thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-15--Greenwich To Keep Schools Open After Gavin Williamson Threatens Legal Action

Greenwich Council had written to headteachers in the borough asking them to switch to home learning as Covid cases soared in the capital.
London, along with most of Essex and parts of Hertfordshire, will move into the toughest local lockdown, tier 3, on Wednesday after ministers were alarmed over a rise in positive cases.
Councils in Waltham Forest and Islington have also recommended online teaching but have yet to announce whether they will defy Williamson.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-15--Prue Leith Is Among The First People In The Country To Receive Covid-19 Vaccine

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Prue Leith has revealed she’s one of the first wave of people in England to receive the vaccine against coronavirus.
On Tuesday morning, the Great British Bake Off judge shared a photo of herself getting the Covid-19 vaccine (in one of her signature statement necklaces, obviously) on her Twitter page.
“Who wouldn’t want immunity from #Covid19 with a painless jab??” the 80 year old commented.
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While lockdown restrictions led to major disruptions in the TV industry this year, Prue was able to take part in this year’s Great British Bake Off by bubbling with the rest of the cast and crew.
She’s also set to appear in this year’s Christmas special, along with fellow judge Paul Hollywood and presenters Tom Allen and Matt Lucas.
The Great British Bake Off Christmas special Channel 4 / Mark Bourdillon
The long-awaited Covid-19 vaccine arrived in GP practices across England on Monday, with those most at risk receiving top priority when it comes to eligibility for the jab.
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GP practices in more than 100 locations are to receive the jab, with each of them receiving 975 vaccines in their initial delivery.
Under the government’s rollout plan, those 80 years of age and over are first in line for the vaccine.
Two jabs are needed for the recipient to gain immunity from Covid-19, with an interval of three weeks required between injections.
While Prue is the first high-profile celebrity to receive the Covid-19 vaccine, a number of other public figures have said they would receive the jab publicly, to encourage others to do the same when they were eligible.
Earlier this month, Piers Morgan said he would get the vaccine live on Good Morning Britain, saying: “I just feel like it’s really important if we are going to get through this that enough people take it.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-15--Strictly Come Dancing Bosses Reveal What To Expect From This Year's Final

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Strictly Come Dancing bosses have teased what to expect from this year’s grand finale with the release of the songs and dances each of the couples will be performing to.
Singer HRVY, EastEnders actor Maisie Smith, comedian Bill Bailey and reality star Jamie Laing will be battling it out to take home the Glitterball Trophy in Saturday’s live show.
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Each of the finalists will perform three dances in a bid to win the BBC ballroom show – one dance picked by the judges, their own favourite dance of the series, and the famous Showdance.
Maisie Smith and Gorka Marquez BBC/Guy Levy
Maisie and partner Gorka Marquez will reprise their Samba to Gloria Estefan’s Samba (Conga) for their Judges’ Pick, while they will also perform their Quickstep to Andy Williams’ When You’re Smiling as their favourite dance.
Their Showdance will see them dancing to Idina Menzel’s verison of We Need A Little Christmas.
Bill and partner Oti Mabuse will reprise their Quickstep to Talk To The Animals from the musical Doctor Dolittle for their Judges’ Pick, while they will also perform their Couple’s Choice Street routine to Rapper’s Delight by Sugarhill Gang as their favourite dance.
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For their Showdance, they will perform to Queen’s The Show Must Go On.
Bill Bailey and Oti Mabuse BBC/Guy Levy
HRVY and partner Janette Manrara will reprise their Jive to Stevie Wonder and Ariana Grande’s Faith for their Judges’ Pick, while they will also perform their American Smooth to One from the musical A Chorus Line as their favourite dance.
Their Showdance will see them dancing to Brittany Murphy’s version of Boogie Wonderland from the film Happy Feet.
HRVY and Janette Manrara BBC / Guy Levy
And after narrowly making the final, Jamie and partner Karen Hauer will reprise their Hercules-themed Charleston to Zero To Hero for their Judges’ Pick, while they will also perform their Couple’s Choice street routine to Gonna Make You Sweat by C+C Music Factory as their favourite dance.
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For their Showdance, they will perform to Elton John’s I’m Still Standing.
Jamie Laing and Karen Hauer BBC
This year marks pro dancer Janette’s first time ever dancing in the Strictly final, while Oti could be on track to become the first pro to win two series in a row.
Find out who takes home the Glitterball Trophy in Saturday night’s Strictly final, airing at 6pm on BBC One.
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-15--A Minute Of Kindness: Leading Dance Through Lockdown

A Minute Of Kindness: Leading Dance Through Lockdown
Robin Olive provides performing arts classes, mostly dance, to physically or intellectually disabled people of all ages. Without the studio to go to during lockdown, she turned her attention to online classes instead, with a free daily dance class. Meaning the usual students, and many new ones globally, didn’t have to miss out on their extremely beneficial and positive pastime.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-15--Covid Cases: The Places In England With The Most Infections

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People across England will find out this week whether or not they will face a change in coronavirus restrictions, as the government reviews the latest tier system for the first time.
Those in London and areas of the south-east went into tier 3 on Wednesday, a decision Matt Hancock said he was making ahead of the scheduled review due to a new “variant” of the coronavirus driving the spread of the disease in the regions.
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Tier 3 PA Media
Those areas include all of Greater London, as well as south and west Essex – including Basildon, Brentwood, Harlow, Epping Forest, Castle Point, Malden, Rochford, Braintree, Chelmsford, Thurrock and Southend on Sea.
Watford and the Three Rivers local authority areas will also be placed in tier 3, along with south Hertfordshire’s Broxbourne and Hertsmere.
As the rest of the country awaits the announcement, here are the least and worst hit areas, as well as those that have seen the biggest increases and decreases in cases from December 6 to December 12.
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20 worst hit areas
Medway 677.1 cases per 100,000 people Havering 609.9 Thurrock 561.0 Redbridge 506.8 Barking and Dagenham 499.8 Kent 474.3 Enfield 445.5 Waltham Forest 426.4 Bexley 425.7 Newham 407.8 Tower Hamlets 375.1 Southend-on-Sea 366.4 Slough 350.4 Essex 340.9 Bromley 327.7 Milton Keynes 322.1 Luton 311.7 Kingston upon Thames 310.4 Stoke-on-Trent 305.0 Harrow 303.8
20 worst hit areas outside of London and south-east England
Thurrock 561.0 Southend-on-Sea 366.4 Essex 340.9 Luton 311.7 Stoke-on-Trent 305.0 South Tyneside 294.7 Peterborough 287.3 Wolverhampton 262.4 Central Bedfordshire 252.6 Lincolnshire 243.2 Leicester 242.8 Bedford 237.2 Rotherham 232.5 Blackburn 223.8 Hertfordshire 222.6 Hartlepool 213.5 Middlesborough 199.3 Staffordshire 198.3 Birmingham 195.8 Dudley 194.7
20 least hit
Isle of Wight 21.2 Cornwall and Isles of Scilly 29.7 Torbay 38.2 Dorset 42.5 Herefordshire 51.3 York 63.6 Wirral 66.7 Plymouth 68.7 Wiltshire 71.0 Bath 72.4 Sefton 73.1 Bournemouth 76.4 Devon 84.2 Southhampton 84.3 Tameside 85.7 Shropshire 91.6 Cumbria 91.8 Brighton 92.8 Knowsley 94.1 Liverpool 94.4
Largest increase in cases
West Berkshire 147% Central Bedfordshire 125% Richmond upon Thames 121% Thurrock 120% Lewisham 95% Southend-on-Sea 89% Enfield 86% Essex 83% Lambeth 82% East Sussex 81% Hammersmith 78% Bedford 76% Milton Keynes 73% Wandsworth 73% Southwark 71% Bromley 71% Westminster 69% West Sussex 69% Redbridge 68% Islington 63%
Largest decreases in cases
Bath -35% Tameside -28% North East Lincolnshire -26% Calderdale -26% East Riding of Yorkshire -17% North Lincolnshire -17% Bolton -15% Bury -15% Blackburn -15% Doncaster -15% Kingston upon Thames -13% Kirklees -13% Sandwell -13% Bradford -12% Halton -11% Stockport -11% Bristol -11% Walsall -10% Wakefield -10%
Data also shows that the number of Covid-19 hospital admissions in the capital has risen to the highest level since April.
The latest data, published on Monday, shows that coronavirus rates rose across every local authority area in London in the seven days to December 10 compared with the previous week.
Scientists have warned that the easing of coronavirus restrictions over Christmas will cause a spike in infections.
David Nabarro, a World Health Organisation (WHO) special envoy working on Covid-19, said the price of such a relaxation “could well be very high”.
Urging people to think carefully about their plans, he told Times Radio: “Just ask yourself, is there any way in which you can perhaps not have the family get-togethers this year?
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“It’s much better not to do it when there’s this kind of virus about.”
Professor Stephen Reicher, of the University of St Andrews, said: “Right now we are heading towards disaster.
“Given high levels of infection across the country and the increasing levels in some areas (such as London) it is inevitable that if we all do choose to meet up over Christmas then we will pay the price in the new year.”
A further 232 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Monday, while there were a further 20,263 lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-15--Motsi Mabuse Launches Impassioned Defence Of Shirley Ballas After Latest Strictly Result

