Sarah Mullally becomes first ever female Archbishop of Canterbury

Dame Sarah Mullally has told of her joy in making history as the first woman to be named Archbishop of Canterbury while paying tribute to those who paved the way for the moment.

The former chief nursing officer for England also acknowledged the challenges ahead as the first female to be top bishop in the Church of England due to the “legacy of deep harm and mistrust” she said existed following past safeguarding failures.

Dame Sarah is now Archbishop of Canterbury-designate, ahead of a legal ceremony that will confirm her position as the Church’s top bishop.

She is the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury, with the role having been vacant for almost a year after Justin Welby announced his resignation from office, following failures in handling an abuse scandal.

In address at Canterbury Cathedral, Dame Sarah said: “I’m told that there will be much talk today about this being a historic moment and a joyous one for many.

“I share with you in that joy, not for myself, but for a Church that listens to the calling of God and says, ‘Yes, we will follow you’.

“I intend to be a shepherd who enables everyone’s ministry and vocation to flourish, whatever the tradition.

“Today, I give thanks for all the men and women, lay and ordained deacons, priests and bishops who have paved the way for this moment, and to all the women that have gone before me – thank you for your support and inspiration.”

Sir Keir Starmer also welcomed the appointment, saying: “The Church of England is of profound importance to this country. Its churches, cathedrals, schools, and charities are part of the fabric of our communities.

“The Archbishop of Canterbury will play a key role in our national life. I wish her every success and look forward to working together.”

Lord Evans of Weardale, chair of the Crown Nominations Commission for Canterbury, said he will be “praying for Bishop Sarah as she prepares to take up this new ministry in the coming months”.

Dame Sarah is the government’s former chief nursing officer for England, becoming the youngest holder of the role, having specialised as a cancer nurse.

She trained for ministry at the South East Institute of Theological Education, having studied at South Bank University, London, and Heythrop College, University of London. She is currently the Bishop of London.

While making history as the first woman in the role, she will be seen by many as a safe pair of hands, given her extensive experience.

She was ordained in 2001 and in 2004 took up a full-time ministry in the London borough of Sutton. She was made a Dame in 2005 in recognition of her outstanding contribution to nursing and midwifery.

While the Archbishop of Canterbury is automatically granted a seat in the House of Lords, Dame Sarah has had a place there since 2018 as a senior bishop.

Dame Sarah is seen as progressive on the issue of same-sex blessings in the Church – a subject which has seen strongly competing opinions among Church members.

In 2023, after a vote to approve blessings, she described the result as a “moment of hope for the Church” but recognised that differences of opinion remained.

She said: “I know that what we have proposed as a way forward does not go nearly far enough for many but too far for others.”

The appointment comes after an almost year-long wait since Justin Welby announced he would be resigning over a safeguarding scandal.

He announced he would quit last November over failures in the wake of the damning Makin review, which implicated him in the Church’s failure to protect victims from serial abuser John Smyth.

The review concluded Smyth might have been brought to justice had the archbishop formally alerted authorities in 2013.

In a job description published earlier this year by the Diocese of Canterbury, it was stated that the person filling the role should be someone of “the utmost integrity who is able to speak honestly” about failures and injustices in the Church, and a “servant leader, who shows compassion towards the disadvantaged and marginalised”.

Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell took on most of the responsibilities in the interim, and was one of the voting members of the body charged with choosing Mr Welby’s successor.

Health secretary Wes Streeting also welcomed Dame Sarah’s appointment, dubbing her “the nurse who became Archbishop of Canterbury.

“A wonderful choice. Kind, caring and compassionate,” he said.

Michelle Mone says she won’t return as Conservative peer

Baroness Michelle Mone has hit out at Kemi Badenoch and said she has no wish to return to the Lords as a Conservative peer after a company linked to her was ordered to repay millions of pounds for breaching a Covid-19 PPE contract.

On Wednesday, PPE Medpro was ordered to pay back the government nearly £122m.

