Boy shot in error
A boy aged 13 was shot dead after being mistaken for a fox during a night hunt. The boy was hit with a single shot from a .22 rifle while out “lamping”, where hunters use lights to spot prey, in steeply sloping fields on land near Totnes in South Devon last Saturday. One of three adults in the party told police that he fired at what he thought was a fox.
Paying for pensions
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Taypayers could pay 1½p in the pound extra in national insurance to fund bigger state pensions. Adair Turner, chairman of the Pensions Commission, will report on October 14 and is likely to frustrate government hopes that the issue of higher compulsory payments could be avoided before the election. Compulsory contributions to a second state pension and private pensions are also being examined as is whether to allow people to receive their pension while working beyond retirement age.
iGeneration results
An analysis of the beliefs, fears and hopes of young adults by The Times this week revealed a revolution in social attitudes over the past 20 years. The iGeneration poll revealed that young people are no longer prepared to lay down their lives for their country, would bring back the cane, want Tony Blair to resign but Labour to remain in power and would happily marry someone of a different race.
Public service prospects
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Public service jobs have become more popular with university graduates, with the National Health Service ranked fifth in The Times Top 100 graduate employers list published this week. This destroys the myth that the public sector means poor pay and low career prospects, with some in the NHS earning £50,000 within three years.
Blair-Brown tussle
A book by the Prime Minister’s former personal economic adviser revealed that before the 1998 Budget Tony Blair was reduced to pleading with Gordon Brown to release details with the line: “Give me a hint, Gordon.” Mr Brown told Mr Blair that he couldn’t tell him anything because “I haven’t made my mind up”. The book, Off Whitehall by Derek Scott, claims that Treasury civil servants had to be smuggled into No 10 by the back door to stop the Chancellor finding out about their visits.
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Batman stunt
In the first of a series of security breaches this week, an intruder dressed as Batman climbed on to a ledge on the front of Buckingham Palace, unfurled a banner and stayed there for five hours. Jason Hatch, 32, a decorator from Cheltenham, carried out the stunt on behalf of Fathers4Justice, a group campaigning for fathers’ rights. The intrusion came four months after the palace appointed a director to ensure the Queen’s safety would not be compromised.
Unpredictable grades
Students will be offered a place at university after they know their A-level grades under a scheme drawn up by Steven Schwartz, Vice-Chancellor of Brunel University and endorsed by Charles Clarke, the Education Secretary. Mr Clarke said he wanted to act “immediately” after the report showed that more than half of predicted grades are inaccurate.
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Finucane’s murder solved
A police informer admitted that he killed a Belfast solicitor in one of the most controversial murders of the Northern Ireland Troubles. He was jailed for 22 years. Kenneth Barrett, 41, admitted to murdering Pat Finucane in front of his wife and children 15 years ago and being a member of the loyalist Ulster Freedom Fighters. Last year’s report by Sir John Stevens concluded that Finucane’s murder was carried out with the collusion of the security forces in the province. Finucane represented many IRA men, including Bobby Sands. After his death, Douglas Hogg, then a Home Office junior minister, said there were a number of solicitors who were “unduly sympathetic to the cause of the IRA”.
Salt’s sluggish effects
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A green slug called Sid is heading the Government’s campaign to persuade the nation to cut down on salt. He appeared on prime-time television for the first time to give warning that too much salt is bad for the heart. At least 26 million adults in Britain eat more than the recommended 11g of salt a day, the equivalent of almost two level teaspoons.
Bragg’s slip of the tongue
Lord Bragg, a close friend of the Blairs, said that the Prime Minister came close to quitting earlier this year because of family pressures. The Labour peer said that Mr Blair was under “colossal strain” and “personal and family” stress, but said the Blairs’ marriage had never been stronger. Lord Bragg’s wife, Cate Haste, is the co-author of The Goldfish Bowl, a new book about life inside Downing Street, written with Cherie Blair. Sources close to the Blairs denied that Lord Bragg had been “put up” to the interview.
Laser surgery booted out
Boots is to scrap its laser eye surgery clinics after suffering multimillion-pound losses and failing to win public confidence in the procedure. The move comes after The Times alerted Boots to two US lawsuits questioning the reliability of the type of lasers used in its clinics. Dentistry, chiropody and laser hair-removal services wil also be scrapped in an attempt to improve finances.
Morris steps down
Estelle Morris, the Arts Minister and former Education Secretary, has announced that she is to stand down as an MP at the next election. Ms Morris said that new Labour had failed to deliver on a new style of politics. She denied that she is to step down from her Birmingham Yardley seat because she is under threat from the Liberal Democrats.
MPs outfoxed
The Government decided to rush legislation to ban foxhunting through the House of Commons on Wednesday, prompting violent clashes outside Parliament and an invasion of the Commons chamber by a number of protesters. Police say they believe that they were helped by a person who works in the House.
Cherie Blair appeared on Richard and Judy on Channel 4 and said that there was “never a monent” her husband had considered quitting. She also described Alastair Campbell, the Prime Minister’s former director of communications, as the “cuddly, friendly type”.
THEY SAID ...
‘Every studio that didn’t get Harry Potter is worried that they will miss the next one’
Jon Furay, a book scout at Other Productions in New York, on why Hollywood is buying British works more often than before
‘The officer said to me, ‘Come down or I shoot.’ It was pretty scary’
David Pyke, dressed as Robin, who accompanied “Batman” into Buckingham Palace but turned back
‘I treat ugly, fat people the same as stunning, thin people’
Simon Ambrose, 25, who gave himself eight out of ten, on the importance of looks for The Times iGeneration poll
‘The real stress was personal and family’
Lord Bragg, suggesting that Tony Blair considered resigning earlier in the year
‘I was right at the front so I suppose they had a right to hit me’
Andrew Vernon, who took part in the foxhunting demonstration at Westminster on Wednesday, on the police at the event
NEXT WEEK
TOMORROW
Liberal Democrat Party conference starts in Bournemouth
MONDAY
Tony Blair meets Manmohan Singh, the Indian Prime Minister London Fashion Week begins
TUESDAY
Man Booker Prize shortlist announced
WEDNESDAY
RMT rail workers’ union members working at South West Trains go on first of two 24-hour strikes in a dispute over rosters
THURSDAY
Farid Hilali’s extradition hearing at Bow Street Magistrates’ court. He is wanted in Spain for an alleged link to the 2001 attacks in the US and the Madrid bombings in March
FRIDAY
Sajid Badat applies at the Old Bailey to have charges dismissed of conspiring with Richard Reid, the convicted shoe bomber, to blow up an aircraft