thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-16--Sandi Toksvig Quits Great British Bake Off, But Who Should Replace Her?

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Channel 4 is on the search for a brand new Great British Bake Off presenter, following the news that Sandi Toksvig is stepping down as host.
While Noel Fielding is to stay on as presenter, Sandi’s time in the Bake Off tent is coming to an end after three years so she can focus on her other work commitments.
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In the next few months, we expect that rumours will be rife as to who will be taking over the presenting job, but we already have some thoughts.
These are the stars we’d love to see landing the new Bake Off judging role when the hit Channel 4 show returns to our screens later this year...
Jo Brand
SOPA Images via Getty Images
For the last five series, Jo Brand has done a stellar job on the spin-off show Extra Slice, and has come to be known as a much-loved member of the Bake Off family.
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With Sandi now gone, we think Jo would be just as reliable if she were given a promotion to the main show, and her dry sense of humour would be a brilliant foil for Noel’s more surreal sensibilities.
Miriam Margolyes
Karwai Tang via Getty Images
When Noel Fielding was first announced as the new host of Bake Off in 2017, he was a real wild card addition, and we think that’s exactly what the incomparable Miriam Margolyes would be if she were to get her (oven) mits on the presenting role.
Literally, every time Miriam is on TV it’s a total joy, if not an absolute scream, and her unique senses of humour and wonder would play out fabulously as she grew closer to the contestants in that famous tent every week. Plus, we can only imagine how she’d get on with all those Bake Off innuendos...
Alison Hammond
Jeff Spicer via Getty Images
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There’s no two ways about it: Alison Hammond is A Laugh.
With an appearance on Celebs Go Dating and her own rumoured teatime show thought to be in the works, 2020 will surely be the Year Of The Hammond. And what better way for that to come to fruition than on one of the biggest show’s on telly?
Alison is currently gearing up for an appearance on the forthcoming celebrity version of the show, too, so let’s hope her baking stint also doubled up as an audition...
Kathy Burke
Ken McKay/Shutterstock
She’d been away from our screens for a few years, but Kathy Burke returned with a bang in 2019, with her fantastic Channel 4 documentary series Kathy Burke’s All Woman.
The three-parter saw Kathy interviewing women from all walks of life about a variety of topics, with her trademark humour and relatability, and we just know that would translate brilliantly with the contestants in the Bake Off tent, who frequently need a shoulder to cry on.
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We also reckon her down-to-earth and straight-forward style would work beautifully with Noel, in much the same way as Sandi has for the last three years.
Richard Ayoade
Mike Marsland via Getty Images
We have to be honest, after the job was previously held by Sandi and the presenting duo Mel and Sue, we’re keen for it to go to a woman this time around.
If it does go to a man, though, we would want it to be Richard Ayoade, who not only does a brilliant job with Noel every year on Channel 4′s Big Fat Quiz of The Year, but was also heavily rumoured for the job when Bake Off first made the jump from the BBC.
Davina McCall
Karwai Tang via Getty Images
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We all know why Davina McCall is so brilliant at what she does – she’s energetic, she’s fun and whatever project she attaches herself to, she clearly really cares about it.
Years of chatting to contestants on Big Brother and The Million Pound Drop (not to mention being privy to emotional reunions every week on Long Lost Family) means she’d be totally at ease with those contestants in the tent, while also bringing enough enthusiasm to match Noel.
However, she did previously rule herself out of the gig a few years ago, citing her sugar-free diet as her resaon. But Davina, with the job open once again, we’d love you to reconsider...
Siobhan McSweeney
SOPA Images via Getty Images
We truly didn’t think we could love the stars of Derry Girls anymore, but last year’s Bake Off/Derry Girls cross-over special well and truly proved us wrong.
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A particular star of the show was Siobhan McSweeney, better known to fans of the Channel 4 comedy as Sister Michael, and if having her back as host is the only way to get her back in the Bake Off tent, then so be it.
Seriously, though, we do think Siobhan’s sense of humour would lend itself brilliantly to Bake Off, and having struggled with some of the challenges herself, she’d certainly have empathy for the contestants.
Roisin Conaty
David M. Benett via Getty Images
She’s been working in the world of comedy for more than a decade now, but 2019 was truly a great year for Roisin Conaty, beginning with a role in Ricky Gervais’ hit Netflix show After Life and ending in a coveted appearance as a panellist on Channel 4′s Big Fat Quiz Of The Year.
We’d love to see the Bake Off production team going with a presenter whose star is on the rise rather than someone more established in the TV world, and with a background in comedy, Roisin would certainly be able to hold her own in the tent, with Noel as her co-host.
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Nadiya Hussain
Isabel Infantes - PA Images via Getty Images
We know her name has come up a million times when it comes to Bake Off presenting rumours, but Nadiya Hussain remains one of the show’s most famous and well-loved winners ever, so it would be fitting if she were to return as its new host.
Since leaving Bake Off, Nadiya has fronted plenty of cookery shows, so we know she’s more than capable in front of the cameras, and while she may not be as wacky and off-the-wall as Noel, she is still a lot of fun, and would be able to offer an insight to the contestants like no other.
Helena Garcia
Channel 4
Then again, if any former contestant is going to co-present the show with Noel, surely it should be fan favourite and queen of all things gothic, Helena.
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Joanna Lumley
John Phillips via Getty Images
You just know this would be amazing, don’t you?
Joanna Lumley would fit right in with judges Prue Leith and Paul Hollywood, and while she and Noel might not seem like a natural fit, she’s made it work in a BBC documentary with Will.i.am and all kinds of unlikely guest stars in Ab Fab, so we think they could be brilliant on Bake Off.
Plus, imagine her dulcet tones in all of those explanatory VTs (not to mention the constant innuendos).
Mel and Sue
Ian West - PA Images via Getty Images
Come on, can you imagine?


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-16--Ollie Leaves, Two Bombshells Arrive | Love Island Unpacked

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Ollie Leaves, Two Bombshells Arrive | Love Island Unpacked
As Ollie leaves the villa, two new boys shake things up. Shannise and Nas come to blows and Shaughna grafts on Callum ahead of the recoupling.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-16--Rebecca Long-Bailey 'Personally' Supported Stricter Abortion Rules

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Labour leadership candidate Rebecca Long-Bailey has supported stricter limits on abortion.
Long-Bailey told Catholic priests during the election campaign she would make sure their “views are heard” when it came to any changes to the law.
Under current rules it is possible to have an abortion up to 23 weeks and 6 days of pregnancy.
But there is no time limit on when an abortion may take place if there is evidence of a fatal foetal abnormality or a significant risk to the life of the mother if she continues with the pregnancy.
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Long-Bailey said: “It is currently legal to terminate a pregnancy up to full-term on the grounds of disability while the upper limit is 24 weeks if there is no disability. I personally do not agree with this position.”
The shadow business secretary said she agreed with the Disability Rights Commission that “the context in which parents choose whether to have a child should be one in which disability and non-disability are valued equally.”
Long-Bailey, who is Catholic, was answering a series of questions put to parliamentary candidates in Manchester by priests at Salford cathedral. Her comments were first reported on Thursday by Red Roar.
But spokesperson for Long-Bailey said Red Roar had highlighted her comments “to propagate a misleading narrative”.
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“Rebecca unequivocally supports a woman’s right to choose and has only ever voted in favour of extending the right to abortion, such as in Northern Ireland.
“These responses have been selectively quoted by the fake news peddlers at the Red Roar to propagate a misleading narrative.
“Rebecca’s response to the Deanery of Salford clarified the existing law and current Labour policy, stating that abortion procedures should be properly regulated, and that women’s reproductive rights and the decriminalisation of abortion should be maintained.
“Rebecca’s response was also a reflection of her own personal agreement with the Disability Rights Commission — that ”the context in which parents choose whether to have a child should be one in which disability and non-disability are valued equally” — rather than her view on policy.
“During any proposed public consultation a wide range of views would of course be heard, and it is Rebecca’s duty as an MP to ensure her constituents are able to respond.”
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The MP for Salford and Eccles said while she would “never contemplate abortion” herself she had “tried to understand the agonising decisions many feel forced to make and what support they would need”.
She added: “My main concerns are about the lack of support, guidance and the lengths many may feel forced to go to.”
Long-Bailey told the priests: “Labour would propose a wide public consultation on the detail of new laws and regulations and of course I will play my part in that discussion in ensuring that your views are heard.”
She voted in favour of decriminalising abortion in Northern Ireland when MPs voted on it in 2019.
Labour’s 2019 manifesto pledged to “uphold women’s reproductive rights and decriminalise abortions”.
Long-Bailey appears to have clawed back ground on her leadership rival Keir Starmer, after the first poll of Labour members put him narrowly ahead.
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According to a survey by Survation, Long-Bailey would win 42% of first preference votes to the shadow Brexit secretary’s 37%.
The pollsters asked readers of Labour List for their preferences and then weighted the results to reflect the membership.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-18--Finally,  Kids Will Now Get Free Period Products At School

