thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-16--Lockdown Was Fatal For Women And Girls. We Cannot Let This Happen Again

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With Labour leader Keir Starmer now calling for a temporary second lockdown to curb the rising tide of coronavirus cases in the UK, it is time for the government to act to protect those at risk of domestic violence.
During the first three months of the national lockdown that began in March, more than 40,000 calls and contacts were made to the National Domestic Abuse Helpline. Most calls were made by women seeking help.
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The charity Refuge, which runs the helpline, said that calls and contacts were nearly 80% higher than usual. The charity also stated that as restrictions eased, they saw a surge in people seeking safe places to escape their abusers.
Domestic violence is an experience that can affect people of all ages, genders, cultures, sexualities and levels of income. It is not solely a “women’s issue”, although women are statistically more likely than men to experience domestic violence in their lifetimes.
“The living hell faced by those vulnerable to domestic violence under the March lockdown is set to repeat itself, unless the government acts now.”
Women are more likely to be victims of abuse classed as “sustained”, with 83% of those suffering more than 10 abusive incidents identifying as female. Women are also more likely to be killed by a partner or former partner. More than half of women in the UK killed by men in 2018 lost their lives to a current or previous partner, many after they had taken steps to leave.
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In the year ending March 2019, 1.6 million women were victims of domestic abuse, including physical, verbal, emotional and financial abuse, and coercive control.
Being trapped inside your home with someone who controls your finances, what you eat and who you speak to or who verbally, physically and emotionally attacks you, was the nightmare faced by people across the UK living in unsafe situations.
fizkes via Getty Images
With a second “circuit breaker” lockdown on the cards, the living hell faced by those vulnerable to domestic violence under the March lockdown is set to repeat itself, unless the government acts now.
During the first month after lockdown began, 16 women and girls were killed in suspected domestic homicides. This is triple the number from the same time period last year. At least 10 more women and girls lost their lives in the two months since.
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This is a matter of life or death for people who live at the mercy of their abusers, and the coronavirus pandemic has revealed just how ill-equipped Britain is to protect those at risk of violence and abuse.
In contrast to Britain’s lacklustre response, Italy and Spain were among countries that decided to roll out programs to house victims of domestic violence in hotels in cases where existing shelters were at capacity.
“Relying on charities to pick up the slack where services cannot is an abject failure of government policy and of the state itself.”
New Zealand prioritised the safety of those suffering abuse during their lockdown planning, in a way that the UK utterly failed to do. Pledging more than NZ$200 million (£102M) to domestic and sexual violence services, New Zealand has tackled the epidemic of family abuse head on.
According to the government, Boris Johnson’s administration has taken steps to prioritise the safety of those in violent home environments. The Minister for Safeguarding, Victoria Atkins, said: “From our ground-breaking legislation in the Domestic Abuse Bill, to additional financial support and regular engagement with charities throughout the coronavirus pandemic, the government remains resolute in combating this vile crime”.
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However, these words ring hollow when we consider the decimation of domestic violence services under a decade of Conservative rule.
Under the government’s ideological and completely avoidable austerity drive, funding has been stripped from essential services including protection against domestic violence.
Since 2010, funding cuts to local councils have amounted to 40%, and council funding for women’s refuges has been slashed by a massive £7 million. Between 2010 and 2014, 17% of specialist women’s refuges were forced to close.
Relying on charities to pick up the slack where services cannot is an abject failure of government policy and of the state itself.
Suzanne Jacob, Chief Executive of domestic violence charity SafeLives, told HuffPost: “As local lockdowns take hold and expand, we ask the government to continue to support domestic abuse victims and the invaluable services trying to help them. The emergency funding bought in during the first lockdown went some way to sustaining the vital work of these services, but with many facing so many operational challenges plus a rise in referrals in many cases, that crisis support is unlikely to be enough.
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“The coronavirus pandemic has revealed just how ill-equipped Britain is to protect those at risk of violence and abuse.”
“For some families, the implications of being told to ‘stay indoors’ are frightening. The Government is quite rightly thinking of ways to support those who may have lost jobs or incomes. Let’s make sure we also think of those who are losing their safety and whose lives might be at risk. The government needs to recognise the scale of the problem and look again at emergency funding so victims and survivors can know they are not alone.”
Boris Johnson’s government must do better. Without sustained financial support for local councils’ domestic abuse services, we will see more people suffer and more women and girls lose their lives to violence.
The UK has already failed domestic abuse victims during the first lockdown, we cannot allow this to happen a second time.
Harriet Williamson is a freelance journalist.
Got a unique opinion on a news story that will help cut through the noise? We want to hear from you. Find out what we’re looking for here and pitch us on ukopinion@huffpost.com.
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For help dealing with domestic abuse, contact:
Refuge – phone 0808 2000 247 or via their website


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-16--Tier 3 Lockdown Has Taken Away These People's Lifeline – The Local Gym

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“In my opinion, closing gyms isn’t protecting public health. It’s actively harming it.”
Chelsea Hankin, from Liverpool, isn’t alone in thinking this.
On Wednesday, more than a million people in the region woke up under tough new tier 3 rules imposed by the government to clamp down on spiralling rates of Covid-19.
With the coronavirus alert level at “very high”, household mixing has been largely banned, pubs and bars that do not serve “substantial meals” have been forced to close their doors, and wedding receptions are off the cards.
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But one of the new restrictions has cut particularly deeply for some people in the region – the closure of gyms.
Despite not being mentioned in the government’s “baseline” set of rules for tier three areas, gyms, sports facilities and leisure centres have been told to close across Liverpool, Halton, Knowsley, Sefton, St Helens and Wirral.
While ministers have insisted that gyms are only closed in tier 3 areas in consultation with local leaders, the mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson has insisted he told the government that “gyms are safer than supermarkets”.
Either way, it’s a decision that has sparked a huge backlash among locals.
More than 140,000 people have signed a petition demanding that gyms in areas with spiking rates of Covid-19 must be allowed to remain open.
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More than 140,000 people have signed a petition calling for gyms in areas with high levels of Covid-19 to be allowed to remain open Gov.UK
Gyms must not be put into the same category as pubs and restaurants, the petition argues. “Gyms are following strict guidelines and most members are following rules in a sober manner,” it reads.
“The gyms are a huge benefit for users, not just physically but mentally too.”
It’s a sentiment shared by thousands of gym-goers in the area looking ahead to what is likely to be a bleak winter dominated by Covid-19 restrictions.
Georgia Knott, a first year student at the University of Liverpool, has only been in the city for a few weeks.
Like thousands of freshers arriving on campus this autumn, the pandemic – and subsequent restrictions and lockdowns – has made for a difficult start to university life.
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For the 18-year-old, making sure she had access to a gym was one of her top priorities when starting her studies.
“The first thing I did when I arrived was buy a gym membership,” she said. “For me, the gym is as much a place for mental gain as it is physical gain.”
Exercise is about leaving behind the stress and anxiety of the outside world, Knott explained.
Like thousands of students across the country, she has been in self-isolation for the past two weeks.
Man running on a treadmill David Sacks via Getty Images
“The thing that got me through was being able to go back to the gym again – but that privilege was stripped away two days before I was free to return.
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“People may argue that I should go on a run, but as a petite girl from a village in Hertfordshire, the thought of running down unknown streets alone would produce more stress than I would be releasing by exercising in the first place,” she explained.
Knott added: “Before this lockdown there was a perfect scheme in place at the gym to clean everything and have a certain amount of people in at one time.
“If Primark can stay open, it seems crazy that gyms are being forced to shut.”
She isn’t alone in her anger.
“I’m so mad,” said Louise Jeras, an office manager from Halton. On Tuesday night her local gym – which “had worked really hard to make sure everyone was safe” – had to close its doors for the foreseeable future.
“It sounds dramatic, but the gym keeps me sane,” she said. “I’m so upset and annoyed.
“I’ve been going to the gym for about six years. It has never, ever been a chore. I’m a busy working mum of teenagers, so it really is my happy place.”
During the UK’s first lockdown in the spring, when gyms across the country were closed, Jeras, 39, found herself in an unhappy cycle of eating and drinking too much and struggling to find the motivation to exercise.
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“I felt guilty, but I couldn’t snap out of it,” she said. “I set my conservatory up as a bit of a gym. I know I’m really lucky to be able to do that, but it’s not the same.”
People walk through Liverpool city centre ahead of the lockdown closure of bars, gyms and clubs Christopher Furlong via Getty Images
With increasingly strict restrictions imposed across the UK in recent weeks, going to the gym has been a rare reason to leave the house for many.
One gym goer from Runcorn, who asked to remain anonymous, told HuffPost UK: “It feels like I’m going to be at home 24 hours a day from October through to January.”
The man, 35, added: “What am I going to do? In two or three weeks’ time, when I’m bored and lonely and tired and frustrated, I won’t have the gym to turn to.
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“I’ll be turning to the booze, out of total boredom. Is that healthy? No, it’s not.”
Like many people, he has questioned what proof there is that gyms should be lumped in with bars and pubs.
“If someone was to turn round to me and say: ‘Here is the hard evidence to correlate gyms with an increase in Covid,’ I would be like: OK, fine.
“But until someone provides us with the evidence, I just see this as an uninformed knee-jerk reaction by a government that doesn’t have a clue how to handle this.”
Each week, Public Health England (PHE) logs the places that people who have tested positive for Covid-19 went before they started showing symptoms to try to work out where they were infected.
If more than two cases are associated with a location, it’s counted as a “common exposure”.
Between October 5 and October 11, gyms accounted for 3% of common exposures, or 175 settings (out of approximately 7,200 gyms in the UK).
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They came in behind supermarkets (12.1%), pubs and bars (9.9%), restaurants and cafes (8.5%), secondary schools (5.4%) and primary schools (4.1%).
However, PHE has admitted that it hasn’t made adjustments for how often a location is visited. That means that locations with more visits are more likely to be identified as common exposures.
Barrie White, a 40-year-old gym-goer and journalist from the Wirral, said there seems to be “no rhyme or reason” to the restrictions.
“It’s largely accepted that Eat Out to Help Out caused a rise in cases, but that is understandable as we went from 0 to 60 in getting people back into work and socialising.
“Yet pubs that serve food, in which yet again there appears to be no standardised view on what that is, can stay open.”
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The past few days have been “really quite hard” while he has been trying to get his head around why gyms have to shut.
“Genuinely, I have had zero concerns about transmissions there [in the gym] and I have been ultra safe throughout all of this,” White added.
“This morning, I had to train in my garden, which wasn’t fun, and I am one of the fortunate ones who can do that.”
For Chloe Melon, also from the Wirral, it’s baffling that gyms must close while restaurants can remain open.
Chloe Melon says politicians don't understand what gyms represent for 'normal' people Supplied.
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“I go to the gym four to five times a week and really enjoy going,” she said. “It gets me out of the house for a few hours, and I’ve depended on it a lot more since I’m working from home full-time.
“Not being able to go to the gym for a few months in the first lockdown had such a negative impact on my mental health.”
The 23-year old explained: “Going to the gym benefits you physically, but you only see the results after a few weeks or months. However, it benefits your mental health instantly.”
The government “really don’t understand it”, she said.
“Working class people can’t usually afford to have a personal trainer or particular equipment so we can exercise at home,” Chloe said. “Not only that, but gyms are a community.”
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It’s a feeling echoed by 31-year-old Hankin, who started going to the gym 18 months ago.
“For many, going to the gym provides structure, routine and even a sense of community,” she said. “Households mixing in the gym has been prohibited for a while now.
“But simply seeing familiar faces and sharing greetings can make a massive difference to a person feeling isolated.”
Man wearing a face mask disinfects gym equipment AleksandarGeorgiev via Getty Images
Hankin started going to the gym last year “when I realised that I needed to start actively looking after my health and wellbeing”.
“The last closure of gyms in lockdown made me realise just how much of a fundamental role it now plays in my life,” she said.
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“Being fit and active reduces the risk of developing severe complications related to Covid-19. It also reduces other health issues which in turn reduces the burden on the NHS.”
The gym plays an important part in maintaining physical and mental wellbeing, she said.
The government should prioritise keeping open places that allow people to work on these things, Chelsea added.
It’s an opinion echoed by Louise, who has questioned what ministers are trying to achieve.
“The messages from the government don’t make sense,” she said.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-16--As Half Term Looms, Here's What Parents Are Worrying About

