Archive September 9, 2025

Kirstie Allsopp, who inherited approximately £1.5 million from her father, has managed to boil my blood many times over the years but her rant at the RMT is her worst yet

When it comes to working class issues and debates about workers’ rights, I do everything I can to avoid learning the opinions of people whose parents’ names are a blue link on Wikipedia in order to keep my blood pressure down.

But somehow, Kirstie Allsopp, daughter of Charles Allsopp, 6th Baron Hindlip, and her out of touch views on society always find a way onto my timeline.

Over the years, Kirstie, who inherited approximately £1.5 million from her father, has managed to boil my blood many times over the years; from claiming young people are unable to purchase a house due to not being willing to make enough sacrifices like cutting out coffee, to claiming people working from home is a problem for economy and society while failing to mention that being married to a property tycoon may skew her view.

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And this week she’s back with a new wild opinion – possibly her worst one yet. This week thousands of members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) are taking industrial action all week in a dispute over pay and hours – and of course, The Honourable Kirstie Allsopp has some thoughts.

“In a hospital, just listening to a nurse discuss his very difficult journey to work this morning. Perhaps one of the striking tube drivers might want to do a job swap for a day?” Kirstie mused on Twitter (X) as the action began on Monday.

She had more to add later the same day, telling her followers: “Tonight in London packed buses, dodgy looking bikes, mopeds & people just walking. Night workers heading to their shifts, others struggling to get home, knowing it will be the same tomorrow night. Does @RMTunion care at all?”

Kirstie is simply showing compassion for nurses and shift workers, you might argue. But the issue is she is using other public service workers as pawns in a game and trying to stoke division – just like she did in 2011.

In November 2011, thousands of UK nurses joined a nationwide public sector strike over government plans to raise the retirement age and scrap final salary pensions, amongst other things. Surely Kirstie, who this week has appointed herself as a spokesperson for nurses struggling with the tube strike, was quick to support the strikers whose work she values.

Spoiler alert – she did the exact opposite. “Of course my ‘dilemma’ is a #firstworldproblem but who thinks this strike is going to solve anything? #genuinelyinterestedtohear,” Kirstie mused on Twitter when writing in hashtags was weirdly the norm.

Kirstie attended ten schools as a child, but not one of them managed to teach her that life shouldn’t be a raise to the bottom. Thanks to the fact she was born into more wealth than I will ever see in my lifetime, Kirstie doesn’t have to concern herself with class solidarity.

As the RMT says, unity is strength. When one group of workers risks losing their hard-won rights, we all do. Kirstie is not, has never been, and will never be part of the class that has to fight for scraps from billionaires.

Kirstie is part of the group of people who want those on less money than London Underground workers to question why they get paid ‘so much’ rather than why they get paid so little?

I doubt Kirstie intentionally plans her outbursts, she seems the type to just tweet out whatever pops in her head that day without considering the context, but she constituently fuels the establishment dream of the proletariat fighting each other rather than the system.

RMT replied to Kirstie’s ‘concerned’ tweet on Monday, telling her: “We care deeply, Kirsty. Our members assist 5 million passengers every day. They don’t want to inconvenience anybody but sadly TfL walked out of talks that could have averted this action last Wednesday, and have not returned.”

I hope she takes their response on board and even replies to them apologising. However, I won’t know if she does as I’m finally going to practise some long overdue self-care and block her from all my social media feeds.

TOWIE star, Amy Childs, who gave birth to twins in 2023, has taken to social media, reassuring fans she’s ok after admitting to losing ‘a lot of weight’

Amy Childs has revealed she needs to put on a stone after concerning fans with her weight loss. The TOWIE star, 35, shocked followers with her shrinking figure after giving birth to twins – Milly and Billy – in 2023 before being forced to cancel her wedding to their dad, Billy Delbosq, due to “pure stress”.

The reality star, who also has two children from previous relationships, admitted she was hurt by people’s comments about her weight and insisted that she did eat. However, Amy has now taken to Instagram, saying she’s planning on putting on a stone while assuring her followers she is ok.

Posing in a gym, sporting a black hoodie and vest she said she’d been inundated with “so many questions” about her health, announcing: “I’ve come on here as I’ve had so many questions about my weight loss.

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“Yes, I have lost a lot of weight, but I need to put at least a stone back on and also be getting stronger because, like I said, I’ve lost a lot of weight.

“But as you have all seen I have gained weight after having Polly and Ritchie, the babies, which obviously when you have a baby it is meant to happen. You’re meant to put loads of weight on.

