thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-09-28--Britain’s Preparing For A Second Wave. But Shielders Like Me Are Being Left Behind

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The country is coming to terms with the real threat of a ‘second wave’ and adapting to the latest government guidelines. For thousands of people like me who are clinically extremely vulnerable to coronavirus, it marks the beginning of a new and even more difficult phase in our national crisis.
A year ago, as a healthy 33-year-old I could never have imagined what the universe had in store for me. First, I was diagnosed with leukaemia and spent the autumn having intensive chemotherapy. Then in February I learned I would need a stem cell transplant, around the same time as the first few cases of Covid-19 were confirmed in the UK. I spent March in hospital having my failing immune system completely wiped out by radiotherapy, and had my lifesaving transplant on the day the WHO declared a global pandemic. Getting home after weeks in isolation should have been a relief, but with the virus killing hundreds of people every day, it was obvious my recovery wasn’t going to be how I’d imagined it.
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I was advised to shield from the beginning of lockdown until 1 August, when shielding officially stopped in England. This advice has not changed or been broken down according to medical conditions, despite research showing that people with blood cancer are at higher risk of becoming seriously ill from coronavirus than almost any other condition. Personally I’ve continued to limit my activities to hospital visits and country walks, because I can’t bear the thought of catching the virus now, after all the sacrifices I’ve already made just to be alive.
On Monday, Boris Johnson addressed the House of Commons to lay out new guidelines for keeping the virus at bay, but mentioned clinically vulnerable people only as an aside, telling us that we ‘do not need to shield’ unless we live in a local lockdown area. No scientific backing was given for this position; no acknowledgement of the fact that many of us never really stopped shielding; and no specific measures proposed to protect us, despite rising case numbers.
“I’ve not been to the pub since Christmas, so I don’t have much sympathy for anyone who’s complaining about a 10pm curfew.”
As for the guidelines that were issued, the vast majority have no bearing on my life right now. I’ve not been to the pub since Christmas, so I don’t have much sympathy for anyone who’s complaining about a 10pm curfew, or only being allowed to meet five of their friends there.
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Where work is concerned, the government made a u-turn on their previous advice to go back to the office, and now say everyone should work from home ‘if they can.’ I welcome this as a way to reduce the spread of the virus, but it is of little comfort to people who are clinically vulnerable and have jobs that can’t be done remotely. We need the legal right to work from home, or a specific furlough scheme to cover jobs where that’s not possible. In my own case, having previously been self-employed in an industry that’s no longer functioning, I’m looking for a job but it feels difficult to justify my work-from-home requirement when the official guidance says that I ‘do not need to shield.’
Because of my leukaemia I haven’t worked for a year, and I’m likely to continue suffering financially for as long as coronavirus is a part of all our lives. This is on top of the huge emotional burden of going through cancer treatment, cutting myself off from loved ones and dealing with the overwhelming uncertainty of simply being alive at this moment in history. I actually feel strangely glad not to have a job to go back to; if I did, I might have the added anxiety of having to choose between my income and my health.
“It may seem like there are no good options at the moment, but I am sure that choosing to protect the most vulnerable in our society is the right thing to do.”
I am as devastated as everyone else about the impact of Covid on jobs and the decimation of entire industries, but I know that if the country were to carry on as normal, I’d be fearing for my life this winter. I feel grateful every day to those who are making sacrifices to protect me and other high-risk individuals. It may seem like there are no good options at the moment, but I am sure that choosing to protect the most vulnerable in our society is the right thing to do. While I welcome this week’s new restrictions, the government must also commit to extending furlough and other support schemes (with specific considerations for working-age shielders) if the population as a whole is to get on board with the enormous sacrifices being demanded of them.
People who were shielded during the peak of this crisis were both legally protected and financially supported. Shielding was advice, not the law, but it meant that we didn’t have to go out to work, and we were able to request free food parcels. Now despite the increasing case numbers and the tightening of restrictions, nothing is being done for those who are most vulnerable to the virus. ‘You do not need to shield’ feels to me like another way of saying ‘we’re not going to protect or support you.’ The potential consequences of this are catastrophic.
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Jenni Elbourne is a freelance writer


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-09-28--Up Your Sandwich Game With This 15-Minute, Veggie Packed Delight

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en.citiesbreak.com
Cooking With Kids is a weekly recipe series on getting creative in the kitchen with the family.
Falafel may get all the attention, but the Sabich, another popular street food favourite found all over Israel will go down a storm in your household.
London-based chef and owner of Tel-Aviv style restaurant Shuk, Mark Jankel, shows us his Middle-Eastern vegetarian sandwich recipe he originally created for Cities Break. The sandwich is made up of fried aubergine slices, hard-boiled eggs, houmous, Israeli salad and parsley – all wrapped up inside a pitta and drizzled with tahini sauce and amba (a mango pickle).
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“Kids can help prepare every step of the way in this straightforward recipe from peeling the eggs to mixing the tahini paste with water to get the perfect texture,” explains Jankel. “They can learn how important it is to prepare the components before starting to construct and layer all of the ingredients.”
Aside from getting a crash course in sandwich-building 101, they’ll learn about seasonings, texture and balance. “Kids will love the satisfaction they get from carefully preparing the various components that go into the Sabich,” he adds.
Sabich Sandwich
Serves: 4 | Prep time: 10 mins | Cook time: 5 mins
en.citiesbreak.com Israeli Sandwich Sabich
Ingredients:
2 aubergines, sliced
4 pittas
2 tbsp oil
4 hard-boiled eggs (hard-boiled and sliced)
½ cup houmous
½ cup tahini sauce
4 tbsp amba sauce (Iraqi tangy mango pickle condiment)
Israeli salad
For the tahini sauce:
4 tbsp tahini
4 tbsp water
2 tbsp lemon juice
½ tsp garlic powder
For the Israeli salad:
1 tomato, diced
¼ cucumber, diced
¼ red onion, diced
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
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Method:
1. Heat a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Brush the aubergine slices with oil and fry for about five minutes on both sides until golden brown.
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2. Assemble the Israeli salad and mix together the tahini sauce ingredients in a bowl. Season to taste.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-09-28--Are Dentists Open Now – And When Will Appointments Return To Normal?

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Every Monday we’ll answer your questions on Covid-19 and health in a feature published online. You can submit a question here. This week, HuffPost UK reader Chris asked: “When do we expect dentists to resume routine procedures, such as fillings?”
Depending on where you live and the state of your finances, getting a dentist’s appointment during the pandemic has been either near-impossible or relatively fuss-free.
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When lockdown was first announced, dental practices across the UK remained closed until June. Anyone needing emergency help was told to phone their dentist, with a view to being referred for urgent treatment in hospital. But capacity was limited and some ended up carrying out DIY dentistry at home.
Since June, dental practices have been steadily reopening across the UK, but most have been working on an emergency basis trying to deal with a backlog of patients needing urgent work – so routine appointments are getting pushed back. The main problem with delaying such appointments is that they act as a preventative measure, so people don’t experience hefty dental issues later down the line, which often require drastic (and expensive) procedures.
Routine appointments are also an opportunity for dentists to keep an eye out for other issues like gum disease and oral cancer – and the earlier patients are treated for an issue, the better the prognosis.
Eddie Crouch is chair of the British Dental Association and works at two practices in south Birmingham, offering both NHS and private appointments. He tells HuffPost UK he can’t provide a date for when routine NHS dental appointments will resume across the board. Reports suggest it might not be until 2021.
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When will routine appointments resume?
The NHS England website states that because of coronavirus, changes have been made to routine dental treatment. In England, some routine dental treatments are available again. An NHS spokesperson said: “NHS dentists have been asked to resume full services, and in the meantime over 600 urgent dental care centres have opened since April 2020. At the height of the first covid wave, NHS dentists were also funded to be available to their patients for advice, guidance, issuing prescriptions and any onward referral.”
In Scotland, patients with urgent dental problems are being prioritised. A Scottish government spokesperson said: “We will continue to work to fully remobilise NHS dental services as soon and as safely as possible. At present NHS dentists can provide a range of non-urgent care including a full examination of soft tissues to check for mouth cancers, tooth extractions, dentures, orthodontic treatment and the re-fixing of bridges and temporary crowns.”
In Wales, dental practices are open “for urgent, non-aerosol care”. A Welsh government spokesperson said: “Routine dental examinations have not stopped but people are being seen according to need. Practices have been asked to treat people who have experienced problems during lockdown and consider prioritising those who had treatment delayed because of the pandemic.”
While in Northern Ireland, routine care and treatment can be provided, but practices are prioritising patients with the greatest need – so some routine or non-urgent treatments are postponed. Its Health and Social Care Board said in a statement that dental practices are “particularly impacted” by the pandemic.
“Most dental procedures are aerosol-generating ... This has therefore led to a significant reduction in the quantity of treatment that can be provided by dentists,” reads the statement.
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So, why can’t routine appointments resume?
Paul Grygan, clinical lead for an Urgent Dental Care Clinic in Northern Ireland, says there are two main reasons why a normal service can’t resume right now. The first is because they need to make sure there’s enough PPE to go around, and the second is because of the risk from aerosol-generating procedures (so basically, most of the procedures dentists carry out).
The worry is that these aerosol-generating procedures – whether that’s drilling a tooth, removing one, or simply cleaning them – could spread Covid-19, as aerosols from a person’s mouth (who may or may not be infected) are being propelled into the air and onto nearby surfaces.
Another big challenge facing dentistry right now is the social distancing and standard operating procedures, which has meant the volume of patients they can see is “significantly reduced”, Crouch says. In some cases capacity to see patients has been reduced by a half – sometimes more.
A poll of 2,672 practices in England in July revealed while almost all practices reported they’d resumed face-to-face care, two thirds were operating at less than a quarter of their pre-Covid capacity and one quarter were seeing just a tenth of their former patient numbers.
Current restrictions also mean dentists have to leave an hour’s gap between patients after an aerosol-generating procedure and do a deep clean of the room. This means they’re seeing fewer patients and generating less income, while having to foot the bill for more PPE.
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Why are some people being asked to pay privately for treatment?
Despite getting funding from the NHS, a lot of dentists work on a basis where they use income from private appointments to subsidise the other (NHS) side of their business. Some patients are finding when they call up for an appointment, they’re told they cannot be seen. Or that they can be seen, but only if they pay privately.
Independent watchdog Healthwatch England has been collating people’s experiences of NHS and social care services during the pandemic, including dentistry. A report involving responses from 19,700 people revealed many have had to go private if they wanted treatment for what their dentist considered to be a “non-emergency”.
The report also highlighted some dentists have applied additional charges to patients to cover the cost of PPE, making dental care even less accessible.
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What needs to happen now?
At the moment, there isn’t enough financial support available for these practices. While many struggling businesses on the high street have qualified for measures such as business rates relief, dental surgeries do not get this support. “Many of the dentists are falling through the cracks,” says Crouch, and as a consequence of that, “many practices are [financially] vulnerable”.
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With local lockdowns in force and Covid-19 cases rising again in the UK, it doesn’t bode well for the return of routine dental appointments anytime soon.
One silver lining is that Crouch doesn’t believe we’ll return to the situation we saw in March where dental practices were closed completely and only triaging patients over the phone.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-09-28--The Disgusting Truth About Birthday Candles In A Covid-19 World

