13 h. ago Want to truly love your cat? Don’t treat it like a baby, let it be free | Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett

The news that one in six UK cat owners use them baffles me: who are all these cooperative, compliant cats trotting down the street beside their owners?The news that almost one in six cat owners in the UK use a harness – if indeed you can call it newsworthy to anyone except cat people such as myself – brought forth a mix of emotions. As with anything that makes me think of my mad little cat, Mackerel, they were a cocktail of guilt, bafflement and love.Let’s start with guilt. The charity Cats Protection has warned against the use of harnesses – as in, leads – because of how they cause cats undue stress by suppressing their flight response and making them feel trapped. I did not know this when I bought a harness for Mackerel, though I worked it out soon enough by her reaction, which was to play dead the second you put her in it. Now, I didn’t buy a harness without reservations, although rather shallowly it was my personal image that ultimately caused me to ditch it. Here is what I wrot...

Politics

13 h. ago I bought my cat a lead – and I was quickly humbled | Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett

The news that one in six UK cat owners use them baffles me: who are all these cooperative, compliant cats trotting down the street beside their owners?The news that almost one in six cat owners in the UK use a harness – if indeed you can call it newsworthy to anyone except cat people such as myself – brought forth a mix of emotions. As with anything that makes me think of my mad little cat, Mackerel, they were a cocktail of guilt, bafflement and love.Let’s start with guilt. The charity Cats Protection has warned against the use of harnesses – as in, leads – because of how they cause cats undue stress by suppressing their flight response and making them feel trapped. I did not know this when I bought a harness for Mackerel, though I worked it out soon enough by her reaction, which was to play dead the second you put her in it. Now, I didn’t buy a harness without reservations, although rather shallowly it was my personal image that ultimately caused me to ditch it. Here is what I wrot...

Politics

6 d. ago Autistic people could teach Donald Trump a thing or two about focus, facts and empathy | Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett

While not without its challenges, autism isn’t a curse to be cured of, as the likes of the US president and RFK Jr want us to believeDonald Trump’s claims about autism deserve as little oxygen as possible, but it’s been a depressing, infuriating week for many autistic people and those of us who love them. His administration unveiled contentious claims about the causes of autism – pregnant women taking Tylenol, also known as paracetamol – and pushed for research to find a “cure”. It got me thinking about how to cope psychologically, and my conclusion – and that of many of my friends in the autism community – is that you have to laugh or you’ll cry.There’s a saying that when you’ve met one autistic child, you’ve met one autistic child. I’ve never loved the “autism as superpower” narrative, and how it erases those with high-support needs and the challenges autistic people can face. Equally, Trump’s framing of autism as a tragedy and a disease in need of curing is deeply problematic, so...

Politics

7 d. ago Jade Thirlwall reveals sweet secrets behind huge track as fans praise Easter eggs

Jade Thirlwall's new album, That's Showbiz Baby, has been going down a treat with fans and the former Little Mix star has now let them into a secret about one of her hit tunes

Politics

1 week ago Let’s stop asking why women aren’t having children and ask, for once: why aren’t men? | Rhiannon Lucy Coslett

On the whole, men I’ve spoken to – like women – want children. But a host of issues, from housing to mental health, is getting in the way“Why aren’t women having babies?” It’s the question on everyone’s lips as the fertility rate plummets to a record low in England, Scotland and Wales. A range of answers are always trotted out, from the entirely reasonable (childcare and housing costs; the motherhood career penalty) to the ludicrous (being so dim about our own fertility that we wake up one day realising we’ve left it too late). Yet perhaps it’s time we ask not only “why aren’t women having babies?”, but also “why aren’t men?”Men are largely invisible in the birthrate debate. It’s ironic that amid all the pontificating and the policy ideas for encouraging more women to have babies – a conversation often being had by men – the other half of humanity is strikingly underexamined. Part of the problem is an absence of data: like many European countries, we don’t really have any on male fe...

Politics

2 w. ago Art lovers rejoice: the National Gallery can finally show us when painting really gets exciting | Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett

Curators can now chart the seismic shifts in 20th-century art – and include more works by women and artists of colourSign up for our new weekly newsletter Matters of Opinion, where our columnists and writers will reflect on what they’ve been debating, thinking about, reading and moreOne of my favourite paintings in the National Gallery’s collection technically breaks the rules: Paul Cézanne’s Bathers (Les Grandes Baigneuses) was painted in the last decade of his life, its date given as about 1894-1905. It was probably finished after the gallery’s cut-off date of 1900, a cut-off the gallery has just announced it will be jettisoning.To say that I am pleased is an understatement. It always struck me as bizarre that the end date occurs just at the exact point in history when painting is about to become very interesting. Just look at the Baigneuses and what they represent: the leap towards abstraction in the representation of the human form; the composition and its unidentifiable, but un...

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3 w. ago Love Island’s Jamie reveals how partner Yasmin coped with losing beloved cat

Love Island’s Jamie Rhodes has revealed how Yasmin Pettet coped with losing her beloved pet cat.

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