IF you’re struggling to choose between which Haven park to stay at, the biggest one is found in Devon right next to the beach.

Devon Cliffs is the largest of the Haven parks, with 38 others across the country.

6

6

Advertisement

6

As the weather worsens, the main indoor attraction is the huge indoor water complex.

Along with a swimming pool, there are also slides and flumes and new this year is their tube slides, where guests sit on inflatable rings.

There is also an indoor soft play for younger kids to enjoy.

If you don’t mind the outdoors, there is everything from NERF activity camps and 4×4 off roaders to outdoor pools, aerial adventures and nature trails.

On-site food choices include Burger King, Papa Johns and Millie’s Cookies as well as the new Chopstix which opened this year.

If you fancy going off-site, then it is a short drive away from both the towns of Exmouth and Sidmouth, as well as the beaches.

The holiday park has 1,641 caravans and lodges to choose from too.

The cheapest caravan stays can be found for just £49 for four nights, working out to around £12 a night.

Or go fancier with their lodges starting from £369 for four nights, or their new gold standard caravans.

It’s easy to get to, with Exmouth Station just a few miles away.

It is also one of the highest rated holiday parks in the UK.

The resort has more more than 4,000 reviews on TripAdvisor, rated four stars.

One person wrote: “One of the best UK holiday parks we have been to.”

Some people said they stayed as long as 10 days as there was so much to do, while others said they had even bought one of the caravans.

6

Advertisement

6

One mum tried out the Haven park that recently welcomed footballer Harry Macguire.

She said: “Like most other Brits, I was surprised to hear that a well-paid footie star stayed at a Haven holiday park.

“But the caravan was definitely celeb-worthy. There was a huge marble kitchen with all the mod cons, as well as a matching bathroom and en-suite.

“With hipster lighting, floor-to-ceiling windows and a 40-inch TV, it was nothing like the caravans of my childhood.”

Here’s everything you need to know about Haven’s new “ultimate family break packages“.

And they have already launched 2025 holidays – here’s how to book.

6

POLICE have locked down a street outside Glasgow Central after an “out of control” black cab ploughed into shoppers.

Emergency crews raced to the scene on Union Street at its junction with Gordon Street this afternoon at around 2pm following the horror crash.

6

6

Advertisement

6

6

Photos from the scene show a black taxi cab on the pavement outside Tesco.

It is understood at least two people were involved in the incident, with police and passersby giving them first aid.

It is unknown if there are any injuries.

A woman told how she was knocked down by the “out of control” taxi which ploughed into pedestrians.

She was walking on the pavement with her partner when the cab mounted the pavement at the junction of Gordon St and Union St in Glasgow.

She said: “I heard screaming. The taxi was coming straight for us.

“I tried to move out the way but it clipped me. It sent me sprawling to the ground.

“There are a couple of ladies it struck who look in a bad way.

“There was no time to react. It just came out of nowhere.”

Her partner said: “The driver lost control. I managed to jump out the way.

“Others weren’t so lucky.”

The woman clutched her right leg but managed to walk away from the accident.

More than 20 emergency services vehicles swooped on the street after the accident.

Officers cordoned off the road while victims were treated behind plastic sheets.

One onlooker held back tears as he said: “The cab mounted the pavement.

6

6

“A group of kids were almost hit but managed to get out the way.

“It hit a group of ladies who got knocked to the ground. It was horrific.

“People were screaming and running everywhere.”

Gordon Street at Union Street has been closed as well as Renfield Street at St Vincent Street.

Punters have been urged to avoid the area.

A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “Emergency services are currently in attendance at Union Street at its junction with Gordon Street following a road crash.

“Gordon Street at Union Street is closed as is Renfield Street at St Vincent Street.

“Motorists and members of the public are asked to avoid the area.”

Stay informed with free updates

Simply sign up to the Life & Arts myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.

“A fight between two bald men over a comb”, was how Jorge Luis Borges described the Falklands war. What a line: somehow cruel and humane all at once. It has survived these four decades because it really is unimprovable in its Wildean economy.

What a shame it is nonsense. In that war, a junta was violently infringing the right of some islanders to self-determination. Or a faded empire was willing to kill over some faraway and ill-begotten territories. Or a little of both. At any rate, it mattered. Wider principles were involved. Defusing the whole subject with an epigram is a mark of high cultivation, but also of evasiveness. In the end — and this isn’t aimed at the late writer so much as at those who thoughtlessly quote him — where do you stand?

It is a question liberals are skilled at dodging. We have just lived through another major example. There is now some data to support the anecdotal impression that woke-ism at its most censorious peaked a few years ago. I wish those of us in the liberal centre could take a bow. But who led the resistance when it was hardest? Single-issue feminists. Rightwing free speech zealots. Political casuals with a radar for humbug.

