The daughter of TV presenter Lorraine Kelly has announced she is now married. Rosie shared the wonderful news yesterday on Instagram saying she had ‘the most special weekend’

The daughter of TV presenter Lorraine Kelly has announced her marriage.

Rosie, who is Lorraine and her husband Steve Smith’s only daughter has tied the knot two years after her boyfriend Steve White proposed. Just two years ago the pair announced they were expecting her first child, now they have revealed they have finally said ‘I do’.

After Steve proposed Rosie shared a carousel of images to her social media, she showed off a snap of her engagement ring, while cradling her bump, with the caption: “There are too many lovely things going on and I’m not quite sure what to do with myself. Everyone always told me you’ll know when it’s about to happen but I had absolutely no idea, but I have a lifetime to get you back @stevewhite94.”

Two months later, they welcomed baby girl Billie on August 29- making Lorraine a grandma.

Fast forward two years and the pair have now tied the knot. While exact details about the wedding have not yet been shared publicly Rosie took to Instagram to share the happy news on Tuesday July 28.

Taking to her Story she shared a snap of her hotel room as she looked back on the past few days, penning: “Well we got married… Decompressing in Edinburgh after the most special weekend of our lives – will share more soon but taking the time to just soak it all up.”

So far Lorraine is yet to comment publicly on her daughter’s wedding, but she has previously opened up about her sheer joy becoming a grandma.

But Lorraine admits that becoming a granny is one of the best thing that’s ever happened to her. Explaining that her new role has allowed her to create more time for the people she loves, she says, smiling: “Don’t go out with people you don’t like – spend more time babysitting!”

At the time Lorraine said: “Billie’s so gorgeous. She’s crawling, nearly walking, she’s talking rubbish and she’s wonderful. Her lovely little face lights up when she sees me, she’s my wee sunshine. She’s got such a great temperament. Sometimes she calls me Banana, sometimes it’s Nana. I don’t care, I’ll answer to anything.”

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When it was revealed that Oasis star Liam Gallagher had bought Tony Adams’s Cotswolds home for £4million (with no mortgage), there was bemusement about why the former England footballer had decided to sell up.

Adams, 59, had bought the eight-bedroom house – set in five acres near Cirencester, Gloucestershire, and featuring a swimming pool, tennis courts, stables and a two-bedroom cottage – with his wife, whisky heiress Poppy Teacher, in 2002.

He has now revealed his reason for the sale – Poppy is going back to university at the age of 52. ‘This is a new era for us,’ he tells me at The Oldie magazine’s luncheon at the National Liberal Club in Westminster, where he was promoting his new book, 1996: Reflections On The Year That Changed My Life.

‘We’ve sold the house and are returning to London. My wife is going back to school.’

Poppy, pictured with Adams, says: ‘I told Tony I wanted to do early modern history and he said, “How do you monetise that?” And I said, “You don’t!”

‘But I think he’s proud. He’s telling everyone I’m doing a PhD, but it’s a masters.’

Fittingly for a former Arsenal defender, Adams says: ‘We are now renting while we find a new home in north London. We’re not going back to the Chelsea area where all the Blues are.’

Poppy became the former Strictly contestant’s second wife in 2004 following his recovery from alcoholism. They have three children and he has three more from his first marriage to Jane Shea.

‘I’ve brought up the children, but now I need to use my brain again,’ Poppy says. ‘Tony and I want to have a London life, do things like go to galleries.’

Georgia gets itchy feet over skin range 

Sir Mick Jagger’s daughter Georgia, seen with mum Jerry Hall, is putting her skincare range, May Botanicals, on hold three years after its launch

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Sir Mick Jagger’s daughter Georgia’s struggles with eczema and sensitive skin led her to set up her own organic skincare range, which her mother, Jerry Hall, helped to promote.

Yet after just three years the Burberry model has put the firm, May Botanicals, on hold. ‘This wasn’t an easy decision, but it’s the right one for me as I focus on my family, modelling and my other business, Bleach London,’ says Georgia.

The firm’s products include 50ml of Golden Hour Face Oil for £58 and a 50ml of Super Balm Skin Saviour for £50.

