thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-06-30--Sweaty Betty's 'Bum-Sculpting Leggings For Empowerment' Display Raises Eyebrows

Eliza Clark Eliza Clark
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The key to feeling empowered is cramming your arse into a pair of skin-tight leggings. That’s the message some are taking away from Sweaty Betty’s window display, which reads “bum-sculpting leggings for empowerment”.
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This week, a photo of one shop window was tweeted by journalist Hattie Brewis, who asked: “Could someone please explain to me how having a ‘sculpted’ arse is empowering?”.
The choice of words has also been discussed on a Mumsnet thread, where it was branded “silly”. And Eliza Clark, a 26-year-old author based in London, was equally unimpressed when she walked past the display last month.
“It caught my eye while I was out for a walk and I actually laughed out loud at it,” Clark tells HuffPost UK. “After all the discussion of how off-putting it is to see brands co-opting progressive language to sell stuff, it was a bit shocking to see this so brazenly out in the wild in 2020.”
howling at bum sculpting leggings FOR EMPOWERMENT pic.twitter.com/W5atprG5yy — Eliza ‘Salvia Plath’ Clark (@FancyEliza) May 29, 2020
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Clark continues: “Seeing a window display insisting I’ll find empowerment via vacuum packing my backside into a pair of £80 running leggings in the middle of a massive economic crash added a particularly grim layer to it!”
You may be tempted to roll your eyes at such advertising and move on. But Natasha Devon, a body image and mental health campaigner, perviously told HuffPost UK that seeing subtle messages while walking down the high street can impact how we feel about our bodies.
She explained that 90% of our total capacity for thought is unconscious – and the brain learns through repetition of words, images, or experiences.
“Let’s say you’re walking down a street and you pass a bus stop with a diet advert on it and then a row of magazines and you see a billboard with a very conventionally attractive woman on it,” she explained, speaking on HuffPost UK’s weekly podcast Am I Making You Uncomfortable?.
“Our unconscious brain is drinking in from the idea that you’re not good enough and that you need to be changed.” The adverts we see in our day-to-day lives, it seems, can be part of a much bigger problem.
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-06-30--EasyJet Considers Cutting Pilot Jobs And Closing Bases

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EasyJet is considering cutting more than 700 pilot jobs and closing its bases at Stansted, Southend and Newcastle airports.
The airline began formal consultation on its proposals on Tuesday after it announced last month it would reduce its workforce by up to 30%.
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EasyJet said it would continue flying to Stansted, Southend and Newcastle even if it stopped basing aircraft there.
The airline’s chief executive Johan Lundgren said: “These are very difficult proposals to put forward in what is an unprecedented and difficult time for the airline and the industry as a whole.
“We are focused on doing what is right for the company and its long-term health and success so we can protect jobs going forward.
“Unfortunately the lower demand environment means we need fewer aircraft and have less opportunity for work for our people. We are committed to working constructively with our employee representatives across the network with the aim of minimising job losses as far as possible.”
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Trade union Balpa general secretary Brian Strutton said up to 727 pilots are at risk of redundancy.
He said: “We know that aviation is in the midst of the Covid crisis and we had been expecting easyJet to make an announcement of temporary measures to help the airline through to recovery.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-06-30--Exclusive: Migrant Children Wrongly Denied Free School Meals In Government Blunder

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Ministers were told to “get a grip” as charities reported hard-up migrant schoolchildren were being denied free school meals because the government had issued the wrong guidance.
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Amid public pressure, Whitehall boosted eligibility for food support to include some families who live legally in the UK but are cut off from benefits due to their immigration status.
Children’s minister Vicky Ford confirmed in a written statement on June 9 that some children – among the group categorised as having “no recourse to public funds” (NRPF) – could apply for free school meals, provided household income was no more than £16,190 a year.
But guidance issued by the Department for Education on June 25, and updated on June 30, appears to ignore the change in policy and states there is a “maximum earnings threshold of £7,400 per annum” for the families eligible.
The blunder has been discovered as the July 10 deadline for the government’s much-trumpeted Covid-19 “summer food fund” looms.
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If followed by schools, it would wrongly exclude some of the poorest children from claiming free school meals – and charities have told HuffPost UK families have already been in touch having been denied help.
Boris Johnson with education secretary Gavin Williamson ASSOCIATED PRESS
Imogen Richmond-Bishop, campaign co-ordinator for the Right to Food group, said: “The immigration condition ‘no recourse to public funds’ is so inhumane that Boris Johnson could barely believe it when it was pointed out to him by MPs.
“And yet there are hundreds of thousands of families with NRPF across the UK and they are at a high risk of suffering from poverty and household food insecurity due to their exclusion from the social security system.
“The incorrect guidance regarding the maximum income threshold is causing real hardship for families with NRPF. We are hearing reports of children being denied free school meal support because of the confusion around eligibility, all of this at a time that is already stressful enough – and families need all the help they can get. “All children have a right to food and no child should be denied the support they need because of they or their parents’ immigration status.”
New guidance issued on June 25 would have excluded some of the poorest children New guidance issued on June 25 would have excluded some of the poorest children
Tulip Siddiq, Labour’s shadow minister for children and early years, said it “beggars belief” that ministers failed to get it right for parents already denied benefits such as Universal Credit.
She said: “Making sure that government guidance is accurate matters. This type of mistake could lead to many of the poorest children going hungry over the summer.
“Schools will be under huge pressure to identify the children who need free school meals over the summer and get applications in before the arbitrary deadline of July 10. If they have followed the government’s inaccurate guidance over the last few days, they will have unfairly excluded children whose parents are unable to access other types of welfare support.
“It beggars belief that this incorrect information has been on the government’s website for nearly a full week. Ministers need to get a grip and do much more to make sure that those who are eligible for support are made aware of it and schools get more assistance to provide it.”
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Boris Johnson was forced into a U-turn on free school meals over summer for low-income families, following a high-profile campaign from Manchester United striker Marcus Rashford.
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “The children’s minister has confirmed that free school meal eligibility has been temporarily extended to include some children of groups who have no recourse to public funds.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-06-30--10 Unusual Baby Names Inspired By Greek Mythology

Willie B. Thomas via Getty Images
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Every parent believes their own child to be special and capable of incredible things – and quite right, too.
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Well, now you can give your child the gift of kindness, strength or grace, by bestowing them with a name straight from the heavens.
We have a wealth of baby name inspiration on HuffPost UK Parents, but here are 10 monikers inspired by Greek mythology.
Athena
The name Athena was derived from the city name Athens. In Greek mythology, it’s the name of the daughter of Zeus – who was the goddess of wisdom, warfare, handicrafts, mathematics, and courage.
Penelope
Penelope was the wife of Odysseus in Homer’s Odyssey. It has two origin stories: it was either derived from the Greek pēnē, meaning “thread of a bobbin,” or penelops, a type of duck.
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Selene
Greek goddess of the moon, Selene was also often connected with the goddess Artemis – a patron and protector of young girls.
Hera
Hera was the Greek ‘queen of heaven’. Wife of Zeus – the king of the gods – she was also known as the ‘goddess of marriages’.
Iris
Goddess of the rainbow – nothing could be more appropriate for life post-pandemic than this shining emblem of joy and hope.
Bogdan Cristel / Reuters
Jason
Jason led the fearsome Argonauts – a group of Greek warriors. The name means ‘healer’.
Hermes
The Greek god of travel and trade, Hermes is linked to swiftness and good luck.
Zeus
The Greek god of thunder and the sky. He ruled over humankind – any child with this name is bound to be a leader.
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Paris
Paris began the Trojan War by abducting the famously beautiful Helen of Troy. He also defeated the powerful hero, Achilles.
Apollo


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-06-30--European Union Bans Travellers From US As Coronavirus Rages

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The European Union will temporarily ban travellers from the United States as it begins to reopen borders to international visitors next month, in a sharp rebuke of the Trump administration’s mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic.
Travellers from several other countries where coronavirus outbreaks are raging, including Russia and Brazil, also are excluded.
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EU countries have barred most foreign travellers since mid-March, but many leaders are anxious to reopen their economies after months of lockdown and social distancing measures.
Under the new rules, the EU’s 27 members will open their borders to visitors from 15 countries, easing the pressure on trade and travel for Europeans. People from the US, where coronavirus outbreaks are surging in numerous states, could be allowed to return once the pandemic is brought under control.
The New York Times, which first reported discussions around the ban, said officials in Brussels attempted to make the determination on which countries to exclude non-political, relying instead on infection statistics and science.
The US is still reeling from the pandemic. More than 2.5 million people have tested positive for Covid-19, and over 126,000 have died ― more than in any other country. Cases are surging in more than two dozen states that have largely reopened businesses and eased social distancing measures. Many did so after admonishments by Donald Trump, who continues downplaying the threat of the virus.
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Europe, on the other hand, has been largely successful at controlling infections, although the threat of a second wave remains a concern.
The EU’s ban follows a similar restriction imposed by Trump as the virus first began spreading around the globe. In March, the White House issued a restrictive ban on citizens from most countries in the EU bloc, infuriating the union’s leaders. Trump said last month that Europeans would soon be welcomed back into America, but his administration has not yet eased restrictions.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-07-01--UK Coronavirus: What Is A Recession?

UK Coronavirus: What Is A Recession?

UK Coronavirus: What Is A Recession?
The UK looks set to enter a recession for the first time in more than ten years since the 2008-09 financial crisis. Huge parts of the UK economy shut down during the coronavirus lockdown and in April 2020, UK GDP shrank by 20.4%. But what is a recession?


