thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-05-14--Are You Allowed To Go Back Home If You Temporarily Moved Before Lockdown?

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When the UK went into lockdown, some people were staying with partners, family or friends. Many decided to move temporarily for a more comfortable working from home environment, or to avoid being home alone.
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But with England now beginning to ease ever-so-slowly out of lockdown – and some even encouraged to return to work – these people will undoubtedly be wondering when, or if, they’re allowed to return home home. So, is it allowed?
During lockdown, the only groups who have been able to move between homes include students, who were given permission to move back home, and under-18s who were able to move between households if parents are separated.
The coronavirus regulations also allow for a person to move to a friend’s address for several days to allow a ‘cooling-off’ period following arguments at home, according to guidance from the College of Policing. But what about the rest of us?
“Leaving your home to stay at another home or your second home for a holiday or other purpose is not allowed,” a Cabinet Office spokesperson tells HuffPost UK. “But, for example, if someone is moving permanently to live back at their main home, this is permitted.” This means you’re able to return home if you plan to stay there – but you can’t hop between the two.
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When asked about the same issue, a government spokesperson told HuffPost UK: “It is vital that the public stays alert to avoid the spread of the virus, which means continuing to closely follow social distancing rules and avoiding public transport where possible.”
There are a few things you may want to consider before you move back to your actual home.
Firstly, what’s your reason for moving? If you need to move so you’re able to return to work, for example, that’s okay, suggests Rakesh Patel, head of employment rights strategy at Thompsons Solicitors. But if you don’t have a valid reason to justify the move, it might be worth thinking about whether it’s the safest option for you right now. Can you stay put for a while longer?
Of course, if you have coronavirus symptoms, or someone in your household does, you should be self-isolating and not moving anywhere.
“If someone is moving permanently to live back at their main home, this is permitted.” - A Cabinet Office spokesperson
The next thing to consider is: how will you get there? If you have a car and you’re able to drive, this is the optimum solution as you can easily maintain social distancing on your journey – and there is no restriction on driving, adds Patel.
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Everyone, including critical workers, should continue to avoid public transport where possible, instead choosing to cycle, walk or drive, the government has stated. So if you don’t have a car, social distancing on public transport “must be followed rigorously”.
And thirdly, are you returning home to an empty house? Things might be more complicated if you’re not – for example, if you live in a flat share. You should only return providing you don’t have any symptoms of coronavirus, and it would be courteous to check with your housemates first. Once you’ve moved back home, you should stay there.
People who are shielding or medically vulnerable should consider their personal situation before moving, and may wish to seek medical advice before deciding whether to go ahead, advises the government. Some moves are likely to be lower risk, for instance if your home is unoccupied and you can travel in a car.
Ultimately, if you do decide to move home permanently, it’s up to you to do it as safely as possible, while respecting hygiene and social distancing measures.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-05-14--These Delicious Bakes Take Just 6 Minutes To Make

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When you’ve got a craving for something sweet, there’s nothing worse than opening your kitchen cupboard to find there’s not a single treat in there.
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Most people would be put off baking something because, let’s face it, it’s a lot of effort. But it turns out there are quick and easy creations you can make in a flash. All you need is a handful of ingredients – most of which will be in your cupboard – and, crucially, a microwave.
Here are three recipes from Sarah Rainey, the culinary queen who brought us Three Ingredient Bakes. She has a new book out that’s perfectly suited to our renewed penchant for baking during lockdown.
Behold, three mouth-watering – and no-fuss – recipes from her new book, Six-Minute Showstoppers.
Choca Mocha Cake
Rainey says: “I’ve never been a hardened coffee drinker, so a mocha – that moreish combination of coffee and chocolate – is my go-to hot drink. This recipe combines these two favourite ﬂavours in a moist, fudgey cake, topped with a super-speedy coffee icing that you can drizzle on while it’s still hot.”
Clare Winfield Six-Minute Showstoppers
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Ingredients
For the cake:
30g cocoa powder
3 heaped tsp instant coffee
175g self-raising ﬂour, sifted
175g caster sugar
60ml semi-skimmed milk
60ml sunﬂower oil
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
For the icing:
1 heaped tsp instant coffee
130g icing sugar, sifted
Method
1. Grease a 20cm-round, microwave-proof cake dish with a little butter and line the base with greaseproof paper.
2. Mix the cocoa powder and 3 teaspoons of coffee together in a small bowl and add approximately 100ml boiling water. Stir vigorously until dissolved.
3. In a separate bowl, mix together the ﬂour and sugar. Add the coffee mixture, followed by the milk, oil, egg and vanilla extract. Beat to combine.
4. Pour the batter into the prepared cake dish and microwave on high for 4.5 to 5 minutes, checking throughout. You’ll know it’s ready when it’s risen and spongey (not wet) on top.
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5. While the cake bakes, make the icing. In a small bowl, add a splash of water to the remaining teaspoon of instant coffee and mix to make a paste.
6. Mix in the icing sugar, a little at a time, adding more water if you need to, until you have a smooth paste, roughly the texture of thick cream.
7. When the cake is done, carefully tip it out on to a cooling rack and immediately spread the icing over the top (or drizzle, if you’re more artistic than me). You may want to put a plate or chopping board underneath the rack as this bit can get messy.
8. If you like, sprinkle chopped walnuts, pecans or coffee beans around the edge of the cake for a pretty ﬁnish – do this before the icing sets so they stick.
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Fluffy Drop Scones With Maple Butter
Rainey says: “For a special occasion, weekend brunch or to brighten up a drab Monday, these tasty morsels are just the ticket. They’re called ‘drop scones’ rather than pancakes because they’re thicker, fluffier and you can ‘drop’ them into the pan without worrying that the batter will spread.”
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Clare Winfield Drop scones
Ingredients
170g self-raising ﬂour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
50g soft light brown sugar
1 egg
200ml semi-skimmed milk
A handful of golden raisins (or chocolate chips, nuts or blueberries if you prefer)
To serve:
60g salted butter, well softened
2 tsp maple syrup
Method
1. Put a small knob of butter in a large frying pan over a medium-high heat. As it melts, swirl it around so it covers the base of the pan. Prepare a large sheet of tin foil over a plate to keep the drop scones hot between batches. You’ll also need a whisk – electric is best, if you have one – a ladle and a fish slice.
2. Sieve the ﬂour, baking powder and cinnamon into a large bowl and stir in the sugar.
3. Whisk in the egg followed by the milk, a few glugs at a time, until you have a smooth batter, roughly the consistency of thick double cream.
4. By now the butter in the pan should be starting to bubble. Use the ladle to transfer large spoonfuls of the batter into the pan, spaced slightly apart. Depending on the size of your pan, there should be enough room for three or four large circles – and this should use up half the batter.
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5. Use the underside of the ladle to neaten them up, and then drop a few raisins (or whatever you’re using) on top. Adding them at this stage stops them collecting at the bottom of the bowl or burning on the base of the pan.
Peanut Butter And Jam Brownies
Rainey says: “PB and J is a classic combination... good on toast, delicious in a bagel, but absolutely incredible when you combine it with a chocolate brownie. These chocolatey treats are oh so rich and are topped with pretty swirls of peanut butter and your favourite fruit jam.”
Clare Winfield Six-Minute Showstoppers
Ingredients
200g caster sugar
70g cocoa powder
60g plain ﬂour
150g unsalted butter, melted
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
75g peanut butter
75g jam
Method
1. Grease a small square Pyrex or silicone dish (approx. 20cm x 20cm) around the sides and base with a little butter. You’ll also need a palette knife.
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2. Mix the dry brownie ingredients together before stirring in the melted butter, eggs and vanilla extract. Beat until smooth.
3. Transfer the batter to the prepared dish and use the palette knife to spread it to the edges and even out the top.
4. Dot teaspoonfuls of peanut butter and jam over the top of the brownies and use a knife to swirl them around a little.
5. Microwave on high for 5 minutes, checking halfway and rotating the dish if you need to (sometimes square dishes are too big to rotate inside the microwave, so this will ensure they cook evenly).
6. Let the brownies cool completely before slicing into squares and tucking in. They’ll keep for 5 to 6 days in an airtight tin.
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-05-14--The Long Haul To The Covid New Normal Has Only Just Started

