International research also reveals conscientious or agreeable children are likely to receive preferential treatment
As Philip Larkin once noted, your mum and dad have a lasting effect on you. Now, researchers have revealed which siblings in a family are more likely to be favoured: it is bad news for sons.
Researchers have found daughters, older children and those who are more conscientious or agreeable are likely to receive preferential treatment.
Continue reading...Royal College of Nursing says people ‘routinely coming to harm’ with vital equipment not available and staff too busy
Patients are dying in hospital corridors and going undiscovered for hours, while others who suffer heart attacks cannot be given CPR because of overcrowding in walkways, a bombshell report on the state of the NHS has revealed.
So many patients are being cared for in hospital corridors across the UK that in some cases pregnant women are having miscarriages outside wards while other patients are unable to call for help because they have no call bell and are subjected to “animal-like conditions”, said the Royal College of Nursing.
Patients have died on trolleys and chairs in corridors and waiting rooms in settings where “all the fundamentals of care have broken down”.
One nurse had seen “cardiac arrests in the corridor with no crash bell, crash trolley, oxygen, defibrillator … straddling a patient doing CPR while everyone watches on”.
Patients are being given drugs, intravenous infusions and, in one case, a blood transfusion in corridors which are cold, noisy and too cramped to allow them to have loved ones present.
One nurse had to tell a patient he was dying as other patients were wheeled past and orders were shouted across the unit. They said: “How is it fair to tell someone they are dying in a corridor?”
Lack of space means patients also being treated in storerooms, car parks, offices and even toilets.
Continue reading...Surrey town saw 12.5% increase in asking prices last year with rest of UK rising just 1.4%, according to Rightmove
It’s very name conjures images of warmth, and now Sunbury-on-Thames has been named as a property hotspot. According to listings website Rightmove, the Surrey town recorded the biggest rise in asking prices in Great Britain last year, registering a 12.5% leap in the average, from £527,005 to £592,976.
The town has long been popular with commuters, as it takes less than an hour to travel into London Waterloo station, and is close to the recently expanded Shepperton Studios, which now claims to be the second biggest film studio in the world.
Continue reading...Patients tell of their anger and embarrassment, while healthcare professionals say they are ‘heartbroken’
John, 42, said he was “quite angry” after spending about 24 hours in a hospital corridor in south-west England, having arrived in A&E on Monday afternoon with chest pain. “It was very clear that the hospital was running beyond capacity.”
At the time of writing, he had moved to a different hospital in the area and was waiting for an angiogram on Wednesday. Messaging from his corridor hospital bed he said: “It’s narrow, cramped and there is zero patient privacy.”
Continue reading...Leader Ed Davey to call for talks to begin immediately, urging ministers to be ‘far more positive, far more ambitious’
The Liberal Democrats are to call for the government to seek a formal customs union with the EU to boost growth and insulate the UK from the impacts of a Trump presidency, a move that will place new pressure on Keir Starmer over Europe.
The changed Lib Dem stance – the party’s election manifesto argued only for closer links with Europe – will be made by its leader, Ed Davey, in a speech in London on Thursday.
Continue reading...A woman claimed her drink was spiked on 7 January in Stranger’s Bar, within Palace of Westminster
Police are investigating an alleged spiking in a bar on the Westminster parliamentary estate.
A woman, believed to be a parliamentary researcher, told police and staff at parliament’s Strangers’ Bar that her drink had been spiked, according to Politico.
Continue reading...Vaccine damage payment scheme ‘inadequate and inefficient,’ says Vaccine Injured spokesperson
People who were severely harmed by Covid vaccines faced an “inadequate and inefficient” process for obtaining a government payout, with many rejected and others waiting years for a decision, the Covid inquiry has heard.
The vaccine damage payment scheme offers a one-off sum of £120,000 to people who have such serious adverse reactions to the vaccines that they are at least 60% disabled. But people affected by vaccine injuries told the inquiry they did not get the help and financial support they deserved.
Continue reading...Exclusive: First show of figurative painter’s work to be displayed in city he fled in 1939 to escape Nazi regime
Frank Auerbach is to be the subject of what has been billed as a homecoming show in Berlin, at which some of his final paintings will be displayed in the city he fled as a child.
Auerbach, who died in November last year, never had a show in the city of his birth, which he left due to persecution by the Nazis. Both of his parents were later killed in Auschwitz.
Continue reading...Future of Diego Garcia military base should be considered before handover to Mauritius signed off, No 10 says
The UK government will not sign off a deal to hand back the Chagos Islands to Mauritius until Donald Trump’s administration has had a chance to consider the future of the joint military base, Downing Street has confirmed.
Allies of the US president-elect have been critical of the deal because of the implications for the strategically important Diego Garcia base, with concerns that it could bolster Chinese interests in the Indian Ocean.
Continue reading...Prime minister says global economy experiencing volatility after Conservative leader attacks him over economy
The Mauritian government said talks will continue on the Chagos Islands deal, with attorney general Gavin Glover set to return to the UK for further negotiations, PA Media reports.
