Fleet Streets

star astrologer
OBITUARIES P40

WHY ARE
LABRADORS
SO GREEDY?

Forty-three
years in a
concrete box

HEALTH & SCIENCE P19

PEOPLE P10

THE WEEK

MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR

14 MAY 2016 | ISSUE 1073 | 3.30

THE BEST OF THE BRITISH AND INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

How Khan
won London
Page 22

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT EVERYTHING THAT MATTERS

www.theweek.co.uk

The main stories

4 NEWS
What happened

Corbyns first test

We hung on, declared Jeremy Corbyn last

week after the local elections failed to produce
the Labour meltdown that some analysts had
predicted. In England, the party lost 18
councillors fewer than the 200 that some had
anticipated, but still a poor result by historical
standards: the last time an opposition lost seats
in a midterm election was 30 years ago. In
Scotland, meanwhile, Labour suffered its worst
collapse since 1910, being beaten into third
place by the Tories (see page 23). The party held
on to government in Wales, however, and won
mayoral contests in Bristol and London. Overall,
Labour secured 31% of the vote, against the
Tories 30%. In his first statement as the new
mayor of London, Sadiq Khan warned that
Labour would never be trusted to govern unless
we reach out and engage with all voters.

What the editorials said

Local elections are traditionally viewed as a test for the
governing party, said The Observer. Yet the post-match
analysis of these polls has been dominated by
talk of Labour. This is extraordinary, given
the current state of the Tories, feuding over
Europe and reeling from U-turn to U-turn.
Khans victory is welcome and confirms
London as a Labour city. But the overall
picture is that Labour could not look less like
a party heading for victory in 2020. Labour
has never been good at ousting dud leaders,
said the Daily Mail: it now faces months or
years of plotting while it stumbles on with a
man who is all too plainly not up to the job.

The Tories must scarcely be able to believe their

luck, said The Times. Their minimal losses last
Corbyn: the sky did not fall in week spared them from having to engage in a
bout of painful introspection. Yet these polls
held lessons for them, too ones the Tories would do well to
heed. They should start by analysing the contrasting fortunes
Corbyn admitted on Monday that Labour was not yet doing
of Ruth Davidson, who helped resurrect Scottish conservatism
enough to win the general election in 2020. But he insisted
with her pugnacious but chatty campaign, and Zac
his partys recovery had begun, calling on colleagues to
Goldsmith, whose dismal battle for the London mayoralty
concentrate their fire on the Tories and to desist from airing
exposed an electoral machine that is superannuated and
internal grievances in public.
bereft of imagination (see page 22).

What happened

Trump rolls on
Donald Trump emerged last week as the near
certain Republican candidate for president
when his last two rivals pulled out of the race
for the party nomination. Senator Ted Cruz
(see page 16) and Ohio governor John Kasich
quit the contest after Trump scored a
landslide victory in the Indiana primary, and
the billionaire businessman now needs only
the formal endorsement of the Republican
Party convention in July to secure the
nomination. Hillary Clinton has already
secured almost enough delegates to be sure of
winning the Democrat nomination.

What the editorials said

This is an immensely serious moment, said the FT. The
party of Abraham Lincoln and Dwight Eisenhower is on the
point of nominating a shallow, narcissistic
demagogue with a tendency to xenophobia,
misogyny and paranoid fantasy: only last week
Trump was suggesting that Cruzs father was
somehow connected with the killing of John F.
Kennedy. To make matters worse, said The
Wall Street Journal, he has little policy
knowledge or judgement: he is naive about
the Russian threat to Europe he admires Putin
and advocates a protectionist approach on
trade that could lead to a global recession.

The good news is that a Trump victory looks

most unlikely, said The Guardian. The polls
In a blow to the Trump campaign, several
give Clinton a 13-point lead; 81% of Hispanics
A narcissistic demagogue
Republican heavyweights, including former
have an unfavourable opinion of Trump, as
president George W. Bush and his father George H. W.
do 75% of women voters. Yet let us not forget that this
Bush, publicly refused their endorsement. But the influential immensely rich man he owns around 40 apartments and
ex-governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal, who had described
mansions across America has forged a rock-solid bond
Trump as a madman who must be stopped, said he would with many poorer white Republicans hurt by the 2007-08
now back the campaign if only to prevent a Clinton victory. property crash. There can be no grounds for complacency.

It wasnt all bad

A woman from Florida who
became blind 21 years ago after
injuring her spine in a car crash
has suddenly regained her
sight. All I could see was
blackness, Mary Ann Franco,
70, told The Independent. But
having slipped on her living
room floor and hit her head, she
had to have an operation last
month to alleviate pains in her
arms and neck. When she came
to, she realised she could see
again. It was wonderful, she
said. I was the happiest
woman in the whole world.

It isnt often that a professional

athlete risks their career in order
to help an opponent. But last
week Laura Srosi, 23, Hungarys
top female badminton player,
did just that in a match against
Germanys no.1, Karin Schnaase.
Early in the match one of
Schnaases shoes fell apart, and
the rules prevented her from
leaving the court to get another
pair. Unshod, she was bound to
lose, but Srosi (pictured) came
to her aid by lending her her
spare pair only to lose the
match and miss out on a crucial point for Olympic qualification.
Some 4,400 people have now signed an online petition for her to be
given a wild card to appear at the Rio Olympics.

Injured military veterans have

been given a new lease of life
by the recently formed Defence
Archaeology Group. It puts their
mapping skills and trenchdigging skills to use by employing them on archaeological
digs. In recent weeks, several
have been working with the
University of York on a project
to excavate a Roman fort in Old
Malton, Yorkshire. Its like a
band of brothers again, said
Garry Phillips, a former reservist
with the Kings Regiment who
suffers from post-traumatic
stress disorder. Its fieldcraft...
and we are experts at digging.

COVER CARTOON: HOWARD MCWILLIAM

THE WEEK 14 May 2016

and how they were covered

NEWS 5

What the commentators said

What next?

Ignore the pundits, said Gary Younge in The Guardian. These elections were not the disaster
for Corbyn theyre being made out to be. True, Scotland was dire, but you cant blame him
for that: Labour was in trouble there before he became leader. Elsewhere, Labour held its
own. Despite all the media attacks on Corbyn, all the internal carping, all the accusations of
anti-Semitism, English voters did not leave in droves; the sky did not fall in. Labour held
on to councils in bellwether towns such as Nuneaton, Crawley, Stevenage, Harlow and
Southampton. Theres no reason to believe it would have done better under a different leader.

Labour should be worried

about the continued leaking
of its core working-class vote
to UKIP, says The Observer.
Labours heartlands could
become still more fertile
territory for UKIP in the
wake of a narrow remain
vote in the EU referendum.

I beg to differ, said Andrew Rawnsley in The Observer. Corbynista apologists claim that
breaking even is a decent result at this stage of the political cycle, but its not. It really, really is
not. Besides, didnt these people once say that Corbyns new politics would unleash a flood
of support from new voters thirsting for an authentically left-wing programme?
If that were true, Labour would have bounced back north of the border. Last year,
Corbyn declared that Scotland was his top priority; he believed Labour could
woo back voters by outflanking the SNP on the Left. So much for that plan.
Whats truly depressing, said Stephen Pollard in The Mail on Sunday, is that
even moderate Labour MPs seem to be in no hurry to ditch Corbyn. No wonder
the bookies make 2031 or after the favourite for the first year in which Labour
could again win a majority.

Corbyns critics may draw

hope from the shift
in our locus of
politics: Khan is
mayor of London
and Andy Burnham
is considering a bid
to become the
mayor of Greater
Manchester.
The real message of last week, said Mick Hume on Spiked, is that there are fewer
Perhaps a Labour
safe seats and core areas of support in which either of the main parties can hide
fightback will be
I just hope Labour
can breed from their
from the publics displeasure. Labour lost Rhondda once a rock-solid fortress
spearheaded not
to the Welsh nationalists; the Tories took a hit in safe districts such as Winchester few remaining Scottish from Westminster
supporters
and Elmbridge. The most important gap in politics today is not between the
but from the UKs
MATT/THE DAILY TELEGRAPH
parties; its between the isolated political elite and the mass of voters.
metropolitan cities.

What the commentators said

What next?

By conventional rules, Donald Trump should lose to Hillary Clinton in a landslide, said
Jonah Goldberg in National Review. But if God were enforcing conventional rules, Trump
would be in his midtown Manhattan eyrie wondering how he came in last. And his triumph
should terrify Clinton. The truth is that he has won the nomination and could now win
the election because he amuses the voters. Clinton is rich, and morally and ethically corrupt.
So is Trump. But at least hes entertaining. Besides, he wont play by Queensberry rules like
the central casting politicians she has fought in the past, said Simon Heffer in The Sunday
Telegraph. He will goad her about the favours she has done for Wall Street, about her
conduct during her husbands inglorious presidency, about using a private email account to
store state secrets, and about her absurd decision to attend his wedding after he had given
money to her Senate campaign. Such taunts may not win him the election, but tens of
millions of voters who see Clinton as a representative of a loathed political class, will love it.

In a last-ditch attempt to
keep both Trump and
Clinton out of the White
House, senior Republicans
have reportedly launched
the search for a third-party
candidate ready to join the
race. Heading the list is said
to be Mitt Romney, the
Republicans failed
candidate in 2012.

Even if Trump does win, we may have less to fear than the pundits like to suggest, said Justin
Webb in the Daily Mail. After all, the US constitution ensures that the country cant be run on
the whim of a megalomaniac: decisions need the consent of Congress, and the lawmakers
would doubtless block Trumps wilder schemes, say, for a wall along the Mexican border, or a
ban on Muslims entering America. Anyhow, plenty of his ideas make good sense, said Mary
Dejevsky in The Independent. Whats wrong, for example, with his plan to abolish income tax
for those earning less than $25,000? Or his opposition to US military intervention abroad,
except when the USs vital interests are at risk? As for the wall, theres already an 18-foot fence
along much of the border. To be sure, we might hesitate to support the Trump campaign, but
he could at least turn out to be someone we could do business with.

THE WEEK

Something peculiar has happened to David Cameron recently,

said Quentin Letts in the Mail. Once acclaimed for his insouciant
charm, he has become a ranter, gratingly scornful of opponents,
brusque with one-time confidants. At Prime Ministers Questions last week he berated Jeremy
Corbyn over Labours anti-Semitism problem, but in an oddly nasty way, bawling at Labour and
thwacking the despatch box. It was the most unpleasant PMQs I have attended, said Letts.
Who is going to tell the Prime Minister to Calm down, dear? asked The Sunday Timess
Dominic Lawson, who also took exception to Mr Camerons blustering and petulance. If he were to
seek a lesson in how to deal in civilised fashion with political opposition, said Lawson, then he
should consider the style of the man he was berating: Jeremy Corbyn. This is a man who is never,
ever, rude to any political opponent. His arguments are always about the issues; he never attacks
people highly unusual on the Left and very refreshing. I agree. Let sunshine win the day! said
Mr Cameron shortly after becoming Tory leader ten years ago, and until relatively recently he has on
the whole seemed cheerful and good-humoured, a pleasant change from the brooding Gordon
Brown. It is true, as Lawson says, that he is under huge pressure a vote for Brexit could bring his
political career to an abrupt halt. But he should lighten up a little: in politics, as
Jolyon Connell
in most walks of life, a smile is more attractive than a scowl.
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Trump has appointed

former Goldman Sachs
executive Steven Mnuchin
to boost his campaign
fundraising and limit
dependence on his own
cash and small donations.
He has so far raised less
than $50m compared to
the $180m collected by the
Clinton campaign.
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14 May 2016 THE WEEK

Politics

6 NEWS
Controversy of the week

Rumours of war
For the past few months, the Remain campaign has been
warning that Brexit would result in economic Armageddon,
said David Owen in The Sun. But this week, as the campaign
proper began, David Cameron took a step further and
actually invoked the threat of World War III. Whenever
we turn our back on Europe, sooner or later we come to
regret it, declared the PM in a speech at the British Museum,
which conjured up memories of Trafalgar, Waterloo and the
two World Wars. Can we be so sure that peace and stability
on our continent are assured beyond any shadow of a
doubt? Is that a risk worth taking? he asked. Cameron even
heavily implied that Churchill would have voted to remain.
Project Fear gone mad?
This is Project Fear gone mad, said Simon Jenkins in The
Guardian. Its rubbish history, too: Britain thrived as a sovereign nation that kept Europe at arms
length. If the past is to be cited in this debate and its not always a clear guide to the future it is a
sustained, overwhelming, irrefutable argument for Brexit.
Talk of war is no exaggeration, said Oliver Wright in The Independent. The EU has ushered in a
period of unprecedented peace and security, in which conict between members has been
unthinkable. It successfully integrated the east of the continent after the collapse of communism
with the carrot of economic prosperity linked to the development of democracy and civil society. If
Britain were to leave, it would boost anti-European sentiment, particularly in the East, which
could easily fragment the EU and lead to instability across the continent. The EU helps to keep us
safe in countless ways, said Jonathan Evans, former head of MI5, and John Sawers, former head of
MI6, in The Sunday Times. It allows us to exchange intelligence about terrorists and cyber-criminals
with other EU nations in minutes; in the past, this would have taken months. The European Arrest
Warrant has enabled us to extradite some 5,000 people wanted for crimes committed on the
continent, and ensures that British criminals no longer nd refuge in France or Spain.
I have my doubts about the EUs intelligence benets, said Fraser Nelson on his Spectator blog. The
recent attacks in France and Belgium show that the two nations are unable to work together
effectively against terrorism, in spite of having a common border and a common language. As for
peace, Id rather put my faith in Nato, said Julian Lewis in The Daily Telegraph. Look at recent
events in Ukraine and Greece. By trying to build a supranational state in the absence of democratic
structures, the EU is sowing the seeds of conict. Its hard to accept that the EU should be
blamed for Putins aggressive foreign policy, said The Times. And, quite clearly, Britain benets from
its membership of both the EU and Nato. The referendum campaign has now entered its most
serious phase. Camp Leave has yet to explain why the best security scenario is not the status quo.

Spirit of the age

Bowls are rapidly replacing
plates as the tableware from
which most British people
prefer to eat their meals.
Bowls accounted for 40% of
crockery sales in the UK last
year, plates just 9%. The
trend seems to be largely
the result of people under
30 preferring to eat their
meals on the sofa, where
they can hold a smartphone
in one hand and a bowl in
the other.
Before this week, anyone
with a mortgage had to
repay it once they reached
75, and had no chance of
taking out a mortgage after
that date. But Nationwide,
the nations biggest building
society, is now raising its
age limit on home loans to
85. It will also allow people
to take out a mortgage up to
the age of 80, at which point
they will have to repay it
within five years.

THE WEEK 14 May 2016

Good week for:

Sir David Attenborough, whose name will grace Britains new

polar research vessel. It wasnt the popular choice: in a poll run by
the Natural Environment Research Council, 124,000 voted to
name it Boaty McBoatface, and only 10,000 to name it in honour
of the TV presenter, who turned 90 this week. In the spirit of
compromise, science minister Jo Johnson said Boaty McBoatface
would now be the name of a submarine aboard the 200m ship.
The top 25 hedge fund managers, who last year earned $13bn
between them, more than the GDP of Nicaragua (see page 44).

Bad week for:

Grockles, after St Ives in Cornwall, backed by 80% of voters in a

local referendum, banned the building of new second homes. A
quarter of buildings in the town have no full-time resident.
Greater Manchester Police, who have had to apologise for
racial stereotyping. For training purposes theyd staged a mock
terrorist attack, with a man dressed in black shouting Allahu
Akbar. After complaints from peace activists, a spokesman conceded that the use of this religious phrase was unacceptable.
Diplomacy, after the Queen and the PM were caught on camera
at a Buckingham Palace garden party slating foreign dignitaries.
The Queen was overheard saying how very rude the Chinese
delegation had been during Chinas state visit, walking out on the
British ambassador to Beijing. And David Cameron was heard
telling the Queen how the leaders of Nigeria and Afghanistan
possibly two of the most corrupt countries in the world would be
attending this weeks anti-corruption summit.

Boring but important

Academies U-turn

The Government has binned

its controversial plan to turn
all English state schools into
academies which meant
they would be funded
directly by central, not local,
government, and overseen
by charitable bodies known
as academy trusts. In the last
Budget, George Osborne
announced that all state
schools would have to
become academies by 2022.
But after an outcry from head
teachers, Tory backbenchers
and councillors unhappy that
high-performing schools
would have to convert to
academy status, Education
Secretary Nicky Morgan
last week announced a
climbdown. Schools will
now be forced to become
academies only if they are in
underperforming local
authorities, or if their local
authority can no longer
support them because too
many of its other schools
have become academies.

Junior doctor talks

The British Medical Association has resumed talks with

the Government over a new
contract for junior doctors in
England. Ministers agreed to
delay plans to impose the
contract and the BMA temporarily suspended its threat of
further strikes. The key issues
involve Saturday pay and
working unsociable hours.

Poll watch
59% of Scots want Britain to
remain in the EU. 28% want
to leave. 42% of all British
voters want to remain and
40% to leave.
YouGov/The Times
30% of people look at their
phone and check their
messages at least every 30
minutes. A quarter suffer
separation anxiety if they
spend an hour away from
their phone. 80% of 18 to
24-year-olds feel anxious if
they dont respond to emails
and messages quickly. The
average Briton spends 39%
of their waking hours online.
Innocent/Daily Mail
37% of British people think
those who want to have
children ought to be married
(compared to 70% in 1989)
the lowest proportion ever
recorded. 35% disagree.
British Social Attitudes
Survey/The Daily Telegraph

Europe at a glance
Paris
Deradicalisation centres: An 80-point
plan to counter the spread of homegrown
jihadism has been announced by French
Prime Minister Manuel Valls. The most
striking aspect of the plan is the setting up
of 12 dedicated deradicalisation centres
across the country which will offer advice
and support to potential and repentant
Islamist extremists, the aim being to
prevent them from joining or re-joining
jihadi groups. These reinsertion and
citizenship centres will enable France to
increase the number of people in state-run
deradicalisation programmes from
1,600 to 3,600. Other measures include
additional funding for the intelligence
services, and for academic research into
radicalisation. The government estimates
that there are more than 9,000 radicalised
Muslims in France at risk of becoming
jihadis. About 2,000 French nationals or
residents are believed to have travelled to
the Middle East to ght for Islamic State.
Paris
Good plan in theory: A novel government
attempt to cut the rate of car accidents in
France has proved an abject failure. The
idea was to make the driving test harder by
asking more rigorous questions in the
theory section. The questions, focusing on
judgement of danger and consideration for
vulnerable road users, required examinees
to choose the correct answer from two
options. Some were notably tricky: At
80kmph, the visual eld of a driver is 60
degrees. True or false? (The correct
answer is true.) Others were less so: To
reduce my petrol consumption, do I take
my foot off the accelerator? A. Yes. B.
No. But the upshot was that in the rst
two days of the new test, only 16.7% of
candidates passed compared to 70%
for the old, less rigorous test. In some
towns no one passed at all. The new test
has now been hastily abandoned.
Bari, Italy
Afghan terror cell: Italian police have
arrested two Afghan men in the southern
port of Bari, and a Pakistani man in
Milan, on suspicion of plotting Islamist
terror attacks in the UK, Italy and France.
Two further suspects, both residents of
Bari, are still at large and are believed to
now be in Afghanistan. The cell is alleged
to have been scoping out sites for a
potential attack, with a focus on airports,
ports, police vehicles and hotels. According
to Italian press reports, the sites they were
researching in London included hotels in
West India Quay and Royal Victoria
Dock. It was also reported that police had
found images of weapons, pictures of
Taliban militants, radical Islamist prayers
and indoctrination materials. The men
arrested in Bari were named as Hakim
Nasiri, 23, who is accused of involvement
in international terrorism, and Gulistan
Ahmadzai, 29, who has been charged with
aiding illegal immigration.
Catch up with daily news at www.theweek.co.uk

Vienna
Chancellor quits:
Austrias head of
government,
Werner Faymann,
suddenly resigned
this week, saying
he no longer had
the condence of
his Social
Democratic Party
(SP). The
chancellor
(pictured) had been attacked from all sides
for his handling of Europes refugee crisis.
Initially, he had been a rm supporter of
Angela Merkels open-door policy, but
made a dramatic U-turn and started
closing the borders, after 90,000 asylumseekers arrived in Austria. His resignation
is a further boost for the far-right Freedom
Party, which is poised to win the
(largely ceremonial) Austrian
presidency, having topped the
poll in rst-round elections.

NEWS 7

Istanbul, Turkey
Journalists jailed: Two prominent Turkish
journalists Can Dndar, editor-in-chief of
Cumhuriyet newspaper, and Erdem Gl,
its Ankara bureau chief have been
sentenced to more than ve years in jail, in
a case brought personally by Turkeys
increasingly authoritarian president, Recep
Tayyip Erdogan. The two men, who had
published footage appearing to show
Turkeys state intelligence agency shipping
arms to Syria in 2014, were convicted of
publishing secret state documents. Hours
before the verdict, a gunman shouting
traitor had tried to assassinate Dndar
outside the courthouse. Erdogan is also
thought to have forced the resignation last
week of Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu
seen as a moderating inuence and the
EUs key ally in Ankara (see page 15).

Athens
Failed state fears: Greeces parliament has
passed a further raft of austerity measures that
include dramatic cuts to pensions and other
benets for the elderly and higher taxes in
order to win approval from its lenders for the
next s5bn tranche of the s86bn bailout agreed by
eurozone nance ministers last year. All 153 MPs
from Syriza the left-wing, formerly anti-austerity
party of PM Alexis Tsipras and its coalition
partner voted in favour; all other MPs voted against. The vote took place as much of
the country was brought to a standstill by a three-day general strike against the
proposals for further austerity. Tens of thousands gathered in Syntagma Square
outside the Greek parliament to protest against the measures (pictured); some became
involved in violent clashes with police, throwing stones and Molotov cocktails.
On Monday, eurozone nance ministers agreed to offer Greece a form of debt relief
starting in 2018 and subject to conditions. They did so after Greeces nance minister
had written to them warning that his country was in danger of becoming a failed
state. In a sign of growing disagreements within the troika of lenders, the IMF
said it would pull out of Greeces rescue programme if the EU failed to adopt a more
lenient line. The country is due to make its next big repayment in July.

