It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Wednesday, July 26, 2023
Marine Scientists Release Over 350 Endangered Seahorses into Sydney Harbour
Mon, 24 July 2023
Marine scientists released over 350 endangered seahorses as part of a conservation effort at Chowder Bay, Sydney, on July 18.
The release is part of The Sydney Seahorse Project which aims to conserve the population of the endangered White’s seahorse, a medium-sized seahorse endemic to the Eastern coast of Australia.
The decline in population of the species in Eastern Australia can largely be attributed to the loss of natural habitat such as sponges and soft coral in the area, according to reports by the Department of Primary Industries.
The released seahorses have been tagged, which enables researchers to monitor their survival and reproductive activities in the wild, the Sydney Institute of Marine Science said.
The project is a collaboration between the Sydney Institute of Marine Science, the University of Technology Sydney, and the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries. Credit: Sydney Institute of Marine Science via Storyful
‘Responsible way to act’: Europe’s space agency attempts an assisted re-entry for retiring satellite
UK
Ulez is more than a political football – it’s a matter of life and death for people like me
To help clear up London's air, the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, every day of the year, except Christmas Day (25 ...
The Guardian Mon, 24 July 2023
I am a previously fit and healthy woman in her early 60s, a never-smoker who was diagnosed with lung cancer three weeks ago.
Lung cancer in never-smokers (LCNS) doubled in the UK between 2008 and 2014. It now accounts for 15% of lung cancers diagnosed and is responsible for around 6,000 deaths a year. Recent research at UCL and the Francis Crick Institute has found that exposure to fine particulate pollution, specifically PM 2.5, is linked to LCNS as well as the growth of other cancers.
The ill-advised tax breaks on particulate emitting diesel vehicles earlier this century could well account for the UK’s huge increase in LCNS, not to mention unknowable consequences for the future health of children exposed to toxic air.
I was appalled to hear Chris Philp MP, on Any Questions on BBC Radio 4 last week, dismiss the positive impact of London’s ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) when published data from Imperial College London shows that harmful emissions have reduced by 26% within the expanded Ulez area, and that the Ulez has reduced PM 2.5 levels by 41% since 2017.
I am now facing an uncertain future and considering treatment options. Meanwhile, measures to reduce pollution in London are being politicised, and serious risks to the health of the capital’s population pitted against election prospects (Starmer urges Khan to ‘reflect’ on Ulez rules after Uxbridge defeat, 22 July).
This “matter of substance” involved measures to reduce air pollution, which causes the premature deaths of thousands of Londoners every year and worsens the lives of up to 500,000 asthma sufferers in the capital. The Tory candidate admits he focused on the concerns of local residents on how the Ulez may affect their ability to use their cars without paying the cost of the pollution they generate. In fact, 90% of the cars being driven in outer London would not be subject to Ulez payments.
Dr Martin Price Poole, Dorset
• After the Conservative victory, tiny as it was, in Uxbridge, there is talk of political parties losing their nerve over green policies. Keir Starmer is saying that we must listen to voters. But the real problem is that no party, with the exception of the Greens, is being honest with the electorate about the consequences of climate change and biodiversity loss. Instead, they say the economy must come first. But this is a fundamental misunderstanding of the relationship between the economy and the environment.
Party leaders often speak as if the environment is somehow a subset of the economy. But of course the economy is really a subset of the environment – there can be no economy without a healthy environment. This is what politicians need to be honest about. It’s the environment, stupid.
Prof Hugh Dunkerley Brighton
• With debates raging over Ulez, and over retention and pay within the NHS, I wonder whether a simple way to aid both these causes might be to review the age requirement to receive a Freedom Pass, which allows free travel, while offering the lower-paid in the NHS free travel within inner and outer London.
Living close to hospitals is often not an option within London for lower-paid staff, and transport is a considerable cost. Some staff struggle to keep a car, which they have to pay to park and which now also has to be Ulez compliant. Could London’s mayor offer Freedom Passes to this group of workers, thus targeting help at the lower paid, contributing towards staff retention and helping to keep cars off the road?
Sally Giles London
• Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
OPINION - The Standard View: Sadiq Khan must hold fast over Ulez expansion
Evening Standard Comment Mon, 24 July 2023 (Christian Adams)
It is a simple political principle that good policy makes for good politics — the thinking being that voters reward leaders who improve their lives. But the connection, insofar as it exists, is not absolute. Something Labour learned the hard way in Uxbridge and South Ruislip.
The extension to the ultra low emission zone is vital to rid the capital of its toxic air and save lives. It is not just the tragic case of nine-year-old south Londoner Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, who became the first person in the UK to have air pollution listed as a cause of death. Research from Imperial College London found that in 2019, toxic air contributed to the premature deaths of around 4,000 Londoners.
