Key Quotes for 2012

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Last update: Wednesday 25th March




Ofsted today warned schools that from this term, "good" is the minimum standard that will be expected of them. As children head back to class for the start of the school year, new rules come into force revamping the system. From today, the "satisfactory" rating used by inspectors will be scrapped, and replaced with "requires improvement". Schools judged to require improvement at two consecutive inspections and which are still not providing a good education at the third, are likely to be placed in special measures.
Education	The Sentinel, September 3, 2012



In an unprecedented incident, the owners of 17 different Coptic Bookstores located in Shoubra neighbourhood in the Egyptian capital Cairo received letters with threats asking them to stop selling religious pictures and statuettes. The threat stated: “we warn you, – the group of Christians – to stop your impure commerce selling idols. This is a warning to stop this commerce willingly.”
Religious Persecution	Christian Marketplace, September 2012



It’s not just the ‘mummy porn’ phenomenon of Fifty Shades which has benefited from the anonymity of e-readers and e-book buying, the same is true for Christian fiction which may cause an eyebrow to be raised at the reader on the tube or bus. According to an article on the website jezebel.com, the growth of “e-commerce that has propelled sales of adult fiction in the last few years” is doing the “same thing for Christian fiction”. The article by Doug Barry refers to data from the American Association of Publishers which show that sales of religious fiction have increased by 7 per cent up to $1.45 billion, largely on the strength of e-books.
Media	Christian Marketplace, September 2012



All pupils who sat GCSEs this summer were treated "unfairly", the Education Secretary has admitted, but he refused to order the exam regulator to re-mark papers. Michael Gove said this summer's controversy had shown why the examination needed to be replaced with a more rigorous qualification similar to O-Levels, and one in which only a "high flier" could obtain a top grade. The new exam, which could come into force as soon as 2014, would be sat by all pupils, unlike O-Levels, which were taken by only the most academically able while other pupils were awarded CSEs. Modular assessments, where pupils' work is graded throughout the year rather than in a written exam, could be phased out for English GCSEs by the summer. Mr Gove said all those who took GCSEs were let down by the system, and not just those who narrowly missed out on a passing C grade in English due to tougher marking. But he said it would be wrong to intervene by ordering Ofqual to re-mark papers.
Education	Daily Telegraph 04.09.2012



Using frozen embryos in all IVF treatments rather than as a last resort could lower the risk to both mother and baby, a study claims. Babies which grow from frozen embryos are less likely to be born pre-term or underweight and have a lower risk of dying in the days after their birth, according to researchers. Using embryos which have been frozen and then thawed, rather than being implanted shortly after being created, also reduced the risk of bleeding in the mother during pregnancy. Researchers said the increased reliability of frozen embryos could be due to the delay between removing the eggs from the mother and implanting them back in the mother after fertilisation. In IVF treatment, doctors stimulate the ovaries to produce a number of eggs, and remove and fertilise them all. The healthiest-looking ones are implanted three to six days later, and the remainder are frozen for future use. Fresh embryos can be implanted a matter of days after they are removed from the mother, meaning the lining of her womb may not have fully recovered and could be damaged, researchers said. The fact that only the healthiest embryos survive the freezing and thawing process could also increase the likeli¬hood of the pregnancy going according to plan, it was claimed.
Health	Daily Telegraph 04.09.2012



Organic food is no better for you than the traditionally grown even though it may taste better, researchers have said. Despite the perception that organic food grown without artificial fertilisers, pesticides and other chemicals, is more pure, nutritious and virtuous, scientists have said there is little evidence that it is healthier. A review of 237 research studies into organic food found the products were 30 per cent less likely to contain pesticide residue than conventionally grown fruit and vegetables but were not necessarily 100 per cent free of the chemicals. They found no consistent differences in the vitamin content of organic products. There were higher levels of phosphorus in organically grown food but the researchers said this was of little importance as so few people were deficient in this. The only other significant finding was that some studies suggested organic milk contained higher levels of omega-3 fatty acid, which is thought to be important for brain development in infants and for cardiovascular health.
Food and Drink	Daily Telegraph 04.09.2012



Vulnerable children could be placed at greater risk by government plans to cut red tape around child protection, experts have warned. An alliance of charities, pressure groups and lawyers is calling on ministers to drop proposals to streamline more than 700 pages of statutory guidance on safeguarding children into three documents totalling fewer than 70 pages. Under the plans, local authorities would no longer have to assess a child's needs within seven days of receiving a referral containing welfare concerns, nor produce a more detailed report within seven weeks. The Every Child in Need group says the current rules provide an essential minimum standard of care for young people who need help, and without them they would face differing treatment from councils throughout the country. The Department for Education said it is committed to protecting vulnerable children, and reducing bureaucracy will help staff carry out safeguarding work.
Education	Daily Telegraph 04.09.2012



Nurses are having to clean lavatories and mop hospital floors in addition to caring for patients, a survey has found. More than half of NHS nurses believed that cleaning of their ward was inadequate and about a fifth said their hospital trust had made cuts to cleaning services in the past year. The survey of 1,000 nurses and health assistants by Nursing Times found that a third had carried out their own cleaning in the past year. Some also reported cleaning corridors, computers, nursing stations and offices. Two fifths of nurses said they had cleaned a bed or room after an infectious patient had gone home, while 81 per cent had cleaned up after a non-infectious patient had left the hospital. Almost three quarters said they had not received training for these cleaning practices and 37 per cent of nurses admitted that their trust would not close a bed to a patient even though it had not been cleaned properly.
Work/Employment	Daily Telegraph 04.09.2012