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-07-01--Edward Colston: Man, 24, Arrested Over Toppling Of Slave Trader Statue

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A 24-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the toppling of the statue of slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol last month.
The bronze memorial to the 17th Century slave merchant was pulled down during a Black Lives Matter protest on June 7 and later dumped in Bristol harbour.
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No arrests were made at the time but Avon and Somerset Police subsequently released 15 images of people they wished to speak to after reviewing footage of the statue being pulled down with ropes.
The force said on Monday the 24-year-old had been arrested on suspicion of criminal damage and has since been released under investigation.
The statue had been in the city centre since 1895.
After it was toppled, it was thrown in the water near Pero’s Bridge – named in honour of an enslaved man.
The council has since retrieved the statue, which will now be displayed in a museum along with placards from the Black Lives Matter protest.
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Detective superintendent Liz Hughes said in an appeal on June 22: “The incident attracted worldwide attention and there’s no denying it has polarised public opinion – but in the eyes of the law a crime has been committed and we’re duty-bound to investigate this without fear or favour.
“I’d like to reassure people we’re carrying out a thorough, fair and proportionate investigation and have sought early investigative advice from the Crown Prosecution Service.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-07-01--Will Local Lockdowns Be The Story Of The Summer?

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Pillar fight
Last week it was “cluster-busting”, this week he was back to his favourite “whack-a-mole” game. Boris Johnson has long known that local lockdowns are central to any medium-term strategy for easing the covid restrictions that he thinks are squeezing the life out of the economy. But while both those phrases are the sort of thing you’d expect from well-upholstered former Daily Telegraph columnist, are they the mark of a prime minister seriously gripping a pandemic?
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Johnson certainly looked riled when Keir Starmer asked him in PMQs if he regretted “being so flippant” about his dismissal of fears of mass beach gatherings, days before Bournemouth sands had to be closed down. And the charge of flippancy is one that the Labour leader will probably be returning to repeatedly through the next few months.
Addressing the Local Government Conference today, Starmer said the UK could be in local lockdowns “for months and months” and “it is going to be the story of the summer if we are not careful”. But it will only be the story if there are major cases like Leicester’s, where travel and other restrictions are now effectively in force on the population because the situation was allowed to spiral out of control.
The blame game over Leicester is well underway. Johnson flatly denied the main charge against him today, that the council was only passed data on Pillar 1 tests for covid (NHS and care worker tests, and tests in hospitals) but not for Pillar 2 tests (drive-through, walk-in and home tests among the community). The PM said that in fact both had been shared “not just with Leicester, but with all authorities across the country”.
Starmer should have perhaps focused not on the data per se, but on the fact that postcode or street-level data was not passed on until last Thursday. He should also have pushed a point he made later at the LGA, that local public health chiefs currently don’t even have the powers to lock down areas (areas that they know better than anyone in Whitehall). To nip an outbreak in the bud, you need the right data and the right powers to do so quickly.
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Government sources vigorously dispute the Labour narrative, saying they wrote to all councils last Monday to explain postcode data but didn’t hear back from Leicester until two days later. Local Mayor Sir Peter Soulsby comes in for heavy criticism too.
But ultimately the fact remains that it took until this Monday to lockdown a problem that was identified three weeks earlier. The PM let the cat out of the bag when he said the government “first took notice” on 8 June - that was ten days before Matt Hancock first told a No10 press conference of a flare up in case numbers.
And the wrong kind of stats are what continue to dog Johnson. We may not find out until next Thursday whether the government hit his end-of-June target of a 24-hour turnaround for tests. Tomorrow the latest NHS Test and Trace figures are out and ministers will be desperately hoping they have improved after going backwards last week. Remember Dido Harding told MPs that there would be a fully functioning system at local level by the end of June? Leicester suggests it’s not fully functioning yet.
For many weeks now the actual number of people tested has been missing from official data. As it happens we do know how many people are tested daily in Pillar 1 (run by Public Health England and based in NHS labs). It’s Pillar 2 (run by private labs for community testing) where this crucial number has been listed as ‘unavailable’. There has never been a proper explanation for that failure.
Similarly, there remains the big mystery of how many posted-out tests are actually completed. It’s the postal tests that have constantly inflated the overall testing figures. Just to take today for example, 52,000 postal tests contributed to the 133,000 total. Without postal tests, Hancock’s own 100,000 a day target would rarely be met. At some point, the UK Statistics Authority may want to push more on just why postal tests should be counted at all, unless their return is verified.
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The figures would be even lower without the added inflation of ‘antibody’ tests (aka Pillar 3), which have little practical use for test-and-trace (and little clinical value because there is not much evidence of immunity). If you took away both antibody and postal tests, just 58,813 tests were done as of 9am on June 30. Yes the overall testing capacity hit a record 294,258, but without full numbers of people tested or postal tests completed it seems academic.
Boris Johnson speaks during prime minister's questions in the House of Commons. PA
Without daily No.10 press conferences, these numbers disappear from public view. And you could argue that Johnson is being as equally cynical about ‘local lockdowns’, hoping that because the vast majority of the population are not affected, they will focus more on ‘Super Saturday’’s pub drinks, restaurant family meals and individual haircuts. Even the football is back on.
Yet the PM would be wiser to assume that most people actually worry their area could be the next Leicester. And he ought too perhaps to look more closely into just what links all of the Top 10 areas revealed today as having the highest per head rates of covid cases. The list is as follows: Leicester (with 140.2 cases per 100,000 population) Bradford (69.4) Barnsley (54.7) Rochdale (53.6) Bedford (42) Oldham (38.6) Rotherham (33.6) Tameside (33.3) Blackburn with Darwen (32.9) Kirklees (30.3).
What unites all of them is not just poverty, but significant Bame populations, particularly Asian communities. Is it the particular susceptibility of Asian communities to the disease that is in play? The close-knit, intergenerational ties? Overcrowded housing? Unregulated workplaces? A lack of translation facilities for healthcare? Or all of the above? Yet another reason why the government’s Bame review of Covid should come up with some urgent findings and solutions.
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And the urgency is lacking for many. Johnson tried to claim today that “we are the doers, they [Labour] are the ditherers”. Yet for a government that was slow to lockdown, slow to get testing up to standard and PPE to everyone who needed it, and still has major problems with testing and tracing, the dithering charge looks dangerously like a self-own.
Quote Of The Day
“I am not going to give a figure for the number of job losses that may or may not take place”
Boris Johnson
Wednesday Cheat Sheet
Up to three million Hong Kong residents are to be offered the chance to settle in the UK and ultimately apply for citizenship in the wake of China’s new security law, Boris Johnson announced.
More than 12,000 people in the UK are set to lose their jobs after a raft of firms announced cuts in the past 48 hours, including high street retailers and aviation firms.
Donald Trump risks “undermining” global collaboration on Covid-19 by buying up the world’s supplies of a drug treatment for the virus, the British government has warned.
China should be barred from any role in either the UK’s 5G network or its nuclear energy programme, shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy has said.
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Rebecca Long-Bailey finally took down her tweet that Maxine Peake was an absolute ‘diamond’.
SNP MP Kirsty Blackman has announced she will step down as the party’s deputy leader at Westminster, citing the impact of lockdown on her mental health.
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-07-01--'Can I Have Two Biscuits?': Young Children Gatecrash Two Live TV Interviews

Dr Clare Wenham from the London School of Economics (LSE) was being interviewed about the Covid-19 pandemic at home when her daughter Scarlett appeared – talking loudly and even climbing atop the expert’s desk.
“Mummy, where do you want this picture?” Scarlett went on to ask her mother, brandishing a frame that appeared to depict a unicorn which she had picked up from a shelf behind Dr Wenham.
In response, presenter Christian Fraser commented: “Scarlett, I think it looks better on the lower shelf… and it’s a lovely unicorn.”
Overhearing the newsreader Scarlett then asked: “Mummy, what’s his name?”
“My name is Christian,” replied Fraser.
Scarlett responded: “Christian, I’m just deciding where it can go and where mummy wants it to go.”
“I think just on that shelf is great, thank you,” said Dr Wenham – before turning back to the camera and adding “I’m so sorry”.
Fraser was good-humoured about the exchange, describing it as “the most informative interview I’ve done all day”.
Dr Wenham is an assistant professor in global health policy at LSE and had been on the programme to discuss local Covid-19 lockdowns in the UK and the way testing information has been shared with local authorities.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-07-01--Labour Questions 'Aggressive' China's Involvement In UK 5G And Nuclear Energy Deals

