United Kingdom

Men in positions of power must take the lead in tackling toxic masculinity, which is a root cause of gender-based abuse, Scotland’s first minister has said.

Writing for the Guardian, Humza Yousaf said: “It is simply not good enough to say ‘it is not all men’ and wash our hands of the problem we have collectively created; every single man can, and should, play his role in making change.”

Yousaf said his growing awareness had caused him to reflect on his own behaviour. “Without doubt, in my younger years I will have told a misogynistic joke at the expense of women, or not challenged behaviour that was demeaning to women.”

He said becoming a father to two daughters, as well as witnessing global regression in women’s rights, for example on abortion in the US and education in Afghanistan, had made him determined to use his position to “root out and tackle the toxic masculinity and male self-entitlement that leads to violence, harassment, misogyny and abuse against women”.

Yousaf, who has faced a series of challenges since he replaced Nicola Sturgeon as SNP leader in March, including the ongoing investigation into party finances in which Sturgeon was arrested, a toxic confrontation with Westminster over gender recognition reform, a byelection in Rutherglen against a resurgent Scottish Labour and a festering row among MSPs about their governing alliance with the Scottish Greens, said he wanted Scotland to show “global leadership”.

He has pledged to continue the work of the Barack Obama-inspired National Council for Women and Girls set up by his predecessor and appointed a gender-balanced cabinet as Sturgeon did.

“There is a great opportunity for all men in positions of influence to demonstrate real leadership on this hugely important issue,” he said. “Whether in politics, in the office, on the work site, in school, the pub or our own living rooms, we can all do more as men to challenge problematic behaviour among our friends, colleagues and family members.”

He said “finger wagging is not the answer”, insisting it was crucial to understand why thousands of young men and boys in Scotland were attracted to celebrity misogynists such as Andrew Tate.

“As men, we must listen, we must learn but we also must demonstrate what a positive male identity looks like to our young boys and to other men,” Yousaf said.

Archived version: https://archive.ph/KyKk8

A neighbour of a fire-damaged pub left derelict for years fears a similar fate could befall the "UK's wonkiest pub".

Ros Howarth said the destruction of The Crooked House in the Black Country was "a very similar story" to that of The Jester in Cockfosters, north London.

She said campaigners fighting to get The Jester rebuilt "felt abandoned" since the devastating fire in 2018.

Barnet Council said it had "very little say" over what was built there, so long as it was a "community facility".

In February 2020, the-then owners of The Jester, on Mount Pleasant, were ordered to rebuild a pub or "equivalent community floorspace" on the site after an appeal hearing at Harrow Crown Court.

But they sold it for £1m eight months later, leaving a charred ruin.

Ms Howarth, 66, is involved in Justice for the Jester, a campaign for a new community pub on the site.

"We have fought so hard to try to get the pub restored. We are a strong community but we just feel so abandoned," she said.

"It feels neglected. People throw rubbish in there. It's spoiling the look of the whole area."

Within days of the fire, demolition work began, she recalled.

This work was halted by the council before the appeal hearing.

A number of planning applications have since been refused, and the council is due to consider plans for a nursery to replace the pub.

Meanwhile, thousands of people have joined a Facebook group calling for The Crooked House to be rebuilt.

But Ms Howarth warned: "The council is going to come under the spotlight if they approve any planning application for redevelopment and change of use.

"If they insist on the pub being rebuilt, the owners will appeal and the case will go to court. It will then be the start of a long legal process, as was the case with The Jester."

She said many Cockfosters residents believed a community pub with a garden was the best solution for the area.

"We're very cut off in this location. There's no community facility at all," she said.

Labour borough councillor for East Barnet, Simon Radford, who is also involved in the campaign, called the burnt-out Jester site an "eyesore".

Nik Antona, national chairman of the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra), called on those who have "demolished pubs against planning rules" to "restore the original building brick by brick".

