Tractors arrive in Whitehall for farmers’ protest despite police ban

Farmers have driven tractors into Whitehall for a protest on inheritance tax on Budget day, despite a ban on the agricultural machinery by the Met Police.

The demonstration, organisers say, is the latest act of protest against measures introduced by Rachel Reeves last year to apply an inheritance tax of 20 per cent to agricultural property valued over £1m.

And it comes on the day the chancellor is preparing to deliver her second Budget, against a backdrop of sluggish economic productivity and expected tax rises.

By 9.30am, more than a dozen tractors was parked outside Parliament, while more were seen arriving in the area, some with signs showing messages like “fools vote Labour” and “beep if you eat!”.

One farmer was dressed as Father Christmas, his tractor carrying a large spruce tree and bearing a sign that read: “Farmer Christmas – the naughty list: Keir Starmer, Rachel Reeves, David Lammy, Diane Abbott, Angela Rayner & the BBC.”

They repeatedly sounded the tractor horns while police stood watching, with rush-hour traffic brought to a standstill.

The gathering of agricultural machinery comes despite the Met Police placing restrictions on them; only allowing them to remain in Richmond Terrace.

For updates on the Budget and reaction – click here for our live blog

A force spokesperson said: “While people will still be able to demonstrate, conditions have been put in place to prevent protesters from bringing vehicles, including tractors or other agricultural vehicles to the protest.

“This decision was taken due to the serious disruption they may cause to the local area, including businesses, emergency services and Londoners going about their day.”

Protest organiser Dan Willis, a farmer from Berkshire, accused the police of throwing fuel on a “tinderbox situation”, also claiming it was “impossible at this stage to stop farmers from coming”.

The 50-year-old told The Telegraph: “The Metropolitan Police who have been extremely supportive all the way through have obviously now received orders from further up for us not to have a static demonstration on Whitehall. Instead they have offered us a small strip of land and no tractors are allowed.

“This is a highly emotive issue. We have farmers, most of whom left [their homes] yesterday, travelling across the country, and they are going to make their way to London and unfortunately they have now put us in an impossible position.”

The Telegraph reported that between 1,500 and 2,000 tractors were heading to London for the protest.

Farmers say the inheritance tax will hit family-run businesses, forcing the next generation to sell off land to pay the levy. It comes as direct payments for farmers are being phased out following Brexit, and replaced by environment-led subsidies.

David Gunn, an arable farmer and agricultural contractor from near Sevenoaks in Kent, said: “Inheritance tax is one reason [I am protesting], it’s going to cripple the farmers, the small family farmers.

“There’s all the other taxes they’ve been putting on us, and the prices we get for our produce and what it costs in the shop, we don’t make any money. Then there’s food security, farmers are going out of business.”

Farmer Mark Watler from Grantham, Lincolnshire, said: “The inheritance tax is just the tip of the iceberg. We’re not doing it for the money, it’s a passion. We just want a fair deal.”

Richard Branson announces death of wife: ‘My guiding light’

Joan Templeman, the wife of Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson, has died.

The couple, who married in 1989, have two children, Sam and Holly. Another daughter, Clare Sarah, was born in 1979 but lived for just four days.

Announcing his wife’s death on social media on Tuesday evening, Sir Richard described her as his “best friend” and “guiding light”.

“Heartbroken to share that Joan, my wife and partner for 50 years, has passed away,” the 75-year-old wrote.

“She was the most wonderful mum and grandmum our kids and grandkids could have ever wished for.

“She was my best friend, my rock, my guiding light, my world.

“Love you forever, Joan x.”

The announcement comes a day after Sir Richard posted a photo of himself and his wife on Instagram with the caption “Love this photo of Joan”.

The throwback photo shows Sir Richard punching the air, with Joan smiling beside him.

Earlier in November, he also shared a picture of Joan dressed in a black dress and a blazer.

She was seen smiling at the camera while Sir Richard kissed her head.

“Everyone needs a Joan in their life,” the caption said.

In an article written for the Virgin website celebrating his wife’s 70th birthday, the entrepreneur previously said he fell in love with Joan “from the first moment I saw her”.

