Citrus Juice and Phytophotodermatitis

While lime and lemon are often eaten in the summer, if you get the juice on your skin and then expose that skin to sunlight, it can lead to phytophotodermatitis.

This appears as mild burns, blisters or skin discolouration, usually some 24 to 48 hours later.

After handling citrus, wash the juice from your skin before going outside.

Source: Health page in Good Housekeeping August 2017

To Tip or not to Tip?

Customs on tipping for good service vary significantly from country to country.

• In Japan there is a no tipping culture and you may offend your waiter if you try to give them money.
• In America, tips are very much expected and it's rude if you don't leave anything.
• In France the service charge must be included in the bill by law. However, many locals will also leave some coins as an extra sign of appreciation.

Research before you travel. In some countries you will be expected to tip taxi drivers and hotel staff, so you'll need some local currency from the start.

Source: Item in Good Housekeeping, August 2017

Avoid Cyber Attacks

As more criminals use the anonymity of the internet, cyber attacks are on the rise. A feature in Good Housekeeping magazine suggests the following tips.

1. Don't use unsupported operating systems as security holes aren't patched. If you are using Microsoft XP (unsupported since 2014) or older operating systems you should upgrade immediately.
2. Always apply updates; fixes for problems are constantly released so turn on automatic updating.
3. Use security software. Install antivirus software - preferably one with anti-ransomware. Free versions that include anti-ransomware are Avast, AVG and Bitdefender.
4. Back up your files on secure online storage or an external hard drive so you won't be at the mercy of hackers.
5. Be wary of attachments - even if you know the sender. If you are expecting the attachment, that's ok. Otherwise, check with the sender before opening.

Source: feature in Good Housekeeping, August 2017

Being Open About Pay

In Norway, it is possible to find out how much anyone else is paid, and it rarely causes problems.

From 2001, the government published the details (income, assets and the tax they paid) in a book which could be found on a shelf in the public library. Today the information is held online.

Transparency is important, partly because Norwegians pay high levels of income tax (an average of 40.2%, compared to 33.3% in the UK; the European average is 30.1%). People therefore want to know that everyone else is paying, and know that it is being spent appropriately. They need to have trust and confidence in both the tax and social security systems.

Because wages in many sectors are set through collective agreements, and pay gaps are relatively narrow, in most workplaces people already have a fairly good idea how much colleagues are earning. The gender pay gap is also narrow, by international standards, ranking 3rd out of 144 countries by the World Economic Forum.

While initially there were no limitations, since 2014, people have to log in to the website using their national ID number to access the data, which means it is possible to find out who has been doing searches on your information. The change saw a significant drop in search numbers, as it took out the 'Peeping Tom' searches. A recent survey indicated that 92% of people do not look up friends, family or acquaintances.

The tax lists give net income, net assets and tax paid. However, property portfolios may well understate the value, as the taxable property value is often far less than the current market value.

But the 2014 restrictions have not stopped whistleblowing, and people still report possible cases of tax evasion.

Source: Norway: the country where no salaries are secret, by Lars Bevanger. BBC News website, 22 July 2017

Population Trends

UN Survey

• World population will break through 8bn in 2023.
• There are more men than women globally (102 men for every 100 women).
• In 2018, the number of over-60s will top 1bn for the first time.
• Children make up one quarter of the world's population.

• More than half the global population growth by 2050 will come from just nine countries: India, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Tanzania, the US, Uganda and Indonesia, where fertility rates persist at levels far higher than the rest of the world.
• The world population will reach 9.8bn in 2050: 2bn of these will be over 60.

• By contrast, all European countries have fertility rates below replacement level, so populations will decline without large scale immigration.
• Eastern Europe likely to be worst affected with drops of 15% in Bulgaria, Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Serbia and Ukraine.

Source: Article in The Guardian, 21 June 2017. Read in full.

UK Population Trends

• The Office for National Statistics said that the UK population was expected to increase by 4.4 million in the next ten years (roughly the size of the Irish Republic) , reaching 70 million in 2027.
• The population is projected to grow by 9.7 million over the next 25 years, reaching 74.3 million.
• Statistics predict an ageing population, with some 29.5% of people aged over 60 by 2039 (23.2% in 2015).
• In 2039 more than 1 in 12 UK people are expected to be aged 80 or over.

• These projections assume that more people will come to live in the UK than emigrate, accounting for about half of the increase. The remainder is attributed to births outnumbering deaths.
• In many European countries, the trend is for a decreasing population.
• Decreasing populations have a shrinking working-age population, with an increased ageing population which is not productive.
• Where migration contributes to population growth, the challenge is to ensure that immigrants pay more in taxes than they cost in public services.

Source: Article on BBC website, 29 Oct. 2015. Read in full.

Divisions in UK Society 2017

The Social Mobility Commission report (2017) says 20 years of government efforts to improve social mobility have failed to reduce divisions in Britain's 'us-and-them' society. This has left a sour public mood and the divides are unsustainable socially, economically and politically.

A traffic light system was used to assess progress in improving social mobility; findings show failings at every key stage in people's lives.

• Early years - amber
• School - amber
• Training, further education or university - red
• Work - red

Other findings are:

• Economic growth in London and other cities has left parts of England behind, with people leaving in search of opportunities.
• The income & wealth divide has increased; between 1997 and 2017, the bottom fifth of households saw incomes increase by just over £10 per week, compared with £300 per week for the top fifth.
• There is growing inequality between the old and the young, who are more reliant on parents for help to buy homes.
• At current rates of progress, it will take 15 years before all children are school-ready by the age of five, and 40 years before the attainment gap between rich and poor at that age is closed.
• Currently no prospect of the gap between poorer and wealthier children being eliminated at either GCSE or A-level.
• It will take about 80 years to close the participation gap between students from rich and poor areas.
• Young people's wages have fallen 16%, taking pay to below 1997 levels.
• One in five people are on low pay, a consistently higher proportion than in similar nations.