The Olympics feel good factor spelled misery for retailers in August as the public was too glued to television coverage of the Games to head for the high street or even shop online, according to the British Retail Consortium. Sales of nuts and crisps were strong as viewers ate while they watched the action but discretionary items such as furniture, flooring and women's clothing all suffered from Olympics fever. Viewers could not even drag themselves away from the coverage for long enough to shop online, with internet sales rising just 4.8pc in August - the slowest rate of growth since the RRC started collecting the data four years ago.
Shopping	Daily Telegraph 04.09.2012



Women who do two-and-a-half hours of housework or walking every day can cut their risk of developing breast cancer by six per cent, a study found. Those who do six hours of housework per day can reduce their risk of breast cancer by 13 per cent, the researchers said. Even moderately active women, denned as three hours of gardening per day, reduced their risk of the cancer by around 10 per cent. The findings were based on data from 257,805 women who are part of the European Prospective Investigation of Cancer study, funded by Cancer Research UK. The researchers examined 8,034 new cases of cancer diagnosed over 11 years and considered exercise levels, body weight, if women breastfed, and their alcohol intake. They said the study, published in the International Journal of Cancer, was important because it showed that even moderate amounts of exercise reduced cancer risk. About 11,500 women die from breast cancer every year in Britain.
Health	Daily Telegraph 04.09.2012



Fines for people on sickness and disability benefits who break promises to try to get jobs will more than double, according to leaked government plans. A draft letter from the Department for Work and Pen¬sions shows that penalties for claimants who fail to adhere to a strict "back to work" programme agreed with local officials are set to jump from £28.15 a week to £71 a week. The fines will apply to claimants on employment support allowance who have been judged fit to return to work after a health assessment by a private medical supplier. Those in the work-related activity group can lose a maximum of £28.15 a week if they break an agreement with their job advisers without "good cause". But the draft letter, obtained by The Guardian, warns that sick and disabled claimants will lose £71 out of their weekly allowance of £99 if they refuse to take part in work-related activities. Campaigners have said that those in the work-related activity group have recently included cancer and stroke sufferers and people with mental health issues. Paul Farmer, chief executive of the mental health charity Mind, warned that increasing the punishments for claimants could devastate their mental health.
Work/Employment	Daily Telegraph 04.09.2012



Scrapping national pay bargaining in the public sector would save more than £6billion a year that should be used to create hundreds of thousands of jobs, a think tank has suggested. Nationally-set pay bands mean that the average public sector worker is paid 7 per cent more than their private sector counterparts rising to almost 14 per cent when pensions are taken into account, according to a report published by Policy Exchange. That public sector "premium" is as high as 25 per cent in some parts of the country, it said. The think tank called for public sector pay levels to be brought into line with their local private sector equivalents, saving £6.3 billion that could be spent tackling local unemployment and creating 288,000 jobs.
Work/Employment	Daily Telegraph 04.09.2012



A new blood test that checks all pregnant women for signs of Down's syndrome in their unborn children could be available on the NHS by 2017, say scientists, potentially saving the lives of 300 babies every year. Currently, about 30,000 women every year who are deemed at high risk of carrying a Down's baby, face the dilemma of whether or not to undergo an invasive test that carries a one in 100 chance of causing a miscarriage. Today British scientists report results from a trial of a new blood test in 2,049 women, showing that it is more than 99 per cent accurate and suitable for mass screening.
Health	Daily Telegraph 04.09.2012



In July records held by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority showed that almost 123 IVF babies have been aborted over the last five years due to genetic abnormalities, Down's Syndrome being the most common. Among those conceived naturally, more than 1,000 Downs babies are aborted every year. The numbers could be higher because there is no requirement for the reasons for terminations to be recorded. Pro-life activists say that the statistics show a growing trend towards treating children as 'designer goods', with parents spending thousands of pounds on fertility treatment at private clinics only to discard a child when less than 'perfect'. Christian Concern
Social Issues	Evangelicals Now September 2012



On August 5, Gloucester City Council issued an apology after stopping a Christian group from handing out literature in the city centre. The apology was issued following the threat of legal action from the Christian Legal Centre, after a group of Christians were stopped from evangelising in the town's city centre in late June. The tracts were being handed out by members of at least ten city churches during 'Bible Day Gloucester'. But council staff prevented the leaflets from being given out on the day, claiming that the group had breached by-laws that were specific to the town. Roland Parsons, spokesperson for Christians in Gloucester, said: 'The Bible Day this year featured the contribution of Gloucester's John Hooper to the freedom of all religions in Britain. We refuse to live in a totalitarian regime where political and religious opinion is banned. Christians in Gloucester believe that we have the basic freedom in Britain to hand out literature of a political or religious opinion to any other citizen in Gloucester'. Gloucester Council has also prevented the handing out of leaflets by Christians on several previous occasions. Christian Concern
Religious Persecution	Evangelicals Now September 2012

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