PM congratulates Welsh on reintroduction of grants
Tony Blair congratulated the Welsh Assembly on the reintroduction of means-tested student grants during prime minister's question time yesterday. He ruled out a return to the old student finance system in England but said ministers were looking at ways of helping poorer students there as well. The issue was raised by Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy.
Entrepreneurial spirit gets £86m boost
More entrepreneurial culture must start in schools and colleges, chancellor Gordon Brown said today at the launch of a report by the Financial Services Authority that aims to give young British people a head start in business by introducing them to the principles of enterprise. The move is backed by £86 million; £56 million from the government and £30 million from business.
Loughborough student arrested at Beijing protest
Loughborough University student Lee Hall, 21, is one of four British members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement arrested amid protests in Beijing, the Foreign Office said today. The group, who were on a ten-day holiday, have been deported and were expected back in Britain later today. Falun Gong, a movement loosely based on traditional religion and martial arts, is banned in China.
Framework to get inactive children moving
The risk of avoidable deaths among young people is being increased by the nation's failure to take responsibility for children's health, experts warned today. Launching Young at Heart, a new framework of recommendations to tackle unhealthy lifestyles among children, for the National Heart Forum, Klim McPherson, professor of public health epidemiology at the University of Bristol, said: "It is particularly worrying how inactive children and young people are becoming, and how rates of overweight and obesity have risen alarmingly among children in the last 20 years."
Rules cause Asylum seekers anguish
The mental health of asylum seekers in Glasgow is suffering because of policies of dispersing groups and families and replacing cash benefits by vouchers, Stirling University researchers have found. Asylum seekers complained of anxiety and depression, with sleep problems particularly common.