Labour closes ranks over baby death
Members of Haringey council's Labour group maintained a wall of silence after attending an emergency meeting to discuss fresh developments in the tragic case of Baby P.
The councillors present at the meeting did not want to talk about what had been discussed and left the building by a rear exit down an overgrown back alley.
Local councillor Ali Demirci refused to confirm he had even attended the meeting, he said: "I can't talk about this, I can't discuss what was said, you will have to speak to Labour Party head office." However, the wall of silence was angering local residents who believed councillors were "covering up" the events that led to Baby P's death to "save their own necks".
One local resident, Stephanie Biber, was so enraged she marched to the Hornsey and Wood Green Labour Party head offices and stuck a poster to the front window that read: "Sharon Shoesmith you have blood on your hands. Council tax payers of Haringey refuse to pay council tax until Sharon Shoesmith is sacked."
Sharon Shoesmith is head of children's services at the council.
Mrs Biber said: "Sharon Shoesmith should resign, this is the final straw and I'm just so angry about it all. I've written to my bank asking them not to pay council tax to Haringey Council until she has been sacked."
Another tax payer, Con Saunders, 61, said: "I've lived here nearly all my life and I've never known anything like this, it's a disgrace and it's not the first time it's happened.
"You want to know what was being discussed by the councillors this morning? Alibis, they're working on alibis. They all stick together and will wriggle out of this one. They're just covering up the events to save their own necks."
Later, a spokesman for Haringey's Labour group confirmed: "This morning the Labour group of Haringey council were further updated on the tragic case of Baby P. The purpose of the meeting was solely to ensure councillors were fully informed on all aspects of the case and the review commissioned by central government."
According to The Sunday Telegraph, the council's legal department advised that the child did not need to be taken into care just nine days before he died. At a meeting of council officials on July 25 last year, a lawyer advised social workers that the evidence that Baby P was being abused was not strong enough to warrant removing the child from his mother, the paper said.
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PM plans pre-Christmas tax giveaway
The Government is preparing to unveil multi-billion pound pre-Christmas tax breaks after Gordon Brown claimed world leaders had signed up to his blueprint for reviving the global economy.
Downing Street sources indicated that the reductions would be targeted at low-income families, probably through the tax credit and winter fuel payment systems.
Along with increases in spending, the "fiscal stimulus" package could be worth between £15 billion and £30 billion - all funded through extra state borrowing. Depending on how much was directed towards lowering taxes, the average family's bill could be slashed by up to £1,000.
But the Tories launched a furious attack on the principle behind the plans, insisting the Prime Minister was trying to "max out the credit card" at the expense of future generations.
Shadow chancellor George Osborne ruled out either proposing "unfunded" tax cuts, or supporting the Government's package - due to be unveiled in the Pre-Budget report next week.
"We are warning the country that Gordon Brown is abandoning fiscal responsibility and when a government does that it stacks up debt for future generations and stacks up tax rises for future generations as well," he told BBC One's Andrew Marr show. "The choice in British politics is going to be funded tax cuts from the Conservative Party, and a tax con by the Labour Party that has abandoned 15 years of rhetoric on fiscal stability."
The comments risked infuriating Conservative right-wingers, some of whom support the idea of upfront tax cuts and find themselves arguably more aligned with Labour than their own leadership.
Mr Osborne also questioned Mr Brown's assertion that the G20 had accepted his call for co-ordinated cash injections and tax cuts in order to kickstart growth.
The premier said the gathering in Washington had made an "historic" pact to work together on fiscal measures, and insisted countries would be bringing forward their own plans over the coming weeks.
But Mr Osborne claimed the final communique from leaders indicated otherwise. "It is three and a half thousands words long, has 21 words on fiscal stimulus, and says it should be done where appropriate and providing it is consistent with fiscal sustainability," he said.
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Targets focus 'allowed crime rise'
The Home Office's top civil servant has admitted in a leaked document that serious violent crime has been allowed to rise due to a focus on targets.
The department's permanent secretary Sir David Normington said there were now more offences such as murders, serious assaults and rapes than a decade ago.
In a 101-page briefing paper for new Home Office ministers last month, he suggested that because police had been given incentives to tackle less serious offences in a bid to reduce crime figures, they were less able to combat violent incidents.
Targets for reducing overall crime previously had a "focus on volume", according the document obtained by the Mail on Sunday.
"This meant that the police and other practitioners had incentives to tackle the more frequent but less serious offences as opposed to the more serious ones," he added.
Sir David said the Government's strategy would now focus on violent crime as it strives to get serious violence figures down.
He wrote: "In view of the fact that more serious violence has not reduced in the way that we would have wanted in recent years, and that these offences cause the most harm to individual victims and to society as a whole, our long-term strategy on violence focuses on seriousness. This includes homicides, serious wounding and serious sexual offences such as rape.
"Recorded crime statistics do indicate that despite recent falls, the levels of the most serious violence are higher than they were 10 years ago."
A Home Office spokeswoman said recorded crime fell 6% last year, and all types of violent crime had gone down by 40% since 1997.
"But we know there is more work to do - with particular crime types, and in particular areas," she said. "Although it represents less than 1% of recorded crime, reducing serious violence will always be a priority for us. We announced a new focus on serious violence earlier this year - to save lives, reduce harm and protect the public."
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Corporate lap dance visits slammed
The Home Secretary has hit out at corporate high-fliers who entertain their clients at lap-dancing clubs.
Jacqui Smith branded the practice "bizarre" as the Government prepared to unveil a crackdown on the sex trade that is expected to criminalise most people who use prostitutes.
Ms Smith said lap-dancing venues appeared to have become an acceptable place for work nights out, adding that new laws would make it harder for them to open.