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Strictly Come Dancing panellist Motsi Mabuse has shared an impassioned post in support of fellow judge Shirley Ballas, after the results of last week’s dance-off raised eyebrows among some fans.
In Sunday night’s Strictly results show, Good Morning Britain presenter Ranvir Singh was sent home after landing in the bottom two against Jamie Laing.
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However, the fact Ranvir was eliminated after only being in the dance-off once before – compared to Jamie’s fourth time in the bottom two – upset some fans, with Shirley seemingly bearing the brunt of their frustrations after casting the deciding vote.
On Monday night, Motsi – the only judge who voted to save Ranvir over Jamie – posted a video of herself hand in hand with Shirley, sticking up for her co-star.
“Attacking her is Attacking me!!!” Motsi wrote. “Everyone that is part of my community knows that we support, we love and we spread love!!!
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“SUPPORT OTHER WOMEN. PERIOD!!” she added.
Motsi also pointed out that the clip of them holding hands, which was accompanied by the Destiny’s Child classic Girl, was recorded before the coronavirus pandemic.
Motsi Mabuse and Shirley Ballas Karwai Tang/WireImage/Getty/Nick England
Ranvir’s elimination means that singer HRVY, EastEnders actor Maisie Smith, comedian Bill Bailey and reality star Jamie are this year’s Strictly finalists, who will battle it out in Saturday’s live show.
This year marks Janette Manrara’s first time ever dancing in the Strictly final, while Oti Mabuse could be on track to become the first pro to win two series in a row.
Find out who takes home the Glitterball Trophy in Saturday night’s Strictly final, airing at 6pm on BBC One.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-15--Christmas Covid Relaxations Should Be Cancelled To Protect NHS, Doctors Urge

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Boris Johnson should protect the NHS and save “many lives” by scrapping plans to allow households to mix this Christmas, two respected medical journals have urged.
In only their second joint editorial in 100 years, the British Medical Journal (BMJ) and Health Service Journal (HSJ) called on the prime minister to change tack because of rising cases of coronavirus across parts of England.
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The BMJ is published by the doctors’ union the British Medical Association, and the HSJ is read by NHS staff, managers and professionals.
They both warned that hospital bed capacity risked being overwhelmed if there was a Christmas relaxation, calling on the government to “reverse its rash decision to allow household mixing [...] in order to bring numbers down in the advance of a likely third wave”.
Crucially, the journals say a third wave would hit non-Covid treatments hardest, as it “could wipe out almost all the reductions in waiting times for elective procedures achieved in the past 20 years”.
“This joint editorial is only the second in the more than 100-year histories of The BMJ and HSJ,” they write.
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“We are publishing it because we believe the government is about to blunder into another major error that will cost many lives. If our political leaders fail to take swift and decisive action, they can no longer claim to be protecting the NHS.”
The urgent plea came amid growing alarm that the health service is at risk of being overwhelmed in the new year, a time when it traditionally comes under most pressure because of winter flu and other diseases.
The PM is planning on a five-day Christmas relaxation of the Covid rules to allow up to three different households to mix from December 23 to December 28. Overnight stays will be allowed as part of the festive changes.
But with London and key parts of the south-east being put into the highest tier of restrictions from Wednesday, and falling Covid case rates beginning to flatten off in other parts of England, the whole plan is now under intense scrutiny.
The prime minister’s official spokesperson today insisted that the rules were being kept under review but refused to go into any detail.
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Asked directly about HuffPost UK reports that No.10 was looking at cutting the period for exemptions from five days to three or cutting the number of households that mix from three to two, he said: “We have set out the guidance for Christmas bubbling arrangements, but we obviously keep all advice under constant review.”
The spokesperson added: “We’ve always said that Christmas this year will not be normal. But we wanted to ensure that families and friends have the option to meet up in a limited and cautious way should they should they wish.”
Labour leader Keir Starmer demanded on Tuesday that the PM convene an emergency Cobra committee meeting to urgently review the Christmas rules.
BMJ editor in chief Fiona Godlee told BBC’s Radio 4 that unless action was taken “we will have people sitting in ambulances, we will have people in corridors, we will have people who can’t get the emergency care that they need,”
The joint BMJ/HSJ editorial warns that on current projections, “hospitals in England will have just short of 19,000 Covid patients on New Year’s Eve”.
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“This figure, derived by extrapolating a straight line from December 5 to December 14 through to December 31, would be almost exactly the same as the 18,974 peak of the first wave on April 12,” it states.
Both magazines are also scathing about Johnson’s Test and Trace service and about plans to use controversial rapid testing to replace more reliable tests.
″‘NHS Track and Trace’, which has almost nothing to do with the NHS, continues to squander money on failure. So too does the mass testing of asymptomatic people using lateral flow tests that are not fit for purpose,” they write.
Former health secretary Jeremy Hunt said ministers should listen “very carefully” to calls for a rethink of the planned relaxation of coronavirus restrictions over Christmas.
“To go into the start of January, which I remember from my own time as health secretary is always the nightmare period for the NHS, with the same number of beds taken up by Covid as was the case in the peak of this April would be a very, very dangerous and precarious situation,” he told BBC Radio 4’s The World at One.
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Hunt, who chairs the Commons health and social care committee, added: “Curiously the economic impact could be worse from taking our foot off the pedal for Christmas if it meant that we then had to go into another national lockdown.”
The joint editorial in full
Since the UK’s first lockdown in March, the government has had one (perhaps only one) consistent message – protect the NHS.
Now, with the number of hospital patients with Covid-19 again on the rise, and a third wave almost inevitable, the new year is likely to see NHS trusts facing a stark choice: be overwhelmed or stop most elective and non-urgent work.
Rather than lifting restrictions over Christmas as currently planned, the UK should follow the more cautious examples of Germany, Italy and the Netherlands.
By and large the NHS has coped well with the additional case load of Covid-19 patients during the autumn. The second wave began to hit hospitals at the start of September. Government figures report 451 inpatients with Covid-19 in England on September 2. Over the ensuing 10 weeks, the numbers rose steadily and then rapidly, peaking at a reported 14,712 inpatients with Covid-19 in England on November 23.
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If the third wave turns out to be of the same order of magnitude as the second wave, the health service should manage. But this will be the case only if that wave starts with a broadly similar extra caseload of Covid-19 inpatients as at the beginning of the second wave: around 450.
With current restrictions failing to control the virus, extrapolation suggests that the actual figure is likely to be more than 40 times higher. The planned relaxation of restrictions over Christmas will boost the numbers further as the NHS also struggles with the additional demands of winter.
England went into lockdown on November 5 and the number of inpatients with Covid-19 began to fall, down to 12,968 on December 5. If this rate of decline had continued, the English NHS would have been on course for just under 11,000 Covid-19 inpatients on 31 December. However, in the past two weeks, despite most of the country being in tiers 2 or 3, numbers of inpatients have started to rise again. By December 14 (the latest data available) Covid bed occupancy had climbed back to 15,053.
Unless something happens to change this trajectory, hospitals in England will have just short of 19,000 Covid patients on New Year’s Eve. This figure, derived by extrapolating a straight line from December 5 to December 14 through to December 31, would be almost exactly the same as the 18,974 peak of the first wave on April 12.
The NHS currently has around 95,000 general acute beds. It is operating with around 10% fewer beds than a year ago as a result of infection prevention and control measures introduced to try to stop the spread of covid in hospitals.
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The cost of inaction
The main impact of a further surge in Covid-19 inpatients is likely to be felt most by those with other conditions. The NHS has learnt from the first and second waves and has robust plans to rapidly increase intensive care capacity, including through the Nightingale hospitals. However, a large influx of Covid-19 patients similar or greater than that seen in the autumn can only be managed if staff and other resources are diverted from treating non-Covid patients.
Having recovered much of their capacity for elective and non-urgent care during the autumn, NHS trusts in the most pressured regional health systems are already now having to cancel almost all such activity because of the resurgent virus.
A significant third wave could wipe out almost all the reductions in waiting times for elective procedures achieved in the past 20 years. Average waiting times are on course to reach 12 months by March next year. This will take years to recover from, at the cost of much suffering and loss of life.
The coming months are also likely to see the NHS under intense winter pressures due to seasonal outbreaks of norovirus, increased admissions of frail older people and the peak of staff absence. The NHS will also be in the middle of delivering the largest vaccination programme in its 72-year history, via already overstretched general practices and hospitals.
Even if NHS England succeeds in vaccinating all those “at risk” by Easter, this will not be in time to prevent hospitalisation and death for many during the next few months. “NHS Track and Trace,” which has almost nothing to do with the NHS, continues to squander money on failure. So too does the mass testing of asymptomatic people using lateral flow tests that are not fit for purpose.
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Of particular concern is the impact on staff, many of whom have already worked through the hardest nine months of their professional lives. Levels of burnout and sickness absence are likely to exceed those already experienced.
What should be done
London and many neighbouring counties will enter tier 3 on Wednesday. However, other areas such as Kent which has been in tier 3 since December 2, are still seeing strong increases in hospital admissions. These measures are clearly inadequate.
Ministers are meeting on Wednesday to review current restrictions for England. When government devised the current plans to allow house-hold mixing over Christmas it had assumed the Covid-19 demand on the NHS would be decreasing. But it is not, it is rising, and the emergence of a new strain of the virus has introduced further potential jeopardy.
Members of the public can and should mitigate the impact of the third wave by being as careful as possible over the next few months. But many will see the lifting of restrictions over Christmas as permission to drop their guard.
The government was too slow to introduce restrictions in the spring and again in the autumn. It should now reverse its rash decision to allow household mixing and instead extend the tiers over the five-day Christmas period in order to bring numbers down in the advance of a likely third wave. It should also review and strengthen the tier structure, which has failed to suppress rates of infection and hospitalisation.
This joint editorial is only the second in the more than 100-year histories of the BMJ and HSJ. We are publishing it because we believe the government is about to blunder into another major error that will cost many lives. If our political leaders fail to take swift and decisive action, they can no longer claim to be “protecting the NHS”.
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-15--Coronavirus: Minister Urges People To Do The ‘Minimum’ At Christmas