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The moment tier 2 restrictions were announced in my city, my parent groups went wild on WhatsApp. “This is a joke!” one friend said. “My kids break up from school tomorrow. I’m going to take them out of London and work in Cornwall. I’m fed up of all the flip-flapping around.”
″I don’t know what I’m going to do,” another wrote. “I had playdates arranged with other parents all through half-term, so that we can help each other with work – and get a bit of a break.”
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Of course, much of the country, such as Middlesbrough and parts of the North East – where indoor mixing of households is not allowed – have been following these same rules for weeks. There are also talks under way to potentially move Greater Manchester into Tier 3, subject to the highest restrictions.
But seeing my own area move suddenly into a tier 2 level lockdown made me think about what the various restrictions mean for the fast-approaching October half-term – and determined to find ways to help fellow parents across the country get through it (relatively) unscathed.
Niko_Cingaryuk via Getty Images
So, what are the main concerns for mums, dads and carers? Well, for starters, Halloween falls at the end of half-term for most state schools, but it’s likely to look very different this year, as Downing Street has confirmed that trick or treating will be cancelled for children in local lockdowns (so here are some ideas on making it special, anyway).
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There are also rumours of a potential two-week, circuit-breaker lockdown, as has been announced in Northern Ireland. If that happens, it could include an extension to half-term, which would leave many parents facing the dual responsibility of working while homeschooling their kids at the same time.
A primary school teacher pal, who has two children herself, told me teachers are under increased pressure to meet new legal guidelines for home learning. “From October 22, schools have a legal obligation to ensure that children receive exactly the same curriculum delivery at home as they would at school,” she said, “which will mean parents across the country will be being pestered by teachers if their child’s work is not submitted on time each day.
“My trust’s policy is that anything submitted must be marked by 5pm daily – with feedback given to the children. We are under so much pressure to accelerate learning when the poor things are so behind.”
Another mum told me a return to homeschooling was her biggest fear. “Even if I had 16 laptops I couldn’t do that,” she said. “Teaching the kids and working at the same time is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. Or attempt to do. It’s impossible.”
Parents are also concerned about the impact of the new, tiered restrictions on their kids, now that they’ve got used to playing with their friends again.
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Some questioned the logic of allowing kids to sit next to each other all day at school, but not letting them share birthday celebrations.
So does this Tier 2 business mean you can't have even one little friend over for a children's birthday party, even though they are at school (and all the parents are mingling at drop-off) with 29 other children? — Anita Singh (@anitathetweeter) October 15, 2020
Wait. So it's my friend's daughter's 7th birthday next week and she now can't go to a pottery cafe with three friends but she can sit next to them every day at school? I don't envy my friend trying to explain that one. — Tanya Byrne (@tanyabyrne) October 15, 2020
When it comes to childcare, at least, all is not completely lost. The government guidelines do state that “informal” childcare arrangements are possible across all three tiers, with families allowed to form “childcare bubbles” with relatives to help them look after their kids.
“A childcare bubble is where someone in one household provides informal (unpaid and unregistered) childcare to a child aged 13 or under in another household,” the guidelines explain. “For any given childcare bubble, this must always be between the same two households.”
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And if you’re a member of a single-adult household, you can maintain your support bubble, too.
As for me? I’m wondering how to tell my children they won’t be seeing their grandparents at the weekend. We’d planned a family lunch on Saturday – the first in months. I’m also left wondering exactly what we’ll do to while away the hours in half-term, if we’re not allowed to socialise with other households.
So, I turned to our trusty HuffPost UK parent readers, to ask them for their suggestions.
13 half term activities to keep kids happy
Wrap up warm and head outside
“The weather might not be as gorgeous as it was during the first lockdown over the summer, but that doesn’t mean you can’t put on a warm coat and head outside,” one dad said. If you can find a forest, have a go at building a den – see here for some tips.
Get crafty
It’s perfect timing for Halloween decorations and Christmas card making. Here are some other ideas on how to make the spookiest night of the year fun for kids, without going trick or treating.
Get coding
We all know how highly, ahem, the government values careers in cyber, so why not get your kids started with some easy-to-pick up coding?
Cypher are offering online educational coding camps over half-term for children aged 4 to 12. Other parents swear by Scratch, an online community where children can learn to program, as well as sharing interactive media such as stories, games, and animation with people from all over the world.
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Conduct a science experiment
One mum said of Robert Winston’s Home Lab, “This book is amazing, we’ve done loads from it already but will be doing more, we’re making stalactites at the moment!”
FaceTime friends and family
My little girl has regular FaceTime sessions with her friends, and what I’ve learned is that rather than a simple chat, they use the time creatively: they do mutual makeovers, make up songs and dances, draw pictures, read books aloud to each other and occasionally they even eat together – with the iPads propped up on a table to keep them connected.
Just be sensible. Follow this guidance on how to keep your kids safe online.
SDI Productions via Getty Images
‘New’ toys
Consider either recycling an old toy you’ve stored away and haven’t played with in a while, toy swapping with a friend or – if you can afford it – something shiny and different, such as a jigsaw puzzle. “When on the verge of kicking them out to fend for themselves, I plan to give them something new,” says one mum.
Home cinema
“Go all out – close the curtains, and create a ‘kiosk’ to buy tickets and popcorn,” another mum suggested.
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Football, indoors or out.
“Consider buying a soft ball that can be thrown around house without breaking anything!” one dad said, enthusiastically. Alternatively get them practising their football skills in the garden with YouTube or try some Cosmic Kids Yoga.
Painting
Consider recreating famous works of art by an artist or theme. “We’ve done Sonia Delaunay,” one mum told HuffPost UK. “The kids loved it.”
Memory book
Put together a photo album – hey, finally you can print off some of the 32,000 pictures you’ve got stored on your phone. You know you want to!
Baking
We know, we know – you’re all over banana bread and making your own sourdough. Still, if you haven’t lost all heart with lockdown baking, try out this decadent chocolate fudge cake recipe: it’s quick and easy to make. Win.
Homework
“It’s never too early for revision,” one parent told me, only half jokingly. Another suggested “English comprehension” or “trying to work out WTF the restrictions mean”. We relate.
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Relax
“I’m thinking a morning piled into bed with my two daughters reading and eating chocolate,” one mum told me.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-16--Trump Again Refuses To Denounce QAnon