"If I were a business person and I were wanting to make the best impression on clients, who presumably are female as well as male, I do think it's a bit bizarre that you would take them to a lap-dancing club," she told the Observer.
A new licensing regime due to be announced later this month will see such clubs, which are currently treated the same way as pubs, subjected to the same tough rules as sex shops.
Ministers say the move will give local residents more powers to object to the venues opening, and get them closed down.
"It's not a complete ban on lap-dancing clubs, but it's saying you don't operate in a vacuum, you have an impact on the community around you," Ms Smith said.
"I would hope it would make it harder for them to open, certainly in residential areas, and I would suspect that some of them will be closed when the licences come up for renewal."
This week Ms Smith will outline separate plans to criminalise paying for sex with a woman who is being "controlled for another person's gain".
The new offence will incur a large fine and result in a criminal record for the perpetrator. It covers women who are controlled by pimps or who are drug addicts and working to pay off their dealers, as well as those trafficked for sex. It is understood that not knowing a woman's circumstances will be no defence, and kerb crawlers will be "named and shamed".
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Benefits switch plan 'scandalous'
Figures showing that up to 55,000 lone parents may be forced to take out emergency loans because of a push by ministers to get them into work was condemned as "scandalous".
Opposition parties are warning that moving lone parents off Income Support and on to Jobseeker's Allowance could leave them facing a delay of between one and two weeks to receive benefit payments.
The Government estimates up to 55,000 parents will be affected, forcing many to take out crisis loans from its Social Fund, paid through Jobcentre Plus.
The changes mean that from November 24, a lone parent's Income Support may be stopped when their youngest child is aged 12 or over, or will be 12 in the next year. This will be changed to 10 in 2009 and seven in 2010.
The Department for Work and Pensions has said the lone parent can make a claim for Jobseeker's Allowance or Employment and Support Allowance. It insists the changes to the benefits system are designed to "help people get skills for work and move into paid employment."
Work and Pensions minister Kitty Usher said: "The planning assumption for the number of lone parents who may require a lone parent transition loan is 55,000 for Phase 1 of the lone parent changes only."
But her comments have provoked anger from the opposition parties.
Liberal Democrat work and pensions spokesman Jenny Willott, who obtained the answer from Ms Usher in a parliamentary written question, said: "The Government cannot allow these changes to force parents into debt. It is scandalous that ministers have designed changes to the benefit system that will force lone parents to take out loans simply to make ends meet.
"Our benefits system is so complex it is completely failing vulnerable families that, despite careful budgeting, will be left struggling to make ends meet in increasingly difficult times."
Shadow welfare reform minister James Clappison added: "In principle, we support moving lone parents on to Jobseeker's Allowance, but it is outrageous that the Government should plunge them into debt in this way."
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Two more arrests over park shooting
Police have arrested two more people over the murder of a 15-year-old boy shot dead in a park, a force said.
Officers investigating the death of Kadeem Blackwood in Derby arrested the 48-year-old woman and 20-year-old man in the past 24 hours, Derbyshire Constabulary said.
Michael Hamblett-Sewell, 19, of Derby, was remanded in custody on Saturday charged with Kadeem's murder.
And an 18-year-old man remains in custody after his arrest on Saturday in connection with the killing.
Kadeem suffered a single shotgun wound to the chest while with friends at Caxton Street recreation ground at about 9.19pm on Tuesday.
He was taken to Derbyshire Royal Infirmary but died from his injuries.
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Police try to identify stab victim
A man whose body was found on a driveway outside a house died of multiple stab wounds to the neck, police said.
But Thames Valley Police say they are still not sure who the man is or whether he was murdered or took his own life.
The man's body was found in the driveway of a house in Telford Way, in Downley, High Wycombe, at 8am on Saturday.
A post-mortem examination was carried out at Wycombe General Hospital and revealed the man died of haemorrhaging due to multiple stab wounds to his neck.
The man is black, with a slight beard at the point of his chin and is thought to be in his 30s. He was wearing dark grey jogging bottoms and a light coloured fleece top with stripes on the arms. He was also wearing a black beanie hat and white trainers.
A mobile phone was found on the man which police are using to try to establish who he is.
The house was cordoned off as forensic officers worked at the scene.
Detective Chief Inspector Mick Saunders, the senior officer investigating the death, said: "We are still investigating the circumstances surrounding the death and at the moment cannot say for sure whether there was third party involvement in the death or not.
"We still do not know the identity of the man.
"It is crucial to the police investigation surrounding the death that anyone who saw anything suspicious at the time or who has any other information contacts us. Similarly, if you know who the dead man is, we would like to speak to you."
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We want justice for Baby P
YOU have made your voices heard in the fight for justice for Baby P.
In just four days, over 200,000 caring Sun readers have signed our petition to bring the people responsible for the tragic death of Baby P to justice.
We have never had such an overwhelming response to a story - but there is still more to do.
The neglect, abuse and shambolic decisions that led to the death of the 17-month-old toddler have shocked our nation. But those who could have saved him are still going unpunished.
Baby P died in his blood-soaked cot covered in bruises and paralysed from the waist down because of a broken spine.
He had been horribly abused by his mother, her boyfriend and their paedophile lodger.
The child had every chance to be saved during one of 60 visits by Haringey social services.
But despite Baby P being on the council's “at risk” register, the abuse went ignored.
The Sun has called for the sackings of children’s services boss Sharon Shoesmith, Gillie Christou who was in charge of the council’s child protection register, social workers Maria Ward and Sylvia Henry and Dr Sabah Al Zayyat.
Please sign our special Sun Petition and show you care.
The Sun