Clearly, the imposition of what is effectively a new tax — even on a small minority of non-compliant car owners — would represent a presentational challenge at the best of times, let alone amid a cost-of-living crisis. The close result in one by-election is reason to double down on inducements, not least the more generous car scrappage scheme this newspaper has consistently called for. What it does not justify is a delay to or a dilution of the Ulez extension itself.
The Mayor should ignore pressure from his party leader and hold his nerve.
Sadiq Khan to press ahead with Ulez expansion amid Labour pressure
Aubrey Allegretti Chief political correspondent
THE GUARDIAN Sun, 23 July 2023
Sadiq Khan is open to new ideas for mitigating the impact of the anti-pollution levy in London being expanded next month, but refusing to back down on the planned timing of its implementation.
A call between Khan and the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, on Friday was, aides said, “constructive”. It was agreed there would be follow-up discussions between staff, suggesting there is a live conversation about how the expansion of the ultra-low emissions zone (Ulez) will work in practice.
Khan has sought to signal he is in listening mode and it is understood from those close to city hall that he is happy to look at any new ideas for ways to mitigate the impact on Londoners.
However, the London mayor will not compromise on any moves that could reduce the effectiveness of the policy, which is designed to tackle air pollution and climate change.
Khan last month widened the pool of people who can get financial support to replace polluting vehicles, ahead of Ulez being expanded from its current boundaries of the north and south circular to the whole of Greater London.
City hall sources did not rule out further such moves, given the Tories managed to successfully turn this week’s byelection in west London into a referendum on the Ulez extension.
However, they were keen to stress that nine out of 10 cars in outer London are unaffected and will not have to pay the extra £12.50 a day surcharge.
Starmer nodded to Ulez having been an issue at the byelection on Thursday. The result meant the Conservatives escaped a triple trouncing as Labour won in Selby and Ainsty and the Liberal Democrats took Somerton and Frome.
Starmer told delegates at Labour’s policy forum: “That result in Uxbridge demonstrates there is never any reason to be complacent and never a reason to rest on our laurels.”
Quoting the party’s candidate in Uxbridge, Danny Beales, he added: “It is a reminder, as Danny said, that in an election, policy matters.
“And we are doing something very wrong if policies put forward by the Labour party end up on each and every Tory leaflet. We’ve got to face up to that and learn the lessons.”
The future of the Ulez expansion faces greater uncertainty given it is subject to a judicial review, the outcome of which is expected to be known before the end of July.
Meanwhile, Michael Gove warned against treating environmental issues like a “religious crusade”. The communities secretary told the Sunday Telegraph that “evangelical” campaign groups pushing for an inflexible application of measures to reduce pollution would lead to a backlash.
Lee Rowley, a minister in Gove’s department, insisted in a later interview on Sunday that “we still have the objective of treading more lightly on the Earth”.
He told Times Radio: “I think everybody agrees with that; I think it is a very sensible thing to do. We have set a series of targets, very ambitious targets to get to 2050.
“But what I think Uxbridge shows is that we have to do this in a careful manner, a manner over the course of several decades – and we have to take people with us.
“And that is something that the Labour party failed to do in making their case in Uxbridge, and what the government wants to be very careful about doing is making sure that people come with us on this journey.”
UK
Tory chaos under Johnson and Truss ‘delayed plans to tackle Islamophobia within party’
Boris Johnson Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2019 to 2022
Liz Truss Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from September to October 2022
Chaos at the top of the Tory government delayed plans to tackle Islamophobia and other forms of discrimination in its ranks, an independent reviewer has said.
His original inquiry was established by the party following a series of allegations about Islamophobic behaviour among Conservatives.
It found Mr Johnson describing women wearing burkas as looking like “letterboxes” and “bank robbers” gave the impression the Tories were “insensitive to Muslim communities”.
The latest review found training at a local level is “mixed”, and the large amount of documentation in response to the investigation has not necessarily improved “awareness or action on the ground”.
“Politics is a rough business, but there is no reason why the complaints process should be indifferent or abrasive to the experience of individuals involved,” the report said.
The churn at the top of the Tories was said to have had an “unavoidable impact on the day-to-day running” of the party.
Professor Singh said: “It just took forever for them to focus on this.”
Since he completed the original report in May 2021, Boris Johnson was forced out as prime minister, as was his immediate successor Liz Truss, ushering in Rishi Sunak as prime minister.
