81 m. ago New PIP reform plans could impact Blue Badge holders and people on Motability Scheme

A review of the full PIP assessment process will be completed by Autumn next year.

Politics

1 hour ago The Two Roberts by Damian Barr review – lost story of a gay art duo

The lives of Scottish artists Bobby MacBryde and Robert Colquhoun, who found love and fame and lost it all, are vividly reimaginedWhat if the protagonist of a novel was not a single person but a couple? Damian Barr takes on this challenge, and he’s found a historic couple who make the ideal source material. Working-class Scottish artists Bobby MacBryde and Robert Colquhoun were rarely apart after they met in 1933. They lived and worked together, became famous together and then declined into desperate squalor together – even poorer than when they began.Barr knows what it’s like to conquer Glasgow from a small, working-class town on its outskirts; he knows what it’s like to find yourself feted for your portraits of the place you’ve left irrevocably behind. His memoir, Maggie and Me, was a hard-hitting yet rambunctious tale of growing up gay near Motherwell under Thatcher, uneasily aware that the woman who pushed his parents deeper into poverty also taught him that the ruthless ex...

Politics

1 hour ago Sanatorium review – Ukraine health resort guests seek sanctuary amid shelling

Poignant documentary by Irish director Gar O’Rourke peers into a faded Soviet-era institution where visitors search for relief while war grinds on outsideThere is something ever so slightly Martin Parr-like about this documentary, filmed inside a shabby rundown health resort near Odesa, in Ukraine. It’s not the colour palette, which is Soviet-era pale beige, but the images of holidaymakers: elderly men strutting about in thongs and playing ping pong in their vests; retirees of both sexes glad-ragged at the disco. Like Parr’s photos, the images are funny but not unkind; everyone retains their dignity. The director is Irish film-maker Gar O’Rourke, who planned Sanatorium before the war, but filmed it after Russia invaded Ukraine, which adds a layer of melancholy to the guests’ search for health and happiness.The huge Kuyalnik sanatorium is a time warp with its brutalist architecture and institutional interiors. Back in its glory days, people must have come here in their thousands. Now...

Politics

1 hour ago A Short History of Stupidity by Stuart Jeffries review – comfortably dumb?

From Shakespeare’s fools to Donald Trump, this exhilarating read considers stupidity in its many formsStupidity, no question, can be just as rich and subtle as its opposite. Three and a half decades on, I still sometimes meditate on what a school friend of mine said in a here’s-a-profound-thought tone of voice: “I’d rather be stupid than happy”.In this clever book, Stuart Jeffries starts out at a double disadvantage, though. First: he has an excellently snappy title but it’s open to question whether stupidity can be said to have a history in any meaningful sense. The quality of stupidity is just, sort of, there; and there’s lots of it. Could you write a history of happiness, or bad luck, or knees? You’d be on firmer ground, as he recognises, historicising the concept of stupidity: a short history, in other words, of “stupidity” – how successive societies and thinkers have defined and responded to reason’s derr-brained secret sharer. As an intellectual historian w...

Politics

3 h. ago Borderline review – Raymond Nicholson shines as a deranged fan in comedy thriller

It’s the 1990s and a famous pop star is taken hostage by a fan in Jimmy Warden’s stylish but confused film, loosely inspired by a real-life stalker case involving MadonnaPaul Duerson (Raymond Nicholson) has got it bad for world famous pop star and actor Sofia (Samara Weaving). It being the 1990s, he doesn’t have the option of simply being creepy on social media; instead, he takes her hostage and attempts to marry her, as you do, in a period-comedy-horror-thriller that is entertaining enough moment-to-moment, but doesn’t add up anything very substantial overall. Standing in the way of Paul’s deranged scheme is bodyguard Bell (a grounded and nicely judged performance by Eric Dane), and rounding out the men in Sofia’s life is her NBA player boyfriend Rhodes (Jimmie Fails).Screenwriter Jimmy Warden knows a grabby real-life premise when he sees one. In 1985, a bear ate a massive amount of cocaine and fatally overdosed, leading, in 2023, to the release of the Warden-scripted movie Cocaine...

Politics

3 h. ago The Hallmarked Man by Robert Galbraith review – a terrific, tightly plotted romp

With four murder inquiries in play, JK Rowling’s eighth Cormoran Strike novel avoids the page-padding longeurs of previous volumes – but will he finally tell Robin how he feels about her?In his popular BBC series Just One Thing, the late Michael Mosley made the case for resistance training. Lifting weights, he explained, not only builds stronger muscles, it also boosts the immune system, maintains a healthy heart and improves brain function. Best of all, it can be done in your kitchen, using ordinary domestic items: pints of milk in place of dumbbells, say, or squats wearing a backpack full of books.Anyone intending to use Robert Galbraith’s Strike novels for this purpose would be advised to seek the advice of a GP. The Hallmarked Man may not be the heftiest of the eight so far – it does not even make it into the top three – but it still clocks in at a cool 912 pages. Galbraith’s tendency to whopperdom has in the past elicited a fair amount of griping from critics, me among them, wh...

Events

6 h. ago Daily habit could be sign of condition vastly undiagnosed in people over their 40s

A new review found around 90% of adults over the age of 40 with autism are undiagnosed as a psychologist reveals the symptoms to look out for

Politics

12 h. ago The Guest review – a gloriously ridiculous thriller that slips down a treat

When a cleaner starts working for a wealthy woman, she gets sucked in by a luxury mansion bursting with secrets. Get the popcorn ready for a preposterous world of locked rooms, creepy gardeners and bodiesThe writer Matthew Barry and director Ashley Way gave us one of the highlights of 2023’s television output in Men Up, a witty, moving, compassionate treat of a drama about the development of the drug that would become known as Viagra and the group of Welshmen who were among its first guinea pigs.Their new offering is a more straightforward one, and if it doesn’t achieve the same success Men Up did, they can hardly be condemned for having set their bar so high. Continue reading...

