OUT-OF-TOUCH boffins yesterday slammed Rachel Reeves for dodging a fuel duty hike instead of balancing the books.
The Chancellor used her Budget to freeze rates at the pump in a major victory for The Sun’s Keep It Down campaign and Britain’s 37 million motorists.
But the Institute for Fiscal Studies criticised Ms Reeves for dragging her feet on raising fuel duty, saying the Government’s “absurd” habit of delaying hikes is costing Britain billions each year.
The economists warned if she keeps freezing fuel duty, the UK could be £5 billion worse off by the end of this Parliament.
IFS boss Paul Johnson said: “The failure to increase rates of fuel duties in line with inflation, and pretend that it will rise in the future, continues the absurd behaviour of Chancellors past.”
Mr Johnson also accused Ms Reeves of playing “the same silly games” as the Tories by boosting spending now only to let it drop off later in the term.
Day-to-day public spending is set to jump by 4.3 per cent this year and 2.6 per cent next, but after that, it’s expected to crawl at just 1.3 per cent a year from 2026.
The IFS chief said: “I’m afraid, at least on the surface, this looks rather like the same silly games playing we got used to with the last lot – pencil in implausibly low spending increases for the future in order to make the fiscal arithmetic balance.”
OLYMPIC champion Lisa Buckwitz announced she has joined OnlyFans but will not be posing nude on the platform.
Buckwitz, 29, won gold at the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics in the two-woman bobsleigh event, where she linked up with Mariama Jamanka.
The German athlete also became world champion this year in the two-woman event in Winterberg, Germany and won bronze in the Monobob event.
The bobsledder made headlines two years ago when she posed naked on the cover of Playboy Germany to highlight the importance of natural beauty before the winter Olympics at Beijing 2022.
She was joined by skeleton racer Janine Flock before they flew to China.
And now the Olympian has officially joined OnlyFans after signing a sponsorship agreement
Buckwitz told BILD: “Fans get exclusive access to content that I don’t normally share – the daily grind, the dynamics within the team, and the personal milestones that often go unseen.
“I will post as often as I can and share everything – from fitness and nutrition tips to competition preparation to the rituals that help me focus on competition day.
“For me, it’s a real opportunity to show people what it means to compete at the highest level in this sport – beyond the competitive moments.
“This platform allows me to connect with my fans on a personal level and to network with people who are genuinely interested in competitive sport and my path in it.”
Buckwitz won’t be sharing any expletive content like other popular users.
Instead she will be paid a fixed fee as part of the sponsorship and receive a possible bonus payment based on subscriptions sold.
As part of the deal, the OnlyFans logo will also feature on Buckwitz’s bob and clothing this season.
ART GARFUNKEL is reflecting on the song Old Friends.
You know, the one about two men who “sat on their park bench like bookends”.
“It has been a huge fan favourite all over the world,” he says. “And that has always been very much appreciated.”
The wistful ballad serves as an intimate portrait of dear acquaintances looking back on their lives, reminiscing about their youth.
Now 82, Art has just recorded a heartfelt version with his son, Art Jr. for their duets album Father And Son but he first sang it as a young man with its writer, Paul Simon.
As Simon & Garfunkel, they had formed one of music’s greatest duos, with songs such as The Sound Of Silence, Homeward Bound, The Boxer and Mrs Robinson making an indelible mark on popular culture.
Garfunkel’s towering vocal on Bridge Over Troubled Water is widely regarded as his finest hour.
But since the New Yorkers split in 1970 and despite a huge Central Park reunion in 1981 and various tours including one called Old Friends, their relationship has been complex and turbulent.
We had a lunch together. It was very, very warm and wonderful.
Art Garfunkel on meeting Paul Simon
Some say their feuding was down to Paul wanting to be in control because he wrote the songs.
He once admitted something had “broken” between them.
Others believe it was because Art took time out to pursue his movie career which saw him land roles in Catch-22 and Carnal Knowledge.
What’s certain is that Simon & Garfunkel haven’t sung together since 2010 . . . which makes what Art tells me in response to my question about Old Friends all the more astonishing.
“I met with Paul Simon for the first time in years just recently,” he reveals.
“We had a lunch together. It was very, very warm and wonderful.”
So the “old friends” met in a restaurant, not on a park bench but hey . . .
Art admits that he struggled to control his emotions. He says: “There were tears. I was crying at a certain point because I felt that I had hurt him.”
Then he stresses: “But there were hugs. I’m cherishing this two-week-old memory of having lunch with Paul Simon.”
I ask if they talked about those heady days in the Sixties when they enjoyed phenomenal success.
