Should I stay or go?
DIY Brit man 'nails it'
It is time to put months of despair behind us and revel in joyous news – for it has been revealed the DIY skills of the average British man has soared in recent months!
Yep, while we have been furloughed, told to isolate at home, unable to visit family members, been unemployed, or faced a myriad of other difficult situations, Brit man has been getting his hammer and radiator key out and ‘having a go’.
The top tasks men now feel ‘confident’ or ‘very confident’ to tackle include:
- Bleeding a radiator (61%);
- Putting up shelves and curtain poles’ (58%);
- Painting or wallpapering a room’ (54%);
- Gutter cleaning and maintenance (51%).
According to a survey released this week, over a third (37%) of a 1,000 men who responded said they are now more confident at home improvement tasks as a result of the time devoted to DIY during the lockdown, and almost four out of 10 men said they had attempted more DIY during lockdown (38 would now “always give something a go” (39%).
One of the key drivers in the surge appears to be the interest in buying properties in need of modernisation, known as “fixer-uppers”.
“It’s exciting to see that young British men and couples are taking more DIY projects into their own hands and have used lockdown to head online and acquire some of the skills that would usually be passed down first-hand from generation to generation,” said Jonathan Opdam, of Plastic Sheets Shop, who commissioned the research.
The Internet appears to be the single biggest source of knowledge when it comes to working out how one goes about tackling a specific job, with 60% turning to social media for help or using forums and articles on Google. In comparison, only 19% sought advice from friends and family.
“Although house prices are heading up, so too are the DIY confidence and skills of men and young adults,” added Opdam. “And from that perspective, the future looks bright.”
Time to feast on chips
What are your plans for Lockdown Eve: are you planning a nice relaxing walk with the family, a quiet night in with a loved one in front of the TV – or maybe you're set to order a chip supper and bring in the dawn of a new era with some grease dribbling down your chin?
According to our friends at Foodhub, almost one-in-five of us are planning to pop down to the chippie and buy Britain’s favourite meal in celebration of the big day, while 23% of us will be uncorking a wine bottle and raising a toast to 19 July.
Yet while a plate of fish and chips proved to be the preferred choice of most, the iconic meal was pushed all the way by curry (16%) and pizza (12%).
“Britain has been loving its takeaway treats, with [many of the people we spoke to] admitting to ordering twice as often as before lockdown,” revealed Foodhub’s Ardian Mula. “So it’s great to see Fish ‘n Chips has been voted as the UK’s most popular ‘Last Lockdown Supper’.”
Takeaway orders have enjoyed a huge increase in recent months, with 20% of us ordering a takeaway at least once a week, with a Chinese takeaway the most popular of all culinary treats.
Rather surprisingly, ice cream is not the nation’s favourite dessert. That honour goes to cheesecake, with 11% of people preferring it to a bowl of vanilla or cornish. However, a whopping one in five claimed they wouldn’t be ordering a dessert at all…so much for the nation’s famous sweet tooth!
The perfect lockdown last supper needs to be hosted in the perfect setting and the vast majority of Brits (56%) will be enjoying their last lockdown supper with family compared to just 9% who would eat with a friend.
Whether we sit up at the table for our last lockdown meal or have the meal on a lap is split near equally at 35% and 36% respectively, as nearly one-third of people will also switch on the telly and dive into their favourite TV series whilst enjoying their meal.
Meanwhile, different regions have very different ideas as to what they’d choose for their last lockdown supper. The Midlands, East of England, the North East, the South West, and Yorkshire are all in agreement that Fish and Chips is the king of lockdown meals. But in London, and the North West, most people will be chomping on a takeaway pizza.
Elsewhere, Scotland and the South East will be tucking into curry, and Northern Ireland is split equally between all three!
An ode to England
With England falling agonisingly short of winning their first piece of silverware since 1966, social media devotee, Gary Egleton of Eastbourne, has penned some words of comfort for any fans of the Three Lions who watched their team perform in the final of the Euros on Sunday night – and felt only pride at the team's stirring and battling performance.
Here is our slightly edited version, published in the hope it will put a beaming smile on your face.
This is England
This is England… Raheem Sterling, whose big sister would go with him to training and back every day, three buses each way, and never once complained; Raheem Sterling, who called the day he bought his mum a house “the best day of my life”.
This is England… Jordan Henderson, who spent most of the first lockdown last year organising the other 19 Premier League captains to help raise money for the NHS.
This is England… Marcus Rashford, who secured free school meals for vulnerable kids during school holidays after the government refused to extend the programme; Marcus Rashford, who lives by the words of his mother Melanie: “Take pride in knowing that your struggle will play the biggest role in your purpose.”
This is England… Mason Mount, who gave the shirt he’d worn in the semi-final victory over Denmark to a 10-year-old girl called Belle in the crowd, and in doing so made her smile so incandescent it could melt the Siberian permafrost.