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People gathering in Christmas bubbles should only do “the minimum” allowed under Covid rules, minister Steve Barclay has said.
The chief secretary to the Treasury was speaking as the government comes under increasing pressure to rethink the five-day relaxation of restrictions over the festive period.
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Three households can be together for five days between December 23 and 27 regardless of what tier the area is in or whether people have self-isolated in advance.
But Barclay warned the rules should not be “misinterpreted” as “we’re not going from tier 3 to some sort of tier 0” as he urged people to act responsibly.
It comes as London, most of Essex and parts of Hertfordshire were moved into the toughest tier 3 local lockdown, ahead of the scheduled review date, amid a sharp rise in infections.
Downing Street has urged caution but concern is growing among scientists that the temporary lifting of restrictions over Christmas could allow the pandemic to spiral out of control.
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Britain's Chief Secretary to the Treasury Steve Barclay. POOL New / Reuters
Barclay told BBC Breakfast on Tuesday: “It’s not that the restrictions are being lifted in their entirety. [...]
“What we’re saying, in a limited sense, is that many families who have not been together all year, who will want to see each other – three households can come together for that Christmas period.
“It’s not that all restrictions are being lifted.”
Asked about his own plans, the Cabinet minister said: “I will be doing Christmas shopping – I will try and do as much as possible of that locally in the constituency and some of it I’ll do online.”
Acknowledging that it had been a “very difficult” year for families and that many would want to meet up to celebrate Christmas together, he said: “I want to see my own parents over the Christmas period.
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“I won’t see my parents over Christmas, but I will see my parents-in-law and those are the decisions many families will take.
“We’ve got to trust the British people to act responsibly and do the minimum that is possible for them in their family situation.”
He also said that shoppers had a “duty” to act responsibly when buying Christmas presents and that businesses needed to ensure that compliant behaviour was observed in-store.
London mayor Sadiq Khan, meanwhile, has called on the government to reconsider how rules are eased over the festive season.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We heard from Matt Hancock yesterday that it appears the government is looking at this again. I would encourage them to do so if they are.
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“The concern is this – the rules have been relaxed for five days, allowing household mixing for up to three different households, and inevitably when people are in their own households, they tend to be less vigilant.
“And my concern is that many people may have the virus and not realise it. They could pass the virus on to older relations.”
The latest government figures, released on Friday, showed that the Covid-19 “R rate” has risen to between 0.9 and 1, up from the previous week’s estimate of between 0.8 and 1.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-15--I'm A Celebrity 2020 Voting Figures Reveal Giovanna Fletcher Only Won By Smallest Margin

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Giovanna Fletcher might have been the surprise winner of this year’s I’m A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! but the voting figures have revealed just how close the result was.
The author and podcaster triumphed over Radio 1 DJ Jordan North and TV presenter Vernon Kay in the final of the ITV reality show earlier this month.
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However, she only just pipped Jordan to become the first-ever Queen Of The Castle by 0.54% of the final vote.
Giovanna Fletcher ws crowned Queen of the Castle over Jordan North and Vernon Kay Kieron McCarron/ITV/Shutterstock
Official figures released by ITV show that Vernon had netted 26.5% of the vote when it was still a three-horse race.
But when it got down to just Giovanna and Jordan, she picked up 50.27% of the vote, while Jordan scooped 49.73%.
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During the final, hosts Ant and Dec revealed that 12 million votes had been cast to crown the winner.
Meanwhile, I’m A Celebrity has officially become the year’s biggest TV show with an average of 11.2 million viewers watching across the series.
Overall, it is the show’s second most watched series in the 18 years it’s been on the air.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-15--Sharon Osbourne Reveals She Was Hospitalised With Covid-19: 'Please Stay Safe'

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Sharon Osbourne has said she was briefly hospitalised after testing positive for Covid-19.
The former X Factor judge, 68, has been separated from rocker husband Ozzy Osbourne while she recovers.
Ozzy, 72, has tested negative for the virus, Sharon said in a post she shared on Twitter and Instagram in the early hours of Tuesday.
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Sharon Osbourne CBS Photo Archive via Getty Images
Sharon, a co-host of US chat show The Talk, tweeted: “I wanted to share I’ve tested positive for Covid 19. After a brief hospitalisation, I’m now recuperating at a location away from Ozzy (who has tested negative) while The Talk is on scheduled hiatus.
“Everyone please stay safe and healthy.”
The Talk is filmed in Los Angeles, where the Osbournes reportedly live.
Much of the state of California is currently under a stay-at-home order, amid a sharp spike in coronavirus cases.
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Sharon’s former X Factor co-judge Nicole Scherzinger was among those who sent messages of support, commenting on Instagram: “Praying for you and love you.”
Sharon’s Covid diagnosis comes days after her The Talk co-host Carrie Ann Inaba also shared that she had tested positive for the virus.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-15--Lord Sugar Pays Tribute As Brother Derek Dies From Covid-19

Lord Sugar has revealed his brother Derek has died from Covid-19.
The Apprentice star said his sibling died after the virus added complications to his underlying health conditions.
Lord Alan Sugar Dave M. Benett via Getty Images
The businessman paid tribute on Instagram in the early hours of Tuesday morning, sharing a picture of him.
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“My brother Derek died today another victim of covid which complicated his underlying health problems,” Lord Sugar wrote.
“He was a life long Spurs fan and my sister in law made me laugh in 1991 thanking me for buying Spurs for him.
“He will be sadly missed by the whole family. RIP BRO.”
On Twitter, Lord Sugar added that it was a “sad day for us all in the family”.
Today I lost my long suffering brother Derek another victim of Covid which added to his underlying health issues. He was a life time passionate Spurs supporter.I never forget my sister in law joking with me thanking me for buying him the club. A sad day for us all in the family — Lord Sugar (@Lord_Sugar) December 15, 2020
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Lord Sugar was a part-owner and chairman of Tottenham Hotspur from 1991 to 2001, selling his remaining stake in the football club in 2007.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-15--The Vicar Of Dibley’s Heartbreaking Tribute To Alice Tinker Following Death Of Actor Emma Chambers L

The Vicar Of Dibley’s Heartbreaking Tribute To Alice Tinker Following Death Of Actor Emma Chambers Leaves Viewers In Pieces

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The Vicar Of Dibley’s latest 10 minute special left viewers in tears on Monday night after the long-running show paid tribute to one of its most-loved characters.
Dawn French, as vicar Geraldine Granger, fought back tears as she remembered Alice Tinker, following the death of actor Emma Chambers from a heart attack in 2018 at the age of 53.
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In the heartbreaking scene, Geraldine spoke to camera in a poignant dedication to her best friend, revealing she had died of cancer three years ago, after initially getting excited about a “positive test result”.
The Vicar Of Dibley's Alice Tinker (Emma Chambers) and Geraldine Granger (Dawn French) BBC
“Who is the person I have loved most in my life?,” Geraldine asked. “Well, I’m very fond of my handsome husband, but in the end it has got to be her. My own darling dumb blonde.
“She had one husband, six children, and three brain cells, but so much love in her heart she could defrost a frozen pizza on a Christmas day.
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“She wasn’t the brightest bulb in the box, but when we lost her, all our lights went out.”
Choking back tears, Geraldine continued: “I believe in eternal life in heaven, but I also believe in eternal life on earth, because those who die are eternally here, alive in our memories, and who we are, because of how they changed us.
“Someone who’s final request was her coffin to be carried by six people dressed as Peppa Pig will never be forgotten.”
She concluded: “Message for the day: Love the ones you’re with, especially in these hardest of times.”
The moving tribute left viewers in pieces who quickly praised the scene...
Oh @Dawn_French your beautiful tribute to Alice just caught me unawares and made me cry. Your words were just beautiful! The #vicarofdibley is simply brilliant and we have missed it, and you so much. Thank you ❤ — Anita T (@AnitaThakor) December 14, 2020
I was in floods during tonight’s Vicar of Dibley special, thank you so much for such a lovely tribute 🥰 Love to you and yours 🥰 — Nic Stenning (@NicStenning) December 15, 2020
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You made the room go quiet tonight in our house @Dawn_French . A moving tribute. #vicarofdibley — Jen (@JenH_2020) December 15, 2020
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We still miss you, Emma #VicarofDibley — Rowan A. Crump (@RowanACrump) December 14, 2020
@Dawn_French hitting me right in the feels talking about Alice Tinker 😭😭😭 #vicarofDibley also does Dawn never age?! Gorgeous women. — Becky (@Bswinny10) December 14, 2020
After the episode had aired, Dawn also took to Twitter to share her own tribute to her former co-star and friend.
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“Miss her,” she tweeted. “And all those we’ve lost.”
Ahead of the special tribute episode, Dawn spoke of the difficulty she had filming it, revealing it took seven attempts.
Emma Chambers died in 2018 BBC
“Along with all the silly, funny stuff, there is a moment where we pay tribute to Alice and that was not easy to film,” Dawn said.
“Honestly, I had to do it seven times. I didn’t get through it once without tears but it’s really important to remember this is where real life and Dibley come together.
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“[Writers] Richard Curtis and Paul Mayhew-Archer have got this skill of making stuff funny and light but also being truthful and honest.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-15--Lawyer Fighting Trump Loss Calls On His Supporters To Stock Up On 'Second Amendment Supplies'

