Politics
Wings Over Scotland | The Slowest Dawning
Now, readers, it’s not much of a secret that anyone who’s still supporting the SNP in the hopes that they’ll deliver Scottish independence is – and let’s put this as gently and kindly as possible – a bit thick.
From a membership high of 125,000 in the run-up to the 2021 Holyrood election, fully 60% have now wised up and left, and the 40% still left paying annual subscriptions to a party that’s stolen their money TWICE and spent it on pepper pots are pretty much by definition the dumbest of dum-dums.
But it looks like even they’re just about beginning to get it now.
Five more years and they might have just about woken up.
The National reports today that there’s a great disturbance in the Force over the SNP’s draft agenda for their national conference in a few weeks’ time, at which there will be no debate on independence strategy, despite the failure of John Swinney’s approach to this year’s Scottish Parliament election to produce the SNP majority that he promised would lead to a second indyref.
And, y’know, there should be a disturbance. The provisional agenda is a laughable, woke-obsessed embarrassment of a thing that harks back to the (cough) glory days of Nicola Sturgeon’s reign, which is now three-and-a-half years in the past. How time flies when you’re having fun, eh gang?
Wings has naturally obtained a copy of the full document, which you can peruse for yourself here. But allow us to present for you some highlights of what the SNP is prioritising above independence for the next 12 months.
The National Secretary spelling his own name wrongly in the very first section is an auspicious start. But this is a significant change to be sneaking in. It now provides a means for the party to expel anyone who disagrees not with its aims or policies, but with its general “direction”, or indeed for any “other activities” that the leadership might take umbrage at.
For a party where dissent is already locked down tighter than a drum and where a challenge to the leader has been made all but impossible, it’s a remarkable exercise in authoritarian paranoia.
Oh good, some more “white papers”. Those have been SUCH a success.
“What’s most important is that we have more black trans disabled vegan cooncillors, but this must not result in tokenism, even though tokenism is the only thing it can possibly result in, and it must be evidence-based, even though the entire point of it is to override all the available evidence (in the form of votes) about who members actually want as candidates.”
Interestingly the resolution calls for an increase in representation for “women”, but does not specify a definition of that term. It’s left to the reader’s imagination to ponder whether it includes blokes in frocks, but we all know where the smart money’s going.
And that’s the last clue we’re giving you.
Hmm, tricky one. Has anyone considered building some ferries?
Oh come on now, what’s the worst that could happen if you don’t have any rules governing the work of the Financial Scrutiny, Audit and Risk Committee?
“We’re not very popular! Quick! Everyone to the echo chamber!”
“All the horses are gone! Lock that stable door!”
“YSI calls for conference to praise YSI.”
We’ll be candid with you here, readers, the “work in this area” done by Young Scots For Independence has escaped our notice. We’re unaware of their having produced “clear, accessible, evidence based resources” that have been “made widely available to members, activists and the wider Yes movement”.
We do remember someone who DID do that, some time ago.
But curiously the SNP don’t seem to be very interested in talking to them or seeking their advice.
“Conference demands to have its cake, and also to eat its cake.”
“Let us be bold and fearless in our discussions, so that we may bravely state without shying away from controversy, that people shouldn’t beat up nurses.”
[This is all pretty transphobic, can we delete? – NatSec.]
That leads us neatly into the “Social Justice” section.
Short version:
You lost, lads. Cope.
It has for many years been the official policy position of the Scottish Government that sex work is violence against women and girls (leaving aside the fact that it doesn’t know what women or girls are).
But it appears that the SNP’s controversy-dogged, sex-offender-infested “Out For Independence” affiliate, together with its equalities convener Sadie Matthews and disabled members convener Michael Gibbons (those being the movers of this resolution), wish to overturn that stance.
Between them, Matthews, Gibbons and OFI appear as resolution movers a whopping 27 times in the provisional agenda. (We’d show you a pic of the OFI’s convener too, but their identity is a secret. No, really.)
All three, unsurprisingly, also appear as movers of the next resolution on the agenda.
At this point we’ll direct you to our extensive previous coverage of this extremely dangerous legislation, otherwise we’ll be here all day.
We asked Grok for its best guess at the number of trees in Scotland.
At a figure of 2.5bn, the resolution would increase Scotland’s tree population by 0.0018%. That is, we think, ONE extra tree for every 55,555 existing trees in Scotland. Take THAT, climate change!
This is a curious bit of retail politics. Anyone who gets free bus travel now (a policy currently costing around £200m a year and rising fast) is to get it for life, whereas anyone NOT currently in receipt of it won’t get it until they’re 60. Rotten luck for anyone born in 2003 or earlier, there. But hey, the SNP sure knows its voter demographics.
(And yes, there’s a £5bn budget deficit looming, but we’ll just find all the extra money somewhere, right? Maybe somebody can drop Peter Murrell a line.)
“Sod independence, let’s spend conference debating things we have absolutely no power over and which are definitely not going to happen.”
