I tried seven products with results both good and bad.

I’d previously been a Slimming World member, and regardless of its detractors, I understand the attraction. I believe if you adhere to the programme, it can be effective.

I reckon Slimming World dishes and snacks offer an excellent method to monitor your calorie consumption whilst also ensuring you’re getting sufficient protein and vegetables, even if you’re not following their complete lifestyle programme.

But what happens when you’re pressed for time and unable to prepare a Slimming World-compatible lunch?

Well, this is where the Iceland frozen selection can assist time-poor individuals in maintaining their dietary objectives. The healthy lifestyle and weight-loss organisation has endorsed an extensive variety of products designed to help both its members and non-members consume nutritious meals, but are they actually tasty?

I received some items from the range to sample, and having enjoyed certain products previously (the Slimming World Cottage Pie is absolutely lovely), I was more than willing to give them a go, reports the Express.

Nevertheless, there were some letdowns for me on this occasion, and a few I definitely wouldn’t suggest. To help you save money, here’s my ranking, from worst to best, of the items I sampled.

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Slimming World 550g Chicken & Mushroom Ramen

Whilst this proved straightforward to prepare, regrettably, the broth is bland and thin. I adore mushrooms, yet these were slippery and devoid of any seasoning whatsoever.

And to make matters worse, the chicken was equally tasteless. Slimming World needs to revisit this recipe; it simply wasn’t satisfactory.

1/10.

Slimming World 300g Cauliflower Cheese

When you understand the fundamentals behind Slimming World, you can appreciate why cauliflower cheese would complement the programme so effectively. You’re better off preparing your own; though, this frozen alternative falls short.

The sauce is far too runny and acidic, possibly due to the mature cheddar employed. And there isn’t sufficient cauliflower, in my view, to justify it being a serving.

This might have been more pleasant had I cooked it in the oven rather than the microwave, but the packaging does indicate you can microwave it, so the product ought to remain palatable.

2/10.

Slimming World 500g Beef Rendang

This didn’t appear appetising, yet the sauce possessed a pleasant flavour; it featured a ginger element with sweet undertones.

However, the beef was excessively soft, and the vegetables were overly large for my liking, particularly since the peppers were rather sharp, so it somewhat detracted from the agreeable sauce.

4/10.

Slimming World 6 Pack Caramelised Onion Sausages

I genuinely hoped to enjoy these; nevertheless, if you’re an enthusiast of sausages, you’re going to be let down. Whilst they’re simple to cook (I prepared mine in the air fryer) and consumable, eating these will leave you feeling as though you’re following a restrictive diet.

The consistency resembles that of a budget sausage, whilst the absence of fat renders it parched and tough, which affects the taste. I was unable to detect the caramelised onion, and the seasoning was generally insufficient.

5/10.

Slimming World Pasta Bolognese Bowl

With a generous helping of cheese and a portion of garlic bread, this could be an excellent, straightforward lunch. I appreciate that isn’t the objective of Slimming World, but the calories saved on the pasta could be allocated to the cheese.

I’d suggest there’s an abundance of sauce relative to pasta noodles, but that’s where garlic bread might prove useful. I prepare bolognese frequently, and this doesn’t compare to my own, though it does possess a pleasant hint of oregano and contains hidden vegetables.

7/10.

Slimming World 4 Pack Large Maple Pancakes

These pancakes proved to be a complete revelation. Firstly, if you’ve ever attempted to prepare one of those “healthier” pancakes, you’ll understand how underwhelming they can be.

However, these were delightful. I simply placed them in the toaster, which created an incredibly convenient breakfast.

The toaster provided them with a pleasant crust that complemented the soft interior, and they’re a decent size.

There was a genuinely lovely maple taste, and they’d be ideal on a relaxed Sunday morning accompanied by your preferred toppings.

9/10.

Slimming World 4 Pack Large Blueberry Pancakes

Similarly, like the maple pancakes, these were excellent and remarkably convenient to seize when you’re pressed for time. Alternatively, you could enjoy one as a snack or modest lunch.

The blueberry flavour proved refreshing and zingy, an ingredient I don’t typically include in homemade pancakes, so I was delighted with this element and would purchase these again.

10/10.

