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The rage, the wine, the power mums, the PTA horror – the BBC sitcom was a spot on send-up of life at the school gates. A decade on, we remember its most awkward bits
If Uncut Gems was about the school run instead of gambling debts, it would look like Motherland. It is now 10 years since the BBC sitcom jangled the already frayed nerves of all parents watching and turned Anna Maxwell Martin into the most frazzled woman on television in the name of skewering middle-class motherhood.
Whether she was marching her children to buy school shoes the night before term started (“Don’t be closed. Pleeeeeaaaaase don’t be closed”) or having a meltdown at temporary traffic lights en route to a school drop-off that proved redundant because she’d forgotten it was half-term, Maxwell Martin’s Julia would undoubtedly have a more chilled-out time in the kitchen of The Bear than raising her kids.
Continue reading...Mon, 07 Sep 2026 11:55:59 GMT
Stanley Praimnath and Brian Clark were two of only four individuals known to have survived above the impact zone in the south tower
He has told the story hundreds of times, but it never seems to fade. If anything, it only becomes more vivid. “Oh, gosh,” exclaims Stanley Praimnath, his voice cracking with an “ooooooh!” as if bearing a weight. “It’s like reliving that day.”
Nearly 3,000 people died in the terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington DC on September 11 2001. But Praimnath and another office worker, Brian Clark, were two of only four individuals known to have survived from above the impact zone in either tower of the World Trade Center. The two strangers met in the smoke and fire of the 81st floor of the south tower, and walked down 1,620 steps into the rest of their lives.
Continue reading...Mon, 07 Sep 2026 09:00:30 GMT
The ‘stop the boats’ narrative is increasingly presented as if it stems from a concern for women’s safety. This is just the laundering of thuggery
It was a busy weekend for the insurgent and hard right, as Reform party delegates redoubled their commitment to women’s safety by physically attacking a female protester and Patriot Platform, a new group established by Danny Tommo, real name Daniel Thomas, arrived in Dover on Saturday, then Portsmouth on Sunday, dressed in balaclavas. No arrests were made in Dover, and therefore the protest was deemed peaceful. “A message was sent!” Thomas exclaimed later on his socials. “Now imagine how powerful the next message will be.” The next powerful message of peace the following day spurred the issuance of a dispersal order from Hampshire police, alongside some smashed windscreens (of police cars) and advice for local people to avoid the area.
The “stop the boats” narrative, along with a lot of Reform’s anti-immigrant rhetoric, has become increasingly bound up with a concern for the safety of women and children. It might be a slyly vague sentiment from Robert Jenrick, in which he doesn’t want his daughters sharing a neighbourhood with men “who broke into the country illegally, about whom we know next to nothing”, or it might be Zia Yusuf’s much more explicit complaint that the nation is prepared to “sacrifice British women and girls on the altar of diversity”. Protesters outside hotels housing asylum seekers get all their righteous wrath from the danger posed to women from foreign nationals, and Thomson stated his aims straightforwardly on Instagram – posting video of Saturday’s protest, he wrote: “Protect our country! And more importantly our women and children! This is our warning!”
Continue reading...Mon, 07 Sep 2026 16:20:25 GMT
Fulham need a win, Tottenham show some spirit and Jack Grealish offers Everton much-needed energy
With 25 minutes to go against Manchester United, the Everton supporters had something to roar about as Jack Grealish made his return after rejoining on loan. The attacking midfielder remains universally popular thanks to his desire to entertain, getting the hosts back on their feet by creating dangerous situations within seconds of his arrival. Everton were limited in the final third for long periods as Thierno Barry sat on the periphery. If David Moyes is to keep his side pushing for a top-half finish, he will need Grealish to be a creative focal point. Will Unwin
Continue reading...Mon, 07 Sep 2026 07:00:27 GMT
With the release of his new biography, the British designer talks about leaving school at 15, the real reason he won’t retire and why no one wears velvet trousers any more
Go for a browse in the Paul Smith shop in Mayfair, London, on any given Saturday and you’ll likely find an older shop assistant, straight-backed in fine tailoring, approaching to help you with a new shirt, or a suit for a special occasion, perhaps a jaunty pair of socks. There aren’t many global fashion brands, Paul Smith points out, perhaps unnecessarily, “where the owner is a Saturday boy”. But working in his shop, one of more than 130 around the world, is probably Smith’s favourite part of the job. “It’s fantastic, you meet so many interesting people,” he says, smiling broadly. Smith’s whole career, he says, has always been about doing things in a different way. He’s the untrained fashion designer who created a global British brand, who put a bright lining or some stripes into classic tailoring, and who has turned down multiple substantial offers to buy his company, in order to remain in control.
