John Deere obituary
My father, John Deere, who has died aged 89, was the arts director of Nottingham county council for 20 years,A passionate advocate for the arts, he was appointed to the post in the council’s newly established leisure services department in 1975, following the national reorganisation of local authorities,There, for 20 years, he transformed the artistic life of Nottinghamshire through development and funding of arts activities across the county,In the town of Retford, he supported the internationally famous Cantamus girls choir and, in Mansfield, the Mansfield Palace theatre,Events ranged from concerts by world-renowned musicians such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, André Previn and the pianist John Ogdon, a native of Nottinghamshire, to poetry readings by established poets such as Aeronwy Thomas, Dylan’s daughter.
Born in Llantwit Major, a working-class village in the Vale of Glamorgan, John was one of the three children of Florence (nee Mitchell), a cleaner at the nearby RAF St Athan airbase, and Ronald, a security officer at the airbase,John attended Barry boys grammar school, where he excelled at languages, and he went on to obtain a first-class honours degree from the University of Liverpool in Latin American studies,His youth was shaped by a period of ideological foment and counter-thinking that influenced his outlook,For his national service, he joined the Royal Army Education Corps, where he served in Hong Kong and Cyprus,He went on to teach Spanish at Wath upon Dearne grammar school in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, where he met Joyce Lotts.
They married in 1969, and moved to Cowbridge, in Glamorgan, in 1972, where he worked as a county adult education officer.I was born in 1970, my brother, Daniel, the following year, and my sister, Catherine, in 1973.Two years later, the family moved to West Bridgford, Nottingham, when Dad became the county council’s arts director.Retiring in the mid-1990s, Dad remained politically active, campaigning for the Labour party.He was an avid Guardian reader and crossword enthusiast, winning prizes several times and maintaining his intellectual rigour until his final days.
He was always entertaining those around him with amusing witticisms, particularly those with a Welsh flavour.Gentle and exceptionally well read, Dad’s legacy lives on in some of his published poetry.He was a devoted family man and a lifelong champion of socialist causes and human rights whose intellectual curiosity and gentle nature touched many.John and Joyce divorced in 2007.He is survived by Daniel, Catherine and me, 11 grandchildren and his sisters, Mary and Jean.
‘A medical miracle’: is period blood ‘the most overlooked opportunity’ in women’s health?
Somewhere in the US a woman on her period pulled out her dripping, saturated tampon. But instead of wrapping it in toilet paper and tossing it into a bin, she put the tampon in a special plastic sample container, screwed the lid on tight and mailed it to an address in Oakland, California.The address was that of NextGen Jane (NGJ), a Bay Area-based startup founded in 2014. And now Julia Carr, NGJ’s clinical research coordinator, stands in the company’s lab under a fume hood happily decanting a mixture of the woman’s blood and a preservation solution into a test tube. She will go on to pipette out small amounts to freeze and store for later analysis
England and Wales prison checks to be enhanced after inmate released in error
Prisons are expected to begin enhanced checks before inmates are released after a man who sexually assaulted a young girl was mistakenly freed from jail.The justice secretary, David Lammy, will set out a series of measures aimed at strengthening the system in England and Wales as he faces questions from MPs in parliament about the error.The former asylum seeker Hadush Kebatu was wrongly freed from HMP Chelmsford on Friday morning, instead of being sent to an immigration detention centre.The Ethiopian national, who had been living at the Bell hotel in Epping, in Essex, when he sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl, later travelled to London. He was arrested on Sunday morning in Finsbury Park after a two-day manhunt
Social landlords in England now forced to fix emergencies within 24 hours
The first phase of Awaab’s law, which promises to protect tenants from dangerous social housing conditions, comes into force in England on Monday, in memory of a two-year-old boy who died after exposure to mould in his home.The new legal duties compel landlords to fix emergency health and safety hazards within 24 hours of reporting, investigate significant damp and mould within 10 working days of being notified, make properties safe in five working days after inspection and write the findings to tenants within three working days of inspection completing.Awaab Ishak died in 2020 after prolonged exposure to mould in the property his parents rented on Rochdale’s Freehold estate, Greater Manchester, from the social landlords Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH).Awaab’s law followed campaigning from his family and the Manchester Evening News.The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government says the changes will improve lives for tenants and families living in England’s 4m social rented homes
NHS trialling rapid blood test to help diagnose sepsis and meningitis in children
The NHS is trialling a rapid blood test to help diagnose life-threatening conditions in children.The 15-minute blood test can speed up the diagnosis of illnesses such as sepsis or meningitis by telling medical practitioners whether a patient is suffering from a bacterial or viral infection.Instead of relying on regular blood test results, which can take several hours and require lab analysis, the test can rapidly indicate whether a patient has a bacterial infection that could benefit from immediate antibiotics.Doctors who participated in the trial say they have witnessed the benefits. In one case, a child with meningococcal meningitis received treatment much more quickly, and another with sepsis started antibiotics straight away
NHS leaders warn of longer waiting times if demand for extra £3bn not met
NHS bosses are seeking an emergency injection of £3bn to cover unexpected costs and have warned ministers that without it patients will wait longer for treatment and hospitals will start rationing care.Their move presents a fresh problem for Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, as she tries to find ways to fill an estimated £30bn hole in the nation’s finances in her budget next month.Hospital chiefs said unless they received extra cash they would have to cancel weekend and evening sessions of surgery, which give patients who are stuck on the NHS’s massive waiting list faster care.They also threatened to stop doing procedures of “low clinical effectiveness”, such as removing painful bunions, which can restrict mobility, because they are not a good use of limited resources.The £3bn demand is needed to cover the cost of NHS staff redundancies, strike action by doctors and higher drug prices, and is likely to cause consternation inside a government that is desperately short of cash
Over 1,200 health leaders call for swift passage of UK tobacco and vapes bill
More than 1,200 public health leaders have called for the tobacco and vapes bill to be passed swiftly through parliament to “protect future generations”.They said in a cross-party letter that the “gamechanging” measures outlined were “far too important to let it slip off the agenda”.The House of Lords is preparing to scrutinise the bill on the first day of its committee stage. The letter notes there had been a six-month gap between the bill’s second reading and Monday’s debate.The bill would make it illegal for anyone born on or after 1 January 2009 to ever buy tobacco
Lord Taverne obituary
Would a written constitution save Britain from the far right? | Letters
Keir Starmer shares post-punk passion and revisits musical past
Reform MP’s remarks about TV adverts were ‘racist’, says Wes Streeting
‘We have to book bigger rooms’: Green membership surge causes novel problems
Companies that donated to Labour awarded £138m in contracts, study finds