Not all liberals deserted. Malcolm Gladwell and others signed a Harper’s Magazine letter about creative freedom when that took some fibre. But don’t let’s pretend this was typical of the wider caste. Newspaper websites have search engines. Our successors will be able to look up what passed for the bien pensant “position” circa 2020. Which was? Woke is exaggerated by conservatives (which doesn’t say where one stands on the issue), a distraction from economic injustice (which doesn’t say where one stands on the issue) or the wrong way of winning people over (a piece of tactical counsel from Barack Obama that didn’t, quite, say where he stood on the issue). 

As with the old line about the Falklands, you could smell the desperation to avoid an argument. It is understandable. But it also ill-equips liberals for the protection of liberalism.

In order to recognise and fight extremism, it helps, I think, to possess at least a trace element of it

On tour at 83, Richard Dawkins is taking what he calls his “final bow”. Most of us can recite the main tenets of his Enlightenment outlook. Religious claims about the workings of the universe are either wrong or unfalsifiable. Science is not just truer but more majestic. The church acts all nicey-nicey now because it is weak. When it was strong, it sought to permeate everything, so don’t give it the slightest inch ever again. I tend to this view. Billions don’t. What is the liberal line? The one that dogs him as much as criticism from clerics? 

It dwells on form, not substance. “Dawkins punches down.” But is he wrong? “His arrogance alienates more people than his eloquence converts.” But is he wrong? “He strays into cultural terrain nowadays.” Is he wrong, though? And then the ultimate midwit dinner party cliché, the verbal equivalent of having a Banksy print on your wall: “Atheism has become a religion in itself.” Fine, whatever. Is. Dawkins. Wrong? If so, what about? Where do you stand?

This almost physical horror of confrontation is captured in that weasel phrase, “read the room”. Rooms can be wrong. The eternal mistake is to conflate liberalism, a set of specific beliefs, involving trade-offs and hard choices, with what we might call liberality: an openness of spirit, a generalised niceness. You can only build a society on the first of these things.

I write all this as someone who wants milquetoast liberals in charge almost all the time. But in a crunch moment? When core freedoms are on the line? We’re too flaky. You need cranks and single-issue fanatics. You need people who take abstract ideas to their conclusion. In order to recognise and fight extremism, it helps, I think, to possess at least a trace element of it. (Dawkins would be awesome in a crisis.)

It has become fashionable to tease conservatives, such as the Tory member of parliament Kemi Badenoch, for pounding away at a woke movement that is now fading. Fair enough. But it isn’t fading because of what the sensible centre did. For the most part, their contribution was to stroll up to the pub brawl and tut just as it was petering out.

Where do we stand? At a safe distance.

Email Janan at janan.ganesh@ft.com

Find out about our latest stories first — follow FTWeekend on Instagram and X, and subscribe to our podcast Life and Art wherever you listen

DOBBIES will shutter one of its sites in Bristol in just a matter of months, devasting shoppers.

Its Little Dobbies store in Clifton is one of the 17 sites the retailer has marked for closure as part of a restructuring plan.

1

Dobbies will also work with landlords to seek temporary rent reductions at a further nine sites.

The business began a financial overhaul back in August, which it warned would lead to shop closures.

Dobbies has many stores across the South West of England, but it has been confirmed that its location in Clifton, Bristol could now close.

The news has devasted shoppers, with one describing the move as “very sad”.

Another local said the decision to shutter the site was “such a shame”.

While a third said: “A shame that any shops have to close, especially that gardening became more popular during and following lockdown.”

It comes as Bristol locals have had to wave goodbye to a number of retailers in recent years.

House of Fraser shut its site at the Cabot Circus shopping centre back in August, and The Guild department store closed in May.

The full list of Dobbies stores set to close are:

• Altrincham
• Antrim
• Gloucester
• Gosforth
• Harlestone Heath
• Huntingdon
• Inverness
• King’s Lynn
• Pennine
• Reading
• Stratford-upon-Avon

Six Little Dobbies, which are smaller branches selling houseplants located locally rather than out of town, are set to close in these areas:

• Cheltenham
• Chiswick
• Clifton
• Richmond
• Stockbridge
• Westbourne Grove

If the restructuring plan is approved the 17 sites will close by the end of the year.

They will continue to operate as normal until the plan is approved.

The nine sites where its seeking rent reductions from landlords have not been named.

A spokesperson previously told The Sun: “Subject to the restructuring plan being successfully approved, we expect the affected sites to cease trading by the end of the year.

“Thereafter, Dobbies will operate 60 stores and continue to play a key role in the market, working constructively with stakeholders and suppliers, and having an active and committed role in the communities in which it’s based.”