The Commission recommendations included:

• Establishing a national ambition to ensure the attainment gap between poorer five-year olds and their peers has been halved within a decade.
• Abandon plans to extend grammar schools. Focus on developing collaborative approaches to turning around failing schools.
• Ensure higher education is available through further education colleges in social mobility 'cold spots'.
• Aim to make the UK the country with the lowest level of low pay in the OECD by 2030.

Source: Divisions in society leading to 'sour mood', Katherine Sellgren, BBC News website, 28 June 2017.

Which Poppy? Red, White, Purple or Black?

The poppy as a symbol of remembrance was started by the American humanitarian Moina Michael, who was inspired by Lt Colonel John McCrae's poem In Flanders Fields, describing the small red flowered plants growing on the graves of soldiers buried in northern France and Belgium during World War I. She began wearing a poppy and others soon followed.

While most people in the UK are likely to wear a red poppy for Remembrance Day, there are other poppies too, each associated with a charity. You can wear more than one if you want to.

Red Poppy
A lasting memorial to those who died in World War I and later conflicts. It was adopted by the Royal British Legion in 1921.

After the first poppy appeal in 1921, demand could not be fulfilled in Scotland, so a poppy-making factory was opened in Edinburgh. The Scottish poppy is also red, but whereas the RBL poppy has two petals and a green leaf, the Scottish version has four lobed petals and no leaf. It was adopted by PoppyScotland.

White Poppy
Remembers those who have died in conflict, while emphasising the lasting commitment to peace. Adopted by the Peace Pledge Union.

Purple Poppy
Worn by those wanting to remember animal victims of war. Adopted by the Animal Aid Charity.

Black Poppy
Remembering the African, Black and Caribbean communities who contributed in any way to the War effort. Adopted by Black Poppy Rose.

Source: various.

Why are Poor People Poor?

Why do we think poor people are poor because of their own bad choices? Maia Szalavitz

The Guardian, 5 July 2017

The psychological concept of “fundamental attribution error” is a natural tendency to see the behaviour of others as being determined by their character – while excusing our own behaviour based on circumstances. “If an unexpected medical emergency bankrupts you, you view yourself as a victim of bad fortune [but see] other bankruptcy court clients as spendthrifts who carelessly had too many lattes. If you’re unemployed, you recognize the hard effort you put into seeking work, but view others in the same situation as useless slackers. Their history and circumstances are invisible from your perspective.”

Hard work and a good education used to help upward mobility in the US. Americans born in the 1940s had a 90% chance of doing better than their parents, but those born in the 1980s have only 50/50 odds of doing so.

But elements of normal psychology combine to keep many convinced that the rich and the poor deserve what they get – with exceptions made, of course, mainly for oneself.

As a teen cashier, watching people commit food stamp fraud with food stamps and using cellphones that he could only “dream about”, writer JD Vance saw the food-stamp recipients as lazy and supporting addictions rather than working honestly. But the reality was often using illicitly purchased alcohol to soothe grief, pain and trauma; buying something special to celebrate a child’s birthday; without supportive family members, as he had had.

A retired Pennsylvanian factory worker in a Washington Post article about immigrants: “They’re not paying taxes like Americans are. They’re getting stuff handed to them. Free rent, and they’re driving better vehicles than I’m driving and everything else.” The truth is that immigrants do pay taxes (as do millions of undocumented immigrants) and they don’t typically get free rent either.

In “actor-observer bias”, when we watch others, we tend to see them as being driven by intrinsic personality traits, but not that for us it is circumstance that constrains our choices: we acted angrily because we’d just been fired, not because we’re naturally angry people. In other words, other people are poor because they make bad choices – but if I’m poor, it’s because of an unfair system. As a result of this phenomenon, poor people tend to be hardest on each other.

Among the wealthy, these biases allow society’s winners to believe that they got where they are by hard work alone and so they deserve what they have – while seeing those who didn’t make it as having failed due to lack of grit and merit.

Rising inequality increases physical and geographical segregation by class, which then reduces cross-class contact and decreases the ability to interact and empathize. Less empathy then fosters greater political polarization and justification of inequality, which in turn causes the cycle to repeat.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jul/05/us-inequality-poor-people-bad-choices-wealthy-bias

Women Work Returners

There are more companies and groups helping women get back to work.

# Join the free network at womenreturners.co.uk for information about events, returnships and job offers.

# See shesback.co.uk, which reconnects women with businesses through events, research and campaigning.

#If you've worked in the finance sector, look at thereturnhub.com, which helps women who are overlooked by recruiters.

# If you want to explore new options, go to viewvo.com, which provides opportunities to shadow business owners or charities.

# Details of flexible and part-time vacancies in a wide range of sectors can be found at timewise.co.uk.

#For information about Allen & Overy's Peerpoint scheme, visit allnovery.com.

Source: Feature in Good Housekeeping, July 2017

Foot Problems

Comfortable, roomy footwear is essential to prevent foot problems.

• For daily wear choose a wide-toed shoe with secure fastenings, a heel height of no more than 2cm to 3cm (half an inch to an inch), plus a firm but flexible sole.

What foot pain can tell you

# A pain down the back of the lower leg could be Achilles tendinitis. Constantly wearing high heels, platforms or wedges can shorten your Achilles tendon. Answer: Stretch out your calf muscles regularly.

#Pain in the balls of your feet could be metatarsalgia caused by wearing thin-soled shoes daily.  Answer: Use gel insoles to relieve the pressure on the balls of your feet. Ensure any high heel is centred under your natural heel, rather than further back, to better distribute your weight.

# A bony bump on your big toe is likely to be a bunion. You can get one even if you only wear trainers (there is a genetic element in this) but high or tight shoes make bunions painful and inflamed. Answer: Orthotic inserts take the pressure off a bunion by supporting the arch of the foot - get custom advice from a podiatrist.

#Hurting heels could be plantar fascitis, caused by wearing thin-soled ballet pumps or flip-flops with little arch support or shock absorption. Answer: Choose pumps with shock-absorbing rubber soles and a small heel to save arches. Save flip-flops for the beach.

