Old couple left alone for three days by social service carers

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2009792/Pensioner-left-die-wheelchair-frail-wife-lay-floor-social-services-left-unattended-days.html

Summary

Kenneth Mills, an 82 year old pensioner died in his wheelchair while his feeble wife lying helplessly on the floor besides him. This happened because social service carers did not call in on the couple for three days. Mr. Mills had Parkinson and his wife was in such poor health that she could not take care of him. They had a care package which meant that the couple was supposed to be visited several times a day. On the 24^th of September they were meant to leave home for respite care but the couple refused, therefore their sons had asked to restore the previous care package previously in place. But that did not happen because of the overload of phone calls social services received.

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I feel so sorry for the family, especially the wife who saw her husband die but could not do anything. How horrible that must have been. Of course this did not happen on purpose but I do feel social services are responsible for the trauma they have caused on the wife and her sons. This should not have happened and I think the social service carers should have made sure the previous arrangements would continue since the couple refused to go with them for respite care.

Police officer fired

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/jun/23/metropolitan-police-officer-sacked-abuse

Summary

A 35 year old police officer has been fired because he posted offensive messages about a colleague on Facebook. He also harassed a female co-worker with whom he had a very short and casual with. The Crown Prosecution Service decided there would be no criminal charges. The case went before a Metropolitan police gross misconduct hearing. There it was decided that the men did not belong in the police service.

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I think the police officer behaved himself very childish and unprofessional. And I agree that this man does not belong in the police service, I wonder if he is able to understand this? The relationship with the co-worker was described as brief and casual so I wonder why this police officer kept harassing this woman. “He sent the woman a series of abusive text messages and subjected her to verbal abuse and threats”. This goes a bit far if the relationship was brief and casual. Well of course this behavior always goes too far but I mean it sounds like the man really over reacted.

Prison because of chat conversations

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3641586/Facebook-juror-is-jailed-for-8-months.html

Summary
Joanne Frail a mum of three children has to spend eight months in jail because she contacted Jamie Stewart, a defendant. Joanne served as a juror at a drug trial concerning 6 million pounds. At the time Joanne contacted Jamie, she had been aquitted but the other defendants were still on trial. Jamie told her solliciter about the chat conversations she had had with Joanne and Joanne was being sent to prison.
　
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Well I do not think it is a very smart thing to do, contacting a defendant when you are a juror on a trial. And I do not really understand what the purpose of this was other than to show sympathy. From what I read in the article she did not take it very serious anyway since she says that she had been doodling on her notepad to kill time. I also think it is very low of Jamie to participate in these messages and say to Joanne that she deleted them all and then turn her in anyway.

Swords and bodybags..

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/jun/15/joss-stone-arrests-police-question-time

Summary

Two men from Manchester have been arrested because they behaved suspiciously. This was near the house of Joss Stone in Cullompton, Devon . The pair was initially arrested because they were equipped to steal and because they had weapons on them. It is said that the men were carrying body bags and swords but this has not been confirmed by the police. The police have been granted extra time to question the two men.

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Seems to me that the story is made more sensational because it happened to happen near the house of Joss Stone. Nowhere in the article has it said the men where after her but when you read the headline you might think they were. I understand it is troublesome that these men were wandering around the neighbourhood while they were obviously up to something. But it has nothing to do with Joss Stone so why put her name in the headline?

An affair gone bad :P

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/shame-of-affair-boss-outed-online-2297652.html

Summary

Timothy Haynes, an insurance firm director has been involved in a long time affair with Leena Puddick. It started in 2002 and in 2009 her husband found out when he found a text message on her cell phone. Instead of confronting Mr Haynes he set up an internet campaign, build a website, posted videos, used twitter and wrote on blogs about the affair. In court he admitted to all of this and Mr Haynes complained about how he and his wife needed counselling after the harassment.

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Well I think this has gone way too far. I understand that Mr Puddick is angry with Mr Haynes but with this harassment he does not only make life difficult for Mr Haynes but also for his wife and children. What I found to be really strange is that Mr Haynes wife Anya is still with him and only talks about how difficult it was that the information had been posted online. She never talks about the affair or says that she is angry with her husband.

Popular schools are allowed to let in more pupils

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/8529935/Popular-schools-to-be-allowed-to-let-in-more-pupils.html

Summary

There used to be restrictions for popular state schools to expand and take on more pupils however these restrictions will be lifted. This is to allow more pupils to go to their first choice of school. This will probably mean that financial problems will increase for less popular schools because the financial support a school gets is determined by the number of pupils they have. The Government suspects that local authorities sometimes put a stop to popular schools taking on more pupils because it would be harder to support weaker schools when they don’t have enough pupils.

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It seems like a good idea and I think it is fair that every pupil gets to go to the school of their choice. On the other hand I think schools should have the same standards and therefore there should not be a major difference between schools. “Good” schools should be available everywhere and for everyone.  If there are only a couple of good schools it would mean some students and teachers will have to travel further in the future. And I wonder if a bigger school would not create a less personal environment where students become numbers and there is less personal attention.

Teachers don’t want to be teachers anymore because of the high level of stress.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/apr/25/stress-drives-teachers-out-of-schools

Summary:

Due to the increase of stress many teachers do not want to be teachers anymore. This high level of stress has developed because of the target demands made by the government, especially the enhancing of form-filling has driven up the amount of work.  Health and Safety Executive found that the teaching profession is the most stress full profession, 41.5% of the teachers say they are highly stressed. For a small group of teachers this is even a reason to think about suicide.

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Obviously things are not going as they should go. The fact that there are teachers who are thinking about suicide makes it clear that this is a real problem and that it already has gone too far. I think we should cherish teachers because we and our children benefit from their education. Therefore I feel the government should take better care of them and find a solution for this increasing problem. Because if this goes on nobody wants to be a teacher anymore and then what?