For four long years, journalists at this newspaper have worked under the shadow of a series of terrible accusations. It was alleged they hacked phones, blagged medical and travel records and did other ‘unlawful information gathering’.

Then they had to endure an 11-week trial and were cross-examined, one by one, about their working lives. 

They are not princes. They are hard-working people who have mortgages and school runs and the ordinary dread of an ordinary person who has been publicly accused of something they did not do.

Last week, Mr Justice Nicklin dismissed all allegations. Every single one of them.

The man who, as a consequence of his litigation, put those people in that witness box is the same man who has spent the past decade instructing the rest of us to be kind.

The question that interests me is not whether Prince Harry had the evidence to prove what he was alleging – the court has answered that. 

As a psychiatrist, what most intrigues me is why he went to court in the first place? Why spend four years and presumably a lot of money on such a misguided crusade?

The answer, I suspect, has almost nothing to do with newspapers. We all know the story. He was 12 years old. He walked behind his mother’s coffin, watched by 100 million people, and he did not cry, because a boy of 12 in that situation understands that he is not permitted to.

Prince William and Prince Harry at the funeral of their mother Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997 

Grief in childhood does not revolve around a neat timetable. It goes underground and it waits. And what it very often waits for is adulthood, because adulthood supplies the one thing a grieving child lacks: the power to act. 

What mourning wants, above everything, is to undo; to go back. And since that cannot be done, the wish attaches itself to whatever might provide answers.

A courtroom has that potential. It offers a defendant and it offers a finding of fact and a verdict. It offers the one thing bereavement doesn’t always provide, which is somebody to blame, even if that somebody has done absolutely nothing wrong. 

I have seen smaller versions of this play out in my clinic for over 20 years. The widow who devotes a decade to an unfounded complaint against the hospital. The son who cannot let his father be buried until every question has been asked and answered.

Somewhere along the way the pursuit stops being a route through the grief and becomes the place where the grief now lives. And while the case is still open, the loss seems somehow less final.

And there is something else that happens to people gripped by what they perceive to be a righteous cause, and this is the part I find hardest to forgive.

They stop seeing the people standing inside it.

Not because they are deliberately cruel, but due to a narrowing of vision that is so complete, other human beings drop out of the frame.

The reporter lying awake at 3am is not someone Harry has been unkind to. They are someone he is treating as if he has not noticed them at all.

I am not sure which is worse. From the lofty heights of the moral high ground, the little people can seem even smaller.

Harry has spoken often about the years of therapy he has had, and I don’t doubt a word of it.

But it prompts an uncomfortable thought about my own profession. There is a kind of therapy that hands a person a beautiful vocabulary for their injury, but then never once asks them to put it back down again.

They emerge able to describe their wound in exquisite detail, fluent, articulate, but entirely unhealed. Insight is not the same thing as change.

I have seen several people who after years of therapy remain obsessed with their trauma to the extent that they are unable to heal and move on with their lives.

Good therapy should, in the end, leave you rather less interested in your own story than you were when you started. Harry couldn’t get what he really wanted from this case. Not only because this newspaper hadn’t done what he alleged, but because there is no order any judge in England can sign that says: your mother should not have died, and you were only 12.

Nobody can give him that. Not this newspaper, not his father and not a High Court judge.

What might help is duller, and harder and free. It is the slow, unglamorous work of mourning something that cannot be returned. It is the only way of laying down a weight that has been carried since childhood.

The truth about infertility

New research has found that infertility among women aged 35 to 49 has been rising steadily since 1990, and is projected to keep climbing. 

Notice how the coverage of such findings always carries a faint note of reproach. As though women had put off having children for the fun of it. As though there were a cohort of thirtysomethings who chose the second holiday over the first baby.

I’ve never met her. What I have met is women who could not afford a home with a second bedroom. Women on rolling contracts who knew exactly what a pregnancy would do to their prospects. 

Women still paying off a degree they were told to get. And women who simply had not met anyone. 

Eva Beaujouan, of the University of Vienna, points to longer years of study, economic insecurity and unemployment. 

We ask women to establish themselves in the years when their fertility is at its best, then we tut when the sums don’t work. 

Not one woman I have sat with chose to run out of time.

I once had a patient in her 50s and every 20 seconds or so she would shift in her chair and wince. Her scans were clear. So for years she had been told there was nothing wrong with her. This is why a study from Johns Hopkins University into back pain matters. Working with mice, the team found that in a degenerating spine, pain-sensing nerve fibres grow into places they should not be in. But a hormone called PTH prompts bone cells to produce a protein that pushes them back out. So, we now have a mechanism for why back pain occurs and a possible solution. 

Ministers have promised to end corridor care in hospitals by the end of this parliament. But Jason Killens, of the London Ambulance Service, says some are simply moving the problem outdoors… to the car park. More than 20,000 patients a month are at risk of harm from handovers delayed beyond an hour. Clearing corridors might still help no one.

Dr Max prescribes…

Altruist sunscreen

Most of us apply nowhere near enough sunscreen. Studies suggest we use a quarter to half of the amount that SPF was tested at, which turns your SPF 50 into something far weaker. And the reason we are so stingy is that the bottle cost us £30.