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The fringe right-wing lawyer who filed the court challenge to Donald Trump’s election loss in Georgia has called on the president’s supporters to stock up on “Second Amendment supplies” — presumably firearms and ammunition — to prepare for what he apparently envisions as an apocalyptic future.
“Our leader is Donald Trump, not Biden,” attorney Lin Wood tweeted Sunday.
“Make sure you have PLENTY of water, food, flashlights & batteries, candles, radio, 2nd Amendment supplies, & a plan to meet with leaders of your communities,” he urged. He included a photo of Trump with the caption: “I’m still your president.”
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Better to be safe than sorry.
Make sure you have PLENTY of water, food, flashlights & batteries, candles, radio, 2nd Amendment supplies, & a plan to meet with leaders of your communities.
Remember we only have 1 President at a time. Our leader is @realDonaldTrump, not Biden. pic.twitter.com/Z8cuPw1Md6 — Lin Wood (@LLinWood) December 14, 2020
A reporter for the right-wing Newsmax site piped up in a tweet that when “Lin Wood tells people to prep, I listen.”
Wood has called on Trump to declare martial law in a bid to wrest the White House from the electorate. The lawyer’s theory is that Americans working with Venezuela, China, Serbia, Canada, Venezuela, Cuba, the CIA, billionaire philanthropist George Soros, the Clinton Foundation, and state and local officials from both parties rigged the presidential election.
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Wood has filed several lawsuits challenging Joe Biden’s win, including one in his home state of Georgia, which was touted by Trump before it went down to defeat.
Doing a great job in Georgia. Their recount is a scam, means nothing. Must see fraudulent signatures which is prohibited by stupidly signed & unconstitutional consent decree. @BrianKempGA https://t.co/UtEp3FN22S — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 15, 2020
Wood said at a press conference earlier this month that Trump called to tell the attorney “he knows he won this election.” The president said, ‘Lin, I didn’t lose it. I won it,’” Wood recounted.
Donald Trump lost by 7 Million votes. pic.twitter.com/v3xXHM8W9H — The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) December 3, 2020
I met with @realDonaldTrump in the Oval Office at White House on March 11, 2020 at President’s request. I have not published photo earlier but thought today was good day to so do for context after leftist & Gannett attack article. Official White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian. pic.twitter.com/UxrNHPl5ek — Lin Wood (@LLinWood) September 6, 2020
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Several Twitter followers mocked Wood’s call to stock up for an armageddon, with one checking on vodka stores and another urging people to get marshmallows for s’mores.
Others heard a call to arms. One wondered when the FBI would show up at Wood’s door to question him about instigating violence,
lets doooo this. Patriots were born for this moment. — shane (@cashcowCOB) December 14, 2020
okay so food, water, flashlights and batteries, ammo, candles, radio, better add tanks of gas to horde. and i think i’ll get started on building a mote too 🤔 pic.twitter.com/pASooQbRI3 — Megan (@megatron3120) December 14, 2020


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-15--Lewis Hamilton Says Covid-19 'Destroyed' Him After Testing Positive 2 Weeks Ago

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Lewis Hamilton may still be feeling the after-effects of Covid-19, but his fighting spirit is stronger than ever.
Earlier this month, the British race car driver revealed that he’d tested positive for the coronavirus and had immediately gone into a 10-day stretch of self-isolation.
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Returning to competition for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Sunday, he told reporters that he didn’t feel much like his usual self, but was nonetheless grateful to be able to participate after testing negative.
“I am destroyed. I do not feel good,” said Hamilton, who came in third place on Sunday. “But I’m happy and grateful I am alive. I live to fight another day and I still managed to finish with a podium.”
The seven-time Formula One world champion went on to criticise those who continue to flout mask-wearing and social distancing measures, telling the BBC, “Covid is no joke.”
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“I knew at some stage if I got it, it would be tough because there are people out there losing their lives,” Hamilton said. “So I knew it was serious. I always find it very strange to see world leaders laughing it off like it is nothing.”
“To be able to come back here this weekend, I knew I wouldn’t physically be where I have been the rest of the season but I made it,” he added. “Where there is a will, there is a way.”
In October, Hamilton surpassed Michael Schumacher’s record of 91 Grand Prix wins to become the most successful Formula One driver of all time.
In a Dec. 1 Instagram post, he said he’d tested negative for Covid-19 three times but asked for a fourth test, which came back positive. “I’m really lucky that I feel OK with only mild symptoms and will do my best to stay fit and healthy,” he wrote.
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While Hamilton didn’t delve into specifics pertaining to his recovery, he told Reuters he still had “some feeling within my lungs” a day ahead of Sunday’s race.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-15--These Are The Brilliant Books That Got Us Through 2020

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Lockdown may have fuelled our desire to bake banana bread and incubate our sourdough starters like our lives depended on it, but it also whet our appetite for escapism. Two in five UK adults read more during the first lockdown, according to a survey by Nielsen Books UK – and the nation as a whole almost doubled its weekly reading time – from around three and a half hours pre-lockdown, to six.
It’s unsurprising that so many of us turned to, well, turning pages during a time of stress and anxiety. Reading can be incredibly therapeutic, and it’s also distracting when the world is falling apart around us. Books allows us to escape into other places, lives and possibilities. They can also relax and calm us.
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We asked some of the HuffPost UK team to reveal the books that helped them through the highs and (many) lows of the pandemic. This isn’t your standard end of year booklist – our interests and tastes vary wildly across the newsroom and these individual recommendations really reflect that.
From celebrity autobiographies to children’s picture books, from Booker award-winning fiction to foodie heaven, here are the reads that kept us going in 2020. We hope they pique your curiosity, too.
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
Chosen by Becky Barnes, audience editor
Canongate The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
While 2020 has been an absolute shitter, there have been some silver linings. One of them is having more time to get lost in books and some bloody great ones have been published this year. One that I could not put down – and the absolute standout for me – is The Midnight Library by Matt Haig.
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The main character is Nora Seed, who finds herself in the Midnight Library after living a life of regrets. In the library, she is able to open books which take her on other paths she could have followed had she made some different decisions. The key quote from the book: “The only way to learn is to live.”
If you follow Matt on social media or have read any of his amazing collection, you’ll already know he’s a genius. Once again, his latest novel The Midnight Library delivers. Somehow Matt manages to create something that could completely change your perspective on life through a simple yet gripping narrative. For the first time, I immediately downloaded the audio book after reading the physical one. I then ordered it for three other people. Bring on the film.
Riding The Waves: My Story by Jane McDonald
Chosen by Ash Percival, entertainment editor
Penguin Riding The Waves: My Story by Jane McDonald
Reading is not my bag at all. After spending all day writing and editing, I would much rather sit down in front of the telly to numb my mind from the goings on in the outside world. However, I make an exception for celebrity autobiographies (I guess that goes with the territory of being an entertainment journalist, right?), and one person whose book I’ve really enjoyed this year is Jane McDonald.
Now you might initially think I’m being sarcastic, but I can assure you I’m not. As anyone who has watched one of her Cruising shows knows, this former Loose Woman is camp with a capital C, and her book – brilliantly titled Riding The Waves (see what she did there?) – takes us back, right to where it started in her beloved hometown of Wakey (that’s Wakefield to you and me).
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From her days travelling up and down the country performing in working men’s clubs with her dad as her roadie, to boarding her first cruise ship as a singer and suddenly becoming an overnight star thanks to BBC documentary, The Cruise, McDonald’s life story is told with her trademark down-to-earth humour and charm, with a side order of showbiz stories.
As the woman herself would say, it’s fabulous.
Mama Black Widow by Iceberg Slim
Chosen by Jayson Mansaray, video producer and presenter
Canongate Mama Black Widow
My friend Oliver is one of the best read people I know: best read in English, and best read in French and Portuguese at that, so he is someone I always listen to for book suggestions.
At the start of lockdown, he recommended Iceberg Slim’s Mama Black Widow (1969). It’s not a light read but it is an incredible insight into Black Queer culture long before I was born, possibly before my mother was born, too. Black drag queen Otis Tilson retells the trials and tribulations of their life. From struggles with identity, parents and prison to the subculture that embraced Tilson, this book took me to another place, giving me characters I’d rarely read before.
Oliver’s other recommendation was The Riverfront Journals by artist and activist David Wojnarowicz. His series of essays has been dubbed “autobiographical fiction”. The book took me to the 1970s and 80s as homeless-at-the-time Wojnarowicz gives us snapshots of hitchhiking, prostitution and hustling around America. The characters we encounter, the sub cultures and the road less travelled, was a wonderful otherworldly space to escape to, introducing me to places and people I might, at times, be too conservative to talk to in real life.
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The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan
Chosen by Natasha Hinde, life reporter
Orbit Books The Eye Of The World by Robert Jordan
Would I have predicted I’d spend much of 2020 with my nose stuck firmly in a 1980s fantasy series at the start of this year? No. But I would never have imagined that 2020 would pan out like it has, either. The Eye Of The World is book one in a rather long series, called The Wheel Of Time, by Robert Jordan.
These books aren’t new or trending. I only heard about them this year after my boyfriend devoured His Dark Materials and wanted to read more like it. But with my work life consisting of writing about Covid, Covid and... yep, you guessed it, Covid, and my home life peaking with a daily walk around the block, I decided I had nothing to lose and embarked on the series, too – and I’m so glad I did.
The series is rather like Lords of the Rings but with fewer orcs and elves, and more of a focus on magic, ancient wars and prophecies. It has everything you’d want from the fantasy genre and has proven to be the ultimate distraction through this second half of the year. There’s drama, suspense, strange non-human creatures cropping up in even stranger places, lead characters making plenty of questionable choices – it’s pure escapism.
I read a chapter (or four) every night before bed and for half an hour I was completely transported away from Covid-19 and into another world – it’s not quite a holiday, but it’s the next best thing.
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Really Saying Something – Sara & Keren, Our Story by Bananarama
Chosen by Matt Bagwell, head of entertainment
Penguin Really Saying Something (Sara & Keren – Our Bananarama Story)
This year has had us all feeling misty-eyed for better days so it’s no surprise that many of us have been seeking out nostalgic entertainment to distract us from the shitshow that is 2020.
Bananarama’s autobiography is just that: an incredible ride down memory lane as told by founding members Sara Dallin and Keren Woodward. If it wasn’t for Bananarama then we might never have had the Spice Girls. Or Girls Aloud. It just doesn’t bear thinking about, does it?
But while both those groups were manufactured (no judgment here), Bananarama were anything but. Since meeting at primary school, the pair haven’t left each other’s sides, making this book so much more than just another pop tale. It’s also a story of friendship, survival and a globally successful British girl group having the absolute time of their lives in a male-dominated world, whilst regularly asking themselves WTF?
Sara and Keren take turns to recount their amazing pop lives in a really chatty, intimate style. It’s the printed equivalent of going to the pub with them, like a couple of old mates, and getting them to spill all the juice. I didn’t want it to end.
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Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
Chosen by Emma Youle, special correspondent
Penguin Girl, Woman, Other
One thing I’ve really missed this year is spending time with women I love. The hugs from my mum and sister, the long nights out with old friends putting the world to rights. The pure unabashed joy of time spent with women you adore.
I’m not sure I had realised quite how much, until I read Bernardine Evaristo’s novel, Girl, Woman, Otherm which brilliantly channels the strength and power of the feminine. The book documents the lives of 12 people, mostly women, who are all interconnected in small ways. Evaristo has talked about wanting to put the voices of Black women front and centre, and she achieves this with characters portrayed in wonderful complexity.
It is testament to her powers as a writer that each character’s story could have made a novel in its own right. The book begins at a glitzy theatre premiere on London’s South Bank, where we meet Amma, a feminist lesbian playwright who has just opened a hit production about Amazonian warriors. It unfolds character by character into the lives of the other women – teasing a tantalising web that leaves you guessing how their stories overlap.
As I spent time with these characters, I felt exactly the joy I feel with my women friends, as well as pride and delight at the resilience and gutsiness of women more generally. The author also explores, with searing vividness, the spectrum of gender identity and how race and sexuality intersect to define the experiences of women, and she does it beautifully.
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Evaristo’s storytelling is compelling and generous, her characters unique, the structure of the novel is innovative and exciting. The book is fresh and sassy and cool. If you (men or women) are missing the company of women, and all the richness that brings, I heartily recommend it. Just don’t start reading it if you have anything important to do. I couldn’t put it down.
In The Kitchen: Essays On Food And Life
Sarah Turnnidge, news reporter and weekend editor
Daunt Books In The Kitchen
I’ve never really seen myself as much of a cook, but with very little else to do other than work or go on the same three walks, I’ve found myself spending more time in the kitchen than ever before. Having passed the best part of the year baking, frying and steaming my way through as many recipes as possible, when a friend sent me In The Kitchen for my birthday, I knew I’d find at least something in it that resonated.
In the end I read it cover to cover, in a corner of my own kitchen. Made up of 13 beautiful essays, each explores the writer’s relationship with food or the kitchen itself, exposing how closely what we eat and how we live are interwoven.
From a personal history charted through ovens to mapping a failed relationship over the course of shared dinners, every story finds a new way to explore what food means to us. Stuck in my own flat, reading essays about foods, families and cultures thousands of miles from my own experience became a form of escape, and those are the pieces that I’ve gone back to again and again over the past few weeks.
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At the same time the stories that felt closer to home – on cooking for friends or a partner, or the joy of the buffet – were a welcome reminder of how much we have to look forward to on the other side of this crisis.
Tar Beach by Faith Ringgold
Chosen by Nancy Groves, head of life
Penguin Random House Tar Beach by Faith Ringgold
For large swathes of this year I struggled to focus on fiction. There’s been the odd new release that’s grabbed me – Jenny Offill’s Weather and Writers & Lovers by Lily King among them – and like Ash and Matt, I also enjoyed a celeb autobiography in Quite (turns out Claudia Winkleman is as personable on the page as she is on TV). But more often than not, I’ve turned to old favourites.
Tar Beach, by the supremely talented African-American artist Faith Ringgold, is the story of a little girl who grows up in the high rises of Harlem, looking up at the stars from the “tar beach” of her apartment block roof. What started life as one of Ringgold’s quilt artworks became an award-winning children’s picture book – and a fable for big dreamers who refuse to be limited by life’s hand.
“Anyone can fly,” says its young heroine. “All you need is somewhere to go that you can’t get to any other way.” As the twin forces of coronavirus and anti-racism made themselves known this year, her words took on new meaning.
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-15--Here Are The Wedding Trends You Can Expect To See In 2021

