Tabloid money… councils have themselves to blame for fly-tipping

⬤ ”Sometimes a break-up is so bitter that one or both parties seem to spend the rest of their lives trying to destroy the other,” says Virginia Blackburn in the Daily Express. Take Hollywood actors Amber Heard (pictured) and Johnny Depp, for example. Depp lost a libel case against Heard in London in 2020, when he sued News Group Newspapers. Now he is suing the actress for defamation in the US over a piece she wrote in

The Washington Post in 2018, saying she was a victim of domestic violence. He’s demanding $50m. She’s countersuing with a $100m claim. “How is this going to benefit either of them?” At 35 years old, Heard still has a life ahead of her. Depp is 58 and “he should know when to let it go”. “Is there no one who can make this pair of idiots see sense?”

⬤ Councils are partly to blame for the fly-tipping that is blotting our landscape, says Richard Littlejohn in the Daily Mail. They had to deal with 1.1 million clean-ups last year, costing the country £400m, after introducing “complex recycling rules and charges and refusing to take away DIY waste”. ”Booking an appointment to take your rubbish to the tip is almost as difficult as seeing a GP face-to-face.” Pandemic restrictions may have lifted, but still councils make it awkward to dispose of waste materials. There’s no excuse for fly-tipping, of course. But Medway, in Kent, is turning away drivers who arrive without permission. ”No wonder some people become so frustrated they dump stuff by the roadside.” Something has got to give.

⬤ The quest to look like 20 when you are really 50 is big business in Britain, says Saira Khan in the Sunday Mirror. According to the British Beauty Council, the industry has contributed £28.4bn to the economy. The evidence is all around us. “A scroll through Instagram or TikTok will show you that luscious plump lips and a wrinkle-free, flawless face are now must-haves.” But little do many people realise that when they turn to injectable and invasive procedures, “they’re playing a dangerous game of beauty Russian roulette”. The sector is largely unregulated. A misplaced filler around the eye, for example, can lead to blindness. In qualified hands, “tweakments” are great. But otherwise, “a smooth brow is not worth dying for”.