It is difficult to imagine these days, but, not very long ago, people would deposit litter on the streets without care or reproach, dog mess would be left on the pavement, and smokers would strike up without any consideration for their fellow citizens.

Gordon Ramsay's first and only restaurant in Canada has severed its ties with the chef, ditching his name from its title and ripping up its contract after claiming he was not devoting enough time to the venture.

Marcus Wareing is the chef/patron of Marcus Wareing At The Berkeley. Having trained alongside Albert Roux, he went on to work as Gordon Ramsay's sous chef and then as his partner in L'Oranger in 1996. He opened the Gilbert Scott restaurant at the St Pancras Hotel in 2011.

Not since the war has growing food been so popular with 'townies', and many are now turning their hobby into a business

Victims of paper cuts and stubbed toes don't need scientists to tell them about the pain-healing power of swearing, but new research suggests the more you do it, the harder pain becomes to bear.

It has been known for some time that the chefs at The Ledbury in Notting Hill were probably the toughest in London. Now, it seems, they are the best.

Peter Jones, the star of the BBC's Dragons' Den, is looking for a private equity partner to join him to invest up to £500m in a well-known but struggling UK brand.

When, on Wednesday, a Twitter user called @wiggsd remarked that a White House press briefing was a bit tedious, he unexpectedly received a reply from @whitehouse: "Fiscal policy is important, but can be dry sometimes," the President's official feed agreed. "Here's something more fun..." There followed a link to the video for Rick Astley's 1987 hit, "Never Gonna Give You Up".

Bulldog-browed superchef Gordon Ramsay's business-based woes continue, I can report. The kitchen supremo had what's commonly known as a "nightmare" at the box office this weekend, when the film Love's Kitchen – which features his debut acting performance – achieved UK ticket sales of just £121.

We pedants love dying in the last ditch, and the more futile the resistance the more we love it. Some people, for instance, insist passionately that "decimate" must be used only in its original and "correct" meaning. But do we really need a word that means "kill one in 10"?