What they leave behind in Gravelines is a scene of dejection and exhaustion. A limp toddler is carried past me towards a police officer, who revives him with a light shake.

This all unfolds next to four or so men casting their fishing rods into the increasingly choppy waters. It is peak holiday season here. They and other dogwalkers barely glance at the crestfallen migrants wading back to the stand.

Before, the gangs would often launch boats in the dead of night, but with increased police patrols, charity workers tell us the gangs now see the middle of the day as a better opportunity, as it takes taxi boats longer to arrive and it allows them to better co-ordinate boarding.

“You feel guilty being there – going to the beach and having a good time, while these families are in such terrible situations,” observes a woman with her young daughter. They had been playing with a bucket and spade.

“It’s hard,” she admits. “We regularly see people on the beach attempting the crossing. It feels like living in two parallel worlds that have nothing to do with each other; it’s really strange.”

The migrants remaining will wait for their next opportunity, as per their agreement with the gangs. But because of more robust policing that wait is now typically weeks, even months, rather than days.

They also need a favourable weather window: the wind needs to ideally be under 5 knots and waves need to be less than 0.8m for a small boat to have a chance of making it across.

To improve their chances of avoiding detection and to be closer to a taxi boat, charity workers tell us migrants are also sleeping closer to the beach in the woods or among the dunes, instead of at the larger camps where they can wash, or receive food, water and medication.

It is after arriving at the largest settlement at Loon-Plage, near Dunkirk, that we soon find ourselves in direct confrontation with the people smugglers.

As the intense heat bears down on a tent where people can charge their devices, we initially meet two young Egyptian men who are visibly tired and disheartened. They have been staying in squalid conditions for months and have made several unsuccessful attempts to cross.

“The police stopped us from leaving and destroyed the boats,” explains one. He says he wants to go to the UK so he can work and obtain legal papers.

A young Sudanese woman and Afghan man also told us they had also tried to cross dozens of times. We have been to the camp on several occasions over the past year, but this time there was a perceptible unease.

Riot police had cleared out the tents in the same week, and the day before around 400 migrants preparing for a taxi boat in the nearby Hardelot forest were forced to return after several fires broke out.

It is evident the migrants and the gangs have been repeatedly frustrated, and the sight of our camera in one corner of the camp leads to us being attacked.

After agreeing to stop filming, one smuggler, around 5’8″ tall (172cm) and in a new grey tracksuit, tries to grab our camera. He then repeatedly throws rocks at us from close range, striking our cameraman above the eye.

EXCLUSIVE: Scottish Labour leader hopeful Joe Fagan said rethinking the abolition of “priority need” should be carried out in a “rational” way”.

A call has been made to review Holyrood’s liberal homelessness laws to help Glasgow cope with a refugee crisis.

Scottish Labour leadership candidate Joe Fagan said rethinking the abolition of “priority need” for help with housing should be done in a “rational” way.

Glasgow council, led by the SNP’s Susan Aitken, is facing a £110m funding gap fuelled by rising homelessness costs.

The total bill for homelessness came to £38m in 2025/26, but estimates suggest this figure will rise to £75m next year.

Council chiefs believe the UK Government’s decision to clear a backlog of asylum seeker cases is behind the increased spending.

Asylum seekers who have been housed in Glasgow by the Home Office are declaring themselves homeless in the city after they are allowed to stay in the UK.

However, Holyrood’s decision to scrap the ‘priority need’ test for homelessness in 2012 is also under scrutiny.

Critics believe the decision has made Glasgow attractive to single male refugees from all over the UK.

Fagan, speaking on the Record’s Planet Holyrood podcast, said he backed a review of the “priority need” policy:

“I think it makes sense. Let’s do it on a rational basis. Don’t let Reform pull this into the realm of populism. Let’s look at this as a policy challenge that Glasgow and the country faces like any other.”

The South Scotland MSP, who is going up against Michael Marra in the contest, said looking again at “priority need” could be part of a “basket of measures” including more house building.

He also echoed calls by Aitken for more funding for Glasgow in this area:

“Susan Aitken’s right to call for more support from both the Scottish and UK governments. It’s incumbent on Scottish and UK governments to work with the local authority and find a collaborative way through this.”

With Glasgow housing more asylum seekers than any other part of Scotland, he was also asked if he supported a fairer distribution of people who have fled persecution:

“Yes, I do, and I think other local authorities can step up. Through national bodies like COSLA, local government has been trying to do that.