14 May 2016 THE WEEK

8 NEWS

The world at a glance

Fort McMurray, Canada

Wildre strikes: Wildres in Alberta engulfed the oil sands city of
Fort McMurray last week forcing the evacuation of its entire
population. Some 88,000 people ed their homes as the re
roared through the Canadian city. Around 2,400 buildings were
destroyed, many of them burnt to the ground. This week, Rachel
Notley, the Alberta premier, described the destruction as heartbreaking and overwhelming, and said it could be weeks before
the city which is currently without power or drinking water
was safe enough for people to return to. However, she estimated
that 90% of Fort McMurray was still standing, including most of
its schools, and vowed that it would be rebuilt. By Wednesday,
the re had grown to 880 square miles, but reghters described
it as stabilising, and moving away from population centres.
Charleston, West Virginia
Sanders wins: Bernie Sanders won a clear victory over Hillary
Clinton in the Democratic primary in West Virginia on
Tuesday; the Vermont senator, 74, picked up 51% of
the vote, to Clintons 36%. Although he stands little
chance of stopping Clinton from securing the
presidential nomination, his victory, in a state
Clinton won in 2008, was seized on by Republicans as evidence
that she will prove no match for Donald Trump in the
presidential contest. It is nothing short of embarrassing that
Clinton has now been defeated 20 times by a 74-year-old socialist
from Vermont, tweeted Reince Priebus, chairman of the
Republican National Committee.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Calculus sparks terror alert: An American
Airlines internal ight was delayed by two
hours at Philadelphia airport last week
after a female passenger became alarmed
by the way her neighbour a swarthylooking man with a foreign accent was
scribbling indecipherable symbols into a
notebook. She alerted the crew, and the
man was escorted off the plane for
questioning. He turned out to be a
respected Ivy League economist, Guido Menzio, who was
working on differential equations in preparation for the lecture he
was due to give in Ontario. The bemused associate professor
(pictured) was returned to his seat, but his unnamed accuser,
evidently still suspicious, got herself booked on to a later ight.

Los Angeles, California

Grim Sleeper convicted: A former
refuse collector has been found guilty
of murdering nine women and a teenage
girl over the course of three decades.
Lonnie David Franklin Jr., 63, was
dubbed the Grim Sleeper because of
a supposed gap of 14 years between a
string of murders in the 1980s and a
second group in the 2000s. But
investigators now believe he committed
at least 25 murders, including 11 during the supposedly
dormant period. Franklin Jr. (pictured) has not yet been
sentenced; prosecutors are pressing for the death penalty.
Raleigh, North Carolina
WC row escalates: The US Justice Department has warned North
Carolina that its highly controversial bathroom law is in breach
of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and must be amended or withdrawn.
In March, the states Republican governor Pat McCrory signed
into law a bill which puts an end to various anti-discrimination
protections for lesbians, gays and bisexuals, and most controversially stops transgender people using public lavatories that
dont match the gender into which they were born. But far from
backing down, the state is suing the federal government for
blatant overreach. Were taking the Obama admin to court,
McCrory tweeted. Theyre bypassing Congress, attempting to
rewrite law & policies for the whole country, not just NC.
Panama City
Border closures: Panama announced this week that it was closing
its southern border with Colombia to stem the inux of Cuban
refugees coming into the country from South America en route to
the US. The Cuban government still bars its citizens from ying
directly to the US, so many y to Ecuador and then head north.
And their number has surged recently, because of fears that the
privileged entry they receive at the US border (where they are
classed as refugees) and their fast-track entitlement to residency,
will soon be withdrawn now that relations are thawing between
Washington and Havana. Nicaragua and Costa Rica closed their
borders to Cubans late last year, leaving many of them stranded in
Panama. To reduce their number, Panamas President Juan Carlos
Varela has made an agreement with Mexico to y 3,500 Cubans
from Panama to a town in northern Mexico near the US border.
THE WEEK 14 May 2016

Bogot
Taking on the drugs gangs: The
Colombian government, currently
in peace talks with the left-wing rebel
group Farc, is now launching air raids against the criminal gangs
which emerged from the right-wing paramilitary squads once
bitterly opposed to Farc. The largest, Clan suga, is involved in
trafcking cocaine to Central America. Another, the Los Pelusos
gang, is connected with the powerful Sinaloa cartel in Mexico.
Sending planes to attack the gangs has only been possible because
air raids against Farc, with whom the government has been locked
in conict for half a century, are now suspended. Defence minister
Luis Carlos Villegas said the government would use the entire
force of the state, without exception, to destroy the gangs.

The world at a glance

Cairo
Clampdown
continues:
Five
members of
an Egyptian
comedy
group whose
online videos
mocked
President Sisi over his crackdown on
dissent have themselves been arrested for
insulting state institutions and inciting
protests. The members of Atfal alShawarea (pictured), which means Street
Children, are among more than 1,200
people who have been detained in recent
weeks. Last week, Sisis security forces
also stormed Egypts Press Syndicate, the
rst time this has happened since the
Syndicates founding 75 years ago.

Nairobi
Camps to
close: Kenyas
government has
announced plans
to close the
countrys two
main refugee
camps including
the worlds biggest,
Dadaab, where 330,000 people nd
shelter. Kenya is home to some 600,000
refugees, about 75% of them Somalis,
the rest mainly from South Sudan. But
the government now maintains that the
vast camps have damaged Kenyas
development and security, and that they
allow al-Shabaab, al-Qaedas afliate in
Somalia, to plan terror attacks and hide
weapons there. The hosting of refugees
has to come to an end, Nairobi
announced in a two-page document. It
also said that the department responsible
for refugees would be disbanded, and that
the Dadaab and Kakuma camps would be
shut down in the shortest time possible.

Ramadi, Iraq
Mass graves: More than 50 mass graves
have now been uncovered in Iraq, as the
US-led coalition recaptures ever more of
the territory (almost 40%, according to US
gures) once held by Islamic State. The
most recent to be found, near the city of
Ramadi, contained the bodies of nearly 40
people. Last year, mass graves lled with
hundreds of Iraqi soldiers bodies were
found after Tikrit was liberated. In
November, another grave unearthed near
the city of Sinjar was found to contain the
corpses of 78 elderly women. Similar
discoveries have been made in Syria: last
month the Syrian army found a burial site
of 42 bodies outside the former Isis
stronghold of Palmyra. Jn Kubi, the UN
special representative for Iraq, said Isis
continues to commit war crimes, including
the forcible recruitment of Yazidi boys.

NEWS 9

Vladivostok, Russia
Go East, young man: President Putin has
approved a law offering free land in the
Far East region of Russia in an attempt to
lure a new wave of settlers to the nations
distant frontier, and prevent the threat of
possible encroachment by neighbouring
Chinese. Under the new law, Russian
citizens will be given legal ownership of a
one-hectare plot of rural land if they can
show theyve put it to good use such as
farming, forestry or hunting during an
initial ve-year, rent-free period. The Far
East region, made up of vast swathes of
steppe, forest and tundra, is bordered by
China and North Korea. It was absorbed
into tsarist Russia in the mid-19th century,
but remains sparsely populated. About 6.2
million people live in the area: the number
of people living in the three neighbouring
provinces of China is 109 million.

Abbottabad, Pakistan
Elders arrested: At least
13 village elders have been
arrested close to the city of
Abbottabad for ordering
the honour killing of a
16-year-old girl. Her
crime had been to help
her school friend ee the
village in order to marry
of her own free will. The
murdered teenager,
Ambreen Riasat, was
reportedly kidnapped,
drugged, tied up in the
van used to help her friend
ee, and set alight. The
girls mother, who is said
to have agreed to the
sentence, has
also been
arrested.

Manila
Duterte wins:
The new
president of the
Philippines is a
former city
mayor whose
foremost
electoral pledge
was to wipe out
crime with a
programme of
summary executions. As mayor of Davao,
Rodrigo Duterte (Duterte Harry, above)
became notorious both for boasting about
his sexual prowess, and for his zerotolerance approach to crime: he allegedly
tolerated the vigilante death squads said to
be killing hundreds of suspected criminals.
As president, Duterte (pictured) has sworn
to eliminate crime in three to six months
by killing so many criminals that sh in
Manila will grow fat on their corpses.

Tokyo
Kayak artist convicted: Megumi Igarashi, a
Japanese artist best known for making a
banana-yellow kayak modelled on her
vagina and paddling it down a river, has
been convicted of obscenity and ordered to
pay a 2,549 ne by a Tokyo court. It was
not, however, the pussy boat that was
found to be obscene the court deemed it
too big to be arousing but the 3D scans
of her vagina that she had posted online.
These, in the courts view, were realistic
enough to sexually arouse viewers.
Igarashi, whose art is a challenge to Japans
antiquated obscenity laws, insists her work
is meant to induce friendly laughter.
14 May 2016 THE WEEK

People

10 NEWS

moments when, yeah, I wish

I was back in the security of
a cell. He pauses. I mean, it
does that to you.
My meeting with gorillas
David Attenborough has spent
more than 60 years getting
perilously close to nature. But
one moment stands out: his
encounter with the mountain
gorillas of Rwanda, for the
1979 series Life on Earth. We
wanted to tell the story of how
the thumb and forenger call
it technically the opposable
thumb evolved for grasping
branches. And once youve got
a grip, you could use tools, he
told Kirsty Young in the Radio
Times. The director, John
Sparks, said: Well do it with
gorillas. I said: You must be
mad! Gorillas? He said: No,
no we can do it ne. So we
wandered around the forest
and eventually found them. I
crawled up they were about
ten yards away and I was
about to start talking about the
opposable thumb when I felt
a hand on my head. It grasped
my head and turned it around.
I was looking straight in the
eyes of that big female gorilla!
For the next ten minutes or so,
Attenborough was plucked at,
probed and sat on by a playful
family of gorillas. After they
left, I went back to the lm
crew and said: Wasnt that
absolutely mind-blowing?
John said: Yes, I think we got
a few seconds of it. I said:
What? I was there for ten
minutes! Yes, but you see, we
only had 40ft left in the lm,
and I was waiting for you to go
on about opposable thumbs.

Castaway of the week

This weeks edition of Radio 4s Desert Island Discs featured
the Oscar-winning actor and film-maker Tom Hanks
1 Relax-ay-voo by Sammy Cahn and Arthur Schwartz, performed
by Dean Martin and Line Renaud
2 Theres a Place by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, performed
by The Beatles
3 Doodlin by Horace Silver, performed by Dusty Springfield
4* Also Sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss, performed by the
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and Herbert von Karajan
5 How the West Was Won by Alfred Newman and Ken Darby,
performed by the MGM Studio Orchestra and Alfred Newman
6 Once in a Lifetime by Brian Eno, David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Jerry
Harrison and Tina Weymouth, performed by Talking Heads
7 Mama Said Knock You Out by LL Cool J and nine others,
performed by LL Cool J
8 Layla by Eric Clapton and Jim Gordon, performed by Derek and
the Dominos
Book: A World Lit Only By Fire by William Manchester
Luxury: A Hermes 3000 manual typewriter and paper
* Choice if allowed only one record

THE WEEK 14 May 2016

Alan Cumming almost turned down the role that has redened his
career. Until 2010, the Scottish actor was best known for playing
a sexually ambivalent diva (the emcee in Cabaret) and a blue
mutant superhero (Nightcrawler in the X-Men movies). So he was
perplexed when CBS offered him a part in the legal drama The
Good Wife, then in its rst season. I was like: What? Youre
casting me? he told Aaron Hicklin in The Observer. Id never
really played a human before, much less a middle-aged man in a
suit. Yet his turn as Eli Gold, a Machiavellian yet lovable political
xer, has made Cumming a household name in America, and
earned him three Emmy nominations. Seven seasons later, The
Good Wife is about to end. Cumming is hugely proud of the show,
and thrilled at what it has done for him. Now I can play men in
suits. Ive become a grown-up. But he is also ready to move on.
Im over it, he says. I was going to leave last year. I said: Im
bored. I do the same thing again and again. Theres only so many
ways I can raise my eyebrows. I was talking to my team. I said
that I feel like all I do is come into the room and go: Alicia, what
the hell is going on? and literally the next day I got the script
and the rst line was: Alicia, what the hell is going on?

Viewpoint:

Annoying vicars
A recent poll has found that churchgoers hate the vicars jokes. Well, lets
hope the message gets through. Because
there is nothing more excruciating than
the lame stories that clergy tell, mostly
as warm-ups at the beginning of their
sermons. Not that all pulpit wit fails,
however. Take Dr Ian Paisley, for
instance. One Sunday, he was preaching
about death and damnation, one of his
favourite subjects. There will be
weeping, he thundered, and wailing
and gnashing of teeth. An elderly lady
on the front row stuck up her hand and
objected that she didnt actually have
any teeth. Dr Paisley xed her with a
withering gaze: Madam, he said
slowly, teeth will be provided.
Giles Fraser, The Guardian

Farewell
Professor Sir Harry
Kroto, British scientist
who won the Nobel
Prize for chemistry,
died 30 April, aged 76.
Mildred Gordon, East
End Labour MP who
became a class
warrior, died 8 April,
aged 92.
Philip Townsend,
photographer who
captured the Rolling
Stones, died 13
March, aged 75.
Harry Wu, Chinese
dissident who spent
19 years in labour
camps, died 26 April,
aged 79.

DAVID YEO/CAMERA PRESS

A life in solitary
Albert Woodfox spent 43
years, almost without pause,
in a 6ft by 9ft concrete box. He
is one of the so-called Angola
Three former Black Panther
activists who were put into
solitary connement in 1972,
after being convicted of
stabbing to death a prison
guard at Louisianas notorious
Angola prison. Woodfox, now
69, always insisted he was
framed, and this February his
conviction was overturned.
Having survived around
15,000 days in a windowless
isolation cell, with no human
contact, he is now a free man.
Its a lot to get used to, he told
Ed Pilkington in The Guardian.
Everything is new, no matter
how small or large. He had a
day out at a beach in Texas
recently. You could hear the
tide and the water coming in,
he says. It was so strange,
walking on the beach and all
these people and kids running
around Im not accustomed
to people moving around me
and it makes me nervous. Being
in a cell on my own, I only had
to protect myself from attack
in front of the cell as I knew
there was no one behind me.
Now Im in society, and I have
to remind myself that the
chances of being attacked are
very small. There are even, he
admits, moments when he feels
almost homesick for prison.
Human beings are territorial,
they feel more comfortable in
areas they are secure. In a cell
you have a routine, you pretty
much know whats going to
happen, but in society its
difcult, its looser. So there are

Free 10 year
guarantee

Brieng

NEWS 13

Testing, testing, testing

Thousands of children were kept out of primary school by their parents last week, in a boycott of Sats tests
Why are Sats so controversial?
Apparently, they are making children
miserable. In recent weeks, newspapers
have been full of stories about primary
school children stressed by the tests, being
taken this month. One school governor
spoke of six to seven-year-old pupils
who, during the testing period were
crying, visibly shaking and reportedly
waking up at 4am unable to sleep. Last
Tuesday, Jo Scrimgeour, a former head
teacher from Truro in Cornwall, kept her
two sons out of school in protest at the
tests, and took them to the woods, along
with a group of other pupils. Thats
what I want my sons to be doing, she
said, playing in the mud and nding
mini-beasts [insects, spiders, etc], not
underlining adverbs.

minister Nick Gibb failed when asked one

of the grammar questions: in the sentence,
I went to the cinema after Id eaten my
dinner, he thought the word after was
a preposition. In fact, its being used as a
subordinating conjunction.

Why do people object to all this?

Critics complain the tests are narrow and
upsettingly difcult. Teachers unions and
educationalists have long opposed Sats,
on the grounds that they encourage
cramming and teaching to the test,
rather than a more rounded, creative
education. Critics say British children are
now tested excessively; a problem that has
grown worse since the last education
secretary, Michael Gove, reformed the
curriculum to make it more rigorous or,
With less play, he might have said fewer
say the critics, more old-fashioned.
What exactly do the tests involve?
Teachers, according to the childrens writer Michael Rosen, are
Sats are taken by children in English state primary schools in
neglecting more inspiring lessons in favour of fronted adverbials,
Year 2 (mostly seven-year-olds) and Year 6 (mostly 11-year-olds).
embedded relative clauses and expanded noun phrases.
Strangely, theyre not ofcially called Sats; theyre called national
curriculum tests, and no one knows quite what the initials are
How does the Government counter these objections?
meant to stand for (Standard attainment tests? Statutory
Gove and his successor, Nicky Morgan, make no apology for
assessment tasks?). They are not qualications, they dont go on a
insisting on higher standards. The world is demanding and
childs academic record, and they do not affect his or her future
competitive; schools need to equip their pupils for it. Every year,
options in school. Theyre used, in large part, as a means for both
the employers group the CBI complains that young people are
the Government and parents to assess a given school: they are the
leaving school with poor literacy and numeracy skills. Global
raw material on which national league tables for primary schools
league tables suggest English pupils are three years behind their
are based. Nonetheless, each child is individually assessed by the
Chinese peers in maths by age 15. Besides, in a well-run school,
tests. The childs results are passed on to the parents by the end
children shouldnt be stressed by Sats tests. They are not formal
of the summer term; and some secondary schools use them for
exams and should be integrated into normal classroom activities.
setting according to ability for separate subjects.
Many seven-year-olds dont even know theyre taking them.
On what basis are children assessed?
Under the national curriculum, which was designed to standardise
what is taught across all schools, primary school is divided into
Key Stage 1 (ages ve-seven), and Key Stage 2 (ages seven-11).
At the end of both stages, pupils are assessed on their reading,
writing, mathematics and science. This is done partly by a teacher
giving an assessment of the childs progress in the classroom. But
it is also done and this is where the real controversy starts on
the basis of written tests, in mathematics (arithmetic and reasoning); English reading; and English grammar, spelling and punctuation. Each child is scored according to a national standard:
a pupil who scores 100 is deemed to have sufcient knowledge.

BRIGHTON PICTURES/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK

And what are the tests like?

In the Key Stage 1 arithmetic test (for seven-year-olds), questions
range range from 5 + 7 = ? to, at the upper end, 65 + ? = 93.
In English grammar and punctuation, pupils are expected to identify nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs; statements, commands
and questions; present and past tenses. In the Key Stage 2 tests
(for 11-year-olds), there are questions many grown-ups might nd
challenging, such as 7,505 5 = ? or 1.52 x 6 = ?. Schools

Is there any hope of a compromise?

Probably not. Education has long been a highly divisive subject in
this country. The historian Lord Bew, who chaired a 2011 review
of Sats, said that the evidence received by his panel was
conicting and contradictory. To his dismay, every single
reform proposed was criticised, from one perspective or another,
as having substantial drawbacks and risks. There is no single,
simple solution, he concluded, to this difcult problem.
So what, if anything, can be done?
The system could be far better administered. The recent period of
Tory reforms dubbed the era of permanent revolution has
brought ever-changing assessment criteria, reams of new guidance
to follow, and endless forms. If a teacher of a Year 6 class follows
the guidance in full, he or she has to make 34 Sats assessments for
each pupil, for six different types of writing: a total of 6,120
assessments for a class of 30. There has also been a fair amount of
bureaucratic chaos. The Key Stage 1 grammar, punctuation and
spelling test was accidentally published online in January, and had
to be scrapped. In a further humiliation, the Key Stage 2 paper
was leaked this week, allegedly by a rogue marker.

Should Sats tests be abolished?

YES

NO

1. They make children stressed; pupils are now tested throughout

their school careers, and the age of seven is just too young to start.
2. They encourage teaching to the test, narrowing childrens
education and diverting attention from more inspiring activities.
3. They place an unacceptable administrative burden on teachers,
who already have far too many forms to ll out.

1. The basics of education have been neglected for too long in this
country; Sats tests focus children and teachers on mastering them.
2. If schools are managing the tests properly, they shouldnt be
remotely stressful; nor are they used to judge individuals.
3. Schools need to be assessed objectively; teachers unions may
hate league tables but parents often nd them useful.
14 May 2016 THE WEEK

14 NEWS
How to get the
countryside
booming
Matt Ridley
The Times

Our jails are

dangerously
overcrowded
Michael P. Jacobson
The Guardian

Brexit would
cost the City
a fortune
Jeremy Warner
The Daily Telegraph

This cult of
grievance is
embarrassing
Melanie McDonagh
London Evening Standard

THE WEEK 14 May 2016

Best articles: Britain

Compared with most countries, says Matt Ridley, Britain has
a fairly healthy rural economy. In rural France, farm buildings
are left to rot; rural America is littered with car graveyards. But in
Britain, barns are converted into ofces, remote areas have job
vacancies in picturesque villages, and the rural economy depends
less and less on declining industries such as forestry and farming,
and more and more on entrepreneurs, sitting in converted barns,
selling services on the internet to the world. Yet instead of encouraging this trend, ministers are sitting on their hands. Theyve just
reneged on their commitment to provide everyone in the countryside with access to fast broadband. They wont tackle the perverse
incentives that make it more protable for BT to maximise the
number of urban customers on its older copper network than to
extend its bre network into rural ones. We have a chance to
relieve the pressure on our cities by making the countryside an
engine of growth rather than a theme park and retirement
community and without spoiling it. Dont lets squander it.
As the man who used to run New York Citys jails, says Michael
P. Jacobson, I have seen at rst hand the disastrous consequences
of Americas experiment with mass incarceration. Even US
conservatives accept the policy has been a failure. How sad, then,
to see the UK following the same, doomed path. Britains prison
population now stands at more than 90,000, twice what it was in
1995. The result? Massive overcrowding placing the whole system
under stress witness the alarming spike in suicides in English and
Welsh jails. Theyve almost doubled in three years. The suicide
rate is now 117 per 100,000 prisoners, one of the highest in the
world. (In the US its 15 per 100,000.) But the problem cant be
tackled, as the Ministry of Justice plans to, by building more jails:
it will take too much time. Equally futile is its hope of signicantly
reducing reoffending: even the best rehabilitation schemes have
limited success. Theres no easy solution, but one issue that has to
be tackled head-on is sentencing reform and length of stays. In
short, you have to send fewer people to jail in the rst place.
Could London thrive as a nancial centre outside the EU? A list
of 110 prominent City leaders recently put their name to a
letter insisting that it could, says Jeremy Warner. It was notable,
however, that the signatories could only muster one big-name
banker and a long-retired one at that. Theres a good reason
the Leave Camp couldnt attract higher calibre endorsements,
and its this: over time, leaving the EU would indeed be utterly
catastrophic for Londons position as an international nance
centre. Thats because the backbone of the City is
international banking, and for this constituency, unlike, say, for
hedge fund managers, access to the single market is critical.
A majority of euro-dominated business is cleared through
London, but this lucrative arrangement a barely tolerable source
of envy and irritation among our European partners wouldnt
last a second if Britain became a completely unaccountable
offshore outsider. It may be that the loss of all this business, and
tax revenue, is a price worth paying for regained sovereignty,
but lets be under no illusions the price will be considerable.
Gerry Adams has posted some pretty wacky messages on Twitter
in his time, says Melanie McDonagh, but few have caused such a
stir as his tweet last week Watching Django Unchained A
Ballymurphy N*****r! Irate black Americans were quick to
point out that Northern Irish Catholics were never bought and
sold, but the unabashed Sinn Fin leader still insists the struggles
of the former are indeed comparable to those of black Americans
under slavery. Its a stance that embodies the contemporary
political culture and the way in which the new Left pursues
victimhood. Socialist parties once focused on representing the
interests of the working class; now theyre obsessed with identity
politics. Championing the grievances of put-upon minorities be
they Irish Catholics, women, the disabled, gays, Muslims or
transgender people has become an end in itself; a means by
which parties that have lost their original purpose seek credibility
and assert a new identity of their own. This cult of grievance
is a substitute for class politics, or indeed nationalist politics. And
as Adams has shown, it can make you look very stupid.

