Trainspotting smashed the box office 30 years ago with it’s realistic depiction of drug abuse in Scotland (Picture: Shutterstock)
Fuelled by a blistering soundtrack and a dark sense of humour, when Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting landed in cinemas on February 23, 1996, it was a box office hit like no other.
Based on Irvine Welsh’s book of the same name, the film followed Ewan McGregor’s self-assured addict Renton and friends, as they drifted through drink, drugs and petty crime, making various attempts to escape the clutch heroin had on them.
The stark scenes ripped up Edinburgh’s postcard image of cobbled streets and culture to reveal a city scarred by poverty, decay, and a heroin epidemic spiralling out of control.
The release of the film coincided with the earliest published drug death figures – 244 that year – and three decades on, that bleak reality lingers, with Scotland continuing to wear the grim crown of Europe’s drug death capital.
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It’s a title the country has held, unbroken, for the past seven years.
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The stark scenes ripped up Edinburgh’s postcard image of cobbled streets and culture (Picture: Shutterstock)
According to research, there were 19.1 drug misuse deaths per 100,000 people in 2024 – nearly four times as high as in 2000. The latest figures, from policing sources, showed 308 suspected drug deaths between January and March 2025, while police officers in Scotland now routinely carry Naloxone, a drug that can quickly reverse the effects of an overdose, saving lives.
So why has so little changed in three decades?
Thomas Delaney, who runs YouthWISE and speaks across the country about drug harm, tells Metro: ‘Inequality is a primary driver of drug abuse. If you grow up in poverty, you’re 18 times more likely to use substances.
‘Scotland was historically an industrial powerhouse and then all the industry left [in the 1970s and 80s], leaving behind inequality, as seen in the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation which ranks income, employment, health, education, skills, training and housing.
‘People still think Edinburgh doesn’t have a drug problem,’ he adds, ‘but it is just as bad as in Glasgow, which is three times the size. Edinburgh just masks poverty and inequality because it also has so much wealth.’
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Thomas, who lives between Glasgow and Barnsley, has his own experiences of drug use, having spent 15 years as a functioning addict.
He started using cocaine at 17 to numb childhood trauma before immersing himself in the party scene, where drugs became a way to belong and escape. In his twenties, ketamine became a daily dependency, even as Thomas held down a respectable job.
‘For the majority of my addiction, I was walking around in fancy suits, meeting very important people and securing hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of business a year,’ he recalls.
Thomas Delaney, a former functioning addict now runs YouthWISE to educate people about drug harm (Picture: Supplied)
By 2018, his health collapsed, ketamine had destroyed his bladder and Thomas was ordering drugs from his hospital bed. Even rehab wasn’t the safety net he expected.
‘I’d been to some of the worst drug dens ever and had never seen heroin – I was there for three days and I saw people using it,’ he remembers.
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While rehab was a battle Thomas has now been clean for eight years – although many of his peers from that time have since died. He now studies addiction as part of a Master’s in community learning and development.
‘The Scottish National Records and other figures show that the people dying are an aging population that have been long-term dependent, and there are tons of reasons for that – homelessness, punitive measures and the stigma attached to being a drug addict,’adds Thomas.
Trainspotting follows Ewan McGregor’s self-assured addict Renton, as he and his friends drift through drink, drugs and petty crime (Picture: Shutterstock)
Addiction specialist and psychiatrist Dr Peter McCann, who is Medical Director at Castle Craig rehab clinic in Edinburgh, tells Metro that the ‘depressing’ statistics show just how much the system is failing in Scotland. ‘We’re still worryingly behind where we need to be on reducing deaths,’ he says.
One problem is the over-reliance on methadone, ‘a treatment with known overdose risks,’ says Dr McCann. In the movie, methadone is depicted as something the system pushes to manage addicts rather than to truly help them heal.
‘If somebody wants to be on methadone, there’s pressure on us to allow that, even if we know as a clinician that it’s a lot more dangerous than buprenorphine,’ he explains. (Buprenorphine, widely used in the US and Europe as a heroin substitute, is 10 times safer in terms of overdose risk but less common in Scotland.)
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Like Thomas, Dr McCann believes treating addiction requires addressing broader inequality. While working with NHS patients in Wester Hailes, Edinburgh, he saw addiction intertwined with a plethora of other social problems.
‘We had GP practices with lots of different teams working in one place, which is a good model for people needing treatment,’ he explains. ‘But it was really telling how severe and complicated the really unwell patients were.
