thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-07-15--Tories Withdraw Whip From Julian Lewis After Beating Chris Grayling To Top Job

Julian Lewis. House of Commons - PA Images via Getty Images
An MP has been kicked out of the Conservative parliamentary party after he worked with opposition MPs to get elected to a top committee.
Julian Lewis, Tory MP for New Forest East since 1997, on Wednesday secured the chairmanship of the Intelligence and Security Committee ahead of No. 10′s favoured candidate, Chris Grayling.
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The rebel Conservative was picked by a nine-strong committee when it met for the first time after a seven month delay in its establishment.
The committee, which oversees all of the UK’s intelligence agencies including MI6, MI5 and GCHQ, will now have to decide when to publish the long-delayed “Russia report” into Moscow’s influence in British elections and politics.
Lewis, a former chairman of the Commons defence select committee and a former member of the ISC, voted for himself in what was seen as a “coup” by Labour and SNP members.
After the appointment, a Tory source confirmed that Lewis had had the party whip removed for “working with Labour and other opposition MPs for his own advantage”.
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Boris Johnson was widely believed to want former transport secretary Grayling to become the chairman of the body.
With the Conservatives enjoying a majority – with five out of nine places on the committee – there had been concern at Westminster that the Tory members would be “whipped” to support Grayling despite concerns about his expertise.
As well as Grayling and Lewis, the members of the ISC are Tory MPs Theresa Villiers, Sir John Hayes and Mark Pritchard, Labour MPs Dame Diana Johnson and Kevan Jones, the Labour peer Admiral Lord West and the SNP MP Stewart Hosie.
Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman Alistair Carmichael said Johnson had appointed “yes men” to the ISC but “true to form, however, failing Grayling has been undone in his bid to be chair”.
“I hope we now have a committee with real teeth that can hold this Government to account,” he added.
“That starts by publishing the report into Russian interference of our democracy before the summer recess so MPs can scrutinise it fully.”
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Labour MPs were among the first to react to the news on social media.
The party’s deputy leader Angela Rayner tweeted: “Julian Lewis MP has the Tory Whip removed after being elected as Chairman of the Intelligence and Security Select Committee, after beating hapless Chris Grayling. I wonder who in No10 ordered that the long serving Tory MP had the whip removed? What a grubby shower they are!”
Labour former frontbencher Chris Bryant said: “It’s a momentous failure of intelligence when a PM takes months to handpick Intelligence and Security Committee members so as to deliver the Chair he wants and they refuse to do his bidding. To then chuck the new chairman out of the party is to lose control/the plot.”
And Walthamstow MP Stella Creasy said: “Remarkable. It doesn’t stop Julian being chair of committee or sympathy for him across house. It does make it more likely the long overdue report into Russian interference in our political system is published. A set of own goals of which even Sunderland would be proud ….”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-07-15--Chris Grayling Fails To Become Chair Of Parliament’s Intelligence Committee

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Boris Johnson’s attempt to “nobble” parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee has backfired spectacularly after a rebel Tory was installed as its chairman instead of former minister Chris Grayling.
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The PM is understood to have wanted Brexiteer Grayling - dubbed “failing Grayling” for his record in government - in the plum post, even though he lacked experience in security issues.
But in a major snub, backbencher Julian Lewis was instead picked by the nine-strong committee when it met for the first time on Wednesday after a seven month delay in its establishment.
The committee, which oversees all of the UK’s intelligence agencies including MI6, MI5 and GCHQ, will now have to decide when to publish the long-delayed “Russia report” into Moscow’s influence in British elections and politics.
The committee is now due to meet on Thursday morning to discuss the Russia report, with several of its members pushing for publication in the next fortnight before MPs break up for their summer recess.
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Tory whips had worked hard last week to engineer the approval of 5 Tory MPs on the committee, removing an independent crossbench peer in a bid to gain a Conservative majority over the four Opposition MPs and peers among its members.
Lewis, a former chairman of the Commons defence select committee and a former member of the ISC, will now lead its deliberations after he voted for himself in what was seen as a “coup” by Labour and SNP members.
One Labour source told HuffPost: “The PM tried to nobble the ISC and he’s found out the hard way that its members put its independence first.”
Another source added: “Julian has proved he is very independent minded and very consensual.”
Grayling had made clear his intention to stand two days before the vote, but it is understood that the first he knew of Lewis’s candidacy was when he was handed a ballot paper revealing he had a Tory rival for the top job.
In the resulting vote, Lewis gained five votes to Grayling’s four.
Former ISC chairman Dominic Grieve had warned against No.10 trying to pick its chairman, saying had to be “respected on a cross-party basis” and “trusted as being competent and effective”.
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Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman Alistair Carmichael said: “True to form, failing Grayling has been undone in his bid to be Chair.
“I hope we now have a committee with real teeth that can hold this Government to account. That starts by publishing the report into Russian interference of our democracy before the summer recess so MPs can scrutinise it fully.”
Lord Janvrin, the Queen’s former private secretary and a Lords crossbench member of the committee, was axed from its membership this week.
Janvrin told HuffPost UK on Tuesday: “The inclusion of a crossbencher in recent years has reinforced the non-partisan, cross-party nature of the Committee and this has in my view added to its authority in holding the intelligence community to account – a crucial constitutional role in a democracy,”
The prime minister’s official spokesman said last week that the Russia report would be among the first considerations of the newly constituted committee. “The publication will be a matter for the new committee but we will encourage them to publish it as soon as possible,” he said.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-07-15--Treasury Will Not Analyse Impact Of Boris Johnson's Brexit Deal, Rishi Sunak Says

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The Treasury will not carry out any further analysis of the economic impact of the Brexit trade deal Boris Johnson agrees with the EU or the impact of negotiations collapsing, Rishi Sunak has said.
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The chancellor said he was not planning to revisit the issue despite negotiations nearing their conclusion and the UK preparing for an entirely new set of trading arrangements from December 31, the end of the transition period.
Government analysis in November 2018 predicted that leaving without a trade deal would cause a 7.6% contraction in the economy, while leaving with an “average” free trade agreement would cause a 4.9% reduction in GDP, compared to the UK continuing as an EU member.
Since then, the shape of Brexit has changed considerably after Johnson took over from Theresa May as prime minister and pursued a much looser trading arrangement with the EU.
The Financial Times reported this week that new trade arrangements could leave the UK with a £7bn bill as firms navigate new red tape to export and import goods to and from the EU.
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At the Commons Treasury committee, Tory former Treasury minister Harriet Baldwin asked if the Treasury would carry out any fresh analysis in light of the new situation.
Sunak, who campaigned for Leave, replied: “No specific plans.”
He added: “One thing that I am very humble about is the ability of economic forecasting, particularly right now, to be that accurate.”
In relation to fiscal policy, the Chancellor said there are "tough choices ahead"
Asked by @hbaldwin if the Government will update it's EU exit scenario analyses, the Chancellor said that there are "no plans" to do so. pic.twitter.com/dxZS2wbGXc — Treasury Committee (@CommonsTreasury) July 15, 2020
Baldwin put to Sunak that Michael Gove had set out potential costs to businesses and asked Sunak if he would analyse what that meant for economic growth.
The chancellor replied: “We haven’t done a macro forecast and we’re not planning to.
“And given all the other uncertainty we are seeing in our economy it would not be a particularly accurate or constructive exercise.
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“But you’re right, on the discrete things that we’re doing as part of preparing for a new sort of trading relationship, it’s right that as CDL [chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Michael Gove] did, we provide information around that.”
Turning to coronavirus, Sunak signalled he may cut spending or hike taxes to raise money to pay for the hundreds of billions of pounds he has spent supporting workers and businesses through the pandemic and lockdown.
“We of course look at everything all the time – that’s what we do,” the chancellor said.
“In terms of what does that mean for spending and taxes, those are decisions that will have to wait until we get to Budgets, but there are tough choices ahead – that is clear.
“We have an ambition to deliver upon our priorities and the promises we made. We’ve been through, hopefully, this once-in-a-lifetime episode. It has had an enormous impact on our economy, on jobs, [and on] our public finances – and that means there are tough choices to come.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-07-15--Kemi Badenoch Rejected Downing Street Briefing Amid Fears It Would Look 'Tokenistic'

Equalities minister Kemi Badenoch giving evidence before a Commons committee Equalities minister Kemi Badenoch giving evidence before a Commons committee
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Minister Kemi Badenoch has said she rejected a chance to lead a Downing Street coronavirus briefing amid concerns it would appear “tokenistic”.
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Badenoch, who is leading a government review into the disproportionate impact of coronavirus on Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) people, revealed to MPs on Wednesday that Boris Johnson had invited her to answer questions about the probe at one of the high-profile televised press conferences.
But the Black MP, who serves both as equality minister and exchequer secretary to the Treasury, said she feared appearing to discuss BAME issues would not “give the right impression”.
She went on to say “people shouldn’t feel that advice has to come from people who look like them” and she felt it would “look like when we were talking about Black issues we bring a Black person”.
Badenoch was giving evidence before the Commons’ women and equalities committee and was pressed by Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy on why the briefings were led 97% of the time by men and the majority of the time by white people.
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Badenoch said: “On the point about things being tokenistic, I do think if it is done in the wrong way it can look tokenistic.
“I was asked for instance at one point whether I would want to do a daily briefing but I didn’t feel, as a junior minister, that that would give the right impression.
“It would look like when we were talking about Black issues we bring a Black person on to talk about that not not about the wider things. I’m not just equality minister I am also a Treasury secretary.
″I think we also need to be very careful about giving the impression that ethnic minorities do ethnic subjects, women do women’s subjects and everybody does everything else.”
Ribeiro-Addy went on to point out that BAME people had not felt represented at the meetings.
Badenoch said she understood that point but also that “people shouldn’t feel that advice has to come from people who look like them”.
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She went on: “Because if that happens, then the converse is true: where when an ethnic minority is speaking people might feel well this person is only speaking for their sub-group.
“It is a challenge, that perception, but we shouldn’t just accept it.”
The minister accepted that initially the PM and health secretary Matt Hancock dominated briefings, but claimed that later changed to a more diversity cast.
She cited chancellor Rishi Sunak and deputy chief medical officer Jonathan Van Tam as examples, before saying it was “completely wrong” to suggest BAME people were not contributing to the government’s response to the pandemic.
She said: “I think at the beginning when the briefings were happening, it was very much the prime minister and the health secretary, but to say that people should be judged on the colour of their skin and their gender rather than what they are saying I think is wrong.”
She added: “It is completely wrong to say BAME people were not involved in the decisions. The chancellor is an ethnic minority, so is the business secretary.
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“I’ve been cabinet or sub-cabinet meetings where they have been taking the lead on a lot of the interventions we have been making to ensure that people are being protected – so they have had a voice.”
Asked why the work and pensions secretary Therese Coffey had not appeared, despite her department encompassing a disabilities brief.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-07-15--The Andrew Neil Show Has Been Axed By The BBC

