Top story: Patients could be at risk, study finds
Good morning and welcome to the Guardian briefing. I’m Martin Farrer and here are the top stories this Monday morning (warning: the news for cricket fans is not good).
Britain’s medical watchdog has warned that hospital patients are being put at risk because junior doctors are being left in charge of A&E and other units due to understaffing and pressures on senior doctors. A study by the General Medical Council, which has shared its findings with the Guardian, says that trainee medics are being forced to “fend for themselves” and asked to look after patients with conditions they are not qualified to treat. “We are very worried ... it creates very clear risks to patients from doctors who may not know what they’re doing,” said the GMC’s chief executive, Charlie Massey. He added that a significant proportion of trainees felt “very exposed” by what they were being asked to do and risked losing their licence to practice if they made mistakes. The survey of 55,000 junior doctors also found that some were showing the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, such as continually interrupted sleep and uncertain decision-making.
* * *
Irish question needs an answer – Britain’s Brexit imbroglio has deepened after Liam Fox insisted that there could be no final decision on the increasingly fraught Northern Ireland border issue until an EU-UK trade deal has been agreed. Unfortunately, Europe’s negotiators are saying the opposite: that the trade issue can’t be addressed at next month’s EU summit until the question of the Irish border has been settled. The Irish prime minister, Leo Varadkar, heaped pressure on the UK by saying that it wanted a written guarantee that there will be no hard border, which Dublin believes can be achieved only by keeping Northern Ireland within the single market and customs union. Fox said there was no prospect of such a compromise, however, and said that the Irish issue could be dealt with later because the UK always had “special arrangements” for Ireland.
* * *
England go 1-0 down – We can’t put off the cricket any longer. England duly slumped to a 10-wicket defeat in Brisbane overnight as Australian openers Cameron Bancroft and David Warner took little more than an hour to knock off the remaining 56 runs needed for victory. Joe Root’s team now trails in the Ashes and must pick themselves up quickly with the second Test starting in Adelaide on Saturday. Their cause has not been helped by the ongoing story about an alleged headbutt by wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow on Bancroft in a Perth bar four weeks ago. At the post-match media conference Bancroft laughed off the incident, saying Bairstow “says hello to people very differently from most others”. Root said the reports were making a “mountain out of molehill”, adding that “we have to concentrate on our cricket”.
* * *
Price problem – A report today says that nearly 100,000 households in England are being priced out of the property market each year because they cannot afford to rent or buy. Research by the estate agent Savills found the number was 30,000 higher than predicted in its last forecast in 2015 as rising prices and stagnant wage growth take their toll. It comes after the chancellor, Philip Hammond, pledged help for younger home buyers in his budget and reiterated a promise to build 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s. Savills said one-third of those homes would need to be priced below the real market level to put them within reach of many buyers.
* * *
Bali eruption – At least 100,000 people are being evacuated on the Indonesian island of Bali after Mount Agung continued to spew a huge ash cloud and lava. The rumblings from the volcano have caused flights in and out of the holiday island to be cancelled and a 10km exclusion zone placed around the mountain.
* * *
Buying Time – The billionaire Koch brothers have provided $650m to help the US publishing group Meredith buy Time Inc in a deal worth $1.8bn. Meredith, which owns Better Homes & Gardens and other leading titles, said the deal for Time, publisher of the legendary eponymous magazine, would be “transformative”. The involvement of David and Charles Koch, who are renowned as climate change deniers and supporters of libertarian causes, has brought questions about why the magnates are investing in print. But Meredith said the Kochs would not be given a seat on the board and would not have any say on editorial matters.
* * *
Mining the depths – A student party themed around the miners’ strike of the 1980s has been cancelled after university authorities stepped in following complaints. The rugby club at Trevelyan College at Durham University planned the “Forwards vs Backs” social event and asked some students to attend with “flat caps, filth and a general disregard for personal safety” and “think pickaxes, think headlamps, think 12% unemployment in 1984”. But it was scrapped after the Durham Miners’ Association complained to the university that it “trivialised police violence at Orgreave”.
Lunchtime read: how the rave spirit lives on
It’s 25 years since Britain’s biggest illegal rave at Castlemorton in the Malvern Hills caused moral panic and led to legislation outlawing parties playing “repetitive beats”. But despite the crackdown, rave is back in the pop cultural mix, writes Lauren Cochrane, and its legacy can be felt everywhere from the fashion industry to a Jarvis Cocker stage show and a forthcoming TV series called Ibiza87 by Irvine Welsh. Politics is also important – see the Acid Corbynism event at Labour conference – and observers such as the academic Will Stronge think rave’s anti-establishment spirit can be an inspiration for today’s youth. “The ecstatic moments on the dancefloor tie into what it is to be a person, a person [who is] part of a community,” Stronge says. “Dance music as a collective experience means it’s already political.”
Sport
Our rugby writer Nick Evans has given his team-by-team verdict on the tier-one nations who appeared in the Autumn Internationals, with New Zealand and Scotland delighting, Australia having nosedived and South Africa in a sorry state. Pep Guardiola has hailed Manchester City’s 2-1 win at Huddersfield Town as one of their best results this season after his team fought back from going a goal behind. Valtteri Bottas, meanwhile, has won the Abu Dhabi grand prix, beating his Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton into second at the Yas Marina circuit, with Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel a distant third.
Business
The government will reveal its plans to tackle the UK’s productivity problems in a white paper today on its industrial strategy. The ideas include a watchdog to monitor progress made in boosting innovation, upgrading infrastructure and improving skills.
On the markets, Asian stocks suffered thanks to weakness in China and South Korea. The FTSE100 is tipped to open down a fraction. The pound is down slightly at $1.332 and €1.117.
The papers
No agreement on what the story of our nation is today. Lots of different front pages. The Sun continues its stories about the troubles of I’m a Celebrity star Ant McPartlin saying there are “fears for his marriage”.
The Guardian leads with the General Medical Council warning that inexperienced young doctors are frequently being asked to take charge of A&E units, potentially putting patients at risk. On the health theme the Mail splashes with their investigation that less well-trained “technicians” rather than paramedics are being sent by ambulance bosses to call-outs.
The Times leads with an investigation in which it says thousands of children have been groomed by criminal gangs as drug runners. The Telegraph meanwhile says that Britains’ armed forces will not receive any more funding after a funding review.
The Mirror’s headline is “Russia’s ‘lies’ over flu jabs in Britain” and says that Kremlin-linked cyber units are spreading health misinformation.
Lastly the FT says Theresa May’s Brexit policy has been given a boost by large investments in Britain by two pharma companies.
For more news: www.theguardian.com
Sign up
The Guardian Morning Briefing is delivered to thousands of inboxes bright and early every weekday. If you are not already receiving it by email, you can sign up here.
