All the hot you’ve got

Fixing the roof while the sun was shining embodied prudence in the eyes of George Osborne, the former Tory Chancellor. Just now, when the fierce old solstitial sun has notched up his personal best this year, at over 30C, we may be regretting any delay in painting the roof white before these aestival extremes. How cool we’d feel beneath our personal snowy reflector. Yet there is evidence that the British do not really want good advice in hot weather. They know they can keep the house cooler by shutting the windows by day and drawing the curtain close to. But in fact they like to open the windows and feel the heated noon breezes waft the open pages of the Telegraph Sport section. We’d feel cooler if our clothing prevented the sun making our skin hot and red. Yet a chili-hot brand on wrist and nape shows summer is here.