#Painful toes could be due to corns, neuromas or hammer toes. Remember that pointy shoes and those that show 'toe cleavage' squeeze your toes into an unnatural shape. Answer: Go for a wider toe-box, especially if wearing high heels.

Source: Feature in Good Housekeeping, July 2017

Sunburn Soother

Been caught by the sun? Try this sunburn soother:

Soak a flannel in a cowl of crushed ice and milk before applying it to the burnt areas. The lactic acid in the milk prevents inflammation and takes the heat out of the skin.

Source: Dr Murad in Good Housekeeping, July 2017

HRT and Menopause

For more than ten years there has been concern and confusion over the use of Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) during the menopause.

The findings of the original research were misleading as the study involved:

• North American women in their mid-60s, many of them overweight. Today's candidates are 45 to 55 year olds.
• New HRT formulations have replaced the version derived from horse urine used in the early days. 

The NHS has reviewed all available evidence and its 2016 guidelines recommend HRT to treat menopausal symptoms. It may also help maintain sex drive and alleviate vaginal dryness. The guidelines recommend taking for as long as needed in the lowest possible dose.

When prescribed around the menopause, the benefits far outweigh the risks for the vast majority of women, although there is a small risk that some women may develop breast cancer (9 in 100 breast cancers are linked to obesity, and 6 in 100 to alcohol and just 3 women in 100 thought to be due to HRT). The risk with HRT drops off as soon as you stop taking it.

Source: Feature in Good Housekeeping, July 2017

Best Fabrics for Keeping Cool

Some fabrics are better than others for wearing in hot weather. Here are the best ones:

Cotton is good, as is chambray, which looks like denim but is very lightweight.

Linen is excellent at keeping you cool but is prone to creasing. Wash using cool water and add a drop of fabric conditioner to the final rinse to lubricate the fibres, and line dry rather than tumble dry.

Viscose is great for dry heat as the thinner thread works well in lightweight garments that drape well.

Lyocell or Tencel is a useful fabric made from sustainable wood pulp. It is very soft and has excellent moisture-wicking properties.

And remember that white and pastel shades don't absorb the sun's heat, and will keep you much cooler.

For holiday clothes, look for those labelled 'easy care' or 'wrinkle resistant'.

Source: Tip in Good Housekeeping, July 2017

6 out of 10 Brits want to keep EU citizenship

Six out of 10 Britons want to keep their EU citizenship after Brexit – including the rights to live, work, study and travel in the EU, with many prepared to pay large sums to do so, according to research by the London School of Economics and polling firm Opinium which surveyed more than 2,000 respondents.

85% of 18 to 24 year-olds want to retain their EU citizenship in addition to their British citizenship. Around 80% of people living in London also want to maintain the same rights. Young people in particular were “very unhappy” at the prospect of losing rights they regarded as fundamental and crucial to their future prospects.

The average sum they would be prepared to pay to retain EU citizenship was more than £400 (more than the contribution to the EU budget that UK citizens each currently make).

73% of voters would like either to protect or extend the rights that current citizens from other EU countries have to vote in the UK; 48% wanted to see the right to vote extended from local elections to general elections, while 25% wished to keep the status quo. Only 10% supported the government’s position of withdrawing EU citizens’ right to vote in local elections.

In a speech to the LSE, the director-general of the CBI, Carolyn Fairbairn, paints a grim picture of the impact that Theresa May’s plan to leave both the single market and customs union will have on the UK economy. “In the last 40 years, EU integration has cut through complexity, making things simpler for business. The single market means one single set of rules for the whole EU – saving Europe’s 22 million firms time and money, while the customs union lowers even more barriers to trade. Even for something as everyday as a loaf of bread, EU rules cut through the complexity – and make things simpler for business and clearer for consumers.”

Source: Poll finds that 60% of Britons want to keep their EU citizenship: The Guardian, 1st July 2017

Body Clock Effect on Medications

Your circadian rhythm (the biological clock that governs sleep, hormone production and other processes) means your body responds differently to medications depending on the time of day. Drugs may be less effective or less well tolerated. Drug chronotherapy advocates matching your medication to your circadian rhythm to maximise effectiveness and minimise side effects. (Do not change your drug routine without checking with your doctor or pharmacist first - there may be other factors to consider.)

Some drugs should be taken on an empty stomach because they need to work fast and are more quickly absorbed - while some will only work on an empty stomach as they can bind with food and form a compound that your body cannot absorb. However, several must be taken with food to reduce the risk of side effects, to slow down absorption, or because they can irritate the stomach,

Before breakfast

• Depression meds: disrupted sleep is a common side effect of some selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs), so it is often recommended that patients take them when they wake up.
• Osteoporosis meds: your body does not easily absorb biphosphonate drugs (e.g. Boniva and Fosamax), so doctors advice taking them on an empty stomach first thing in the morning with a glass of water, then waiting an hour before eating, drinking, or taking other drugs or supplements.
• Antibiotics are usually most effective when taken on an empty stomach when they are not competing with digestion. But some need to be taken with food to help drug absorption, so check first.
• Diuretics should be taken in the morning so you are not kept awake by night-time toilet trips.
• Thyroid hormones taken at this time fit into your body's natural pattern - but should be taken about an hour before eating as food reduces absorption.
• Iron is always best on an empty stomach as food inhibits absorption. However, vitamin C can help absorption so take with a small glass of orange juice.
• Once-daily PPI medicines (proton pump inhibitors) for heartburn or indigestion (e.g. omeprazole) should be taken on an empty stomach before breakfast to reduce acid-production effectively. But H2-receptor blockers (e.g. ranitidine) also inhibit acid production but should be taken after meals.

After breakfast

• Steroids are best taken in the morning when you are naturally more alert, but take them after breakfast to reduce stomach irritation and indigestion.
• Multi-vitamins are best taken after breakfast, as the fat in the meal helps with the absorption of fat soluble vitamins A, D, E and K.
• Take probiotics after breakfast because an empty stomach is too acidic for friendly bacteria to survive. Eating increases the pH in your gut, enabling the friendly bacteria to thrive. But don't wash them down with tea or coffee - hot drinks can kill healthy bacteria.
• Although different diabetes medicines need to be taken at various times of the day (e.g. sulphonyylureas, including gliclazide, should be taken with breakfast), the biguanides (e.g. metformin) can be taken at any time of day but must be taken with or just after food to avoid low blood sugar levels.
• Prescription or over-the-counter decongestant medicine is most effective taken in the morning when symptoms are naturally worse. They also contain a stimulant that may cause sleeplessness.

