Displaying items by tag: United Kingdom

The Universal Credit extra payments helping people through Covid have ended, amid fears that many lives will get worse not better this winter. 29-year-old Lynton Lockett is embarrassed to show people his kitchen. A leaking kitchen tap caused mould on the floor and walls. The dampness has brought an infestation of fruit flies. Lynton showed the kitchen to plumber James Anderson who runs a community initiative called DEPHER CIC that provides free heating and plumbing services to people who can't pay for them. James anticipates a 50% increase in calls for help this winter. He has started giving food parcels to struggling families. He said that the end of payments, the higher cost of living, a rise in gas prices and the end of furlough puts too much financial pressure on families. He added, ‘You can't hide the truth. If this continues, people are going to die.’ See also

Mary Onuoha, an operating theatre specialist at Croydon University Hospital, was bullied and pressured to remove her cross necklace while on duty. Mary says she was forced out of the job she loved after working there for 18 years. She is challenging the NHS trust for harassment, victimisation, and constructive unfair dismissal as they had breached her freedom to express her faith under the European Convention of Human Rights and the Equality Act. In August 2018 bosses ordered her to remove the cross which was a breach of NHS dress code and a ‘health risk’ to her and to patients. Mary argues that the dress code was applied inconsistently. Other nurses were not asked to remove jewellery, hijabs, saris, turbans or religious bracelets. Also Mary wore several lanyards at the same time with no anti-strangle clasps, yet her cross supposedly posed ‘a risk of injury or infection’.

Sajid Javid, the health secretary, is to review guidance on transgender patients, following a newspaper investigation which discovered that male sex offenders who self-identify as women are placed on female-only wards. Despite instructions from the Department of Health to eliminate mixed-sex wards, guidance from hospitals states that patients should be admitted based on the gender they identify with and can choose which ward, lavatories and facilities they use. A whistleblower nurse warned, ‘If patients question why there is a male-bodied person on a female-only ward, medics are told to say that there are no men present. Staff raising safeguarding concerns may be threatened with disciplinary action. The NHS is influenced by the controversial LGBT charity Stonewall.’ See

Britain faces a greater risk of blackouts this winter after a fire on 15 September knocked out a cable importing electricity from France. National Grid’s electricity system operator (ESO) believes supply will meet demand, but has cut its forecast of buffer supply. Its officials are also warning of high costs for getting power generators to fire up at short notice to help balance the grid. Those costs are ultimately passed onto household bills - a further pressure when bills are climbing due to soaring wholesale costs of natural gas and electricity. The ESO warned in July that Britain should prepare for constrained power supplies over winter, with nuclear power plants shutting down and demand bouncing back from the pandemic. Its director said, ‘Our analysis shows that we expect sufficient margins over the winter and the system is within the reliability standard. Throughout the coming months the situation may change, as it does every winter.’

CARE has urged ministers to curb internet pornography, to prevent more cases of sexual violence. During proceedings at the Old Bailey this week, it emerged that rapist and murderer Wayne Couzens viewed ‘brutal pornography’ before committing his crimes. A former colleague noted his attraction to ‘brutal sexual pornography’. The Government’s own research in February found that the majority of frontline workers spontaneously mentioned pornography as an influential factor for harmful sexual behaviour towards women and girls. CARE campaigned successfully for legislation to curb porn sites and restrict access by children. However, these measures were scrapped by the Government in 2019. CARE said that the Couzens case is an example of where porn obsession can lead. If we want to avoid more such cases, the Government must stop men accessing sites which glorify rape and violence.

Retailers and hauliers say the government's plan to offer temporary visas to foreign lorry drivers will not solve supply chain issues. The transport secretary said there is ‘plenty of fuel’ in the refineries and 47 storage centres, but ‘the Royal Haulage Association triggered panic buying by reporting a shortage of heavy goods vehicle drivers. To limit disruption before Christmas the Government will give temporary visas to 5,000 lorry drivers, encourage HGV licence holders back into the industry, and use MOD examiners to increase testing for new drivers. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-58698998 These measures will not fix the short-term problems caused by panic buying, so the business secretary said 150 soldiers will be delivering fuel. The managing director of fuel supplier Portland Fuel said the UK was over the worst of the situation and that sending in the army would ‘generate more panic’.

The UK's economy grew 5.5% between April and June as spending surged after lockdowns. However an investment and markets analyst said, ‘Any hope that the end of the furlough scheme would solve the supply chain crisis is likely to be wishful thinking. There will be a big mismatch of skills and experience between those leaving furlough and the jobs on offer.’ Jess Pitman was furloughed from her job organising trips abroad to raise money for charities, but travellers cancelled when Covid hit. The company's payroll has reduced from 27 to 5. Furloughing has finished, and Jess will return to work part-time, topping up her income with freelance work. To counteract furlough finishing, a £500m Household Support Fund will provide a lifeline for those who might struggle to keep up with their winter bills for food and utility. Local councils will give the grants to cover essential costs.

A ‘deep-seated dissatisfaction’ with online worship has been identified by year-long research by two universities. They state, by almost every measurement, the experience of pandemic online rituals are perceived as less meaningful, less communal, less spiritual, less effective, and so on.’ The report concludes, ‘Our research revealed both considerable innovation in, and deep-seated dissatisfaction with, digital worship during the pandemic. There have been positive developments and adaptations which will strengthen religious life in the long term, but for most people the move to online ritual has been a loss, not gain.’ It notes, however, that there is an appetite for religion online for those seeking out new communities, experiences, and modes of worship’. Also an online survey of 604 religious leaders and congregation members notes that human connection is more important to congregants than technical quality; worshippers preferred interactive Zoomover streaming video. Online-offline hybrid seems likely to be the way forward.’

In 2018 a group of senior clinicians at NHS Highland reported that a culture of bullying had existed for at least a decade. They described a ‘practice of suppressing criticism, which emanated from the very top of the organisation’ and led to a culture of ‘fear and intimidation’ which has had a detrimental effect on staff. John Sturrock QC found there were hundreds of people who had experienced bullying. A review was contacted by 340 people from most departments, services, and occupations. Over 280 had face-to-face meetings or made written submissions of bullying experiences. Staff said they had not felt valued, respected or supported in carrying out ‘very stressful work’. In 2021 NHS Highland expects to pay £3.4m in settlements to current and former staff who experienced bullying. Whistleblower Brian Devlin said the scale of settlements so far was ‘heartening’, but he had heard that some bullying still continues.

Oxford Diocese has launched a contemplative toolkit in response to the growing mental health crisis among young people. It is a time of daily reflection founded on ancient pathways and practices of meditation and prayer that have resourced, benefited, and healed Christians for generations. The increase in the use of digital technology and social media is placing young people in danger of becoming less connected with their families and communities and leads to increased mental health issues as self-worth is measured against online profile popularity. A quarter of a million children struggle with their mental health as a result of the pandemic. When the whole of education seems to be about targets, results and pressure, this toolkit gives students the chance just to be, rather than do. It complements the Prayer Spaces in Schools programme, enabling prayer and reflection into school life for the year. It also enables pupils to run the sessions themselves and share reflections with their peers.