“But one of the issues that we find – and it makes sense in a lot of ways – is that cities will always pull diverse communities towards them. It’s always been the case through history.”

The latest pieces of President Donald Trump’s wide-ranging Washington makeover are set for an airing Thursday in front of a federal panel that already has blessed other big-ticket plans from the designer-in-chief.

The National Capital Planning Commission, which this spring approved Trump’s White House ballroom proposal after he razed the Executive Mansion’s East Wing without authorization, will discuss a proposed fence around Lafayette Park in front of the White House.

The panel also will review a proposed underground security screening center for White House visitors. It’s the first time the commission will take up either idea, and votes are not expected. But the commission and the separate U.S. Commission of Fine Arts thus far have not been an obstacle for Trump’s plans for the capital.

The fine arts panel, which is controlled by Trump appointees, approved the visitors’ center plans at its July meeting. It heard a presentation on the Lafayette Square fencing but took no action. The fencing also carries the most potential for controversy and opposition on Thursday.

The planning commission is not as dominated by Trump appointees but still has a clear tilt in the Republican president’s favor. The 12 members include three presidential appointees, plus Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, General Services Administrator Ed Forst and, from Congress, Sen. Rand Paul and Rep. James Comer, both Republicans. The new chairman, Mark Paoletta, will chair his first meeting. White House Counsel Will Scharf previously held the role.

Both proposals come at a time when security for the president is a top concern. The administration says the projects would be an improvement over temporary structures that have long been used for security, such as bicycle racks fashioned into barriers.

Trump has been the target of multiple assassination attempts, including two during the 2024 campaign and a third this past April as he attended a Washington dinner with White House journalists. Those concerns were heightened in May after U.S. Secret Service officers fatally shot a man who opened fire near a White House security checkpoint.

But Lafayette Square fencing still would be a marked permanent change to the usual access and appearance of the grounds in front of the White House. The square last had permanent fencing in the late 1800s.

The administration’s 79-page proposal for the 8-acre (3-hectare) park calls for fencing all the way around with larger gates at the north and south entrances. Options call for either including or excluding monuments located at each of the park’s four corners.

The White House Visitor Screening Facility, meanwhile, has been viewed as a noncontroversial part of the administration’s call for increased security measures.

The administration says the permanent facility, which it wants open by July 2028, would replace a series of temporary tents that have been used for years, in a bid to improve security on the White House complex and enhance the experience for visitors. The original design had it being built underground near the southern end of Sherman Park, just southeast of the White House. But consultations with other entities led to it being moved to the western edge, away from utility infrastructure.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) upgraded the rating of the maternity services at York Hospital following a two-day inspection in April.

It follows the watchdog improving the wider hospital site’s rating from inadequate to ‘requires improvement’ last year.

Maternity services at Scarborough Hospital were also rated good overall after a separate two-day inspection by the CQC in April.

The director of midwifery at the York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs York and Scarborough hospitals, said it was a “proud moment” for the trust and “for the women and families we care for”.

York Hospital (Image: Newsquest)

CQC inspectors praised the “kindness and dedication” of staff and found “strong evidence of teamwork, learning and collaboration”.

The CQC said the reports also highlighted improvements in incident management, safer and more consistent triage, fire safety arrangements, maternity equipment, baby tagging and staffing arrangements, alongside stronger governance and oversight.

Inspectors found women received personalised care and that staff respected their personal, cultural, social and religious needs.

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Gill Hodgson-Reilly, the CQC’s deputy director of operations in the north-east, said: “Women and their babies are now getting the quality of care they deserve led by kind and dedicated staff teams

“Women consistently told us staff were kind, supportive and listened to their concerns, with some describing them as ‘real life angels’. We saw thank you cards displayed across all areas showing positive feedback and gratitude.”

She added that staff told the CQC that the hospital had a “strong culture of teamwork, and collaborative working”, adding: “Leaders and staff should be pleased with the positive findings, and we look forward to seeing their continued progress. We’ll continue to monitor the trust, including through future inspections, to ensure the improvements are embedded and sustained.”

‘We know our work does not stop here,’ says trust boss

The York and Scarborough trust’s director of midwifery, Sascha Wells-Munro, staff had been on a “significant journey” since York Hospital’s maternity services were rated inadequate.

“Behind this rating are hundreds of people who have supported one another and remained absolutely focused on providing safe, high-quality and compassionate care. I want to say a heartfelt thank you to every member of our maternity teams. They should feel enormously proud of what they have achieved,” she said.

