Using pen and paper 'more effective at helping people remember information'

In this digital and smartphone-dependent age, people are using pen and paper much less often.

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  • Prince Philip washes up on a boat in previously unseen school photos

    The boat was a benefit for Gordonstoun pupils 'with no particular family home' to go to during breaks.

  • This is how much Drag Race queens spent while competing on the show

    Prepare for your dreams of walking the Drag Race runway to be ruined, because an investigation has ReVealed the astronomical amounts previous contestants have spent competing on the sow.

  • Quiz: Are you an expert on superstitions?

    If you think you’re a master of British superstitions, try your luck with our multiple choice quiz.

  • Whisper it quietly: Europe's vaccination programme is taking off - and could catch the UK

    When it comes to Europe’s Covid vaccination rollout, could it be that slow and steady wins the race? After a lacklustre start to delivering doses around the continent, that is certainly the message European leaders are now sending. Following a debut marred by delays and a dearth of supplies, the EU’s vaccination drive is finally gathering pace, leading some even to suggest - chief among them President Emmanuel Macron himself - that it could catch up with Britain “in the coming weeks”. “With all the shots rolling in, it’s even no longer unthinkable that the EU will finish vaccinating its entire adult population ahead of the UK,” claimed Joshua Livestro, member of the Committee on European Integration of the Advisory Council on International Affairs of the Dutch Foreign Ministry. "While the UK is likely to finish its vaccination marathon crawling on all fours, the EU will be sprinting toward the tape.” As the UK reopens, such claims appear wildly exaggerated. Indeed, with the continent still in the grip of a deadly third wave and fresh health concerns over the new Johnson&Johnson jab as well as new variants, the EU is struggling to make headway against the pandemic. Yet undoubtedly there are encouraging indicators.

  • ‘Situation is very serious’: Merkel pushes for ‘emergency brake’ powers to prevent third wave

    ‘We need to stop this third wave of the pandemic’, chancellor says

  • How do people feel about the AstraZeneca vaccine?

    Under-30s in the UK will be offered Pfizer or Moderna vaccines rather than the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine due to concerns over a very rare risk of blood clots. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in the UK said there were still huge benefits of the vaccine in preventing Covid-19, and has not concluded that the vaccine causes rare clots, although it says the link is getting firmer.

  • 'Prince Philip disapproved of dogs at dinner – the Queen fed them titbits under the table'

    Like the rest of the nation I will be watching television today at my farmhouse in the Yorkshire countryside when Prince Philip is laid to rest in St George’s chapel, Windsor, before he is finally interred in Frogmore, with the Queen, when she dies. For all of us it will be an emotionally charged moment of significant national importance; as someone said this week, “when a great oak falls, the view changes.” The landscape that is the Royal family is now very different to the one we have all known since Philip married Elizabeth more than six decades ago. Frogmore House was a special place for the Duke. It was here he had salvaged much of the interior of HMS Britannia, surrounding himself with mementos from the ship that meant so much to him in a life well lived. The dining table and chairs from Britannia commanded much of the room, its walls encased in the ship’s original walnut panelling, while there were silver mementoes and photos of the vessel at sea and in the various ports visited, and a tattered fragment of the Union Jack brought back from Scott’s ill-fated expedition to the South Pole. As Philip’s final journey unfolds before he is interred in the sacred resting place of the House of Windsor, it is inevitable I’ll reflect on the day he invited me to spend an hour or two with him, much of it filled with laughter in Frogmore. We met just after the turn of the century to record a TV programme on a subject few knew he was passionate about, his love of painting – Philip himself was an accomplished artist – and to talk about his great friend the late Edward Seago whose work was being exhibited in a London gallery. Norfolk-born Seago had joined Philip on his 1956 Britannia voyage to Antarctica to paint its icy seascape and menacing mountains, finding time to also capture Philip on deck in sub-zero temperatures, seated at an easel as he, too, put the continent he saw before him on canvas. Today Seago’s pictures fetch thousands. Prince Philip had 60 in his collection, most hung at Balmoral. The Prince brought many of them down from Scotland and talked passionately about the voyage, his memory pin sharp on places, names and the whaling station on South Georgia, clearly entranced by the mystery and pristine landscape of Antarctica. I thought we had got on pretty well, after all I had interviewed Philip before, at Buckingham Palace, where I was summoned to talk to him in the late Eighties about the World Wildlife Fund, of which he was the first president.

