If the internet is good enough to teach our children on it's good enough to buy our children

If the internet is good enough to teach our children on, it's good enough to buy our children on. The director of the children's charity Kidscape has described the trade in babies as immoral Pish! You could say the same of childbirth Depends what you do to the baby next. Bring it up to know who Britney Spears is and you're a killer however you came by it. More from Howard Jacobson. Hundreds of rare albatrosses and penguins may have been killed on the Falkland Islands in a fire accidentally started by British troops, it was claimed last night. Hundreds of rare albatrosses and penguins may have been killed on the Falkland Islands in a fire accidentally started by British troops, it was claimed last night. The blaze raged for five days, destroying 90 per cent of the tussac grassland of South Jason Island, a nature reserve owned by the Falklands government, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds said.It was said to have been started accidentally by troops when they visited the island on 12 January to dispose of ammunition found at a site where two Argentine planes were shot down during the 1982 Falklands war.The RSPB said hundreds of penguin and almost fully grown albatross chicks may have died.

Fire crews spoke of "burnt penguins and other seabirds crawling away through tussac grass, unlikely to escape flames fanned by ferocious South Atlantic winds," the RSPB said.The Ministry of Defence denied the reports. An independent conservationist had checked the island yesterday and reported no damage to albatrosses and penguins nesting on a separate rocky outcrop, it said.Penguin News, a BBC Online publication, said the commander of British forces in the Falklands, Brigadier Geoff Sheldon, publicly apologised for the fire. An inquiry is due to be held to establish its cause.Conservationists are asking why the Army chose to deal with ammunition at the height of the nesting season and while the grassland was tinder dry.Jim Stevenson, an RSPB overseas expert, said: "It was irresponsible to do this and I have written to Baroness Scotland, the Overseas Territories Minister, to express concern.". The television gardener Chris Beardshaw has landed in hot water with environment-conscious viewers after recommending an American aquatic plant seen as a threat to British wildlife habitats. The television gardener Chris Beardshaw has landed in hot water with environment-conscious viewers after recommending an American aquatic plant seen as a threat to British wildlife habitats. The suggestion by the presenter of BBC 2's Flying Gardener series of Azolla filiculoides, a floating water fern, for a garden pond set off a flurry of protests from conservationists concerned over the way the imported plant is spreading harmfully across British wetlands.Azolla filiculoides has been running wild in Britain since 1886, but the recent milder winters have encouraged further growth. The fern is among a range of aquatic aliens that should be ruthlessly eradicated, says the wildflower conservation charity Plantlife.

The group is campaigning for laws banning imports that can threaten native species.They hope this will be one result of plans by the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions to carry out a review of policy on alien and invasive plant and animal species.One complaint to the BBC came from Judith Smith, the British Trust for Ornithology regional representative for Greater Manchester. She said: "I was horrified to see Chris Beardshaw recommending this pernicious water plant. Azolla is rapidly coating lots of ponds and marshes in this area and it's impossible to get rid of. It smothers pond life and is very easily spread from water to water."The slightest bit clings, so birds landing on ponds or anglers wading in them are liable to leave with some attached, and the result is you have new colonies of it at the next stretches of water they visit."This fern covers ponds and marshes now all over the country, spreading 25 feet in a day - and smothering fish, wildlife and invertebrates. It should be on English Nature's pest list if it isn't already, like giant hogweed, Himalayan balsam and Japanese knotweed."Most responsible garden centres won't sell it It is costing councils thousands of pounds to eradicate. Please issue a warning about this plant on your next programme."Iain Robson, a Northumberland countryside ranger, said: "This stuff is a real menace if it escapes into a natural water body.

The pond in my village, Ellington, was covered by the stuff in under three weeks. Clearance had to be done by hand and cost the parish council quite a bit."Cathy McNeill, of BBC Information, wrote to Ms Smith: "I put your comments to Chris Beardshaw, who said, 'We used Azolla as it is an effective surface plant that is delicate-looking and has wonderful autumn colour. It is well-suited to managed ponds, although it does grow vigorously. We were showing how it can play a useful role in a pond which did not have access to a natural watercourse or ditch.

Like all cultivated plants which successfully adapt to their environment, it requires managing and pruning, or fishing out. I think the plant can be very useful but it is not suitable for everyone's garden. We are aware of the debate on Azolla and would not recommend it in circumstances where the plant could not be controlled.' ". The last year has been a great success story for Loughborough University Students Club. Both men and women were promoted to the Premier Division of their National Leagues, the only student sides ever to have reached Premier status, and are currently resting in fourth and sixth places. The last year has been a great success story for Loughborough University Students Club.