UK ministers face increased pressure to restrict gambling ads

Ministers will come under mounting pressure to introduce curbs on gambling advertising this year, as MPs and campaigners latch on to polling that indicates widespread public support for tougher restrictions.Policies affecting gambling have been the subject of fierce debate over recent years, leading to stricter regulation of the £12.5bn-a-year sector and higher taxes announced in November’s budget, despite intensive lobbying by the industry.But, while successive governments have brought in measures such as lower stake limits on online slot machines and a statutory levy to fund addiction treatment, gambling advertising has remained largely unaffected.New polling, shared with the Guardian, indicates strong public backing for a much less permissive approach to gambling ads, which have exploded in volume since deregulation by Tony Blair’s Labour government in 2005

Hundreds of Blackpool families to be evicted in ‘mass dispersion’ of vulnerable people

Hundreds of families in one of England’s poorest neighbourhoods will be evicted under a £90m plan described by critics as a “mass dispersion” of vulnerable people.Four hundred homes in Blackpool will be bulldozed this summer and replaced with 230 new properties under levelling up proposals signed off by Rishi Sunak’s government. The area has more than 800 people – about 250 of them children – who are in the poorest 10th of the population of England, according to official documents.The Rev Matthew Lockwood, the leader of Beacon church, said residents were “bewildered, angry and distraught” and risked being made homeless in a “mass dispersion of statistically some of the most vulnerable people in the country”.Chris Webb, the Labour MP for Blackpool South, is understood to have raised concerns about the scheme after an angry and emotional public meeting last month

Ethnic minorities in England less likely to have access to diabetes tech – study

People from ethnic minority backgrounds in England are less likely to have access to the latest diabetes technology, despite being more likely to live with the condition, according to analysis.Devices such as a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) can help people check their blood glucose levels in order to better manage the disease.Without this technology, people with diabetes are left with much less efficient and inconvenient ways of managing their blood sugar levels, such as through finger pricking.The study, published in the journal Diabetic Medicine, found significant disparities in access to continuous glucose monitors, with people from black and south Asian backgrounds facing lower prescribing rates per 1,000 people.People from ethnic minority backgrounds made up 17

Children in England to be offered vaccines in their own homes

Health visitors will be sent door-to-door to deliver vaccines to children in England amid alarm that one in five start primary school with no protection against deadly diseases, the Guardian can reveal.The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that at least 95% of children should receive vaccine doses for each illness to achieve herd immunity. However, not a single one of the main childhood vaccines in England hit the target in 2024-25. There were also sharp differences in uptake across the country.In an effort to tackle the crisis, health visitors will begin offering a range of life-saving jabs to children in their own homes as part of a £2m pilot scheme starting in January

Roland Littlewood obituary

My husband, Roland Littlewood, who has died aged 78, was professor of psychiatry and anthropology at University College London from 1994 until 2012, and for more than 20 years the joint director of UCL’s Centre for Medical Anthropology, which explores how health, medicine and healing are influenced by cultural values and practices across different societies.In the course of his research, Roland travelled to Trinidad to study the healing practices of Mother Earth (Jeanette Baptist) and the Earth People (a spiritual community), to Haiti to research voodoo and healing, and to the Lebanon to observe the Druze sect.Born in Leicester, he was the younger son of Robert Littlewood, a lecturer in Spanish, and his Swiss wife, Trudi (nee Lehner), a lecturer in French and German. He spent formative years at Wyggeston grammar school in Leicester, then trained as a doctor at St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical College in London. I met Roland in 1969 at a party at Barts, where I was training as a nurse – we married there in 1975, with our wedding reception held in the Great Hall

Focus on communities in new towns and old | Letters

The government’s renewed enthusiasm for building new towns may make for bold headlines, but it risks missing the people who need housing most. Even senior planners involved in the postwar new towns programme have warned that the current proposals lack ambition on social housing and may not reach those in greatest need (Key figures in creation of Milton Keynes criticise UK’s new towns plan, 25 December). Other analyses suggest that new towns have historically contributed only a small proportion of the homes required and are unlikely to deliver at the scale ministers claim.Instead of pouring resources into speculative new settlements, we should focus on the towns and cities we already have – places with infrastructure, identity and communities that are being steadily hollowed out. Across the UK, redundant land, vacant upper floors, derelict retail units and brownfield sites offer enormous potential for affordable, well‑located homes