Latest news with #countryside
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Helen Flanagan rants about loss of her driving license after being banned for speeding before revealing she and ex Scott Sinclair are back 'co-parenting in the same house' despite bitter split
ranted about the loss of her driving license and numerous parenting woes in a chaotic social media post on Thursday, five months after she was banned for speeding. The ex Corrie actress, 34, who in January t old the court ex-footballer boyfriend Robbie Talbot was driving her £66,000 Audi Q7 when it was caught speeding twice, complained what a 'pain in the a***' it had been without a car and had been unable to run errands or go shopping for essentials due to living so remotely. Helen was banned from the road for six months, despite claiming she was struggling financially and would not be able to afford taxis to get her children to school. Taking to her Instagram Stories she explained her ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) had caused her to mix up paperwork to reapply for her licence, meaning the process would now be delayed further. 'I literally can't tell you what a pain in the a*** not having [my driving licence] because I live in the middle of nowhere, and of course I have't been driving'. 'It's just been so b****y annoying, for example we are out of loo roll now and I can't pop out to the shops to get loo roll so my friend has to bring me loo roll'. She also revealed that she an ex Scott Sinclair, with whom she shares, Matlida, nine, Delilah, six, and Charlie three, were back 'co-parenting in the same house' despite their bitter split. Helen, who has been forced to put their former £1.5M family home on the market, split from the footballer, 36, in 2022 after 13 years and earlier this month took a vicious swipe at him ahead of Father's Day. Explaining the situation she said: 'So it's Matilda's birthday and Delilah's birthday, they had the same due date, and there is seven days between their birthdays and that's like hectic. 'So Scott is off at football but we are back co-parenting in the same house, which we don't usually do,'. Taking a deep breath she continued: 'But it actually went OK, so obviously we have to do that because it's the kids birthdays'. In court Helen said her isolated moorland home meant it was a 10-minute drive even to go to the shops to buy bread and milk, and that she would 'really struggle without a car' in the remote location. The actress, who lives near Bolton, Greater Manchester, said she earned £70,000 last year – but said her income varies and that she could not afford a £10 taxi to take her son to nursery. Prosecutor Stephen Kirk told how Helen, who already had six penalty points for speeding, failed to declare who had been driving the car when it was caught speeding at locations on Merseyside in June last year, doing 42mph in a 30mph limit and 51mph in a 40mph limit. Earlier this month the stunner set pulses racing in sexy black lingerie before taking a swipe at Scott. Helen's eye popping lace outfit boasted a bra that barely contained her surgically enhanced assets, with matching knickers, stockings and suspenders. Taking to her Instagram Stories Helen shared a meme which read: 'What are you getting your baby daddy for Father's day' alongside a clip of Whitney Houston dramatically singing 'nothing' in a scene 1992 film The Bodyguard. On her failed romance with ex Scott, Helen revealed she was the one to call time on their relationship. She said they 'were always quietly breaking up and then getting back together' until one day she called it quits for good. Helen told The Sun: 'In the end, it was me who decided [to break up]. I'll always be sad it didn't work out, and we still have love for each other, but we're happier apart.' Speaking to Charlotte Dawson on her Naughty Corner podcast, Helen said: 'I still love him very much, I care about him deeply, but we don't like each other. 'We don't like each other at all, we don't get on. I do know that Scott - he'd never admit it - cares about me too and he does love me. Taking to her Instagram Stories Helen shared a meme which read: 'What are you getting your baby daddy for Father's day' alongside a clip of Whitney Houston dramatically singing 'nothing 'But I'm so done, I could never have another relationship again where we would always be bickering. I haven't got another argument in me. As women we try and do anything we can to make it work with the father of your children and I did. But I think for me if I was in a relationship with someone else it would have to be easy because I haven't got the energy in me again, I've done all that with the father of my kids.' Helen went onto say co-parenting is 'hilarious' as she revealed the pair try and avoid each other so they don't 'argue' in front of their kids. She continued: 'I've been a single mum for two years now. Co-parenting is hilarious, we were together for 13 years. 'The last time I saw him, I thought it was quite funny, I was taking the p*** out of him because he had a bucket hat on. I think he was trying not to laugh. 'He lives in Bath and I live in North Manchester so its about five hours and we meet in Birmingham to exchange things and the kids. 'He's throwing things in my boot and I just started taking the mickey out of his bucket hat to lighten the mood. 'We just try and not be in the same house together because the children are the priority and I want a good environment for them and I don't want them to see us arguing.'