We’re absolutely sure that “MOAR IMMIGRATION!” is what the hard-pressed communities of Easterhouse and Springburn are clamouring for above all else from their elected representatives.
When they’re not fretting over Ukraine, obviously.
And with a second desperate plea to disassociate Scotland entirely from Satan (Elon Musk) and all his evil works (people disagreeing with you), it’s all over.
(X stopped Grok from creating deepfake nudes eight months ago, after about a week of people exploiting a loophole in its safeguards, whereas numerous other AI engines still allow it, but let’s not have pesky facts getting in the way of the witch-hunt against Mr Musk, who is after all basically Hitler but with electric cars and space rockets.)
It’ll be exciting to see which of the above survive to the final agenda. But even at this stage they tell you everything you need to know about what motivates the activist faction of the SNP membership, and how far down that list independence features.
We haven’t faked that screenshot. Go and look for yourself. We’d gone onto the Scottish Government website to look for the entirely performative new draft indyref bill, which doesn’t appear on the front page. We eventually found it nine items down the “Publications” page, below “Improving Gypsy Traveller Sites Guidance on minimum site standards”.
And even The National was a bit embarrassed by the move.
How much longer the people who still haven’t left the party yet will take to finally realise what the majority spotted some time ago is a question remaining to be answered.
But if even “Hashtag” Bill Cruickshank – the most tigerishly loyal diehard of all the two-watt bulbs in the party’s ranks – has reached the end of his tether (and to be fair we’ve had false dawns on that front before), it looks like there might finally be a speck of light on the horizon.
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Richard Osman has hinted that he has somewhat mixed feelings about Netflix’s adaptation of his best-selling novel The Thursday Murder Club.
The former Pointless and House Of Games host recently sat down for an interview with The Times, where he reflected on the film’s production.
In The Times’ piece, it was noted that “many egregious script departures” had been made in the movie compared to its source material.
Meanwhile, the article’s author claimed that “the end result was a grave disappointment” despite its star-studded cast and esteemed director in Chris Columbus, whose past work includes Mrs Doubtfire, Home Alone and the first two Harry Potter movies.
“I can’t really talk about the film very much,” Richard claimed.
He then added: “It was only one book. The other books I would like to adapt myself.”
Richard did, however, make a point of saying that it had been a “lot of fun” and “really cool” meeting cast members Dame Helen Mirren and Pierce Brosnan, producer Steven Spielberg “and everyone else” involved in the project.
The Thursday Murder Club premiered on Netflix in August 2025, and was met with something of a lukewarm response, with a critical score of 77% on Rotten Tomatoes and an audience rating of three stars on Letterboxd at the time of writing.
Chris Columbus previously indicated that he’d be up for helming a sequel if the opportunity presented itself, while Dame Helen also claimed she’d say yes to a follow-up “in a nanosecond”.
“We did have a wonderful time shooting this. So all of us would jump at the chance, quite honestly,” she said last year.
The Thursday Murder Club was the first of five instalments in Richard’s cosy mystery series, the most recent of which, The Impossible Fortune, was released in September 2025, a month after the film adaptation of his first book.
Richard previously spoke enthusiastically about the movie, describing its ensemble as “the greatest British cast assembled since the” Harry Potter movies.
Ah, payday. The moment we wait all month for after blowing through our finances at the beginning of the month, only to do the same again. Rinse and repeat.
Each month, in between covering the best deals and testing everything from the best water bottles to the latest autumn fashion launches, I’m constantly making mental notes of all the things I want to splash out on when my salary lands in my bank account.
I’m sure it would protest if it could, but there are simply too many great things to splash on in this world.
This month, there’ll be even more groaning from my pursestrings, as payday coincides with the bank holiday weekend, so as well as taking rainy day trips to the cinema and drinking copious amounts of wine I have even more time than usual to shop.
Naturally, I have my eye on quite a few new launches, so if you’re in a spenny mood I’ve got you covered. This month there’s everything from a holiday suggestion to an adorable pair of PJs, and even a chic fitness band (who knew those words could go together?!).
What to buy this payday
Lovehoney x Cosmopolitan Sex Toy Box
Here at HuffPost, we’re decidedly pro-sex toy – and we’re all for any brands that feel the same way in this increasingly conservative world.
Two of the best in the game – Lovehoney and Cosmopolitan – have come together to create this gift box, which contains everything you need to champion your orgasm alone or with a partner.
Most excitingly, it contains the We-Vibe Sync Lite, a C-shaped toy that can be worn to stimulate your C-spot during penetrative sex. And, more than making up for the cost of the box, you’ll get the Rose toy, too, which is a suction vibrator shaped like a flower, in case you couldn’t have guessed.
Not to mention that there’s also a bullet, silk hand tie, lube, vanilla massage oil, and illustrated position of the week cards. Love.
A last-minute holiday
It’s suddenly that time of the summer when I start to panic about the fact I haven’t been on enough holidays or made the most of the sunny season.
