London Marathon disrupted by protesters throwing power paint

London Marathon was disrupted by a pro-Palestine protest as activists threw red paint on Tower Bridge.

Two protesters from the group Youth Demand halted the men’s elite race by throwing red powder paint across Tower Bridge, calling for a trade embargo on Israel.

The incident occurred around 10.35am on Sunday morning, with the activists jumping barriers before scattering the paint.

Images shared by the group show the pair standing on the road wearing t-shirts emblazoned with “Youth Demand: Stop Arming Israel.” City of London police swiftly arrested the individuals.

Youth Demand identified the protesters as 18-year-old Willow Holland from Bristol and Cristy North, a live-in carer from Nottingham.

In a statement released by the group, Holland explained her actions: “I am taking action with Youth Demand because I have run out of other options: thousands are being killed in Gaza, our Government is making no effort to stop it and no other course of action, marches or rallies, has worked.

“I refuse to be complicit in a genocide funded by our politicians.”

Youth Action said the demonstration came after the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) announced its food stocks in Gaza have been completely “depleted” by Israel’s blockade.

According to the group, Ms North said: “I’m taking action today at the London marathon because the people in Palestine are running out of time.

“We have tried all other avenues to get the Government to stop arming Israel and yet our Government is still enabling a genocide.

“They are making the UK people complicit in breaking UK domestic law by using our taxes to arm a genocidal state, breaking humanitarian international law.”

The BBC TV feed cut to the elite men’s race moments after the leaders had crossed Tower Bridge and there appeared to be no impact on the race.

More than 56,000 participants are expected on the 26.2-mile course through the capital on Saturday for the 45th TCS London Marathon.

The London Marathon has been approached for comment.

How Eubank Jr and Benn produced a melodrama worthy of their fathers

It is difficult to know where to begin, but at the end, Chris Eubank Jr sank to his knees as his father stood proudly by his side, while Conor Benn embraced his own father and closed his eyes, perhaps wishing to drift into a dreamworld away from the very real nightmare around him.

Also around him were 67,000 witnesses to his downfall after so many threats, so much snarling, so much aggression – an aggression which simply could not deliver the decisive blow he had craved for years. Yet this was not an emphatic demise; in fact, the 28-year-old had fought valiantly in a boxing match that resembled a theatrical melodrama more than a sporting contest. Instead, his demise played out over 12 rounds, with victory so often appearing within his twitchy grasp.

As violent as Benn was in Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, and as desperately as he pursued glory, Eubank Jr was just that bit better. At times, the 35-year-old looked gone – just as he had looked mentally absent on the scales on Friday, after a gruelling weight-cut – yet he never truly went away. He seemed spurred on by something inexplicable, something intangible, though if one were to chase a romantic answer, they might fall upon the presence of his father.

At the 11th hour, in a plot twist befitting this eccentric idol, Eubank Sr arrived at the venue with his son, despite publicly criticising this match-up and the weight disparity between Jr and Benn as recently as this week, and despite his alleged estrangement from his offspring.

Thirty-two years after Nigel and Sr rounded out their own bitter rivalry, fighting to a draw three years after Sr beat his fellow Briton, the enemies-turned-friends shared a ring again. This time, each stood behind his son, supporting.

With that final twist, drama was ensured at the end, which was fitting given it had accompanied Jr and Conor’s feud from the start. In 2022, their bout collapsed on a few days’ notice, upon the revelation that Benn had returned two adverse drug-test results. This Friday, Eubank Jr missed weight by 0.05lb and was forced to pay £375,000. A glove row even ensued the night before this contest, and Jr’s old foe Billy Joe Saunders was denied entry to Jr’s locker room as a Benn prank fell flat.

And still the drama was not complete until a grinning Sr stepped out of a car with his son. That scene elicited a raucous response from the crowd, with chatter scattered throughout the stands for minutes thereafter. When the screens showed the Benns watching the Eubanks’s arrival, box-office value was not just achieved but surpassed.

But there was still box-office boxing to come.

In the early going, Eubank Jr – the natural middleweight, despite what his struggles on the scales suggested – looked to exploit his size advantage over Benn, who was fighting two divisions higher than usual. Benn’s movements were pronounced and exaggerated, while Eubank Jr’s were compact and tidy. As the fight wore on, however, one might briefly have read those signs not as examples of each man’s technique, but rather his physical state: Jr seemed somewhat depleted.

