‘The anxieties just lift’: why domestic abuse refuges are turning to female tradespeople

One of the main challenges in maintaining the 65 homes for domestic abuse survivors run by Refuge is the reliance on a male-dominated workforce of electricians, plumbers and decorators.“The presence of men can be distressing and could trigger past traumas for our survivors,” said Lisa Cantwell-Hope, the head of property services at the charity. “Male contractors need an escort to make our survivors feel more comfortable, and we always put a notice out to all our residents saying there will be a male presence in the building today. So it can be challenging and takes up more time.”Data from the Office for National Statistics shows there were 48,000 tradeswomen in the UK in 2021, a growth of 41% from 2006, but it is thought this is still only about 4% of the total trades workforce, and construction is consistently ranked as the most male-dominated industry in the country

There’s an epidemic of men pushing women, and it needs to stop | Letters

Re Lucy Pasha-Robinson’s article (A man pushed me in the street, he wanted to teach me a lesson. Is that OK now?, 17 February), I noticed many years ago how almost all women move aside, unconsciously, out of the path of oncoming men. Sit at a cafe watching – it’s shocking once you realise that this happens all day every day.I decided to challenge myself to hold my line when walking, and the results are amazing. Men simply presume I am going to move away, and look shocked at me when I don’t

Having a stoma bag isn’t usually so bad as it’s been for Tracey Emin | Letters

In your interview with Tracey Emin about A Second Life, her forthcoming major exhibition at Tate Modern, and other matters (‘Regrets? Number one: smoking. Number two: taking it up the wrong hole’: Tracey Emin on reputation, radical honesty – and Reform, 14 February), she comments on the difficulties in her life now that she is living without a bladder.While data is patchy, about 100 people a week undergo this surgery in the UK, commonly known as a urostomy. For all those people waiting to have this surgery it is a traumatic time, and I think it’s important to point out that this often life-saving surgery usually has much a much better outcome than Tracey has had.People get back to living full and active lives, doing whatever they did before surgery

Singing the praises of political plurality | Brief letters

Polly Toynbee says Angela Rayner, in her local government white paper, “boasted that it will mean ‘fewer [local] politicians’” (Opinion, 18 February), as if they are a bacillus to be wiped out. I am represented by a Conservative councillor on Ilkley town council. On Bradford city council I rejoice in a Green councillor. And in my county of West Yorkshire I have the benefit of a Labour mayor. Such a plurality is the lifeblood of democracy

UK migrant families face giving up vital in-work benefits to avoid being ‘punished’

Families claiming in-work benefits face giving them up and enduring hardship to avoid being “punished” under a planned government migration crackdown, experts have said.More than 200,000 people living legally in the UK are on the 10-year route to settled status, which requires legal migrants to renew 30-month visas four times – at a cost of £3,908.50 including healthcare costs per renewal – before they can apply for indefinite leave to remain (ILR).Migrants to the UK usually have no recourse to public funds. However, the Home Office has the discretion to lift the restriction, typically in cases where families on the 10-year route are facing hardship

Ketamine addiction making teenagers wet the bed, says UK’s first specialist clinic

Children are using incontinence pads and urinating in buckets next to their bed at night due to bladder problems caused by ketamine addiction, according to the first specialist NHS clinic dealing with the issue.Medics at Alder Hey children’s hospital in Liverpool have opened the first ketamine clinic for young people in the UK in response to a surge in urology problems linked to addiction of the drug.“Some of our patients start wetting the bed or find going to the bathroom at night is actually too hard, so they’ll either choose incontinence products or a bucket by the bed,” said Harriet Corbett, a consultant paediatric urologist at the clinic.“I hate to say it, but a lot of them get to the point where they’re not fussed about where they go, because the need to go overrides their desire to find somewhere private. And I suspect more of them are incontinent than are willing to tell us