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Daily Record
2 days ago
- Business
- Daily Record
Family-run Scottish DIY store crowned Britain's Best Small Business
The store's witty Scots name impressed the public and judging panel A family-run DIY shop in Dunoon has nailed it, quite literally, by being crowned Britain's Best Small Business Name for 2025. Dae It Yersel, a well-loved fixture in the Argyll town, saw off competition from more than 2,000 other small businesses across the UK to win the coveted title, along with a £2,500 cash prize from small business insurer Simply Business. The name, a playful Scots take on Do It Yourself, clearly struck a chord with the public and judging panel, which included entrepreneur and The Apprentice winner Harpreet Kaur. From landscaping company Back to the Fuchsia and restaurant Balti Towers to pub The Nobody Inn and food truck Pietanic, the competition was stacked with witty entries that showcased the creativity of Britain's entrepreneurs. Helena McLay, co-owner of Dae It Yersel, said the win means a great deal to her family. 'Dae It Yersel has been family-owned since my mother, father and then-20-year-old brother took over a tiny wee DIY shop in 1970,' she said. 'I've been around the shop since I was 3, and used to spend my after-school hours and school holidays here.' Helena, who now runs the business alongside her nephew, added: 'The name is obviously the Glaswegian or Scots version of 'Do It Yourself'. For both myself and my nephew... the shop has always been a part of our lives, it is the heart and soul of the family. "There have been many tough times, from losing my mum, dad, and brother to COVID, but there are far more rewarding times and lifelong friendships that have arisen from our years in Dae It Yersel. We couldn't be more delighted to have won.' She also shared a charming anecdote: 'We often get people standing across the road taking photos of the shop name, and the furthest travelled pic was sent to us by someone who had visited Dunoon from New Zealand and sent their photo into a magazine with the heading 'How's this for getting the message over to the locals'.' The business name contest, now in its latest edition, celebrates the originality and spirit of the UK's small business community. Simply Business also commissioned research which revealed that 51 percent of shoppers are more likely to support a business if its name makes them smile. Julie Fisher, UK CEO of Simply Business, praised the result: 'It's clear from the voting that Dae It Yersel are a hugely popular small business in their local community. Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community! Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today. You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland. No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team. All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join Community' and you're in! If you're on a desktop, simply scan the QR code above with your phone and click 'Join Community'. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice. We hope this recognition brings added positive attention for the business, and that our £2,500 cash prize helps them celebrate during what is a challenging period for many SMEs.' Harpreet Kaur, who helped judge the entries, added: 'It was so heartening to see the character woven into every single small business name we judged, reflecting the passion and dedication of the thousands of entrepreneurs who entered. "Dae It Yersel should be incredibly proud to have won the public vote; it's a testament to their unique appeal and the genuine connection they've built with their local community.' Helena has no doubt how the family will mark the occasion: 'I'll have to bake a cake to celebrate! We'll definitely have to have a BBQ with our staff to thank them for being a part of the business.'
Spectator
4 days ago
- Politics
- Spectator
‘It's Liz Truss territory': how bad are things for Kemi Badenoch?
