Children: our top priority

Scotland's chief medical officer was talking about love yesterday. Not the stuff of Shakespeare sonnets and red roses, but how a mother comforts a crying baby or responds to their smiles. In his second annual report, Dr Harry Burns focuses on his pet theory: that adversity in infancy causes biological changes that can stunt a child's life chances. Others share this view, including the police-led Violence Reduction Unit and Alan Sinclair, who reported on the issue for the Work Foundation.