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The Andrew Neil Show has been axed, the BBC announced on Wednesday, as it revealed a further 70 jobs are to be cut on top of 450 announced earlier this year.
The additional posts to be lost are all from BBC News and are due to increased financial pressure because of the coronavirus pandemic, the broadcaster said.
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The political programme, which has been off air during the crisis, will not return to screens.
A BBC spokesperson said: “We remain committed to Andrew Neil’s in-depth interviews, as well as the Budget, US election and other specials. The Andrew Neil Show will not be returning but we’re in discussions about a new interview series on BBC One.”
Despite only hitting TV screens in September last year, it played an outsized part in the General Election when Boris Johnson refused to appear after Jeremy Corbyn was mauled on the show.
Neil even went so far as to issue a challenge to the PM to commit to an interview with him in a powerful straight-to-camera monologue.
In the key section of his message, the BBC presenter said the theme running through the questions he would ask is “trust”, and why “in so many times in his career, critics and sometimes even those close to him, have deemed him to be untrustworthy”.
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“It is not too late. We have an interview prepared. Oven-ready, as Mr Johnson likes to say”
Andrew Neil issues a challenge for Boris Johnson to commit to an interview with him, to face questions on why people have “deemed him to be untrustworthy”https://t.co/daHLxEYn4r pic.twitter.com/oQ21uDdtJe — BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) December 5, 2019
Johnson never accepted the chance to be scrutinised and even hid in a fridge to avoid being questioned by a Good Morning Britain reporter.
Speaking of the wider cuts to BBC News, director of BBC News and Current Affairs Fran Unsworth, said that “Covid-19 has changed all of our lives” and “we are still covering the most challenging story of our lifetimes”.
She added: “But if we don’t make changes, we won’t be sustainable. This crisis has led us to re-evaluate exactly how we operate as an organisation. And our operation has been underpinned by the principles we set out earlier this year – fewer stories, more targeted and with more impact.
“We’re aiming to reach everyone, every day. For BBC News to thrive, and for us to continue to serve all our audiences, we have to change.”
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-07-15--Paula Tilbrook, Emmerdale Veteran, Has Died, Aged 89

Soap veteran Paula Tilbrook has died at the age of 89.
The actor was best known for her portrayal of gossiping neighbour Betty Eagleton in Emmerdale, a role she held for more than 20 years.
The news of Paula’s death was first reported by The Stage on Wednesday, although she actually died in December 2019.
Digital Spy also shared a statement from “those close to [Paula]”, which noted that she “died of natural causes a few months ago at home with her loved ones beside her”.
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Paula Tilbrook, pictured in 2007 ITV/Shutterstock
An Emmerdale spokesperson told HuffPost UK: ”’We are saddened to hear of the passing of our much loved colleague, Paula Tilbrook. Paula was at the heart of Emmerdale for many years and she will be greatly missed by all who worked with her and by the fans of her character, Betty.
“We have lost a great talent and a wonderful friend but she will forever live in the memories of those lucky enough to have known her.”
Paula first began playing her signature character in 1994, and bowed out of the soap in May 2015.
However, she did briefly appear in one episode at the end of that year, addressing the Emmerdale villagers in a Christmas Day Skype message.
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Paula with co-star Stan Richards, who died in 2005 ITV/Shutterstock
As well as her popular Emmerdale character, Paula played multiple roles in Coronation Street in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
In 1991, she returned to Corrie, playing Alf Roberts’ friend Vivian Barford, and made her final appearance in 1993, the year before she became a staple in Emmerdale.
She also played Betty Hughes in Brookside between 1984 and 1985.
Paula’s other acting credits included playing Mrs Tattersall in Open All Hours, Flo Capp in the sitcom based on the cartoon strip Andy Capp and three different roles in Last Of The Summer Wine.
Her final on-screen appearance was in 2016, when she was a guest on a Coronation Street vs. Emmerdale special of the ITV game show The Big Quiz, which featured her former co-stars Mark Charnock, Charlotte Bellamy, Liam Fox and Samantha Giles.
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-07-15--Face Masks Won’t Be Required In Food Takeaway Shops, No.10 Reveals

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The public will not have to wear face masks in food takeaway shops when new rules kick in next week, Downing Street has revealed.
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Visitors to most shops and supermarkets will be required to wear face coverings from Friday July 24, with £100 fines for refusal.
But in a move that spares the blushes of cabinet minister Michael Gove – who was photographed without a mask leaving a Pret a Manger – No.10 said that there will be an exemption for sandwich retailers and fast food sellers.
Gove had said on Sunday that it was “basic good manners” to wear a face covering in shops, but just a day later was snapped without one as he exited a sandwich store in Westminster. Fellow minister Liz Truss visited the same shop with a mask.
The prime minister’s official spokesperson said: “We will be publishing the full guidance shortly but my understanding is that it wouldn’t be mandatory if you went in, for example, to a sandwich shop in order to get a takeaway to wear a face covering.
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“It is mandatory… we are talking about supermarkets and other shops, rather than food shops.”
No.10 said that detailed guidance on the new rules will be published “shortly”.
I thought it was "basic good manners" to wear a face mask in shops...? pic.twitter.com/UASJ1yRSRf — Matt Dathan (@matt_dathan) July 14, 2020
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said earlier on Wednesday that he was “not frankly interested” whether Gove wore a mask in the Pret a Manger.
“Those photographs were taken before I announced the change in policy to the House of Commons yesterday afternoon,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“And it’s absolutely straightforward that from July 24 we’re making it mandatory to wear a face covering in a shop in the same way it’s mandatory on public transport and in the NHS.”
But chancellor Rishi Sunak – who was criticised last week for waiting tables in a restaurant without a mask – tweeted a photo of himself wearing one in a Pret a Manger on Wednesday.
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Making the most of @Pret's price cut in response to the VAT reduction that takes effect today for the tourism and hospitality sectors.
As part of our #PlanForJobs this temporary cut will help over 150,000 businesses protect the jobs of 2.4 million people. pic.twitter.com/mSh6jOvBlp — Rishi Sunak (@RishiSunak) July 15, 2020
Gove had told the Andrew Marr programme on Sunday that he preferred voluntary rather than mandatory mask wearing, declaring: ”I think that it is basic good manners, courtesy, consideration to wear a face mask if you are, for example, in a shop.”
However, Hancock appeared to contradict the Downing Street line earlier when he told Sky News: “In any shop you do need a mask. So, if you’re going up to the counter in Pret to buy takeaway, that is a shop - that is Pret operating as a shop.”
In a separate move, No.10 also defended the PM’s practice of “elbow bumping” people he met, despite its breach of social distancing guidelines of staying one metre away from others while wearing a mask.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson, wearing a face mask, elbow bumps AA employee Richard during a visit to the headquarters of the London Ambulance Service NHS Trust. PA
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Boris Johnson repeatedly used the gesture when he met NHS staff at an ambulance station earlier this week.
“That’s the PM’s way of greeting people while keeping some distance from them,” a No.10 spokesperson said.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-07-15--Revealed: BAME Women Most Likely To Have Had A Coronavirus Pay Cut