Georgia, 34, who has a 21-month-old son, Dean, with her boyfriend, Texan skateboarder Cambryan Sedlick, 26, adds: ‘Building May Botanicals has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.’

Sir Lenny Henry was happy to accept a knighthood, but the investiture ceremony at Windsor Castle appears to have been a challenge. ‘I got knighted by Queen Elizabeth,’ he said in the comedy tent at the Latitude Festival near Southwold in Suffolk at the weekend. ‘It was a huge honour… although a bit triggering. Posh English person coming at me with a sword – triggering on an ancestral level.’ 

Suits you! Phoebe finally weds in traditional gown 

When Mountbatten heiress Phoebe Knatchbull married 32-year-old banker Leopold Glover last year the groom wasn’t the only one in a suit.

Phoebe, 30, a great-granddaughter of the 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, wore a tuxedo dress by her step-sister Daisy Knatchbull, a Savile Row designer, at the ceremony in Chelsea, west London.

But at their second, more lavish ceremony in Portugal at the weekend, she wore a traditional bridal gown. Daisy says Phoebe’s ‘in her Mrs G era’.

Phoebe and Leopold got married in February 2025 in a small ceremony at the Kensington and Chelsea Registry Office in London. The couple had a second celebration in Portugal where Phoebe modelled a stunning white dress (pictured)

Did Meghan eat her words on chef show? 

The Duchess of Sussex’s guest appearance as a judge on MasterChef Australia may have left some of her admirers rather confused.

She declared on the show: ‘I grew up in California and so, as you know, we have incredible produce, so you just start to love farm-to-table at an early age.’

She added of her mother, Doria Ragland: ‘My mom’s an incredible cook and I grew up watching so many cooking shows.’

However, the comments have a different flavour to some she made last year on her Netflix series, With Love, Meghan.

‘I was a latchkey kid,’ the duchess said then. ‘I grew up with a lot of fast food and also a lot of TV-tray dinners.

‘It feels like a different time, but that was so normal with the microwaveable kids’ meals.’

The former actress continued: ‘I used to eat a lot of Pollo Loco, Taco Bell… Jack In The Box, because my mom loved their tacos.’

She captured the greed and extravagance, the insecurity and vulnerability, plus the other hallmark of Sarah Ferguson’s character – summarised by my colleague Christopher Stevens as ‘thoughtless contempt for anyone but herself’ – without sharing any of those traits.

Indeed, after portraying Fergie in The Lady, ITV’s drama about Fergie’s former aide, murderess Jane Andrews, Natalie Dormer, 44, donated her fee to charity. So I’m pleased to see that the Game Of Thrones star has received lucrative rewards elsewhere.

Latest accounts show she made a £400,000 profit in 2025 at Pangur, one of two firms into which she pays her earnings, boosting its bottom line to £1.7million last November.

Hiss and make-up… 

Bridget Jones star Sally Phillips admits that, at the age of 56, she had to concede defeat after being body-shamed by a cosmetician.

She explains: ‘A make-up artist said to me recently, “I’m going to put powder on”. I said, “Do you put powder on now at my age?” She said, “You don’t put gloss paint on a cracked wall.” So, powder it is.’

Dozens of people remain missing after a 7.1 magnitude earthquake flattened a shopping centre in Japan.

At least 13 people were confirmed dead on Tuesday after the quake, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said. 

A number were understood to have been killed following an explosion at the Aeon mall in Kashima Town, thought to have been triggered by a gas leak. 

A large chimney at a paper factory also collapsed amid reports of injuries and damage to roads, bridges and buildings, as well as blackouts and fire.

An unknown number of people were trapped when the second floor of the shopping centre collapsed, according to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency.

Four people were pulled out with injuries and taken to a hospital while 10 others were unaccounted for.

The extent of the damage is still under investigation as search-and-rescue efforts continue.

A 35-year-old shopkeeper told Japan’s Asahi newspaper he fled the building after a quake alert and heard an explosion sounding like a bomb blast around an hour later.

When he turned around he reported seeing plumes of white smoke billowing from the mall.

Footage shows clouds of smoke billowing into the air as flames engulf a building

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This aerial image shows a section of the Kyushu Expressway damaged by the earthquake is seen in Yatsushiro, Kumamoto Prefecture, on Monday, July 28, 2026

An employee at the mall told Japanese broadcaster TBS television she and her colleagues smelled gas when they returned to their shops after helping customers to evacuate out of the building, then heard the explosion.

