Alan Titchmarsh 'fears for the future' and shares concerns over 'insulting' backlash
Alan Titchmarsh has voiced his concerns about the future following a wave of online criticism.
The former host of Gardeners' World is worried that an over-reliance on technology could lead to people losing touch with nature. This concern has led Alan to utilise technology in order to assist budding gardeners.
The 76-year-old frequently posts gardening advice on his social media platform, Gardening with Alan Titchmarsh. However, he admits that there's a darker side to social media, as many have taken issue with his comments regarding avocados.
The TV personality encouraged people to swap the trendy fruit for more cereal consumption, arguing it's better for the environment. This sparked a backlash from trade bodies who argue that avocados have a "positive ecological footprint than often believed".
This experience has led Alan to express his worry about a world where people are overly dependent on social media. He believes it "encourages bitterness and arguing."
In a chat with The Telegraph, he expressed: "I'm fearful of a world that relies more and more on technology and social media, because it reduces the connection with the outside world and nature, and in turn reduces the connection with the bigger picture of taking care of it. You need to feel and experience nature or see it."
While Alan acknowledges that people will inherently have differences of opinion, he advocates for a society where disagreements aren't laced with "insulting" remarks. He clarifies his stance on social media by saying: "Social media is both a good servant and a bad master. I'm not a Luddite and I'm not saying social media shouldn't exist. Just that it seems to encourage a lot of bitterness and arguing."
He further notes the disproportionate attention that his comments on mundane topics like avocados receive online, asserting: "Just look at the way my avocado comments have blown up over the years. You're allowed your opinion, and I'm allowed mine. You can disagree but you can do so without being disagreeable and insulting."
Alan actively contributes to his social media pages, posting useful advice on growing fruits and veggies from home, cultivating small garden spaces, and raising plants from seeds. He took his green fingers digital with the launch of his YouTube channel last month.
Embarking on a distinguished media journey nearly 50 years ago, Alan initially cut his teeth editing gardening books in the 1970s, eventually publishing books of his own creation.
He made the leap into broadcasting in 1977 with Radio 4 and later shifted to television in 1983, becoming a familiar face as the host of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Today, you can catch him presenting Love Your Weekend with Alan Titchmarsh on ITV One every Sunday morning.
Television viewers can settle in at 9.30am to watch Alan chat with notable figures including actor Larry Lamb, screenwriter Lynda La Plante, and presenter Kirsty Gallacher on the show.
The programme also promises segments with Camilla Bassett-Smith planting veggies and updates from shepherdess Susie Parish on her adorable litter of border collie pups.
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Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Daily Mail
Aviation expert questions ‘missing seconds' in Air India disaster report with timestamps that ‘don't match up'
An aviation expert has demanded answers over the unexplained 10 seconds before the tragic Air India crash that killed 260 people, saying: 'The timestamps just don't match up.' A preliminary report into the tragedy revealed that before the crash, two fuel switches - which are used to start or shut down the engines and are typically left on during flight - were moved from 'Run' to 'Cutoff', depriving the engines of fuel. The report also revealed there had been confusion in the cabin when Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and his co-pilot Clive Kunder, 28, realised the fault, before desperate attempts were made to flick them back. In an inteview with Piers Morgan on his YouTube show Uncensored, Captain Kishore Chinta - a military aviator and former air accident investigator - said that unexplained actions and delays during a 10-second window after takeoff are central to understanding what went wrong with Boeing's 787 Dreamliner. He said: 'The timestamps just don't match up. And if it took one second to put out both the switches quickly, why did it take four seconds to put them back on?' 'Practically, whatever happened, happened in the first 10 seconds from the lift off. The timestamp doesn't match up', Chinta added. The doomed aircraft took off at 8:08:39 seconds in Ahmedebad for its journey to London. About three seconds later, the jet with 242 people on board reached its maximum recorded airspeed. But within the space of just one second, both of the plane's engine fuel switches turned off from its run positions. In addition, the report did not reveal any further conversation between the two pilots during in the moments before the disaster. It would take another 10 seconds before the first fuel switch was moved back to its run position, and another four seconds after that for the second switch to snap back, according to a sequence laid out in the official preliminary report on the fatal crash. Following the preliminary report, questions have been raised over the intentions of the pilot of the Air India plane Captain Sabharwal, with some commentators believing the commercial flight was brought down deliberately. The veteran aviator, who had more than 8,200 hours in the cockpit, is being looked into by investigators over suggestions he turned off the plane's fuel switches, causing it to lose power. But Captain Chinta blasted this theory and said: 'We're doing gross injustice to the pilots who are not there to defend themselves by guestimating and coming up with theories which are mere assumptions.' He added the key to solving the mystery of the doomed flight could lie with the fuel cut off switches and whether they can be turned off in any other way than manually. 