The lunch is Headway’s major fundraiser but last Christmas income fell by more than half from pounds 30000 to pounds

The lunch is Headway’s major fundraiser, but last Christmas income fell by more than half, from pounds 30,000 to pounds 13,000 as attendance fell from 450 to 260. Yet we see the princess doing all these things on behalf of the Aids charity and we feel bitterly disappointed that we were one of those chosen to be abandoned.” Last July, the princess severed her links with Headway and 100 other charities to concentrate on six causes, including the National Aids Trust.By becoming Headway patron in 1991, she put the spotlight on the increasing numbers of people who survive head injuries from road, sports and work accidents. The charity Headway, of which the princess is former patron, said it was “bitterly disappointed” that she preferred to campaign against Aids rather than the wider problem of serious head injuries. Ian Garrow, the charity’s chief executive, said: “We have been laid aside as one of the charities no longer under her patronage and yet she has kept Aids on board, which is an overblown thing which is already given money by government.
“The numbers are insignificant compared to the numbers of head-injured and brain-damaged, and we have still to get money from the government or national lottery. The Princess of Wales was yesterday accused of abandoning the cause of 350,000 brain-injured Britons in order to champion the “overblown” plight of Aids patients. Mr Major promised to turn Ofsted, the education watchdog, on each failing local education authority, adding: “We will improve them if we can, and replace them if we can’t”.Tories’ hearts sink, page 4.

For those still behind at 11 there will be summer holiday literacy schools to bring them up to scratch.No new money will be involved. About pounds 20m a year now being spent on existing initiatives will be redirected to teacher training and reading recovery.Mr Major’s offering to voters yesterday, in a speech to more than 2,000 activists at a rally at Birmingham’s International Convention Centre, was to make schools release precise marks for every test sat by pupils aged seven, 11 and 14. The emphasis will be on fast-paced teaching including phonics and whole- class reading.There will also be “reading recovery” programmes with intensive tuition for children who are falling behind after two years in primary school. At present 43 per cent, around 250,000 children, are failing to reach the required level.There is no suggestion that pupils who fail to make the grade would be kept down as they are in some countries.Mr Blunkett will tell the conference that the changes will be achieved by a national programme of teacher training in literacy for primary teachers. The new report, by Professor Michael Barber, dean of new initiatives at London University’s school of education, will say that 80 per cent should do so within the lifetime of a single parliament.

He referred to poor standards in Islington, Mr Blair’s London borough, and spoke of the London Oratory, the grant-maintained school Mr Blair’s son attends.Mr Blunkett will return to the attack at an Islington conference when he releases the report of the party’s literacy task force, which offers a blueprint for one of the most ambitious literacy programmes in British history.The document marks a dramatic shift in educational philosophy as, for the first time, teachers will be required to assume that all children, regardless of ability or background, can reach a fixed reading standard by the age of 11.The idea, common in Pacific Rim countries, runs counter to decades of received wisdom in British educational circles that children should be allowed to work at their own pace, and that there will always be a substantial minority who cannot make the grade.Plans to lay down from the centre exactly how reading should be taught are also new, and go far beyond Government proposals announced last week for a national curriculum for teacher training.Mr Blunkett has already said that he wants all 11-year-olds to reach the expected standard in national tests in English within 10 years. This will call for a big increase by the end of a first Labour parliament in the number of 11-year-olds meeting the required reading standard.
Mr Blunkett’s move will be seen as an attempt to trump the Conservatives, who yesterday showed how central they consider education to be when John Major pledged more precise information on children’s school marks, and “hit squads” for failing local education authorities.In an aggressive speech in Birmingham the Prime Minister likened Tony Blair to “a weak contestant on Mastermind”. David Blunkett, shadow secretary of state for education, will announce the plan on Thursday with a report by the party’s literacy task force. Labour will raise the stakes in the election battle over education this week with a sweeping plan to improve the reading levels of schoolchildren, which will involve extensive retraining of teachers and summer schools for pupils who are falling behind. Mr Robinson spent his first night of freedom with the family of Billy Power, a member of the Birmingham Six, in east London.Justice in the dock, page 3. Sources close to Mr Howard promised a new “note of guidance” that could extend the time key documents are kept in case of appeal.Yesterday Jim Robinson and the Hickeys, who are cousins, spent a day in London recovering from the traumatic events of their liberation at the High Court on Friday.

The Government moved to calm fears that new rules on the keeping of criminal evidence could lead to a repetition of the case.The Criminal Procedure and Investigations Act, which comes into force on 1 April, stipulates a minimum of three years for files to be retained. There is no suggestion that Mr Stewart knew that any confessions had been falsely obtained. He was reported to still be in his post last year but the top-secret GCHQ would not confirm whether he continued to hold the position.Sir Patrick Cormack, Tory MP for the constituency where Carl was murdered, is to ask the Home Secretary Michael Howard for an independent judicial inquiry. Merseyside police are currently investigating the conduct of the original inquiry. He was assigned to head the investigation into the murder, which led to the jailing of four innocent men, Pat Molloy, Jim Robinson, Vincent Hickey and Michael Hickey. Since the conviction of the Bridgewater Four in 1979 Robert Stewart’s career has blossomed, and he was given responsibility for protecting the Cheltenham base where Britain’s intelligence services conduct operations in electronic eavesdropping.
When Carl was killed on 19 September 1978, Detective Chief Superintendent Stewart was head of CID in the tiny Staffordshire police force.