thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-09-02--What It’s Like To Live In A City That’s Had Three 'Once In A Lifetime' Climate Disasters In Twelve Y

What It’s Like To Live In A City That’s Had Three 'Once In A Lifetime' Climate Disasters In Twelve Years

The writer stands by a tree in her Cedar Rapids, Iowa, neighborhood damaged by a Category 4 windstorm called a derecho in early August of this year. Courtesy of Emily Stochl
My house stands on a neighbourhood corner in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. It’s been here for 100 years. My husband and I are only the third family to own this house, but the original land was inhabited by people from the Sac and Fox Nation. This community nestled by the Cedar River has been home to people for centuries.
But in 2008, Cedar Rapids was completely underwater, and so was this house. The river crested at over 31 feet. The National Guard arrived in helicopters to evacuate residents in the middle of the night. It took weeks for the floodwater to go down and for power and plumbing to be restored. In the aftermath, whole neighbourhoods were completely wiped out and deemed uninhabitable. The flood of 2008 was considered one of the worst natural disasters the United States had ever seen.
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This house was one of the lucky ones, and the family who owned it before us restored it and moved back in. Over time, our nearby Main Street was rebuilt. It took about six years, but eventually our city got back on its feet.
We’re told that one day a permanent flood wall shielding the city will keep the water in the Cedar River’s banks. After a decade-long battle for federal funding, a full flood control system for Cedar Rapids is projected to be completed by 2034.
Downtown Cedar Rapids on June 13, 2008. Floodwaters inundated about 100 city blocks of Iowa's second-largest city, which now has a population of over 130,000. REUTERS/Ron Mayland
My husband and I bought this house in 2015. We love the original woodwork, the big backyard and its towering trees. But in September 2016, the house and the city of Cedar Rapids almost went completely underwater again.
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This time the community knew what deep water could look like. Troops arrived early to build an emergency natural berm to fortify the riverbank. Citizens sandbagged every building that flooded back in 2008. We refused to lose it all a second time.
We worked through the nights stacking sandbags. We emptied out the businesses on the Main Street. We carried every single book out of my favourite little bookstore and cleared basements for blocks and blocks in a matter of days. There was just so much to save.
We ate all the food in our fridges as we prepared to lose power. We braced ourselves.
The day came when the National Guard issued an evacuation order, the second time in less than a decade. Uniformed troops set up camp in our front yard, monitoring the perimeter of the flood zone. If your house was in the flood zone, they told you to leave town.
My husband and I packed a bag and left. I will never forget how orange and pink and purple the sunset was the night we drove away from Cedar Rapids.
That next week, I watched the river rise every morning from drone camera footage streaming on Facebook Live. I scanned the grainy feed for a glimpse of my house. The river rose to its second-highest recorded level, but the emergency berm held a lot of the water back. There was some damage to businesses closest to the river, but my house and much of the neighbourhood stayed dry. Within a week the evacuation order was lifted, power restored, and the community began to slowly reopen.
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Cory Harrison stands on a floodwall as he looks over businesses flooded by the Cedar River on Sept. 27, 2016, in Cedar Rapids. The city hastily erected a 9.8-mile system of Hesco barriers and earthen berms, which helped hold back the river. AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall
So why write about the flooding now, after four years have gone by? Because on August 10, our city was hit with its third “once in a lifetime” climate disaster in just 12 years. We were pummelled by a Category 4 windstorm called a derecho ― or sometimes a “land hurricane.” The winds blew 140mph.
This time there was no warning. My husband was out on a bike ride. One minute I was working from our home office, and the next minute the sky went dark as night. I looked to my right and saw a tree — the little oak I planted on the first Earth Day we lived in this house — lift and fly right out of the ground, zipping horizontally through the air like an arrow.
I grabbed my cat and dog and we took cover in the basement. Upstairs the whole house shook violently. I heard breaking glass and rattling doors. There was crash after crash as trees fell. I wasn’t sure if the house above my head would still be there when we came above ground. I didn’t know if my husband would be safe or not. I threw up down the front of my shirt.
When we finally came above ground again, all I heard was emergency sirens. There were power lines down on every block. Power lines down in my backyard. People running everywhere. A massive gridlock of cars on our usually quiet neighbourhood street. Every major tree was blasted to pieces. I saw trees on houses, trees on cars.
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Inside our house, a window had shattered and a whole door blew in. I still had puke on my shirt, but I put on a pair of gloves and started to pick up the glass. I got a text from my husband. He was safe. The next morning, we heard that another cyclist didn’t make it home from the storm.
“We are one of the richest countries in the world, and this week I met fellow Iowans who were sleeping in buildings that looked like a bomb had destroyed them.”
Our community remains in crisis. There are 75 square miles of devastating damage to homes and businesses. Thirty-four schools suffered damage, and all Cedar Rapids Community Schools are closed until September 21. A quarter of a million people went without power for over a week during a pandemic. So much food rotted in fridges. Some people couldn’t plug in their oxygen tanks.
We have seen incredible grassroots efforts to provide aid. There are people dragging coolers door-to-door carrying ice, water and fruit. There are citizen-led food banks and cookouts and relief efforts. But it’s not enough, and we’re relying too heavily on the people with the fewest resources to provide crucial aid, rather than demanding that support from the government.
We are one of the richest countries in the world, and this week I met fellow Iowans who were sleeping in buildings that looked like a bomb had destroyed them, not sure where their next meal would come from.
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As the Democratic National Convention started, I was trying to organise a food drive for 150 of my neighbours who didn’t know how they would eat the next day, all while sleeping in a tent in my backyard without power or the internet. There is a lot going on in our country, and I want to care about things like the election and the stripping of the U.S. Postal Service, and even the warming of the planet that caused this mess. And in my normally quite privileged life, I think about these concerns a lot.
But that night, the twin devils of the climate emergency and public austerity measures had caused real, urgent, human problems for my neighbours, and all I could think about is how to get them fed.
David Frantz and Pamela Elliott wait outside a shelter set up by the American Red Cross at the Veterans Memorial Building in Cedar Rapids on Aug. 16, 2020. Frantz and Elliott lost their apartment in a rare derecho that lifted the roof from their unit. Elliott was inside at the time and took shelter in a closet with her 4-month-old grandson. KC McGinnis/The Washington Post via Getty Images
The climate emergency is not something in our future; it is something that it is upon us right now. After every disaster, I’m sure this will be “the one” where our voices are heard, where people in power will actually help. Every time I am disappointed.
City leaders were slow to call in the National Guard. It took Gov. Kim Reynolds six days to send in the disaster declaration paperwork, rather than submitting a faster abbreviated request, as she compiled a preliminary damage assessment. All the while Linn County residents were without power or completely unhoused.
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President Donald Trump visited Cedar Rapids for a few hours eight days after the storm hit. He did not leave the Eastern Iowa Airport. He initially approved only $45million of the $4.99billion requested in Federal Emergency Management Agency funding for our state, which did not include aid for those whose homes were destroyed or for the damage to farms. On August 20, he approved additional relief for Linn County but all the other FEMA requests are still being assessed.
It’s unacceptable. I want my elected officials to respond to the climate crisis with the energy and compassion that our volunteers, grassroots organisers and nonprofits do. I want elected officials to take care of our communities as urgently as the people dragging coolers down the street, the neighbours who won’t sleep until they’re sure others have something to eat tonight.
“If we mobilise now ... maybe we can build a society that doesn’t crumble when the storms inevitably come.”
As well as demanding meaningful government help to get communities scarred by climate disasters back on their feet, we need action to tackle the root causes of this cascading climate crisis. We must demand that politicians use their huge resources and influence to fight for a Green New Deal to save people and the planet, before it is too late.
I’m not promising we can hold back all the future storms, but if we mobilise now to tackle the ways the climate emergency and economic inequality are tied together, maybe we can build a society that doesn’t crumble when the storms inevitably come.
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It will cost our nation billions, if not trillions, of dollars to recover from the natural disasters we’re experiencing just this week in the United States. As we rebuild our communities, we must rebuild them in a way that is democratically controlled and not exploitative. We must rebuild a robust society that can care for its people through extreme climates. Our communities need strong investment in weatherisation, modernised public infrastructure and disaster preparedness.
People deserve safety and protection ― it’s part of the social construct we created with our government.
We must also keep front and centre the ways these crises are compounded by economic inequality and public austerity. It is crucial that as we fight back against the climate emergency and all its storms, we create good, green jobs that pay a living wage. We must invest in our communities and people as well. People deserve health care, accessible public transit, clean running water, fresh air and a place to rest their heads at night.
This storm and other storms like it all across the globe put those basic human rights in jeopardy. But we can do something about it.
Some people might ask, why do we live here in Iowa if the disasters keep coming? I ask, why do people live anywhere? I live in this house by the Cedar River because it is my dream house. Because it’s been here 100 years. Because a man built the woodwork by hand. Because I have all the skeleton keys to all the original doors. Because the woman who lived here before me raised three kids here. Because they planted an apple tree in the backyard.
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We’re just one family in half a billion who will face this question about the places they live in the coming years. On our current trajectory, by 2050, South Vietnam, Bangkok, Dubai, Melbourne, Miami, New Orleans, Dhaka, New York City, Hong Kong, Rotterdam, Tokyo and Venice — just to name a few — will be subject to routine massive flooding, intense heat and “once in a lifetime” climate events that will make those places increasingly uninhabitable.
The disaster is already upon us. Ask those in Iowa whose homes have been destroyed and are still sleeping in tents. Ask those in California facing down wildfires whose smoke can be seen as far away as Minnesota. Ask those in Texas and Louisiana in the path of Hurricane Laura.
I don’t want to live through another climate-driven emergency in six years, and I don’t want you to go through it either, wherever you live. But these conditions will reach a breaking point well within my lifetime. These are the crucial years to fight back.
This article first appeared on HuffPost Personal
HuffPost’s “This New World” series is funded by Partners for a New Economy and the Kendeda Fund. All content is editorially independent, with no influence or input from the foundations. If you have an idea or tip for the editorial series, send an email to thisnewworld@huffpost.com.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-09-02--Men Are Getting Real About Their Penises. That's To Be Celebrated