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China’s involvement in the UK’s 5G network and nuclear energy programme should be questioned after “aggressive” actions towards the UK, Labour has said.
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Signalling a much tougher stance on Beijing from Labour, shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy told Times Radio Britain needs “far greater strategic independence” and should not be “handing over large chunks” of infrastructure to companies with links to the Chinese state.
It comes as the Hong Kong crisis deepened this week when Chinese president Xi Jinping imposed tough new national security legislation in the former British colony.
Speaking during PMQs on Wednesday, Boris Johnson said the legislation “constitutes a clear and serious breach of the Sino-British joint declaration”.
He has also taken the extraordinary step offering a path to British citizenship to nearly three million people from Hong Kong.
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Shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy Ian Forsyth via Getty Images
But there is growing opposition to the deal the UK government has struck with Chinese tech giant Huawei to help build the 5G infrastructure amid fears the company has links to the Jinping’s government.
Nandy said the UK should dump the 5G deal and said state-owned Chinese firm CGN should also be excluded from plans to finance nuclear energy plant Hinckley Point, in Somerset.
Speaking to Times Radio presenter John Pienaar, Nandy said: “We need far greater strategic independence from China, which means that we need to have home-grown alternatives for our 5G network and our nuclear power.”
She went on to say: “I don’t think we should be handing over large chunks of our energy infrastructure, especially our nuclear energy infrastructure, to a country that’s behaved in such an aggressive way towards the UK and the people of Hong Kong in recent weeks.”
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'The UK has to stand up for democracy': Shadow Foreign Secretary Lisa Nandy tells John Pienaar China should be excluded from the UK's nuclear construction sector and 5G network.
Listen now to Times Radio 🔊 https://t.co/nTwN679B3O@JPonpolitics | @LisaNandy pic.twitter.com/GK4aTif8Bj — Times Radio (@timesradio) July 1, 2020
After it was suggested Nandy was saying China should be “excluded entirely” from the process, she tweeted: “I didn’t say this. I said the UK needed to develop home grown alternatives, a proper assessment of the national security implications and maintain constructive engagement with China as part of a more strategic approach.”
Announcing the potential change to immigration law, the prime minister told MPs the law “violates Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy and is in direct conflict with Hong Kong basic law”.
The UK handed Hong Kong back to China in 1997. Anyone born in the territory before then is eligible for a British National (Overseas) passport - or BNO.
The new law, which took effect on Tuesday night, makes secessionist, subversive, or terrorist activities illegal, as well as foreign intervention in the city’s internal affairs.
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Any person taking part in secessionist activities, such as shouting slogans or holding up banners and flags urging for the city’s independence, is in violation of the law regardless of whether violence is used.
Johnson’s intervention came after the first arrests were made under the law, including one person said to have displayed a sign with the Union Jack and calling for Hong Kong’s independence.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-07-01--Prince Harry Speaks Out Against Institutional Racism: It Has 'No Place' In Society

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Prince Harry on Wednesday virtually honoured those fighting for racial justice at the 2020 Diana Awards on what would have been his mother Princess Diana’s 59th birthday.
The Duke of Sussex sent a powerful message to the recipients of the award, who range in age from nine to 25 and have made an incredible impact through their social or humanitarian work. The Diana Award is a charity set up on behalf of the late Princess of Wales to support and empower young people who are going above and beyond in their communities.
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“I am so incredibly proud to be part of these awards, as they honor the legacy of my mother,” Harry said at the beginning of his surprise appearance. “Like many of you, she never took the easy route. Or the popular one. Or the comfortable one. But she stood for something. And she stood up for people who needed it.”
“Right now, we are seeing situations around the world where division, isolation and anger dominate as pain and trauma come to the surface,” the duke said. “But I see the greatest hope in people like you.”
“My wife said recently that our generation and the ones before us haven’t done enough to right the wrongs of the past. I too am sorry,” he said. “Sorry that we haven’t got the world to the place that you deserve it to be. Institutional racism has no place in our societies. Yet it is still endemic. Unconscious bias must be acknowledged without blame to create a better world for all of you.”
Harry added that he and Meghan are committed to being part of the solution, before introducing the six people that he and Prince William chose to honour. In a #ShareTheMic moment, the duke handed over his platform to James Frater, a Diana Award recipient, who spoke about what the award meant to him.
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The ceremony featured some of the global recipients and appearances from celebrities like singer Liam Payne, actor Emma Thompson and tennis player Katie Boulter, who congratulated recipients for their efforts.
Harry and Meghan Markle recently shifted their efforts amid the coronavirus pandemic to focus on the Black Lives Matter movement and the protests against police brutality sparked by the police killing of George Floyd, a Black man in Minneapolis.
Recently, the Duchess of Sussex spoke with Althea Bernstein, the recent victim of an alleged hate crime. Bernstein, who is biracial, said that while at a stoplight last week, four white men doused her face and neck with lighter fluid and set her on fire.
Meghan connected with the 18-year-old through Michael Johnson, the CEO of Boys & Girls Clubs of Dane County, Wisconsin, who was also on the call.
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“Her and Meghan talked about the importance of self care and allowing herself to heal,” Johnson told local news outlet Channel 3000, adding that the duchess also spoke with Bernstein about being biracial. The Duke of Sussex also joined the call at one point and said that “young people[’s] voices matter.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-07-01--Dawn Butler: Give Belly Mujinga’s Family £60,000 In Covid-19 Compensation

Undated family file handout photo Belly Mujinga, 47, who died in April PA
The families of transport workers like Belly Mujinga who have died after contracting Covid-19 must receive the same £60,000 payout given to NHS staff, Labour’s Dawn Butler has said.
Transport secretary Grant Shapps confirmed last week that 54 transport workers – including Victoria station worker Belly Mujinga – had died after contracting coronavirus during the pandemic.
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In April, the government announced a new life assurance scheme for the families of frontline NHS and social care staff killed by coronavirus.
However, despite being classed as key workers and having worked throughout the pandemic, transport workers are not included in the scheme.
“Like NHS and social care staff, they are at a higher risk of catching Covid-19 and unable to avoid the risk due the nature of their work,” said Butler, MP for Brent Central. “Like NHS staff, they are dying.”
A study by the Office for National Statistics in May warned that men employed as taxi drivers and chauffeurs, and those who drive buses and coaches, were among the workers at increased risk of dying after contracting Covid-19.
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Butler, who was the Labour Party’s shadow women and equalities secretary until April, started quizzing the government about the working conditions faced by transport workers during the pandemic after learning about Mujinga’s death.
The influential backbencher’s plea for action comes amid reinvigorated calls from the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA) – the union that represented Mujinga – for transport workers, the “unsung heroes” of the pandemic, to be included in the compensation scheme.
In many cases, a “railway salary” can be a family’s main income, Butler said. “Abruptly losing that income can mean being unable to pay rent or mortgage, on top of funeral costs.
Dawn Butler said the compensation scheme would give grieving families 'vital' financial breathing space PA
“It can mean a newly single parent having to find a job, or change careers, just to pay the bills, whilst also trying to comfort children who’ve suddenly lost their mother or father whilst themselves grieving a loved one.”
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Extending the life assurance scheme – which gives bereaved families a £60,000 payout to help support them – to transport workers “won’t bring Belly, or any transport worker back,” Butler said.
“But it will ease the financial trauma of their deaths for those closest to them. It will give the grieving a vital financial breathing space, allowing them to pay their bills, to keep their homes, while they live through the first traumatic months.”
Mujinga, a 47-year-old mother-of-one, died in April with Covid-19 after she was reportedly spat at by a man claiming to have the virus.
The British Transport Police (BTP) closed the case in May, saying there was “no evidence of anyone spitting” during the incident and that a man who had been suspected of doing so had given a negative antibody test result for coronavirus.
However, the Crown Prosecution Service has since been asked to review the evidence in the case. Almost two million people have signed a petition calling for justice for Mujinga and her family.
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In June, the government announced plans to erect a memorial to transport workers who have died with coronavirus, with the transport secretary suggesting it could be placed at Victoria station in honour of Mujinga.
Belly Mujinga PA
“If that’s something additional they [the government] would like to do in the future, then fine,” Butler said. “But that is not a response to this case and the questions that need answering.”
Among them is whether the antibody test given to the man involved in the alleged spitting incident was accurate.
“They [BTP] said that the person accused had an antibody test and that was negative,” Butler said. “I think that needs further probing, because we are aware that the early antibody tests were very unreliable.”
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The TSSA is also calling for more than just a memorial for its members who have died.
Manual Cortes, the union’s general secretary, said it was “absolutely right” that the families of NHS and social care staff who died from Covid-19 get compensation from the government.
“But the best doctor in the world can’t do their job if they can get to the hospital,” he said. “In the last three months, our country has depended on our members, public transport workers, going into work to make sure that our NHS and our care workers could get to their workplaces.
“That meant putting themselves at greater risk of exposure to the virus and that’s why so many transport workers, like Belly Mujinga, have lost their lives to this virus.”
The death of a transport worker can leave their families juggling grief with serious financial pressures due to the loss of income, Cortes said.
He added: “Public transport workers have been unsung heroes these last three months and it’s only fair the government looks after them in return.
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“That’s why it’s now time for the Tory government to extend the new £60,000 death in service benefit for our NHS and our care workers to public transport workers and to retrospectively award it to the families of public transport workers, like Belly’s, who have sadly died in the line of duty”.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-07-01--Trump ‘Undermining’ Global Fight Against Covid By Hoarding New Drug, Minister Warns