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Speak your wait machine
On his return from his brush with mortality, Boris Johnson warned the nation to “contain your impatience” in the fight against Covid-19. Only yesterday he told Keir Starmer he “will have to contain his impatience” for meaningful international comparisons of the different nations’ responses to the disease.
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Throughout his career, it has been the PM himself who often suffered from political incontinence, unable to resist a quip, a headline, an easy policy option. The last election (like his London Mayoral elections before it) actually proved that Johnson can stick rigidly to a script when he wants to, and play the long game. The coronavirus crisis is certainly stress testing that to the limit.
Today, the Office for Budget Responsibility put out some extraordinary figures that joined the many extraordinary figures we have had so far. And they make clear just how long a haul it will be to recover economically, let alone medically, from the pandemic.
The cost of the government’s total responses to date to the virus have risen from £103.7bn to £123.2bn, with the furlough scheme among the main reasons. The consequences for borrowing are enormous, with the annual figure equal to 15.2% of the UK economy. The last time it was 15% was in 1945/6 (yes, including VE Day) at the end of World War Two. We all know how long it took to pay off that debt, and this time there’s no Marshall Plan to help us.
Everyone in Whitehall is adjusting to this new normal, as well as to the slow, careful phasing in the government’s plan to exit from lockdown. Transport for London figures today showed that although there are some packed tubes, overall passenger numbers have not gone up much. When and if schools reopen, that too will be gradual (and if local headteachers use their autonomy, the number of schools which do so could be much smaller than anyone expects).
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Still, even small progress is seen by ministers as a chance to look forward rather than backwards, removing the focus from previous failures on PPE, care homes and lockdown delays to the here and now.
It’s also worth pointing out that despite state intervention now being the norm, there are some in No.10 who think the crisis has exposed the need to reform the state (and Whitehall) more than ever. Grant Shapps’ line today about removing “bureaucratic bindweed” was a reminder that the Dominic Cummings agenda hasn’t gone away. The government machine still grinds too slowly for him and likeminded advisers.
What we are all of course impatient for is that test-track-trace programme that is seen as the real way to sustainably speed our path out of the Covid fog. There was good news today that at 126,000 a day the number of tests was its highest ever. Similarly, the NHSX app seems to be doing well on the Isle of Wight (our podcast guest this week is local MP Bob Seely).
Most cheering of all was the news that Public Health England had validated an antibody test (developed by Roche) that many hope could be a “game changer”. Deputy chief medical officer Jonathan Van-Tam (whose no-nonsense approach saw him throw some shade at the idea of quarantining all overseas travellers) told the No.10 news conference how important the development was. “I anticipate it will be rapidly rolled out in the days and weeks to come,” he said, with the focus on NHS and on carers to start with.
Some speed at last? Well, not so fast. JVT (as Matt Hancock memorably calls him) stressed it was still unclear how effective the test could be. “You can’t speed up the answer to that,” he said. “It is not automatic, by any means, that these antibodies are going to be lifelong….scientists all round the world have to be patient.” So too do our politicians.
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Quote Of The Day
“There is still some capacity there that we need to make available to care homes.”
Health minister Edward Argar admits that Covid-19 tests are still not getting to where they’re needed most.
Thursday Cheat Sheet
Just over a quarter of Covid-19 patients who have died in hospitals in England had diabetes, new figures from NHS England revealed. Some 5,873 (26%) had diabetes, 4,048 (18%) dementia, 3,254 (15%) chronic pulmonary disease and 1,549 (7%) asthma.
The Department of Health said a further 428 people had died from Covid 19 in UK hospitals, care homes and in the wider community as of 5pm on Wednesday, bringing the total to 33,614.
New NHS stats revealed that just 916,581 people attended A&E units in England, a 57% drop year on year.
Transport for London (TfL) has secured £1.6bn in emergency funding to keep Tube and bus services running until September after Mayor Sadiq Khan had warned it was close to running out of cash. A £500m loan from the Department for Transport ensured the deal.
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Former Labour education secretary David Blunkett has launched a savage attack on teaching unions, accusing them of “working against” the interests of the poorest pupils hit hardest by the Covid-19 lockdown. But Liverpool Mayor Joe Anderson vowed to “resist” reopenings in his area if he was not happy with safety.
Tory health minister Nadine Dorries has been reprimanded by Downing Street after promoting false claims online about Keir Starmer’s stance on prosecuting child sex grooming gangs.
Sir Mark Sedwill, the cabinet secretary and national security adviser, had coronavirus at roughly the same time as the PM, but
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-05-14--Plans To Reopen Schools On June 1 Facing Revolt By Council Chiefs

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Boris Johnson’s plans to reopen schools from June 1 could be stopped in their tracks by city mayors, councils and individual headteachers, teaching unions have suggested.
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Liverpool mayor Joe Anderson became the first local leader to declare that he would not allow his local schools to readmit pupils if he felt the safety of staff and youngsters would be put at risk.
Greater Manchester’s metro mayor Andy Burnham was more cautious, but urged ministers to work with trade unions before ploughing ahead with proposals to open primaries to all pupils before the summer break.
With the coronavirus reproduction - or R - rate in the north west running at 0.73, nearly double that of London, both called for reassurance that their region would be allowed flexibility to timetable their local responses.
A letter from Liverpool Council’s children’s services chief Steve Reddy, seen by HuffPost UK, tells local headteachers that there will be a specific “Liverpool position” on the reopening of schools and “if it is not safe for schools to reopen, then they will not”.
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In his letter sent on Tuesday, Reddy added that “it will be for headteachers and governing body to decide what is best for their individual school”.
Given the autonomous status of academies, which have been expanded by the Conservatives since 2010, it is also unclear whether education secretary Gavin Williamson would have the power to direct many schools to open their doors from next month.
Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson. PA
Williamson has hit out at “scaremongering” over his plans for a phased return of pupils, stressing that plans for class sizes of 15 and extra cleaning and other safeguards would help make classrooms safe.
But an alliance of education unions has urged the government to “step back” from its June 1 timetable, and demanded to see the scientific and medical modelling used to justify the move.
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Meanwhile, the National Education Union has written to all its members to say they “should not yet actively discuss plans for any wider reopening of schools”.
Advice to NEU members, seen by HuffPost, states: “Any request to meet with your head teacher to discuss wider opening from 1 June should be delayed until we have provided further union guidance”.
On May 13, Liverpool had 1,515 confirmed cases of infection, equivalent to 306 in every 100,000 people according to government data, while as of May 1, 448 people had died with Covid-19.
Anderson tweeted his firm view that he would “resist allowing schools to reopen” if he felt it was not safe to do so.
Education is vital,however it does not come before the health&safety of our children & staff. We have responsibility for Safeguarding our children and so I will resist allowing schools to reopen in June. To do so risks our children’s and staff safety. — Joe Anderson (@mayor_anderson) May 13, 2020
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Speaking to the BBC’s Newsnight, he added: “Scientific advice is scientific advice, but if our levels of coronavirus infections are higher than anywhere else then I’m not about to take risks with children’s lives or with staff and teaching professionals’ lives.
“Only when we are convinced it’s safe for children to return to school will we allow it, because we have a safeguarding responsibility.”
Burnham told BBC Radio Manchester on Thursday that he wanted children to go back to school if possible but only with “a safety first approach”.
“I would say of course you want to get children back into a situation where they are learning. It‘s often the kids in the poorest areas who suffer the most when the schools are not open,” he said.
“There’s a huge amount of issues to work through as to how you possibly do that. The older kids I think you can ask them to observe more distancing. But I’m not sure how possible that is with primary school children. There’s a lot of issues there.
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“I would say to the government please don’t rush this, you have to think this through very carefully and work with the teaching unions rather than going into a big argument with them.”
Burnham added that children about to make the transition to secondary school or who have got GSCEs looming next year should be the priority. “I think we should be working to get them back into school because their lives also could be massively damaged in a different way by this if we leave them out of school for too long,” he said.
A spokesperson for the PM refused to comment directly on mayor Anderson’s warning, but said the government remained committed to working with the teaching unions to find a safe means of enabling pupils to start returning to school in England from June.
NASUWT general secretary Dr Patrick Roach said: “This decision by the mayor reflects the fact the government has provided no evidence that opening schools next month will be safe for children or teachers.
“The government must now publish the scientific evidence it is relying on to claim that it will be safe for children to return to school. The NASUWT is clear that there is no requirement or obligation currently on any school to reopen to more pupils from 1st June.”
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Damien McNulty, an executive member of the union, added: “The NASUWT welcomes the clear and unambiguous commitment from Liverpool City Council to ensuring the health, safety and welfare of all its staff and children but not rushing headlong into making plans without the full and necessary information required to do so. We see this as the only option for employers up and down England.”
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We want children back in schools as soon as possible because being back with their teachers and friends is so important for their education and their wellbeing.
“Plans for a phased return of some year groups from 1 June, at the earliest, are based on the best scientific and medical advice. The welfare of children and staff has been at the heart of all decision making.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-05-14--Coronavirus Antibody Test To Be 'Rapidly Rolled Out' Across UK

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A coronavirus antibody test hailed as a “game changer” in the UK’s response to the pandemic will be “rapidly rolled out” in the “days and weeks to come”, a top UK public health official has said.
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Jonathan Van-Tam, the deputy chief medical officer, said the tests, deemed 100% accurate by Public Health England, would first be given to NHS staff and carers.
It comes after Number 10 confirmed the serology tests, being produced by Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche, would “certainly” be available on the NHS and that the government was in advanced talks with the firm.
Different to tests which check for the presence of the virus, the antibody test can detect if a person has ever had the disease.
It could pave the way for people to be issued with “health certificates”, which would prove they have had the virus.
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People with such documents may be able to enjoy greater freedoms as the lockdown is eased, according to a report in the Telegraph.
Speaking at the Downing Street Covid-19 briefing on Thursday, Van-Tam said that he expected the tests would be “rapidly rolled out in the days and weeks to come as soon as it is practical to do so”.
He said scientists still needed to discover whether antibodies offered immunity and for how long they persisted.
“But the good news is we do now have antibody tests that we absolutely can rely on,” he said.
A man wearing a protective face mask to protect against coronavirus, waits for a Central Line underground train on an empty platform at Bank Station in London. ASSOCIATED PRESS
Transport secretary Grant Shapps said if antibodies provide immunity it would be “game changing because it would enable us to do things in terms of releasing lockdowns that wouldn’t be possible otherwise”.
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It came as 428 people who tested positive for Covid-19 had died, bringing the working total of UK deaths to 33,614.
A new study by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), meanwhile, said an estimated 148,000 people in England outside hospitals and care homes had coronavirus between April 27 and May 10.
Fears for the economy, meanwhile, were mounting after the ONS revealed the economy shrank by 5.8% in March and 2% in the last quarter - the biggest dip since the 2008 financial crash.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-05-14--Exclusive: NHS Labs Were Frozen Out Of Coronavirus Testing Programme, Says Top Scientist

