Category Archives: England

FA criticised by Jewish groups over response to Hamas attacks

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  • Silence for all Israel-Palestine victims and no lit Wembley arch
  • Campaign Against Antisemitism says plan ‘utterly shameful’

Leading Jewish groups have hit out at English football’s response to the Hamas attacks in Israel and criticised the Football Association’s refusal to light up the Wembley arch in the colours of the Israeli flag.

With the FA believed to be nervous over being seen to favour one of Israel and Palestine, it has decided to hold a period of silence for all victims of the conflict before England host Australia in a friendly on Friday night. On a day when the Premier League broke its silence on the situation, it was announced that the England and Australia players would wear black armbands and that supporters would be prevented from bringing Israeli and Palestinian kits and flags into Wembley.

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FA will announce plans to honour Israel victims before England friendly

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  • Senior Jewish football executives have reached out to the FA
  • Sir Keir Starmer wants Wembley arch in Israeli flag colours

The FA will announce plans on Thursday to mark the recent atrocities in Israel at the friendly match between England and Australia, after leading Jewish figures within the game urged them to act.

As the leader of the opposition, Sir Keir Starmer, said he believed the Wembley arch should be illuminated in the colours of the Israeli flag following attacks by Hamas across the country last weekend, pressure grew on the FA to break the silence that has been consistent across the professional game this week.

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Dementia risk factors pose more danger for ethnic minorities, finds study

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Conditions such as diabetes and obesity are said to magnify risk of south Asian and black people developing the disease

The most common risk factors for dementia appear to have a more pronounced effect in black and Asian people, a study suggests, prompting calls for greater efforts to tackle health inequalities.

The number of adults living with dementia worldwide is on course to nearly triple to 153 million by 2050. Experts say the disease presents a major and rapidly growing threat to future health and social care systems in every community, country and continent.

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Forensic marking to protect England’s shipwreck sites from thieves

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Historic England announces scheme to deter would-be criminals from treasures at shipwreck sites

Shipwreck treasures that lie on seabeds around the coast of England are to be given “gamechanging” protection against criminals.

Historic England has announced details of a scheme that will involve, for the first time, forensic marking at some of the 57 most protected wreck sites.

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Rise in A&E visits for hiccups and earaches add to strain on NHS

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More people attending accident and emergency in England with sore throats, nosebleeds and insomnia

The NHS in England is facing mounting pressure amid a surge in patients attending A&E departments with minor ailments, health bosses have said.

Emergency departments, which are designed for serious injuries and life-threatening emergencies only, are seeing an increase in people attending with sore throats, insomnia, coughs and earache.

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Thousands attend protests and vigils in London over Israel-Hamas war

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Pro-Palestinian groups gather near Israeli embassy while pro-Israelis attend vigil in Westminster

Thousands of people have attended vigils and protests in London over the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

Pro-Palestinian protesters rallied outside the boarded-up Israeli embassy in Kensington on Monday night, chanting “Israel is a terrorist state” and “free Palestine” while letting off flares and fireworks.

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England’s university free speech tsar says role is not to conduct ‘culture wars’

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Arif Ahmed pledges to remain politically neutral in his role and to ensure academic freedoms are maintained

England’s newly appointed university free speech tsar says his role is not to conduct “culture wars” and has pledged to be politically neutral in his efforts to combat threats to academic freedom.

Arif Ahmed, a former philosophy professor at Cambridge University, said he would measure his success or failure by surveys of students and by the number of complaints made under procedures being created by the Office for Students (OfS), England’s higher education regulator.

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Flooding in Scotland could pose danger to life, Met Office says

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Warnings issued for across the country, with a month’s worth of rain in 36 hours expected in some areas

Flooding in Scotland could present a danger to life, the Met Office has said, as heavy rain led to train services being suspended.

A number of rail lines and roads, including the M9 motorway, were hit by flooding on Saturday morning, and rain is expected to continue into Sunday.

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Teachers deride Starmer’s plan for supervised toothbrushing in schools

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Labour leader’s pledge for English primaries as part of a wider dental plan labelled ‘window dressing’ by union chief

School leaders have accused Labour of “window dressing” after Keir Starmer pledged to introduce supervised toothbrushing for young children in England’s primary schools.

While the policy has long been supported by the dentistry profession as a way of curbing decay, headteachers said it was not appropriate for their staff to check whether pupils had cleaned their teeth.

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Nine rapes at Harrogate military college reported to civilian police in 13 months

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Figures raise questions about safeguarding at college given ‘outstanding’ for welfare by Ofsted

Nine rapes at the Harrogate military college, which trains 16- and 17-year-olds for careers in the British army, were reported to civilian police over a 13-month period to the middle of August, figures show.

Disclosed under freedom of information legislation, the figures raise questions about safeguarding at Harrogate, and why its welfare arrangements are rated as “outstanding” by Ofsted.