I’ve been eyeing last minute trips abroad and I can’t stop thinking about this five-star hotel in Turkey, which has two freshwater swimming pools, as well as a sauna, steam bath, and spa centre offering hammam massages and a range of beauty treatments. Dreamy.
Save £180 on Google’s new phone
From now until 1 September, you can save £850 on Google’s new phone when you trade in an old one, which means it could cost you as little as £229.
It comes in four shades (Canyon pink, Olive green, Fog blue and Obsidian black) and is considerably speedier than its predecessor, with Google claiming you’ll see 25% speedier browsing and 3.5 times faster Gemini processing.
Our favourite of its features is Magic Capture mode, which means your phone chooses the best mode to capture videos and pictures in and will pick out the best ones, which will be a lifesaver for those of you who need a little help with your photography skills.
Damson Madder end of summer sale
They’re keeping awful quiet about it, but Damson Madder has an end of summer sale with 25% off select items using the code ENDOFSUMMER. All I’ll say is: see you at the checkout.
Keen Jasper sale
These cult climbing shoe-inspired trainers from Keen are 46% off this bank holiday. I’m a big fan of this pink and purple colour, but they also have a ton of shades with varying discounts.
With a contoured fit and foam sole, they’re just as suitable for long outdoor hikes as they are your daily commute. Just remember to give them a protective spray!
Sandy Liang x Cou Cou Intimates PJs
Everything Sandy Liang touches sells out, including her most recent collab with Insta-famous underwear brand Cou Cou Intimates, which launched yesterday.
These PJs are still in stock though, so you’ll have a chance to covet something cosy from the designer who claims to be as obsessed with bed as I am. They’re cotton (so breathable) and covered in an adorable pink print with bows, bunnies, and teacups. Quaint!
Fun animal prints
Move over leopard, new animal prints are on the block. Fawn print has been making the rounds for a couple of years – I’m a fan of this newly launched mini dress from Sister Jane – but leopard is allegedly the print of the season.
You could also go for equestrian chic with this button up cardi from Sister Jane.
Suri’s new electric toothbrush
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, I expect you will have seen these zeitgeisty pastel electric toothbrushes all over your Instagram feed.
Their Pro toothbrush is 15% off right now, but usually costs a pretty £105. Its latest launch, the Core 1.0, makes its line much more accessible at just £65.
It doesn’t come with a travel case, like the Pro, but it does come with a travel cap made from recycled materials so your brush won’t get bashed around when you travel.
While it’s slightly less powerful than the Pro, and its charge lasts up to a month, rather than over a month, it has essentially all of the other fixings, such as a pressure sensor, timer, and USB-C charging, and that all-important mirror mount to avoid taking up counter space.
WHOOP but make it jewellery
If you’re shallow like me, you’ll know the number one gripe with fitness trackers: they tend to be pretty ugly.
Countering that, Whoop has just launched its new Meridian collection, which is made up of premium metal in four colourways.
It looks just like a bracelet, but doesn’t come with the ECG ability of the other bands.
As yet, there’s no single test that can diagnose dementia outright. But some tools, like the clock test and verbal memory quizzes such as the Rey’s Auditory Learning Test, can give doctors a clearer idea of someone’s cognitive state.
And according to neurologist Dr Adnan Husein, another example of this is the “Luria” or “fist-edge-palm” test.
This, he shared in an Instagram Reel, is the “quickest test for dementia” – though again, the condition can’t be diagnosed through a single exercise like this.
You’ll need to see a medical professional to determine whether or not you or someone else has dementia.
What is the Luria dementia test?
It’s a simple set of three hand movements, usually repeated over and over.
A person is asked to follow their clinician’s movement in making a fist, then a “chopping” motion, then a flat palm with their hand.
They might then be encouraged to recreate the movements on their own without an example and/or be told to continue the sequence while, e.g., counting to three or saying something like “cut, fist, and slap”.
Per Dr Husein, this test looks at “motor function, executive function, and sequencing,” all of which can begin to struggle during the development of some dementias.
If someone is dealing with the condition, he claimed, they might struggle to make the moves quickly, or could get stuck on one step. They might also “miss the sequence”.
What does this test have to do with dementia?
A 2011 study found that while 54% of participants with Alzheimer’s Disease were unable to complete the test perfectly, and almost 70% of those with another form of dementia known as frontotemporal dementia struggled, only 2.3% of people without dementia had issues.
“So, is that test diagnostic for dementia? No, but it’s a quick screening test you can do in your clinic at any time,” Dr Husein ended the clip.
Are you familiar with Natural England?
Don’t worry if you’re not. You were never asked to be. Nobody has ever stood on your doorstep asking you to vote for it. It has no manifesto or elected leader. Yet, right now, this body has more influence over what gets built in our country – reservoirs, railways, homes, hospitals and power stations – than almost any politician. They hold a de facto veto on building in much of England.
