Latest news with #StAndrewsUniversity
Daily Mail
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Inside William's rocky start at St Andrews: From struggling to make friends to being pinched on the bottom by a desperate admirer - and REALLY missing his brother Harry, according to royal author
Prince William 's time at St Andrews University in Fife, Scotland could scarcely have got off to a worse start - and he had his family to thank for that. Cameras flashed and royal fans screamed as the 19-year-old prince walked through the streets of the seaside town to start his History of Art degree on September 24, 2001. So it is no surprise he arrived in a state of some anxiety. 'I think he was really nervous when he arrived,' Colleen Harris, Charles's press secretary, told Robert Lacey for his book Battle of Brothers. 'All the press were there - cameras from all over the world - and it suddenly hit him. He was very unsteady for a while after that.' Fresh from his gap year, William, who only recognised one or two boys from Eton, instantly felt alone in the small Scottish town. With just three main streets - North Street, Market Street and South Street, the future king had not quite anticipated how 'boring' St Andrews would be. To add salt to the wound, a desperate female admirer pinched William's bottom as he nursed a drink at a local bar soon after his arrival. 'He was not impressed,' said one final year student who witnessed the incident. The prince tried to busy himself with playing water polo and football on Wednesday afternoons. 'As the term progressed,' wrote Lacey, 'the winter weather soon grew cold, grey and austere, and he found it difficult to make new friends. 'He missed his brother too.' So the prince left the small university town as often as he could, with the media reporting that he only spent two of his first thirteen term-time weekends in St Andrews. Travelling more than four hours each way, William frequently visited Highgrove and London 'in search of a social life'. His course - History of Art - was not filling him with joy either. Over the Christmas holidays of his first year, William told his father he wanted to leave St Andrews altogether. William pays for stamps in a newsagents in St Andrews in 2003 'He was miserable,' wrote Lacey. 'He had had enough of small town life - and all the travel arrangements that he needed to escape it.' After asking his father if there was a possibility to transfer to the more 'cosmopolitan' University of Edinburgh, Charles put his private secretary Sir Stephen Lamport to work. But Lampart and the royal spin doctor Mark Bolland argued that William would be considered a 'quitter', much like his uncle Prince Edward when he opted out of the Royal Marines after just four months in 1987. Additionally, Lampart and Bolland believed that William's decision to withdraw from one of Scotland's top universities would be seen as a 'snub by the Scottish people', according to Lacey. 'It would have been a PR disaster for St Andrews if he had left after one term,' said Andrew Neil, the journalist and editor, who was the Lord Rector at St Andrews at the time. 'We worked very hard to keep him.' 'He got "the blues" - which happens. We have a lot of public-school boys who get up here, and by November when the weather gets grey and cold, wish they were back home. 'William was a long way from home and he wasn't happy,' he added. After a long heart-to-heart with Charles, William headed back to St Andrews after the Christmas break in 2001 with a new major in Geography. The prince swapped from a degree in History of Art to Geography 'I don't think I was homesick,' William later admitted. 'I was more daunted. My father was very understanding about it and realised I had the same problem as he had probably had. 'We chatted a lot and in the end we both realised - I definitely realised - that I had to come back.' But things started to look up for William when he met Kate Middleton. Both were residents of the same gothic-looking hall of residence St Salvator's - or St Sally's for short. Famously, the prince was in the audience on the night Kate walked the runway in a see-through slip at the university's charity fashion show. He turned to his friend Fergus Boyd and whispered: 'Wow, Kate's hot.' Not so famously, Kate had saved William from an awkward encounter weeks before the fashion show. Just a month or so into his first term, William was getting 'seriously hit-upon' by a pushy female student. Both William and Kate were residents of St Salvator's Hall - or St Sally's for short In season six of The Crown, Ed McVey plays a young Prince William while Meg Bellamy plays Kate Middleton Swooping in, Kate wrapped her arms around the prince. 'Oh sorry,' he told the girl, 'I have a girlfriend,' and he and Kate went off giggling together. William had also placed a £200 bid to win a date with Kate at a charity auction weeks before the fashion show. Ah - the epitome of romance! The pair, who ran in the same social circles, then agreed to move into a two-storey, top-floor apartment in the centre of St Andrews for £100 per week for their second year of university in 2003. As well as playing water polo and football, William would swim with Kate most mornings at the Old Course Hotel. Their blossoming romance intensified when Kate and Will moved to Balgove House near the famous St Andrews Golf Course for their third year. Offering more privacy than their previous accommodation, William and Kate hosted dinner parties from the four-bedroom property owned by one of William's distant cousins, with the well-prepared prince installing a champagne fridge as soon as