This is England… Tyrone Mings, who spent part of his childhood in a homeless shelter, who played non-league football while working as a barman and mortgage advisor, and who tells kids at the coaching camps he runs that the game is nothing unless they enjoy it. Tyrone Mings, who was taunted with monkey chants on his England debut against Bulgaria and didn’t pretend he hadn’t heard; who turned to the assistant referee and said, firmly but without aggression, ‘did you hear that?’ As in: we’ve got a problem here, you’re part of the officiating team, so this is your problem too and I’m not going to let you duck it, because though this was the most important match of his life there were some things which were more important still than that.
This is England… Luke Shaw, who when playing for Southampton watched Liverpool players file unseeingly past two small boys waiting for their autographs, and who went over and said “I know I don’t play for your team, but will I do?” He then posed for a photo with them which they will never forget.
This is England… Declan Rice, who would play cage football in New Malden every day after school and all day on Saturdays, not because he was the best but because he wasn’t.
This is England… Bukayo Saka, who got As and A stars in his GCSEs because his parents insisted that he work as hard inside the classroom as he did on the pitch; Bukayo Saka, whose Christian name in Yoruba means “adds to happiness”.
This is England… Kieran Trippier, who still speaks regularly to his old teachers at Woodhey High School in Bury because they looked out for him and his brothers; Kieran Trippier, who every day has cause to reflect on the truth of the inscription by the school gates which reads: “Where dreams may grow.”
This is England… Kalvin Phillips, whose mum worked two jobs while his dad was in and out of prison. One of those jobs was at Harpo’s Pizzas, where you can now order the ‘Kalvin’s Special’.
This is England… Gareth Southgate, who until recently was most famous for missing a penalty he had the balls to volunteer for even though he’d never taken one before; because he knew what Teddy Roosevelt meant when he talked about the man in the arena.
These, too, are England: a system which rewards the venal, the vainglorious and the mendacious; tribes which assume the worst of each other and snipe over Brexit, lockdown and masks; public services creaking under the strain of decades of underfunding; kids getting stabbed and women getting attacked; idiots who boo the opponents’ national anthems and shine laser pens at their goalkeepers; and so very, very much more. These too are England, and they will still be so next week, next month and next year.
But, if only for today, there is an England of Raheem Sterling and Jordan Henderson; of Marcus Rashford and Mason Mount; of Tyrone Mings and Luke Shaw; of Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka; of Kieran Trippier and Kalvin Phillips; and of Gareth Southgate.
If only for today, this is my England.
Faith drives two Lions on
There are moments in life when magnificent things happen.
Last night was one such example. It arrived just after 10 o'clock when the final whistle blew at Wembley Stadium, and the England football team had somehow booked its place in Sunday’s final of the European Championships.
Two bright stars shone for the England team. In Raheem Sterling and Bukayo Saka, the Three Lions had two warriors with strong, unashamed Christian roots guiding their every move. It’s therefore little wonder both stood out for England as the Danes were tamed.
And it’s little wonder the national team has turned many heads with the quality of its performances, conceding one goal on its way to a showdown with Italy.
Sterling epitomises the confidence and self-belief pulsing through Gareth Southgate’s squad. He’s scored 15 goals in his last 21 matches and was one of the heartbeats of everything that was good at Wembley.
And the Manchester City flyer (pictured, below) has no doubts about what is spurring him on.
“My Christian faith is massive to me,” he has revealed on social media. “I always give thanks for my life, always give thanks for my family’s lives – and I’m just really grateful for the position I am in.”
Meanwhile, 20-year-old Saka, a newcomer to the national team after enjoying wonderful 12 months playing for Arsenal, added: “I grew up in a Christian family… this always made me curious to get to know God more and I have done so by reading my Bible a lot and going to church a lot over the years.
“My faith is constantly being exercised when I play in big football matches.”
Raheem Sterling will be profiled in the next edition of Sorted, which is on sale from 15 August 2021.
Tragedy 'grounds' Hopkins
Sir Anthony Hopkins, one of Britain’s greatest-ever thespians, has just become the oldest actor to ever win an Oscar and BAFTA for his portrayal of a man suffering from the early onset of dementia.
And he has revealed to Sorted he drew on his own family experiences for the film, The Father, which has once again won him widespread acclaim and recognition.
“I think as you get older, you do go around examining life more,” he says. “This did make me think about my past and my parents and about the sweet sadness of it all.
“I remember taking my mum to the hospital to collect my Father’s things after he died.
“I remember looking at him lying there and his feet were cold, and it was almost 40 years ago. I thought to myself ‘you’re not so hot, either, you’ll be there one day’.”
This is an excerpt from the full interview, published in the July-August edition of Sorted.
