Memorial to novelist would be by Thames, which would evoke her suicide by drowning
Concerns have been raised about a planned statue of Virginia Woolf overlooking the Thames, which has been called insensitive because of the way she killed herself.
The memorial the author, designed by Laury Dizengremel, would be positioned on a park bench overlooking the river on Richmond riverside in south-west London, where she lived for about a decade from 1914.
Continue reading...Prof John Edmunds says millions still unvaccinated and warns that surge on continent ‘shows how quickly things can go wrong’
The surge in coronavirus infections across Europe shows the “critical” need for people in the UK to get vaccinated, a government scientific adviser has said.
Prof John Edmunds, of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, told Sky News that the rise in cases on the continent underlined “how quickly things can go wrong”. He pointed out that there were still “many millions” across the UK who were still not fully vaccinated, while some have not had any Covid shots at all.
Continue reading...The late diagnosis of Melanie Sykes and Christine McGuinness came as no surprise to those who, like Sara Gibbs, have trodden the same path
The news of Melanie Sykes and Christine McGuinness’s late autism diagnoses may have come as a surprise to many. After all, they are glamorous career women. They look nothing like the stereotype of autism we as a culture are used to. I, however, was not shocked, knowing only too well that you can’t tell anything about someone’s private reality from their public image.
As I read their stories, I couldn’t help but imagine what they might be feeling. Were they elated? Confused? Excited? Terrified? Angry? Relieved? All of the above?
Continue reading...With queues for petrol, inflation and Abba on the radio, it’s easy to compare the two decades. But you wouldn’t if you were there, says Polly Toynbee, as she revisits the styles of her youth
Queueing for petrol, I turn on the radio and there are Abba, singing their latest hit. Shortages on shop shelves are headline news, with warnings of a panic-buying Christmas. And national debt is sky high. But this isn’t the 1970s; it’s 2021. People who weren’t born then have been calling this a return to that decade. There are similarities, of course: this retro-thought was sparked by the recent petrol queues, people as frantic to fill up to get to work as I remember back then. Elsewhere, flowing floral midi dresses are back, just like the ones I wore; Aldi is selling rattan hanging egg chairs; and, as well as Abba, the charts have been topped by Elton John. But is this really a 1970s reprise?
No, nothing like it; not history repeated, not even as farce – just a stylist’s pastiche, as bold as the wallpaper I’m posing in front of here. Folk memory preserves only the 1974 three-day week; the miners’ strike blackouts, with no street lights and candle shortages; the embargo that quadrupled the price of oil. True, I did queue at the coal merchant’s to fire up an ancient stove for lack of any other heat or light. But the decade shouldn’t be defined by this, or by 1978-79’s “winter of discontent” strikes, a brief but pungent time of rubbish uncollected and (a very few) bodies unburied by council gravediggers.
Continue reading...Ministers launch public consultation and will also investigate limiting wet wipes, tobacco filters and sachets
Single-use plastic items such as plates, cutlery and polystyrene cups could be banned in England as the government seeks to eliminate plastic waste.
Under proposals in a 12-week public consultation, businesses and consumers will need to move towards more sustainable alternatives.
Continue reading...After the pandemic more women are choosing to work from home but that choice could damage career prospects
Employees want it, employers know they have to offer it; flexible working has transformed almost every office during the pandemic and it’s here to stay.
It is a change that has been demanded for decades by groups including women, those with caring responsibilities and disabled people. But economists and employment experts are warning it could lead to more inequality at the office, particularly for working mothers.
Continue reading...Nevres Kemal demands Miles Scott quits as chief executive of Maidstone and Tunbridge NHS trust
The mother of one of the victims of the morgue rapist, David Fuller, is campaigning for the boss of the hospital where Fuller serially abused corpses undetected for 12 years to resign.
The body of Azra Kemal was raped three times in July 2020 in the morgue of Tunbridge Wells hospital by Fuller, a hospital electrician, who is known to have violated at least 100 corpses between 2008 and 2010.
Continue reading...Okehampton welcomes revamp of service connecting Dartmoor town to Exeter and beyond
In 1972, the people of Okehampton turned out in force to wish a fond farewell to the Devon moorland town’s regular passenger rail service.
The mayor, Walter John Passmore, carried a funeral wreath and his wife, Daisy, waved the green flag to signal the final train’s departure, just about managing a sad smile for the cameras.
Continue reading...Morale low as scandals and doubts on policy delivery add to worries about PM’s competence
A shame-faced Boris Johnson told his own MPs this week that he had “crashed the car into the ditch” by misjudging the Owen Paterson scandal. As he heads to his country retreat of Chequers this weekend, some at Westminster have begun to wonder if he has what it takes to get the show back on the road.
As well as exposing Johnson’s lax approach to probity in public life, the Paterson debacle highlighted what those who have worked with him say is one of his most maddening characteristics – the impetuous style of decision-making and tendency to sudden reversals cruelly caricatured by Dominic Cummings as “like a shopping trolley”.