‘The two years since the publication of the report have seen considerable political upheaval in the UK,’ Professor Singh said (Getty)
In the report, Professor Singh wrote: “The two years since the publication of the report have seen considerable political upheaval in the UK.
“In that time, the Conservative Party has had three leaders and seven chairs.
“This turmoil has impacted on the party’s efforts to implement our recommendations.
“Change took longer than expected, and challenges resulting from the interdependencies between recommendations contributed to delays in implementation.”
Professor Singh said it has “taken much longer than we expected” to implement reforms.
He cited the “biggest problem” as being tackling issues at the local party level but welcomed fresh action from Tory HQ as he undertook his review.
In one case detailed in the review, a complainant was further distressed by no sanction being completed nearly a year after the judgement - and the offending continued “undeterred”.
“No apology has been offered to the complainant, or demanded of the respondents, despite the panel imposing other sanctions,” the review said.
But the team welcomed the “wholehearted acceptance” by the party that it must implement the recommendations.
Professor Singh’s update showed there had been 212 complaints relating to 137 incidents in the three months up to June 2022.
Five complaints were categorised as bullying or intimidation, three cited sexual assault, two referred to criminal activity and one was about a member writing on an “alt-right” website.
Professor Singh issued a range of fresh recommendations, including reviewing whether complaints against the most senior members should be handled independently.
Tory Party chairman Greg Hands said there is ‘work to be done’ on tackling Islamophobia (PA Wire)
Conservative chairman Greg Hands MP said: “The party has made significant progress on Professor Singh’s recommendations with 25 complete and just six ongoing.
“There is however still work to be done and this is a process of continual improvement.”
Tory chaos delayed reforms tackling Islamophobia in party, reviewer finds
Sam Blewett, PA Deputy Political Editor Mon, 24 July 2023
The chaos at the top of the Conservatives caused delays in fulfilling plans to tackle Islamophobia and other forms of discrimination in the party, an independent reviewer has said.
Professor Swaran Singh said the “turmoil” has affected the Tories’ ability to undertake the reforms he called for in his original inquiry into the issue.
The former equality and human rights commissioner’s review, published on Monday, found the implementation of some of his recommendations has been “slow”.
Training at the local level is “mixed”, and the large amount of documentation in response to the investigation has not necessarily improved “awareness or action on the ground”.
No formal process has been put in place to handle complaints of discriminatory behaviour involving the party’s most senior members, the review found.
Individuals coming forward with allegations were also said to need better care.
“Politics is a rough business, but there is no reason why the complaints process should be indifferent or abrasive to the experience of individuals involved,” the report said.
The churn at the top of the Tories was said to have had an “unavoidable impact on the day-to-day running” of the party.
Prof Singh told the PA news agency: “It just took forever for them to focus on this.”
Since he completed his report in May 2021, Boris Johnson was forced out as prime minister, as was his immediate successor Liz Truss in a period of tumult. Liz Truss was in the top job for less than two months (PA)
In the report, Prof Singh wrote: “The two years since the publication of the report have seen considerable political upheaval in the UK.
“In that time, the Conservative Party has had three leaders and seven chairs.
“This turmoil has impacted on the party’s efforts to implement our recommendations.
“Change took longer than expected, and challenges resulting from the interdependencies between recommendations contributed to delays in implementation.”
Prof Singh told PA that it has “taken much longer than we expected” to implement reforms.
He cited the “biggest problem” as being tackling issues at the local party level but welcomed fresh action from Tory headquarters as he undertook his review.
In one case detailed in the review, a complainant was further distressed by no sanction being completed after nearly a year from the judgment – and the offending continued “undeterred”.
“No apology has been offered to the complainant, or demanded of the respondents, despite the panel imposing other sanctions,” the review said.
But the team welcomed the “wholehearted acceptance” by the party that it must implement the recommendations.
Prof Singh’s update showed there had been 212 complaints relating to 137 incidents in the three months up to June 2022.
Five complaints were categorised as bullying or intimidation, three cited sexual assault, two referred to criminal activity and one was about a member writing on an “alt-right” website.
Prof Singh issued a range of fresh recommendations, including reviewing whether complaints against the most senior members should be handled independently.
Conservative chairman Greg Hands MP said: “The party has made significant progress on Professor Singh’s recommendations with 25 complete and just six ongoing.
“There is however still work to be done and this is a process of continual improvement.”
The original inquiry was established by the party following a series of allegations about Islamophobic behaviour among Conservatives.
It found Mr Johnson describing women wearing burkas as looking like “letterboxes” and “bank robbers” gave the impression the Tories were “insensitive to Muslim communities”.