“No, we didn’t. That speaks for itself,” he answers.
Although it seems unlikely they will perform together again, he suggests that a reconciliation has taken place.
“I like to think I’m a man who has a lot of love,” he says.
“There are NO relationships of mine that don’t have love at the bottom.
“I love everyone.
“I can’t imagine holding a position of dislike and clinging to it.
“It’s all meant to be resolved so we can die easy.”
I’m speaking to Art, who still lives in The Big Apple, and Art Jr, who is based in Berlin and has had hit albums in Germany.
The notion of Simon (by that I mean me) and two Garfunkels having a chat seems irresistible.
Art Jr has this take on Old Friends: “One of the reasons I really vouch for it is because I am 33 years old.
“That means I’ve known my dad as a dear friend all my life.
“We’re so close when we sing these songs on stage or in the studio next to each other.”
Dad addresses his son directly and affectionately: “Junior, we have sung at one mic with our foreheads in contact with each other.
“It’s such a close, beautiful embrace, among the sweetest moments of my life.
“Do you remember that, honey?”
And Art Jr replies: “I do, very well.
“Music is our language of affection.”
Their Garfunkel & Garfunkel album, Father And Son, appropriately named after the Cat Stevens cover which closes it, is a sublime union of voices and comes with fully orchestrated arrangements.
Art’s taste is reflected by songs from the American Songbook such as Blue Moon, Once In A While and You Belong To Me.
Art Jr’s love of Eighties pop is represented by Cyndi Lauper’s Time After Time, The Eurythmics’ Here Comes The Rain Again and Ph.D’s I Won’t Let You Down.
And The Beatles get a look in with a touching take on Blackbird.
But it is their Let It Be Me, a tender love song by The Everly Brothers, that we turn to next.
For Art, Don and Phil Everly were the chief inspiration behind Simon & Garfunkel.
They famously covered the Everlys’ hit Bye Bye Love on their final studio album, Bridge Over Troubled Water (1970).
Art says: “Anybody with ears knows that Don and Phil are not surpassed for harmony.
“Nobody is as good, not even Simon & Garfunkel.
“The blend of those two voices is supreme.”
This is the cue for Art Jr to interrupt with: “I disagree.
“I think Simon & Garfunkel are equally as good or better.”
Dad laughs and exclaims: “I’ll take a pass at this point!”
But then he casts his mind back to when he first heard the Everlys.
“I went bowling with Paul Simon when I was 14 in Jamaica, New York.
“When we came back, I heard, ‘Ching, ka-ching, ching, ching, ka-ching, ching, ka-ching, ching’ — the intro to Bye Bye Love on the radio.
“I immediately loved how hip it was.
“The vocal hadn’t even begun yet.
“Just that guitar intro captured me.
“Then came these two voices and I knew in a flash — I have good ears — that this was the best there was.
“I was smitten.”
Art recalls how he and Paul Simon started out as Tom & Jerry and how, in 1957, they sang their hit Hey, Schoolgirl on Dick Clark’s TV show American Bandstand, on the same bill as Jerry Lee Lewis.
So what made them change to their real names?
All I can say is that my father has one of the most iconic male voices of all time.
Art Garfunkel, Jr
Art says: “We never could come up with what we should call ourselves.
“Then the record label said, ‘Look, it’s the Sixties now’, meaning it’s the future.
“It’s arrived. ‘You can use your legitimate names’.
“They told us, ‘If it sounds like a law firm, so be it.
“You’re Simon & Garfunkel now.’”
Art also remembers the duo’s early trips to England as they sought to make a name for themselves.
“We’d go to pubs and, above the pub, there would be a room for 100 people.
“Paul and I would sing all the early songs like Who Will Love A Little Sparrow?
“We learned to harmonise together and I was a big fan of Paul Simon’s songs.
“We would get on a train, go to Bristol or Hull, do a show and come home to Judith Piepe’s apartment in London.
“We would riff and joke around. I’d say to Paul, ‘You’ve got to stop, you’re killing me.’ He has a great sense of humour.
“These are very lovely early memories.”
Now we have Garfunkel & Garfunkel, who are also channelling the Everlys with their rendition of Let It Be Me.
“Don’t you think, Father, that Let It Be Me is a no-brainer? It’s our song,” says Art Jr.
Art responds with: “Having toured with the Everlys, I knew them a little bit.
“Don called that song the best thing they ever did.”
I ask Art, known for the golden voice behind mega solo No1 Bright Eyes, when he discovered his son could also sing.
He replies: “When he was two, we brought Junior down to a soundcheck in Japan.
“We took him on stage and said, ‘Come to the microphone, play with it. It’s a toy.’
