2005, page
8
 
Youth crime can never be solved by locking up offenders,
says Rod Morgan

Source:-  Society Guardian, Wednesday 24 August
2005, page 9
 
Boy in sex cases

A 12-year-old boy accused of two rapes was remanded into
secure local authority care by magistrates at Wigan Youth Court,
Greater Manchester. The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons,
is charged with sex offences against a boy aged 8 and a girl, also
under 10, between April 1 and July 27.

Source:-  The Times, Wednesday 24 August 2005, page
2
 
Police powerless to stop late-night drinking without proof
of disorder

Longer pub hours will bring more violence, say
officers

Source:-  The Times, Wednesday 24 August 2005, page
6
 
Few Polish plumbers, but eastern influx tops 230,000

More than 230,000 Eastern European migrants have applied
to work in Britain since the expansion of the European Union last
year, according to a government report published yesterday.

Source:-  The Times, Wednesday 24 August 2005, page
29
 
Play recalling cellmate murder places Blunkett in the
spotlight

The final hours of Zahid Mubarek, the Asian teenager
beaten to death by his white racist cellmate, are being
reconstructed in a play that will condemn the prison service and
the home office. Tanika Gupta’s play will accuse David
Blunkett, then home secretary, of refusing to hold a public
inquiry.

Source:-  The Times, Wednesday 24 August 2005, page
30
 
Welsh News

Salt poisoning couple to appeal over sentence

A couple found guilty of killing a three-year-old boy they
planned to adopt by feeding him too much salt are to appeal against
the ruling.
Ian Gay and his wife Angela, who is originally from Merthyr Tydfil,
were convicted of the manslaughter of Christian Blewitt in January
and sentenced to five years in jail.

Medical evidence at the trial was not conclusive about how so much
salt had come to be in Christian’s blood.

Source:- Western Mail, Wednesday, 24 August

Scottish News

Rory took the Black Path to Death

Police have stepped up their hunt to catch the killer of
11-year-old Rory Blackhall, whose body was found in woods three
days after he went missing. Police are anxious to trace male
strangers seen in the area, and Rory’s missing rucksack. The force
has called in an entomologist from the Natural History Museum to
analyse insect evidence around the woodland crime scene, near the
M8.

Source:- The Herald, 24 August

Don’t imprison children through fear, say police

Police have advised parents to show restraint as they
attempt to safeguard their children after the murder of Rory
Blackhall. They said that while parents should take sensible
precautions, the police presence in Livingston had been stepped up
and children should not be ‘imprisoned’ as a result of
the killing.

Source:- The Scotsman, 24 August