MONDAY 12 DECEMBER

Fight against antisocial behaviour to target under 10s
Tony Blair launches a new war on yobbery today with a crackdown on inadequate parents, aimed at tackling even the tiniest tearaways too young to face prosecution. Parents of antisocial under 10s who cannot be taken to court, or of older children who have not yet offended are deemed at risk, will face orders compelling them to attend behavioural classes or comply with standards in a dramatic widening of the concept of antiocial behaviour.
Source:- The Observer, Sunday 11 December 2005, page 5, and Tony Blair writes, page 30

Youth justice needs “radical reforms”
Britain must take radical steps to sto children from dysfunctional families turning into lifelong criminals or risk losing control of managing juvenile crime completely, former head of the family justice system Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss warns.
Source:- The Guardian, Monday 12 December 2005, page 12

Abortion survey
Women who have an abortion can suffer distress and anxiety for five years and perhaps longer, a study in BMC Medicine found.
Source:- The Times, Monday 12 December 2005, page 4

Rise in homeless
The number of households living in temporary accommodation has more than doubled to 62,640 since 1997, according to figures published by the London Housing Federation.
Source:- The Times, Monday 12 December 2005, page 4

Experts pass the buck on regrading of cannabis
Ministers face a dilemma over the legal status of cannabis after a government review ducked the question of whether it should be reclassified and targeted with renewed priority by police.
Source:- The Times, Monday 12 December 2005, page 14

Police fear for children abused by religious sects
Dozens of children are being abused by religious groups who believe they are possessed. Nineteen children have been rescued by police and social workers from beatings and mental abuse by church members, and senior officers fear many cases are still going unreported. The cases were uncovered by Scotland Yard.
Source:- The Times, Monday 12 December 2005, page 25

DNA hope for twins
The mum of Birmingham twins Holly and Joseph – abandoned in a cardboard box – could be traced by DNA, police have revealed.
Source:- The Daily Mirror, Monday 12 December 2005, page 22

Don’t let Santa scare the little schoolkids
A visit from Father Christmas could be “terrifying” for small children, says advice on the government website teachernet.gov.uk.
Source:- The Daily Mirror, Monday 12 December 2005, page 24

One in ten “is migrant”
One in ten British workers is an immigrant, according to a survey by the British Labour Market. It found white immigrants tended to earn more than those from ethnic minorities. Worst off were Bangladeshis.
Source:- The Sun, Monday 12 December 2005, page 2

Prank lad, 12, is DNA tested
Police held a boy of 12 for five hours and took his DNA – for larking with a plastic roadworks barrier. Kyle Hoey, and his friend, also 12, were arrested after they moved the gasworks barricade off a cul-de-sac pavement.
Source:- The Sun, Monday 12 December 2005, page 16

Posing with a gun and snorting white powder
A children’s adventure camp has suspended three members of staff following drink and drug allegations. The children’s commissioner for Wales and the NSPCC condemned photos showing drunken workers employed to supervise children “rampaging naked” around the PGL centre in south Wales.
Source:- The Daily Mail, Monday 12 December 2005, page 31

Scandal of secret school exclusions
Up to 20,000 of the most vulnerable children in the country are being excluded from school every day as local education authorities struggle to save money. A confidential letter by Ian Coates, head of special needs and disability division at the department for education and skills, suggests that authorities are guilty of repeated breaches of the law.
Source:- The Observer, Sunday 11 December 2005, page 14

Hewitt defends health spending cuts
Health secretary Patricia Hewitt denied that spending cuts would damage initiative such as those to curb smoking, and improve sexual health, despite evidence from a leaked memo of a public health spending freeze.
Source:- The Guardian, Monday 12 December 2005, page 6

People in south west England most likely to give to charity
People in the south west of England are more likely to donate to charity and Londoners least likely, according to the first map of charitable giving.
Source:- The Guardian, Monday 12 December 2005, page 11

£500 fine for closing door on council tax inspector
Householders who close the door on or refuse to co-operate with officials sent to check their property for features that will increase their council tax bill could be fined £500 and receive a criminal record.
Source:- Sunday Telegraph, Sunday 11 December 2005, page 1

Risk to unborn found in Seroxat
Doctors have been warned by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency not to give pregnant women antidepressant drug Seroxat because it may cause birth defects.
Source:- Sunday Telegraph, Sunday 11 December 2005, page 2

Gang culture in school “unchallenged”
Schools are failing to tackle the growing problem of gangs in the classroom because they fear accusations of racism, according to a study by a Bradford University researcher.
Source:- Sunday Telegraph, Sunday 11 December 2005, page 12

25 per cent of Labour ministers went to public school
A survey of the educational background of MPS reveals Labour ministers are far more likely to have had a private education than their backbenchers. 18 per cent of Labour MPs and 59 per cent of Tory MPs went to private school.
Source:- The Independent, Monday 12 December 2005, page 4

