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'Richard Tice's crass remarks just prove he and Reform do not understand ordinary Brits'

Some 2,700 people are thought to have died from heat-related causes during the May and June heatwaves in England and Wales, but Richard Tice has dismissed the misery

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As homes burn, crops wither, and families count the cost of an unprecedented punishing summer, Richard Tice has identified the real emergency: whether English wine is improving. Reform UKs millionaire deputy leader believes we should stop being so doom and gloom about climate change because warmer weather might produce better grapes. You could hardly invent a more perfect picture of a wealthy politician insulated from the consequences of what he is talking about. Thousands are estimated to have died from heat-related causes. Firefighters are battling flames. Farmers are watching their livelihoods being destroyed. Tice, meanwhile, appears ready to raise a glass. This is the man who, along with his party, claims to speak for working people, to understand their struggles. Reform sells itself as the insurgent voice of ordinary Britain, yet Tice sounds like a caricature of the pampered establishment it endlessly rails against. When people are frightened about homes, jobs and lives, telling them to cheer up because the bubbly may improve is contemptible. Tice has exposed Reforms great fraud: all the populist posing in the world cannot disguise privilege this grotesquely out of touch.

Maternity unit must stay open

The suspension of births at North Devon District Hospital is a damning indictment of how badly maternity services have been allowed to deteriorate. Health chiefs say staffing shortages made the unit clinically unsafe. That should alarm every expectant mother across the region. Women in labour must now travel to Exeter, despite poor public transport, patchy mobile coverage, summer traffic and long rural roads. Some have no car. Others face extra costs they can scarcely afford. This is what management failure looks like: a vital service reaching the point where it can no longer safely deliver babies. Recruitment efforts are now being redoubled. They should never have been allowed to fall so far behind. Every mother deserves skilled help close by. In North Devon, that basic reassurance has been taken away.

Cooper rocks

Alice Cooper has spent decades shocking audiences with guillotines, snakes and theatrical mayhem. But Scarborough shoppers got a rather gentler surprise when the rock legend wandered through their local market, bought a tote bag and happily posed for pictures. At 78, it seems the Godfather of Shock Rock can still turn an ordinary shopping trip into a show.

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