they moved in. Their new digs also allowed them to take romantic walks amongst the two acres of wild grassland behind the privacy of a six-foot stone wall. It is understood William would take a picnic hamper and spend the afternoon with Kate relaxing on a blanket with a bottle of cold white wine. William and Kate then moved to Balgove House, on the private Strathtyrum Estate In March 2004, news of the couple's relationship finally broke as the pair were pictured together on a romantic ski getaway on the slopes at Klosters in Switzerland and William came under increasing pressure to disclose to the world's media his plans for marriage. With just a year to go until his graduation, the young prince shook off the shackles of his relationship to go on a 'boys only' sailing trip to Greece and, according to Lacey, the yacht was staffed by an all-female crew. Kate was understandably unimpressed and the pair broke up. But a friend of the prince's was happy to reveal to Lacey that William did not stop 'pining for Kate' after their split. 'He keeps saying she's an amazing girl and the best thing to happen to him.' Determined to get their relationship back on track, William took the romance up a notch. The couple often enjoyed a cider at Ma Bells, the prince's favourite pub which was the basement bar of the St Andrews Golf Hotel, and sat down to dinner at the popular curry house Jahangir, according to Hello Magazine. Venturing further afield, Kate and Will were also 'regular' customers of the award-winning Anstruther Fish Bar in the coastal town of Anstruther - a short drive from St Andrews. After four years at the top-rated Scottish university, both achieved an upper second class degree, William in Geography and Kate in History of Art. In a photo later released by the Middleton family, the couple posed in each other's arms on their graduation day on June 23, 2005, but at the ceremony itself, they were not seen together. However, the Vice Chancellor Brian Lang gave a speech that would prove prophetic for the couple. He told the audience, that included the late Queen, Prince Phillip, Camilla and William's father Charles: 'You will have made lifelong friends. You may have met your husband or wife. 'Our title as the top matchmaking university in Britain signifies so much that is good about St Andrews, so we rely on you to go forth and multiply.'
The National
26-05-2025
- Politics
- The National
UK government intervened in Gaza genocide row at St Andrews University
Stella Maris, the rector of the St Andrews University, was criticised after making a statement condemning Israel in November 2023 and ultimately removed from her role on the university court – the institution's top decision-making body. The National has obtained the minutes of a December 2023 special meeting, called by the university court of St Andrews in direct response to Maris's statement calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, denouncing Hamas war crimes, and calling Israeli attacks in Gaza 'genocidal'. According to the minutes, the principal of St Andrews, Dame Sally Mapstone, said that the 'level of external scrutiny' of the university due to Maris's public criticism of Israel was 'unprecedented'. READ MORE: Israel-linked donor 'threatened to pull St Andrews grant' in Gaza row The National can reveal that the UK government, its independent 'antisemitism tsar', the media, and 'concerned' funders – particularly the Wolfson Foundation, a major donor with links to Israel – all became involved with Maris's case. Mapstone told the university court that Robert Halfon, a former Tory MP who at the time was the UK skills minister, had 'pronounced concern in relation to the rector's conduct and a strong interest into how it [was] being handled by the University'. Mapstone said that she had met with Halfon in her capacity as president of the industry body Universities UK. However, she added: 'But he [Halfon] insisted on using 10 minutes of it to discuss the situation in St Andrews in relation to the rector and our Jewish community.' Former Tory minister Robert Halfon's official parliamentary portrait (Image: Parliament) Mapstone told the 2023 meeting she could supply 'more examples' of external scrutiny – before adding that she 'had to' meet with John Mann, a Labour peer who was and is serving as the UK Government's advisor on antisemitism, often called a 'tsar' or 'champion'. Mapstone also said that the St Andrews University chancellor, LibDem peer Menzies Campbell, had been kept informed throughout. The university principal went on to describe the extent of pressure from the Wolfson Foundation, saying she had written a '12-page letter' to reassure them 'extensively and personally' after members of the Wolfson family questioned whether a £2 million grant 'could be supported'. St Andrews University was later told by the charity that the grant had been successful, 'but 'by a whisker'', Mapstone said. Sally Mapstone is the principal of St Andrews UniversityWhen the university publicly announced the successful grant in January 2024, they said: 'The Wolfson Foundation's support is a seal of approval of the quality of the pioneering research which takes place in St Andrews.' However, when Mapstone had addressed the university court the previous month, she made clear that the grant was successful 'not because of the quality of our application, which got some of the best peer reviews, but because of the concerns in the Trustee body about the situation at St Andrews'. 