Cameron calls in 'bounty hunters' to catch benefit fraudsters

August 11th, 2010   by Justin

David Cameron was accused of eroding people's financial privacy as he unveiled plans to expand the use of credit reference agencies to track down welfare cheats.

The companies will check details of benefits payments against records of household spending to identify people suspected of fiddling the system. Investigators could receive a "bounty" for everyone they catch as the Government attempts to claw back the £1.5bn lost each year to benefit fraudsters.

In the face of protests, Mr Cameron insisted honest people had nothing to fear from the proposed tactics.

"If you are entitled to welfare and can claim it then you should claim it. But if you are not entitled to it you should not get and should not claim it," he told an audience in Manchester. "Private companies use all sorts of different means to make sure they are not defrauded, why should the state be any different? In the end it is taxpayers' money. People going out to work hard every day do not pay their taxes so that someone can basically claim it fraudulently."

The Government already uses agencies such as Experian and Equifax to identify dishonest claimants of some benefits and tax credits. But the Prime Minister said he was determined to use them throughout the welfare system to slash public spending.

Fraud and administrative error accounts for an estimated £5.2bn of the £148bn benefits bill. Mr Cameron said the £1.5bn a year lost to fraud could pay for 40,000 NHS nurses.

However, civil liberties groups voiced alarm that agencies could go on "fishing expeditions" to catch fraud suspects. They also raised concerns about "false matches" leading to legitimate claimants being denied benefits.

Shami Chakrabarti, the director of Liberty, said it was "common sense" to check on the eligibility of long-standing claimants. But she warned: "What we must not do is create a benefit equivalent of parking attendants who are wanting to find people guilty [and] wanting to find people suspicious because that is the way they get paid."

Alex Deane, the director of Big Brother Watch, said: "Nobody approves of benefit cheats but mining private data on a routine basis on the off-chance of catching people out is a disproportionate invasion of privacy. Worse still, if profit-making companies are rewarded by the number of people they catch, they will have a perverse incentive to sling accusations in any marginally plausible case."

Guy Herbert, of the NOID group which campaigns against what it calls Britain's "database state", added: "There is nothing wrong with specific investigations for specific cases but this opens the door to speculative fishing expeditions whereby Experian and others and the Department for Work and Pensions are incentivised to match people with incomplete evidence. They are treated as guilty until proved innocent."

The Independent disclosed in June that a nationwide drive against housing benefit cheats would be launched after Experian was told to study records such as utility bills, phone contracts and television subscriptions to search for "unusual spending" by families on benefits. By examining electoral rolls and shared bank accounts, Experian's agents can spot claimants who fail to declare that a partner is working.

Mr Cameron also pledged to reduce the bureaucratic mistakes that lead to £3.7bn being handed out in error every year. Mistakes wouid be reduced by the simplified benefits system being developed by Iain Duncan Smith, he said, adding that reducing the cost of fraud and error would be the "first and deepest" cut in public spending.

He also plans tougher penalties, more prosecutions, incentives to "shop cheats" and greater efforts to recover cash that is claimed illegally.

Mr Cameron said ministers did not want the proposed public spending cuts to "fall on the most vulnerable". Asked about Sure Start centres set up under Labour to assist young families, the Prime Minister said budgets had to stretch as far as was possible and help those who needed it most.

He said there was sometimes criticism of the Sure Start scheme, adding: "The sharp-elbowed middle class, like my wife and me, get in there and get all the services."

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Support for Lib Dems slumps as voters fear party has lost its way

August 10th, 2010   by Justin

Liberal Democrat support has slumped to its lowest level since the start of the general election campaign as voters protest that the party has lost its voice in the coalition government.

A ComRes poll for The Independent finds that backing for Nick Clegg's party has fallen to just 16 per cent, its worst showing since early April. It also found that almost three-quarters of the public says it does not know what the Liberal Democrats stand for any longer.

The survey puts the Conservatives on 39 per cent, down one point since the last ComRes survey for The Independent on 28 June.

Labour support is up two points to 33 per cent, while the Liberal Democrats are down two points – and well below the 22 per cent they achieved in the general election three months ago.

The continuing slide in the polls of the Liberal Democrats will intensify the pressure on Nick Clegg, who negotiated a power-sharing deal with David Cameron that flew in the face of the instincts of many of his foot soldiers.

Their alarm will be intensified by the finding that public sentiment is turning against the coalition in general and the Liberal Democrats in particular. A total of 73 per cent of voters agreed with the statement that it was difficult to know what the Liberal Democrats stood for now that they had joined the coalition, an increase of eight points since a ComRes poll on 2 June.

The public mood has also shifted against the Lib-Con agreement. Only 36 per cent agree that Britain is "better off with a coalition government than it would have been if either the Conservatives or Labour had won the election outright", with 50 per cent disagreeing. Two months ago, the public approved the creation of the coalition by a margin of 45 per cent to 43 per cent.

