New bill will let councils close lap dancing clubs near schools

Lap dancing clubs may be closed if they are located too near “inappropriate” sites such as schools, under transitional powers contained in the policing and crime bill published yesterday.

The legislation will also require sex workers who are repeatedly caught soliciting to attend compulsory rehabilitation classes, but will remove the “stigmatising” term common prostitute 184 years after it was put on the statute book by the Vagrancy Act 1824.

The Home Office minister Vernon Coaker confirmed the Guardian’s disclosure that a government plan to introduce direct elections for police authorities had been dropped.

He also acknowledged that the bill’s most controversial proposal, to criminalise men who pay for sex with exploited women, will prove legally fraught and will require the courts to clarify it. Read more…

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Staffordshire hero plumber voted for!

FOR Graham Stubbs the essence of a good community is civility and neighbourliness.

The popular plumber, below, has shown that there is more that is magnetic about him than his personality.

For when neighbour Kathleen Roberts, who has nominated Graham for an Our Heroes award, locked herself out of her home she knew where to turn.

Mr Stubbs, of Beswick Close, Cheadle, said: “I put a big magnet into a net bag you put the washing tablets in, and I put it on the end of a piece of fishing rod and then lowered it through the letter box and dragged the key up.”

It was just one way in which the 64-year-old lends a hand to his neighbours. Read more…

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Cheap alcohol and happy hour ban to reduce crime?

Wine drinkers will be hit hardest by a proposal to ban cut-price alcohol promotions in supermarkets and off-licences, according to government-commissioned research published yesterday.

The Sheffield University study says a ban on discounts of more than 30%, such as “three for the price of two” offers, would affect wine consumption most, but have little effect on cheaper alcohol, such as lager and beers, selling for less than 30p a unit.

The research also shows that targeting price increases at cheaper types of alcohol, particularly in bars and pubs where at-risk groups such as younger people do most of their drinking, would have an impact without unduly penalising moderate drinkers. Read more…

What do we think of the happy hour ban? It sucks.

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Boris Johnson’s London Vision

The London vision is still lacking, but Johnson has transformed the way the mayor is judged. And he has higher ambitions yet.

Boris Johnson has been mayor of London for six months: long enough to judge what kind of political leader he is becoming – and what his ambitions are. It is also sufficient time to discern longer-term trends within the Labour party as it picks itself up after last May’s grim local election results.

The first thing to note about the Johnson style is how different it is from his predecessor’s. Ken Livingstone operated a tightly knit mayor’s office and a quasi-Thatcherite economic policy, while his Conservative successor has a cabinet-style administration that has shifted its focus towards quality-of-life issues. Ken’s clique spoke only with its master’s voice, while those in Boris’s have their own identities. Read more…

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