'It was felt that the reassurance provided by me as principal was important and sufficient to take the bid through,' she added. A St Andrews University spokesperson said: 'At no point was any influence brought to bear upon the university either by Wolfson, its trustees, or the UK Government. READ MORE: Keir Starmer 'wants Hamas to remain in power', Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu claims 'This is made explicitly clear in the publicly available minutes of the special court meeting of 15 December. 'Wolfson was one of several groups and individuals to raise concerns about reports of antisemitic incidents at St Andrews, and the effect of the rector's statement on the fear experienced by Jewish students in the immediate aftermath of the Hamas attacks on Israel. 'Those concerns were fully addressed and dealt with prior to the court meeting in December 2023. Maris told the National that the university 'were engaging more with outside voices than considering the impact within the student community'. Stella Maris is the rector of St Andrews University (Image: University of St Andrews) Bill Shackman, a representative of the St Andrews Jewish Staff Network and the university's interfaith chaplain, said that any influence from the UK government 'is very concerning'. 'I think that the rector's statement may have hurt some Jewish students' feelings, but it did not cause them any harm,' he said. 'Jewish students who support this war were offended. Jewish students who oppose the war welcomed her statement. 'Regardless of one's political views, no one should be silenced for expressing their opinions, especially an elected representative. I hope the rector will continue to use her voice to speak out for peace and against all racism, sexism and inequality." St Andrews Palestinian Solidarity Society said news of government intervention was 'not surprising'. 'It has become clear that [the university's] concern has never truly been with student safety, but with safeguarding the university's reputation,' the group said. 'Rector Stella Maris stood against genocide, and for the basic principles of justice and compassion which obligate us to oppose it. 'The fact that this has been made into a conversation about anything else is a sign of the moral cowardice of the administrators, the principal, the ministers, the funders – all those who put their personal standing over the duty to oppose injustice. They should be ashamed.' The St Andrews Jewish Society said in response: 'Considering the university receives funding from the government and is a public university, conversations regarding serious issues, such as student safety, can be addressed by government representatives. 'With raised concerns about Jewish student life on campus it makes sense that government officials would be involved. Jewish students continue to feel saddened and frustrated by the lack of ability demonstrated to understand these complexities around this issue.' READ MORE: Yanis Varoufakis calls on 'censored' St Andrews rector to be reinstated Following the December 2023 special meeting, the university court decided to launch an independent investigation into whether Maris' statement and her actions surrounding it breached the rector's role as president of court and charity trustee. In July 2024, the investigator, Lady Morag Ross KC, concluded that it was not 'sufficiently clear [...] to show that there is a breach of the relevant obligations' and did not advise dismissal. Nonetheless, the University dismissed Maris from her role as president of the court, saying it was 'for her actions and activities after she issued her statement, and because she repeatedly refused to accept that as a member of court, she was by law bound by the same responsibilities and rules as all trustees'. Maris appealed this decision to the Chancellor of the University, Lord Campbell, who ruled in her favour. She has recently been reinstated to her full role as president of court and charity trustee.
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Fiona Hill: Trump is terrified of Putin, I've seen it first hand
It could of course have been pure coincidence that when Vladimir Putin unveiled Russia's first hypersonic missile to the world, he did so with a simulation of the weapon plummeting into an unnamed peninsula bearing an uncanny resemblance to Florida. The similarity was not lost on Donald Trump whose face whitened as he watched on, presumably with visions of his beloved Mar-a-Lago resort reduced to an atomic wasteland, flashing before his eyes. Standing next to him on that day in March 2018 was Fiona Hill, the president's Russia tsar at the time. 'That got Trump's attention,' she said. 'Trump was like, 'Why did he do that? Real countries don't have to do that.'' For Hill, a long-term Kremlin watcher who once sat so close to Putin at dinner she could smell the detergent used to launder his clothes, the episode revealed much about how Mr Trump views the Russian leader. 'He is deferential towards Putin because he really is worried about the risk of a nuclear exchange,' she said. The threat of impending nuclear fallout shaped Hill's early life. Born in County Durham in the 1960s, the daughter of a coalminer and a midwife, she was inspired to study Russian following the war scare of 1983, setting her on an extraordinary trajectory that propelled her all the way 'from the coal house to the White House'. She settled on St Andrews University, after a failed interview at Oxford where posh students mocked her for her working-class northern accent. From there she moved to Russia then America, where she met her husband at Harvard, before going on to serve as an intelligence analyst for successive administrations – first for George Bush, then Barack Obama – and finally on the national security council of Mr Trump. Yet unlike the US president, whom she said remains trapped in a 1980s mindset, both in his foreign policy approach and his musical tastes (see his penchant for YMCA), Hill is at pains to stress that the biggest global threat is no longer a nuclear strike, but more clandestine methods of warfare. 