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Women from Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds have been more likely to lose pay than their white counterparts during the coronavirus pandemic, HuffPost UK can reveal.
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Those born outside the UK are also nearly twice as likely to have seen their employability worsen.
The figures were compiled by West Midlands Women’s Voice, which promotes the role of women in the emerging political and economic climate, and the Fawcett Society, the gender equality campaigning charity. They show 13% of BAME women (more than one in eight) and 5% of white women (one in 20) in the West Midlands and Greater Manchester saw changes to their pay packets after the crisis hit.
The vast majority, 92%, of the women reporting changes in pay said they had lost rather than gained income, though the Fawcett Society said it could not break this figure down by ethnic background.
Researchers also found more than a quarter of women from all backgrounds – 28% in the West Midlands and 26% in Greater Manchester – had seen their hours change during the pandemic, with the majority losing work.
A quarter of women in both regions have seen their place of work change, with nine out of 10 of those moving to working from home.
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In all, eight out of 10 women in both the West Midlands (81%) and Greater Manchester (81%) say their work has changed in some way during the pandemic
Women from Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds have been more likely to lose pay than their white counterparts during the coronavirus pandemic Luis Alvarez via Getty Images
Campaigners are now calling for local action to tackle the mental health and jobs impacts of Covid-19 in the West Midlands and Greater Manchester.
The research, which saw more than 1,000 women in each area interviewed, shows four in 10 women in the West Midlands (37%) and Greater Manchester (39%) say their mental health has got worse since the coronavirus pandemic began.
Almost half the women in each area said they would be likely to use high street “pop up shops” for mental health support if they existed. Younger women, BAME women and parents are even more likely to be interested in such an offer.
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The survey discovered that almost half of women in the West Midlands (47%) and more than 40% in Greater Manchester have considered retraining into health and social care during Covid-19.
BAME women, younger women and parents are, again, more likely to have given retraining some thought across all fields in both city regions.
West Midlands Growth Company Staff West Midlands Combined Authority
A fifth of women in the West Midlands (21%) and Greater Manchester (22%) reported they have been furloughed. More low-income women (30%) compared with higher income women had been furloughed in Greater Manchester.
In the West Midlands, women born outside the UK were more likely to say that their employability had worsened (33%), compared with 18% of UK-born women.
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Campaigners from West Midlands Women’s Voice and the Fawcett Society are calling for combined authorities and councils to set up hubs in local high streets to offer support for mental health that is accessible to women.
They also want to see support for retraining for women, including into health and social care, and for action to be taken on BAME employment and pay gaps in industrial strategies.
Sam Smethers, Fawcett Society chief executive Fawcett Society
Sam Smethers, Fawcett Society chief executive, said: “These findings show the pressures that women, especially BAME women and parents, have been under during lockdown in the West Midlands and Greater Manchester.
“It is vital that combined authorities, which are still majority male, listen to women and put in place local, accessible support for mental health.
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“It is encouraging to see social care work getting more recognition and more women thinking about joining that workforce.
“We also need to see action urgently from government to increase pay and conditions for our carers.”
“It is vital that combined authorities, which are still majority male, listen to women and put in place local, accessible support for mental health.” - Sam Smethers, Fawcett Society
Sharonjit Clare, coordinator of West Midlands Women’s Voice, said: “West Midlands Women’s Voice has driven this research to be sure that the voices of women in the regions could be captured at a pivotal time as we emerge from lockdown and to enable women to steer the often male-dominated economic policy debate.”
Sharonjit Clare, coordinator of West Midlands Women’s Voice West Midlands Women’s Voice
She added that their asks of combined authorities will be a real measure of their covenant to deliver inclusive Covid recovery.
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Pam Smith, Stockport Council chief executive, said a Women and Girls Panel was being established in Greater Manchester, and that the findings of the survey would help shape its priorities.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-07-15--'Window Swap' Lets You Watch A Stranger's View And It's Incredibly Calming

window-swap.com
You’re reading our series Summer’s Not Cancelled, where we celebrate summer in this new normal. From rediscovering nature and cherishing time with friends and family, to virtual festivals and unforgettable staycations – summer’s still here, it’s just different.
Bored of the view from your window? Why not swap it for grazing cows in the rural fields of the Philippines or the dazzling lights of the Manhattan skyline?
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Travel may still be restricted, but a new video project will virtually transport you around the world, allowing you to watch the view from someone else’s window. The relaxing footage is just the thing you need after months of lockdown.
The project, titled Window Swap, was created by Sonali Ranjit and her husband Vaishnav Balasubramaniam, two advertising creatives based in Singapore.
Between them, they’ve previously lived and worked in India, Shanghai, Singapore, San Francisco and Stockholm, so spent lockdown wondering how their friends abroad were getting on.
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window-swap.com
It follows a similar project titled Take Me Elsewhere, created by Negele Hospedales, Mikhail James, Husson Zaman, and Alex Barakat earlier this year. Take Me Elsewhere features an accompanying playlist, while Window Swap features video footage with the natural sounds of wind and birds, creating the sense of a live feed.
Ranjit and Balasubramaniam were inspired to create Window Swap after gazing out their window for months in lockdown. “We often wondered how it would be to trade places with our friends, just to be able to see something different outside our windows,” the couple say in a joint email to HuffPost UK.
They initially exchanged footage with a close group of friends – and enjoyed the experience so much they decided to open it up so anyone could join. Now, there are more than 60 videos from 26 countries.
“We loved the experience so much, it really felt like an escape,” they say. “Even though we’re not as contained in our houses anymore, travel is still a distant dream.”
window-swap.com
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Taking part in the project is simple: users can submit a short video from their window or balcony to an email address listed on the website. All videos are reviewed by the couple before they’re uploaded.
The videos should be two to 10-minutes long, shot horizontally and steadily, preferably in HD. Ideally, at least a corner or two of your window or door frame should be seen in the shot.
“We welcome all kinds of windows, whatever the shape, whatever the view,” they said, “because what we usually take for granted, is gold for someone else.
window-swap.com
The couple has managed to get videos from 26 countries, ranging from Medellin in Colombia, Cordoba in Argentian, Rowville in the suburbs of Melbourne, Bangalore in India, La Baule in the South of France, and a view of the Manhattan skyline in New York.
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“We have views with contented cats on window sills, church bells in Bergamo, Italy, grazing cows in Pampanga in rural Philippines, and cyclists in Copenhagen,” they say. “Each one of them is so unique and personal it’s hard to select a favourite! It depends on the day and the mood we are in.”
View more pictures of the views below or visit window-swap.com to watch the relaxing footage, bird sounds and all.
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-07-15--Priti Patel Says She Does Not Know Number Of Arrivals To UK Who Have Coronavirus

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Priti Patel has said she does not know the number of people coming into the UK who are estimated to have coronavirus.
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But the home secretary told MPs on Wednesday the government’s scientific advisers believed 0.5% of the total number of coronavirus cases in the UK were brought in from abroad.
Speaking to the Commons home affairs committee, Patel insisted she had previously asked officials for an estimate of the number of people arriving in the country who had the disease.
In an appearance before the same committee last week, Shona Dunn, the second permanent secretary at the Home Office, suggested such a request had not been made.
“I do not believe that anyone has asked for that number to be pinned down, given the range of uncertainties that are being dealt with,” Dunn said.
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But Patel said today that was “not correct at all”.
Pressed repeatedly on what data she had asked for, Patel said she had asked for both a number and a percentage figure. “I have asked for it,” she said.
Dunn, who was also appearing before the committee today, said Patel “has asked for a variety of numbers”.
But she added she was “not aware of anyone have asked for a formal assessment” of the number.
Asked how many people she estimated were coming into the country at the moment with coronavirus, Patel said: “That I don’t know.”
“On a daily basis the number of people coming into the country is approximately 50,000.
“I don’t have a figure of people coming into the country on a daily basis with coronavirus.
“That figure is held centrally elsewhere in government with Department for Health [and Social Care] and Public Health England.”
At the start of June the government imposed a two-week quarantine on most arrivals into the UK.
At the time Patel said it would “reduce the risk of cases crossing our border”.
But from July 4 the government opened a series of travel corridors to more than 50 countries including destinations such as France, Italy, and Spain, which meant people could go on holiday without having to isolate when they returned to England.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-07-16--Are Patrick Vallance And The Government On The Same Page On Covid?

