thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-30--2020 Broke All These Environmental Records Despite The Pandemic

If 2019 was the year that woke the world up to climate change, 2020 was the year it was pushed once again to the back of the queue.
The pandemic changed everything. As cars gathered dust on driveways and planes parked up on runways, emissions fell dramatically – to the lowest levels in 100 years in the UK.
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But with hygiene placed front and centre, it felt like we were being pushed back to square one with plastic pollution amid a swell of disposable masks and single-use gloves. While a drop in carbon emissions might have felt like a win, scientists were very clear.
This blip would not save us, as a planet, from the impacts of catastrophic damage to the environment.
Understandably, a global health crisis as devastating as Covid-19 has dominated the world’s attention in 2020. But extreme weather events, worsened by climate change, don’t just stop because they’ve dropped off of the front pages.
The reality is that for millions of people, this year has meant living through multiple crisis – Covid and out-of-control wildfires, raging tropical storms, suffocating heat or rising flood waters.
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Chloe Brimicombe, a PHD researcher specialising in extreme heat at the University of Reading, told HuffPost UK: “It’s been really busy but that hasn’t been reflected in the media because of Covid, which is completely understandable because that’s affected everybody.
“Coronavirus certainly meant that a lot of things you’d usually see in the papers or on TV weren’t as prevalent.”
So, while many of us were looking the other way, here are some of the major climate records we missed in 2020.
Heat
It’s still too soon to definitively determine where 2020 lies on the scale of record-breaking years for global temperature, but as of the end of November 2020, this year stands neck-and-neck with 2016 as the hottest year on record with temperatures just a fraction of a degree lower.
Where 2020 will likely rank depends on who you ask. NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies has given the year a 90% chance of becoming the hottest on record, while the US’ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) – with records reaching back 141 years – gives it a 54% chance.
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The World Meteorological Association have said that 2020 will at least be within the top three warmest years of all time, with 2011 to 2020 being the hottest decade ever.
A world map showing land and ocean temperature departure from the average (January to November 2020). National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
What we do know for sure is that it has been the hottest year on record without an El Niño event, a huge ocean-atmosphere climate interaction which results in warming in sea surface temperatures across swathes of the Pacific Ocean.
There was an El Niño event in 2019, while its opposite – La Niña – began to develop in the autumn of 2020 with effects expected to be felt for at least the first few months of 2021.
2016, which stands as the hottest year on record, saw the tail end of an El Niño event, with three of the other hottest years – 2015, 2018 and 2019 – also seeing the effects of the system.
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2017, until 2020 the fourth hottest year on record, is the only year in the pre-2020 top five not to have an El Niño event.
While we’re unsure about the global picture for the full year, many localised or seasonal temperature records have been broken throughout the course of 2020.
In August, what could potentially be the highest temperature ever recorded on earth – 54.4C – was recorded in the aptly-named Furnace Creek, Death Valley National Park, California. The temperature is still being verified, a process that could take months or even years but is expected to beat the previous record of 54C, also recorded in Death Valley in 2013.
Huge swathes of the American west, encompassing more than a third of the entire population, spent much of 2020 suffering through a historic drought alongside soaring temperatures. Las Vegas broke a 51-year record for the longest streak without rain, surpassing the 150 days recorded in 1959, with Utah also breaking records for lowest levels of precipitation in state history during the summer.
Throughout 2020 the world also saw its hottest ever January, September and November, with May tying with the previous monthly record set in 2016.
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Europe experienced its hottest autumn, with temperatures from September to November 1.9C hotter than the 30-year reference period from 1981 to 2010, while the entire northern hemisphere had its warmest summer ever.
The UK also saw an exceptionally hot August, with many local temperature records matched or broken during a prolonged heatwave. According to Carbon Brief, the highest UK temperatures in August 2020 were around 12C above the long-term August average for 1981 to 2010, with the peak temperature of 36.4C recorded at Heathrow on August 7.
The record temperature for the UK, 38.7C in Cambridge, July 2019, remained unchanged in 2020.
During August temperatures exceeding 34C were recorded in the UK for six days in a row and five “tropical nights” (where the temperature stays above 20C overnight) were recorded, four of them consecutively.
Storms
The frequency and intensity of storms are worsened by climate change. The development of a storm, as Brimicombe explains, is usually linked with water vapour. Warmer seas mean more water vapour, increasing the chances of a storm.
2020 brought a record-breaking number of Atlantic storms, 30 of which were named and 12 of which made landfall in the United States, according to NOAA.
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Thirteen of these tropical storms officially developed into hurricanes, including six major hurricanes – meaning wind speeds surpassed 111mph.
While the pattern of hurricane season is well established in the Atlantic, Dr Elisabeth Stephens, an associate professor at the University of Reading specialising in early warning systems and forecasting of hydrometeorological hazards, explained that forecasters were seeing much more frequent instances of rapid intensification, meaning storms quickly become much more powerful, much faster than expected.
A group of people on a car drive through a mud-covered street with debris caused by Hurricane Iota's flooding on November 21 in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. Yoseph Amaya via Getty Images
Another phenomenon came to define the season, “two storms that follow each other on exactly the same track,” Stephens explained.
“We’ve had that in central America with Eta and Iota, two massive storms in terms of the impact, one after another, which was quite interesting but also extremely concerning.”
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The second of the two, Hurricane Iota, was record-breaking in its own right – the latest known Atlantic hurricane ever to reach Category Five intensity and only the second Atlantic hurricane of that intensity to form as late as November.
Iota eventually hit Nicaragua in mid-November as a Category Four hurricane, the strongest the nation had ever seen in November, weakening relatively quickly after making landfall.
Stephens said: “The forecast models are not very good at forecasting this rapid intensification, which means that we get maybe shorter lead times for weather warnings.
“We’ve seen them intensifying from just a tropical storm to Category Five hurricanes in a day [...] which puts a massive demand on the forecasting model.”
It wasn’t just the Atlantic that saw extreme conditions in 2020. Also in November, super typhoon Goni slammed into the Philippines, setting a new record for the strongest ever landfalling tropical cyclone, according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Centre (JTWC). (The Japan Meteorological Agency, recognised by the World Meteorological Organisation as the official agency for issuing typhoon forecasts in the northwestern Pacific, disputes this record.)
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Residents wade through a flooded street in the aftermath of Super Typhoon Goni on November 2 in Nabua, Philippines. Jes Aznar via Getty Images
May 2020 saw another record-breaking cyclone, this time hitting both Bangladesh and India. At its height super cyclone Amphan was the strongest storm ever to form in the Bay of Bengal.
More than two million people were evacuated from their homes ahead of the cyclone’s arrival, with Covid-safe measure implemented to try and mitigate the effects of the virus while evacuation procedures were carried out.
Fire
It might feel like a long time ago to those of us who weren’t there, but the Australian bushfires dominated the environmental news agenda in the first weeks of 2020.
Thirty-three people died during the prolonged disaster, with more than 3,000 homes destroyed. As terrifying images of the infernos spread across the world’s media, hundreds of millions of pounds were raised in response – with one fundraiser clocking in at the largest in Facebook’s history.
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Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology said as early as January 9: “The extensive and long-lived fires appear to be the largest in scale in the modern record in New South Wales, while the total area burnt appears to be the largest in a single recorded fire season for eastern Australia.”
Thick plumes of smoke rise from bushfires at the coast of East Gippsland, Victoria, Australia, January 4, 2020 in this aerial picture taken from AMSA Challenger jet. AMSA via REUTERS
As well as having a dramatic impact on the environment itself, the bushfires devastated wildlife in affected areas. A July report from the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) stated that the fires had killed or harmed three billion animals, describing it as one of the “worst wildlife disasters in modern history”.
According to the AFAC National Resource Sharing Centre, more than 17m hectares were burnt during the bushfires, with more than 80% of the World Heritage listed Greater Blue Mountains Area and 54% of the New South Wales components of the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia World Heritage property affected.
The autumn fires along the west coast of the US also proved record-breaking, with more than four million acres – an area larger than the entire state of Connecticut – destroyed in California alone. This figure is more than double the previous record for most land burnt in one year across the state.
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Firefighters with Cal Fire are enveloped in smoke as the Blue Ridge fire reaches homes on Hidden Glen Lane and Hidden Hills Road in Yorba Linda on Monday, October 26, 2020. MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images via Getty Images
One wildfire, referred to as the August Complex fire in the Mendocino national forest north of San Francisco, was the state’s first ever fire to surpass a million acres.
Before Covid-19, devastating wildfires in Brazil also featured at the top of the news agenda during 2019, accompanied by an outcry over the loss of parts of the incredibly ecologically sensitive Amazon rainforest.
But while it received just a fraction of the press attention, fires in 2020 were even more damaging that those in the previous year. Fires in the Amazon increased 13% in the first nine months of 2020 compared with 2019 and satellites in September recorded 32,017 hotspots in the rainforest, representing a 61% rise from the same month in 2019.
Devastating wildfires have also ravaged a part of the world known best for opposite conditions.
Usually associated with freezing winters, Siberia experienced abnormally high temperatures in 2020 and with it raging wildfires.
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Russia’s forest service said in July that there were nearly 300 wildfires blazing across the nation’s northern wilderness, with more than 150 of them left to burn due to their incredibly remote position rendering firefighting efforts incredibly expensive.
Greenpeace and local activists make their way through a Suzunsky forest next to the village of Shipunovo, 170 kms south from Siberian city of Novosibirsk on September 11, 2020, to extinguish a peat fire. ALEXANDER NEMENOV via Getty Images
The fires have been fuelled by incredibly high temperatures. In June the small Siberian town of Verkhoyansk, located within the Arctic circle, saw the highest Arctic temperature ever recorded: 38C.
The scale of the fires in Russia hadn’t even been anticipated by advanced forecasting models, Brimicombe said. “What we saw in Siberia this summer, we weren’t forecasting that to happen until mid-century.”
Rain
Beyond the more obvious devastation of the wildfires themselves, the catastrophic events also create what Stephens described as “cascading hazards” – in this case, a change to the structure of the soil that depletes its ability to handle rain.
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The phenomenon led to parts of Australia, some of which had been suffering through the worst of the bushfires even as the rain began, experiencing potentially life-threatening flash flooding.
The rain was the heaviest the country had seen in three decades, flooding homes, cutting tens of thousands off from power, and washing away stretches of beach.
Brimicombe said: “We’re going to see many more of them [extreme weather events] occurring one after another or all together and it’s going to be interesting to see how we adapt to that.
“We call them compound hazards, but that’s a new area of research that’s only just opening up and coming to the forefront of people’s minds.
“Before with compound hazards people would only talk about heatwaves and droughts together because they’re considered dry but now people are talking about heatwaves and flooding because you often see flash flooding or thunderstorms after a heatwave.”
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A pedestrian braves strong wind and rain in Sydney, New South Wales, February 9, 2020. Loren Elliott / Reuters
The UK saw its own record-breaking rainfall in 2020, with October 3 becoming the wettest recorded day in the nation’s history. According to the Met Office, enough rain fell in just one day to fill Loch Ness – a total of 7.5 cubic kilometres.
From the end of 2019 to February 2020 the nation was battered by a prolonged stretch of wet weather, with three successive storms – Ciara, Dennis and Jorge – causing severe flooding and killing several people.
Flood water covers train track as at a railway crossing in Snaith, northern England on March 1, 2020 after Storm Jorge brought more rain and flooding to parts of the UK. OLI SCARFF via Getty Images
The floods themselves also proved record-breaking, with the largest number of flood warnings and alerts ever put in place at one time by the Environment Agency – 594.
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Nine rivers across the country saw record levels, flooding homes, businesses and rendering entire landscapes unrecognisable.
Southern India was also devastated by record rainfall, with 16 people killed in the city of Hyderabad in August – nine when a wall fell and crushed a row of homes.
What next?
Scientists have known for years that climate change will worsen extreme weather events, and experts have long sought ways to mitigate the most devastating impacts – improving forecasting techniques and designing new humanitarian strategies such as evacuation or warning systems to prevent loss of life.
Governments around the world have also spent years establishing their response to global health threats such as Covid-19, but the emergence of the virus has brought the compound pressures of environmental crises and a pandemic into sharp relief.
Whereas once the two may have been thought of as separate entities, 2020 has revealed how closely interwoven they truly are, and how much work needs to be done to ensure two (or more) emergency responses can work alongside each other in the future.
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A couch is pictured in the aftermath of Hurricane Iota in Bilwi, Nicaragua, November 27. Oswaldo Rivas / Reuters
Stephens said: “Evacuation shelters are designed for a certain number of people and then Covid comes along – then suddenly you have to change all that. It changes all sort of preparations, and the two are then interlinked in terms of how we think about resilience.”
Time and again, the scientists and experts leading our monitoring of, and response to, the threats posed by climate change have made it clear that we are not prepared for what’s coming.
But amid the destruction wrought by Covid, the global effort to find a vaccine has provided something of a hopeful model for how climate change could be tackled – if only it were responded to with a similar level of urgency.
Brimicombe said: “We’re not prepared. They [extreme weather events] are impacting humans now. We know with climate change they are increasing and they are going to be incredibly impactful with a bigger risk.
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-30--Oxford/AstraZeneca Coronavirus Vaccine Approved For Use In The UK