'It's not the likelihood of a Russian tank coming across the Suffolk Downs or a nuclear weapon taking out Sheffield,' she said, speaking over Zoom from her office in Washington DC. 'Now it's much more about critical national infrastructure and acts of sabotage, poisonings and assassinations.' That is not to say she believes the world is a safer place today. Far from it. In fact, she believes World War Three is upon us. 'World wars are when you have global sets of conflicts that become intertwined,' she said. 'That's where we are.' Having spent decades in the US capital quietly blowing the whistle on Russian aggression, Hill was thrust into a media firestorm when she testified at Mr Trump's first impeachment trial in 2019. Her testimony, delivered in her lilting Durham cadence, exposed vulnerability to Russian meddling at the heart of the White House – and caused her inbox to fill up with plaudits and death threats in equal quantities. She has since released a memoir, There is Nothing Here for You, recalling her father's advice that spurred her on a dizzying career path to the heights of US geopolitics, been installed as chancellor of Durham University, and was last year appointed by Sir Keir Starmer to lead the UK's forthcoming Strategic Defence Review. Since Putin's invasion of Ukraine, and even more so following Mr Trump's return to the White House, her expertise has been in greater demand than ever. With large chunks of the front lines in stalemate, and Russia on track to reclaim its territory seized by Ukraine in last year's daring counter-offensive, all eyes have turned to Washington. Mr Trump pledged to end the war on 'day one' of his presidency. And as the conflict drags on, the giant question mark hovering over western Europe is how long it will take for the US to make good on its promise. So, when the two presidents shared an 'excellent' phone call on Monday, Hill was uniquely placed to read the tea leaves of the paltry briefings from each side. How did Mr Trump fare? 'Terrible. Let's give him a pass for effort,' she said, matter-of-factly, as if marking the president's report card. A former Harvard researcher who serves as a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute, an influential foreign policy think tank, Hill is a career academic with the manner of a firm but fair head teacher. 'What Trump is doing is answering the wrong exam question,' Hill added. 'Trump thinks it's just about real estate, about trade and who gets what, be it minerals, land or rare earths,' she explained. What the president doesn't understand is that 'Putin doesn't want a ceasefire'. '[He] wants a neutered Ukraine, not one that is able to withstand military pressure. Everybody sees this, apart from Trump,' she said. Hill has previously said that her straight-talking approach is what earned her a place in Mr Trump's inner circle. Whereas in Britain, she was advised to go to elocution lessons to round-out her vowels, this wasn't a problem in the US, where Mr Trump referred to her as a 'Deep State stiff with a nice accent'. Sexism, however, was a constant, with the president once mistaking her for a secretary. 'In the Trump White House being a woman was something of a liability because I wasn't going to do the Fox News anchor makeover,' she said. Despite her resistance, she did purchase 'a whole array of dresses' ('I got them in flash sales') to camouflage herself. 'For women, it's very important to not look, in his view, 'doudy',' she said. 'It was just this obsession with how you looked which became very bothersome, because if you didn't look the part, you couldn't impart the information.' After his call with Putin, Mr Trump floated the possibility of a 'large-scale trade' deal. Putin, in turn, offered syrupy platitudes about negotiations being 'on the right track' and the prospect of a 'memorandum of understanding'. But one cannot help but detect a growing sense of desperation in the US president's boosterism. After all, the phone call was only ever a last-minute stand-in for the headline act: direct talks between Zelensky and Putin. The Ukrainian leader had called Putin's bluff, inviting him to a face-to-face meeting in Turkey that the Russian president dropped out of. Mercifully, the Trumpometer appears to have swung in recent months from open hostility towards Ukraine, culminating in the infamous Oval Office shake-down, towards more conventional mistrust of Moscow – thanks in no small part to a lucrative minerals deal signed with Kyiv and a tete-a-tete with Mr Zelensky beneath the vaulting dome of St Peter's Basilica. Putin's no-show, despite proposing the talks himself, was the latest in a string of empty promises to work with the US towards a ceasefire. The US president has so far resisted hitting Putin with further sanctions, instead offering a deal which Hill said provides a 'great incentive for the Russians to play along with Trump'. 'If you offer the Russians a carrot, they just eat it, or they take it and hit you over the head with it,' she said. 