Trump Again Refuses To Denounce QAnon

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Donald Trump has again refused to denounce supporters of the far-right conspiracy theory QAnon.
On Thursday night, the US president and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden held duelling televised “town hall” events after their second planned debate was cancelled.
In his, Trump, who has lent support to the dangerous and cultish movement throughout his presidency, said he knew “nothing about QAnon” when host Savannah Guthrie asked him if he would denounce the movement once and for all.
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The only definitive remark he made about backers of the far-right, convoluted theory was complimentary: “What I do hear about it is they are very strongly against paedophilia, and I agree with that”, adding they “fight it very hard.”
The core belief of those who follow the mysterious QAnon is that high-ranking Democrats, media figures and entertainment personalities are secretly members of a satanic paedophile ring that Trump is covertly working to stop. The movement has had some dangerous and violent consequences beyond the spread of its misinformation, including a shooting at a Washington pizza parlour.
GUTHRIE: When was your last negative coronavirus test?
TRUMP: "Well, I test quite a bit."
GUTHRIE: Did you test the day of the debate?
TRUMP: "I don't know. I don't even remember."
G: Did you take a test the day of the debate?
T: "I probably did." pic.twitter.com/l9S8HcUJw7 — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 16, 2020
Trump also repeated his false claims about fraud being widespread with the use of advance voting and said he “probably” owes money to foreign banks amid The New York Times’ extensive reporting on his tax returns.
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In August, Trump said of QAnon followers that he’d “heard these are people that love our country” and said he appreciated that they “like me very much”.
Guthrie didn’t let Trump’s response slide. “You do know” about QAnon, she said as the president repeated he didn’t and tried to pivot the conversation to anti-fascist activists known collectively as “Antifa”.
The prime-time split-screen showdown offered a stark reminder of how deeply unusual this year’s campaign has been amid a coronavirus pandemic that has infected nearly 8 million Americans, including the president himself. Millions have already voted early ahead of election day on November 3.
Biden, speaking to voters in Philadelphia on ABC, sought to put Trump’s handling of the pandemic front and centre, blaming the Republican president for downplaying the virus that has killed more than 216,000 people in the United States.
“He said he didn’t tell anybody because he was afraid Americans would panic,” Biden said. “Americans don’t panic. He panicked.”
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Trump defended both his response to the pandemic as well as his own personal conduct, including staging a Rose Garden event at the White House where few wore masks or practiced social distancing, which resulted in numerous attendees contracting the disease.
“Hey, I’m president – I have to see people, I can’t be in a basement,” Trump said on NBC in front of an outdoor audience of voters in Miami, implicitly criticising Biden for spending months off the campaign trail as the pandemic raged.
Trump, who aggressively interrupted Biden during a chaotic debate two weeks ago, showed little interest in altering his belligerent tone.
He said he “heard different stories” about the efficacy of masks, even though his own administration’s public health experts have said wearing them is key to stopping the spread of the virus.
The second presidential debate had originally been scheduled for Thursday, but Trump pulled out of the event after organisers decided to turn it into a virtual affair following his diagnosis two weeks ago. A final debate is still scheduled for October 22 in Nashville, Tennessee.
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-16--Is Boris Johnson’s Moonshot Closer Than We Think?

Prime Minister Boris Johnson during a media briefing in Downing Street, London, on coronavirus (COVID-19). PA
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“You want the moon? Just say the word, and I’ll throw a lasso around it and pull it down.” Boris Johnson is hardly George Bailey, the humble soul who gives up his dreams to help others in the classic Christmas movie “It’s A Wonderful Life”. But today he at least had some concrete plans to get his “moonshot” of super-fast tests that really could help in the fight against Covid.
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All the headlines from the PM’s No.10 press conference will focus on his ongoing devolution ding-dong with Andy Burnham (Johnson effectively said he will go ahead with or without the Greater Manchester mayor) and his hardline on Brexit, yet it was the quiet announcement of new testing developments that felt much more interesting.
Johnson said that all “Very High Risk” areas would be prioritised for two types of rapid test, hugely improving the scale and speed at which people can be cleared or isolated. One will help test asymptomatic NHS staff on a regular basis (‘LAMP’ tests) and the other will help care homes, schools and universities (“lateral-flow tests”) to get results – without a lab and within 20 minutes.
Although these are tentative roll-outs and will supplement not replace current testing, the PM also said that “we have started building the infrastructure for domestic manufacture” to ensure numbers could go into the millions.
As it happens, I’m told bioscience firms that are members of BIVDA (the British In-Vitro Diagnostic Association) have indeed been asked by NHS Test and Trace to “repurpose” their manufacturing capabilities, amending processes for things like pregnancy tests to use their factories to produce the new Covid tests.
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Two firms alone, BBI and Abingdon, will have a manufacturing capacity of upto seven million test a day, once issues like tech transfer are resolved and test sensitivity standards are passed.
But what was notable was the way Johnson today scaled back his ambition, admitting it will take time to build not just the capacity but the logistics capability to deliver large numbers across the country. Back in early September, his super-optimistic prediction was that “millions” of people could “behave in a way that was exactly as in the world before Covid”, going to the theatre or sports events once cleared by a rapid test.
Today, with the second wave a scary reality, he admitted “we won’t be able to use testing to get business back to normal quickly” and “I must level with you that it will take time to get this right before many organisations can buy and operate these tests themselves”. Still, if the rapid tests do help the routine testing of NHS staff, of care homes and schools and universities, they could prove hugely important.
It’s the performance of Johnson’s test-and-trace system and its current PCR lab tests that are of more immediate concern to many. Matt Hancock insisted this week that it was “on track” to meet the 500,000 daily testing capacity target by the end of this month, even though that capacity is currently around 350,000. With only a 5% week on week increase, just how will we get to the half million figure?
Well, I’m told that with just a fortnight to go to get a huge 150,000 increase, those within NHS Test and Trace are confident they will indeed hit the magic number on time. This is because the rise will not be linear but will come in big jumps, prompted by the expansion of whole extra floors and staff in current labs, both in private Lighthouse labs and NHS labs.
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The beleaguered service is also bullish too about its ability to improve contact tracing, which this week fell back again. The drop was caused in part by the need to train up local tracers working with yet more councils as the system switches to a more local service, I’m told. More than 100 local teams are now operating, with 65 more in the pipeline. National call centre staff have nearly halved, while local tracers and the clinicians who back them up have increased markedly in recent weeks.
This shift to local expertise, long demanded by public health chiefs, is paying off. Figures are not yet published but I understand that 80% of the new locally-led teams are showing improved contact tracing. Places like Blackburn which pioneered it, have been very effective in getting to hard-to-reach communities through local knowledge, and boosting self-isolation numbers by sorting out food deliveries, wage support and childcare help.
As for that 500,000 target set by the PM, if it is reached at the end of this month, it will not be all used by any means. The whole point is to use the expanded capacity to improve turnaround times and not necessarily to radically increase numbers of tests done daily. The aim is to ensure the system is not “running hot” and has some slack to help swift processing.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-16--Tiers 1 and 2 Are Useless, Scientists Warn Government

The government’s new three-tier system of coronavirus restrictions should be scrapped in favour of a short, sharp national lockdown, scientists have warned, saying that the current rules are likely to make “little difference” to spiralling Covid-19 infections.
From Saturday, 26.7m people in England will be under tier 2 lockdown restrictions, while 1.5m in Lancashire are set to join the Liverpool in the strictest tier 3 coronavirus rules from midnight.
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But on Friday, Independent Sage – a panel of leading scientists led by a former government chief scientific officer – warned that the current restrictions are not enough to deal with rising coronavirus cases, hospitalisations and deaths.
“Most of the country has been living in tier 1 and tier 2 since mid-September and cases are still going up a lot,” Professor Christina Pagel told a public briefing on Friday.
“So it’s not clear why that would change now, just because they have got a different name.”
We're introducing a three tiered system of local COVID Alert Levels in England.
For more information & to find out which alert level applies in your area go to:
https://t.co/OFXDJ1K2xC pic.twitter.com/K2932GDR7f — Matt Hancock (@MattHancock) October 13, 2020
Independent Sage has published its own six-week emergency plan for curbing the spread of Covid-19 in England – including a two- to three-week national lockdown, which would see restrictions that were in place in May reimposed.
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“We do not believe the current tiered system is sufficient to reverse the growth of the pandemic,” the plan reads.
The group’s suggested circuit breaker lockdown would mean a ban on household mixing, the closure of non-essential shops and a move to online teaching for university students. Schools would also be closed to coincide with the half-term break.
“The reason we think that it has to be national [circuit breaker] is that all bits of the country are rising and they are rising fast,” Pagel said. “If you don’t do anything, they are just going to keep rising.”
In the seven days to Friday, 113,598 new cases of Covid-19 were reported in the UK – up 5,063 cases, or 4.7%, on the previous week.
There has also been an 82.5% increase in coronavirus deaths in the past week, up 339 to 750.
Pagel, a UCL professor, said it was vital that the lockdown must be imposed on a national level.
“If you did regional circuit breakers, it just means that the south has to do it in three weeks’ time and at the cost of many more people getting sick,” she explained.
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“So we do it now together, as a country, to rebuild the system and allow us to come out of it.”
A woman walks down the street in Ormskirk, Lancashire. The Lancashire region will go into Tier 3 of lockdown restrictions after a deal was hammered out with government. PA
The effectiveness of the government’s three-tier system was also questioned by Dr Zubaida Haque, the former interim director of race equality think tank the Runnymede Trust.
“The whole reason the traffic light system came in was because the previous system of restrictions was so confusing and inconsistent,” the Independent Sage member said.
“What we have now is the government negotiating with local areas on an area-by-area basis where you have disparities. Where for instance Lancashire can have their gyms open but Liverpool can’t. So once again, it’s getting very confusing with the restrictions.”
Haque added: “Clarity is really important here and it’s really important that we’re all in this together, given that cases are high across the country.”
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Data published by the government on Friday revealed that the pandemic is growing in all areas of England, with the national reproduction (R) rate of the virus between 1.3 and 1.5.
However, while it is areas of the north-west that are currently under the strictest lockdown restrictions, it is the south-west where the virus is spreading most rapidly.
According to the figures, the R-rate in the south-west is between 1.3 and 1.6, meaning that every 10 people with Covid-19 will go on to infect between 13 and 16 people.
Meanwhile, the number of new infections in the south-west is growing between 6% and 10% every day.
But it’s not just the Independent Sage members who have called the effectiveness of the government’s alert level system into question.
Professor Hynek Pikhart, an expert in epidemiology and medical statistics at UCL, warned that evidence from the UK – and internationally – suggested tier 2 restrictions “do not work and do not slow down infection progression”.
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He told HuffPost UK: “I am even quite pessimistic personally about the effect of tier 3 restrictions, and am worried we may need even stricter restrictions. It seems to me the restrictions for the whole UK may be necessary.”
Boris Johnson speaks during a press conference ahead of the imposition of tighter restrictions in some parts of England EDDIE MULHOLLAND via Getty Images
At a Downing Street press conference on Friday, the prime minister defended the government’s three-tier system, saying he would resist another national lockdown “if at all possible”.
“Some have argued that we should introduce a national lockdown instead of targeted local action and I disagree,” Johnson said.
“Closing businesses in Cornwall where transmission is low will not cut transmission in Manchester.
“So, while I can’t rule anything out, if at all possible, I want to avoid another national lockdown with the damaging health, economic and social effects it would have.”
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A government spokesperson said: “The prime minster has made his views clear on a national lockdown and reiterated that our three-tiered approach is the right way forward, based on the different levels of prevalence of the virus across the UK.”
They continued: “NHS Test and Trace is breaking chains of transmission thanks to local and national teams working closely together and since it launched over 900,000 people who may otherwise have unknowingly spread coronavirus have been contacted and told to isolate.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-16--Rachel Riley's Face Says It All As A 'Blowie' Is Offered As Answer To Puzzle

