PM's aide attacked over call to axe maternity pay

Senior Lib Dems turned their fire on David Cameron's 'blue skies thinker' yesterday after he suggested scrapping paid maternity leave.
Steve Hilton came up with the idea as a way of boosting the economy, along with abolishing JobCentres, suspending consumer rights laws for nine months 'to see what would happen' and ignoring some EU employment regulations.
It has been suggested that his ideas were leaked to the Financial Times by civil servants who felt he was undermining their power.
One Whitehall insider told the paper: 'Steve thinks maternity rights are the biggest obstacle to women finding work.'
But Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, dismissed any suggestions of backtracking on EU employment rights or maternity leave.
'That most definitely is not Government policy. Steve is a fine blue skies thinker but this is not part of what we are going to do,' he said.
'We are looking at labour legislation in general but it has got to be sensible and balanced and I think that particular proposal isn't.' 

 

David Cameron, pictured yesterday at the Olympic volleyball site, has known trusted aide Mr Hilton since 1992

Don't eat anything that won't fit on a fork: It's the daftest diet ever, but it actually works!

Diets used to be something that started on a Monday morning - and would usually be ditched that evening. But since I moved to France, my attitude has changed.
I am married to a Frenchman, who watches my weight as closely as I do. We are perfectly aware to the nearest pound what we each weigh - and how much weight we need to lose.
In France, diets aren’t just for fat or obese people; they are followed meticulously by everyone who wants to stay slim. Make no mistake: Vanessa Paradis, Marion Cotillard and Carla Bruni were not born with a magical skinny gene.

 

Three out of four mums wouldn't know what to do if their child suffers a severe allergic reaction to a wasp sting

Three out of four mums don't know what to do if their child suffers a severe allergic reaction to a wasp sting, new research warns.
Findings reveal that three quarters (76 per cent) of mums wouldn't know how to treat anaphylactic shock if their child experienced it, while over two thirds (66 per cent) worry about the threat posed by wasps during the warm summer months.
The Anaphylaxis Campaign advises parents to call 999 immediately to seek medical help, keep the child calm, lie the patient down with their feet raised to increase blood flow to the hear and, if the patient is going to vomit, turn them onto their side and into the recovery position until an ambulance arrives.

Not enough sunshine is putting millions of us at risk from diabetes

A lack of sunshine is putting millions of people at risk of diabetes because they don't have enough vitamin D, researchers have said.
A large study found that people with plenty of it in their system were less likely to develop type 2 diabetes.
The research, carried out in Australia, could play a major role in combating the condition which has been increasing in recent years.

Diabetes risk: A lack of sunshine is putting millions at risk of diabetes, research claimed

Plenty of exercise and a good diet can help prevent diabetes developing - although the study suggests not enough sunshine could also be a contributory factor.

Food supplements airlifted into famine-hit Somalia

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — A plane carrying 10 tons of urgently needed nutritional supplements to treat malnourished children has landed in famine-hit Somalia, a U.N. official said Wednesday.

The airlift is part of a crisis intervention as famine threatens to spread across lawless Somalia.

David Orr, a World Food Program spokesman who flew with the shipment from neighboring Kenya to the Somali capital of Mogadishu, said it was the first airlift of food aid since the U.N. declared a famine in parts of Somalia last week.

Robbed of hope, the cancer victims being ignored by profit-hungry drug firms

At the age of just 21, Alex Lewis knew time was running out for him. Three years into a losing battle with bone cancer, he was determined to pack as much as possible into what time he had left.
In between bouts of gruelling treatments there were trips to Australia and New  Zealand, an active social life and — one of his favourite pursuits — whizzing around the Oxfordshire countryside in his sports car.
‘Alex loved life,’ says his mother Angela, 52. ‘But his one sadness was that because of his cancer he would never have another long-term relationship or get married.’

Tragic love: Alex and Ali were married days before he died from bone cancer

One night in June last year that all changed. At a party, Alex was reunited with Ali Strain, a student from Birmingham whom he’d met while travelling in Australia. They kissed and, against all the odds, Alex’s dream came true.