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A top scientist has slammed the government over its “perverse” decision to set up coronavirus testing labs outside the NHS without looking at “what was already in their own backyard”.
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President of the professional body for biomedical science Allan Wilson says a dual system of NHS labs and new government labs processing Covid-19 tests has contributed to the target of 100,000 tests a day regularly being missed.
He accused the government of pushing ahead with setting up three new laboratories – known as the Lighthouse labs – to roll out coronavirus testing without first asking if NHS labs had capacity to do it.
Wilson, who represents scientists from at least 130 NHS labs across the country, says these NHS labs should have been the central plank on which testing infrastructure for the national programme was built.
“But instead they somehow either made an assumption that we couldn’t do it or based on a political decision decided they did not want to ask the NHS labs to deliver this and they went to the private sector,” said the president of the Institute of Biomedical Science (IBMS).
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Laboratory technicians unpack boxes with test tubes containing live coronavirus samples at a new Lighthouse laboratory in Glasgow Andrew Milligan via Getty Images
“It just seems perverse that we created this whole additional structure rather than looking at what was in their own backyard,” he said.
NHS labs are currently processing about 30,000 of the government’s daily 100,000 Covid-19 testing target, Wilson claims, while the Lighthouse labs are responsible for the other 70,000.
The government says the NHS has done more than half of all UK tests overall since the crisis began – 848,000 people – but did not say whether the Lighthouse labs, which have tested 745,000 over a shorter period of time, had overtaken the health service in terms of daily use since being built midway through the pandemic.
The government has only met or exceeded the 100,000 target on three days since the beginning of May.
It has faced a barrage of criticism over 50,000 tests reportedly being secretly flown to the United States for processing, with long delays reported in people receiving test results, rendering the tests effectively clinically useless.
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Wilson says a model in which the NHS labs ran the lion’s share of testing and new labs were used as overspill capacity should have been the government’s first port of call, similar to the plan for the Nightingale hospitals.
Allan Wilson, president of the Institute of Biomedical Science Institute of Biomedical Science
He believes testing centres could have been set up at GP surgeries, which already have existing links with NHS labs, creating a local testing network nearer to people’s homes.
“We have decades of experience of doing high volume, high quality, high throughput testing, that exists across the networks and all across the UK, and yet that just seems to have been ignored,” said Wilson.
“So if you’d actually had a very different approach and just asked the NHS to do it, we could have formed those local partnerships.”
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Instead, the government opted for a model that has seen it set up the three new Lighthouse labs in Milton Keynes, Cheshire and Glasgow and a network of 50 regional testing sites run by contractors such as Serco and Deloitte.
While NHS labs process tests from patients at hospitals, the Lighthouse labs are responsible for processing the wider roll-out of tests from people visiting regional test sites or using home sampling kits.
Wilson says the government’s model has resulted in both NHS and Lighthouse labs competing for precious resources needed to process samples in the lab, amid an international shortage.
He is also concerned there is currently no system for coronavirus test results from the Lighthouse labs to be entered into patients’ medical records.
“If you go to an NHS lab the results are there and easily auditable and they go into the patient record,” he claimed. “If you go to a Lighthouse lab the IT systems are very weak at the moment and they’re not joined up to the patient records.”
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The IBMS president accused the government of having become fixated on an “any test will do” strategy, saying it has lost sight of the clinical reason why mass testing is so crucial.
“I think in this rush to just get to that 100,000 target, any test will do is the strategy,” he said. “It doesn’t matter whether we’ve actually taken the test, we’ll just send a kit out for you to take a sample. That to me is not a test done.”
He said he believed it was a “flagrant manipulation of the data” to say the government had met its 100,000 tests a day target by its deadline.
The three Lighthouse Lab sites are in Milton Keynes, Cheshire and Glasgow Andrew Milligan via Getty Images
The IBMS president also alleges Lighthouse labs, which are staffed by volunteers such as PhD students, are not bound by the same strict regulatory structures that NHS labs are.
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And he warned that the government’s decision to opt for coronavirus testing outside the NHS could signal further privatisation of laboratory testing services seeping in through the back door.
A government spokesperson strongly refuted this, saying the point of setting up private labs was to protect NHS capacity so it could be focused on patients.
The issue could become a key battleground in the post-Brexit talks over a US trade deal.
“We’ve real concerns that this is – and I hate to use the horrible phrase the thin end of the wedge – but a deregulation of laboratory testing within the UK,” said Wilson.
“We can see a situation where our suppliers are almost turning into our competitors and setting up labs.
“It’s difficult not to see an element of political dogma in this as well.”
HuffPost UK asked the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) which contractors were running the 50 regional testing sites and how these contracts were awarded.
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The department confirmed management consultancy Deloitte was supporting delivery of its Covid-19 testing programme alongside other public and private sector partners.
It said Serco was providing facilities management at some regional test sites.
But the DHSC would not comment on which other private sector contractors were involved in the national testing programme or whether these contracts were awarded under emergency Covid-19 procurement powers.
Members of the public have also taken to Twitter to criticise the testing service in recent days.
This is my personal, first-hand experience of COVID19 testing in the UK at a Regional Test Site. A thread. #COVID19 #Covid19UK (1/31) — Nick H (aka BigBlockOfCheese) (@bigblockocheese) May 10, 2020
Artist Kerry Fox from North Yorkshire said she had been impressed with the regional test site she visited in York on May 4 but has still not received her results more than 10 days later.
“If I’ve heard nothing by the end of the week then I think that’s it,” said the 50-year-old. “I think it’s gone and lost to the ether.”
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She was selected for a test after using the Covid Symptom Tracker app set up by King’s College London.
“To be honest, cynical old me did wonder when I got the email through to say I could have a test, I did wonder if I was just a statistic to bulk up the numbers,” she said.
STAY ALERT ... Missing in action last seen 7 days ago covid 19 test left York Uk may have caught a flight to USA maybe touring US on greyhound bus maybe disguised in a hazmat bag let me know if you have spotted (see pic below ) pic.twitter.com/hxSyUUXTbB — kerry fox (@lumpybird) May 11, 2020
Wilson says these types of logistical problems could have been avoided if the government had opted for a local network of testing linked to existing NHS labs rather than setting up new infrastructure.
“We would have had much better control over that testing if it had been delivered with NHS labs as a primary port of call,” he said.
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A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “Allan Wilson’s comments are factually incorrect.
“We have doubled the capacity of NHS and PHE labs, allowing them to process the majority of the tests carried out so far. “They work alongside Lighthouse labs, which were built to further boost testing capacity and have been subject to independent validation by the NHS.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-05-14--Piers Morgan Threatens To 'Take Action' Over 'Defamatory' Posts Accusing Him Of Buying Twitter Follo

Piers Morgan Threatens To 'Take Action' Over 'Defamatory' Posts Accusing Him Of Buying Twitter Followers

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Piers Morgan has suggested he is considering taking legal action over a “defamatory” post claiming he paid for his Twitter followers.
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The Good Morning Britain host has 7.5 million followers on the social media site, and is regularly in the headlines as a result of his divisive tweets.
However, on Thursday he was the subject of a thread alleging he could have paid for “fake” followers to boost his audience.
The thread – consisting of 22 posts by a user referring to themselves as Anonymous Journalist – accused him of having as many as 4.6 million “fake” followers.
Piers Morgan at a Bafta event last year Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP
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In the thread, it was claimed that Piers could have paid for as many as 13 million followers, two thirds of which would have been removed by Twitter, although he has vehemently denied this.
“I don’t know who you are, but this is an absolute lie,” he fumed. “I have never bought a single Twitter follower, and wouldn’t know how.”
Looping in the official accounts for Twitter and Twitter UK, he added: “So I strongly suggest you delete this defamatory thread before I take further action.”
I don't know who you are, but this is an absolute lie. I have never bought a single Twitter follower, and wouldn't know how.
So I strongly suggest you delete this defamatory thread before I take further action.
cc @TwitterUK @Twitter https://t.co/v3t9mENnO0 — Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) May 14, 2020
When one Twitter user asked him directly about so-called “bot” accounts, he insisted: “All high profile Twitter users have bot followers, and Twitter purges them occasionally (I’ve lost around a million followers in past 2yrs during these purges). But I have never bought a follower, that is a lie.”
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I've no idea. All high profile Twitter users have bot followers, and Twitter purges them occasionally (I've lost around a million followers in past 2yrs during these purges). But I have never bought a follower, that is a lie. https://t.co/oIDF2P3a0T — Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) May 14, 2020
The thread previously caught the attention of Piers’ rival, Lord Sugar, who even reached out to the anonymous Twitter user responsible for it directly:
Does any one think this is true that @piersmorgan has been buying followers. https://t.co/zwpf73zl7j — Lord Sugar (@Lord_Sugar) May 14, 2020
Day in and day out @piersmorgan mentions the PM and all GOV members and complains about them. What is the difference. He says he is keeping the Gov in check. I am keeping him in check. Voila ! https://t.co/RuCH4SY1xS — Lord Sugar (@Lord_Sugar) May 14, 2020
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Lord Sugar recently hit out at Piers on Twitter after it was revealed that the daytime star had been given a coronavirus test, which he was entitled to as a broadcaster who travels to work in the pandemic.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-05-14--Coronavirus Is China's 'Skripal Poisoning Moment', Tory MP Says