Also newly available in the Slimming World range at Iceland this year:

Slimming World 550g Hunters Chicken Pasta – £4.50 (3 for £12) (NEW)

Slimming World 4 Pack Chicken Tikka Skewers, £5.25 (NEW)

The former inspector said in the park there were “hundreds of local residents in quite an agitated state” due to the disappearance of Noah

A former police inspector has told the inquest into the death of Noah Donohoe how he crawled through an underground storm drain tunnel system as part of efforts to find the missing schoolboy.

The retired officer said he believed the tunnels would have been a “very challenging place to survive if you were naked”. he inquest at Belfast Coroner’s Court, which is being heard with a jury, is now in its fourth week.

Noah, a pupil of St Malachy’s College, was 14 when he was found dead in a storm drain in north Belfast in June 2020, six days after leaving home on his bike to meet two friends in the Cavehill area of the city.

A post-mortem examination found the cause of death was drowning. Noah’s mother, Fiona Donohoe, attended the hearing on Tuesday.

A series of witness statements from retired inspector Menary, who previously managed the PSNI hazardous environment search (HES) team, was read to the jury.

Mr Menary told the inquest he had attended Northwood Linear Park in north Belfast on March 24, three days after Noah had gone missing. The former inspector said in the park there were “hundreds of local residents in quite an agitated state” due to the disappearance of Noah.

He said it took more than an hour to clear the park so police could begin an inspection of the storm drain tunnel system.

Mr Menary said the HES team searched above ground in Linear Park and below ground in the tunnels.

He said it quickly became apparent the “schematics” provided by the Department for Infrastructure about the water network system “did not match what we were finding on the ground”.

The ex-officer said: “A number of entry points to the storm drain tunnel could not be found and appeared to have been landscaped or tarred over during the most recent improvement works in the park.”

Mr Menary said cameras were sent into the tunnels first, but he then had to enter the tunnel himself due to obstructions.

He said by the end of June 24 the team had confirmed that Noah was not in the non-tidal stretch of tunnel which had been searched.

He said Noah’s name had been shouted while he was in the tunnel, but there was no response.

Mr Menary said the search had resumed on Thursday, but had to be suspended due to rising tides.

He said: “What is now clear is that the search on the Thursday almost got to the point where Noah was found, but that it had to cease due to a rising tide.”

The retired officer said he was not personally involved in the search on subsequent days.

His statement added: “I believe it would be a very challenging place to survive if you were naked.”

He also said that the search was at that point looking for evidence that Noah may have been in the tunnel at some point, but it was “not a rescue operation”.

Mr Menary said the team did not have access to a drone at the time.

He said: “I do not believe any other police force would have had a drone capable of deployment underground at the relevant time.

“At no point did I consider that we had an equipment deficit or that our search was hampered or would have been better with different equipment.”

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LONDON (AP) — Elon Musk’s social media platform X faces a European Union privacy investigation after its Grok AI chatbot started spitting out nonconsensual deepfake images, Ireland’s data privacy regulator said Tuesday.

Ireland’s Data Protection Commission said it notified X on Monday that it was opening the inquiry under the 27-nation EU’s strict data privacy regulations, adding to the scrutiny X is facing in Europe and other parts of the world over Grok’s behavior.

Grok sparked a global backlash last month after it started granting requests from X users to undress people with its AI image generation and editing capabilities, including putting females in transparent bikinis or revealing clothing. Researchers said some images appeared to include children. The company later introduced some restrictions on Grok, though authorities in Europe weren’t satisfied.

The Irish watchdog said its investigation focuses on the apparent creation and posting on X of “potentially harmful” nonconsensual intimate or sexualized images containing or involving personal data from Europeans, including children.

X did not respond to a request for comment.

Grok was built by Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI and is available through X, where its responses to user requests are publicly visible.

The watchdog said the investigation will seek to determine whether X complied with the EU data privacy rules known as GDPR, or the General Data Protection Regulation. Under the rules, the Irish regulator takes the lead on enforcing the bloc’s privacy rules because X’s European headquarters is in Dublin. Violations can result in hefty fines.

The regulator “has been engaging” with X since media reports started circulating weeks earlier about “the alleged ability of X users to prompt the @Grok account on X to generate sexualized images of real people, including children,” Deputy Commissioner Graham Doyle said in a press statement.

