thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-06-01--Killing Eve: Villanelle Doesn't Want To Kill Eve Anymore... And That's A Big Problem

A potentially psychopathic murderess with a killer eye not just for people, but for fashion, Killing Eve’s Villanelle birthed a new star in Jodie Comer, the British actress with the porcelain complexion who’s devastatingly good at portraying the assassin with a thirst for blood.
Fresh from Fleabag, writer Phoebe Waller-Bridge had another excitingly transgressive lead in Villanelle: a proper realised female assassin that didn’t pander to the male gaze.
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The same was true of her target Eve, played by Sandra Oh: another outsider, this time softly calculating and introspective, she’s a counterweight to Villanelle’s brashness. They made a fine pair.
The first series was a thrillingly flirtatious journey to get to know these two women and understand their deadly relationship.
Killing Eve season three has received mixed reviews HuffPost UK
Their encounters were compelling because we all believed Villanelle could - and would - kill Eve in the same way she’d dispensed of all the other poor souls that edged into her view or challenged her authority.
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Villanelle’s viciousness was the whole point - her wayward kills, the spectacular way she carried out her dispenses and the unpredictability of their nature: what would she do next? Eve was her target, so it seemed obvious.
Yet, as we reach the end of the third season, Eve’s still alive and the title of the show is starting to feel increasingly tone deaf to the show’s content. If Eve’s not going to die, then what is she going to do, and what’s the whole point of all this?
Jodie Comer as Villanelle in Killing Eve season three HuffPost UK
Of course, running concurrently with the whole ‘let’s kill Eve’ arch is the idea that the women love one another. This challenges Villanelle’s professionalism as a hitwoman and adds emotional layers to the plot, but two wearisome seasons later, it feels like Villanelle only wants to get inside Eve’s pants and nothing else.
And while a show about two well-dressed women on other sides of the world falling in love with one another is a pleasant idea for a TV show, it was hardly the point.
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Killing Eve has become more of a love story than a thriller HuffPost UK
Not helping is two season’s worth of uninteresting villainous male leads and sub-characters that feel more generic, and a confusing set of storylines which are less gripping.
In the mix, we’re offered the opportunity to get to know Villanelle more as a person - but wasn’t the whole point that she was aloof and distant? Did we really need to see her family home in Russia or watch her as she shops mournfully for teddy bears to send Eve as a declaration of love?
Sometimes, the more personal storylines have been intriguing to watch, and are always beautifully shot.
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In season three (spoiler-alert) Villanelle infuriating Polish locals by winning all the prizes at her local fete was a charming segway into her childishness, and Eve’s bedside rituals for her estranged husband express her true sense of duty and care - but none of these subplots feel like they matter now that the black cloak of death isn’t hanging over Eve’s shoulders.
But while it may be visually gorgeous, for two seasons now, the show has suffered from Villanelle’s lovesickness.
And there needn’t be anymore suffering - instead of sprawling on any longer, Killing Eve should end now to retain the grace it once had.
The show should have been a one-season phenomenon; fiery and passionate, it should have burned out and died young - rather like Eve should have at the hands of Villanelle - rather than living to a (not so) graceful old age.
Will there be anymore? Probably. But how much longer can we appreciate the beautiful scenery, great fashion and solid acting when the fundamental premise is missing?
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-06-01--Tanker Truck Barrels Toward Crowd Of Thousands Of Protesters In Minneapolis

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A tanker truck sped toward thousands of protesters in Minneapolis on Sunday in a shocking moment as demonstrations over the death of George Floyd continue to spread around the nation.
Local news outlets were broadcasting live from the protest on Minneapolis’ I-35 highway, the sixth day of demonstrations following the man’s death in police custody. In the footage, large crowds gathered on a bridge suddenly begin to part before a truck is seen barreling toward the group. It speeds through the crowd before coming to a stop on the highway.
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The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported demonstrators then swarmed the vehicle and apparently pulled the driver from the cab of the truck.
The footage below may be disturbing to some readers.
BREAKING- Truck moves at full speed into a crowd of thousands of demonstrators #GeorgeFloyd #Minnesota @KSTP pic.twitter.com/pUscK8JgFB — Brett Hoffland (@BrettHoffland) May 31, 2020
A tanker truck drives into thousands of protesters marching on 35W north bound highway during a protest against the death of George Floyd, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Eric Miller / Reuters
The Minnesota Department of Public Safety said it was disturbed by the footage and said the driver, who has not been identified, was arrested and taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries. The agency said it didn’t appear any protesters had been hit by the truck.
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“Very disturbing actions by a truck driver on I-35W, inciting a crowd of peaceful demonstrators,” the department wrote on Twitter. “The truck driver was injured & taken to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries. He is under arrest. It doesn’t appear any protesters were hit by the truck.”
Officials said no one appeared to be injured following the incident. REUTERS/Eric Miller Eric Miller / Reuters
Officials said they were investigating how the truck was able to get on the highway, which is currently closed. It’s unclear what the driver’s motives were, although The New York Times notes local police said the person was “inciting” peaceful protestors.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said the footage was “horrifying” in a news briefing later Sunday, saying it was amazing many people hadn’t died during the incident.
“I don’t know the motives of the driver at this time, but at this point in time, to not have tragedy and many deaths is simply an amazing thing,” Walz said.
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Authorities later urged demonstrators to clear the bridge, warning police may use tear gas to disperse those gathered if they don’t go home before curfews set in.
ATTENTION: Please clear the area near the I-35W bridge btwn. University & Washington avenues. People are being given the lawful order to clear the area. If that order is refused, police may use tear gas as a dispersal mechanism. #MACCMN — MnDPS_DPS (@MnDPS_DPS) June 1, 2020
The protest was the city’s latest demonstration following Floyd’s death while in police custody. The man died after Officer Derek Chauvin arrested him and pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes. A shocking video of Floyd’s arrest rocked the nation, leading to protests in cities around the U.S. and calls for dramatic police reform.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-06-01--People Shielding From Coronavirus Question 'Confusing And Contradictory' Government Message

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Millions of ‘shielders’ – people considered extremely vulnerable to Covid-19 and their families – in England are, as of Monday, now able to leave the house.
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Under new guidelines, people shielding are now allowed to venture outdoors once per day, either with members of their household or one person from another household – as long as social distancing and strict hygiene is maintained.
But after months of going no further than their own front doors, and just weeks after receiving advice that told them to shield until the end of June, households across the country have been left confused by the sudden change in approach – and fearful they still may not be safe.
Mother-of-two Shelley Simmonds and her family have not left their home in Essex for more than 10 weeks, in order to protect her son.
Seven-year-old Fraser has the rare genetic disease Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, and associated respiratory weakness, which has left him extremely vulnerable to the virus.
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Little more than a week ago Shelley received a letter, dated May 9, which stated: “The safest course of action is for you to stay at home at all times and avoid all face-to-face contact.
“The government is currently advising people to shield until 30th June and is regularly monitoring this position.”
Part of the letter sent to Shelley Simmonds. Shelley Simmonds
She said the sudden announcement that they could leave the house came as a “total shock”, and fears it will cause confusion amongst many of those most vulnerable to the virus.
“We were told on Thursday that those shielding should carry on shielding, those were Boris’ words,” she explained. “And now overnight it seems like something’s miraculously changed. I can’t say that anybody is going to feel comfortable trusting the government after what has happened so far.
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“When you talk to your own healthcare professionals they are specifically telling you to shield until June 30. Our critical healthcare appointments are being cancelled, those such as cardiology and respiratory, yet we are now being told it’s safe to go outside. It’s very contradictory and concerning.
“Until we can resume our usual standards of care received from the NHS, it is too worrying to take any risks.
“We definitely won’t be going out. We haven’t shielded all this time to step outside and take risks.”
A fierce advocate for her son’s independence, Shelley is concerned that vulnerable people like Fraser have become an afterthought.
Shelley Simmonds with son Fraser and daughter April. Shelley Simmonds
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She has no idea when she’ll be able to return to work at her usual office in London, even once her colleagues have been given the all-clear to return, or when her nine-year-old daughter April could return to school.
Shelley added: “I always advocate for my son being independent and being equal to everybody else and yet it doesn’t feel that we’re being treated that way.
“The vulnerable high risk group of people are being forgotten and excluded.
“It feels like there’s no real plan – we don’t know how long we’re going to be here.”
The government said the change in guidance stems from the substantially lower level of Covid-19 transmission in the country compared to when the lockdown was first introduced.
But charities have urged people to seek proper medical advice before making any changes.
“The way it has announced this on a Saturday night, with no warning or consultation with charities and clinicians, has created confusion,” Gemma Peters, chief executive of Blood Cancer UK said. “Until we get (clarity), we advise people to speak to their healthcare teams before making any changes.”
Sarah Jones, 47, from West Sussex, has not left the house since March. She has had 60 operations over the course of her life, one of which – 14 years ago – was a kidney transplant. Since the procedure she has had to take immunosuppressants, which leave her especially susceptible to viruses such as Covid-19.
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Speaking on Sunday, after reports of an upcoming announcement on shielders emerged, she said she was “a little surprised” by the move, adding “I think it’s maybe a bit too soon.”
“On the other hand,” she continued, “it’s not an order. It’s just an option, so if people want to go out and feel safe doing so they can, or they can choose to stay indoors.
“I am planning to wait for a little more detail and for advice from my renal unit – they have been looking after me for fourteen years and I want to protect the gift I’ve been given.
“I wouldn’t walk around the block near my house, but I would consider driving out somewhere really quiet and maybe going out for a walk. It’s a fluid situation – I think everyone will feel more comfortable on some days rather than others.”
Living with her parents, Sarah counts herself as one of the lucky ones. Many of the people she has met through her charity Share Your Wishes – which encourages the public to talk openly about organ donation – live alone and have spent more than two months in total isolation.
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Sarah Jones Sarah Jones
“I have never, ever wanted my health to dictate my life,” she said.
“I have never let it, but to be honest at the moment it’s hard not to feel like it is. It really does start to play on your mental health.”
In late February, Ben*, 33, who has an autoimmune disease as well as anxiety, moved in with his parents in order to shield himself. Even as the first cases of coronavirus in the UK became public, he felt increasingly worried that he could fall sick to the virus.
The three have not left their house in St Albans in three months, and have relied on family members to deliver medication and food.
Speaking before the government’s announcement on Sunday evening, he said he spent the first few weeks in lockdown glued to the television, watching with “fear and horror” at the rising death rates across the country.
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“I was convinced I was going to die,” he said. “I couldn’t sleep properly for weeks.”
As a public health worker himself, he believes the government’s messaging for vulnerable people has been “woolly” and “frustrating”.
On a personal level, he said his mental health had been affected “profoundly” by the lockdown, and that his anxiety had been “off the charts”. He said he had considered suicide several times in the past few months.
“It’s hard to find any positivity right now,” he said. “There’s just no end in sight.”
Research from Citizens Advice, published on Thursday, showed that four in 10 of those in the shielded group have lost at least 20% of their income since the coronavirus outbreak began. More than a quarter have lost 60% of their income or more.
Some employees, unable to safely work as a result of their vulnerability to the virus, have been denied access to the furlough scheme.
Sarah said: “It’s nobody’s fault that they have these conditions that mean they’re more prone to the virus so we, as a group, really don’t want to be penalised for that.
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“I’m ok at the moment, but I’m obviously aware of the issues that could come about for others in a similar position when the support from the furlough scheme stops.
“I do know of people who are financially unstable, and they want to get back to work as soon as possible so they start seeing some income coming back in.”
Chancellor Rishi Sunak said on Friday that government support for the job retention scheme will then slowly be tapered off until the scheme finishes at the end of October, with employers asked to pay more in national insurance and pension contributions and a proportion of wages.
The Treasury did not respond to a request for comment from HuffPost UK regarding vulnerable people.
While vulnerable people will see a loosening in advice from Monday, secretary of state for Housing, Communities and Local Government Robert Jenrick said on Sunday that the government will review the risks as part of each review of social distancing measures for the wider population.
The next review of shielding measures is set to take place in the week beginning on June 15.
Of the new guidance which allows people to spend time outdoors, he said: “This will enable those shielding to see loved ones like children and grandchildren, something many I know are aching to do.
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“Having spent many weeks indoors some will understandably be very cautious and concerned about going outdoors. You should only do what you are comfortable with.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-06-01--We're Used To Being Spontaneous. Here's How To Cope Now We Can't Be.

