News round-up: Downturn will hit child poverty plans

Downturn will hit child poverty plans, ministers admit

The recession will make it more difficult for the government to meet its pledge to end child poverty, ministers admitted yesterday as they issued details of plans to place a legal duty on them to eradicate child poverty by 2020.

Read this story in The Guardian

Health chief Liam Donaldson wants to ban under-15s drinking

Children under the age of 15 should not be allowed to drink alcohol under new official guidelines that will even rule out a a glass of wine at dinner with parents.

Read this story in The Times

Inmates ‘with nothing to lose’ threaten jails

A growing number of prisoners serving long sentences who have “nothing to lose” is a threat to the control and stability of the jail system, the prisons watchdog warns.

Read this story in The Times

New Met chief Sir Paul Stephenson promises to ‘do it his way’
With a stinging swipe at his predecessor, Sir Paul Stephenson took office as Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police yesterday saying that he had no intention of being a celebrity cop.

Read this story in The Times

New drugs regime faces shake-up
The government’s medicines health advisory body on Tuesday launched a review that may change the way in which drugs are authorised for use in the NHS.

Read this story in The Financial Times

‘Forced adoption’ row:  5-year-old pleads: ‘We want to stay with granny and grandad’
The mother of two children who are being adopted by gay men even though their grandparents want to care for them wept yesterday as she told of her final meeting with her son and daughter.

Read this story in The Daily Mail