The Sun
a day ago
- Entertainment
- The Sun
Noel Edmonds' show is poor man's Clarkson's Farm… but he's right about how much modern Britain has changed
THE most extraordinary television scene of the week featured Noel Edmonds stumbling over his affirmations, in the shower, on the other side of the world. 'I am healthy. I am happy. I am loving. I am loved.' 6 6 6 'I am . . . ' Mr Blobby's straight man? The drummer from Brown Sauce? Cheap Cheap Cheap's former host? No. 'I am . . . Jesus.' Apparently. A claim delivered with a laugh, but one that wasn't entirely out of character with the self-confident mood on Noel Edmonds ' Kiwi Adventure, an entertaining ITV series that's drawn some very flattering comparisons with Clarkson's Farm on account of the fact Nolly is attempting to transform 800 acres of exquisite New Zealand countryside into a 'positivity haven'. And if you're wondering what the hell that might be, try to imagine Primrose Valley Holiday Park if the static caravans were replaced by a vineyard, wellness spa, spectacular scenery and bloody great statue of a knight, erected in honour of Noel slaying the bankers. Monstrous self-regard notwithstanding, Diddly Squat is still clearly the vibe Noel's trying to recreate on this show, even if he sounded more like a serial killer when he attempted to go full Clarkson and said: 'The nail gun is a sex toy. Ann Summers should sell them. It is just the horniest bit of kit.' The most obvious contrast, though, is that while Clarkson's Farm is very much an ensemble piece, filled with authentic characters who clearly adore Jeremy, no matter how much he annoys them, ITV's Kiwi Adventure begins and ends with Noel, who is as oddly mesmerising as he is mesmerisingly odd. David Brent and Alan Partridge are two valid comparisons made by almost everyone, but there's also a hint of Ted and Ralph from The Fast Show underpinning interactions with the staff and even his 'earth angel' wife, Liz, who seems to do most of the real graft. Natural Kiwi reticence may explain some of the awkward silences, but every single one of them has clearly understood there's no call for any sycophancy when you're confronted by an ego as vast as the boss's. There is also no need to tell him he looks great for 76 either, because he's probably already told you, 'I am rocking'. And if you're really unlucky, Noel will go on to claim it's down to the cosmos and the fact that: 'All we are is energy systems and that body energy system touches everything around us and how we move into the bigger matrix, the universal system.' Because this Kiwi Adventure is driven by the fact Noel has clearly read Barbel Mohr's Cosmic Ordering Service and swallowed every word of its pseudo-scientific horse s**t. To that end, he's in the process of creating an energy garden using 'structured water', which doesn't actually exist and has already installed a crystal bath that can no more heal your negative energy than playing Mr Blobby's single at 78rpm can cure your dachshund's tinnitus. Noel's perfectly free to spout this nonsense, of course. I would take his positivity guru status a bit more seriously, though, if he wasn't the sort of man who carries grudges like Mary Poppins carries her magic carpet bag and has an ongoing beef with a New Zealand magazine called Stuff that clearly consumes him. There's no denying, though, all the vendettas and cosmic woo-woo lend themselves to a hugely entertaining ITV stitch-up which almost forces you to pick a side. If that's the case and it's Edmonds versus ITV, I am 100 per cent Team Noel here because, whatever his faults, he remains a television genius who, unlike the fools currently mis-managing Britain's main commercial network, made brilliant mainstream television shows that were adored by millions and have more than earned him his place in this Earthly paradise. House Party And should anyone doubt Noel's ability to read the minds of the great British public, who grew up watching House Party in a happier, funnier, friendlier country than the preachy, uptight, litter-strewn mess we now inhabit, then they should listen to the answer he gives when asked if he misses the UK. 'All the things I miss about Britain are the reasons I left. 