"If local authorities won't provide adequate planning enforcement, then central government needs to step in to make sure that unscrupulous developers know that they will face action if they do the same," he added.

Figures released by Camra last week showed that up to a third of pub closures and demolitions may be happening without the required permission.

In Greater London, 64 pubs have been converted or demolished since 2021.

The owners of a Black Country pub which was gutted by fire and then demolished two days later experienced another huge fire on land they owned.

The Crooked House, near Dudley, had recently been sold to its new owners.

The cause of a previous blaze at Finmere landfill, Buckinghamshire, in August 2018 was never established.

Adam Taylor is director of AT Contracting and Plant Hire Ltd, which, according to Land Registry documents, owns the Finmere site.

His wife, Carly, controls the company ATE Farms Limited, which bought the "wonky" Black Country landmark in July.

Mrs Taylor also currently controls AT Contracting and Plant Hire Ltd, which the BBC understands rented a digger a week before flames engulfed The Crooked House on 5 August.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/1477155

Archived version: https://archive.ph/PVnE2
Archived version: https://web.archive.org/web/20230815094117/https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-66504350

Patients with suspected cancer may have to wait longer to get a diagnosis under government proposals due this week.

The target that all patients should see a specialist within two weeks of an urgent referral for cancer tests by a GP is expected to be scrapped under NHS England plans to streamline cancer targets.

Ministers have been consulting on the proposals to replace the nine existing cancer targets with just three.

Under a new “faster diagnosis standard”, three-quarters of patients should have a diagnosis or be told they do not have cancer within 28 days. Once diagnosed, patients should receive their first treatment within 62 days from referral or 31 days after the decision to treat.

That standard would replace the nine existing cancer targets, including the two-week wait between a GP referral and first consultant appointment; a one-month wait for care once a decision has been made to offer treatment for cancer such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery; and a two-month wait from the urgent GP referral to a first treatment of cancer.

The latest figures show that only 59% of patients in England started their first cancer treatment within two months of an urgent GP referral, well short of the 85% target. Only 62% of patients were seen within two months of a positive result from a national cancer screening test, compared with the 90% target.

When a consultation on the proposals began last year, the NHS highlighted that the current two-week target set no expectation of when patients should receive test results or have a confirmed diagnosis.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Pat Price, a visiting oncology professor at Imperial College London and co-founder of the Catch Up with Cancer campaign, accused ministers and NHS leaders of “fiddling around” in the middle of an NHS crisis and of watering down the targets.

“Changing the targets won’t help patients, unless we can treat patients better and quicker. And that means now increasing treatment capacity,” she said.

On breast cancer, the target is that 93% of women should be seen in a one-stop clinic in two weeks, but the figure is now 74%. Price said: “The target we think is only going to be 75% in 28 days – that’s actually worse. Is it really the best that government and senior NHS leaders can do is fiddle around with targets in the middle of this crisis?”

The BBC reported that the outcome of the consultation was expected to be announced within days, and implementing the changes would be subject to final approval by the health secretary, Steve Barclay.

Barclay said on the Today programme that the proposals were designed to improve outcomes and were what the sector wanted.

He said: “Any changes will be those where it’s been requested by clinical specialists within the cancer field and would be done in consultation with the leading cancer charities. The consultation has been about working with consultants, clinical leaders, as to what drives the best outcomes, what is the way of getting the best survival rates.”

Barclay said there had been a 28% increase in urgent GP referrals for suspected cancer and £2.3bn investment in 160 community diagnostic centres, with 114 of those open.

Prof Sir Stephen Powis, the NHS national medical director, said: “These proposals were put forward by leading cancer experts and have the support of cancer charities and clinicians. By making sure more patients are diagnosed and treated as early as possible following a referral and replacing the outdated two-week wait target with the faster diagnosis standard already being used across the country, hundreds of patients waiting to have cancer ruled out or diagnosed could receive this news faster.

