Britains

The prime minister has ruled out financial reparations despite longstanding Caribbean demands ahead of Commonwealth leaders’ summit.

Britain’s prime minister has opened the door to a formal apology for its role in the transatlantic slave trade, while ruling out financial reparations.

Andy Burnham set out his position in a Guardian article on Friday, ahead of a Commonwealth leaders’ summit  in Antigua and Barbuda on Sunday.

The Commonwealth comprises 56 countries, mostly former British colonies, whose Caribbean members have long pressed Britain to acknowledge slavery’s legacy and offer redress.

Burnham offered structured talks with countries and campaign groups affected by slavery, including discussions on whether Britain should issue an official state apology.

“Listening to calls for a formal apology on behalf of the British state will form an important part of this process and I am open to them,” Burnham wrote.

He expressed “sorrow and regret” for the suffering of millions of enslaved people, but rejected calls for financial compensation.

“I do not think that British people today can be held liable for historical wrongs, however heinous, that happened in a different age under different laws and in which they played no personal part,” he said.

The stance maintains the position of previous British governments, despite his willingness to discuss an apology.

Instead, he proposed an international effort to ease the debt burden on poorer nations by extending repayment periods and cutting interest rates.

Burnham also said that former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown will assist with the initiative, adding that more than 40 percent of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable countries spend more on debt interest than on healthcare.

Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Mottley welcomed the opening for talks but reiterated her government’s position on reparations.

In a statement reported by the Guardian on Saturday, she said cooperation could also cover healthcare, education, development and fairer borrowing terms.

Antigua’s Prime Minister Gaston Browne, who is hosting the summit, welcomed the debt initiative and promises of cooperation on renewable energy.

CARICOM, the regional bloc of Caribbean countries, has drawn up a 10-point plan for reparations.

Its demands go beyond payments to include an apology, support for health and education, as well as measures to address the economic and social damage left by slavery.

The dispute surfaced at the last Commonwealth summit in Samoa in 2024, when leaders called for discussions about reparations, despite opposition from then Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

King Charles III will also attend the summit. However, Buckingham Palace has said he will not issue a formal apology for slavery during his trip, despite calls from countries in the region.

No single Argentine capability shaped British planning during the 1982 South Atlantic conflict more than the pairing of the Dassault Super Étendard strike fighter and its deadly AM39 Exocet anti-ship missile. Against that threat, the British launched a series of special forces operations, all with the same objective: kill the Argentine pilots and destroy their aircraft and missiles before they could be used again. Together, the strike fighter and missile pairing had proven to be the biggest threat to the Royal Navy task force that had been sent to recapture the islands.

Five Super Étendard aircraft and five AM39 Exocet missiles had been delivered to Argentina before a French embargo took hold. The jets were flown by the Argentine Navy’s 2nd Naval Fighter and Attack Squadron out of Río Grande, on Tierra del Fuego, a region at South America’s southernmost tip, shared by Chile and Argentina. The Super Étendard/Exocet combination had already cost the British the destroyer HMS Sheffield on May 4 and the container ship Atlantic Conveyor on May 25.

The special forces operations were broken down into four phases — named PLUM DUFF, MIKADO, KETTLEDRUM, and IMPI — the last of which is the least well-documented, and the focus of this article.

PLUM DUFF was the insertion phase and was a reconnaissance mission. On May 16, an RAF Hercules airdropped eight special forces troops onto RFA Fort Austin to form a recce party. On the night of May 17/18, a Sea King HC4, ZA290, lifted off from the aircraft carrier HMS Invincible for a one-way flight to Tierra del Fuego, where the men were to observe Río Grande and report back. The patrol was set down far from the objective and never completed the reconnaissance; the helicopter crew flew on into Chile, where the aircraft was deliberately burnt to try and hide the evidence, while they tried to evade capture.

