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Plans to introduce vaccine passports for nightclubs are flawed and will be a “financial disaster”, according to leading voices in the industry.

Despite the government insisting that it was “working closely with organisations that operate large, crowded settings”, Luke Laws, who runs superclub Fabric, says nobody can explain how it will work.

“We have no idea about the detail or how it’s meant to be implemented, how you check, how it’s enforced, what records you need to keep. We haven’t had any anything,” Mr Laws said.

While in Scotland, MSPs voted to introduce vaccine passports, in England there’s been no debate.

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Fabric’s operations director says he would like to hear the scientific justification.

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“I would argue that a 200-capacity bar with no ventilation is far more dangerous than a 1,500-capacity club venue with strong ventilation, enhanced cleaning that’s asking for people’s COVID status on the door, I would say is far less risk of transmission.

“People go to the pub, to another bar, to end up at a club. So if you go to two venues before to potentially infect people, the damage is done. If the goal is to reduce transmission, keep people safe, then that has to apply across all settings of the night-time economy.”

Nightclubs were one of the last sectors to reopen after the pandemic. Rather than convince unvaccinated young people to get jabbed, the fear is it will drive people away.

The adverts target young people and highlight the disadvantages of failing to get a jab. Pic: Department of Health and Social Care
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The government introduced a campaign this summer, trying to encourage young people to get vaccinated and highlight the disadvantages of failing to get a jab. Pic: Department of Health and Social Care

“This is an industry that was shut throughout all of COVID, had no industry-specific support. I’d say it isn’t struggling to get to its feet, it’s struggling to get onto its knees. I imagine financially this will be a disaster,” Mr Laws said.

Over the summer, festivals used QR code scanners to check people’s NHS COVID passes. If clubs are expected to do the same, they would need to be given equipment and train up staff within a matter of weeks.

If extra bouncers are required to carry out the checks, Michael Kill from the Night-Time Industries Association says clubs will struggle.

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July: Vaccine passports for theatres ‘inevitable’

“At the moment we can’t supply the basic level of security, therefore anything post-September, a requirement for COVID passports needing additional security is going to be a huge challenge… we have got a big deficit in security resources that needs to be considered,” he said.

In a statement, Downing Street said: “The prime minister has been clear that by the end of September, when everyone aged 18 and over will have had the chance to get fully vaccinated, the government plans to make full vaccination the condition of entry to a number of venues where large crowds gather. Further details will be set out in due course.”

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With few details forthcoming, nightclub workers are frustrated.

David Vickery, from XOYO, said: “I don’t think the government realises the anxiety it puts on people, we need information so that we can carry out proper planning to keep people safe.”

“It’s like going into no man’s land, we need to know as soon as possible because this is weeks away.”

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Kate Nash says selling photos of her bum on OnlyFans paid for an extra tour crew member

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Kate Nash says selling photos of her bum on OnlyFans paid for an extra tour crew member

Kate Nash says selling photos of her bottom on the X-rated site OnlyFans has allowed her to add an extra crew member to her tour staff.

The 37-year-old singer says the fact she is having to subsidise her shows in this way shows that the music industry is “completely broken”.

She announced she was launching her OnlyFans account last week as she began the UK leg of her tour, and has previously said on Instagram that, “touring makes losses not profits”.

Speaking about her new venture to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme she said it was “very funny” and “fun to do,” adding, “My industry is completely broken, I don’t think it’s sustainable, and I think it’s a complete failure, I think it will collapse as well”.

Going on to talk about “people finding solutions to fund their art,” she said: “I think it’s quite empowering, and I’m also creating jobs with my bum now.

“For example, I couldn’t bring a crew member that’s on tour with me in the UK to Europe, but now I can, because of my OnlyFans website.”

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She has previously described the career move as a “punk protest,” containing “lots of comedy”.

Speaking to LBC last week, she said: “The cost of touring has gone up. Just like the cost of living crisis, there’s a cost-of-touring crisis – where the cost of travel, accommodation, crew wages, bus rental, all the things that you need to pay for when you go on tour, everything’s gone up.

“But a lot of bands’ and artists’ fees for gigs have not gone up, whereas ticket prices have gone up.”

Nash also said music was an “exploitative industry,” adding, “I have had lots of experience of being exploited”.

She said it could “learn a lot from the sex industry”.

Beginning her career in 2005, Nash has had one UK top 10 single – 2007’s Foundations – and two UK top 10 albums.

She has just finished a three-week US tour and is now touring the UK before moving on to Europe. Her London gig later this week is sold out.

And Nash isn’t the only one branching out to bring in cash. Lily Allen said earlier this year that she had joined OnlyFans to sell photographs of her feet.

The 39-year-old Smile singer, who moved to the US in 2020, says she has “very strict guidelines” and is charging subscribers $10 (£8) a month to view images of her feet on the platform.

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Davina McCall says she has short-term memory problems after brain tumour surgery

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Davina McCall says she has short-term memory problems after brain tumour surgery

Davina McCall has said her short-term memory is “a bit remiss” as she recovers from brain tumour surgery.

Speaking from her bed, the visibly emotional TV presenter posted a short video updating her Instagram followers on her condition, saying it had been a “mad” time.

