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https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/jan/12/margin-call-film-review | Film | 2012-01-12T22:10:00.000Z | Peter Bradshaw | Margin Call – review | Writer-director JC Chandor's tense whitecollar drama is a sober corrective to what can only be described as Hollywood's "Gordon Gekko" approach to high finance: ie, making it notionally horrible, but still insisting on how super-sexy and exciting it is really. This film is inspired by the 2008 meltdown, and set in a fictional, embattled trading firm carrying out brutal layoffs. One of the victims is middle-aged financial analyst Eric Dale (Stanley Tucci) who, before being escorted out of the building, bequeaths top-secret research to young brainiac Peter Sullivan (Zachary Quinto), revealing that due to its toxic assets, the whole firm could go entirely bankrupt at any moment. Icily resolute top brass, played by Paul Bettany, Kevin Spacey and a splendidly leonine Jeremy Irons, convene an all-night crisis meeting to decide on ruthless measures to protect their own wealth. Perhaps nothing in the film quite compares to the horrid chill of the early sacking scene, but this is a shrewd and confident drama. Spacey is watchable as the veteran trading boss, in a state of near-breakdown, who discovers all too late that he has a kind of conscience. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/mar/16/jazz-album-of-the-month-keith-jarrett-standards-trio-after-the-fall | Music | 2018-03-16T12:30:09.000Z | John Fordham | Jazz album of the month – Keith Jarrett Standards Trio: After the Fall | Gary Peacock, Keith Jarrett’s double bassist in the piano star’s 35-year-old Standards Trio, once told JazzTimes that when: “You don’t feel you have to make a statement any more, you enter a space of enormous freedom.” It was perhaps a disingenuous observation, since Jarrett almost certainly had a statement in mind when he founded this influential band in 1983 – to cherish some old-school standards about melody, swing and acoustic sound, as well as celebrating the standard songbook repertoire from which so much original jazz has been launched.
But in an era in which people can’t fall over each other fast enough to make statements, the trio’s casual bearing of familiar baggage, and liberated delight in spontaneous playing feels increasingly, timelessly fresh. Jarrett, Peacock and drummer Jack DeJohnette’s previously-unreleased After the Fall goes back to 1998, but it sounds no more dated than any creative classical music reappraisal of repertory materials. The pianist was emerging from chronic fatigue syndrome’s two-year silence, and this 1998 concert in Newark – just an hour’s drive from his home – was his comeback to the stage.
The set bubbles with rediscovered energies and reconsidered meditations. The Masquerade Is Over, a softly unaccompanied opener at first, swells into briskly grooving, logically shapely piano variations. Charlie Parker’s bebop classic Scrapple from the Apple spins through brittle, hopping Jarrett figures, or lean and sleek ones turning on breezy elisions and trills. Bud Powell’s Bouncin’ With Bud is playful and snappy; Sonny Rollins’ slinky swinger Doxy is a group conversation; One for Majid a tumbling, staccato blues; Santa Claus Is Coming To Town is a sonorously gospel tease and John Coltrane’s Moment’s Notice a heedless gallop that betrays none of the pianist’s travails. The content and the backstory of this powerful release catapult it straight to the forefront of Jarrett’s voluminous catalogue.
Tori Freestone, saxophonist. Photograph: Rob Blackham
Also out this month
The no-hiding-place exposure of an improvising sax/piano duo is a tough call but the British pairing of pianist Alcyona Mick and tenor saxophonist Tori Freestone make light of it (with singer Brigitte Beraha a significant interventionist) on the mix of Monk, Brazilian music, postbop and folk moods of Criss Cross. With album Red Alert, London pianist Janette Mason’s trio – fuelled by energies from the Bad Plus, David Bowie, Goldfrapp, Robert Wyatt and plenty more – uncork a typically eclectic, skilful and audience-friendly brew. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/mar/24/wales-austria-2022-world-cup-play-off-match-report | Football | 2022-03-24T21:58:40.000Z | Ben Fisher | Gareth Bale’s brilliance gives Wales World Cup playoff win over Austria | One by one, Wales’s supporters rippled up from their seats in anticipation of lift-off, a mini Mexican wave of sorts. Gareth Bale was unperturbed by the eerie sense of expectation and, after one final deep breath and four dainty, magical steps forward he proceeded to curl an immaculate left-footed strike into the top corner, via the underside of the crossbar. It was an otherworldly free-kick that helped put Wales one win from reaching a first World Cup since 1958 and the prospect of mixing it with Brazil and Argentina on the biggest stage.
As Wales went on a victory lap at full time to a backdrop of Yma o Hyd, Bale and Wayne Hennessey peeled off to make a beeline to touch the frame of the goal at which he opened the scoring against Austria, whose dreams of Qatar 2022 abruptly ended here.
Gareth Bale brings main character energy to Wales’s victory over Austria
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Bale’s second goal was equally stunning, instinctively arrowing another left-foot shot into a corner after taking the ball in his stride inside the box following a short corner. But it is his preposterous first that will live particularly long in the memory.
The buildup to this game was dominated by concerns about Bale’s fitness but he would depart the field in stoppage time to a standing ovation and with a touch of cramp after completing more minutes than he has in the past four months combined for Real Madrid.
After opening the scoring Bale slid, belly first, on to the turf in celebration and dragged the Wales emblem into his mouth. He was equally revved-up after doubling his and his country’s advantage six minutes into the second half, repeatedly beating the crest on his chest. “I can hit a free-kick if I am able to play,” Bale said afterwards.
The 32-year-old has been heavily criticised in the Spanish media throughout his nine-year stay in Madrid. Asked if he was sending a pointed message with his celebrations, Bale replied: “No, I don’t need to send anything. It’s a waste of my time. It’s disgusting and they should all be ashamed of themselves. I’m not fussed.”
Gareth Bale (left) and Daniel James react to Wales doubling their lead against Austria. Photograph: Chris Fairweather/Huw Evans/Shutterstock
There was pure elation in the stands when Bale’s free-kick flew in after 25 minutes. Aaron Ramsey embraced Bale as if he would never let go and on the touchline the interim Wales manager, Robert Page, who appeared close to tears during a spine-tingling national anthem, leapt to his feet, mobbed by his coaching staff. A red flare billowed with smoke in front of an ecstatic Canton Stand.
It was a goal that offered Wales a command they were lacking until that point. They were galvanised and energised, not for the first time, by Bale’s brilliance and Ramsey came close to adding a second five minutes before the interval but Heinz Lindner made a superb save when the midfielder smacked an effort at goal.
World Cup roundup: Italy knocked out by North Macedonia in dramatic finale
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At least Wales supporters have a few months to shake off the inevitable hangovers, their playoff final against either Scotland or Ukraine rescheduled for June. Marcel Sabitzer’s second-half shot, deflected in via Ben Davies, pulled a goal back for Austria but Wales should have restored their two-goal cushion soon afterwards through the menacing Daniel James. He was foiled by Lindner after being threaded through by Harry Wilson and James squandered an even better opening when he allowed Nicolas Seiwald to intervene after racing clear of the Austria defence on halfway.
It could have been a very different picture at half-time had Christoph Baumgartner seized on a gaping opening in the Wales defence with five minutes gone. Sabitzer slipped Baumgartner clean through on goal where he was faced by Hennessey, winning his 99th cap, but Neco Williams dashed in to make a last-ditch block and Baumgartner’s strike, via a tiny deflection, looped up on to the crossbar.
Austria, all in black, were businesslike and unruffled early on but Ramsey, who has also been starved of regular game time at club level, went close to scoring and Bale’s wonder goal shifted the entire landscape. “I will run into the ground for this country and we all did that,” Bale said. “It is half a job done.”
More than three hours before kick-off, this stadium was going thorough one last rehearsal. The anthems – both official and unofficial – could be heard as supporters, bedecked in replica shirts, filed out of Ninian Park station and began to congregate in hope and a tinge of trepidation.
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Most vividly remember the pain of missing out on qualifying for Russia in 2018 after playoff defeat to the Republic of Ireland here, and many Russia’s win across town at the Millennium Stadium in 2003. How they bargained on a different story this time and Page’s premise that his big players would come to the party could not have rung more true.
“When you’ve got somebody like Gareth – and there were questions coming into the game about whether he was fit – even if he is 60% or 70% fit, you know he is going to play because he steps up to the plate,” Page said. “It was one of the best free-kicks I have ever seen. I couldn’t be more proud of the players.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/may/18/eurozone-problems-european-elections | Business | 2014-05-18T12:50:41.000Z | Larry Elliott | The eurozone's problems have not gone away, and elections won't change much | Europe goes to the polls this week and the mood is sour. It is sour among voters and it is sour in the markets, where the sell-off at the end of last week was prompted by fears that the election results would open a new chapter in the eurozone crisis.
That looks all too likely. Despite all the bullish talk in recent months, the problems of the eurozone have not gone away. The single currency's weaker members, such as Greece, Spain and Italy, found it easier for a while to sell their bonds at lower interest rates. But that was largely due to the generosity of the Federal Reserve, which flooded the global economy with dollars through its quantitative easing programme.
The QE injection was a godsend to the eurozone, which has so far – but perhaps not for much longer – scorned the idea of turning on the electronic printing presses. US dollars found their way through the global financial system into European bond markets, and this allowed Mario Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank (ECB), to say he would do whatever it took to save the euro, without actually having to back his words with action.
This new version of the postwar Marshall plan bought the eurozone some time. What it didn't do, however, was change the core economic problem of the eurozone's weak periphery. They are not growing nearly fast enough to prevent their debts becoming more onerous. Generalised austerity has made matters worse, as has the ECB's lack of sufficient offsetting action.
Unemployment is high and voters are sick of austerity. It would be a mistake though to imagine that much, or indeed anything, will change as a result of the elections to the European parliament. There will be a lot of talk about how Europe needs to deliver for its people, and that will be it. Mainstream parties with their mainstream thinking will still be in charge and life will go on as before.
As a result, Europe will condemn itself to an even longer period of economic stagnation, mass unemployment and austerity. Extremism will flourish.
There is an alternative to this depressing scenario. Admit that it was a mistake of historic proportions to use the euro as a way of advancing the cause of ever closer union. Accept that and it is possible to avoid Europe becoming the new Japan.
One of two things could happen. The euro could be fundamentally reformed along the lines proposed by Charles Grant, the director of the Centre for European Reform. This would involve throttling back on austerity, creating a banking union, structural reform in countries such as Italy to make them more competitive, rejigging the Germany economy to make it less export-focused, and a partial debt amnesty for the most heavily indebted eurozone members.
The alternative is to break up the single currency, devolve power back to individual nations or groups of states with convergent economies, and start again.
This is not going to happen, at least not yet. The euro symbolises the ever closer union dreamt of by Europe's founders back in the 1950s. Germany is Europe's strongest economy and its paymaster, so the euro is run along German lines.
As the economist Roger Bootle puts it in his new book, The Trouble with Europe: "The euro has been an economic disaster, imposed on Europe for political reasons. Ironically, it was thought that whatever its economic costs, it would at least bring Europe together politically. This may yet happen, but equally it could prove to be what drives Europe apart. From where I stand, the latter seems more likely."
Bootle is right on every count. The euro has indeed been the economic disaster that some predicted when it was created at the end of the 1990s. There were warnings at the time that the single currency would prove to be a job-destroying machine. There were warnings too that many of the countries being yoked together were not ready for a one-size-fits-all monetary policy.
It seemed glaringly obvious that in the absence of labour mobility and large-scale redistributions, countries stripped of the power to conduct their own monetary policy would have to resort to austerity if they became uncompetitive. All of this went unheeded. The euro, it was confidently predicted, would make Europe more prosperous and by doing so would create the conditions for ever closer union.
The reality has been slow growth, high unemployment, botched structural reform, drift and growing discontent. Problems have arisen not just on the periphery but at the core, where economic performance has deteriorated markedly since the creation of the single currency.
What happened, briefly, is this. The euro meant a single interest rate and a single exchange rate. The interest rate was too low for some countries, such as Ireland and Spain, which were growing fast. It was too high for countries such as Germany and France, which were growing less quickly. On the fringe, low interest rates encouraged property speculation and led to conditions in which inflation was higher than at the core.
Before the creation of the euro, these countries would have let their currencies fall to compensate. That was now impossible, so they became less competitive at a time when Germany was busy making itself more competitive. For a decade, German workers took below-inflation wage increases to price their goods back into European markets. This was highly successful, up to a point. Germany's trade surplus soared, but the flipside was that trade deficits in countries such as Spain, Greece and Italy worsened.
In the years before the crash, the system was kept going because Germany exported capital to the countries on the periphery to allow them to buy German goods. Then came the crisis. Germany insisted that if countries were in trouble, it was because they had lived beyond their means. This was a bit rich, given that Germany had been complicit in allowing them to do so.
Berlin said it would help, but only on its own terms, which involved every country replicating Germany by squeezing domestic demand and promoting exports to become more competitive. This was clearly a logical impossibility since one country's surplus is another country's deficit. Countries could not become more competitive through devaluation, so they had to do so by austerity, cutting wages and public spending aggressively. At Germany's insistence, there was no austerity for the banks.
Europe's leaders consider the euro too big to fail. They are wrong. It is already failing. It is failing to deliver the promised economic prosperity and it is failing to bring Europe together politically. The euro is like the gold standard, but worse, which is why it would be a mistake of historic proportions to ignore this week's votes. We know how this movie ends. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/feb/08/george-bests-inglorious-post-manchester-united-career-50-years-on | Football | 2024-02-08T08:00:06.000Z | Richard Foster | George Best’s inglorious post-Manchester United career, 50 years on | Just over 50 years ago George Best played his last match for Manchester United. On New Year’s Day 1974, First Division newcomers Queens Park Rangers took on United at Loftus Road. The game featured two goals from a mercurial maverick, including a characteristically mazy dribble past four opposing players before slipping the ball under the keeper. The player in question was not Best, however, but the equally talented and similarly flawed Stan Bowles. QPR’s 3-0 victory, their first ever over United, left the visitors languishing in 20th place and still in the bottom three. The season ended in United’s ignominious relegation to Division Two.
A few weeks later United’s manager Tommy Docherty lost patience with his wayward star after he missed training several more times and he dropped Best for an FA Cup tie against Plymouth Argyle. Best recalled his exchange with Docherty: “I said, ‘Fair enough’. He rabbited on for a bit but to tell you the truth I wasn’t listening. I was thinking, ‘Here we are playing a Third Division side at home and he doesn’t reckon I’m good enough to be in the side’.” It was an inglorious exit for the 27-year-old, who made almost 500 appearances for the club, including the crowning glory of the European Cup final win over Benfica in 1968.
A reminder that Manchester United were not always too rich to go down
Barney Ronay
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During the next decade Best spent the twilight of his career drifting between 10 clubs and over four continents, never settling in one place for very long. Having spent 13 years at United, after arriving from Belfast as a 15-year-old, he racked up an eclectic array of clubs. The first stop for the Northern Irishman after leaving United was an unusual one and, as ever with Best’s career, not without controversy. In May 1974 he headed out to South Africa to play for a Johannesburg-based club, Jewish Guild, who had recently been promoted to the top division. This move came during the height of the apartheid era and the South African National Football League was a segregated one, with black teams forced to play in separate leagues.
Despite the inherent moral issues, South African clubs managed to attract British players to play for a few games to boost attendances as well as raising the standard of the football. Dozens of high-profile players were lured by the financial rewards, including Best’s former teammate Bobby Charlton and his brother Jack. Indeed in Best’s first match for Jewish Guild against Hellenic, both World Cup-winning captain Bobby Moore and England international Jeff Astle were playing for the opposition. In anticipation of a much larger crowd the club moved the match to the Rand Stadium from their normal home and 30,000 watched. Interest waned rapidly and a few games later Best played his last match for Jewish Guild in front of less than 10,000.
George Best in action for Hibernian in November 1979. Photograph: Trinity Mirror/Mirrorpix/Alamy
If playing in South Africa was an odd choice his next port of call bordered on the surreal as he ended up playing against United in a pre-season friendly. Back in England he was enticed by an old friend and former teammate at United’s academy to play a couple of matches for a club who were languishing in the Southern League Division One North, the sixth tier of English league football. Dunstable Town were managed by Barry Fry who used his persuasive powers to initially persuade Docherty to release Best, as he was still officially registered with United, and then coax Best himself to turn out for the struggling club.
George Best – a life in pictures
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Fry told the BBC in 2021 about the reason behind his approach to Best. “My first crowd was 34, and the next was 43 because I made all my family come from Bedford. We were about to finish at the bottom for the ninth year running, and I needed a gimmick.” Not only did Fry pull off the coup of securing Best’s services but he also managed to persuade United to bring a reserve team to play Dunstable as part of their pre-season preparations. The United team included George Graham, who had won several honours at Arsenal and Chelsea and on 5 August, a little over six months after he had departed Old Trafford, Best was helping Dunstable to a 3-2 victory over his old team.
Fry’s gimmick worked as the Bedfordshire club’s heightened profile led to them being able to attract better players, including Astle, who Best had faced in South Africa a few months beforehand. Astle went on to score over 30 goals as Dunstable were duly promoted with regular crowds of over 1,000.
George Best (right) poses with Elton John while at LA Aztecs. Photograph: Jim Selby/Shutterstock
For the remainder of his playing career Best divided his time mainly between a handful of British clubs in the lower echelons of the Football League and the North American Soccer League. In 1975 he made his debut for Stockport County, who had finished bottom of the Fourth Division a few seasons beforehand. After scoring in a friendly against First Division Stoke City he made just three league appearances for Stockport before a move to Cork Celtic and shortly afterwards he was heading to the west coast of America.
In between his two spells with the LA Aztecs, he returned to English football with second tier Fulham and alongside Moore and Rodney Marsh, a ticket at Craven Cottage became hot property. Best made an immediate impact by scoring in the second minute of his debut against Bristol Rovers but the famed triumvirate failed to galvanise Fulham, who finished just a point above relegation.
After returning to the LA Aztecs he went on to play for both the Fort Lauderdale Strikers and the San Jose Earthquakes. He occasionally displayed his latent skills, including what was dubbed The Greatest Goal in NASL history. However, his erratic behaviour yet again affected his performances and ill discipline led to him missing training sessions. On several occasions he did not turn up on matchdays when selected to play. Another brief dalliance back in the UK in 1979 saw him try to keep Hibernian in the top division.
When that rescue attempt failed, a few games for Third Division Bournemouth in 1982 preceded his final club move to Australia. In a strange twist of fate Best’s Australian National Soccer League debut for Brisbane Lions was against Sydney Olympic and there was a familiar face in the opposition dugout. Best must have derived immense satisfaction from Brisbane’s 2-1 win over a side managed by Docherty. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2014/mar/15/the-americans-review-itv-spy-drama | Television & radio | 2014-03-15T22:15:00.000Z | Rebecca Nicholson | The Americans review – 'It falls between the gaps of silly and serious' | When The Americans (ITV) arrived on UK screens last year, it promised to be another addition to the pantheon of watercooler US dramas. It had the spy fun of Homeland and the tension of 24, with a dash of absurdity in the form of an increasingly preposterous rotation of wigs and an 80s MOR soundtrack. It was Rock of Ages without Tom Cruise but with a KGB subplot. Yet somehow, it lost its grip on me quickly.
The second season feels like a good time to give it another go. It's acclaimed and enormously popular in the US. In the UK, it remains in the Saturday-evening slot that it had for its first run, which means that for those watching it in real time, it awkwardly follows the weekend joviality of Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway and The Cube, which is, apparently, still on television. Perhaps that is an obstacle. It still doesn't feel like the drama's rightful home – a Sunday evening, where Channel 4 aired The Returned and Homeland, might have been a better fit for its popcorn thrills.
The Americans is the story of cookie-cutter couple Philip and Elizabeth Jennings, who are Soviet spies embedded in the US so that they can complete missions that usually involve having sex with targets, shooting targets in the head, or sometimes a combination of the two. (They have been trained to multitask by men called Oleg and Igor and Sasha.) It's set in the 80s, so they do this in dreadful clothes, and to disguise themselves, they slick their hair down, or fluff it up, or sometimes they wear glasses. How this has been an effective spying tactic for two decades is never explained.
And not much has changed. Since I abandoned it before it really got started last time, I worried that I might find it hard to catch up, but The Americans is a potboiler and it's easy to jump in. Elizabeth survived being shot in the stomach; her marriage, which almost fell apart under the strain of the couple's being professional assassins with multiple identities, is back on track, and the pesky FBI agent Beeman, who lives next door, is on the back foot (because Philip married his secretary and is using her to record Beeman's workplace conversations). The Americans thrives on that precipice edge of wondering whether they will or won't be caught, however, and this time that necessary danger comes from their own daughter, who must have begun to wonder why they are spending so much money on wig glue.
Judging by this first episode, the family will be the focus of season two, and the writers are showing a deft touch in forcing the couple – the threat from within – to deal with their very own threat from within. It makes the danger seem more real, too, when the ramifications are personal as well as political. There is a wonderfully cinematic scene in which the Jennings visit a theme park and Philip is forced to collect a drop, putting his son in danger. A fellow spy family set up the exchange but end up dead, having been shot by some unknown villain. It's truly gruesome, and for all the fun the show has with period detail – Mad Max, Rod Stewart and French-bread pizza all appear in this episode – it's a reminder that The Americans is capable of baring its teeth.
Matthew Rhys, last seen as Mr Darcy in BBC1's Death Comes to Pemberley, appears to be having a ball as Philip. At one point, pulling off a look that can only be described as "accountant Elton John", he has a sit-down with a pair of anti-Russian Afghan men that ends in a double assassination so outrageously hammy that it belongs in a 70s Bond film. Alongside, Keri Russell is excellent as Elizabeth. One minute, she's telling the kids she's being taken on a date by their father, the next, she's in bed with a military engineer, before her husband bursts in and puts the screws on him to extract state secrets. Russell is fantastic at bringing gravitas to the show – often more than it deserves. She's a great counterweight to all the daft spy games.
Even though the opener was fun, I suspect I may drift away this season, too. It's watchable, but there are a lot of watchable shows around, and it somehow lacks a sense of urgency. It falls between the gaps of silly and serious.Mind you, a semi-decent period crime caper with stupid hair was nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars this year, so what do I know? | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/jul/20/jeff-goldblum-gets-comfy-and-mark-wallinger-goes-metaphysical-week-in-art | Art and design | 2018-07-20T12:46:17.000Z | Jonathan Jones | Jeff Goldblum goes topless and Mark Wallinger goes into orbit – the week in art | Exhibition of the week
Mark Wallinger
The isolation of the human form in space is the focus of Wallinger’s metaphysical wit in this focused exhibition.
Jerwood Gallery, Hastings, from 21 July until 7 October.
Also showing
Jacob’s Ladder
Artists including Katie Paterson and Cornelia Parker explore the universe in this survey of the astronomical imagination. It’s one of several exhibitions taking place during the Edinburgh art festival.
Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh, from 26 July until 26 August.
Johann Bayer’s 1639 illustration of Corona Borealis for his work Uranometria. Photograph: courtesy Ingleby Gallery
Astronomy Victorious
Tying in with the Ingleby show, this exhibition includes Copernicus’ 1543 book On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres, the first work to identify the sun as the centre of the solar system.
Centre for Research Collections, University of Edinburgh, from 27 July until 27 October.
Lucy Skaer
The 2009 Turner prize nominee explores the nature of collecting in a show with a rural gothic flavour.
Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh, from 26 July until 26 August.
Alexander Calder
Cosmic grandeur and quantum entanglements make the mobiles of this great American surrealist masterpieces of scientific art.
Hauser & Wirth Somerset until 9 September.
Masterpiece of the week
The Toilet of Venus, circa 1620-25, by Guido Reni or studio. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo
Venus, goddess of love, seems to be enjoying her pampering. She swoons with pleasure while nymphs attend her. A recent cleaning has revealed the joyous colours and subtle brushwork of this flamboyantly carnal baroque painting. It used to be regarded as a studio copy of an earlier version by Reni, but now it is claimed this may be his original. Whatever its backstory, it is an over-the-top eyeful of fun.
National Gallery, London.
Image of the week
Jeff Goldblum relaxes at Tower Bridge. Photograph: Scott Garfitt/Rex/Shutterstock
Jeff Goldblum is now the embodiment of a public figure, with a 25ft, topless statue temporarily on display near Tower Bridge, in London. We looked at how the smouldering Jurassic Park star’s likeness compares with those of other Hollywood personalities. View the gallery.
What we learned
The Stirling prize shortlist has an educational feel
Liverpool Biennial plays host to a violent mix
Is Coldwar Steve the Hogarth of the social media age?
Catrin Huber has added colour to Pompeii’s ruins
… while Blenheim turns blue for Yves Klein
The V&A’s new entrance piazza has driven up visitor numbers
Homeless photographers are taking to the streets
Sausage dogs make good muses
The children of Sarajevo recall their artistic renewal
Leeds’s Hyde Park Picture House is a main attraction
A painting of the KKK is causing a stir in Texas
Kerry James Marshall has made a monument to America’s black history
David Wojnarowicz is finding his historical place, too
The astronomy photographer of the year awards are a starry affair
Will Scott took shelter at the British seaside
… while New Brighton revealed its charms
Burt Glinn got with the Beat
Saul Leiter’s Manhattan is a place of the past
… once populated by rebel women
Essex is home to radical architecture
Hong Kong is still shaped by feng shui
… while a Beijing office has become an architects’ test lab
Bill Viola is coming to the Royal Academy
Ed Ruscha reflects on ecological disaster
We remembered the extraordinary Anne Olivier Bell
Don’t forget
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This article was amended on 23 July 2018. Venus is the goddess, not god, of love. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/oct/21/tragedy-arthur-king-arthur-phillips-review | Books | 2011-10-21T21:55:01.000Z | Jane Smiley | The Tragedy of Arthur, King of Britain by Arthur Phillips – review | "D
oth mickle England want for righteous men/ As desert towns that God did burn to ash?" (Act I, scene 4)... I have to say that The Tragedy of Arthur, King of Britain, Newly Corrected and Augmented by William Shakespeare is a good-looking book. The long-lost play itself is 110 pages, a little longer than Macbeth, and not quite as long as Romeo and Juliet. But the greatest part of the book is made up of a lengthy introduction by novelist Arthur Phillips, who explains that he has shepherded the play from its discovery to publication. There are also excellent footnotes by Shakespeare expert Roland Verre - though, now you mention it, a Google search produces no scholar by that name. In the US, where it came out this spring, The Tragedy of Arthur was reviewed as an amusing pastiche by a Minneapolis-born and Harvard-educated postmodernist. The response has been quite positive, but hardly serious.