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Supplied Ajamu at work with a subject from the Channel 4 film, Me and My Penis
“I take portraits of dicks because dicks have their own stories to tell, but are still censored.” Artist-activist Ajamu is discussing Me And My Penis, a new Channel 4 documentary released this week, which celebrates his ongoing photography series – sensitive portraits of naked men – while also interviewing those involved about the reasons they may feel anxious about their penises and their bodies.
In front of his camera, men talk openly about sex, masturbation and erections, and how it feels to be a man, away from the clichés of locker or steam room banter. They tell stories of infertility, violence and sexual abuse as they pose – one wearing only an octopus to represent the shackles of masculinity. In another segment, an unnamed Asian man (all his subjects are anonymous to viewers) speaks about how he bruised his penis by attempting to stop the flow of semen in line with his Muslim teachings against masturbation. He spent his young life feeling oppressed by his homosexuality but feels validated by Ajamu’s lens.
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“The film became a space for us to recognise what we all share, despite our differences,” says Ajamu of the mission statement for his documentary.
“I wanted to meet and photograph all kinds of men – the kinds of men I would not normally meet.”
Supplied Portrait by Ajamu of one of his subjects
Ajamu, 56, born in Huddersfield and based now in Brixton, south London, tells HuffPost UK he was moved by the bravery of his subjects. “What’s poignant is how many of them have lived with their demons and not felt able or allowed to admit to them because of being a man,” he says.
Participants, who ranged in age from their twenties to fifties, include a trans man who speaks about the power of transitioning and what their genitalia means to them, and a former member of the military whose testicles were blown off by a bomb. He still gets horny, the man says – but has no way to alleviate it.
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Ajamu wants to normalise the penis, “especially the erection; by keeping it taboo we give it too much power and don’t allow men to be vulnerable.” Erections are viewed as aggressive, but that’s exactly why we should see more of them, suggests the artist, who points out that many straight men won’t have seen an erect penis other than their own.
When the Channel 4 documentary first aired on Bank Holiday Monday, it was the first to show an erection on British TV, even if a number of viewers tweeted afterwards how conventionally attractive Ajamu’s participants were – and how most of the penises shown on screen were noticeable large ones.
Supplied Ajamu at work with one of his subjects
Also hoping to normalise the penis, but by offering practical solutions to health problems, are cousins Xander Gilbert, 31, and Angus Barge, 29, from London.
They are the founders of a new digital health service, Mojo, launching with the specific aim of helping men with erection issues, though there’s actually a ban on the term ‘erectile dysfunction’ in discussions, the pair say.
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“We try not to use that term because we don’t want our customers to feel dysfunctional. We know that will exacerbate the issue,” says Gilbert of their approach. A recent study found almost a quarter (23%) of men under 35 have experienced erection issues during sex, but Mojo’s founders believe that despite these stats, men struggle to talk about these issues.
The service offers video tutorials with a team of health experts, including psychosexual therapists, urologists, clinical psychologists and pelvic health specialists, as well as a forum where users can post questions to be answered by professionals. Users can choose anonymous usernames if they wish, but the idea is for questions to be posed publicly to help other men who may be experiencing the same issues but are uncomfortable seeking help.
The duo present their £9.99 subscription as an alternative to little blue pills, which they see as exacerbating the problem, rather than helping it, and not a longterm fix (though as Caroline Criado Perez revealed in Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men, early tests on Viagra showed promising results as a treatment for period pain but were not considered worthy of funding, so women might be happy to co-opt any going spare).
Mojo Mojo founders Xander Gilbert and Angus Barge
“Guys want to learn at a distance,” says Barge, who compares Mojo to a “professionalised” Reddit, centring as it is around a forum. The cousins say they only plucked up the courage even to talk to each other about what turned out to be a shared issue a year-and-a-half ago.
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“I told him how much erection issues had rocked my world, and luckily it landed on the ears of somebody who had experienced it as well, it had a profound effect on both of us,” says Barge of that initial conversation.
“When Angus brought it up I froze like a rabbit in headlights. I thought: oh god, can I open up about my experiences?” recalls Gilbert. “I wasn’t prepared for it and I hadn’t talked about before, then suddenly he was wanting to talk about it and I bucked up the courage to reciprocate and it felt really good, like a weight off my shoulders.”
The founders say the influence of Princes Harry and William on mental health for men has been a crucial milestone in the broadening of conversations. That’s not to say the royals have been discussing their genitalia in public – but that these issues are wider than a physical health thing, but a wider issue of wellbeing.
Men’s insecurities around their genitalia, as with women’s about theirs, are often driven by fears constructed in the mind, rather than being based on truth: penis dysmorphia, a subcategory of body dysmorphic disorder, is common among men, and can lead to men avoiding sex altogether out of fear, shame or embarrassment.
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For artist Vincenzo Costantino, who has been photographing men in the nude this year for a new series called #MenInLockdown, the pandemic has been a natural way into having conversations about how men view their own bodies.
“The global lockdown have enabled many men to focus on themselves and maybe look for self-improvement,” says Constantino, 32, who lives in London.
He reached out to men using the sex and dating app Grindr, sharing images he’d already taken and asking others if they’d like to be involved. “The image of the penis is a powerful one, evoking many emotions in people, says the artist, who hopes to lessen the stigma around male genitalia. “I think normalising the image of the penis is a beautiful thing. They come in all shapes and sizes and almost 50% of the population owns one. We should get to know it more.”
During the shoots, participants were concerned about how their bodies would photograph and others were curious about why Constantino was doing the project in the first place. He hopes the series will help men validate their body image: “Not all of the guys were classically confident but I think the experience lifted their self-esteem,” he says.
The nakedness in his photographs comes in all shapes and sizes, both of bodies – and penises – and represents a wider pool of men than Ajamu’s series.
However, clothes can carry their own raw power, says Constantino, who believes the rise of androgynous fashion has led to a cultural shift away from rigid ideas about masculinity, platforming gender fluidity as it does. “The female body has been viewed as beautiful for generations. Now is the time to recognise the male form as a thing of beauty,” he urges.
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Vincenzo Constantino An image from Vincenzo Constantino's #MenInLockdown series.
Understanding male bodies in their own context is a practice which needs to be mirrored when it comes to understanding male mental health. Martin Seager, clinical psychologist and psychotherapist, believes that part of the reason men haven’t been comfortable with sharing their feelings is because services tailored to the male experience such as Mojo hadn’t previously existed.
“Whilst it is true to say that men are now more able to share feelings than in the past, the emphasis on this message is also unhelpful because it also blames men for differences rather than recognising that it’s our attitudes to men that need to change,” says Seager.
“A better message is to say we need to listen to men better and tune in more to the ways they communicate – once men are listened to in a male-friendly setting it’s hard to stop them expressing their feelings,” he adds.
Vincenzo Constantino Vincenzo Constantino's #MenInLockdown series
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He lauds the arrival of services such as Mojo and Manual, a website that sells products for a range of men’s health issues, from erectile dysfunction to hair loss to problem skin, with no need to visit a doctor. As its website states, “nearly 90% of men don’t seek help unless they have a serious problem”.
But this idea that men are bad at communicating will only end when the image of the archetypal man changes, argues Seager.
“The message needs to be for men: there is a wide range of ways to be virile and penis size and sexual performance is only one aspect of masculinity. Just as for women, beauty can come in many shapes or sizes.”
The queer scene can be a microcosm of this wider masculinity debate. While diversity is supposedly celebrated, and the community prides itself on tolerance and acceptance, unhealthy ideals of masculinity – of having the perfect muscular body – are also rife. Dr Justin Bengry, queer theorist and founder of the Goldsmiths MA in Queer History, says the exoticisation of a certain type of male penis has been cultivated over hundreds, if not thousands, of years.
Supplied Justin Bengry
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“What is considered an erotic, desirable, or attractive penis has its own history, and experiences of desire, sexual acts, and eroticism are all historically and culturally specific,” he says.
“That’s not to say that these behaviours can’t also do harm, that they don’t also turn people into objects to be fetishised, and that they don’t devalue some people relative to others. They do all of these, and have long done so.”
This debate plays out in the heteronormative space too. With each new series of Love Island, producers are criticised for their narrow casting of body types – among the men, as much as the women. And for all the sexual bravado and footage of the male contestants working out in the garden gym, there is little discussion – at least that makes the cut – of their feelings about their bodies.
We can be thankful, perhaps, for the introspection of the pandemic helping shape some of the cultural projects emerging under lockdown, including those by queer artists such as Ajamu and Constantino. There is certainly a change in conversation happening.
Over the next few months, Mojo says it aims to monitor its subscribers to learn more about the topics men care about most – data like this, emerging from platforms specifically designed to appeal to men, may be the formation of a new way of thinking about masculinity and men’s physical and mental health needs.
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-09-02--I Gained Weight In Lockdown. It Was The Healthiest Thing I Could Have Done