Mr Clegg, who is due to return from holiday next week, faces the task of steadying the party's nerve in the face of grim poll ratings.

Worries are growing among many Liberal Democrat MPs over the scale of the financial squeeze planned by George Osborne, the Chancellor, and fear they will pay a heavy political price in next year's local elections.

Some fear the party is acting as a fig leaf for ideologically driven spending cuts by the Tories. Plans to cut housing benefit, increase VAT rates, set up academies and "free schools", reorganise the national health service and end lifetime tenure for council-house tenants have also caused dismay among Mr Clegg's backbenchers.

A motion criticising the coalition's schools policies will be debated at next month's party conference in Liverpool, along with another urging that "those with the broadest shoulders carry the greatest burden" during the downturn. Mr Clegg insists the party is already making its influence felt on the coalition's programme. In his foreword to the conference agenda, published yesterday, he says: "I am proud that we have managed to put Liberal Democrat principles and ideas at the heart of government decision-making at this challenging time."

ComRes found that more than one third of people who supported the Liberal Democrats at the election have abandoned the party. It has held on to 63 per cent of its voters, compared with the 92 per cent of Labour voters and 94 per cent of Conservatives who have remained loyal. The proportion of 18- to 24-year-olds supporting the Liberal Democrats has dropped in each polls since the election and now stands at 26 per cent.

This fall is alarming for the party as surging support among young adults during the election campaign accounted for much of its rise.

Nearly three-quarters of voters (72 per cent) said vulnerable people would inevitably be put at risk by the planned public-sector spending cuts, with 23 per cent disagreeing. But 76 per cent acknowledge the cuts are "necessary in order to bring down the level of government debt".

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Backpacker jailed in India to be returned to UK

August 9th, 2010   by Justin

A 33-year old backpacker from Kent serving a 10-year sentence in one of India's most notorious prisons for a crime he says he didn't commit, has been given approval by the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs to serve the remainder of his sentence in the UK, The IoS  can exclusively reveal.

Patrick Malluzzo has spent six years in Rajasthan's Kota prison, sharing a cell with more than 50 other inmates and has suffered serious illness. His mother, Teresa Malluzzo, who hasn't seen her son for seven years, is hoping the British government will get him home as soon as possible.

"We are really pleased that the Indian government has decided to approve Patrick's transfer to the UK," she said. "It's not the happiest outcome because he will still have to spend time in prison, but what is important is to get Patrick home."

Malluzzo was arrested at Mumbai airport in 2004 and charged with possession of cannabis. In a trial that was conducted entirely in Hindi and which presented no DNA or fingerprint evidence linking him to the drugs, he was found guilty and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Fair Trials International, which has been working on the case since 2007, describes it as "a travesty – a grossly unfair trial in a language he could not understand".

The Malluzzos' nightmare began in October 2003 when Patrick, a former City worker from Dartford, set off on one last backpacking trip before settling down. In his bag he had an engagement ring for his girlfriend whom he planned to meet in Thailand.

On his travels he met another backpacker, James (not his real name), and they talked about going to Goa together. Although it wasn't a concrete plan, James booked train tickets for them both. Malluzzo then decided to stay in Rajasthan a few days longer and agreed to meet up with James in Goa. As he wanted to travel light, he asked James to take a small bag of his clothing and various other items with him on the train. James agreed and the two went their separate ways.

Shortly after, Malluzzo got a call from James saying he had accidentally left the bag on the train. Subsequently, his bag, along with another containing 19kg of cannabis resin, was found under the seat booked in his name and handed in to the police. He was arrested two months later as he attempted to leave India for Thailand. Three months on, his mother got a call from the Foreign Office to say he had been arrested.

Malluzzo was first in the custody of Mumbai police, but was then transferred to the Kota Railway police and taken back to Rajasthan. During this time he reports being severely tortured: beaten, stripped and shackled to a chair while cigarettes were used to burn him, and pliers were used on his genitals. He was also forced to sign confessions written in Hindi.

During the first year of his incarceration his family had no way of contacting their son except by letter. "He was writing to us saying get me out of here. It was a cry for help but we had no idea how to," Mrs Malluzzo said.

Then he met a priest in prison called Pastor Samuel. "He had nothing and Patrick shared his Bible and a couple of tomatoes with him," his mother said. "Samuel made him the promise that he would see him through and he's never let him down. Every 10 days or so, he makes a 16-hour round trip to visit Patrick and bring him supplies. He's been Patrick's life support for the past six years."

