The TV presenter said the Reform UK leader hasn’t properly thought through the policy, dubbed “Operation Fortress”.

Under the plan unveiled last week, the Royal Navy would intercept the boats and return the asylum seekers on board to where they came from in “the largest military operation in the English Channel since World War Two”.

Farage said the plan did not break international law because they would be carrying out a “humanitarian” mission.

However, the French government has already dismissed the plan, while a former Navy officer dubbed it “a crock of shit”.

In his Sunday Times column, Clarkson joined the chorus of opposition to the Reform proposal.

He said: “Most commentators have focused on the political problems of such a plan.

“They point out, with some justification, that if the British prime minister orders a Royal Navy warship to steam into a French port and deposit a couple of hundred Somalians on the quay, the French government and indeed the United Nations might have something to say about it.

“Others have explained that we don’t really have enough ships to mount such an operation. And they also have a point because when Cyprus came under attack recently, it took a whole week to mobilise a defensive flotilla, which, to our national shame, comprised exactly one ship.

“However, there’s another, even bigger problem with Nigel’s Send ’em Packing plan which is: it’s impossible.”

The Clarkson’s Farm and Top Gear star went on: “How, in the name of all that’s holy, does double-breasted Nige think it would be possible for a large warship to come alongside a much smaller dinghy, which is something it must do if the captain wishes to attach a tow rope?”

He said in 1997, the captain of an Italian warship was jailed after it collided with an Albanian vessel, leading to the death of 81 people, including several children.

“This is what Nige hasn’t considered,” Clarkson said. “How do you stop a boat that doesn’t want to be stopped?

“And how do you order a Royal Navy captain to do something which in all probability will cause him to spend several years in the Scrubs.”

He added: “It is of course politically colourful to conjure up the image of sleek British warships defending the realm. This sort of thing appeals to the Tommy Robinsonites.

“But if you really want to stem the flow, and I suspect most people do, you have to park the (imaginary) destroyers and use your noddle. Do that and you’ll quickly work out that to stop them coming here, you’ve got to stop them wanting to come here.

“You’ve got to make the UK less appealing than where they are now, which is France. This shouldn’t be too hard.”

A Reform UK source told HuffPost UK: “I trust the senior veterans who endorsed our plan a little more than Jeremy Clarkson.”

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Your fridge is the one appliance in your home that never gets a day off. It hums along 24 hours a day, holds your groceries at a safe temperature and just sits in the kitchen, which is probably why most of us never think about it until the milk goes warm.

But the small things you do every day, from how you pack your refrigerator to where you put your leftovers, can have a real effect on the appliance’s longevity.

According to Ian Palmer-Smith, an appliance repair expert at Domestic & General, the average refrigerator should last about 10 to 15 years, but that number can drop to “eight or nine years if you don’t follow best practices”.

The good news is that almost all of those best practices are simple, and several of the worst habits that negatively impact fridges are easy to break.

We asked three repairmen about the mistakes they most often see when it comes to fridge upkeep and what to do instead.

The repairmen agreed on one thing: the part of your fridge most likely to fail is the one you’ve probably never looked at.

“The biggest driver of fridge breakdowns is the condenser coil, where the gas gets condensed and forms refrigerant,” Palmer-Spring explained. It’s a metal grid that, depending on the model, sits at the back of the unit, underneath it or, on some high-end refrigerators, up top. Because it’s tucked out of sight, it collects dust, grease and pet hair, and that buildup keeps it from doing its job.

“That stops the coil from dissipating heat, so the motor ends up overheating,” Palmer-Spring said. “The inside of the fridge might not feel hot, but the motor is overheating.”

Tony Andrade, service manager at Abt Electronics, described the same chain reaction: a dirty condenser “makes the compressor work harder and can cause it to overheat. Once it reaches a certain temperature, it may shut down and cool inefficiently.”

The fix: Clean the area and don’t crowd it. Andrade recommends cleaning the condenser every six months if you have pets and roughly once a year if you don’t.

Palmer-Spring suggests pulling the fridge out every winter and going over the coil with a handheld vacuum, also giving the appliance room to breathe in the first place: people “often place the appliance right up against a wall or in a tight space,” which traps heat and starts the whole problem.