The first examples of Benn’s viciousness truly arose in the second round, as he put Eubank Jr off balance with a right hook and later landed a picture-perfect cross. In the third frame, a left hook had Eubank Jr on unsteady legs, before the Britons grappled each other to the canvas. In the fourth, Eubank Jr began to chirp at Benn, before jolting back the younger fighter’s head with a smart rear uppercut.

With Benn talking back in the fifth, the boxers were warned by the referee for their polite conversation. Later in the frame, Benn was down from a slip, before Eubank Jr had the crowd chanting his name after endearing them by shoulder-barging Benn to the ropes and tagging him with a hook on the rebound. The sixth brought a frantic exchange, neither the first nor last, while the seventh saw Eubank Jr snap back Benn’s head with right and left straights as the natural welterweight seemed to be fading.

But then Benn produced his best round. He started well in the eighth, and after gulping down some cold London air, he staggered Eubank Jr with a right hook. Eubank Jr continued to throw but did not have his legs under him. He somehow survived to the buzzer, throwing all the way, and it was at this moment that Sr calmly strolled to the steps and up to his son’s corner.

Whatever he said worked. While Eubank Jr was almost in trouble after sustaining a cut in the ninth, he kept trudging forward like a zombie in the 10th – with spite and in spite of the attacks coming his way – ultimately dazing Benn with an uppercut and right hook. Eubank Jr was throwing with greater and greater volume, which he sustained in the 11th.

There were also intermittent firefights in these rounds, and the final frame began with a willing touch of gloves, a very different picture from the opening of the fight, when the rivals had to be dragged away from each other. Both fighters began landing with their heads as much as their hands in the last round, then the crowd erupted as Benn swayed with his mouth agape, courtesy of the violence that Eubank Jr was conjuring.

After the final bell, Conor Benn and Eubank Sr shared respect in a touching moment, but when the scores were revealed, the only father Conor wanted was his own.

In-ring ecstasy for the Eubanks, heartache for the Benns. Perhaps that was destiny in this unique rivalry, confined to two families and spanning generations.

Pope Francis’ tomb seen for first time in images released by Vatican

The Vatican has released images of Pope Francis’ tomb at the Santa Maria Maggiore church in Rome, where he was laid to rest on Saturday.

Inscribed on the tomb is the papal name of the late pontiff, and a single white rose sitting under a crucifix, with light casting a warm glow over the tomb.

Around 400,000 people attended the funeral of the 88-year-old, a grand yet solemn ceremony in the Vatican’s St Peter’s Square, with world leaders including Donald Trump, Sir Keir Starmer, Prince William and Volodymyr Zelensky among those watching on.

Francis’ casket was then transported to the Santa Maria Maggiore church where he was buried in a private ceremony in St Mary Major Basilica, breaking with tradition as the first pontiff to be buried outside the Vatican in more than 120 years.

On Sunday, Roman Catholic faithful began to visit Francis’ tomb, bidding a final farewell to the Argentine, known for a humble approach to his role and for championing the world’s poorest and most needy throughout a modernising papacy.

Mourners had queued outside the church since early on Sunday to pay their respects. “Pope Francis for me was an inspiration, a guide,” said Elias Caravalhal, who lives in Rome but had been unable to see the Pope while his body lay in state after his death on Easter Monday.

Francis’s will stipulated a simple burial “in the earth, without particular decoration”, marked only with his papal name in Latin: Franciscus. St Mary Major, around 2.5 miles from the Vatican, was dear to Francis because of his devotion to Mary, Mother of God. He prayed there before setting off on and returning from each overseas trip.

The tomb was opened on the second of nine days of official mourning for Francis, preceding the conclave which will be held to select the next Pope. A date has not yet been set for the conclave, but it must begin by May 10, with cardinals due to be meeting regularly this week as they begin to plan next steps for the 1.4 billion-strong Catholic Church.

As millions mourned worldwide, yesterday also set the stage for critical geopolitical developments on the international stage.