Covid inspires music star
Songwriter Harry Connick Junior has revealed the extent of the heartbreak and loss he has been forced to endure during the devastating Covid-19 pandemic.
Like many people, the American star has suffered dearly due to the global pandemic, losing friends and family members to the deadly virus.
But rather than become depressed at the severity of the situation, he has used his feelings to create a new album, which he hopes will reach out to many people who have endured similar experiences during the last 15 months.
“Sometimes, I think most of the time, I felt pretty good,” he told Sorted. “But I lost a lot of friends, family members and those are hard things to deal with out of a pandemic.
“But when you can’t go to funerals and you can’t have closure, that’s very, very hard, as most people who have gone through this pandemic know. So, yes, there were many times when I was very down and sometimes I didn’t feel like making music. But, you know, most of the time I was able to sort of try to collect my thoughts and sort of channel them through some of these songs [on my new album].”
Connick Jnr recorded Alone With My Faith by himself when the pandemic was at its height in the US. As its title suggests, it is a personal account of the singer’s personal faith journey.
“These songs are sort of real-time reflections on what I was feeling over the last year or so during this pandemic,” he adds. “It was an opportunity to record in a way that I had never done to this extent.”
The full interview with Harry Connick Jnr can be found in the July-August edition of Sorted magazine.
A bandwagon too many
In recent weeks, two highly respected organisations have urged young churchgoers to become climate change activists, writes Sorted's J John.
My attention was initially drawn to a hard-hitting report that claims “the church’s failure to address climate change threatens to alienate young people”.
I’m afraid I find Burning Down the House: How the Church Could Lose Young People Over Climate Inaction a disappointing publication. But before I explain my objections to the work of the Youthscape Centre for Research and Tearfund, let me say two things:
- I believe climate change is a serious threat and that something needs to be done about it urgently;
- Although I’m delighted to see Christians getting involved with the environment and climate change issues, let me remind you this is no novelty for Christians. This week marks the hundredth anniversary of the birth of John Stott who encouraged a biblically-based response to environmental issues and, amongst many other things, was involved in the setting up of the Christian environmental organisation A Rocha. Further, the Church of England is struggling with the practicalities of reaching the target of net-zero carbon by 2030.
So where does my disappointment lie?
Well, on reading this document I can’t escape the feeling that churches are being asked to leap on a bandwagon, the most dangerous form of transport known to the human race, and it’s therefore wise to ask questions before jumping on board. And I have concerns in several areas.
First, I find that this report lacks clarity.
The church, we are told, is supposed to be involved in ‘climate activism’. But what exactly does activism mean? In what way are we to be active? The evidence from the photos seems to be that Christians are to protest. I don’t have a problem with that. But it seems unclear what we are protesting against or for. Are we to march; write placards; spray slogans on walls; or drive electric cars? And is it a sin to eat meat?
If the devil is in the detail, he is also in their absence, and there is an unhelpful vagueness here.
Second, I find this document lacks foundations.
Bizarrely, in a 20-page report that manages to find space to explain ‘intersectionality’, there is only a hint of any Christian framework for our involvement in climate matters. This is particularly disturbing since for several decades there has been a great deal of informed Christian thinking on environmental involvement and climate change in particular. For example, one of the leading climate scientists in the US, Professor Katharine Hayhoe, is a Christian and has done a great deal of writing and speaking on how, as biblically informed Christians, we should approach climate change issues.
Less of a Saint Greta
But such is the advocacy of activism in this report that there are virtually no Bible references and not even a recommended reading list. The result is a shallow report that bears more than a passing resemblance to the placards it displays. The fact is that there is a profound and rich Christian rationale for caring for the natural world. We believe that our wonderful planet is made and sustained by God, that it is his handiwork and that ultimately, we are accountable to Him for our management of it. We are stewards not owners of this world, and cherishing not perishing should be our watchword. Our response to the climate crisis should be deeply rooted in a theology that runs from creation to new creation. We need to submit all of the ‘why’ and the ‘how’ of our engagement with creation under the authority of Scripture.
For me, this report feels like we need to take young people’s word as gospel. Reading this report I feel we need more of Saint Peter and less of Saint Greta!
Third, it lacks discernment.
A perennial problem in Christianity has been the misidentification of moral fruit for spiritual roots. Throughout history, people have observed the good deeds undertaken by the church, whether, with the poor, the marginalised or the enslaved, and have assumed that social action is the ultimate priority of the church. Here, however, lies a deep and dangerous misunderstanding. Fundamentally, Christianity is not about social action; it is about lives changed through encountering Jesus.
The cover of the report shows a young woman holding a placard saying: ‘We are the change,’ when the truth is only Jesus brings change. The report implores us to not "let [young people] down by refusing to acknowledge the biggest crisis we have ever faced", but the reality is that the biggest crisis we have ever faced is sin, and only Christ can redeem us.
