Early treatment is key to children recovering from eating disorders
Your article on 45% of primary teachers encountering eating disorders in primary schools should alarm policymakers, but it will not surprise those of us working in clinical and rehabilitation services (Almost half of primary teachers in England see pupils with eating disorders, survey finds, 31 March).Children are presenting signs of eating disorders at younger ages, and by the time they reach specialist care their conditions are often more complex and entrenched.This earlier onset reflects a combination of pressures, from social media amplifying body image concerns to unmet emotional needs in children still recovering from the pandemic, and also a system that remains too slow to respond.Teachers are increasingly the first to spot the signs.Yet they are not clinicians, and many feel ill-equipped to act.
The result is a critical gap between early identification and intervention.The eating disorders (training) bill introduced by the MP Richard Quigley on 10 February, which is aimed at making training on eating disorders mandatory for frontline staff such as teachers, must be approved.If not, we are condemning a generation to lifelong problems.When eating disorders are recognised and treatment begins quickly, outcomes improve significantly.When they are not, illness can escalate rapidly and become life-threatening, leading to the need for more intensive, expensive and prolonged rehabilitation.
This is why there is an urgent need for greater integration between community, primary care and specialist services.This should be supported by mandatory training for school staff and nurses, and clearer communication pathways between education and healthcare services.This is a society-wide challenge to combat some of the deadliest mental health illnesses.The earlier we act, the greater the chance of sustained recovery and keeping young people safe.Laetitia Beaujard-RamooIpswich, Suffolk
UK politics: Farage says Trump’s Iranian ‘civilisation will die’ threats went ‘way too far’– as it happened
Even Nigel Farage now believes that Donald Trump has gone too far. In the past the Reform UK leader has been one of the president’s biggest supporters in the UK. More recently he has started to stress that he does not agree with the president on everything. But at his press conference this morning he was still broadly supportive, arguing that the UK could not defend itself militarily without the US and saying that, if he were PM, he would allow Trump to use British bases to attack Iranian infrastructure – provided Trump could assure him he had a plan for the end game. (See 2
Can Starmer maintain ‘defensive strikes’ stance as Trump escalates threats on Iran?
In Downing Street, Keir Starmer has been at pains to emphasise that he will only authorise the use of UK bases by the US for “defensive” strikes on Iranian military targets. In the White House, Donald Trump has threatened to bomb civilian infrastructure – and said on Monday that he was “not at all” worried about committing war crimes.So far in the war, Starmer’s position has allowed him to present the UK as a responsible actor concerned for regional security – but not a direct participant in the conflict on the US side.But while that has incurred Trump’s displeasure, it has also drawn questions about whether it is legally plausible to neatly divide defensive and offensive operations – and if US attacks do begin against targets such as bridges and power plants, scrutiny of the British position will intensify even if those attacks are not launched from UK bases.When it set out its stance on “defensive” strikes, the government took the unusual step of releasing a summary of its legal position: that it was acting “in the collective self-defence of regional allies who have requested support”
Reform cold calling public in bid to find ‘paper’ candidates for local elections
Reform UK has been cold calling people asking them to become “paper” candidates for the party at the local elections, as parties dash to sign up enough names before Thursday’s deadline.Nigel Farage’s party has been ringing members of the public asking them to stand despite apparently knowing very little about them except that they have signed up for Reform’s email updates.Those who have been asked to stand include members of other parties and even a Guardian journalist, who was asked in a call last week: “Will you come in to become a paper candidate today and help us to win the election?” The caller added: “Just have your name on the ballot and maybe you will actually win the election.”Prospective paper candidates are told they would not need to do anything apart from provide their name and address. They are then asked if they are bankrupt and if they have any criminal convictions, before being offered a candidate application pack
British Medical Association accused of hypocrisy as its own staff strike over pay
The British Medical Association has been accused of the “height of hypocrisy” for offering its own staff below-inflation pay rises while demanding a 26% increase for resident doctors.Tens of thousands of medics walked out of the NHS in England on Tuesday, the 15th time they have staged industrial action since March 2023 in their campaign for “full pay restoration”.At the same time, hundreds of BMA staff staged strike action themselves after the doctors’ union offered them a below-inflation pay rise of 2.75%.The BMA rejected an offer from Wes Streeting, the health secretary, that would have given resident doctors a pay rise averaging 4
Reform UK would stop visas for people from countries seeking slavery reparations
Reform UK would stop issuing visas to people from any country that continues to demand compensation from the UK for its role in the transatlantic trade in enslaved people, the party has said.Zia Yusuf, the party’s home affairs spokesperson, told the Daily Telegraph that the call for reparations was “insulting”.He claimed 3.8m visas had been issued over the last two decades to people from countries calling for reparations.For four centuries, seven European countries, including the UK, enslaved and trafficked more than 15 million Africans across the Atlantic
‘Seismic change’: how election wins for nationalists in Celtic nations could reshape UK
In four weeks, the shape of British politics is likely to change dramatically. For the first time, nationalists who aspire to break up the UK are expected to be in control of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland simultaneously. “The change will be seismic,” said Angus Robertson, a senior minister in the Scottish government.Opinion polls consistently suggest that after the elections on 7 May, England will be flanked by countries run by restless centre-left nationalist parties – Plaid Cymru in Cardiff, the Scottish National party in Edinburgh and, in Belfast, Sinn Féin, which shares power with the Democratic Unionists.That raises the prospect of significant constitutional disputes that would thrust Keir Starmer’s Labour government in London – or, if he is ousted after May’s elections, that of his successor as prime minister – into very difficult waters
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