HuffPost UK Courtesy of the author
If I told you I’ve gained weight during lockdown, what would you think of me?
Chances are, the words ‘greedy’, ‘lazy’ and ‘unhealthy’ might float into your consciousness, even if you see yourself as fairly woke when it comes to body positivity. Maybe your mind would fill with images of Bridget Jones lying on the sofa eating ice cream from the tub, or the kid from Matilda eating chocolate cake with his hands.
I don’t blame you – it’s really not your fault. Whether we consciously subscribe to the narrative or not, we have been conditioned by the media and cultural rhetoric to believe that gaining weight equals ‘bad’ and losing weight equals ‘good’. People who gain weight have ‘let themselves go’, while those losing it are disciplined and self-controlled. As one of the estimated 1.25million people in the UK who suffer from an eating disorder, this mentality is all-consuming.
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Entering lockdown back in March, I was firmly stuck in a relapse of anorexia, an eating disorder I have struggled with for seven years. I had moved into a flat-share in London in January and immediately fell back into old habits, which were beginning to take their toll on my body. A few weeks into lockdown, I was put on furlough at work and begrudgingly decided to move back home with my parents to save money and escape what was then the epicentre of the pandemic.
“Though my body still hasn’t completely recovered on the inside, I have been at a healthy weight for the last couple of months.”
Although my eating disorder gave me hell for it, back in the safety of my family home I gradually got back on track with regular meals, restarted NHS therapy over Zoom and began to put on weight. I had a mini breakthrough with the help of my therapist, realising that I didn’t want to turn 30 in five years’ time and still be consumed by food, calories and my body.
Nevertheless, I felt disgusting, became close to tears every time I looked in the mirror, and my mood each day was dictated by the number on the scales. I spent most of lockdown hidden away in baggy dungarees and T-shirts, relieved that I didn’t have to go out and see people who would inevitably notice my weight gain.
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It’s now September and, though my body still hasn’t completely recovered on the inside, I have been at a healthy weight for the last couple of months. I look normal, healthy and definitely not anorexic, though it didn’t take long because I was only undoing about two months’ worth of damage. I have started to wear more tight-fitting clothes, my mind slowly catching up with my changing body and learning to accept that I don’t need to look ill to express what’s going on inside.
This part of recovery would have been difficult at the best of times. I’ve experienced forced weight gain in hospital, as well as recovery at home in the past, but doing it this time around was made doubly painful by the government and the media’s encouragement of people to lose weight post-lockdown. While I am aware that the campaigns don’t apply to me, that doesn’t stop the surrounding narrative feeding directly into my disordered thinking. I have had to put the blinkers on to gain weight.
“Over the last few months, I’ve learnt to respect my healthy body for what it allows me to do, even when looking in the mirror makes me want to cry.”
When everything inside of you wants to see the number on the scale go down and your clothes become looser, it physically hurts when things go in the other direction. But, as I’ve been told by countless professionals over the years, it does get easier. I’ve never believed them, thinking that it’s just something people say to make me eat more, while evil laughing behind my back as I sob over the plate of pasta. I hate to admit it, but I’ve learnt that a lot of eating disorder recovery is about taking opposite actions in the hope that your brain will eventually get the memo. Over the last few months, I’ve learnt to respect my healthy body for what it allows me to do, even when looking in the mirror makes me want to cry.
Not everyone who has an eating disorder is clinically underweight, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t need to gain a bit of weight to reach a comfortable BMI. If someone is restricting or purging their intake in any way, starting to eat more intuitively and ‘normally’ is likely to result in a bit of weight gain. At the same time, not everyone who gains weight healthily has an eating disorder. For example, some people who have gained weight during lockdown may have done so because they have had more time to look after themselves properly.
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I know first-hand the damage that comes with celebrating when someone shrinks in size, and then condemning them for getting bigger. Neither outcome has any bearing on a person’s character or value, and both losing and gaining weight can be done in ways that improve a person’s overall health and wellbeing.
As well as weight, I have gained a social life, quality time with family, emotional wellbeing, joy, freedom and spontaneity. With all its ups and downs and complicated emotion, I have gained life.
Harriet Clifford is a freelance writer and editor. Follow her on Twitter at @hclifford29
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-09-02--I've Delivered Babies For 10 Years. But Giving Birth Myself Was Surreal

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In HuffPost Birth Diaries we hear the extraordinary stories of the everyday miracle of birth. This week, Marie Louise (aka The Modern Midwife) shares her story. If you’d like to share yours, email amy.packham@huffpost.com.
I was excited about giving birth for the first time – I’ve been in midwifery for over a decade, so I’ve seen a lot. Beautiful births, peaceful births at home, all the way to very traumatic births. Some of the worst things that can happen, I’ve seen. Regardless, I was able to trust my body and that it’d know what to do.
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When the peak of the pandemic hit, I was already four months pregnant. As a midwife, I had additional knowledge of the research and knew the virus couldn’t cross the placenta to the baby. I wasn’t overly concerned, but obviously the virus was still brand-new so I didn’t know how it’d unfold. I’d say being a midwife made it slightly easier, though.
I really believe in preparation. It played a major part in how I felt about mentally about giving birth. I did a lot of work antenatally to reassure my mind that my body was in the best physical preparation it could be. And leading up to the birth, I used an app most days to help with my breathing.
Labour started on a Sunday, at 37 weeks and three days. I was having a home birth, so the midwife had been around earlier that day to check on the baby, go through paperwork, and make sure we were prepared. She ran through emergencies that might happen and how we’d deal with it. It reassured my partner that the home birth was a good option.
When she left, I started having tightenings and told myself something might be happening. Mentally, I knew it was safe to go into labour now as we’d had all the checks from the midwife. I let go of holding on – but it was early stages.
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We went to go look at cars at a garage, and the tightenings got stronger. I remember chatting through finance options and feeling my uterus get tighter. I went to the loo, and saw I’d lost my mucus plug – where the cervix loosens and softens. Things were definitely getting on their way. We carried on with the finance options, though, then left – grabbing a pizza on the way home.
Back there, I started to have regular patterns of tightenings, but I still played it down a bit. I’d committed to doing a Facebook live for work at 8pm and wanted to go ahead, so I did – ironically, answering questions about pregnancy and birth. It went far better than it could have. By the end, I was literally trying to talk through my contractions (but no one knew it).
By 10pm, they were contractions, not tightenings anymore. I couldn’t talk through them anymore. At 11pm, my partner blew up the pool, going back and forth filling it up with buckets of water. I’d decided to have a doula for support and called her at 11.30pm.
In the meantime, I went to sit in the bath and had a really small glass of red wine to relax myself. I had music, some candles, and took a moment to really appreciate this was happening.
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My contractions got stronger at 3am, and my doula made the decision to call my midwife. It’s easy to panic at this point – I had to mentally calm myself down and reassure myself. I stayed active, too, standing at much as I could.
The midwife came at 4am, and I was in active labour. I needed to get in the pool as I could tell she was coming quite soon. I had one moment where I thought: I don’t know if I can do this. It’s a common stage for women to reach when they’re dully dilated. I even said I wanted a C-section, which wasn’t true at all.
I managed to get past that and listened to my body, which needed to push. Rather than pushing hard, I went with my body and waited for it to push – like when you’re sick and your body just vomits. It’s similar during birth, and I just went for it, resting in between each contraction. It was very intense, I could feel myself opening up.
At 6.25am, it was time. I delivered my daughter myself. I knew when the head was delivered, the midwife said the shoulders would be born soon, so during my next contraction I did a big push to get the shoulders out, then got my hands underneath her arms and bought her up myself! She was so calm.
It was surreal, like a dream. I’d seen it so many times with other people. But it was just amazing doing it myself. The shock if it all lasted about a week. “I’ve had a baby!” I kept saying. What an incredible experience.
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My birth advice? I’d say prepare mentally and physically for birth – you need mental strength to manage pain. Always understand your options and the process, too, as it takes the fear element out of the unknown.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-09-02--I Took One Of My Kids On A 'Love Bombing' Trip. Here's Why.

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When you have more than one child, it can sometimes feel like you never get quality time with them individually. Time together, by necessity, is most often spent as a family in parks and forests, or at socially-distanced playdates. It can be fun, but it can also be busy and chaotic.
And while siblings can be best friends, much of that precious ‘family time’ is also often spent squabbling – or, particularly in the case of a wider age gap, vying for the attention of the parent or carer.
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By virtue of the fact my daughter, who’s eight, is pretty independent (she even cooked us a three-course meal), I often ask her to take on extra responsibility for her younger brother, who’s just four. This “help” became even more vital during lockdown, when it was a logistical nightmare to combine working from home with homeschooling my kids. Being able to trust her to help get her little brother dressed (akin to trying to dress an octopus), get them both breakfast and invent games for them to play outside, stopped me feeling quite so harried.
So, to reward her efforts, I decided to treat her to a girly weekend away where it would be just the two of us – for the first time since her brother was born.
Victoria Richards Victoria Richards and her daughter, Emi.
‘Love-bombing’ your child, a process developed by clinical child psychologist Oliver James, is believed to help regulate a child’s ‘emotional thermostat’. It’s aimed at kids over the age of three and centres on giving them a period of unlimited love and control.
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The idea is the child gets uninterrupted time with a parent, and can choose exactly what they want to do. James believes this can re-establish emotional connection, as well as solving common problems such as aggression, shyness, sleeping problems or academic underperformance.
“It may sound like a hippy hangover from the 70s, but love bombing is actually grounded in solid scientific theory – and it really works,” parenting author, Sarah Ockwell-Smith, previously wrote for HuffPost UK.
“Love bombing is simply a way to reconnect with your child. When children misbehave, they are often showing us that they need more attention from us.”
I didn’t have a specific target in mind for my daughter, or a problem I needed to solve, but I loved the idea of giving us some rare, uninterrupted time together – and crucially, one in which she felt able to call the shots. So we booked it in: a weekend away together in Wales.
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Before we left, when I asked which bit of the trip she was most looking forward to, the answer came easily. “Playing loud music in the car, talking about grown-up stuff... and stopping at motorway services to buy sweets,” she said.
We did all of that. We also went for a sunset walk up a mountain to see a waterfall, and looked out from Rhigos at stunning views of the Brecon Beacons. We went to the beach and ate fish and chips, and played the 2p slots in the arcades on Barry Island – home to popular TV sitcom Gavin and Stacey.
It was tipping it down with rain one morning, so we went to the cinema to see a film about a boy who wants to be a wolf (her choice). We ate popcorn and sweets and, later, stayed up until 10pm (when her normal bedtime is 8pm) watching Captain Marvel and tucking into home-cooked chilli tacos.
We shared a bedroom and giggled when the air mattress deflated in the night, and we also caught up with friends and their kids for a pizza picnic in a park.
One of the best things about it was that we had no rules; no strict times to get up or get home or have dinner or go to bed. On our final day, the sun shone and we were reluctant to go back to routine. So, we stopped spontaneously at a romantic fairytale castle and took silly photos of each other on tree stumps, instead.
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Victoria Richards Victoria and her daughter, Emi.
What I learned from my ‘love bombing’ experiment is how precious and special it can be to focus on one child at a time.
It’s so easy to feel harassed at home – particularly after six months of school closures and long stretches of lockdown. I admit, I’ve been short-tempered and itching to escape; to have time to myself after being the ‘on call’ parent for so long. If anything, I’ve craved time away from being “mummy” more than ever.
What I found, though, was that the time together with my daughter was refreshing. It was freeing to shuck off the responsibilities of home for a couple of days; to not have to moan about her room being messy or for spending too much time on screens. I missed my son, and she missed her brother, but it wasn’t just her ‘emotional thermostat’ that got regulated – it was mine, too.
Victoria Richards Victoria Richards and her daughter, Emi, at Castell Coch.
It went so well, in fact, we’re already planning the girly trip for next year.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-09-01--DJ Erick Morillo Found Dead In Miami, Aged 49