In response, several high-profile politicians have called for Lady Mone to relinquish her seat in the Lords, with Tory leader Ms Badenoch saying she had brought “embarrassment and shame to the party”, and should have the “book thrown at her”.

In a letter to Mrs Badenoch on Friday, Lady Mone hit out, saying there seemed to be “amnesia” over her loss of the Conservative whip, and that she had “removed it myself by taking a leave of absence”.

She continued: “However, you will be pleased to hear that once I do clear my name, I have no wish to return to the Lords as a Conservative peer; that’s assuming there still is a Conservative Party before the next general election.”

She also said the Conservative government knew of her involvement and named former health secretary Matt Hancock, Lord Agnew, Lord Feldman and Lord Chadlington as among 51 “mostly Conservative peers and MPs” who introduced PPE providers to the VIP lane.

“So, Kemi, my role was exactly the same as all other Conservative MPs and peers who were trying to help provide PPE,” she added.

“If I have done wrong, then so have all the others in the VIP lane. In which case, you should be calling out for them to resign as well. That’s if you manage to work out what it is they are supposed to have done wrong.”

The outburst came as an online petition calling for Baroness Mone to step down from the Lords, launched by the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice, attracted 60,000 signatures in 24 hours.

The Conservatives later said Lady Mone had already been informed she would not be given the Tory whip were she to return to the Lords.

A party spokesman said: “Baroness Mone has not been in receipt of the Conservative whip since she took a leave of absence from the House of Lords, and she is not a Conservative Party member.

“Baroness Mone was formally written to yesterday by the Lords Chief Whip, and informed that she would not receive the Conservative whip were she ever to return.

“Under Kemi Badenoch’s leadership, the Conservative Party expects parliamentarians to maintain the highest standards, and on this Baroness Mone has fallen well short.”

Judge slams Sean Combs ‘inappropriate’ letter after victim backs out of giving statement

The sentencing of Sean “Diddy” Combs for prostitution-related charges is underway in New York, following a dramatic two-month trial that unmasked the mogul as a serial domestic abuser and drug addict.

The disgraced music titan, 55, who begged the judge for mercy in a letter ahead of the hearing, is staring down the barrel of a potential 20-year prison sentence after a jury convicted him in July on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution, also known as the Mann Act.

The charges carry a maximum sentence of 10 years per count. He was acquitted of the more serious racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking charges.

“The old me died in jail and a new version of me was reborn,” Combs wrote in a letter to Judge Arun Subramanian.

The prosecution is seeking at least 11 years in prison, while the defense has argued for a more lenient sentence of 14 months.

Combs is expected to address the Manhattan federal court for the first time.

Testimony from his ex-girlfriends delved into graphic details of years of violent, domestic abuse that took place during “Freak offs” – days-long, drug-fueled orgies.

Cassie Ventura, Combs’s ex-girlfriend, said she fears Combs will take “swift retribution” if he walks free.

‘Danger to life’ warnings as Storm Amy to hit UK bringing 100mph winds and heavy rain

Storm Amy is set to batter the UK over the weekend as the Met Office issues fresh amber and yellow weather warnings for every part of the country.

Gusts of up to 100mph have been forecast, with the weather authority warning of “very strong winds and heavy rain” in northern and western areas.

It is the first named storm of the 2025/2026 season, with severe weather expected to last until Sunday morning.

New yellow and amber weather warnings were issued on Friday morning. They show that rain and wind will span most of the UK on Friday, before covering every region on Saturday as Wales and the Midlands, east and south of England are all hit with strong winds.

An amber warning has also been put in place for parts of Scotland on Friday, moving over the north of the country on Saturday, bringing the risk of danger to life.

Met Office chief forecaster Neil Armstrong said: “Storm Amy will be an impactful autumn storm for many in Scotland and Northern Ireland, though impacts will also spread to northwest England and Wales, as well as a more widespread windy period for the rest of the UK.

Starmer a ‘handmaiden’ to the rise of Reform UK, Green Party leader warns

Zack Polanski has vowed to defend Britain from a descent into authoritarianism under Sir Keir Starmer, warning the prime minister that “our rights and our liberties are not negotiable”.