'Our country changed so much, so fast, so fundamentally, I found myself a quieter country.' Or, as a memorable Sun front page once nearly put it, will the last person to leave Britain please switch off the telly. Janae: 'A chip shop.' Roman Kemp: 'Based in Norwich, UEA is the University of where?' Mickey: 'America.' And Roman Kemp, who was actually looking for Nepal when he asked Catherine: 'The capital of which country is closest to Mount Everest?' But got: 'London.' SATURDAY, Blankety Blank, Bradley: ' Naga (Munchetty), you're still writing. What are you doing? A letter to someone?' That GMB application isn't going to fill itself in, Brad. RANDOM TV IRRITATIONS BBC climate propagandist Justin Rowlatt hopping around like a madman at the first whiff ofsummer. Nick Frost slumming it for the political cred on Transaction. The BBC vanishing all trace of men from its Summer of Sport promos. Olivia Attwood saying: 'Ten years ago, I'd have cut off my left fanny flap for that tan.' With the truly frightening thing being, there's still a long way to go before it reaches rock bottom. WOKE IN A GRAY AREA 6 WHEN Jerry Sadowitz flashed his penis on stage back in 2022, the woke establishment reacted with outrage and the stand-up was banned from the Edinburgh Festival venue. Yet when Jordan Gray flashed his penis on Channel 4 's Friday Night Live, just three months later, the woke establishment reacted with glee and the stand-up was rewarded with a six-part ITV2 sitcom about a chaotic supermarket night shift called Transaction. The clue to this obvious hypocrisy being the Trans half of that title refers to Jordan, who self-identifies as a comedian. And if you're so brainwashed by the gender theory crazies you believe this means I should've written 'her penis' in the second paragraph, then you may also be able to pretend Transaction is a work of comic genius. It'll take a flat-Earther's level of delusion, though, because the cult of woke has no interest in making an audience laugh. It's all about bending them to their deranged political will. Even without the PC handbrake jammed firmly on, however, the darkly unpleasant Transaction would still fail spectacularly on every level as it has no structure, soul, realism, decent characters, work ethic, wit or anything much beyond an endlessly recurring castration joke which leaves you with the distinct impression Jordan's genuinely repulsed by the sight of 'a penis I never asked for'. You'd hope, then, that Jordan now understands Friday Night Live viewers felt exactly the same way. I can offer no other verdict more optimistic here, though, than the possibility there may still be worse television shows to come in 2025. But only if ITV makes a second series of Transaction. BLANKETY Blank, Bradley Walsh: 'Tell us a bit about yourself.' Janae: 'I'm very spiritual. I'm actually a witch, a healer, I'm very good with herbology, numerology, astrology and I'm a Tarot reader.' On second thoughts, don't. CALLUM WILSON: 'Rodri will soon become the player he already is.' Jermain Defoe: 'You always know what Quenda's going to do. I thought he'd shoot here but he didn't.' And Joe Cole: 'He's hit the post but two inches either way and it's in.' (Compiled by Graham Wray) LOOKALIKE OF THE WEEK 6 THIS week's winner is King Charles at Ascot and old man Steptoe. Sent in by Callum Craig, Harrogate. GREAT TV lies and delusions of the summer. This Morning, Ben Shephard: 'Rosie Jones' Pushers is a masterpiece. It'll make you laugh a lot.' Love Island, Sophie: 'Harry's really nice you know.' And Jonathan Ross: 'My next guest is a hilarious stand-up comedian who's always brilliant at everything she does. 'It's Judi Love,' who just so happens to have the same agent as Jonathan. TV GOLD 6 NETFLIX'S Dept Q. Exasperated BBC News anchor Martine Croxall changing 'pregnant people' to 'pregnant women,' live on air. Phil Mitchell 's surprisingly tender reaction to Nigel Bates' Alzheimer's diagnosis, on EastEnders. And ITV4's broadcaster supreme Steve Ryder, bringing all the effortless style and wit that marked his career to a trackside invasion of a geese, at Oulton Park's British Touring Cars Championship, which briefly threatened to halt his final ever television appearance: 'A few crowd control issues. "This kind of problem, you can send off into the long grass. So they're on their way to Canada and we can have a gander at the next race.' What a crying shame neither ITV nor the BBC ever really treated Steve with the respect his great talent fully deserved.
