Discussion

Old fashioned manners such as ladies always going first, saying 'please' and 'thank you' and keeping elbows off the table are all in danger of dying out, research has revealed. A new study has found never using swear words is also a rule many of us struggle to stick to, along with holding doors open for the person behind you and not using your phone at the dinner table. Manners which we still do our best to abide by are...

By Rebecca Benson You’d think she’d want to avoid courting controversy, after her abomination of an endorsement, when she partnered with Pepsi in 2017. The now infamous advert, where Kendall Jenner stopped a riot from breaking out by winking at a policeman and offering him a can of soda, quickly turned into a Twitter frenzy, of both condemnation and hilarious memes. However, this Sunday Kendall felt the wrath of Twitter once more, when she walked the runway for Dsquared2 (no I’d...

The Trainline has taken the unusual approach of advertising a three day train journey from Didcot in Oxfordshire to Kiev in its latest marketing push. The campaign is filmed in Kiev Central Station by up-and-coming director Pedro Martin-Calero and features a British woman in a yellow cagoule directing a flustered detective on how to get to Oxfordshire. Its cinematic spy chase is aimed at highlighting how the tech company makes journeys easier and more straightforward, but train fanatics have been quick to highlight the...

By Peter Meyer, author of The Boy from the Wild In our modern, overpopulated world, the need for dedicated space for wildlife has never been so important. Here, the author and African wildlife conservationist Peter Meyer reveals why sanctuaries are so crucial to man and beast. His new book, The Boy from the Wild, is out now. Early man lived symbiotically with nature. Humans have since changed – though by no means evolved. Today, man destroys everything in its path....

Brexit is definitely a gamble. You wonder whether Theresa May is playing on slots like Casingdom  sometimes! More than half of the UK electorate voted to leave the Union and in 2017, Article 50 of the Treaty on the European Union was invoked. The UK has current plans to withdraw from the Union and the final withdrawal is slated to take place on March 29, 2019. After leaving the European Union, PM Teresa May has stated that the UK has...

Generational gaps are making watching TV and playing games together at Christmas near impossible, new research has shown. Despite Christmas TV and family games remaining among the top festive activities for families, most youngsters can’t tell Jim Royle from Basil Fawlty and many over 50’s have never even heard of Game of Thrones or The Walking Dead. That makes getting together around the television or playing games such as charades increasingly difficult. According to a survey by TalkTalk TV over...

A fifth of adults will be spending Christmas alone or with just one other person, a new study has found. Despite six in ten saying spending time with the family is one of the best things about Christmas, many will only be afforded a small celebration rather than a large get-together. The results of the study come as a report from the Jo Cox Loneliness Commission found loneliness is as harmful to health as obesity or smoking 15 cigarettes a day. Sister of...

Pressure from family, friends and TV advertising is plunging Brits into debt at Christmas. The latest Disposable Income Index (DII) published today by ISA provider Scottish Friendly reveals that many British families feel pressure to create the perfect Christmas and are taking out loans or spending more on credit cards in order to buy gifts. Nearly six in ten households say they make sacrifices to buy Christmas presents and of those with children 31 per cent are relying on credit...

Carol singing, sending Christmas cards and kissing under the mistletoe are among the traditions we miss most, a study found. A poll of 2,000 adults found many of us also yearn to go back to the days when going for a post-Christmas walk, making homemade mince pies and going to pantomimes were the norm. Other festive rituals we’d like to see make a comeback include making our own Christmas cake, drinking eggnog and setting the Christmas pudding alight. Those polled...