And a man interviewed by Yomiuri newspaper said his friend who works at the mall was missing, and he was praying for those who are unaccounted for to be safely rescued.

Footage on social media shows members of the public running for cover and crouching down on the floor as the ground shook at the shopping centre.

Other videos showed clouds of smoke billowing into the air as flames engulfed a building, while firefighters scrambled to tackle the blaze.

A separate clip showed the section of a collapsed bridge lying in a river in Yatsushiro City, while another showed how multiple freight wagons were derailed at Yatsushiro Station.

Sections of the Kyushu Expressway, a major highway linking Fukuoka and Kagoshima, suffered severe damage.

Footage appeared to show how sections were separated from the main structure following the quake, while separate images showed how parts of the road appeared to have split in two.

Around 30 people were injured across the Kagoshima prefecture, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency said on Wednesday.

Pictures: Shoppers run for cover after the earthquake struck at the Aeon shopping centre in Kashima Town

Costco shoppers run away in fear in the aftermath of the quake 

A damaged truck is seen on a debris-covered road following an explosion at the Aeon Mall in Kashima

Sections of the Kyushu Expressway, a major highway linking Fukuoka and Kagoshima, suffered severe damage

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A road guardrail is damaged following an explosion at the Aeon Mall Kumamoto in Kashima, Kumamoto Prefecture

Pictured: The section of a collapsed bridge lying in a river in Yatsushiro City after a powerful earthquake struck southern Japan

Damage is seen to part of the Aeon Mall where three people died and dozens more people were injured

Scenes also showed shoppers screaming inside a Costco supermarket in the aftermath of the tremor. 

Footage shows toppled-over boxed food items, as people climb over knocked-over shelves.

Large cracks appeared on major roads, including an elevated highway, and a goods train derailed, according to NHK, while rail services were halted and flights grounded.

At the Nippon Paper Industries Co.’s Yatsushiro factory, where a chimney collapsed and the building was damaged, 11 people were trapped underneath the debris, the Kumamoto emergency team said. 

Two of them were later found without vital signs, while the conditions of nine others were unknown.

The Fire and Disaster Management Agency said more than 260,000 people were advised to evacuate, most of them in Kumamoto prefecture, but also in the neighbouring Nagasaki prefecture.

The affected area is around 540 miles south-west of Tokyo, the country’s capital.

A tsunami advisory for the Ariake and Yatsushiro Seas on the western coasts of Kumamoto prefecture and three neighbouring prefectures was lifted within two hours, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

Emergency workers gather outside the Aeon Mall after scores of people were trapped inside following an explosion

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A damaged motorcycle and bicycles lie in a debris-covered car park following an explosion at the Aeon Mall

An unknown number of people were trapped when the second floor of the shopping centre collapsed, according to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency

View of the heavily damaged Aeon Mall Kumamoto building in Kashima, Kumamoto Prefecture, southwestern Japan

Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi told journalists there were reports of damage to roads, bridges and buildings as well as blackouts and fires, though details were unclear. 

The Fire and Disaster Management Agency said major public facilities or infrastructure were not damaged. 

Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority said no abnormalities were found at three nearby nuclear power plants. 

It comes as Kumamoto police are believed to have received more than 100 emergency calls following the quake.

Kyodo News said a hospital in the city of Yatsushiro took in around 40 people with injuries and about 50 others were taken to a hospital in Kumamoto city.

The quake also affected a number of major manufacturers in Kyushu.

Shinkansen bullet trains and local trains in Kyushu were suspended for safety checks, and the runway at Aso Kumamoto Airport was closed, with ‘no prospect of resuming operations’ in the near future, according to a notice on the airport’s website.

The Japanese Defense Ministry said it dispatched military aircraft to the area to assess the situation.

A train derailed and fell on its side at Yatsushiro station, and stone walls were damaged at Kumamoto Castle, a main tourist destination that was badly damaged in the 2016 quake and is still being repaired, Kyodo said.

‘The shaking reminded me of the Kumamoto quake (10 years ago) and I was frightened,’ Hiroki Shimoda said, an official at Mifune town hall, who saw roof tiles of nearby homes crash to the ground. 