BBC News
2 days ago
- Business
- BBC News
Reopened Oxfordshire pub named best in the UK at national awards
A 15th-century pub has beaten hundreds of others across the country to be crowned the UK's Bull, in Charlbury, Oxfordshire, was named the National Pub of the Year at the National Pub and Bar Awards - which were held in London on praised the rural pub for "blending quintessential qualities with the finesse and flawless service of a contemporary operation".Murray Ward, from the pub, told the BBC that the award "means a huge amount", adding: "We're delighted and we're very humbled as well." Mr Ward said Tuesday's success had been a "double whammy", after The Bull was crowned the best pub in the south east, and then in the UK as a whole, within 15 minutes of one another."It is definitely one of the main highlights of my career, and definitely a highlight for a Tuesday," he said. Praising the pub, those judging the awards said The Bull had "cemented its reputation as a leading countryside pub" since it reopened in July praised it for its "stripped-back design, brilliant front-of-house team and exceptional food coming out of the kitchen"."We're very lucky for what is a relatively small pub in a rural area that we're pretty busy and have a really good and consistent local following," Mr Ward added: "What we do is pretty honest and pretty simple, and we have a really amazing and really young team that push every single day to make sure that everything is better than it was the day before."The Bull is owned and operated by the Public House Group - which also runs London venues The Hero and The Pelican. You can follow BBC Oxfordshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
Telegraph
5 days ago
- Business
- Telegraph
How inheriting a second home became the ultimate embarrassment for millennials
Are you planning to leave a second home to your children? Email: money@ For generations, Britons have aspired to buy their own piece of the countryside – a second home to provide the backdrop for family holidays year in year out. But the dream of owning a second home is slowly dying. Data from Hamptons shows the percentage of sales to a second home buyer has fallen from 2pc in 2016 to 0.8pc in 2025 – the lowest figure on record. Buying a second home has never been less of an inviting prospect, not least because successive tax raids have made buying and maintaining one increasingly unaffordable. For millennials, who are buying later, and 'maxing themselves out more than previous generations', buying a second home is all but impossible, says Aneisha Beveridge, of Hamptons. 'This limits their ability to withdraw money from their main residence to purchase a second home, or indeed save up enough money on the side,' she says. 'Likely, money which was enjoyed or invested by previous generations at the same point will be tied up for longer by millennials' and Gen Z's mortgage bills.' According to lawyers and wealth managers, it seems no one particularly wants to inherit a second home either. 'We do see an increased resistance to inheriting real estate and a preference for cash gifts,' says Natasha Southam, of law firm Seddons GSC. 'Owning numerous properties can be seen as burdensome and prohibitive to a mobile lifestyle, which is often a priority.' Younger generations are also embarrassed at the idea of owning a holiday home, says Mark Wood, of Everest Funeral Concierge and former chief executive of Prudential, who is accustomed to helping families with end-of-life planning. Many fear they may be accused of hollowing out communities by hoovering up housing stock and inflating house prices. 'I remember the local antagonism in Wales years ago when people would vandalise properties. There is a similar anxiety among younger generations,' Mr Wood adds. 'Do they really want to be the ones turning up in their estate car and unloading stuff from a central London branch of Waitrose?' The millennials who stand to inherit such homes often grew up in the age of low cost airlines and a social media-driven desire to see as much of the world as possible. 'If you can go to Lisbon for £15, why would you want to spend four hours driving to Devon?' adds Mr Wood. The twilight years of baby boomers will mark one of the biggest wealth transfers between generations in centuries, Ms Southam says. Baby boomers account for £2.89 trillion in housing wealth alone, Savills data shows, and the lion's share of that wealth will likely be passed to their descendants. But consensus among experts is that inheriting a second home is more hassle than it's worth. 'A lot of people underestimate the admin burden of inheriting a second home,' says Sam Grice, of Octopus Legacy, a succession planning firm. 