URL
stringlengths 34
373
⌀ | Article Category
stringclasses 126
values | Publication Date
stringlengths 20
25
⌀ | Article Author
stringlengths 3
44
⌀ | Article Title
stringlengths 3
236
⌀ | Article Contents
stringlengths 3
49.8k
⌀ | Data Quality
stringclasses 2
values |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/crossword-blog/2019/jul/15/crossword-blog-a-cluedoku-qa-with-chameleon | Crosswords | 2019-07-15T17:18:12.000Z | Alan Connor | Crossword blog: a cluedoku Q&A with Chameleon | If you haven’t solved our guest cluedoku puzzle, here it is. If you have solved it, but missed the wonderfully annotated solution, here it is. Based on your feedback, here’s a Q&A with Chameleon, also known as Charlie Methven.
What on earth made you want to do this?
A few years ago, I did what I called a “crossletter” for a Norwich-based mini-magazine in the form of a bookmark.
This had 26 clues, each leading to a letter of the alphabet (“Line of people, or just its front, say” for Q, “Sign of affection” for X, etc). After that it occurred to me that I could do a similar thing cluing numbers, at which point it seemed obvious to try to do it as a sudoku.
When I landed on the “cluedoku” pun, I knew I had to at least give it a go, but I didn’t quite realise how difficult it would be to come up with 81 clues.
Parts of the puzzle are straightforwardly fine cryptic clues. How did you decide where to put them?
I used an online sudoku generator to get the solution grid, and then more or less arranged the clues at random, although I did deliberately put snappy/memorable clues in at clues 1 and 81 and tried to avoid similar clues appearing close together.
And how much did you expect the solver to have to use sudoku logic?
I set the puzzle on the assumption that the overlaps from the sudoku would be needed to figure out some of the clues. I wanted solvers to need some element of cryptic-style “crossing” even if the answers weren’t exactly words.
I suppose each column, row and square is a bit like a nine-digit word (not one in Chambers, I’m afraid).
The huge amount of extra help given by having unique numbers in every row, column and 3x3 square meant that you used some pretty devious clues. How did that feel? Liberating?
I’m not sure about liberating, exactly, but I definitely felt I could take more liberties.
A lot of the definitions are pretty oblique, and some of them (like “Man’s arms’ leg’s digit”) are almost like quiz questions redirecting solvers to a bit of trivia which will then yield the solution. I don’t think solvers would stand for THREE being defined that way in an ordinary cryptic, but I thought it’d be more fun for setter and solvers alike if I could use these sorts of definitions here.
Actually, now I think of it, those definitions seem a bit closer to the sort of quizzical ones often found in American crosswords, so maybe a greater number of crossers always invites more liberal definitions. I’m very grateful to those who attempted the puzzle for putting up with clues like these!
They were some of my favourite moments. At what moment did you feel most ‘out there’ (or, to be more polite, pioneering)?
It probably has to be clue 76, the one with the backwards-then-upside-down string of Greek letters.
I had to install a new font (with only one character) to display it properly in the puzzle, and even when I was writing up the solution I kept forgetting the precise sequence of transformations needed to get the answer.
One of my own favourites was the other Greek letter one, “Give 2c – π”.
I suppose the clues referring to visual forms of the numbers (2 as a “Swan’s neck”, 7 as the “Introduction to Zen” without a bottom line) are also a bit off the wall, but I actually think there’s scope for using that sort of clue a lot more in an ordinary cryptic. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a clue telling me to flip a W in a word to make it an M, for example. Maybe more experienced solvers have?
Not in a regular puzzle, though it reminds me of more elaborate devices in the Listener, Inquisitor and the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. Readers, could this be a useful addition to a setter’s armoury? And Chameleon, surely the cluedoku is a one-off?
I was very flattered to see some of the commenters looking forward to the next one, but I’m afraid I won’t be attempting another numerical cluedoku any time soon.
Aside from the time required, it’s almost a supply-and-demand issue. You’ve got to have anagrams in a cryptic crossword – even a hybrid one – and I haven’t left myself many of those to work with for a future puzzle (although there’s a great Brian Eno-based clue waiting to be written … ). I’ve more or less used up the available homophones as well.
I’d consider doing another cluedoku with a different set of nine solutions, though. I like the potential topics suggested by Catarella and TonyCollman in the comments under the original puzzle, and I’d be very intrigued to see either of them or others have a go at doing a puzzle using this structure.
If I did another Chameleon cluedoku, I think I’d use the seven colours of the rainbow plus black and white, as solvers could then colour in each square as they solved. How’s “Cry over Norwich’s core Canary”?
Hang on … ah, very nice. Finally, where would you advise visitors to your site to go next?
As luck would have it, I’ve just uploaded Chameleon #7, which may or may not contain some Easter eggs for cluedoku solvers.
Other than that: I got a pretty good reception for Chameleon #6 when it was in the hot seat at Big Dave’s Rookie Corner, Chameleon #3 has an Abba theme, if that floats your boat, and I think Porcia may have Chameleon #5 in mind when she comments that I sneak “visual chicanery” into my puzzles.
Thanks very much to everybody who persevered with the puzzle, apologies to anyone who abandoned it, and thanks also to you, Alan, for hosting it in the first place.
Many thanks to Chameleon, Chameleon #7 is recommended and I hope others are inspired … | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/apr/11/ivory-coast-former-leader-arrested | World news | 2011-04-11T19:33:41.000Z | Xan Rice | Ivory Coast's Laurent Gbagbo arrested – four months on | World leaders have welcomed the sudden arrest of Ivory Coast's defiant former leader Laurent Gbagbo, but there were warnings that the conflict may not yet be over.
Having refused to stand down for four months after losing the presidential election, even as the country descended into civil war, Gbagbo was finally detained at his personal residence by forces loyal to the country's elected president, Alassane Ouattara. French troops and United Nations peacekeepers, who had earlier struck Gbagbo's home in the main city, Abidjan, from the air, provided crucial support.
"We attacked and forced in a part of the bunker," Issard Soumahro, a pro-Ouattara fighter at the scene, told Associated Press. "He was there with his wife and his son. He wasn't hurt, but he was tired and his cheek was swollen from where a soldier had slapped him."
The UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, said that Gbagbo's arrest marked the "end of a chapter that should never have been". The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, said it "sends a strong signal to dictators and tyrants throughout the region and around the world".
Youssoufou Bamba, Ouattara's ambassador to the UN, said: "The nightmare is over for the people of Ivory Coast."
Gbagbo, who has been hiding in a bunker under his house for a week, was interrogated and then taken to the Golf hotel, where Ouattara has been based under UN protection since early December. UN peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy said that Gbagbo and his influential wife Simone were being held under guard in an apartment at the hotel.
"To my knowledge, most of the fighting has stopped but there are pockets of resistance," said Le Roy.
Abidjan has been the scene of fierce fighting for the past week after Ouattara's forces swept down from the north, his stronghold, after becoming frustrated by Gbagbo's refusal to consider stepping aside. They were aided by peacekeepers from the UN and Ivory Coast's former colonial ruler, France, which estimated that Gbagbo had about 1,000 men still loyal to him by the end of last week.
Following the arrest, Ouattara's appointed prime minister, Guillaume Soro, called on these troops to switch sides. "To all the forces, I make a last appeal to rally [with us] … there cannot be a manhunt," Soro said, in an address to the Ivorian people on the French television station I-Télé.
But some analysts warned that the conflict, which has cost more than 1,500 lives, would be difficult to end, especially because of the French role in removing Gbagbo. The former president, once a history professor and who studied at the Sorbonne, had portrayed the conflict as a fight against foreign forces, and France's Licorne peacekeepers in particular.
"This is just the start of the crisis," said Kwesi Aning, head of research at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Centre in Ghana. "The role of French Licorne forces undermines Ouattara's credibility. There may be a lull for a couple of months, but certainly there will be attacks to try to reverse this defeat."
The deep divisions in Ivory Coast, which has been split into north and south since the brief 2002 civil war, mean that Ouattara will have to tread carefully in his handling of Gbagbo, who over the past decade stoked xenophobia aimed at Ivorians whose parents or grandparents came from neighbouring countries. And for all his failings, which included repeatedly postponing elections to stay in power, Gbagbo still commanded a lot of support, winning 46% of the vote in November.
Ouattara's ambassador to France, Ali Coulibaly, told French radio that Gbagbo would be "treated with humanity".
"We must not in any way make a royal gift to Laurent Gbagbo in making him a martyr. He must be alive and he must answer for the crimes against humanity that he committed," he said.
Few doubt that such charges are true. By the end, Gbagbo was abandoned by all his allies, even in Africa, for refusing to negotiate his surrender, even as his forces were killing hundreds of people.
William Hague, the foreign secretary, accused Gbagbo of acting against democratic principles, but called for the former president to be treated with respect. Speaking in London after a meeting with his Italian counterpart, Franco Frattini, Hague said: "Mr Gbagbo has acted against any democratic principles in the way he has behaved in recent months and of course there have been many, many breaches of any rule of law as well. At the same time, we would say that he must be treated with respect, and any judicial process that follows should be a fair and properly organised judicial process.
"Above all, we all hope that this is now an opportunity for the people of that country who have been through so much in recent months to find a democratic way forward, a more peaceful way forward, for reconciliation to take place in that country."
Clinton said that other leaders who refuse to step aside after free and fair elections should now realise "there will be consequences for those who cling to power".
The EU welcomed "Ouattara's will to bring peace and justice to Ivory Coast", but said he needed to ensure that the perpetrators of crimes against civilians face justice. This includes members of his own forces, who have been accused of massacres during their march on Abidjan. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2024/feb/16/chess-carlsen-v-caruana-in-freestyle-final-as-ding-loses-seven-in-a-row | Sport | 2024-02-16T16:47:04.000Z | Leonard Barden | Chess: Carlsen beats Caruana in freestyle final while Ding finishes last | “Freestyle chess” is a new name for the variant where the back rank pieces are placed randomly, so as to make the game more a test of skill and imagination than memory of book openings. It used to be called Fischer Random after its inventor, then Chess 960 or Chess 9LX after the number of possible starting positions.
Elite grandmasters like it, and this week a $200,000 event took place at the Weissenhaus resort on Germany’s Baltic Sea coast. Half of the eight competitors, including the world No 1, Magnus Carlsen, and the world champion, Ding Liren, were over-30s, while the other four were under-21s.
The rapid section, to decide the classical knockout pairings, was a disaster for Ding, who was struggling with health issues and lost seven games in a row. Levon Aronian beat him in 18 moves with a queen sacrifice.
Carlsen had prepared at a training camp in Spain along with England’s Olympiad gold medallist, David Howell, but made a slow start, although he won a 19-move brilliancy of his own.
The event then moved into its knockout rounds, where Carlsen lost his first game to Alireza Firouzja before recovering to win 3-1, while Ding’s dire form continued. The under-21s could produce only one semi-finalist, where the pairings were Nodirbek Abdusattorov v Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana v Aronian, who decided his quarter-final by another miniature shown in this week’s puzzle.
Levon Aronian v Vincent Keymer, Freestyle Chess, Weissenhaus 2024. White to move and win.
Carlsen won the tournament and the $60,000 first prize after three hours play on Friday when he gradually outplayed Caruana and converted two extra pawns in a 44-move rook ending. Aronian, the oldest competitor at 41, defeated Abdusattorov to finish third while Ding was last of eight.
The sponsor, Jan Buettner, said that the event would return to Germany in February 2025, when there could also be a Freestyle Tour, with events in the US in May, India in August, and Cape Town, South Africa, in November.
Will chess fans be convinced? Decide for yourself by tuning in to Friday’s Carlsen v Caruana final. Game two starts at noon GMT, lasts 3-5 hours, after which a 1-1 score leads to rapid, blitz and Armageddon tiebreaks.
Next Monday the second Cambridge international tournament starts, and with it an opportunity for the eight-time British champion Michael Adams to continue an extraordinary sequence.
The Cornishman, 52, won the inaugural Cambridge event in February 2023, then followed up with the English Championship in May, the British Championship in July, the World Senior Teams gold medal in September, the individual World Senior 50+ in November, and the London Classic in December.
Six important tournaments, six first prizes, 54 games, 34 wins, 20 draws, no defeats. Bobby Fischer and Carlsen made famously long unbeaten runs in their 20s, but to do it in your 50s is something else. The run was achieved in Adams’s classical, orthodox style, plus knowing when to push for a win and when to save energy. Cambridge 2024 will be a fresh challenge, as the entry is stronger than last year, with several 2500+ GMs in the field.
Cambridge will also be significant for a quartet of rising British talents. Shreyas Royal, 15, needs a third and final norm plus a handful of rating points to become England’s youngest ever GM, but still has to earn it. The 4NCL league, where he plays top board for Wood Green Youth, could also be an opportunity, but with 3.5/6 there he still has work to do.
Frederick Waldhausen Gordon, 13, already has one IM result, and may soon be Scotland’s No 1. He is in good form and won a fine game in last weekend’s 4NCL against GM John Emms.
Sign up to The Recap
Free weekly newsletter
The best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend’s action
Enter your email address
Sign up
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
It was a well analysed Semi-Tarrasch, where Gordon’s 17 Qd3 innovated over the normal 17 Qf4, and which, after a few inaccuracies, he won thematically by combining an advance of his d pawn with threats to the black king.
Chess: Carlsen beats Firouzja to secure another Champions Tour title
Read more
Supratit Banerjee, who has just transferred from Scotland to England, is based near Coulsdon, Surrey. The nine-year-old is in contention to be world No 1 in his age group, and gained 137 rating points last month with promising results at Hastings, where he drew with the strong IM Ameet Ghasi, and in 4NCL events.
Bodhana Sivanandan set historic records last month with her dazzling performance at the European Women’s Blitz in Monaco. The eight-year-old’s results in slower classical games are less striking, but last weekend at the 4NCL she scored a good win against a 2000+ opponent, with 41 Nxe6! leading to a crushing attack.
Chess in Schools and Communities, which has introduced chess to tens of thousands of pupils, as well as organising the London Classic and working in prisons, has just published a new report on its activities. It’s an impressive read.
Fide celebrates its centenary this year. Commemorative events began this week with a global torch journey, launched by Vishy Anand, Judit Polgar, and others, from the 2022 Olympiad in India to the 2024 Olympiad in Budapest.
3907: 1 Rxd6+! and Black resigned. If cxd6 2 Bb6+ Kc8 3 Rc4+ and mates. If Rxd6 2 Rxe8+ Kxe8 3 Qxg8+ and 4 Qxb8 wins. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/radical-conservation/2015/oct/20/the-four-horsemen-of-the-sixth-mass-extinction | Environment | 2015-10-20T08:12:01.000Z | Jeremy Hance | How humans are driving the sixth mass extinction | Periodically, in the vast spans of time that have preceded us, our planet’s living beings have been purged by planetary catastrophes so extreme they make your typical Ice Age look like the geological equivalent of a stroll in the park. Scientists count just five mass extinctions in an unimaginably long expanse of 450 million years, but they warn we may well be entering a sixth.
According to a bold new paper in The Anthropocene Review, this time would be different from past mass extinctions in four crucial ways – and all of these stem from the impact of a single species that arrived on the scene just 200,000 years ago: Homo sapiens.
“There is no point in apportioning blame for what is happening,” said lead author and geologist, Mark Williams, with the University of Leicester, since humans “didn’t deliberately engineer this situation.”
“Rather we have to recognise that our impact is game-changing on this planet, that we are all responsible, and that we have to become stewards of nature – as a part of it, rather than behaving like children rampaging through a sweetshop,” Williams noted.
Some scientists argue that amphibians are already experiencing a mass extinction. The golden toad has not been seen since 1989 and is believed extinct, possibly due to a combination of habitat loss and the chytrid fungus which has wiped out amphibians around the world. It’s belived the chytrid fungus was delivered via internaitonal travelers. Photograph: Conservation International/PA
The impacts of a still-avoidable sixth mass extinction would likely be so massive they’d be best described as science fiction. It would be catastrophic, widespread and, of course, irreversible. In the past, it has taken life ten to thirty million years to recover after such an extinction, 40 to 120 times as long as modern-looking humans have been telling tales by firelight. Moreover, Williams and his team argue that future changes driven by humanity may go so far as to create not just a new epoch in geologic history – such as the widely-touted Anthropocene – but a fundamental reshaping of Earth on par with the rise of microbes or the later shift from microbes to multicellular organisms.
“Fundamental changes on a planetary system scale have already begun,” said co-author Peter Haff, a geologist and engineer with Duke University. “The very considerable uncertainty is how long these will last – whether they will simply be a brief, unique excursion in Earth history, or whether they will persist and evolve into a new, geologically long-lasting, planetary state.”
But what are these “fundamental changes” that would makes this mass extinction different from the previous five?
“Episodes of global warming, ocean acidification and mass extinction have all happened before, well before humans arrived on the planet,” co-author Jan Zaleasiewicz, a paleobiologist with the University of Leicester, said. “We wanted to see if there was something different about what is happening now.”
Turns out there is.
Meet the four horsemen of the Sixth Mass Extinction
A firefighter holds a water pipe as they extinguish a fire on burned peatlands in Palembang, South Sumatra, Indonesia. The air pollution or haze has been an annual problem for the past 18 years in Indonesia. It’s caused by the illegal burning of forest and peat fires on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo to clear new land for the production of pulp, paper and palm oil. Singapore and Malaysia have offered to help the Indonesian government to fight against the fires, as infants and their mothers are evacuated to escape the record pollution levels. Photograph: Ulet Ifansasti/Getty Images
The team of geologists and biologists say that our current extinction crisis is unique in Earth’s history due to four characteristics: the spread of non-native species around the world; a single species (us) taking over a significant percentage of the world’s primary production; human actions increasingly directing evolution; and the rise of something called the technosphere.
The first real change is what the authors of the study call the “global homogenisation of flora and fauna.” Basically what this means is that you can eat tomatoes in Italy, hunt oryx in Texas, ride horses in Chile, curse cane toads in Australia, dig earthworms in eastern North America and catch rats in the Galapagos. None of these things would have been possible without human intervention: our penchant for globetrotting has brought innumerable species to new habitats, often wreaking havoc on existing ecological communities and sometimes leading to extinctions.
Secondly, over the last few centuries, humans have essentially become the top predator not only on land, but also across the sea. No other species in the past can claim such a distinction. In doing so, humanity has begun using 25 to 40% of the planet’s net primary production for its own purposes. Moreover, we have added to this the use of fossil fuels for energy, essentially mining primary production from the past.
“It’s not hubris to say this,” Williams contended. “Never before have animal and plants (and other organisms for that matter) been translocated on a global scale around the planet. Never before has one species dominated primary production in the manner that we do. Never before has one species remodelled the terrestrial biosphere so dramatically to serve its own ends – the huge amount of biomass in the animals we eat.”
Thousands of shark fins line a street, obstructing traffic in Hong Kong, China. Sharks have long been one of the top predators in the oceans, but they have been usurped by humans. Today, they are among the most threatened of marine species worldwide due to overfishing largely for their fins. Photograph: Paul Hilton/Paul Hilton/EPA/Corbis
Thirdly, humanity has become a massive force in directing evolution. This is most apparent, of course, in the domestication of animals and the cultivation of crops over thousands of years. But humans are directing evolution in numerous other ways, as well.
“We are directly manipulating genomes by artificial selection and molecular techniques, and indirectly by managing ecosystems and populations to conserve them,” said co-author Erle Ellis, an expert on the Anthropocene with the University of Maryland. He added that even conservation is impacting evolution.
I would argue that domesticated animals and plants, as well as humans, are parts of the technosphere.
Peter Haff
“As human management of ecosystems and populations increases, even when aimed at conservation, evolutionary processes are altered. To sustain processes of evolution that are not guided by human societies intentionally and unintentionally will require a sea change in management approaches.”
Finally, the current extinction crisis is being amplified by what the researchers call the technosphere.
Technosphere?
Peter Haff coined the term technosphere just last year. He defines the technosphere as “the global, energy consuming techno-social system that is comprised of humans, technological artifacts, and technological systems, together with the links, protocols and information that bind all these parts together.”
Basically, the technosphere is the vast, sprawling combination of humanity and its technology. Haff argues that in our thousands of years of harnessing technology – including the first technologies like stone tools, wheels and crops – the technology itself has basically begun to act practically independently, creating a new sphere (i.e., like the biosphere or atmosphere or lithosphere), but like nothing the planet has ever seen before.
“I would argue that domesticated animals and plants, as well as humans, are parts of the technosphere,” said Haff. “These are in effect manufactured by the technosphere for its own use on the basis of genetic blueprints appropriated from the biosphere.”
Electronic waste in Agbogbloshie dump, Accra, Ghana. E-waste trash pickers risk their health in search of metals they can sell. Photograph: Andrew McConnell / Alamy/Alamy
We’ve reached a point, according to Haff, where we can’t just shut technology off. As such, the technosphere as a whole is elevated above humanity.
“In this sense, the technosphere already generates its own living tissue, thus integrating with biology,” noted Haff.
Although, humans were the original progenitors of this technology, we have, in effect, lost control. Like Doctor Frankenstein from Mary Shelley’s great novel, not only has our creation asserted its own agency, but it now wields its power over us.
Although the paper relies heavily on the idea of the technosphere as a primary driver of both the extinction crisis and current geological changes, not every researcher in the study agreed with the idea.
“I am a dissenter on the use of this term...I would have eliminated it if it were up to me alone. I find the term ‘technosphere’ neither appropriate nor accurate...It makes it appear that technology is the defining element of human alteration of the Earth system,” Ellis said, adding that “humans and societies create and sustain technologies, not the other way around – though of course there is a tight coupling of societies with technologies.”
Ellis called such an idea not only “inaccurate,” but defeatist.
“[The concept of the technosphere] is politically and socially disenfranchising and alienating people and societies - and their potential to guide, at least to some degree, this global human force behind the anthropocene.”
To Ellis the key is not the rise of technology, but rather humanity’s incredibly rich social life. He maintains that our “ultrasocialness” is the major driving force behind the changes on the planet we are witnessing today.
Pig carcasses hanging in an abattoir in Yorkshire, England. Demand for meat, which is rising globally, is a significant driver of deforestation, habitat destruction and climate change. Photograph: FLPA/John Eveson/REX
“It was behaviorally modern humans, with their ultrasocial behaviors and complex societies that spread across the Earth, became increasingly larger scale societies, ultimately gaining the capacity to transform the entire Earth. Technology is not the driver of Earth system change – social change is the cause of this.”
But Haff insists that technology, not modern humans, is the “new and enabling ingredient” for global transformation – including the potential for mass extinction.
“The technosphere is not meant as a stand in or short hand for a supposed ‘novel human force’ in the earth system,” he explained. “The name ‘technosphere’ arose in part to discourage such an idea. There exists no such human force. What is present, and novel, is the collective system of many people and much technology.”
Like Nothing the Earth Has Ever Seen
Regardless of whether scientists stress the role of humans or technology in transforming the planet, the researchers all agree that the arrival of modern Homo sapiens has transformed the planet. But how much?
“If humans were to go extinct tomorrow, then our impact on the biosphere would be recognisable as an epoch boundary – like the boundary between the Pleistocene and Holocene,” Williams pointed out. “After us, a few tens to hundreds of thousands of years in the future, the biosphere would find a new equilibrium without us, and probably with its biodiversity largely intact.”
Trucks and machinery along routes within the Suncore Oil Sands site near to Fort McMurray in Northern Alberta. Canada’s tar sands is one of the largest industrial projects on the planet, turning boreal forest, rivers and bogs into a scarred landscape. Photograph: David Levene
Or as the paper puts it: “if the technosphere were to collapse what would remain is physical evidence of its history, as a preserved stratigraphic signal in the rocks. This will include a short-lived event bed of ‘urban strata’ and related deposits, recording rapid technospheric evolution and deep roots via preserved tunnels, mines and boreholes; a climate perturbation that might last [100-200,000 years] and a permanent reconfiguration of the biosphere...resulting from the effect of trans-global species invasions and a moderate- to large-scale mass extinction event.”
Okay, but what if we don’t go extinct anytime soon?
There is no ‘ending’: the challenges of the Anthropocene are permanent. Humanity and nature are inextricably coupled.
Erle Ellis
“If the changes made to the biosphere by humans continue to accelerate and are sustainable, and if our interaction with the technosphere becomes a major component of Earth’s future trajectory, then the changes can be argued to be really fundamental,” Williams added.
The scientists argue then that the changes would be so extreme, and so unlike anything that the Earth has ever seen before, that it could represent a geological shift as big as the rise of microbes on the planet or the rise of multicellular organisms. For example, imagine a world where humans and their technology effectively control the global temperature through geo-engineering or a world where humans wholeheartedly and deliberately manipulate evolution for their own (or the technosphere’s) ends.
Zaleasiewicz said that while some researchers argue that such changes could turn out all right, most argue the still-developing Anthropocene “will mostly be a very bumpy ride for humanity, and for life in general, as it evolves,” adding that “previous perturbations of the Earth system have seen both winners and losers, so perhaps that is a more realistic scenario.”
So, WTF Do We DO?
The researchers are clear: we can’t go back in time, to some pre-human, arguably pristine environment.
“There is no ‘ending’: the challenges of the Anthropocene are permanent,” said Ellis. “Humanity and nature are inextricably coupled for the foreseeable future.”
Moreover, according to Zaleasiewicz, the momentum is not on our side.
The dead body of a Indian rhinoceros, which was killed by poachers this year in Assam, India. Several rhino species are on the edge of extinction due to demand for their horns. Photograph: Anuwar Ali Hazarika / Barcroft I/Anuwar Hazarika / Barcroft India
“There’s clearly a rapidly moving – and accelerating – dynamic involved, and it can be argued that this is needed and inevitable to feed, clothe and shelter and extra two to three billion people over the next few decades.”
However, even with all that, the scientists say it’s not too late to avoid a total mass extinction and ecological meltdown.
“We are not in a mass extinction event yet, and it’s very important to emphasise that, because it means we can still make changes,” said Williams.
The scientists agree that to avoid mass extinction – and tackle the current environmental crisis – is possible but will require large-scale changes not only in how society operates but how humans view their relation to the natural world.
“It’s about recognising that we are stewards of nature and that every action we make will have an effect on the biosphere somewhere,” said Williams. “If at a very basic level we could get people to make that connection then we would have fundamentally changed human behavior.”
But how do we do this?
“I think there are parallels with getting people to recognize that ‘drunk driving’ is a mistake or ‘wearing a seatbelt is a good thing,’” Williams went on. “I remember the campaigns from the 1970s and though this might sound glib, it’s fundamental to the problem. Humans are the problem, but they are also the solution.”
Ellis agreed that humans must move on from the view that we are somehow separate from nature (or that nature somehow exists separate from us) and, instead, embrace our role as “permanent shapers and stewards of the biosphere and the species within it.”
He also sees several positive trends underway, including urbanisation, rising awareness of the plight of biodiversity, the increasing potential for societies to create change at large scales and the possibility of decoupling of the global economy from ecosystem destruction.
The baiji, or Yangtze river dolphin, was declared functionally extinct in 2006. The species, which has swam the Yangtze for some 20 million years, was the first cetacean to go extinct due to human activities. Overfishing, habitat destruction, electrofishing, boat traffic, dam-building and pollution all likely played a role in the species’ demise. Photograph: AFP
“Still, the large scale of modern societies is daunting,” Ellis cautioned, “and for these trends to reach their full potential will require far greater strategic effort – just letting things happen will not yield a better future.”
According to him practical solutions “will require a combination of conservation, restoration, rewilding, engineering, emergence, and design.”
“We must recognize that there is no option to ‘leave the Earth alone,’ “ Ellis added. “The responsibility for the future of the planet is ours now.”
It’s a big responsibility – bigger than any other species on Earth has ever faced – and so far we’ve hardly proved ourselves up to it. But there is still time. And time means hope – but not without action. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/oct/03/robert-gober-moma-retrospective-review-sculpture-art | Art and design | 2014-10-03T15:14:20.000Z | Jason Farago | Robert Gober opens at MoMA: sober, haunting and genuinely affecting | The first artwork in Robert Gober’s long-awaited retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York is a little oil painting of his childhood home in Connecticut, done when he was only 21. It’s a perfectly competent but undistinguished painting, and many other artists would have left such a youthful work out of a major museum survey. Gober hangs it right at the front, because with his art you never leave home. Childhood marks us for life.
The past haunts seemingly empty places, and memories rise up unwilled. Even the echoing galleries of MoMA’s second floor can be transformed into fraught domestic spaces: one white cube is interrupted by a closet door just a little too small, like the bedroom you grew up in, abandoned, but cannot forget.
Over three decades Gober, one of the most powerful but puzzling artists to emerge in 1980s New York, has produced sculptures and drawings that are spare, sad, eccentric and deeply moving – but moving in a way that can be maddeningly hard to explain.
His handmade wax and plaster objects, of disembodied legs or of a flour sack with human breasts, reinscribed personal histories and deep emotion into American sculpture, after decades when the avant-garde disdained anything that smelled of narrative.
Robert Gober, Untitled. Photograph: D. James Dee, courtesy the artist and Matthew Marks Gallery
What those narratives might say, however, is not so clear. Even this show’s catalogue, scaled more like a novel than the standard museum retrospective doorstop, prefers intimacy to analysis. (It contains, by the way, one of the most beautiful essays on contemporary art I have read in years: a 60-page tour de force by Hilton Als, the New Yorker critic and author of White Girls, that sets Gober’s work amid personal explorations of sexual, racial and religious identity.)
Gober’s most arresting sculptures from the 1980s are plaster sinks, mounted relatively low on the gallery walls. They are not readymades, like Duchamp’s upturned urinal of 1917. They are painstakingly crafted sculptures of sinks, fragile, delicate, from a limbo zone between industrial production and personal craft. Where the faucets should be are only two little holes, and drains are absent too, which turns the sinks into surprisingly anthropomorphic sculptures: a torso with two nipples and a bellybutton, maybe.
They also recall the ablutions of Catholic worship – Gober was an altar boy in his youth – and the suffering of people with HIV/Aids, among them many of Gober’s friends. On a scaffolding outside one of MoMA’s big picture windows, two sink sculptures are half-buried in a grassy knoll, two his-and-his tombstones.
Childhood, sexuality, illness, religion. Gober’s sculptures are sphinx-like but his themes are as big as they come, and they play out, more than anywhere, on the terrain of the human body. By 1989 he was casting beeswax into sculptures of men’s legs, complete not only with shoes and trouser legs but also human hair stuck to the ankles. One pair of legs, lying on the floor, has three fat candles sticking out of them: phallic offerings for the dead. Another is punctured by the drains missing from Gober’s sinks, turning the body into something harrowingly, unhealthily permeable.
Leg with Anchor, 2008 Photograph: Bill Orcutt, courtesy the artist and Matthew Marks Gallery
This is a sober, unhurried and genuinely affecting exhibition, organized by curators Ann Temkin and Paulina Pobocha in close partnership with the artist. (Gober, for better or worse, has had an awfully evident hand in the hang; not unlike the Jeff Koons show still on view at the Whitney Museum of American Art, this one beatifies a 1980s artist very much on his own terms.)
The exhibit even tames MoMA’s usually inhospitable central atrium, converting it into an ad-hoc chamber covered with a hand-painted mural of a forest. Inside and outside get scrambled, and so does the symbolism of the sinks: the ones here, finally, have running water. There are windows, but they’re barred, like in a prison. Stacked against the walls are yellowing newspapers, the Times and the Post, bearing headlines from 1992: “Vatican Condones Discrimination Against Homosexuals”. A GOP convention featuring Pat Buchanan, Pat Robertson and other “Merchants of Hate”. Legal abortion survives at the supreme court, barely. Dan Quayle’s wife aims to shore up the women’s vote. Woody, Mia, Soon-Yi. And lead in the water supply – fatal.
Untitled, 1992. Photograph: Russell Kaye, courtesy the artist and Matthew Marks Gallery
There is some iffy later sculpture that, it’s hard to deny, descends into pastiche: a new sink whose backboard is metamorphosing into a forest, another in which legs and sink are woven together as warp and weft. A major installation that features a headless Jesus spouting water, and lithographs of the Times from 12 September 2001, feels uncomfortably pat.
But even Gober’s less successful later works display the inscrutable, melancholy force of his best art of the 1980s and 1990s. They imbue familiar forms with unfamiliar weight. They speak a language just beyond our understanding, but which is all the more powerful since we only understand it in parts.
Their political force has not waned either. As a gay critic who came of age after the first phase of the epidemic, I have often looked to Gober’s art as a collection of memento mori, of burning relics from an era when boys like me didn’t know if they’d live another year.
This past July, though, the head of the World Health Organization’s HIV/Aids division warned of “exploding” infection rates among gay men, who remain 19 times more likely than the general population to contract HIV. Seroconversion rates among young gay Americans, particularly, have spiked in the last decade, even with the introduction of pre-exposure prophylaxis (a preventive drug therapy that, in one recent survey, three-quarters of gay men had never heard of). History is fate. Bodies grow and bodies fester. The sink still has no water, and the past will never wash off.
Robert Gober: The Heart Is Not a Metaphor Museum of Modern Art, New York, through January 18, 2015. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/mar/29/mark-latham-attacks-15-year-old-daughter-of-reserve-bank-governor | Australia news | 2017-03-29T04:11:19.000Z | Amanda Meade | Mark Latham attacks 15-year-old daughter of Reserve Bank governor | Mark Latham has labelled the 15-year-old daughter of the governor of the Reserve Bank, Philip Lowe, a privileged child who doesn’t care about the disadvantaged.
The former Labor leader turned TV commentator made the attack on The Outsiders program, which he co-hosts with the former Liberal MP Ross Cameron and the Spectator’s editor, Rowan Dean.
“And I say to the young Miss Lowe, ‘Get some interest in people unlike yourself: the disadvantaged, the poor, people who don’t grow up in the household privileged to be the daughter of the governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia’,” Latham said on Rupert Murdoch’s Sky News Australia on Sunday. “It’s called social justice and caring about others.”
Kristina Keneally lodges complaint against Mark Latham with Sky News
Read more
Latham ridiculed the RBA’s strategies to promote women after Lowe said he was motivated by his daughter, who asked him what he was doing to make sure women had equal chances at the central bank.
“I didn’t have a really good answer at first and she said, ‘That’s not good enough,’” Lowe, 55, told Fairfax Media in January. “So that made me think about where we’re going.”
Latham and Dean mocked Lowe for recognising his own “unconscious bias” about women and said it was “amazing” he was listening to his daughter.
“Her concern, the daughter of the governor of the Reserve Bank, of the one of the most privileged households in the country, her concern wasn’t about poor and disadvantaged people, it was about people like her, and Lowe has taken this up and said he won’t be making appointments strictly on merit, he’ll be shoehorning women in,” Latham said.
“He acknowledges that even though women are 60% of the graduates that he’s going to shoehorn the women in solely on the basis of what his daughter said.
“This daughter is getting a bigger say at this taxpayer funded institution than any Australian voter.”
Latham said it was ridiculous women were being appointed at the RBA solely on the basis of the “shape of their genitalia”.
The former federal Labor leader is already under fire for attacking his colleagues on air, including the former Labor New South Wales premier Kristina Keneally, as well as Sydney schoolboys.
The episode Keneally objected to, which is no longer available on Sky’s catch-up service, is the same one in which he made derogatory comments about the ABC broadcaster and comedian Wendy Harmer, who had called on Sky to discipline Latham or she would cancel her Foxtel subscription.
I subscribe @foxtel and I'm deeply unimpressed by some of @SkyNewsAust offerings.
Fix it or I'm off. https://t.co/INbwWfBFXN
— Wendy Harmer (@wendy_harmer) March 25, 2017
“Wendy Harmer has put it out there on Twitter that if Sky doesn’t do something about people like us she’ll be ditching her Foxtel arrangement,” Latham said.
“Now Wendy, of course, we know her well. She’s a proven commercial failure, so naturally she got a job at ABC radio at the sheltered workshop there for all the lefties. She fits the criteria: she’s female, she’s got a disability – that’s what they mean by diversity.
“So we say to Wendy Harmer on this Sunday morning: get a life, love.”
Harmer wasborn with a double cleft lip and palate. Last week Keneally lodged a formal complaint with her employer after Latham attacked her on air, calling her a “Yankee sheila” and a “protégé of Eddie Obeid”.
Who will be Australia's Trump?
Jeff Sparrow
Read more
On Wednesday Latham came under more fire after it was reported he criticised a Sydney high school boy and called him gay in a 12 March episode after he appeared in a video supporting feminism for International Women’s Day.
“The boys at the boys’ school look like dickheads doing their video, total dickheads,” Latham said on Sky. “I thought the first guy was gay.”
The opposition leader, Bill Shorten, said Latham was a sad bully.
“He’s behaving like a bully and he should apologise,” Shorten said.
Sky News Australia chief Angelos Frangopoulos has been approached for comment. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/aug/20/the-guardian-view-on-boris-johnson-and-the-eu-he-cannot-be-serious | Opinion | 2019-08-20T17:30:44.000Z | Editorial | The Guardian view on Boris Johnson and the EU: he cannot be serious | Editorial | If there is any fragile encouragement to be squeezed out of Boris Johnson’s letter to the European Union this week, it is perhaps the fact that he wrote it at all. After four weeks of acting as if the EU does not exist, the existence of the letter is at least an implied recognition that the relationship with the EU matters. For nearly a month, Mr Johnson’s government has also promoted the fiction that a no-deal Brexit is an acceptable prospect for Britain. So when Mr Johnson starts his letter by saying that he very much hopes the UK will be leaving with a deal, it is just about possible to muster some carefully guarded optimism that he may actually mean it.
Yet the content of what he wrote makes a mockery of any such conclusion. In fact it is difficult to see how Mr Johnson could have done less than he does in the letter to Donald Tusk. At the core of the letter is the statement that the Irish backstop is not viable. The letter then excoriates the backstop as undemocratic, a brake on UK trade and regulatory policy and a threat to the Northern Ireland peace process. In most respects, this is the opposite of the truth. In some ways it is downright mischievous. The letter is more like one of Mr Johnson’s fact-free and irresponsible newspaper concoctions than a serious diplomatic approach to solving an impasse that imminently threatens British economic stability, trade, jobs, constitutional cohesion and security.
It is important to remember what the backstop is. It is a customs and regulatory arrangement of last resort to address the unique situation in Ireland, for which Britain has shared legal and moral responsibility. It is designed to maintain an open and seamless border in Ireland in perpetuity. It would only apply if the UK and the EU cannot agree, by the end of the transition period, to a deal maintaining such a border. That is made more difficult by the tension between the UK government’s insistence on leaving the customs union and the single market, and the UK’s obligations under the Good Friday agreement which ensures the “demilitarisation” of the border as part of the peace process. Theresa May’s hope that ways could be found, amid mutual trust, of reconciling these objectives over time led Britain to propose such a backstop, to which the EU agreed. It should have been supported. But it split the Conservative party and triggered the overthrow of Mrs May by Mr Johnson.
The argument therefore directly pits the wish of the ruling hard-Brexit wing of the Tory party to deregulate the UK economy against Britain’s historic responsibilities to maintain peace in Northern Ireland and good relations with its neighbours in the Irish Republic. Polls, including one this week, show that what Mr Johnson proposes is rejected by the people of Northern Ireland (who also voted to remain in the EU back in 2016). They would prefer a regulatory border between Northern Ireland and Britain rather than between the two parts of Ireland. The US Congress has also said it will block any UK-US trade deal that undermines the peace process. Mr Johnson’s letter, with its brusque demand that the backstop must be scrapped, is both a dangerously frivolous threat to Ireland north and south and a gamble with his already highly tendentious trade aspirations.
It is easy to conclude that the letter is not a credible attempt to negotiate an alternative to the backstop at all. It contains two shoddily unreliable suggestions. One is to create “alternative arrangements” by the end of the transition period “as far as possible”. The other is to look “constructively and flexibly” at other commitments. In neither case is there any detail. If this is an opening bid in a process that is seriously intended to result in a deal with the EU, it is an extraordinarily reckless way of going about something on which so much rests.
Unsurprisingly, Mr Tusk has rejected all this because Mr Johnson offers no alternatives. Any possibility of progress towards a deal now rests on meetings this week at the G7 summit in Biarritz. Angela Merkel seemed to imply on Tuesday that she, at least, is in the business of being serious about trying to reconcile Brexit with the Irish peace process. The question facing her and all of us is whether Mr Johnson is capable of being serious too. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2020/feb/11/the-hs2-go-ahead-leaves-heathrows-third-runway-up-in-the-air | Business | 2020-02-11T19:43:08.000Z | Nils Pratley | HS2 go-ahead leaves Heathrow's third runway up in the air | Nils Pratley | In the end, two arguments, both with a flavour of despair, flicked the light to green for HS2. First, £9bn has been spent on the £100bn-ish project already. Second, the official Oakervee report endorsed the HS2’s lobbyists’ cry that there are no “shovel ready” alternatives to add rail capacity.
The latter factor represents a disgraceful failure of planning by the Department for Transport. Successive ministers were bewitched by HS2 and didn’t bother to explore rival schemes in case the costs exploded, as they inevitably did. Faced with shouts from the construction industry that builders will go bust if deprived of their HS2 bonanza, Boris Johnson took the easy political route.
Those of us who believe there are smarter ways to spend £100bn on improving the railways, and quicker ways to deliver “levelling up” benefits, have lost. The only consolation is that recasting phase 2 to make it integrate properly with Northern Powerhouse Rail is a sensible rejig if HS2 is happening. Even so, the mayors of Greater Manchester and Liverpool would do well to check the small print of the “high-speed north” ambition; it sounds vague and thus vulnerable to downgrade.
The Guardian view on Boris Johnson’s ‘levelling up’: there’s no quick fix
Read more
Yet Johnson’s more intriguing remark was the one about Heathrow, the other big infrastructure conundrum. Asked in the Commons if he still intended to lie down in front of bulldozers to stop a third runway, the prime minister replied: “I see no bulldozers at present, nor any prospect of them arriving.”
It was a throwaway answer and, as things stand, the first part was 100% accurate; Heathrow will only submit its detailed planning application towards the end of this year. Yet “no prospect” is interesting because it plays into the current political buzz that the mood is turning against Heathrow.
Aside from Johnson’s long-standing personal opposition to expansion at Heathrow, there are strong political reasons to refuse a third runway, as Larry Elliott wrote on these pages recently. Putney and Richmond Park, two constituencies under the flight path, were among the few Tory losses in December’s general election; after approving the environmentally damaging HS2, Johnson might recover some green ground; and a no to more south-east infrastructure might score more “levelling up” points.
What’s more, neither of the arguments that carried HS2 over the line apply at Heathrow. There are few sunk costs and the main loser would be Heathrow’s owners, a consortium headed by Spanish firm Ferrovial and the Qatar Investment Authority. As for shovel readiness, the argument would be that no shovels are needed.
Business would grumble but one can imagine Johnson inviting London’s boardroom brigade to get Birmingham International to provide more flights to Asia. As economist Jim O’Neill pointed out, HS2 promises a journey of 38 minutes from London Euston to Birmingham Interchange.
Never underestimate the power of the Heathrow lobby, which is just as determined as HS2’s, but it suddenly looks very easy for a PM with a large majority to kill the third runway. Go for it.
Sign up to the daily Business Today email or follow Guardian Business on Twitter at @BusinessDesk
Is the watchdog being a bad sport on JD Sports?
The Competition and Markets Authority did fine work when it blocked Sainsbury’s plainly anti-competitive proposed takeover of Asda, but the watchdog looks ridiculous in getting so upset about JD Sports’ purchase of Footasylum.
The £90m deal, which has already happened, “substantially lessens competition nationally”, thinks the CMA. Substantially? Footasylum wasn’t enjoying much success on the competitive front, which is why its board surrendered to JD last year at a price that was half the flotation valuation of 2017.
The CMA says fewer discounts and less choice could “particularly affect younger customers and students”. The boffins’ concern is touching but, come on, modern youth knows how to shop around online.
The biggest problem in the trainers and sportswear market is surely the pricing power enjoyed by Nike and Adidas. It’s not obvious that liberating Footasylum would improve matters one jot.
Ocado truly delivers for co-founder
Ocado co-founder Tim Steiner collected a £54m bonus last year, a function of a booming share price and a super-charged one-off incentive scheme that was established five years ago. Quite why he needed the highly unusual incentive in the first place has never been adequately explained. Other shareholders probably let it slip through because Ocado, in those days, was struggling.
Now, of course, the company has a fair claim to being the UK’s most successful technology outfit. It’s worth £8.5bn, supermarkets around the world are snapping up its kit and Steiner’s stake is worth nearly £300m. That is why the £35,000 bump in his salary to £720,000, supposedly to keep him motivated, is bizarre. Surely, with that slug of shares, he’s already incentivised to get up in the morning. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/dec/07/millennials-manners-defence-mechanism-against-hostile-world | Opinion | 2019-12-07T17:00:15.000Z | Barbara Ellen | Millennials’ manners are a defence mechanism against a hostile world | Barbara Ellen | Are millennials selfish and rude or do they just define etiquette differently to older people? And if the latter is true, is that just to stop themselves going mad?
A survey, published last week, found that 42% of millennials – people reaching young adulthood in the early 21st century – wouldn’t give up their seat for somebody elderly or pregnant on public transport, while almost one in three would ignore a queuing system. However, more than a third of those surveyed thought it impolite to ignore people on social media, while other objections included texts being read over people’s shoulders and programme spoilers.
So, Young People, let’s get this straight (jabs accusing crone-like finger): sitting on a train or bus while a pregnant woman or elderly person stands is absolutely fine. But if someone accidentally mentions what happened in an episode of Stranger Things you haven’t seen, that’s downright rude? Sheesh, priorities…
Not that stereotyping millennials as antisocial and selfish works. That recent cheering surge of last-minute electoral registering was said to mainly come from millennials. Moreover, in the Extinction Rebellion era, older people would have a damn nerve accusing the young of being disengaged.
Still, it’s intriguing that there’s a tendency among millennials to prioritise online etiquette over real-life manners. It would seem to reverse what’s generally presumed about online conduct – aren’t people supposed to feel emboldened to behave worse online? Maybe that’s tragic older types, who still haven’t managed to get over the novelty of the internet’s cloak of invisibility. In contrast, younger people take it so for granted they have developed a far greater sense of accountability for their online identities.
Certainly, it’s interesting to think that some younger humans prefer to exist in their most realised form in the online world, even developing better manners there. Meanwhile, back on planet Earth, they’re barging through queues, not opening doors and ambling around semi-detached, almost as though other people are made of pixels in the real world.
All of which is mystifying until you take a look at what comprises reality for many young folk. Millennials have plenty to feel disengaged about in a world where they’re been shafted out of real-life futures at every turn (economic, professional, climate, home-ownership, affording to have children, everything). Had all this been our lot when we were young, maybe we’d also have opted to be our better selves, living our best lives, in an online reality. While millennials should realise that they exist in the real, rather than virtual, world, older people need to realise that millennials are becoming dangerously detached from a world that keeps kicking them in the teeth. That said, have a heart, millennials – let the pregnant women sit down.
A mea culpa via social media? Sorry, Timbers, but that’s bad
Jessica Biel and Justin Timberlake: ‘a strong lapse of judgment’. I should say so. Photograph: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP
How wonderfully modern that Justin Timberlake took to Instagram to apologise to his wife, Jessica Biel.
After being snapped looking inebriated on a balcony, holding hands with his Palmer co-star Alisha Wainwright, Timberlake began his Insta-soz post saying: “I stay away from gossip as much as I can.” Of course you do, you marvellous, honourable man! Timbers continued: “A few weeks ago I displayed a strong lapse of judgment – but let me clear – nothing happened with my co-star… I drank way too much that night and I regret my behaviour… I apologise to my amazing wife and family… I am focused on being the best husband and father I can be…” Blah blah, yak yak.
The post ends with a reference to Palmer – because, hey ladeez, nothing says “sorry” more meaningfully than a film plug.
There’s nothing wrong with an apology, but why did it have to happen on social media? One presumes, as husband and wife, Timberlake and Biel have occasional face-time access to each other (schedules permitting). And aren’t celebrities constantly gassing about media invasions of their privacy? Yet here’s Timberlake invading his own privacy, blasting out an apology to Biel rather strangely in front of the world and humiliating Wainwright (the “co-star”; it would appear that no name is necessary) in the process.
I’d love to think that this was Biel’s doing: “Oi, you messed up in public – you can apologise in public too.” Sadly, one suspects that this wasn’t so much an apology as a brand announcement to repair Timberlake’s reputation. So it’s technically more of an apology to his agent and marketing team. Next time Timberlake needs to apologise to his wife, maybe he should consider doing it with a big bunch of flowers and a box of Milk Tray – even better, some humility and sincerity behind firmly closed doors.
Guys, you’ll never win a girl by giving her a Peloton
The Peloton ad: ‘reductive and sexist’. Photograph: Peloton/Youtube
It’s the Christmas gift of a woman’s dreams – being told that you’re out of shape by your significant other. Peloton, which produces £2,000 exercise bikes that access virtual spin classes, has just wiped $1.5bn off its share value with a misguided festive advert featuring a man giving his partner a bike.
Instead of the woman saying something realistic such as: “Get out!”, she has a gratitude orgasm, pedalling furiously and simpering: “I didn’t realise how much this would change me.” Well, some of us didn’t realise that feminism would be pronounced dead in late 2019.
Meanwhile, the man sits on the sofa doing faff all, presumably becoming fit by osmosis. However, while this advert was reductive and sexist, the main problem is that a man (even a fictional one) dared to give a woman an exercise bike for Christmas, which is only marginally better timing than Valentine’s Day.
Yes, there is an obesity crisis, but no one has the right to comment on anyone else’s fitness. Memo to men: unless requested, gym equipment beats even “unspecified domestic appliance” in the top 10 of dud gifts guaranteed to make a woman hate you. And, yes, I do mean forever. Astonishing as it may seem, women don’t fantasise about being presented with the opportunity to strive to look hotter for you.
Barbara Ellen is an Observer columnist | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/mar/31/stephen-poliakoff-bbc-drama-close-to-the-enemy | Media | 2015-03-31T06:10:39.000Z | John Plunkett | Stephen Poliakoff's new BBC drama focuses on postwar intrigue | Stephen Poliakoff’s latest BBC drama will be set in the world of military secrets and national security in the aftermath of the second world war, starring Jim Sturgess, Robert Glenister, Angela Bassett and Alfred Molina.
Close to the Enemy, a six-part series for BBC2, will follow the attempts of an army intelligence officer, played by Sturgess (One Day), to persuade a captured German scientist (Inglourious Basterds’ August Diehl) to share his nation’s secrets about the development of the jet engine.
Set against the background of the emerging Cold War, it will be Poliakoff’s first BBC drama since his acclaimed Dancing on the Edge, starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, about a black jazz band in 1930s London for BBC2 two years ago.
Ben Stephenson, the BBC’s controller, drama commissioning, said Close to the Enemy was a “hugely compelling drama which shines a light on a fascinating piece of British history” with an “amazing cast, wonderful design and original music”.
The drama, set mainly in a bomb-damaged London hotel, will see army captain Callum Ferguson encounter a number of characters whose stories all intertwine.
They include his younger brother, played by Freddie Highmore (Bates Motel), who is struggling to deal with the trauma of the conflict, and Molina’s Foreign Office official who reveals some startling truths about the outbreak of the war.
It will also star Game of Thrones’ Alfie Allen, Wolf Hall’s Charity Wakefield and Lindsay Duncan.
Peaky Blinders’ Charlotte Riley plays an enchanting Anglophile American engaged to Ferguson’s best friend and Phoebe Fox (Woman in Black 2), a woman in the war crimes unit fighting to bring war criminals to justice.
Producer Helen Flint, a long-time collaborator with Poliakoff, said: “Close to the Enemy is set in the transitional period of 1946 – the brutal second world war is finally over but the destruction of families and cities permeates everyone’s lives.
“As the Cold War takes its hold in Europe and the public realisation that the atom bomb could be used by any government, our hero Callum passionately believes that to safeguard the future you mustn’t heed the past regardless of how terrible it has been.
“However, as the story unfolds, he finds that he is compelled to look backwards and eventually realises that you have to judge (for good or ill) those voluntarily or involuntarily involved in order to actually have a safer world.”
Written and directed by Poliakoff, whose other dramas include Gideon’s Daughter and The Lost Prince, filming will take place in London and Liverpool and began this week. It will air on BBC2 in 2016.
Close to the Enemy is made by Little Island Productions in association with Endor Productions, with All3Media International the overseas partner on the drama.
BBC2 controller Kim Shillinglaw said Poliakoff was “one of the country’s foremost writers and directors and I’m delighted he is creating this distinctive new piece for us”. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/feb/20/why-moonlight-should-win-the-best-picture-oscar | Film | 2017-02-20T09:47:22.000Z | Benjamin Lee | Why Moonlight should win the best picture Oscar | An all-too-frequently used response to the call for increased diversity on screen is based around a rather defensive notion. It’s that a piece of entertainment may be enjoyably consumed without the need for unequivocal identification with the characters being viewed. Just check out the comments section of any article arguing for a more varied set of narratives from Hollywood.
Why La La Land should win the best picture Oscar
Read more
There’s an obvious superficial truth to this statement. There are many skilfully constructed stories that don’t require the viewer’s real world experiences to directly mirror those they’ve paid money to go and see. I’ve never found myself running from raptors in the middle of a theme park that brought dinosaurs back from extinction but I enjoyed Jurassic Park. But what this argument does is entirely misunderstand why we need entertainment that encompasses a wide set of different voices.
It’s a comeback predominantly spewed by someone who regularly sees his life on screen: the straight white male. He doesn’t see the need for diversity because he’s lived a life filled with songs, shows and films directly aimed at him written by other straight white men. As a gay man, I’ve grown accustomed to this not being the case and when you grow up surrounded by media that isn’t about you and isn’t for you, it becomes the norm. It’s not as if I spend my days bitterly raging against the universe because the latest Kanye track talks about bitches rather than dudes but there’s a significant void that exists, a gap waiting to be filled by stories that I can intimately relate to – the importance of which can not be underestimated. Yet my experience pales in comparison to that of a gay man of colour whose life has been continually ignored or pushed to the sidelines, told briefly in small, barely seen films.
Moonlight has a small budget but it’s by no means a small film. It’s about the life of a black boy growing up in an impoverished Miami neighbourhood at the mercy of an addict mother. But it’s also about a gay kid struggling with his sexuality, hiding who he is for self-protection, bullied at school for being different and forced to deal with inner issues of acceptance alone. The complex and specific difficulties of the coming-out experience are so rarely represented on screen and never with the care and sensitivity displayed by writer/director Barry Jenkins.
‘It’s all about perception’: director and cast on Oscar contender Moonlight Guardian
For his second film, he found inspiration in the autobiographical play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue by Tarell Alvin McCraney who took his own difficult journey and turned it into something beautiful. In three distinct yet subtly linked chapters, we see the life of Chiron: a vulnerable child growing aware of a difference he’s not quite able to define, an introverted teen withdrawing himself from life to avoid physical and mental abuse and a hyper-masculine, lonely twentysomething performing a role rather than living authentically.
‘It’s impossible to be vulnerable’: how Moonlight reflects being a black gay man in the US
Read more
But what is living authentically when you’ve spent so much of your life running away from the truth and lying to others about who you love? It’s a question that plagues many gay men and in Moonlight, we see the added complexity that race brings to the table. Due to, yet again, a lack of adequate representation, we’re left with a very limited view of the black experience in media. The black male is too often represented as a thuggish and hypersexualized cliche devoid of vulnerability, sensitivity and texture and Jenkins fights against this stereotype with nuance and realism.
The first character we see isn’t Chiron but Juan, a local drug dealer who develops a paternal connection to the boy. He’s played with understated power by Mahershala Ali, an actor belatedly receiving the acclaim he deserves, and again our preconceptions of what such a character would be like are shattered almost immediately. He acts as the short-lived heart of the film, gifting Chiron with strength and, most importantly, acceptance – something he yearns for from his troubled mother.
While Ali has been receiving the majority of the awards acclaim (he’s a surefire best supporting actor winner at the Oscars), praise should also be equally distributed among the other important men in the film. As the young and the teenage Chirons, Alex R Hibbert and Ashton Sanders deliver heartbreaking work in different, keenly observed ways while the final chapter offers a heart-swelling two-hander between Trevante Rhodes, as the older Chiron, and André Holland as the object of his affection. It’s a dizzyingly romantic set of scenes between the pair, fraught with the aching need to be touched, loved and validated and both actors play every single beat flawlessly. An Oscar-nominated Naomie Harris and an astonishing debut performance from Janelle Monáe also deserve merit as Chiron’s opposing maternal figures.
When I initially saw Moonlight at its first screening at the Telluride film festival, I was overwhelmed. Another five viewings later, I’m still floored. Jenkins has crafted a staggering, graceful film that speaks to my experience as a gay man but, more importantly, to gay men of colour who have been made to feel lesser and invisible by a whitewashed set of LGBT stories. It’s not a film that should win best picture as a response to #OscarsSoWhite, it should win because it’s a landmark film about the power of empathy and the importance of being loved. It’s also not a film that was made to impress or even be seen by Academy voters, it was made for something bigger than that and so, with or without the award, its legacy will live on, showing black gay kids that their lives matter. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/feb/05/we-should-have-got-on-with-banking-royal-commission-earlier-turnbull-says | Australia news | 2019-02-04T23:46:13.000Z | Amy Remeikis | We should have got on with banking royal commission earlier, Turnbull says | Malcolm Turnbull has said he regrets his delay in calling the banking royal commission, admitting he now believes “we should have got on with it earlier”.
The treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, has so far avoided replying when asked whether the government was sorry it had not called the commission sooner, after voting against its establishment 26 times – instead pointing to what he said were Labor’s “failures” while in government five years ago.
But his former leader openly admitted he had got it wrong, telling reporters at a doorstop interview in Melbourne he regretted not establishing the commission earlier, while distancing himself from individual responsibility.
“I do,” he said, when asked if he regretted his opposition.
“I think we should have got on with it earlier. It was – look, the reason I didn’t support a royal commission and the government didn’t, and that was a collective view of the government, not just mine, was because I could see what the problem was, a failure of responsibility and trust, and I wanted to get on and deal with it immediately.
“I didn’t want to have the delay of the royal commission. In a sense, we’ve ended up with both approaches being used. We did get on with a lot of very important reforms and I want to congratulate Kelly O’Dwyer, in particular, for leading the charge on those.
Yes, Kenneth: the Coalition response to the banking inquiry is pure politics
Katharine Murphy
Read more
“Some very important changes were made, in terms of regulation, in terms of banking executives’ responsibility, so a lot of big reforms were made to address the problems.
“There has been the royal commission as well. My concern was to do the right thing by the customers as quickly as possible and the government did that but, clearly, there was very strong public expectation to have a royal commission and so, at the end of 2017, I established the royal commission.”
Speaking after Turnbull’s press conference, Scott Morrison said he had expressed regret last year, and was now focusing on the future.
“I expressed last year my own regret as treasurer when it came to being very focused on the issues of financial systems’ stability, but I expressed my own regret at some of the human factors that needed greater consideration in terms of calling the royal commission,” he said.
“But let me be frank, I called for the royal commission. We introduced the Australian financial complaints authority, we introduced the additional resources and support for Asic.
“We acted on the financial systems inquiry that we implemented when we came to government in 2013. As a government, we have been taking action on this issue from the day we were elected.”
2:13
Banking bosses at royal commission: the most galling and maddening moments – video
The former prime minister was less forthcoming when it came to Morrison’s chances of winning the next election, saying he was “in with a chance”.
Turnbull was much more effusive in his praise of the newly independent Julia Banks, who has announced she will challenge Greg Hunt in the Victorian seat of Flinders.