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For many of us, it’s been a couple of months since coronavirus measures went into effect. And with no clear end to the pandemic in sight, it’s normal to feel anxious, down or lonely.
The coping mechanisms we used in the past, like going over to a friend’s apartment or planning a trip, are no longer readily available and may not be for a while. Even when we weren’t feeling low, we had those options available to us: We could grab dinner with co-workers after a long day. We could bar-hop to see where the night took us. We could wander around a street fair or a farmers market.
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That spontaneity ― our ability to do what we wanted, with whom we wanted, when we wanted ― is a legitimate loss to mourn, according to therapists. Without it, we can feel stuck, isolated or confined (even though we know the lockdown is keeping people safe and healthy). That makes our mental health worse than it already is.
Here are some small actions you can take to combat those dispiriting feelings and maintain your well-being in the months ahead.
Westend61 via Getty Images Spending time in “new” spaces can alleviate that common quarantine feeling of being trapped or claustrophobic.
Change your scene.
According to Wendy Lustbader, a licensed mental health counsellor and author of “What’s Worth Knowing,” one of the best ways to immediately alleviate feelings of stress or confinement is to change your view.
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Small acts like rearranging your furniture or clearing space for a seat by the window can improve your outlook — literally — by providing “a new prospect, something different to look at,” Lustbader explained.
Lustbader said that spending time in “new” spaces can alleviate that common quarantine feeling of being trapped or claustrophobic.
“Don’t discount the power of how a really small change can have an impact on you and change your sensory reality,” she said.
If you have access to an outdoor space, whether it’s a backyard, fire escape, rooftop or stoop, spending time there daily can also change your perspective for the better, Lustbader said. If you’re able, you can also try going for a walk or a drive on a new route to discover places you may not have seen before.
Björn Forenius via Getty Images “If you can be outside, get sunshine or a breeze on your face, be in nature, it helps you remember there is a beautiful world out there,” one expert suggested.
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Move your body.
The gym and the yoga studio may be closed ― and maybe you don’t feel comfortable running with a mask in still-crowded parks ― but get your heart rate going however you can.
Put on an online workout video or a favourite song and dance around your room. If you can get out of your apartment, even if it’s just to walk around the block a few times, that can be enough to change your mood for the better.
“You go back in your apartment and you’re in a different state of mind ― that’s energy that’s going to help you,” Lustbader said.
Being around nature can also improve your mood slightly when you’re down.
“If you can be outside, get sunshine or a breeze on your face, be in nature, it helps you remember there is a beautiful world out there,” said Cassandra Vieten, a licensed clinical psychologist and executive director of the John W. Brick Mental Health Foundation.
And if you’re not able to get outside, watching nature videos can remind you. “When you experience awe and wonder if changes your physiology and makes you feel more spacious inside,” Vieten said.
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Call a friend
With Zoom fatigue setting in, making a good old-fashioned phone call might be a more satisfying way to connect with someone, according to Lustbader. And hearing about their experience with shutdown can help get you out of your own head. It’s no replacement for spending time in person, of course, but it’s still a worthwhile way to relate, commiserate and laugh with someone.
Similarly, performing an act of kindness or reaching out to someone who might be struggling distracts you from getting hung up on your own problems, according to Veiten.
“When you’re stuck inside yourself, one thing that really helps is to specifically do something for someone else,” Veiten said. “Call them and say you were thinking of them, or make a mask for someone and deliver it.”
10'000 Hours via Getty Images With Zoom fatigue setting in, making a good old-fashioned phone call might be a more satisfying way to connect with someone.
Acknowledge your feelings.
Recognise that what we’re experiencing is hard for everyone, and you’re not alone, Veiten said. Take time to acknowledge the negative feelings.
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“The more you try to control [the way you feel] or shove it away, the more it’s going to fight you later,” Veiten explained. “Allow those feelings of being scared or irritated to come up, notice them, allow them to move through you.”
Lustbader recommended naming your losses or the things that you miss and letting yourself grieve for them. As a next step, you can then ask yourself, “How can I recreate some of those elements that got me going?”
Finding approximations for our old ways of life ― like calling a friend we can’t see in person or having coffee on our fire escape instead of going to a favourite cafe ― are necessary actions to keep us connected and hopeful. While we’re limited in where we can go physically, we can do things to get ourselves in a different place mentally.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-06-01--How The Coronavirus Pandemic Is Changing The Way We Sleep

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We’re here to guide you through the coronavirus pandemic. Sign up to the Life newsletter for daily tips, advice, how-tos and escapism.
The pandemic has had an unusual effect on most aspects of our lives – and perhaps unsurprisingly, our sleeping patterns have also taken a hit.
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Many of us have been going to bed later and enjoying longer lie-ins during lockdown – but our quality of sleep has taken a turn for the worse.
Wellbeing psychologist Dr Andy Cope analysed data taken from Simba’s sleep and mood tracking app between March 8 and April 25. The results from 50,000 Brits suggest an “emotional corona-coaster” during the pandemic, as our sleep quality has gradually declined.
Wake-up moods were more erratic during the first two weeks of lockdown, and there was a “notable drop” in sleep quality from March 23 – the day lockdown measures were announced.
One possible reason for this is rising alcohol intake, as data from the tracking app shows we’re drinking more booze. This echoes a survey from Alcohol Change UK that found one in five have been drinking more frequently since lockdown.
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“When you drink alcohol, your body creates chemicals aldehydes and ketones,” Cope explains. “Aldehydes block the brain’s ability to generate REM sleep.”
Simba Graph shows our quality of sleep declining and our alcohol consumption rising during lockdown.
A study from Italy shows a similar sleep quality pattern. Data from 1,310 people aged 18 to 35 years old who completed an online survey from March 24 to March 28 revealed many were going to bed later, waking up later and spending more time in bed. They were also reporting a lower sleep quality.
On average, bedtime was delayed by 40 minutes in workers and students. The restrictions had a stronger effect on wake time: workers started to wake up one hour and 13 minutes later than usual, whereas students delayed their wake time by 45 minutes. Overall, workers spent an extra 26 minutes in bed, compared to an extra five minutes for students.
People with depression, anxiety and stress were more likely to have poor sleep quality, the research found. Interestingly, the use of digital media before bed was not associated with a decline in sleep quality.
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Kathryn Pinkham, founder of the Insomnia Clinic, has witnessed an uptake in enquiries since lockdown began. “People are getting in touch who have a sleep problem that’s got much worse during lockdown, or were fine during lockdown and now they’re sleeping really poorly,” she tells HuffPost UK.
J_art via Getty Images
There are a few key ways to know if you need to improve your sleep quality, suggests The Sleep Foundation: if it takes you more than 30 minutes to fall asleep; if you wake up more than once in the night; if you find yourself staying awake for more than 20 minutes after waking up in the middle of the night; or if you spend less than 85% of your time in bed asleep.
So, what’s scuppering our sleep quality?
It’s no surprise sleep has been affected, says Pinkham, because so many things about lockdown “are the antithesis of what you should do for sleep”.
People aren’t getting up as early as they usually would because they don’t have to commute or do the school run. “They’re not setting their alarms and they’re waking up later,” she says, “and the problem is, if you wake up later, you don’t develop a strong enough drive to sleep well the next night.”
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Lockdown also means people are spending more time at home, bored, inactive, and not getting outdoors as much. “They’re not as tired and their drive to sleep is not as high as it needs to be – so then they’re getting into bed and struggling to sleep or finding the quality of sleep is very fractured,” she says.
Dr Andrew Bagshaw, a sleep expert from the Centre for Human Brain Health at University of Birmingham, believes the lack of schedule is a key issue. “The whole life schedule has changed and that’s maybe the thing that’s having the most impact,” he explains. Put simply, again, we’re not tired enough.
“We're not as tired and our drive to sleep is not as high as it needs to be.” - Kathryn Pinkham, founder of the Insomnia Clinic
Bagshaw points out that in the Italian study, sleep quality was worse in those who scored highly for anxiety, depression and stress – and lockdown can exacerbate these issues. “Even if they’re not diagnosed, I think there’s a lot of variability,” he says. “Some people are coping okay with this change and some are coping less well.”
Pinkham agrees there’s more uncertainty, stress and worry, which is impacting our sleep. “When we go to bed it’s the perfect time to worry. The problem is, if we get into a habit of waking up at 3am and worrying for a couple of hours, it’s exactly that – it becomes a habit,” she says.
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“So then the next night you wake up, you do it again. It’s almost like you’re telling your body clock: this is what I want to do at 3am.”
How can we improve our sleep quality?
Find yourself lying awake in the early hours worrying? Pinkham recommends writing before bed. Spend 20 minutes with a pen and paper, and write whatever is on your mind: the things you didn’t get done today, the things you need to do tomorrow, the things you’re worried about.
“Go back to setting your alarm again,” she suggests. Wake up earlier, go to bed later, and build up your “sleep drive” once more. Stay out of your bedroom in the day as much as you can. Natural light is important for the body’s circadian system – and therefore your sleep – so getting outside more could also help you fall asleep faster.
Dr Bagshaw suggests people should focus on scheduling, and setting a routine. “Normally it’s clear when you need to go to bed because you have to get up at a certain time,” he says.
Try sticking to a consistent bed time, having a consistent wake time, and ensuring you have a period where you wind down and relax as much as possible before you go to bed.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-06-01--Erasure’s Andy Bell On Parallels Between The Aids Crisis And Covid-19