We’ve all crammed a fridge to the brim before a holiday, and the repairmen say that’s fine every once in a while for a night or two. The trouble starts when it becomes your everyday default.

“Overpacking a fridge … makes the cooling system work harder, leads to uneven temperatures and can cause the compressor to work much harder,” Palmer-Spring said. The issue isn’t just weight but airflow. Cold air needs room to move, and a wall of groceries blocks that from happening.

Andrade explained that overstuffing “doesn’t affect the condenser itself, but it does affect air circulation inside the unit. If you accidentally block the vents where the cold air comes out, the refrigerator won’t cool properly, and you’ll end up with uneven temperatures.”

The fix: Use the eyeball test. “If you can’t see any space inside, it’s overloaded,” Palmer-Spring said. “It’s a simple visual exercise: if I can’t see space, it’s too full.”

Keep the vents, especially the one up top, clear and treat a packed-to-capacity fridge as a one-night dinner party situation, not a permanent state.

The problem with this one is moisture. Every time the door opens, warm room air rushes in to meet the cold. “If you’re constantly opening the fridge just to see what’s inside, moisture can build up because the 70-degree air in your home is entering a 37-degree refrigerator,” said Dennis Godynuk, a fridge repairman and owner of Comfort Appliance Repair TN.

Repeated openings also undo the cooling cycle: he tells customers a fridge can take four to six hours to cool down properly and “people often keep opening the door to check on it, which resets the cooling process.”

To be clear, some level of constant use is completely fine. “If you’re cooking and leave the fridge open for a minute, then close it and don’t open it again for 20 minutes, that’s generally not an issue,” Godynuk said. The damage comes from rapid, repeated openings, seven or eight times in an hour, which can leave the interior panels “very wet,” with water potentially dripping down into technical components.

The fix: Grab everything you need in one trip and resist the urge to keep “checking.” After a repair or a big restock, give the fridge a few uninterrupted hours to recover its temperature.

Hot food releases steam, and steam is just moisture in disguise.

“If you’ve just finished cooking something, like noodles, and they’re still very hot when you put them in the fridge, they’ll release steam and create immediate moisture inside the unit,” Godynuk said. He sees the fallout regularly. “Customers call us saying their refrigerator stopped cooling, and we find that moisture has become trapped in a fan motor or cooling components,” he said.

Because those components run near freezing, trapped moisture can ice over, making the fridge louder or stopping it from cooling altogether.

It’s also a strain on the hardest-working part of the machine, the compressor (clearly, the most important part of the fridge). “Putting hot food in the fridge also puts pressure on the compressor,” Palmer-Spring said. “If you’re doing it continually, it’s not a good habit.”

The fix: Let food cool to room temperature before it goes in. An occasional warm container won’t doom your appliance, but as a daily routine it adds up.

A fridge that’s set too cold or too warm is constantly fighting itself, and that effort shortens its life. “A lot of people set their fridges either too warm or too cold,” Palmer-Spring said. “If it’s too cold or too warm, the fridge has to work harder, which reduces its lifespan.”

So what’s the sweet spot? Godynuk recommends keeping your refrigerator between 36 and 39 degrees Fahrenheit. He cautions against drifting higher even though regulations technically allow it. Some fridges let you set temperatures as high as 42 degrees, and because units cool to a set point and then float within a range. “If it’s set to 42 degrees, the temperature may rise to 44 degrees before the cooling cycle starts again,” Godynuk said. For him, that’s “too close for comfort,” so he warns against going below 36, since “32 is freezing.” (In the UK, Palmer-Spring noted, the commonly cited range runs about 3 to 5 degrees Celsius.)

The fix: Set your fridge temperature to the high 30s.

That rubber gasket running around the door keeps cold air in and outside air out. But when the seal falls off or isn’t cleaned properly, the appliance may become damaged.

“Often it isn’t cleaned enough or harsh cleaning products cause it to deteriorate,” Palmer-Spring said. “If the seal is damaged, outside air can get in and create moisture.”

