|  | | Friday, 12 December | | | 58% of Britons oppose next week’s doctor strikes | | | | With next week’s strike by resident doctors looming, health secretary Wes Streeting has said he’s “extremely worried” about the NHS being a “double whammy” of rising flu patients and strike action, saying the current winter flu was “probably the worst pressure the NHS has faced since Covid”. | |
| | 58% of Britons say they oppose resident doctors going on strike next week, relative to 53% opposing strikes at the beginning of last week. A third of Britons (33%) support the planned strike action. | |
| | Labour voters remain the most sympathetic to the strikes, though are split 45% to 47% over whether the action should take place next week. This compares to 58% of Lib Dems, 82% of Reform UK voters and 86% of Conservatives being opposed to the imminent strikes. | |
| | | | | | | | A new study has linked a particular chemical found in dark chocolate – theobromine – to a slowed rate of biological ageing, adding to previous studies that have linked the bitter-sweet food to health benefits from improved blood flow to sharper cognition. | |
| | The stream of positive stories about dark chocolate has captured the public imagination, with 61% of Britons seeing it as a fairly healthy food, alongside a further 9% who say that, as far as they are aware, dark chocolate is a very healthy food. | |
| | Women are more likely to believe in the health benefits of dark chocolate, with 77% seeing it as an at least fairly healthy food, relative to 64% of men. | |
| | | | | | | | Secret Santa gift exchanges have become a staple of Christmas for many in recent years, often in workplaces or friendship groups. But does this form of festive gift giving, which often comes with specific rules and can be for people you’re not enormously close to, spread the festive cheer? | |
| | Perhaps not. Just 24% of Britons say they outright like or even love secret Santa exchanges, though a further 38% don’t feel strongly either way. A third of Britons (33%) outright dislike the activity. | |
| | Younger Britons are more positive towards secret Santa, with nearly half of 18-24 year olds (45%) liking or loving the modern tradition, compared to 28% of 25-49 year olds, 19% of 50-64 year olds and just 14% of over 65s. | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
