Reports include: Queen’s speech at Westminster; Nursing shortages; Sharia law and honour codes in UK; Sunday trading developments; Grandparents better than nurseries
The Queen: I will serve the country for years to come
Telegraph – The Queen ‘rededicated’ herself to the service of her country for the rest of her life, in a personal address to Parliament.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/the_queens_diamond_jubilee/9156607/Queens-pledge-I-will-serve-the-country-for-years-to-come.html
‘Too few’ nurses for elderly care
There are too few nurses on wards to provide basic, safe care to older people, a union has warned. The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said the elderly are being let down by low staffing levels across the NHS. It is calling on the Government to implement a patient guarantee, setting out the minimum number of nurses on older people’s wards.
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/uk/too-few-nurses-for-elderly-care-16133322.html
Home care for elderly ‘shocking’
BBC – The standards of care provided to the elderly in their home in the UK has been labelled “shocking and disgraceful” by the consumer group Which?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17389588
RCN Scotland wants guarantee on elderly care nurses
BBC – A nursing union has called for a “patient guarantee” on the number of nurses on older people’s wards. The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) Scotland said one nurse to seven elderly patients was the minimum required to meet appropriate standards. A UK-wide study suggested the ratio was currently one nurse to about nine patients.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-17436622
NHS reform bill passes with government bloodied, but unbowed
Guardian – Health bill will be signed into law, but both sides are nursing bruises from a long, controversial clash of political ideologies
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/mar/20/nhs-reform-bill-health-passes?newsfeed=true
Young Asians ‘favour honour code’
BBC – Two-thirds of young Asians agree that families should live by the concept of an “honour code”, a BBC Panorama poll suggests.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17319136
Keeping the Sabbath holy is a commandment. Why doesn’t the C of E say so when it opposes a change to Sunday trading laws?
Telegraph – Peter Mullen, – Here’s a classic instantiation of just what’s collapsed about the Church of England. When it was announced that Sunday trading laws are to be relaxed for the duration of the Olympics, Radio Four broadcast a comment from a priest. She defended the special character of Sunday, saying that it shouldn’t be just another day for shopping “and all that consumerism”, but that it should be set aside as a day for taking mother out to lunch or the children to a football match.
But this is just more consumerism – in the form of the bill at the restaurant and the gate money at the footie game. The priest said Sunday is meant to be a day for “relationships.”
Why this secular plea for excuses? Why didn’t that priest say something religious? She was right to say that Sunday is a day for relationships, but why didn’t she make it plain that the most important of these relationships is with God? She was too shy even to mention that Sunday is a day for saying our prayers and going to church, for that might prove “offensive” to atheists.
‘Stoning and whipping will happen in the UK if we allow sharia law to thrive’, warns peer
Mailonline –
• Around 85 Sharia courts operating in Britain, study says
• British Muslims settling disputes in Sharia tribunals will boost far-right support,
Baroness fears
Brutal punishments including whipping and stoning could become widespread in the
UK if Islamic Sharia law is allowed to thrive, a peer has warned.
Outspoken Baroness Cox said a growing number of British Muslims are shunning the official court system in favour of Sharia councils to settle legal disputes.
She told a House of Lords conference this could even lead to the destruction of democracy and fuel support for far-right groups like the British National Party.
She said: ‘We do not at the moment have the most brutal punishments, but there are those in this country who would like to bring them in.
‘Many Sharia courts are an institutional means of intimidation backed by death threats.’
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2118067/Stoning-whipping-happen-UK-allow-sharia-law-thrive-warns-peer.html#ixzz1plDOY17E
A summer of all-day Sunday shopping
Daily Mail – Chancellor George Osborne will risk a row with Church leaders in this week’s Budget by announcing plans to scrap Sunday trading laws for the summer.
The move – timed to coincide with the Olympics and Paralympics – means that large shops in England and Wales will be allowed to open around the clock for an eight-week period starting on July 22.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2116549/A-summer-day-Sunday-shopping-Chancellor-relax-rules-Olympics.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
Ads watchdog clears child charity
BBC – The advertising watchdog clears publicity material for the NSPCC after complaints that its reference to child abuse was “disturbing and offensive”.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17454400
Grandparents ‘better than nurseries’ for young children’s development
Telegraph – Young children looked after by their grandparents often develop better than those placed in expensive nurseries, a study has found.