She expressed an “enormous heartfelt thank you” to people who had messaged her after she revealed this month she had a benign brain tumour, a colloid cyst, which she described as “very rare”.

Looking bright, but with a visibly bruised left eye, McCall said: “My short-term memory is a bit remiss.

“But that is something I can work on, so I’m really happy about that. I’m writing everything down, to keep myself feeling safe.”

She added: “It’s been mad, and it’s just really nice to be back home, I’m on the other side.”

In a message posted with the video, she reiterated her thanks for all the support she has received, adding: “Had a great night’s sleep in my own bed. Have a couple of sleeps during the day which keeps my brain clear… Slowly, slowly…”

When she first shared her diagnosis, she said chances of having it were “three in a million” and that she had discovered it several months previously after a company offered her a health scan in return for giving a menopause talk.

The 57-year-old star said support from her fans had “meant the world”.

She said she was being “brilliantly looked after” by her partner, hairdresser Michael Douglas, and her stepmother, Gabby, who she calls mum.

Becoming tearful, the presenter said: “I’d quickly like to say big up the stepmums. I don’t really say thank you to Gabby enough. She’s been an amazing rock my whole life.”

McCall was estranged from her birth mother, Florence McCall, who died in 2008.

Kate coming out of the Big Brother house in 2002
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McCall with 2002 Big Brother winner Kate Lawler. Pic: Rex Features

With a catch in her voice, McCall went on: “I’ve got a massive dose of vitamin G – I’m just really grateful. I’ve always been really lucky in my life, but I feel unbelievably grateful right now. So, thanks for everything, all of you.

“I’m on the mend, I’m resting and sleeping loads and I feel really good. I’m just very lucky.”

Stars including presenter Alison Hammond, singer Craig David and radio host Zoe Ball quickly shared their delight at the positive update.

McCall rose to fame presenting on MTV in the mid-1990s, and later on Channel 4’s Streetmate, before becoming a household name as the host of Big Brother from 2000 to 2010.

Davina McCall  with her partner Michael Douglas and her daughter Holly Robertson after being made a Member of the Order of the British Empire
Pic: PA
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McCall with her MBE, alongside her partner Michael Douglas and her daughter Holly Robertson. Pic: PA

She’s gone on to present programmes across the networks, the most recent being ITV dating show My Mum, Your Dad.

Last year, McCall was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2023 Birthday Honours for services to broadcasting.

Married twice, McCall has three children, two daughters and a son, with her second husband, presenter Matthew Robertson.

She has lived with Douglas since 2022, and they present a weekly lifestyle podcast together, Making The Cut.

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Barbara Taylor Bradford, the ‘grand dame of blockbusters’, dies aged 91

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Barbara Taylor Bradford, the 'grand dame of blockbusters', dies aged 91

Barbara Taylor Bradford, the bestselling novelist who wrote A Woman Of Substance, has died at the age of 91.

The Leeds-born author, who sold more than 90 million books, died peacefully at her home on Sunday after a short illness and was “surrounded by loved ones to the very end”, a spokeswoman said.

Taylor Bradford, who was often labelled “the grand dame of blockbusters”, hit the big time when A Woman Of Substance was published in 1979, making her an overnight success.

The story sold millions of copies and traced the journey of Emma Harte from life as a servant in rural Yorkshire to heading a business empire.

The rags to riches story was followed by many other successful books with the author’s works being published in more than 40 languages across 90 countries.

Barbara Taylor Bradford,.
Pic: Caroll Taveras/Bradford Enterprises/PA
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Pic: Caroll Taveras/Bradford Enterprises/PA

Barbara Taylor Bradford on her 21st birthday.
Pic: Bradford Enterprises/PA
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The author on her 21st birthday. Pic: Bradford Enterprises/PA

Charlie Redmayne, chief executive of publisher HarperCollins, said the author was a “natural storyteller”, adding: “Barbara Taylor Bradford was a truly exceptional writer whose first book, the international bestseller A Woman Of Substance, changed the lives of so many who read it – and still does to this day.”

Taylor Bradford, who was made an OBE in 2007 for services to literature, wrote a total of 40 novels during her career – her most recent was The Wonder Of It All, published last year.

Barbara Taylor Bradford.
Pic: Caroll Taveras/Bradford Enterprises/PA
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Pic: Caroll Taveras/Bradford Enterprises/PA

File photo dated 01/06/93 of Barbara Taylor Bradford with her husband Robert at Claridges Hotel, London, during a visit to launch her new blockbuster book "Angels". Bestselling novelist Barbara Taylor Bradford, who wrote A Woman of Substance, has died at the age of 91, it has been announced. Issue date: Monday November 25, 2024.
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Taylor Bradford with her husband Robert in 1993. Pic: PA

Born in May 1933 as the only child of Winston and Freda Taylor, she worked as a typist for the Yorkshire Evening Post before becoming a reporter and then the paper’s first woman’s editor.

At the age of 20, she moved to London and worked in Fleet Street for Woman’s Own and the London Evening News.

She met her husband, American film producer Robert Bradford, in 1961 and they married in London on Christmas Eve in 1963 before moving to New York the following year.

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The couple were married for 55 years until he died from a stroke in 2019.

Following a private funeral in New York, the author will be buried alongside her late husband at the city’s Westchester Hills Cemetery.

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