Kumamoto was hit with a deadly quake in 2016 that killed at least 50 people.

Shinji Kiyomoto, from the Japan Meteorological Agency, has urged residents to be cautious over the next two to three days.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ deputy spokesman extended sympathy to those in danger and the people of Japan.

‘Our hearts go out to the people affected by this earthquake,’ Farhan Haq, the deputy spokesman, said. ‘The national authorities are leading the response, but we stand ready to support if needed.’

There was an energetic push to install air-filtering devices in schools and care homes when the COVID pandemic struck. However, these devices had rarely been tested in real situations looking at infection outcomes in people.

Because there was no solid proof that these devices actually worked, researchers ran a trial testing whether air filters can prevent viral respiratory infections in care homes for the elderly. The filters used in the study – called Hepa (high-efficiency particulate air) filters – are designed to remove more than 99.9% of very small particles from the air, including, in theory, many viruses.

The UK trial, funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research, included 91 care homes. Forty-seven were given Hepa filters for communal areas, and 44 were not. Researchers then tracked whether residents or staff developed respiratory infections, and whether staff needed time off sick.

The results showed that there was no difference in infection rates between homes with filters and homes without. There was also no difference in staff illnesses or absenteeism between homes with and without filters.

In this study, staff and residents knew whether they had filters in their home. This kind of open, unhidden setup (called “unblinded” in the jargon) can sometimes skew results because people’s expectations affect what they report. But this kind of skew almost always makes treatments look better than they really are, not worse – so it’s unlikely to explain why the study found no benefit.

In our own review of the evidence in 2023, we found that while air treatment technologies could reduce the amount of virus in the air, there was no solid proof they cut rates of respiratory or stomach infections among people in real-world settings.

Three other studies since 2022 point the same way. A randomised trial in Australian care homes found no significant drop in infection rates in homes using Hepa filters.

Two further studies, although not randomised, add to the picture. One compared German kindergarten classrooms with and without portable air filters, and actually found higher illness rates in classrooms that had them. The other, a small Swiss study, found air filters made no difference to COVID transmission risk.

The evidence isn’t even consistent on whether Hepa filters reliably clear viruses from the air in the first place. A large US study, mainly designed to test whether air filters could reduce asthma risk in schools, also measured virus levels in classroom air as a secondary check. It was “double-blinded” – some classrooms got real filters, others got sham ones – and the real filters made no difference to the total amount of virus in the air.

Why don’t they work?

Why might air filters fail to cut infection risk? Filters alone were probably never going to make much difference. Early in the COVID pandemic, it became clear that the biggest risk factor for catching an infection from someone else was simply being close to them, with the risk dropping sharply once people were at least one metre apart.

Most transmission probably happens almost instantly at close range, so a filter sitting in the corner of a room can’t act fast enough on the air passing directly between two people standing near each other. And even where filtration might help in one room, people move constantly between spaces, so filtering air in one place can’t stop infections happening in all the others.

There’s one context where air filtration does seem to have real value: preventing invasive aspergillosis, a serious fungal lung infection that’s especially dangerous for people with weakened immune systems. Unlike viral infections, aspergillosis doesn’t spread between people – most outbreaks are linked to construction or building work instead.

So the evidence is building towards a clear conclusion: Hepa air filtration doesn’t reduce the risk of catching viral respiratory infections. Given the size and quality of the new study, it’s unlikely any future study will overturn it.

Installing Hepa filters shouldn’t be treated as an effective way to control respiratory infections in care homes or schools. As the authors of the latest study put it, care homes should stick to the prevention measures already recommended.

Here is the full statement from National Highways: “The M1 is closed southbound between Junction 11A (Chalton) and Junction 11 (Luton) following a multi-vehicle collision.

“The incident occurred shortly before 8:45pm this evening. One of the HGVs involved has overturned and come to rest on its side. There is also significant damage to the nearside barrier and boundary fencing, along with a substantial oil spillage across most lanes.

“Traffic that was caught within the closure has now been released past the scene via lane 4. Bedfordshire Police and other emergency services remain in attendance. National Highways Traffic Officers are also on scene assisting with traffic management.