“Every election can be won and all Australian elections are close. I wish him all the best,” Turnbull said of Morrison.
“Julia Banks is an outstanding parliamentarian. She is a great – she came to parliament with a life of experience as a lawyer in the business world. She is really an outstanding representative.
“She’s explained why she left the Liberal party and she’s done so in her own words and I respect the decision she’s taken. I believe that the people of Flinders will have a very stimulating contest between her and Greg Hunt and no doubt the other candidates.”
Turnbull has previously admitted he could have saved himself “political grief” by calling the royal commission earlier.
On Tuesday he said he had been “shocked” by some of the cases that emerged during its hearings. “I did not believe the cultural failures had been as bad as that,” he told Sky News.
Labor was the first of the major parties to reverse its opposition to a royal commission into the banking industry, calling for one in April 2016, a move which was soundly rejected by the government, including by Turnbull and Morrison.
An internal party revolt, led by the Nationals senator John Williams, forced the government to announce a royal commission in November 2017, which Morrison said was a “regrettable but necessary” move.
The government has said it will “act” on all 76 recommendations put forward by the commissioner, Kenneth Hayne, although it has hesitated on following all the way through with the “user-pays” recommendation for mortgage brokers.
Essential poll: Labor seizes on banking brawl as lead over Coalition narrows
Read more
Frydenberg said that was because of concerns that mortgage brokers could be put out of business, handing more power to the big banks.
But the shadow treasurer, Chris Bowen, accused the government of using “weasel words”.
“They attempted to avoid the royal commission, didn’t even believe in it. Even when they announced it, said it was regrettable. Voted against it 26 times. Their heart is not in it.”
The National Australia Bank bosses Andrew Thorburn and Ken Henry, who came in for particular criticism from Hayne in his final report, have joined other bank leaders in promising change.
“The final report references matters concerning the NAB Group which have been referred to the relevant regulator,” Thorburn said in a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange on Tuesday. “We will engage constructively on these matters.
“In addition, the commissioner has expressed his view that we at NAB may not be learning the lessons we need to from the past and, in particular, that we don’t know what the right thing to do is.
“As the CEO, this is very hard to read, and does not reflect who I am or how I am leading, nor the change that is occurring inside our bank. While we have made mistakes, I believe there is a lot of evidence that we are making sustainable and serious change to once again regain the trust of all our customers.”
Thorburn said he had cancelled planned long-service leave to deal with the fallout.
Hayne recommended the regulators review at least 24 cases for criminal and civil misconduct. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/jan/12/muireann-bradley-i-kept-these-old-blues-review | Music | 2024-01-12T08:30:24.000Z | Jude Rogers | Muireann Bradley: I Kept These Old Blues review – a playful take on American classics | Only weeks after turning 17 in December, Muireann Bradley played an atmospherically lit solo spot on Jools Holland’s Hootenanny. Born and bred in County Donegal, she sang the traditional blues song Candyman – taught to revivalists by the renowned gospel musician Reverend Gary Davis in the mid-20th century – with a light and frisky southern US accent, fingerpicking her guitar with playful dexterity. It’s the opening track of her debut album, which only came together when Covid-19 waylaid her interest in combat sports and forced her to hole up with her guitar. She posted videos of herself playing on YouTube, which led to a deal with respected US folk and indie label Tompkins Square.
Recorded in first or second takes, I Kept These Old Blues is unavoidably impressive. Bradley’s bright, limber vocals are clear and inviting, and when she leaps to higher intervals, there’s a thrill in hearing her land back in lower registers with acrobatic effortlessness. She plays around with high-pitched natural harmonics with similar ease, and they’re especially gorgeous in Police Dog Blues, as Bradley tells us: “All my life / I’ve been a travelling gal.”
In instrumentals such as Buck Dancer’s Choice, full of impressive rhythms and string-bends, and the swagger of Vestapol, the mood is one of machine-like elegance. It gets hard to shake the feeling that this is a first-class pastiche. But when Bradley pushes her style and voice slightly further – as she does showing hints of emotional depth on Delia (covered by Bob Dylan on 1993’s World Gone Wrong) – her future looks like one where her voice and her style could branch out in interesting ways.
Also out this month
Nick Hart and Tom Moore’s The Colour of Amber (Slow Worm Records) marries the dark, woody tones of Hart’s viol da gamba (an instrument more connected with renaissance and baroque music traditions) and Moore’s viola with songs from morris and travelling traditions. It’s solid, hearty, medieval fare, bringing old-fashioned warmth to the winter. Hirondelle (self-released) sees the Brothers Gillespie, classical group Trio Mythos and Provençal polyphonic trio feature Tant Que Li Siam bringing together Occitan and northern English folk in an intriguingly weird, traditional mix. The latter bring nicely tricksy vocal arrangements and percussion such as sagattes, the zarb and the daf to the album’s best tracks, La Roumanço de Pèire d’Aragoun and Ô Ventour. And folk duo Alula Down’s Sound Poems (Bandcamp) is a fascinating sound collage built from a community project with an Alzheimer’s Society Music and Memory Cafe. Samples of songs such as My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean and Hiraeth meet with fractured memories and industrial drone.
This article was updated on 12 January to clarify details in the release entitled Hirondelle. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/jun/12/coalitions-citizenship-laws-would-give-peter-dutton-power-to-overrule-court-decisions | Australia news | 2017-06-12T03:25:18.000Z | Gareth Hutchens | Coalition's citizenship laws would give Peter Dutton power to overrule tribunal decisions | Peter Dutton would be given the power to overrule independent tribunal decisions on citizenship applications that he doesn’t think are in Australia’s national interest under new legislation.
The Turnbull government will be unveiling details this week of its planned changes that make it tougher to get Australian citizenship.
The legislation will give the immigration minister the power to reject decisions on citizenship applications made by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal if he doesn’t think they are in the national interest. He can now reject AAT rulings on visa applications but said he would like the same power for citizenship applications.
UN official says Australia responsible for 'inhuman' treatment of asylum seekers
Read more
“What we’re talking about here is just providing the same arrangement that we do for visas now,” he told Channel Seven on Monday. “This is really just trying to align the arrangement in terms of citizenship with the laws that exist in relation to granting and cancellation of visas.”
He said people could still appeal his decision at the federal and high courts.
The new powers form part of the government’s proposed changes that make it harder for people to get Australian citizenship.
The government wants to extend permanent residency from one year to four before people can apply for citizenship, toughen English language competencies, introduce a values test and require people to demonstrate they have integrated into Australian society.
The overhaul of the citizenship process – which has been in gestation within the government for months – follows the Coalition’s move two months ago to overhaul skilled migration by replacing 457 visas with two new categories that cut off pathways to permanent residency.
Malcolm Turnbull said in April it was time for a new citizenship test that demonstrated people’s allegiance to Australia and whether they were prepared to stand up for “Australian values”.
The Greens’ immigration spokesman, Nick McKim, has criticised Dutton’s proposed citizenship changes, saying they are xenophobic, unfair and must be rejected by Labor.
“Time and again we have seen Peter Dutton grabbing more power for himself, as he tries to make himself judge, jury and jailor,” McKim said. “He has repeatedly shown he cannot follow the current laws – now he wants to get rid of the right of the courts to correct his unlawful decision.
“This a draconian measure aimed at undermining multicultural Australia.”
Tony Abbott told 2GB radio on Monday the AAT lacked common sense and if tribunal members made “bizarre decisions” they “shouldn’t have their contracts renewed”.
Dutton said some of the AAT’s visa decisions had been hard to accept. “I think some of the decisions they make are rightly overturned and I’ve done that in relation to a number of cases,” he said.
“We have been very deliberate in cancelling visas of people that have committed crimes. Outlaw motorcycle gang members, for example, who are the biggest distributors of ice in this country, we’ve cancelled a record number of their visas.
“The ability of the way in which the law operates now is they can appeal to the AAT but the minister of the day can substitute that decision of the appeal tribunal, so we’re just aligning [the citizenship laws] with that current law.”
Peter Dutton pressures Labor to support Coalition's citizenship crackdown
Read more
Dutton also said that, under the new legislation, young migrants may have citizenship refused and their visa revoked if they fail to pass a character test. He pointed to young people involved in the violent Apex gangs in Melbourne, saying they may not get citizenship in the future.
“My view is that if 15, 16, 17-year-olds are involved in adult-like criminal behaviour – that is, following people home from restaurants, breaking into their houses, home invasions, stealing cars, breaking into jewellery shops, at the moment they might be on an automatic pathway to citizenship because their parents have been granted citizenship,” he said.
“What I’m saying is, they need to conduct themselves within the law.
“If they don’t, and they fail that good character test, then they could stay on a permanent visa depending on the arrangement but they wouldn’t be getting citizenship.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/aug/10/west-gripped-venezuela-ignore-brazil-jeremy-corbyn-nicolas-maduro | Opinion | 2017-08-10T12:58:51.000Z | Julia Blunck | The west is gripped by Venezuela’s problems. Why does it ignore Brazil’s? | Julia Blunck | Venezuela is the question on everyone’s lips. Rather, Venezuela is the question on reporters’ lips whenever they see Jeremy Corbyn: will he condemn the president, Nicolás Maduro? What is his position on Venezuela, and how does it affect his plans for Britain? The actual problems of Venezuela – a complex country with a long history that does not start with the previous president Hugo Chávez and certainly not with Jeremy Corbyn – are largely ignored or pushed aside. This is nothing new: most of the time, Latin America’s debates are seen through western lenses.
Of course, the situation in Venezuela is deplorable and worrying. But it’s easy to see that concern about Maduro’s undemocratic abuses don’t necessarily come from actual concern for the welfare of Venezuelan people.
Nearby neighbour Brazil has not been analysed or debated at length, even as it demonstrates similar problems. The country’s president, Michel Temer, recently escaped measures that would see him put to trial in the supreme court by getting congress to vote them down. The case against Temer was not a flimsy or partisan one: there was a mountain of evidence, including recordings of him openly debating kickbacks with corrupt businessman Joesley Batista. That a president put into power under circumstances that could be, at best, described as dodgy, manages to remain in power by buying favours from Congress, even as he passes the harshest austerity measures in the world should be enough to raise a few eyebrows internationally. But that has not happened, and Brazil has carried on as most stories about Latin America do: unnoticed and uncommented on.
Part of this discrepancy is of course the bias toward what is flashy. Stories about sordid Congress deals are not that interesting to foreign audiences, and even many exhausted and demoralised Brazilians felt this was simply another addition to a long list of humiliations that began in 2015 when the economy started to sink.
Meanwhile, Venezuela has human conflict, the thing that produces exciting photography and think-pieces, sparks debate and crucially, draws clicks. There’s only so much attention to be gained talking about Temer’s undermining of democracy as it happens without noise, through chicanery and articulation by Brazil’s traditional power: the “Bible, beef and bullets” caucuses in Congress. Venezuela’s situation, however, is urgent, with tanks on the streets and opposition arrests.
Yet there is a subtext to why Brazil’s democracy is not as interesting, and why even Temer’s introduction of the military on to Rio de Janeiro’s streets to address a crime wave has prompted little response. Temer’s rule is one of hard capitalism and an ever-shrinking state. He has established a ceiling on public spending, slashed workers rights, and imposed a hard reform of retirement age.
Temer’s rise to power came as it became clear to big business that his predecessor, Dilma Rousseff, would not go far with austerity. They financed and stimulated protests – largely by rightly angry middle-class Brazilians at what they saw as widespread corruption – while Congress blocked Rousseff’s bills or sabotaged her agenda in other ways.
Latin American suffering is being played out as a proxy for debates in the UK
While Temer did not seize power through a violent coup, and the alliance between Rousseff’s Workers’ party and his notoriously dishonest and chronically double-crossing party was a largely self-inflicted wound, it bears remembering that Rousseff was ousted on a technicality so that Temer could solve the economy’s woes by making “difficult decisions”, a platform for which he had no electoral mandate.
And yet the economy continues to sink, as the unemployment rate soars to 13%. That narrative isn’t very convenient, though, and nobody is interested in making Brazil the representative case of how capitalism is an undemocratic system doomed to fail. And that is quite right: capitalism cannot be exclusively defined by Brazilian failures. The same should be true of socialism in Venezuela.
Somehow, though, the conversation about Venezuela is actually a conversation about something else. Latin American suffering is being played out as a proxy for debates in the UK. As the rightwing media claim, Jeremy Corbyn might not care very much about the thousands going hungry by Maduro’s hand – maybe he too thinks it is simply a consequence of American meddling – but it’s hard to believe that the British right is sincerely committed to the region’s stability and democracy. There has been very little said about Temer.
The failures of Temer do not, and should not be used to, excuse Maduro’s. Nor should we equate the two men in brutality. Yet, if you live in Brazil where public servants are teargassed for not being paid for five months, where indigenous rights activists and others are killed by rich farmers in unprecedented numbers, where several states declare bankruptcy because of a crash in oil prices, where the army is called upon to tackle protesters, you may wonder when your situation will be worth debating.
The answer is whenever it becomes politically convenient. In the end, British commentators and politicians on both the left and right aren’t just opportunistic when it comes to Latin American suffering, they are glad when it happens: it proves their point, whatever that may be. Our lives are just a detail.
Julia Blunck is a Brazilian writer and translator | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2024/apr/16/rugby-union-concussion-risk-safety-spectacle | Sport | 2024-04-16T09:30:36.000Z | Michael Aylwin | The Breakdown | Beleaguered World Rugby attempts to tackle conflict at heart of the game | Governing bodies the world over can be certain of one thing only – they will be the subject of endless criticism. No half-serious journalist will write for long without taking the authorities to task over something, and journalists are the sensible ones. The public do the same but – how to put this – with extra feeling. All the time.
World Rugby is as assailed as any governing body. Its own players are taking it to court, after all, with the not insignificant claim World Rugby ruined their lives. That lawsuit may or may not be sitting at the top of an in-tray that creaks under the weight of grievances, most of them irreconcilable.
Exeter blown out of Champions Cup by Toulouse’s second-half blitz
Read more
This column has had its fair share of pops at our beleaguered masters, but it would be uncharitable not to pause for a moment to acknowledge the truth that World Rugby’s remit, to promote and safeguard the interests of rugby union, must be about the most thankless, nay impossible, remit in all of sport. Well, apart from that of all the other governing bodies of collision sports.
Last week, World Rugby staged a series of online seminars, the third of which was poignantly titled Safety vs Spectacle. Ross Tucker, World Rugby’s science and research consultant, kicked off by saying with beautiful understatement: “I think we have reached a point where it is beneficial to admit that sometimes there are tensions [between safety and spectacle].”
Sometimes? Tensions? World Rugby might not be able to come out and say this, but we can. Those two directives – to improve player welfare and make the game more entertaining – are in direct opposition to each other. Always.
Any collision sport is at its safest during its slow patches and at its most dangerous in the exciting, high-speed bits. The greater the accent on the latter, the greater the toll on the players – and, most importantly, given the aforementioned lawsuit, their brains. Speed the game up, increase the collisions and their intensity. That is less the tension, more the conflict at the heart of all collision sports.
After yet another extraordinary weekend of European rugby, we are presented with a sport that continues to amaze us with the frequency of its breathtaking matches. Even the one-sided contests were spectacular to behold. But they made you wince as well. That crunch, as much as the brilliance, is fundamental to the awe-inspired.
In an earlier seminar on the instrumented mouthguards (iMGs) World Rugby is starting to deploy across the elite game, a study in Boston last year was alluded to, that provided the most detailed and compelling evidence yet of something neuroscience has been saying for years. The risk of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), the disease at the heart of the players’ lawsuit against rugby’s governing bodies, is most strongly correlated not to one-off concussions but to the cumulative toll of multiple head impacts over many years.
This has major connotations for all collision sports. And rugby union is, and always has been, one of those. The nostalgists who claim it used to be a contact sport really mean it used to be a collision sport that had not yet powered itself up. Science, technology and professionalism, probably in that order, have seen to that now. Everything is vastly improved – and thus vastly less safe.
Steve Thompson, who won the Rugby World Cup with England in 2003, is among those taking legal action against the game’s authorities. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian
The Boston study used data from iMGs. World Rugby is now diving deeply into the same technology. Data was presented from the Six Nations just played. Each match featured roughly 1,000 “head acceleration events”, which means the abnormal injection of energy into the skull, as measured at the teeth. Most of these, of course, are harmless in isolation, but it is the cumulative toll that is fast becoming the key area for investigation.
It is difficult to know what to do about this. In a later discussion during the Safety vs Spectacle seminar, Ugo Monye argued that the game had become scared of itself and, to much vigorous and rightful nodding of heads, that it was at heart a physical sport that people play and watch precisely because of the collision element.
This cannot be denied. Just coaching children of certain ages is enough to make vivid the instinct in so many to want to collide with each other. Long before they are allowed to, children of various sizes will entreat their coaches: “Can we do some tackling now, pleeeeaaaase!” And even for those who do not fancy it there is the equally addictive prospect of successfully evading the same. But we do need those collisions for rugby to remain, as the saying goes, rugby.
Which means it becomes a question of quantity. Even that raises impossible questions. How much is too much? How much is enough? Of all the myriad campaigns to save the game we love, not one has come up with a credible solution to any of this. One thousand rattlings of the brain is quite a lot to undo.
Reducing full-contact training is an easy win, but very few teams overdo that these days (the science of preparation has seen to that). The jackal is on borrowed time – and banning hands after the tackle may shift the dial a little. Other than that, the most obvious solution is to play fewer matches. But how many fewer?
Is there a tipping point beyond which rugby becomes dangerous? Or does reducing match exposure by, say, 25% merely reduce cases of CTE in later life by 25%? And how can we know the effects of any changes without having to wait decades?
Even as new heights of brilliance are being attained, a pall of uneasiness hangs over rugby, as with a prisoner awaiting sentence. Who would be a governing body?
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
This is an extract taken from our weekly rugby union email, the Breakdown. To sign up, just visit this page and follow the instructions. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/social-care-network/social-life-blog/2018/jun/04/social-work-play-left-my-desk | Social Care Network | 2018-06-04T10:04:11.000Z | Olivia Hirst | My play aims to show the truth of social work: dedicated and inspiring | Why are there so many negative depictions of social work in popular entertainment? Jack Thorne’s Kiri and Jo Brand’s Damned have begun to turn the tide, however they are still outnumbered by the abundance of police, medical and courtroom dramas, all portraying challenging situations and professions just as bureaucratic.
My play Left My Desk is about a children’s services social worker in a post-industrial Yorkshire town. The idea first formed two years ago; mid-way through a conversation with a friend, I shouted, “Hang on! You’re a social worker!”
Damned: Jo Brand's new sitcom finds the humour in social work
Read more
She looked perplexed, I had known her for more than a decade, and she had been a social worker for the past eight years but that was the moment I realised the picture of a social worker in my head was completely at odds with the reality in front of me.
Why was my perception so skewed?
I was influenced, I think, by headlines, secretly filmed documentaries, the various scandals that have hit the UK over the last 10 years. The phrase “thankless task” – alongside the words failure, incompetence, fault and blame – had become synonymous with social work.
Yet here was my friend: intelligent, caring, fiercely passionate about her job.
“You don’t have a clipboard!” I said.
“No, we don’t have clipboards,” she replied.
I decided to write a drama that – like all the best cop shows (*cough* Happy Valley) – was both serious and seriously entertaining. To tell a story that steers clear of the two extreme tropes: the failing and ineffectual, or the heartless child snatcher.
I’ve always been aware of the financial pressures faced by many public services; my mum has worked for nearly 20 years for local authorities and though not directly working in social care, she has experienced the upheavals caused by the lack of funding and political will. She was once part of a team that won an award for excellent work in the community. Just weeks after the ceremony, the entire team was made redundant. I remember the devastation as the work it was so highly praised for was abandoned.
How to change perceptions of social work in the media
Read more
But even with the knowledge that all local authorities are facing severe cuts, I was shocked at the crippling financial restraints social services find themselves under, especially considering there is a demand for social care across the UK, across all social strata, and a general consensus that it is a vital service.
While researching Left My Desk, I interviewed experienced social workers, social work trainees, lecturers, service users and care leavers. I also spoke to my peers and wider circles with no immediate connection to social work. I found social workers fighting against the fact that their profession is often not granted the same respect or kudos as roles such as teaching or nursing.
The negative picture in the public psyche – paired with cuts to early intervention schemes, and the raising of eligibility thresholds – have forced many social workers in child protection into what they believe is “reactive” rather than “proactive” care. I began to hear these terms everywhere – from police work to the housing crisis, to the NHS – connecting what is happening to local authority child protection teams to a wider public sector outcry against austerity.
While writing and workshopping Left My Desk, it quickly became apparent that it would take a whole series of plays to adequately portray all that goes into the daily tasks of a social worker.
How do I write a piece that acknowledges the difficulties, the sometimes hideous situations, takes into account the different schools of thought within the sector on what is and what is not the best approach to child protection, while also acknowledging the good stories and positive outcomes I heard when interviewing?
I learned that in children’s services there are no clear cut answers; every single case is different and requires an individual approach.
Throughout the writing of Left My Desk, the fear of getting it wrong has been ever-present, however, as a writer and storyteller I’ve been inspired by the positive effects dramas can have.
I wanted a central figure like in the cop shows, like my friend: dedicated, inspiring, and really bloody cool. I hope that showing a slice of a social worker’s world will open a dialogue and offer an alternative to the negative image I for one carried in my head.
Olivia Hirst is a writer and actor; Left My Desk is at the New Diorama Theatre in London until 16 June
Join the Social Care Network for comment, analysis and job opportunities, direct to your inbox. Follow us on Twitter (@GdnSocialCare) and like us on Facebook. If you have an idea for a blog, read our guidelines and email your pitch to us at [email protected]
If you’re looking for a social care job or need to recruit staff, visit Guardian Jobs | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/apr/25/values-and-lifestyles-of-small-boat-refugees-threaten-social-cohesion-says-jenrick | UK news | 2023-04-25T18:09:55.000Z | Rajeev Syal | ‘Values and lifestyles’ of small boat refugees threaten social cohesion, says Jenrick | The “values and lifestyles” of people crossing the Channel in small boats threaten the UK’s social cohesion, the immigration minister has claimed, in comments that have been described as “dog-whistling to the far right”.
Amid predictions that there could be a new surge in crossings by people fleeing the conflict in Sudan, Robert Jenrick said “uncontrolled illegal migration” threatened to “cannibalise” the UK’s compassion and argued that recent protests at hotels should be heeded as a warning to politicians.
In a speech at a Policy Exchange event in central London, Jenrick defended the government’s illegal migration bill, which will be debated by MPs on Wednesday.
“Excessive uncontrolled migration threatens to cannibalise the compassion that marks out the British people,” Jenrick said. “And those crossing tend to have completely different lifestyles and values to those in the UK and tend to settle in already hyper-diverse areas, undermining the cultural cohesiveness that binds diverse groups together and makes our proud multi-ethnic democracy so successful.
“Conservatives believe that elected governments should carefully control the pace of change, not least because a shared national identity bound by shared memories traditions and values is a prerequisite to generosity in society. There is an extensive body of research that demonstrates the damaging effects on social trust and cohesion on uncontrolled migration.”
He said housing people seeking refuge in hotels could result in destabilising local communities, and said politicians should take heed of protests in Knowsley, widely reported to have been fuelled by far-right activity.
“I firmly believe that we have to tackle that [housing migrants in hotels] or we will lose the trust and respect of the British public,” Jenrick said. “With some of the protests that we have seen in places such as Knowsley – while I would always condemn violence, I think those protests are a warning to be heeded, not a phenomenon to be managed. We need to listen to public concern and act on it.”
Asked about the government’s response to Sudan’s civil war, he said Sudanese people had been “consistently in the top 10 countries of individuals crossing the Channel in small boats” and that the conflict in the country would probably lead to an increase in those numbers.
“We should expect in time for this to lead to new challenges, whether here in the UK or elsewhere in Europe,” he said.
Jenrick said he had “opened conversations” with the United Nations high commissioner for refugees (UNHCR) about the emerging crisis. Asked whether new legal routes would be available for Sudanese refugees wishing to come to the UK, he said some could come here under existing family reunification schemes.
The minister claimed “astronomical” numbers of people were crossing the Channel, and he said the bill “does not turn our back on those in genuine need”, instead presenting it as “undoubtedly the morally just thing to do”.
Enver Solomon, the chief executive of the Refugee Council, questioned Jenrick’s characterisation of refugees. “It’s important to recognise that over many years refugees have successfully settled in the UK making a vital contribution to the economy as law-abiding citizens paying their taxes and as proud Britons enriching our communities,” he said.
Sign up to First Edition
Free daily newsletter
Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters
Enter your email address
Sign up
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
The Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesperson, Alistair Carmichael, said: “The cruelty of Conservative ministers towards some of the most vulnerable people in the world is unthinkable.
“We all know that safe and legal routes for refugees is the most effective way to stop these dangerous crossings. But the Conservatives just keep refusing to accept this.”
Mary Atkinson, the campaigns and networks manager at the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, said: “These comments are straight from the far right’s playbook. We are used to dog whistles and nudge-wink rhetoric from this government – but with these comments, the mask has come off.
“In contrast to Jenrick’s claims, it is this government’s ministers who have ‘completely different values and lifestyles’ from the rest of us,” she added.
Natasha Tsangarides, the director of advocacy at Freedom from Torture, said: “Certain politicians like Jenrick have stoked hostility against refugees, fomenting culture wars to divide people and distract from their failings. This is an obvious political ploy and caring people will not fall for it.
“Rather than whipping up hostility and dog-whistling to the far right, it is high time for this government to expand safe routes for refugees, address the asylum backlog, and strengthen international cooperation to reduce the push factors which drive people to make perilous journeys in search of safety.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/sep/17/truth-property-developers-builders-exploit-planning-cities | Cities | 2014-09-17T08:52:07.000Z | Oliver Wainwright | The truth about property developers: how they are exploiting planning authorities and ruining our cities | “I
always said you should never trust a bank with property, or a property developer with money,” says Peter Rees. The former chief planner of the City of London should know about such things, having presided over the results of both. Over the last 30 years, he has ushered in a menagerie of their monuments, from the Gherkin and Cheesegrater to the Walkie-Talkie and Heron Tower, during which time he has seen a significant shift in the balance of power. “When I arrived in the job in the 1980s, the big banks were in control of London,” he says. “But now it’s the big house-builders. We’ve gone from being ruled by Barclay’s bank to being controlled by Berkeley homes.”
Left unchecked, the banks went off the rails in spectacular fashion, as they sprayed money into the great mortgage mirage. And now property developers have been allowed to follow suit. Fuelled by the dazzling wealth of investors from Russia, China and the Middle East, who they turned to when the banks stopped lending, their steroidal schemes are causing irreparable harm to our cities.
Across the country – and especially in superheated London, where stratospheric land values beget accordingly bloated developments – authorities are allowing planning policies to be continually flouted, affordable housing quotas to be waived, height limits breached, the interests of residents endlessly trampled. Places are becoming ever meaner and more divided, as public assets are relentlessly sold off, entire council estates flattened to make room for silos of luxury safe-deposit boxes in the sky. We are replacing homes with investment units, to be sold overseas and never inhabited, substituting community for vacancy. The more we build, the more our cities are emptied, producing dead swathes of zombie town where the lights might never even be switched on.
Developers have bounced back from the crash with bigger plans than ever before, acquiring vast areas of land with the ambition to operate like the great estates of yore. Framed with the cuddly terminology of “long-term stewardship” and “adding value”, they are merely mimicking those aristocratic fiefdoms, recasting the city as a network of privatised enclaves. The landed families of Grosvenor, Portman and Cadogan have been joined by a breed of corporate giants like Lend Lease, CapCo and Ballymore. The latter is overseeing the £2bn transformation of Nine Elms into a high-security zone of luxury flats around the new American embassy, that will apparently “draw inspiration from the attractive residential and commercial estates which evolved over time in cities like New York and Boston”. CapCo is building its £8bn kingdom across a 30-hectare swathe of Earls Court, while Lend Lease is ruling Elephant and Castle, Argent is reshaping Kings Cross, and most of Victoria is now controlled by Land Securities. The list goes on.
A view of the Nine Elms redevelopment, which is getting a £2bn transformation into luxury flats. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
They have been accompanied, and often outbid, by a newer kind of international development force, supercharged by the untold riches of sovereign wealth funds, national pension funds and the gushing pump of petrodollars. The Qataris, who bailed out the Shard and snapped up the Olympic Village, have been joined by the growing appetite of Malaysian and Chinese investors. Malaysian consortium SP Setia acquired Battersea power station for significantly more than its competitors could muster, while China’s recent property supermarket sweep includes such sites as Wandsworth’s Ram Brewery and a £1bn deal for the Royal Docks. These inflated land deals, with foreign buyers ready to pay over the odds, are spawning a new form of equally oversized and exclusive developments.
Bankers have faced our collective wrath, but what about developers? The economy goes in fickle booms and busts, cycling merrily through bubbles and crises, but cities, built in concrete and steel, generally stay put. What we are making now, we will all have to live with for a very long time. The iniquities of the banking crash have been intricately unpicked, but the wilful destruction of the places where we live and work remains something of a mystery. We may rant and rage against ugly additions to the skyline, but what of the mechanisms that are allowing it to happen? How did it come to this?
The principal reason can be traced to the fact that awarding planning permission in the UK comes down to a Faustian pact. If the devil is in the detail, then the detail is Section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, a clause which formalised “planning gain”, making it in the local authorities’ interests to allow schemes to balloon beyond all reason, in the hope of creaming off the fat of developers’ profits for the public good.
Introduced as a negotiable levy on new development, Section 106 agreements entail a financial contribution to the local authority, intended to be spent on offsetting the effects of the scheme on the local area. The impact of a hundred new homes might be mitigated by money for extra school places, or traffic calming measures. In practice, since council budgets have been so viciously slashed, Section 106 has become a primary means of funding essential public services, from social housing to public parks, health centres to highways, schools to play areas. The bigger the scheme, the fatter the bounty, leading to a situation not far from legalised bribery – or extortion, depending on which side of the bargain you are on. Vastly inflated density and a few extra storeys on a tower can be politically justified as being in the public interest, if it means a handful of trees will be planted on the street.
China’s recent property sweep includes a £1bn investment in London’s Royal Docks. Photograph: HayesDavidson
“Council chief executives will allow schemes to be pumped up as much as they can go before they get political push-back from councillors,” says one planning officer from a London borough that has suffered from a recent a spate of towers. “And the worst schemes happen when there is no political resistance at all.”
It is a system that is all too open to political pressure, given that any officer who advises against a new development can be conveniently framed as “anti-growth”, heartlessly preventing a promised tidal wave of new public amenities from flooding into the borough. Based on negotiation and discretion, the result is entirely down to the individual planning officer’s ability to squeeze out as good a deal as they can get, a battle that all too often ends in the developer’s favour.
The results of such botched bargaining can be seen sprouting up across London’s “regeneration” hot-spots, such as Elephant and Castle, where the council is attempting to transform the maligned mess of the roundabout into an “exciting destination”. With shimmering golden fins rising into the skies, the 37-storey tower of One the Elephant promises to “set new standards for contemporary London living”. It is one of the flagship projects by Australian developer Lend Lease in the £3bn transformation of the area. But take a closer look, and it seems the new standards it is setting comprise an impressive ability to avoid providing any affordable housing at all. Such second-class accommodation would of course require its own “poor door” entrance and circulation and, according to a council report: “The cost of construction would increase with the introduction of a further lift, as well as separate access and servicing arrangements.”
Bypassing Southwark’s requirement for 35% affordable housing – which would have meant around 100 units – Lend Lease has instead contributed £3.5m in lieu towards the construction of a community leisure centre next door, which will cost £20m to build. A triumph for the public good, you might think, until you realise that the equivalent cost of building 100 affordable units would have been around £10m, three times what the developer paid. Pressure group 35 Percent – which campaigns for the borough-wide policy of 35% affordable housing to be enforced in Elephant and Castle – estimates that, in the six biggest schemes in the area, developers have avoided paying £265m in off-site affordable housing tariff payments required by policy. And of the 4,282 new homes being built, just 79 will be social rented (ie. managed by registered providers for those on low incomes).
Video: the local business view of Tottenham Hotspur’s planned new stadium. Guardian
The same story is repeated the other side of town, where Haringey awaits the momentous arrival of Tottenham Hotspur’s new £400m football stadium. This bulbous mothership was promised to bring 200 new homes, half of which would be “affordable”, and an abundance of public benefits to the area. But, once again, the affordable component has been mysteriously waived, replaced with 285 flats for solely private sale, while the Section 106 contribution has been reduced from an agreed £16m to just £477,000 – a token contribution towards transport improvements.
The system has spawned a whole industry of S106 avoidance, with consultancies set up specifically to help developers get out of paying for affordable housing at all scales of development. Section 106 Management, set up by solicitor-turned-developer Robin Furby, is one such company that offers a service to small-scale developers, promising “to establish the profitability of your project and thereby reveal unviable Section 106 obligations”. Its website displays a list of case studies proudly showing how much they have helped developers dodge, and boasting of planning permissions achieved “without any contribution towards affordable housing” at all, saving “tens, if not hundreds of thousands of pounds”.
So what exactly does it mean when a property developer pleads poverty? “If the profit margin for your scheme is pushed to below 17.5% by Section 106 payments, you should talk to us,” says the website. Other consultants promise to safeguard 20% profit margins and upwards, before any Section 106 contributions are even considered. If a scheme is declared “unviable”, it simply means “we’re not getting our 20% profit so why should we bother”.
The power of the policy to leverage affordable housing has been further eroded since the introduction of community infrastructure levy (CIL) in 2010. A non-negotiable fixed-rate tax on new development, CIL was intended to introduce more transparency and give developers a level of certainty about how much they would be expected to contribute towards infrastructural improvements. But, in reality, it has provided another excuse to dodge Section 106 obligations. A further change to the town planning act last year has made Section 106 agreements renegotiable, allowing review and appeal of all existing obligations, in a misguided attempt to promote growth – which simply makes it easier for developers to wriggle out of their promises, as happened in Tottenham and elsewhere.
“Not surprisingly, developers are now even keener to renegotiate the S106 after they’ve got planning permission, finding they can’t negotiate the CIL,” says Peter Rees. “In most cases, they manage to prove that they can no longer afford to pay for the affordable housing that they agreed – it’s simply ‘not viable’ any more.” One planning officer puts it succinctly: “There has never been a worse time to give schemes consent, in terms of securing public benefit.”
In all cases, how developers prove what they can afford to pay for comes down to the dark art of “viability”. The silver bullet of planning applications, the viability appraisal explains, through impenetrable pages of spreadsheets and fastidious appendixes, exactly how a project stacks up financially. It states, in carefully worded sub-clauses, just why it would be impossible for affordable housing to be provided, why the towers must of course be this height, why no ground-floor corner shop or surgery can be included, why workspace is out of the question; indeed, why it is inconceivable for the scheme to be configured in any other form. Presented as a precise science, viability is nothing of the sort; it is a form of bureaucratic alchemy, figures fiddled with spreadsheet spells that can be made to conjure any outcome desired.
London’s ‘Cheesegrater’ building is at the forefront of the City of London’s planned cluster of tall towers. Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty Images
“Councils just don’t have the expertise to challenge viability reports,” says one senior planning officer. “We can’t argue back.” Instead, they can commission viability assessments, produced by the same consultants that work for developers, to determine whether the report is accurate – but not to propose an alternative. The figures may well stack up, but it doesn’t mean the scheme could not be designed in a different way, which would still guarantee the developer’s 20% profit margin.
“You only have to modify one of the variables very slightly to get completely different outcome,” says one planning consultant. “You can very easily go from something being rip-roaringly viable to completely unviable by tweaking something very modestly. If a planner doesn’t understand that, they’re not going to do very well.”
Evidence suggests that is all too often the case, judging by the number of planning officers’ reports that diligently conclude a scheme would simply be unviable if it was obliged to fulfil the policy objectives. With calculations often undisclosed for reasons of commercial confidentiality, councils are forced to blindly accept the developers’ figures as the ultimate de facto truth, allowing their own policies to be flagrantly breached.
“I’ve never been confident in reports that I’ve received on viability,” says one planning officer, describing how the big property consultancies operate as something of a cabal, with one wary of challenging another’s figures. “Every consultant that’s advising a local authority is hoping to advise a developer tomorrow. If they put the boot in on a big development scheme, they simply won’t be hired again.”
A relatively new field, viability has been given increasing weight by the government’s National Planning Policy Framework, introduced in 2012, which slashed 1,300 pages of policy down to 65, as part of the coalition’s triumphant bonfire of red tape. The NPPF introduced a “presumption in favour of sustainable development”, which sounds innocuous enough – but as Rees points out, “the definition of ‘sustainable’ has nothing to do with green issues or energy at all. It means one thing: commercially viable.”
Immune from public scrutiny, viability assessments have rightly come under fire for clouding the accountability and transparency of what should be a statutory public process. Their confidentiality is closely guarded, in order to preserve developers’ trade secrets, but where the sale of public assets is concerned, there is increasing pressure for the books to be opened.
Southwark’s Heygate Estate is to be replaced by a redevelopment with far fewer social-rented homes. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
One such case recently ended in victory for housing campaigners, when after two years of fighting, which culminated at a tribunal, Southwark Council was ordered to disclose the viability assessment produced by Lend Lease over its controversial redevelopment of the Heygate Estate. The 15-year project is seeing more than 1,200 mainly social-rented homes on the post-war estate replaced with over 2,300 units, only 25% of which will be classed as affordable, with just 79 flats for social rent. Many leaseholders were subject to compulsory purchase orders so low they have been forced to move to the far reaches of outer London, their decent-sized two-bed flats valued at under £150,000, while the new homes of “Elephant Park” will be sold for prices reaching £420,000 for a one-bed apartment.
The figures explaining why this was the only feasible way to develop the site were safely locked away in the viability appraisal, which Southwark fought tooth and nail to keep secret. The borough has been particularly keen to keep financial details under wraps since it accidentally disclosed it had sold the entire nine-hectare site for just £50m, having spent £44m on moving residents out – while estimating its gross development value at £990m.
“Without some commercially sensitive information remaining private, developers could simply refuse to work with councils, leaving boroughs without the housing and regeneration we all need,” says a spokeswoman for Southwark Council. The borough brought a legal challenge against a decision by the Information Commissioner’s Office last year ordering the council to disclose the full details of the viability report, after a freedom of information request was denied. Southwark argued that full disclosure would “damage regeneration”, while Lend Lease, in a defence that verged on farce, pleaded the human right to “peaceful enjoyment of its possessions”, arguing that disclosing the viability assessment would amount to “unjustified interference with this enjoyment”.
The tribunal concluded that the information must be disclosed, stating that “the importance … of local people having access to information to allow them to participate in the planning process outweighs the public interest in maintaining the remaining rights of Lend Lease”. It sets an encouraging precedent for campaign groups battling similar situations elsewhere, from Greenwich Peninsula to Earls Court – where the information commissioner has supported further disclosure of viability assessments on gargantuan regeneration schemes.
A scale model of London on show at this year’s Mipim international real estate fair in Cannes, France. Photograph: Valery Hache/AFP/Getty Images
The Heygate decision comes after increased scrutiny of Southwark council’s cosy relationship with Lend Lease, following reports in Private Eye of perks enjoyed by Peter John, the Labour leader of the borough, at the expense of the Australian giant. From a pair of £1,600 Olympic opening ceremony tickets to a £1,250 trip to the lavish Mipim property fair in Cannes, these sponsored outings were reported to have joined a lengthy list from the previous year of Proms tickets and dinners at the Ivy, paid for by at least 10 other companies.
Developers getting into bed with local authorities might usually happen behind closed doors, but at Mipim the conspicuous chumminess was proudly on show along the Croisette for all to see. In the wake of headlines decrying public money being spent on councils attending the champagne-soaked jamboree, their private “development partners” have been more than willing to step in and foot the bill. With a borough’s presence at Mipim costing up to £500,000, developers happily pay for glistening city models, trade show booths and yachts, where cakes iced with their logos are handed out by mayors. More than 20 local authorities took part this year, with developers sponsoring everything from a “Croydon on the beach” cocktail party to an entire “Manchester bar”, where public-private relationships could be cemented by free-flowing booze.
“The boroughs might be proud that they’re not here at the public’s expense,” says housing campaigner Jake Freeland, who held a protest in Cannes this year. “But that’s precisely the problem. They’re in the pockets of the investors, and they’ve come here to sell off our city.”
Developers have long thrown parties and funded foreign trips as a way of lubricating their plans through the system, but the quest for permissions now extends into the statutory planning process itself, through the rise of deals known as planning performance agreements. Introduced to help fast-track large, unwieldy schemes through the system, PPAs see the applicant pay for a new dedicated position in the council’s planning team to focus solely on their application, guaranteeing a faster turnaround and a better “bespoke” service.
Capital and Counties Properties (Capco) paid over £2m to Hammersmith and Fulham council under a PPA to have its £8bn redevelopment of Earls Court assessed, while similar deals were reached for Westfield and Hammerson’s £1bn plans for another mega-mall in Croydon, as well as Argent’s £2bn redevelopment of King’s Cross.
The £8bn redevelopment plans for Earls Court extend across an area of 30 hectares. Photograph: Jo Blason
“There’s nothing wrong with planning performance agreements,” says one planning officer. “It’s just like allowing people to travel club class. You pay for a better service.” Quite whether club-class planning should be offered by a statutory pubic service is questionable, but developers have few qualms about throwing money at an authority, spitting out as many applications and fees as are necessary to see a project through. “We pay vast sums of money to have things determined quickly,” says the director of one major development company. “We pay the planner’s salary, cover their lawyers’ fees and everything, but we wouldn’t expect preferential treatment. It’s not a bribe.”
Under the coalition’s localism agenda, the wheels for private-sector encroachment into public planning have been further oiled, with the introduction of neighbourhood plans. Presented as a means of empowering communities, they have in fact left the door wide open for canny developers to move in, host a few community coffee mornings with felt-tips and post-it notes, and engineer a plan to their own advantage. There is no requirement for those who draw up the plan to even reside in the neighbourhood and, although they need a 50% “yes” vote at referendum, there is no requisite minimum turnout.
But such a tactic would require at least cursory engagement with the community and the council, something which many developers are increasingly choosing to bypass altogether. Since the introduction of the NPPF, there has been a sharp rise in the number of planning applications won on appeal, as many applicants choose to go straight to the inspectorate, conscious of the new “presumption in favour” of development.
Rather than being the last resort option, after negotiations with the local authority have broken down, the process of planning by appeal has become a tactic in itself. One developer is particularly candid on the matter: “Planning decisions are so often the result of political wrangling at committee anyway,” he says. “Why would you waste months negotiating something to get the planning officer on side, when they can’t guarantee delivery at planning committee?” On appeal, it comes down to a battle between planning lawyers, the judgement often determined by who can afford the best representation. When the Rolls Royce legal team of the private developer meets the quivering case officer of the emasculated public sector, its not hard to guess the outcome.
Developers with bigger ambitions are choosing to bypass the local authority in a different way, by going straight to the top and playing for a “call-in” – waving their schemes under the nose of the mayor of London or secretary of state. Such a situation has emerged at Mount Pleasant in north London, where the Royal Mail Group has proposed a fortress-like scheme of 700 flats, only 12% of which will be affordable. The site straddles the boundary between Camden and Islington, both of which have a target of 50% affordable housing. Boris Johnson ignited local fury when he called the scheme in earlier this year to be determined by his planning team, describing it as a “beautiful design … and a wonderful place to live” before the local boroughs had even turned it down.
The Royal Mail Group has proposed a fortress-like scheme of 700 flats on its Mount Pleasant site. Photograph: Matt Dunham/AP
“It is hardly surprising that the mayor has called this in,” says Duncan Bowie, lecturer in planning at the University of Westminster. “The mayoral planning process is based entirely on achieving the maximum number of housing units on any given site, aimed at selling to an international market. The London-wide target of building 42,000 new units per year is predicated on a lot of very high density developments that don’t even comply with the mayor’s own policies on density.”
The same thing happened at Convoys Wharf in Deptford, where a £1bn proposal for 3,500 units (of which just 15% will be affordable), in the form of three towers rising up to 40 storeys, was called in by the mayor after the Hong-Kong based developer wrote a blustering letter complaining of planning delays. The scheme was approved in April, against the advice of the local authority and the cries of heritage groups.
“It’s common practice to play the mayor off the borough,” says one senior planning officer. “We recently had one vastly oversized scheme that we’d spent months trying to tame, then we had a meeting with the GLA planning team, and their first response was ‘why not make it taller?’” Driven by tick-box housing targets, the GLA merrily rubber-stamps whatever comes its way, yet most of these schemes are doing nothing to help the housing crisis, given the fraction of “affordable” homes they include are still out of reach of most, at up to 80% of market rent.
“Developers have quickly latched on to the fact that, even if they can’t get local authorities to approve schemes, they can get them through the mayor or the government,” says Peter Rees. “The bigger the better. And they know that they’ll happily allow towers to be built outside designated clusters.”
Click here to see our interactive graphic of how Vauxhall is changing
As deputy prime minister, John Prescott personally approved both the Shard and the Vauxhall Tower, the latter against the decision of the planning inspector and after strong warnings from his advisers that it “could set a precedent for the indiscriminate scattering of very tall buildings across London”. How right they were. With a 50-storey shaft already on the skyline, the council was in no position to refuse further skyward ambitions. The GLA, keen to seem “strategic”, quickly declared the area a “cluster”, beckoning in a thicket of towers and opening the floodgates for the emerging Dubai on Thames. A wall of glass stumps is beginning to sprawl along the river from Wandsworth and Battersea to Nine Elms and Vauxhall – and beyond.
“It is an absolute fiasco,” says Mark Brearley, professor at Cass Cities and former director of Design for London. “It is the outcome of not really taking much notice of plans and being fairly relaxed about negotiating the best outcome, and not placing too many obligations on developers. Nothing hangs together as a result, nothing makes sense at ground level. As a piece of city it’s a farce.”
A similarly galumphing form of urbanism is appearing across London, from the gauntlet of City Road to Stratford High Street. Many of the worst offenders are the result of our slippery two-stage planning system, in which general outline permission can be given, while further details are postponed to a later “reserved matters” application. In a system based entirely on negotiation, it is a fair way of allowing developers to test the water and see what they can get away with, before spending money on detailed work. Yet it also allows crucial elements, like ground-floor uses, the location of entrances, the nature of materials and even massing and bulk, to slip through the net, allowing designs to be watered down to pale imitations of what had been agreed. And the hands of the local authority are hopelessly tied.
“Once an outline permission is granted, it makes it very difficult for us to refuse a scheme further down the line,” says one officer. In Stratford City’s “International Quarter”, part of the promised spoils of the Olympic legacy, consented tower proposals have recently gained a substantial number of extra storeys. Similarly in Wandsworth, a proposed pair of towers have put on a growth spurt and lost their planned mix of uses, reverting entirely to high-end flats.
Conditions that have been agreed are relentlessly renegotiated at reserved matters stage. Good architects are employed to win outline planning, then ditched for a cheaper alternative; high-quality materials are substituted for flimsy plastic panels – all in the name of viability.
Just like the banking crisis, the problem of botched urban development has long been encouraged by a system that is open to exploitation and all too susceptible to careless regulation. But it is also not something that can be easily fixed. “There’s only so much mileage in vilifying developers or planners,” says Brearley. “Making cities is imperfect and messy, and has been for thousands of years. But we should be able to do better than this.”
Proposal for ‘phase 3’ of Battersea Power station’s redevelopment, by architecture firms Gehry Partners and Foster + Partners. Photograph: Gehry Partners
It comes down, he thinks, to the fact the UK planning system is overly reliant on individual negotiation between private developer and public servant, which is usually far from a level playing field. “It makes a very opaque and confusing system that relies on having people that are very sophisticated at brokering deals,” Brearley adds. “And those people will generally settle in places where they’ll earn more money. The people negotiating on behalf of the public are simply not sophisticated enough.”
One former planning officer is frank about the reality of the imbalance in our confrontational system. “If you throw enough resources at a planning application, you’re going to manage to tire everyone out,” he says. “The documentation gets more and more extensive, the phone calls get more frequent and more aggressive, the letters ever more litigious. The weight of stuff just bludgeons everyone aside, and the natural inclination is to say, ‘Oh yeah okay, I’ve had enough of this one,’ and just let it through. It’s like a war of attrition.”
And it is a war in which the side representing the public interest has been systematically drained of expertise. The number of architects employed in the public sector has fallen from over 60% to less than 10% over the last 30 years, while planners have been relegated to third- and fourth-tier officers, with some boroughs contracting the service out altogether. As part of the Farrell Review into architecture and the built environment, a “Plan First” initiative has been proposed, by GLA regeneration manager Finn Williams, on the model of Teach First, to try to lure the best graduates into planning. But it faces an uphill struggle to overturn the years of neglect and transform a system that is fundamentally anti-plan-making.
“To this day our planning system is the wrong way around,” says Rees. “It evolved to protect the countryside from the encroachment of the towns, rather than to make the cities better. It isn’t about building great places, it’s about protecting non-places.” And in the process, it has allowed our cities to cannibalise themselves and become those non-places it set out to protect.
Bullied and undermined, planning authorities have been left castrated and toothless, stripped of the skills and power they need to regulate, and sapped of the spatial imagination to actually plan places. As one house-builder puts it simply, “The system is ripe for sharp developers to drive a bulldozer right through.” And they will continue to do so with supercharged glee, squeezing the life out of our cities and reaping rewards from the ruins, until there is something in the way to stop them.
Read more on the London skyline debate | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2015/jun/09/would-you-leave-the-uk-to-teach-abroad-answer-our-poll | Teacher Network | 2015-06-09T11:00:00.000Z | Sarah Marsh | Would you leave the UK to teach abroad? Answer our poll | “My life is not just about producing results for the school I work in; it’s about so much more. Until the UK government realises that all teachers need a good work-life balance, we are better off out of here.”
These are the words of this week’s Secret Teacher who is fleeing Britain to teach in the Middle East, escaping Ofsted, endless marking and constant curriculum changes.
This evoked an enormous response. One teacher said: “How long will it take this government to realise that something must change in order to keep those trained specifically for teaching in post? The profession has been undermined for long enough.”
Another commenter talked about the teachers planning on following suit: “I know loads of teachers, and just about any of them could have written this. They feel the same, and some have left already.”
But the grass may not be greener on the other side. A teacher with experience abroad said there are advantages and disadvantages to making the move – but don’t expect smaller workloads. “You’ll get more duties, more parents evenings, more reports ... and, worst of all, [have to do] lots of cover.”
Secret Teacher: I'm fleeing the UK to find work-life balance
Read more
Another teacher added that a decent work-life balance in Britain is achievable. “I try my best to embrace social occasions and time away from books and data,” they said.
We want to take this debate further; gathering more evidence on how teachers feel. If you currently work in a UK school, have you thought about teaching abroad and why? What makes other education systems appealing? Answer our poll and share thoughts in the comments, email us or tweet @GuardianTeach.
Follow us on Twitter via @GuardianTeach. Join the Guardian Teacher Network for lesson resources, comment and job opportunities, direct to your inbox. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/dec/22/stories-of-2015-richard-iii-king-burier-leicester | UK news | 2015-12-22T14:52:32.000Z | Maev Kennedy | Stories of 2015: Richard III and the man who would be a king burier | In the past year the Rev Pete Hobson has grown a beard – snow white, much to the amusement of family and friends of the brown-haired priest – and written a book. Its title, How to Bury a King, is the clue to his other recent preoccupation.
Last March millions around the world watched live television coverage of the reinterment of Richard III, the last of the Plantagenet kings, 530 years after a halberd pierced his skull and brainin the battle of Bosworth, and two and a half years after his remains were rediscovered under a Leicester council car park.
Hobson’s first encounter with the king under the car park came about, appropriately enough, over parking. As director of St Martin’s House, an administrative and conference centre next door to Leicester Cathedral, he took a call from a woman he had never heard of who phoned to ask if she could use some of the cathedral parking spaces while doing a bit of archaeology.
“Parking in the centre of Leicester is at a premium, and she seemed to want to take up a lot of space for a long time, so I said absolutely not – and thought that was that.”
The woman was Philippa Langley, a Scottish screenwriter and historian who was convinced that Richard still lay where he was buried in August 1485, after the victorious Henry Tudor took his crown, and his naked and mutilated corpse was lugged back from the battlefield. Hobson would come to know her name very well.
“I was told: ‘We think we’ve found Richard.’ My instant reaction was I didn’t know we’d lost a Richard. I completely failed to take in its significance.”
In the spring of 2013 the astonished world learned that Richard III had been identified “beyond reasonable doubt”, and Hobson was seconded to the cathedral staff to take up the challenge of creating a 21st-century ceremony for a medieval king. It was a job which suited his unflappable nature, practical mind and organisational ability, but which his work in inner city parishes in London and Manchester since his ordination in 1977 had done little to prepare him for.
“If we were going to do it – and despite all the arguments it was apparent from the start that it would be us doing it – we were going to do it properly,” he said. “The theme ‘with dignity and honour’ emerged quite early in the discussions.”
As the cathedral filled slightly beyond capacity on Thursday 26 March 2015, with royalty and civic dignitaries, including the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and Catholic cardinal Vincent Nichols and academics, few would have noticed Hobson, though he had swapped his usual jeans and fleece for full clerical garb. Also in attendance were descendants of those who fought on both sides at Bosworth, including an Australian nurse still astonished to learn of the connection, two medieval uniformed yeomen warders who arrived unexpectedly along with the governor of the Tower of London, and Benedict Cumberbatch reading a newly composed poem by the poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy.Few gave credit to the priest, whose official title, somewhat baffling to those outside clerical circles, was acting canon missioner. He described himself, more matter-of-factly, as “project manager for the reburial of a medieval king”.
“It was not a job that came with a how-to book,” Hobson said. “I wouldn’t use the phrase ‘making it up as we went along’, as that might sound disrespectful and we did take expert advice at every turn, but we certainly didn’t start out on this road with a clear map of where we were going.”
After the reburial ceremony the congregation scattered to lunches of varying grandeur, but another long day and night’s work awaited Hobson. For the ceremony, the former king’s coffin had only been lowered into the brick vault, not completely buried: the single gigantic block of Swaledale tombstone, was still to arrive at the cathedral overnight, and lowered into position to seal the grave. The completed tomb would be revealed for the first time to the public and press, at the week’s final ceremony the next day.
Somebody remembered to bring a few sandwiches into the cathedral as Hobson oversaw the complicated dress rehearsal for the final ceremony, which involved scores of actors, dancers and schoolchildren. As darkness fell, the work continued. It was impossible to get heavy lifting gear into the cathedral, so the three-tonne block of stone was brought through the south door by pulleys, rollers and muscle power, much as it would have been in medieval times. The job was finished at dawn, a few hours before the final ceremony.
Every aspect of the saga was attacked by somebody, and usually by many. The reburial itself was delayed for almost a year over a high court claim by very distant relatives of Richard – the king’s only legitimate child died in boyhood, and he left no direct descendants – that they should have been consulted over where he was buried. Rival claims for Westminster Abbey and York Minster were bitterly argued, and some queried whether a king described by one writer as “one of the worst of all English monarchs” should be afforded any honour at all. There was outrage in some quarters over the first tomb proposal for a plain inscribed floor slab and over the final strikingly modern block of sloped stone deeply slashed with a cross, and many queried the money spent on reordering the cathedral and the ceremonies: £2.5m for the cathedral, considerably more spent by the city and county, though it bought publicity beyond price.
Through it all Hobson grinned, shrugged, occasionally muttered a few unpriestly words, and cracked on.
In the end almost every aspect of the week won awards, from the joint media operation by the cathedral and university to the new visitor centre across the road encompassing the car park site and the elegant landscaping of the once scruffy space in front of the cathedral. Visitor numbers have increased tenfold to 210,000, and donations to what Hobson called “the second poorest cathedral in the country” to £70,000. The lead archaeologist, Richard Buckley, was awarded an OBE and Langley and historian John Ashdown-Hill MBEs..
By the Friday evening of that unforgettable week, most of the visitors and almost all the journalists had gone. Hundreds of local people were still queueing patiently to get into the cathedral, by then surrounded by a glittering golden collar of flames from the thousands of firepots which were lit as dusk gathered.
Hobson’s wife, Sue, joined him – he had scarcely seen her, his five children or his many grandchildren in weeks – and they walked through pathways of flames all around the narrow streets of the city centre, through the new gardens, past the white roses heaped on and under the statue of Richard.
“It was a magical moment, celebrating in the present and making a bridge to the the distant past. It was the first time I thought: ‘You know what, we’ve done a good thing here.’ It was a very good feeling. But life goes on – on to the next job.”
St Martin’s was never more than a big parish church, and only became a cathedral in the 1920s. It was seen as a temporary measure until a new cathedral was built in Leicester, but that never happened, so St Martin’s gradually filled with cluttered facilities for its new role. Hobson’s job now is to mastermind giving the remainder of the building a clarity, elegance, and usefulness to match the work preparing for Richard.
And his book, due out in spring, could prove invaluable to someone if the next royal body hunt, in the ruins of Reading Abbey, does turn up the remains of the 12th-century King Henry I. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/aug/16/gunshots-6ix9ine-50-centc-video | Music | 2018-08-16T09:37:39.000Z | Ben Beaumont-Thomas | Gunshots fired on set of 6ix9ine and 50 Cent music video | Gunshots have been fired on the set of a music video for the rappers 6ix9ine and 50 Cent, with no one injured.
A report in the New York Times states that police found 11 bullet casings from two handguns around the video set following a call to the area in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. It is not yet known who was on the video set at the time, or who fired the weapons.
50 Cent made light of the incident on Twitter, posting a video that 6ix9ine had filmed of himself urinating, alongside the message: “I told 69 you can’t be acting crazy. Now I’m almost positive he shot up the video. LOL.”
The incident is the latest in a series that 6ix9ine, whose real name is Daniel Hernandez, has been involved in. In July, he reported an incident to police in which he claimed he was briefly kidnapped and forced at gunpoint to hand over jewellery worth $750,000 (£590,000), though police have said he has since stopped cooperating with detectives investigating the case.
In 2015, he was filmed having sexual contact with at 13-year-old girl, and pleaded guilty to the “use of a child in a sexual performance”. He avoided jail time and being put on the sex offenders register as part of his plea deal, but three alleged incidents since – one assault on a teenage girl and another on a police officer, plus a charge of driving without a licence – have violated those terms, and he will face new sentencing in October.
50 Cent has previously been the victim of a gun crime, when he was shot nine times in May 2000. He too has also been charged with violent offences in the past and received two years probation after an incident at a 2004 concert.
Despite or perhaps because of his infamy, as well as his eye-catching rainbow aesthetic, 6ix9ine is one of the most popular new rappers in the US, with hits including Gummo, Keke and Fefe. The latter, featuring Nicki Minaj, is currently at No 5 in the Billboard chart. Another of his “Soundcloud rap” peers, XXXTentacion, was killed in a Florida shooting in June. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2010/nov/17/john-bishop-comedian-interview | Television & radio | 2010-11-17T21:31:00.000Z | Brian Logan | John Bishop: Where did it all go right? | Three years ago, in his show on the Edinburgh fringe, John Bishop described walking out of a career in pharmaceuticals to pursue comedy. His show, called Stick Your Job Up Your Arse, had considerable confessional appeal, the more so for being performed, in Bishop's words "in a hut". The venue, a prefab, was certainly inglorious and the audience was very small: it seemed Bishop's gamble was not paying off. And things got worse. "There was a deficit," says Bishop, "between what I was earning and what my family needed to live off. I was resigned to the fact that, while I may do the odd night, I was going to have to get a proper job."