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Coronavirus marks China’s “Skripal poisoning moment” which will force Britain to stand up to its increasingly hostile global stance, a Tory MP has said.
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Bob Seely said the pandemic should mark the moment when the UK “gets serious” about the Asian giant’s “wolf warrior” diplomacy.
China has faced criticism for hampering the global response to the virus by allegedly being dishonest about its spread and failing to contain it in the early stages of the outbreak in Wuhan in December.
Seely told HuffPost UK’s Commons People podcast it should be the moment Britain becomes more hawkish on China, much like it did with Russia following the Salisbury poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
Following the novichok poisoning, the UK expelled 23 Russian diplomats.
“I call it China’s Skripal moment, the bit where we all get serious and realise what’s happening, but Chernobyl is a good analogy as well”
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And Seely, who helps coordinate a group of more than 55 Tory MPs opposed to Chinese telecoms firm Huawei’s involvement in UK 5G infrastructure, said it was time for the government to take a similar approach to China.
Asked if this was China’s Chernobyl moment, Seely said: “I call it China’s Skripal moment, the bit where we all get serious and realise what’s happening, but Chernobyl is a good analogy as well.
“As regards Russia, the world was changing and it took us time to adjust to it.
“We’ve taken a lot for granted and I think with China we have to get wise.
“When it comes to Huawei, when it comes to the Covid crisis, when it comes to lots of things.
“We need to take a not-more-hawkish, but actually more realistic view of what China is doing.
“It is setting out to have more global strategic dominance in many areas, it does see this in a very Darwinian sense of being a struggle with the West, and I think we need a more assertive approach on our side that protects our interests, our economy and our technology and our security much better.
“And arguably that’s better for China in the long-term as well, because if it can push and be aggressive and get stuff from us and there’s no payback then it will continue to do that.
“We are almost encouraging Chinese authoritarianism by our unassertive approach to them and I do think we need to work with other people to really change that dynamic.”
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He added: “It took the Skripal poisoning, the shooting down of an airliner and a big war in eastern Europe for us to get serious about Russia.
“This was not rocket science – a lot of people were seeing that and saying it before.
“Likewise with China, this wolf warrior diplomacy – China’s much more aggressive, much more hostile stance, the relentless cyber attacks, the malign influence, all this stuff has been happening for years and we’re basically pretending not to notice.
“And now the pandemic as well.”
Passengers from Wuhan walk past a sign that reads "Welcome Home" as they arrive on a high speed train in Beijing after lockdown lifted in April. ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Isle of Wight MP also called for the creation of a national strategy council to sit alongside the “very reactive” national security council and identify long-term emerging threats.
It is “quite clear” that the UK failed to learn from Asian countries like South Korea’s test and trace response to Covid-19 “because pandemics were stuff that happened to people in Asia and it didn’t happen to us”, he said.
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Seely also called for Sir Mark Sedwill to be stripped of one of his so-called “two hats” roles, as both national security adviser and the head of the civil service as cabinet secretary.
It emerged on Thursday that Sedwill had coronavirus at the same time as Boris Johnson, which Downing Street did not disclose at the time..
“Clearly the national security adviser should not be the head of the civil service, as is currently the case, and that’s completely wrong,” Seely said.
“What Sir Mark Sedwill is doing, doing both jobs, heaven only knows.
“We need a strategy council that looks 10 to 15 years ahead.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-05-14--Time Magazine Torches Donald Trump's Coronavirus Blunders With Cutting New Cover

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Donald Trump is the screaming cover star of Time’s new issue that explores his mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic and his push to reopen the economy against the advice of public health experts.
Artist Edel Rodriguez depicted the president as yelling ― with a Stars and Stripes mask on his face, but not over his mouth ― to illustrate the cover for the magazine’s May 25 edition.
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“There’s a right way to reopen America. This isn’t it,” reads the headline:
TIME's new cover: There are sensible ways to reopen a country. Then there's America's approach https://t.co/Il7plhj6Bx pic.twitter.com/BzQPR4zpN3 — TIME (@TIME) May 14, 2020
Time’s cover story ― titled “There Are Sensible Ways to Reopen a Country. Then There’s America’s Approach” ― breaks down the Trump government’s fumbled response to the public health crisis.
It also explains how the US “risks making matters worse” as dozens of states prepare to ease lockdown restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of the contagion.
More than 85,000 people in the U.S. have now died from the virus.
Time last month dedicated an entire issue to the “heroes on the front lines” of the pandemic. Nurses, doctors, grocery store employees and more key workers were featured on a selection of front pages:
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TIME’s new issue: Meet the heroes of the front lines https://t.co/hEu48cMdIK pic.twitter.com/1goLm6mJmb — TIME (@TIME) April 9, 2020
Rodriguez’s illustrations have turned Trump into a peach, a wrecking ball and a melting man for previous Time covers:
Here's a first look at this week's @TIME cover -- soon you'll see it everywhere -- the cover is by @EdelStudio pic.twitter.com/Czwn9e9zRN — Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) March 14, 2019
Edel Rodriguez


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-05-14--Black Light Experiment Shows How Easily Coronavirus Could Spread At A Buffet

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A viral video showing just how easily coronavirus could spread around a buffet restaurant has captured the world’s attention.
Japanese public broadcaster NHK conducted and filmed the test in collaboration with public health experts – and the end result is eye-opening.
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At the beginning of the video, you see fluorescent paint applied to a man’s hands, which acts as the “virus” for the purpose of the experiment. The idea is that if he’d coughed or sneezed into his hands, the virus would remain on them.
Ten participants, including the “infected man”, then served themselves at a makeshift buffet and ate for 30 minutes. Afterwards, a black light revealed how far and wide the paint – or virus – had travelled.
The paint spread to a wide range of dishes, as well as the hands of all the other participants, NHK said. Three participants also had paint on their faces.
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NHK This is why it's important to wash your hands
NHK said the paint was spread to others via the lid of the container holding the food, the tongs used to pick up the food, and the handle of the drinks container.
Dr Simon Clarke, associate professor in Cellular Microbiology at the University of Reading, tells HuffPost UK the video is an effective way to get the message across of how the virus might spread.
“Things like that are actually quite a good idea,” he says. “I think people know these things, but they don’t stop to think about them.
“So they’re useful in that they confirm to people, or remind people, of just how easy it is to spread germs. I do think a lot of people forget that they don’t wander around in a sterile bubble every day.”
Here’s a five-step guide to washing your hands properly during the pandemic.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-05-14--Watch Live: Transport Secretary Grant Shapps Holds Coronavirus Briefing

Watch Live: Transport Secretary Grant Shapps Holds Coronavirus Briefing
As government urges people to avoid public transport where possible, transport secretary Grant Shapps leads the daily press briefing. He is expected to be joined by deputy chief scientific adviser Jonathan Van-Tam.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-05-14--Is This China’s ‘Skripal Poisoning Moment’? With Bob Seely MP

Is This China’s ‘Skripal Poisoning Moment’? With Bob Seely MP
Conservative MP for the Isle of Wight Bob Seely joins Arj Singh, Paul Waugh and Rachel Wearmouth to talk about the government’s test and trace app, the UK’s failure to learn from Asia, and how the government can manage the economy post-recession.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-05-14--Niall Horan Fans Are Loving His Takedown Of Matt Hancock: 'No Idea Who That Is But I Agree'

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Niall Horan has torn into health secretary Matt Hancock in a blistering tweet, and his fans are loving it.
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On Thursday afternoon, the former One Direction singer blasted Hancock about the advice he has given the UK public, following the government’s decision to slowly ease lockdown restrictions earlier this week.
“I get the idea that Health secretary Matt Hancock thinks he’s a lot more intelligent than he actually is,” Niall wrote. “Always very smug and slippery.”
Niall Horan and Matt Hancock David Fisher/James Veysey/Shutterstock
The Irish star added: “Excuse me but Matt you’ve had a major howler here and it’s about time you handed facts out instead of worrying about what the opposition thinks.”
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I get the idea that Health secretary Matt Hancock thinks he’s a lot more intelligent than he actually is. Always very smug and slippery. Excuse me but Matt you’ve had a major howler here and it’s about time you handed facts out instead of worrying about what the opposition thinks — Niall Horan (@NiallOfficial) May 14, 2020
Shortly after sharing his post, Niall won praise from many on social media for speaking out about the crisis:
One Direction holding the government to account and I'm here for it. https://t.co/FPL0xuZlP0 — Jane Bradley (@jane__bradley) May 14, 2020
OK so it turns out Political Niall is my new favourite? Didn't think anything could top the Slow Hands Sexy-Niall era but that's 2020 for ya 🤪 https://t.co/k7UTzOGtWz pic.twitter.com/4McyBwxsrZ — Sophie Butcher (@sophie__butcher) May 14, 2020
1. "Excuse me" has just made me howl.
2. I am consistently impressed by him. A lot of his peers get away with making vague statements almost completely devoid of opinion and are lauded for it. Niall just says it, and that's important. https://t.co/TReKZTmxvT — Ava Eldred (@ava_eldred) May 14, 2020
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Get this man on Question Time. https://t.co/YVesYJDkLb — Ryan Love (@RyanJL) May 14, 2020
niall for president — кiкα 🍉 (@losstrose) May 14, 2020
we have no other choice but to stan 💅 pic.twitter.com/uiH2c1awzW — ᶻᵃᶜʰˡᵃⁿⁿᵃ ʷᶦˡˡ ˢᵉᵉ ʰᵃʳʳʸ (@wodakolonska) May 14, 2020
I love it when you drag someone. — ayesha #1 🍒 stan (@kiwisugar18) May 14, 2020
no choice but to stan pic.twitter.com/30NWnPD27O — élla 🍉 (@takemetoeroda_) May 14, 2020
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Go on Niall you rocket https://t.co/iBXCgNwira — Sean Bernard (@seanbgoneill) May 14, 2020
And even though not all of the Directioners in his mentions understood exactly what he was talking about, they clearly enjoyed his message all the same:
i have no idea what you’re talking about but GO OFF — lotte🍉 (@tobesoweird) May 14, 2020
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i have no idea what that means but GO OFF NIALL YESSSS 😌✨ — bela :D (@belai_04) May 14, 2020
Don’t know who Matt is but I agree — nina (@stilloverose) May 14, 2020
MATT IS CANCELLEDT THATS IT — nashie 🍉 (@PRESERVE1D5SOS) May 14, 2020
i have no idea who that is but i agree❤ pic.twitter.com/UoOGPVIDQe — geo EMILY DAY (@lovesickgeorgia) May 14, 2020
i have no idea who that men is but i agree with u 100% stay safe niall — 𝓲𝓰𝓪🥂 (@girlchaneliga_) May 14, 2020
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idk who's Matt but i totally agree with you — 𝒎𝒓𝒖𝒏𝒂𝒍 🍉 (@otbharold) May 14, 2020
I have no idea who tf that is but period — Rafia 🍉 LivesInEroda (ia) (@erodians_hs) May 14, 2020
Although best known for his music career, Niall has actually been known to fire off a political tweet or Instagram post from time to time, recently sharing a selfie that he claimed was his face “when I see that Matt Hancock on TV”.
He’s also taken aim at Donald Trump, particularly relating to the US president’s comments about climate change, and spoke out about the Irish referendum on abortion back in May 2018.
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Niall released his second solo album Heartbreak Weather earlier this year, earning him his first number one in the UK.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-05-14--Coronavirus Antibody Test Will 'Certainly' Be Available On The NHS, Says No.10

