Lib Dem shadow health secretary Norman Lamb has today written to his Tory opposite number Andrew Lansley to urge him to attend this Friday’s conference on social care. The Tories are refusing to attend the cross-party conference – following last week’s tribal spat – on the basis that the Labour Government will not rule out a compulsory levy. This is despite earlier indications that Mr Lansley accepted that the issue of voluntary versus compulsory schemes was one of the key points to be resolved in a consensus building process. Norman has also called for the talks to be held in the open, rather than in secret: Social care is one of the most pressing challenges any new Government will have to deal with. Over the last week care for the elderly has become a political...

Following on from the debate about voting reform perhaps now is also the time to begin a wider consultation with the country regarding compulsory voting. In fairness the term 'compulsory voting' is a bit of a misnomer, what we are really talking about is the compulsory casting of ballots - pedantic I know but it is important nonetheless.Personally I am quite attracted by the idea, mainly because:1. It can help improve turnout2. It leaves parties free to campaign on policies, rather than focusing huge efforts on 'getting out the vote'. It can also reduce the impact of better finance campaigns and reduce the incidents of negative campaigning.3. It can help create/enhance a sense of community, as everyone is in it together. It is also a means of reducing social exclusion where those that...

Do goats really exist? I have seen you naked, and I liked it - a lot. Maybe one day I will be granted permission to touch your elbow once again. Maybe when all those bad memories have faded. Do you keep donkeys on your patio? Do you ever make sketches of the Norwegians queuing in the dry-cleaners? You laugh now, but wait until you see the bill. This Smoked Weasel Cheese is deadly to Peruvians, who must smear it across the bare chest of the first stockbroker they encounter on the first day of spring, if they want to avoid contracting the fatal rash all over their thighs. These are true facts. Learnt them well, my little hubcap, and your soul will be saved when the time comes for us to all appear on compulsory TV quiz programmes; where we are forced to win luxury all-expenses paid...

Pupils will be taught about how boys and girls develop – including the production of sperm and eggs – before they leave primary school, it was disclosed. New-style lessons between the age of seven and 11 will also focus on the importance of strong relationships and marriage – as well as the risks of abuse and domestic violence in the home.   Related Articles Sex education ‘to be compulsory’ in all state schools Sex education opt-out ’should be axed’ Compulsory ‘lifestyle’ classes in primary schools to be announced UN: sex lessons for five-year-olds Sex education: the new curriculum Children aged five to get sex education In the first three years of secondary education, children will be encouraged to talk about the “different...

The life skills subject - PSHE is to become compulsory from 2011 School children in England are to be given advice designed to protect them from feeling pressurised into becoming sexually active at too early an age. The updated curriculum for sex education emphasises the need to protect children from being “bullied” by a sexualised culture. The guidance promotes “the value of delaying sexual experiences”. There is also an emphasis on marriage and stable relationships as the “bedrock of family life”. These latest guidelines, being put out for consultation, will become part of personal, social, health and economic education - PSHE - which the government wants to be made compulsory by 2011. Primary and secondary pupils will have to...

This probably won’t be a very popular thing to say, but I think that the idea of removing the compulsary retirement age (the age at which an employer can make an employee resign) is wrong. At least, it’s wrong right now. At a time when there are nearly a million under-24s out of work – a fifth of them – we should be encouraging and enabling them to get jobs. Otherwise we’re going to end up with a massive part of a generation with no experience of work, no skills, and no chance of doing much more than living off the state for the rest of their lives. I understand why people want to stay in work, what with Brown’s pension grab removing billions from pension pots and the recession doing a similar job. But if they all continue to keep working, no-one else...

There was something ironic about Jon Humprhys interviewing someone on the Today programme about compulsory retirement at age 65 this morning. This, however, is not the point I wanted to make, but merely a comic introduction. The debate around compulsory retirement is a very difficult one. I applaud the Equality & Human Rights Commission, though, for maintaining a good quality, evidence-based debate on whether or not retirement at age 65 should be compulsory. This...

