British
National
Party
Public Services News Bulletin w/c April 9, 2007
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1. PCs RAP FOR HOPPING CHILDREN
Many law-abiding people are scared by violent thugs roaming
the streets but it seems the Police are not interested
in investigating real crimes and arrest real criminals.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2007160256,00.html
Parents blasted police after officers swooped on kids
as young as three for chalking on pavements so
they could play hopscotch. Lisa Badland, 30, said son
Ryan, five, was terrified when the kids got
a telling-off because a neighbour complained. Ryan and
10 pals aged three to 11 were playing outside their homes
in Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset, after Lisa gave them special
pavement chalks. Two cops then lined them up for a lecture
on graffiti and road safety. Lisa said: Ryan was
petrified. He saw their handcuffs and thought they were
going to take him away. It got totally blown out of proportion.
Dad Neil, 35, said: I thought the police would have
better things to do. Cops said they had a duty to
investigate the complaint, adding: Anti-social behaviour
is a priority. What one person sees as harmless fun, another
sees as graffiti.
2. CITY SPENDING ON TRANSLATION
SERVICES DOUBLES TO £400,000
http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=545462007
Translation costs for public bodies in the Lothians have
doubled in two years following an influx of immigrants.
The growing number of migrant workers, particularly from
eastern Europe, means the city council, police and NHS
Lothian are spending more than £400,000 a year on
interpretation fees. Calls are growing for the Scottish
Executive to pay the bill amid concerns the strain being
placed on the city council could lead to cuts in other
services. Almost 18,000 migrant workers have arrived in
Edinburgh in the past two years, and the council estimates
there are now more than 8000 Poles living in the city.
They have been hailed as a major boost to the economy,
with many taking up positions employers would otherwise
struggle to fill. But public bodies have been forced to
pay more for interpreters, language assistants and information
leaflets to cater for a growing variety of nationalities.
Councillor Iain Whyte, the Tory group leader on the council,
said: "We really need the Scottish Executive, or
the national government, to step in. "They made efforts
to get immigrants to come here, and they have to help
us out with these costs.
"If there is no extra funding to cover [immigrants']
additional needs, the council could have to cut other
services." Labour councillor Dougie Kerr, who is
responsible for equalities, said: "When families
have come here with young children, we have had to fund
classroom assistants, for example. "A mechanism has
to be in place for people who don't have English as their
first language. "But the rise in spending is not
exclusively because of people coming from [EU] ascension
states. "At the same time, we had duties imposed
on us by legislation, such as the Race Relations Act,
which require us to offer services in various different
languages." Lothian and Borders Police, which provided
the most up-to-date figures, spent just £44,000
on translation services in 2004 - but this rose to above
£100,000 in the financial year just ended. The force
said it is essential that crime victims or suspects are
given the opportunity to properly communicate with officers.
NHS Lothian has also increased its use of translation
and interpretation services, spending £174,000 in
2005/06, however its bill has traditionally been high
due to the number of people with communication difficulties
- such as deaf patients - who need access to health care.
The city council spent around £180,000 in 2005/06
on translation and interpretation services, up from £93,000
two years previously. It is thought the figure for the
most recent financial year will be even higher. A police
spokeswoman said: "It's important to give all victims
or suspects the opportunity to tell officers what happened.
"We have an obligation to ensure that what they need
to communicate to the police is accurate." NHS Lothian
said interpreting and translation services are required
for residents who need to access health care, whether
in an emergency or an elective situation. Karol Chojnowski,
who came to Scotland from Poland in 1999, has set up the
popular Szkocja.net website for Polish migrants coming
to the country. He today said the expenditure on translation
services was "fair". "The benefits to Edinburgh
and Scotland from having so many foreign nationals are
tremendous. "They are paying taxes, they go to shops
and buy food, and they go to pubs and the cinemas,"
he said. Costs to all three public bodies include translation
by sign language and other disability formats.
3. PLAN TO HELP BLACK BOYS ACHIEVE
It's clear that the Labour Government is not interested
in putting the interests of native Britons first and this
proposal is clearly unacceptable at a time when a huge
number of white British students fail to get the help
they desperately need to achieve better results.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6537951.stm
Schools, parents and pupils must do more to improve the
attainment of black Caribbean boys, a union has said.