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You know what, it has been a bit of ‘A Week’ hasn’t it? Which is exactly why we’re thankful to Countdown for delivering a Friday treat.
The Channel 4 quiz show helped raise a few smiles this afternoon, when this happened...
Channel 4
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Rachel Riley’s face said it all when comedian Shappi Khorsandi suggested “blowie” as a solution to one of the anagrams.
The two contestants could only come up with two five-letter answers – “bowel” and “whale” – but Shappi managed to go one better with her six-letter answer.
While she could barely stifle her giggles as she revealed her answer to host Nick Hewer, she insisted it was more innocent than it seemed.
“It’s a fly,” she insisted. “A kind of fly.”
Dictionary Corner’s Susie Dent corroborated her answer, revealing that a blowie is in fact a blow fly.
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So, there you are.
Of course, it’s far from the first time Countdown has had a saucy moment over the years – take a look at some of its rudest words in the gallery below...
Countdown's Naughtiest Words See gallery


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-16--Boris Johnson Threatens To Impose Manchester Lockdown Even If Local Leaders Object

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Boris Johnson has threatened to intervene and impose the toughest Covid-19 restrictions in Manchester – despite local council leaders’ staunch opposition to the move.
Speaking at a press conference in Downing Street, the prime minister urged Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham and others to “reconsider and engage constructively” over tier 3 restrictions.
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The move can see the most stringent measures imposed, with pubs, gyms, casinos and leisure centres potentially in the firing line and people unable to mix with others outside their household.
Burnham said the city would not accept restrictions without a return of the 80% furlough scheme – which government wants to cut to two thirds of lost wages – and has accused Johnson of treating the north like “a sacrificial lamb”.
Tier 3 would “sacrifice jobs and businesses” in the region “to try and save them elsewhere”, Burnham said, as he threatened legal action at a town hall press conference on Thursday.
Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham speaking to the media outside the Central Library in Manchester. He has threatened legal action if Tier 3 restrictions are imposed without agreement. PA
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But Johnson made clear he would “intervene” if hospital admissions continued to refuse, saying intensive care admissions were set to spiral in the coming two weeks to levels not seen since the height of the first wave.
“On recent trends, in just over two weeks there will be more Covid patients in intensive care than at the peak of the first wave,” he said, “so I urge the mayor to reconsider and engage constructively.
“I cannot stress enough: time is of the essence. Each day that passes before action is taken means more people will go to hospital, more people will end up in intensive care and, tragically, more people will die.
“Of course, if agreement cannot be reached I will need to intervene in order to protect Manchester’s hospitals and save the lives of Manchester’s residents. But our efforts would be so much more effective if we work together.”
On Thursday afternoon, Burnham said he was “fighting back for fairness” and would “stand firm”, arguing that tier 3 would not work and a time-limited national lockdown, recommended by government scientists on September 21, was the only option.
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Chief scientific officer Patrick Vallance, who appeared alongside the PM on Friday, appeared to agree.
He said the “baseline” tier 3 measures on their own would not be enough to get the numbers of infections down.
“Where we are now is a different situation,” he said. “It is crucial that, where the R is above 1 and the numbers are high, we get the R below 1.
“There are a number of ways that it can be done. As the chief medical officer said, tier 3 baseline [measures] on their own, almost certainly, aren’t enough to get the R below 1.”
Meanwhile, on Friday, Lancashire was placed into the highest Covid-19 alert level, tier 3, sparking a blazing row between Downing Street and council leaders.
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A coronavirus information sign sign in Manchester city centre. Cities in northern England and other areas suffering a surge in Covid-19 cases may have pubs and restaurants temporarily closed to combat the spread of the virus. PA
Sheffield city region mayor Dan Jarvis also said “constructive” talks had begun with government over the alert level for South Yorkshire.
Johnson said he would resist another national lockdown “if at all possible”, however, despite growing pressure to impose a short England-wide “circuit-breaker”.
“Some have argued that we should introduce a national lockdown instead of targeted local action and I disagree,” he said.
“Closing businesses in Cornwall where transmission is low will not cut transmission in Manchester.
“So, while I can’t rule anything out, if at all possible, I want to avoid another national lockdown with the damaging health, economic and social effects it would have.”
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The UK’s R value, which tracks the reproduction rate of the virus, also rose slightly to between 1.3 and 1.5, having been in the range 1.2 to 1.5 last week.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-16--Serco To Rake In Up To £165m In Profit Despite Test And Trace Failures

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Outsourcing giant Serco is on course to exceed its expected profits for 2020 after winning a string of government contracts since the Covid-19 pandemic hit.
The company has told the London Stock Exchange shareholders are in line for a boost, with a consultation on dividend payments under way.
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Serco is the leading contractor for the so-called NHS Test and Trace service, whose executive chair is Tory peer Dido Harding and which has repeatedly failed to deliver a reliable service as second wave lockdown measures tighten across the country.
Nonetheless, the firm expects a trading profit, before any one-off costs, of between £160m and £165m, compared with previous estimates of £135m to £150m.
Full-year revenue is expected to be around £3.9bn – up from £3.7bn previously predicted.
Serco said it had achieved strong revenue growth in the three months from July, highlighting extensions to contracts to provide test sites and call handlers.
Bosses said this was “an indication of our customer’s [sic] satisfaction with the quality of work we have delivered” as part of the £12bn committed by the government to the system. The contract was worth at least £108m to Serco, whose profits soared 53% in the first six months of the year.
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The announcement comes a day after NHS Test and Trace recorded its worst ever week for contact tracing as cases of coronavirus continue to rise.
Labour’s shadow Cabinet Office minister Rachel Reeves said: “This is grim beyond belief. While Serco is raking in the profits, people are paying the price for its failure.
“If the government can’t bear to curb its obsession with pouring money into big companies over our local public health teams, it surely can see that this wasteful approach lacks basic common sense and isn’t reducing the transmission of the virus.
Executive Chair of NHS Test and Trace, Baroness Dido Harding, left and Health Secretary Matt Hancock ASSOCIATED PRESS
“It is time to sack Serco and bring in a short circuit breaker, so we can fix test and trace, protect the NHS and get control of the virus.”
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It is understood senior government officials have expressed concern that test and trace could become “overwhelmed” if case numbers get too high.
New data showed 62.6% of close contacts of people who tested positive for Covid-19 in England were reached through the system in the week ending October 7.
This was the lowest weekly percentage since test and trace began, and is down from 69.5% the previous week.
For cases handled by local health protection teams, 97.7% of contacts were reached and asked to self-isolate in the week to October 7.
For those handled either online or by call centres, 57.6% of close contacts were reached and asked to self-isolate.
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The way the system operates has been the subject of a political storm, with Labour highly critical of the use of outsourcers and calling for Serco to be ditched from the operation.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-16--This Insane Korean-Inspired Burger Is The Perfect Evening Meal

Jennifer Barton, Commercial Editor, HuffPost UK

We can all agree there’s no better dinner - or late-night meal - than burgers: mouth-watering, juicy and decadent, they’re the edible equivalent of blasting our favourite musical track on repeat.
They’re a classic go-to choice, whether you’re cooking for a date or your flatmates. No matter how the rest of the night pans out, at least we know everyone’s going to be very chuffed about what they’re getting on the food front.
It’s only natural that legendary quarter pounders are a staple in Naked Glory’s arsenal - they taste as delicious fried in a pan as they do grilled on the barbecue.
Cheating on meat has never been easier - or more popular, as we’re all trying to explore ways to cut back on eating meat, for health and eco reasons.
“Whilst meat eating has its benefits, it can be good to opt for a couple of non meat meals per week,” advises Daniel O’Shaughnessy, a nutritionist based in London and Berkshire who runs The Naked Nutritionist.
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“Some choose meat-free Mondays, which can be a way to make it more fun for the family, introducing them to a new variety of foods.”
There are benefits to having less meat, for both your body and the planet.
“You’re more likely to eat more plants and vegetables which can support health and lower risk of diseases with more vitamins, minerals and fibre, and you can support environmental factors so can have benefits to the mind and doing your bit,” says O’Shaughnessy.
The recipe below adds a zesty Korean slaw for another healthy twist on the classic burger dish, with fresh, shredded carrots, cabbage, onions and coriander. This recipe also includes zesty corn pops for a new take on corn on the cob - just add Indonesian cupboard staple, Kecap Manis, for a tangy salty-sweet marinade.
Meat free meals are just as flavour-packed, tantalising and succulent as their carnivorous counterparts - you just need to know which brand to choose.
Naked Glory’s Quarter Pounders are total legends, The Meatiest Thing Since Meat. Want to try your own meat-free Quarter Pounders with tangy Korean-inspired sides? We’ve got the recipe for you below…
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HuffPost UK Korean-Inspired Naked Glory Quarter Pounder
KOREAN-INSPIRED NAKED GLORY QUARTER POUNDER
Ready in about 20 minutes
Ingredients for slaw -
4 tbsp vegan mayo
1 tbsp chilli sauce
2cm piece ginger, peeled and finely grated
½ lime, zested and juiced
½ head pointed cabbage, finely sliced
3 small carrots, peeled into thin strips
2 spring onions, finely sliced
1 red onion, cut into 4 rings then the rest finely sliced
2 tbsp coriander, roughly chopped
Ingredients for Corn pops -
1 cooked corn on the cobs, cut into 6 discs
3 tbsp kecap manis
1 tbsp chilli sauce
½ lime, zested and juiced
1 tbsp sesame seeds
Ingredients for Quarter Pounder -
2 tsp vegetable oil
2 x Naked Glory Quarter Pounders
2 x slices Edam cheese (or vegan cheese)
2 x brioche buns, split (or vegan burger buns)
½ head little gem lettuce, leaves separated
1 large tomato, thickly sliced
Method –
Tip the mayo, chilli sauce, ginger, lime zest and juice into a bowl and mix well until smooth. Add the vegetables and sliced onions and toss to coat in the dressing. Set aside while you prepare the rest of the dish. Place the sweetcorn into a heatproof bowl, cover with heatproof cling film and microwave on high for 2-3 minutes until hot through. Mix the kecap manis, chilli sauce, lime zest and juice together in a bowl then divide between 2 serving bowls. Tip the sesame seeds into 2 serving bowls then stick the corn on the cob discs onto wooden skewers and lay on serving plates, with the sauce and seeds alongside. Heat a griddle until hot. Rub the Naked Glory Quarter Pounders with the oil, then place on the griddle and cook for 6-8 minutes, turning half way through until browned and hot through. Top with the cheese and cook for a further couple of minutes until the cheese has just melted. Season with black pepper. Place the split brioche bases onto serving plates, then layer the lettuce and tomato on top. Layer the Naked Glory Quarter Pounders onto the tomato, top with the red onion rings, some of the yakatori sauce and the brioche lid. Serve straightaway with slaw and yakatori corn pops.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-16--Ready To Cheat On Meat? Then Try This Show-Stopping Sausage Ragu