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Donald Trump risks “undermining” global collaboration on Covid-19 by buying up the world’s supplies of a drug treatment for the virus, the British government has warned.
Business minister Nadhim Zahawi hit out after it emerged that the United States had struck a deal with pharma giant Gilead to purchase almost its entire production of Remdesivir for the next three months.
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Downing Street backed the minister on the need for countries and drugs firms to be “collaborating” rather than competing, as it revealed the UK had already stockpiled its own supply of the anti-viral treatment for NHS patients.
No.10 also said that the UK was opposed to the exploitation of potentially life-saving drugs for “financial gain” and stressed that countries should work together to beat the pandemic.
Remdesivir is authorised in the US as a possible treatment for patients with coronavirus, although its impact on death rates is far from proven. The only other NHS approved drug treatment is the steroid dexamethasone.
US health secretary Alex Aza announced on Tuesday night that “President Trump has struck an amazing deal” to buy 500,000 courses of the drug, equivalent to 100% of Gilead’s output for July and 90% for August and September.
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Remdesivir has until now been given out free by Gilead to other countries, but that deal has come to an end and developed nations will be charged £320 per treatment.
Zahawi told Sky News: “By attempting to compete, I think we ultimately undermine all of our strategies. Much better to work together than to work to undermine each other.”
Business minister Nadhim Zahawi PA
He added that the UK was trying to “actually deal with pandemic in a way that helps all of the world”.
Asked about Zahawi’s remarks, the prime minister’s official spokesperson said: ”We are collaborating with all of our allies on researching, developing and purchasing Covid-19 treatments.
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“If we have medicines in the UK which were needed, they would not be diverted to other countries for financial gain.”
He stressed: “The UK has been using Remdesivir for some time, first in trials and now in the Early Access to Medicine scheme. The UK currently has a sufficient stock of Remdesivir.”
One government source told HuffPost UK that governments had to collaborate on Covid-19, just as they had successfully on the GAVI campaign to provide vaccines for other diseases across the world.
Health secretary Matt Hancock has described the use of Remdesivir on Covid patients as the “biggest step forward in the treatment of coronavirus since the crisis began”.
Britain has acted swiftly in recent months to stop firms profiteering and banned the export of drugs such as dexamethasone, a cheap steroid that is showing early signs of having a big impact on death rates of patients on ventilators.
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Zahawi said: “We deliberately made sure that we had enough stock of dexamethasone, rightly so. But we also want to cooperate because the best outcome for the whole world is that we work together.”
He pointed to deals struck by AstraZeneca to ensure global access to a possible vaccine being developed by it and Oxford University.
Trump has throughout the pandemic tried to use the US’s size and wealth to dominate the coronavirus drugs market and outbid other countries when a new treatment appears.
French pharma firm Sanofi said in May that America would get its coronavirus vaccine first, but was forced to retract following pressure from the French government.
Oxford Professor Peter Horby, who chairs the new and emerging respiratory virus threats advisory group (Nervtag), said manufacturer Gilead would be under “certain political pressures locally” as a US company.
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“It does raise two very important questions: what is a fair price for a drug and what is fair access to a drug? Those are common issues but are particularly important in a global crisis like this,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“That’s part of the fair access question. The trial that gave the result that allowed Remdesivir to sell their drug wasn’t just done in the US – there were patients participating through other European countries, in the UK as well, and internationally: Mexico and other places.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-07-01--Leicester Lockdown: Why Has It Happened And Who Is Affected?

People outside a closed shop in Leicester after a local lockdown was imposed on the city. PA
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Leicester has seen a spike in cases of coronavirus, sending authorities scrambling to put the East Midlands city under lockdown.
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Barely two weeks after reopening, non-essential shops have once again shut their doors and schools will be closed to most pupils from Thursday, while people have been advised against all but essential travel.
On Monday, health secretary Matt Hancock told the Commons the city had recorded 10% of all positive Covid-19 cases in the country this week. Some 658 new cases were recorded in the two weeks up to June 16.
After analysing figures released by Public Health England, Leicester City Council has estimated nearly 450 of the 658 cases were in the north and east of the city. However, public health officials have said it appears that there is no “single point source” for the outbreak.
The five council ward areas with the highest numbers of positive coronavirus cases were North Evington (118), Humberstone and Hamilton (52), Belgrave (45), Spinney Hills (41) and Rushey Mead (35).
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On June 8, Humberstone Academy in Humberstone was forced to close its two schools after a teacher tested positive for coronavirus. The schools reopened but shortly closed again after its headteacher was informed of more positive tests.
A primary school in Evington closed “indefinitely” a few days later on June 12, after a member of staff tested positive for coronavirus. Krishna Avanti Primary School’s principal, Denham Kite, told HuffPost UK no other staff members or students had since come forward with positive tests.
HuffPost UK also spoke to several Leicester locals who pointed to the number of factories in Highfields, near Spinney Hills, some of which have come under fire this week for allegedly forcing employees to work even when they were sick.
A report from the campaign group Labour Behind the Label revealed workers from some garment factories in Leicester had been told to continue to report for duty. The group has also alleged that these “vulnerable” workers face “illegal working conditions” and pay of as little a £3 an hour.
At least five garment factories in Leicester have closed due to outbreaks of coronavirus among workers, the Mirror has reported.
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One Leicester local whose family previously worked in the garment factories told HuffPost UK he “wouldn’t be at all surprised” if the rise in coronavirus cases was linked to the factories. He described poor working conditions and long hours for workers, many of whom would be “off the books” and work in several sites at the same time.
Elsewhere, the snack company Walkers confirmed on Wednesday there have been 28 positive cases of coronavirus in its factory in the Beaumont Leys area of Leicester.
Leicester has become the first British city to be put into regional lockdown. Darren Staples via Getty Images
The demographics of the city are another strong possible factor to explain the spike in cases. The north and east of Leicester – the epicentre of this local outbreak – consist of streets of tightly-packed housing with a high proportion of ethnic minority families, where multi-generational living is more common.
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The Indian community make up the largest ethnic minority group in Leicester, with many people in eastern parts of the city of Belgrave, Spinney Hills and Rushey Mead.
Professor Kamlesh Khunti, a diabetes and vascular medicine expert at the University of Leicester, grew up in Spinney Hills. “Spinney Hills and North Evington are two predominantly Asian areas,” he told HuffPost UK. “There are higher rates of chronic diseases such as hypertension and cardiovascular disease [conditions where patients are more vulnerable to contracting Covid-19] and people are often living in multigenerational housing.”
“Many are poor or working essential jobs. They may have had to continue their jobs this entire time, putting them at risk of catching the virus and bringing them back to their own community.”
However he was keen to stress there was no way to pinpoint why there has been a spike in coronavirus cases. “All of us have hearsay like [the reports of factory workers being forced to come in],” he said. “There are all sorts of rumours but I don’t think anyone knows what the key reasons are.”
He added there might not even be a “true increase” in coronavirus cases. “It might just be that the level of testing has increased. We can certainly see a lot more testing of people happening.”
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The local health charity Healthwatch told HuffPost UK they were unable to speculate on specific causes of the local outbreaks, however they also pointed to North Evington and Highfields as having “a densely populated demographic”, with “a strong BAME community” - a group that has already been shown to be disproportionately affected by the virus.
They added it was crucial “public health messages must be accessible to all and overcome any language/communication barriers.”
Professor Mike Barer, also from the University of Leicester, told HuffPost UK there was “a strong impression that some groups were missed out by the public messaging”.
Certainly within some minority groups, there have been fears that lockdown messaging has not properly reached people who do not speak English as a first language. In Spinney Hills, 18% of the population were recorded as not speaking English well in 2013.
It has also emerged that Leicester City Council had to wait for days for coronavirus test data before being locked down, which Labour leader Keir Starmer said led to a “lost week” while the virus spread in the city.
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Professor Khunti said he was “taken aback” when he first heard Leicester was being put under local lockdown. “The news about the spike came to us a few days late,” he said. “Locally we needed to get that data in real time.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-07-01--We Could All Find Out How Much Coronavirus There Is In Our Postcode Area Within Days

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The public may be able to access data about how many coronavirus cases there are in their postcode area as soon as this week, HuffPost UK understands.
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Ministers are pursuing plans to publish postcode-level data in the coming days or weeks.
Following a row over a “lost week” in locked down Leicester, when the status of a local outbreak was not clear to council and public health leaders due to a lack of information, all councils began to get access to granular postcode data on Thursday.
Now officials want similar data to be made public, with a first tranche slated for release as early as Thursday or Friday.
The move follows clashes over the data provided to leaders in Leicester ahead of the local lockdown imposed on Monday. Boris Johnson has said all local councils now have access to postcode level data to help them inform decisions about the virus.
Keir Starmer says Leicester's local authority had half the testing data until last week, so there was "a lost week while the virus was spreading"
Boris Johnson says Starmer is "mistaken" and "effective whack-a-mole strategies have been put in place"#PMQs https://t.co/wdMJe7evO2 pic.twitter.com/vM61HLK6Cf — BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) July 1, 2020
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But the data were only made available after Public Health England (PHE) regional directors wrote to local directors of public health on June 22 – more than three weeks after the first lockdown easing – to explain how to access the postcode data.
According to a Whitehall source, Leicester did not reply until Wednesday at which point the government confirmed and issued a data sharing agreement within six hours.
Access was given to local leaders the next day after the councils gave details of the individual who would be accessing the data.
The prime minister’s official spokesperson told reporters: “Since April, detailed local data has been shared by PHE with local areas and [on] June 11 an operational data dashboard was made available by NHS Digital, which includes counts of local tests, positives, and Test and Trace data, to give local authorities a clear picture in their local area.
“It was provided to directors of public health and councils.
“Last week we started sharing postcode-level data with all local authorities, including Leicester.”
But council chiefs said they would would still like “more precise” data, as it currently does not allow them to work out the proportion of positive tests, instead of just the total number.
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Positive test data also does not include individuals’ places of work, which would allow councils to identify workplace outbreaks.
Ian Hudspeth, chair of the Local Government Association’s community wellbeing board, said: “More data is starting to be shared with councils’ directors of public health, which is good news.
“It is clear that more precise, granular information is needed in order to help councils track down and isolate any specific outbreaks or clusters.
“This data needs to be provided promptly and shared quickly, with both district councils and upper tier [county-level] local authorities, to ensure the swiftest and most effective response.”
He called for town halls to use “proportionate” measures, with “the consent of the community”. to manage outbreaks. “This could range from controlling movement of people, to closing premises or public areas, if they are able to act swiftly as part of any local lockdown,” he added.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-07-02--Evictions To Resume On August 24 As Covid Lockdown Ban Won't Be Extended