“And he started making sounds into the mic. So stage work has always been organic for Junior, very natural thing for him.”
Art adds: “Now I’m crazy about his voice.
“He’s so damn good.
“He’s better than I am.”
That’s some compliment from the singer of Bridge Over Troubled Water, I’m thinking.
Art Jr says: “Well, I can’t even process that.
“All I can say is that my father has one of the most iconic male voices of all time.
“But I love singing.
“It’s my true passion.”
Before this candid Zoom call ends, I’m keen to find out if father and son would like to keep their recording partnership going.
Art Jr answers first: “I’d like to see us work on future projects, especially with my dad’s enthusiasm.
“What a blessing for me.”
And finally Art: “I love this.
“I want to do it again.
“If you’re in Junior, I’m in.”
ROSS Kemp pulls no punches — as he urges Sun readers to scan the QR code and donate to the Royal British Legion poppy appeal.
TV hardman Ross trained with the Gurkhas — some of the Army’s toughest troops — yesterday as more than 1,000 soldiers arrived in London hoping to raise £1million in one day.
An army of 50,000 volunteers will also sell poppies across the country until November 11.
RBL ambassador Ross, 60, began the day working out at the Tower of London with nine super-fit members of the Queen’s Gurkha Engineers.
He took part in the military guards’ morning routine, running shoulder to shoulder around the Tower grounds and joining in shadow boxing.
Later Ross joined serving personnel and Poppy Appeal collectors on a double-decker poppy bus at the start of Europe’s biggest one-day street collection.
He said: “Punching pads and running around the Tower with Gurkhas is not the kind of thing I expected to be doing at 60 years old.
“The poppy is synonymous with service both present and past.
“The Royal British Legion hands out £900,000 in grants every month of the year.
“And 17,000 households rely on money given to them by the British Legion.
“They are not just veterans, they’re serving personnel and also their families who often suffer equally when somebody’s not well.
“This year we’re remembering people who have suffered some sort of mental trauma linked to military service because often those scars are not apparent.”
The Sun has joined forces with The Royal British Legion so you can donate direct to this year’s Poppy Appeal by scanning this QR code.
As well as donating via our QR code, an army of 50,000 volunteer poppy sellers will be collecting in towns and cities across the UK until November 11.
PEP GUARDIOLA was certain about Manchester City’s future when he was quizzed about it last week.
He said that everything was in place for the incredible success story under him to continue long after he was gone.
Because have no doubt about it, Guardiola could be gone at the end of this season.
Already he has stayed at the Etihad longer than people thought he might and there is nothing else to prove, nothing more to achieve.
But the belief that things will just continue when he goes could well be misplaced.
Let us not forget that it may be no small coincidence that director of football Txiki Begiristain, 60, has already stated that he is definitely on his way next summer.
This is not even taking into account what punishment may come the Manchester club’s way due to the charges of 130 financial rule breaches that are on their doorstep.
Although I have my doubts anything will ever come of that.
There are haunting parallels for City supporters over what has happened down the road when an era came to an end.
There was a similar arrogance at Old Trafford that things would just continue because, well, they were Manchester United.
FOOTBALL FREE BETS AND SIGN UP DEALS
Senior figures would scoff at the suggestion that with Sir Alex gone they might now do a Liverpool and take decades to regain their place on their perch.
Now, with already 11 years gone they remain further away than ever.
That belief that it would just continue saw the Red Devils take their eye off the ball.
When Sir Alex went in 2013, the United that was so dominant went with him.
Now, titles were won at City before Guardiola under Roberto Mancini in 2012 and two years later when Manuel Pellegrini was boss.
But the startling dominance that the club has achieved under this manager since 2016 sets him apart.
Have no doubt it is down to him, nobody else, just him.
His energy to continue getting the best out of players is remarkable and continues unabated.
Not only does he, with Begiristain, source and buy great players he makes them better.
His standards never drop. You just have to watch the Spaniard on the sidelines.
But that level of intensity can wear anyone down.
Even at Bayern Munich they claimed everyone was basically frazzled after his time there.
The man himself will need a rest and maybe the club and players too.
You look at this team, much like United of old, and there are certain players that simply cannot be replaced like for like.
Star midfielder Kevin De Bruyne, 33, is unlikely to still be at the club beyond this season.
The incredible Kyle Walker at 34 cannot continue rampaging up and down that wing.
Erling Haaland is only 24 but there has been no secret about his desire to one day end up at Real Madrid.
Guardiola has turned John Stones from an average centre-back into one of the best players in Europe but he is already 30.
There is still much more to come from Rodri who is 28 but how will this ACL injury impact him going forward?
