Brown warned on failure to bridge wealth gap

Brown warned on failure to bridge wealth gap
Gordon Brown was accused last night of failing to build a “fairer society” after new official figures showed a growing gap between rich and poor. On the day the chancellor was confirmed as Prime Minister-in-waiting, the Office of National Statistics said that the gap between high and low incomes was widening again.
Source:- Daily Telegraph, Friday 18 May 2007, page 5

Poorer children ‘let down by Labour’
Poor children suffer routine discrimination in schools and can end up being wrongly placed in low streams, Alan Johnson, the education secretary, said yesterday.
Source:- Daily Telegraph, Friday 18 May 2007, page 5

Violent white prisoner killed Asian cellmate after staff ignored warning
A violent prisoner was allowed to remain in a cell with a fellow inmate whom he later murdered despite warnings from a probation officer that he was dangerous and could attack fellow prisoners. The jury in the inquest into the death of Shahid Aziz, who was murdered by Peter McCann, found that had information from the probation officer been passed to McCann’s wing he would have been moved and a thorough risk-assessment done, and failure to do this contributed to Aziz’s death.
Source:- The Guardian, Friday 18 May 2007, page 4

Cameron: I’m no hoodie hugger
Conservative leader David Cameron has denied that he ever urged people to “hug a hoodie” in a speech to the Police Federation yesterday. He said the comment – one of the most famous attributed to Cameron – was a misrepresentation and stated his commitment to a policy of punishing young offenders while seeking to ensure that “every child grows up in a stable, loving home”.
Source:- The Guardian, Friday 18 May 2007, page 15

Scottish news
 
Nurse jailed for abuse of care home patients
A nurse jailed for 15 months for abusing dementia sufferers at a care home now faces deportation.
Filipino Jefferey Ednalan was convicted of a catalogue of abuse including stuffing a deodorant can in the mouth of a 95-year-old man to stop him shouting, handled an 86-year-old woman’s naked breasts and left seven residents in soiled incontinence pads all day to “save time”.
Ednalan denied all of the charges at Edinburgh Sheriff Court and insisted his fellow workers at the Colinton care home had made up the allegations out of jealousy. He has been recommended for deportation.
Source:- The Scotsman, Friday 18 May 2007

40 kids a year in care before birth
Up to 40 babies a year are being identified for fostering in the Lothians before they are even born.
Most are being taken from drug addict mothers by social workers immediately after birth for fear they may come to harm. Social workers in the capital have also become more willing to intervene following a series of high-profile cases involving the children of drug addict parents.
Drug experts put the growing trend down to “the Trainspotting generation”, who became addicts in the 1980s and 1990s, reaching an age where many are having children. They predict the problem will get worse before it gets better.
Source:- The Scotsman, Friday 18 May 2007