CONCERN is mounting that the declaration of results in next Thursday’s local elections in parts of Kent could be disrupted by problems with new computer technology.
Both Ashford and Shepway council have confirmed they are among local authorities facing problems with software they have been recommended to use by central government to check postal votes.
If the [...]

[Read more →]

A KENT food factory has been forced to make 29 redundancies following changes in government guidelines regarding school dinners.
Read More

[Read more →]

A MAN who raped a teenage girl after luring her to his flat has been jailed for six-and-a-half years.
Masimba Nyemba, who is from Zimbabwe, is now facing deportation. A judge at Maidstone Crown Court told the 32-year-old that it was a horrifying experience for the girl, then aged 16.
“She had done nothing to encourage you,” [...]

[Read more →]

Pupils are urged to drop maths
Pupils are being discouraged from taking A-level maths as schools in England chase higher places in the league tables, scientists have claimed.
The Royal Society of Chemistry said that as maths was a difficult subject, schools feared examination failures which would threaten their standings.
Chief executive Richard Pike also said [...]

[Read more →]

MOTORISTS whose cars are stolen are being told they must pay the police at least £105 if they want them to recover their vehicle when it is found and check it for forensic clues.
The scheme — being implemented by forces across the country — has been attacked by angry motorists.
Only car owners who agree to [...]

[Read more →]

Police issued an appeal today to help them solve a “racially motivated incident” between a white nine-year-old and a five-year-old Asian boy at a play area.
Read More

[Read more →]

Actor Richard Gere has sparked protests in India after kissing Celebrity Big Brother winner Shilpa Shetty at an Aids awareness rally in New Delhi.
Demonstrators in Mumbai (Bombay) set light to effigies of the Hollywood star, while protesters in other cities shouted “death to Shilpa Shetty”.
Read More

[Read more →]

The NHS is having the “life squeezed out of it” by cuts imposed because of deficits, says the UK’s nurse leader.
Dr Peter Carter, general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, congratulated ministers for tripling the health budget since 1997.
Read More

[Read more →]

A national drive to help boost the number of bumblebees in Britain has been launched.
Campaigners from the Bumblebee Conservation Trust are calling on the public to take part in a bumblebee survey to catalogue different species.
Conservationists from the University of Stirling want gardeners to help them get a better idea of the national distribution of [...]

[Read more →]

A businessman from Norfolk has recovered a record £35,987.94 from NatWest after accusing it of charging him unlawful overdraft fees.
The man, who wishes to remain anonymous, had challenged the fees that the bank had levied for bouncing cheques from his company.
NatWest said it was settling the case only because its legal costs were becoming too [...]

[Read more →]

One million migrants from outside the EU will be entitled to vote in May’s local and national elections, it has emerged.
The migrants from Commonwealth countries, dependent territories and the Republic of Ireland - none of whom are citizens here - have gained voting rights from a law passed in 1918.
If they are resident at a [...]

[Read more →]

One of the country’s most senior policemen has admitted his force is recruiting unsuitable officers in its drive to be politically correct.
Dyslexics, the physically disabled and those with religious beliefs which affect their work are apparently being given jobs - even though they are unable to fulfil their role.
Steve Roberts, a deputy assistant commissioner at [...]

[Read more →]

Metal detectors should be installed in schools to discourage knife-carrying among youths, London’s mayor has said.
Ken Livingstone said some young people did not fully grasp the potential consequences of going around armed.
“They carry a knife not realising they could one day get involved in a fight and be injured,” he said.
The mayor’s remarks follow the [...]

[Read more →]

LEADING loyalist Johnny ‘Mad Dog’ Adair has gone to war-torn Uganda to help build an orphanage funded by neoNazi supporters in Germany.
The orphanage will be named after C Company, Adair’s notorious Shankill Road UDA unit which murdered 43 Catholics.
“It’s a great idea and I’m hoping it will help a lot of underprivileged African children. There [...]

[Read more →]

Black fathers must take greater responsibility for their children’s education to stop teenage boys turning to gun crime and gang culture, according to Britain’s biggest teaching union.
The National Union of Teachers said parents in Afro-Caribbean communities, particularly fathers, must become better role models to stop their children being “engulfed” by damaging influences.
The warning is contained [...]

[Read more →]

Almost six million children at 17,000 schools could have their fingerprints taken, intensifying fears of the growth of a “surveillance society” where personal information is gathered from cradle to grave.
As soaring numbers of schools require pupils to have biometric checks to register in the morning, buy canteen food or borrow a book, it emerged [...]

[Read more →]

THE number of escapes from Oakington immigration centre rocketed last year, the Newscan reveal.
In 2005 there were just four escapes and four attempted escapes, but last year the figure soared, with 19 escapes and seven attempts to break out.
The full scale of the problem has become clear after a Freedom of Information request by the [...]

[Read more →]

[Why did they not even bother to learn English before they came to Scotland? They should pay for their own translation services-ed]
TRANSLATION costs for public bodies in the Lothians have doubled in two years following an influx of immigrants.
The growing number of migrant workers, particularly from eastern Europe, means the city council, police and [...]

[Read more →]

[Why is it only black boys that fail?-ed]
Schools, parents and pupils must do more to improve the attainment of black Caribbean boys, a union has said.
A charter on the issue published by the National Union of Teachers stresses the responsibilities they all have.
It says the boys themselves must develop their own learning and parents must [...]

[Read more →]

PARK bosses have slapped a ban on children feeding bread to ducks. Generations of families have visited the lake at the heart of Salford’s Clowes Park to share stale loaves with the birds, but no more.
Officials say the ban is designed to save wildlife in the park lake and to deter rats. Yesterday Clowes Park [...]

[Read more →]