“The carriageway will remain closed while emergency services complete their response, followed by vehicle recovery, barrier repairs and carriageway clean-up.”

Iran has launched “multiple” ballistic missiles in an “attempted surprise attack” on American forces in the Middle East, the US military said, shattering a lull in the fighting.

The attack occurred at 17:45 EDT (21:45 GMT) on Tuesday, with all missiles “successfully intercepted”, said US Central Command (Centcom), which did not disclose any locations of targets.

The US military and Saudi Arabian forces meanwhile struck “Iran-aligned terrorists” in Iraq in retaliation for Iran-directed drone attacks, according to Centcom.

Tehran has not yet commented. The reported crossfire ended a brief break in hostilities between the US and Iran, which was designed to bring negotiators back to the table.

The US and Saudi Arabia struck “multiple terrorist logistics and weapons sites” in eastern Iraq, according to Centcom.

The US military said this was “a strong response to over 30 IRGC-directed aerial drone attacks in the last 72 hours”, using an acronym for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Centcom said Iran’s military “and its terrorist proxies must cease these attacks to avoid further US military response”.

Earlier on Tuesday, Saudi Arabia said its military had intercepted and destroyed drones targeting petroleum facilities in the country’s eastern region.

Defence ministry spokesman Major General Turki al-Maliki alleged the drones were launched by Iran-affiliated militia groups in Iraqi territory.

The reignited hostilities come a day after US President Donald Trump spoke of “very friendly negotiations” with Iran. At that point, the two sides had not exchanged strikes for a third consecutive day.

Access and control of the Strait of Hormuz remains a key sticking point in talks, which Tehran has denied are even happening.

The latest strikes coincided with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington, where he met Trump at the White House and attended the funeral of US Senator Lindsey Graham, a prominent Iran hawk.

At least 624 US military service members have been wounded since Trump ordered strikes against Iran in February, according to recent Pentagon data.

The Pentagon said 417 of those personnel were injured in relation to Operation Epic Fury, the joint US-Israeli military operation against Iran.

East Cambridgeshire District Council ordered the fence to be torn down for its impact on the character of the area

A Fordham man has been told to tear down a two metre tall fence despite claiming the council had approved “an identical adjacent fence”.

East Cambridgeshire District Council handed Alan Nash an enforcement notice after the metal fence was put up without planning permission at his Moor Road property. They said the fence exceeds the height limit of one metre next to a “highway used by vehicular traffic.”

Mr Nash, of A.L.N. Carpentry and Joinery Limited appealed the notice to the Planning Inspectorate but they backed up the council’s decision. Inspector R Bartlett said the fence, which is painted green, is “softened” by the mature hedges in front of it, but “remains visible through gaps”.

They added that the hedge cover can’t be relied upon to hide the fence in the long-term and will be “less effective during winter months” and the gates “fail to respect the edge of settlement rural character of the road and its surroundings”.

The inspector said Mr Nash “states that the council has approved an identical adjacent fence but has not provided any details or evidence of this.”

They said there are other high fences and gates nearby but they “are not of the same design and materials, and I am not aware of their planning status”.

They said: “I acknowledge the need for a defensible boundary around the dwelling; however, that is provided by the boundary hedging, which could be reinforced by further planting and/or the erection of a more sympathetic form of fencing.

“Likewise, lower-level agricultural style gates and pillars would secure the access to the site, and I understand that such gates have already been granted planning permission for the appeal site.”

The appeal was dismissed and the inspector ordered the fence, concrete fence posts, metal gates and gate piers to be removed.

Can you imagine the furore if I, as leader of Reform UK, shared a social media post containing a threat to kill the leader of the Labour, Conservative or Green parties?

And can you imagine how much worse that furore would be if I did such a thing less than three weeks after a senior politician from those parties had been brutally murdered?

I know for sure that I would be arrested for incitement. I would be drummed out of political life to loud media condemnations and parliamentary demands to prostrate myself in front of the Speaker and make a grovelling apology.

So what happened when Green Party leader Zack Polanski shared a post on Monday that showed a man standing next to a guillotine, along with the disgusting phrase: ‘We’re only making plans for Nigel’?

Nothing.

When we highlighted this outrageous post, Polanski quietly took it down.