‘They didn’t just have an addiction problem, they had housing issues, mental health issues, bipolar disorder, PTSD… there were people who had been attacked from involvement in drug dealing and or there was a lot of cuckooing.
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Dr Peter McCann says the ‘depressing’ statistics show just how much the system is failing in Scotland (Picture: Kenneth Martin)
‘Gangs would come from down south, take over someone’s home, weasel their way in by offering them drugs and before you know it, people have been subjected ot violence and sexual trauma.’
Fiona Spargo-Mabbs has spent more than a decade working to reduce drug harm after her 16-year-old son Dan died in 2014 after taking a single ecstasy pill. Believing education could have saved him, she set up the Daniel Spargo-Mabbs Foundation eight days after his death.
The DSM Foundation delivers training across the UK, including Scotland, for young people on how risk-taking and impulsive behaviour are linked to brain development – and how to make safe choices about drugs and alcohol.
16-year-old Dan died in 2014 after taking a single ecstasy pill (Picture: DSMF)
‘Drug death in Scotland is just heartbreaking, and it’s still off the scale compared to everywhere else. We want to support young people to make safer choices.
‘The diversity of drugs is much greater now,’ Fiona explains to Metro. ‘We are dealing with ketamine overtaking cocaine and MDMA and are seeing THC vapes, and spice, which is a whole other risk. Drug use is changing all the time, so educators are constantly evolving their understanding to stay ahead of the curve.’
At festivals, testing has revealed MDMA doses two to three times stronger than the harmful threshold, she adds. The dose that killed Dan – a talented and popular year 12 kid who ran errands for elderly people on his paper round – was twelve times stronger than what has caused deaths in the past.
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Experts say that the diversity of drugs is much greater now (Picture: Getty Images)
‘We didn’t realise somebody like Dan could be so close to something that had quite so much risk. If something like this could happen to someone like my son, then it could be anyone,’ warns Fiona.
‘If Dan had had a better understanding of what those risks were, I feel sure that he would have been able to manage that decision more safely and come home.’
‘You can get a bag of pills or crystals of ket for a fiver. You can order a bag of drugs, easier than you can order pizza, on Snapchat or WhatsApp,’ he says.
You can order a bag of drugs, easier than you can order pizza says recovering alcoholic and recovery coach, Rod Anderson (Picture: Caroline Robson)
Rod, a recovering alcoholic, lost everything to his addiction; his marriage, sons, job and health, before getting sober 12 years ago after frequent attempts. He has since rebuilt his life and relationships, but knows how hard it is to escape addiction.
‘You don’t just wake up one morning think – I’ll have a bottle of vodka for breakfast. You can’t stop at that point, because the withdrawal process is so unpleasant,’ he tells Metro.
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‘Everything else in your life at that point becomes irrelevant – relationships, jobs, money. It’s a horrible, horrible place to be, and that’s why a lot of people don’t come back from it, because they die, or they kill themselves, or they end up in jail.’
And jails, he argues, are no safe haven.
‘Drugs are just as easy or even easier to get hold of inside than they are in the community.’
Rod also points out that 70% of drug deaths in Scotland now involve poly-drug use, including alcohol. ‘The drug scene has changed dramatically since the heroin of the Trainspotting generation. Fast forward to now, a lot of those people are dead.
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‘People are still using heroin with a whole load of other things, like crack cocaine and synthetic opioids, and that’s dangerous – like Russian roulette. You don’t know what’s going to be in this next hit.
‘What we are looking at now is a much more dangerous environment than 30 years ago.’
The small talk of a taxi ride is the beating heart of British chit-chat – a soundtrack to thousands of journeys across London and beyond.
On Sunday, a passenger might glance at the driver in the rear view mirror and ask the usual: “Good weekend, mate? Get up to much?”
For 37-year-old Bilal Fawaz, the answer could be a little different than the usual traffic complaints or remarks about the drizzle.
“I became a British champion. And then I drove this Uber,” he plans to say, using the same casual tone he might use to discuss a bottleneck on the North Circular.
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But for that conversation to happen, Fawaz must first handle business this Saturday in Nottingham, where he challenges Ishmael Davis for the prestigious British light-middleweight title.
In boxing, the story of the “working-class hero” – the athlete who still clocks in for a nine-to-five – is a great marketing hook. But for Fawaz, there is no romanticism in the grind.