Mid-afternoon

• Asthma sufferers whose symptoms are worse at night should consider taking a single dose of inhaled steroid in the afternoon to provide a protective night-time effect. 
• BUT as a rule, steroid preventer inhalers (brown canisters) are best taken in the morning and evening.
• Reliever inhalers (blue canisters) are best taken 20 minutes before known triggers, such as exercise. This gives the medication plenty of time to kick in and help prevent an attack.

Best around dinnertime

• Heartburn meds: the stomach produces two to three times more acid between 10pm and 2am than at any other time of day. If you are on an acid-reducing H2 medication such at Pepcid or Zantac, take it 30 minutes before dinner. This controls stomach acid during the overnight period, when secretion reaches its peak.
• Allergy meds: hay fever typically worsens at night and feels most severe in the morning, when levels of symptom-triggering histamine are highest. Once daily antihistamines (e.g Clarityn) reach their peak eight to 12 hours after you take them, so using them at dinnertime means better control of morning symptoms. (Take twice a day antihistamines in the morning and evening.)

After dinner

• Liquid heartburn medications such as Gaviscon are best taken after meals so they sit on top of stomach contents and coat the gullet to help prevent reflux and indigestion.
• If you have morning stiffness and pain with arthritis, take your later dose of anti-inflammatory painkiller after your evening meal to help when you wake in the morning.

Best before bedtime

• Cholesterol meds: cholesterol production in the liver is highest after midnight and lowest during the morning and early afternoon, so statins are most effective when taken just before bedtime. The exception to this is atorvastatin which has a longer half life, so even if it is taken in the morning, it remains active through the night.
• Blood pressure meds: blood pressure is typically higher in the day and lower during sleep. Many people with high blood pressure don't show this dip, especially as they get older. This is a risk factor for stroke, heart attack, and kidney disease. So experts advise taking certain blood pressure lowering drugs at bedtime to normalize daily blood pressure rhythm and decrease these risks. ACE inhibitors and ARBs are most effective when taken before bed.
• One-a-day antihistamines for hay fever are most effective if taken in the evening, as this means medication is at its peak in your system in the morning when symptoms are usually worse. (Antihistamines that need to be taken regularly start acting within 15 minutes so can be taken at any time.)

Timed to symptoms

• Osteoarthritis meds: It's best to take NSAIDs (e.g. naproxen and ibuprofen) approximately six hours before pain is at its worst, so they will kick in at the appropriate time. If prone to afternoon pain, take meds between mid-morning and noon; for evening pain, take meds mid-afternoon; for night-time pain, take meds with your evening meal.

Sources
1: Actually, there's a right time to take 'once a day' drugs by Claire Benoist in Reader's Digest, 2017

2: Body clock myths: when is the best time to take pills? by Michele O'Connor in The Mirror, 23 July 2014

Confusing Terrorism with Extremism

The Guardian Editorial view on Theresa May’s plans on terror.

“Mrs May wants us to believe that we face a threat from doctrines that do not espouse violence but somehow mutate into terror. Confusing extremism with terrorism risks dividing us as a people when we need to be united.”

TM focuses on policing thoughts rather than acts, and countering ideology rather than terrorism. Penalising people for holding unspoken beliefs would end up with a legal minefield of dogma and piety. Will animal rights, ecological defence or anti-arms-trade activists (who do not subscribe to violent belief systems when criminal acts – sometimes amounting to terror – have been carried out in their name) be banned too?

Non-violent extremism is difficult to define. Banning so-called adherents from public positions would hinder, not help, the fight against terrorism, when we need to exploit every possible avenue to prevent it. This includes cooperation with the very people who might be best placed as discouragers of terrorism: those who hold similar “extremist” beliefs but who are non-violent and are opposed to the methods of violence. Mrs May’s plans criminalise the eyes and ears you need to spot terror.

We need unity. The three recent terror attacks were immediately linked to a “single evil ideology of Islamist extremism”; politicians should take care in the language they use. We should not play into the hands of al-Qaida and Islamic State and lump together murderers and peaceful Muslims who are simply observant rather than violent. Crude Islamophobia risks pulling people apart when they need to come together.

It seems we have learned nothing from our own history. In October 1974, people were killed and injured within a week of a general election. A few months later MPs voted for the Prevention of Terrorism Act, with emergency “temporary” powers so draconian they have to be renewed yearly. These crisis measures became permanent. Terrorism aims to scare us into changing the nature of our democracy; sweeping new measures with alacrity in response to terrorist acts is no way to proceed. Politicians should steer public sentiment on matters of national security but with reasoned debate.

Source: Editorial in The Guardian, Sunday 4 June 2017

Theresa May’s talk about British values puts all Muslims under suspicion by Myriam François

Mrs May’s recent  statement following the London Bridge attack, condemned “evil ideology of Islamist extremism” and set out a familiar action plan. But terrorists’ stated motivations focus on more tangible goals - a response to Britain’s “transgressions against the lands of the Muslims”, a victory against “the crusaders” of the west, and a response to airstrikes in Iraq; their primary motivation has always been to create a pseudo “Islamic state” in the Middle East.

Without suggesting abandoning territorial fightback against Isis, we must recognise that the fate of European capitals is tied up with a very real war in the Middle East. British foreign policy, whether or not you agree with it, impacts on British society, with the marginalised, the angry, the alienated; those looking for a higher cause to bring meaning to an often dead-end existence.

The intelligence services are clear that while they have thwarted many attacks, they won’t be able to stop all of them. It is a false idea that the real problem is a set of ideas pushed by the Muslim community. Intelligence analysts highlight that families – let alone “the community” – are often the last to know, and when they have had suspicions, recent cases show that families and mosques have approached the authorities. Communities work, and will continue to work, with the police to stop those who wish to harm us all.

