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Telegraph
10-07-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Beggars, rough sleepers, Palestine protesters on drugs... London is a showcase for Starmer's Britain
But hang on! The idyll I briefly re-entered is but a bubble. Real as it is, my village is one of a diminishing number of places in the UK that are – as yet – unaffected by the terrifying change sweeping the rest of the country. And herein lies a problem: for well-heeled people like myself who live in places like this, are almost entirely insulated from what is going on elsewhere. In the kind of towns and villages in the shires where sweet old ladies mark Armistice Day by knitting poppies and slip crocheted love hearts through letterboxes on February 14, the wealthy can, and do, exist in almost complete ignorance of the way our country is sliding into angry and dangerous division. Sure, it was ever thus: rich and poor have always led divergent lives, knowing little to nothing of how the other half lives. What is genuinely new, however, is the devastating impact of mass, uncontrolled immigration; ballooning dependency on the welfare state; and the associated sky-high taxation of workers and wealth creators. Of the many issues blighting Britain, the loss of control of our borders has the gravest social, economic and cultural implications. The tidal wave of incomers who enter the country illegally, speak no English, and are dumped on already downtrodden areas, is exacerbating the grinding poverty that has always existed in those places. In the last 12 months alone, the number that have crossed the Channel – around 45,000 – would be too many to fit into Chelsea FC's Stamford Bridge stadium. Unless someone, somehow, stops the boats, by this time next year, the total number would fill Wembley Stadium. The more that come, the more resentment grows among those who have always lived here and are now forced to compete on equal – or even disadvantaged – terms. In parts of the UK where it is not normal to spend a tenner on a piece of purple sprouting broccoli, there are all manner of other desperate problems. Central London is a showcase. To the casual eye, the capital certainly looks splendid in the sunshine, but the rampant crime and aggressive promotion of foreign cultures and causes is impossible to ignore. Mid-afternoon on Embankment, I watched as a Rastafarian swaggered down the middle of the road, high as a kite on God knows what. He was waving two gigantic Palestinian flags – far more prolific, it seems, in town centres these days than the Union Jack. Pathetically, Sir Keir Starmer now says he didn't mean it when he talked of an 'island of strangers', but such spectacles suggest he is right. Near Lambeth Palace, a tented shanty has sprung up on the steps of an underpass. As the rubbish piles up, the authorities do nothing. Then there's the pickpockets, shoplifters, spliff smokers and Tube dodgers who have always been around, but have never before operated with such open contempt for authority or their fellow citizens. In the last fortnight alone, two friends have had phones snatched by masked muggers. On the Strand, dozens of rough sleepers hang around gurning at tourists and breakfasting on cans of cheap cider. Around Charing Cross, there are so many ruffians that fashion retailer Jigsaw – a most unlikely sounding target for thieves – now locks its doors. This isn't Tiffany's, or even Greggs the baker: it's a mid-market women's clothing retailer. Who on earth is stealing linen skirts? Opposite the headquarters of Coutts, a soup kitchen draws all manner of toothless desperadoes. On the doorstep of the prestigious bank, an old retainer, suited and booted, is part security guard, part symbolic buffer between the destitute and the company's well-heeled clientele. He watches silently as a shirtless man calling himself 'Little J' reels around the pavement, swearing he is the King of Iran. Half an hour later, Little J's story changes: he is one of Elon Musk's many secret children, and had £900,000 in the bank, until someone took it. Some 40 per cent of rough sleepers in London are foreign nationals who have discovered the streets of Great Britain are not, in fact, paved with gold. Nonetheless, several told me that they can make £40 an hour just by sitting on the pavement with a dog and a sad sign. Evidently not all are genuinely homeless: many privately admit to claiming benefits. Spend too much time in places like my village, and it is quite possible to imagine that none of this is happening – or worse, not to care. Amid the heady scent of climbing roses and the chime of ancient church bells, I too almost fell into this trap. After the aphrodisiac, however, comes cold hard reality. For the time being, at least, I was not wrong to step away from this dizzying decline.