Schoolgirl, 17, so worried about detention after sneaking out of school to buy food she collapsed with a HEART ATTACK

A sixth former was so distraught about being given her first detention that she collapsed and had a heart attack.
Tabatha McElligott, then 17, was caught by a teacher after sneaking out of school with friends to buy chocolate.
And her fear caused an undiagnosed rare heart condition to kick in.
Teachers dialled 999 and an emergency first aider arrived at Westcliff High School for Girls in Essex within three minutes.
He was able to restart her heart in the playground with a defibrillator before an ambulance arrived.
Doctors discovered that Miss McElligott, from Leigh-on-Sea, was born with ‘anomalous left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery’, which could have killed her at any time. The congenital condition causes her body to pump blood around her heart the wrong way.
Only 10 per cent of sufferers survive if they are not diagnosed by their first birthday.
‘I’d never really been in trouble at school, so I was mortified when we started getting shouted at and my heart obviously couldn’t cope with it,’ she said yesterday.
‘I felt my legs turning to jelly, and then everything went black.
‘I know now my heart was a ticking timebomb  waiting to go off.
‘In a strange way, I’m actually incredibly lucky I had a heart attack when I got shouted at. There was someone there who could help me.
‘I could easily have been left brain damaged or even dead if my heart had stopped for longer.’
After open heart surgery, she is now able to lead a normal life, simply taking beta blockers daily to slow her heart rate and aspirin to thin her blood.
Now 19, she has even trained as an emergency first aider to help others.
She added: ‘Since recovering, I have trained as an emergency responder, so I can carry my own defibrillator and be first on the scene if an emergency happens near me.
‘I’ve now made it my mission to ensure all young people are taught CPR, and as many as possible train to become emergency responders. It might just save a life.’
Nurse Cathy Ross, of the British Heart Foundation, said: ‘Most people with this condition are diagnosed at birth, so it’s incredibly rare to survive until your teenage years without knowing about it.
‘This young lady was very lucky that a community responder was on hand so quickly and shows just how important it is for ordinary people to know basic life support skills in case of an emergency.’

Her hero: Tabatha with paramedic Steve Hockley who restarted her heart in the school playground. She still bears a severe scar from the incident

Miss McElligott and her friend Catherine Newton left the school grounds during a free lesson in July last year.
When they came back from a local supermarket, a fire alarm had been triggered and staff were taking a roll call.

ANOMALOUS LEFT CORONARY ARTERY FROM THE PULMONARY ARTERY (ALCAPA)

Cathy Ross, senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said: 'ALCAPA is a very rare condition some people are born with where the left coronary artery that usually carries oxygen-rich blood from the aorta to a large portion of the heart muscle, is connected to the pulmonary artery instead.
'The pulmonary artery carries deoxygenated blood meaning the left side of the heart receives much less oxygen than it needs to be able function properly often resulting in a heart attack or leading to heart failure.

'Most people with this condition are diagnosed at birth, so it's incredibly rare to survive until your teenage years without knowing about it.'

‘We never thought anyone would miss us. We were on the way back to school when we heard the fire bell ringing and we ran back,’ said Tabatha, from Leigh-on-Sea.
‘When we got to the gates I could hear my teacher calling my name and my heart started hammering.
‘She began to tell us off but my heart just kept beating harder and harder and her voice sounded really distant.
‘I felt my legs turning to jelly and then everything went black.’

A trained emergency responder arrived within three minutes and saved the schoolgirl’s life before she was taken to Southend Hospital.
She was later transferred to The Heart Hospital at University College London, where experts diagnosed the condition.

‘I was stunned when I was told I’d had a heart attack – I was only 17,’ said Tabitha.
‘In my mind, heart attacks were something that overweight middle-aged men worried about – not something that happened to active teenagers like me.’
The British Heart Foundation does not keep statistics on the occurrence of ALCAPA in the general population but described it as ‘very rare’.

Panic: Tabatha McElligott was so 'mortified' at being scolded for sneaking out that she felt her 'legs turn to jelly' and she collapsed