MIKADO was the planned attack phase, and it depended on that missing intelligence. Two Hercules were to air-land up to 70 men of B Squadron, 22 Special Air Service (SAS), directly on Río Grande — the air operation order of May 19 also named Río Gallegos, further up the Argentine coast, as an alternative. The men would destroy the Super Étendards and their Exocets on the ground, kill the pilots, and then withdraw overland into Chile. Commander Task Force 317, at Northwood, accepted from the outset that the mission could well cost both Hercules.

The aircrew did not refuse the task, but they were blunt about what it demanded: formation landing by two heavy transports on a possibly heavily defended, icy military runway, with a probable 20-knot tailwind, at night and on passive night-vision goggles in minimum light levels, with intelligence that was inadequate to support any air-land option at all. The RAF planning team recommended an airdrop as the better way to maintain a covert posture, and the Senior Air Staff Officer at Headquarters 38 Group warned the Air Commander to watch for overambitious schemes coming out of the SAS.

The U.K. Ministry of Defense formally cancelled MIKADO on June 4.

KETTLEDRUM was planned as the third of the set. It was aimed at Puerto Deseado, Santa Cruz Province of Argentina, and would have inserted a Special Boat Service party (SBS, the Royal Marines’ special forces unit) from the submarine HMS Onyx — a boat that will reappear before the end of this story.

None of the three was executed as planned.

Less well-known is that the cancellation of MIKADO produced a fourth project: Operation IMPI, named after a Zulu fighting force.

Cancelling MIKADO did not mean the wider operation was over. Also on June 4, the U.K. Ministry of Defense tasked CTF 317 to produce a new plan for special forces to destroy the combat effectiveness of the Super Étendards.

CTF 317’s staff went to work on what became IMPI. The planning document, Ops 1/3, is dated June 14 — the day of the Argentine surrender in the islands. In broad terms, the objective was to be attacked by special forces arriving both by air and by sea.

That much has been known, in fragments.

What has not been published until now is the fact that the operation had already been resourced.

At 2240Z on June 12, Maj. Gen. Jeremy Moore, commanding the land forces as CTG 317.1, signalled Rear Admiral Sandy Woodward’s battle group (CTG 317.8), with Admiral Sir John Fieldhouse at Northwood (CTF 317) and Commodore Michael Clapp’s amphibious group (CTG 317.0) as information addressees. The message called for B Squadron, 22 SAS, to be made available for operations as soon as possible: cover was needed against rapid developments of an unfavorable nature in West Falkland (Gran Malvina), and the theatre’s existing special forces assets were fully absorbed supporting the battle for Stanley — and IMPI. Operation IMPI, Moore noted in passing, was by then self-sufficient.

Examining two lines of routine signal traffic settles several things at once. Forty-eight hours before the surrender, IMPI was not a staff study but an operation that had been resourced, and that was enough to consume the theatre’s special forces and justify calling a fresh SAS squadron forward. It is also the only contemporary, operational-level reference to IMPI released so far: everything else comes from a narrative written years afterwards.

As that later narrative describes it, the concept behind IMPI was much leaner than MIKADO. Against two Hercules and 70 men, the air element of IMPI rested on a single RAF Hercules.

The aircraft was to fly from Ascension Island, refuel in flight, and then track east of the Falkland Islands and south of Cape Horn before making a low-level approach below Argentine radar cover for a night landing of special forces at the airfields codenamed San Jose and Arco Iris. Other special forces would have been inserted by sea. That air element, as will be seen, is the most questionable part of the entire file.

The routing is worth attention, because it rules out the intuitive picture of a direct run south from Ascension. Instead, the aircraft would have entered from the least-covered and least-expected direction, coming around the bottom of the continent rather than from the northeast.

The precise identities of San Jose and Arco Iris are not established in the declassified record.

The most likely reading is that they stand for Río Grande and Río Gallegos — the airfields at which the planned navigation ended, and the two named in MIKADO’s air operation order a month earlier. For a document circulating through restricted channels, encrypting the names of the two targets was an elementary precaution, although it should be noted that an operational order would more commonly have designated them simply as Target One and Target Two.