However, after performing an exhaustive search of the Guardian's web archive, I have managed to source a 1599 review of a play by W Shakespeare entitled The Tragedy of Arthur. I have translated it into modern parlance as follows: "At the Globe Theatre until October 4. The actors do a respectable job with episodic and not very exciting material. Author should heed the dramatic unities or confine himself to comic material. Two Stars."
This mini-review will come as a surprise to Phillips, who has had doubts about the manuscript's veracity all along. That the only copy of Shakespeare's lost play should turn up in the possession of his estranged father is suspect in itself – and his introduction, in the best Garrison Keillor tradition, is ironic, tormented, and full of drama stoically endured. But I say, why not? Stranger things have happened. If I were Phillips, I would take the money and keep smiling to the TV cameras.
Let me begin at the beginning. In the early 1960s, a pair of twins are born to a young married couple. The wife is a pretty young girl from northern Minnesota with acting ambitions; the husband is a talented painter, somewhat older, ferociously smart, uncontrollably eloquent, proudly self-educated. The twins, like Viola and Sebastian in Twelfth Night, are remarkably similar and exceptionally close. The only way in which they differ for the first 17 years of their lives is that the precocious Dana shares her father's passion for Shakespeare's plays, while Arthur fantasises about putting the Bard in his place. He daydreams that he is forced to babysit the playwright, "and explain everything (clothes dryers, air travel, vending machines, vaccinations), and it was a chore. I loathed having to look after this fifty-year-old man, his frisky mullet warming the back of his neck above the stiff collar". Irritated, he ups the game. "'Some genius,' I scoffed after I told him to cross the street on a red light and he was crushed by a truck." Arthur is unmoved by tales of Shakespeare's own twin children, while Dana is stricken by the fact that Shakespeare's boy died young, and the girl lived on alone.
One feature that Arthur's father, also named Arthur, does not share with his idol is that when Arthur Sr makes use of other people's material, it is labelled "fraud" rather than "genius", and he is sent to prison several times. Unfortunately, the local prosecutor is the father of Arthur Jr's best friend. When Arthur Sr is convicted of mischief (cutting crop circles in a farm field), he blames his son for spilling the beans.
Arthur Jr may be not guilty that time, but the fabric of lies and passions that he must negotiate for his entire childhood eventually begins to affect him – he distances himself from his father and also, painfully, from Dana. He takes refuge in Bohemia (that is, Prague). He and his wife produce twins of their own. And then, after years of perfect loyalty to his sister and perfect distrust of his father, he seems to be taken in at last. Perhaps the manuscript of a play attributed to Shakespeare that his father keeps in a box at his ageing lawyer's office is the real thing. Dana, at least, is willing to believe that it is – her father's story of how he obtained it is plausible, and she sees no harm in believing it. Arthur works hard to reject the play, but as scholars investigate and test the manuscript, he is briefly – long enough to sell it to his publishers – won over. Only when it comes to the time to write his introduction does he begin to shrink from his appointed task. But of course, confession is the trickiest discourse, as Hamlet would tell you.
Arthur Phillips may be mired in self-doubt, but as any 16-year-old knows, a tragic-comic novel with an appealing protagonist is much more compelling than a patched-together third-tier play in verse by a dead guy. As for the evidence and the money to be made – Arthur, give me a call.
Jane Smiley's Private Life is published by Faber. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/oct/22/bets-wisecracks-tics-and-tells-why-are-gambling-films-so-hard-to-follow | Film | 2015-10-22T15:49:59.000Z | Joe Queenan | Bets, wisecracks, tics and tells: why are gambling films so hard to follow? | In Mississippi Grind, Ben Mendelsohn plays an all-purpose loser seeking redemption through an all-or-nothing poker game run by a legendary gambler who once threw a (sedated) tiger into the pot when he ran low on cash. He makes his pilgrimage in the company of the bouncy, chipper Ryan Reynolds, briefly People magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive, still quite sexy and very much alive. A competent but by no means superlative gambler, and a man who has serious relationship issues – Sienna Miller isn’t enough to keep this guy satisfied – Reynolds has agreed to bankroll Mendelsohn. It is never entirely clear why.
Ryan Reynolds: from buff buffoon to Hollywood heavyweight
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Because there have been so many films about gamblers and pool sharks and athletes and crooks in search of the elusive pot of gold that will free them from all their debts, get them straight with their bookies, and allow them to repair their fractured family lives, it is easy to follow the basic narrative thread of Mississippi Grind.
What is not so easy to follow is the gambling itself. They play various types of poker, blackjack, craps and roulette. They gamble on basketball games and dog races, and, needless to say, play the ponies. There are extended sequences where Mendelsohn is seen gazing at his cards as a queen or an ace or a seven turns up on the table. There is lots of betting, lots of posturing, lots of wisecracking and lots of stuff about “tells”, the tics, gestures or mannerisms that enables a player to determine whether his adversary is bluffing.
The film team review Mississippi Grind Guardian
I couldn’t follow any of it. I vaguely understand how blackjack works – I know from bitter experience in Atlantic City that the other players hate you if you stick with an ace and a six when you should ask the dealer to hit you with another card – but the rest of the gambling in the film was beyond me. I had no idea why Mendelsohn was raising the bet when he didn’t seem to be holding much of value in his hand, I didn’t understand why he put all his money on double-zero at the roulette table, and I have no idea why a man who has never won at anything should suddenly, miraculously develop the skill to win half a million dollars in a single night at a Big Easy casino.
I know a little about cards, a fair bit about gambling and even more about bookies, but I do not know enough about any of them to follow precisely what is going on in Mississippi Grind. So watching the film is like watching a movie about rugby where no one has explained what a try is, or a movie about tennis where no one has explained the phrase “Five sets to love”. It doesn’t make it impossible to enjoy the film. But it makes it harder.
Robert Shaw, Robert Redford and Paul Newman in The Sting. Photograph: Everett/REX Shutterstock
Films about sports or gambling always make extravagant assumptions about the expertise of the audience. I often wonder what foreigners make of films such as Hoosiers, Any Given Sunday or Field of Dreams, which deal with American sports that have somewhat complicated rules. I found it hard to follow Chariots of Fire, even though competitive running should not be that hard to process. I can never follow the baccarat sequences in movies such as Casino Royale. I have no idea what is going on in Rounders, The Croupier, California Split, The Cincinnati Kid or assorted films called The Gambler. The classic Paul Newman-Robert Redford con artist film The Sting hinged upon the phrase: “Place it.” I know that it is one for the money and two for the show. But I always thought it was “three to get ready”, not “three to place”. Or “place to finish second”. The whole thing is terribly confusing. Hamstrung by such defective gambling information, I never had any idea what was going on in The Sting. Neither did my mum, already in her 80s when we watched it together.
“Can you explain what’s going on here?” she asked me.
“No,” I replied. “Next lifetime.”
Jason Statham, right, in the casino in Wild Card. Photograph: Allstar/Lionsgate
There are exceptions to this rule. In a recent, little-known gangster film called Wild Card, Jason Statham plays a Las Vegas tough guy who runs afoul of the mob and tries to free himself from all financial worry by making huge bets at the blackjack table. This is one of those movies where you can actually learn how to play blackjack by watching the action. But that is largely because blackjack is an incredibly simple game. Poker is not. Bridge is not. Pinochle is not.
Neither is go. Go is a classic Japanese game of encirclement, where the player with the white stones seeks to outwit the player with the black stones and vice versa. Until I saw an extremely violent Korean film called The Divine Move, I did not know that go was also played in South Korea. Nor did I know that people gambled on it. Nor did I know that South Koreans call it baduk.
In The Divine Move, a go player who has been mistreated by gangsters organises the go match of the century, assisted by other small-time hoods and masters of go. Or baduk. If he wins the game, his worries are over. But if he defeats his adversary, who just happens to be the woman he loves, she will die. Quite a predicament. But, in fact, it was impossible to follow what was going on during the ultimate go game, because the rules of the game were not available to the casual viewer. I am sure that the film made perfect sense to hardcore Korean baduk buffs. But it made no sense to me. Luckily, as is always true in Korean gangster movies, everybody ends up dead.
No go ... The Divine Move.
The new film Pawn Sacrifice avoids this problem by focusing on the drama in the famous 1972 chess tournament, which pitted the American Bobby Fischer against the Russian Boris Spassky, and not the game itself. Although there is lots and lots of “Knight to king’s bishop three” and “Pawn to queen’s knight four” badinage in the film, you can still follow the basic story: Boris Spassky is glamorous and brilliant, Bobby Fischer is crazy and more brilliant. You don’t need to understand the Sicilian Defence to follow this entertaining film, anymore than you need to understand boxing to appreciate Raging Bull. The conflict is written on the combatants’ faces, not on the chessboard. Admittedly, this might not work if the film was about jai alai or belote. Much less competitive mahjong.
Purists will argue that a particular game of chance merely furnishes the backdrop for a motion picture, that what really matters is the drama, the tension between the players, not the rules of the game. By this logic, The Divine Game or Pawn Sacrifice or Mississippi Grind could just as well have revolved around cribbage, with the player receiving instructions about the next move via a microphone planted in the player’s ear by a more gifted player observing the game via hidden camera.
Boris Spassky (Liev Schreiber) and Bobby Fischer (Tobey Maguire) face off in Pawn Sacrifice. Photograph: Allstar/Material Pictures
“Put the five in the box and lead with the eight,” the cribbage buff would tell the player in such a film. “Do not play a jack if he plays a queen. Do not.”
The truth of the matter is, because my wife is English and I have spent so much time in pubs in the Cotswolds, I actually know how to play cribbage. And because I have spent a lot of time in France, I know how to play belote. But despite having lived in the US for my entire life, I do not know how to play most games of poker. This is because the kind of guys who invite you over to a friendly game of poker are usually not all that friendly. Whereas canasta enthusiasts are generally first-rate hipster charmers.
This being the case, it would have been a whole lot easier for me to follow Mississippi Grind if the principals had been playing cribbage. High-stake riverboat cribbage. Maybe next time. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/jun/08/neil-woodford-fund-manager-rise-and-fall-investors-bright-star-black-hole | Business | 2019-06-08T15:47:37.000Z | Rupert Neate | Bright star to black hole: the rise and fall of fund manager Neil Woodford | He was, the BBC declared in 2015, “the man who can’t stop making money”. He was the rock star of pensions and fund management, awarded a CBE for his services to the economy. But now, since Neil Woodford stopped investors from withdrawing their own money from his flagship fund, he is in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.
His Woodford Equity Income Fund holds the pension savings and investments of tens of thousands of people. But it has been performing so badly that investors were withdrawing money at the rate of £10m a day.
Last week, after 23 consecutive months in which withdrawals from the fund had been greater than the new money coming in, Woodford found he couldn’t realise cash quickly enough to meet the withdrawal requests – at least at a decent price. He closed the fund to withdrawals, leaving legions of investors angry and in limbo for 28 days.
In a YouTube video he posted on Wednesday to finally apologise to investors, he looked anything but the archetypal City fund manager, with his close-cropped hair and trademark casual jumper rather than suit and tie. In the video, filmed at his fund’s headquarters on an industrial estate near Oxford, Woodford said: “I’m extremely sorry that we’ve had to take this decision. We understand our investors’ frustration. All I can say in response to that is that this decision was motivated by your interests.”
Woodford said he had been forced to “gate” the fund because so many big investors were trying to pull money out that he wasn’t able to meet the demand. His funds hold unusually big stakes in smaller and early stage unlisted companies, which are hard to sell quickly.
The final straw had been Kent county council pension fund’s request to take out its £263m holding. The trustees of Kent’s pension fund – who had been trying to stem the losses Woodford had racked up for its 110,000 members – decided to pull out when it emerged at the end of last month that the flagship fund had shrunk by £560m to £3.77bn in just four weeks. At its peak the fund was worth more than £10bn.
Of the £560m lost, just under £190m was made up of withdrawals. The rest – more than £370m – represented yet further declines in the value of the investments held in the fund, which at the end of April was made up of stakes in 101 companies ranging from housebuilders such as Barratt Developments and Taylor Wimpey to logistics business Eddie Stobart and a large number of esoteric healthcare firms.
Under EU rules aimed at ensuring that funds which hold unquoted – and therefore potentially hard-to-sell – shares can retain their stability, these shares are permitted to make up no more than 10% of the portfolio. Woodford got around those rules, quite legally, by putting some of them into his separate, quoted Patient Capital investment trust – and taking Patient Capital shares into the main fund. He also listed some of them of the Guernsey stock exchange.
But the Kent fund had left it just too late: instead of getting its cash back, its request triggered Woodford’s suspension of trading in the fund.
The video apology, in which Woodford set and answered his own questions, followed months during which he had been dismissing the concerns of investors and financial experts about his fund’s prolonged poor performance.
In February, his Woodford Equity Income Fund was listed for the first time on a “Spot the Dog” list compiled by Bestinvest, which highlights underperforming “dog” funds. Bestinvest criticised some of his worst investments and described the fund as “a Great Dane-sized” new entrant to its list.
Just a few weeks later, Woodford told the Financial Times that the investors who were pulling out were making “appallingly bad decisions”, influenced by “a mountain of fake information and fake analysis” that “pisses me off”.
Neil Woodford apologises to investors in a still from his YouTube video last week. Photograph: Woodford Investment Management/PA
In December 2017 he said in an interview that they key to successful investing was to “have a sufficiently strong arrogant gene to back your judgment, back your conviction”.
That arrogance is now provoking widespread anger, not just from his investors but also among other fund managers, who say Woodford has tarred the whole industry with the same loss-making brush.
Last Wednesday the Financial Conduct Authority, the City’s watchdog, said it was considering a formal investigation into the fund, and the following day, Bank of England governor Mark Carney told an audience in Tokyo that funds such as Woodford’s (although he did not name him) needed closer scrutiny to lessen the risk of fire sales triggering market disruption. The Bank, he said, would start stress-testing funds to ensure they couldn’t threaten a system-wide crisis.
This is a staggering fall from grace for Woodford, who had been one of the UK’s very best and most reliable stock pickers. Anyone who invested £10,000 at the start of his quarter-of-a-century career at Invesco Perpetual would have seen their money grow to almost £250,000 by the time he left.
Mark Dampier, director of research at stockbroker Hargreaves Lansdown, declared in 2015 that Woodford was “arguably the best fund manager of his generation”. Just weeks ago, despite the growing cloud surrounding Woodford, Hargreaves told its clients “we retain our conviction in him to deliver excellent long-term performance” and reminded them that he had “built his career by investing against the herd” and “shown an ability to get the big calls right”.
Hargreaves’s customers had £2bn invested with Woodford at the end of March – roughly a fifth of all the money in his three big funds.
Only when the fund was gated did Hargreaves, which has heavily promoted Woodford at discounted fees, finally drop Woodford Equity Income from its influential “Wealth 50” list of favourite funds, which it marketed to its more than a million clients.
Bank of England governor Mark Carney has suggested that funds such as Woodford’s need more scrutiny. Photograph: Hannah McKay/Reuters
Asked if he regretted his support for Woodford and the controversial discount fee structure, Dampier said: “Our aim is to enable our clients to choose the best-in-class funds at lower fees. Our favourite fund choices have, for the most part, beaten their sector averages and benchmarks. Not every fund has, and we share our clients’ disappointment and frustration when they don’t.”
Other big backers have also deserted Woodford. St James’s Place last week took its clients’ £3.5bn to another manager. On Thursday another supporter, Openworks, did the same with its £330m.
Woodford fell into fund management by accident. He had never even heard of the business until he rocked up in London in the 1980s, sleeping on his brother’s floor while looking for a job. He had left school wanting to fly fighter jets but couldn’t pass the RAF’s aptitude test, and instead read agricultural economics at the University of Exeter.
In 1988 he joined Invesco Perpetual and built a reputation as a brilliant contrarian investor. When others piled into dotcom shares at the turn of the century, he decided against, and backed more traditional companies. He made huge gains when the dotcom crash came. He eschewed banking stocks before the financial crisis – and avoided that crash too.
He held big stakes in giant companies, whose chief executives needed to retain his support. In 2012 his criticism of AstraZeneca chief executive David Brennan was widely regarded to have cost Brennan his job, and his criticism of BAE’s attempted £28bn merger with Airbus was seen as one of the reasons the deal collapsed.
In 2014, feeling that he had outgrown Invesco Perpetual, where he personally managed some £25bn of funds, he set up his own firm, Woodford Investment Management. Within two weeks of launching, he had raised £1.6bn, a UK record, and this quickly grew to £16bn. In its first year, his flagship fund made a 16% return and Woodford, a devotee of veteran US investor Warren Buffett, was called the “Oracle of Oxford”.
Woodford is a keen student of the US investor Warren Buffett. Photograph: Andrew Harnik/AP
But since then things have turned sour. Over the past four years, investors in Woodford Equity Income have collected a return of less than 1% – compared with 29% for the market as a whole. Over that same four-year period, Woodford has paid himself some £63m.
In the 2017-18 financial year alone, which was a dreadful period for his funds, Woodford Investment Management paid a £36.5m dividend to a company called Woodford Capital. Woodford holds 65% of that firm, and his business partner Craig Newman has the remaining 35%.
Woodford, who has spoken out against the huge bonuses awarded to other fund managers, and to the bosses of companies he has invested in, declined to answer any questions about his own pay, or to elaborate, beyond his YouTube video, on the fund’s tricky situation.
The firm’s public relations officer asked the Observer to point out that Woodford had donated some of his pay to charity. But he was unable to state how much money had been donated, or to which causes. The PR person declined to comment when asked whether Woodford would consider pumping any of his personal millions back into the fund.
Those who know Woodford say he is “decidedly unflashy” and that it is “difficult to fathom where all that money goes”. Well, a lot of it appears to go on horses. He and his wife Madelaine have a few dozen top showjumpers training at a vast equestrian complex near their home in the Cotswolds.
The house, near Tetbury, was built on land the Woodfords bought for nearly £14m in 2013. They moved to the Cotswolds after a planning application to construct a dressage arena and 28-horse stabling block near their previous estate, in Buckinghamshire, was rejected following a row with neighbours. One of those neighbours, the BBC’s Jeremy Paxman, described Woodford’s planned addition as “enormous, unsightly and environmentally unfriendly”.
The Tetbury venue, however, got the planners’ green light and includes a full-size manège (dressage arena). Woodford, who came to the sport only after meeting Madelaine – a keen rider whom he married in 2015 – has put in the hours at the manège and now often takes part in eventing competitions on a bay gelding called Willows Spunky.
At Invesco Perpetual, Woodford was one of the top performing fund managers in the UK market. Photograph: Shutterstock
Woodford’s other passions are fast cars and racing bicycles. He starts up the Porsche at 5am every weekday to drive to his fund’s minimalist offices on an industrial estate in Cowley, Oxford. At weekends he drives it down to the couple’s £6.3m glass-walled holiday home in Salcombe, Devon.
Woodford’s huge pay and luxury lifestyle haven’t gone unnoticed by his investors, many of whom are relying on him to be a safe pair of hands and to increase the value of their retirement or rainy day fund.
A comment on his YouTube video, by someone with the username Plato reads: “Arrogance, Incompetence, Complacency and greed: your name is Woodford! You have failed, Neil. Return the funds to your investors (including that £37m bonus you pocketed this year despite a disastrous performance in all three funds).”
Luke Hilyard of the High Pay Centre said: “This particular instance of an investor making tens of millions while losing money for ordinary savers raises questions about the governance of the funds and platforms channelling other people’s money into Woodford’s fund, and the regulatory oversight of the process.
“The case is also a microcosm of our wider business culture and economic system, where superstar managers in investment, banking, retail, commodities and other industries have been treated like gods and rewarded accordingly, yet ultimately have shown themselves to be highly fallible mortals whose success was always partly contingent on timing and luck.”
Woodford, who made his name at Invesco by backing big companies, but then switched to a new strategy of investing in smaller and unquoted companies in his own funds, has now pledged to change direction.
In his video he said he would now be targeting bigger companies, especially FTSE 100 stocks – even though only a few weeks ago he was insisting that his approach was the correct one and that the best investment opportunities were “absolutely not” in large companies.
Big bad bets
Woodford bought big stakes in many companies that performed very poorly. They include:
Kier (construction) -74% in 12 months; Woodford funds own 20%
Circassia (biotech) -74%; Woodford owns 28.5%
Prothena (biotech) -36%; Woodford owns 29.9%
Stobart Group -46%; Woodford owns 18.8%
Redde (support services) -39%; Woodford owns 28%
Allied Minds (technology) -31%; Woodford owns 27%
Spire Healthcare -51%; Woodford owns 5%
Utilitywise, energy broker that collapsed in Feb 2019; Woodford owned 29%
What Woodford investors say:
“I invested £60,000 three years ago and have lost over 20%. Luckily I sold nearly half my investment the week before the fund closed. I’m going to hold my remaining units until after Brexit as a high-risk bet.”
Simon, 51, Brighton
“I‘m getting married on 10 August and we’ve been saving for over two years. My final bill to the venue and suppliers is due at the start of July. If I can’t withdraw my money I’m going to be looking to beg, borrow or steal until I can get it released.”
James M, 28, Newcastle
“I inherited some money, and chose on a stocks and shares Isa, following suggestions from Hargreaves Lansdown, then watched the value dwindle. On 31 May I decided to take the hit and sell. The deal was shown as “pending” until Wednesday morning, but that disappeared and I was told I wouldn’t be able to sell my units. I don’t think I’ll be getting much back when trading opens again.”
Sally Williams, 53, London | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/aug/29/scrapping-of-housebuilder-water-pollution-rules-to-cost-taxpayer-140m | Society | 2023-08-29T10:30:22.000Z | Helena Horton | Scrapping housebuilder water pollution rules in England to cost taxpayer £140m | Taxpayers will pick up the bill for pollution by housebuilders, government officials have admitted, as rules on chemical releases into waterways are scrapped.
If an amendment in the House of Lords tabled on Tuesday passes, developers will no longer have to offset the nutrient pollution caused by sewage from new homes. The government has said it will double Natural England’s wetland funding to £280m in order to show it is trying to meet the requirements of its legally binding Environment Act.
This extra £140m will come from the public purse, the government confirmed. When asked by the Guardian whether this meant the taxpayer was now picking up the bill for pollution caused by developers, a government official responded “yes”, adding that while “the polluter pays principle is very important”, it was having too many adverse impacts on small- and medium-sized housebuilders.
Sunak tweeted on Tuesday: “I want to see more homes built. It’s also what local communities want. But sometimes hangover EU laws get in the way. It’s not right. So I’m cutting the red tape to unlock thousands of new homes and I’m stepping up action to protect our environment.”
The nutrient neutrality scheme, aimed at saving England’s rivers from being overloaded with nitrates and phosphates, which cause algal blooms and choke oxygen from rivers, currently allows developers to pay for “credits” to improve local wetland areas. This allows them to offset pollution.
But the new amendment allows planning officials to ignore the extra pollution caused by sewage from new homes in sensitive areas and runoff from construction sites, with the taxpayer paying for the offsets instead.
Announcing the change, the levelling up secretary, Michael Gove, and the environment secretary, Thérèse Coffey, said they were getting rid of “defective EU laws”. However, officials claimed scrapping the rules would not weaken environmental protections due to the new taxpayer funding.
“Now instead of the polluter paying, the costs have been dumped on the environment and the taxpayer,” Craig Bennett, the chief executive of the Wildlife Trusts said. “Time and again the costs go on the environment and the taxpayer as a result of lobbying by industries and what we have seen here is another example of very effective lobbying from the construction industry.
“It is not only terrible value for money for the taxpayer but it’s breaking promises to the environment made only weeks ago by Rishi Sunak. How can we ever trust environmental promises he makes again?”
Housebuilders have rejoiced in the news. The executive chair of the Home Builders Federation, Stewart Baseley, said: “Today’s very welcome announcement has the potential to unlock housing delivery across the country, from Cornwall to the Tees Valley, where housebuilding has been blocked despite wide acknowledgment that occupants of new homes are responsible for only a tiny fraction of the wastewater finding its ways into rivers and streams.
“The industry is eager to play its part in delivering mitigation and protecting our waterways. We look forward to engaging with government on the right way to do so, now that ministers are acting upon the arguments that builders both large and small have been making for so long.
“With some areas having been blighted for four years, the prospect of a swift resolution will be much-needed good news for companies on the verge of going out of business, their employees and for households most affected by housing affordability pressures. Builders will be able to bring forward otherwise stalled investment in communities and get spades in the ground, so we need parliament to get this solution on to the statute book.”
There is discord between Natural England, Defra officials and ministers, and the levelling up department. Though many of the measures regard new funding and responsibilities for the government’s advisory body Natural England, its chair, Tony Juniper, declined to comment on the news. He had previously said removing these rules would result in “rivers full of sewage”.
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Sam Hall, the director of the Conservative Environment Network, said: “Conservative environmentalists support both home ownership and environmental stewardship. The limited options for housebuilders to offset nutrient pollution from new homes meant that nutrient neutrality rules were acting as a de facto block on much-needed housing.
“A better approach for both nature recovery and housing supply is possible, and so the government was right to seek an alternative. The government’s mitigation measures, which will avoid additional nutrient pollution entering rivers until 2030 when water treatment works will have been upgraded, are welcome.
“It is disappointing, however, that the government has chosen to exempt housebuilding’s nutrient pollution from the habitats regulations, rather than seek a holistic reform with developers paying proportionally for their pollution.”