This relationship of trust and cooperation is made harder, not easier, when the government casts a wide net of suspicion over the entire Muslim community, suggesting that it is a suspect group that needs to be re-educated with a predetermined set of ethics. The truth is that British values are no superior to those of any other nation; the idea is patronising to anyone of non-British origin. Improving social cohesion is a laudable objective – but linking terrorism to integration produces a dangerous confusion over the roots of the problem, which ultimately stigmatises and alienates some of the poorest communities in this country.

Terrorists are not motivated by the faith of the 1.6 billion regular folk walking this planet; Muslims aren’t immune to bombs and bullets and they experience a double penalty in such attacks: the same trauma as all other citizens, plus the guilt cloud that hangs over them all thereafter.

"The government could be honest about the risks to domestic security of foreign military interventions – risks the public may or may not wish to accept. It can invest heavily in the security services working to keep the country safe. This means more resources, but it also means not creating a climate of suspicion around Muslims, who, like everyone else, are partners in the common goal of preserving life – incidentally, the highest of values in Islamic law. Creating dichotomies between British and Islamic values only feeds a toxic narrative."

The aftermath of recent horrific events shows that people from all faiths and none, with diverse value systems, can come together to emphasise love, solidarity and unity. We don’t need lessons in British values; but our politicians need to learn about not widening the very divisions they believe to be the problem.

Source: Theresa May’s talk about British values puts all Muslims undersuspicion by Myriam François, in The Guardian, Sunday 4 June 2017

Phage Therapy on Farms

Therapy could stop superbugs on farms, by Pallab Ghosh, BBC News website.

Researchers at Leicester University have identified a range of viruses, called bacteriophages, that can be used to kill common pig infections. The aim is to reduce the risk of antibiotic resistant bacteria emerging on farms that could also infect humans. In the UK, 40% of all antibiotics are used to treat animals - they are the same as those used to treat people.

Phages occur in nature and are the natural enemy of many infectious agents. Each of the many phages is specific to different infectious bugs, homing in on them and injecting the phage's DNA into the bug, thus rendering it harmless. Like all viruses, phages reproduce inside the infectious bug and these new phages then hunt other infections.

Attempts to develop phage treatments have been carried out for more than a century but have mostly proved unreliable. However, researchers have now found more precise ways of isolating phages and assessing their effectiveness.

The research team has identified a range of disease-killing phages, and more importantly, have developed a powdered form of the phage which remains active. This would enable researchers to add the powdered phage to pig feed and see if it works in practice.

If trials in pigs work, other phage treatments could be developed for a range of animal diseases, and would speed the development of phage treatments for people.

Source: Therapy could stop superbugs on farms by Pallab Ghosh, Science Correspondent, BBC News 8 June 2017

Migrants and Cultures

Understanding motives is vital to combating terror.

In his Church Times column, Paul Valley notes that a Muslim psychiatrist "recently suggested that there are four ways in which the children of immigrants may react to the clash between the culture of their parents and that of the nation in which they have been brought up. All are stressful in different ways."

Deculturation: This leads them to reject their past in favour of their present.

Assimilation: This is where they retain a loose association with the old ways, but essentially adopt the host culture.

Integration:  This keeps stronger cultural ties, but the children of migrants function fully as members of the host society.

Rejection: They rebuff the host culture entirely. Violent jihadists are drawn from this group, but the process is not simple. There can be huge cognitive dissonance in the process of their rejection,

The crucial task is to re-educate fundamentalists into a more complete understanding of their faith so that they can no longer wrench verses of the Qur'an from their wider context.

While not becoming illiberal in our defence of our liberty, we need to consider a broader understanding of what kind of behaviour ought to be illegal - for example, should people who glorify terrorism, as well as those who incite it, be guilty of an offence such as breach of the peace?

However, it is important that anyone convicted and imprisoned under such new regulations should not simply be detained, but also be subjected to an intensive deradicalisation programme, run not just by secular psychiatrists but also by mainstream Muslim scholars.

Source: Column piece: Inside the mind of extremists by Paul Vallely in The Church Times, 9 July 2017

Passport Facts 2017

Avoid last minute passport panics by:

# Check your passport before booking a holiday. Your insurance will not pay out if you miss your trip because your passport is out of date.

# Remember some countries require it has 6 months left before expiry date, while others (e.g. South Africa) insist you have a least two blank pages in your passport. Check these requirements (and whether you need a visa) at gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice.

# Do allow four to seven weeks for a new passport to arrive. Streamline the service by using the Passport Check & Send service at the Post Office. It costs an extra £9.75 (2017) but useful if you are short of time.

# If you end up needing a last-minute passport, there is a premium one-day service costing £128 (2017).

Source: Item in Good Housekeeping, June 2017

Pensions, Triple Lock and Hoarding

Pensioners will carry on hoarding cash if state won’t step in by Phillip Inman.

The question over the state pension triple lock is part of a wider debate about incomes and wealth in old age and how, as a society, we adapt to the escalating costs of improved life expectancy, increasing care costs and, crucially, property prices.

Many do everything to avoid paying higher taxes and hoard whatever assets they have accumulated, as state support decreases. Now grandparents and parents feel obliged to provide more than just a good start in life for the youngest members, possibly for as long as they are alive. This explains why the Tory promise to raise the inheritance tax threshold for couples to £1m by 2020, and also why wealthy pensioners argue the state pension and winter fuel allowance should remain a universal benefit.

No one should want house prices to rise at double or treble the rate of earnings growth to reach affordability levels that effectively mean homes in places with decent jobs are out of reach for most people, but home owners are happy when a house or flat sells for more than the previous one and predictions of a downturn can spark panic. Pay as little stamp duty or capital gains tax as you can and recycle the proceeds to provide a leg-up for your own offspring.