Shortly before proceedings began, Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky sat face-to-face inside St Peter’s Basilica, meeting in person for the first time since the latter was thrown out of the White House by the furious US president in February.

The Ukrainian president described the meeting as potentially historic after the pair discussed the future of Ukraine.

Posting to X, Mr Zelensky hailed a “good meeting” with Mr Trump, adding: “We discussed a lot one on one. Hoping for results on everything we covered. Protecting lives of our people. Full and unconditional ceasefire. Reliable and lasting peace that will prevent another war from breaking out.

“Very symbolic meeting that has potential to become historic, if we achieve joint results.”

How motherhood changes the way women listen

I mean, the sound that I found really profound was the first time I heard Delphi’s heartbeat,” Natasha Khan tells me. We’re in her kitchen in east London, seated on either side of a small wooden table. Delphi is her daughter.

Natasha is telling me about something that happened five years earlier, when she was early in her pregnancy and went to visit a midwife, Nancy, a “silver-haired, beautiful woman in her sixties who had helped to birth 1,500 babies”. She’d not expected to hear a heartbeat that day, but Nancy had the equipment and asked if she wanted to. “And then suddenly there was just, like, a magical sound.” I ask if it surprised her, what it sounded like. “It was much faster than I imagined. And because you see it all the time in movies and people talk about it so much, it’s supposed to be emotional. But I suppose until you actually hear it . . . It’s different when it’s your baby.”

Natasha is a musician, among other things. As Bat for Lashes, the alias under which she performs, Natasha has earned three Mercury Prize nominations, won two Ivor Novello awards and released top 10 albums. When we speak, she is working on a novel, has recently created a tarot deck and is weeks away from releasing her sixth album, The Dream of Delphi. This was why I was speaking to her. Natasha had published a mission statement when she announced the new album, and in it I found a kind of mirror to the year I’d been living. In the wake of having a child, she wrote, “I returned momentarily to the cycles and seasons, through naps and breastfeeds, writing this music in any spare moment I could, methodically mapping out the experience of having my mind slowly blown by something so seemingly common.”

Becoming a mother, Natasha’s statement continued, made her realise how damaged the human connection with nature was; how the increasingly urban, capitalist and digital nature of human existence had placed us “in the hands of something that’s very lifeless”. It speaks of mother archetypes – of crones and sages and witches and midwives – and how distant they feel; of a need to “heal our society” by “reconnect[ing] with our empathy, compassion, power and love, which to me is a very matriarchal energy”. The album, the statement continues, “is just my tiny way of trying to reconnect people… a small slice of music, about a very personal story, and I made it for Delphi so she can hear it when she’s grown and know how much her mum loved her.”

There are 10 tracks on The Dream of Delphi. It’s a record that feels both feather-light and plummeting at the same time, and it takes me a while to tune into it. After a few listens ahead of meeting Natasha, I stop; the stream runs out of access time and I neglect to renew it. I stay put in a life without music.

Natasha found out she was pregnant in the toilets backstage ahead of the penultimate show of her 2019 tour (“I was so out of my body; you have this special sort of twinkling secret”). Four months later the world started to lock down in response to Covid. She was living in Los Angeles and had already begun to navigate her pregnancy as a creative project on its own terms. “It was such an interesting moment, to have a baby in the middle of lockdown,” she explains. “Everything just went quiet, yet my body – tuning into internal sounds or feelings or vibrations, or just natural sounds – had the space to heighten, and was already heightening anyway because I was pregnant. The world stopped and got quieter and the animal side of me grew.” Natasha tells me that, in labour, she sounded “like a groaning cow”, a sound that “was coming from the depths of the earth, it felt like”.

Delphi was born at home, and when I ask Natasha about her sonic memories of her daughter’s arrival, it’s not the newborn noises she remembers, but the silence. She paints me a scene in the hours after birth: she’s in bed with tea and toast and tiny, newborn Delphi, looking out at glass doors that lead onto a porch. “I remember looking out and just seeing this weird twilight time. The midwives left, and [my partner] and Delphi fell asleep. I felt like it was this liminal space where everything was silent. It was this silent world between worlds: I wasn’t not a mother, and I wasn’t a mother yet.