Telegraph
21-06-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
The recipe for a perfect village shop
'We are the heart of this community: the first port of call for neighbours in need of some milk or help in a medical emergency,' says Leslie Barry, who has co-owned and managed the Village Shop in Enham Alamein, Hampshire, for the past 20 years with her partner, Tim Francis. 'We're open from 7am to 7pm, seven days a week and will always make time for a chat because we know many of our elderly or disabled customers may not speak to anybody else all day.' With rural pubs closing at record rates and funding being pulled from small libraries and youth centres, shops such as Barry's are becoming community lifelines. Barry's 'Aladdin's cave' of a shop is one of the rural retail spots shortlisted for this year's Countryside Alliance Award for Best Village Shop. Nicknamed the 'Rural Oscars', the Countryside Alliance judging panel selected five regional winners – from the community-run Longborough Village Shop in the Cotswolds to Thomas Duffy & Sons in Killough, County Down – who left last Wednesday's award ceremony in London as ultimate champions. We asked them all for their top tips on how to run the perfect village shop. Meet customer needs In the 1920s, the Hampshire village of Enham Alamein was bought (and continues to be run by) a charitable trust for disabled soldiers returning from the First World War, and later taking in veterans of the Battle of El Alamein (hence the name) after the Second World War. These days, its population includes many disabled civilians, who had to contend with a badly stocked, run-down local shop until Barry, 65, and Francis, 64, took it over in 2005. Barry had previously run a successful manufacturing business, and Francis had quit his job as a long-distance lorry driver following a heart attack. 'The first thing we did was to make the shop wheelchair accessible,' says Barry. The couple removed the entire front of their shop to install a ramp. Then they invited the local resident with the largest wheelchair to help them establish a practical layout. Next, they asked their customers what was needed. 'Many of our customers have financial or practical challenges getting out of the village,' says Barry. 'So we wanted to offer fresh, healthy, interesting food choices for people.' They began serving freshly made sandwiches and – for a while – Francis fried up fish and chips that customers could eat together in the shop's back room. 'We subsidised that for a while, but it became too expensive to run. Many people here are on low incomes and so – being on the main road to Andover – we rely on passing trade to boost profits.' Barry is proud to say they have successfully encouraged many people from Andover to use their 'friendly and efficient' Post Office counter. Aware that many of her customers live alone and lack the facilities or capacity to prepare wholesome meals, Barry recently converted the back room into a freezer room and stocked it up with Cook 's ready meals for one. 'Those are much healthier than the processed options,' says Barry. 'So our customers can have a nice lamb tajine or coq au vin without any hassle.' Because some of the people in this village don't get to shop anywhere else, Barry also works hard to ensure cupboard staples are balanced by changing seasonal treats 'to keep things interesting'. 'We have fresh fish from the river Tess and fruit from the local farm – the strawberries just came in and they smell wonderful.' The couple power the village defibrillator, and Francis has also just been awarded a Level Three First Aid Certificate. 'That was nine hours in a classroom, but it means he can be relied on in emergencies.' Go the extra mile 'We're doing something to help out on a daily basis,' says Thomas Duffy of Thomas Duffy & Sons in Killough, County Down, who were crowned winners of the category on Wednesday night. 'There was a big storm here the other week, and we were out clearing roads, helping the local electricity company move the power cables.' This family business – now selling everything from electrical appliances to the hot, freshly baked sausage rolls local children eat on their way to school – was started by Thomas's late father (also named Thomas Duffy) as a fruit and vegetable delivery service. It is now run by Thomas Jr and his two brothers, Brendan and Robert. 'We offer weekly deliveries of coal and firewood and daily deliveries of groceries and newspapers,' Duffy explains. 'This means we'll notice if somebody is unwell, or if a newspaper is still in the letterbox, we're able to alert the right people.' One night, Duffy was locking up at 11pm when he took a call from an elderly customer down the street who'd suffered a fall. 'She thought there might be somebody at the shop to help, and she was right,' he says. He ended up 'tucking her into bed for the night' after making sure she was comfortable. Each Christmas, the family sell locally sourced turkeys – raw or pre-roasted and sliced – to their customers. One year, Brendan gave his Christmas turkey away after receiving an SOS call from a distressed customer whose cats had attacked her roast as it was cooling on the kitchen counter. 'We also do a lot to raise money for local charities,' says Duffy. 'Last Halloween, I decorated the house we own opposite the shop as a haunted house to raise funds for a new defibrillator for the village. 'A shock for a shock' we called it.' Champion local producers 'I haven't eaten processed food for many years, so I'm passionate about high-quality, fresh, locally sourced produce,' says Sue Snowden, who runs Orford Village Shop in Suffolk. 