Spain’s government has ordered prosecutors to investigate X, Meta and TikTok for alleged crimes related to the creation and proliferation of AI-generated child sex abuse material on their platforms, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said on Tuesday.

“These platforms are attacking the mental health, dignity and rights of our sons and daughters,” Sánchez wrote on X.

Spain announced earlier this month that it was pursuing a ban on access to social media platforms for under-16s.

Representatives from X, Meta and TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Spanish probe.

Earlier this month, French prosecutors raided X’s Paris offices and summoned Musk for questioning. Meanwhile, the data privacy and media regulators in Britain, which has left the EU, have opened their own investigations into X.

The platform is already facing a separate EU investigation from Brussels over whether it has been complying with the bloc’s digital rulebook for protecting social media users that requires platforms to curb the spread of illegal content such as child sexual abuse material.

___

Associated Press writer Suman Naishadham in Madrid contributed to this report.

CHICAGO (AP) — The Rev. Jesse Jackson was profiled by The Associated Press when he was a 41-year-old civil rights activist preparing his historic 1984 campaign for the presidency. The AP is republishing that story, by the late AP writer Sharon Cohen, as it appeared on Aug. 7, 1983.

___

He sees himself on the lonely, dusty road of the prophets — a man ordained by the spirit and sent forth like Jesus, Gandhi or the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to show others the way out of the wilderness.

“I’m very much driven by my religion to rise,” he says. “There’s a push that comes from religious duty. Gandhi couldn’t stop. Martin couldn’t stop. Jesus couldn’t stop.”

Nor, to hear him tell it, can the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson.

“I’m in the prophetic ministry,” he says. “It’s the kind of ministry ancient prophets engaged in when they challenged the conduct of kings and queens.”

Jesse Louis Jackson — 41-year-old son of the South, child of civil rights and a prospective 1984 black presidential candidate — is a man driven, almost obsessed with his self-appointed mission.

Wherever Jackson goes, his message is hope. His style is rhyme. He is a master of the slogan.

“If you are behind in a race, you CAN’T run equally,” he tells church audiences. “The race does not go to the fast or to the strong but to those who hold out.”

“If you pickle your brains with liquor, you CAN’T hold out. If you shoot cocaine in your membrane, you CAN’T hold out. If you put dope in your veins, rather than hope in your brains, you CAN’T hold out.”

His speeches mesmerize. Soon the audience is chanting, “Preach, brother. Preach it.” He does.

“We’re not the result of accidents, we’re the result of providence. We’re not here because we’re lucky. We’re here because we’re blessed.”

After his sermons, crowds flock to him, snapping pictures, begging for autographs and asking him to kiss babies. He turns no one away.

“My gift is a gift of the spirit,” he says.

It is a gift manifest in many forms in the evolution of this complex man from a brash, impetuous lieutenant of King into a magnetic — if controversial — political force in his own right.

In the ’60s, he battled for equal rights, picketing restaurants and marching for open housing.

In the ’70s came stress on self-respect and economic justice. Push-Excel, a bootstraps program urging students to study hard. The beginning of corporate agreements guaranteeing blacks fair participation.

Today, it’s leadership. A drive for voter registration across the South. More blacks in public office. And, ultimately, a black president, maybe Jesse Jackson.

“It’s not enough to get in the mainstream and swim,” Jackson says. “You must get in the mainstream and redirect its course.”

For years, and in highly visible ways, Jackson has tried to contribute his share, often to the dismay and irritation of others.

He has assailed dirty lyrics in disco music, mediated local labor disputes and led boycotts of national corporations.

He’s advocated the rights of Haitians, Palestinians and Poles.

He visited Panama to see whether the canal treaty was a good deal and spoke in South Africa to 20,000 blacks about apartheid.

American Jews were appalled when he embraced Yasser Arafat, leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Legislators applauded when he addressed Alabama’s Legislature — the first black to do so this century.

For the past few months, and maybe longer, Jackson has been weighing a bid for the presidency through the Democratic primaries and has sounded more and more like a candidate, to mixed reaction from other black leaders who, for various reasons, are skeptical of the political wisdom of a black candidacy at this time.