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So cheap suncream is not a lesser suncream; it is the sort most people will use properly. Altruist was founded by Dr Andrew Birnie, a consultant dermatologist and skin cancer surgeon, to provide excellent suncream at the lowest possible price (from £6.36, altruistsun.com). 

As a man who has had skin cancer surgery himself, I buy it. For every tube sold, they send suncream to children with albinism in Africa, who develop skin cancers young. That amounts to almost £1.4million worth so far.

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This is the moment the prime suspect in Ann Widdecombe‘s murder climbed into his car with what appears to be a large baton bulging from the pocket of his shorts.

The man, who the Daily Mail is not naming, was arrested on suspicion of killing the former Tory MP after a dozen armed officers descended on his council house in South Yorkshire on Saturday night.

He was captured on CCTV leaving the property on a run-down Rotherham estate shortly before 8am on Wednesday – the day the 78-year-old was allegedly beaten to death.

The footage shows what appears to be a baton or pole more than a foot long in his left pocket.

The man, who neighbours described as a recluse, was filmed climbing into a red hatchback before allegedly travelling some 267 miles – a journey of around five hours – to Ms Widdecombe’s remote property at Haytor on Dartmoor.

Police believe the former Tory minister, who was found dead the following morning, was killed shortly after midday on Wednesday.

Neighbours said the man held over her death was an unemployed ‘loner’ who rarely left home and had become increasingly introverted following his father’s death last year.

But early on Wednesday morning, the suspect, who lived alone, was spotted on CCTV leaving his terraced home and getting into a run-down vehicle parked on the driveway.

‘He comes out of the house and walks towards the red car,’ said a neighbour familiar with the footage, which has been shared with police.

Ann Widdecombe was killed in her home on Wednesday last week and discovered 24 hours later

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They said he appeared to be carrying a stick concealed under his top before placing it inside the car. 

‘It looked like a wooden stick or an iron bar, about a foot long, and it was pushing up underneath his T-shirt as he got into the car,’ the person added.

‘He seemed calm and there is nothing to suggest anything unusual was happening.’

It comes as Devon and Cornwall Police said there was no indication that the violent murder was ‘politically motivated’ or ‘terrorism-related’ despite Ms Widdecombe’s public profile.

She was first elected a Conservative MP in Kent in 1987 before she went on to serve as an MEP for the Brexit Party and then a spokesman for Reform UK.

Assistant Chief Constable Matt Longman said: ‘At this point, there is still no information to suggest that this is a terrorism-related incident and at this point we are not looking for anyone else in connection with this murder.

‘At this stage, there is nothing to suggest that it was politically motivated.’

He said detectives ‘remain open-minded about the potential motive’ and stressed it is not believed there is any threat to the wider public.

He urged people ‘not to share or engage with that speculation’, saying: ‘It’s unhelpful, it doesn’t aid our investigation and particularly it’s distressing to family and friends of Ms Widdecombe.’

Chief Constable James Vaughan, of Devon and Cornwall Police, said the force has ‘mounted an extraordinary response to a horrific murder of a very prominent public figure’.

He added: ‘The operation has been running at a lightning pace for 48 hours.

‘I am really pleased that we have a suspect firmly in custody and that will undergo some further work from us today.’

Forensic officers were still searching the man’s mid-terraced address in the town’s Kimberworth Park area on Sunday as uniformed officers stood guard outside.

Neighbours said around a dozen armed officers had surrounded the property at around 9pm on Saturday before knocking loudly at the door.

Courtney Foster, 25, who lives next door with partner Rayed Astle, 26, said: ‘We were in the kitchen and just saw the officers running up. Some were armed. Then they banged on the door very loudly.

‘They didn’t smash the door down because he opened it. They asked him his name, he confirmed it and they took him away.’

Ms Foster said police also took the man’s pet labradoodle, adding: ‘There were about 12 officers and quite a few cars. It was quite a shock.’

Describing the man, Mr Astle said that he had barely spoken to anyone since his father, who he had moved in with around a year ago, died last December.

‘He was someone you’d have a conversation with but that changed after his dad died. He became very quiet. He kept himself to himself and wouldn’t really speak to anyone,’ he added.

Ms Foster added: ‘He was always in the house and I don’t think he worked.’

Other neighbours said the man’s red Vauxhall Corsa ‘barely moved’ from the drive – to the extent it had begun to rust with weeds growing on it.

Forensic officers were seen heading into the house, after it was confirmed there is no evidence to suggest the murder was politically motivated

Police were searching an address in Rotherham on Sunday where they arrested a man on suspicion of Ann Widdecombe’s murder

A cordon remains at Ms Widdecombe’s bungalow in Haytor, Devon, and police said locals will notice a heightened presence for the next few days

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Floral tributes have been left on the grass outside her home, including a framed photograph of Ms Widdecombe

‘The car was normally left outside for long periods, so it just stood out that he was driving away so early in the morning,’ one added.

Another local said: ‘He is one of three brothers but the others moved out, so he was living on his own.

‘His father died before Christmas and I think it affected him. He seemed to change because he became even more introverted.

‘You would barely see him – to the point where you’d presume the house was unoccupied. Now and again you’d see the upstairs light on but that was it.’