IT MUST BE TRUE

I read it in the tabloids

Kentucky Fried Chicken is,
apparently, so finger lickin
good that the fast-food chain
is now making a range of
edible nail polishes in classic
KFC flavours. Simply apply
and dry like regular nail
polish and then lick again
and again and again, KFC
said in a statement. The
polishes are being launched
in Hong Kong, to remind the
younger generation of the
great taste and good times
the brand stands for.

Chinas booming livestreaming services have been

told to stop broadcasting
footage of women eating
bananas in an erotic
fashion. The platforms have
been warned that they must
monitor their output aroundthe-clock to ensure that they
are not hosting seductive
fruit eating, or any other
content that could harm
social morality. Wearing
stockings and suspenders
while hosting a live stream
is also forbidden.
In a possibly ill-advised
gesture, Katie Hopkins
vowed, before the elections,
to run naked down Regent
Street with a sausage up my
bum if London chose Sadiq
Khan as mayor. Now, the
loudmouth columnist has
vowed to make good on the
promise but Peta has
begged her to reconsider at
least one aspect of it. The
animal rights group has
suggested that if she must
subject London to such a
spectacle, she could at least
leave animals out of it. They
have sent her a selection of
vegan sausages, and a note
pointing out that sensitive,
intelligent pigs, raised for
slaughter, have miserable
enough lives, without
suffering the final indignity
of being inserted into
Hopkinss fundament.

Best articles: Europe

NEWS 15

The chances of a US-Europe trade deal are fading fast

Were always being told free trade is
called the fuss a storm in a teacup.
good for wealth and jobs, said Franois
A nail in the treatys coffin, more like.
Mathieu in Le Soir (Brussels), but here
Theres no real scandal here, said Ren
in Europe many of us have long been
Hltschi in Neue Zrcher Zeitung
suspicious of the free-trade deal being
(Zurich). The documents just show
negotiated with the US. Now it seems
each sides negotiating positions, which
our worst fears were justified. Secret
we already knew. Its nonsense to think
talks over the planned Transatlantic
tricky international agreements can be
Trade and Investment Partnership
worked out in the glare of publicity:
(TTIP) have been going on since 2013,
negotiators cant act tactically if they
and documents leaked last week by
have to keep the public informed at
Greenpeace in the Netherlands show
every step. But however misleading, the
just how weak-kneed our side is being
leak is a gift for the deals diehard
in the face of US intransigence. EU
opponents. Its chances of ever being
negotiators seem ready to lie on their
finalised have taken a hit.
An anti-TTIP protest in Brussels
backs for powerful multinationals
whod have the right to sue our governments in the US courts if
In response to the outcry, Franois Hollande has declared that
they believed European consumer-protection laws had robbed
France wont back TTIP as things stand, said Le Monde (Paris).
them of profits. For the Americans to insist that Europe sacrifice That doesnt rule out an eventual agreement, but there has been
its social and environmental standards if it wants a deal is sheer
little progress in three years of talks, and the tide has turned
blackmail. This is a treaty of trickery, deception and fear.
strongly against it. In Germany, a recent survey showed support
there has slumped in two years from 55% to just 17%; the
The leaks show multinationals being consulted at every step, as
figures are much the same in the US, where Donald Trump has
Europes citizens are kept in the dark, said Bert Wagendorp in
hammered the message to his working-class supporters that
de Volkskrant (Amsterdam). Cant the EU Commission see how
globalisation and free trade are to blame for their plight. The
corrosive this secrecy is? If our fears that TTIP will lead to
only hope for the treaty is Barack Obamas eagerness to burnish
Europe being flooded with hormone-treated beef and GM crops his legacy by concluding a deal before he leaves office at the end
are unfounded, why doesnt it reassure us? Its complacency is
of the year. If he is serious about success, he will need to make a
mind-boggling: EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrm
grand gesture and give ground on the most contentious issues.

BELGIUM

Catholics who
see Muslims
as their allies
De Morgen
(Brussels)

ITALY

Stealing to
stay alive is
no crime
Corriere della Sera
(Milan)

TURKEY

PMs sacking
is bad news
for Brussels
HuffingtonPost.de
(Munich)

For years, schools across Europe have ercely resisted making concessions to Islamic pupils. Courts
in Germany and Switzerland have ruled that Muslim schoolgirls should be obliged to join swimming
lessons with boys. In France, a ban on religious symbols in schools is rigidly enforced. But in Belgium,
Flemish Catholic schools have thrown in the towel, says Bart Eeckhout. Head teachers say they plan
to admit children who wear headscarves; they will also provide Muslim prayer rooms and even offer
training in Islam. Some people are aghast at this turnaround, while others see it as bold step in the
right direction at a time of rampant Islamophobia. But the decision may not be motivated by a spirit
of tolerance. Catholic leaders are starting to see Muslims less as alien enemies than as co-religionists,
allies against the advance of a godless society. Instead of ghting to keep them out, they plan to
harness Islams religious zeal to mount a new counter-reformation in Europe; this time aimed at
secularists. For the rest of us, an alliance between two deeply conservative ideologies is surely cause
for alarm. Children should have the opportunity to learn about all religions and philosophies, free
from indoctrination or paternalism. If Catholics are pursuing a hidden agenda, it needs to be exposed.
Italys supreme court has just struck a blow for humanity and common sense, says Goffredo Buccini.
One day in 2011, Roman Ostriakov, a homeless, starving young Ukrainian, was spotted in a Genoa
supermarket stufng cheese and sausages into his pockets. He was sentenced to six months in jail, and
ned s100. Two appeals to have this draconian penalty cut were rejected, before the supreme court
last week quashed the conviction altogether. Yes, you read that right: in a country where
corruption sucks up s60bn a year, it took three court cases for judges to see reason over the theft of
goods worth s4. And sensationally, the court declared it is no crime for someone in dire straits to
steal the tiny amount needed to stay alive. That could set an interesting precedent, in a nation where
615 people, on average, fall into poverty each day. The crisis is bringing out the best and worst in us:
weve seen kind-hearted policemen paying out of their own pockets to avoid having to arrest starving
pensioners for shoplifting, only to be denounced for their do-goodery. Now that our top judges
have sided with the paupers, perhaps we can all agree that stealing to stay alive is no crime.
The shock resignation of Turkeys prime minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, could have incalculable consequences for Europe, says Benjamin Prfer. Just hours after Brussels nally agreed to give Turks
visa-free travel in Europe (subject to acceptance by member states), the EUs key ally in Ankara was
pushed out by President Erdogan. Davutoglu was not just Angela Merkels closest ally in her attempt
to end the refugee crisis; he was also the main bulwark against Erdogans creeping authoritarianism.
He reportedly fought Erdogans plan to alter the constitution and give the presidency executive power;
he clashed with the president over the detention of critical journalists; he opposed the ramping up of
tensions with Turkeys Kurds. Davutoglu actively favoured moves to EU membership, while Erdogan
is lukewarm at best. His sacking can only intensify opposition in Europe to the controversial deal
with Turkey: critics say it hands Erdogan an unmerited victory, and that the travel concessions will be
exploited by terrorists coming from Syria. Hopes that the deal would entice Turkey to democratise
seem utterly naive now. With Davutoglu gone, Erdogan looks likely to spiral out of control.
14 May 2016 THE WEEK

Best articles: International

16 NEWS

Charmless Cruz was a turn-off for the voters

Youve got to hand it to Ted Cruz, said
convention. Lucifer in the flesh is
Frank Bruni in The New York Times.
how the former Republican speaker of
The failed presidential candidate did
the House, John Boehner, described
far better than he had any right to
him shortly before Cruz abandoned his
expect, given that he has a mien and
presidential bid. I have never worked
manner spectacularly ill-suited to the
with a more miserable son of a bitch in
art of seducing voters. He comes
my life, Boehner said.
across as nakedly ambitious and
charmless. Yet he outlasted his fellow
We havent seen the last of Cruz, said
Republicans Jeb Bush and Marco
Joshua Green in The Boston Globe.
Rubio, and ran by far the tightest
And thats whats bothering the
campaign. His strategy was simple: to
Republican establishment. When
be the voice of True Conservatism,
Hillary Clinton thrashes Trump in the
taking on the arrogant Washington
general election, some will interpret
establishment. If Obama was for it,
that as evidence that the GOP should
Cruz: a fantasy version of Reagan
he would be against it, agreed Ross
have nominated a true conservative,
Douthat in the same paper. Where conservatives were angry,
not a false one like Trump. And that will simply open up a path
he would channel their anger. If they wanted another Reagan,
for another doomed run by Cruz in 2020. Thats why even
or at least a fantasy version of Reagan, he would offer it to
some GOP leaders who despise him would have preferred to
them. Unfortunately for Cruz, the strategy crumbled in the face
lose with Cruz this November. Cruz certainly expects to be
of Trumpism, obliging him to bow out of the race last week.
back, said David Horsey in the Los Angeles Times. In his
But nobody can accuse him of not giving it his best shot.
concession speech last week, he drew a parallel between his
defeat and Reagans loss to President Ford in the 1976 GOP
Cruzs strategy of working hard to be disliked inside the
nomination fight. The implication was that he, like Reagan, will
Beltway in order to be liked outside the Beltway was a winner
storm to victory in four years time. Perhaps, but I somehow
to start with, said Elaine Kamarck on a Brookings Institution
doubt it. People vote with their gut as much as with their
blog. But it came back to haunt him when he needed to rally
brain and the reality is that, on a gut level, the smarmy
support from colleagues to beat Trump in a contested
Cruz just makes voters feel queasy.

MIDDLE EAST

A brave
battle to tell
the truth
Al Jazeera
(Doha, Qatar)

UNITED STATES

Adultery
shouldnt be
illegal
Los Angeles Times

CHINA

The ideal place

to test out
driverless cars
The Straits Times
(Singapore)

THE WEEK 14 May 2016

Its not just the news that is depressing these days, says Khaled Diab; so too is the state of the
global media. Everywhere you look, the press is under assault from repressive regimes, terrorists and
corporate interests. Freedom Houses latest report found global media freedom was at its lowest level
in a dozen years: according to the Washington DC-based watchdog, just 13% of humanity enjoys
access to a free press. Conditions are particularly bleak in the Middle East. Indeed, given the dangers
facing reporters there, it is almost a miracle that anyone would make journalism their career
choice. Yet the war on the press disguises a paradoxical truth that, thanks to digital and social
media, Arabs have never enjoyed freer access to information; and never have the regions journalists
mounted such a constant, consistent and comprehensive assault on the states media dominance.
Investigative journalism sites such as Inkyfada in Tunisia and Mada Masr in Egypt have refused to
be cowed; as has the award-winning Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, the brave citizen-journalist
group reporting out of Islamic State-controlled Syria. Despite everything, the truth is getting out.
Why is adultery still a crime? asks Deborah L. Rhode. Believe it or not, cheating on your spouse
remains illegal in 21 states in the US, including New York, where its punishable by a $500 ne or
90 days in jail. These laws are, of course, rarely enforced if they were, Donald Trump might not
have boasted of his many exploits with, in his own words, seemingly very happily married and
important women. But the fact that adultery is still a crime enables employers to punish people for
it. Courts have permitted dismissals or discipline of police ofcers, librarians, re department
employees and FBI trainees based on marital indelity that had no demonstrable connection to their
job performance. Its time to take these anachronistic and intrusive laws off the books. In
states that have repealed adultery laws, there has been no upsurge of cheating even though there
were dark warnings by opponents in Connecticut, before it was decriminalised there 25 years ago,
that it would turn their state into a moral wasteland. On the contrary, research suggests that as
legal sanctions for adultery have declined, so too have the rates of adultery. Most Americans still
disapprove of adultery, but very few still think it should be a crime. The law needs to catch up.
In the race to develop self-driving vehicles, says David Fickling, China enjoys a key advantage over
the US: its roads are about eight times more lethal. This exacts a terrible human toll (there were an
estimated 261,300 road deaths in China in 2013, according to the World Health Organisation), but
it makes the country an ideal testing ground for autonomous vehicles. After all, the best way to nd
out what causes accidents, and how to prevent them, is to have accidents. Transport technologies
go through a fairly well-understood learning curve. Accident numbers surge in the early years as
adoption grows rapidly, then tail off as real-world experiences give engineers a better idea of what
can go wrong. Fatalities from commercial aviation, for instance, peaked in 1972, after six decades
of trial and error. For all the promise of Googles mining of test-drive data, it will take the company
an awfully long time to satisfy regulators that its self-driving vehicles are as safe as conventional
ones. But in China, this hurdle is much lower, and theyre not hanging about. Earlier this year,
Google rebuffed an overture from a Chinese company to collaborate on driverless car technology.
If US rms want to maintain their lead in this eld, they might want to reconsider that stance.

In partnership with

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Shorts from the worlds best creative talent
Every Monday / randomacts.channel4.com
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including programmes from British producers. channel4.com/about

DON T JUST HOPE FOR IT

The Prime Minister appointed the independent Airports Commission and it
unanimously recommended expanding Heathrow. Heathrow expansion will create
up to 211bn in economic growth and up to 180,000 jobs across the UK.

To find out more information about all the findings of the Airports Commission please visit www.gov.uk/government/organisations/airports-commission
For more information about what Heathrow expansion will mean for you, please visit heathrow.com/therightchoice

Health & Science

NEWS 19

What the scientists are saying

Why Labradors are greedy

Scientists have found a possible genetic

reason for the Labradors famously
outsized appetite. When a Cambridge
University-led team of researchers
compared the DNA of more than 300
Labradors, both lean and obese, they
found that the latter were far more likely
to carry a genetic mutation which disrupts
the production of neuropeptides linked to
appetite control. Dogs with a single copy
of the mutant gene were, on average, 1.9kg
heavier than those without it; while those
with two copies were 3.8kg heavier. Study
co-author Eleanor Raffan speculated that
the mutation, which affects more than a
fth of Labradors, may have rst appeared
in a now-extinct ancestor of the modern
retriever known as the St Johns water dog,
which Newfoundland sherman used to
retrieve nets of sh from cold seas. When
you are doing really hard work and having
to burn a lot of calories to stay warm,
snafing any food in sight might have been
a really good idea, she said. This
voracious appetite, she added, also makes
dogs easier to train, using treats; and this
could explain why the mutation was
passed down to modern breeds, and why it
seems to be common in guide dogs of the
81 assistance dogs included in the
Labrador study, 76% had the mutation.

Mindfulness cuts depression rate

Mindfulness therapy can be an effective

treatment for serious recurrent depression,
according to a study of existing research. A
team at Oxford University examined data
from nine randomised trials and found
that 38% of patients with depression who
received mindfulness-based cognitive
therapy (MBCT) had a relapse within 60
months, compared with 49% of those who
did not receive treatment. Moreover, the

Red squirrels: could another species save them?

study showed that those who used MBCT

along with antidepressants were less likely
to relapse than those who relied on
antidepressants alone. Willem Kuyken,
professor of clinical psychology at Oxford,
called the results heartening, adding that
though mindfulness wasnt a panacea, it
did offer those with a history of depression
a means to stay well in the long term.
Co-author Professor Richard Byng warned
that clinicians should still exercise caution
when tapering off antidepressants.

Martens to curb grey squirrels?

Britains red squirrels have been in decline

ever since grey squirrels was introduced
from North America in the 1870s but
now research suggests they could be saved
by another threatened native species: the
pine marten. These cat-like animals,
members of the same family as weasels,
have all but died out in England and
Wales, and only a few thousand remain in

Test-tube embryos kept alive for 13 days

Scientists have for the first time managed to

keep human embryos alive in the lab for
nearly 13 days well beyond the point at
which they would normally implant in the
womb. The breakthrough will enable
scientists to examine human development
at a critical stage; and could lead to more
effective IVF treatments, as well as shed
light on the causes of early miscarriage.
However, it also looks set to stir up fresh
ethical debate about when human life
begins, by leading to calls for reforms to the
The development of an embryo
14-day limit on in-vitro research on human
embryos. Introduced in Britain in 1984, and in the US a decade later, the law limits
research to the point at which the egg is deemed to become an individual: after 14
days, it can no longer split to form twins; it is also when the primitive streak a
faint band of cells marking the beginning of an embryos head-to-tail axis appears.
Until now, the 14-day law has been no barrier to research, because scientists
struggled to keep embryos alive beyond seven days. But in this case, the researchers,
from the UK and the US, had to destroy their embryos to avoid breaking it. Three of
the researchers involved have already called for the limit be extended to 21 days.

Scotland. But experts believe the best way

to drive away the invading grey squirrels
and encourage the return of the reds
would be to boost pine marten numbers.
This has been the effect in Ireland, where
pine martens have been protected since the
1970s. As [pine martens] have
repopulated central Ireland, the grey
squirrel population has declined and the
reds have come back, Dr Emma Sheehy
of Aberdeen University told The Sunday
Times. Its not clear if this is down to direct
predation: pine martens do eat squirrels,
but mainly feed on birds, insects and frogs.
More likely, the grey squirrels may be
wasting so much time and energy avoiding
the predator, theyre not building up
enough fat reserves to survive the winter.
As to why the red squirrels are not
similarly affected, this may be because
theyre lighter and more agile than greys,
so can escape pine martens by eeing to
the ends of tree branches. They also get
less of their food from the forest oor.

Earth-sized planets discovered

The discovery of three potentially habitable planets orbiting a star only 40 light
years away from Earth marks a giant
step in the search for alien life, scientists
have claimed. Astronomers detected the
Earth-sized planets after noticing that light
from Trappist-1 a cool dwarf star
about the size of Jupiter faded slightly at
regular intervals, indicating objects passing
in front of it. And because Trappist-1 emits
a dim red glow, rather than dazzling light
like the Sun, scientists can get a clear view
of these newly found planets. We will
soon be able to study the atmospheric
composition of these planets and explore
them rst for water, then for traces of
biological activity, said Julien de Wit of
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Microbeads ban plan

The Government may introduce a
unilateral ban on the use of microbeads
in shower gels and facial scrubs if the
EU doesnt take action on the issue,
Environment Minister Rory Stewart told
MPs last week. Plastic microbeads are
mainly found in skin exfoliants and
scrubs, but are also used to create a
glittery effect in childrens bath
products. Small enough to pass easily
through sewage filtration systems, they
end up in the sea, and in the food chain.
In written evidence, Professor Richard
Thompson, from Plymouth University,
told a Commons committee that a third
of 504 fish tested from the Channel had
plastic in their digestive tract albeit
only two micropieces on average.
Though experts say microbeads
account for a tiny proportion of the
plastic waste in oceans, its a relatively
easy form of pollution to tackle, through
a voluntary scheme or a ban.