Professor John Newton, national coordinator of the UK Coronavirus Testing Programme, said: “We were confident that good quality antibody tests would become available when they were needed.
“Last week, scientific experts at PHE Porton Down carried out an independent evaluation of the new Roche Sars-CoV-2 serology assay in record time, concluding that it is a highly specific assay with specificity of 100%.
“This is a very positive development because such a highly specific antibody test is a very reliable marker of past infection.
“This in turn may indicate some immunity to future infection although the extent to which the presence of anti-bodies indicates immunity remains unclear.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-05-14--Nadine Dorries Shared Video That Doctored Keir Starmer's Child Grooming Remarks

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Tory health minister Nadine Dorries has been reprimanded by Downing Street after promoting false claims online about Keir Starmer’s stance on prosecuting child sex grooming gangs.
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Dorries was accused of spreading “fake news” after she shared a Twitter post by a right-wing, anti-immigration account that doctored a video of the Labour leader when he was Director of Public Prosecutions.
The post claimed Starmer was defending previous guidelines – which failed to take seriously allegations from children who didn’t coherently and immediately report abuse, who had been in trouble with the authorities, or who had used drugs or alcohol.
The health minister, who was one of several Tory MPs to share the fake claims, wrote that the claims were: “Revealing.”
Nadine Dorries tweet Twitter
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But the fuller, undoctored video clip clearly shows that Starmer had in fact been criticising the guidelines.
He actually said: “These [new] guidelines are a recognition that the approach that’s been taken in the past was the wrong approach, it was based on a number of assumptions which don’t withstand scrutiny. Those assumptions have got to change and so this is a clear break with the past.”
Dorries was forced to delete the tweet but has so far not apologised.
However, No.10 issued a stern warning that no Tory MP should be sharing misinformation and government whips stepped in to
A Downing Street spokesman: ‘These Tweets have rightly been deleted. The MPs involved have been spoken to by the Whips’ Office and reminded of their responsibility to check the validity of information before they post on social media sites.”
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Starmer was DPP from 2008 to 2013 and since he entered parliament has had to deal with repeated false assertions about prosecutions he has and hasn’t overseen.
Labour shadow minister Wes Streeting replied to Dorries’ tweet with a message of his own: “What’s revealing is that: 1. You’ve spread fake news and indulged a smear being promoted by the far right. 2. You had time to do this despite being a minister in the Department of Health during a public health crisis.”
Former senior prosecutor Nazir Afzal, who was involved in bringing a number of cases, said the clip was being used to suggest Sir Keir did not take child sexual abuse seriously, when the opposite was true.
“As national lead, I can assure you that he and I put right the failings of a generation of those who should have safeguarded children. He inherited failure and left success,” he tweeted.
Another Conservative backbencher, Lucy Allen, also shared it, with the comment; “This .....suggests a total failure to understand grooming, a dismissive attitude towards #CSE victims and a belief that the victims brought it on themselves.”
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Lucy Allan tweet Twitter
Tory MP Maria Caulfield deleted her entire Twitter account after posting the same tweet, which was posted by the NJamesWorld account, with the caption; “True face of the Labour leader #shameful.”
Maria Caulfield Tweet Twitter
Maria Caulfield's account twitter
Labour sources told HuffPost UK that as a government minister Dorries should not have been tweeting “a doctored video tweeted by a far right social media account”.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-05-14--This Is How Widespread Coronavirus Infections In England Are Estimated To Be

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An estimated 148,000 people in England outside hospitals and care homes had coronavirus between April 27 and May 10, a new study has said.
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The Covid-19 infection survey by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimated the number based on swab tests collected from 10,705 individual participants.
The figure represents 0.27% of the UK population outside hospitals and care homes.
Taking into account the margin of error for the study, the ONS said the lower range of the estimate was 94,000 while the upper range was 222,000.
In total, 25,000 people in 10,000 households in England are taking part in the survey, though this is to be widened to include Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland over the next 12 months.
The survey is designed to help track the current extent of infection and transmission of Covid-19 among the community population – specifically private households.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-05-14--428 More Coronavirus Deaths Recorded Across UK In 24 Hours

Medics wear PPE as they care for patients with coronavirus in the intensive care unit at the Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge ASSOCIATED PRESS
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The number of people who have died in the UK after testing positive for coronavirus has risen to 33,614 – an increase of 428 over 24 hours.
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It is the third week the government’s daily announcements have included people in care homes and the community, rather than just in hospital, who have died.
But only those who had tested positive for Covid-19 are included, meaning anyone who died with a suspected case won’t be recorded.
The figures cover the period up to 5pm on Wednesday.
It comes after the number of people confirmed to have died in hospitals after contracting the virus rose by 256 in 24 hours.
That increase consisted of 207 in England, 34 in Scotland, 10 in Wales and five in Northern Ireland.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-05-14--Can Mouthwash Reduce The Spread Of Covid-19? Scientists Call For Urgent Research

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A group of scientists is calling for urgent research into whether readily available mouthwash could be effective in reducing the spread of coronavirus.
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They conducted a review of the scientific research in the area to assess whether mouthwash could have the potential to reduce transmission in the early stages of Covid-19 infection.
The virus is enveloped with an outer fatty (lipid) membrane. However, according to the researchers, so far there has been no discussion about the potential role of damaging this membrane as a possible way to inactivate the virus in the throat.
The researchers say previous studies have shown agents commonly found in mouthwashes – such as low amounts of ethanol, povidone-iodine and cetylpyridinium – could disrupt the lipid membranes of enveloped viruses.
However, they stress that it is not yet known whether this could also be the case for this new coronavirus, and people should continue to follow government guidance.
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The researchers assessed existing mouthwash formulations for their potential ability to disrupt the SARS-CoV-2 [Covid-19] lipid envelope – and suggested that several deserve clinical evaluation.
Publishing their review in the Function journal, the authors wrote: “We highlight that already published research on other enveloped viruses, including coronaviruses, directly supports the idea that further research is needed on whether oral rinsing could be considered as a potential way to reduce transmission of [this virus].
They said research to determine the potential of this approach could include evaluating existing – or specifically tailored – formulations of mouthwash in the lab and then in clinical trials.
bortonia via Getty Images
Lead author Professor Valerie O’Donnell, co-director of Cardiff University’s Systems Immunity Research Institute, said: “Safe use of mouthwash – as in gargling – has so far not been considered by public health bodies in the UK.
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“In test tube experiments and limited clinical studies, some mouthwashes contain enough of known virucidal ingredients to effectively target lipids in similar enveloped viruses.
“What we don’t know yet is whether existing mouthwashes are active against the lipid membrane of SARS-CoV-2 [Covid-19].
“Our review of the literature suggests that research is needed as a matter of urgency to determine its potential for use against this new virus. This is an under-researched area of major clinical need – and we hope that research projects will be quickly mobilised to further evaluate this.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-05-14--A Minute Of Kindness: Hotel Opens Rooms To Rough Sleepers In Shrewsbury

A Minute Of Kindness: Hotel Opens Rooms To Rough Sleepers In Shrewsbury
When lockdown began, The Prince Rupert Hotel in Shrewsbury was asked to open their doors and their rooms to the rough sleepers of the town, to stop the spread of coronavirus. The owner tells us of how it’s been one of the most rewarding experiences of his life.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-05-15--Game Of Thrones Star Carice van Houten Questions Nude Scenes After Me Too Movement

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You’d think everyone would be fully wrapped up on a show that constantly warned “Winter is coming,” but that clearly wasn’t the case on Game Of Thrones.
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The hit fantasy show featured so much nudity — especially in the early seasons — that it gave rise to the term “sexposition”. Now one of the show’s actors, who was at the centre of many of those nude scenes, looks back on them with a different lens.
Carice van Houten — who played the Red Woman Melisandre — has second thoughts about her Game Of Thrones nudity in light of the Me Too movement, which went viral in 2017 following sexual abuse allegations against Harvey Weinstein.
“When the Me Too movement started, that’s when it started sinking in for me,” Carice recently told Insider. “And it did sort of change my perspective on my whole career, not just Game Of Thrones.”
Carice as seen in Game Of Thrones HBO
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She added: “In retrospect, I thought, ‘Why did that scene have to be nude? Why was that normal?’.
“I did question things, and it was not so much that I was blaming anyone, but that’s just how we evolved and just how the movement affected me.”
One of van Carice’s nude scenes from the show — season four′s bath scene — is fairly irrelevant to the story and even creates a continuity error: It’s later revealed that Melisandre’s necklace keeps her looking young, yet she clearly isn’t wearing it in the bath.
Carice says she’s now “very aware of the male gaze” and that her 2019 film, Instinct, was inspired by that.
Instinct is the first film from Carice and Instinct director Halina Reijn’s production company, Man Up, which will focus on films told from a female perspective.
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The acotr insists she isn’t against nudity in art (though she herself is done with it, Insider reports), but says that it should have narrative relevance.
“My consciousness is bigger. I’m a bit more woke,” Carie said.
Nudity declined noticeably in the final two seasons of Game Of Thrones.
Deadline asked Carice last year if that was a response to Me Too and the changing climate of the industry.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-05-15--Let’s Just Admit That A Zoom Party Isn’t Really A Party

