Musical comfort at the end of your life | Brief letters

Readers who were moved by the article on Kate Munger’s Threshold Choirs (‘It was the last time Mum smiled at me’: the choirs singing to the dying in three-part harmony, 17 November) may like to know that similarly, in the UK, Companion Voices sings for people at the end of life, creating a gentle supportive soundscape. Founded by Judith Silver 12 years ago, more than a dozen groups now offer this voluntary service across England, with more planned.Kay AshtonWallingford, Oxfordshire John Crace’s analysis of Keir Starmer’s hapless, hopeless Labour government (‘I thought the grownups were back in charge!’: John Crace on how Labour shattered his expectations, 19 November) was, as usual, witty and shrewd – apart from his observation that the government’s right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing. Actually, it’s worse than that: the right hand doesn’t even know what the right hand is doing.Prof Chris WalshHawarden, Flintshire Zoe Williams’ reflection on the naming of storms (I keep trying to name storms

Up to 50,000 nurses could quit UK over immigration plans, survey suggests

Up to 50,000 nurses could quit the UK over the government’s immigration proposals, plunging the NHS into its biggest ever workforce crisis, research suggests.Keir Starmer has vowed to curb net migration, with plans to force migrants to wait as long as 10 years to apply to settle in the UK instead of automatically gaining settled status after five years.The measures, which also include plans to raise foreign workers’ skills requirements to degree level and raise the standards of English language required for all types of visa, including dependents, are seen as an attempt to combat the rise of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party. A public consultation on the plans is expected imminently, sources said.Nursing leaders told the Guardian the plans were “immoral” and treated highly skilled migrants as “political footballs”

‘Possibly the most prolific sex offender in British history’: the inside story of the Medomsley scandal

At a youth detention centre in north-east England, the paedophile Neville Husband raped and assaulted countless boys. Why was his reign of terror allowed to go on – and why hasn’t there been a public inquiry?When I met Kevin Young in 2012 he was in his early 50s, handsome, charismatic, smart – and utterly broken. The moment he started talking about Medomsley detention centre he was in tears.Young was born in Newcastle, in 1959. At two, he was taken into care, and his parents were convicted of wilful neglect

‘Shock’ loophole in NSW law meant to protect children against incarceration could mean more will be locked up

The Minns government is seeking to create a loophole in a law meant to provide protection against the incarceration of children, which could mean more children will be locked up.On Tuesday, the New South Wales government announced it was strengthening protections for children aged 10 to 14 by legislating a common law presumption known as doli incapax, which means children cannot commit an offence because they do not understand the difference between right and wrong.The proposed bill will also mandate when that presumption can be rebutted. This includes a loophole which says the presumption can be overturned if prosecutors establish the child committed a crime, and circumstances surrounding the crime prove “beyond reasonable doubt that the child knew at the time of the alleged commission of the offence that the child’s conduct was seriously wrong”.The courts can then make a decision on whether to convict the child “without or despite” evidence of the child’s intellectual or moral development, including intellectual impairment

Microsoft has ‘ripped off the NHS’, says MP amid call for contracts with British firms

Microsoft has “ripped off the NHS”, it was alleged in parliament on Wednesday, as MPs called on ministers to divert more of the government’s multibillion-pound computing budget away from US technology companies and towards British alternatives.The Seattle-based firm’s UK government contracts include a five-year deal with the NHS to provide productivity tools reportedly worth over £700m, while the wider government spent £1.9bn on Microsoft software licences in the 2024-25 financial year alone.The allegation against Microsoft was made by Samantha Niblett, a Labour member of the House of Commons select committee on science, innovation and technology, who said during questioning of Ian Murray, the minister for digital government and data: “I know for a fact how Microsoft have ripped off the NHS.”Niblett, who worked in the data and technology sector before being elected to parliament in 2024, did not provide further evidence, but when the committee chair, Chi Onwurah, voiced surprise at the claim, she said: “Well, it has

Pam Zinkin obituary

My mother, Pamela Zinkin, who has died aged 94, was a consultant paediatrician credited with saving the lives of children all over the world. She was also a lifelong campaigner for the NHS.In 1977, by then a single parent with two young sons, Pam moved to newly independent Mozambique to work as a senior paediatrician, then head of paediatrics, at Maputo central hospital. The country’s healthcare was in a precarious state, with 80% of its doctors having left after independence in 1975. Within five years, Pam and her team had reduced mortality among the 8,000 annual child admissions from 25% to 4%