Richard Benwell, the chief executive of Wildlife and Countryside Link, said: “What the government is proposing here is to remove legal protections for nature, throw away requirements for polluters to pay, and instead use taxpayers’ money to try to fill the gap. But a single, short-term capital injection will do nothing to make up for the harm that our rivers and wildlife will suffer as a result.
“Scrapping the rules may reduce the costs for big businesses, but those costs don’t disappear. Instead, the public will pick up the bill for pollution reduction, and the environment will bear an unbearable cost of yet more pollution in our most sensitive rivers and streams.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/aug/02/zola-movie-blaccent-parody-or-appropriation | Film | 2021-08-02T08:00:22.000Z | Steve Rose | Is Zola’s use of a ‘blaccent’ parody or appropriation? | Riley Keough and Taylour Paige are fearless performers in Zola, a garish fairytale nightmare of strippers in Florida, based on a true(ish) story. But despite spending the movie in various states of undress and vulnerability, what Keough was really worried about was the accent. Her character, Stefani, speaks in what you might call a “blaccent” – a brash, brazen imitation of African-American speech. As Paige put it, “she’s in blackface the whole movie”. The director, Janicza Bravo, encouraged it but, understandably, Keough had misgivings about going so offensively all-out.
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Literal blackface is (now) a very obvious form of racist appropriation, but when it comes to linguistics, it is more difficult to know where to draw the line. The two used to go hand-in-hand, but African-American Vernacular English, to give it its formal term, is constantly feeding into mainstream (AKA historically white) language. It is often the place where the cool words come from – including “cool” itself (flashback to In the Cut where Meg Ryan meets with a Black student to get the latest slang words hot off the street). Appropriation is often called out in music (eg Iggy Azalea) but in film it’s less clear cut.
We have had characters such as James Franco’s cornrowed rapper Alien from Spring Breakers – more a knowing parody rather than straight appropriation – and movies such as James Toback’s Black and White, which tackled the issue head-on. But where along the line do we put Awkwafina, who has had to defend her “blaccent” in movies such as Ocean’s 8 and Crazy Rich Asians? And where do we put Quentin Tarantino, who liberally peppers his dialogue with the N-word? At least he’s not completely without self-awareness; he did give us Gary Oldman in True Romance, who tells Christian Slater: “You musta thought it was white boy day.”
When it’s the other way round – Black people adopting “white” speech – it’s often less about “appropriation” than reassuring white folks. We could refer to teen drama The Hate U Give, whose Black heroine must code-switch to a “less ghetto” persona at her white high school. Or Sorry to Bother You, where Lakeith Stanfield’s telemarketer finds success by putting on a “white voice” (dubbed by a different actor).
A’Ziah King, the author of the viral Twitter thread that inspired Zola, has given Keough’s performance the seal of approval, claiming she sounds just like the real-life “Stefani”. Director Bravo, on the other hand, talks nothing like her characters in Zola. She has spoken of how white interviewers are surprised at how “well spoken” or “articulate” she is. In other words: “You don’t sound like a stereotypical Black person.” Maybe she needs to get some lessons from Keough? | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/jan/05/david-cameron-savings-economy-recession1 | Opinion | 2009-01-05T19:00:01.000Z | Jill Kirby | Jill Kirby: David Cameron's proposed tax cuts are sensible, but don't go far enough | To make an upbeat speech about the British economy on a bleak January morning in the midst of a painful and deepening financial crisis might seem a task reserved to the recklessly optimistic. Today, David Cameron attempted such a speech, determined to leaven his stern critique of Gordon Brown's economic policies with "the vision thing".
As Cameron's Conservatives become more trenchant in their criticism of what Cameron termed "Labour's debt crisis", the edict has gone out that Tories must not appear to revel in the political opportunities provided by the downturn. And the media-savvy Conservative leader knows that audiences will turn away from a negative message. They want to hear some good news.
Justifiably, they also want to know if – and how – a Conservative government would handle things differently. So what is the vision for Britain that Cameron is sketching out? Not exactly utopian, he describes it as "an economy where government and its citizens live within their means, save for a rainy day, waste not and want not". It's also "a better balanced economy where we spread ownership and opportunity" and where we "work to live, not live to work". In other words, there's more to life than money, cherish what you have and don't expect a return to the days of high living and high spending.
To set us on the path to this new Britain, Cameron – sensibly enough – proposes some tax incentives for savers (abolishing basic rate tax for savings) and relief for pensioners (a £2,000 increase in their tax allowance). These are the two large groups whose financial security is damaged by the savage cuts in interest rates that the government and the monetary policy committee seem to consider the tool to get lending moving again (though with little evidence of success so far). The Tory proposals will win plaudits from "justice for savers" campaigners, not least in the right-leaning press.
Importantly, they provide specific examples of Tory tax cuts aimed at restoring a savings culture, in sharp contrast to the government's spend now, pay later approach.
The modest nature of the tax cuts makes it relatively easy for the Tories to claim that they will be paid for by restraining spending growth to 1% in all departments except NHS, education, defence and international development.
Cameron's reference to "2009 spending", however, makes it unclear whether he is promising future Tory restraint or simply recommending government action for the year in hand, and this needs to be spelt out. So, a little cheer for most of us and a few signposts to the spending restraint, tax cuts and good housekeeping that Cameron believes would characterise a future Conservative government.
Good as far as it goes, but it seems all too likely that the package will be overtaken by events. I suspect it will not be long before Brown is compelled to announce his own real-time spending cuts, as it will become impossible for him to sustain the illusion that public sector Britain can grow while commercial Britain implodes. As Cameron rightly pointed out yesterday, it's "back to the 70s" (or worse) for the government. The Conservatives are whistling the first few bars of the tune to help us out of this mess but their vision needs to spell out much more clearly the shape of a Britain where the public sector is small enough to live within the means of its revenue-producing citizens. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/apr/03/councils-pandemic-fight-is-hampered-by-central-micromanagement | Society | 2020-04-03T12:07:24.000Z | Richard Vize | Councils' pandemic fight is hampered by central micromanagement | Richard Vize | NHS and care workers have gripped public attention as the country responds to the Covid-19 pandemic. But the one million people who work in local government have also been working flat-out – work that will continue well past the present crisis, that has been made much harder by 10 years of austerity, and that is not being helped by some parts of Whitehall trying to micromanage the local response.
As councils cope with a huge wave of demand on every front, from social care to refuse collection, they are taking daily instructions from ministers and officials across Whitehall, themselves under pressure and struggling to keep pace with directions from Downing Street.
Ironically perhaps after years of cuts, the tensions aren’t about money, but about communication and coordination. There have been delays, confusion and aborted work, such as changes of policy about whether central or local government is managing the assembly and distribution of food parcels, and local preparations for additional mortuary capacity being put on hold in favour of a national response.
While some difficulties are inevitable, the fundamental problem is ministers persisting in the fantasy that everything works best when it is run from the centre.
Limited understanding about the practicalities of local delivery has affected everything from identifying which vulnerable people need help to supporting local businesses.
In some places food parcels have arrived stuffed with biscuits and chocolate, which then need to be supplemented with something nutritious.
Meanwhile, public health directors are frustrated at being excluded from key communications and the development of guidance by NHS England and government departments.
Responsibility for commissioning public health policies was moved out of central government in 2013. As former public health director Gabriel Scally said earlier this week, public health budgets have since been systematically raided in the face of massive cuts to council funding. The heart of the local response to the virus now lies with a small number of council public health specialists – about 500 across England.
As the first wave of infections hit, these specialists played a crucial role in the containment phase, chasing infection contacts and coordinating the local response.
Among a torrent of other responsibilities, highlighted via the hashtag #adayinthelifeofadph, local public health staff are collating and analysing data, giving advice on everything from protection equipment to homelessness, managing the implementation of social distancing, supporting vulnerable people, and working with the NHS, voluntary groups and government.
All councils depend on these specialists to help implement the blizzard of guidance on infection control and safe working, as they work with GPs, volunteers, community groups, local businesses and government during the lockdown.
Those who may need help are being identified from numerous sources, including responses to a government letter asking 1.5 million people judged at risk if they need help. Many people have contacted councils directly. Staff and voluntary workers – all trained in infection control – are making personal visits and keep in touch online and by phone, as well as delivering food and medicines and checking on social care and other welfare needs. Some support will come from the £500m government hardship fund.
Two weeks ago the NHS and the government instituted a new patient discharge regime, which amounted to an order to do whatever it takes to clear patients out of 15,000 beds. Councils are working with the NHS, care homes and voluntary groups to ensure residents being moved out of hospitals have somewhere to go and have the right support in place.
The government has allocated councils in England £1.6bn of additional funds to cope with Covid-19 pressures, such as buying support from care providers, but the guidance did not mandate the testing of patients before discharge, leading some care homes, such as in Liverpool, to refuse to take them. Continuing difficulties in getting personal protection equipment (PPE) to care staff are also hindering discharges, and infections in care homes will put a huge additional strain on adult social care.
Social care staff continue to go to people’s homes despite the lack of PPE. The British Association of Social Workers has warned (pdf) that staff are often seeing a dozen or more service users a day without even hand sanitiser as protection. Social workers are also scrambling to keep in touch with children who may be put at additional risk by the lockdown.
Councils and their contractors are trying to keep other vital services running, particularly refuse collections, knowing that any deterioration in the environment will exacerbate people’s sense of fear. It’s a growing problem. Some council recycling centres have closed and the volume of waste is increasing just as sickness among refuse crews increases.
Huge efforts have been made to get rough sleepers off the streets, including working with volunteers and businesses to get people into hotels and revamp empty properties. And councils are gearing up to help an expected surge in domestic abuse victims.
Local authorities also have to handle the emotionally-charged practicalities around funerals. Guidance from Public Health England now says only immediate family are allowed to attend and social distancing rules must be maintained.
Some families are waiting to remove bodies from hospital mortuaries in the hope that the rules might be relaxed in a few weeks, while many undertakers are not working as normal. As a result, mortuary capacity is rapidly running out, and emergency facilities are being built.
Under intense pressure, local government’s role has been a mix of community leadership, implementing national plans in ways that are sensitive to local needs, and providing support for everyone from rough sleepers to businesses.
When the immediate crisis is over, councils need to ram home the message that while national guidance has often been essential in fighting Covid-19, local government is at its best when it has maximum freedom to meet local needs. When the plaudits are being handed out, councils will deserve huge credit for the energy and innovation they have brought to leading their communities.
Richard Vize is a public policy commentator and analyst | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/sep/17/laura-kuenssberg-state-of-chaos-review-my-mum-your-dad-davina-mccall-wilderness-jenna-coleman-welcome-to-wrexham-season-2 | Television & radio | 2023-09-17T08:30:54.000Z | Barbara Ellen | The week in TV: Laura Kuenssberg: State of Chaos; My Mum, Your Dad; Wilderness; Welcome to Wrexham – review | Laura Kuenssberg: State of Chaos (BBC Two) | iPlayer
My Mum, Your Dad (ITV/X) | itv.com
Wilderness (Amazon Prime Video)
Welcome to Wrexham (Disney+)
Who could forget the political turbulence after Brexit? Even through my hot, salty remainer tears, I couldn’t help noticing that Westminster going into complete meltdown made for riveting television. Now Laura Kuenssberg has produced a three-part BBC Two docuseries covering this tumultuous era: State of Chaos.
As BBC political editor for seven years, Kuenssberg has attracted criticism for being “too close” to the Tories, but is there a sulphurous (and illogical) whiff of sexism about that? As with her weekend politics show, Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg, isn’t it her job to form connections with those in power?
It’s evident from the start that Kuenssberg has pumped her contacts list hard. While she doesn’t appear to have landed interviews with any of the “five prime ministers in six years”, the screen churns with Westminster bigwigs (including Philip Hammond, Sajid Javid, Amber Rudd and William Hague), Brexiters (yup, Nigel Farage) and what Kuenssberg calls Westminster’s “real cast list”: aides – civil servants and advisers who don’t usually talk on camera and may feel a strange urge to tell the truth.
Some interviewees have a ties loosened/off-duty look, like they’re a few tumblers of plonk in at the office party and ready to vent. Others come across like buck-passing arsonists protesting that the matches provided weren’t damp enough to stop them from starting the fires. Others relive their glory days: Jacob Rees-Mogg, the UK’s premier Victorian performance artist, carps about “anti-democratic” ploys; Steve Baker smirks about plotting to bring down Theresa May. Nadine Dorries trashes May, like a sly cat delivering a dead mouse as an offering to Boris Johnson.
I’ve been conditioned to expect industrial flirting in swimwear, lashings of fake drama and savage dumpings at fire pits
The second and third episodes cover the pandemic and Johnson’s downfall, so start steeling yourself for footage of “bad boy” chief aide Dominic Cummings scuttling around like Gollum styled by Millets. Watching the opener, I kept thinking, why did we let this shower of solipsists and gas lighters anywhere near power? And frankly, State of Chaos’s core message (that no one knew what to do about Brexit) is hardly a revelation.
But what gripping television – even with rather too much indulgent footage of Kuenssberg lurking, hovering, snuffling out stories (we get it, Laura: you were there). While obviously Tory-dominated, the newsy pace brings to mind the 2021 docuseries Blair and Brown: The New Labour Revolution. The result is a window into a dark, critical time, featuring key players, many of whom, for their own good, should probably now stop talking.
Davina McCall’s new 10-part ITV dating show, My Mum, Your Dad (adapted from a US format), made me realise something fundamental about myself: I’m a complete hypocrite. Hearing about what’s been dubbed “middle-aged Love Island”, I felt that duty of care should be paramount. These forty- and fiftysomethings, battered and bruised by life, should be treated with compassion.
Now it’s here, shown over consecutive week nights, and – voilà! – the mature lonely hearts, residing in a country retreat, are fully clothed and handled with sensitivity. The tone is eHarmony meets Magic FM, and McCall’s empathy dial is switched to the max. Wounds and scars (one man lost his beloved wife to cancer) are rightly respected. Even the “twist” (their progeny holed up together, secretly dictating who their parents date) is offset by the kids being absolutely lovely.
‘eHarmony meets Magic FM’: Natalie, Roger, Monique and Paul in My Mum, Your Dad. Photograph: ITV/Shutterstock
Unfortunately, it’s (cough) a little dull. I appreciate I may have dating show burnout: I’ve been conditioned to expect industrial flirting in swimwear, lashings of fake drama and savage dumpings at fire pits. As the aforementioned hypocrite, I’ve certainly got a nerve complaining about MMYD being done as respectfully as I hoped it would. Still, there’s a limit to watching nice people engage in polite conversation about their “journeys”. We were promised “middle-aged Love Island”, not TV Horlicks. That said, four episodes in, feelings are growing and a prickle of rivalry is setting in.
On Amazon Prime Video, the six-part Wilderness (based on the novel by BE Jones, scripted by Marnie Dickens) is a glamorous, overblown thriller that thinks it’s a long-lost Bette Davis epic. It stars Jenna Coleman as Liv, a wronged wife plagued with bad thoughts about her handsome, cheating husband Will (Oliver Jackson-Cohen).
We know Liv has bad thoughts, because we never stop hearing them, via Coleman’s omnipresent anguished (occasionally droning) voiceover. Liv has been devoted to Will, to the chagrin of her embittered mother (Claire Rushbrook). When the couple embark on a relationship-rescue US road trip, Liv starts to consider some very dark options.
‘Thinks it’s a long-lost Bette Davis epic’: Jenna Coleman in Wilderness. Amazon Prime Video
Wilderness seems to allude to the trip, the marriage and Liv’s psychological state all at once. Two episodes in, Will is so slimy and awful, you wouldn’t judge Liv for giving him a cheeky shove into a handy ravine. The tone is similar to The Undoing or Chloe, but it’s scuppered by melodramatic overkill and unlikely coincidences. Subtract the road trip element and Wilderness is a solid posh kitchen island thriller: silly, improbable, but deeply moreish.
The end of the first series of Welcome to Wrexham must have shocked Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney. The Hollywood actors and unlikely purchasers of Wrexham AFC sought to lift the ailing Welsh club out of non-league football – why had this failed to happen in real life? Fire the scriptwriters.
Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney in season two of Welcome to Wrexham. AP
With this second 15-part show, if you’re aware of football (or even Google) you know the on-pitch outcome. Elsewhere, it’s another deep dive into the lives of players and locals (including a touching look at autism). There’s also a visit from Charles and Camilla, an episode about the female team, and glimpses of Reynolds and McElhenney going pale at the cost of replacing stands.
Sometimes there’s too much synthetic cooing over how Welcome to Wrexham has boosted the community. As a card-carrying snarky Brit, I object to my buttons being so brazenly pressed. WTW needs to work as a documentary (OK, a football docusoap) and not a soft-focus promotional film. That said, it’s still a lovely series, with a big, pumping heart, even if it is floating in glutinous syrup.
Star ratings (out of five)
Laura Kuenssberg: State of Chaos ★★★★
My Mum, Your Dad ★★
Wilderness ★★★
Welcome to Wrexham ★★★
What else I’m watching
The Morning Show
(Apple TV+)
Series three of the glossy drama about a TV network, starring Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon, and Jon Hamm as a tech zillionaire. Brace yourselves for some disorienting shark jumping (space rocket missions, cyber-attacks) in the opening episodes.
Katya Adler in Living Next Door to Putin. BBC
Living Next Door to Putin
(BBC One)
A thought-provoking documentary, in which Katya Adler travels across eastern Europe looking into how the war in Ukraine is affecting people in Russia’s other neighbouring countries.
Jamie Cooks the Mediterranean
(Channel 4)
Jamie Oliver’s life must be a blur of cooking and filming, but at least the nibbles look decent. In this vibrant new series on traditional and innovative Mediterranean cuisine, he first travels to Greece for a tasty meze of TV delights. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/08/tony-blair-labour-pride-war-criminal-iraq | Opinion | 2014-04-08T17:19:00.000Z | Zoe Williams | Stop calling Tony Blair a war criminal. Labour should be proud of his record | Zoe Williams | The 20th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide disinterred some terrible acts, by warlords and technocrats, and also raised the spectre of Tony Blair, normally so quiet that when you hear a rumour that he's moved to Jerusalem, it sounds atmospherically true, even while being manifestly not true.
On the Today programme he spoke of Rwanda and moved on to Syria, and how our failure to act on Assad would imperil us for years. In the Guardian he wrote about Rwanda ; and there are arguments one could have with him about his uncritical support for President Paul Kagame, a much more controversial figure than his version allows. There are debates to be had about Syria, and what these classic rationalisations premised on a counterfactual – we have to go in or we'll pay for it in the long run – actually mean. Do we have any reason to believe that interventions ever make us safer? Isn't the point of intervening against Assad not to save our own skins, but the people of Syria? But none of this came up, just as none of it ever comes up with Blair. The comments under his Guardian article were dominated not by Rwanda, but by the conviction that he is a war criminal. All anybody talks to him about is Iraq. He has no legacy apart from that war.
Blair left a blueprint for social democratic government; it wasn't perfect and some of it was disastrous. But we can't even see it because it has been obliterated by the bloodshed of the Iraq war. Even to say that "other things happened during the Labour term besides a war many of us did not agree with" is seen as disrespectful. We can't get over Iraq; only Iraq decides when Iraq is over. But this is completely silencing the left: it is ensuring that no stout defence can be made of those years: it is allowing the trope of "the mess they made" to become the truth; and it is preventing any coherent articulation that politics can be better than either "Tory" or "Tory-lite".
Many of the things the Labour party says now are laudable, and true: it is true that there are good capitalists and bad ones; it is true that global markets often look like a race to the bottom, but we don't have to just put up with it; it is true that regional regeneration is the key to a prosperous middle class and probably the partial answer to the housing crisis. But what Labour cannot make from these ideas is a solid, progressive identity, carving policies for people with ambitions beyond money, desires beyond their own front doors, and questions besides "What's the cheapest?". That identity is only possible if they are prepared to discuss their past.
Even though this starts with Blair, and how we understand his legacy, it does not end with him. The party itself has had its voice strangled, not by its collusion in voting for the war (this doesn't trouble any Conservative that I can think of), but by its inability to reach an accommodation afterwards. In the party they may mumble about why they voted the way they did, but generally speaking they have allowed Blair to become a pariah – and this leaves them unable to celebrate his achievements, incapable of examining what didn't go to plan. It leaves them without any pride in more than a decade of Labour government. Just about the only thing you hear being praised is Gordon Brown's swift and decisive action in bailing out the banks. Of all the decisions, we find the one that actually could have used a bit more thought – that actually did cost more than we could afford, that actually might have been more reckless than courageous – is the one we all feel so comfortable about.
The fact is, the national minimum wage that Blair fought for was a good thing. It isn't high enough; enforcement isn't strong enough; there are too many loopholes – but where do you think we'd be without that? Who in this government can you see fighting for the employee against the employer? When Blair came in, there were 3 million pensioners living in poverty; when he left it was 2 million. We have these arguments now about whether baby boomers stole everything because someone put selfishness powder in their milk supply, But it's preposterous to see that change as a generation war. This was a genuine attempt to tackle poverty, which happened to centre on pensioners because they were often poor, the fact that there are some rich ones notwithstanding.
The fight against child poverty was enshrined in law under the Blair government; I saw it as an attempt to avoid looking at the systemic causes of poverty, by sticking poverty in shorts and calling it cute. But I recognise, at least, that it's better to care about poor children than it is to recast their situation as the result of their parents' fecklessness. There is space between "Blair wasn't ideological enough" and "politicians are all the same".
Every hospital A&E was modernised or replaced in the Labour years; yes, they brought in that weak market system I think was needless – but carving the whole thing up and selling it to Tory donors? While your own MPs buy shares in donors' companies? Can we just take a second to consider how unthinkable that would have been from Blair's new cohort? Not because they didn't want the headlines, but because they genuinely valued the NHS, financially and morally.
Can you imagine Northern Ireland's Good Friday agreement coming out of this coalition, with its ramshackle headline grabs and constant backbench rebellions, the chaotic, directionless jerk of its agenda, like a rat on amphetamines? Its leaders just wouldn't have the meticulousness, the patience, or the breathing space to do anything that didn't score an immediate point.
Did New Labour spend too much on social security? No, it didn't spend enough (an argument for another day). But none of these conversations can even begin until we stop calling Tony Blair a war criminal. Maybe that sounds like dishonouring the dead; but what kind of wolves are we leaving in charge, while we nurse this hostile "honour"? | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/nov/08/donald-trump-2024-it-looks-like-its-happening-but-theres-a-silver-lining | Opinion | 2022-11-08T12:15:34.000Z | Arwa Mahdawi | Donald Trump 2024? It looks like it’s happening – but there’s a silver lining | Arwa Mahdawi | You know how the saying goes: if at first you don’t succeed then sulk like a toddler, baselessly claim that an election was stolen from you, then try, try again. After lots of will-he-won’t-he it now seems almost certain that Donald Trump will run for president in 2024. Last Thursday, Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s 2016 campaign lead, said that we can expect Trump to announce his candidacy soon and rumours have been flying ever since. Over the past few days, Trump advisers have been dropping hints to the media that the former president will run and Trump himself has been teasing a comeback at events across the country. On Monday, shares of the company that will take Trump’s social media venture public rallied in anticipation of the idea that the guy who reportedly drinks 12 Diet Cokes a day, likes to flush White House documents down the toilet and is mired in multiple lawsuits, might become the most powerful man in the world again.
So when will Trump make this cursed announcement? Probably as soon as I file this column, knowing my luck. And I’m not the only one nervous about Trump’s timing. A number of Republicans reportedly spent Monday frantically calling up Trump and begging him not to announce his candidacy until after Tuesday’s midterm elections. The worry among some Republicans is that Trump’s news would overshadow the midterms and send Democratic voters scrambling to the polls. Trump, in an unusual display of self-restraint, has suggested that we should all mark our calendars for 15 November when he’ll make a “very big” announcement from Mar-a-Lago. “We want nothing to detract from the importance of tomorrow,” he added, as he made an announcement he knew was guaranteed to make headlines and steal at least some attention from the midterms.
I know it’s grim to think we might all have to suffer through two years of Trump-the-candidate (and that’s not even figuring in the fact that he might win), but there is a silver lining to this horror show. Namely, there’s a decent chance that Trump throwing his hat into the ring will divide the Republican party and, if we’re lucky, cause them to eat their own. Right now, you see, the top unofficial 2024 Republican contender is Florida governor Ron DeSantis, whom Trump is extremely annoyed with. Trump helped DeSantis go from relative obscurity to rightwing darling when he endorsed him back in 2018. Since then, however, DeSantis hasn’t been kissing the ring enough. He’s gone from a protege to a potential threat – one that Trump is very keen on neutralising. We know that Trump is serious about taking down DeSantis because he’s reached for strategy No 1 in his “How to Be a Political Genius” handbook: come up with a devastating nickname for your opponent. On Saturday Trump unveiled his new moniker for the Florida governor: “Ron DeSanctimonious”. Not bad, but it feels a little try-hard. Probably because it is, in fact, extremely try-hard. According to the New York Times: “Mr Trump has been privately testing derisive nicknames for Mr DeSantis with his friends and advisers, including the put-down he used on Saturday.” I know that we should all be worried about the death of democracy and all that but I just love the idea of Trump convening a little writers’ room where everyone workshops nicknames for his nemeses.
Speaking of strategies, the Democrats, I reckon, ought to be weaponising Trump’s insecurities as best they can. Democrats should be getting operatives to call up Trump and say: “Hey, did you hear what DeSanctimonious said about you?” Then they should be calling DeSantis up and saying: “Hey, did you hear what Trump said about you?” Then they should sit back and watch as two of the most popular – and most awful – Republicans tear each other apart. Forget Nixon’s “madman theory”: behold Mahdawi’s “middle-school politics theory”.
Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2023/apr/09/stornoway-quebec-review-gaelic-western-elspeth-turner | Stage | 2023-04-09T13:35:55.000Z | Mark Fisher | Stornoway, Quebec review – outlaws settle scores with Gaelic swagger | On the back wall of Becky Minto’s bar-room set, a temporary looking collection of rough-hewn wooden planks, are two framed slogans. One of them reads “Je me souviens,” the Quebecois motto about never forgetting your past. The other reads “Fialachd do’n fhògarrach,” a Gaelic phrase promising hospitality to the outcast.
