Key Quotes for 2012

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Last update: Wednesday 25th March




Social workers are to check that parents teach children "moral values" and "conscience" as part of an overhaul of child protection rules unveiled today. A failure to instil a basic sense of right and wrong in children is to be recognised as a sign of poor parenting in official guidelines for the first time. Ministers are preparing to replace more than 700 pages of "pointless" child protection guidance with a much smaller document, in an attempt to free social workers from "tick-box" rules. Several targets and national guidelines are to be abolished which, it is hoped, will also allow doctors, police and other professionals to do their jobs more easily.
Family	The Daily Telegraph June 12 2012



Children who struggle in the three Rs at a young age will be clearly identified as part of a significant overhaul of the primary school curriculum, it has emerged. A shake-up of assessments for five to 11 year-olds would ensure schools are "identifying those who are falling below national expectations", the Government said. The existing system, which places pupils in different "levels" during primary education, will be scrapped. For the first time, the new approach may lead to pupils being assigned a "pass" or "fail" at the end of each year. In formal end-of-primary Sats exams, chil¬dren may be given GCSE-style grades. Teaching unions warned that the reforms failed to take account of the different speeds at which young children develop, with fears that summer-born pupils could be left behind.
Education	The Daily Telegraph June 12 2012



Small specialist colleges will be given new powers to become universities in the biggest expansion of higher education in 20 years, it was disclosed yesterday. Institutions with just 1,000 students - including 750 taking degree courses - will be able to win the right to full university status under new plans, the Government announced. Previously, colleges could only apply for the title if they had at least 4,000 students, with 3,000 taking degrees.
Education	The Daily Telegraph June 12 2012



You're as young as you feel - and feeling younger could stop you being diagnosed with Alzheimer's, researchers claim. A study has found older people who think they are over the hill had worse scores in memory tests. They were five times more likely to end up with a diagnosis of dementia, simply because of their attitude towards ageing. In contrast, people of a similar age who felt younger got better scores. The findings from researchers at the University of Exeter suggest attitudes towards ageing could have a huge impact on dementia diagnosis.
Health	The Daily Mail June 12 2012



The creation of babies with three genetic parents would be an 'amazing opportunity' for families whose lives have been blighted by incurable diseases, say an eminent group of experts on ethics in science. The influential Nuffleld Council on Bioethics conceded that while those with religious views might view the advance as an 'abomination', there is no ethical reason to stop it, provided it is proved to be safe and effective. The approval comes as pressure builds on the Government to amend the law to allow the genetic engineering of eggs and embryos, creating babies free of devastating genetic diseases. The children would effectively have two mothers and one father. Those in favour say it would give couples, who have endured the heartbreak of miscarriages and stillbirths, and children who have died while still young, the option of having a healthy family. But critics say that the science is too risky and the safety of the baby should take precedence over a woman's desire to be a mother.
Science	The Daily Mail June 12 2012



Tens of thousands of teachers will be forced back to the classroom to study grammar and maths because they lack the knowledge to deliver tough new primary school lessons. Ministers yesterday unveiled an overhaul of England's 'substandard' primary curriculum in an attempt to reverse more than a decade of dumbing down. English lessons will contain tougher grammar and spelling, while maths classes will put greater emphasis on times tables, fractions, mental arithmetic and long division. But experts warn many teachers will need intensive retraining to deliver the new lessons. A requirement on schools to teach a foreign language to all seven to 11-year-olds will entail even more extra lessons. Under a proposed new curriculum for English, pupils as young as seven will be introduced to conjunctions, prepositions, adverbs and subordinate clauses.
Education	The Daily Mail June 12 2012



Workers must brace themselves for a state pension age of 67 or older becoming the norm, a leading think-tank warned yesterday. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said workers across many countries will inevitably have to wait longer for their pension. But it raised fears about the consequences of continuing to increase the state pension age, with ministers currently planning to link it to life expectancy. Experts from accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers predict that babies born this year will not get their pension until they are 77.
Work/Employment	The Daily Mail June 12 2012



A doctor facing disciplinary action for discussing his faith with a patient yesterday blamed 'anti-Christian' bias after his accuser was allowed to give evidence in secret. Dr Richard Scott, 51, has spent two years under threat of an official warning after the 'suicidal' patient's mother complained about the conversation. Yesterday a General Medical Council disciplinary hearing agreed to go ahead with the case against him, even though the unnamed patient refused to attend. The patient will be allowed to give evidence over the telephone, with the Press and public barred from attending, because of his mental and physical condition.
Religious Persecution	The Daily Mail June 12 2012



