Mirror Daily Digest: Top stories from shop's return to Olly Murs' cancelled gigs
In this Fridays's Mirror Daily Digest, we've pulled together the biggest stories of the day from Olly Murs cancelling his tour dates to the new energy bill price cap
Welcome to the Mirror's Daily Digest, where we pull together all the best stories of the day from our News, Showbiz, Sport teams and more. This Friday, we're taking a look at everything from Ofgem's new energy price cap to last night's BBC Question Time audience applauding the takedown of a Tory MP guest.
Olly Murs cancels more tour dates hours before gig after walking off stage
This afternoon, our Showbiz team reported that Olly Murs has been forced to cancel more dates on his current tour after he walked off stage during his performance last night. Olly shocked fans last night in Glasgow when he told them he couldn't carry on after performing just five songs.
Having performed his song Kiss Me Like You Mean It, Olly told the crowd that his voice had gone and could no longer deliver a show that the audience deserved. "I can't go on," he said, before explaining that he would truly work things out so he could return.
The singer, who was due to perform in Manchester tonight, has confirmed the concert at the AO Arena won't be going ahead. "Never expected to be writing this today," a sad-looking Olly said on Instagram.
Crash horror as two teen motorbike riders, 16 and 17, killed after car smash
Early this morning, our News team reported that two teenagers had died following a serious crash between a car and a motorbike.
Emergency services in Salford arrived to Lower Broughton Road late last night following reports of a collision, before sealing the road off near a local primary school. police said that the two teenage boys, 16 and 17, were believed to have been riding the same motorbike before colliding with a Vauxhall Viva whilst turning onto a new street.
The two teenagers were rushed to hospital, but sadly died. The driver of the car, a 24-year-old woman, stayed at the scene to assist officers, and no arrests have been made.
BBC Question Time audience applauds at panelist's scathing put-down of Tory MP
Last night's broadcast of Question Time saw the audience applaud a panelist after telling a Tory MP he was 'not helping anyone' with his dangerous rhetoric amid a heated debate about crime.
Hashi Mohamed, a barrister and author, took exception with Dr Kieran Mullan, the Shadow Minister for Justice's criticism of a major sentencing review, which has called for a series of politically difficult decisions in the biggest shake-up of sentencing in more than 30 years. Dr Mullan, MP for Bexhill and Battle in East Sussex, argued it is wrong to let criminals out of jail early, proposals which are set aside in the review.
High street legend set to return 13 years after all stores were shut for good
Our Money team reported earlier today that much-loved and sadly-missed electricals chain Comet is set to be reborn after collapsing 13 years ago.
Online marketplace OnBuy.com has brought the Comet brand and is poised to relaunch the business as an internet-only store. Cas Paton, founder of OnBuy, said it planned to pump more than £10million into bringing back Comet - complete with its original branding.
Comet was founded in Hull in 1933 and started out selling batteries and radios, and grew to become a high street giant. But in what was one of the biggest high street casualties of recent years, the 236-store chain went to the wall in 2012, with 7,000 job losses, after racking up heavy losses.
Energy bills to fall as Ofgem announces new price cap - what it means for you
Another big story from our Money team today saw Ofgem announce a new price cap, meaning that millions of households will see their energy bills fall this summer.
The price cap is going down by 7% - although there is no actual cap on how much you can pay for energy. Your bill is dependent on how much gas and electricity you use.
For the average dual fuel household paying by direct debit, their annual energy bill will fall from £1,849 to £1,720 from July - a reduction of £129.
The price cap for someone paying by pre-payment meter is falling from £1,803 a year to £1,672, and the yearly charge for someone who pays on receipt of bill is going down from £1,969 to £1,855.
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8 hours ago
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The BBC is spouting gender nonsense again with its new trans drama. When will it learn?
