Cookies & GDPR
This page explains cookies and similar technologies on this site, under UK GDPR and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR), and under US state privacy laws that restrict sale or sharing of personal information for advertising.
Your choice
When you first visit, you can allow analytics and advertising together, or keep essential cookies only. Both choices are equally available. You can change this later with Cookie settings in the footer, or the button below. Rejecting advertising stops Google AdSense on this browser.
Essential cookies
These are needed for the site to work: security, remembering cookie choices, basket and checkout sessions, and login if you have an account. Security plugins may process your IP address and browser information to protect the site. Essential cookies do not require consent under PECR.
Analytics cookies (optional)
If you allow them, we use first-party analytics to understand which pages are useful. We do not sell this data, and we do not store IP addresses in that analytics store.
Advertising (optional)
If you allow advertising, Google AdSense may place ads on story pages. That consent covers storing and accessing information on your device, personalised ads, and measuring those ads, which is what Google asks publishers to explain under its EU user consent policy. It also covers the “sale” or “share” of personal information for advertising under US state privacy laws. Essential only, or switching advertising off, opts you out.
This site’s own banner records that choice. Personalised ads in the UK, EEA, and Switzerland can also depend on Google’s advertising tools. If Google requires a certified consent platform on the AdSense account, that platform works with this choice; we still do not load AdSense until advertising is allowed.
How Google uses data from partner sites · Control ads at Google
Do not sell or share
We do not sell personal information for money. Allowing advertising lets Google use cookies and similar identifiers for personalised ads, which some US laws treat as sharing or a sale. Open Cookie settings and choose Essential only, or Do not sell or share in that panel, to opt out.
Third parties
Payment, print fulfilment, and email tools process data only as needed to provide those services. Newsletter signup and checkout marketing opt-ins are separate, explicit choices. Google processes advertising data under its own terms, which may involve the United States.