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2021 is set to be a bumper year for weddings, with postponed nuptials and “sequel” celebrations queueing up behind those already booked.
And while you might expect the wedding trends of the new year to mirror those from 2020, there will be some new additions – even among all those preplanned or rescheduled dos.
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Unsurprisingly, Etsy saw searches for “wedding face mask” and “bridal face mask” increase by 1004% and 1585% respectively when weddings were permitted again after the first national lockdown. The site predicts the trend for coordinated face coverings will continue well into 2021.
We don’t yet know how weddings may be restricted, but with the vaccine rollout upon us, we’re cautiously optimistic for a better year – both for couples and industry suppliers. Here are some of the other trends you can expect to see.
LaylaBird via Getty Images
Minimalist matrimony
The pandemic required 2020 to become the year of minimalist matrimony, but trend forecasters at Pinterest think it may spark a movement towards low-key celebrations long term.
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The trend for a (not so) big day will continue way into 2021, they say, regardless of covid restrictions, with smaller, laid-back venues and no-frills elopements continuing to gain popularity.
Searches for simple, one tier wedding cakes doubled in the last year, as did searches for courthouse wedding outfits. Meanwhile searches for “small backyard wedding” were up 160%.
Mighty menus
Smaller weddings may actually mean more extravagant menus next year, says Kelly Sinnott, from Essex wedding venue Baddow Park House.
“Smaller guest numbers will allow caterers to focus more on the food quality as couples may have a larger spend per guest ratio,” she says. “This could be reflected in upgrading to offer your guests Champagne instead of Prosecco or going all out on a ‘tasting menu’ with a series of sumptuous courses.”
Daisy-Daisy via Getty Images
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Sustainability wins
A tighter guest list leaves couples with more scope to focus on food
and drink sourcing, meaning sustainability could be another big trend, predicts Sinnott.
“2020 has taught us a lot of valuable lessons about what is truly
important to us. Many couples are finding that that they are mindful of the waste that a large-scale wedding produces and are changing their plans accordingly,” she says.
“We expect to see an increase in the amount of couples opting for faux flowers that can be repurposed after the big day as well as real flower displays that can be re-potted after.”
Couples may also opt to shop locally more frequently: a win-win for cutting your carbon footprint and supporting local businesses after the economic hardship of 2020.
“We expect to see a surge in the use of local bridal boutiques and small-independent florists amongst other local suppliers,” says Sinnott. “Couples want their local economy to feel the benefit of their spend, meaning that weddings and their chosen suppliers will all be closer to the couple’s home.”
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PeopleImages via Getty Images
Alternative venues
Almost three quarters (71%) of couples who planned to marry in 2020 postponed to a later date, according to the wedding site Hitched, and Google trend data shows an increase of over 210% for the term “sequel wedding”.
The bumper year for weddings has meant registrars are fully booked in some parts of the country, sparking a move back to more traditional settings, such as the village church, says Sinnott.
Those who don’t want a religious service may opt for a ceremony hosted by a celebrant, before making their marriage legally binding once a registrar is available.
“Celebrants can host a wedding pretty much anywhere meaning that the possibilities really are endless,” she says. “From secluded beaches to whimsical woodlands, just remember to factor in some shelter due to the risks associated with unpredictable weather.”
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Bright colour schemes
Alina Kulbasnaia via Getty Images
Sky blue is Etsy’s colour of 2021, supposedly bringing “hope and connecting with nature” – so don’t be surprised to see it reflected in bridesmaid’s dresses, stationary and flowers.
Vaishali Shah, from wedding stationary specialists Ananya, thinks couples will want to get away from the doom and gloom of 2020 with their colour scheme.
“Couples will want to celebrate life with a burst of colour; it can be bold and vibrant such as rich reds and hot pinks to make a big statement or pale delicate pinks and corals will give a soft and romantic effect to inject life into the stationery,” she says. “Colours will be an expression of freedom and spontaneity.”
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Nods to the pandemic
Wherever the party ends up, cake toppers will provide a fun way for couples to acknowledge the strange journey they’ve had to get to their celebration. Etsy is already full of designs using the word “finally”, or “1st anniversary,” for couples who did tie the knot but postponed the party for a year.
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Due to the pandemic, we are yearning for personal, meaningful gestures in all aspects of life, adds Shah. She expects couples will want to bring those aspects into their wedding stationery, with personalised stamps or hand illustrated designs offering a more thoughtful and informal look.
RubiandLib/Etsy Cake topper from RubiandLib/Etsy.
Shah also predicts couples will get touchy-feely with stationery, to make up for the lack of physical touch we’ve had with loved ones throughout the pandemic.
“All the ways we can make wedding stationery tactile will be embraced and experimented with in 2021,” she says. “Handmade paper in gorgeous shades, dyed with natural, plant-based dyes has a texture that gives it a charming and comforting dimension. Print techniques that employ embossing and engraving are lovely to touch. Hand torn edges complement either a rustic or luxe look, depending on what other treatment you give it.”
The dress gets an upgrade
Guest lists may be smaller, but brides will not be compromising on the dress, says Shah. Traditional red remains popular for a bride’s sari or lengha in Asian weddings, while pastel shades are gaining popularity in place of the big white dress elsewhere.
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“Brides are not opting for lower key styles as they want still want to celebrate their wedding in style and ‘go all out’ in their attire and jewellery,” she says.
FirstComesLoveBridal/Etsy Jacket from FirstComesLoveBridal/Etsy.
Those worried about getting cold outside are looking for alternative jackets on Pinterest, where searches for wedding jean jackets have increased by over 130% in the past year.
There’s also been a 34% increase in searches for “reception dresses” on Etsy, suggesting that brides who had to postpone their wedding party may ditch their main wedding dress for a slinkier evening option.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-15--Everything We Know About Covid-19's Impact On The Brain