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Evictions can resume from August 24 after ministers confirmed the ban in place during the coronavirus lockdown will not be extended.
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Local government minister Lord Greenhalgh quietly confirmed the news in an answer to a parliamentary question published online this week.
It comes amid widespread concern over the impact Covid-19 will have on unemployment and announcements of thousands of job losses.
Generation Rent has recently predicted that homelessness could treble this year, with rates of rent arrears rising from 4% before the pandemic to 13%.
Greenhalgh said the most vulnerable will “get the help they need” and called ending the eviction ban “an important step towards ending lockdown”.
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But Lib Dem leadership contender Layla Moran is among those calling for the government to review the move.
She said: “The idea that the government want to re-start evictions in the midst of a pandemic is unthinkable. This threatens a wave of homelessness in towns up and down the country, which added to the threat of local lockdowns could create a toxic cocktail for the disease to thrive.
“The government need to urgently rethink this heartless decision. If ministers are serious about the levelling up agenda, they need to act now to ensure vulnerable households across the country are protected. More support is urgently needed to help those struggling to pay their rent and prevent a rise in evictions.”
House keys sitting on an eviction notice received in the mail. tap10 via Getty Images
But the National Residential Landlords Association has welcomed the confirmation.
Greenhalgh said: “On June 5 the government announced that the current suspension of evictions from social or private rented accommodation will be extended by two months until August 23, 2020.
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“From August 24, 2020, the courts will begin to process possession cases again.
“This is an important step towards ending the lockdown and will protect landlords’ important right to regain their property.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-07-02--Hundreds Of 'Mr And Mrs Bigs' Arrested After Police Hack 'Military-Grade' Phone App

A man is led away by officers after he was detained during a raid by the National Crime Agency and police on a property in Birmingham on June 26 in relation to an investigation on Encrochat. PA Media
Police have seized machine guns, grenades, two tonnes of drugs, luxury cars and arrested 746 “Mr and Mrs Bigs” as part of a massive international sting, made possible by the hacking of a military-grade encrypted communication system used by organised criminals.
Some £54million in cash was also seized in the operation, which involved thousands of officers from the National Crime Agency (NCA), regional crime squads and every police force in the UK. It is one of the biggest operations of its kind.
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After four years of work by international teams, French investigators managed to access Encrochat, an encrypted platform used by 60,000 people worldwide, including around 10,000 in the UK, for what law enforcement agencies claim were purely criminal purposes, PA Media reports.
Undated handout photo issued by the Metropolitan Police of £5.1m in cash seized in Operation Venetic. PA Media
The NCA said the operation had “punched huge holes in the UK organised crime network” and has seized in the UK alone:
Over £54million in criminal cash
77 firearms, including an AK47 assault rifle, sub machine guns, handguns, four grenades, and over 1,800 rounds of ammunition
More than two tonnes of Class A and B drugs
Over 28 million Etizolam pills (street Valium) from an illicit laboratory
55 high value cars, and 73 luxury watches
Undated handout photo issued by the Metropolitan Police of a firearm and ammunition seized in Operation Venetic. PA Media
Encrochat, which charged £1,500 for a device on a six-month contract, sent out a warning to users in early June to say that its servers had been hacked by a government entity.
This left investigators with a race against time to make the most of the wealth of information available on the platform, targeting “Mr and Mrs Bigs” before they could cover their tracks.
International investigators were also going after the team who ran Encrochat, who they said led “luxury lifestyles”, although the technology itself is not illegal.
The Encrochat app. PA Media
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National Crime Agency (NCA) director of investigations Nikki Holland said the breach was like “having an inside person in every top organised crime group in the country”.
She said: “This is the biggest and the most significant law enforcement operation of its kind in the UK and it is previously unmatched in terms of its scale.
“We have dismantled well-established organised crime groups and have already secured evidence to prosecute a significant number of known criminals that have previously remained beyond our reach.”
The National Crime Agency and police take part in raid on a property in Birmingham on 26/06/20. PA Media
The NCA said UK law enforcement had dealt with more than 200 threats to life and had “undoubtedly” prevented murders between rival gangs.
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Law enforcement have been aware of Encrochat for some years. Drug dealers Andrew Venna and Matthew Cornwall, who operated in Gloucester and Stroud, used the devices before they were jailed in May 2019; as did Mark Fellows and Steven Boyle, who were jailed for life last year for the 2015 gangland killings of John Kinsella and Paul Massey in Liverpool.
Undated handout photo issued by the Metropolitan Police of a quantity of drugs seized in Operation Venetic. PA Media
After the platform was accessed, investigators were able to monitor thousands of Encrochat handsets and analyse millions of messages to get information on drug dealing, the sale of illegal guns and money laundering.
Undated handout photo issued by the Metropolitan Police of a quantity of cash seized by officers in Operation Venetic. PA
NCA deputy director Matt Horne said: “This is very much about the organised crime gangs that are operating on street corners, on estates and across communities across the entire UK. Trafficking drugs and using serious violence and use of firearms.
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“It hits right at the heart of the most dangerous organised criminals that are actually on the streets of the UK, that we need to target, and cause real problems for our communities.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-07-02--Dotty Leaving Radio 1Xtra Breakfast Show: 'It's Time For Me To Turn Off My Alarm Clock And Rest'

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Dotty has announced she will be leaving the BBC Radio 1Xtra breakfast show after six years with the station.
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The DJ has been at the helm of the show since July 2016, but said it is “time for her to turn off her alarm clock and rest”, as she announced she’ll be presenting her last show at the end of the month.
Dotty is leaving the Radio 1Xtra breakfast show BBC
Dotty announced the news on Thursday, saying: “This week marks my four-year anniversary on the 1Xtra breakfast show and it has been the most incredible experience of my life. But after almost 1,000 early mornings, I think it’s finally time for me to turn off my alarm clock and rest.
“With more listeners tuning in to the show than ever and this year’s Radio Academy award for best breakfast show sitting on my mantelpiece, it feels like the right time to end on a high note and say goodbye to the radio station that I love.
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“Joining 1Xtra in 2014 changed my life. It’s here that I fell in love with broadcasting, spent my days with the most amazing listeners, made lifelong friends and even met Oprah.”
“This week marks my 4 year anniversary on The 1Xtra Breakfast Show and it has been the most incredible experience of my life. But after almost 1000 early mornings, I think it’s finally time for me to turn off my alarm clock and rest” - @AmplifyDot pic.twitter.com/ocTfnBrY5F — BBC Radio 1Xtra (@1Xtra) July 2, 2020
She continued: “Thank you to the many stars that have passed through the studio, to every single member of staff from the managers to the security guards, but most importantly to the listeners – thank you for inviting me into your homes, cars, building sites and barbershops. I’ve truly loved being part of your day.
“There’s nowhere in the world quite like 1Xtra but I look forward to what the future holds.”
This will be my last month on @1Xtra, a radio station that changed my life forever when they gave me a show in 2014. Spending the last 6 years with the greatest listeners, artists & broadcasters in the world has been a dream to me.
To anyone that has ever listened.. Thank-you💛 — Dotty (@AmplifyDot) July 2, 2020
Dotty was the 1Xtra Breakfast Show’s first solo female presenter when she took over the slot.
She first joined the station in 2014 and had previously hosted the Saturday show from 4pm-7pm and the weekday 1pm-4pm show.
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Paying tribute to Dotty and her work, 1Xtra’s head of programmes Mark Strippel said: “Dotty is an incredible and unique talent and will always be part of the 1Xtra family.
“I speak on behalf of everyone at the station when I say that we’ll miss her loads, and thank her for every ounce of passion and commitment she has put into 1Xtra! We’ve shared some unforgettable radio moments and will be celebrating them this month.
“I’d like to pay tribute to Dotty and her incredible journey since joining as an artist six years ago, leading through to taking the Breakfast crown at this year’s Arias (Audio and Radio Industry Awards), and wish her the very best in her next chapter!”
The station is currently auditioning for the next breakfast show host, with Nadia Jae taking on presenting duties while this process takes place.
Earlier this year, Dotty announced that she has been working on her debut book, Outraged, which will be published later this month.
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-07-02--‘Long Covid’ – The Under-The-Radar Coronavirus Cases Exhausting Thousands