The juxtaposition of the two languages would be unusual anywhere but the Lac-Mégantic region of Quebec which, in the 19th century, became populated by settlers from France and the Western Isles of Scotland.
Stornoway, Quebec may sound like a fanciful title, but playwright Calum L MacLeòid sets his “Gaelic western” in a real settlement. The residents remember it was once called the Depot and, before that, Bruceville.
Tellingly, they have forgotten the name used by the indigenous population for the previous 12,000 years. They have no connection to this land and, in the play’s most poignant moment, the landlady Uilleamina Bouchard (MJ Deans) dreams of her ancestral home on the Isle of Lewis, where people have a story for every rock, stream and path.
Not that MacLeòid’s play is especially reflective. Directed by Muireann Kelly for Theatre Gu Leòr and performed in four languages, including BSL, it is a single-set drama that imagines a confrontation between a pair of outlaws on the night of an early winter storm. One of them is Donald Morrison (Dòl Eoin McKinnon), a real-life fugitive who was wanted for arson and murder. The other is Màiri MacNeil (Elspeth Turner), a fellow outlaw, who has reasons of her own for pursuing Morrison.
MJ Deans, right, as the downtrodden Uilleamina, with Dòl Eoin MacKinnon, Elspeth Turner and Sam James Smith. Photograph: Mihaela Bodlovic
It is with MacNeil that the playwright’s interests lie. She is the mysterious stranger beloved of westerns, knocking back hard liquor and cleaning out her gun, much to the consternation of the fearful locals. Turner gives a swaggering performance, a woman as witty as she is composed, running rings around the unworldly locals as they seek in vain to protect Morrison, a more sketchily drawn figure.
MacNeil’s independence contrasts with Uilleamina’s servitude and, as the men flounder and fulminate, the women forge a bond that promises freedom and adventure to come. Their developing relationship in this culturally rich environment gives an otherwise old-fashioned drama its intrigue.
Now touring: at Eden Court, Inverness, 11 April; then Tron, Glasgow, 13-15 April. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2010/dec/08/fc-united-brighton-hove-albion-match-report | Football | 2010-12-08T21:53:59.000Z | Richard Jolly | FC United 0-4 Brighton | FA Cup second round match report | Brighton and Hove Albion might just be experiencing a surge in popularity from the Old Trafford boardroom. The improbable scenario of FC United facing Manchester United has become impossible and the potential for the ultimate embarrassment has been removed thanks to the League One leaders. The chants of "Bring on United," the soundtrack to a remarkable run, are now no more than wishful thinking.
A gap of more than 100 league places proved unbridgeable. Brighton, beaten 4-0 by the more established United in the 1983 FA Cup final replay, defeated the newest club in the oldest Cup competition by the same scoreline. Their reward is a meeting with last season's beaten finalists, Portsmouth, in a south coast clash in the third round. FC United, meanwhile, return to the Evo-Stik Premier Division, where only Mickleover Sports and Retford United are beneath them.
Yet parallels with their parent club remain. While Sir Alex Ferguson's side were held by Valencia 24 hours earlier, two Spaniards defeated Karl Marginson's team. Fran Sandaza and Iñigo Calderón scored the crucial goals for Brighton; the cruel strikes came from the English pair of Elliott Bennett and Matt Sparrow in the final few minutes, giving the result an unflattering look.
But, when 2-0 down, FC United's Ben Deegan was tripped by Calderón in the box. Jake Cottrell's subsequent spot-kick rebounded off the post. "A turning point," admitted Gus Poyet, the Albion manager. His side capitalised with Bennett's assured finish and Sparrow's tap-in.
Bennett was responsible for this replay; it was his penalty Sam Ashton saved in added time 12 days ago. The winger more than made amends, with high-speed incursions that led to the first-half goals; his shot was turned in by Sandaza, his cross headed in by the raiding Calderón. "The most offensive right-back in the country," said Poyet. He was heartened by his side's attitude. "It was a matter of being professional."
Marginson's men, in contrast, are part-timers. "The lads are disappointed but they must have a great sense of pride in themselves," said the former fruit-and-veg delivery man, for whom rounds have taken on a new meaning.
"We started in the extra, extra, extra preliminary third qualifying this that or the other," he said. They raised almost £200,000 in gate receipts, prize money and television revenue and "this is inching us closer to the day when we can have our own home".
Instead, the Red Rebels adorned Gigg Lane with flags of Che Guevara. Their egalitarian principles were apparent in their decision not to inflate ticket prices for the biggest game in their history. They were rewarded with a record attendance and a vibrant atmosphere. Feeling the noise was easy. In sub-zero temperatures, feeling the toes proved rather harder. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/food/2023/may/13/turn-over-ripe-berries-into-cake-recipe-zero-waste-cooking-berry-streussel-cake-tom-hunt | Food | 2023-05-13T05:00:14.000Z | Tom Hunt | How to turn over-ripe berries into a brilliant little cake - recipe | Waste not | Save squishy berries from the food-waste bin by making today’s streusel muffins. I’ve based the recipe on the classic German blueberry kuchen, which feature a cake base moistened with fresh berries, all covered in a crunchy, crumble-style topping. I’ve boosted the flavour and fortified the mix by using whole spelt and rye flours with rapadura sugar, though regular wheat flour and brown sugar will work as nicely, so use whatever flour, sugar, nuts and spices you have to hand. As for the fruit content, even just a small handful of over-ripe berries will do.
Berry streusel muffins
These muffins make a great use of past-their-best berries, by upcycling squishy fruit into a crowdpleasing cake. They also work well using frozen berries and other ripe fruit, including diced pear, kiwi, banana, pineapple and peach. Unlike the traditional blueberry kuchen, I’ve pared down the recipe so it works using just a small amount of fruit. Rather than bake a small single cake, I also thought it would be nice to try out the idea with muffins, and they worked brilliantly: moist, crunchy streusel goodness.
Makes 6 large muffins or 8-12 cupcakes
For the topping
20g wholemeal flour – I used rye
25g unrefined brown sugar – I used rapadura
10g rolled oats
30g chopped nuts – I used almond slivers (optional)
1 pinch sea salt
1 pinch nutmeg, or ¼ tsp cardamom or/and cinnamon (optional)
30g butter, cut into pea-sized cubes
For the cake base
180g wholemeal flour – I used spelt (rye is too heavy)
1½ tsp baking powder
90g unrefined brown sugar – I used rapadura
¼ tsp sea salt
Finely grated zest of ½ organic unwaxed lemon
100ml whole milk
40g butter
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
About 100-125g over-ripe berries
First make the topping: in a medium bowl, mix the wholemeal flour, sugar, rolled oats, chopped nuts, if using, and a pinch each of sea salt and freshly grated nutmeg, if using, then mix in the diced cold butter and set aside.
Now for the base: mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl, then stir in the lemon zest. Pour in the milk, stir in the butter, egg and vanilla, then beat until you have a smooth batter.
Grease and line a deep, six-hole muffin tray (or an eight- or 12-hole cupcake tin), then divide the cake batter between the moulds. Top each one with some berries, then cover with a spoonful of the streusel mixture. Bake in a 200C (180C fan)/390F/gas 6 oven for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/may/12/book-clinic-what-constitutes-well-read | Books | 2018-05-12T16:59:36.000Z | Robert McCrum | Book clinic: what constitutes ‘well read’? | Since it is seen as a great accolade for a person to be thought “well read”, I wonder what the minimum requirement might be to be considered thus?
David Handley, Yorkshire
Robert McCrum, author and former literary editor of the Observer
In 1618, two years after Shakespeare’s death, a well-read adult could easily load all the books they had collected on to a decent-sized cart. Not only was there a consensus about what a good library should consist of, it was also quite easy to accumulate the necessary classics in good Renaissance translations.
Four hundred years on, the idea of “well read” is both much harder to define (less of a consensus) and also more difficult to fulfil from the global cornucopia of choice.
One thing is certain: it’s still to do with the unaccountable workings of personal taste. The book list I’d consider essential to any description of well read might not be the next person’s; yet both such lists would be equally valid.
I’d suggest that three kinds of reading define the well-read mind. First, I’d want to include the immortals from the classics of Greece and Rome: Homer, Plato, Aeschylus, Aristophanes, Euripides, Virgil, Plutarch, Ovid, Juvenal and Sappho…
Next, from the Anglo-American literary tradition, we can’t forget Shakespeare, Milton, Donne, Byron, Austen, Keats, Dickens, Twain, Thoreau, Dickinson, Hawthorne, Melville, Whitman, Eliot, Pound, Auden, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Spark, Beckett, Woolf… and certainly another score of contemporary greats, including Baldwin, Pinter, Morrison, Miller, Bellow and Naipaul.
Finally, and this is where it gets contentious, there’s great writing in translation, from Proust, Freud, Fanon and Bulgakov to Grass, Márquez, Kundera and Levi.
I’ve only scratched the surface, but these would be indispensable to my definition of well read.
If you’ve got a question for Book Clinic submit it below or email [email protected] | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/nov/16/two-sould-henry-mcdonald-review | Books | 2019-11-16T09:01:32.000Z | Ian Sansom | Two Souls by Henry McDonald review – coming of age in the Troubles | In Northern Ireland, there are now many fine young and emerging writers whose attentions have turned away from the subject of the Troubles: the poet Stephen Sexton, recent winner of a Forward prize; or Wendy Erskine, whose short-story collection Sweet Home is all about Belfast, but not that Belfast. Others, meanwhile, are finding new ways of looking back at recent history, including Anna Burns with her Booker-winning Milkman and Michael Hughes with his modern take on the Iliad, Country. Henry McDonald’s novel Two Souls provides another new and surprising perspective.
McDonald is a journalist who has been writing about Northern Ireland for the Guardian and the Observer for 30 years or more. His previous books include Martin McGuinness: A Life Remembered (2017) and a history of the UVF: basically, he has covered all the territory. Originally from the Markets area of Belfast – and thus familiar with the effect of the Troubles on the city’s working-class communities, as documented in his autobiographical Colours (2004) – he knows whereof he speaks. In Two Souls he speaks from the perspective of middle age to provide a nuanced coming-of-age story, set against the backdrop not only of the Troubles, but of the explosion of punk and the world of Irish League football.
There is a term sometimes used in Northern Ireland to describe literature that merely trades in the tropes of the Troubles: it’s called Troubles trash. Two Souls rummages around in the rubbish but emerges with something rather strange and precious.
It’s the late 1970s. The book’s hero – who more than a little resembles the McDonald from Colours – is Robbie “Ruin” McManus. Robbie is finishing his A-levels and yearning for a new start in life. “After seven long years, I will be free from the stench of floor polish; free from cassocked Christian Brothers with their Embassy No 10 fegs […] free from the dead-on teachers in their moccasins and corduroy suits; free from the Yes and Pink Floyd fans who control the record players in the Sixth Form centre.”
But this being Belfast, things are rather more complicated: it’s not all post-punk discos, exam stresses and Subbuteo leagues. (Although there is a nice reminder about the importance of the table-top football game to 70s youth: “We played in our front rooms, often on our bellies, flicking and kicking […]while the bullets whizzed past our windows.”)
One of the book’s many complications – which eventually has long-term catastrophic consequences for Robbie – is the problem of the rivalry between the so-called Stickies or official IRA, and the Provisional IRA, which threatens to divide working-class republican families. Then there’s the small matter of Robbie’s best friend being a half-crazed football hooligan, “Padre Pio” McCann, “a stumpy wee cunt” whose Provo father messed up and had to leave the North, and who therefore has a lot to prove. Plus, Robbie’s cousin Aidan has arrived from England, complete with Mohican and a biker jacket stencilled with an image of a horned goat and a pentagram, bringing an entirely new kind of rebellion. And Robbie also happens to have fallen hopelessly in love with a beautiful art student called Sabine, whose father, inevitably, turns out to be a British soldier.
Sometimes the chronology of the book becomes confused, moving backwards and forwards from the 70s through the 80s and into the 90s; an understanding of the novel’s denouement relies on a careful reading of a series of cryptic communications from a mysterious imprisoned Comrade T. What maintains the momentum is McDonald’s capacity to create scenes of disturbing incident – beatings, confrontations, betrayals – and his obvious relish in rendering the endless insults and hilarious slaggings of Belfast youth: “That wee fucker has game, I’ll give him that.”
The notion of being or having game is extremely important to the book: as much as anything, this is a novel about the importance of performance, of self-presentation and self-dramatisation in all sorts of cultures, good and bad. “In Belfast you might be the biggest windy-licking, back-stabbing, touting, double-crossing, thieving, hooding, joyriding wee bastard, but if you’re game then all will be forgiven. Once you prove you’re game, you get respect … and maybe fear.” No one could doubt that Henry McDonald is game.
Two Souls is published by Merrion (£14.99). To order a copy go to guardianbookshop.com or call 020-3176 3837. Free UK p&p over £15, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of £1.99. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/feb/08/country-diary-somewhere-in-the-stillness-a-bittern-lurks | Environment | 2024-02-08T05:30:03.000Z | Jim Perrin | Country diary: Somewhere in the stillness, a bittern lurks | Jim Perrin | The hide at Llyn Coed y Dinas, close to the southern end of the Welshpool bypass, is a good place to spend an hour at the dimming of the day. So I did, snugly wrapped in a Himalayan down jacket, a travel rug across my knees as the small waves lapped against the pebbled shore. The surface of the lake congealed into a film of ice; Venus rose, cradled in the moon’s arms. The resident birds, which are the reason for this lake being a nature reserve, paddled to their roost on a small island; I poured myself a cup of tea, watched, waited…
Patience, quietude, are our best friends when it comes to wildlife sightings. Why had I come here? The off chance that I might see, or more likely hear, a bittern? I’d no expectation of that. Naturalists George Schaller and Peter Matthiessen travelled to the remote Dolpo in the Himalayas in quest of the snow leopard. All they found were pug marks and a scat. That Zen lesson led Matthiessen to write his classic 1978 book. My own encounters with that most beautiful cat are confined to a distant glimpse on a high pass of the Tien Shan, and to emerging from my tent at the high alp of Tapovan, India, to find snow leopard prints all around my tent. He’d made my acquaintance, even if I’d not made his.
Little enough in common between bittern and snow leopard apart from red-list status. But there are reliable records in recent years of sightings at this pool of its former resident. Look at the phragmites fringe and the possibility is clear, despite the traffic’s roar. The lake’s an old gravel pit, created in the construction of the bypass. I’ve scanned the reedbeds and seen no sign of that dagger-beak spearing skywards, that marvel of camouflage that’s a bittern’s plumage.
No matter – I’ll come again. I remember first hearing of the bittern 70 years ago, listening with my grandfather to an episode of Out With Romany, an early countryside show on BBC Children’s Hour, from Wicken Fen. They’re coming back now, their foghorn voice booming out in the quiet places. Consider how the red kite has re-established itself, and stay hopeful.
Country diary is on Twitter at @gdncountrydiary | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/jun/09/charlotte-gainsbourg-art-shouldnt-be-censored | Life and style | 2018-06-09T12:59:22.000Z | James McMahon | Charlotte Gainsbourg: ‘Art shouldn’t be censored’ | The best thing my parents [actor/singer Jane Birkin and musician Serge Gainsbourg] taught me was modesty. They gave me so many things, but professionally the biggest gift was just being able to watch the way they worked. Neither of them ever took themselves seriously, they were always aware that everything can go away very quickly – an excellent lesson to learn so early.
I wish I’d had a bit more confidence when I was younger. I’ve got more confident as I’ve got older, but I still struggle to place value on what I do. I do it because I enjoy it, but I still have to work on that confidence often. The biggest achievement in my life of late is the ability to not care – to not judge myself so much. Not in a negative way, but in knowing I need to think like that to do things.
I made my recording debut when I was 12, with my father, on his song, Lemon Incest. I remember those times fondly, because I was so fearless. I don’t think I really understood what I was doing. It took 30 minutes. I was swimming in a swimming pool before I did it, and I was desperate to go jump in the pool when I was done. And then when it came out and there was all the scandal, I was at boarding school, so I didn’t hear about it until a lot later.
It took me a long time to come back to music because I couldn’t imagine doing it without my father
Art shouldn’t be censored. I feel that freedom of expression is the most precious thing, the thing we need right now more than anything. The world has become so violent, you need to be able to be free to analyse that. This is a very, very strange era. There’s so much rawness about religion… there’s something scary about the world right now.
Being an actress hasn’t got much to do with my other job of music. I tend to work with directors I love and that I’d follow anywhere, and that’s because you often need to put yourself in someone else’s hands. But with music, you’re the one behind the project. I have to agree with the result. With film, I don’t. Sometimes I don’t even see the film. It took me a long time to come back to music because I couldn’t imagine doing it without my father, but I’m pleased I did.
My sister wasn’t dead when I started making my album Rest [Charlotte’s sister, the fashion photographer Kate Barry, died on 11 December 2013], and when she died, I went to New York and changed everything. Grief became part of the project. I had words that I needed to say, and I needed to say them with anger. Grief manifests itself in many ways.
Charlotte Gainsbourg review – legacy and legend meet in a strobe-lit icon
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I’m thinking about #MeToo and about whether extremity is needed for change, change that is very much needed. But I’ve also been thinking about the cost to people’s lives, whether lives should be destroyed with tweets and the like. Judgment has become too immediate. I feel that we need more distance – to go the old-fashioned way of trials when we’re judging people.
Charlotte Gainsbourg appeared at Field Day Festival 2018. For her international tour dates, visit charlottegainsbourg.com | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/27/jeremy-corbyn-labour-party-leader-crisis | Opinion | 2016-07-27T12:47:33.000Z | Clive Lewis | I’m backing Jeremy Corbyn for Labour leader. Here’s why | Clive Lewis | This summer I’ll be backing Jeremy Corbyn for leader of the Labour party.
That’s not because I believe him to be some kind of messianic, cult-like figure with all the answers to the problems we face. Rather it’s because beneath his rise lie many of the fundamental shifts that are happening to our economy, our society and ultimately our politics.
They are, in part, why the membership elected him last September, and why so many will in all likelihood vote for him again.
As a party we can either seek to embrace and shape those changes or swim against them and the strong tide of change they represent.
Because two things are clear.
The first is that retreat into the security-blanket politics of either the 1980s or the 1990s is not the answer. The only issue is how we go forward.
And second, the future of our party should not be about this personality or that – a growing trend that has, quite rightly, alarmed many. The problems that confront us are so much deeper.
This Labour battle isn’t Blairites v Corbynistas. It’s over progressive change
David Wearing
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Even if we could combine Clement Attlee, Harold Wilson, Barbara Castle, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown into one leader, they couldn’t cope with the crisis Labour is now facing.
That’s because it’s an existential crisis of Labour and social democracy happening the world over. To try to find the one leader who can somehow solve the crisis for us is to miss the point.
Twentieth-century social democracy was always about electing other people to do our bidding. It’s the parliamentary road to socialism we have heard about recently (rather than the revolutionary road). And this is underpinned by the role MPs played in that process.
But that worked when MPs and the central state could make the political weather. Increasingly, we can’t. Increasingly, power is both global and local, with corporations and citizens – not with MPs.
Ultimately though, we have to be honest with ourselves. Corbyn’s leadership has struggled
Changes that are being enhanced by technological innovation (social media being a case in point) are happening at an increasing rate. The top-down, vertical power relationships of the past are being replaced by a more evenly distributed, bottom-up variety.
It could be reasonably argued the current fault line between the “membership” and the parliamentary Labour party (PLP) is in fact a symptom of this changing power relationship.
So let me be clear – Corbyn is the best candidate because, in his own way, he understands some of the economic and moral challenges we face, and is the product of a deep desire for something new.
But let me also be clear that electing Corbyn, in and of itself, is necessary but far from sufficient. As well as again electing him a whole set of other meaningful relationships and ideas need to be put in place.
‘We must also acknowledge that the leadership of the party has not been good enough yet – that is Corbyn’s fault, just as much as it is mine and my colleagues.’ Jeremy Corbyn with Clive Lewis at a leadership rally in 2015 Photograph: Albanpix Ltd/Rex Shutterstock
Firstly, we in the PLP must build meaningful relationships whichever leader we’re backing – because there is no perfect leader. Johnny Reynolds and I did it recently: two colleagues from supposedly different wings of the party who recognise the game has changed and that Labour needs to change with it. That means a broad-based internal alliance of all who recognise this and want to see both electoral reform and broader, progressive cross-party alliances.
Such progressive alliances are now essential not just because that is the only way we can beat the Tories but because that is the way we will make better decisions and take more of the country with us. Frankly, I want to be in government with Caroline Lucas, not against her – and certainly not in permanent opposition.
Second, we must build an alliance not just of all Labour and progressive party members but activists in all elements of civil society. That’s because politics from the top down is no longer enough – change will be driven from the bottom up. The job of the political leader will increasingly move away from top-down legislative change to one of legitimising and helping enable change from below.
For those MPs and their supporters wedded to the old power relationships of the past, this will not be an easy transition. Perhaps that’s one of the advantages, for me, of being from the new intake of MPs – the ability to not only accept such change but to encourage it as well.
Jeremy Corbyn is a great populist. But that’s no good for our democracy
Julian Baggini
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Ultimately, though, we have to be honest with ourselves. Corbyn’s leadership has struggled. There are good reasons for this – not least the almost permanent attack from the media and sections of the PLP, which have been destabilising from day one. But we must also acknowledge that the leadership of the party has not been good enough yet – that is Corbyn’s fault, just as much as it is mine and my colleagues. Alliances have not yet been built; big ideas have not yet been developed.
So we must use this campaign to show how we will run the party and government in a way befitting some of the challenges outlined here. It’s a huge opportunity that puts us in the shop window. Last year’s leadership campaign promised so much – this time we must deliver on it.
Ultimately we must use the campaign to seize the future and help Labour escape from its past – or it will die, whether Jeremy Corbyn is leader or not. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/feb/02/why-rumours-of-radio-2-demise-might-be-overstated-steve-wright-vanessa-feltz-ken-bruce | Media | 2023-02-02T15:01:40.000Z | Hannah Verdier | Why rumours of BBC Radio 2’s demise might be overstated | Does losing half a million listeners mean BBC Radio 2 is in trouble? While headlines scream that older listeners are deserting the popular radio station after the departure of Paul O’Grady and Vanessa Feltz – soon to be followed by Ken Bruce – rumours of its demise are overstated.
A radio station operating on such a big scale – with more than 14 million listeners, compared with fast-growing commercial rivals such as Greatest Hits Radio with 4.4 million – will inevitably see rises and falls in its Rajar figures every year.
And rumours of a shift to appeal to a 90s-loving younger demographic of “mood mums” might also be overstated. “Radio 2 will continue to be a multi-generational radio station that serves a 35-plus audience, a target audience which hasn’t changed in decades,” says a spokesperson.
When it comes to presenters, Radio 2 has no duds, from Zoe Ball’s Breakfast Show to Sara Cox’s bouncy tea-time party. Ex-Radio 1 DJ Scott Mills is already bedding in brilliantly in the 2-4pm slot: it’s hard to find a better-paced and more authentic show on radio. And when it comes to warm personalities, Radio 2 has the king of mood-enhancement Rylan Clark, who shepherded listeners through lockdown and beyond with his easy chat and upbeat pop.
Rylan Clark at BBC Radio 2 in 2019. Photograph: Beretta/Sims/Rex/Shutterstock
All good ingredients for a radio station, but there’s no doubt that commercial radio is having a moment and making bold strides to gain ground as some older listeners struggle to connect with Mills and the gang. If they’re looking for a new home, those 50-plus youngsters have two places where they’re very welcome: Boom Radio and Greatest Hits Radio, which made headlines by signing the beloved Ken Bruce last month.
Boom has just doubled its audience in a year to nearly half a million, which is a real achievement for a niche radio station where DJs, including the legendary David Hamilton, broadcast from their homes. One of Boom Radio’s founders, David Lloyd, is clear about its appeal. “We don’t see ourselves as an ‘oldies’ station, because to us the songs are not oldies – they’re just great pieces of music. We’re not stuck in a timewarp, we sprinkle in newer songs as well,” he says.
“GHR tends to target under 60s, whereas we go for young people who happen to be over 60, so between us we can catch those who fall out of Radio 2. There’s nothing wrong with targeting younger people, but you can’t serve people who are both 35 and 65.”
Ex-Radio 2 DJ Simon Mayo presents GHR’s Drivetime show and he’s in no doubt about what his audience wants. “Most of our listeners can listen to all their record collection on their phone, so if you’re going to listen to the radio you want a host who’s going to be good company,” says Mayo.
“You need a presenter who’s considered a friend behind the microphone, who makes you feel better than you did when you turned the radio on.”
And Mayo, like his stablemate Mark Goodier, knows how to deliver on that brief, backed up by a playlist of familiar songs from the 1960s to 1990s, plus regular features.
Radio 2 DJ Sara Cox performs live on stage at the UK family music and arts festival Camp Bestival, 2021 Photograph: Dawn Fletcher-Park/SOPA Images/Rex/Shutterstock
Mayo’s Confessions, which has been exposing listeners’ darkest secrets for more than 25 years, is still a regular part of his show, while Goodier hosts the daily Top Ten at Ten, an addictive guess-the-year quiz that rivals Bruce’s PopMaster for fiendishness.
As strong as commercial rivals are, Radio 2 still has so much to be upbeat about. While Boom and GHR’s line-up is predominantly white and more likely to be male, Radio 2’s is more diverse, with Trevor Nelson and DJ Spoony (both in their 50s) bringing banging tunes.
And last weekend, Tony Blackburn celebrated his 80th birthday on air, proving that there’s still room for a veteran DJ with an unrivalled knowledge of soul music from every era.
But the real winners are Radio 2’s older listeners – both current and lapsed – with more high-quality broadcasters targeting them than ever.