Well, Bishop's got a proper job now – if "primetime TV comic" counts. His riches-to-rags tale has swung back to riches, after a year in which Bishop, 44, has gone from half-empty gigs to a Saturday night show on BBC1, John Bishop's Britain, and a never-ending tour of arenas. If he has a problem now, it's success: Bishop built his standup on everyday tales of a blokeish middle-aged man and his family. Can he be both celebrity and everyman?
The new show he's touring, Sunshine, traces Bishop's journey to fame: from his last London gig, when 14 of the 16 audience members were his friends, via his game-changing December 2009 appearance on Live at the Apollo, to a night on the tiles at Robbie Williams's post-Brits party with James Corden and Freddie Flintoff. "I thought, I could either ignore what's gone on, or I could address it," he says. But surely it's tricky playing the bloke next door while talking about life on the A-list? "There is a thin line between being honest and autobiographical and sounding a bit like a cock."
That line is trickier to tread for working-class comics, into which category Bishop – with a Liverpool accent so rich it's got calories – falls. The distance travelled, and the potential for sell-out, is so much greater. But, laidback, charismatic, and never far from a big, alpha-male laugh, Bishop is unconcerned. "There's no chance of me going, 'You know when you're eating olives in the Ivy?'" he says, "because I don't live that life. I have the same mates I always had, I go to the same pub. I've got the same wife and kids and the same house. Nothing's changed." Well, that's not strictly true. Today we're meeting in an exclusive Soho club, one floor of which has been reserved for Bishop, who arrives an hour late, having crammed in meetings for this rare London leg of his tour.
His wife's first grey pubic hair
Bishop grew up on a council estate in Runcorn. "The only way to get off it," he says, "was either playing for Liverpool or being in a band." He heard a line on Radio 4 the other week that summed up his childhood. "When I was young," it ran, "I only ever wanted a job where, when I went home, I didn't have to get a wash." Bishop's dad was a labourer; his brother still is. But Bishop got out: to Manchester Poly; then into semi-professional football for Southport FC; and, latterly, in pharmaceuticals.
In his late 30s, Bishop gave up the "good job, mortgage, pension plan, Bupa, company car and gold cards for two airlines" to pursue comedy. He was depressed, his marriage was collapsing, and one night he wandered into a comedy club and took to the mic, cracking the only joke he could think of, about French farmers, then waffled about his divorce.
Bishop had caught the bug. The compere encouraged him and, if falteringly, Bishop was off. But it took him until last year to hit the big time, after his Elvis-themed set secured a Edinburgh comedy award nomination, and TV snapped him up. It's a thrill to hear Bishop tell the tale: his excitement is contagious. But once a marketer, always a marketer: he's well aware of the box-office value of this ordinary-boy-done-good narrative. In his new show, he overplays his naivety, casting himself as the Scouse bumpkin embarrassed by his own face on advertising hoardings and nervous at having to snog Ronni Ancona in an episode of Skins. His current popularity, and the rocketing of his ticket sales, he traces directly to the telling of his how-I-got-into-comedy story on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross.
His secret? "I didn't just tell gags." Indeed, emotional directness is key to Bishop's appeal. In his standup, he doesn't pretend that marital breakdown is funny, or that his newfound fame isn't disorientating. "If comedy is just gag, gag, setup, gag," he says, "you leave knowing nothing about the comic. I think there's a thin line between pathos and comedy, and I'm not afraid of putting my heart on my sleeve." The climax to his Elvis show, when footage of his debut for his beloved Liverpool FC (in a charity match) was screened to the strains of Love Me Tender, left few dry eyes in the house.
Bishop admits that the confessional standup can be icky for his wife and three sons. He frequently riffs on the difficulties of stroppy teens; and, in his Live at the Apollo set, he joked about his wife's first grey pubic hair. "When nobody knows who you are," he says, "it's easy to talk about your marriage and your kids. But now, I've got to work with the fact that the audience has a perception of who I am already – and who my family is. My lads have sat me down and said, 'Don't talk about this, Dad, and don't mention that.' It's something I'm still learning about."
He credits his TV breakthrough to the current proliferation of standup on the small screen. "It was about numbers. I don't think somebody in the BBC said, 'Let's give the others a go.' I think they said, 'We've run out of the ex-Footlights people we usually go to. We'll have to try some new ones.'"
A detour into the bank of Blair
Bishop has a common touch seldom associated with ex-Footlights comics: it's a brand of trad standup that pleases a mass audience, but it can alienate comedy snobs. One journalist referred to Bishop as the Oasis to Stewart Lee's Blur. Bishop laughs; after all, he prefers Oasis. But he thinks it's a remark loaded with prejudice. "I don't think there's any need for me to prove my intelligence. I'm happy with where I am. I don't have to go on stage and say, 'Guess what book I read, aren't I clever?' But if somebody wants to have a conversation with me about politics or the economy, I'm happy to do it." He detours, at one point, into a critique of Tony Blair setting up his own bank. "Can you imagine Harold Wilson doing that? It's a fucking disgrace."
But Bishop keeps the politics out of his comedy. "I don't want to be categorised as a comedian going down any particular avenue," he says. "Besides, political comedians are hamstrung, because they're waiting for other people to do stuff before they can come up with something funny." That's a simplification, but Bishop has a simple, utilitarian take on comedy as a whole, which success won't compromise. "My job is looking around for funny stuff to happen, and then telling it in a way that people enjoy. Now I've got this far, I'm pretty sure I'll be doing it for a lot longer than most people want me to."
John Bishop Live is available on DVD now | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/games/2023/sep/06/starfield-review-an-exquisite-electric-faintly-rickety-universe-of-possibilities | Games | 2023-09-06T08:00:52.000Z | Simon Parkin | Starfield review – an exquisite, electric, faintly rickety universe of possibilities | There’s a feeling when you approach your ship, a snug and plucky little star-hopper named Frontier (of course), as it squats on the circular expanse of a landing pad. An inkling of stars pricks through the dusky sky; the hatch hangs invitingly open, a furnace of light spilling from the ship’s belly on to the tarmac. You stride past your robot butler, who has awaited your return with the infinite patience of a machine, clamber over whatever trinkets you’ve scattered across the ship’s floor to make some room in your backpack, and lower yourself into the pilot’s seat. A bank of buzzing CRT monitors, analogue switches and lights blinks back at you. As the ship’s thrusters flare, there is this sensation – rarely felt in our world, where every copse and cul-de-sac has been Google-sapped of all intrigue – of possibility, of range, of the opportunity to chart the unknown. A universe of storyline threads awaits, ready to be gathered up and laced.
‘The more you give it, the more it’s gonna give back’: Bethesda’s Starfield explored
Read more
Not at first, though. Starfield, the latest game from Bethesda, a studio known for big-hearted and bug-ridden worlds that strain at the seams of their supporting technology, starts blandly. You play as a miner who happens upon a fragment of an ancient artefact that, when touched, sends you tumbling into a psychedelic vision. This experience earns you an invitation to join a Masonic-like guild of explorers known as Constellation. The group believes that the artefact could relinquish some of the universe’s deep secrets, a conviction burnished by the fact that, when its fragments are brought close to one another, they float and fizzle with arcane energy.
Mystical MacGuffins do little to move the discerning sci-fi lover’s heart, however, and Starfield’s best hope is to quickly side-quest its player into more down-to-Earth dramas, of which this game has an entire galaxy’s worth. This, too, takes time. First you must learn to navigate the foibles of its nested menus, especially the star map used to skip between planets and systems. You must grow accustomed to the brittle feel of the world’s interactions, the distracting loading screens (not only when flying from one planet to the next, but often when walking from one shop to the next), and lines of dialogue that babble across one another as you jetpack through the world. And, most urgently, you must flee the starting city of New Atlantis, a soulless capital that, with its acres of concrete, glass-fronted malls and ornamental lakes, feels a bit like a retail park on the outskirts of Croydon.
In time, though, Starfield’s breadth of ambition and imagination is revealed. As well as your role as space archaeologist, you are free to ally yourself with dozens of different factions, from arms companies to peacekeeping volunteer forces, from buccaneers to debt collectors. You encounter these groups naturally as you flit between planets, and most have dedicated job boards at which you can sign up for missions to earn the credits used to upgrade your equipment and ship, or loosen stubborn tongues. You are free to choose, to some extent, how you approach these goals, opting for diplomacy, bribery or force, depending on whim, temperament or how you have chosen to spend your character’s skill points.
Breadth of ambition and imagination … Starfield Photograph: Bethesda
For example, you might need to locate a brilliant scientific researcher who is hiding from his creditors. Do you clear the debt from your own pocket, or hack into the database to digitally lower the amount owed, or complete his research project and sell this information to the industrialists to clear his name? Each choice has costs and benefits. Some feel more consequential still. When you are invited to join a faction of tech-savvy outlaws, will you do so as a true pirate, or as a plant working for the galaxy’s equivalent of Nato? All routes are open and inviting, but eventually the consequences of your decisions accumulate and solidify to form a unique identity and bespoke journey.
Your time divides, broadly, between exploring planets and moons (some barren wastelands, others that groan under the weight of their human settlements and dramas), fighting and looting (many corpses carry a rictus fistful of credits and some shotgun shells) and dogfighting in space. A nest of deeper, fussier activities supports these fundamentals: researching innovative technologies in labs, harvesting raw materials, installing upgrades, establishing outposts, allocating team members and even, once you earn your citizenship, purchasing property. The life-sim components can feel undercooked, or perhaps just under-explained, when compared with long-running, fully furnished rival games such as No Man’s Sky or Elite Dangerous. Starfield’s joy is not found within the interplay of its systems, but rather in how the scripted missions elevate and energise the rather rickety and familiar designs that underpin it.
The world is exquisitely designed – from every piece of blinking tech to every pneumatically sighing door – as if by a team of Nasa product designers whose aesthetics got stuck somewhere around 1973 but whose funding became, at some point, limitless. The benefit of the game’s enormously broad canvas is that it has allowed the designers to create distinct pockets of civilisation, each with their own ambience and history: from the gunslingers and saloons feel of Akila, to the snowy tourism of New Homestead, or the hot temptation of Neon, a steaming futuristic Shinjuku, all exposed pipes and loops of wiring, pink and orange signage, and furtive protection rackets.
Sign up to Pushing Buttons
Free weekly newsletter
Keza MacDonald's weekly look at the world of gaming
Enter your email address
Sign up
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Inevitably, there is an unevenness to the many plotlines. The most compelling, generally, are those that involve subterfuge. (In one memorable example you must find a way to steal a bejewelled award from a luxury ship that is hosting a black-tie gala.) Others, in which you mine for resources at a rockface, or attempt to track down first editions for a book collector, feel jarringly trivial. The freedom to choose a companion to accompany you on your travels – there are more than a dozen, and each will comment on the morality of your choices according to their own personality – adds to the feeling that your movements through this world are both observed and consequential.
Starfield, as with Bethesda’s previous work, requires its player to submit to the spell that is being cast. The rewards for those who can overlook the often awkward delivery of dialogue, bodies that glitch through scenery, the confusion of menus and the flimsy feel of combat are considerable. Because that feeling of electric possibility – when the horn section swells as you touch down on a new planet, stride into the nearest settlement, then pick up whatever threads of story interest you – never wanes.
Starfield is out now on Xbox Series S/X and PC; £69.99, or playable with an Xbox Game Pass subscription | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/feb/27/this-much-i-know-jessie-ware-i-miss-dancing-and-sweat-touch-and-body-odour | Music | 2021-02-27T14:00:27.000Z | Michael Segalov | Jessie Ware: ‘I miss dancing and sweat, touch and body odour’ | Like most Jewish homes, ours was loud and emotional. And that was just when we were deciding what to eat. My parents separated when I was nine and my siblings, Mum and I became a team. We were protective of her. Life was brilliantly chaotic and she made sure we always experienced new things.
It’s Mum’s fault I’m not a solicitor. A few weeks before I was due to start law school, my friend Jack Peñate asked if I’d do backing vocals on his tour. He couldn’t pay me, but it was six weeks in America. Mum was clear: live your life, defer your place, go otherwise you’ll regret it. I went, and signed my first record deal soon after.
I worked too hard when my first child was born. I was trying to prove something: that I was relevant, that I could do it all without any compromise or changes. My insecurities mean that my memories of her first year are bittersweet.
I was desperate to create a mystique around me at the start of my career. I thought hiding my personality to seem enigmatic would help, but people just thought I was miserable. Starting a podcast with Mum freed me – she tells anyone anything. We always knew she was a star – now the world also sees it.
Dave Chappelle licked me in a Minneapolis bar. I was on tour and I ended up having drinks with him and some friends afterwards. As I was saying my goodbyes, I swear to God, tongue touched face. It wasn’t sexual, just quite peculiar. He must have missed when trying to kiss me on the cheek goodbye.
Sam and I have been together since we were 18. I’ve known him since childhood. He’s calm and kind – the perfect man.
By nature I’m incredibly lazy. I will happily spend the whole day in bed while Sam looks at the mess that I’m making disgustedly. I blame my creativity, but I’m basically just a slob.
I miss dancing and sweat – human touch and body odour. It’s not like I was going out raving every weekend before the pandemic, but now I long for that release: the closeness and proximity, those intimate moments on the dance floor with strangers.
I’m quite stubborn. Or maybe I’m not. Actually, am I a contrarian? I don’t know. I’m a Libra: I can’t make decisions.
Women in music are told they have a shelf life, but I’m 36 and have never felt stronger. Everything is falling into place.
Jessie Ware’s album, What’s Your Pleasure?, is out now, and her book, Omelette, is available to pre-order | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/food/2023/nov/25/pouring-half-a-cup-of-balsamic-over-baby-spinach-is-wrong-how-to-make-a-great-salad | Food | 2023-11-24T23:00:33.000Z | Nicholas Jordan | ‘Pouring half a cup of balsamic over baby spinach is wrong’: how to make a great salad | Ilove salad. I eat it almost every day: as a meal, as a side, sometimes as a side to another salad. What I don’t like is a bad salad, and I’ve had hundreds of those, often made by me. Baby spinach tossed with watery feta and stale almonds; dried cranberries with even drier quinoa; roast pumpkin and beetroot swimming in oil – the list goes on.
Salad is probably one of the most vague and confusing food categories. It could include gado gado, raw beef larb, dressed herring and even “jello salad”. But the kind I’m talking about here is the typical leafy green and dressed variety found in homes and restaurants across the Anglo world.
Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning
There are a thousand salad recipes out there, but each tells you how to make one specific salad, not a thousand. Yet once you’ve mastered the basics, a thousand salads is about how many you’ll be able to make. From the importance of spinning to salting your dressing, we asked some Australian cooks, chefs and fresh produce enthusiasts for their tips on making a great salad.
What is the salad for?
Knowing where a salad fits into a meal is the first step to getting it right. Mark Best, chef-owner of the now-closed Marque and culinary adviser to Melbourne’s Ritz-Carlton, says a hearty main should be paired with a simple, light salad – just greens with a little bit of lemon and olive oil.
Keep hearty ingredients for salads that will be stand-alone meals. Photograph: Jessica Hromas/The Guardian
If the salad is part of a table spread – like at a bring-a-plate dinner party – think about the other dishes, and keep it simple. “At dinner parties everyone tries to showcase their prowess, going hard on the salad, whereas a simpler approach is often better,” Best says.
If it is a stand-alone meal, you have room for heartier ingredients. Best, for example, likes a good caesar salad: cos lettuce, croutons and bacon, plus a creamy mayonnaise dressing of coddled eggs, mustard, peanut oil, plenty of good quality anchovies and lots of pepper.
Choose your leaves (and keep them dry)
When it comes to salad greens, there is more out there than rocket, baby spinach and lettuce. Sneh Roy, the author of recipe blog Cook Republic, loves curly endive (also known as frisee, it has a crisp lettuce-like head with frizzy, bitter leaves) and the soft leaves of mignonette lettuce.
Food blogger Sneh Roy is a big fan of tahini dressings. Photograph: Jessica Hromas/The Guardian
Thanh Truong, a second-generation fruiterer who also goes by the moniker Fruit Nerd, loves micro-greens (particularly lemon balm), the “punchy and sour” notes of sorrel (if you can find it), and fresh herbs. “Mint is completely underrated … It’s so herbaceous, perfumey and vibrant,” he says.
Water on a salad is just a mistake … It’s the cardinal sin of salad
Thanh Truong
And there is no shame in buying a pre-mixed pack of salad leaves. Truong says the combination of leaves are chosen for flavour and balance. “They’ve been specifically curated by the grower so that it’s hitting different points.”
Truong says rocket is peppery, and radicchio is dry and bitter. Meanwhile butter lettuce is soft and silky; red oak variety is mild and nutty, while iceberg leaves are juicy.
And he says the salad spinner is your most important tool. “I can’t stress that enough. Water on a salad is just a mistake. If there is a little bit of water you’re diluting the dressing and everything is going to drip to the bottom. It’s the cardinal sin of salad.”
Photograph: Jessica Hromas/The Guardian
Or choose no leaves
“Not all salads need to have leaves,” says Hetty McKinnon, cookbook author and salad enthusiast. “Of the hundreds of salad recipes I have written over the past decade, leaves are rarely the main player. I use leaves to add freshness and lightness.”
Choose your vegetables, grains and ‘comfort’ ingredients
McKinnon instead prefers to base her salad on other vegetables – whatever is in season, plus grains and legumes. Her recipes often call for vegetables like capsicums, pumpkin and onion to be roasted, grilled or sauteed; pearl barley, quinoa and lentils are often simmered in salted water or stock.
Roy always adds ‘comfort’ ingredients, like chickpeas. Photograph: Jessica Hromas/The Guardian
Sneh Roy always adds “comfort” ingredients to her salads: “Something that you are looking forward to finding in your bowl, it can be something hearty or creamy, like a cheese or protein.” She is a fan of chickpeas in particular, and says they aren’t used nearly enough.
And you can put anything in a salad, but balance is the key.
McKinnon says: “If I’m using a bitter vegetable like brussels sprouts, I might think about balancing that with a hint of sweetness in the dressing. For sweet vegetables like sweet potato or pumpkin, I will add spice to heighten earthiness or layer in a sharp, salty element like cheese.
Griddle me this: Alice Zaslavsky’s charred and creamed corn with lemon-spring onion oil
Read more
“Starchy veg like potatoes benefit from lots of herbs to add liveliness. Sometimes I’ll opt for big hits of acidity to bring excitement to mild-mannered vegetables like cabbage or carrot.”
As salads generally include a lot of sour and bitter flavours, fruit can be incredibly useful to provide sweetness as well as texture. Thanh Truong recommends pomelo, pomegranate seeds, pear and peaches.
Add crunch and texture
A good salad should be texturally interesting – and it helps to think about contrasts. Avocado on top of rocket can make a soggy mess, but avocado with the crunch of thinly sliced sugar snap peas will contrast beautifully.
Truong says nuts and seeds are almost always better toasted. Photograph: Jessica Hromas/The Guardian
But sometimes, says Mark Best, you might want to double down on a particularly satisfying texture. He likes cos lettuce, crisp bacon and croutons – a triple-crunch combination.
Sign up to Saved for Later
Free newsletter
Catch up on the fun stuff with Guardian Australia's culture and lifestyle rundown of pop culture, trends and tips
Enter your email address
Sign up
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
McKinnon says not to underestimate whole spices. “I love coating [roast] vegetables with cumin, fennel or caraway seeds which become crunchy in the oven, adding more texture to the salad.”
Roy says lettuce leaves should be ‘bite-size. No one wants to be chewing on a salad leaf that’s half hanging outside their mouth.’ Photograph: Jessica Hromas/The Guardian
Like Best, she recommends croutons, as well as nuts and seeds. Truong says nuts and seeds are almost always better toasted. “But, let’s face it, not everyone has all the time. I think everyone has had the situation where they leave the nuts on the stove and two seconds later they’re black.” He says store-bought roasted nuts are a good shortcut – smoked almonds are his favourite.
The size of each salad ingredient is also important. Consider tabbouleh, where all the ingredients are chopped very finely, so you taste everything in one mouthful. Roy is a huge fan of the chopped salad genre. “I love it when you get seven or eight different elements on a single spoonful,” she says. But if not, at least make it bite-size. No one wants to be chewing on a salad leaf that’s half hanging outside their mouth.”
There’s more to dressings than olive oil and balsamic
Extra virgin olive oil plus balsamic vinegar is the routine dressing of many Anglo households, but Best says both ingredients are grossly overused. “Pouring half a cup of balsamic over baby spinach is wrong, it should only be used specifically.”
He recommends balsamic for tomatoes and radicchio (the vinegar’s sweetness balances the bitterness). He encourages cooks to experiment with other vinegars – rice wine, red wine and white wine – plus sour fruit like lemon.
In some cases, Best recommends using neutral oils instead of extra virgin olive oil, particularly for emulsified dressings (where the oil and other liquids have been whisked to combine into a viscous, almost creamy liquid). One classic emulsified dressing is oil with vinegar and mustard. “Virgin olive oil is too powerful, it can be really aggressive and bitter. Use a light fruity olive oil or a neutral one like grapeseed.”
It’s important to taste the dressing. Roy says it should be strong, but balanced. Photograph: Jessica Hromas/The Guardian
Both McKinnon and Roy use spice liberally in their dressings. McKinnon says ground cumin can add a lot of interest to a lemon-y vinaigrette, while Roy uses minced chilli, garlic and ginger in dressings for heartier salads. If you’re using garlic, she suggests making the dressing before preparing the salad, so the garlic has a bit of time to settle. “I don’t want it tasting raw. [The garlic is] like ceviche, it cooks in the acid.”
McKinnon and Roy are big fans of tahini dressings too. One of McKinnon’s favourites is a simple concoction of tahini, water and lemon.
Pit stops: 11 easy sweet and savoury recipes to celebrate mango season
Read more
And it may sound obvious, but it’s important to taste the dressing. Roy says it should taste strong, but balanced. “When it goes into a whole bowl of other ingredients it will mellow.” If it’s too sour, she says, try adding more salt or sweetness such as sugar or honey. If it’s not sour enough, add acidic ingredients like vinegar or citrus. If it’s too intense, dilute with oil or, if it’s a creamy tahini dressing, with water.
McKinnon says: “The world of dressings is limitless … as long as you remember the basic principles of balance.”
Always add salt
“It is a crime not to season our food, salad included,” says McKinnon. Adding salt to your dressing, is the simplest, easiest and most effective way to do it.
Salt any cooked ingredients as well, including roast vegetables, sauteed onions and the cooking water for any grains, she says.
“Salad making is very much about layering of flavours and if one layer has not been seasoned, you will taste it in the final dish,” she says. “As my mother always says, a little bit of salt brings out all the flavour.”
And good quality salt goes a long way. Truong says due to the extreme heat involved in making table salt, it can add unpleasant bitter flavours to your salad. Look for sea salt instead.
Serve at room temperature
McKinnon says: “When food is cold, flavour is muted and your taste buds cannot pick up the nuances in the dish.”
Dress the salad only when you are ready to eat. Photograph: Jessica Hromas/The Guardian
Her only exception to this rule is cold noodle salads. “Soba noodle salads taste great cold and straight from the fridge.”
And dress the salad only when you are ready to eat. The salt in the dressing can cause greens to sweat and make your salad soggy, as anyone who has eaten a leftover salad will know.
And the last step in making a good salad is actually making them – making a lot of them, in many different ways, with many different ingredients. Like everything, you only get better with practice.
“We should not put salad in a box, figuratively. Over the years, people often ask me: ‘What makes something a salad?’ or ‘How can a salad have no leaves?’” says McKinnon. “To me, anything can be a salad.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/mar/24/uk-ministers-knew-of-significant-synthetic-opioids-threat-two-years-ago | Politics | 2024-03-24T08:00:47.000Z | Shanti Das | UK ministers knew of ‘significant’ synthetic opioids threat two years ago | Ministers were warned nearly two years ago about the “significant public health threat” posed by synthetic opioids but delayed taking recommended steps to tackle rising deaths, the Observer can reveal.
In a report by the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, sent to the Home Office in July 2022, the government’s own advisers laid out concerns about the spread of the potent drugs in Britain and called for urgent action to protect people from “severe harm”.
The panel of 23 independent experts – including the medical director of a major London NHS trust and the head of drug threat at the National Crime Agency – cited official statistics showing that by October 2021 there had been 31 suspected heroin overdoses where nitazenes – a type of synthetic opioid – were present.
They said the figures were probably an “underestimate” and that the substances had also been detected in cocaine, illicit prescription tablets and vapes, posing a “serious acute health risk” akin to that from fentanyl.
The 2022 report called for 10 synthetic opioids to be controlled as class A drugs “as soon as possible” to “bring them into line with other potent opioids”, meaning the maximum sentence for making or supplying them would be life in prison. It also called for a generic definition of nitazenes to ensure any new variations would automatically be deemed class A, and raised concerns about inconsistencies in testing, calling for a national working group to be formed to set standards on postmortem testing, aimed at improving monitoring and preventing deaths.
Experts say the government has not been quick enough to track non-fatal overdoses of synthetic opioids. Photograph: Francesco Carta fotografo/Getty Images
But the report does not appear to have been treated as a priority in 2022, and went without a response for seven months. When the Home Office did respond in February 2023, it said it was sorry for the delay and that it accepted the report’s key recommendation to categorise key synthetic opioids as class A drugs, adding it would do so as soon as parliamentary time allowed. There was then a further nine-month delay before the amendments were laid before parliament.
It was not until last Wednesday that the stricter controls on the 10 synthetics named by the advisory council in 2022, and four others identified since, officially came into force.
The government said the new law showed ministers were “highly alert” to the threat from synthetic opioids. “We are not complacent,” the home secretary James Cleverly said.
A spokesperson said the changes would “help prevent drug-related deaths in the UK and ensure anyone caught supplying these substances faces tough penalties”, and said they showed ministers “have been taking a range of preventative action”.
But experts say the government has not been quick enough to implement such changes, or to track non-fatal overdoses. A member of the Advisory Council said it had been warning the government “for years” about the “huge threat” from synthetic opioids, including calling for improvements to testing. “I’m concerned about the lack of speed in terms of preparing for what’s to come,” they said.
Dr Mark Pucci, a Birmingham-based consultant in clinical toxicology, said the country was “now playing catch up”. He told the BBC: “I do believe England is behind the curve on this matter. The data collection method they are using in terms of testing drug paraphernalia is only ever going to be the tip of the iceberg.”
Since last summer, 101 deaths have been officially tied to synthetic opioids, according to the National Crime Agency, but the true figure is likely higher.
As well as being mixed with “hard” drugs such as heroin, synthetic opioids are increasingly being found in samples sold as prescription drugs, according to data from testing service Wedinos.
Last week, a stark warning came from US secretary of state Antony Blinken at a UN conference in Vienna about the danger posed by fentanyl and other synthetics.
Sign up to Headlines UK
Free newsletter
Get the day’s headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning
Enter your email address
Sign up
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
David Caunter, head of the drugs unit at Interpol, which facilitates cooperation between police in 196 countries, told the Observer that synthetic opioids were being shipped “direct to consumer” from China to the UK and other destination countries. He said packages were often routed via other countries to disguise their place of origin and sent in small packages, making it “very challenging” for police to “connect those dots”.
“It’s almost like a ‘death by 1,000 cuts’ model. But when you look at the criminal networks behind it, you see that they are shipping hundreds of packages a week, if not thousands, and you realise that this is actually a very large-scale, transnational criminal organisation.”
People buying opioids and sedatives online face deadly fakes, expert warns
Read more
The government did not comment on the reason for the delays in its response to the 2022 report, but said there had been an “intensive operational effort” to track down suppliers of synthetic opioids since they were first detected and that quantities reaching the UK “remain lower than other countries”.
It said that while not previously classified as class As, synthetic opioids were covered by other legislation, and that it was “seeking to stay ahead of the curve” by creating a generic definition for nitazenes so they were automatically covered in future. It also said it was enhancing its “early warning system”, which includes “analysing wastewater, tracking non-fatal overdose data and forensic and postmortem analysis”.
Dr David Bremner, medical director at the charity Turning Point, said the increase in synthetic opioids was a “huge concern”. Without sufficient action, including a uniform national approach to testing, he said he feared “catastrophic deaths”.
Ishmail Hassan, an outreach worker from the charity Coffee Afrik, which supports people experiencing addiction and homelessness in east London, said: “I don’t think we are prepared. The health service, police … they are not ready. Everyone needs to get together and come up with a solution.”
One person who is supported by the charity in Tower Hamlets said: “People are scared. There is a lot of dangerous stuff around. I know two people who overdosed the other day and they didn’t have a clue why.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/feb/18/prince-william-announces-plan-to-build-24-homes-for-homeless-people-in-cornwall | Society | 2024-02-18T14:50:22.000Z | Alexandra Topping | Prince William announces plan to build 24 homes for homeless people in Cornwall | The Prince of Wales has announced plans to build 24 homes to provide temporary accommodation for local people experiencing homelessness on Duchy of Cornwall land in the south-west of England.
Working with the Cornish homelessness charity St Petrocs, the project will provide the homes in Nansledan, a suburb of Newquay, with “wraparound support” including training and job opportunities.
The development of “high-quality temporary accommodation that feels like home” is due to begin in September and the first homes are expected to be completed in autumn next year, according to a statement from the estate.
Last year the prince’s foundation announced that it would provide £3m to fund the Homewards project, which emulates one run in Finland and aims to help homeless people into permanent accommodation, regardless of their circumstances.
The Duchy also said it planned to create a private rented scheme for Nansledan for people on lower incomes, providing longer-term tenancies and transparent rent increases.
The estate has also committed to building more than 400 social rented homes and a further 475 affordable dwellings on its new development of South East Faversham in Kent.
But the move was dismissed as “more spin than substance” by anti-monarchy campaigners. Graham Smith, the chief executive of Republic, said the UK would spend at least £3.4bn on the monarchy over the next decade. “That’s money that could be invested in homes for those who most need them, instead of two dozen palatial homes for one family,” he said.
“The public are well aware of the housing crisis because, unlike William, we are all dealing with the consequences of it. For William to trumpet this very limited scheme as a response to that crisis is nonsense.”
The Duchy of Cornwall estate – which stretches 52,600 hectares (130,000 acres) from Cornwall to Kent – passed to William in 2022, when Prince Charles acceded to the throne. The portfolio of land, property and investments, valued at more than £1bn, provides a sizeable income for the future monarch; it paid his father an income of £21m for the year ending 31 March 2022, according to the duchy’s annual accounts.
Homelessness is a longstanding concern for the Prince of Wales, who became a patron of the homelessness charity Centrepoint in 2004 and is also a patron of the Passage, which he first visited as a child with his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales.
The Duchy of Cornwall estate director, Ben Murphy, said the houses would help people “rebuild their lives” and said William was “determined to ensure that we continue to be part of the solution when it comes to the housing crisis”.
He added: “The shortage of social rent and private rented properties is widely considered to be the main cause of increasing homelessness across the country, which is why we are proud to launch this project alongside ambitious plans to unlock more affordable and attainable homes across our estate.”
Since the Conservatives came into power in 2010, England has seen a 63% cut in funding for affordable housing, with only 9,561 social homes delivered in England in 2022-23 compared with 40,000 a decade earlier.
According to the charity Shelter, there are now 1.4 million fewer households in social housing than there were in 1980, but waiting lists are growing. There were 1.29 million households on local authority waiting lists in England in 2023, an increase of 73,000 (6%) compared with 31 March 2022 and the highest number of households on the waiting list since 2014.
Meanwhile, rent in the private sector has risen rapidly; in January, average private rents in Great Britain climbed to record highs. According to the estate agent Hamptons, the total rent bill in Britain has doubled since 2010, while high house prices and mortgage costs have made it harder for younger adults to buy a home.
There is record homelessness in England and councils and support agencies are under huge pressure to address rough sleeping and insecure housing. More than 100,000 households in England, including more than 125,000 children, are living in temporary accommodation, the highest figure in 20 years.
Polly Neate, the chief executive of Shelter, welcomed the project. “To truly end homelessness, we need all political parties to follow the prince’s lead and commit to building 90,000 social homes per year, so that there is a home for everyone who needs one,” she said. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/jan/25/johanna-konta-beats-ekaterina-makarova-to-reach-australian-open-last-eight | Sport | 2016-01-25T09:47:29.000Z | Kevin Mitchell | Johanna Konta beats Ekaterina Makarova to reach Australian Open last eight | Johanna Konta keeps chipping away at tennis history and a three-set victory over the tough Russian Ekaterina Makarova here on Monday evening put her alongside Jo Durie, the last British player to make the women’s quarter-finals at the Australian Open. That was 33 years ago, nine years long than the Eastbourne player has been alive.
Konta served for the match twice but steadied her normally reliable serving arm at the second attempt to win 4-6, 6-4, 8-6.
Andy Murray eases past Bernard Tomic in Australian Open fourth round
Read more
Not many players cite the serve as their favourite shot, especially on the women’s Tour, but for Konta the play-starter is her weapon of choice and she needed every bullet to beat the 24th seed, for the second time, in four minutes over three hours. It was the second longest match of the women’s draw so far, 12 minutes behind Caroline Wozniacki’s painful exit in the first round at the hands of Yulia Putintseva.
“Goodness gracious,” the Sydney-born exile said to her Melbourne audience courtside in the Margaret Court Arena immediately afterwards, “there are only a few of you in here but you made so much noise.”
A lot of British support, no doubt, were camped in the adjacent Rod Laver Arena, watching Andy Murray playing Bernard Tomic for a place in the men’s quarter-final.
Konta was glowing, exhausted and hugely satisfied – as well as proudly British, despite numerous attempts by the Australian media to press her into a long-lost allegiance to the country of her birth.
“It’s really about just keep walking, just keep breathing,” she said of how she came through several ups and downs in a match she might have won in two sets. “The fewer thoughts the better. I’m going to eat and sleep, eat and sleep and then repeat [ahead of her match on Wednesday night].”
Konta – who will move up to 32 in the world at the very least after this tournament – was 3-1 up and cruising in the first set, with a couple of points for 4-1. All the confidence she had built up in the first three matches looked to be paying a more significant dividend, but she could not get that second break, then fortunes shifted back and forth like cargo on a boat in a storm for quarter of an hour.
Makarova broke back in the sixth game, double-faulted twice at 4-4, Konta missed a forehand to blow a break point and Makarova broke for the set.
But, as is so often the case in the women’s game, the deck chairs pretty quickly started sliding the other way and Konta gathered her newly forged powers of concentration to break at the start of the second. The pattern of the promising start had been resumed, and again the British No 1 went 3-1 up. This time, her nerve held – as did her serve.
Johanna Konta hits a forehand during her epic fourth-round match against Ekaterina Makarova at the Australian Open. Photograph: Tracey Nearmy/EPA
At 5-4 and 40-15 up she served a fault but followed with a strong, deep second effort to level at a set apiece. Konta was serving at only 47% of efficiency for the match, 52 for the levelling set, but winning just over half the points on her second serve, compared with a mere 29% for her left-handed opponent.
Konta was 2-2 against left-handers before tonight, including that breakthrough win against the Russian at Eastbourne last year, so the angles do not unduly worry her.
Makarova held serve through deuce points at the start of the third and then asked for treatment to a blister on her right foot – and Konta was not pleased, contending that it might have been a pre-existing injury.
Treatment during the mandated medical timeout must have been good, though; Makarova moved well and forced Konta to hold through deuce.
The Konta second serve got her out of trouble again in the fourth game to save a break then again hold. Indeed there was not much between her first and second serves.
She took new balls at 2-3 and the extra liveliness helped her level, and her spirits rose when she broke in the ninth game, forcing a limp forehand out of her opponent as the concluding set approached the hour mark.
Serving for a place in the quarter-finals, she charged the net at 15-30 and Makarova put a perfect passing shot down the line to grab two break points – then absolutely butchered an identical opportunity. The Russian clinched the break, though, with a controlled forehand that left Konta helpless on the baseline.
Makarova drove her forehand wide to surrender her serve in the 13th game, as the match approached minor-marathon proportions, and Konta served for the match a second time.
Would her pet shot let her down this time?
This was her best set for serving reliability, and Makarova felt its power and precision under the most extreme pressure. A final howitzer wide to the Russian’s forehand was too hot, the reply billowed the net and the job was done.
It was Makarova’s 60th unforced error; Konta’s count was 20 fewer. It was a good measure of their approach, the British woman striving for consistency, her opponent driven to too many desperate corners.
“I definitely left it all out here on court,” Konta said afterwards. “I really just tried to hang in there and run after every single ball and just keep fighting on every single point because that’s all I can do at the end of the day. I feel fortunate enough that I was able to capitalise on some opportunities and close it out in the end.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/dec/02/bentley-books-planes-to-bring-in-parts-in-event-of-no-deal-brexit | Business | 2020-12-02T16:39:45.000Z | Jasper Jolly | Bentley books planes to bring in parts in event of no-deal Brexit | Bentley has lined up five cargo planes to fly in car parts if there is disruption at the UK border in the event of a no-deal Brexit, in a marker of the deep concerns facing motor manufacturers as trade negotiations continue.
Companies from across the economy have expressed concern that imports could be disrupted for weeks if the UK and EU cannot agree a deal before 1 January, when the Brexit transition period ends.
Adrian Hallmark, Bentley’s chief executive, said the firm had five 747 cargo planes on standby under a timeshare arrangement to avoid ports, which could quickly become congested if there is a cliff-edge change in trading rules.
Bentley, which is owned by Germany’s Volkswagen, the world’s largest carmaker by volume, has spent millions on preparations for Brexit, according to Hallmark. He was speaking at an industry conference organised by the Financial Times.
“We’re ready to jump off a cliff with a parachute that hasn’t been tested,” he said. “We’d rather not be jumping off the cliff with a parachute at all.”
Carmakers typically try to avoid using air transport because it is much more expensive than land or sea, but they do occasionally use planes to ship parts when there are urgent requirements.
Jaguar Land Rover, the UK’s largest carmaker, said in February that it had flown in some vital key fobs from China in suitcases when the start of the coronavirus pandemic caused shortages.
For the most part the UK’s logistics network passed the test posed by the pandemic, but all traffic moving across the Channel will face new paperwork whether a deal is agreed or not, while carmakers including Bentley also need to invest heavily to develop new electric cars.
Bentley, whose factory is in Crewe, Cheshire, has also looked at routeing imports through two other ports aside from Dover, including Immingham in Lincolnshire.
Stockpiling parts in extra, rented warehouses is another way that Bentley and other car companies are trying to avoid stopping production. Bentley now has the parts to cover 14 working days of production without new supplies, up from the two days of stock it usually holds.
Bentley only makes about 11,000 cars per year, meaning that stockpiling and flying in parts – while expensive – should protect it from the worst of any disruption. These are much less appealing options for large-volume carmakers such as Jaguar Land Rover or Nissan, whose Sunderland factory is the largest in the UK and can produce more than 1,300 cars a day.
Hallmark said disruption at ports would be more damaging to Bentley than 10% tariffs, which would kick in on 1 January if there is no deal and trade defaults to World Trade Organization terms.
Sign up to the daily Business Today email or follow Guardian Business on Twitter at @BusinessDesk
He said the company would try to find the “least worst balance” between raising its prices and absorbing some of the costs itself. Bentley cars start at £130,000 and special models can cost more than £1m, meaning it can absorb some extra costs in its thick margins.
For larger-volume, lower-margin carmakers, tariffs would be a disaster. Nissan has said tariffs would make its UK business model unsustainable, while PSA Group’s chief executive has said the future of its Vauxhall plant in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, hangs on getting a good Brexit deal.
UK car industry forecasts suggest a no-deal Brexit would cost the sector £55bn by 2025 because of lost production. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/apr/10/police-fed-cancels-awards-ceremony-at-dorchester-over-brunei-anti-lgbt-laws | UK news | 2019-04-10T13:51:38.000Z | Simon Murphy | Police cancel event at Brunei-owned hotel over anti-LGBT laws | The Brunei-owned Dorchester hotel has been dropped as a venue for the Police Federation’s bravery awards after widespread condemnation of the country’s introduction of new laws imposing death by stoning to punish gay sex and adultery.
The five-star Mayfair hotel has been shunned by the organisation, which said it could not support “a regime which is so fundamentally opposed to the values of respect, diversity and equality”.
The snub follows the imposition this month of sharia law in the south-east Asian kingdom, which includes punishments such as amputating thieves’ hands.
Brunei’s shift to a more conservative form of Islam has been overseen by the sultan, Sandhurst-educated billionaire Hassanal Bolkiah, who described the introduction of the new laws as a “great achievement”.
‘It’s dangerous to go out now’: young, gay and scared in Brunei
Read more
However, the move has sparked outcry with celebrities such as George Clooney and Sir Elton John among a chorus of critical voices backing a boycott of the Dorchester Collection chain of hotels. The chain, owned by the Brunei Investment Agency, an arm of the country’s ministry of finance, has three hotels in the UK and two in each of the US, France and Italy.
The Police Federation of England and Wales, which represents 119,000 rank and file officers, said in an online statement: “In light of recent events, we have decided not to host our annual police bravery awards at the Dorchester Hotel and will be seeking an alternative venue.
“We cannot in all conscience support a regime which is so fundamentally opposed to the values of respect, diversity and equality we hold so highly within our organisation and policing as a whole.
“And although the decision is no reflection on the staff of the hotel itself, who have always done their utmost to ensure that the event is a success, we feel it is the right one.”
John Apter, the national chair of the Police Federation, added: “I am confident this year’s event will be as moving and as poignant as it always has been, our brave and dedicated colleagues deserve nothing less.
“Local management at the hotel has reimbursed us after cancelling the deposit and have been incredibly understanding in these circumstances, for which I am grateful.”
The awards ceremony, which celebrates extraordinary feats of courage and is in its 24th year, was due to be held at the London venue on Park Lane on 18 July. The decision to drop the venue comes after the foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, cancelled a Conservative fundraiser at the hotel earlier this week. Meanwhile, Deutsche Bank is among major firms banning staff from staying in Brunei-owned hotels.
Action on anti-gay barbarism in Brunei | Letters
Read more
Brunei, which has a tiny population of 430,000 people, is situated on the island of Borneo and gained full independence from Britain in 1984.
Asked if the hotel’s management was concerned that Brunei’s imposition of anti-LGBT laws was negatively affecting business, a spokesman said: “Yes, we’re deeply saddened by what’s happening right now and the impact it is having on our employees, guests, partners and suppliers in particular.
The spokesman added: “We are grateful that the Police Federation has stated that their decision is no reflection on the staff of the hotel.
“As we have said in a statement on our website, we do not tolerate any form of discrimination; we never have and we never will. We understand people’s anger and frustration but this is a political and religious issue that we don’t believe should be played out in our hotels and amongst our 3,630 employees. Our values are far removed from the politics of ownership.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/may/18/water-companies-england-sewage-rivers-seas-surfers-swimmers | Opinion | 2023-05-18T15:37:15.000Z | Henry Swithinbank | Water companies got England’s sewage-ridden rivers and seas into this mess. Do we really trust them to clean it up? | Henry Swithinbank | After decades of pollution, chronic underinvestment and presiding over a fundamentally broken water system, water companies in England have finally apologised for the disgraceful state they have left our rivers and seas in and promised to change. But how on earth can we trust them?
Of course, we welcome the industry finally taking responsibility and any additional investment to fix our broken system, but the money may prove too little and the apology too late. These companies have had ample opportunity to put things right and invest in their infrastructure. Meanwhile, surfers, swimmers and paddleboarders, from St Agnes to St Andrews, have been paying the price, risking becoming sick by simply entering the water.
Looking at the detail of the announcement, it all becomes pretty farcical, pretty quickly. Their apology and subsequent plan is built upon the assumption that ultimately they can get customers to foot much of the cost of the planned £10bn investment through unspecified increases in their bills. This is unacceptable on so many levels. We, the customers, have already paid for the water companies to do their job and deal with our waste. We should not have to do so again, especially in the middle of a cost of living crisis.
And it’s clear that water companies have the funds to pay for this investment themselves if they weren’t so focused on lining shareholders’ and executives’ pockets. Last year alone, companies rewarded their chief executives with £16.5m and paid out £965m to shareholders in dividends. We understand that water companies need to attract investment and talent to these complex jobs, but if they are not complying with their basic legal requirements to treat sewage effectively then nobody deserves to be rewarded.
It’s not yet clear whether the £10bn being announced today is enough to restore all of our rivers and seas to good health and keep waters safe. But what we do know is that priority must be given immediately to tackling those overflows that cause the most harm to people and the environment, so that we can end sewage pollution into bathing waters and high-priority nature sites by 2030. Water UK says the plans by water companies in England will cut the number of overflow incidents by up to 140,000 each year by 2030, compared with 2020.
We recognise that water companies have committed to increase transparency and make sewage spill data more available to the public, but yet again this doesn’t appear to be a gesture made in good faith. It’s a legal obligation placed on them by a government that is starting to panic in the face of the sewage scandal.
When the UK entered the EU we were nicknamed the “dirty man of Europe”. Tough regulation and enforcement helped change that narrative, but the sewage scandal, and our government and regulators’ inability to properly hold the polluting water industry to account, has brought that shameful name back.
We demand urgent change now. We are calling for a cap on CEO bonuses and an end to shareholder pay-outs, unless water companies comply with environmental regulations. And we want regulators to properly enforce the law and hold water companies to account. We have had enough of the PR exercises that water users across the UK are now wise to. Thousands have signed our petition to end profiteering from pollution, and communities up and down the country are primed and ready to paddle out to show their frustration at the sewage scandal in our mass paddle-outs this Saturday. If today’s apology is going to be a turning point in the journey to end sewage pollution, and reset the industry’s relationship with the public, it must be backed up by sustained investment, with the money coming from industry itself. Action, not just words, is what is required.
The past few decades appear to show that if we give these water companies an inch, they will take a mile, so we can’t be distracted by their pledges to change. Campaigners across the UK will keep up the fight until we end sewage pollution, and we need the government and regulators to uphold their side of the bargain, and hold this industry to account.
We won’t be fooled by smoke and mirrors. We will continue to demand better for our rivers, seas, people and planet until we end sewage pollution for good.
Henry Swithinbank is policy manager for Surfers Against Sewage | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/nov/06/nigeria-charges-biafra-activists-treason | World news | 2012-11-06T15:25:05.000Z | Afua Hirsch | Nigeria charges more than 100 Biafra independence activists with treason | More than 100 Nigerians have been charged with treason after a protest march calling for an independent state of Biafra.
Supporters of the Biafran Zionist Movement were arrested after an independence rally in the regional capital, Enugu. The protesters included many elderly war veterans from the bloody 1967 conflict in which Biafra tried to break away from the newly independent Nigeria.
Supporters of the movement say there are growing calls for the region – dominated by the Igbo ethnic group – to break away from Nigeria.
"We don't want to be part of Nigeria because Nigeria is not working as a nation. These arrests just confirm the reasons why we want self-determination – this is a state where they can arrest us even though we have not committed any offence," said Chilos Godsent, from the Imo Mass Movement, which has called for the prosecution of former Nigerian heads of state for their role in the Biafra war.
"The policy and leadership of this country has done everything to exterminate and dehumanise the Biafran people. It is only through an independent nation that our capacity can truly be developed. Within that context we feel like we have the right to self-determination."
"The Nigerian leadership is corrupt – this is not the ethics of the Biafran people," Godsent added. "We are gathering support from our people – we know that if we held a referendum today, 98% of the people in Biafra would support independence. This is a struggle that has lasted over 40 years."
The protesters are evidence of a hardcore of separatists in the region, who still campaign for independence 40 years after the end of the Biafran conflict. The war, which began in 1967, was the bloodiest event in Nigeria's post-colonial history, and began when the oil-rich south-eastern region – dominated by the Igbo ethnic group – seceded as the Republic of Biafra.
Blockades and flighting between Biafran forces and the Nigerian army led to the deaths of more than one million people, mostly from hunger and disease. The Biafran government surrendered in 1970, ending hopes of an independent republic, but separatist sentiments have remained alive among some in the region.
There has been increasing international interest in the movement recently. Last month renowned Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe wrote in the Guardian that persecution of Igbos still persists in Nigeria, as the legacy of the conflict continues to haunt the nation. His recently published memoirs have aroused renewed debate about the conflict.
The award-winning novel Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is set to bring the events of the Biafra war to a global audience: a film based on the book, which chronicles the lives of a family who live through the war, is set for release in 2013.
"Across the board in Nigeria there is a deepening sense of disaffection with the idea of Nigeria, [it] has really failed to become a meaningful political community. And so what you see is a reflection of that sense of profound disappointment," said Nigerian writer Okey Ndibe in a radio interview.
"The issues of injustice that caused that war have not been addressed… Violence has become the ruling ethic in Nigeria. Violence is produced by the state, and now you have Boko Haram and other extremists and fundamentalists groups in the country," Ndibe said. "I expect that there will be more of this kind of protest in the Igbo-speaking areas that we know as Biafra, but also in the other parts of Nigeria."
A #Biafra hashtag began trending on Twitter after the arrests, with one commentator writing, "#Biafra arrests wont stop the sun from rising. Nigeria needs to go back to honesty, peace, justice, equity, fair play, without this its a matter of time".
Another wrote: "In my opinion, I blame Chinua Achebe for toothless veterans and loyalists of Biafra charged with treason". | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/jan/18/scunthorpe-back-from-brink-michelle-harness | Football | 2024-01-18T17:36:31.000Z | David Hytner | ‘The club was finished’: Iron will brings Scunthorpe back from brink | ‘S
o, what are you looking at to get out … you know, how much?” Michelle Harness asked the question out of duty, desperation and numerous other powerful emotions. Her beloved Scunthorpe United had moved to the edge of the abyss under the ownership of David Hilton; in a death roll with more than £1.2m of debt, facing a winding-up petition from HMRC and eviction from their Glanford Park stadium, which remained in the hands of Hilton’s predecessor, Peter Swann. It was the subject of a bitter dispute between the pair.
Now, as the club counted down to the home game against Brackley Town on 7 October 2023 in the National League North – English football’s sixth tier and a level far removed from where Scunthorpe have always seen themselves – there was another problem and it surely spelled the end. The players were about to go on strike.
Why what’s currently going on at Reading FC should agitate all of us
Read more
“They wouldn’t play for him [Hilton] because he wasn’t paying them,” Harness says. “They’d prepared a statement to say they weren’t going to play. That was the club finished that day. It was when I went back to him and said: ‘How much?’”
Harness is Scunthorpe born and bred, a lifelong fan of the Iron, who were formed in 1899 and elected in 1950 into the Football League, where they stayed until their relegation from League Two in 2022. They would go down again from the National League in 2023.
Harness, a local businesswoman who had worked as the club’s commercial manager from 2000 to 2015, joined Hilton’s board in July 2023 and, as such, was on the ground as it threatened to subside. Hilton had taken over from Swann in January last year, although he was unable to come through on the £3m purchase of Glanford Park during a period of exclusivity that lasted until May.
It was one red flag concerning Hilton’s ability to oversee the financial running of the club and there would be many more. His fever-dream tenure continues to frame so much, especially the club’s jolt back from the brink and their ongoing fight for survival. Even, to a lesser extent, the pivotal match at home to the league leaders, Tamworth, on Saturday afternoon.
The manager, Jimmy Dean, has the team in second place, eight points behind, having played a game fewer, and it is easy to feel the hope and optimism on the field, despite the blip of taking one point from the past available six. Scunthorpe, whose players remain full-time professionals, are chasing the lone automatic promotion spot; a second club will go up via playoffs.
Scunthorpe’s owner, Michelle Harness, on the pitch with fellow director Roj Rahman. Photograph: Luke Broughton
When Swann was selling up, it looked as though he would do so to Ian Sharp, a Scunthorpe-born, London-based film producer, who had partnered with Simon Elliott, a previous director of the club. It did not happen but Sharp remained in the background, developing a relationship with Harness and other influential figures, including the director Roj Rahman and Tahina Akther, a lawyer who had worked on the board. Then there was George Aitkenhead, another Scunthorpe fan and businessman, who had been part of Sharp’s original consortium. Harness brought them together; they were able to pay £100,000 and supplant Hilton.
“We thought: ‘What choice do we have but to get involved?’” Sharp says. “Because there was no one else. Knowing that your club is about to go out of business is sickening, completely devastating, because you know the impact it will have on the town. For me, it was bigger than football. How can this piece of our history just be wiped out? I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself if I didn’t give everything to try and save it. I know Michelle felt the same way. We all did.”
When I came in as owner, bailiffs used to visit every day … they even collected the phone system
The buy-in was only the start, what happened immediately afterwards a 24/7 whirlwind. Swann’s eviction deadline from Glanford Park stood at 11 October; Harness’s consortium needed to find the £3m for the ground and surrounding land – quickly. But here is the essence of the story: a community pulling in one direction to preserve something they treasure.
The Scunthorpe players would play against Brackley, with a crowd of more than 5,000 roaring them to victory. Those who were there can still feel the goosebumps. Harness and her directors, meanwhile, got into local businesses for donations; the council, too, and a word for the Conservative MP for Scunthorpe, Holly Mumby-Croft, who took a request for levelling-up funds to government and came back with £2.5m.
The consortium delivered the other £500,000 and they exchanged contracts for Glanford Park in mid-November, Swann having relaxed his deadline slightly. It has been placed into the ownership of a not-for-profit community interest company and there are “substantial plans in the pipeline”, according to Sharp, to use it for non-football events.
The deeply uncomfortable part of the past year is how Hilton was allowed to get the club and drive it so close to ruin. On 11 September, the Athletic said a man it believed to be Hilton was sentenced to two years in prison for 15 counts of fraud by false representation under the name of David Anderson. Hilton has never admitted to using the name Anderson. He said a custodial sentence he served for fraud from 2015 was spent and that he had passed the Football Association’s owners’ and directors’ test. He added he had repaid the value of the fraud, £68,000.
Sign up to Football Daily
Free daily newsletter
Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football
Enter your email address
Sign up
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
It was certainly a weird day on 30 September when, shortly after Hilton’s announcement that he had stopped funding Scunthorpe, they held a United We Stand campaign for the home game against Buxton, raising more than £50,000 to help cover unpaid wages. It was effectively the staff going against the owner.
When Harness talks about what she inherited from Hilton, the detail is searing and shocking – unpaid bills and invoices; non-payments to HMRC; shortfalls in the club’s pension scheme. “When I came in as owner, bailiffs used to visit every day … they even collected the phone system.”
Michelle Harness before the emotional post-takeover match against Brackley. Photograph: Luke Broughton
Creditors came out of the woodwork, in seemingly exponential numbers – including on the football side. “Other clubs, players that he got rid of and never paid, agents …” Harness says.
Should she have been better across it all? She was on the board. “One of the directors, Keith Waters, who is COO at the PGA European Tour, continually asked him [Hilton] for a set of accounts,” she says. “Keith resigned off it. Tahina [Akther, another director] resigned too.”
There have been times when the salvage operation has felt overwhelming. The club also have an EFL loan of about £1m to repay although, in Harness’s words, “that comes out of our parachute money from National League relegation so I’ve parked that.” The wage bill was four times that of the average in the National League North. The club are under a transfer embargo.
What stands out every day is the energy and personality of Harness. “She’s a rock star,” Sharp says. It irks her to be working around the clock to put the club on a sustainable footing, which she has done, while needing to chip away at the mountain of debt that someone else has built up. But she estimates that she is “60% of the way through it” and come next season, when the playing budget reduces, it should be “happy days … we’ve just got to get to there”.
Harness’s can-do attitude inspires others. “I’ve got two volunteers in now with a load of emulsion to paint my office,” she says. “They’d come to see me and it was so bad. An accountancy company has taken on the pay-roll for free. Somebody else is recladding the front corner of the stadium for free, putting on new letters because we have a new sponsor – Attis Insurance.
“I’m going round to companies and I am literally begging from them. Sometimes I think I’m a bit of a pity case. I’m a woman that has stepped in to try to make the club survive. If I was some big-time Charlie with a big chequebook or whatever, I don’t think I’d get the same response. But if the town wants the club then they’ll have to step forward to fund it out of this mess.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/jul/01/england-sri-lanka-cardiff-one-day-internation | Sport | 2016-07-01T16:36:57.000Z | Vic Marks | England face Sri Lanka in Cardiff with a spring in their step | In peculiar times, it is mildly reassuring to escape the abnormality for a while and take refuge in a one-day international series, which will culminate in Cardiff on Saturday.
We are at last witnessing something familiar in an English summer as England and Sri Lanka prepare to contest yet another one-day match: there has been quite a lot of rain to disrupt proceedings. Against Asian opponents in damp, cold conditions England have prevailed, though this time they have not only won the series but also the Super Series. And there is the usual glum realisation that within a month most of us will be hard-pressed to remember the outcome of this clash (although the ICC, meeting in Edinburgh, is currently seeking greater “context” for our international cricket).
Here at least is a reversion to the cosy old days when no one knew that Iceland had the same population as Leicester and politics was sufficiently dull that references to Brutus and Lady Macbeth were seldom justified. Yet between the showers there has been some startling cricket and most of it has been played by England. And at Cardiff on Saturday there is the prospect of some sunshine and an enjoyable, forgettable finale to the 50-over series.
Jason Roy’s knock of 162 seals ODI series win for England against Sri Lanka
Read more
So far the most heartening game from an English perspective was the one in which they played the worst. To conjure a tie, when chasing 287 for victory from the depths of 82 for six at Trent Bridge, hints at the potential of this team. At Edgbaston they delivered an almost perfect game, which removed all tension from the contest; at The Oval, even when required to score 308 from 42 overs, there was no surprise when they knocked the runs off with 11 balls to spare. In white-ball cricket England, under Eoin Morgan, do not know when they are beaten.
Morgan has, however, inherited a problem that has plagued his predecessors as captain: a sudden dearth of runs. He has not passed 50 for a dozen games. Yet it would be foolish to fret too much about that. Morgan, as captain, has instigated the new freedom which has coincided with greater success. One of Trevor Bayliss’s several virtues is that he is eager to let his captain hold sway.
After the vote of confidence from Andrew Strauss more than a year ago, Morgan more than anyone else triggered the upheaval. A key principle to his regime is the freedom to fail and this now should be applied generously to Morgan himself.
The stats suggest that his problem recently has been primarily against spin bowlers, which seemed to be one of his strengths earlier in his career. He should be able to solve that.
Jason Roy is clearly a beneficiary of the fresh outlook. His second century of the series was a breathtaking affair. He relishes playing in this environment. After his Oval innings, he said: “Credit to the boys; they allow me to go out there and enjoy myself and play the way I play. I’ve got no worries about getting out in the first over because I know the guys are backing me. It’s an incredible dressing room to be part of at the moment.” And he is batting incredibly well.
His partner during much of that innings at The Oval was Joe Root, now a senior citizen despite his age and he was mightily impressed. “There was real thought and clarity in the way he went about his business, which previously you might not have associated with Jason,” the Yorkshireman said on Friday. “That shows how he’s developed during his time in an England shirt and where he wants to take his game.”
Inevitably, after a second hundred the question arises of whether Roy might benefit England’s Test team. After all, Alex Hales has just about made the transition. Roy has a special ability to hit a cricket ball, akin to Jos Buttler, and that is a handy starting point whatever form of the game you are about to play. A Test career should not be ruled out for Roy but it is not imminent.
This season Roy has been batting at five or six for Surrey and he is averaging 30. At some point quite soon he might try to persuade his county to send him in earlier because he needs more runs against a red ball to advance his cause. However, at the moment England are making a virtue of having specialist personnel for different forms of the game. So there is no rush.
Currently a majority of the England team can be regarded as one-day specialists. Hence they turn up at Cardiff with a spring in their step and eager to strut their stuff. They appear to be enjoying themselves too much to go through the motions. Sri Lanka, meanwhile, hampered by a growing list of injuries, are starting to fray and they are still pursuing their first victory in the moribund Super Series. The bookies have England as strong favourites in Cardiff. And in a summer of upsets, they are bound to get something right soon. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2021/nov/16/azeem-rafiq-courage-leadership-show-up-ecb-institutional-failure | Sport | 2021-11-16T22:00:18.000Z | Barney Ronay | Azeem Rafiq’s courage shows Yorkshire and ECB what a real leader looks like | Barney Ronay | It seems that Yorkshire County Cricket Club were right about Azeem Rafiq all along. He really is a natural-born leader. Just not in the way they’d hoped.