'Those fuel switches went to cut off but the report doesn't mention anywhere that those, physically, those switches moved. That is what is the key to the entire theory. So, those switches, moved? We do not know. Yes, those shut off the fuel supply, which caused the engines to lose power? Yes. Why that happened, we do not know right now'. Internet star Captain Steve, joined in on the conversation with Piers Morgan and revealed that he believes one of the pilots was behind the crash. Seconds after taking off on June 12, two fuel switches in the cockpit of Air India Flight 171 were turned off, a preliminary report revealed Hoorifying footage showed the moment the plane crashed, with a massive fireball erupting in the horizon 'The only answer that really fits all of the parameters is that the fuel control switches, as they say in the report, transitioned from run to cut off. 'But that doesn't happen without human intervention, and anybody that operates those switches knows that they are spring-loaded into position. They have a detent to hold them there. They don't vibrate out of position. That's never happened…The only way you can move those switches is to put a hand on them and move them back and then move them back up.' But he has also called for more transparency. 'You know, what would solve all this Piers, would be if the people who wrote this report got in front of a camera and behind a microphone,' he said. Ed Pierson, Executive Director & Foundation for Aviation Safety and former Boeing worker, told Piers Morgan Uncensored that before concluding it was the pilot's fault all the possible system errors should be considered. 'There's a lot of things that need to be examined here, systems wise, before we again jump to the conclusion that this was a pilot making a mistake or even intentionally.' The doomed Air India flight crashed last month and killed 260 people. It had set off for London at 1:38pm and remained airborne for about 30 seconds before losing power and falling to the ground. Upon impact, it was engulfed by a huge fireball, claiming the lives of all but one person on board. Sources close to the investigation believe recordings of the conversation from the Boeing's black box support the view that the captain cut the flow of fuel to the plane's engines. Friends and colleagues also reject the idea Sabharwal was responsible, claiming he was a 'gentle soul' and an 'ace pilot' who had never been involved in any major incident prior to the crash. Neil Pais, 61, a former colleague of Sabharwal, told The Telegraph he was 'one of the nicest people you could ever hope to fly with'. 'He had absolutely no airs about himself, so humble, so respectful. Always a smile when he spoke to you,' he added. 'I never once saw him raise his voice or lose his temper. And yet he never compromised on work or safety. If there was an issue, he'd point it out, but always in the nicest possible way.' 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Investigations into the tragic crash have reportedly begun to analyse Sabharwal's behaviour after 'several' Air India pilots allegedly confirmed he suffered from poor mental health. He is understood to have taken bereavement leave after his mother's death. Although it is believed that he had been 'medically cleared' by Air India prior to the fatal crash. Friends also revealed Sabharwal had considered retiring as a pilot to help care for his 90-year-old father full time.
Scotsman
4 days ago
- Scotsman
Scotsman Obituaries: Alan Rennie, respected journalist nicknamed ‘Mr Stirling
Alan Rennie, journalist. Born: 28 March 1951. Died: 3 July 2025, aged 74 Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Some individuals are destined to become influential figures whose success in life will impact significantly on people, communities and events. Alan Rennie was one. A highly talented journalist, Alan's enormous contribution to the Stirling Observer, very many people (including me) and the royal burgh, towns and villages in which he lived and socialised cannot be exaggerated. In Alan's case, however, what set him apart from and above other similar souls was his humility, deference and humour. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Alan, I suspect, never had any inkling of the colossal regard and affection which many of us had for him. He was my first boss in his role as chief reporter for the Observer and proved to be a brilliant editor, tutor and guide. To his great credit, however, he had no concept of this. I am one of many journalists whose careers owed much to Alan. There is still an unlikely number of Scotland's preeminent journalists and media figures who owe at least part of their success to Alan. For me (and I claim no pre-eminence), perhaps most importantly, we remained friends for life. Alan Rennie was was a Stirling man through and through, a Son of the Rock (Picture: Stirling Observer) Away from newspapers, however, many other people shared the same extreme respect for Alan. Indeed, in the days after his death there was an outpouring in just about equal measure of affection for him as an individual and admiration of his professional achievements. In sport, he was rugby daft and a lifelong member of Stirling County RFC. Some stalwarts of the club credit him with helping County's rise to Scottish champions in 1995. That team's scrum-half, Kenneth Harper, said Alan's promotion in the Observer of all things County drove up interest, attracted players and spectators, and contributed to the title win. Mr Harper also suggested that the change in emphasis from soccer and Stirling Albion to rugby and Stirling County was a brave revolution that had never been done previously. Alan was also a keen golfer and was a member of Stirling Golf Club for many years. In his younger days, he played football to a very decent level, turning out for Bannockburn Amateurs during the club's very successful seasons in the early 1980s. Cricket was another game he played, featuring for the Stirling Observer team in the Palmer Sevens tournament run by Stirling County Cricket Club; and he was known to take to the area's bowling greens from time to time. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Alan was a Stirling man through and through, a Son of the Rock, born in the Raploch, in the shadow of Stirling Castle. His father was a policeman who was posted between Stirling and Falkirk, which meant Alan's education was split between schools in the latter, but mostly at St Ninians Primary and Stirling High School in the former. His working life began as a trainee journalist with Outram, a company which then owned the Glasgow Herald and a stable of local titles. Alan started at the Herald but moved to the Perthshire Advertiser, where he became chief reporter before transferring back to Stirling with the same position at the Observer. His wife, Mary, said: 'Alan's mum once told me that all he ever wanted to do from when he was a small child was to become editor of The Stirling Observer, and he got that in 1982. In 1987, he was offered the job of deputy editor at the Glasgow Herald, and he swithered about it but decided against it.' It was far from journalism alone, however, that marked Alan as a very special person; he had deep roots in his communities and gave back by the bucket-load. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad He sat on – and chaired – the community council where he lived near the village of Cambusbarron; he was a Rotarian who toiled through the auspices of his local club for good causes; he served on the board of the highly regarded Smith Art Gallery and Museum in Stirling; he was a trustee of the William Simpson Residential Care Home; and he was, as mentioned, a grand sportsman. He parted ways with the Observer in 2009 after more than a quarter of a century running the paper, the severance prompting thanks from local people. Mary recalls: 'There was a letter in the paper saying that he was 'Mr Stirling' because he knew so much about the place. He was headhunted by Keep Scotland Beautiful because of what he knew and who he knew. He was there for three years until he took early retirement. 'In 1992, he was contacted by someone in London saying he had been chosen to represent the Guild of Newspaper Editors, of which he was president, at a conference in Colorado Springs in America. He thought it was a joke call but it wasn't. He went off to Colorado and had a great time.' A keen traveller anyway, Alan later took Mary to the same place and they became frequent visitors to the United States, journeying to Colorado annually. He also made yearly trips to South Africa with golfing chums. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'He would do anything for anybody and was well liked by his staff,' said Mary. 'He had a great sense of community; he was also a member of the Guildry of Stirling and the Stirling Hammermen; and he was chieftain of the Stirling Highland Games in 2004. "But he never did anything for personal kudos.' Another of his achievements was being a major influence in delivering city status for Stirling in 2002; the paper campaigned hard for the accolade. Alan was a loving husband to Mary, whom he married in 1987; she was equally devoted, as was evident during his last weeks and days when Mary was seldom away from his bedside, often sleeping in a chair beside his bed in hospital and care home. The best of company, he was well-known for enjoying a drink and over-imbibing on occasion. Famously in Stirling, he once approached the door of a nightclub in the town after a tipple or two more than was advisable only to be told he would not be admitted. 'Do you know who I am?' he demanded. The bouncer shook his head. 'I'm the Observer of the Stirling Editor!' he proclaimed. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad He was not, of course; he was the Editor of the Stirling Observer – and a damned fine one. His funeral is on Monday 28 July at 10.30am in Holy Spirit Church, Stirling, then Falkirk Crematorium at 12.15pm. Obituaries
Scottish Sun
4 days ago
- Scottish Sun
I transformed my dark and gloomy kitchen for just £150 using B&Q bargains with NO experience