“I was in this threshold moment and everyone else had gone and I felt this existential loneliness, like I was in a spotlight standing in the world. It was a moment that was unrepeatable; it was a moment, and I was just lying. I felt like I’d been in a war, but I was also so aware of this peace after so much motion and noise and movement. It was that silent it was almost like this huge tear in the fabric of reality; I was just completely washed clean of everything for a minute. I felt the mirage of existence had fallen away, and this real sense of connection to animals and plants: that every living thing goes through this process of death and rebirth and birth and growing and dying. I was just overwhelmed with the serenity of that feeling.” Natasha says she fell asleep afterwards and awoke to the sun rising, bringing with it a sense of “pure joy: it was over”.

These hours are represented by two songs on The Dream of Delphi: “The Midwives Have Left” and “Her First Morning”. The former is spare and spectral, wordless vocal chords folded atop gently building piano keys like origami. The latter is more euphoric; Natasha’s cooing vocals sound a little more sure, they’re tentatively growing into something, reaching out into a new kind of existence. “It was really interesting trying to make music around that experience,” says Natasha. “Initially I didn’t want to do any lyrics because I couldn’t really put words to the feelings I was having; the just a fraction of my small human ability to put music to the thing.”

Matrescence changed sound for Natasha, a person who has been engaged with making noise as a musician and a vocalist for most of her life. There was “something about pregnancy that made me continuously connected to something beyond myself”. Once Delphi was born Natasha noticed that her “ears just went insane. At the slightest shifting in her cot I would sit up. What I found interesting was I was totally overtaken by this instinct that was beyond my control. Any slightest hiccup or gurgle or breath. It’s not just your ears that are hearing it, it’s your whole body that senses their whole body; there’s an interchange between our vibrational expressions.” I’m reminded, I tell her, of the raw first days after I gave birth, when I would lie awake despite bone-shattering exhaustion and listen to the strange dialogue between my husband’s sleeping breath and the baby’s fluttering exhales.

“Motherhood drags you down into a state that we would all be in if we were living in greater connection with nature and less artificial environments,” she says. “I think that’s why it’s been such a profound spiritual awakening for me, because as a child I was so naturally connected. There’s been this never-ending longing and melancholy towards wanting to keep that thread alive.”

Having been astonished by where motherhood has taken her spiritually, Natasha believes society doesn’t offer people enough space to properly occupy it: “It’s a moment to be quiet and I think that women aren’t allowed that big space around having a baby; it should be, like, a year and a half, to really marinate in that experience. We’re sort of forced back out way too quickly.”

Hours pass. I leave the intimacy of Natasha’s home – kitten playing on the floor, Polaroids on the fridge, little shoes lined up by the door – and head back across London. It feels like a lot of what I’ve been thinking about – the tussle between artificial, digital noise and the sounds of the outside, organic world; the strange metamorphosis my senses have undergone during my matrescence and how the space I occupy has changed since – has been thrown up by our conversation. I feel seen, but I’ve also had my thinking challenged. I admire the way Natasha is able to inhabit, to embrace, her matrescence and her motherhood so fully. Perhaps in three years’ time, when my son is the same age that Delphi is now, I will too.

Right now, it still feels as if I am emerging from something and the outside world is not quite ready for it; that I am not quite ready for it, that I am still made of tissue-paper layers: who I was, who I am, who I will be. That in listening to myself I must also accept who I am, who I am becoming, who I have lost. It is still easier for me to tune into the sounds of what society expects mothers to be, rather than that more vivid and vital song of what kind of mother I am.

‘Hark: How Women Listen’ will be published by Canongate in the UK on 1 May 2025

Fury as domestic abusers can claim UK’s biggest health scandal payouts

Abusive ex-partners of victim’s of the UK’s biggest health scandal could be handed thousands of pounds in compensation even if they have a conviction – and the government has admitted it has no power to stop it.

Under new legislation rolled out in March, partners, siblings, children and parents of the 30,000 people infected with HIV or hepatitis C during the 1970s and 80s can apply for Infected Blood Scandal compensation in their own right as an “affected person”.

Campaigner Jackie Britton flagged her concerns to the government that there was nothing to stop domestic abusers applying to claim, which in some cases could see people handed up to £86,000.