'The entourage, the circle around Putin, have enriched themselves so much by availing themselves of all the goodies that the state can provide, what is it that Trump can give them that they don't already have?' Hill is well-versed in the hard ball tactics of Russian negotiators (and the difficulties of corralling Mr Trump). Indeed, she helped prepare the US team for 2018 talks with Russia in Helsinki – where she was forced to call on the Finnish prime minister for help, imploring him to advise Mr Trump about how to engage with Putin after the president ignored his own advisers. Putin, who has maintained the same 'tight team' of top diplomats around him for the past 25 years, dispatched his Stanford-educated economic adviser Kirill Dmitriev, former ambassador to Washington Yuri Ushakov, and Sergei Lavrov, his comic villain foreign minister, to recent talks in Saudi Arabia. 'These guys are really skilled diplomats. They all speak absolutely excellent English,' said Hill. 'They can talk the hind leg off a donkey. They can turn you around in circles. They've got an answer for everything.' Batting for the US are Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, Mike Waltz, Mr Trump's erstwhile national security adviser, and his special envoy Steve Witkoff, a former real estate dealer. Between them, they have less than a year's-worth of cabinet-level experience. So, what does the dancing Russian bear make of these three cotillion debutantes? 'They're eating the neophytes on the US side for dinner,' said Hill. Mr Witkoff, the president's long-term golf buddy, comes in for particular scorn from Hill. Touted as a 'killer' by the president, real estate billionaire Mr Witkoff appeared to forget the names of the Ukrainian territories that he was negotiating with Russia over during a recent episode of Tucker Carlson's podcast. Having driven around the streets of 1980s Harlem looking for houses to flip in a former life, he has traded in his real estate licence for criss-crossing the globe to negotiate hostage deals and ceasefires on behalf of the US government. 'Witkoff's probably thinking about condos in Moscow,' said Hill. 'They think it's really tough being in Queens,' she added. 'It's not as tough as trying to do business in Russia, where people have a propensity to fall out of poorly sealed and easily opened windows from high buildings.' In her line of work, Hill is all too aware of the dangers of dealing with malign governments in the near east. She fell violently ill after being told she was asking too many questions at a meeting with Chechen separatists. She later discovered she had been poisoned. As a member of Mr Trump's security council from 2017 to 2019 , she said the president made it 'very clear' that Ukraine 'must be part of Russia'. 'He really could not get his head around the idea that Ukraine was an independent state,' she told a New York Times journalist. But what has changed since Mr Trump was last in office, she said, is that he has surrounded himself with 'sycophants and courtiers', with no one pushing back against his more outlandish ideas. During his first term, she said, 'he was a little bit deferential here and there to various people. But now he's so convinced [in his own abilities] that he doesn't pay attention to anyone'. Underpinning Mr Trump's soft approach to Moscow, she believes, is his personal idolisation of Putin, and their joint belief in 'spheres of influence' and 'might makes right'. 'Trump is enthralled by Putin, and as a result becomes in thrall to him,' she said. However, she is equally scathing of European leaders for not coming to terms with this new reality sooner. 'The fact that the Europeans are so shocked by his deference to Putin actually shows that they haven't also done their homework,' she said. Despite European outrage at Mr Trump's repeated threats to withdraw American support for Ukraine, Hill gives credit to the US president for sounding the alarm on the need for Europe to increase its defence spending as far as 2016. 'He's been accurate right from the very beginning', she said, of the need to reach the two per cent of GDP spending on defence target and of ending Europe's energy dependency on Russia's Nordstream pipeline, which, prior to the war in Ukraine, provided more than half of Germany's gas supply. Even on the subject of tariffs, Hill said, there is method in the madness. 'Europe wanted defence and security provisions from the US, but wanted to be an economic competitor,' she said. 'There is an absolute and utter solid basis for why Trump is really pissed off about all of this.' Hill now believes that America turning its back on Ukraine is 'the most likely scenario', yet despite the gloomy picture, she is optimistic that European sanctions can still bear fruit if the bloc can pull together. Although sanctions currently rely heavily on the power of the US treasury to act unilaterally, Hill said collective action between the UK and Europe could be 'pretty powerful', but requires 'a lot more coordination'. One possible avenue, she suggested, would be for Europe to leverage relationships with its major trading partners to encourage them to cut ties with Russia. The Europeans handing an ultimatum to the Chinese, Indians and Iranians if the US withdrew sanctions could provide 'some really significant leverage', she said. 'All these countries that have a vested interest in investing in Europe and doing work with Europe,' she added. 