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Tricky Vallancing act
For a while back in the Brexit wars, we kept being told that leaving the EU was “a process not an event”. But was the government’s coronavirus lockdown in March also a process, not an event? That’s the implication of Matt Hancock’s bold declaration in the Commons today, when he tried to shoot down suggestions there had been a deadly delay in following scientific advice.
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Boris Johnson’s live televised address on March 23 was watched by 27 million Britons. That’s when he told the public to stay at home, closed all non-essential shops and warned the measures would be enforced by the police. The word “lockdown”, which No.10 had fought shy of using, suddenly seemed apt.
Today Hancock told MPs that actually March 16, when he advised the public against “all unnecessary social contact with others and all unnecessary travel”, was the date “precisely when the lockdown was started”. Of course, “lockdown” suggests compulsion rather than strong advice. That’s a major difference already cited by his critics.
The health secretary was probably more focused on the word “started” as much as the word “lockdown”. His case was that a week before the formal crackdown ordered by the PM, he had in fact signalled the beginning of what was a process of a steady ratcheting up of restrictions, not a one-off event.
And it’s true that Hancock’s sombre words in the Commons on March 16 did suggest sweeping changes. As well as ending unnecessary social contact and travel, he said: “We need people to start working from home if they possibly can. We should steer clear of pubs, clubs, cinemas and restaurants. We should use the NHS only when we really need to.”
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Two days later on March 18, the government announced schools would close the following week. Another two days later on March 20, Johnson ordered pubs, clubs and restaurants to close. But it was on March 23 that the PM made plain that everyone had to stay at home and only two people at a time could gather in public. Instead of advice there was instruction.
There is in fact a growing body of evidence that the public had started to stay at home in the week before Johnson’s big announcement. Many big companies had ordered staff to stay away. This graph from Bristol University’s statistics professor Oliver Johnson uses mobility data to show a sharp fall in London even before Hancock’s statement and certainly after it. The televised “lockdown” sealed the deal to keep it right down.
The reason any of this matters is that chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance told the Commons science and tech committee that it was on March 16 (or 18, he was surprisingly unclear) that the government’s Sage committee of advisers said all remaining lockdown measures should be introduced “as soon as possible”. “We were further ahead in the pandemic than had been thought,” he said.
With many having already pointed out that if the actual full lockdown had started even a week earlier, thousands of lives could have been saved, Vallance’s words naturally caught the eye. When the independent public inquiry does finally meet (and this week at least Johnson confirmed such an inquiry would happen), it will have to go through exactly who said what and when.
The health secretary is so confident that he even today told Liaison Committee chairman Bernard Jenkin that he was “very happy” to make a written ministerial statement next week on “lessons learned” from the pandemic so far - an exercise that the PM has strongly resisted to date. Let’s see if No.10 allows it to happen.
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Hancock is clearly ready to defend his corner, but it was perhaps Vallance’s other words today that ought to worry ministers. Reminded of his infamous line that 20,000 deaths would be a “good outcome”, he said: “It’s clear that the outcome has not been good in the UK. There are many factors that are going to play in this….and there will be decisions made that will turn out not to have been the right decisions at the time.”
That flatly contradicted Johnson’s mantra that he had taken “the right decisions at the right time”, a mantra he has of late stopping using. To make things even worse for the PM, who is expected tomorrow to urge more people to go back to work, Vallance added that it remained his view and Sage’s that staying home should remain the default position for many workers.
“For many companies working from home remains a perfectly good option, because it’s easy to do. A number of companies think it’s not detrimental to productivity and in that situation, absolutely no reason I can see to change it.” That’s a hell of a quote. And it could prove very difficult for Johnson’s efforts to get what he calls “bustle” back into our city centres. Will Vallance be alongside him at the No.10 briefing on Friday? Don’t bank on it.
The fact is that what is driving the officer worker stay-at-home shift is not just reluctance among staff to use public transport, but also the brute corporate reality that employers are finding it much, much cheaper not to pay huge city centre office rents. Public transport in its current form is still not a viable option for getting into work either.
Prime minister Boris Johnson and chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance. PA
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Staff who save on travel have got an effective pay rise as well as the chance to see their families. Companies get as much productivity for lower rental costs of much smaller floorspace. Going to the office for one day a week for special in-person meetings or training may become the norm, especially as many employers have no plans for a mass return this winter and may even sit it out until next spring.
That’s very bad news for developers, landlords and all those restaurants, bars and shops that rely on passing office trade. Like many apocalyptic events, coronavirus has just accelerated the tectonic plates that were already shifting against the high street from online shopping and against office working from remote-access computer working.
As a financier friend of mine puts it: the City of London is deserted but billions of pounds of trades take place every day, stocks are sold and bought, markets function. Margaret Thatcher’s Big Bang now has an even bigger bang. But for those on furlough, the winter will be especially cold financially, as their bosses simply can’t afford to keep them on without any cashflow. The inequality in the job market between the precariat and the protected is set to widen further than ever.
In theory, the demise of big cities ought to provide filip to all those towns in the Red Wall that voted Tory last year. Instead of commuting and then spending near the office, workers could spend locally. But in the real world, the sheer economic dynamism of big cities will be hard to replace quickly. And no matter how many times the PM says ‘Go to work’, he can’t order a return to normal as he can in schools this September.
It’s hard to see how any government would cope with these deep structural changes in the workplace even in a pre-corona era of low unemployment. Johnson has promised voters he will intervene to help them through this pandemic, but ultimately he may well have to admit what many of his colleagues think: you can’t buck the market. The political consequences of the longterm “lockdown” on employment could be severe indeed.
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Lisa Nandy is our special guest on this week’s podcast. Hear us chat through Chris Grayling’s ISC failure, China, Bame impacts of coronavirus and Starmer’s first 100 days (he passed ‘the mum verdict’ on a Call Keir event in Bury attended by Nandy’s mother). Click here to listen on Audioboom or below for iTunes.
Search for Commons People wherever you listen to podcasts and subscribe.
Quote Of The Day
“It is almost certain that Russian actors sought to interfere in the 2019 General Election through the online amplification of illicitly acquired and leaked government documents.”
Dominic Raab gets his Moscow retaliation in first
Thursday Cheat Sheet
Hackers linked to the Russian intelligence services tried to access UK coronavirus vaccine research, the government revealed.
New ISC chairman Julian Lewis said he did not reply to a whips’ text asking him to vote for Chris Grayling for the post, saying he considered it “an improper request”. Jacob Rees-Mogg refused to rule out a motion removing Lewis from the job.
Matt Hancock was unclear if mask wearing will be needed for takeaway sandwich shops. “If people go to a shop then it will be mandatory to wear a mask. If they go to a hospitality venue then it will not,” he said.
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Tony Sewell was confirmed as the chair of the newly-established Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities, but had to swiftly apologise after the Guardian discovered he talked about “tortured queens” just after footballer Justin Fashanu disclosed he was gay in 1990. Sewell has also said evidence of institutional racism is “flimsy”.
Labour frontbencher Lloyd Russell-Moyle stepped down from his post, citing “right wing media” bullying over his previous remarks about anti-Semitism.
Jeremy Hunt told an Institute for Government event that paying for properly funded elderly social care “is going to mean an increase in taxes and I think we have to be honest with people about that”.
The government will extend proxy voting in the Commons until Monday 28 September 2020.
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Hackers Convinced Twitter Employee to Help Them Hijack Accounts - Vice
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-07-16--Extra £3bn Promised For NHS To Protect Against Second Wave Of Coronavirus

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Boris Johnson is set to announce an extra £3bn for the NHS to protect against a second wave of coronavirus this winter.
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Downing Street said the funding is intended to afford extra hospital capacity, while allowing routine treatments and procedures to continue, and prevent the health service being over-whelmed.
The prime minister will also use a press conference on Friday to commit to a new target of reaching the capacity for 500,000 coronavirus tests a day by November.
The funding for the NHS in England will allow private hospital capacity to be used and for Nightingale hospitals to be maintained until the end of March.
The announcement comes in the wake of a dire warning of the consequences of Covid-19 rebounding as a report commissioned by the government’s chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, warned there could be 120,000 hospital deaths in a “reasonable worst-case scenario”.
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Winter always places a great strain on the health service, but there are concerns a resurgence of the virus during the annual flu season could be crippling.
A Downing Street spokesman said: “Thanks to the hard work and sacrifices of the British people, the virus is under control and we have eased restrictions in a cautious, phased way.
“But the prime minister is clear that now is not the time for complacency, and we must make sure our NHS is battle ready for winter.
“Tomorrow, he will set out a broad package of measures to protect against both a possible second wave, and to ease winter pressures and keep the public safe.”
The spokesman said the immediate funding for England was new and not previously allocated, while expenditure will be set out for the devolved nations in due course.
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Johnson is also expected to publish an additional chapter to the government’s “road map” for recovery from the crisis.
NHS Providers, which represents NHS organisations, welcomed the financial support to prepare with the “triple whammy of pressures” from winter, a possible second surge and trying to recover from the strain of the pandemic so far.
But deputy chief executive Saffron Cordery called for “urgent clarity” over what the funding will cover, saying funding is already in place for the Nightingale hospitals and private beds.
“Trusts need more than that. They have got to recover the lost ground of the last four or five months and put measures in place to manage the additional activity that always happens in winter,” she added.
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“Sadly what we do know won’t be included is social care.
“Social care across the country is in a critical condition and the Government has still failed to commit to providing the sector with the funding it needs to be fully sustainable.”
Earlier this week Johnson was warned in the report by the Academy of Medical Sciences that action must be taken now to mitigate the potential for a second peak, including scaling up the Test and Trace system.
The research said capacity for 350,000 tests per day will be needed to test individuals as they show symptoms of either Covid-19 or flu.
Boris Johnson boards an ambulance during a visit to the headquarters of the London Ambulance Service NHS Trust in London earlier this week. ASSOCIATED PRESS
The latest government figures say capacity stood at nearly 338,000, but Johnson will commit to increase this to half a million by the end of October to bolster Test and Trace.
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Health secretary Matt Hancock has already announced plans for the “biggest flu vaccination programme in history”, with eligibility for free injections likely to be extended.
Non-urgent operations were suspended to free up hospital beds as the UK was plunged into a lockdown during the first wave.
But Downing Street says the new plans to be announced by the PM will allow them to go ahead where possible as ministers target efforts on local lockdowns.
Hancock announced a partial easing of the prolonged lockdown measures in Leicester, but said Covid-19 rates in the city remained too high to allow pubs and restaurants to reopen.
But Leicester mayor Sir Peter Soulsby accused the government of penalising businesses and residents in a city that predominantly votes Labour.
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It is not yet clear what the PM’s update to the “road map” will be, but he is eager to get employees back to their workplaces if they are safe.
The official government advice is still “work from home if you can”, but Johnson has said people should be talking to their bosses about “looking to come back to work in a safe way”.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-07-17--No, The 'Flaw' In England's Covid Data Does Not Mean We've Overestimated The Death Toll

