'New religious GCSE exam to study binge-drinking'
"School children taking the new religious studies GCSE will be required to study 'religious attitudes towards the purpose use and importance of leisure; types and purposes of relaxation, e.g. stress relief and the misuse of leisure time, e.g. binge drinking.' The new exam comes into schools across the country this September. Professor Alan Smithers, director of the centre for education and employment training at Buckingham University, said it was a blatant example of the 'politicisation of education'. Professor Smithers said: 'I think it comes from the desire of politicians to stamp their influence on everything. It looks as if they are turning RE in to a pat qualification for political correctness.'" - Sunday Telegraph
"Royal Bank of Scotland has been blamed for pulling the plug on a flagship £80m property development on the site of the former Scottish & Newcastle brewery in Edinburgh. Buredi Fountainbridge and Buredi Developments had been planning to turn the site of the brewery's old social club into a housing and office complex with more than 170 flats. But the company has been forced to apply for voluntary administration after it said RBS, which had been lined up to bankroll the project, withdrew its support. A spokesman for RBS said due to reasons of customer confidentiality it was unable to comment." - Scotland on Sunday
"The secret to enjoying alcohol is to respect it. Never has the saying 'you can have too much of a good thing' been more appropriate. As a parent, I've always been at pains to impress this point on my children. But I've never made drinking a taboo. As a parent I know that the moment you make something forbidden, it becomes much more attractive. That's why if my children were still under 15, I'd ignore chief medical officer Sir Liam Donaldson's advice on the grounds that it's likely to create more problems than it solves. Of course we can't turn a blind eye to the very real issues surrounding drink, such as the rise in anti-social behaviour and alcohol-related illnesses. But the problem is not the drink, it's the drinker." - Columnist Ken Oxley, writing in the Sunday Sun
