Labour to set up new extremism whistleblowing service for university staff
The UK government will expand powers to tackle extremism by setting up a new whistleblowing route for university staff and giving the Charity Commission powers to shut down charities, as part of a new action plan to strengthen social cohesion,The plan, announced by the housing, communities and local government secretary, Steve Reed, will invest a further £5m in the Common Ground Resilience Fund, which was launched to support organisations and authorities tackling divisions in communities,“We must listen to people’s concerns about growing divisions and take action to bring our communities back together,” Reed said,As well as a new whistleblowing service, the plan will include a new Campus Cohesion Charter to strengthen respect and shared values across universities,The strategy will also introduce an annual State of Extremism report setting out the nature and scale of the threat facing the UK and the government’s response, while the Visa Watchlist Taskforce will be strengthened to block hate preachers and extremists from entering the country.
The action plan also prioritises the importance of speaking English.Miatta Fahnbulleh, the minister for devolution, faith and communities, said: “When a mother cannot speak to her child’s teacher, join a residents’ meeting, challenge her landlord about damp walls, argue for fair pay or speak to her doctor, daily life becomes a series of hurdles.“And for too many women from migrant backgrounds, language can be the difference between isolation and independence.”Government funding for English as a second language (Esol) courses in England fell by 60% between 2010 and 2016, from £203m in 2010 to £90m, with migrant rights campaigners warning cuts have made English-language classes harder to access.The government said the strategy would review how English-language teaching is provided and identify ways to make it more accessible, including digital options.
The government is understood to be keen to make the argument for the necessity of learning English from a progressive perspective, rather than the “reductive” message put forward by Reform.A Labour source said: “The right have hijacked the English language and used it as a stick to beat people with.We want to reclaim it and celebrate it because a shared language is the foundation of thriving communities.”On accessibility of English-language courses, the source said: “There is actually already a lot of services available and we want to make sure they are being used effectively, that people know that this is what we, as a country, want them to do and it is what is expected of them.”Jon Cruddas, the co-chair of the Independent Commission on Community and Cohesion, said the package was a “worthwhile starting point”, but called for “bolder action” to “respond to the scale of the challenge.
”Prof Ted Cantle, who wrote a landmark report on integration after riots in 2001, welcomed measures targeting universities and charities but said the government must also tackle wider racial segregation, strengthen cohesion efforts beyond the Pride in Place programme, and publish an annual report on the overall state of cohesion, rather than focusing solely on extremism,“A cohesion plan needs a strong vision, with a clear intention of tackling the illusion of a unique identity which is currently fostered by extremist and populist politicians,” he said,He also warned the government must separate extremism and cohesion,“They are related but different,This has caused distrust in the past,” he said.
Sunder Katwala, the director of the British Futures thinktank, described the action plan as an important step towards putting strong foundations in place,“The pattern under successive governments, from the 2001 riots to 2024 riots, has been that you get these flurries of action when there’s a major flashpoint, and then less sustained strategy about what to do the rest of the time,”The Conservatives dismissed the plan as a clear example that “Labour would rather pander to the extremes than confront the difficult causes of growing separatism in Britain”,
Cancer death rate in Britain down by almost a third since 1980s
The rate of people dying from cancer in the UK has fallen by almost a third since the 1980s amid seismic progress in prevention, diagnosis and treatment, a report has found.About 247 in every 100,000 people die from cancer each year, a 29% drop from the peak in 1989 of about 355 per 100,000, according to an analysis by Cancer Research UK (CRUK).Cancer remains Britain’s biggest killer, causing about one in four deaths, and survival rates lag behind a number of European countries, including Romania and Poland.However, in the past decade alone, the rate of people dying from cancer has fallen by 11%. The death rate for ovarian cancer dropped by 19% between 2012-2014 and 2022-2024, stomach cancer fell by 34% and lung cancer 22%
Labour to set up new extremism whistleblowing service for university staff
The UK government will expand powers to tackle extremism by setting up a new whistleblowing route for university staff and giving the Charity Commission powers to shut down charities, as part of a new action plan to strengthen social cohesion.The plan, announced by the housing, communities and local government secretary, Steve Reed, will invest a further £5m in the Common Ground Resilience Fund, which was launched to support organisations and authorities tackling divisions in communities.“We must listen to people’s concerns about growing divisions and take action to bring our communities back together,” Reed said.As well as a new whistleblowing service, the plan will include a new Campus Cohesion Charter to strengthen respect and shared values across universities.The strategy will also introduce an annual State of Extremism report setting out the nature and scale of the threat facing the UK and the government’s response, while the Visa Watchlist Taskforce will be strengthened to block hate preachers and extremists from entering the country
NHS England pauses new referrals for masculinising or feminising hormone treatment in under-18s
The NHS is pausing new referrals for masculinising or feminising hormone treatment for 16 and 17-year-olds after an in-depth review found there was insufficient evidence to support its continued use.Prescriptions for hormones had been available in England for under-18s with a diagnosis of gender incongruence or dysphoria who met certain criteria.But after the Cass review, NHS England commissioned its own review of all the available clinical evidence. That review has now concluded and found the evidence did not back the continued use of the treatment for 16 and 17-year-olds.In her review of children’s gender care, Hilary Cass had recommended “extreme caution” in providing such treatment and a “clear clinical rationale for providing hormones at this stage rather than waiting until an individual reaches 18”
Recreational drugs can more than double risk of stroke, study suggests
Recreational drugs can more than double the risk of stroke, with some of the most concerning impacts seen among younger people, a major review suggests.Scientists analysed medical data from more than 100 million people and found that the risk of stroke was 122% higher for amphetamine users and 96% higher for cocaine users compared with those who did not take the drugs.Cannabis users were also at greater risk, suffering 37% more strokes than non-users, the review found, though researchers saw no evidence that opioids, a highly addictive painkiller, added to a person’s risk of stroke.The rise in strokes observed in connection with some drugs was not confined to older people. When researchers focused on under-55s, they saw a near tripling in stroke risk among amphetamine users
Martha’s rule may have saved 400 lives so far in England, figures show
More than 400 lives may have been saved as a result of Martha’s rule, which lets NHS patients request a review of their care, official figures reveal.Helplines received more than 10,000 calls in the first 16 months of the scheme after its introduction in England in 2024, according to data seen by the Guardian. Thousands of patients were either moved to intensive care, received drugs they needed or benefited from other changes as a direct result of the calls.The system is named after Martha Mills, 13, who died in 2021 from sepsis after a bicycle accident. A coroner found she would probably have survived if she had been moved to the intensive care unit at King’s College hospital in London when she began deteriorating
How ADHD diagnosis helped my mental health | Letters
In suggesting there is a possibility that we all lie somewhere on an ADHD continuum, your correspondent (Letters, 27 February) is missing the point.ADHD – and autism – are neurodiversities, meaning that the brains of individuals with ADHD and/or autism are “wired” differently from those of people with “typical” brains. In other words, you either have it or you don’t. To suggest that everyone is a bit ADHD or a bit autistic is insulting to those of us who actually are ADHD/autistic, and diminishes our lived experience. Yes, self-help tools can be useful
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