“But, for me, I lost it dramatically due to stress with mum and, yeah, I just lost so much weight.”

Amy has joined forces with fitness coaches Jon and Zoe Kirk in a bid to put some weight back on, saying she also wants to get “really fit”.

She added: “Like I said I want to put a stone back on and just be really fit for the kids and these guys results are incredible and are going to help me understand nutrition and keep me accountable because it is so easy to stop.

“I’m going for strong, not skinny and I can’t wait to share my journey.”

She wrote in an Instagram caption: “Weight loss journey finished [tick emoji] I have had loads of messages around my weight loss… but now it’s time for the next part of my journey!!!

“Strong not skinny, let’s do this!

“I’m so excited to have signed up with: @‌jon_jkphysique @‌zoe_jkphysique. Transformation pending.”

Speaking to OK! magazine in May, Amy addressed the speculation about her weight loss and the vicious trolling she’s suffered as a result of it.

Saying she was worried about her mum, who suffered a heart attack earlier this year, she said: “People don’t know what is going on behind closed doors. I’m going through so much at the minute that the weight has fallen off me. I worry about my mum constantly. She’s very emotional – she thinks she’s going to have another heart attack.

“People think I’m not eating, but I do eat. To be honest, I do feel better when I’m a bit heavier than I am at the moment. There’s so much going on at the minute – it’s the result of pure stress. We’re also having renovations done in the midst of parenting four kids.”

“But I’m strong, I’ve been in this industry for 15 years. I’ve had lots of people concerned about me, which I completely understand, but yes, people can be so quick to judge.”

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The soap star tells The Mirror how practising Wicca is part of her every day, with her self-help spells helping fans with all kinds of issues in their lives too

Emmerdale legend Bernice Blackstock has been bewitching men for more than 25 years and is about to magically appear for her daughter’s wedding.

The former barmaid, played by Samantha Giles, is full of surprises and her arrival shocks her girl Gabby Thomas, played by Rosie Bentham.

A happy ever after is already in doubt for Gabby, whose vicar dad Ashley died of vascular dementia. Her intended, Vinny Dingle (Bradley Johnson), has been questioning his own sexuality.

Four-times wed Bernice, who left in 2023 after a £20,000 fraud against her sister Nicola and brother-in-law Jimmy King, is unlikely to give sensible motherly advice, says Samantha. “I think Gabby’s a little bit like her mother, who hasn’t got a great track record when it comes to men.”

READ MORE: Emmerdale’s cryptic spoilers tease huge stunt week twist as fans ‘rumble’ who dies

Samantha, 54, first stepped behind the Woolpack bar in 1998 and has been in and out of the ITV soap ever since. She says: “It was lovely to go back and revisit the character and see everyone. It was really good fun.” She admits she took her steady job on Emmerdale for granted: “When you’re out there in the world, you realise it’s so hard getting regular work as an actor. There is so much competition. I feel very lucky that I was invited back.”

But Samantha, who is originally from Kent and now lives in Merseyside, has recently enjoyed playing Auntie Val in CBeebies show Football Fantastics, which is available on BBC iPlayer. “That’s such a different character. She’s a bit of a hippy.” Soon she will be seen in The Secret Santa Project, a Christmas film adapted from Tracy Bloom’s bestselling novel. “It’s kind of a cross between Love Actually and Elf.”

Her Emmerdale character’s charms have often been spellbinding for the village men, including Andy Sugden, played by Kelvin Fletcher. In real life, Samantha practises white witchcraft – or Wicca – a modern form of paganism. She even cast a spell to find her husband of 15 years, TV producer Sean Pritchard, and says she conjured up her new film role, too.

“I definitely manifested the film job last December, because leading up to it I felt very positive. Without knowing what it was, I just knew something was coming. I asked for something challenging and it was very challenging.” Samantha offers selfhelp kits on her website for people to cast their own spells to aid with everything from better sleep to selling houses.

“People have had fantastic results. The ‘change your luck’ charm has been very good to people going through IVF. I’ve heard some lovely stories.” As a mum to two teenage girls, she says: “You have to totally, totally believe it’s going to happen. If there’s any shred of doubt, you’re putting a block towards what you want to achieve.”

Samantha follows daily rituals, such as using protective herbs in the house, and she tries to eat seasonal produce. “I like to have a daily walk, because I think it’s very important to get back in touch with nature, to feel that you are in tune with natural cycles. I think it brings you home to yourself.” The next big date for Samantha will be Halloween – known as Samhain in Wicca.

