On Saturday 18th November, as last year, I attended the launch event of this year's Santa Special on Chesterfield Canal at Tapton Lock. Great fun for children who in the run up to Christmas can meet Santa while having a canal boat trip. But also a good fund raiser for the fantastic team of volunteers who have given up so much of their time to reopen the canal.
Dundee Liberal Democrats have today (Sunday 19th November) slammed the Tony Blair Labour Government for failing on climate change.
The government is pushing ahead with plans to toughen up 23-year-old laws governing the treatment of people with severe mental health problems. Ministers want to amend rules to allow people with untreatable personality disorders to be detained even if they have not committed a crime. The new bill also suggests beefing up powers to ensure patients have therapy once they are back in the community.
Two thirds of UK call centres fail to protect their workers against hearing damage from noise, a report warns. Experts will tell an acoustic safety conference in Glasgow many of the 900,000 call centre staff are at risk. They are set to say increasing numbers of injuries and illnesses are being caused by acoustic shock and other noise related hazards.
A new test may help researchers understand why a toxin builds up in the brains of Alzheimer's patients. Amyloid beta protein accumulates in the brain in Alzheimer's disease but whether the body produces too much or cannot break it down is unclear. But by labelling the protein with a carbon isotope, doctors can measure the rate of turnover, a report in Nature Medicine suggests.
A group of influential MPs has accused banks of treating people on low incomes like "second class citizens". The Treasury Select Committee estimates that eight million people are excluded from financial services.