A charter on the issue published by the National Union
of Teachers stresses the responsibilities they all have.
It says the boys themselves must develop their own learning
and parents must support them and their schools. Schools
must encourage them to have high expectations and have
"a moral commitment" to raise and promote their
achievements, the NUT added. The charter, published at
the union's annual conference, in Harrogate, was compiled
with the collaboration of groups of black boys in London,
Birmingham and Manchester. Expectations One of them, 16-year-old
Dillon Max-Grant, who is taking his AS-levels, said he
got involved because he knew people who were not achieving
as well as they should be.
He said the often quoted issue of family breakdown and
absentee fathers in black communities was "not really
the issue". "It's up to them to try to succeed,"
he said, but added that parental expectations were important.
Sometimes, because of their social circumstances, their
expectations did not match the abilities of the students
and the capabilities of the schools that taught them.
A co-author of the charter, education expert Gus John,
said: "If there is a theme that runs through the
report, the theme is let us all live up to our responsibilities."
That applied to everyone - but youngsters themselves had
to be responsible for their own learning along with "their
mums and dads and their schools". "I think it's
nothing short of a national scandal that, 60 years after
the Empire Windrush brought some 300 people from the Caribbean
to these shores, young black boys, Afro-Caribbean boys,
are still underachieving at the rate at which they are,"
Mr John said.
'Mayhem'
That culture contributed to "the sort of mayhem in
our communities that we have seen in the past weeks"
- with black boys being stabbed to death. "In some
parts of the country the life expectancy of young Afro-Caribbean
males is 25," he said - such as in his home city
of Manchester. There was a culture of low expectations
on the part of the boys themselves and those who taught
them, he said. "Many of the parents themselves who
have children in schools now have been schooled in a culture
of low expectations. "They need to organise themselves
to demand much more of the school system." NUT general
secretary Steve Sinnott said: "We won't get the changes
that are required unless everybody does their part. "That
includes the youngsters. They can't turn round and point
the finger and blame everybody else."
'Unwitting racism'
Kay Hampton, chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality,
said the NUT should not focus solely on underachievement
among black boys. "The issue of underachievement
is not restricted to African-Caribbean boys as such but
to a wide range of people, including for example Gypsy
traveller communities and other minority communities for
example females within certain communities as well. "So
the idea is a good one, but we would urge that the bigger
picture of underachievement in education is taken into
consideration as well." Recently the Department for
Education and Skills published a report which said black
pupils were routinely punished more harshly, praised less
and told off more often in English schools than other
pupils. It said staff in many schools were "unwittingly"
racist. A spokesperson for the department said: "Black
pupils demonstrated nationally the greatest progress in
GCSE results of any ethnic group, improving more than
twice as fast as the average, with promising results for
11 and 14-year-olds boding well for the future. "However,
we fully recognise that there's more to do. "That's
why we are working even harder to remove the barriers
to their learning, engage with these children and give
them an extra push they need - particularly in deprived
areas where many ethnic minority children live."
4. TREASURY 'RIGGED' REPORTS
INTO SUCCESS OF PRIVATE FINANCE PROJECTS
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article2422666.ece
Gordon Brown has been accused of making false claims that
his flagship scheme to secure private finance for public
sector projects provides good value for money. A study
by the University of Edinburgh of the Treasury's statements
about the success of the private finance initiative (PFI)
found that the evidence for the claims to be "either
non-existent or false". The attack follows criticism
by the Confederation of British Industry that the Treasury
minister Ed Balls, a close Brown ally, misrepresented
its stance on the Chancellor's 1997 decision to abolish
the pension funds' right to reclaim the tax deducted from
share dividends. After a few days on the defensive, Mr
Brown will try to regain the initiative today by announcing
a £20m grant to the United Nations Children's Fund
to help maintain schooling in war zones and fragile states
where education systems have broken down.
It is part of his campaign to secure free education for
the 80 million children who cannot go to school. Speaking
at a conference in Scotland, he will urge other G7 countries
to meet the commitments they made to the developing world
at the Gleneagles summit in 2005. Researchers at Edinburgh
investigated the Treasury's claim that 88 per cent of
PFI projects were delivered on time and within budget
while most publicly funded projects (70 per cent) are
delivered late and 73 per cent cost more than expected.
