From our UK edition
Controversy surrounding the live-action version of Snow White, which is released on Friday, suggests there is little likelihood of a happy ever after for Disney studios bosses. The £210 million remake of the beloved 1937 cartoon classic has been branded too woke and labelled '2025's most divisive film'. It could be a recipe for disaster at the box office. The accusation that Snow White is playing politics is hard to avoid.
From our UK edition
Can the passage of time ever assuage parental guilt? After all, brooding over what can't be changed is a pointless diversion. Unfortunately, guilt is a duplicitous bedfellow – and one which never sleeps. So even though, in my own case, my children are 'all grown up' (two married, one living abroad and one at university 100 miles from home), thoughts are often triggered about my deficiencies as a mother during their upbringing. Not least thanks to the ubiquity of the so-called work from home 'revolution', which frequently leads me to pick at the past. You see, my name is Angela and working from home made me a bad mother. Not for the reasons just given by Ofsted head Sir Martyn Oliver, who last week said that parents working from home 'makes children feel school is optional'.
From our UK edition
You can tell a lot about a person by their reaction to traffic wardens. Those of a mellow, reflective bent may find their minds drifting to the Beatles' affectionate pursuit of Lovely Rita, the meter maid. Otherwise, the sight of ticket wardens in sensible shoes and with expressions of fixated intent prowling our city centres can trigger a more visceral response. They're more than jobsworths. They're traffic Nazis! The word Nazi is trivialised If you've been habitually stung by plastic pouches left under the wipers you may see no problem in that. Just as spectres of the Third Reich are summoned to blast grammar Nazis or lockdown Nazis, isn't this the best way to describe extreme and unnecessary enforcement? And it's only a word. Should it even matter? Yes. It should.
From our UK edition
Of the many characters created by the peerless Victoria Wood, one creation in particular lingers in the mind: namely the immaculately polished, but unashamedly snobbish television continuity announcer, who, with an assassin's smile, treated her audience with utter contempt. 'We'd like to apologise to viewers in the North. It must be awful for them,' was one of her more cutting remarks. The hon hon hon bonhomie of French surnames – step forward President Macrrrrrron – is hard to take seriously Coming from Manchester, Wood was clearly making mischief with counterintuitive comedy. She was taking aim at how crisp, received pronunciation can make anything sound plausible.
From our UK edition
Merry Christmas – or perhaps, I should say, Season's Greetings. The festive period can be something of a minefield for the culturally sensitive: even a presumptive or mis-worded greeting, however well meant, may be misconstrued as an affront to diversity and an expression of non-inclusivity. Not least to those who don't celebrate Christmas, perhaps due to their ethnicity or religion. Being Jewish, this must surely then include me. After all, I don't sing Christmas carols or believe in the chap with the white beard. So shouldn't the greatest care be taken when offering greetings of the season or making mention of pigs – pigs! – in blankets? When I make Friday night dinner throughout the year I often riff on the Christmas menu Bah humbug.
