EDITION 917
2 MAY 2022

There is no escaping it: too much news is bad for you. It should come with a government health warning: “This intellectual diet is fine taken in small doses, and preferably in weekly instalments, via a well-balanced newsletter, such as 10 things from William Montgomery."

So, as another week slips by, here are 10 things which caught my attention and may have escaped yours. Please feel free to share on social media and forward to your colleagues and friends so they can also subscribe, learn and engage. I would be very grateful if you did.

William Montgomery
Editor and CEO of TEN

1. How to ask for a raise amid inflation. As we all navigate the new, more expensive, supply-chain-snarled world amid the Great Reshuffle, workers don’t perceive themselves as having as much leverage and power as they once did. So when and how are the best ways to ask for more money? READ MORE

2. Should we get an extra bank holiday. Business leaders, as well as the CBI and UK Hospitality, have written to the government proposing an additional bank holiday. This year, there is an extra bank holiday in June for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, and the letter's authors say making it permanent could provide a "social and economic" boost. A report by PwC suggests government models overestimate the costs of an additional day off – due to lower productivity and premium pay rates – by £500m, and said sectors badly hit in the pandemic, such as retail and hospitality, could benefit. BBC

3. Care home warnings ‘ignored’. Hospital patients were unlawfully discharged to care homes during the pandemic despite 20 warnings of asymptomatic Covid-19 transmission, the High Court has said. A 75-page ruling found that Public Health England advised the government against allowing untested hospital patients to be transferred to care homes. This disclosure “undermines claims” from the former health secretary Matt Hancock that he did not know about asymptomatic transmission. Bereaved families said care home residents were “thrown to the wolves” during the pandemic. Around 20,000 elderly or disabled residents died. i News

4. Gray report could see PM quit. Sue Gray’s report into lockdown parties on Downing Street is so “excoriating” that senior officials believe it could leave Boris Johnson with no choice but to stand down, it has emerged. The senior civil servant’s inquiry is understood to be “damning” of the prime minister both for attending some of the events and the culture in Downing Street under his leadership. “It will make things incredibly difficult for the prime minister,” an official told the paper. “There’s an immense amount of pressure on her - her report could be enough to end him. No official has ever been in a position like this before.” The Times

5. How to get more done each day. A to-do list is a useful tool for time management, but the time of the day is just as important. I suggest breaking up the working day into quadrants: [1] The first two hours of the day for high intensity, high-impact work, which require the most brainpower, such as writing proposals. [2] The next two hours are dedicated to high intensity, low-impact work like meetings. [3] The two hours after lunch for low-impact and low-intensity tasks, such as administration and clearing emails. [4] The end of the day is for low-impact, high-intensity work, like tidying up loose ends and reviewing the next day's activities and meetings. Editor

6. White paper signals end of licence fee. The government has “formally signalled the death of the licence fee.” In the first significant update to British broadcasting laws for nearly 20 years, the government said it would draw up a timetable for a review of the licence fee over the coming months, because there are “clear challenges on the horizon to the sustainability of the licence fee”. The same white paper has fired the starting pistol on plans to privatise Channel 4, despite 96% of 56,293 respondents to a government consultation opposing a sale. The Times

7. UK homes hit by air pollution. Almost all homes in the UK are subjected to air pollution above World Health Organisation guidelines, according to a map produced by the Central Office of Public Interest and Imperial College London. More than 97% of addresses exceed WHO limits for at least one of three key pollutants. In Slough, a record 90% of homes were in the top 10% most polluted, followed by London, with 66%. Other cities most affected include Portsmouth, Leeds and Manchester. You can check your address here. The Guardian

8. A ‘clock’ for life expectancy. Want to know your expiration date? Over the past decade, scientists have developed hundreds of “aging clocks” that aim to reveal your biological age - the wear and tear on your organs and how many healthy years you have left - by measuring molecular changes in DNA. The science of aging clocks is still young and the results they produce are sometimes off by decades. But researchers believe that within five years doctors will be using these clocks in clinical settings, to help patients better understand their health and risk of disease. MIT Technology Review

9. Blood pressure pill development. A new twice-yearly blood pressure injection could replace a daily pill. Scientists from Queen Mary University of London and Barts Health NHS Trust are trialling Zilebesiran, a drug that prevents the production of a protein that constricts the blood vessels. Around a third of adults in the UK have high blood pressure but many might not know it, according to the NHS. Around 15 million prescriptions for daily pills such as ACE inhibitors are issued by the NHS each year. The Telegraph

10. The bottom line. According to the latest YouGov poll, British adults think the Government is handling almost every key issue badly, from inflation (74% badly; 14% well) to immigration (72% badly; 16% well). An exception is defence, with 41% say it is doing well and 35% badly. According to a poll by Conservative Home, Rishi Sunak is now the least popular cabinet minister among Tory voters, with a satisfaction rating of -5.2. Until his Spring Statement, Sunak was running third in the league table. Ben Wallace now tops it, with a satisfaction rating of +85; Liz Truss is second. The Times