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We’re swiftly learning the symptoms of Covid-19 may last longer than previously thought. One in 10 people are reporting a longer tail of symptoms, which exceeds the suggested two-week recovery time.
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It’s thought around 30,000 people in the UK could be impacted by a prolonged version of the illness – what some are calling ‘long Covid’. These people are months into their recovery from the virus and still fighting a range of persistent symptoms. In some cases, the symptoms disappear for a while before coming back. In others, they’re gradually improving over time.
Research from the Covid-19 Symptom Study in the UK, led by Professor Tim Spector of King’s College London, shows after three weeks of first reporting symptoms, a group of people continue to experience fatigue, headaches, coughs, loss of smell, sore throats, delirium, and chest pain.
People with mild cases of the disease are more likely to have a wide range of symptoms that come and go over an extended period, Prof Spector found. And these people are often flying under the radar because they’re not in hospital.
Those who believe they’ve had ‘long Covid’ – which isn’t a medical term, rather a description of what they’re experiencing – are now calling on the government to recognise their plight, invest in research and put support in place.
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When was ‘long Covid’ first recognised?
The issue of ‘long Covid’ came to light when Professor Paul Garner, an expert in global health at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, wrote about what he heavily suspects was Covid-19 – he suffered weeks of ill health and exhaustion as a result.
“Sometimes I felt better and became optimistic,” he wrote of his fatigue in the British Medical Journal, “but then the next day I felt as though someone had hit me around the head with a cricket bat.”
Dr Jake Suett, an intensive care medicine (ICM) doctor, has been unwell with suspected Covid-19 for 13 weeks. As a doctor, he feels a responsibility to bring ‘long Covid’ to the attention of politicians, as well as medical and scientific communities. He first became unwell with what he suspects was the virus in March, but still hasn’t properly recovered, meaning he hasn’t returned to work.
“I’ve been unwell with symptoms consistent with Covid-19 and I wasn’t tested until the fourth week, so it’s hard for me to say 100% that’s what has happened to me, but I certainly recognise the symptoms I had are consistent with it and obviously I was dealing with it closely [in intensive care],” he tells HuffPost UK.
“I was taking a long time to recover and I saw Paul Garner’s article in the BMJ and realised this was happening to other people as well. I decided to join one of the support groups that Paul Garner mentioned in his article and realised there were probably thousands of us – all having very similar stories and many of the same patterns of some people having quite serious symptoms that could represent other pathology [illness] or could be complications from Covid-19.”
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Has there been much research into it?
A poll from the Netherlands paints a picture of how many might be struggling. Almost three months after the first symptoms of the virus, more than nine in 10 people reported having problems with simple daily activities. And 85% of respondents said their health was good before the virus, falling to 6% afterwards.
Of the 1,622 people with suspected coronavirus who took part in the survey, conducted by Longfonds (a lung foundation in the Netherlands), 91% hadn’t been hospitalised, and 43% hadn’t been diagnosed by a doctor. Common long-term symptoms included fatigue, shortness of breath, chest pressure, headache and muscle pain.
“We are really shocked by this,” said Michael Rutgers, director of the lung foundation. “It is the first time this large patient group has been visualised. These people really need to be seen, heard and helped.”
He warned there’s an “invisible group of patients” who are in danger of falling between the cracks amid the coronavirus pandemic: “We have to prevent that.”
So how many people are suffering?
In the UK, there are thought to be tens of thousands of people who, like Dr Suett and Professor Garner, have struggled over the past few months with little support. Due to widespread testing not being in place until April in the UK, many who came down with the virus in March can’t know for sure if they had coronavirus or not – despite their symptoms fitting the bill.
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Some have been told by doctors the issue is psychosomatic, where physical symptoms are brought on by stress and anxiety. Many have turned to the internet for advice, relying on vitamins, supplements, pain medication and sharing tips and tricks, to see them through.
People have flocked to Facebook and Twitter to join #LongCovid support groups and share their experiences. Many say they were fit and healthy before, and can now barely exercise or exert themselves months after becoming ill. Despite this, they’re forced to return to work while feeling fatigued, breathless and suffering from brain fog.
Dr Suett is calling for a UK study into the long-term impact of Covid-19. “We haven’t really got, from what I can see, any comprehensive data on what recovery from Covid-19 looks like,” he says.
“We’ve got a bit of a signal from the Tim Spector Covid-19 study, but I’m not aware of anything that anyone is actually doing to follow that up in a more objective way and draw all that information together.”
*URGENT* A plea from an ITU doctor. Write to your MP to raise awareness of #LongCovid #covid1in20 #covid1in10 cases and call for research and support... a thread.
I am an ITU doctor and have been unwell for nearly 13 weeks. As a doctor, I feel that I have a — Dr Jake Suett (@jakesuett) June 20, 2020
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What needs to happen next?
Dr Suett wants health professionals to be educated on the long-term issues that Covid-19 patients might face and has urged people to write to their MPs to demand government action. There needs to be a study of patients experiencing prolonged symptoms with a view to investigating possible treatments, he says.
As it stands, there’s little research into this and people don’t know if their long-term symptoms are occurring because they’re still infected with the virus – one Chinese study reported details of a patient with mild Covid-19 who was shedding the virus for 49 days – or if the continuing symptoms are the result of something else. For example, long-term damage to the lungs or heart, or an autoimmune condition triggered by the virus.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-07-02--NHS Test And Trace System Still Failing To Reach A Quarter Of People With Covid-19

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A quarter of people who test positive for coronavirus are still not by reached by the NHS Test and Trace system, new statistics showed on Thursday.
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According to official figures issued by the Department of Health and Social Care, 1,383 people (22.4%) could not be reached using the details they had provided. An additional 161 people (2.6%) did not provide any contact details in the first place.
The figures, which cover June 18 to June 24, are a slight improvement on the previous week’s statistics but are well short of the “gold standard” that NHS Test and Trace chief Dido Harding has said she is aiming for.
Under the system, anyone who tests positive for Covid-19 is advised to give their own details and then to inform tracers of those they have spent more than 15 minutes with at a distance of less than two metres in the previous two days.
When people cannot be reached the reasons are either because their details are incorrect, or there was no response to calls, texts and email.
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Government insiders admit that there is also a problem with public awareness of the fact that everyone can now get a test. Private polling shows that less than half the population are aware they are now eligible for tests.
Asked about the system’s continuing failure to contact a large chunk of those with the virus, the prime minister’s official spokesman said: “It is a new large scale service and it will improve over time.
“It’s important to acknowledge we have set up NHS Test and Trace from scratch, it’s a huge endeavour.
“We have now reached more than 130,000 people who would otherwise have knowingly spread the virus. We do also need the public to continue to play their part providing vital information to test and trace to help protect families and communities and ultimately to save lives.”
The NHS Test and Trace programme, launched in late May, has been hailed by Boris Johnson as a “world-beating” system to contain the spread of coronavirus as lockdown restrictions are eased.
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For the whole period since the system first started four weeks ago, a total of 27,125 people who had tested positive for Covid-19 in England had their case transferred to the system. Of this total, 20,039 people (74%) were reached and asked to provide details of recent contacts, while 6,245 people (23%) were not reached.
Once people were contacted, 86% of those they listed as “close contacts” were reached and asked to self-isolate for 14 days.
In total, 132,525 people who had been identified as recent close contacts of Covid-19 cases were reached by tracers. But 20,917 people (14%) identified as close contacts were not reached. A further 841 people (3%) could not be reached because their communication details had not been provided.
Health secretary Matt Hancock had hoped the new regime, modelled on successful tracing operations in countries such as Germany and South Korea, would allow firms and schools to safely reopen while preventing new virus patients from passing the disease on to others.
Shadow health minister Justin Madders said: “There are still a quarter of people not being contacted.
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“There is no doubt that this is well below the levels we need to effectively contain the virus and the Government seems to be too slow again to react to these failings.
“As we now begin to see localised lockdowns we need Ministers to be far more rigorous about getting to the bottom of why the contact rate isn’t improving. The performance so far simply isn’t good enough and far from the world leading system we were promised.”
Lib Dem MP Layla Moran added: “When the government’s own figures show that one in four people with coronavirus are still being missed, at this point it feels like we are flying blind. ”
Boris Johnson’s own target of turning around most Covid tests within 24 hours by the end of June looked unlikely after the latest statistics showed that just 73.9% of test results in “satellite” centres – normally used for care homes – were received the next day after the test was taken.
NHS Test and Trace 24 hour target HuffPost UK
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There was, however, major progress on 70 regional test centres, where 98% got the results the next day, and 136 mobile testing centres, where the figure was 96.7%.
Fewer than 10% of home testing with postal kits, which are not included in Johnson’s target, have results returned within 24 hours.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-07-02--No Limit On Class Sizes As Back-To-School Plans Confirmed