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As researchers have learned more about Covid-19 and its impact on the body, they have begun to recognise that the well-documented pulmonary effects of the virus are just the tip of the iceberg.
Increasingly, doctors and scientists are focused on how Covid-19 impacts the brain in big and small ways — none of them good. As one neuroscientist said in the journal Nature: “The neurological symptoms are only becoming more and more scary.”
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Experts are still digging into the neurological impact of Covid-19, and there are perhaps more questions than answers at this point. But here are some of the biggest findings to date:
Neurological injuries from Covid-19 may actually be pretty common.
While the coronavirus-brain connection was once thought to be pretty rare, it now seems that may not be the case.
Research published in October by a team with New York University suggests that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, leads to neurological injuries in roughly 1 out of every 7 people infected.
Those injuries run the gamut in severity, from temporary confusion to seizures and stroke. And they can occur without the virus appearing to directly enter the brain or the nervous system, suggesting many neurological injuries associated with Covid-19 are a secondary effect of becoming really sick with the virus, which can lead to problems like oxygen loss and blood clots.
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To that end, the researchers behind the NYU study have argued their findings show that doctors who treat patients with serious Covid-19 must be aggressive in getting oxygen levels stable. If they cannot, the brain may pay a steep price.
Severe effects, like inflammation of the brain, are possible.
Though rare, cases of encephalitis, or inflammation of the brain, have been documented among infected individuals. Experts say that’s not altogether surprising, given that encephalitis is often caused by viral infections. But it is serious, as encephalitis can be life-threatening.
It is not yet clear why certain people who have Covid-19 appear to develop this type of serious brain swelling.
But in a troubling development, it appears that some individuals develop encephalitis without demonstrating other more well-known symptoms. For example, in a case report that looked at roughly 40 people in the UK who developed neurological issues related to Covid-19, several patients who had encephalitis actually had pretty mild respiratory issues.
“This was the brain being hit as their main disease,” a neuroscientist behind the case study told the journal Nature.
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Covid-19 has been linked to chronic cognitive deficits.
A preliminary study published in late October suggests that people who are infected with Covid-19 may have cognitive issues that last for months, particularly if they fall severely ill and require hospitalization.
By analyzing scores on a widely available cognitive test, researchers found that Covid-19 aged some patients’ brains by roughly 10 years.
“People who had recovered, including those no longer reporting symptoms, exhibited significant cognitive deficits,” the authors of the study wrote in a report of their findings.
One important note: The study was not subject to peer review. But it is not the only research to link ongoing cognitive decline with Covid-19, even in people considered to be recovered from the virus.
In a small study of 29 people in China who had Covid-19 and had recovered from the virus, the patients showed persistent issues with sustained attention, or the ability to focus on one task for a period of time without getting distracted.
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Jolygon via Getty Images There's still a lot medical experts don't know about Covid-19 and its effects on the brain, but there's some data that suggests the virus can cause neurological issues.
Covid-19 symptoms can include neurological issues.
Covid-19 can certainly cause milder neurological symptoms, such as headaches and dizziness. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now includes headaches on its short list of some of the most common symptoms associated with the virus.
Some Covid-19 survivors may develop a mental health disorder.
Research also suggests that 1 in 5 patients might develop a mental illness for the first time within three months of getting infected with the virus. This could include anxiety, depression or insomnia.
At this point, it is unclear exactly what the link is, but experts have long known that physical and mental health are closely intertwined.
SARS-CoV-2 might enter the brain through the nose.
Again, doctors and researchers aren’t yet clear on how the coronavirus reaches the brain, but as experts with Johns Hopkins Medicine explain, they have generally zeroed in on four primary possibilities.
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The virus may enter the brain directly and cause severe infection. The brain may be hurt when a person’s immune system goes into overdrive. The brain may be hurt by general chaos in the body (including low oxygen levels). Or the brain may suffer as a result of blood clotting.
That first possibility — that SARS-CoV-2 can cross into the central nervous system and brain — is among the most unsettling. But there is some new evidence suggesting it’s true.
A small German study of 33 people who died from Covid-19, published at the end of November in the journal Nature Neuroscience, found that more than half of the patients had evidence of SARS-CoV-2 in their noses and their brains, prompting researchers to conclude the virus could invade the nervous system — and the brain — through the olfactory tract. That might help explain why loss of smell and taste are a common symptom of Covid-19, although that is far from settled and a matter of ongoing debate among researchers.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-15--I Run A Nursery. I’ve Seen How Covid Is Holding Back Our Young Children

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The nursery I’ve managed for the last seven years, Angel Pre-School in south Westminster, London, is a unique place. We’re part of the London Early Years Foundation (LEYF), where, unlike private nurseries, it’s part of our mission to give back to our often very marginalised communities.
At Angel itself, we have government-funded places subsidised by LEYF that allow us to focus on the most vulnerable children. Many come from homes where there may be mental health issues, deprivation or poverty, families we consider it our duty to support.
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Before Covid, our children would normally spend a lot of time playing in free flow, with periods of outdoor play and time spent in open plan areas that enables them to learn and explore their interests. They could also use our sensory room and our language sessions as many of them either speak English as an additional language or might be experiencing speech delay.
At Angel we have a massive garden, and so we try to take a lot of our learning outside. Many of our children come from high rise flats or homes without access to gardens, so in the three hours a day they’re here, we make sure they get over an hour dedicated to the outdoors.
Even pre-Covid, that was vital. But even more so now.
“The level of anxiety when they returned after lockdown was a huge surprise. And it wasn’t just the children...”
When we re-opened in June after the first lockdown, everything changed. We operated two ‘bubbles’ a day and the children went from having free run of the nursery inside and outside to putting in place dedicated Covid regulations. We doubled up our cleaning (even sanitising the bottom of children’s shoes when they entered the building), made sure they all washed their hands regularly and, after each morning session, we would close for an hour of cleaning ahead of the afternoon bubble.
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We had to pull back a lot of our resources due to Government guidelines, but fortunately our garden allowed us to play and learn safely outside. For example, our register was taken outside, snack time became picnic time, and a lot of teaching sessions were held outside too. Let’s just say it was a good thing summer lasted as long as it did. We even hosted a free summer school to help young children most in need who risked falling behind with their learning, made possible by the Barclays UK 100 x 100 Community Relief Programme.
The biggest change we noticed, however, was the children’s mental health. The level of anxiety when they returned after lockdown was a huge surprise. And it wasn’t just the children – we needed to do a lot of work reassuring parents too about the safety procedures we’d put in place.
We found we had to focus parents on what’s actually factual and what’s not there were so many WhatsApp messages coming through to them sharing incorrect or misleading information. So, we listened to every parent and took their concerns on board, and simply reassured them that we follow all the right procedures.
Slowly, more children were coming in day after day. But we also began to notice that some children didn’t want to separate from their parents. These were the same children who were perfectly fine just a couple of months before. We had children who were the life of the party before lockdown but came back withdrawn, not communicating or making contact with staff. We even had a higher number of children return to pre-school wearing nappies.
It’s important to say this isn’t because of ‘bad parenting’. For some, it’s a lack of knowledge or a lack of support around them, and for others I truly believe they were so caught up in what was happening in the wider world that these things were simply overlooked.
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“We have decided to focus solely on our children’s personal, social and emotional development. This year we’re not worried about learning numbers or shapes. All that will follow in good time.”
In September 2021, I believe schools are going to be in for a massive shock. We are working so hard with our parents to give them as much support as possible, but it’s been really shocking to see the negative impact of being away from Pre-School for just four months. The delay in some of the children’s development has been quite surprising, and I think we’re going to see the impact of this delay not just in the coming years but for the foreseeable future.
As a result, we have decided to focus solely on our children’s personal, social and emotional development. This year we’re not worried about learning numbers or shapes. All that will follow in good time. On the nursery floor, that means a lot of story time, a lot of time talking about feelings and emotions, a lot of Makaton to enable people to communicate, especially our non-verbal communicators.
If you walked into Angel you wouldn’t see tables of children with shapes and numbers in front of them – you’ll find malleable, textured objects and things that allow the children to express their feelings. That’s because if children are not secure in their personal social and emotional development, no matter what, they’re not going to learn anything. They have to be secure, they have to be comfortable, or no learning can take place.
I think the Government needs to get behind nurseries and Pre-Schools like ours and the Early Years sector and finally acknowledge that children under five years really do matter. We need to be at the forefront of people’s minds, because we look after the next generation – who will in turn look after us.
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As told to Charlie Lindlar
Christel Brown is nursery manager at Angel Pre-School, London


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-15--Now Cummings Is Gone, Is Boris Johnson Re-Learning The Art Of Compromise?