After Malluzzo's conviction, his lawyers lodged an appeal. It took four years to get to Rajasthan High Court. Summing up, the judge said it was not relevant the trial had been held in a language he didn't understand and the fact that he had never been in possession of the drugs was "devoid of merit". To the Malluzzos' horror, in February this year the conviction was upheld. "It absolutely floored us," Mrs Malluzzo said. With Patrick's health a serious issue – he suffers from malaria, dysentery, rat bites, depression, prostatitis and urinary dysfunction – the decision was made to give up the fight for justice and focus on getting him home.

Although Mrs Malluzzo has never visited her son, his father, Salvatore, has been six times. "Patrick didn't want me to go there and, as a mother, I think if I had gone I don't think I could ever have walked away," she says. Also, finances won't allow her to go. Last year they were forced to put their house on the market.

With approval finally granted for her son's transfer to the UK, Mrs Malluzzo is now daring to start thinking of his homecoming. "He is a different man to the one who left all those years ago," she says.

According to Jago Russell of Fair Trials International: "It is a travesty that this young man will come home with a guilty conviction. But he and his family have been through a horrendous ordeal and, after visiting him in Kota jail, it is easy to understand why he feels he can take no more."

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Response to Baby P 'has pushed foster care network to the brink'

August 6th, 2010   by Justin

Britain's fostering system is being strained to breaking point in the wake of the tragic death of Baby Peter, and the system will collapse unless more carers are recruited, a leading charity has warned.

Public spending cuts only threaten to make an already fragile situation worse and put the welfare of the most vulnerable children at risk, warns the report by the Fostering Network, which is entitled Bursting at the Seams.

It reveals that the care system is under extreme pressure following the unprecedented rise in children being taken into care since the death of Peter Connelly in 2007. The report found that almost six in 10 local authorities are having difficulty in finding the right homes for children, with only a third reporting that they had been able to find appropriate placements.
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In some areas there are simply no spare beds left, the survey of 76 fostering services and 307 foster carers found. Children are being sent further away from their schools and friends and sometimes to foster carers who do not have the skills and experience to deal with the child's specific needs.

Some local authorities reported that the situation was "the worst it had ever been" and called for immediate action to stop the collapse of the system.

"Since the tragic case of Baby Peter's death came to public attention in late 2008, the care system has seen an unprecedented rise in the number of children, in particular those needing foster placements," the report said.

The number of requests to take children into care has risen by more than a third in a year from 6,488 in 2008-09 to 8,684 in 2009-10, according to figures released by Cafcass, the organisation that represents children's interests in the family courts.

The Local Government Association (LGA) has estimated that this increase will have cost the taxpayer an additional £226m in 2009-10. This includes £39m in court costs and £187m spent on looking after children in local authority care.

There is already a shortage of 10,000 foster parents, and a demographic time bomb means that two-thirds of current carers are approaching retirement.

The vast majority of fostering services said they had been forced to ask carers to look after extra children because of difficulties in finding placements. Many local authorities have also started to bend the rules to allow carers to take on more children.

Staff said they feared they were "taking advantage" of the good will of foster carers, saying that few would find it easy to decline a placement when they knew a child might have nowhere else to go. One said: "I am very worried about our capacity to cope for much longer."

New foster carers are also being asked to take more challenging children for their first placements, when previously they would have been given time to gain experience. As a result, the placements are more likely to break down.

Helen Clarke, the author of the report, said: "While fostering services had made real progress in recruiting more foster carers and finding children the right foster homes, the unprecedented pressure the system is now under has clearly pushed back much of this good work.

"The impact of the rise in children needing foster homes and the shortage of foster carers means the system is no longer sustainable and budget cuts could be devastating."

The British Association for Adoption and Fostering warned that local authority budget cuts could jeopardise the wellbeing of the most vulnerable children.

"The care system is doing remarkable work in providing security, safety and care for children in the most difficult circumstances. We must ensure that it is protected from any cuts," said David Holmes, its chief executive.

Kim Bromley-Derry, president of the Association of Directors of Children's Services, said there had been a rise in demand for members' services across the country – a trend mirrored by the rise in care cases.

John Ransford, chief executive of the LGA, said: "The system which looks after children in care is feeling the strain – it was never designed to deal with the increase in numbers which we have experienced in the last couple of years.

"There is no question of money being a factor in deciding how a vulnerable child is cared for. Wherever a child is identified as being in danger, councils and the courts will take them out of the family home if that is the best way of protecting them."

Case study: 'We're amazed at the mismatching'

Caroline March, 47, has been a foster carer for seven years but over the past two years has witnessed the extreme pressures the care system is under.

Mrs March, from Ceredigion in West Wales, is registered to care for up to three children and has fostered two brothers – who are now aged 16 and 14 – over the last six years. She has become increasingly concerned that she has been allocated children with severe and complex difficulties for her third place.

"We said we couldn't take the new child because of the impact it could have on the boys already here," she said. "Shortly afterwards we were asked to take another child, which we agreed to. However, we were not given full background information about him, or support when the arrangement proved difficult.