Another resident, who witnessed the arrest, said: ‘The police came at about 9.10pm. There were about a dozen officers armed with guns, both in the front garden and the back garden.

‘They knocked on the door and he opened up. They asked his name and he was taken away.

‘It was quite quiet, really. There was no commotion….It was very quiet how they turned up. There was no lights, no noise – our Ring doorbell didn’t even go off.’

Neighbour Kingsley Whybrow, 29, said: ‘I’ve never seen anyone come in and out of that house, ever.

‘He drove a red Corsa that was parked outside – it had started to rust and there was vegetation growing on it. They came at about 3am to tow it away.’

One of the man’s brothers is believed to live in Devon, while a second brother and his mother, who is thought to have worked as a teaching assistant, are said to live locally.

Ms Widdecombe had stopped responding to text messages regarding a TV interview around the time police believe she had been attacked.

She had been due to appear remotely as a guest on Channel 5’s Matt Allwright show when she suddenly stopped responding to a producer at 12.19pm, according to ITV News.

The messages show she did not open a reply timestamped 12.48pm asking her to join the Zoom meeting which she failed to attend.

Reform UK is said to be reviewing emails sent to Ms Widdecombe in the weeks before her murder in search for any threats against her life.

The party has also said it is committed to providing round-the-clock security to its MPs in the wake of her death.

Sam Neill has died at the age of 78 just months after he revealed he was ‘cancer-free’ following a long battle with a type of blood cancer. 

The New Zealand actor – who starred in blockbusters such as Jurassic Park and The Piano – was taken to hospital in Sydney on Monday. 

Family described his passing as ‘sudden and unexpected’ in a statement published to his Instagram page.

‘It is with immense sadness that the whānau (family) of Sam Neill share the news of his passing on Monday 13th July, in Sydney Australia. Sam was surrounded by family and passed with the dignity that has characterised his whole life,’ they said.

‘The loss was sudden and unexpected but blessed by the fact that Sam remained cancer-free. They would like to express their deepest gratitude to the staff at St Vincent’s Private Hospital for their incredible care.

‘More details will be shared later, but for now, on behalf of the family, we ask that you respect their privacy as they navigate this immeasurable loss.’ 

In April, Neill – who is best known for playing Alan Grant in the Jurassic Park franchise – announced tests had found he was cancer free.

In an interview with Channel Seven, Neill detailed how close he came to death after chemotherapy stopped working. A costly, cutting-edge treatment prolonged his life. 

Neill said: ‘I’ve been living with a particular type of lymphoma for about five years and I was on chemotherapy and the pretty miserable business, but it was keeping me alive.

‘Then the chemo stopped working. I was at a loss and it looked like I was on the way out, which wasn’t ideal obviously.’

Neill underwent a special treatment called CAR T-cell therapy, which genetically modifies a patient’s own T-cells to recognise and destroy cancer cells. Private treatment costs around $AUD540,000.

‘I’ve just had a scan just now and there is no cancer in my body, that’s an extraordinary thing. I’m very, very excited that this can happen,’ he said at the time.

The treatment is currently in clinical trials to treat another blood cancer, myeloma.

Neill also said he was planning to make a return to acting. 

The New Zealand actor was best known for blockbusters such as Jurassic Park and The Piano. Pictured in Jurassic Park

Neill played Alan Grant in the Jurassic Park franchise (pictured)

‘It’s time I did another movie,’ he said.

Neill first went public with his cancer diagnosis in 2023 after being diagnosed with cancer the previous year, after initially experiencing swollen glands.

He found out about as his stage-three blood cancer while he promoted Jurassic World Dominion in 2022.

In that film he reprised his role as Grant alongside original co-stars Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum alongside Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard.

He told Australian Story at the time: ‘I’m not in any way frightened of dying. That doesn’t worry me. It’s never worried me from the beginning, but I would be annoyed.

‘I’d be annoyed because there are things I still want to do. Very irritating, dying. But I’m not afraid of it.’

Neill, who was born in Northern Ireland to an English mother and a New Zealander father, first disclosed the news of his illness in his memoir, Did I Ever Tell You This, where he writes in the first chapter that he is ‘possibly dying’.

Reflecting on life at the time, the seasoned actor once again said that he did not fear death, admitting, ‘I’m not afraid to die. But it would annoy me. Because I’d really like another decade or two, you know?’

‘We’ve built all these lovely terraces, we’ve got these olive trees and cypresses, and I want to be around to see it all mature. And I’ve got my lovely little grandchildren. I want to see them get big.

‘But as for the dying? I couldn’t care less.’

News of the celebrated actor’s death was inundated with tributes.

‘This hits hard. Thanks for the memories, Sam. You’ve left behind an incredible body of work. Love to your family,’ wrote Australian radio host Ben Fordham.

‘This is shocking news. What a legend. Gentle genius. Vale Sam Neill,’ commented comedian Dave Hughes.

‘Sam! May you be resting peacefully,’ wrote Australian of the Year Grace Tame.

Meanwhile, former ABC journalist Virginia Trioli shared her disbelief with a simple, ‘Oh no.’

Neill shares a son, Tim, 40, with New Zealand actress, Lisa Harrow, to whom he was married between 1980 and 1989. 