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DJ Erick Morillo has been found dead in Florida, police have said.
The world-renowned musician, known for his 1993 hit I Like To Move It, was discovered at a property in Miami Beach on Tuesday morning, according to police. He was 49.
Officer Ernesto Rodriguez of the Miami Beach Police Department told the PA news agency: “We received a 911 call this morning at 10.42am to 5660 La Gorce Drive. Detectives are currently on scene and in the preliminary stages of the investigation.”
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The veteran DJ’s death comes a month after he was reportedly arrested and charged with sexual battery on a woman.
The alleged incident is said to have happened at Morillo’s home in Miami Beach in December 2019.
American DJ Erick Morillo. PA
Following his death, Jersey Shore star DJ Pauly D was among those paying tribute on social media.
He tweeted: “Sad News 🙁 A True Legend. Erick Morillo RIP.”
Musician Yousef said: “Can’t believe it. Only spoke to him last week …. he was troubled, less than perfect but was always amazing to me and helped us get circus going in the early days, and we had many amazing times over the 20 years we we’re friends. Genuinely gutted. RIP @ErickMorillo.”
Morillo was born in New York and spent part of his childhood in Colombia before returning to the US, where he began his career.
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I Like To Move It, which Morillo released under the pseudonym Reel 2 Real, was an international hit and has appeared in other media, most notably the Madagascar animated film franchise.
Morillo was a three-time winner of the best house DJ prize at the DJ Awards and also won best international DJ in 2002, 2006 and 2009.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-09-02--Government Urged To Crackdown On Anti-Vaccine 'Lies' As Social Media Giants 'Fail To Act'

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Social media giants have been accused of failing to act on “dangerous lies” that are fuelling anti-vaccine misinformation and the coronavirus – even when it is reported to them.
A group of young volunteers scoured social networks and found 912 posts between July 21 and August 26, but only 4.9% were acted on after being flagged.
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False posts that were uncovered range from suggesting vaccines can change people’s DNA or are poisonous, to widely-disputed claims linking the virus to 5G.
The Failure to Act report, by the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) and Restless Development, said Facebook took action on 33 of the 569 pieces of content brought to its attention, while Instagram acted on six out of 144 reported.
On Twitter, six out of 137 were dealt with, but on YouTube no action was taken on the 41 reported to the video sharing website.
Examples of the content reported to the platforms which was left online include false claims that vaccines change people’s DNA, are poisonous and cause autism and cancer. They also suggested Bill Gates wishes the world’s population to be “micro-chipped”, people who refuse vaccines will be forced into starvation and 5G mobile technology kills.
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The two groups say social networks are failing to act on their own policies.
Researchers also said that platforms have still not acted on three-quarters of misinformation highlighted in its previous report published in June.
A letter to home secretary Priti Patel, health secretary Matt Hancock, and culture secretary Oliver Dowden – signed by medics including Adam Kay, Dr Ellie Cannon, Dr Phil Hammond and Dr Dawn Harper – is calling for legislation to prevent dangerous misinformation about health and medicine being spread online.
“A coronavirus vaccine is our best hope of a return to normality,” said Imran Ahmed, chief executive of the Center for Countering Digital Hate.
“It would be a tragedy if it was unsuccessful in eradicating this disease because of lies told to people on social media.
“While we have made enormous sacrifices to keep our society safe, social media companies are undermining their effort by failing to enforce their own policies and claims to act on dangerous misinformation.
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“Big tech has proven that they do not care, they will not act, and they only listen when their profits are on the line.
“Government must urgently legislate to ensure these platforms take down hate and misinformation that puts lives at risk.
“And companies who advertise on social media can make their voice heard too, by pausing their adverts until action is taken.”
Jo Stevens, shadow secretary of state for digital, culture, media and sport, responding to the report, said: “This research shows the shocking failure of social media companies to act.
“Misinformation about vaccines – especially during a pandemic – is a matter of life and death.
“We have called on the Government time and again to put the public health and safety before the interests of the big tech companies profiting on the back of a global pandemic and publish the long-awaited Online Harms Bill.”
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Facebook, Twitter and YouTube all responded to the report by saying they are committed to the removal of harmful Covid-19 content.
“Since Covid-19 was declared a public health emergency we’ve taken aggressive steps to limit the spread of misinformation about the virus,” a Facebook spokesman said.
Meanwhile, Twitter said: “We’re prioritising the removal of Covid-19 content when it has a call to action that could potentially cause harm.
“As we’ve said previously, we will not take enforcement action on every tweet that contains incomplete or disputed information about Covid-19.”
YouTube said: “We’ve taken a number of steps to combat harmful misinformation, including removing content that violates our policies, surfacing more authoritative content for people searching for vaccination-related topics and showing information panels with sources for fact-checking information.”
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A government spokesman said vaccine misinformation was “completely unacceptable”, adding: “It is everyone’s responsibility to seek NHS advice, so that they have the right information to make the right choice.
“Since the start of the pandemic, specialist UK government units have also been working rapidly to identify and rebut false information about coronavirus, including working closely with social media companies.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-09-02--Boris Johnson Talks About Confidence, When Competence Is What The Public Really Want

