Reform Media Summary

15 April 2008

Economy

Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, will today meet with the Chief Executives of Britain’s biggest mortgage lenders as confidence in the UK house prices slumped to the lowest level since the 1970s according to a report by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (FT, p.1; Times, p.2; Guardian, p.1, p.4, p.30 [leader]; Independent, p.4, p.26 [leader]; Sun, p.2; Mirror, p.8; Express, p.4; Telegraph, p.1, B.2 [Richard Fletcher], B.7; Mail, p.4, p.12 [leader], p.67 [Alex Brummer]).

A report by the Pension Trends Survey shows that most single pensioners receive occupational pension benefits of less than £1,000 a year (FT, p.2; Mirror, p.10, p.12; Express, p.4, p.12; Telegraph, p.4; Mail, p.10).

Further coverage of George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor’s, speech yesterday (Times, p.2; Guardian, p.10; Independent, p.27 [comment]).

Times lead story: Digby Jones will reportedly resign in advance of the General Election because “he is not prepared to support the Prime Minister publicly during the campaign” (Times, p.1; FT, p.2).

Figures released by the Office for National Statistics yesterday showed that overall prices at which goods are sold have, this year, risen to their highest in 17 years (Telegraph, p.4; Mail, p.1, p.12 [Michael Hanlon]).

In an article for the FT Phillip Stephens argues that the current financial crisis is not as bad as was suggested by the recent report by the International Monetary Fund, saying: “I am not convinced that turmoil in the financial markets will push the world over the edge of the economic precipice” (FT, p.13).

In a challenge to the Prime Minister, Labour MPs, academics and trade unionists will assert today the moral case for inheritance tax (Guardian, p.10).

Education

According to a survey by Channel 4 News, more than 100 local authorities have sold almost 300 primary school sites in the past ten years for over £236 million. Councils say they are abiding by strict government arrangements to close schools with falling pupil numbers (Guardian, p.13; Telegraph, p.1; Mail, p.5).

Bill Rammell, Minister of State for Lifelong Learning, Higher and Further Education, defends plans to introduce two-year intensive degrees following criticism from the Russell Group of top-tier universities. Mr Rammell said that two-year degrees were “the business of every university” and criticised attacks as based on “impressionistic myth rather than reality” (FT, p.4).

More than 40,000 pupils dropped GCSE English and mathematics last year as they stood little chance of passing, while more than 60,000 teens took fewer than five GCSEs (Sun, p.2).

College lecturers are to join school teachers in the first national strike in 21 years. The University and College Union said lecturers from more than 250 colleges in England would stop work for a day on Thursday 24 April (FT, p.4; Mirror, p.17).

In a comment piece in Guardian Education Mike Baker writes: “We have long seen in schools the shift towards weighing, rather than fattening, the pig. Now it seems the long tradition of liberal learning – learning for the sake of it, and for the wider benefits of physical and mental health, and social cohesion ­– is being squeezed out of adult learning too” (Guardian Education, p.4).

According to a study by the Social Justice Commission a generation of children born into disadvantaged and dysfunctional families will already be lagging behind their contemporaries by the time they start nursery school (Mail, p.11).

Health

Health workers may have their pay offer cut if they refuse to accept the three-year deal that is being offered by the Government. A health worker’s conference in Manchester will decide today whether to recommend acceptance of the deal to Unison’s 500,000 health workers (Telegraph, p.2).

A ruling by the Court of Appeal has upheld the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence’s decision that a drug that could delay the onset of Alzheimer’s (called Aricept) is too expensive in the disease’s early stages (Telegraph, p.8).

Research at Rutgers University has found that prostate cancer could be halted by combining two drugs commonly used to treat cholesterol and arthritis (Telegraph, p.1; Mail, p.9).

Research at the University of California, San Diego has found that statins – taken to lower cholesterol – may also lower blood pressure (Telegraph, p.8; Mail, p.25; Express, p.24).

Home Affairs

Anne Owers, the Chief Inspector of Prisons, has found that Belmarsh, the high-security prison in south-east London, has made “considerable” progress following a series of poor inspection reports. However, there are warnings that staff are inadequately trained to challenge extremism (FT, p.4; Guardian, p.7).

Politics

Further coverage of the Prime Minister’s political position (Times, p.4, p.15 [Ross Clark], p.24 [Peter Riddell]; Guardian, p.28 [Geoffrey Wheatcroft]; Sun, p.2, p.8; Express, p.5; Telegraph, p.22; Mail, p.2).

The Mail reports that David Cameron is planning a purge of underperformers in his team with only seven out of thirty safe in their jobs (Mail, p.8).