Council elections will be postponed for at least a year in some areas across England, the government has confirmed. The “vast majority” of the 139 local elections in May will go ahead as planned, said Local Government Secretary Steve Reed. But opposition MPs say that the delayed elections are disenfranchising four million voters.

Which elections are being delayed?
Across England, 29 local authorities have asked to postpone. These include city councils in Exeter, Lincoln, Norwich, Peterborough and Preston, in addition to county, district and borough councils.
More than 650 councillors will no longer face elections this year, with their terms extended instead, probably until 2028. Of those, 238 are Conservatives, 206 are Labour, 81 are Liberal Democrats, 39 are Green, 26 are Reform, 7 are Your Party and 59 are independent.

Why are they being postponed?
A “major shake-up of local government” is under way that will abolish some local authorities altogether, said the BBC. The “rejig” will see the old “two-tier system of district and county councils” in many parts of England being replaced with new “unitary” councils.

Some local authorities have argued that postponing the upcoming ballot is necessary, either because they are “concerned” about their ability to “run the polls alongside the overhaul of town halls” or because they want to avoid the “cost to taxpayers” of holding elections for councils that are due to be abolished.

What do critics say?
Labour is “running scared of the electorate” and “denying millions of people a voice”, said Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey. Keir Starmer’s government is “moving seamlessly from arrogance to incompetence and now cowardice”, said Tory shadow local government secretary James Cleverly. Reform leader Nigel Farage said he would be “fighting this denial of democracy in the High Court”. A hearing is scheduled for 19 February.

The Electoral Commission said it “recognises the pressure on local government” but does not see “capacity constraints” as a “legitimate reason for delaying long-planned elections”.

Speculation over who might replace outgoing “The Great British Bake Off” judge Prue Leith ended today with confirmation that Nigella Lawson is to step into her shoes. The TV chef, who will join in the next series, said it was a “huge honour” to follow Leith and original judge Mary Berry, and she was “bubbling with excitement”.

‘Guaranteed ratings booster’
Lawson’s energy and appeal make her “any production company’s fantasy”, said Hannah Evans in The Times. The “spoon-licking, finger-in-the-cream cook” will bring a “whole new level of eye-twinkling double entendres and insinuations” to a show that already relies on winks and witty wordplay.

No other TV chef has been able to “entrance the British public quite like Lawson”, said The Telegraph. She is a “guaranteed ratings-booster” and a “wise pick” for Channel 4, which “might just have a ratings hit on its hands again”.

Lawson is the “only woman for the job” of turning around a show that has become “slightly long in the tooth”, said Stuart Heritage in The Guardian. She is “spectacularly British” and exudes a “familiarity” that will “reassure existing viewers” and bring an “international first-name recognition that might even end up growing the audience”.

‘Destined for the knacker’s yard’
Though her success is undeniable, Lawson’s approach to baking is “typically simple”, said The Telegraph. She’s no “classically trained pastry chef” like Leith or Berry. There are doubts as to “whether she could successfully complete even half of the challenges Bake Off’s competitors take on”. And there is no knowing if her “star power” will translate into “chemistry” alongside veteran judge Paul Hollywood.

With or without Lawson, the whole GBBO format may already be a lost cause, said The Guardian. The show is clearly “much closer to its end than its beginning” and “destined for the knacker’s yard”. That said, “if it’s going to go out, it deserves to go out as strongly as possible”.

Members of India’s Central Industrial Security Force march in the 77th Republic Day Parade in New Delhi. The armed police unit, which protects critical infrastructure, joined thousands of troops to celebrate the anniversary of the adoption of the country’s post-independence constitution.


Sajjad Hussain / AFP / Getty Images

Whatever social media influencers may say, you don’t need to “fork out for pricey, pretentious” superfoods like açai or spirulina, said Giulia Crouch in The Standard. The belief that healthier eating “costs the Earth” is one of the “major misconceptions” about nutrition. Instead, stock up on these far more affordable ingredients…

Anchovies
These “flavour-bombs” have an “outsized nutritional punch”, said Crouch. They’re a great source of omega-3 fatty acids, which “support heart and brain health and help lower inflammation”. You also get more minerals from anchovies than you would from “larger tinned fish like tuna or mackerel”, because you eat the entire fish including the bones.

Walnuts
Nuts have long been an “expert-approved nutritious snack or meal addition” but walnuts “top the list in terms of nutritional profile,” said Rosie Fitzmaurice in The i Paper. This is mainly due to the high amount of polyphenols they contain, which have “potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties”.

Popcorn
Homemade popcorn keeps you “feeling satisfied for longer than other snacks, such as crisps”, Sammie Gill, a registered dietitian with the British Dietetic Association, told The Guardian. Popcorn kernels are essentially a “whole-grain containing about 10g of fibre per 100g”, and can be elevated by adding your own toppings, such as melted dark chocolate.

Potatoes
Frequently “underestimated for their nutritional value”, potatoes are full of vitamins and minerals, including vitamin C, iron and potassium, said Gill. Upon chilling, the high starch content in “freshly cooked potatoes” turns into “resistant starch”, which is a “fermentable fibre” that acts as “‘food’ for your gut microbes”.

Sorry, but women-only carriages will only make things worse
Olivia Petter in The Independent
“I’ve been groped, catcalled, and yelled at by men on the Tube,” writes Olivia Petter, so “I can understand” why some people want women-only carriages. But I don’t think women would be any safer. The assumption that a man “can’t be near a woman because he might assault her” could anger and “galvanise more predators than it immobilises”. And “putting women in separate spaces” is “another way of accepting sexual harassment, rather than tackling the culture that enables it”.

Yes, It’s Fascism
Jonathan Rauch in The Atlantic
“I’ve resisted using the F-word to describe” Donald Trump, writes Jonathan Rauch, a Governance Studies fellow at the Brookings Institution. I couldn’t see “formal ideology” in his regime. But “when the facts change, I change my mind”. Trump now claims “unlimited power”, is politicising the justice system, and has created “a national paramilitary police”. It may not be a copy of “classical European fascism” but he “is showing us in real time what 21st-century American fascism looks like”.

Britain is failing the toilet test
Bartek Staniszewski on The Critic
“Social cohesion is notoriously difficult to measure” but the state of public loos is a good tracker, writes Bartek Staniszewski of the Bright Blue think tank. These days, “I feel flattered” if there’s a “free-running tap” and a “normal soap dispenser”. Usually, the “trickle of water” from an automated tap is “scarcely capable of washing off the tiny” dot of soap permitted by the dispenser. Treating “my loo presence” with such “suspicion” is a sign that things are not well.