Former nurse will never be released from prison as judge describes ‘deep malevolence bordering on sadism’
The serial killer nurse Lucy Letby will never be released from prison after a judge sentenced her to a rare whole-life term for the “sadistic” murder of seven babies.
Letby, 33, is one of only three women alive to have been given such a jail term in the UK. She was sentenced at Manchester crown court on Monday.
Continue reading...The over-55s account for biggest rise in trainee teachers in England, with a 75% increase in applications
The work and pensions secretary, Mel Stride, recently suggested that unemployed people over 50 should consider delivering takeaways.
But the army of missing workers Stride was seeking are looking to do something more productive with their time: this year, the over-55s accounted for the biggest rise in new trainee teachers in England, with a 75% increase in applications.
Continue reading...A lower price cap will still mean unaffordable bills for many. Yet a fairer alternative has been quietly dropped
Nearly a decade ago, former Labour leader Ed Miliband sowed the seeds of the energy price cap, vowing to protect households from unfair tariffs by freezing their energy bills. But even though a cap has been in place since 2018, bills today can be far from affordable, even when they are fair.
On Friday, industry regulator Ofgem will set its new limit on how much suppliers can charge per unit of gas and electricity. Analysts at Cornwall Insight expect it to lower the energy price cap from £2,074 a year for the typical household to £1,823, which would be its lowest level since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Continue reading...New trade barriers were compounded by Covid and tax changes
Kimi Karjalainen and his brother Marko poured their life savings into Bone Machine Brewing Co when it opened in Pocklington, East Yorkshire, in 2017 before moving to Hull, as part of the craft beer revolution that swept Britain.
“The entire investment, not including time and labour that we gave for free, was about £70,000,” Karjalainen said. Four weeks ago, it was gone. “That was my parents’ retirement.”
Continue reading...Makeshift outdoor show held after two venues cancel booking of comedian known for his gender-critical beliefs
A comedy event featuring Father Ted creator Graham Linehan was staged in the open air outside the Scottish parliament on Thursday evening, after a second Edinburgh venue refused to stage it.
The organisers, Comedy Unleashed, booked the plaza outside Holyrood’s main entrance, and erected a small makeshift stage for an audience of roughly 120 people, after failing to find another indoor venue.
Continue reading...Councils accused of downplaying women’s football compared with men’s, with scarcity of planned public viewing parties
The Lionesses drew an average of 4.6 million viewers during their World Cup semi-final, yet fans are disappointed that councils have failed to respond to the team’s success by putting on free public viewing parties for the final.
The BBC said a peak audience of 7.3 million tuned in to watch England beat Australia 3-1 on Wednesday, despite the time zone difference resulting in an 11am kick-off time.
Continue reading...Club says no decision has been made about future of footballer which is ‘subject of intensive internal deliberation’
Rachel Riley, the co-presenter of Countdown, has said she will stop supporting Manchester United if the club allows Mason Greenwood to return.
Manchester United said on Wednesday no decision had been made about the 21-year-old’s future, which it said is still the “subject of intensive internal deliberation”.
Continue reading...Currently two-week wait target is not being met as government says new guidelines will consolidate ten current targets into three
There was some consternation in the comments yesterday at any passing mention of the football, which is going to make it awkward to do the front pages today, with an awful lot of papers featuring the Lionesses upfront and centre.
The Guardian led with the prime minister promising to protect the pensions triple lock, which could see a massive benefits rise given how high inflation is running.
Continue reading...Exclusive: government’s response also indicates Canada intends to criminalise coercive control, a form of intimate partner violence
Gender-based violence is an “epidemic” that “has no place in our country”, Canada’s new justice minister has said in a letter delivered in response to a public inquest into a triple femicide in rural Ontario.
The six-page letter dated 14 August – the federal government’s official response to last summer’s inquest – also indicates Canada intends to pursue the criminalisation of coercive control, a form of intimate partner violence intended to isolate, intimidate and control victims.
Continue reading...Up to 17,000 more children a day lack food, Save the Children say, as global indifference to humanitarian crisis condemned as ‘racist’
The past four months of fighting in Sudan has pushed millions into food insecurity – with an additional 1.5 million children expected to fall into crisis levels of hunger by September – as aid agencies say they are struggling to reach people.
Up to 17,000 children a day have been falling into crisis levels of hunger, Save the Children warned on Tuesday. With 4 million people displaced so far, the charity said more people were facing hunger in Sudan than at any point since records there began in 2012.
Continue reading...Health secretary suggested patients could go directly to diagnostic test or clinician to ease ‘bottleneck’ in NHS system
Patients with cancer symptoms could bypass their GP in the future and go straight for a scan, the health secretary has suggested, in the latest “radical” attempt by the government to cut huge NHS waiting lists.