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The coronavirus vaccine created by Oxford University and pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has been approved for use in the UK, paving the way for rapid rollout, the Department of Health said.
Health secretary Matt Hancock said the development was “fantastic news” and confirmed that the rollout would begin on January 4.
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He added he was “highly confident” enough people would be vaccinated by the spring “that we can now see the route out of this pandemic” but warned there is still “a difficult few weeks ahead”.
“We can see the pressures right now on the NHS and it is absolutely critical that people follow the rules and do everything they can to stop the spread, particularly of the new variant of this virus that transmits so much faster, he said.
“But we also know that there is a route out of this. The vaccine provides that route out. We have all just got to hold our nerve over the weeks to come.”
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AstraZeneca said it aimed to supply millions of doses in the first quarter of next year as part of an agreement with the government to supply up to 100 million.
The company’s chief executive Pascal Soriot said: “Today is an important day for millions of people in the UK who will get access to this new vaccine. It has been shown to be effective, well-tolerated, simple to administer and is supplied by AstraZeneca at no profit.”
Professor Andrew Hayward, professor of infectious diseases epidemiology at University College London, told BBC Breakfast the vaccine not needing to be stored at the cold temperatures required for the Pfizer vaccine would make “an enormous difference”.
He said: “It means that all of the centres that would normally get involved in vaccination, all the GP practices, as well as more simple community centres, for example, can get involved in the vaccine.
“It means we can take the vaccine to where it’s needed, rather than bringing people in to the limited places where we can deliver it.
“So it should make for a step change and it should also allow us to reach out to the most affected communities.”
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Brilliant to end 2020 with such a moment of hope: the @UniofOxford / @AstraZeneca #coronavirus vaccine has today been authorised for use by @mhragovuk
The #coronavirus vaccine is our way out of the pandemic - now we need to hold our nerve while we get through this together. — Matt Hancock (@MattHancock) December 30, 2020
Studies have shown the vaccine to have an average efficacy rate of 70% – though this rose to 90% when half a dose, followed by a full dose, was given to trial participants.
The Oxford jab is the second vaccine to be given the seal of approval by experts at the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), who assess vaccines for safety, quality and effectiveness.
The MHRA authorised the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for use in the UK at the start of December.
The independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) is set to publish its latest advice for the priority groups to receive the vaccine.
But it has also advised the government to prioritise giving as many “at-risk” people their first dose, rather than giving out the required two doses in as short a time as possible.
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-30--50 Times Schitt's Creek Epitomised 2020 For All Of Us

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Thanks to a mixture of word of mouth during lockdown and its clean sweep at the Emmys, Schitt’s Creek has enjoyed an explosion in popularity in 2020.
And for millions of us, it has been the binge-worthy boxset that has seen us through the dark times of the last 12 months.
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But what you might not have realised is that the Canadian sitcom – about a family of five forced to live in close proximity to each other under stressful circumstances – has basically epitomised all of our years in many, many ways...
1. When someone mentioned the word “coronavirus” in January
2. And we slowly watched the virus make its way across Europe
3. It quickly became apparent that life was going to change
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4. Panic buyers started stripping the shelves of loo roll and pasta
5. The prime minister when he announced the first lockdown
6. And us, when he told the nation that the UK would be over Covid in three months
7. When every concert, festival and live event was suddenly cancelled
8. And everyone suddenly became very invested in the story of Carole Baskin and Joe Exotic on Netflix
9. When we were forced to have our first Covid haircut
10. When we stood outside on our doorsteps every Thursday at 8pm
11. When the NHS put out a call for volunteers
12. Every time the government backtracked on a decision as they blundered their way through the pandemic
13. When Dominic Cummings turned up at Barnard Castle
14. And then gave the most half-arsed excuse for his little trip on live TV
15. When we were invited to our 157th Zoom quiz
16. Whenever anyone asked if you’d taken up a new hobby or learned something about yourself in lockdown
17. That one time we bothered to get changed out of our pyjamas and brush our hair
18. Every journalist in every one of Boris Johnson’s press conferences
19. When the government changed the Covid messaging from ‘Stay at home, save lives, protect the NHS’ to ‘Stay alert, control the virus, save lives’
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20. When “Dishy Rishi” became a thing
21. When conspiracy theories started spreading on Facebook
22. When single people were allowed a support bubble and got their first hug in months
23. Before going in pursuit of...
24. When we emerged from the first lockdown
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25. And we were finally allowed to see our friends and family again
26. The non-essential shops reopened
27. And the pubs. Oh, the pubs
28. And there was outrage at how busy ‘Super Saturday’ was
29. When Eat Out To Help Out was announced
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30. What we subsequently ate for every meal for the whole month of August
31. And we could finally book a summer holiday
32. But then you had to self-isolate for two weeks when you got home
33. When the second wave hit
34. And the new tiering system was announced with all the rule variations
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35. When Matt Hancock told us it was actually illegal to have sex with someone we didn’t live with
36. When we entered a second national lockdown
37. And the pubs and restaurants closed again
38. But we were distracted by the US election and the prospect of Trump being voted out
39. What the people of the United States told Trump on 7 November
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40. But then he threatened not leave the White House
41. Seriously
42. When several rich and famous types started breaking the rules
43. For a long time, it has felt like there was never going to be a way out
44. Because this is basically how we’ve all felt every night since March
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45. But then the news of the vaccine was announced
46. And plans for the rollout began
47. But then the government announced Tier 4 and cancelled Christmas for millions and threw plans for millions of others into disarray
48. However, it’s important to remember there is now light at the end of the tunnel, and we must not forget just how far we’ve come
49. To think, what would 2019 us have made of it all?


