
You know a story has taken flight when my friend, colleague and fellow Express columnist devotes an hour of his flagship LBC show to dissecting it. On Friday his callers were bristling with passionate and indignant reactions to businesswoman comments about breastfeeding a three-year-old child on my Channel 5 Vanessa show. It's true, Millen was barbed and contemptuous. She declared that breastfeeding a child of that age was unnecessary and indicated "selfishness" on the mother's part.
Next morning, she thought better of her remarks and contacted us to say she was keen to apologise. We played her contrite video on air, in which she said a heartfelt sorry to anyone she had offended. What happened next is technically called a "pile on". Hundreds of thousands if not millions of people - in this case almost exclusively women - burst onto to condemn Millen.
I share their disappointment with her view. I'm no expert but I did breastfeed both my daughters, and feel it's no one else's business how long any mother chooses to breastfeed. If you and your child are happy, healthy and content, good for you.
I stopped feeding when my babies' teeth made it a hazard but that doesn't mean every other mum should do the same. In fact, I look back on those moments of closeness and blissful bonding with nostalgic yearning. If I had my time all over again, I'd delay weaning and keep feeding.
So I disagreed with Karen Millen, but I was horrified by the hostile and aggressive tone taken by the furious social media warriors determined to annihilate her.
I know evokes torrents of emotion. When told "breast is best" women can feel acute shame and even self-loathing if their milk supply is insufficient or their plan to breastfeed doesn't work out as they hoped.
Wracked with exhaustion and guilt, some new mums battle an overwhelming sense of inadequacy if their baby is bottle-fed. The issue is fraught. "Successful" breastfeeders can morph into evangelical crusaders.
Every parent wants to do their best for their baby but why, in the gentle haze of embracing , spring into fierce attack mode when you disagree with another woman's view - for which she swiftly apologised? Where does the anger spring from? Why the harsh words and confrontational stance?
Wouldn't it be kinder and more productive to explain your perspective kindly and politely? Think about that pure bundle in your arms. Imagine that child being abused and cancelled. Sing a lullaby. Have a cuddle. Enjoy.
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My Big Breakfast boss is dazzlingly portrayed in Just For One Day the Live Aid musical by double-denim clad Craige Els.
Joking in the interval, Sir Bob told me Craige used to impersonate him as a young child to the delight of his family who'd stick him on the kitchen table and fall about laughing when he turned the air blue with a volley of "F" words.
Addressing the enraptured audience after a cascade of standing ovations, it was clear Sir Bob is as ignited by the desire to alleviate suffering now as he was 40 years ago. His anger and energy are undimmed.
Ten percent of box office takings go straight to those in need. The remarkable story of a bloke who simply refused to do nothing in the face of unbearable suffering and invented a revolutionary way to raise more than £100 million, as an entranced world tuned in and pledged is told with humour and humility.
As for the music: Bowie, , Jagger, Status Quo, Queen, Phil Collins et al... my Lord, wasn't it bloody brilliant?
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, former tennis player and graceful Strictly contestant, is downsizing following the death of her beloved husband America's Cup sailor Mel Coleman two years ago.
She deals with parting from a lifetime's possessions with admirable fortitude, saying "The house has served its purpose".
But friends in the same boat tell me every item comes with a raft of memories attached and jettisoning books, paintings, furniture, even cushions is a painful symphony of tugs on the heartstrings.
Not only is clearing out the things you love an ordeal, but where are the properties designed with downsizers in mind? They want somewhere for the grandchildren to stay, reception rooms capacious enough to entertain but not cavernous.
It's a specific brief almost no housebuilder has bothered to satisfy. Yes, there's no point rattling around in a house echoing with emptiness but moving on is hard work emotionally and even more taxing when there's a dearth of appealing smaller homes on the market.
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I couldn't adore more. She's so polite and wrote me a charming thank-you letter when I'd merely done my job interviewing her. She's also hilarious, generous and incomparably talented at promoting her latest oeuvres, currently the forthcoming second series of the TV adaptation of her novel Rivals.
Whetting our appetites, star says the sex scenes are so inventive that every intimacy coach from far and wide was summoned to school the actors in grunts, groans and appropriate positions.
Doing her bit to fan the flames of anticipation, Dame Jilly, 88, announces "Life is quite short of joy and I think sex is heaven", before lamenting the paucity of sex in 2025:
"Everybody is running nowadays and if they're not, they're going to the gym. How can you possibly have sex when you are so exhausted?" Her gift for quotable soundbites is undimmed. Dame J, we can't wait for the second round of Rivals.
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The head of Winchester College, Elizabeth Stone, says that parents should specifically book holidays in places with bad wi-fi and poor mobile phone signal so they can then force their children to read for 20 minutes a day.
What's more, she doesn't want them glued to popular classics like Harry Potter, Percy Jackson and the Hunger Games which she calls "pureed baby food".
Isn't it infantilising, Ms. Stone, to trick our children into reading by blaming dodgy tech? Shouldn't we square our shoulders, act as parents not chums and do that desperately old-fashioned thing - lay down the law?
No devices before 2pm. None after 9pm. Conversation at the table. Magnificent books to be devoured in a stack in your room. Steep yourself in arresting plots and mesmerising metaphors.
Do not be a lemming. Do not doom scroll. Do as I tell you because I am more experienced and pay the bills. Pilot your offspring not by stealth but unashamedly.
And if that fails, rage against the pathetic phone signal.
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Employment judge Richard Conley has ruled that falling asleep at work no longer constitutes instant grounds for dismissal. It may merit a severe warning, but provided the consequences of your nap are not dangerous, you might get away with a quick 40 winks in the office.
Presenting Early Breakfast on Radio 2 - from 4 am-6.30am - followed by Breakfast on Radio London from 7am-10am for 12 years, I was terrified that sleep deprivation might catch up with me and instead of incisive debate and jolly chat, the listeners might be treated to a cacophony of snores as I took refuge in the arms of Morpheus, god of sleep and dreams. Fear of summary dismissal kept me awake.
If only Judge Conley had piped up three years ago, I'd have put my head on the desk and Stevie Wonder on the turntable and nodded off.
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