1 hour ago My dream of jet set glamour has died – in a pleather chair full of other people's crumbs | Emma Beddington

The use of airport lounges is soaring, born of a desire to feel a bit special. The reality is we’re all going to end up crammed into the same awful, environmentally disastrous metal tubeThe New Yorker has published a deliciously fact-stuffed long read on the airport lounge: there are more than 3,500 worldwide, of which 37 are in Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok. American Airlines opened the first in 1939 and called its VIP members “admirals”.There are almost more admirals than ordinary seamen now (a weird metaphor in an air travel context, yes; blame American Airlines). The “mostly low- and mid-tier” lounge network Priority Pass saw a 31% increase in usage last year, including me: my credit card came with this seemingly seductive perk. I was thrilled to join the global elite in what I imagined would be a cashmere and champagne cocoon, saved from the usual three hours (my husband is one of those travellers) crouched by a bin in the purgatorial wasteland of Manchester Terminal 3, nursi...

Events

22 h. ago Forget Hadrian’s Wall. The UK citizenship test should ask about Corrie, bus queues and Greggs | Emma Beddington

Questions about the Corn Laws and habeas corpus are abstruse and unrelated to modern life – as my French husband is finding. The test should instead ask about soap operas and sandwichesWhat medal did Mary Peters win in the 1972 Olympics? How many Scottish ski resorts are there? Where was Florence Nightingale born? Until I got these questions as exasperated screenshots from my husband, I had no idea, like any normal Briton (it’s gold, five and Italy, apparently). They came from an app he downloaded to revise for his Life in the UK test, a prerequisite for applying for citizenship. Other recent questions have featured the divine right of kings, Hadrian’s Wall fort names and trying minor crimes in Scotland. Can the test itself possibly be this hard? We’ll soon find out: he’s taking it next week, if he doesn’t give up and go back to France instead.Much has been written about the absurdity of the Life in the UK test – it’s inaccurate, partial and sloppily worded, unfit for purpose, a “ba...

Politics

7 d. ago Tired of being a woman in 2025? Why not become a nun | Emma Beddington

Nuns are having a moment. It’s not the religion women crave, however – it’s a sense of purpose, community and peaceNuns are everywhere – we’ve had Isabella Rossellini’s Sister Agnes stealing the show in Conclave and nuns with main character energy in The Phoenician Scheme, And Just Like That and Nine Perfect Strangers. On #nuntok (yes, a thing), real sisters demystify and give surprisingly irreverent glimpses into their lives. There was the Austrian trio jailbreaking from a care home to return to their beloved convent, and at the other end of the demographic scale, a rise in younger women following, or at least considering, cloistered vocations.Nun memes have become a jokey shorthand for real dissatisfaction with life as a woman in 2025 – unsolicited dick pics, workplace discrimination and the endless, soul-sapping scroll. They don’t, mostly, express a yearning for strict religiosity or voluntary celibacy, but for community, purpose and a retreat from chaos. It’s the same impulse th...

Politics

7 d. ago If toxic humility is a thing, I definitely have it. But perhaps there’s another way | Emma Beddington

We’re taught that modesty is good and pride is bad. This ignores the fact that telling ourselves we’re OK is actually beneficial What’s your favourite thing about yourself? Stylist’s Love Yourself campaign asked over 400 women that, and published eight pages of their answers. People mostly picked low-key, quite specific stuff – “I can cook something out of nothing”; “I’m really strong”; “I can talk to anyone”; “I’ve got an excellent bum” – and it was lovely, and touching, to see women affirm what they like about themselves. It also felt strange – almost shocking? Stylist called giving yourself a compliment “squirm-inducing” and yes, the thought of doing it myself made me squirm.I feel something similar when I see people online expressing uncomplicated, justified pride in their achievements or liking who they are out loud – it’s a sort of “is that allowed?” feeling, like the rules have changed and no one told me. If toxic humility is a thing, I definitely have it, because I get a mas...

Events

3 w. ago Want to avoid anxiety, headaches and constipation? Try giving up on your goals | Emma Beddington

We’re taught from infancy that perseverance is a moral virtue and persistence pays. But what if quitters are happier and healthier?Have you ever heard yourself saying “I’m going to do this if it kills me”? As the pensioners at my gym can attest, it’s what I hiss every time I’m there, attempting slowly and laboriously to get myself a millimetre closer to doing the splits.But what if it actually is killing me? Not the groin strain, problematic as that is, but because I’ve just read in New Scientist that giving up is good for you, while grinding on isn’t. One study showed that people who “struggled to disengage from unfulfilling goals” had higher levels of cortisol and inflammatory molecules. “The result,” the article explained, “could be a heightened susceptibility to all kinds of conditions, including cardiovascular disease and Alzheimer’s.” In addition, “goal disengagement” – giving up – correlated with a lower risk of headaches, constipation and eczema; it may even protect against ...

Politics

4 w. ago Why I love Martha Stewart – the original unapologetic alpha woman | Emma Beddington

She bites her pets, dumped Hannibal Lecter and claims she was the original tradwife. For anxious, people-pleasing women like me, channelling some of her DGAF energy could do us some goodWith every year that passes, my decorative and culinary standards slip further, while, paradoxically, I become more obsessed with the former billionaire, felon, fancy fowl enthusiast and Snoop Dogg best buddy Martha Stewart. Stewart is, of course, the original domestic goddess, but also, she’s now claiming, the template tradwife. “I really was that woman. I was the original fucking tradwife,” she told the Lipstick on the Rim podcast, embellishing later, in an interview for the New York Times (marking the reissue of her 1982 cookbook, Entertaining): “And I was just as pretty as those girls, and more organised.”I suppose she’s not wrong – she was already combining the homemaking, empire-building and self-promotional elements that characterise tradwifery 40 years ago – but it’s not the most tactful or s...

Events

4 w. ago I’m a committed introvert – but no AI will take away the joy I get from other people | Emma Beddington

While it might be soothing to think you could replace social interactions like book clubs with ChatGPT, subcontracting human thought out to a bot will never bring happiness This is depressing: according to the Cut, people are using AI to solve escape room puzzles and cheat at trivia nights. Surely, that is the definition of spoiling your own fun? “Like going into a corn maze and just wanting a straight line to the end,” says one TikToker quoted in the article. There’s also an interview with a keen reader who uses ChatGPT as a book club replacement, scraping the internet and aggregating “stimulating opinions and perspectives”. All well and good (actually, no, it sounds bleak as hell) until he had a character’s death spoilered in the fantasy epic he had been enjoying.Meanwhile, Substack seems to be clogging up with AI-generated essays. The nu-blogging platform is an earnestly artisanal space where writers craft their stuff; subcontracting that to a bot seems like the acme of pointless...

Politics