ILLUSTRATION: ISABELLA CARAPELLA/HUFFPOST; PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES
There is an art to a great party.
The setting. The music. The guest list. The refreshments. And then there is the anticipation — the frisson of excitement you experience when gearing up for what could be an exceptional night. (Just as easily, it could be horrible, boring, awkward and anxious, but it’s the hope that’s key here.) If all of those pieces come together, you might find yourself dancing to Robyn in someone’s living room at 1 a.m., or striking up a conversation with a cute stranger, or laughing intimately with an old friend.
A great party represents the very best of large-scale social interactions — exciting, electric, full of possibility. In 2016, author Alexander Chee spoke at length with The Atlantic about the significance of parties in the real world and in literature. He argued that “there’s a chaos agent quality to them: You just don’t know who’s going to be there, or why. You could run into an old enemy, an old friend, an old friend who’s become an enemy. You could run into an ex-lover, or your next lover. The stakes are all there, and that’s why they’re so fascinating.”
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On the other hand, a Zoom party, the paltry stand-in we’ve been offered in the age of the coronavirus, is one of the worst social interactions. Virtual “parties” do not allow for the contained chaos that Chee pointed to — the frenetic energy and unknowns that can produce pleasures you did not predict.
Who among us would attend a party in the real world if it meant walking into the home of someone, whom you may or may not be close with, and screaming whatever you had to say to a room full of people, who were all obligated to go silent whenever you spoke. You would then be forced to watch as they responded, one by one, or moved on, one by one, to other conversations while you became a silent observer.
Virtual parties strip away the best parts of the form. There is no room for mingling or side conversations or lingering eye contact that could become more. You can’t pop in and out unnoticed, or move seamlessly on from a conversation that has run its course over to another small group in which you might fare better. Even music operates on a lag. Without the opportunity for happy chaos, a “party” begins to resemble a large virtual classroom with a rotating set of lecturers. It becomes just another task, one that we presumably have endless time for now that plans are a thing of the past, but that feels oppressive nonetheless.
“When we pop into a virtual party, our brains work overtime and derive little pleasure from the effort.”
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When I was first getting to know one of my now dear friends, she invited me to a birthday party at a Brooklyn bar. I didn’t know the birthday boy, but it turned out that I did know two of her new BFFs; I had gone to summer camp with one and college with another. The party was perfectly fine by all accounts: We drank and laughed and caught up, and then things turned a corner and my friend got a little too drunk and wanted to go home. This is how we found ourselves sitting on a random corner at 2am having made it only halfway back to north Brooklyn because she couldn’t stop puking out the windows of our Uber. Eventually, we found a lady driver who did not kick us out and we got safely back to my apartment. When my friend woke up on my couch the following morning, we knew we would be real friends for a long time.
If that party had occurred via Zoom, I would have virtually popped in and quickly realised that I didn’t know half of the people. I would have stayed silent while staring at my tiny face in the corner of the screen, listening to more familiar acquaintances banter, wondering if there was a way for me to gracefully exit without pointing out my departure to the whole group. I would not have made any new, meaningful bonds. I certainly would not have had a friend crash on my isolated, sanitised couch.
Since New York City went into lockdown more than two months ago, I have attended Zoom seders, birthday parties, happy hours, book clubs, dinner parties and watch parties. Some have been genuinely delightful. Others have felt depleting and stressful, and I’ve heard similar sentiments from my stuck-at-home peers.
But there has also been a desperation to re-create the social lives we led in the real world, and it has driven us to this watered-down, screen-heavy half-life. When I was first writing about our mass embrace of FaceTime, Zoom and Google Hangouts, a few of my sources wondered if the initial excitement they felt around virtual gatherings might wane as time went on. At least anecdotally, their prediction seems to have come true.
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There is also actual science to back up the feeling of exhaustion attending an onslaught of virtual gatherings may provoke ― “Zoom fatigue,” as National Geographic’s Julia Sklar termed it.
Body language cues, which are usually essential to human communication, are limited or lost altogether on screen. In our real-world interactions, “these cues help paint a holistic picture of what is being conveyed and what’s expected in response from the listener,” Sklar wrote. But in the digital-only world, those cues are significantly dampened. It becomes nearly impossible to make meaningful eye contact (and if you do, that eye contact can feel way too intense) or pick up on someone fidgeting with discomfort or catch someone smirking flirtatiously in your direction.
These challenges exist with any kind of screen-only social interaction. But they are significantly magnified when you’re talking about a large group social interaction. “Gallery view — where all meeting participants appear Brady Bunch-style — challenges the brain’s central vision,” Sklar wrote, “forcing it to decode so many people at once that no one comes through meaningfully, not even the speaker.”
So when we pop into a virtual party, our brains work overtime and derive little pleasure from the effort.
“Rather than grasping for a pitiful approximation of the things we loved in our old lives, it may be wise ... to slow down and sit with ourselves. To learn to embrace unfilled time.”
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Those who have planned a Zoom birthday party or enjoyed a FaceTime happy hour with more than 10 people might think that I’m being a tech curmudgeon. On the contrary, I am fairly open to embracing video-based socialising.
My boyfriend and I had never FaceTimed before the coronavirus hit, and it’s been a real gift to our relationship. I also have a wonderful standing date now with four of my oldest friends, who are spread out across several states. I’ve found that small gatherings where everyone knows each other tend to work, mimicking a group conversation you might have around a midsize dinner table. If there is a game or other activity central to the gathering, like watching a movie, that can also take away the pressure to be constantly half-engaging with everyone’s video feeds.
Rather than grasping for a pitiful approximation of the things we loved in our old lives, it may be wise to lean into activities that the technology at hand is best suited for — smaller, more intimate gatherings — and then take the opportunity to slow down and sit with ourselves. To learn to embrace unfilled time if we are lucky enough to have it.
Perhaps as the inevitable virtual-party fatigue sets in, we will be better prepared to carefully curate and properly appreciate our post-pandemic social gatherings. I find myself longing for a day when I can casually slip in the front door of an apartment to find a mix of familiar and unfamiliar faces, music playing, a stocked bar, the hum of chatter in the air.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-05-15--Captain Tom Gets Cheeky With Amanda Holden After Saying He Preferred Susanna Reid

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Captain Tom Moore had to jokingly beg for Amanda Holden’s forgiveness as he appeared on her Heart Breakfast show on Friday.
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The war veteran – who raised more than £30 million for the NHS by walking laps of his garden last month – got cheeky with Amanda after previously admitting he preferred Good Morning Britain host Susanna Reid.
And Amanda was definitely not about to let the matter lie, following Captain Tom’s appearance on Thursday’s GMB, during which Piers Morgan asked him to choose between his co-host and the Britain’s Got Talent judge.
Amanda Holden and Captain Tom on Heart Breakfast Heart
“I’ve missed you Tom, I’m not going to lie, but I do have something to ask you,” she said.
Heart Breakfast co-host Jamie Theakston continued: “You’re being nice and friendly to Amanda but you were on television yesterday morning with Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid, and Piers asked you who your favourite was.”
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As Jamie then played the clip, Amanda said Tom had “broken her heart” by picking Susanna.
“It was a mistake in transmission!” he cheekily replied. “The wrong name had got across.”
Amanda said: “I’m so relieved! It’s that naughty Piers. He puts so much pressure on politicians, and now you.
“I’m thrilled to hear our love still exists. I’m so relieved to hear I’m still your number one, today anyway.”
Jamie then asked Tom if he finds it “difficult to juggle two girlfriends at the same time”.
“You’re not allowed to ask that, that’s a private matter,” he joked.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-05-15--Sorry But It Is Selfish To Hire A Cleaner, Even If That's Difficult To Admit