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Nothing says “happy birthday” like blowing your germs all over a piece of food and handing it to your coworkers. Birthday candles are a tradition we’ve somehow accepted until now, but will the pandemic extinguish them for good?
“Covid aside, it’s a bit of a disgusting habit, putting all your spittle over a cake before your family and friends eat it,” Professor Paul Hunter, a professor of medicine at UEA and an expert in infectious diseases tells HuffPost UK. ”Certainly at the moment with Covid-19 around, I wouldn’t encourage it.”
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A 2017 study published in the Journal of Food Research highlighted just how gross the tradition is. Volunteers were instructed to blow out birthday candles after eating pizza. The researchers found blowing out the candles resulted in 1400% more bacteria on the icing compared to when the candles were not blown out.
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“Due to the transfer of oral bacteria to icing by blowing out birthday candles, the transfer of bacteria and other microorganisms from the respiratory tract of a person blowing out candles to food consumed by others is likely,” the researchers said. Eww.
Although no specific studies on Covid-19 and birthday candles have been conducted, it’s highly likely the ritual would increase Covid-19 transmissions. We know the virus can spread in droplets and smaller aerosols, which are expelled from the nose and mouth when a person is chatting, laughing, singing and even breathing. These particles can then be inhaled into the nose, mouth, airways and lungs of others, and cause infection.
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One solution is to use transparent “cake shields”, like those designed by the US company Top It, which is selling shields from $4.99 (£3.92) to fit a single slice to $14.99 (£11.79) for a whole cake. But remember, Covid-19 can spread by touching contaminated surfaces, so be sure to wash your hands extremely throughly if you’re handling the shield.
If you’re celebrating a birthday within your household or bubble, though – where you’re already mixing and likely to catch the virus if one person becomes infected – blowing out candles probably won’t make much difference, says Professor Hunter.
“If I bought a cake for my wife’s birthday and put candles on and it’s just the two of us, there’s no issue about her blowing the candles out,” he says. ”Similarly, if my son and his partner and their child have a party just the three of them, there’s no issue in that context, because it’s in the household.
“The issue is if the neighbours then bring their kids around to celebrate the party, that’s when I’d be twitchy about it.”
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-09-28--10,000 People Watched Us Get Married In The Middle Of A Pandemic And It Was Magical

Photo by Danielle Lawson, Natural Nerd Designs The author (left) with her wife, Jodyann Morgan, on their wedding day.
I wasn’t surprised when she proposed. Morgan and I had been together for three and a half years. We moved across the country from Brooklyn to Milwaukee and had picked out our engagement rings the month before.
In August 2019, Morgan took me to Lake Michigan. We stopped on the long wooden staircase leading to a semi-private beach, under a thick canopy of tree branches by the water. Morgan held out the ring and asked me, softly, if I would “do that thing, and you know, marry her.”
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“Of course,” I said, tears running down my cheeks. It felt right.
Our little family was the furthest thing from the traditional Chassidic family I grew up in, with long sleeves and high necklines, insulated from the world without TV and non-Jewish music or books, so my parents wouldn’t attend. Morgan’s Jamaican parents never supported our relationship, or her gayness. When she called to inform them of our big news, they said, “So you found yourself a man?” Morgan hung up. They followed up with text messages, saying that they “didn’t believe in all that.” Since wedded bliss for “people like us” could only be done “with a man,” they certainly wouldn’t consider attending ― it wasn’t even something available for discussion. She told me she never dreamed of a wedding and wanted to marry in Vegas.
As the oldest of 15 children born to a Chasidic rabbi, I had already worked through several wedding dreams. I knew exactly what kind of a wedding I was to have by the time I was just out of diapers, as I had already seen my parents’ wedding video replay countless times. As I grew older, I attended weddings of my young teachers and family friends.
The weddings were all pretty much the same. I knew I wouldn’t see my groom in the week before my wedding. Within four days before the ceremony I would purify myself of the “filth” that my menstrual cycle brought by ritually immersing myself in a bath of rainwater. The ceremony itself would take place in darkness ― but only for me. I would have my face covered by an opaque veil, albeit be briefly exposed to confirm that I was the appointed woman, not a substitute. “Tradition.”
Because I grew up experiencing physical and emotional abuse, I was eager to marry a stranger just to escape from the reality of my existence. So, when I was 15, I sat opposite my father in his cramped office, a converted bedroom in a single story home-turned-synagogue and told him I was ready to be married. While Chassidic Jews had historically married young, the Chabad sect we were a part of had drifted away from that tradition. I, however, made a good argument: I was fully grown, I could cook and clean, and, therefore, I would make a good housewife.
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I knew by that point that my sexual attraction extended beyond the male gender, but I also understood my desires were unlike those of the other young women I knew. At the time I thought my feelings for women were nothing more than a sex thing ― a kink ― and without anyone to talk about them with or a way to explore them, I ignored them and concentrated on finding a husband.
Photo by Jackie Fairman The author (left) with her wife, Jodyann Morgan, just after they moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 2018.
As my father began to navigate the waters of arranged dating for me, as was traditional in my community, he put out my name and readiness to marry to the people who would connect him with eligible suitors. You see, in arranged dating, my parents would vet the candidates for my hand before I would meet them, only allowing me to consider ones they found suitable. It was then that he found the flaw I hadn’t seen. I was too fat, which made my dating resume a tougher swallow for potential suitors, especially since the facts were outlined without as much as a photograph. He started demanding that I lose weight, going as far as requesting a weekly weigh-in at the local UPS store, the only place I knew of with a scale.
But before my father could find someone who found me worthy of consideration, the lifetime of abuse I was enduring ― including three fractures in my back ― finally caught the attention of Milwaukee Child Welfare authorities. I was abruptly taken from my community, placed into foster care, and dumped into a world I knew nothing about. It should have happened years earlier, but it took time for the countless police reports and CPS complaints before someone believed what I had to say about what was happening behind closed doors.
As I learned to live in a strange new secular world, I devoured romance novels by Nora Roberts and Nicholas Sparks, among countless others, that the public library sold ― the ones where the paperback was too worn to keep in circulation. Even though these books presented visions of intimacy and adoration that I had never encountered, I used them as my escape and allowed myself to dream of a reality that was loving and peaceful, where romance was abundant and broken people were healed by love.
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It was in my first group foster home, a few months before my 17th birthday in 2011, that I saw Kim Kardashian’s televised wedding. I watched Kim walking down the aisle in her sleeveless wedding gown ― her bodice fitted like a glove around her tiny waist and her veil trailing behind her as everyone in attendance drew a breath.
No one on that screen looked like me ― no one had the life story I did ― but it didn’t feel like that mattered. I began to dream of the romance of it all ― big white dresses, large diamonds, bridesmaids, and limousines ― and I wanted it for myself.
It was in that same group home, just a short while later, that a girl first told me she had a crush on me. An icy feeling of confusion swept through me, and, unsure what to do about it, I told Jessica, a woman that worked there. “Sexual relationships are strictly forbidden,” she sternly informed me, leaving me to try and grasp and understand the magnitude of these feelings. After a few months ― and much research and self-reflection ― I came out to my first foster dad, a Chassidic Jewish man. Days later, I’d moved on to my next foster home, and then on to the next.
Photo by Danielle Lawson, Natural Nerd Designs The author (left) and her wife, Jodyann Morgan, being married by L.S. Quinn.
By the time Morgan proposed to me, my dream of a glamorous wedding and all that it would entail ― and cost ― had shrunk. It just wasn’t practical. According to the Knot, the average American couple spent $33,900 on their wedding in 2019. I could pay off my student loans in their entirety with that money! I joined bridal Facebook groups and I read comments from folks stressing out about their 175-person guest lists, elaborate floral decorations and dress regrets. I just couldn’t see myself having all of that. I realised I just didn’t want it.
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Before the end of 2019, my future wife and I decided to pick between one of two wedding scenarios. Either we would have a small celebration with 30 people in a park or a backyard, or we would fly back to New York City, where we had met, and we’d throw a big queer party on someone’s roof like a queer romance novel come to life. I envisioned a huge grazing table filled with soft and hard cheeses, nuts, cured meat, and jars of honey. We would roast a pig in a pit. Guests from around the globe would fly in to celebrate us, finally, surviving and thriving.
Then came the dark cloud of the coronavirus pandemic.
So, I ratcheted down my dreams further. I called the county clerk to find out how to get a marriage license. They weren’t issuing any at that time. The next county over was, but unless we lived there, they couldn’t issue us one. I lost my job at the collision shop where I worked, and decided to make my part-time automotive education business a full-time career.
Yet in the midst of all of this, our desire and need to be married increased. What would happen if we got sick?
In July, we decided it was time to move forward and chose to get married in Indianapolis, Indiana, just a few hours’ drive from our home in Milwaukee. It was easy to get a marriage license there ― much of the process to apply was online and there was no waiting period.
I thought I would feel pangs of loss ― that somehow my wedding dreams, even incredibly simplified, would not come true. Instead of wallowing, I threw myself into preparing for the wedding, a date that we set just one month out to prevent us from being stopped by the inevitable second wave of the pandemic.
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I focused on all the little details, making sure that the ceremony reflected our belief systems and love for each other without ownership, that the vendors that would be involved were from communities we wanted to support. And while there could be no in-person guests, we sent out a digital invite to the “Biggest, Queerest Wedding of the Year,” and watched in awe as thousands of people RSVP-ed.
Photo by Danielle Lawson, Natural Nerd Designs The author (right) with her wife, Jodyann Morgan, on their wedding day.
Black, queer and plus-size woman would be at the heart of our day. Jasmine Howard would do both of our hair styles. Danielle Lawson took photographs. Ja’Twon Henderson would make sure our makeup was as glamorous as our dresses. When we looked for an officiant, I wanted to make sure it was also someone who reflected our values and would be willing to work collaboratively to create the ceremony we wanted. L.S. Quinn, who had been doing queer commitment ceremonies before it was legal to do so, was exactly who we were looking for.
As we were getting ready, I watched my bride eat curry goat with her hair all done up and a crown sewn into her locs. She was wearing a red polo with little sailboats embroidered on it and blue jeans, looking exactly like the woman I fell in love with years before. I felt at peace. Then she donned the long-sleeve ball gown she’d chosen to marry in, along with the aforementioned crown, the diamond necklace and earrings I gifted her, and Birkenstocks. When I saw her again, she was completely transformed. Majestic. As we stood across from one another and committed ourselves to doing the work that would make our love work, over 10,000 people joined our Facebook livestream to celebrate. It was a perfect wedding.
When it was all over, we sank down next to each other on a couch, both of us enveloped in our wedding dresses, and watched the recording of the livestream. Reading the well wishes from people across continents and seeing what an impact it made on those who joined us brought me to tears all over again.
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I realised I didn’t need a Kim K wedding to profess my love for my wife. Our wedding brought people from all over the globe together for a moment of joy and peace, a brief reprieve from the tumultuous world outside. It was exactly what we needed, and though different from the dreams I once dreamed, it was truly a dream come true.
Chaya Milchtein is an automotive educator, writer, and speaker, as well as the founder of Mechanic Shop Femme. This article first appeared on HuffPost Personal.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-09-29--Coronavirus Death Toll Passes One Million Worldwide