The suggestion, which comes as the government is expected to reduce the number of NHS cancer waiting time targets, could form part of proposals to “design out bottlenecks” in the NHS system, Steve Barclay said in an interview.
Continue reading...Coalition urges health secretary to back changes as long-term sickness levels reach record high
A coalition of charities and health experts has called for an overhaul of the UK’s “broken” sick pay system, as the number of people prevented from working by long-term sickness reached a record high.
The health secretary, Steve Barclay, was urged in a letter to support changes that the campaign says would not just address widening health inequalities but also benefit the economy.
Continue reading...Many issues remain to be resolved after asylum seekers were evacuated on Friday because of a potentially deadly bacteria
The Home Office’s decision to use the Bibby Stockholm barge to accommodate asylum seekers generated controversy long before the first person set foot onboard.
But issues with its use came to a head on Friday when the government confirmed the asylum seekers were being evacuated just days after moving in because of legionella, a potentially deadly bacteria, being found in its water system. While officials have provided a plan to use an RAF base instead, many questions remain.
Continue reading...Proposals to ‘streamline’ treatment, which government says are clinically led, would cut number of targets from nine to three
Keir Starmer has accused the government of “moving the goalposts” as the number of NHS cancer waiting time targets is expected to be reduced.
The government has been consulting on the proposed measures to streamline NHS cancer care, which would replace the nine existing cancer targets with just three. The target of all patients seeing a specialist within two weeks of an urgent referral for cancer tests by the GP is expected to be scrapped.
Continue reading...Resolution Foundation report says much of industrial action ‘fuelled’ by public sector workers’ anger over falls in real-terms pay
About 3.9m working days have been lost to industrial action in the past year, more than at any point since the 1980s, according to a new analysis.
The Resolution Foundation, which focuses its research on low- to middle-income households, said many of the strikes were “fuelled” by anger among public sector workers over real-terms pay declines, which amounted to an average cut of more than 9% since 2021, adjusted for inflation.
Continue reading...Which? research finds cheese, butter and bread are up by more than 30% in the past two years, hitting the poor hardest
The cost of some basic food items such as cheese, butter and bread has soared by more than 30% in the last two years, forcing poorer households to “make desperate choices between keeping up with their bill payments or putting food on the table,” campaigners have said.
Food price inflation has slowed in recent months, but costs remain much higher than they were two years ago, disproportionally affecting low-income households, according to research by consumer body Which? shared exclusively with the Guardian.
Continue reading...The huge increase in students needed to fill medical training places, and supplying the staff to teach them, may not be feasible
A “once in a generation” NHS recruitment plan requiring an extra 50,000 clinical training places in less than a decade risks being derailed by difficulties in finding enough applicants and a shrinking number of staff to teach them.
A new analysis seen by the Observer reveals the sheer scale of the proposed increase in NHS staff implied by the government’s long-awaited workforce plan, unveiled at the start of the summer and given a broad welcome across the NHS.
Continue reading...Stephen Chitty, 70, from Watford raised about £2,000 for Mercy Ships on ‘tiring but rewarding’ journey
A 70-year-old man has raised almost £2,000 for charity by completing a 40-day challenge to travel the length and breadth of England entirely by bus.
Stephen Chitty, from Watford, Hertfordshire, travelled 1,650 miles on 117 buses. He started and finished his ambitious journey in Watford and travelled to English cities including Newcastle and Norwich.
Continue reading...Charities call for an end to the outsourcing of public debt as firms’ turnover rises nearly 50% in a year
Bailiffs hired by councils to recover unpaid debts have seen their profits rise to record levels during the cost of living crisis, company filings show.
Newlyn Group, which is hired by councils to recover unpaid traffic fines and council tax, saw its turnover from debt collection increase by 43.8% to £25.8m in the year to December 2022, while its gross profit rose to £15.5m. Company documents describe the figures as Newlyn’s “best ever results”.
Continue reading...Exclusive: BMA council chair says medics will have no option but to stage more industrial action until ministers make ‘credible offer’
Rishi Sunak’s “increasingly intransigent” and “belligerent” stance on medics’ pay is blocking the path to ending the industrial action in the NHS, leaving no option but to strike until the next general election, one of Britain’s top doctors has warned.
Speaking to the Guardian on Friday after junior doctors launched a fifth round of industrial action, Prof Philip Banfield, the chair of the British Medical Association (BMA) council, said the union was standing firm and that doctors would continue to hold stoppages until they received a “credible offer”.
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