  • The poisoned clouds that are suffocating the people of Iraq

    Flames of burning gas that puncture the sky are not just killing the planet – they’re killing Iraqis. In oil towns blighted by this toxic air across the country, locals tell Bel Trew they fear for their future as, one by one, their friends and family are struck by disease

  • London may need restrictions for ‘longer’ as new variant clusters emerge, warn scientists

    Mass surge testing underway in parts of the capital after cluster of South African variant detected

  • ‘Very few people knew’: Friend reveals Helen McCrory’s secret cancer battle

    Helen McCrory “swore friends to secrecy” as she underwent gruelling treatment for cancer. The Peaky Blinders actress told “very, very few people” about her diagnosis and carried on with her charity work just a few weeks before her death aged 52. Carrie Cracknell, who directed Ms McCrory in a state production of Medea, said the actress didn’t want her illness overshadowing her family and professional life.

  • Pro-UK parties could stop an independence majority at Holyrood, claims Lib Dem leader

    Pro-UK parties could yet stop an independence majority at Holyrood because even “hardline” SNP voters are unsure about Nicola Sturgeon’s mid-pandemic push for a new referendum, the Lib Dem leader has claimed. Launching his party’s manifesto, Willie Rennie said the SNP vote was “softer than I’ve ever seen it” in the current campaign and insisted it was “all to play for”. He predicted that momentum could rapidly swing away from the nationalists in the final weeks of the campaign, despite opinion polls currently suggesting a pro-independence majority after May 6 is a near certainty. The Lib Dems have said the next Holyrood term should be focused on recovery from the pandemic rather than a new independence vote. The party is proposing large increases to spending on mental health services, a jobs guarantee for young people and play-based education up to the age of seven. It also published proposals for MSPs to be able to vote to hold Scottish ministers in "contempt of parliament" after the SNP repeatedly defied votes in the previous term. The Lib Dems won just five seats at Holyrood in 2016 but Mr Rennie insisted his party had the potential to make gains across Scotland, highlighting Caithness, Sutherland and Ross as a seat he believes he can take from the SNP. “There's a lot to play for, and the vote amongst the SNP is softer than I have ever seen it,” Mr Rennie said. “The hesitation amongst the SNP voters is considerable. “There was a lady I met the other day, she's been a hardline SNP supporter all of her life. She said she was just not sure this time, and [her reasons were] Alex Salmond and pushing an independence referendum in the middle of a pandemic.” He also claimed that centrist Tory voters were moving to the Lib Dems because they were put off by a “harder, darker edge” to the Conservatives under Douglas Ross. He claimed socially liberal voters attracted by the “bubbly and bright” Ruth Davidson at the last election did not like the current incumbent. Mr Rennie said the Tories had adopted more right wing positions under Mr Ross and cited a masked photocall on a military jeep as an example in which he “just looked a bit darker”.

  • Dining room table Prince Philip was born on now used in City boardroom

    A dining room table on which Prince Philip was said to have been born is now used in a City boardroom - and the Duke was once even invited to have lunch around it. The Duke’s mother, Princess Alice of Battenberg, was said to have delivered the future consort to the British monarchy on the table at a villa in Corfu in 1921. Its unlikely journey across the continent began in 1932, when the Greek royal family asked the British consul in Greece to sell their furniture from their summer villa. The Duke had left Greece with his family ten years earlier after King Constantine, his uncle, was forced to abdicate and his father, Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark, was banished from the country by a revolutionary court. John Vaughan-Russell, the British consul at the time, is believed to have taken possession of the dining room furniture for around 28,000 drachma and moved it to the consulate in Patras, before it later went into storage. There it remained until 1977, when Mr Vaughan-Russell’s son, who was working in Hong Kong at Jardine Matheson, the trading company, asked a friend if he wanted to buy it. “My father always used to say that Prince Philip was born on this table,” Mr Vaughan-Russell was said to have told the friend, a director at the shipbrokers Howe Robinson. The company duly bought the large dining room table - along with 12 chairs, a sideboard, a carving table and the original receipts - only to discover it was too big to fit in their office.

  • UK Covid Live: Cases of new Indian variant discovered in London as ‘red list’ of countries ‘under constant review’

    Downing Street has insisted that the red list of countries is “under constant review” amid concerns over a new coronavirus variant first identified in India. The variant, known as B.1617, carries two mutations in the spike protein that experts fear may help it evade the body’s immune response.

  • Priti Patel approves extradition of world’s most wanted billionaire

    The world’s most wanted billionaire Nirav Modi has had his extradition to India approved by Priti Patel. The Home Secretary ordered the extradition of the diamond tycoon after a British judge ruled there was sufficient evidence to send him back to India for trial. He has been accused of money laundering and fraud over allegations that he embezzled more than $1 billion (£700 million) from the Punjab National Bank (PNB). Mr Modi was tracked down by The Telegraph after he went on the run. He was found living in a luxury apartment in a high rise block in London’s West End in March 2019.