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-30--28 Showbiz Fails From 2020 We're Still Cringing At

2020 has been one giant fail in its own right, but it wouldn’t be a year in showbiz without some classic celebrity f*** ups too.
So get ready for your jaws to drop and toes to curl again as we bring you the year’s most memorable (for all the wrong reasons) fails from the world of entertainment...
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This Morning viewer wins a holiday... to her hometown
Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby were left red-faced (and giggling, obviously) when the first ever game of Spin To Win gifted viewer Anne with an all-expenses paid trip to Edinburgh.
Sounds lovely, right? Except Anne lives in the Scottish capital.
This Morning ITV
Stormzy forget to take his slippers off before BBC Breakfast appearance
“I know… do you know what it is, I forgot. No I actually forgot. I’m an idiot.”
We think he owned it.
Stormzy BBC
Beyoncé’s latest Ivy Park collection looked ever so familiar
And the designs didn’t go unnoticed by a certain supermarket brand.
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Wendy Williams ‘farts’ on TV. Blames it on a fish tank hose OBVIOUSLY.
Wendy Williams was renamed “Windy Williams” after seemingly passing wind live on her US daytime talk show. The moment soon went viral across the globe but Wendy subsequently tried to claim that the story was a load of guff, coming up with an elaborate explanation as to why a parp-like sound could be heard on her show.
After claiming that someone must have “superimposed” a fart sound over the video, one of the show’s crew came forward with an even more unexpected version of events. “We were filling up a fish tank backstage and we didn’t have the proper hose. Air was just coming out and it was sputtering like someone was farting. So that’s what it was. It wasn’t Wendy!”
Okaaaaaay.
Wendy Williams really farted on live TV.
I am unable. pic.twitter.com/rZBLijgauZ — Hussy Tears™ (@RandyEmillio) January 19, 2020
Toothpick for Nick Jonas
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Well at least we know the singer eats his greens.
Is Nick Jonas on the #GRAMMYs stage with spinach or something in his teeth?!? pic.twitter.com/BKWREj4U3l — Nicole Perez (@nicole_perez1) January 27, 2020
The Pussycat Dolls suffer unfortunate tech mishap live on The One Show
Nicole and the girls were all dressed up and had nowhere to go.
Gal Gadot and friends try to lift the world’s spirits. Fail.
We’re sure Gal Gadot had the very best intentions when she and her Hollywood mates recorded themselves singing lines from John Lennon’s Imagine in a bid to lift our spirits during the coronavirus crisis. But talk about failing to read the room.
Still, at least Joe Lycett was on hand to offer a far more suitable alternative...
Made a video with some friends pic.twitter.com/12DV9DU1Ep — Joe Lycett (@joelycett) March 19, 2020
Rita Ora was all of us exercising at home
When she wasn’t breaking Covid-19 safety rules and partying with her mates, Rita Ora could be found demonstrating how not to exercise at home.
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Your first laugh of the day courtesy of @RitaOra 😂 pic.twitter.com/Y3oxuNWLAu — Greg James (@gregjames) March 30, 2020
John Torode starts kitchen fire live on This Morning
Things nearly ended in genuine disaster when John Torode fronted This Morning’s cooking section live from his own kitchen when a tea towel caught fire behind him – not that John noticed until a panicking Phillip Schofield started shouting at him to turn around.
Phew.
Oops! Britney burns her gym down
In April, the chart-topping singer revealed she’d been unable to use her home workout room, because she accidentally burned it down.
Britney admitted that the gym had caught fire after she lit “two candles” and “one thing led to another”.
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Oh Brit, and we thought we’d heard every excuses for getting out of doing exercise...
Tim Lovejoy takes a tumble on Sunday Brunch
Listen, we know it’s not big or clever to laugh at people falling over, but sometimes it sure is funny. Sunday Brunch presenter Tim Lovejoy had a spectacular tumble back in June and because of social distancing, his helpless co-host Simon couldn’t even help the poor chap.
Did you hear about the time Howard Donald didn’t meet David Bowie?
Back in July, the Take That star shared a black-and-white picture from a fan page on his Instagram feed showing the late music legend with his arms draped around himself and his bandmate Mark Owen.
“I was very nervous meeting David Bowie,” Howard captioned the snap. “I’m not so comfortable around other famous people and can get star struck quite easily, but he was so normal and down to earth which made me feel at ease.”
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But one Twitter user pointed out that the photo in question looked as though it had been doctored, and that Bowie’s face had actually been edited over Howard’s bandmate Gary Barlow.
Carol Kirkwood gets her doggers and joggers mixed up
Carol Kirkwood was basking in the early morning sunshine in Greenwich Park, back in August but unfortunately all that heat seemed to have a bit of an effect on the BBC Breakfast weather presenter when she got her words mixed up.
“Look at it,” she told viewers as the camera took a panoramic view of the London skyline. “The sun is beating down. We’ve seen lots of doggers.”
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In a royal park, Carol? Surely not?
Yet further proof that @carolkirkwood is a National Treasure pic.twitter.com/Q2uzv9mtl5 — Greg James (@gregjames) August 10, 2020
Nudist Reveals a little too much live on This Morning
This Morning viewers – and hosts Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby – got a lot more than they bargained for when a nudist revealed a little more than was strictly allowed before the 9pm watershed.
Roving reporter Josie Gibson paid a visit to a naturist site but while various items were used to protect the modesty of those around her, one chap standing behind a car door wasn’t quite positioned correctly and ended up flashing his bits and bobs to the entire nation.
BBC Breakfast’s Charlie Stayt throws weather presenter under the bus ahead of Rick Astley interview
When Charlie asked weather presenter Matt Taylor if he was a fan of the Never Gonna Give You Up singer, he replied: “Errr, not a massive one.”
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Unfortunately for a clearly oblivious Matt, Rick was already live. Awks.
I love @MetMattTaylor. Great recovery after being thrown under the bus by Charlie Stayt pic.twitter.com/oQQ1dHVDLb — Greg James (@gregjames) September 22, 2020
“Former Health Secretary Alan Johnson joins us down the line from hell.”
Emily Maitlis’ unfortunate slip of the tongue on Newsnight back in September was so 2020. The presenter was introducing former health secretary Alan Johnson who was appearing via video link from Hull.
Except Emily didn’t introduce him quite as he was expecting.
“Former Health Secretary Alan Johnson joins us down the line from hell [laughs] Hull,” she said, before adding: “I’m never going to recover from that now am I?”
Gold.
“We join Alan Johnson down the line from hell ... I mean HULL.” pic.twitter.com/JLNhDpic6L — Scott Bryan (@scottygb) September 22, 2020
Bake Off fly causes cake carnage
There were tense scenes as The Great British Bake Off returned to screens in September as the tent witnessed one of its worst disasters ever in the opening episode.
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Viewers of the hit Channel 4 show had their hearts in their mouths, following an incident involving contestants Sura and Dave, a pesky fly and a tray of pineapple upside-down cakes.
Accidents happen, but try telling Dave’s face that.
Accidents happen - poor Dave and poor Sura. And spare a thought for the tent carpet too! #GBBO pic.twitter.com/S4s4oqCyMt — British Bake Off (@BritishBakeOff) September 22, 2020
Chris Pratt fails to read the room with ill-timed joke about voting
Just weeks before the most important US presidential race of a lifetime, Guardians Of The Galaxy star Chris Pratt poked fun at celebrities who use their platforms for good with a joke about the People Choice Awards, urging his fans to vote for his film, Onward.
The actor, who has kept out of the political fray for most of his career, received immediate and swift backlash from his followers, who reminded him of what was at stake in the US election.
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Dancing With The Stars suffers huge live gaffe as wrong bottom couple is announced
As far as live gaffes go, the US version of Strictly Come Dancing was up there with the best of them earlier this year. There was chaos as the results were revealed on Dancing With The Stars, which saw one couple told they were safe, only to later be told they were actually in the bottom two.
Cue host Tyra Banks desperately trying to reconcile the error. Crrrrriiiinge.
Gemma Collins launches sweatshirt range… complete with massive typo
Que? Get Susie Dent on the phone!
Gemma Collins Instagram
Actually, maybe don’t...
Countdown’s dictionary corner expert said she was “gutted” after her book - the ironically titled Word Perfect - was published with a series of typos.
Thank you to everyone for supporting my book. I've just discovered that the initial printing used a pre-edited text. I'm so sorry about this. I'll be in touch as soon as I can with details on how we're going to fix it. — Susie Dent (@susie_dent) October 1, 2020
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Today I can testify to the effectiveness of 'lalochezia': the use of swearing to alleviate stress and frustration. — Susie Dent (@susie_dent) October 1, 2020
Gogglebox star finds out the hard way that children and mini vacuum cleaners do not mix
Things got seriously (ahem) hairy for Gogglebox star Julie Malone when she had an unfortunate encounter with a mini vacuum cleaner and her own grandson. Things took an unexpected turn when the toddler struggled to hold the device, and ended up pointing it at his grandmother’s head, when this happened…
Margaret Thatcher tweets from beyond the grave
The former PM died in 2013 but that didn’t stop BBC News presenter Matthew Amroliwala highlighting a tweet about the US election... from Maggie.
BREAKING: Margaret Thatcher is now tweeting from the grave via @BBCNews pic.twitter.com/H95warH4dA — Michael Andrews (@mytentoryours) November 4, 2020
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A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away... a man in a t-shirt and jeans
The collapse of the Empire seems to have been especially hard on dress codes as eagle-eyed fans of The Mandalorian spotted someone definitely out of uniform in one episode of the Star Wars franchise.
As Mando and crew invaded an old Imperial base in Chapter 12: The Siege, someone could be seen pressed up against a wall... decked out in jeans, T-shirt and a wristwatch.
The intruder has since been edited out.
TV news programme was forced to apologise after stating the very-much-alive Bob Dylan had died
The Australian Today show referred to the legendary musician as the “late singer” during a segment about the auction of some of his documents.
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Beverley Callard inadvertently insults Splash! host Vernon Kay on I’m A Celebrity
Poor @beverleycallard really put her foot in it insulting one of @vernonkay's most successful TV shows! 😂🙊 #ImACeleb pic.twitter.com/E8UG17snSn — I'm A Celebrity... (@imacelebrity) November 24, 2020
Director forgets to mute Zoom call. Insults actor’s home.
British director Tristram Shapeero issued a grovelling apology after it was revealed it was his voice that could be heard insulting Euphoria actor Lukas Gage’s apartment as he prepared for a Zoom audition.
“These poor people live in these tiny apartments,” the voice is heard saying. “Like I’m looking at his background, and he’s got his TV and you know...”
At this point, Lukas interrupts, stating: “I know, it’s a shitty apartment. That’s why give me this job, so I can get a better one!”
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Posting the video on social media, Lukas joked: “PSA: If you’re a shit talking director make sure to mute ur shit on zoom meetings.”
psa if youre a shit talking director make sure to mute ur shit on zoom mtgings pic.twitter.com/PTgMZcRhEw — lukas gage (@lukasgage) November 20, 2020
James Martin meets his match with a blender