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Period products will be available to all schools and colleges in England from next week, the government has said.
The move will ensure kids don’t miss out on lessons due to their period and help break down stigma surrounding menstruation, according to the Department for Education (DfE).
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Under the scheme, schools and colleges will be able to order a range of sanitary products, including eco-friendly options, so that they are available when young women need them.
Former chancellor, Philip Hammond, first announced plans to fund free sanitary products in England’s secondary schools last year. This was later extended to include primaries.
Campaigners had been calling for the government to take action due to concerns that some girls, particularly those from lower-income families, could miss class during their periods as they are unable to afford sanitary products.
Children and families minister Michelle Donelan said: “Periods are a normal part of everyday life and we do not want young people missing out on lessons because of them. We know that it is not easy for everyone to access period products where and when they need them.
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“This scheme will deal with those problems so young people can go about their daily lives without getting caught out if they have come on their period unexpectedly, forgotten to bring products with them or if they can’t afford the products they need.”
Research carried out for the charity Plan International UK in 2017, into the extent of period poverty in the UK, found one in 10 young women aged 14-21 have been unable to afford sanitary wear while 12% had had to improvise protection due to affordability issues.
Amika George, founder of the #FreePeriods campaign group, said: “As a grassroots, student-led movement, Free Periods has been fighting for every single child in this country to be able to go to school without worrying about their next pad or tampon. For the first time in history, this scheme will ensure that becomes a reality.”
She added: “Free products in schools will ensure that every child can learn and be their very best, without periods holding them back.”
The roll-out of period products to England’s primaries and secondaries comes months before health education is due to become compulsory in state schools.
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-17--Boris Johnson Unveils Brexit Day Celebration Plans – But Big Ben Will Not Bong

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Boris Johnson has unveiled the government’s plans to celebrate Brexit day – with no mention of Big Ben bonging.
Instead, there will be a clock projected on the prime minister’s own house and a light show in Whitehall that the public can watch on social media.
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Other highlights include a cabinet day out to an unspecified location in the north of England. It is not known how much the celebrations will cost.
Commons authorities had initially ruled out bringing the out-of-action clock back into service in time for January 31 because it would have required £500,000 at short notice. The prime minister then poured fuel on the fire by suggesting the public might like to raise the money themselves – or, as he put it, “bung a bob for a Big Ben bong” – but seemingly without checking whether the Commons was actually allowed to accept public donations, which it turned out it wasn’t.
By the time that came to light, however, tens of thousands of pounds had been amassed by a now-directionless crowdfunding campaign. Bizarrely, donations continued to flood in – almost £250,000 had been raised as of Friday evening. It is believed the money will instead be donated to Help for Heroes.
In an attempt to bring down the temperature, Downing Street has now unveiled plans to project a countdown clock on to No.10 to mark the moment the UK leaves the EU at 11pm on January 31.
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Buildings around Whitehall will be lit up as part of the light show that evening, and union flags will be flown on all the poles in Parliament Square.
The commemorative Brexit coin will come into circulation on exit day, and the PM is expected to be one of the first people to receive one of the newly-minted 50p pieces.
Johnson will chair a special meeting of his cabinet in the north of England on January 31, where ministers will discuss the government’s plans to spread prosperity and opportunity across the UK.
He will then make a special address to the nation in the evening, aimed at healing divisions and reuniting Remain and Leave communities.
But with Nigel Farage accusing Johnson of misleading the public over Big Ben, it remains to be seen whether this will be enough – even with plans to live stream the light show on social media.
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The PM is also struggling to contain his own backbenchers, with arch-Brexiteer Mark Francois on Friday revealing that millionaire businessman Arron Banks and the Leave Means Leave campaign group having donated £50,000 towards the bid.
He told the BBC: “We are now not far short of £220,000, and by the end of the day we probably won’t be a million miles away from having raised half the total in two days.”
Tory former leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said Big Ben rings on all the “big occasions”.
“I do hope that the Prime Minister, who actually encouraged all of us to set this up... Therefore, there should be someway that the Government, can, if necessary, put a motion down and say let’s do this for God’s sake, let’s do it” @MPIainDS #BongForBrexit #GetBongsDone pic.twitter.com/ZvHQJL6Cnl — #StandUp4Brexit (@StandUp4Brexit) January 17, 2020
“It sounded out the end of the war in Europe, it sounded out the end of the war in Japan, when we joined the EU... and as we leave, arguably the biggest decision we have made since the end of the war, then the bell I think should sound for that,” he told the BBC.
“If they’ve managed to make it sound for other things I don’t see why they can’t make it sound when we leave the EU.”
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Meanwhile, the European Parliament confirmed that the union flag which flies above the building in Strasbourg will be lowered after Britain’s exit and sent to the House of European History.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-17--UK Weather: Chilly Weekend Ahead As Temperatures Plunge

A sailing boat makes its way along the Solent near to Southsea in Hampshire, as temperatures are expected to drop below freezing this weekend, prompting health officials to warn that the chilly conditions can be deadly. PA Archive/PA Images
Plunging temperatures are expected across the country this weekend with the mercury predicted to dip as low as -6C (21.2F).
Forecasters said most areas will remain dry and bright with temperatures between 5C (41F) and 8C (46.4F) during the day on Saturday and Sunday.
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But things are looking much colder as the night draws in.
Planning your #weekend?
Lots of fine and dry weather ☀ is expected, but watch out for widespread overnight #frost pic.twitter.com/homf754M0x — Met Office (@metoffice) January 17, 2020
Met Office forecaster Mark Wilson said: “The South West of England could see -2C (28.4F) locally on Saturday (evening) while the West and East Midlands will experience temperatures as low as -3C (26.6F).
“For the rest of the UK temperatures will be around -5C (23F) to -6 (21.2F) in the evenings on Saturday and Sunday.”
Beyond the weekend things will become “increasingly cloudy and milder from the North West”, he added.
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A cold weather alert was issued by Public Health England (PHE) from 6pm on Sunday to 6pm on Tuesday and the organisation is urging people to prepare for cold weather conditions and look out for those most at risk.
Dr Owen Landeg, principal environmental public health scientist at PHE, said: “Below 18 degrees, changes to the body mean that the risk of strokes, heart attacks and chest infections increase so heating homes to this temperature is particularly important to stay well.”
Wilson said that northern and western Scotland will see brief showers on Saturday morning before sunnier conditions on Monday morning with temperatures of around 11C (51.8F).
The top temperatures in south-east England and the West and East Midlands will be around 8C (46.4F) on Monday, he said.
⚠ Cold weather alert issued by PHE: Cold weather and some freezing fog patches forecast for parts of England from 6pm on Sun to 6pm on Tues. Prepare for cold weather conditions and look out for those most at-risk.https://t.co/8lSIDvUTUO pic.twitter.com/pxLGcsRsil — Public Health England (@PHE_uk) January 17, 2020
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The cold snap comes after Storm Brendan swept across parts of the UK last weekend causing road closures and rail disruption, as well as gales of up to 80mph.
It also marks a change from last month when meteorologists confirmed that a new UK maximum temperature record for late December was set in the Highlands.
A temperature of 18.7C (65.66F) was recorded at Achfary in Sutherland on December 28.
The reading was validated following a “rigorous verification process”, the Met Office said.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-17--Owen Jones Attack Was Motivated By Politics And Sexuality, Court Rules

Columnist Owen Jones outside Snaresbrook Crown Court where he gave evidence PA Wire/PA Images
A Chelsea fan who attacked Guardian journalist and left-wing campaigner Owen Jones outside a pub was motivated by the victim’s sexual orientation and political views, a judge at Snaresbrook Crown Court has ruled.
James Healy, 40, claims he assaulted Jones because he had barged him inside the pub and didn’t apologise for spilling his drink.
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Jones suffered cuts and swelling to his back and head, and bruises all down his body in the assault during his birthday night out on August 17.
Healy, who has admitted affray and assault occasioning actual bodily harm, faced a trial of issue at Snaresbrook Crown Court, with Jones giving evidence against him. He has admitted the assault but denies it was a hate crime.
During the trial, the court heard Healy had been photographed performing a Nazi salute and also allegedly had a football hooligan flag adorned with SS symbols and a collection of pin badges linked to white supremacist groups.
Recorder Judge Anne Studd QC ruled Healy targeted Jones: “I am satisfied so that I am sure that [Healy] holds particular beliefs that are normally associated with the far right wing.”
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She added: “I therefore propose to sentence Healy on the basis that this was a wholly unprovoked attack on Mr Jones by reason of his widely published left-wing beliefs by a man who has demonstrable right-wing sympathies.”
Jones was present in court with several friends for Judge Studd’s ruling.
One of the items bore the name of the Combat 18 neo-Nazi group, whose stated aims include “execute all queers,” Snaresbrook Crown Court heard.
Healy admits his face was “crunched up” in anger during a “frenzied” attack on Guardian columnist Jones outside the Lexington pub on the Pentonville Road in Islington, north London.
But denied he was motivated by the victim’s sexual orientation or political views, claiming he did not know who Jones was. The writer is gay and campaigns for LGBT rights.
During legal argument, the court heard police found a black flag bearing the letters CYF [Chelsea Youth Firm], a hooligan group, when they searched Healy’s Portsmouth home.
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The prosecutor said the flag was also adorned with a skull and crossbones symbol and SS lettering associated with the SS unit of the Nazis.
Officers also found badges associated with football hooliganism, as well as neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups, including Combat 18, the court heard.
A birthday card, featuring a St George’s flag, the skull and crossbones and the words “you have been nominated and dealt with by the Chelsea Headhunters”, in reference to another hooligan firm, was also recovered.
Healy’s barrister, Matthew Radstone, said: “He accepts he did target him, he accepts his face was crunched up, he accepts using the word f***.
“It is an assault he has pleaded to and a frenzied one at that.”
But he argued the items are inadmissible as evidence, telling the judge: “That memorabilia is consistent with Mr Healy being a Chelsea football supporter and part of the Chelsea football supporters’ group, who express themselves with memorabilia and behaviour of the type of insignia in that manner the flags perhaps suggest.”
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He said Healy has a number of convictions for football-related violence and was known as a “Chelsea risk supporter”.
Radstone had argued the items reflect his “association with Chelsea Football Club as opposed to any right-wing political beliefs he may have”.
The judge, Recorder Anne Studd QC, ruled the evidence was admissible before deciding whether the assault was motivated by homophobia or political views.
Healy, from, Portsmouth, is due to be sentenced on February 1 along with Charlie Ambrose, 30, from Brighton and Liam Tracey, 34, from Camden, who have previously pleaded guilty to affray over the incident.
Ambrose and Tracey previously both denied a charge of ABH and the charge was left to lie on file, with prosecutors accepting their actions were not motivated by homophobia.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-17--What To Watch For In The Labour Leadership Hustings

