Society Daily 03.09.2010

Disabled models at the unveiling of Debenhams' new advertising campaign. Photograph: Debenhams

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Today's top Society stories

UK sees largest fall in alcohol consumption in 60 years

G20 pathologist suspended for misconduct by GMC

Hospitals warned over doses of drugs given to babies

Scottish government sets minimum price for alcoholic drinks

Public spending cuts affect women more than men, says report

Interview: Caroline Mason, champion of social investment

Ally Fogg: why the young get a bad press

All today's Society Guardian stories

Other news

• Public sector middle managers who lose their jobs as a result of government spendiing cuts will struggle to find posts in the private sector, according to recruitment consultants reported in the Financial Times.

• Councils have scrapped plans to build around 100,000 new homes since the coalition government ordered them in July to ignore previous government homebuilding targets, reports Channel Four news.

• Housing authorities are using new legal freedoms to favour people who are in work over the unemployed when it comes to allocating social housing, reports Inside Housing.

•A council worker has provoked fury after making a series of comments on Twitter which suggested employers should be able to "slap" their domestic servants, reports the Daily Telegraph.

On my radar...

• Debenhams, which claims to have become the first high street retailer to use images of disabled models in its window displays...

• A remarkably thoughtful and nuanced speech by Labour leadership contender Diane Abbott on Big Society. An unexpectedly fascinating perspective... (thanks @CoopParty )

"I know that government has been a great deal more successful in regenerating buildings in areas like Hackney than in regenerating people. I have never been successful in counting up the billions that have been poured into Hackney under governments of both political parties. But I have often remarked that, if you had stood on the corner for a few days and handed out bags of money to everyone who passed by, you might have had more immediate impact on the lives of ordinary people."

• Acevo CEO Stephen Bubb rightfully chiding big charities for their apparently gutless refusal to defend fundraising practices on Newsnight...

"Our reluctance to defend what are entirely defensible practices poses a very real reputational risk to the whole sector."

• Blogger Fighting Monsters' critique of the Coalition's new approach to mental health care policy...

• Barrister Adam Wagner writing in praise of the "open and forward thinking way" in which Mr Justice Foskett, the judge in the Sharon Shoesmith judicial review, has handled the case... (Thanks @FlipchartFT)

• David Walker's broadside at the government over the pitfalls of open data and the "armchair auditor" revolution in public services...

• Social enterprise – what could possibly go wrong? An amusing and insightful blog post on the News from a Nerd website by Carrie Bish of Futuregov...

• In the spirit of tiny-but-important-conversations, another example from the Patient Opinion website of health professionals getting face-to-face communication absolutely right...

• Once upon a time in the north east: David Ireland finds himself on a patch of wasteland opposite the now empty and forlorn family home of his childhood football hero...

• A sudden spate of social investment share issues, to fund (a) a centre for human rights in London and (b) a new ground for the legendary co-operative football club FC United.

Events

Driving efficiencies in public sector ICT, 30 September, London: a one-day conference for senior IT professionals to re-examine the way they work, cut costs and deliver vital efficiency savings.

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.