She was working in a bric-a-brac shop in London’s Westbourne Grove at the time.

Sir Richard recalled that he had to “persistently hang around the shop and buy countless objects”, including an old advertising sign, before the pair started to date.

Their relationship began in the mid-70s.

In the piece, the businessman said his wife was a “very private person” who had “always stood by me mentally, emotionally and spiritually”.

“As the saying goes, behind every man there’s a great woman,” he wrote.

How Estevao conjured up Messi memories on special Chelsea night

Lamine Yamal and Estevao are both 18, both possess a magical left foot and both are already at home on the Champions League stage. They have another thing in common: Yamal has spent most of his young life being compared to Lionel Messi, pre-ordained as Barcelona’s next legendary figure at only 14 years old; Estevao was dubbed “Messinho” when he first emerged at Brazilian club Palmeiras.

Both have understandably tried to shun the comparison, and yet there were undeniable flickers of a famous Messi goal here at Stamford Bridge. Estevao still had defenders to beat when he received the ball in the inside-right channel 30 yards from goal. What he did next will be remembered for a long time by those who witnessed it, drawing Pau Cubarsi towards him before shimmying around the defender’s legs, holding off Alejandro Balde and crashing a right-footed shot into the roof of the net.

Cubarsi didn’t fall to his backside like Jerome Boateng did in the face of Messi’s weaving run a decade ago. There was not the same subtlety in the feint, nor the deft dinked finish. But on a night when the two best 18-year-olds in the world took up station on opposite sides of the same pitch, the only flecks of greatness came courtesy of Chelsea’s number 41.

It was the second goal in a 3-0 win which sent a clear message across Europe that Chelsea, the world champions, are contenders in the Champions League – albeit against a 10-man Barca team in the second half. Chelsea are temporarily up to fourth in the standings, at least before Wednesday night’s games, and their target of finishing in the top eight of the league phase is eminently reachable. Barcelona started the night on the same points but their hopes of automatic progression to the knockout stages now look remote.

Mikel Arteta will no doubt have been watching with notepad in hand ahead of the London derby at Stamford Bridge on Sunday. Chelsea are Arsenal’s closest rivals in the Premier League, and while it is hard to imagine the team that stuttered to such a flat defeat by Sunderland a few weeks ago putting up a title challenge, victory this weekend would move Enzo Maresca’s side to within four points of the league leaders.

Arteta will no doubt have taken copious notes on Estevao. The Brazilian was direct and threatening with the ball at his feet but his game was more polished than just dribbles to the byline. His decisions in full flow were almost always right, his weight of pass was usually judged to perfection, and he even used his slight frame to hold the ball with his back to goal and set up a couple of telling counterattacks.

By contrast, Yamal showed some of his effortless running with the ball but found very little joy against Marc Cucurella, who was typically dogged in his task. One Cucurella tackle in the box brought roars and chest bumps among the Chelsea defenders. Yamal went missing long enough for his parents to start getting worried, and when he finally found some space around the box, he made the wrong choice, dinking an ambitious pass to nobody in particular when the shot was on.

For all their similarities, there is one obvious difference between Estevao and Yamal. Barcelona and Spain have been flogging their prodigy for a couple of years now, and it has been virtually relentless. Yamal has struggled with a groin injury this season but has still been required to start 12 games, while Estevao has started his last three Champions League games – scoring in each – but has mainly featured from the bench in the league.

That is partly a result of Chelsea’s riches, with a squad that can produce two entirely different but equally talented XIs three days apart. It is also down to Barcelona’s horrendous spate of injuries this season, which has seen Hansi Flick with few options to choose from each week. It might explain a slightly withdrawn Yamal, although he didn’t seem fatigued so much as uninterested by the end here, the spirit knocked out of him by Cucurella’s defending.

Barcelona did make it easy, and Maresca’s plan was clear from the second minute when Enzo Fernandez dropped back into his own half to receive a pass from his defenders. There, he might normally take a touch and consider his surroundings, but instead he hit a first-time pass with pre-planned clarity over Flick’s kamikaze high line, a trench dug within an arm’s reach of the halfway line, and Chelsea repeated the trick over and over again.