None of this rules out Chilean participation in other phases of the operation; if anything, it suggests it’s more likely. The narrative survives inside a folder classified Top Secret and restricted to the Chief of the Air Staff, whose declared subject is cooperation with Chile. That setting contrasts with the earlier stage of the planning, when mounting and recovering a special forces insertion from a Chilean airfield was considered and expressly discounted on political grounds — much as the use of an Antarctic strip was discounted after the New Zealand High Commission advised that the Antarctic winter precluded safe trans-polar flight.

The maritime half of IMPI can be traced in the records of those who were there.

Navigational support for the final phase was to come from the nuclear attack submarine HMS Conqueror. On June 9, 1982, Conqueror was off Bahía Camarones, working as an advanced picket and hunting targets of opportunity that ventured outside the 12-nautical-mile limit of Argentine territorial waters, with authority to sink any civilian vessel judged to be running to the Falklands/Malvinas; that same morning the sub had in fact entered Argentine territorial waters trying to locate the Argentine Navy’s Task Group 79.2.

That day, Conqueror received preparatory information on IMPI. The sub’s task was to come to periscope depth and act as a radio beacon, giving the Hercules a radio reference against which to refine a navigation that, low and at night, allowed no error. The resulting picture is an odd one: a nuclear submarine deployed on interdiction off the Patagonian coast, turned into a navigation aid for a transport aircraft.

The insertion itself fell to HMS Onyx, the Oberon class diesel-electric boat that had already taken part in Operation KETTLEDRUM and the only conventional submarine Britain deployed to the South Atlantic. On June 14, at 0815Z, lying in San Carlos Water, Onyx embarked a party of 10 men from B Squadron, 22 SAS and the SBS for the mission. The timing matches Moore’s signal of two days earlier almost exactly.

The plan called for the submarine to surface some two nautical miles offshore at night. The troops would close the beach in Gemini inflatables and destroy the objective — aircraft and missiles, if any were there — using anti-tank weapons and demolition charges.

What happened next illustrates the inertia of military machinery. The Argentine surrender in the islands came on that same June 14, hours after the party had gone aboard Onyx. Even so, preparations did not stop at once: on June 15 the embarked troops carried out practice landings from a Gemini. That does not mean IMPI was ever executed — it was not — but it does show that with the strategic outcome already settled, the machine was still rehearsing.

The British record closes the matter with administrative dryness: the surrender of the Argentine forces in the Falkland Islands and the cessation of hostile activity by Argentine aircraft resulted in the operation being cancelled.

The air part of the mission is another matter entirely and is where IMPI becomes more uncertain.

The only link between IMPI and an aircraft is a single paragraph in an RAF historical narrative. The folder that holds it was opened on April 18, 1986 — four years after the war — as an eyes-only briefing file for the Chief of the Air Staff, and the pages appear to be a working draft rather than a finished submission, carrying pencil amendments throughout.

Had a Hercules been earmarked, there is no doubt which unit would have provided it. The Special Forces Flight that runs through the whole chapter — five crews, commanded by a squadron leader, exercising regularly with SAS and SBS Sections — appears with its squadron number blanked out, yet the number surfaces a few paragraphs later, where two of its crews are described training on the probe-fitted Hercules C1P. The unit was No. 47 Squadron, RAF, home-based at Lyneham, and it would keep the special forces air support role for decades afterward.

The men who were at Ascension with that detachment, however, say they had nothing to do with it. Reliable sources with direct knowledge of the flight’s activity state that they never saw the codeword at the time, had never heard of the operation until this file surfaced, and consider it inconceivable that a special forces Hercules and crew could have been earmarked for a mission of this kind without the flight — a community of five crews that has stayed in touch ever since — learning of it at some point in the intervening four decades. By June 14, at most one aerial-refueling-qualified special forces crew was at Wideawake.

That skepticism is reinforced by the way the same narrative handles events those crews lived through. Its account of their own work-up does not survive contact with their logbooks.