The garden centre chain, which was bought by investment firm Ares Management last year, fell to a £105.2 million pre-tax loss in the year to March 2023, against a £7 million loss a year earlier, according to its most-recently filed company accounts.

Restructuring plans are often launched by businesses when they find themselves in financial difficulty to help shore up extra costs.

It comes as many retailers are struggling to keep their heads above water.

High inflation coupled with a squeeze on consumers’ finances has meant people have less money to spend in the shops.

Garden centres and home improvement businesses also boomed during the pandemic when customers were stuck at home.

But customers have been forced to cut back on spending since.

Back in August, Homebase announced that 10 of its stores would close and be transformed into Sainsbury’s supermarkets.

Homebase’s owner, Hilco Capital, is preparing to sell the company.

The retailer has closed 106 stores since it was taken over by Hilco Capital in 2018.

STORY: :: Australian citizens land in Cyprus after being evacuated from Lebanon

:: October 5, 2024

:: Larnaca, Cyprus

“I feel I feel very sad leaving my country, but I’m very happy to start a new life in Sydney.”

(Journalist asking “Were you in any danger”)

“Definitely. I was in the south. I lost my house, my kids lost their rooms, our clothes. But it’s fine, life goes on. I wish the best for Lebanon.”

(Journalist asking: Where are you going to be staying in Australia?)

“In Australia I have some relatives.”

(Journalist asking: Will you ever go back in Lebanon?)

“Never, ever. I was traumatized. My kids were traumatized as well. It’s not a safe country. I won’t be back.”

:: Fiona Mckergow, Australian High Commissioner to Cyprus

“I don’t have numbers for the next flight, but we’ve had 229 citizens come through. Australian. They’ll all be going on to Australia. As I said, they’re exhausted, exceptionally happy to be here, but heartbroken because they’ve left family behind.”

(Journalist asking: But it’s possible that these are the last flights out of Beirut for Australia.)

“I don’t anticipate them to be the last.”

Greeted by several officials, including the Australian high commissioner to Cyprus, Fiona McKergow, evacuees were offered apples and water, before being boarded onto a bus.

Speaking to the press, one woman detailed having to flee after her home was destroyed by bombing. She said she never intends to return to Lebanon.

Lebanon’s government says more than 2,000 people have been killed since the start of the Israeli attacks on Lebanon in the last year, including 127 children. Most of the casualties have come in the past two weeks.

Although it is 30C outside, you can already feel the cold as you approach the L+Snow resort. In part this is psychological, because the early arrivals by the main entrance are fully dressed in ski gear. But in part it is real: the sheer force of the industrial-grade refrigeration system has generated a slight breeze.

Located about 90 minutes outside China’s biggest city, Shanghai’s L+Snow resort opened last month, anointed by the Guinness Book of Records as the largest indoor ski centre in the world. It edged out the previous biggest, in the northern Chinese province of Harbin, which is in turn closely followed by one in Guangdong, and another in Sichuan.

In Shanghai, the advent of 90,000 sq metres where temperatures are maintained at minus 3C to minus 5C has a commercial appeal even before skiing enters the equation. The city has just experienced one of its hottest summers on record, with temperatures hitting or surpassing 37 degrees for 12 consecutive days. Like the indoor Ski Dubai centre, which opened in 2005, L+Snow is an exercise in contrasts; the electricity alone costs about Rmb80,000-100,000 per day ($11,000-$14,000). A representative for the new centre said the total costs of the project were not public, though Chinese media reports suggest a budget of about Rmb7bn ($1bn).

But across China, which hosted the Winter Olympics in Beijing in 2022, the aim is not merely to defy the seasons. President Xi Jinping has set a target of creating 300mn skiers by 2030 and spearheaded a wave of winter sports investment. Hundreds of new ski resorts have been established across the country, compared with fewer than a dozen in the 1990s. It is not only the indoor variety that have raised environmental concerns; the National Alpine Skiing Centre in Yanqing used in the Olympics was controversial for its use of artificial snow, though that complaint has been raised at multiple different games.

In China, the sport counts itself among a long list of consumer and leisure activities associated with a youthful urban middle class. Lu Yue, a 22-year-old student from Shanghai and one of the early arrivals queueing outside, says he has visited the centre several times, though it’s only been open a week. The sport has become “very popular” in the past three years, he adds. He is joined by a friend wearing a Balenciaga T-shirt and plans to spend the winter season in Xinjiang.

“Our parents can’t ski,” Lu says, “but they’ll pay for us to come.”