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Over the past year, Boris Johnson has learned that a single party majority of 80 really isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Not small enough to scare backbenchers into line (like Cameron or Major), not big enough to ignore them (like Blair or Thatcher), it is a margin of victory that allows a hardcore group of rebels to cause serious trouble.
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Tory backbenchers’ loyalty certainly wasn’t helped by the presence of Dominic Cummings in No.10, and the feeling of loathing was often mutual. He thought they were talentless dullards, they in turn thought he was a deeply un-Conservative blowhard who was out of his depth in Whitehall.
Cummings’ SpecSavers trip to Barnard Castle really was the point at which many Tory MPs hoped the PM would realise the emperor’s assistant had no clothes. The hypocrisy of his actions, that raw cut-through power of someone in government thinking there was one law for them and another for little people, fuelled their dislike even more.
Cummings’ hypocrisy on his own pay (and on not wasting taxpayers’ money) prompted more chatter among MPs and special advisers alike. Having told spads to stick to 1% pay rises and not to go above £100,000, newly released figures show he in fact got a nice pay bump of £40,000 to £140,000 over the past year.
We also learned that his serial sackings of spads (aka vendettas against people who’s face didn’t fit) ran up a bill of £2.7m. And in the case of the summary dismissal by Cummings of former Treasury adviser Sonia Khan, the PM himself was warned by the civil service’s chief exec that the resulting court case would cost a fortune. It did: somewhere on the way to £100,000.
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Yet the really significant thing about Cummings was how temperamentally unsuited he was to, well, getting stuff done. According to some who observed him up close, his laserlike focus on an uncompromising set of goals was what made him both a highly effective campaigner and a pretty ineffective agent for change in government.
Despite being a huge devotee of Otto von Bismarck, the PM’s former chief adviser never once paid tribute to the German chancellor’s telling remark that “politics is the art of the possible, the attainable — the art of the next best”.
But now that Cummings has all but gone (his last payday is Wednesday, and he may think his salary rise gave him the last laugh), is Johnson himself re-learning the art of compromise is crucial, even for a government with a notionally healthy parliamentary majority? The grand ambition, after all, is to move on from Covid and Brexit in 2021 and focus on “levelling up” Britain.
One straw in the wind was the government’s climbdown in the Lords today on the UK Internal Market Bill. Having been defeated by big margins three times by peers, ministers finally decided to agree to write into the legislation some devolution protections. It was a classic bit of parliamentary ping-pong, showing the limits of that Commons majority when faced with firm opposition and a hard deadline (the need to get the legislation done before the end of the year).
Michael Gove played a key role in defusing the issue. The Bill’s severely toxic plan to break international law had already been stripped out, thanks to stiff Lords opposition and EU anger. Once the provision was removed, Gove (him again) was free to finalise a complex solution to the Northern Ireland trade problem, which he duly did.
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Another kind of compromise is looming over the whole issue of Christmas bubbles, after private warnings from within the NHS and within government that relaxing the Covid rules was very dangerous when cases were soaring in key parts of the country. The BMJ/HSJ editorial was withering but timely ammo for those ministers arguing for a tightening of restrictions.
We will find out on Wednesday just whether or how far Johnson wants any tightening, and the need to have common rules with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will be tested to breaking point. Yet it seems there will be at least some further guidance or warnings, proving that the PM is being forced to listen in part.
Which brings us to the most pressing compromise of all: a Brexit trade deal. There is intense speculation that an agreement is finally close. Such a breakthrough would be a repeat of Boris Johnson’s grand bargain with Leo Varadkar to get the first Brexit ‘deal’ done last year. Some insiders say that deal was achieved despite Cummings, not because of him.
Some even claim that the former adviser always wanted a no-trade-deal exit because it would be the purest of Brexits, wiping the slate clean in the name of sovereignty.
But if the next few days sees a messy but workable compromise between London and Brussels, there will be a new un-Cummingslike meaning to “Bismarck Boris”. Not so much the iron-willed culture warmonger, but more the wily practitioner of the art of the possible. Maybe that would be a more radical outcome than many thought.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-15--‘No Plans’ To Tighten Christmas Coronavirus Rules In England

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There are “no plans” to tighten the Christmas coronavirus rules for England, a UK government source has said.
Urgent talks between Michael Gove and the first ministers of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland broke up on Tuesday without agreement on a new strategy amid a fresh spike in cases.
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The discussions will continue on Wednesday with politicians under growing pressure to reconsider the five-day relaxation of the rules between December 23 and 27 in response to fears it could allow the pandemic to spiral.
But a UK government source said after the “constructive call” that “there are no plans to change the regulations in England” which allow up to three households to mix.
“We’re keen to maintain a UK-wide approach and will have further discussions with devolved administrations tomorrow morning,” the source said.
The comments suggest the “four nations” approach agreed across the UK may fray in the coming days.
Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon earlier argued there is a case for reducing the planned freedoms to combat a rise in infections and indicated she could break with the four-nation approach.
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But her Welsh counterpart Mark Drakeford said the current plans were a “hard-won agreement” and he would “not lightly put it aside” ahead of the first meeting.
The talks took place after two leading medical journals warned that a lessening of restrictions would “cost many lives” and the British Medical Association (BMA) echoed Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer in demanding an urgent re-think.
PA Media reported that leaders are trying to agree on new safety warnings amid suggestions from officials and ministers that people should be more careful than the rules allow.
The proposals being discussed by leaders could include guidance for people to consider whether they should meet elderly or clinically-vulnerable loved ones and to stress that the rules are a limit and not a target.
Crowds of shoppers and commuters walk along Oxford Street ahead of introduction of tougher coronavirus restrictions in the run up to Christmas, on December 15 NurPhoto via Getty Images
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A Scottish government spokeswoman said: “The four nations call was a good opportunity to review the position on Christmas and discuss whether the messaging or guidance requires to be reinforced.”
A spokeswoman for Northern Ireland’s first minister Arlene Foster and deputy first minister Michelle O’Neill said they would discuss the situation with medical and scientific advisers before updating Stormont on Thursday.
The meeting was held as the government said a further 506 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19, bringing the UK total to 64,908. Another 18,450 infections were also confirmed in labs as of 9am on Tuesday.
Reducing the planned easing may further anger Tory backbenchers who oppose restrictions, but a poll suggested the majority of Britons believe the relaxation should be scrapped.
The YouGov survey of 3,856 adults on Tuesday indicated that 57% believe the plans should be dropped and that current rules should remain in place during the festive period.
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Some 31% said the easing should go ahead as planned, while 12% said they were unsure.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-15--Boris Johnson Backs Down Over Brexit Bill's Devolution 'Power Grab'

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Boris Johnson has moved to dispel fears that Brexit will undermine devolution in the UK after making key concessions to the House of Lords over his “power grab” plans.
In a move seen as a significant climbdown, ministers unveiled new amendments to the UK Internal Market Bill that would protect so-called “common frameworks” agreed with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland after the country’s EU transition period ends on December 31.
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The bill is intended to create a fair “internal market” between the UK’s four separate nations once Britain finally departs the EU’s single market and customs union, at the end of the transition period on December 31.
The changes follow repeated heavy defeats for the Tories in the Lords over the issue, as peers dug in during several rounds of “parliamentary ping-pong” to defend rights of the devolved administrations.
Nicola Sturgeon has already called the bill “a full-frontal assault on devolution” because it planned to hand London what had been EU powers over food safety, minimum pricing, environmental policy, and animal health and welfare.
Many in the Scottish and Welsh governments had feared the Tory government would use the legislation to embark on a “race to the bottom” on key standards.
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The Lords voted three times to back amendments by independent crossbencher Lord Hope of Craighead, a former deputy president of the Supreme Court, to protect common frameworks across the whole of the UK.
Each time the Commons overturned them, but now ministers have decided to go for a compromise solution that allows them to keep the legislation while agreeing to uphold some devolved rights.
Cabinet office minister Lord Callanan announced the climbdown at the despatch box in the Lords on Tuesday, praising Lord Hope for his “constructive” approach.
“The government have listened carefully and reflected upon the points, put forward many times by your Lordships’ House on putting common frameworks on the face of the bill. And I am pleased to say that today we are able to act,” he said.
Under the new government amendments, the “common frameworks” will be given legal force on the face of the bill, along with exemptions from the application of “market access principles” in the legislation.
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Common frameworks allow different nations within the UK to set their own standards in those key areas of trade.
Under market access principles, rules would have been applied uniformly across the UK, but the changes mean that each devolved administration can be exempted following agreement with London.
Another change will mean that regular five-year reports on the issue will have to include details about the interaction between market access principles and common framework agreements between the UK government and partners in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Johnson recently came under fire when he told MPs earlier this month that “devolution has been a disaster north of the border”.
But HuffPost UK reported that Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove was keen to defuse the issue as it looked likely to be used as a powerful weapon in any future referendum on Scottish independence.
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If the SNP triumphs in next year’s Holyrood elections, a fresh referendum seems certain to be demanded.
The Brexit legislation’s perceived undermining of devolution also sparked fears that Welsh independence could get a boost.
Labour’s deputy Lords leader Baroness Dianne Hayter said: “It’s taken ministers a while to get there but I welcome these concessions and it’s proof we were right to keep pressing on this vital issue.
“When the Bill arrived in the Lords, there was no reference to Common Frameworks – the on-going process of dealing with returning devolved competences post-Brexit.
“But following our thorough scrutiny, the government’s attempt to centralise how the UK internal market should best function will be set aside to allow a more consensual approach.
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“And we have also ensured the majority of regulations made under the legislation will be introduced with the consent of the devolved authorities – something that prevents the imposition of a conformity that would have gone against the grain of the devolved settlements.”
However the SNP said that the bill still went too far.
Business spokesman Drew Hendry MP said: “Westminster ministers will have the right to impose lower food, environmental and other devolved standards on Scotland, regardless of the view of Holyrood.
“This bill is the biggest assault on devolution in the history of the Scottish Parliament. It undermines devolved policy making, grabs spending powers and removes state aid from being a devolved responsibility.
“The Scottish Parliament refused to give this bill consent and it is outrageous that the UK government is once again ignoring the wishes of the people of Scotland.”
The UK Internal Market Bill had already seen a huge Lords defeat over its plans to break international law on Brexit.
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-15--How The UK's Unemployment Figures Compare With Europe