The subheading and text of this article were amended on 2 February 2023. An earlier version said that Steve Wright had left Radio 2. Although he no longer does his afternoon show, he continues to present Sunday Love Songs. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/sep/15/andrew-flintoff-tipped-to-leave-top-gear-for-england-cricket-job-after-crash | Sport | 2023-09-15T15:59:45.000Z | Jim Waterson | ‘Perfect time to come back’: cricket ready to welcome Andrew Flintoff home after horror Top Gear crash | Last December the family of Andrew “Freddie” Flintoff feared the worst when the former England cricketer was airlifted to hospital after a serious crash while filming an episode of the BBC’s Top Gear. After flipping his three-wheeled, wooden-framed racing car on a Surrey circuit, Flintoff survived but vanished from the public eye while he received extensive treatment.
On Friday his tentative return to public life continued at Lord’s cricket ground, after he spent the last week informally helping the England men’s team during their one-day international series against New Zealand. Taking part in warmups and bowling practice has given Flintoff, 45, a chance to be seen in public for the first time since his near-death crash last December. Wounds across his nose and chin remained clearly visible.
According to those who know him best, Flintoff’s Top Gear presenting days are likely to be over. The future of the programme itself remains in the balance.
David “Bumble” Lloyd, a former England cricketer, suggested Flintoff was being lined up for a permanent role on the England coaching staff. “I think that’s the way he’s looking. He’s done telly, he’s done boxing. This is a perfect time for him to come back. I’m a big advocate for iconic players like that to spend some time away from the game and then come back,” Lloyd said.
After a decade away pursuing a career as a television presenter, Flintoff has been welcomed back into the sport that made him a household name. Working with the England squad has enabled him to manage his first public appearances, giving him the confidence to show his face in public, and without having to subject himself to media interviews.
Lloyd said Flintoff had been “very badly disfigured” by the accident and would have to manage his return “step by step”, but an England job was the likely outcome. He said Rob Key, England’s director of cricket and an old friend of Flintoff, had gone out of his way to ease the former player into the coaching setup. Flintoff had been quietly put to work with England’s under-19 players until he was ready to go public with the senior men’s team.
The gradual return required some subterfuge. During the fourth Ashes Test in July, the press box at Old Trafford cricket ground was packed with journalists watching England’s attempt to beat Australia and the Manchester rain. What the dozens of reporters didn’t know, according to Lloyd, was that Flintoff had been smuggled into an office just 10 yards away from their seats, enabling old cricket friends to quietly slip off to say hello.
Lloyd, a former Lancashire player turned commentator, said he would be summoned by text message to say hello to Flintoff without any of the other journalists clocking that they had missed a major story. “All I’d get from Rob Key is ‘Fred’s here’, so I’d go in and we’d have a grand chat. I’m the bloke who signed him when he was 15, he’s been like a fourth son to me, I’m thrilled he’s coming back to the game.”
One person who has seen Flintoff first-hand during the series against New Zealand suggested he had been “inspirational”, with the current squad asking him for advice before next month’s Cricket World Cup. “The players have loved him, he’s a legend … they have all said that it’s great having someone around the group who knows cricket so much and is a legend.”
Flintoff on the England balcony during the fourth one-day international against New Zealand at Lord’s. Photograph: Javier García/Shutterstock
Flintoff’s crash – the second near-death experience for a Top Gear presenter, after Richard Hammond was left in a coma in 2006 – has raised questions over whether the show should rely on celebrities rather than professional drivers for its more dangerous stunts. When the ex-cricketer got the Top Gear job in 2018, there was surprise among some people who knew him well as they had never thought of him as an expert on cars.
Details of exactly what happened in the crash last December are few and far between. Multiple sources have suggested the incident involved a far lower speed than the 130mph that has been reported in some news stories. The bigger issue appears to have been the model of car that Flintoff flipped: the Morgan Super 3, an open-topped, three-wheel sportscar handbuilt by a niche British manufacturer.
A few weeks before Flintoff’s accident, the car website Jalopnik described the previous edition of the Super 3 as a risky thrill to drive.
Although there has been no formal confirmation that Flintoff will be leaving Top Gear, which has been on pause since the incident, the BBC will soon need to make a decision on the future of one of its most bankable brands.
The Times reported that the senior executive Clare Pizey left the programme earlier this year, while the core production team – recently relocated to Bristol – have been unable to work on new programmes.
In the coming weeks, the BBC will receive the results of an independent health and safety review of the show, which will shape what sort of programme can be made in the future.
The BBC will have to decide what to do with the already filmed episodes featuring Flintoff alongside co-hosts Paddy McGuiness and Chris Harris – as well as potentially dealing with the tricky task of finding a replacement presenter willing to take risks.
Although Top Gear’s ratings have dropped since Jeremy Clarkson’s heyday in the 2000s, the show continues to pull in healthy audiences – and the brand continues to be highly profitable for the BBC around the world, with a website and overseas editions continuing to be made. The programme is made by BBC Studios, the BBC’s commercial division, but is commissioned by the BBC’s public service wing, meaning the director of content, Charlotte Moore, will have the final say on its future format.
For Flintoff, who also made the hit documentary Field of Dreams about encouraging children to try cricket, a return home to sport could be calling. Lloyd suggested it was time for his old friend to play a part in the so-called Bazball era under the head coach, Brendon McCullum. “He is a fantastic bloke and he’ll be terrific around that England team,” Lloyd said. “He absolutely fits what they’ve got now. He’s there to inspire.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/27/omicrons-full-impact-will-be-felt-in-countries-where-fewer-are-vaccinated | World news | 2021-11-27T15:04:41.000Z | David Cox | Omicron’s full impact will be felt in countries where fewer are vaccinated | In early August Gideon Schreiber and a team of virologists at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel began playing around with the spike protein of the Sars-CoV-2 virus – the protein that allows the virus to enter our cells – to see if they could predict future mutations that could yield dangerous new variants of Covid-19.
At the time, Schreiber noted with concern that there were a variety of ways in which the spike protein could evolve. If all of these mutations occurred at once, it could yield a variant that was both extremely transmissible and potentially capable of evading some of the body’s immune defences, blunting the efficacy of the vaccines.
Schreiber published the findings in a paper, and thought little more of it. But three months later, his fears have been realised. A variant known as B.1.1.529 – which the World Health Organization named Omicron on Friday – has emerged in South Africa in the last two weeks possessing all of the mutations that Schreiber and his team predicted.
“New variants are the norm,” said Schreiber. “This case is unique, as the variant has many more mutations than what is usually expected. These mutations may increase immune evasion, making it even more problematic. Whether the variant will cause more severe disease is at this stage not known.”
Around the world, teams of virologists are racing to get their hands on Omicron’s genetic sequence, and try to figure out what might happen next. So far, work conducted by Tulio de Oliveira, a bioinformatician who runs gene-sequencing institutions at two South African universities, has revealed that the variant contains more than 30 mutations on its spike protein, compared with the original strain of Sars-CoV-2.
The most concerning of these are mutations that enable it to evade antibodies, either from previous infection with Covid-19, or vaccination. “I’d expect [Omicron] to cause more of a hit on vaccine- and infection-elicited antibody neutralisation than anything we’ve seen so far,” tweeted Professor Jesse Bloom, a virologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre in Seattle.
According to De Oliveira, Omicron already accounts for 75% of the Sars-CoV-2 genomes being tested in South Africa, while it has also been detected in Botswana, Hong Kong and Israel. “It seems to be highly transmissible,” said genomic scientist Yatish Turakhia, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at UC San Diego. “In less than two weeks, it seems to have become the dominant variant in South Africa, surpassing Delta.”
How exactly Omicron emerged remains something of a mystery. Scientists suspect that, like the Beta variant that also emerged in South Africa in 2020, the most plausible explanation is that the virus was able to grow and steadily evolve in the body of an immunocompromised person, probably an untreated HIV/Aids patient. With 8.2 million HIV-infected people, more than anywhere else in the world, South Africa’s fight against Covid-19 has been particularly complicated as these patients struggle to clear the virus, meaning it can linger in their bodies for longer.
But while many virologists were expecting the next major Covid-19 variant to be an extension of Delta, Omicron is completely unrelated. Instead it combines some of the most problematic mutations seen in the Alpha, Beta and Gamma variants, along with some newly acquired ones. For Ravi Gupta, professor of clinical microbiology at the University of Cambridge, who said earlier this month in an interview with the Observer that he was 80% sure a new super variant would emerge, the evidence so far is worrying.
“It’s not a twist on Delta as people were expecting, but a new thing based around mutations we have seen before all mixed into one virus,” he said. “That worries me. It’s had a long time to adapt and clearly has done a good job if we accept the rapid expansion in South Africa. Without concerted international action now, we are in for many more lost lives globally due to this variant.”
Scientists say that travel bans will help slow the spread of Omicron, but stopping it in its tracks is almost impossible. Instead Gupta is calling for testing of all travellers for the novel strain, as well as worldwide S-gene target failure, a form of surveillance that can identify if a new variant is rapidly increasing in prevalence in a particular region.
In the meantime, vaccine manufacturers and scientists are trying to work out just how much Omicron might be able to blunt the protection offered by the existing Covid-19 vaccines. The four cases identified so far in Israel – all individuals who had just returned from African countries – had still been infected despite being double-vaccinated. However, as William Hanage, an epidemiologist at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health points out, the more important question is whether it causes severe disease in those it infects.
“Delta is also found in vaccinated people,” he said. “So that’s not special. A lot of the noise about immune evasion is based on what we think we know from the mutations in the spike protein. It will be important to know what sort of disease results from the breakthrough infections and reinfections. However, for the parts of the world where high levels of vaccination are a pipe dream, this could well be serious.”
BioNTech – which released the first authorised Covid-19 vaccine with Pfizer just over a year ago – expects to have laboratory data on how its jab performs against Omicron in two weeks’ time. The company revealed that it took steps earlier this year which mean that, if necessary, it can adapt its vaccine against a new variant within six weeks and begin shipping the new version to countries in 100 days.
For high-income nations such as the UK, which has already begun giving booster jabs, the impact of Omicron may be less severe. Schreiber says that while the variant might be capable of evading some antibodies from the vaccines, all the available jabs still have many different ways of combating the virus – for example by stimulating T-cell immunity.
Instead, the full impact of the variant is likely to be felt in countries like South Africa, where just 24% of the population has had two jabs. It is data from these nations in the coming weeks and months that will reveal the real potency of Omicron.
“It seems to be quite good in immune evasion,” Schreiber said. “This may not be that surprising with the high number of mutations in the spike protein. The more important question is whether it will cause severe disease in vaccinated people. We just don’t know. Moreover, while the variant is spreading fast, it may disappear again, as happened to many other variants. One cannot know at the moment. What is clear is that we should be on alert and careful.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/may/27/probation-reform-missed-opportunity | Society | 2014-05-27T15:00:00.000Z | Savas Hadjipavlou | Probation reform is a missed opportunity | Savas Hadjipavlou | Chris Grayling, the justice secretary, came into the job promising a revolution in probation. So the 35 existing probation trusts in England and Wales will be abolished from the end of this month, to be reinvented from 1 June as 21 community rehabilitation companies (CRCs) to supervise medium to low-risk offenders. A new national probation service will supervise the remaining "high-risk" offenders. Why is this happening? Because short-sentenced prisoners currently receive no follow-up supervision. They are not the statutory responsibility of probation services because the previous government chose not to implement, on cost grounds, the "custody plus" provisions of the 2003 Criminal Justice Act.
This group, about 50,000 ex-prisoners a year who have served sentences of less than 12 months, has the highest reoffending rates. By contrast the rate of reoffending is much lower among those 200,000 offenders on community sentences or on licence after release from prison whom the 35 probation trusts are supervising.
Plainly, there is a powerful argument that everyone released from prison should receive supervision and help to stop reoffending. A majority of offenders have drug or alcohol addictions, mental health problems, low literacy and poor job skills that need addressing.
The government's answer to funding this urgently needed extra supervision is payment by results (PbR). It claims that PbR will deliver the savings needed to make a reality of extra supervision and that it's essential for the private and voluntary sector to be involved in delivering such services as they have the innovation required to ensure better outcomes. So a competition is under way for the sale of the CRCs, which is expected by the end of the year.
There is no real evidence or experience, however, to inspire confidence that the PbR approach will work – in fact it's the opposite, given the poor record of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) in procurement and contract management, as pointed out in a report last week by the public accounts committee on the reforms to the probation service. The report was preceded in January by the justice select committee, whose report also pointed to many of the problems and risks.
The changes are being imposed, against advice from senior probation managers who face the daunting task of creating the new organisations and bringing a sceptical staff with them. Many have voted with their feet. Of those who have stayed, about a third are also having to manage the not-inconsiderable task of merging their workforces into new, cohesive organisations. In one case, four probation trusts are becoming one CRC.
The plans have injected uncertainty and have distracted the workforce from the core job – to supervise offenders. Many senior probation staff remain to be persuaded that the resulting turmoil is actually what is best for the service and will produce better outcomes. Key aspects of the plans are highly problematic, for example, dividing the management of cases across the public and private sectors will undermine effective coordination and supervision, potentially putting the public at greater risk.
Staff are being reassigned from their current employers to their new employers before the shape of the work and workloads of the new organisations have settled down, IT is having to be reconfigured and new bureaucracy is being introduced to manage the movement of offenders between the national probation service and the CRCs, which will all be in the private sector from 2015. Much that has worked well is being reinvented. Everyone appears to be running to stand still.
Against the complexities of such a large-scale change programme, the ministerial rhetoric has changed from revolution to evolution. But one cannot help feeling that a huge opportunity has been lost, to build on existing effective arrangements delivered by probation trusts that have all been judged by the MoJ as good or excellent, and which were never asked if they were able to take on the extra work. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/may/05/miliband-non-dom-status-policy-lib-dems | Politics | 2015-05-05T16:51:37.000Z | Rowena Mason | Miliband reveals his first coalition red line: abolition of non-dom status | Ed Miliband has hinted at his first red line in any coalition negotiations with the Liberal Democrats by saying he would only lead a government that abolishes non-dom status.
The Labour leader spent the whole day dodging questions about how he would act in the event of a hung parliament, including whether he would still seek to lead a government if his party comes second in terms of seats.
Ed Miliband: Labour will scrap non-dom tax status
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But he revealed one non-negotiable policy in a BBC interview, effectively giving a signal to the Lib Dems that he could be prepared to talk to the party. Miliband has given assurances that he would not deal with the Scottish National party or Ukip but has made no such guarantee about the Lib Dem.
There has been speculation over the past 24 hours that Labour could seek to partner with the Lib Dems even if both parties together fall short of a majority to ensure they together form a larger bloc than the Conservatives. This could help address the question of legitimacy, which the Tories argue would be a problem for Miliband if he were to try to become prime minister without having won the largest number of seats.
Asked by the BBC’s James Landale if he had any policies that he would stand firm by on Friday morning, Miliband said: “I’m determined to implement our manifesto but I’ll give you a symbol that really matters and that is non-dom status and abolishing non-dom status. This is people who live here, work here, are permanently settled here and don’t pay taxes here … That’s going to go in a government I lead, tackling tax avoidance, we can get the deficit down in a fair way, we can help our National Health Service, that’s the kind of priority of the Labour government that I’d lead.”
Miliband has previously promised not to “barter away” his manifesto but the prospect of a hung parliament means the party may be looking more seriously at teaming up with the Lib Dems. Nick Clegg’s party have already set out six red lines, including fairer deficit reduction, more spending on health and education and new green laws.
Asked directly whether he would team up with the Lib Dems, Miliband reverted to his familiar line about being “focused on one thing and one thing only, that is what happens on Thursday and how the British people vote on Thursday”.
He spent the day touring marginal seats and dodging questions about whether governing as a second largest party would be legitimate, despite Tory attempts to make it a major issue.
He was asked three times at an event in Bedford if he would seek to be prime minister even if Labour was the second largest party. But he repeatedly refused to say, arguing it would be a distraction from the last 48 hours of campaigning.
David Cameron then escalated his warnings about Miliband trying to govern even if he has fewer seats, saying it would create a “massive credibility problem”.
Confronted again twice with these accusations later in north Warwickshire and asked to reassure swing voters, Miliband said: “All I have to say to voters making up their minds is to focus on the big choice the country faces. I’ll let others speculate on the election outcome.”
He did not even use the example of other European countries – where the leader of the second biggest party is commonly prime minister – to make a case for legitimacy. “Rather than politicians talking about themselves, we should be talking about the British people and the choice laid before them,” he said.
Miliband later emphasised that it was only Labour currently saying it would
scrap non-dom status.
He said: “We have come to expect David Cameron and Nigel Farage defending the richest and most powerful. But it is extraordinary that Nick Clegg is defending the non-dom rule too.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/jan/06/lawrence-brownlee-tenor-interview-cycles-of-my-being | Music | 2018-01-06T10:22:03.000Z | Fiona Maddocks | Black voices matter: Lawrence Brownlee on driving change in opera | Babbling brooks, young love, broken hearts: standard topics for classical song cycles from Schubert onward, and for most opera singers a key part of their concert hall careers. Not for the 45-year-old US tenor Lawrence Brownlee, one of the world’s leading bel canto stars. He has never yet sung any of these standard repertoire works. He wanted material he could relate to. US urban not European pastoral, a reek of the blues, a snarl of reality. Why not the story of a black man murdered in police custody?
Since nothing touching on such a subject existed, Brownlee and Opera Philadelphia, where he is an artistic adviser, set about commissioning a new work. He will premiere Cycles of My Being, composed by the eclectic pianist-percussionist Tyshawn Sorey, with a libretto by the award-wining poet Terrance Hayes, next month in Philadelphia, with further performances at Lyric Opera, Chicago, and Carnegie Hall, New York.
“The idea started with the injustices we see on a daily basis,” Brownlee says when we meet in London early on a Sunday morning just before Christmas. “We’ve summed it up as being about ‘black male subjectivity’.” Meaning? “Exactly that. What it means to be an African American man living in America today. It seems every week or month a black man is being murdered by police for something insignificant. Driving without a tail light could turn into a situation where someone loses their life just for being black.”
Driving without a tail light could turn into a situation where someone loses their life just for being black
Brownlee is about to catch a plane to Zurich to squeeze in a few days’ work before going home to his young family in Florida. He’s on the road up to nine months a year. The night before, he sang the last performance in another Rossini opera, Semiramide, at Covent Garden, playing opposite the superstar mezzo soprano Joyce DiDonato.
In the small but prominent role of the Indian king, encased head to toe in silver sequins, Brownlee detonated showers of trills and glittering high notes to match. He was singled out for unanimous critical praise. His pinpoint accuracy and – not a given for his high tenor voice type – tonal warmth has established his career.
Today he’s in jeans, trainers and American football sweatshirt, a touch heavy-eyed and keen for coffee. “You see me now. I look just like any regular black guy. No one knows that I’m educated, have travelled to 45 countries and speak four languages [Italian, French, German and English], that I’ve met kings and queens and the American president – the former one. I would not care to meet the present one. And, yes, I wear a Rolex!”
Brownlee with Jacquelyn Stucker in Semiramide at the Royal Opera House, London. Photograph: Alastair Muir/Rex/Shutterstock
His laugh breaks the quiet of the hotel lounge. Many an opera star’s career is measured by an elite Swiss watch on their wrist. If his words look boastful on paper, he speaks them with an engaging self-deprecation and much chuckling. He is, too, absolutely serious.
“I’m not saying any of this makes me better. I’m just talking about equality, assumption, stereotype, the way we are perceived. Our story is about walking down the street and a white person comes towards us clutching their purse thinking we’re going to rob them of their $20 or do something violent. Sometimes –” he grabs his wrist with its precious timepiece – “I worry I should be the nervous one.”
Born in Ohio, the fourth of six children “with three very sharp big sisters”, Brownlee first planned to be a lawyer, but shifted direction in his late teens. His father worked in the motor industry and used his entrepreneurial skills to give his large family a good education.
“He was of the opinion that every son should do better than their father. Born in Georgia in 1945, he grew up under the shadow of slavery and segregation laws. He knew his place in society. I always felt the weight of all the things he couldn’t do, and the freedoms I have in comparison.”
The family was musical. His early singing experience came from church and the gospel tradition, as well as musicals. Faith was central to the Brownlees’ life. “Singing was always part of dealing with hardship, a sense of, ‘Lord, let me make it to the end of the day.’” That faith has stayed with him. “Yes, I do pray, ‘Lord, let me make it to the end of the performance!’”
As one of the artistic advisers at Philadelphia, his task is specifically to help bring diversity to opera. As well as showing that “people like me” can appear on stage in starring roles, his ambition is to increase the ethnic and social range of the audience too. The song cycle is part of that drive. Demonstrating formidable physical and vocal versatility, he also sang the role of jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker in Yardbird, another Philadelphia commission, which had its successful UK premiere at Hackney Empire last summer. Given the sudden escalation of his career, no one was surprised when Brownlee was named male singer of the year in the International Opera awards 2017.
Brownlee is equable towards racial attitudes in opera, insisting that old prejudices are changing, if slowly, and that the best singer should always be given the role, even in the case of Verdi’s Otello (not suited to Brownlee’s voice, though he hopes one day he might tackle the higher-lying Rossini version). From international stars such as Leontyne Price and Grace Bumbry to Jessye Norman and Willard White, Brownlee has had role models to follow, though he has encountered more subtle forms of resistance.
“You can’t blind-cast with opera. No one has ever turned me down for a part and said ‘Because he’s black’ or even ‘Because he’s small and black!’ but there’s a code I’ve come to understand – ‘We have a different idea for the role’ is a common one. Change is slow, across the classical world – even in orchestras which have ‘blind’ casting, behind screens. The New York Met orchestra still only has maybe five players of colour out of 60 or more musicians. It’ll take time.”
Brownlee as Charlie Parker in Yardbird at Hackney Empire. Photograph: Tristram Kenton/The Guardian
The issue of sexual harassment, he agrees, is equally or perhaps more urgent. He’s worked regularly at the Met, where its conductor and former music director James Levine has been suspended following sexual abuse accusations. “Has he contributed to the world of music? Yes, without question. More than that I can’t say – I’ve never worked directly with him,” he says. “All this with Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey and so on has heightened our awareness. It’s not an accident it’s all coming out now. There have been uneasy situations across the industry for a long time.”
Brownlee pauses, choosing his words with care, then adds: “It’s widely known that many performers have ‘handlers’ who make sure they don’t stray off the path. Some performers, it’s known, because of past accusations, cannot be left alone with women, are only allowed male dressers, male makeup artists. It’s almost a given …”
Power games within the industry are exacerbated by the circumstances of a top musician’s working life. “Being away for weeks or months at a time is hard. It can be lonely. You’re in hotels. You meet someone you like one day. The next you’re gone. It’s hard to form or maintain relationships.” His own solution is to get out as much as he can, give masterclasses, explore whichever city he is in, dance salsa, join a gym. “While I’ve been in London I’ve found a boxing club. And before the last Semiramide performance yesterday I had a fast game of ping pong!”
I will keep on singing until I can no longer do so
He met his wife, Kendra, in 2008, via online dating. “I filled in the forms, pages and pages of them, on a plane, totally jet-lagged. Next day, half asleep, I got a message from her! She knew what my life was like. We established a relationship knowing that.” They have two children: Caleb, seven, and Zoe, six. His son is autistic and Brownlee campaigns on behalf of people living with autism. As we discuss the additional pressure this creates, especially for his wife when he’s away, he checks a new message on his phone.
“My wife’s sent me a nice picture of Zoe in school with a message: ‘I wonder if you can pick out our daughter very quickly?’” He passes the phone over. It’s immediately obvious what his wife means. “She is the only person of colour in her class,” he says. “Doors close on us. Sometimes she comes home sad.” All the Swiss watches in the world cannot solve that. Brownlee is on his own lifelong mission. Cycles of My Being is a start.
“And I will keep on singing until I can no longer do so,” he sums up, before zipping up against the wind, “any regular black guy”, in his own words, and rushing off to catch the train to the airport.
The world premiere of Cycles of My Being is at the Perelman theatre, Philadelphia, on 20 February. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/feb/13/patrick-mahomes-super-bowl-mvp-injury | Sport | 2023-02-13T07:45:46.000Z | Nicky Bandini | Hobbled Mahomes gilds legend with latest Super Bowl magic act | Nicky Bandini | Imagine if he had two good ankles. Patrick Mahomes hopped and hobbled to the sideline at the end of the first half, unable, or at least unwilling, to put any weight on his right leg after the Eagles linebacker TJ Edwards had dragged him down by it.
He showed no such struggle two quarters later, as he accelerated away from the league’s best pass rushers and into the open field on the 26-yard run that set his team up to win Super Bowl LVII.
This is what the great ones do, putting their troubles to one side and their teams on their backs in the moments that matter. Mahomes aspires to be the greatest. “That’s what he wants to do, that’s how he goes about his business,” said his head coach, Andy Reid. “The great quarterbacks make everyone around them better, including the head coach. He’s done a heck of a job.”
Mahomes leads Chiefs to comeback win against Eagles in Super Bowl classic
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That almost felt like an understatement, but that was Reid’s point too, as he stressed the player’s humility. Mahomes’s focus after the game was all on the collective: teammates who challenged each other to push harder, rookies who stepped up to the occasion.
Allow us, then, to say it for him: Mahomes is one of the most brilliant quarterbacks to play the game and there are some who would already call him the best of all-time. Plenty might scorn the latter suggestion, observing he has two Super Bowl wins to Tom Brady’s seven, but comparing a complete career with an ongoing one is pointless. As Mahomes put it a few days ago: “Ask me when I’m like 38 years old.”
This was another night when he did something nobody else could, becoming the first player to win the Super Bowl in the same season as leading the NFL in passing yards. Ask Brady how tough that combo is to pull off. None of his seven titles arrived in the four seasons when he outgunned his peers.
It is one of those statistics that seems surprising at first – why should a team with the most prolific quarterback not be the best? But it isn’t. It does not matter who you believe the greatest of all-time is, was or will be, no player can carry the show on their own.