The coronavirus pandemic is disastrous for everyone, but it affects minority groups such as queer people uniquely badly.
Statistically, LGBTQ+ people are more likely to experience feelings of loneliness and isolation instigated by the sustained period of lockdown. And queer businesses face a battle to stay solvent, which could rob the community of vital safe spaces.
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For Andy Bell, one half of synth-pop outfit Erasure, coronavirus is the second healthcare crisis to have dramatically shifted his worldview.
One of the first proudly gay pop stars in an era before stars such as George Michael came out, Bell and his bandmate Vince Clarke scored five number one albums in the Eighties and Nineties during the height of the Aids crisis.
Now 55, Bell sees parallels between the challenges posed by Covid-19 and the trauma caused by HIV/Aids at its peak.
Andy Bell with bandmate Vince Clarke at the height of their Erasure fame HuffPost UK
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“I’m drinking probably about two bottles of whisky a week,” Bell says down the phone. He isn’t alone – many of us have increased our drinking due to the pressures of lockdown.
“We come from that culture anyway – I know that’s not an excuse. I think if you’re left long enough in a room by yourself you’re going to have some sort of mental crisis…”
Bell says the stresses of lockdown pale by comparison to the Aids crisis, which the singer doesn’t believe younger people can fathom. He struggles to find a realistic way of explaining the shock of what it was like to live through the horrors of the epidemic, and believes Aids is still stigmatised and heavily misunderstood.
“Covid was acted upon pretty quickly, whereas the Aids thing wasn’t at all” - Andy Bell
“Covid was acted upon pretty quickly, whereas the Aids thing wasn’t at all,” he reflects. “Aids was denied. It was purposefully denied because it was about gay men, and drug takers, and Africa. It’s still the same. Anybody can get HIV, I know that, but it’s still perceived in the same way. Because it’s to do with sex, in some way it’s seen as being dirty – it’s seen as being your own fault.”
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Pausing, he urges: “It’s not like it’s finished. It’s still going on. Sometimes it’s spoken like it’s history, it’s not history at all.”
For many LGBTQ+ people, sex has a different meaning from what it does for straight people. Casual hook-up culture isn’t frivolous but an essential means of bonding with others, and as a means of expression. “For us, that is part of our identity,” stresses Bell.
During the Aids crisis, and now with Covid-19, queer people are unable to experience sexual hook-ups, intimacy, and socialising – but desire for these things is only strengthened by the challenges presented.
“There are always people that love that risky behaviour... It’s just from pure wild wantonness.” - Andy Bell
“There are always people that love that risky behaviour,” he says. “I think it’s just from pure wild wantonness. Especially for men, I think it’s just primeval urge, I don’t know... ”
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How did hook-ups work in the height of the Aids crisis? “You just fessed up straight away,” Bell remembers. “You got the confidence of the person and it was a question of trust really. You asked them and they ask you and that’s it. You meet decent people, and not so decent people, that’s it. You have to go purely by instinct.
Andy Bell reflects on the Aids crisis, and doesn't believe young people today can fathom the horror HuffPost UK
How does he feel about hook-up culture under Covid-19? “If I was single maybe I’d be a complete hypocrite,” he confesses. “Just go off and meet other people and ask them if they’re alright, if they have a temperature, if they’ve been isolating for 14 days or whatever.”
Bell was with life partner Paul, who died eight years ago, for 21 years. During the height of the epidemic, there was a disparity between his life with the band and his romantic life at home in London. At home, the epidemic’s effect was severe.
“Slowly it was as if your group was being picked off. They were dying” - Andy Bell
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“You had your group of friends, but slowly it was as if your group was being picked off. They were dying,” he reflects. “You talked about it, but you would talk about things in hushed tones, and really you still do – it’s not like you can go out and shout your mouth off loud in any pub anywhere.”
The epidemic caused a drastic tide of homophobia that affects survivors today. “I remember reading an article asking teenagers how they felt about gay men,” he says. “In the beginning it said they were clean, and they look really nice, and they’re really neat. When the HIV thing happened everything was ripped from beneath you and we were the pariahs. We had to rebuild our own lives as we were losing others from scratch.”
Bell used touring with Erasure as a means to escape from the reality back home. “With bands, especially Jimmy Sommerville, it was amazing, the camaraderie you felt going round: we did TV shows, everywhere you’d bump into them and it was such a great feeling.
“Vince said he used to go get really scared ’cause I’d get a cab and go out driving miles to the middle of nowhere to go to a club,” Bell says of the period when he himself was diagnosed as HIV+. ”I just had a great time – you didn’t think about HIV or what was going on.”
Revisiting that period today, the singer feels as if he tried to blank out as much as he could. “It was like a bad memory. Your brain purposefully pushes it away, you know? ’Cause it hurt you. It’s like when you’ve had periods of life mourning and stuff – the pain is so much it dissipates.”
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Bell’s own HIV+ diagnosis was delivered in 1998. “I had a feeling I might be HIV probably in 1997, then I wouldn’t go and see the doctor because I was too scared to go and find out because I kind of knew,” he remembers – while asserting that that, of course, the disease is totally manageable today, thanks to prescription drugs.
“I remember seeing this man who had Kaposi's sarcoma on his face and being shocked – it was almost like looking in the mirror and seeing yourself” - Andy Bell
But Aids was omnipresent in the years beforehand. “I even remember going to a vigil at Hyde Park Corner, just turning round and seeing this man who had Kaposi’s sarcoma on his face and being so shocked, it was almost like looking in the mirror and seeing yourself,” he remembers. “This would have been about 1996.”
Aids persists today because the government refuses to place emphasis on finding a vaccine, says Bell; it’s an issue that rattles the star. “Still to this day, it isn’t recognised. There’s no government body anywhere that recognises it as a pandemic. There’s no organisation – that’s why you have the Elton John Aids Foundation and the Terrence Higgins Trust raising money, because there are no governmental agencies raising money or putting money aside for HIV and Aids, which I think is disgraceful.”
Aside from the government which he views as being negligent – “people in power who don’t give a shit” – Bell’s delighted by the resilience of today’s queer community, which has taken a new shape since the Nineties. “It’s miraculous,” he says. “We’ve come on leaps and bounds. Lesbians, transgender, all these people included, it’s really incredible. It’s gone beyond my expectations. I think people are also very much aware of safe sex now.”
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Andy Bell and Vince Clarke are releasing a new Erasure album later this year HuffPost UK
One particularly pertinent connection Bell draws between then and now is about inclusivity. How HIV leaves sufferers outside of a more conventional queer group – much like, he says, the Test and Trace NHS service around Covid-19 will.
“I’m suspicious about track and trace – it is going to end up being a club. You’re either in or you’re out. You’ve either got it, or you’ve had it,” he says.
“I think there’s still a huge amount of discrimination in the community, just from what I read on people saying ‘must be negative, or disease free,’ all these kinds of things. I think that’s really bad. Gay men tagging themselves in that way is awful, really discriminatory towards other people.”
Bell’s overarching message is that the fear and misunderstanding that persists over HIV and Aids is a destructive force still splintering the LGBTQ+ community. And as with any health crisis such as Covid-19 or HIV, a greater understanding of the facts is the starting block to better mental and physical health – and helps us cope.
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And so the singer has taken on a new role, schooling younger people about resilience in the face of adversity and offering support about HIV+ statuses in the age of Covid-19.
“I’ve had a few young people come up to me and reveal their HIV+ status and they’re devastated,” he chips in shortly before we finish the call.
“I’ve had to be like an auntie, put my arms around them and say: ’Honey, you’re going to be okay, I promise you. They think it’s the end of the world, you know?”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-06-01--I Didn’t Think School WhatsApp Groups Could Get Any Worse. They Did.