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The number of workers on the payroll in the UK has dropped by more than 800,000 since the start of the Covid-19 crisis, the latest Office for National Statistics figures show.
The UK unemployment rate, in the three months to October 2020, was estimated at 4.9%, 1.2% higher than it was a year before.
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It comes after Boris Johnson stood in the Commons during prime minister’s questions (PMQs) in October and said: “There is no country in Europe where so much support... has been given to the population to get through this crisis.”
“We will support jobs, we will support incomes, we will support businesses... we will do whatever it takes,” vowed Rishi Sunak in mid-March, with the government repeatedly maintaining that the UK’s financial support schemes are “generous by international comparison”.
With support policies shifting constantly, it’s difficult to compare different countries’ schemes.
But we can look to the employment figures as a starting point for understanding what impact they’ve had on the workforce.
Economist Julian Hessop pointed out the UK’s unemployment figures are still relatively low compared to many European countries, as per the Euro area unemployment figures put out in early December by Eurostat.
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The Euro zone as a whole has an unemployment rate of 8.4%, and the EU nations an average of 7.6%, though these vary wildly from country to country.
Some context for today's UK #unemployment data
Single-month estimate for October was 5.2%, compared to average of 7.6% in EU and 8.4% in eurozone... pic.twitter.com/uJtpZrJqPP — Julian Jessop (@julianHjessop) December 15, 2020
But while this may be true, the above chart only shows the unemployment rate as whole, and not how it has shifted throughout the Covid-19 crisis. For example, while Italy has a high unemployment rate – 9.8% – it already had an unemployment rate of 9.5% a year previously, meaning unemployment in the country has increased by around 0.3%.
For context, Carlo Bonomi, president of the General Confederation of Italian Industry, recently told the country that Covid-19 had cost Italy some 500,000 jobs.
So while the UK still has a relatively low unemployment rate, it has experienced a more significant increase in unemployment over the course of the past year and, of course, the Covid-19 crisis.
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In France, the unemployment rate has increased by 0.3%, from approximately 2.35m people in 2019 to 2.53m people in October 2020.
And HuffPost Spain’s Marina Velasco said that to date, approximately 700,000 jobs had been lost in the country since the start of the pandemic – less than the UK’s total of 819,000 – but the country’s already-high unemployment rate of 14% in October 2020 has now increased by 2.2% across the year.
With a population of 84m, Germany’s employment rate remains one of the lowest in Europe – 4.5% in October 2020. However, this represents an increase of 1.4% in unemployment – marginally higher than the UK’s 1.2% – on the previous year.
At the start of December it emerged that despite a second lockdown Germany’s unemployment rate dipped in November, though estimates suggest that the number of companies using the country’s short-term salary support program has risen.
On the whole, rises in unemployment in Germany, which has Europe’s biggest economy, and elsewhere on the continent have been moderate by international standards – a trend that has been attributed by many to the support schemes, such as furlough, on offer.
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Without comparable figures, the latest unemployment rate for Greece was not included in Eurostat’s data.
HuffPost Greece editor Antonis Fourlis said that according to the latest available figures published in August the country’s unemployment rate stands at 16.8% – unchanged from August 2019.
However, Fourlis explained: “It sounds surprising but unemployment is decreasing because it was extremely high until 2019 as a result of the long crisis in Greece.
“Also I strongly believe that as long as all kinds of shops and businesses remain closed under the lockdown, we cannot calculate the unemployment [rate]. After reopening we will find out that many will then close forever.
“Now they are still hoping... [they will] still get some support from the government to pay salaries, but not everybody will be in a position to reopen.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-15--Child Grooming Gang Members Mainly White Men, Home Office Finds

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There is not enough evidence to say Asian or Black people are over-represented in groups of child sex abusers and the majority of offenders are white, a long-awaited official report says.
The Home Office research into grooming gangs, launched amid concerns about gangs of mainly Pakistani-heritage men carrying out child sexual exploitation (CSE), found that abusers actually come from “diverse” backgrounds.
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The report said most group child sex offenders are men under the age of 30 and the majority are white.
“It is not possible” to conclude that Asian or Black people are represented in grooming gangs due to the “potential for bias” and “inaccuracies” in existing studies, and a lack of good quality data, the report said.
“Based on the existing evidence, and our understanding of the flaws in the existing data, it seems most likely that the ethnicity of group-based CSE offenders is in line with child sex abuse more generally and with the general population, with the majority of offenders being white.”
High-profile cases including in Rotherham, Rochdale and Telford have involved groups of men of mainly Pakistani ethnicity.
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In the foreword to the report, home secretary Priti Patel said the findings were “disappointing because community and cultural factors are clearly relevant to understanding and tackling offending”.
Home secretary Priti Patel Peter Nicholls / Reuters
HuffPost UK reported in February that Patel was becoming frustrated with the status of the report which was ordered by predecessor Sajid Javid in July 2018.
Javid, whose parents were from Pakistan, gave several high profile interviews after ordering the probe in which he said the abuse made him “feel angry”, and that the men had “disgraced our heritage”.
But the report said there was no evidence of the over-representation of certain ethnicities among grooming gangs.
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“Research has found that group-based child sexual exploitation (CSE) offenders are most commonly white.
“Some studies suggest an over-representation of Black and Asian offenders relative to the demographics of national populations.
“However, it is not possible to conclude that this is representative of all group-based CSE offending.
“This is due to issues such as data quality problems, the way the samples were selected in studies, and the potential for bias and inaccuracies in the way that ethnicity data is collected.”
It found that while offenders come from diverse backgrounds, the groups themselves tend to be of men of the same ethnicities.
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Money and sex are motivations as well as a sexual interest in children and misogyny, the review said.
Sammy Woodhouse, a survivor of child abuse, said: “It was extremely important for me to be a part of the external reference group as I was subjected to exploitation and abuse as a child and failed by authorities.
“Unfortunately this is something that is still happening today and will continue to happen in the future.
“As a country, we still do not understand abuse and exploitation, and the government is not doing enough to prevent and tackle it, so I welcome the publication of this paper.
“I want perpetrators to be held to account for their criminal activity regardless of race or religion because unfortunately they haven’t, and it still remains a subject that we cannot openly discuss. No-one should be exempt.”
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“What happened to these children remains one of the biggest stains on our country’s conscience”
Sarah Champion, the Labour MP for Rotherham, said that “sadly” the report “raises more questions than it answers”.
“The government needs to quickly address its shortcomings in child protection and subsequent support for victims and survivors,” she said.
“I am also concerned that this report fails to address the general lack of reporting by victims, but especially boys, disabled children and those from black and ethnic minority backgrounds.
“The government needs to promote a shift in focus to prevention and early intervention.
“They need to closely monitor the effectiveness of local safeguarding partnerships, rather than seemingly taking this horrendous crime as inevitable.
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“Going forwards, I want to see a nationally recognised and approved set of triggers that, once met, require local authorities to provide support for children showing signs of harm, rather than the current postcode lottery when it comes to help.”
Patel said: “Victims and survivors of group-based child sexual exploitation have told me how they were let down by the state in the name of political correctness.
“What happened to these children remains one of the biggest stains on our country’s conscience.
“This paper demonstrates how difficult it has been to draw conclusions about the characteristics of offenders.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-15--Prince Harry And Meghan Markle Are Launching A Podcast

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Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are headed to your headphones.
Spotify announced on Tuesday that it had inked a multi-year partnership with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s new venture, the audio production company Archewell Audio.
“What we love about podcasting is that it reminds all of us to take a moment and to really listen, to connect to one another without distraction,” the Duke and Duchess of Sussex said in a joint statement.
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“With the challenges of 2020, there has never been a more important time to do so, because when we hear each other, and hear each other’s stories, we are reminded of how interconnected we all are.”
Spotify
Though the couple’s first complete podcast series won’t arrive until next year, the Sussexes are giving fans something to look forward to now, as they’ll release a Christmas special later this month.
Spotify shared a sneak peak on Tuesday of what people can expect from the couple’s podcast.
In the clip, you can hear Harry and Meghan chatting, introducing themselves and giving a bit of context about what’s to come:
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-15--What A 'Minimal' Covid Christmas Actually Looks Like

Your best bet is to figure out what you want to get out of Christmas Day in advance – and how long you’d like to be with loved ones. For example, could you spend a couple of hours in the morning opening presents together and then head back to your respective homes?
Professor Lucy Yardley, an expert in health psychology at the University of Bristol and University of Southampton, told HuffPost UK: “If you spend hours and hours together, especially if you start drinking, then the longer you stay together, not only is the virus likely to be accumulating in the air and on surfaces, but also your guard will be let down and it’s more likely you’ll start spreading the virus.”
Another way to “do the minimum” is leaving your own home as little as possible for the week or so before you are due to meet loved ones – and that means doing any last minute Christmas shopping online.
“If two households are joining a household over Christmas, it will help if everyone in the household stops all other socialising for at least five days beforehand and during their stay,” says Professor James Naismith, director of the Rosalind Franklin Institute.
This means “no seeing others or no one going to an indoor venue,” he adds.
And if you do plan on seeing others over the festive break, remember to check yourself for symptoms – a temperature, change in sense of smell or a persistent cough – every day for a week beforehand. If you have any of these symptoms, don’t mix with people. Prof Naismith concludes: “The new year will bring the vaccine, doing what we can now will mean more people live to take it.”