If you want to get married in Qatar and you want to do so without a battery of medical tests, you ought to do it quickly.Qatar plans to introduce compulsory medical screening for couples planning to get married from the 13th December.And it's not just for Qataris - locals and residents will also be affected.While this might have raised eyebrows in the West, it's perhaps not that bad an idea in a country where it is normal to marry within the family, with a huge proportion of people still marrying their cousins - a tradition thought to increase the risk of developing certain diseases.If you want more information on how to tie the not in Qatar check out our recent article: Getting Married in...

Another shit idea from the fag end government that has run out of ideas. BBC Pravda dutifully reports the latest idea from its paymasters in New Labour: Higher education minister David Lammy has backed calls for a national army of volunteers to help the UK economy out of recession. The idea comes from a report which also calls for students to do 100 hours of "compulsory civic service". Ah, now here we see the confusion between volunteers and compulsory. You see if someone is compelled to do something then it can in no meaning of the word be called voluntary. So how will all this be paid for, well Lammy has the answer, he is going to cripple students with interest on their loans: The £450m cost of the scheme would be funded by levying interest on student loans....

At the Council meeting in September the Liberal Democrats and Tories who run Brent Council rejected a Labour motion to pursue the compulsory purchase of land adjoining the new Crest Academies (formerly John Kelly schools) to ensure outdoor sports facilities. They rejected the motion on the basis that further delay would jeopardise government funding. The Council’s failure to pursue the purchase of the land will also prolong the construction period from 18 months to four years and the £5 million earmarked for the purchase will be wasted on temporary accommodation. It was apparent at the September meeting that the Lib Dems and Tories had made no attempt to meet with government ministers to ascertain whether government funding would in fact be at risk if the compulsory purchase was...

New rules will make sex education compulsory for school children aged 15 up. Should parents have the right to opt out?A government review has, as expected, ruled that sex education in schools will from 2011 be taught as part of the personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) curriculum. This means that children will learn about sex in the broader context of relationships, homosexuality, marriage, civil partnerships, divorce and abortion, rather than simply as the biological facts of puberty and reproduction formerly taught in science classes. This new form of sex education will also become the norm in both primary and secondary schools, and for children aged 15 and up, it will be compulsory, regardless of parental objection.Currently, parents have the right to withdraw their child from...

MEPs call for compulsory 'EU lessons' in schools - Telegraph Leaders of the centre-right EPP grouping in the European Parliament say there should be compulsory classes for 14-year-olds in all member states. The calls are being led by Mario David, a Portuguese MEP: "All the debates about the constitution and then the Lisbon Treaty showed a great deal of lying, cheating and mistrust about the EU." I think he meant "by" the EU not...

I’ll confess I am not actually listening to the Prime Minister’s speech to Labour conference, as I have far more important things to do, including biting my nails and feeding the cats. However, a quick refresh of Twitter shows that quite a lot of my friends are. And some of them have even been a little taken in by Brown’s ID card commitment. If Twitter is right – and I can’t be bothered to check – he said, “there will be no compulsory ID cards for British citizens in the next parliament” My goodness, but you can drive a double decker bus through the wiggle room in the loopholes there! There will be no compulsory ID cards for British citizens in the next parliament So there will still be pointless, wasteful ID cards then? There will be no...

David Blunkett the scribbler for tabloid paper The Sun and fresh from nearly but sadly not killed by a cow; has decided that the problem is not piss poor corrupt politicians who do not listen but that we are all lazy and need to driven out to vote: "We should introduce compulsory voting between now and next May. Forty per cent of the population aren't voting, therefore they are leaving the other 60% to cast their vote for them and we know that those in greatest need are least likely to vote," he said.And how about if we made it compulsory for Mr Blunkett to visit that bovine, the same one that nearly took him out until the cow gets it right and improves the world oh so fucking slightly by killing off this odious little political cock. Now I vote, however I do understand the...