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We’re here to guide you through the coronavirus lockdown. Sign up to the Life newsletter for daily tips, advice, how-tos and escapism.
What’s the definition of insanity? According to a famous quote – one that’s been attributed to everyone from Einstein to Ben Franklin and Mark Twain – it’s doing the same thing over and over again, yet expecting different results.
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My personal lapse into insanity came when I rejoined the school WhatsApp group, despite leaving the Year 2 group in protest, once before. Back then, my very public flouncing was the result of realising it caused me unnecessary stress; that I didn’t need to be arguing online with someone I’d never exchanged more than a brief smile with at the school gate. I got out, and felt better immediately.
Until I got sucked in, again. Right before lockdown.
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We all make mistakes – turns out, mine was agreeing to rejoin the collective virtual space set aside for parents in our year group to remind each other about non-uniform day, quibble over the price of tickets for the summer fair, and – most recently – argue bitterly about schools reopening in June.
Our children’s school in London had originally planned to reopen to nursery, Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 kids on June 1, but – following advice from the local authority and The Independent SAGE Report – the headteacher wrote to us to explain he couldn’t, in good conscience, say it was completely safe. He extended the closure until June 15 – and that was like throwing a petrol bomb into the gasoline field of WhatsApp.
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One parent described the decision as a “fail”. Another said the school should “hang their heads in shame”. People turned on each other; posting sarcastic laughing emojis, calling each other names, using words that would have us all sending our kids to the naughty step. You could see mobile phone numbers popping up in the search field, typing and then deleting, as people raced to add their two cents worth – before thinking better of it.
We all have our own points of view, of course – based on experience, fear or personal circumstance – but I left the first group because I thought WhatsApp messages about kids being at school were bad. Now, the argument was around whether kids should be at school in the first place, and it was heated.
I’ll confess – full disclosure – I didn’t stay silent. I couldn’t. Some comments felt like listening to a relative making an off-colour joke around the dinner table at Christmas. If these go unchallenged, you risk them seeming acceptable.
I want my kids to return to school, when it’s safe to do so, as much as anyone. But calling for members of school staff, many of whom have put their own health at risk for months to teach the kids of key workers, to “hang their heads in shame” was a red line I simply couldn’t ignore.
In the end, however, it went the way these things always go; it descended into an unattractive tit-for-tat. When you care about something passionately, it can feel like the social ripples are worth it if you succeed in persuading just one other person to hear you out.
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But in the gladiatorial arena of a school WhatsApp group, it ends up being less a case of “sharing an important message” and more a case of “who can shout loudest”. And sometimes it descends into all-out bullying.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-06-01--We Asked Kids To Reflect On Life In Lockdown. Here's What They Told Us.

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We’re here to guide you through the coronavirus pandemic. Sign up to the Life newsletter for daily tips, advice, how-tos and escapism.
There’s no doubt about it: kids have missed their friends a lot during lockdown.
When we asked parents to asking their children questions about lockdown on camera, it was isolation from friends and families stood out.
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“When I see my friends, it’s been really hard to stay away from them,” one young girl told us.
“I just really like playing with them, and seeing them and hugging them,” another said. “It’s just separated us all.”
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The children interviewed also told us how they’ve been spending their time keeping busy in lockdown, from spending time with siblings to cooking and baking in the kitchen.
But out personal favourite past-time? “I like making pirate ships!”
They also talked about doing homework online and how they feel about going back to school, since Boris Johnson announced children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 could return from June 1.
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-06-01--I'm Due To Give Birth Today But All I Can Think About Is George Floyd

