Society daily 24.05.2010

Ofcom has ruled that Channel Four breached broadcasting guidelines. Photograph: Channel 4/PA

Full coverage of the government's spending cuts announcement

News, analysis and comment of today's announcement by the chancellor George Osborne and Treasury chief secretary David Laws, which unveiled £6.2bn of cuts, including £1bn from council budgets, and abolition of child trust funds.

Spending cuts: at a glance

Live blog: reaction to the cuts statement

Full lists of cuts by department

The official Treasury press notice

Today's Society Guardian news and comment

Theresa May faces revolt over police commissioners

Labour's prison policy left system in "crisis", says Lord Ramsbotham

Family of man killed by German locum GP awarded £40,000

MMR row doctor struck off

Simon Rogers: data and public services

All today's Society Guardian stories

Other news…

In the past two years councils have carried out over 8,500 secret surveillance operations on dog owners, fly tippers, loan sharks, benefit fraudsters and vagrants, among others, according to a study from Big Brother Watch, reports the Times.

Nominated for eviction

Ofcom has ruled that Channel Four breached broadcasting guidelines by using the word "retard" on its Big Brother programme – after twice previously rejecting complaints that it was offensive. The word was used by actor and ex-footballer Vinnie Jones and by presenter Davina McCall on Big Brother's Big Mouth show in January. Ofcom accepted today that the context in which the word was used had the effect of:

"...ridiculing those with a physical or learning difficulty"

Nicky Clark, a mother with two disabled daughters, who had seen her two previous complaints turned away by Ofcom on the basis that "many regarded the use of the word as not a issue" and that "the probable degree of harm and offence was minimal", welcomed the ruling:

"I am so pleased that Ofcom has upheld my complaint. This is not a call for censorship or to block free speech. It is simply a call for the matter to be dealt with fairly and for the views of disabled people and those of us who love them to be listened to. The word must be judged by the context, and in this case it was derogatory."

Mark Goldring, chief executive of Mencap, which had helped orchestrate protests against the original rulings, added:

"The groundswell of protest and emotion caused by Channel 4's broadcasting of this insulting word has demonstrated just how offensive and degrading a term it is."

I liked...

• Feminist entrepreneur, philanthropist, carer and disability campaigner Dame Stephanie Shirley's appearance on Radio Four's Desert island discs. An astonishing life, huge achievement and impact, genuine humility and grace. If you didn't catch it you can hear it on BBC i-player here.

• Rightwing think tank Reform's decision to award its prestigious "Reactionary of the Week" accolade to rightwing coalition health secretary Andrew Lansley, "for putting an end to the London Health Authority plan that would cut costs and improve treatment".

• Alastair Campbell's riposte to Janet Street-Porter's "silly but prejudice-reinforcing views on depression" (thanks to blogger Arbitrary Constant for the tip):

Depression is neither new nor trendy. It just is. Street-Porter's article is inconsistent, contradictory and very badly argued. It is the kind of journalism that merely serves to strengthen the damaging stereotypes around mental health problems that stop people with very real illnesses seeking help

• Another thought-provoking commentary on the LibCons' plans for the health service from Paul Corrigan, Blair's ex-policy adviser on the NHS. Among other things he believes that primary care trusts (PCTs) will not be around in a year or two:

"Let's be clear: this is not GP-led, state-organised, commissioning. This is GP-led, private sector-organised commissioning – and the new government believes that private-sector incentives will create better NHS health care commissioning than state ones. So those that foresee tranches of PCT commissioning staff moving over to GP-led commissioning organisations will be disappointed. They will have different drivers for good commissioning and they will need different skills to carry that out. This is not a state-to-state transfer of skills. These are new skills. This is why this is a really radical policy. I can think of no other example from English history where a government, having collected resources from the people through national taxation, then hand over those resources to the private sector to commission an activity."

I was surprised...

That there has been a decline in the number of MPs who are charity trustees, according to the Charity Commission, which said that of the 232 MPs elected for the first time, only 32 were trustees. Big society anyone? As commission chair Dame Suzi Leather drily noted, this trend was:

"...quite noticeable at a time when there is such a great emphasis on the charity sector".

In case you missed them... weekend Society Guardian stories

Adopted children being traced via Facebook

North of England braced for public spending cuts

Stephanie Theobald on volunteering at an grannie befriending scheme

All Saturday's Society Guardian stories

All Sunday's Society Guardian stories

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 charmian.walker-smith@guardian.co.uk. You can Follow Guardian Social Enterprise on Twitter