Camilla Swift

Zara Phillips has been spotted wearing a hairnet, and people do not approve. ‘Zara swaps tiara for Corrie hairnet’ runs one headline, with the article comparing her to Coronation Street’s Ena Sharples. I think we can all agree that a hairnet, on its own and minus a hat, isn’t the best look in the world. Mind you, having said that, I do know certain men who think hairnets are ‘rather sexy’. I suppose it takes all sorts – and it is the sort of thing that someone in a Jilly Cooper novel might say. I imagine that Rupert Campbell-Black, for instance, might have a thing for hairnets. Anyway, I’ll admit now that I’ve spent an awful lot of time trying to avoid a ‘real’ hairnet.

There are almost half a million foreign students in the UK — at boarding schools, universities and colleges. In independent schools alone, one in five new students are from abroad. And this creates a problem that no one really thinks about. What do these children do with all their belongings? Any parent who has sent their child off to school, boarding or not, will remember the seemingly endless school uniform list. ‘Two pairs of black, lace-up, polishable shoes, plus a pair of Sunday shoes.’ (What’s wrong with using Friday shoes on a Sunday?) Trunks, bath sheets, three pairs of pyjamas… and the games kit, of course. Tennis rackets, hockey sticks, football boots, and the helpful fact that the entire school uniform changes for one short term in summer.

Every year without fail, as the trees start thinking about losing their leaves, the papers are full of the same photographs and the same stories. The pictures are of groups of teenagers grinning triumphantly — hugging one another or throwing their exam results in the air in joy. What we have just experienced is exam results week; or, to be precise, results fortnight: first A-levels and then, one week later, GCSEs. GCSEs lead to A-levels, A-levels to university (and yet more exams) — and then at the end of it all? Well, that’s the next obstacle. But for parents, as well as children, the endless tests can be incredibly confusing. A colleague recently told me about her son, who is due to start school in September.

So Morrisons have announced that – after long discussions with farmers’ unions over the price of milk – they will launch a new brand of milk, which will be 10p per litre more expensive than their usual milk. The brand – named ‘Milk for Farmers’, will go on sale in the autumn, and the extra cost will all go directly back to dairy farmers. The NFU – one of the groups that has been leading the discussions – has welcomed the plan, while cautioning that simply launching one product isn’t a fix-all solution: ‘It must also be displayed prominently in-store. We have also had discussions with Morrisons about how it can introduce further initiatives to support dairy, including cheese, butter and yoghurt.

The Queen, we learnt earlier this month, has decided not to take on any more corgi pups as, at the age of 89, she is worried about leaving any young dogs behind. But it's not just a great shame for her – it’s a great loss to the breed as well. Corgis aren’t one of those dogs that you see all that often, and the Queen has done an awful lot for their PR. But despite all the positive PR – and their presence in many a royal gift shop – the corgi as a breed is still struggling. Both the Cardigan and the Pembroke corgi are on the vulnerable native breeds list, with just 118 Cardigan welsh corgis, and 274 Pembrokes registered with the Kennel Club in 2014.

Strange, isn’t it, that despite having such famously terrible weather, we Brits are so fond of a picnic. It’s something to do with making the most of what sunshine we get — but if you ever plan to eat outdoors, it will almost invariably end up raining. Never mind. There’s very little that we’re better at than embracing our terrible weather, and keeping buggering on. This year’s Ascot was, for me, a case in point. Every day of the meet was blessed with excellent weather — except, of course, the one day I went. A person more sensible than I might have looked at the forecast and planned accordingly. I checked, saw that it was going to rain — and just got on with my picnic preparations as usual. So come 11 a.m.

Should one of the oldest pubs in Britain – ‘Ye Olde Fighting Cocks’ – really change its name to ‘Ye Olde Clever Cocks’? This is what the animal rights organisation Peta is proposing, after deciding that the pub – which has had the same name since 1872 – should choose to celebrate ‘intelligent, sensitive chickens’. Thinking about where your food comes from is one thing, but is pretending that cockfighting never existed, and re-writing the history of this country, really the best way of encouraging people to do that? The pub landlord, Christo Tofalli, told Vanessa Feltz on Radio 2 earlier today that he agrees that ‘chickens are cool’, but alas for Peta, a name change isn’t on the cards.

As our Barometer column reminded us this week, a campaign is underway  to reintroduce the Eurasian lynx – which became extinct in the UK around 1,300 years ago – to the British countryside. But is bringing back lynx to the wilds of the UK really a good idea? Well, for starters there are many farmers and livestock owners who certainly won't be very pleased to see them. Lynx UK – who are behind the plans – have claimed that they are willing to subsidise farmers for any loss of livestock that the lynx are responsible for. But that probably won’t put farmers’ minds at rest – especially hill farmers, whose animals would be most at risk from any newly introduced predators.