Barbecue summer? Not so much. The evidence against disposable barbecues is actually pretty damning. They are linked to multiple, major wildfires in the UK. Because they remain so hot for so long, too many people fail to dispose of them properly.

So they are abandoned or end up smouldering in bins, and they even continue burning underground. From the Trossachs to Cannock Chase, Cheshire to London, disposable barbecues are responsible for serious blazes.

But alongside this new ban on the sale of disposable barbecues, the British public has been told not to light “a fire in any outdoor setting of any kind”. Pop those sausages back in the fridge…

I’ve just returned from holiday in France, close to the wildfires near Bordeaux. Thick black smoke blew through the valleys. We were meant to be staying in a wooden hut in a pine forest (in 42°C), before the regional préfète asked tourists to cancel.

I felt deep sympathy for communities who feared they may need to abandon their homes – as people did this week in Stourbridge, West Midlands, where 19 houses were incinerated.

In France, barbecues have been banned in high-risk areas and 500 people have been arrested for carelessness or arson. Some have already been sentenced to years in prison.

Perhaps the French offer a glimpse of our own summers in the future, as Northern Europeans
wake up to the reality of Saharan heat and bone-dry vegetation. We can expect more tourists to abandon the Med and Nouvelle-Aquitaine for holidays in Devon and the Gower.