The story, which broke in the local press, ran the next day in practically all tabloids, each competing to be more outraged than the next, no doubt prompting hollow groans from the authority's communications team. Nevertheless a council spokeswoman did her best, apparently telling the Daily Express: "Pole dancing is a unique dance form - it combines strength, co-ordination, cardiovascular, elegance, posture and flexibility in a dynamic, fun way. It is never boring." One small point - no children have actually signed up for the classes. What's more, a quick trawl through the BBC News archive proves nothing's new. In December 2006 - horror, shock, indignation - a Northumberland fitness instructor started offering pole dancing classes for boys and girls, described as "out of order" by a children's charity. Before that in November 2004, a pole dancer from Coventry abandoned plans to run classes for children aged 12 and over when the idea was branded "an outrage".
- "A mum is leading a new national crusade to ban unhappy endings to children's books," London's Evening Standard reports.
Clare Hughes has been appointed "head of the Happy Endings Foundation's East of England Cheering Committee" and is fighting to see books with grim outcomes banned from schools and libraries. Tales like Hans Christian Andersen's Little Mermaid and the dark but popular Lemony Snicket series are being targeted by the group. At least librarian Harriet Cox gives young people some credit, describing the campaign as "patronising". And you've got to wonder how many children and young people have given it the thumbs up - the Standard didn't enquire. The foundation is holding a number of activities "such as Bad Book Bonfires, where they are encouraging people on Guy Fawkes' Night to hurl bad books onto their bonfires," the paper reveals. Burning books - hasn't someone already thought of that before?
- Archivists in the North East are reviving a book on the history and grammar of Northumbrian speech, to be sent out to schools.
Newcastle paper The Journal helpfully printed a selection of dialect words from the volume including "elwis", which means "always" and not a Geordie in a rhinestone jumpsuit crooning Love Me Tender. There's also an old take on the term "brat" listed in most dictionaries as "a badly behaved child or young person". Here it's "a coarse apron for rough work" and not simply a posh way of saying "yob".
Soundbite
"Conversations with my bank manager have been different than they might have been if I was older."
- Internet entrepreneur Calum Brannan, 18, who set up a social networking website, finds his age a barrier to some aspects of business.