Natural England is a quango, created in 2006 to ‘conserve, enhance and manage the natural environment for the benefit of present and future generations’. It sounds laudable. Arguing against Natural England sounds to most people like objecting to the very idea of our green and pleasant land. Before you have even heard a single fact about what it does, you have already been told that it’s fighting the good fight.
And that is its trick. A more appropriate name would be the National Office for Preventing Everything – or NOPE for short. That’s because Natural England is a taxpayer-funded ‘statutory consultee’, which means developers and public bodies are legally required to get permission from it on a huge range of projects. When it objects, projects can be delayed by years, redesigned entirely, taken to court, and subjected to costly new conditions. A body that nobody elected exerts enormous influence over decisions that impact millions of people, daily.
This has led to all manner of absurdities. Remember the £700million ‘fish disco’? This was the burdensome requirement imposed on the nation-defining Hinkley Point C nuclear power station, which effectively placed the safety of Bristol Channel kippers over the UK’s energy security. And the £100million HS2 ‘bat tunnel’? Here again, a critical national infrastructure project was tied up, this time because of concerns over a small colony of Bechstein’s bats, which are not endangered locally or globally. We have Natural England to thank for these bewildering outcomes.
The list, in truth, is endless. In 2024, Natural England killed off a community kite festival in Royston that had been running for 30 years, simply because they were concerned that mowing the grass for the festival would damage some flowers on around one per cent of the heath. In Sussex, Natural England spent four years blocking the construction of over 20,000 new homes because it would increase the demand for water. This, we were told, could damage the habitat of a snail – the little whirlpool ramshorn snail, to be precise. And, in Dartmoor, it even wanted to force landowners to cull 75 per cent of wild ponies because of grazing concerns.
In fact, Natural England is so committed to preventing everything that it objected to its own planning application. Three years ago, the lead adviser for the Devon, Cornwall and Isles of Scilly team at Natural England wrote a four-page letter seeking more information and then formally objected to the construction of its own one-storey office in Cornwall.
This matters because everything now costs far too much and takes far too long to build. Projects seemingly always go over budget and past the deadline. And that blocks the things that raise living standards: transport connections that put better jobs within reach and allow companies to scale, homes that allow young people to move out and start a family, reservoirs and desalination plants that mean we don’t have to endure hosepipe bans every summer, and nuclear power stations that will stop blackouts and get bills down. In short, it stops growth – the route to a better living standard for people across the country.
Britain is now in a growth emergency. Economic growth has been stagnant for decades. We have gone from one of the richest countries in the world to having some of the lowest GDP per capita growth in the developed world. Every month, around 1,900 British businesses go bust – a third higher than the average in the decade after the 2008 financial crisis. Opportunities once afforded to our young people are now harder to come by: youth unemployment has nearly doubled in four years, and around a million 16- to 24-year-olds are now not earning or learning.
The basic infrastructure that the British people rely on is breaking down. This summer, homes in the south-east of England have been forced to live off bottled water because of leaky infrastructure and, at the same time, have endured hosepipe bans. Trains are cancelled in the winter due to snow and ice, then cancelled in the summer because of the heat. Our energy prices remain among the highest in the developed world, and yet we still aren’t building cheap, secure, reliable nuclear power at the scale required.
The story is clear: our infrastructure is broken, our industries are leaving and the lives of millions are getting worse every single year. This is a national emergency and the government must take radical action to save us.
One of its first actions should be to scrap Natural England. For two decades, it has blocked growth in Britain without ever having to answer to the British public for its actions. This does not mean turning the Great British countryside into concrete jungles or poisoning our rivers. Rather, it means that Britain could start to just build stuff once more.
Andy Burnham shouldn’t consult, review or assess whether or not Natural England should be abolished – he should just do it. Every day the status quo continues, the British people are failed: factories aren’t opened, hosepipe bans are extended and energy bills continue to rise. It doesn’t have to be this way.
The decline we feel is not irreversible. It is not an immutable characteristic of our isles today – it is a political choice. Growth is a different choice – a better one, one that will improve the lives of the British people. It is time for the government to finally choose it.
Lawrence Newport is the CEO and co-founder of Looking for Growth, the political movement to end decline and save Britain.
Imagine a world in which a dejected prince could summon a group of rich friends to try to shut down a newspaper using the law courts. It sounds like a lesser storyline from the fantasy HBO series, Game of Thrones. Yet it happened, here in the UK.
When the news regarding the High Court’s costs ruling in Prince Harry and the other claimants’ litigation against Associated Newspapers, publisher of the Daily Mail, was reported last week, the focus was on the huge sums involved. The seven claimants would have to pay £9.5million straight away. There would be more to come. The speculation was about whether Harry could afford his share of the bill (he could) and whether this would lead to his quiet retreat from public life (it wouldn’t).