There are moments, though, when Mahomes will make you think he can: a human tornado whipping around so fast in the middle of the pocket that the league’s best pass rush wound up scattered across the field here like debris. The Eagles had 70 sacks during the regular season, 15 more than any other team, and eight more in the postseason. On Sunday, they could not get one.
Patrick Mahomes made a number of crucial scrambles during the second half of Sunday’s game. Photograph: Sean M Haffey/Getty Images
When his team needed leadership, Mahomes provided it, responding to a Philadelphia touchdown on the opening drive by taking his team the length of the field in eight plays to tie things up. After limping out of the first half with his Chiefs down by 10 points, he made sure he was back on his feet and first out of the tunnel when the time came to resume. As he roared from the winners’ podium: “I told y’all this week there’s nothing that will keep me off that football field.”
Mahomes said there were no pain-killing injections during the interval, only physio work and athletic tape. Whatever it was seemed to work. He had a 14-yard run on the first drive of the third quarter, as the Chiefs opened with a touchdown that trimmed the deficit to three.
His second-half performance was close to flawless, completing 13 out of 14 passes for 93 yards and two touchdowns, on top of those eye-catching carries. He was not on his own, though. The rookie running back Isiah Pacheco also ran the ball effectively and Reid’s staff set the Eagles up to fail with play-calls that built off one another, using pre-snap motions to create overloads then adding a fresh wrinkle every time. Scoring passes went to Skyy Moore and Kadarius Toney with no defender close.
Super Bowl LVII: Kansas City Chiefs 38-35 Philadelphia Eagles – as it happened
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Mahomes might not have been in a position to make the push for victory without big plays from Kansas City’s defense and special teams: a fumble recovered and returned 36 yards for a touchdown by Nick Bolton in the first half and a punt return of 65 yards by Toney in the second, the longest in Super Bowl history.
There were times when Philadelphia’s offense looked more potent than Kansas City’s, but the good work was undermined by critical mistakes. The fumble by the Eagles quarterback, Jalen Hurts, was inexcusable: the ball falling loose from his hand without being hit. On the second play of the next drive he risked turning a setback into a crisis as he lobbed a pass into double coverage downfield.
Before the game, Mahomes had spoken about lessons learned from playing on so many big stages so soon in his career: five AFC championship games and two previous Super Bowls in five seasons. The most important thing, he said, “is just going out there and playing like it’s another game”.
He did that in Glendale, keeping his cool despite a frustrating first half. Instead of forcing something too hard and making a mistake that could lose the game, he hung around long enough to win.
That is the real secret to long-term success, the one Brady embodied better than anyone. That Mahomes sees it, at 27 years old, could be the biggest reason to think he could have seven Super Bowl wins of his own.
For now he has two and an MVP award to accompany each one. Tradition dictates the prize winner is given a trip to Disney World. Mahomes said he did that last time so would have to check out Disney Land instead. “Hopefully they make some more parks,” he said, laughing, “so I can go around and do a world tour.”
A lighthearted line from an athlete who had not been given enough space to take his pads off. Underpinned, though, with a warning: Mahomes has barely started. | Full |
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/feb/06/oscars-2015-who-will-win-best-actress | Film | 2015-02-06T12:42:00.000Z | Guy Lodge | Oscars 2015: who will win best actress? | Almost every year, Oscar pundits insist on telling us how “weak” the best actress race is, pointing out the dearth of female contenders from the year’s most fancied films. They’re not wrong on the latter point – certainly not this year, at least – but equating it to a limited range of worthy female leads is a false connection, and an idle one.
Last year featured a wealth of award-level performances from women in films that don’t fit the conventional Academy model, from Scarlett Johansson in Under the Skin to Jenny Slate in Obvious Child. Dismissed out of hand by predictors before they have a chance to pique curiosity, such possibilities can nonetheless enter the fold when baitier-on-paper prospects fall through. The race for this year’s final slot turned out to be unexpectedly competitive: Jennifer Aniston and Amy Adams made surprise surges for films disregarded by critics, but it was an arthouse darling widely perceived as too refined for Academy tastes who beat them to the punch.
Still, we’ll start with the performance that, in a year’s time, everyone is likeliest to have forgotten was nominated in the first place. Not that Felicity Jones isn’t a perfectly deft and disarming screen partner for a virtuoso Eddie Redmayne in The Theory of Everything – but for all the marketers’ insistence that it’s the extraordinary story of Stephen and Jane Hawking, it never feels much like her film. (We learn that Mrs Hawking studied Spanish poetry, was into choir-singing and ... well, that’s about it.) Though Jones has enough presence and screen time to justify the categorisation, few eyebrows would have been raised had she been fudged into the supporting field instead – where she might have stood a chance of winning at least one award on the precursor trail. As it is, this is the year’s only best picture nominee to score a best actress nod – a tellingly back-handed achievement in a year when Academy voters haven’t seemed greatly interested in female-driven stories.
For months, many insisted that David Fincher’s Gone Girl would be the second, conveniently ignoring the Academy’s usual lack of regard for chilly airport-thriller entertainment. Those who argued for the film as a daring post-feminist satire of American marital mores didn’t seem very clued in to Oscar voters’ favourite genres. Despite formidable box office – it’s grossed $167m (£109m) Stateside, more than the other four nominees combined – most voters weren’t as jazzed, with even Gillian Flynn’s seemingly assured screenplay nomination falling by the wayside. Its lone nomination turned out to be for Rosamund Pike’s gleeful, dry-ice turn as malevolent antiheroine (or straightup villain, depending on your take) Amy Dunne: this is now the one area where the film’s fans can block-vote, but how many of those are there? If Glenn Close couldn’t win in 1987 for terrifying the men of America into submission, the British first-time nominee surely can’t – particularly with her recent pregnancy having kept her away from the publicity circuit. The sizeable career boost stateside is her reward; she’ll probably be back soon.
Then again, that’s what we said about Reese Witherspoon when she collected best actress for a charismatic elevation of a borderline supporting role in Walk the Line. Few would have guessed it’d take nine years for America’s sweetheart to be invited to the dance, but few would have guessed her career would slump quite so drastically following her triumph. Credit to Witherspoon for engineering her own recovery, however: edged out of Rosamund Pike’s role in Gone Girl, she went ahead and produced the film anyway, developing an adaptation of Cheryl Strayed’s gritty salvation-by-hiking memoir Wild into the bargain. Her self-casting instincts are strong: the role of Strayed is a canny one for her, tapping into the steel-magnolia persona that has underpinned her best parts to date, while revealing a sense of wear, tear and tiredness less familiar from her. It’s a welcome return to form, and if the industry had embraced Jean-Marc Vallée’s film half as warmly as it did his Dallas Buyers Club last year, she’d be in a better position to win.
Like Witherspoon, Marion Cotillard has scored a second nomination this year several years after a well-earned win, but hers is no comeback narrative. Rather, the not-entirely-expected nod for her subtly wrenching turn as a laid-off Belgian factory worker in the critics’ pet Two Days, One Night feels like the Academy catching wise to a rich, under-rewarded run of recent form. If anything, she’s even more deserving of the nomination this year for James Gray’s stunning The Immigrant, sadly still awaiting a UK distributor; the New York Critics’ Circle and the National Society of Film Critics cited her for both films. With this nomination, Cotillard has beaten the odds in a number of pleasing respects: recognition for foreign-lingo performances is rare enough as it is, while the Dardennes’ film suffered a setback when it wasn’t even shortlisted for best foreign-language film. Finally, Cotillard has barely been present on the campaign trail – a pointed contrast to the season she won for La Vie en Rose, when the then little-known ingenue was dragged to every ribbon-cutting ceremony in town. Just sometimes, the work speaks for itself, albeit with a strong accent.
Subtly wrenching … Marion Cotillard in Two Days, One Night
Nevertheless, Julianne Moore essentially won this race five months ago, when Still Alice premiered with quiet confidence at the Toronto film festival in September. She’s eminently deserving of recognition for her restrained, emotionally complex portrayal of an English professor slipping into early-onset Alzheimer’s, but she’d be the frontrunner even if she wasn’t. Moore has had a banner year, winning best actress at Cannes for her contrastingly unhinged performance in Maps to the Stars, and appearing prominently in the latest instalment of The Hunger Games franchise – 2014’s highest-grossing release in the US. Add to that the widespread perception that an Oscar is long overdue for Moore: an actor’s actor, she has four previous nominations, should certainly have several more, but has yet to win. This perfect storm of factors in her favour has already netted her the Golden Globe and Screen Actors’ Guild award, among others. This year, put it all on red.
Will win: Julianne Moore.
Should win: Marion Cotillard.
Hey, where’s ... Essie Davis? The Australian star of indie horror sensation The Babadook put herself through the psychological wringer more rigorously than anyone in this year’s race. Given the Academy’s antipathy toward the genre, she’d never have made it, but owing to outdated rules regarding VOD releases, the film was never eligible in the first place. Time for a rethink. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2013/mar/06/gogglebox-television-watches-audience | Television & radio | 2013-03-06T16:16:49.000Z | Mark Lawson | Gogglebox: Channel 4's real-life Royle Family | Television is literally a reflective medium: most viewers have had the experience of switching off a programme and seeing their own sofa-slumped image in the empty screen. But, over the decades, TV has tussled with the extent to which schedules should reflect the audience. Gogglebox, a four-part series starting on Thursday night at 10pm on Channel 4, is the latest attempt to incorporate criticism of the programmes within the programming.
Mirroring, deliberately or not, a number of experiments in the 70s and 80s, in which cameras were secretly placed inside sets – revealing, among other things, that viewers are prone to skip the adverts and to have settee sex during boring programmes – Gogglebox films various sets of relatives and friends as they watch the box. Visually, this inevitably echoes the setup in The Royle Family, as the production acknowledges by employing Caroline Aherne as narrator.
In this way, the show settles firmly on one side of the historical divide in the genre of TV-on-TV, which has alternated between formats in which a comic critic rips into the output – from Clive James on Television and Tarrant on TV to Harry Hill's TV Burp – and those that try to include viewers: such as the quiz Telly Addicts, hosted by Noel Edmonds, and BBC1's Points of View and Channel 4's Right of Reply, which directly invited the responses of the watching public.
Combining the two approaches, Gogglebox most resembles one of the clips-and-quips shows in which the comedians eviscerating the output are civilians. We overhear discussions on how long Bruce Forsyth and David Attenborough can keep going and who might replace them. A north-west viewer expresses horror at the thought of Vernon Kay stepping into Brucie's shoes.
There are suggestions that the show has anthropological ambitions, as revealed by the working title, Watch with Britain, which was still attached to the non-broadcast pilot episode made available to previewers. And, in this test edition, there were a few intriguing sociological moments, such as the revelation of the degree of obstetric reminiscence provoked by Channel 4's One Born Every Minute. "Josh, you choked on your mucus," a mother lovingly recalls to her son. And, while these viewers know that they are being filmed and are therefore unlikely to have sex, a wife whisperingly warns her husband "You're playing with yourself!" causing him to pull his hand away.
It will be interesting to note the extent to which Channel 4 uses the four-part series to either promote its own material or to denigrate the schedules of competitors. The sample show was commendably democratic in its attitudes, with viewers shown attentively and weepingly consuming Attenborough's BBC1 show but falling asleep during Channel 4's lengthy documentary on the discovery of Richard III's body in that Leicester car park.
The weakness of the series may prove to be that, in following the Royle Family model, it assumes an old-fashioned manner of viewing. In the pilot episode, all of the participants seemed to be watching on a conventional living room set at the time of the initial transmission. So it will be interesting to see if the screened series explores the increasingly varied times and devices at the disposal of the modern audience. Unless it features someone watching a catchup service on a phone or tablet on the train, Gogglebox will have failed to capture the modern reality of the relationship between consumers and producers of TV.
Even in its depiction of live, real-time watching, the picture seemed backward-looking. Although one of the participants, while cooking a snack, announces that he is going to tweet a photo of his popcorn, there was no sense in the trial show of the increasingly interactive, live-tweeting way in which programmes are approached.
At its best, the concept captures the swings between passivity and passion, time-passing and piss-taking that constitute the viewing experience: many will empathise, for example, with the participants' startled reaction at discovering that a couple who seemed to be mother and son in BBC3's People Like Us were actually lovers. However, on the evidence so far provided, Gogglebox only simulates home-sofa viewing of the traditional kind. The general sense is of a version of The Review Show in which the pundits have watched more popular television. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/16/bill-clinton-belfast-mark-25th-anniversary-good-friday-agreement | World news | 2023-04-16T13:58:28.000Z | Lisa O'Carroll | Bill Clinton arrives in Belfast for 25th anniversary of Good Friday agreement | The former US president Bill Clinton and the former and present prime ministers of Ireland and the UK Bertie Ahern, Tony Blair, and Rishi Sunak will be in Belfast this week for a three-day conference on the future of Northern Ireland.
After President Joe Biden’s historic visit last week, it will mean a second week of international spotlight and love-bombing of Belfast in the hope that messages of peace and economic prosperity transcend those of local political squabbles.
Also due in Belfast at the conference hosted by Queen’s University are the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, and the Brexit negotiator Maroš Šefčovič , alongside a raft of senior White House representatives.
They include the ranking member of the US House of Representatives’ influential ways and means committee, Richard Neal, and the new economic envoy to Northern Ireland, Joe Kennedy, who will be looking at ways of supercharging US investment in the region.
Last week Biden dangled a $6bn (£5bn) carrot in front of Northern Ireland’s leaders with a promise to boost the country’s economy with US investment if power sharing is restored.
He left Knock airport on Friday night warning that there was “more to do” in Northern Ireland but again reiterated the “incredible” promise of Northern Ireland, specifically citing opportunites in the cybersecurity sector.
Hillary Clinton, the former first lady, US state secretary and chancellor of Queen’s University, will kick off events centring on a three-day conference at the Belfast campus marking the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday agreement.
Sunak will headline a gala dinner on Wednesday night to acknowledge the contribution of young volunteers who have promoted reconciliation in their own communities.
“I will also pay tribute to young people who have continued to heal the wounds of a dark and difficult past, and those who came before them and set the groundwork for a better future,” the prime minister said.
It will be his fifth visit to Belfast since taking office in October, making it one of his most visited locations.
“This week we continue to acknowledge the courage, imagination and perseverance of those who built the Belfast (Good Friday) agreement. It gives me great pleasure to meet with some of the leading architects of peace and to commemorate those who are no longer with us,” he said.
Clinton, the 42nd president of the US, arrived on Friday night as the 46th president was ending his whistle-stop tour of Ireland in Ballina.
Clinton was seen wandering around Belfast over the weekend telling locals, including one young voter, Karl Duncan, that he was looking forward to his return to Derry.
Thank you President Clinton. Hume, Trimble, and others like them ensured my generation could live without witnessing the horrific violence that controlled this place for decades.
Looking forward to seeing you again on Tuesday! 🕊️
— Karl W. Duncan 🕊️🌹 (@KarlWDuncan) April 15, 2023
Shortly after bumping into him at a petrol station, Clinton told Duncan on Twitter that he was honoured to be part of the peace process, but “the real credit” went to the people of Northern Ireland for their perseverance.
In what has been billed in some quarters as a “Mr and Mrs” event, he, alongside Blair and Ahern, will be interviewed by his wife at the conference on Monday afternoon.
He will also return to Derry on Tuesday evening to pay a posthumous tribute to John Hume and David Trimble at the Guildhall, the scene of Clinton’s historic visit to the city in 1995, when he told the crowd he believed he lived in a time of “hope and history rhyming”.
He has visited the city multiple times, including in 2017 at Martin McGuinness’s funeral.
Other speakers lined up for the Belfast conference include the former US senator George Mitchell, who chaired the peace talks 25 years ago, Lord Empey, one of the key Ulster Unionist party participants in the negotiations, and former Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams.
Mark Durkan, the former leader of the Social Democratic and Labour party leader, another key player, who was involved in the text of the agreement along with Monica McWilliams, co-founder of the Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition, will also speak.
Prominent unionists scheduled to speak include Doug Beattie, head of the Ulster Unionist party, the DUP MP Ian Paisley, and Dawn Purvis, a former leader of the Progressive Unionist arty.
This article was amended on 18 April 2023. Richard Neal is no longer the chair of the US House of Representatives’ ways and means committee, as an earlier version stated, though he is now the ranking member. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/03/let-this-conversation-over-adam-goodes-inspire-us-to-push-for-a-final-settlement | Opinion | 2015-08-03T02:49:41.000Z | Stan Grant | Let this conversation over Adam Goodes inspire us to push for a final settlement | Stan Grant | Red eyed, before dawn, the first person I see is Mick Gooda. He is one of Australia’s social justice commissioners, a sharp mind masked by a garrulous demeanour whose ear for vernacular and quick wit makes people laugh but leaves them thinking deeply.
He is also a “brother”, a fellow Indigenous man. We greet each other with our inverted handshake that acknowledges our kinship.
“It’s good to be among our people when we are hurting,” he says.
We both say how we wish Adam was here. Adam Goodes is never far from our minds.
If Aboriginal people are forced off their land, who will pass down the stories?
Kelly Briggs
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“Here” is Garma, an annual celebration of Indigenous culture on Gumatj land on the Gove peninsula. It is also a pivotal meeting of corporate, political and Indigenous leaders from right across Australia.
There is a great conversation growing here. A conversation that is being had throughout our country. How the booing of an Indigenous footballer is echoing an even louder question: who are we?
Australia’s great thinker on race, an eminence grise of the Indigenous community, Noel Pearson, wonders if he knows Australians at all. He says he thought he did, but the derision, hatred, the apologists for racism makes him think twice.
Then again, he says, perhaps he knows them too well. In the oratory that this lawyer and activist is renowned for, he warns our country is staring into an abyss.
Marcia Langton – Professor Marcia Langton – let me emphasise that, a woman of learning and scholarship and ideas and words, has never shrunk from a fight in her life.
I was an aimless 17 year old delivering mail at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies in Canberra when I met her. She was studying for her degree at the Australian National University. She sat me down, told me of the struggles of our people and our responsibilities to that struggle. She lit a fire in me and helped inspire an ambition that has guided my life since.
Nova Peris says government language around Indigenous people is patronising
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Now we talk again in the stillness of this land, under a sky whose stars have guided the Gumatj for two thousand generations. Marcia’s eyes are hollowed out, despairing that the battles she has waged since childhood, she is waging again.
“I’ve called them pig ignorant,” she says. “We are talking to morons!”
Marcia is tired. She says, we can’t fight this on our own. Everyone has to step up.
Young Indigenous kids here have used ochre to smear Adam Goodes’ number 37 on their bodies. Old ladies say they’re searching for the words to explain racism to these same kids.
Our non-Indigenous fellow Australians tell me of their despair at the lack of political leadership, and I can only share that despair.
Our country is hurting. A great nation that in a little over 200 years has created an example of tolerance and cohesion that is the envy of the world, that embodies those values in a word sacred to us: mateship.
Now this country is having its greatness tested. Where are the words that rise to meet the challenge? Where are appeals to the better angels of our nature? Where is the Lincoln in our midst who can appeal to this country as the great American president did when he spoke at a time of war of a nation “conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal” and then pondered whether this nation “so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure”.
I can only regret that we have no leader of that stature among our politicians.
Of course we are not at war. But that isn’t to say there are not people who don’t bare the scars of war. I have written of the pain of growing up Indigenous in Australia. I did not write to apportion blame or to play the victim. I have written only to share our reality.
As a reporter I’ve covered conflict in Afghanistan, Iraq, Gaza and Pakistan – and I have met myself in every one of those countries. In refugee camps I have looked into eyes of the same people I grew up with. I could have been looking into the eyes of my father.
I have seen the same listlessness coupled with defiance, the same suffering coupled with survival. But in those lands, conflict is defined; war given its name. In Australia we don’t even have that.
My people, the Wiradjuri, fought a conflict with the settlers and endured the imposition of martial law. Finally our leader, Windraydyne, marched his people at the invitation of Governor Brisbane into a great celebration in Parramatta. He wore a hat upon which was written the word “peace”.
Windraydyne rests in a grave on a property near Bathurst, his war long forgotten and unrecognised with no memorial for his fallen.
Here rests our dilemma and our great unresolved challenge. How do we as Indigenous Australians reconcile our allegiance to the flag of this nation with the legacy of injustice and suffering that is our inheritance?
We have had high water marks in our recent history. The Mabo decision overturned the fiction of terra nullius – that this was an empty land to be claimed for the British crown. The apology to the stolen generations acknowledged a great wrong and began a healing.
Now we have a debate about recognising Indigenous people in the constitution. A discussion that is beginning to take form and may lead to a referendum as momentous as 1967 when Australia formalised the full citizenship of Indigenous people, to count us in its census.
Stan Grant: I can tell you how Adam Goodes feels. Every Indigenous person has felt it
Stan Grant
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But these are pieces of a grander mosaic. What is needed is a full and final settlement of our history. A full reckoning of that moment when a British flag was placed in the ground and the rights of my people extinguished.
We need leadership that isn’t waylaid by scaremongers and doesn’t shy from words like treaty and sovereignty. We need leadership which doesn’t diminish the maturity and good will of the people of this country, who rise to the challenge of the greatness we pride ourselves on.
This is our great conversation. How fitting among a people so besotted with sport that this conversation can be inspired by a sportsman. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2024/mar/24/australian-formula-one-grand-prix-f1-melbourne-max-verstappen-red-bull-carlos-sainz-ferrari-aura-of-invincibility-goes-up-in-flames | Sport | 2024-03-24T07:59:03.000Z | Jack Snape | Red Bull’s aura of invincibility goes up in flames to ignite F1 championship race | Jack Snape | The smouldering tyre sat stacked on top of another behind the Red Bull garage, the stench wafting up past the flutes and canapés of Albert Park’s corporate hospitality above. Its demise disappointing for fans of Max Verstappen, but a source of optimism for the rest of the Formula One field.
It was on lap three of race three of the 2024 season that Red Bull’s aura of invincibility burst. Verstappen had won nine straight races and when he streaked off from pole looked likely to make it 10. That would also have been three from three in 2024.
Carlos Sainz wins Australian F1 Grand Prix in one-two finish for Ferrari
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But within minutes he had complained on the radio he had “lost the car” as smoke billowed from his rear right. Moments later he was in the pits, a fire extinguisher dulling the flames.
On the track, his teammate Sergio Pérez was struggling against the Ferraris and McLarens. Off it, the press descended upon Verstappen in the paddock. The pit crew wheeled out his unused tyres from his garage, one stack almost toppling into a cameraman when the trolley dug into the grass. All weekend, the cloud of controversy was never far from the beleaguered team principal, Christian Horner. The signs had been ominous.
“It’s such a long way to come,” Horner had said loudly to a group of hangers‑on in the paddock before the race. But it was worth the trip for the resurgent Ferrari, after Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc made it a one-two for the prancing horse, with Leclerc also recording the race’s fastest lap. The red car had looked competitive all weekend, and on Sunday comfortably held off the chasing McLarens and the Red Bull of Pérez.
The race had finished under yellow following a late accident involving George Russell. That meant Mercedes finished without a point, after Lewis Hamilton was forced to retire early in the race. Hamilton had struggled all weekend and missed Q1, starting outside the top 10 in his final appearance for Mercedes in Melbourne before he leaves for Ferrari next season. He looked most comfortable on the back of a steward’s motorcycle after his DNF. In the Albert Park infield it toot‑tooted the VIPs away, before the English driver slid on to his scooter for the trip down the paddock.
The day belonged to another in the driver merry-go-round. Sainz celebrated the chequered flag after nursing his tyres in the later laps. The Spaniard had his appendix removed two weeks ago, missing the race in Saudi Arabia. He is due to leave Ferrari at the end of the season to make way for the arriving Hamilton. “Life is a rollercoaster”, Sainz said down the radio on his victory lap.
Carlos Sainz of Ferrari celebrates on the podium after winning the Australian F1 Grand Prix ahead of teammate Charles Leclerc in Melbourne. Photograph: Mark Peterson/Reuters
Back in the pit lane, the red overalls were jubilant, but the celebrations this year were somewhat different. Fines of A$17,000 (£13,480) were threatened for any fans who set foot on the track, after the dangerous invasion last year while cars were still lapping. The crowds that had once filled main straight are no more, and now the podium presentation can only be viewed from the grandstands opposite.
The change was a blow to tradition, but Melbourne’s Formula One glitz has been retained. The Hollywood actors Zac Efron and Eric Bana, as well as Guenther Steiner, an icon of the Netflix series Drive to Survive, were prominent in the paddock, making the most of the sunshine that appeared for the first time this weekend in the hours before the start of the race.
Yet the major attractions were the drivers. The local favourites Daniel Ricciardo and Oscar Piastri strolled to the garage not long before the race. “Get ’em Danny,” one local fan shouted, as Ricciardo was asked to sign another’s orange McLaren polo branded with “PIASTRI” on the shoulders.
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Amid the grid civilities after the national anthem, it was the hand of the younger Australian that several dignitaries reached for first, leaving Ricciardo – who started at the back of the field – on the outer.
The new pecking order was made obvious as Piastri cruised to the finish in fourth. His senior teammate Lando Norris bested him but was himself a beneficiary of McLaren’s hierarchy. Midway through the race, Piastri had track position in front of his teammate before the order came on the team radio to swap positions.
Australian F1 Grand Prix 2024 – in pictures
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Ricciardo had a more difficult day. After his best lap was taken off him in qualifying, he started from the back. The 34‑year‑old clawed his way to 12th after starting on soft tyres. His teammate Yuki Tsunoda once again finished up the track, in seventh, after a penalty pushed Fernando Alonso down the order for causing George Russell’s late off.
But this was finally a day that Formula One didn’t need to look to the midfield for its drama. Amid the swaying gum trees in the sun of Albert Park, largely thanks to Red Bull’s inferno – later diagnosed as a faulty brake – the championship has new life. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/nov/09/black-babies-in-england-three-times-more-likely-to-die-than-white-figures-show | Society | 2023-11-09T17:47:28.000Z | Robert Booth | Black babies in England three times more likely to die than white babies | Black babies in England are almost three times more likely to die than white babies after death rates surged in the last year, according to figures that have led to warnings that racism, poverty and pressure on the NHS must be tackled to prevent future fatalities.
