Ethics panel for Greater Manchester Police moral 'grey areas'
An ethics committee has been set up to tackle moral issues faced by Greater Manchester Police (GMP) and the area's police and crime commissioner. The independent committee is one of the first of its kind in the country and aims to make recommendations on moral and ethical dilemmas. It will look at issues such as surveillance operations and the use of body cameras and water cannon. Members of the public can make referrals to the committee. The panel of 13 is chaired by the Bishop of Manchester, the Rt Rev David Walker. It includes retired NBA basketball player John Amaechi - who has helped organisations deal with ethical issues - and Ruth Bromley, ethics and law head at Manchester Medical School. GMP Chief Constable Sir Peter Fahy said: ‘There are lots of grey areas in policing.’
Almost two million young adults still living with their parents
New research from the housing and homelessness charity Shelter has found that 48 per cent of working 20 to 34 year olds live with their parents because they are unable to afford to rent or buy their own home. Data from the last census shows a quarter of all 20 to 34 year old working adults in England – 1.97 million people – are currently living with their parents. As the latest government figures show average house prices for first-time buyers in the UK have risen by 11.3 per cent in a year, Shelter is urging stronger action to help the 'clipped wing generation' fly the nest. Campbell Robb, chief executive of Shelter, said: ‘The ‘clipped wing generation’ are finding themselves with no choice but to remain living with mum and dad well into adulthood, and those who aren’t lucky enough to have this option instead face a lifetime of unstable, expensive private renting.’
Born addicted to drugs: 1,500 have ‘withdrawal symptoms’
More than 1,500 babies were born addicted to drugs last year, according to statistics uncovered by a national newspaper. Since 2009, almost 8,000 babies have been born showing symptoms of drug withdrawal, the Daily Mirror found. The figures show ‘addiction is not just about individual choice – it affects children, families, communities and public services’, according to one think-tank. The Mirror used freedom of information requests to gain figures on the issue from NHS organisations, stretching back five years. An average of over 1,500 babies a year since 2009 were born showing ‘neonatal withdrawal symptoms’, the figures revealed. Most of the babies involved were born in England – some 6,600 – with over 700 in Scotland and almost 500 in Wales. In 2013 the figure for Great Britain stood at 1,536.
New Stonewall chief plans to target under-fives
The new chief executive of LGBT activist group, Stonewall, has called for preschool children to be taught to ‘celebrate’ being gay as part of a proposed Government-funded campaign to tackle ‘homophobia’ in schools. Ruth Hunt said she wanted Stonewall to commission a series of books ‘celebrating difference in all its forms’ to encourage under-fives to ‘think about different families’, including same-sex households. ‘I think the next step is about going into preschools,’ she said. ‘I know from all my godchildren that the quality of children’s books depicting difference is dire.’ She added: ‘I really want to commission – and this is something we’ve got to talk about as an organisation – a suite of books that celebrates difference in all its forms for under-fives, with different families in it but also mixed-race people and sent into every preschool setting. That will take time too. But that is possibly one of the most radical campaigns we could do.’
TV gambling ads: ‘PM should step in so kids not bombarded’
The Prime Minister should ‘step in’ to prevent children being overwhelmed by TV adverts that ‘normalise and glamorise’ gambling, a columnist has said. Writing in The Times, Rachel Sylvester criticised the coverage of this year’s World Cup, saying that children ‘could not avoid being bombarded by a campaign to encourage them to take a punt on the outcome of every match’. She highlighted Ofcom findings, which show that four to fifteen-year-olds are exposed to an average of 211 gambling adverts a year each. She noted a 600 per cent increase in TV gambling adverts since Labour liberalised the law in 2007, allowing sports betting, online casinos and poker to be promoted on television. The Labour sports minister who introduced the liberalisation, Gerry Sutcliffe, has admitted his government got it wrong. We did not envisage so much advertising for sports betting before the 9pm watershed’.
Bishops urge David Cameron to grant asylum to Iraqi Christians
The Church of England has demanded that the British government offers sanctuary to thousands of Christians fleeing jihadists in northern Iraq, warning that ignoring their plight would constitute a ‘betrayal of Britain's moral and historical obligations’. A number of bishops have revealed their frustration over David Cameron's intransigence on the issue, arguing that the UK has a responsibility to grant immediate asylum to Iraqi Christian communities recently forced to flee the northern city of Mosul after militants from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isis) threatened them with execution, a religious tax or forced conversion. On Monday, France responded to the so-called religious cleansing by publicly granting asylum to Christians driven from Mosul. The Anglican Church argues the UK has an even greater responsibility to intervene, citing its central role in the 2003 allied invasion, which experts say triggered the destabilisation and sectarian violence that shaped the context for Isis to seize control of much of northern Iraq.