The star was married to Japanese makeup artist Noriko Watanabe from 1989-2017 and they share a daughter, Elena, 35. He also adopted Noriko’s daughter from her first marriage, Maiko. 

Neill was born Nigel John Dermot Neill in Ireland, with his family moving to New Zealand in 1954. 

He went by the nickname Sam, dropping Nigel after deciding Sam was ‘less awkward’. 

‘I found I moved more easily in the world as a Sam. Nigel is an awkward fit in most circumstances. Imagine being a movie actor called Nigel Neill,’ he said in 2014. 

Neill starred in three Jurassic Park films including the original in 1993, Jurassic Park III in 2001, and Jurassic World Dominion in 2022. 

He became a household name after playing palaeontologist Grant in 1993’s Jurassic Park alongside Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum.

He would reprise the role in Jurassic Park III in 2001, and again in Jurassic World Dominion just four years ago.

He has recently worked on Godzilla x Kong: Supernova and The Last Resort, both of which are now set to be released posthumously in 2027.

On the small screen, Neill appeared in episodes of The Simpsons, Peaky Blinders, The Tudors and The Twelve.

Results of the NHS GP Patient Survey 2026 show how patients rated their experiences at practices across the area.

The survey measures how surgeries are rated across a range of topics, including overall experience, how easy it is to contact the practice and the helpfulness of reception and administration teams.

In this case, the figures show the proportion of patients who described their overall experience of their GP practice as “good” or better.

Gainford Surgery, part of Teesdale PCN, received the highest rating among the County Durham practices listed, with 100 per cent of patients saying their overall experience was good.

Of those who responded, 96 per cent described their experience as “very good”, while four per cent said it was “fairly good”.

Silverdale Family Practice, part of North Easington PCN, and The Horden Group Practice, part of Easington Central PCN, were next, both with 96 per cent of patients rating their overall experience positively.

Surgery teams at Southdene Medical Centre, Woodview Medical Practice, Annfield Plain Surgery and Queens Road Surgery also recorded strong results, with each receiving a 95 per cent good rating for overall experience.

Southdene Medical Centre, in Durham Coast PCN, saw 78 per cent of patients describe their experience as “very good”, while a further 17 per cent said it was “fairly good”.

Woodview Medical Practice, in Teesdale PCN, had one of the strongest “very good” scores in the list, with 93 per cent of patients choosing that option.

Annfield Plain Surgery, in Derwentside PCN, recorded 86 per cent “very good” responses and nine per cent “fairly good” responses.

Queens Road Surgery, also in Derwentside PCN, recorded a 95 per cent overall good rating, made up of 59 per cent “very good” responses and 36 per cent “fairly good” responses.

Drs Lambert & Ng and The Haven Surgery, both part of Derwentside PCN, followed with 94 per cent of patients rating their overall experience positively.

Completing the top 10 was Evenwood Medical Practice, in Teesdale PCN, where 93 per cent of patients said their overall experience was good.

The 10 best GP surgeries in County Durham for overall experience

Gainford Surgery — 100 per cent

• Silverdale Family Practice — 96 per cent
• The Horden Group Practice — 96 per cent
• Southdene Medical Centre — 95 per cent
• Woodview Medical Practice — 95 per cent
• Annfield Plain Surgery — 95 per cent
• Queens Road Surgery — 95 per cent
• Drs Lambert & Ng — 94 per cent
• The Haven Surgery — 94 per cent
• Evenwood Medical Practice — 93 per cent

The number of completed survey forms ranged from 90 at Silverdale Family Practice to 114 at Queens Road Surgery.

Gainford Surgery also had the highest proportion of patients saying their experience was “very good”, at 96 per cent.

Woodview Medical Practice followed closely, with 93 per cent, while Annfield Plain Surgery recorded 86 per cent.

The survey data also includes confidence intervals, meaning the true rating for each practice may fall within a wider estimated range.

All data was compiled from the NHS GP Patient Survey 2026 on the overall experience for patients option, when asked: “Overall, how would you describe your experience of your GP practice?”

This data is only from people who participated in the survey.

Most of us spend months dreaming about our summer holiday. We imagine lazy breakfasts, sunset walks, laughter by the pool, quality time with the one we love.

Yet for many couples, the reality could not be more different.

After 30 years as a divorce lawyer, I’ve learnt that for midlife couples already in rocky marriages, summer holidays can often expose relationship cracks which might have been hiding in plain sight back home.

January might be known as ‘divorce month’ because of the spike in inquiries we lawyers get after Christmas, but I’m not so sure – I’m always busy after the summer break.

Holiday tensions often hit hardest – and most devastatingly – at midlife. Recent figures suggest later-life divorce is continuing to rise with splits among women aged 65 and over increasing by a staggering 38 per cent in the past decade.

Many couples slowly drift apart over the years but an antagonistic holiday really can shine a spotlight on differences and conflict that can suddenly seem insurmountable.

The good news is that most holiday tensions and flashpoints are preventable. In fact, a week or two away without the distractions of home can provide the perfect canvas for rest and repair. Holidays give us something we rarely have: time.