She was shocked to be told that while they shared her concerns, there was “no provision” to exclude them due to a loophole in the law. It added it had looked to prevent those with relevant convictions, but could find no practical way of doing so.

Domestic abuse campaigners said they were “alarmed” by the issue, which they said allowed perpetrators opportunity to further exploit their victims.

A letter from the Cabinet Office to Ms Britton, seen by The Independent, confirmed the government’s hands are tied. It read: “The minister for the Cabinet Office shares the concerns that you and others have raised on abusive family members.

“That is not the loving and caring relationship upon which the claim of the affected to compensation is based. The government has considered options for how it could provide IBCA (Infected Blood Scandal Authority) with the ability to take this into account in assessing affected claims.

“Unfortunately it has not found a way of doing this in law.”

The letter continued: “I am afraid there will be no provision to exclude abusive family members in the upcoming regulations.

“The minister has however written to the interim chair of the IBCA to emphasise the importance of protecting vulnerable applicants to the compensation service, particularly those who have suffered domestic abuse and other serious harm.

“This includes making sure that claims managers are properly trained to spot the signs of domestic abuse and embedding the necessary procedures to raise safeguarding concerns within the organisation.”

Ms Britton has called for the government to ensure each claim is stringently reviewed. The 62-year-old from Fareham, Hampshire, was diagnosed with hepatitis C in 2010 after four decades of ill health, and has been left with liver cirrhosis, which requires regular check-ups.

“Why should they get a free pass to claim thousands under the heading of ‘affected’ when many of them played no positive part in the lives of those that were infected?” she said.

Rachel Buckley, joint managing director at The Family Law Company, said compensation under the scheme would likely be treated in the same way as a personal injury compensation award.

She said even in cases involving domestic abuse, it would be be considered “inequitable” to disregard a person’s entitlement to claim.

“Many family law professionals including the Family Law Company agree that there needs to be change and there is growing recognition of the impact of domestic abuse, including coercive control on divorce and finances matters but the law has yet to fully evolve to reflect this,” she said.

Sophie Francis-Cansfield, Head of Policy at Women’s Aid, said: “Women’s Aid are alarmed to learn that because compensation is viewed as a marital asset, there are circumstances in which perpetrators of domestic abuse are entitled to the funds awarded to their ex-partners.

“This is yet another example of the way in which our society is not set up to support survivors of domestic abuse, despite the fact that 1 in 4 women will experience it in their lifetime.

“Instead of having a system that support survivors of abuse, who have also had to deal with the devastating impact of the blood scandal, we have created one that perpetrators can exploit to inflict further harm.”

A spokesperson for the Infected Blood Compensation Authority said it was recruiting 500 claim managers to support those making claims and all were trained on the safeguarding of vulnerable people and trauma.

“We are working closely with partners such as the National Domestic Violence Helpline and Respect Men to ensure support is in place for anyone who shows signs of abuse or raises a concern to their claim manager,” they added.

A Government spokesperson said it acknowledged the concerns raised and the minister for the Cabinet Office had met victims in this position.

“We are committed to delivering compensation which is why £11.8bn was set aside in the Budget for this purpose. The Infected Blood Compensation Authority is working to deliver compensation as quickly as possible.”

How online schools can help children form friendships as they learn

When thinking about the best education for your child, it’s naturally not just academic success that comes to mind. A good quality school experience is made up of many parts and one key element is the socialising opportunities that school can provide. Socialisation is crucial for building social skills, growing emotional intelligence and helping children form their own individual identity, as well as giving them an additional incentive to attend a place where they have fun and feel part of a community.

While it might be assumed that the social options are reduced when children attend online school, this is not the case. In fact, there are a number of advantages in terms of the structures, support and diverse social opportunities offered to children who join online schools.

Online schools give students the opportunity to form connections with a much more diverse community of students. The online model allows schools to welcome young people from around the world and this gives pupils a chance to make friends with students from differing backgrounds and cultures. Furthermore, this means they can meet more like-minded individuals and form stronger bonds and more meaningful friendships. This access to such a big and vibrant community also ensures that students can really find ‘their people’ and avoids situations where students are stuck in small circles or forced to engage with classmates that don’t share the same interests or passions.