I’ve written about this before (Should helmet use be made compulsory?) But, I’m against making helmet use compulsory by law. The Association of Paediatric Emergency Medicine has just voted to officially call for a change in British law to make it compulsory for cyclists under 16 years of age to wear a helmet. The Association quotes studies suggesting that helmets reduce the chance of head injury by 85 percent, brain injury by 88 percent and severe brain injury by 75 percent. (Bike Radar) I agree with the CTC which claims compulsory helmet use is bad because: It reduces cycle Use ( Leads to a rise in obesity Less cyclists makes the roads more dangerous (safety in numbers) Difficult to enforce I think the number of children who die from head injuries whilst cycling is on...

The letter's page of the Scotsman today has two excellent contributions to the compulsory purchase order debate in Balmedie and Donald Trump's desire to use them.First up we have this from William W Scott of North Berwick, East Lothian.Compulsory purchase orders are needed to ensure projects for the public good, such as roads and railways, can be completed. I am sure when the enabling bill...

Angela MP had her chips when she backed a charity’s call for a change in the law. The MP, who recently proposed a Bill to curb dangerous dogs, has offered her help to get all dogs chipped. The Hillsborough MP donned a white coat and got behind the counter of the unusual chip van which pulled up outside Sheffield City Hall. However, she wasn’t serving fried potatoes she was backing the Dogs Trust campaign to make microchipping compulsory. The MP met pooch Millie as she showed her support for the campaign, which wants compulsory microchipping to be added to the current rules which state all dogs must wear a collar and tag. The Dogs Trust have said just a third of dogs are currently chipped, and making the device compulsory would enable lost or straying dogs to be reunited...

With my E&D; hat on, I asked a number of questions of the Leader at Liverpool City Council's full council meeting on 8th July. Please see the written question, written answer and verbal supplementary questions (which I prepared in advance so have a record of) I have no record of the verbal answers, these are not recorded anywhere, but will do my best to recall them. Question 11 If this link does not work, it may be because it is internal, however I have faithfully recorded the detail here below. Question:Training in "Managing equalities" is compulsory for all managers within Liverpool City Council. Can the Leader say how many of the Executive Directors, Assistant Executive Directors and Heads of Business units and the Chief Executive have already undertaken this training? What is this in...

From compulsory ID cards to rail renationalisation, it has been a week of screeching U-turns. But the government insists that it still has a plan, and we kick off today's turn in the pod by evaluating its grandly named scheme to Build Britian's Future.Jonathan Freedland reckons that the new public service guarantees that Labour is promising are exactly the kind of thing we would all have thought were wonderful in the government's early days; now, however, the mood is jaded and no one is listening any more. Likewise, he says, in other circumstances the ditching of compulsory ID cards and mail privatisation would have raised Labour spirits, but today they are painted as humiliations, not least because Gordon Brown has been forced into them so reluctantly.In the week when the parties accuse...

The Home Secretary has hit all the headlines today with his assertion that ID cards will not be compulsory and that plans to introduce compulsory identity cards for airline pilots and 30,000 other "critical workers" at Manchester and London City airports this autumn have been abandoned.However, good news as this is, we should not celebrate too soon nor should we assume that the project is dead and buried. The Government is to press ahead with the National Identity Card Database and British citizens who apply for or renew their passport will be automatically registered on it. This means that the main elements of the scheme will continue to be put in place leaving a future government the prospect of picking it up and running with compulsory cards in the future.The database itself of course...

Apparently new Home Secretary Alan Johnson is an ‘instinctive’ supporter of ID cards. Strange then to give the impression he’s walking away from them: A compulsory identity card trial for pilots and 30,000 other airport workers due to start in September has been abandoned by the new home secretary, Alan Johnson. But he intends to accelerate other elements of the scheme including plans to issue £30 voluntary ID cards to young adults across north-west England. Johnson is also looking at making ID cards free for over-75s. Longer-term plans to make ID cards compulsory for critical workers at rail stations have also been dropped. British citizens would not be forced to carry ID cards, insisted the home secretary. Johnson said: “Holding an identity card should be a...