Here are a few of the biggest holiday flashpoints with my expert nuggets of advice for how to make sure this year’s holiday strengthens your marriage – and doesn’t destroy it…

While couples may want different things from a trip, Sheela says expecting your partner to enjoy your perfect holiday can be a recipe for resentment

Holiday hostage?

If one of you is itching to explore local markets, churches and museums, or to hike through forests when the other is longing to chill by the pool, downtime incompatibility can be a big trigger for tension.

We all want different things from a trip but expecting your partner to enjoy your perfect holiday can be a recipe for resentment.

Trouble starts to build when one of you is forced to swallow their disappointment and you can end up feeling like a hostage to someone else’s perfect plans.

If tensions do boil over into a blazing row you need to know this conflict likely has less to do with sightseeing and more to do with years of feeling unseen, unheard or unvalued. Holidays just bring it all to a head.

Divorce-proof tip:

Many couples believe they should spend every minute together but ironically, the happiest couples often don’t. So talk about holiday expectations before you pack your suitcases and have a simple planning conversation.

Agree that every day will include:

• One activity you choose;
• One activity they choose;  
• One activity together. 

That way, neither of you spends the holiday feeling you’re living someone else’s dream.

No sex please

Many couples pack far more ‘sexpectations’ than swimwear in their suitcase, hoping a romantic setting, time away from the pressures of home, a few drinks and sunshine will revive a flagging sex life.

But if you’ve spent months trying to wriggle out of intimate contact, a change of scenery won’t be enough to suddenly reignite the sexual spark.

You’ll have little left in the tank for erotica if you’ve had to do all the planning, packing, organising and looking after everyone else. And it’s hardly surprising that, by bedtime – even if you are between sheets you haven’t had to launder – sleep is likely to be far more appealing than sex.

But for some people the unexpected holiday sex drought can be a final straw.

Divorce-proof tip:

Feeling loved and appreciated is often the biggest aphrodisiac of all – whether you’re on holiday or not.

The best sex often starts with how you make each other feel long before bedtime, so aim to build intimacy throughout the day.

Kiss before leaving your room. Hold hands strolling along the beach. Hug properly (holding on for six seconds – at least).

Holidays are the perfect time to kickstart affectionate habits and daily rituals that build emotional closeness and which you can continue at home.

The sound of silence

We’ve all seen those couples sitting opposite each other in the hotel restaurant in awkward silence and wondered how on earth their relationship can survive.

The truth is, it probably won’t.

At home we are surrounded by conversational triggers – house bills, work, TV, the kids – but when it’s just the two of you side-by-side on a sunbed all day, it can be so much harder to get the chat going.

The problem isn’t that you’ve run out of things to say, it is much more likely to be that you’ve forgotten how to be curious about each other.

This is one of the saddest stories I hear: a holiday can reveal something you might not have noticed – that you’ve quietly drifted apart.

The long pauses and awkward silences can breed the unsettling thought: ‘If this what two weeks together feels like, how will we survive retirement?’

Divorce-proof tip:

Use the holiday to become curious and interested in each other again. Ask the questions that you stopped asking (write this list down on a piece of paper and take it on holiday with you).

• What’s one thing you’d love us to do more of together?
• What would make the next year amazing?
• What’s one dream we’ve never made time for?
• What was your favourite part about today?
• What are you most looking forward to about going home?

When you do get home, aim to make one meaningful question part of your Sunday morning coffee ritual or evening walk.

Five minutes of curiosity can prevent years of emotional drift.

Flashing the cash

One of you is happily ordering fancy cocktails, booking boat trips and upgrading to lobster for dinner while the other is sneaking a breakfast roll into their bag for lunch and squirrelling away the mini soap and shampoo.

In my work in the divorce trenches, I can tell you that money is one of the biggest relationship stressors and one of the biggest causes of divorce.

And holidays expose and magnify different attitudes to money in a big way.

If you find you are stressing or bickering about money on holiday you can be sure this isn’t about the price of the Whispering Angel rose wine.

It’s about something much deeper – your different attitudes towards cash, financial security, trust, control and the painful suspicion that one person is carrying the heavier burden of worrying about the bills alone.

I’ve seen marriages end after blazing rows over holiday bills when one partner feels controlled, criticised or guilty whenever they spend money and the other feels anxious and resentful of a partner who they perceive as financially reckless.

Divorce-proof tip:

Agree a realistic holiday budget. Talk upfront about flights, hotels, meals, drinks, excursions and shopping. It may not sound very romantic, but it’s far more so than spending the journey home arguing about money – and if you’re not bickering about cash, you’ll be saving money on your lawyer’s bill.

Airport incompatibility

Divorce lawyer and relationship coach Sheela Mackintosh-Stewart is the author of the How To Stay Together: 12 Daily Habits To Strengthen Your Relationship, set for release in January

There’s a great TV advert doing the rounds where a young couple, recently engaged, are waiting at the airport for their flight to be called. The minute the gate opens, the man jumps up, keen to be first in the queue, leaving the woman – who clearly prefers the ‘stay in your seat until the last minute to avoid the queue to board the plane’ philosophy – to start to seriously question their relationship compatibility.

Holiday travel brings out fundamental differences in behaviour like this, something many couples might never have noticed before.

At the mildest level these differing preferences can be irritating but left to fester undiscussed, your airport habits can jeopardise your relationship.