A photo of the author. Courtesy of Latona Giwa
Note: This piece was written on May 28, 2020.
Today is my due date, and I can’t stop thinking about George Floyd.
I keep telling myself I shouldn’t be thinking about “things like this” right now, that the moments before I give birth should be spent in meditative relaxation. Surely, now is the time to reflect on the beauty and hope of new life, not the pain and ugliness of this world. But my mind keeps wandering back to a Black man’s face being flattened into the ground by the weight of a cop’s knee, his eyes begging for mercy he would not receive.
The promise of an empty bassinet and carefully folded newborn onesies sit in front of me, but I can’t breathe. As I read the news of George Floyd’s murder, I feel that same bronchial constriction that I’ve felt each time I hear of a new police assassination of a Black American.
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I am reminded that, as a Black person in America, we have rarely in life taken a deep breath. As my airways tighten, and I search for the right relaxation mantra to calm myself, I think of my two Black brothers, my Black father, and my Black cousins in Minneapolis. I beg my mind not to play the slideshow again – the flashing images of the many ways I’ve imagined finding out that one of them has been killed in a chance police encounter. I can’t breathe.
Every new police murder of a Black victim digs at the same wound, the initial trauma I felt as a school-age child when I learned of this legacy – the Emmett Tills and Rodney Kings and all who followed them.
This painful discovery was cradled by my short lifetime of already knowing; even as children, we know the reality of racism before we are taught to name it. By age 8, I had already been taught to fear the police as a matter of basic social hygiene.
With time and exposure, these wounds have scabbed. It seems that the coverage of these murders is so frequent that, I am ashamed to admit, I lose track of the names and my eyes glaze across the news more often than I pause to mourn the dead these days. Like many Americans, the pain from Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor’s grotesque murders is still so fresh, it feels unjust to have to process yet another loss so soon.
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“Floyd’s murder immediately exposed my deepest layers of grief ... Seeing police calmly and slowly murdering a Black man in front of a distressed crowd utterly disturbs my faith in humanity, but also because of the familiarity of home.”
Some of these murders hurt deeper than others. Floyd’s murder immediately exposed my deepest layers of grief, in part because seeing police calmly and slowly murdering a Black man in front of a distressed crowd utterly disturbs my faith in humanity, but also because of the familiarity of home. I am a child of the Twin Cities, born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, raised mostly in Bloomington, in one of the many cookie-cutter homes occupied by working class and immigrant families raised in the shadow of the Minneapolis-Saint Paul Airport, and eventually the Mall of America.
My nursing assistant mother and cab driver/security guard/perennial-entrepreneur father, like so many of my neighbors, worked their ways into the suburbs to give their children that elusive gift of “a better life.” This leap was particularly large for my father, who was born in a Yoruba village in southern Nigeria, the second youngest of 12 children, with no memory of his own father who died of a heart attack when he was only four years old.
Like all African immigrants to the United States, I’m sure my father has complicated feelings about his own experience of being Black in America, but from a young age he presented to me a very clear message on my own Blackness. As a recovering perfectionist, I still often hear his regular before-school refrain: “You are Black and you are a woman; you will have to work twice as hard as everyone else.”
Mostly left on our own while our parents worked overtime and second jobs that could not keep them from two bankruptcies, a lot of violence and an ugly divorce, my brother and I found our own ways of navigating life in the Twin Cities. Our “better” suburban schools were less burdened by overt violence than some inner-city counterparts, but were steeped in Minnesota’s particular brand of white supremacy ― neatly packaged in “Minnesota-nice” progressivism, the kind that pats itself on the back for how fair it is.
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For my part, I opted for the escape of success, dedicating myself to becoming president of as many clubs and teams and achieving as many A+s as humanly possible. My brother followed the other path of escape, seeking as much attention as trouble could bring him. Only later as an adult, after reading a report about systemic racism in Bloomington public schools, did I think about how we both suffered the insidious harm of Minnesota’s “polite” racism in our own ways.
This report showed how students of colour are disproportionately suspended and expelled, as my brother was for multiple pranks and fights, until he was finally pushed out of the school system entirely, never completing his high school degree. (My very intelligent brother eventually got his GED and worked his way through a challenging electrician’s apprenticeship.) The report showed, on the flip side, that Bloomington students of colour are grossly underrepresented in achievement opportunities; I acutely remember the feeling of often being the only Black person in my gifted program and the deep sense of unworthiness that instilled in me as a child.
But, despite the many statistics that demonstrate that life for Black people in Minnesota is marked by unfair treatment and discriminatory systems, many Minnesotans hold on to the belief that life is at least “better” there because of Minnesotan progressiveness.
After graduating high school, I found my fastest way out of the Twin Cities – a full ride to Grinnell College, running from a difficult childhood and seeking that “better” we are all after. My first student trip brought me to the South for the first time, a volunteer trip to a hurricane-ravaged New Orleans. With a lens that was admittedly fogged by a sense of northern elitism, I was both appalled and fascinated by the extreme racial disparities that the human and natural disasters of Katrina exposed.
“I found myself drawn to the open secret of social hierarchy, which was a more taboo topic in the Midwest. People talked openly about race and class, and how it affected them.”
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On that and subsequent visits to the South, I found myself drawn to the open secret of social hierarchy, which was a more taboo topic in the Midwest. People talked openly about race and class, and how it affected them. People said ugly, truthful things, which were echoed back to them in the reality of their lives. Somehow that felt safer to me – and I delighted in being in a majority Black city, walking down a street and blending in. I found myself breathing deeper than I could in the polite stuffiness of Minnesota.
By my second year of college, I knew I’d move to the South when I graduated. I remember telling my father that I had accepted a post-graduate fellowship in New Orleans, and his fearful reply: “But people are racist down there!” At 22, I laughed at my Black immigrant father’s willingness to buy into the Minnesotan narrative; despite his two decades of personal experience with discrimination – in work, in housing, in banking, in the criminal justice system – my father had been taught that the “real racism,” the kind to be feared, was “down South.”
As a soon-to-be parent of two, I can empathise with that desire to believe now; I see that in order to have the strength to raise our children in this world, we need to believe there is hope where we are and that our children will somehow benefit from it. We need to believe in a “better.”
Looking at photos of Floyd smiling and posing for the camera, I feel my womb heave as I try not to cry. I try to take some deep breaths and send them to the baby, try to find strength in the chant of “Black lives matter.” Ahmaud Arbery’s family’s lawyer said that “his life mattered” while arguing for Arbery’s assailants to be arrested and convicted.
Still, I try to sigh away the painful knowledge that this society is constructed around the assertion that my baby’s life – like Arbery, Taylor and Floyd’s – already matters less than its white counterparts before it has even left the womb. But Black mothers in America have always known what it is like to carry a life that the world has already decided will not matter. I think of George Floyd’s pregnant mother and I wonder, when he slid from her warm body, how acutely could she feel his mortality? Or did she choose to believe that things would be better for her son, that they must be?
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This is why we chant, sing and write “Black lives matter,” and why the birth justice movement reminds us that “Black birth matters.” We burn to make these assertions become truth. Because America, you have already written the rationale for our murder, manufactured the blame for our incarceration, and defined the cause of our disease, before we are even born.
As a Black American murdered by the police, before your killer is even questioned, the first thing the world will know is a list of your wrongs. We are all complex people, our lives made up of beauty and ugliness, victories and mistakes. When my personal anxiety slideshow starts, and I see the many ways my family members might die in a fateful encounter with the police, I think of my father. I think of how, before his Black body would even be cold, the world would rather hear of his arrest record than to know he is a father and grandfather, that he is bilingual, or that, when we were little, he would rally all the kids at the playground into one big game of “monster tag” that we would play past dusk, until the mosquitos stuck to the sweat on our skin.
“I was quickly reminded that as Black folks, our untimely deaths are already explained for us.”
I’ve had the opportunity of late to worry about things a bit more universal, like a global pandemic. I’ve channeled my anxiety into worries of hospital policies for birthing partners and doulas, and how to plan a postpartum meal train with social distancing and hygiene precautions. Although stressful, there has been some relief in worrying about an issue that felt indiscriminate and universal. But, of course, it isn’t.
A few weeks into the pandemic in the U.S., the data started to show what should not have surprised any of us – that this devastating disease is far more devastating for Black and Brown communities. In my first surge of disappointment, I realised I had actually been hoping that this would finally be one exception in a world of racial disparities. Hearing my spiteful Louisiana Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy explain that Black people are predisposed to dying from this disease – ignoring social determinants of health like stress, poverty, and racism in favour of racist biological determinism – I was quickly reminded that as Black folks, our untimely deaths are already explained for us.
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Knowing we matter less is a burden we carry in and out of every day, every social interaction. I am one of the privileged Americans who is not an “essential worker,” and who has been able to quarantine safely at home for the last two months.
Recently, I had to leave the house for a medical appointment, and realised that life at home with my family had allowed me to let my guard down. Like so many of us, my quarantine life has meant infrequent hair washing and forgetting about bras entirely. As I entered a once-busy office building for my appointment, mask on and hand sanitiser in hand, I was greeted by empty halls and dimmed lights.
On the short walk to the elevator, I met almost no one, until I passed the front desk where three employees stopped their conversation and followed me with suspicious eyes until I got on the elevator. Their gaze expressed without words, “Should you be here?”
Once the elevator doors closed, my reflection in the glass door told me why: In my homebound state, I had not bothered to comb or oil my hair, which was threatening to burst out of the loose hair tie on my head. Three inches of my brown belly hung out from the bottom of my no-longer-adequate maternity tee, above basketball shorts and flip-flops. And I was masked, an inherently risky look for people of color no matter what situation they find themselves in.
Feeling my heart pounding, I immediately thought of multiple stereotypes of Black women that I could easily be forced into at this moment, and envisioned how the mostly white staff in this building might react if they thought I was sneaking around the dark hallways. My mind went through a checklist that Black and brown people in this country must learn to use.
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Like I did as a teenager when the clerks at a Mall of America clothing store would follow me around the store with that same questioning look – “Should you be here?” – I asked myself, “How can I look less threatening?” I pulled my mask down a bit to expose more of my eyes and cheekbones so I could look like I was smiling; I attempted to tug my shirt down to cover more of my belly; and I made my hands clearly visible. I sighed relief into my cloth mask an hour later, when I finally reached my car after my appointment.
“The roll of the genetic die that determines how 'Black' you look also determines how the world will see you. How many mistakes will you be allowed to make? How quickly will they blame you for your own expulsion, incarceration, death? How lucky will you be?”
With my brown skin and frizzy hair, I have experienced both anti-Black racism and light-skin privilege throughout my life. Apparently as a compliment, a high-school friend once called me “the Minnesota blend,” while New Orleanian cat-callers holler “hey red” and “brown sugar don’t melt baby” to me as I stroll these humid streets.
My family is mixed race; if you lined us all up you’d see a variety of skin tones, hair textures, and more. The fun curiosity of waiting to see what and who my baby will look like is tinged with a darker anxiety. With my first baby, I remember the mix of joy and fear as I watched her skin darken over time and wondered if her baby curls would loosen or tighten. Behind clichés like “good hair” are a bitter truth; the roll of the genetic die that determines how “Black” you look also determines how the world will see you. How many mistakes will you be allowed to make? How quickly will they blame you for your own expulsion, incarceration, death? How lucky will you be?
Most of the time, I feel hopeful. I decided to create and birth my babies out of hope, because I believe in our human potential for good and that the struggle for social justice is worth fighting. I believe that we can build a better Minnesota, a better country and a better world. But sometimes that hope is obscured by fear and darkness.
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In moments like this one, I fear that for too many Black people in America, being lucky doesn’t even mean surviving. Being lucky is just having enough witnesses around to film your death and share it with the world. Somehow justice isn’t living your life to its full potential; it’s begging for your murderers to be arrested and convicted of a crime.
I sat down to write this in an attempt to release some of the overwhelming anger and grief burdening my heart. But now I need to turn my attention to my higher purpose in this moment: to give birth to our newest member of society, and to make sure they know from the moment they’re born, that despite what the world may tell them, their life matters. We can build a better future where that is true.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-06-01--I’m Working In A Supermarket Through The Pandemic. This Is What It’s Really Like

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When I went into my first shift, I was somewhat nervous.
I hadn’t been in employment for a little while. After finishing my master’s, I developed chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and had been recovering after spending a month almost entirely bed-bound. I saw a job advertised in our small local supermarket and thought it was the perfect opportunity – the supermarket is only five minutes down the road from where I live with my partner, and the flexible part-time hours could provide a source of income while I studied for my PhD.
My second shift, however, was even more nerve-racking: lockdown had begun. The panic buying started almost immediately, with one colleagues remarking she had never seen the shelves so empty in a decade of working there. Since, then it’s been utterly exhausting – for all my colleagues, let alone someone like me living with CFS.
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I ended up having to work more hours – working more shifts and staying later – because we were needing huge deliveries of most foods daily, and my PhD application remained stuck on my computer as universities across the country closed. Because of the situation, I had almost no training; I just ended up having to find my way around the tills myself. I didn’t mind doing this – I’ve always preferred a more hands-on approach to learning a task – but it was very stressful to learn something completely new whilst attempting to adhere to stringent social distancing guidelines, which were difficult to put into practice in a very small store.
“More than once, I’ve come home and sat in the bath crying, too exhausted to wash my hair.”
Sometimes this can feel quite distressing; I struggle with explaining to customers that we are trying our best, but that the store itself has very narrow aisles, and there is little we can do about that. We have tried to implement as much as we can – although it can feel very upsetting to not be able to enforce what we need. Occasionally, customers will become annoyed at each other over a perceived transgression of the rules, and try to get me to take sides. More than once, I’ve come home and sat in the bath crying, too exhausted to wash my hair.
Every shift begins with a familiarisation of the new measure which had been undertaken overnight – protective screens, gloves, face-masks, limits on the number of people allowed in the store at one time. Occasionally, well-meaning customers question me about the protective measures meant to keep us all safe; I remember vividly one lady, about a week into lockdown, questioned me incessantly about the safety procedures and helpfully told me I was probably going to get the virus. After she had left, I felt the beginnings of a panic attack, and had to take a moment to ground myself. A colleague has told me that I should be self-isolating, because, if I caught the virus, I could suffer a relapse in my CFS symptoms. But I am simply not able to – I started the job a week before lockdown, and so the government’s furlough scheme wouldn’t cover me as a very new employee.
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While we in supermarkets are facing our trials and tribulations, I am always conscious that ours are nothing compared to other front-line workers, such as the nurse who, after finishing an A&E shift, broke down in tears in front of me, sobbing that she just couldn’t deal with treating dying people any more. I wanted so badly to give her a hug, and I felt deeply sad that I couldn’t.
“Being able to go out every day and talk to people, even if it’s just while I’m packing their shopping, has really helped me mentally navigate lockdown”
Selective focus color image depicting a caucasian woman in her 30s wearing a protective surgical face mask and plastic surgical gloves during the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, in a bid to stop the spread of the virus. The woman is pushing her shopping cart inside a supermarket while shopping for wine and alcohol in the alcoholic drinks section of the store. Room for copy space. coldsnowstorm via Getty Images
There have been longer and more challenging shifts, and, sometimes, customers who are angry at product shortages and shout at me. That can be really upsetting, and I sometimes finish my shift in tears. But equally, there have also been customers who have thanked me for being there, who have said that I have made their day a little bit better. There’s a lady who comes in and asks me about what my PhD will cover – sometimes she comes in and tells me about what she has been reading while she buys her newspapers, about a dystopian fiction book that she has enjoyed.
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It’s these aspects of the job that have really helped me get through lockdown – these customers make my day a little bit better too. Most customers who visit the store live only a few doors down from me, and working here has become a way for me to engage with the community. Now, on my little five minute walk to work, I see them cycling past, and we smile and wave at each other. Even this helps make me feel much more connected to the people around me, and far less isolated.
This hasn’t been just a job – it’s been a lifeline for me during this pandemic. Being able to go out every day and talk to people, even if it’s just while I’m packing their shopping, has really helped me mentally navigate lockdown. A lot of the support services I usually access have been suspended; I receive outpatient treatment for my eating disorder, but this has all been over the phone because of the virus. Going to work forces me to get out of the house, see people and speak to them. I’ve found that the job has been really important for me in so many ways; as a source of income and to help me save for a PhD, as something that I have found fulfilling, and as a way to hopefully exit lockdown with my mental health intact.
Lizzie Bestow is a freelance writer