All-party committee says employers should no longer be able to sack older workers who want to stayThe legal right of companies to retire staff compulsorily on their 65th birthday must be abolished immediately to help address the deepening pensions crisis, a parliamentary investigation has concluded.A report into pensioner poverty by an all-party group of MPs will recommend that older people should be able to continue working full or part-time into their 70s, 80s or 90s - with full holiday and other entitlements - so long as they are fit and able to do so.The recommendations from the Commons work and pensions select committee, to be published next month, are a response to fears that many of the next generation of pensioners could end their years in poverty after being forced out of work at...

Chief executive Willie Walsh has refused to rule out compulsory redundancies after setting a three-week deadline to agree pay cuts and job reductionsBritish Airways boss Willie Walsh has refused to rule out compulsory redundancies among the airline's 40,000 staff after setting a three-week deadline to agree pay cuts and job reductions.BA is offering voluntary redundancy to cabin crew as it targets 2,000 departures from its 14,000-strong roster of flight attendants.Speaking at the annual general meeting of the International Air Transport Association (Iata) in Kuala Lumpur, the BA chief executive said he had set a 30 June target for reaching an agreement on pay deals across the airline because the industry is in a "fight for survival". Talks with the Unite, GMB and the Balpa pilots union...

This morning, I took a constituent of mine to visit the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Mental Health Trust.  For the last 22 years my constituent has cared for his relative, who has schizophrenia.  He has received very little support, and when he wrote to me at the end of last year, he was at the end of his tether.  We have managed to get his relative placed in hospital, and with luck he will move on to supervised independent living shortly, so we have made fantastic progress in a short time.  But it was salutary to listen to the litany of complaints from my constituent, from mis-directed letters to broken promises.  He began the meeting by saying “In 22 years I have never had a voice”, which is a manifesto of sorts.  people who care for relatives with mental health...

A former chairman of the British Medical Association is calling for the MMR vaccine to be made compulsory. Do you...

A former chairman of the British Medical Association calls for the MMR jab to be made...

...or elseDoctors are to consider whether parents should be forced to have their children vaccinated against mumps, measles and rubella.BBCThis is the typical, provocative way in which the media tends to present problems like this. Doctors are not in a position to force anyone to do anything and nor should they be. Compulsory immunisation is a matter for our elected representatives and for Parliament.Most parents give their children all recommended immunisations. The only controversy at the moment is the MMR. A generation ago, it was the pertussis immunisation that caused controversy, but that is long forgotten. There is a measles out break at the moment. It was always going to happen. It could have been avoided.Herd immunity is a powerful argument for doctors but, for an understandably...

When you initially start on a study programme, it’s usually easy enough to “choose” a course in that the early courses you do are usually compulsory for whatever study programme you’re following. Sometimes it’s easy enough to choose the next one as you’ll choose the course options that originally attracted you to the study programme. For example, you’re going to need to do Spanish if your original reason for following a languages degree programme was to be able to speak Spanish. However, eventually most people run off the end of the obvious choices for them and then find that they’re innundated with advice and “obvious” choices that they should take. For example, most language degrees will require you to also take English. When...

I can understand that RoSPA (the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents) feels the need to lobby for something to be done. Their name pretty much sums it up: preventing accidents.I don't want to prevent all accidents. Having some accidents is an eminently sensible trade-off in a society where we don't want our children to be shut inside their houses and we don't want our every action to be constrained by a barrage of Heath-and-Safety laws.But a report issued by the European Child Safety Alliance two days ago and promoted in the UK by RoSPA shows not an inkling of understanding that balance.Children seated in carsThe report calls for all children to be in rear-facing seats in cars until the age of 4, and to sit in the back of cars until 13. Where, exactly, is the evidence that...

Gordon Brown forces kids' charity call-up | News | News Of The World PM Gordon Brown intends to force every teenager in the country to carry out 50 HOURS of work to help the community. Last year the PM proposed the idea of a National Youth Service, which would channel young volunteers into community work. But now he plans to make it compulsory and include it in Labour's next election manifesto.... "By building from compulsory citizenship studies in the 14-16 curriculum, we can create an expectation of national youth community service." But, the curriculum is a national competence so you only have power over the English one, and not the one that is in force in your constituency. So forget all the talk of bringing the whole nation together, what you are proposing is for a Scottish Raj to...