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Public Health England (PHE) has come under fire for a “statistical flaw” in its coronavirus death figures meaning people who tested positive for the virus but later died due to unrelated causes are being identified as Covid-19 deaths.
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Health secretary Matt Hancock has ordered an urgent review into the way PHE counts fatalities, amid concerns that the statistics are exaggerating the true picture of coronavirus deaths in England.
But this doesn’t mean the number of deaths in England since the start of the pandemic has been inflated, for the simple reason that the anomaly is dwarfed by the undercounting in other areas.
Here’s an explanation of what has happened with Public Health England’s data, and what it tells us about our understanding of the devastating impact of Covid-19:
What has happened?
Researchers have criticised “statistical flaws” in the way the deaths are reported across England, saying they are left looking far worse than any other part of the UK.
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PHE’s figures feed into the daily death statistics published by the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC). Data from Public Health Wales, Health Protection Scotland and the Northern Ireland Public Health Agency are also fed in.
The daily DHSC data represent the number of newly reported deaths of people who have previously tested positive for Covid-19, who have died in all settings.
But in a blog entitled “Why no one can ever recover from Covid-19 in England – a statistical anomaly”, Professors Yoon Loke, from the University of East Anglia, and Carl Heneghan, from the University of Oxford, said more robust data is needed.
They argued that PHE looks at whether a person has ever tested positive and whether they are still alive at a later date.
This means anyone who has ever tested positive for Covid-19 and then dies is included in the death figures, even if they have died from something else. They added that, for example, if someone recovered from Covid-19 but died after being hit by a bus months later, their death would still be recorded as a coronavirus death.
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Loke told HuffPost UK: “The problem is that when we look at the hospitals’ data we see that actually fewer and fewer people are dying in hospital due to coronavirus, and yet several days a week we see in the press that hundreds of people are still reported as having died outside of hospital.
“A lot of members of the public are quite terrified by this and wondering: ‘Who are these people, and why are they dying?’
“When we looked at the data we realised that the NHS had actually been very successful and discharged about 80,000 patients back to their home but despite these patients having recovered PHE are still monitoring these people and if they die of an unrelated condition PHE will still put them in the daily figures.”
England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland all report their deaths separately, but the three devolved nations have avoided PHE’s situation by implementing a 28-day cut off. No such cut-off point exists in England, meaning that – while medical records are maintained regarding discharge from hospital – from a statistical standpoint, nobody who tested positive for the virus ever recovers.
Loke said: “Many of the people who have had coronavirus and have been discharged are quite old and many of them will gradually die because of unrelated causes. So the number of coronavirus deaths in England will never get to zero – there will be a constant stream of deaths all the time based on the 80,000 or so hospitalised patients who have survived.
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“The ONS have actually shown in the past few weeks that the rate of excess deaths is no different to the five-year average, so PHE are actually picking up part of the average death rate and putting that into the coronavirus figures.
“That’s pretty scary for the public to be facing every day, especially when they look at Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales and say: ‘Why? Why are these other places doing better?’ Actually, I don’t think they’re doing better – it’s just that Public Health England are recording them in quite a different way.”
Loke and Heneghan concluded their article by noting that: “The Covid death toll in Britain up to July 2020 will eventually exceed 290k, if the follow-up of every test-positive patient is of long enough duration.”
On the government death statistics website for England, the issue is acknowledged, saying: “Deaths are counted where a lab-confirmed positive coronavirus test result is reported in any setting.
“This means that not all deaths reported here are caused by coronavirus.”
A statistical anomaly in the Public Health England coronavirus deaths data was uncovered on Friday. STEVE PARSONS via Getty Images
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Does it mean that the UK has far fewer deaths Covid-19 deaths than we thought?
In the wake of the news of the statistical anomaly, the reaction of some was to claim that coronavirus deaths – a statistic that has formed so much of our perception of the virus and been used to justify lockdown measures – were far lower than the government had told us.
But the DHSC figures are not the only measure we have to understand the enormous impact of Covid-19 on the number of deaths in England and Wales.
The most recent excess figures data published by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) show that there have been 53,979 “excess deaths” in England and Wales in 2020 so far – that is, the number of people who have died this year over and above the average for the last five years.
Of the deaths registered by July 3, 50,548 of them mentioned Covid-19 on the death certificate, accounting for almost 15% of all deaths registered in 2020.
Yet the overall number of coronavirus deaths recorded by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), which incorporates the PHE statistics that we now know to be affected by this statistical anomaly, currently stands at 45,119 for the entire UK – more than 8,000 lower than the ONS figures that cover just England and Wales.
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Of course, the PHE figures account for only England, while the ONS ones cover both England and Wales. According to Public Health Wales there have been 1,545 Covid-19 deaths in the country recorded since the start of the pandemic. Like Scotland and Northern Ireland, Wales also uses a 28-day cut-off period.
It means that while the PHE figures are obviously problematic – and as the year continues they will become more unreliable due to the increased likelihood of someone dying of an unrelated cause after testing positive for Covid-19 – they don’t mean that we’ve actually had a lower number of deaths than published by the government.
The ONS Covid-19 mortality data is based on registrations of deaths where confirmed or suspected Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate, wherever the death took place.
The death certification used by ONS to measure Covid-19 deaths does not depend on a positive test, while the Public Health England figures are reliant upon this positive test – which is why they are so relatively low.
Due to the well-documented issues with accessing comprehensive testing, particularly at the height of the outbreak and in a care home setting, it has been widely accepted that not every person who died with Covid-19 had actually tested positive for the virus.
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Nick Stripe, head of the ONS health analysis and life events division, told HuffPost UK: “This anomaly would help explain why PHE figures have been slightly higher than ours recently, when I’d expect them to be the same or slightly lower than ours still because of the dependency on a positive test result.
“Our statistics are the more complete measure. PHE stats are only where a death is linked to positive test. If the critique of PHE’s method is right, and it seems it might be, then my guess is it might mean a few hundred to a thousand of the deaths PHE have reported in recent weeks might need looking at and checking.
“It might not be a black and white issue if earlier Covid infections have resulted in longer-term issues which have resulted in death. But it would be a problem for those where the death is unrelated to an earlier positive Covid test.”
Loke added: “Early on we were not able to accurately capture all the coronavirus deaths – we were underestimating for probably the first two or three months because we did not have testing.
“But now we’ve reached a point where there is so much testing available that we’ve actually swung to the other point now where if we use PHE data we’re actually overestimating deaths that have occurred over the past six weeks or so.
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“If we’re looking at the total number of deaths then it is probably somewhere between what PHE and ONS are saying. The difficulty is with the timing of the deaths – we’ve swung from an underestimate to an overestimate.
“Either way it’s problematic for the scientists, the clinicians and the public when they are interpreting the data.”
Do we know how many people have actually recovered from Covid-19?
The issues uncovered in Friday’s CEBM article are further complicated by the way the UK tracks recovery rates – or the fact that they may not be monitored at all.
To put it plainly, we don’t know how many people have had Covid-19 and recovered. Unlike many other countries, the UK government doesn’t publish data on recoveries and it is unclear how or if they are comprehensively tracked.
When HuffPost UK contacted the DHSC in May to enquire about why the recovery rates had not been published, a department spokesperson said: “While some countries do publish this type of information it varies widely in what it actually shows. We are looking at a way based on the length of time it takes to recover.”
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They added that different nations’ approaches to recovery figures “vary widely in methodology and approach”, which could lead to “very misleading” international comparisons.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-07-17--Princess Beatrice Marries Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi In Front Of The Queen

“We are both so excited to be embarking on this life adventure together,” the couple said in a statement at the time. “We share so many similar interests and values, and we know that this will stand us in great stead for the years ahead, full of love and happiness.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-07-17--Shamima Begum Should Never Have Been Disowned

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On Thursday, the Court of Appeal ruled that Shamima Begum will be allowed to return home to the UK to appeal the removal of her British citizenship. Within minutes, “She is British” was trending on Twitter, with a mix of tweets expressing vindication and horror proliferating.
But this shouldn’t be a controversial decision. Begum should never have been stripped of her citizenship in the first place.
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In 2015, aged just 15, Begum was one of the three Bethnal Green schoolgirls who travelled to Syria to join IS, and was discovered in a Syrian refugee camp in February 2019.
Shortly after, then-home secretary Sajid Javid stripped her of her British citizenship, provoking controversy and split opinion. Some advocated Begum should have her citizenship removed immediately, forfeiting it the minute she decided to join IS. After all, Begum had defended indefensible terror acts such as the Manchester bombings, had said she was unfazed at seeing a head in a bin, and “didn’t regret” joining IS. If she was looking for British sympathy, she understandably wasn’t garnering it.
“Begum was born and brought up in Britain, she wasn’t a dual national. If she was made stateless, what would happen to her?”
Others, however, questioned whether she should be treated as a victim of child internet grooming who was brainwashed. More importantly, they questioned the legality of the ruling: Begum was born and brought up in Britain, and she didn’t hold another nationality. If she was made stateless, what would happen to her?
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Many argued the government’s move was racist – that if Begum was white, this wouldn’t have happened and society would have seen her as a victim. Some point to Jack Letts (more commonly known as “Jihadi Jack”) who was also stripped of his British citizenship shortly after Begum.
But there’s a crucial difference here: Letts was a dual citizen – he is half Canadian – and so was never left stateless.
Legally, a person can only be made stateless if they are able to become a citizen of another country. But Begum, unlike Letts, could not. Her likely alternative could plausibly be death: as her barrister Tom Hickman QC told the Court of Appeal, she would likely face “extra-judicial killing at the hands of the police” or else “a wholly unfair and predetermined ‘trial’ and an immediate sentence of death”.
Bangladesh, where Begum’s mother was born, repeatedly affirmed there was “no question” she would not be allowed into the country, and expressed concern that she had been “erroneously identified” as a Bangladeshi national. Yet in February, the Special Immigration Appeals Commission still decreed the decision to remove her citizenship was lawful due to her Bangladeshi descent.
“She has lost three children at the age of 20. Whatever you think of her, that in itself is a trauma to not be wished upon anyone.”
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In Thursday’s ruling, Lord Justice Flaux said, with due respect to the prior ruling, it is “unthinkable that, having concluded that Ms Begum could not take any meaningful part in her appeal so that it could not be fair and effective, she should have to continue with her appeal nonetheless,” adding: “It is difficult to conceive of any case where a court or tribunal has said we cannot hold a fair trial, but we are going to go on anyway.”
In the intermittent five years, Begum has not had a fun life. In the last year alone, Begum gave birth to a son who died of pneumonia shortly after. She has lost three children at the age of 20. Whatever you think of her, that in itself is a trauma to not be wished upon anyone.
Stripping her of citizenship doesn’t make the UK any safer – it is merely a jingoistic act which stokes racial tensions. It is not even proven to reduce terrorism in the UK, rather foster the dangerous delusion that terrorism is only a foreign problem. Even an official government commissioned report found removing people’s citizenship is an “ineffective and counter-productive weapon against terrorism.”
Begum is not asking for the laws to be bent, or for her crimes to be repented. Far from it. She now admits what she has done is wrong, and there is no danger of her being released and absolved or even released. But she is a British citizen who deserves sentencing in Britain. To ascribe her Bangladeshi citizenship on the basis of her mother’s ancestry is nonsensical and sets a dangerous precedent for second generation immigrants: it tells them you aren’t really British unless you’re white.
Thankfully, the court of public opinion is not the ultimate arbiter. The Court of Appeal rightly ruled that “the only way in which she can have a fair and effective appeal is to be permitted to come into the United Kingdom to pursue her appeal”.
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Shamima Begum welcomes a fair trial. And so should we.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-07-17--Coronavirus Lockdown Lifting Timetable: Here's When Things Will Reopen In England