Plea for asylum seekers
The government is facing fresh calls to allow failed Zimbabwean asylyum seekers to work in Britain. Following a ruling in October that it is not safe to return people to Zimbabwe, asylum-seekers whose applications were rejected are left in limbo – unable to access government support or to work, but with no prospect of returning home.
Source:- The Independent, Monday 12 December 2005, page 8

Newborn baby abandoned
A baby was found on a housing estate in Chesterfield yesterday.
Source:- The Independent, Monday 12 December 2005, page 8

Treasury red tape hindering councils
Whitehall regulations and red tape are strangling the ability of councils to continue to deliver first class serviceves, claims Sir Snady Bruce-Lockhart, chair of the Local Government Association.
Source:-Daily Telegraph, Monday 12 December 2005, page 12

Christmas on the credit card
A third of all the money spent this Christmas will be borrowed, according to a YouGov survey.
Source:-Daily Telegraph, Monday 12 December 2005, page 12

Six per cent of population is gay, says Whitehall
One in 16 Britons is gay, say the first such figures compiled by the government.
Source:-Daily Telegraph, Monday 12 December 2005, page 14

Child No 2 chokes on meatball
A boy of three died after choking on a meatball while eating lunch at the private Asquith Nursery in London. It was the second inquest involving a child choking to death on a meatball within a week, Westminster coroner’s court was told.
Source:- Daily Telegraph, Saturday 10 December 2005, page 7

Hospital “lottery” blamed for 5,000 deaths
Thousands of lives could be saved each year if the country’s worst hospitals managed just a small improvement in performance, research carried out by The Times found.
Source:- The Times, Saturday 10 December 2005, page 1

Auction a leg up for disabled
Walking sticks decorated by actors, politicians and entertainers were put up for sale in an online auction in aid of the Disabled Living Foundation.
Source:- The Times, Saturday 10 December 2005, page 29

Fury as teacher who raped girl, 11, gets just eight years
A primary school teacher who repeatedly raped a young pupil was jailed for eight years. Child abuse campaigners said Steven Taylor, 42, from Kingswinford, West Midlands, should have been given the maximum life sentence.
Source:- Daily Mail, Saturday 10 December 2005, page 6

Fired, the teachers who “had threesome with boy aged 16”
Two women teachers have been sacked following claims they had sex with a 16-year-old pupil. There was not enough evidence to substantiate the sex claims but the teachers were found guilty of gross misconduct for fraternising with pupils at an end-of-term drinking session in a pub.
Source:- Daily Mail, Saturday 10 December 2005, page 11

Scottish news

Number of homeless children up
The number of homeless children has risen this year according to figures obtained by the SNP.
Stewart Maxwell, the party’s deputy health spokesman, asked for the figures from the executive on the grounds that it was the stated policy of ministers to seek to eradicate child homelessness.
The number during the current year is approaching 16,000, a rise of more than 1000 in two years.
The Herald, Monday 12 December 2005

Computers lose tagged sex offenders
Electronically tagged sex offenders have twice been left unchecked by security firm Reliance. The criminals were supposed to be monitored at the firm’s tracking centre, but computer glitches led to the system crashing twice in two weeks.
It resulted in offenders, some of them dangerous, being free to break curfews, a Reliance employee told the Record.
The Record, Monday 12 December 2005

Image boost for council costs public £50,000
Scotland’s local authorities are to spend £50,000 of public money on an image improvement campaign. The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities has set up a task-force to boost the image of the nation’s town halls.
It will devise ways to improve the image of local councils, which has been battered by hefty rises in council taxes and cutbacks in services.
Scotland on Sunday, 11 December 2005

Welsh news

Fake psychologist jailed for five years
A former salesman who pretended to be a psychologist at a Welsh hospital was jailed for five years yesterday. David Sydney Evans, 51, a Pentecostal church pastor, claimed to be Dr David Lloyd-Evans, an expert on child sex abuse, and was allowed to see patients, referred by their GPs, at Werndale hospital in Carmarthen.
Source:- Western Mail, Saturday, 10 December

Locked up for Asbo breaches
A teenage boy has been put in custody due to breaching his antisocial behaviour order four times in five weeks. Richard James Jones, who was 14 at the time he was given the order, was the youngest person to receive an Asbo in the Rhondda Cynon Taf region last year.
Source:- South Wales Echo, Saturday 10 December

School cleaners jailed for £300-a-week benefit scam
A husband and wife were jailed for taking part in a £80,000 benefits scam being run by  a group of school cleaners. Perry Carter used the name of his wife’s dead first husband to defraud the authorities.
The couple, of St Mellons Cardiff, stole almost £30,000 in benefits between 1998 and 2004.
Source:- Western Mail, Saturday, 10 December