This is something that Grace, who is now in year 13, has experienced since moving to online school. At her previous school, she was struggling with socialisation and felt that she didn’t really have a self-identity. At an online school, she has found she can be more herself. “A lot of people think that online school is about being alone, but I’ve found that without the physical element, I can express myself better,” Grace explains.  Subsequently, the majority of her closest friends are from her online school and many she has met offline too. “I feel like I’ve met my people,” she says.

Isabella, who is in year 10, has also found that her experience of socialising at an online school has suited her much more than previous bricks and mortar schools. With her father’s job meaning the family moves country every three years, she has always previously struggled forming new friendships at the schools she joins. “I’m always the ‘new’ student, and it’s tough,” she says. After experiences with bullying, she found that online school is an environment she can thrive in. “You don’t have to turn on your camera or use your microphones if you’re not feeling comfortable. I’m not really a ‘social’ person, but I have made some friends here because we have these breakout rooms where we can talk to each other,” she adds.

While young people might not be meeting their fellow students physically every day, online schools put in place extensive measures to ensure that socialising is available for those who want to. This can be seen clearly at King’s InterHigh, the UK’s leading global online school which welcomes children aged 7 to 19 from across the world. Here, students join a warm and welcoming community with a huge range of opportunities for socialising. There’s dozens of clubs and societies for students across all year groups, representing a vast range of interests from chess to technology, sculpture to debate. Throughout the yearly student calendar, there are a number of events, showcases, and competitions of all kinds that provide a chance to socialise in different settings. Some happen internally, like the King’s InterHigh Arts Festival, while others allow students to interact with peers from outside their school when attending events like the International Robotics Competition.

Assemblies bring students together on a weekly basis and give them the chance to celebrate each other’s achievements, hear from their Student Council representatives, and find out what’s coming up at school. Each student is also assigned to one of the school’s eight houses and these smaller, tight-knit communities bring students a sense of belonging and camaraderie. Additionally, inter-house competitions are a fun and friendly way for students to engage and bond.

Although much socialising can come as a result of activities organised by the school, students at King’s InterHigh who are aged over 13 can continue building these relationships in a more informal setting thanks to the in-house, monitored, social media platform. Restricted solely to school students, the platform is safe, secure, and monitored to ensure a positive socialising environment for all those who choose to use it.

Online schools don’t just offer opportunities to socialise online but also offer ample opportunities to cement these connections in offline settings. At King’s InterHigh, there are global meet-ups throughout the year which bring together families allowing both children and parents and guardians to connect in real life. Regular educational school trips, from Geography excursions to science practical exams at other Inspired schools (the group of premium schools of which King’s InterHigh is part of) also allow children to socialise and have fun together in different settings.

Meanwhile, the annual summer camps, themed around a variety of interests and passions, including adventure sports, fashion, football, and tennis, are open to students across all Inspired schools and are held at spectacular Inspired campuses worldwide. Furthermore, the Inspired Global Exchange Programme offers a range of school exchange opportunities, lasting from one week to a full academic year.

Choosing where to educate your children is a big decision for any parent or guardian that involves many factors. However, when it comes to the social benefits, for the right child, online schools offer something truly transformative. To find out more about King’s InterHigh and whether it might be the right learning choice for your family, visit King’s InterHigh

From fry-ups to Michelin stars – Tenerife is now a foodie paradise

Tenerife now boasts more Michelin-starred restaurants than the whole of Wales. This is no mean feat for an island with a reputation built on package holidays, fry-ups and pubs owned by retired British footballers. To someone who hasn’t visited for a couple of decades, this dramatic change may seem like a scarcely believable metamorphosis. And yet the accolades keep coming.

“Tenerife has become a top gastronomic destination, driven by a shift in mindset among chefs, producers, and investors,” beams Erlantz Gorostiza, executive chef of Tenerife’s two Michelin-starred M.B restaurant, which has become a microcosm for the island’s dramatic change.

Today, this Macaronesian isle boasts a whopping 10 Michelin stars, with one hotel alone boasting more Michelin stars than any other in Spain.

“When I arrived on the island 16 years ago, the first signs of transformation were visible,” Gorostiza continues. “[Businesses have been] supported by both public and private investment. The Ritz-Carlton Tenerife, Abama, has long championed local produce and the island’s circular economy. Thanks to this and similar projects, haute cuisine has advanced rapidly, turning Tenerife into a culinary hotspot.”