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The tough get going
As the rest of Westminster slides into the weekend, Labour’s leadership candidates will be getting ready for the start of a gruelling series of hustings events that have the potential to turn the contest on its head.
You only need to look at Jeremy Corbyn’s stunning victory in 2015 to show how Labour members pay attention to the debate, and change their minds accordingly.
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And an endurance test like this may favour an insurgent.
Those involved in the outsiders’ leadership campaigns also point out that while recent polls have Keir Starmer and Rebecca Long-Bailey ahead, there are a lot of don’t knows and a lot of people suggesting their current preference isn’t set in stone.
So on to Liverpool on Saturday for the first of 12 leadership hustings.
Long-Bailey’s opponents are already piling the pressure on, describing it as a home game for the shadow business secretary, who grew up in Manchester and nearby Ellesmere Port. Outsiders are also annoyed that the event will fit only a few hundred members in a city with a 20,000-strong party membership, in a decision seen as favouring Momentum’s candidate.
Long-Bailey has much to do, with some in the left said to be worried at the wobbly start to her campaign. For her, this event will be all about stabilising and reassuring her natural supporters. Like Boris Johnson united Leavers in the general election, to win she does not need new supporters but simply to unite the left.
As the early frontrunner, Starmer will be looking to capitalise on his early momentum by further establishing his credibility on the left. His focus will be on tone and feel as he tries to build a rapport with members who may find him a bit cold and lacking charisma. Some in the party are also crying out for more levity, self deprecation and simply fun from the candidates, stung by Rachel Sylvester’s excellent Times columnearlier this week, when she urged the candidates to “lighten up”. Some jokes from Starmer could go a long way.
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He also appears worried about appearing as the only man on stage at a time when many in Labour feel it is time for a female leader. He spent Friday trying to protect this Achilles heel by pressing Long-Bailey’s sore on abortion.
For Jess Phillips, Lisa Nandy and Emily Thornberry, the hustings can only provide an opportunity.
Both Nandy and Phillips’ teams believe the more people see of their candidates, the more they like them. But while Nandy has already won plaudits for her PLP hustings victory and Andrew Neil interview, many are wondering how Phillips’ combative style will play with what is likely to be a hostile Corbynite crowd.
Thornberry, while a good debater who has lit up constituency fundraisers, appears to lack any momentum. Her path to victory is difficult to see, and some suggest she may drop out of the contest soon as she struggles to get the support of 33 CLPs or three affiliates, including two trade unions.
Whatever happens on Saturday, there is an awful long way to go before the April 4 result.
And the outsider candidates believe that while Starmer and Long-Bailey’s mission right now is simply not to lose, it can be hard to maintain frontrunner status for such a long campaign.
Commons People
Labour MP Stephen Kinnock explains why he’s backing Lisa Nandy and what Labour need to do while out in the political cold.
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Kinnock and the HuffPost UK team also ponder the question “what is Johnson-ism?” in a week where the statist rescue of Flybe has raised eyebrows.
Search for Commons People wherever you listen to podcasts to listen and subscribe.
Quote Of The Day
“I’ve been to Amsterdam.”
Labour leadership candidate Rebecca Long-Bailey on whether she has taken drugs (via JOE).
Cheat Sheet
Rebecca Long-Bailey and Emily Thornberry prepared to formally launch their Labour leadership campaigns on Friday night. Long-Bailey will vow to “shake up” the way government works, ending the “gentlemen’s club of politics”. Thornberry meanwhile went to her hometown of Guildford to warn Labour faces “a long, tough road back to power”.
Labour leadership candidate Jess Phillipssat down with HuffPost UK to talk about the need for a female leader, the party’s future, anti-Semitism, Europe – and Meghan Markle.
The row over whether Big Ben should bong Britain out of the EU on Brexit day rumbled on, as Downing Street sought to distance itself from the campaign for the bell to toll. Nigel Farage accused Boris Johnson of misleading the public when he suggested people could “bung a bob” to support the campaign.
A free trade agreement will be “very difficult” to secure if Britain does not sign up to honouring Brussels’ rules on standards, according to Guy Verhofstadt.
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The European Parliament’s Brexit co-ordinator said the scope of a trade deal during the upcoming negotiations would depend on Boris Johnson’s “willingness to comply with a number of standards of the European Union”.
What I’m Reading
Dominic Cummings has ‘done’ Brexit. Now he plans to reinvent politics | Financial Times


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-18--Beyoncé Fans Fail To See Funny Side After Sainsbury's Jokes Her New Ivy Park Collection Looks Famili

Beyoncé Fans Fail To See Funny Side After Sainsbury's Jokes Her New Ivy Park Collection Looks Familiar

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Beyoncé fans failed to see the funny side after Sainsbury’s pointed out similarities between the music diva’s new Ivy Park range and their own uniforms.
In January 2020, the first collection from Beyoncé’s collaboration with Adidas went on sale, and to mark the occasion, the UK supermarket chain’s Twitter account poked a bit of fun at one particular item from the collection, which many people had already suggested looked a bit familiar.
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Sharing a photo of a model in one of their uniforms, they joked they were “the original” and had been “repping since 1869”, with the picture also featuring the hashtag #SainsBey:
However, the Beyhive quickly swarmed in on the Sainsbury’s account’s post, perhaps taking the joke a little too seriously, as evidenced in some of their replies...
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🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝 — Steven Underwood (@blaqueword) January 17, 2020
You wish you had even a nanogram of the relevance and range Beyoncé has — alluka (@yungs4f) January 18, 2020
Worry about this instead, Karen pic.twitter.com/VXvXEZ1oPe — thais⁷ 💜 (@thaisbmartini) January 17, 2020
girl its colors, sdfu — Gogo Yubari (@hauteboye) January 17, 2020
Many then accused the singer’s fans of having a sense of humour failure, pointing out Sainsbury’s hadn’t actually intended to drag Beyoncé with their Twitter joke...
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As a fellow Beyoncé fan I am BEGGING you stans to stop embarrassing yourselves under this post. Please it ain’t that deep 😭 — 🌹Cool Down For Jesus 🇳🇬 (@blixberrie) January 18, 2020
People are crazy 😂😂 this is a supermarket for heavens sake. Why is the uproar in the comments 😭😭😭😭 — just juggin’🤑 (@jxssybaby) January 18, 2020
Y’all are really trying to argue with one of the UK’s largest supermarket chains?Seriously? You’re dragging a supermarket chain over a joke? 😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/dsx3CC60LT — Cara 🌱 (@carastj) January 18, 2020
These replies are hilarious.
It’s Sainsbury’s STAFF UNIFORM and they’re making a joke that it looks similar!
Can’t believe I’ve had to explain that to grown adults!!! — Miss Chanandler Bong (@EmmaD74) January 18, 2020
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is a better supermarket uniform? — Gall (@DGallagher22) January 17, 2020
I am loving all the weird Beyoncé fans picking fights with a UK supermarket because they made a pretty decent joke about their queen. I mean it literally looks like their uniforms. 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/2Ya7hv7bQY — Lisa Allison (@LisaJaneAllison) January 18, 2020
Earlier in January, many Beyoncé fans became convinced the star had landed the job recording the theme song for the upcoming James Bond film, No Time To Die, after she posted a photo with a Martini at the Golden Globes.
As it turned out, she clearly just fancied posting a photo with a cocktail, as it was later revealed that the gig went to Billie Eilish who, at 18 years old, is the youngest star to ever record a Bond theme.
Billie follows in the footsteps of Adele and Sam Smith, both of whom received Academy Awards for their contributions to the James Bond films Skyfall and Spectre, respectively.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-18--If The Tories Are Serious About The North, It's Time To Move Parliament

