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Even if you don’t remember Britain’s 1976 heatwave, you’ve probably heard about it by now. Articles and social media posts looking back with nostalgia on that unusually hot and dry summer have been circulating all week as the UK entered another bout of scorching weather. “We all had a wonderful summer and survived,” read one meme.
Much of the country will probably have a wonderful time this weekend too. Not everyone enjoys 30-plus degrees of heat, of course, but there will be plenty of people joyfully soaking up the sun, frolicking in the waves and devouring ice creams. However, historian Stephanie Brown argues that there’s a problem with looking back on 1976 as simply a gloriously sunny year when that heatwave actually had some very serious and deadly consequences. And suggesting we
should just enjoy Britain’s increasingly hot summers ignores the very significant implications of global heating. So by all means make the most of the sunshine, but remember that when it comes to heatwaves, sadly not everyone does survive.
If you do intend to be outside this weekend, you might well be planning a picnic or barbecue. My fridge is stocked with sausages and as you read this I’ll be preparing salads before my kitchen becomes too unpleasantly sticky to cook in. But even this sort of wholesome activity comes with risks. So we’ve prepared an expert guide to making sure your al fresco meals stay food-poisoning free.
Keir Starmer may be having a celebratory meal this weekend after securing a deal with France to return people who’ve crossed the Channel illegally in exchange for accepting successful asylum seekers who’ve gone through the official process. The hope is it will deter migrants from attempting to get to Britain via the extremely dangerous method of a small-boat crossing. Progess with his strategy to slash the number of such journeys certainly looks like a much-needed win for the prime minister, but whether the measure will work is another matter. Here are some of the key practical and political challenges.
One international partnership that already looks like it’s faltering is that between the so-called Brics countries. The group led by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa had last year started to seem like it might pose a genuine challenge to the western-dominated hierarchy of global trade, with talk of it creating its own shared currency to rival the dollar. Fast-forward 12 months and things don’t look so good for the bloc – not least because the president of leading member China failed to even attend the summit. Professor of international politics Amalendu Misra argues Brics is sliding towards irrelevance.
Also this week, we hear why the traditional “eat less, move more” approach to tackling obesity is failing, we learn why the idea that women need to pee more often is definitely not as simple as them having smaller bladders, and after
the British Museum announced the Bayeux tapestry would be shown in England for the first time since it was created nearly 1,000 years ago, we consider the case for seeing it as the medieval equivalent of an immersive
art installation.
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