Comfort food is comforting for a reason: no matter your mood, or the kind of day you’ve had, a delish, comforting dish will make it better.
You know the kind of meal we’re talking about: that meaty, moreish, explodes-in-your-mouth deliciousness you’re craving ahead of a pre-Netflix and chill sofa cuddle… or as a weekend warmer after an autumnal walk.
A go-to comfort food dish, like a sizzling sausage ragu, works no matter the occasion - whether you’re dining on your own or with family.
For more healthy vibes, we’re all feeling the pull towards adopting a flexitarian lifestyle these days (OK, we’re hoping to fit into our pre-lockdown jeans again)...
And we would like to help take some pressure off our gorgeous planet...
“Meat has a heavy impact on our environment, using more water, land and producing more greenhouse gases and pollution than protein from plant sources,” Jo Travers, BSc RD, aka The London Nutritionist, and author of The Low-Fad Diet, tells HuffPost UK.
Which is just one reason we’ll be cheating on meat with Naked Glory Sausages. These incredible meat-free sausages will be the meatiest thing since meat in your full English, or an epic choice for lunch when you need to add some sizzle to your sandwich.
Naked Glory: The Meatiest Thing Since Meat Naked Glory Sausage and Bean Ragu
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We’ve got the recipe for a tantalizing Naked Glory Sausage and Bean Ragu - perfect for your next at-home date night or a hearty weekday meal.
These meat-free bangers are healthier for us, too - even though they’re still bursting with flavour, and look, smell and taste just like real sausages; in fact, Naked Glory Sausages have around 70% less fat than their meaty counterparts.
“Eating lots of meat can also be bad for our health. Plant proteins, however, have additional benefits such as being high in fibre and anti-inflammatory nutrients. So by switching some meat protein to plant protein you can improve your health and the health of our environment,” explains Travers.
If you’re keen to start cheating on meat on the regular, it helps to plan out your meat-free meals: you can always pick a day a week to do it, like Meat Cheat Mondays (although if you want to Play Away From Pork on Thursdays, that works, too).
Naked Glory: The Meatiest Thing Since Meat Naked Glory Sausages.
Try “meat deceit” with Naked Glory’s lookalike Sausages using the recipe below and you’ll fool everyone into thinking they are the genuine meaty article.
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NAKED GLORY SAUSAGE AND BEAN RAGU
Serves 2
Ready in about 20 minutes
Ingredients –
1 tsp oil
6 Naked Glory Sausages
1 red onion, roughly chopped
1 red pepper, seeded and roughly chopped
2 garlic cloves, grated
½ tsp sweet smoked paprika
1 x 400g tinned chopped tomatoes
1 x 400g tinned mixed beans, drained and rinsed
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp panko breadcrumbs
½ lemon, zested
2 tbsp roughly chopped flat leaf parsley
Method –
Heat a frying pan until medium hot. Add 1 tsp oil and Naked Glory Sausages and cook for 8-10 minutes, turning occasionally until browned and hot through. Meanwhile, heat a sauté pan until medium hot. Add the remaining oil and onion and cook for 1 minute, then add the pepper and cook for 2-3 minutes until just softened. Add the garlic and smoked paprika and cook for another minute, before stirring in the tinned tomatoes and beans. Bring to the boil, then turn the heat down and simmer for 3-4 minutes until just thickened and the vegetables are tender. Season to taste and stir in half the parsley. Meanwhile, tip the panko breadcrumbs into a bowl, zest the lemon over the top, add the remaining parsley and season with black pepper. Divide the stew between serving plates and top with the Naked Glory Sausages. Scatter the herby breadcrumbs over the top and serve straightaway.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-16--Faking What? The Meat-Free Tacos You'll Mistake For The Real Thing

The secret to authentic-tasting tacos? It’s all in the spices: this recipe includes cumin, coriander, paprika and garlic powder, as well as chillies, a spritz of lime and a colourful, flavourful side salad with tomatoes, cucumber and avocado.
Swapping out a signature taco ingredient for a more health-focused alternative, like ditching the meat for Naked Glory Mince, is what makes these tacos seriously epic (the protein-packed mince is such a convincing substitute, from texture to smell to taste, whoever you’re cooking for might not even realise they’re cheating on meat).
“In the UK, more people are selecting meat-free options; according to statistics compiled by The British Takeaway Campaign, sales in the vegan food sector increased by 388% in just two years,” says Nina Sabat, a registered nutritional therapist at Nutrition with Nina.
“Even among the staunchest of meat-and-2-veg traditionalists, a meat-free meal is far less of a challenge - either visually or in terms of taste. I believe it is because there is now so much choice as to what you can put on your plate, whether you are eating out, or even cooking at home.”
Sabat urges her clients looking to take a more healthful approach to start by substituting their favourite dishes with meat-free alternatives.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-16--No.10 'Bullied And Blackmailed' Lancashire Leaders Into Accepting Tier 3 Lockdown

A mobile advertising vehicle displaying a coronavirus high risk area near Greater Manchester, PA
Council leaders in Lancashire have dramatically claimed they were “bullied, harassed, threatened and blackmailed” by Downing Street into imposing the toughest Covid-19 restrictions.
No. 10 officials were accused of threatening to withhold funding from councils who refused tier 3 curbs, with town hall figures saying their area faced becoming “an island” if they did not fold.
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It was announced on Friday that Lancashire would follow Liverpool into the “very high” alert level, with pubs and bars not serving food forced to close and people from different households barred from mixing.
But after the news was released, council leaders hit out at being “punished” by a £30m local furlough package that would see just 66% of people’s wages covered.
Preston and Pendle’s council leaders issued a joint statement claiming Downing Street officials “threatened any district leader who did not fall into line” by saying funding would be withheld.
It follows Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham accusing the government of treating the north “like a sacrificial lamb” and “experimenting” with new local lockdown rates.
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He says the region will refuse to be forced into new measures unless ministers offer to return the 80% furlough scheme from the first, national, lockdown.
Meanwhile Paul Foster, leader of South Ribble council, said: “There’s no other way to put this than we have been bullied, harassed, threatened and blackmailed into moving into tier 3.”
He added: “The discussions with government were a complete shambles and we were basically told if we didn’t accept the restrictions we would have even more draconian measures imposed on us – that is no way to do work with council leaders. It is treating us with contempt.”
The Labour leader of Blackpool Council, Lynn Williams, said: “This is not what I wanted for Blackpool. We had no option but to ultimately agree this. Had we have not done so we would have been placed in Tier 3 with no money and no support measures.”
She added: “We could have turned this deal down, but more businesses would have suffered as a result of it and we would have been put into Tier 3 soon anyway.”
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Labour’s Matthew Brown, leader of Preston City Council, and Mohammad Iqbal, leader of Pendle Council, together issued a strongly worded statement laying into the government.
It read: “Lancashire leaders have been bullied by 10 Downing Street into accepting a deal that all sides know isn’t enough to stop the virus.
Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham PA
“Lancashire leaders along with local public health directors have been calling for months for a fully functional test and trace system, clarity on regulations and guidance, greater enforcement and better testing in and around schools and educational facilities.”
The two leaders added: “Throughout the negotiations, government officials were only interested in the politics and threatened any district leader who did not fall into line with [...] an imposition of tier 3 and that their borough ‘would become an island’ that would receive less in funding and resource.
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“When people on one side of the street are being resourced to help stop the virus whilst people on the other side of the street aren’t, they are instead being punished, then public health policy has collapsed.
“The government refused to accept that people on the minimum wage or very low incomes would not be able to survive for months on just 66% of their wage having already endured six months’ hardship.”
In a direct attack on chancellor Rishi Sunak, they accused government of breaking its promises to “level up” the north.
They said: “The chancellor Rishi Sunak’s promise that the government will provide ‘whatever is necessary’ has clearly become a broken promise to the people of Lancashire and the north.
“Lancashire leaders have not been given the policies or the means to stop the spread of the virus and have been bullied for political gain by 10 Downing Street.”
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-17--Banksy Claims New Nottingham Mural Of Hula-Hooping Girl

