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Stop treating our children as victims
đž Padel courts | đł âTree of deathâ | đ´ 996 routine
In the headlines
Two people have been killed and at least three injured after a car and knife attack on a synagogue in Manchester. The suspect is believed to be dead after he was shot by police on trying to enter the building. Keir Starmer â who says he is âappalledâ by the attack, particularly coming on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar â will fly home from a summit of European leaders in Copenhagen to chair a Cobra meeting. Kemi Badenoch says she will scrap Britainâs âfailedâ climate change laws if the Conservatives regain power, including ditching electric car targets and plans to phase out gas boilers. âWe want to leave a cleaner environment for our children,â she said, âbut not by bankrupting the country.â The British conservationist Jane Goodall has died aged 91. Widely considered the worldâs leading chimpanzee expert, Goodall was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House earlier this year for her âgroundbreakingâ work, which âredefined our understanding of the connection between humans, animals, and the environment we shareâ.

Getty
Comment

Tina Fey in Mean Girls (2004): when teachers were teaching, not therapising
Stop treating our children as victims
Pick up any of the many wellbeing questionnaires now being handed out to British schoolchildren and youâll see a list of âincreasingly alarming statementsâ that they can agree with wholeheartedly, a little, or not at all, says Celia Walden in The Daily Telegraph: âI feel lonelyâ, âNobody likes meâ, âI cry a lotâ, âI worry a lotâ. Itâs like some âawful multiple-choice fever dreamâ. Children as young as 11 are being questioned about their gender identity, emotional regulation and life satisfaction â not something I remember agonising over at that age, âmy satisfaction levels being largely based on how many strawberry laces I was allowed to eatâ. It all seems to imply that as a child you not only have emotional difficulties but are âmired in themâ. And when youâre a child, âimplications are powerfulâ.
Schools should, of course, foster an environment where an unhappy child can talk to their teacher. But in many cases this âfetishisation of feelings and happinessâ is counter-productive. Schools have become therapeutic institutions âwith a bit of maths and grammar thrown inâ â teachers are handing out diagnoses theyâre not qualified to make and labelling any small slight a âtraumaâ. As the former Ofsted boss Baroness Spielman said recently, itâs worth remembering that adolescence is full of âlumps and bumpsâ you have to experience to become a resilient adult. If children are taught to embrace every worry, fear, anxiety and sadness, theyâll never become a âload-bearing wallâ. Knowing how to spot when a child is experiencing âmore than the ordinary lumps and bumpsâ is a crucial part of being a teacher. âPathologisingâ normal childhood experiences will only âset whole generations up to failâ.
Sport
Tatler has compiled a list of the âchicest padel courts in Britainâ. They include the outdoor facilities at The Hurlingham Club in west London; the two courts in the ârolling verdant lawnsâ of Estelle Manor in the Cotswolds; The Pollen Club in Manchester, which is covered and comes with a lounge area and bar; Padel Social Club in Earlâs Court, where Stormzy, Tom Holland and âall of hot young west Londonâ go to play; and CPASE in Cheshire, where a top Mallorcan padel coach charges ÂŁ150 an hour for private lessons. To see the rest, click on the image.
Inside politics
With his third leadership bid embarrassingly aborted, Andy Burnham slunk off from the Labour conference before Keir Starmerâs speech, says Tim Shipman in The Spectator. And the âStarmtroopersâ are rejoicing. A senior figure close to the prime minister joked: âWe were very lucky that our secret agent Burnham was prepared to go undercover for us in this way.â A former cabinet minister declared the Greater Manchester mayor âa clownâ. And as one indecorous individual put it: âPoor Andy. He shot his bolt during the foreplay.â
Games

If you want some âvery sillyâ puzzles, says Alex Bellos in The Guardian, you might like Louis Catlettâs Say What Ewe Sea: A Very Silly Visual Puzzle Book. Itâs the âperfect stocking fillerâ for any wordplay lover. More teasers, and answers to the clues above, here; pre-order a copy here.
Comment

Reeves with Starmer: âshe flunked the growth bitâ. Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty
No wonder Labour voters are cross
For those who believe the Conservatives are toast, itâs worth considering just âhow hated Labour are about to becomeâ, says Janan Ganesh in the FT. To justify her second round of tax rises â âwhich she promised would never comeâ â Rachel Reeves says: âEveryone can see in the last year the world has changed.â Can they? The Ukraine war started in 2022; Gaza in 2023. Inflation pre-dates Labour, as does the global rise in borrowing costs. If she means Donald Trumpâs tariffs, he led the polls when Labour took office and has banged on about tariffs his entire political life. She said growth would negate the need for new taxes. She was wrong, because âshe flunked the growth bitâ.
So: Reeves has no mandate to raise taxes, and when she raises them anyway, the people most upset will be the middle-class professionals who took a âslightly thoughtless puntâ on Labour in 2024. How will these voters feel as the government drifts âever further leftwardâ? All party pressure pushes Keir Starmer in that direction, and thereâs no evidence he has the fibre to resist it. âSixty-three-year-olds donât sprout new vertebrae.â Yes, the right-of-centre vote is split between the Tories and Reform UK, but its overall size should increase, and in favour of the Conservatives. And present form is no guide to future performance. If the Tories saw an uptick in the polls, donations would tumble in and âsmart graduates with an eye for the main chanceâ would join; Reform has a large and enthusiastic membership, but so did Labour when it got marmalised in 2019. In British politics, four years is an âeternityâ. All the Tories need is for âtwo rivals to falterâ.
Nature

Manchineel trees at Buccoo Beach in Tobago. Getty/Mark Meredith
The manchineel is âthe most dangerous tree on Earthâ, says CaLea Johnson in Mental Floss. Itâs found in parts of southern Florida, Central America, South America and the Caribbean. A single touch is enough to cause severe skin irritation and temporary blindness, and even standing under one when itâs raining can cause pain. And whatever you do, donât eat its round, green fruit â that can lead to blistering and swelling around the mouth and throat, digestive tract damage, vomiting, abdominal bleeding, and, in some cases, death. In Spanish-speaking areas itâs known as manzanilla de la muerte, or âlittle apple of deathâ.
Zeitgeist
Work-mad US techies are taking a leaf out of their Chinese counterpartsâ book, says Lora Kelley in The New York Times: embracing the punishing â996â routine to get ahead. This work schedule â made famous by the startups and sweatshops of Shenzhen â involves toiling from 9am to 9pm, six days a week. Itâs now illegal in China to compel workers to put in a 72-hour week, but that hasnât stopped the Silicon Valley crowd choosing to do it anyway â firms are noting their expectations of a 70-hour work week in job descriptions, and corporate credit card transactions have spiked on Saturdays.
Snapshot

Snapshot answer
Itâs Chris Brown, says the New York Post, a British explorer who has become the first person to reach seven of the planetâs eight âPoles of Inaccessibilityâ â the exact spot on a continent or ocean that is furthest from the nearest coast in any direction. The 63-year-old made it to the notoriously difficult-to-reach Arctic PIA, about 400 miles from the geographic North Pole, having already ticked off North America, South America, Africa, Australia, the Antarctic and Point Nemo in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Next, and last, is the Eurasian pole in north-west China. âI thought maybe three or four would be achievable,â he says. âBut here we are.â
Quoted
âIt actually doesnât take much to be considered a difficult woman. Thatâs why there are so many of us.â
Jane Goodall
Thatâs it. Youâre done.
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