No apology, no knock on the door, no wider condemnations, nothing to see here, move along please.

Well, after the recent murder of my dear friend and colleague Ann Widdecombe, that simply isn’t good enough.

After the recent murder of my dear friend and colleague Ann Widdecombe, the response simply isn’t good enough, writes Nigel Farage

That’s why I have reported Polanski to the Metropolitan Police and to the London Assembly, where he is an elected member. Because when it comes to political double standards and the two-tier policing of our public life, enough is enough.

For those who haven’t seen it, the offending Instagram post, shared by Polanski to his 700,000 followers, featured a bearded Green activist in a rainbow cap, wearing a black T-shirt emblazoned with that chilling image and caption. The smug-looking beardie was making a V-for-victory sign at the camera.

This was one of a series of posts that Polanski had shared from a Green conference, which was reportedly billed as ‘a day of love, joy, community’. Only in the warped world of the Leftie ‘#BeKind’ brigade would ‘love, joy, community’ include hatred and violence against political opponents.

Some cynical commentators have accused us of ‘overreacting’.

Well, let me remind them of just what happened earlier this month.

Ann, our party spokesman for immigration and justice, was killed in the most despicable circumstances in her own home in Devon.

The local police initially tried to assure me that her death was a random ‘burglary gone wrong’.

From the first, I suspected that was nonsense.

Ann’s unspeakable murder should have drawn a line in the sand for everyone in British politics. It was a stark warning of the terrible consequences of stoking hatred against politicians of all stripes, or against anyone who questions the establishment parties’ consensus on issues such as mass migration. Anyone who truly believes in our democracy should have taken that dire warning to heart.

Instead, we have witnessed an establishment attempt to play down and divert attention from Ann’s murder.

First came the misplaced official warnings from Labour Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood and police chiefs that we should not ‘speculate’ about motive (all while they were speculating wildly about there being ‘nothing to suggest it was politically motivated’).

Then, just a couple of days after Ann’s murder, came the bizarre effort to invent a Right-wing terror threat against a Muslim festival in Suffolk, with news of 12 ‘arrests’ plastered across the BBC and Ms Mahmood declaring that the police had ‘undoubtedly saved lives’.

The only problem was that this terror threat did not actually exist.

As the Daily Mail reported in its excellent coverage last weekend, it was ‘the far-Right plot that never was’.

Was this frankly bonkers episode another blunder by the authorities? Or was the fantasy ‘anti-Muslim terror threat’ part of a scheme to divert attention from the real threat to Right-of-centre public figures?

Now, less than three weeks after Ann’s murder, we have witnessed the grisly spectacle of a party leader posting about how funny it would be to guillotine the leader of the party she supported. Sorry but I’m not laughing.

The offending Instagram post, shared by Polanski to his 700,000 followers, featured a Green activist in a rainbow cap, wearing a black T-shirt emblazoned with the chilling image

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In recent years I have had everything from milkshakes to stones thrown at me, been hit over the head with placards and seen my home attacked, says Farage

As Lord Walney, the Government’s former adviser on political violence, rightly said, for Polanski to have shared ‘material implying the assassination of another politician’ would be ‘sickening and unacceptable at any time’. But it is ‘even more serious in the present environment, in which a senior Reform member has been brutally killed’.

Lord Walney warned there must be ‘serious consequences’ for what Polanski has done. Quite so.

Long before any of this, I needed more security than anyone in British politics. Between February this year and July 13, Reform recorded a total of 1,577 threats against me, averaging over 300 per month – more than ten every day. We judge 597 of those to be explicit death threats.

And, sadly, it’s more than mere words. In recent years I have had everything from milkshakes to stones thrown at me, been hit over the head with placards, seen my home attacked. And all the while, hostile media commentators and political opponents have sought to stir up hatred by slandering me and Reform as ‘fascists’ and ‘racists’ – effectively labelling us, in the eyes of the far-Left, as legitimate targets.

Nobody else in British political life has to put up with this. That is why I have needed personal security since 2013. The Home Office refused to help for years and last year cut the funding it offered me.

I have to pay for private security – and now I also fund protection for my family, too.