Politics

14 h. ago Mother of woman strangled to death by boyfriend 'absolutely betrayed' by justice system

The family have demanded an urgent review of Tape’s sentence

Events

15 h. ago The Smashing Machine review – Dwayne Johnson only possible casting for crisis

Former pro wrestler Johnson takes on the role of man-mountain Kerr who goes into meltdown when the unthinkable happens – he losesBenny Safdie has written and directed a solid bro drama for the UFC fanbase and maybe a little way beyond. It is about the central crisis in the life of man-mountain Mark Kerr, America’s pioneering MMA and ultimate fighting champ, who in 1997 found himself in the ring, or maybe the cage, with his demons after the unthinkable humiliation of losing for the first time.This feature is in fact developed from a 2002 documentary about Kerr with the same title. He confronted his substance abuse, relationship anxieties and the question of what the heck life is for if you can’t simply win all the time. Kerr is played by Dwayne Johnson, a colossus of muscle topped off with a head the size of Indiana Jones’s boulder, a body on which the only visible fat is rippling at the nape of his neck. Johnson’s appearance is modified by close-cut frizzy hair and facial prosthetic...

Politics

15 h. ago The Smashing Machine review – Dwayne Johnson only possible casting as crisis

Former pro wrestler Johnson takes on the role of man-mountain Kerr who goes into meltdown when the unthinkable happens – he losesBenny Safdie has written and directed a solid bro drama for the UFC fanbase and maybe a little way beyond. It is about the central crisis in the life of man-mountain Mark Kerr, America’s pioneering MMA and ultimate fighting champ, who in 1997 found himself in the ring, or maybe the cage, with his demons after the unthinkable humiliation of losing for the first time.This feature is in fact developed from a 2002 documentary about Kerr with the same title. He confronted his substance abuse, relationship anxieties and the question of what the heck life is for if you can’t simply win all the time. Kerr is played by Dwayne Johnson, a colossus of muscle topped off with a head the size of Indiana Jones’s boulder, a body on which the only visible fat is rippling at the nape of his neck. Johnson’s appearance is modified by close-cut frizzy hair and facial prosthetic...

Politics

16 h. ago The Smashing Machine, Venice review – Proof that Dwayne Johnson is a real actor, and potentially a future Oscar winner

Filmmaker Benny Safdie asks the star to be raw and vulnerable for the first time in his career – and it’s a sight to behold

Politics

17 h. ago Travel review: Here's why boutique art hotel in London is the perfect place to stay with the family

If you are planning a weekend in London with your children, make sure a visit to the vibrant South Bank is part of your itinerary.

Society

19 h. ago The Testament of Ann Lee review – strikingly strange portrait of radically ecstatic Shaker leader

Venice film festivalAmanda Seyfried plays the 18th-century missionary who took her message to the New World, in Mona Fastvold’s elusive film‘Our ordeal is worth it!” This is the cry of one of the faithful in Mona Fastvold’s movie, co-written with her partner Brady Corbet, with whom she co-wrote The Brutalist. It is a vehement, fervent, striking but sometimes baffling drama about the historical figure of Ann Lee, who endured religious persecution in 18th-century England as leader of the fundamentalist Shaker movement.As the embodiment of Christ’s second coming, Lee took her radical message to the New World and in pre-revolutionary America founded an enduring community of souls, persecuted all over again by the new patriarchy for being a woman and a pacifist. Her Shakers were known among other things for their skill in stylishly elegant and minimalist furniture – although the connection with Christ’s profession is unstressed. Lee is played by Amanda Seyfried, with Lewis Pullman as her...

Politics

19 h. ago England rugby star sent off for asking ref explicit question as she faces hefty ban

England international Sinead Peach is due to face a match review panel on Thursday, which will consider disciplinary action for her vulgar outburst during match that was being streamed online

Politics

21 h. ago Kim Novak’s Vertigo review – the dizzying demands on Hitchcock’s leading lady

Venice film festivalAn intensely personal interview of the 92-year-old Hollywood star delivers showstopping moments for fans of the golden age of moviesAt 92 years old, Hollywood movie star Kim Novak – legendary of course for her doppelganger starring role in Hitchcock’s Vertigo – is a vivid and, in fact, yearningly romantic and demanding presence in this gallant, cinephile documentary-interview filmed by director and Novak superfan Alexandre O Philippe. She is one of the very few golden age stars still with us, and maybe the title of this film is a playful pun: at the very apex of Hollywood history, perhaps Novak feels dizzy looking down from her mythic height.Philippe himself is more than qualified for this kind of intensely personal exegesis, having in the past made intriguing films about David Lynch’s debt to The Wizard of Oz and about the Psycho shower scene. With a touch of mischief and misdirection, he begins his film by simply playing a voice note that Novak has sent him, in...

Events

21 h. ago 47 Skin's Solution to Banish Breakouts: Discover the secret behind its success

47 Skin has gained thousands of five-star reviews for its blemish-busting capabilities

Politics

22 h. ago Josh Barrie On the Sauce at Dante: Take two icons and serve over ice

A New York legend is in for a lengthy stay at Claridge’s. Josh Barrie goes in for a Garibaldi

Politics

22 h. ago City analyst, 28, died days after his ADHD medication was increased as coroner calls on Labour to launch a review into drug

The new warning comes following the death of London banker and musician Jacob Wooderson, originally from Hereford.

Events

22 h. ago End of the Road review – A weekend of rain reveals the resilience at the heart of this little oasis in the trees

The revellers rally when the typically sunny weekender is met with downpour

Politics