Society daily 10.05.2010

Civil sevants strike over redundancy pay outside parliament on budget day — Civil sevants from the Public and Commercial Services union strike over redundancy pay. Photograph: Sean Smith for the Guardian

Top Society Guardian news and comment from today and the weekend

Civil service union wins redundancy pay court case

Labour gains nearly 400 seats in local elections

Guide: local election results

Doctor discovers pill that "may cure alcoholism"

Victims of abuse in Catholic children's homes to win damages

All today's Society Guardian content

Other news

The NHS is scaring patients by saying they could suffer "adverse consequences" if they opt out of joining the electronic patient database, according to the Daily Mail

The Food Standards Agency is consulting on proposals for a 17.5% "fat tax" on junk food and sugary drinks, reports the Daily Telegraph

I liked...

Addiction specialist Stanton Peele's blog on internet porn. He cites an investigation into the contents of government computers operated by senior officials at the US financial regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission. It found 17 senior officials apparently compulsively downloading porn - at a time, says Peele, when Wall Street was in meltdown.

"Visualize, if you will, someone trying 16,000 times in a month to outwit blocks to his getting to his one true desire, or someone spending all day at work compulsively lusting over porn. Tell me - is that an addiction? Come on... And this porn-seeking behavior is at the top of the addictive pile (remember, these guys then went home to their personal computers). Heroin addicts don't spend all day and night shooting up. They rest sometimes."

The Public Sector bloggers portal

Rick from Flip Chart Fairy Tales' post on his experiments with the Insitute of Fiscal Studies DIY spending review calculator:

"You may disagree with my assumptions. If so, add in some of your own. What I guarantee you won't be able to do is protect any of the high-profile services without decimating all the others. If, by some miracle, you find a way to do this, please let me know."

Clearly So's Rod Schwartz blog post on why a Tory government would be good for social enterprise (Rod is a Liberal Democrat supporter)

"Both social enterprises and community owned organisations will be, I suspect, a likely feature of a Conservative Government. I expect the Tories to move rapidly in this area as they seek to contrast their approach with what they have characterised as another example of 'Labour dithering'... I expect social finance to be, as a result, one of the fastest and most active areas of the investment sector for the next few years or longer."

Society Guardian events

National Commissioning conference 10. Beyond efficiencies, doing things differently. 15-16 June, Lowry Hotel, Manchester. Speakers include: Solace chief executive David Clark, former Department of Health lead on social care personalisation John Bolton, new Kings Fund chief executive Chris Ham, and Social Care Institute for Excellence chief executive Julie Jones.

The Public Procurement show. The UK's leading event for public sector procurement. 15-16 June, ExceL, London

Society Guardian social enterprise summit

We are starting to plan this year's Society Guardian Social Enterprise Summit. Last year's summit was a great success - you can read about it here. Once again we are looking to showcase inspiration, innovation and practical ideas on how social enterprises can deliver public services. Whether you are from the public sector or from a social business, we want you to tell us who you'd like to see and what you would like to see discusssed. Email to charmian.walker-smith@guardian.co.uk. You can Follow Guardian Social Enterprise on Twitter