Travel can act like a pressure cooker and airport rows can reveal and heighten underlying differences in priorities, compromise, control and expectations.

Divorce-proof tip:

Different travel styles don’t matter, but not talking about them and finding a way forward does. Before you book, agree on how you will handle and manage these differences to avoid tension.

The in-law invasion

A holiday should be a great opportunity to reconnect as a couple and deepen your relationship. But if you’re holidaying with extended family it can quickly become a holiday from your relationship, rather than for it.

The idea of holidaying with blended step-families, both sets of parents or old friends, might seem completely delightful to one partner while leaving the other feeling trapped and resentful, especially if that person ends up as cook and bottle washer for a big band of others.

In my experience, on these holidays the rows are rarely about the in-laws – they are about loyalty, boundaries and one of you feeling repeatedly deprioritised.

Divorce-proof tip:

Before you book the next holiday, regardless of the extras that might be tagging along, have a proper chat and agree how much time will be ‘couple time’ and how much will be ‘family time’.

No one should feel like a spare part on their own holiday.

Old and tired

One of the biggest triggers for later-life divorce can be the startling realisation that one of you has ‘let the old person in’ when the other is doing everything it takes to hold back the ravages of time. If you’re picking out salads from the hotel buffet and pumping iron in the hotel gym you can get more than an ‘ick’ from spending two weeks with a partner who has let themselves go.

Away from the camouflage of everyday routines (and clothes), you can suddenly notice how differently you’re both ageing and this can leave you wondering if you’re still going to be able to enjoy the future you had imagined together or whether you might have to become their carer far sooner than you feared.

Divorce-proof tip:

Use the holiday to have an honest but loving conversation about the future. Become teammates rather than critics.

Ask yourselves: ‘What sort of retirement do we want?’ and, ‘What do we need to start doing now to make that happen?’

The answer might be daily walks, joining a gym, healthier meals, quitting smoking, cutting back on the booze or maybe taking more active holidays.

Phone wars

You’ve finally escaped. Together at last! Hurrah! No deadlines. No school runs. No endless chores.

Except one of you isn’t really there. They’re still taking conference calls on sightseeing trips, tuning into World cup football in the middle of the night, doomscrolling in bed, missing sunsets and barely acknowledging your sexy new holiday wardrobe.

The problem is, nothing says ‘you’re not my top priority’ more loudly than choosing your phone over your partner day after day.

Divorce-proof tip:

Agree a few holiday rules before you leave home such as:

• No screen zone during meals. Use the time to chat about things you don’t usually have time for.
• No phones in bed. Let the first and last few minutes of the day belong to each other. Talk, cuddle or simply enjoy your morning coffee together.
• Agree beforehand if there’s a unique sporting event you can’t miss.

Don’t drop the D-word

Holidays are stressful – tiredness, travel, grumpy kids, overheated partners and small frustrations can quickly turn into blazing rows.

That’s often when people blurt out things in anger or to shock the other which they don’t really mean and the D-word (divorce) can raise its ugly head.

It is most likely to be thrown into the conversation with apparent abandon (‘Oh are we heading towards divorce then?’). And followed up with ‘Oh come on, I was only joking!’ But that word – in any context – is a hand grenade into your marriage.

It plants doubt, fear, uncertainty and insecurity.

I’ve seen marriages fatally weakened by repeated divorce threats. Every time you use the D-word, it becomes a little more believable and more damaging.

Divorce-proof tip:

The D-word is off limits – whether you’re at home or on holiday. No matter how tired, stressed or frustrated you are.

If the word has already been used, don’t ignore it and hope it blows over. A simple apology can make all the difference (‘I’m sorry. I was angry and overwhelmed. I don’t want a divorce. I shouldn’t have said that’).

Sheela Mackintosh-Stewart is a divorce lawyer, relationship coach and author of How to Stay Together: 12 Daily Habits to Strengthen Your Relationship (published by Octopus), is out on January 21, 2027, and is available to pre-order now.

• As told to Louise Atkinson

Indeed, several people remembered how OK helped make the roads of south Durham look like the crowded streets of the capital city…

SEE FIRST: WHEN OK WAS MORE THAN JUST PRETTY GOOD

LLU579 was the favourite bus of OK founder Wade Emmerson and he knew it as “Lulu”. “This picture was taken in East Parade in Bishop Auckland, at the bottom of Durham Street,” says Alan Orchard. “The Eden Theatre can be seen in the top right of the picture, and the railway line runs behind the wall next to the bus stop.”

“There were four operators sharing the Bishop Auckland to Evenwood route with a bus running every 15 minutes,” says Peter Singlehurst, of Darlington. “These were OK, Lockeys, Anderson Brothers of Evenwood running as ‘Blue Belle’, and Stephenson Brothers of High Etherley.

“Amazingly, in 1958, all four operators purchased ex-London Transport RTL double deckers. Your picture showed JXN314, whch was one of them.

JXN314 with an E Howe of Spennymoor bus behind and the Snack Bar in Bishop Auckland Market Place to the right

“OK purchased eight, Lockeys two, Blue Belle one (and another in 1959), and Stephensons two.