In early 2017, a weakening economy, a squeeze on disposable incomes from higher inflation and stagnant wages growth, and the knock-on effect of lower tax receipts, means money must be raised elsewhere. One option is scrap the 2.5% annual rise part of the pensions triple lock, which links the basic state pension to whichever is the higher of earnings growth, inflation or 2.5% and scrapping the 2.5% lock.

Pensioner groups argue those on the lowest incomes will be the worst affected, which is true, especially when cuts in the real value of the state second pension, and the move to a flat-rate pension, are taken into account.

But keeping a universal benefit also benefits the better off. Why should today’s workers make sure pensions increase at a faster rate than their own pay, especially when it leads to greater income inequality among the country’s 12 million pensioners.

One answer is to means-test the basic pension. An alternative would be to design an income tax system specifically for the country’s 12 million pensioners; one that increases the tax burden for the third who have more than enough money to enjoy their retirement. Or, at least, charge the 1.1 million retirees who are still working national insurance.

It is impossible to change pensions and taxation while the state refuses to look after the elderly in care, and build enough homes for those on low and middle incomes to bring down prices, so wealthy pensioners will continue to take more out than they put in and hoarding it.

Source: Pensioners will carry on hoarding cash if state won’t step in, by Phillip Inman, The Guardian, 29 April 2017

Name Order in Ballot Papers

Did Trump win because his name came first in key states?

A leading political scientist, Jon Krosnick, has spent 30 years studying how voters choose one candidate rather than another, and says that in states where the margin of victory was narrow, elections were won because a candidate was listed first on the ballot paper, and that includes Donald Trump’s election as US President.

At first sight this seems to make little sense. Are voters really so easily swayed? Most of them are not and vote for the party they usually do. But a minority are swayed because of a human tendency to lean towards the first name listed on the ballot, which has caused increases on average of about three percentage points for candidates, across many elections. And candidates whose last names begin with letters picked near the end of the lottery have it tough, never getting the advantage that comes from being listed first on the ballot.

Political scientists call this the primacy effect. It has the biggest impact on those who know the least about the election they are voting in. You are more likely to be affected if you are feeling uninformed and yet feel obligated to cast a vote - or if you are feeling deeply conflicted between two candidates. When an election is very close the effect can be decisive, such as the 2016 election in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.

Some states always list parties in the same order. Some allow the state's officials to make a new choice each time. Some put the party that lost in the last election at the top of the ballot. Some list alphabetically.

Of the numerous cases where the primacy effect is thought to have influenced the result of an vote, one is Hillary Clinton’s unexpected January 2008 win over Barack Obama in the New Hampshire primary to elect the Democratic Party's presidential candidate. Her name was at the top of a long list. Obama's was near the end.

Source: BBC website: Did Trump win because his name came first in keystates? Published on 25 February 2017

Homelessness: the Finnish Solution

What can the UK learn from how Finland solved homelessness? The Nordic country is the only EU state not in the midst of a housing crisis. Juha Kaakinen, chief executive of the Y-Foundation, explains how Housing First works.

A survey by the EU housing organisation Feantsa found every EU country in the midst of a crisis of homelessness and housing exclusion, with the exception of Finland, where they give homeless people permanent housing as soon as they become homeless, rather than muddling along with various services that may eventually result in an offer of accommodation. This approach is now being considered in the UK.

What is Housing First?

Housing First focuses on ending homelessness instead of managing it, by offering permanent housing and needs-based support for homeless people instead of temporary accommodation in hostels or emergency shelters. Permanent housing means an independent rental flat with own rental contract. People do not have to earn their right to housing by proving their capability to manage their lives. Instead, they are provided with a stable home and individually tailored support.

How has it worked in Finland?

Since 2008 the national homelessness strategy in Finland has been based on the Housing First model, as a result of dedicated cooperation between the state, municipalities and NGOs. Investments have been made to provide affordable housing and shelters have been converted into supported housing units. For example, the Y-Foundation provides 16,300 low cost flats to homeless people in Finland.

New services and methods of help have been developed to match the multiple needs of individual tenants. Finland has all but eradicated rough sleeping and sustainably housed a significant number of long-term homeless people, and is the only country in Europe where the number of homeless people has declined in recent years.

Has there been any backlash to Housing First?

There was a strong political will to find new solutions for homelessness. There were a few local reactions concerning the location of new service facilities, which were mainly overcome by open interaction with the neighbourhoods.

Financially, how does Housing First work?

The key things are affordable housing and support. Extra funding that the state has allocated for flats and services has been an incentive for the municipalities to implement Housing First. Tenants pay rent and are entitled to receive housing benefits. Depending on their income, they may contribute to the cost of the services. The rest is covered by the municipalities. They provide the support themselves or buy support from other service providers, mainly from the NGOs. Stable living conditions enable the use of mainstream services instead of using expensive emergency services, saving money in the long term.

Were there any initial problems that needed to be ironed out?

No major problems were met: there was a clear focus for the national strategy from the start, and the city specific implementation plans included concrete objectives and resources to meet them. But the unconditional housing was hard to accept by some people in NGOs which had previously been working with different set of values.

How easily can the model be replicated in other European countries?

The Housing First model can be replicated even though housing conditions may vary from country to country in Europe. Providing permanent homes for the homeless should be a target instead of temporary solutions.

There is no quick fix to all life situations but a solid base provides the foundations upon which to improve the welfare of the homeless. The first step in change is the change in attitudes.

In Finland this has been a national strategy, not a local project. This new approach and convincing results have raised broad interest internationally.

Source: BBC website What can the UK learn from how Finland solvedhomelessness? Published on 22 March 2017.

Cleaning Schedule

Be clever with your cleaning to save time and effort.

• Start at the top and work down, whether you are doing a room or the whole house.
• Dust first, with a damp cloth, then vacuum - otherwise you are wasting your time.
• Spring clean on a day you can have the windows open to allow the air to circulate and everything to dry. 

When using bleach, dilute with cold water (as hot water renders it ineffective).