14 May 2016 THE WEEK

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22 NEWS

Talking points

Sadiq Khan: London picks a Muslim mayor

All hail the anti-Trump, said Roger
Muslim Council of Britain, Khan once
Cohen in The New York Times. The
told the Commons that the Muslim cleric
victory of Sadiq Khan the Muslim son
Yusuf al-Qaradawi who has sanctioned
of a bus driver in last weeks London
wife-beating and suicide attacks on
mayoral elections sends out a global
Israeli civilians is not the extremist
message of hope over fear, openness
that he is painted as being. None of this
over bigotry. One of eight children born
means that Khan is an extremist at heart,
to Pakistani immigrants and raised in
but it does raise questions about his
council housing in London, Khan is
judgement. If a Conservative candidate
now the most important Muslim
had a history of sharing platforms with
politician in Western Europe, in charge
far-right extremists, do you honestly
of one of the worlds great cities.
think Labour would have let the matter
The scale of his victory he won more
slide out of politeness?
than 1.3 million votes, giving him a
personal mandate unsurpassed by
As a former extremist myself, I know for
any politician in British history is
a fact Khan is no Islamist, said Maajid
Khan: did I mention that my fathers a bus driver?
a joyous riposte to those who have
Nawaz on The Daily Beast. He was my
peddled tribalism and nativism since 9/11.
lawyer when, in 2002, I was imprisoned in Egypt for my Islamist
activities. He did not subscribe to my then-theocratic views,
More particularly, said Owen Jones in The Guardian, it is a
and never has. But over the years, he has conducted a prolic
rebuke to Zac Goldsmith, who ran a shameful campaign of fear,
irtation with Islamism, chiey to further his own ambitions. It
smear and bigotry. He attempted to paint Khan a progressive
is a sad fact that extremists remain among the most powerful
Muslim who received death threats for voting for gay marriage
organised forces in Britains Muslim grass roots. It is incredibly
as a dangerous radical. He used Khans past work as a human
tempting to pander to them in return for votes. Hence, for
rights lawyer to link him to a handful of Islamic extremists. In an
example, the interview Khan gave to Iranian TV in which he
article for the Daily Mail, illustrated with a huge photograph of
dismissed moderate, reforming Muslims as Uncle Toms.
one of the buses destroyed in the 7/7
bombings, Goldsmith claimed Khan
Whatever his past mistakes, said George
Sadiq Khan is now the most
had repeatedly legitimised those with
Eaton in the New Statesman, Khan ran
extremist views. This wasnt just
a awless campaign in the mayoral
important Muslim politician in
dog-whistle Islamophobia: it could be
election. Anticipating that the Tories
Western Europe
heard loud and clear. Thankfully,
would accuse him of extremism, he
Londoners would have none of it.
pre-empted them by giving a stirring
Goldsmith previously a popular constituency MP and ecological speech to the Commons last year about how Muslims could help
campaigner is now a political disgrace. And so he should
combat terrorism. He wooed Jewish groups, spoke out against
remain. No forgiveness, no forgetting. Wherever Goldsmith now left-wing anti-Semitism, courted the City by promising to be the
goes, he should be met with protests, regarded as persona non
most pro-business mayor ever, distanced himself from Jeremy
grata, to ensure that politicians never again use such vile tactics.
Corbyn, and spent more time campaigning in Tory-leaning outer
London than in the inner city. He turned himself into the centrist
If theres one thing the Left still excels at, said Janan Ganesh in
candidate, while also doing a brilliant job of drumming home his
the FT, its hammy righteousness. Goldsmith was a bad
rags-to-riches personal story. (By the end of the campaign,
candidate, but not much worse. He was perfectly entitled to
journalists groaned at the mention of his bus driver father: a sure
ask questions about Khans more dubious acquaintances. Khan
sign of success.) He campaigned on the issues Londoners care
has, in the past, shared platforms with extremists including Sajeel
about housing and transport and avoided personal attacks. In
Abu Ibrahim, who reportedly ran a Pakistani camp that trained
short, he made himself so likeable that the voters simply didnt
one of the 7/7 bombers. Khans former brother-in-law was a
buy the extremism charge. Instead, it rebounded horribly on
spokesman for the terrorist group al-Muhajiroun. As chair of the
the Tories, and helped propel Khan to this historic victory.
nicotine. The man later outed
himself as a 22-year-old estate
agent, but denied having
yellow teeth.

Pick of the weeks

Gossip

Lingerie tycoon Michelle Mone

was at an entrepreneurs event
in Vietnam when a six-yearold boy came on stage, and
presented her with flowers.
Charmed, she scooped him
up in her arms for a photo
opportunity and only then
realised that he was not a child,
but a grown man. Most
embarrassing moment.
Speaking to 3,000 people,
thought this was a six-year-old,
picked him up, hes a MAN,
Baroness Mone wrote on
Twitter. The audience, she
said, was screaming with

THE WEEK 14 May 2016

laughter, and from the front

row, a woman shouted out:
Put him down Im his wife.
Mone added: I thought
something was wrong, as his
teeth were bright yellow from

John Malkovich has bolstered

his reputation as one of
Hollywoods most enigmatic
figures by starring in a film that
no one will see for a century.
Directed by Robert Rodriguez,
100 Years: The Movie You Will
Never See will be showcased
at Cannes but only the
physical film will be on display,
in a special safe. The film
wont be screened until 18
November 2115. Malkovich
who also wrote the screenplay
claims its neither a publicity
stunt nor a gag. I just thought
it was a very clever and
fascinating concept to do

something which essentially

certainly I will never see, he
told People. Ive acted in a lot
of movies Ive never seen and
a number of them I wouldnt
particularly be tempted to.
In the 1980s, Donald Trump
identified so closely with the
brash capitalist world depicted
in the soap opera Dynasty that
he asked producers for a part.
According to Joan Collins,
Trump told them: I am
Dynasty! They turned him
down but Collins says that
Trump did appear in a way:
she based aspects of her
character, businesswoman
Alexis Colby, on the mogul:
His business acumen and get
up and go, and his ruthlessness in the board room.

Talking points
Team Ruth: reviving the Scottish Tories
There was an unmistakable
grew up on a council estate in
hint of disappointment in
Fife, only entered the Scottish
Nicola Sturgeons voice last
Parliament ve years ago, but
week as she hailed her partys
is already being tipped as a
victory in the Scottish elections,
coming powerhouse in
said The Herald (Glasgow)
Tory politics.
and you can see why. On the
one hand, the SNP had just won
Davidson has done well, said
a historic third term in ofce, all
Iain Macwhirter in the Sunday
but wiping out the Labour vote.
Herald (Glasgow), but the Tories
On the other, it had lost its
shouldnt get too excited. Their
majority, suggesting that
party is still a toxic brand in
Sturgeons mass appeal does not
Scotland, which is why Davidson
stretch quite as far as she and
did her best to disguise
her advisors hoped. The person
references to it on the campaign
really celebrating last week was
trail (canvassers apparently
Ruth Davidson, the Scottish
introduced themselves as
Conservative leader. The Tories
Davidson: passing the human test members of Team Ruth). And
have been a largely irrelevant
while the Tories may now be the
force north of the border since their 1997
ofcial opposition, they still only have 31 seats
general election wipeout, but they gained 16
(the SNP have 63), so will remain a marginal
seats at Holyrood last Thursday, doubling their
force in Scottish politics. In some ways, having
tally and making their party, rather than
the Tories as the ofcial opposition may actually
Labour, the ofcial opposition in Scotland.
help the SNP, because it will create a very clear
ideological dividing line. Were not witnessing
Much of the credit for this goes to the ebullient
a Tory revival in Scotland, said Blair Spowart on
Davidson, said Tom Rowley in The Daily
Spiked: this is a unionist revival. Likeable as
Telegraph. A straight-talking, pint-drinking,
Davidson is, the key factor in her partys
lesbian ex-squaddie, she has turned her
improving fortunes is that shes the only leader
partys fortunes around through her energetic
offering unambiguous support for the union
campaigning and engaging personality. In the
something many Scots care a lot about. Sturgeon
words of one Scottish commentator, she passes
is still calling the shots in Scotland, but after last
the human test: she has admitted being a crap
weeks election the SNP is no longer perceived
girlfriend and found it bloody hilarious
as unchallenged and unstoppable. Given how
when she was described on social media as a
one-sided Holyrood has been in recent years,
Kim Jong-un lookalike. The 37-year-old, who
that can only be a good thing.

Child refugees: Camerons U-turn

Life is harsh for the 10,000
motion proposed by the Labour
refugees in Idomeni camp, on
peer Lord Dubs himself a child
Greeces recently closed border
refugee from Nazi Germany to
with Macedonia, said Mark
receive 3,000 children. The PM
Townsend in The Observer.
argued that it would only
Conditions are primitive. Food,
encourage people smuggling. But
provided by volunteers, is scarce.
he has now made a sharp U-turn,
Violence is rife. And among
and has accepted the plan, on the
the refugees are some 300
condition that the children should
unaccompanied minors, many of
have entered Europe before 20
them traumatised Afghans and
March so that no one is given
Syrians, orphaned or sent away by
an incentive to travel across the
their despairing families and
Mediterranean in leaky boats.
now trapped. If they ofcially
register with the Greek authorities, An Afghan refugee in Calais Camerons climbdown was
they are detained indenitely by
more to do with parliamentary
local police. If they enter Macedonia illegally,
arithmetic than with morals, said Isabel
they risk being severely beaten by the countrys
Hardman in her Spectator blog. He faced a
notorious border patrol. If they remain, they
Commons defeat on the issue at the hands of his
may be preyed on by a 60-strong gang of Syrian
own backbenchers. It is still unclear how the
men in the camp who extort and threaten while
policy will work, said Amelia Gentleman in The
the Greek police look on.
Guardian. The Government has set no gure on
the number of children it will resettle, saying
This wretched scenario is being played out in
that this will be discussed with local authorities;
squalid, lawless camps around Europe, from
but local authorities are cash-strapped, and it
the Greek islands to Calais and Dunkirk, said
costs some 50,000 a year to foster a refugee
the Daily Mail. So we are delighted that the
child. Ministers should not balk at paying to
Government is preparing to offer sanctuary to
support a few thousand foster parents, said The
child refugees currently in Greece, Italy and
Economist. This is a humanitarian crisis, so
France. David Cameron initially rejected a
politicians should err on the side of generosity.

NEWS 23

Wit &
Wisdom
I once went to one of those
parties where everyone
throws their car keys into
the middle of the room.
I dont know who got my
moped but I drove that
Peugeot for years.
Victoria Wood, quoted in
the Daily Mail
The police in Britain
shout: Stop! Or Ill shout
stop again!
Robin Williams on the
contrast with Americas
gun-happy police, quoted in
The Guardian
Political incorrectness
gone mad.
Charles Moore, describing
Donald Trump in
The Spectator
It is impossible to overlook
the extent to which
civilisation is built upon a
renunciation of instinct.
Sigmund Freud, quoted in
The New York Times
Fathers dont curse, they
disinherit. Mothers curse.
Irma Kurtz, quoted on
Forbes.com
We have to change truth
a little in order to
remember it.
George Santayana, quoted
on TheBrowser.com
It is possible to be
homesick for a place even
when you are there.
Don DeLillo, quoted in
The Atlantic
The purpose of a business
is to create a customer.
Peter Drucker, quoted on
Forbes.com
Too much freedom seems
to change into nothing but
too much slavery.
Plato, quoted in
New York magazine

Statistics of the week

Sex offences now take up

50% of all crown court time.
The number of rape trials has
increased by almost a third in
the past two years.
The Times
Two-thirds of the top FTSE
350 British companies have
experienced a cyberattack or
breach in the past 12 months.
The Independent

14 May 2016 THE WEEK

Sport

24 NEWS

Boxing: Amir Khans devastating defeat

Amir Khan was out before he hit the floor,

said Ron Lewis in The Times. Six rounds into
last Saturdays fight for the WBC middleweight
title, Sal Canelo lvarez went for a
devastating right hook. Delivered at a speed
of 8.63mph, it had around 270 newtons of force
the equivalent of 13 bags of sugar dropping
on Khans face from a height of one metre. It
was a punch that could have knocked anyone
out, and it sent the 29-year-old Bolton boy
crashing to the canvas. Fortunately, he was
not badly hurt, and was back on his feet in
minutes. But the defeat wrecked Khans hopes
of becoming boxings pound-for-pound No. 1.

entering the ring nonetheless, Khan proved that

he is brave beyond belief. But also deluded to
think he can possibly thrive as a middleweight,
said Steve Bunce in The Independent. In point
of fact, he doesnt have a future in any division.
But he is so eager to prove himself that he is
drawn to risky fights against boxers far stronger
than him. Its time Khan threw in the towel. He
needs protection from his own bravery.

It was a much better night for another British

underdog, said Gareth A. Davies in The Daily
Telegraph. Anthony Million Dollar Crolla,
a 29-year-old Mancunian, faced the previously
unbeaten Ismael Barroso. Against a notorious
Frankly, this defeat was inevitable, said Kevin
knockout artist, Crolla defied expectations to
Mitchell in The Guardian, because Khan is
hold on to his WBA lightweight crown. The
simply not a natural middleweight. The division
performance was all the more impressive for
is for boxers weighing between 155lbs and
coming 18 months after he was brutally injured
160lbs. But when Khan took silver at the 2004
in an attack. When he saw two burglars raiding
Khan: brave beyond belief
Olympics, he was a lightweight, just 135lbs; he
his neighbours house, Crolla managed to catch
weighed little more when he won the light-welterweight world
one of them only for the other to hit him with a concrete slab,
title in 2009. So in order to fight lvarez, Khan had to bulk up in
fracturing his skull and shattering his ankle. Those injuries almost
a big way. He gulped down shakes made from colostrum, the first ended his career, but since recovering he has kept improving: last
milk of a cow that has just given birth, and worked out in sand to
Saturday, he out-thought and outfought Barroso.
make his calves and thighs bigger. That strategy worked: by last
weeks weigh-in, Khan and lvarez were both 155lbs. But lvarez
Sporting headlines
is normally heavier than that, and he proceeded to put much of
Tennis Andy Murray split from his coach of two years, Amlie
his weight back on in the hours before the fight. By the time they
Mauresmo. Earlier in the week, he lost to Novak Djokovic in the
made it into the ring, Khan claims he was outweighed by a
final of the Madrid Open.
staggering 23lbs.
No one was surprised by the outcome, said Ben Dirs on BBC
Sport online. Khan was almost alone in thinking he could beat
lvarez, one of the most fearsome fighters on the planet. But by

Football Michel Platini resigned as Uefa president, after his ban

from football was upheld. Middlesbrough were promoted from
the Championship to the Premier League.
Rugby union Exeter ran in ten tries to beat Harlequins 62-24.

Extreme sports: from bouldering to freediving

The King of the Deep

Floating above the worl

worlds
deepest salt water sinkh
sinkhole,
William Trubridge kne
knew that
he might have just taken
his last breath, say
says
Jacqui Goddard in The
Times. The Brit
British-born
freediver (pictured)
(picture had
reached a depth of 122
metres without
breathing equip
equipment
a world record. But just
two days later, Trubridge decided
decide on an
encore, and set a new record of 124m.
124
Each time, he swam head-first down
dow a
rope, holding his breath for more than
four-and-a-half minutes. Known as the
King of the Deep, Trubridge can reach
such remarkable depths because he has
mastered special breathing exercises. At
124m, the lungs shrink to one-thirteenth of
their usual volume; Trubridge prepares for
this on the surface with a breathing
technique that inflates them to the size of
basketballs. Once underwater, he has to
slow his heartbeat, and shift a constant
supply of oxygen into his ears to prevent
his eardrums imploding. At the same time,
he must also fend off nitrogen narcosis,
which feels similar to drunkenness. Yet
despite these hazards, he intends to chase
a new record. Theres always that need to
do more, says Trubridge, to go deeper.

THE WEEK 14 May 2016

technology has the potential to open up

the sport to far more people. And the UK
is about to get a surf pool of its own: one
is currently being constructed in Bristol.

The new face of climbing

Surfings man-made future

Surfers have always had to go out in

search of the right wave, says Nicky
Woolf in The Guardian. They travel the
world looking for it, swimming far out to
sea. Now, however, they can find it in the
middle of California, 110 miles from the
ocean. Kelly Slater (above), a former world
champion surfer, has just built a huge pool
around 640 metres by 35 metres for
that purpose. Most of the time, it merely
resembles an absurdly long pond. But
when a specially designed plough comes
to life, moving beneath the waters
surface, it creates a perfect wave. The new

Shauna Coxsey is transforming the

image of climbing, says Peter Beaumont
in The Observer. The 23-year-old, from
Cheshire, specialises in bouldering, an
indoor form of the sport that involves four
short and highly gymnastic climbs,
without ropes, in the shortest number of
attempts. It requires strength and flexibility, as well as the ability to see and solve
a sequence of holds under pressure
qualities that Coxsey hones by training 40
hours a week. Having won the first three
events at this years IFSC Climbing World
Cup, she is the favourite
for the title. In the UK,
there has been an
explosion in indoor
climbing walls, and the
sports popularity has
sky-rocketed. Its
here
gripping to watch there
are wild leaps and
ts,
improbable movements,
nst
falls and attempts against
ering
the clock. And bouldering
her boost:
could soon get a further
list to
climbing is on the shortlist
become an Olympic sport.

26

LETTERS
Pick of the weeks correspondence

Grammatical tyranny
To The Guardian

As a lecturer to English
language university students on
analysing English grammar,
I was both surprised and
horrified to see that the same
ability to label grammatical
categories and parts of speech,
such as determiners and
subordinating conjunctions, is
expected of ten-year-olds in
their English Sats test.
Education Secretary Nicky
Morgan defends the Government position on this by saying
that children need to know the
basics. However, it seems she
has failed to grasp the basic
fact that labelling language is
not the same as using it
effectively just as labelling the
parts of the engine does not
enable you to drive effectively
and that this knowledge does
not contribute to the very
necessary basic English
language skill of being able to
express oneself effectively, both
orally and in writing.
Training children for the new
tests is resulting not only in a
reduction in teaching time
devoted to developing their
oral and writing skills, but also
in a reduction in both creativity
and enthusiasm for language
development in these children.
Jill Cosh, Cambridge

Trust our EU partners?

To the Financial Times

I tremble to flourish my fragile

wooden sword in the face of
Martin Wolfs colossal
cosmopolitan cutlass. But his
essay Sovereignty and Power
are Not the Same fails to
convince. He does concede
that future changes in the
relationship between the UK
and the EU could make
membership effectively
irreversible. But he concludes:
UK sovereignty is not at stake
in this referendum. It is,
instead, proved by it. The
referendum is rather about
whether the UK has delegated
excessive powers to the EU.
The big achievement of David
Camerons negotiations is to
establish that the UK will go
no further. Our partners
appear to accept this.
This suggests an impressive
level of trust in the intentions
of our partners, by which I
expect Mr Wolf means the
other member states steered by
an increasingly assertive Berlin;

Lets unRavel copyright law

To The Daily Telegraph

The absurdity of Maurice Ravels music enriching his brothers

wifes masseuses husbands second wifes daughter exemplifies
our over-generous copyright laws. The original copyright act of
1842 set the term at seven years from an authors death. This
has been extended, first to 50 years from death, then to 70. In
the US, copyright is 70 years after death for works published
later than 1 January 1978, and 95 years from publication for
works that came out before then.
The authors do not benefit. They are dead. Its those who
have inherited the rights who enjoy the largesse often banks,
companies or unrelated individuals. One company, Chorion,
until recently owned Agatha Christie, Raymond Chandler,
Enid Blyton and others. (Christie is currently owned by Acorn
Media Group; Blyton by Hachette.) Sir Arthur Conan Doyles
rights have been sold more than once. Even the song Happy
Birthday to You earned Warner Communications $2m a year
until a ruling last year.
Woody Guthrie expressed sense in the copyright notice for
his works: This song is copyright in US for 28 years, and
anybody caught singin it without our permission will be
mighty good friends of ourn, cause we dont give a dern.
Graham Chainey, Brighton, East Sussex

and an even more touching

faith in the reformed intentions
of the EU institutions, chiefly
the European Commission
and the European Court of
Justice. Many will not share
his confidence.
Surely the risk persists that
our power to change matters in
the EU will be progressively
sapped by qualified majority
Council decisions; and without
power we cannot defend our
sovereignty. So we risk ending
up trapped, with neither.
Patrick Roberts, London

Statutory oversight
To The Times

Lord Lisvane does not

exaggerate the alarming state
of our legislative processes.
Lawmaking by secondary
legislation has become
habitual. Every year statutory
instruments covering
something like 12,000 printed
pages come into force. Some
extend to major issues of
policy: some give ministers
power to dispense with
primary legislation. Virtually
every page creates laws or
duties, powers or prohibitions.
They are by no means confined
to matters of administration.
The last occasion when the
House of Commons rejected
secondary legislation was in
1979. Since 1950, the House
of Lords has done so on six
occasions. When it did so
recently, it apparently created

a constitutional problem; hence

the Strathclyde Review, set up
by the Prime Minister.
There is indeed a constitutional problem, but it is not
the problem identified in the
review. The real problem is and
remains lawmaking on a vast
scale without adequate, indeed
with virtually no, effective
parliamentary scrutiny. It must
be addressed, not by the executive, but by both Houses of
Parliament, working together.
Lord Judge, Lord Chief
Justice of England and Wales
2008-13, House of Lords

Tory wake-up call

To The Daily Telegraph

voters who, like me, have

remained (just about) loyal
since 1979?
Peter Thody, Leeds,
West Yorkshire

Learn our lingo

To The Times

Lord Baker of Dorking is

absolutely right that British
children should focus on
subjects other than foreign
languages. A French student
who learns English acquires
the ability to converse with
any reasonably educated
person anywhere in the
developed world. A British
student who learns French
gains no such benefit.
We might, in fact, be better
off to abandon foreign
languages altogether. True, the
French might sneer at us for
being uncultured, but so what?
Theyll be sneering in French;
nobody will understand what
theyre saying.
Richard Ellis, London

Save city gardens

To The Guardian

I would like to point out that

what the Campaign to Protect
Rural England casually calls
brownfield sites are often
the city dwellers open spaces.
Why is a green field more
valuable to a person living
in the country than a
wilderness garden is to a
person living in the city?
Lin McCulloch, London

Written in the stars

To The Times

Like Daniel Finkelstein, I am a

Virgo. I also find it impossible
to take astrology seriously. I
wonder therefore if this is a
typical characteristic of Virgos?
Simon Silvester, London

In so ostentatiously playing
with his phone during a debate
in which he was openly
refusing to participate, Jeremy
Hunt, the Health
Secretary, encapsulated
everything that so many
despise about the
Tories: the arrogance
and sense of superiority
and the playground
bullying. It was the
CharterhouseMagdalen equivalent of
talk to the hand. For
heavens sake, he
succeeded in making
John Bercow, the
Speaker, sound like the
voice of reason.
Weve rebranded the referendum to
Does Cameron have
appeal to the social-media generation
any idea how this plays
with Conservative
PRIVATE EYE
Letters have been edited

THE WEEK 14 May 2016

ARTS
Review of reviews: Books

27

Book of the week

The Sunday Times. The questions it

poses are more challenging and
significant: how a child can become a
The Wicked Child
killer; and whether such a child can be
by Kate Summerscale
redeemed. Summerscale unpicks the
Victorian urge to cast Robert as a
Bloomsbury 400pp 16.99
monster
of depravity; many thought
The Week bookshop 14.99 (incl. p&p)
he had been corrupted by penny
dreadfuls, lurid tales of crime and
Early one morning in July 1895, Robert
adventure that some blamed for the
Coombes, a 13-year old from Plaistow
general decline of morality. In fact, he
in east London, stabbed his sleeping
was a model student who loved
mother to death. He used a knife which
music and was well read. What led him
he had bought for the purpose, and
to kill, it seems, was chiefly his mothers
then concealed in the bed which he
violent treatment (and possible sexual
The Illustrated Police News reports the story in 1895
shared with his mother, while his father,
abuse) of him and his brother.
a steward on an ocean liner, was away.
Tried at the Old Bailey, Robert was
A few hours after the crime was committed, Robert set out with
declared insane, and sent to Broadmoor. Im struck by how
his brother Nattie, aged 12, for Lords, where they watched W.G.
humane the prison was, said Craig Brown in The Mail on
Grace open the batting for the Gentlemen against the Players.
Sunday. There were no straightjackets or mechanical restraints;
Over the next few days, the pair lived in a dreamy adult-free
inmates were allowed to read books, play games, smoke and
boyworld while their mothers body decomposed upstairs, said
drink. Robert worked in the tailors shop and learnt the violin and
Kathryn Hughes in The Guardian: they attended Lords again,
piano. By the time he was released, in 1912, he was a changed
took in a play, and even went to the seaside. Only when a
man. After emigrating to Australia, he fought in the First World
sickening stench began to waft from the house did neighbours
War (gaining a Military Medal), before living out his days quietly
grow suspicious. Kate Summerscales The Wicked Child is a fine
in New South Wales. Towards the end of this fascinating book,
account of the crime, the ensuing trial and its aftermath.
we learn that Robert committed a great act of kindness by
Unlike her bestseller The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, which
adopting an unhappy little boy, said Cressida Connolly in The
also tells the story of a real Victorian murder, Summerscales
Spectator. It would be impossible to read this dry-eyed and not
remarkable new book isnt a whodunit, said John Carey in
to believe that the Wicked Boy was, in the end, redeemed.