In any case how can you guarantee that he and these City players will react in the same way to a new boss when 53-year-old Guardiola does go?
Down the road, when Sir Alex went it was like the tough head-master had gone and a young supply teacher was in.
Remember that, at school, when everyone just took the mick. That’s what happened at United.
Everything had been achieved, the team was coming to an end and basically nobody could be bothered anymore, everyone was knackered with it all.
By Phil Thomas
IT is over a decade since he left the dugout but Sir Alex Ferguson has lost none of his sense of timing.
When to sell, when to buy, when to change and ultimately when to go, Fergie has always been in a class of his own.
Over the years there were countless decisions which had everyone scratching their head — but Sir Alex always knew the time was right.
Some were more obvious than others. Like the night Manchester United won the Treble on the back of his substitutions.
Others less so, like the summer of 1995 when terrace legends Mark Hughes, Paul Ince and Andrei Kanchelskis were sold at the peak of their powers.
The whole of football thought the manager had lost his marbles.
But Fergie knew better, as he chose that year to unleash his “you win nothing with kids” Double heroes.
Just as he knew best when it came to right-hand men.
Brian Kidd, Steve McClaren, Archie Knox and Co — an endless list of world-class coaches who all came and went.
And, of course, the biggest decision of all. Calling time on 26 years in which he had gone from the brink of the bullet to English football’s greatest-ever gaffer.
The majority of people are convinced Ferguson stepped down because he knew United’s era of dominance was over.
Maybe not the nosedive to come but certainly that an almighty rebuild was just around the corner. Another mass overhaul, yet not one he was prepared to oversee.
Now another end has arrived. Not as dramatic or as out-of-nowhere, admittedly, but an end nonetheless.
Next summer Fergie will leave his 12-year role as global ambassador. Many see it as the most ruthless swing of Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s cost-cutting axe — and they are wrong.
For while he is trying to save every penny in making United great again — how’s that going, Sir Jim? — Ferguson has not suddenly and callously been told he is surplus to requirements.
This decision was a two-way call. An amicable parting. Football’s own conscious uncoupling, in Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow lingo.
And not, incidentally, a departure which means we will no longer see Fergie at Old Trafford on a matchday.
That simply will not happen. He will still be there rain, wind or shine . . .
Only now as a high-profile non-executive director, rather than a man with the ear — and the sway — behind the owners’ biggest decisions.
Like he was when urging United to re-sign Cristiano Ronaldo in 2021.
Admittedly not his finest hour, rather an indication of the influence he still retained.
Back then, until just before Ratcliffe and his Ineos team arrived, in fact, Ferguson had the owners’ ear. Almost a hotline to the Glazer family, you could say.
And those days are done.
Not that Sir Alex is bereft at the thought. For a start, some of the staff sackings have enraged the Scot — long-serving photographer John Peters and kitman Alec Wylie, for example.
This is not a cosy-cosy relationship with Ratcliffe being severed.
If anything, it is closer to the opposite. And as Fergie the Red, in every sense The Boss — those who played under him still call him that — knows, trousering £2million or so a year in such tight times is not a good look.
Fair enough, not an amount anyone would turn down in normal circumstances.
Yet when many in the steerage class are losing their livelihoods, it is not something that would have sat well with him.
There is also the practical side of things as well.
At the end of December, Sir Alex will be 83 years old, albeit still a freakishly fit 83 years old.
Yet even though the grey matter remains oh-so-sharp and the mind clear as a bell, the bones grow creakier and even Superman had to put his feet up on occasion.
That does not mean you will not see shots of Fergie alongside Ratcliffe at various points — Sir Jim loves too much the associated glamour of being pictured with the greatest.
But any idea of Sir Alex having an emperor’s thumbs-down power has gone for good — and quite frankly that is something which suits both sides.
The fans, meanwhile, had grown so used to success that it was basically expected.
Sir Alex was frustrated in the belief that people thought silverware just kept arriving without any work going into it.
He didn’t like how the atmosphere could dip because people just sat back and waited for the win rather than roared their team on.
Last weekend when City beat Southampton 1-0, friends of mine described the spectacle as “boring”.
Another said that the team had “lost it’s fizz”. Have they too become complacent?
City could easily lose it’s fizz without Guardiola because there is no obvious candidate to take up the reins.
There are plenty of clubs snapping at their heels as well. Liverpool and Arsenal will not go away, Chelsea for all the apparent chaos at Stamford Bridge will always be there.
Tottenham might have their day and just look at what Unai Emery is doing at Aston Villa.
As City’s less than noisy neighbours will tell you, nothing is a given.