Domestic cleaners are among the workers being encouraged to return to work Getty
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On Tuesday, as Britons were mulling over the measures in the first phase of easing Covid lockdown, Twitter exploded in a spat that was quickly dubbed #cleanergate. Alongside labourers in jobs such as food production and construction, the workers encouraged to return to work in “phase 1” included, to the surprise of many, domestic cleaners and nannies. Caitlin Moran called this policy out as being rank with class privilege: “That you can have your cleaner or your nanny visit your house, but not your parents, is so parodically the call of posh men who were sent away to boarding school, it’s actually made me hysterical”.
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With leaders of unions Unison, Unite, the GMB and Usdaw warning that the government’s back-to-work plans were tantamount to a waging a war against the working classes, socialist columnist Owen Jones weighed in: ”If you are a middle-class professional who has a cleaner, you should be paying them their wages as normal and letting them stay at home,” he tweeted. “If you ask them to come and clean your home, you are a monumentally selfish person and that’s really all there is to it.”
Feminist Twitter piled on to decry Jones’ cluelessness as a childless gay man, ignorant of the daily drudgery endured by working mothers. What was the problem, some argued, if cleaning work was ennobled through the act of being financially rewarded? My single mum friend Kate tweeted that Jones was “the dictionary definition of a gaslighting misogynist” then sent me a message reading: “I hope I’m blocked now.” The row was too wearying. Men would never get it.
“Covid has shone an uncompromising light on the dirty truths of our domestic labour fixes. It’s time feminists came clean about them.”
But how is it that feminists took with such gusto to paying other women to do the “women’s work” that Second Wave feminism reviled? One of the answers, of course, is the stalled domestic revolution. From the 1970s to the late 1990s British men increased their domestic efforts, excluding childcare, from an average of one hour and 20 minutes a week, to 19 hours a week, as women entered the paid workforce in unprecedented numbers. In 1998, around when I was living in ladette, student filth, these efforts went into reverse. By 2016, we’d lost an hour of British male effort a week, as US men contributed a whole two fewer hours than they had in the 90s to the weekly mopping, wiping and repetitive meal preparation that keep a heterosexual household on the road.
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At the same time, Britons took to paying others to scrub their u-bends, and fish the spaghetti out their sinks with a readiness not seen since the Downton Abbey days. By 2018, one in three Britons had a cleaner. In most cases, these new domestic labourers were working class migrants, and, in 93% of cases, they were women. British women had offloaded their shitwork down a racialised and working class labour line and, in doing so – here the inescapable feminist irony – reinscribed this work as “women’s work”.
But, you might ask, what about tweeters’ argument that, through pay, this work becomes professional work? After all, isn’t this what the Wages for Housework activists who stormed Washington DC in the 1970s had in mind? Remuneration for domestic labour to prove that it was work, rather than the effortlessly given fruits of motherly love? But in reality, this position only holds if you’re paying your cleaner the rate you earn an hour, or, at the very least, the British median wage (£14.31) plus travel costs; anything less and you’re adjudging one woman’s labour as being less important than your leisure. In a Covid era, with the heightened risk faced by cleaners, who are typically paid around £8 an hour, these arguments from the point of view of job creation look even weaker.
Maria, a domestic cleaner who is being pressured to return to work by her agency, told me: “Cleaners don’t have enough protective equipment and we are worried. We keep taking care to remove gloves in a certain way and wear masks if we have them. But there is no way to leave this fear because we need to pay high rents and eat.”
Already this is poorly remunerated work Maria resorts to because her migrant status and language skills gave her little choice. Now it’s work that puts her in real danger for half the sum, per hour, that the average Londoner spends on her lunch.
I applaud the fact that many middle class Britons have continued paying their absent cleaners through lockdown, but it’s time that middle class sympathies matured into a frank debate. A debate about what we’re asking of other women when we ask them to enter our homes and scrub our u-bends for meagre wages; and what what we’re asking of the cleaners who are to be the frontline in a government back-to-work strategy that calls for Covid-safe deep cleaning of schools and business premises after outbreaks.
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Covid has shone an uncompromising light on the dirty truths of our domestic labour fixes. It’s time feminists came clean about them.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-05-15--A Minute Of Kindness: The Soup Kitchen Supplying The Community

A Minute Of Kindness: The Soup Kitchen Supplying The Community
A community soup kitchen in Brixton has changed its role during the coronavirus lockdown. Brixton Soup Kitchen was set up to help the homeless but since lockdown has also been providing for the elderly and vulnerable families with delivery of hot food.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-05-15--Socially Come Distancing: Is A Corona-Era Edition Of Our Beloved Strictly Something We Really Want T

Socially Come Distancing: Is A Corona-Era Edition Of Our Beloved Strictly Something We Really Want To Watch?

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For millions of people in the UK, Strictly Come Dancing is the TV highlight of the year.
Whether you’re watching for the glamour, the escapism or a throwback to a bygone era, it’s hard to find a show that sparks more joy. However, like numerous other TV series, Strictly is currently dealing with the impact of the coronavirus crisis, which has thrown the entertainment industry into chaos.
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Dramas and soaps have ceased production, and live daytime shows are operating on reduced crews and relying heavily on video conferencing technology. The planned summer series of Love Island has been pulled altogether.
Australian soap Neighbours has paved the way forward for its UK counterparts after implementing industry-leading measures in order to resume filming, but shiny-floor entertainment formats that rely on a large number of participants, huge crews and live studio audiences face a much more uncertain future.
With social distancing restrictions likely to continue for much of the year, Strictly bosses are currently grappling with how to get the show on air in the autumn. While many different possibilities are being discussed, one thing is for sure – it won’t look like any series of Strictly that has come before it.
As the BBC’s entertainment boss Kate Phillips recently put it at the virtual Edinburgh TV Festival: “That is absolutely one of our big priorities, making sure we can bring you a great Strictly. But I think inevitably things are going to change.”
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But would a series of a show that’s usually so joyful suddenly reflecting our grim “new normal” be something we really want to watch – or should bosses follow suit of other productions and postpone it for the time being?
It’s something many fans are thinking a lot about, and it’s becoming increasingly obvious that the first big change will see the live audience shut out of the studio.
Strictly fan Claire Hill, 42, from London, admits this would be a real blow, as not only does she think the presence of an audience “adds to the atmosphere”, but they also give encouragement and support to the pros and celebs.
“It’s part of the journey for them to perform to a live audience, and having met many of them in previous years, they always mention the audience and the fan interaction during their time on the show.
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“It would be like a West End musical being performed to an empty theatre. It’s just so very wrong.”
Ellie Chalkley, 36, from Glasgow, is a co-host of the fan podcast Keep Dancing, and agrees going ahead without an audience would feel strange.
“The biggest obstacle I’ve seen with a lot of remote shows during lockdown is that it feels really awkward to end a performance without live applause,” she says.
Michael Hepher, a 28-year-old fan from Epsom, sees potential similarities to the episode of Ant And Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway that was filmed in March without a live audience.
Ant and Dec hosted an episode of Saturday Night Takeaway without an audience ITV
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“I think of how Ant and Dec were trying to create energy just with the cameramen and how strange it was,” he says, adding that an entire series of Strictly conducted in the same way would be “odd” but not insurmountable.
It’s something Britain’s Got Talent – which postponed its live semi-finals earlier this year – is keen to avoid. Judge Amanda Holden recently revealed that the team “would never do it without an audience”, telling HuffPost UK “it would be no fun” without them.
However, it’s not a feeling shared by BBC entertainment boss Kate Phillips, who argued live audiences are not always necessary.
“When you look at something like Drag Race, which is a big shiny floor talent competition with all sorts of catwalks, singing, dancing, impressions – it never has an audience,” she said during her Edinburgh TV Festival talk.
“The audience is the four judges and I don’t think it suffers from that at all. I think it is a brilliant show.”
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International editions of Strictly have already experimented with eliminating live audiences as they’ve responded to the pandemic.
Australia aired three episodes of its most recent series of Dancing With The Stars without one (although it did end its run a week earlier than originally planned), while Germany’s Let’s Dance is currently underway with no audience.
“We cut in applauses and change the stage,” Motsi Mabuse – a judge on both the UK and German versions of Strictly – recently told ITV’s This Morning of how Let’s Dance has adapted.
Let's Dance has aired without an audience in Germany RTL
However, there’s likely to be more changes to the upcoming series of Strictly than just not having a studio audience.
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One or more judges appearing from home could be an option. This was trialled by UK and Australian judge Craig Revel Horwood, who appeared on the panel of the live Aussie final from his London home in March.
Subsequently, both American Idol and The Voice US have also been pre-recording their “live” shows, with the judges – and even the contestants and hosts – dialling in from their respective homes.
But with the judges’ comments and scoring often being where the show is at its most lively, Strictly fan Michael fears how this would translate over a Zoom call if it were something that’s adopted here.
“Starting to include any virtual aspects begins to hinder the enjoyability of a show,” he says. “It’s so much nicer to watch people bounce off each other naturally when they’re actually with each other. Just seeing a head on webcam isn’t the same – imagine Bruno getting passionate and standing up just as his Wi-Fi drops!”
Craig Revel Horwood judged the final of Dancing With The Stars Australia from home Network 10
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As well as just “not being the same” for viewers, Katie Wilson, 25, from Loughborough, suggests virtual judging could have implications for how fairly the routines are judged.
“We often get zoomed-in parts of a dance at home, and don’t always get the full picture like you would in the studio,” she says.
Craig recently claimed the challenges of making Australia’s Dancing With The Stars during the coronavirus crisis had actually made producers more creative.
Speaking on Channel 4’s The Steph Show earlier this month, he said: “When people needed to be isolated, one couple, for instance, stayed in a hotel for two weeks and they performed live from the hotel rooftop.
“They set remote cameras up and it was absolutely amazing. There was a summer breeze wafting through their costumes and it was amazing. So there is a way around it, and it could be even more spectacular.”
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Professional dancer Karen Hauer also said in an interview on Fubar Radio this week that celebrities and their partners could dance “side by side” rather than in hold.
“We can always make it work. It doesn’t always have to be in contact. We can get creative,” she said.
The prospect of creative renewal is exciting to Myra Ali, 32, from London, who says it would also send an important message to the public about the need for social distancing.
“It would be very different, but it will be good for the public to see that a popular show like Strictly is also keeping to social distancing,” she says.
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“Everyone is in this strange time together, so why would Strictly be any different? Plus we all know how creative the show can be, so I’m sure they’ll do a fantastic job.”
We could see a lot more performances where couples are not in hold BBC/Guy Levy
There are still ways of getting round social distancing rules while still adhering to government guidelines, though – Motsi revealed that competing couples on Germany’s Let’s Dance “go home together” and are “quarantined together”, and it was reported in the tabloid press that BBC bosses were considering a similar option.
However, a Strictly source dismissed the suggestion to HuffPost UK, explaining that was too much to ask of its contestants and cast of professional dancers, who would have to potentially spend up to 13 weeks away from family and friends.
Strictly podcaster Ellie suggests quarantining could actually be incorporated into the show though, with all the pros and contestants moving into a big house, like on The Apprentice or Fame Academy.
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She says: “They can have their health monitored and everyone in that group can interact. Dance training is just like sports training, so perhaps you could treat the Strictly dance team like a football squad and follow the same protocol that they’re developing to keep sportspeople safe and able to work.”
One fan suggested the cast could isolate in a big house together Empics Entertainment
Charlotte Moore, the BBC’s director of content, did confirm to The Times (£) that bosses were considering various other safeguarding measures, including testing participants’ temperatures and installing glass divides inside the studio “so that people feel even more protected”.
While some may think that such changes to the studio would jolt us out of the magical world of the ballroom, Strictly lover Katie says: “Knowing Strictly, there would be a way to make these screens part of the set whilst also being there for protection.”
But any distancing measures enforced between the dancers could also spell the end of large group numbers from the professionals, which would be a suckerpunch for fans who love the spectacles of the Blackpool special and the themed Movies and Halloween weeks.
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“This is something that would definitely disappoint me, especially Blackpool,” Michael admits. “That’s the biggest part of the series and taking the big, glitzy spectacles away would definitely dampen the magic.”
Blackpool could be cancelled, and ambitious group numbers shelved BBC/Guy Levy
But while Michael says he could dispense with other standard group numbers for the sake of the series still airing, it would be a disappointing development for Claire, who says she “looks forward to watching them sometimes more than the celeb dances in the main competition”.
Meanwhile, podcaster Ellie says she is “already at peace” with not having Blackpool this year, and has also come up with a way to replace the group numbers.
“You could have masterclass dances between existing pro couples,” she suggests. “A lot of the Strictly cast, crew and alumni have also been doing really inspiring things during lockdown, and it might be nice to include mini-features about that in the series.
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“Oti, Dianne and Karen have all been doing free video dance lessons, Dr Ranj has been doing great work explaining the virus to kids and parents, and Theresa Hewlett, who makes the dance costumes, has been making scrubs and masks.”
One possible solution to the whole problem of this year’s Strictly is to push it back completely, which is favoured by 41-year-old Sarah Blundred from London.
“It should be all or nothing,” she says. “I think [a socially-distanced series] would be a huge let down, and those fans who think it’s better than nothing would change their opinion if it were to go ahead with all of these restrictions.
″[It’s] trying to make something work for the sake of it, and it just won’t work at all. Come back next year, bigger and better.”
As a fan from the beginning, Claire says she also feels “very strongly” that the show should be postponed.
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“I think it would actually be quite sad and upsetting that it’s so different,” she says. “Either Strictly goes ahead as it always has done, or not at all.”
The Strictly judges during last year's series BBC/Guy Levy
Michael disagrees and says he would still be watching each weekend, adding: “This whole year has been completely joyless with all the cancellations and some form of normality has got to resume sometime.”
“Strictly sparkle of any description would bring joy,” Katie adds.
Myra also notes that keeping the show on the road also means that the crew, dancers and judges don’t lose out on their incomes, pointing out: “This is not just entertainment for the public.”
Frances Taylor, commissioning editor for entertainment and comedy at Radio Times, says bosses postponing the series is unlikely, however, given how important Strictly is to the BBC.
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She explains: “Not only does it deliver incredibly high and consistent ratings, but it’s one of the – if not the – most talked-about entertainment shows on television that commands hundreds of column inches and discussion online. It helps keep the BBC relevant in a fractured media landscape and also draws viewers from that key 16-34 demographic.”
She continues: “Every year, Strictly occupies three months’ worth of programming, both on BBC One Saturday nights and also with It Takes Two every weeknight on BBC Two, filling up hundreds of hours in the schedules. If it were to disappear, that’s a hell of a big gap to plug.
“To make matters worse, much of the TV that would’ve been airing in autumn would be getting made now – and the majority of that is on hold. And after unexpectedly losing the Euros, Wimbledon and the Olympics, the last thing they’ll want is to try and find something else to put on in place of Strictly.”
Strictly hosts Claudia Winklemann and Tess Daly won't be stood as close as this PA
Frances also points out that Strictly is made by BBC Studios – the commercial arm of the BBC – and is one of their most successful entertainment formats, which has been sold internationally to over 40 territories since it launched in 2004.
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“Alongside the show itself, there are commercial prospects such as the Strictly tour, DVDs and annuals that are sold each year tied to the show,” she says.
The BBC had no additional comment to make about their plans for Strictly when contacted by HuffPost UK – but whatever the broadcaster does decide, it will have to come to a conclusion soon.
While Strictly doesn’t start until September, by now, the casting team are normally busy signing celebrities to officially unveil to the public in early August.
The professional dancers are also on standby to start rehearsals in late July, while members of the wider crew usually start work on pre-production around this time of year. Staff will need to know exactly what kind of series they’re planning, while bookers will also need to know what conditions to write into stars’ contracts.
In the meantime, the BBC has announced that three specials reliving some of Strictly’s most magical moments will air over the summer, in a dual bid to bring joy to audiences and to help fill the empty schedules.
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-05-15--Review NHS Workers’ Pay Before Giving Them Honours For Coronavirus, MP Urges