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More than one million people around the world have now died as a result of Covid-19, according to data from the Johns Hopkins University
As of around 1.30am UK time on Tuesday, the global death toll stood at 1,000,000.
More than 33 million people have tested positive for Covid-19 since the virus first emerged in China late last year.
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The true death toll and number of cases is likely to be considerably higher than recorded, with many people infected with the virus having gone untested – especially at the start of the pandemic.
The US has reported a total of 204,756 deaths from Covid-19 – more than any other country in the world.
Brazil has the second-highest death toll, where 141,471 people have died after contracting the virus, followed by India and Mexico.
The UK has the fifth highest death count, with 42,077 people having died of coronavirus.
The landmark death toll comes amid a new surge in Covid-19 cases in the UK, where around 17 million people are under local lockdown restrictions.
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On Sunday, the country recorded 5,693 new cases of coronavirus and 17 deaths.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-09-28--Are Tory Anti-Lockdown Rebels Winning The Battle For The PM’s Ear?

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You’re reading The Waugh Zone, our daily politics briefing. Sign up now to get it by email in the evening.
Armed as ever with statistics, Matt Hancock started the Commons debate on coronavirus by telling MPs just what a diligent parliamentarian he was. The health secretary had answered seven Urgent Questions, made 12 oral statements and taken 800 interventions from backbenchers. At which point one notable backbencher, Sir Desmond Swayne, heckled: “More!”
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True to form, it was Swayne who later proceeded to live up to his reputation as the most provocative of Tory grandees, declaring that chief medical officer Chris Whitty and chief scientist Patrick Vallance should have been “sacked” for their stark warning that we could see 200 deaths a day by November if the government failed to intervene with new restrictions.
“I am left wondering if the Prime Minister has not been abducted by Dr Strangelove and reprogrammed by the SAGE over to the dark side,” Swayne said. It was yet more “Project Fear”, the veteran Brexiteer declared, even suggesting that Whitty and Vallance simply wanted “to make your flesh creep”.
It’s worth pointing out here that it was another scary forecast (also not a prediction) that acted like an electric jolt to the British government back in March. Neil Ferguson’s 20-page paper summarising work by his Imperial College team warned of half a million deaths if no action was taken. Hancock himself used the paper to persuade the PM and fellow ministers that drastic measures were needed. The UK still ended up having one of the worst death rates in the world, but it could have been much worse.
But what was most notable today was the sheer number of Tory backbenchers who were unhappy with their government, many of them realising that the ‘Rule Of Six’ has indeed become the ‘Rule of Six Months’, with many families set to be barred from seeing relatives at Christmas.
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Swayne ominously referred to Cromwell being the last leader to try to curtail Christmas. Mid Derbyshire MP Pauline Latham urged students to “defy what the government says: go home and see your family”. Latham even said many old people would “rather see their family than live a longer life”.
In some ways, Johnson has already tried to reassure the rebels by holding meetings with lockdown sceptic academics like Carl Heneghan and Sunetra Gupta. While the ‘alternative Sage’ is seen as being peopled by risk-minimisers, the real alternative Sage is made up of Heneghan and Gupta and others who think fresh curbs would be disproportionate.
Although Whitty and Vallance wouldn’t object to as wide a debate as possible, there are dangers however if the PM opts to ignore their advice and allows the personal attacks on them to go unchallenged. Only last week, Johnson failed to slap down DUP MP Sammy Wilson when he claimed their “exaggerated” models were “scare tactics”.
One simple question for Keir Starmer this week in PMQs would be whether Johnson still had confidence in Whitty and Vallance. Back in the Brexit wars, Michael Gove famously said Britons had had “enough of experts”, but several ministers fear that undermining the two chief expert advisers carries risks to the clarity of public health messaging.
On a purely tactical level, the government may avoid the threatened rebellion this Wednesday over the Covid regulations renewals. The expectation in Westminster is that Speaker Hoyle will follow clerks’ likely advice and not select the Graham Brady amendment on procedural grounds. I’m told that’s because its demand for more frequent parliamentary renewals would inject “legal uncertainty” to a straight Yes/No vote on extending current powers.
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The fact is that it would take new legislation to amend the 1984 Public Health Act, which governed this whole lockdown. A smarter move would be to offer a debate on a motion similar to Brady’s, while issuing a ministerial statement that no urgency procedure would be used except where absolutely necessary. Given that Steve Baker and other rebels held a “cordial” meeting with the chief whip and Jacob Rees-Mogg today, that may be what happens.
But Hancock isn’t abandoning his own tough line on the virus. Today, he said: “We either control the virus or we let it rip... no matter how well we protect the vulnerable, letting the crisis rip would leave a death toll too big to bear.” Many Tory MPs think those aren’t the only two options (Baker objected that no MP had called for the virus to be let rip), but Hancock was pretty firm. Figures showing more people on ventilators and in hospital (a measure No.10 treats even more seriously than case numbers) added to his case.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-09-28--Trump's 2016 Campaign 'Targeted 3.5m Black People To Deter Them From Voting'

