Out of America, there is always something new. The latest example of that country’s unparalleled contribution to medical progress is the announcement by the University of Washington that its scientists had succeeded in removing the extra copy of chromosome 21 in cell cultures derived from a person with Down’s Syndrome. Since it is the possession of three, rather than two, copies of the 21st chromosome that defines Down’s Syndrome, it…
Professor Julian Savulescu said that creating so-called designer babies could be considered a “moral obligation” as it makes them grow up into “ethically better children”. And no, he isn’t talking about genetic defects, either. He’s talking about personality traits: “Indeed, when it comes to screening out personality flaws, such as potential alcoholism, psychopathy and disposition to violence, you could argue that people have a moral obligation to select ethically better…
Lynsey Hanley (yes, her again) on the proposals for tackling ASB: In 2001 I bought a flat in the ex-council block where I’d been living since leaving university. A kind friend with an empty boot offered me a lift to B&Q to get some flooring. We didn’t get further than the end of the street because a group of local kids decided to sit on the bonnet and stare at…
If you answered ‘This’, congrats! If, on the other hand, you read this headline in the ‘Evening Standard’, you could be forgiven for wondering if it was still the 1st April: Because it now seems that the new definition of ‘starvation’ is this: At least, according to Camila Batmanghelidjh, founder and chief executive (and inveterate self-publicist) of charity Kids Company: “The number of children coming to us with hunger problems…
…of a man on a £45,000 salary, who has moved out of the family home after splitting from his wife, getting a council house? OK, I thought that would be the response. If you can all stop laughing a moment, how about if I told you his 14 year old son was going to live with him? Still not convinced? What if I told you he was leader of the…
Zoe Williams writes a column so bad, I can’t improve on the excellent demolition job Tim Worstall has made of it. But a few paras stuck out: …I saw plenty of counter-arguments to that, identifying poor eating habits as a result of deprivation. One was that people with kids and very little money can’t afford to waste food, so have to buy things that children are likely to eat, which…
Alison Garnham believes that the coalition government is in danger of emulating Margaret Thatcher’s record on poverty. Well, great! No? No: “It has been said her governments did two things for poverty: they increased it, then they pretended it did not exist. The coalition must avoid a similar, devastating legacy,” she warns. Are you sure about that, Angela? After all, if they do avoid it, you’ll be out of a…
In her police interview Miss Elliott, who has been vocal in trying to save Greenwich University’s threatened Philosophy course, said: ‘I am sorry, I don’t have those morals. ‘If it was mugged off somebody then that is wrong, but I don’t care about Samsung they are a billion dollar company. ‘Phones 4 U are also a massive company, as long as it didn’t come out of some old pensioners pocket…
Well, Lord Hanningfield certainly thinks so: After being convicted of fraud, the former leader of Essex County Council spent two weeks in a regular prisonbefore being transferred to a minimum security institution.”It wasn’t very nice in ordinary prison but it was OK in open prison,” he said. “The worst part is when the judge said ‘take him down to the cells’. You are handcuffed and put in the van. That…
The ‘Mail’ invites us to gasp at the audacity of Arran Coghlan, as he challenges the Coroner’s Court and seemingly disrespects their holy authority: There were dramatic scenes as Mr Coghlan was ordered to respect the court. He responded by saying: ‘You should deal with me with proper respect and allow me to answer the question.’ It seems Mr Coghlan didn’t like the cut of the coroner’s jib very much: At…
A senior Bournemouth council officer was suspended and allegedly escorted from the town hall after speaking out against the council’s controversial outsourcing deal with Mouchel. Tell us more… Chief accountant Stephen Parker emailed all councillors before a crucial meeting on Wednesday to warn them of his concerns about the risks of expanding its links with the company. He told members he had been unable to communicate his concerns as part…
A former school secretary who suffered horrific injuries and nearly died in a road crash while working in Africa has criticised City of York Council. What!? Why? Mrs Heeles was one of four members of staff from York schools – St Mary’s and Westfield School – to go to their twin school, St Paul’s in Begoro in Ghana, in the February half-term breaklast year.They were in a minibus between the…
So, Channel 4 is to launch yet another ‘fly on the wall’ series, this one focussing on an Essex school: Channel 4′s Educating Essex is the most ambitious observational television documentary yet made in a school. The “bog-standard comprehensive” (in the words of its headteacher, echoing Tony Blair’s infamous description) involved is in Harlow, Essex, and its governors agreed for it to be rigged with 65 cameras, so that every…
…anymore than a speeding ticket is a ‘driving tax’: Children as young as one in Hampshire will be fined for overdue library books in a controversial move, branded a “reading tax” by critics. *sigh* This ‘tax’ doesn’t apply if you return your books on time, does it? Would that all tax could be so easily circumvented! Currently children’s books can be returned late without any financial penaltiesbut fines which were…
Prompted by the Tottenham destruction and the Quiet Man’s timely post… There are no human rights. There are only human responsibilities. The notion of ‘human rights’ is a fallacious confection of philosophical concepts which by virtue of their subtle complexity are ripe for manipulation by people who feel entitled to shape society to their political agenda. Many people regard these prosperous practitioners of ‘human rights law’ as secular missionaries for Goodness because they…
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