The Cultural Revolution

The Pier Falls

by Frank Diktter
Bloomsbury 432pp 25

by Mark Haddon
Jonathan Cape 336pp 16.99

The Week bookshop 21 (incl. p&p)

Chinas Cultural Revolution is one of the most

extraordinary and perhaps least understood
events of the 20th century, said Graham
Hutchings in the Literary Review. Frank
Diktters outstanding new book, part of a trilogy
about Mao Zedongs China, sheds important
new light on the period. The Cultural
Revolution began in the summer of 1966, when
communist leader Mao called for the people to
re-radicalise the revolution. Bourgeois and feudal elements, he claimed,
had infiltrated the government; such revisionists had to be eradicated. Across
China, young loyalists responded by forming Red Guard factions paramilitary groups that carried out a campaign of fanatical persecution. Millions
were hounded, publicly denounced, tortured; senior officials were purged;
museums and religious sites were ransacked. This was followed, in 1968, by the
Down to the Countryside Movement, a rustification campaign that led to the
displacement of millions. The toll was immense: up to two million people
were killed between 1966 and 1976, sometimes by the most bestial means.
The Revolution was a giant confidence trick prompted by Maos need to
restore his authority after the Great Famine of 1959-61, which left some 30
million dead, said Michael Sheridan in The Sunday Times: despite its name, it
was designed to fortify the existing order. Mao eliminated his rivals and
established his cult of personality, which saw him venerated in China and feted
by Western radicals as a symbol of revolutionary chic. To the end of his life in
1976, nobody ever queried the chairman again. Combining years of archival
research with piercing analysis, Diktters brilliant book dissects the culture
of paranoia that Mao established and which still grips Chinas rulers today.

The Week bookshop 14.99 (incl. p&p)

The title story of Mark Haddons rst shortstory collection is a virtuoso piece of writing,
said Kate Kellaway in The Observer. A
minutely described account of a pier
collapsing, it overturns what Philip Larkin called
the miniature gaiety of the seaside. Haddons
eye misses nothing: the balustrades whose
pistachio-green paint has blistered and
popped; the arcade manager with the dead
receiver pressed to his ear. Through such
observation, Haddon achieves what newspaper
reports of calamity rarely do: he makes it real.
The biggest surprise of this collection is not
Haddons brilliance as a short-story writer but in
the darkness of his vision, said Arifa Akbar in
The Independent. Although his previous books
(including the 2003 bestseller The Curious
Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time) havent
shied away from unhappiness, these nine tales
are upfront and even baroque in their
confrontation with the dark, disastrous side of
life; with desperation, danger and, particularly,
death. The book is a startlingly good, gripping
read, precisely because it forces our imaginative
confrontation with the darkness around us.

To order these titles at the above discounts, or any other book in print,
visit the online bookshop at www.theweek.co.uk/bookshop, or tel 0843-060 0020. Free p&p for UK customers.
For p&p in Europe, add 20% of the cost of the order, and 35% in the rest of the world.

14 May 2016 THE WEEK

28 ARTS

Theatre
An Enemy of
the People
Playwright: Henrik Ibsen
Director: Howard Davies

Chichester Festival Theatre,

West Sussex
(01243-781312)
Until 21 May
Running time:
2hrs 30mins
(including interval)

Theatre
A Midsummer
Nights Dream
Playwright:
William Shakespeare
Director: Emma Rice

Shakespeares Globe,
London SE1
(020-7401 9919)
Until 11 September
Running time: 3hrs
(including interval)

Drama
Hugh Bonneville playing a
majority opinion and, like a
champion of truth, outraged by
latter-day Coriolanus, calls for
the suppression of free speech?
the extermination of his
This is the intriguing casting
opponents. Its a demanding
down at Chichester, said
role, and Bonneville gives a
Quentin Letts in the Daily Mail,
finely judged performance as
where Bonneville gives a decent
the egoistical whistle-blower
enough performance as the
who succumbs to self-delusion.
naive, high-minded man of
Alas, I found his reading
the people Dr Stockmann in
benign going on bland, said
Ibsens timeless drama of social
Dominic Cavendish in The Daily
conscience. It is Bonnevilles first
Telegraph. The way Ibsen writes
stage role for 12 years, said Ann
it, Stockmanns self-destructive
Treneman in The Times. And so
confrontationalism verges on
familiar has he become as the
madness. But Bonneville plays it
Earl of Grantham in Downton
all a bit safe, and so misses the
Abbey that, at first, it was quite
febrile intensity that, say, Ian
hard to shake the idea that this
McKellen brought to this great
was some sort of Downton
role. Indeed, the whole prodBonneville: finely judged
am-dram effort in which the
uction lacks oomph, agreed
lord is playing against type. For a time, I kept
Holly Williams on WhatsOnStage.com. There
expecting to see Lord Granthams Labrador
are some excellent supporting performances,
come through the door, wagging her tail.
notably from Abigail Cruttenden as Stockmanns
Bonneville has certainly picked a tricky part long-suffering wife. But overall the whole
for his return, said Michael Billington in The
thing feels a bit staid and well-behaved.
Guardian. Initially, we root for Stockmann as a
champion of truth. Hes the chief medical officer
The weeks other opening
of a thriving spa town who discovers that the
Frankenstein
local waters are contaminated, and gets the
Royal Ballet, Royal Opera House, London
backing of the local press in exposing the
WC2 (020-7304 4000). Until 27 May
scandal. But his brother, the town mayor, argues
Liam Scarletts new full-length ballet of Mary
that closing the baths would ruin the town: he
Shelleys gothic masterpiece boasts superb
dancing and magnificent sets, but it makes
rallies the forces of local commerce, and the
a sorry hash of the storytelling (Observer).
public mood turns. Then, in the pivotal fourth
act, Stockmann turns on the people, denounces
The new boss of the Globe,
Meow Meow, is a sensual,
Emma Rice, has given several
legs frequently akimbo fairy
blithe interviews telling us
queen. Oberon, an equally
how little she knows about
entertaining Zubin Varla, has
Shakespeare, said Andrzej
a threatening, malicious streak,
Lukowski in Time Out. But for
while Katy Owens Puck is a
all that, its perfectly clear that
wiry, manic bundle of energy.
she knows exactly what shes
Of the fours lovers, Anjana
doing. Her debut production
Vasan as Hermia is particularly
is an absolute blinder. Rices
good, said Ann Treneman in
Dream is a wild, bright,
The Times. And Rices contropolysexual romp in which the
versial decision to turn Helena
theatres long-standing fidelity
into a gay man, Helenus, works
to the Elizabethan period is
brilliantly, too. But overall, the
merrily chucked out of the
magic is missing: instead we
window. Almost everyone is
get lots of falling down comedy
in modern dress, theres a
that quickly becomes tedious.
Bollywood-style sitar soundtrack
Rice has named this The Wonder
and lots of singing, the lighting
A wild, bright, polysexual romp Season, but the trouble with her
rig and sound system have been
debut is that it lacks a genuine
souped up, and the set is based on giant
sense of wonder and magic, said Lyn Gardner
wobbling balloons. Yes, its a bit panto but
in The Guardian. There are times when, for all
its also a bloody joy: ravishing, engrossing and its exuberant gleefulness and merry laughter, it
laugh-out-loud funny.
seems a tad charmless. Less could be more.
Those who feared Rice wasnt up to the job
can, for now, take comfort, said Dominic
CD of the week
Cavendish in The Daily Telegraph. Purists may
Paradis sur Terre: a French Songbook
wish to head for the hills, but I was transfixed
Nicky Spence (tenor)
by the new brooms frolicsome theatrical
Chandos 12.99
revolution. In Rices hands, the four starThis fine set of rarely performed French songs
crossed lovers are not Athenians, but Hoxton
showcases the Scottish tenor Nicky Spence as
hipsters yearning to get back to London, said
an artist of taste and discrimination with
Daisy Bowie-Sell on WhatsOnStage.com.
remarkably idiomatic French (Sunday Times).
Titania, played magnificently by cabaret artist

Stars reflect the overall quality of reviews and our own independent assessment (4 stars=dont miss; 1 star=dont bother)

THE WEEK 14 May 2016

Film
Florence Foster
Jenkins
Dir: Stephen Frears
1hr 50mins (PG)
Fluffy confectionery with
Meryl Streep

I Saw The Light

Dir: Marc Abraham
2hrs 3mins (15)
Formulaic biopic of
a country singer

Knight of Cups
Dir: Terrence Malick
1hr 58mins (15)
The agony of meaningless
sex with beautiful women

Out on DVD
Star Wars: Episode VII
The Force Awakens (12A)

Even those who think the Star

Wars movies have been
vastly overhyped will have to
admit that this one, directed
by J.J. Abrams, is nothing if
not entertaining. This latest
episode in the battle between
good and evil in a galaxy far,
far away boasts a spunky
protagonist (Daisy Ridley),
thrilling aerial dogfights, a
compelling villain in the form
of the saturnine Kylo Ren
(Adam Driver), and the return
of a grizzled Harrison Ford.

ARTS 29

Florence Foster Jenkins is based on the true-life story

of the eponymous New York socialite, who, bizarrely,
believed that she was a great opera singer. In reality,
she sounded like a cat fighting a duck in a wheelie
bin, said Robbie Collin in The Daily Telegraph. But
no one told her: in an Emperors New Clothes fable
in reverse, they didnt want to ruin the fun. With
Meryl Streep at her most human in the title role,
this delightful comedy from director Stephen Frears is
the perfect antidote for sobering times. Not the
least of its pleasures is a career-best turn from
Hugh Grant as Florences louche but affectionate
husband, determined to protect his wife from mockery, said Brian Viner in the Daily Mail. As the
film builds to its nail-biting climax a performance at Carnegie Hall, where no one can fend off the
critics it becomes enormously touching. Cloying more like, said Deborah Ross in The
Spectator. Unable to decide whether to be comic or tragic, the film ends up being neither. It ducks the
thornier questions raised by the story, said Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian. But in its limited aim,
which is to be gentle and charming entertainment, Florence Foster Jenkins hits the mark.
The first thing anyone wants to know about this
Hank Williams biopic is whether the well-heeled
British performer Tom Hiddleston can really inhabit
the dusty boots and oversize Stetson of the legendary
all-American country singer, said Tom Huddleston in
Time Out. And the answer is a resounding yes.
Blessed with a surprisingly strong singing voice, the
actor delivers an intense, convincing turn. He also
receives strong support from Elizabeth Olsen as
Williamss first wife, Audrey, increasingly frustrated
by his boozing and infidelities. Sadly, this
pedestrian movie doesnt live up to its cast, said
Chris Hewitt in Empire. The rise to fame, the succumbing to temptation, the blazing rows weve
seen these scenes a thousand times in other biopics. Worst of all, Marc Abrahams movie makes
no attempt to explore the psychological demons that drove this phenomenally talented performer to
his grave at the age of 29, said Danny Leigh in the FT. I write what I write and I say what I say,
the singer, visibly drunk, tells a journalist at one point. The film doesnt delve much deeper than that.
The latest art-house opus from reclusive cinematic
maverick Terrence Malick portrays what may be the
least interesting spiritual crisis in history, said Peter
Bradshaw in The Guardian. A screenwriter (Christian
Bale), tortured by memories of the break-up of his
marriage to a kindly nurse (Cate Blanchett), spends
his time bedding gorgeous women (including Natalie
Portman and Imogen Poots) and smouldering at
celebrity parties. The endless shots of immaculately
maintained naked female bodies makes one wonder
whether this is a commentary on the objectification of
women in Hollywood or just a film that objectifies
women, said Wendy Ide in The Observer. The director wields the mantle of high art in the same
way as a flasher uses his mac. Some four decades after Badlands, his majestic debut, Malicks new
movie is pure self-parody, said Danny Leigh in the FT. Yet it contains haunting sequences like
the one in which a dog vainly chases a ball in a swimming pool that betray glimpses of brilliance.

How Hollywood has white-washed the Wild West

Remember the classic western
cowboys after their emancipation
The Magnificent Seven, in
from slavery. In fact, by the end
which Yul Brynner recruits a
of the century, up to 80% of
dream team of gunslingers to
those working on ranches may
combat a gang of Mexican
have been people of colour,
bandits? Well, brace yourself for
whether black, Asian, Mexican or
a remake with one notable
Native American, said Jim Austin
difference, said Weena Carullo
of Texass National Multicultural
in MovieNewsGuide.com. In the
Western Heritage Museum. Yet
The new Magnificent Seven
1960 version, the heroes were
cowboys in films are almost
predominantly white. In the new one, due out
always fair-skinned.
in the autumn, the seven include a Mexican, a
The most glaring example of Hollywood
Korean and a Native American. And the bounty
white-washing Wild West history is the Lone
hunter who leads them is played by black actor
Ranger films. The character was probably
Denzel Washington.
inspired by a black Arkansas-born lawman, Bass
This isnt a sop to diversity, said Martin
Reeves, who captured or killed some 3,000
Chilton in The Daily Telegraph. In the 1860s,
felons without ever getting shot. He has always
many black Americans did find employment as
been played by a white actor.

14 May 2016 THE WEEK

Art

30 ARTS

Exhibition of the week Mona Hatoum

Tate Modern, London SE1 (020-7887 8888, www.tate.org.uk). Until 21 August
Tate Moderns retrospective
of the brilliant Lebaneseborn artist Mona Hatoum is
superb, said Victoria Sadler
on The Huffington Post. It is
an exhibition that hums with
energy; you will come away
understanding why she is
considered to be one of the
most important artists
working today. This
timely show the first such
exhibition in the UK brings
together around 100 examples
of her diverse work, from
video art to sculpture,
installation to photography.
Hatoums art is infused with
challenging, confrontational
themes, including politics,
violence and oppression. It is
highly charged, in some cases
quite literally: in Homebound
(2000), chairs and tables are
hooked up to an electrical current powerful enough to kill.

suggests the entire planet is on

red alert. You need only
think of 2016s pressing
issues to see that it is more
relevant than ever today. A
handful of other works allude
to specific aspects of
Hatoums Palestinian heritage.
Her 1996 sculpture Present
Tense is hewn from hundreds
of bars of Nablus soap, a
traditional Palestinian
product. Red beads pressed
into the soap look like
embroidery, but in fact
represent a map of the
Palestinian Territories, as
defined by the 1993 Oslo
peace accords. It is a
striking work that delivers
a hard-hitting message.

Much of Hatoums work

deals with themes of
confinement, constriction
and surveillance, said Mark
Hudson in The Daily
Light Sentence (1992): mesmerising
Place and identity are crucial
Telegraph. The mesmerising
to understanding Hatoums work, said Ben Luke in the London
installation Light Sentence (1992) features a naked light bulb
Evening Standard. Born to Palestinian parents in Beirut in 1952,
swinging between two rows of mesh lockers. The bulb casts
Hatoum has been living in Britain since 1975 she was visiting
complex shifting shadows across the walls and gives a sinister
London when the Lebanese civil war broke out, leaving her
twist to these mundane objects, apparently transforming them
unable to return home. She is obsessed with maps, tracing their
into cages or prisons. Hatoums real achievement, though, is that
outlines in unusual materials, including grease stains on a fastunlike much contemporary art, her work hardly needs
food tray, and even, in one work, her own hair. Her 2009
explanation. It has the clarity and power to impress on its
installation Hot Spot III is a cage-like globe on which the
own terms. The best works here are statements that tell us
continents are mapped out in fiery red neon. Its a work that
much about what it is to be human in the world today.

Where to buy

Jerry Jeanmard
at Rebecca Hossack
The American artist and interior
designer Jerry Jeanmard is something
of a magpie. Over the years, he has
hoarded eye-catching bits of paper,
which he uses to create his
spontaneous-seeming yet vivid collages.
The examples he has created for this
show, at the Rebecca Hossack gallery,
are fashioned from all sorts of unlikely
sources: magazine cuttings, scraps of
envelopes, lottery tickets and even torn
segments of what appear to be invoices
have all somehow found their way into
his kaleidoscopic compositions. Its easy
to get the impression that Jeanmards
creations are almost as much of a joy
to make as they are to look at. These
works occupy an unlikely halfway
house between pop art, surrealism
and Victorian photocollage. The effect
is charming, humorous and at times
THE WEEK 14 May 2016

Mme. Oiseau (2016): 66 x 48cm, 620

just a little sinister like something by

Georges Braque if he had been reading
Alices Adventures in Wonderland
before he embraced the art of collage.
All of the works here are priced at
620, inclusive of framing and VAT.
28 Charlotte Street, London W1
(020-7255 2828). Until 28 May.

In February, the Los

Angeles-based artist
Illma Gore published
online an image of
her portrait of a naked
Donald Trump, which
depicts him with a
strikingly small penis.
Within three days it
was all over the
internet, and had
been viewed more
than 50 million times.
Since then, Gore told
The Observer, she
has been under attack from Trump and his
supporters, receiving anonymous phone calls,
and death and rape threats. She has now
become accustomed to being approached by
angry fans of the tycoon-turned-politician. But
she wasnt prepared for what happened at the
end of last month, when, as she was walking in
her neighbourhood, a car pulled up next to her
and a young man got out and punched her in
the face; he then yelled Trump 2016! before
driving off laughing. The portrait (pictured),
inspired by rival Marco Rubios insinuation that
Trump had suspiciously small hands, actually
shows the body of one of Gores friends. It is
currently on show at Londons Maddox Gallery.

MONA HATOUM

Going viral with a naked Trump

The Week reviews an

exhibition in a private gallery

The List

33

Best books John Preston

Journalist and author John Preston picks his favourite books about political
scandals. His own book, A Very English Scandal: Sex, Lies and a Murder Plot
at the Heart of the Establishment, has just been published by Viking at 16.99
All the Kings Men by Robert
Penn Warren, 1946 (Penguin
12.99). Warrens Pulitzer
Prize-winning novel follows the
career of a once-idealistic
lawyer who sheds his ideals,
his principles and just about
everything else in his pursuit of
power. Its a forerunner of
House of Cards, but with even
more skulduggery.
All the Presidents Men by
Bob Woodward and Carl
Bernstein, 1974 (out of print).
The prose may be lumpy,
the characterisation almost
non-existent and the pacing
wildly erratic, but Woodward
and Bernsteins account of
how they uncovered the
Watergate affair the greatest
political scandal of all time

is as riveting now as it was

40 years ago.
An Officer and a Spy by
Robert Harris, 2013 (Arrow
7.99). A brilliant fictionalised
account of the Dreyfus affair,
which scandalised France in
the 1890s. Rather than focus
on Dreyfus who was by all
accounts astonishingly dull
Harris shows how the attempt
to cover up a grotesque
miscarriage of justice reached
to the top of French society.
Black Water by Joyce Carol
Oates, 1992 (Plume 9.95).
Oatess extraordinary novella is
clearly based on the 1969
Chappaquiddick incident,
when senator Edward Kennedy
then reckoned to be a shoo-in

for the Democratic nomination

was involved in a car crash in
which his female companion
drowned. Narrated by the
drowning woman, its a
devastating indictment of
Kennedys ruthless attempts to
save his own skin.
Jeffrey Archer: Stranger
Than Fiction by Michael
Crick, 1995 (out of print).
Cricks book on Jeffrey Archer
is as shrewd and funny as it is
gripping. While it may be a
biography, much of it is
concerned with the 1987 libel
case in which Archer, then
deputy-chairman of the
Conservative Party, sued a
newspaper for claiming that he
had paid a prostitute 2,000
to keep quiet and go abroad.

Titles in print are available from The Week bookshop on 0843-060 0020. For out-of-print books visit www.bibliofind.com

The Weeks guide to whats worth seeing and reading

Showing now

Hamlet at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre,

Stratford-upon-Avon (01789-403493). Simon
Godwins ebullient production sees Elsinore
transported to Africa. Paapa Essiedu is
brilliant as the prince (Sunday Times). Ends
13 August. In cinemas from 8 June.

The National Theatre of Scotlands Our Ladies

of Perpetual Succour was a hit at Edinburgh
and is now touring. Based on Alan Warners
novel The Sopranos, it follows a wild schoolgirl
choir. A mighty piece of popular theatre (The
Scotsman). 17-21 May, Theatre Royal, Brighton,
and on (www.nationaltheatrescotland.com).
All types of music, from Vivaldi to Lennox
Berkeley, are celebrated at the Spitalfields
Music 40th Summer Festival. Among the

Programmes

Lets Do It: A Tribute to

Victoria Wood Friends and

fellow actors from Lenny

Henry to Celia Imrie pay
tribute to the much-loved
comedian, who died last
month. Sun 15 May, ITV1
7.30pm (65mins).