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Donald Trump’s presidential election campaign attempted to discourage millions of Black Americans from voting in 2016 in a move that could have been crucial to his victory, it has been claimed.
According to an investigation by Channel 4 News, the so-called “Deterrence” project run by Trump’s digital campaign team targeted 3.5 million Black people with adverts in an attempt to get them to stay at home on election day.
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Almost 200 million people in 16 key battleground states were separated by an algorithm into “audiences”, so they could then be targeted with tailored ads on Facebook and other platforms, the British broadcaster says.
Reliable voters that supported each candidate were categorised as “Core Trump” and “Core Clinton”.
Less reliable voters were marked as “GOTV”, meaning get out to vote if they were leaning towards Trump, “Persuasion” if they were swing voters, and “Deterrence” if they were likely to support Hilary Clinton.
REVEALED: Trump’s election campaign wanted to deter millions of Black Americans from voting in 2016.
The ‘Deterrence’ project can be revealed after Channel 4 News obtained the database used by Trump's digital campaign team. #DeterringDemocracyhttps://t.co/ln6GqReCLv — Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) September 28, 2020
Analysis by Channel 4 News shows Black Americans were disproportionately marked “Deterrence” by the 2016 campaign – they made up just 13% of the voters that were identified in the database, but 29% of the “Deterrence” group.
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In Georgia, despite Black people constituting 32% of the population, they made up 61% of the “Deterrence” category, Channel 4 News reports.
In North Carolina, Black people are 22% of the population but were 46% of the “Deterrence” group.
An analysis of data from the key state of Wisconsin, where in 2016 turnout among Black voters collapsed, just 5.4% of the population are Black voters – but the group represented 17% of the “Deterrence” group.
The US election four years ago saw the first fall in Black turnout in 20 years and allowed Trump to take narrow and unexpected victories in swing states, paving his way to the White House despite losing the popular vote to Clinton.
The Trump campaign spent £44 million on Facebook ads alone during 2016.
They posted almost six million different versions of highly targeted messages, which were pumped directly into the feeds of targeted voters across America.
But many of the ads were so called “dark posts”, which could disappear from feeds once a campaign stopped paying for them.
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The campaign is said to have been devised in part by Cambridge Analytica, the now defunct British political consultants embroiled in controversy over targeted ads deployed across the world.
The Trump campaign itself has categorically stated that it did not target African Americans.
Brad Parscale, the campaign’s 2016 digital director, told PBS Frontline: “I would say I’m nearly 100 percent sure we did not run any campaigns that targeted even African Americans.”
But Channel 4 News says confidential documents reveal the campaign targeted a video featuring Clinton referring to young Black people as “super predators” at African American voters.
Jamal Watkins, vice president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), said: “The thing that’s shocking slash troubling about this is that there’s this category of suppression. That ‘Deterrence’ part.
“So, we use data – similar to voter file data – but it’s to motivate, persuade and encourage folks to participate. We don’t use the data to say who can we deter and keep at home. That just seems, fundamentally, it’s a shift from the notion of democracy.
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“It’s not ‘may the best candidate win’ at that point it’s ‘may the best well-funded machine suppress voters and keep them at home thereby rigging the election so that someone can win’.”
A Facebook spokesperson said: “Since 2016, elections have changed and so has Facebook – what happened with Cambridge Analytica couldn’t happen today.
“We have 35,000 people working to ensure the integrity of our platform, created a political ads library ... and have protected more than 200 elections worldwide. We also have rules prohibiting voter suppression and are running the largest voter information campaign in American history.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-09-28--Pub Bosses Explain Why 10pm Covid Curfew Isn't Working

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The government’s new 10pm curfew is causing chaos on the ground, with some people simply drinking faster before being ejected onto the streets en masse, it has been claimed.
One pub manager told HuffPost UK his business had just enjoyed its busiest weekend since lockdown lifted, suggesting the curfew is doing little to stop the spread of Covid.
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But another warned of a dip in customer confidence, fuelled by chaotic scenes on the street at kick-out time, that appeared to be putting some drinkers off and could leave less fortunate businesses unable to survive at all.
It is seen as an attempt to “scapegoat” the hospitality industry for ministers’ failings on coronavirus.
Kate Nicholls, CEO of the UK Hospitality trade body, said the government should have staggered dispersal times and warned that the hard curfew was creating bottlenecks that were nothing to do with alcohol.
Day three of a 10pm curfew: people in Liverpool have gone to the off license to pick up more drinks and continue to party in the street. pic.twitter.com/GOMhNp5rDl — Charlie Haynes (@charliehtweets) September 26, 2020
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(10pm curfew just meant everyone rolling out onto the streets and onto the tubes at the same time and it was the busiest I’ve seen central London in months) pic.twitter.com/7oWKH5APNG — Kirsty Lewis (@kirstylewis6) September 24, 2020
All the 10pm curfew done was create a new rush hour. This UK is finished 😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/bOiqA2scEd — Blay 🇬🇭🇨🇮 (@Blayofficial) September 27, 2020
She said: “It’s not all down to alcohol – it’s a funnelling of people in a very small period of time. If you were leaving a coffee shop you’d have challenges in social distancing if you all had to be out by 10pm.
“Even at a small level, there are challenges to managing that process. If you have 30 to 40 people having to leave a pub or a restaurant and all get into their cars, there’s still a crush in the car park and you’re struggling to social distance.”
Christian Campbell, manager at the Cock Tavern in Hackney, said customers were “definitely drinking more” since the curfew was introduced on Thursday. “The cheeky ‘quick half’ punter has gone,” he told HuffPost UK. “The groups camping on a table and buying loads of rounds are here.”
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Nicholls, meanwhile, points out that the government itself asked the hospitality industry to include staggered dispersal times in its risk assessments ahead of the Covid-secure protocols for reopening on July 4.
She said: “That is just normal good practice. Every police, licensing inspector and local authority inspectorate is able to manage that process of a closing time and a 20-minute period of grace. It’s not ‘drinking up time’ – it’s a period of grace to get people out safely.”
When the Licensing Act came fully into force at midnight in 2005, it spelled an end to 11pm last orders and helped regulate the dispersal of customers.
Nicholls said: “That’s what we’ve spent the last 15 years working on, since the legislation was changed. Prior to 2005, we did have a fixed closing time, all premises closed at the same time and there were problems with dispersal and that’s why staggered opening and closing hours were introduced in 2005.
“The curfews are not changing people’s behaviour on the streets and public transport after they leave the safe, well-regulated environment of a hospitality venue.”
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However, as Nicholls points out, those scenes were not evident in Cardiff this weekend, where in contrast to the rules in England pub-goers are being given an extra 20 minutes to finish their drinks after last orders.
“We did not see those scenes in Cardiff – so I think this is not a hospitality industry issue so much as a broader, public space, public realm issue that needs to be considered now.
“Clearly if the government was hoping that by introducing a curfew they would send a message to consumers and the general public about their own behaviour, that message doesn’t appear to have got through.”
Tim Foster, co-founder of Yummy Pubs, says the government was strongly warned against having a curfew by industry members.
Managing after hours dispersal is something Foster has worked on diligently for some time. Before he took over a site in Mile End, 35 members of the public had been represented at a licensing hearing demanding its licence be revoked. In the five years since Yummy Pubs took it over, the site has employed tactics including early closure of the garden and only dispersing customers in groups of five or six at a time, and was recently able to extend its hours – without a single resident in opposition.
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As he told HuffPost UK: “We do this proactively.”
While Foster believes staggered curfews are “absolutely” a solution in the current circumstances, he went as far as to say: “I genuinely don’t believe a curfew is required at all. It hasn’t been required since we began trading again after lockdown but the problem is this government has lost the ability to communicate with this generation and it is trying to focus everyone’s attention on blaming hospitality.
“It’s ludicrous that they’re telling everyone to shut at 10 o’clock and throwing everybody out onto the streets.
“I’m having to send people home with puddings in cardboard boxes because they’re not allowed to enjoy the rest of their evening in a leisurely manner.”
Foster believes the curfew – and the resultant situation which is seeing thousands of people in the streets after closing time – is causing his customers to doubt whether he can provide safe environments for them.
He said: “We’ve definitely seen a downturn in consumer confidence. We saw a lot of cancellations over the weekend, which have been driven by fear. It has put questions in their minds as to whether we are a safe place now.”
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Foster also fears the government may try to use the coverage of the chaos on the streets after curfew as an excuse to impose a second lockdown.
He said: “We gave them the warning when they suggested this was what they would do. They didn’t listen to any of our representatives. We tried to work together – I potentially won’t survive a second lockdown.
“It feels like they are trying to scapegoat the industry and using the pictures to say: ‘We’re going to have to lock you down, then,’ when actually they have created this.”
Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham has called for an urgent review of the 10pm curfew, warning it may be doing “more harm than good”.
Burnham said the early closing time was leading to a rush to off-licences and creating an incentive for people to gather in each others’ homes.
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“I received reports that the supermarkets were absolutely packed out to the rafters with people gathering,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“I think there needs to be an urgent review of the emerging evidence from police forces across the country.
“My gut feeling is that this curfew is doing more harm than good. It creates an incentive for people to gather in the street or more probably to gather in the home.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-09-28--Life Is Doctor Foster's Livelier Sibling – Here's Everything To Know About The New BBC Drama