An adult man does not know what it feels like to be a girl. But that didn't stop transgender writer Paris Lees telling us in his 2021 memoir. Of course, with What It Feels Like for a Girl, Lees is entitled to choose whatever book title he likes, particularly if he wants to also riff off a Madonna song. But now that the memoir has been made into a BBC television series of the same name, what it feels like for licence fee payers is another matter. Because, for a very long time, the BBC has run roughshod over the feelings of those not enamoured with the trans cult. Lees was promoted by the BBC early on, via appearances on Question Time. He also wrote columns for Vice and even Vogue. (Lees uses the pronouns she/her, but, for the purposes of this column, I'm using he/him.) You can see why he appealed: he'd had extensive facial feminisation surgery, was witty, and was, as was the fashion, 'feisty'. I objected to some of the things he said he now enjoyed, as a woman – such as being taken shopping and being cat-called. We exchanged friendly emails at one point, and then I forgot about him. Until this week, that is – on the eve of his new TV series. Lees is commonly referred to as a 'Doll'. This is an old slang term for biological men who 'pass' as women (dim celebrities wear 'Protect the Dolls' t-shirts in support of them). Trans people who don't 'pass' as women are called 'bricks'. It's not very kind, but there you are. In propelling Lees back into the spotlight, the BBC is pushing the notion of trans identity as fun and 'culturally significant'. It's also subtly sanctioning the darker side of Lees's history. On his 14th birthday, Lees went into a public toilet with a man. Even now, Lees describes himself at that time as a rent boy (though acknowledges he was also a victim of abuse). At the age of 18, he was convicted of robbery with violence for an attack on an elderly man and sent to prison. The man was severely beaten. It was there that he began to identify as a trans woman Yet none of this violent history seems to have bothered the BBC. Instead, it's tying itself in knots over what pronouns it should use to describe Lees. In the episode guide, it uses they/them to describe him when he was a biological boy (and known by his former first name, Byron). Then Byron becomes she/her when he self-IDs as a woman. This storyline of What It Feels Like for a Girl is also one of gay conversion, which is in itself questionable when conflated with trans conversion. An adult man can certainly know what it feels like to be a boy who is bullied for being gay and effeminate. But as Maya Forstater, of the campaign group Sex Matters, says: 'Presenting the idea of an effeminate boy 'becoming a girl' as an edgy coming-of-age story is presenting delusion as self-discovery. This series will promote a regressive, dangerous, impossible and fundamentally homophobic dream to another generation of gay young men.' The homophobia within the trans cult is why so many principled gay men have become allies of women like me. We want to say to boys that they can be effeminate, and girls can be butch, and none of them needs to alter their bodies. (In the new series, Lees himself is played by a male, not a trans, actor, which has of course upset some.) The Supreme Court ruling that said biological sex is real should have been a wake-up call to the BBC. Instead, it has left the BBC and many other cultural institutions reeling, because to question gender ideology in the arts world is to be ostracised and often fired. Far from being dissidents, the arts have bent the knee to trans orthodoxy to a sickening degree. Since the ruling, we have seen programmes like Radio 4's Woman's Hour struggle to get on board with reality. They have pandered to men who have transitioned, but are hostile and incredulous when faced with the likes of Helen Joyce, the incredibly articulate gender-critical activist who has been snubbed by our national broadcaster. We constantly have to read on BBC websites about 'women' who have committed rape. Male sports cheats are referred to as women. We have had a decade of this. I cannot call it brainwashing, because anyone with a brain can see it doesn't wash at all. On every salient point, from puberty blockers to single-sex spaces, the pushback has been real and righteous. The culture has to catch up. Even if Lee's TV series was commissioned some time ago, there has to be an acknowledgement that times have changed. For example, who would now make the ITV series Butterfly, broadcast in 2018, about an 11-year-old boy who believes he is in the wrong body and then gets puberty blockers? The consultant on that series was Susie Green. She was then head of the controversial trans youth charity Mermaids, but is mostly known for taking her son to Thailand for 'sex reassignment surgery' on his 16th birthday. Lees is hardly new to this game, nor a media outcast. Cath Leng, a former BBC journalist, wrote recently about a meeting in 2013 between Steve Herrmann, who was in charge of BBC Online and the BBC News style guide at the time, and two trans activists. One of them was Paris Lees. They told Hermann that the BBC should use trans people's 'preferred pronouns'… and thus self-ID was installed at the heart of our national broadcaster. Were the public ever consulted? What it feels like for a girl? What it feels like for this woman is that the BBC takes our money but ignores our views. What it feels like is being bullied for knowing that womanhood cannot be purchased, however many fairy tales you tell.