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Boris Johnson announced on Friday he hoped the UK could largely “return to normality” after the coronavirus pandemic “in time for Christmas”.
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In a Downing Street press conference, the prime minister set out a new timetable for the lifting of restrictions, provided the virus is under control.
Over the course of the next four months, Johnson said the government would look to allow more close contact between friends and family when it can.
July 17
In England, from Friday, Johnson said he wanted to be “clear” anyone may use public transport.
The PM said he still wanted to encourage people to consider alternative means of transport where they are available.
July 18
Local authorities will have new powers to close specific premises, shut public outdoor spaces, and cancel events.
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Central government will also soon have the power to close whole sectors or types of premises in a local area.
Ministers will be able to introduce local “stay at home” orders, to prevent people entering or leaving defined areas, reduce the maximum size of gatherings beyond national rules, or restrict transport systems serving local areas.
The move towards local restrictions is so the government can avoid imposing a second national lockdown.
July 25
The government previously announced the reopening of indoor gyms, pools and other sports facilities.
August 1
The government will scrap its blanket advice that people work from home when they can.
Instead employers will be given more discretion to make decisions about whether employees should return to offices.
Most remaining leisure settings, including bowling, skating rinks and casinos will be allowed to reopen.
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Close contact services such as beauticians will also be allowed resume.
But nightclubs and soft play areas will remain shut.
Indoor performances to a live audience, such as theatre, will be reopened.
The government will also pilot larger gatherings in venues like sports stadiums, with a view to wider reopening in the autumn.
Wedding receptions for up to 30 people will be permitted.
September
Schools, nurseries and colleges will be open for all children and young people on a full-time basis, as previously announced.
October
Johnson said he intended to bring back audiences in stadiums and to allow conferences and other business events to recommence.
November
The PM said in November, at the earliest, the government could lift social distancing measures and scrap the one metre rule.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-07-17--Boris Johnson Says Social Distancing Might End In November

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Boris Johnson has said social distancing measures could be scrapped in four months.
Speaking in Downing Street on Friday morning, the prime minister said he hoped for a “significant” normality by the middle of November and the the remaining restrictions could be lifted “possibly for Christmas”.
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“What we are saying is we hope that by November at the earliest we can continue to make progress in our struggle against the virus,” he said.
“It may conceivably be possible to move away from social distancing measures, from the one metre rule.”
Announcing the next stage of the easing of the coronavirus lockdown, Johnson said he would scrap the advice that people work from home from August 1.
But the government’s chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance said on Thursday working from home remained a “perfectly good option” and there was “absolutely no reason” to change the advice.
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Vallance and England’s chief medical officer Chris Whitty took part in a cabinet call on Friday morning to discuss the next stage in the government’s coronavirus recovery plan.
Local authorities in England will have new powers from Saturday to tackle coronavirus outbreaks, including closing specific premises, shutting outdoor spaces and cancelling events, Johnson revealed.
The PM also announced that most remaining leisure centres would be allowed to reopen on the same date.
Indoor performances with live audiences would also be allowed and trials would begin of larger gatherings in places like sports stadiums “with a view to a wider reopening in the autumn”.
But Johnson warned the public to continue to follow the rules while they were in place.
“We can see all too clearly what could go wrong if we don’t continue to follow the guidance,” he said. “There are parts of the world where it’s continuing to spike.”
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The government also announced today NHS will get an extra £3 billion in funding to prepare for a possible second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-07-17--'Cheated Out Of Our Celebrations': How Year 11s Feel Now School Is Over

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The end of Year 11 is a rite of passage many of us remember fondly – the shirt signing, the prom, the traditional egg and flour fight outside the school gates.
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That last one may be unique to my school, but up and down the country, traditions have been missed and leavers’ assemblies have been cancelled. Covid-19 put an abrupt end to school in March, meaning a generation of 16-year-olds have missed out.
As the summer term officially ends – and the dream of a last hurrah is well and truly gone – we spoke to the class of 2020 about how they’re feeling.
‘I didn’t get that experience like everyone else’
Emily Westerby Emily Westerby
The end of the school year was abrupt for all Year 11s, but it was cut even shorter for Emily Westerby, who missed the last days on site due to being off sick with possible coronavirus symptoms.
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“I thought I’d be back, I thought I’d do my GCSEs,” says Emily, from Newcastle. “So it was a real shock, I didn’t get to say goodbye to anybody, my friends or my teachers.”
Emily, who’s a mentee with The Girls Network, had a clear idea of what Year 11 was going to look like – and how it would end – having watched her older brother enjoy it several years earlier. So she’s sad everything was cancelled.
“I didn’t get to do study leave, I didn’t get to do after-school revision sessions,” she says. “I didn’t have early nights before my GCSEs or go for breakfast in the morning before my exams. I didn’t get that experience like everyone else. I used to look forward to it so much, just to finally feel grown up, in a way.”
Emily is due to start college next year, but still doesn’t know if the course will be delivered in-person or online. “I’m a little bit anxious about it, because I still don’t know what’s happening,” she says.
‘It doesn’t feel like a milestone anymore’
Madeleine Madeleine
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Madeleine, from Lancashire, says the end of the school year “feels strange, and anti climactical”.
″[It’s] almost as if we’ve been cheated out of our end of year celebrations,” she says. “It doesn’t feel like a milestone anymore – simply an extended holiday.”
Luckily, Madeleine’s school allowed Year 11s to have a celebration on the last day, including shirt signing, dancing and singing, which she says was great fun. “It was last minute and we would’ve loved an assembly, too, but given the circumstances we were extremely grateful for what we got,” she says.
At first, Madeleine was disappointed exams were cancelled after all the preparation and revising, but she says the disappointment didn’t last long. “I was relieved to have been saved from the stress and pressure of them. I’m a little nervous that the grade allocation is out of my hands now,” she says.
Next year, she’ll be staying on at her school for sixth form: “I’m really looking forward to it, as it gives you that extra independence.”
‘Prom would’ve been a nice goodbye’
Xavier Xavier
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Xavier, from London, says there’s an element of relief that the school year is now officially over. “It’s a lot of weight off my shoulders to be honest, but it’s also a shame I won’t get the same satisfaction of completing my GCSEs as the previous years have had,” he says.
“The announcement that we weren’t going back to school happened a bit too suddenly. I was looking forward to having a proper farewell with all my friends. I think the prom would’ve been a nice goodbye, but at the same time, I won’t really know what I actually missed out on.”
Xavier is concerned about his exam results, as he says teachers haven’t given him the correct predicted grades in the past. “We’ve been told we can redo our GCSEs, which is something I’ll probably do as I feel my predicted grades won’t be great.”
Next year, Xavier should be going to college and he’s also going to sign up for the NCS (National Citizen Service). ”[I want to] put myself out there and hopefully build my confidence by doing different things and meeting new people,” he says. “I feel like I’ve missed out a bit in the last few months, so hopefully this will be something that will help fill that gap.”
‘It was quite unexpected, but we just had to cope’
Hollie Morris Hollie Morris
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Hollie Morris, from Merseyside, really wanted to enjoy “the full leavers’ day experience, with everyone being dead positive and happy,” so she’s disappointed with the way the year ended.
“I was looking forward to there being a leavers’ assembly, looking at pictures of us from Year 7 in 2015 right up to now, but we just couldn’t have that,” she says. “We literally got told two days before we left, so it was quite unexpected but we just had to cope.”
Hollie, who’s a mentee with The Girls Network, says she has missed the social aspects of school over the past few months. “Some of my friends have got mental health [issues] and it’s hard for them, because they feel better when they’re around people.”
The Year 11 prom planned for July was postponed, which was particularly gutting for Hollie, but she’s glad her head of year has organised an alternative event for December. She’s also trying to stay optimistic by focussing her attention on starting sixth form, saying: “I can’t wait to see all the teachers!”
“I feel like a bit of normality is what we need now,” she adds. “If we have to social distance in school, I think it’s better than staying at home.”
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‘It has all been taken away from us’
Aimee Farmer Aimee Farmer
Aimee Farmer, from Birmingham, is “honestly gutted” that Year 11 was cut so short. “We had so much to look forward to, even after we left school for the summer, and now it has all been taken away from us,” she says.
“We missed out on a proper goodbye with a leavers’ assembly, we didn’t get to sign shirts properly. We missed out on our prom, which was the final time all our year would be together as people are moving onto new places.”
She feels confident about the grades she’ll be assigned in some subjects, but adds: “I’m very nervous about what I will be given in maths, as it has always been a struggle for me.”
Aimee plans to stay at her school to study musical theatre next year. “I’m excited to study what I enjoy again as I haven’t done a musical theatre class since March,” she says. “However, if I’m in the unfortunate position that I have to retake maths, then it will be extra stress that I won’t look forward to.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-07-17--Boris Johnson Scraps 'Work From Home' Coronavirus Advice From August 1

