Crowded jails ‘threaten public’

Overcrowded jails are presenting a threat to the public, the Chief Inspector of Prisons has told the BBC.

Anne Owers said the prison population of 80,000-plus in England and Wales was having a “huge effect”, including on the rehabilitation of offenders.

Ms Owers said vulnerable inmates were being shuttled between prisons “like a pinball machine”.

Work on reducing suicides over recent years was now being reversed and they are on the increase again, she added.

BBC NEWS | UK | Crowded jails ‘threaten public’

Failing schools in England up by 18%

The number of schools in England deemed to be failing at the end of last term rose by almost a fifth compared with 2006, schools inspectorate Ofsted reported today.

The 18% rise can be partly explained by a sharp increase in the number of inspections, but ministers also said it reflected an “uncompromising approach” toward underperforming schools.

By the end of the summer term this year, 246 schools were in special measures – the most serious category of concern for Ofsted, up from 208 at the same time last year.

Failing schools in England up by 18% | Special Reports | EducationGuardian.co.uk

UK’s plutonium store vulnerable to attack

Britain’s stocks of plutonium are kept in “unacceptable” conditions and pose a severe safety and security risk, experts warn today.

The Royal Society says ministers must urgently review the way more than 100 tonnes of the radioactive element, separated during the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel, is held at the Sellafield complex in Cumbria. The society, Britain’s premier scientific academy, says a previous warning to the government has been ignored, and that the rise of international terrorism means the UK must now find a way to use or dispose of the material.

Plutonium is highly toxic and is the primary component of most nuclear bombs. In a report published today, the society says a well-informed terrorist group could turn a small amount of the stockpiled material into a crude atomic weapon.

Professor Geoffrey Boulton, chair of the group that wrote the report, said: “The status quo of continuing to stockpile separated plutonium without any long-term strategy for its use or disposal is not an acceptable option. The Royal Society initially raised concerns about the security risks nine years ago, and we have not seen any progress. The stockpile has grown while international nuclear proliferation and terrorist threats have increased.”

The amount of plutonium stored at Sellafield has nearly doubled in the last decade to 103 tonnes. A quarter has been separated for foreign countries and companies. Prof Boulton said: “Just over 6kg of plutonium was used in the bomb which devastated Nagasaki, and the UK has many thousands of times that amount. We must ensure this very dangerous material does not fall into the wrong hands.”

Sellafield’s plutonium store ‘vulnerable to terrorist attack’ | Special Reports | Guardian Unlimited Politics

UK troops ‘face a 20-year battle in Afghanistan’

THOUSANDS of British troops could still be in Afghanistan battling the Taleban in 20 years’ time, the future commander of UK forces in the country has said.

Brigadier Andrew Mackay, the head of the Scottish-based 52 Infantry Brigade, made the grim admission in an exclusive interview with The Scotsman before flying out to the war-torn Helmand province to assume command of more than 7,000 British soldiers.

Britain is spearheading NATO’s international security assistance force in Afghanistan, which aims to support the democratic Afghan government against a resurgent Taleban militia.

Originally conceived as a low-key reconstruction mission, British troops now find themselves regularly involved in bloody close-quarters fighting which some commanders say is the heaviest UK forces have faced since the Korean War.

The British mission in Afghanistan is formally due to end in 2009, but the ferocity of the resistance and the fragility of Afghan democracy mean UK forces could still be on the ground in large numbers in two decades’ time, Brig Mackay said.

Scotsman.com News – UK – UK troops ‘face a 20-year battle in Afghanistan’

Rapid rise in cocaine use

A two-tier market in luxury and cut-price cocaine is developing in Britain, according to an annual survey by drug charities.

Feedback from 80 drug services, police forces and drug action teams in 20 towns and cities shows that the rapid expansion in the use of the drug is being fuelled by street dealers selling cheaper, low-grade cocaine to teenagers, pub users and those on low incomes to mix with other drugs.

This cut-price cocaine – at around £30 a gram – is reported to be available in virtually every part of Britain, while more affluent customers are being offered much higher quality cocaine at £50 a gram.