“Importantly, thank you to every woman and family who has taken the time to share their experiences with us. Listening to those experiences, learning from them and acting on what we hear is fundamental to how we continue to improve our services,” Ms Wells-Munro added.

“We know our work does not stop here. I want to assure all women and families that we will keep listening to you and learning from you. We will build on this progress, sustain the changes we have worked so hard for and keep looking at how we can improve.”

The trust’s chief nurse, Joe Hague, added: “This rating provides important independent recognition of the progress we have made in the quality and safety of care.

“It’s an important milestone, but our responsibility now is to sustain these improvements and continue getting better. We will take confidence from this report while remaining focused on providing consistently safe, high-quality and compassionate maternity care for every woman, baby and family who relies on us.”

More than a century ago, the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung made introversion and extraversion central to his theory of psychological types.

Today, we tend to use “introvert” and “extrovert” as shorthand for how sociable someone is. Jung’s preferred spelling was “extravert”, and his distinction went considerably further than whether someone enjoys a party or likes to be around others.

Jung’s original distinction raises a question in the age of generative AI. If people differ in how they naturally orientate themselves towards their inner and outer worlds, should they also use AI differently?

In Psychological Types, published in 1921, Jung described introversion and
extraversion as different orientations. He distinguished them by the direction of our interest: towards the subjective, inner world or towards objects and events outside ourselves.

Contemporary personality research does not simply reproduce Jung’s types. Recent
studies examining personality and AI generally measure extraversion as one of the
Big Five personality traits: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. This means that they should not be read as direct tests of Jung’s original theory.

For someone who tends towards introversion, generative AI may provide a useful bridge between private reflection and outward expression. For example, an introvert might feel that an idea feels very clear in their head, but when they try to explain it to someone else, the other person doesn’t get it. For some introverts, this can lead to frustration.

This is because people with this personality type sometimes have trouble moving from private thought to outward expression.

With AI, an idea does not have to arrive fully formed. Someone can give the AI model fragments, contradictions or half-developed thoughts and ask it to question them.

This is good for the introvert because the idea can be explored and externalised gradually in a relatively low pressure space. The AI can ask questions, request examples or challenge them before the idea is shared with another person.

This does not mean introverts “need” AI, or that extraverts do not reflect deeply.
Personality and people are much more complex.

For someone who tends towards extraversion, the more useful role of AI might be almost the reverse. AI can supply more conversation, ideas and feedback. An extravert might gather opinions from colleagues and friends first, before sifting through the information to work out what they think. For people who tend towards this personality type, it may be about separating the signal from the noise.

Yet, AI, rather than clearing things up, may actually provide an externally orientated person with more noise. A better way might be to instruct the AI to stop generating ideas and create space for reflection, for instance: “Ask me questions that help me explore my own thoughts, rather than telling me what to think.”

Moving beyond

The same technology can reinforce our habitual way of thinking or help us move
beyond it. This matters because emerging research suggests that we often like AI that resembles us.

A 2026 study published in Communications Psychology found that extraverted participants reported greater affiliation with an AI that used extraverted language.

In a separate experiment that was part of the same study, 64% of participants felt more engaged with an AI that mirrored their wider Big Five personality profile than one designed to display the opposite profile.

There is an important wrinkle. The researchers did not find equivalent evidence that introverted participants preferred an introverted AI. Moreover, they suggest that introversion may be harder to communicate through a short text conversation.

It is a useful reminder that personality matching is unlikely to be as simple as giving everyone an AI system that communicates like them.

Affirming behaviour

Other recent research further complicates the picture. A study presented at CHI 2026, an international conference on human-computer interaction, found that after people discussed personal topics with an AI, their reported self-concepts became more aligned with personality characteristics exhibited by the AI system.

Longer conversations were associated with greater alignment with the AI. Greater alignment was also associated with greater enjoyment of the conversation. Enjoyment, however, does not necessarily tell us whether an interaction is helping us.

Research published in Science in 2026 examined sycophantic AI: systems that excessively affirm the user’s views or behaviour, even when challenging them would be more appropriate.

When people discussed interpersonal conflicts with these systems, they became more convinced that they were right and less willing to take steps to repair the conflict.

Yet they also trusted the more agreeable responses, rated them more highly and were more willing to use the AI again. The troubling part is that the less helpful interaction may also be the more appealing one.