UK
Braverman acted unlawfully by withholding £3 a week from asylum seekers, court rules
The Royal Courts of Justice heard on Friday that Ms Braveman acted unlawfully in withholding £3-a-week payments for healthy food for pregnant women and children between the ages of one and three while in the care of the British state.
The legal challenge was brought by five asylum-seekers, three of whom complained delays in providing financial support risked breaching their human right to be free from degrading and inhuman treatment.
The other two individuals challenged Home Office failures to make the payments while they were living in hotel accommodation.
The ruling by Lord Justice Swift means the Home Office “must now start making these payments to the thousands of pregnant women and people with children under three years old in hotels without delay”, legal firm Deighton Pierce Glynn, which represented some of the claimants, said.
Asylum-seekers are barred from paid work during their first year in the UK, and cannot receive benefits, instead receiving accommodation and a general rate of £47.39 a week in support.
The Home Office, therefore, has a legal duty to provide them and any dependants with appropriate support, including £3 each week for pregnant women.
On Friday, Lord Justice Swift ruled that delays in the system meant that the home secretary’s decision to provide this support only in the form of full-board hotel accommodation, rather than in cash, was unlawful. Suella Braverman was found to have breached her duty of care to asylum-seekers (AP)
The court also found that the Home Office’s failure to provide emergency interim financial support to those waiting for a decision on their application for such support was unlawful.
John Crowley, an associate solicitor at legal firm Leigh Day, said: “It cannot be right that people legitimately seeking asylum are made to suffer such degrading treatment. It is time for the Home Office to abide by its legal duties and rectify this wide-reaching problem.”
The first asylum-seeker represented by the firm, known as K, is a single mother from India with a five-year-old child, who left her husband as a result of domestic violence. She and her daughter lived with her friend but had no money to meet their basic needs, so applied for “subsistence only” support in January 2022.
While the Court has now given guidance that decisions should ordinarily be made within 10 days, the Home Office did not grant her application until August 2022, and only after the issue of a judicial review claim challenging the delays.
She tried to get emergency financial support so that she could buy food but was told she would have to move into a hotel, which she feared would unsettle her daughter, and was an unnecessary expense.
A view of the Bibby Stockholm accommodation barge, which will house up to 500 asylum seekers in Dorset (Andrew Matthews/Pool Photo via AP)
The second asylum seeker, known as NY, is a single father of two children, aged 14 and nine, who suffers from serious medical conditions. After a delay of 11 weeks, the Home Office accepted he was destitute and granted him accommodation and financial support in May 2021.
However, it then failed to provide accommodation for seven months and financial support for a year. The third claim was by an 82-year-old disabled female asylum-seeker from Pakistan known as AM, who applied for accommodation and financial support in November 2021. Despite calling numerous times, and pointing out that she was about to be made homeless, she was told that her documents had not been received.
She was forced to re-apply multiple times and eventually launched legal action last October. After denying that it had ever received her documents, it transpired on the day before the final hearing in February 2023, that the Home Office had received AM’s documents in June 2022, Leigh Day said.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We are considering the court’s findings and will respond in due course.”
Suella Braverman broke law by denying asylum seekers £3 a week, judge rules
Diane Taylor Mon, 24 July 2023
The home secretary acted unlawfully in failing to provide basic support to asylum seekers, including young children and pregnant women, a judge has ruled.
Suella Braverman must introduce changes that will benefit thousands of asylum seekers after five successfully challenged the home secretary in the high court.
Three of the claimants brought proceedings over delays in providing financial support while two challenged over failures to provide cash payments to pregnant women and to children under three years old.
In his ruling, Mr Justice Swift found that the home secretary broke the law in withholding payments of £3 a week to provide healthy food for children aged one to three and to pregnant women.
She must start making these payments to the thousands of pregnant women and people with children under three in hotels.
The judge also found that the system the home secretary has been operating for dealing with asylum support payments was unlawful due to long delays in processing requests for these payments.
Asylum seekers are not allowed to work for the first year that their claim is being considered and after that only those on the government’s shortage occupation list are allowed to work. Many asylum seekers are entirely dependent on the Home Office for their survival in the form of payments of £45 a week if they are in shared housing or £9.10 a week if they are living in a hotel.
The court heard evidence that the hotel food was pasta, rice, chips, mashed potato and dry sandwiches so it was not possible for the two people who brought the challenge over the lack of healthy food payments for pregnant women and small children to eat suitable food when relying solely on what the hotel provided.
Among the cases in which the asylum seekers struggled to provide basics for their children owing to delays in support payments, the judge said one faced an existence “which was in many ways wretched, particularly for a young child who went without on many occasions” and in another suffered “very saddening circumstances” where the parent was “reduced to asking in shops for leftover food” and the children became “lethargic” and “visibly thinner”.