For example, a practice infiltration into RAF Laarbruch in Germany that the narrative describes as successful had in fact been detected; the Hercules was notionally shot down about two miles out on the approach. The ramp toes (attachable extension plates located at the very end of the rear cargo ramp) it describes as droppable at 20 to 30 knots were never meant to be lowered with the aircraft moving, which would have been unsafe and risked the airframe. There are other anomalies, too.

A document that misstates the squadron’s own exercises is thin evidence on which to place that squadron over Tierra del Fuego.

What is not in question is what the Special Forces Flight could have done, had it been asked.

By mid-May the flight had two crews qualified in air-to-air refueling — one deployed to Ascension, the other held in the United Kingdom to train the others — flying Hercules C1s fitted with probes and, where the task required it, additional fuel tanks in the fuselage. It had rehearsed stream landings and rapid offloads, parachute insertion below radar cover to a pinpoint coastal feature, as well as flying on ANVIS goggles at 250 feet over sea and land. The goggles themselves were fitted to the crews’ helmets by RAE Farnborough specialists in a single day in mid-April. The reach was demonstrated on May 16, when the sortie that dropped the PLUM DUFF party stayed airborne for 24 hours and five minutes, with Victor tankers refueling some 1,800 miles from Ascension. Almost none of it was routine: nearly everything the force did during the conflict was improvised, at speed, in a matter of weeks.

What never had an answer — not for MIKADO, and not for whatever IMPI intended — was the other end of the problem. Putting men ashore deep inside Argentine territory was the solvable half. Getting an aircraft and its passengers out again after a direct action, from a strip in range of the Argentine Air Force, was not.

All of the above is reconstructed from lateral references: the RAF’s narrative in file AIR 20/13036 at the National Archives, unit records, submarine logs, operational signal traffic, and the accounts of participants.

The specific file — the one holding the complete plan with its annexes, the identification of the airfields and the execution sequence — remains closed. It is DEFE 71/980, titled Operation Corporate (Falklands Conflict): Operation IMPI, retained at the National Archives at Kew with no announced opening date. Until it is released, the air element of IMPI cannot be settled either way.

Forty-four years after the conflict, the last British special operation of the war is still, in essence, a document the British state is not prepared to show. That is not a trivial detail: the files touching on cooperation with Chile have consistently been the most reluctantly opened of all.

What remains is an operation of two halves. One of them is solid: a resourced plan, declared self-sufficient on June 12, with a nuclear submarine briefed to act as a beacon, 10 men of the SAS and the SBS embarked in a conventional submarine in San Carlos on the morning of the surrender, and rehearsals continuing the following day. The other half — a lone Hercules coming round Cape Horn to land on a codenamed strip — rests on one paragraph of a flawed staff narrative and is rejected by the only men who could have flown it.

Either way, the obsession is the same.

Between June 4 and June 14, 1982, while the final battle for Port Stanley/Puerto Argentino was being fought and the Argentine land campaign was collapsing, part of the British planning effort was still revolving around five French-built aircraft, their 10 aircrew, and their missiles. That the plan carries the date of the surrender itself, that it was still being rehearsed the following day, and that it remains classified today says a good deal about how far the British were prepared to go to destroy the Super Étendards and their Exocets.

Contact the editor: thomas@thewarzone.com

Mariano Sciaroni holds a master’s degree in Strategy and Geopolitics as well as a postgraduate diploma in Contemporary Military History, both earned at the Argentine Army’s Military Academy. Sciaroni has published five books and numerous articles on military and naval history. He is also an active member of the Argentine Institute of Military History and serves as a sub-lieutenant in the Argentine Army Reserve (Army Aviation Reserve Squadron). You can find out more about his books here.

Avanti West Coast research says that more than half of all passengers would like a completely phone-free carriage

Railway boffins claim to have discovered the ‘perfect train journey’ – from dodging boiled eggs and sweaty feet to revealing the best seat on any train. Avanti West Coast research and customer data claims to have revealed the unwritten rules of onboard comfort and which behaviours generate disapproving tuts.

