Key Quotes for 2005

A world perspective in bite-size chunks
Showing page 38 of 38

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Last update: Wednesday 25th March
 
After being hammered in the ratings in recent years by Coronation Street, Top of the Pops is to be deposed from its premier Friday night spot on the BBC's main channel. Instead, it will live out its days on BBC2 in the backwaters of Sunday teatime - where religion, nostalgia, antiques and natural history usually rule. For music fans of a certain age, many of whom resented the move from Thursday evenings a decade ago, it will mark the final admission that the show's glory days, and perhaps those of pop music, are over. At its peak, TOTP attracted an audience of 14 million. Last week, it was just over 3 million.
MediaThe Independent – 30th November 2004
 
Commuters can experience greater stress than a fighter pilot going into battle or a police officer facing a rioting mob, according to a study released yesterday. Many workers feel extreme pressure when their journey to work goes wrong, said a psychologist, Dr David Lewis, who carried out the research. While fighter pilots or police officers feel stress, they have the advantage of being in relative control of their situation. The hapless commuter, on the other hand, can do nothing if their train breaks down or they get stuck in a traffic jam on the motorway.
Work/EmploymentThe Independent – 30th November 2004
 
People who refuse to register with the planned national identity cards database will be fined £2,500, the Government said yesterday. There will also be penalties of £1,000 for those who fail to renew their ID cards or forget to update their details when they move home. The fines will be levied when it becomes compulsory to co-operate with the controversial ID cards scheme, expected to happen by 2012. With polls saying 20% of the public oppose the plans and an anti-ID cards group claiming to be signing hundreds of new supporters daily, it raises the prospect of "ID card martyrs" embarrassing a future Labour government.
PoliticsThe Independent – 30th November 2004
 
A quarter of Britons would get rid of copper coins for good, rounding up or down to the nearest 5p, according to research published today. Some 5.3 million of us admit to throwing small coins away, the survey for Prudential found.
MoneyThe Sentinel – 1st December 2004
 
The Archbishop of Canterbury was leading a summit of more than 50 Church of England Bishops today to discuss the homosexuality crisis in the Anglican Church. Dr Rowan Williams was jointly chairing the meeting behind closed doors at Lambeth Palace in London with the Archbishop of York, Dr David Hope. All 44 diocesan bishops and 10 suffragans had been asked to discuss the way forward, Lambeth Palace confirmed. They were discussing Octobers Windsor Report, which called for the consecration of gay bishops to be halted, among other things.
Religion/SpiritualityThe Sentinel – 1st December 2004
 
Suicide pacts arranged over the internet in which strangers agree to end their lives together could be increasing, a psychiatrist said yesterday. Suicide pacts happen about once a month in Britain and mostly involve people well known to one another, such as spouses who are childless. But a new phenomenon of "cybersuicide", in which people meet in certain internet chat rooms and discuss methods of suicide, is causing concern, according to Sundararajan Rajagopal, a consultant psychiatrist at the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust.
CrimeThe Independent – 3rd December 2004
 
A third of primary school children think oranges grow in Britain. Almost half believe margarine comes from cows and a quarter assume bread is made from potatos or rice. The findings are revealed in a survey of children aged 8 to 11 by the polling organisation Mori. Half of the 356 children questioned did not know ham was produced from pigs. A third thought it came from chickens, 10% assumed it was from cows, 5% from sheep and 2% deer.
Young PeopleThe Independent – 3rd December 2004
 
Pensioners in the UK are more likely to die from cold this winter than older people in any other Northern European country, campaigners warn. Age Concern said 22,000 pensioners were likely to die from cold-related illness this winter in the UK. Age Concern said the cost of heating and low incomes made it harder for people in the UK to stay warm.
The ElderlyThe Sentinel – 3rd December 2004
 
Rapid advances in technology over the last century are causing people to gain weight and obesity levels to rise, a professor claimed today. Professor Carol Propper said that agricultural advances have caused more food to be produced at a far lower cost. But technology has made work far less strenuous, so people must pay for, rather than be paid, to exercise. At least 30,000 deaths a year are caused by obesity in England alone and the condition costs the NHS around £500 million each year.
HealthThe Sentinel – 3rd December 2004
 
Thousands of people will be offered £40 a week to get them off benefits and back to work. The cash incentive is being introduced in Staffordshire to tackle the county's "sick note culture" and help to fill unwanted job vacancies. It forms part of a plan to help incapacity benefit claimants return to the workplace and overcome illness ranging from back pain and angina to mental health problems.
MoneyThe Sentinel – 3rd December 2004
 
Couples are increasingly filing for divorce aged in their fifties and sixties, a report to be published next week says. People are now less likely to stay in an unhappy marriage than before, even when they are pensioners, according to the survey by the Future Foundation for the Saga company. The divorce rate among the over 50s age group has risen by 8.7% in the past five years, it found. Over the past 10 years, the average age at which people divorce has also increased, from 39 to 42 for men and from 36 to 39 for women. One in seven people aged 50 to 64 is now a divorcee, according to the survey, compared to one in eight among the 35 to 49 age group.
FamilyThe Independent – 4th December 2004
 
Eating large amounts of red meat may increase the risk of rheumatoid arthritis. Researchers at the University of Manchester studied 25,000 people aged 45 to 75. They found consuming high levels of red meat was an independent risk factor for inflammatory arthritis. The report, published in the journal 'Arthritis and Rheumatism', also found patients with arthritis were more likely to have been former smokers.
HealthThe Independent – 4th December 2004
 
Britains multi-storey car parks are "badly designed decaying monoliths", a report claims. In the event of a collapse of a multi-storey, "it is unclear who would be at fault", said Chemistry and Industry magazine. There are still no UK regulations, the magazine claimed.
EnvironmentThe Sentinel – 6th December 2004
 
Couples are being urged to consider their legal rights when moving in together by completing a "living together agreement". Designed to assist the four million people in England and Wales who decide to cohabit, agreements would protect both partners. The scheme, devised by the Government funded website www.advicenow.org.uk, was created after a survey indicated that six out of 10 people wrongly think that cohabiting couples have the same rights as their married counterparts.
FamilyThe Sentinel – 6th December 2004
 
Hundreds of people are being needlessly killed and injured by the growing numbers of cars carrying out the school run. School runs have increased by 20% in the last decade as the number of children walking to school has fallen by 14%. Reducing these car journeys to school could prevent 190 deaths and serious injuries a year, research by insurance company More Than has found. The company also called for staggered school start times to relieve pressure on the roads.
Young PeopleThe Sentinel – 6th December 2004
 
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