Continue reading...Campaigners say removal of blue badge parking to make way for new defences is in breach of Equality Act
Disability rights campaigners are planning a legal challenge against York council after it voted to ban blue badge parking on key streets in the city centre.
York Accessibility Action (YAA), an organisation founded by disabled York residents and carers, said the city has become a “no go zone” for many disabled people and there was now no suitable parking within 150 metres of the city centre.
Continue reading...It is not customary to look forward to Monday mornings but, in the heyday of the Guardian’s print sales in the late 1970s and 80s, many readers relished Monday’s paper more than anything else.
On a features page would be Posy Simmonds’ weekly dissection of middle-class life. And, further back, stretched across the width of the main sports page, David Lacey would offer his weekly dissection of football. Like Posy’s cartoon strip, this was one of the great institutions of British journalism.
Continue reading...Second reading of bill to ban marriage for under-18s receives cross-party support
A ban on child marriage in England and Wales came a step closer Friday with cross-party support for a new bill in the House of Commons.
The marriage and civil partnership (minimum age) bill had its second reading in parliament, with government and opposition MPs supporting the private member’s bill brought by Conservative MP Pauline Latham.
Continue reading...Women from around the world describe the life-changing impact of finally receiving a diagnosis
Less than 20 hours after asking women who had received a late diagnosis of autism, we received 139 replies from around the world.
There were women whose lives had been scarred by victimisation, from bullying to rape, because without a diagnosis they did not know they were highly vulnerable to manipulation and abuse.
Continue reading...Analysis: likes of Slovakia and Austria have worse figures but UK’s have topped EU average for months
As Covid infection rates surged again across Europe, Boris Johnson spoke this week of “storm clouds gathering” over parts of the continent and said it was unclear when or how badly the latest wave would “wash up on our shores”.
The situation in some EU member states, particularly those with low vaccination rates, is indeed dramatic. In central and eastern Europe in particular, but also Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands, case numbers are rocketing.
Continue reading...Kew Gardens and RHS reporting glut of funghi as public sends in ‘weird and wonderful’ samples
The UK is having a bumper year for mushrooms due to the warm, damp weather, says scientists, with an increase in the number of rare and unusual species identified.
Members of the public have been sending in unusual samples from their gardens to experts at Kew Gardens and the Royal Horticultural Society after a glut of fungi this year, and scientists say such booms will become more common as Britain’s climate changes to become warmer and wetter.
Continue reading...Report says detailed plans on shielding, job support schemes and school disruption were lacking
Ministers were not “fully prepared” for the “wide-ranging impacts” that Covid-19 had on society, the economy and essential public services in the UK, and lacked detailed plans on shielding, job support schemes and school disruption, a report has found.
Some lessons from “previous simulation exercises” that would have helped with Covid-19 preparations were “not fully implemented”, according to the National Audit Office (NAO).
Continue reading...Micheál Martin calls for resolution on Northern Ireland, saying: ‘don’t leave it until Christmas Eve this year’
The Irish prime minister, Micheál Martin, has said the UK and EU need to “knuckle down” and resolve the dispute over Northern Ireland’s post-Brexit arrangements.
The UK’s Brexit minister, Lord Frost, will hold further talks with the European Commission vice-president, Maroš Šefčovič, on Friday, with the UK still warning it could unilaterally suspend parts of the Northern Ireland deal unless major changes are made.
Continue reading...Migraines disappeared after man started diet that included lots of dark-green leafy vegetables, study shows
Health experts are calling for more research into diet and migraines after doctors revealed a patient who had suffered severe and debilitating headaches for more than a decade completely eliminated them after adopting a plant-based diet.
He had tried prescribed medication, yoga and meditation, and cut out potential trigger foods in an effort to reduce the severity and frequency of his severe headaches – but nothing worked. The migraines made it almost impossible to perform his job, he said.
Continue reading...PM Edi Rama says he will ‘never receive refugees for richer countries’ after Raab said UK was exploring plans
Albania has strenuously denied it is willing to process people crossing the Channel to Britain, after the UK deputy prime minister, Dominic Raab, confirmed that the government is exploring ways of processing asylum seekers abroad.
Edi Rama, the prime minister, said he would “never receive refugees for richer countries”, after a report in the Times suggested Albania would be willing to host an offshore processing centre for people arriving in the UK from France in small boats.
Continue reading...UK cases remain high; Austria’s daily infections hit a new record
From Washington, David Smith brings us this report about hard-hitting Covid-19 documentary The First Wave:
It is tempting to suggest that the Covid deniers, the hoaxers, the hucksters, the anti-vaxxers, the flat earthers, the merchants of disinformation and the crackpot conspiracy theorists be strapped into a chair and force fed The First Wave, a harrowing documentary about the early toll of the coronavirus pandemic.
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