'Maybe you don't do the kind of sanctions that the US does, but Europeans can have very serious conversations.' Talking to Hill is like opening one of the sets of the encyclopaedia Britannica she used to read on the stairs of her small family home as a child. Seamlessly interweaving politics, philosophy and history, she cross-stitches conversation with references to Thomas Hobbes, Jean Monnet and, in a nod to her adoptive homeland, American football. Growing up, her family did not have a telephone, a car or a television and often switched off the electricity to save money. A star pupil, Hill won a scholarship to a private school but did not attend because her family could not afford the uniform or the books. In her memoir, Hill writes at length about how mass job losses in working class communities fuel populism. Yet despite the hardships of her upbringing, she was able to rise to the dizzy heights of American politics – a feat she credits to her parents, her teachers and her local MP. Working in the highest echelons of foreign politics, she was often the only woman in the room. In Russia, this led to her being dismissed, in turns, as a waitress, an aide, and even an upmarket prostitute. But it was also a secret weapon. 'People just forgot you were there and talked as if you were part of the scenery,' she said. 'I'd hear and learn all kinds of things that I never would have done under different circumstances.' When she testified against Mr Trump at his impeachment trial, she was careful about her choice of outfit, opting to dress in deliberately muted tones, so as not to draw attention away from what she was saying. The next day, she earned gushing front page headlines across the US national newspapers, with many marvelling at her accent. She also won a shout out in the Washington Post style section for her 'reassuringly dull' black ensemble. Besides the bouquets of flowers arriving at the door, her daughter, then 12, heard some of the death threats left on the family's voicemail. Hill told her the callers were 'cowards' and said not to worry, but taped up the letterbox in case of letter bombs. 'I'm from the north east of England, I'm not that easily intimidated,' she once said. Hill became a US citizen in 2002 and lives in Washington DC with her husband Kenneth Keen, a business consultant, and their daughter. But she splits her time between the US and the UK. Her mother lives in a care home in Bishop Auckland, near where she grew up, and she has taken on an advisory role to the British government as a leader and co-author of the Strategic Defence Review. So how does life in the White House compare to the Ministry of Defence? 'I always find it quite refreshing in the UK context now, that people just look normal,' she said. 'It didn't feel like I had to be out there choosing my fanciest frock.' The review was meant to report in the first half of 2025, but is expected to be delayed until autumn, much to Hill's frustration ('everyone knows what's in it. It's just the whole politics of finding a time.') Its release has been shrouded in secrecy amid reports that it will recommend protecting critical infrastructure through the creation of a home guard, uncharitably compared to dad's army – Hill dismisses this as 'rubbish'. Hill said she hopes the review will act as a wake up call for Britain and Europeans to understand that a land invasion is not the only threat we face from Moscow. Pointing to recent blackouts in Spain and at Heathrow Airport, she said: 'What we're arguing is the physical front lines in terms of the likelihood of an invasion by Russia may be further away, but the other front lines are here all the time. They're your IT systems, they're your electrical grids, the power stations. 'Every country is massively vulnerable,' she added. 'Ninety per cent of our way of life, everything from you being able to do your orders online for your food, to your ability to function at work would be taken out by a massive strike on all of the power grid.' Working in the weeds of European defence and fighting a losing battle to convince the US to stay engaged is enough to turn anyone into a cynic. Yet despite everything, she remains optimistic that Britain and Europe will step up. 'The UK has absolute potential to play a leadership role at the moment,' she said. Her message for Sir Keir's government? 'Come on then, get a move on. What I worry about is that people are going to be dithering about for too long, because the time for action was yesterday.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Daily Mirror
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Boris's nine children and their unique names
Boris Johnson has welcomed his ninth child with wife Carrie – a baby girl named Poppy Eliza Josephine. The newborn joins a famously quirky brood with names as bold and eclectic as their dad Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson has welcomed his ninth child, and the newest addition to his already large brood has a name as charmingly quirky as her siblings. Boris and wife Carrie Johnson have announced the birth of their fourth child, daughter, Poppy Eliza Josephine, calling her the couple's 'final gang member'. Sharing the news on Instagram, Carrie gushed: 'I can't believe how pretty and tiny you are. Feel so incredibly lucky. We are all totally smitten.' The newborn joins siblings Wilf, Romy, and Frank, whose names have attracted attention for their eccentric flair, much like Boris himself. Boris is not new to parenthood. The 60-year-old discussed the number of children he'd fathered during a 2021 interview on the Today Show, saying: 'It's fantastic, it's fantastic, it's a lot of work, I'll tell you that much, but I love it, I absolutely love it. And I change a lot of nappies, in case anybody… I do.' With four children from his marriage to Marina Wheeler, one from an affair in 2009, and now four with Carrie, here's a look at the full line-up of Johnson juniors and the unusual names behind them. READ MORE: Drivers can use number plate checker to see if they need to pay £150 DVLA car tax rise