Barcelona made a wonderful early chance when Ferran Torres slipped into the box and somehow contrived to bodge his shot wide of the far post with only Robert Sanchez to beat, but that was about the sum of their attacking threat. Chelsea continued their strategy of firing direct passes over the top and they created some clear sights of goal. Enzo twice had first-half goals denied, rightly, first by Wesley Fofana’s handball in the build-up and then by an offside, before Pedro Neto – playing as a No 9 – wasted a huge opportunity when Estevao slipped him through on goal and the Portuguese tumbled off balance before shooting over the bar.

But finally the breakthrough came when Barca slept on a short corner – they have previous for that particular crime in the Champions League. Cucurella’s low cross found Neto and a panicky Jules Kounde bundled the ball into his own net. Ronald Araujo was booked for dissent a few minutes later and was sent off moments before half-time for clattering into Cucurella, so clearly a second yellow that he was marching to the pavilion before Stamford Bridge had finished appealing.

Etsevao added Chelsea’s second midway through the second half as Chelsea dominated, before Liam Delap came off the bench to add the third.

Yamal’s night ended in the 79th minute, trudging off the field and shaking his head as he pulled on a jacket. Estevao’s ended two minutes later to a standing ovation. This was arguably Chelsea’s best performance since the Club World Cup final, on a night when they showed what might be possible this season. But it was also the night when Estevao conjured memories of Messi, and won the battle of the two best 18-year-olds in the world.

Why sensationally bad TV is so successful

If there’s one show that has dominated internet discourse these past few weeks, it’s All’s Fair. The widely panned Kim Kardashian vehicle, about a bunch of high-flying female divorce lawyers in visible thongs, has captured the world’s attention – for all the wrong reasons.

Clips of Kardashian’s comically expressionless face and voice while “acting” have cropped up all over my social media feed; Instagram has shown me countless reels compiling the best – read: most wince-making – lines of dialogue. Then there were the reviews filling up my news feed, notable because the show garnered zero stars – a notoriously difficult feat that only a handful of programmes have managed to accomplish over the years – from several publications.

Critics crowed over the terrible scriptwriting, questionable casting and wooden performances, while expressing surprise that so many big-hitting performers had agreed to participate. Speculation abounded that show creator Ryan Murphy must have some pretty serious dirt on Oscar winner Glenn Close to secure her involvement through nefarious means.

The result of all this trash-talk? Not only has All’s Fair already been renewed for a second season, it became the biggest Hulu Original scripted series to premiere in three years. The series immediately went straight to number one for Disney+ in the UK upon release.

This perhaps perfectly encapsulates the latest depressing trend in telly: making bad stuff pays. Not mediocre stuff, mind you. Not bang average. Not “schmeh” or fine or shrug. It has to be genuine, solid-gold garbage – so manifestly terrible that it will sink to the dizzying depths of the one-star review. Or, better yet, achieve the hallowed starless status.

In an overstimulated world jammed full of never-ending dopamine hits and distractions, the only way to cut through the noise is to stand out. A three-star review is death: not good enough to be worth seeking out, not bad enough to become its own object of powerful fascination. You must be superlative: the best or the worst. Five stars or zero stars. And, in fact, the latter is harder to get than the former (The Guardian has only ever awarded this accolade 18 times, for example) and likely to guarantee more eyeballs on screens. Managing to make a genuine lemon is the most bankable strategy going amid shrinking TV budgets and the threat of AI hanging over an industry in flux.

It’s easy to see this as an extension of online algorithms that have long created polarisation by rewarding extremes. Anger and rage-bait have historically been incentivised by social media; in 2021, leaked internal documents showed that Facebook prioritised posts that garnered angry reaction emojis over likes because they boosted engagement. Frances Haugen, a former Facebook product manager and whistleblower, told the British Parliament that “anger and hate is the easiest way to grow on Facebook”. (Meta has since amended its algorithm to “demote” posts that provoke anger.)

Forget sex – these days, hate sells. And that applies to our watching habits too. The very fact that the term “hate-watch” even exists is testament to this, while viewing figures prove that a critical disaster is far from a flop. Just look at the “success” of the godawful Sex and the City spin-off And Just Like That, which people despised and yet ran for three seasons. Or Emily in Paris, which has provoked fury from Parisians and the rest of the world alike while drawing in tens of millions of viewers and spawning soon-to-be five seasons.