That creates a problem for the growing push towards personalised AI. If personalisation is primarily designed around what feels comfortable or validating, we may end up creating increasingly sophisticated psychological mirrors.

But which side of the mirror are we on? Does the AI become more like us, do we
become more like the AI, or do we gradually meet somewhere in the middle?

Jung was not arguing that one orientation – introversion or extraversion – was better than the other. His concern was with psychological one-sidedness and what can happen when one psychological orientation becomes too dominant.

Perhaps personalised AI should not simply accommodate whichever tendencies come most naturally to us. For the introvert, it might sometimes provide a bridge from reflection to expression. For the extravert, it may be more useful as a way of slowing things down and creating space for reflection.

If AI can both adapt to our tendencies and subtly influence how we see ourselves, it has deeper implications for what personalisation actually means.

Perhaps the question is not simply what kind of AI suits us, but what our repeated interactions with it might encourage us to become.

By ALISON BOSHOFF, EDITOR AT LARGE and LILY JOBSON, SHOWBUSINESS REPORTER

Published: 00:36 BST, 3 September 2026 | Updated: 03:46 BST, 3 September 2026

How do you celebrate when you’re given a lifetime achievement award for your work in front of the camera? Well, if you’re George Clooney, you get behind the camera instead.

The actor, 65, was honoured with the prestigious Golden Lion award as the Venice Film Festival opened last night.

But he swapped his film award for a film camera, borrowing a photographer’s lens to take his own pictures instead.

Tiziana Fabi, a photographer with news agency Agence France-Presse, posed for Clooney while holding the actor’s trophy.

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Accepting the award, Clooney said it was an ‘incredible honour’ before joking: ‘Do [the award committee] know something I don’t?’

In a politicised speech, the star said we are ‘living through a moment in time where people in charge… are telling us to fear one another’.

He continued: ‘The first people that authoritarians try to shut down are not politicians. They’re journalists who ask questions. 

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George Clooney was honoured with the prestigious Golden Lion award as the Venice Film Festival opened last night but he swapped his award for a film camera, borrowing a photographer’s lens to take his own pictures instead

Clooney appeared on the red carpet with his wife Amal for the premiere of Danny Boyle’s film Ink

Tiziana Fabi, a photographer with news agency Agence France-Presse, posed for Clooney while holding the actor’s trophy

‘They’re the artists who refuse simple answers. They’re the filmmakers, writers, actors and musicians who insist that someone you have never met is deserving of your empathy. Stories are always dangerous to people who peddle in fear.’

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Back on the other side of the lens, Clooney also appeared on the red carpet with his wife Amal for the premiere of Danny Boyle’s film Ink. The actor dressed in a Giorgio Armani tuxedo, while Amal, 48, wore an elegant, black Tom Ford gown.

Ink, based on the 2017 play by James Graham, follows Rupert Murdoch’s takeover of The Sun in 1969.

It stars Guy Pearce as Murdoch, Jack O’Connell as the paper’s editor Larry Lamb and Claire Foy as a fictional executive

Ms Foy said she found the world ‘really intoxicating’, adding: ‘They had power at their fingertips. They knew what they wrote would be… what people believed.’

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There has been no extensive research in Britain on why school absence might be causing obesity, but doctors who have spoken to the BBC have their theories.

One factor is diet. Since the 2000s – when all four UK governments passed laws to make school lunches healthier – it’s become much harder to find high-sugar or high-fat foods in most canteens. At home, those restrictions don’t apply. By 2010, a few years after the new laws were introduced, a study from the University of Leeds found that only 1.1% of home-packed lunches met the nutritional requirements that would apply to a meal bought by a child at school.

And a US study from earlier this year found that child obesity rose in states where a universal free school meal programme was withdrawn in 2022 (presumably because it prompted children to eat unhealthy food at home).

“While school food is not as good as it should be, there are some regulations around it,” says Keith Godfrey, an epidemiology professor at the University of Southampton. “Whereas in the home environment, it’s much more variable in terms of what children receive.”

Exercise also matters. A British study from 2014 looked at step counts measured with electronic sensors, and found that most children are more active on school days than weekends.

After two years away, San Miguel is back in Wetherspoons — following a wave of demand from drinkers who made it clear they wanted their favourite Spanish beer brand back.

And to celebrate its return, San Miguel is bringing one of Britain’s most familiar summer holiday rituals to the local: the great towel dash.