"The boy really needed one-to-one attention from a foster carer and obviously we were unable to provide that. Needless to say, the arrangement broke down and he had to move on to another foster carer. We are amazed at the mis-matching of foster carers and children who need foster care – it is disastrous for the children and disastrous for foster families.

"We appreciate this happens probably out of sheer desperation to find foster care places. The problem is that this is only a short-term solution and the damaging impact later on from making the wrong decision can have devastating effects all round.

"When a placement breaks down you can get children running away, young people making themselves so difficult and disruptive that the situation becomes impossible or even making allegations or being aggressive. We have experienced all of this.

"When the foster agency rings, you know the local authority has already failed to find a place for that child; that's why they have passed it on to an agency, so it's already a very urgent situation. There is a lot of pressure on foster carers to accept children wherever possible because you know that otherwise they will have nowhere to go.

"There is no doubt that in the wake of the Baby P case and other cases like it, social services departments are taking more children into care. My view is that social services have to intervene early to support parents rather than picking up the pieces later on."

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May scraps power to ban domestic abusers from victims' homes

August 4th, 2010   by Justin

A scheme to protect women from domestic abuse by removing violent partners from the family home is being scrapped by the Government as part of its drive to cut public spending.

Under the so-called "go orders" planned for England and Wales, senior police would have been given the power to act instantly to safeguard families they considered at threat.

Violent men would have been banned from their homes for up two weeks, giving their victims the chance to seek help to escape abuse.

But Theresa May, the Home Secretary, has decided to halt the scheme, which was due to be piloted this autumn and be rolled out nationwide next year, The Independent has learnt.

She has told charities that she had taken the decision to save money and because of worries about the legislation setting up the orders. The Home Office is under pressure to cut at least £2.5bn from its annual budget of £10bn.

David Hanson, the shadow policing minister, accused the coalition Government of seeming "happy" to allow potential victims to become actual victims.

"Domestic violence should be a priority for ministers. It has been a hidden crime for far too long," he said. "The first duty of a government is to protect its citizens."

Mr Hanson said he was tabling urgent Commons questions demanding to know the reason for the decision, and whether police had been consulted.

David Chaplin, a spokesman for the NSPCC children's charity, said the organisation was "deeply disappointed" by the move.

He said: "We strongly supported the orders. They would have given some vital respite to the victims of abuse."

A Home Office spokeswoman said Mrs May had made clear she regarded tackling violence against women as a priority. "However, in tough economic times, we are now considering our options for delivering improved protection and value for money," she added.

Plans for Domestic Violence Protection Orders – modelled on similar schemes in Switzerland and Austria. – passed into law in April. Although they were championed by the former home secretary Alan Johnson, they received the support of all main political parties.

They were aimed at intervening in cases where police were worried about violent behaviour within a household, but did not have enough evidence to bring a criminal charge.

An officer of inspector rank or above would have the power to order a perpetrator from a property and the immediate area for up to 14 days. They were to be piloted in the West Midlands and Wiltshire from October and introduced nationally next year.

Breach of the orders could have led to criminal prosecution for contempt, potentially leading to a jail sentence.

Supporters argued that that allowed women to stay in their homes rather than flee to a friend's home, or a refuge, to escape their abuser. Although 750,000 incidents are reported to the police each year, fewer than one-third of them result in criminal charges.

The Home Office said it continued to provide funding for domestic violence advisers to support victims through the court system and Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conferences which bring together police, probation and other professionals to consider how best to protect victims.

Case study: 'Women need time to escape violent husbands'

Domestic violence victim, aged 32

"I was attacked and battered by my boyfriend for nearly two years before I finally decided enough was enough.

He was an alcoholic and the smallest thing would set him off. Once he beat me because he did not like the way I had parked the car. Another time he had an argument with my daughter and took it out on me.

It would happen twice a month and I would often call the police. They would usually ask him to leave, but he would just sit on the garden wall and the police said they couldn't do anything because he was not committing any offence, it was still a domestic argument. He could then come back to the house just a few minutes after they had left.

I had been with him for four years and it felt like he was in control of me. I finally found the courage to leave him after he attacked me when I was pregnant. He kicked me in the stomach and I feared that I had lost the baby.

I went to court and took out a molestation order which means he cannot come near the property or speak to me about anything other than his daughter.

I think giving the police the power to keep violent partners away from their partners for two weeks would have been very helpful.

It used to be very frustrating that my partner would come back to my house just hours after I had called the police and there was not much I could do. When I felt in danger I knew there were things I could do, people I could phone, but I could never do it when he was around. I am sure other women who are now in the situation I was in feel the same.

But if I knew he would not be back for two weeks it would have given me time to do something. I might have been able to get the help I needed sooner."