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-06-01--How I Cope: Letting My Children Literally Go Wild Is The Only Thing Keeping Us Sane

Jacqueline Housden
You’re reading How I Cope, a series sharing self-care tips as we all adjust to the coronavirus pandemic.
It was a heart-stopping moment by the local bomb crater that made me wonder if I had finally gone too far.
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I watched –– with a mixture of pride and horror –– as my two-year-old, Max, flew down the steep rocky track on his little blue balance bike, clinging on for dear life. “Oh my god!” the five-year-old shouted. It hadn’t quite been part of the plan.
I realise you may have stumbled here in the hope of some tried and tested remedies for coping amid the pandemic. But given the look on some passerby’s faces, I’m not sure the pattern we’ve fallen into is for everyone.
Our quest to burn off steam outside each day had started off well enough. After scraping through the first gruelling hours of grappling work, home schooling, naps, nappies, food - so much food - and various, often hideous, squabbles, our release into the great outdoors every afternoon felt like the biggest sigh of relief.
Jacqueline Housden
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It was spring, we studied nature. We saw the blackthorn blossom gently unfolding over velvet green fields. We traipsed –– day in, day out –– as the petals billowed out, before eventually floating away in the afternoon sunshine like tiny soft drops of snow.
We walked as the bluebells turned the woods into a magical carpet of purple and scent, we saw the first bright green leaves creeping out to cover the sky. One warm afternoon, alone in the woods, we turned to see a solitary deer standing in the middle of the path. We sat still amongst cowslips on a sun-drenched hill as butterflies looped around. I felt lucky –– we had escaped, we could find calm.
But lockdown is not a few weeks of sweet gentle walks. It has dragged. Children bore easily. Also, I needed to stretch my legs properly. And so our “daily” has become something else –– the quest to find the best “stunt ditch” –– and a rigorous test of my nerves.
Jacqueline Housden
It wasn’t long before we found the crater. The boys had already mastered ‘stunt hedge’ –– a hole in a hawthorn bush on a slope, just big enough for them to fly through at speed, not always missing the gigantic patch of stinging nettles at the other side.
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Once the initial shock at flying down the massive slope had worn off, a look of nervous delight came over Max’s face. Eventually, I made some videos of him whizzing down. “Did he do it more than once?” a friend wrote back in astonishment. “I think maybe that was after about 20 goes,” I said. I’ve taken their silence since as a clear sign of disapproval.
There is a saying, “if the children are happy, we’re happy”. And the thing that appears to make mine beam with delight is flying down steep hills horribly fast. “I like stunt ditch because it is stunty,” Louis, my five-year-old, wrote in his journal one night. They burn off steam, while I drip with the clammy sweat of fear. But we have found what makes us (mostly) happy.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-06-01--Shake Things Up In The Kitchen With This Family Shakshuka Recipe

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We’re here to guide you through the coronavirus lockdown. Sign up to the Life newsletter for daily tips, advice, how-tos and escapism.
Life under lockdown is tough on anyone, but it can be especially tough on parents with children. Months of juggling full-time childcare with work, as well as supervising home schooling, will have no doubt taken its toll – which is why we’re launching a weekly series on recipes to make at home with all the family.
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One place where little hands can actually be quite helpful (rather than a nuisance) is in the kitchen. Cooking is an activity that can turn them into little chefs, it’s going to be messy, but it’s all in good fun. Keep them entertained for a few hours and surely this counts towards their homeschooling, right?
We turn to food writer, cook, and podcast host of Mother Food, Alissa Timoshkina who shares her comforting shakshuka recipe that feeds the whole family and involves getting kids to help out with the preparation – perfect for a weekend brunch or even an evening meal. It’s never too early to cook to help develop a lifelong love of the kitchen, as well as teaching them valuable life skills.
Shakshuka with Chickpeas
Serves: 4-6 | Prep Time: 10-15 mins | Cook Time: 15-20 mins
Alissa Timoshkina Family Shakshuka with Chickpeas
“Shakshuka is fun! It’s fun to say out loud, to cook and to eat. The best part about it is that it involves your hands as much during the cooking as it does during the eating,” says Alissa, whose daughter loves sitting on the kitchen counter pulling the garlic cloves apart and peeling them.
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Together Alissa is also teaching her how to crack eggs properly, pull the herbs’ leaves from the stalks, and shell chickpeas – but only when they have the patience to go the extra mile! If you’ve got a few children to occupy, why not assign them a station each?
But it’s not just the preparation that is fun for the family, afterwards everyone gets rewarded with a large bowl of sumptuous shakshuka.“I can’t imagine any kid not wanting to dunk a big chunk of bread into a gooey egg yolk and a rich tomato sauce,” reasons Alissa. “But shakshuka isn’t all just about the fun, it has high nutritional value and is a great way to get your little gourmands accustomed to fragrant and spicy food.”
Ingredients:
Mild oil for frying
1 large yellow onion
4-6 garlic cloves
1 large red bell pepper
1 tsp of sea salt
1tsp (heaped) of ground coriander
1tsp of ground cumin
1 tsp of smoked paprika
1/2 tsp of cinnamon
1 tsp of chilli flakes (optional)
4 tbsp of tomato puree (concentrated)
200ml boiling water
1 tbsp of honey
1 tin of chickpeas, rinsed and de-shelled (if you fancy a bit of extra kitchen fun)
4-6 eggs
To garnish:
A handful of each coriander, dill and parsley leaves
1/2 tsp of harissa (optional)
1 tbsp of Greek yoghurt
Serve with a fresh crusty sourdough bread
Method:
1. In a large casserole heat up some oil on a medium fire.
2. Thinly slice the onion into semi-rings, finely chop or grate the garlic, and cut the bell pepper into thin strips. Fry in the oil with the salt and spices for 10 minutes covered with a lid.
3. Dilute the tomato puree in hot water with honey and add to the pan together with the chickpeas. Give it a good mix through.
4. Make 4-6 wells (depends on how many eggs you are using) in the stew.
5. Crack each egg into a ramekin or a cup, and then tip it into the well. I’d not advise cracking eggs directly into the casserole especially if the little hands are involved.
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6. Add a touch of salt to each egg and cook until the eggs are set to your liking. You can cover with the lid if you’d like your egg to be cooked through or leave open for a running yolk.
7. Garnish with fresh herbs and serve with some fresh bread and harissa yoghurt on the side. I love serving the dish to the table in the casserole as it gives a real festive abundant feel to the meal!


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-06-02--Trump Threatens To Deploy Military To Halt Anti-Racist Protests

Speaking as police deployed tear gas on protesters just outside the White House, Trump vowed harsher action against protesters.
The president made no mention of violent actions taken by police in recent days against protesters, nor did he make any call for national unity.
Instead, he said: “I am mobilising all available federal resources, civilian and military, to stop the rioting and looting, to end the destruction and arson. And to protect the rights of law-abiding Americans, including your Second Amendment rights.”
Trump added: “Mayors and governors must establish an overwhelming law enforcement presence until the violence has been quelled.
“If a city or state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-06-01--Is The Public In Lockstep With The Government On The Lockdown?