The DrugScope 2007 survey reports that in Birmingham individual dealers are offering their customers a choice of two grades of cocaine – “commercialised” at £30 a gram and “Peruvian” at £50 a gram. In Nottingham a higher-quality form of cocaine is known as “rocket fuel”.

Rapid rise in cocaine use aided by two-tier prices, say charities | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited

Police officers in red tape hell

POLICE officers are so mired in red tape that they risk spending more time recording crimes than solving them, a report warned yesterday.

Cops are also forced to investigate petty offences such as playground fights to hit Government targets — instead of concentrating on bigger crimes.

Chief Inspector of Constabulary Sir Ronnie Flanagan, who wrote the damning report, said a culture change was needed to cut “excess bureaucracy”.

He added that fear of making mistakes led officers to “over-record and under-deliver”. In the interim report of his Review of Policing, he said: “We risk diverting officers’ priorities to recording crimes, rather than getting out on the streets solving them and preventing them.”

Bobbies’ union the Police Federation said logging a simple shop-lifting case could take up to FIVE HOURS.

The Sun Online – News: Police officers in red tape hell

Winter of discontent fear as TUC backs strikes

The TUC set itself on a collision course with Gordon Brown on public sector pay last night by backing strike action by millions of public sector workers, foreshadowing a new “winter of discontent”.

Civil servants, local government workers, teachers, transport workers, prison officers and postal workers agreed with a unanimous show of hands at the TUC conference in Brighton to back coordinated strike action against the government’s 2% pay limit and privatisation of services.

Winter of discontent fear as TUC backs strikes | Special Reports | Guardian Unlimited Politics

Top brands failing to ensure living wage

Some of the biggest fashion brands in the high street do not do enough to ensure the overseas workers who make their clothes are lifted out of poverty, a report published today claims.

The study, by the charity War on Want and the anti-sweatshop coalition Labour Behind the Label, has identified Matalan and Mothercare, two companies featured in a Guardian investigation into the pay and conditions of workers in Bangalore, India, as among the “worst offenders”.

It claims that they are failing to accept the need for overseas garment workers to be paid a “living wage” by their suppliers, that they have no information available on pay levels, and that they failed to respond to questions put to them by the report’s authors.

Today’s report, Let’s Clean Up Fashion, launched on the eve of London fashion week, criticises retailers including Marks & Spencer, Tesco and H&M, for what it claims is their “unambitious” and “disappointing” approach to improving the wages of those who make their clothes.

Top fashion brands accused over failure to ensure living wage | | Guardian Unlimited Business

Fish will vanish from British waters in 20 years

Ninety per cent of fish in the waters around Britain will have disappeared within 20 years unless they are given protection, a leading marine researcher told scientists yesterday.

Professor Callum Roberts claims that “the endgame” was being played out with the remaining fish in the seas and that they are doomed without radical measures to save them. The number of fish in seas and oceans around the world was a fraction of what it had been 50 years ago, and numbers were still plummeting.

He told the British Association for the Advancement of Science conference in York that fishing quotas needed to be scrapped and extensive no-fishing zones put in place. He also said that fishing should be halted or strictly limited in a third of Britain’s seas to give stocks time to recover.

Fishing ministers, who are said to have disregarded scientific advice on sustainable fishing levels over the past two decades, should be stripped of their powers to rule on how many tonnes can be safely caught, he continued. They would be replaced by a science-led body that is independent of electoral pressures.

Fish will vanish from British waters in 20 years, says author – Times Online

Northern Rock gets bank bail out

The Bank of England has agreed to give emergency financial support to the Northern Rock, one of the UK’s largest mortgage lenders, the BBC has learned.

However this does not mean that the bank is in danger of going bust, Business Editor Robert Peston says.

There was no reason for people with Northern Rock savings accounts to panic, he added.

The bank has struggled to raise money to finance its lending ever since money markets seized up over the summer.

The decision for the Bank of England to become the “lender of last resort” is extremely rare – and comes after consultation with the Treasury and the Financial Services Authority.

BBC NEWS | Business | Northern Rock gets bank bail out