In his first conference speech as Green Party leader, the left-wing firebrand attacked Sir Keir over digital IDs, the proscription of the Palestine Action protest group and Labour’s decision to ban a handful of journalists from its own conference in Liverpool.

“This country has a proud tradition of protecting civil liberties – but once again a Labour government is cracking down on our rights,” he warned.

Mr Polanski said: “From terrorist proscription against protesters, to banning journalists from their conference, to diving into a rushed, evidence-free plan for digital IDs that are likely to discriminate against minorities.

“The alarm bells of authoritarianism are now ringing.”

And he said: “It’s down to us, the Green Party, to take a stand and say that our rights and our liberties are not negotiable, and we will do everything in our power to protect both our privacy and defend our juries.”

Mr Polanski said the proscription of Palestine Action, which is planning another protest in London on Saturday despite the threat of arrest against those who support it, “must be withdrawn”.

It comes after the home secretary called for pro-Gaza demonstrations to be cancelled in the wake of Thursday’s terror attack at a synagogue in Manchester.

Shabana Mahmood urged those considering attending protests in the wake of the tragedy to “show some humanity”.

Elsewhere in his speech, Mr Polanski warned Sir Keir is the “handmaiden” for Reform UK’s “dangerous and deceitful politics”.

Mr Polanski has used his address in Bournemouth to accuse Labour of enabling Reform UK’s rise in the polls, painting the Green Party as the left-wing alternative.

Offering a populist view, the Green Party leader vowed a wealth tax on the richest 1 per cent, an end to arms sales and intelligence sharing with Israel and public ownership of Britain’s utilities and public services.

And, accusing Sir Keir of aiding the rise of the far right, he said: “I am under no illusion as to the threat we face in this country: A march in London addressed by a who’s who of the far right.

“A party leading in the polls with plans to deport our friends, our neighbours, our family members. And a government, a Labour government who are the handmaidens of this dangerous, deceitful politics.”

He described Mr Farage as a “Trump-loving, tax-avoiding, science-denying, NHS-dismantling corporate stooge” and said Sir Keir’s Labour Party is “dancing to his tune”.

Mr Polanski was elected leader of the Greens last month with 85 per cent of member votes. Since he announced his leadership bid, the Green Party’s membership has grown by a third to pass 80,000.

The current London Assembly member, who will stand as an MP at the next general election, is hoping to cement the Greens as a left-wing alternative for disgruntled Labour voters. He has kept the door open to cooperation with Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana’s Your Party, but believes it is an unnecessary force and has called for its supporters to join the Greens instead.

Mr Polanski is hoping that the Green Party’s surging membership will be reflected in a growing poll rating, forcing Sir Keir’s government to lurch to the left.

“If Reform can rocket through the polls with a politics of despair, then it’s time for the Green Party to do the same thing with a politics of hope,” he said.

He added that the party’s primary focus will be on the cost of living crisis in the UK, but said it would not turn a blind eye to Israel’s ongoing bombardment of Gaza.

Mr Polanski said: “When Keir Starmer – in one of the most deeply cynical and morbid acts I’ve seen in my lifetime – decides to recognise a Palestinian state at the same moment that his government is an active participant in the murdering of the Palestinians, then we must never be silent.”

Eats, Beats and Storied Streets: A journey through Louisiana

Few places in America are as spellbinding as Louisiana. Streets are alive with music, every table groans with food that tells a story, and every river bend reveals landscapes as mysterious as they are beautiful. Whether you’re dancing to zydeco in Lafayette, devouring beignets in the French Quarter, or gliding through the Atchafalaya swamps in search of alligators, this is a destination which offers travellers an unforgettable blend of rhythm, flavour and culture.