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Government ignored our advice on homeopathic remedies, say experts

August 3rd, 2010   by Justin

The coalition Government ignored scientific advice on the questionable nature of homeopathy by continuing to allow the NHS to fund homeopathic treatment despite there being next to no evidence that it works, leading scientists have told The Independent.

Last week, health ministers refused calls from the House of Commons science and technology committee to stop the NHS funding homeopathic treatment on the grounds that such a ban would limit patient choice and contradict the Government's stated aim of devolving more power to the Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) of the NHS.

However, the Government's own chief scientific adviser, Sir John Beddington, said that he had spoken informally to coalition ministers about his grave concerns about homeopathy and the Department of Health's policy of allowing it to be prescribed under the NHS.

"I remain of the view that the evidence of efficacy and the scientific evidence base of homeopathy is highly questionable. It is vitally important that the public can make informed choices on their use of homeopathy, so the evidence base must be freely available in an easily-accessible format," Sir John said.

The Government does not know how many PCTs prescribe homeopathic treatment or how much it costs but the total annual funding is believed to run into millions of pounds. Earlier this year, the Commons' science committee recommended that the NHS should stop funding homeopathy on the grounds that it is a waste of money and it gives patients the false impression that such treatment works.

"When the NHS funds homeopathy, it endorses it. Since the NHS Constitution explicitly gives people the right to expect that decision on the funding of drugs and treatments are made 'following proper consideration of the evidence', patients may reasonably form the view that homeopathy is an evidence-based treatment," the select committee's report said.

In its response to the report, the Government said that it will keep the position on NHS funding under review. "However, we believe that providing appropriate information for patients should ensure that they form their own views regarding homeopathy as an evidence-based treatment," it said.

Scientists point out, however, that if patients are told clearly that there is no credible evidence to support homeopathic treatments, this may undermine the only benefit that homeopathy is likely to provide, namely the well-established "placebo effect" where someone feels and gets better because they believe a treatment is working.

"Doctors are not allowed to prescribe an honest placebo, even if they think that is the best they can do for the patient. But they are allowed to prescribe a dishonest placebo by referring the patient to a homeopath," said Professor David Colquhoun, a pharmacologist at University College London.

"Certainly you may feel better after the pill, because you were getting better anyway, or because of the placebo effect. That can't justify your doctor giving a pill that contains nothing whatsoever," Professor Colquhoun said.

"If there is no evidence that homeopathy works beyond the placebo effect, why does the Government pay for it? The answer given to that is 'patient choice'. I dare say the patient would cheer up if the NHS paid for a bottle of Chanel No 5," he said.

Professor Edzard Ernst, a specialist in complementary medicine at the Peninsula Medical School in Exeter, said: "If the Government is serious about putting patient choice over evidence, it not only displays a profound misunderstanding of both these issues but should then also give cream cakes to diabetics and cigarettes to someone with a lung disease."

Evan Harris, a former Liberal Democrat MP who sat on the science select committee when it carried out its inquiry, said that the decision to continue NHS funding homeopathy by the Government is not a good start for the health secretary Andrew Lansley.

"How does the Government justify allowing treatments that do not work to be provided by the NHS in the name of choice, when it allows medicines which do work to be banned from NHS use?" Dr Harris said.

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'Sarah's Law' may backfire, say campaigners

August 2nd, 2010   by Justin

Police chiefs played down fears yesterday that the national launch of the "Sarah's law" sex offender early warning system would drive paedophiles underground and encourage vigilante attacks.

Parents and guardians are to be given the formal right to ask police to look into the background of people with unsupervised access to their children.

The scheme, which follows the murder of eight-year-old Sarah Payne by the convicted sex offender Roy Whiting in 2000, is getting the go-ahead after a year-long trial in four areas.

Theresa May, the Home Secretary, yesterday announced that it would be rolled out across England and Wales. It falls far short of demands from campaigners for the names of all sex offenders in an area to be published.

But charities, criminologists and civil liberties groups have warned that even this diluted version could backfire by fuelling malicious gossip and encouraging paedophiles to change identity and break off contact with the police.

Diana Sutton, the spokeswoman for the NSPCC, said: "The Government needs to tread cautiously in rolling out the scheme to more police forces.

"We remain concerned about the risk of vigilante action and sex offenders going underground. All new local schemes need close management and proper resourcing to avoid this."

Parents concerned about a new partner, or anyone else with regular contact with their child, will be able to request a police check into their background. If the person is found to be a convicted sex offender, the parent who raised the alarm will be warned and given advice on safeguarding their children, along with a warning not to tell anyone else.

The Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) welcomed the national roll-out and said it was "realistic" to think people would keep information to themselves.