The intercity operator has launched its first Comfort Index to provide a unique insight into what passengers value most during their journey and how it varies across Britain.

Their research said more than two thirds (77%) said they want a window seat, 69% prefer to face forward and 58% want an empty seat beside them. Exactly one in five (20%) would even travel 15 minutes longer to keep it empty, 18% would pay an extra £5 and 22% would sacrifice Wi-Fi.

Another one in five (20%) would even swap their coveted window seat for a little more space. Avanti’s booking data suggests there may be such a thing as the perfect train seat, with Seat 18 in Coach B being the most reserved seat on its Pendolino services.

It was booked 179,685 times between September 2025 – September 2026 and matches passenger preferences of having a window and table.

While those travelling on the West Coast Main Line have similar thoughts about seats, snacks proved controversial with 52% of rail travellers objecting to boiled eggs and 48% to tuna sandwiches being eaten onboard.

They say the famously reserved reputation of British people extends to the carriage environment too, with more than two-thirds (68%) wanting more quiet carriages.

More than half (52%) would even choose a completely phone-free carriage, suggesting that for many Brits, the dream journey might simply be one where nobody makes any noise.

The Index also reveals a generational shift in the unwritten rules of train travel, with Gen Z passengers being more tolerant of video calls. It says 38% think Facetiming onboard is unacceptable compared to almost three quarters (72%) of over-65s.

Sounds of other people’s phones onboard reveals an even bigger generation gap. A huge 88% of over-65s object to TikToks or videos without headphones compared to just 51% of 18-24-year-olds.

Younger passengers are said to place greater emphasis on choice and ‘making the journey their own’. A surprising 62% of 25-34-year-olds say choosing between Standard, Premium and First Class matters during planning compared with 42% of over-65s.

Gen Z are bringing their own comforts onboard too, with one in eight (12%) 18-24-year-olds saying they’d even pack a massage gun. Avanti West Coast say everyone seems to agree on keeping your socks on, as three quarters (75%) say taking them off onboard is unacceptable.

A whopping 70% object to TikToks without headphones and 67% to someone cutting or filing their nails. The study also shows how rail journeys are considered part of the occasion, with 69% of Brits saying their leisure time starts the moment they get onboard.

Between September 2025 – September 2026 Avanti West Coast say their customers drank almost 420,000 cups of breakfast tea and ate 212,000 KitKats.

Beer proved another favourite, with 154,000 Grolsch Pilsners sold, painting a suitably British picture of onboard comfort – a cuppa, something sweet or a cold beer en route. From seating preference and noise tolerance to boiled eggs, the Index shows Brits might never agree on exactly what makes the perfect journey.

Kathryn O’Brien at Avanti West Coast said: “The Comfort Index shows everyone’s definition of comfort varies. While there’s some unspoken rail travel etiquette most seem to agree on, beyond that people have different thoughts on what makes a comfortable journey.

“For some it’s peace and quiet while for others it’s getting work done, enjoying a snack or having space to relax.

“Customers most value the ability to shape their journey around their own needs, whether that’s choosing the perfect seat or enjoying a cup of tea onboard. That’s why we offer our seat picker tool and a range of refreshments in our onboard shop, helping customers to enjoy their trip from the very moment they board.

“By better understanding what matters most to our customers, we can continue to enhance and develop the onboard experience. This includes upgrading Wi-Fi connectivity to make travelling with Avanti West Coast as comfortable as possible for everyone.”

The full Avanti West Coast Comfort Index is available here

Alesha Dixon leapt to the defence of her The Voice UK co-star Cheryl Tweedy after a contestant on Britain’s Got Talent attempted to criticise the Girls Aloud singer

Alesha Dixon instantly supported Cheryl Tweedy following a scathing comment from a Britain’s Got Talent hopeful. Although Alesha is currently appearing on the ITV talent show as a judge, next year she will take on a new role.