In a third case involving an 82-year-old disabled woman who was unable to access accommodation and support in a timely way, the home secretary has been ordered to pay her compensation after accepting she had unlawfully failed in her legal duty to provide the woman with accommodation and support.
Lawyers who represented the five asylum seekers welcomed the ruling. The associate solicitor at Leigh Day, John Crowley, who represented the three who challenged delays in support, said: “The court has found in no uncertain terms that the Home Office’s current system for supporting asylum seekers is unlawful.
“It is unacceptable that my clients, and so many others like them, had to go months and months without any form of support, forcing them into desperate and horrifying situations. It cannot be right that people legitimately seeking asylum are made to suffer such degrading treatment.”
Solicitors Sasha Rozansky and Ugo Hayter, from Deighton Pierce Glynn, representing the asylum seekers challenging the lack of financial support for pregnant asylum seekers and those with small children, said: “This is a victory for basic dignity and fundamental rights for people in hotels, which means that pregnant women and small children will get the additional payments which were unlawfully withheld from them.”
The Home Office has been approached for comment.
UK
Railways set for fresh disruption as Aslef union announces new overtime ban for train drivers
Matt Watts and Josh Salisbury Mon, 24 July 2023
Londoners are facing further rail disruption after union Aslef announced another overtime ban from August 7 to 12 in their long-running dispute over pay.
The action, if it goes ahead, will mean disruption to rail schedules at the height of the summer holidays.
Under the industrial action, members of Aslef at 15 train companies in England will refuse to work overtime.
The union said the ban will seriously disrupt services as it believes none of the train companies employs enough drivers.
The move will affect Avanti West Coast; Chiltern Railways; Cross Country; East Midlands Railway; Greater Anglia; Great Western Railway; GTR Great Northern Thameslink; Island Line; LNER; Northern Trains; Southeastern; Southern/Gatwick Express; South Western Railway main line; TransPennine Express and West Midlands Trains.
It will be the fifth week-long ban on working overtime since May. The latest ban ended on Saturday, with another one due from July 31 to August 5.
Mick Whelan, Aslef’s general secretary, said: “We don’t want to take this action - because we don’t want people to be inconvenienced - but the train companies, and the government which stands behind them, have forced us into this place because they refuse to sit down and talk to us and have not made a fair and sensible pay offer to train drivers who have not had one for four years - since 2019 - while prices have soared in that time by more than 12%.”
Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union staged two strikes last week and will walk out again on Saturday in a bitter row over pay, jobs and conditions.
Those strikes, which would have stopped the Tube for four days this week, were called off after “significant progress” was made in talks between unions and TfL.
The Rail Delivery Group, which is representing train operating companies in the talks, said Aslef was continuing “to disrupt customers’ travel plans.”
“They rejected a fair and affordable offer without putting it to their members, which would take average driver base salaries for a 4 day week without overtime from £60,000 to nearly £65,000 by the end of 2023 pay awards,” said a spokesman.
“Train companies will work hard to minimise the impact of the overtime ban overtime ban at 13 train operating companies between 7 and 12 August that will affect the level of cancellations and the punctuality of some services.”
Train companies are advising passengers to plan their journey in advance and check the latest travel information before they travel.
Train drivers’ union announces fresh overtime ban in pay dispute
Alan Jones, PA Industrial Correspondent Mon, 24 July 2023 at 3:45 am GMT-6·2-min read
Train drivers are to stage another week-long overtime ban in a long-running dispute over pay, threatening fresh disruption to services at the height of the summer holidays.
Members of Aslef at 15 train companies in England will refuse to work overtime from Monday August 7 to Saturday August 12.
The union said the ban will seriously disrupt services, claiming that none of the train companies employs enough drivers.
The move will affect Avanti West Coast; Chiltern Railways; Cross Country; East Midlands Railway; Greater Anglia; Great Western Railway; GTR Great Northern Thameslink; Island Line; LNER; Northern Trains; Southeastern; Southern/Gatwick Express; South Western Railway main line; TransPennine Express and West Midlands Trains. Aslef general secretary Mick Whelan (Kirsty O’Connor/PA)
It will be the fifth week-long ban on working overtime since May.
The latest ban ended on Saturday, with another one due from July 31 to August 5.
Mick Whelan, Aslef’s general secretary, said: “We don’t want to take this action – because we don’t want people to be inconvenienced – but the train companies, and the government which stands behind them, have forced us into this place because they refuse to sit down and talk to us and have not made a fair and sensible pay offer to train drivers who have not had one for four years – since 2019 – while prices have soared in that time by more than 12%.”
Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union staged two strikes last week and will walk out again on Saturday in a bitter row over pay, jobs and conditions.
A spokesperson for the Rail Delivery Group, said: “Aslef’s leadership continues to disrupt customers’ travel plans. They rejected a fair and affordable offer without putting it to their members, which would take average driver base salaries for a four day week without overtime from £60,000 to nearly £65,000 by the end of 2023 pay awards.
“Train companies will work hard to minimise the impact of the overtime ban that will affect the level of cancellations and the punctuality of some services. Customers are advised to plan their journey in advance and check the latest travel information before they travel.
“We ask Aslef to recognise the very real financial challenge the industry is facing and work with us to deliver a better, more reliable railway with a strong long-term future.”
Radiographers at 37 NHS trusts in England going on strike over pay Jane Kirby, PA Health Editor Mon, 24 July 2023
Radiographers at 37 NHS trusts in England are going on strike as the pay row with the Government continues.
Members of the Society of Radiographers (SoR) have voted to reject the Government’s 5% pay award and called for talks to reopen after other public sector workers, including junior doctors, were offered more.
The union said worrying numbers of staff are leaving the profession and not enough is being done to recruit more workers.
The 48-hour strike will run from 8am on Tuesday and will involve the 35 NHS trusts where members have a mandate to strike.
These include the Royal Marsden cancer hospital in London, University College London Hospitals, Liverpool University Hospitals, Nottingham University Hospitals, University Hospitals Bristol and Weston and Sheffield Teaching Hospitals.
The SoR said nine out of 10 NHS patients are supported by radiographers, who carry out X-rays, MRI and CT scans, ultrasounds and breast screening, as well as radiotherapy for cancer patients.
A million people are waiting for radiography.
Union representatives from each trust have agreed staff will provide “life and limb” emergency cover for patients, which usually means the same staffing levels as Christmas Day and Boxing Day.
Dean Rogers, executive director of industrial strategy and member relations for the SoR, said: “Voting for strike action was a difficult decision for our members, who care above all about the safety and wellbeing of their patients.
“We need to draw attention to the fact that many radiography professionals are feeling burnt out by low pay and increased hours. They’re leaving the NHS, and they are not being replaced in adequate numbers.
“If the Government wants to reduce NHS waiting lists and ensure that patients receive the treatment they need, when they need it, then it must urgently prioritise the recruitment and retention of radiography professionals – and that means talking to us about pay and conditions.
“But they are refusing to talk to us, even though our door is open.
“Our members deserve better. Our patients deserve better.”
Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay said: “I want to see an end to disruptive strikes so the NHS can focus relentlessly on cutting waiting lists and delivering for patients.
“The majority of unions on the NHS Staff Council voted to accept the Government’s fair and reasonable offer of a 5% pay rise for 2023-24, alongside two significant one-off payments totalling at least £1,655, putting more money in their pockets now.
“Over a million NHS staff, including radiographers, are already benefitting from that pay rise.
“The NHS also recently published the first ever NHS Long Term Workforce Plan to recruit and retain hundreds of thousands more staff.
“This pay award is final and so I urge the Society of Radiographers to call off strikes.”
Meanwhile, NHS England announced on Monday that industrial action by consultants over a 48-hour period last week resulted in 65,557 appointments and procedures having to be rescheduled.
It said the latest figures mean the total number of appointments and procedures rescheduled over the past eight months as a result of industrial action across the NHS is 765,000.
Dr Vin Diwakar, the NHS medical director for secondary care, said: “These figures show the impact industrial action is having on patients and families, and the scale of disruption is likely to be even greater, with many services avoiding scheduling appointments for strike days.
“We have now seen 765,000 appointments needing to be rescheduled in the last eight months due to strikes, and we are continuing to see a significant cumulative impact on NHS services as well as our hard-working staff as they do all they can to maintain safe patient services while tackling a record backlog.”
UK
Lewisham doctors 'moving to Australia, Canada, and New Zealand due to poor pay'
Robert Firth
LewishamNews Shopper Mon, 24 July 2023 Striking consultants outside Lewisham Hospital on July 21
(Image: Imran Sharieff)
Hospital consultants striking over pay fear the NHS faces a ticking time bomb as demoralised junior doctors flee to Australia, Canada and New Zealand seeking higher pay and a better work-life balance.
NHS consultants on the picket line outside Lewisham Hospital on Friday (July 21) over the government’s six per cent pay offer said hospital doctors at all levels felt underpaid and overworked.
Consultants’ real earnings have plummeted by 15 per cent since 2010 based on the Consumer Prices Index (CPI), which is used to measure the cost of living. Consultants across England started their first walkout for a decade on Thursday (July 20).