'We have 58 different suppliers who sell their produce through our shop. Everything from meat and cheese through to seasonal local vegetables. I'm sad the asparagus season has just ended, but excited that the bunched spinach has just come in. For people who've only eaten the limp spinach you get in plastic bags, it can be a revelation.' Retiring at 60 after a long, successful career in education, which saw her awarded an MBE, Snowden didn't want to be 'the kind of person who moves out from London without contributing to the local community'. She says that Orford is a village with a mixed demographic: ordinary working people living cheek by jowl with some 'very wealthy families who've had property here for generations and lots of holiday makers'. So the shop needs to stock all the basics – 'toilet rolls and dishwasher tablets which we buy in bulk from Costco' and 'things like crabbing lines for the children heading to the seaside. We stock cheap bacon too for them to use as bait.' But she's been delighted to see that visitors often – quite literally – fill their boots with the more unique items to be found in her 'tardis' of her shop. 'They often take home bottles of our lovely, local Shotley wines and Staverton fizz to the delicious venison and game pies which come frozen from 'Truly Traceable'.' She laughs. 'They say they can't get this quality in London, and they like to show their friends something special over the dinner table.' Snowden admits: 'It does take me a lot of time to process orders and payments for so many suppliers. We also have to collect many of the products ourselves. But it's all worth it.' Involve the community 'The whole village just came together in 2019 when we realised we might lose the shop,' says Debra Stones, the manager of the Longborough Village Shop in Gloucestershire. 'We had a meeting, launched a crowdfunder and raised £17,000 in three weeks,' she says. That injection of cash was needed to overhaul facilities and bring in fresh stock. Unlike the other shortlisted shops, Longborough Village Shop is a not-for-profit community-run store, and its existence is only possible thanks to some locals with deep pockets and a keen bank of volunteers. 'We do have four part-time staff, paid above the living wage,' says Stones. 'But otherwise we have a rota of 15 regular volunteers alongside 15 more who offer their skills as required. So we have a plumber, an electrician, a carpenter, and a wonderful baker called Ann who has donated almost 300 cakes for us to serve in our cafe. We also have another wonderful woman who makes very creative window displays – we just did one celebrating seasonal produce with clay meats and knitted vegetables – all very Wallace & Gromit.' A former childminder, Stones says that the various personalities involved with such a big number of volunteers has meant 'the community has learnt to operate like a large family. We have volunteers aged from their mid-teens to their mid-80s, and it has been a joy watching them all get to know each other and develop respect for each other's abilities.' 'We have three kids volunteering for their Duke of Edinburgh award at the moment. Those kids often come to us quite shy and introverted, unsure of how to talk to older people, and it's lovely to watch them blossom as they gain confidence. They all seem to end up enjoying themselves.' Fulfilling its remit as a social hub, the Longborough Village Shop hosts a regular book club and a craft club in addition to other one-off events. 'We do seasonal things like wreath making at Christmas,' says Stones. A few years ago, the locals also 'got together and created our own gin and rum – selflessly, we all came in for tasting to create our own blends'. Make eco-friendly easy Like Longborough Village Shop, Carfrae Farm Shop in East Lothian 'isn't on the route to anywhere. In fact, people thought we were mad opening up,' says Trudi Cueto. 'But the flip side is that there is very little else in our area. It's a 15-minute drive to the nearest supermarket.' She says this means people really rely on them for staples like freshly baked bread and milk – which is sourced from a local dairy and dispensed from a machine for which customers can reuse their glass bottles. 'If the machine has run out, we will happily deliver within a five-mile radius. Even if it's just two litres of milk.' As several of their customers don't drive, staff get used to popping into their homes. 'We have some brilliant local suppliers come in for 'Meet the Farmer' days,' she says. The shop is currently planning an event at which customers can meet local beekeepers. 'We sell lots of local honey – in fact we struggle to keep up with demand.' Cueto – who previously ran an arts organisation in Edinburgh before coming home to take over the family's mostly arable farm – says they can keep costs down and boost their environmental credentials by serving many products as refills. 'While many shops doing this insist you buy their containers, we have a box of recycled plastic containers donated by the community, and people can just take those and use them for free.' She concludes: 'We are so well supported by our two local villages – one is one mile away and another is three miles away – that we're doing really well. We got all the older people from the villages together to hear their memories quite recently. It was very moving to hear people in their 80s recall walking up to our farm as kids to fetch milk. Now they're back using the machine. It has all come full circle.'