Inside, it’s clear this is as much a winter fantasy as a sports facility. Before the slopes, there is a kind of town square, the houses more mock-Disney than mock-Tudor, an architectural style that crops up across mainland China and blurs together European influences in a way that is almost, but not quite, American. There’s a church with a cross on the top, several Narnia-style lamp posts, various mounted clocks and a small smattering of what initially seem to be Christmas trees but on closer inspection are revealed to simply be pine trees, decorated only by light dustings of snow. If it is never night in a casino, it is never summer here.

There are three main slopes, the hardest of which, designated a black, is 340m long. The other two, including a 460m-long blue slope, curve around a turreted, cod-medieval building, an as yet unopened hotel that will allow guests in 17 rooms to ski directly on to the slopes in what a representative claims as a first for any indoor ski centre. A train track winds up the side of the piste, though the train (pulled by a pretend steam engine that is actually electric) is not running on the day I visit.

Skiers can also climb to the top in a chairlift — the queues for which never last more than a minute during my time on the pistes — and, unusually for an indoor slope, a gondola, which shields its passengers from the machine-generated snowflakes that occasionally fall from the ceiling. Despite local media reports of a severed finger shortly after the resort opened, I see few, if any, crashes. There’s a clear focus on safety: helmets are compulsory, and when a failed training manoeuvre results in my pole being slightly bent, its fate is meticulously documented in a handwritten logbook before it can be replaced.

There’s also a surprising lack of snow-ploughing novices. “Quite a lot of them can ski,” says one of two largely inactive rescue staff stationed at the top of the chairlift. In contrast to the Disney aesthetic, the clientele instead embodies the kind of high-fashion chic that dominates Shanghai’s many shopping malls.

One group of 20, taking a photograph nearby, are part of a skiing club that has 1,000 members. “Before, everyone loved going to bars,” said Azhu, 34, who was inspired to start skiing after watching a video on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, in 2022. Social activities in China are shifting towards sports and what he called “skills”. This winter, he expects to head to an outdoor resort but, in contrast to its status elsewhere, he doesn’t necessarily see skiing as an expensive sport.

At L+Snow, a ski pass costs Rmb410 ($58) for the day. As well as Rossignol skis, boots and helmet, the price includes hire of a jacket and trousers, both of which are sufficiently warm but which only have one, unzipped, pocket between them. Gloves are not available, though they can be bought nearby from one of several stores.

The slopes seem far from full, perhaps to be expected on a weekday September morning shortly after the end of the summer holidays. At the town square, there is scarcely anyone to watch a troop of dancers, whose costumes, like the architecture, give a sense of the entire Disney catalogue being melted down into a single cauldron. At lunchtime, the restaurants on the fourth and fifth floors, which serve a reasonable half-chicken and potatoes as well as tea of a quality rarely associated with skiing, are close to empty.

Mihai Chidean, a Danish businessman who has dropped in on a work trip to China, says the resort is a “great idea” but at times lacks that “little touch”. He has briefly been stranded after his ski pass fell out of his zip-free jacket pocket, because, in an example of bureaucratic processes that can be difficult to decipher, he needed to hand it in to return his rented skiwear and leave.

He is, though, struck by the scale. “I hope there’s going to be many more people here,” he says. In China, “you see that everything is oversized, because one day there’s going to be a holiday, and then you’ll have a hundred-thousand people in front of the place,” he adds. “I think [it’s] one of those projects where there’s no budget.”

After just a few minutes standing in the light snowfall of the town square, the power of the refrigeration becomes apparent. Li Bingrui, who is in charge of the site, says that many “energy-saving measures” have been taken. The roof is covered in solar panels and the heat generated from the cooling system is redeployed into workers’ dormitories, he says.

In summer, its effects are not to be taken lightly. Some of the guests are wearing goggles, though this may be more for stylistic than practical reasons. The slopes are just about survivable without gloves, assuming there’s no direct contact with the snow. It takes me, an almost-intermediate skier, just over one minute to descend from top to bottom. An advanced skier able to turn more often might be able to drag slightly more seconds out of it.

The resort’s quietness, from its restaurants to its Frozen-esque town square, may simply be a function of its recent opening, even in spite of a blitz of domestic media. But it nonetheless reflects the wider mood of Lin Gang, the development zone in which it is based and the site of various other large-scale projects, including a huge artificial lake on which construction is not yet complete.

As I leave, it proves impossible to actually exit the gates, though not in this case because of any unreturned clothing. Instead, I have simply stayed too long; the day pass only covers four hours. The overtime incurs an additional charge of Rmb160 ($23), even if the overall cost of creating the experience remains uncertain, and almost impossible to comprehend, like a winter’s day in the dead of summer.

Thomas Hale is the FT’s Shanghai correspondent. Additional reporting by Wang Xueqiao 

Find out about our latest stories first — follow FT Weekend on Instagram and X, and subscribe to our podcast Life & Art wherever you listen