'You've got the general upkeep of the property, and they might have to continue paying a mortgage.' Anyone inheriting a second home will also have to navigate a potentially eye-watering inheritance tax bill and, following changes brought in this year, pay twice the rate of council tax. Inheriting a second home also comes with a sting in the tail for would-be first-time buyers, who have been kept on the rental market by surging house prices. Indeed, the average age of a first-time buyer has crept up from 30 to 34 since 1980, according to Hamptons data. Chancellor Rachel Reeves raised the stamp duty surcharge from 3pc to 5pc for second home purchases, a move seemingly aimed at giving first-time buyers an edge on landlords. 'But let's say you're renting in London, and you inherit a third of a Cornish home. If you then go and buy your own property, you'll have to pay an extra 5pc in stamp duty,' says James Ward, of law firm Kingsley Napley. 'I often suggest that people don't give property to children until they've bought their own home.' In addition, arguments can erupt between siblings – where there is a disagreement as to how to share a holiday home, or even if any of them want it in the first place. 'We tend to draft ownership agreements between families, but it's a liquid asset. What happens if someone wants to take the money out?' says Mr Ward. Mr Wood, of Everest Funeral Concierge, adds: 'Unless siblings are close and have a lot of money, it leads to disputes – what weeks you take, who is allowed to use it and who pays for repairs. It's a constant battlefield.' Sometimes it is the parents who are pushing for children to inherit properties they are, at best, agnostic about. 'They become the backdrop for family holidays and memories,' says Mr Wood. 'People want these places passed down because they represent childhood, and they want their grandchildren to have the same experiences.' There is also some evidence that Labour's war on second home owners is working as intended. Jennie Hancock, of West Sussex buying agency Property Acquisitions, says second homes forced on to the market by tax changes are indeed being snapped up by downsizers. 'The lack of suitable properties to move to has been a major deterrent for downsizers in recent years, but as second home owners sell up, downsizers are finally seeing the opportunity to make their move,' she says. In any case, boomers whose pensions will soon be subject to inheritance tax following Ms Reeves's maiden Budget are increasingly seeing second homes as blows to be softened. 'We are seeing more people with second homes taking out equity releases as part of their inheritance tax planning,' says Adam Canavan, of Bowmore Wealth Group. 'The same rules apply to second homes in Europe, but rather than just releasing equity, we are also seeing people sell those properties altogether. In both cases, the goal is the same – to reduce the value of the taxable estate and ultimately pass more wealth on to their family.'
The Guardian
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Endling by Maria Reva review – a Ukrainian caper upended by war
Maria Reva's dexterous and formally inventive debut novel is impossible to review without giving away a major surprise. I do this with a heavy heart: one of the pleasures of this book is the jaw‑dropping coup de théâtre that comes halfway through. Until that point, Endling offers its readers the pleasures of a more or less conventional novel. The central character is a misanthropic obsessive called Yeva who drives a converted campervan around the countryside of her native Ukraine, rescuing endangered snails. She's hoping to get them to breed, but some turn out to be endlings – the last living member of a species. First coined in the 1990s, the word was unknown to me before I read this book, but the tragic biological checkmate it describes is older than history. Aurochs, dodos, quaggas, mammoths and Tasmanian tigers must all have culminated in an endling. Instead of engendering new life, Yeva ends up being a hospice nurse for entire species as her charges become extinct. Her obsessive death-watch would be unbearably grim if it weren't so funny. Here she is, indignant at the way her beloved snails are overshadowed by more glamorous species: Snails weren't pandas – those oversize bumbling toddlers that sucked up national conservation budgets – or any of the other charismatic megafauna, like orcas or gorillas. Snails weren't huggy koala bears, which in reality were vicious and riddled with chlamydia. Nor were snails otters, which looked like plush toys made for mascots by aquariums, despite the fact that they lured dogs from beaches to drown and rape them. Bearing constant witness to annihilation, Yeva finds her mental health is hanging by a thread. She's also short of cash, so funds her mission