Sir Hugh Orde, Acpo's president, said: "People say people will go underground – frankly, people go underground anyway. With all the other parts of the police service working also in this area, I do think we have got a real hope of keeping people safer and keeping young people safer, which is very important."

The disclosure scheme ran on a trial basis in Cambridgeshire, Cleveland, Hampshire and Warwickshire. Academic research on its application in those areas found no evidence of known paedophiles disappearing, but there were doubts whether it added much to the work already done to monitor offenders after their release.

There was also evidence of fathers registering concerns about their former partner's new boyfriend, possibly as a tactic to undermine a new relationship.

The Home Office said yesterday that there had been almost 600 inquiries to the four forces involved in the pilots, leading to 315 applications for information and 21 disclosures about registered child sex offenders. Another 43 inquiries led to action to protect youngsters, including referrals to children's social care.

The programme was widened yesterday to West Mercia, Bedfordshire, Norfolk, North Yorkshire, Thames Valley, West Midlands, Essex and Suffolk. The rest of England and Wales will be covered by next spring.

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The 'Skins' sensation sweeping France

July 31st, 2010   by Justin

Traditionally, the French are meant to turn an unimpressed Gallic nose up at the paltry British sex life. They are the romantically, erotically inclined ones, so it goes, their British cousins fumbling and frigid. How curious, then, to find a new generation of French people looking across the Channel for amorous inspiration.

French teenagers are embracing free love and organising their own large-scale parties at which drink and drugs flow freely, the dancefloor is for kissing, and the garden is an overflow boudoir for when things get extra-steamy.

But here's the strange part: the partygoers aren't just indulging in regular, hormonally-charged hedonism. They're paying homage to a group of fictional British teens.

"Le Skins parties" are organised by French fans of Skins, the Channel 4 series about misbehaving adolescents. First shown in the UK in 2007, its representation of sixth-form students' wild parties quickly became popular across the channel.

Photographer Claudine Doury glimpsed inside a Skins party in a Parisian suburb earlier this year, and these pictures are her record of that night. Entry cost 20 euros, 10 if you brought a bottle, and there were plenty of drugs on the menu, too. But the parties are also scrupulously organised; a security guard is hired to keep an eye on anyone who's overdone it and to keep away undesirables.

"This young guy's parents had gone away, and he invited three or four hundred people on Facebook to a party in his house," says Doury. "They were all between 16 and 18 – the oldest was 20."

Doury describes scenes of sexual abandon. Delighted young men ask a girl if they can kiss her, and she usually says yes. If things progress, they head to the garden, where bodies sprawl across the grass.

But surely drinking, drug-taking and snogging are teenage party staples? So what's unusual about a Skins party? And why do French teens need British TV to show them how to misbehave?

"To be so free is special," insists Doury. "The most incredible thing was people being sexual in front of everybody – you didn't see too much though, because the security guard would ask them to go out into the garden. It's completely free: 'no limits, no limits', they're always saying.

"The freedom is inspired by the TV show. The foreignness of the series is very fashionable and attractive to French teenagers."

The influence of the TV show can also be seen in guests' outfits. Mimicking a scene from the series, dancers don masks, preserving a degree of anonymity that perhaps makes total abandon a little easier.

But while Doury says that most partygoers "like to hide themselves", there's also plenty of flesh on show. Some girls wear just knickers – Doury snapped an appropriately Union Jack-patterned pair – and flimsy dresses are popular. "It was very practical: they know what to wear so they are not completely naked, but so they can touch each other."

While Skins parties have gone official – you can pay to go to them in clubs, or even on a boat on the Seine – the most popular is the old-school house party. "They all prefer parties in a family house, because you can smoke inside and drink underage," says Doury. The homeowners, she says, usually have no idea they've played host, and organisers put up special material on the walls or even repaint them afterwards. Although the aim isn't total destruction of the venue, things often get messy.

Skins parties have occurred in the UK too – one family home reportedly suffered £25,000 of damage after a Skins-themed event. But the trend didn't take off in quite the same way that it has done in France. Maybe British teenagers take a more sceptical view of on-screen antics (Skins is routinely defended with the argument that it's just entertainment, rather than a realistic portrayal of youngsters' lifestyles). Or maybe the tables have turned – and it's now the French taking their sexual cues from the Brits. Well, in the rarefied land of teenagerdom at least.

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'I can get my family back': immigrants driven out of Arizona return home

July 30th, 2010   by Justin

When news of the last-minute injunction reached the crowd of protesters outside Arizona's state capitol in Phoenix, Patricia Rosas dropped to her knees next to a makeshift Catholic altar, crossed her heart, and said a quick prayer. Then she stood up, and gleefully announced to the world at large: "Now I can get my family back!"