Daily Mirror
8 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
'Dyslexia made me feel worthless at school - but it's been a superpower'
Successful businesswoman and author Maddy-Alexander Grout was reduced to tears as a schoolgirl struggling with dyslexia. Having put her shame behind her, Maddy now embraces her differences and is showing support for Jamie Oliver's important new campaign Much like Jamie Oliver, Maddy-Alexander Grout does not look back on her schooldays with much affection. Similarly to Jamie, Maddy had to navigate school life with dyslexia, which saw her unfairly labelled as "stupid" and "slow". Now 41, successful businesswoman and author Maddy has painful memories of crying during spelling tests, and remembers how, even though the words were potentially spelt correctly, "the letters were around the wrong way". Initially, Maddy's teacher believed her difficulties reading from the board were due to short-sightedness, and so she was given a pair of glasses she didn't even need. Maddy, from Southampton, laughingly admitted: "I fudged the test because I wanted to wear them." At the age of six, Maddy was diagnosed with dyslexia, a widely misunderstood learning difference that affects a person's reading, writing, and spelling abilities. As a creative child, Maddy loved drawing, painting and reading, and had a particular love of comics such as The Beano and The Dandy. However, visual learner Maddy found she read in a "different way" from her peers, reading quickly but then having to go back and re-read certain parts. Reading aloud in front of the class was also a nightmare. Maddy told the Mirror: "I used to get filled with absolute dread when the teacher at school used to make you stand up and read in front of the class. I'd always stumble over my words and repeat words or miss words out, and I used to get told off for it, and kind of ashamed." In his one-hour Channel 4 documentary, Jamie's Dyslexia Revolution, the TV chef opens up about the challenges he faced as a pupil with dyslexia, pushing for early screenings and better neurodiversity awareness. Speaking with The Sunday Times, Jamie shared that making the doc had been the "most viscerally painful" thing he's ever done, reflecting: "I've seen so many high-flying, talented, grown men cry about this — I've just done it to you — the concept of being worthless (when you're) young is real. It's really triggering." This is something Maddy can relate to all too well. She shared: "I wasn't supported in the right way. I think with the right support, people who are divergent—and you know, that includes dyslexia—can really thrive. So what Jamie is doing to raise awareness is absolutely incredible. I can really relate to how he felt at school because there were times when I felt like that." Following her initial diagnosis, Maddy switched schools as she wasn't getting the help she so desperately needed. She liked her next teacher, who helped her to "thrive", but this was far from the end of her difficulties. In high school, Maddy received external support from an English coach, but didn't receive any extra exam time or other means of assistance now available for pupils who are dyslexic. Maddy recalled: "I remember this one English class being asked to read something from Romeo and Juliet, and I think I actually even got one of the main characters' names wrong. I think I called him something else that was not even in the book, and it was just like, 'Where did that come from? ' "But it was really hard, you know, imagine like standing up in front of 30 people, knowing that you're gonna get it wrong, like that's it, it's scarring, and it does stay with you as a child." Outside of academics, socialising was also a struggle. As a youngster, Maddy suffered the cruelties of being picked on, and also struggled when it came to making friends, "smothering" those she did get close to. At that time, Maddy hadn't yet been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a condition which often coexists with dyslexia. This common link is something that Maddy, who now works as an ADHD money and business coach, is keen to draw attention to. Looking back with a far better understanding of herself, Maddy now knows there was never anything wrong with her, aware that learning in a neurotypical setting was just a case of trying to "put a CD in a tape player". Considering what she'd say to her younger self, Maddy said: "Believe in yourself, you're not broken, you're just different." Although Maddy is comfortable in her own skin now, it's been a long journey to get there. From her early to late teens, Maddy felt "completely and utterly useless". Her ADHD also affected the way Maddy dealt with money, landing her in £40,000 worth of debt. She was thankfully able to pay this hefty sum off, using self-taught "tips and tricks", which she discusses in her ADHD-focused finance book, Mad About Money. Indeed, as well as accepting her differences, Maddy has learned to embrace them and is eager to show that there are many benefits to having dyslexia and ADHD, which aren't talked about enough. Highlighting how those with dyslexia can often be "really strategic thinkers" and excellent storytellers, Maddy remarked that "lots of dyslexic people go on to be really good entrepreneurs." Pointing at the prime example of Jamie, Maddy noted: "I mean, Jamie Oliver is an incredible entrepreneur. He's not just a chef, he's somebody who is actually going out there and telling his story and changing lives, and that's what I wanted to do with my book. "I think there is a common misconception that dyslexic people are not very clever when actually we are really clever, we just have different brains that process things in a different way." Jamie has spoken out about how entering the kitchen "saved" him, allowing him to carve a path for himself after feeling alienated by the traditional school system. For Maddy, this lifeline was public speaking, a talent which has allowed her to find her voice and speak up for others navigating similar journeys, through channels such as her Mad About Money podcast. Nowadays, Maddy is happy to "show up imperfectly" and encourages others to learn more about their brains so that they can show up as the person they're meant to be. She's also cautioned against shame, urging others to see the strengths in their "different operating systems " instead of flaws. Maddy is now mum to Ben, 10, and Harriet, 6, both of whom have dyslexia. Although she's seen improvements in how dyslexia is handled in modern schools, she believes there's still some way to go. Expressing her wishes for the future, Maddy continued: "I want there to be more education for children. Not just education for children who are dyslexic, but I'd like to see education for all children in school about what dyslexia actually is, so that they don't bully their friends, or they don't have negative conversations or call people stupid. "I want people to actually be talking about the positives about dyslexia as well because I think that's something that's not done enough. I think you need more people who have dyslexia who are successful at speaking in schools. I think that would be a really good thing to show people that you can achieve things and not to see yourself as negative." You can catch Jamie's Dyslexia Revolution on Channel 4 at 9 pm on June 9.