“The proposals will also remove the need for unnecessary outpatient appointments in order to comply with waiting times rules, allowing more patients to be referred ‘straight to test’ and the wider deployment of diagnostic technologies including artificial intelligence.”

Dr Tom Roques, a vice-president of the Royal College of Radiologists, said simplifying the targets would make it easier for cancer teams to deliver care, but warned targets were no panacea.

“It’s important to remember that the targets are just a tool to try and improve care – the targets achieve nothing on their own. And the real need is investment in workforce, in newer ways of working, so we can improve the situation on the ground, which I think if you ask any cancer team is just not good enough at the moment for the patients,” he said.

“I think one of the problems that we have with targets as a whole is that they often focus on the process rather than the outcomes that are important to patients. So if you look at the old two-week target to see a doctor, you may not need to see a doctor to be diagnosed or not diagnosed with cancer, you may need teledermatology to assess your skin lesion and tell you whether it’s cancer or not. You may need to have an endoscopy test to quickly look and see whether you’ve got bowel cancer, and an artificial focus on ‘you must see a doctor by 14 days’ may not be the best way to get patients quickly through the system.”

Keir Starmer accused the government of “moving the goalpost” on cancer targets. “I want swifter diagnosis, of course I do – both for the individuals concerned and obviously for the health service,” the Labour leader said on a visit to Scotland.

“Under the last Labour government, we had targets, we hit those targets; we didn’t walk away when the going got tough,” he said. “With this government, it’s targets that they’ve repeatedly failed to hit. And now what they’re doing is moving the goalposts and even where they’re keeping targets [in place] after this streamlining, there’s targets they’re still not hitting.”

Archived version: https://archive.ph/ITIRq

The cost of some basic food items such as cheese, butter and bread has soared by more than 30% in the last two years, forcing poorer households to “make desperate choices between keeping up with their bill payments or putting food on the table,” campaigners have said.

Food price inflation has slowed in recent months, but costs remain much higher than they were two years ago, disproportionally affecting low-income households, according to research by consumer body Which? shared exclusively with the Guardian.

The annual pace of grocery price growth cooled to 14.9% over the four weeks to 9 July, down from 16.5% a month earlier, according to the latest analysis by retail industry data provider Kantar.

Despite the slowdown, Which? figures showed that food prices have risen significantly over the past two years, and some products have gone up more than 30% since 2021.

The food products with the highest rates of inflation are milk (36.4%), cheese (35.2%), butters and spreads (32.2%), cakes and cookies (31.2%), and bakery items (30.3%).

Vegetable prices are up 19.1% since May-July 2021, meat prices are up 23.6% and savoury pies and pastries and quiches are up 26.2%. Biscuit prices have increased by 27% and juice drinks and smoothies are up 28.6%.

The consumer rights group is urging supermarkets to stock their cheapest products in their convenience store branches as well as larger outlets, as charities warned that families were struggling to cope with food inflation.

Richard Lane, director of external affairs at debt charity StepChange, said: “The rising cost of living is forcing households to reassess their budgets and cut back to make ends meet. Food inflation remains high and has pushed the price of basics up significantly.

“These rises are hitting the poorest the hardest, as it creates a poverty premium where those on tighter budgets are unable to save by buying in bulk and end up spending more money on food and essentials, as they shop little and often.”

He added: “As food costs continue to rise, the knock-on effects can be felt elsewhere, with people having to make desperate choices between keeping up their bills or putting food on the table.”

StepChange research found one in seven people had recently skipped meals or gone without a healthy diet in order to keep up with credit repayments – rising to nearly one in three for those on universal credit.

Helen Barnard, director of policy, research and impact at the Trussell Trust, the food bank network, said: “Inflation is hitting those on the lowest incomes hardest, with the cost of essentials like food and energy – which account for far more of their budget than is the case for people on higher incomes – rising especially steeply.”

She added that last year, the food banks in its network experienced higher levels of need than ever before, distributing almost 3m parcels to people who could not afford essentials.