Louis Theroux: A Different

Brain The reporter meets

patients recovering from brain

injuries who must relearn how
to walk, talk and eat, and
come to terms with serious
personality changes. Sun
15 May, BBC2 9pm (60mins).

Killer Women with Piers

Morgan The journalist and

TV host travels across the US

to meet some of the countrys
most notorious female killers,
in a quest to discover what
drives women to kill. Wed
18 May, ITV1 9pm (60mins).

Britains Billionaire
Immigrants Meet the

Chinese elite who are

obsessed with buying all
things British from Savile
Row suits to million-pound
racehorses. Thur 19 May, C4
12am (60mins).

Very British Problems

The second series of the

show looking at how the
British struggle with social
awkwardness. Narrated by
Julie Walters. Fri 20 May, C4
10.30pm (60mins).

Book now

Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network) stars as

a rich, entitled narcissist in his own play,
The Spoils, transferring from New York.
Engrossingly acted (The New York Times).
27 May-13 August, Trafalgar Studios,
London SW1 (0844-871 7632).

Television

Films

The Kings Speech (2010)

Eisenberg (left) with Kunal Nayyar in The Spoils

highlights is a new piece by Iain Bell Londons

Fatal Fire commemorating the 350th
anniversary of the Great Fire. 2-26 June, various
venues (www.spitalfieldsmusic.org.uk).

Just out in paperback

The Secret War by Max Hastings (William

Collins 9.99). With a novelists eye for the
telling detail, Hastings has produced the best
single volume yet written on the murky world
of WWII intelligence gathering (Sunday Times).

The Archers: what happened last week

Pat receives a call from DS Madeley asking her to come to the station for an interview. She is keen
to put Helens side of the story. But DS Madeley keeps asking her about the time Helen threatened
to kill Rob if he came between her and Henry. Later, Pat discovers that the police now plan to call
her as a prosecution witness, so she is not allowed any contact with Helen. Pat is devastated: she
was so looking forward to visiting Helen at last. Josh reveals that he has put a picture of the hens
in the caravan on Facebook, captioned Hens on Holiday: this may explain a sudden surge in egg
sales. The local TV news comes to do a piece on them. Helen tells her lawyer, Anna, she wants to
plead guilty in return for a shorter sentence. She cant bear the idea of being away from Henry for
years and years. Anna insists that if she acted in self-defence, she must plead not guilty. Anna tells
Tony she believes Rob has affected the way Helen thinks. At her pre-trial plea hearing, Helen
pleads not guilty to attempted murder and wounding with intent. A date is set for her trial.

Oscar-winning film starring

Colin Firth as the stammering
King George VI. Sat 14 May,
Film4 9pm (140mins).

The Class (2008) Based on

a true story, this Palme dOr
winner follows a teacher
struggling in an inner-city
Parisian school. Thur 19 May,
Film4 12.45am (118mins).

Coming up for auction

A range of striking fashion
pictures are being sold as part
of Sothebys Photographs
sale. The images, dating from
the 20th century to the
present day, include Richard
Avedons Marilyn Monroe,
1957 (est. 30,000), and
Peter Lindberghs Models,
1990 (est. 60,000),
featuring Linda Evangelista
and others cavorting on a
beach. 19 May, New Bond
Street, London W1 (0207293 5000).

14 May 2016 THE WEEK

Best properties

34
Houses off the beaten track

Herefordshire:
Coughton Mill,
Coughton,
Ross-on-Wye.
A Grade II
period family
house sitting
off a lane
within 5 acres
of parklandstyle gardens
and paddocks.
4 beds, 2
family baths,
breakfast/
kitchen, utility,
sun room,
3 receps, study,
cellar, parking,
garage/
workshop,
formal gardens,
paddocks.
785,000; Fine
& Country
(01989764132).

Devon: Tunnaford, Chagford, Newton Abbot. An extended and renovated

detached property with period features, set in 5 acres of its own gardens, in a
secluded rural location. Master suite, 4 further beds, 2 family baths, 2 showers,
kitchen/dining room, 1 recep, study, utility, second kitchen, annexe, garage,
outbuildings, paddocks, garden. 895,000; Strutt & Parker (01392-215631).

Cornwall:
Quay Cottage,
Roundwood, Kea,
Truro. A creekside
cottage fronting the
Fal Estuary, with
private quay access
and a floating jetty.
The cottage is set
in an Area of
Outstanding Natural
Beauty, and backs
onto National Trust
woodland. Master
suite, 2 further beds,
family bath,
breakfast/kitchen,
triple-aspect recep,
hall, conservatory,
garden, garage with
shower, outbuilding.
895,000; Strutt &
Parker (01392215631).

THE WEEK 14 May 2016

on the market

35

Sutherland: Seahorses,
Nedd, Drumbeg, Lairg.
Built in 2012, this
beautifully presented home
is set in the ancient
landscape of rugged hills
and lochs on the periphery
of Nedd, on the northwest
coast of the Scottish
Highlands. The house is
located on a remote
headland, with stunning
views of Loch Nedd,
Quinag mountain and
beyond. Currently run as
a holiday let, the property
forms part of the tiny village
of Drumbeg, set along the
coastal road one of the
most scenic routes in
Scotland, according to Peter
Irvines guidebook Scotland
The Best. Master bed with
wet room, 2 further beds
with en-suite shower rooms,
kitchen/dining room,
hallway, 1 recep, utility
room, cloakroom, store
room, underfloor heating.
OIEO 395,000; Strutt &
Parker (01463-719171).
Cornwall:
Penventinue Manor
Farm, Fowey. An
impressive restored
17th century former
farmhouse with
three cottages, set at
the end of a long
driveway in 4 acres
of gardens and
grounds including
paddocks and
2 ponds. 4 beds,
2 baths, breakfast/
kitchen, 2 receps,
two 3-bed cottages,
1-bed barn cottage,
vegetable garden,
garage, parking,
outbuildings,
1.25m; Lillicrap
Chilcott (01872273473).

Fife: Carphin
House, Luthrie,
Cupar. A country
house with cottages
and potential as a
wedding venue, in
a private rural setting
at the foot of
Normans Law. 6
bed suites, 2 further
beds, 2 further baths,
kitchen, 3 receps, TV
room, outbuildings,
gym, gardens, 4-bed
farmhouse, 2-bed
gate lodge, 2-bed
cottage, paddock,
23 acres. Available
as a whole or in
5 lots; whole
OIEO 1.365m;
CKD Galbraith
(01334-659980).

North Yorshire:
Brockabank House,
Keasden, Clapham,
Lancaster. Set in
about 30 acres of
farmland in the
Dales, on the
outskirts of the
hamlet of Keasden,
this former
farmhouse and barn
has been extended
and finished to a high
standard. Master
suite and dressing
room, 5 further beds,
3 further baths (2
suites), kitchen/dining
room, 3 receps, study,
utility, WC, 3 offices,
cattle shed, garages.
1.185m; Fine &
Country (01524380560).

Suffolk: Stone Cottage, Drinkstone. A derelict brick-and-flint period

cottage in a rural setting on a quiet lane surrounded by gently undulating
farmland. The cottage has been tenanted for decades and requires complete
renovation. 2 beds, ground-floor bath, kitchen, utility, 1 recep, garden,
adjoining store, 0.25 acres. 175,000; Bedfords (01284-769999).
14 May 2016 THE WEEK

LEISURE
Food & Drink

37

Seawee the superfood thats making waves

Seaweed:
When Waitrose starts
stocking fresh seaweed as it
did last month you know
that this previously niche
swim
superfood is swimming
mainstrea
its way into the mainstream,
said Ella Turner in The Daily Tele
Telegraph.
bigge
Seaweed is one of this years biggest
trends in veg, and we are seeing it on
to and
the menus of some of Londons top
accord
most creative restaurants, according
to
a spokeswoman for the supermar
supermarket. But
d
why has seaweed, a staple of our diets
in
ancient times and still a staple in Japan
fashion
and China come back into fashion?
heal
Simple: its both delicious and healthy.
Buckets of health benefits
A study by Newcastle University scientists
found that eating seaweed can cut our rate
of fat absorption by around 75%, said
Turner. Indeed, sales of the (mostly) green
stuff soared by 125% after Jamie Oliver
recently revealed it had helped him lose
two stone in less than four months.
Seaweed especially the kombu variety
is also rich in iodine, a nutrient not
found in many other foods, which is
needed in particular for healthy thyroid
function. Some forms of seaweed are
also high in protein and vitamins.
How to eat it
Seaweed works in salads, pasta dishes,
soups, stews and even desserts (chocolate

Independent. Seaweed grows in low-lying

rocky environments on the shoreline, and
its important to only take home seaweed
that youve found still attached to a rock.
Seaweed washed on to the beach is not
fit or safe to eat, advises Marcus
Harrison, who runs foraging courses for
the Wild Food School and is the author
of Cooking with Seaweed. Whats more,
not all of the 650 varieties of edible
seaweed that grow on British coastlines
are genuinely good to eat, Harrison adds.

jelly with seaweed is a surprisingly tasty

combination). You can make your own
sushi rolls by using nori (dried seaweed)
to wrap up the rice. Liven up salads
with chopped seaweed. If youre cutting
back on meat, fry up some seaweed for
the closest thing to smoked bacon.
Mix it with butter for a delicious
accompaniment to fish. You can also
sprinkle kelp powder on snacks such as
popcorn for a healthy alternative to salt,
or add it to smoothies and other drinks.
Pick your own
If you want to try your hand at coastal
foraging, be sure to be well versed in the
safety basics, said Sophie Morris in The

Recipe of the week

Red mullet and snapper look stunning and are easy to cook, says Mat Follas.
Edible seaweed is readily available online; if it needs rehydrating, do so in
lightly salted warm water, leaving it to soak until tender enough to eat

Red mullet with seaweed

Serves 4 plain flour, to dust fish salt 4 red mullet or snapper (each 400g-500g),
scaled, trimmed and gutted vegetable oil 200g edible seaweed, roughly chopped
100g unsalted cashew nuts, chopped 12 cherry tomatoes butter 300g samphire

JONATHAN EVANS/EYEVINE; STEVE PAINTER

Preheat the oven to

200C. Grease a baking

sheet, or line it with
baking parchment.
Cover a plate with
flour and season
generously with salt.
Roll the mullet in the
flour then rub a little oil
over the fish. Slice the
sides of the fish twice
at an angle, to allow
even cooking and
prevent the fish from
curling in the oven.
Stuff the cavities with equal
amounts of the seaweed and nuts, and

add 3 tomatoes in each

fish. Put the fish on the
baking sheet. Bake in
the preheated oven for
10-12 minutes, until the
fish is cooked through
and just beginning
to colour.
Put a little butter in
a frying pan over a
medium heat and add
the samphire. Fry for a
couple of minutes, then
heap on serving plates.
Top with the mullet and dress with
any seaweed and cashew mixture and
tomatoes left on the baking sheet.

Taken from Fish by Mat Follas, published by Ryland Peters & Small at 19.99.
To buy from The Week bookshop for 17.99, call 0843-060 0020 or visit
www.theweek.co.uk/bookshop.

Stew, fry, chop, steam

The ones to look for along UK coastlines,
according to Harrison, are badderlocks/
dabberlocks, tangle, sugar kelp, sea
spaghetti, dulse, laver, sea lettuce,
gutweed and carrageen, or Irish moss.
Use Google images to give you an idea
of whats what. Thick, robust seaweeds
such as tangle and sugar kelp are best
in stew-type dishes or you can deepfry them and eat them like crisps. The
thinner dulse can be eaten raw (fresh or
dried) and makes a great addition to a
stir fry. Sea lettuce can be served raw or
cooked; its very fine-leaved, so works
well in a salad, although larger fronds
round foods to
can be wrapped around
tweed, too,
be steamed. Gutweed,
ds (if
works well in salads
young) and can
also be used for
steaming.

Wine choice
I find that many
y people like to drink
walloping big reds whatever the time
of year, says Fiona Beckett in The
Guardian. So before we go into
full summer mode and I start
enthusing about the crisp whites
and ross I am joyfully popping
in my fridge, here are three big
reds for those who like them:
For Malbec, look out for the consistently
reliable Vialba range from Bodegas Fabre
in Argentina the big, spicy Reservado
Malbec 2013 is a solid buy at 10.99 at
Majestic, and an even better one at 8.99
as part of the stores mix six deal.
The whopping Frares Priorat 2013 (13;
Marks & Spencer) is a weighty blend of
grenache and carignan from southern
Spain. It packs a huge punch despite
being unoaked.
Aficionados of big reds will also love
Recanati Wild Carignan Reserve 2013 (28;
Ellis Wharton), from the Judean Hills. One of
the few Israeli wines available in this country,
its truly delicious (and Im not normally a
carignan fan). Its big, too. Very big.
To see our latest offers on delicious wine,
visit www.bbr.com/TheWeekBurgundy

14 May 2016 THE WEEK

Consumer

38 LEISURE

New cars: what the critics say

Audi RS Q3 Performance

49,185

Autocar
You could never accuse
the original RS Q3 of
being slow. A sporty
version of Audis Q3, it
was a small SUV with
added oomph. Now, Audi
has turned the wick up
even higher by wheeling
out a Performance
version. The car has had
a boost in power, taking it
up to 362bhp. And it does
0-62mph in a remarkable
4.4 seconds, making it
one of the fastest SUVs
on the market.

Car Magazine
Theres little to distinguish
the car from the standard
RS Q3: just some matt
titanium liberally
splashed on its exterior.
Like all Audis, its nicely
finished, inside and out,
with styling thats
elegantly restrained
or tediously predictable,
depending on your taste.
Space in the back is a little
more cramped than you
might expect in an SUV,
but theres a decent
356-litre boot.

The Independent
The cars extra grunt
has given it a split
personality. In Comfort
mode, it trundles
around gently. When
you switch to Dynamic,
however, it feels remarkably swift. Theres lots of
grip, though the steering
stiffens up unpleasantly
at high speeds. You have
to pay a steep price for this
nice kit, but you get lots
for your money even if
the car isnt quite the last
word in performance.

The best barbecues

Tips how to host

parties like the Queen
n
Lady Elizabeth Anson has been planning
parties for her cousin, the Queen, for more
than five decades, says Courtney Rubin.
She always adheres to these strict rules.
Invitations set the tone. If they look
cheap, guests will expect acidic wine and
miserable food, says Lady Elizabeth.
But dont go too far in the opposite
direction: spending a fortune on flashy
invitations is "just vulgarity.
Seat your guests at round tables. Theyre
less formal, and you wont have to worry
about who to put at the head.
Put all the boring guests together.
They dont realise theyre the bores,
and theyre happy.
If youre trying to get everyone to take
their seats, tell them youre serving a
souffl. Ive never had anyone come back
to me later and complain that it wasnt.
Dont wait for the party to peter out.
Close it down when there are still 20 guests
left on the dance floor.
SOURCE: THE NEW YORK TIMES

THE WEEK 14 May 2016

And for those who

have everythin
everything

Jaws fans who still dont dare go back in

the water may want to try a Sharkbanz
wristband. These promise to keep
wearers safe from sharks by emitting
magnetic waves that disrupt the
creatures electroreceptors, triggering
their flight instinct.
63; www.sharkbanz.com
SOURCE: DAILY MAIL

Kamado Joe Junior

This smaller version of
the celebrated Kamado Joe
is meant to be portable
although, at 31kg, its still
rather heavy. A ceramic grill,
its great for slow-cooking,
and can reach temperatures
of up to 400C (340;
www.cnfoutdoors.co.uk).

Prakti Charcoal
Stove Originally
designed to provide
clean-cooking devices
for developing
countries, the Indianbuilt Prakti works for
both grilling and
pan cooking. Its
easy to transport,
too, at less than 5kg
(65; www.thecharcoal
burnercompany.
co.uk).

Where to find
dog-friendly
d
f i dl days
d
out
Raithwaite Estate, a country hotel in
Whitby, has a dedicated dog spa. Your pet
can relax with a mud bath, massage, hair
cut and blow dry, before retiring to the
purpose-built dog lodge, which has
underfloor heating and room service
(from 35; www.raithwaiteestate.com).
Paws on the Beach, a one-day event in
Devon, will feature a dog talent show and
dog-surfing. The main event is an attempt
to break the world record for the largest
number of dogs sitting simultaneously
(22 May; www.pawsonthebeach.co.uk).
Doga is yoga that recognises the sacred
union between dog and owner. Some of
the poses at these classes in north London
involve lifting your dog; others encourage
owner and pet to stretch out together
(from 15; www.dogamahny.co.uk).
Just Dogs Live, at Peterborough Arena, will
feature a range of workshops including
one on the skills pets need for film and TV
work. Theres also an agility competition
(8-10 July; www.justdogslive.co.uk).
SOURCE: THE TIMES

SOURCE: THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

Drumbecue Original Drum

Smoker A favourite of
professional barbecue chefs,
the Drumbecue is made from a
huge, 205-litre steel drum. Its
divided into two cooking areas,
giving you heaps of space to
cook (420; www.drumbecue.co.uk).

Halo Cooltouch Made from

rust-proof stainless steel, the
Cooltouch features double-wall
insulation, which prevents the
outside from heating up.
Conveniently, the grill plates can
go in the dishwasher (495;
www.haloproduct.com).

Landmann Triton 3-burner

This powerful gas barbecue has
a thermometer in its lid,
and three burners,
allowing you to cook
different foods at different
temperatures. Folding side
shelves provide handy
workspaces
(400; www.
johnlewis.
com).

Travel

LEISURE 39

This weeks dream: ancestor worship in Indonesia

The Indonesian island of Sulawesi has

all modernity, doing without electricity,
an intriguing variety of indigenous
cars, shoes, even schools. To enter their
cultures, says Mark Stratton in
village, visitors must wear a turban
Wanderlust magazine. The worlds 11th
tied into a pointed cone, then walk
largest island, northeast of Java, it is
barefoot over cobbles splattered with
shaped like a starfish, and its gangling
cow dung. The villagers are welcoming,
peninsulas have kept its regions
but do not allow photographs. From
culturally distinct. In the south, the
there, you might explore Lake Tempe
mountainous Tana Toraja region is
in a lepa-lepa (canoe), before heading
the scene of arguably the greatest
to the Mountains of Death to stay in
remaining spectacle of ancestral worship
a wooden tongkonan traditional
on the planet the rambu solo. These
saddle-shaped homes. During funeral
lavish funeral ceremonies last for weeks,
season, tethered sacrificial buffalo
cost vast sums and are attended by
appear in the villages, along with
thousands. The dead may remain
bamboo enclosures that house the
mummified in the family home for years
dead. Their final resting place will be
Lemo, a burial site in Tana Toraja
while preparations are made for funerals
in limestone caves, where coffins are
that, far from being morbid, are a time
guarded by rows of tau-tau eerily
of unbridled joy.
life-sized effigies. This is no time for subdued British funeral
The funeral season lasts from June to August; outsiders are
etiquette: music, dancing horses and showers of money aid
welcome, but it helps to go with a guide. On the way from the
the deceaseds transition into the spirit world. Experience
city of Makassar to Tana Toraja, youll pass the village of Tana
Travel Group (www.experiencetravelgroup.com) has an eightToa, where the people are nature-worshipping animists who shun
night tailor-made trip to Sulawesi from 3,010pp, with flights.

Hotel of the week

Getting the flavour of

Avoiding tourists in Greece

Jashita, Yucatan, Mexico

Just 10km from the Mayan ruins

and buzzing nightlife of Tulum,
this eco-hotel in Soliman Bay has
all the seclusion of a private
beachfront villa, says Kate Lough
in the London Evening Standard.
There are three infinity pools,
comfy daybeds, and attentive yet
invisible waiters; theres also a
spa in the treetops for when you
need a rest from paradise.
Suites are spacious and elegant:
one, the Nefertiti, has a hot tub
overlooking the endless
Caribbean sea. The hotels
restaurant is located next to the
beach breakfast is a highlight
and the rooftop bar is an ideal spot
for margarita sundowners.
Standard rooms from 130 a
night, b&b, during low season.
www.jashitahotel.com

Close to the party island of Mykonos, yet a

world away, lies a tiny trio of islets brimming
with bashful charm, says Mark Ellwood in
The Independent. Koufonisia is made up of
three rocky specks Pano, Kato and Keros
largely undiscovered thanks to basic
logistics (the ferry route only opened three
years ago). Keros is off-limits to tourists,
owing to its archaeological significance, but
Pano, the main island, is a swirl of steep
streets, whitewashed buildings and charming
tavernas. It has astonishing beaches,
flanked by rocky inlets and few roads, so
hiking is the preferred mode of transport.
Kato is mostly uninhabited but good for a
day trip. Theres one taverna on the island,
and a campsite where you can join the barely
clad hippies snoozing in the sun a fleshbaring scene even Ibiza and Mykonos might
envy. Ferries run from Piraeus, near Athens,
from t22 one way. www.hellenicseaways.gr.

Walking the Moselle River

Along Germanys Moselle River, theres one

word on everyones lips riesling, says Paul
Bloomfield in The Times. This pretty wine
region has a walking trail, launched last
spring, that traces the rivers tight loops for
227 miles past castle-crowned towns and
through vertiginous valleys striped with
vines. The wine is inescapable signs for
weingut (winery) and weinprobe (wine

tasting) are everywhere: its a perfect excuse

to combine tippling with trekking. Viticulture here dates back to Roman times, and
there are ancient marvels along the way,
including some photogenically decrepit
castles. At times, the path delves into forests
of oak, beech and birch, peeking out to
reveal vistas of pleasure boats and sparkling
water. Like the wine itself, the Moselle leaves
a gently lingering aftertaste. Inntravel
(01653-617001, www.inntravel.co.uk) has
an eight-day self-guided trip, from 670pp
b&b, including luggage transfers.

