6 d. ago I’m thrilled that Liz Hurley is 60, naked and smiling in a meadow. But when will the nude celeb arms race end? | Emma Beddington

From Hurley to Amanda Holden to Jennifer Aniston and Martha Stewart, women over 50 in the public eye are increasingly taking their clothes off and posing artfully on Instagram. It strikes me as a lot of hard workMany thoughts came to mind on seeing Elizabeth Hurley’s recent 60th birthday Instagram post, where she is sitting smiling in a meadow, in as she writes, her “birthday suit”. Like, where will this older celebrity nudity arms race end? Jennifer Aniston did a birthday shoot at 40 for GQ; Gwyneth Paltrow posted nudes three years running, culminating in one painted gold at 50; Amanda Holden posed naked on some rocks (ouch) at 53. Now here’s Hurley. In the era of Martha Stewart (now 83) posting semi-clad thirst trap pics, I’m half expecting to see Sir David Attenborough mark his 100th with his modesty preserved only by a strategically placed aardvark (though the patriarchy seems to have ensured men don’t feel compelled to do this).I also found myself thinking: yes, she looks incre...

Politics

1 week ago You say we need more babies, rightwingers? Come back to me after you’ve fought in the trenches of soft play | Emma Beddington

A ghastly coalition of tech bros and religious conservatives is pushing a baby boom. Let’s see how they feel when they’ve dragged a screaming child out of an excrement-fouled ball pitI absolutely cannot fathom the number of populist rightwing politicians and commentators who have looked at the smouldering mess that is the world currently and thought: “I know what this situation demands – more toddlers.” Population-boosting discourse and policies have spread across Europe (Hungary, Poland, Greece, Italy and beyond), while in the US an unholy coalition of tech bros, religious conservatives, blowhard podcasters and the politicians who pander to them have gone loudly pronatalist. JD Vance used his first speech as vice-president to proclaim: “I want more babies in the United States of America”; Elon Musk called declining birthrates “a much bigger risk to civilisation than global warming”; and Trump is considering various procreation-incentivising policies, including a $5,000 “baby bonus”...

Politics

2 w. ago ‘Chic’ is dead, says Vogue. Is it time to revive ‘jazzy’, ‘snazzy’ and ‘swish’? | Emma Beddington

The word has lost all meaning, we are told. Could my favourite dad-jectives replace it?Vogue has spoken: chic is dead. Not being it, but the word. Chic has, Lauren O’Neill argues, lost its essence, co-opted to cover whatever glazed-doughnut-skinned influencers on TikTok decide it should, from monogrammed lip balm to iced matchas. “Chic has come to be mistaken for certain monied strains of taste, rather than the sort of unique je ne sais quoi that I think the word at its purest actually means.”Baudelaire – the 19th century’s Nicky Haslam, given how many things he disapproved of: photography, Belgium, Victor Hugo – would have agreed. He called chic an “awful and bizarre word”. Are he and Vogue right? Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago Working from home? It’s so much nicer if you’re a man | Emma Beddington

Ever since lockdown we’ve supposedly all been in it together, doing conference calls in our slippers. But in straight couples, guess who gets the spare bedroom and the proper desk?I’m wary of gendered generalisations. They rightly raise hackles: we are unique, not defined by gender, not all men! But I was struck by one I read from Ella Risbridger in her review of Jessica Stanley’s recent novel, Consider Yourself Kissed. Exploring one of its themes, Risbridger wrote: “I have long noticed that in a house with one spare room and a heterosexual couple who both work from home, the spare room is where he works – with a door that shuts and perhaps even a designated desk – and she works somewhere else. (Always for good reasons, but always.)”This stopped me in my tracks. Not because it’s my experience: my husband and I are lucky enough to have an office each, and mine is bigger and objectively nicer. I get the garden view; he has the ballet of Openreach and Amazon vans. (See – not all men.) ...

Politics

3 w. ago Prince William laughs off awkward question during Duchy of Cornwall meet and greet as 'demanding and ambitious' royal reveals plans to bring about 'real change'

The Prince of Wales, 42, was undertaking his monthly 'Duchy day' where he visits the farms and offices on his vast estate, shaking hands and checking in on tenants and farmers.

Politics

3 w. ago Could the right question bring some magic to your meetings? | Emma Beddington

Do you die a little every time you sit down with your workmates? Try asking them about their first ever concert, or the last time they blew up a balloonIs there enough magic in your meetings? I can hear the hollow laughter from here. Research from the London School of Economics found that more than a third of meetings are considered unproductive, which seems awfully low to anyone who has been to a meeting, ever.“People throw meetings at problems,” Priya Parker, meeting specialist and author of The Art of Gathering, lamented on the Fixable podcast recently, before offering her solution. Asked for a quick fix, she suggested kicking off with “a magical question”: one that everyone would be interested in answering and in hearing others answer. Her suggestion: “What was your first ever concert, and who took you?” Continue reading...

Politics