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/li> 2.4k shares 422 comments I have a lot in common with George Osborne. Not the private education. Not his views on what turns a man into a child killer. But the fact he parked his SUV in a disabled bay. When I heard this news, in the week cuts to benefits started to bite, my only thought was: ‘He parked in a disabled bay to buy a burger?’ Because that was the crime. Not parking in a bay expressly designed for people with no arms or legs or eyes (why are they driving?). Because I do it all the time. I make a point of doing it. This is me, outside Costa Coffee at a service station at 7am. Straight into the disabled bay. Common ground: Liz Jones doesn't have a problem with George Osborne parking in disabled bays - because she does it herself This is me, outside the cinema at Richmond, North Yorkshire, late to see Argo, straight into a disabled bay by the door. In Richmond there are hundreds of the damn things, as though it were Lourdes. I have become inur

/li> 25 shares 10 comments As head designer and creative director Karl Lagerfeld took his bow at the end of the Chanel show last month in Paris, he paid homage to the legacy of Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel, who opened her first store 100 years ago. Many celebrations will take place this year, not least a film directed by Lagerfeld and starring, rather improbably, Keira Knightley as Madame herself. Even if you do not own anything with an interlocking ‘C’ (bar perhaps a nail polish), it’s worth wishing the brand many happy returns, not least for the fact that Coco — as she liked to be called (it was a nickname from her brief career as a singer) — changed the way women dress for ever. Legend: This week Liz Jones pays homage to the legacy of Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel, who opened her first store 100 years ago She took us out of the constricting S-bend corset and made us believe we could found business empires. She refused to change for dinner, wearing the same suit she

/li> 111 shares 39 comments The satirical puppet show Spitting Image always had Maggie Thatcher in a man’s grey suit and tie, but they missed the point entirely. She was always feminine, always meticulous about her appearance and would ‘twirl like a little girl when trying on clothes’, according to her stylist, Margaret King, who worked for the Iron Lady’s favourite label, Aquascutum. Demure: At the Tory Conference in 1970, left, she wore a sober, full-length evening dress. She continued to play it safe with a buttoned up grey coat in 1970, right. Along with confidence in her own ability came embellishments: brooches, blouses, pearls... It was King, who started working with the prime minister in 1987, who changed her posture from an uninspiring stoop to a more regal upright position, and weaned her off the more frivolous bows and flounces.   More... Margaret Thatcher: A moderniser who helped to put the Square Mile on top Now there really is no such

/li> 2 shares 307 comments Why do designers send such ridiculous trends down the catwalk? It is one thing to spy Natalia Vodianova in a completely sheer skirt, subtly revealing her perfect bottom, quite another to pluck up the courage to wear it ourselves — running for the bus in a high wind. Or how about Stella McCartney’s outsize tuxedo and sheer orange sweatshirt? Or Burberry’s metallic trench that makes its owner resemble a sweet wrapper? Do you really want to look like a giant toffee? But the dangerous thing about fashion is this: we see the new trend so many times, on so many beautiful young women in the pages of Vogue, or on the red carpet, and we are brainwashed.  Bad trends: Liz Jones says the latest trends make you look like a giant toffee - or a hippo with wrinkles... Two years ago, I vowed never again to wear print trousers but, lo and behold, two weeks ago I bought an entirely print trouser suit from new brand & Other Stories. Only when I wen

/li> 0 shares 308 comments The smell is almost  indescribable, assaulting the nostrils like acid. The noise is deafening. Numerous black noses are pressed up against wire. There is no bedding on the concrete floor. I’m reminded of the film Midnight Express, given that it’s so dark, dank and unjust. Up to eight dogs are in each cage – labradors, chihuahuas, alsatians, Border collies, mongrels – and  I notice one small grey dog,  obviously ancient, is very, very still. She is lying in cold water with a vivid wound from being spayed. At her age! Savior: Liz Jones and K9Angel's Victoria Eisermann with Hilda, the dog she rescued and is set to adopt, in a state dog pound in Craiova, Romania I summon the vet on duty at this state pound in the town of Craiova in deepest Romania. He is a hulk  of a man – known locally as The Butcher – who has been trying to avoid having his photo taken, turning his back on us every time we attempt to get a shot of his blood-staine