“I’m an Uber driver. I’m a personal trainer. I’m a fitness instructor. And I’m a professional boxer. That’s four jobs,” he tells BBC Sport in fight week.
“I was doing Uber the day I came here. I trained clients before I left London. I pay for the car on a subscription every week and if I don’t work, money goes out and nothing comes in.
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“So on Sunday after the fight, when the kids are asleep, I’ll jump in the car, make £70 or £80, park it, sleep, drop them to nursery and train clients again.”
Fawaz is articulate and thoughtful, with a hint of theatrical flair that reflects his time at acting school.
But beneath that poise lie challenges far heavier than night shifts or 10-round fights. His fight began long before Nottingham – a childhood marked by abuse, years in the care system and a life spent proving he belongs.
BBC Sport first told Fawaz’s story in 2018, revisited it in 2022, and yet he remains in limbo as an English champion still without a passport.
Did anyone really need a medieval jousting movie scored to Queen and David Bowie? No. Did millennial audiences in 2001 immediately understand that Brian Helgeland’s A Knight’s Tale – out again in cinemas this week – was exactly what they wanted anyway? Absolutely.
Five years after Baz Luhrmann had proved that modern soundtracks could electrify period texts in Romeo + Juliet, Helgeland applied the same logic to tournaments in the Middle Ages, and discovered it worked brilliantly. For this is a film so joyous and free of pretentiousness that questions about historical accuracy splinter on impact.
Part of the film’s pleasure is indeed how gleefully it flaunts every bizarre, wonky anachronism: peasants hammer wooden stands to “We Will Rock You”, courtly balls pivot to Seventies disco, and the whole thing vibrates with a classic-rock swagger that feels bracingly alive. Heartwarming, too. Tingeing it all with bittersweetness, of course, is Heath Ledger’s wonderful lead performance, shot seven years before his death in 2008. The film preserves his beauty in permanent youth.
In many ways, A Knight’s Tale is a time capsule from a very specific cultural moment. The story of a peasant squire who seizes his destiny landed at a point when Pop Idol had reduced stardom to a phone-in vote and the right sob story; when The Strokes had every alternative kid in drainpipe Levi’s and battered Converse thinking they could transform themselves through nonchalance and the correct haircut.
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What the film instinctively gets – and what millennials understood right back – is that reinvention isn’t about lying. It’s about performing a role so completely that the performance becomes the reality. William Thatcher doesn’t pretend to be a knight; he decides he is one, then commits. Beneath that surfer hair, he moves like nobility and talks the same way.
Changing his stars: William Thatcher (Heath Ledger) transformed himself in ‘A Knight’s Tale’ (Sony)
Confidence becomes truth – it’s the same logic that powers Gatsby’s rebranding, Don Draper’s assumed identity in Mad Men, and Julien Sorel’s social climbing in The Red and the Black. Helgeland applies it to the stratified ranks of 14th-century feudalism, and makes anything seem possible. If a peasant can become a knight through self-belief, why can’t a medieval movie have a soundtrack with synthesisers and guitar riffs?
Ledger and Paul Bettany are the film’s twin engines, both operating at maximum charisma. Ledger plays William with courtly grace despite the beach-blond tangles, spouting lines like “Perhaps angels have no names, only beautiful faces” as if Jocelyn’s reaction is the only thing in the world that matters.
Ah yes, Jocelyn. Played by Shannyn Sossamon – whom the casting director, Francine Maisler, discovered DJing Gwyneth Paltrow’s birthday party – she’s the hipster pinup with whom William is smitten. Watch Ledger’s face light up around Sossamon, around his co-stars, around the audacious silliness of it all. Bettany’s Chaucer – first appearing naked, trudging through the countryside having gambled away his clothes – struts through the film like he’s already famous, a braggadocious raconteur with mischief in his eyes.
Before his first joust, Chaucer promises William: “I got their attention, you go win their hearts.” If the baroque pre-tournament hype handles the attention-getting, the “Golden Years” scene is where the film ignites. At a formal ball, William is asked to demonstrate how nobles dance in Gelderland, his invented homeland. What starts as courtly footwork suddenly shifts when Bowie’s melody kicks in and the room turns into a swirling medieval rave. The young lovers start bouncing and flailing, while Rufus Sewell’s deliciously villainous Count Adhemar glowers from the sidelines.