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With over 10 million of us hooked on Doctor Foster, the Suranne Jones-fronted drama was one of TV’s biggest success stories of the 2010s.
Now, three years on from its conclusion (there’s still no sign of a third series, sob), writer and creator Mike Bartlett is debuting his latest offering Life – but it turns out his penmanship is not the only thing the two shows share.
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Ahead of Life’s debut on Tuesday night, here’s everything you need to know about the series...
BBC/Drama Republic/Sam Barker
What is Life’s connection to Doctor Foster?
Other than both being penned by Mike Bartlett, Life shares a universe with Doctor Foster, with one of the characters crossing over into this new drama.
Victoria Hamilton reprises her role as Anna Baker – Gemma Foster’s friend and neighbour, who we last saw midway through Doctor Foster’s second and final series.
At the time, her world came crashing down when husband Neil had cheated on her once again, despite his pledges to stay faithful to her after previous affairs.
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Victoria Hamilton and Adam James and Anna and Neil Baker in Doctor Foster BBC
Anna later announced she was leaving him to move to Edinburgh and live with her sister – but not before a showdown with Gemma, during which she shared some home truths about her poisonous relationship with ex-husband Simon.
Three years on from the conclusion of Doctor Foster, Anna is now living in Manchester and going by the name of Belle.
So what is Life actually about then?
Life focuses on a house in Manchester that has been divided into four flats, thus introducing us to the interweaving stories of the four households, covering love, parenthood, loss and self-discovery.
Belle is one of the residents, and after getting her life back on track, it is soon plunged into disarray again with the hospitalisation of sister Ruth, and the subsequent arrival of wayward niece Maya.
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Anna now goes by the name of Belle BBC/Drama Republic
Elsewhere, fellow resident David goes on holiday without his wife Kelly and has his head turned unexpectedly by Saira.
Heavily pregnant Hannah, who has recently coupled up with Liam, is surprised by her connection with Andy, the father of her unborn child, who has been away travelling for the duration of the pregnancy.
Meanwhile, Gail bumps into an old friend who makes a startling observation about Gail’s marriage to Henry.
Of the series, Mike Bartlett says: “I wanted to write about isolation and its opposite – community.
“I used to live in a flat that was part of a divided up old house. You could hear intimate details of your neighbours’ lives, but when we passed in the corridor we barely exchanged two words. I was fascinated in that apparent contradiction.
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“Also, quite simply, I wanted to write about how amazing people could be when faced with the difficulties and tragedies of life. In every household in the country there are some of the biggest stories occurring, every day,” he adds.
Who else is in the cast?
Life boasts a stellar cast, with actors from the likes of Gavin & Stacey, Hustle and Doctor Who starring alongside Victoria Hamilton (The Crown, Lark Rise To Candleford, Victoria & Albert).
Adrian Lester (Hustle, Undercover, Trauma) plays David, a lecturer in Renaissance Literature and English at a university.
Adrian Lester and Rachael Stirling as David and Kelly BBC/Drama Republic/Neil Sherwood
“He’s having a very tough time in his marriage and he’s suffering because of it,” Adrian explains, “And then he meets someone new who he becomes very interested in…”
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His aforementioned love interest Saira is played by Saira Choudhry (Hollyoaks, Coronation Street, No Offence), while Rachael Stirling (Tipping The Velvet, The Bletchley Circle, Wild Bill) plays his wife Kelly.
Saira Choudhry plays Saira BBC/Drama Republic/Neil Sherwood
Alison Steadman (Gavin & Stacey, Boomers, Hold The Sunset) appears as Gail, who is at a turning point in her life as she turns 70.
“She’s reevaluating things and thinking, should I change? Should I go in a different direction?” Alison explains. “At her 70th birthday, the way he treats her, she suddenly begins to realise, yes, I have been subject to him making fun of me for all these years and I haven’t fulfilled my life. I haven’t done what I want to do. I’ve always been at his command. So Gail decides to make a change, quite a radical change, which is very upsetting for everyone.”
Alison Steadman and Peter Davison as Gail and Henry BBC/Drama Republic/Gary Moyes
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Originally Gail and her husband Henry, who is played by Peter Davison (Doctor Who, At Home With The Braithwaites, Law & Order: UK) owned the house, but were forced to convert it into flats when Henry lost their money.
Melissa Johns (Coronation Street, The Interceptor, I Hate Suzie) plays Hannah, who lives in the fourth flat and is pregnant after a one night stand with Andy, played by Calvin Demba (Hollyoaks, Sherlock, Kingsman: The Golden Circle). She has recently embarked on a relationship with Liam, played by Joshua James (I Hate Suzie, McMafia, Black Mirror).
But when Andy returns from travelling, Hannah has these uncontrollable feelings of lust and excitement that she doesn’t have with Liam.
Calvin Demba, Joshua James and Melissa Johns as Andy, Liam and Hannah BBC/Drama Republic/Vishal Sharma
“Ultimately, that puts her in a really difficult situation because she realises that these two men offer her two totally different things,” Melissa says. “Liam is going to offer what should be a strong family unit, but Andy offers her this potential whole other life.”
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Erin Kellyman (Solo: A Star Wars Story, Les Miserables, Raised By Wolves) also appears as Belle’s 15-year-old niece Maya, who comes to live with her after Belle’s sister is no longer able to look after her.
Erin Kellyman plays Maya BBC/Drama Republic/Vishal Sharma
“Maya’s story is about her trying to understand her family dynamic and where she fits in,” Erin says. “And also the challenges of having a mum with a mental illness, and an auntie who doesn’t really want her in the house either.”
We can also confirm that Adam James will also be reprising his role as Belle’s ex-husband Neil from Doctor Foster during the series...
Adam James is back as Neil BBC
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Why did the writer resurrect the character of Belle?
Put simply, Mike had some unfinished business with the character after Doctor Foster finished.
He explains: “When I was writing some of her final scenes in Doctor Foster, the character surprised me when she said she was moving completely away to a new city. Starting again. That felt like a story full of potential and one I hadn’t necessarily seen - a woman in her mid-40s, married for a lot of her adult life but now divorced, and keen to start again.
“I also found Belle’s voice came very easily when writing, and that’s a good sign there’s lots of fun to be had with the character.”
Anna/Belle's story was one full of potential, says Mike Bartlett BBC/Drama Republic/Claudia Leisinger
He adds: “Secondly I wanted to work more with Victoria Hamilton. She’s one of the finest stage actors there has ever been, and I wanted to write a leading role on screen for her to get her teeth into.”
However, Victoria didn’t initially realise she was playing her Doctor Foster character again
When the actor first got her scripts from Mike Bartlett for Life, she had not clocked that Belle was in fact Anna, who she first played in 2015.
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She revealed during a recent Q&A: “I started to read it, and I was reading this wonderful character called Belle, and as I kept reading I kept thinking, ‘God she’s just – he’s done it again because she’s wonderful. She really, really reminds me of Anna! But – this is a character called Belle!’
“And I emailed him and went, ‘She’s quite like Anna.’ And he just sent back this very short email saying, ‘Yes. It is Anna. Anna-Bel. Anna, Belle. Of course it’s the same woman, how could it be any other woman, what’s wrong with you.’ Well, he didn’t say what’s wrong with you, but it was there in silent brackets.”
Alison Steadman has one scene you must look out for
BBC/Drama Republic
We all know Pam Shipman loves to bust a few moves in Gavin & Stacey, but we’ll see a whole new side to Alison Steadman’s dance abilities in Life, according to writer Mike Bartlett.
Recalling one of his favourite moments from filming the series, he says: “There’s a moment where Gail has to dance like she’s never danced before. And safe to say Alison didn’t disappoint!”
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Why should I watch it?
“What’s refreshing about Life is that it’s a story about, as Mike would say, ‘life’,” says Peter Davison, who plays Henry. “It’s not a detective story. It’s not a costume drama, or a drama about how wonderful the past used to be. There’s not a nostalgia to it. It’s just a slice of life there in front of you, and you have to draw your own conclusions from it.”
When is it on?
Life begins on BBC One and BBC iPlayer on Tuesday 29 September, at 9pm.
All six episodes will then be available as a boxset on BBC iPlayer, with the series continuing weekly Tuesday nights at 9pm on BBC One.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-09-28--Parliament's Bars Now Have To Observe Curfew. But Let's Not Pretend We're In This Together

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Let’s be real, we are not in this together. The public has been driven dizzy by government U-turns during this pandemic, the latest that Parliament’s bars will now observe the 10pm curfew imposed on the rest of the hospitality industry, after an outpouring of public disapproval following reports they were exempt.
But of course, we are familiar with a U-turn by now. What’s another one at this stage of the game?
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The casual way in which this government has eroded the trust of the British people shows just how little interest our politicians seem to have in how their decisions affect the rest of us.
The Parliament bar debacle confirms what many have always known – it’s one rule for us and another for them.
For me, one of the most demonstrative examples of this in the past months was when our elected Prime Minister Boris Johnson defended Dominic Cummings who had allegedly broken lockdown rules. Not only did he defend him, but Cummings was given a huge platform to defend himself. After all, it didn’t matter if he had broken the rules – he had power on his side.
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But it smacks of a certain cruelty. In a time when people were losing loved ones in the hundreds every day, many being forced to say their goodbyes over the phone, it seemed only some of us were being forced into making sacrifices – the general public and not those making the rules.
And extra leniency if you’re white, rich and privileged. When the rule of six was introduced, shooting parties were exempt from this rule. What a perfect example of “one rule for the Cabinet and their mates, and another for the rest of us,” as shadow environment secretary Luke Pollard so rightly commented.
Alas, the hypocrisy doesn’t stop there. When we were all told it was mandatory to wear masks on public transport and in taxis, those with chauffeur driven cars were told they were exempt from mask-wearing, a decision that obviously caters to a specific group of people.
Boris Johnson drinks a pint ASSOCIATED PRESS
But what about the rest of us? Muslims and Jews have spent two Eids and Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah separated from their families, and now those celebrating Diwali will most likely too. And now, the Cabinet is reportedly considering a 24-hour lockdown amnesty so that Christian families can celebrate Christmas. If I’m honest, I cannot look at this decision as anything other than purposely divisive. If this is truly a multicultural country why is Christmas more important than any other religious holiday?
As members of the public, we’ve been encouraged to snitch on neighbours, blamed for a rise in Covid cases after being encouraged to eat out and told to wear masks even as it seems those imposing the rules won’t follow them themselves.
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My question is, who is keeping those in power in line? Or are they above the rules? It certainly seems that those with power, privilege and wealth aren’t subject to the same hardships as the rest of us.
So it doesn’t matter how many times this government tells me we’re all in this together, let me tell you, we are very much not and amidst a global pandemic that should frighten us all.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-09-28--Matt Hancock Signals Potential Climbdown To Tory Covid Rebels Over Restriction Decisions

