sotonjoe

RIght, but the CRB isn't about screening parents, it's about screening people who work with children and that's what this conversation was about. Talking about parents who abuse children is a separate issue. Checking to see if somebody is a convicted paedophile before employing them to work with children, surely reduces the chances of paedophiles working with children.

ps ponty ... the thread title should have had the word "cancelled" in it but I arsed it up. Could you alter it please?

I'm sure they'll find some mischief to get up to instead.

What an absurd statement. How can it possibly not make children safer? Nobody is suggesting it's foolproof, what is? But how on earth can you suggest that checking criminal history doesn't make kids any safer?

The group have decided to cancel according to the BBC

lol

DD .. are you having a laugh with that comment!?!?!?! Yes ... it's a fair requirement that all people working with young people have to prove they have not been convicted of anything dubious. How on earth could that be wrong?!?!?! What alternative would you suggest? Just seeing if job applicants look like paedophiles?

You don't have to have more than one as a rule. The duplication comes when you conduct new activities which require a CRB check. You then need to get a new one in case you've been convicted of anything since having the last onedone. It's just a piece of paper showing your criminal record status at the time the check was done. They're not 'live' documents which are automatically updated. It's pretty archaic.

can't find the tips on that website, is it a wind up?

As I said, the current system does not require teachers to physically hold a hard copy of CRB documents. As a rule they are held on file by employers as there's no need for a teacher to hold a hard copy. When changing jobs, the prospective employer will arrange for a new check to be done which is then held on file. Bear in mind as well, Mr A can easily walk into a school where he'e not known and claim to be Mr B who is a qualified and checked teacher. There's no such thing as a teacher photo id and all other forms of id are easily stolen. The current system would be in no way prepared for teachers from one school going to another. Anyway, why on earth should they? At secondary level for instance, how on earth can a teacher walk in to another school and start teaching kids they have no prior experience of. This sort of suggestion assumes that all students at all schools are taught exactly the same material and this simply isn't true. If you're not going to teach them it's pointless bothering at all, remember schools aren't a free babysitting service. And remember that just because the schools were 'closed' it doesn't mean that some teachers weren't either still working in schools or working from home.

Do you pick his **** up?

CRB checks would prevent this from happening. Teachers don't necessarily carry, or even hold, paper copies of their CRB check (it is usually held by employers) and without this sort of documentation they wouldn't be allowed to turn up to a 'local school' and start working with children.

A newspaper report by The Times, referred to by the OP as " the press". You misunderstood and posted a facetious comment about Wikipedia not being "the press".

The Hero is fully touch screen; it has some buttons at the bottom but these don't prevent you from using the touch screen for everything. It's not very competitive price wise now though, especially when you look at the 'slow' 500mhz processor against the 1ghz processor on the Nexus One It's still on 'expensive' contracts with poor data allowances or £360 sim free. If they droppoed the price on it significantly due to the arrival of the Nexus One, it wouldn't be a bad option. On the Tesco deal, the phone is yours. I don't know whether their contract continues rolling at the end of the 12 months or whether you are forced to go out and find another deal. You'd probably want to go and get a better value plan though as I expect you could get more minutes etc for the £20 per month. The PayG route plus simplicity sim is more expensive but you do get more minutes, it all depends on whether you need them I guess. Based on your comment at the end about wanting the phone to not be eclipsed by newer designs etc, I stand by what I said about now being a bad time to buy a smartphone, expecially an iphone. I know there are always new models coming out but the reality is that the smartphone market has been relatively static over the past 12 months. Now things are going to get very interesting. We'll see the fruition of Android on handsets whilch truly rival the 3GS and Apple will try and counter that with something special in the new Iphone. If you want to keep the phone for at least two years, why not wait for a couple of months or so and get something cutting edge? Even that handset will be old that two years down the line, but the 3gs will be even older! Your hand may be forced if your phone is really about to die; I guess your options are a 12months iphone 3gs deal or getting a cheap pay and go phone to keep you going until you see what HTC, Apple et al announce over the next couple of months. The reality is that Apple are going to eclipse the 3gs with a newer, better phone in June. You need to decide if that will bother you or not.

cheers

This is something mentioned by the LibDems in their policies. As well as abolishing university tuition fees for first degrees, they wish to offer increased funding to students applying in shortage subjects, so as to boost certain industries.

