The NHS at 75 – three things you should read today  

Welcome to Wednesday’s Early Edition from i.

It was launched on the promise that “everybody, irrespective of means, age, sex or occupation shall have equal opportunity to benefit from the best and most up-to-date medical and allied services available.” Among the excitement, were warnings against complacency, and that “no miracle would happen” at the moment of its inception. The service faced shortages of nurses and equipment, and began operations in out-of-date buildings. 75 years later, the NHS is in crisis. Austerity and the pandemic have pushed parts of it, and its staff, to breaking point. Today we’ll look at three important stories on the future of the health service – that’s after the news.

Today’s news, and why it matters

Sir Keir Starmer is under pressure to adopt a more radical policy on Brexit amid polling showing voters are increasingly disillusioned with the withdrawal from the EU. A proposal to include negotiating a bespoke customs union with Brussels for the UK in Labour’s general election manifesto will be discussed at the party’s national policy forum later this month, i can reveal. A number of Labour MPs believe there is a palpable shift in public opinion on Brexit due to worse inflation figures compared with Europe and that space is now opening up for a “bolder” approach.

Homeowners are braced for more mortgage pain with the interest base rate predicted to rise again this year up to four more times. Experts who have formerly been part of the team that sets the base rate have told i they fear the interest base rate, which is central to the cost of mortgages, will rise as high as 6 per cent by Christmas, up from 5 per cent today.

More than 2,000 police officers could be sacked over the next year under new measures to make it easier to remove those suspected of misconduct, Government ministers believe. The Home Office is expected to announce a simplified disciplinary system in the coming weeks in response to anger about high-profile cases of crime committed by serving officers.

The Government is drawing up plans to drop the UK’s £11.6bn climate and nature funding pledge, according to a leaked briefing note seen by The Guardian. Civil servants said in the document the money “would squeeze out room for other commitments such as humanitarian and women and girls”.

Nearly every railway station ticket office in England will be closed under Government plans due to be unveiled today. Industry body the Rail Delivery Group will set out proposals to close hundreds of ticket offices over an expected three-year period to save money.

Former GMTV presenter Fiona Phillips has revealed that she has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s at the age of 62. The TV presenter and journalist, best known as a former host of the ITV breakfast programme, told the Daily Mirror: “This disease has ravaged my family and now it has come for me.”

Three important stories to read about the NHS today:

The long and short-term solutions needed to provide light at the end of the tunnel. Long waiting lists, corridor care and diminished staffing levels plaguing the NHS might get worse before they bet better, senior medics have warned. Despite unveiling its first long-term work plan several days ago, a number of key think-tanks are still urging more robust visions for budgeting, education and investment in buildings. But some also say urgent short-term solutions are needed too, so that millions of patients facing long delays for treatment believe that the NHS will improve. That warning comes as a new damning poll also shows almost half of people in Britain think that NHS care will get worse in the coming years. “There does need to be a belief among staff and patients that the service will improve. The workforce plan recognises that need and there is a tacit acceptance in it from Government that it is a decade too late in arriving,” Dr Tim Cooksley, president of the Society for Acute Medicine, told i. Read the full story here.

What would life be like without the NHS? Ed Patrick, who manages to be both a comedian and NHS anesthetist, was offered some perspective on the health service during a recent trip to the vets. After forking out a cool £1,300 in the space of a few hours to help his ailing dog Nelly, he pondered what lessons he could take from it. “The NHS is under massive pressure, but the key aspect of being free at the point of use – when you need it most – is essential,” he writes. “You come into hospital and people like me will help, no-one’s skulking about with a card machine. Rushing a loved one or yourself in an emergency and not worrying about how on earth you will pay for it is something we as a nation can’t ever take for granted.” Read the full piece here.

Can it survive another five years? Professor Philip Banfield, the British Medical Association’s chair of council, warned earlier this week that the NHS is “collapsing” with dying patients forced to sleep in a corridor or on a chair while “hospitals are failing and falling apart” (Read that full piece here). Now, in an interview with The Guardian, he has lashed out at the Government’s handling of the health service, saying that most medics believe ministers are seeking to “destroy the NHS”. He said: “It was a conscious political decision to underfund and undervalue the NHS as a national asset and its staff – not just doctors but [staff] across the board.” And he adds: “The end point of that is that the NHS does not survive another 75 years. I would be very surprised if the NHS in its current form survives the next five or 10 years, at the rate that it’s declining.”

 Around the world

 Ukraine’s armed forces claim that the Russian military has planted possible explosives on the roof of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. Objects “similar to explosive devices” have been placed on the roof of the occupied nuclear plant, it was claimed – with the detonation not likely to cause a meltdown at the plant, but intended to “create a picture of shelling from Ukraine” that Russia intends to weaponise for misinformation, Ukrainian forces said.

A child killed during Israel’s military operation in Jenin was shot in the head, while another is believed to have received a fatal bullet to the chest, according to a local rights organisation. A third was hit by a missile strike in the violence at the Jenin refugee camp, said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, accountability programme director at Defence for Children International-Palestine.

A Hong Kong dissident in the UK said he feels under threat and concerned for his safety after a police bounty was offered for his arrest. Finn Lau, one of eight exiled dissidents wanted by Hong Kong police, told i: “These arrest warrants and the bounty that has been put on our heads increases the risk to me and all eight activists named by Hong Kong police.”

The announcement by Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, that it will imminently release a new app called Threads has set the internet ablaze with speculation – particularly on Twitter. Based on the screenshots posted to the App Store, Threads looks eerily similar to the user interface that Twitter popularised among its 300 million-odd users.

Tests on a white powder found inside the White House, sparking its temporary closure on Sunday, have identified the mystery substance as cocaine. The powder was found in the West Wing by the Secret Service on Sunday during routine rounds, leading to the building’s temporary closure.

 Watch out for…

 disruption for children and parents as teachers in England go on strike again today in a dispute over pay. 

 Thoughts for the day

Rishi Sunak’s net zero culture war will cost him more votes than he’ll gain. The Prime Minister’s diversionary rhetoric about Just Stop Oil risks junking the cross-party consensus on tackling climate change, says Paul Waugh.

Katharine Birbalsingh’s open letter about Jess Phillips exposes the hypocrisy of free-speech warriors. The anti-woke will continue dividing Britain, writes Yasmin Alibhai-Brown.

Sure, you can agree to be ‘amicable’ in divorce – but hatred can be helpful, too. Perhaps a big, messy, painful divorce is actually the kindest way you could possibly leave someone, suggests Rebecca Reid.

Culture Break

Gabriels: ‘A gospel singer? I’ve done things with my tongue that ain’t holy’. Jacob Lusk, Ryan Hope and Ari Balouzian are an unlikely trio, but a big Glastonbury – and an Elton John duet – has put them on the path to stardom, reports Shaun Curran.

The Big Read

‘Don’t mention Boris’: How the Tories think they might just snatch an Uxbridge by-election win. Labour needs to be picking up new voters to win the former PM’s seat. But the Conservatives have a strategy they think might thwart Starmer, reports James Ball.

Sport

‘Jealous’ Alcaraz craves Federer’s advice during Djokovic revenge mission at Wimbledon. Alcaraz is fancied as Djokovic’s nearest – and arguably only – challenger for the Wimbledon crown, and hopes Federer will watch him play this fortnight, writes Michael Hinks.

Something to brighten your day

Two per cent of England’s land is golf courses, now nature is taking it back. In London alone, golf courses take up an area of land larger than the borough of Brent. Now, courses are showing how rewilding can be done at a smaller scale, reports Tomé Morrissy-Swan.