The 48-hour strike organised by doctors’ union the British Medical Association (BMA) will end at 7am on Saturday. Patients have been warned to expect cancellations and delays as consultants are the most senior doctors and as such procedures needing their supervision can’t be covered for by others.
Striking consultants outside Lewisham Hospital on July 21, including Sajeev Ranmuthu (far left) and Rumina Mirza (second right)
Striking consultants outside Lewisham Hospital on July 21, including Sajeev Ranmuthu (far left) and Rumina Mirza (second right) (Image: Robert Firth)
Sajeev Ranmuthu, 38, who has been a consultant at Lewisham Hospital for just over a year, said he had walked out for the future of the NHS. He said: “I’ve come to fight for the NHS to make sure the health of the general population is looked after for the future and so there’s enough doctors for future generations. In general we are all overworked and understaffed.
“Doctors are 100 per cent choosing to move abroad. It’s more junior doctors. They come here, do their bit and realise it’s not a place where your work-life balance is looked after. They will go to Australia and New Zealand and Canada because that’s where they are valued and that depletes the workforce.”
Dr Ranmuthu added that he comes into work an hour before his shift is due to start everyday in order to complete all his tasks and was seeing a third more patients each day than when he worked at another hospital previously.
Rumina Mirza, 38, who has worked as a consultant for two years, said debt and stress meant many junior doctors she knew were opting to move abroad. She said: “Covid has left a lot of people feeling quite demoralised. With my junior doctors, there’s a huge amount who go to Australia and New Zealand. A lot of the junior doctors are in thousands of pounds of debt and it’s hard on their mental health.
“Family and friends have said to me ‘Why don’t you move abroad?’ I think I’m NHS at heart and I feel strongly about equal healthcare. It’s about having some level of recognition and some financial compensation. I love my job and I love the patients in Lewisham. I think it’s more trying to see if the government will listen.”
News Shopper: Striking consultants on the picket line outside Lewisham Hospital on July 21. CREDIT: Supplied by Imran Sharieff
Imran Sharieff, 43, an anaesthetist and BMA rep at Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust, said the health service would struggle to recruit good consultants in the future unless the government upped its pay offer.
He said: “We don’t want to be striking. We know patients need their elective care [planned procedures like surgery]. Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust is not doing well with its backlog of electric care and the thing we want to do is go back in and provide care, but we don’t think we can do it with the offer that the government has given us.
“We aren’t going to get the quality of candidates [with the pay offer]. It’s very easy for the best and brightest and most talented to go into jobs that value them better than this. I’ve seen lots of people being dissuaded from coming into medicine and I have seen younger doctors who have been training leave.
“They will do their registration years and then go to Australia and New Zealand. It’s because they pay their consultant doctors much more than here. The lifestyle is better than here, there and it’s the terms and conditions also.”
The UK health secretary Steve Barclay has refused to budge on the six per cent pay offer and said strikes won’t make any difference. Mr Barclay said: “I hugely value the work of NHS consultants which is why we have accepted the independent pay review body recommendations in full, giving them a 6 per cent pay rise this year, on top of last year’s 4.5 per cent increase. This government has also reformed pension tax rules for consultants, something the BMA campaigned for over many years.
“I am disappointed the BMA is going ahead with this week’s strike, given the average consultant’s NHS earnings are expected to increase to £134,000 a year. My door is always open to discuss non-pay issues, but this pay award is final so I urge the BMA to end their strikes immediately.”
Underwater mass spectrometer developed for deep sea exploration
HEFEI INSTITUTES OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE, CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
IMAGE: THE DEEP-SEA MASS SPECTROMETER IN EXPERIMENTview more
CREDIT: WANG HAN
A research team led by Prof. CHEN Chilai from Institute of Intelligent machines, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science (HFIPS) of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), developed the deep-sea mass spectrometer. Recently, it successfully completed multiple sea trials in a specific area of deep sea.
The research results were published in Chinese Journal of Analytical Chemistry.
The extreme environments of the deep sea have shaped unique biological processes and harbor significant mineral resources, making their detection a frontier issue in international Earth science research. In-situ detection technology in the deep sea allows for the continuous acquisition of information regarding the components, concentrations, and variations of deep-sea samples in both temporal and spatial dimensions. Therefore, it is increasingly being applied in research on extreme deep-sea environments.
