As temperatures head towards a record 40C, Blowtorch Britain brings challenges for us individually and collectively.
Everyone wants to enjoy a sizzling summer safely and that includes drinking enough water, staying in the shade, using sun block and avoiding strenuous effort in peak heat.
Yet the sweltering heat also has the potential to endanger life and create havoc from shutting schools to halting public transport – particularly the trains, if rails buckle.
We cannot ignore that extreme weather swings are evidence of global warming.
We either halt it by reducing global pollution, particularly carbon emissions, or we wreck our planet. The scientific evidence is conclusive and hitting net zero by 2050 in the UK will give us opportunities as well as challenges to green the economy.
The cost will be enormous but it is a price we must pay. Because the cost of the alternative would be far, far greater.
Infamous five
Watching the Tory leadership contest last night on ITV, many viewers may have decided they want none of the contenders foisted on us as the next Prime Minister.
Get all the latest news sent to your inbox. Sign up for the free Mirror newsletter
The squabbling five doing each other down looked and sounded self-obsessed, interested in what the country can do for them rather than what they can do for our battered nation.
If Sunak, Truss, Mordaunt, Badenoch or Tugendhat is the answer after Johnson’s defenestration, the wrong question is being asked.
Because MPs and Ministers from a Tory Party in office for 12 years are the problem.
Shear bad luck
Alan Shearer may be used to calling the shots on Match of the Day, but his own goal has resulted in a red card from Gareth Southgate’s wife.
After unintentionally revealing the location of the couple’s Portuguese holiday home, he is unlikely to be invited any time soon for a cool bottle of Sagres and a pastel de nata.
