Tabloid money… a farcical battle between two pampered, preening glamazonians

⬤ The party’s over, says Clemmie Moodie in The Sun. In June 2006, “a gaggle of slightly orange, stiletto-heeled young women are dancing on tables, arms flailing, and nailing shots of Sambuca in Baden-Baden’s Garibaldi’s bar” – the term “wag” (footballers’ wives and girlfriends) was then born. “I spent night after exhausting night trailing in the wake of these pampered, preening glamazonians” – among whom was a young Coleen Rooney (pictured). These women, with their “grotesque spending habits and love of Veuve Clicquot, became an unlikely cultural phenomenon”. But today, as Rooney and fellow wag Rebekah Vardy go at it “hammer and tongs” in the High Court, racking up millions in legal fees over who did or didn’t plant stories in The Sun, it’s time to say enough. Mrs Justice Steyn, put us out of our misery and end this farce!

⬤ The chasm between homeowners, watching valuations soar, and those excluded, is hurting society, says Leo McKinstry in the Daily Express. The average house now costs £286,000, almost ten times median earnings, while ownership has fallen “dramatically”. Simply put, Britain is not building enough new homes. Just 1.3 million were built in the last decade compared with 3.1 million in the 1960s, and the government says it won’t come close to meeting its promised 300,000 target of new properties for this year. Help to Buy was “disastrous”; developers sit on plots to push up prices. “A neverending boom might be good for some households, but it is bad for the health of our nation.”

⬤ Spain is planning to offer three days of menstrual leave every month for female workers, says Jan Moir in the Daily Mail. “Truly, I can’t think of anything more damaging to the long-term prospects of working women.” Employers would be tempted to head off potential problems, such as resentful staff, simply by hiring a bloke instead. After centuries of demanding to be treated as equals, we now decide “oh, hang on, we’re not equal after all”. This is monstrously unfair, of course. Periods, pregnancy, menopause – pain and discomfort is a factor, to a greater or lesser degree, in all female lives. We all know men could never cope! “But menstrual leave is not a victory for feminism, but a step back into the dark ages of secondary citizenship.”