Because nothing says British holiday quite like the race to reserve a sunbed. The towel over the lounger. The strategic early alarm. The unspoken battle for the best spot by the pool.

Wait is over: Sam Miguel is back in Wetherspoons – just in time to keep summer going (Image: Wetherspoons)

Now, San Miguel is giving the ritual a Spanish Summer twist — bringing it out of the resort and into the pub.

Enter the Great San Miguel Towel Dash.

From Thursday 3rd September, the first customers through the doors at selected Wetherspoons pubs will be met by holiday-style attendants ready to hand out limited-edition San Miguel towels and complimentary ice-cold San Miguel pints.

The towel dash will take place across three cities:

·       Thursday 3 September – London: The Sir Alexander Fleming

·       Friday 4 September – Birmingham: Figure of Eight

·       Saturday 5 September – Manchester: Paramount

Each activation will run from midday, on a first-come-first-serve basis. There’ll be a limited number of San Miguel towels up for grabs, but if you miss out, don’t panic. Bring your own towel and you’ll still have the chance to bag a free pint, but just like on holiday, there are only so many prime spots.

The mission is simple: get there first, grab your towel and claim your spot with a refreshing San Miguel.

Just like on holiday, there are only so many prime spots — and only the quickest will get their hands on the coveted towel and free San Miguel pint.

It’s a playful nod to a ritual that millions of Brits know all too well, turning the familiar sunbed scramble into a reason to make the most of San Miguel’s long-awaited return.

And that’s exactly what the Spanish summer is all about.

San Miguel believes summer shouldn’t be confined to a few weeks of annual leave or a flight to Spain. It’s a feeling you can bring into everyday life — whenever, wherever and however you choose.

The campaign encourages us to hold on to that holiday attitude for longer: turning an after-work pint into a long evening, stretching a catch-up with friends into the night, or simply choosing to stay out a little longer.

Throughout September, San Miguel is on a mission to keep the Spanish Summer spirit going. With San Miguel back in Wetherspoons, that Spanish Summer feeling is now closer to home — at the local, whenever you’re ready for it. And San Miguel isn’t stopping there. Spanish Summer celebrations will culminate with San Miguel Day on 29 September.

Full details on ticketing and the line-up will be shared via San Miguel’s social channels. For more information, please contact sanmiguel@wcommunications.co.uk.

Ed Hussey, Senior Brand Manager at San Miguel UK, said: “When San Miguel left Wetherspoons, Britain made it pretty clear that they wanted us back. So, we wanted to make our return feel like something worth celebrating. The towel dash felt like the perfect way to do it. It’s one of those brilliantly British holiday rituals that everyone knows — and we’re bringing it to the local, with a San Miguel in hand. Because Spanish Summer doesn’t have to end just because the holidays do.”

One last taste of Spanish summer.

On 29 September, San Miguel Day will give Britain one more reason to keep summer going, with the brand’s annual celebration of Spanish summer attitude, anytime, anywhere.

To mark the occasion, San Miguel will take over the popular Queen of Hoxton in London for a true Spanish Summer rooftop party. Guests arriving with their San Miguel towel in hand will receive complimentary entry and a free ice-cold San Miguel — giving summer one final hurrah before autumn takes over.

He’s the one-time editor of a raucous red-top newspaper who now panders to the luvvie set on a BBC podcast.

But this week David Yelland inadvertently secured an infinitely wider audience when he derided Tory MP James Cleverly for his decision to run for London mayor, confusing him with Kwasi Kwarteng by describing him as Liz Truss’s Chancellor – prompting Cleverly to reply on social media: ‘David, I’m the other black one.’

Yelland, 63, said that ‘making an admittedly idiotic error then saying sorry does not make you a buffoon’. But perhaps there’s no need for him to establish his credentials in that regard.

Dominic Mohan, Yelland’s showbiz correspondent at The Sun in the 1990s, recalls a party at a club in London’s West End, spent in the company of Noel Gallagher and models Kate Moss and Helena Christensen. Yelland was not invited, but ‘stumbled in’.

‘He hadn’t really done his homework,’ Mohan tells me, remembering events which he describes compellingly in his new book, 1996: My BackStage Pass To The Wildest Year Of Britain’s Wildest Decade.

Begging to be introduced to Gallagher, Yelland insisted he was a fan. ‘I had no choice,’ recalls Mohan, who pleaded with Noel to ‘treat him gently’.