On Tuesday morning Rafiq sat for an hour and three quarters in the parliamentary committee room of the digital, culture, media and sport select committee. He spoke for most of that time, stopping occasionally to gather himself. In the process he delivered a devastating, fearlessly detailed description of institutional racism shared live and unedited with the British public.
Azeem Rafiq’s testimony exposes how power works in cricket – and in Britain
Jonathan Liew
Read more
The issues are, of course, the thing here. But it was hard not to marvel at Rafiq’s performance. He was electrifying. His evidence was forensic, brutal when required and heart-rendingly honest. Rafiq took a committee designed to take evidence, and a room filled with MPs paid to opine and preach, and simply overwhelmed the whole process with his testimony. So this, then, is what it takes: the strength required to get to this point.
Looking on it was hard not to think about Rafiq as a young Yorkshire cricketer, so highly rated that he captained Joe Root in the under-15s, and was referred to even in Michael Vaughan’s doomed mea non culpa in the Daily Telegraph as someone who “got Yorkshire going. He was full of energy and buzz”. Right first time. Rafiq has had to crawl through darkness to get to this point. But he is, in his own unintended way, a true sporting hero.
There was a startling point of contrast later in the day as the chief executive of the England and Wales Cricket Board, Tom Harrison, gave evidence and produced a wretched show of prevarication, flannel and non-speak buzzwords. Truth? Meet bluster. Corporate evasion? Meet the real-life consequences of your inactions. Quite how Harrison managed to avoid walking into that room already penitent, pleading forgiveness for the harm that has continued to flourish during his own regulation of the summer sport, is the acme of shamelessness.
Rafiq had appeared promptly at 9.33am, sat in a pressed shirt and looking a little anxious as Julian Knight MP invited him to get things rolling. Which he did, to devastatingly lucid effect.
Straight away we were into specifics of the abuse he suffered at Yorkshire. “Elephant washers”. “You lot sit over there.” Constant use of the P-word. The term “Kevin” was raised, an insult given to any non-white person; and, Rafiq understood, to a black dog owned by the England batsman Alex Hales. Banter. That’s all it is.
In any functioning public sports body there would be serious consideration of Harrison’s position
Rafiq talked about being held down by another Yorkshire cricketer when he was 15 while playing for his local club and having red wine poured down his throat. Rafiq is Muslim. He had never drunk alcohol before. John Nicolson, an SNP MP, asked if no one intervened. Rafiq explained calmly and tolerantly how it works. “That’s the institution. You have people who are openly racist. And then you have the bystanders. Lots of people saw it happen. No one felt strong enough to say stop.”
There was real pain at the allegations against Martyn Moxon, Yorkshire’s head of cricket, who “literally ripped the shreds off me” the day after Rafiq returned to work following the death of his stillborn child. He explained how he went through every mechanism, how he wept in front of the inclusivity and diversity board member, but still nothing happened.
Azeem Rafiq’s testimony on racism plunges English cricket into crisis
Read more
There were some warm words for Jason Gillespie, and for Joe Root too, even as Rafiq half-buried him by pointing out that, contrary to what Root has seemed to claim, the England captain was present on nights out when all this was flying around. “It was the norm. That’s probably why some people don’t even remember it.”
He pointed out how unhelpful it is to say “this is a societal problem”, the kind of weary shrug that offers no help at all when you are facing a specific problem. By the end there was a warning, too, against sloganeering solutions, the ECB’s “PR initiatives, telling everyone how great they are”. “We are sick and tired of these inquiries and commissions. All we’re asking is to be treated fairly. The ECB need to take responsibility in their own house. It is their game.”
In the process, walking through the most painful evidence with such grace and clarity, Rafiq provided something else too, a parable of how racism hurts everyone. Imagine another timeline where all this courage, this intelligence, did not have to be wasted on dealing with other people’s bigotry, with managing your own pain. What a waste of talent, what a diversion from happiness.
The ECB’s Tom Harrison took the hearing into the world of basic phoniness with his evidence. Photograph: Hannah McKay/Reuters
At which point, enter the ECB. To move from Rafiq’s testimony to the blurted responses of the sport’s governing body was to step from the light into a murkier world of self-preservation and double-speak. To watch Harrison attempt to field basic, utterly foreseeable questions was to see an executive embarrassingly ill-equipped to deal with his brief. Here we had a salesman asked to speak to issues of character, culture and morality and simply drawing a blank.
Straight off Harrison was asked how it was possible the ECB, as keepers of the game, allowed Yorkshire to produce their own report into whether they were racist or not. “Yorkshire were very clear they wanted to run this investigation themselves,” he replied. Tom, listen to me. They’re the accused.
Campaigners warn over ‘Kevin’ nickname reported by Azeem Rafiq
Read more
For a while we entered a world of T-shirt politics, of basic phoniness. There was talk of “a hard listening exercise” (oh yeah?) of “drilling into the real issues”. Harrison suggested to the committee of MPs that the ECB had responded the instant it became clear there was a problem at Yorkshire. This despite the fact Rafiq first spoke to him about these issues in August 2020. Does that qualify as a half-truth?
He promised he would “look into dressing-room culture”. We heard that the word “Kevin” would “now form part of the ECB investigation”. Cut to a shot of Harrison frowning over a notepad with the word “Kevin??” underlined twice. Invetigation in progress.
Disappointingly, none of the MPs present felt like mentioning the £2.1m bonus Harrison will be sharing with his fellow ECB executives for nurturing the game. Again, that shamelessness. In any functioning public sports body there would be serious consideration of Harrison’s position. It is his job, and his duty, to regulate this culture. What we have here is an institutional failure.
The Spin: sign up and get our weekly cricket email.
And really, no one in that room gets to act surprised. This committee hearing was taking place 24 years on from the first ECB report into institutional racism in cricket, the first list of recommendations, the first stern warnings against complacency, the first questions in parliament. Zoom out a little further and Rafiq’s evidence was given in front of inquisitors apparently unaware that, like the jurors in Twelve Angry Men, it is they who are also on trial here; that this is about culture and power, about the society our representatives oversee.
“Would you help Yorkshire to get its sponsorship back?” Rafiq was asked, apparently seriously, at one point. He waited just long enough. “If that’s the mindset I would be very hesitant.” At moments like that you saw the pain. Rafiq cried a few times during his evidence but was able to talk without missing a beat about the online abuse of his wife, his sister, the illness of his father. This has been the price of pushing, and occasionally dragging, everyone present into that room. Only actions, not empty words, will satisfy now. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jan/29/agency-protecting-english-environment-reaches-crisis-point | Environment | 2019-01-29T07:00:25.000Z | Fiona Harvey | Agency protecting English environment reaches ‘crisis point’ | Thousands of environmentally important sites across England are coming under threat as the government body charged with their care struggles with understaffing, slashed budgets and an increasing workload.
Natural England has wide-ranging responsibilities protecting and monitoring sensitive sites, including sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs) and nature reserves, and advising on the environmental impact of new homes and other developments in the planning stages. Its work includes overseeing national parks, paying farmers to protect biodiversity, and areas of huge public concern such as air quality and marine plastic waste.
But these activities are being impaired by severe budget cuts and understaffing, Natural England employees and other interested parties have told the Guardian. “These are fantastically passionate staff who are worried that the environment is being affected so badly by these cuts,” one frontline staff member said. “There will be no turning back the clock” if we allow sensitive sites to be degraded.
The agency’s budget has been cut by more than half in the past decade, from £242m in 2009-10 to £100m for 2017-18. Staff numbers have been slashed from 2,500 to an estimated 1,500.
Conservation work on sites of special scientific interest is being cut, while farmers are finding it harder to access expert help on countryside stewardship. Work on areas such as air pollution and marine plastics has been cut and many nature reserves are being neglected as vital volunteers cannot be safely trained.
One 11-year veteran of the agency reported low morale and increasing difficulty in managing workloads, with sites left unmonitored for years. They said: “Our work brings economic benefits, environmental benefits, it helps communities. We have suffered disproportionately from the cuts to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs budget. It is such a shame as we have done some amazing and incredible work.”
The Prospect union has investigated the agency and concluded it is “at crisis point”, with staff overstretched and under stress after eight years of a 1% pay cap. The union will launch a report on Tuesday with a call on ministers to increase funding and remove the agency from the pay cap.
“Cuts have left Natural England at the point where its workers are saying they don’t have enough people or resources to do the things they need to do,” said Garry Graham, the deputy general secretary of Prospect. “If we are to be able to regulate our own environment properly after Brexit, it is vital that we cultivate and maintain the skills to do so domestically. We will no longer be able to rely on the EU to do bits of it for us. Once biodiversity is lost, it cannot easily be regained. Now is the time for the government to act.”
One senior manager told Prospect: “[Work on protected sites] is what many of us joined to work on and has been the central focus of much of our conservation work. There are currently no government targets for this work [so] cuts have fallen on work that is not protected, the largest area being SSSI work. That’s the stark reality.”
There have been widespread complaints from farmers over the agency’s failure to make timely payments for the countryside stewardship scheme, under which farmers undertake measures such as improving habitats for wildlife, wildflowers and pollinators. Payments have not been made on time, or fallen short, and many farmers complained of being unable to access the expert advice they need. This has discouraged farmers from applying to the scheme or continuing with it.
Guy Smith, the deputy president of the National Farmers’ Union, said: “We have thousands of members expecting payment from agri-environment schemes completely in the dark over when these already late payments will be made. It is imperative that Defra and its agencies give this priority.”
The Woodland Trust has called on Natural England to update a vital registry of trees, currently looked after by only one staff member. The registry helps campaigners to protect woodland resources that may be threatened by development and can help save money for developers at the planning stages. Updating it would cost about £1.5m over five years.
Abi Bunker, the trust’s director of conservation, said: “We recognise the pressures Natural England are under. It is frustrating when adequate progress cannot be made on updating the ancient woodland inventory, resulting in our rarest habitat being put at unnecessary risk.”
Caroline Lucas, the Green party MP who has asked a series of parliamentary questions on Natural England’s plight, said: “Behind the veil of Michael Gove’s fluffy rhetoric about caring for the environment, ministers have systematically gutted the agency that looks after irreplaceable habitats and beautiful landscapes. The result is plummeting morale as staff simply don’t have the resources to monitor thousands of protected sites across England, ultimately putting spaces for wildlife at risk of irreversible destruction.”
Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrats’ environment spokesman, said: “Farmers need certainty, the environment needs protection and Natural England needs a proper budget to do it. Instead Defra is failing in its duties.”
Defra’s budget has been one of those worst hit by austerity cuts. There has been a recent increase in staffing and funding but only to deal with the expected impact of Brexit on farmers and food supplies so those extra resources are unlikely to have a positive impact on Natural England’s work.
Marian Spain, the interim chief executive of Natural England, said: “Inevitably, cuts of almost 50% to the Natural England budget over the last five years have meant changes to the way we do things. Since taking on my role in December, meeting staff and hearing about the pressures they face has been one of my top priorities.”
A Defra spokesperson said: “The work of Natural England and its staff to protect our invaluable natural spaces, wildlife and environment is vital and its independence as an adviser is essential to this. As set out in the 25-year environment plan, Natural England will continue to have a central role in protecting and enhancing our environment for future generations.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2008/apr/26/heinekencup.saracens | Sport | 2008-04-26T01:17:17.000Z | Robert Kitson | Rugby union: Haughton weaves his way into Saracens' psyche | One of them is seriously quick, a proven try-scoring threat with an impressive array of dark curls. And the other? Some would say the only striking difference between Munster's Doug Howlett and Saracens' Richard Haughton is that one of the two has yet to make his Test debut. Depending on the outcome of tomorrow's semi-final at the Ricoh Arena, that might not be the case for much longer.
The 27-year-old Haughton, the electric hare with the electric hair, has already been singled out by his director of rugby, Alan Gaffney - "how Richard is not in the top 64 players in England is quite amazing" - and two deft scoring passes against Wasps last weekend illustrated an infinitely broader range of skills than your run-of-the-mill track sprinter.
Maybe Haughton spent too long - six years - on the Sevens circuit for his own good. He scored more than 100 tries for England, helping to win the Hong Kong Sevens and featuring in the Commonwealth Games, but has now decided to concentrate on the 15-a-side code, having gained national teenage recognition as a 400 metre runner in his native Surrey. The upshot has been the most consistent season of his career, with his previously half-hearted defence noticeably stronger.
The intense eating regime and endless protein shakes required to increase his slender frame by 6kg last summer proved hard work - "the gym hadn't been my natural habitat" - particularly as Sevens flyers are encouraged to stay light to cope with the extra running and hotter temperatures .
There are those who say the 6ft 2in Haughton - known as "Javelin" to some of his team-mates in good-humoured reference to the way he used to be propelled out of the tackle area - was also too laid-back for his own good. Either way the talented son of an accountant is one of several Saracens players who have benefited from a more settled period in the club's recent history. He has been there for eight years and played 132 games, a relatively slow incubation period for one of the quickest wings - or full-backs - around.
It makes the next couple of seasons - he has just agreed a new two-year contract - vitally important. Haughton rates Tom Varndell and Mathew Tait as his swiftest rivals but Worcester's Miles Benjamin, Bath's Nick Abendanon and Northampton's Chris Ashton are all emerging alternatives to the more established back-three contenders. A lot depends, as Haughton acknowledges, on the vision of England's as yet unidentified new backs coach. "If they're looking at players in the Premiership then hopefully I'm in the top bracket . . . with a change of management anything is possible," he says. "These are interesting times for a lot of people. You can't really guess what is going to happen."
Teams, in contrast, who fail to subdue Munster's pack suffer a wholly predictable fate. Haughton and his colleagues will be candidates for hypothermia if the Saracens' scrum does not gain the ascendancy. "At certain times we are a side who need a kick up the arse," admits Haughton, fully aware of the personal and collective consequences of defeat. "If we don't win, it's almost the end of our season." | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/feb/22/the-experts-interior-designers-on-20-brilliant-bargain-ways-to-improve-your-home | Life and style | 2024-02-22T10:00:49.000Z | Sarah Phillips | The experts: interior designers on 20 brilliant, bargain ways to improve your home | Your home is your castle, but how can you make it look like one on a budget? Interior designers share the bargain renovation hacks they are most proud of in their own homes.
Source everything for free or very cheaply
“My favourite price is free, and my second favourite price is cheap,” says Banjo Beale, interior designer, author and the 2022 winner of the BBC’s Interior Design Masters. Originally from Australia, he has lived on the Isle of Mull for 10 years after he ended up there while backpacking. He sources a lot on the island: “People are really conscious of throwing anything out, so there is a lovely circular culture. Charity shops are my best friend. I am Marie Kondo’s worst nightmare: we are always keeping things that might just spark joy one day.”
Create a window nook
If you have a big window that lends itself to this, it can be converted into a cosy reading seat in a weekend for a couple of hundred pounds, as Beale did. “We built a simple frame with ply around the window to create a seat and shelving,” he says. A comfortable backrest was fashioned using MDF tongue-and-groove panelling. “For the day bed, I had some posts from an old bed I found at the tip and I made them the legs. I emptied out a few old cushion inners from a charity shop to make the bench seat on there.” Clearly a fan of lounging, Beale has turned a fishing net into a hammock elsewhere in the house.
Fake a sense of history
“We live in a new-build, which are my achilles heel,” says Beale. “So I’ve done what I can to make it feel like an old home.” He has painted his kitchen ochre and used church benches, which he says are a “dime a dozen”, to create old-looking shelves. Tongue-and-groove panelling and a chimney around the extractor fan add to the cottagey vibe. The house features a secret door made out of reclaimed cheese boards – handily he lives on a dairy farm so there is no shortage, but they can be easily sourced at a salvage yard – and a copper benchtop made out of an old water tank. A culinary blowtorch can give wood a more aged effect, he says.
Instant art
‘A pop of colour’: interior designer Molly Coath’s home in Bedfordshire.
Molly Coath lives in her family home of 20 years in Bedfordshire and is an interior designer. As her mother is an artist, there is a big focus on art in their house. If you don’t have an artist at hand, Coath suggests framing wallpaper, “and before you know it, you’ve got a beautiful statement piece that can really transform a room”. Coath makes her own frames by glueing MDF strips together and likes to decorate pre-made frames with bobbins that she sticks on and paints.
Don’t be afraid of reupholstering
The idea may be terrifying, but “re-covering stuff is really nowhere near as scary as it sounds”, says Coath reassuringly. Do it yourself by sourcing “footstools, chairs, anything that you can find – just shove a bit of fabric over the top, pull it really tight, then staple-gun it underneath”.
Upcycle with a splash of colour
“When it comes to upcycling, paint is so powerful,” says Coath. Painting a piece of furniture can bring a dramatic change, as suddenly “you’ve got a pop of colour in the corner. It might be a funny side table that you picked up from a flea market. If you paint that in a bright, interesting colour, it will change your space.” Coath sanded down an old wardrobe and spray-painted it gold to give an air of opulence to her bedroom.
A large jute rug in Lonika Chande’s home. Photograph: Milo Brown
Find your painting mojo
Lonika Chande lives in Wandsworth, south London, in a house that she is renovating, but she has three children under five and her own interior design practice so it isn’t happening overnight. Chande agrees that paint is “transformative” and advises on starting small by painting furniture: she bought a nondescript bookshelf for her kids that looks fancier for a lick of eggshell. Build up to doing a bathroom in a bright colour, she advises – Chande’s downstairs loo is yellow with black-and-white framed artworks – before tackling a more substantial project.
Consider an area rug
“Go large with rugs,” says Chande, “so at least the front part of your main furniture sits on it. A rug grounds furniture and makes it look more cohesive and thought through. And it crucially does the job of covering an ugly floor. In our house at the moment we have a horrible orangey pine floor and we haven’t got round to sanding it down or staining it but we have got a big rug, which really helps.” Chande says jute rugs such as Ikea’s Lohals are inexpensive and durable, “so it doesn’t matter if they get trashed”.
Layer your lighting
“Consider some low-level lighting in every corner of the room,” says Chande. “That could be a table lamp, floor lamps or wall lights.” Rather than paying an electrician to install things, opt for plug-in lamps. “We add them to bookshelves, or place them by a sofa or bed to provide a good reading light or a lovely glow in the evening.” She has sourced linen or card lampshades and applied “embroidery tape from Etsy to the base to create something original and unique”.
Pre-loved bathrooms
‘My sink and bath were secondhand’: Temi Johnson on doing up her Hertfordshire terrace house.
Interior designer Temi Johnson lives in a two-bedroom Victorian terrace in Hertfordshire that, when she moved in five years ago, needed completely redoing. One way of saving money when renovating, she says, is by going for vintage items wherever possible, including in the bathroom. “I don’t think many people consider the idea of a secondhand bathroom suite,” she says, “but my sink and my bath were secondhand. It was £100 for the two on eBay.” The plumbing will have to be new and functional whatever you do, Johnson says, so you might as well source the freestanding clawfoot tub of your dreams.
Posh up with a powder coat
Johnson is a believer in saving money where possible to make the pennies go further for a project. “I wanted to change the shower rail in the bathroom but was on a budget,” she says, “so I took the original chrome rail and got it powder-coated matt black for £45, rather than paying £250 for a new one.” Johnson spent what she had saved on a mirror.
Sign up to House to Home
Free weekly newsletter
Eight emails packed with tips to brighten up your home - whatever your budget
Enter your email address
Sign up
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
The experts: cleaners on 20 easy ways to do your most hated household chores
Read more
Upgrade sockets and switches
Changing plug sockets and light switches is an inexpensive and effective way to make a living space look more stylish, says Johnson. “You can get them with a brushed finish really cheaply and it immediately elevates the space.” Don’t bother with any that are hidden away behind furniture, she adds.
If you can’t paint …
Jermaine Gallacher, an interior designer and columnist for Vogue, has rented his Peabody flat in Borough, south London, for almost 15 years. Surprisingly for a rental, he is allowed to put his own stamp on it, “although it has to be returned to its original state”, he says. “If you are renting and you are prohibited from painting, you can paint on calico fabric and pin it on to the wall, which is what I did in my bedroom in a peachy colour.” If you can paint, introduce blocks of colour to a door or wall panel rather than the whole room, so that it can be easily changed back, he advises.
Make a secret floor
Jermaine Gallacher created patterns on the temporary floor in his south London home.
In his office, Gallacher has laid a temporary floor on top of the laminate one that was there, using 2mm plywood stuck down with industrial double-sided sticky tape. He painted this in acid yellow then swirled black gloss on top to form interesting patterns, which are inspired by Jocasta Innes. “Hand-painted floors are another good way of adding character,” he says.
You can take it with you
“Things that you can take with you are always good,” says Gallacher, “because landlords do the laminate floor thing and put in those rubbishy kitchens and it all just looks the same. So we’ve got to find ways of adding character to these horrible, boring rented places.” One way of doing this is through hardware, such as door handles, which you can remove when you leave. “You could change all of the handles on your kitchen cabinets if you are allowed,” he suggests. These can be sourced from hardware shops or repurposed from old furniture. You could even commission a local blacksmith to make a special handle, which is a fairly inexpensive investment for something you can hang on to for life, Gallacher says.
‘Style your shelves using things you have already’: Amanda Davies, who is renting a flat in Margate.
Be bold
“Colour can bring a lot of joy,” says maximalist interior designer and stylist Amanda Davies. She moved from Glasgow to Margate six months ago and is renting a flat she isn’t allowed to do anything to. “For someone who does interiors this is quite stressful,” she admits. Though she can’t paint at the moment herself, she says colour “is such an easy tool to use to play with things, even if it is painting furniture or painting a mural on your wall. It is so transient and easy to change.” Her favourite shade is “the Pantone colour of the year: peach fuzz. It is such a lovely colour when it is used in the right way, especially when you’ve got a south-facing window. It can make the room so warm and calming at the same time.” She says yellow and powder blue can make a kitchen feel “fresh and vibrant”, and she can relate to the “unexpected red theory” on TikTok: “When you add a pop of red to a room with no other red in it. Our kitchen in Scotland was pink, blue, lilac and green with a red lobster clock.”
Add your own features
In her old place, Davies put a chair rail in her living room to divide the wall space, and painted the upper and lower sections in different colours. In the bedroom, she added panelling, which she bought from a hardware shop and secured to the wall with industrial glue. “They are still there, nearly three years later,” she says.
Style your shelves
“Decorate without decorating,” advises Davies. “Styling the room will make such a big impact. Style your shelves using things you have already, or go to car boots or thrift shops for vases and candles.” What is the best bargain she has ever found? “At an estate sale in Scotland, they were selling a vintage rose quartz shell-shaped sink with gold swan taps for £120 – they go on eBay for £13,000.”
Joanne Thelwell’s Victorian home in Manchester plays up an industrial aesthetic.
Find a theme
“Find the thing you really love and use it throughout,” says Joanne Thelwell, who lives in Didsbury, Manchester, and works for a CGI company, which she says involves “designing interiors that aren’t real”, while running an interior design and styling business as a sideline. This theme could be a colour or style of furniture. Thelwell likes industrial aesthetics and has “lots of black legs” around her semi-detached Victorian home, along with red, blue and rust tones, creating a common thread. A Pinterest moodboard is a good place to establish your theme, she says.
Play furniture Jenga
For a very quick and easy refresh, just switch things about, says Thelwell. She regularly moves around the furniture in her home. “There was a sideboard that lived in the hallway for a long time, and we’ve moved it upstairs to our office – immediately it’s given a whole different feel to the space. Even just moving where the bed is can make a room feel different,” she says. “I was always changing my bedroom around when I was a little girl. You move one piece, make a hole, then move something else there. It’s like playing Jenga.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/apr/02/sydney-royal-easter-show-snakes-frogs-reptiles-competition | Australia news | 2024-04-01T14:00:11.000Z | Sharlotte Thou | Good posture, no bumps and ‘immaculate health’: what it takes to win top frog or reptile | Sixteen-year-old Lara Ristic is one of Australia’s best reptile owners – and she has the ribbons to prove it.
Three of her snakes won first place at the Sydney Royal Easter Show on Monday, besting a seemingly impossible judging standard. Winning animals must be both “typical” of their species, while also “really standing out”, vet and former judge Robert Johnson says.
Sign up to receive Guardian Australia’s fortnightly Rural Network email newsletter
Ristic began keeping reptiles as pets five years ago and has been showing them at the Easter show for three. This year she entered 10 of her 14 reptiles in the frog and reptile competition, which features frogs, geckos, snakes and lizards.
“They’re my babies,” she says. “I love them so much.”
Ristic, who was named overall runner-up champion, says the judging standards are “intense” but necessary because they promote proper animal maintenance. It’s especially important because “reptiles don’t show when they’re in pain or sick”, she says.
Ristic’s centralian carpet python ‘Pretzel’ won first place amid ‘intense’ competition. Photograph: Lisa Maree Williams/The Guardian
The reptilian and amphibian competitors are judged on their health and must be cleared by a vet to compete.
While the indicators of health vary from animal to animal, the judges look for a healthy BMI, good posture, signs of worms and bumps in the spine.
Judges also assess an animal’s mental health, marking down animals that show signs of stress.
“We want our animals to be in immaculate health,” show organiser Anthony Stimson says. Animals merely in “normal health” aren’t winners, he adds.
“The ones in perfect health are looked after a lot better … we need to talk to their owners and find out what they’re doing.”
Judges inspect serpent competitors, ‘looking for a pattern to be nice and clean, colourful, that stands out and isn’t washed out’. Photograph: Lisa Maree Williams/The Guardian
The judging process is slow and calculated. It takes more than half an hour to assess the first 10 snakes. Judges crowd in front of individual enclosures marking scoresheets, their expressions serious, sometimes taking the animals out to examine them.
On seeing a yellow-and-white striped snake wrapped around a branch, one observer quips, “you get everything on a stick at the Easter show”.
Judges are looking for a “wow animal”: one that scores highest on a range of qualities and characteristics.
“It can take 20-to-30 years for a breeder to choose something that’s absolutely a perfect score in quality, pattern, colour and variation,” judge Brad Walker says.
“We’re looking for a pattern to be nice and clean, colourful, that stands out and isn’t washed out.”
A green frog catches the eye of spectators. Photograph: Lisa Maree Williams/The Guardian
Other factors can also be at play: being a difficult animal to maintain, being a new species or a species that will generate interest in the hobby can also score highly.
One such example is the green-and-gold bell frog, which breeds extremely well in captivity but is endangered in the wild. None were entered this year.
Walker, who is the longest-serving reptile judge in Australia, says that for competitors who score lower scores, the show presents an opportunity to “help them understand why they scored that way”.
“More often than not the reason is that they don’t know any different and haven’t been trained, or somebody hasn’t given them any advice.”
The show has an encouragement award, aimed at motivating those less-experienced competitors.
“We have 12-year-old competitors going up against a big breeder in New South Wales, who has been doing it for 30 years and got the absolute best of the best,” Walker says.
‘Very curious’ … A northern spiny tail gecko. Photograph: Lisa Maree Williams/The Guardian
For younger competitors, Walker says, reptile showing can lead to a career in conservation or animal care – provided they receive the right support and encouragement.
Amicable amphibians
For some competitors, the show is an opportunity to shine light on an under-appreciated group of animals.
Snakes, for example, are often thought of as being dangerous or as pests. “But they’ll actually take care of pests like rodents for you,” says Cindy Jackson who entered a gecko in the competition.
‘There’s a real family feeling’ … Cindy Jackson with a magnificent tree frog at the Easter show’s frog and reptile competition. Photograph: Lisa Maree Williams/The Guardian
She and Marie Callin, who entered the first-prize winning magnificent tree frog, describe their pets as “very curious”, saying they’re “very amicable to handling and interaction”. They say they didn’t do anything special to prep for this year’s show, apart from keeping their pets in good condition throughout the year.
“I prefer to interact with my animals over humans, or some of them anyway,” Jackson says, laughing.
Frog of the ball: at the Sydney Royal Easter Show, what makes a prize-winning amphibian? - video
Children, at least, are keen on the idea of pet frogs and reptiles. Jackson says kids have told her, “we don’t want a dog, we want a snake”.
Despite the cold-blooded nature of the contestants, Johnson says the atmosphere of the show is warm and fuzzy.
“There’s a real family feeling,” he says. “A lot of people come every year so it’s a great reunion.”
Sign up for the Rural Network email newsletter
Join the Rural Network group on Facebook to be part of the community | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/jul/08/issa-rae-barbie-insecure-interview | Culture | 2023-07-08T10:55:13.000Z | Ellen E Jones | ‘I hate the colour pink’: Issa Rae on being a reluctant Barbie and the legacy of Insecure | When the good dolls of Barbie Land were looking for a leader there was only one real candidate. “Basically, Greta said, very sweetly: ‘I would love for you to be my president,’” recalls Issa Rae, AKA Madam President Barbie, of the Barbie movie’s casting process. “I was like: ‘Awww, that’s so sweet! And also just wrong. Obviously I would not be a good president.” Still, she felt honoured to be the desired pick of Greta Gerwig, an Academy Award-nominated director. There was a catch, though: “I hate the colour pink. I’ve never thought that I looked good in pink … So this press tour has been ….” A pained expression passes over Rae’s face before she recovers her perky demeanour. “But I’ve been taking one for the team!”
Problematic pink aside, Rae has taken well to the clothes horse – or rather Barbie doll – aspect of being a female celebrity. The expectation that her appearance should meet certain fashion and beauty standards has been part of her life ever since Insecure hit it big back in 2016. Rae wrote, exec-produced and starred in the HBO series, as a directionless millennial woman – also called Issa – who stumbles through her early 30s in the same predominantly Black south LA neighbourhoods that Rae calls home. Insecure’s Issa may not have known what she was doing, but she always looked good doing it. And after five straight years of slaying all day, every day, Rae felt she must be due a break. “After Insecure was done, I willingly let myself go. I was like, I’m eating everything! I’m not working out! I’m not gonna be in front of a camera for a long time. And then instantly, when I found out I got Barbie, I was like: ‘Oh no! I gotta look like one!’”
In the movie, the main Barbie is played by Margot Robbie, with Ryan Gosling as her Ken, but there are also multiple other Barbies and Kens, played by an excitingly diverse ensemble cast, all living in a fuchsia-fabulous realm called Barbie Land – that is until Barbie decides to venture further afield. The anatomically incorrect Mattel doll has been a fixture of childhood play since she was launched in 1959, and has inspired numerous animated kids’ movies and TV series. This live-action movie will, however, be the first time Barbie has been envisaged as a real (sort of) woman. That alone would be enough to boost box office, but it was in July 2021, when cool-indie-actor-turned-feted-feminist-auteur Gerwig came on board to write and direct, that anticipation for the Barbie movie really began to build.
It was also Gerwig’s involvement that eased Rae’s panicked urge to crash diet. “Fortunately Greta’s movie was inclusive of Barbies with all different body types and in that way, I felt less pressure and less down on myself.” She was even able to help design President Barbie’s look - a ballgown – for signing bills into law. “I think it’s just that we’ve internalised so much about Barbie … it has become representative of the perfect female body and also denigrated as a bimbo in some ways. But I think the company aims for it not to be that, and I think the movie aims to have a conversation about that.”
Today Rae is dressed more casually but still stylishly, in a white vest with hoop earrings, wire-rimmed glasses and her hair in long box braids. She looks like Insecure’s Issa during one of her season four “Self-care Sundays” and is similarly relaxed – generous with her laughter and expansive in her answers. This vibe is in marked contrast to the stressed feeling one gets reading over a list of her upcoming projects. It’s a very stuffed schedule, which she acknowledges: “I like to do so many things!”
I would write in coffee shops and they weren’t in my neighbourhood. I wanted a Black coffee shop, down the street from me
On screen, Rae’s particular beauty – her endearingly goofy grin, the wary-yet-hopeful quality in her big brown eyes – make her a natural to play the romantic lead, and she has recently had two such roles, opposite Lakeith Stanfield in unabashedly old-fashioned romance The Photograph and with Kumail Nanjiani in romcom caper The Lovebirds. But she is also expanding into other genres, voicing a character in the animated Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and finding time to cameo in the latest series of A Black Lady Sketch Show. Nanjiani is also a partner, along with The Woman King director Gina Prince-Bythewood, in Rae’s new, racially diversified revival of the movie biz docuseries Project Greenlight.
The latter two shows are among several to emerge from her production company Hoorae Media. Rae has a $40m deal with WarnerMedia and employs 23 people, from a HQ in the southern Los Angeles city of Inglewood. That’s still not all, though. Rae’s business portfolio also includes non-entertainment ventures, such as Sienna Naturals, the vegan haircare range she co-owns with her sister-in-law, and Hilltop Coffee + Kitchen, which recently opened a fourth branch in Downtown LA. The flagship is situated – where else? – in Inglewood. “I wrote in coffee shops all the time, and they weren’t in my neighbourhood,” explains Rae “I wanted a Black [owned] coffee shop, just down the street from me.”
All of which goes to show that when Issa Rae told a red carpet reporter at the 2017 Emmys that she was “rooting for everybody Black”, it wasn’t just a neatly meme-able soundbite. Rae is deeply invested – financially, emotionally – in her south LA community; although, having grown up all over (from her father’s native Senegal, to Potomac, Maryland and Paris, France), she says it wasn’t always this way: “When I moved back to LA [aged 11], it had this terrible reputation for being superficial and materialistic, so I would be really complimented when people would say: ‘You don’t seem like you’re from LA! You seem more east coast.’”
Doll parts … Issa Rae as Barbie Land’s president. Photograph: Warner Bros Pictures
It took living in New York City for a few years after college for Rae to appreciate what she’d had on her LA doorstep all along. “[It was] being able to hang out with my friends from high school and have these down-to-earth parties and kickbacks. Then also seeing other people that I went to school with invest in our neighbourhoods. That really opened my eyes to like, ‘Oh, I can build something here. I can stake a claim.’” Last year, Rae’s efforts were recognised when she became the first person in Inglewood’s 114-year history to be awarded a key to the city. The ceremony took place at an outdoor event not unlike the one “Issa” organises in the fourth series of Insecure.
It seems she has grown into exactly the energetic, entrepreneurial businesswoman that her “bossy” behaviour as a little girl once predicted: “My mom was the one who described me that way; like ‘Stop being so bossy!’ And I always had, I guess, a negative association with being a boss … But I just was always drawn to it! A lot of my games were like: ‘Oh, I’m a restaurant owner’ or, ‘Oh, I’m part of this company and I’m sooo busy!’”
These memories resurfaced through the series of “playful, whimsical conversations” she had with Gerwig. All the key cast members were asked to think about the child – or adult – who might have played with the doll they would become: “Hari [Nef, who plays Doctor Barbie] cracks me up because her version of whoever plays with her is like a gay man who’s a collector. But mine is very much the childhood version of me, that was bossy and that wanted to be a leader, but also didn’t really know what a president did.”
Sign up to Inside Saturday
Free weekly newsletter
The only way to get a look behind the scenes of the Saturday magazine. Sign up to get the inside story from our top writers as well as all the must-read articles and columns, delivered to your inbox every weekend.
Enter your email address
Sign up
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Now that I know that I’m capable of making things happen, it’s about building with intention
Rae now believes that playing with dolls as a child was integral to her creative development in other ways, too: “In some ways that’s how I knew that I identified as being Black; because my mum and aunt were so adamant about: ‘We’re getting you Black dolls! We want you to see yourself!’ I was just like, ‘OK, great, please do.’ I didn’t understand why it was so serious, until I got a little bit older.”
Rae was 26 years old, to be be exact, when, partly out of frustration with the narrow representation afforded Black women on screen, she launched her YouTube series The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl, which would eventually evolve into Insecure. Twelve years have since passed and, despite many successes, she is not particularly hopeful about the lasting progress made: “In April, I would’ve said yes [we’re in a good place], but having witnessed what the last writer’s strike did to all of our shows [casualties of the 2007 strike included the Black sitcom and Insecure forerunner, Girlfriends], and seeing the direction that the industry is headed in, in terms of consolidation and trying to appeal to broad audiences again – they never think about us and our stories when they think about ‘broad audiences’.”
It is fortunate then that Rae has recently announced the commencement of her “mogul era”, with plans to be a different kind of industry leader. “Now that I know that I can be capable of making things happen, it’s about building with intention and asking, ‘Just because I can do it, do I want it?’ It’s not Monopoly, y’know?”
Issa Rae with Kendrick Sampson as Nathan in Insecure. Photograph: HBO/2021 Warner Media, LLC
She is unequivocal, for instance, about the possibility of an And Just Like That-style revival for Insecure down the line: “Nah … I don’t want that. I know that people wonder … but we told this story and I just don’t want to fuck that up, y’know?” Nor was Insecure burdened by the same 00s-era insensitivities that partially prompted Sex and the City’s do-over, I suggest. “Well, I hope not, but obviously you never know,” she says with an unassuming shrug. “In 20 years from now – shit, in five years – we might be examining it again. And I think that’s also part of it. Like, I don’t want to be in that weird position to ‘correct’ what was a show for the very specific time period.”
Instead of revisiting the past then, she has already started work on an as-yet-unannounced new TV project, an “international adaptation” that “allows me to explore what I have to say now, what I’m experiencing now, in the same way that I did for Insecure, when I put it all on the page”. Even if that means going back on a promise to herself: “I literally said ‘never again’, because being in the writers’ room every single day consumes your life … But then I saw this series that I really wanted to adapt and …” She trails off with a sheepish smile. The rest is TV future. She does insist, however, that this new project will be a limited run, as opposed to an ongoing series. “Definitely, it will be limited!”
Rae is the first to admit that even having grown into her childhood Business Barbie ambitions – as a CEO, a business owner, a movie mogul and a mentor to others – she’s “still learning the lessons”. She knows what she wants, though, and that’s not “bossy” or “insecure”. That’s confident leadership.
Barbie is released in UK cinemas on 21 July. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2014/feb/13/david-lan-world-trade-centre | Stage | 2014-02-13T00:03:00.000Z | Michael Billington | David Lan will bring flair to the World Trade Centre arts complex | It comes as no surprise to learn that David Lan has been appointed as a consulting artistic director to the new team at the World Trade Center. Although Lan has worked as a dramatist, director and film-maker, it is as a producer and talent-promoter that he has excelled in his tenure at the Young Vic. Although he doesn't look like a showman, he has a Diaghilev-like flair for bringing artists together.
He once told me that he saw the Young Vic as a "directors' theatre" in contrast, say, to a "writers; theatre" like the Royal Court. Over the past decade or more he has not only attracted top European talent, such as Peter Brook, Luc Bondy and the late Patrice Chereau to the Young Vic, he has also made it a London base for such outstanding companies as the Belarus Free Theatre and Iceland's extravagantly physical Vesturport and, at the same time, promoted young directors.
It was Lan who brought us Benedict Andrews's wildly inventive Three Sisters and Carrie Cracknell's equally exploratory version of A Dolls House which opens next week at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. On top of all that he has bridged the gap between music and drama by staging a number of collaborative ventures with English National Opera.
An anthropologist by training, Lan is scholarly, dedicated and decidedly un-flashy. What he has is good taste, imagination and an international outlook.
It's also a measure of his passion for the work he does that he is not afraid to contact critics if he thinks they have missed the point of a pathfinding production. I've sometimes locked horns with Lan but, as an artistic director, he is in the front rank and New York will be lucky to benefit from his wisdom. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/nov/30/best-fiction-2016-paul-beatty-zadie-smith | Books | 2016-11-30T07:30:11.000Z | Justine Jordan | The best fiction of 2016 | “It was the worst of times, it was the worst of times ...” From its opening line Ali Smith’s Autumn (Hamish Hamilton), written and published at speed to become the first Brexit novel, faced up to the sometimes despairing mood of Britain in 2016 with humour and grace. This being an Ali Smith novel, it also found solace in the consolations of friendship and art, spinning a typically lightfooted meditation on mortality, mutability and how to keep your head in troubled times around the tale of an uncertain young woman and her elderly childhood friend.
But times were good for fiction: this was a rich 12 months, with plenty of big names and big ideas – though not always wrapped up in the same package. The year began with an elegant portrait of Shostakovich’s life under Stalin from Julian Barnes, The Noise of Time (Jonathan Cape), and an involving cold-war spy story from Helen Dunmore, Exposure (Windmill). Other big hitters included Don DeLillo with Zero K (Picador), a chilly investigation into cryogenics and father-son relationships; JM Coetzee’s drily philosophical inquiry The Schooldays of Jesus (Harvill Secker); and Javier Marías delving into desire and guilt in Thus Bad Begins (Penguin, translated by Margaret Jull Costa). Rose Tremain was on top form with her nuanced analysis of emotional and political neutrality, The Gustav Sonata (Chatto & Windus), while AL Kennedy tenderly anatomised London and loneliness in Serious Sweet (Jonathan Cape) and Ian McEwan had fun in Nutshell (Jonathan Cape), a slightly crusty jeu d’esprit whose foetus narrator shows a precocious appreciation of poetry and fine wine.
Back with some brilliant writing in Swing Time … Zadie Smith. Photograph: Brian Dowling/Getty Images
Towards the end of 2016 came Sebastian Barry’s outstanding Days Without End (Faber), an intense, visceral novel that brings the violence and terror of 19th-century America to blazing life; and Zadie Smith’s more downbeat Swing Time (Hamish Hamilton), exploring friendship and failure, isolation and identity, distraction and the power of dance – what it’s like to look back at where you came from, and to not know where you want to go. Smith’s fifth novel may not have dug as deep as her previous books, but contained some brilliant writing about growing up in London.
In between, the penultimate volume of Karl Ove Knausgaard’s autobiographical novel cycle, Some Rain Must Fall (Vintage, translated by Don Bartlett), zeroed in on his 20s and the struggle to invent himself as a writer. And novelists continued to reinvent Shakespeare, with Howard Jacobson, Anne Tyler and Margaret Atwood refettling The Merchant of Venice, The Taming of the Shrew and The Tempest respectively; Atwood’s typically playful Hag-Seed (Hogarth), with Prospero a theatre director staging The Tempest in a prison, was the highlight.
There was a wealth of US fiction, ranging from Annie Proulx’s vast ecological saga about the environmental degradation of the last 300 years, Barkskins (Fourth Estate), to Elizabeth Strout’s slim consideration of mother-love, My Name is Lucy Barton (Viking). We had new books from Edmund White and Jay McInerney, Dave Eggers and Lionel Shriver; while Viet Thanh Nguyen brilliantly explored the legacy of the Vietnam war in the Pulitzer-winning The Sympathizer (Corsair), and Jonathan Safran Foer published his first novel in a decade. The sprawling Here I Am (Hamish Hamilton) ranges over such weighty subjects as America, Israel, marriage and masculinity, with diversions into obscene uses for a doorknob.
And in the third year of eligibility, a US author won the Man Booker prize for the first time. Paul Beatty’s The Sellout (Oneworld), a no-holds-barred satire about the history and legacy of racism in America, had clocked up 18 rejections from cautious publishers. This cerebral rollercoaster ride of a novel was praised to the skies in the US but brought to British attention by a Booker list that was full of surprises, and also gave a welcome push to small publishers. Ironically, the littlest fish on the shortlist, Graeme Macrae Burnet’s His Bloody Project, published by the crime wing of Scottish indie Saraband, turned out to be the most accessible and commercially successful of the set: it’s a puzzle about murder and motivation in a 19th-century crofting community that keeps the reader eagerly guessing.
Paul Beatty’s Booker-winner The Sellout had clocked up 18 rejections from cautious publishers
Some bold experimenters returned this year. Eimear McBride followed A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing with a coming-of-age story about an Irish drama student in London, The Lesser Bohemians (Faber). Though some found the contrast between her fractured main narrative voice and the inclusion of a more conventionally told story of abuse jarring, with only her second novel she has achieved the near-impossible – finding a new way to write about sex and intimacy. Paul Kingsnorth continued his Buckmaster trilogy in Beast (Faber), jumping 1,000 years from the Norman England of The Wake to a man alone on a moor, trying to vanquish his own insecurities. Rachel Cusk’s Transit (Jonathan Cape), the second instalment in a trio of novels that channel disparate voices through the consciousness of their narrator, was even better than 2014’s Outline.
First novel in a decade … Jonathan Safran Foer. Photograph: Jeff Mermelstein
China Miéville moved from SF towards fable with the eerie, ungraspable This Census-Taker (Picador), while cult Irish writer Mike McCormack made a welcome return in Solar Bones (Tramp Press), the swirling, single-sentence reminiscence of an ordinary man on his last day of life – a deserving winner of the Goldsmiths prize for innovative fiction. On the Booker shortlist, David Szalay pushed at the fault lines between the novel and short story form in All That Man Is (Jonathan Cape): linked tales of European masculinity in crisis, whose effect is monumentally bleak, but which contain some of the best prose to be found in English this year. And Deborah Levy’s Hot Milk (Hamish Hamilton) plumbed mythic and psychoanalytical archetypes for a profound exploration of a damaged mother-daughter relationship.
Amid a promising array of unconventional debuts, two stood out for me: Nothing on Earth by poet Conor O’Callaghan (Doubleday Ireland), a very contemporary slice of gothic exploring the atomisation of modern life, set on an Irish ghost estate, and Infinite Ground by Martin MacInnes (Atlantic), a metaphysical mystery about a man’s disappearance with shades of Conrad and Borges. Both show enormous poise and control.
Sarah Perry's The Essex Serpent is the book I’ll be wrapping most copies of this Christmas
Sarah Perry made an unusual journey with her second novel: from her uncanny 2014 debut, After Me Comes the Flood, to something much more outwardly conventional, but sacrificing none of her singular sensibility. Set in the 1890s, The Essex Serpent (Serpent’s Tail) – a gloriously rich tale of folklore and science, myth and belief, friendship and love – is the book I’ll be wrapping most copies of this Christmas, and comes with a gorgeous cover to boot.
There were high-concept successes from Colson Whitehead, who made the network for escaping slaves a real system of train tunnels in The Underground Railroad (Fleet), a charged and important novel that pushed at the boundaries of fiction at the same time as documenting historical atrocity, and Naomi Alderman, who imagined women as the stronger sex in The Power (Viking). The result is as clever and thought-provoking as it is furiously readable.
Gloriously rich tale of friendship, love and folklore … Sarah Perry. Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian
Álvaro Enrigue’s endlessly inventive Sudden Death (Harvill Secker, translated by Natasha Wimmer) explored the bloody clashes of Spanish empire v Aztec, old world v new, through the medium of a tennis match played by Caravaggio. At the other end of the literary spectrum, Jo Baker’s cool, restrained A Country Road, A Tree (Doubleday) performed the unlikely feat of successfully channelling Samuel Beckett’s prose style for a powerful biographical novel that illuminated his work with the French resistance and the difficult fruition of his genius.
We said goodbye to one master of the short story, William Trevor, who died in November; and the same month saw the introduction to the UK of a leading American practitioner of the form: The Visiting Privilege by Joy Williams (Tuskar Rock) showcases her boundless talent in stories that are darkly funny, ruthless and compassionate by turns.
Finally, if Christmas prompts thoughts of escape, here are two books guaranteed to transport you to other times and places. Francis Spufford’s fiction debut, Golden Hill (Faber), is brilliant, and brilliant fun: a loving recreation of New York in 1746, where a mysterious stranger arrives from England, and gets into ever-deeper trouble. And despite a longstanding suspicion of whimsy and fluffy animals, I was charmed beyond measure by Kevin MacNeil’s The Brilliant & Forever (Polygon), a surreal comedy centring on a literary festival on a Scottish island where humans and talking alpacas uneasily coexist. In difficult times, a story-writing alpaca never goes amiss.
Save at least 30% on this year’s critics’ choices when you buy at the Guardian Bookshop. Visit bookshop.theguardian.com or call 0330 333 6846. Support the Guardian and its journalism with every book you buy this Christmas. *Free UK p&p for online orders over £10. Minimum £1.99 p&p applies to telephone orders.
Best book lists of 2016
Best fiction
Best crime and thrillers
Best science fiction and fantasy | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2021/jun/30/bach-sons-review-bridge-theatre-london-nina-raine-simon-russell-beale-nicholas-hytner | Stage | 2021-06-29T23:01:23.000Z | Arifa Akbar | Bach & Sons review – study of the man and his music hits a flat note | It is tempting to compare Bach & Sons with Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus, as Nina Raine unpicks the difficult personality of another composer with genius in his veins who died, at least as it is portrayed here, with his musical light undimmed but as a failure in other ways.
The similarities end there. Raine presents a middle-aged Bach (Simon Russell Beale) with studiousness and teases out power battles between him and his sons Wilhelm (Douggie McMeekin) and Carl (Samuel Blenkin), but her research hangs heavily and leaves the drama often inert, speaking its ideas rather than enacting them.
Directed by Nicholas Hytner, it is a visual spectacle despite this. Vicki Mortimer’s set is little short of stunning and Jon Clark’s lighting evokes gorgeous, candlelit paintings. It is all the more frustrating that even this cannot lift the play off the ground.
Raine’s modern-day medical drama Tiger Country, streamed over lockdown last year, was filled with pace, emotion and human intrigue. The opposite is the case here. Her script tells us that the composer was obsessive and exacting in his art, believing his music to be channelled from divine source. As a man, he was argumentative with his employers, cold to his first wife, Maria Barbara (Pandora Colin), and a less than perfect father.
In his shadow ... Simon Russell Beale in Bach & Sons. Photograph: Manuel Harlan
The first half feels static and filled with backstory – how Bach was orphaned as a child, how he stabbed a bassoonist and served time in prison, that he hailed from a long line of musicians. This exposition robs the opportunity for the human drama to come alive. And for a life that contained enormous losses – 10 of Bach’s 20 children died in infancy – these are reported rather than felt as tragedies in the play.
Bach’s musical theories are delivered in stagnant conversation. Composition is like “a trifle with layers of cream and jelly”, he says, and argues about counterpoint while Maria Barbara tells us, quizzically, that “F sharp can be G flat except it isn’t”.
The second half is stronger and Bach’s fractious relationship with Wilhelm and Carl gains depth. The composer’s intimidating meeting with Frederick the Great (Pravessh Rana, camp and menacing by turns) is faithfully rendered and contains some dread. But Bach’s death scene, however exquisitely captured by light and shade, left me dry-eyed.
Camp and menacing ... Pravessh Rana and Simon Russell Beale in Bach & Sons. Photograph: Manuel Harlan
Like Amadeus, this play also explores the nature of genius, but, where Salieri’s jealous ruminations on God-given talent drives the plot and heightens the emotional intensity of Shaffer’s play, here it remains stuck in cool conversational exchanges.
Beale is stately and lugubrious, if not as irascible as Bach was reported to be, and he comes to emanate grief-soaked sadness and regret. The strongest performances are from Blenkin and McMeekin as the sons in awe of their genius father but cowed by the shadow of that genius and resentful of his flaws as a family man.
JS Bach: where to start with his music
Read more
The times when the play feels most alive are when Bach’s music is performed in small but gorgeous excerpts from his fugues, cantatas and concertos, although they seem removed from the greater drama, and do not add to its emotional charge. Anna Magdalena (Racheal Ofori), the soprano who becomes his second wife, remains a nondescript figure but sings beautifully.
It is maddening to see all the signs of a powerful play folded inside a frustratingly flat one.
Bach & Sons is at the Bridge theatre, London, until 11 September. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jun/11/hygge-the-danish-art-of-living-cosily-on-its-way-to-uk-bookshops | Books | 2016-06-11T07:00:04.000Z | Alison Flood | Hygge – the Danish art of living cosily – on its way to UK bookshops | Forget the bloody crime novels of Henning Mankell and Jo Nesbø and the bleak crime television of The Bridge and The Killing. The latest Scandinavian export is the Danish concept of “hygge”, and it will be all over bookshops come Christmas.
Pronounced, approximately, hue-ga, hygge loosely translates as cosiness, but means more than that. It’s about a feeling of wellbeing, about enjoying life, whether through time spent with close friends or family, sitting by a fire with a hot chocolate, or putting on warm socks and dry clothes after a rainstorm. If that’s not clear, perhaps the flurry of books out this autumn exploring the concept will help clarify it: whether it’s The Little Book of Hygge by the chief executive of Copenhagen’s Happiness Research Institute, Meik Wiking, How to Hygge or The Art of Hygge, all out in September, it could be the biggest trend in publishing this Christmas.
“Scand-wagon one might say,” said the Bookseller’s non-fiction expert Caroline Sanderson. “It’s so striking – I don’t think I’ve ever known quite such a marked trend. You could have a whole table in a bookshop covered with these.”
What freedom is to Americans, hygge is to Danes.
Meik Wiking, Copenhagen’s Happiness Research Institute
Emily Robertson, who is publishing Wiking’s book at Penguin, describes the craze for hygge as the antithesis to the host of clean-eating books that have dominated bestseller lists for months. “Lifestyle publishing at the moment is all about deprivation and cutting things out, whether that’s food or exercise. Hygge is the complete opposite of that,” she said. “It’s about embracing things, enjoying cake, and chocolate, spending time with friends and family. It’s about the little things and luxuries which make life great, about enjoying the happy moments which we perhaps miss. It’s basically the antithesis to everything that’s been happening in lifestyle publishing so far.”
Wiking, whose forthcoming book recommends everything from candles (he points out that the word for spoilsport in Danish is lyselukker, which literally means “the one who puts out the candles”) to treating yourself with cake and cocoa, says hygge was originally a Norwegian word, and that it has equivalents in German and Dutch, in gemütlichkeit and gezelligheid. “But what is uniquely Danish is how much value we attribute to the word, and how often we use it,” he said. “It’s omnipresent in our language and we also see it as part of our national DNA. We’ve been talking about this at the institute - that what freedom is to Americans, hygge is to Danes.”
Wiking is wary of giving the word an exact translation. “It’s more than cosy and I’ve spent a book translating it. It’s the art of creating intimacy – cocoa by candlelight. But perhaps what hygge is really about is trying to achieve everyday happiness.”
Wiking believes that hygge could be the “missing ingredient” that leads to Denmark regularly topping world happiness rankings. “We did studies on why Denmark does well, and talked about Danes’ social security, equality, wealth and tolerance,” he said. “But the trouble with that explanation is that it doesn’t set Denmark apart from the other Nordic countries. Maybe – maybe – hygge is part of that missing piece.”
British writer Charlotte Abrahams’s Hygge is also out in September, and sees the author exploring the history of the concept and its place in Danish culture, along with her efforts to bring hygge into her own life. “It’s very much a Brit looking at it from the outside,” she said. “I’ve always been deeply suspicious of all these lifestyle philosophies; they irritate me. But hygge isn’t like that – it’s a feeling, very rooted in spending time with your friends and family at home … It’s kind of linked in to mindfulness and happiness science, but in a lovely, gentle way. It has no rules – you don’t have to meditate, for example – and it does seem very achievable.”
The word, she says, is “vaguely connected to the English word hug: to cherish yourself, to make yourself snug. And I found the idea of a nation which has a concept about cherishing so deeply engrained in its culture very interesting.”
At Waterstones, nonfiction buyer Bea Carvalho believes the craze for hygge follows the success of Lars Mytting’s Norwegian Wood, a guide to chopping and stacking wood the Norwegian way that she said has sold almost 100,000 copies since its publication last year, as well as the popular memoir The Year of Living Danishly by Helen Russell, in which the journalist spent a year in Denmark trying to discover its recipe for happiness.
Abrahams’ Hygge, Carvalho predicted, “could fill the Norwegian Wood hole for this Christmas”, and she expects many of the hygge titles to sell strongly as Christmas presents. “There seems to be a real fascination with that way of life and it keeps on building,” she said. “It slots in really well to the whole mindfulness trend … There are loads [of hygge books] coming up. It’s having its moment.”
Wiking goes further. “The hygge empire is spreading faster than the Roman empire,” he said. “It’s a hygge revolution.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2017/jul/10/barbican-concert-hall-architect-shortlist-gehry-piano-foster | Culture | 2017-07-10T13:09:49.000Z | Hannah Ellis-Petersen | Frank Gehry and Renzo Piano on shortlist for Barbican's new concert hall | The conductor’s baton has been raised in the battle for the Barbican’s new concert hall with some of the world’s leading architects making the shortlist to design the landmark venue.
The firms selected to come up with a concept for the new music centre are known for some of the most striking buildings in the world. They include Frank Gehry (Guggenheim Bilbao), Amanda Levete (the V&A’s courtyard), Renzo Piano (the Pompidou Centre) and Norman Foster (the Gherkin).
Diller, Scofidio + Renfro, the New York company behind the rejuvenation of the city’s High Line park, and Norwegian architects Snøhetta are also in the running for the project, which is backed by £2.5mfrom the City of London Corporation.
The concert hall project, which is being led by the Barbican, will be the new home for the London Symphony Orchestra, under the artistic leadership of Sir Simon Rattle. He has been outspoken about London’s lack of a world class venue.
The project, which will include education, training and digital spaces, is billed as a “visible signal of commitment to the future of music” in the heart of the capital. However, its future was put into question last year when the government withdrew its £5m contribution to the project.
Catherine McGuinness, chairman of the policy and resources committee at the City of London Corporation, described the project as “one of the most widely anticipated and significant developments in the Square Mile’s vibrant cultural hub”.
“It is hugely encouraging that so many leading architects from around the world have responded enthusiastically to the challenge to develop a concept design for the Centre for Music,” said McGuinness.
The site chosen for the hall is available thanks to the Museum of London’s move to a new home at the nearby Smithfield Market.
The panel tasked with selecting the shortlist of architects – Barbican managing director Sir Nicholas Kenyon; Kathryn McDowell, the managing director of the London Symphony Orchestra; and Lynne Williams, principal of the Guildhall school of music and drama – said they were pleased at the calibre of architects that had bid to design the hall.
“The strength of this international shortlist really demonstrates the excitement around this potentially transformative cultural project,” the panel said in a statement on Monday. “We look forward to the next stage of the appointment process as we look to seize this once-in-a-generation opportunity to create a landmark new building that inspires current and future generations through the power and excitement of live music.”
All the shortlisted architects have experience of designing arts and cultural centres in the UK and abroad. Renzo Piano’s £80m Santander art gallery opened in Spain last month to glowing reviews, and his 2015 design of the Whitney Museum’s relocation to downtown New York was considered a huge success. Levete’s £55m redesign of the V&A courtyard and galleries, which opened this month, was widely praised. Diller, Scofidio + Renfro’s roster of cultural buildings includes the current expansion of MoMA in New York, the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston and the Lincoln Centre for Contemporary Arts in Manhattan. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jun/29/musical-therapy-helps-dementia-patients-harmony | Society | 2014-06-29T17:35:42.000Z | Helen Pidd | Musical interaction brings harmony to dementia patients | Vera and Jack Burrows met as teenagers. "Childhood sweethearts," said Vera, brightly. "Then he dumped me when I was 17 and married someone else and we didn't see each other for 54 years. We were at a dance and he said: 'Is that you, Vera? I can recognise you from your thick ankles!'"
Despite this risky chat-up line, the pair were engaged within four months of their reunion – after Jack split up with three other lady friends. (Vera: "He used to buy them identical Christmas presents so he didn't get them mixed up.")
Five and a half years into their very happy marriage, Jack had a stroke while roasting a chicken, and has never returned home. Ever since he's been living in Station House care home in Crewe. Now 86, he's lost his speech and has increasing memory problems, but his bawdy sense of humour is very much intact.
Vera, a very glamorous 84 with turquoise eye shadow and a cloud of blond hair, had accompanied Jack to a special music session at the care home run by the music therapist Greg Hanford, director of MusAbility, and musicians from the Manchester Camerata chamber orchestra.