On 4 July, Patricia had packed her daughter, Talia, son-in-law Raul, and three grandchildren into a battered pick-up truck outside their bungalow on the outskirts of Phoenix. After a tearful and very fond farewell, she waved goodbye as they set off on a seven-hour drive across the desert toward a new home and what they hoped would be a new life in California.

It was the latest chapter in a story which began 12 years ago, when Talia and Raul had slipped over the border into the US from Mexico, and had hit crisis point in April when Arizona's lawmakers passed of Senate Bill 1070, a controversial crackdown on immigration aimed at turfing out the estimated 460,000 foreigners living illegally in the State.

Under the proposed law, which required police officers to check the immigration status of anyone they suspected of being in the US illegally, the couple's daily life in Phoenix would have been overshadowed by the knowledge that their next visit to the supermarket or journey into work might end up with them being stopped, thrown into jail, and deported.

Like thousands of other undocumented workers, Talia and Raul decided to give up on Arizona and bring up their kids in a State where their existence wouldn't be constantly governed by fear. "You cannot live like that," said Patricia. "Talia and Raul have been in America for their entire adult lives. Their children were born here, so are therefore US citizens under the constitution. This is the family's home. They love this country, and are proud of it. Everything they have ever worked for is here. But under 1070, they would have been afraid to so much as drive to the shops or walk down the street."

Then, on Wednesday morning came big news: a local judge had decreed that 1070 would no longer be allowed to come into force when it was supposed to, at midnight that night.

Instead, under a temporary injunction, Judge Susan Bolton declared that opponents who had sued to stop it passing into law were "likely to succeed" with the argument that four elements of the bill represent an illegal infringement of the civil liberties of genuine American citizens, and would interfere with the right of the Federal Government (rather than individual states) to enforce immigration.

Barring a successful appeal, which will in any case is likely to take months to be heard and enforced, the Bill, which was supposed to provide a blueprint from US states seeking to crack down on illegal immigrants, is now dead in the water.

The ruling is a victory for President Barack Obama, who hopes to enact immigration reform later this year, and whose Justice Department was among the plaintiffs in the case. It was also warmly greeted by civil rights campaigners who had complained that some of 1070's draconian measures – including one that required even legal migrants to carry their ID papers with them at all times – would inevitably lead to the police officers racially profiling the Hispanic community.

Patricia, for her part, is looking forward to being reunited with Talia, Raul, and their children, with whom she has only spoken to on the phone during the past month. She says the couple plan to stay in California until the legal battle over 1070 is exhausted. Once that happens, they will return to Phoenix, where they both had manual jobs in the restaurant trade.

"I called Talia and said there's good news: she could come home and we could be together as a family again," says Patricia, whose son, another illegal immigrant, has also now cancelled plans to leave Phoenix. "This ruling has taken away so much fear. It has shown that as a community we can fight back against intolerance and fear, and be strong. Really, I am delighted."

Undocumented workers aren't the only ones who will be returning to Arizona now that 1070 has been thrown into legal limbo. The development will also take the heat out of a consumer boycott which began in April, shortly after the law was passed by the Republican-controlled state legislature.

No one knows exactly how many tourists cancelled planned visits, or simply failed to book holidays there during the controversy, which sparked a national conversation and in left-leaning circles turned Arizona into a pariah state. However the local Hotel and Lodging Association says that it knows of at least 40 business meetings or conferences that were called off, costing its members more than $12m.

"Other costs are harder to quantify, but our members have just had so many calls from people saying, 'We love your hotel and your destination, but the way things are, we just can't run the risk of scheduling an event here, because people might pull out and the press would be terrible,'" said a spokesman. "To give you an idea of the scale, though, the Sheraton in downtown Phoenix says the boycott has cost it $9m alone."

That's a big sum, even for an industry that employs roughly 200,000 people in the state's upscale hotels, golfing resorts and spas. "Our position has always been that a boycott would only hurt the people it was meant to help," added the spokesman.

"When people cancelled trips, it was the cleaners and reception staff, many from the Hispanic community, who stood to lose their jobs or have their shifts cut back."

Major cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco, which had banned employees from travelling to Arizona and put a freeze on new business dealings with the state, are likely to reconsider their position.

A day of nationwide protest against the Arizona law went ahead as planned yesterday, but Judge Bolton's ruling dissipated much of the anger, particularly in Phoenix, where tens of thousands of demonstrators had been expected and acts of civil disobedience had been planned.

Leading members of Arizona's Latino community meanwhile called for the boycott to be lifted. Raúl Grijalva, a Democratic Senator who was one of the leading voices in favour of the original sanctions, said it was time to reverse the policy.

"After this ruling, everybody has some responsibility to pause – and that includes me," he said.

