The government may have crushed a potential rebellion over tax increases in the Commons, but it hasn’t pacified its critics. “Shame on Boris Johnson, and shame on the Conservative party,” says Allister Heath in The Daily Telegraph. “They have disgraced themselves, lied to their voters, repudiated their principles and treated millions of their supporters with utter contempt. And for what? To momentarily wrong-foot Sir Keir Starmer?” It’s not un-Tory, says former Conservative chancellor Norman Lamont in the Daily Mail. Extraordinary times call for difficult decisions, and even “radical” Margaret Thatcher would have supported this step. Teenage British tennis star Emma Raducanu will tonight play in the semi-finals of the US Open, having beaten the No 12 seed, Belinda Bencic, in straight sets. “Radu Can Do,” says The Sun.
Denis MacShane, a Labour minister two decades ago, recalls in his new book Must Labour Always Lose? that he once told Tory MP Gyles Brandreth the Queen “looked very good for her age, with excellent legs”. Brandreth promptly leaked this appraisal to the press. Horrified, MacShane rang the Palace to apologise. “Don’t say anything, Denis,” advised the Queen’s private secretary. “Her Majesty says this is the nicest thing ever said about her by one of her ministers.”
Life
Jeremy Clarkson will try to placate furious locals in his sleepy Oxfordshire village of Chadlington tonight. His Amazon series Clarkson’s Farm is such a hit that visitors are flocking to his Diddly Squat farm shop, causing traffic chaos. The 61-year-old faces a grilling at Chadlington Memorial Hall over his plans to develop the site – “Cheese and wine provided,” say the posters.
Fashion
Christian Siriano kicked off New York Fashion Week on Tuesday night with a “flurry of neon”, says The Washington Post. The 35-year-old American designer, who won the TV show Project Runway in 2008, has dressed Cardi B, Jennifer Lopez and Ariana Grande. Luxury fashion sales in 2021 so far amount to $106bn, according to Statista, and this is the first in-person fashion week since the pandemic.
Noted
During Italy’s record-breaking summer heatwave, Pope Francis sent ice cream to 15,000 parched prisoners in Rome, says The Guardian. The Eternal City saw temperatures soar above 40C thanks to a fiendish anticyclone nicknamed Lucifer.
Quoted
Quoted 09-09
“More tears have been shed over men’s lack of manners than their lack of morals.”
Snapshot answer
It’s a couple posing as sunbathers on ice blocks in February at the Kapchagay reservoir, Kazakhstan, where the temperature was -10C. Tourists swim and jet-ski in the 85-mile-long reservoir in summer, but rarely venture there in winter. This picture was a runner-up in the Drone Photo Awards 2021, announced this week.