Gallagher felt unable to oblige. ‘What? You’re the actual editor of The Sun? You bald ***t.’ Yelland replied that he’d seen Oasis ‘perform live at Madison Square Garden’.

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Dominic Mohan, David Yelland’s showbiz correspondent at The Sun in the 1990s, recalls a party at a club in London’s West End, spent in the company of Noel Gallagher

‘Oh, really?’ Noel retorted. ‘What did we open our set with that night?’ ‘Oh, I can’t, er, remember,’ stammered Yelland, adding: ‘I’m also a massive Manchester City fan, like you, Noel…’

‘In that case,’ Gallagher replied, ‘who scored the winning goal when we were last promoted to the top division?’

The clueless Yelland was then, Mohan says, slapped about the head by Gallagher.

Cleverly’s let him off lightly.

On the day Andy Burnham was blaming our economic woes on the Thatcher boom, one of Mrs T’s original Cabinet ministers was taking his leave of parliament. Michael Jopling, government chief whip in 1979, has retired from the House of Lords aged 95. It was Jopling who said of his colleague Michael Heseltine: ‘The trouble with Michael is that he has had to buy all his own furniture.’ Given that Jopling’s father was an auctioneer, you might have thought he would have approved of that. The old boy will now observe politics from the fastness of his mini stately home, Ainderby Old Hall near Thirsk, North Yorkshire. 

Imagine… Beatle legend Lennon’s first grandchild 

Sean Ono Lennon, 50, and fellow musician Charlotte Kemp Muhl, 39, are parents to Aurelius

John Lennon has a grandchild, 46 years after he was shot dead in New York at the age of 40.

The Beatles star’s younger son, Sean Ono Lennon, 50, is celebrating the birth of his first child with fellow musician Charlotte Kemp Muhl, 39.

They have named the boy Aurelius.

Lennon’s elder son, Julian, 63, whose hits include Too Late For Goodbyes, once blamed his father’s poor parenting skills for his lack of children. ‘He was young and didn’t know what the hell he was doing,’ Julian said. ‘That’s the reason I haven’t had children yet.’

Lennon was 22 when his first wife, Cynthia, gave birth to Julian.

Sir Paul McCartney wrote Hey Jude, originally Hey Jules, to console Julian after his father left Cynthia.

Sean’s mother is Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono, 93.

Why Strictly will be a holiday for Josh

Strictly Come Dancing has not yet returned, but Josh Widdicombe is already exhausted.

He joins Emma Willis and Johannes Radebe to host the new series when it airs in a couple of weeks, but the comedian, 43, says spending the summer looking after his two children has left him at breaking point.

‘The amount of people that have said to me, “It’s good to have a rest before your busy autumn,” ’ he says. ‘Yeah, I’m really going to be knackered with my busy autumn of working two days a week compared to having holidays where you’re parenting seven days a week.

‘You just get no time to yourself.’ He adds: ‘I’m knackered.’

Josh Widdicombe joins Emma Willis and Johannes Radebe to host the new series

Known for his acclaimed biographies of Napoleon Bonaparte and Winston Churchill, historian Andrew Roberts can look forward to a major event in his own timeline.  

Lord Roberts’ son Henry, 29, has got engaged to Annabel Grant, also 29, whom he met at Bristol University.

He clearly impressed her with his stamina. ‘I ran 1,000km [621 miles] in 22 days on Australia’s longest straight road, which stretches from Balladonia to Caiguna in the Outback for 149km,’ says Henry, who works for Boris Johnson’s former right-hand woman Munira Mirza at Civic Future. ‘I just felt like doing it.

‘I hope to run across America with Annie after we’re married.’

Was Holly ‘tipsy’ on One Show?

Amol Rajan thinks Holly Willoughby may have been tipsy on The One Show when he was host

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Amol Rajan, who presented Radio 4’s Today programme for the last time yesterday, has rushed to the defence of Holly Willoughby after critics mocked her attempt at making jerk chicken on her new YouTube show.

‘Holly is not a mate, and I don’t know her well,’ asserts Rajan, who plans to launch his own online channel. ‘I met her only once, when I was hosting The One Show and she was [a] guest, a bit tipsy if I recall.’ Whether that was before, during or after the broadcast, Rajan does not clarify.

But of her cookery skills, or lack of, he says: ‘Can we please move to a position in our country and in our culture where the default is to applaud those who give it a go; who pick themselves up and dust themselves off and try and try again, by failing better.’ Not exactly ringing praise…