You bet. Venerable journalist Bill Deedes passed this information on toDaily Telegraph readers while reporting on child soldiers in SierraLeone.
What is the relevance to Britain? Lord Deedes is pointing to "theastonishingly young age" at which children can handle firearms. It is awarning, he says, to ministers who are talking of lowering the age atwhich carrying a gun attracts a penal offence. Automatic penalties forteenagers might mean drug-running gangs start employing nine-year-oldboys as gunmen.
Logical up to a point, m'Lud. But surely it is the drug-running gangsthat ought to be most wary. There are more immediate risks of handingover weaponry to children. The under-10s, newly endowed with power,might not give them back.
- The BBC is under fire for closing all its in-house nurseries. Thereare 219 full-time places for children of staff in seven nurseries acrossthe country. BBC staff are fighting the closures.
Several staff who signed the petition reckon the BBC should hand backits Investors in People award. This is harsh. Auntie is investing inpeople.
It just happens to be investing in people like Jonathan Ross, ratherthan children and families. The saving from closing the nursery is1.4m. Ross has a contract reportedly worth 18m. But hey,presenters are people too.
- A council has moved children's goal posts, reports the Daily Mail.
This is not a dastardly switch in Every Child Matters performanceindicators story. That might be interesting.
It's a story about a council moving children's goal posts. Literally.Cheshire County Council required the removal of the posts from a fieldwhere they were blocking a public footpath.
The news event was covered not just by the Mail, but also by The Sun,The Telegraph, the Manchester Evening News and the Wilmslow Express.It's called a slow news day.
SOUNDBITE
"Connor doesn't like fruit or vegetables and he won't touch salads" -Nicola McKeown, the mum of 14-stone eight-year-old Connor who is on theverge of being taken into care because of his weight.
