But it will be a significant improvement, more efficient and more accurate," said a source.The votes will be counted at Central Office under the scrutiny of representatives of all wings of the party, and the party's auditors, Coopers and Lybrand.. The use of animation is even heavier where a channel relies on an above average amount of American imports.And it is not just American programmes that are being used. In 1991 an average 203 hours of children's television was produced by each European broadcaster. That has now fallen to 177 hours and the amount imported from the US exceeds all of that imported from every other European country combined. Accompanying the shift to American programmes is a narrowing of the range of shows children can watch. On average twice as many hours of cartoons are now aired than either factual or drama programmes, and the more children's programmes a channel shows, the more of it will be animation. TORY leader William Hague will today unveil the reform package that he hopes will breathe new life into his party. Symbolically, he will launch the initiative at the Westminster venue where he made his first pledge to bring radical reform, during last summer's party leadership contest. The document being published by Mr Hague is called "The Fresh Future".Tory party members will be asked in a ballot to endorse the reforms it proposes, the principles of which were set out in a consultative paper at last October's party conference.Sources said the ballot mechanism would be different from that used for autumn's double vote to endorse Mr Hague as leader and the six principles of his drive for reform.
European broadcasters are increasingly turning to the heavy-handed scheduling strategies - like stripping shows at the same time every day of the week - that are used by American stations to keep children glued to the set.The report's author, Professor Jay Blumler of Leeds University, calls on governments and the European Union to set targets for home-made programmes: "The public service tradition of serving children as all-round developing personalities and future citizens is under threat.". There were complaints then that the system was inefficient.One reason the party was hamstrung was that until now it has not kept central registers of its membership - one problem which will be rectified under the reforms.Some 181,000 party members voted in last autumn's ballot. The research found that while the amount of children's programming had increased by 28 per cent since 1991, this has been matched by a fall in the amount produced in Europe. The addiction to American children's TV shows and large numbers of cartoons has spread from commercial and satellite channels to Europe's public service broadcasters, the report says. THE QUALITY and diversity of children's programmes is under threat because cartoons and American imports are squeezing out factual and drama shows according to research by the European Broadcasting Union. "While at the offices I had the great surprise of bumping into Clive Harold, who went to Hill House School with me, and who I know has benefited from the opportunities which The Big Issue has given him.
He ended up on the streets selling The Big Issue after losing his job and turning to drink.The Prince of Wales praises the magazine, which is sold by the homeless, saying: "We all owe a considerable debt to The Big Issue, not only because of the valuable chance it provides to some of the homeless people on our streets to take on a real job, but also because it helps to ensure that homelessness is kept at the forefront of our minds."He adds that homelessness tends to be a symptom rather than a cause of people's problems, resulting from unemployment, low educational achievement and drug or drink problems."Even with a supportive home background young people today can find it hard to maintain their self-confidence against the enormous pressures of modern life," he writes.. It was a vivid reminder that homelessness can happen to almost anyone."After meeting the Prince in December Mr Harold described how they had played football together as nine-year-olds at school. In this way, welfare to work could become "the most successful public policy initiative of this century".However, welfare to work was not an unqualified, with states such as Washington only registering a 2 per cent decline in case loads and Hawaii seeing a 36 per cent increase.. THE PRINCE of Wales yesterday described homelessness as one of the "dreadful problems" facing young people in an unprecedented article in The Big Issue magazine In the page-long feature, which comes after the Prince met an old school friend of his on a visit to The Big Issue offices last year, he says homelessness can happen to anyone. "Having heard a great deal about The Big Issue from various young people, I was particularly glad to visit its offices recently," the Prince writes in this week's issue of the magazine. While most of the reform efforts came from a handful of state initiatives, the US Government also played a major role by passing an act which ended cash help for families with dependant children. This forced even the most reluctant states to submit plans for welfare reform and in the 11 months since the Bill became law total welfare case loads went down by almost a sixth.The most successful states include Wyoming, which saw a drop of 73 per cent in its welfare caseload, Wisconsin (58 per cent), Oregon (52 per cent) and Alabama (48 per cent).The institute concluded that the successful ingredients for welfare reform must include willingness to extend benefits for a period after someone on welfare takes a job, an emphasis on personal individual responsibility, a reliance on private sector services whenever possible and an attempt to integrate social reform with welfare reform. The finale was meant to be rugged and sounds it: the last musical gesture is Payne's own, a telling redeployment of an idea from Elgar's earlier Nursery Suite, maybe marking the passage from cradle to grave.The BBCSO's performance was superb, and last night's audience grateful for the privilege of hearing it: but how will they remember the piece - as Elgar, or as Payne? Can one really think of it as both? And, since Payne's act of homage is a compelling artistic entity in its own right, does its authorship really matter anyway? I have certainly never heard a "completion" that works better, nor one that hints at what might have been with greater emotional exactitude.