Yet the real news behind this costs ruling was the excoriating verdict on the case given by the judge. Many of the facts of this ill-fated legal battle are well known. The various claimants, including Prince Harry, Elton John and Elizabeth Hurley, brought their cases in 2022. They alleged that Associated Newspapers had engaged in unlawful activity to obtain their personal information. In July this year, those claims were rejected by the High Court. What was less well known was how the case had been brought and the consequences, in financial terms, for those involved.
Last week, the High Court ordered Harry and his fellow claimants to pay Associated’s costs on the ‘indemnity basis’. This is an exceptional order, which can be made where the conduct of litigation takes a case ‘out of the norm’.
The focus of the judgment was on the number of allegations made against Associated that turned out to be unsupported by evidence. The claimants made very serious claims, including phone hacking and the acquisition of confidential information through other illegal means, none of which were ultimately proved. The judge said the claims were ‘speculative and substantially inferential’ and ‘lacked a proper evidential foundation’. By the end of the proceedings, Harry’s barrister, David Sherborne, was forced to advance a novel legal argument: that where there was a strong inference that information had been obtained by illegal means, it fell to the defendants to prove that inference wrong. The judge rejected that argument. The claimants had come to court without evidence sufficient to prove what they were alleging and were robustly criticised for the way in which they pursued those allegations.
Even where there had initially appeared to be evidence supporting claims against Associated Newspapers, it was undermined or withdrawn. The claimants relied, in part, on the evidence of a witness called Gavin Burrows. Burrows was an apparent whistleblower who had given a statement to the claimants’ lawyers saying that he had worked with an ‘ex-army guy’ to obtain information on celebrities using illegal means. Burrows later said that the statement attributed to him was a forgery. The judge was unable to accept that the disputed statement had in fact been made by Burrows and criticised the process by which it had been produced. He said that the solicitor responsible had made a ‘serious error of professional judgment’ in signing it off.
The claimants knew before trial that Burrows disputed the statement on which some of the allegations had been based. Yet they still continued to pursue serious allegations against Associated. When the cases began in 2022, the allegations were also publicised in highly critical statements to the media.
The judgment also considered the conduct of the campaigning organisation Hacked Off. The judge considered a memo circulated by Dr Evan Harris and Graham Johnson, which said: ‘We are planning a coordinated media attack on Associated Newspapers in the New Year.’ It continued: ‘The aim of this media campaign is to drag the Daily Mail into the spotlight for phone hacking.’ The broader objective included challenging the evidence given by senior Associated figures to the Leveson Inquiry and generating political pressure for Leveson Part Two. (The first part of the Leveson Inquiry recommended state-backed regulation of the press, among a raft of measures that would bring an end to press freedom.)
Claims that Associated figures had misled the Leveson Inquiry were repeatedly advanced during the proceedings, but the judge found that the allegation had not been proved. Although none of the claimants themselves had drafted the memo, the court accepted that generating political pressure for Leveson Part Two was one of Hacked Off’s objectives and that litigation against Associated formed part of that wider campaign.
There is a sad footnote to the case. Doreen Lawrence, the mother of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence, became involved in the proceedings after the Duke of Sussex alerted her to the potential case against the Mail in a personal email. She subsequently met the prince’s legal team at London’s Corinthia Hotel. Lawrence became one of the seven claimants whose cases were ultimately dismissed.
It has since been reported that arrangements will ensure that Lawrence is not personally left out of pocket by the costs of the failed litigation. But her involvement nevertheless demonstrates how the case expanded beyond Harry and other wealthy celebrities. He helped bring into the litigation someone whose circumstances and relationship with the Daily Mail were very different from his own.
It is often easy to forget how stressful it is to be involved as a defendant in a case like this. Katie Nicholl, one of the accused journalists, called the process ‘horrendous’. Only weeks after recovering from surgery, she had to retrieve old notebooks and reconstruct reporting from roughly two decades earlier. Rebecca English called the experience ‘absolute hell’. Harry would always be protected, to some extent, from the real pressures of litigation like this. He would never have to worry about bankruptcy. He could carry on his ridiculous life while the case was proceeding. The same could not necessarily be said of the people the case targeted.
This is not just a story about legal costs. It is also a story about an arrogant prince and his well-heeled friends attempting to shut down a newspaper using the law courts.
The fight for greater press freedom is not over. As Paul Dacre, publisher of the Daily Mail, pointed out in his coverage of the verdict, Labour’s Media Green Paper makes clear that statutory regulation of the press could yet return to the political agenda. Despite losing, these claimants might, in the end, get something close to what the campaign surrounding the litigation wanted all along: greater regulation of the press.
While the legal battles may now be over, the political battle for press freedom may just be beginning.
You know those days when you’re feeling lazy? Maybe you have a day of meetings, or you’re meeting a friend for a post-work drink, but the idea of putting on a full face of makeup feels like more work than your actual job. Hard relate.
While I’m wedded to a winged eyeliner and mascara look when I have the energy (and I’m not even a millennial!), most days I simply CBA to do anything to my face other than roll out of bed and do my skincare.