Overseen by Manchester University, it is part of a 10-week pilot project called Music in Mind, funded by Care UK, which runs 123 residential homes for elderly people. The aim is to find out if classical music can improve communication and interaction and reduce agitation for people in the UK living with dementia – estimated to number just over 800,000 and set to rise rapidly as the population ages.
The Crewe project is the fourth Music in Mind pilot. An assessment of the first three, by the Manchester-based thinktank New Economy, found that some participants no longer had to be medicated after taking part. Carers reported reduced agitation, better moods and improved posture; residents who had been slumped in their chairs raised their heads to take an active role.
"The power of music therapy enables, excites, enthuses, entertains," one musician told New Economy. "It's like opening the window of a stuffy room and allowing scented fresh air to waft in, lifting the spirits, changing the nature of the room."
Jack's session involved flautist Amina Hussain and French horn player Naomi Atherton, two of seven Camerata musicians trained in dementia awareness by the Alzheimer's Society, and a specialist nurse. Along with Hanford, two care workers and Jack (with Vera at his side), were two other residents: Pete, who has only one leg, and Taff, a tattooed Welshman who was keen on the tambourine.
Proceedings began with Hanford strumming his guitar and singing hello to each participant in turn. Jack clucked a return greeting, Pete looked straight ahead and Taff managed a delayed hello.
To an outsider, it initially felt slightly infantilising and all too reminiscent of a mother and baby singing group. But by the end of the half hour, the men were engaged in a rather moving performance, with Pete gently tapping out a rhythm on a cymbal, Taff shaking a rainstick and Jack on bells, all accompanied by world-class horn and flute.
"There is a crossover, or at least parallels, between working with very young children and people with dementia," said Hanford afterwards. "The 'hello' song is something I use with all different kinds of people. But maintaining dignity is at the heart of what we are doing."
"We have to make sure we don't baby anyone," said Hussain. "We have to remember these are people who have led full lives, with jobs, families. At first you do wonder if they think you're a right plonker, coming in and giving them brightly coloured instruments."
Gill Capewell, activities coordinator at Station House, said she initially worried the experience might be too daunting for residents. "I thought there would be a whole orchestra. I didn't realise how subtle it would be."
Atherton said she volunteered partly as a result of the death of her father, who developed Alzheimer's in his late 60s. The work brought big rewards for the most subtle developments, she said: "Like Pete today – when I put the ocean drum in front of him, his fingers were twitching." Another time, a resident with a very limited, fixed pattern of conversation finished her sentence in a way that showed she was engaged, she added.
"It can be like watching a flower open, at the risk of sounding dreadfully cheesy," said Hussain.
The musicians encourage people to live in the present, rather than the past, where many have often taken refuge. "Often in care homes they sing war songs, which may be very good but what if it triggers a bad memory? That's the past. We want them to be living in the moment," said Atherton.
Most other music therapy with this group tended to be performance-based, said Hanford. "The Liverpool Phil, for example, plays to patients. What's happening here is massively different because we're using music therapy as an intervention. It's like the difference between watching TV and using the internet. One is interactive."
But does it need professional musicians? Hanford said Manchester Camerata's involvement was a luxury, admitting such work primarily demanded patience and creativity rather than virtuoso ability. But Hussain said her expertise was important: "We are able to communicate with music very subtly, in a way that, for example, a grade eight player might not be able to. It could be that subtle difference that connects with someone."
This article was amended on 1 July 2014 to clarify that Care UK is not a charity. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/25/wings-labour-blame-electoral-collapse | Opinion | 2017-02-25T22:00:12.000Z | James Morris | Working-class desertion of Labour started before Corbyn | As news came in of Labour’s loss in Copeland, an argument started between two wings of the party. Jeremy Corbyn’s supporters used Twitter to blame Tony Blair for its decline among its northern working-class base, while Blair’s supporters argued that Corbyn was culpable. The polling says they are both right.
Labour’s collapse among working-class voters is catastrophic – according to YouGov, only 16% would vote Labour now. That’s troubling enough for “the party of working people”, but it is made doubly damaging because, contrary to expectations, Ukip is not proving the main beneficiary. These voters are increasingly voting Conservative. After seven years of Tory austerity, Labour is 15 points behind the Tories among working-class likely voters, having been ahead in 2015.
While the proportion of the population that is working-class is falling steadily, it remains hard to see a route to power for Labour if it cannot secure a majority in this group.
Over the last year I have been running focus groups for various parts of the Labour movement with warehouse pickers, scaffolders, care workers and check-out assistants. The disdain they have for Corbyn is remarkable. There is no sense that he is on their side, or has any of the capabilities they expect of a prime minister.
As one woman from Rochdale put it, he “should be sat on a barge somewhere floating up and down”. Corbyn is now 36 points behind Theresa May as the preferred prime minister among working-class voters. There is no way back from this position. Corbyn believes he is standing up for working people’s interests, but they don’t buy it. Someone is suffering from false consciousness, but it’s not clear it’s the voters.
However, it would be a profound misreading to think he is the sole cause of the problem. Its roots run much deeper. New Labour had tremendous success winning support across the social classes in 1997, but in government it was much better at hanging on to its middle-class voters than the less well-off. Between 1997 and 2010, for every voter Labour lost from the professional classes it lost three unskilled or unemployed workers, even after taking into account the declining share of the population that pollsters classify as working-class.
This was not a coincidence. The party’s strategy was to take core supporters for granted while courting the middle classes. The one time in the run-up to the 2005 election that I was asked by the party to run focus groups with the less well-off, their view of Labour was so devastating that the decision was taken never to talk to them again. The target audience continued to be “soccer moms” (sic).
As a result, the party lost focus on the issues that these voters care about. Top of the list was immigration, where the party got tough with refugees while ignoring the ultimately much bigger issue of low-skill, high-volume, short-term immigration. Labour came to be seen as a party that put migrants before British citizens.
Gordon Brown’s “bigot” remarks about Gillian Duffy in Rochdale nearly prompted the party to confront this problem, but it proved too hard to get anything done. The proportion of working-class voters seriously concerned about Labour on immigration was consistently more than 60% throughout the last parliament – higher than concerns about handling the economy.
Corbyn inherited a brand that had been steadily alienating its working- class base, and he made it worse.
The nightmare for Labour is that May has clocked the opportunity to win these voters. Where David Cameron’s huskies-and-windfarms modernisation was aimed at the chattering classes, May’s modernisation aims to show the Tories aren’t just a party of toffs. Her rhetoric is succeeding, marginalising Ukip and threatening catastrophe for Labour.
James Morris, senior director at the public relations firm Edelman, is a former Labour pollster | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2008/mar/16/popandrock.shopping4 | Music | 2008-03-16T00:10:47.000Z | Garry Mulholland | The first ten: Black Keys, Attack and Release | When any alternative band works with a fashionable producer, there's always a danger that they'll be overshadowed by the man behind the mixing desk. But Brian Burton, aka Danger Mouse, is not your usual fashionable producer. While the Pharrells of this world strive to make every artist they work with sound like them, Burton has shown, on his work with Gorillaz, Gnarls Barkley and Brit popsters the Shortwave Set, that he's far more interested in bringing the best out of the artist.
And so it proves in this unlikely collaboration with Ohio retro blues-rock duo Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney, who were initially approached by Burton to provide songs for an Ike Turner album. The soul veteran's death last December put paid to that project, but Burton and the Black Keys realised that they had enough material to make the Keys' fifth album. Two weeks of recording later, and we find that Burton is as good at reinventing roots-rock as he is at fusing hip hop, soul and pop. Attack and Release isn't just the best Black Keys album thus far. It's the best authentic trad-rock album in years.
The pair always sounded like a punk-informed Free, with Auerbach's soul-rock croon often eerily echoing Paul Rodgers. So Attack and Release takes you back to an early Seventies of rootsy riffage and unashamed guitar virtuosity. But it does so while taking in deep soul ('Lies'), art-pop ('Strange Times'), bluegrass-flavoured hip hop ('Psychotic Girl'), jazz-funk ('Same Old Thing'), and Tom Waits ('So He Won't Break'). The closing 'Things Ain't Like They Used to Be' is an evocation of loss that sounds like every key American roots music - blues, country, soul, gospel - wrapped up in four and a half minutes of lonesome loveliness.
Auerbach's lyrics bring nothing new to those old blues-rock themes of elemental dread and witchy women. But they don't need to. The melodies and Auerbach's rich croon set each mood with seductive precision, while Danger Mouse's production finds endless detail in a beat, a spooked choir of harmonies, a reverberating shimmer. The result is a flawless (post)modernisation of heartland rock that wears its lovelorn pessimism proudly on its ruffled sleeve.
So, if recent yapping and yelping new guitar bands have been making you reach for your Creedence albums, Attack and Release is the record you've been pining for.
Download: 'Things Ain't Like They Used to Be' | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2018/may/12/20-best-scandinavia-nordic-summer-holidays-denmark-sweden-norway-finland | Travel | 2018-05-12T06:00:25.000Z | Gemma Bowes | 20 of the best Nordic summer holidays | SwedenHike and sail the coast
Suits Adventure seekers
Price Hiking from £354pp/sailing from £417pp
Green Trails has a fine collection of eco-friendly short breaks across Sweden. Its three-day hiking expedition to the High Coast takes in canyons and pine forests, beaver dams and lakes. Basic orienteering and bushcraft skills are taught by guides, with nights in tents or cabins. Combine it with a two-day sailing trip into Stockholm’s archipelago, on a 30-foot yacht with skipper.
Price for hike on one date only, 12-14 September, includes transport from Stockholm and most meals, and accommodation in tents and cabins. Sailing trip (sleeps four) any time on request, thegreentrails.com
Lake retreat, southern Sweden
Suits Laid-back romantics
Price From £75 a night
A floating sauna that can be towed into the middle of the lake adds to the magic of Stedsans, a wildly romantic camping and cabin site on Lake Halla, two hours’ drive from Gothenburg. Glass-fronted waterside cabins are made from upcycled greenhouses; Bedouin-style tents have solid wooden floors, and lanterns. There’s yoga in the “wild spa”, fishing and bird-watching, and feasts in the mozzie-netted restaurant, with ingredients such as foraged edible moss, wild flowers and blueberries.
Sleeps two, coolstays.com
Island glamping, near Stockholm
Swimming at Nordic Camping Nickstabadet
Suits Explorers/families
Price From £176 a week for 4, or free
A trip to the thousands of islands and inlets of Stockholm’s archipelago is not diminished by its popularity. An hour’s train ride south from the city is Nynäsgård, on Nynäshamn, the southernmost outpost of the archipelago. It is a wonderful area for swimming, with interesting ancient rune stones to discover, and ferries to Gotland, Latvia and Poland for those who want to carry their adventure further. Nordic Camping Nickstabadet is on a large sandy beach with kayaks and swimming just beyond the tent-flap, plus a high diving board.
Price for a pitch for a week for a tent sleeping four, nordiccamping.se. Or wild camp in any spot for up to three nights, due to Allemansrätten, the right to access private land
Seafood tour, south-west Sweden
Bryggan Fjällbacka in Fjällbacka. Photograph: Alamy
Suits Foodies
Price Rooms from £90pn
Sweden’s west coast and islands are famous for their fish and seafood, not least the Bohuslän area. Rather than just sitting and scoffing, find an immersive experience on vastsverige.com, which hooks you up with fisherfolk for mackerel and crab safaris, to gather mussels and oysters, or haul in langoustine pots. Stay in at least a couple of places and drive between the cute coastal towns for meals at renowned restaurants such as Brygghuset in Fiskebäckskil and Bryggan Fjällbacka on the water in quaint Fjällbacka.
Price is for a double in July/August at Logi & Bastu guesthouse in Käringön. Doubles at pink, wooden Villa Evalotta in Fjällbacka are from £118 a night in July. Fly to Gothenburg or Oslo
Pretty beach town, south-east Sweden
Lyckesand beach, Öland. Photograph: Alamy
Suits Young cool things
Price House from £102pn
Kalmar is an attractive coastal town three hours on the train from Malmö with a castle and gorgeous beaches, which online mag thelocal.se reckons is one of the best summer spots in Sweden. You may like to know that one beach’s name, Kattrumpen, means “cat’s bottom”, and it connects to a hipster neighbourhood in town. Other stretches are for naturists or dogs. Kalmarsunsbadet boasts a pusshallplats, an official “kiss stop”, like a bus stop (busshallplats) but for lovers (and not to be confused with a kisshallplats, which means pee stop). Cross the 6km bridge to atmospheric Öland island for more beach action.
Price for one night at the “Modern house by the sea in Kalmar” (airbnb.co.uk, sleeps 8), 10km out of town. Fly to Copenhagen (a three-hour drive)
Wilderness hikes, Swedish Lapland
Photograph: Alamy
Suits Adventure seekers
Price From £1,466pp a week
Epic mountain landscapes, grazing reindeer herds, Sami communities, ambling elks and ferocious wolverines, and rare and vivid flora are the natural highs on a hiking trip into the Unesco Sarek national park in Lapland. Meeting at Gällivare, the small group is transferred by helicopter into Sarek to start the seven-day hike from Kvikkjokk to Ritsem, trekking mainly off-track and camping out in the wilderness.
Price is for a week’s hiking, including helicopter travel, all meals, personal guide and equipment, truenaturesweden.com. Fly or take overnight train to Gällivare from Stockholm
Iron Ore Line, Sweden and Norway
Photograph: Alamy
Suits Train lovers
Price From £36 one-way
Built to transport iron ore in the late 1800s, the Malmbanan railway, or Iron Ore Line, runs from the mines around Kiruna in north Sweden to the port of Luleå on the Baltic and Narvik, on the North Sea in Norway. Now it transports tourists too, who can admire swooping scenery of Lapland from its cosy carriages and wood-panelled bistro. Stop for hikes, hotels and activities en route. Or book the 20-hour sleeper from Stockholm to Narvik (from £67pp in a couchette, £152pp in a private compartment for two).
Price from Luleå to Narvik in July (sj.se)
Norway
Arctic wildlife, Svalbard
A male walrus stands in Svalbard. Photograph: Paul Nicklen/Getty Images/National Geographic Creative
Suits Adventure lovers
Price From £1,114 for 6 days
As holiday locations go, the isolated Svalbard archipelago, between Norway and the North Pole, has to be one of the most adventurous. Rugged, remote and dramatic, it has undeniable natural glories, and in summer the abundance of migrating birds, whales, seals and walruses will have wildlife-watchers’ spotter-jotters bulging. There’s fun to be found in the university town of Longyearbyen, the world’s most northerly settlement of over 1,000 residents. Discover The World’s trip can include staying at the new super-cool renovated Coal Miners’ cabins.
Price includes flights, transfers and B&B accommodation, activities extra, discover-the-world.co.uk
Loen Skylift, Nordfjord
Photograph: Mattias Fredriksson
Suits Explorers
Price From £1,210 a week
One of the steepest gondolas in the world, the Loen Skylift, which opened last year, ascends to 1,011 metres at the crest of Mount Hoven, in Stryn, for outrageous views of glaciers and the forested fjords of the surrounding Nordfjord area. Mighty Sognefjord, the largest and deepest in the country, and Geiranger fjord, perhaps its most spectacular, are also included as part of this Best Served tour, plus boat cruises, hikes and nights in Ålesund, noted for its concentration of art nouveau architecture, and historic Bergen.
Price is per person for a week including flights, hotels and B&Bs, best-served.co.uk
Orchards and bikes, southern Norway
Dalen Hotel
Suits History buffs and foodies
Price From €690 for 4 days
Style-savvy tour operator Up Norway has excellent foodie, cultural and outdoorsy trips, including a vegan gourmet tour and festivals. They ain’t cheap, but one of its most affordable breaks visits the Telemark Canal, considered the eighth wonder of the world when it opened in 1892, which guests explore on a historic boat, then stay at fairytale Dalen Hotel, visit a vineyard to sleep in a converted wine barrel, and cycle from farm to farm in the fruit-growing village of Gvarv.
Price is pper person for two sharing for four days and three nights B&B, including transfers and one dinner but not flights. Fly to Oslo, upnorway.com
Island nature, northern Norway
A white-tailed eagle on the island of Senja. Photograph: Sjo/Getty Images
Suits Nature lovers
Price Cabin from £110 a night
With a feel a little like the Lofoten islands, Senja, Norway’s second biggest island, is famous for whale-watching in winter, but in summer it’s wonderful for spotting sea eagles, and for fishing and hiking amid heart-stopping landscapes. Mefjord Brygge is a year-round resort between mountains and fjords in the fishermen’s village of Mefjordvaer, with a sauna, restaurant and 20 rooms.
Price is for a small cabin with a terrace facing the sea that sleeps two (from £146 a night for cabin sleeping four). Activities such as sea eagle safari £91pp, mefjordbrygge.no. Fly to Tromso
Lighthouse stays
Kråkenes lighthouse. Photograph: Alamy
Suits Romantics, families
Price Two nights from £358
Whether it’s a hell-raising storm or calming, soporific waves, watching the sea from a Norwegian lighthouse is unforgettable. Of the 212 built along the country’s coast between 1655 and 1932, dozens have been turned into holiday homes. Some are on titchy islands, some near cities, most in spectacular settings. Kråkenes lighthouse, in the far west, is the most exposed, with hurricane-strength winds often reported, and waves that reach its full height, 42 metres above the sea. It’s at the tip of Vågsøy Island (linked to the mainland by bridge), which has a few villages, shops and beaches.
Price for two in top-floor bridal suite; a double in the stormhouse next door from £285 for three nights. Norwegian flies to Alesund from Gatwick
Rafting and more, southern Norway
TrollAktiv Adventure Park
Suits Fun-loving families
Price From £9pp pn
TrollAktiv Adventure Park is an outdoor pursuits centre near Evje in southern Norway, with white-water rafting, rock-climbing, standup paddleboarding, cycling, escape room experiences and – new this year – a high-wire and zipline course. There’s glorious hiking in the Setesdal valley, and the nearby Mineral Park has more ziplines and a vast collection of stones and minerals.
Price is for a tipi sleeping 8; a family cabin for 4 is £63, trollaktiv.no. From 13 Aug, Widerøe flies from Stansted to Kristiansand from £100 one-way
Denmark
Baltic dips, North Zealand
Photograph: Martin Kaufmann
Suits Stressed-out workers
Price Room from £142 a night
At the Kurhotel Skodsborg, an indulgent take on the Scandi wellness experience includes rooftop yoga, cross-fit sessions in the Baltic and more saunas than you can shake a birch branch whip at, including SaunaGus, which infuses essential oils into the heat. The smart white hotel, 20 minutes from Copenhagen in North Zealand, has classy rooms that ooze hygge (Scandi cosiness and conviviality), and three restaurants overseen by top Danish chef Erik Kroun.
Price is for a double B&B including luxury spa day is £213, skodsborg.dk, Fly to Copenhagen (hotel is 43km north)
Viking self-drive
Trelleborg Viking Market, Denmark
Suits History buffs, families
Price From £895 a week
Viking games and battle demonstrations provide a Valhalla vibe on a road trip around Denmark’s Viking sites. Beginning and ending in Copenhagen, this tour from Scandi specialist Best Served takes in Roskilde, the pretty fjord town where King Harald Bluetooth is buried; Lejre, where Beowulf was set; Trelleborg fortress; and a Viking-era farm at Lake Tisso. Kids will love the high-wire trails at Kragerup Gods, and Gerlev Playground, a theme park that explores thousands of years of playing culture with Viking games.
Price includes flights, five days’ car hire and six nights’ B&B, best-served.co.uk
Jutland seaside
Photograph: Kim Wyon
Suits Families, surfers
Price From £237 a night for four
The white beaches of North Jutland are known for their cute wooden cottages, which thousands of Danes make a beeline for when the sun appears. But there are gorgeous hotels here, too, including Hotel Løkken Strand, which opened last June in the former schoolhouse of the coastal town of Løkken. Days can be spent surfing at North Shore Surf, or gnarlier Klitmøller, which is like a chilly Hawaii. The wave-averse can head to the pretty town of Skagen, or try horse riding in Thy national park.
Price is for B&B for four in large family room (new this year) in July/Aug, doubles from £106, hotelloekkenstrand.dk. Fly to Aalborg
New national park, Danish Riviera
Old Mill Esrum farm in Royal North Sealand national park
Suits Cycling explorers
Price From £1,250 a week
On 29 May, Denmark’s fifth national park, the Royal North Sealand, opens on its largest island, Zealand. The ancient oaks of the Gribskov forest, and the country’s biggest lake, Esrum So, are at the centre of the 64,900-acre park. It is also home to stone age and medieval sites, 10th-century Esrum Abbey, and the Royal Palace of Fredensborg, known as the Danish Versailles. A self-guided cycling holiday with Inntravel includes rides around the park, and to coastal villages and the white sand beaches of the Danish Riviera.
Inntravel trips include hotel accommodation, four dinners, luggage transfers, cycle hire, route notes and maps, but not flights (to Copenhagen), visitnorthsealand.com
Finland
Summer fun, Finnish Lapland
Picking wild blueberries. Photograph: Sitikka/Getty Images
Suits Active explorers
Price From £755 a week
When your summer is only three months long, you have to go for it. For Finns, that means being outdoors round the clock in the midnight sun, swimming in lakes and berry picking. Blueberries, lingonberries, cloudberries and cranberries can be snaffled on a Lappish adventure, one of many activities on the tailor-made Summer in Finnish Lapland itinerary to Torassieppi with Artisan Travel. Canoeing on Lake Torassieppi and hiking with huskies are further options, with sleeps in a kota (Lappish tipi), a laavu (with fire), and cottages on a reindeer farm.
Price is for a week including flights, accommodation, transfers and meals, artisantravel.co.uk
Up all night, Lakeland
Beaver Cabin
Suits Explorers/families
Price Cottage from £720 a week (sleeps 6)
Finland’s go-to holiday zone, its Lakeland, includes vast Lake Saimaa, which has a maze of inlets and forested strips hiking, kayaking and swimming. Almost every Finn knows someone with a holiday cottage here, but you can still nab one for yourself, and join in their midnight sun traditions, such as nocturnal swimming and sauna sessions, and outdoor activities in the early hours. Tag on a night or two in Helsinki too, to witness the wild nightlife of the season.
Price is for a week in Beaver Cabin, a wooden cottage on Lake Saimaa with electric sauna with some July and August availability at time of press, finlandcottagerentals.com. Plenty of other lakeside cottages on the website. Fly to Helsinki
Bear-watching, Finland’s wild east
Photograph: Mats Lindberg/Getty Images
Suits Nature lovers
Price From £481 for 3 nights
About 1,500 brown bears live in Finland’s forests, but that doesn’t make spotting one easy. Hideout in a woodland cabin near Kuhmo with some binoculars though and you might just get lucky. This is a typical local experience, and is part of a three-night break at family-run Hotel Kalevala, a wooden hotel designed to look like a fortress with sauna and jacuzzi, which includes one over-night in a bear hide.
Price is for two nights in hotel, one in bear-watching hide. Trains to Kajaani from Helsinki. Kuhmo is 100km east of Kajaani | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/may/20/cannes-review-two-days-one-night-marion-cotillard-dardennes | Film | 2014-05-20T10:10:18.000Z | Peter Bradshaw | Cannes 2014 review: Two Days, One Night - Marion Cotillard magnificent in Dardenne brothers' latest | Atense dramatic situation and a subtly magnificent central performance from Marion Cotillard add up to an outstanding new movie from the Dardenne brothers: impassioned, exciting and moving – a Twelve Angry Men of the 21st-century workplace. Cotillard plays Sandra, a married woman with children who returns to work at a solar panel factory after a breakdown, only to find that the management have effectively made her the sacrificial victim of a Sophie's Non-Choice offered to the rest of the staff.
While she's been away, they have realised that the work can be achieved without her, so now they're proposing to fire Sandra and make everyone else work that bit harder, with a 1,000-euro bonus as a sweetener. Desperately, Sandra forces her duplicitous staff rep Jean-Marc (a cameo from Dardenne regular Olivier Gourmet) to institute a vote – do they want their bonus or their colleague Sandra? The vote's on Monday morning, so Sandra must spend the weekend touring around, canvassing door-to-door, and endure the mortifying ordeal of begging her co-workers for her own job back, people who desperately need this "bonus" to get by. If Sandra can get nine votes out of 16, her bacon has been saved – which is to say, she returns to the same divisive and alienating employment which has caused this nightmare in the first place. She has nothing to offer her friends and neighbours but her desperation. As the anxiety mounts so do her depression symptoms: hyperventilation, throat-constriction and a worrying addiction to Xanax. More is at stake than simply her job.
Two Days One Night
The importance is all up there in the title: the weekend. This is everyone's precious downtime, this is when they spend time with their families, or fix their place up, or handle necessary chores, or coach a kids' football team. This is why they work the rest of the week: this is their life. And it is a life on which Sandra is intruding – as she realises, to her intestine-twisting agony. Every family she visits is upset, and disturbed. She asks them to sympathise with her; they ask her to sympathise with them, the insidious choice causes dissension and dismay. As often as not, she leaves in failure, leaving an argument or a marital split or a fully-fledged fist fight in her wake. And yet has to do it, to survive.
The Dardennes have made a brilliant social-realist drama with a real narrative tension which is something of a novelty in their work. It is actually reminiscent of Ken Loach's Bread and Roses (2000) with Adrien Brody as the union campaigner who tours around persuading terrified cleaning workers to join a union: he is (at least at first) a deeply upsetting presence. As for this solar-panel company, it appears to have a union in that a vote has been forced which the management will abide by, but it is a union which manages and regulates the decisions of those above them, and they are certainly not united enough to reject out of hand the insidious Bonus/Sandra choice. Yet movingly, solidarity is what the film is about; solidarity is what Sandra is trying to achieve as her emotional state comes to pieces, through a majority vote in a democratic election.
It is another great performance from Marion Cotillard, who does not look out of place, like a starry A-lister, in the more austere Dardenne habitat. She is restrained and dignified, and again Cotillard shows what a marvellous technical actor she is: every nuance and detail is readably present on her face. She is compelling and moving – and so is the film.
News: new Palme d'Or fave with Two Days, One Night | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/dec/24/mail-online-ipso-upholds-complaint-over-town-being-no-go-area-for-white-people | Media | 2021-12-24T12:55:27.000Z | Kevin Rawlinson | Mail Online: Ipso upholds complaint over town being ‘no-go area for white people’ | Mail Online, the online edition of the Daily Mail, has been heavily censured by the press standards regulator for publishing an article referring to “British towns that are no-go areas for white people”.
The title’s defence – that no reasonable person was likely to take the claim seriously – was dismissed by the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso).
“The headline claim that there were ‘British towns that are no-go areas for white people’ was not supported by the article. The article included no reference to a town or towns which were claimed to be off-limits to white people, and only one area within a city was described as a ‘no-go area’ for white people,” the organisation said.
Mail Online was ordered to publish a correction and ensure that a link to it appeared on the front page of its site.
The piece, widely ridiculed when it was published in June, reported claims made in a book by the former Islamist radical Ed Husain titled Among the Mosques: A Journey Across Muslim Britain.
The author said he had spoken to a group of white men who claimed they were scared to go to the Whalley Range area of Blackburn. Husain said they cited claims of violence at the hands of Asian teenagers, adding that the local council was racist and would threaten people with eviction for flying the cross of St George.
The Mail’s article also included an image of Didsbury beneath the headline “British towns that are no-go areas for white people: Muslim author’s study of mosques reveals children ‘attacked for being white’”.
Nevertheless, Ipso found that the title had only suggested Didsbury was home to a mosque hosting a sharia court, not that it had become a “no-go area for white people”. Sharia councils are often accused of operating a “parallel legal system” in the UK but their rulings have no legal standing in British law and they have no enforcement powers.
According to Ipso, Mail Online claimed it “considered it to be ‘extremely unlikely that reasonable readers would have taken the impression from the headline that entire towns in Britain are […] entirely inaccessible to white people’”.
The committee made no ruling in respect of a second complaint that the article breached clause 12 of its code, which calls on titles to “avoid prejudicial or pejorative reference to an individual’s race, colour, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation or to any physical or mental illness or disability”. It said it was unable to consider the issue because the complainant was not personally affected. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/29/eurasia-film-festival-kazakhstan-censorship | World news | 2015-09-29T08:40:02.000Z | Carmen Gray | Celebrating cinema and decrying censorship at Kazakh's biggest film festival | To enter the Eurasia Film Festival in Almaty, Kazakhstan, film goers must make the long walk through the Esentai mall, central Asia’s biggest luxury shopping complex, all the while being serenaded by lute-strumming men in fur-trimmed national costume.
The backdrop of luxury brand logos raises no eyebrows here: in this country flush with oil money, conspicuous consumption is entrenched in the landscape, only the latest currency devaluation leaving the mall a little emptier than usual.
The elaborate welcome for the smattering of local and international guests also includes an installation of footage from The Road to Mother, an historical and patriotic epic depicting the Kazakh people’s fortitude in the face of Stalin-era collectivisation, released by the state-owned studio Kazakhfilm.
Kazakh film director and political activist Rachid Nugmanov arrives on the red carpet Photograph: Carmen Gray
President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s youngest daughter, Aliya, is credited as “general producer” on the film, a hint at the tight grasp the president and his family have over the country’s film and media.
Inside the grand opening, local stars in shimmering gowns congregated alongside the socialite offspring of the region’s oil oligarchs to watch the festival’s opening film, a new crime thriller called Hackers, directed by Akan Satayev – the same man behind Kazakhstan’s biggest domestic box office success Myn Bala, a blockbuster-style epic about an 18th-century horseman battling tribal invaders.
Local stars in shimmering gowns congregated alongside the socialite offspring of the region’s oil oligarchs
The Eurasia Film Festival, now in its 11th edition, usually focuses on new films from Asia and Europe but this year merged with the Shaken’s Constellation Film Festival, which screens work from the central Asian states.
The festival centred around the main Silk Road competition for feature-length films, which included a screening of Kazakhstan’s 2015 Oscar entry, Stranger, which is director Yermek Tursunov’s third film to be selected for the Academy Awards race, and Mustang, Deniz Gamze Erguven’s acclaimed debut about five sisters in a conservative Turkish village forced to repress their sexuality.
Censorship
While socially critical films often face a tough battle to get funding or to be distributed in Kazakhstan, they are not repressed totally.
A drunk driver who kills a pedestrian and uses his connections to dodge responsibility is the premise of Case N6, Witness, presented in the festival’s new Kazakh projects showcase. The feature is a project by one of the members of the self-proclaimed “Partisan” film-makers, who have resorted to a micro-budget approach to allow them creative freedom.
In a heated film-maker panel on alternative financing methods during the festival, director Adilkhan Yerzhanov decried censorship and a prevalent culture of escapist cinema. “If you try to play by the rules of commercial distribution it means dealing with the ministry of culture and re-editing the movie you want to make,” he said.
People here are scared of the government. And all money in the country is connected with the government
Serik Abishev, film-maker
Asked by another panelist who the Partisan films are fighting against, Yerzhanov replied: “Dishonesty in film-making.”
Fellow Partisan film-maker Serik Abishev said private investors are reluctant to be associated with socially critical films: “People here are scared of the government. And all money in the country is connected with the government. But the situation luckily is different from the one in Uzbekistan.
“We wanted to shoot a movie with Uzbek construction workers. Firstly they agreed, but when they found out what it was about they got scared and refused because they were afraid the president of their country would have their families killed,” Abishev said.
“They weren’t joking. Then we realised the level of pressure there. There’s no way a Partisan movie could exist in Uzbekistan. Here, we’re not afraid for our lives but it’s absurd that people we want funding from are so scared of losing their jobs.”
Al Pacino as Pope
This year, the ministry of culture appointed Rashid Nugmanov as the festival’s head, a surprising choice given the director’s past criticism of Nazarbayev’s regime.
A director himself, Almaty-born Nugmanov gained cult status in the Soviet Union in the late 1980s on the back of Perestroika’s new cultural and political openness for The Needle, one of the first films portraying drug addiction in the region, which starred Leningrad rock icon Viktor Tsoi, helping to initiative what is now called the Kazakh New Wave.
“It’s a little bit surprising,” Nugmanov said of his appointment, “but at the same time this is a very special country. It’s not like Uzbekistan or Turkmenistan, where if you say something against the system, you’re done forever.”
After a long break from directing since moving to Paris in 1993, Nugmanov is developing a film in Kazakhstan about Genghis Khan’s grandson, Batu, which he hopes will attract the notoriously hard-to-crack Chinese co-production market just across the border.
camel's milk toasts with the old guard here in almaty last night pic.twitter.com/5Xua7VQb2r
— Carmen Gray (@carmen_gray) September 23, 2015
“It’s [going to be] like The Godfather set in the 13th century. To make it even closer to the crime genre, I would probably cast Al Pacino as the Pope.” Now who can argue with that? | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/jan/21/who-are-the-potential-candidates-for-bbc-director-general | Media | 2020-01-21T18:19:10.000Z | Mark Sweney | Who are the potential candidates for BBC director general? | Tony Hall’s decision to stand down as BBC director general has started a race for the highest-profile role in UK broadcasting.
David Clementi, the chair of the BBC board, will lead the interview process and will to appoint headhunters to ensure the corporation scouts out a wide range of potential candidates. James Purnell, the former Labour minister who now runs BBC radio and education and who was once considered Hall’s likely successor, does not intend to apply, but there is no shortage of others who might be interested.
Tim Davie
Tim Davie, the chief executive of BBC Studios. Photograph: Leon Neal/Getty Images
The chief executive of BBC Studios, the corporation’s commercial arm and production hub, Davie is considered a leading internal candidate. He has a mix of commercial and public service experience, having worked at Procter & Gamble and Pepsi, and previously ran the BBC’s audio and music operation. Davie briefly acted as director general while the BBC waited for Lord Hall to start work.
Last year Davie turned down an offer to take over as chief executive of the Premier League, which observers believe was because he was eyeing a run at taking over from Hall.
Jay Hunt
Jay Hunt, Apple’s creative director in Europe. Photograph: Eamonn M McCormack/Getty Images
Apple’s creative director in Europe has previously held top roles at the BBC, where she worked for two decades, plus Channel 4 and Channel 5. The Australian-born Hunt was responsible for Channel 4’s audacious £75m deal to poach The Great British Bake Off from the BBC, where she had previously been controller of BBC One.
Hunt was considered a strong candidate to become chief executive of Channel 4 in 2017, at which time she held the role of chief creative officer, but she missed out to Alex Mahon. There could be a question mark for Hunt over pay: Hall’s £450,000-a-year salary is far less than Channel 4 or Apple pay. However, no one takes on the director general role for the money. She may be considered the frontrunner among the external candidates.
Alex Mahon
Alex Mahon, the Channel 4 chief executive. Photograph: Adam Lawrence/Channel 4
The Channel 4 chief executive has had to address similar issues to those the BBC is facing, including political pressure and the shift in viewer habits in the digital era. She has been outspoken about the threat of US tech and TV firms shaping the national culture, and she led the relocation of a significant part of Channel 4’s operation out of London.
After Tony Hall’s resignation, the BBC’s next boss will need nerves of steel
Emily Bell
Read more
Mahon was the first woman to run a UK broadcaster larger than Channel 5, and the first female chief executive of Channel 4 in its 38-year history. She has previously worked closely with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, having served as a member of the advisory panel put together to help map out the future scope and remit of the BBC before the renewal of its royal charter in 2016.
Carolyn McCall
Carolyn McCall, the ITV chief executive. Photograph: Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images
McCall is in the early stages of transforming ITV’s digital future having just launched BritBox, which aims to challenge Netflix in the UK, in partnership with the BBC. A former chief executive at easyJet and Guardian Media Group, the publisher of the Guardian and Observer, McCall boasts impressive commercial credentials. Having been chief executive at ITV only since 2018, McCall may feel it is too early in her stint at the UK’s largest commercial free-to-air broadcaster to throw her hat in the ring for the top BBC job.
Charlotte Moore
Charlotte Moore, the BBC’s director of content. Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian
The BBC’s director of content has a £1bn budget and has been responsible for delivering some of the most popular shows in the UK, from Bodyguard and Bake Off to Luther. She has shown a willingness to stand up to the government in the past. A 14-year BBC veteran, Moore may be seen as lacking in commercial experience outside the environs of the corporation.
Carolyn Fairbairn
Carolyn Fairbairn, the CBI director general. Photograph: Ben Stansall/AFP via Getty Images
The director general of the CBI has strong credentials in both broadcasting and politics. A member of the No 10 policy unit under John Major, she has also worked as a director of strategy at both the BBC and ITV. During her time at the BBC she designed and launched Freeview. Earlier in her career she worked as a journalist at the Economist and was a partner in the management consultancy McKinsey’s media practice.
Sharon White
Sharon White, a former Ofcom chief executive. Photograph: Paul Hampartsoumian/Rex/Shutterstock
Having just started as chair of John Lewis Partnership, the former chief executive of Ofcom may feel the time is not right to apply for the BBC role. She knows her way around Whitehall, having worked in the Treasury in charge of public finances. White’s lack of broadcasting experience counts against her but she has plenty of insight into the BBC as Ofcom regulates the corporation’s activities as well as the wider media and broadcasting sector.
Gail Rebuck
Gail Rebuck, the chair of Penguin Random House UK. Photograph: Tom Campbell/Rex
Rebuck is the chair of Penguin Random House UK and has worked in publishing for more than four decades. She is a former member of the government’s creative industries taskforce. In 1998 she founded the World Book Day charity. She sits as a Labour peer in the House of Lords and has been linked with a top job at the BBC for decades. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/sep/30/my-life-with-eczema-anita-bhagwandas | Life and style | 2023-09-30T13:00:14.000Z | Anita Bhagwandas | At war with my own skin: my life with eczema – and how I found the key to keeping it away | How do you scratch an itch that’s underneath your skin? The truth is, you can’t. At 15, I’d look down at my hands and see bubbles forming under the skin on my hands, becoming liquid-filled blisters that ached and itched until they popped. Grim, I know – and it didn’t get better as they healed; peeling the dressings off to change them was agony, while the claggy coldness of the wet wrap treatments is seared into my memory. What’s more, my now gauze-covered fingers were exactly the kicker my teenage self-esteem didn’t need.
My eczema, which is in its most basic terms a skin barrier malfunction as the result of genetics and environmental factors, began aged four. It was more rash-like then. I’d wonder why I was afflicted with it, and nobody else seemed to be. Kids would ask what it was, usually with mild disgust, which only made me feel ashamed. I had one ace up my sleeve though – my father was a dermatologist. “We tried everything to heal and manage it, but the only big difference I saw was after rounds of homoeopathy,” he recalls, after it was recommended by an old medic friend of his. And it did work; until I hit my teens.
Since then, I’ve never not had eczema, even if it’s just a small patch; but it’s also behaved completely differently each time it flared up. I started with more rash-like atopic eczema, while the ultra-itchy discoid eczema has also come and gone. Contact dermatitis, which I’ve had on/off too, occurs when the body touches a particular substance (nickel for me – I paint clear nail polish on the metal buttons on my jeans so it doesn’t touch my skin), and I’ve had patches of red, scaly seborrhoeic eczema on my scalp and brows. That horrendous blistering eczema from my teen years is dyshidrotic eczema (or pompholyx). As yet, there’s no sign of varicose eczema which commonly affects the lower legs, but I’m never one to do things half-heartedly, so, give it time.
There doesn’t seem to be a cure. I’ve been told it’s just a case of controlling it, which feels unfair, especially when it seems to affect children more – 1 in 5 children, and 1 in 10 adults in the UK suffer from eczema due to a mix of our “naive infant immune systems, sensitive skin barrier and exposure to potential environmental triggers,” Dr Derrick Phillips, consultant dermatologist at Montrose London tells me.
Women are more likely than men to develop eczema. Photograph: champja/Getty Images/iStockphoto
Studies have found that women are more likely to get it, as are those with a family history or who have hayfever and asthma too. Interestingly, US research has shown that the ethnic groups most affected are Native Americans, Pacific islanders and Asians, followed by white people, and black people are the least likely to have it. Other studies show that people in high-income regions, or those in higher social and economic classes are more prone to eczema – both attributed to environmental issues such as car pollution. Anecdotally, I realised that my ADHD medication – although useful for my focus – was dialling up my anxiety too (and research has shown a link between ADHD and eczema in children.)
My most recent and ongoing flare-up started in 2020 as I worked on my proposal for my book, Ugly. The stress of writing it caused a flare-up on my face and body but I thought it would just subside once I signed the book deal. Instead, it seemed to worsen. The timing was dire; at the time I was on TV regularly, trying to jovially give beauty advice with my face in weeping, flaking agony. At night, my body was so raw I would slather myself in multiple creams, wearing a onesie because the waistband and buttons of pyjamas hurt my skin.
“It doesn’t look too bad, it’s not that red,” a harried GP told me during my eight-minute appointment, despite telling them of the above. But the truth is, if I’d been white, 70% of my body would have been bright red; it was a stark reminder, like so other areas of health, the needs and differences of people of colour are so rarely considered.
I’ve often struggled to post on social media; doing a makeup tutorial when half my face is flaking off feels the opposite of inspiring
I finally sought specialist help. The dermatologist was shocked that I’d been ‘putting up’ with my eczema for so long. After two courses of oral steroids, topical steroid creams, Milton bleach baths (used to help lessen the itching and reduce bacteria growth) the symptoms abated briefly, only to return again.
Having eczema and working in the beauty industry has been a rollercoaster. I’ve often struggled to post on social media, where your face is often your currency; doing a makeup tutorial when half my face is flaking off feels the opposite of inspiring. But I’ve tried to do it regardless, to challenge the idea that we need to look perfect to be of value in the world.
A case of trial and error … Anita Bhagwandas. Photograph: Suki Dhanda/The Observer
When my eczema flared up again in 2020, among the steps suggested were phototherapy, a UV light therapy that needs weekly treatments over a couple of months, or drugs that control inflammation by suppressing the immune system such as cyclosporin or methotrexate, neither of which I wanted to try, especially during the pandemic.
It’s been a case of trial and error. Alongside potent topical steroid creams, I’ve removed most of the fragrances from my detergent and shower gels to minimise irritation. When my skin becomes irritated, I use the gentle Avène Tolerance range. Before I’d need to apply heavy moisturisers and oils twice a day, but the ceramides in CeraVe moisturising cream have made a huge difference. I now use it once a day.
I also realised that despite having been fine with them previously, dairy and gluten now seem to cause a flare-up. “The unpredictability of eczema is a real challenge: it can be hard to pinpoint the triggers. Although food is unlikely to be the cause of eczema, food allergies can make eczema worse. We now also understand that the gut microbiome can influence eczema,” says Dr Thivi Maruthappu, consultant dermatoliogist and author of Skin Food. “People with eczema can also have low vitamin D levels and this seems to contribute to more severe skin inflammation, so it is important that you take vitamin D supplements through the winter months.” She also recommends omega-3, if you don’t get enough through your diet.
Traditional Chinese medicine practitioner Dr Mazin Al-Khafaji, founder of Dermatology M, specialises in bespoke skin management using herbs, topical products and acupuncture. “There is no question that sufferers of atopic eczema have a disordered skin barrier, but that is not the end of the story. Topical and systemic use of steroids really only address the acute phase of the inflammatory process. In contrast, Chinese medicine is able to very successfully treat the inflammatory stages to subdue eczema and beyond.”
Now my eczema largely under control, but I’ve been looking for triggers to avoid any further flare-ups. The common thread for me seems to be stress; my earliest bouts coincided with starting a new school, others coincided with pressure-filled points in my life, so I’ve made serious lifestyle changes, namely meditation and slower, mindful movement like yoga – although that’s still a work in progress.
There have been other unexpected downsides including my skin thinning in some areas from the steroid creams: “There has been an explosion of eczema treatments in the past five years,” says Dr Phillips, citing the oral treatment JAK inhibitors plus dupilumab and tralokinumab injections that all aim to treat eczema internally, “and there are more novel treatments in the pipeline.”
So most of all I try to prioritise stress management. “The kind of pill you really need is chill pill,” my dad adds. Begrudgingly, I think he’s right.
This article was amended on 4 October 2023 because an earlier version included dupilumab as an oral treatment, when it is injected. This has been corrected. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/05/kazakhstan-protests-president-threatens-ruthless-crackdown | World news | 2022-01-05T22:13:15.000Z | Shaun Walker | Kazakhstan protests: Moscow-led alliance sends ‘peacekeeping forces’ | “Peacekeeping forces” from a Russia-led military alliance will be sent to Kazakhstan to help the country’s president regain control, it was announced on Wednesday night, as violent clashes continued after fuel price rises triggered widespread protests.
Armenia’s prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, said the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) – an alliance of Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan – would dispatch forces to “stabilise” the Central Asian country.
The announcement came after Kazakhstan’s president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, appealed to the bloc for help, decrying the actions of “terrorists” and alleging the country had been the victim of “attacks” by foreign-trained gangs.
On Wednesday, demonstrators took over government buildings and reportedly stormed the airport in Almaty, the country’s commercial capital and largest city.
“Almaty was attacked, destroyed, vandalised, the residents of Almaty became victims of attacks by terrorists, bandits, therefore it is our duty … to take all possible actions to protect our state,” said Tokayev, in his second televised address in a matter of hours.
The Kazakh events come at a time when all eyes have been on a possible Russian intervention in Ukraine. Images of police being overpowered by protesters are likely to cause alarm in Moscow, as another country neighbouring Russia succumbs to political unrest. Kazakhstan is part of an economic union with Russia and the two countries share a long border.
It was not clear how many troops the CSTO would send and how long they would stay in the country.
There was no immediate comment from the Kremlin, but Russian MP Leonid Kalashnikov told Interfax that the troops would stay “for as long as the president of Kazakhstan believes it necessary”. He said they would mainly be engaged in protecting “infrastructure” in the country.
The announcement came just hours after Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesperson, said it was important no foreign countries interfered in Kazakhstan.
Earlier in the evening, Tokayev spoke to the Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, who crushed a huge uprising with brutal force in 2019. Before calling Tokayev, Lukashenko spoke to Putin, the Belarusian news agency Belta reported.
The protests began in the west of the country at the weekend, after a sharp rise in fuel prices, but have spread quickly and taken Kazakhstan’s authorities and international observers by surprise.
On Wednesday, there were further reports of violent clashes and shooting in Almaty and other cities, as well as unverified videos suggesting casualties among protesters.
Kazakh media outlets cited the interior ministry as saying 317 police and national guard servicemen were injured and eight killed “by the hands of a raging crowd”. There have been no reliable estimates of civilian casualties.
Earlier in the day, the Almaty mayor’s office was set on fire, with smoke and flames visible from several floors of the imposing building. Many flights were diverted or cancelled after the apparent storming of the airport. Kazakh media outlets reported authorities took the airport back under control after a firefight.
In other cities, including Aktobe in the west of the country, crowds tried to storm government buildings. There were reports and videos of police cars set on fire and security vehicles seized by the crowd.
Kazakhstan protests: government resigns amid rare outbreak of unrest
Read more
Tokayev accepted the resignation of the government on Wednesday morning and introduced a state of emergency in several provinces in an attempt to gain control of the situation. Later, the state of emergency was extended to the entire country.
Tokayev also announced that his predecessor and benefactor, 81-year-old Nursultan Nazarbayev, would step down as head of the security council.
Much of the anger has been directed at Nazarbayev, a former Soviet-era communist boss who became Kazakhstan’s first president and ruled until 2019 and who wielded immense power behind the scenes.
“The authorities are trying everything to calm things down, with a mix of promises and threats, but so far it’s not working,” said Dosym Satpayev, an Almaty-based political analyst. “There will be imitations of dialogue but essentially the regime will respond with force, because they have no other tools.”
Smoke rises from the city hall in Almaty. Photograph: Yan Blagov/AP
At times, authorities have shut down mobile internet and blocked access to messaging apps, and on Wednesday the internet went down across much of Kazakhstan. Authorities said army units had been brought into Almaty to restore order.
The trigger for protests in Kazakhstan was a sharp rise in the price of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), used by many to power their cars, particularly in the west of the country. Protests began at the weekend in the oil city of Zhanaozen, where in December 2011 police fired on protesters, killing at least 16 people.
It soon became clear that the anger was not focused only on LPG prices, and a government announcement that the price would be fixed at a lower level has done nothing to quell the protest.
Instead, there is broader discontent with Tokayev, president since 2019, and Nazarbayev.
“Nazarbayev and his family have monopolised all sectors, from banking to roads to gas. These protests are about corruption,” said 55-year-old Zauresh Shekenova, who has been protesting in Zhanaozen since Sunday.
“It all started with the increase in gas prices but the real cause of the protests is poor living conditions of people, high prices, joblessness, corruption.”
Darkhan Sharipov, an activist from the civil society movement Wake Up, Kazakhstan, said: “People are sick of corruption and nepotism, and the authorities don’t listen to people … We want President Tokayev to carry out real political reforms, or to go away and hold fair elections.”
The five former Soviet Central Asian republics have been largely without protest in their three decades of independence, with the exception of Kyrgyzstan, which has had several revolutions.
Kazakhstan has never held an election judged as free and fair by international observers. While it is clear there is widespread discontent, the cleansing of the political playing field over many years means there are no high-profile opposition figures around which a protest movement could unite, and the protests appear largely directionless.
“There are some local figures, but nobody who could unify forces across the country, though with time they could appear,” said Satpayev. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/sep/22/philip-pullman-calls-for-inquiry-into-writers-trade-union-the-society-of-authors | Books | 2022-09-22T12:16:21.000Z | Sarah Shaffi | Philip Pullman calls for inquiry into writers’ trade union the Society of Authors | Philip Pullman has called for an external review of the Society of Authors (SoA), the UK’s largest trade union for writers, illustrators and translators. Earlier this year he stepped down as president of the organisation because he felt he “would not be free to express [his] personal opinion”.
The letter from the His Dark Materials writer, which was leaked to Private Eye magazine, is the latest in a line of controversies to hit the SoA, which began after comments Pullman made about Kate Clanchy’s controversial memoir, Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me.
Pullman spoke in support of Clanchy and the book, which was criticised for racial and ableist stereotyping. In a now-deleted tweet, made in response to a comment he incorrectly assumed was about Clanchy, Pullman said those who criticised the book without reading it would “find a comfortable home in Isis or the Taliban”.
The Society of Authors released a statement at the time distancing itself from Pullman’s comments, and Pullman later tweeted an apology.
But the writer decided to stand down as president, a position he had held for nine years, in March this year, saying that “recent events have made it apparent that when a difference of opinion arises, there is no easy way to resolve it within the constitution or the established practices of the society”.
Society of Authors responds to calls for Joanne Harris to step down as committee chair
Read more
In a letter he wrote to the SoA’s council and published by Private Eye this week, Pullman said he resigned because he “felt that the Society did not support me when I was criticised by those who were attacking” Clanchy and her book.
“Instead of looking at the issue calmly, the society (through the management committee and its chair) immediately adopted a position of self-righteous neutrality (as it seemed to me), though more self-righteous than neutral,” the letter continued.
In the letter, Pullman also criticised author Joanne Harris, who is chair of the society’s management committee. Last month two petitions circulated among authors, one in support of Harris and one calling for her resignation. The petitions were made in response to a Twitter poll Harris launched asking about writers’ experiences of receiving death threats. She tweeted the poll in the wake of the attack on Salman Rushdie and following a death threat to JK Rowling, who had expressed solidarity with Rushdie. Those calling for Harris’s resignation say they found the tone of the original tweet – she later rephrased her poll – “flippant”.
In his letter, Pullman said that “facetious and flippant public comments from the chair of the management committee only demonstrate how far the society has come from the serious, valuable and intelligent organisation it was when I joined 30-odd years ago”.
He said he feels that the SoA “needs investigation, and investigation from outside at that”.
The trade union has yet to respond publicly to Pullman’s letter, but has previously said that it is “absolutely committed” to condemning any personal attacks made on authors for exercising their rights to freely express themselves. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/mar/18/very-sensitive-subject-plan-to-take-welsh-water-for-london-stirs-painful-memories | UK news | 2023-03-18T11:00:08.000Z | Sandra Laville | ‘Very sensitive subject’: plan to take Welsh water for London stirs painful memories | On a February night 60 years ago, three young men battled through blizzard conditions to plant a bomb at a construction site in a lonely Welsh valley. Their target was a dam being built by Liverpool Corporation to supply water for the city.
To provide million of litres a day for the English city, the people in the small Eryri (Snowdonia) village of Capel Celyn were to be evicted and their homes, farms, post office, school, chapel and cemetery flooded to create a reservoir.
Water firms in England and Wales lost 1tn litres via leaky pipes in 2021
Read more
The bomb attack by the newly formed Mudiad Amddiffyn Cymru (Movement for the Defence of Wales) on the electricity transformer powering the development on 9 February 1963 was an act born of intense opposition to the village drowning; people boarded buses to Liverpool to march through the streets.
Despite the protests, in October 1965 Alderman Frank Cain, of the Corporation of Liverpool, pulled a lever to sink Capel Celyn for ever under tens of millions of litres of water to create the Llyn Celyn reservoir.
Today, as climate breakdown pushes more regions into drought conditions, privatised water companies are again turning to Wales for more water – this time for London and the south-east of England.
Thames Water wants to abstract up to 155m litres of water a day from Wales to boost supplies for the most populous part of England in the coming years. It is working with United Utilities, which has a licence to abstract water from Lake Vyrnwy, a reservoir in Powys, and with Severn Trent. But as the graffiti across north Wales in memory of Capel Celyn show, water continues to be an emotive subject in the country.
Politicians in Powys are arming themselves for tough negotiations on access to water in the years ahead. The county council wants the British and Welsh governments to set up the necessary legislative frameworks to enable its communities to get a financial benefit from the use of its water. The council wants a levy raised on water supplies that are not for the direct benefit or consumption by the people of Powys.
Cofiwch Dryweryn (Remember Tryweryn) in Ceredigion commemorates the decision to flood the Tryweryn valley, including the village of Capel Celyn. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian
Elwyn Vaughan, a Plaid Cymru councillor on the county council, said there had been Thames Water officials in the Lake Vrynwy area over the past 12 months. “The drought last year seems to have really focused minds,” Vaughan said. “But before Thames Water look to our water here, my argument is that they should plug their own leaks first – 600m litres a day – rather than putting all this effort into taking water from here.”
Vaughan added: “Water is a very sensitive subject. It is a fallacy to assume that plentiful supplies will be here for ever.”
The proposal by water companies is for water from Lake Vyrnwy, now abstracted by United Utilities to supply Liverpool and north-west England, to be redeployed to supply London and the south-east. Water from the reservoir would be released into the River Vyrnwy and on into the River Severn, where it would be abstracted near Gloucester before being taken to the south-east of England via a new pipeline or restored Cotswold canals.
Environmental concerns focus on the release of huge volumes of water into the River Vrynwy and Severn, and the impact on other Welsh rivers of replacing the water being taken for the south-east.
Ceri Davies, of Natural Resources Wales, said: “This release to the Vyrnwy would need to be carefully controlled to balance other vital requirements such as managing flood risk and ecological impact. We will need to be satisfied that the proposals would not have a detrimental impact on communities and wildlife in Wales before agreeing to them.”
Gail Davies-Walsh, the chief executive of Afonydd Cymru (the Welsh Rivers Trust), echoed the concerns, saying the Severn was a special area of conservation, so it was important that extra flow into it did not have negative impacts.
Sign up to Down to Earth
Free weekly newsletter
The planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essential
Enter your email address
Sign up
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
It’s back: the lost Welsh village that has reappeared in the drought
Read more
There are also fears that the knock-on impact of diverting water from Wales to the south-east of England will damage other Welsh rivers. Peter Powell, the chief executive of the Welsh Dee Trust, said: “If they are going to start using Lake Vyrnwy to provide water for England, they will have to take more water from the River Dee for Liverpool and the north-west. The Dee is already struggling from overabstraction and this will put huge additional pressure on it.
“The rivers of Wales are all overabstracted and have their own challenges. This plan will take more water from Wales to feed the economic growth of the south-east of England.”
Capel Celyn is an intense memory in Wales, rarely more so than last summer when the whole country was plunged into drought and water levels in Llyn Celyn were so low that the ghostly remains of the village chapel could be seen emerging from the reservoir floor.
Jane Dodds, the leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, said there was a long history in Wales of its raw resources being taken for use in England while local people experienced no benefit, with the drowning of Capel Celyn being one of the most notable examples. “These latest plans by United Utilities, Severn Trent and Thames Water risk repeating the mistakes of the past,” Dodds said.
For Elwyn Edwards, who was 13 when his relatives were evicted from Capel Celyn, the issue is simple: “I went to Liverpool to protest. Two busloads of us went from here but nothing came of it. They went ahead anyway and we did not get a penny. So I don’t mind them taking the water as long as they pay for it, every ounce.”
Thames Water said: “The past summer, with extreme heat and lack of water, is a clear indication of climate emergency first-hand. There are no simple quick solutions and we need to plan ahead to manage a growing population, a changing climate and an increasing drought risk as well as making sure we can protect our environment now and in the future.
“The redeployment of water currently used by United Utilities from Lake Vyrnwy in Wales is one of a number of … options being considered. There are no plans to take any additional water from Lake Vyrnwy beyond what is currently permitted to be abstracted by United Utilities under their existing abstraction licence.”
This article was amended on 20 March 2023. An earlier version said that it was a privatised water company which was behind the flooding of Capel Celyn; it was in fact Liverpool Corporation. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2022/nov/26/acne-studios-rainbow-scarf-is-latest-splurge-of-choice-to-beat-the-blues | Fashion | 2022-11-26T06:00:19.000Z | Elle Hunt | £240 rainbow scarf is latest splurge of choice to beat the blues | As the temperature drops, the days grow darker and winter draws closer, we may find ourselves craving a dependable boost of warmth and good cheer. But would you pay nearly 250 quid for it?
Some people are, with Acne Studios’ oversized plaid scarf ubiquitous on the streets of London and farther afield. The Swedish fashion house has been selling the distinctive wool-blend item since 2019, in an ever-increasing number of colourways that routinely sell out within a month – but, at £240, it is very much a status symbol.
Even fashion insiders have emphasised its non-essentialness. “Is it necessary to have a £200-plus scarf? Not really,” said the stylist and content creator Oluwaseun in her recent TikTok review of the scarf, exploring whether it is worth the money.
Fashion blogger Alexandra Lapp wears an Acne Studios scarf in green and grey during Paris Fashion Week. Photograph: Christian Vierig/Getty Images
Yet a recent uptick in sales and online chatter – not to mention, the proliferation of high-street knockoffs – suggests that, for those shoppers with money to spare, the statement scarf is the splurge of choice in the current economic climate.
A spokesperson for Acne says sales have been growing every year and continue to grow. On TikTok, the #acnescarf hashtag has had more than 2.5m views, as users style their purchases, debate whether to invest or discuss the best-quality “dupes”.
The item has become so omnipresent on city streets that a Twitter user in Brooklyn, New York, joked last week that they were “taking a shot every time I see someone wearing the rainbow Acne scarf”.
Influencer Lea Naumann wearing a multicolored scarf by Acne Studios during Copenhagen Fashion Week. Photograph: Streetstyleshooters/Getty Images
“It’s everywhere right now,” says Sian Clarke, a personal stylist in London. She says the item’s appeal is its versatility: equally suited to a minimalist monochrome wardrobe or one already full of colour, and it can be worn throughout the winter. “It’s really friendly to every kind of style.”
For those just wanting an outfit refresh, imitations are selling at Arket, Whistles, Cos, & Other Stories and more high-street shops for about £80. Cheaper versions have also been popular at Mango, Accessorize and on Asos and Amazon, while a lookalike retailing at Primark for £8 has been circulating on TikTok as a cost-conscious – if not climate-friendly – alternative.
Primark’s £8 scarf.