“However, instead of the distinctive red livery of London Transport they were all repainted: OK in two tone red and cream, black and cream for Lockeys, light blue and white for Blue Belle, and Stephensons in blue and cream.

“For the next 10 to 12 years, it was like ‘Little London’ along this route.”

OK was formed in Evenwood in 1912 by Wade Emmerson (see Memories 787 for more). He adopted the trendy name “OK” in 1929, and his company began acquiring many smaller operators until it had more than 200 vehicles.

“In December 1959, OK bought out ‘Blue Belle’ including their two London deckers, on which I regularly travelled to school,” says Peter. “I can still remember my astonishment in January 1960 at seeing these two repainted in OK colours.

“Then in 1970, OK bought out Stephensons and finally Lockeys in 1983 so that they had the route to themselves until 1995, when they themselves were swallowed up by Go Ahead. Years later the Evenwood service was passed to Arriva.”

John Askwith, who also used the phrase “Little London” to recall those days, takes the story in a different direction: “The bus behind the JXN314, which is next to one of the snack bars in Bishop Auckland Market Place, is from the E Howe fleet from Spennymoor, BUP863B. It was new to them in May 1964 and later acquired by OK in 1970.

“In the early 1960s, a single fare from Tindale Crescent to Cabin Gate was one-and-a-half old pence and to Peel Street Terminus in the town was two old pence.” How far could you travel on a couple of pennies today?

Bishop Auckland Market Place was the hub of a bus network and not only was it lined with bus shelters but there was also refreshment huts, or snack bars, like this one pictured on April 7, 1971, lining the pavement

“APT666 was OK’s first new single deck bus acquired in June 1935 and scrapped around 1952,” says John Askwith, sending in this picture of the bus and OK staff

Where was this picture of an OK bus taken, we asked a couple of weeks ago?

“This is on Station Bridge, over the Gaunless, between St Helen Auckland and West Auckland,” says Chris Johnson. “It is just opposite Lockeys bus garage. I started an apprenticeship as a mechanic at Eden bus services, West Auckland, in 1965 and remember those days well.”

Alan Orchard adds: “The Station public house can be seen with a Camerons sign outside on the left hand side of the picture.”

The Station pub was beside the station on the Stockton & Darlington Railway which opened as St Helens in 1833, but from 1878 until its closure in 1962, was known as “West Auckland”.

The pub fell derelict after it closed in 2015 and attracted numerous complaints about its condition, although in late 2023 a quite remarkable mural of a steam train bursting through a Highland landscape appeared on its side.

The Station Freehouse, in Station Road, St Helen Auckland, closed in 2015 and has fallen into disrepair Image: SARAH CALDECOTT

An Eden bus outside Bishop Auckland Grammar School, from Colin Hurworth

“THIS bus is from The Eden, and looks like it is loaded up with schoolchildren,” says Colin Hurworth, sending in another vintage bus picture. “It is parked up outside the old buildings of Bishop Auckland Grammar School, or King James 1st, depending upon your age.

“This old building would have been known to Arthur Stanley Jefferson (Stan Laurel) from his time at the school, and in my days was physics and chemistry labs upstairs, with the art room and two first form classrooms downstairs.”

An early Eden bus: where was this picture taken?

The Eden is yet another legendary south Durham bus company name. It was started in 1927 when George Summerson, of West Auckland, bought a 14-seat Chevrolet for £500. When his brother, William, came on-board, they adopted the name “Eden” because the Cumbrian valley was a popular destination for their excursions.

The Eden’s buses had an ivory livery, were stabled in Westgate Road in Bishop Auckland, until 1995 when the company was taken over by Arriva.

However, in 2003, the name was reborn by Graeme Scarlett and so Eden buses, in classic red and ivory, can still be seen on the roads.

Geoff Gregg’s whistle and conductor’s badge (below)

WHEN Geoff Gregg started as a conductor with Durham District Services in 1968, he was issued with a uniform, hat, cash bag with 10 shillings float, badge and a whistle.

The whistle was in case the bell on the bus broke – one blow for stop, two for start – and for the conductor to assist the driver in manoeuvring.

Geoff’s whistle, though, is still practically in the condition it was issued and largely unblown.

“When the buses reversed out of the stand at Leadyard, off Darlington Market Place, our job was to help the driver back and we were supposed to use our whistle,” says Geoff.

“But on the hour and half hour you had about a dozen buses all leaving at the same time and if all the conductors had started blowing their whistles at the same time, there would have been a cacophony of noise that no driver would have understood.

“So we hammered on the bus or just waved.”

Durham District Services (DDS) was created by the British Transport Commission on August 1, 1950, as an amalgamation of smaller firms: Darlington Triumph Services, ABC Motor Services (Aaron, Binks & Coulson of Ferryhill) and The Express Omnibus Company of Durham. It was placed under the auspices of United but allowed to run separately, although United was always keen to take it over.Geoff, who spent many years as a bus scheduler looking after 500 vehicles, remembers the rallying cry: “DDS we stand and United we fall.”

However, in the late 1960s DDS was completely taken over by United and its distinctive liveries – green with cream band on service buses, and cream and maroon on excursion coaches – disappeared.