Andrade described the knock-on effect of a door that no longer shuts tightly: the unit simply can’t keep up. With cold air escaping, he said, the fridge “will run longer and more frequently,” forced to overwork to make up the difference.

The fix: Clean the seal with mild soap every six months and skip the harsh cleaners that break it down. Check it now and then for cracks or gaps and replace it if it’s no longer sealing snugly.

None of these common mistakes require much effort to undo, and considering that a refrigerator is built to run for well over a decade if you let it, you should try your best to avoid these issues.

As Palmer-Spring put it: “Most fridges can have a long lifespan as long as they have proper airflow, are cleaned regularly and you’re not putting unnecessary stress on the compressor or other components.”

Ask people to describe the youngest child in a family and you’ll likely hear some version of the same story. They’re spoiled, carefree, the favourite, the fun one – the kid who got away with everything while the older siblings paved the way for them. It’s one of the most persistent ideas in pop psychology.

But actual youngest siblings – and the therapists who work with them – say it’s also one of the most wrong.

“I think the biggest myth people push back on is the idea that youngest children have it easy,” Caitlyn Oscarson, a licensed marriage and family therapist, told HuffPost. “I don’t think many youngest children find that to be true, and the research doesn’t really support that idea either.”

This stereotype of a spoiled child who has an easier life isn’t just inaccurate but also harmful, shaping how families treat their youngest members and how those kids come to see themselves as adults.

“Many clients who push back against stereotypes do it more commonly with the one that they are spoiled or the favoured one,” said licensed clinical marriage and family therapist Robin Hamilton. “They hate that, because they typically do not feel that way, even though others in the family might feel jealous and see it that way.”

Indeed, the reality is far more complicated.

“Some youngest siblings may get more freedom, have fewer responsibilities and grow up with less strict versions of their parents,” Oscarson said. “But they also might feel underestimated and have their experiences minimised.”

Youngest siblings may also feel the burden of their older siblings’ resentment, absorbing blame for a family dynamic they had no say in creating. Chloë Bean, a licensed marriage and family therapist, pointed to the notion that the youngest is the “baby” who is inherently spoiled and gets all the attention

“This backfires because they spend their lives trying to prove they’re not immature or coddled, which creates pressure that can chip away at self-confidence,” she explained.

Meanwhile, many youngest siblings actually describe feeling more overlooked than overindulged. With more freedom can also come an assumption that they don’t need as much guidance or emotional support.

The myth of the favoured youngest child who has everything easy also brings a notion of an inherently fun, easygoing sibling who doesn’t take things too seriously.

“One of the biggest myths I hear challenged in therapy is the idea that youngest siblings have it ‘easy’ simply because they’re seen as the carefree, fun or favorite child,” said Priya Tahim, a licensed professional counsellor and the founder of Kaur Counseling.

“While that may be true for some families, it’s far from a universal experience. Many youngest siblings share that being labelled as ‘the baby’ often comes with having their emotions dismissed, their opinions minimised, or their independence questioned well into adulthood.”

Some also express feeling a sense of pressure to maintain that easygoing, humorous role because that’s what their family expects of them.

“I see youngest siblings who grew up believing they had to be the ‘easy’ one or the lighthearted one, because the family already had its hands full,” Bean said.

For many, that status as “the fun one” is more of a survival strategy than a personality. And Altheresa Clark, a licensed clinical social worker and founder of Inspire4Purpose, emphasised that being the life of the party in the family doesn’t mean there aren’t deeper underlying feelings and issues.

“Many youngest siblings have learned to use humour or an easygoing personality as a way to keep peace within the family, even while privately struggling with anxiety, self-doubt or feeling misunderstood,” she explained.

“Some youngest siblings genuinely do present as the ‘fun’ and carefree one, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t carrying emotional weight,” Tahim echoed. “In therapy, we often explore whether that identity is an authentic part of who they are or a role they learned to play within their family. Humour, spontaneity and being the easygoing sibling can become ways of maintaining harmony, avoiding conflict or making sure they’re liked and accepted.”

The pressure to be easygoing can also lead to youngest children who struggle with naming and expressing their emotions – all while catering to the family members’ feelings.

