Food industry bodies have warned of panic-buying this Christmas unless action is taken to address labour shortages.

The National Farmers’ Union (NFU) called for an emergency visa to allow firms to recruit from outside the UK.

UK farmers, hauliers and shops have been struggling with shortages that have been made worse by Covid and Brexit.

The government said that the UK has a “highly resilient food supply chain”.

The head of the NFU, Minette Batters, wrote to Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday warning that the food and farming sector is on a “knife edge” due to a shortage of workers across the entire supply chain.

The letter, signed on behalf of a number of food and drink trade bodies, urged the government to introduce a Covid-19 recovery visa to open up new recruitment opportunities as a matter of urgency.

“Without it, more shelves will go empty and consumers will panic buy to try to get through the winter,” Ms Batters wrote.

“That is why we must have an urgent commitment from you to enable the industry to recruit from outside the UK over the next 12 months to get us through the winter and to help us save Christmas.”

Two councils have launched crackdowns on trail-hunting on their land, two weeks after landowners banned the activity in response to a criminal investigation into how it is organised.

The news comes as a third local authority is due to consider a motion suspending hunts from its land.

Councillors at Cheshire West and Chester Council on Thursday evening backed a motion that paves the way for a ban, voting to devise a new policy reflecting the “damage” caused by trail-hunting.  

Since Doug Putman rescued UK music retailer HMV in February, he has thrown himself wholeheartedly into running a transatlantic retail empire. The Canadian businessman has found himself jetting back and forth between his Ontario-based Sunrise Records chain and his newer acquisition.

On average, he spends one week a month in the UK. “I must do about 500,000 air miles a year,” he says.

Now he faces his latest challenge, the all-important Christmas period.

“That’s crunch time,” he says. “All the hard work you do for 10 months of the year, that period is when you see it come to fruition and you see how good a job you did.”

A lot is riding on the chain’s performance over the festive season. HMV has twice fallen into administration, in 2013 and 2018, and Mr Putman acknowledges that many people didn’t expect his relaunch to last six months.

After all, there have been plenty of casualties in the sector. At the start of the 21st Century, there were a number of other big retailers selling records and CDs, including Virgin, Our Price, Tower and Fopp.

But now, although many local independent shops are still in robust health, HMV is the only national chain standing, with Fopp as its wholly-owned subsidiary.

Poor Christmas sales have capsized many a High Street retailer in recent years, but Mr Putman is pinning his hopes on the chain’s “loyal fan base” and the changes he has been making.

Following the bizarre American tradition that sees the president pardon a turkey each Thanksgiving, the turkeys go on to live a care-free life of luxury.

When the tradition of gifting presidents turkeys started years ago, the birds were typically sent to farms or zoos to live out their days.

In 2013, the turkeys were sent to their new home at Morven Park, the historic estate of former Virginia Governor Westmoreland Davis – where the 2014 and 2015 turkeys also went. 

Now, however, the spared turkeys are sent to an enclosure at Virginia Tech called “Gobbler’s Rest,” according to the White House – where they get to frolic with other free turkeys.

At Gobbler’s Rest, located on the school’s campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, the lucky turkeys are cared for by veterinarians and students of Virginia Tech’s Animal and Poultry Sciences Department.

At their new home, the turkeys may be visited by the public – who can also learn about the “university’s teaching, research and outreach programs in animal and poultry sciences and veterinary medicine.”

Despite one turkey winning the title of official National Thanksgiving turkey each year, the runner-up turkey is also pardoned and sent to live with its companion.

The traditional bongs from Big Ben are familiar to BBC Radio 4 listeners. However on Christmas Eve they might sound a little different after the BBC said it will broadcast the chimes from Rochdale Town Hall instead.

Big Ben, the great bell in Parliament’s Elizabeth Tower, has been silenced – apart from national occasions – for over a year due to a multimillion pound four-year renovation project.

This ‘silence of the bongs’ – much criticised when the scaffolding was first erected – has meant that the BBC has had to broadcast a recording of Big Ben’s chimes before its main news programmes on Radio 4 at 6pm and at midnight.

Earlier this year Jake Berry, the Northern Powerhouse minister, came up with his own solution and urged the BBC to broadcast the chimes from the clock above Rochdale Town Hall, which has the same “Westminster chimes” as Big Ben.

Now Lord Hall of Birkenhead, the BBC’s director general, has replied – and agreed to broadcast the bongs from Rochdale Town Hall before the news at 6pm on Christmas Eve.

In a letter to Mr Berry sent this week and seen by The Sunday Telegraph, Lord Hall said he “really liked” the idea, adding: “I’m delighted to tell you that Radio 4 will shortly be making a special recording of the Rochdale bells – and that they will feature at a very prominent moment in our schedule, just before the 1800 News on 24 December

A woman was nearly blinded by a Christmas card when a piece of glitter worked its way into her eyeball.

The 49-year-old was referred to an eye casualty department by her GP after suffering a painful, red eye, loss of vision and swollen eyelid.

An initial examination by a doctor at the ophthalmology department of Singleton Hospital in Swansea spotted a lesion on the patient’s cornea and suspected it to be caused by a herpes simplex infection, according to a case study published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ).

But when the lesion was examined by the ophthalmic registrar under a powerful microscope, a shiny surface was spotted inside.

The patient then remembered getting glitter in her eye when it rubbed off a Christmas card.

Archaeologists in Turkey have made a discovery which could settle a century-old debate … and disappoint millions of children around the world.

They have unearthed what they say is likely the tomb of the original Santa Claus, or Saint Nicholas, beneath an ancient church in Demre, southern Turkey.

Demre, previously known as Myra, in Antalya province, is believed to be the birthplace of the 4th century bishop.

Cemil Karabayram, the head of Antalya’s Monument Authority, said the shrine was discovered during electronic surveys that showed gaps beneath the church.

For years it has been the day of the year when vegetarians and vegans are most likely to feel like a pariah at the dinner table.

But now bland nut loaves have been consigned to history as Marks and Spencer is showcasing more meat-free Christmas dinner main courses on its new menu than meat options.

The supermarket said it is hoping that its growing “flexitarian” customer base will swap traditional turkey for its new range of gourmet plant-based Christmas dinners – even if they are not full time vegetarians.

An M&S spokesman said: “In the past vegetarians were limited to nut roasts at Christmas, but not anymore. Our vegetarian options are so amazing that we hope people will choose them over meat options even if they are not full time vegetarians.”

Many of us are still on our summer holidays so thinking about Christmas might seem premature. But for businesses providing festive food, drinks and presents, things are already gearing up.

The festive season begins for a lot of retailers when they send out their invitations for summer Christmas events. Companies hold them to make sure their products are included in the December issues of magazines.

On a balmy summer’s evening in London, while groups of people are enjoying a few cocktails under a cloudless sky, just off Oxford Street the Christmas festivities are already underway.

A branch of the Italian restaurant chain, Carluccio’s, is holding its Christmas press day. Amongst the mounds of fake snow, exquisitely wrapped presents and piles of slightly melted Italian chocolates, head of retail Emma Woodford stands proudly by the panettone display.