Friday 4 November 2005

By Simeon Brody, Amy Taylor and Derren Hayes

The editor, the actor, the (ex) cabinet minister and a night behind bars
Sun editor Rebekah Wade, 37, was arrested yesterday on suspicion of assaulting her soap star husband, Ross Kemp, 41, who plays hardman Grant Mitchell in EastEnders.
Kemp’s on screen brother Steve McFadden, who plays Phil Mitchell, was also the subject of an alleged assault by his former partner Angela Bostock.
Source:- The Guardian Friday 4 November 2005 page 3

Fast-track process for late asylum applications
Home Office ministers are pressing ahead with tough measures to crack down on people making “late and opportunistic asylum claims” which will mean their cases are decided within two weeks rather than two months.
The move follows a law lords judgement yesterday which ruled the government’s previous policy of denying food and shelter to those who failed to lodge their asylum claim within three months violated human rights law.
Source:- The Guardian Friday 4 November 2005 page 8

Asbos soar by 85%, with Manchester at top of list
The number of Asbos imposed by the courts totalled 897 in the first three months of this year – an 85 per cent increase over the same period in 2004.
Home Office figures show the total number of Asbos imposed since they were introduced in April 1999 has now reached 5,557, with Manchester leading the way with 816 of them.
Source:- The Guardian Friday 4 November 2005 page 13

Mother free despite neglect
A mother has walked free after leaving her children, aged one and two, alone in an “appalling state” while she went on a four-day trip to Scarborough last year.
Kirsty McClean, 22, pleaded guilty to neglect and abandonment and Hull Crown Court and received a 12-month suspended sentence. The children were put in care.
Source:- The Times Friday 4 November 2005 page 36

Staff bonuses at troubled CSA
Senior civil servants at the Child Support Agency received £140,000 in bonuses in four years while single parents were deprived of support payments, the government says.
Source:- The Times Friday 4 November 2005 page 38
Teachers told to use teenage magazines in sex lessons
Teachers should stop criticising teenage magazines and use them in lessons on sex and relationships, according to advice from the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph Friday 4 November 2005 page 1

Jamie Oliver offers drug help to chefs
Trainees at Jamie Oliver’s restaurant Fifteen are to be offered cannabis treatment courses after the drug was blamed for a host of problems including absence and a lack of motivation.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph Friday 4 November 2005 page 5
Cracktown, UK
There are 240 crack users in the Derbyshire town of Ilkeston, which only has a population of 15,000. The implications for other small towns across England are alarming.
Source:- The Independent Friday 4 November 2005 page 1

Incentives for pubs to clamp down on bingeing
Pubs that promise to crack down on underage and binge drinking are less likely to be inspected by local authorities or the police under a proposed review of the government’s licensing law.
Source:- Financial Times Friday 4 November 2005 page 4

Scottish news

£40m equal pay deal in jeopardy
Unions have rejected a £40 million equal pay deal which would have seen thousands of female council workers receive up to £9000 in compensation.
Officials from the GMB had originally accepted an offer from Glasgow Council that would have settled a long-running dispute over wage differences between male and female staff.
However, the union has raised concerns over what it sees as the council’s attempt to pressurise it over a possible agreement, and wants to revisit the deal.
Source:- The Herald Friday 4 November

By-pass plan will devastate children in care
A road cutting through the heart of a renowned community for vulnerable children and adults would devastate their lives, it’s been claimed.
Professor Roy Brown, an expert on disability and quality of life, said the proposed Aberdeen by-pass would lead many children from the Camphill community to regress to the difficult and abusive behaviour they suffered from before being accommodated by the service. The Scottish Executive preferred route option would involve the demolition of part of the Camphill Rudolf Steiner School’s campus and pass within 100yds of bedrooms of children with special needs.
Source:- The Herald Friday 4 November

Conservatives fail in attempt to halt closure of special schools
Scottish Conservatives have urged ministers to halt the closure of special schools in Scotland.
They say a moratorium is needed after the closure of 33 of the schools in the past eight years, and demanded a review of the way children with special needs are educated.
Source:- The Scotsman Friday 4 November

Can a COSLA makeover save councils?
The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities has set itself the ambitious target of making councils “the best recognised, best understood and most respected part of the public sector”.
In an assessment of councils’ standing, sent to local government leaders, one COSLA official has admitted that the authorities need to improve their image.
Source:- The Scotsman Friday 4 November

Welsh news

Search fails to find ‘stowaway’s’ companions
A 14-year-old Vietnamese boy who was found on a beach in Swansea is being looked after by social services.
The boy is thought to have jumped off a container ship where he stowed away to make the 6, 0000 mile trip from North Vietnam.
He has told the police that he was accompanied by two others but so far no one else has been found.
Source:- Western Mail Friday 4 November

Chancellor Brown ‘is undermining the Objective One programme’
The main union for civil servants has accused the chancellor Gordon Brown of undermining a regeneration initiative in Wales
As a part of the chancellor’s drive to cut civil service jobs across the UK many government offices in Objective One areas are closing down or threatened with closure.
The PCS union has described the plans as “ludicrous” arguing that at the same time as the cuts the Welsh Assembly is pumping money into the very communities that will be affected in an attempt to regenerate them.
Source:- Western Mail Friday 4 November