RETRO photographs with tongue-in-cheek captions are hilarious, and doesn’t fpa, the sexual health charity, know it. Third Sector (Feb 9) brings us news of its campaign which reflects on 75 years of advances in contraception and coincides with Contraceptive Awareness Week. Hence a picture of three Fifties-era dears gazing into a grocers’ window, accompanied by the words: “Typical! All I wanted was a big packet of those new mango condoms and they’ve sold out again.” Thus we see how lucky we are to have such a huge range of contraceptives, as opposed to when all you had was abstinence or a degree of luck. Anne Weyman, chief executive of fpa, says that “a lack of knowledge about sexual health continues to damage individual lives and the need for our services remains as strong as ever”.
Ignorance springs up everywhere. Not least in child-adult relations. Children Now (Feb 9) reports on looked-after children who feel that their views are ignored. Fiona O’Shaughnessy, Wirral’s looked-after children involvement officer, has co-ordinated a video project called My Ideal Social Worker, which focuses on what children like and dislike about social workers. Rosslin, a 14-year-old who took part in the film, says that it has changed ways of working: “Projects like this give young people in care a chance to have their voices heard.”
New Statesman (Feb 14) reports on another thorny problem — incapacity benefit assessments. Margaret Cook, who has been doing them for the past two years, calls the existing system, where the computer program is so complex that it takes three days’ training to use, “crazy enough”. Now, a new system demanding a definition of “more severe conditions” to qualify for payments, “will be yet more unwieldy”. What Cook proposes is “a single-level benefit for all of those of working age who are jobless”. Although unemployment figures would rise, she says: “Government might then pay more attention to job creation and skills training.”
The dole does seem good for launching rock acts. One of the most recent was Radiohead, and The Times Higher Education Supplement (Feb 11) reports that 13 academics have decided that the band is pretentious enough to warrant a book on its Pynchonian lyrical allusions. Among the contributors to The Music and Art of Radiohead are Kevin Detmar, professor of English at Southern Illinois University, who says: “Academics generally have difficulty with popular bands, but while Radiohead’s albums debut in the charts at number one, their music has higher concept elements.”
But perhaps you’d rather have a pint. Amid warnings about the effects of 24-hour drinking legislation, Police Review (Feb 11) reports on what happened on the Isle of Man, where opening hours were extended in 2001 and not much has happened since. PC Wayne Milne, of the island’s police force alcohol unit, says that there has been no obvious increase in trouble, and a drop in binge-drinking: “Considering the dread before it was introduced . . . it has had some effect on binge-drinking because people have longer to drink.” Just don’t ask about potential problems on the mainland. “I would not like to police that,” he adds.