Music that Moves You

A seemingly never-ending party, a stroll through the bouncing streets of New Orleans’ French Quarter is one of America’s most thrilling sensory experiences. Guitars crunch, symbols crash and horns howl on every street corner, from Bourbon Street to Frenchmen Street. This Cajun corner of the US has a deep heritage too, and the Preservation Hall – dating back to 1961 – is an essential stop. With its intimate time-worn walls and wooden chairs facing the small stage, it’s a shrine to New Orleans jazz and every note should be savoured.

But Louisiana’s music tradition goes far beyond the Big Easy. Beginning in 1981, the Baton Rouge Blues Festival is one of the country’s oldest blues festivals and the state capital is a haven of Cajun music. It’s also the home of the swamp blues, so to hear the best of these laid-back rhythms, spend a foot-tapping night at Phil Brady’s Bar & Grill or Henry Turner Jr’s Listening Room. And for a little backyard boogie from local Louisiana musicians, try and hit the wonderfully chilled out Bee Nice Concert Series.

One of the more niche regional sounds is zydeco, and these infectious beats driven by accordions and washboards are perfect for dancing the night away. Over in Lafayette, the lush outdoor Hideaway on Lee and the charming Blue Moon Saloon host high-energy zydeco and Cajun jams. For a deeper dive into this unique music of the swamp, drop by the Festivals Acadiens et Créoles for three glorious days of Cajun, Creole, and zydeco sounds.

Flavours to Savour

Louisiana has one of America’s most distinct food cultures, with Creole dishes like gumbo and jambalaya not found anywhere else. Needless to say, the fiery flavours found in these creations are sublime and it’s no surprise that 2025 is Louisiana’s Year of Food.

With its rich broth, often featuring a roux base and embellished by juicy shrimp and thick sausage, gumbo is arguably the quintessential Creole dish. If you’re in New Orleans, look no further than no–frills downtown spots like Coop’s Place or head out to neighbourhood joints like the upscale Gabrielle Restaurant who serve a smoky take on Cajun-style gumbo or the dense dishes plated up at Liuzza’s by the Track. And if you’re so enraptured by this unique stew, then learn how to make it at home at the New Orleans School of Cooking.

A Cajun rice dish that originated in southern Louisiana in the 18th Century, Jambalaya is also iconic down here and can include meats, vegetables, seafood and spices in its mouthwatering mix. The Jambalaya Shoppe is dotted all around southern Louisiana and is a good place to start, though make time to visit Gonzales – the ‘Jambalaya Capital of the World. It even has its own Jambalaya Festival every spring.

Remember to make time for sweet treats though, as Louisiana’s beignets are something special. Warm, deep-fried pastries dusted with powdered sugar, these gentle delights are the perfect cafe snack. Open since 1862, the Cafe du Monde is an iconic French Quarter spot to watch the world go by with a beignet and café au lait.

And if you’re here for Mardi Gras, make sure to sample the sweet colourful King Cake as the jaunty floats pass by.

Culture and the Great Outdoors

Louisiana’s diverse cultural heritage is as unique as its landscape. French, Spanish, African, Caribbean and native influences all converge into Cajun and Creole identities and that’s most famously reflected in the state’s sublime cuisine. But don’t miss the great outdoors, as Louisiana’s biodiversity is enchanting too.

Acadiana’s humid moss-cloaked swamps and bayous are one of America’s last wildernesses, and boat tours of these serene and ethereal landscapes are unforgettable, especially if you spot wildlife like American Alligators, beavers, herons, eagles and white tail deer. The Atchafalaya Basin, just east of Lafayette, is a particular haven and several airboat tours depart from here, including McGee’s Swamp Tours and Last Wilderness Swamp Tours.

Road trails through these bayous can be just as inspiring, and the Bayou Teche National Byway tells stories. Running for 183 miles from Arnaudville down to Morgan City, this serpentine route passes by ornate antebellum homes like Shadows-on-the-Teche, tranquil fields of sugar cane, breezy swamps and historic towns packed with friendly cafes, zydeco dancehalls and local museums.