One poll has shown him to be more popular than some of the announced candidates. “God did not limit genius to white males,” says Jackson. “He distributed it all over town.”

Jackson has never run for political office. His only formal constituency is Chicago-based Operation PUSH (People United to Serve Humanity), but in reality he is the organization. Jackson founded the group in 1971, originally named the less-humble People United to Save Humanity, after splitting from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He has been president ever since at a current annual salary of $40,000.

When friends and foes alike discuss Jackson, they invariably speak of the same traits — his ego, his drive, his grand ideas, his weakness as an organizer, and his adroit courting of the media.

“He seems himself on a messianic mission,” says half-brother Noah Robinson. “What is it that motivates a person to grow? For Jesse, it’s his ego. God bless him for having that ego.”

“I always describe a visionary as someone who looks at cloudy skies and does not see the clouds, but sees the sun,” says Gary, Ind., Mayor Richard Hatcher, a friend and PUSH chairman of the board. “He’s able to do that.”

Mary Frances Berry, a member of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, added though that “Jesse’s not really an organization man. His strong suit is not really running an organization.”

“The most pungent criticism is that he is constantly announcing campaigns and crusades that evaporate after the TV set is turned off,” says Don Rose, a political strategist who worked with Jackson in the 1960s civil rights movement.

Jackson, says Hatcher, “seems to have the ability to elicit from people either a very strong feeling of support … or a very strong feeling of dislike, and sometimes a feeling that borders almost on hatred.”

Indeed, several national black leaders accuse Jackson of being an opportunist who exploits issues and seizes credit for the work of others. But virtually none has opposed him openly.

No one disputes that Jackson can cut an impressive figure. He’s an athletic 6-foot-2, in well-tailored conservative suits that long ago replaced the splashy dashikis he wore in the ’60s, along with a bold Afro.

He’s retained his Baptist preacher’s eloquence, doesn’t smoke or drink, yet, unbending, displays a humor that leads his friends to suggest that Jackson could have made a dazzling comedian.

Perennially on the go, he takes time to quiz teachers on his son’s classroom performance. Jesse Jr., 18, eldest of his five children, attends a private Episcopalian school in Washington, D.C. “He wants us to be an example of what he preaches,″ says Jesse Jr.

While Jackson preaches on many things, one theme has been as consistent in his message as in his life, an unrelenting drive to succeed.

“When you do less than your best, it’s a SIN,” he tells audiences. “To be black in America, you have to be superior to be equal.”

Jackson was born Oct. 8, 1941, in Greenville, S.C., and graduated from North Carolina A&T, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology and economics, and met Jacqueline Davis, whom he married in 1962.

After college, Jackson entered the Chicago Theological Seminary, and joined King in civil rights protests.

In 1967, King appointed him as director of Operation Breadbasket, economic arm of the SCLC. Four years later, after King’s assassination, he founded Operation PUSH.

Jackson was with King that day in 1968 when he was shot down in Memphis, Tenn. He wore a shirt said to be soaked with the slain civil rights leader’s blood to a Chicago City Council meeting the following day.

As PUSH president, Jackson has been an urban version of Dale Carnegie, pushing and praising, cajoling and criticizing blacks to work hard, excel in school, and demand their share of power.

Jackson’s Operation PUSH claims to have signed more than $1 billion in trade agreements with Burger King, Coca-Cola, Heublein, and Seven-Up that provide for more distributorships and more advertising in black-audience publications.

Not all his efforts have won friends.

When PUSH announced a boycott of Anheuser-Busch beer last year, some blacks in St. Louis, where the company is based, assailed him for picking on the wrong company.

Others say Jackson’s programs don’t help enough people.

Another Jackson brainchild, PUSH-EXCEL — Push for Excellence, a program started in 1976 urging daily study hours, teacher dedication and student discipline — has run into other problems.

Seven reports completed this year by Department of Education auditors want to disallow PUSH-EXCEL’s use of $736,000. They said the funds apparently were spent on items not eligible under the organization’s federal grants and contracts.

In addition, officials said, about $1 million in spending has been questioned because it was not documented adequately. The money is part of about $6 million awarded to PUSH-EXCEL over three or four years.

The audits don’t allege criminal violations. Jackson says PUSH гepresentatives are working with auditors to resolve the matter.