The singer will join Stacey Solomon, taking over from Emma Willis, as the pair join forces to host The Voice UK. The singing competition, which also airs on ITV, has undergone a major shake-up, with longstanding coach Sir Jom Jones axed.

Instead, Will.i.am will be returning alongside Kelly Rowland. Girls Aloud singer, Cheryl Tweedy, will join the panel alongside rapper Aitch. And it appears Alesha has already formed a strong bond with Cheryl.

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During filming for Britain’s Got Talent in Blackpool, it’s reported that a contestant attempted to criticise Cheryl’s vocal abilities. The Sun reports that Alesha hit back instantly.

The Mis-Teeq star slammed her red buzzer halfway through the hopeful’s act and used her feedback to make it clear that she wouldn’t allow his comments. “You don’t come after a mate of mine,” the singer fumed.

Although fans won’t see Cheryl taking on her full-time role as a coach until next year, they were, however, treated to a glimpse earlier this month. The singer joined her pal Will during the Battles Round of the ITV competition.

During the episode, Will revealed that he had been trying to get Cheryl to join him for the past 13 years. Cheryl knows exactly what it takes to make it in the music industry, having found fame after being selected for Girls Aloud on Popstars: The Rivals in 2002.

Speaking to Team Will, the Call My Name songstress said: “I’m so excited for you. You couldn’t be in better hands than you are with my man Will. Will and I have collaborated a lot over the years, so we know what it’s like for two very different artists to come together. I wish you all the very best for what you’ve got today, and I’m excited to see you all!”

Reflecting on her own experience, having found fame on Popstars, Cheryl said during a solo interview: “I have stood in the shoes that the contestants are standing in, and I know what it feels like to perform in this environment. You’ve just got to know that you’re good, or you wouldn’t be here.”

Cheryl’s decision to sign up for the show marks a return to television after a lengthy break from the spotlight. In recent years, Cheryl has turned her attention to family life and has only taken on brief work spells, including her West End debut in 2:22 A Ghost Story.

While she once dominated the music industry and became the first female artist to have five records debut at Number One, her last single, Let You, was released in 2019 and peaked at Number 57 on the Official Charts Company.

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Speaking on court after her victory, Kartal said she knew “what a great fighter” world number six Svitolina is, so she “was never safe” in the match.

“It was solid composure from me throughout,” she added. “It’s breaking new ground for me this week.

“I love playing here and on this court. The atmosphere was amazing, so big thank you to the crowd.”

Kartal had not dropped a set during her run to the quarter-finals at Wuhan, and she broke Svitolina early in the first to start on a positive note.

Svitolina then called for a medical timeout for treatment on her right arm, but she came back strong to take the second set 6-2 and send the last-eight tie to a decider.

The two players were evenly matched in the third set but it was Kartal, using a protected injury ranking to play, who managed to break Svitolina’s serve at 5-4 and book her place in the last four.

In the other quarter-finals, Polish 16th seed Maja Chwalinska faces Greek Maria Sakkari, while American Ann Li takes on six-time Grand Slam winner and seventh seed Iga Swiatek.

Great Britain’s Joe Truman said team-mate Matt Richardson’s withdrawal was “not ideal” and they had started “on the back foot” as they exited in the first round of the men’s team sprint at the World Track Cycling Championships.

Richardson was pulled from the competition on Monday amid allegations of misconduct.

The 27-year-old, who had also been expected to contend for medals in the individual sprint and keirin, said he would co-operate with a British Cycling investigation into the allegations.

His withdrawal overshadowed preparations for the event in Shanghai, though Britain’s women did secure silver in the team sprint.

Emma Finucane, who is Richardson’s partner, Sophie Capewell and Rhianna Parris-Smith finished fastest in qualifying, and beat France but lost to hosts China in the gold-medal race.

The men’s team – Truman, Ed Lowe and Harry Ledingham-Horn – finished fifth in the qualifying stage but were beaten by fourth-placed Australia in the opening round of head-to-head races.

“We came with a bit of a last-minute change, obviously,” said Truman. “We all said this morning we’re here just to ride our bikes.