While acknowledging that £240 seems excessive for a scarf, Clarke says that, relative to many designer items, it was easy to get more wear out of an accessory: “People would spend £240 on a handbag on the high street … You’re guaranteed to need a scarf every year.”
Not only that: as status symbols go, with its highly conspicuous label, the Acne scarf offers more bang for your buck than a luxury item you would recognise only from the inside tag. “It’s a really obvious brand to see: that’s another tick box in terms of why people go for it,” says Clarke.
But, she adds, the price tag also reflects quality, with the authentic Acne scarf made of a blend of alpaca, wool, nylon and mohair: “That’s going to be so much warmer than a wool scarf.”
“If they do have a bit of spare income, they can spend it on keeping warm and looking, and feeling good … You can kind of justify it,” says Clarke.
Some Acne scarf owners have reported using theirs as blankets, in air-conditioned offices or on planes, or as decorative throws in the home.
Sign up to Fashion Statement
Free weekly newsletter
Style, with substance: what's really trending this week, a roundup of the best fashion journalism and your wardrobe dilemmas solved
Enter your email address
Sign up
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
It suggests a new economic indicator, and an update on the “lipstick index”. In past recessions, sales of cosmetics have gone up as consumers downsize their treats; as we stare down one this winter, we may be asking our luxuries do at least double-duty.
For many, the compromise has been shopping secondhand, with the fashion marketplace Depop reporting a 42% increase in searches for “Acne scarf” compared with last winter.
Oluwaseun: ‘There’s a running joke online that if anyone has a real Acne scarf they tie it so that you can see the label.’ Photograph: c/o The Oluwaseun
A spokesperson suggested that the spike in searches for high-ticket retailers spoke to consumers weighing quality over quantity during the cost of living crisis, and “naturally becoming more conscious about sourcing timeless pieces at a lower cost”.
Research by Depop found that more than half of users polled said they had already turned to second-hand shopping to save money this year.
Despite concluding in her TikTok review that the Acne scarf did not warrant the £240, Oluwaseun said she did shell out – but only after finding a big discount via a friend. “I would never have paid full price,” she says.
With the wide range of imitators available, says Oluwaseun, “there’s a running joke online that if anyone has a real Acne scarf they tie it so that you can see the label”.
But after finally splurging on hers, she said she is not bothered to find herself part of a crowd. “I wear what I like to wear, I don’t care if anyone thinks it’s fake – it keeps me warm, and it looks cute.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2012/may/20/julie-walters-interview-baftas-2012 | Television & radio | 2012-05-19T23:04:25.000Z | Euan Ferguson | Bafta TV special/Julie Walters: Queen of the screen | Other multiple Bafta- and Emmy-winning actresses might have flung toys from the pram, or at least raised a manicured eyebrow. The restaurant at the photo studio had courteously but undeniably told her they'd run out of basically everything she might have wanted. Julie Walters smiled and forgave, and smiled again, and pretended to enjoy choosing the remaining dreadful rabbit-food option. Then, out of the waiter's sight, laughed like a drain when I suggested she'd have had better luck choosing from the other (blank) side of the menu; then turned down my offer of a cup of coffee instead because, "No, I'd talk you to death if I had a cup of coffee."
Without caffeine, she still talks nineteen to the dozen. And laughs a lot. And stops to think, often, just to be sure that it's going to be an honest answer, even if it's rattled off at a speed to synaptically fuse whatever shorthand skills I retain. In short, she's garrulous if she trusts; courteous if she doesn't; bright with laughter and thought, and sorry if I'm being too gushing but she really is one of the most authentically enjoyable actresses I've ever interviewed.
And fairly happy in her own skin at the moment: mainly living and working on a farm in Surrey with her husband Grant, and they have a daughter who's gone into horticulture. And yet Julie Walters has an absurdly large slew, a clutch, of worldwide red-carpet awards for her acting – Baftas and Emmys and a random Olivier or two simply piled up from 1980 (Educating Rita) onwards – and is 61, and not blonde, nor particularly leggy nor predicated to flashing her chest. What's gone right?
"It's because, I think, it's getting better generally, daily, especially in TV, for women in acting; and age and looks count less. As more women come into the business. Change of any sort takes a long time to happen. And there were all us baby boomers who had a grammar school education, started to learn, then went on the pill, the whole thing, and so there are today a lot more women writers, editors, producers, and so a lot more women's stories. God, the BBC's practically run by women."
When 90% of the TV business was run by men, did they just see older women as… mothers? Good or evil mothers? "Absolutely, but they also saw older women as essentially non-sexual. And those dull parts are still there – I still get offered parts where I feel: yes, hmm, but there's no journey. And if it's not interesting enough for me to want to do, then frankly I won't even remember the lines."
The most interesting TV ones have, of course, included Mo Mowlam, Dr Anne Turn-er in A Short Stay in Switzerland and, about as far as you can get from solving Northern Ireland and dignity in death, Mrs Overall in Acorn Antiques and such memorable one-offs as the feisty defence barrister in last year's The Jury, which I loved but has prompted a question which nags me. Does she ever feel there's a danger of her popping up on our screens only for everyone to say: oh, there's Julie Walters?
"Yes. It's a worry. And the classic one was Mo. And she'd only died about five or six years before. She had this squeaky voice, which is not mine, and I look nothing like her. In fact, I tried to pull out of it. But Paul, my agent, said: 'Bollocks. Just put the wig and glasses on and get on with it.' And Grant was good, he said, but it's your Mo, your version of her, you're not trying to be her. But I still worry, because people associate you with certain parts, and they'll say: oh, she's just doing that again. All I can do is be true to the part and hope people will be carried along with it."
She has been helped along the way, she's the first to admit, by some rather special television writing. "I think you could say I've been fairly lucky with writers down the years. Willy [Russell] and Alan Bleasdale and Alan Bennett and Victoria [Wood], of course. Time and time again they've given me gems. And along the way I have been able to choose some themes which ask questions – not necessarily force a message on anyone, but at least invite the audience to question things: jury service, dignity in dying, Ireland – and not least because they force me to ask myself questions. Where do I stand? What do I honestly feel about this? Debate is so much better than denial.
"That's partly why I'm so fed up with the current attitude to general arts funding. Bafta-wise, we are in very productive times. Great writing and acting. But this government just don't support it enough. They talk this crap about: we'll support it as long as you make blockbusters. Yet in order to be creative you have to be allowed to fail. And some of the most interesting questions needing to be asked today can best be asked on television, or stage, and they can be wonderful, great dramas, but they won't necessarily be blockbusters. Today much of the more interesting stuff is being done on TV because it's not governed by Hollywood, is it?"
Julie Walters gets offered many scripts, but one of the few she's recently grabbed with both hands is The Last of the Haussmans: a new play by the actor/writer Stephen Beresford, which opens at the National Theatre's Lyttleton in the summer. It'll be her first time on that stage for 12 years, since All My Sons, first time on any stage since Acorn Antiques: the Musical in 2005. Why this one, of all the offerings?
"It's hard work, theatre, and you've got to want to be there on every level. This one… I loved the play, loved the character; it's touching and funny and fascinating and… uncomfortable, so it – I hate the phrase, but it ticked all the boxes. And it's being directed by Howard Davies, who I worked with before, who is wonderful; I feel very safe with him. And it's got Helen McCrory, who's got to be probably my favourite actress, and Rory Kinnear, playing my children, and so it's just… heaven."
Walters, in this play set in the current day, plays an estranged mother for whom the rebellious 60s haven't quite ended. "She's one of those women I just knew. Oh, I went through bits of the 60s and thought myself a bit of a hippy – but still I'm nothing like this character, a true child of the 60s. I think she was probably a heroin addict as well. Her very difficult father and rather distant mother brought up her two children instead. She couldn't deal with it. She was out there trying to find herself, get herself out of the ashes of her own upbringing and, of course, desperately anti-establishment. It's a great character – I just hope I can get it right."
Did she think those in their 20s now are being hindered or freed by the general diminution in political interest? "Why aren't people interested? I suppose the polarisation, the difference between Labour and Conservative, has gone – well, that was Tony Blair, wasn't it?" Which was presumably why Mo Mowlam intrigued you so much? "Yes! She was one of the good kind, couldn't be spun. She wasn't perfect; far from it. But she was interesting. And her relative honesty in politics reminded you that politics could be, had been, both fashionable and important."
Did she still get angry about aspects of politics? "Not angry so much, but I keep up with absolutely everything. I am still, however, furious about the Iraq war and Blair lying to us. Yes, I went on the march. I remember I got on the train with my daughter at Guildford – God it was full, and absurdly mixed. Frightfully posh people, and grannies from the Isle of Wight, all against it. And yet, nothing happened. It still looks to me that Blair had misled parliament, and I can't believe he believed that that was the right thing to do."
Walters is not that averse to all of Hollywood – jumped, she says, at the chance for Harry Potter, because "you just would, wouldn't you, and look at that lovely cast!" But she is, now, in a position to sample, pick, taste, smile or wince at every job offered.
"I have been taking it easy a little bit. After I did Mo, and the Potters were coming to an end, 60 was coming up, and 60 felt like a big landmark. Not in a dreadful sense, but none of the other birthdays have bothered me. It's got labels on it – OAP, retirement – and I just wanted to take stock. I wanted to be in my greenhouse at home and at least give myself the opportunity of not working again. I talked it through with Grant, who was fine, and of course I'm very fortunate in even having that choice."
She hardly drinks now, after a few 80s years as something of a hellraiser – "I miss the idea sometimes, the idea of a glass of wine while cooking, but hey ho. And the menopause kind of put a stop to it for me. Just one glass and I don't sleep."
The idea itself can be tempting, I offer, while relaxing on a Tuscan holiday? "But that probably won't happen. Not because I wouldn't want it, but it's almost impossible to get Grant off the farm – it's such constant hard work. I've been on a couple of walking holidays with my friend Karen. It's all worth it because Grant is so… grounding. He'll come to the red carpets; very supportive. But he reminds me that, while I'm worrying about the tiniest variances on one of my lines, most people are going to be putting the kettle on and, frankly, not caring at all. He takes the drama out of things, and my job is to put the drama in, and I come from a family which always did that. It's so welcome at this stage."
The coffee and rabbit food have exhausted themselves, and I wonder whether there is one perfect role still awaiting her. "Not a role but a script. If the script is right, yes. But it's who's around during it that's so important. Who's the director? And am I going to get on with people? You hear of some people, and… I'm sorry, but why would I want to spend six weeks on a film with somebody who's going to be incredibly difficult and we're all going to be tense? I have been, generally, privileged, fortunate. But just a couple of times down the years I have had to work with people – too protected, too anxious about their ego – and I don't think I ever want to do so again. Which makes me, yes, insanely lucky."
The Last of the Haussmans opens on 12 June at the National Theatre (nationaltheatre.org.uk) | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/healthcare-network/2017/mar/31/simon-stevens-nhs-gamble-wait-surgery | Healthcare Professionals Network | 2017-03-31T09:57:20.000Z | Richard Vize | Simon Stevens' NHS gamble is probably the right choice - but price could be high | Richard Vize | The NHS plan for the next two years represents a perceptible contraction of the health service’s offer to the public.
The proposals in Next steps on the NHS Five Year Forward View, published on Friday, are shaped by shortages of money and staff.
Simon Stevens, the NHS England chief executive, has burned through much of his political capital in disputing government claims about whether the NHS has been given all the money it asked for, so this was not an opportunity to push for further cash.
So in the face of the unrelenting pressure of the government’s austerity programme and barely controlled hospital debt, he is gambling that politicians and the public will stomach longer waits for routine surgery if the health service can deliver better performance on cancer treatment, A&E waits, mental health services and GP appointments.
In the wake of slipping cancer treatment times and the recent outcry over the death of a child waiting for urgent surgery, this is probably the right choice. But the price could be high.
Will NHS transformation plans kill or cure the health service?
Read more
Allowing elective surgery times to slide over many years was what led to hundreds of thousands of patients waiting months for operations by the time New Labour came to power in 1997, elected partly on its pledge to slash waiting lists. It would be a serious blow if the NHS returned to the days of people dying while waiting months for heart surgery, and many more forced to endure avoidable pain and disability.
Access to some of the latest approved drugs is also to be delayed – in breach of a commitment in the last Conservative manifesto to speed up access.
Stevens is anxious to reassure the public that performance will not slide back to that of the 1990s, but it is difficult to see how growing waiting times will be arrested and reversed in the coming years.
The plan makes some brave assumptions about the ability of the NHS to expand its workforce, including 4,000 more nurses through improving staff retention – turning round a recent trend – and up to 2,000 more nurses returning to practice.
There is yet another pledge to increase the number of GPs substantially, despite little discernible progress. However, concerns are growing that staff shortages will be exacerbated by EU staff heading back to the continent in the wake of the Brexit vote.
More promisingly, the plan may well mark the beginning of the end of the internal market. It names nine areas being considered as pioneering “accountable care systems”, with NHS organisations and local authorities working together as an integrated health system.
These areas will have considerably more control over how they deliver their healthcare, and will be effectively freed from the endless focus on contracts rather than patients imposed by the purchaser/provider split.
However, doing so will require ever greater legal contortions to simultaneously stay within the law while circumventing it. This is a necessary bodge, as it will be years before anyone attempts another NHS reform bill, but these workarounds cannot be sustained indefinitely.
Drive to bring health and social care together is a well-intentioned mess
Richard Vize
Read more
Everyone will now be working in Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships, and NHS England makes clear that anyone who fails in their duty to collaborate can expect to be handled roughly.
In the absence of more money, the alternative to Stevens’ plan would be a steady atrophying of performance across the entire health service. Instead, NHS England is pushing forward on the key priorities of emergency care, cancer treatment, mental health and primary care, and allowing routine surgery to pay the price.
But many of its promises look optimistic, and there is a danger that the slide in surgical performance will eventually reverse years of progress.
For the time being this can be portrayed as a tactical move, but with austerity set to last well into the next decade, there is a risk that the NHS will cease to be a comprehensive service.
Join the Healthcare Professionals Network to read more pieces like this. And follow us on Twitter (@GdnHealthcare) to keep up with the latest healthcare news and views. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/sep/11/the-beatles-break-up-mark-lewisohn-abbey-road-hornsey-road | Music | 2019-09-11T05:00:18.000Z | Richard Williams | This tape rewrites everything we knew about the Beatles' | The Beatles weren’t a group much given to squabbling, says Mark Lewisohn, who probably knows more about them than they knew about themselves. But then he plays me the tape of a meeting held 50 years ago this month – on 8 September 1969 – containing a disagreement that sheds new light on their breakup.
They’ve wrapped up the recording of Abbey Road, which would turn out to be their last studio album, and are awaiting its release in two weeks’ time. Ringo Starr is in hospital, undergoing tests for an intestinal complaint. In his absence, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison convene at Apple’s HQ in Savile Row. John has brought a portable tape recorder. He puts it on the table, switches it on and says: “Ringo – you can’t be here, but this is so you can hear what we’re discussing.”
Challenging conventional wisdom … Fab Four writer-historian Mark Lewisohn
What they talk about is the plan to make another album – and perhaps a single for release in time for Christmas, a commercial strategy going back to the earliest days of Beatlemania. “It’s a revelation,” Lewisohn says. “The books have always told us that they knew Abbey Road was their last album and they wanted to go out on an artistic high. But no – they’re discussing the next album. And you think that John is the one who wanted to break them up but, when you hear this, he isn’t. Doesn’t that rewrite pretty much everything we thought we knew?”
Lewisohn turns the tape back on, and we hear John suggesting that each of them should bring in songs as candidates for the single. He also proposes a new formula for assembling their next album: four songs apiece from Paul, George and himself, and two from Ringo – “If he wants them.” John refers to “the Lennon-and-McCartney myth”, clearly indicating that the authorship of their songs, hitherto presented to the public as a sacrosanct partnership, should at last be individually credited.
Then Paul – sounding, shall we say, relaxed – responds to the news that George now has equal standing as a composer with John and himself by muttering something mildly provocative. “I thought until this album that George’s songs weren’t that good,” he says, which is a pretty double-edged compliment since the earlier compositions he’s implicitly disparaging include Taxman and While My Guitar Gently Weeps. There’s a nettled rejoinder from George: “That’s a matter of taste. All down the line, people have liked my songs.”
The Beatles’ Abbey Road album Photograph: Pictorial Press/Alamy
John reacts by telling Paul that nobody else in the group “dug” his Maxwell’s Silver Hammer, a song they’ve just recorded for Abbey Road, and that it might be a good idea if he gave songs of that kind – which, John suggests, he probably didn’t even dig himself – to outside artists in whom he had an interest, such as Mary Hopkin, the Welsh folk singer. “I recorded it,” a drowsy Paul says, “because I liked it.”
A mapping of the tensions that would lead to the dissolution of the most famous and influential pop group in history is part of Hornsey Road, a teasingly titled stage show in which Lewisohn uses tape, film, photographs, new audio mixes of the music and his own matchless fund of anecdotes and memorabilia to tell the story of Abbey Road, that final burst of collective invention.
The album is now so mythologised that the humdrum zebra crossing featured on its celebrated cover picture is now officially listed as site of special historic interest; a webcam is trained on it 24 hours a day, observing the comings and goings of fans from every corner of the world, infuriating passing motorists as these visitors pause to take selfies, often in groups of four, some going barefoot in imitation of Paul’s enigmatic gesture that August morning in 1969.
George Harrison and John Lennon recording Let It Be. Photograph: Daily Sketch/Rex/Shutterstock
“It’s a story of the people, the art, the people around them, the lives they were leading, and the break-up,” Lewisohn says. The show comes midway through his writing of The Beatles: All These Years, a magnum opus aiming to tell the whole story in its definitive version. The first volume, Tune In, was published six years ago, its mammoth 390,000-word narrative ending just before their first hit. (“All the heft of the Old Testament,” the Observer’s Kitty Empire wrote, “with greater forensic rigour.”)
Constant demands to know when Turn On (covering 1963-66) and Drop Out (1967-69) might appear are met with a sigh: “I’m 61, and I’ve got 14 or 15 years left on these books. I’ll be in my mid-70s when I finish.” Time is of the essence, he adds, perhaps thinking of the late John Richardson’s uncompleted multi-volume Picasso biography. This two-hour show is a way of buying the time for him to dive back into the project.
For 30 years, Lewisohn has been the man to call when you needed to know what any of the Fab Four was doing on almost any day of their lives, and with whom they were doing it. His books include a history of their sessions at what were then known as the EMI Recording Studios in Abbey Road, and he worked on the vast Anthology project in the 90s.
The idea for a stage show was inspired by an invitation from a university in New Jersey to be the keynote speaker at a three-day symposium on the Beatles’ White Album, then celebrating its golden jubilee. His presentation, called Double Lives, juxtaposed the making of the album and the lives they were leading as individuals outside the studio. “It took several weeks to put together, and I thought, ‘This is mad – I should be doing this more than once to get more people to see it.’”
Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney in the studio. Photograph: PictureLux/The Hollywood Archive/Alamy
The next anniversary to present itself was that of Abbey Road, which took place during a crowded year in which Paul married Linda Eastman, John and Yoko went off on their bed-ins for peace, George’s marriage to Pattie Boyd was breaking up, and they were all involved in side projects. John had released Give Peace a Chance as the Plastic Ono Band and George had been spending time in Woodstock with Bob Dylan.
John also took Yoko and their two children, Kyoko and Julian, on a sentimental road trip to childhood haunts in Liverpool, Wales and the north of Scotland, ending when he drove their Austin Maxi into a ditch while trying to avoid another car. Brian Epstein, their manager, had died the previous year and the idealism that had fuelled the founding of their Apple company – “It’s like a top,” John said. “We set it going and hope for the best” – was starting to fray badly. Other business concerns – such as their song-publishing copyrights, which had been sold without their knowledge – led to a war between Allen Klein, the hard-boiled New York record industry veteran invited by John to sort it out, and John Eastman, Linda’s brother, a top lawyer brought in by Paul to safeguard his interests.
Lewisohn has the minutes of another business meeting, this time at Olympic Studios, where the decision to ratify Klein’s appointment was approved by three votes to one (Paul), the first time the Beatles had not spoken with unanimity. “It was the crack in the Liberty Bell,” Paul said. “It never came back together after that one. Ringo and George just said, whatever John does, we’re going with. I was actually trying, in my mind, to save our future.”
And yet Lewisohn challenges the conventional wisdom that 1969 was the year in which they were at each other’s throats, storming out of the recording sessions filmed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg for the verité-style movie Let It Be, and barely on speaking terms. During the making of Abbey Road, says Lewisohn, “they were in an almost entirely positive frame of mind. They had this uncanny ability to leave their problems at the studio door – not entirely, but almost.”
In fact, Abbey Road was not the only recording location for the album: earlier sessions were held at Olympic in Barnes and Trident in Soho. And Lewisohn’s creation is called Hornsey Road because that, in other circumstances, is what the album might have been titled, had EMI not abandoned its plans to turn a converted cinema in that rather grittier part of north London into its venue for pop recording.
The show, Lewisohn believes, is the first time an album has been treated to this format. “People will be able to listen with more layers and levels of understanding,” he says. “When you go to an art gallery, you hope that someone, an expert, will tell you what was happening when the artist painted a particular picture. With these songs, I’m going to show the stories behind them and the people who made them, and what they were going through at the time. Certainly, no one who sees this show will ever hear Abbey Road in the same way again.”
Hornsey Road is at the Royal and Derngate, Northampton, on 18 September and touring until 4 December.
This article was amended on 12 September 2019 to make clear that lawyer John Eastman was Linda Eastman’s brother, not father as first stated. Her father, Lee, was a lawyer also. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2011/jul/03/punchdrunk-doctor-who-review | Stage | 2011-07-03T18:49:05.000Z | Alfred Hickling | Theatre review: The Crash of the Elysium | Media City, Salford Quays | The last Punchdrunk production for the Manchester international festival had terrified audiences fleeing from a chainsaw-wielding maniac. This time it's a lot scarier: so much so that the show has been deemed too traumatic for adults, who are only admitted if accompanied by a suitably courageous child.
The Crash of the Elysium is a collaboration between Punchdrunk director Felix Barrett and chief Doctor Who scriptwriter Steven Moffat, one of whom specialises in site-specific theatre events without seating and the other in television programmes best viewed from behind a sofa. The precise details of the show, which is scripted by Tom MacRae, are a closely guarded secret, beyond an ominous hint that the audience is required to face a menace that recently came first in a poll of the scariest Doctor Who adversaries, beating the Daleks into second place.
The adventure begins with a rather dry exhibition documenting the loss, in mysterious circumstances, of a Victorian steamer named the Elysium, as reported by the Manchester Guardian on 18 July 1888. But there's not much time to examine a ceramic chamber pot salvaged from the wreckage before the army bursts in proclaiming an emergency. An alien spaceship has crash-landed in the vicinity, and all must don biohazard suits before proceeding further.
What follows is not for the faint of heart or short of breath, as a fair amount of running, crouching and sweating is involved. The immediate impression of the stricken alien spacecraft is that it is very dark and ferociously hot, particularly in a plastic boiler suit. And the scale of the threat becomes clear when a video message from the Doctor reveals that the ship is a "high security art gallery" from which some of the exhibits have escaped. Without giving too much away, blink and you'll miss them.
Punchdrunk's work is routinely described as groundbreaking; though it is debatable how much ground is being broken by co-opting an entertainment franchise as established as Doctor Who. Yet the realisation of the work is of such a standard as to dispel any doubts. The military chaperones take charge without seeming to be in control; and when you slip through the space-time continuum to a fairground in the 188os, there is straw underfoot, a smell of manure in the air and a genuine frisson of anxiety about how you are going to get back again. As my nine-year-old companion Sam Curtis put it: "I think I was too excited to be scared. But it would be funny if we came out and found mum and dad had been sat around waiting for a hundred years."
Until 17 July. Box office: 0161 876 2198 www.mif.co.uk | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/jan/25/tinned-tomato-recipes-fearnley-whittingstall | Life and style | 2013-01-25T21:00:00.000Z | Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall | Can do: tinned tomato recipes | Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall | Last week I revealed my love for lentils. Now I want to talk about a second store-cupboard saviour, an unassuming but unbelievably valuable ingredient: tinned tomatoes. There are very few vegetables that tin well. Apart from beans and chickpeas, I can count them all on one… finger. Because tomatoes are the only veg (OK, fruit, if you're a pedant) I use regularly in tinned form.
I wouldn't say a tin of plum toms is better than a handful of juicy red ripe 'uns straight off the vine in summer – not much is – but it can be equally good. It's certainly more versatile. It sits on the shelf with the dry goods – pasta, grains and pulses – plump with the power to transform them with its closeted freshness and vibrancy.
One reason tomatoes are loved by cooks the world over is their acidity, which, balanced with their subtle sweetness, is such a gift when paired with bulky, stomach-filling starch. They are also rich in glutamic acid, found more often in meat than in fruit, which gives them that full, savoury flavour. In high-quality tinned tomatoes, I think these attributes are emphasised.
I'm not a fan of chopped tinned toms – the supposed convenience is just not worth the disappointment in terms of the flesh-to-juice ratio. They always seem on the thin side, lacking sauciness and oomph. So I buy tinned whole plum tomatoes, tip them into a bowl and crush them to a pulp with my hands, picking out any tough, stalky ends and bits of skin. Brands do vary a lot in quality, though, and it's worth paying a few pence extra to get more tomatoes in a thicker juice (Biona and Suma are two organic brands I like). That aside, I'd second Lindsey Bareham's advice in her Big Red Book Of Tomatoes: in general, Italian toms are the best, not least because the Italian market is so demanding.
Even though they're cooked, I always simmer canned tomatoes further – as little as 10 minutes, but up to 30 or 40 – in a wide pan. This intensifies the sweetness and flavour. Beyond the crucial salt and pepper, I'll add garlic, olive oil and a couple of bay leaves or sprigs of thyme, if they're to hand. And I often finish with a pinch of sugar, to round out the tomatoes' acidity.
This week's recipes follow a theme: cooked-down tomatoes paired with a relatively bland, starchy food such as pasta or rice. Indeed, some kind of reduced, garlicky, tomato sauce will work with almost any carbohydrate: fried or roast potatoes, for instance, where you can add a hit of chilli to the tomatoes to create patatas bravas. Add a chilli-spiked tomato sauce to cheesey polenta wedges, too, for a gorgeous supper. Pulse-and-tomato combos are also great, such as in simple curries using tomatoes and chickpeas or tinned beans.
All of these ideas are "stay-at-homers" – that is, things you should be able to rustle up without having to go out to the shops, assuming you've reasonably well-stocked cupboards and fridge and are happy to adapt a little where necessary. The tinned tomato is often at the heart of such recipes. Season it well, cook it simply and Bob's your uncle; or, more accurately, Tom's your best friend.
Bread and tomato gratin
Based on a Sardinian dish, mazzamurru, this is a wonderful way to turn some stale bread and a couple of tins of tomatoes into a warming supper. Use different cheeses if you don't have mozzarella or parmesan to hand – good cheddar, something oozy like taleggio or camembert, or even a goat's cheese are all worth a go. Serves four.
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, plus more to trickle
1 small onion, peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
2 tins plum tomatoes
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 bay leaf (optional)
Pinch of sugar
About 200g slightly stale, open-textured white bread
150g mozzarella
Freshly grated parmesan
Heat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4. Heat the oil in a large frying pan, add the onion and sweat gently for 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for a couple of minutes more.
Crush the tomatoes and tip into the pan. Season, and add the bay leaf, if using, and a pinch of sugar. Bring to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes. Don't cook it any more because you want the sauce to stay quite wet and juicy. Taste and add more salt, pepper or sugar as needed to produce a nice, savoury sauce.
Meanwhile, cut the bread into 1-1.5cm thick slices. Tip a little less than half the tomato sauce into a deep oven dish around 20cm square. Arrange half the bread pieces over the tomato, tearing them to fit into a roughly even layer and pressing them down lightly into the sauce. Trickle with a little olive oil and scatter with salt and pepper. Tear up half the mozzarella and arrange over the bread, then top with a good grating of parmesan. Spread the remaining sauce over the bread and top with the remaining bread pieces, pushing them down a little. Trickle with more oil, scatter over the remaining mozzarella and finish with a grating of parmesan. Bake for about 25 minutes, until golden and bubbling. Leave to settle for 10 minutes or so, and serve with a big green salad.
Pasta with tomato sauce and bacon
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's pasta with tomato sauce and bacon: 'Leave out the bacon if you prefer.' Photograph: Colin Campbell for the Guardian
Every cook needs a basic tinned tomato sauce recipe. This is mine. Leave out the bacon if you prefer. Serves four.
350g pasta of your choice
1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra to serve
About 150g streaky bacon or pancetta, cut into small pieces
For the tomato sauce
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, peeled and cut into very thin slivers
2 tins whole plum tomatoes
1 bay leaf (optional)
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Pinch of sugar
Make the sauce first. Heat the oil in a wide frying pan over a medium-low heat. Add the garlic and sweat gently for a couple of minutes – don't let it colour. Crush the tomatoes, then tip into the pan. Add a bay leaf, if you have one, bring to a simmer, and cook for 20-30 minutes, stirring often and crushing down the tomatoes with a fork until you have a thick, pulpy sauce. Season with salt, pepper and a pinch of sugar. Leave it as a slightly chunky sauce or, if you prefer a smooth finish, blitz it with a hand-held blender (remove the bay leaf first). You can make the sauce ahead of time and chill or freeze it.
Bring a large pan of water to the boil, salt it well, then add the pasta and cook until al dente.
Meanwhile, heat the oil in a frying pan, add the bacon and fry until crisp. Add the tomato sauce and let it simmer with the bacon for a few minutes, stirring often, allowing it to reduce and thicken a little further. Add black pepper to taste – it probably won't need more salt.
Drain the pasta and toss immediately with the sauce. Serve straight away, with a trickle more extra-virgin oil on top and more freshly ground black pepper to taste.
Tomato and mozzarella risotto
If you don't have fresh stock, use a high-quality cube or granules. As with the gratin, the mozzarella can be replaced by cheddar, parmesan or scraps of bacon, or even left out altogether. Serves two.
450ml chicken or vegetable stock
1 tin tomatoes, crushed
1 large knob butter
1 small onion, peeled and finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
125g risotto rice
Sea salt and black pepper
1 ball buffalo mozzarella
Extra-virgin olive oil, to finish
Put the stock and tomatoes into a saucepan, bring to a gentle simmer and keep over a very low heat.
Meanwhile, heat the butter in a saucepan over a low heat. When foaming, add the onion and sweat it for eight to 10 minutes, until soft. Add the garlic and cook for a minute or two more, then add the rice and cook, stirring, for a couple of minutes.
Now start adding the hot stock and tomato mixture, about a quarter at a time. Let the risotto cook, stirring often, adding more stock as it is absorbed. After 20-25 minutes, the rice should be cooked with just a hint of chalkiness in the middle and you should have used up all the stock and tomato mix.
Stir in some salt and pepper, then tear the mozzarella into chunks and add. Cover, leave for a minute, then stir the melting cheese through the rice, so there are lots of nice, stretchy, melty bits. Serve topped with a generous trickle of extra-virgin olive oil, with some peppery leaves on the side.
For the latest news from River Cottage HQ, go to rivercottage.net | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/mar/04/super-tuesday-key-takeaways-democrats-biden-bernie-sanders-warren | US news | 2020-03-04T06:59:55.000Z | Daniel Strauss | Super Tuesday: five key takeaways as two frontrunners emerge | It was a very good night for Joe Biden
“It’s a good night and it seems to be getting better,” Joe Biden said during his election night speech in Los Angeles.
Biden’s campaign had been teetering on the edge of disaster before his decisive victory in South Carolina on Saturday, when black voters turned out for the former vice-president.
That victory appears to have reinvigorated Biden’s campaign, and propelled him to wins in all of the southern states that held contests Tuesday night – in Texas, Virginia, Alabama, North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas and Oklahoma.
Going into Super Tuesday, the Vermont senator Bernie Sanders was considered the frontrunner, with an early lead in the delegate count. Though Sanders won California, according to projections by the Associated Press, Biden’s wins in nine states showed he was still very much in contention for the nomination.
Suddenly, the Democratic party’s presidential field, which featured more than half a dozen candidates a week ago, had transformed into a two-man contest.
Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, at a Super Tuesday rally in Los Angeles, California, on 3 March. Photograph: Chris Carlson/AP
The Biden campaign’s internal polling had showed him with safe leads in some of those states going into Super Tuesday, according to a Democrat with knowledge of that information. But the margins were just the best-case scenario for projections, and having trailed his rivals in the early voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada last month, Biden had been vulnerable before the South Carolina win.
Biden’s success also extended to states where he had not even campaigned. He won Elizabeth Warren’s home state, and Minnesota, the home state of the former presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar, who dropped out of the race and endorsed Biden on Monday.
Sanders had won both Oklahoma and Minnesota in his 2016 primary race against Hillary Clinton.
… and a very bad night for Mike Bloomberg
The billionaire and former New York mayor staked his entire campaign strategy on dominating the Super Tuesday states. He poured almost $500m into advertising and field staff in these states. But as the night drew on Bloomberg’s only victory came in … the US territory of American Samoa, where just six delegates were up for grabs (compared with California’s 415).
Democratic primary 2020: latest delegate count
Read more
Even before the night ended, Bloomberg and his team were reportedly planning to reassess his options on Wednesday and weigh whether to drop out in the coming days.
Minority voters were crucial
Biden’s momentum began early in the night with victories in southern states. In those states he dominated among minorities, according to exit polls. In North Carolina, Biden got 62% of the African American vote and 43% of the Hispanic vote – a plurality among the candidates. In Virginia Biden got a whopping 71% of the black vote.
Biden’s victories were powered by Democratic voters who went his way just days before casting their ballots a wave of late momentum. In some states, the late-deciders made up roughly half of all voters, according to AP VoteCast, surveys of voters in several state primaries. In addition to African Americans, he also drew support from a coalition of moderates and conservatives, and voters older than 45.
But Sanders had better numbers among young voters in key states. In California, 72% of voters between 18 and 29 supported the Vermont senator compared with just 5% for Biden. Among voters between 30 and 44, Sanders beat every other candidate with 57% support.
But he was unable to sufficiently widen his appeal to older voters and college graduates who make up a sizeable share of Democratic voters, according to AP VoteCast.
The results were more mixed in Texas. Biden won the majority of votes among African Americans, according to projections, but Sanders dominated among Hispanics.
Elizabeth Warren fades
It was a bad night for Warren. The Massachusetts senator lost her home state and barely registered in most other states. Warren’s campaign manager, Roger Lau, authored a memo days before Super Tuesday where he suggested the campaign would continue regardless of how Warren did on Super Tuesday.
Elizabeth Warren greets supporters as she walks to her polling place in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on 3 March. Photograph: Brian Snyder/Reuters
“Super Tuesday is the first test in March to amass delegates, but a week later we will be competing in six states, and a week after that another four that represent over 500 delegates up for grabs,” Lau wrote in the memo. “By the time all of California’s votes from mail-in ballots are counted, likely in mid-March, we will still only be halfway to the overall number of pledged delegates up for grabs.”
But Warren’s poor performance sparked a new round of questions from Democratic strategists of just how many more days she could stay in the race.
The race is about to get more heated
Biden and Sanders seemed to tacitly accept that they would be fighting each other in the immediate future. Sanders, meanwhile, vowed to aggressively contrast his legislative record on key policy points such as social security. Biden reiterated in his speech that if Sanders won the nomination he could not beat Trump and might imperil the chances of other Democratic candidates running in down-ticket races.
“We want a nominee who’ll beat Donald Trump but also keep Nancy Pelosi as speaker of the House,” Biden said. “And we want a nominee who’s a Democrat. A lifelong Democrat. A proud Democrat. An Obama-Biden Democrat.”
The balance of Super Tuesday’s battlefield, with Biden winning at least nine states and Sanders four, raised questions about whether the Democratic primary contest would stretch all the way to the July convention or be decided much sooner.
The Associated Press contributed to this report | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/may/17/road-trip-how-tom-wolfes-acid-test-changed-the-way-we-see-the-world | Books | 2018-05-17T11:27:43.000Z | Jarvis Cocker | Jarvis Cocker: how Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool‑Aid Acid Test changed my life | Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test is a literary “gateway drug” – a hallucination of a book that introduced me to a whole new way of looking at the world, writing about the world, and gave me my first taste of the work of the American novelist Ken Kesey.
The nearest I ever got to Kesey was on Tuesday 11 August 1998. He and some of the other “Merry Pranksters” were involved in a signing session at the Tower Records store at Piccadilly Circus in London. For some reason they had been stationed under a staircase in the basement of the shop, and they looked a bit cramped and embarrassed down there. It didn’t seem very respectful, for sure. There was some kind of printed banner above them – I can’t remember what it said but, whatever it was, it proclaimed it in one of those super-lame, bulbous “swinging-sixties” fonts you tend to see used on the covers of bad compilation albums or above the fancy-dress aisle of a vintage clothes shop. Yuck. The whole thing was wrong: here were some of the people without whom the whole countercultural movement might not have happened and they were being presented as some kind of kooky, swinging-60s throwback curio, shoe-horned in among the racks of CDs and video games. With strip lighting. It was not a consciousness-expanding experience.
Wolfe found Kesey in jail in late 1966 and persuaded him to tell the whole story of how he had ended up there
I was there because of The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Maybe I had even brought my own copy of the book with me, hoping to get it signed (that didn’t happen because I didn’t stick around long enough). It really is one hell of a special book, you know – a lifechanger, a rabble-rouser, a mind-blower, a gathering of the tribes, a call to arms, a manifesto for a new society, a car repair manual, a fly on the paisley-patterned wall account of a cultural revolution – a masterpiece! Have I left anything out? Now, let me try to justify that hyperbole if I can. Ken Kesey was arguably the most important American novelist to emerge in the early 1960s. His first novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, came out in 1962 to rave notices. The stage was set for him to become the “Alpha-Male” of US writers – but Kesey had other things on his mind. Or rather, in his mind: in 1959 he had been one of the first people in the country to take LSD, as part of a series of experiments conducted by the US government. Passages in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest were informed by these experiences. He found ways to smuggle the drug back home to share with his friends in the literary-bohemian enclave of Perry Lane, Palo Alto. Word got out, people started visiting. A movement began to emerge. Another book, Sometimes a Great Notion, came out in 1964. More ecstatic reviews – now he could ascend to the throne and rule the whole leather‑bound, Book Club-endorsed roost. Instead Kesey spent all the money he had on a bus.
Fellow traveller … Tom Wolfe in 1965. Photograph: Jack Robinson/Getty Images
Enter: Tom Wolfe. Wolfe had pioneered a fresh approach to writing for magazines. People were calling it the “New Journalism”. Some of his best articles had already been published in book form in a collection entitled The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby. The title tells you that these pieces were not exactly conforming to prevailing journalistic norms. Stories about custom car fanatics, surfers, gamblers, disco dancers – the emerging sub-cultures of America. And not written at arm’s length either: no, there were lists, italics, CAPITALS, exclamation marks!!!!!! – any device was up for grabs if it helped make the reader feel that they were seeing the story from the point of view of the protagonists involved rather than from the detached, objective vantage point of some … journalist. Wolfe found Kesey in jail in late 1966 and persuaded him to tell the whole story of how he had ended up there. How the golden boy of American Literature had become a convicted felon. And how the social revolution he had accidentally incited was now rapidly blazing its way across the USA.
That’s what makes Acid Test such an important book – it’s a perfect meeting of minds. An absolutely modern story of an attempt to find new forms of expression, new forms of living, instigated by the most important prose-writer of his times and written up by the most ground-breaking, experimental journalist working in the country at that moment. Kesey and Wolfe: The Dream Team!
How do revolutions happen? How does an idea spread from one mind until it takes over an entire society? This is the only book I can think of where you can see that process at work. Written at almost the same time as it was happening, not in some fog of nostalgia or revisionism many years later. A revolution can’t be just a pet project of the intelligentsia – it also has to connect with some obscurely felt impulse and desire felt by the public at large.
That’s why Kesey bought the bus. He had to get the show on the road. Literature wasn’t enough any more. Jack Kerouac had proved that after writing On the Road – his own attempt to reflect the reality of contemporary America back at its populace. It just got absorbed. So of course Neal Cassady (“Dean Moriarty” in Kerouac’s book) simply had to end up driving Kesey’s bus. He just turned up out of the blue one day and volunteered for the job, by all accounts. The perfect man for the job, at the perfect time – because this time they were going to go … Further. “Further” being the destination displayed in that little window above the driver’s seat that you still get on buses nowadays, the name of the place at the end of the route. The end of The Road.
On the road … Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda in Easy Rider (1969). Photograph: Allstar/Cinetext/Columbia
How far is Further? Can you ever get there? How would you know when you’d arrived? And anyway, isn’t it all supposed to be about the journey rather than the destination? Yes, make no mistake – this was a spiritual journey as much as a physical one. The LSD experience had convinced Kesey that he had to go further than writing as a means of expression. It had unlocked new potential within him and his friends, and somehow he had to find a way to realise that.
Perhaps one of the things we are witnessing in these pages is the point at which literature began to lose its pole position in the cultural landscape – for if one of its most lauded practitioners was finding it wasn’t doing it for him any more, where did that leave other modern novelists? Waiting in vain at a bus stop in the rain. In order to make his attempt at the Great American Artwork, Kesey had to get out into America itself. To feed off the energy being unleashed there by new technologies, new music, new drugs. The bus was famously painted with psychedelic designs and fitted out with recording equipment, sound systems and cine cameras, the better to capture this new America that was forming before their very eyes. What they were searching for was mysterious, it was nebulous, but it was undeniably powerful. And LSD seemed to make it more visible.
They hit the road on 17 June 1964. Very early for a psychedelic expedition. Think about it: in June 1964 the Beatles were still singing “Can’t Buy Me Love” – their own Magic Bus Experience wouldn’t take place until three years later when they made The Magical Mystery Tour for the BBC. Were they following Kesey’s example? Probably. Were the light shows at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco in 1967 a more refined take on the effect produced by the makeshift light displays that accompanied the early Merry Pranksters’ Acid Tests? Probably. What about the Hippy Convoy in the 80s? Easy Rider and all those other existential road movies of the late 6os? Where did those ideas come from? Read the book and decide for yourself. The effect and influence of the chaotic road trip documented in these pages are absolutely huge. It’s nothing less than a countercultural origin story.
The Acid Test is not just an engaging historical curio: the revolution it depicts the birth of is still happening
That’s why this book is not just an interesting period piece, an engaging historical curio: the revolution it depicts the birth of is still happening. We are not at the terminus yet. It’s a pity Kesey, who died in 2001, and Wolfe, who died this week, aren’t around to witness the renewed interest in the kind of creativity Kesey spearheaded and Wolfe preserved for future generations. Back in 1998 the world still hadn’t caught up yet, as shown by the shabby Tower Records event I went to. There was a leftover attitude of “Why should we give a toss about the ramblings of some drug-addled old hippies?” A belief that Kesey had fried his brains and squandered his talent. Hence sticking them under the stairs. (Although yes, attempting to listen to some of the interminable musical “jams” recorded on the bus, or watch hour after hour of the badly shot, completely out of sync film footage from the journey, did perhaps reinforce that impression of “too stoned to function”.) But the drug angle is a bit of a red herring. Early in the book, Wolfe describes the “Graduation Ceremony” – an event where Kesey urged those present to go “beyond acid”. His argument being that if LSD was the key to the door, then once that door was open the drug could be left behind. The important things were the new perspectives, attitudes and creative realms that the door opened on to. Whole new continents to explore.
The journey continues … Ken Kesey in 1990 with Further II, a successor to the school bus used by the Merry Pranksters in the 60s. Photograph: Chris Pietsch/Associated Press
Now, 20 years on from what shall henceforth be known as “The Tower Records Debacle”, and more than half a century since the bus trip itself, it feels like the world is finally getting in sync with what Kesey had in mind. For instance, back then they were using unwieldy cine cameras with separate sound recorders that were notoriously temperamental (OK, levels of intoxication might have had something to do with those problems.) Cranky, heavy, malfunctioning equipment was a constant hassle. Breaking the flow. Now you can just film it all on your phone. Kesey’s dream of becoming “part of the movie” is eminently realisable now. The fantasy of creating your own narrative, your own plot line is no longer so … fantastical. We don’t have to be consumers of prefabricated desires and dreams any more – we can now be active participants, with the means at hand to create our own dream environments. (Or take selfies.)
Life has stepped off the screen and the page and back into the real world, just as Kesey felt it would do. With that change has come a renewed interest in the spiritual, the tribal, the mythic and the symbolic elements of the human condition – all those ancient aspects of consciousness first brought back into focus through the prism of LSD all those years ago, when Kesey and the Merry Pranksters caught that first glimpse of the future. Kesey’s adventure doesn’t feel “old hat” today – now we have indeed moved “beyond the acid”, the ideas explored in Wolfe’s book seem more current than ever.
Covering the counterculture: the 60s underground press – in pictures
Read more
Wolfe’s prose has survived its journey into the new millennium just as well (though some of his depictions of women and matters of race are a little “of their time”). The fit between the subject matter and the way it is told is perfection. Someone seeking new ways to tell stories described by someone else seeking to find a new form of journalism. Fellow travellers. Style and content in total harmony. With the end result that we, the readers feel involved. If I wanted to get really “zeitgeist-y”, I could say it is IMMERSIVE. Yes, for once that buzzword is appropriate – the very modern hunger to be part of the action is both stoked and satiated. You are there.
When British journalist Nick Hasted tracked down Kesey ahead of that 1998 visit to the UK and interviewed him, he found “Further” rusting away in a neglected area of the Oregon farm that Kesey and many of the other Merry Pranksters were living on. It was being used as a chicken coop. The Smithsonian Institute had expressed an interest in buying the bus and restoring it, but Kesey wasn’t interested in it being turned into a holy relic. “You restore it, that’s like saying, we’re going to stop it here,” he said. For him, the journey was still in progress – the bus hadn’t yet reached its final destination.
It still hasn’t – but it’s definitely back on the road and getting up to speed again. And the decision facing the reader is the same one that Wolfe spelt out all those years ago: “You’re either on the bus, or off the bus.” Which is it going to be?
Get on board.
The Kool-Aid Acid Test is your ticket.
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe, with an introduction by Jarvis Cocker, will be reissued on 31 May by Vintage Classics at £9.99. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/apr/23/francefacesitsthatchermome | Opinion | 2007-04-23T13:15:00.000Z | Philippe Marlière | France faces its Thatcher moment | Most political pundits will have felt vindicated after the first round of the French presidential election. Nicolas Sarkozy, the conservative candidate, emerged comfortably ahead of the socialist Ségolène Royal, and the total vote of the right largely outweighed that of the left. All this seems to mathematically guarantee Mr Sarkozy the victory in the second round on May 6th.
According to these commentators, yesterday's results will have confirmed the shift to the right of French voters. They will conclude that the cultural hegemony of the Marxist left is no longer. French society has finally fallen in love with capitalism and cannot wait for an injection of reforms (of a neoliberal nature, this goes without saying). It may have taken twenty eight more years than the British, but at long last, the French have seen the light and are ready to turn their back on their statist policies to embrace free market solutions.
With Sarkozy almost certain to succeed Jacques Chirac at the Elysée Palace, France is undoubtedly facing its Thatcher moment. However tempting such a scenario might be, it is above all one riddled with clichés and that fails to explain yesterday's vote. After five years of neoliberal reforms carried out by a right-wing government, France is today much in line with Britain when it comes to flexible hours and low paid jobs. Between 1997 and 2002, Lionel Jospin's left-wing government privatised more than the previous conservative governments altogether. It would take an American Neocon to seriously believe that France is a socialist state.
The French public thinks otherwise. Firstly, the policies of the right were severely sanctioned by the voters when the left won in a spectacular fashion the 2004 regional and European elections. By massively voting against the European constitutional treaty in May 2005, a majority of the electorate wanted to oppose the neoliberal drift of the European Union that is now perceived as directly threatening the French social state. Recent opinion polls - carried out by the Centre d'étude de la vie politique française and of the Ministry of Interior in February and by TNS Sofres on behalf of Nouvel Observateur and Fondation Jean-Jaurès in March - have consistently shown that the public is on the whole culturally liberal (sexuality, drugs, equality between men and women) .
The contrast here with the repressive and reactionary stance of Nicolas Sarkozy cannot not be more striking. The polls underline the deep attachment of the French to the values of solidarity and community - themes that are traditionally associated with the left: equality, social justice, free secular education, free health services, public services owned and run by the state are commonly plebiscited in the polls. The French are hostile to policies proposing the reduction of unemployment benefits or of the number of public sector workers. A majority of people has supported the social movements that have fought back the neoliberal policies of the right since 2002. If a majority of French accepts the market economy and free enterprise, it strongly rejects economic liberalism that considers that the state has no role to play as a regulator of capitalism.
Sarkozy promised to make the exercise of the right to strike as difficult as it is in Britain. He also advocated the dismantling of more than a century of social and labour laws contained in the Code du Travail. On these two accounts, Nicolas Sarkozy is going against French aspirations. What is more, his staunch Atlanticism and his Huntingtonian belief in a 'clash of civilisation' puts him at odds with a majority of his compatriots. How then can the electoral success of Sarkozy be explained?
The answer lies in the tragic errors of the left. The far left, a force to be reckoned with in France, was unable to unite and present a single candidate. No less than three Trotskyst candidates, a Communist and the altermondialiste José Bové were competiting for the votes of the same anti-neoliberal constituency. As a consequence of their disunity, their campaign was inaudible. Then, the '2002 Syndrome' made a significant number of left-wing voters to vote tactically for Royal in order to avoid a repeat of the 2002 election, when Jospin failed to qualify for the second round. There is substantial anecdotal evidence showing that traditional voters of the left decided to back Royal for tactical reasons, albeit very reluctantly. This explains to a large extent the poor results of the far left this time round.
Ségolène Royal had - still has indeed - a golden opportunity of defeating Sarkozy, whose brutal political style so much worries the public and whose neoliberal agenda is so much feared. But she led a lacklustre and centrist campaign which alienated her electorate. Instead of coming out in defence of the social state and of social justice, she followed Blairite tactics to triangulate Sarkozy's right-wing politics. On law and order issues (the monitoring of young offenders by the military), nationalism and patriotism (the exaltation of the flag and of the national anthem), the economy (the dismantling of the 35 hour working week), education (by suggesting that teachers were lazy), she tried - unsuccessfully - to occupy the right's natural territory. It politically and electorally backfired.
Firstly, it demoralised and angered traditional left-wing voters who nonetheless felt compelled to vote for her. Secondly, it disorientated working class voters who did not see any difference between the left and the right. Some in the end backed the genuine 'patriotic' voices (Sarkozy and Le Pen) rather than the Royalist carbon copy. The more moderate and middle-class segments of the socialist electorate lost patience with a candidate who seemed unable to defeat Sarkozy. By backing the centrist François Bayrou, they also voted tactically, since opinion polls showed that Bayrou could win a contest against Sarkozy.
After the first round, the left should be in a position of strength. Instead, it has only a slim chance of winning in two weeks time. Now Royal's major asset is Sarkozy himself. A majority of the French resent his bullying tactics and, above all, his neoliberal politics. Surfing on a Tout Sauf Sarkozy coalition (Anybody But Sarkozy), Royal might just make it.
To read more Comment is free articles on the French elections, click here. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/apr/19/how-we-stay-together-i-still-think-hes-the-most-beautiful-man-in-the-world | Life and style | 2020-04-18T20:00:19.000Z | Alexandra Spring | How we stay together: 'I still think he’s the most beautiful man in the world' | Names: Kevin Klehr and Warren Brown
Years together: 29
Occupations: Retired
Warren Brown remembers the exact time when he first laid eyes on his now husband, Kevin Klehr, even though it was almost 30 years ago. It was 10am on Wednesday 13 June 1990 and both were working in the engineering department at the ABC in Sydney. “There could have been a war going on or somebody could have been having an argument, but it was just this intense attraction,” he remembers. Kevin agrees: “We couldn’t take our eyes off each other. Even though someone else was talking to me, I didn’t lose eye contact with Warren.”
Relationships: tell us how you stay together
Read more
But the pair didn’t act on the attraction. They worked together and Warren, in particular, wasn’t keen on mixing work and love. So for six months they socialised together, got to know each other and became close friends.
There was something else, too. Although Warren knew he was gay, he wasn’t yet out and Kevin didn’t want to upset their friendship. And so one night, after eating pizza and drinking champagne together, they crashed in the same bed. Kevin was on high alert. Yet Warren kept the conversation going instead of sleeping. “As the gay person I could most certainly fuck it up,” Kevin says. “If I responded and he freaked out, then it’s his gay friend hit on him. So, an hour later, at about 4am, he finally says, ‘I’ve never kissed a guy before.’ And I’m going, ‘OK, good, just a kiss and that’s it.’ And then it just went on from there.”
Warren and Kevin together
For Warren, taking that step was a revelation. “When I met Kevin, all of a sudden it’s like the last piece of the jigsaw puzzle came. I was missing that one piece.” He hadn’t planned it but he was thrilled. “After it all happened, I think Kev was a little bit unsure, [but] I had a spring in my step. Ta-da, look, I’m here. ‘I’ve got the T-shirt’ type of thing.”
If they hadn’t got together, he says, he might have kept his sexuality hidden for years. “I might have gone down the road of getting married, having children, all that sort of stuff,” he says. “I don’t have children. I envy people that have children, but I don’t like the fact that they had to wait all that long time to actually say, ‘Hey, I’m a gay man.’ So I’m very grateful.”
How we stay together: 'We cared about the consequences of our own actions'
Read more
The couple bonded over their love of the arts and socialising, and they both loved music: “In the 90s [it was] the whole rave dance culture scene, they were our courting days [and] we had a lot of dance parties together,” Kevin says. Yet both recall feeling as though they were hiding their true personalities behind a facade.
“We were both a little bit broken from different experiences,” says Kevin. “And as friends, we helped each other. When we became lovers, then there was the extra bit of Warren coming to terms with his sexuality and me learning to be trustful in a relationship again.” Their strong friendship helped. “We had to work through these issues with each other and help each other to grow stronger.”
They don’t remember making a decision to be together long term, it has just turned out that way. “I think that it just evolved,” Warren says, “because we didn’t know that we were going to still be here 30 years later madly in love, still enjoying each other’s company.” He adds: “When you get together at the beginning, no one knows what the journey ahead is going to be, but why not enjoy that journey and learn?”
Looking back, they’ve both changed together. “We’re not those spring chickens that we used to be, going to the 90s dance parties,” Warren says with a laugh. Says Kevin: “But it’s been nice to see those changes in each other. Because I always say, ‘Look, I know what his body looked like in his 20s. I know what his body looked like in his 30s, et cetera.’ I still look at him today and, if he’s put on weight or he’s lost some weight or whatever, I still think he’s the most beautiful man in the world.”
On the March for Reconciliation across Sydney Harbour Bridge
For Kevin, a successful relationship comes down to planning. “I always say what makes a good relationship is sharing your dreams together, whether it’s planning a holiday, planning a mortgage, or doing the renovations that we’ve just done …
“Warren always says communication. I always say plan projects together. That makes you closer. You’re both working on something, towards the same goal.”
Affection is important to them and they catch themselves holding hands and touching reflexively. They snuggle up together, even on hot summer nights. “It’s just our toes touching, so there’s still some sort of connection.”
One of their strengths has been their communication skills, and they’ve always been open with each other. They’ve also improved the way they deal with conflict. In the early days they would go for days without speaking but now issues are resolved quickly. “A lot has to do with just growing older,” says Kevin.
Age brings wisdom: “You understand [more]. You talk about what your own underlying issues are. You recognise underlying issues in your partner which they don’t see yet. And you work around it. I think as you get older and you get softer, you don’t sweat the small stuff anymore. You’ve been there, done that.”
How we stay together: 'If a problem came up, it had to be solved straight away'
Read more
And their relationship has always been a priority. “There was not one moment where we had to really talk about our relationship or anything like that, because it’s always been a good relationship. We’ve worked on it but [not] because there were issues with it. We just worked on it to keep it strong to keep each other happy.”
They’ve also learnt by watching other couples and trying not to make the same mistakes. “If it’s hard work, if one person is working harder than the other, then it’s like you’ve got to question why,” Warren says. “We’ve seen that happen in other relationships and we’re just thinking, ‘They’re putting so much effort in it, but the other person, they’re just winging it. They want the other person to do the whole thing.’ And that’s not how it works. It doesn’t work, whether it’s a heterosexual relationship or a gay relationship. It’s two people, not one.”
In Paris in 2005
They married in November 2018, after the Marriage Equality Act was passed. It wasn’t something they’d planned, particularly as they’d thrown a big 25th anniversary party a few years earlier. But they gave into gentle pressure from friends and family. “When it got voted in ... my brothers were all saying, ‘When are you and Kev going to get married?’ So in a way, [our] family and friends actually forced us to have a wedding – and it was lovely,” Warren ays. “[At the wedding] we told everybody that it’s not for us. It’s for you guys. That we happened to be getting married is the added bonus and they all found it quite funny.”
These days, they always make sure they have a cup of coffee together each morning and say ‘I love you’ countless times a day. “A work colleague pointed that out,” Kevin says. “[At the wedding, she] said, ‘I used to work with him. They’d always have to call each other about three or four times a day [and] they always say ‘I love you’ at the end of it.’”
Those demonstrations of love have spilled over into other relationships, too. While it was normal for Kevin and his family, it was unheard of for Warren’s family to say ‘I love you’. “Now, it just rolls off the tongue with my nephews and nieces, and my brothers and sisters. So, that’s quite lovely and that’s one thing that I appreciated learning from Kevin and his family is that expression of love.”
For them, a successful relationship is a partnership where nothing is taken for granted. Says Kevin: “We’ve worked hard for what we’ve got in life and we’ve worked together towards common goals, because we wanted to be together. We wanted to go to bed at night together and wake up with the same person.”
We want to hear your stories about staying together. Tell us about you, your partner and your relationship by filling in the form here | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/jun/25/brave-film-review-ben-child | Film | 2012-06-25T16:04:08.000Z | Ben Child | Brave – review | For the animation studio's debut foray into fairytale, Pixar has delivered a rousing family melodrama set in a fantasy medieval highland Scotland populated by rowdy, larger-than-life clan chieftains, mischievous magical spirits and monstrous, murderous ursines – all impressively grounded in a reassuringly vigorous reality.
Princess Merida (Kelly Macdonald) – the animation studio's first proper lead female heroine, no less – is a feisty teenage redhead with magnificently unkempt hair who prefers shooting her bow and riding her beloved horse to the courtly travails constantly foisted on her by her mother, Queen Elinor (Emma Thompson). Her father, King Fergus (Billy Connolly), is a giant, peg-legged boy-man with an epicurean passion for food, booze and fighting, and only one apparent hatred: the hideous bear Mor'du, who chomped off his limb many years earlier. Matters come to a head when the leaders of three clans, who have united with Fergus to keep the kingdom at peace, travel to court in order to fulfil a ceremony which demands that his daughter must marry one of their eldest sons. Merida sets off in a Kevin-the-teenager style rage into a nearby spooky forest; there she finds what may just be a way to shift the course of her life away from its seemingly inevitable conclusion.
Once titled The Bear and the Bow, Brave's title has drawn comparisons with a certain Mel Gibson movie beloved of Scots nationalists. But while Brave's gorgeous and innovative use of shading and colour – the movie has the look of a living, breathing pastel painting – will no doubt boost tourism, there is little here to suggest that directors Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman are cheerleaders for Scottish independence. Like many of its predecessors, from Up to Finding Nemo, Brave imagines lead characters with hugely conflicting objectives and achieves its happy conclusion by bringing them satisfactorily together. Disappointingly for Alex Salmond et al, the message is that putting aside one's differences, no matter how repugnant such a compromise may at first appear, is the path to enlightenment.