Cowardly Internet 'trolls' who post vile abuse on Facebook and Twitter will be identified to their victims under laws unveiled today. Justice Secretary Ken Clarke wants to strip away the cloak of anonymity which shields website users who peddle lies and vicious smears. Internet companies will be expected to agree to rules over how to deal with libellous comments posted on their sites. They will be told that - provided they agree to hand over the identity of the abuser to their victim - the internet company itself will be protected from legal action by the victim of abuse. If they refuse, however, they could be hauled before the courts and fined thousands of pounds for the hateful comments, even though they were made by a visitor to their website.
Media	The Daily Mail June 12 2012



Older fathers are said to be more tolerant, affectionate and spend more time with their children. And it seems they give their offspring another benefit - longer lives. Scientists say children of older fathers and grandfathers are more likely to live longer. They found those with older fathers had longer telomeres - tiny 'caps' on the ends of chromosomes that protect against the ageing process. The researchers measured the telomere length of DNA in the blood of 1,779 young Filipino adults and their mothers and deter¬mined the ages of the children's fathers and grandfathers. They found an individual's telomeres lengthened not only with their father's age at their birth but also with their paternal grand¬father's age at their father's birth. A previous study found those with shorter telomeres were three times as likely to die from heart disease.
Health	The Daily Mail June 12 2012



The energy-sapping effect of taking statins is greater than previously thought, scientists said last night. Women taking the anti-cholesterol drugs are particularly at risk of fatigue, they warned. Two in five women patients had less energy than before, with one in ten saying they felt 'much worse'. Overall, around a fifth of those taking the drug reported they had less energy, fatigue upon exertion or both compared with non-users. Researchers say the side-effects are greater than expected, and some peo¬ple at low risk of heart disease may be better off not taking them.
Health	The Daily Mail June 12 2012



Denying treatment to Health Service patients because they are too old is to be outlawed.From October, the elderly will be given the right to sue if they have faced age-discrimination by NHS staff. Those refused operations, tests and scans routinely offered to younger patients will be able to take legal action against individual members of staff or trusts. Patients - or their relatives - will also be able to go to court and claim compensation if they have been treated without dignity on hospital wards. The measure comes amid mounting evidence that the elderly are routinely being refused treatments for cancer, heart problems and strokes because of their age. Doctors have admitted that they often make judgments that are based on a patient's date of birth before even seeing them. And a spate of damning reports have revealed how the elderly are routinely left hungry, dehydrated and in soiled clothing on NHS wards as they struggle to make themselves heard.
The Elderly	The Daily Mail June 12 2012



Following Conservative losses in elections in May, some commentators suggested that the government’s plans to introduce same-sex marriage had cost them votes. The Sunday times reported that the Prime Minister was ready to back down on the proposals. But Equalities Minister Lynn Featherstone insisted that there would be no u-turn and that same-sex marriages would be introduced before 2015. A poll by ComRes suggested that the government’s plans could cost the Tories between 8 and 30 seats in a General Election. The poll, commissioned for the Coalition For Marriage (C4M) found that 32% of those that have previously voted Conservative said that the proposal to redefine marriage made them ‘less likely’ to vote Conservative.
Politics	Evangelical’s Now – June 2012



More men are victims of human trafficking than is commonly thought by the public, The Salvation Army has found. A YouGov survey carried out for the organisation showed that on average respondents thought that 29 percent of trafficking victims in England and Wales were male. But in the first six months of The Salvation Army’s work under the contract given to it by the Ministry of Justice, 41 per cent of people supported by it were men trafficked for labour. A briefing reveals that between 1st July and 31st December last year, The Salvation Army and its subcontractors supported 112 women and 78 men who had been trafficked.
Social Issues	The War Cry – 12th May 2012



Two Christian aid agencies have criticized the Government for the absence of legislation on overseas aid in its programme announced in the Queens Speech. Christian Aid and Tearfund were disappointed that there was no announcement of legislation that would commit the UK to spending 0.7 of its gross national income (GNI) on oversees aid. In 2010 the Coalition partners said they would ‘honour our commitment to spend 0.7 per cent of GNI on oversees aid from 2013, and enshrine this commitment in law.’ Tearfund said it acknowledged that the government was committed to the target but would press for legislation in its meetings with ministers.
Money	The War Cry – 19th May 2012

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