Top story: ‘Fully developed’ NHS needed
Good morning all, Alison Rourke here to start off your Monday morning.
The health service needs far more financial support if it is to meet the needs of a changing population, the head of Whitehall’s spending watchdog has warned. In the week the NHS turns 70, Sir Amyas Morse has called on politicians to “think big” on where this national asset should go and says the annual spending increase to £135bn by 2023-24 will only serve to maintain current services. Morse says it won’t be enough to meet the needs of a rapidly changing demographic and calls for a “bigger and better” and “fully developed” healthcare system. He calls on NHS leaders to transform the way the service works and to treat more patients at home. “The best thing you can do for someone is to keep them out of hospital and living well. And that’s not just old people.”
This week the Guardian will be running a series this week to mark the NHS’s 70th birthday, including our first offering in today’s lunchtime read on Clement Attlee’s granddaughter’s memories of what drove her famous “Grandpa” to build a health service available to all.
* * *
EU student fees - European students applying to universities in England next year – after Britain’s formal exit from the EU – will be eligible for student loans and tuition fees at the same rate as domestic students, the government has announced. The education secretary, Damian Hinds, said students from the EU made an important contribution to the universities sector: “It is a testament to our system that so many students from abroad choose to come and study here,” Hinds said. The government’s decision to extend the current arrangements on loans and fees to 2019-20 means EU students can continue to enrol on the same basis as British students, after the formal date for Brexit in March 2019 has passed.
* * *
‘Artificial ovary’– Doctors have used human tissue and eggs in a bid to help women conceive after cancer treatment or other therapies that may have damaged their fertility. A team in Denmark showed that a lab-made artificial ovary could keep human eggs alive for weeks at a time, raising hopes that the approach may one day help women have families after treatments such as chemo- and radiotherapy. “This is the first proof that we can actually support these egg cells. It’s an important step along the road,” researcher Susanne Pors told the Guardian.
* * *
Merkel’s migration battle – All eyes will be on Germany’s fragile coalition today after the country’s interior minister said he would meet with Angela Merkal one last time before he made a decision on whether or not to resign. Horst Seehofer, who leads the Christian Social Union, is unhappy with the deal struck by Merkel on migration in Brussels last week. Seehofer’s departure could benefit the chancellor in the short term, removing her nemesis from inside government, but in the long term could threaten the country’s historic governing alliance.
* * *
‘It stinks’ – A report that Donald Trump is looking to walk away from the World Trade Organisation and instead adopt a United States Fair and Reciprocal Tariff Act, or Fart Act, has been greeted with loud amusement on Twitter. News website Axios reported that it had received a leaked early draft of a bill ordered by the president, that would see America take the unlikely step of abandoning WTO rules, allowing Trump to raise tariffs without the consent of Congress. The bill – the existence of which has not been independently confirmed – would be a dramatic shift in trade policy with wide-reaching impacts, but it was the name of the proposed bill that caught people’s attention.
* * *
Butterfly boost – A sunny May and June and the harsh winter that preceded has given a boost to the country’s most endangered butterfly, the high brown fritillary. The cold winter helped knock back the bracken, said Matthew Oates, one of the UK’s leading butterfly experts, giving rise to ideal conditions for caterpillar development in May and June. “As we are having some fairly dry weather, it’s now the perfect time for seeing this large and powerful butterfly,” he said.
World Cup
Another day, and another big name has fallen by the wayside. The latest team to be bundled out of the tournament in Russia are 2010 winners Spain, who lost 4-3 on penalties against the host nation.
The Spaniards’ finesse was no match for Russian tenacity in their Moscow last-16 showdown – and it’s tiki-taxi for them, writes Barney Ronay. The Russian coach, Stanislav Cherchesov, said his plan to nullify Spain had worked to perfection after a gritty defensive performance that was devised in response to the threat posed by their opponents.
In the day’s other fixture, Luka Modrić fluffed his big line – from the penalty spot to settle the game in extra-time – but ultimately the classy Real Madrid man prevailed in the duel with his successor at Tottenham, Christian Eriksen, as Croatia booked a place in the quarter-finals with a shootout win over Denmark.
In the England camp, Gareth Southgate has defended Jordan Pickford and publicly reaffirmed his faith in his first-choice goalkeeper after the England No 1 came in for criticism over Belgium’s winning goal in last week’s final group game. Last-16 opponents Colombia are confident, with David Ospina saying his team are better than the one that reached the World Cup quarter-finals four years ago and will be lifted by the backing of around 40,000 supporters in Moscow. Arguably more importantly though, waistcoat sales are up – Marks & Spencer, which has been the official suit supplier to the England team since 2007, said demand for waistcoats had risen 35% thanks to what they say is “the Gareth Southgate effect”.
But before Tuesday’s big game, Brazil, where there is a feeling among players and management that things are falling into place, meet Mexico and Belgium seek to finally play to their potential against Japan. The build-up to both matches has already started.
Lunchtime read: ‘He’d be amazed at progress in the NHS’
As the NHS turns 70, Clement Attlee’s granddaughter Belinda Johnson tells how her mother’s illness helped drive the push for a national health service. “First she got meningitis and spent time in hospital, though she survived it. Then she fell off her bicycle and fractured her skull,” Johnson recalls. Attlee, who led the government that created the NHS, could afford to keep his daughter alive, but understood others could not.
“People couldn’t afford healthcare. When you got ill the rich could keep themselves alive and the poor couldn’t, which is wrong.” What would Grandpa make of today’s NHS? “He’d be amazed at the progress in technology and in pharmaceuticals,” Johnson says. “He’d be proud that we can afford to do things like screening, because prevention is better than cure.”
Sport
LeBron James, the NBA’s best player, has agreed to a four-year, $154m contract with the LA Lakers, leaving Cleveland for a second time to join one of the league’s most storied franchises.
Andy Murray’s decision on Sunday night to pull out of Wimbledon, which starts today, has left tennis fans bewildered but he is adamant he has made the right decision.
Chris Froome will on Tuesday take his chance with an appeal against his exclusion from the Tour de France but the mood in France is hardening against Team Sky and the four-times winner, thanks in part to memories of Lance Armstrong.
And England cantered to a seven-wicket win in the T20 tri-series final, stamping their dominance in the format before the Women’s World T20 in November.
Business
More than 150 estate agency firms went insolvent last year and as many as 7,000 are at risk as high street operators face the triple whammy of online competition, a sagging property market and cuts to letting fees, a study by accountants Moore Stephens has found.
Asian share markets were burdened by fresh losses in China on Monday, while Mexico’s peso firmed as exit polls pointed to a decisive victory for presidential front-runner Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s party.
The pound is buying $1.321 and €1.131.
The papers
The Guardian’s lead story today, as mentioned above, is “NHS funding boost not enough, spending watchdog warns May”, kicking off the paper’s coverage of the NHS at 70.
Elsewhere, Brexit leads the front pages of both the Times (“May piles pressure on Brexiteer ministers”) and the Telegraph (“Mogg warns May: Give a real Brexit or face coup”). The i has “Warring Cabinet out of control”.
The Daily Mail is launching a campaign to “Save Britain’s high streets” in light of revelations 50,000 retail jobs were axed in the past six months. Confusingly, the Daily Mirror is also launching a campaign on this issue today, which they call the “Mirror high street fightback”. But their lead story is “Tot killed by exploding trampoline”.
“Cheryl and Liam split,” says the Sun of the One Direction and Girls Aloud singers announcing their separation. And the Daily Express runs fears of a hosepipe ban in light of the hot weather, with: “Hose ban ‘in days’ as Britain dries up”.
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.