“Donations also increased, reflecting the public’s great generosity even at a time of increased financial pressure for many, but rising need outpaced donations. This led to food banks having to purchase 124% more food than they did the previous year, at a time when prices are higher than ever, putting a significant strain on their operating costs.”

Which? has called on grocers to make affordable and healthy basic food ranges available across all their stores, to ensure that offers and promotions are used to support those who are struggling and are targeted at healthy foods, and to make sure their pricing is clear, so that shoppers can easily work out what offers the best value.

It welcomed an announcement by Tesco on Friday that the retailer would be introducing cheaper own-brand range items in its convenience stores, but said more needed to be done, pointing out that own-brand items were still more expensive than budget ranges. For example, Tesco’s own-brand penne pasta is 75p for 500g, but its budget version is 41p.

Sue Davies, head of food policy at Which?, said: “Despite well-advertised price cuts, Which?’s tracker shows that the cost of essentials like milk and butter is still very high and piling huge pressure on millions, which is why access to budget ranges is more important than ever to help people save money.”

cross-posted from: https://kbin.social/m/[email protected]/t/339006

Resolution Foundation report says much of industrial action ‘fuelled’ by public sector workers’ anger over falls in real-terms pay

"Bethany Cox is the fourth woman to be prosecuted in the last eight months for allegedly carrying out her own abortion, with only three trials in the 160 years before that, according to campaigners.

A few times a week, a group of volunteers dotted along the Yazor Brook, which rises in a rural catchment and flows into the River Wye at Hereford, brave the brambles and muddy banks to take samples of the gently flowing water.

They conduct the tests on at least four sites along the brook and upload their results online. They are now among more than 200 citizen scientists who regularly test the River Wye from its source in the Cambrian mountains to the Severn estuary, compared with the sporadic testing by regulators.

...

Three years ago, campaigners sounded the alarm over the decline of the River Wye in England and Wales. They warned that phosphate-rich runoff from intensive poultry farms in the supermarket supply chain was sullying the Wye’s waters and devastating the ecosystem with the spread of thick algae blooms.

Natural Resources Wales blamed sunny weather for the proliferation of algae blooms. It said there was no evidence of a link between river pollution and intensive poultry units.

Furious campaigners were already counting the many millions of chickens being housed across the Wye catchments in the supermarket supply chain. The Brecon & Radnor branch of the Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales mapped more than 760 chicken sheds containing more than 20 million chickens.

Vast quantities of manure were being spread across farmland and spilling into watercourses across the Wye catchment. In the face of a lack of effective action by the regulator, anglers, conservationists and local residents started to test the water.

When is a bus not a bus? Bus fined for using bus lane.

https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/23717998.newcastle-promoters-fined-using-vintage-double-decker-bus-lane/

Pretty amusing story on the surface, but it seems the fine is justified. Busses for the purposes of bus lane usage are defined as "vehicles with at least 10 seats" but if the lane is specifically marked as a "Local Bus Lane" it's specific to busses running local authorized routes.

TIL when a bus isn't a bus.

@unitedkingdom @casualuk #UnitedKingdom #UK #Bus #News #BusLane #TrafficLaw

Title is trash, 77m was over decade. Big hole in the pension scheme is crap though.

Archived version: https://archive.ph/2Y3u6

It was difficult to maintain a poker face when the leader of a big US tech firm I was chatting to said there was a definite tipping point at which the firm would exit the UK.

I could see my own surprise mirrored on the faces of the other people in the room - many of whom worked there.

They hadn't heard this before either, one told me afterwards.

I can't tell you who it was but it's a brand you would probably recognise.

I've been doing this job for long enough to recognise a petulant tech ego when I meet one. From Big Tech, there's often big talk. But this felt different.

It reflected a sentiment I have been hearing quite loudly of late, from this lucrative and powerful US-based sector.

'Tipping point' Many of these companies are increasingly fed up.

Their "tipping point" is UK regulation - and it's coming at them thick and fast.