Once a year indoor jobs

• Carpets - best cleaned professionally (find a reputable company via the National Carpet Cleaners Association)
• Curtains: take down, remove hooks and weights, loosen heading tape. If instructions allow, cool machine wash. If velvet, velour, chenille, tapestry, wool, brocade, silk or interlined, dry clean every two years.
• Interior paintwork: wash with Flash Magic eraser for gloss woodwork, and a cream cleaner for non-gloss finishes.
• Chimneys: if you have a real fire, use nacs.org.uk to find a local member.
• Light bulbs: switch off and wipe with a damp cloth.

Clean ovens twice a year. Once clean, line the oven base with foil or non-stick oven sheets to catch drips, and use roasting bags to cut down on spits.

Vinegar - distilled (not balsamic) - is a wonderful and versatile cleaner.

• For taps (not plated): wrap in a cloth soaked in vinegar, leave overnight.
• For showerheads: unscrew and submerge in a bowl of vinegar overnight.
• For shower screens: mix 2 tablespoons of white vinegar with six and a half pints of water and pour into a used spray bottle. Squirt on, then scrub with newspaper rather than paper towels, which cause streaking.
• For kettles: fill with half water, half vinegar and leave overnight to remove limescale and make it more efficient.

Mould: to clear mould from walls, use a solution of one part bleach to four parts water - try on a hidden area first.  Scrub with a sponge, rinse thoroughly and dry.

Mildew: to clear grime and mildew from around windows, take down curtains or blinds. To clear grime, mix one part distilled white vinegar to nine parts water in an old spray bottle and use along with a coarse e-cloth to clean the frames and panes. Remove mildew with HG Mould Spray, then use a fine e-cloth to finish.

Grouting: Use an old toothbrush with a bleach solution or whitening toothpaste.

Other areas

• TVs, DVD players, audio centres: Clean with a dry microfibre cloth. Don't use window cleaner or any fluid on TVs, as these can bleed into the panel and damage the screen. 
• Extractor hood: unplug and wash removeable parts in hot, soapy water, and replace filter.
• On top of cupbaords, between appliances: Antibacterial wipes are ideal for cleaning these hard-to-reach areas.
• Slatted blinds: wearing cheap cotton gloves, plunge your hands into warm, soapy water, then run them along the slats, carefully removing the grease and grime as you go. Rinse and repeat.

Beds and upholstered furniture: Your mattress may not need turning (modern ones often don't) but it is a good idea to run the upholstery nozzle over the surface as part of the big clean. Do the same for your three-piece suite.

Once a year outside jobs

• Empty gutters (or pay your window cleaner to do the job). Once clear install 'hedgehog' cylindrical brushes to sit in the gutters and keep the leaves out (hedgehog-gutter-brush.co.uk)
• Clean your patio before paving or decking becomes too greasy and slippery.
• For exterior paintwork, window and conservatory frames, use a weak solution of bleach and a stiff brush to remove built-up grime.

Sources: Good Housekeeping, May 2017, March 2020.

The NHS Crisis

In February 2017, the BBC published an analysis of the issues facing the NHS.

The NHS sees one million patients every 24 hours, and is the fifth biggest employer in the world with 1.7 million staff.

Funding

Last year UK health spend was £140bn - more than 10 times as much as 60 years ago (adjusted for inflation).  In 1955-56, it was 11.2% of the public purse, while in 2015-16 it was 29.7% (so today 30p out of every £1 spent on services goes on health). So why is the NHS is still at crisis point?

Targets

Achieving or missing the four-hour A&E target doesn't tell you about the quality of care - how quickly you get pain relief or whether the unit is good at spotting the signs of a heart attack. Instead it's a sign of whether the system is under stress - both in the community and in the hospital. When the numbers arriving and leaving balance, then 95% of patients will be dealt with in four hours. This target was last met in England was in summer 2015, with performance worse in Wales and Northern Ireland, but Scotland is performing a little better at around 90%.

An Ageing Population

This major factor is one that all health systems in the world are struggling with. People are living longer; life expectancy is 13 years longer than when the NHS was created. Infectious diseases are less of threat; heart attacks claim fewer lives early, and half of those diagnosed with cancer now survive for a decade or more.

With people living with a growing number of long-term chronic conditions - diabetes, heart disease and dementia – for care is the issue. By the age of 65, most people will have at least one of these illnesses. By 75 they will have two. The average 65-year-old costs the NHS 2.5 times more than the average 30-year-old. An 85-year-old costs more than five times as much.

Drugs

The cost of new drugs is rising. The health service is currently considering capping the amount it will pay for new drugs at £20m each a year. A fifth of new treatments cost more than this.

Obesity

A third of adults are so overweight they are risking their health significantly.

Health inflation

The cost of providing care outstrips the normal rise in the cost of living across the economy, which is why health has tended to get more generous rises than other areas of government spending, through a combination of economic growth, which brings in more money through tax, and reducing spending in areas such as defence. The actual amount varies with economic cycles. Since the NHS was created in 1948, the average annual rise has been just over 4%. During the Labour years under Blair and Brown this was closer to 7%. But since 2010 financial settlements have been tighter.

How the UK compares with other EU countries

The UK spends less as a proportion of GDP (a measure of the size of the economy); current ranking is Sweden, France, Germany, EU average, UK, Spain. The result is fewer beds, doctors and nurses per patient in the UK. 

Some of these countries achieve that by taxing more – would this work for the UK? A poll by Ipsos MORI for the BBC shows people are split, with 40% backing a rise in income tax and 53% supporting National Insurance going up. A majority were against charging for services or moving to an insurance-based model.

Spending or raising more money would not lead to an overnight improvement. More doctors and nurses would need training and that takes time and, crucially, there is not a flood of people wanting to work in key posts. Trainee posts for GPs are being increased, but the NHS cannot fill them all.

Structure

Is the structure of the NHS is right for 21st Century healthcare? The NHS is still centred on the network of district general hospitals from the hospital building boom of the 1960s. But people struggling with chronic illnesses need support in the community, for which there is a serious shortage, with district nurses numbers in England cut by 28% in the past five years, while getting a GP appointment is becoming increasingly difficult.

