Here are a couple of bits of UK news to be happy about.

Firstly the proposed law that would have required anyone working with children, for no matter how little time, to be put through a vetting process, is to be eased. It will now apply only to people who work with kids about once a month. This means it will not apply to writers who come to a school to read from their work, unless they do so very regularly. Score one for Philip Pullman. It also presumably no longer applies to people who run child care at conventions, again unless they do so very regularly. Much relief all around.

Meanwhile the European Commission has decided that the UK Government’s proposed “Equality” Bill, which in several places is essentially a charter to discriminate, is in contravention of EU directives on workplace discrimination. The Guardian’s report notes that, “the UK is the only European country to have failed to implement two key EU directives on discrimination.” Those EU directives date all the way back to 2002. Hopefully someone in Westminster is suitably embarrassed.