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It will remind you of the prom scene from another millennial coming-of-age classic, 1999’s She’s All That, only in doublets and wimples. One reviewer admitted to leaving the film “with a great big grin” on their face, and that’s the alchemy of A Knight’s Tale. It bypasses any critical faculties, heading straight for the pleasure centres where sincerity and silliness become entwined.
Roger Ebert, the celebrated film critic, called it “whimsical, silly and romantic”, noting that it reminded him “of the days before films got so cynical and unrelentingly violent”. The cast back this up: Mark Addy’s Roland makes tunics from tents, Alan Tudyk’s Wat promises to “fong” his enemies, Laura Fraser’s Kate stamps her armour with a Nike swoosh. In one scene, they assemble a love letter together from the wreckage of their broken hearts, and somehow it doesn’t feel sickly sweet.
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Weighed and measured, this is a movie that runs on innocence and uncut charm. Like its star, it will forever radiate warmth.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 230 points, or 0.5%, and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.9%.
Many on Wall Street were likely expecting such a ruling from the Supreme Court, according to Brian Jacobsen, chief economic strategist at Annex Wealth Management. That likely led to the relatively muted reactions across financial markets, and trading remained tentative as investors tried to suss out the long-term effects.
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Tariffs also aren’t going away, even with the Supreme Court’s ruling. Trump in the afternoon said he would use other avenues to put taxes on imports from other countries after calling the court’s decision terrible.
“Just so you understand, we have tariffs, we just have them in a different way,” Trump told reporters in an afternoon briefing. He said he would sign an executive order to impose a 10% global tariff under a law that could limit it to 150 days. The president also said he’s exploring other tariffs through other avenues, ones that would require an investigation through the Commerce Department.
“During that period of about five months, we are doing the various investigations necessary to put fair tariffs – or tariffs, period – on other countries,” Trump said.
Earlier in his comments, Trump said that the Supreme Court’s ruling had other countries “dancing in the streets, but they won’t be dancing for long.”
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Among the tentative moves across markets, Treasury yields edged a bit higher in the bond market.
If investors thought the tariff ruling would improve inflation significantly, it could have sent yields lower. On the other hand, if investors were worried about the U.S. government’s debt rising faster in the future because of the loss of revenue from tariffs, long-term yields could have jumped. For now, at least, yields held relatively steady.
The stock price of Ralph Lauren, meanwhile, rushed from an early loss to a gain of 3.3% after investors learned of the Supreme Court’s ruling. But it quickly flipped back to a loss before finishing with a rise of 2.2%. During April last year, the stock had dropped nearly 23% in four days after Trump announced his tariffs because of worries about how they would hurt its profits.
In other markets, gold’s price slumped briefly after the ruling and then erased the loss. Stock indexes in Europe added to their gains from earlier in the day, while the U.S. dollar’s value edged down against other currencies.
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Heading into the day, the main event for markets had seemed to be discouraging reports showing slowing U.S. economic growth and accelerating inflation. They found a relatively muted response from investors.
While the reports underscore the tricky situation the Federal Reserve faces as it sets interest rates, they did not change traders’ expectations much for what the Fed will ultimately do. Traders are still betting that the Fed will lower rates at least twice this year, according to data from CME Group. Some shifted bets for the timing of when the cuts could begin to slightly later in the summer.
Lower interest rates would give the economy and investment prices a boost, but they also risk worsening inflation. Fed officials said at their last meeting that they want to see inflation fall further before they would support cutting rates further.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury remained at 4.08%, where it was late Thursday. The two-year yield, which more closely tracks expectations for Fed action, inched up to 3.48% from 3.47%.
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On Wall Street, Akamai Technologies dropped 14.1% for one of the market’s sharpest losses. The cybersecurity and cloud computing company reported stronger results for the end of 2025 than analysts expected, but it gave a profit forecast for the upcoming year that fell short of estimates.
Akamai plans to spend a bigger percentage of its revenue this upcoming year on equipment and other investments. It’s the latest potential indicator of how shortages of computer memory created by the AI boom are affecting customers throughout the economy.
On the winning side of the market was Comfort Systems, which rose 6.5% after the provider of heating, ventilation, air conditioning and electrical services reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. CEO Brian Lane said his company is seeing “unprecedented demand.”
Al told, the S&P 500 rose 47.62 points to 6,909.51. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 230.81 to 49,625.97, and the Nasdaq composite rose 203.34 to 22,886.07.
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In stock markets abroad, indexes rose in Europe following a more mixed finish in Asia.