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-30--Mae Muller: 'I Thought This Was The Year All The Grafting Was Going To Pay Off'

In a year when it’s probably never been more difficult to be a young singer on the rise, it’s fair to say that Mae Muller rose to the occasion.
At the beginning of 2020, the future was looking especially rosy for the London-based singer-songwriter. She was coming off the back of a successful year supporting Little Mix on their UK tour, gearing up to release her most exciting new material to date and hit the road for a string of her biggest headlining shows to date.
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Spoiler alert: That’s not quite what ended up happening. But with live music out of the question, and promotional opportunities for emerging artists hugely reduced due to the pandemic, Mae still managed to make the most of 2020.
Mae Muller has made the most of 2020, a year that has seen live music as we know it come to a standstill Buzz White
This year has seen her release the EP No One Else Not Even You, self-shooting her I Don’t Want Your Money music video and even managing to go ahead with her hometown show at London’s Kentish Town Forum (albeit quite differently to how she envisaged it).
All this while juggling the life of any other 23-year-old in lockdown, including competitive Zoom quizzes, nights in with the family and, y’know, moments of total existential dread.
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As part of HuffPost UK’s new interview series 2020: The Year That Wasn’t, we spoke to Mae about how this year has changed her outlook on making music and the moments she feared her “career was over” already...
Thinking back to January, how did you feel looking ahead to 2020?
I thought that it was going to be the best year of my life, to be honest. I think everyone kind of felt that, though – everyone felt really optimistic. But for me, I thought it was the year that all the grafting and the hustle was all going to pay off, when really, this year was actually the year we’ve done the most hustling and the most grafting.
So it was certainly different to what I thought it was going to be, but I do consider myself lucky that I’ve still been able to make music and spend time with family. I guess I’ve tried to see the positive side… but no, it was definitely not what I expected.
Mae Muller performing at Heaven, London, just one month before the UK went into lockdown Scott Garfitt/Shutterstock
How did lockdown affect what you already had planned for the year?
It affected things hugely. I was meant to go on tour, it was going to be my biggest headline tour ever, which obviously didn’t happen. But also, the way I like to make music is so collaborative and I like being in the room with other people, and that was sort of taken away. And that was very difficult for me, because I felt pressure to try and come up with things all by myself… and it’s hard to feel inspired when you’re just sitting in the house doing nothing.
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At the beginning of lockdown I wanted to do all these things and learn all these new skills… and then I was just like ‘do you know what? We’re in a pandemic. Stop putting pressure on yourself to do all this stuff. If you need a day where you just lie in bed feeling sorry for yourself, that’s OK’. Literally nobody on this earth has been through this before, so how the hell are you meant to suddenly know what to do, and how to act?
Sometimes I did get up and pull myself together and get stuff done, but other days, I was like, ‘I’m going to lie in bed and re-watch The Office because that is how I’m feeling’.
How did you make it work in 2020, and what are you most proud of?
I made a music video while I was in lockdown, which was... interesting. I literally filmed it on my iPhone. I think at the beginning, I was so overwhelmed and kind of a little bit panicked by that idea, because usually you have a whole team around you helping and then suddenly it was just me. But then we did it, and I shot it, and I’m actually really, really proud of it.
Also, just the fact that when lockdown finished, I was straight back into the studio again. I was a bit scared that I would be uninspired because what the hell have we been doing the past few months? Nothing!
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But I’ve had a lot of time to think, and the stuff that I was writing about before, I just didn’t really feel like that anymore. And the things that were important to me before this time aren’t as important now, and things that I felt were less important are way more important.
My whole mindset kind of changed, and so my songwriting has changed a little bit. Having to think about what you want to say and who you are makes a big difference.
What was the one thing that kept you going during lockdown?
It sounds cliché, but it was my family. And friends. Togetherness. You forget just how important the people that you choose to have around you are. Sometimes I’d be feeling so low, and I’d give my friend a call, and it was just that basic thing of human interaction, it kind of made me realise how important that is to all of us. And so that kind of kept me afloat.
I was lucky enough to be locked down with my dad and my brothers, so I didn’t feel too lonely. If I’d been on my own it would have been a very different story. The people that I love really carried me through that. And it was so sweet, when I released I Don’t Want Your Money during lockdown, my dad threw me a little release party – he had, like, snacks and music playing, I was just like ‘oh my goodness, my family is amazing’. It just made me think, ‘what would I do without them?’.
Mae on the set of her Dependent music video, shot and released in 2020 Harry Pill
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But of course, when you’re stuck in the house with the same people, it’s important to talk to other people too. Because no matter how much you love that person or those people that you’re locked down with, being with the same people for three months and not leaving the house is intense – it doesn’t matter how well you get on. So it was important that I kept that communication open with my friends.
We did some drunk Zoom quizzes, which were always a lot of fun. I remember when it was my turn to make the Zoom quiz, and when I say I’ve never worked so hard on something in my life, I mean it. You would think it was my university coursework or something, I was dedicated. I spent hours on it, because it was the only thing I had going on.
What did you find to be the biggest challenge or lowest point of the year?
The music industry has been hit hard – obviously for artists, it’s awful not being able to tour, but then when you think of all the crew and all the people that work behind the scenes. As an artist, at least we have other ways of keeping ourselves busy, but the people that actually work on these shows, my heart really, really went out to them.
And I think just the uncertainty of it all [was a challenge]. I’m already quite an anxious person in terms of thinking ‘I need to be doing this, this and this, and I’ve achieved this but I need to be onto the next thing now’, so for that to all come to a stop, it was hard. I had a few moments where I was like ‘my career is over’... but I just had to bring myself out of that hole of dread and be like, ‘there are other ways of doing things’.
But I look back on that now and think I’m lucky that those were only my lowest points, because this has affected people’s lives in an unimaginably painful way, so I think you have to measure it, and my friends and family are all healthy and safe. You have to count your blessings.
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"It’s going to have that next level element of magic to it. It’s going to go off," Mae says of her next live shows. Buzz White
What’s the biggest lesson that you’re taking away from 2020?
To just take each day as it comes. Don’t ever think you know how something is going to pan out, because you have no idea in this life. And strive to meet your goals, but be flexible, because things can happen. And that’s what it’s taught everyone... you have to be able to move with the times, and that was a big lesson.
How do you feel now looking ahead to 2021?
I feel hopeful, I really, really do. And I think that people’s mindsets are starting to change and I feel like we can sort of start maybe planning what we had to miss out on in 2020, which is really exciting.
And I’m just excited to finally go on tour… Playing live is my favourite thing, and it is my way of connecting with my supporters – it was a safe space for them, and it was a safe space for me too! So to not have that kind of comfort was hard.
But I just have to think that when it does happen, and when I can play this EP, it will have been out for a pretty long time, so everyone will be so excited to hear the songs live. So it’s going to have that next level element of magic to it. It’s going to go off.
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Mae Muller’s latest EP, No One Else Not Even You, is available to download and stream now.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-30--What A Year Of Staring At Our Own Faces On Zoom Has Done To Us

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Your colleague is making an interesting point, but it’s not as fascinating as that wrinkle on your forehead that creases when you concentrate.
This year, we’ve spent an unholy amount of time staring at our own reflections on Zoom calls, Microsoft Teams, Google Hangouts and FaceTime. We should be listening to our friends, family or colleagues on these calls, but instead, we’ve become mesmerised by our own faces. If you can’t relate, you’re either an angel or you’re in denial.
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“People are inherently interested in themselves and can’t help but look,” says psychotherapist Dr Aaron Balick.
“Until recently, who had the opportunity to see their own reflections back to themselves while reacting live to what’s happening around them? This interest in one’s own face is universal, but it’s also distracting, and if you’re focusing on yourself, you are not giving people your undivided attention, which can be a problem.”
Me on a Zoom call pretending I’m listening and not just looking at myself
pic.twitter.com/NzcZhZQvIt — Hannah Tindle (@hannahtindle) November 16, 2020
This high level of exposure to our own physicality is not a natural behaviour or experience, adds Counselling Directory member Dee Johnson.
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“Normally we can spend so much time avoiding, deleting or editing a single photograph that we feel uncomfortable and self-critical over, yet here we are in a spotlight, observing in real time, with no ability to alter and edit ourselves,” she says. “It’s a bit like watching something that we know feels awful, but we just cannot stop staring.”
When someone else is talking, you may be drawn to your own reflection as a “subconscious checking response”, adds Johnson – by which we’re checking to make sure we’re presenting and responding well. Conversely, we’re also accustomed to focusing on the person who is speaking in any social situation, so when it’s our turn to talk on a video call, we may also be drawn to looking at – yes, you’ve guessed it – our own reflection.
The result, is that many of us have been staring at our own faces for most of our calls, most of the year. And month after month of this behaviour has the potential to alter our sense of self – something that’s been shifting in recent years anyway due to social media.
“We are now very used to seeing images of ourselves either via selfies or photos on other people’s feeds. The self referential nature of everyday life is growing all the time,” says Dr Balick. “I think that now more than ever we are aware of how we appear to others and are conscious of that most of the time.”
insta_photos via Getty Images
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How this affects our self-esteem or body image will be directly related to our pre-existing underlying self-perception.
“Confronting one’s image over and over again can exacerbate that existing self-concept,” adds Dr Balick, “whether it continues to inflate narcissism on the one hand, or contributes to negative comparison on the other.”
The cultural shift towards video calls will have been particularly difficult for those with pre-existing body image issues or hang-ups. People who would historically have preferred to be the picture taker rather than the subject now have no choice – everyone must be seen.
“Body image issues are never about vanity, we are our harshest critics,” says Johnson. “It’s like having an internal bully, picking ourselves apart, comparing us to others, feeling resentful, believing that we are not good enough.”
fizkes via Getty Images
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Observing ourselves in real-time – perhaps looking flustered, red faced, nervous or confused in a meeting – has caused some of us to become harsher in our self-observations.
“Where normally it may be a quick check in the mirror – and even that may only be checking a part of your body, like hair or no spinach in your teeth – it feels constant, raw and often overwhelming and anxiety provoking.”
This year has also triggered new body image issues for some people. Johnson has heard from clients worried about being too fat or too thin for the first time, focusing on certain facial features, or how their voice sounds.
“Clients have shared with me that they have faked IT issues or sickness so as not to attend a webcam meeting, thus adding more fear and shame in case they get found out,” she says. Those struggling should seek professional support where possible, Johnson adds.
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Staring at our own reflections has impacted our relationship with ourselves, but it also has the potential to impact our relationships with others.
“While I don’t think it’s a major source of miscommunication or relationship breakdown, it is one of the many variables that make dialogue today rich with a variety of distractions that diminish interpersonal complexity, which is so important for our psychological and emotional wellbeing,” says Dr Balick.
An obvious solution to all of this may be to simply hide your own image on video calls (an option on most programmes and apps). But Johnson suggests it might be more helpful longterm to “challenge this avoidance”, learn about yourself and tackle your inner critic like a bully.
“Try and ignore it, as like a bully it’s coming from a distorted insecure place,” she says. “It has no depth, it feels painful, so don’t give it energy.”
Being honest about feeling uncomfortable on screen could also be a positive step, as it’ll invite others to share their experiences. You may discover you’re not alone. You can also re-wire your perception with some gratitude. When a negative thought looms, bat it away with a positive observation, such as “I have a job”, or “I have friends and family to connect with”.
Now is a good time to refresh our basic social skills with a new year’s resolution to try focusing on who is actually speaking during calls, and make a concerted effort to maintain eye contact with audience members when you’re speaking.
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“Remember, in a real time situation you would not hold and stare into a mirror in a meeting, a night out with friends or a support group, so get an image of yourself doing this and switch your focus back to being natural,” says Johnson.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-30--50 Tweets From Introverts That Perfectly Sum Up 2020