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Confidence trick?
“What the people of this country want to see is their representatives back on their seats as fast as possible in the Palace of Westminster,” Boris Johnson declared in PMQs.
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The PM was trying to ridicule a Labour MP for appearing via video link, but to the onlooker it felt more like a desperate plea for help: if there were more bums on seats in a “normal” chamber packed with roaring Tory backbenchers, perhaps Keir Starmer wouldn’t look like he was winning every week.
Without the sheer wall of noise an 80-strong majority can give a sitting premier, Johnson has for some months now been stripped of the safety net he could previously use whenever he was exposed on the floor of the House. And with a maximum of 50 MPs allowed at a time, it’s been much easier to hear the Labour leader’s courtroom cross-examination.
So far, so predictable. What was different this week however was that Starmer channelled some genuine anger (after the PM accused him of somehow being pro-IRA). Moreover, Speaker Hoyle had decided Johnson could no longer get away with such cheap shots when he was being asked about serious matters like the summer exams fiasco and serial U-turns.
Proving just how better prepared they are these days, Labour then went on the attack, pointing out that it was Johnson himself who had allowed a peerage for Claire Fox, the ex-Brexit Party MEP whose former Revolutionary Communist Party had praised IRA terror just days after the Warrington bomb killed 12-year-old Tim Parry.
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The worrying thing for Tory MPs may well be that the PM has himself become predictable, but not in a good way. He simply didn’t look like he had put in the prep needed for this bout with Starmer. His lines about his opponent being a Remainer, being iffy on the IRA and simply being ‘Captain Hindsight’ on Covid all fell flat because they sounded like the evasions they were. And in a socially distanced Commons, they were applause lines without the applause.
Those who fear Johnson really is suffering from memory lapses due to ‘long Covid’ would not have been reassured when he claimed that Starmer’s belief that “school is safe” was the first time he had said so in PMQs. He had in fact said so in June 24. If the PM isn’t putting in the work and is forgetting basic facts for PMQs, is he putting in the work and forgetting basic facts in running the country?
The schools jibe felt like Johnson was also trying to fight the last war (he did have some success in making Starmer squirm earlier this summer on the reopenings), not the coming one. But even an attempt to repeat the trick, suggesting Starmer was equivocal over a return to the workplace, didn’t land either.
As it happens, I’ve been passed a memo from Unite the union to its HQ employees, from chief of staff Andrew Murray, which sets out why they should “return to office-based working as from September 1”. “Hundreds of thousands of our members have been working in workplaces throughout, and more are returning every day. It is therefore time, given the government relaxation of restrictions, that the union was back in the office too,” the memo (sent at the end of July) stated.
Sadly for Johnson, he didn’t have that memo as ammo. But even if he had, he had no evidence that Starmer is opposed to people going back to Covid-secure workplaces. Moreover, it’s his own cabinet ministers like Matt Hancock and Grant Shapps who have been saying what matters most is how well workers are performing, rather than where they are located.
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Johnson would also dearly have loved to deploy the ‘culture war’ weapon of the Proms saga, but news of the BBC’s own U-turn on singing the lyrics to Rule Britannia came too late. Yet even on this Starmer is far too shrewd to gift him a dividing line, his spokesman telling us that he liked the “pomp and pageantry” of the Proms and the Beeb had finally made the right decision.
It was on furlough however that the PM himself sounded most vulnerable. His flip line that the millions on the scheme were “languishing” “in suspended animation” felt like an echo of the ill-judged claims that furloughed staff are just “sitting” at home. Many of those workers feel like they’re living on redundancy death row, not living it up with pina coladas.
Johnson’s most jarring line though was that “an ounce of confidence is worth a ton of taxpayers’ money”. Breezy confidence from a leader only works if the public are, well, confident in their leader’s competence and the recent U-turns (not least the Bolton/Trafford lockdown) have undermined that far more than anything his critics could say.
In his meeting with 2019 intake MPs, the PM kept saying he wanted to get back as close to normal as possible as soon as possible. That impatience for former certainties was telling. Yet a return to life before Covid looks as likely as a return to life before Starmer. Instead of going back to the future, Johnson is going to have to come up with new ways to deal with his new twin realities.
Quote Of The Day
“I do think this country is going through an orgy of national embarrassment about some of the things that other people around the world love most about us.”
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Boris Johnson on someone else’s U-turn for a change: the BBC’s on the Proms
Wednesday Cheat Sheet
Chancellor Rishi Sunak told Tory backbenchers his Budget plan “doesn’t mean a horror show of tax rises with no end in sight”. But many suspect he will impose temporary hikes, just as Labour said a recession is the wrong time to put up taxes. Therese Coffey even said tax cuts could actually increase a tax take.
Roger Taylor, chair of schools regulator Ofqual, told the education select committee that Gavin Williamson had unilaterally decided to scrap exams this summer. It had also briefed No.10 on August 7 of the risks to disadvantaged students of an algorithm model.
The new Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (already dubbed FOCADO) was launched with Dominic Raab warning he would not ditch the 0.7% GDP aid policy. “We are here, day one, we are committed to it, it is in law, it is part of our manifesto.”
The GMB trade union is “institutionally sexist”, a damning independent report has found.
Senior Tory MPs lined up to oppose an extension of hybrid working for the Commons to November, with ex minister Steve Brine declaring: “We are living a lie..we have never worked harder, but we are not working hard here in SW1.”
Growing numbers of Labour MSPs in Holyrood are calling for the party’s leader in Scotland Richard Leonard to step down amid dire polling ratings that put the SNP way ahead in next year’s election. Leonard hit back, suggesting his critics should be deselected as candidates.
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-09-02--People Left 'In Tears' After Local Lockdown U-Turn, Senior Tory Says

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People have been left “in tears” by the government’s U-turn on local lockdowns in Greater Manchester as they have been forced to cancel plans to see their families, a senior Tory has said.
Sir Graham Brady, who chairs the powerful backbench Tory 1922 Committee, said he was “very disappointed” at health secretary Matt Hancock’s move to reverse last Friday’s decision to lift restrictions in Trafford in defiance of the council.
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It came after Labour mayor for Greater Manchester Andy Burnham said easing the guidance restricting social gatherings in people’s homes in Trafford and Bolton would be “completely illogical” in the face of rising infections.
The reversal in both boroughs also marked the government’s 12th policy U-turn since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and will only increase the pressure on Boris Johnson, who has been warned by his own MPs to “get a grip”.
Brady, whose constituency is in Trafford, said he was “very disappointed” on behalf of residents who contacted him last week saying “how relieved they were to be able to see their families again”.
Sir Graham Brady. PA
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The Altrincham and Sale West MP told HuffPost UK: “I’ve had people today saying to me that their mothers or sisters have been in tears because the grandchildren can’t see their grandparents.
“They had arranged things for tonight, or tomorrow or the next weekend or whatever.
“So the emotional hit of being told you can do things, and then you can’t has been really quite bad for a lot of people.”
Brady added: “People are upset that it is illegal once again to meet their families.”
The government had decided social gatherings between two homes can resume for the first time in weeks from Wednesday in the two boroughs as well as Stockport, Burnley, Hyndburn and parts of Bradford, Calderdale and Kirklees.
But a sharp increase in the local infection rate in Bolton and Trafford led to council leaders pleading with the government for a delay just hours before restrictions were lifted.
The government decided to act in Trafford after the rate of new coronavirus cases jumped from 17.8 per 100,000 people in the seven days to August 20 to 36.8 in the seven days to August 31.
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A government source said earlier: “So there’s been a huge increase – when the data changes, we act decisively.”
But Brady called for more data, including hospitalisations and death rates, to be used in judging whether to lock down certain areas.
“If you are basing the decision entirely on that metric (infection rates per 100,000) and on which direction that metric is moving, then of course I can understand why the decision has been taken,” he said.
“But other metrics have been more positive.
“As yet, even though we had a spike in cases in Trafford in July, there appears to be no evidence of that translating into an increase in hospital admissions.
“In July, when we were put into the extra restrictions we had falling cases.
“Having had a month or so of the extra restrictions, we now have rising cases.
“But the trends on the more important issues of hospital admissions and fatalities continue, thank heavens, to go in the right direction.”
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He said the government is concerned by evidence from other countries suggesting a spike in positive cases could lead to an increase in hospitalisations.
“It could happen here but it hasn’t,” he said. ”And if it were, one might take a tougher approach.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-09-02--A Minute Of Kindness: The Drag Stars Offering ‘Meals On Heels’

A Minute Of Kindness: The Drag Stars Offering ‘Meals On Heels’
With many music and live theatre venues closed during the pandemic, one San Francisco drag club decided to bring their performers right to their audience's doorstep. Oasis launched its "Meals on Heels" service in August. For a fee, plus tips, drag queens will deliver food and cocktails right to your door, followed by a curbside, socially distant sidewalk lip sync performance for you and your neighbours.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-09-02--Boris Johnson Thinks The UK Is Suffering From An ‘Orgy Of National Embarrassment’

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Boris Johnson has said Tory MPs should “speak out loud and proud” for the UK’s history as he warned the country is suffering from an “orgy of national embarrassment”.
The prime minister was speaking in the House of Commons amid the row over the BBC stripping the lyrics from the ritual Proms performances of Rule Britannia and Land Of Hope And Glory.
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The songs are associated with colonialism and slavery, though the BBC’s decision not to include a choir was at least partly taken to avoid the risk of spreading Covid.
On Wednesday, one day after Tim Davie took over as director-general, the corporation announced both would be sung at the Lsat Night Of The Proms after all.
Addressing the 2019 intake of Tory MPs in parliament, the PM told them: “I do think this country is going through an orgy of national embarrassment about some of the things that other people around the world love most about us.
“People love our traditions and our history with all its imperfections. It’s crazy for us to go around trying to censor it. It’s absolutely absurd and I think we should speak out loud and proud for the UK and our history.”
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Johnson last week called for an end to “cringing national embarrassment about our history”.
Rule Britannia – strongly associated with the Royal Navy – is deemed problematic by some because of Britain’s role in the slave trade.
It has lyrics stating Britons “never shall be slaves” and “shalt flourish great and free, the dread and envy of them all”.
Land Of Hope And Glory features the music of Edward Elgar and the lyrics of Arthur Benson and has lyrics such as “thine empire shall be strong” and “God, who made thee mighty, make thee mightier yet”.
They will now be performed by a select group of vocalists.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks during Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons, London. PA
Musicians are performing live at the Royal Albert Hall – but without an audience due to coronavirus restrictions – across the final two weeks of the season, ending in the much-talked about Last Night.
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The run-up to the Last Night has seen musicians and media industry figures weigh into the debate over the pieces.
The BBC’s former director-general Lord Tony Hall previously insisted the decision to remove the lyrics was a “creative” one.
But he confirmed that the issue of dropping songs because of their association with Britain’s imperial past had been discussed.
Later, the BBC said the traditional anthems would be sung at next year’s Last Night of the Proms.
The U-turn comes after Lord Hall was succeeded in the role by Tim Davie, the former chief executive of commercial arm BBC Studios.
Davie has said the BBC needs reform “with urgency” and stressed it must be “a universal public service”.
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Culture secretary Oliver Dowden reacted to the news, tweeting: “Pleased to see common sense has prevailed on the BBC Proms.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-09-02--Prince Harry And Meghan Markle Announce New Netflix Deal

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Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have announced they’ve signed a new deal with Netflix, which will see them producing new content for the streaming giant.
The New York Times reported on Wednesday that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will oversee new “documentaries, docu-series, feature films, scripted shows and children’s programming”, which will debut exclusively on Netflix.
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In a statement, the couple said: “Our focus will be on creating content that informs but also gives hope.
“As new parents, making inspirational family programming is also important to us.”
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, pictured in 2019 zz/KGC-03/STAR MAX/IPx
They also said that they were specifically hoping to help “share impactful content that unlocks action”, thanks to Netflix’s global platform.
Netflix’s Ted Sarandos said: “We’re incredibly proud they have chosen Netflix as their creative home and are excited about telling stories with them that can help build resilience and increase understanding for audiences everywhere.”
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Barack and Michelle Obama previously landed a similar deal with Netflix in 2018.
The Obamas’ production company, Higher Ground Production, has gone on to release the Oscar-nominated film American Factory, as well as documentaries Crip Camp and Becoming, the latter of which served as a companion piece to the former first lady’s autobiography.
It was first reported that Netflix had been hoping to secure a deal with Harry and Meghan back in January, shortly after they announced their intention to take a step back from their royal duties.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-09-02--GMB Union 'Institutionally Sexist', Independent Report Concludes