“There’s a hyper-awareness of others’ emotions,” said Mabel Yiu, a licensed marriage and family therapist and founder of the Women’s Therapy Institute. “Having less power in the household teaches kids to read the people above them as a survival skill. This often shows up as people pleasing in adulthood, and the work is turning that emotional awareness back toward their own needs.”

In the context of therapy, recognising this dynamic becomes the starting point for something more meaningful.

“In therapy, the goal is learning to trust that you’re allowed to take up space, have needs and be respected as you are, not because you out-performed everyone’s low expectations,” Bean said. “Youngest siblings I work with are working toward being taken seriously without going into their usual pattern of over-functioning. So much of their identity was built around being the easy one or proving they’re not the baby in the room.”

Setting boundaries, maintaining those limits and asserting needs without guilt or apology are huge steps for youngest siblings who spent years making themselves small to keep the peace.

There is also grief work in untangling their true identity from the role that was assigned to them by virtue of birth order. All of this points to a broader truth that therapists are quick to emphasize: Birth order is only one piece of a much larger picture, and it’s a less powerful one than most people assume.

“Birth order can certainly influence family dynamics, but it should never be viewed as the sole explanation for someone’s personality or emotional experiences,” Clark said.

“Factors such as parenting style, family stress, culture, age gaps between siblings and significant life events often have an even greater impact. The most important takeaway is that every individual’s experience is unique, and therapy focuses on understanding how those experiences shaped the person rather than assuming their birth order tells the whole story.”

The research bears that out as well.

“When you dive into the research on this topic, what you’ll find is that birth order is far less predictive of adult personality than it is widely believed to be,” said Natalie Moore, a licensed marriage and family therapist. “It is actually the more intricate family roles, dynamics and different parental treatment that have a far greater impact on how someone behaves, relates to others and copes as an adult.”

In her practice, she asks clients questions about the specific role they occupied in their family – what was expected of them, how they were treated, how they fit into an established system – and how those dynamics might still be present in their adult interactions today.

“I think anecdotally we all have ideas about common traits of firstborn, middle and youngest children, but the research doesn’t often back those ideas up,” Oscarson said. “There is also no major difference in rates of issues like anxiety and depression among birth orders, which are often major reasons people seek therapy in the first place.”

That doesn’t mean it’s not worth considering birth order when setting goals and exploring oneself in therapy. After all, birth order is a fascinating topic that can shape many of our experiences.

“Birth order can offer a helpful framework for understanding family dynamics, but it should never be used to define someone’s personality or predict their mental health,” Tahim said. “Two youngest siblings can grow up in completely different households and have vastly different experiences depending on parenting styles, family stressors, culture, attachment and temperament.”

Ultimately, the work is less about birth order and more about understanding the specific story you were handed. Then you can decide which parts of it still serve you and which don’t.

“The goal isn’t to change who you are,” Tahim noted. “It’s to create enough awareness to decide which parts of your story you want to carry forward and which parts you’re ready to rewrite.”

Labour has increased its lead over Reform UK as a new poll confirmed a surge of support under new prime minister Andy Burnham.

A poll of polls compiled by Election Maps UK put Labour on 25.6%, with Reform on 24.3%.

It is a far cry from the start of the year, when Reform led Labour by 10 points.

Both parties were neck-and-neck on July 24, but since then a succession of polls have put Labour in the lead.

The latest, released by Ipsos UK on Sunday, shows Labour has leapfrogged Reform since June.

It put Burnham’s party on 28%, a four-point jump since two months ago.

Over the same period, support for Reform has dropped from 26% to 25%.

The reversal in both parties’ fortunes has coincided with Burnham replacing Keir Starmer as PM last month.

Meanwhile, Reform leader Nigel Farage has been at the centre of controversy over a £5 million gift he received from the Thailand-based crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne and did not declare.

Parliment’s standards commissioner launched an investigation, but that was put on hold when Farage resigned as MP for Clacton to trigger a “people versus the establishment” by-election in the seat.

He is expected to be re-elected when that takes place on Thursday, although his only serious rival is Count Binface after Labour, the Tories, the Lib Dems and Restore Britain all refused to put up candidates.

Listen to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.