The death rate for white infants has stayed steady at about three per 1,000 live births since 2020, but for black and black British babies it has risen from just under six to almost nine per 1,000, according to figures from the National Child Mortality Database, which gathers standardised data on the circumstances of children’s deaths. Infant death rates in the poorest neighbourhood rose to double those in the richest areas, where death rates fell.
The mortality for Asian and Asian British babies also rose, by 17%.
The annual data shows overall child mortality increased again between 2022 and 2023, with widening inequalities between rich and poor areas and white and black communities.
Most deaths of infants under one year of age were due to premature births. Karen Luyt, the programme lead for the database and a professor of neonatal medicine at Bristol University, said many black and minority ethnic women were not registering their pregnancies early enough and the “system needs to reach them in a better way”.
“There’s an element of racism and there’s a language barrier,” Luyt said. “Minority women often do not feel welcome. There’s cultural incompetence and our clinical teams do not have the skills to understand different cultures.”
The figures showed that 50 more black babies died in the year to April 2023 than in the previous year.
Labour said the “stark racial disparities” in the changing mortality rates were “scandalous”. “Labour will work to close this shocking gap, and to close racial disparities across our health service, with a new Race Equality Act,” said Anneliese Dodds, the shadow women and equalities secretary.
The Race Equality Foundation described the figures as “shocking, but devastatingly … not surprising”. A spokesperson said: “We have known for some time that maternity care and mortality rates for Black, Asian and minority ethnic women and children are far higher than for the rest of the population. Without leadership in health institutions and a real desire for change, more infants will die.”
Overall, the rate of deaths of children aged from birth to 17 is now at its highest level since the database launched in April 2019. The highest death rate for those over a year old continued to be for children aged between 15 and 17. There was also a second consecutive increase in death rates among babies under one year of age.
“If child mortality is going up, it means the health of our children is deteriorating,” said Luyt. “This is just the tip of the iceberg.”
In more than a quarter of the deaths reviewed in the last year, expert panels identified achievable interventions that could reduce the risk of future child deaths. The proportion of deaths that could be avoided in future by doing things differently has increased.
In 29% of all deaths reviewed, the children were or had been known to social care services, up from 24% in 2020.
“There is evidence here that we can change this,” Luyt said. “We know that interventions can reduce child mortality and now need to implement things that we know work.”
She said that was not happening currently because “our health systems are under extreme duress after the pandemic, a third of children are living in poverty and families are fighting to survive”.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “Maternity care must be the same high standard for everyone. In March, NHS England published its three-year plan for maternity and neonatal services which sets out how it will make maternity and neonatal care safer, more personalised, and more equitable for women, babies, and families.
“NHS England has also published guidance for local maternity systems, supported by £6.8m, focusing on actions to reduce disparities for women and babies from ethnic minorities and those living in the most deprived areas.
“Alongside this, we have set up the maternity disparities taskforce which brings together experts from across the health system, government departments and the voluntary sector to explore and consider evidence-based interventions to tackle maternal disparities.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/feb/21/amazon-lovefilm-revamp-film-tv-rental | Technology | 2014-02-21T00:05:00.000Z | Mark Sweney | Amazon takes on Netflix with rebrand of LoveFilm video-on-demand service | Amazon is hitting back at Netflix in the UK by rebranding its LoveFilm video-on-demand service.
LoveFilm, bought out by Amazon three years ago in a deal worth nearly £200m, will be folded into the online retailer's British website next week, creating a one-stop service for digital streaming, DVD rental and books.
"Consumers will be able to shop for what they want, read what they want and watch they want anywhere at any time," said Tim Leslie, vice-president of Amazon Instant Video for the UK and Germany.
LoveFilm, which offers streaming of television series such as The Walking Dead and hit films such as The Place Beyond the Pines and Wall-E, will be merged with the Amazon Prime subscription service, which gives members perks including unlimited free delivery and borrowing up to 500,000 Kindle ebooks.
Existing subscribers will get access to the new LoveFilm service, to be called Prime Instant Video, which will have the effect of enabling Amazon to leapfrog Netflix as the UK's biggest digital TV and film streaming business.
Amazon aims to offer a broader service than Netflix, which supplies mostly older programming, by including the option of digitally renting or purchasing 50,000 new releases such as Captain Phillips and Game of Thrones.
"Even if you have another service you are going to want our service," said Leslie. "It is the only place you are going to be able to find certain great TV shows, movies and original content all in one place. It is the most complete digital video service in the UK."
Amazon is hoping to challenge Netflix by bundling Amazon Prime with LoveFilm at a knockdown price. Netflix charges its estimated 2 million UK customers £5.99 a month, about £72 a year, the same price as the existing LoveFilm service.
Amazon Prime costs £49 annually. The new combined package will be charged at £79, about £6.58 a month, making it 35% cheaper than subscribing to each service separately.
"All of these things in one package for less than £7 a month, we think this is best value out there," said Leslie.
Users who only want access to Prime Instant Video can continue to pay £5.99. The LoveFilm brand will continue to be used for the DVD by post rental business Amazon is continuing to run.
Amazon bought into the decade-old LoveFilm in 2008, taking full control in 2011, to drive its move into TV and film rentals and digital streaming in the UK.
"Our customers already know they are part of Amazon, it is the best thing to happen to LoveFilm since the launch in the first quarter of 2004," said Simon Morris, LoveFilm's chief marketing officer. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/jul/12/chariots-of-fire-review | Film | 2012-07-12T20:50:00.000Z | Peter Bradshaw | Chariots of Fire – review | Hugh Hudson's 1981 Oscar-winner gets a deserved Olympic rerelease: a bold, intelligent, romantic film with all the lineaments of a classic, and a score by Vangelis as instantly hummable as the music for Jaws. As the British team prepare for the 1924 Paris games, we follow two underdog outsiders: Eric Liddell (Ian Charleson) is the devout Scot who won't run on a Sunday; Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross) is the Jewish runner who faces casual antisemitism at Cambridge University. Screenwriter Colin Welland was a vigorous socialist, but the movie was nonetheless adored by Ronald Reagan for the individual striving and patriotic glory. Hugh Hudson's stylish candlelit college dinner scene at Cambridge may well have inspired the Hogwarts dining-hall scenes in the Harry Potter movies. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/oct/05/liz-truss-prime-minister-address-tory-party-conference | Global | 2022-10-05T11:45:07.000Z | Mick Lynch | Has Liz Truss done enough to save herself? Our panel’s verdict | Mick Lynch and others | Mick Lynch: Hostile rhetoric from Truss will prolong the rail dispute
Irony appears to be lost on our new prime minister.
After barely a month in charge, Liz Truss’s policies have sent world markets into a tailspin and made mortgage holders worse off, and the value of the pound against the dollar fell to record lows. Yet in her vapid speech to the Tory faithful today, she declared trade unions part and parcel of an “anti-growth coalition”.
The role of my union, RMT, is to improve members’ wages, make sure they have decent conditions and ensure through campaigning that our railways are safe for millions of passengers. We want our railways to grow and prosper. However, the rail industry, despite making exorbitant profits for private companies and contractors, wants to strip thousands of jobs, introduce a P&O-style fire-and-rehire scheme and cut safety standards to unacceptable levels. Truss’s government sets the parameters for spending and is withdrawing billions from rail infrastructure, making it very difficult to find a resolution to strikes.
Despite Truss trying to drive a wedge between working people and unions, it is unions that lead the way in providing hope for millions of workers in this increasingly dire cost of living crisis.
RMT wants to make a deal, and as the transport secretary, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, has said, there is a deal to be done on the railways. But hostile rhetoric from Truss or any attempt to reduce workers’ right to take effective strike action will prolong our dispute for many months to come.
Mick Lynch is the secretary-general of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers
Polly Toynbee: There’s no way back from this abyss
Banal, vacuous, repetitive, full of economic balderdash … the only mercy in Liz Truss’s speech was its length – short and sour. Some expected contrition on benefits, but not a word reassured low-paid people that she won’t cut universal credit, consigning 5 million children to poverty. “We have your back,” she said, but not theirs, as her tax cuts still gift the richest people 40 times more than those who are low paid. Nor does she have the back of those people facing monster mortgage rises. Proudly “disruptive” Mrs Nasty made no attempt to play nice.
We got mindless mantras – “aspiration”, “hard work”, “enterprise” – and her evidence-free assertion that she can magic up the growth her party has tanked in the last 12 years. She would be trounced by any half-adequate sixth-form debater. She drew only polite applause in the hall, but maybe she’ll take comfort from Donald Trump thinking “very highly” of her today.
There’s no way back from her abyss, no ladder out of her self-dug hole. Her lip-smacking taste for “disruption” spooks voters just as it spooks markets. “Fiscal responsibility” and “sound money”? That’s blown, so only a massacre of public services will pay for her wanton tax cuts. If she does “make the poor pay the price”, Gordon Brown is right to warn of “a national uprising”.
Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist
Sahil Dutta: ‘Doing things differently’? Her message was grimly orthodox
Liz Truss was right about how hard it has been to grow the UK economy. For the past decade there has been scarcely any growth at all. But blaming this on a conspiracy of podcasters, taxes and trade unions is unchained from reality.
For the last 50 years almost every government has delivered lower growth than its predecessor. So history isn’t on Truss’s side. Neither is the contemporary context. The effects of US monetary tightening, raising interest rates, are cascading across the world economy, making recession more likely than growth.
The real question, then, is less how we will we grow the economy than who will pay for stagnation. This is something over which governments actually have more control.
And for all her talk of “doing things differently”, here Truss was grimly orthodox: low taxes on profits and capital gains, deregulation and private provision of much public infrastructure, enriching only the wealthy. All the while Britain’s social security remains dysfunctional and UK poverty rates unacceptably high.
Nonetheless, Truss’s economic plans have flipped how her opponents discuss the economy. From questions of ownership reform, social infrastructure provision and redistribution, they now discuss “sound money”, currency markets and debt reduction. The risk for progressives is that these traditionally Conservative priorities take precedence at just the moment the Conservative party spectacularly implodes.
Sahil Dutta is a lecturer in political economy and co-author of Unprecedented: How Covid-19 Revealed the Politics of Our Economy
Owen Jones: Truss is the one who does not understand the British people
To be generous to Liz Truss, her debut conference speech at least presented a coherent vision. She has a clear enemy: the so-called “anti-growth coalition”, which variously includes those seeking to save human civilisation from the climate emergency, trade unions defending workers’ rights, and advocates of social reform.
Slashing taxes is “the right thing to do, morally and economically,” she declared. But, contrary to this, Rishi Sunak observed that cuts to corporation tax don’t increase investment. Morally, big business benefits from state largesse – from an educated workforce, to basic infrastructure.
Her declaration that “we need to grow the pie so that everyone gets a bigger slice” doesn’t answer why 12 years of Tory rule have been accompanied by the longest squeeze on wages in modern history.
Denouncing her opponents for not understanding the British people is certainly courageous from a prime minister whose party is polling up to 33 points behind Labour. It’s Truss who doesn’t understand the British people. Her extreme libertarian free-market ideology has vanishingly little electoral appeal. So when Greenpeace protesters disrupted her speech with a banner saying: “Who voted for this?”, they may have been zoning in on fracking, but it is a pertinent question that can be applied to Truss’s entire rightwing agenda.
Owen Jones is a Guardian columnist
Fatima Ibrahim: What is the point of ‘disruption’ if it only works for the rich?
A few minutes into Liz Truss’s speech, protesters from Greenpeace stood up with a banner that said, “Who voted for this?”
It was an apt question, as the prime minister spoke about opening up the UK to hugely unpopular fracking and nuclear energy, both expensive policies that neither provide energy security nor tackle the climate crisis. Absent from her speech were plans to roll out renewable energy and insulate homes, which would actually give the UK energy security, create well-paid jobs and lower bills, as well as carbon emissions.
Truss sees herself as a disrupter. A leader willing to do what’s needed in the face of unprecedented pushback. But what is the point of disruption if it only works for the rich at the expense of everybody else and the planet on which we all live?
Green groups have been labelled as part of an “anti-growth coalition”, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. Activists such as myself are committed to clean, equitable growth for all. This current energy crisis has been caused by more than a decade of inaction by the Conservatives. Unlike her predecessors, Truss will find it harder to distract people by finding scapegoats to blame. We’ve seen enough.
Fatima Ibrahim is the co-founder and co-director of Green New Deal Rising
Isabel Hardman: After a dreadful week, this was the best she could hope for
Liz Truss’s speech was workmanlike. It wasn’t inspiring or particularly energising. But it did the job, reminding her supporters of the aspects of her character that they admire. It has been a dreadful week for the prime minister, and so this is probably the best she could have hoped for. She is respected by her friends as someone who really does just keep bulldozing her way through personal adversity, and she did that today, appearing unfazed not just by the calamitous conference that she was closing up, but also by the group of protesters who popped up midway through the speech.
Though she directed her criticism at the “anti-growth coalition” of the protesters and the Labour party, you might be forgiven for thinking that she was also taking aim at her own party when she slammed those who spent too much time on Twitter and were the “voices of decline”. She won’t be the one to fight her own party in public, but I wouldn’t be surprised if those around her take this accusation of declinism to opponents such as Michael Gove and Grant Shapps.
The problem is that while her speech did the job, the rest of the conference has not. Truss might have been able to justify some of the mistakes she made as being ones taken in a rightful rush to sort out the economic situation she faced. But they have also left even her supporters feeling they can’t trust her enough on the big controversial calls that she still has to make. For that reason, however long she has left of her premiership will also be workmanlike and far less rousing than she would have hoped when she was bulldozing her way into the job.
Isabel Hardman is assistant editor of the Spectator and a presenter of Radio 4’s The Week in Westminster | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2015/dec/22/the-ed-stone-ed-milibands-monumental-folly-labour-election-limestone | News | 2015-12-22T16:41:40.000Z | Frances Perraudin | The Ed Stone: where is Ed Miliband’s monumental folly now? | On a grey Saturday morning, five days before polling day, former Labour leader Ed Miliband unveiled the most ill-judged publicity stunt of the general election.
The Ed Stone, an 8ft 6in, two-tonne slab of limestone, with Labour’s six key election pledges carved into its surface, was designed to persuade the public that Miliband was serious about delivering on his promises in government.
Ed Miliband's carved pledges could sink like a stone
John Crace
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“They’re carved in stone because they won’t be abandoned after the general election,” said Miliband, standing in front of the stone in a car park in Hastings. “I want the British people to remember these pledges, to remind us of these pledges, to insist on these pledges.”
The ridicule was instantaneous.
Michael Dugher, the then shadow transport minister, called the stone – which cost a reported £30,000 to produce – a “balls-up ... a 12ft, granite, marble, cock-up”. Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said it was “some weird commie slab”, and Lucy Powell, then the vice-chair of Labour’s campaign, added to the party’s woes when she told 5 Live: “I don’t think anyone is suggesting that the fact that he’s carved them in stone means he’s absolutely not going to break them or anything like that.”
If Labour had won the general election, the stone would have taken its place proudly in the garden of No 10 Downing Street. When instead, they ended up with 26 seats fewer and saw the Conservative party win an unexpected majority, thoughts turned to plans for the stone’s disposal.
But by then the media had become so preoccupied with the Ed Stone’s whereabouts that the destruction of the stone had to be postponed. The Daily Telegraph contacted 50 masonry firms in their search for the stone, while the Sun set up a hotline for any information. The Daily Mail offered a case of champagne to anyone who could confirm the Ed Stone’s location.
The Guardian eventually tracked the stone down to a warehouse in south London, owned by Paye Stonework & Masonry Ltd. Asked, in June, if there were any plans to move it from the warehouse, the firm’s chief executive Adrian Paye told the Daily Mail: “It’s a storage facility. We keep things there until people ask to have them moved.”
Some claim the stone has still not been moved, condemned to live out the rest of its days in a warehouse in Woolwich. But a former Labour MP for Glasgow South, Tom Harris, says a well-placed source told him the stone had been destroyed. “My understanding is that more than one person, each with a sledgehammer, were involved. I also understand it was carried out in anger and panic,” he told the Guardian.
Last month, the People’s History Museum in Manchester, home to an archive of Labour-party history, made tentative inquiries into acquiring the stone for its collection – which includes the coat Michael Foot wore at the cenotaph in 1981 – but everybody they spoke to denied any knowledge of the Ed Stone’s fate. (The museum has also had internal discussions about acquiring the copy of Mao’s Little Red Book that shadow chancellor John McDonnell threw across the Commons chamber at George Osborne.)
A senior Labour source told the Guardian: “All requests for comments on this matter will be met with stony silence.”
The mystery of the Ed Stone will live on in to 2016 – where did it find its final resting place? And how did the idea pass through 10 planning meetings, attended by well-paid communications professionals? | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/mar/23/the-eyes-of-my-mother-review-accomplished-elegaic-horror | Film | 2017-03-23T18:00:10.000Z | Peter Bradshaw | The Eyes of My Mother review – accomplished, elegiac horror | The 27-year-old Nicolas Pesce makes a very accomplished debut with this macabre horror nightmare in which the killer is a woman – and that’s a gender issue rare enough in horror to deserve pointing out, and throws into perspective her resemblance to Ed Gein, Norman Bates or Dennis Nilsen. The film has some visual echoes of Grant Wood’s painting American Gothic. A young woman, Francisca (played by Kika Magalhaes, and by Olivia Bond as a little girl) has grown up effectively alone on a remote farm somewhere in the US, having been raised – or possibly discovered and adopted in sinister circumstances hinted at in the final act – by a Portuguese woman (Diana Agostini) and an elderly man (Paul Nazak).
The woman dissects cow’s eyes for little Francisca on the kitchen table and they seem to spend long evenings together watching the same episode of the old TV western Bonanza … on video? DVD? Is she just imagining it? However, she is parted from them in horrific circumstances and is now tormented with loneliness. To Francisca, predatory and psychopathic violence comes naturally, but this does not disturb her sense of herself as a fey romantic creature, and the movie’s miasma of evil is made the more disturbing by its air of wan and elegiac melancholy, accentuated by the use of Portuguese fado music. It is beautifully shot in monochrome. Pesce has a real flair for composition, and for generally scaring an audience a very great deal. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/nov/27/philip-green-arcadia-on-brink-of-collapse-putting-15000-jobs-at-risk-covid | Business | 2020-11-27T14:14:59.000Z | Sarah Butler | Philip Green's Arcadia on brink of collapse, putting 13,000 jobs at risk | Sir Philip Green’s retail empire is on the brink of administration, putting 13,000 jobs at risk and threatening an end to the tycoon’s high street reign.
Arcadia Group, which owns Topshop, Miss Selfridge, Dorothy Perkins, Wallis, Evans, Outfit and Burton, was struggling before the coronavirus hit and is set to seek protection from creditors after months of Covid shutdowns took their toll.
It is understood that Green is considering a process known as a light-touch trading administration, in which management would retain control of the day-to-day running of the business while administrators seek buyers for all or parts of the company.
The process, currently being used by ailing retailer Debenhams, protects the business from creditors while options for its future are considered. Administrators could be appointed as early as Monday next week with Green, 68, thought unlikely to attempt to buy back the assets of his 500-store group.
Industry watchers said Topshop and Topman would still attract interest from suitors but the smaller brands would be less appealing, with Boohoo, the online specialist, one of a few likely buyers of those assets. ITV News reported that Mike Ashley, the entrepreneur behind Sports Direct, was interested in all of Arcadia’s brands.
Responding to a Sky News report that Arcadia was set to appoint administrators from Deloitte, the company said in a statement: “The forced closure of our stores for sustained periods as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic has had a material impact on trading across our businesses.
“As a result, the Arcadia boards have been working on a number of contingency options to secure the future of the group’s brands. The brands continue to trade and our stores will be opening again in England and the Republic of Ireland as soon as the government Covid-19 restrictions are lifted next week.”
Arcadia has been suffering from heavy competition from new rivals such as Boohoo and Asos for some time. It follows years of underinvestment in online selling under Green’s stewardship.
In July, the group announced 500 job losses at its head office after it narrowly staved off administration in June 2019 through an agreement with creditors that involved 1,000 job losses and about 50 store closures. Early in the Covid crisis it asked landlords for rent cuts and temporarily paused payments into its pension scheme. It has recently been searching for £30m in funding to help it through the peak trading period.
The collapse of the group would leave a pension deficit estimated to be as much as £350m by John Ralfe, a pensions expert. On administration, the group’s schemes will fall under the auspices of the industry-funded pensions lifeboat. The move could cut pay-outs for staff members by 10% when they retire.
Last year, Tina Green, 71, the wife of Sir Philip and ultimate owner of Arcadia, pledged to pay an extra £100m into the funds over three years and signed over rights to property worth £210m. However, according to Raife, the fall in the value of retail property means a sale of those assets is unlikely to fill the pension black hole.
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The pensions issue is likely to cause controversy after BHS collapsed into administration in 2016 with a £571m pension deficit only a year after Green sold it for £1 to a former bankrupt. Green eventually paid £353m to support the BHS scheme after pressure from the pensions regulator.
Like all fashion chains Arcadia has suffered heavily from a slowdown in spending on fashion as pubs, clubs and many workplaces have been closed for much of the year. Groups that are heavily reliant on their stores have suffered further as sales lost during the high street lockdowns have not been made up online.
The potential collapse into administration of Green’s empire comes only weeks after rival Philip Day’s Edinburgh Woollen Mill Group called in administrators leading to about 1,000 job losses so far with thousands more at risk.
Department store Debenhams is also fighting for survival as it aims to secure a rescue deal with JD Sports. The problems at Debenhams, which has closed more than 40 stores in the last 12 months, have had a knock-on effect at Arcadia because it is one of the department store chain’s biggest suppliers.
Insolvency experts said both companies were under pressure from creditors who want to call in debts while the retailers are cash-rich during the peak Christmas trading period. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/apr/29/poem-of-the-week-in-the-springtime-by-geoff-hattersley | Books | 2024-04-29T09:00:28.000Z | Carol Rumens | Poem of the week: In the Springtime by Geoff Hattersley | In the Springtime
The queue outside the Aldi
spreads all round the car park,
out onto the street and round
the corner where it meets up
with the queue at the bus stop
like a couple on an awkward first date.
I count fifty more or less
socially distanced would-be shoppers
ahead of me, then lose the count.
One person leaves the store,
trolley piled high with pasta,
baked beans and biscuits,
another is waved in by a black girl
with a gap in her front teeth
like mine and Jimmy Tarbuck’s.
A Nigel Farage thinkalike
in front of me turns round
to give me his version of things,
which goes on and on
as the shopping body shuffles forward
like it’s not well, forty minutes
and I can only console myself
that it’s sunny, no rain,
and I won’t live for ever.
Finally I get there, exchanging gaps
with the black girl, finally I’m in there,
but only to find the shelves all but bare.
Some fat git on his mobile:
‘It’s absolutely mad Susan,
there’s not a single chip in t’place.’
No beer, no wine, my God, just the hard stuff,
not much of that. A bottle of dark rum
catches my eye, wins me over.
There are bog rolls across the road
in the newsagents, I overhear,
but not by the time I get there.
The South Yorkshire poet Geoff Hattersley is in lively form in his new collection, Instead of an Alibi, the first since his 2012 pamphlet, Outside the Blue Hebium. Shifting between the merriment and sadness of ordinary extraordinary things, it delivers a poetry of intensely English attitudes and voices, including a sparky sequence of pub conversations in Yorkshire dialect, In t’George. Hattersley has a gift for comedy, and the jokes, as in this week’s poem, often have political edge. In the Springtime is from the third part of the collection, a largely urban and daffodil-free selection of Covid-19 pandemic poems bearing the resolutely non-romantic title, Lonely as a Crowd.
Hattersley’s speaker is a patient, observant participant in one of those long, slow queues that resulted from the rules of social distancing for the general public when entering communal spaces. (The political elite, as we later learned, often exempted itself from such rules.)
Plain diction shows plainly how odd and unlikely the process was. But the poem includes moments of overt defamiliarisation, as in the simile closing the third tercet, where the long supermarket queue meets the bus stop queue “like a couple on an awkward first date”. Later, the term “shopping body” picks up on this idea. It’s suggestive of the apparent homogeneity of the queue, as if people had obediently handed over their individuality so as to function as a collective, if an enfeebled one.
In the Springtime is also concerned with individuals, and one of the skills of its composition is in keeping a fluid movement between general and particular observation. Hattersley’s speaker finds rough comedy in appearances, and doesn’t entirely refrain from sharper criticism. There’s the “Nigel Farage thinkalike” who “turns round / to give me his version of things” as “the shopping body shuffles forward / like it’s not well”. Greedy stockpiling is observed without comment in the case of the shopper who leaves the store with a “trolley piled high with pasta, / baked beans and biscuits”. But, after the moment of solidarity with the “black girl” whose unenviable job is controlling customer entry (verse 10), the “fat git on his mobile” inspires some fiercely mocking impersonation: “‘It’s absolutely mad Susan, / there’s not a single chip in t’place.’”
Beyond cliche and condescension: we need new stories about ‘The North’
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It’s not that there’s any distancing superiority from the speaker: bare shelves, when finally he gets to see them, expose his own desires and disappointment. After the consolation prize of a bottle of dark rum, the pursuit of “bog rolls” rumoured to be available at the newsagents is unsuccessful, and that’s it. The matter-of-fact register continues as the poem winds down, although the melancholy rhyme of “there” and “bare” in verse nine is echoed in the assonantal “overhear / there” of the last two lines. The sounds evoke an emptiness that goes beyond supermarket shelves.
This is one of those “pandemic” poems that seeps beyond its occasion to reveal the ways in which wealthy democracies may deceive themselves. Ambitions focus on consumption. For the poor, this may be a desperate grab for necessities but for others there are the addictions to comfort eating and stockpiling, driven by advertising and creating further social division. Obedient queueing itself suggests a “lonely crowd”, a population too willing to be simultaneously herded and isolated by political control. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/mar/01/fiona-maccarthy-obituary | Books | 2020-03-01T17:23:08.000Z | Veronica Horwell | Fiona MacCarthy obituary | The writer Fiona MacCarthy, who has died aged 80, believed fervently, like her adored William Morris, that design was about the power of choice – not just what to buy and use, but what to do, how to live; that actively choosing was the core of life.