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Boris Johnson will scrap the government’s advice to “work from home if you can” from August 1 – despite apparent misgivings from official scientists.
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The decision in England on whether staff should work from home will instead be in the hands of employers.
The prime minister will drop the advice that states “people who can work from home should continue to do so”, which was designed to limit the spread of coronavirus.
Accompanying the change, the guidelines will be amended in England from today to make clear that “anybody may use public transport” while urging people to “consider using alternative means of transport where they are available”.
He also announced that most remaining leisure centres would be allowed to reopen on August 1, indoor performances with live audiences would be allowed and trials would begin of larger gatherings in places like sports stadiums “with a view to a wider reopening in the autumn”.
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Johnson’s road map to recovery came in response to rising concern about the economic impact of people working from home and not spending money in shops, cafes and pubs in city centres.
But the government’s chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance said on Thursday working from home remained a “perfectly good option” and there was “absolutely no reason” to change the advice.
Vallance and England’s chief medical officer Chris Whitty took part in a cabinet call on Friday morning to discuss the next stage in the government’s coronavirus recovery plan.
The PM’s move came after Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey told Tory MPs at a meeting of the party’s backbench 1922 committee that empty urban centres risk holding back the economic recovery from lockdown.
Johnson stressed that the easing of advice was highly conditional on continued efforts to slow the spread of the virus and that he would not hesitate to “put the brakes on”.
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The number of people catching the virus is shrinking by between 1% and 5% a day, the latest figures from the government office for science and the scientific advisory group for emergencies (Sage) show.
The PM said: “Instead of government telling people to work from home, we are going to give employers more discretion and ask them to make decisions about how their staff can work safely.
“That could mean, of course, continuing to work from home, which is one way of working safely and which has worked for many employers and employees.
“Or it could mean making workplaces safe by following Covid-secure guidelines.
“Whatever employers decide, they should consult closely with their employees and only ask people to return to their place of work if it is safe.”
Johnson also unveiled new powers for local authorities to issue stay-at-home orders, close premises and cancel events as part of the government’s so-called “whack-a-mole” strategy of local lockdowns to halt outbreaks of Covid-19.
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He said: “From tomorrow, local authorities will have new powers in their areas.
“They will be able to close specific premises, shut public outdoor spaces and cancel events.
“These powers will enable local authorities to act more quickly in response to outbreaks where speed is paramount.
“Action by local councils will not always be sufficient, so next week we will publish draft regulations on how central government can intervene more effectively at a local level.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-07-17--Kanye West Shares His (Very Kanye) Redesign Of Mount Rushmore Amid US Presidency Bid

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Kanye West has seemingly got some designs on Mount Rushmore should his US presidential bid prove successful.
The rapper fancies joining the faces of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln on the South Dakota sculpture, certainly if a Photoshopped picture he shared is anything to go by.
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Kayne tweeted a digitally altered image of the famous US landmark with his face sitting alongside the former US presidents, with the caption: “2020”.
The sculpture – which features roughly 60-ft-high granite carvings of the four former leaders – was completed in 1941 under the direction of Gutzon Borglum and his son Lincoln.
Kanye first expressed that he intended to run for US president in 2020 five years ago, during an acceptance speech at the MTV VMAs.
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He confirmed his intention to run in November’s election last month, tweeting: “We must now realise the promise of America by trusting God, unifying our vision and building our future.”
Kanye West is running in the US election SIPA USA/PA Images
Earlier this week, it looked as though his presidential bid was over before it began, after he failed to land himself on the ballot in Florida, and an insider claimed he was “out” of the running.
However, it was later revealed that Kanye is pressing ahead after all, and will appear on the ballot in Oklahoma, filing the necessary paperwork on the final day before the deadline passed.
This means Kanye will appear on the ballot in at least one state in the US election, where he’ll be running against Demoratic candidate Joe Biden and current president Donald Trump.
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Unfortunately for Kanye, the deadline has already passed in a number of other states, including North Carolina and New Hampshire, which have been described as “key battlegrounds” in the election.
He could still run in Wyoming, though, where he and his family currently live on a ranch.
The next step for Kanye would be filing a statement of candidacy, or FEC Form 2, which is filed when an individual has raised or spent more than $5,000 dollars (about £3,900) in campaign activity, which then trigger candidacy status.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-07-17--Sir Tom Moore To Be Knighted By The Queen In Unique Ceremony

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Fundraising hero Captain Sir Tom Moore has been knighted by the Queen in a unique open-air ceremony at Windsor Castle.
The 100-year-old Second World War veteran raised almost £33m for health service charities by walking laps of his Bedfordshire garden during the coronavirus lockdown.
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The Queen knights Sir Tom pic.twitter.com/K85fKvx5pU — Richard Palmer (@RoyalReporter) July 17, 2020
He was joined by family members for an unprecedented personal investiture staged in the castle’s quadrangle – instead of indoors at Buckingham Palace – on Friday.
Ahead of the ceremony, Captain Tom said on his official Twitter account: “It is going to be the most special of days for me.”
A message from Tom 'I could never have imagined this would happen to me. It is such a huge honour and I am very much looking forward to meeting Her Majesty The Queen. It is going to be the most special of days for me'#FridayWillBeAGoodDay pic.twitter.com/zha2bCIMzi — Captain Tom Moore (@captaintommoore) July 15, 2020
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The 94-year-old Queen has been staying at Windsor during the coronavirus pandemic for her safety, but carried out the official engagement in person – her first since lockdown.
While other ceremonies due to be held at Buckingham Palace and the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh have been postponed because of the pandemic, an exception was made for Captain Tom.
Buckingham Palace believes it is the first time the “unique” format of his ceremony will have taken place, amid the exceptional circumstances of the pandemic and Downing Street’s announcement of Moore’s individual knighthood.
The Queen used the sword that belonged to her father, King George VI, and presented Captain Tom with the insignia of Knight Bachelor.
Buckingham Palace said the investiture will follow strict social distancing rules.
Captain Tom was joined for the ceremony, which cannot be viewed by the public, by his daughter Hannah Ingram-Moore, son-in-law Colin Ingram, grandson Benji and granddaughter Georgia.
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Who is Captain Tom?
Captain Tom Moore at his home in Marston Moretaine, Bedfordshire, after he achieved his goal of 100 laps of his garden - raising more than 12 million pounds for the NHS. PA
Captain Tom Moore captured the nation’s attention during the coronavirus lockdown, when he vowed to walk 100 laps of his garden for health service charities.
Moore, who was 99 when he started the challenge – originally hoped to raise £1,000.
But after his efforts went viral – and were featured on TV – he eventually raised almost £33m.
Moore then went on to record a history-making cover of You’ll Never Walk Alone with Michael Ball and the NHS Voices of Care choir.
Incredible! Captain Tom Moore has gone to Number 1! 🏆@itswillmanning reveals to @captaintommoore's daughter and grandson that 'You'll Never Walk Alone' with @mrmichaelball & the NHS Voices of Care Choir has gone straight to Number 1 in the UK 👏 pic.twitter.com/jpGxXNWWrk — The Official Big Top 40 (@BigTop40) April 19, 2020
The song shot to number one, making Moore – who was 99 at the time – the oldest person to ever top the singles charts.
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Captain Tom’s 100 birthday celebrations
Following Moore’s fundraising success, his 100th birthday in April was celebrated around the country.
The veteran was honoured with two military flypasts over his village – the first of a Spitfire and a Hurricane, and the second of a Wildcat and an Apache helicopter.
A Battle of Britain Memorial Flight flypast of a Spitfire and a Hurricane passes over the home of Captain Tom Moore as he celebrates his 100th birthday. Joe Giddens - PA Images via Getty Images
Colonel Tom Moore and his daughter Hannah celebrate his 100th birthday, with an RAF flypast provided by a Spitfire and a Hurricane over his home Handout via Getty Images
Moore – who was made an honorary colonel on his birthday – also received more than 140,000 birthday cards, including one from the Queen and a message from the prime minister.
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Boris Johnson said: “Captain Tom, I know I speak for the whole country when I say we wish you a very happy 100th birthday.
“Your heroic efforts have lifted the spirits of the entire nation.”
Birthday cards for Captain Tom Moore arrive at Bedford School in Bedfordshire PA
Captain Tom, who is a cricket fan, was also been made an honorary member of the England cricket team by former captain Michael Vaughan.
But that’s not the only sporting honour that has been bestowed upon the centenarian.
David Beckham presents Captain Tom Moore with special award for NHS fundraising efforts https://t.co/ayiboQVZHU — HuffPost UK Entertainment (@HuffPostUKEnt) July 11, 2020
In July, former England captain David Beckham visited Moore with a special award, making him the first member of the Lionhearts squad of inspirational heroes.
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-07-17--Former Strictly Professional Ian Waite Throws Serious Shade At Bruno Tonioli's Judging Style