Telegraph
21-06-2025
- Telegraph
Three places to find ‘la France profonde' – for those exasperated by the 21st century
If I had a fiver for every time I've been asked to indicate ' la France profonde ' (deepest France), I'd be a very rich man. Well, not really. I'd have about £245. But that's 49 people who have asked me directly. This suggests that there must be thousands, maybe millions, of people interested in the subject who don't know me, or don't dare ask. So I'm assuming that this France profonde is a much-sought place. Why? It may be that it offers a misty promise of our own half-remembered past, when all villages were pretty, all butchers and bakers were family-run and front doors were left unlocked. There were no smartphones, designer drugs or hysterical 24-hour news channels. Woke was what happened when you stopped being asleep. So where is it? Both nowhere and all over the place, for la France profonde is as much an ideal as a destination. But some spots get close. Here are my top three for 2025. Cher, Centre-Val de Loire A good way to prepare for this département, or county – south of the Loire, west of Burgundy – is to tackle Le Grand Meaulnes, one of the best-selling French novels of the 20th century. Alain-Fournier's only work (he was killed early in the Great War) mines the lurking sense of the arcane in a deep, green and much-bypassed landscape. Thus will you be ready for narrow lanes which track through encroaching woodland, by rivers and half-seen lakes. Low-slung villages fold into their surroundings, apparently impervious to the 20th century, never mind the 21st. Strange beliefs infiltrate long, rustic silences – for this is also the traditional French capital of witchcraft. Le Grand Meaulnes fits right in, a tale of adolescent love and adventure and the mysterious spaces in between. You may start by paying respects at Épineuil-le-Fleuriel, whose school Alain-Fournier attended, and used as starting point for the novel. Wonderfully, the old school has been restored exactly as it was in his time. Moving north, headliners include Noirlac Abbey (near St Amand-Montrond) whose pure white Cistercian stones soar, decorated only by light and shade. The cultural season here, in pretty much the exact centre of France, justifies a trip. Nearby county capital Bourges is a skip back to well-rooted bustle, its remarkable cathedral and half-timbered streets just a villein or two short of perfection. Linger a while, before moving further north, edging into the Sologne district which Alain-Fournier characterised as 'useless, taciturn and profound'. One must, he said, 'pull aside the branches to discover this countryside'. As fields and forest close in, one makes for La Chapelle-d'Angillon, where the writer was born, and then Nançay, where he spent youthful summer holidays. Round here, it's easy to believe that the fantastic and the rational are opposite sides of the same coin. Later, we leave the universe of Le Grand Meaulnes for half-timbered Aubigny-sur-Nère. Here, la France profonde bumps into l'Ecosse profonde – deepest Scotland – in a gush of abundant jockery: saltires, kilts, whisky and a 10ft monument to the Auld (Franco-Scots) Alliance outside the library. Why? The town was given to the Stuarts by French king Charles VII in payment for their help against the English in the Hundred Years War. Scottishness got a grip and, though the Stuarts were around for only 250 years, the links remain. Aubigny revels in them, not least in the annual Franco-Scottish festival, this year from July 11-13. Should you be looking for irrationality, this is a splendid spot to start. Where to stay In Aubigny, the Hotel La Chaumière colonises a 19th-century post-house: bare stone, beams, the works, plus a good restaurant (doubles from £95). Nearby, the Logis Relais du Cor d'Argent at Argent-sur-Sauldre has practical rooms and an equally good restaurant (doubles from £64). Creuse, Nouvelle-Aquitaine If anyone says to me: 'I'll drive you to the Creuse', I say: 'Lead on, Captain. Take me there, that I might never return.' It's that sort of place. The county is found where the Massif Central cedes to the Limousin. Hardly anyone lives there and no-one visits. Well, a few. It is the least visited of all French counties, which indicates how daft tourists can be. But it means you have it to yourself, and that's good. The Creuse is wild enough with moorland and heath, forest and pasture heavy with Limousin cattle. The landscape undulates with elemental interest sufficient to hold the attention entirely, yet bearing no risk of frenzy. After a few hours there, I sigh so happily that my nerves slacken. They barely stiffen for the duration. Roads wind through countryside ruffled like yeoman England, but hotter. Aromas of flowers, hay and cows come in through the window and then you're in Crozant. The village – at the rocky junction of three rivers – had its own school of 19th-century painters, led in by Claude Monet. It's a good story, told at the Hotel