PM defends choices such as cutting winter fuel allowance as long-term remedies as polls show his popularity falling
Keir Starmer has said painful decisions such as cutting winter fuel payment to save £1.4bn a year are necessary as failure to act would be simply “putting a lick of paint over the damp”.
The prime minister described the process of taking decisions “that aren’t going to be popular” as part of a strategy of “strip down the joint, rebuild the house”.
Continue reading...Enthusiasm for public sector pay awards tempered by concern over winter fuel payment cuts and job losses
“We’re hearing an awful lot about tough times: it’s like being in a Dickens novel. What comes after the tough times? We need to hear about hope.”
Onay Kasab, the national lead officer for the Unite trade union, was addressing a leftwing fringe meeting, but similar sentiments reverberated through the bars and coffee shops at this week’s TUC congress in Brighton.
Continue reading...Junk food ad ban, age limit on energy drinks and expanded water fluoridation among measures planned to help NHS
Plans to ban junk food ads and to stop children buying high-caffeine energy drinks are among radical public health measures being drawn up by ministers to prevent illness and so ease pressure on the NHS.
The government made clear it would face down “predictable cries of ‘nanny state’” because Keir Starmer was convinced this was the way to fix the service.
Continue reading...Meta’s global affairs chief points to ‘behavioural issue’ around child safety tools on the social media platforms
Parents do not use parental controls on Facebook and Instagram, according to Meta’s Nick Clegg, with adults failing to embrace the 50 child safety tools the company has introduced in recent years.
Meta’s global affairs chief said there was a “behavioural issue” around using the tools, after admitting they were being ignored by parents. Regulatory pressure is building on tech companies to protect children from harmful content, with the Australian government announcing plans this week to ban younger teenagers from accessing social media.
Continue reading...The government saw off a rebellion over its plans to cut winter fuel allowance this week. John Harris speaks to Caroline Abrahams from Age UK about what this winter will look like for millions of pensioners losing out. Plus, he talks to columnist Rafael Behr about whether the technocrats (Starmer and Reeves) are taking the Labour party in the wrong direction
Continue reading...Budget cuts to local services fell disproportionately on care for obese patients, leading to ‘postcode lottery’
The NHS is restricting access to obesity services across England, leading to patients in nearly half the country being unable to book appointments with specialist teams for support and treatments such as weight-loss jabs.
An investigation by the British Medical Journal found budget cuts to local services fell disproportionately on obesity care, with patients living with the condition often deemed less worthy of care than others.
Continue reading...Patients and relatives turn on doctors and nurses, with 16,000 reports of physical and verbal assaults in 2023 alone
Doctors’ and nurses’ unions in Italy have called for authorities to consider bringing the army into hospitals in response to an increase in attacks by patients and their relatives that provoked outrage across the country.
In one of the latest, captured on video and widely shared on social media, doctors and nurses were forced to barricade themselves in a room at the Policlinico hospital in Foggia, in the southern region of Puglia, on Friday after about 50 relatives and friends of a 23-year-old woman who died after an emergency operation turned on medical staff. Some healthcare workers were injured, with bloodstains visible on the emergency room floor.
Continue reading...Housing minister says policy will not be watered down day after dozens of Labour MPs abstained in key vote
Plans to scale back winter fuel payments for pensioners will not be watered down, a UK government minister has said, after dozens of Labour MPs abstained on a key Commons vote on Tuesday night.
The housing and planning minister, Matthew Pennycook, was speaking the morning after MPs voted to remove the winter fuel allowance from all but the poorest pensioners in England and Wales.
Continue reading...From crummy pubs to a ‘cheeky Tesco run’, some of the most mundane aspects of British life are going viral
Think of British cultural exports in the 21st century and you might reach for the familiar examples: James Bond, Downton Abbey, Adele.
But in the algorithm-driven universe of TikTok where a trend known as “Britishcore” is one of the most in demand movements of the moment, it’s the mundane aspects of life in the UK which are going viral.
Continue reading...Prevalence of screw-top bottles and abstinence among young people blamed for falling popularity of gadget
It was once an essential piece of kit in every kitchen but, like the corks that gave it a reason to exist, tastemakers are announcing the “death of the corkscrew” after it lost the battle with screw-tops and younger consumers who do not know how to use one.
Forget music or fashion, it turns out that it is ownership of a corkscrew that divides young and old, according to research. Only 27% of 18- to 24-year-olds own one of the devices while for the over-65s that figure stands at 81%, according to the annual trends report by the household goods retailer Lakeland.