As Jackson ventured into presidential issues like the re-industrialization of America, jobs, or the defense budget, some critics questioned his qualifications for speaking out on such national issues.

Jackson bristles at that notion.

“I wasn’t trained in auto mechanics and brick masonry,” he says. “I had a liberal arts education … So if on a given day Mr. Reagan can speak about agricultural policy and trade policy and international affairs and art and culture and science, who’s to suggest I should be less able to speak to a broad range of issues?”

Jackson says the success of his Southern registration drive, finances and organization will help determine whether he runs for the Democratic nomination. If he doesn’t, he says, some black should.

The Democrats, he says, “have in many ways made us like the Harlem Globetrotters. We can provide the thrills and excitement, but not participate in the other room where policy decisions are made.”

While friends and black leaders are divided on a Jackson candidacy, some see benefits from broaching the possibility.

“He’s made the party more cognizant of black voters,″ says Georgia state Sen. Julian Bond. ”It has made race — in a positive way — an agenda item in the campaign for the Democratic nomination.”

England wing Henry Arundell is available for Saturday’s Six Nations clash with Ireland at Twickenham after his red card last weekend.

The 23-year-old had a disciplinary hearing on Tuesday after he was shown two yellow cards in the 31-20 Six Nations defeat by Scotland.

Arundell was sin-binned for not releasing his opponent early on in the match and then received a second yellow for taking out Kyle Steyn in the air.

The Bath wing received an automatic 20-minute red card that meant his team-mates played with 14 men for a total of 30 minutes.

The hearing found that “no further sanction was appropriate”.

A statement said: “The player accepted that he had committed the acts of foul play that resulted in the showing of the two yellow cards.

“In the circumstances (including that the first yellow card had been issued for a ‘technical offence’, and that the second yellow card had been issued for a very different act of foul play), [it was decided that] the sending off of the player had been a sufficient sanction.”

Arundell has scored four tries in two games – a hat-trick against Wales and England’s opening try at Murrayfield.

His place could still be taken by Tommy Freeman or Elliot Daly when the side is announced later on Tuesday.

Immanuel Feyi-Waboso is likely to miss the rest of the tournament through injury.

The iconic brand closed its final standalone high street shops in 2021

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John Lewis is bringing historic brand Topshop back to high streets across the UK. The fashion brand, which closed its final standalone high street stores in 2021, will appear in all of John Lewis’s 32 department stores on Tuesday (February 17).

The major launch is part of an expansion of new brands for the upcoming spring/summer season amid John Lewis’s £800 million long-term investment across its stores.

Last year, the John Lewis Partnership confirmed a partnership between the historic department store business and Topshop, starting with pop-ups in a number of John Lewis stores.

Topshop and sister brand Topman have been missing from UK high streets since former owner Arcadia collapsed into administration in 2021. The brand was bought by current owner Asos who sold Topshop products online.

Last year the brand returned to physical retail again with a launch in London department store Liberty before revealing its tie-up with John Lewis weeks later. Topshop will be available across John Lewis’s 32 shops, with Topman available in seven of its stores.

The launch will cover a collection of 130 of Topshop’s “most in-demand pieces” including their signature denim items. Topshop and Topman products will also be available across John Lewis’s online platforms as part of the launch.

Michelle Wilson, managing director of Topshop, said: “Today is about making it easier for customers to access the Topshop and Topman pieces they love. From our cult denim to new‐season footwear, you can see it, feel it and take it home the same day.

“Partnering with John Lewis brings Topshop back to high streets across the UK with the level of service our customers expect.”

The move is coinciding with London Fashion Week and will be followed by a ‘takeover’ of Piccadilly Circus in London and activations elsewhere across the UK. The launch comes amid efforts from the department store chain to drive its growth as it continues with a major transformation plan under boss Peter Ruis.

He said the brand, which is part of the John Lewis Partnership with supermarket chain Waitrose, is investing into its fashion offer to help drive its current strategy.

Mr Ruis, managing director of John Lewis, said: “This moment marks a significant acceleration of our fashion ambition at John Lewis. To be the exclusive home of an iconic brand like Topshop, sat alongside other exciting new brands, signals our commitment to be the definitive style authority on the British high street.”