PA
One of Britain’s biggest trade unions is “institutionally sexist”, a damning independent report has found.
The GMB union, whose general secretary Tim Roache suddenly quit this year amid allegations of misconduct, needs “fundamental change” the probe by barrister Karon Monaghan QC concluded.
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“Bullying, misogyny, cronyism and sexual harassment are endemic within the GMB,” the report said.
“The culture in the GMB is one of heavy drinking and late night socialising, salacious gossip and a lack of professionalism.”
The GMB has more than 600,000 members across many job sectors, including NHS staff, ambulance drivers, school cleaners, council staff, security staff and a range of manufacturing workers.
The report - which covered the period 2010 to 2020 and interviewed three former general secretaries - added: “The GMB’s policies and practices are not sufficiently clear or robust to deal with sexual harassment among employees or members.
“The GMB is institutionally sexist. The general secretaries and all regional secretaries are, and always have been, men. Women are underrepresented throughout the GMB’s ranks.”
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Monaghan was asked in May to conduct an investigation into a “number of very serious allegations made by way of anonymous correspondence”.
Former general secretary Tim Roache PA
An unsigned letter circulated to senior members of the union made a string of misconduct allegations against Roache.
The union opted to order an inquiry not into the specific allegations but into the wider culture within its ranks.
The final report - which was based on 150 different submissions and interviews with 39 individuals - is withering in is assessment of the deep problems that affect the union at all levels.
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Even though more than half of its members are women, “job segregration” along gender lines means the top officer posts are held by men. Women are instead sidelined in ‘staff’ roles such as “secretarial, finance management, reception, admin, cleaners”.
Monaghan concluded there was “stereotyping around male and female roles”.“When women do succeed in achieving more senior
roles, it is often said that they have ‘slept their way to the top’,” she wrote.
Local branches of the union often deter women because their meetings are held in the pub after work. “They are typically run, I was told, by ‘geezers’ and
much like other aspects of the regions, on a ‘job for the boys’ basis,” the report says.
In one of the most damning sections of the report, it found that sexual harassment was “common in the GMB” and was regular at its booze-fuelled annual Congress. There was a “predatory attitude” towards women.
“Examples of sexual harassment I heard about included touching hair, leering, commenting on body shape and clothes, placing hands around a woman’s waist, staring at a woman’s breasts or “tits”, propositioning young women, “sloppy kisses”, “lip kisses”, “sticking a tongue” in a woman’s ear, touching of knees, bottoms and hips, hugs, and slapping of a backside. “Sometimes sexual harassment is used as a form of bullying with examples given to me of men deliberately sexually harassing women in public to humiliate and embarrass them. I have also heard of more serious sexual assaults. I was told by one witness that ’it is simply expected that you’ll have to suffer from being groped at events.”
The report calls for strong disciplinary action against sexual harassers and the break up of the current powers of the general secretary and regional secretaries who effectively run the union, with ‘lay’ members instead given much more oversight and control.
The human resources department, which has just two members, should be hugely expanded and equalities put at the heart of the structure and rules of the union. Its bullying and harassment policies should be totally overhauled and strengthened, Monaghan said.
She also concluded: “I am satisfied that the GMB is not a comfortable place to be for many employees and members from Black and minority ethnic groups.”
Barbara Plant, national president of the GMB, had supported the inquiry to ensure that the “safety of our people, particularly women” was paramount.
Plant said on Wednesday that the union’s Central Executive Council would now act on the recommendations to deliver “transformational change”.
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“Karon’s report makes sad and difficult reading. On behalf of GMB, I apologise to all those who have experienced sexual harassment or bullying within the union.
“It’s clear that real and lasting change is needed for us to become a safe and inclusive place for all.”
Among submissions to the inquiry was one from a Labour MP which claimed the union had “a real cultural issue with sexual harassment which went from the top to the bottom of the organisation.”
Roache stepped down in April after 40 years at the GMB, citing chronic fatigue syndrome as the reason for his departure. But his resignation, just months after he was reelected to his post in November, sparked claims he was forced out.
The move led to bitter infighting, with claim and counter-claim of bullying and misconduct.
Roache was first elected in 2015, when he succeeded Sir Paul Kenny as the union’s chief.
More than 50 Labour MPs are members of the union and its representatives play a key role on its ruling National Executive Committee.
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One Labour MP, who is a member of the union, was scathing. They told HuffPost UK that the report confirmed that “GMB is a union controlled by the male, pale and sometimes stale”.
“At GMB the Regional Secretaries are seen as untouchable, not to be challenged and they’re all men. If they don’t want any change it never happens.
“This whole culture has been built up over decades – unaccountable power, big pay offs for mates even if they’ve completely failed in their jobs, bullying of anyone who descents or questions the wisdom of the regions, the denigration of women who are seen to step out of line and jobs for the boys.”
It backed Lisa Nandy in the recent Labour leadership contest and Roache was seen as critical of Jeremy Corbyn during his reign.
John Phillips, GMB regional secretary for Wales and South West, has been appointed the union’s acting general secretary until a replacement for Roache is elected.
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The union will next consider a timetable for the election to start possibly within weeks, but it is unlikely to see a new boss in place until next spring.
The race is expected to turn into a contest between Scottish regional secretary Gary Smith and national secretary Rehana Azam.
Azam tweeted her reaction to the report.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-09-02--Bradley Cooper Reveals One Critical Reason He Didn't Break Quarantine

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Bradley Cooper kept his priorities straight as he isolated with his family in the coronavirus pandemic.
The A Star Is Born actor made sure nobody entered his townhouse and nobody exited for at least one very important reason: his mother.
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“I’m with my daughter and my mother and my two dogs, and we have not left the house,” the Oscar nominee told his A Star Is Born co-star Anthony Ramos in an Interview article posted earlier this week.
“My mother is going to be 80, and she has a colostomy bag, so I can’t let anybody in the house. And I can’t leave the house, because if she gets it, it’s over.”
Gloria Campano Cooper has accompanied her famous son on several public outings, including the 2019 Academy Awards ceremony...
Mario Anzuoni / reuters
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... and the same awards show in 2013...
Lucas Jackson / reuters


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-09-02--Talking Heads' David Byrne Apologises For Appearing In Blackface In Old Promo Clip

Talking Heads singer David Byrne has apologised over a resurfaced video in which he appeared in blackface.
Back in 1984, David filmed a promotional clip for the concert film Stop Making Sense, showing him interviewing himself while playing multiple different reporters, darkening his skin with make-up for certain characters.
In a series of tweets posted earlier this week, the frontman acknowledged that the clip had been pointed out to him by a journalist during a recent interview.
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“I’d just about forgotten about this skit and I’m grateful that it has been brought to my attention,” he explained.
David Byrne Kris Connor via Getty Images
David continued: “To watch myself in the various characters, including black and brown face, I acknowledge it was a major mistake in judgement that showed a lack of real understanding. It’s like looking in a mirror and seeing someone else – you’re not, or were not, the person you thought you were.
“We have huge blind spots about ourselves- well, I certainly do. I’d like to think I am beyond making mistakes like this, but clearly at the time I was not.
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“Like I say at the end of our Broadway show American Utopia ‘I need to change too’... and I believe I have changed since then.”
Talking Heads pictured in 1984 Michael Ochs Archives via Getty Images
He added: “One hopes that folks have the grace and understanding to allow that someone like me, anyone really, can grow and change, and that the past can be examined with honesty and accountability.”
Recently a journalist pointed out something I did in a promo video skit in 1984 for the Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense. In the piece I appear as a number of different characters interviewing myself, and some of the characters portrayed are people of color. — DavidByrne.com (@DBtodomundo) September 1, 2020
I’d just about forgotten about this skit and I’m grateful that it has been brought to my attention. — DavidByrne.com (@DBtodomundo) September 1, 2020
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To watch myself in the various characters, including black and brown face, I acknowledge it was a major mistake in judgement that showed a lack of real understanding. It’s like looking in a mirror and seeing someone else- you’re not, or were not, the person you thought you were. — DavidByrne.com (@DBtodomundo) September 1, 2020
We have huge blind spots about ourselves- well, I certainly do. I’d like to think I am beyond making mistakes like this, but clearly at the time I was not. Like I say at the end of our Broadway show American Utopia "I need to change too"..and I believe I have changed since then. — DavidByrne.com (@DBtodomundo) September 1, 2020
One hopes that folks have the grace and understanding to allow that someone like me, anyone really, can grow and change, and that the past can be examined with honesty and accountability. — DavidByrne.com (@DBtodomundo) September 1, 2020
David is the latest high-profile celebrity to publicly apologise for having previously performed in blackface, with comedians Matt Lucas and David Walliams issuing a joint statement about their shows Little Britain and Come Fly With Me in June.
This came days after Ant and Dec publicly apologised for “impersonating people of colour” in past series of their hit ITV show Saturday Night Takeaway.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-09-02--Rishi Sunak Promises Tax Rises Will Not Be A 'Horror Show'