Street artist Banksy has claimed a new mural of a hula-hooping girl, posting a picture of the new work on his Instagram account.
The piece appeared on a wall last Tuesday on the corner of Rothesay Avenue in Lenton, Nottingham, sparking speculation around the identity of the artist.
Sprayed in black and white, the tongue-in-cheek image sits just behind a battered bike chained to a lamp post with an infinity lock. The bike is missing a tyre
Surinder Kaur, 42, who runs the beauty salon next to the artwork, said the bike had appeared at the same time as the mural.
She told the PA news agency that the council had rushed to protect the piece by placing clear plastic sheeting over it within hours.
Vandals have sprayed painted over the plastic two or three times already.
“Everyone is very excited and many, many people are coming to see the picture,” Kaur said.
“Everyone was confused about whether it was real or not real but it’s an amazing picture, it’s amazing art.”
Antonia Gardner, 48, lives five minutes away and took her eight-year-old daughter Alexis to see the mural this week.
“Lately we’ve been in the news for the wrong reasons, probably most obviously as having the highest Covid rates in the country,” Gardner said.
“Having the Banksy confirmed as genuine has given us a much-needed boost – it’s amazing for our city to be part of Banksy’s canon of work.
“(Alexis) loved it, she said the little girl looked about her age and really happy hula hooping with the bike tyre… and has been telling all the girls in her class.”
Banksy’s “Devolved Parliament” – featuring the Houses of Parliament filled with chimpanzees – sold for £9.9m last year, setting a new record for his work according to valuation website MyArtBroker.com.
Many of his murals have also been lifted from walls and sold, with Kissing Coppers – an image of two male police officers in an embrace on the side of a Brighton pub – selling for £350,000 in 2011.
Kaur said: “Unfortunately I don’t own the property, I am renting.
“He brought the bike with him – there is one tyre on the bike and the other tyre is in the picture as the little girl’s hula hoop.”
Kaur, who has only recently reopened following lockdown, said lots of people have been coming into her salon to ask about the mural, but she is not yet sure whether it will create a boost for her business.
“Let’s see – I’m not sure about anything right now,” she said.
In July, a coronavirus-inspired Banksy artwork appeared on a London Tube train.
A series of rats were stencilled around a carriage wearing face masks, sneezing or clutching hand sanitiser in a piece named If You Don’t Mask, You Don’t Get.
Transport for London swiftly removed the piece in line with its anti-graffiti policy, but said: “We appreciate the sentiment of encouraging people to wear face coverings.”
This summer, Banksy used the sale of his artworks to finance a 30-metre motor yacht to rescue migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean into Europe.
Named after 17th century French anarchist Louise Michel, it features Banksy artwork on its exterior.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-17--Liverpool Mayor Joe Anderson Says His Brother Has Died Of Covid-19

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Liverpool mayor Joe Anderson has announced that his brother has died after contracting Covid-19.
On Friday evening, Anderson urged people to follow the rules to prevent the spread of the virus as he revealed his eldest brother was in a “very serious condition” in hospital in the city.
In a tweet on Saturday, he wrote: “Despite the efforts of all the staff at Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust ICU my brother sadly died at 10.45pm last night.
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“We want to thank the dedicated staff risking their lives for us.
“Thank you all for your messages of love and support. Let’s stick together and support each other and win this battle.”
Despite the efforts of all the staff @LivHospitals ICU my brother sadly died at 10.45 last night We want to thank the dedicated staff risking their lives for us.Thank you all for your messages of love and support Let’s stick together and support each other and win this battle💙❤ — Joe Anderson (@mayor_anderson) October 17, 2020
Liverpool has been in tier 3 since Wednesday, with residents living under the strictest lockdown conditions in the country amid a second wave of Covid-19.
Under the tier 3, or “very high”, category, people from different households are not allowed to mix, pubs and bars not serving meals must close, and residents are told not to travel outside the area.
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Anderson condemned a decision taken on Friday for gyms in Lancashire – which is also in tier 3 – to remain open while facilities in Liverpool had been forced to close, branding the rules “an inconsistent mess”.
He tweeted: “Liverpool City Region has demanded immediate clarification on why Lancashire gyms are allowed to stay open and Liverpool’s close.
“Inconsistent mess, we now have Tier 3 A and Tier 3 B.”
He ended his tweet with “#shambles”.
In a joint statement, Liverpool City Region mayor Steve Rotheram and leaders of the six boroughs said: “We simply will not accept our region being treated differently to other tier 3 areas, without robust scientific evidence.
“These inconsistencies in restrictions between areas within the same tier risk undermining the new system from the beginning.
“So today we are once again demanding that government urgently supplies us with the scientific evidence behind their decision to close gyms in our area, while allowing them to stay open in other areas.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-17--Jacinda Ardern Wins Landslide Victory In New Zealand's General Election

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Jacinda Ardern’s Labour Party won a landslide victory in New Zealand’s general election on Saturday as voters rewarded her for a decisive response to Covid-19.
The mandate means Ardern, 40, could form the country’s first single-party government in decades, and face the challenge of delivering on the progressive transformation she promised but failed to deliver in her first term, during which Labour shared power with a nationalist party.
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“This is a historic shift,” said political commentator Bryce Edwards of Victoria University in Wellington, describing the vote as one of the biggest swings in New Zealand’s electoral history in 80 years.
Labour was on track to win 64 of the 120 seats in the country’s unicameral parliament, the highest by any party since New Zealand adopted a proportional voting system in 1996.
If Labour wins more than half the seats, Ardern could form the first single-party government under the current system.
Ardern came out of her home in Auckland, waved and hugged gathered supporters. Opposition National Party leader Judith Collins said she had called the prime minister to congratulate her for an “outstanding result”.
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“People were very grateful and very happy with how we’ve handled Covid, they like the shape of the plan that we’ve got going forward from here for the economy,” said finance minister Grant Robertson, a top Labour MP.
Geoffrey Miller, analyst at political website Democracy Project, said the victory was “very much a personal triumph for Jacinda Ardern’s ‘superstar’ popularity and brand.”
A Labour-Green coalition would be the first fully left-leaning government since the 1970s, a scenario that National’s Collins warned would mean more taxes and an environment hostile to business.
Ardern has pledged to raise taxes on top earners, while Collins promised short-term tax cuts, but they have otherwise shown few major differences on policy.
The PM won global acclaim for her handling of a mass shooting in 2019 by a white supremacist in Christchurch, with her inclusive “be strong, be kind” mantra and swift action to ban guns.
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She burnished that reputation this year with a “go hard, go early” approach to the new coronavirus, which has eliminated locally spread Covid-19 in the nation.
The election was delayed by a month after new virus infections in Auckland, that led to a second lockdown in the country’s largest city.
While known internationally for promoting progressive causes such as woman’s rights and social justice, at home Ardern faced criticism that her government failed on a promise to be transformational.
Life is back to normal in New Zealand, but its borders are still shut, its tourism sector is bleeding and economists predict a lasting recession after the harsh lockdowns.
The economy shrank at an 12.2% annual clip in the second quarter, its steepest drop since the Great Depression. Debt is forecast to rise to 56% of gross domestic product from less than 20% before the pandemic.
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-17--Exclusive: Marcus Rashford Warns Boris Johnson He Can Only ‘Level Up’ UK By Ending Child Hunger

“What children in the UK need right now is stability. A sustainable framework that protects them from falling through the cracks and that alleviates fear.
“Millions of children this morning have woken up petrified and confused. No child in the UK should be waking up hungry, if they have slept at all, and have to face the day worrying where food might be coming from.
“Holiday provision until the end of the Easter holidays, whilst a vital move, is not an effective means of combating child food poverty. It’s another sticking plaster. No child needs a deadline looming.
“There are 1.5 million children in the UK this morning – 1.5 million children in the UK in 2020 – who are receiving no food support due to the 2-child Universal Credit cap.
“The Healthy Start vouchers are a necessity for so many but they just aren’t stretching far enough. An additional £1.15 could make the biggest difference to over 290,000 children.
“The ask remains the same. We will settle for no less than the implementation of the 3 National Food Strategy policy recommendations. Policy recommendations that were built from extensive research and data analysis, as part of a review commissioned by those in power and those who have the power to protect our most vulnerable.
“Food stability is the foundation of everything. Please, give our children a chance. Let’s level up once and for all.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-17--Former Trump Exec Alleges Yet More Examples Of His Early Racism

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A former top executive in the Trump Organisation has detailed yet more alleged examples of Donald Trump’s early racist, misogynist and anti-Semitic behaviour in excerpts from her upcoming tell-all book about her time working for the president.
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“Bigotry and bias control Donald’s view of the world,” Res wrote in her book to be released Tuesday, per the Times.
In one passage, Res recalled Trump’s anger at seeing a Black man working on the construction of Trump Tower. Trump didn’t want people thinking his flagship building on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, New York City, was being built by Black people, alleged Res.
Trump cracked a Holocaust-themed joke in front of Jewish executives and routinely spoke in meetings about women’s looks, alleged Res, who said he also once ordered her to fire a woman just because she was pregnant.
While Res’ book is just one of many memoirs from former Trump associates and allies that have alleged offensive actions on the part of the president throughout his career, Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh dismissed the latest set of allegations.
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“This is transparently a disgruntled former employee packaging a bunch of lies in a book to make money,” he told the Times.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-17--Looking At Your Phone While Driving Will Soon Be Banned