So more people end up going to hospital, with A&E visits rising by a third in 12 years. While not all is due to chronic conditions, they tend to be cases that take the most care. Two-thirds of hospitals beds are occupied by the one-third of the population with a long-term condition.

Attempts to place more emphasis on care outside hospital inlcude NHS England's five-year plan to create more integrated care, which involves hospital services working more closely with their local community teams, with similar moves in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. There also an emphasis on prevention - getting people to be more active, eat better diets and drink less.

Social Care

The biggest problem is council-run social care: day centres, help in the home for tasks such as washing and dressing, and good quality care in care homes during the final years of life. It is seen as essential to keep people well and living independently - and out of hospital. But in England over the past four years, the number of older people getting help has fallen by a quarter, with large numbers going without care or having to pay for it themselves. In Wales home care is capped at £60, is free for the over-75s in Northern Ireland, while Scotland provides free personal care (washing and dressing) in both care homes and people's own homes.

But if you were setting up a health and care service today, how would it be done? Would you separate medical care from personal care, with one run by a national institution and the other by local councils? Would you provide one free at the point of need and charge for the other? Would you increase the budget of one, but cut the other?

Would you build more than 200 hospitals and spend over half of your budget on them when the biggest users of care are people with long-term illnesses that need care rather than medical intervention? However, that is the system we have got at a time when money is limited, so we are falling back on a typical British trait - making do.

Source: BBC News website 10 charts that show why the NHS is in troubleby Nick Triggle: published on 8 February 2017

Universal Basic Income

In Utopian thinking: the easy way to eradicate poverty, Rutger Bregman argues that we need a universal basic income. [Others worry that it will eat away at the welfare state: see article at the end of this piece.]

Studies show that poor people borrow more, save less, smoke more, exercise less, drink more and eat less healthily. Why? For a long time it was thought that it was lack of character or ability, but recent research suggests that this is wrong.

A psychological study with sugar cane farmers in India found that they collect about 60% of their annual income right after the harvest, but are relatively poor before the next harvest. IQ tests before the harvest (the poor part) scored 14 points of IQ less (similar to losing a night’s sleep, or the effects of alcoholism) than just after the harvest. The reason: people behave differently when they perceive a thing to be scarce, whether it’s time, money or food. A “scarcity mentality” narrows focus to the immediate lack and you ignore the long-term perspective. This behavioural change is why many anti-poverty programmes don’t work.

So what can be done? Solutions like making paperwork easier or sending text message reminders of bills cost next to next to nothing but ignore the causes. One idea is a universal basic income – a monthly allowance of enough to pay for your basic needs: food, shelter, education - completely unconditional: not a favour, but a right.

But could it really be that simple? One town had done it, had eradicated poverty – after which nearly everyone forgot about it. In 2009, Evelyn Forget, an economics professor at the University of Manitoba, heard about a warehouse attic in Winnipeg, Canada, where nearly 2,000 boxes are filled with data – graphs, tables, interviews – about one of the most fascinating social experiments ever conducted; a treasure trove of information on basic income. For three years she subjected the data to all manner of statistical analysis, and the results were the same every time. The experiment – the longest and best of its kind – had been a resounding success.

“The experiment had started in Dauphin, a town north-west of Winnipeg, in 1974. Everybody was guaranteed a basic income ensuring that no one fell below the poverty line. And for four years, all went well. But then a conservative government was voted into power. The new Canadian cabinet saw little point in the expensive experiment. So when it became clear there was no money left for an analysis of the results, the researchers decided to pack their files away. In 2,000 boxes.”

Forget discovered that:

• the people in Dauphin had not only become richer, but also smarter and healthier
• school performance of children improved substantially
• hospitalisation rate decreased by as much as 8.5%.
• domestic violence was also down, as were mental health complaints
• people didn’t quit their jobs – the only ones who worked a little less were new mothers and students, who stayed in school longer

Having money means people can use it to buy things they need instead of things self-appointed experts think they need. While a universal basic income won’t solve everything, and policies such as a rent cap and more social housing are needed in places where housing is scarce – a basic income would work like venture capital for the people. Poverty is hugely expensive to the state in terms of higher healthcare needs, less education and more crime.

Poverty is not a lack of character. Poverty is a lack of cash.

Source: Utopian thinking: the easy way to eradicate poverty by RutgerBregman (translated from the original Dutch by Elizabeth Manton) in The Guardian, 6 March 2017. [Rutger Bregman is the author of Utopia for Realists: And how we can get there]

Wikipedia entry: MINCOME experiment

Love the Idea of a Universal Basic Income by Ellie Mae O'Hagan
UBI is gradually becoming mainstream thinking, with the news that the Finnish government has piloted the idea with 2,000 of its citizens with very positive results. In January 2017, MEPs voted to consider UBI as a solution to the mass unemployment that might result from robots taking over manual jobs. In March 2017, Ontario in Canada started trialling a similar scheme.

But UBI also has right-wing supporters. Sam Bowman of the Adam Smith Institute wrote in 2013: "The ideal welfare system is a basic income, replacing the existing anti-poverty programmes the government carries out" and that UBI would result in a less "paternalistic" government.

From this perspective, in the hands of the right, UBI could be seen as a kind of universal credit for all, undermining the entire benefits system and providing justification for paying the poorest a poverty income. E.M. O'Hagan writes: "UBI cannot be a progressive initiative as long as the people with the power to implement it are hostile to the welfare state as a whole."

Alex Williams and Nick Srnicek, in their book Inventing the Future, link UBI to three other demands: collectively controlled automation, a reduction in the working week and a diminution of the work ethic. Without these provisions, UBI could act as an excise to get rid of the welfare state.

O'Hagan suggests "it is possible for the welfare state not just to act as a safety net, but as a tool for all of us to do less work and spend more time with our loved ones, pursuing personal interests or engaging in our communities." She concludes "UBI has this revolutionary potential - but not if it is simply parachuted into a political economy that has been pursuing punitive welfare policies for the last 30 years."

Source: Love the Idea of a Universal Basic Income? Be careful what you wish for: by Ellie Mae O'Hagan in The Guardian, 23 June 2017