Lara Lettice Johnson and Marina's oldest child was conceived ahead of their wedding in 1993. Lara, 32, uses the double-barrelled surname Johnson-Wheeler, with the second being her mum's surname. She went to the £33,000-a-year Bedales school before earning a place at St Andrews University where she studied Latin. She now works as a journalist, writer, editor and broadcaster and lives in London. She specialises in arts and fashion criticism and has been published in Vogue. Her website states: "Johnson-Wheeler is open to and has experience in public speaking, chairing panel discussions and debates." At 32, she is just five years younger than her dad's wife, Carrie. At the time of her parents' split, the Sun reported that Lara called her dad a "selfish b*stard". She reportedly said: "Mum is finished with him. She will never take him back now." Milo Arthur Milo, 30, is Boris and Marina's oldest son and a keen sportsman. He went to Westminster School, which costs about £27,000 a year. He studied at London's School of Oriental and African Studies and can speak Arabic, Russian, and French. After his parents' split, Milo was photographed helping his mum clear out their Highgate home. Removal vehicles were spotted outside the central London property, with Marina Wheeler and Milo seen removing rubbish from the property. Cassia Peaches Cassia Peaches is 27 years old and studied at Highgate School, which costs about £18,000 a year. Like her dad and older sister, she is a writer and was a student editor for her school's alumni magazine. Boris' second-oldest daughter then went on to study at Trinity College in Dublin. Theodore Johnson-Wheeler Theo is Boris and Marina's youngest child, now 25, and goes by both of his parents' surnames. He attended a private school and went to Cambridge University—the rival of his dad's Oxford—after attending a private school. He was spotted working at a Hackney restaurant in 2022, where his dad was booed on a visit during the late Queen's Jubilee weekend. He was working at Morito, a trendy tapas and mezze restaurant in East London, but he is no longer believed to be there. Mr Johnson responded to the heckles with a dismissive hand gesture before exiting the venue. "He flicked his finger at the customers when he got booed," a source told the Mail. "It was horrible, it just created a nasty atmosphere." Theo, who shares his father's distinctive shock of blonde hair, no longer works at the restaurant. He left shortly after Boris's visit, though this is thought to be unrelated. According to the Mail on Sunday, he has embraced his family's fame - reportedly writing a play about the Brexit referendum and his dad's role in the campaign at uni. Stephanie Macintyre Stephanie was born in 2009 through Johnson's affair with property developer Helen Macintyre. Helen tried to keep their child a secret and even launched legal action against a newspaper to prevent them from publishing a report. Stephanie will now be 15 or 16 depending on her birthday. However, last year, Johnson's dad, Stanley, appeared to acknowledge her place in the family, saying he had spoken to her over video call and hoped to meet his grandchildren. "Fourteen includes Stephanie - that's the point," he said. "I am particularly pleased to include Stephanie." However, judges ruled the public had a right to know about Boris's daughter. It is understood that Stephanie has very little to do with her dad or her half-siblings. Wilfred Lawrie Nicholas Boris and Carrie welcomed their first child, Wilfred Lawrie Nicholas - now 5 - at a London hospital on April 29, 2020. Johnson's ex, Marina, was said to be extremely upset by the news. A source said: "Marina has had a tough year with her health scare and the divorce, and is very worried about how the kids are handling it too. She's just in pieces over it all." Sources say their four grown-up kids are "furious" at Mr Johnson over his relationship with Carrie - who at 37 is 24 years his junior. They are said to have barely met her and believe she started seeing him while he was still living with their mum. Romy Iris Charlotte Back in July 2021, Carrie and Boris announced they were expecting another child. Sharing their happy news, Carrie also revealed she suffered a miscarriage at the beginning of the year, which left her "heartbroken." She wrote: "I feel incredibly blessed to be pregnant again, but I've also felt like a bag of nerves. Fertility issues can be really hard for many people, particularly when on platforms like Instagram, it can look like everything is only ever going well. "I found it a real comfort to hear from people who had also experienced loss, so I hope that in some small way sharing this might help others, too." But they announced the birth of a healthy baby girl at a London hospital on 9 December 2021 and later revealed that they named her Romy Iris Charlotte Johnson. Romy would now be 3 years old. Frank Alfred Odysseus In July 2023, Carrie and Boris announced they had welcomed a third child into the world. Posting on Instagram, Carrie wrote: "Welcome to the world Frank Alfred Odysseus Johnson born 5th July at 9.15 am. (Can you guess which name my husband chose?!) Am loving every minute of the sleepy baby bubble. Seeing my older two embrace their new brother with such joy and excitement has been the most wonderful thing to see. We are all very smitten." She added: "Thank you so much to the incredible NHS maternity team at UCLH. They really are the most amazing, caring people. I feel such immense gratitude. Now, can anyone recommend any good series/box sets to binge while breastfeeding? Time for a drink." Frank will be 2 in July.