“We’re on the back foot a bit but let’s just put our best foot forward, put a time on the board at the start of Olympic quali and we got a time to be proud of.

“None of us are riding in ideal circumstances but we’re professional athletes and so it’s what we train to do – we train to race when it’s not perfect – so I think we did OK. We’re looking ahead to the next couple of years and think we’re in a great spot.”

Elsewhere on day one, Britain’s women and men progressed as first and second fastest respectively in qualifying for the team pursuit events.

Meanwhile, Abigail Miller finished 17th of 24 riders in the women’s scratch race.

Portavadie, on the banks of Loch Fyne on the west coast of Scotland, was originally earmarked as an oil rig, but plans fell through. Today it is a marina with holiday homes, a restaurant and bar, a gift shop, and a leisure centre with what is believed to be the biggest heated outdoor infinity pool in Scotland. There are also outdoor spa pools and a sauna, an indoor pool and a gym; treatments such as massages and facials are available. The facilities are powered by a woodchip biomass generator, and have views across the loch and over to the Isle of Arran.
£14 for a 90-minute swim, sauna and hot tub

Swimmers have long taken dips in the Waveney, and in 1894 an enclosed “bathing place” was dug out of the river at Beccles, a market town on the southern edge of the Broads national park. In 1959, this was replaced by an unheated riverside pool, which 50 years later became a three-pool lido. This year, the pools will be heated to 28C in winter for the first time, initially until 3 January, then, if popular, through to the end of March. The 30-metre main pool has a springboard and slide; there are also toddler and splash pools, a wood-fired sauna and a cafe. The timetable is yet to be finalised but there will be lane swimming, family fun swims and aquacise classes.
From £7.40 adults

In July, the Peak District village of Hathersage celebrated the 90th anniversary of its 30-metre outdoor pool. It was given to the village by a local philanthropist, George Lawrence, who was killed in the Sheffield blitz. The original coke boiler, which heated the water to a maximum of 20C, has been replaced with a modern renewable heating system (temperature at time of writing: 27C). It is open daily year-round – hours are reduced from November to March – with hot poolside showers, and a sauna from October. There are regular night swims with live music, and a cafe serving hot drinks and homemade food.
£8 adults

The riverside pool on King’s Meadow, Reading was fed by the Thames when it opened in 1902, originally for ladies only. It was converted to mains water in the 1950s, closed in the 70s, and finally reopened after a three-year restoration in 2017. Today, the 25-metre pool is heated to 20-24C year-round; there is a hot tub (38-40C), sauna and steam room, and a cold-water drench bucket and “ship funnel” shower. Swimmers can also book a massage. The high-end poolside restaurant opens at 9am for breakfast (homemade granola, bacon butties, Turkish-style eggs) and serves lunch and dinner daily (such as crab tagliatelle or Ibérico pork).
From £25 for a two-hour swim, sauna, steam and hot tub

For what must have felt like an eternity, Elfyn Evans feared history was repeating itself yet again.

At 3.05pm local time in Sardinia on Sunday, Evans could only stand and watch as another world rally title looked to be slipping from his grasp.

Evans was preparing in his head yet another runners-up speech – it would be his sixth – as he waited for Oliver Solberg to cross the finish line and be crowned world champion.

How could this be happening again?

Of the five previous times he had been championship runner-up, three had been decided on the final day and twice after he had taken a lead into the final event.

But at 3.06pm, for once the motor-racing gods were on his side.

With just two turns to go on the final stage of the final round and with victory in sight, Solberg somehow careered off the track into the Sardinian sand to hand Evans his first world title.

In the most dramatic of finishes, the 37-year-old from north Wales became the first British winner of the of the World Rally Championship (WRC) in 25 years.

Only two British men had taken the title since the WRC’s 1977 inception, matching the exploits of legendary pair Colin McRae (1995) and Richard Burns (2001).

Louise Aitken-Walker was Britain’s first world champion when WRC ran a women’s version in 1990.