The Palace of Westminster in London in the evening - England Leonid Andronov via Getty Images
I was interested in the speech of my good friend Sadiq Khan at Mansion House last week where he warned politicians against pursuing an anti-London agenda. Sadiq’s a brilliant mayor and I’ll be campaigning for him at the next mayoral election. Of course he’s right to stick up for his city but I’ve got to say a word in defence of the north.
I’ll be up front about London. I have a love/hate relationship with our fantastic capital city. I relish the journeys coming out of London at the moment for obvious reasons, but it’s undoubtedly one of the very greatest cities in the world and second to none with its cultural offer. I’d really miss it if it wasn’t there but there are things I can’t stand about it.
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“If the elite think the move would be too much for them, we’ll get some other people from the “wrong schools” to run the country who weren’t born to it.”
I can’t stand that it embodies such great privilege and elitism whilst the rest of the country can go hang. I can’t stand it that such incredible wealth sits cheek by jowl with such dreadful and overwhelming poverty and inequality. I can’t stand it that the media, print and broadcast, are still obsessed with London despite the valuable and appreciated efforts of the BBC and C4 in Salford and Leeds respectively. More of that please.
Sadiq bemoans the alleged retraction of public sector and infrastructure investment from London. The mayor has got a point in one respect if you think that London is the only major city of similar stature across the globe that doesn’t receive a direct grant for its transport system from central government. That’s another stupid Tory government decision.
Of course my plans to repurpose the Tories mad, expansionist, climate-destroying road building programme into a sustainable transport fund would have been a shot in the arm for London and the entire country. I know Londoners can sometimes complain about transport but it really is a world class transport network so I politely say to my mate Sadiq – you’ve got to get out more my friend! The north has had the scraps for years and it’s got to change.
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And then it got me thinking: In Portcullis House in Westminster, I was recently given a talk from House staff over the fabulous scale model of the parliamentary estate about the plans to install another House of Commons chamber in the soon to be rebuilt Richmond House on Whitehall.
They set out plans to decant MPs and staff from their current knackered old offices whilst huge swathes of the estate are rebuilt and refurbished in readiness for the major works on the old palace and the historic chambers themselves. It’s going to cost the nation an absolute fortune.
So it got me thinking. If the Tories are so signed up to Labour’s agenda to rebalance our economy, and if their commitment to the north is to be more than cynical electioneering ( again), why don’t we all agree to shift the whole parliamentary and Whitehall operation out of London and relocate to a purpose built, fit for purpose, modern parliament rather than retrofitting a museum piece and leave the old place to the visitors as a tourist theme park?
And if the commitment is real, put it somewhere that would be transformational. Somewhere in England that has been starved of public investment, had its core industries and economy betrayed and abandoned by Westminster and Whitehall and never given any meaningful government support. Somewhere where opportunities for young people are best pursued by leaving rather than staying. Somewhere that all too often, as a direct result of government policies, languishes at the wrong end of multiple deprivation indices. Sadly, my town of Middlesbrough fits that bill.
I hear the metropolitan sniggers already. It’s okay. I’ve heard all the smart arsery a million times over but it doesn’t make it right. The disdain and condescension are common currency. But, the sneerers will say: “There’s nowhere in Middlesbrough that could possibly house parliament and all its machinery.” Yes – so build it.
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They might also say: “It’s really hard to get to. The transport links are terrible.” Yes, they could be much better but it’s hard the other way too – welcome to my world. So let’s crack on and build Crossrail for the north – “northern powerhouse rail” if you prefer – and HS2 as well and take it right into the heart of the north east and on to Scotland, assuming passport checks at Berwick don’t undermine it by then.
And if the elite think such a move would be too much for them, and if some of the civil service think it beneath them, then they can all stay where they are in London and we’ll get some other people from the “wrong schools” to run the country who weren’t born to it.
London, I love you but you are not the be all and end all. It would do us all the world of good if we broke up your stranglehold on power and wealth. You might be able to breathe and we might be able to grow. You don’t need parliament but a new parliament in the north could transform our country. You’ve got a helluva lot going for you and you’re going to be fine with or without parliament but it’s about time the north got a fair crack of the whip.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-18--'No Alignment' With EU After Brexit, Chancellor Warns Businesses

Sajid Javid has warned manufacturing leaders of “no alignment” with EU regulations once Brexit is made official.
The Treasury would not lend support to manufacturers that favour EU rules as the sector has had three years to prepare for Britain’s transition, the Britain’s chancellor said in an interview with the Financial Times.
“There will not be alignment, we will not be a ruletaker, we will not be in the single market and we will not be in the customs union — and we will do this by the end of the year,” Javid said.
“We’re… talking about companies that have known since 2016 that we are leaving the EU.”
Javid admitted that some businesses may not benefit from Brexit, but said the UK economy would ultimately continue to thrive in the long-term.
“Once we’ve got this agreement in place with our European friends, we will continue to be one of the most successful economies on earth,” he said.
Javid will have the opportunity to sell his vision for Britain’s economy post-Brexit when he travels to Davos next week for the World Economic Forum.
But the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) said that no regulatory alignment with the EU after Brexit could lead to price rises.
Its chief operating officer Tim Rycroft added: “Food and drink manufacturers will be deeply concerned by the chancellor’s suggestion that there will not be regulatory alignment with the EU post-Brexit.
“This represents the death knell for frictionless trade.
“It will mean businesses will have to adjust to costly new checks, processes and procedures, that will act as a barrier to frictionless trade with the EU and may well result in price rises.”
The chancellor also hinted that there might be tax rises in the March budget or autumn, telling the Financial Times that he was determined to take the “hard decisions you need to sometimes, especially at the start of a new government”.
But when asked specifically about taxation he said: “You’ll have to wait for the budget.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-18--Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson Honours His Father And Fellow Wrestler, Rocky, Following His Death

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Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has paid tribute to his late father, fellow wrestler Rocky Johnson, following the news of his death.
Earlier this week, World Wrestling Entertainment released a statement confirming that Rocky – real name Wayde Douglas Bowles – had died at the age of 75.
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Posting on Instagram on Friday evening, Dwayne paid homage to his father, honouring his trailblazing work in the world of wrestling.
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson inducting his father into the International Pro Wrestling Hall Of Fame in 2008 George Napolitano/MediaPunch/IPx
“I love you,” his post began. “You broke colour barriers, became a ring legend and trail blazed your way thru this world. I was the boy sitting in the seats, watching and adoring you, my hero from afar.
“The boy you raised to always be proud of our cultures and proud of who and what I am. The boy you raised with the toughest of love. The intense work. The hard hand. The adoring boy who wanted to know only your best qualities.
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“Who then grew to become a man realizing you had other deeply complicated sides that needed to be held and understood. Son to father. Man to man. That’s when my adoration turned to respect. And my empathy turned to gratitude.”
He continued: “Dad, I wish I had one more shot to tell you, I love you, before you crossed over to the other side. But you were ripped away from me so fast without warning. Gone in an instant and no coming back.
“I’m in pain. But we both know it’s just pain and it’ll pass.”
Rocky began his wrestling career in the 1970s George Napolitano/MediaPunch/IPx
Johnson added: “Now I’ll carry your mana and work ethic with me, as it’s time to move on because I have my family to feed and work to accomplish. Finally, I want you to rest your trailblazing soul, Soulman.
“Pain free, regret free, satisfied and at ease. You lived a very full, very hard, barrier breaking life and left it all in the ring.”
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The wrestler-turned-actor chose his “The Rock” moniker as a tribute to his father, Rocky, who was one half of the first black world tag-team champions alongside Tony Atlas in 1983.
Rocky retired in 1991, after which he turned his attention to training his young son.
Last month, Rocky was appointed to the Board of Directors of the International Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-18--A Photo Of Star Wars Creator George Lucas Cradling Baby Yoda Is Melting People’s Hearts

"George put Baby Yoda down."
"No."
"George we need it for shooting."
"No it's mine now."
"George please we need to film."
"Make another one this one is mine."
"George come back please!"


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-18--Disney Is Changing The Name Of 20th Century Fox

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Say goodbye to 20th Century Fox — and hello to 20th Century Studios.
Disney is doing some rebranding on entertainment properties it acquired from Fox last year in a blockbuster $71 billion deal.
Mainly, this involves dropping a name that is strongly associated with a politically divisive news station: 20th Century Fox is now 20th Century Studios, while Fox Searchlight Pictures is simply becoming Searchlight Pictures.
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The 20th Century Fox logo, which new owner Disney plans to update ASSOCIATED PRESS
Disney sources told Variety the iconic logos associated with the brands won’t see much of a change beyond the updated wording. The art deco lettering, searchlights and triumphant score will remain.
The media outlet also pointed out that the poster for the upcoming film Downhill – starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Will Ferrell – features the message “Searchlight Pictures Presents”, and is expected to be the studio’s first film to open with the new logo.
As reported by Variety, Disney is considering similar rebranding efforts at 20th Century Fox Television and Fox 21 Television Studios, but no firm decision has been made.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-18--Flash Floods Follow Bushfires As Torrential Rain Hits Parts Of Australia

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Flash flooding has hit some parts of Australia’s bushfire-damaged east coast as severe storms settled in on Saturday.
The deluge doused some of the fires that have devastated the region for months, but in turn caused road closures and severe flooding.
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Despite the rain, authorities said they were still battling almost 100 blazes, which since September have killed at least 29 people, destroyed more than 2,500 homes, and scorched an estimated 10m hectares of land.
As the waters rose in previously drought-stricken areas, staff at the Australian Reptile Park in New South Wales (NSW) were forced to rescue koalas from fast-flowing waters and beat back crocodiles with brooms.
Victoria, NSW and Queensland, three of the states most hit by drought and bushfires, are all now dealing with the extreme rainfall.
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Major highways were closed in Queensland on Saturday, with the state getting some of the heaviest rain Australia has seen for months, while power was cut in parts of New South Wales after a stormy night.
“Heavy, intense rainfall has eased, but showers and thunderstorms still possible through the weekend,” the Bureau of Meteorology in Queensland said on Twitter on Saturday.
“Take care on the roads - if it’s flooded, forget it.”
8 hours of rain on the #GoldCoast and we people in boats on the streets of Southport. 🚣♂ ☔ pic.twitter.com/2GWL4mdb2K — Ricky Kroesen 🇦🇺 (@rickykroesen) January 17, 2020
South East Queensland Storms: Heavy rain and flash flooding has caused closures on the M1 at the Gold Coast and forced @movieworldaus to shut for the day. #qldweather #7NEWS https://t.co/HRn5hj3VDH — 7NEWS Brisbane (@7NewsBrisbane) January 18, 2020
Unbelievable - after the smoke haze that has engulfed our city some parts of Melbourne have received a month’s worth of rain in half an hour this afternoon @9NewsMelb pic.twitter.com/0klFgaQgRG — Jo Hall (@Jo_Hall9) January 15, 2020
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Parts of Queensland’s south saw triple the monthly rainfall overnight. No major damage has been reported, although some residential areas were flooded and many of the state’s parks and tourist attractions were closed.
NSW fire services welcomed the rain on Thursday, which they said on Twitter would help to control the 75 fires burning in the state, of which 25 are yet to be contained. But, they also said that some firegrounds have not seen any rain yet.
Relief is here for a number of firefighters working across NSW. Although this rain won’t extinguish all fires, it will certainly go a long way towards containment. This footage was captured down at the Good Good Fire burning near Cooma. #nswrfs #nswfires pic.twitter.com/fxV9u2hN6K — NSW RFS (@NSWRFS) January 16, 2020
More benign storms were forecast for Victoria over the weekend, which has been hit this week already by severe storms and unhealthy smoke from the bushfires.
Skies were clear in Melbourne, however, for the final round of qualifying for the Australian Open, the year’s first Grand Slam, and Victoria’s Environmental Protection rated the air quality as “good”, after an earlier forecast of unhealthy air for the weekend.
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There were still more than a dozen fires burning in Victoria on Saturday, with firefighters battling to contain a big blaze in the state’s mountain region, fifteen times the size of Manhattan.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-18--The Masked Singer: One Celebrity Has Lied About Not Being On The Show, Claims Joel Dommett