A statement issued following a meeting of prime minister Navin Ramgoolam’s cabinet said:
The commitment and resolve of Mauritius to reach an agreement and end this long battle for the sovereignty of Mauritius over the Chagos Archipelago remains unshaken.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Newly uncovered documents reveal chemicals giant was aware ‘environmentally neutral’ products did not biodegrade
The multibillion-dollar chemicals company 3M told customers its firefighting foams were harmless and biodegradable when it knew they contained toxic substances so persistent they are now known as “forever chemicals” and banned in many countries including the UK, newly uncovered documents show.
From the 1960s until 2003, 3M made foams containing PFOS and PFOA (perfluorooctane sulfonate and perfluorooctanoic acid), synthetic chemicals that can take tens of thousands of years to degrade in the environment and have been linked to cancers and a range of other health problems such as thyroid disease, high cholesterol, hormonal problems and fertility issues.
Continue reading...Owner highlights parcel deliveries performance as £3.6bn takeover by Czech billionaire nears completion
The owner of Royal Mail has said it received a fillip from parcel deliveries over Christmas, putting it on track to return to annual profit, as its £3.6bn takeover by the Czech billionaire Daniel Křetínský nears completion.
International Distribution Services (IDS) said Royal Mail delivered more than 99% of items sent on or before the recommended last posting dates in time for Christmas.
Continue reading...Agents says the ‘celebrated Irish pop legend’ died ‘with her loving siblings by her bedside’
The singer and TV personality Linda Nolan, who had chart success alongside her sisters in the pop vocal group the Nolans before a TV career, has died aged 65.
She had been diagnosed with cancer in 2017. Her agent, Dermont McNamara, said in a statement that she had died in Blackpool’s Victoria hospital “with her loving siblings by her bedside, ensuring she was embraced with love and comfort during her final moments”.
Continue reading...Trio will present football highlights show after Gary Lineker steps down, BBC says
The new hosts of Match of the Day have promised to “evolve” the TV institution when they take the reins this summer, after the BBC confirmed that three people will replace Gary Lineker at the end of the current season.
Gabby Logan, Kelly Cates and Mark Chapman are to share presenting duties on the football highlights show, which celebrated its 60th anniversary last year. The trio have all previously worked together on the BBC and are each established broadcasters with decades of experience between them.
Continue reading...Two teenagers held on suspicion of murder and woman on suspicion of assisting offender, after Kelyan Bokassa’s death
Police investigating the fatal stabbing of a 14-year-old boy on a London bus have arrested three people.
Kelyan Bokassa was travelling on a 472 bus to Abbey Wood when he was attacked at about 2.30pm on Tuesday as the bus was on Woolwich Church Road.
Continue reading...Former Labour minister’s family background is indelibly bound up with Bangladesh
When Keir Starmer became the Labour leader in 2020, Tulip Siddiq described him in her local paper as a “good friend through thick and thin”.
On Tuesday, she found out where the limits of that friendship lay after the prime minister accepted her resignation from the government after weeks of revelations about Siddiq’s closeness to her aunt, the former prime minister of Bangladesh.
Continue reading...Some in No 10 wish they had thought a bit more about how it looked before giving job to niece of ousted Bangladesh PM
The warning signs were always there. When a photo of Tulip Siddiq standing alongside Vladimir Putin and her aunt, the now ousted leader of Bangladesh, emerged in 2015, alarm bells rang within the Labour party.
At the time, Siddiq was the Labour candidate for the marginal seat of Hampstead and Kilburn. Yet she brushed aside concerns over her presence at the signing of a billion-dollar arms deal and nuclear power project at the Kremlin two years earlier.
Continue reading...Helen Pitcher resigned from the CCRC saying she had been ‘scapegoated’ over Malkinson’s case
Andrew Malkinson has called the former head of the miscarriage of justice watchdog “shameless” as she resigned from the job saying she had been “scapegoated for entirely legitimate decisions” taken over his case.
Helen Pitcher handed in her resignation as chair of the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) on Tuesday afternoon after learning that an independent panel had concluded by a majority of two to one that she was no longer fit to be chair.
Continue reading...Media organisations are challenging ruling that they cannot name three judges involved in proceedings relating to 10-year-old who was later murdered
A unprecedented ban on naming judges who oversaw proceedings related to the care of Sara Sharif before she was murdered is likely to have a “corrosive impact” on public confidence in the justice system, the court of appeal has been told.
Mr Justice Williams ruled in December that the media could not name three judges who oversaw three sets of family court proceedings relating to the 10-year-old schoolgirl over concerns they would be subject to a “virtual lynch mob”. He also said he did not believe the media could be trusted to report matters in a fair, accurate and responsible way.
Continue reading...MPs examining plans for legislation were told 11,500 staff on the contracts, which do not guarantee weekly shifts
The owner of Sports Direct has confirmed that two-thirds of its retail workforce remain on zero-hours contracts ahead of new legislation designed to limit their use.
Frasers Group told MPs who are examining plans to strengthen protection for employees that 11,500 staff were on the contracts, which do not guarantee any weekly working shifts, and did not receive compensation even if shifts were changed at the last minute.
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