The Courier
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Courier
The Dundee folk who go from everyday jobs to stage stardom by night
IT guy Paul Creegan is dressed in a mesh cropped top as he waits to practise his song. Nearby Robert Oakes is having his make-up done. He's dressed in a skirt and fishnet tights. Ellen Ryder, who works in a clothes boutique, is about to portray a drug addicted stripper. They are members of Dundee-based Thomson-Leng Musical Society who are about to present Rent. The rock musical follows a group of impoverished, artistic friends living in 1980s New York under the shadow of HIV and AIDS. A diverse group of amateur actors, singers and dancers will bring the show to Dundee from Wednesday. So we went along to a dress rehearsal to find out what it's like going from ordinary day jobs to stage stardom. Rachel Hogg, 31, from Newport, plays Maureen Johnson, a fiery and flirtatious performance artist. Her work environment as a PA at St Andrews University is, she says, 'straight-laced, reserved and calm'. 'Then I get to come here and roll about the stage!' It's 'liberating' playing a character like Maureen, she says. 'She likes to take the spotlight and does all the things you wouldn't dare do in public.' Rehearsals are in full swing in a small room in St Paul's Cathedral. Cast members are belting out the show's hits. Until their set is built at The Space Theatre a couple of tables pushed together suffice. Opening night is fast approaching. Despite having been involved in musical theatre from childhood, Rachel says that is 'exciting yet terrifying'. But excitement appears to be triumphing over terror. 'I think we're all just excited to get it on stage and get onto the set. 'We're going to have loads of steel deck and things to climb up and we don't get to play with any of that until we get to the theatre!' Also relishing her gritty part is Ellen, 32, from Dundee, who plays Mimi Márquez. 'Mimi is a drug addict and she's one of the characters that has AIDs,' she says. 'I normally play princesses so this is the other end of the scale! 'It's a challenge but I like a challenge. 'It's quite nice being a bit moody, I'm normally really smiley.' Ellen has been with Thomson-Leng Musical Society, which also puts on an annual pantomime, since she was 10 and is excited to get yet another show on the road. 'I love opening night, it's always such a buzz.' Robert's transformation into drag queen drummer Angel Dumott Schunard is the most visually arresting. Make-up done, he pulls on a black wig before he teeters in his high heels to join the rehearsal. Robert, 30, says: 'It's very interesting to play this kind of character because it's so far from who I am. 'There's a lot of heavy stuff in this show and Angel is a nice ray of positivity – very bubbly, very eccentric.' Robert lives in Dundee but is from Blairgowrie. He's no stranger to the stage, working as a visitor experience team member at Perth Theatre and Concert Hall and having done musical theatre since he was six years old. 'It's just exciting every single time,' he says. 'Everybody around you is there to have a good time, the audience is there to have a good time. 'The atmosphere is just something wonderful.' Ensuring everything goes to plan on the night is director and choreographer Donna Bustard. By day the mum-of-two from Forfar is a youth and employability worker for Barnardo's. But she's choreographed professional and amateur productions around the UK. While the cast have had months to prepare, the technical stuff happens only in the last couple of days. Donna says: 'Opening night is nerve-racking because you're bringing everything together, the sound, the set, lighting. 'You're just willing the whole thing to come together and just be a great, positive, fun experience.' So far she is feeling relaxed and confident. 'We're in a really good space, we're dead chilled.' And her work means people like Paul, 42, can focus on putting on a good show. Stepping onto stage in front of a audience is far cry from his job as an ICT technician in the NHS. 'The same amount of drama but absolutely, completely different!' he jokes. He plays several parts in the ensemble, including 'Steve' and 'The Cop'. Again he's been doing shows since he was a schoolboy. 'Whenever you're doing rehearsals you always feel you're not ready but you get to the theatre and it all comes together.' Tickets are on sale for Rent by Thomson-Leng Musical Society at The Space Theatre from May 28 to 31. Donations will be collected at shows for Waverley Care.