by working for a company that runs so-called 'romance tours'. Still reeking of her grotty campervan, Yeva turns up to swell the numbers at events to which foreigners have been lured by the comically specious promises on the agency website: 'the secret of the Ukrainian Woman may be genetical. Invasions and wars led to fruity intermixing … Imagine an entire country of beautiful and lonely women! … This is where you, Western Man, enter.' It's through the marriage agency that Yeva encounters the two characters who catalyse the plot of the novel: sisters Nastia and Sol. Inspired by their mother, the founder of a group of feminist activists, they want to draw the world's attention to the patriarchal assumptions of the bridal industry. In order to do this, they're planning to kidnap some of the foreign bachelors and hold them hostage in Yeva's van. One of the bachelors, Vancouver-based Ukrainian émigré Pasha, completes the quartet of human characters at the novel's heart. Pasha has returned to the land of his birth not only to find love but in order to fulfil a vague sense of artistic destiny. For roughly 100 pages or so, Endling barrels along, effortlessly resonating with larger ideas, sustained by humour and a sharp and empathetic intelligence. The book is shaping up to be an engaging comic heist: an eastern European Coen brothers caper, inflected with a feminist sensibility. And then Russia launches its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The shock of this event is so huge that it doesn't just affect the lives of the characters, it breaks open the entire novel. It's like one of those moments in the theatre when someone shuffles on to the stage to share the news of a terrible event behind the scenes: a fire or a flood. The scale of this disruption is acknowledged formally in the book. Reva does the novelistic equivalent of running the credits. The story we're reading appears to conclude on page 136, complete with acknowledgments page, author biography and a note on the typeface. Then, overleaf, an alternative version of the novel resumes. We learn in this section that after the critical success of her first book, the short story collection Good Citizens Need Not Fear, the author began and then abandoned a version of Endling. 'Even in peacetime,' we overhear her telling her agent, 'I felt queasy leaning into not one but two Ukrainian tropes, 'mail-order brides' and topless protesters.' A Canadian citizen of Ukrainian descent, she finds herself struggling to write, stricken with guilt, worrying about her grandfather who is living near the frontline in Kherson. She's chastised by a ruthless inner voice that accuses her of opportunism. 'Fourteen dead, ninety-seven wounded. But don't let us interrupt. By all means, sink into those high-thread-count sheets. Tell us, Ms Voice of Ukraine, how do you toast in Ukrainian again?' Sign up to Inside Saturday The only way to get a look behind the scenes of the Saturday magazine. Sign up to get the inside story from our top writers as well as all the must-read articles and columns, delivered to your inbox every weekend. after newsletter promotion Rather than feeling distracting or tricksy, the intervention actually heightens the impact of the story, giving it a discomfiting intensity and a new, more intimate register. Something deepens in the relationship between reader and author. We all have skin in the game at this point. Sitting in the theatre, with the smell of smoke rising from behind the curtains, the reader wonders, among other things, what on earth is going on? How is she going to pull this off? What's going to happen to the central characters? Are the Russians going to bomb all of us? In this second half of the book, we return to the story of Yeva, Nastia, Sol and Pasha, as it unfolds in the days after the invasion. A possible mate has been sighted for one of Yeva's lone snails. Yeva has to decide between driving the kidnapped bachelors to safety or heading towards Kherson and right into the path of the Russians. Given what's happened so far, it's not a surprise to learn that the book eschews the safe option. But now Reva has established a different kind of rapport with the reader and is able to intrude more directly into the narrative. She shares with us personal details about her connection with Ukraine, as well as her awareness of the war and the artistic challenge she faces: can anyone in good conscience make fiction out of these tragic events? Though not every element of the story is equally successful – I was left puzzled by the passivity of the kidnapped bachelors – the answer to that question is resoundingly affirmative. Endling by Maria Reva is published by Virago (£20). To support the Guardian, order your copy at Delivery charges may apply.
