Whole Truth Coalition

Vaccination teams are to move into schools amid fears of a measles outbreak that could affect up to 100,000 children across the country.

Thousands of children are being offered the MMR vaccine after the number of cases of measles recorded this year reached more than 1,000 for the first time in more than a decade.

Doctors fear that the illness could sweep through the country if children and young teenagers are not vaccinated as a matter of urgency.

The number of cases in England and Wales reached 1,049 cases by October - almost ten times the number recorded in 1996, the Health Protection Agency (HPA) said today. The figure for the whole of last year was 990.

Mary Ramsay, an immunisation expert at the agency, attributed the rise to the relatively low take-up of the combined jab for measles, mumps and rubella.

About two thirds of the cases this year have occurred in London, but health officials in the North West are so concerned about local outbreaks that they are beginning an emergency vaccination programme. They have written to the parents of 10,534 children in Cheshire identified by their records as having missed the MMR vaccination.

Across England, one child in four has not received the suggested two doses of MMR, leaving take-up significantly below the level required to prevent an epidemic. It is estimated that a large outbreak could affect 30,000 to 100,000 children across the country.

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British-born Pakistanis were among the Mumbai terrorists, Indian government sources claimed today, as the death toll rose to at least 150.

As many as seven of the terrorists may have British connections and some could be from Leeds and Bradford where London’s July 7 bombers lived, one source said.

Two Britons were among eight gunmen being held, according to Mumbai’s chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh. At least nine others are reportedly dead.

The eight arrested were captured by commandos after they stormed two hotels and a Jewish centre to free hostages today.

One security official said: ‘There is growing concern about British involvement in the attacks.’

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Police attempts to outlaw the monthly Critical Mass cycle ride through the streets of London unless its route was notified in advance were blocked by the Law Lords today.

The House of Lords allowed a challenge by cyclist Des Kay to a Court of Appeal ruling that the Metropolitan Police had the right to demand prior notice of the ride’s date, time and route and the names and addresses of the organisers.

Cyclists who gather on the South Bank and ride through the city to celebrate safe cycling have in the past been handed written notices by the police stating that the event was unlawful because no advance notice was given.

But the Law Lords held that the event, which had no organisers or set route and proceeded on a “follow my leader” basis, was not governed by section 11 of the Public Order Act 1986.

Friends of the Earth Rights and Justice Centre, which acted for Mr Kay, hailed the ruling as “an important victory for the right to peaceful protest and for cyclists to take part in this monthly celebration of cycling”.

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When I was a child, ‘pester power’ meant stamping one’s feet in a shop. It involved little more than begging one’s mum in an irritating voice for the latest He-Man figure or for one of those unusually thick pink milkshakes from a place called McDonald’s.

It was a feeble force, this alleged power of the pest, easily quashed by a clip around the lughole or by that most ominous threat issued by mums-in-distress: ‘Just you wait until your dad gets home.’

How times have changed. Today, ‘pester power’ is a powerful political tool.

New Labour is explicitly recruiting children to its climate change and respect agendas  -  its illiberal, conformist, thought-policing programmes of ‘good behaviour’ promotion  -  in the hope that they might, ‘use their pester power in a positive way: reminding grown-ups how to behave’.

After coating Britain in CCTV cameras, the Government is nurturing a battalion of child spies, an army of ethically minded Veruca Salts, to harry and hector the badly behaved adults of 21st-century Britain.

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Someone at NASA released a photo that they shouldn’t have, a picture of a piece of timber the size of a railroad tie, a photo that could get someone killed. There is no mistaking that the object in the print below is a piece of wood. NASA claims that Mars is a desert planet with no life at all. NASA lies, repeatedly.

Where would a piece of timber this size come from? There are vast forests on Mars, ones that are kept from the public. This piece of wood looks like it floated to its present location, being partially sunk in the soil. The ground around it is very interesting. Notice the flat rock formation of the soil and the crevices in between them. Does this look familiar? It appears to be the bed of a dried up pond. There had to be a significant amount of water in this area, water high enough to lift that railroad tie sized piece of timber and float is perhaps several miles. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter showed that vast regions of the Red Planet have been altered by floods. This dried pond effect should come as no surprise.

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‘The CCTV system has gone up in sites across Portsmouth and it will reportedly help predict crimes before they actually happen. The city’s council has set up the network of “intelligent” cameras that can alert an operator to suspicious behaviour. The system is able to spot “unusual” incidents like somebody loitering or a vehicle travelling too fast.’

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