Daily Mirror
9 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
Mirror Daily Digest: Top stories from heatwaves to Brooklyn Beckham speaking out
In this Monday's Mirror Daily Digest, we've pulled together the biggest stories of the day from an volcanic eruption at a tourist hotspot, to an update in the search for Madeleine McCann Welcome to the Mirror's Daily Digest, where we pull together all the best stories of the day from our News, Showbiz, Sport teams and more. This Monday, we're taking a look at Brooklyn Beckham and Nicola Peltz breaking their silence on their ongoing family feud, to the health risks of the eruption of Mount Etna. Brooklyn Beckham and Nicola break silence in first interview since family feud exploded This afternoon, our Showbiz team reported that Brooklyn Beckham and his wife Nicola Peltz have spoken out for the first time since reports of the Beckhams' family feud broke. Brooklyn Beckham snubbed parents David and Victoria Beckham in a revealing new interview about his marriage. The eldest of the Beckham kids, who is currently embroiled in a family feud, said he has been 'captivated' by wife Nicola Peltz and wanted to marry her within days of their meeting. As the sad rift in the Beckham clan continues to rumble on, Brooklyn has broken his silence in a gushing interview all about his new wife in which he calls her his 'best friend.' Mount Etna eruption health risks from exposure to volcanic gases - key symptoms Earlier today, our News team reported that Mount Etna, which is on the coast of Sicily, had turned black. Our Health team then did a deep dive on possible health risks of the eruption, some of which could potentially be serious. Even if fire, lava and magma are unlikely to make an appearance, volcanic eruptions can pose a major health risk to people in the surrounding areas. This could mainly affect the eyes, lungs and skin through the acidic gases and ash released into the atmosphere. The International Volcanic Health Hazard Network notes that being exposed to volcanic gases can have a range of effects depending on how concentrated it is and the length of time a person is exposed to it. This can include suffocation and death if the CO2 or H2S is concentrated enough. Since 2007, the case of missing girl Madeleine McCann has been ongoing. Our World News team earlier reported some updates in the case, focusing on an upcoming search near the house of the case's top suspect. Fresh police searches are due to start tomorrow near the spot where Madeleine McCann was last seen. German police have requested the searches, expected to take place between Praia da Luz where the three-year-old vanished on May 3, 2007 and a house near the holiday resort where principal suspect Christian Brueckner used to live. A well-placed Portuguese source confirmed this week's operation was scheduled get underway tomorrow but said some preparation work may take place beforehand. He said: 'They will be land searches only. The main objective is to look for any signs of Madeleine's body.' Our News team have reported that Britain is set to be hit by a 400 mile-wide 'Spanish scorcher' as temperatures finally top 30C. After the record spring sizzle, summer is beginning with drizzle and a cooldown this week, with disappointing 16-20C highs over the next few days and soggy spells. But hot air blowing from melting Spain - which has ushered in 40C early summer temperatures across the Iberian peninsula - is due to blow to Britain after the weekend, according to weather maps. BBC Weather has predicted that the mercury will nudge 27C by next Wednesday and other weather forecasters have said 31C will follow, beating the 29.3C hottest day of the year recorded on May 1. Holidaymakers told to wear masks and get jabs as cases of 'new Covid' soar A big story from our Travel team today is reported warnings from a popular holiday spot to be wary of the latest Covid variant. The Thai government has urged people to wear masks, wash their hands, get vaccinated and avoid activity that could spread Covid as a new variant sends cases rocketing, The World Health Organisation has issued a warning over the new variant, NB.1.8.1, which has seen cases soar in countries including Egypt, the Maldives and Thailand. The new strain, which is said to be more infectious than previous variants, has also been found in the US and the UK. Now the government in Thailand has issued a warning after 257,280 cases of Covid and 52 deaths.