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Bruno Tonioli’s involvement in the new series of Strictly Come Dancing may still be uncertain, but it appears there’s one person who wouldn’t miss seeing him on the panel.
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Former professional dancer Ian Waite has thrown some serious shade at the show’s most animated judge, claiming he never says “anything technical” in his critiques.
Ian was a dancer on the BBC ballroom series between 2005 and 2009, and is now a regular on spin-off show It Takes Two.
Ian Waite Tristan Fewings via Getty Images
Speaking about rumours Bruno may not be able to return to the show later this year due to coronavirus travel restrictions in place, Ian told Fubar Radio’s Access All Areas: “Do you want the honest truth? I love Bruno for the entertainment value, but nothing else.
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“He doesn’t really say anything technical. He’s not really the technician of the panel.
“It’s like, how many arms can I flail around and how expressive can I be?”
Last month, it was reported Bruno might not be able to fly between the US and UK each week to fulfil his judging roles on Strictly and America’s Dancing With The Stars as he usually does each year.
Bruno Tonioli PA
Reports have suggested he has chosen to stick with the US version of the show, leaving an empty seat on the UK panel alongside Shirley Ballas, Motsi Mabuse and Craig Revel Horwood.
During his Fubar Radio interview, Ian – who was paired with the likes of Zoe Ball and Denise Lewis on Strictly – also had a few remarks to make about the professional dancers, revealing he has been confronted by some of them in the past for critiquing their routines.
“There are some pros who don’t like you saying anything against them, but they can stuff it,” he said.
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Refusing to name names Ian added: “Most of them are gone now!”
Ian with former dance partner Denise Lewis on the show in 2005 PA
After much speculation about whether Strictly will be able to go ahead this year while still adhering to social distancing guidelines, bosses confirmed last month that the show would be airing in 2020, though for a shorter time period than usual.
It was previously confirmed that bosses are considering isolating the cast of professional dancers and key production staff in a hotel together, so they can film the usual group routines.
It has also been reported that the show will not be adding any new pros to the line up after the departures of Kevin Clifton and AJ Pritchard.
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-07-17--Jim Carrey Recalls The Terrifying Moment He Was Told He Only Had 10 Minutes Left To Live

Have you ever wondered what you’d do if you were told you only had 10 minutes to live?
The very-much-still-alive Ace Ventura star has recalled the terrifying moment he was in that very predicament when a ballistic missile alert was broadcast in Hawaii.
The actor was on the island state in 2018 when the alert went off warning residents to take shelter from the warhead, ominously telling them: “This is not a drill”.
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Carrey recounted the tale during an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to promote his book Memoirs And Misinformation – the cover of which is a picture of his face during those panic-stricken 10 minutes.
The cover Jim Carrey's book Memoirs And Misinformation features a photo of his face after he was told he only had ten minutes to live. Penguin
The 58-year-old said: “The cover is actually my face after being told I have 10 minutes to live. It was completely real to us.”
Carrey said he initially tried to get off the island before realising it would not be possible.
After saying his goodbyes, the actor looked out at the ocean for what he thought were his last minutes alive.
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He said: “At that point I started going, ‘OK what can I do with this last moment of time’. I just decided to go through a list of gratitudes and honest to God I just could not stop thinking of wonderful things that have happened to me and blessings I’ve had.
“It was lovely. And I got to a point of grace at about two minutes to spare when I found out it wasn’t actually happening. All I was planning to do was close my eyes and be thankful because it’s been a good ride.”
Asked how he reacted when he discovered the alert had been sent in error, Carrey joked: “I got pissed off and heads rolled.”
The alert, which was transmitted on 13 January 2018, was blamed on a miscommunication during an exercise at the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-07-17--Memorial To Dambusters Dog Changed To Remove His Racist Name

Wing Commander Guy Gibson, Commander Of 617 Squadron (Dambusters) At Scampton, Lincolnshire, 22 July 1943, IWM/Getty Images via Getty Images
The headstone of a grave to the Dambusters’ dog – whose name is a racial slur – has been altered.
The 617 Squadron, based at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire, undertook a low-level night attack on German dams in 1943, probably the most famous raid in the history of the force.
Wing Commander Guy Gibson used his dog’s name as a code word to say the dam has been breached, with the Labrador Retriever dying on the same night as the raid.
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The headstone bearing the dog’s name was removed, while film versions of the The Dam Busters have either edited out the name or given him the moniker Trigger instead.
617 Squadron (Dambusters) At Scampton, Lincolnshire, 22 July 1943. IWM/Getty Images via Getty Images
Conservative former minister Sir Edward Leigh, whose constituency includes Scampton, wrote to the RAF station commander saying: “Undoubtedly we are both more sensitive and more sensible today when it comes to the delicateness of racialist and derogatory terminology which had been used with unfortunate informality in the past.
“It is perfectly understandable that this is a tricky matter to which there are no simple or easy solutions.”
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“I am, however, very fearful of our ability today to erase or re-write history,”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-07-17--British Airways To Retire Fleet Of Boeing 747s Four Years Early Because Of Coronavirus

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British Airways is to retire its fleet of Boeing 747s with immediate effect following a sharp downturn in travel caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
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The airline has used the craft since July 1989 and is currently the world’s biggest operator of the 747-400 model.
It was planning to retire the fleet of 31 craft in 2024 but its end has been hastened by coronavirus.
The company said: “It is with great sadness that we can confirm we are proposing to retire our entire 747 fleet with immediate effect.
“It is unlikely our magnificent ‘queen of the skies’ will ever operate commercial services for British Airways again due to the downturn in travel caused by the Covid-19 global pandemic.
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“While the aircraft will always have a special place in our heart, as we head into the future we will be operating more flights on modern, fuel-efficient aircraft such as our new A350s and 787s, to help us achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.”
British Airways operated the plane, powered to a top speed of 614mph by four Rolls Royce engines, to destinations in China, the US, Canada and Africa.
An aviation icon and the aircraft most pilots grew up wanting to fly. A few hours ago @British_Airways announced the retirement of the @Boeing 747-400. A favourite with pilots and cabin crew and, along with Concorde, the most recognisable aircraft in the world. “The Queen”✈#QOTS pic.twitter.com/X695EiBBcM — Captain Dave (@DaveWallsworth) July 17, 2020
This was the first jet I ever flew. It was an absolute pleasure to fly and flew me to so many adventures across the world. I’m in all 4 of these pictures. I’ll miss her iconic shape.
Let’s get #BA747 trending by posting your favourite pictures using the #.Share the QOTS love 😍 pic.twitter.com/AuLYRkQ8Wr — Scott Bateman MBE (@scottiebateman) July 16, 2020
UK airlines have struggled to cope with the collapse in demand caused by the coronavirus crisis, with easyJet, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic all announcing job cuts and reduced operations.
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Meanwhile, demand for air travel will take longer to return to pre-pandemic levels than initially expected, according to the latest industry forecast.
Trade body ACI Europe, which represents European airports, said it does not expect passenger numbers to recover until 2024, one year later than it predicted in May.
This comes after figures for June show the increase in air travel following the easing of coronavirus restrictions has been slower than anticipated.
Passenger traffic across European airports last month was down 93% compared with June 2019.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-07-17--20 Years Of Big Brother & Zara Larsson’s Return | Good Vibes Only

20 Years Of Big Brother & Zara Larsson’s Return | Good Vibes Only
This week in entertainment we’re celebrating twenty years of Big Brother, this series of Celebrity Gogglebox comes to a close and Zara Larsson releases her latest music video, filmed during lockdown.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-07-17--Sex Is Cool, But Have You Ever Seen Henry Cavill Build A Computer?

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In these uncertain and deeply horny times, people are seeking out pleasure wherever they can — for a good chunk of the internet, that means watching Henry Cavill build himself a computer.
Like many of us in lockdown, the ‘Man of Steel’ star is taking up new hobbies in his own personal fortress of solitude, but he just so happens to be doing so in a vest top, much to the delight of his millions of followers.
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Confirmed hot nerd Henry Cavill. Charley Gallay via Getty Images
On Thursday, Cavill flexed his nerd credentials by sharing a 5-minute video of himself constructing a gaming PC from scratch. In it, the actor labours over the project through the night, as he consults a variety of manuals and makes his fair share of mistakes.
And he seemed to be in on the joke, as he set his tinkering to the seductive musical stylings of Barry White.
While we won’t pretend to know much about the hardware, the final product at least looks good, as the Superman star tricks out the machine with technicolour lights.
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It’s been well established that Cavill is an avid gamer, revealing that he’d much rather spend a night in on the computer than out on the town.
In lockdown, he’s also taken up painting miniature “Warhammer 40K” figurines, dubbing himself a “proper geek.”
Alongside the video posted on Thursday, Cavill wrote, “All The Parts: This kind of material isn’t for everyone ... viewer discretion is advised. You may see a lot of parts that you haven’t seen before.” He also added the hashtag #AllNightLong.
Except it really was for everyone, as the internet proceeded to join hands in collective thirst to express sincere jealously over the intimacy Cavill shares with his electronics.
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Great, thanks Henry Cavill, now I have a "building a gaming PC" kink that I don't need and can't do anything with. pic.twitter.com/Yyi3W2nJQm — Andrew Wheeler (@Wheeler) July 16, 2020
Henry Cavill built a gaming console while wearing a tank top on his IG if that's something you're into (it is) pic.twitter.com/VrjvYK2Ckm — Jarett Wieselman (@JarettSays) July 16, 2020
Henry Cavill the sexiest nerd on earth. 😍🔥 pic.twitter.com/uWteZuCJM0 — Sergio-El (@sergioees) July 16, 2020
the fact that henry cavill can do literally anything random like building a pc and it’ll still be the hottest thing ever is just so powerful pic.twitter.com/VgFKPQlskp — a a d j e (@cavillsass) July 16, 2020
A five minute video of Henry Cavill building a gaming PC is the gift we all deserve in 2020. https://t.co/PJaKpXXHMV pic.twitter.com/k6pqmnmHmQ — Amy Ratcliffe (@amy_geek) July 16, 2020
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oh to be a gaming PC built by Henry Cavill pic.twitter.com/eagK5BQWxp — 𝚂𝚊𝚕 𝙼𝚊𝚝𝚝𝚘𝚜, Chromatical Cat (@salmattos) July 16, 2020
"So Henry Cavill just builds a gaming rig in his tank top" is absolutely the set up to a porno and yet, here we are https://t.co/6pmrULVn0h pic.twitter.com/KtcG7o2GVf — James Whitbrook (@Jwhitbrook) July 16, 2020
By Thursday afternoon, Cavill’s name was trending on Twitter, with the video racking up nearly 1.5 million views.