Society daily 01.10.10

Andrew Lansley giving a speech — Health secretary Andrew Lansley's NHS reforms have been criticised by the British Medical Association. Photograph: Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP

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Today's top Society Guardian stories

NHS reform is a "slash-and-burn approach", says BMA

Female sexual dysfunction "excuse by drug firms to sell pills"

Cancer fund will put £50m towards access to drugs

Audio: Polly Toynbee and Tom Clark discuss the minimum wage

The new Equality Act - do you know your rights?

Audit Commission spent £13,000 on do at London zoo

All today's Society Guardian stories

Other news

• Work and pensions secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, has won the battle with the Treasury over his plans for welfare reform, the Daily Mail and the Times report. This would see housing benefit, income support, incapacity benefit and other payments axed and replaced by a single 'universal credit' in a move which could save up to £9bn every year.

• Middlesbrough, Plymouth and the Wirral are the areas most likely to suffer most from public sector cuts, according to research conducted for the FT

On my radar ...

• Nadine Dorries MP. I thought at first her blog attack on "benefit scroungers" who Tweet was a hilarious spoof. But apparently not. Much Tweet anger followed yesterday, and some good blog ripostes, such as these by blogger Mind in Flux, Ms Humphrey Cushion and Liberal Democrat activist Andrew Reeves. Reeves writes:

"Oh my god, it is stupid ridiculous comments like ...[Dorries'] that remind me despite being in coalition, our two parties are so far apart."

And here's Rich Watts' pithy Tweet:

"I don't know which is funnier: a) Nadine Dorries's indignation, or b) Nadine Dorries's obvious ignorance and stupidity."

Dorries has kept digging though. You can read the latest instalment of her War on "the left wing Twitterati" and the Workshy here.

• Eileen Munro's review of child protection. You can read her interim report here.

• Filth, sewage, broken pavements: painstakingly recorded on this fantastic neighbourhood blog about the streets around King's Cross, home to the Guardian (thanks @WillPerrin).

• Rich Watts, who is definitely on a roll. Here, in less than 139 characters, he pinpoints the significance of BMA's lukewarm response to the white paper:

"Lansley was supposed to be thick as thieves with the BMA. So when they come out & say #healthwhitepaper is a load of shite, that's trouble."

• Blogger and social entrepreneur David Floyd on whether it matters how we define "social enterprise".

• Shiv Malik on why Ed Miliband has to embrace Big Society and claim it for the Labour party

• Insightful commentary by HSJ editor Alastair McLellan on political spin and the pressing need to come up with a rational plan for hospital closures.

• Neil McInroy of New Start, on anecdotal evidence that the recession is getting worse in some areas:

"This was clear to me last week when an experienced local council official said to me; 'Neil, it's grim out there, it's as bad as I have seen it. Even the pound shops are closing down'."

• Excellent report by Nick Temple of a talk by Aubrey Fox at the Young Foundation on the importance of failure in social innovation

• Thoughtful reflections on the various challenges facing employee co-ops in public services from blogger Redundant Public Servant:

"Trying to be truly radical with public services now is rather like trying to do landscape gardening in a forest fire."

Guardian and Observer Christmas Appeal 2010: help us decide which youth charities to support

This year our Christmas appeal will support charities working with vulnerable teenagers and young adults. That bit we've decided on. What we don't know yet is which ones to support. And that's where you come in. There are around 8,000 UK charities out there who operate in this area. We are looking for 10 projects which do innovative, effective work with young people at risk aged 13-24. So if you work for a charity, and you fit the bill, please apply (you can find the link to the pdf download on this page). If you know of a charity which you think we ought to support, then encourage them to apply or nominate them on this blog, and we'll contact them on your behalf. Applications close on 8 October, the appeal will kick off in December.

Events

Public sector online, 4 October, London: a one-day conference examining how public sector professionals can engage with their audience to deliver services more effectively and strategically online.

Capital AmbitionDelivering services for London in an age of austerity, 15 November 2010, London. Join leading practitioners across London to re-think, re-design and re-assess the way services are delivered

Guardian Social Enterprise 2010, 16 November, London. An interactive conference for anyone delivering public services or supporting social enterprises. Speakers include: minister for civil society Nick Hurd; Peter Holbrook, chief executive of the Social Enterprise Coalition; Allison Ogden-Newton, chief executive, Social Enterprise London; Lord Victor Adebowale, chief executive, Turning Point; Rod Schwartz, chief executive, Clearly So; Dai Powell, chief executive, HCT; Alastair Wilson, chief executive, School for Social Entrepreneurs.

Transforming Blue Light Services Innovating ICT for the emergency services, 24 November 2010, London.

Discover how the innovative use of technology will improve performance and response in difficult financial times.