Find your sea legs in Cornwall

Theres only one way to really experience the

romance of Cornwalls nautical past, and
thats to explore its coves and ports by tall
ship, says Sarah Whitehead in The Guardian.
The Bessie Ellen is a restored 112-year-old
sailing boat that started life transporting clay,
peat and salt around Britain and Ireland.
Now, she operates as a training boat, giving
novices a two-night taster of life on the
ocean waves, in a range of locations from the
Outer Hebrides to Svalbard. You learn how
to haul ropes, hoist sails, tack and steer, and
to scale the rigging for a better view of the
wildlife spotting seal colonies, basking
sharks and puffins is all part of the fun.
Bessie Ellen Charters (07800-825382,
www.bessie-ellen.com) has three days in
Cornwall from 290pp, including all meals.

Last-minute offers from top travel companies

Leicestershire May break
Get back to nature in the
beautiful Leicestershire
countryside with a weekend
stay at a working farm in a
canvas cottage (sleeps 6). From
500. 01455-292888, www.
thedandelionhideaway.co.uk.

Sri Lanka charity work

Spend 3 weeks helping to build
a resource centre for local
street children near Colombo,
and explore nearby attractions.
1,250, excluding flights and
visa. 0845-652 5412, www.
aidcamps.org. Depart 30 July.

Lancashire luxury
An overnight stay in a 2-bed,
self-catering apartment in
Thurnham Hall, sleeping up to
6 people, costs from 79 per
night in May and June. 0800358 6991, www.dealchecker.
co.uk. Book by 31 May.

All-inclusive Chile
Enjoy 4 nights at the Alto
Atacama Desert Lodge and
Spa, in the San Pedro region,
at low-season prices. From
1,746pp, excluding flights.
020-7186 1111, www.miraviva
travel.com. Until 15 September.
14 May 2016 THE WEEK

Obituaries

40

School dropout who became Fleet Streets best-paid hack

Known as the best-paid hack
on Fleet Street, Jonathan
Cainer was an astrologer
who made millions from
newspaper horoscopes, along with spin-off telephone hotlines, books and a website. Although
he worked for several tabloids over the years
with editors sometimes fighting for his services
he was most closely associated with the Daily
Mail. Yet he was not natural Mail material: a
self-described former dole scrounger and
unreconstructed hippy, Cainer, who has died
suddenly aged 58, was a left-wing vegan with
an eccentric attachment to the colour purple.
Entering his London pied--terre, one visitor
noted, was like walking into a bottle of Ribena.
Jonathan
Cainer
1957-2016

saw in his future a glittering career as a media

personality big in astrology. He at once
read up on the subject, began giving readings
and knew hed found his calling. Feeling he
should be properly trained, he returned to the
UK to enrol in the Faculty of Astrological
Sciences in London. Initially, he specialised in
full, individualised horoscopes, and when a
publisher suggested he write a book, called
Love Signs, he dismissed the idea. Then she
told him how much money hed make.
Thus, he later said, I sold out.

Soon, Cainer was writing horoscopes for the

now defunct Today newspaper: columns with
the Daily Mail, Express and Mirror would
follow. With his own website, and a share in
Jonathan Cainer was born (in Sagittarius) in
the revenue from telephone horoscopes, his
December 1957, in Surbiton, Surrey. He was
businesses had a reported annual turnover of
one of seven children. His father worked in a
some 2m. Though he took astrology seriously,
bank, his mother was a medical secretary who
he admitted his newspaper predictions were
Cainer: an unreconstructed hippy
became a spiritual healer. One day, aged 12, he
based more on psychology than the stars. You
came home to find a note: Dear Jonathan, have gone away with
read your horoscope when your partners splitting up from you,
twins. Wont be back. Will be in touch. Best wishes, Mum.
when your domestic life is crap. You look at your horoscope
Within 24 hours, he recalled, my father had moved his girlfriend
because youre desperate. So to that extent it makes no difference
in. Moreover, shed just had their baby. Jonathan followed his
what sign you are, or where the planets are. My job is to be
mother to Leeds. He quit school at 15, said The Daily Telegraph,
philosophical and to offer encouragement, to say: Look, when
and worked as a petrol pump attendant before joining the free
youre in a rough period, learn through it. Lucy the five cents
festival movement, playing in prog rock bands, and trying in
psychoanalyst from Peanuts; I am that Lucy, yes. He had his
vain to make his fortune selling alfalfa sprouts. Charismatic and
own share of misfortune. In 1992, his second wife, Melanie, died
outrageous, even then he drew attention: in 1975, he appeared in
after a car crash, leaving him with seven children, including seventhe Daily Expresss list of Britains ten most dangerous anarchists.
month-old twins. In 2014, he married Sue, who had worked as
his childrens nanny, and with whom he had another child. His
In the early 1980s, Cainer moved to Los Angeles to open a
horoscope on the day of his own death read: Were not here for
nightclub. One night, a psychic came in, gave him a reading, and
long. So make the most of every moment.

The purple witch who was married to Erich Honecker

Margot Honecker, who has died
minister for peoples education, said The
in Chile aged 89, was the wife
Times. Children were educated in the German
of East Germanys last leader,
Democratic Republic, she claimed later,
and a powerful figure in her
according to humanistic ideals, but, she added,
own right. Known by her enemies as the Purple
there was no morality separate from class
Witch, on account of her dyed hair and malign
interests; and no scope for dissent. The
influence, she served for 26 years as education
purpose of education was not to nourish the
minister, shaping a system in which children had
enemies of socialism or slack fellow-travellers,
to undergo military training and have lessons on
she said. With pressure for reform mounting on
socialist ideals, and teachers were encouraged to
the GDR in 1989, she warned that socialism
inform on pupils. She presided over reform
would have to be defended, if necessary with
schools so harsh that one was dubbed Margots
weapons in hand. But when the Berlin Wall fell,
concentration camp. She made sure that children
she and her husband did not stay to fight;
of dissidents who had managed to get to the West
instead, they fled to Moscow, where they found
werent allowed to join their parents, but were
refuge in the Chilean embassy. (The couple had
brought up by party loyalists. And she was
been living apart for years; some felt it was poetic
Ice-cold Margot
accused of being involved in a programme in
justice that Honecker should, in exile, be forced
which dissident mothers had their children forcibly adopted.
to share a single room with ice-cold Margot).
Margot
Honecker
1927-2016

Margot Feist was born in 1927, in the eastern city of Halle. Her
father, a shoemaker, was imprisoned by the Nazis owing to his
Communist Party membership, and was later conscripted into the
Wehrmacht. Her mother died, leaving Margot and her brother to
get through the War alone. After finishing school, she trained as
a clerk, and in 1945 joined the Communist Partys youth wing.
Rising rapidly through the ranks, she became, aged 22, the
youngest member of the East German parliament. Around the
same time, she began an affair with an older, married politician,
Erich Honecker. Together they had a daughter, Sonja, and under
pressure from the countrys then ruler, Walter Ulbricht, Erich
divorced his wife and married Margot. In 1963, she became
THE WEEK 14 May 2016

Honecker was sent back to Germany in 1992, to face trial for his
shoot to kill policy for dissidents trying to cross the Wall; at
that point, Margot went to live in Chile itself. Her daughter was
already there, and Erich joined them when his case was dropped
on health grounds. He died in 1994. In later life, she lived off a
German pension, which she complained was too small, and gave
a few interviews, defending all aspects of the communist regime:
she said the people shot trying to cross the Wall had been stupid
for wanting to defect; and that the Stasi had been necessary. She
never critically reflected on what she had done. Up until her death
she was a nasty, stubborn woman, Hubertus Knabe, director of
the memorial at the former Stasi prison in Berlin, said last week.

CITY
Companies in the news
...and how they were assessed

CITY 41

Lending Club: loan tremors

Players in the fast-growing online lending market used to joke that the only thing that
could slow momentum would be the embroilment of industry pioneer Lending Club in a
vast fraud, said Ben McLannahan and Aime Williams in the Financial Times. This week
that, more or less, is what came to pass. The San Francisco-based firms founder,
Renaud Laplanche, has resigned following a probe into the alleged mis-selling of
loans. The shock news prompted Lending Clubs shares to collapse by more than 25%
its worst day on record. Laplanche, a telegenic French entrepreneur, started
Lending Club in 2006, said The Wall Street Journal. It was then one of the first firms to
use the internet to connect borrowers directly with individual investors. It also attracted
hedge funds and other big Wall Street firms, achieving a lofty $8.5bn valuation when it
floated in 2014. Laplanches downfall came after he was implicated in a $22m sale of
loans to an individual investor which violated company practices, said the FT. He
also failed to disclose personal interests in a fund that Lending Club had been
considering as an investment. Beset by tightening regulation and rising losses on risky
loans, the once-hot sector has recently suffered a sharp reversal in fortunes. The
shaming of one of its leading lights wont help.

Volkswagen: pay shame

Already reeling from the diesel emissions cheating scandal and a record s1.6bn loss in
2015, Volkswagen is in the spotlight again, said Maiya Keidan on Reuters.com. This
time, its over executive pay. The activist hedge fund TCI, which is run by Sir Chris
Hohn, has built up a s1.2bn stake in the German carmaker and has now called for
a complete overhaul of its executive pay structure. The move is very welcome, said
Patrick Jenkins in the FT. There have been plenty of executive pay absurdities in recent
weeks, but few that can match the s7.3m payout awarded to VWs ousted boss,
Martin Winterkorn. The figure, it is true, is a snip for a chief executive these days.
But the clinching madness was that s5.9m of the package was a performancerelated award for 2015 the year that saw s40bn wiped off the value of VW in a
matter of days. Hohn argues that corporate excess on an epic scale led to a risktaking culture that contributed to the emissions scandal at the carmaker. Hes quite
right. Investors have a clear motivation to apply further pressure.

HMV: music to the ears

UK retail sales are flagging, according to the latest figures from the British Retail
Consortium. But no one at HMV is complaining, said Alex Brummer in the Daily Mail.
Three years after collapsing into administration and being rescued by the investment
firm Hilco, the high-street music stalwart claimed 16.9% of the UK CD and video
market in the last quarter, giving it a larger market share than its biggest bricks-andmortar rival, Tesco. When HMV looked close to death, it was deemed to be a victim
of Amazon, online downloads and the digital revolution. Yet Amazon has seen its CD
and video sales and market share fall over the past year. The high street, it appears, is
hanging on to punters who still want to buy music and games in physical format.
Who says there is no life after death?

Seven days in the

Square Mile
The Bank of England prepared to deliver
its quarterly inflation report against a
backdrop of sharply slowing growth in
the economy. BoE economists were
expected to deliver their most detailed
warning yet on the potential impact of
Brexit. In a sign that the Bank may be
preparing for the aftermath of a leave
vote, it has asked banks to prepare for
the possibility of a rate cut. The
Chancellor warned of tens of
thousands of job losses in the financial
services industry if Britain leaves the EU.
Greek ten-year bond yields fell below
8% for the first time in more than six
months and the Athens stock market
surged on evidence of progress in
Greeces debt talks with creditors. There
is optimism that the gap between
Germany and IMF over debt relief has
narrowed. Meanwhile, new data
showed that the eurozones recent
recovery may be losing momentum.
Industrial output fell in France and
Germany in March.
The European Commission blocked
Telefnicas sale of O2 to CK Hutchison,
the owner of Three. Competition
commissioner Margrethe Vestager said
it would reduce customer choice and
raise prices. Hopes of a rescue deal for
UK steelworks jumped on news that Tata
has shortlisted seven separate bidders
for its entire UK arm. Miners Vale and
BHP Billiton were hit by a civil lawsuit in
Brazil seeking $44bn in damages for a
burst dam. Hotel Chocolat floated on
Aim and was valued at 167m.

BHS pensions row: Green takes on all comers

Sir Philip Green has learnt a thing or two over
more than 40 years in retail, said Jeremy
Warner in The Sunday Telegraph, and one of
them is that attack is always the best form of
defence. True to form, Big Phil came out
fighting ahead of the parliamentary inquiry into
the collapse of BHS, which opened this week.
The Arcadia boss called for the Labour MP
Frank Field, who chairs the Work and Pensions
Committee, to stand down, claiming he was
clearly prejudiced. Field, who rebuffed the
demand, had stated that Green should make
good BHSs 571m pension deficit, or be
stripped of his knighthood.

theres no sign of the row ending, said The

Times. Field has further fanned the flames by
placing Greens arch-enemy, former M&S
chairman Lord Myners, on an advisory panel of
assessors. The bad blood between the two
dates back to Greens failed takeover of M&S in
2004. At the time, Myners described Green and
his team as irrational, erratic, rude, crude,
volatile and offensive people.

We can expect some spectacular theatre

next month when Green appears before the
committee, said Warner. But the case raises
serious questions about how company pension
schemes are regulated. And what we learned on
Myners: Greens arch-enemy
Whatever one thinks of Green, who dumped
Monday when the committee grilled Pensions
BHS and its pension liability for 1 last year, he surely has a
Regulator boss Lesley Titcomb was frightening, said Nils
point, said The Observer. It was unwise of Field to comment
Pratley in The Guardian. If BHS is any guide, her role is to wait
before any evidence or explanations have been heard. And
until things go wrong and then launch a leisurely inquiry.

14 May 2016 THE WEEK

Talking points

CITY 43

Issue of the week: Britains go-slow

There is mounting evidence that the UK economy is stalling. How much is the Brexit vote to blame?
The stuttering state of Britains
business uncertainty to be at its highest
economy has been laid bare, said
level since the eurozone crisis; and
Graham Hiscott in the Daily Mirror. In
foreign direct investment into Britain
the past week, a flurry of figures, from
has been falling. Investment plans in
the housing market to the high street,
businesses across the country have been
has added to evidence of a go-slow
mothballed, we are told, until after
across most sectors. The latest statistics
23 June. But hang on a minute. The
indicate a loss of momentum in
outlook for manufacturing has also
manufacturing, construction and
softened in the US. Likewise, its hard
services, where activity is at its lowest
to see what Brexit has to do with the
since February 2013. Even the oncecontinuing travails of Chinas industrial
rampant jobs market that the
sector. Before rushing to attribute
Chancellor likes to crow about is
Britains declining economy to
looking unsettled. The concern now
referendum fears, we should consider
is that this is only the start of tougher
that they may mask a deeper malaise.
economic times ahead, said Kamal
Carney: eyeing the threat to stability
Ahmed on BBC News online. There is
The hiatus in activity is likely to get
every sign that the weak start to the year will be extended.
worse as we approach the vote particularly if the polls signal a
Industry surveys are collectively indicating a near-stalling of
Leave majority, said Jeremy Warner in The Sunday Telegraph.
economic growth, down from 0.4% in the first quarter to just
Yet Brexit is clearly not the only, or even the main, factor at
0.1% in April. Even the eurozone is doing better.
work here. The global economy is running out of steam almost
everywhere. Britains recovery is now 13 successive quarters of
For the next couple of months and probably longer George
growth long, but it has largely been based on consumption, fed by
Osborne has a ready-made excuse if the economic numbers look a record employment levels and low oil prices. And there is evidence
bit grim, said Larry Elliott in The Guardian: blame it on the
now that that splurge is fading. It goes without saying that if
Brexit vote. There is certainly evidence that the referendum,
the decline continues, Osbornes fiscal targets are again toast.
described by Bank of England Governor Mark Carney as the
One of his predecessors, Gordon Brown, famously said there are
biggest domestic threat to financial stability, is having an impact. two types of Chancellor: those who fail and those who get out in
A recent survey of chief financial officers by Deloitte found
time. Osborne may have missed his chance.

Barclayss

springboard
No deposit, no
problem, ran the
Barclays press release
announcing the banks
upgraded Family
Springboard mortgage,
which scraps the
requirement for first-time
buyers to provide a 5%
deposit. But dont be
fooled by the headlines,
said Merryn Somerset
Webb in FT Money. This
isnt a 100% mortgage.
Its an intergenerational
offset mortgage, because an integral part
of the deal which offers borrowers a
2.99% fixed rate on a maximum loan of
500,000 is a commitment by parents to
put 10% or more of the purchase price
into a Barclays savings account. So long as
the borrower makes the repayments, the
parent gets the money back after three
years, plus 2% annual interest. The catch
is that if the kid misses a payment, mum
stops getting her interest rate payments;
and if that continues, she could well lose
her capital too.
Helping M&D

The Barclays deal has been welcomed as a

way of easing the burden on the Bank of
Mum and Dad which, as a report last
week revealed, is set to distribute more

than 5bn in loans to

the younger generation
this year, said Anne
Ashworth in The Times.
Advisers reckon it will
be useful for parents who
want to help children
onto the property ladder,
but cant afford to hand
over the funds for a
deposit. It makes an
easier question for the
child too, said Aaron
Strutt of Trinity
Financial. Will you
lend me 10% for a
few years? Youll get it
back if I make the payments on time, is
much more appealing than: Will you
give me money?
Sign of the times

Brokers reckon the new Barclays mortgage

will stoke demand for similar products
from other big lenders. Many are already
pulling out the stops to lend to older
groups struggling to buy, said Citywire.
Borrowers over 55 no longer need to
worry so much, now that Halifax and
Nationwide have increased their upper age
limits to 80 and 85 respectively, provided
lenders can prove pension income. But
what do all these deals really tell us about
the UK housing market, asked Somerset
Webb. The only possible conclusion is that
prices are unsustainably high.

Nailing nerves
When it comes to presentations, nerves
can derail even the most seasoned
performer, says Mind Labss Dr David
Lewis in Management Today. Your
mouth goes dry. You become very
confused. Even ideas you were very
familiar with before the presentation
start to vanish from your memory.
Heres how to keep the jitters at bay.
Prep, prep, prep. The most negative
stress in humans is triggered by the
sense of having no control over
situations. Combat it by knowing your
material inside out. Know how youre
going to get into the subject, and
how youre going to get out.
De-complicate. You can never have
complete control where technology is
concerned, but you can reduce the risk
of disaster by insisting on reliable,
easy-to-use kit. Dont be talked into
using anything requiring a masters
degree to operate.
Fake it to make it. Looking confident is
crucial. Audiences tend to get what
you give them. They dont have a
preconception. So as long as you
remain in control and confident, theyre
going to take that home.
Breathe. Anxiety leads to faster
breathing, which then makes you
more anxious. Break the vicious cycle
by taking a couple of deep breaths.
Tell yourself: in ten minutes it will all
be over.

14 May 2016 THE WEEK

JASON FORD

New mortgages: what the experts think

44 CITY
Trump and
the US Feds
authority
Martin Wolf
Financial Times

P2P lending:
a warning
from America
Alex Brummer
Daily Mail

Hedge funds
remain a
losing bet
Buttonwood
The Economist

Zuckerbergs
Chinese charm
offensive
Rebecca Smith
Management Today

THE WEEK 14 May 2016

Commentators
Donald Trump has announced that, if he takes the White House,
he would probably replace Janet Yellen as chair of the US Federal
Reserve, says Martin Wolf. Trump has nothing against Yellen
personally; his problem is that she is a Democrat. The move
would certainly be unusual: no recent president has refused to
re-nominate a Fed chair appointed by a predecessor, whatever
their political affiliation. But it is not as outlandish as Trumps
critics claim. When they do come to replace the Fed chairs theyve
inherited, most presidents choose someone from their own party.
Indeed, compared with some of the nonsense coming out of the
Republican Party Ted Cruz favours a return to the gold
standard Trumps views on the Fed sound fairly sensible.
Nonetheless, he was wrong to politicise this vital appointment so
explicitly. The chief risk is that it will make Yellen look like a
lame duck, undermining both the credibility of the Fed and the
predictability of its policies. Trump should have kept his
counsel but that is unquestionably asking far too much.
The rise of peer-to-peer (P2P) lending and crowdfunding is often
hailed as one of the few bits of positive fallout from the financial
crisis, says Alex Brummer. By providing an alternative to high
street banks, these new players have made sourcing finance much
easier for individuals, small businesses and entrepreneurs. The
Chancellor is so enthusiastic on the subject that he has
introduced peer-to-peer lending Isas, enabling ordinary citizens
to access the markets higher returns; and some of Britains most
respected investors, including fund manager Neil Woodford, have
taken an interest too. The implosion at the USs largest online P2P
platform, Lending Club (see page 41), should, however, ring
warning bells. At the very least it raises questions as to whether
currently flimsy regulatory and disclosure requirements are
adequate. Arguably the UK hasnt really woken up to the risks, or
to the apparent evidence of sharp practices now emerging in the
US. P2P has been a welcome counterblast to the abused culture
of conventional banking. But all parties, including regulators,
need to handle with care.
The enduring myth of hedge funds is that they employ the
cleverest people to exploit the opportunities that other
managers miss, says Buttonwood. Thats why they deserve their
hefty 2% annual management fees. But that story is getting
harder and harder to believe. The average fund lost 0.8% after
fees in Q1, according to Hedge Fund Research; the average return
for investors since the start of 2014 has been a cumulative 1%.
In a world of low interest rates, low bond yields and low
dividends, the fees charged simply take too big a bite out of gross
returns to leave much for clients, who make do with crumbs
while managers dine well. Admittedly, market conditions have
been tricky of late. But those hoping for a return to the golden
age of the 1990s, when the likes of George Soros delivered
double-digit returns, are likely to be disappointed. Some hedge
fund managers are extremely clever at ferreting out profitable
opportunities. But are there enough to sustain an industry with
10,000 individual funds and $2.9trn of assets? Nowhere near.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has pulled out all the stops
to ease the companys path into the Chinese market, says Rebecca
Smith learning Mandarin, meeting VIPs, taking smog jogs in
Beijing. Last year, he even invited Chinas chief censor to his home
in San Francisco. The charm offensive appears to be working: last
week Facebooks pending friend request got a boost when a
Beijing court ruled against a local drinks company that had
registered face book as a separate trademark. That might sound
like a small victory, but Facebook has succeeded where few
Western companies have triumphed before: China is a
notoriously difficult nut to crack when it comes to upholding
intellectual property rights. Facebook has been prohibited in
mainland China since 2009, and the big prize for Zuckerberg is
getting the ban overturned. So far, theres little indication of that
happening, except under the most onerous of terms and even
then it is hard to know how Facebook would fare in a market
already crammed with local players. Still, this small step forward
is a reminder that perseverance can pay off, even in China.