The Hang Seng fell 1.1%, but South Korea’s Kospi jumped 2.3% to a record, led by major defense contractors like Hanwha Aerospace. The company is one of many benefiting from a ramp up in military spending in many countries.
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AP Writers Matt Ott, Elaine Kurtenbach and Seung Min Kim contributed.
Kane Drummond, 25, was originally given a suspended sentence for a brutal attack outside a takeaway
Lee Grimsditch Nostalgia Writer and Wesley Holmes Liverpool Echo reporter
07:43, 21 Feb 2026
An Oldham Athletic player who was given a second chance following a savage assault on a man during a night out has failed to comply with any of his court-ordered appointments. Kane Drummond, 25, received a suspended sentence after punching, kicking and stamping on his victim outside a Liverpool city centre takeaway.
The attack took place on December 12, 2022, outside Pizza King on Berry Street. Oldham Athletic forward Drummond and two of his former teammates, Leon Arnasalam and Rio Merrifield, became embroiled in a dispute with victim Shayan Lawrence after Merrifield “made a joke about one of the defendants scratching his car”.
The altercation escalated as Drummond, Arnasalam and Merrifield were caught on CCTV repeatedly striking Mr Lawrence as he lay defenceless on the ground. The victim sustained a fractured spine as a result of the attack.
All three defendants pleaded guilty to assault causing grievous bodily harm at Liverpool Crown Court in May last year. Drummond, of Mozart Street in Toxteth, was handed a 20-month prison sentence suspended for 18 months, and instructed to complete 200 hours of unpaid work alongside a rehabilitation activity requirement of up to 20 days.
He returned to court on February 19, where he admitted violating the conditions of his suspended sentence by failing to attend unpaid work appointments, reports the Liverpool Echo.
Prosecutor Olivia Bell said: “The defendant failed to attend his first appointment for unpaid work in November, and a subsequent appointment in December.
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“This defendant has not attended any unpaid work sessions. Since January, he has failed to attend six unpaid work appointments. He’s also attended no further supervision appointments. No further rehabilitation activity days have been completed – 20 remain outstanding.
“Notwithstanding this is a defendant who has shown persistent, wilful noncompliance with this order, probation has taken the view that they would be willing to work with with the defendant, as a degree of flexibility has been afforded to the defendant as I understand he’s a professional footballer and has a baby on the way.”
Paul Becker, defending, said Drummond, a Liverpool FC academy graduate, formerly played for Warrington and Macclesfield, and was now a striker for Oldham Athletic.
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He said: “He understands that his commitments to his football club are no excuse as to why he’s not complying with the orders of the court. His concern was that if he failed to attend training, he would be in trouble with the club, he would be dropped from the team, and he wouldn’t be able to play.
“I have explained that’s all well and good, but if he doesn’t attend the appointments and is now in breach of the suspended sentence order, then he goes to jail. So if he didn’t understand the seriousness of the order, he does now.”
20260219-14:42:05_Man runs from Liverpool Crown Court
He added: “The defendant appreciates now that he needs to take this court order seriously. I have also instructed him that he needs to explain this to the club.
“I ask you to give him a further chance. The offence itself goes back to 2022 and he’s lightly convicted. I submit there’s a realistic prospect of rehabilitation. He’s a family man, he has a professional job and I would ask Your Honour to give him a further opportunity.”
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Her Honour Judge O’Brien said “I have to say it’s not a good start”, but agreed to adjourn the case until April 15 “to see what the defendant has done” by then.
Mr Becker said Drummond “may well be spending the summer break in jail” if he continued to fail to attend his appointments.
Addressing Drummond, Judge O’Brien said: “You need to do the unpaid work in the meantime. It’s not for probation to be chasing around after you, trying to get you to do something the court has ordered you to do.
“You need to do the work and demonstrate you’re able to comply with the order, or the starting point is that the sentence is activated and you will be sent to prison.”
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Following the court’s decision, Drummond was seen running out of court with his jacket over his head.
Steve Borthwick’s men travelled up to Edinburgh after opening their campaign with an encouraging dismantling of Wales, but could not repeat the trick against their oldest rivals.
Henry Arundell was shown two yellow cards at Murrayfield, leaving England shorthanded for 30 of the 80 minutes as they plodded to a humbling defeat.
Today brings a presentable chance to get back to winning ways, though, as Ireland have also been less than perfect thus far in the competition.