Rishi Sunak has attempted to reassure Tory MPs that he will not preside over a “horror show” of tax rises to fill the black hole coronavirus has blown in the UK’s finances.
The chancellor was pictured carrying notes for his speech to Tory MPs elected for the first time in 2019 as he left Downing Street on Wednesday.
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Sunak stressed that the government would need to do “difficult things” to cover the huge cost of furlough and other schemes during the pandemic, but stressed his long-term goal was making the UK a “dynamic, low-tax economy”.
Breaking: Rishi Sunak leaving No11 this morning holding notes, weird writings for a chancellor "Now this does not mean a Horror show of tax" and more to come!! pic.twitter.com/tPr8ZU7Gmj — PoliticalPics (@PoliticalPics) September 2, 2020
Rishi notes, I am embarrassed at the quality as its a massive pull up from a full length pic, my apologies must be getting old !! pic.twitter.com/m9rddBBnx9 — PoliticalPics (@PoliticalPics) September 2, 2020
He was meeting the new intake of MPs in an attempt to reassure them following reports that he is planning a multi-billion pound tax raid on the wealthy to cover the huge costs of Covid-19 and right the public finances mid-recession.
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There are also reports that the chancellor is planning to scrap the pensions triple-lock on affordability grounds, although No.10 has insisted the government has “no plans” to do so.
Sunak is also said to be eying up cuts to the foreign aid budget, although foreign and development secretary Dominic Raab said the UK remains committed to spending 0.7% of national income on overseas development.
The chancellor’s speech comes with backbenchers increasingly concerned about the government’s direction of travel following 12 policy U-turns in around six months.
Boris Johnson is also expected to “drop in” to a 1922 committee meeting of backbenchers later on Wednesday to calm the troops.
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The script for his address to the 2019 Tories read: “We will need to do some difficult things, but I promise you, if we trust one another we will be able to overcome the short term challenges”
“Now this doesn’t mean a horror show of tax rises with no end in sight.
“But it does mean treating the British people with respect, being honest with them about the challenges we face and showing them how we plan to correct our public finances and give our country the dynamic, low tax economy we all want to see.
“We cannot, will not and must not surrender our position as the party of economic competence and sound finance.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-09-02--Overwhelmingly White Covid Briefings Made BAME Communities 'Less Trusting' Of Health Advice

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Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities may have been less trusting of Covid-19 health advice due to a lack of inclusive messaging, caused in part by the scarcity of non-white experts at the Downing Street briefings.
A recent report by the Wellcome Trust found fewer than half (45%) of BAME people had “complete” or a “great deal of” trust in information from government scientific advisers, compared to 65% of white people.
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The survey of more than 2,650 people, carried out at the height of the outbreak in the UK, found just 38% of Black respondents said they trusted the government’s scientific advisers, compared with 52% of Asian people.
Of the 92 daily Downing Street press conferences that took place between March 16 and June 23, just two BAME scientific advisers or public health officials appeared – England’s deputy chief medical officer, Professor Jonathan Van Tam, and Dr Nikki Kanani, NHS England’s medical director for primary care.
On the ministerial front, chancellor Rishi Sunak, home secretary Priti Patel and business secretary Alok Sharma were the only BAME figures to address the public at the coronavirus briefings. Not one Black person was seen behind the Downing Street podiums.
Boris Johnson arrives for a press conference with chief medical adviser to the UK government, Chris Whitty and the chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance. FRANK AUGSTEIN via Getty Images
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This lack of representation could play a part in why people from marginalised groups feel “disconnected” from the government’s coronavirus messaging, says Prof Kamaldeep Bhui, a psychiatry and epidemiology expert at the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences at the University of Oxford.
“Emotionally, we connect with and are influenced by people who are more like us – not just by ethnicity, but by age and gender. So in this case, people from marginalised groups are asking, are these people like us – and largely they’re not,” he told HuffPost UK. “If minorities are living in positions of precarity, they’re less likely to trust from the start.
“This isn’t irrational. This is built on an experience of society where people experience multiple disadvantages and face inequalities and discrimination. They’re going to be less likely to trust the messaging if it’s coming from the authorities.”
The government’s initial one-size-fits-all approach to public health messaging failed to address the needs of different communities. PA Video - PA Images via Getty Images
A crucial problem with the government’s public health messaging was that it failed to take into account the needs and levels of health literacy of various communities.
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“Different ethnic groups have different perceptions of what illness is, what infection is or what a pandemic is,” said Bhui.
“Marginalised groups, which include but are not limited to ethnic minorities, are particularly challenged because they may not have the same beliefs and health model. So the messaging should have been tailored to different literacy groups.”
The Stay Home, Protect the NHS, Saves Lives slogan used at the peak of the outbreak also failed to account for all the key and frontline workers who continued going into work while the rest of us could stay in the safety of our homes.
Instead, some of the initial messaging actually made things worse. “By pathologising them and suggesting they were drivers of problems, there was increasing levels of discrimination against minorities,” Bhui adds.
“We’ve seen this with some Chinese people or some Muslim people in the northern parts of the UK, where they were perceived as not conforming to public health advice.”
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The problem with the government’s initial one-size-fits-all approach to public health messaging is that it rarely works, says Dan Wellings, of the policy team at the King’s Fund. He says that needs to change.
“The results of this study show how important it is for clear and effective messaging to start with those communities,” he said. “In order to gain credibility in those communities, you need to understand from the first instance what’s going to work for them and who they will trust.
“A lot of this work needs to be done at local level by people who are connected and familiar with the communities that they serve.”
If the government’s coronavirus messaging or its messengers haven’t been inclusive enough, then neither have the reporters on the other side of the podium. Of the more than 550 questions at the Downing Street briefings, only a handful of them came from BAME journalists – among them were HuffPost UK’s deputy political editor, Arj Singh, and news reporter Nadine White.
Business secretary Alok Sharma was one of the very few BAME people who appear behind the podium of the Downing Street press briefings. ASSOCIATED PRESS
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Anne Alexander, senior political producer at Good Morning Britain, was the first ever Black female Lobby journalist in Parliament. Eighteen years on, she remains the only Black female Lobby journalist. And she can count the number of BAME colleagues she’s worked with using just one hand.
“We like to think the news is objective and impartial, but in reality news is subjective,” she told HuffPost UK. “How we decide what is important and how it should be reported is coloured by our upbringing and our background. That’s why it’s important to have a mixture of backgrounds.”
Although BAME journalists do not always have to ask questions only relating to “BAME issues”, they can often call attention to topics that are neglected or considered of secondary importance to the overwhelmingly white, middle class reporters.
When our reporter pressed health secretary Matt Hancock for a response on a study that found BAME people were disproportionately fined under coronavirus rules, Alexander says there was “much celebration” on social media.
“If you look at the stories that emerged about the amount of ethnic minorities who were being adversely impacted by the coronavirus, a lot of that came from journalists like Nadine and other who kept on highlighting it. This was an important issue and it was being pushed by Black journalists.”
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Bhui said the pandemic served as a “wake-up call” for the government to recognise the gross inequalities and social injustice that already existed long before the pandemic.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-09-02--Strictly Come Dancing Is Finally Doing Right By Britain's LGBTQ+ Youth

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Last year, Strictly Come Dancing broke new ground as two male professionals danced together to Emili Sandé’s Shine.
These three minutes of LGBTQ+ representation were immediately countered by 189 official complaints that it was “offensive to show two men dancing together”.
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Twitter was alight with those who cried sacrilege against the tradition of men and women dancing together.
Dancing on Ice stirred similar controversy earlier this year when it was announced that pop star Ian Watkins was to be paired with professional Matt Evers for his stint on the show.
Broadcast regulator Ofcom received 16 complaints after their first performance – based, again, on the violation of tradition.
It is against this background that today the BBC announced Nicola Adams OBE as the sixth member of their 2020 cast – but most importantly, as the first contestant in the show’s 16-year history to dance with a professional of the same sex.
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“Strictly's cross-generational appeal is why this representation is so important.”
This is already being labelled as “absurd” with the BBC lambasted for “bias” and “pandering”. A number of comments ask why she can’t “just dance with a man even if she doesn’t fancy him” – seemingly missing the fact that dancing and sexuality are separate (Strictly curse aside, I don’t think it is a pre-requisite for dancers to “fancy” one another).
There are also those who declare that this “isn’t news”, missing the point entirely. Of course, we wish it wasn’t news, but – at least for now – it needs to be.
Growing up, it was near impossible to normalise how I felt inside. At school it was never mentioned except as an insult in the playground. There was nothing in books, on the radio, or on television that suggested there was any other way of existing than in the straight and narrow.
When I hit my teens, I began to see LGBTQ+ storylines on television – but they were unanimously tragic. I’d watch young gay characters become ostracised from society – stereotypes driving home how “other” I was.
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We still have a long way to go, but the winds have begun to change. LGBTQ+ stories are becoming more visible, expanding to fill the breadth of their experience. The impact of this representation is huge but is also often silent.
Competing on The Great British Bake Off, my sexuality was never addressed on the show – but hundreds of people saw themselves in me. I regularly receive private messages from young people who don’t know how to express how they feel and just need to talk to somebody like them.
These people, some children, are going through some of the most momentous changes people can experience and often feel so alone. Many feel unable to discuss their feelings with their loved ones, regardless of how accepting they might be.
Nicola Adams will dance in Strictly's first ever same-sex pairing. (BBC) Yahoo Celebrity UK
Television is more than a window into living rooms across the country – it is a door that opens minds and conversations. Many are complaining that Strictly is “a family show” and that this move sexualises the competition (the classic “we accept that you exist but don’t rub it in my face” line) – but its cross-generational appeal is why this representation is so important.
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Families who can sense a young person’s distress may find an opening through the lens of the show to create safe spaces and initiate conversations. At the very least, young people will see people who are like them, and it will provide a light at the end of the tunnel.
Far from a box-ticking exercise in diversity, this casting choice will inspire and create genuine change – entertainment doubling as education. Even better, Nicola is a Black bisexual woman representing a community that is all too often fronted by white gay men, with the other letters forgotten.
Tackling this lack of diversity is a huge challenge, and this platform offers much-needed visibility.
It’s worth noting that Nicola herself was the one to suggest a same-sex partner to producers, who have honoured her request (so not “box-ticking”, then).
Nicola will likely be aware of the criticism she will face – and we must be vigilant against insidious homophobia (masked as concern over “traditional values”) and stand tall beside her.
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With all of that said, recognising the importance and value of Nicola’s place in the competition, let’s not reduce her to her sexuality. Nicola is a brilliant, bold and brave role model to many – retiring from boxing at 36 with an undefeated record and two Olympic gold medals, having swept all competitions open to her.
Who knows if she’ll be a good dancer – her TikTok certainly suggests she might be – but we must allow her the chance to prove herself on a level playing field with the other contestants.
Nicola says it best: “It’s a big step for the show and nice to see that we are able to move on.”
Let’s recognise this historic stride forwards and go with it into a world where representation is so normal that it doesn’t need to be news.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-09-02--Keir Starmer Demands Boris Johnson Blocks Claire Fox's Peerage After IRA Row

