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/li> 0 shares 275 comments What's going on in there, Liz? Through the years, I've spent a lot of time talking about my problems. With a friend over the phone. With an endless series of psychotherapists. In self-help groups. Hell, even with the readers of this newspaper. 'What should I do?' I always wail. My main 'issue' is that even when I should be happy - such as when I first lived in my London Georgian townhouse, had a husband and things were going swimmingly - I seem incapable of feeling that emotion. I never feel good about myself and am paralysed by fear. But talking about problems - a cheating husband, say, or a sister who has treated me appallingly - as you do in traditional therapy only reignites upset feelings. It stirs them up, like a stick in a pond. I still wake every night at 3am, heart pounding, with worry swirling in my head that I will be made homeless, be fired, die alone and unloved. So imagine how I felt when I discov

/li> 0 shares 53 comments This latest trend for women revealing their midriffs could be an April Fool's joke, couldn't it? But no, the crop top is everywhere for this summer, instilling fear and loathing in women the length and breadth of the land. It was first seen hovering distantly above pencil skirts on the catwalk at Jonathan Saunders, while at Miu Miu it was less of a top and more of a bra. At Louis Vuitton, the crop top was so skimpy you could see the under-curvature of the models' breasts: the body part that was even banned at the Grammys.  Rihanna and Diane Kruger are just two celebrities getting their washboard stomachs out all in the name of fashion this spring But there is a reason for this madness. Last summer, about the time this designer lot were at the drawing board stage, we were all agog with admiration for the abdominal muscles of Jessica Ennis. Her abs made women believe that Lycra with its middle missing was a good loo

/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