Having visited Tenerife as a journalist every year since 1998, the Michelin mushrooming hasn’t taken me totally by surprise. I’ve long extolled the delights of boat-fresh local fish like cherne and vieja, and the bountiful fruit and vegetables the eternal spring climate serves up. There is delicious palm honey too, remarkable cheese and the lip-smacking mojo sauces. I’ve witnessed the wine industry refine itself into small producers focused on quality over quantity.

“At the heart of this gastronomic evolution is a deep commitment to local products,” says Gorostiza. “The recognition and elevation of exceptional ingredients – many of them endemic – have played a crucial role in establishing Tenerife’s unique position.”

Tenerife has always had fantastic traditional restaurants beyond the resort towns. Take Restaurante Los Abrigos, where I’ve returned on most of my visits to Tenerife. The fresh seafood heaves from a display alive with shellfish and white fish plucked from the waters just outside the doors.

Order bocinegro if they have it (a fish so delicious it doesn’t need garlic), spice those wrinkly potatoes (the dinky black ones) with that irresistible mojo rojo sauce and wash it down with a glass of bone-dry bodegas tajinaste blanco seco – now you have a sublime, thoroughly local, life-affirming treat.

The raw materials have always been there, but has the appetite been lacking? Literally. It is only over the last couple of decades that Tenerife has started to move away from focusing on a mass market that is content with two-star hotels with dodgy buffets rather than foodie accolades.

Most startling has been the expansion of luxury hotels from Costa Adeje spreading through La Caleta. Today, there is demand from discerning diners who know chorizo should never be anywhere near paella (sorry, Jamie Oliver) and that the best bit is found at the bottom of the pan – what the uninitiated sometimes complain is burnt to exasperated waiters – the caramelised socarrat.

As tourist tastes have expanded beyond simple and traditional, or the blandness of international comfort food, so has the dining. The pace of change has been impressive: it was only 15 years ago that M.B put the island on the foodie map by snaring the first Michelin star.

To see just how far the island has come, we travel along the cobalt ocean to another luxury oasis, the Royal Hideaway, Corales. A decade ago, the island had just three Michelin-starred restaurants, yet this hotel alone sports a trio of its own. In 2015, Il Bocconcino joined the hotel’s one-star San Ho and two-star El Rincon de Juan Carlos to take the hotel’s total star count to four. No single hotel in Spain boasts more.

Read more: Why the Canary Islands should be your next holiday destination

Dining on the sun-dappled terrace at Il Bocconcino is an utter joy, with the Atlantic gently rumbling in the background. Chef Niki Pavanelli’s tasting menu features local tuna and creamy salmorejo, a gazpacho-style tomato and bread soup. There’s a nod to Italian tradition by way of a perfectly al dente carbonara, and aged balsamic swirled into melted parmigiano. The wine pairing kicks off with an excellent Italian champagne doppelganger and soars with a sublime 2018 Amarone Riserva. Two stars here would not be a surprise.

“Our style of cooking at Il Bocconcino is focused on blending Italian cuisine, where I’m from, with locally sourced ingredients,” Pavanelli tells me. “Tenerife is rich in local produce thanks to the volcanic soil, warm temperatures, and the incredible variety of seafood. [The island’s] food scene is really transforming, and we are excited to be part of this evolution, creating dishes that celebrate innovation and rich culinary traditions.”

Read more: Best budget-friendly hotels in Tenerife for families, solo travellers and couples

The upward trajectory looks set to continue. Donaire was awarded its first star in 2025, joining existing one-star Haydee, Taste 1973 and Nub. Others wait in the wings. The Ritz-Carlton, Abama, may have closed its other star eatery, Kabuki, but new Japanese fusion restaurant Akira Back is reaching for a star with its sublime tasting menu that weaves an expertly curated list of Canarian wines around delightful Japanese fusion dishes. A highlight is cod-like local cherne fish served with a beurre blanc spiked with soy. An unlikely yet brilliant combination. A dish of Canarian potatoes served with palm honey has a similarly thrilling effect on the tastebuds.