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They were on the wrong end of a lopsided scoreline as they visited the Stade de France to open their campaign, but bounced back last time out with a comeback defeat of Italy, which was not totally convincing.
The Azzurri led at the break, but could not convert their advantage in the second-half as Ireland edged back in front late on.
Both sides head to the Allianz Stadium, Twickenham, requiring a win, then, if they are to keep their fast dwindling hopes of winning the title alive.
How to watch England vs Ireland
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TV channel: In the UK, England vs Ireland is being shown live and free to air on ITV1, with coverage beginning at 1pm GMT.
Live stream: Fans can also watch the game live online via the ITVX website and app, which is free with a registration.
Live blog: You can follow the action as it happens with Standard Sport’s dedicated live blog.
Rose Larkin’s exit from The Night Agent season 3 explained – The Mirror
Need to know
The Night Agent returns to Netflix for season 3 without Luciane Buchanan’s Rose Larkin; let’s take a closer look at her reasons for not returning
Rose Larkin’s exit from The Night Agent season 3 explained(Image: NETFLIX)
Everything you need to know about Luciane Buchanan’s exit from The Night Agent.
The Night Agent returns to Netflix for its third series on February 19, but fans face disappointment over Luciane Buchanan’s absence as Rose Larkin.
Viewers were devastated when Peter Sutherland made the painful decision to sever contact with Rose at the end of series two. The couple’s romance captivated audiences across the spy drama’s opening seasons, despite the harsh reality that being together posed too great a risk.
Buchanan explained her departure, revealing that Rose’s storyline had reached its natural conclusion. She told Deadline: “The writers decided that they wanted to follow Peter and his journey based on what happened at the end of season two.”
Creator Shawn Ryan personally delivered the news, with Buchanan recalling: “They called me not so long after season two, and they were like, we’ve been trying to find a way to bring her in, but we want to do her character justice and not make her a sub-character.”
Ryan explained the show’s vision of telling new stories each season with a revolving cast meant there wasn’t a satisfying place for Rose in series three. However, he hinted at future possibilities, stating: “I don’t believe that this means we’re done telling the story of Peter and Rose.”
Following her Netflix departure, Buchanan secured a leading role in Apple TV’s Chief of War alongside Jason Momoa. The New Zealand actress now portrays Kaʻahumanu, inspired by the historical Hawaiian queen consort from the late 1700s.
Hope remains for devoted fans that Peter and Rose may reunite in future instalments of The Night Agent.
A self-confessed ‘cheapskate’ has shared how she keeps costs down while doing her weekly shop for her family of four. People shared their own money-saving tips.
Ian Craig Social Newsdesk Content Editor
07:00, 21 Feb 2026
We’re all looking for ways to cut costs on our everyday necessities. A woman has wowed her social media followers by demonstrating how she managed to buy a week’s worth of food for her family of four at an astonishingly low price.
Known as frugal866 on TikTok, where she boasts more than 31,000 followers, the woman frequently shares tips on saving money. She recently posted a video of herself doing her usual weekly shop at a branch of Asda, showing how she keeps her costs low.
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She kept her bill down by opting for the least expensive items and scouring the reduced section. All the products she chose were from Asda’s budget Just Essentials range, including several items that could be used to prepare multiple meals.
Here’s what she purchased:
Stick of garlic bread
Cheese and tomato snack pizza
15 cheesy slices
Six scotch pancakes from the reduced section
Pasta shapes
Mild curry sauce
Tomato ketchup
Tomato soup 55p
Tuna chunks in brine
Four packets of chicken flavour instant noodles
A bag of bananas
New potatoes
Carton of skimmed long life milk
Two meat and potato pies
20 frozen sausages
Self-raising flour
Peach slices
Content cannot be displayed without consent
While selecting her groceries, she shared some advice. When picking up a carton of milk, she said: “Never buy fresh milk, always long life because it lasts, and lasts for ages.”
And while grabbing a bag of flour, she remarked: “So, I never buy cakes, I always buy flour to make my cakes myself. So much cheaper that way.”
She concluded by showcasing her entire shopping haul, which included some items she hadn’t shown herself selecting, such as a loaf of bread with a reduced sticker on it, and a tin of baked beans. When asked about the total cost, she revealed it had come to just £33, reports the Mirror.
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People shared their own cost-cutting advice in the comments. One person commented: “A lot of things that are packaged as yellow label are probably the same as the other stuff they sell at higher prices. Supermarkets have been doing this for years. A friend worked at a chicken factory and the same chickens went to cheaper shops and some to the expensive shops.”
