30 h. ago The 6 best UK cities for enjoying the single life, with great clubs and pubs, vibrant culture and cheap rent

You often hear about the UK’s best family friendly places, but what about the top cities to enjoy if you’re young, free and single?

Society

3 d. ago Jack Grealish left out of Manchester City’s Club World Cup squad

The England international was not included in the 27-man travelling party published by the Premier League club on Wednesday.

Politics

4 d. ago Welsh farmers and city singles wanted for new dating show by people behind The Apprentice

The series aims to 'shine a spotlight on British farmers and rural life' and provide single UK farmers the chance to find 'real romance'

Society

4 d. ago Scotland's nobility meet in Edinburgh where past titles meet with present

A private gathering at the famous New Club marks the growing public interest in Scotland's neglected aristocracy

Politics

4 d. ago ‘Am I too English, or too Indian?’ How chef Mehak Kansal found her identity through food

Food writer Mehak Kansal’s debut cookbook ‘Bindas’ is her answer to a lifelong identity struggle – a vibrant collision of cultures, comfort and carefree cooking. She chats to Ella Walker about how summers in India, a very English upbringing and not fitting in led her to find freedom in food

Politics

4 d. ago Feeling left behind? Here’s how to survive a season of your friends celebrating their life milestones

If you’re feeling out of step with your friends, a summer of back-to-back weddings can leave you feeling emotionally drained. Katie Rosseinsky speaks to the experts to find out how to get through it

Events

5 d. ago Artists, Siblings, Visionaries by Judith Mackrell review – the remarkable lives of Gwen and Augustus John

Gwen’s talent vastly outshone her brother’s – but both are treated with subtlety in this outstanding dual biographyA young woman sits reading, a pot of tea to hand, her blue dress almost the only colour in a still, sandy room. Gwen John’s painting The Convalescent shows a subdued yet happy moment, for this woman is free to think and feel. That, we see in Judith Mackrell’s outstanding double biography of Gwen and her brother, was her ideal for living: to be at liberty even if that meant existing in deepest solitude.The quietness of a life spent largely alone in single rooms, reading, drawing, painting and occasionally having wild sex with the sculptor Rodin, is counterpointed in this epic narrative by the crowded, relentless, almost insanely overstimulated life of Augustus John. Lion of the arts in early 20th-century Britain, he was a bigamist, adulterer, father of so many children you lose track (so did he), and an utterly forgettable painter. Continue reading...

Politics

5 d. ago A new start after 60: My voice went and suddenly part of me was missing – then I discovered bellringing

As a lifelong singer and a teacher, Jean Walters was used to making a noise. At 67 she found a new way to do itOne sunny August evening, Jean Walters was sitting in her garden in Meltham, West Yorkshire, when the church bells began to ring. She sipped her glass of wine; the evening seemed idyllic. “A quintessential English country garden,” she thought, and posted on Facebook: “Bells ringing, how lovely!”The next day when the plumber came to fix her toilet, more prosaically, he mentioned that he had seen her post, and being a bellringer himself, gave her the number of the local church’s tower captain. “He said, ‘Come along and try it.’ I did. I loved it. I said to my husband, ‘Did you hear that single bong? That was me.’”Tell us: has your life taken a new direction after the age of 60? Continue reading...

Events

7 d. ago Voices: I had gender reassignment surgery – then the Supreme Court said I wasn’t a woman

I have the same choices over my life and body that I would want for every single person on earth. I’m not trying to make a statement about what a woman is, I just want to be one, writes Juno Dawson – who appears on The Independent’s Pride list 2025

Events

7 d. ago Second child dies three weeks after minibus overturns on the M4

Othniel Adoma, aged 11, died on Thursday more than three weeks after the single-vehicle crash on the M4 which also took the life of a six-year-old boy, who has not been named.

Events

8 d. ago ‘I was £70,000 in debt at 48, six years later I was able to retire'

When Toni’s life hit rock bottom, a single change turned everything on its head and she was able to retire six years later

Economics

9 d. ago Members delighted with Ayr Model Boat Club's open day success

The five-hour event was a showcase and allowed the public to talk to members and find out more about the club and its activities.

Politics

1 week ago Helen Flanagan's 'nightmare' return from Scotland following family trip to Glasgow

The Corrie star, 34, has admitted that her ban from driving has caused her chaos as she struggles to juggle life again as a single mum to her three kids Matilda, nine, Delilah, six, and four-year-old son Charlie.

Politics

1 week ago Pulp: More review – anthems and rage for the next life stage

(Rough Trade)Jarvis Cocker and the band’s first album in 24 years delivers a refreshing take on middle age, with all the the skewed observation and joyful melodic flourishes of oldTime has been particularly kind to Pulp. As Jarvis Cocker points out on Spike Island, the lead single from their first album in 24 years, their 2002 split went largely unlamented: they had already succeeded in considerably reducing the size of their audience with 1998’s claustrophobic album This Is Hardcore and 2001’s Scott Walker-produced We Love Life. An ostensibly valedictory greatest hits album spent a single week in the lower reaches of the Top 75. And the year after their demise, John Harris’s Britpop history The Last Party noted tartly that Pulp’s music had “rather dated”. “The universe shrugged, then moved on,” sings Cocker, which is a perhaps more poetic reiteration of what he said at the time: the greatest hits album was “a real silent fart” and “nobody was that arsed, evidently”.But subsequent y...

Politics

1 week ago Edinburgh care home celebrates the richness of Indian culture

Residents and colleagues at HC-One Scotland’s Victoria Manor Care Home in Edinburgh came together to celebrate the vibrant traditions of Indian culture in a joyful and engaging event that brought colour, connection, and cultural appreciation to the heart of the home.

Culture

1 week ago Space freed up by car clubs could nearly cover Hyde Park, analysis finds

UK car clubs open to the public had 307,437 active users last year, up 1% from 2023.

Politics

1 week ago Sydney Sweeney confirms split from Jonathan Davino saying she 'loves' single life

Sydney Sweeney has finally confirmed she is single after reportedly splitting from her fiancé earlier this year, and has spoken out about her relationship with co-star Glen Powell.

Politics

1 week ago 'A 'secret' in a handwritten note from my grandma cleared my skin in four days'

After years of struggling with his skin Nic's life was changed by a single delivery from his grandma

Politics

1 week ago The Knowledge is axed in Bristol after only eight taxi drivers pass 'outdated' test

First introduced in 1865, the 90-minute test ensures drivers know precise road names and locations, routes to hotels, pubs, restaurants and clubs, alongside particular places of interest.

Politics

1 week ago I’m not looking for a male role figure for my children – is that wrong?

It’s widely believed that two-parent families with a male role model are the gold standard – but it’s not always the case, says single mum of two, Charlotte Cripps

Politics