We will drown in despair if we think climate activism, or any form of social action, will bring us redemption.
Good works do not make a Christian – but Christians do good works. At the heart of any Christian approach to the care of the planet is that it is the right and proper response by God’s people to God’s grace shown to us in Christ. This report seems to me to put the cart before the horse.
Gains little respect
Finally, let me return to the title of this document and let me make two observations. Unless I have misread my Bible, motives for action should always be based on morality, not on popularity. Sadly, it’s not hard to find occasions when the church has put its Bible aside and chosen to listen to the voice of the people. It’s rarely ended well for anybody. Actually, the church that decides to follow the world, rather than lead it, gains little respect.
This leads me to a second thought.
The report’s enthusiastic suggestion is that churches that teach more about climate change will keep young people. Is it possible that this suggestion may be counter-productive? The fact is, most youngsters I know have been overloaded with information on climate change since they came out of nappies. What they are looking for in the church is not more of what they get everywhere else. They seek a radical new way of seeing themselves and the world that includes responding to climate change.
The view in this report that Christians should enthusiastically endorse climate activism seems radical: ironically, it is not radical enough. This report lacks truth and hope. Without Christ, we have a hopeless end, but with Christ, we have endless hope.
J John is a Christian Minister and Sorted magazine and Sorted Digital columnist.
Frank’s atheism ‘cure’
He’s been making us laugh for decades. But there is a serious side to comedian, Frank Skinner – one that sees him praying twice a day and seeking salvation for his atheist friends.
Now in his early 60s, Skinner, who is also the co-writer of the England football team’s most famous anthem, Three Lions, has also taken a big step into the unknown – by publishing a book all about prayer.
“I’m not cutting a new groove here,” he says in the new issue of Sorted as he reflects on the launch of The Comedians Prayer Book. “As a kid, I remember praying, at my Catholic Junior School assembly, that Mary, Mother of Mercy, might ‘enlighten the minds that are miserably enfolded in the darkness of ignorance and sin’. All I’m doing is putting names to this shadowy ensemble so the Blessed Virgin doesn’t have to seek them amid the near-impenetrable atheist gloom.
“So, yes, I pray for the miserably enfolded. They are much more in need of your help than the believers, be they chronically sick or violently oppressed. These latter sufferings are very much of an earthly nature. Come the glorious day, their anguish will be left behind, like when those novelty items in an amusement arcade grab-a-gift machine are lifted from their cheerless chamber of materialism by a descending claw from above.
“The atheists, in contrast, have an illness that, if untreated, renders them sufferers for all eternity. Temporal torments of a physical nature are small beer compared to a significant endangering of the soul.”
This is an excerpt from a feature appearing in the July-August 2021 edition of Sorted magazine.
Top footie songs revealed
They are synonymous with football – and they always get the heart pumping faster and the emotions flowing! What are we talking about? Football anthems of course, and the team at Sorted has taken a look at the biggest ‘belters’ of all time to see which one comes top of the money league.
As Gareth Southgate’s gladiators prepare to take on the Ukraine in the quarter-finals of the Euros in Rome tomorrow night, and the likes of Spotify and some well-known radio stations get us in the mood for the big game by playing our favourite numbers 24-7, we have teamed up with uSwitch to get a steer on a subject dear to all footy fans. And our findings may just surprise you.
For starters, anyone who was around when England in 1996, when the Three Lions reached the semi-final stages of the tournament, will think the song penned by David Badiel and Frank Skinner, coincidentally called Three Lions, would win this contest by a landslide. Well, you’d be wrong. It comes in as the runner-up.
And New Order devotees, who think World in Motion, the anthem used when England made the 1990 World Cup last four, will be top dog, will also have to scratch their heads and think again. For this song only registers third in the pecking order.
Nope. The biggest football anthem of all time is none other than the 1963 classic You’ll Never Walk Alone, performed by Gerry and the Pacemakers. We all know it as the song sung by Liverpool and Celtic fans whenever their heroes take to the pitch. Well, it comfortably wins the title of the greatest money-spinner, bringing in more than £128,500 in royalties from more than 54 million plays on Spotify.
So, for your benefit, here is the list of the top eight footy songs of all time (for the time being)!
- Gerry and the Pacemakers – You’ll Never Walk Alone (1963)
- Badiel. Skinner and The Lightning Seeds – Three Lions (1996)
- New Order – World in Motion (1990)
- Fat Les – Vindaloo (1998)
- Dizzee Rascal and James Corden – Shout for England (2010)
- Ant & Dec – We’re on the Ball (2002)
- Grandad Roberts And His Son Elvis – Meat Pie Sausage Roll (Come on England, Gi’s a Goal) (1998)
- Chas and Dave – Hot Shot Tottenham (1987)