Of the five studies cited by the Treasury, they found
two were based on National Audit Office reports which
concluded it was not possible to judge how the procurement
method affected the results. A third contained no comparative
data and a fourth was withheld by the Treasury on grounds
of "commercial confidentiality". The fifth report
"artificially inflated" the cost of traditional
public projects, according to the Edinburgh study. Professor
Allyson Pollock, who heads the university's Centre for
International Public Health Policy, said: "Government
ministers have repeatedly justified the controversial
PFI policy in terms of its greater efficiency and value
for money savings compared with traditional methods of
public investment. It would appear that comparisons are
rigged in favour of PFI and that Treasury policy is not
evidence-based."
A Treasury spokesman said: "The independent National
Audit Office, not the Treasury, reported on the effectiveness
of PFI projects, and it is they who state that PFI gives
'greater certainty'. The Government remains committed
to investing in our public services and infrastructure
to overcome a historic legacy of underinvestment, and
PFI will continue to be used to deliver a small but important
part of this investment, where it is shown to be value
for money for taxpayers to do so." A Treasury source
added yesterday: "Anyone saying there is no evidence
for using PFI obviously hasn't read the NAO's independent
reports on the subject." * Lord Winston, the fertility
expert and Labour peer, accused Mr Brown of being "two
faced" about a cut in funding for scientific research,
which he said was a "shocking blow" and "blot"
on the Chancellor's record. Mr Brown announced a 25 per
cent increase in spending on science to 2011 in last month's
Budget, but this followed an earlier announcement that
£68m was being cut from the budgets of science research
councils.
5. SECRET PAPER REVEALS LABOUR'S
LIES OVER ID CARDS
Bullying, deceit and spin are the real legacy of the Labour
party and ID cards are a clear example of that. Government
want to force people to carry them even if they are expensive
and useless, something we strongly oppose.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.
html?in_article_id=447296&in_page_id=1770&in_a_source=
The Government faces damaging claims of misleading voters
over ID cards after documents revealed it always planned
to make the controversial scheme compulsory. Whitehall
papers, which the Government has fought for two years
to suppress, disclose that Labour intended to force the
public to sign up to the programme. They appear to contradict
commitments given by Labour in its 2005 Election manifesto,
which pledged that the cards, and the national identity
register containing people's names, addresses, fingerprints
and other information, would be 'on a voluntary basis'.
The briefing notes, released under the Freedom Of Information
Act, show that civil servants had already been told ID
cards would be compulsory for everyone by 2014. Opposition
MPs said the papers proved the Government had 'purposely
set out to mislead the public and politicians about their
plans'.
The Department For Work And Pension's (DWP) 'ID Fraud
Benefit Profile' was produced in October 2004 and was
designed to show how the project would cut benefit fraud.
In a table illustrating the predicted yearly savings expected
by the department it states that from 2014 - Year 7 of
the project - 'The identity card scheme is now compulsory'.
But 18 months later, the then Home Secretary Charles Clarke
insisted the scheme was voluntary. He told MPs: "In
accordance with the Labour party's Election manifesto...we
will introduce ID cards...initially on a voluntary basis."
The papers also undermine claims by Ministers that the
scheme would halve the £50million lost to benefit
cheats. The internal briefing reveals that the much-quoted
savings were purely guesswork by officials. It says: "NOTE:
DWP perceive losses to identity fraud to be between £25-£50million
per annum, due to the nature of our business processes
and recording of monetary value of fraud and error the
figures are unreliable therefore DWP can only sign up
to a maximum saving in the area of £25million per
annum." The first ID cards are due to be issued in
2009 to anybody who applies for a passport. Britons will
be required to give fingerprints, biometric details such
as a facial scan and a wealth of personal details - including
second homes, driving licence and insurance numbers.