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Boris Johnson should review the pay of “tireless” NHS and care staff before awarding them honours after the coronavirus crisis, the Liberal Democrats have said.
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The prime minister was urged to create an additional round of honours for key workers, also including supermarket workers, teachers and others who have gone “above and beyond” by “putting their own health on the line”.
But any honours for health and care workers would be “completely devalued in the public eye” without a “full and thorough review” of their pay and conditions, Lib Dem MP Jamie Stone said.
Johnson is already looking at ways to honour those who have made a contribution like 100 year-old Captain Tom Moore, who has raised more than £32m for the NHS by walking laps of his garden.
Stone, the MP for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, said in a letter to the PM: “It is in my view important that an additional round is introduced for coronavirus heroes just like Captain Tom, Margaret Sutherland, the shelf stackers looking after me in Tain’s local shops, and the countless other ‘ordinary people’ who have made the lockdown bearable and in many cases, survivable.
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“Of course this cannot ever be a substitute for properly paying these people. I for one hope that there will be a full and thorough review of the pay and conditions for all NHS and care staff when the pandemic is over.
“Indeed I think that the great British public will wish for nothing less.
“Without this review, any honours award agreed for certain health and care staff will be completely devalued in the public eye.”
NHS workers outside the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, London, to salute local heroes during Thursday's nationwide clap for carers. PA
Speaking to HuffPost UK, Stone said: “We must recognise and pay tribute to those who have gone above and beyond during this crisis, whether as volunteers or in their line of work.
“Their efforts to support others have helped to keep the UK on its feet at this dreadful time.
“The government must ensure that those working right across our essential services are paid a decent wage that reflects the value of their contribution to our society and economy.”
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Stone said it would also be a good time to look more closely at the honours system, which has faced allegations of cronyism in recent years as prime ministers have awarded political allies and colleagues.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-05-15--How The Light Gets In: What A Festival Looks Like In Lockdown

Matt Eachus themancphotographer.co.uk How The Light Gets In in Hay-on-Wye.
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What does a festival look like in lockdown? It’s something Hilary Lawson has spent the past two months thinking long and hard about. Thoughts are his bread and butter – both as a working philosopher and in his role as director of the Institute of Art and Ideas, the brains behind the twice yearly philosophy and music festival, How The Light Gets In.
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Planning for the festival’s 10th anniversary was already underway when the Covid-19 crisis hit and escalated, putting the nation in lockdown and our cultural landscape out to furlough – along with much of our economy, too.
As festival after festival cancelled their 2020 editions, Lawson and his team knew that a physical gathering for How The Light Gets In was out of the question. However, they felt sure the ‘new normal’ of coronavirus lent a fresh urgency to the questions they had planned to debate this year.
So, now for the first time, the festival will take place online, across the same late May Bank holiday weekend when it was due to be in Hay-on-Wye – and with HuffPost UK as media partner.
HTLGI/IAI The virtual festival site for How The Light Gets In.
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“The shift to an online festival is radical. We are having to invent a whole new way of thinking how people interact on site,” says Lawson, whose aim is to replicate as far as possible the energy of the physical How The Light Gets In. “You want the online space to reflect the same casual and interesting random interactions that make these festivals what they are.”
There will be more than 200 events across eight virtual ‘stages’, as well as the lively programme of comedy and music that regulars have come to expect.
Panelists include some of the “world’s leading thinkers” (“I don’t think that’s hype,” says Lawson) from Steven Pinker and Patricia Churchland to Kehinde Andrews and Carlo Rovelli. Authors Meg Rosoff and Will Self, MPs Jess Phillips and Vince Cable, and actors Adjoa Andoh and Sally Phillips all feature on the bill. There’s even a late-night disco.
HuffPost UK is chairing two panels: The Power of The Present, and Sexuality, Power and Pornography. Some of the festival debates – Left, Right and Covid, for instance – will focus squarely on the current crisis; others are likely to reference more indirectly the pandemic that’s become our daily reality.
“There is a very strange interaction of the personal and social at the moment,” says Lawson. “In one sense, we are very isolated individuals. Yet, in another we have this sense of something bigger and greater that we are all having to deal with. There will be many debates where those tensions will come through.”
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How The Lights Gets In was founded in 2010 to bring philosophy back into the centre of people’s lives. The idea that it’s rarefied and incomprehensible – “that we’ll leave it to the specialists or the Parisian taxi drivers” – has always struck Lawson as absurd. “The big philosophical questions are exactly the ones we need to be addressing: what am I doing with my life? where are we all going?”
We’re all philosophers, he says, especially in lockdown, “in the sense that we are all engaged in this rather extraordinary experience of being alive. And now the relentless distraction of everyday life has somewhat ameliorated, people find themselves with the space to think through what their lives are really about.”