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If you’re anything like us, you’ll currently be spending your Saturday evenings glued to the TV, shouting random names at the screen and frantically Googling things in a bid to find out the identities of the random celebrities performing in disguise on The Masked Singer.
Now onto its fourth episode, three celebrities have already been unmasked, with speculation rife about the remaining eight, and a few stars have even spoken out to insist they’re not part of the show.
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However, in a new interview with The Sun, Masked Singer presenter Joel Dommett has admitted that one or two of those who have ruled themselves out are not being entirely truthful.
“Last Saturday, I saw someone who is on the show saying it wasn’t them,” he revealed. “Which is interesting.”
Joel Dommett Scott Garfitt - PA Images via Getty Images
Joel added that it’s worth sticking with The Masked Singer for the finale alone, in which the last of the stars is unmasked.
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He claimed: “The final episode is going to be a mad one. There’s three reveals and nobody is getting near to guessing them. It’s going to be epic.”
So far, among the stars who have insisted they’re not part of the show are Charlotte Church and Peter Crouch, who fans suggested were behind the guises of Queen Bee and Tree, respectively.
These masked stars will be performing in Saturday night's show Vincent Dolman/ITV/Shutterstock
Meanwhile, Pussycat Dolls performer Ashley Roberts and Dancing On Ice judge John Barrowman were both tight-lipped when asked whether they were secretly performing as Octopus and Unicorn.
Grilled by her Heart breakfast co-presenters Jamie Theakston and Amanda Holden, Ashley teased: “I love a costume. I mean, you know I do like to have a little dress up… I think you need to watch the show and find out don’t you? Don’t you? Don’t you?”
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The Masked Singer airs on Saturday nights on ITV.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-18--Does Britain Still Have An Issue With Interracial Relationships?

HuffPost UK
“Harry and Meghan’s union was seen as a beacon of hope for all interracial-intercultural couples,” reflects Dr Reenee Singh, founding director of the London Intercultural Couples Centre at the Child and Family Practice, at the end of a week of non-stop press coverage of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. “It was heralded as the legitimisation of intercultural couple relationships in the UK.”
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Some of those people are in mixed-race – or interracial – couples themselves and see aspects of their own lives reflected in the royal couple’s experience. This does not surprise Singh, who is a practicing psychotherapist and CEO of the Association for Family Therapy. “Despite changing demographics in the UK, where one in every 10 couples identifies as intercultural, intercultural couples still experience considerable racism,” she tells HuffPost UK.
ASSOCIATED PRESS The Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
In November 2016, when Harry and Meghan first went public as a couple, Kensington Palace issued a statement that addressed the media’s treatment of Meghan head-on, calling out “the racial undertones of comment pieces and the outright sexism and racism of social media trolls and web article comments”.
HuffPost UK parenting columnist Robyn Wilder believes the discourse around Harry and Meghan throughout their relationship may have something to tell us about attitudes towards mixed-race relationships in Britain.
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“Those race-baiting tabloid headlines have been despicable, but they wouldn’t have gained so much traction if an ugly undercurrent of increasingly legitimised racism wasn’t already running through the country,” says Robyn, who is from a mixed family and also has a mixed-race marriage.
“However, I think it’s good that the de facto racism has been exposed, because it’s shocked so many people – mainly those it doesn’t affect. You’ll already know about everyday bigotry if you’re part of a minority group.”
Dr Nicola Rollock, a reader in equity, education and race at Goldsmiths College, University of London, cautions that the media coverage and discussion of the announcement shows us all “playing out our insecurities on the royal couple” despite the fact we don’t know exactly what has fuelled their recent decision.
“Given the nature of the criticism levelled against the Duchess of Sussex, it is clear that her racialised identity matters to both people of colour in the UK and to white people (whether or not the latter group explicitly acknowledge it),” Dr Rollock tells HuffPost UK.
“The Sussexes seem to have become the vehicle through which we are playing out our racialised insecurities and discomforts and, for some, our hopes and dreams,” she adds. “That – what we might think of as the ‘burden of race’ – alone is a heavy burden to carry even while acknowledging there may be additional factors which have shaped their decision.”
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Gabriella Haile, 22, from Bradford, who is in a mixed-race relationship, agrees that “race plays a part” in the way Harry and Meghan’s relationship is reported.
“Whatever they do is wrong. I’m not surprised they are stepping down,” she says. “I would do the same. Media rhetoric has been negative towards Meghan from the start.”
Gabriella Haile Ethan Quesne and Gabriella Haile
Gabriella says she and her boyfriend, 24-year-old Ethan Quesne, have never had big problems being in a mixed-race couple, but when they started dating three and a half years ago she was nervous about the potential challenges.
“In the back of my mind I was nervous for his parents to meet me, but they were totally fine,” she says. “It was my dad who more had something to say, but he’s over that now.”
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However, she does still worry how they’ll be treated outside of multicultural Huddersfield where they’re now based. “I do worry when planning trips abroad or perhaps going somewhere more remote in England,” she says. “I guess there will always be racism, sadly, but we just need to teach kids from a young age that skin is a colour and not something to judge others by.”
Robyn, who is from Sussex, says the biggest challenges of being in a mixed-race marriage come in relation to her children, who, in her words, “pass” as white. Robyn’s mother is French and Nepali and her father was Italian and Spanish. Her husband is white British and one-quarter German.
“Reactions can be as benign as a waiter showing my family to a free table, but asking me to ‘please wait in the queue, madam’ because he assumes I’m with another party. Or they can be problematic, like when my brown-haired toddler ran away, giggling, in a garden centre, and a random woman refused to give him back to me until he started crying for me in distress,” she says.
Robyn Wilder Robyn Wilder with her husband and their two children
Another couple got in touch with HuffPost UK to say the majority of racism they’ve encountered has related to their children. The dad in this family is Nigerian British and the mum is white British. They live in Essex but wish to remain anonymous to avoid being “ostracised” within their community.
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“My five-year-old son was told by another child he could not play with them because he was not white. As you can imagine the poor boy got home and was asking why he was not white enough,” the father told us.
“My wife and I dealt with the situation appropriately by writing to the school and made sure it was addressed. I know of a friend who had to pull his son out of another school because of this same issue.”
The couple believe “the further you move out of London, the more the problem is prevalent”.
But Nick Richardson, 32, and Qiuyan Tang, 27, known as Chewy, have faced racism in big cities, too. The pair now live in London, but got together in 2015 when Nick was working in San Francisco. Nick is white British, while Chewy is Chinese American.
“It’s strange, because one might think that in a diverse, urban metropolis like London or San Francisco where there are people here from all over the world, being a mixed-race couple wouldn’t stand out. However, this is not always the case,” they wrote in a joint email to HuffPost.
Nick Richardson Nick and Chewy
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While their relationship has only ever had a positive reception from friends and colleagues, they’ve been experienced verbal racial stereotyping from strangers on the street.
“When strangers engage in stereotyping us based on race, this only highlights a difference that we don’t see ourselves and reduces us to our ethnicities – quite a minimising experience, and one that we need to support each other through,” the pair said.
The couple believe public interracial couples such as Harry and Meghan “have definitely brought the conversation to the forefront, which is a change from before when they happened privately within families”.
“Even though dating someone who is not of the same ethnicity is not as taboo as it was a few decades ago, there still needs to be more work done,” they say. “Beyond dating, the simple act of judging someone based on the colour of their skin or physical appearance is still more common than we all think.”
Criminologist Dr Mike Sutton has been researching the experiences of interracial couples for more than a decade, as founder of the former Centre for Study and Reduction of Hate Crimes, Bias and Prejudice at Nottingham Trent University. “What this royal couple are experiencing in the media is reflective of the hard gaze that others on our streets and other public and semi-public places so often feel they have the right to focus on the private lives of other mixed heritage couples,” he tells HuffPost UK.
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Harry and Megan’s relationship has brought this issue to the attention of a wider public, adds Sutton, who is in a mixed-raced marriage himself. He is white British and his wife is British Jamaican.
Sophie Fish, 24, and her boyfriend Mahlik Johnson, 26, have been together for two years. The couple, who live in Rhode Island in the US, echo some of the same sentiments expressed by couples in the UK. They add that their respective experiences of being in a mixed relationship differ – particularly when they’ve received “dirty looks” for showing affection in public.
Sophie Fish Sophie and Mahlik
“Mahlik tends to pay them no mind, but I always feel defensive and often glare at them back,” says Sophie. “From a white woman’s perspective, it breaks my heart that someone as genuine, kind, and open-minded as Mahlik is judged instantly based on his skin colour, because that’s something I, of course, had the privilege to never experience.”
Mahlik adds: “The reality of being together in 2020 as a mixed couple is we have it a lot easier than the people who came before us. I’m not saying we don’t see or experience racism, because we do.
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“We’re just able to live our life with little to no racism due to the fact our ancestors fought for our lives to be better than theirs, in hopes to one day live completely unaffected.”
There are huge joys to being in a mixed relationship. Couples told us about the pleasure of making new friends, experiencing new family traditions and trying new food – as well as the obvious, finding love, just like any other couple.
Stacy*, 26, from Manchester, says being black British with a white British boyfriend has never been an issue and is “pretty much the same as being in another couple”. “His family have never made me feel anything other than welcome. Even when I first whipped my wig off and they had to pretend to not be shocked!” she laughs.
But she does say that race has posed challenges within the relationship in the past.
“It’s extremely hard and emotionally draining to explain racism to people who have never experienced it and don’t understand it. It is really depressing when you realise how deep rooted it is in society and in literally everything you do,” she says. “It’s way more than people shouting in a street or not being let in somewhere. It’s in politics and policies and fashion and beauty and schools - literally everywhere.”
Stacy’s boyfriend is originally from an area of the UK with very few people of colour, she explains, and they once had a race-based argument that almost ended their relationship.
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“He was playing ‘devils advocate’ and it upset me so much, it was the first time I thought: ‘This is why some black people don’t date outside of our race,’” she says. “It was exhausting and upsetting and I kept on thinking: ‘Imagine if we have kids and this is your mindset.’”
The pair didn’t talk for two days, but when they reconnected, Stacy’s boyfriend revealed he’d started listening to the audio book of Brit(ish) by Afua Hirsch and was “actively trying to understand the black experience”. Two and a half years into their relationship, he now “views the world so differently”, she says.
“He’s read so many books on race, he holds all of his friends accountable, and educates them when he’s in white spaces with only white people.”
Harry and Meghan’s announcement may have left many lamenting the fact that it’s come to this. But Dr Reenee Singh views the move as understandable.
Based on her practice as a family therapist, Dr Singh says that most couples find the transition to becoming parents challenging “and for intercultural couples where one is a migrant, this transition may be particularly challenging as it can bring up dilemmas of where home is, how to remain connected to grandparents in another country and how to keep alive both parts of the child’s dual heritage.
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“Meghan and Harry’s decision to live between England and North America – the two cultures and two worlds that their child/children will inherit – makes perfect sense when understood as part of a significant family life cycle stage,” she says. “This decision should be celebrated by all intercultural couples as it points to a way in which young, multicultural families in the 21st century can embrace the richness of their cultural histories.”
Robyn, meanwhile, is hopeful that the couple’s decision to find a “better future” for their family could provide inspiration, both for individuals who are mixed race and couples who are part of a mixed-race relationship.
She says: “As Meghan and Harry are showing, even in troubling times like these, you can make positive choices and not get trampled by oppressive tradition just because everyone expects you to do so.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-18--Ex-Obama Photographer Mocks Trump With A Peach Of An Old Picture