While the ID Cards Bill was going through Parliament,
peers and Ministers agreed an 'opt-out' for people who
needed a passport but did not want to join the ID cards
scheme. But to get a passport, ID card objectors will
now still have to hand over all personal details to the
ID cards register. Former Liberal Democrat home affairs
spokesman Mark Oaten, who successfully fought to get the
internal documents published, said: "They show Ministers
had no basis to claim the cards would combat benefit fraud,
that from the very beginning the cards were going to be
compulsory and that Ministers were consistently not telling
the truth about their true intentions." The DWP said
the details in the papers 'are no longer valid'. A Home
Office spokesman said the documents were 'incredibly out
of date'.
6. NURSES' LEADER: BLAIR'S SPIN
RUINING NHS
Our solution to improve the NHS is simple: reduction of
administrative staff, preventing asylum seekers and immigrants
from getting free health care and cut in translation costs
and use the saving to pay for improvement in front-line
services
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/04/08/nhealth08.xml
The Prime Minister has allowed the NHS to plunge into
crisis by becoming trapped in a "parallel universe
of spin", according to the new head of the Royal
College of Nursing. In a blistering attack on the Government's
running of the health service, Dr Peter Carter, the RCN
general secretary, said cuts in jobs, services and training
were catastrophic for the country and a "personal
tragedy" for the Prime Minister. Dr Carter, who will
address his first RCN annual conference next week, said
Tony Blair should admit Labour's administration of the
NHS had gone "fundamentally wrong". He said
Labour's track record on the health service was far worse
than that of the Conservatives, even though Mr Blair had
poured in record funds. Dr Carter, a former hospital trust
chief executive, told The Sunday Telegraph: "I have
never seen so much money go into the health service and
I have never seen so much money wasted. "It is a
tragedy. It must be a personal tragedy for Tony Blair.
In the recesses of his mind, he must be saying: 'What
the hell has gone wrong?' "In the 1980s and '90s
finance was extremely tight but you did not get the crisis
we have seen in the last two years. Nurses are saying
to us 'we ain't going to vote Labour'. They aren't saying
who they will vote for, but it will be interesting to
see what happens in the Scottish, Welsh and local elections."
He urged Mr Blair to "stop getting caught up in spin
and a parallel universe, which only looks at the success
stories, and acknowledge that this has gone fundamentally
wrong".
A year ago, Patricia Hewitt, the Health Secretary, was
forced to abandon her speech to the RCN congress after
heckling and slow hand-claps from nurses angered by her
opening claim that the NHS was enjoying its "best
year ever". Dr Carter said the college - which handed
out placards to the nurses - was "not that smart"
in the way it managed the event, although he insisted
much of the anger was spontaneous. Describing Mrs Hewitt's
comments as "very ill-advised", he said career
politicians needed to be better briefed by senior civil
servants, instead of relying on "here today, gone
tomorrow policies". This year, the RCN has not invited
politicians from any party to take the stage. Dr Carter
said the organisation was not prepared to be "duped",
either by attempts from the Government to justify itself,
or by promises from the opposition. But he said he would
welcome Gordon Brown, the Chancellor and probable successor
to Mr Blair, if he increased the below-inflation pay deal
for nurses now on offer. "I don't think I am going
to get that call," he said. Dr Carter said the college
was "demoralised and disgusted" by the 2.5 per
cent offer, which is staged so nurses get 1.9 per cent
over the year. The RCN is consulting its members over
its response. However, he said job fears at the moment
made it difficult for nurses to contemplate industrial
action. Dr Carter said the waste under Labour began with
the reorganisation of the NHS soon after the party gained
power.
Millions were wasted on repeated changes to structures
that had now almost reverted back to the position they
were in 10 years ago, with money lavished on salaries,
redundancies and creating offices. Worse still, the replacement
of 100 health authorities with more than 300 primary care
trusts created more jobs than there were talented managers,
leading to poor decision-making and a "frittering
away of much of the Government's investment". Government
figures show 15,000 managers have been recruited since
Labour came to power. Dr Carter, who ran an NHS mental
health trust in London for 12 years, said he believed
one manager in five was not up to the job, while about
the same proportion of NHS organisations were not fit
for purpose. The number of nurses emigrating to find work
had doubled to 8,000 since Labour came to power in 1997,
and the number will continue to grow, he said. The Government
expects that Britain will be short of 14,000 nurses in
three years' time, which will force the UK to poach replacements
from some of the poorest parts of the world, Dr Carter
said.