Thursday 17 November 2005

By Simeon Brody, Mithran Samuel, Derren Hayes and Amy Taylor

NHS ordered to make £700m winter cuts
Wards may have to close and staffing reducing as Patricia Hewitt has ordered a winter round of NHS cuts to eliminate the debt of up to £700m being forecast by trusts across England.
Source:- The Guardian Thursday 17 November 2005 page 1

Schoolboy attacked by thugs with machete
A teenage boy was recovering from a head wound yesterday after a gang of men attacked him with a machete outside Eastwood High School in Newton Mearns, Glasgow.
Aqeel Hassan, 15, was attacked during his lunchbreak on Tuesday. The motive is not yet known although it is understood Aqeel and another pupil argued with the gang and knew them from a local mosque.
Source:- The Times Thursday 17 November 2005 page 23

Drug abuse sparks emergencies
Illegal drug use could be the cause of up to one million visits to accident and emergency in England each year, according to research writing in Emergency Medical Journal.
Source:- The Times Thursday 17 November 2005 page 32

MPs to look at anti-semitism rise
MPs have launched an all-party inquiry into anti-semitism amid fears that incidents have reached record levels. Denis MacShane, former Europe minister, will lead the investigation.
Source:- The Guardian Thursday 17 November 2005 page 14

Join the battle to save our Christmas
The Sun launches a campaign to stop politically-correct Scrooges in town-halls across Britain for trying to kill off Christmas by saying it has no place in a multi-ethnic society.
Source:- The Sun Thursday 17 November 2005 page 4

Killed with an ice axe for being black’
Eighteen-year-old Anthony Walker was killed “for no other reason other than the colour of his skin”, a court was told yesterday.
Liverpool Crown Court heard that 20-year-old Paul Taylor struck the fatal blow but Michael Barton, 17, had provided the weapon, an ice axe. Taylor has admitted murder but Barton denies murder and conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm.
Source:- Daily Mirror Thursday November 17 page 5

CSA R.I.P.
Prime minister Tony Blair hinted that the child support agency could be scrapped and replaced by three bodies, for investigating, adjudicating and enforcing maintenance payments.
He said there was a “fundamental” problem with the nature of the CSA’s role.
Source:- Daily Mirror Thursday November 17 page 11

Gas sniff killed boy
A schoolboy who died after sniffing butane gas from a deodorant can had visited suicide websites, an inquest heard.
Kieran Hudson, 15, was found dead at his home in Stroud, near Gloucester, with a plastic bag over his head.
Gloucester coroner Alan Crickmore recorded an open verdict.
Source:- Daily Mirror Thursday November 17 page 21

Pupil, 14, stab rap
A 14-year-old girl appeared in court yesterday charged with stabbing a fellow pupil in the eye with scissors.
She appeared at Woking youth court charged with committing grievous bodily harm with intent, and was released on bail.
Source:- Daily Mirror Thursday November 17 page 35

A million visits to casualty ‘caused by drugs’
Up to one million patients a year visit accident and emergency because of illegal drugs, doctors claim.
The claim comes from a survey conducted by the University of the West of England.
Source:- Daily Mail Thursday November 17 page 30

Young no worse than 30 years ago? I don’t believe it
The man in charge of youth crime at the Metropolitan Police has said that young people’s behaviour is no worse than that of their counterparts 30 years ago.
Deputy assistant commissioner Brian Paddick said that young people were being increasingly negatively stereotyped and what would have been seen as youthful exuberance in the 1970s was now labelled as antisocial behaviour.
Source:- Daily Telegraph Thursday November 17 page 10

Fathers are missing out on right to paternity leave
Fathers are missing out on their statutory right to two weeks’ paid paternity leave by failing to give employers sufficient notice, a Citizens’ Advice Bureaux report has said.
Source:- Daily Telegraph Thursday November 17 page 15

Scottish news

This therapy works says MS teenager
A 19-year-old woman who suffers from multiple sclerosis says she is able to walk again just days after receiving revolutionary stem-cell treatment not available in Britain.
Amanda Bryson is believed to be the first Scot to benefit from the controversial treatment provided at a private clinic in Holland.
Despite scepticism among British experts, the Inverness teenager, whose family had to raise £12,500 to send her to the PMC Clinic in Rotterdam, said she was living proof that the therapy worked.
Source:- The Herald Thursday 17 November

Call for foster funds
Thousands of vulnerable children in Scotland are being “rejected, abandoned and abused” because of a £65.5 million shortfall in funding for foster care services, charities have said.
The Fostering Network and British Association for Adoption and Fostering (BAAF) said the current £47 million funding for 3,500 children in Scotland is not enough to provide stable homes and able carers.
They said funds should be provided to pay carers a minimum of £120 per week per child, train carers to a high level both before and after taking on children and provide allowances for extras.
Source:- The Scotsman Thursday 17 November

Welsh news

Sex slave’ jury sent home
A jury failed to reach a verdict yesterday on a teenager who is accused of taking woman from London to Cardiff to work in brothels for Albanian people-traffickers.
Student Gjerji Mungiovi-Cuka says that he was doing a favour for “friends” and did not know that the Lithuanian woman had been brought by the men to work as a sex slave.
Source:- Western Mail Thursday 17 November

‘Playground peacemakers’ take on scourge of bullying
Primary schools are getting pupils to tackle bullying themselves by encouraging them to act as mediators.
Children at primary schools in Bridgend are being trained under the “playground peacemaker programme”. This teaches them to act as mediators by understanding conflict and using problem solving skills to defuse arguments.
Source:- Western Mail Thursday 17 November