Heroes
The Dutch, says Giles Coren in The Times, who are sensibly putting a brake on their tourism industry. “Fed up with overcrowding and the bad behaviour of foreign visitors”, they’ve capped flights into Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport and introduced a “digital discouragement campaign” aimed at “young British sex and drug tourists”. Maybe Suella Braverman should launch similar ads for this country: “Britain: the weather’s awful, the train stations are full of anti-Semites, the roads are blocked by hate marches, you’re going straight to Rwanda anyway and we’ve just made tents illegal.”
Villain
Hannah Ingram-Moore, daughter of the late NHS fundraiser Captain Tom Moore, who has been ordered to demolish a home spa built in her garden after losing a planning dispute with Central Bedfordshire council. She had argued that the complex, which includes changing rooms, a sauna and showers, was a charitable endeavour that the Captain Tom Foundation could use for coffee mornings and “rehabilitation sessions” for the elderly.
Hero
Sue Gray, who is impressing folk at Labour HQ with her energetic approach, says columnist Patrick Maguire. Keir Starmer’s new chief of staff is playing a key role in shaping Labour’s Middle East policy, is generally first in the office and last out, and even takes to task “messy staffers” who “don’t accord the office cleaners due respect”.
Villain
The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse, a bestselling book which will now be inflicted on schoolchildren after being added to the national curriculum. Problem is, says Marianne Levy in the I newspaper, it began life as a series of drawings with inspirational captions on Instagram. So the book has no narrative and is filled with the kind of twee sentimentality that kids usually run a mile from. “One of our greatest freedoms is how we react to things,” runs one line. “Try saying that when you’re five and someone’s just nicked your crisps.”