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One step beyond?
When the final political reckoning is made on how the UK government dealt with the Covid crisis, it will be difficult for Boris Johnson to hide from the sheer number of deaths. And he and his ministers are acutely aware of the charge likely to be levelled at them: you went into lockdown too slowly, and came out of lockdown too quickly.
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With some scientists expressing worries in recent days on the latter point, it was all the more striking when Matt Hancock opened his latest No.10 press conference with this plea to the public: “If there is one message that we have for today it is that it is incredibly important for anybody who has symptoms of coronavirus, a cough or a fever or a change in your sense of taste or smell that you get a test.”
Was the health secretary trying to tell us that he feared people were getting ill but avoiding tests? If so, was that because a chunk of the English population worry about being forced to self-isolate for seven days? Or because they don’t want to land their friends and relatives with a 14 day bout of fresh quarantine under NHS Test And Trace? Or both?
Sadly, he couldn’t give us any detailed figures for how many people had been tested or traced under the system that was introduced last week to great fanfare. We learned that “the vast majority” were being traced, the scheme was “successful”, but there were no statistics to back any of this up. Expect Keir Starmer to raise just that in PMQs on Wednesday.
There was a further hint from Hancock that the numbers would be quite low, but he was keen to stress that this was not a negative but a positive as it showed the spare capacity in the system (a bit like Nightingale Hospitals being a positive, even though they weren’t needed in the end). Once the system is indeed ready to combat local outbreaks, he may be proved right.
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But there was another sign that Hancock is far from relaxed about the gradual moves out of lockdown. When he said the public should “not step too far”, there was a real note of unease in his voice. That was unsurprising given all the weekend reports of packed beaches, police interventions and fraying tempers. The lockdown exit so far may feel like one small step for Matt, but it’s already a giant leap for Matt’s kind (young Englishmen eager to enjoy the summer sun).
The difficulty is that without some of the numbers on test-and-trace, and without it being fully operational at local level, the government does indeed look like it’s rushing its way out of lockdown. In statistics, the idea of ‘confidence levels’ is crucial to understanding, but the requirement of confidence is pretty key in politics and public health messaging too.
As I reported last week, some at the UK Statistics Authority are still concerned at the way Hancock has responded to its warning that the figures put out on testing are far from clear. Among those concerns are the difference between capacity and tests actually done, and especially on the way swab kits sent in the post are included in the statistics. If you drill down into the latest stats, some 42,000 ‘tests’ are actually tests sent in the post, but we have no assessment of what proportion are returned or correctly administered.
Another much-vaunted plank of the government’s strategy, the Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC), is also not quite ready yet either. Hancock could only say “we are getting it stood up, making sure all of the information flows come to it..it’s being formulated as we speak”. No.10 admitted today it was still in the process of making it “fully operational”.
A clue to the way clinicians suspect they are not being fully consulted about the move out of lockdown was underlined when NHS England’s primary care director Nikki Kanani tweeted yesterday. It was clear she was taken by surprise by the announcement this weekend that the most vulnerable groups could leave their shielded homes ahead of schedule. Kanani, don’t forget, appeared alongside Hancock only a few weeks ago for a No10 press conference.
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As for baby steps to normality, primary school pupils began a tentative return to class today. But as MPs prepare to return to parliament tomorrow, there is another sense that the government is running too fast out of lockdown. A long queue of MPs, already dubbed “the Rees-Mogg conga” by shadow chief whip Nick Brown, will snake its way through the Commons as they vote in person on amendments to retain remote voting.
Speaker Lindsay Hoyle is clearly unhappy (he told the Times this weekend “what we’re doing is taking that franchise away and that does worry me”) but the government looks like it has the numbers (just seven Tories signed the Procedure Committee amendment tonight). The new system takes 30 minutes for each vote and in a final test today two clerks (acting as substitute MPs) managed to cast votes the wrong way.
Still, maybe ministers should be careful what they wish for. When MPs are gathered in person (even socially distanced), they plot and scheme even more effectively than on WhatsApp. And there is a growing Tory backbench rebellion over plans to impose a 14-day quarantine on travellers from overseas next week. There will be no vote (the policy is enacted via secondary legislation on a ‘negative’ procedure), but the anger is palpable enough to possibly make No.10 think again.
Why? Because for many weary Brits, the prospect of no foreign summer holiday could itself prove a step too far.
Quote Of The Day
“Do not step too far, the disease is not done yet. We mustn’t throw away the progress that has been made.”
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Matt Hancock cautions the public not to outpace the lockdown easing
Monday Cheat Sheet
Matt Hancock announced there were 1,570 confirmed coronavirus cases on June 1, “the lowest number since March 25” - two days after lockdown began.
Primary school pupils in Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 went back to class for the first time in months, although the ASCL union estimated that the numbers returning varied from 40% to 70%.
A YouGov/Times poll showed the Tory lead over Labour has stabilised and is now back up to 10 points. On the question of who would make the best prime minister, 37% said Boris Johnson, but 32% said Keir Starmer, the narrowest it has been. 43 % thought the Tories were incompetent, up from 27% in early April,
A No.10 spokesman said the police would be expected to “exercise discretion” when enforcing rules that technically make it illegal for a couple to have sex indoors, if they are not living together.
Ashdown House, a 180-year old private prep school once attended by Boris Johnson, is to shut down as a result of the impact of the coronavirus on pupil numbers.
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People queued for hours at IKEA stores across England as DIY, furniture and cycle shops all reopened. Primark announced it would reopen on 15 June.
Jeremy Corbyn has questioned the independence of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission that is investigating allegations of Labour anti-Semitism. He told Middle East Eye that the Tory government had decided to “make it part of the government machine”.
Liverpool football team ‘took the knee’ in a gesture of solidarity with the BlackLivesMatter protests in the US in the wake of the death of George Floyd.
Attorney General Suella Braverman extended legal rules for the Grenfell Tower Inquiry so witnesses cannot refuse to answer questions on the basis that to do so would risk self-incrimination. It also means that their answers cannot be used in evidence in any future prosecution against them
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-06-01--Autopsy Finds George Floyd's Death Due To 'Homicide By Asphyxia'

Floyd, 46, died last week after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. Video of the arrest shows Floyd repeatedly telling the officer he couldn’t breathe.
The doctors found that weight on Floyd’s back from other officers, handcuffs and his positioning all also contributed to his death by impairing the proper function of his diaphragm.
“What we found is consistent with what people saw,” Dr Baden said in an emailed release. “There is no other health issue that could cause or contribute to the death. Police have this false impression that if you can talk, you can breathe. That’s not true.”
The new report contradicts preliminary results from the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office, which said in a criminal complaint against officer Derek Chauvin that “no physical findings” supported “a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxia or strangulation”.
Chauvin, the officer who knelt on Floyd’s neck, was taken into custody last Friday by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said. The police were responding to a call of Floyd having used a counterfeit $20 bill.
Outrage over Floyd’s death has sparked a wave of protests across the country, some of them violent. Family attorney Ben Crump ended his statement on the autopsy results with an appeal for calm.
“We understand the righteous anger we see playing out on streets across the country,” Crump said. “We support the activism and energy of the people who want to make sure we achieve change, and we hope those efforts continue, but looting and violence are absolutely unacceptable.”
“They were unacceptable to George, and they must be unacceptable to us,” he said. “The way to honour George is to achieve justice. As a country, we need to take a deep breath. George Floyd wasn’t allowed that, but we must.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-06-01--Met Police Called In After Robert Jenrick Approves Tory Donor's £1bn Housing Plan

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Police are “assessing” an allegation about housing secretary Robert Jenrick after he signed off a controversial £1bn east London development dreamed up by a Tory donor’s firm.
The cabinet minister has faced fierce criticism after he admitted “unlawfully” approving the 1,500-home development at the former Westferry Printworks site on London’s Isle of Dogs in January.
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Jenrick handed the scheme a last-minute reprieve after the local council and then the independent Planning Inspectorate both decided it should be refused. They had said it lacked enough affordable housing and conflicted with local conservation policy.
The housing secretary’s green light came just a day before Tower Hamlets Council approved a new rate for its Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) – a move that would have increased the property owner’s financial liability to the authority by between £30m and £50m.
That money would have been spent mitigating the impact of the development on the local area, and improving local services. Instead, thanks to Jenrick’s timing, it stayed in the pocket of the developer, leading to allegations of bias by the local council – and critics such as Labour’s Andrew Adonis, who is understood to have referred the matter to the Metropolitan Police Service on Wednesday.
The building used to be the Daily Express printworks on the Millwall waterfront. The land is owned by Northern & Shell, which is in turn owned by publishing magnate and former Tory donor Richard Desmond.
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After Jenrick conceded his decision was “unlawful by reason of apparent bias” and confirmed it was deliberately issued before the new CIL policy could be adopted, he agreed planning permission should be quashed and decided by a different minister.
On Monday, a Met spokesperson confirmed the force had received an allegation. They told HuffPost UK: “The Metropolitan Police received an allegation on May 27 – the details of this are currently being assessed by officers from the special enquiry team.”
The special enquiry team looks into alleged fraud and corruption offences in the public sector.
In an interview last week, Jenrick said the application was decided “on its merits” and done “without any actual bias”.
He added: “But clearly the way that the process was run gave rise to some concerns and so that’s why we’ve chosen to quash the decision.”
It is unclear precisely what the allegation is.
On May 27, Adonis posted on Twitter that he had asked the police force to consider a breach of the law.
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Linking to an article by The Times on the decision, he wrote: “I have asked the Metropolitan Police commissioner and the cabinet secretary whether they consider a breach of the law and the ministerial code has taken place here.”
Adonis also says he has asked the force to take account of an allegation that the two men met at a Conservative Party fundraising dinner before the decision was made.
HuffPost UK has contacted Adonis, Jenrick’s Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), and the Cabinet Office for comment.
A Cabinet Office spokesperson said: “We will respond to correspondence on this matter in due course.”
MHCLG said last week: “While we reject the suggestion that there was any actual bias in the decision, we have agreed that the application will be redetermined.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-06-01--Racism Isn't Just America's Problem. Here's What Protesters In The UK Are Fighting For