  • Luscious lemon squares recipe

    Prep time: 20 minutes, plus 30 minutes chilling | Cooking time: 45-50 minutes MAKES 30 small squares INGREDIENTS For the base 250g unsalted butter, room temperature 90g granulated sugar 250g plain flour ¼ tsp salt For the filling 6 extra-large eggs, room temperature 600g granulated sugar finely grated Zest of 5 lemons Juice of 6 lemons 125g plain flour, sifted Icing sugar, for dusting METHOD Preheat the oven to 170C/150C fan/Gas 3½. To make the crust, cream the butter and sugar in an electric mixer on a medium speed until light but not too fluffy. On a very low speed add the flour and salt and mix until just combined. Turn out the dough (don't worry if it hasn't come together) on to a lightly floured surface and gather into a ball. Using well-floured hands, press into a buttered tin measuring 30 x 22cm. Prick all over with a fork and chill for a good 30 minutes (or put it in the freezer for about 10). Place this in the oven and bake for 15 to 20 minutes until pale gold. Set aside to cool but leave the oven on. Using a balloon whisk beat together the eggs, sugar, lemon zest and juice. When combined gradually whisk in the flour. Pour over the cooled crust. Bake for 30 minutes or until set (feel for doneness by touching the centre with your index finger). Leave to cool completely. Cut into squares and dust with icing sugar.

  • Peaky Blinders star Helen McCrory dies aged 52 from cancer

    Tributes have been paid to Peaky Blinders star Helen McCrory who has died aged 52 from cancer. In a message posted on social media, Lewis said: “I’m heartbroken to announce that after an heroic battle with cancer, the beautiful and mighty woman that is Helen McCrory has died peacefully at home, surrounded by a wave of love from friends and family.” McCrory, who was awarded the OBE for services to drama in 2017, was probably best known for playing the fearsome matriarch Polly in crime drama Peaky Blinders but also had a critically acclaimed stage career winning plaudits for National Theatre roles in productions of Medea and Terence Rattigan’s post war drama The Deep Blue Sea.

  • Step forward, Prince Edward: the future Duke of Edinburgh's newfound role at the heart of the royals

    One of the inevitable results of Prince Philip’s sad death is a shake-up in the House of Windsor. And Prince Edward, who will in time become the Duke of Edinburgh, is bound to take on a more prominent role in supporting the Queen and, in time, her successor, Prince Charles. Prince Philip may not have been in the royal line of succession. But his importance to the monarchy was paramount – and his death leaves a huge gap to be filled. The title of Duke of Edinburgh has now been automatically inherited by Prince Charles. But, in a sign of the affection of the Queen and Prince Philip for their youngest son, it will be passed on to Prince Edward on the sad day of the Queen’s death. This was made clear by the Queen in 1999, when Prince Edward married Sophie Rhys-Jones in 1999 and was made Earl of Wessex. When Prince Charles becomes king, the title of Duke of Edinburgh will ‘merge in the Crown’, meaning the title no longer exists. But Charles III will bestow on his youngest brother a new ‘creation’ of the ‘Duke of Edinburgh’ – the fourth creation of the title since it was first bestowed in 1726. It makes perfect sense. Of Prince Philip’s four children, Prince Edward has always been most closely associated with the Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award, created by Prince Philip in 1956. Prince Philip funeral news and royal family updates

  • Scottish Tories propose reopening of decades-old train lines to boost economy

    Rail routes that have been closed for decades would be resurrected under Tory proposals to boost Scotland’s transport network. Under the plan, set to be included in the party manifesto, reviews would be launched into lines that were shut under the Beeching cuts of the 1960s and reopened if it was found doing so would make economic sense. The line between Perth and Edinburgh would be one of those that could be rejuvenated under the plan with the Buchan to Formartine line, in the north east, another contender. It follows the reopening of the Borders railway, which closed in 1969 and reopened in 2015, and has been widely seen as a success. The infrastructure plan would also see upgrades to Scotland’s road network, including the dualling of the A1 and expansion of the M8. "We would review closed rail lines and stations and reopen those which would support local growth,” Mr Ross said. “"Many iconic railways were shut down during the Beeching cuts of the 1960s - we would review which should be reopened.

  • ‘It’s going very well’: Hope rises for Oxford’s malaria vaccine after success of Covid jab from same team

    Exclusive: Professor Adrian Hill says his team at the Jenner Institute are ‘very excited’ by the prospects of their vaccine, which enters into large-scale testing in Africa this month

  • What kind of country sees Adam Toledo as a ‘thirteen-year-old man’ and Kyle Rittenhouse as a ‘little boy’?

    Dylann Roof was bought a Burger King by police after his arrest, while Toledo — who was pictured with his hands in the air moments before cops fatally shot him — has been painted as a dangerous gang member