The Covid-19 pandemic has made 2020 a year we will undoubtedly never forget. For introverts, the amount of time spent at home and navigating new social constructs certainly led to its share of challenges and triumphs.
We’ve rounded up 50 of the most relatable tweets from introverts on how they’ve been dealing with this new reality — from their experiences with social distancing and wearing face masks to never-ending Zoom calls and being at home 24/7.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-30--My Dog Went Mega-Viral And Became A Beloved Meme. Then She Suddenly Died.

Courtesy of Chris Stedman "Living alone, with me working from the tiny studio apartment we shared, Tuna and I became inseparable," the author writes.
For six years I shared my life, on- and offline, with Tuna.
In 2014, after coming across her picture on a website where animal rescues list dogs in need of a home, I showed her to my boyfriend Alex. “We’ll see,” he said. A week or two later, the rescue was hosting a pop-up event at a chain pet supply store, so we went to go see her.
Alex wasn’t convinced until we met her offline, but I was sure the moment I saw her picture — especially her cartoon-glossy eyes, one a bit more closed than the other (a harbinger of future eye problems). I knew right away that Tuna (though that wasn’t her name then) was the dog I wanted to bring home.
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Tuna, however, shared my boyfriend’s hesitance. Not specifically about us, but about everything. I think that’s why I was drawn to her ― it wasn’t her eyes, but what I saw in them. They reflected so much of my own anxiety, my fears about almost everything.
In our first months together, I patiently tried to teach her to become less afraid, more sure of herself and, with this increased confidence, more herself. As I coaxed her down a staircase that scared her, placing a treat on each step and showering her in ear-scratches at the end of a successful descent, I had no idea that I would end up needing her to do the same for me. I didn’t know then that she would help me find myself, too — or how big a role the internet would play in what our relationship would become.
For our first few years together, I only posted photos of Tuna occasionally. I kept my social media dispatches largely focused on professional updates, just as I had for most of my 20s. But then my life fell apart. My relationship came undone, the job that I’d considered my career summit ended, and Tuna and I moved back to my home state after nearly a decade living far away. Years of financial instability, career uncertainty, and health challenges followed, uprooting my sense of who I was and what gave my life meaning — and, along with it, the online “brand” that had developed around my career as a writer and activist.
As the brand fell away, the boundaries around what I “should” or “shouldn’t” share online, a question I’d fretted over for years, went with it. I started posting more about my life as it was, rather than worrying about how it should appear.
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This coincided with a shift in my relationship with Tuna. Living alone, with me working from the tiny studio apartment we shared, Tuna and I became inseparable. If I went to a friend’s house, she usually came along (often at their insistence). We spent hours on walks every day, even on the coldest days of Minnesota winter. And when one of my best friends died by suicide last December, Tuna — usually more aloof than the average dog — snuggled me every night and, when I inevitably couldn’t sleep, got up and walked with me through the dark streets of Minneapolis at four in the morning.
As we grew closer, she became so much of what I shared online — everyday Instagram stories of her chewing on sticks or sleeping with one paw in the air, but also bigger personal and professional updates, like a photo of her posing with the advance copies of my second book.
Tuna worked her way into more and more of my social media output, and online strangers started expressing how much they cared for her and about her. Seemingly mundane Tuna posts — photos of her stalking squirrels, or videos of her standing on her hind legs so she could see the baristas behind the counter of our neighbourhood coffee shop — started getting more responses than just about anything else I shared.
Her online popularity underscored something that grew clearer the closer we became: Tuna wasn’t really my dog. Or rather, she wasn’t only mine. She belonged to herself, and to a community. This community was made up of the employees at the neighbourhood coffee shop, meat market, and hardware store, who all spoiled her so much that she insisted we stop at each one multiple times a day; the friends who watched her when I traveled for work, whom she loved so much that she would tug me in the direction of their apartments on our walks; and a group of people who had never even met her, who knew her only through my posts on social media.
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This last community, the online one, was so much larger than I even knew, in part because of something that happened just earlier this year. While she’d had a doting following for years, Tuna’s moderate online presence reached new heights when a video of her appearing to watch one of the Democratic presidential primary debates (and wagging her tail as Sen. Bernie Sanders spoke) went viral. This video was viewed nearly a million times, and soon Tuna began appearing in memes and on political T-shirts. Journalists asked about her, and eventually, incredibly, even the Sanders campaign itself reached out to set up a meeting between Tuna and Jane Sanders (I was her plus-one, but all eyes were obviously on Tuna in that meeting). She even got her own fancam.
Loved meeting Tuna, the dog! Thanks for your support @ChrisDStedman! pic.twitter.com/Fun3cWCAvs — Jane O'Meara Sanders (@janeosanders) February 21, 2020
There are countless cute dogs online, but even before Tuna went viral, people interacted with her posts in a way that felt different to me. They seemed invested in her life, her happiness, and our relationship. But I didn’t know how true that was until one of the worst days of my life.
Less than six months after her biggest viral moment yet, at six-years-old, Tuna died suddenly. One afternoon in July she had a seizure, her first ever, and in just over 24 hours went from seemingly fine to dying in my arms. My sweet girl — who had grown from a skittish little lump of fur into a remarkable creature with a mind of her own, who could command the attention of a busy coffee shop or a crowded Twitter timeline — was reduced to lying limply on her side beneath a Christmas-themed fleece blanket provided by the animal hospital, her nose dry, her breathing rapid and shallow, those glassy eyes dulled and faintly opening only when I whispered to her: This will be over soon. I’m so sorry. I love you so much. Thank you for changing my life.
The next morning, after maybe two hours of sleep, I posted a couple of photos and a brief caption sharing what had happened. I was in shock, unsure how to express what I was feeling, but felt I should say something. I had shared so much of her life, it seemed wrong not to say something about her death.
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I didn’t expect what I got ― 10,000 likes and hundreds of replies to the first tweet alone, and more on others I posted later. It wasn’t the numbers that struck me, but the intensity of the response. The emotion behind it. It was so much more than comments: People were creating art and recording music celebrating Tuna’s life, sharing memories of her, expressing how sad they were. As I absorbed the shock of losing her, online strangers memorialised and grieved with me.
How was it that so many people who had never even met her were lighting candles for her, holding toasts with their loved ones in her honor, even talking to their therapists about her? Though Tuna never knew about them — people always remarked with a laugh that she had no clue she was famous — in death it became clear how real the love of her online community was.
People often suggest that the connections we forge online aren’t real, or are at least less real than those we make offline, just as they suggest that our relationships with dogs are somehow less significant. But I think how we describe our relationships and contexts informs how we treat them, and helps define what’s possible of them.
If we treat our digital lives, and the connections we make through them, as less real, then they will be. If we treat a relationship with a dog as less real, that dog will be nothing more than an accessory, decor for our homes or Instagram feeds. But I’ve found that some of my greatest connections and relationships have been forged online, and that one of the defining relationships of my life has been with a beautiful dog with whom I shared my life and my online identity.
For years, friends suggested I make Tuna her own social media profile — in other words, that I give her a clearly defined “brand” like the one I once had. Sincerely no offence to people who do this, some of whom I know and love very much, but I sometimes find those profiles a bit corny. I’d say that was why when asked, but the truth is that I saw our identities as inseparable.
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Courtesy of Chris Stedman The author and Tuna.
In the years following the end of the relationship during which I adopted her, I had to figure out who I was in a new life. Tuna helped me find it, and we became something new together. A large part of that something was forged online. Now I have to figure out who I am without her, what new thing I am. It’s work I’m still doing online: In the months since her death, my feed has included a steady stream of Tuna videos, photos and memories. The grief I feel over her absence is so large, I need to put it in different places ― and so I put some of it online, where so much of her community is.
I don’t know if I’ll ever fully understand why Tuna connected with so many people. My friend JP says it’s because she had an otherworldliness to her, that she sat between the real and the unreal. At times, this is what digital life feels like to me, too: a space between the real and unreal. It’s not quite like “real” (or offline) life, but it’s a place where previously inconceivable modes of being and belonging are possible, where we can become real in new ways. This is never clearer to me than when I remember that the internet is where I first found Tuna, and where, in her posts and her online community, she still lives on.
The internet can help us better understand ourselves, like Tuna did for me, and forge real connections, like the internet did with Tuna. We just need to be open to possibility, to the idea that “real” life can happen online, too. Akin to what Tuna and I did for one another, it is an act of moving beyond hesitation and letting your guard down. Of seeing and being seen, and becoming more fully yourself in the process.
I don’t really know why Tuna went viral in both life and death. It was probably just invisible algorithms pulling strings. But I like to think it’s at least partially because there was something so real about her that people couldn’t look away. As I scroll through the thousands of tweets and Instagram stories and Facebook posts that I and hundreds of strangers made about Tuna over the years ― posts that connected us to one another, and to so many other people — I can’t look away, either. For now, I don’t want to.
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-30--A Chronological List Of 2020’s Most Unforgettable Food Trends

