Nigella Lawson Brings Posh Accents Back Into Fashion on Bake Off Nigella Lawson's Great British Bake Off debut has revived interest in posh accents, as a columnist reflects on changing attitudes to received pronunciation. Nigella Lawson's debut on The Great British Bake Off has been credited with making posh accents acceptable again, according to a columnist writing in the aftermath of her universally acclaimed appearance on the baking show. Lawson, described as the Marchioness of the Meringue, beamed into the baking tent last week and instantly shifted the dial on upper class accents, swinging the posh-o-meter wildly into the red. The presenter appeared in busty jumpsuits and, according to the writer, sported a ridiculously perfect complexion, a trait incidentally shared with the late Queen. Posh Voices Long Out of FashionIn recent years, nobody has wanted to sound posh, and the writer, who speaks with such an accent, has long been aware it is something to temper. Not that the family were particularly upper class, but they were brought up with accents that veered more towards received pronunciation than Essex estuary. Posh voices fell out of fashion decades ago, but that did not stop them being highly desirable in the media.That changed over the past decade, when sounding even the slightest bit like the late Queen ruled you out of the running for any presenting job. Everyone had to drop h sounds and turn their ings into ins. The writer points to the difference between Claudia Winkleman's voice in the early years of her career and the tone she chooses for Traitors as an example of the shift.Rather than fearing she might come across as ludicrous in the company of fellow presenters who have more democratic accents, Lawson ramps it up for all she has got. Her voice is at once breathy and commanding, sprinkling her considerable vocabulary around the set like hundreds and thousands. And viewers are loving it, the columnist observes.HS2 Construction Mars Buckinghamshire LandscapeIn a separate reflection, the writer describes walking into what felt like a dystopian disaster. Waking up the day after a wedding, on a sunny Sunday morning in Buckinghamshire, she suggested to her husband that they go on a walk. She imagined an hour-long stroll over rolling meadows that would work off the full English breakfast they had eaten, but no such luck.It was close to impossible to find anywhere to go. Construction of the HS2 railway has torn up huge swathes of that landscape and, at every turn, they ran into dystopian looking vistas of concrete, tunnelling and devastation. Any nice places to amble were overrun with hikers in high-viz vests and backpacks, marching as if they were on an Army training course. In the end they gave up and drove home to London to walk around the park.Night Driving Blinded by Modern Car LightsDriving to the pub where they were staying the previous night, they had awful problems with car lighting, the writer notes, like poor Jenni Murray. The former Woman's Hour host and Mail columnist died earlier this year after a crash caused by an oncoming car's dazzling headlights. As they journeyed along the country roads, they were either completely blinded by lights or plunged into darkness.They could not find a way to put their car's beam on to a setting which illuminated without dazzling others. It was once so simple, the writer recalls: lights on or off, strong or normal. Now the array of lights on cars has made the business crazily complex, while the monster SUVs cruising with their glaring LED headlamps make night driving impossible.Prada Revives the Pencil Skirt in MilanMiuccia Prada dedicated last week's Milan show to skirts, with every look a different one. These were not midis or maxis, but knee-length pencil skirts, which the writer is a fan of, having worn one for her wedding in April. This is fantastic news, she says.The skirt has been lurking in the doldrums as fashion has nudged us into trousers and dresses. However, where Miuccia goes, the mainstream shops will follow. The writer has already found a second-hand Prada skirt on clothing site Vestiaire, which she hopes is winging its way to her wardrobe any minute. The only problem is she is not sure it is not one she donated to Oxfam when she had a wardrobe full of them.Fauda Returns with Compelling Fifth SeasonWhen the writer started watching the newly released fifth season of Netflix hit Fauda, about an Israeli undercover team, she was curious to see how they would manage October 7. Given the current anti-Israeli sentiment, she thought it might not be shown. But it does tackle it and this season is every bit as complex and compelling as the previous four.The fact that the sister of the co-creator and lead actor Lior Raz was in her house hiding from Hamas terrorists on the day gives the show an added resonance, the columnist adds.Tony Blair Gym Photo Draws a Wry ResponseTony Blair has been photographed in a gym after sharing a workout with Indonesian senator Sultan Baktiar Najamudin. The writer says she would rather eat tarmac than have a picture taken after a workout. But clearly Blair is proud of appearing in his vest and showing a nice set of biceps.Do we really want to know that our figures of consequence are spending their time doing leg presses and competing over free weights, she asks. She would rather they were sitting down and focusing on meaningful discussions that might make our world a safer place.