Anyone wondering about the £5million gift I received from a friend, which has been splashed across countless headlines recently, might consider the costs of my private security. After the murder of dear Ann, I can think of five million reasons for accepting that help.

But of course it’s not just about me – and I want to stress that this is not a party-political issue. It is sad that our democracy should have come to this but I have committed a future Reform UK government to providing public protection for all MPs and political leaders judged to need it – including the leader of the Green Party.

No thanks – needless to say – from Polanski.

Instead, if anything, the Left has reacted to recent events by doubling down on their incitements against us.

After an Islamist terrorist mowed down dozens of innocent people at the Berlin Pride parade at the weekend, Labour MP Kate Osborne tried to blame his sickening attack on… Reform UK and GB News. She announced bizarrely that we were part of an ‘escalation of hate’ across Europe, acting as a ‘catalyst for real-world physical violence’.

And what does Ms Osborne have to say about the Green Party leader sharing a hateful image calling for me to be murdered? Nothing at all.

Polanski must face the consequences of his appalling decisions. Political violence is real. It is serious. It needs dealing with.

The Wednesday letters page suggests making a Halo vs. Gears Of War game, as one reader sticks up for Splatoon Raiders and its Metacritic score.

Games Inbox is a collection of our readers’ letters, comments, and opinions. To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk

Single focus
I had an interesting conversation with a mate yesterday, where we were talking about GTA 6 and our video game ‘budgets’. I was complaining about how many games are coming out in September and how it was going to be hard to choose which ones to get, especially when you know you’re probably not going to play anything else for a long while after GTA 6 comes out.

To my surprise he just said he isn’t getting anything because he doesn’t see the point. He said he’d be too distracted thinking about GTA 6 and would rather just save the money for microtransactions in GTA Online 2 or whatever it turns out to be.

This is a pretty hardcore gamer too, I’ve always thought roughly the same level of interest as me. It makes me wonder how widespread this attitude is and if its means that everything that isn’t GTA 6 is going to have an even harder time of it this year than we already thought.
Focus

Pro Plus
To me the PlayStation 6 seems a complete non-starter. My prediction of what will happen is that it’ll just be a hardcore option, that’s basically a PS5 Pro Plus and super expensive. There’ll be some rich superfans that will want it but to everyone else it’s a non-starter. That’s where the handheld will come in, which will be like a scaled down PlayStation 5 and be more affordable (but probably not that affordable).

I don’t know whether they’ll still keep selling the PlayStation 5, but they should (which means they won’t). Sony needs to keep making and selling new hardware to pay the rent and that’s impossible now, due to the component crisis and the fact that there’s nowhere left for console power to go anyway.

It’s not a great set of options, for customers or publishers, but I just don’t see anything else that can be done. At least they’re in a better situation than Xbox but that’s about it.
Zeiss

Score raiders
I have been playing Splatoon Raiders daily since it released on Thursday and I can totally understand the user scores it is getting on Metacritic. It doesn’t do any one thing outstandingly, but the overall package is just pure, relatively simple fun.

I am pleasantly, really surprised with the game and look forward to playing a lot more of it!
Pigfish2 (NN ID/PSN ID)

GC: So you wouldn’t say it was the seventh best game of all-time?

Email your comments to: gamecentral@metro.co.uk

Xbox crossover
I have been playing Halo Campaign: Evolved and I would say that it’s… quite good? The original game holds up but the remake itself is adequate but not much more than that. It must be hard to know how much to change in a remake, and they probably made the right choices overall, but it does all seem a bit small and very repetitive. Very, very repetitive.

That was the problem with the original, and the reason I was always more into the multiplayer, and I think you can see the problems with the new levels. They are well made, and the second mission comes up with a clever excuse for varying things up, but it’s all still bits and pieces from previous games stappled together, for a sort of greatest hits of Halo situation.

It was fun but as GC said in their review, it doesn’t seem to have any ideas for how things could evolve in the future, beyond a few new weapons and aliens, and other minor changes. Maybe Halo is just done? Or maybe it should do a crossover with Gears Of War. Both those games are old-fashioned shooters that are past their best, maybe they could boost each other?