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Matt Hancock has signalled a potential climbdown to Tory rebels who want MPs to be given a vote on the imposition of new coronavirus restrictions.
The health secretary said ministers were “looking at further ways” of ensuring the Commons can be “properly involved” in decisions on restrictions.
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Dozens of Tory MPs, led by powerful chair of the backbench 1922 committee Sir Graham Brady, are prepared to rebel in a vote on Wednesday to ensure new restrictions are subject to Commons votes before being introduced.
They have argued that the government is ruling “by decree” through emergency powers enshrined in the Coronavirus Act.
And some questioned whether the government was “overreacting” to the virus and what they see as overly pessimistic scientific advice, with Tory MP Sir Desmond Swayne questioning whether Boris Johnson “hasn’t been abducted by Dr Strangelove and reprogrammed by the Sage (Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies) over to the dark side.”
On Monday, Hancock signalled the government was ready to make fresh concessions but stressed that it still needs to be able to impose new regulations “at pace”.
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But he was warned that anything less than an MPs’ veto would not be enough to stave off a rebellion.
"The aim is to provide the House with the opportunity to scrutinise in advance"
Health Secretary Matt Hancock says he's "looking at further ways to ensure the House can be properly involved" as some Tory MPs seek to have a say on changes to lockdown ruleshttps://t.co/HuWthT0BGl pic.twitter.com/DKzt8txelm — BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) September 28, 2020
Asked by veteran Tory MP Sir Edward Leigh to ensure parliament is “fully involved” in the imposition of more national restrictions, Hancock replied: “I strongly agree with the need for us in this House to have the appropriate levels of scrutiny.”
He went on: “We are looking at further ways to ensure the House can be properly involved in the process in advance where possible and I hope to provide the House with further details soon.
“And I will take up the invitation to a further meeting with (Brady), with whom I have already met to discuss this matter to see what further progress can be made.”
Hancock said the government has already given MPs more chance to scrutinise restrictions through regular debates and statements, more briefings with scientific advisers, getting more access to local data, and calls with ministers including paymaster general Penny Mordaunt.
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He also revealed he had faced seven urgent questions, made 12 statements, and taken 800 interventions in the Commons since the start of the pandemic.
But former chief whip Mark Harper stressed that MPs must be given a vote on restrictions rather than just the chance to question ministers or advisers, arguing it would lead to better decisions.
He pointed out that regulations were published on Sunday night amounting to 12 pages of detailed laws, some of which were “not mentioned” in statements made by the government next week.
“That’s why we need to scrutinise the details of legislation before it comes into force and give our assent to it – not, I’m afraid, just to allow him to do so by decree,” he said.
Hancock replied: “Sometimes in this pandemic we have to move fast, sometimes we have had to move fast and we may need to again.
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“The challenge we have in this House is how to ensure proper scrutiny whilst also being able where necessary to move fast in response to the virus.
“That is the challenge collectively we all face.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-09-28--Do The Presidential Debates Matter? Listen To Running Mate, Our US Election Podcast For Brits

Running Mate is a US election podcast – just for Brits. In our sixth episode, we look at whether the four upcoming TV debates will matter at all to the outcome of the election.
Host Graeme Demianyk speaks to Jen Bendery and Igor Bobic, HuffPost political reporters in the US, about the flagship events that attract 80-plus million viewers.
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They explain how the presidential debates often just serve to cement existing opinions of the candidates – but that both Donald Trump and Joe Biden will be looking to avoid an embarrassing gaffe that goes viral.
We also talk to Will Tooke, supervising video producer for HuffPost in the US, who has pulled together some of the best and worst moments from US TV debates of the past.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-09-28--Ban On Households In North-East Mixing Indoors As Covid Cases Spike

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Households in the north-east of England are to be banned from mixing in any setting, Matt Hancock has announced.
The health secretary said cases of Covid-19 in the region had reached 100 per 100,000 people and new restrictions were needed.
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The ban include people meeting others from outside their household os support bubble in pubs, cafes, homes or “any setting”, he said.
Covid-secure schools and workplaces are not included in the ban and a funding package is being agreed to support the region, the government said.
Grandparents will still be able to offer childcare to their family in all areas hit by local lockdowns, Hancock said last week.
Restrictions will begin on Wednesday and be enforceable by law in the areas of Durham, Gateshead, Newcastle, North Tyneside, South Tyneside, Northumberland and Sunderland.
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Making a statement in the House of Commons, Hancock said: “Today I must announce further measures for the parts of the north-east where we introduced local action a fortnight ago.
“Unfortunately, the number of cases continues to rise sharply. The incident rate across the area is now over 100 cases per 100,000.
“We know that a large number of these infections are taking place in indoor settings outside the home.
“And so, at the request of the local councils with whom we have been working closely we will introduce legal restrictions on indoor mixing between households in any setting.”
He added: “We do not take these steps lightly, but we must take them, and take them now, because we know that swift action is more likely to bring the virus under control.
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“And the quicker we are able to get this virus under control, the quicker we can restore the freedoms that we all enjoy in the north-east and across the country.”
The government last week announced that pubs and restaurants will be subject to a 10pm curfew.
A woman wearing a protective face mask walks along the quayside, on the banks of the River Tyne, backdropped by the Tyne Bridge in Newcastle, north-east England OLI SCARFF via Getty Images
Downing Street has refused to rule out imposing other restrictions in local areas and sources say a two-week “circuit-breaker” national lockdown remains a “nuclear” option if cases do not begin to fall.
Hancock was also challenged to give MPs a say over new restrictions, amid concern from Boris Johnson’s backbenchers that parliament is being sidelined.
The health secretary agreed to meet with concerned MPs but warned the government often needed to make quick decisions.
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He added it is “not a simple trade-off” between keeping people safe and protecting their liberties.
He told MPs: “The central question about the control of the virus, without a doubt in my mind, and this is a question I ask myself every day: ‘How do we best keep people safe from this virus whilst protecting liberty and livelihoods and the things that make life worth living?’
“And I believe that, in reality, there is not a simple trade-off between these things.
“Because the exponential growth of the virus means that there are in reality only two paths: either to control the virus or to let it rip.
“There is no middle option. Because once the virus is growing it accelerates.”
He added that “letting the virus rip would leave a death toll too big to bear”.
Labour’s shadow health secretary Jon Ashworth, meanwhile, said Labour would be “extremely sympathetic” to proposals for better scrutiny of coronavirus restrictions, but added: “We won’t support attempts to scupper restrictions that are clearly in the public health interest.
“Our priority will always be saving lives, minimising harm and keeping our children in school.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-09-28--Friends Bosses Reveal The Truth Behind Rachel's 'It Is A Big Deal' Put Down

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The bosses of Friends have revealed the NSFW meaning behind one of the show’s most famous lines.
In the fourth series’ opening episode, Rachel is furious when she discovers Ross has not read her note properly, thus failing to accept accountability in his infamous “we were on a break” saga.
As she kicks him out of her bed and then out of her and Monica’s apartment, she yells: “It’s not that common, it doesn’t happen to every guy and it is a big deal!”
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And if 23 years on you’re still wondering what the line actually meant, the execs spilled all during an interview with Entertainment Weekly.
“It’s not that common, it doesn’t happen to every guy and it is a big deal!” Rachel yelled at Ross NBC
Executive producer Greg Malins revealed: “They were insulting each other back and forth, and I had this idea in my head, [Rachel] says, ‘Well one time, when you prematurely ejaculated, I told you it was okay and it wasn’t.’”
Fellow executive Adam Chase also explained this was a nod to the moment in season two’s The One Where Ross and Rachel... You Know, where Ross rolls over a carton of juice as he and Rachel were about to get intimate in the planetarium.
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“We all knew exactly what [it] meant, and we loved that it called back to an iconic moment without ever being explicit,” he added.
Greg also revealed he wasn’t sure if the risqué joke would make it past the other writers, explaining: “It was the only time I’d ever written down my [joke] before I pitched. I remember thinking, ‘If I don’t pitch this exactly right, it’s not gonna get in.’”
However, the scene could have looked very different entirely, as last week, supporting star Jane Sibbett revealed she was originally in the frame to play Rachel.
The actor, who ended up playing Ross’ ex-wife Carol, revealed things didn’t work out because she was pregnant at the time, with Jennifer Aniston later awarded the part.
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However, the retrospective has now been pushed back for a second time due to the coronavirus pandemic.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-09-28--Biden Campaign Shreds Trump With New Ad And Snarky Merch After Incredible Tax Report

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Trump paid just $750 in federal income tax in both 2016 and 2017, and did not pay any tax in 10 of the 15 years prior to that, according to the Times, which based its reporting on tax return data that extends across more than two decades. The Times also reported Trump is personally responsible for $421 million in debt and other loans that are largely coming due in the next four years.
Within hours of the article’s publication, Biden’s team released an ad contrasting Trump’s meager payments with typical amounts contributed by American taxpayers.
The campaign website’s fundraising store was also updated to include “I paid more income taxes than Donald Trump” vinyl stickers.
Teachers paid $7,239
Firefighters paid $5,283
Nurses paid $10,216
Donald Trump paid $750 pic.twitter.com/5YE1cbYsBN — Team Joe (Text JOE to 30330) (@TeamJoe) September 28, 2020
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The ad is the first statement from the Biden camp on the report. Biden retweeted the clip, but did not comment further.
Trump vowed during his 2016 campaign that he would release his tax returns, but reneged once he took office and has fought fiercely in court to keep his tax information secret from Congress and from prosecutors investigating possible fraud.
He denied the Times report during a news conference on Sunday evening. He did not offer any evidence to the contrary, but repeated his tired claim that he’ll reveal his tax filings when the IRS completes its audit on him. An audit does not prevent him from releasing his tax data.
Trump was roundly condemned by Democrats.
“Shock of shocks! Donald Trump, the self-proclaimed billionaire, received a $72.9 million tax refund from the IRS while not paying a nickel in federal income taxes in 10 out of 15 years,” tweeted Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). “Yep. Trump l-o-v-e-s corporate socialism for himself, rugged capitalism for everyone else.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) noted that Trump pays less in taxes than struggling families.
“He thinks teachers and janitors should pay to keep our country running, not billionaires and giant corporations,” Warren tweeted. “It is long past time to make rich and powerful guys like Trump pay their fair share.”
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-09-28--Labour MP Claudia Webbe Charged With Harassment, Says CPS

