‘My kids missed out on £2,000 Disneyland trip due to passport delivery delays’
Holidaymakers have been forced to abandon travel plans after waiting more than two months for new passports to be delivered. HM Passport Office said issues with its…
Use your Isa to dodge 55pc tax on pension withdrawals
Isas tend to be more flexible than pensions, as you have the freedom and flexibility to access them whenever you want. Pensions can currently only be accessed…
Motorists will see record-high petrol prices this week amid Ukraine chaos
The price of petrol will hit a new record this week as geopolitical tensions in Ukraine drive up the cost of oil, motoring group RAC has warned….
Vauxhall Astra Mk8 review: all-new version of fleet and family favourite targets the Golf and Focus
Climb into the rear seats full of anticipation of what the 13mm longer wheelbase has done and you’ll be disappointed. I’m 6ft tall; with the driver’s seat…
The Duchess of Kent could teach us all a few things about timeless chic
Even now, when she has been ill and is clearly frail, every time the Duchess appears in public, it’s always in a lovely dress, and with a…
NERF menace to cats: ‘Champers had three £4k operations to remove foam darts’
The foam part of the dart is soft enough to pass through the digestive tract in most cases, but the hard plastic tip seems to be particularly…
The best gifts for him: 20 men’s present ideas for 2022
“What do you give a man for his birthday” must be one of the hardest questions ever asked. Scientists have been toiling for centuries and have agreed…
The best letterbox gifts for 2022: subscriptions and presents you can send in the post
The best gifts are usually the ones you give in person. But letterbox presents have their place too. For far-flung friends and absent family members, they’re an…
The ultimate Pancake Day kit for flipping perfection, from frying pans to spatulas
Mixing bowl One of the key methods to pancake perfection is a silky smooth batter made well in advance. The right mixing bowl is your friend here…
For the clinically vulnerable, the threat of Covid hasn’t gone away
Sarah Hemmings, 34, from Norwich was diagnosed with highly active relapsing multiple sclerosis in 2019. She is on a disease-modifying treatment called Ocrelizumab to manage her MS…
Dame Helen Mirren shows how having imposter syndrome can be a superpower
However Dr Anne Whitehouse, author of Pull Back Your Power; Unlocking Profound Confidence and Success for Women, is not at all surprised by Mirren’s comments. The further…
Why sitting down can kill you – and how to stop your back pain for good
Sitting has been dubbed “the new smoking”. Not only can sitting too much lead to back pain (which afflicts 2.5 million people in the UK every day), it…
JK Rowling is too big to cancel – so now the Left wants to pretend she never existed
Every death threat I have ever had, every woman I have spoken to about being stalked or abused, has heard these words. They have “no place”, they…
It’s a time for celebration but the hardest thing of all will be to remember who we were before
What people need to get into their heads is that it simply doesn’t matter how much omicron spreads now because everyone is going to get it. Think…
After bearing the brunt of war, Afghan women and girls now pay the price of peace
When donors meet to pledge funding for the Afghan appeal they must address not only the need for humanitarian funds, but also the policy commitments needed to…
Thank God Jeremy Corbyn isn’t in charge
There’s an interesting pattern of dialogue that is provoked on Twitter whenever the subject of the 2019 general election is raised. Those of us who switched from…
Parliament is right to be angry: these sanctions are too little, too late
Not since its special session on the fiasco in Afghanistan last August has the House of Commons been so united as during the responses to the Prime…
Whisper it, but it looks like Boris Johnson is finally governing like an actual Tory
‘The root of Tory misery is in being, at heart, a small-state party in an increasingly big-state world”, stated a learned journal last week. Crikey, if that’s…
Putin wouldn’t be invading if Trump were still in the White House
President Trump was derided by his political opponents as an isolationist, soft on strongmen autocrats like Vladimir Putin. The Left painted him as a populist who undermined…
Why my house will one day be a famous tourist attraction
These days all public institutions are anxious to be inclusive and diverse. The latest example is Historic England. Yesterday we learned that, as well as castles and…
Lifting restrictions is the right thing to do
For a while yesterday, a delay to a Cabinet meeting called to agree an end to pandemic restrictions in England prompted speculation that Freedom Day had been…
Vladimir Putin’s aim is clear
Vladimir Putin’s decision to recognise the eastern Ukrainian provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent republics marks a significant heightening of tensions between Moscow and the West. …
Without courage, a heart or a brain, Labour are still stuck in Oz when it comes to our liberty
In a twist on the tale, the Tories seemed to have woken up to reality – that lockdown destroys the economy and health – whereas the opposition…
In a hawkish Parliament, Boris Johnson sounds like a dove
It’s good to know that with Covid over, Parliament can get back to debating normal things like World War III. Vladimir Putin has invaded Ukraine, with scant…
Imperial Russia has called the West’s bluff
Where does it end? Vladimir Putin has now made plain the way he sees the world. Ukraine, he declared on Monday night, is made up of “what…