awful

A discussion about the budget was rapidly descending into an argument when Susanna Reid was forced to interrupt Good Morning Britain to reveal some devastating news

Good Morning Britain‘s Susanna Reid was forced to interrupt a heated discussion about the budget as heartbreaking news came in. The ITV morning show host said the news brought back “awful memories”.

Susanna and the shows’ guests were talking about the “smorgasbord” of tax rises expected in the budget and the presenter seemed to be getting irate about the vague language being used to discuss it, frustratingly calling it all “semantics”.

But she soon had to stop the discussion to reveal some breaking news. “We’ve got some news coming out of Hong Kong,” she started. “Where a fire is engulfing a residential building.”

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As live footage came in of the building burning, Susanna found the fire difficult to talk about. “Wow, goodness me, these are live pictures. They bring back awful memories don’t they?”

She couldn’t help drawing parallels between the Hong Kong fire, where several people are trapped inside, and the tragedy at Grenfell Tower in 2017.

The fire at Grenfell resulted in 72 deaths and a public inquiry was started to establish what happened and how such a disaster can be prevented in the future.

The inquiry, which only ended in February this year, found that there was a chain of failures across government and the private sector led to Grenfell Tower becoming a death trap in the event of a fire, as the cladding and insulation were failed fire safety tests.

Susanna described “plumes of grey smoke” coming out of the Hong Kong building and said local fire departments were “battling” to put out the fire and save the people inside.

Kevin Maguire, who was on the show to talk about the budget, said: “You’ve just got to hope that there are lots of exits and that the outside windows have been fitted properly so unlike Grenfell, the fire can’t go outside.”

After the Grenfell fire, it was found that the fire was able to move more easily between the interior and exterior of the building as the windows’ surrounds were made of materials that were less resistant to the heat. The windows themselves were an insufficient size when they were refurbished, necessitating larger surrounds.

Good Morning Britain soon turned back to talk about the budget. Andrew Pierce said he thought Rachel Reeves would be sacked after the budget.

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The price of olive oil has been soaring.

Strolling through an olive grove in southern Italy, surrounded by trees, many of which were more than 200 years old, I was bathed in sunshine and calm with only the warm breeze floating through to branches to break the idyllic silence.

Frantoio Mafrica is a family-owned olive mill, which has been handed down from generation to generation. While it looks like little more than olive trees in a sunlight dappled grove to us visitors, to the owner they’re his family heritage. When he looks at them he sees his grandfather, who also worked the land.

The mill also uses donkeys to help transport the olives after picking, which is done in the traditional way by shaking the tree when they’ve 50 percent green and 50 percent black. And meeting the baby donkey who wanted nothing more than cuddles was one of the highlights of my entire trip to Calabria with Great Rail Journeys.

The family secret to processing the olives into the highest quality extra virgin olive oil was also unexpected. Rather than pressing the olives, they’re washed with water as they’re pulped to make sure every bit of Italian goodness goes into the oil. The process is all completed 24 hours after harvesting.

After trying the oil with bruschetta I can confirm it was like nothing available in your local Tesco: utterly delicious. Calabria is one of Italy’s major olive producing regions, with more than 50 types grown there including the only white olive. However, you would have had to have been hiding under a rock to be unaware of the soaring cost of olive oil.

Frantoio Mafrica explained the heart-breaking reason behind this alarming rise, and it’s not the market forces behind the soaring costs of other food. In fact, it’s because huge swathes of Italian olive groves have been hit by a terrible disease, which has killed the trees, many of them hundreds of years old.

As olive trees take so long to grow, the devastation of burning huge numbers of the diseased and dead trees has been a terrible price to pay for a country and region so fiercely proud of its ‘liquid gold’.

Knowing the passion, work and care that goes into making the best olive oil – and the devastation this blight has caused – I’ll complain much more quietly at the price next time.