Ilustration: HuffPost; Photos: Getty Images
This article was originally published by HuffPost US.
This year has been... confusing. It’s moved along as quickly as it has slowly. It’s been unpredictably dynamic, even as we sit feeling stagnant on our couches. It’s been divisive and unifying, in turns and simultaneously. And through it all ― the tumult, the boredom, the stress and the uncertainty ― one thing has consistently provided us joy in 2020: food.
Sure, we may have been fickle of heart, embracing and discarding trends faster than ever before as we sought distraction like never before ... but, man, did we find comfort in food this year. At times we fought to acquire our food, feeling like a mighty hunter-gatherer during the great meat and yeast shortages. We made food, mastering sourdough bread and pantry meals. We indulged in food, buying up limited-edition treats in solid attempts to eat our feelings. And we savoured food as our favourite restaurants faced shutdowns, treasuring every bite as if it might be the last we’d taste (ahem, Covid-19-related loss of taste and smell).
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As we get ready to wish 2020 good riddance, here’s a look at the journeys our palates took while we stayed close to home.
January
As the new year and decade began, most Americans were either unaware of or optimistic about Covid-19 ― we had not one but two oceans between infection hotbeds. And so, mainstream America carried on with our increasingly elaborate doughnuts and tidy Sunday meal preps, distantly hurting for Italy and China in an empathetic but still slightly detached way. Little did we know what was in store. By the end of the month, a new and unprecedented food trend was the quiet shutdown of typically always open Chinese restaurants and markets as they felt the uneasy deja vu of the avian and swine flus that normalised mask-wearing on the other side of the world so many years ago ... and the beginning whispers of Sinophobia.
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February
fotofrog via Getty Images Chicken became a major commodity in February.
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People began shopping with intent and purpose for simple home recipes as opposed to fun challenges. Scarcity built loyalty for conventional food stores as consumers made their way back to supermarkets to score staples. One such basic was ground beef ― by the end of the month, it was on track to surpass even the demand for chicken, which it did by the end of March. Recipes using chopped meat became a search trend as it was a bit more accessible, and chili, meatloaf, burgers and meatballs enjoyed a moment of glory, elevated from their normally humble status.
March
This was when the food scene reached its boiling point. Supermarket shelves were bare, which led to supply chain concerns and further panic, building upon the shortages that had begun toward the end of February. Stay-at-home orders and fears of a total lockdown and inaccessible ingredients exacerbated the hoarding and home kitchens started bustling.
By the end of the month, people who hadn’t much experience buying groceries and cooking at home saw their fresh food beginning to spoil, and they started looking for thrifty ways to use their surplus. Banana bread began its rise to the top of home menus, tapping into the desire for comfort, survival, warmth, pleasure and accomplishment. One of the most iconic #quarantinebaking trends, banana bread is nearly foolproof to make, simple to customise and a smart way to make something sweet and nourishing out of cheap fruit on the cusp of spoilage. With its Great Depression-era roots, it smacks of nostalgia and found itself the star of many a publication as “the official comfort food” of the pandemic and the subject of deep historical, lifestyle-wellness and social analysis.
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To go along with that sweetness, we all needed coffee. Enter Dalgona coffee, a trend so trendy it was nicknamed TikTok coffee for its stardom on that channel. This cold whipped coffee was all the rage for a hot minute, but it cooled down by mid-April.
Meanwhile, for those US restaurants that braved the risk of remaining open, stay-at-home orders meant delivery ones, and takeout became de rigueur ― but people wondered how safe it really was. Third-party services that restaurateurs had quietly labelled necessary but predatory exposed themselves: When Grubhub, Doordash and Uber Eats suspended fees in an effort to generate good optics, their PR backfired as consumers were shocked to learn of the extremely high cuts the services usually gobbled up.
April
As “Tiger King” ruled the streaming airwaves, sourdough fever came upon us. Everyone was into baking bread, for a myriad of reasons. Bolstered by their success, many then tried their hands at more advanced techniques, such as sweet cinnamon rolls and babkas, as yeast bloomed back on the shelves. When April failed to feel like spring, warming cinnamon found its way into other popular baking projects that were also good uses of odds and ends a la banana bread, such as carrot cake and French toast. And this was the month that “pancake cereal” went viral.
By month’s end, flour had become the hot, rare commodity and home bakers sought more challenging ways to use their newfound skills and experiment with this baking science.
SMarina via Getty Images For a while, it seemed like everyone was baking bread.
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This and ongoing shortages created another pandemic food phenomenon and a smart solution to broken supply chains: restaurant-cum-markets.
Restaurants had begun to really feel the financial pinch of their to-go model. Conflicting information made folks fear the coronavirus could be transmitted via to-go containers. Some went so far as to microwave every dish that came into the house to theoretically kill germs and avoided salads using ’rona as a new excuse. But as more dining establishments closed, farmers were at a loss where to sell their products, revealing the absurd disconnect between wholesale and consumer food distribution. They bemoaned the legally unavoidable waste as they were forced to destroy eggs, dump milk, toss produce and more due to the separation of those supply chains ... even while people begged for their products. So restaurants in some communities converted their empty dining rooms into bodegas, selling restaurant-grade meat, seafood, produce, divvied-up bulk goods, and not-for-retail baked and frozen foods.
In what was proving to be a long quarantine, it was no surprise when kits for DIY cocktails started cropping up and states began legalizing cocktail delivery service and drinks to go.
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May
Amid emerging signs of stovetop fatigue, the kerfuffle over exorbitant third-party fees offered folks the perfect excuse to leave the kitchen and instead support local restaurants, which by now had had two months to get their to-go game together. Servers began delivering, establishments started taking direct orders, and ordering in became the new going out.
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The OGs of the takeout-delivery concept, Chinese restaurants, many of which had closed out of fear and threats, started quietly reopening to accommodate demand. By May, 74% of them were back, meaning their sector matched the national one in four closure rate for restaurants across America. (In evidence of the racial politics of food, pizza parlours experienced a surge during the pandemic even though they also shared a cultural association with a country hard-hit by Covid-19.)
doble-d via Getty Images Restaurants struggled with the decision to remain closed or open back up in May.
And in a move as nostalgic as chain-store pizzas (looking at you, Pizza Hut BOOK IT!) and as eagerly anticipated as ’90s show reboots, Dunkaroos were revived, returning in triumph to a tizzy of Xennial joy.
June
July and August
During the longest shortest summer ever, we tried to reclaim a sense of normalcy. Trendy foods took a back seat to tried-and-true classics, like grilling at home. Snacking didn’t so much make a comeback as it became our favorite long meal, with people packing bags to picnic in the park and sunbathe by the shore. After months of folks being shut in, eating outdoors was the hottest thing in the summer of 2020 ― under tents or trees, on benches and blankets, at drive-in movies, and in poorly advised parking-lot tailgate and folding-chair circles.
It was during this traditionally slow restaurant season that the family meal package began to emerge. After a day in the sun, on a boat, by the pool, or wherever else, cooking seemed daunting. Families wanted complete family-style eats that they didn’t have to make themselves and restaurants adapted quickly, scaling down their catering menus and scaling up their regular ones to produce package deals for four to eight people.
September and October
Slow cooker and Instant Pot recipes started spiking in searches again. With parents who were working from home now also back to supervising their kids’ virtual learning (if not conducting it themselves), convenience and comfort once more became a priority when figuring out what to eat.
So did warmth. “Igloo dining” became a commonly searched term for those who felt unsafe in semi-enclosed tents, and talk turned to heaters, heaters and more heaters as a qualification for eating-out spots.
November
Ice cream became cool again for a time due to President-elect Joe Biden’s well-documented love for the stuff. Then, at-home cocktail kits were in demand as the stress of Thanksgiving and the unknowns around it drove many to drink. For the teetotalers, hot chocolate bombs were the beverage of choice.
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Obviously, we talked turkey in November, too. Fowl producers worried and speculated while consumers, facing a smaller Thanksgiving table than in years past, hunted smaller turkeys into a near-shortage. Bigger birds were passed over for alternative proteins like ham, beef, roast pork, and seafood, according to Kroger. Others chose to avoid that challenge entirely, taking advantage of more heat-and-eat, carved-and-ready, and hot catering-style family packages as local and national businesses tried their hands at it.
December
Here we are, folks, in the homestretch of the longest year in history! Most of us have been eagerly counting down to New Year’s in hopes the universe will magically know it’s time to reset and make 2020 up to us. But first, the holidays! Trending were searches for ordered-in Christmas and Hanukkah dinners from those who learned from November or heard testimony of Thanksgiving. Either way, the prior holiday was essentially a trial run for this option, and restaurants have worked to iron out the kinks for the last big feasts of 2020.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-31--New Year's Honours: Ex-Tesco CEO Knighted As It's Revealed Supermarket Did Not Pay Minimum Wage