Look out for the region’s lively 400+ festivals too, which often celebrate Louisiana’s local culture. The Festival International de Louisiane in Lafayette celebrates the links between Acadiana and the Francophone world, through music, art and food, while the Southwest Louisiana Zydeco Music Festival in Opelousas aims to preserve Louisiana’s most gleeful music genre. And there’s no better way of learning about the state’s people and heritage than at the various tours, concerts, talks and cultural events held in Vermillionville in Lafayette.

Tuchel denies rift with Jude Bellingham as he explains omissions from England squad

Thomas Tuchel has insisted he has no personal problem with Jude Bellingham and said he wanted to retain the same squad that thrashed Serbia 5-0 in England’s last match, as he explained why several big names were missing from the group.

England revealed the latest squad for October’s internationals on Friday morning, with the selection largely unchanged from the wins over Andorra and Serbia in last month’s World Cup qualifying. Bukayo Saka has returned to replace his injured Arsenal teammate Noni Madueke in the most notable change.

Jude Bellingham has returned to action with Real Madrid after injury and was named England’s player of the 2024/25 season this week, while Phil Foden and Jack Grealish have both found form in the Premier League, but none of the trio have been selected.

Tuchel’s side play Wales in a friendly at Wembley next Thursday before travelling to Latvia to continue their qualifying campaign.

“It’s only three weeks now since the last camp and the last win [against Serbia], the last performance. So the question was, why not bring the same group in?” Tuchel explained. “Because they set the standards and now it is about creating habits out of it.”

Tuchel added: “Jude is a very special player, and for special players there can always be special rules. I get this. But for this camp we decided that we stick with our straightforward decision to invite the same team. That applies also then for Jude, he deserves always to be in camp.

“I think there is an extra layer on top, the situation that he has not [fully gathered] rhythm yet at Real Madrid. He is back in the team. He hasn’t finished one full match until now, he has only started one match, so he is in the period where he gets his rhythm, where he gets back to full strength. But the decision stayed for this camp.

“He wanted to be called up, we had a phone call, there is no issue from that side. He just lacks rhythm, he hasn’t finished one complete match. And on top of it, we decided to go with the same squad.”

Tuchel apologised in the summer over describing Bellingham’s on-field behaviour as “repulsive”, a comment which he later put down to a poor choice of words in his second language.

Asked whether he has any personal issues with Bellingham, Tuchel responded: “No. There is also no problem between me and Phil Foden, there is no problem between me and Jack Grealish. Very special players. Phil is back to influencing games, deciding games for Manchester City. Jack is very close to [being] the best version of himself, a very special player, a very special character.

“There is no problem at all, there is no personal problem.”

Goalkeepers: Dean Henderson, Jordan Pickford, James Trafford.

Defenders: Dan Burn, Marc Guehi, Reece James, Ezri Konsa, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Jarell Quansah, Djed Spence, John Stones.

Midfielders: Elliot Anderson, Morgan Gibbs-White, Jordan Henderson, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Declan Rice, Morgan Rogers.

Forwards: Jarrod Bowen, Eberechi Eze, Anthony Gordon, Harry Kane, Marcus Rashford, Bukayo Saka, Ollie Watkins.

I thought I was past worrying about my weight – Mounjaro changed that

I know I am not alone when I say that, for me, silencing the weight-loss noise (or at least pushing it into the background) has been a lifelong challenge. But somehow, in the last couple of years, it seems to have grown even worse. Part of that, I’m well aware, is that I am in my midlife era and so is my midriff. But another part – a far larger one – is the media firestorm around Ozempic or Mounjaro or whatever shorthand we’re using for GLP-1s this week.

In just a few years, thanks to the advent of these drugs, the body image volume in my head has been turned up to 11. Everywhere we look – all over the TV, the internet, social media, the workplace, pretty much every time you leave the house, and when you don’t – there is evidence of unexplained(ish) rapid weight loss. Now, when I see an acquaintance looking gaunt, with her clothes hanging off her (not always her, but almost always), I no longer fear serious illness, I just assume they’re “on the pen”.