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Limits on class sizes will be scrapped from September and exams may be delayed but schools will have to deliver a “full curriculum”, the government has confirmed.
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New back-to-school guidance from the Department for Education also says caps on group sizes in nurseries, childminders, and other early years settings in England will be lifted from July 20 – meaning a pre-summer break return for younger children.
Children should be kept in “class or year group sized ‘bubbles’” and schools should “encourage older children to keep their distance from each other and staff where possible”.
Where cases are confirmed, Public Health England teams will step in to offer advice but it does not necessarily mean the closure of the school.
Instead, some young people and staff may be asked to self-isolate for up to 14 days and a mobile testing unit may be sent to the area to test and trace contacts.
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Testing will focus on the person’s class, followed by their year group, then the whole school if necessary, the guidance says.
Schools will be expected to carry out risk assessments but will not need to expand their building capacity, the guidance adds.
Plans should also be put in place to offer remote education to pupils who are self-isolating, the government says.
GCSE exams could be delayed next year and more optional questions could also be used in test papers, under proposals unveiled by England’s exams regulator.
The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) has warned that it will be “enormously challenging” for schools to keep children apart in year-group-sized “bubbles” in September.
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Education secretary Gavin Williamson ASSOCIATED PRESS
Geoff Barton, general secretary, said: “The logistics of keeping apart many different ‘bubbles’ of children in a full school, including whole-year groups comprising hundreds of pupils, is mind boggling.”
The union is calling on the government to have in place a “Plan B” in case it becomes clear that a full return to school in September is “just too risky”.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said: “Significant time will now need to be spent implementing the new measures government is asking schools to take.”
“The logistics of keeping apart many different ‘bubbles’ of children in a full school, including whole-year groups comprising hundreds of pupils, is mind boggling.” - Geoff Barton, Association of School and College Leaders
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He added: “The situation seen in Leicester this week has demonstrated that this crisis is far from over, and there will be further disruption ahead.
“It is therefore essential that government continues to monitor the data when it comes to school return and that it also has a credible Plan B in place should it be required.”
Exams regulator Ofqual, meanwhile, has launched a two-week consultation on their plans for the GCSE and A-level exam series in 2021 after students have faced months of school and college closures due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The watchdog is considering how next year’s exam timetable could be changed to allow more time for teaching – and one of the proposals being looked at is postponing starting GCSE exams until June 7.
Parents can also be fined from the autumn term for failing to send their child to school, the guidance says.
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Routine Ofsted inspections will not return until 2021.
Education secretary Gavin Williamson, who has been heavily criticised for delaying back-to-school plans, said:
“Nothing can replace being in the classroom, so ever since schools, colleges and nurseries closed to most children, we have been working hard to ensure they can reopen as soon as possible. We have already seen more than 1.5 million children and young people return, but we must make sure all pupils can go back to school in September, giving them the opportunity to thrive and fulfil their potential.
“I want to reassure parents and families that we are doing everything we can to make sure schools, nurseries, colleges and other providers are as safe as possible for children and staff, and will continue to work closely with the country’s best scientific and medical experts to ensure that is the case.”
Deputy chief medical officer, Jenny Harries, who has worked with Williamson on preparing the guidance, added: “A child’s education is essential to their healthy development - we know that missing too much school can have a negative impact on children’s mental and physical wellbeing.
“Everybody wants children to be safe and thankfully as we have learned more about Covid-19, the evidence has shown that the risk of severe disease in children is low. However, although the number of Covid-19 cases has declined, it is still in general circulation - so it important we ensure schools implement sensible precaution to reduce potential transmission of Covid-19 and minimise any risk to teachers and their pupils.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-07-02--US Officials Seize Shipment Of Human Hair Products 'Made In Chinese Labour Camps'

In this June 29, 2020, photo provided by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, a field operations officer inspects a suspect hair accessory at a centralized exam station in Newark, N.J. On Wednesday, July 1, 2020, U.S. Customs and Border Protection detained a shipment of weaves believed to be made in a Chinese detention camp. The shipment is suspected to be human hair. Some information on the package was blurred by the source. (U.S. Customs and Border Protection via AP) ASSOCIATED PRESS
US officials have seized a shipment of beauty products made from human hair that are suspected of being manufactured by forced labour in Chinese internment camps.
Authorities told The Associated Press that 13 tons (11.8 metric tonnes) of hair products worth an estimated £638,000 were in the shipment.
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“The production of these goods constitutes a very serious human rights violation, and the detention order is intended to send a clear and direct message to all entities seeking to do business with the United States that illicit and inhumane practices will not be tolerated in US supply chains,” said Brenda Smith, executive assistant commissioner of CBP’s Office of Trade.
Authorities have not said whether the hair was taken from inmates but survivors of the prisons have described having their heads shaved upon being detained.
It is the second time this year that CBP has slapped one of its rare detention orders on shipments of hair weaves from China, based on suspicions that people making them face human rights abuses. The orders are used to hold shipping containers at the US ports of entry until the agency can investigate claims of wrongdoing.
The front gate of the Artux City Vocational Skills Education Training Service Centre in Artux, in western China's Xinjiang region. AP
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Rushan Abbas, a Uyghur American activist whose sister, a doctor, went missing in China almost two years ago and is believed to be locked in a detention camp, said women who use hair weaves should think about who might be making them.
“This is so heartbreaking for us,” she said. “I want people to think about the slavery people are experiencing today. My sister is sitting somewhere being forced to make what, hair pieces?”
Wednesday’s shipment was made by Lop County Meixin Hair Product Co Ltd. In May, a similar detention was placed on Hetian Haolin Hair Accessories Co Ltd, although those weaves were synthetic, not human, the agency said.
Samples of pre-stretched Innocence EZbraid professional antibacterial braid hair extensions from I&I Hair Corporation, purchased in May, are seen in this photo in New York on July 1, 2020. Federal authorities in New York on Wednesday seized a shipment of weaves and other beauty accessories from I&I and other importers suspected to be made out of human hair taken from people locked inside a Chinese internment camp AP
Hetian Haolin’s products were imported by Os Hair in Duluth, Georgia, and I&I Hair in Dallas. I&I’s weaves are sold under the Innocence brand to salons and individuals around the US.
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Both of the exporters are in China’s far west Xinjiang region, where, over the past four years, the government has detained an estimated one million or more from ethnic Turkic minorities.
They are held in internment camps and prisons where they are subjected to ideological discipline, forced to denounce their religion and language and physically abused. China has long suspected the Uyghurs, who are mostly Muslim, of harbouring separatist tendencies because of their distinct culture, language and religion.
Reports by the AP and other news organisations have repeatedly found that people inside the internment camps and prisons, which activists call “black factories,” are making sportswear and other apparel for popular US brands.
The AP tried to visit Hetian Haolin Hair Accessories Co. more than a year ago during an investigation into forced labour inside the camps. But police called the cab driver taking AP journalists to the area, ordering the driver to turn back and warning that the cab’s coordinates were being tracked.
From the road, it was clear the factory – topped with “Haolin Hair Accessories” in big red letters – was ringed with barbed wire fencing and surveillance cameras, and the entrance was blocked by helmeted police. Across the street, what appeared to be an educational facility was topped with political slogans declaring “the country has power” and urging people to obey the Communist Party.
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It was unclear whether the factory was part of a detention centre, but former detainees in other parts of Xinjiang have described being shuttled to work in fenced, guarded compounds during the day and taken back to internment camps at night.
The Chinese Ministry of Affairs has said there is no forced labour, nor detention of ethnic minorities.
“We hope that certain people in the United States can take off their tinted glasses, correctly understand and objectively and rationally view normal economic and trade cooperation between Chinese and American enterprises,” the ministry said in a statement.
Last December, Xinjiang authorities announced that the camps had closed and all the detainees had “graduated”, a claim difficult to corroborate independently given tight surveillance and restrictions on reporting in the region. Some Uyghurs and Kazakhs have told the AP that their relatives have been released, but many others say their loved ones remain in detention, were sentenced to prison or transferred to forced labor in factories.
While tariffs and embargoes over political issues are fairly common, it’s extremely rare for the US government to block imports produced by forced labour.
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The 1930 Tariff Act prohibited those imports, but the government has only enforced the law 54 times in the past 90 years. Most of those bans, 75%, blocked goods from China, and enforcement has ramped up since Barack Obama strengthened the law in 2016.
On June 17, Donald Trump signed the bipartisan Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020, condemning “gross human rights violations of specified ethnic Muslim minority groups in the Xinjiang region in China”.
Earlier, calling for its passage, house speaker Nancy Pelosi decried what she described as China’s mass incarceration, forced sterilisation and journalist suppression.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-07-02--Let's Talk About Sex, Baby: All The Awkward Topics Between The Sheets