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Former Tesco boss Dave Lewis has been knighted for transforming the fortunes of the supermarket giant – even as the government named and shamed the company for failing to pay tens of thousands of workers the minimum wage.
Tesco claims it “inadvertently” failed to pay a total £5.1m to 78,199 workers who were short-changed in 2017 and has since made good the debt.
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Lewis, dubbed “drastic Dave” after arriving at the company in 2014 due to his extensive cost-cutting measures, has been included in the New Year’s honours list revealed on Wednesday night.
But less than two hours after his knighthood was announced, Tesco was included in the list of 139 companies that failed to pay some of their workers minimum wage.
The firms were investigated between 2016 and 2018 and found to have failed to pay a total of £6.7m to over 95,000 workers. Tesco accounted for the lion’s share of both figures.
The supermarket giant said it was “disappointed and surprised” to have been named as it had identified a technical issue in 2017 that meant some workers’ pay “inadvertently” fell below the national minimum wage, adding that all those affected had been reimbursed.
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A spokesperson added: “We are very sorry this happened and proactively reported the issue to HMRC at the time. All our colleagues were reimbursed in full and we immediately changed our policies to prevent this happening again. In most cases the reimbursement was £10 or less.
“Once we uncovered this mistake, we took a proactive, transparent and cooperative approach with HMRC.
“We take our obligations to our colleagues very seriously and all colleagues were reimbursed in full in 2017.”
“We are therefore extremely disappointed and surprised to have been included in this list as none of the examples shared by BEIS [Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy] relate to Tesco, and it was Tesco that self-reported this issue to HMRC [Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs] in the first instance.”
Business minister Paul Scully released a scathing statement alongside the list of businesses, saying it was “never acceptable for any employer to short-change their workers”.
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He added: “Make no mistake, those who fail to follow minimum wage rules will be caught out and made to pay up.”
Lewis, who joined the retailer from consumer goods giant Unilever, was forced to announce the company had overstated its historical profits by £326m after his arrival in 2014.
The accounting scandal led to a company fine of £129m and £85m in compensation for investors, and was soon followed by a £6.4bn loss at the supermarket giant.
But Lewis managed to turn the fortunes of the company around, dramatically slashing costs and selling off non-core parts of the retail business.
Tesco surged to a £551m pre-tax profit in the six months to September, in Lewis’ final period in charge, before Ken Murphy took over the role the following month.
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After the 2019/2020 financial year Lewis was handed a £6.42m pay packet by the board, representing a more-than-30% jump in his total pay.
Tesco hit the headlines in early December after publicly stating it would hand back business rates support it received during the pandemic. The company handed back £585m in rates relief and caused a domino effect among its rivals which has seen about £2 billion repaid to the state.
But Lewis isn’t the only honouree to have links with the government list of companies failing to pay minimum wage.
A couple who have been made made OBEs are directors of a Glasgow hairdressing business which failed to pay workers the minimum wage.
Alan and Linda Stewart’s salon, the Rainbow Room hairdressers in the city’s Royal Exchange Square failed to pay £851.70 to six workers between 2016 and 2018.
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The couple founded Rainbow Room International, which has 12 salons around Glasgow and the west of Scotland, and describes itself as a “formidable force in the hairdressing industry”.
The investigation also found Clare McFarlane and Suzanne McGill, who were trading as Rainbow Room International, South Lanarkshire, failed to pay £1,304.77 to 16 workers.
Rainbow Room (East Kilbride) Limited, South Lanarkshire G74, failed to pay £2,378.77 to 15 workers
William Fleeson, trading as Rainbow Room International, Stirling, failed to pay £2,089.66 to 11 workers.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-30--Lewis Hamilton, Craig David And Coronation Street's Sally Dynevor Among Stars Recognised In New Year

Lewis Hamilton, Craig David And Coronation Street's Sally Dynevor Among Stars Recognised In New Year's Honours

The seven-time Formula One world title winner is to become Sir Lewis Hamilton after being awarded knighthood.
Lewis Hamilton PA
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The honour tops off an incredible year for the sports star, after equalling Michael Schumacher’s record with a seventh Formula One title and being voted Sports Personality of the Year for a second time.
Lewis’ knighthood was included on the Diplomatic and Overseas List as he has not resided permanently in the UK since 2007, initially moving to Switzerland and then on to Monaco.
Meanwhile, there is a damehood for Sheila Hancock, who is famed for her wide-ranging stage and screen career.
Sheila Hancock Eamonn M. McCormack via Getty Images
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Commenting on the award, she joked she felt “slightly miscast”, saying: “I’ve never felt myself this sort of person. It just doesn’t happen to people like me. I feel I may be lowering the tone. I feel slightly miscast, let’s put it that way.”
Singer, DJ and music producer Craig David is recognised with an MBE for services to music.
Craig David Venla Shalin via Getty Images
Among the other film and TV stars to be honoured are Corrie legend Sally Dynevor, who plays Sally Metcalfe in the ITV soap and former EastEnders star Nina Wadia, who appeared as Zainab Masood from 2007 to 2013.
Sally, who has been on the Coronation Street cobbles since 1986, becomes an MBE, while Nina, who rose to fame in sketch show Goodness Gracious Me, has been awarded an OBE.
Sally Dynevor Julian Parker via Getty Images
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Sally said of her award: “I am humbled, grateful and very proud to have received this honour. I am still in shock.
“I didn’t believe it was real when I first found out earlier this month that I was to be given an MBE. Keeping it a secret has been so difficult.
“During the 60th anniversary of Coronation Street I was reminded daily of my time on the show – the young girl in those scenes 35 years ago could only have dreamed of the incredible things that were going to happen in the coming years.”
Of her recognition, Nina told the PA news agency: “Now it’s sort of sunk in, I genuinely am still finding it hard to believe. I’m very excited of course, I feel it’s a huge, huge honour that this has come my way.
“It’s made my last 30 years of my career, all the hard times, feel worthwhile.”
Nina Wadia SOPA Images via Getty Images
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Academy Award nominee Lesley Manville receives CBE for services to drama and charity, and actor Toby Jones, who appeared in the Harry Potter franchise, becomes an OBE.
Line Of Duty and Bodyguard writer and creator Jed Mercurio is also made an OBE, while Oscar-winning cinematographer Roger Deakins, who is based in California and known for films including Blade Runner 2049 and 1917, is also knighted in the overseas list.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-30--Primary Schools In Covid Hotspot Left Off Government's Closures List – Then Added Later

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Primary schools in a London borough where Covid-19 cases are soaring have been added to the government’s closures list after an “utter shambles” meant the area was originally left off.
On Wednesday, education secretary Gavin Williamson announced a delay to school pupils in England returning to their classrooms after Christmas.
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Williamson said students in exam years will return to secondary schools a week later than planned, from January 11, while other secondary and college students will go back full-time on January 18.
Primary schools where Covid-19 infection rates are the highest will not reopen for face-to-face teaching to all pupils as planned next week, following warnings from experts over the danger of the new coronavirus variant.
The initial list of affected local authorities omitted the London borough of Redbridge – despite having the seventh highest Covid-19 case rate in England, with 3,311 new cases recorded in the seven days to December 26, or the equivalent of 1,084.8 cases per 100,000 people.
Reports suggested the Department for Education was blaming the Department for Health and Social Care for the mistake.
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NEW: Govt admit error in primary school closure list sent out in press notice earlier.
Redbridge IS now included in the London boroughs where primary schools must switch to remote learning.
DFE source say the error was made by the DHSC who compiled the list — Tom Rayner (@RaynerSkyNews) December 30, 2020
Redbridge Council leader Jas Athwal confirmed that the borough had been excluded from the list by mistake.
He tweeted: “It appears excluding Redbridge from the list was yet another in a long list of recent mistakes made by our government.
“Redbridge primary schools will not open on Monday 4th January.” Ilford North MP and Labour’s shadow minister for schools Wes Streeting hit out at the “utter shambles”.
It appears excluding Redbridge from the list was yet another in a long list of recent mistakes made by our government.
Redbridge primary schools will not open on Monday 4th January. pic.twitter.com/P153HmJzD0 — Jas Athwal (@Jas_Athwal) December 30, 2020
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NEW: Redbridge *is* added to the list. Primary schools will not re-open to all pupils on Monday.
We have a situation where lists are being updated only minutes after publication. This is an utter shambles. I’m so sorry to parents and staff affected by Government incompetence. — Wes Streeting MP (@wesstreeting) December 30, 2020
A spokesperson for the Department for Education told claimed that Redbridge Council had been aware it was supposed to be on the closure list and its name was added to the public version “at the earliest opportunity”.
Redbridge was one of four councils in the capital involved in a row with Williamson over closing schools earlier this month.
The Labour-run Greenwich and Islington councils rowed back on their advice for pupils to be taught online in the last few days of term before Christmas amid rising Covid-19 cases in the capital.
Waltham Forest Council, also under Labour control, said schools in the North London borough had been threatened with potential legal action by the government if they followed the council’s advice to shift learning online.
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Redbridge, a fourth Labour-run council, said it would support a switch to online learning as schools faced “huge strain” due to the impact of local coronavirus cases.
Greenwich and Islington – as well as Hackney and Haringey – have been omitted from the government’s list of authorities instructed to keep schools shut.
Danny Thorpe, leader of the Royal Borough of Greenwich, said the authority was “deeply concerned” that it was not included in the list of areas where it is expected that some primary schools will not open as planned next week to all pupils.
Thorpe said: “In a case-by-case comparison, there appears to be no logic to how this list was brought together.
“Kensington and Chelsea has one of the lowest infection rates for the whole of the capital, yet their children and young people are being afforded the extra protection that apparently Royal Greenwich students don’t need.
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“While we are very glad that they will benefit from these extra precautions, we can only speculate why this borough was included, yet with an infection rate more than 200 cases higher per 100,000, Royal Greenwich was not.
“We are writing to the Secretary of State tonight to ask for clarification of the selection criteria, but understand one of these might be hospital pressures. With the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich having declared an internal incident this week, and also serving neighbouring borough Bexley, which is on the list, we need to understand why Royal Greenwich is being treated differently to other boroughs who appear to be in much stronger positions.”
It came as official figures showed that the UK had recorded 50,023 new cases of Covid-19 on Wednesday.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-30--Backlash As MP Claims She's 'Not Allowed To Say' Healthy Under-60s Rarely Die Of Covid