Then there are the myriad structured reality shows, from Love is Blind and MAFS to Selling Sunset and the endless Real Housewives franchise. Viewers don’t put these on in spite of them being trash, but because they’re trash. It’s the perfect fodder to have playing ad infinitum in the background while you cook dinner, do the ironing or – more likely – simultaneously spend time looking at another, smaller screen. All’s Fair could equally fall into this category too: something to keep half an eye on while occasionally laughing in derision amid a three-hour scrolling session.

Making a certified loser, in fact, is such a winning manoeuvre that it’s hard to believe studios aren’t in on the joke. There are some real Hollywood heavyweights involved in All’s Fair: Murphy has created and presided over numerous hugely popular shows, including Nip/Tuck, Glee and American Horror Story. The cast features Naomi Watts, Sarah Paulson and Niecy Nash-Betts, who are all, alongside Close, listed as executive producers. Are we expected to swallow that no one in this experienced and talented line-up knew they were making a turkey? Far easier to imagine that they created an intentional dud, so sensationally awful it was assured to secure column inches and viral acclaim before the first episode had even aired. No such thing as bad PR, and all that.

My fear is that the more we buy into this hateful, hate-watching fad, the more we ensure our TVs will wind up drowning in dross. After all, when zero stars become more valuable than five, why shoot for the stars at all?

Woman gets life sentence for killing her children in ‘suitcase murder’ case

A New Zealander who killed her two children and hid their bodies in suitcases was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday.

Hakyung Lee, 45, a New Zealand citizen originally from South Korea, was convicted in September following a three-week trial.

The remains of her children, Yuna, 8, and Minu, 6, were found inside suitcases in 2022 by a family who had purchased the contents of an abandoned storage unit at an auction in Auckland. The grisly crime shocked the country and grabbed international headlines.

Justice Geoffrey Venning of the Auckland High Court said Lee would begin her life sentence as a patient in a locked psychiatric facility under the nation’s compulsory mental health treatment law.

She is required to return to prison when she is well enough and serve at least 17 years of her prison term before she is eligible for parole.

Lee’s lawyers argued for a reduced sentence, saying she was not guilty by reason of insanity. They said she was insane at the time of the killings, which took place in 2018 after the death of her husband. Lee had come to believe it was best if the rest of the family also died.

Lee had attempted to kill herself and her children with an antidepressant, but misjudged the dosage and woke up to find them unresponsive.

Justice Venning examined Lee’s background and an updated psychiatric report, which indicated that she was likely suffering from atypical depression and prolonged grief at the time.

The judge said Lee’s mental health did play a part in the murders, but her actions were calculated.

Lee was not able to cope with the burden and responsibility of the children after her husband’s death due to her depression, he noted.

“You relied heavily on him during your marriage, you could not cope when he became seriously unwell, and perhaps you could not bear to have the children around you as a constant reminder of your former happy life, which had been cruelly taken from you,” the judge said.

Lee sat quietly in the dock with her head bowed down. She remained present during the hearing at the court but watched the trial from a separate courtroom at the High Court.

After killing her children, Lee changed her name and fled to South Korea, where she was arrested in Ulsan in September 2022 after police identified her as the mother of the deceased children. She was extradited to New Zealand soon after.

The sentencing hearing heard how the killing of her children left deep emotional scars on Lee’s family, with her mother’s emotional statement read out by prosecutors at the court.

Her mother recalled that Lee had no will to live after her husband died of cancer in November 2017 and she regretted not taking her daughter to a counsellor.

“If she wanted to die, why didn’t she die alone?” Choon Ja Lee said in her statement. “Why did she take the innocent children with her?”

Her late husband’s brother said he “never imagined such a profound tragedy would ever befall our family”. He said their mother still did not know the two children were dead.

“It was my late brother’s will that I protect them,” Jimmy Jo said. “This is an ongoing sentence from which I can never be paroled.”