In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support for rape and sexual abuse on 0808 802 9999 in England and Wales, 0808 801 0302 in Scotland, or 0800 0246 991 in Northern Ireland. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html

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Female drug users at risk of exploitation in mixed-sex treatment groups, study finds

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Research reports vulnerable women targeted for grooming into sex work and calls for ‘gendered response’

Female drug users are at risk of being groomed into sex work and other forms of exploitation when they attend treatment programmes with men, according to new research.

Some women reported feeling vulnerable to “predatory males” in mixed groups where they were often outnumbered two-to-one by men, but said they were not given an option to access women-only treatment programmes.

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Boards trodden by Shakespeare found under floor of Norfolk guildhall

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Oak floorboards discovered at St George’s Guildhall, King’s Lynn, believed to be only surviving stage from Shakespeare’s time

Boards trodden by the Bard have been discovered under layers of flooring at England’s oldest medieval guildhall as it undergoes a big refurbishment.

The 600-year-old oak floorboards are believed to be the only surviving stage from William Shakespeare’s time.

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England worst place in developed world to find housing, says report

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Quarter of UK private renters spending over 40% of income on housing amid warning people are ‘trapped in poverty’

England is now “the most difficult place to find a home in the developed world”, housebuilders have claimed in a snapshot of the housing crisis that also found a greater proportion of people in England live in substandard properties than the European Union average.

The Home Builders Federation (HBF), an industry group representing companies that build for private sale, found that England has the lowest percentage of vacant homes per capita in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a group of 38 nations, including most of the EU the US, Japan and Australia.

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Thousands of refugees could be made homeless in UK’s asylum backlog clearance

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Red Cross warns 28-day ‘move-on’ process is not enough time for asylum seekers to find new accommodation

More than 50,000 refugees in the UK could be made homeless by the end of the year unless ministers take urgent steps to support them as it clears the asylum backlog, the British Red Cross has warned.

The government has pledged to process all “legacy” asylum applications – made before 28 June 2022 – by the end of the year. Based on those currently in asylum accommodation the charity estimates that 53,100 refugees will be at risk of homelessness if the government meets its target.

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Sunak’s plan to ditch A-levels is out of touch with reality, says union

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Head of National Education Union says new qualification would need 5,300 additional teachers in England

Rishi Sunak wants to scrap A-levels and replace them with a single qualification that includes compulsory English and maths, bringing upheaval to sixth-form education in England that would last a decade.

The new baccalaureate-style Advanced British Standard, which Sunak announced in his speech to the Conservative party conference in Manchester, would also kill off the T-level vocational qualification the government launched just three years ago.

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‘Deeply concerning’ inequalities in NHS heart valve surgery, report finds

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Female, black, Asian or less well-off patients are less likely to receive the life-saving procedure in England

Patients who are female, black, Asian or less well-off are significantly less likely to be offered heart valve surgery on the NHS in England, according to a report that experts say is “deeply concerning”.

People develop aortic stenosis when their aortic valve narrows as a result of calcium buildup, impeding normal blood flow. This causes shortness of breath, light headedness and chest pain.

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Mobile phone ban in English schools ‘smokescreen’ to mask real issues, say critics

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Most schools had policies before government’s plan, and there are concerns about safety and implications for carers of outright ban

Glyn Potts, head teacher at Newman Roman Catholic College in Oldham, could not hide his irritation at the morning headlines announcing a government ban on mobile phones in state schools in England.

His school, like the vast majority, already has a mobile phone policy. “All banned and have been for 10 years,” he said, dismissing the announcement by the education secretary, Gillian Keegan, as a “smokescreen” to distract from the real challenges facing schools, such as underfunding, teacher recruitment and providing for pupils with special educational needs.

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Catholic and C of E primary schools in England ‘take fewer Send pupils’

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LSE research suggests faith-based admissions requirements deter disadvantaged children

Church of England and Roman Catholic primary schools take fewer pupils with disabilities or special needs than other local schools in England, according to research that suggests faith-based admissions requirements deter pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds.

The findings led the author, Dr Tammy Campbell of the London School of Economics, to conclude that faith schools “serve as hubs of relative advantage” for children from more affluent families who were less likely to have special needs.

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Rail passengers in England face further strike disruption

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Saturday train services halted as Aslef drivers begin industrial action in long-running pay dispute

Rail passengers are facing another day of disruption as a strike by train drivers halts virtually all national rail services in England.

Members of the Aslef union have started a 24-hour walkout in the long-running pay dispute, targeting the start of the Conservative party conference in Manchester.

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Storm Agnes brings 70mph gusts and heavy rain to Britain and Ireland

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Danger-to-life warning issued as first named storm of autumn damages buildings and disrupts travel

Gusts of 70mph were recorded as the first named storm of the autumn, Agnes, swept across Britain and Ireland, damaging buildings, causing travel delays and leaving homes without power.

The Met Office issued severe weather warnings covering much of the UK, where strong winds and heavy rain were expected on Wednesday evening and into Thursday.

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