Lépinat, once the artists' boozer, now an information centre. Close by, La Souterraine is a grand little spot, its old stones warmed by sun, small-town commerce and a sense of self-sufficiency. Beyond, the granite Monts de Guéret rise forested and harbouring. Set the car south, along lanes of little consequence, to Aubusson. Crouching below the rock-faces along the Creuse river, Aubusson has been weaving the world's most celebrated tapestries for 500 years. In the past, this wouldn't have detained me very long. Now, though, I've been to the Cité Internationale de la Tapisserie, seen works by Picasso, Braque, Le Corbusier and Jean Lurçat and realised there's more to tapestries than faded fabric on château walls. Thus to the Plateau de Millevaches, where moors and woodland tumble into remote villages and then down to Lake Vassivière. The possibilities for activity – hiking, biking, riding, sailing – are enticing for those with energy. The rest of us may stroll and look and reflect that this could be Canada, if only there were moose and maple syrup. Where to stay In Aubusson, the Hotel des Maisons du Pont has rooms scattered through venerable riverside houses ( from £77). In Roches, south-east of Crozant, head for the Domaine de la Vergnolle for chambres d'hôtes rooms and over-water cabins ( B&B doubles from £59). Loire valley, Centre-Val de Loire The Loire valley is where I dream of going when exasperated by the 21st century. It runs to rhythms redolent of gentler times, but with decent plumbing. North of, and parallel to, the mightier Loire (the one with the big châteaux), this tributary flows into a past of forests, vines and wild flowers, of cliffs, meadows and white-stone villages bright with proper shops and deep-rooted confidence. From light, green and watery Vendôme – where, as a schoolboy, Balzac read so voraciously that he would fall into 'a coma of ideas' – the valley meanders in and out of white-stone villages bright with proper shops and busy ladies bustling with baskets. At Thoré-la-Rochette, you might tackle Côteaux-du-Vendomois wines, peppery from the local pineau d'aunis grape. Downstream, Lavardin – crammed between hillside and river – would be standing-room-only, were it in Provence or Tuscany. Nip into the church for medieval frescoes (a Loire speciality) and move on to Montoire-sur-le-Loir. You may have heard of this town. On October 24 1940, Hitler and Pétain met to set the seal on their collaboration at the railway station right here. Presently, the station hosts a museum telling the tale. At Trôo, as chalk cliffs edge the valley so, over a couple of millennia, locals dug homes into the rock-face, creating a vertical troglodyte village on four levels. Farm workers moved out by the middle of the 20th century. Artier types moved in, for cave-dwelling is in vogue these days. But Yuccas Cave has been kept as it was when farm workers Zéphrim and Désirée Didé and their six kids lived there until 1965. And so to St Jacques-des-Guérets, with the valley's best church frescoes, Couture-sur-Loir, where 16th-century poet Pierre de Ronsard was born, and Ruillé-sur-Loir, for Jasnières wines. In La Chartre-sur-Loir, the Hotel de France epitomises all that's best in provincial French hotels. On my last visit, it smelled splendidly of flowers and furniture polish. But don't take my word. The hotel is quite near Le Mans, so has hosted key teams from the 24-hour race (Aston Martin, Porsche, Ferrari) plus associated luminaries: Steve McQueen, Jackie Onassis and Bobby Kennedy ( doubles from £91). The fascination persists, not least at the Château du Lude – as imposing as most châteaux in the grander Loire valley to the south. So please don't hesitate. Or, as Pierre de Ronsard wrote: 'Live now, believe me, wait not until tomorrow. Gather the roses of life today.' Where to stay Apart from the Hotel de France (above), we favour the Auberge du Port des Roches – pleasing hotel, good restaurant – at Luché-Pringé (doubles from £80).
South China Morning Post
25-05-2025
- Sport
- South China Morning Post
Pakistan's traditional bull races a source of pride, and income, in rural areas
Bulls are yoked together by thick wooden frames in a sun-scorched field in rural Pakistan, while behind them, holding onto nothing more than ropes and his honour, is a man on a plank. Hundreds of spectators whoop and cheer as the animals begin to hurtle down a track, whipping up a storm of dust and imminent danger. This is bull racing , Punjabi style. The traditional sport captures the raw energy of village life and is a world away from the floodlit cricket and hockey stadiums found in many Pakistani cities. A jockey, left, controls a pair of bulls during a traditional bull race in Malal, Pakistan. Photo: AP Jockeys crouch on a wooden platform behind the charging animals, hanging onto the reins. Photo: AP Bull racing has deep roots in the Attock district of eastern Punjab province. It is more than just a sport there, it is a part of the region's living heritage.