John Lewis has said it is also introducing 14 new fashion, jewellery and accessory labels ahead of this season amid efforts to expand its fashion offer. It also follows a major redesign of the fashion floors at the retailer’s Oxford Street flagship shop.

Topshop products will be available at the following John Lewis stores:

• Glasgow, Scotland
• Edinburgh, Scotland
• Newcastle
• Leeds
• Liverpool
• Trafford, Manchester
• Cheadle, Manchester
• Cardiff, Wales
• Nottingham, Nottinghamshire
• Leicester, Leicestershire
• Solihull, West Midlands
• Cheltenham, Gloucestershire
• Norwich, Norfolk
• Cambridge, Cambridgeshire
• Welwyn, Hertfordshire
• Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire
• Chelmsford, Essex
• Cribbs Causeway, Bristol
• Exeter, Devon
• Oxford, Oxfordshire
• High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire
• Reading, Berkshire
• Bluewater Kent
• Horsham, West Sussex
• Southampton, Hampshire
• Brent Cross, London
• Stratford, London
• Canary Wharf, London
• Oxford Street, London
• Peter Jones, London
• White City, London
• Kingston, London

Ireland and Australia have both been eliminated from the T20 World Cup as rain stopped play in the Group B game between the Irish and Zimbabwe at Pallekele Cricket Stadium in Kandy.

Zimbabwe’s shock victory over Australia left them needing just a draw on Tuesday to advance to the Super 8s with the match being a must-win for Ireland to retain any hope of advancing.

Australia were also banking on a win for Ireland to remain in the hunt, but with the rain unrelenting in Kandy, the match was ultimately abandoned with both Ireland and Zimbabwe taking a point apiece.

That leaves Zimbabwe on five points and Ireland – whose four-game campaign is complete – on three, with Australia sitting on two and just one game remaining against Oman on Friday (13:30 GMT) which is now a dead rubber.

Zimbabwe will take on Sri Lanka in Colombo on Thursday (09:30 GMT) with the winner topping Group B, but are guaranteed a place in the next phase of the tournament.

When your parents were in their 20s and 30s, they probably had a job, a house and financial security. A generation later, you get a variety of food they could not have imagined, low-cost air travel and a smartphone more powerful than the fastest supercomputers of the 1990s.

This new reality is leading to the resurgence of a different kind of class identification for young people. Middle class doesn’t look like it used to. Instead, you may consider yourself a “Dink” or a “Henry”.

Standing for “dual income and no kids”, Dink was coined in the 1980s to reflect the lifestyle of couples who chose the joys of technology, travel and restaurants over raising a family. As fertility rates fall worldwide, the term is making a comeback, with TikTok users showing off a life of boutique workouts, fancy brunches and wanderlust.

A woman born in England or Wales in 2007 is projected to have her first child at age 35 and to have an average of 1.52 children, compared with 2.04 for her mother’s generation.

The Dink lifestyle is attractive to some: more money and time for yourselves. But on the salary of an average UK household, you still won’t be able to buy an average house.

Why does it seem so much harder now? It’s not that this generation is poorer: on average, full-time employees between 18 and 21 years old make £499 a week. It rises fast: for those aged 22-29 the figure is £648, and £805 for 30-39.

For all age groups, salaries have barely increased since 2008, once you control for the fact that prices have risen by a lot. Still, compared with someone who entered the workforce 25 years ago, you will earn, on average, about 15% more even when adjusting for prices.

The key is that, while you earn more than your parents and grandparents, what’s cheap and what’s expensive has completely flipped.

No one’s 20s and 30s look the same. You might be saving for a mortgage or just struggling to pay rent. You could be swiping dating apps, or trying to understand childcare. No matter your current challenges, our Quarter Life series has articles to share in the group chat, or just to remind you that you’re not alone.

Read more from Quarter Life:

There are two kinds of things money can buy. There are things available only in fixed quantities – housing in a desirable location, a person’s time or social status. Then, there are things that technology can now produce in near-infinite quantities – a huge TV set, high-speed internet on a phone, or fresh fruits and vegetables from the other side of the world.

Compared with previous generations, you’re only richer in the latter. Since 2000, UK house prices have increased twice as fast as everything else. The share of young Brits who own their homes is 25% lower than in 1990. This might partly explain Dink logic – if you don’t have hope of affording a home, why not spend more on your lifestyle?