During the research, the deep-sea mass spectrometer operated continuously and reliably for over 8 hours under simulated water depths of -5800 meters. It achieved long-term (25.8 hours) in-situ detection of dissolved gases in the cold seep region of the deep sea and online detection of dissolved gases from the sea surface to the seabed (-1388m to 0m). This allowed the researchers to obtain key scientific data such as the temporal variation curve of small molecular dissolved gas concentration and the vertical concentration distribution profile in the deep-sea seabed.
This technology is not only applicable to deep-sea exploration but also to the acquisition of dissolved gas information in inland rivers, lakes, and near-shore waters. Relevant research in this area is also underway.
"We have been committed to the research of key technologies and applications of mass spectrometry," said Prof. CHEN. "the development of this deep-sea mass spectrometer paves the way for investigation into the origin and early evolution of life, and research on global climate change."
Underwater Mass Spectrometer Developed for Deep Sea Exploration
A image of the developed in situ underwater mass spectrometry.
CREDIT
WANG Han
JOURNAL
Chinese Journal of Analytical Chemistry
ARTICLE TITLE
Development and application of an underwater mass spectrometer for in situ detection of deep-sea dissolved gases
Monkeypox: Characterization of post-infectious immune response
In 2022-2023, an outbreak of monkeypox, now known as mpox (caused by the monkeypox virus or MPXV) led to 87,000 human cases in 170 countries[1]. Most cases were reported outside the usual areas in which the virus circulates. Since the outbreak began, surveillance of the virus has been stepped up in Europe, with nearly 5,000 cases being reported in France[2]. Scientists and clinicians from the Institut Pasteur, the CNRS, Inserm, the VRI and the Paris Public Hospital Network (AP-HP) studied 470 sera from vaccinated or MPXV-infected individuals to elucidate the mechanisms involved and determine correlates of protection against infection or disease severity[3]. They determined the sensitivity of the virus to neutralizing antibodies and analyzed the immune response of these vaccinated or MPXV-infected individuals. The study revealed the role of complement4, a component of the innate immune system, in this response. The findings were published in the journal Cell Host & Microbe on May 4, 2023.
In this study, published in Cell Host & Microbe, the leading journal on interactions between microbes and the immune system, the scientists studied the sensitivity of MPXV to neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) generated after infection with the virus and/or vaccination with IMVANEX. The IMVANEX vaccine has been used as pre- and post-exposure prophylaxis in high-risk populations, but its effectiveness is not yet well characterized. To analyze the sensitivity of the virus, the team of scientists developed two cellular tests to quantify neutralizing antibodies, using either the attenuated virus as a vaccine (MVA) or an MPXV strain isolated in a recently infected individual.
The study demonstrated the role of complement,[4] already known for other poxviruses, and the neutralizing activity of the antibodies generated by infection or vaccination. Robust levels of anti-MVA antibodies were detected after infection, vaccination with the historic smallpox vaccine, or administration of IMVANEX or another MVA-based vaccine candidate. MPXV was minimally sensitive to neutralization in the absence of complement. The addition of complement from sera enhanced detection of individuals with antibodies and increased their level of anti-MPXV antibodies. Four weeks after infection, anti-MVA and -MPXV NAbs were observed in 94% and 82% of individuals, respectively. Two doses of IMVANEX generated anti-MVA and -MPXV NAbs that were detectable in 92% and 56% of vaccinees, respectively.
The highest level of antibodies was found in individuals born before 1980 (who had therefore been vaccinated for smallpox), whether after infection or after administration of IMVANEX, highlighting the impact of historic smallpox vaccination on immune responses to infection or administration of IMVANEX. This suggests that a sort of hybrid immunity was generated in infected individuals who were vaccinated in childhood.
The number of MPXV infections has been constantly on the rise since mass vaccination for smallpox was discontinued in the 1980s. "The neutralization assays developed in connection with this research may help define correlates of protection against infection or disease severity.The assays can also be used to conduct epidemiological surveys, assess the duration of protection conferred by previous infection or by authorized and candidate vaccines, and analyze the use of immunotherapeutic intervention.The assays represent useful tools to understand the mechanisms of multiplication of MPXV and its effects on public health, and to optimize patient treatment," commented Olivier Schwartz, Head of the Institut Pasteur's Virus and Immunity Unit and last author of the study.
Development of two poxvirus seroneutralization assays using MVA or MPXV. Complement enhances neutralizing activity of antibodies (NAbs). Historic smallpox vaccination increases the level of antibodies induced by infection or MVA vaccination.
[3] This study was supported by ANRS | Emerging Infectious Diseases, which provided samples for research.
[4] Complement is a system of proteins in serum that contributes to the body's defense. It is involved in mechanisms to eliminate pathogens. Institut Pasteur scientist Jules Bordet was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1919 for his research on the role of the complement system and antibodies.