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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-18--The Simpsons: Apu Voice Actor Hank Azaria Won't Play Character In Future Episodes

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The Simpsons actor Hank Azaria has confirmed that he will no longer be voicing Kwik-E-Mart owner Apu Nahasapeemapetilon.
Hank has been part of the show’s cast for 30 years, playing popular characters including bartender Moe Syzlak, scientist Professor John Frink and police chief Clancy Wiggum.
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However, in recent years, his portrayal of Apu has come under fire – including in a 2017 documentary titled The Problem With Apu – with many questioning whether it’s appropriate for a white actor to voice a South Asian character with an Indian accent.
Apu has not been seen on screen in many years, with Hank now confirming that he will no longer he providing his voice.
Apu in The Simpsons Fox
When asked about Apu’s future in a recent interview, Hank told SlashFilm: “All we know there is I won’t be doing the voice anymore, unless there’s someway to transition it or something.
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“We all made the decision together. We all agreed on it. We all feel like it’s the right thing and [feel] good about it.”
Back in 2018, Hank said he’d be happy to stop playing the character, after The Simpsons alluded to the controversy in an episode of the show, which came under fire after it was suggested that fans were being oversensitive about the issue.
The Simpsons was heavily panned over this scene, which alluded to the controversy relating to Apu Fox
“I had nothing to do with the writing or the voicing [in that episode],” he told US talk show host Stephen Colbert. “I think if anyone came away from that segment thinking they need to lighten up…that’s definitely not the message that I want to send.
“I’ve given this a lot of thought, and as I say my eyes have been opened. I think the most important thing is to listen to Indian people and their experience with it.”
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He added: “I really want to see Indian, South Asian writers in the writers room…including how he is voiced or not voiced.
“I’m perfectly willing to step aside. It just feels like the right thing to do to me.”
Hank Azaria Amy Sussman via Getty Images
During Hank’s time on the show, Apu has been involved in some big episodes, including his marriage to Manjula, the birth of his octuplet children and a storyline revolving around the scapegoating of immigrants by politicians.
Apu is probably best remembered for the episode Homer And Apu, in which the character performed the iconic song Who Needs The Kwik-E-Mart?.
The Simpsons celebrated its 30th anniversary last month, and could well be about to win itself a wave of new fans when it debuts on the streaming service Disney+, which is coming to the UK later this year.
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-18--Has The Australian Bushfire Crisis Changed The Way We Donate To Climate Causes?