In response, another user agreed: “Absolutely right! I worked at a cheese factory years ago and it was all the same cheese just different prices for different shops!!!”
Another person suggested: “Places like Aldi do the super 5. I would plan what you want to eat throughout the week… then work backwards… I was in Aldi this week and actually some of their own products are more expensive than brand. Go to Waitrose and M&S, their yellow sticker stuff is really good and the products have less preservatives in them – I don’t begrudge people buying these products like pasta etc… but the pre-made sauces are nasty.”
A different commenter offered: “Tomato soup, garlic and a dash of cream cheese makes a good cheap skate pasta sauce.”
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And another added: “It’s not being a cheapskate, it’s called survival in 2026.”
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EXCLUSIVE: STUC General Secretary Roz Foyer hit out at reports suggesting Ministers could delay the reform.
Scotland’s top trade unionist has demanded the Labour Government push ahead with a promise for a full minimum wage for young people. STUC General Secretary Roz Foyer said claims UK Ministers are backtracking on equalising pay are “deeply disappointing”.
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The UK has a tiered minimum wage system, with 18 to 20 year olds receiving at least £10 an hour and older workers on at least £12.21. Labour made a manifesto pledge to “remove the discriminatory age bands” but it was reported this week there could be a delay.
Fears exist that hitting bosses with extra costs could put off firms from hiring and undermine the fight against youth unemployment. Foyer, who represents hundreds of thousands of workers, said:
“It’s deeply disappointing that UK Government ministers seem to believe trapping young people on derisory, discriminatory wages tied to their age will tackle the disturbing rise in youth unemployment. A living wage with strong employment protections is a direct route to economic growth.
“Despite the business lobby and rogue politicians claiming the contrary, boosting wages and delivering higher quality jobs for young people actually increases productivity, broadens the tax base and promotes growth, not inhibits it. If the UK Government want to make real the change they promised during the election then only deeds and not words will suffice.”
“They must get on with delivering the boost to young people’s pay-packets, whilst transitioning the economy away from low-paid service sectors to high-wage employment, or they risk letting down an entire generation of workers.”
Chancellor Rachel Reeves dodged the question when asked whether the Government would stick to its plans to equalise the minimum wage.
Speaking at a supermarket in south London, the Chancellor was twice asked whether she would delay the wage increase for 18 to 20-year-olds.
She said: “We already have incentives to hire young people with the apprenticeship rate of the minimum wage, but also for no national insurance contributions for the youngest workers.
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“But we do recognise there are challenges and that is why we’re extending the number of further education college places, extending the number of apprenticeship places to help young people get the skills and the experience that they need to move into work.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer appeared more enthusiastic about the policy when asked about reports of a delay:
“We’ve made commitments to young people in our manifesto, and we will keep to those commitments, including the commitment that we would make sure that the living wage would go up this April, which I can absolutely confirm to you will happen.”
Although the PM said the minimum wage would go up in April, it is unclear when the promise to equalise pay will be fulfilled.
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A decision could be made when the Government sets its annual remit to the Low Pay Commission, which advises the Government on the minimum wage rates.
The Commission considers labour market and pay data, as well as views from businesses, trades unions and workers, before making its recommendations.
The unemployment rate for 16 to 24-year-olds surged to 16.1% in the three months to December – the highest level since early 2015.
Piardi became the first Italian to take charge of a fixture in the men’s Six Nations when he oversaw his first game in 2024.
The 32-year-old has been a familiar face on the touchlines as an assistant over the last few years, travelling to the World Cup in France in the autumn of 2023 as the sole Italian representative in the officiating group.
Born in Brescia, Piardi made his debut in what is now the United Rugby Championship in 2019, and he stepped up to international level that March, looking after Germany vs Spain in Cologne.
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His quick rise continued with an appointment to the URC final between the Stormers and Munster in 2023, with Piardi now hoping to build further success with the whistle as he becomes a regular in the world’s top competitions.
A mechanical engineering graduate from his hometown university, Piardi became a professional referee relatively recently but is highly regarded. He took charge of the second British and Irish Lions Test against Australia at the MCG last July.
Match officials for England vs Ireland at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham
Referee: Andrea Piardi (Ita)
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Assistant Referees: Pierre Brousset (Fra) & Gianluca Gnecchi (Ita)