Cruise through Cajun Country on this unforgettable Louisiana road trip

A circular route from New Orleans takes you north along the Mississippi through Louisiana’s River Parishes to Baton Rouge. Loop through Lafayette and Houma on Highway 90, before returning to New Orleans. Whilst the 300-mile road trip can be done in a week, a fortnight or more best suits the southern laidback spirit to truly discover treasures along the way.

Best planned for early spring, when Louisiana jumps to its feet with music festivals and parties, or in the calmer autumn months when food festivals, gumbo cook-offs, and fall colours light up the oak-lined avenues. Here’s what not to miss en route…

New Orleans gives main character energy, even though the state capital, Baton Rouge, sits just 80 miles west along the river. Start the journey here with a day (or night) lost in the French Quarter, where lacy iron balconies and pastel facades are the backdrop to Jackson Square street performers and jazz music on every corner. Grab a coffee and oh-so-light powdered sugar beignet at Café du Monde, to fuel exploration of the city’s great cultural institutions, such as The National WWII Museum or the evocative Historic Voodoo Museum. Ride the St. Charles Streetcar past moss-draped oaks and stately mansions in the Garden District, or explore the city by foot to find your own adventure.

For a quirky day trip, drive across the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway – the world’s longest continuous bridge over water, according to the Guinness World Records – to find Abita Mystery House in Abita Springs; a curious folk-art installation of animated miniature towns and oddities from the mind of local inventor, John Preble.

Follow the Mississippi River north towards Baton Rouge, with a few stops en route. Explore Houmas House Estate and Gardens: once one of the largest sugar plantations in the country, visitors can now dine at one of the many restaurants and take guided tours showcasing the extensively-restored manor house and expansive gardens. Whitney Plantation, about 30 miles downriver gives a heartbreaking and evocative account of enslavement, and visiting these two plantations gives a sense of how both sides lived.

Baton Rouge emerges like a stately figurehead, rocking on the porch at the top of the Great River Road. A hub for art, music and politics, Baton Rouge is also a food mecca with fine dining, soul food, and the Red Stick Farmers Market – filled with homemade goods on the weekend. The gothic inspired Old State Capitol museum wouldn’t look out of place in a medieval fairytale, whilst climbing the current State Capitol building’s tower unravels views of the Mississippi river snaking through the landscape below.

Drive 55 miles westward, and find yourself in Atchafalaya National Wildlife Refuge – halfway along Interstate 10. The conservation area protects over 15,000 acres of hardwood forest and swamp habitat; spot alligators paddling through the bayous riverways, bird watch for woodpeckers, wrens and warblers, or just take in the impressive scenery.

Follow the sound of zydeco music down the Interstate to the dance halls of Lafayette. The heart of Cajun and Creole country, Lafayette is the ultimate place to tap your feet to this blend of French accordion and Afro-Caribbean beats. Louisiana’s French history is very much alive, as French conversations linger in the porchlight or come to life in Vermilionville folk museum, the re-creation of a 19th-century Acadiana village. Lafayette is also a food lover’s paradise. Try spicy boudin sausage from a roadside meat market, feast on gumbo as dark as a bayou at dusk, or savor po’boys and crawfish étouffée stew at a local café.

U.S. Highway 90 takes you southeast to the coastal wetlands of Houma. If you like it spicy, make a stop off in New Iberia and follow the pepper-scented air to Avery Island, home to the world’s only Tabasco factory and the botanical Jungle Garden of conservationist and hot sauce founder, Edward Avery McIlhenny.

As you travel further south, sing along with the southern leopard frogs on a guided swamp tour, spot another alligator, or drop into Houma’s Bayou Terrebonne Waterlife Museum to hear the story of shrimpers, oystermen, and how this slice of coastline has been shaped by cultural, industrial and ecological events.

With a suitcase full of memories and joie de vivre, head back to New Orleans. Every mile offers a detour worth taking; from the turbulent history and uplifting music, to watery labyrinths and astounding swamp wildlife. A Louisiana road trip invites you to slow down and enjoy a journey into the true Deep South.

For more travel inspiration and information visit Explore Louisiana

Keir Starmer’s ‘6-7’ gag shows he does have a human side after all!