I always wondered if they might do that at their height and I’m not sure it’d be that hard. As I remember Gears Of War is set on a colony world, but I don’t think they’ve ever mentioned Earth. So maybe you could have them being invaded by the Covenant and them recruiting the Locusts as a new race.
Taylor Moon

Modern winner
Your article about the PlayStation 6 and the possible hurdles that it faces inspired me to ask the internet what the most expensive games console is. Apparently, it’s a Stuart Hughes Wii Supreme, which is ultra rare and made of gold and diamonds. Released at just under three hundred grand, if you’re fortunate to own that machine it’s probably worth more now.

Limited global availability seems to drive up the price of consoles and games, so I expect that special editions of consoles are where the real money is. I have no real desire to own a super expensive or super rare anything, but I have always admired the Panasonic Q GameCube. There’s a boxed one on eBay, a bargain at £2,499.
Michael Veal

GC: We were going to suggest a Neo Geo AES, but the sad truth is the most expensive standard edition console is probably the PS5 Pro, even adjusted for inflation.

Ongoing campaign
That Sony tweet about the record player is hilarious. I can just imagine some non-gamer coming across the comments and being completely confused. I am fascinated to know how all this is going to end, especially as Sony doesn’t seem to have any plan other than hoping people get bored of complaining.

I suppose they probably will, but what if they don’t? What if every GTA 6 trailer and eventual PlayStation 6 video is just endless complaints about the enforced digital-only future? I can bet the boycott isn’t going to work but people trolling Sony forever? That I can see being a long-running thing.

I can’t pretend I don’t buy all my games digitally now but that doesn’t mean I don’t want there to still be an option for physical, and I think that’s what Sony underestimated. It’s especially bad as you know that’s only the first step in taking away even more rights and options, like with these weird GTA 6 download restrictions.

It’s interesting to me that Xbox is being quite sensible for once and staying out of the picture. We all know they’d love to do the same thing, but right now they’re just letting Sony stew in their own juices. Good luck to everyone complaining, I think I’m going to go write some pro-disc comments on the latest PlayStation video!
Hammeriron

Mastering the Chief
Maybe I’m looking through rose-tinted glasses, but the Halo remake is pretty impressive to me. Not sure how many times I’ve played through it already, but I’m having a blast as Master Chief. I’m loving the subtle changes, like being able to run and also being able to use the sword.

Keep up the good work.
DB

GC: Thanks.

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Wait it out
As the saying goes, ‘Unity is Strength’. And it’s true. A mass boycott towards future PlayStation digital games/consoles might well be effective. Conversely, a protest as a much smaller percentage of the PlayStation 5 user base would have a negligible effect. The numbers aren’t looking too good at the moment for a mass boycott.

Looks like the big cheese at Sony have all decided to sit tight, keep shtum and ride out the backlash. They’ll probably get their way in the end. Let’s wait and see what the Microsoft response will be. It’s certainly going to be a very interesting 18 months or so in the gaming industry.

As for Sony (gaming division) they haven’t been quite the same since Ken Kutaragi was elbowed aside all those years ago.

And on a lighter note,

1. I deffo care about the Tomb Raider franchise. The Tomb Raider remake of a remake, February 2027, is, out of all the titles that are on the Microsfot store release list, the game that I’m looking forward to the most. That could well be a day one/week one buy, depending upon the reception it gets. I’ll get it on disc, though, then I’ll have the option of a trade-in after a month or so. That’s one up for physical.

2. There’s a tornado, nay, a ‘furious tornado’, right at the beginning of PS1 Tombi. You have to find it and then use it to clear the fog in order to progress. A gem of a game; costs a small fortune these days on PS1 physical. Relatively cheap on the PlayStation Store. Digital fights back.
Paul C.
PS: TOCA 2 on PS1 got a mention in the Underbox a few days ago. One of the finest racing games ever made, in my opinion.

Inbox also-rans
Calling Splatoon Raiders the best Nintendo game ever is silly but I’ll say one thing for it, there’s not a single glitch or bug and it’s 60fps the whole way. Given the performance problems with the Halo remake that’s kind of embarrassing… for Microsoft.
Bonce

Did He-Man And The Masters of the Universe: Dragon Pearl of Destruction ever come out? Its release date came and went and I never saw a single review.
Wander

GC: No, it was quietly delayed and doesn’t have any release date at all now.

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