Likewise, when compared with the refreshingly daring efforts which helped to make Pixar's name, Brave may appear to have been misnamed. And yet the film no more resembles the traditional fairytale (as espoused by parent company Disney) than The Incredibles does a superhero movie. At its heart, this is a Pixar film which eschews the genre's trademark reliance on facile, saccharine moralism in favour of the robust, no-nonsense and heartfelt nonconformity that runs through all the studio's best efforts. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/games/2020/jul/22/playing-video-games-doesnt-lead-to-violent-behaviour-study-shows | Games | 2020-07-21T23:01:08.000Z | Alex Hern | Playing video games doesn't lead to violent behaviour, study shows | Video games do not lead to violence or aggression, according to a reanalysis of data gathered from more than 21,000 young people around the world.
The researchers, led by Aaron Drummond from New Zealand’s Massey University, re-examined 28 studies from previous years that looked at the link between aggressive behaviour and video gaming, a method known as a meta-analysis.
The new report, published in the journal Royal Society Open Science on Wednesday, found that, when bundled together, the studies showed a statistically significant but minuscule positive correlation between gaming and aggression, below the threshold required to count as even a “small effect”.
“Thus, current research is unable to support the hypothesis that violent video games have a meaningful long-term predictive impact on youth aggression,” the report said.
Between them, the various studies included in the research dated back to 2008, and had reported a range of effects, including a small positive correlation between violence and video-game use in around a quarter of them and no overall conclusion in most of the rest, with one 2011 study finding a negative correlation.
One common argument for a negative effect of gaming is that small harms can accumulate over time: if a player ends every game slightly more aggressive then, over the long term, that might add up to a meaningful change in temperament. But the study finds no evidence for such an accumulation, and in fact finds evidence pointing in the opposite direction.
Studies consistently find that the “long-term impacts of violent games on youth aggression are near zero”, they write.
“We call on both individual scholars as well as professional guilds such as the American Psychological Association to be more forthcoming about the extremely small observed relationship in longitudinal studies between violent games and youth aggression,” the authors conclude.
While that link may be slim, other studies have shown interesting effects on wider emotional behaviour. Research from the University of New South Wales in 2018, for instance, found that people who frequently played violent video games were less distracted by violent images in other contexts, a phenomenon the study author called “emotion-induced blindness”. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/oct/31/belgium-england-womens-nations-league-match-report | Football | 2023-10-31T21:57:11.000Z | Suzanne Wrack | Belgium’s Wullaert stuns England with double after Greenwood injury scare | Sarina Wiegman’s Lionesses leave Belgium bruised in more ways than one, a bad head injury to Alex Greenwood marring the match and a crushing 3-2 defeat taking progression from their Nations League group and Olympic qualification out of their hands.
The Den Dreef Stadium is fast becoming a cauldron, the Red Flames have already taken the scalp of neighbours the Netherlands here and theypunished the European champions’ profligacy, Tessa Wullaert’s late penalty dropping them down to third in the group.
Sarina Wiegman insists England ‘not panicking’ after costly defeat in Belgium
Read more
England’s hopes of earning Team GB a place at the Paris Olympics next summer hang by a thread. They must beat the Netherlands at Wembley, bettering the 2-1 result in the reverse fixture, and Scotland away and hope that Belgium slip up in their final two games to be in with a chance of winning a group poised on a knife edge.
There was just one change to the team that had dominated the Belgians in Leicester on Friday, with Fran Kirby in the starting XI for the first time since 11 October 2022. Kirby’s return had been desperately needed, with the Lionesses struggling in the final third and many hoping the creative dynamo would be the difference.
Meanwhile, Ives Serneels made two changes to the Belgium team that absorbed England’s pressure but found it difficult offensively, with Jassina Blom and Sari Kees, who returned from injury, replacing Féli Delacauw and Jody Vangheluwe.
Tessa Wullaert’s penalty beats the dive of Mary Earps to put Belgium 3-2 ahead. Photograph: Frederic Scheidemann/The FA/Getty Images
Serneels said there were lots of positives to take from Friday’s narrow defeat and that his team could take confidence from it. That showed in Leuven. This was a more dynamic Belgium side and while England still dominated, it would be the Red Flames that would take the lead and they would repeatedly cause England problems on the counter.
The goal was a concession very much of England’s making, with Chloe Kelly under pressure from Kees having a foul given against her for handball on the edge of the England box. The free-kick though was sublime, curled around the wall by Laura De Neve and low into the corner.
England pushed for the equaliser but in the 19th minute the noise of Greenwood and Blom clashing heads as they vied for a shoulder height 50-50 ball echoed around the Den Dreef Stadium and both slumped to the ground. The medical teams of both sides were immediately on the pitch, with Greenwood face down and not moving. The impact on Blom was less severe, with the Belgian bandaged up and cleared to play within four minutes – though she perhaps shouldn’t have been given she looked out of sorts afterwards.
Sign up to Moving the Goalposts
Free newsletter
No topic is too small or too big for us to cover as we deliver a twice-weekly roundup of the wonderful world of women’s football
Enter your email address
Sign up
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Sarina Wiegman insists England ‘not panicking’ after costly defeat in Belgium
Read more
Meanwhile, Greenwood would be gently taken away on a stretcher after a 13-minute delay, with a head brace on, oxygen mask over her face and blanket over her body. There were squeezes of the hand for Millie Bright and Georgia Stanway as she left and warm applause from the sold-out home crowd for the departing defender. Greenwood would be confirmed to be talking and being assessed at half-time and walking and OK but concussed after the match. Jess Carter would be the replacement, slotting in alongside Chelsea teammate Bright.
Refusing to be rattled by the loss of their influential centre-back, six minutes later England were back in the tie. Lucy Bronze won a free-kick on the right that Kelly sent in and Bronze was there on the end of it, looping her diagonal header over Nicky Evrard and into the net.
England’s second followed not long after, Lauren Hemp going on a powerful run on the left before pulling the ball back to Kirby who sidefooted past Evrard for her first goal since the semi-finals of the Euros.
Alex Greenwood is attended by medics after a clash of heads. Photograph: Hollandse Hoogte/Shutterstock
However, this match often delivers a show and England would not have much time to rest on their lead. The Lionesses have twice got the better of Belgium under Wiegman, winning 6-1 in February in the Arnold Clark Cup and 3-0 in a friendly in June 2022, and they earned a 3-3 draw in Leuven in 2019 under Phil Neville. In the sixth minute of stoppage time before the break Belgium struck, Wullaert beating the much slower Carter and Bright before slotting coolly past Mary Earps.
The second half was as open as the first with both sides having chances to take the lead, but England laboured against the deep and compact Belgium back line. Alessia Russo would somehow fail to get a shot away from six yards quickly enough allowing Evrard to make the block shortly after the restart and Tine De Caigny would rescue Belgium shortly after, Kirby’s shot having had the sting taken out of it by Evrard, allowing the centre-back to clear off the line. Belgium still threatened on break though, and Wullaert would force a save from Earps after evading the tackles of Carter and Bright.
Disaster struck for England with seven minutes of normal time remaining. Substitute Yana Daniels cut in from the left and pinged the ball in, it rebounded off Stanway’s hand and the referee, Esther Staubli, pointed to the spot. Wullaert’s penalty was unstoppable, a powerful drive into the corner past Earps.
It was England’s fourth defeat under Wiegman and the first time they have conceded three under her. The Lionesses are creating chances, but a lack of a cutting edge is proving increasingly problematic. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/sep/11/german-economy-will-shrink-this-year-as-part-of-eurozone-slowdown-inflation | Business | 2023-09-11T11:48:47.000Z | Larry Elliott | German economy ‘will shrink this year as part of eurozone slowdown’ | Germany’s economy will shrink this year as part of a wider eurozone slowdown triggered by higher inflation and the dampening impact of rising interest rates, the European Commission has said.
In its interim quarterly update, the commission said Europe’s powerhouse economy would be the worst-affected major country in the 20-nation single currency bloc and would record a 0.4% contraction in 2023.
Three months ago, the commission was forecasting that Germany would grow by 0.2% this year, but now it says the world’s fourth biggest economy has been even more sorely affected by weaker consumer spending than it had envisaged.
While the growth prospects of France and Spain have improved modestly since the spring, the commission said the eurozone economy overall was now expected to expand by 0.8% in 2023, down from 1.1% previously. Growth in 2024 has been revised down from 1.6% to 1.3%.
The downbeat economic forecasts increase the chances of the European Central Bank calling a halt to the steady tightening of policy that has resulted in its key interest rate rising from -0.5% to 3.75% in nine successive jumps.
Growth in the 27-country EU for 2023 has also been revised down, from 1% to 0.8%, while inflationary pressure across Europe has eased slightly.
“Latest data confirms that economic activity in the EU was subdued in the first half of 2023 on the back of the formidable shocks that the EU has endured,” the commission said. “Weakness in domestic demand, in particular consumption, shows that high and still increasing consumer prices for most goods and services are taking a heavier toll than expected in the spring forecast.
“This is despite declining energy prices and an exceptionally strong labour market, which has seen record low unemployment rates, continued expansion of employment and rising wages.”
The commission said the sharp slowdown in the provision of bank credit showed higher interest rates were working their way through the economy. Survey indicators pointed to slowing economic activity in the summer and the months ahead, with continued weakness in industry and fading momentum in services, despite a strong tourism season in many parts of Europe.
Inflation in the eurozone is expected to average 5.6% in 2023, compared with 5.8% in the spring. In the broader EU, inflation is forecast to be 6.5% rather than 6.7%.
Sign up to Business Today
Free daily newsletter
Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning
Enter your email address
Sign up
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Paolo Gentiloni, the EU commissioner for economy, said: “The EU avoided a recession last winter – no mean feat given the magnitude of the shocks that we have faced. This resilience, most evident in the strength of the labour market, is a testimony to the effectiveness of our common policy response.
“However, the multiple headwinds facing our economies this year have led to a weaker growth momentum than we projected in the spring. Inflation is declining, but at differing speeds across the EU. And Russia’s brutal war against Ukraine continues to cause not only human suffering but economic disruption.”
Gentiloni said “prudent, investment-friendly” tax and spending policies should work in tandem with the efforts of central banks to tame inflation. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/nov/25/manchester-city-bayern-munich-champions-league-match-report | Football | 2014-11-25T22:01:11.000Z | Daniel Taylor | Manchester City 3-2 Bayern Munich | Champions League match report | The truly astonishing thing about what happened here in that wild, breathless finale is that, ignoring for one moment the extraordinary five-minute spell when Manchester City shocked maybe even themselves, it had been another night to expose their shortcomings in Europe. They had been out-passed, out-thought and frequently humbled by a Bayern side that were down to 10 men after 20 minutes and Manuel Pellegrini would have faced some difficult questions but for what happened next.
Many of those questions are still legitimate but if there is one thing that cannot be said of Pellegrini’s team it is that they lack qualities of perseverance. “We’ll fight to the end,” goes the song, and what a recovery in those last few minutes when Bayern Munich’s resolve disintegrated and Sergio Agüero turned this game upside down. It was the same net where Agüero had produced his 93:20 moment after the comeback of all comebacks. This one did not quite match the levels of hysteria but the euphoria, nonetheless, was extreme.
Agüero made it feel as though he must be immune to nerves on those two occasions when he ran clear to face Manuel Neuer, the best goalkeeper in his business. He had opened the scoring with a penalty and when everything was done his hat-trick had left City knowing that a scoring draw, when they face Roma in Stadio Olimpico, will be enough to qualify through the back door, as long as CSKA Moscow are incapable of beating Bayern in the Allianz Arena. The permutations are numerous and merely add to the chaotic feel of those final exchanges, when Pep Guardiola seemed to be straying dangerously close to the point of spontaneous combustion.
Bayern, even with 10 men, had an unerring knack of keeping the ball. Another team might have wilted after Mehdi Benatia was sent off for bringing down Agüero for his penalty. Bayern needed only a few minutes to shake their heads clear. They dominated possession – with 64% of the ball in the first half and 56% by the end – and Uefa’s statistics also showed the 10 men made 563 passes compared to City’s 403. Even in defeat, Bayern had left an impressive calling card.
They had also a midfielder in Xabi Alonso who demonstrated so much supreme control on the night of his 33rd birthday it felt almost absurd that he inadvertently set up Agüero’s second goal with a loose pass. Alonso’s free-kick to make it 1-1 was, in the vernacular of the schoolground, a pea-roller, played low and across the ground to pick out the bottom corner and expose some poor organisation between Joe Hart and his defensive wall. Yet Alonso’s contribution had been about much more than the equalising goal until he gave the ball to the substitute Stevan Jovetic and Agüero raced away to score with a left-footed finish.
Eleven-versus-eleven, Guardiola’s team had been strutting around to their own game of keep-ball. A man down, the Bundesliga champions seemed absolutely determined to show they could hold their own. City, in stark contrast, had looked erratic and prone to making mistakes. Alonso’s goal came from a foul by Fernando in a position where he should have been operating with more care and Robert Lewandowski had Vincent Kompany and Bacary Sagna around him when Jérôme Boateng swung over the right-sided cross for Bayern to take the lead. On the verge of half-time, Lewandowski benefited from some fortune as the ball spun off his shoulder to loop over Hart but his run had been brilliant.
Bayern’s only real mistake in the first half came in the form of Benatia’s poor positioning and mistimed challenge after Frank Lampard had clipped the ball over the top for Agüero to scamper clear. It was the way City surrendered their lead that was startling. Their problem was getting any control or momentum in the middle and the atmosphere, once again, was strangely subdued for the most part.
Perhaps the climax to this game might help City’s crowd to start embracing this competition a little more. It needed something remarkable and Alonso duly provided it with the misjudgment that had Guardiola hopping with exasperation on the touchline. Alonso had made 94 passes whereas, to put it into context, Kompany had City’s best figures with 52. This one, however, was a terrible lapse and Agüero is too formidable an opponent to offer those kind of gifts.
A draw would have flattered City but then came the moment when the previously immaculate Boateng went to intercept a routine ball forward and promptly surrendered it to Agüero on the edge of his own penalty area. Agüero deserves great acclaim for his perseverance, with that stocky, muscular frame, before breaking clear with the ball and holding his nerve again. Neuer was beaten for a third time and City, the team that fights to the end, will go to Rome in a new and unexpected position of strength. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/jun/10/my-sister-and-i-are-creatives-marooned-in-the-family-home-our-parents-want-us-to-get-real-jobs | Life and style | 2021-06-09T17:30:57.000Z | Eleanor Gordon-Smith | My sister and I are creatives marooned in the family home. Our parents want us to get real jobs | Leading questions | Recently my sister and I have been discussing how at odds we both feel living under the conventions of a western, capitalist society. We are two of five children (all millennials) and fondly refer to the other three as “squares” who have happily embraced these conventions; they have partners, stable jobs, savings and the usual aspirations of getting married, buying houses and starting families.
Meanwhile my sister and I remain in the family home (marooned by the pandemic) and are both working on manuscripts and at the height of our creative output. However, we lament the fact our parents want us to get “real jobs” and live “normal” lives. We have no savings or hope of changing our current circumstances to gain some independence without making huge sacrifices.
The space, time and freedom to be creative in the arts seems vitally more important to both of us than a 9 to 5 job, which we would largely be doing just to pay the bills and would detract from our real goals and passions.
What are the options for doomed millennials who resist current ways of living, but can’t afford the freedom to gain independence from our parents and live a creative life on our own terms?
Eleanor says: Listen, I’m a writer and my best friend just bought a house, so I know the place you’re coming from, and from that place I’m telling you, eye to eye: when the pandemic is over you have to leave your parents’ house.
There’s nothing wrong with living at home if it works for your family: I’ve said before that splitting generations between residences is a relatively recent invention and it’s not a coincidence that we spend more on property when we think living separately is the only way to have dignity. The argument isn’t that you should move because that’s what society wants, or that there’s anything wrong with accepting parental assistance when it’s enthusiastically offered.
The argument is: I’m not sure the offer is all that enthusiastic. I only have your small letter, so I know much less about this dynamic than you do – but to stay in someone’s house you need to be very, very confident that they don’t mind, and these remarks about getting a job undermine my confidence that your parents don’t mind.
I’m 24 and my life was pretty sorted out, until I fell deeply in love with a man of 51
Read more
They could very well have their own dreams of creativity and autonomy. They might want to travel, or spend time together as a couple, or live on their own terms after decades of supporting five kids. And to put it bluntly – I hope they and you will forgive me – they have less time for those dreams than you do for yours.
You know firsthand what a tragic waste it seems to spend your one precious life in a way you don’t want to – imagine feeling that while feeling that you have more of life behind you than to look forward to. That’s the place your parents might be in, so please don’t dismiss their exhortations as straitjacketed conservatism. They might be asking you to start living like a Proper Grown Up so they can finally stop.
Besides, if it is straitjacketed conservatism, moving shuts them up: the only time people get to tell you you’re not living right is when they pay for how you live. Once you finance yourself, you answer to yourself, and you will be able to stand tall and say “I’m a writer”.
I know you’re worried that the “huge sacrifices” you describe will affect your creativity, and they might – you will be tired, and you’ll have less time for writing. But if you’re really good at what you do, you can eventually make money doing it. Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote to someone struggling in your position: “The world is pretty quick to catch the flavour of true originality. Nothing pleases an editor more than to get anything worth having from a new hand. You may have genius … if you have, the world wants you more than you want it.”
Holmes was right – readers want writers, publishers do too, and there is nothing like needing to pay rent to make you find those readers and publishers. You do not need to have the lawn and the tie and the savings if you don’t want to. But you do need to quadruple check with your parents that you aren’t asking them to delay their dreams so you can keep having yours.
Ask us a question
Do you have a conflict, crossroads or dilemma you need help with? Eleanor Gordon-Smith will help you think through life’s questions and puzzles, big and small. Questions can be anonymous.
If you’re having trouble using the form, click here. Read terms of service here | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/may/26/self-driving-cars-whos-building-them-and-how-do-they-work | Technology | 2016-05-26T06:00:04.000Z | Samuel Gibbs | Self-driving cars: who's building them and how do they work? | From self-driving cars to robot lorries, autonomous vehicles are the future of road transportation. But who’s in pole position, who’s stuck in the pit lane and how far away is the starting grid?
How far along are we?
Autonomous vehicles are already on our roads. At the cutting edge there are self-driving cars being tested in pilot programmes, and they are proving perfectly capable of motoring alongside human drivers. But beyond robotic cars, many high-end vehicles available today are already practically capable of driving themselves either under the guise of passenger safety or driver convenience.
Who’s doing it?
In short, everyone. Google started work on the pioneering technology about eight years ago, helped by expert recruits from Stanford, but Uber, China’s Baidu and even Apple – if you believe the rumours – are working on self-driving technology.
The automotive manufacturers aren’t sitting on their hands either. Elon Musk’s Tesla is working on the technology for its electric cars, while GM, Daimler, Volvo, Ford, Jaguar Land Rover, Audi and BMW are also developing solutions.
Smaller companies and groups are also developing and testing the technology in the UK, including consortiums running trials in Greenwich, Bristol, Milton Keynes and Coventry. The Transport Research Lab, Arup, the AA, RAC, Atkins and Imperial College London are all involved.
Self-driving a truck.
What kinds of vehicles are they working on?
Self-driving vehicles can take many forms. Most of the automotive manufacturers are looking to create cars very similar to those we already drive – for individual ownership but with the ability to drive themselves.
Others, including Google, are looking at creating cars that are either smaller and more compact, or larger and laid out without a traditional driver’s seat, turning the car’s cabin into a mobile lounge area.
Other research has focused on autonomous vehicles replacing traditional buses and public transport shuttles. Some resemble tram cars without tracks. Other firms, including Uber, are trying to create vehicles that will eventually replace taxis.
Commercial goods vehicle manufacturers are also looking at autonomous trucks, which resemble traditional lorries, but could look more like a train or storage container on wheels.
Where are they doing testing?
Google has been testing its self-driving cars, which have included modified Toyota Priuses, Lexus RX450h SUVs and a bespoke self-driving bubble car, on public roads in Nevada, Florida, California and Michigan since 2012.
Uber recently began testing a self-driving car in Pittsburgh carrying passengers, with a human driver for backup.
Volvo and several other car manufacturers have also performed limited tests on some public roads around Europe and the US, while Baidu partnered with BMW for limited testing in China.
Large-scale testing, including Volvo’s 100-car test with members of the public on a Gothenburg commuter route, is scheduled to start next year. A version of that trial is expected to go ahead in the UK in 2018. The UK is expected to green-light trials on motorways from next year.
Who’s leading the autonomous pack?
Google is currently out in front, having driven more autonomous miles and collected more data than anyone else. But traditional car manufacturers are quickly catching up.
It’s also unclear what Google’s intentions are. The company recently partnered with Fiat Chrysler to fit its self-driving technology into the Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivan, but its efforts to develop a bespoke self-driving car without a steering wheel or pedals point to an intention to develop cars on its own.
Volvo has been working on self-driving technology under the guise of safety features for years, and has explored the idea of road trains for commercial vehicles, where a front lorry guides a convoy.
What’s required to make a self-driving car work?
The bulk of the technology required for self-driving cars is not all that futuristic, but it is the combination of different sensors with advanced computer vision systems that makes it work.
Many of the vehicles use what is called Lidar (Light Detection and Ranging) – a rotating laser, usually mounted on the roof, that continually scans the environment around the car. Traditional radar is also used for detecting distances to objects and cars, as are various cameras, accelerometers, gyroscopes and GPS, which are all used in conjunction to build a 3D picture of the environment around the vehicle.
The most complex part of a self-driving system is the software that collects the data, analyses it and actually drives the vehicle. It has to be capable of recognising and differentiating between cars, bikes, people, animals and other objects as well as the road surface, where the car is in relation to built-in maps and be able to react to an often unpredictable environment.
Are there speed bumps ahead?
There are several major hold-ups between the developmental prototypes and commercialisation of driverless technology. One of the biggest is the problem of ethics.
Unlike a human who reacts instinctively in an emergency, an autonomous car will have to calculate and choose the appropriate response to each scenario, including possibly a choice between killing its occupants or other people.
Legislation must also be changed before self-driving vehicles will be permitted on public roads beyond small tests, while insurers must decide who pays when an autonomous car inevitably has an accident.
Further down the road another question will be whether, at the point when autonomous vehicles work and are safer than human drivers, we should ban human drivers?
When are we going to be able to step into one?
Many experts believe that full adoption of autonomous vehicles won’t happen until 2030, but some vehicles with self-driving capabilities are expected by 2020. Whether they are legal to drive everywhere or to drive without an occupant – to pick up a passenger or park themselves – remains to be seen.
What’s available right now?
No purely autonomous vehicles are available at present, but several with self-driving features are currently on our roads.
Tesla’s Model S has an advanced cruise control feature called Autopilot, which uses cameras and radar to detect the car’s position in lane, the proximity of other cars and the speed limit. It can control the car’s speed and steering to keep it in the middle of the lane, reacting to other cars and changing lanes on command.
Volvo’s latest XC90 includes a raft of autonomous driving features, including lane assist, adaptive cruise control and a suite of automatic emergency systems that stop the car from pulling into oncoming traffic or from rear-ending cars. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/oct/27/nestle-france-buitoni-e-coli-scandal | Business | 2022-10-27T11:00:28.000Z | Angelique Chrisafis | ‘I want Nestlé to explain’: families fight for answers in Buitoni E coli scandal | When eight-year-old Nathan Aïech sat down for a Friday night pizza with his father and stepfamily at their home outside Paris, it was their traditional “fun” weekend meal. The family had bought Buitoni frozen pizza, its colourful packaging boasting of two centuries of Italian cuisine. It seemed better than cheaper supermarket options. “A child is always happy when it’s pizza for dinner,” said Yohan Aïech, Nathan’s father.
Nathan was a sporty child, in full health, who wanted to be a high-speed train driver. Two days after the meal he complained of a stomach ache. Within a week, he was fighting for his life in intensive care, with doctors saying his brain, heart and kidneys were compromised. After dialysis, surgery and two heart attacks, Nathan died on 18 February. French health authorities later confirmed that the E coli bacteria infection and complications that killed him could be linked to the Buitoni pizza Fraîch’Up range.
Nathan was the first child to die in what is being called Europe’s biggest food scandal in 30 years. The E coli outbreak that killed two children and left more than a dozen with serious, long-lasting health complications has prompted fear in France’s food industry and panicked consumers.
At the heart of the controversy is Nestlé, one of the world’s biggest food conglomerates, which owns Buitoni as part of its array of brands from KitKat to Nespresso and Häagen-Dazs ice-cream. Nestlé, which has had various controversies in its long history – from the boycott over the marketing of formula milk for babies in developing countries in the 1970s to rows over bottled water extraction in North America – is now facing one of its biggest challenges.
Nathan’s father, Yohan Aïech, with his lawyer, Pierre Debuisson, have filed a complaint with the Paris public prosecutor. Photograph: Julien De Rosa/AFP /The Guardian
“The pain we feel is indescribable,” Aïech said. “Nathan trusted his parents to feed him. I want Nestlé to explain to us how this happened and what will be put in place so it never happens again.”
A preliminary criminal investigation is under way for involuntary manslaughter, injury and breaches of food safety requirements. Now a group of 48 families, including 55 victims, have filed a €250m (£217m) civil suit for gross negligence against Nestlé France and are pressing to change the law for better controls in the food industry.
Nestlé price rises drive sales growth to strongest in 14 years
Read more
In April, the state ordered Nestlé France to suspend production at its Buitoni factory in Caudry, northern France, where the Fraîch’Up pizza range was made. The suspension order highlighted “a deterioration of food hygiene controls” and said inspections had shown the presence of “rodents” and insufficient measures to prevent pests from contaminating a food production site.
Nestlé France announced last month it had tested more than 2,000 samples from its factory and ingredients, and that an E coli contamination of the flour seemed “the most probable” explanation, adding that it found no trace of the bacteria on production lines. The legal investigation led by a judge will have the final word, but could take years. The company has said it will cooperate with authorities and “put in place the necessary measures” so nothing like this happens again.
Pierre Debuisson, a lawyer for the families, called the deaths and illness “an unprecedented human tragedy”. When E coli bacteria infects humans, particularly children, it can cause complications such as hemolytic uremic syndrome, a form of kidney failure. Debuisson said many of the surviving children were treated in intensive care and some suffered permanent organ damage.
“Everyone can identify with this, everyone eats pizza,” he said. “Hundreds of thousands of French people could have found themselves in this situation.”
Debuisson said he wanted answers from the state and Nestlé France on factory cleaning processes and the delay in connecting the E coli outbreak to the pizzas. State agencies informed Nestlé France on 17 March of a possible link and the next day the company recalled almost 1m Fraîch’Up pizzas, stopped deliveries and suspended production. But Debuisson said that for weeks after the first cases of children falling ill in January, the pizzas continued to be eaten. He added that Nestlé had already faced an E coli contamination of cookie dough in the US in 2009 and should have been aware of risks.
The families now want changes to the law to create tougher controls on food production and higher penalties for contamination. Debuisson said the state’s criminal investigation was not progressing fast enough. “The families I represent are appalled, they feel abandoned by the justice system.”
One young couple in Brittany, who sat down to a dinner of Buitoni Fraîch’Up pizza in February, said their lives had been destroyed. Théo Soavi was in the military, and his wife, Ludivine, cared full-time for their son, Kelig, aged two-and-a-half. Kelig had already eaten his dinner but tasted some pizza from his parents’ plates.
“He nibbled tiny pieces beside us, not even a whole slice,” Soavi said. After three weeks in intensive care, including emergency heart surgery, Kelig died on 10 March. “Since then, we feel alone,” Soavi said. “This is a fight for the truth and for Nestlé to recognise its responsibility. We’ve lost everything, we’ve got nothing left to lose.”
The Buitoni factory in Caudry, northern France. In April, the state ordered Nestlé France to suspend production. Photograph: François Lo Presti/AFP/Getty
Aurélie Micouleau, who lives near Montpellier in the south, said her sons’ lives were changed for ever after they shared a Buitoni Fraîch’Up pizza at the end of February. First her five-year-old son Curtis fell ill and was treated in intensive care, with uncertainty over whether he would survive as complications hit his kidneys and brain. Then his 10-year-old brother, Preston, was rushed to hospital. Both were on kidney dialysis and fighting for their lives. Now they are frail, on medication and facing lifelong health concerns. “We live in constant fear that they will relapse or need a kidney transplant, or of the impact on their brains,” Micouleau said. “We don’t even know their life expectancy now. It will have gone down.”
The boys are often rushed back to hospital. “They wake at night hitting the walls from nightmares,” Micouleau said. “As a parent you think: ‘I gave my child something that poisoned them’ and the feeling of guilt is very difficult. We’re fighting for truth and justice, and to stop food groups behaving as they please because of their billions.”
Nestlé France said it “reiterated its deep compassion for the victims and their families” and had set up a fund for the parents, administered by an independent charity. The company denied reports on France Info radio that factory cleaning time had been reduced in recent years. Nestlé’s Buitoni factory in Caudry could be authorised to reopen as soon as next month, after dismantlement and cleaning, but the Fraîch’Up pizza production line remains suspended.
But the families no longer buy any Nestlé products, from stock cubes to pet food. “I can never trust them again,” Aïech said. “And I will never give them another cent.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/16/eu-urges-us-congress-to-preserve-iran-nuclear-deal-trump-threatened | World news | 2017-10-16T17:26:44.000Z | Jennifer Rankin | EU urges US Congress to preserve Iran nuclear deal Trump threatened | The European Union has urged US politicians to preserve the Iran nuclear deal, warning that Donald Trump’s threat to end it could jeopardise international security and damage diplomatic efforts to defuse tension in North Korea.
The EU’s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, said the president’s threat risks making it “more difficult to open any form of dialogue or mediation with [Pyongyang] in the case of a serious threat”.
Trump risks making US rogue actor as he condemns Iran nuclear deal
Read more
It came as the EU’s 28 foreign ministers unanimously called for full and effective implementation of the Iran deal, known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). They said in a statement: “At a time of acute nuclear threat the EU is determined to preserve the JCPOA as a key pillar of the international non-proliferation architecture.”
“Clearly the ministers are concerned that messages on JCPOA might affect negatively opening negotiations or even the space [for] opening negotiations with DPRK,” Mogerhini said, using the abbreviation for the country’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. “One of the key elements of multilateralism is the predictability of maintaining agreements.”
Mogherini will travel to Washington in November, where she will reiterate the message. The Iran deal was brokered by her predecessor, Catherine Ashton, and signed by the UK, France, Germany, the US, Russia and China.
Trump on Monday renewed his threat to fully withdraw from the deal, telling reporters: “I’m tired of being taken advantage of as a nation. This nation has been taken advantage of for many, many years, for many decades, frankly, and I’m tired of watching it. But the Iran deal was something that I felt had to be done.”
Trump wants the US Congress to toughen the conditions on Iran, but any amendments would require 60 votes to pass.
Mogherini, who said she spoke to the US secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, moments before Trump’s speech last Friday, called on the US to examine how the deal affected its own security. “I am convinced that the United States will take into consideration the security interests not only of their own country, but also of their allies, partners and friends,” she said.
The UK, France and Germany have restated their commitment to the deal. Boris Johnson, the UK foreign secretary, said: “We are obviously working as Europeans to keep the Iran nuclear going. The UK has long thought this is good for our collective security, it is good for the world, it is good for Europe and it is good to keep that going.”
France’s foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, said the EU needed to put real pressure on Congress. “We hope that Congress will not call this agreement into question because ... non-proliferation [of nuclear weapons] is a major element of global security,” he said.
Europe’s governments look to bypass Trump to save Iranian nuclear deal
Read more
Bert Koenders, the foreign minister of the Netherlands, said it would be a grave mistake to abandon the agreement, suggesting there could be a destabilising effect on North Korea. “The consequences would not only be the consequences for the United States, but also for Europe and the international community,” he said. “Look at the situation in North Korea.”
At their meeting in Luxembourg, the EU foreign ministers extended sanctions on North Korea, going beyond UN sanctions. The EU banned all crude oil sales to North Korea and cut remittances that can be sent into the country from the EU to €5,000, down from €15,000, as the money is believed to support the regime’s nuclear programmes. The EU also announced it would not renew work permits for North Koreans, unless people had refugee status. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/apr/17/stars-paul-mccartney-emilia-clarke-share-stories-of-nhs-care-in-new-book-dear-nhs-100-stories-to-say-thank-you | Books | 2020-04-17T11:06:59.000Z | Alison Flood | Stars including Paul McCartney and Emilia Clarke to share stories of NHS care in new book | Adam Kay, who has topped bestseller charts with his stories of life as as junior doctor in This Is Going to Hurt, is pulling together a book of “love letters to the NHS” from major names including Paul McCartney, Michael Palin, Stephen Fry and Emma Thompson.
Kay started the project a week ago and already has 100 contributors signed up, from authors such as Lee Child, Jacqueline Wilson, EL James and Jilly Cooper to presenters including Graham Norton, Emily Maitliss and Peter Kay, actors from Dawn French to Emilia Clarke and Joanna Lumley, and sportspeople including Peter Crouch and Tanni Grey-Thompson.
Each is writing a personal story about how the NHS was there for them and how it changed their lives, with all profits from the book to go to NHS Charities Together and the Lullaby Trust, which supports parents bereaved of babies and young children.
“Every single one of us owes so much to the NHS. It is our single greatest achievement as a nation, always there for us, and never more so than now,” said Kay, a former junior doctor turned comedian and writer. “Since this project was conceived barely a week ago, I have been blown away by the number of people who have been in touch to share their amazing stories. I hope that the book, and the money it raises for charity, will in some way manage to say thank you to the heroes who are putting our lives before their own every day.”
Bill Bryson, Nick Hornby, Ian Rankin and Martin Freeman will also be among the letter writers, as will Caitlin Moran, Peter Capaldi and Zoe Ball. The book will be published on 9 July.
Publisher Orion’s Anna Valentine said the stories told were “by turns deeply moving, hilarious, hopeful and impassioned”.
Orion’s parent company, Hachette UK, recently began offering free ebooks to NHS workers, after author Mari Hannah was contacted by a frontline NHS worker telling her that her books were keeping her spirits up. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jul/17/lloyds-to-increase-number-of-black-staff-in-senior-roles | Business | 2020-07-17T11:51:26.000Z | Kalyeena Makortoff | Lloyds to increase number of black staff in senior roles | Lloyds Banking Group has pledged to increase the number of black staff in senior roles from only 0.6% to at least 3% over the next four years, as part of a “race action plan” rolled out weeks after Black Lives Matter protests began in the UK.
The commitment, announced to staff on Thursday, will mean recruiting about 168 more black colleagues into senior roles by 2024.
Britain’s biggest high street lender will also publish its first ethnicity pay gap report later this year and include at least one candidate from a black, Asian or minority ethnic (BAME) background on every executive director shortlist.
It will help ensure there is more diverse pool of candidates to replace the outgoing chief executive, António Horta-Osório, who will step down next year after a decade at the helm.
Currently, the bank only employs about 40 black staff across its 7,000-strong senior management team. The pledge will raise that total to about 210 staff and help reflect the proportion of black workers across the wider UK labour market.
Black people make up about 3.3% of the total population of England and Wales but hold only 1.5% of the 3.7m leadership positions across the UK’s wider public and private sectors in 2019, according to Business in the Community.
Horta-Osório said: “A more inclusive society is a more prosperous society, and a diverse business is a better business.
“It is clear that achieving an inclusive environment for everyone is our priority but right now we have very specific challenges that we have to address urgently for our black colleagues. Feedback has provided a clear way forward and, as a start, we have established an immediate action plan which focuses on culture, recruitment and progression.”
Sign up to the daily Business Today email or follow Guardian Business on Twitter at @BusinessDesk
The focus on black management builds on Lloyds’ broader BAME target set in 2018, which aims to result in non-white staff making up 10% of the total workforce and 8% of senior managers by the end of 2020. The bank has already reached the workforce target of 10.3% of its 63,000 staff but has hit only 7.3% on the senior staff target. Those targets will be reviewed at the end of the year.
As part of Lloyds’ seven-point action plan, it will develop an internal race education programme and organise regular “listening sessions” to gauge staff experiences. It will also form a BAME advisory board to mould its diversity strategy and keep tabs on the bank’s progress.
Horta-Osório said: “This is just the beginning. The commitments we are making will not fix the issues overnight, and targets and measures will only take us so far but we have to challenge ourselves to do better and I am fully committed that we will do so.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/dec/01/scientists-theory-of-climates-titanic-moment-the-tip-of-a-mathematical-iceberg | Environment | 2019-12-01T17:00:09.000Z | Graham Readfearn | Scientist's theory of climate's Titanic moment the 'tip of a mathematical iceberg' | When is an emergency really an emergency?
If you’re the captain of the Titanic, approaching a giant iceberg with the potential to sink your ship becomes an emergency only when you realise you might not have enough time to steer a safe course.
And so it is, says Prof Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, when it comes to the climate emergency.
Knowing how long societies have to react to pull the brake on the Earth’s climate and then how long it will take for the ship to slow down is the difference between a climate emergency and a manageable problem.
Rather than being something abstract and open to interpretation, Schellnhuber says the climate emergency is something with clear and calculable risks that you could put into a formula. And so he wrote one.
Smoke alarm: political inaction on climate change is adding to our suffocating atmosphere
Josephine Tovey
Read more
Emergency = R × U = p × D × τ / T
In a comment article in the journal Nature, Schellnhuber and colleagues explained that to understand the climate emergency we needed to quantify the relationship between risk (R) and urgency (U).
Borrowing from the insurance industry, the scientists define risk (R) as the probability of something happening (p) multiplied by damage (D).
For example, how likely is it that sea levels will rise by a metre and how much damage will that cause.
Urgency (U) is the time it takes you to react to an issue (τ) “divided by the intervention time left to avoid a bad outcome (T)”, they wrote.
Schellnhuber, of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, tells Guardian Australia the work on the formula was just the “tip of a mathematical iceberg” in defining the climate emergency.
“It can be illustrated by the Titanic disaster, but it applies to many severe risks where you can calculate the do-nothing/business-as-usual probability of a highly damaging event,” he says. “Yet there are options to avoid the disaster.
“In other words, this a control problem.”
There is a time lag between the rapid cuts to greenhouse gases and the climate system reacting. Knowing if you have enough time tells you if you’re in an emergency or not.
Schellnhuber used “standard risk analysis and control theory” to come up with the formula, and he was already putting numbers to it.
“As a matter of fact, the intervention time left for limiting global warming to less than 2C is about 30 [years] at best. The reaction time – time needed for full global decarbonisation - is at least 20 [years].”
As the scientists write in Nature, if the “reaction time is longer than the intervention time left” then “we have lost control”.
Schellnhuber says: “Beyond that critical point, only some sort of adaptation option is left, such as moving the Titanic passengers into rescue boats (if available).”
Earlier this month, Oxford Dictionaries announced “climate emergency” as the word of the year, defining it as “a situation in which urgent action is required to reduce or halt climate change and avoid potentially irreversible environmental damage resulting from it”.
'Not something to celebrate': drought and flood cause drop in emissions
Read more
One website tracking climate emergency declarations says 1,195 jurisdictions in 25 countries, representing 454 million people, have already voted on the emergency.
This week the European parliament joined them, as did Ballina shire council in northern New South Wales, the 76th local government authority in Australia to make the declaration.
Prof Will Steffen, of the Australian National University and the Stockholm Resilience Centre, and a co-author of the article, says: “Emergency can mean many things to many people. But there are some hard numbers behind why so many people are saying we are in a climate emergency.
“This formula sharpens our thinking. So we have 30 years to decarbonise and to stabilise our pressure on the climate system.”
In the Nature article, the scientists highlight nine “tipping points” that, if crossed, become almost impossible to stop. At least five are already “active”.
Some of them, like melting permafrost or forest degradation, can start to add more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, making the job of keeping global temperatures down even harder.
“There are a range of these intervention times left,” Steffen says. “How long do we have before [the Greenland ice sheet] goes? Maybe we have 20 to 25 years and then we might be committed to losing Greenland.
“But the time we have left to intervene to stabilise coral reefs, for example, is a lot less than 30 years.
“Our reaction time has to be fast and to decarbonise by 2050 we have to really move now. That’s the point of [Schellnhuber’s] maths.
“To err on the side of danger is a stupid thing to do.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/03/irish-economy-exporters-feel-chill-from-brexit-fall-in-sterling | World news | 2016-08-03T13:02:03.000Z | Lisa O'Carroll | Irish exporters feel chill from Brexit fall in sterling | Business activity and jobs in Ireland are already under threat because of the fallout from Brexit, a key Dublin trade body has warned.
The sharp fall in the pound against the euro is already making Irish exports to the UK, including meat and dairy products, 15% less competitive, said the Irish Business and Employers Confederation (Ibec).
“The Brexit strain is manifest and intense. Without urgent action to address competitive pressures, hundreds of millions of euros worth of exports and thousands of jobs will be lost,” said Ibec’s director, Fergal O’Brien.
Britain is Ireland’s largest export partner, while Ireland is Britain’s fifth biggest trading partner, with €1.5bn (£1.26bn) in transactions each week.
A survey of 450 companies, commissioned by Ibec, showed that their main concern is the sharp fall in sterling, with cheaper UK imports to Ireland cited as another threat to domestic trade.
O’Brien said that “tight margins mean businesses feel that pain quite quickly” and many fear that things could get worse. “We’ve been here before with the crash in 2008 when there was almost parity between the currencies, exporters would have squeezed their businesses, cut costs, cut jobs, but there isn’t that flexibility any more,” he said.
He added that decisions by UK supermarket chains such as Morrisons to cut prices on more than 1,000 products would have a knock-on effect on food suppliers and there were fears among suppliers that big retailers would become more aggressive.
They may review their medium-term sourcing strategies and find suppliers outside the EU. For Irish beef suppliers, for instance, this could mean having to compete with lower prices of Argentina and Brazil.
His warning comes as Dublin stockbroker, Goodbody, downgraded its forecast for the Irish economy due to a “Brexit chill”. Its chief economist, Dermot O’Leary, said the possibility of Britain slipping into a recession will “take the gloss off a robust Irish economic performance”.
Ibec said that analysis of historical trade between UK and Ireland showed a 1% weakness in sterling results in a 0.7% drop in the value of Irish exports.
If the pound fell to £0.90 against the euro, that would cost Ireland £700m in food exports, said Ibec, and threaten 7,500 jobs in that sector alone.
The Irish central bank last month cut its economic growth forecast for the next two years, saying Britain’s exit from the EU was likely to curtail investment, export and employment growth.
The central bank said it believed the Irish economy, which is the fastest-growing in Europe, would continue to grow but that Brexit would have a negative impact.
It cut its projections for growth in 2016 from 5.1% to 4.9% GDP growth. It also slashed 0.6 of a percentage point off its 2017 growth forecast, down to 3.6%.
In the firm’s latest report on the Irish economy, Goodbody reduced forecasts for domestic demand from 5% to 4.2% in 2016 and from 4.4% to 3.7% in 2017.
It said it was taking a more cautious view on net exports and business investment.
However, it said Ireland was in a good position to shield itself from a potential recession in Britain as it continues to recover from the financial crash and ensuing 2010 bailout by the IMF.
Asset values, including property, remain at pre-crash levels and there is continuing slack in the Irish labour market, whereas the UK’s unemployment rate is back down to pre-crisis levels. Household savings are at historic lows and asset prices are seen to be overvalued. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/womens-blog/2016/nov/10/women-you-can-stop-working-now-heres-why | Life and style | 2016-11-10T07:00:26.000Z | Laura Bates | Women, you can stop working now. Here's why | It’s that time of year again. Thursday 10 November marks Equal Pay Day – the date from which, as a result of the gender pay gap, women in the UK are effectively working for free for the rest of the year. According to the Fawcett Society, the full-time pay gap stands at 13.9%, and at the current rate of progress it will take 60 years to close. And the figures are even starker for BAME women, who face a pay gap compared with white workers.
But women across Europe have had enough, and have started staging walkouts to protest against this pay disparity. In October, thousands of women in Iceland left work at 2.38pm on a Monday afternoon, the time from which they are essentially working for free every eight-hour day. And this week, women in French workplaces, including Paris city hall, downed tools at precisely 4.34pm, highlighting the moment at which their annual 38.2 days of “unpaid labour” began.
Such protests draw attention to the gender pay gap – a phenomenon that has become so normalised that women are encouraged to simply accept it (when we’re not being repeatedly told that it doesn’t exist at all). Why should we continue to accept being constantly short-changed?
So, inspired by the women of Iceland and France, I have a few ideas about how women in the UK could highlight the 14% deficit they face, and see how readily others are prepared simply to shrug and get on with it …
From 10 November onwards, when doing the office tea round, ensure your male colleagues’ mugs are just 86% full, let their tea water cool 14 degrees after the kettle reaches boiling point and, just to drive the point home, take a small but pointed bite out of their biscuit.
When dropping children off at school (a task that is part of the unpaid caring work still disproportionately done by women), drive only 86% of the way, then stop abruptly, bundle them out and let them walk the remaining 14% of the journey. Similarly, clean only 86% of any room, scrape 14% of the food off any plate you have prepared for male family members and take care to wash only 86% of any sock belonging to a male partner. Simply cutting the toes off before washing would be an efficient way to achieve this.
Women in different careers, feel free to be creative and make the point in your own unique and personal ways. Surgeons, down your scalpels with 14% of the operation left to go; waitresses, cut a 14% wedge out of each customer’s pizza; actresses, walk off stage 86% of the way through a play, leaving the audience to guess the ending. I advise female refuse collectors to leave 14% of the contents of each resident’s bin in a neat pile on their doorstep.
If engaging in any kind of sexual activity with a male partner between now and New Year’s Day, wait until you estimate that they are precisely 86% of the way towards climaxing before stopping abruptly and abandoning said sexual activity for a good book or a Jessica Jones boxset. (For ease of calculation, recent statistics suggest this will take an average time of 4min 39sec.)
These are, of course, tongue-in-cheek suggestions. But it is frustrating to wonder how long it will take before this inequality is seen as an urgent problem, rather than simply an inevitable burden more than half the population must continue to shoulder. And most importantly of all ...
Note: The final 14% of this article is not available. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/22/justin-trudeaus-victory-is-a-death-knell-for-canadas-fledgling-far-right | World news | 2019-10-22T06:17:45.000Z | Martin Patriquin | Justin Trudeau's victory is a death knell for Canada's fledgling far-right | Liberal supporters trickled into the party headquarters in downtown Montreal on Monday night, apparently worried that they were about to witness an electoral comeuppance for Justin Trudeau.
Yet any jitters quickly turned to cheers as the party secured a minority government, thereby rescuing Trudeau’s legacy – and probably tilting Canada’s political landscape further to the left in the process.
“From coast to coast to coast, Canadians rejected division,” Trudeau said in his victory speech. “We will continue to fight climate change, we will get guns off our streets and we will keep investing in Canadians.”
Canada elections: Trudeau wins narrow victory to form minority government
Read more
Lofty words aside, Canada’s 43rd election campaign capped a particularly bruising year for Trudeau, who rose to power in 2014 as an outspoken progressive.
Once in office, he attempted to please both the left and right flanks of Canada’s centrist voters and instead irritated suburbanites and environmentalists by at once introducing a carbon tax and buying an oil pipeline. His image was further damaged when his government was found to have pushed for judicial leniency for SNC-Lavalin, a scandal-plagued engineering firm based in the politically crucial province of Quebec.
Trudeau’s personal reputation suffered another blow when pictures emerged of him in blackface – and suffered again when he couldn’t say how often he’d donned it in public. Though he repeatedly apologised, the incident played into the well-hewed caricature of Trudeau as a hypocritical, out-of-touch dilettante.
Yet in defeating Conservative party, the Liberals have instead called into question the direction of conservativism in Canada. The Conservative leader, Andrew Scheer, himself a social conservative, was decidedly uncomfortable discussing issues of abortion, same sex marriage and climate change.
Though Scheer’s plan to scrap Trudeau’s carbon tax was popular in Canada’s oil-producing regions, it put him at odds with public opinion across the country. As a result, the party failed to gain momentum in either Quebec or the vote-rich confines of suburban Ontario.
Scheer’s loss underscores a new political reality; it is difficult to see how any major political Canadian party will win power without a comprehensive carbon strategy.
And the election was also a veritable death knell for the country’s fledging far right party, the People’s Party of Canada. Its leader, former Conservative MP Maxime Bernier, adopted the tone and substance of Trumpian nativism, decrying multiculturalism, promising to decrease immigration and calling into question the established science on climate change. Formed just over a year ago, the PPC ran a nearly full slate of candidates, yet failed to win a single seat.
Trudeau will instead look to his left to prop up his minority government. With just over two dozen seats, the New Democratic Party will likely hold the balance of power in Parliament.
NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, a practising Sikh, is the first person of colour to lead a federal political party in Canada’s history. The NDP platform is chock full of progressive initiatives, including a national pharmacare plan and a tax on the ultra-rich to help pay for it.
The party is also firmly against further pipeline development, which puts it at odds with the Liberal plan to expand the Trans Mountain Pipeline. However, the NDP’s newfound power – the party has never formed a government – is tempered by its empty coffers and Canada’s election fatigue, meaning expediency will likely trump ideology in the short and medium term.
Quebec, meanwhile, has seen the resurgence of the Bloc Québécois, the long-declining separatist party which saw a surge of support and a 22-seat increase in the province. Rather than focus on the issue of Quebec separation – a relative electoral millstone in the province – leader Yves-François Blanchet concentrated on a raft of environmental and progressive measures, including a promise to oppose any oil pipeline development through the province.
'It’s part of who I am': proposed Quebec law could push hijab-wearers out of jobs
Read more
The Bloc also supported Bill 21, Quebec’s popular if contentious law banning religious symbols from the bodies of provincial public servants. The ban drew the ire of teachers unions and minority rights groups alike, in large part because it is seen as a stealth attack on Muslim women wearing the hijab. But with his strong electoral showing, Blanchet can make good on his threat to call out any federal party that interferes in Quebec’s legislative affairs.
The Liberal party lost a significant number of votes and seats in the election. Trudeau’s reputation as Canada’s “Sweet Woke Bae Prince” is damaged, perhaps permanently, because of his onetime penchant painting his face black. Yet in winning the election despite it all, Justin Trudeau has again turned the focus on his right-leaning rivals across the aisle. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/13/us-midterm-election-american-democracy-lie-voter-suppression | Opinion | 2018-11-13T14:00:08.000Z | Bhaskar Sunkara | American democracy isn't working. We need to re-write the rules | Bhaskar Sunkara | In a democracy, when people vote for change, things are actually meant to change. But, time and time again, election results in America haven’t reflected the popular will. And the midterm elections were no exception.
Last Tuesday’s turnout was record breaking for a midterm election, and the message from a majority of Americans was clear: Trump and the Republican agenda was repudiated. The Democrats won the national popular vote by around 7%, and they’ll narrowly win back the House of Representatives for their efforts. They won the Senate by more than 12 million votes, but actually lost seats there. Trump and the Republican party will still be in the driver’s seat.
For a historic wave election, that’s a bit of a let-down. And the problem doesn’t just lie with many Democrats running more on moral outrage than a clear agenda for working Americans. It has to do with our system of governance. Under a truly representative system, Trump should have lost his ability to lead a government. He should have been replaced by politicians who had the backing of a legislative majority and were accountable to their mobilized constituents.
But our current system of governance is far from democratic – and I’m not even speaking about the flagrant voter suppression efforts by the Republican party, or the fact that countless districts are heavily gerrymandered to protect incumbents.
These undemocratic practices are bad and should be fought. But even if everyone was allowed to participate meaningfully in the system, we’d still be in trouble. That’s not because our constitutional system is being perverted – it’s a natural result of the system the founders designed.
The US Senate simply exists for no other reason than to stifle democracy
Let’s start with the Senate. It’s a body where around half a million people chilling in Wyoming exert as much power as almost 40 million Californians. Where people living in Puerto Rico and Washington DC get no representation at all. The US Senate simply exists for no other reason than to stifle democracy.
Gerrymandered as it is – and despite its woeful resident to representative ratio – the House of Representatives can at least claim a democratic mandate. The problem is, Trump can, too. (Yes, I know, he won almost 3 million fewer votes than Hillary Clinton. Blame the electoral college, another anti-democratic institution built by the founders.)
This sort of divided government is a common feature in presidential democracies like ours. It’s why these systems tend to be so dysfunctional. Conflicting democratic mandates – along with so-called checks and balances like the president’s veto power – mean it’s difficult to get anything done. Such governments aren’t just ineffectual; they actively erode democracy. The burden of policy making often shifts to unelected judges, or to an ever more powerful executive, trends we’ve seen under Bush, Obama, and Trump.
The dysfunction baked into our divided political system also has anti-democratic knock-on effects. Wealthy Americans and business interests can tolerate a fair amount of legislative malaise, but working-class voters tend to see partisan gridlock in Washington as more proof that politics can’t make their lives better. This in turn leads to greater voter “apathy” – which far from being a pathology seems like a rational response to a broken system.
Luckily, there’s an alternative to the anti-democratic system we’ve been bequeathed, one that’s been adopted by much of the world: parliamentary democracy. In a parliamentary democracy, the executive derives its legitimacy from a legislative mandate. Ideally, a new strong federal government would be run by a proportionally-elected unicameral legislature, free from the anti-democratic Senate. Under such a system, we wouldn’t have to wait until at least 2020 (or an impeachment) for last week’s democratic repudiation of Trump to take effect. A government that reflects the will of a majority of Americans would be coming to power today.
Of course, that’s a far-fetched fantasy at present. The founders left us with a particularly bad system of government that’s nearly impossible to amend. There are small steps we can take right away, such as abolishing the Senate filibuster, which would make Congress more functional, and establishing federal control over elections, which would prevent the sort of voter suppression that Republicans used in the midterms. Ultimately, however, much more will be needed. If we really want to respond to the urgent crisis of climate change and offer the basics of justice and dignity to working class and poor Americans, we need a better way to govern ourselves.
It won’t be easy, but it is possible. Most of the country’s founders imagined a republic of the ruling class – propertied white men – and scraps for everyone else. Over the years, we defeated slavery through civil war, got women’s suffrage in the streets, and won civil rights through a multi-racial mass movement. We created something of a democracy out of a slavocracy. Anything that’s even remotely democratic about our system of governance was won through sacrifice and struggle. And can be done so again.
Bhaskar Sunkara is a columnist for the Guardian US and the founding editor of Jacobin | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2020/mar/02/pretty-woman-the-musical-review-piccadilly-theatre-london | Stage | 2020-03-02T23:00:04.000Z | Arifa Akbar | Pretty Woman: The Musical review – tasteless romcom returns with tunes | Abusinessman picks up a sex worker to turn her into his high-class escort for the week and they fall in love. However distasteful the elevator pitch for Pretty Woman may sound, it was a romcom that won hearts in 1990 and became the stuff of box-office dreams.
This musical adaptation about Vivian the prostitute and Edward the corporate vulture (he buys failing companies and sells them at profit) comes amid a surge of 80s and 90s nostalgia, including stage adaptations of Back to the Future and Indecent Proposal. Its wide-eyed worship of wealth makes no apology for the idea that everything – even love – emanates from the exchange of cold, hard cash.
Can the story still win us over? Not exactly. This feels like a shallow and at times tasteless show but, within the rules of a romcom, it works in its central, schmaltzy storyline of love despite the odds. There is also some attempt, however bolted on, to update the story’s sexual politics.
Dressing up as Julia Roberts … Aimie Atkinson as Vivian. Photograph: Helen Maybanks
Aimie Atkinson plays Vivian as wholesome but slightly harder-faced than Julia Roberts and does not have the latter’s all-eclipsing ebullience. Her romance with Danny Mac, as Edward, feels undercharged and, if anything, suggests the transactional relationship between an emotionally distant rich man and a sex worker. Discomforting lines emerge in songs: “I’ll be a hooker in a raincoat,” she says to Edward when he makes her look respectable on entering his upmarket hotel. “He will want to see you with your buttons undone,” a character sings, in another bilious moment.
Jerry Mitchell’s production has an ersatz feel, as if revelling in its nostalgia; sex workers lining Hollywood Boulevard are in retro leather miniskirts and jean jackets. Atkinson looks like she has dressed up as Roberts in black thigh boots and blond wig. Danny Mac appears to be channelling Richard Gere, not only in his look but also in the woodenness of his performance.
The book by JF Lawton, who wrote the original screenplay, and Garry Marshall, the film’s director, sounds as if they are striving for the same magic to be created on stage through workmanlike imitation. But there are ways in which it updates itself, however unsatisfying that is. Vivian is emphatically the brighter of the couple. She quotes George Bernard Shaw in a nod to the Pygmalion myth that resonates through the film. Later, she sings: “It’s me who’s in control … I say who, I say when, I say how much.” However saccharine the story’s ending, Vivian at least wins Edward on her own terms.
Pygmalionesque … Vivian and Edward after her transformation. Photograph: Helen Maybanks
The score by Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance often veers into the bland but there are some strong voices and a few winning songs. Rachael Wooding as Vivian’s fellow sex worker, Kit, is especially impressive alongside Bob Harms in his double role as the hotel manager and a figure called Happy Man. We wait for Roy Orbison’s signature song, which comes at the end and is the best musical moment of the night.
Some of the witty dance numbers stand out, especially those featuring an underplayed substory between a dancing bellboy, Giulio, played bewitchingly by Alex Charles, and Harms’s dancing hotel manager, Mr Thompson.
Hotel staff in Hi-de-Hi style blazers congregate in these same-sex dance numbers and bring camp, glinting mischief to the musical. Sadly, it melts away but, even so, the nascent love story between Giulio and Mr Thompson feels, for a time, like there’s another, more daring musical fighting to get out of this one.
Pretty Woman: The Musical is booking until January 2021 | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/sep/14/northern-rock-investors-theresa-may-compensation | Business | 2017-09-14T10:33:37.000Z | Jill Treanor | Former Northern Rock investors ask Theresa May for compensation | Former shareholders in Northern Rock are asking Theresa May to listen to their moral case for compensation after their investment in the Newcastle-based lender was wiped out when it was nationalised 10 years ago.
A delegation of investors will arrive at 10 Downing Street on Thursday to hand in a letter to the prime minister to set out their claim that it is unfair that the government has received all of the proceeds from sales of Northern Rock’s assets.
Thursday marks the 10th anniversary of the run on Northern Rock, when nervous customers seeking to withdraw their money queued at branches around the country after news broke that the bank had received emergency funding from the Bank of England.
Where are they now? The Northern Rock drama 10 years on …
Rob Davies
Read more
Dennis Grainger, who worked at Northern Rock for 10 years, has led the campaign and will head the delegation to argue that there is justification to make payments to about 150,000 private shareholders who lost their equity when the bank was nationalised in February 2008.
Grainger said: “Three times I tried to get a meeting with David Cameron to ask him to review the unfair handling by the previous disingenuous administration. Now may be an appropriate time for the prime minister to apply the ‘fairness’ in which she clearly believes.”
The group he leads has continue to work on their claim despite a decision by the European court of justice in 2012 to dismiss their argument that they were entitled to a payout.
Part of Northern Rock was sold to Virgin Money in 2012 and since then other mortgages have been sold off and parts of the business managed alongside the mortgage book of Bradford & Bingley. The government has estimated it will make about £9.6bn from Northern Rock and the parts of Bradford & Bingley with which it has been combined, the campaigners said.
The former shareholders argue that have an “overwhelming case that the entire Rock handling and outcome clearly demonstrates discriminatory treatment, injustice and unfairness toward the shareholders who were ‘wiped out’ unjustly”.
Among their arguments is that the shareholders in banks that were rescued the following year – Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds TBS and HBOS – were not wiped out in the same way.