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Claudia Webbe, the MP for Leicester East, has been charged with an offence of harassment against one female, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.
Webbe, 55, will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on November 11.
She is accused of carrying out the harassment between September 1 2018 and April 26 this year.
Webbe said she is “innocent of any wrongdoing” and that she will “vigorously” defend herself in court.
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It is understood Webbe has been suspended from the Labour Party pending the outcome of the case.
A Labour Party spokesperson said: “It would not be appropriate to comment on an ongoing case.”
In a statement on Monday, Jenny Hopkins of the CPS, said: “The CPS has today decided that Claudia Webbe, MP for Leicester East, should be charged with an offence of harassment against one female.
“The CPS made the decision after receiving a file of evidence from the Metropolitan Police.
“Criminal proceedings against Ms Webbe are now active and she has the right to a fair trial.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-09-28--Prince Harry And Meghan Markle Set The Record Straight Over 'Reality Show' Reports

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Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have denied reports that they are to appear in a new reality show as part of their deal with Netflix.
On Monday, The Sun reported that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex would be appearing in a “fly on the wall”-type series which would “give people a glimpse into their lives”.
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Within a few hours, the reports had sparked plenty of conversation in the media, particularly as the couple are known for valuing their privacy.
However, a spokesperson for Harry and Meghan has now dismissed the claims that they will be filming their own reality series.
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry zz/KGC-107/STAR MAX/IPx
“The duke and duchess are not taking part in any reality shows,” their representative said.
A Netflix spokesperson previously said: “The couple already has several projects in development, including an innovative nature docu-series and an animated series that celebrates inspiring women but we are not disclosing any of the programming slate at this time.”
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Earlier this month, it was reported that Harry and Meghan had signed a deal with Netflix, which will see them producing “documentaries, docu-series, feature films, scripted shows and children’s programming”, all of which will be exclusive to the streaming giant.
They said at the time: “Our focus will be on creating content that informs but also gives hope.
“As new parents, making inspirational family programming is also important to us.”
Harry and Meghan at the Royal Variety Performance in 2018 Karwai Tang via Getty Images
The pair also said that they were specifically hoping to help “share impactful content that unlocks action”, thanks to Netflix’s global platform.
It was first reported that Netflix had been hoping to secure a deal with Harry and Meghan back in January, shortly after they announced their intention to take a step back from their royal duties.
Meghan recently lent her voice to the Disney+ original film Elephant, with reports claiming earlier this year that she had narrated the nature documentary in exchange for a donation to the charity Elephants Without Borders.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-09-28--No.10 'Expects' University Students Will Be Allowed To Go Home For Christmas

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Downing Street has said it “expects” that university students will be able to go home for Christmas despite coronavirus outbreaks on campuses.
It marks an apparent relaxing of the government’s position after culture secretary Oliver Dowden could only say he wanted students to be able to return home if Britons follow Covid-19 restrictions and get the virus under control.
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“We would expect all students to be able to go home at Christmas,” Boris Johnson’s official spokesperson told reporters on Monday.
The prime minister is facing pressure to address the situation in universities after warnings from the National Union of Students (NUS) that people are being “trapped” in their halls of residence in “disgusting conditions” due to self-isolation rules.
Thousands of students are self-isolating following a surge in cases at universities including Glasgow, Manchester Metropolitan and Edinburgh Napier.
Students at Manchester Metropolitan on Sunday claimed they were being falsely imprisoned, with a number of legal experts backing them on social media.
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The university later said it could not stop students under Covid-19 lockdown leaving their accommodation, but that it expected them to follow self-isolation guidance.
Signs posted on a window at Manchester Metropolitan University's Birley campus, on Monday ASSOCIATED PRESS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
NUS president Larissa Kennedy told Good Morning Britain: “I’m hearing from some students across the country where there are security guards outside of these blocks where students are being kept, stopping people from leaving, coming and going, where students are being discouraged from getting deliveries and told by the university that they’ll deliver food, and that delivery has not arrived, and so they’ve gone for the day without food.
“I’ve heard from other students who, they’ve turned up with an amount of toilet roll, told with no notice that they’re going to be locked down and wondering where the next roll of toilet roll is coming from.
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“It just feels like these are disgusting conditions for students to have been trapped in.”
She said people should follow public health guidance but questioned the legality of keeping students “cooped up in that way without that access to the things that they need”.
Asked if universities have the power to lock students in halls, the PM’s spokesperson said: “The laws for students are the same for the rest of the public.
“Universities can issue advice to their students and I believe that’s what’s been happening in recent days.
“Students follow the same rules as other people living locally and therefore would be subject to the same rules in relation to localised lockdowns.”
Nicola Dandridge, chief executive of the Office for Students (OfS), the higher education regulator in England, said it would be “looking very closely” at the quality of education being provided by institutions.
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Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, she said institutions must be clear with students on what teaching conditions they can expect and if this changed.
“What we can’t have is a situation where students don’t know what’s going on, that they’re locked in their halls of accommodation, and can’t get hold of food,” she said.
She said students had “legal rights as consumers” and could raise complaints with their university and the Office of the Independent Adjudicator.
Asked if students should receive a refund of tuition fees she said it was “a question for government”.
But Johnson’s spokesperson said: “Universities are autonomous and they set their own fees.
“What we would expect is that they continue to deliver a high quality curriculum to their students.”
Meanwhile, the University and College Union urged the PM to ensure online tuition at universities “becomes the norm”.
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-09-28--Why The 10pm Curfew Could Be Doing More Harm Than Good

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The clock struck 10pm and the party was over at pubs, bars and restaurants across the country this weekend – but not everyone went home.
Photos and videos taken during the first weekend of the Covid-19 curfew show people piling into supermarkets to buy alcohol, then drinking and dancing in the street. Those who tried to get home were forced onto crowded public transport.
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Footage of the crowds prompted Andy Burnham, mayor of Greater Manchester, to call for an “urgent review” of the curfew.
“My gut feeling is that this curfew is doing more harm than good,” he said on BBC Radio 4′s Today programme. “It’s potentially contradictory because it creates an incentive for people to gather in the streets or more probably gather in the home. I don’t think this has been fully thought through to be honest.”
Day three of a 10pm curfew: people in Liverpool have gone to the off license to pick up more drinks and continue to party in the street. pic.twitter.com/GOMhNp5rDl — Charlie Haynes (@charliehtweets) September 26, 2020
Looking at the images and videos from the weekend, Dr Julian W Tang, honorary associate professor of Respiratory Sciences at the University of Leicester says he can “understand and share” Burnham’s concerns.
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“Ideally, as per current guidelines, people leaving the pub should do so in their groups of 6 ‘bubbles’ and wear masks when they board public transport – but it’s understandably easy to forget this after several drinks,” he tells HuffPost UK.
“All of this is very confusing for the public,” he says. “It will take time to get used to this – and for people to find their own practical ways to deal with these tighter restrictions. But as we know, unfortunately, this virus is very unforgiving – and as we take time to get used to each new measure, we will see it spreading further.”
Professor Susan Michie, director of UCL Centre for Behaviour Change, agrees the current system is flawed, saying there are “three sets of predictable consequences” of closing pubs and restaurants at 10pm. These are:
Ejecting everyone at the same time onto the streets and then many onto public transport creates crowds; from a transmission point of view this is especially concerning in the enclosed spaces of public transport. Where people have a routine of finishing a social night out at a certain time, having this curtailed suddenly leads to continuing socialising after the curfew, including in people’s houses. People may compensate for the earlier closing time by starting to drink earlier and drinking more rapidly towards the end, leading to more disinhibition and therefore less distancing between people.
“These consequences of the curfew undermine the gains saved by shortening the latter part of the evening and may even be counterproductive,” she says. “The measure is another example of a restriction brought in without a coherent strategy and without sufficient consultation with relevant experts and communities.”
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(10pm curfew just meant everyone rolling out onto the streets and onto the tubes at the same time and it was the busiest I’ve seen central London in months) pic.twitter.com/7oWKH5APNG — Kirsty Lewis (@kirstylewis6) September 24, 2020
Dr Flavio Toxvaerd, who researches optimal control of infectious diseases at the University of Cambridge, adds that “we have seen this type of measure backfire before”.
“In March, the London Underground reduced services, hoping that only key workers would use it,” he says. “Instead, we saw trains crowded with commuters.”
What’s the solution, then? Dr Toxvaerd says when demand is concentrated at certain hours of the day, as is the case with pubs, “services need to be staggered”. Or, he says, a solution could be to scrap the 10pm leaving time completely and instead issue those visiting the pub with a time stamp on their arrival and a set time to leave – as swimming pools have been doing.
“We need to be creative and ensure we make the least damage to the economy while keeping in mind the effect on social activity on the spread of the disease,” he says.
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This is what happens when pubs close at 10pm.https://t.co/zlKv3nMHSP pic.twitter.com/9TdXYbIhpX — #borislies Muppet Show (@PSmythe800) September 27, 2020
Dr Tang agrees, suggesting pubs could stagger leaving times by telling tables to leave one-by-one as 10pm approaches. He also suggests a “designated driver” approach: “Maybe, there could be a member of the group designated to remind people to stay in their bubble leaving the pub,” he adds.
Andy Burnham suggested a curfew on alcohol sales, banning stores from selling booze post-9pm, saying it might stop revellers from piling into shops and drinking on the street.
It’ll be several weeks until we see any knock-on effect of the curfew and even then, it’s hard to attribute virus trends to any single health policy. For example, if cases fall, it’ll be hard to know if this is because of local lockdowns, the nationwide curfew, the rule of six, or all three.
(10pm curfew just meant everyone rolling out onto the streets and onto the tubes at the same time and it was the busiest I’ve seen central London in months) pic.twitter.com/7oWKH5APNG — Kirsty Lewis (@kirstylewis6) September 24, 2020
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Paul Hunter, a professor of medicine at UEA and expert in infectious diseases, says he’s not aware of “any direct evidence” that a curfew helps reduce risk of Covid-19 transmission. However, he adds that in theory it could help – “but how much depends on a lot of other factors,” he says.
“Do people cram into a pub more tightly when it is open, do they then all go back to one of their homes afterwards, do people get less drunk? It is clear from news reports that drunk people cannot socially distance adequately,” he says.
“In theory, they should have benefit [from a curfew], but the difference between theory and reality may be wide.”
All the 10pm curfew done was create a new rush hour. This UK is finished 😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/bOiqA2scEd — Blay 🇬🇭🇨🇮 (@Blayofficial) September 27, 2020
HuffPost UK asked the Department of Health and Social Care if the government intended to review or change the curfew in light of the footage from this weekend and Andy Burnham’s concerns.
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A spokesperson directed us towards health minister Helen Whately’s interview on BBC Radio 4, but did not offer further comment.
In the interview, Whately said the government was keeping an “open mind” about the coronavirus regulations that came into force in England on Thursday.
“It is clearly early days,” she said. “We have just changed this rule last week. We keep an open mind on what is the best way to go about it. The steps that we have taken, particularly with the 10pm curfew, is something that we have done in some places during the course of the summer where we saw localised outbreaks and hospitality being part of the picture.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-09-29--NHS Test And Trace Appoints Sainsbury’s Boss To Run Testing, Leaked Email Reveals