/li> 0 shares 46 comments Armani's eye-popping £700 sunglasses Remember how once upon a time shoes were small, discreet, mostly black and plain? Well, sunglasses were once that way, too. I have in my hands my pair of original early Eighties sunglasses by Cutler & Gross, still in their tiny spectacle case lined with blue velvet. The wire and frame are gold and fragile, the lenses oval and blue, barely bigger than my eyes. They are light, and discreet. They keep out dangerous rays, but they are not rude when I am talking to people, as others can still see my eyes. Most crucially, these glasses did not cost the equivalent of the National Debt: in 1983 they were £35. I couldn't find a single glossy ad for sunglasses in my Eighties Vogues, but in my May 2013 edition, there are over a dozen full-page ads for the blasted things. Sunglasses are clearly very big business indeed. This summer, designers have realised that sunglasses are probably the last great

/li> 0 shares 28 comments Teenage girls and Vogue. It’s a difficult, combustible mix. I fell in love with Vogue in 1975, when I was 17. In some ways it improved my life — it made me dream beyond the dull shores of Essex. Yet it also almost destroyed it — because as an unattractive, acne-riddled provincial lump, I wanted the bodies and lives of the women on its pages. But being naive, airbrushing simply never occurred to me. I had no idea it was all artifice, a fantasy world. I thought I had to live out its pages. And so I’m cautious as I open the debut issue of Miss Vogue, which lands on newsstands today: the first offshoot for teenagers from British Vogue.  Miss Vogue: The problem is Miss Vogue seems largely, if not exclusively, penned, directed and styled by women in their 50s A high-end magazine for teens is nothing new. Harpers & Queen, back in the Eighties, published a teenage issue once a year, and was entirely written by teens. The problem is Miss

/li> 0 shares 498 comments Forget the Woman’s Hour Power list that named Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman, Natalie Massenet of Net-a-Porter, Victoria Beckham and Stella McCartney as the most influential women in fashion. The person who will dress more of us than any other, and shape our wardrobes over the next few years is 51-year-old Belinda Earl, the new style director at Marks & Spencer. It’s the biggest, most high-profile and high-pressure job, not just in fashion but in all of British retail — hence the hefty salary she will receive. Grey wool tweed dress £159. Pinkwool coat £85. Black Shoe Boot £59. Pendant £15. Zebra tote £99.LIZ's VERDICT: Perfect coat fora wedding and a great dress for the office Ribbon silk cocktail dress, £75. Blackcourt shoes, £49.50LIZ'S VERDICT: This looks designer and is super comfy, too So when we meet for the exclusive unveiling to the Mail of her very first collection, it’s understandable she looks a bit ne

/li> 19 shares 29 comments The catwalks were full of white for this summer. The models were like ghosts - or at least looked as though they were still in their nighties. Stella McCartney showed a white mesh blouson, Victoria Beckham a white blouse and skater skirt edged with orange, Valentino a white cotton blouse and skirt in broderie anglaise. Moschino even sent out a white broderie anglaise jumpsuit, with side cleavage exposed. Now I have a little bit of a problem with a grown woman wearing broderie anglaise, a crisp holey fabric meant only for children. This fabric, especially in a maxi skirt, reminds me of that dreadful fashion trend: boho. Broderie anglaise is meant to look stiff, and clean, as though cut from expensive writing paper, but the boho appropriation rendered it sloppy, tiered and creased. Valentino Spring Summer 2013 Paris Fashion Week, left, and Stella McCartney Fall-Winter 2013/2014 during Paris fashion week., right But white can b

/li> 34 shares 9 comments Warm and nurturing: Mary Berry is wonderful, and I want her to continue for ever Do we really want more ancient women on TV? And if so, perhaps we should examine why exactly? My feeling is that people of both sexes over the age of 60 should be doing different things. David Dimbleby gets more irascible as time goes on, while Sir David Frost's show on BBC4 is positively painful to watch – I have to study him closely because I'm afraid that he has stopped breathing. As with most things, it depends on how long the person in question can keep going in their career. Mary Berry is wonderful, and I want her to continue for ever. But with their loud cries for comebacks, Angela Rippon, Joan Bakewell and Selina Scott, who surely landed their TV careers due to their good looks (and, in the case of Rippon, great legs), remind me why this particular sort of older woman is a turn-off. Berry is warm, nurturing and, occasionally, slightly stern

/li> 0 shares 125 comments TODAY'S POLL   Do you agree with Jamie Carragher's Euro plan?