A "national service" for the 21st century will be introduced for hundreds of thousands of school leavers under a scheme unveiled yesterday by David Cameron, the Conservative leader. Young people would be paid a grant, understood to be around £500, for taking part in a six-week programme of community work, outdoor pursuits or even military training with the Marines.
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Labour's law and order record is facing a broadside from one of the country's top police officers. Ian Johnston, the president of the Police Superintendents Association, is planning an attack on the "cancer" of violent crime. At his organisation's annual conference next week, he will also denounce Whitehall crime-fighting targets as a "shambles" and call for them to be scrapped.
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The Government is facing a new Olympic storm over accusations about the true cost of the London 2012 games. A Channel Four Dispatches programme, to be screened on Monday night, will allege that the Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell knew that the original £2.375 billion budget for the games was possibly underestimated by "several billion" 16 months before she admitted costs had spiralled to £9.3 billion.
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Pressure was growing yesterday on food manufacturers to ban artificial food additives following a report that disclosed they may be putting children at risk. Experts and campaign groups called on the Food Standards Agency to ban the additives, which could cause hyperactivity and behavioural problems.
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Tanya Byron, the clinical psychologist, is to head an inquiry into the impact of violent video games and internet pornography on children, ministers said today.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article2402842.ece