‘Utterly traumatised’: anger at ordeal of UK woman accused of illegal abortion

When Nicola Packer took a pregnancy test in November 2020, as the country was in lockdown during the coronavirus pandemic, she did not even believe she was pregnant.Aged 41 at the time, she thought it more likely that she was perimenopausal, but had been feeling under the weather and when her friend – with whom the pregnancy had been conceived – suggested she took a test, she only did so to “prove him wrong”.When the test, bought from a chemist around the corner, came back positive, she was “shocked”, but was never in any doubt about what to do. She had never wanted children, and immediately sought a termination.Under emergency provisions introduced during the pandemic – which were later made permanent – abortion pills could be dispatched by post, following a remote consultation, in pregnancies up to 10 weeks’ gestation

Gangs hold such influence over jails ‘it keeps me awake at night’, says Timpson

Organised criminal gangs who “corrupt” staff and enforce drug debts with violence hold such a huge influence over jails across England and Wales that it “keeps me awake at night”, the prisons minister has said.James Timpson told the Guardian that Prison Service staff who worked with criminal gangs to smuggle drugs and contraband into jails were being targeted by a “beefed up” counter-corruption unit that last year prosecuted 37 officers.His comments follow deepening concerns from prison watchdogs that criminal gangs are taking control of prisons – a claim Lord Timpson rejects. Criminologists have said the gangs are targeting and corrupting inexperienced officers.Timpson said in an interview: “Serious organised crime is a big problem, a huge problem, and it’s one of the things that keeps me awake at night, because of the impact it has on a prison’s environment, from drugs, debt, violence and everything that goes with that

‘It makes no sense’: Macmillan hiring for senior roles after axing 26% of staff

Macmillan Cancer Support has come under fire after launching a recruitment drive for a series of senior corporate roles just months after axing a quarter of its staff.The Guardian revealed in February that more than 400 workers had been let go as the charity reduced its workforce by 26%, downgraded its helpline and scrapped its 100-year-old hardship scheme that provided millions of pounds in grants to the poorest cancer patients.This week Macmillan told staff and partners it was making further cuts, scrapping its £14m-a-year welfare advice service. It will cease funding for hundreds of frontline advisers, employed by Citizens Advice, who help cancer patients navigate the benefits system and deal with the extra costs of their illness, such as food, heating and transport.The charity said in February it was making changes after feeling the impact of the “tough financial climate”

Cringe! How millennials became uncool

Her right to a naked ankle is, in the end, the hill Natalie Ormond is willing to die on. Ormond, a millennial, simply cannot – will not – get her head around gen Z’s fondness for a crew sock, pulled up over gym leggings or skimming bare legs, brazenly extending over the ankle towards the lower calf. “I stand by trainer socks and I won’t budge,” says the 43-year-old. “The more invisible the sock, the better.”A proclivity for socks hidden within low-top trainers is just one reason why millennials – anyone born between 1981-1996 – are now considered achingly uncool by the generation that came next: gen Z, AKA the zoomers, or zillennials

Parliament wants your views on new towns | Letter

Polly Toynbee is right to point out the atmosphere of urgency around Labour’s ambitious proposal for a new towns programme and the new towns taskforce’s investigation (Inside Labour’s top-secret plan for new towns, I see signs of hope, 24 April). The government’s sweeping planning policy reforms have demonstrated its commitment to a programme that will have major consequences for the construction sector, local and regional authorities, existing and would-be homeowners, and future generations, to say the least. This policy cuts across issues of critical national importance, from infrastructure and economic growth to communities and the environment. Now is the time for persistent, thoughtful inquiry into the government’s plans for new towns.As chair of the built environment committee in the House of Lords, I’m proud to be leading our inquiry into new towns and expanded settlements