A loophole which allowed drivers to escape punishment for taking a photo or playing a game on their phone will be closed under new government legislation.
The Department for Transport (DfT) is consulting on updating laws so that phone calls and texting are not the only functions banned when behind the wheel.
An exemption will be made under the plans to allow mobiles to be used for contactless payments if a vehicle is stationary and the goods or services are delivered immediately, such as for a drive-thru takeaway.
Ministers have rejected calls to go further by banning the use of hands-free functions – drivers will still be able to continue safely using devices “hands-free” while driving, such as a sat-nav secured in a cradle.
Roads minister Baroness Vere said: “Our roads are some of the safest in the world, but we want to make sure they’re safer still by bringing the law into the 21st century.
“That’s why we’re looking to strengthen the law to make using a hand-held phone while driving illegal in a wider range of circumstances.
“It’s distracting and dangerous, and for too long risky drivers have been able to escape punishment, but this update will mean those doing the wrong thing will face the full force of the law.”
The change in law would apply across Britain and is expected to come into effect in early 2021, pending the outcome of the consultation.
In 2019 there were 637 casualties on Britain’s roads – including 18 deaths and 135 serious injuries – in crashes where a driver using a mobile was a contributory factor.
The punishment for drivers caught breaking the rules on mobile phone use are six penalty points and a £200 fine.
The University of Leeds was commissioned by the DfT to analyse mobile use by 52 drivers over a total of 765 journeys. Some 662 phone interactions were observed, of which only 38 were completely hands-free.
A car being driven at 30mph travels 100 feet in 2.3 seconds, demonstrating how spending a moment to change a song on a playlist or check an app can result in a crash.
National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for Roads Policing, chief constable Anthony Bangham, said: “Using a mobile phone while driving is incredibly dangerous and being distracted at the wheel can change lives forever.
“Police will take robust action against those using a hand-held mobile phone illegally and proposals to make the law clearer are welcome.”
RAC head of roads policy Nicholas Lyes said: “The closing of this loophole is very welcome and reflects the multitude of ways drivers can use hand-held phones when behind the wheel in 2020.
“We know that the use of hand-held mobile phones at the wheel continues to represent a very real road safety risk, so it’s clear more needs to be done to make this as socially unacceptable as drink-driving.
“It’s important that alongside this change to the law, the Government looks seriously at other options that can help enforce the law, which should include new camera technology that can detect different types of hand-held mobile phone use.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-17--Strictly Come Dancing First Look Pics Show Just How Different This Year’s Series Is Going To Look

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We’ve finally been given our first peek at this year’s Strictly Come Dancing and in a coronavirus world, things are looking very different indeed.
Hosts Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman will return to our screens tonight - albeit in a safe, socially distanced way.
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Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly BBC
The judges - Shirley Ballas, Craig Revel Horwood and Motsi Mabuse - are all present and correct too, but have their own individual podiums.
Bruno Tonioli won’t feature on this year’s live shows due to travel restrictions and his work commitments on the US version of the show, Dancing With The Stars.
Earlier this year, show bosses revealed that he’ll still be appearing remotely in the pre-recorded Sunday night results show, while there are also plans for him to return to Strictly “full time towards the end of the series”.
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The Strictly judges (L-R) Craig Revel Horwood, Shirley Ballas and Motsi Mabuse. BBC
There are big changes with the Strictly audience too. This year they will be safely spaced apart and appear behind protective screens. All audience members also have to wear masks (in black) for the duration of the show.
Because of the shorter run time of this year’ series, there are also fewer contestants than usual on the 2020 line-up, with 12 stars competing rather than the usual 15.
The Strictly dancers have been isolating together. BBC
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Completing the line-up are Olympic boxer Nicola Adams – who will make up half of the show’s first ever same-sex pairing – and reality star Jamie Laing, who was supposed to appear on the show last year, but had to pull out due to an injury.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-17--Jennifer Arcuri ‘Admits Affair With Boris Johnson'

Jennifer Arcuri has reportedly admitted having an affair with Boris Johnson after allegations he used his position as London mayor to get the businesswoman favourable treatment.
The prime minister avoided a criminal investigation after the police watchdog found no evidence he influenced the payment of thousands of pounds of public money to her, or secured her participation in foreign trade trips he led.
Arcuri has admitted to having an affair with Johnson while he was with his then-wife Marina Wheeler, the Daily Mail reported.
“I think that goes without saying,” she reportedly said when asked if they had an affair. “It’s pretty much out there… But I’m not going to talk about it.”
In the interview, she also discussed being bombarded by his “avalanches of passion”.
City Hall resumed an investigation into Johnson’s conduct after the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) closed in May.
The IOPC said it “would have been wise” to declare his association with Arucri and found evidence that they may have had an “intimate relationship”.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-17--Gogglebox Star Mary Says Show Saved Her Marriage To Husband Giles

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Gogglebox star Mary Killen says the Channel 4 show has saved her marriage to husband Giles.
The eccentric pair – who refer to each other as “nutty” – have become firm favourites with fans of the fly-on-the-wall show.
And Mary has revealed that being forced to sit down and watch TV with Giles every week has brought them closer together.
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Giles and Mary. Channel 4
“Giles and I were like ships that pass in the night,” Mary told the Daily Star.
“I got up early. He went to bed late. And we rarely even ate together.
“I know a few couples who have split up because they have decided they can’t stand one another.
“Sitting down and watching television reminded us how much we enjoyed the same jokes.″
Mary also revealed why she and Giles, who met at art college over 30 years ago, call each other “nutty”.
“We call each other “nutty’ because we both consider the other to be a bit mad,” Mary said.
“Certainly Giles has multiple personality disorder so he’s all sorts of people and one of them is a bit of a genius.
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“The truth is we’re both neurotic.″
She continued: “I have a low tolerance for things like whistling.
“He hates it when the phone rings and just sits there demanding “who on earth is that?′ instead of answering it.
“Giles also has a lot of minor accidents. Stubbing his toe, banging his head, burning or cutting himself.
“When he grazed the roof of his mouth with a crisp he made a tremendous fuss.
“You have to understand all men are really annoying one way or another.
“Would you prefer one of your friends’ husbands?
“I’ve thought about each one in turn and concluded their habits are even more irritating than Giles’s.″


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-17--Gogglebox Star Julie Malone Finds Out The Hard Way That Grandchildren And Mini Vacuum Cleaners Do No

Gogglebox Star Julie Malone Finds Out The Hard Way That Grandchildren And Mini Vacuum Cleaners Do Not Mix

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Things got seriously hairy on this week’s Gogglebox when one of the show’s stars had an unfortunate encounter with a mini vacuum cleaner and her own grandson.
On Friday’s episode of the Channel 4 show, the Malones were joined on their couch by their grandson.
So far, so innocent.
But things took an unexpected turn when the crisp-munching toddler was handed a dust-buster to clean up his crumbs.
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As he struggled to hold the device, the tot ended up pointing it at grandmother Julie’s head, when this happened…
Lesson learnt.
Gogglebox airs Fridays at 9pm on Channel 4.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-17--Kevin Clarke: Family Call For Officers To Be Charged Over 'Inappropriate' Restraint