City profiles
Martyn Dodgson and
Andrew Hind
It is the end of the road for
Fruit and Nob, who have
been found guilty in Britains
biggest ever insider trading
case, following a landmark
eight-year investigation, said
Caroline Binham in the FT.
Fruit was the nickname
used by Martyn Dodgson, 44
(pictured) a former Deutsche
Bank and Lehman Brothers
banker; Nob is his family
friend, Andrew Hind, an exfinance director at Topshop.
Both face a maximum sevenyear term. Three others
accused of working with
them are enjoying a totally
different fate. The jury at
Southwark Crown Court
acquitted Andrew Harrison,
a former Panmure Gordon
broker, and two prolific
Belgravia-based day traders,
Ben Anderson (Uncle) and
Iraj Parvizi (Fatty)
although the pair allegedly
netted 6.3m of the 7.4m
total gains.

The trial marks the

culmination of Operation
Tabernula (Latin for little
tavern), which hit the
headlines in 2010 when the
FCA launched a series of big
raids. The arrests rippled
across the City because
Dodgson was known for
his work advising the
Government. According to
the FCA, he fed tips on big
takeover bids to Hind, the
middleman, who allegedly
passed them on to traders
Anderson and Parvizi. The
conspirators used militarygrade encryption devices,
pay-as-you-go mobile
phones and Panamanian
bank accounts to cover their
tracks. Hind was described
as odd throughout the
trial, said The Independent.
The jury was told that he
hoarded food during the
2008 financial crisis, building
an armoury of spears,
hockey sticks and baseball
bats to protect his supplies.

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SERVICE RATING

In association with

Shares

CITY 47

Whos tipping what

The weeks best buys
Royal Dutch Shell
The Times
The oil and gas rm may be
forced to cut its 7.5% dividend
payment in the future, but
capital spending is decreasing,
and savings from the BG deal
are above expectations. The
yield is among the best on the
market. Buy. 17.23p.

Dominos Pizza
Investors Chronicle
The cash-generative pizza
delivery outts growth and
earnings potential remain
strong; it is increasing UK
openings to 65 this year. The
joint venture acquisition of
Joeys in Germany should
bring upside, too. Buy. 918p.

Tui
Shares
The tour operator is selling its
Hotelbeds database unit to
focus on its package holidays
business. Tuis strong balance
sheet is a key differentiator in
times of geopolitical uncertainty and volatile fuel prices.
Yields 4.6%. Buy. 991.5p.

ULS Technology
The Mail on Sunday
ULS designs conveyancing
price and services comparison
websites. Demand from
mortgage providers is strong
and its developing new
products to help consumers
save money. Prots are
expected to rise 31%.
Buy. 55.5p.
Virgin Money
The Daily Telegraph
This sturdy challenger bank
is winning market share and
outperforming rivals. Rapid
growth and a push into credit
cards and the small business
market arent reected in the
falling share price. Buy. 343p.

Brooks Macdonald
2,200
2,000

1,800

1,600

2 directors
sell 585,000

1,400

Jul

Sep

Inmarsat
The Daily Telegraph
This global leader in mobile
satellite technology has been
hammered by twin downturns
in the energy and maritime
markets. It lacks the steady
stream of contract wins needed
to drive growth. Sell. 863p.

Intertek Group
Investors Chronicle
Interteks CEO has doubled his
exposure, buying 3.72mworth of shares. But the
inspection and certication
groups strategic review is
rather thin on detail. The
lofty rating doesnt justify the
downside risks. Sell. 33.04.
Lonmin
The Sunday Times
The platinum producer faces
a fresh round of wage talks
with unions. It has closed
shafts and binned more than
5,000 jobs to combat rising
costs and plunging prices, yet
it still may be unsalvageable.
Sell. 166p.

Jan

Mar

May

Brooks is beneting
handsomely from the rising
popularity of discretionary
wealth management: shares are
up by a fth over a year. CIO
Richard Spencer has banked
gains, selling 550,000 shares
worth nearly 1m. Nonexecutive Simon Wombwell
also took prots.

and some to sell

Aberdeen Asset
Management
Investors Chronicle
The asset manager has endured
tremendous investment
outows as sentiment towards
emerging markets has soured.
Although diversifying and
cutting costs, headwinds
remain as do recurring fee
income falls. Sell. 269.5p.

Nov

Form guide
Man Group
Sharecast
Citibank has doubledowngraded the fund
managers shares to sell.
Brokers believe Mans earnings
and prots forecasts are
unrealistic and have duly
slashed them, reducing the
price target from 182p to
120p. Sell. 142.4p.
Sepura
Shares
This digital radio solutions
specialist has been so badly hit
by poor debt collection in
Brazil, and by delays on orders,
that it has collapsed, needing
a fresh emergency cash call.
Resist the urge. Sell. 76p.

Shares tipped 12 weeks ago

Best tip
Micro Focus
Investors Chronicle
up 10.35% to 15.56
Worst tip
St Modwen Properties
The Times
down 26.67% to 303.2p

Market view
There is a chronic
negative tilt. Pessimism
didnt really get
extinguished by this rally.
Jim Paulsen of Wells
Capital Management, on
news of big outflows from
US equity funds

Market summary
Key numbers
numbers for investors
Key
investors
FTSE 100
FTSE All-share UK
Dow Jones
NASDAQ
Nikkei 225
Hang Seng
Gold
Brent Crude Oil
DIVIDEND YIELD (FTSE 100)
UK 10-year gilts yield
US 10-year Treasuries
UK ECONOMIC DATA
Latest CPI (yoy)
Latest RPI (yoy)
Halifax house price (yoy)
1 STERLING

10 May 2016
6156.65
3380.82
17891.64
4787.62
16565.19
20242.68
1265.25
45.32
4.04%
1.54
1.76
0.5% (Mar)
1.6% (Mar)
+9.20% (Apr)

$1.442 g1.266 156.664

Best
shares
Best and
and worst performing shares
Week before
6185.59
3393.97
17706.46
4762.79
16147.38
20676.94
1285.65
44.83
4.01%
1.66
1.79
0.3% (Feb)
1.3% (Feb)
+10.1% (Mar)

Change (%)
0.47%
0.39%
1.05%
0.52%
2.59%
2.10%
1.59%
1.09%

WEEKS CHANGE, FTSE 100 STOCKS

RISES
Price
% change
1068.00
+8.70
Tui (Lon)
1078.00
+8.61
Capita
5325.00
+6.97
Next
1510.00
+5.23
EasyJet
+3.97
Land Securities Group 1179.00
FALLS
Inmarsat
Anglo American
Randgold Resources
Glencore
Centrica

Following the Footsie

6,600

6,400

6,200

6,000

822.50
585.80
5890.00
133.90
213.10

12.27
12.00
10.83
10.61
8.30

BEST AND WORST UK STOCKS OVERALL

2.50
+81.82
Vitesse Media
0.87
42.62
Ascent Resources

Source: Datastream (not adjusted for dividends). Prices on 10 May (pm)

5,800

5,600

5,400

Dec

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

6-month movement in the FTSE 100 index

14 May 2016 THE WEEK

SOURCE: INVESTORS CHRONICLE

Centrica
The Times
The energy rm is raising cash
to fund two acquisitions, while
waiting for the oil price to pick
up before making disposals.
The near 6% yield is highly
attractive, and theres the
prospect of long-term recovery.
Buy. 208p.

Directors dealings

48

The last word

The lost girls

It is more than two years since 276 girls were abducted from a Nigerian boarding school, sparking the social media campaign
#BringBackOurGirls. Yet most remain in capitivity, says Christina Lamb, and those who have escaped face a new nightmare
had shattered and she
walks like a dog.

The rst many people

around the world heard of
Boko Haram was when a
Twitter-savvy lawyer in the
Nigerian capital, Abuja,
came up with the hashtag
#BringBackOurGirls, after
276 schoolgirls were
abducted from a boarding
school in the small town of
Chibok, while sleeping in
Her strange stillness inside her
their dormitories, on 14 April
black-and-white shawl, and
2014. Within weeks,
the hollowness in her eyes,
#BringBackOurGirls was
speak of things no one should
Twitters most tweeted
suffer, least of all a girl who is
hashtag it has now been
still herself a child. When I
retweeted more than 6.1
ask what her husband did
million times with everyone
to her, Ruqaya looks at the
from David Cameron to Kim
ground. She says she was
Kardashian holding up
Ruqaya al Haji escaped the terrorists, but now faces a new nightmare
repeatedly raped. If she refused
placards demanding Bring
to submit, she was forced to watch videos of people having their
back our girls. On Mothers Day, Michelle Obama took over
throats slit and was told others would be murdered in front of
her husbands weekly presidential address to say: In these girls,
her. Eventually, in January, she escaped, walking and running for
Barack and I see our own daughters, and promised to help
three days to get back to her home town of Bama, in northeast
bring them back.
Nigeria, which the Nigerian army had recently recaptured from
Boko Haram. From there, she was taken 45 miles west to the
Two years on, these ne words and pledges appear to have been
Dalori camp outside the Borno state capital of Maiduguri, home
forgotten. Apart from 57 who escaped right at the start, the
to more than 20,000 refugees from Bama. Here, rather than the
Chibok girls are still missing. The world made a lot of this, but,
safety she sought, she is facing a new nightmare.
two years on, none of the girls is back, complains Nigerias
former education minister Dr Oby Ezekwesili, now vice-president
People believe those who were abducted [by Boko Haram] have
of the World Banks Africa division, who has been a forceful
become sympathisers with the
presence in the campaign. Every
terrorists and had a spell cast over
time a world leader gets up and
There was a confirmed sighting of the girls. says girls should go to school,
them, explains Dr Yagana
Bukar, a lecturer at Maiduguri
they lack moral credibility, when
The question was, what to do about it
University, who also comes
219 brave girls went to school in
but answer came there none
from Bama and who interviewed
a place called Chibok and never
dozens of these women for
came back.
a recent report by the charities International Alert and Unicef.
Because camps are organised by village, everyone knows your
Esther Yakubu, 42, a nance ofcer for Chibok local government
story and no one wants to associate with those taken by Boko
and the mother of one of the abducted girls, feels the same way.
Haram. So after everything else they have been through, they
Her daughter Dorcas would be 18 this June. She shows me a
end up ostracised.
picture of her on her phone: a smiling girl in a bright turquoise
long-sleeved dress. The photograph was taken the very week of
The Global Terrorism Index ranks Boko Haram as the worlds
her disappearance. You can see she loved fashion, she says.
deadliest terrorist group. In its quest to create an Islamic caliphate
Shes like a little bit of my heartbeat. She always takes care of
in northern Nigeria, the group has killed more than 15,000
her younger siblings without being asked, cooks. She liked singing
people, razed villages and forced more than two million people to
praises and had a nice voice. Esthers tenses switch between past
ee their homes over the past seven years. Living up to its name,
and present. I believe shes alive, she says. I used to dream of
which translates as Western education is forbidden, it has also
her coming back. If shes dead, I would know.
forced more than a million children out of school, burning the
buildings and abducting thousands to work as cooks, lookouts
In the rst few days after the abduction, a few girls drifted back.
and sex slaves. Those are the lucky ones. When Boko Haram goes Some had escaped from the trucks on the way into the forest;
into a village, it often forces the teenage boys to dig trenches, into
others had managed to pull themselves out of the trucks when
which they will fall after being lined up to have their throats cut.
they got to the forest, by grabbing hold of branches. They told
We know this because the terrorists lm it. They also lm
how the men had come in army uniforms so, at rst, they had not
schoolgirls being raped over and over again until their screams
realised it was a Boko Haram attack. Some believe there was a
become silent. Dr Ferdinand Ikwang, who runs a deradicalisation
conspiracy behind the abduction. That night, only 15 local
programme for former Boko Haram members and captives, tells
soldiers were on duty, instead of the usual 100, as some had been
me that among a group of women and girls released last year was
sent elsewhere. The school had no light as the generator had run
a ve-year-old who had been raped so many times that her pelvis
out of diesel, and the headmistress had gone away.
THE WEEK 14 May 2016

THE TIMES MAGAZINE / NEWS SYNDICATION.

When Boko Haram came for

her, Ruqaya al Haji was only
11, and about to start high
school. Now she is 13, and
four months pregnant by a
terrorist she was forced to
marry. Some people from her
home town call her a mother
by force. Others call her
bad blood or even
vampire, and believe she
has been brainwashed and
trained to kill.

The last word

49

of soap the our, cooking oil and

This theory is discounted by Hadiza
beans the refugees are supposed to
Ibrahim Mohammad, 28, a teacher of
receive are on sale in the market just
Islamic studies at the school and the
down the road.
niece of the principal. My aunt is
diabetic and a week before the attack
Among those who now live there is Ba
wasnt well, so had gone to Maiduguri
Amsa, 18, who nurses a baby as she
for treatment, she says. Hadiza knows
speaks. Ba Amsa has a limp as a result
exactly what Boko Haram is capable
of childhood polio, so when Boko
of. She moved to Chibok after jihadis
Haram entered Bama in September
burst into the house in which she was
2014, she could not run fast enough to
living in Maiduguri, in December 2012,
get away. They caught me and my
and shot her husband a lawyer
sister and took us to a kind of prison of
three times. Four months pregnant and
women, where they kept me for three
left with nothing, she got a job at the
months, giving us lessons on Islam. It
Chibok school. She says she has been
was a place for Boko Haram ghters to
nervous ever since. On the day of the
pick wives. They would tell us: Men
attack, she felt a sinister atmosphere
are coming to look at you, and told us
and mentioned to colleagues that the
Hollywood stars joined the campaign
to stand up and show our breasts; then
town looks kind of sparse, not many
they would pick ve or ten of us. You couldnt resist, because the
people in the streets, but, she says, they laughed and said:
men were armed with guns, and if you did they took you to the
Youre always scared.
bush and killed you.
The international attention that followed the abduction surprised
The man who picked her was someone she knew from Bama and
the people of Chibok, and gave them hope the girls would be
they stayed in a house in the village. He was under 30 and didnt
recovered quickly. We heard the Americans had satellites that
could see even a man walking in a street in Baghdad, says Esther. seem to know anything about religion, she says. When asked
how he treated her, she looks away. I couldnt resist him, she
But, when no news came, they found themselves in a kind of
replies. He was armed. When the Nigerian army recaptured
limbo. I cant sleep, I cant breathe, Esther says.
Bama, Ba Amsa was pregnant. This time she managed to get
away. Her son, Abuya, now four months old, was born in the
Yet The Sunday Times has learnt that there was a conrmed
camp, and she was reunited with her parents. Her four siblings
sighting of the Chibok girls but nothing was done. Dr Andrew
three brothers, two elder and one younger, and a younger sister
Pocock, who was the British high commissioner in Nigeria until
are all still missing.
he retired last July, says a substantial group of girls was located
early in the search. A couple of months after the kidnapping,
Ba Amsa says she is lucky, because her family still supports her.
y-bys and an American eye in the sky spotted a group of up to
But she worries about her sons future. This baby is a reminder
80 girls in a particular spot in the Sambisa Forest, around a very
of all the pain, but this child doesnt even know of its own
large tree called locally the Tree of Life along with evidence of
vehicular movement and a large encampment. They were there for existence, so it has no blame, she says. All the bad things
that happened to me are because of the dad, not him. This child
perhaps up to four weeks, and the question was what to do about
is innocent.
them. Answer came there none.
None of the girls I speak to had been trained to ght instead,
Despite all the #BringBackOurGirls fervour in London and the
they had been sex slaves. But they had heard that girls were
White House, there was no appetite from Downing Street or
being trained as suicide bombers
Washington to put troops on the
in a particular camp. I am told
ground. Whats more, Pocock
One young girl, found in the bush, is so
about a girl in Dalori camp,
says, the Nigerians never asked
thought to be nine or ten, who
for that. An attack of any kind
traumatised that she cannot say her name.
had been sexually abused, and
would have been far too risky,
She just keeps saying bomb
who was found in the bush. She
not just for the rescuers but also
is so traumatised that she cannot
the girls. You might have
say her name. No one knows where she is from, she just keeps
rescued a few, but many would have been killed, Pocock says.
saying bomb.
My personal fear was always about the girls not in that
encampment 80 were there, but more than 250 were taken, so
Even if the Chibok girls do come back, their communities may
the bulk were not there. What would have happened to them? Its
not welcome them. Rather than being a cause clbre, they have
perfectly conceivable that Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Boko
become bogeymen. Many people tell me a story completely
Haram, would have appeared in one of his videos a week later,
uncorroborated that one of the Chibok girls came back and
saying: Who told you that you could try and free these girls? Let
killed her sister in the night. Another is said to have come back
me show you what Ive done to them So you were damned if
and poisoned her family. The girls are stigmatised, says the
you did, damned if you didnt. They were beyond rescue, in
teacher Hadiza. Even if my cousin is freed, we will be scared
practical terms.
and cant trust her no one will want to marry her. I would
personally be very scared of her.
Many of the thousands of other girls taken by Boko Haram,
before and since the Chibok abduction, have escaped or been
Meanwhile, Esther Yakubu and the other parents wait, desperate
rescued. But what happens to them becomes horribly clear on
to see their long-lost daughters but also fearful of what they will
a visit to Maiduguri. There are at least 19 camps of internally
nd. I have nightmares about her being raped, Esther says.
displaced people (IDPs) around the city. The Dalori camp, where
But in those nightmares, I embrace her. For me its not a
I met Ruqaya, the 13-year-old mother by force, is the largest. It
problem if shes been raped, pregnant, converted to Islam, I just
accommodates about 22,000 people and is on the edge of town,
want to see her. We just want our daughters back, no matter
amid parched earth dotted with bare baobab trees. As the oldest
what the condition.
camp, set in a former technical college, it is said to be the best
equipped and has rows of white tents, but it is still a miserable
A longer version of this article rst appeared in The Sunday
place, with only one working tap. The tents are no escape from
Times. The Sunday Times Magazine/News Syndication.
the searing 40C heat. Rations are merely rice and a monthly bar
14 May 2016 THE WEEK

Crossword

51

THE WEEK CROSSWORD 1004

This weeks crossword winner

will receive an Ettinger (www.
ettinger.co.uk) Brogue Collection
nut coin purse, which retails at
150, and two Connell Guides
(www.connellguides.com).

An Ettinger coin purse and two Connell Guides will be given to the sender of the first
correct solution to the crossword and the clue of the week opened on Monday 23 May. Send
it to: The Week Crossword 1004, 2nd floor, 32 Queensway, London W2 3RX, or email the
answers to crossword@theweek.co.uk. Set by Tim Moorey (www.timmoorey.info)
DOWN
1 Newt-like amphibian say, tailless
and seen in the sea near Brest (10)
2 Put up with a vice and acts as a
vice! (6,2)
3 Not close to home, Heartbeat
broadcast where there are
lawyers (2,3,3)
4 Duck chum its a stone! (4)
5 Im sadly served up meat thats
sliced (6)
6 Sailor making a speech, nothing
less (6)
7 Scots go for group of
youngsters (4)
14 Perhaps time to retire, Sir
shouted out (5)
15 Blonde scatterbrain bores US
agent (4-6)
18 We hear Soross first for
generosity (8)
19 Bull in which a hundred drink
gin (8)
21 Sensational publicity for a water
company? (6)
22 A shed with old case sadly shut
down (6)
25 First mate is a lawyer getting
married (4)
26 Branch location revealed by
Turgenev, oddly (4)

ACROSS
8 US lyricists courage spoken of (4)
9 Leaders in a business first out to
lunch? (3,7)
10 Corporation box includes head of
administration (6)
11 Tendency to blast a new single
out (8)
12 Without rooms for treating sick
pupils (4)
13 Master baker, temporarily
unavailable is avoiding work (7,3)
16 Back of the study is a perfect
place (4)
17 Knocked back beer like a king (5)
19 Piece of potato is cold with it (4)
20 Court poser replaced by public
official (10)
23 One uneasy with certain people,
like Cinders (4)
24 Vessel that sounds rather
macho (8)
27 Minor actors bye-bye! (6)
28 Musical tenor quits? Me
perhaps (3,7)
29 Top copy gets a cross (4)

10

11

12

13

16

17

20

24

21

14

15

18

22

25

19

23

26

27

28

29

Name
Address
Clue of the week: First Lady to remain Hillarys highest ascent?
(7, first letter E) Independent, Klingsor

Tel no
Clue of the week answer:

Solution to Crossword 1002

ACROSS: 1 Gas heating 7 Punt 9 Touching 10 Notate 11 At that
13 Agonised 14 Board meeting 17 Hire-purchase 20 Chit-chat 21 Undies
22 Godiva 23 Bit parts 25 Berg 26 The Archers
DOWN: 2 Adoption 3 Hic 4 A-list 5 Ingrate 6 Gondolier 7 Potting shed
8 Nutter 12 Hard-hitting 15 March past 16 Assenter 18 Potable 19 The one
21 Utter 24 Ash
Clue of the week: Plug connecting to a different port? (7, first letter A, last
letter R) Solution: ADAPTOR (PLUG = AD + A PORT ANAGRAM)

The winner of 1002 is Mr P.M. Sizer from Solihull

The Week is available on CD and via the e-text service from National
Talking Newspapers on 01435-866102; www.tnauk.org.uk

8
9
3

4
2

6
2
5

9
7

Sudoku 548 (very difficult)

Fill in all the squares so that
each row, column and each
of the 3x3 squares contains
all the digits from 1 to 9
Solution to
to Sudoku
Sudoku 547
228
Solution
3

Puzzle supplied by

Puzzle supplied by

Charity of the week

CASPA is a registered charity which runs a wide
range of programmes for young people aged
0-25 on the autism spectrum. Our programmes
encourage participation in activities to aid
social skills and communication development,
as well as providing learning opportunities, fostering independent living
skills, and developing employment skills. We work with families in Bromley,
south London and Kent, and offer support, counselling and information to
parents/carers. Children on the autism spectrum are not usually afforded the
understanding or acceptance that someone with a more obvious disability
may be, and they can suffer a multitude of disadvantages. We work to
build self-confidence, address skill gaps and enable this isolated group to
integrate successfully into society. For more information, visit www.
caspabromley.org.uk or CASPA Autism online on Facebook.

P1073B
P1073P

SOURCES: A complete list of publications cited in

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14 May 2016 THE WEEK