If I’m going to be in at least one situation where someone is looking directly at my face, though, I feel like the least I can do is to make it a somewhat pleasant experience for them.
For some reason, mascara by itself makes me feel even more like a naked mole rat than not wearing any (like why even bother?) so when I heard about UK Lash’s new Lash Lift Serum, which claims to be like a lash lift in a bottle, I was intrigued to say the least.
The serum is tinted chestnut brown, and comes in a mascara bottle with a wand so it applies to make your lashes look instantly curled.
Loaded with Hexapeptide-1, vitamin E, and caramel, the serum is a hybrid formula that offers the same nourishment as a lash treatment with the grip of a primer.
And honestly, the difference is immediately noticeable – my lashes looked like they’d been professionally curled and lifted as soon as I put it on.
While the serum is designed to be worn under mascara (and it sits perfectly), it can also just be worn by itself. This has quickly become my go-to on days when I don’t feel like doing eyeliner, but still want to look more awake and put together.
Honey Jane Wyatt/HuffPost
I love when a product does more than provide a boost of serotonin in the moment, so I also love that this subtly lengthens your lashes over time, too.
I’ve been using it for nearly two weeks, and mine feel much stronger and longer even when I take it off in the evenings.
But personally, my favourite thing about the serum is that it’s the perfect in-between for no-makeup makeup days – because 2016 is making a comeback!
Following the news of Dolly Parton’s death at the age of 80, her fans all over the world have been reflecting on her life and legacy.
A major part of that was her almost-60-year marriage to Carl Dean, who ran a successful asphalt paving company in the couple’s home state of Tennessee.
During her hugely successful 60-year recording career, the Grammy winner wrote many songs inspired by her relationship with the man she described as the “love of my life” and the “star of my life story”.
This is the story of Dolly and Carl’s long-lasting union…
Dolly Parton met Carl Dean, the man who would become her husband, when she was just 18 years old
The story goes that Dolly moved to Nashville, Tennessee the day after she graduated high school – and met Carl outside a laundromat almost immediately.
“I met him the first day I got to Nashville, in 1964,” she once told Interview magazine. “I graduated on a Friday night, went to Nashville on a Saturday morning with dirty clothes and I went to a Laundromat looking for anything but love. I had just left two boyfriends back home and I wasn’t looking to get involved because I had gone to Nashville to really get started in the business.”
She explained: “We dated for two years before we got married. I often get myself in love trouble because I’m so passionate; I love so much and so deep. But Carl’s a special guy, I didn’t have any problems with him.”
In 2025, following Carl’s death, Dolly told her fans: “Carl and I fell in love when I was 18 and he was 23, and like all great love stories, they never end.”
Interestingly, the pair were rarely – if ever – seen in public together
Over the course of their 58-year marriage, Carl only accompanied his wife to one industry event.
“Carl has never been in the limelight at all, never wanted to be in it,” she told Apple Music in 2023. “He don’t like it.
“He went to one thing with me early on, when we first married, to a BMI Song of the Year [event]. He came out there taking off his tuxedo, his tie and all that and said, ‘Don’t ever ask me to go to another one of these damn things because I ain’t going.’ I never asked him and he never did.”
She previously joked to People magazine in 2018: “I always joke and laugh when people ask me what’s the key to my long marriage and lasting love’. I always say ‘Stay gone!’ and there’s a lot of truth to that.
“I travel a lot, but we really enjoy each other when we’re together and the little things we do.”
In 1981, she was quoted as saying: “[Carl] knows if he ever started doing interviews and if people started photographing him and all that, then he wouldn’t be able to go to the auto parts store or the ballgames and the places he wants to go without being bothered.”
During their marriage, Dolly said she and her late husband didn’t feel a ‘burning’ need to have children
Dolly told Saga magazine in 2023: “When you’re a young couple, you think you’re going to have kids, but it just wasn’t one of those burning things for me. I had my career and my music and I was travelling.”
“I’m almost glad I never had children,” she previously told Mojo magazine as she reflected on the state of the world, admitting that she worries “myself to death about my little nieces and nephews and grandnieces and grandnephews”.
Years earlier, in 1985, at the age of 38, Dolly underwent a partial hysterectomy, which meant she was unable to conceive children naturally.
“I can’t have children physically,” she told Today in 1987. “I love children. I don’t know that it also wasn’t God’s will, you know, for me not to have kids. I mean, I try to look at things in a way that I can put them in a proper place because somebody has to be out there doing something to entertain other people’s children.”
Before that, she also told Interview magazine: “I couldn’t have children, I tried to for years. I’ve never been pregnant in my life.”
“When I got married and wanted to have children I couldn’t have any,” she continued. “But I don’t miss it. I did for a while, but I realise that I am everybody’s mother.
“I’ve raised five of my younger brothers and sisters and now their kids call me Aunt Granny. I’m like the grandma and the aunt.”