In Madrid, Gofio restaurant is gloriously symbolic of how Tenerife has changed. Chefs Safe Cruz and partner Aida Gonzalez are proud Tinerfeños and have wowed locals in Madrid with their Michelin-star menu, showcasing traditional Canarian dishes and flavours. Today, Tenerife boasts more Michelin stars per capita than Madrid and is bucking the trend of parachuting in mainland chefs to run its restaurants.

Read more: Best luxury hotels in Tenerife for sophisticated retreats and adults-only spa escapes

The last word goes to the restaurant that started it all, M.B. Gorostiza, reclining in the Macaronesian sun, looks back at his two-Michelin-star gastronomic temple and smiles broadly. “Tenerife has made remarkable progress in recent years, and the best is yet to come.”

How to do it

The Ritz-Carlton, Abama, remains Tenerife’s finest hotel, enjoying its own barranco (gorge) among the banana plantations; its own stretch of beach too. Doubles from £214, including breakfast.

EasyJet flies to Tenerife from a number of UK airports, with flights from London Gatwick starting at £65.98 return.

Robin McKelvie was hosted by Ritz-Carlton, Abama

A protest vote is a democratic safety valve: but use it with care

If you live in one of the parts of England that is voting on Thursday, we encourage you, above all, to vote. The Independent does not tell its readers how to vote but, like a benign constitutional monarch, it sometimes encourages and warns. Turnout is usually low for local elections, but voting is important and however you intend to cast your vote we urge you to take part in the democratic process.

The opinion polls suggest that Nigel Farage’s Reform UK will do well. It is poised to win the Runcorn and Helmsby parliamentary by-election, which is also being held on Thursday, and to win the mayoralties of Lincolnshire, Hull and East Yorkshire, and Doncaster. The party is likely to win hundreds of local council seats and may end up in control of some authorities, either by itself or in power-sharing arrangements with others.

Reform’s success will be dismissed by the Labour and Conservative parties as “a protest vote”. Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, was dismissive before a single vote had been cast, saying: “Protest is in the air; protest parties are doing well at the moment.”

Unfortunately for her, if a governing party is unpopular, and the Labour Party undoubtedly is, you would normally expect the official opposition to give voice to that discontent and to benefit accordingly in mid-term elections.

What is unusual is that both the two main traditional parties are unpopular at the same time. The Conservatives have only just been rejected by the voters in the most emphatic terms, and it will take some time before they will be allowed a hearing. What was more surprising, perhaps, was the speed and extent of the disillusionment with the Labour government. Never before has a “landslide” general election victory been obtained on such a low share of the vote; and never before has such a triumph turned so quickly into disappointment.

It is no wonder therefore that Reform will do well, and well enough possibly to eclipse the success of other “protest parties”. The Liberal Democrats, well established in local government and long experienced in harvesting defectors from other parties, are also likely to do well on Thursday. The Green Party and pro-Palestinian independents may also pick up support from disillusioned Labour voters.

None of these should be dismissed as mere “protest” votes, as if they were a temporary, misguided and unserious diversion. Purists will say that it is a mistake to use a vote for a local councillor or regional mayor to express dissatisfaction with government policy on immigration, the cost of living or the NHS. This is to overlook the right of voters to use the system in whatever way they see fit. A so-called protest vote is an important democratic safety valve, a way for citizens to use the electoral machinery to send a message.

But – and this is where The Independent issues a warning – elections are about who holds power. Protest is democratic and necessary, but if it gives you a council run by incompetents, ideologues and conspiracy theorists, you are unlikely to benefit as a resident. Mr Farage’s party ought to be given the chance to prove that its representatives are none of these things, but the record of his previous political vehicles is not promising.

These local elections are about who can be trusted to empty the bins – and it is fortunate indeed for the Labour Party that there are no elections in Birmingham this year – but they are also part of the national political story. Two stories in particular. One is whether Labour can recover from the mess it has made of its first nine months in government. The other is the struggle for the leadership of the opposition, not just the one between Ms Badenoch and Mr Farage, but that between Ms Badenoch and Robert Jenrick, the rival she defeated last year.

Whether you disparage them as protest votes or not, they are votes, and they will help determine our future, locally and nationally. Use them carefully.