It’s not just that they’ve dropped a dress size (or two or three or four). Previously rounded faces become long and thin. Long-time foodies start pushing food around their plates, and the conversation often turns to the fact that they don’t have a thing to wear because nothing in their wardrobe fits any more. And not in the way the rest of us mean. And then there’s my friend who confessed that she had to tuck her stomach skin in with her shirt. She wasn’t exaggerating; she gave me a demonstration. She has since had a tummy tuck.

If, like me, you’ve battled your entire adult life and then some, to keep the body image chatter at bay, this all represents a major setback.

I have battled for decades against the internalised misogyny that has me judging myself on whether my jeans are a size 12 or a 14. I have learnt to (mainly) silence the voice in my head that insists losing 7lbs, or 14, would make all the difference. If you’d asked me, say, five years ago, I would have said it was a battle I had won.

Margaret Atwood famously wrote that “inside every woman is a man watching a woman”. Like so many women on the far side of menopause, I had finally managed to dial that internalised male gaze right down. Not that I could claim a healthy (or even unhealthy) disregard for my slightly larger waistline. But I was… at ease with it.

But now… Mounjaro is a permanent tinnitus ringing in my ears, a Jiminy critic Cricket on my shoulder, tweaking at my waistband, whispering in my ear. Just a little jab, it says, Gollum-like, and that seven, 14, OK, let’s round it up to 21 pounds, could be gone. Wouldn’t you like to get back in those size 28 jeans? Wouldn’t you? Just a little jab.

Or two. Or three. Or more. And how much? And for how long?

And that’s before we get started on the practical concerns like long-term side effects and what happens when you stop taking it. But I’m sure there’s an FAQ app for that. There’s definitely a Reddit thread.

Let’s pause at this point to say that I know many women who have found these drugs transformative. I have a good friend who used Mounjaro very early on, before the surrounding publicity reached its crescendo. After a hysterectomy, and subsequent surgically induced premature menopause in her late thirties, she had piled on several stone, losing sight of herself amid the spiralling weight gain. After a couple of months on Mounjaro, she had lost weight. I have no idea how many stone, but several. And she looks fantastic. It gave her back not just her body but the confidence to live her life. And she is very far from the only one.

But it’s not the women who really need it that I’m talking about here. It’s the rest of us. The women trapped in the echo chamber, just trying to go about their daily lives. The women whose mental health is taking a hammering every time they pick up their phones.

I want to be honest with you. What else are we here for, after all? There have been many times, particularly in the past year, as the Mounjaro frenzy has reached crescendo, where if I could have got hold of it, I would have. Please don’t yell at me. I know, all right? Just as plenty of other women who feel the same do. But knowing and being able to do something sensible with that knowing are two completely different things, and I’m still working on it.

A few months ago, I read an article about an editor who had seen off the stubborn post-baby weight with a touch of micro-dosing (the jury is very much out on whether this works, and you can’t do it on the NHS). In a month, she’d lost a stone and several inches.

I don’t know if I was just having a down day or it hit me right in my susceptibility. I think it was the micro-dosing that spoke to me. After all, if I was microing my doses, then I wasn’t going the whole hog. It was in fence-sitter heaven.

Within minutes, even before my thinking brain had kicked in, I’d hit the internet. Within hours, I had applied to countless clinics. One after another. Sending the requisite pictures and telling the absolute truth about my weight. (I had to step on the scales in order to do that. I wish I hadn’t. It broke decades on the what-do-I-weigh-today wagon.) To cut a long story short, every last one of them rejected me. Because, while plenty of people in the public eye who don’t technically need Mounjaro have found a back door to legally accessing it, that door is closed to the rest of us. Much the same as it is with everything else.

It wasn’t just the promise of shifting that pesky stone that drew me. Truthfully. It was the plentiful claims about silencing the food noise that soundtracks my everyday life. (Along with all the other racket in my head.) The constant “what shall we eat tonight, tomorrow, etc” that kicks in, often before I’ve even put down my fork on the previous meal. That’s what gets me. I have never been an eat-to-live person, and I wanted to be. It was that promise that really lured me.