No! You've summed it up yourself. The worst thing to do would be to sign up for an iphone on an 18month or 24month deal at the moment. Big updates are afoot in the smartphone market and it seems rash to tie yourself in to a long, long deal with better phones around the corner. You mention going the PAYG route with a simplicity sim, but perhaps the Tesco deal is worth looking at. That option would cost you £330 for the handset and then £20 per month for 12 months. You get a £60 call and text allowance to use how you see fit on that package as well as unlimited internet and wifi through BT Openzone. Tesco use the O2 network and the signal quality is just the same from my experience. If you're desperate for an iphone now, that's the way to go. You can watch this year's developments and then see what you want to do 12 months down the line. Selling your 'old' 3GS for a reasonable sum, should still be an option then, which will give you funds to put towards your new phone. Saying that, I don't think now is a good time to make a purchase at all. You're really better off seeing what handsets are announced over the coming weeks and plumping for something that is 'new' and has the benefit of a long life cycle ahead of it, as opposed to tying yourself to what is an old handset. HTC have many smartphones about to be released which should rival and if not better the Nexus One. Equally, people seem to now be in agreement that Apple have undergone final testing of the 'new' iphone which looks set to have a larger and improved screen and a 5mp camera with flash, as well as a 1ghz processor to rival the Nexus One. If you don't have to make a purchase now and can wait for a few weeks, you could see if any of the new phones tempt or then decide to wait for the new iphone in summer. Even if you backtrack and go for an iphone 3gs at that stage, it's inevitable that you'll get a better deal on one then as opposed to now.

Ess, I've read somewhere on the internet that the latest 3gs handsets cannot be successfully jailbroken. You can do the process, but you'll find that the iphone will not boot up once it gets turned off. All well and good if you never let it run out of battery, otherwise you'll be having to faff around with it all the time. Whilst this won't affect you, it would affect people considering an iphone now based on your advice that they could jailbreak it for added functionality.

I'm tempted to pick up a couple of Nexus One handsets in the US to be honest. $529 works out pretty cheap when converted when you consider it's fully unlocked. I think I'll need to pay extra for a couple of UK chargers for it though.

It's a scholarship which entitles them to no fees and a £5k per year grant for living expenses. They still have to go through the application system and gain an offer for a university place like everybody else.

will it be on terrestrial tv?

indeed, which is why they should just stick with using the pot of money in the way it was originally intended.

Those are the salient points. The widening participation budget was set up to offer funding for thos who were intelligent enough to go to uni but couldn't afford it; that's the plan that helps ' anybody get to uni' and it already exists. But to cream off some of the cash just for kids of fallen servicemen seems at odds with the original idea, which was surely all about equal opportunities for everyone. I guess I believe that access to the funding should be decided upon academic merit and nothing else. I thoroughly agree with you about Tory bandwagon jumping and I think it's a little crass to be honest. It's almost as if the policy thinkers have been sat there watching the funeral parades of servicemen and wondering how to get the votes of all the people lining the streets. Nothing like cashing in on grief right?

Latest Tory policy plan is to give free university places plus living cost grants of £5k per year to the children of servicemen who have died in active duty since 1990. link Sheer madness or a stroke of genius? Personally, seeing as the money will be taken from the money already set aside for widening participation (i.e. the fund that will allow brainy but poor kids have a chance at going to uni), I think it's a bad idea. I'd hate see someone who would have previously secured funding under the widening participation budget miss out to another candidate, just because the other candidate's Dad died in Afghanistan. On the other hand, you could argue that it's only going to cost a million or so, so it shouldn't make a huge impact. In that case, I think it a slightly crude attempt by the Tories to try and cash in on the wave of sympathy felt for the armed forces and gain extra votes. It could cost them relatively little, but could be a good bit of publicity for them.

wants a couple of fans forums soon