Around 5 p.m. on Monday one of Kemi Badenoch's aides was having a drink with a friend in the Two Chairmen pub in Westminster. Over a pint of IPA he explained how the Conservative leader was planning to thrust herself more forcefully into the public conversation. 'We know the pace needs to quicken,' he admitted. 'Reform are sucking up the political oxygen.' Badenoch inherited a 'party on its knees', the basics of which needed overhauling. 'We'd love to be doing more fun viral social media stuff, but Kemi is sitting down and getting on with it.' That same afternoon, just over 100 yards away, outside the Westminster Arms, Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, who has impressed MPs with his energetic harrying of the government and a series of fun viral social media clips, was having a drink with Tom Skinner, a former star of The Apprentice (catchphrase: 'Bosh!') who wants to be the Tory candidate for London mayor. A video of the two was soon on Jenrick's social feeds. 'He looked like the leader interviewing a candidate,' a witness says. All this happened after an Ipsos poll put the Tories on 15 per cent, 19 points behind Reform, their worst showing since the firm began polling in the 1970s. MPs are no longer asking whether they could win the next general election but whether the party is facing extinction next year, when voters are expected to deliver another hammer blow in the local, Scottish and Welsh elections. Shadow cabinet members have seen private polling showing that the Conservatives could be wiped out in the 2029 general election. Badenoch's personal satisfaction rating of 49 with Ipsos makes her the most unpopular leader of the opposition ever after six months. At this stage William Hague was on 30, Ed Miliband on 10 and Keir Starmer himself just above zero. 'The polls are absolutely horrific,' says a shadow minister. 'Kemi's personal polling is in Liz Truss territory. There is now no precedent for it. People say 'Let Kemi be Kemi' but there are increasingly few don't-knows and they are moving against us. We are being frozen out of the national conversation.' Dozens of MPs believe that if she is still in charge next spring there might be very little left. In recent council by-elections in King's Lynn and West Norfolk – a seat still held in the Commons by the Tory James Wild – the Conservatives failed to even field a candidate. Reform won both. In Mansfield, they secured just 9.4 per cent of the vote in a council seat once held by Ben Bradley. Reform got 61.6 per cent. Another former Downing Street strategist says: 'The best plan at this point is probably to try to salvage what we can. Fight to retain 80 to 100 seats and hope to be relevant when the next government is forming.' Badenoch's team sees progress, after Starmer was forced to U-turn on holding a public inquiry into rape gangs and over the winter fuel allowance, issues she had championed. She plans to launch a new policy board every week until the summer recess, including a tax commission and one on 'social cohesion'. She will use the party conference in October to unveil her plans for whether and how to leave the European Convention on Human Rights. Party fund-raising has outpaced that of Reform and Labour in the past two quarters. Allies cling to the dictum of David Canzini, a No. 10 strategist under Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, who tells colleagues: 'It takes two years before the public starts to forget your record.' They hope that means Badenoch can make headway in the polls by the summer of 2026. But despite better performances at Prime Minister's Questions, many Tories think Badenoch is unable to channel her undoubted intellect into something that is palatable to the average voter. When Palestine Action vandalised aircraft at Brize Norton, she tweeted: 'The full force of the law must come down on those responsible.' Nigel Farage called for the group to be 'proscribed'. Jenrick demanded a 'ban'. 'That's what they would say in the pub,' an admirer notes. 'She talks in riddles.' A Conservative peer says: 'She'd be an amazing thinktank director.' A recent, more pithy summary of her vision for Britain, delivered at a dinner with 25 business leaders, needs to be worked on. One of those present says: 'She implied she wants the same, but less crap, which didn't exactly inspire.' Another senior Tory concluded: 'She seems to be auditioning to be a Spectator columnist' – a noble calling, but not her desired destination. The shadow chancellor Mel Stride is next in the firing line. 'The widespread view is that [Rachel] Reeves is one of the most unpopular politicians in Britain,' says one of those who want a change of leader, 'and he's barely landed a punch against her.' Insiders claim that after a recent flat Commons performance by Stride, Badenoch voiced her frustration to a staffer. Colleagues recall a time, during the last leadership contest, when Stride was privately of the view that Badenoch was 'unfit' to lead. These noises off are denied by Tory high command. Badenoch is 'enjoying working with Mel' and they agree on the need to be the party of fiscal responsibility. Two hours after The Spectator put questions to Badenoch's team about their relationship, they revealed that Stride would take on Angela Rayner at PMQs on Wednesday. The shadow chancellor, it is only fair to say, did achieve cut-through with his critique of Reeves's 'spend now, tax later' spending review. One Badenoch aide has even begun to use the phrase 'Unshell the Mel' as a homage to 'Uncork the Gauke' – George Osborne's instruction when a reassuringly dull figure needed to be dispatched to the TV studios. Nonetheless, shadow cabinet colleagues say both Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, and Andrew Griffith, the shadow business secretary, are eyeing Stride's perch. 