Dolly Parton and her husband Carl Dean had something of an ‘open’ approach to marriage – although she also insisted that they were sexually monogamous
In the book Dolly On Dolly, the pioneering musician claimed: “Men are my weakness. Short, fat, bald or skinny – I’ve had crushes on some very unusual men but Carl knows I’ll always come home and I’m not having sex with these people – I’m just flirting and having fun.”
“He’s not jealous and I’m not jealous of him. He knows I flirt. He flirts too,” she claimed. “Yes, it’s an open relationship, but not sexually and I would kill him if I thought he was doing that. He would shoot me too.
“At the end of the day we love each other madly.”
In fact, she once disclosed that the song Jolene was inspired by witnessing a bank teller flirting with her husband – although the situation never escalated to anywhere close to what it did in her signature hit.
“She was working down at the bank and he was spending a little more time down there than he should. So I put a stop to that!” she joked.
“I wrote the song about Jolene and I did a lot of banking after that, but not with her bank.”
Dolly also once joked: “Every time I look at him sleeping over there in his La-Z-Boy, snoring, that hair turning grey at the temples, I wonder if Jolene is still around. I’ll call her up and say, ‘You come and get him now!’.”
In 2016, they renewed their wedding vows to commemorate their 50th anniversary
She told Rolling Stone at the time: “I got all dressed up in the most beautiful gown you’ve ever seen and dressed that husband of mine up. He looked like a handsome dude out of Hollywood.”
Dolly shared: “We had a few family and friends around. We didn’t plan anything big at all because we didn’t want any kind of strain, any kind of tension, any kind of commotion, so we planned it cleverly and carefully. We just had a simple little ceremony at our chapel at our place.”
“We just had fun with it,” she added.
Carl died in March 2025, just over a year before Dolly
“Carl and I spent many wonderful years together,” the I Will Always Love You singer said following the news that her husband had died.
“Words can’t do justice to the love we shared for over 60 years. Thank you for your prayers and sympathy.”
A cause of death was not given, but Carl had been living with Alzheimer’s disease since 2019.
“I’m at peace that he’s at peace,” she later told Knox News. “But that don’t keep me from missing and loving him.”
Dolly claimed that while there is now a “hole in my heart” left by the loss of her husband, she hopes to “fill that up with good stuff”
That way, she said, “he’ll still always be with me”.
Earlier this month, Dolly shared that she’d recently been “dealing with some health issues that I just didn’t pay attention to when I was watching over Carl”.
Following her husband’s death, Dolly Parton released a song inspired by their love story
One of Dolly’s final musical releases was the original song If You Hadn’t Been There.
“[Great love stories] live in memory and in song, and I dedicate this to him,” she wrote on Instagram, alongside a picture of the song’s cover art, which depicted them in the early years of their romance.
Rupert Grint’s announcement that he’s returning to the world of Harry Potter has received a mixed response among fans.
On Tuesday afternoon, the British actor announced that he’d be reprising his role as Ron Weasley in the Broadway production of the play Harry Potter And The Cursed Child, which is set two decades after the events of the final book in the wizarding novel series.
“Ron Weasley has been a part of me since I was 11 years old and I can’t wait to meet him again in this stage of life,” he said in a statement.
“There is something so full-circle and so special about stepping back into Ron’s shoes now when we are both fathers; it is somehow both very familiar and completely new. And the joy of being back on Broadway, this time in a role that defined so much of my life, is truly exciting.”
He added: “The first time I saw Cursed Child onstage, I was blown away and I can’t wait to set foot back on platform 9¾ and pick up where I left off. I am overjoyed to join this exceptional cast and crew at the Lyric Theatre this winter.”
Rupert will appear in a “limited” run beginning in February 2027, according to a post on the Broadway production’s socials.
Shortly after the announcement, though, many voiced their disappointment at Rupert’s return to the franchise, given the ongoing controversy surrounding its creator, JK Rowling.
In recent years, Rowling has become an increasingly divisive figure thanks to comments about, and actions relating to, the transgender community.
This has included – but is not limited to – repeatedly and intentionally misgendering transgender public figures, and tens of thousands of pounds to the campaign group which raised the initial legal challenge that led to the UK Supreme Court’s ruling last year that the legal definition of a woman should include only those who were assigned female at birth.
After the ruling was made, she posted a celebratory picture on X, depicting herself smoking a cigar on a yacht.
Because of this, Rupert’s involvement in the play has already sparked discourse on social media:
Rupert has previously distanced himself from the author’s views on the trans community.
“I firmly stand with the trans community and echo the sentiments expressed by many of my peers,” he said in 2020. “Trans women are women. Trans men are men.”
He added: “We should all be entitled to live with love and without judgment.”
“But she’s still my auntie,” he added at the time.
Six months after starting a real war he cannot figure out how to get out of, President Donald Trump has started another, potentially equally disastrous conflict: a trade war with America’s neighbour and second-largest partner.