The tax brackets that define you

In this world where buying a house without family help has become the new luxury, the British tax system provides a handy guide of where you belong. Here’s how the figures break down.

You might not be a Dink, but an “Alice” – “asset-limited, income-constrained, employed” – part of the working poor who can’t even dream of saving for a deposit. Nearly 3 million people in the UK are working and receiving Universal Credit.

But once you start earning more than £684 a month, you hit the first trap of the tax system. For every additional £1 you earn from working, you lose 55p from the benefits you receive – so in effect, you only keep 45p up to the point where the amount of benefit you receive is zero.

If you escape this first trap and earn more, you may be able to afford a small house, or one in a cheaper region. Just not the same kind of place someone doing your job could buy 30 years ago.

If you climb up the income ladder, you’ll likely hit the second trap and become a Henry – “high earner, not rich yet”.

The moment you become part of the roughly 2 million taxpayers who earn £100,000 a year, your marginal tax rate becomes 60% – which means for each additional £1 you get, you only keep 40p. If you are young and went to university, you also pay an extra 9% on student loan repayment, meaning you only keep 31p for each additional £1.

And that’s only if you stay a Dink (or the single-equivalent Sink). If you have kids, you may actually lose money when you earn more, because you will lose the right to free childcare (you lost your child benefits back at £60,000). You may prefer to be a Dinkwad – a “Dink with a dog”.

The traditional middle class was defined by homeownership and financial security, both things you could achieve through professional work. What unites today’s Henrys, Alices and Dinks is they can enjoy consumption levels their parents in the same social class would never have imagined, but can’t buy the same house as them.

The solution to this is simple economics, but complex politics: if you want cheaper houses, you must build more of them. That means building in less desirable locations, turning individual houses into flats, or overcoming opposition from older homeowners who often resist new housing developments in their neighbourhoods.

So, when your judgmental uncle remarks that “if you ate fewer avocados and lattes, you’d be able to buy a house just like I did”, you may want to explain how the relative prices of an avocado and a house have changed over time. If you’re not saving for a deposit, buying avocados may simply be the most rational thing to do.

All 11 employees at the company on Low Mill Road now work a 33.5 hour week, finishing at 12.30pm every Friday.

The permanent move follows the success of a structured internal trial, which saw positive results across productivity, energy levels and team wellbeing.

Bronco has also been accredited as a Silver Standard employer under the 4 Day Week Foundation’s Employer Accreditation Scheme, which recognises organisations that have permanently reduced working hours without reducing pay.

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Founded in 2003, Bronco is a full service digital marketing agency offering SEO, paid advertising, social media management, and web design and development services to clients across the UK.

Bronco Ltd reports success with its 4.5 day working week (Image: Pic supplied)

The agency began trialling a shorter working week to explore whether a better balance between work and personal life could be achieved without impacting performance or client delivery.

The trial showed that productivity remained strong, while staff reported feeling more focused, energised and motivated during working hours.

Becky Naylor, Director at Bronco, said: “Moving to a 4.5 day week has been a genuinely positive change for the business and for our team. We have seen no drop in productivity and in many cases the energy, focus and quality of work has improved.

“Giving people more time to recharge has created a healthier work life balance and a more motivated team, which ultimately benefits our clients as well.”

The four day and reduced hours working week has gained significant traction in recent years, with studies consistently showing improvements in wellbeing, job satisfaction and retention, alongside stable or improved productivity.

Major trials in the UK and internationally have demonstrated that shorter working weeks can be a win for both employers and employees.

Joe Ryle, Campaign Director of the 4 Day Week Foundation, said: “Congratulations to Bronco for becoming a shorter working week employer. With more free time, moving to a shorter working week gives workers the freedom to be able to live a happier and better life.

“As hundreds of British companies and one local council have already shown, implementation can be a win win for both workers and employers. The nine to five, five day working week was invented 100 years ago and no longer suits the realities of modern life.”

Bronco has confirmed that the move will not affect client service levels, with systems in place to ensure responsiveness and delivery remain consistent.

The agency sees the new working pattern as a way to boost creativity, support employee wellbeing, and promote long-term sustainability.