She says: “I really love autumn, it’s a special time of change and transformation. The veil is very thin on Samhain between this world and the next, so if you feel like you need a message from relatives that have passed away, that’s the day. I will maybe have a chat to anybody who has passed on that I felt particularly close to.

“We lost a very close friend a couple of years ago. I do talk to her and, in return, I can feel her presence and imagine what she would say to me.”

Samantha has written two bestselling children’s novels about her passion, Rosemary and the Witches of Pendle Hill, and Rosemary and the Book of the Dead. The final part of the trilogy is out soon.

She has also spent the past year writing a historical fiction, centred on women, for adults. She is considering starting a book reviews podcast. Samantha says she is game for most things but reality TV is out.

“I couldn’t do the jungle because I’m just so terrified of spiders. I’m too sensitive and I’m not a natural extrovert. I might just want to tell people to stop talking and be quiet.”

With fewer prime-time appearances, Samantha is less immediately recognisable except to Emmerdale fans. She says: “Someone came up to me on the plane when we came back from holiday.

“They poked me and asked me if I was in Emmerdale – I don’t mind people coming up to me but I was asleep with my eyes closed.”

Oti Mabuse has addressed her fears for NHS funding as she admitted she ‘doesn’t know what’s to come’ for her daughter and called for more money to be given to the health service

Oti Mabuse has addressed her fears for NHS funding as she admitted she ‘doesn’t know what’s to come’ for her daughter. The former Dancing On Ice star, 35, was on the Loose Women panel alongside anchor Charlene White, Janet Street-Porter and Kelly Brook on Tuesday when the lunchtime ladies were discussing new NHS league tables which ranked the best and worst hospitals in the country.

The hospitals were judged on factors such as waiting times for operations, cancer treatment, ambulance waiting times, finances as well as leadership and capability qualities. Oti welcomed her little girl – whose name she has never revealed publicly – two months prematurely in December 2023 with her husband Marius Iepure.

“I’ve spoken about my daughter being born premature and we spent eight weeks in the hospital. We were lucky that the hospital she was born was a good one but we live in an area wasn’t so great. For me, it’s really important because we know we’re gonna spent a lot of time in hospitals because of her prematurity. We don’t know what’s to come, but we know we’re going to be in hospitals.”

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“It’s important for us to have a hospital that has good care, the ambulance respond in time. Where we were – we’ve moved now – the staff were amazing. They cared for the patients, they gave the best care.

“You could see that they were passionate about their jobs. But the money is so important. We do need to finance these hospitals. Instead of sending elsewhere, put it in the NHS! Give the carers what they need, give them the equipment and support them.”

Janet then asked the former to clarify if she had moved to be closer to a better hospital, and Oti confirmed: “Yes, that was important, that was important.”

Last year, the former Strictly Comer Dancing star appeared on I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here!, where, at one point in the series, she opened up about her daughter’s health issues with fellow campmate Rev Richard Coles.

She said: They are, my daughter was really, really tiny when she was born. It’s hell. It’s hell to be in the hospital, to hear those sounds, to not see your baby’s eyes for a week, it’s hell to constantly look for advice from the doctors.”

Trying not to cry, Oti shared what she called the worst thing for her, which was that “every night, you need to leave them, you need to leave your baby in someone else’s hands.” Saying that she can’t wait for Richard to meet her, Oti asked: “Maybe you can say a prayer over her, I would really love that.”

Richard admitted: “I’ve already said a prayer for her actually.” With tears in her eyes, she thanked Richard and gave him a big hug. Richard also opened up about the loss of his former partner, David. He confessed to Oti: “I miss him… He’s just left a massive hole in my life and I’m living my life around that loss.”

Oti developed sepsis during pregnancy, which led to a lengthy spell in hospital for the little one when she arrived early. Oti previously said: “There were moments where she wouldn’t eat, feeding her was really tough. “In South Africa and Romania, they don’t help children who are born as young as she was, so we were very, very lucky!”

Otiwas born and raised in South Africa’s capital, Pretoria, while her fellow pro dancer husband Marius, 42, was born in Satu Mare, Romania, in north-west Transylvania.

He said: “I knew there was nothing better we can do. I saw babies where If it would have been that week in Romania they would not have saved the baby. We are lucky.”

Oti said: “The pregnancy itself was beautiful, it was amazing but I had a spontaneous birth where we were going shopping and my waters just broke in the middle of the street.

“Because I didn’t have any experience of birth it didn’t see traumatic at the time. Afterwards I felt that was intense. And when you look at milestones of premature babies, I have to be very, very understanding. The trauma came after.”