Sir Paul Smith has just turned 80 – and he has the enviable energy of someone less than half his age, swimming each day before 6am. He’s about to publish his memoir, Threads: My Life in Style. It’s been a good opportunity to do a stocktake. His has undoubtedly been a lucky life – right place, right time, right people (not least his wife, Pauline, whom he met at the age of 21 and who has been integral to his success) – but it’s also a story of hard work, integrity and modesty. We’ll get to whether those values are still relevant in a harsher, more competitive world, and whether Paul Smith can survive.
Continue reading...Mon, 07 Sep 2026 04:00:23 GMT
They fled a brutal civil war to reach safety in Egypt, but now many Sudanese women and girls are falling prey to sexual exploitation
Sudanese women who fled to Egypt to escape the war in their country are facing increasing levels of sexual exploitation, with the Guardian told of single mothers forced to sell their bodies to survive and feed their children.
Many of the women have not previously worked in Sudan, where conservative social norms dictate that men are usually responsible for financial support. Without established trades or professions, and with their husbands and other family members dead or missing, many female refugees are struggling to pay for food, medical care and rent.
Continue reading...Mon, 07 Sep 2026 06:00:26 GMT
Sarah Jones tells MPs ‘those responsible should expect to face the consequences’
Healey says Andy Burnham set out in his statement to MPs last week what he thought had gone wrong
The fundamentals of our economy [were] hollowed out through a series of past policy decisions, political power was centralised, weakening the relationships between the people, the businesses and the institutions who can make things happen beyond Whitehall. The economic enablers were privatised and outsourced, leaving accountability to a thicket of arm’s length bodies and regulators, too often without the predictability or the pace that underpins a thriving market economy. And our country was deindustrialised as the cost to make anything, to build anything here soared, and our dependence on unreliable sources grew, including in areas critical to our national security and sovereignty.
Let me be clear, I recognise that the costs of business, its energy bills, regulation, burdens, planning constraints, labour costs, have grown since Covid and I want to draw the line.
And whether it is the cost of business or the cost of living, the only way we deal with these in the long term is growth.
Continue reading...Mon, 07 Sep 2026 16:55:05 GMT
Mainstream politicians express alarm while lead candidate in Saxony-Anhalt welcomes congratulations from Elon Musk
Mainstream politicians around Europe have expressed alarm after the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) swept to a historic state election victory in Germany, while nationalist figures cheered the result as a mandate for change.
While falling just short of an absolute majority, the AfD surged into first place in the Saxony-Anhalt state election on Sunday, exit polls showed, putting the far right within reach of power at the state level for the first time since the second world war.
Continue reading...Mon, 07 Sep 2026 10:49:51 GMT
Chancellor ducks questions on whether he will have to raise taxes but says he will stick firmly to fiscal rules
John Healey has said boosting economic growth will be his defining mission as chancellor as he warned Labour had to “be honest” about the need to control public spending at next month’s budget.
In his first big speech since taking the job in July, Healey said the top priority for his 28 October budget would be to support stronger growth across the UK while sticking firmly to the government’s fiscal rules.
Continue reading...Mon, 07 Sep 2026 12:54:05 GMT
Hamza Chowdhury says most of his fellow Green Camden councillors back him to contest 8 October byelection
Zack Polanski is facing unexpected opposition from his own party in his attempt to fight the Holborn and St Pancras byelection for the Greens, with a local councillor saying he is also seeking the nomination, and that the seat does not need “a politician you’ll only see on a leaflet”.
The intervention by Hamza Chowdhury, a Green representative on Camden council in north London, came as the date for the byelection was confirmed for 8 October, after Keir Starmer’s formal resignation as an MP.
Continue reading...Mon, 07 Sep 2026 16:43:09 GMT