In the midst of food noise and Mounjaro noise, my own voice of reason was drowned right out.

After my abortive attempt to procure a weight-loss drug, I marinated in shame for a few days: why wasn’t I a better, more well-adjusted person? Why couldn’t I, who has spent so many years and so much money, working on her mental health, suppress the chatter? And then I started to ask around. Tentatively at first, for fear of judgement (last time I wrote about my irrational longing to lose a stone, a subscriber messaged to scold me). And then with a sinking sense of predictability. I wasn’t alone. The sad truth is we (almost) all still want to lose 7 (or 10) lbs.

Most of the women I spoke to said they would, if they could; if they could get it, if they could afford it. These were not, on the whole, women who were massively overweight or with weight-induced health problems. They were, by and large, women aged 40ish to 60ish, who just wanted their clothes to fit like they used to. Women whose BMI (yes, that flawed system the NHS still uses) had strayed into the “overweight” zone. Overweight, according to medical law, but not overweight enough.

They were women, like me, who had wasted a good amount of time and money on menopause-marketed so-called natural GLP-1s and probiotics that claimed to burn off bloat, see off cortisol, and all the rest. They were, like me, women who, try as they might, could not banish the noise. Of food, of weight loss, of should. Women who knew better than to waste their brain power, and in my case my working hours, trying to source a magic bullet.

I thought I was meant to be free of that, by now, in my (gulp) 60th year. But no. Here it comes again, that noise. I have a history of disordered eating, as we call it now. (I’ve written before about my body dysmorphia and lifetime on a diet here.) It started in my teens in earnest, but has its roots much younger. I think I was about six or seven when I got it into my head that I had a “big bum” and therefore shouldn’t wear jeans. I know. It breaks my heart to even write that. I didn’t wear jeans or trousers of any kind for years. And the irony isn’t lost on me that I now wear little else.

I’ve been on a diet (almost) my whole life. There’s a reason (some) women with a history of disordered eating experience resurgence in midlife. Little recognised, like most things about middle-aged women, until recently. A recent study found that 3.5 per cent of women in their forties and fifties reported having an eating disorder in the last 12 months, more than one in 10 women over 50 experience symptoms of an eating disorder, while over 70 per cent of women in midlife are not satisfied with their weight. I’ll say that again. Over 70 per cent.

Even as we say we care far less what other people think – and we mean it. Even as we say that, like Nora Ephron, we wish we’d worn a bikini the entire year we were 26. Even as I look at all the photos of times when I thought I needed to lose weight and wish I could have seen then what I see now.

There’s the noise.

It’s about control. Of course. In perimenopause, our bodies are spiralling out of our control. It makes a perverse sort of sense that in the midst of hormonal and life upheaval, some of us might cope with it exactly the same way we did the last time our bodies spiralled out of our control, in puberty. This is not to say that weight-loss drugs are responsible for this, just that they are hitting midlife women where they are already wobbling and subtly, or not, turning up the volume.

There’s a lot more to say about GLP-1s, of course. And I’ll leave that to the actual experts who know what they’re talking about, but here are some of the things I’ve been thinking about: They are turning weight loss back into a wealth issue. It’s starting to feel like the 1930s again. Or the Sixties. Or the Nineties. Or…

And surely it’s not a coincidence that just as body positivity (and its perhaps more realistic cousin, body neutrality) was taking root with a generation of younger women and making some of us older ones reconsider, along come these drugs? Is it a coincidence that just as so many women are getting vocal, drawing attention to the way they are sidelined and overlooked, silencing the noise, along comes an amplifier with a billion-dollar budget? Maybe it is. Maybe I need to get out more.

But still.

The noise.

It’s there in the background. All day. Every day. On my Instagram feed and all over the internet, where, for better or worse, I spend too many of my days. And, I don’t know about you, but I’m yet to work out how to silence it. Or at least protect my mental health in the face of its onslaught. Have you?

Read more from Sam Baker on her Substack The Shift with Sam Baker