'Neither is right for it,' says a fellow frontbencher. 'Angling for positions in the shadow cabinet right now is like applying for a promotion on the Titanic.' While Badenoch is expected to reshuffle her top team before the end of the year, she is likely to wait until Starmer has redrawn his cabinet. The bigger question is whether she is removed. Party rules decree that only after 2 November, Badenoch's first anniversary in the job, could MPs force a vote of no-confidence, if 36 of the 120 current MPs write a letter to the chairman of the 1922 Committee. Those who plan to strike include young MPs who want a future and those in seats where their local councillors were wiped out in May. Ross Thomson, a former Aberdeen MP who briefly ran Badenoch's leadership campaign in Scotland, defected to Reform on Tuesday, saying Farage 'offers the real change we need'. Reform is now expecting such an influx of Tory defectors after next May's elections that they might impose a deadline. 'We should tell people there won't be a lifeboat if they wait too long,' a Reform official says. Suella Braverman, the former home secretary, whose husband has already joined Reform, is considering the jump. Jenrick is now getting unlikely support as Badenoch's replacement. On 10 June he dined in a Mayfair restaurant with David Cameron, Osborne and fellow Cameroon Lord Barker. 'Cameron now thinks Jenrick should take over when the time comes,' says a close ally of the former PM. Cameron's views are pertinent because he has twice been in to help Badenoch prepare for PMQs. Jenrick is also 'in touch' with Boris Johnson, the 'smash glass in case of emergency' option for the leadership, sparking speculation that Jenrick would secure a peerage for the former prime minister. Some of Johnson's old team, however, talk of him replacing Bob Blackman, the chairman of the '22, and returning to parliament. Johnson's friends say he has not decided whether he wants to return. Privately he refers to the prospect as 'a series of overlapping impossibilia' and has said: 'There is more chance of a baked bean winning Royal Ascot' than him becoming leader again. Scholars of the Johnson lexicon will note that such formulations were deployed as a smokescreen when he was previously plotting his ascent. Multiple sources say Johnson has thought about his offer to the party and the country. 'There is a five-point plan,' says a former minister. This would include a mea culpa for the 'Boriswave' which saw net migration soar past 900,000 a year. 'He would blame Priti [Patel],' his home secretary, a source says. But many younger MPs see immigration as a deal-breaker for Johnson, and believe that Jenrick, who resigned from Rishi Sunak's government over it, is the more credible replacement leader. What could he even do? One of those who is helping to bring critics together says: 'If we can get noticed and start to say the right things, we can make some progress in the polls. Once it starts to reverse, we will have the momentum – Farage knows that if he doesn't have a poll lead by year three he won't be able to get defectors. Farage may be untouchable but we need to attack the sketchy people around him.' However, most of Badenoch's critics believe there will have to be some sort of understanding with Reform, which will be difficult. Witnesses say that when Andrea Jenkyns, the Reform mayor of Lincolnshire, entered the NFU tent at the Lincolnshire show last week she greeted Robbie Moore, the shadow farming minister, with the words: 'Hello, arsehole.' If you thought the Tory civil wars were brutal, they might just have been the starter.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
The better Israel/Iran explanation: Trump got played
On June 12, Axios reported, the U.S. regime refused to support Israeli strikes on Iran ... but U.S. president Donald Trump said such strikes "might very well happen" even though he wouldn't want Israel to "blow it" ("it" being a new nuclear deal to replace the one Trump began violating in 2018). Hours later, Israeli aircraft attacked, apparently damaging Iranian nuclear facilities and killing top military figures. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the action as "unilateral" and emphasized that "we are not involved." Within hours, however, Trump described the Israeli strikes as, effectively, an outsourcing of U.S. policy. "We knew just about everything," he said. "We knew enough that we gave Iran 60 days to make a deal and today is 61, right? So, you know, we knew everything." After which U.S. forces put its air defense capabilities in the region to work helping Israel blunt the impact of Iranian counterstrikes. One reasonable conclusion, drawn by any number of reasonable people, is that Trump and Rubio were lying to begin with and that the Israeli strikes enjoyed U.S. approval and possibly even active, direct US support (such as the use of U.S. aerial refueling for the Israeli aircraft). That certainly seems possible, but I'd like to offer a different theory: Trump got played. The Israelis said they intended to strike. Trump said not to. The Israelis struck anyway, betting that Trump would circle back to claim prior knowledge and tacit approval, then throw in to defend Israel from the consequences of its actions. I don't know that either theory will ever be fully proven as correct, but the latter theory tracks with everything we know about Trump's history and method. As a "leader," Trump is congenitally incapable of admitting either of two things: Error or weakness. Prior to running for politics, he operated entirely on "brand," not actual accomplishment. Opinion: America cannot retreat from the world stage. Our values must be shared abroad. Over decades as a real estate developer, casino operator, etc., he racked up multiple business bankruptcies and built a smaller fortune than he'd have earned from investing his inheritance in an S&P 500-indexed mutual fund and going on permanent vacation. When sequential failures in real business moved him to go full Hollywood with The Apprentice, the focus was on being a "boss" dispensing sage advice to (or yelling "you're fired" at) future business moguls (most of whom subsequently sank from view). Having failed upward into the presidency, his strategy remains the same: Promote a Trump "brand" built on the pretense that he's either competent or in charge. When both prove false, just change the story to fit the image. In my opinion, the Israelis correctly saw Trump as an easy mark and acted accordingly. We'll get stuck with the bill, in treasure and quite possibly blood. Thomas L. Knapp is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism ( He lives and works in north central Florida. This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Trump's Israel/Iran intervention looks like he got played | Opinion
New Statesman
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- New Statesman
Thomas Skinner's full English
Illustration by André Carrilho 'I don't plan – I just do everything on impulse.' So Thomas Skinner told the producers of The Apprentice before his television debut in 2019. And as we chatted before he spoke at the Roger Scruton Legacy Foundation's Now and England conference, I began to believe him. He was grinning at me in his bulky suit, his face ablaze with a suntan like a bank holiday weekend. I asked him what he knew about his co-panellists, the High Tory MP Danny Kruger, the Brexiteer historian Robert Tombs and the ex-Reform MP Rupert Lowe, latterly famous for calling for mass deportations. Skinner said he didn't know much about them. I asked him who had invited him to speak. 'James,' he replied, meaning James Orr, the Cambridge theology professor and close friend of JD Vance. But he said that he didn't really know James either. He'd simply accepted an invitation to talk about 'how much I love England'. Skinner's very presence here is a sign of the new strategies and gambits of the political right. His name will puzzle many otherwise switched-on, urbane readers. He started out as a pillow and mattress salesman, and then after his firing from The Apprentice – one of those decent, head-held-high firings, without the usual pleading and back-stabbing – Skinner remade himself a star of reality TV. He appeared on Celebrity MasterChef and 8 Out of 10 Cats. And, to far greater recognition, in mid 2022 he started to post videos of himself eating elaborately unhealthy meals on (then) Twitter, Instagram and TikTok. These meals are generally drawn from what I think of as the Great British, mid-week, can't-be-arsed menu: cottage pie, jacket potatoes and those domesticated exoticisms, curry, chilli con carne, Chinese. And like a Dickens character reminding you who they are after a multi-chapter absence, Skinner narrates these meals in a language of cheery catchphrases: 'Don't go home until you're proud'; 'Tough times don't last, but tough people do'; and, simply, 'Bosh!'. These videos, along with rolling footage of the Romford good life (golf, family BBQs, early-morning gym), have won Skinner an audience of 683,000 on Instagram alone. In recent months, however, something has shifted in his online persona. Skinner had always presented himself as a graduated member of the petite bourgeoisie (Ford Transit for work, red Bentley for play). But suddenly he started to post about his mates not wanting to go to church with him, about how families need more support with childcare costs, and about how 'London has fallen' with people 'too frightened to walk down their own street'. 'We need leadership that understands the streets, the markets, the working class', he wrote. 'People like me.' Dominic Cummings immediately offered his services for a London mayoral campaign. The reactionary right sniffed out a new champion in their battle against the libs. They believe Ray Parlour can be remade into their very own Hereward the Wake. And so, here is Skinner, taking his seat next to Rupert Lowe, in an Edwardian auditorium in Westminster. Around us were the Tory boys of stereotype: legions of gelled Malfoys, spotted with misshapen Crabbes and Goyles. First, though, both he and we had to endure the other speakers. Kruger kicked off. As he started speaking, Skinner spun his seat side-on and leant back a deckchair 45 degrees. Kruger talked about how England was the 'first nation', about Wycliffe, Bede and Alfred. And though we had been 'interpenetrated by foreigners', he exalted the great continuities in English history and that 'anyone can become English', a remark the man in front of me seemed to find oddly exercising. Behind me, a woman was resting her eyes. Skinner slouched and itched, swigging water directly from a large glass bottle (forgoing the tumbler provided). Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe Next up was Tombs, who was straightforwardly dull. He talked about how we should teach the history of the country we share, emphasising what we have in common. He recommended a long march through the woke institutions, making funding of public projects more accountable and regularising the national history taught in schools. By this time, Skinner was nearly horizontal, and gurning madly on a stick of chewing gum. Last of the old guard was Lowe. The most exciting part of his speech came at the start: his reading glasses hung around his neck in two halves, and when he started speaking he snapped them together at the nose with delicious emphasis. Lowe is captivating, like a public schoolmaster at chapel; indeed, he reads his own words as if they actually come from the Bible. He gave his usual scripture about the Blairite coup and government by lawyers. Skinner was completely lost to his phone, typing away, the stage lights glinting off his golden watch. But when his turn came around, he bounded to the podium. His speech was titled 'The England I Love'. England is 'the absolute guv'nor', he said, home of the rule of law, the Industrial Revolution and the World Wide Web. It is built on family, graft and community: 'The single mum up at 5am, getting her kids ready, before a long day of work, but who still finds the strength to smile.' But these people have been failed, 'left behind in [their] own country', with 'kids being taught to be ashamed of their own flag'. He advocated once again for better childcare and support for young parents, as well as more forceful police (because, 'let's be honest, they're pussies at the minute'). It was simple, stirring, populist stuff. He was the only speaker to be interrupted by applause. Throughout, Kruger was looking at Skinner warily, as though a drunk had wandered into his train carriage. Tombs was studying him intently, like the president of the Royal Society confronted with a baffling new specimen. Lowe just grinned maniacally. When Skinner had finished, he offered him an awkward, lingering but reciprocated high-five. I couldn't help but wonder what united Skinner with these three: a post-liberal party intellectual, a grandee academic and a seigneurial landowner. As the panel took questions, Lowe went further, leaning into his 'family business' (and, he neglected to say, multimillionaire) background, and championing people 'like Tom and his family'. And he was rewarded with an 'I agree with what Rupert just said', before the final 'I would literally say what Rupert just said but I'm getting hot and ready for a pint'. Skinner ultimately scrambled off the stage during the Q&A – he said he had to take a call – and it was a good time to leave. First, there was a question from Carl Benjamin, a disgraced alt-right YouTuber. And then, as Tombs was saying something anodyne about how anyone could be English, he was interrupted by a nativist heckler. 'Ridiculous!' someone said. 'You inherit Englishness, it's in your ancestry.' Tombs argued him down, but the mood had soured. Perhaps he had just meant inheritance in the sense that these things must be actively passed down. Perhaps not. In his present incarnation, Skinner is far too goofy for such talk. But, an hour after the social media star sprinted off the stage, Robert Jenrick posted a video with him (two hours from then, I see from X, Skinner was having spag bol at home). More than any other politician, Jenrick is desperate to join Skinner in the realm of the algorithmic celebrity. And here was their crossover, a discussion of tool theft and its effect on tradesmen. In his speech, Skinner confirmed he's 'thinking about giving it a go in politics'. In so many ways, he's already there. [See also: Dominic Cummings: oracle of the new British berserk] Related
Spectator
5 days ago
- Politics
- Spectator
Iran: ‘what the f***' is going on?
It is rare to see the President so visibly frustrated (see The Apprentice, circa 2004), but after Iran and Israel seemingly ignored his ceasefire announcement – and his plea on Truth Social, 'PLEASE DO NOT VIOLATE IT!' – Donald Trump has come down hard on both sides. In a clip taken this afternoon he exclaimed: 'These are countries who have been fighting so long and so hard, that they don't know what the f*** they're doing.' Succinctly put by the President. The exchange of fire could be the expected tit-for-tat seen after the announcement of ceasefires in other global conflicts, but it has dampened the mood at Nato, which world leaders were approaching with cautious optimism, believing the road to de-escalation was clearing. What happens next? Also on the podcast, Keir Starmer is facing a huge rebellion less than a year after coming into power. Overnight, scores of Starmer's MPs have signed a reasoned amendment to the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill. This would effectively kill the bill at its second reading in the Commons on Tuesday. Can he de-escalate the precarious domestic situation? Lucy Dunn speaks to James Heale and Michael Stephens. Produced by Oscar Edmondson.