Prime minister Keir Starmer should ignore that advice to never work with children or animals. The video of his visit to Welland Primary School in Peterborough on Monday is the first time in many months that the world has seen the natural charm of the man behind the politician.

He knew what the girl meant when she said she was on page 67 of the book she was reading. He joined in the “6-7” call-and-response, which was very much on the outer edge of my cultural hinterland.

It is, as far as I understand it, a TikTok meme, Your Honour, from a song by Skrilla about a basketball player who is 6ft 7in tall. It has come to mean “I don’t know,” as in “six, seven, whatever”, accompanied by a juggling hand gesture that even the prime minister recognised.

Starmer was literally down with the kids, sitting at a low table, at ease with the silliness.

Schools are always risky territory for politicians. David Cameron was photographed reading with a girl who had her head on the table – a picture that sparked thousands of caption competitions. Boris Johnson posed in front of a shelf of children’s books with titles including The Twits, Betrayed and Resistance. Longer ago, Gordon Brown narrowly escaped embarrassment when a pupil asked him what 13 squared was; but luckily he knew the answer – after buying himself half a second by repeating the question.

But Starmer came across as pleasant, cheerful and playful. “That was a bit wild,” he said as he emerged from the classroom. The teacher with him seemed amused, noting that the children usually “get into trouble” for doing the “6-7”. The prime minister offered a moment of contrition: “Sorry about that,” while the teacher reassured him, “It’s absolutely fine.”

Starmer then subverted this quintessentially British exchange by protesting: “I didn’t start it, Miss.”

Well, call me a softy, but I thought he came across well. I am neither a teacher nor a parent of school-age children, and although I am told by those who are that the “6-7” thing is extremely annoying, I think banning it shows a lack of imagination on the part of school authorities. So I found Starmer’s gentle mischief, in fact, rather attractive.

He even seemed genuinely friendly with Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, who accompanied him on the visit and appeared to enjoy the childish antics. He should be on good terms with her, of course, as she fought a stalwart campaign for him as Labour’s deputy leadership candidate, but it was refreshing to see two senior politicians so relaxed and comfortable in each other’s company.

The official message of the visit was largely lost, needless to say. Starmer and Phillipson were promoting the extension of free school meals for all children in families on universal credit – benefiting 500,000 more children, but not until next September.

The unintended message, however, was priceless: the prime minister is not just a bureaucrat with a strangulated public speaking voice – he can also be a decent, affable and mildly humorous human being.

When I explained to a Labour MP in Westminster that I was writing a positive article about the prime minister, they were surprised and asked what had brought this on. When I explained, they looked delighted and said: “I’m sure a grateful nation will turn towards him as a result.”

Well, maybe not. But it is worth noting, as the prime minister faces the relentlessly negative estimation of journalists and public opinion, that he can do “human” after all.

Multiple London councils hit by ‘cyber attack’

Several London councils have been hit by a “cyber attack” which could have compromised residents’ data.

Kensington and Chelsea, Hammersmith and Fulham, and Westminster City councils said they have been responding to a “cyber security issue” since Monday morning.

The councils, which share a number of IT systems, added they are working with the “help of specialist cyber incident experts and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), with the focus on protecting systems and data, restoring systems, and maintaining critical services to the public”.

A spokesperson for the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) said it is currently “too early” to tell whether any data has been compromised, or who could be behind the attack. It said an investigation had been launched, and a number of mitigations put in place.

“The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) and Westminster City Council (WCC) – who share a number of IT systems and services as part of joint arrangements – are responding to a cyber security issue,” it said in a statement.

It warned residents a number of systems, including phone lines, had been affected, adding it had informed the Information Commissioners’ Office of the issue.

“We apologise to residents for any inconvenience, and thank them for being flexible and understanding,” it said. “People may see some delays in responses and the services we provide over the coming days.

“We will continue working with our cyber specialists and the NCSC to restore all systems as quickly as possible, and we will be in touch with more information as it becomes available. If there are any further changes to services, we will endeavour to keep everyone updated.”

A spokesperson for the NCSC, part of the GCHQ intelligence agency and responsible for helping UK public bodies with cyber security, told Sky News: “We are aware of an incident affecting some local authority services in London and are working to understand any potential impact.”