Geoff Gregg’s conductor’s badge

• If you can have any old bus pictures or stories, or can tell us any more about any of today’s pictures, please email chris.lloyd@nne.co.uk

The actor died in Sydney surrounded by his family

Actor Sam Neill has died aged 78, his family has confirmed.

The Jurassic Park and My Brilliant Career star died in Sydney surrounded by his loved ones. His death was ‘sudden and unexpected’.

A statement on social media read: “It is with immense sadness that the whanau (family) of Sam Neill share the news of his passing on Monday 13th July, in Sydney, Australia.

“Sam was surrounded by family and passed with the dignity that has characterised his whole life. The loss was sudden and unexpected but blessed by the fact that Sam remained cancer-free.

“They would like to express their deepest gratitude to the staff at St Vincent’s Private Hospital for their incredible care. More details will be shared later, but for now, on behalf of the family, we ask that you respect their privacy as they navigate this immeasurable loss.”

This is a breaking story and will be updated.

Writing for Belfast Live, the Alliance Party MLA Kate Nicholl argues that the number of unlawful small boat crossings which are now happening on a scale that simply hadn’t been seen before Brexit.

The number of small boat crossings has increased since Brexit. It’s an inconvenient truth for those who championed us leaving the EU and whose rhetoric often includes the idea of the UK “taking back control.”

But the reality is, since Brexit, control of our borders has weakened.

I didn’t vote for Brexit, and I have worked with asylum seekers for long enough to know the vast majority are just normal people who have arrived frightened, exhausted and hoping for something better. So, while I find it hard to watch the DUP head into this election talking tough on migration for many reasons, what’s most galling is that it was their project that made things worse for everyone.

“Take back control of our borders” was the promise. Nine years later, the reality is that net migration hasn’t fallen, it’s risen. Legally, through the Ukraine Scheme, the Hong Kong BNO route, or care workers on visas filling the gap left by EEA workers who no longer come here. What really exposes the hypocrisy, however, is the number of unlawful small boat crossings which are now happening on a scale that simply hadn’t been seen before Brexit.

In 2018, just 299 people arrived in the UK by small boat. So few that the Home Office didn’t even bother recording it as a category before then. By 2022, that number had skyrocketed to 46,000. By March 2026, nine out of every ten unauthorised arrivals now come this way.

These crossings, in this number, exist because there is now no legal route left for most people to take instead, which is exactly why people are dying in the Channel and are being exploited by the smugglers who profit from that gap. Before Brexit, this route barely registered. After Brexit, it became the story.

Why is this the case? Because leaving the EU also meant leaving the Dublin III Regulation, which is the system that decided which European country was responsible for an asylum claim and let people be transferred between states accordingly.

Brexit has robbed us of the certainty that this system provided.

Before Brexit, someone arriving here knew there was a real, working legal route that could send them back to wherever they’d first claimed asylum in Europe. That knowledge mattered. It’s gone now, and people know it’s gone. We’ve seen the consequences directly – fears that Denmark would send Syrian refugees back to Syria pushed some who already had protection there to come to the UK instead – a move that Dublin III would once have stopped in its tracks. If we can see that gap, so can the smugglers selling the crossing.

And here’s the part that the ‘take-back-control’ Brexiteers don’t talk about. We’re now paying, in hard cash, for what EU membership once gave us for free. The new UK-France deal costs £662 million over three years, just for cooperation on crossings. Meanwhile, the “returns agreement” with Dublin, the one intended to send people in Northern Ireland back to the Republic of Ireland, has resulted in precisely one person being returned. One.

Do the maths on it. More entirely lawful migration, plus a whole new unlawful route that simply didn’t exist before – one that exists because the legal alternative was taken away, costing lives and handing profit to people smugglers – and the collapse of the one system that gave people, and the state, some certainty about where an asylum claim would actually be decided.

That’s not control. That’s the opposite of control.

I believe in an asylum system that’s fair, compassionate and well-run, and in having a discussion around migration that’s grounded in reality and humanity, not fear mongering.

So if the DUP and TUV want to fight this election on border control, I have one question for them – which part of this looks like control to you?

For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage here and sign up to our daily newsletter here.

The plans had initially been rejected by a council but have now been given the go-ahead

Plans to build 280 new homes in a town on the Cambridgeshire border have been given the go-ahead after the planning inspector overturned a council’s decision to refuse planning permission. The planning inspector has concluded that Woolsington One can build on land off Barkway Road in Royston.

North Herts Council had rejected the plans due to the site not being allocated for housing by the authority. The authority said that it would “fail to provide adequate opportunity for travel by residents and visitors by non-car transport modes”.

The planning inspector has since concluded that permission should be granted as the “adverse impacts of the proposal would not significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefits”. The inspector said: “Balanced against the minor harms, the benefits of the scheme include the provision of housing and affordable housing which carry significant weight.”

Of the 280 homes, on a 18.47 hectares site, the development will have a mix of housing. The development will see 168 homes on the open market and 40 percent (112 properties) will me made as affordable housing.

The inspector determined that the new homes “would not result in a severe impact on the local highway network with respect to the A10 Barkway Street/A10 Market Hill junction”.

The plans were first submitted in 2021 and have officially been approved in July 2026 despite the council’s refusal in 2025. However, the planning inspector has rejected a bid to make the council pay their legal costs.