The Online Safety Bill is due to pass in the autumn. Aimed at protecting children, it lays down strict rules around policing social media content, with high financial penalties and prison time for individual tech execs if the firms fail to comply.

One clause that has proved particularly controversial is a proposal that encrypted messages, which includes those sent on WhatsApp, can be read and handed over to law enforcement by the platforms they are sent on, if there is deemed to be a national security or child protection risk.

The NSPCC children's charity has described encrypted messaging apps as the "front line" of where child abuse images are shared, but it is also seen as an essential security tool for activists, journalists and politicians.

Currently messaging apps like WhatsApp, Proton and Signal, which offer this encryption, cannot see the content of these messages themselves.

WhatsApp and Signal have both threatened to quit the UK market over this demand.

The Digital Markets Bill is also making its way through Parliament. It proposes that the UK's competition watchdog selects large companies like Amazon and Microsoft, gives them rules to comply with and sets punishments if they don't.

Several firms have told me they feel this gives an unprecedented amount of power to a single body.

Microsoft reacted furiously when the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) chose to block its acquisition of the video game giant Activision Blizzard.

"There's a clear message here - the European Union is a more attractive place to start a business than the United Kingdom," raged chief executive Brad Smith. The CMA has since re-opened negotiations with Microsoft.

This is especially damning because the EU is also introducing strict rules in the same vein - but it is collectively a much larger and therefore more valuable market.

In the UK, proposed amendments to the Investigatory Powers Act, which included tech firms getting Home Office approval for new security features before worldwide release, incensed Apple so much that it threatened to remove Facetime and iMessage from the UK if they go through.

Clearly the UK cannot, and should not, be held to ransom by US tech giants. But the services they provide are widely used by millions of people. And rightly or wrongly, there is no UK-based alternative to those services.

Against this backdrop, we have a self-proclaimed pro-tech prime minister, Rishi Sunak. He is trying to entice the lucrative artificial intelligence sector - also largely US-based - to set up camp in the UK. A handful of them - Palantir, OpenAI and Anthropic - have agreed to open London headquarters.

But in California's Silicon Valley, some say that the goodwill is souring.

"There is growing irritation here about the UK and EU trying to rein in Big Tech... that's seen as less about ethical behaviour and more about jealousy and tying down foreign competition," says tech veteran Michael Malone.

British entrepreneur Mustafa Suleyman, the co-founder of DeepMind, has chosen to locate his new company InflectionAI in California, rather than the UK.

It's a difficult line to tread. Big Tech hasn't exactly covered itself in glory with past behaviours - and lots of people feel regulation and accountability is long overdue.

Also, we shouldn't confuse "pro-innovation" with "pro-Big Tech" warns Professor Neil Lawrence, a Cambridge University academic who has previously acted as an advisor to the CMA.

"Pro-innovation regulation is about ensuring that there's space for smaller companies and start-ups to participate in emerging digital markets", he said.

Other experts are concerned that those writing the rules do not understand the rapidly-evolving technology they are trying to harness.

"There are some people in government who've got very deep [tech] knowledge, but just not enough of them," said economist Dame Diane Coyle.

"And so [all] this legislation has been going through Parliament in a manner that seems to technical experts, like some of my colleagues, not particularly well-informed, and putting at risk some of the services that people in this country value very highly."

If UK law-makers don't understand the tech, there are experts willing to advise.

But many of those feel ignored.

Professor Alan Woodward is a cyber-security expert at Surrey University whose has worked various posts at GCHQ, the UK's intelligence, security and cyber agency.

"So many of us have signed letters, given formal evidence to committees, directly offered to advise - either the government doesn't understand or doesn't want to listen," he said.

"Ignorance combined with arrogance is a dangerous mix."

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology said that it had "worked hand-in-hand with industry and experts from around the world to develop changes to the tech sector", including during the development of the Online Safety Bill and the Digital Markets Bill.