The demands of justice for George Floyd – demands for the arrest, detention, and sentencing of all four former Minneapolis police officers involved in his death – have become a catalyst for a wider global movement with protests in Copenhagen and Berlin.
Floyd, a 46-year old Black man living in Minnesota, died as a result of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin – who has now been charged with third-degree murder – kneeling on his neck for up to nine minutes during an arrest.
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Activists around the world have stepped out in solidarity with protesters in the US, who – in calling for accountability from law enforcement – have been met with violence.
Video footage from the weekend shows officers driving into crowds of protesters in New York, using large quantities of tear gas and causing serious injury – including partial blindness – to people with rubber bullets.
UK protests have centred on the need for justice for Floyd, and for the many other Black people killed by police in the US – but protest organisers and activists alike have also repeatedly pointed out that racism isn’t just a “US issue”. The UK has its own serious and deeply entrenched racial issues to confront.
They include Black people being 40 times more likely than white people to be stopped and searched; having lower life expectancy than men and women from white and other ethnic groups; and Black Caribbean children, in particular, being three and a half times more likely to be excluded from schools.
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A landmark study in 2018 found people from non-white backgrounds were more likely to be wrongly suspected of shoplifting, more likely to be abused by strangers, barred or ejected from restaurants and clubs without reason, and overlooked for promotions at work than their white counterparts.
People from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds are overrepresented in the criminal justice system, making up a quarter of the UK prison population but only 14% of the actual UK population. Black men are 26% more likely to be held in custody than white men, according to the Prison Reform Trust, and Black people are 53% more likely to be sent to prison for equivalent categories of crime in a crown court.
People take part in a Black Lives Matter protest in Trafalgar Square on Sunday. Dominic Lipinski - PA Images via Getty Images
“We have a prime minister who described the Black community here as ‘piccaninnies with watermelon smiles’ and refused to apologise,” said Weyman Bennett, co-convenor of Stand Up To Racism, one of a number of groups who have organised their own protests to be held on June 3.
“He actually put that down on paper, described Muslim women as letterboxes and bank robbers. Now why did he do that?
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“He was telling the majority population: ’I’m not the problem. I went to Eton – I represent a different league. Your problem is your Black next door neighbour, or your Muslim neighbour.
“We’re demonstrating, firstly, because we’re angry that we have a government that doesn’t care about the Black community, or any community. We’ve called the demonstration in solidarity, but also to raise the fact that we’re going to do something about this.”
Deaths in custody
Over the past 30 years, Inquest – a charity investigating and representing state-related deaths – has recorded 183 BAME deaths either in police custody, or following contact with the police.
That figure accounts for 14% of total deaths in those circumstances, which is approximately consistent with the population of the UK at the 2011 census, but far outstrips the number of BAME people in the UK in 1990 when Inquest began counting.
Inquest specifically highlights the fact that BAME people die disproportionately as a result of use of force or restraint by the police, “raising serious questions of institutional racism as a contributory factor in their deaths”.
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As the world once again turns to examine police brutality, questions are raised about what constitutes proportionate force during the arrests of some Black people in the UK.
On Sunday Bristol Live reported that the city’s mayor Marvin Rees would review footage of “tense confrontations” after police were filmed attempting to restrain a Black man, the same day as Lewisham-based paper News Shopper reported on footage of a Black woman shouting “I can’t breathe” while being pinned to the ground by six police officers.
On Friday it emerged that West Midlands Police were the subject of nine different investigations into six alleged incidents of excessive force used against Black men, which involved two uses of a Taser, a fractured ankle, and police kicking and striking a 15-year-old boy during a stop-and-search.
“We have to give the younger a chance to survive without being killed by the police,” Bennett said.
“They’ve been made unemployed, they’ve been made homeless – all these things are fuelled by the ways in which race intersects class.
“We need to do something about that.”
Windrush
Justice for Windrush protesters hold a Windrush Day of Action. Barcroft Media via Getty Images
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The “systemic operational failings” at the Home Office, which led to hundreds of members of the Windrush generation being wrongly detained, deported and denied legal rights, have been frequently cited as a recent example of the injustices Black people have faced in the UK.
Faced with the near-impossible burden of proving their residency with at least one official document for each year they had lived in the UK, many of the Windrush generation were falsely deemed to be “illegal immigrants”. Arriving to the UK as children on their parents’ passports, and with thousands of landing cards and other documents destroyed by the Home Office, hundreds faced detention centres and removal to countries they hadn’t even visited since they were children.
It emerged on May 28 that fewer than 5% of Windrush claimants had actually received compensation.
The Home Office said it had paid £362,996 to 60 people, including one payment in excess of £100,000, during the first year of the scheme.
The data add that 1,275 claims were made by the end of March this year, with the number received by the department decreasing each quarter since it launched.
Workplace
Discrimination remains rife in places of work, according to a series of reports.
The Centre for Social Investigation at Nuffield College revealed last year that levels of discrimination when applying for jobs are unchanged since the 1960s.
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Applicants from minority ethnic backgrounds have to send 60% more applications to get a positive response from an employer than white British candidates.
The findings revealed that Black people and those of south Asian origin – particularly those with a Pakistani background – were penalised heavily.
In July, Office for National Statistics figures showed employees from ethnic minority groups earned on average 3.8% less than their white British counterparts in 2018.
One in four Black, Asian or ethnic minority employees in the UK are still suffering bullying and harassment in the workplace despite a widespread zero tolerance policy, a report found in October.
The 2019 Race at Work Report, published by Business in the Community, uncovered the shocking statistic even though 97% of British employers now have a clear zero tolerance policy on racial bullying and harassment.
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Hostile environment
People take part in the demonstration against Yarl's Wood Immigration Removal Centre in Bedford in 2015. NurPhoto via Getty Images
More widely the government’s hostile environment policy, which remains in place to this day, has been fiercely criticised for targeting ethnic minority communities.
Even key workers, at the very front lines of the nation’s fight against Covid-19, have faced being separated from their families as a result of immigration policy.
Several high profile cases of asylum seekers facing deportation, even after reporting a clear threat to their lives, have made headlines in recent years, and the conditions in detention centres such as the notorious Yarls Wood have been likened to those in prisons.
The Home Office has refused to bring an end to indefinite detention, despite calls to do so from Parliament’s human rights committee and cross-party support, the Law Gazette reported.
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The infamous “Go Home” vans, part of a controversial 2013 advertising campaign carried out by the Home Office, have become one of the enduring symbols of the government’s approach to the hostile environment.
Grenfell
People march to mark the two-year anniversary of the Grenfell Tower block fire in 2019. ASSOCIATED PRESS
The treatment of minority ethnic communities at the centre of the Grenfell Tower fire has also repeatedly been cited as an example of systemic racism in the UK.
Of the 72 victims, seven were white British, The Guardian reports, and the tower block was home to residents who had come from all over the world to make London their home.
As late as January 2020, more than two-and-a-half years after the tragedy, nine families still had not been housed – despite promises from the PM in 2017, Theresa May, that homes would be found for everyone displaced by the disaster.
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In the days and months after the fire, the organisation that managed Grenfell Tower received warnings about a series of fire safety failures months before the deadly blaze.
Former residents also said they had reportedly tried to escalate fire safety concerns for months before the disaster, with Edward Daffarn – who called the tower home for 16 years – speaking out about his anger that those who should have kept the diverse community inside the tower safe had not responded to safety concerns.
He told the BBC: “The reality is if you’re on a housing estate it’s indifference and neglect, two words that sum up everything about the way we were treated.
“They weren’t interested in providing housing services, keeping us safe, maintaining the estate. They were just interested in themselves.”
Disproportionate impact of Covid-19
Protesters are also campaigning to highlight the impact of Covid-19 on BAME communities, which have been disproportionally hit.
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Data published by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) in early May showed that Black people were four times more likely to die from Covid-19 than white people.
The figures, which were adjusted for age, suggest that men and women from all ethnic minority groups – except women and girls with Chinese ethnicity – are at greater risk of dying from Covid-19 compared with those of white ethnicity.
A disproportionate number of NHS frontline workers who have lost their lives to Covid-19 have also been from minority ethnic backgrounds. On May 28 the Royal College of Nursing published the results of a survey which found that BAME healthcare workers were less likely to access personal protective equipment (PPE) than their white counterparts, Nursing Times reported.
Of BAME survey respondents working in high-risk environments, such as intensive care or critical care units, only 43% had adequate equipment for eye and face protection, in contrast to two thirds (66%) of white British nursing staff.
Public Health England was due to publish a review into the impact of the virus on minority ethnic communities on May 29.
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The report still has not been published, with officials only able to tell HuffPost UK it would be available “shortly” with no clear timeline established.
An outpouring of questions has also emerged in the wake of the British Transport Police’s announcement that they would be taking no further action over the death of Belly Mujinga, a Black woman who died of Covid-19 in early April.
It was initially reported that she had died two weeks after being spat at whilst working as a railway ticket officer at London Victoria station, but police said on Saturday “there is no evidence of anyone spitting”, adding that the man captured by CCTV at the time of the alleged incident had received a negative antibody test which meant he had not had the virus.
Mujinga’s union, the Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA), said at the time of the news of her death that she had been left extremely shaken by the incident and urged her bosses at Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) to call the police.
She is said to have pleaded not to be sent back outside, asking instead to work from inside the ticket office. Mujinga had underlying health issues for which she had taken time off work previously, and said she was scared for her life.
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Her husband Lusamba Gode Katalay has since spoken out, discussing the “disappointing” news that the case had been closed.
He said: “We had never thought a prosecution was likely, but it was disappointing to get that news. We are not pursuing a prosecution. We are instead calling for her employer to take action to protect their workers.
“There are important things we need answers to. Her union, the TSSA, reported it to Her Majesty’s Railway Inspectorate [the health and safety body of the Office for Road and Rail], and that investigation into the safety of Belly’s workplace is still ongoing. Hopefully that will answer questions like why she was out working on the concourse at all given that she had a respiratory health issue.”
Aside from the serious health implications, the associated lockdown rules have also disproportionately impacted BAME communities.
Towards the end of May it emerged that people from minority communities in England are 54% more likely to be fined under coronavirus rules than white people.
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“If you look at the coronavirus crisis, BAME communities are taking a central role in saving lives. ” Bennett said.
“But that’s not how they’re portrayed. They’re portrayed as muggers, as terrorists.
“I’m very, very worried about a second wave of this virus, and the second wave again disproportionally killing BAME communities. I don’t see any caretaking.
“What I really think is that the elites, those at the top of our society only care about themselves, and they use racism, as Frederick Douglass said, as a ’tool to divide each and conquer both’.
“We’re sick and tired of being blamed for this country’s problems, and not being seen as key communities that can really make a difference.”