Over the past four months, Australia’s bushfires have killed at least 29 people, an estimated one billion animals, and destroyed more than 2,000 homes.
As the crisis has deepened, so has public anxiety, leaving many people wondering where best to donate their money.
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Millions of dollars have already poured in from around the world to help sustain the efforts of firefighters, rebuild habitats and look after injured wildlife, as well as help people rebuild their homes and livelihoods.
But environmental organisations are also seeing a surge in donations.
Greening Australia, one of the country’s largest climate and sustainability organisations, saw donations increase nine-fold between December 2019 and January 2020, compared to figures from the same period a year earlier.
“We’re getting unsolicited donations of $100,000, have heard people talking about million dollar donations and gifts, which is unusual in itself,” the organisation’s CEO Brendan Foran told HuffPost UK.
The group had been running a radio campaign, unconnected to the fires, which has driven some of that money, but Foran said even without it, donations have increased by almost 400% against the same time period.
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Thousands of people like Philippe Ravenel, pictured here, have lost their homes to the fires. Alkis Konstantinidis / Reuters
“Without too much engagement people are doing an independent review of organisations that they want to give to and are passionate about, and in an exceptional volume,” he said.
“I have never seen anything like this before, and I’ve been in and around this stuff for 20 years. I’ve never seen it go like this.”
“People who may have thought climate change was a vague, distant threat are now breathing bushfire smoke and reeling from the lives lost, the thousands of houses destroyed and the death of possible a billion native animals.”
Global charities with links to Australia have also witnessed a similar pattern.
Friends of the Earth said that in the UK alone it had received more than £11,000 in donations for Australia, and are expecting to match the £15,000 they raised in donations during the Amazon fires in 2019.
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Meanwhile, Greenpeace said it had seen a “significant increase” in the number of regular donations over the past year, adding: “We are confident this is linked to the rising number of world climate events that people are worried about, care about and want to take action on.”
Smoke from the fires has choked parts of Australia, and more than 10m hectares of land have been destroyed (nearly half the size of the UK, which is 24m hectares). Australians have been bombarded daily with horrific images – the charred remains of iconic species such as kangaroos and koalas, whole communities burnt to the ground, and holidaymakers forced to very shoreline of some beaches in order to escape the flames.
The Australian Conservation Foundation has described the intensity and scale of the fires as a “devastating wake-up call for many Australians”.
The foundation, which has deflected incoming donations towards the firefighting agencies and frontline services, said calls for climate action are now growing louder.
“People who may have thought climate change was a vague, distant threat are now breathing bushfire smoke and reeling from the lives lost, the thousands of houses destroyed and the death of possible a billion native animals,” a spokesperson told HuffPost UK.
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“People can see climate change is here, now. The calls for climate action are growing louder. ACF’s community of supporters now numbers 600,000 and we expect that number to grow – and for donations to our work to increase – as more and more Australians demand a serious response to the climate crisis from our governments.”
The threat of bushfires is not new – they have arrived seasonally for thousands of years - but the increasingly volatile swings to scorching temperatures and months of severe drought brought by climate change have exacerbated the fires and, in the right conditions, allowed them to escalate to mega-blazes.
Some volunteer firefighters, many of whom had dealt with large fires lasting a day or so in the past, have been on firetrucks for months.
Australia’s indigenous people have been dealing with bushfires for millennia, using practices such as strategic burning during the country’s cooler season in order to create fire breaks – designed to halt the spread of flames throughout the otherwise unbroken vegetation of the bushland.
“Where you’ve got large areas of land under traditional ownership, there are very sophisticated and proven traditional ways of reducing fuel loads in high risk areas, and I’m very pleased to say there is a much more mature conversation emerging around the role of indigenous and traditional fire management practices,” Greening Australia’s Brendan Foran explained.
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“People talk about innovation and technology, but we know that traditional fire management practices work, they’ve been proven over the course 60,000 years,” he added.
A local walks with smoke mask on in Mallacoota, Victoria. Tracey Nearmy / Reuters
Whilst climate organisations and charities are reliant upon donations from concerned citizens, there’s a limit to how much they can achieve without the cooperation of governments and industry heavyweights.
Dr Angela Falconer is an associate director at the London headquarters of the Climate Policy Initiative (CPI), which monitors and helps to improve a sector known as climate finance, which encapsulates how governments, businesses, and financial institutions financially address the climate crisis.
A major element of the Paris Agreement, signed by every country in the world (although the US has begun the process of withdrawing) was a pledge to limit the increase in global temperature to below 2C, with efforts to reach a more ambitious target of no more than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels in the long-term.
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““We need to stop exporting these fossil fuels to be burnt in other countries. And there is no way new coal mines, like Adani’s proposed Carmichael coal mine in Queensland, should be allowed to proceed.””
Falconer explained that the landscape of current climate finance efforts is such that the world is on track to warm by 3C – and the pace of change is already proving incredibly destructive.
She said: “The Australian bushfires are one example of the frequency and magnitude of of natural hazards that are going to be triggered by climate change, that have been increasing globally.
“We’re already seeing that climate change and natural hazards are leading to economic damage, in addition to the impacts on on human and ecological health. So the proactive and reactive approaches of climate resilience and adaptation are really crucial.”
Thousands of protesters gathered across Australia on January 10, with the Perth protest pictured here. Matt Jelonek via Getty Images
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The UK is one of the leading contributors to climate finance, Angela explained, but while there are positive steps in the right direction worldwide, the picture below surface level is much murkier.
She said: “I think changes needed at all levels, from our individual choices, right through to company supply chains and government policy. We’ve got to make the best decisions we can, but we absolutely can’t do it without strong a government and really ambitious action.
“For example, when it comes to energy systems renewable generation investment compared to fossil fuel investment is pretty striking – there’s sort of a positive story to that, and a not so positive story.
“We found that there was £336b invested in renewables for 2017/2018, while in the same year there was £130b invested in fossil fuels – so there was actually two-and-a-half times more going into renewable generation than fossil fuel generation globally, which is a great indication we’re going in the right direction with energy systems.
“But if you look at the supply chain around fossil fuels – the oil, gas, coal supply chains – overall £800b was invested in the whole supply chain. So there’s still a huge amount of investment going towards activities that aren’t consistent with with low carbon, resilient future.”
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The Australian government is under increasing pressure to act, with thousands of people marching in the streets of the country’s biggest cities - and around the world outside embassies - to demand change.
“The tragedy here would be if things didn’t change, not just for Australia but for the world.”
Scott Morrison, the Australian prime minister, has repeatedly drawn criticism for his handling of the fires – including taking a holiday to Hawaii as the fires began to worsen – and has widely been accused of downplaying the severity of the crisis.
Whilst the leader’s climate rhetoric has softened recently, on Wednesday he doubled down on his commitment to coal – stating: “Our resources industry is incredibly important to Australia, [it] is worth $70b (£36.9b) to Australia and it is important to communities across the country.”
Responding to the situation, a spokesperson for the ACF said the moment should be used to propel Australia forward as an international leader on climate action, instead of the country lagging behind.
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“To date Australia has negotiated hard for weak emissions reduction targets and then has employed tricky loopholes to do much less than our fair share. We need to quickly transition our energy systems away from their reliance on coal and gas.
“We need to stop exporting these fossil fuels to be burnt in other countries. And there is no way new coal mines, like Adani’s proposed Carmichael coal mine in Queensland, should be allowed to proceed.”
Brendan Foran said: “I wish the circumstances were different – I get absolutely no comfort whatsoever from the fact it’s taken something like this to garner people’s hearts and minds at this level.
“However the tragedy here would be if things didn’t change, not just for Australia but for the world.
“We’ve got an opportunity here, we are a first world country, we enjoy a very high standard of living and we’ve got an opportunity to show that, and I truly believe this, that economies, communities and environment are connected in ways that can benefit them all.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-18--More Than 1,000 People 'Likely' To Have Been Infected By New Chinese Virus

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Hundreds more people have been infected by a new mystery virus than the official figures suggest, scientists have said.
There have been 45 confirmed cases of coronavirus, with five people in a serious condition, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission said on Saturday.
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Two people have died of pneumonia in Wuhan following the outbreak, Chinese officials have confirmed.
But a report published by the London Imperial College’s MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis asserted there are likely “substantially more cases” of the new coronavirus than have been formally reported.
A summary of the report on the centre’s website says its baseline scenario estimates that there would be 1,723 cases showing onset of related symptoms by January 12.
Neil Ferguson, a professor working with the team at Imperial College told the BBC: “I am substantially more concerned than I was a week ago”.
Size of Wuhan outbreak of a novel #coronavirus estimated from the three cases detected outside China: Likely to be over 1000 cases. @imperialcollege @mrc_outbreaks report released today
🔰 https://t.co/7A77NXZ3iw pic.twitter.com/u0dUnMs9hA — MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis (@MRC_Outbreak) January 17, 2020
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The original outbreak of the virus is believed to trace back to a seafood market in Wuhan, but authorities say some patients they have identified deny having any exposure to this market. The market has been completely closed since January 1.
With a population of 19m people, Wuhan is one of China’s biggest cities and is also home to a major airport, through which an estimated 3,400 travel internationally every day.
Thailand reported two cases of the coronavirus from Chinese travellers from Wuhan this week, while Japan confirmed one case involving a Japanese national who traveled to Wuhan.
“That caused me to worry,” Ferguson told the BBC.
“For Wuhan to have exported three cases to other countries would imply there would have to be many more cases than have been reported.”
Memories remain fresh in Asia of a 2002/03 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which emerged in China and killed nearly 800 people worldwide.
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Officials in China and the World Health Organisation (WHO) have confirmed the virus is a strand of coronavirus, which at their weakest can cause mild cold-like symptoms, but at their most dangerous can lead to SARS.
Health officials say the new virus discovered in Wuhan does not appear to be as lethal as SARIS but admit they still know little about it, including its origins or how easily it can be transmitted from person to person.
Preliminary analysis of the novel coronavirus (in red) believed to be responsible for an outbreak of pneumonia in Wuhan, China shows it's closely related to SARS CoV. https://t.co/Vf6U2W4oYR pic.twitter.com/3WbFpQ02Pc — EcoHealth Alliance (@EcoHealthNYC) January 11, 2020
The outbreak comes just ahead of celebrations of the Lunar New Year – an event that sees millions of people in China travel from major cities such as Wuhan to their hometowns both within the country and abroad.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-18--Sex Education Series 2 Cast Reflect On The Huge Impact And Success Of First Season

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The second series of Sex Education is now out in the world, and for fans of the Netflix teen drama, the new episodes couldn’t come soon enough.
Sex Education debuted on the streaming service a year ago, and quickly became a huge hit – largely through word-of-mouth – ending the year on the news that it was among the platform’s most-streamed shows of the year, pulling in more viewers than Netflix staples like Orange Is The New Black, Black Mirror and Queer Eye.
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For many of the show’s cast, the popularity of Sex Education – both here in the UK and globally – came as something of a shock, as they revealed when we caught up with them ahead of the new series’ debut.
“So many amazing shows just kind of fall off the radar, or don’t quite land, [even though] they’re brilliant,” said Tanya Reynolds, who returns as Lily in series two of Sex Education. “It’s just the experience you have... you work on things that you think you are amazing, and then they don’t land or not a lot of people watch them. And this did land.”
Sex Education stars Tanya Reynolds and Patricia Allison Netflix
Connor Swindells, who plays Adam, revealed: “People were saying to us [that it was going to be big], but I always like to say ‘nah, it’s not going to happen. No one’s going to watch it’. And then... everyone watched it.”
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Tanya recalled that the show became successful rather “suddenly”, which is something that all of the cast have said came as something of a shock.
“I wasn’t working when the show came out, I was just unemployed and sitting round in my house doing very little,” she explained. “And just overnight, all of a sudden, had 20,000 more Instagram followers, or whatever. That was how you realised the reach of the show. And it’s mad.”
When asked how the popularity of Sex Education changed her life, Emma Mackey – who plays Maeve – revealed: “There’ve been a few [ways], I can’t think of, like, a big moment, but I think it’s just the positive feedback that we’ve had…
“And then yeah, the whole being recognised on the street thing is weird. But, you know, it’s lovely. It’s a new thing, a new way of life to adapt to.”
Emma Mackey HuffPost UK
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Connor agreed that “the way in which people would stare at you” has been something he’s grown to accept.
“And you would think that people would want to fight you!” he joked. “There were a couple of times… I’ve been sat on the train thinking ‘I’m going to have to run! This guy’s about to fuck me up’... and some guy’s gone ‘you’re the guy from Sex Education’ and I’ve gone ‘oh yeah’.”
Meanwhile, for Ncuti Gatwa – who Sex Education fans will know as Eric – there was one stand-out moment when he knew the show had made it.
Kedar Williams-Stirling and Connor Swindells HuffPost UK
“I just want to say… there was one time, Kelly Rowland put us on her Instagram story,” he excitedly recalled. “That was just amazing.
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“But there’s been loads of just amazing feedback about season one, we’ve spoken a lot about how cross-generational the reach was as well, we’ve got older people coming up to us and telling us how much they’ve enjoyed the show. And that’s cool, it’s really cool.”
Ncuti Gatwa and Asa Butterfield are both returning for series two of Sex Education HuffPost UK


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-18--The Best Online Vintage Shops To Browse For One-Of-A-Kind Pieces