In his letter to the prime minister, on behalf of the Northern Rock Small Shareholders Association, Grainger said: “As the UK marks the 10th anniversary of the Northern Rock crisis in 2007 may we suggest to you that it would be appropriate now to try and achieve a just closure on an equitable, morally sound and fair basis.”
The run on Northern Rock began on 14 September 2007 after the BBC reported that the Newcastle-based lender had received emergency funding from the Bank of England. It was the first run on a high street bank in the UK since Overend & Gurney in the 1860s. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/sep/22/custard-tart-recipe-pastel-de-nata-jeremy-lee-quo-vadis-king-of-puddings | Food | 2017-09-22T11:00:45.000Z | Jeremy Lee | Jeremy Lee’s glorious custard tarts recipe | King of puddings | Ah, the glories of custard tarts. They are quite irresistible, aren’t they? One age-old rule applies, however: that they be good. This, I have learned, is much easier said than done.
I used to rather like the nursery-style recipe culled from the pages of The Constance Spry Cookery Book, but the prime-ministerial, clipped tones of that beatified writer seem to have haunted the recipe through the decades, until it became a slightly cowed and saddened version of a once-promising wonder. It is a curious matter that some recipes, like some wines, do not mature and age well.
The Portuguese pastel de nata are so wonderful that it is almost pointless trying to replicate, let alone better them. That never stopped me trying, although my failed attempts eventually did. Quite simply, they were never as good! Even Fabrico Proprio: The Design of Portuguese Semi-Industrial Confectionery, an extraordinary book I acquired on a visit to Leila’s Shop in London’s East End – which has a nata adorning the cover, no less – could not aid this cook in crossing the winning line.
Jeremy Lee’s recipe for greengage clafoutis
Read more
But on British soil, the custard tart taken to giddy heights by Fergus Henderson at St John left every other at the starting post, staring after this champion so endowed with eggs and cream within a crust so dark that all other pretenders were left far behind.
Sadly, a lunch at St John is a very rare treat for a Soho cook. I do not get to scoff this almighty wonder often enough. I have a great fondness for it and sigh mightily when passing by on the way to Soho – though an occasional, much more portable, madeira cake from their bakery calms the passions very well en route.
Still, there are times only a custard tart will do. Particularly when pondering a treat on a blustery day, when one is feeling listless and the day without is of intemperate humour, stymying thoughts of doing very much at all ... then making a tray of custard tarts is rather a pleasing prospect. They may well serve as a pudding with much charm, as long as they are kept out of reach of outstretched arms. Or just a lovely afternoon treat.
Care is required when rolling pastry, not so thick as to set the custard into bounciness, but not so thin as to be fragile, cracking and bursting its banks, weeping scented tears of custard while in the oven (hardly a great shame, but a pity nonetheless).
The custard? Ah, it is a delicious mixture of eggs, cream and sugar, c’est tout. And, as it is always the best and ever at hand, here is the recipe from Fergus Henderson’s St John Cookbook. I love them best unadorned with just a sprinkling of nutmeg atop, but should a bowl of bramley apple compote just happen to be at hand then spoon it on with some cream … That recipe? Ah, a story for another day.
The very custard tarts
I confess to using quite another pastry, but the original St John filling remains my go-to. The pastry is best made the day before, time willing. You will need two patty tins – enough for 20 little tarts.
Makes 20 little tarts
500g plain flour
100g icing sugar
A pinch of salt
300g unsalted butter
1 whole egg
2 egg yolks
1-2 tbsp ice-cold water
For the custard
1 vanilla pod
800ml double cream
9 egg yolks
100g caster sugar
1 whole nutmeg
1 Sift the flour, icing sugar and salt into a bowl. Cut the cold butter into small pieces and tip into the flour. Deftly and swiftly rub together into a fine crumb.
2 Crack the egg into a bowl, add the yolks and mix with a fork. Add this into the flour and butter with a pinch of salt and the ice-cold water. Knead swiftly into a dough and shape into a roll. Slice in half. Shape each piece into a disc. Wrap each disc in clingfilm and refrigerate.
3 Cut one disc of pastry into four pieces. Roll out one quarter until only slightly thicker than a pound coin. Use a cutter to make little pastry discs to line your tart trays. This is a pleasant task requiring a modest amount of patience and is best performed unrushed if at all possible. Refrigerate the whole tray and repeat with the remaining pastry. You should have enough for 20 little tarts. (The scraps are rather good for making little jammy turnovers – just a thought).
4 Make little discs of silicon paper and line each tart case with them. Fill with rice, beans or some such weighty matter. Bake at 180C/350F/gas 4 until the pastry is golden brown; even a little darker – say 15-20 minutes. Remove the trays from the oven. With much patience, remove the paper discs filled with rice and/or beans. Return the trays to the oven for a few minutes to ensure the bottom is well baked.
5 For the custard, split the vanilla pod lengthways. Scrape the seeds into a heavy-bottomed saucepan, toss in the pod, and add the double cream. Gently bring slowly to a simmer, stirring often.
6 Put the yolks in a large bowl. Add the sugar. Stir well, then pour on the infused cream. Remove the vanilla pod (and then rinse and dry before adding to a sugar jar!). Let the custard settle for a minute, then spoon away any froth on the surface. Decant into a small jug.
7 Put one tray of tarts in the oven for a minute. Pulling the shelf out carefully, fill each tart from the jug, replenishing as needed. Once all the tarts are filled, bake them until set, for 15-20 minutes, or until only the wibbliest wobble disturbs the surfaces when agitated. Remove from the oven and sit the tin upon a cooling rack and repeat with the next tray.
8 Once all the tarts are cooked, scrape the nutmeg generously over the tarts in a fairly even shower. Once the tarts have cooled – after 10-15 minutes, or maybe longer – gently start to loosen each tart from the tin and sit upon a tray. Once all are done, sit all upon a handsome board or tray or plate, then boil the kettle …
Jeremy Lee is the chef proprietor of Quo Vadis club and restaurant in London’s Soho; @jeremyleeqv
The headline on this article was amended on 25 September 2017. An earlier version used the Spanish spelling pastel del nata. This has been corrected to the Portuguese pastel de nata. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/mar/30/lost-phones-a-sex-swing-and-dozens-of-deodorants-queenslands-rubbish-rambler-on-15-years-of-roadside-finds | Australia news | 2024-03-29T14:00:45.000Z | Aston Brown | Lost phones, a sex swing and dozens of deodorants: Queensland’s ‘rubbish rambler’ on 15 years of roadside finds | Every few years Leonard Monaghan finds a refrigerator full of rotting meat and vegetables on the side of a country road in south-east Queensland.
He suspects the culprits must return from holidays to a broken fridge and bad smell. Instead of paying $12 to drop it off at the local tip, they dump the whole lot on the quiet backroad.
Monaghan, who styles himself as the “Warwick Rubbish Rambler”, has gathered 104 tonnes of rubbish from roadsides around the rural town in the past 15 years.
Other standout finds include dozens of mobile phones of which six were returned to their owners, a sex swing, a sealed 24-pack of deodorant cans and a plastic bag full of pornographic DVDs.
“St Vincent’s [charity shop] doesn’t have an X-rated section, at least not that I know of, so the DVDs went in the bin,” he says.
The disability pensioner spends at least 20 hours a week collecting rubbish.
‘It gives you a good purpose’: Monaghan collecting rubbish by a roadside. Photograph: Aston Brown/The Guardian
His days start early to avoid the heat. I met him at a turnoff 15km north-west of Warwick at 5.30am on Monday for a 17km stomp along a narrow road. He targets this stretch of road, which is surrounded by long grass and scrub, one day a month.
“I guess you can say I’m a bit obsessed,” he says. “Obsession isn’t necessarily a bad thing I think, if it gives you a good purpose.”
Sign up to receive Guardian Australia’s fortnightly Rural Network email newsletter
His rubbish collecting began in 2007 as a daily morning walk, after years of illness. He was aiming to get fit and picked up rubbish along the way. A year later he’d collected one tonne of rubbish.
Early on he experimented with using a postie bike – the low-powered motorcycles favoured by Australia Post – to speed up rubbish collection. That “fun but impractical and inherently dangerous” approach lasted a few years, until he collided with a dead kangaroo.
Collecting through the years: in 2012 he used a motorbike and in 2016 a trolley built from bicycles. Photograph: Leonard Monaghan
He now favours a custom-built trolley, which rolls out of the back of a large navy-blue van. This setup has taken his rubbish rambling “to a whole new level”.
His latest personal milestone, 104 tonnes of rubbish collected since 2008, passed on Saturday. By 2032 he hopes to crack 200 tonnes, which will mean collecting 30kg of trash a day for the next eight years.
‘The roadside version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire’: Queensland’s trivia signs keeping drivers alert
Read more
Monday’s haul is mostly cans, plastic bottles, plastic wrappers and a few cigarette packets flung out the windows of passing cars. It weighs in at just 13kg. “Well below my target,” he says.
Cans and bottles are taken to drop-off points for the 10c refund and car batteries are sold to a local metal dealer for 50c/kg. Anything else that doesn’t fit in his rubbish and recycling wheelie bins (the local council gave him an extra set) goes to the tip.
In 2023 he was named Cultural Person of the Year by the Southern Downs regional council. He received a citizen award in 2018.
“I think they wanted to give me another award so they had to make one up,” Monaghan says. “In what way am I cultural?
“It’s good to be recognised, but it means more to me when people toot the horn on the way past, wave, or give out one of those ‘Gooodoonnyaaas’, especially when it’s raining.”
Monaghan’s custom-built trolley has taken his rubbish rambling to a ‘new level. Photograph: Aston Brown/The Guardian
Southern Downs council has employed an illegal dumping officer since July. Nicole Collett, the council’s manager of environmental services, says 574 wheelie bins worth of illegally dumped rubbish have been recorded in the past seven months.
Dropping household rubbish at the tip is free, Collett says, but “a lot of the time people leave a rental and then dump all their furniture on the side of the road”.
Due to recycling costs, residents are charged a small fee to dispose of car tyres, fridges and mattresses. Monaghan doesn’t bother collecting those items. He often walks past more than a dozen tyres a day, and says a refund system should apply to used car tyres like it does to bottles and cans.
“Queensland University [of Technology] is looking at turning them into diesel,” he says. “But it’s not economical I guess. There’s no incentive.”
‘I would appreciate it if people didn’t dump things.’ Photograph: Aston Brown/The Guardian
He’s also noticed an uptick in the number of mattresses dumped on roadsides since the tip introduced the $15 mattress disposal charge last year.
In contrast, the number of aluminium cans and drink bottles has dropped since the 10c container deposit scheme was introduced in Queensland in 2018.
‘Our town really needs this’: setting the stage for the first LGBTQ+ festival in Orange
Read more
According to the Queensland environment department, local governments in the state spent a combined $25m cleaning up 11,723 tonnes of litter and illegally dumped waste in the 2022-23 financial year.
“I would appreciate it if people didn’t dump things. It would make things easier and I’d be happy for it,” Monaghan says.
“Then again, it gives me something to do, I suppose.”
Sign up for the Rural Network email newsletter
Join the Rural Network group on Facebook to be part of the community | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/jun/08/zero-growth-warning-for-uk-economy-as-petrol-prices-surge | Business | 2022-06-08T19:00:41.000Z | Larry Elliott | Fuel cost surge and dire economic forecast shatter PM’s hope of reset | Boris Johnson’s attempt to reset his troubled premiership has received a double blow after petrol prices had their biggest daily rise in 17 years and a leading international thinktank said the UK economy would slow to a standstill next year.
Fears that Britain is heading for a prolonged period of 1970s-style stagflation intensified amid fresh evidence of the damaging impact of the war in Ukraine on the cost of living and growth.
Dashing government hopes of a sustained recovery from the Covid pandemic, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) singled out the cost of living crisis as a cause of Britain’s slide down the international growth league table. It said the UK would be the weakest economy in the G7 group of leading industrial nations next year.
In the latest twist to inflation, motorists are faced with the imminent threat of the cost of filling the average family saloon hitting £100 for the first time, after the cost of a litre of petrol rose 2.23p on Tuesday to more than 180p.
The data firm Experian Catalist said a similar increase on Wednesday would result in the £100 barrier being breached. Some forecourts are already selling petrol above £2 a litre, including a BP garage on the A1 near Sunderland that was charging 202.9p.
Average diesel prices are also at a record high, hitting 186.6p on Tuesday, up 1.4p from Monday. Higher diesel prices have a significant impact on the wider economy because businesses typically use the fuel to fill vans and lorries. Before Russia’s invasion in late February, petrol and diesel were hovering around the 150p mark.
With ministers wary of a backlash from drivers, Downing Street told petrol retailers they could face investigation by the competition watchdog if there was evidence that the 5p-a-litre cut in fuel duty announced by Rishi Sunak in his March mini-budget was not being passed on.
Inflation has already hit a 40-year-high of 9% and the OECD said it would continue rising to peak at above 10% later in the year.
Despite the demands of some Conservative MPs, Sunak has no immediate plans for tax cuts and intends to wait until the budget in the autumn before coming up with another package of support. The chancellor and the prime minister will outline plans in the coming weeks to boost growth through measures such as improving skills and raising Britain’s investment in research and development.
The UK economy will grow by 3.6% in 2022 and there will be zero growth in 2023, according to the Paris-based OECD, with inflation expected to average 8.8% this year and fall to 7.4% in 2023.
The predictions, contained in the OECD’s half-yearly economic outlook, represent a sharp downgrade from the estimated 4.7% growth this year and 2.1% next year made six months ago.
Laurence Boone, the thinktank’s chief economist, said the UK was being hit by a combination of factors including higher interest rates, higher taxes, reduced trade and more expensive energy.
The OECD said the UK was expected to go from being the second fastest-growing economy in the G7 group of industrial nations after Canada this year to the slowest-growing in 2023. Japan, Germany, Italy, France and the US are the other members of the group.
A UK Treasury spokesperson said: “Thanks to the support we provided during the pandemic, the UK had the fastest growth in the G7 last year, and our unemployment rate is the lowest it’s been in nearly 50 years. But we recognise many people will be concerned by these forecasts.
“While we can’t insulate the UK from global pressures entirely, our economy is in a strong position to deal with these challenges. We have a plan for growth, and we are supporting people with the cost of living.”
The increase in petrol and diesel prices has been blamed on increased demand for fuel around the world, including in China and the US as Covid restrictions loosen. A squeeze on capacity at refineries has also kept pump prices high, while oil has fallen from peaks seen at the start of the war in Ukraine.
The business secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, wrote to forecourt retailers last month to “remind them of their responsibilities” to pass on tax cuts to motorists. He said it was “unacceptable that different locations even within the same retail chain have widely different prices”.
He has asked the Competition and Markets Authority to examine the issue. The prime minister’s spokesperson said: “The CMA have said that if they find evidence that the cut is not being passed on, that would mean competition is not working and they could launch a formal investigation. Obviously we would wholeheartedly support them. We are continuing to look at all possible options. Transparency may have an important role to play.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/oct/13/gunter-grass-the-flounder | Books | 2015-10-13T04:00:14.000Z | Alex Hamilton | Günter Grass on his new book The Flounder: from the archive, 13 October 1978 | In West Germany, where 300,000 of Günter Grass’s massive novel The Flounder have been sold in a year, many customers are returning for a second helping. The first copy was for their own library, an exuberant read (exuberant being a word strongly related to the matriarchal udder, and even more true of Grass’s imagination here than ever). It is a story full of stories from the Stone Age to 1970. The second copy they are buying for the kitchen, as a house book. It contains scores of perfectly workable recipes, some quite ancient, plus 40 or so poems as aids to digestion.
He can’t, he says, generate a novel without an epic idea. In modern times epic ideas are no longer chansons de geste nor heroes of vaulting ambition. They may be cities, as Dublin was for Joyce; or Berlin for Alfred Doblin in the twenties. In this sense in previous novels Grass has used the lost Free City of Danzig, where he was born in 1927 of Polish and German parents; Danzig figures again this time, but the central, the epic, idea was food – its history and cultural substance.
He planned this bonne bouche for himself as a 50th birthday present. Luckily his fame and fortune allowed him to give five years to it (writing is an old-fashioned profession, he says, which can’t be rationalised and hurried and computers can’t help) because the snag in research is the shortage of documents. And those few mostly relate what rich people ate. His interest lay in the provender of the poor and the unknown women who schemed and cooked it.
The planting of potatoes in Prussia, he believes, did more to change society over the long haul than the Seven Years’ War. If you come to this point you see history with different eyes. It must be said here that he has always seen history with different eyes, thinking chronology a fiction and the role of women falsified because they are only mentioned when they behave like men - Elizabeth, Catherine the Great, Indira Gandhi and so forth. And in neglecting food historians have omitted, he says, what has become the crucial question of our time.
Grass came to London this week to bestow the Schlegel Tieck translation prize at the Goethe Institute, to take lunch at the new German Embassy, to launch The Flounder and a collection of his poems called In the Egg, and attend the opening at the Patrick Searle Gallery in Belgravia of his etchings of creatures like flounders and snails which are his symbols of modern political progress, the coastal variety being, he says, a specially nippy sort of snail. Between these grand occasions he sat in my musty, dusty study and rolled his own cigarettes from the same awful shag he smoked when he was poor, and talked of critical moments in his own history.
With his open collar and snug paunch, the lugubrious moustache which belies his saturnine humour and his hooded eastern eyes he seems not so much like the great European writer as an afternoon pork butcher from Cable Street. All Grass is flesh ? Well, he hails from the north which is cattle country. Had he been, say, a Bavarian, he’d have been all noodles. The dichotomy in German cooking dates from the rise in price of Hungarian and Polish beef in 1525. His personal culinary background is the sweet and sour of Poland.
He loves to cook, yes, to devote two entire days to fixing a wedding spread for 80 people, and says he’s frightened of people who do not love themselves enough to cook when they’re on their own. But it was neither this nor research for The Flounder that rounded him out. It was his masterpiece and first novel The Tin Drum that changed his shape, literally and metaphorically. Not because it sold half a million copies in America, though it did, but because he’d been working in a damp room and when he applied for a health certificate to visit the USA tuberculones were diagnosed. His frantic publisher, thinking the new-born genius about to be snuffed out, had him drugged up. Up and up, to 15 stone.
Drastic, but sound. He was cured and went on, stoutly, to write Cat and Mouse, and The Dog Years, these three giving a purview of the tumult and anguish of the German people from the Weimar Republic to the collapse of the Third Reich, in a splendid mix of realism and and expressionist fantasy. The Dog Years, more fragmented and less perfect than The Tin Drum, he thinks better. It contains all the political lines of polemic on behalf of the Social Democrats, that he has followed since.
In Danzig, the son of a grocer who thought he should build bridges not draw them, he had a good youth. It was ten minutes by street car through forest to the flounder-stuffed Baltic. He was good at sports, wrestled, ran long-distance. The family had a two-room apartment, and three other families shared the outside loo. His sister had a box for her effects under one window, he a box under the other. He spent years reading with his fingers in his ears. His mother was romantic about the arts, perhaps because her three brothers, a painter, a poet and a sculptor were all killed as young men in the first war. She liked his lies, realising the truth bored him.
It was a good youth, and he was a member of the Hitler Youth. He left school at 15 to join an anti-aircraft battery, was wounded, and made prisoner by the Americans. They de-Nazified him by taking him to Dachau and showing him the showers, and making him listen to broadcasts of Nuremburg. Until they heard the admissions of their own leaders, the young prisoners believed nothing. But after this, says Grass, it was many years before he would believe anything from grown-ups. He was against them all.
This is an edited version, click here to read in full | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/oct/03/rupauls-drag-race-uk-review-so-smutty-even-ru-cant-keep-up | Television & radio | 2019-10-03T20:00:55.000Z | Rebecca Nicholson | RuPaul's Drag Race UK review – so smutty even Ru can't keep up | RuPaul’s Drag Race has become less of a reality show and more of an industry – and it is expanding at the rate of WeWork. As well as the original US series, there is the spinoff All Stars, in which fan-favourite former competitors get to try again, meaning Drag Race barely takes a break from the air. There is Untucked, the DragCon conventions – a live circuit for old participants. And now there is Drag Race UK (BBC Three), the second in a wave of international editions, after Thailand, to be followed by Australia and Canada. To misquote Dolly Parton: it makes a lot of money to look this cheap.
In many ways, a British Drag Race or something of the sort has been a long time coming. There is a rich history of drag as mainstream entertainment in the UK, particularly in working-class culture, and bawdy humour is integral to our national identity (even Bake Off, the softest of shows, rose to prominence on a wave of double entendres). So it should work. On the other hand, one of the defining characteristics of the original Drag Race is its surprising earnestness, which seems at odds with most UK drag I have seen. British drag is more original, experimental and accepting of quirks. Like many, I was concerned that Drag Race might find those qualities lost in translation.
‘I love drag. It's dangerous’: Graham Norton and Alan Carr on desire, camp and ‘cancel culture’
Read more
For the most part, they have pruned and tucked so you can barely see the stitches. Any fears that it might have been polished for a non-British audience are quickly allayed when we meet the first contestant, Baga Chipz, from West Bromwich, who demonstrates that while Britons and Americans may share a common language, they do very different things with it. The words “gobshite”, “minge” and “trollop” flutter through the air like confetti. Another contestant, Vinegar Strokes, must gently explain the origins of her name to Ru; she makes her entrance quoting Kat Slater’s infamous “I became a total slag” line from EastEnders. The Vivienne does an impression of Kim Woodburn of How Clean Is Your House? fame. I felt a tingling of patriotism. If Number 10 could bottle this, our sorely divided nation might be in with a chance.
The mini challenge introduces the 10 contestants, and compared to the show’s glossy sheen across the pond, they are a pleasingly rough-and-ready bunch. They are asked to pose with their own severed head in a photoshoot so budget they make Ru operate the camera. A big difference is that there are no branded prizes, and there is no big prize of $100,000. This is the BBC, after all. There is a promise of the overall winner going to Hollywood to make their own original series, but that sounds like the kind of thing an unscrupulous agent might offer a starlet in the 1930s. Be sure to take a chaperone, is all I would say.
The traditional rivalries are put in place early on – young v old, loud v quiet, traditional v punk – but so far, no one is trotting out the reality TV maxim of: “I’m not here to make friends; I’m here to win.” It is all very cordial. Having maintained the Drag Race tradition of baffling mini-challenge winners, the maxi challenge gets right down to it and asks for two catwalk looks: Queen Elizabeth Realness, and Queen of Your Hometown. If anyone has ever wondered how one might demonstrate the spirit of Wiltshire with only homemade outfits and heavy makeup, you are in for a treat. I can’t tell you what they wore (the preview came with more spoiler warnings than an episode of Game of Thrones) but it is worth the wait to find out how Leicester might survive its sartorial interpretation.
RuPaul and his longtime BFF Michelle Visage shore up the judging panel, with the help of Alan Carr and Andrew Garfield, who mostly gets into the smutty spirit but occasionally forgets he is on Drag Race and not Inside the Actor’s Studio (nerves, he declares, are “a wonderful tailwind”). Birmingham’s Sum Ting Wong (“a reclamation of those little micro-aggressive racist digs”) and Crystal, the obligatory “edgy” queen from east London, are my early favourites, but only a fool would pick a winner so soon.
For those of us who have stuck with Drag Race for the last decade, this new incarnation could be the shake-up that was needed. One of its recent problems has been how self-referential it has become. With contestants discussing old seasons and dressing up as former contestants, its world was shrinking. This opens it up. Yes, it is less slick, and Britons aren’t very good at those reality TV recap interviews to camera. Most of them sound like they are reading pre-prepared answers on Blind Date. But it is more theatrical, and less pageanty, and promises to be a very British Drag Race after all.
This article was amended on 4 October 2019 to clarify the sequence of international editions of Drag Race – Thailand was first. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/oct/29/lewis-hamilton-pole-position-mexican-gp-f1-nico-rosberg | Sport | 2016-10-29T19:18:31.000Z | Giles Richards | Lewis Hamilton claims pole at Mexican GP ahead of team-mate Nico Rosberg | Lewis Hamilton exhibited the touch and confidence that defines a multiple Formula One world champion in Mexico City on Saturday night, amid the maelstrom of a tense championship fight with his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg.
A consummate lap in Q3 topped a dominant session in which Hamilton pushed to the limit of the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez and claimed pole for the Mexican Grand Prix, beating Rosberg by two-tenths of a second.
Hamilton had been faster than his team-mate in all three practice sessions and was so again through Q1 and Q2. His first run in the final shootout with a time of 1min 18.704sec confirmed that form and was enough. Rosberg pushed but he was more than five-tenths back on every lap but his last.
Mercedes F1 team member robbed at gunpoint before Mexican Grand Prix
Read more
Hamilton, however, strung together a sequence of improving runs that came together on his penultimate hot lap, a performance which he acknowledged had been tricky. “It’s always tough trying to pull out perfect laps when it matters,” he said. “Definitely very challenging.”
The Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo were in third and fourth and the two Ferraris of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel were in sixth and seventh, with an impressive fifth for the Force India of Nico Hulkenberg.
Hamilton’s 10th pole of the season could not have been more timely as his battle with Rosberg reaches the endgame and he is now in a position to narrow the 26-point gap. Rosberg will still take the title should he finish second to a Hamilton win in the remaining three meetings but the world champion needs to force the fight to the wire. It is crucial he has a clean getaway, an issue that has compromised his season as much as mechanical problems.
Should he hold the place on the 800m run, the longest of the season, to turn one, he will be able to dictate the race and crucially have the first call on pit-stop strategy. He will also be in clean air – the best place for the Mercedes – and where he needs to be, since he cannot afford a DNF. His retirement and a Rosberg victory would mean the German claims the title here.
Confident following his win in Austin and having dialled-in the car, he did everything required of him but only the first part of the business of keeping his title hopes alive.
The two Williams of Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa were in eighth and ninth with Carlos Sainz Jr putting in a strong run to place his Toro Rosso in tenth.
Rosberg had left it late to secure a front row place and there was, briefly, a real danger that the consistency and determination he has shown all season, during which he has put his car on the front row, before penalties, for every race, was going to come apart. He was five-tenths down on his team-mate in Q1, six-tenths in Q2 and five again on the first hot laps of the final session.
His last run was hooked-up well however and it finally narrowed the gap. For the race though, Hamilton’s control and obvious ease with the circuit is already to his advantage. His time in Q2 was second-fastest only to Verstappen despite having to slow when coming up behind a weaving Vettel on the exit of the Stadium.
Rosberg had needed to push because the competition have found some speed in the thin air of Mexico City and both the Red Bulls and the Ferraris had shown good pace early in the session. Verstappen in particular had another confident run. He has mastered the single-lap discipline well this year, with this second-row slot adding to his third places at Silverstone and Malaysia, fourth at Hungary, Germany, Singapore, the US and Barcelona, the race he went on to win for his debut F1 victory.
Both Mercedes drivers have the advantage of starting on the more durable soft tyres having set their fastest time in Q2 on the harder compound. Hamilton noted that the track had rubbered-in considerably over the weekend and lap times, already well up on last year, are expected to drop further on Sunday, with top speeds going into the braking zone on the entrance to turn one likely to exceed 227mph.
There was disappointment for the local fans when Sergio Pérez could put his Force India only into 12th, splitting the two McLarens of Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button. The Renault of Kevin Magnussen was in 14th ahead of Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson. Pascal Wehrlein had another creditable performance to put his Manor into Q2 and finish in 16th place, well ahead of his team-mate.
Mexico’s second driver, Esteban Gutiérrez, span his Haas on his final quick lap and was knocked out of Q1 in 17th place. Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat was 18th, the Sauber of Felipe Nasr in 19th and the second Manor of Esteban Ocon in 20th. Romain Grosjean in the second Haas had a battery problem and will start from 21st. Britain’s Jolyon Palmer will start his Renault from the pit lane after he cracked his chassis on one of the sausage kerbs in final practice and could not take part in qualifying. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/dec/07/creed-director-ryan-coogler-marvel-black-panther | Film | 2015-12-07T14:32:37.000Z | Benjamin Lee | Creed director Ryan Coogler in talks to take on Marvel's Black Panther | Creed director Ryan Coogler is in negotiations to helm Black Panther, Marvel’s upcoming adventure about the first black superhero.
Creed: why do so few boxing films have black heroes?
Read more
Coogler, who broke out with the acclaimed drama Fruitvale Station, is now in demand after his Rocky spin-off became a surprise hit at the US box office, making $70m in two weeks. It also scored positive reviews with 93% on Rotten Tomatoes and Oscar buzz for star Sylvester Stallone.
According to Birth Movies Death, the 29-year-old director had originally started talks with Marvel earlier this year but had failed to come to an agreement. Since the success of Creed, negotiations have restarted.
Get On Up star Chadwick Boseman has already signed on to play the character, who will be first seen in next year’s Captain America: Civil War. Black Panther, aka T’Challa, is the prince of an African kingdom called Wakanda.
Before Coogler, Marvel had been talking to Selma director Ava DuVernay about taking on the project but she passed, stating a difference in direction. “I think I’ll just say we had different ideas about what the story would be,” she said. “Marvel has a certain way of doing things and I think they’re fantastic and a lot of people love what they do. I loved that they reached out to me.”
Coogler rose to fame in 2013 with the fact-based drama Fruitvale Station, starring Michael B Jordan as a man unlawfully killed by transit police. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/nov/21/sir-paul-mccartney-virtual-reality-concert-app | Technology | 2014-11-21T11:34:40.000Z | Samuel Gibbs | Paul McCartney launches free virtual-reality concert app | Paul McCartney has become one of the first music stars to embrace virtual reality with a free new app with a 360-degree recording of his concert in Candlestick Park, San Francisco, in August.
The free app will run on almost any of the larger 5in Android smartphones released in the last year or so, and uses Google’s Cardboard virtual reality goggles that can be bought or made at home for under £10.
The app displays a 360-degree view of McCartney’s pyrotechnic-filled performance of Live and Let Die from the front of the stage next the the piano, allowing viewers to look around them at McCartney, his band, the crowd and the stage as the concert plays out with 3D sound, which changes depending on what the viewer is looking at.
‘Not often that one gets to experience history in the making’
The app has been produced by California-based virtual reality content company Jaunt, which also produces content for the Oculus Rift headset and is staffed with former Google, Flipboard, Stanford and Caltech engineers. The company also has Peter Gotcher, chairman of Dolby, and Stuart Murphy, Sky’s director of entertainment, on its board.
“It is not often that one gets to experience history in the making, and never do we get to truly relive moments of such significance,” wrote Jaunt’s co-founder and chief executive Jens Christensen. “Feel as though you’re by Sir Paul’s side as he plays Live and Let Die – see it in 360-degree, stereoscopic 3D, hear it with ambisonic audio, and immerse yourself in cinematic VR. It’s like nothing you have seen, heard, or felt before.”
Beck and the Who too
McCartney isn’t the first to have one of his concerts turned into a virtual reality experience. Beck was featured covering David Bowie’s Sound and Vision in a similar fashion, with a 360-degree camera on stage. His Hello, Again concert was turned into a non-3D interactive web experience but also into a stereoscopic performance for Facebook’s Oculus Rift headset.
The Who recently announced that they were partnering with developer Immersive to create a new compilation album and tour, which creates a world full of familiar Who images with lyrics and virtual instruments hovering in the air as songs play. The app will be released in early 2015.
But this is the first time such an experience from a high-profile artist has been distributed through a free smartphone app, making it available to many more than something designed for expensive Oculus Rift headsets.
Google’s Cardboard, which was released in June at the company’s I/O developer event has lowered the bar to entry for virtual reality experiences, often costing under £10.
Company’s including Volvo have used the home-made goggles powered by an Android smartphone for advertising and virtual ride experiences, while Jaunt is planning further virtual reality apps including horror and war movies, as well as short experiences.
What a virtual reality art show could say about the future of games
The Who to launch virtual reality app for Facebook’s Oculus Rift | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/may/21/pumarosa-the-witch-review-magnetic-debut | Music | 2017-05-21T07:00:48.000Z | Emily Mackay | Pumarosa: The Witch review – a surprisingly magnetic debut | London five-piece Pumarosa don’t sound like much else that’s around, sporting a flamboyant tendency to space-rocking, electronically garnished epics. They build with skill, too, on the grungey Honey and the rolling Lions’ Den, the slow-burning title track and the pulsing, hedonistic, brass-flourished Priestess, which recalls Foals at their most fluid and funky. Slighter songs such as the Britpoppy My Gruesome Loving Friend or the trip-hoppy Barefoot aren’t as arresting, and the new-agey lyrics coupled with Isabel Munoz-Newsome’s impassioned, highly mannered vocals can grate. But overall, producer Dan Carey smooths their varied styles into a surprisingly magnetic debut.
Watch the video for Priestess by Pumarosa. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/feb/13/edinburgh-international-book-festival-move-charlotte-square | Books | 2017-02-13T14:47:29.000Z | Danuta Kean | Edinburgh international book festival may be forced to move | Edinburgh international book festival has moved to quash fears for its future, after it emerged that it may be forced to move from it historic home in Charlotte Square. The festival, which attracts 230,000 visitors every August, has been based at the world heritage site since its inception 33 years ago.
A spokeswoman for the festival confirmed that talks about a move into nearby George Street were ongoing, following a request from the Committee of the Charlotte Square Proprietors that it reduce its impact on the gardens. She denied that the request posed a threat to the future of the event, which in the past has attracted some of the biggest literary names in the world, including JK Rowling, Toni Morrison and Margaret Atwood. “We don’t know what will happen at this stage, but we are a creative bunch of people and are sure we can come up with a solution that can work,” she said.
The 18-day event, held annually in August as part of the wider Edinburgh festival, has a substantial impact on the private gardens in Charlotte Square, a source close to the association said. “We want to find a way of ensuring the festival stays, but the difficulty is that it creates so much disruption in the gardens that we can’t use them for anything else.” He added that although the festival starts work in the gardens in July every year and is out by early September, the gardens do not fully recover until April the following year.
Though the festival does not pay rent for the space, it does pay for its annual restoration, which adds up to a “substantial amount”, the source added.
“We love the book festival. It is a great thing,” a member of the proprietors’ association said. “It is one of the things that we can give to the city, but we just want to be able to do more.”
The square is one of the most important architectural heritage sites in Europe and features some of the most famous addresses in Scotland, including the official residence of Scotland’s first minister and a number of houses owned by the Scottish National Trust. Though private, the proprietors’ association intends to open the gardens up to public events throughout the year as part of a £1m refurbishment, which is believed to involve improved drainage and power facilities, as well as new pathways.
In a statement, book festival director Nick Barley said the event was looking at ways in which it could minimise its environmental impact this year and was in talks with Edinburgh city council and Essential Edinburgh to expand into neighbouring George Street, which, he said, would open it up to new audiences.
“We are currently exploring different physical configurations to find a way that the book festival’s ambitions and use of the gardens are compatible with the needs of the owners of the businesses and private properties in the square, while retaining the elements of this world-class festival that our authors and audiences love,” Barley added.
A spokesman for the proprietors’ association said that while they “strongly support the continued use” of the square, they “also recognise that the heavy physical toll the festival takes on the gardens prevents them from potentially being used for other public events and festivals at other times of the year.”
“There is categorically no threat to the continued presence of the book festival in the gardens. Instead, it is everyone’s ambition to find ways to introduce other events into this historic Edinburgh space,” the spokesman added. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/sep/29/20-days-in-mariupol | Film | 2023-09-29T16:18:50.000Z | Charlotte Higgins | ‘It felt like the beginning of the third world war … It still does’ – Mstyslav Chernov on 20 Days in Mariupol | Men in uniform are milling around outside a cafe in Sloviansk. Military trucks trundle past every few seconds. The town, in the Donetsk region, is the rear echelon of the Ukrainian counter-offensive. A black armoured car pulls up, and out of it slips journalist and film-maker Mstyslav Chernov. With his black T-shirt and trousers, black sunglasses, and black med-kit strapped to his thigh, he looks every inch the conflict reporter. He is 38. When he finally takes off his sunglasses, the intense gaze of his pouchy, tired-looking eyes makes him seem older.
That is hardly surprising. The war visited on Ukraine by its eastern neighbour since 2014 has destroyed many existences and transformed countless others. One of its consequences has been the creation of a generation of young conflict reporters. “In a country at war, if you’re a good documentary photographer, or at least trying to be good” – as he was before the Russian-backed takeovers in the Donbas and of Crimea – “you automatically become a war photographer.” One of the Kharkiv-born journalist’s earliest jobs was filming the carnage of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crash site in 2014. Later, he worked in Syria, Karabakh, Iraq and Kurdistan.
Then in February last year, he and his team – stills photographer Evgeniy Maloletka and field producer Vasilisa Stepanenko – drove to Mariupol when everyone who could was getting out. They stayed inside the siege for nearly three weeks. For most of that time, theirs was the only news footage shot and broadcast – bringing to the world’s attention terrible images such as the bombing of the city’s Maternity Hospital No 3 on 9 March.
20 Days in Mariupol … The bombing of Maternity Hospital No 3 in a still from the documentary. Photograph: Mstyslav Chernov
Now, Chernov has shaped this material into a feature-length documentary, 20 Days in Mariupol. It places the viewer right inside the nightmare that was Russia’s bombardment as the “circle tightened round the neck of the dying city,” as he put it. The film unfolds events day by day, punctuated by brief clips showing how footage was used in broadcast news, occasionally overlaid by Chernov’s quiet, restrained voiceover.
The full, jagged horror of war is illuminated unblinkingly in the film, which has just been chosen as Ukraine’s entry for the Oscars. It is tough to watch. Evangelina, aged 4, caught in an attack, dies on a hospital trolley. The doctors – who have urged Chernov to keep filming, “to show how these motherfuckers are killing children”, weep for her, and tenderly press her eyes shut. Kirill, 18 months old, is defibrillated, but the medics can’t save him. His mother wails: “Why? Why? Why?”
Conditions worsen, there is no power and barely a mobile connection. Chernov’s team struggles to find the breath of a phone signal with which to send their footage to their editors at the news agency Associated Press (AP). People loot shops, cook on fires in the streets. Hospitals run out of medicine. On a patch of waste ground a man heaves bodies into a trench. Asked how he feels, he replies: “If I start talking I’m going to cry ... I don’t know what I feel right now. What are people supposed to feel in this situation?” It is as if emotions have departed any recognisable register; they cannot be entertained, let alone expressed.
The mayor of the city has estimated that 21,000 civilians were killed in Mariupol. The AP team could have been among them. What drove them onwards? Chernov, after all, has two young daughters to whom he briefly alludes in his voiceover in the film: a moment in which the journalists’ own dilemmas and emotions are lightly signalled.
They made their decision sitting in a cafe in Bakhmut in February last year, he says, watching a Russian news broadcast: “Because that’s always a good indicator of what’s to come.” They realised that the full-scale invasion was about to begin, and talked about “where we would meet this new wave of escalation. Mariupol seemed to be a right place to do it.” The story’s importance outweighed the risk. “It felt like this was the beginning of the third world war,” he says. “It still kind of does.”
20 Days in Mariupol … An explosion erupts from an apartment building after a Russian tank fired on it. Photograph: Evgeniy Maloletka/AP
Once inside the city, “it was just a matter of whether you had enough resources to keep working. And you keep going until you haven’t”. Even though they could have been killed at any time? Chernov answered as an air raid siren took up its regular, weary wail. “Every morning I’m there among the people lying on the floor of a hospital,” he says, recalling those grim days in Mariupol. “There are people without limbs and with heavy injuries. There are constant explosions. You don’t really know if you’re awake or if you’re asleep. You feel you have to force yourself to just start working. And then you look at all the people around you. The nurse comes who’s been there for two weeks and hasn’t slept, and the doctors come and start putting bandages on people, and another nurse comes with a bucket of snow and uses the melted snow to wash the floor.
“And you look at all of them and you think, ‘Why would I stop?’ So I don’t think it’s patriotism or a sense of duty at that moment, or even a kind of a journalistic impulse. It’s some kind of collective resistance to tragedy.” A rebellion, perhaps, against helplessness and impotence.
In the film a policeman named Volodymyr addresses the camera directly from the bombed maternity hospital, certain that if the world could only see the atrocity, the war would end. (This valiant man, who helped the AP journalists evacuate from Mariupol, and got himself and his family out too, was badly hurt in a double-tap missile attack this summer in the city of Pokrovsk.) The crew’s pictures did have an immense impact. But of course the war did not stop – and Russians claimed that the maternity hospital footage had been faked using actors.
Chernov remembers a similar pattern after his reporting at the crash site of MH17, the airliner shot down by Russian separatists over the Donetsk region in 2014. It was his second day in his career as a conflict reporter. Younger, more naive, he felt sure his footage would stop the war. On the ground it was beyond doubt that separatists were responsible, as has been subsequently proved in the courts. But, he says, the next day he turned on his TV and saw his images used to illustrate entirely opposite narratives, the Russians blaming the Ukrainians for the tragedy. “A lot of illusions were destroyed that day.”
Part of the point of taking his material to make 20 Days in Mariupol he says, was to use his footage at greater length. To give it more context. To go deeper, and ask more questions – and perhaps to take more control. He feels, he says, at a turning-point in his career, in which shooting for news is no longer satisfying. He is now working to chart the Ukrainian counter-offensive here in the Donbas, following the lives of a number of characters in the military. It’s difficult, he says, to get under the skin of soldiers. And liberation of villages often means liberating “ruins, and graves without names”.
I sense Chernov believes that it is in the extremity of conflict in which answers to the most essential questions about human life and death are to be found. Homer’s Iliad and much of Greek tragedy tells us he is right, but I’m not sure: is a war really the best place to seek the truth about human nature? “In a war zone, you do see very primal drives ... [But] I found it astonishing how much support and care you see in a crisis where you think that everyone would just fight for their own lives,” he says. “That was an amazing discovery. That made it valuable.”
I wonder how audiences have reacted after seeing the world through his eyes, stripped brutally bare. “When people say it’s difficult to watch 20 Days in Mariupol, it’s not because there’s a lot of blood,” he says. No, I say: it’s because you see children dying. “But when you think about the people who live through these tragedies on the screen, there are always people supporting them. However traumatising and painful are the events that we are going through in Ukraine, we never go through them alone. We always have someone to hold our hands, to embrace us, whether it’s a volunteer or a firefighter or a policeman or a doctor or just your neighbour. I find that extraordinarily hopeful.”
It was this sliver of hope amid the violence that won it the audience award winner at the Sundance film festival in January, he thinks. His main fear, in fact, was that the film might retraumatise those from Mariupol, the people who lived through these terrible events. “But it actually doesn’t. Having unified experiences that are formed into stories is how we process our collective trauma,” he says. “Being a part of a society that processes its tragedies and histories and tries to go forward – that’s what keeps me going forward.”
20 Days in Mariupol is released in the UK on 6 October | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/sep/28/the-20-greatest-detroit-techno-tracks-ranked | Music | 2023-09-28T13:13:02.000Z | Alexis Petridis | The 20 greatest Detroit techno tracks – ranked! | 20. Eddie Flashin’ Fowlkes – Time to Express (1989)
An underrated gem from an underrated producer from Detroit’s first wave, the list of samples found on Time to Express acts like a primer of key influences on the city’s nascent techno scene: Kraftwerk, Telex, Yazoo, the Art of Noise. The Silo Mix stirs in a hint of freestyle; the Techno mix is harder-edged.
19. DJ Bone – Cultural Variance (2014)
The best starting point with Detroit stalwart Bone might be to watch the amazing footage of him DJing on three decks known as Video Attack 41, then immerse yourself in his lengthy catalogue: the highlights are too many and varied to list but the gripping Cultural Variance – African chanting, jazz keyboards, slamming beat – is a killer.
DJ Bone – Video Attack 41.
18. Blake Baxter – When We Used To Play (1987)
Despite earning the nickname the Prince of Techno, Blake Baxter feels like another figure slightly overshadowed by his first wave peers. Co-produced by Kevin Saunderson, When We Used To Play is terrific. For all the unremitting propulsion of its lengthy passages of pure rhythm, it carries a strange, affecting melancholy.
17. Kenny Larkin – Azimuth (1994)
An understated figure in Detroit techno’s second wave – he described himself as “famous for not being famous” – Kenny Larkin’s low profile is no reflection on his skills. You can lose yourself completely in the intricate, chattering layers of his debut album’s title track: there’s a distinct hint of jazz lurking somewhere among them.
16. The Martian – Star Dancer (1992)
A B-side that might be the crowning glory of the enigmatic Red Planet series of 12”s, credited to the mysterious “Will Thomas”, they’re assumed to be the work of Underground Resistance. Whoever made Star Dancer, it is incredible: a furious kick drum, a nagging two-note bassline, vast waves of flanged electronics, an immense climax.
15. Drexciya – Andrean Sand Dunes (1999)
Unravelling the discography of Drexciya, AKA James Stinson and Gerald Donald, and their aquatic take on Afrofuturist mythology is quite a task: there isn’t an obvious standout or easy entry point. But Drexciya’s hugely influential reboot of electro is frequently stunning, as on Andrean Sand Dunes: tough beats overlaid with hauntingly beautiful synths.
Kelli Hand, AKA K-Hand, in 2017. Photograph: Max Schiano
14. K-Hand – Starz (1995)
The late Kelli Hand was Detroit techno’s first lady, a brilliant female producer in a male-dominated world. Her Acacia Classics compilations reveal a rich back catalogue – check out the raw, jacking funk of Come On Now Baby – but Starz is her acknowledged masterpiece: urgent but lush, propulsive but hypnotic.
13. Underground Resistance – The Final Frontier (1992)
The pat line about musical collective Underground Resistance is that they’re the Public Enemy of techno: Detroit’s most unyielding exponents of Afrofuturist electronica. But the manifestos and rhetoric wouldn’t mean much if the music wasn’t as good as this: The Final Frontier has a stinging acid line, a beat rooted – as techno itself is – in electro, and lushly atmospheric washes of synth.
12. Robert Hood – Sleep Cycle (1994)
On which the former UR member almost singlehandedly creates an entire subgenre: minimal techno has other foundational inputs, but Hood’s album Minimal Nation is its key text. Sleep Cycle boldly cuts its sound to the bone, creating a mesmeric world in which tiny incremental sonic shifts become supercharged with power.
Robert Hood performs at DGTL Festival Madrid in 2018. Photograph: Pablo Gallardo/Redferns
11. DJ Minx – A Walk in the Park (2004)
Recorded while Minx’s husband took their daughter shopping, A Walk in the Park is an irresistible, minimal cocktail: driving bass, tropical percussion, jazzy chords. The recent remix by Moodymann (absent elsewhere in this list on the grounds that he’s not a techno producer, more a genre unto himself) is fantastic, too.
10. Floorplan – Never Grow Old (Re-Plant) (2013)
The work of Robert Hood and his daughter’ Lyric, Never Grow Old is techno as deep, spiritual soul music, complete with a sample swiped from Aretha Franklin’s legendary gospel album Amazing Grace. The tension between the rawness of her vocal and the insistence of its speedy electronic pulse is incredibly powerful.
9. Cybotron – Clear (1983)
Cybotron – Juan Atkins and Richard Davis, the latter a Vietnam vet who changed his name to 3070 – are the cornerstone of Detroit techno, and Clear is their finest moment. Featuring a Kraftwerk sample over an electro beat, with an Afrofuturist mythology attached, it still sounds fantastic 40 years on.
8. Reese – Just Want Another Chance (1988)
The hugely influential debut of Kevin Saunderson’s growling Reese bass sound, which, from the mid-90s onwards, appeared on countless drum’n’bass, UK garage and dubstep tracks: so many, that hearing it today on a track audibly from the late 80s feels weird, as if the sound fell through a wormhole in time.
Carl Craig in Paris, 1995. Photograph: Martyn Goodacre/Getty Images
7. Paperclip People – Throw (1994)
Carl Craig’s catalogue is so varied that singling out one track as his greatest is tough. The jazzy drums and shifting electronics of At Les runs it close, but let’s plump for Throw, released under one of his many monikers, that united techno and house DJs and provoked an adoring cover from LCD Soundsystem, an example of his consummate ability to spellbind a dancefloor.
6. Jeff Mills – The Bells (1996)
Mills called The Bells “a practical DJ tool”, sweetly underselling the incredible potency of what is effectively his theme, “something I can use to say hello”. It is relentlessly in your face – the ferociously distorted rhythm track – and oddly subtle in the way the acidic melodies rise and fall in intensity.
5. Model 500 – No UFO’s (1985)
After Cybotron, Juan Atkins honed his sound to a point of perfection on No UFO’s. It shared Cybotron’s ambivalent view of the future – “they say there is no hope / they say no UFOs” – but toughened up the music, making it blacker, less in thrall to European electronica. The result is so forward thinking, it boggles the mind that it was made in 1985.
4. The Aztec Mystic – Jaguar (1999)
A Detroit techno track that crossed boundaries in a regimented dance world, Jaguar was played by Jeff Mills and Paul Oakenfold, and it got so big that it spawned a couple of rip-off European covers. The fuss is still understandable: it is incredibly exciting, building and building to a climax strafed with a synthesised answer to dramatic disco strings.
The Aztec Mystic by Jaguar.
3. Galaxy 2 Galaxy – Hi-Tech Jazz (1993)
Underground Resistance’s output can be punishing – militant music from militant artists – but Hi-Tech Jazz (by Galaxy 2 Galaxy, formed by members from the collective) is just beautiful. Idiosyncratically stirring together jazzy sax, electro, techno and house, it exists in a thrilling, enveloping musical universe of its own, and received an unexpected but deserved boost in popularity thanks to the soundtrack of the video game Midnight Club.
2. Rhythim Is Rhythim – Strings of Life (1987)
An attempt to evoke the optimism that was lost when Martin Luther King was murdered, Strings of Life swiftly became an everlasting global dancefloor anthem. It is so well known, it’s easy to forget what a strange and experimental track it is: daringly bass-free, salsa-influenced, spiked with samples of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
Paris Grey and Kevin Saunderson of Inner City.
1. Inner City – Good Life (1988)
Big Fun by Kevin Sanderson’s Inner City seemed an outlier on the epochal 1988 compilation Techno! The New Dance Sound Of Detroit: poppier, more straightforwardly melodic, as influenced by Chicago house as by Sanderson’s Detroit peers (“it crossed over,” the producer noted). The same is true of Good Life – its irrepressible paean to dancefloor escapism an attempt to make a modern track that matched the quality of Chic and entirely succeeded – although Detroit’s flavour was still discernible everywhere from the metallic tone of the synths to Inner City’s name. Timeless, ecstatic – befitting a producer nicknamed The Elevator – and unimpeachable, it is a perfect single.
Cybotron’s new EP Maintain the Golden Ratio is released 13 October on Tresor. The track Maintain is out now | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jun/19/government-will-cover-costs-of-fire-safety-work-councils-told-grenfell-tower | UK news | 2017-06-19T19:31:10.000Z | Anushka Asthana | Government will cover costs of fire safety work, councils told | Sajid Javid, the communities secretary, has told senior figures in local government that councils will be fully reimbursed for any building work carried out on tower blocks that could face a similar fire risk to that of Grenfell Tower.
A letter sent by the Local Government Association chairman, Gary Porter, to council leaders in England and Wales and seen by the Guardian, claimed the minister made the promise in a private conversation. Lord Porter said he had “secured assurances that funding will be made available to those councils that need to conduct work”.
Councils have been ordered to carry out urgent checks on the cladding of refurbished buildings to help reassure residents after at least 79 people died in the Kensington and Chelsea tragedy.
Melanie Dawes, the permanent secretary at the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), has written to councils ordering them to identify any use of aluminium composite material (ACM). “It is important to stress that ACM cladding is not of itself dangerous, but it is important that the right type is used,” she said.
A minute's silence for Grenfell – in pictures
Read more
Any buildings that have the material will have a sample tested. “We are making this testing facility available to any other residential landlords and you should ensure that they are aware of this offer,” Dawes wrote. She said the DCLG would then work with councils and housing associations to “identify the most appropriate options for supporting funding”.
However, Javid appears to have gone further in a conversation with the LGA chair. Porter wrote: “I have been in discussion with DCLG’s secretary of state today about the resource implications of any work identified as a result of the new inspections DCLG have requested and secured assurances that funding will be made available to those councils that need to conduct work.”
Downing Street said the government expected to receive figures from all local authorities and housing associations in England on the total number of high-rise buildings that would be subject to further safety checks by Monday night.
The issue was discussed during the third meeting of the Grenfell Tower recovery taskforce, chaired by Theresa May.
According to officials the group agreed to embed staff from five government departments within the fire response team on the ground, which is dealing with the fallout of the tragedy. They also said that the Department for Work and Pensions had begun giving out £5,000 payments to households affected by the fire, with nearly 100 letters sent out providing advice on how to claim the money.
May was told that reports of residents being sent to new homes hundreds of miles away were untrue, as the prime minister reiterated a promise to rehouse people within three weeks in the same neighbourhood or a neighbouring one.
The first rehousing offers were made on Monday, a dedicated NHS mental health response line was also started and the lord chief justice will appoint a judge to oversee an independent inquiry within days.Porter’s letter said many local authorities had been contacting worried residents to assure them that action was being taken.
He told colleagues to take the following steps.
Establish which tower blocks the councils own or manage that have been refurbished.
Ensure any building control signoff has taken into account the fire safety regulations (with a number of councils getting independent specialists to check cladding).
Establish an up-to-date fire risk assessment has been carried out since the refurbishment took place.
Review first safety advice given to residents.
On the move to replace potentially dangerous cladding, Porter added: “The note DCLG will send out today is based on expert advice, but we know there is a great deal of speculation and concern about wider issues and we are seeking to support effective coordination in case further questions and requests for info emerge.”
The Conservative peer promised to contact councils once the LGA had more details of Javid’s private assurances.
One Whitehall source confirmed that the government was ready to pay for retro-fitting costs.
Camden council in north London said its buildings did not use the same cladding as Grenfell Tower, but confirmed it had begun testing the materials that were used and would report in the next two days. “On-site testing from inside buildings has begun and cladding samples have been removed from buildings to be taken away and tested,” the council said. In the meantime, council workers have checked corridors in Camden tower blocks and removed any potentially flammable materials, and will soon start tests on white goods and fire doors.
The DCLG maintains that composite aluminium cladding panels made with a polyethylene core do not comply with current building regulations and should not be used on buildings over 18m in height. But the department failed to explain how the product breached the code.
Arconic, a materials firm that manufactures Reynobond panels in France and which provided them for Grenfell Tower, states in its fire safety documents that when a building exceeds the height of firefighters’ ladders it should be clad only with incombustible materials. In the UK that amounts to an 18m-high building, less than one-third the height of the 67m-tall Grenfell Tower. While Arconic makes fire-resistant versions of Reynobond panels, those used on Grenfell Tower had a polyethylene core and are combustible.
The regulations are intended to be flexible, so that experienced architects and engineers can draw up fresh designs and use new materials without having to wait for the rules to be updated. As such, they provide guidance but little more. “There is no obligation to adopt any particular solution contained in an approved document if you prefer to meet the relevant requirement in some other way,” the building regulations state.
One fire safety expert told the Guardian that the regulations are so complex that they could easily be misinterpreted by someone without appropriate training and experience. “If you look at the guidance and try to follow it logically, you go through so many ifs, buts and maybes that it gets difficult, and I can imagine someone not well versed in them making a mistake because they haven’t fully understood the guidance.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/01/nigerias-ruling-party-candidate-tinubu-wins-presidential-election-electoral-commission | World news | 2023-03-01T07:05:40.000Z | Jason Burke | Nigeria’s ruling party candidate Tinubu wins presidential election – electoral commission | Nigeria’s ruling party candidate, Bola Tinubu, was on Wednesday declared winner of the presidential election, after defeating two of his closest rivals in the most competitive election for decades.
Tinubu’s victory after the weekend vote signalled the continued dominance of the established political elite in Nigeria. Analysts had described the poll as a potential “inflection point” for Africa’s most populous country, which is struggling with economic turmoil, widespread violence and corruption.
The Independent Nigerian Election Commission (Inec) announced final results early on Wednesday, after a chaotic count lasting almost four days.
Though Tinubu’s victory appears to reinforce the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) party’s grip on power, the count showed that reformist candidate Peter Obi overcame a lack of resources and weak organisation to make big gains.
Nigeria election 2023: what are the issues and why is this vote different?
Read more
Nigeria’s new president-elect defended the integrity of the election, and called on citizens to unite after a bitter dispute over results opposition parties said were flawed.
“I am very happy I have been elected the president of the federal republic of Nigeria,” Tinubu said to cheers in Abuja. “This is a serious mandate. I hereby accept it.”
Tinubu’s victory was conclusive, with 8.79m votes won by the 70-year-old veteran, putting him well ahead of main opposition challenger Atiku Abubakar’s 6.98m. Obi, who won 6.1m votes, surprised many by winning in both Lagos, Nigeria’s biggest city and commercial powerhouse, and the federal capital, Abuja.
Tinubu has long been known as a “political godfather” with immense and invisible influence. After emigrating to the US, where he was a taxi driver to fund studies in business administration, Tinubu worked as a management consultant. He returned to Nigeria and became involved in politics in the 1990s during the last years of the military regime.
When democracy returned in 1999, Tinubu won elections to become governor of Lagos where he is credited with a crackdown on organised crime and tackling the city’s appalling traffic. Tinubu, who is extremely wealthy, also established extensive patronage networks that have underpinned his political power ever since, experts say. His support for outgoing Muhammadu Buhari was critical.
Tinubu’s campaign slogan – “It’s my turn” – was seized on by critics as evidence of a sense of entitlement. Opponents also said appearances where Tinubu slurred his words suggested health problems. His exact age is contested.
However, within a day of the polls closing, APC officials and ministerial aides were privately expressing confidence in victory.
Observers have contrasted Tinubu with Obi, an energetic and frugal 62-year-old businessman, who reached across the country’s faultlines to woo voters from all communities and ran a slick social media campaign to attract the young.
The voting on Saturday was mostly peaceful, but was troubled by long delays at many polling stations, while technical hitches disrupted the uploading of results to a central website, fuelling concerns over vote rigging.
On Tuesday, Nigeria’s main opposition parties called for the presidential election to be scrapped, alleging that results showing the ruling party’s candidate in the lead had been manipulated.
Election officials said the results had been fully authenticated and government loyalists accused the opposition of fomenting “lawlessness and anarchy”.
International observers have also criticised Saturday’s vote, which was largely peaceful despite expectations of widespread chaos and violence. A team of observers led by Joyce Banda, the former president of Malawi, said delays on voting day, which led to many polling stations opening hours late, meant the election “fell well short of Nigerian citizens’ reasonable expectations”.
An EU mission said the failures “reduced trust in the process and challenged the right to vote”.
Speaking on Wednesday, Tinubu said, “the lapses that were reported, they were relatively few in number and were immaterial to affect the final outcome of the election.”
The president-elect’s supporters pointed to Tinubu’s power base of Lagos to refute allegations of vote rigging.
After eight years of drift and disappointment under outgoing president Muhammadu Buhari, voters hope for firm action to deal with Nigeria’s multiple intersecting crises: economic turmoil, extremism and criminality affecting much of the country. In recent weeks, a botched effort to replace almost all Nigeria’s banknotes has caused massive economic disruption and much anger.
Despite often pessimistic forecasts, analysts point out that seven elections have been held in succession in Nigeria and say some Nigerian democratic institutions are growing stronger. That none of the main candidates in 2023 were former military officers – a first for a Nigerian poll – is also viewed as an achievement.
There have been concerns raised, however, about the limited number of women contesting.
Evin Incir, the head of delegation of the European parliament, said: “I wish to express my concern that less than 10% of candidates were women. The next government and parliament should heed to the manifestos of the main political parties of Nigeria, which call for affirmative action, such as quotas.” | Full |
Subsets and Splits