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Boris Johnson should block former Brexit MEP Claire Fox from being given a seat in the House of Lords rather than accuse Keir Starmer of being silent over support for the IRA, Labour has said.
In angry exchanges during PMQs on Wednesday, the prime minister accused the Labour leader of having “supported an IRA-condoning politician” when Jeremy Corbyn led the party.
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Starmer, a former director of public prosecutions, demanded Johnson withdraw the comment.
“When the prime minister has worked with the intelligence and security forces prosecuting criminals and terrorists he can lecture me,” he said.
Following the exchanges, a spokesperson for Starmer said: “One thing we would remind the prime minister is that he has the power to block Claire Fox being nominated as a member of the House of Lords.
“So if he wants to take any action on this issue we suggest he does that.”
Claire Fox has been nominated for a seat in the House of Lords. KENZO TRIBOUILLARD via Getty Images
Fox was recently handed a peerage by Johnson. Before signing up to Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party in 2019, she was a leading of member of the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP).
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On March 20, 1993, an IRA bombing in Warrington killed Tim Parry, 12, and Jonathan Ball, three, and injured 56 others.
The RCP defended the bombing and the “the right of the Irish people to take whatever measures necessary in their struggle for freedom”.
Tim Parry’s father, Colin Parry, said at the time that offering a peerage to Fox “offends me and many others deeply”.
We all do and say things when young that we later regret. @clairefox never apologised for defending the IRA bombing of Warrington which took the life of my son Tim and Johnathan Ball. Now she is offered a Peerage. This offends me and many others deeply — Colin Parry OBE (@ColinParryPeace) August 1, 2020
Fox has previously said she has the “greatest sympathy” for the Parry family but has not gone as far as apologising.
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“My personal politics and views are well known and I have never sought to disguise them, though on this issue they have remained unaired for many years,” she said when asked about her political views at the time of the 2019 European elections.
“Whatever the rights and wrongs, the history of Ireland has been marked by tragedy and I acknowledge that without hesitation and with genuine feeling for all involved.”
The PMQs argument came after Starmer said Johnson’s government was responsible for “mess after mess”.
“U-turn after U-turn, it’s a fundamental issue of competence, God knows what’s going on, there’s no grip,” he said.
In reply, Johnson said: “This is a leader of the opposition who backed remaining in the EU and now is totally silent on the subject, now has performed a U-turn. He backed – in fact he still does Mr Speaker – this is a leader of the opposition who supported an IRA-condoning politician who wanted to get out of Nato and now says absolutely nothing.”
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-09-03--45 Funny Tweets About Parents' Bedtime Struggles

From children’s refusal to get some shut-eye to their repeated requests for “one more” book to their impressive filibustering, the obstacles can be endless. It’s makes sense that one of the most popular books for parents is called “Go the Fuck to Sleep.”
Fortunately, parents can vent on Twitter in their exhaustion. We’ve rounded up 45 relatable tweets about bedtime from those who know the struggle.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-09-03--James Bond Film No Time To Die's New Trailer Is The Definition Of Action-Packed

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The new trailer for the latest James Bond film No Time To Die has been unveiled, and it’s the very definition of action-packed.
In the space of two and a half minutes, the trailer squeezes in car chases, explosions, elaborate scenery and yes, even a bit of romance, plus high drama, intrigue and a better look at Rami Malek in character as the film’s new villain.
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As we already knew, the film reintroduces us to Daniel Craig’s 007 enjoying some time off in the sun, but as the new trailer shows, it isn’t long before he’s back in action, with the character declaring: “You can imagine why I’ve come back to play.”
Daniel Craig in the new No Time To Die trailer MGM
From there, we get to see some more of Lashana Lynch, a newcomer to the franchise, whose character has seemingly taken over the 007 codename in Bond’s absence, as well as Ana De Armas, playing a new agent who clearly packs a serious punch.
Watch the trailer in full above.
Lashana Lynch joins the James Bond franchise in No Time To Die MGM
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No Time To Die was originally slated to hit cinemas in April, but its release date was pushed back seven months due to the coronavirus pandemic, and it will now debut in UK cinemas on 12 November.
This was far from the first bump in the road for the film, though, which marks Daniel Craig’s final outing as James Bond.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-09-03--NHS Test And Trace ‘Contact Tracing’ Rate Is Lowest Since Service Began

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The government’s flagship NHS Test and Trace programme is facing fresh criticism after it posted its worst performance on a key target since the service began.
Boris Johnson’s independent scientific advisers have repeatedly warned that stopping the spread of the disease requires more than 80% of “close contacts” of people with Covid reached by the system to be identified and then told to self-isolate.
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But figures for the latest weekly update show that just 69.4% of those “close contacts” – defined as being within two metres of a Covid carrier for more than 15 minutes – are actually being reached in England.
The new findings, which show that more than 30% of “close contacts” were not reached, came as the government unveiled a £500 million plan to expand 20-minute testing in an effort to achieve mass population screening for Covid-19.
The NHS Test and Trace statistics, for the week between August 20 and 27, show a fall on the 75.2% of the previous week. The new 69.4% figure also marks the first time the system has dipped below 70%.
They came as it emerged that capacity problems with the service mean that those requesting a test have been directed to centres hundreds of miles away. The government has now said it will limit the service to offer only test centres that are within a 75-mile radius.
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In the past week, a focus of tests on lockdown areas and care homes has seen people living in Suffolk offered tests in Blackburn.
This is the 10th week running that the 80% target has not been reached, although government insiders insist that the figures are much better when taking into account the number of contact details that are provided by the public.
There was better news for the government for the statistics for the total percentage of people reached by the service after testing positive for Covid-19, which now stands at 81%.
The two percentages multiplied together mean that something in the region of 56% of all possible close contacts of positive cases have actually been reached.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said he is “very worried” about the test-and-trace programme, which he said is “vital to progress”.
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Dido Harding, who heads NHS Test and Trace PA
Shadow health minister Justin Madders said: “With cases on the increase and the government pushing for everyone to return to work it is more important than ever that Test and Trace is working to its potential.
“It is therefore hugely disappointing to see that the number of people the system reached went down again in the last week. There is also clearly a problem with testing infrastructure as people across the country are sent hundreds of miles for testing appointments.
“With over 100,000 tests every day not being used it is clear there should be enough capacity in the system to cope with demand. Ministers need to urgently get to the root of this problem so that speedy testing is available for all who need it.”
Yet again, there is a big disparity in contact tracing success of local public health teams and of outsourced call centres.
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For cases handled by local health protection teams, 97.3% of contacts were reached and asked to self-isolate in the week to August 26.
By contrast, for those cases handled either online or by call centres, 59.8% of close contacts have been reached and asked to self-isolate.
Of the 7,683 people transferred to the contact tracing system between August 20 August and August 26, 81.4% were reached and asked to provide information about their contacts.
Some 31,388 people were identified as coming into close contact with someone who has tested positive between 20 August and 26 August. Of these, 69.4% were reached and asked to self-isolate, compared to 77.1% in the previous week.
Government sources said that the best way to improve the contact tracing numbers would be through the long-awaited smartphone app, currently in trials, as well as combined local and national tracing efforts.
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Dido Harding, the interim executive chair of the National Institute for Public Health, preferred to point to the overall success of the system since it was launched from scratch in late May.
“NHS Test and Trace has been operating for more than three months and during that time it has consistently reached the majority of those testing positive and their contacts – almost 330,000 people at risk of unknowingly passing the virus on,” she said.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock earlier claimed the Government’s coronavirus testing system is working “well”, despite suggestions that people are being directed to centres more than 100 miles away.
Mr Hancock said there are “operational challenges from time to time” with the regime, after a postcode analysis by the BBC showed some people are being told the closest available tests are hours from home.
A senior source said a change would go live on Thursday or Friday restricting test centre locations to within 75 miles, and it is understood there are plans to improve the algorithm so that it suggests more suitable locations for people requesting tests.
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Just over half (53.2%) of people who were tested for Covid-19 in England in the week ending August 26 at a regional site or mobile testing unit – a so-called “in-person” test – received their result within 24 hours.
This is up from 40.7% in the previous week, but down from 63.4% in the week to August 12.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-09-03--Costa Coffee To Cut 1,650 Jobs Following Lockdown Closures

Neil Lake, managing director for Costa Coffee UK and Ireland said: “Today’s announcement to our store teams was an extremely difficult decision to make. Our baristas are the heart of the Costa business and I am truly sorry that many now face uncertainty following today’s news.
“We have had to make these difficult decisions to protect the business and ensure we safeguard as many jobs as possible for our 16,000 team members, whilst emerging stronger ready for future growth.
“As a proud member of the UK high street, we remain committed to the role Costa plays in supporting the economic recovery of the country, but today I want to say a huge thank you to all of our team members that are affected by this announcement and we will be supporting you throughout this process.”