HOUSE THAT I transformed my dark and gloomy kitchen for just £150 using B&Q bargains with NO experience A SAVVY woman has revealed that she saved herself thousands of pounds by transforming her kitchen all by herself. Natalie Stainthorpe, a dental nurse from Middlesbrough, estimated that it would cost her £3,000 to rip out her dark and dingy kitchen and start from scratch. 4 Natalie wanted to transform her dark and gloomy kitchen without spending thousands Credit: Jam Press/@everythingnatalie_ 4 The dental nurse decided to do it herself with the help of TikTok tutorials Credit: Jam Press/@everythingnatalie_ 4 she spent less than the £250 budget she set herself Credit: Jam Press/@everythingnatalie_ After moving into her new home, the 34-year-old was desperate to add some light to the dark and gloomy kitchen without it costing a fortune. The kitchen had barely any natural light as an extension had been built and the dark wood furnishings didn't help either. Armed with TikTok tutorials and a dream, she set out to transform the space without breaking the bank – and managed to come in a whole £100 under her original £250 budget. 'I just couldn't stand how dark and gloomy it felt – I wanted a fresh, light space where I'd actually enjoy cooking and spending time with my family,' she told What's The Jam. 'The kitchen before was in good condition, but needed a little bit of TLC and I had a vision for the room. 'We did a rough estimate of how much it would cost to completely replace the kitchen from a family friend and we were looking at quite a lot of money - around £2,000 to £3,000 - which was money we didn't have. 'I decided that I was going to do a budget-friendly makeover instead.' She decided not to get new units and opted for a few tins of paint and rolls of vinyl. Natalie roped in her partner and sister to help freshen up the cupboards, wrap the worktops and breathe new life into the handles. She bagged cupboard paint for under £15 a tin, snapped up bargain vinyl from B&Q and picked up all her decorating bits from B&M to keep costs down. Tradesmen quoted me £2.5K to wrap my kitchen cupboards so I did it myself for £62 instead and it looks so good The makeover took around a month, squeezed in between shifts and weekends, but the results speak for themselves – the once gloomy kitchen now bright, airy and looking brand new. Natalie said: 'Our original budget was £250 – I didn't want to spend more than that, so to come so far under budget was amazing. 'It was quite a dark room – dark floors, worktops and cupboards and I really wanted to lighten the space up as because of the extension on the back we don't get that much natural light. 'We found the vinyl easy on the straight parts of the worktops, around the sink was a bit fiddly, we watched a few tutorials on YouTube on how to do it around the sink to try and minimise any mistakes. 'My partner Chris actually did most of the sink area as I ran out of patience with it. We repurposed the handles that were already on the units as to replace 14 handles in matte black was quite expensive. 'We gave them a light sand and then we sprayed them with Rust-Oleum black matte spray paint and then sealed with a matte sealant spray. 'We got all our painting supplies from B&M to keep the costs down and budget-friendly – they sell such an amazing range of painting and decorating tools to help with projects like this. 4 Natalie shared her tips for other DIY novices Credit: Jam Press/@everythingnatalie_ 'I spent some time researching how to vinyl worktops watching videos on YouTube and TikTok. 'I also got lots of tips from my friend who has done lots of vinyling to change up her rental home.' Natalie, who documented her journey on TikTok, says the whole project took around three to four weeks to complete as she picked it up on days off and weekends. She said: 'It definitely wasn't a quick transformation but that was fine with us, we loved seeing it slowly come together. 'The hardest part for me was probably the vinyling, simply because it took more brain power than the rest, and a lot of patience - something I'm known to not have a lot of. 'We didn't encounter any mistakes, we just took our time with the project - apart from when I spilt paint on my hob. 'If I was to start this project again, I wouldn't change anything – I love how we took our time and worked together to get our final look in here. Rome wasn't built in a day and sometimes time and money restrict a quick transformation. 'I'm all for realistic budget makeovers and those take time. 'The difference it's made is amazing, it's now light and airy, it's really brightened up the room, I'm still obsessed with it now two months down the line.' 'We've had such an amazing reaction to our makeover, my friends and family said it looks like a brand new kitchen and it's had such a good response both on my Instagram and TikTok. Eight Easy DIY Tips & Tricks The ultimate guide for homeowners and renters: DIY expert's lazy painting hack will make decorating your home much easier Save time and money with this easy DIY tiling hack to transform a room in under an hour Avoid these five mistakes in your next DIY project Transform your kitchen with this renter-friendly DIY hack Noisy neighbours? Here's how to soundproof a room DIY expert shared her favourite strategy for painting around glass without tape If you want to give your kitchen a fresh look, here's how to paint your kitchen cabinets Five tricks to spruce up every room in your home for less than £5 'My advice would be to take your time, it's okay if you don't get a transformation like this done in a day like you can sometimes see on social media. 'My second piece of advice to make sure the longevity of your makeover is prep, prep, prep. 'Spend time prepping your units and surfaces for painting, you'll thank yourself later. 'It just goes to show, you don't always need a big budget – sometimes a bit of patience and a few clever tricks can completely change your home.'