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An MP who claimed she was “not allowed to say” that few healthy under-60s die of coronavirus has provoked public fury and been accused of peddling a “dangerous narrative”.
Lucy Allan, MP for Telford in Shropshire, shared an article from The Telegraph revealing Covid-19 had killed fewer people aged 0 to 59 with no underlying health conditions than had died on the roads within the same age bracket in a year.
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She wrote: “But we knew this right? [...] We are just not allowed to say it.”
But her own constituents, many of whom are over 60 or have so-called underlying health conditions (a marker used by the NHS to divide up Covid death stats) feel she is insinuating that their lives matter less.
We are just not allowed to say it. — Lucy Allan MP (@lucyallan) December 29, 2020
People living in Telford told HuffPost UK her words spoke volumes, effectively implying the relatively narrow metric of healthy under-60s was more significant than the much higher death toll among the general population. Millions of people have so-called “underlying health conditions”, which can include common illnesses such as asthma, as well as mental health diagnoses.
“It makes you feel written off and totally worthless,” said Alex Smith, 47, who has asthma and lives in Telford with her husband and two children.
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“She is saying we don’t count. Why should I bother getting up in the morning if I’m not counted and my life doesn’t matter?”
Allan told HuffPost UK that “every death” was a “tragedy for the family left behind”, and insisted that “all lives are of equal value” – but did not apologise for her comments.
Alex Smith, 47, who lives in Telford and suffers from asthma Alex Smith
Smith has had asthma since childhood and uses an inhaler daily as well as taking medication. She ends up on antibiotics at least twice a year due to bronchitis-style infections.
During the first lockdown, she had to take extra precautions as her husband was going out to work as a tyre fitter and her daughter was still going to college. “I was practically living in a separate room trying to shield myself,” she said.
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“You become very isolated and people don’t realise how it impacts your mental health to completely lock yourself away.”
Smith was angered by Allan’s remarks. “It's very cold-hearted and smacks of eugenics,” she said. “It's a bit like the film Logan’s Run where people were killed when they reached the age of 30 before they became a drain on society.
“It feels like this is exactly what people like Lucy Allan are saying – get rid of the elderly and anyone with underlying health conditions.”
Smith’s 68-year-old aunt was diagnosed with Covid-19 just days ago. “My aunt still works full-time and even though she is 68, she is very active,” she said. “She pays her taxes and contributes to society. Why is she seen as a lesser person in the eyes of people like Lucy Allan?”
Amrik Jhawar, 72, is mayor of the borough of Telford and Wrekin and a Labour councillor. He told HuffPost UK that “every life is precious” and described Lucy Allan’s words as “unfortunate”.
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“I don’t know what she was thinking,” he said.
“People in positions of authority such as MPs have to be very careful how they conduct themselves and about what they say.
“The danger is when you try comparing one thing to another like she has done, it can give a false impression.”
Amrik Jhawar, 72, Mayor of Telford Telford and Wrekin Council
Jhawar, whose wife is also over 70, had three children; his eldest daughter died of breast cancer 10 years ago. The couple also have four grandchildren and he says they have been following the coronavirus rules to protect themselves and others.
“We have only been going shopping for necessities and have been wearing masks. I have done some mayoral appointments, but they have been mainly online. The few I have done in person, I have worn a mask and followed social distancing rules.”
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Jhawar told HuffPost UK that any suggestion that the lives of those who are older or have pre-existing health conditions are any less valid than healthy people is completely wrong.
“Life is sacred and everybody is important,” he said. “Age does not matter and if someone has an underlying health condition, their life is still very important. They just have to be extra careful to protect themselves against coronavirus.
“I hope Lucy Allan’s remarks don’t have a negative impact and that the community in Telford and everyone in the UK carries on following the coronavirus rules as we have to control this virus.”
He added: “No one’s life is any less important whether they are at home, in hospital or in a care home.”
Bryony Thomas grew up near Telford and has numerous family members living there battling health conditions, as well as an elderly grandmother who has lived in Telford all her life.
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She says Allan’s hurtful comments are a “slap in the face” to her family who have spent the majority of this year shielding and made many sacrifices.
“My father turned 60 this year and is diabetic. My sister-in-law is in her 30s and has chronic asthma and a history of bronchitis and had her first baby in lockdown and didn’t leave the home for the last three months of her pregnancy.
“My grandmother is 88 and has been incredibly isolated during this pandemic as she lives on her own.
“The MP’s implication that their safety doesn’t matter and that people shouldn’t be following the lockdown feels really hurtful and dangerous.”
Thomas says the illnesses and underlying conditions Allan is referring to are “very treatable” and people can live very long and healthy lives with things like asthma and diabetes.
“It is extremely worrying when you get people in positions of power pushing this kind of narrative,” she said.
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“Lucy Allan represents the whole community, including those over 60 and those with health conditions – not just people who are younger or lucky enough not to have pre-existing conditions.
“I feel irritated and infuriated by what she has said and feels she needs to come out and tell people to take the restrictions seriously.
“But I don’t see how she can do that in a sincere way which will be taken seriously after making such damaging remarks.”
You are indeed allowed to say whatever you want - including that you believe people dying of covid don’t really count if they have asthma or diabetes.
You’re fully allowed to say it, even as an MP... And other people are allowed to point out your crass logic. https://t.co/98FXewcaFx — Dr Mike Galsworthy (@mikegalsworthy) December 29, 2020
Do the constituents of this person realise she is contributing to the possibility of their relatives or even themselves contracting and/or dying from corona virus. This is a mp acting irresponsibly for the promotion of a dangerous and deadly idea of letting the virus rip. — KevinMcCabe #3.5% (@KevinfMcCabe) December 29, 2020
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Hey Telford. This is seriously foul Lucy Allen. Between 70,000 & 90,000 have died & she’s saying that they’re expendable. Don’t think Telford constituents, who’ve recently experienced a higher than average surge of Covid, are going to like that much. #TelfordLucyCovidiot https://t.co/FutE416Z9q — sue_edwards72 (@Edwards72Sue) December 29, 2020
Voters of Telford remember this. In a few years time when she comes to your door asking for you to vote for her repeat these words back to her and ask her why she thinks people over the age of 60, or with healthcare problems, don’t matter? https://t.co/6LsadVoGLl — Stereotypical Anaesthetist (@StereotypGasman) December 29, 2020
On behalf of those of us that didn’t vote for her here in Telford I apologise for her crassness and lack of empathy unfortunately were stuck with it for a few more years. The only redeeming feature she has is that she lives in London and we rarely get to see her. — Martin Woodley (@woodley_martin) December 29, 2020
When HuffPost UK approached Allan, and told her about the anger and hurt caused to her constituents in Telford, she defended her comments and the sharing of the news article comparing Covid deaths with road deaths.
“Every death from every illness or disease is a tragedy for the family left behind,” she said.
Lucy Allan, MP for Telford
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“Covid is a very real risk to all our elderly parents and family members and it’s right we do all we can to shield those most at risk from this virus. This sadly means families being kept apart from elderly loved ones throughout this pandemic.
“All lives are of equal value. The article in The Telegraph makes the point that some people are at much greater risk from Covid than others.
“Those under 60 who are healthy have a much lower risk profile if exposed to Covid and are more at risk from other factors.
“It’s important they know this so they do not experience fear and anxiety unnecessarily.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-30--Revealed: Areas Where Primary Schools Could Stay Shut In January

Education secretary Gavin Williamson arrives at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in London PA
The list of high infection areas in England where primary schools may be forced to stay shut on January 4 has been published.
Education secretary Gavin Williamson confirmed on Wednesday there would be sweeping changes to the reopening of schools amid a surge in the Covid-19 pandemic.
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The opening of secondary schools has been delayed, with pupils in exam years now returning on January 11, and others due to return on January 18.
By contrast, the government was keen to keep primary schools open – but has been forced to order some to stay shut on January 4 in areas where the infection rate is particularly high.
The move does not affect vulnerable children or the children of key workers, who will still receive face-to-face learning.
Official figures showed the UK had recorded 50,023 new cases of Covid-19 on Wednesday.
And a further 981 people have died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19, the Department for Health and Social Care also confirmed.
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The list of areas where primary schools will be “subject to the contingency framework” is below.
The government’s website says that “where the contingency framework is implemented, primary schools should continue allowing all children to attend” but that “in the very unlikely event that evidence supports limiting attendance in primary schools, may advise that only vulnerable children and children of critical workers should be allowed to attend”.
The government has yet to clarify whether all primary schools will be shut in these areas – and, if not, when it will be decided which schools should shut and how parents will be told.
London
Barking and Dagenham
Barnet
Bexley
Brent
Bromley
Croydon
Ealing
Enfield
Hammersmith and Fulham
Havering
Hillingdon
Hounslow
Kensington and Chelsea
Merton
Newham
Richmond-Upon-Thames
Southwark
Sutton
Tower Hamlets
Redbridge*
Waltham Forest
Wandsworth
Westminster
Essex
Brentwood
Epping Forest
Castle Point
Basildon
Rochford
Harlow
Chelmsford
Braintree
Maldon
Southend on Sea
Thurrock
Kent
Dartford
Gravesham
Sevenoaks
Medway
Ashford
Maidstone
Tonbridge and Malling
Tunbridge Wells
Swale
East Sussex
Hastings
Rother
Buckinghamshire
Milton Keynes
Hertfordshire
Watford
Broxbourne
Hertsmere
Three Rivers