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Boris Johnson’s test and trace service faces fresh accusations of replacing NHS expertise with “unproven private sector solutions” after a former Sainsbury’s boss was appointed to a key role.
Mike Coupe, who once sang “we’re in the money” over a planned merger with Asda, will from October replace Sarah-Jane Marsh as testing director of NHS Test and Trace, it emerged on Tuesday.
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Baroness Dido Harding, who runs the service overall, announced the appointment in an internal staff email leaked to the Health Service Journal.
HuffPost UK, which has obtained Harding’s full email, can reveal that she also claimed the testing team had hit every “target” that “they have ever been set”, a suggestion Labour said was “laughable”.
The so-called NHS Test and Trace service has come under repeated criticism for recent delays in availability of tests, despite claiming to have increased capacity from a few thousand to more than 250,000 a day since the pandemic started.
One shadow cabinet minister last week expressed fears that the service, which is not part of the NHS and outsources call centre work to private sector firms like Serco, “denigrates” the brand of the health service.
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In her message to staff, Harding – herself a former boss of telecom firm TalkTalk – said Marsh was returning to her post as chief executive of Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust.
Earlier this month, Marsh issued an apology to the thousands of people unable to get a test for Covid-19.
Dido Harding PA
In her place, Coupe “will bring a wealth of experience in large scale supply chains, logistics and digital transformation”, Harding said.
The former Sainsbury’s boss, who stepped down from his role in May, “will undertake a period of induction over the next month, working with Sarah-Jane and the team across testing, initially focused on scaling new testing technologies, and will take over the testing helm when Sarah-Jane leaves us at the end of October.”
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In 2018, Coupe was forced to apologise after being caught singing Broadway hit We’re In The Money in between media interviews about a merger with supermarket giant Asda.
Former Sainsbury's chief executive Mike Coupe PA
The competition watchdog eventually blocked the £12bn merger with its rival on the grounds that it would result in higher prices for consumers and damage competition.
Harding said: “We have been incredibly privileged to be able to ‘borrow’ Sarah-Jane for the last five months but it will soon be time for her to return to her substantive role as CEO of Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust.
“Sarah-Jane has led the team with unparalleled drive, compassion, and humour.”
But at the end of her email, Harding added that before Marsh stepped aside in late October: “I am confident she will be pushing us all hard to ensure we hit our 500k target, just as the testing team have hit every other target that they have ever been set!”
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Dido Harding email HuffPost UK
MPs from all parties have in recent weeks criticised the service for its rationing of tests after a spike in demand following the return of schools in England.
Labour’s shadow health minister Justin Madders said: “The idea that test and trace has been meeting every target set would be laughable if the consequences of it were not so serious. This kind of comment shows a worrying lack of insight about the failures of test and trace and an astronomical level of complacency.
“It is worrying that there will be even less NHS experience in test and trace after this change at the top.
“The fundamental mistake the government made with test and trace was to bypass existing NHS structures and go for unproven private sector solutions. It is therefore hard to see how this change is going to improve on the dire performance we have seen so far.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-09-29--Universities May End Lectures Early To Get Students Home For Christmas, Says Williamson

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Universities may end face-to-face lectures early so students can self-isolate and make it home for Christmas, education secretary Gavin Williamson has said.
Speaking in the Commons, Williamson said in-person lectures would continue where possible, but where there were outbreaks students should have time to self-isolate to curb the spread of Covid-19 when they returned to see older relatives.
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It comes amid a growing row over restrictions on university students in the pandemic, with many fearing a huge mental health impact for young people.
Williamson admitted it would be unfair to force students to be apart from their families over the festive season and said new guidance setting out “essential” measures would be issued in the next few days.
Options on the table for campuses grappling with cases of the virus include universities stopping teaching early and asking young people to self-isolate strictly.
It comes after the Office for Students recommended that some universities should offer partial refunds to students who are not getting value for money as a result of the pandemic.
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But Labour’s shadow education secretary Kate Green said the situation remains “desperately worrying”, with students at unis hit by outbreaks who are isolating with strangers in cramped halls of residence.
She said: “Across the country, many find themselves isolated in cramped accommodation, parents worried about their well-being and safety, and university staff who have worked so hard over the summer to prepare are anxious and angry that the government didn’t keep its part of the bargain.
“They’ve all been let down by the government just as it let down many of these same students with its handling of exam results last month.
“What students, staff and their families need now is reassurance.”
Williamson acknowledged “some anxiety about the impact safety measures will have”, especially over Christmas.
He said: “Students are important members of the communities that they choose to study in. We expect them to follow the same guidance as those same local communities.
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“We are going to work with universities to make sure that all students are supported to return home safely and spend Christmas with their loved ones if they choose to do so.”
He added that the new guidance would minimise the risk of transmission and that students should not face stricter measures than others in society
Signs posted on a window at Manchester Metropolitan University's Birley campus ASSOCIATED PRESS
He said: “Where there are specific circumstances that warrant it, there may be a requirement for some students to self-isolate at the end of term and we will be working with the sector to ensure this will be possible, including ending in-person learning if that is deemed to be necessary.”
Williamson, who has been also been under pressure over his handling of the A-levels results fiasco, insisted universities were prepared, and underlined that only students who had symptoms should get a test.
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He said: “Where students choose to stay in their university accommodation over Christmas, universities should continue making sure they’re safe and well looked after.
“Of course, it is inevitable there will be cases of Covid occurring in universities just as there are in our wider communities and the constituencies that we represent.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-09-29--These Vulva-Inspired Pieces Of Art Really Hit The Spot

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The words “See You Next Tuesday” float above the traffic on a digital billboard in Kensal Rise, north London. The poster, created by artist Laurie Lee, is just one of the works of art being displayed across the capital to raise money for The Vagina Museum.
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The museum, which opened in November 2019, is dedicated to all things foof – that is to say, gynaecological anatomy – and aims to teach women and vulva owners more about their bodies and smash some taboos in the process.
But, like many other institutions, the Camden-based venue has been hit financially by the pandemic and is at risk of closure unless its founders raise some money soon. Thankfully, more than 60 artists have stepped up to help, agreeing to auction off their vulva-based art and donate proceeds to the museum.
The Vagina Museum/ Laurie Lee Laurie Lee
There’s an eclectic mix of art on auction, from embroidered textile banners to line drawings of public hair and a gold-leaf covered clay cast of a clitoris.
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The online auction, where members of the public can bid on artwork, has already raised £12,500. Meanwhile, digital billboards and posters featuring the artwork are being displayed across the city for two weeks after two media companies – LondonLites and Jack Agency – agreed to donate the space.
The Vagina Museum operates on a fully inclusive basis and is proud to be an LGBTQ+ and intersex ally, so the artists (and the work created) are representative of that.
The museum’s director, Florence Schechter, said she is excited to reopen the museum on October 3 and continue to “spread the vulva love”. She hopes the campaign will help keep the doors open longterm.
“The pandemic hit us pretty hard because we have no external funding, and we are so new that we were not eligible for most government support,” she said. “Staying safe is our highest priority and we will be doing everything we can to keep our staff, volunteers and visitors as safe as possible.”
Polly Lindsey Artist Polly Lindsey's contribution to the auction.
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The project’s creative director, Nathalie Gordon, added: “Having inclusive
spaces like the Vagina Museum where people of all walks of life can come and learn about everything from FGM [female genital mutilation] to the basic science of the vagina, whilst also having access to evening events about sex positivity and safe and inclusive community outreach programmes – these are all things we cannot afford to lose. And we will if the Museum continues to lose money.
“It’s been a privilege to help in this small way and I hope by helping get more vulvas on people’s walls we raise some much-needed cash to keep the Museum going.”
Check out some of the artwork up for auction below. The auction is hosted at www.vaginamuseum.co.uk/opensoon and all bids can be made by emailing opensoon@vaginamuseum.com and quoting the name of the piece.
Dani Franks Dani Franks
Hilde Atalanta Hilde Atalanta
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Lucie Birant Lucie Birant
Poppy Chancellor Poppy Chancellor
Daantje Bons Daantje Bons
Alva Skog Alva Skog
Clemence Gouy Clemence Gouy
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Nicole Miles Nicole Miles
Rosi Tooth Rosi Tooth
Anna Wanda Gogusley Anna Wanda Gogusley
Lana Lê Lana Lê
Sarah Leonard Sarah Leonard
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Michelle Thompson Michelle Thompson
Ezra Smith Ezra Smith
Marylou Faure Marylou Faure