Continue reading...Report reveals how US Christians, Catholic schools and Islamists fight sex education, LGBTQ+ and equal rights
Extreme religious groups and political parties are targeting schools around the world as part of a coordinated and well-funded attack on gender equality, according to a new report.
Well-known conservative organisations aim to restrict girls’ access to education, change what is on the curriculum, and influence educational laws and policies, according to Whose Hands on our Education, a report by the Overseas Development Institute.
Continue reading...Police association chief says criminals potentially being freed in England and Wales without proper rehabilitation plans
Police are at “the centre of a storm” caused by poor planning after 1,700 prisoners were released early across England and Wales to ease overcrowding, a senior officer has said.
Amid concerns that hundreds of inmates could end up homeless or return to crime, the president of the Police Superintendents’ Association, Nick Smart, said some inmates were being set free without a programme and that the police would be left to deal with the consequences.
Continue reading...While Commons rebellion was small-scale, behind the scenes, anger over handling of the policy is said to run high
In the end, the vote to cut the winter fuel allowance passed easily. Hundreds of loyalist Labour MPs tramped through the lobbies to back the government’s controversial plan. No 10 will hope the heat has gone out of the issue.
But despite dodging a major rebellion, plenty in government were not taking much comfort from the result. Scores of MPs abstained in silent protest, fearful that they could be condemning vulnerable pensioners to a cold, hard winter.
Continue reading...Inspired by Finnish success story, mayor Andy Burnham says unconditional homes policy ‘saves public money’
The Greater Manchester mayor, Andy Burnham, has turned to Finland for bold lessons in how to tackle rough sleeping in the city.
Burnham has said he is committed to making the region “the first in the UK to adopt a ‘housing first’ philosophy like Finland”. A scheme launched there in 2008 that gives people homes when they need them, without conditions attached, has brought down homelessness by 70% and eradicated poverty-based homelessness completely.
Continue reading...Hospitals and adoption agencies appear to have colluded to force single mothers to give up children, commission finds
South Korea has found new evidence that mothers were forced to give up their children for adoption in countries including Australia, Denmark and the United States.
At least 200,000 South Korean children had been adopted abroad since the 1950s, but allegations have emerged that hospitals, maternity wards and adoption agencies systematically colluded to force parents – primarily single mothers – to give up their children.
Continue reading...Living microbes that cause disease in humans and host antibiotic-resistance genes carried 1,200 miles
Microbes that cause disease in humans can travel thousands of miles on high-level winds, scientists have revealed for the first time.
The winds studied carried a surprising diversity of bacteria and fungi, including known pathogens and, some with genes for resistance to multiple antibiotics. Some of the microbes were shown to be alive – in other words, they had survived the long journey and were able to replicate.
Continue reading...After three years and more than 5,000 submissions, royal commission into veteran suicide hands down its full report. Here are its key points
Australian defence force personnel and veterans have suffered “a catastrophic failure of leadership at all levels” to prioritise their health and wellbeing, according to the head of a long-running royal commission into veteran suicide.
Nick Kaldas, the former New South Wales police deputy commissioner, made the comment on Monday shortly before the royal commission he chaired provided its final report to the federal government.
Continue reading...Britain’s pandemic response was among the worst and the NHS had been ‘seriously weakened’, says leading surgeon
• Three reports lay bare scale of NHS malaise, but will Reeves fund a remedy?
Britain was hit far harder by the Covid-19 pandemic than other developed countries because the NHS had been “seriously weakened” by disastrous government policies over the preceding decade, a wide-ranging report will conclude this week.
An assessment of the NHS by the world-renowned surgeon Prof Ara Darzi, commissioned in July by the health secretary, Wes Streeting, will find that the health service reduced its “routine healthcare activity by a far greater percentage than other health systems” in many key areas during the Covid crisis.
Continue reading...Jab not yet approved for children, who make up most cases, while officials warn millions more doses will be required
The first donation of mpox vaccines arrived in Democratic Republic of the Congo on Thursday, but officials say millions more doses will be needed.
The announcement came amid warnings that the geographical spread of the virus, formerly known as monkeypox, was increasing, and swift action was needed across the continent to contain the outbreak.
Continue reading...Lawyer for relatives says Thirlwall inquiry into case of killer nurse, due to begin next week, is ‘vitally important’
Families of some of Lucy Letby’s victims are calling for CCTV on neonatal wards, tighter control of insulin in hospitals and more protection for NHS whistleblowers, their lawyer has said before a public inquiry begins next week.
The Thirlwall inquiry, which starts on Tuesday, has been set up to examine what happened at the Countess of Chester hospital, where Letby worked. She has been convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven more while based there as a neonatal nurse.
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