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Sex is everywhere – online, offline, in music, fashion, advertising, movies, books and TV. With this 24/7 exposure, you’d think sex is really no big deal and we’d all be open and relaxed talking about it. Not necessarily so.
So why do many of us find it difficult to talk about sex? It’s all too often a sensitive and awkward topic that can make us feel embarrassed, inadequate or ashamed. Maybe we didn’t have the most positive messages or information about sex when we were younger; maybe we feel that talking about our innermost fantasies will make us vulnerable to criticism, judgement or rejection.
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It’s the hot topic of conversation in our second episode of new podcast Deal With It, brought to you by Corsodyl Toothpaste who are on a mission to get us talking about those uncomfortable issues we choose to ignore – whether that’s sex, or bleeding gums and oral health!
Gigi Engle chats to host Ellie Taylor on Deal With It. Also listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Tackling those sexual issues we’re all curious for but too embarrassed to speak about, Ellie Taylor explored the subject with certified sex coach Gigi Engle, who shared her knowledge and some practical advice.
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The benefits of sex
First, It’s worth talking about why sex is so good for us. Sex raises heart rate, and counts as a form of light aerobic exercise. Conversely, if our blood pressure and heart rate are too high, a loving hug can help reduce them. Full sex can also help us cope better with everyday stress, may strengthen our immune system, and many people who are regularly sexually active say that it makes them feel healthier too.
Gigi Engle talks sex
The trouble with sex
We’re less inclined to talk about sex when it’s not ideal. It’s easy to feel that everyone else is having loads of fantastic between-the-sheets action when we’re struggling with embarrassing sexual issues. Do we even know how much sex we should be having? Gigi explains: “A normal amount of sex is when both people in a relationship are having sex the amount that they want to be having… as long as both people are happy.”
Libido
Take libido; this fluctuates throughout our life because, well, life gets in the way, let alone a coronavirus pandemic. When your libidos fall out of synch, you need to talk and agree to some compromises on frequency to get your sex life back on track. It’s important that the person with the lower libido doesn’t get to call all the shots all the time. Figure out when you both have the most energy and are in the best mood for intimacy – and this doesn’t always have to lead to full sex.
“Gear away from this idea that intercourse is the most important form of sexual expression… and everything else is not sex,” says Gigi. Even take your focus off orgasm as the ultimate goal, and onto developing more intimacy, playfulness and passion during sex.
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The orgasm gap
Many women silently worry that there’s something wrong with them because they don’t climax during intercourse. A Dutch study showed that 75% of women as opposed to 28% of men don’t reach orgasm – a complex phenomenon that’s referred to as ‘the orgasm gap’.
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Gigi explains, “The orgasm gap exists, and boils down to one simple fact, which is that we know absolutely nothing about the clitoris. We have horrible sex education and we don’t talk about the clitoris; we don’t talk about pleasure. Without external clitoral stimulation the official stats say about 70% of women will not have orgasms, but truthfully it’s between 85-95%.”
Porn, often encountered before sex education, does the orgasm gap no favours either, with its staged depictions of women ‘climaxing’ through vigorous penetration alone. “It’s like looking at The Fast and the Furious and thinking “Oh I get it, I can drive a car now,”’ says Gigi.
Being stressed, tired, distracted or insufficiently relaxed can block orgasms as well; it’s vital to make sure the environment and mood turn you on before getting down to the clitoris.
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Erectile dysfunction and premature ejaculation
Men worry about erectile dysfunction (ED) and premature ejaculation but are reluctant to talk about them. Again, unrealistic depictions of sex and a lack of education may play a part, according to Gigi: “men have all this pressure upon them so they don’t get to enjoy sex either because it is so based on this performative model of sexuality – how long your erection lasts, how hard it is…” It’s possible, though, that ED may have an underlying medical cause, and it’s worth speaking to your pharmacist or doctor if you’re worried.
Rekindling an erotic spark
It may be that you’ve been having sex all along, but it’s just got a bit stale. One of you needs to broach the subject. The first thing to do is acknowledge the fact that it is awkward, and if it continues being awkward, there’s plenty of advice out there, from self-help books – Gigi recommends She Comes First and Come As You Are – to sex therapy. The key to reconnecting is to rediscover intimacy gradually, rather like you did when you were first attracted to each other. If you haven’t had great sex for a while, focus on kissing, cuddling and foreplay to begin with without the pressure of expecting full intercourse.
What about the kinky stuff?
This is a tricky one. One partner may feel nervous even suggesting something other than vanilla sex, and there’s the risk that the other partner might be shocked or feel vulnerable. The solution, says Gigi, is to: “Come from a place of love with them… it’s not just a desire to get weird, you want to get weird with this person; you’re excited to try stuff with them.” You could turn it into a game of ‘Sexual Bucket List’ – each of you writes a list of things they’d like to try, you swap lists and circle the things you’d consider doing. Not only can you give the mutual choices a go, you could try things you may not have considered before. It removes the passion-killing embarrassment of one person asking for something and the other refusing.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-07-02--Katie Price And Son Harvey To Appear In New BBC Documentary About Realities Of Parenting A Child Wit

Katie Price And Son Harvey To Appear In New BBC Documentary About Realities Of Parenting A Child With A Disability

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Katie Price has announced that she and her 18-year-old son Harvey are set to appear in a new BBC documentary.
The one-off special will follow a day in the life of the reality star and her eldest child, who has Prader-Willi syndrome and autism.
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According to the BBC, Katie Price: Harvey & Me will focus on “what it’s really like to be a mum of a disabled child approaching adulthood”, as Harvey moves “from child to adult services”.
The documentary will also see Katie making “difficult decisions” which will impact her son’s future long-term.
Katie and Harvey Price in 2018 Pete Norton via Getty Images
Katie said: “Being a parent of a child with complex needs, as Harvey has, presents daily challenges. Simple day-to-day things that other people take for granted can take all day.
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“Every day presents a new challenge, no two days are the same. We have learnt and grown together, and together we have built our private world, a bond between mother and son which goes deeper than most – we are unbreakable.”
She continued: “Harvey has taken on every hurdle life has thrown at him – from birth, being told he would never see, to now drawing rainbows – he was told he would never be able to engage in everyday life, but is often the life and soul of the party.
“Harvey touches the hearts of all those he meets – his heart knows no bounds when giving out love and affection.
“Now he is 18, I have to start making vital decisions that will impact Harvey’s future that are different to most other parents.”
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“Harvey is now an adult, and this is the most important time of his life, making the vital decisions, safeguarding his future and ensuring he has the tools for life that will give him the equal rights to live his life to the fullest,” she added.
“For the first time I will be taking you behind the closed doors of mine and Harvey’s world – experience a day in the life and what the future will look like for him and me, this is how we roll in Katie Price: Harvey & Me.”
The BBC said the documentary is part of its commitment to boosting disability representation on and off screen.
Content director Charlotte Moore said: “I would like to thank Katie Price for opening up in this important and very personal film. Katie’s life has played out in public, but one thing she has always kept private is the day-to-day realities of being mum to her son Harvey.
“As he turns 18, Katie faces difficult decisions about his future and wants to help people understand the realities and challenges of bringing up a child with a disability, and to see what Harvey’s life is really like.”
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Last year, Katie revealed that she was moving Harvey into residential care, but admitted it had not been an easy decision for her.
“I don’t want him to go, but the doctors, my mum, everyone is saying it’s the best thing for him,” she explained at the time.
“I suppose I’m the selfish one because I just want him with me all the time. I have to think about it, I haven’t really got an option really, he has to go, I haven’t got an option.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-07-02--High School Musical's Director Kenny Ortega Reminds Us That 2006 Was A Very Different Time For Queer

High School Musical's Director Kenny Ortega Reminds Us That 2006 Was A Very Different Time For Queer Representation

“I have to be honest with you,” says High School Musical director Kenny Ortega in a new Variety interview, “I didn’t think at the time - and Disney is the most progressive group of people I’ve worked with.”
Ortega was discussing how, in 2006, it would have been impossible to make the character of Ryan, played by Lucas Grabeel, in High School Musical openly queer, even though much of the fanbase broadly assumed he was, so they had to agree to a compromise.
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“It was less about coming out and just more about letting his true colours come forward,” Ortega says in the piece. “I was concerned because it was family and kids, that Disney might not be ready to cross that line and move into that territory yet.”
Perhaps Ortega could have pushed harder. When the Variety interview broke, voices on LGBT+ inclusion were fast to insinuate Ortega’s failings, by sharing statistics on Twitter which suggest that LGBT+ youth support groups were way more prevalent in schools in 2006 in America than you’d think.
Lucas Grabeel played Ryan in High School Musical. Disney/Kobal/Shutterstock
One survey by GLSEN suggests 47% of LGBT+ students had a GSA (a gay-straight alliance club) at their schools in 2005, and the study also reveals that the presence of GSAs at schools did have a positive relationship to student experiences.
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So would a queer male lead in a TV musical have been as big a deal as Ortega claims?
Given the prevalence of shows with queer leads like Will & Grace, which premiered almost ten years earlier in 1998, it’s understandable why Ortega’s critics believe outing Ryan in 2006 wouldn’t have been such a big stretch. Although, granted, High School Musical had a teen audience not an adult one, which changed the goalposts somewhat.
But whether or not Ortega pushed hard enough is perhaps besides the point.
A prominent LGBT+ director, Ortega’s supporters would argue he pushed the queer agenda subliminally, in movies like Hocus Pocus and the High School Musical triology. Actively campaigning for diversity through his work, the fact Ortega didn’t even ask the question of his Disney overlords paints a dark picture of Hollywood producers in the mid-naughties.
It was certainly a confusing era. While some progressive shows meant queerness for youth audiences was teetering on the brink of a revolution, in other shows, dealings with sexuality were erased entirely.
First, the positives. In 2006, Ugly Betty introduced the character of Justin, played by 11-year-old actor Mark Indelicato. Justin was different to other boys, liking fashion and caring about body image, and the teen character was progressively revealed to be gay in 2010 in the fourth season.
And in Glee in 2007, the 18-year-old actor Chris Colfer introduced a bold queer lead in Kurt Hummel, the confident LGBT+ newcomer at school.
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Chris Colfer played out and proud Kurt in Glee. FOX via Getty Images
But at the same time, some the era’s most popular shows, such as Gossip Girl, purposefully swerved the concept of queerness entirely. The character of Chuck Bass was actually written as queer in the original Cecily von Ziegesar novels, but his bisexuality was erased by the time showrunners introduced storylines centering on his rampant womanising to The CW.
And Friends, which ran fresh episodes until 2004, has been criticised for featuring only thinly-veiled stereotypes of gay people across its ten year lifespan, rather than a diverse selection.
While there is still a long way to go until LGBT+ voices feel as prominent as they should be across TV and in film, thinking back to a little over a decade ago reminds us how far we’ve come - and that’s something to be celebrated.
Over the past few years, Sex Education, Hollywood, Alex Strangelove, Love Simon and Instinct have all proudly celebrated queer leads and boldly queer storylines. And in these shows, characters aren’t necessarily playing up to LGBT+ stereotypes - like in Will & Grace - but presenting the LGBT+ community as nuanced and diverse.
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In the UK, arguably, Skins kick-started the trend for properly fleshed-out queer characters when it introduced Maxxie, played by Mitch Hewer, in 2007: a confident gay male lead with diverse storylines that didn’t only centre on his sexuality. But this type of representation was missing from Hollywood.
This Pride month just passed, Love Simon follow up Love Victor became the latest element of LGBT+ representation for youth audiences. The show aired Stateside although it has yet to announce its UK transfer.
Love Victor is the story of an ordinary college boy who just so happens to be queer.