And just as Iran is showing little interest in helping Trump out of his bind by agreeing to a face-saving deal that would let him claim victory, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is uninterested in letting Trump back away from the fight he began within weeks of returning to office.
Indeed, when Trump declared that he would impose even more tariffs on Canadian goods starting in January – two months after the midterm elections – Carney upped the ante and said no: His retaliatory tariffs would begin the day after Labor Day, the traditional start of the fall election campaign season.
“You’re at war when you’re attacked, and we got attacked,” Carney said in a weekend press conference explaining why he broke off trade negotiations.
He then said out loud what many US allies have believed for two years: that the United States under Trump is no longer a trustworthy partner. “We recognise that sometimes its signature was written in pencil.”
Trump’s new tariffs on a hodgepodge of goods from Canada will raise prices for US consumers even further in the run-up to the November elections, while Canadian tariffs will hurt US exporters who count on that business. Trump has also upped his volume of insults against Canada, claiming, for example, that he will rename Lake Ontario as Lake America.
Scott Lincicome, a trade analyst at the Cato Institute, said Trump chose to tangle with someone whose country is fully behind him.
“He’s a smart guy and it helps a lot that Canadians overwhelmingly hate Trump and will endure significant trade war pain to fight him,” he said.
Carney is not the first leader to say no to Trump. Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum has rejected Trump’s demand to let him use US troops against suspected drug dealers in Mexico, criticised the weapons pipeline that sees high-powered guns enter her nation illegally from the US and stood up for Cuba as Trump effectively imposed a blockade — but has done these things relatively quietly.
Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen has similarly refused to countenance Trump’s demand that her nation turn over Greenland.
Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni essentially called Trump a liar when he claimed she had begged to be photographed with him, while French president Emmanuel Macron chastised Trump for constantly saying contradictory things about Iran, even advising him to remain silent once in a while.
Carney ― whose doctorate in economics and former directorship at two central banks stand in stark contrast with Trump’s casino-bankrupting history in business ― is the first leader of a close ally to confront Trump head-on in a major dispute.
At that press conference, he pointed out a fact that has gotten glossed over in virtually all discussion of Trump’s tariffs against Canada since he retook office: they violate the 2020 congressionally-approved free trade update that Trump continually boasted about at the time.
“That’s the thing: We have a deal with the Americans. It’s called CUSMA,” he said, referring to what the US calls the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, essentially a renaming of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement.
“We have side letters that clarify behaviour in steel, in aluminum, in autos. All of those are being violated, day in, day out.”
Trump does not, in his public comments, explain how Canada is cheating the United States under a trade agreement that he himself negotiated and signed. His White House press office said he is permitted under the agreement to impose tariffs on Canada to address emergencies and national security concerns, although it is unclear how Canada is causing either.
As with so many other things, Trump’s decision to act against Canada is rooted in his profound ignorance, in this case his longstanding inability to understand how international trade works.
For decades, Trump has claimed, falsely, that countries that sell more products to the United States than buy from the US are “ripping off” Americans. He further conflates trade deficits with the US budget deficit.
Trump’s first-term national security adviser, John Bolton, who, like many of Trump’s critics, has been criminally prosecuted by Trump’s Department of Justice, said the true workings of trade and tariffs were explained to Trump by experts in his own administration. “Many times,” he said.
Trump nevertheless repeated his falsehood again on Wednesday in a podcast appearance.
“We lose $60 billion a year, and really more than that, $60 billion a year with Canada,” he told former Fox News host Glenn Beck.
That view ignores the reality that Americans use and benefit from lumber, aluminium, maple syrup and other products they pay for. The trade imbalance, according to economists, is as meaningful as a typical family’s “trade deficit” each year with their neighbourhood grocery store.
Carney, in his news conference, told reporters that even by that metric, Trump is wrong because he fails to include services provided to Canadians by US companies that generate a net trade surplus for the United States. He further pointed out that much of the imports coming from Canada are natural gas, electricity and the heavy crude needed by many Texas refineries.
“I don’t think they want us to stop sending any of that energy,” he said.
That Carney has emerged as Trump’s biggest antagonist among traditional allies is perhaps unsurprising, given that his Liberal Party unexpectedly retained power in 2025 thanks to anti-Trump backlash among the Canadian populace after he returned to office and began talking about annexing Canada as the 51st state.
Carney provided a hint of where he stood in his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, early this year.
“If great powers abandon even the pretense of rules and values for the unhindered pursuit of their power and interests, the gains from transactionalism will become harder to replicate,” he warned, clearly referring to the United States without ever mentioning Trump by name. “Hegemons cannot continually monetize their relationships.”
The end result of Trump’s tariff attacks and Carney’s retaliation is that residents in both countries will suffer, Bolton said.
“This is just going to hurt both economies. Trump raises taxes on Americans and Carney retaliates by raising taxes on Canadians,” he said.
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