If you’ve got a wallet and a conscience, it’s likely you’ve thought a little about sustainability recently. It’s difficult to buy anything these days without thinking about what impact it might have on the planet. And so it should be. Fast fashion can be extremely bad for the environment, so it’s about time we start spending our money responsibly.
Besides which, it’s rather nice to have one-of-a-kind, vintage pieces in your wardrobe. So, in the name of sustainability (and of course, fashion), we’ve rounded up the best places for online vintage shopping. Whether you want an untouched designer backpack or a pre-loved floral jumper straight from the 80s, we’ve got your sorted.
HuffPost UK MISSONI NAVY LEAF PATTERNED KNIT JUMPER - L
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Rokit
With new (old) products being added every week, Rokit is the UK’s largest collection of pre-worn and designer clothes. They do clothes and accessories for women and men, with a particularly sweet line in vintage sportswear, ski and snow clothes and festival outfits. We fancy ourselves in this cosy, classic vintage Missoni knit.
We Are Cow We Are Cow
We Are Cow
This beloved secondhand shop sells vintage pieces, but the team also make garments from salvaged materials. The retailer cares about sustainability, but also wants you to look and feel good. Which you would do in this repurposed Ralph Lauren shirt dress, now with spaghetti straps and O rings. Bonus: they have free delivery in the UK for anything over £50.
HuffPost UK REWORKED RALPH LAUREN STRAIGHT HEM BOMBER JACKET, Beyond Retro
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Beyond Retro
There are eight Beyond Retro stores across the UK and Sweden, if you wanted to experience the magic of sifting through racks of vintage clothing. Otherwise, it has an extensive but carefully selected range online, which is curated by fashion specialists who match modern trends with old clothing. If you want to receive your goodies by the next day, just order by 2pm. We’ve got our eye on this reworked Ralph Lauren bomber jacket from the plus size section.
HuffPost UK Black & Gold Monogram Calfskin Leather & Gold Python Leather Dapper Dan Backpack, Open For Vintage
Open For Vintage
OK, be warned: Open For Vintage is a luxury vintage shopping destination. Some of the price tags are frightening, but hey, you get free delivery if you spend more than £500. It’s teaming with seriously luxe pieces, many of which are not for the under-stated, like this black and gold monogram calfskin Gucci backpack, for instance. All items are from boutique sellers and you get a sweet 14 day window for returns.
HuffPost UK Vintage SAMANTA Full Ski Suit Snow Sports UK, ASOS Marketplace
ASOS Marketplace
ASOS has got its own vintage outlet in ASOS Marketplace, which sells from more than 750 boutiques. We’re quietly obsessed with this navy women’s one-piece ski suit – and we don’t even know how to ski. With all the usual convenience of an ASOS shop, only this time you’ll find all your classic designer labels right next to artisan-made products from around the world.
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HuffPost UK Urban Renewal Vintage Red Checked Flannel Shirt
Urban Outfitters Vintage
The team who runs the Urban Outfitters Vintage range select one-of-a-kind vintage pieces to sell. It also reworks old material into new garments. For instance, how could you go past this classic checked flannel shirt?
HuffPost UK NICHOLAS KIRKWOOD Delfi ballerinas, Farfetch
Farfetch
Online marketplace Farfetch sells vintage clothing from more than 3000 brands, ranging from your big designer ones to your smaller boutiques. It delivers to 190 countries around the world and has local sites in 15 languages. We’d snap these Nicholas Kirkwood ballerina shoes up quicker than you can say “sustainability”.
HuffPost UK Red 1980s Vintage Earrings, Shell shape, St Cyr Vintage
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St Cyr Vintage
So, St Cyr Vintage started out as a small vintage shop in Camden markets, focused on local brands. It still has an outlet there (perhaps Taylor Swift can swing by on her afternoon stroll with Joe Alwyn), but it’s expanded since the humble beginnings in 2009 and now runs a raging online store. We’re low-key obsessed with these red 1980s vintage shell earrings.
HuffPost UK Late 1940’s Ivory Lace Prom Style Wedding Dress, Pennies Vintage
Pennies Vintage
Pennies Vintage has a physical shop in Islington, London, where you could spend hours sifting through their glorious wares. You can also check out its stock online, of course. It’s especially good with carefully maintained, original vintage wedding dresses, which we can’t stop clicking through. If we were to get married anytime soon, we might consider this lace dress from the 1940s.
HuffPost UK Vintage Kimono Jacket Pale Blue Silk Michiyuki, Mero Retro
Mero Retro Mero Retro operates out of a sweet store in Dalston, East London, so you can still get that in-person shopping experience if you want it. It stocks all sorts of hand-picked vintage goodies, but they’re especially proud of their kimonos, their Nepalese garments and their own range of organic Fairtrade cotton T-shirts. We’re wondering if we could pull off this pale blue silk kimono jacket.
HuffPost UK Laura Ashley Sheer Layer Maxi Dress, Oxfam
Oxfam
Of course you can find Oxfam shops all over the country, with proceeds raising money for all sorts of global issues like access to water, education, equality and women’s empowerment. So you can feel especially altruistic about any purchases you make here, starting perhaps with this vintage Laura Ashley Sheer Layer Maxi Dress in a size 12.
HuffPost UK Vintage Rainbow Ring, Regathered via Etsy
Regathered, via Etsy
Regathered is a seller from Huddersfield, England, if you’d like to support a small business as well as vintage sustainability. She specialises in knitwear, children’s clothes, beanies, scarves, scrunchies and jewellery. We like this vintage rainbow ring, which is straight from the 1980s.
HuffPost UK Vintage Moschino High Waisted Jean, Thrifted
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Thrifted
Thrifted started out of a Bristol student house in 2015, the company is now based in Essex with more than 15,000 items in stock. It also have a market stall at the Brick Lane Vintage Market in London, and of course, a website. They have designer items as well as affordable options. We’re a bit keen on these vintage high-waisted yellow Moschino jeans.
HuffPost UK 'Dixie' Vintage 1950s inspired black clutch bag with diamond bow detail, Hello Handbags
Hello Handbags
Hello Handbags is an online boutique that stocks clothing, handbags, accessories and handbags from 1900 to the 1990s. Every item is carefully picked for its quality, but some of them are imperfect, which only gives them character. We’re a small bit in love with this vintage clutch bag with diamond bow detail – aren’t you?
HuffPost UK The Stellar Boutique
The Stellar Boutique
After many years working in the fashion industry, a woman called Stellar decided to start her own boutique – appropriately named The Stellar Boutique. She’s worked as a designer and a stylist, so she really knows what she’s doing. You can search for clothes, accessories and other miscellaneous goodies on her website by decade, meaning you can pick the best of the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s. We’re quite into this 80s vintage jade green cardigan, tbh.
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HuffPost UK Vivien of Holloway - Bombshell Red Sateen Dress, Retro Daisy
Retro Daisy
Retro Daisy wants to help you indulge your inner pin-up girl, with vintage pieces from the 1940s and 50s. They’re really inspired by a Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn aesthetic, so you’ve come to the perfect place if that’s what you’re after. Check out this Vivien of Holloway bombshell red sateen dress.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-18--Coverless Duvets Promise Sweet Dreams. Do They Live Up To The Hype?

HuffPost UK John Lewis
Is there anything better than snuggling under a freshly-washed duvet? Soft sheets coupled with the gentle scent of fabric softener make me feel like I’m sleeping on a cloud.
But there’s one thing standing in between me and my lovely, fresh bedding: changing the bed. It’s one of the worst parts of my week. A wrestling match I’d almost avoid if it wasn’t for the lovely feeling that awaited me post-struggle – and, y’know, cleanliness.
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So when I first heard about coverless duvets, I was eager to find out whether I could I get the best of both worlds.
The Night Owl range from The Fine Bedding Company promises to be quick-drying in just 90 minutes – meaning you can wash and dry before bedtime. Ideal.
The 10.5 tog duvets have a lightweight fibre filling, while block colour design means there’s no need for a separate duvet cover. So does it live up to the appeal? I tested it for a week to find out.
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First impressions
The pink duvet arrives in a soft drawstring bag, and I’m surprised as to how light it is. Compared to my usual duvet, it’s pretty thin, even though it looks thick. It feels more like the cover I’d want in the summer, rather than the depths of winter.
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The light pink design is slightly textured, it’s giving me quilted throw vibes (in a good way).
But I can’t help but think it won’t keep me warm, especially as my house feels like the Arctic at times. There’s just something about having a weighty duvet on top of you in the winter which is comforting.
The cosiness test
On my first night with the duvet, my fears of being too cold in the night get the better of me. I chicken out and reach for my trusty thick duvet cover after an hour or so. The following night, I’m more successful.
The duvet keeps me warm all night, just as warm as my regular duvet. But I miss the cosiness of a heavy cover over the top of me, particularly with it being so chilly out. (Perhaps there’s something to be said for the benefits of weighted blankets.)
HuffPost UK
The big moment
After a week of using my duvet, the big day finally arrives – it’s time to wash the duvet. But will it meet my lofty expectations?
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As it’s filled with compressible fibres, it’s easy to squeeze into the machine drum – so I put it on a quick wash one week in. When I take it out and hang it to dry, it doesn’t feel soaking wet – and very quickly returns to its original plump and fluffy state.
A few hours later, after going out for dinner and coming back, the duvet is completely dry. Even in my cold flat. It’s ready to use on the back of my bed that night. 10/10 for ease of washing.
The verdict
I’m impressed with the duvet – my only drawback is how light it is, reducing the cosiness factor slightly. It’ll be a duvet for the spring and summer months for me, for sure. For now, I’m doubling up my duvets to get through the chilly winter.