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The family of a man with paranoid schizophrenia who died in police custody are calling for the officers involved to be prosecuted after an inquest found his restraint contributed to his death.
Kevin Clarke died at Lewisham Hospital in 2018 following an incident in Catford, south-east London.
An inquest at Southwark Coroner’s Court this month heard the 35-year-old told officers “I’m going to die” and “I can’t breathe” as they handcuffed him due to his size.
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He lost consciousness as he was taken to an ambulance and the cause of his death was given as “acute behavioural disturbance, in a relapse of schizophrenia, leading to exhaustion and cardiac arrest, contributed to by restraint, struggle and being walked”.
Kevin Clarke died in 2018 following an incident in Catford, south-east London PA
Returning a narrative conclusion on Friday after five days of deliberations, the inquest jury found the decision to use restraints on Clarke was “inappropriate”.
The jury concluded that it was also “highly likely” that at least one officer heard Clarke say “I can’t breathe” on more than one occasion – despite their testimony to the contrary.
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Acting for Clarke’s family, Leslie Thomas QC told HuffPost UK the family will ask the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to review evidence in light of the jury’s findings to see whether any officer should face criminal charges.
An IOPC investigation concluded in March last year that Met Police officers had a case to answer for misconduct. This was rejected by the Met, which sent eight officers on training courses, however accepted that a ninth officer had a case to answer, which remains under review.
Thomas said: “This was a very, very smart jury that was making it clear they did not want their conclusions challenged.
“At every stage they accepted the arguments we were making and they rejected what the ambulance was saying and what the police were saying. They even rejected what the experts said.”
Namely, Thomas is referring to the testimony of Jonathan Benger, a professor of emergency care and Dr Robert Chapman, a consultant forensic pathologist, both of whom insisted that positional asphyxia – the act of putting an individual in a position which compromises their breathing – did not contribute to Clarke’s death.
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Leslie Thomas QC says there needs to be an examination in police forces about the way that they perceive Black people, particularly Black men PA Archive/PA Images
Thomas said: “They couldn’t give me a reasoned argument for why this wasn’t a case of positional asphyxia. They dug their heels in on that and they said no. The jury had to navigate that.”
All of the physical procedures on how to avoid this kind of tragedy are present in Met Police training manuals, but under cross-examination from Thomas, the individual who trained the police involved in Clarke’s death was unable to account for why the protocol was not followed.
Thomas says: “The Angiolini report [a 2017 review of deaths and serious incidents in police custody] following the death of Sean Rigg was extensive and fantastic. The Met Police time and time again have tweaked and improved their training. I don’t really have a problem with the Met Police training. The training isn’t the issue. The issue is the officers not following the training.
“It’s the application of the risk factors to the situation for them, something happens in real time so when these officers are in a real-time live situation, their training just goes out the window. They don’t follow the training, that’s the problem.”
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So why are officers not following the protocol?
Thomas asks: “What’s going on here? What’s the elephant in the room? If you’re asking me my personal opinion, it’s race.
“Firstly, when you watch the bodycam, these officers don’t see Kevin as a person. They’re not speaking with him, they’re speaking at him. He’s been dehumanised in their eyes. And then there’s that age-old trope against Black men that I’ve heard time and time again in these restraint deaths. That he was some big, Black, superhuman powerful man.
“There were nine officers there… and that trope plays in to what I describe as ‘white fear’, which is why the ambulance didn’t give him the care and attention he needed. Because they bought into this thing: ‘Well we were so scared because of what the police had told us.’
Wendy Clarke, Kevin's mother, and his sister Tellecia at a mural of Kevin in Lewisham PA
“When you watch the video, they don’t speak to Kevin, they speak at Kevin. They don’t listen to him. So when he’s saying ‘I can’t breathe’ they are not responding or reacting. They are not taking the action that they should be taking. This case makes me so angry because if there ever was a preventable death, it was this one. As the jury found.”
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Thomas is particularly disturbed by a section of the bodycam footage in which an officer reaches for Clarke’s bus pass in order to identify him.
Clarke takes hold of her arm and she states: “That’s hurting you’re hurting my hand.”
As Thomas points out: “He immediately lets go of her arm. He wasn’t being aggressive to her. Maybe he didn’t realise who she was or where he was or whatever, but as soon as she said: ‘Kevin you’re hurting me’, he let go of her arm.
“But they wanted to rely on this as part of that aggressive Black man with superhuman strength. Which is nonsense.”
Anita Sharma, head of casework at Inquest, a charity which provides expertise and support in such deaths, said: “Inquest has documented a long history of Black people disproportionately dying following use of force and neglect by police, particularly those experiencing mental ill health. This inquest is further evidence of discriminatory treatment which is rooted in racial stereotypes of the violent and dangerous ‘big Black man’, rather than the relevant training or procedures.
“There is an urgent need for structural and cultural change in policing, mental health and healthcare services. One which ends the reliance on police to respond to public health issues, and which confronts the reality of institutional racism in our public services.”
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Clarke’s sister Tellecia Strachen echoes these views. Speaking after the inquest she said: “Those involved in his death saw him as the stereotype big, Black, violent, mentally unwell man.
“KC was restrained unnecessarily and disproportionately. There was a lack of engagement, communication and urgency by all those who owed him a duty of care.”
She said her brother was a “kind, caring person” who “lost his life because of a number of missed chances by the mental health team, accommodation providers, the police, and the paramedics”.
Paying tribute to her first-born child, Wendy Clarke described her son as a “friendly, gentle giant” and said he had once told her: “I’m a lover, not a fighter”.
She added: “Kevin had told me that he feared the police because they had in the past mistreated and Tasered him.”
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Indeed as the jurors delivered their verdict, the foreman stated: “It appears that the officers’ decision to restrain Mr Clarke was unduly influenced by the knowledge that he had been Tasered on a previous occasion.
“They did not sufficiently take into account other facts that were clearly evident.”
Following the verdict, Met commander Bas Javid, of frontline policing, said: “I apologise for the failings as identified by the jury.
“The officers who attended that day found themselves in a very difficult situation dealing with a man undergoing a mental health crisis who clearly needed urgent medical care. They made a rapid assessment and within 90 seconds had called for an ambulance.
“The Metropolitan Police Service is a learning organisation and we always strive to learn and improve. We continually review our policies in line with national guidance around restraint as well as how we assist those in mental health crisis.
“The jury has made several observations about how those officers dealt with Mr Clarke. Now we need to carefully consider those observations. We will work with colleagues nationally to consider our training and guidance to officers in dealing with these kinds of fast paced and challenging incidents. We will also in due course examine any further comments and reports by the coroner.”
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Within the next fortnight, Thomas must put forward submissions in relation to preventing future deaths so the Met Police can consider how they can improve.
Thomas said: “We’ve done this time and time again and nothing seems to happen. This just totally frustrates me.
“I actually think there really needs to be an examination in police forces about the way that they perceive Black people, particularly Black men. Because this whole thing about superhuman strength is a trope that they have been using against Black men for decades.
“The thing about it is it is so insulting to me as a Black man. In a way it’s suggesting that somehow we are subhuman and I remember a similar trope being used on Ibrahima Sey [a 29-year-old Gambian asylum seeker, who died in police custody at Ilford police station in March 1996. He was forced to the ground in the station yard and handcuffed with his hands behind his back, and then sprayed in the face from close range with CS gas.]
Thomas, who also represented Sey’s family at his inquest, said: “Even back then they were saying: ‘We sprayed Ibrahima with the CS and he was licking it off his face and it had no impact on him’.
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“He was restrained, they spray him and he dies.”
An inquest jury found Sey was unlawfully killed, but crown prosecutors said there was insufficient evidence to proceed with a criminal case.
Though Leslie is pleased with the inquest verdict in Clarke’s case, he is not hopeful of seeing the necessary changes before he retires.
He said: “I’m in the twilight years of my career. I’m 55-years-old. I’ve been doing these death cases, these restraint cases for at least quarter of a century and the arguments that I deployed a quarter of a century ago, I’m still deploying them. The cross examination doesn’t change.
“The problem isn’t with the inquest system, the inquest system is sound, it’s working. The problem is before this. An inquest cannot repair a broken system. An inquest can only highlight the deficiencies in the system.”
After the verdict, Clarke’s sister pointedly said: “There must not be another George Floyd, Sean Riggs, or Kevin Clarke,” but it seems the odds are not stacked in favour of that.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-17--Wear And Care: Reduce E-waste And Save Money - How To Upgrade Your Old Laptop

Wear And Care: Reduce E-waste And Save Money - How To Upgrade Your Old Laptop
Faraz Sayed, a volunteer fixer at The Restart Project, shows you how to update your old PC laptop hard drive to a SSD. Giving your old computer lying around the house a new lease on life, faster processing speed and saving you money by not having to buy a new computer.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-17--There's Never Been A Better Time To Fix Your Stuff. Here's How.

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When something breaks, it’s often a lot easier (and far less fuss) to throw it in the bin and quickly order a new one online with the click of a button. But this is not only wasteful, it’s also impacting the planet – and in turn, us.
A survey by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) found just under a third of people (30%) have thrown away furniture, electrical items and homewares in good enough condition that they could have been re-used, sold or donated. And one in five (19%) admitted they wouldn’t know how to donate or recycle furniture and homeware.
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But why is the focus always on how we can get rid of stuff? What about rolling up our sleeves and just fixing it? To mark International Repair Day (October 17), we’ll walk you through how to do some basic repairs at home.
Malte Mueller via Getty Images Cropped image of woman threading needle against gray background
Mending a hole in your t-shirt
We’ve all been there: you’ve discovered a small hole in the middle of your t-shirt and you don’t know whether to bin it or resign it to the ‘bed t-shirt’ drawer. The answer is neither. You can repair that hole and give your top a new lease of life.
Professor Pincushion, who shares sewing tutorials on YouTube, has a brilliant no-sew option. This tip works best for small holes – we’re talking 5mm or less.
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Grab your t-shirt, turn it inside out and briefly iron the area where the hole is. Then, start pushing the material together. Next, grab a patch of bonding web and on top of that, place a slightly larger patch of stabiliser. If you don’t want glue getting onto your ironing board, pop a bit of baking paper underneath.
Now, put a cloth or tea towel over your t-shirt, spray it with some water, stick your iron on the wool setting, and then place your iron on top of where the patches are for about 10 seconds. Flip the t-shirt over to the right side (so it’s no longer inside out) and start pushing the fabric together, then press it briefly with the iron just to help it all bind together. Et voilà! A fixed tee.
Speeding up your laptop
While we don’t see it (out of sight, out of mind), our electronic waste is being sent to landfill. The UN’s Global E-waste Monitor revealed 53.6 million metric tonnes of electronic waste was generated globally in 2019, up 21% in 5 years.
At a time when everything is already pretty bleak, destroying the planet one trashed laptop at a time is not where we want to be headed. When your laptop starts making a deafening whirring sound and you get the spinning wheel of doom (Macbook owners know), your first thought might be to get a new one. Instead, try to fix it before you get rid – and even then, you should recycle it. Currys PC World will recycle your old electronics if your local council doesn’t offer such a service.
The Restart Project, a social enterprise that aims to fix our (rather dysfunctional) relationship with electronics, shares some quick and easy tips for speeding up your laptop, that don’t involve replacing a hard drive.
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First: check what’s using up your laptop’s resources. Is it running 10+ programmes in the background? Yes? Well, no wonder it’s slow. Close some of them and see whether that helps. The next tip is to delete any programmes or apps you don’t use that are taking up space. Look for things like old software or packages that came with your computer that you’ve never used. If you have a few types of anti-virus software downloaded on there, stick to one and delete the others, as these can take up a lot of processing power.
And the final tip is clearing hard drive space. According to the Restart Project, you should keep 15% of your hard drive empty all the time. You can clear hard drive space by uninstalling programmes, clearing out your downloads folder and deleting other bulky files – like video and media files – you no longer use.
Sorting your dodgy toaster
Janet Gunter is outreach lead and co-founder of The Restart Project. She tells HuffPost UK kitchen appliances like toasters and blenders are often in need of repair. But they can be tricky to do – and require a fair bit of caution.
Toaster not working? Unplug it, firstly. Gunter says a lot of repairs with toasters are often cleaning-related. “Before you assume it’s game over, clean it,” she says, as often you can get stuff wedged in there which can cause issues.
There are other issues that can go wrong with toasters that are harder to deal with – for example, if the heating element goes. If that does happen, you should try to take it to a repair shop to get it looked at before you take it to be recycled.
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The Restart Project runs a Wiki site with tips and tricks for mending, as well as forums to confer with other ‘fixers’ – and there’s a page on fixing toasters.
Finding a local ‘repair hero’
In the UK, there are still community repair opportunities if you can’t find a commercial repair shop or afford it, says Gunter. She recommends taking your items to repair cafes, bike workshops, or even community mending groups.
There are also local commercial repair shops dotted across the UK. “A lot of people think they no longer exist, but they definitely do,” she says. And they need people’s support, now more than ever. You can find a local repair shop on the Restart Project’s Repair Directory – or suggest a shop near you.
Our new video series, Wear and Care, shows you how to turn your trash into treasure. Save money and waste with how-to videos on repairing or repurposing clothes or home-goods.
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