Split the cucumbers lengthways and scrape out the seeds with a spoon, then roughly chop the flesh. Blend the cucumber with the vegetable stock, olive oil, sugar and the mint leaves until it's the consistency you like - chunky or smooth Season to taste and churn in an ice cream machine Leave in the freezer until you're ready to eat the soup. The day before you'll be eating, put all the ingredients for the soup into a bowl, cover with clingfilm and leave in the fridge This helps the flavours merge. Liquidise in a blender until smooth and strain through a fine-meshed sieve for a smooth version, or leave as it is for a more robust soup Chill for an hour or so. If you like, the soup can be served with hot croutons as well as the cucumber sorbet.
Fry 1cm cubes of white bread (crusts removed) in olive oil until they begin to colour, then add a clove of peeled and crushed garlic and continue frying the croutons until golden. Transfer on to kitchen paper and season with a little salt and pepper. Serve the gazpacho in chilled soup bowls with a scoop of sorbet in the middle and, if you've made them, the warm croutons scattered on top .. The paediatrician Professor Sir Roy Meadow has been struck off the medical register for giving erroneous and misleading evidence in the trial of Sally Clark, the Cheshire solicitor jailed for life in 1999 for murdering her two sons. The General Medical Council delivered its ultimate sanction against the former president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health who has an international reputation for his work on child protection, despite hearing evidence that his research had saved many children's lives. At the end of the three-week hearing, a fitness-to- practise panel of the GMC found Sir Roy, 72, guilty of serious professional misconduct for making "grave errors" in the presentation of statistical evidence in the case that had "serious repercussions" and which "constituted a serious departure from the standard expected of a registered medical practitioner".The chair of the GMC panel, Mary Clark-Glass, told him: "You are an eminent paediatrician whose reputation was renowned ...
and so your authority carried a unique responsibility to take meticulous care in a case of this grave nature."The panel concluded that to preserve public confidence in the profession it was necessary to remove the professor's name from the register. The decision is more symbolic than practical as Sir Roy has been retired since 1998 but it means his illustrious career is ending in ignominy.The GMC decision follows the overturning of the convictions against Sally Clark, who was freed on her second appeal in 2003, Angela Cannings and Donna Anthony, and led to the biggest review of child protection cases in legal history.Sir Roy had told the Clark trial that the chances of two natural cot deaths in the same family was one in 73 million. But the GMC panel heard that a first cot death in a family made a second more likely and that the figure was grossly inflated.The panel accepted that Sir Roy had not intended to mislead the jury in the Clark trial butMrs Clark-Glass said: "Your misguided belief in the truth of your arguments, maintained ... throughout this inquiry, is disturbing and serious." She said his use of statistics "may have seriously under-mined the authority of doctors giving expert evidence".Sally Clark's family welcomed the decision but condemned Sir Roy for his failure to apologise to "any of the families for the dreadful damage he has caused to us".Donna Anthony, who was freed in April after serving six years, said: "The medical world has lost a fine paediatrician All he needed to say was, 'I got it wrong' I never wanted any of this All I wanted was an apology.". I applied for a mortgage from Scottish Widows Bank on 1 April. I was told on 20 May that the loan had been approved and I'd be sent a written offer soon I still have not received it, despite various promises PD, Surrey A Scottish Widows apologises for its mistakes. "Quite simply, our internal administration failed in that we had believed the offer to have been issued when it had not been," the bank admits The loan has now been offered and issued Scottish Widows is sending you £100 in compensation. Q.
