Three debt-management firms based in Lichfield, Staffordshire, have been making struggling customers pay 90 per cent of their monthly payments in fees – meaning only 10p in the pound of their repayment has gone towards clearing their debt.
It takes approximately 90 seconds to register that Frances de la Tour is a shocking flirt. As she perches beside me on the sofa in the first-floor bar of the Ivy Club in Soho, her eyes lock on to mine, her expressive mouth widens into a cheerfully on-for-it grin and, as I babble through a chaotic question about her recent adventures, she cuts straight across it and says, fingering the sleeve of my suit: "This is a nice piece of schmatter – is it linen or cotton?"
Put your feet up and relax (rays providing) in the garden this summer with our edit
There are no two ways about it – affairs can be hugely painful. Feelings of shock, anger and resentment can quickly set in and knowing what to do about them can seem torturous. The mere thought that your partner may be attracted to someone else or actively involved with them is tough enough, but knowing what to say or do about it is usually tougher.
Neverland is a great fit for this outdoor theatre, but Timothy Sheader and Liam Steel’s production offers us another world too: the familiar story is framed by scenes in a First World War field hospital evoked by a grey and raggedly deconstructed set. Escaping into J.M. Barrie’s fantasy world is a way of escaping the misery - or is it where the our boys end up if they’re unlucky in the trenches? The metaphor isn’t quite clear.
It was a bold move for Glyndebourne to launch its new season with the British premiere of a Donizetti opera written 167 years ago, though, as director Mariame Clement rightly observes, Poliuto does have potential contemporary resonance.
It was the creators of the 1980s political comedy Yes, Minister who invented the “politician’s syllogism”. It is a way of thinking which runs: “We must do something. This is something. Therefore we must do this.”
Critics, including many of Ireland’s own leaders, find the Irish system of constitutional referenda on virtually any topic irksome, not least because the Irish people sometimes deliver the “wrong” verdict.