The name of Patricia's son-in-law has been changed at her request to protect the couple's identity

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Too many chiefs

July 29th, 2010   by Justin

KIM JONG IL, the North Korean dictator, is not normally a trendsetter. But in one area he is clearly leading the pack: job-title inflation. Mr Kim has 1,200 official titles, including, roughly translated, guardian deity of the planet, ever-victorious general, lodestar of the 21st century, supreme commander at the forefront of the struggle against imperialism and the United States, eternal bosom of hot love and greatest man who ever lived.

When it comes to job titles, we live in an age of rampant inflation. Everybody you come across seems to be a chief or president of some variety. Title inflation is producing its own vocabulary: “uptitling” and “title-fluffing”. It is also producing technological aids. One website provides a simple formula: just take your job title, mix in a few grand words, such as “global”, “interface” and “customer”, and hey presto.

The rot starts at the top. Not that long ago companies had just two or three “chief” whatnots. Now they have dozens, collectively called the “c-suite”. A few have more than one chief executive officer; CB Richard Ellis, a property-services firm, has four. A growing number have chiefs for almost everything from knowledge to diversity. Southwest Airlines has a chief Twitter officer. Coca-Cola and Marriott have chief blogging officers. Kodak has one of those too, along with a chief listening officer.

Even so, chiefs are relatively rare compared with presidents and their various declensions (vice-, assistant-, etc). Almost everybody in banking from the receptionist upwards is a president of some sort. The number of members of LinkedIn, a professional network, with the title vice-president grew 426% faster than the membership of the site as a whole in 2005-09. The inflation rate for presidents was 312% and for chiefs a mere 275%.

Title-fluffing is as rampant among the indians as among the chiefs. America’s International Association of Administrative Professionals—formerly the National Secretaries Association—reports that it has more than 500 job-titles under its umbrella, ranging from front-office co-ordinator to electronic-document specialist. Paper boys are “media distribution officers”. Binmen are “recycling officers”. Lavatory cleaners are “sanitation consultants”. Sandwich-makers at Subway have the phrase “sandwich artist” emblazoned on their lapels. Even the normally linguistically pure French have got in on the act: cleaning ladies are becoming “techniciennes de surface” (surface technicians).

What is going on here? The most immediate explanation is the economic downturn: bosses are doling out ever fancier titles as a substitute for pay raises and bonuses. But there are also structural reasons for the trend. The most basic is the growing complexity of businesses. Many not only have presidents and vice-presidents for this or that product line, but also presidents and vice-presidents for various regions. Put the two together and you have a recipe for ever-longer business cards: vice-president for photocopiers Asia-Pacific, for example.

The cult of flexibility is also inflationary. The fashion for flattening hierarchies has had the paradoxical effect of multiplying meaningless job titles. Workers crave important-sounding titles to give them the illusion of ascending the ranks. Managers who no longer have anyone to manage are fobbed off with inflated titles, much as superannuated politicians are made Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster or Lord President of the Council. Everybody, from the executive suite downward, wants to fluff up their résumé as a hedge against being sacked.

Firms also use fancy job titles to signal that they are au fait with the latest fashion. The fad for greenery is producing legions of chief sustainability officers and green ambassadors. BP’s travails will undoubtedly have the same effect: we can expect a bull market in chief safety officers and chief apology officers.

The American technology sector has been a champion of title inflation. It has created all sorts of newfangled jobs that have to be given names, and it is also full of linguistically challenged geeks who have a taste for “humorous” titles. Steve Jobs calls himself “chief know it all”. Jerry Yang and David Filo, the founders of Yahoo!, call themselves “chief Yahoos”. Thousands of IT types dub themselves things like (chief) scrum master, guru, evangelist or, a particular favourite at the moment, ninja.

But leadership in title inflation, as in so much else, is passing to the developing world, particularly India and China. Both countries have a longstanding obsession with hierarchy (fancy job titles can be the key to getting a bride as well as the admiration of your friends). They also have tight labour markets. The result is an explosion of titles. Companies have taken to creating baffling jobs such as “outbound specialist”. They have also taken to staging public celebrations of promotions from, say, assistant deputy director to principal assistant deputy director.

Inflated benefits, understated drawbacks

Does any of this matter? Title inflation clearly does violence to the language. But isn’t that par for the course in the corporate world? And isn’t it a small price to pay for corporate harmony? The snag is that the familiar problems of monetary inflation apply to job-title inflation as well. The benefits of giving people a fancy new title are usually short-lived. The harm is long-lasting. People become cynical about their monikers (particularly when they are given in lieu of pay rises). Organisations become more Ruritanian. The job market becomes more opaque. How do you work out the going rate for “vision controller of multiplatform and portfolio” (the BBC)? Or a “manager of futuring and innovation-based strategies” (the American Cancer Society)?

And, far from providing people with more security, fancy titles can often make them more expendable. Companies might hesitate before sacking an IT adviser. But what about a chief scrum master? The essence of inflation, after all, is that it devalues everything that it touches.

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