In that belief, she wrote mighty biographies about outsider creators and their difficult choices. Her first major book, which calmly revealed the devout artist Eric Gill as an extreme sexual predator, was an outrageous success in 1989, yet her work most likely to last is the 1994 Morris biography, subtitled A Life for Our Time. She wrote it in the Round Building complex, Hathersage, near Sheffield, the home and perfect factory that she and her partner, the industrial designer David Mellor, built in 1990, an exemplar of the balance of craft, domesticity and community Morris had longed for but never quite achieved.
MacCarthy tramped Morris’s landscapes (“things dawn on you just being in the place”), made pilgrimage to his minor works, and understood the contradictions of his politics. The book both recreates his period peculiarity, and is a manifesto for his perpetual modernity; MacCarthy, like Morris, wanted to find out the proper occupation for humans in a mechanical age. She knew purposelessness makes people unhappy.
As she explained in her memoir, The Last Curtsey (2006), she had crashed into this world of aesthetic choices from an unlikely height. Her great-grandfather was Sir Robert McAlpine, self-made builder and engineering contractor, whose daughter Agnes married a diplomat, the Baron de Belabre. Their socialite daughter, Yolande, wed a Royal Artillery officer, Gerald MacCarthy, who was killed in action in the North African desert in 1943, leaving adrift Yolande and two children – Fiona, still a toddler, and her baby sister Karin – and their nanny.
They lived in Kensington, London, then in Scotland and eventually the unfashionable end of Chelsea, camping out during wartime flying bomb attacks in the Dorchester hotel, which McAlpine had built, and where Agnes lived in style. MacCarthy’s earliest memories were of roaming the corridors of “the Dorch”, observing other well-heeled shelterers.
She grew into a natural swot, who set herself alight reading Charlotte Brontë by the nursery fire and realised that words would be her way out of her stultified world. Her peers believed education superfluous for girls (“frightfully brainy” was no compliment) but she passed easily from Wycombe Abbey school to Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. Between the two was a term in a Paris flat being “finished”, plus taking curtsey lessons and making wardrobe purchases (ballgowns, 24 pairs of nylons, five pairs of gloves), before she became one of the 1,400 debutantes presented at court in 1958 in the last official season of cocktail parties, balls and dances.
Only four debs went on to university, among them a relieved MacCarthy. After graduation she retained enough conventionality to marry, in 1961, a business executive from a county military family, only to realise at a drunken hunt ball in Chelmsford that being Mrs Ian White-Thompson was “like the season, only worse”, its duration interminable. They later divorced.
However, the season had taught her initiative, sociability and networking, useful qualifications for journalism. Besides shrewd words, MacCarthy had an acute visual sense; she had once dumped a teen suitor on seeing his family’s art gallery: “I could never love a boy whose mother dealt in paintings of drinking cardinals.” At Oxford she enjoyed the lectures of its first professor of art history, Edgar Wind.
That commended her to Robert Harling, editor of Condé Nast’s House & Garden, a magazine then less about consumption than intelligent design as a mode of living. He ran the office as “an amiable harem, extracting his mini-skirted girl assistants … for a cappuccino in a nearby coffee bar”, but he recognised talent, and MacCarthy soon moved up from merchandise editor (unwisely advising her readers that cabbages could be deep-frozen) to interviewing smart buyers of decor for “what would soon be known as lifestyle features”.
The Guardian, then in transition from its Manchester origins to a London-based national, and in want of female readers, recruited her in 1963. She was design correspondent, dispatched to interview Alvar Aalto in Helsinki or investigate the classic Isokon Long Chair, but she defined her job as “swinging 60s correspondent”, and extended her interviewees to include David Hockney, John Lennon and the feminist Betty Friedan.
The paper promoted her ferocious opinion column in an ad with her picture, captioned “Fiona MacCarthy may look like a fashion model but she writes like a sabre-toothed tiger”. She produced so many pieces that she adopted an alternative byline so her name would not appear twice in the same edition.
Many of her subjects came from backgrounds she had never previously encountered (her first crush, after all, had been the master of the Eton beagles), working-class heroes such as Mellor. In 1964 she interviewed him in his native habitat, the modernist studio-workshop with bedsit he had designed in Park Lane, Sheffield.
The city was then an environment of making – steelworks and cutlery – where design was fought for, and over. Mellor and MacCarthy shared compatible aesthetics; she espoused his philosophy of design and democracy, then him. They married in 1966, and he added domestic quarters to the Park Lane premises. She inspired Mellor’s advance into retail in 1969, with a shop off Sloane Square, in Chelsea, selling utensils for the new posh cooking.
MacCarthy left the Guardian in 1969, and was briefly women’s editor of the London Evening Standard before migrating to Sheffield, becoming, as her mother had hoped, a lady of the manor, albeit a manor with heavy machinery, when the family moved, in 1973, into the magnificent Broom Hall, converted to office, workshop and home. Their children, Corin and Clare, were pushed in the buggy to local art galleries, where MacCarthy re-evaluated the Pre-Raphaelites.
Sheffield connections with metal crafters brought her to biography. She had interviewed Mellor’s friend, the silversmith Robert Welch, in the Cotswold village of Chipping Campden, where the arts and crafts designer CR Ashbee set up a utopian community in 1902. It had quickly failed but she could still feel and identify with its dreams, and Ashbee, gay leader of its rurally relocated East End craftsmen, who later married and had four children, was an irresistible subject.
She rated the resulting The Simple Life (1981) lightweight and under-researched, although, as a first attempt at managing frankness about sexuality, it prepared her for the Gill biography. Harling had introduced her to Gill’s typography, and she admired his art and the principles of his commune, but she hesitated not a moment over including his diary entries about affairs with commune women and abuse of his sisters and daughters. MacCarthy innocently intended only to tell the truth, as exactly as she could establish it. She was shaken to tears when rebuked by critics, readers and friends for her refusal to condemn Gill and repudiated by his family for the disclosures.
Stanley Spencer’s kin, too, were unhappy about her clear-eyed and tender 1997 account of him and his sexy art, An English Vision. By the time Byron, Life and Legend, was published in 2002, her carefully documented case for his homosexuality seemed almost mainstream; the book was respected for its years of deep research, with none of the many scraps of his handwriting left unread. MacCarthy had always wanted to prove her seriousness, and Byron did that.
Spencer and Byron were written in the Round Building, and there, as Mellor became unreachable because of dementia during his final decade (he died in 2009), MacCarthy went back into Morris’s familiar world to research Edward Burne-Jones: The Last Pre-Raphaelite (2011), about the man who clambered from industrial Birmingham to a knighthood as the artist of a melancholy imagined Camelot. Her final biography, published last year, was of Walter Gropius, Bauhaus founder, which returned MacCarthy to her original metier. He had been an educator and facilitator of design, certain it could create a satisfying life.
MacCarthy curated exhibitions for the Crafts Council, the V&A, Sheffield Museum and the National Portrait Gallery (her 2014 William Morris show there was stroppy with social and political protest). She was appointed OBE in 2009 for services to literature, and was a fellow of the Royal College of Art and the Royal Society of Literature. She was the only president of the 20th Century Society to have lived in two homes that were fine specimens of the century’s design.
Corin and Clare, both designers, survive her.
Fiona MacCarthy, biographer and journalist, born 23 January 1940; died 29 February 2020 | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/jun/22/from-riz-ahmed-to-michaela-coel-who-should-be-the-next-doctor-who | Television & radio | 2021-06-22T15:25:33.000Z | Martin Belam | From Riz Ahmed to Michaela Coel: who should be the next Doctor Who? | With most modern Doctor Who actors doing three series of the show at most, and rumours of Jodie Whittaker’s departure swirling around, here’s our pick of the people we’d love to see at the controls of the Tardis next – some more likely than others …
1. Michaela Coel
Michaela Coel. Photograph: Natalie Seery/BBC/Various Artists Ltd and FALKNA
With I May Destroy You being one of the most acclaimed shows of 2020, Coel has been heavily tipped as Whittaker’s replacement for months. Her appearances on Black Mirror show she has got dystopian sci-fi in the bag, and she would bring huge charisma to the role. The big question mark might be on her willingness to compromise and work with a showrunner – she was in creative control of I May Destroy You from start to finish. Would she be willing to swap that for being told exactly how to look horrified as a Dalek tries to exterminate her for six months of the year?
2. Olly Alexander
Casting Alexander would be a huge moment for a show that has maintained a cult LGBTQ+ following since the 80s. It’s a Sin reminded everyone that he was far from just the Years & Years singer, and he has a great acting back catalogue. Having dueted with Elton John at this year’s Brit awards, he’d have to put the singing on hold to sign up for the Doctor Who production schedule. Mind you, Jon Pertwee still found time to release a single while he was Doctor Who in the 70s, so who knows?
3. Rose Matafeo
Rose Matafeo. Photograph: Andi Crown
Christopher Eccleston’s Doctor once explained his accent by saying that “lots of planets have a north”. What if lots of planets have a New Zealand? A creative force in comedy and writing her own shows, she’s already faced down one Doctor Who villain – King Hydroflax was played by Greg Davies – as a standout contributor to series nine of Taskmaster. You can easily imagine her bursting out of the Tardis doors for a spot of adventure.
4. Richard Ayoade
As host of the Crystal Maze, we already know he’s got the gift of the gab as a mysterious guide to a curious world. He also has impeccable comic timing, and sci-fi experience with his voiceover work in the Mandalorian. But does he have the chops to play the serious, authoritative Doctor? And would we accept the show’s technobabble explanations from someone we all-too-readily recognise as the IT Crowd’s Maurice Moss? A solid choice, but maybe a bit obvious. Unlike …
5. Lydia West
Lydia West at this year’s Baftas. Photograph: Alecsandra Raluca Drăgoi/Rex/Shutterstock for Bafta
Most likely to be known to Doctor Who fans for working with Russell T Davies on Years and Years and the rightly acclaimed It’s a Sin, West would be one of the youngest casting choices ever and doesn’t have a huge amount of TV experience behind her. But then, neither did a young Tom Baker. It should be noted that T’Nia Miller, who worked with West on Years and Years, has hinted that she already knows who the 14th Doctor is. Could it be?
6. Heledd Gwynn
Gwynn has worked with Who alumnus Pete McTighe on The Pact this year, and is based in Wales where Doctor Who is made. Indeed, she would be a bit of an unknown quantity outside Wales, mainly starring in Welsh drama such as Gwaith/Cartref or 35 Diwrnod. But that’s no bad thing going into a life-changing role like that of the Time Lord. She has got a strikingly Doctor-ish look about her, and would be an intriguing wildcard.
7. Tobias Menzies
It’s been established with Colin Baker and Peter Capaldi that featuring as a guest in an episode doesn’t stop you later taking the role as the Doctor, so appearing as Lieutenant Stepashin in 2013 story Cold War should be no hindrance. Menzies can bring a detached aloofness to any role, and would be a bit of a throwback to the establishment gentlemen Doctor of yore. But his role in The Terror showed how well he can do foolish bravado, genuine bravery, compassion, guilt and self-sacrifice – all solid Doctorly traits.
8. Paterson Joseph
Joseph also has a Doctor Who role in his past, dating back to 2005, and his name has been in the frame before. We know from Peep Show that he can do intense and intensely weird, and his Shakespearean background will give him the gravitas. But has his moment passed?
9. Jo Martin
Jo Martin’s Doctor Who at the controls of her Tardis. Photograph: James Pardon/ BBC
She’s already appeared in the show as a version of the Doctor, becoming a swift fan favourite after it was revealed she was an unknown incarnation hiding out on Earth as a human, with her Tardis buried underground for safe-keeping. It was implied she was a Doctor from a time before the show started in 1963 with William Hartnell’s first Doctor. Some fans have desperately tried to shoehorn her into the timeline elsewhere. But what if show runner Chris Chibnall has already shown his hand and she will be revealed as Whittaker’s permanent replacement? It would be fantastic to see more of her.
10. Riz Ahmed
Ahmed has an impressive CV, extensive range and a sackful of award nominations behind him. But is he too political for the role for the BBC, though? Casting someone with a history of activism for Syrian and Rohingya children would certainly not silence the critics who say the show has “gone woke”. But what is the point of science-fiction if it isn’t reflecting the issues we face in the real world – something Doctor Who has done since its inception?
11. Paul McGann
It is but a fans’ pipe-dream, but on television McGann was only the Doctor once in a muddled 1996 TV movie and again in a surprise special minisode filmed for the 2013 50th anniversary. In between, he has recorded countless audio dramas as the Doctor for Big Finish, and has a legion of fans and his own appreciation society on Facebook as the Eighth Doctor. Some kind of timey-wimey solution to follow his adventures on TV for a while would be extremely unlikely, but welcomed by many Whovians.
12. Tilda Swinton
While we are on unlikely scenarios – how amazing would this be?
British actor Tilda Swinton would make an absolutely perfect Doctor. Photograph: Ettore Ferrari/EPA
13. Mark Lewis Jones
It’s been a running joke in the show for a while that the Doctor is always disappointed when their new body turns out not to be ginger. Mark Lewis Jones could put that right. Again, it would be a throwback to a grumpy older Doctor, but if Chibnall did decide to go down the ginger route, he would be a more popular choice than Kris Marshall who has been frequently touted as a possible Doctor. Lewis Jones has got sci-fi – and sci-fi fan – experience with the Star Wars franchise, and would be a safe pair of hands to guide the show through to its 60th anniversary in 2023.
14. The moment has been prepared for …
Perhaps the show needs to do something more radical than have a woman as the Doctor? What if the regeneration went wrong and the Doctor was left unstable, so we got a different guest star every couple of episodes with a regular cast around them? What if the Doctor went missing? Or regenerated as a cartoon? Or got split into good and evil twin versions who had to fight each other around the galaxy?
Who do you want to see as the 14th Doctor? Let us know in the comments below … | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/mar/26/theresa-may-brexiteer-brexit-article-50 | Opinion | 2017-03-26T21:00:41.000Z | Keir Starmer | Theresa May wants a Brexiteer’s Brexit. She won’t get it without a fight | Keir Starmer | On Wednesday morning, the prime minister will inform the European council that the UK intends to leave the EU. What happens next will be of defining significance for the future of our economy, jobs, security and Britain’s place in the world.
EU's chief negotiator challenges Theresa May directly over Brexit talks
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I believe Britain’s response to Brexit must be based on core progressive values: internationalism, cooperation, social justice and the rule of law. A commitment to protect human rights, workplace rights, our environment and to share power and prosperity across the UK. Recognition that in a complex and volatile world we achieve more together than we do apart: not members of the EU, but as partners.
It’s increasingly clear, though, that the prime minister is being led down a very different path: the path of isolation and retreat from our nearest allies and most important trading partners. That is a Brexiteer’s Brexit. Under this view the possibility of Britain leaving with no deal, or at best a threadbare agreement that keeps us at arms-length from Europe is something to aim for, not prevent. And the prospect of changing our social and economic model and ripping up key workplace and environmental protections is seen as an opportunity, not the enormous act of self-harm it would be.
I believe this ideologically driven approach to Brexit would be disastrous and divisive. It would do enormous damage to our economy, living standards and to our society. It would also risk our role in the world as a confident, outward-looking nation.
So on Monday in a speech at Chatham House I will set out how I believe Britain should respond to Brexit. I am setting six key tests for any final Brexit deal. They cover the impact of Brexit on our future relationship with the EU, our economy, national security, fundamental rights, immigration and the distribution of power and opportunity across the country.
The tests are: does it ensure a strong and collaborative future relationship with the EU? This must start with a comprehensive EU-UK trade deal. But it must also include continued cooperation in areas such as counter-terrorism, policing, science, medicine, culture and technology – where working with the EU has delivered significant mutual benefits.
Does it deliver the “exact same benefits” as we currently have as members of the single market and customs union? For this is the standard David Davis has set for the government and it is one I will hold them to. Labour has been clear that jobs and the economy must the priority for Brexit negotiations and that any deal that does not deliver on this will not be acceptable.
Does it ensure the fair management of migration in the interests of the economy and communities? As we exit the EU, there must be a new approach to immigration that has the consent of the British people and is managed in their interests. We need to ensure that the costs and benefits are more fairly distributed, and are seen to be so. The final Brexit deal must contribute to this.
Exiting the EU must not be used as a pretext for rolling back rights or weakening hard-won protections
Does it defend rights and protections and prevent a race to the bottom? We must ensure strong, fair and robust workplace rights remain in our country’s DNA. Exiting the EU must not be used as a pretext for rolling back these rights or weakening hard-won protections. Does it protect national security and our capacity to tackle cross-border crime? The EU has been vital in helping improve cross-border efforts to prevent terrorism and serious organised crime. The final Brexit deal must ensure there is no diminution in Britain’s national security or ability to tackle cross-border crime.
Does it deliver for all regions and nations of the UK? There needs to be a national consensus on Brexit. Yet the prime minister has been unable to gain the confidence of the governments of Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland as she prepares to trigger article 50. The final Brexit deal must mark a fundamental shift in the government’s approach to devolution.
All of us want the best for Britain, and I do not underestimate the difficulty of the task the prime minister is about to embark on. But the tests I set out today are the yardstick by which Labour will hold the prime minister to account throughout negotiations and how we will judge the final deal she returns with.
I hope the prime minister will see off the Brexiteers on her own benches and do what is right for Britain. But she should be under no illusion that Labour will not support a deal that fails to reflect Britain’s values and the six tests we have set out. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/07/drug-captagon-turning-syria-into-narco-state | World news | 2021-05-07T09:54:54.000Z | Martin Chulov | ‘A dirty business’: how one drug is turning Syria into a narco-state | In the summer of 2015 a businessman in the Syrian province of Latakia was approached by a powerful security chief, seeking a favour. The official wanted the merchant, an importer of medical supplies, to source large amounts of a drug called fenethylline from abroad. The regime, he said, would readily buy the lot.
After an internet search, the merchant made a decision. He left his home that same week, first sending his wife and children to exile, then following after, scrounging what he could from his businesses for a new start. “I know what they were asking me to do,” he said from his new home in Paris. “They wanted the main ingredient for Captagon. And that drug is a dirty business.”
Other businessmen in Syria’s north have not shared his reservations. The manufacture of Captagon in the regime heartland has become one of Syria’s only recent business success stories; a growth industry so big and sophisticated that it is starting to rival the GDP of the flatlining economy itself.
From the ruins of Syria, and the similarly disastrous collapse across the border in Lebanon, where in late April a shipment of Captagon hidden in pomegranates and exported from Beirut was found by Saudi officials, a reality is crystallising: both countries are fast becoming narco-states - if they have not met that definition already.
Captagon is one of several brand names for the drug compound fenethylline hydrochloride. Photograph: NapoliPress/Rex/Shutterstock
Before the April seizure of millions of Captagon pills, which led to a ban in Saudi Arabia on all agricultural imports from Lebanon, at least 15 other shipments of the drug had been intercepted in the Middle East and Europe in the past two years. Six police and intelligence officials in the Middle East and Europe have told the Guardian that all were shipped from Syria’s Captagon heartland, or across the frontier in Lebanon, where a network of untouchables – crime families, militia leaders and political figures – have formed cross-border cartels that make and distribute industrial scale quantities of drugs.
“They are very dangerous people,” said one senior official in Beirut. “They are scared of no one. They hide in plain sight.”
Captagon is one of several brand names for the drug compound fenethylline hydrochloride. A stimulant with addictive properties, it is used recreationally across the Middle East and is sometimes called a “poor man’s cocaine”. It is also used by armed groups and regular forces in battle situations, where it is seen as having properties that boost courage and numb fears.
For all intents and purposes, the border between both countries is redundant, a lawless zone where smugglers operate with the complicity of officials on both sides. The smugglers move precursors and finished products, both hashish and Captagon, along a route that takes in Lebanon’s Bekaa valley, the Syrian border town of Qusayr and the roads north through the Alawite heartland of the Assad regime, towards the ports of Latakia and Tartus.
The port of Latakia is favoured by smugglers. Photograph: Louai Beshara/AFP/Getty Images
Latakia in particular has been under the intense scrutiny of European and American police and intelligence agencies. A cousin of the Syrian leader, Bashar al-Assad, Samer al-Assad is an influential figure at the port. According to the exiled merchant and three other Latakia businessmen, anyone who wants to operate must pay a substantial cut from proceeds in return for access to networks and protection. Despite the scrutiny on the port, few interdictions have been made at the source. Instead the roll call of hauls found since 2019 has rivalled the heyday of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel for scale and efficiency.
They include five tonnes of Captagon tablets found in Greece in July that year, two similar hauls in Dubai in subsequent months, and four tonnes of hashish uncovered in the Egyptian city of Port Said in April 2020, wrapped in the packaging of the Milkman company. At the time the company was owned by the regime tycoon Rami Makhlouf.
There was also a Captagon shipment to Saudi Arabia hidden in tea leaves, as well as seizures in Romania, Jordan, Bahrain and Turkey. In July last year, the biggest ever haul of the drug, with a street value of more than €1bn (£870m), was intercepted in the Italian port of Salerno, which is believed to have been intended as a waypoint en route to Dubai.
Naples law enforcement officers inspect a huge seizure of Captagon tablets in Salerno in July 2020. Photograph: Ciro Fusco/EPA
The consignment was hidden in paper rolls and machinery sent from a printing plant in Aleppo, and officials in Rome initially blamed the import on the Islamic State terror group. Last December, blame was shifted to the powerful Lebanese militia-cum-political bloc Hezbollah. The party denies involvement and claims it has no hand in a regional and global trade in Captagon that is rapidly becoming associated with both failing states.
The research organisation the Centre for Operational Analysis and Research, which focuses on Syria, recently released a report highlighting the role of Captagon and hashish in the country, where the economy has been crippled by a decade of war, western sanctions, entrenched corruption and the collapse of Lebanon, where billions of dollars have disappeared in the pit of the country’s banking system.
“Syria is a narco-state with two primary drugs of concern: hashish and the amphetamine-type stimulant Captagon,” the report says. “Syria is the global epicentre of Captagon production, which is now more industrialised, adaptive, and technically sophisticated than ever.
“In 2020, Captagon exports from Syria reached a market value of at least $3.46bn [£2.5bn]. Though conjectural, a market ceiling significantly higher than this is distinctly possible. Although Captagon trafficking was once among the funding streams utilised by anti-state armed groups, consolidation of territorial control has enabled the Assad regime and its key regional allies to cement their role as the prime beneficiaries of the Syrian narcotics trade.”
An exiled former regime insider who retains connections with some officials inside the country said: “The war in Syria has not only caused the death of hundreds of thousands, over 6 million refugees, 8 million internally displaced, around 1 million injured, [and] the complete destruction of towns and cities, but [also] a total collapse of the economy following the Lebanese banking crisis, followed by the pandemic and the Caesar Act [of US sanctions] which has turned the country officially into a ‘narco-state’ … with a few regime businessmen and warlords turning into drug lords.
“At the start of the conflict, $1 was equal to 50 Syrian pounds. The exchange rate dropped but managed to stay at 500-600 Syrian pounds throughout eight years of the war until the Lebanese crisis began in 2019. Then we started seeing the total collapse of both currencies simultaneously, which shows how interconnected they are. Lebanon had been acting as Syria’s respirator. And it suddenly lost its oxygen supply.”
Several months after the Latakia merchant fled Syria, a visitor arrived in Lebanon on a private jet from Saudi Arabia. His name was Prince Abdulmohsen bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, a member of the royal family, then in his late 20s. As the prince prepared to fly home, on 26 October 2015, he was arrested, allegedly with two tonnes of Captagon pills in his luggage. For the next four years, he was held in a room above a police station in Beirut’s Hamra district, where he was given more perks than other prisoners as negotiations for his release continued.
“He was set up by Hezbollah,” said a Lebanese intelligence official. “He walked right into a trap, and it took them [Riyadh] a long time to free him, because the people here were looking for the right prize for him. The state was not involved. It was all made to go away. The right people were paid, and he went home in 2019. Captagon can get things done.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/apr/06/behavioural-scientist-michael-norton-rituals-beyonce-psychology | Science | 2024-04-06T14:00:03.000Z | Killian Fox | Behavioural scientist Michael Norton: ‘When a tennis player ties their shoes in a particular way, they feel they can play at Wimbledon’ | Michael Norton studied psychology and was a fellow at the MIT Media Lab before becoming professor of business administration at Harvard Business School. Known for his research on behavioural economics and wellbeing, Norton published his first book, Happy Money: The New Science of Smarter Spending, with Elizabeth Dunn, in 2013. For his latest, The Ritual Effect: The Transformative Power of Our Everyday Actions, out on 18 April, Norton spent more than a decade surveying thousands of people about the role of ritual in their lives.
Rituals seem a tricky subject for scientific study. How do you categorise them and measure their effect?
It felt very daunting at first, because you can’t randomly assign people to families and have them do different rituals, then follow up in 12 years. At first I was going to study obvious things like weddings and funerals, but when we surveyed people, we found that they had all these other things they made up – in their families, with a significant other, with people at work. That opened it up a lot. We could look at these kinds of rituals and see when people do them. We could measure their emotions, we could really start to get traction on what these things are doing in our lives.
My favourite romantic ritual is a couple who clink forks three times before they eat. Audiences always give that an ‘Aaaaw’
So what are they doing? What is the “ritual effect”, as you call it?
One of the things that rituals do is help us to unlock emotions that may otherwise be hard to unlock. You can experience awe or wonder if you go to the Grand Canyon, for example, but it’s hard to go there every day. And so we use these rituals to help us feel in different ways. We use them to cope with grief, to amp ourselves up, to calm ourselves down, or whatever we need in the moment.
Is that what distinguishes rituals from habits – the emotional component?
That’s a big part of it. We describe habits as the “what”, as the thing that you’re doing, whereas rituals are what you’re building around it. Take a mundane action like tying your shoes. It’s boring, and yet when a tennis player does it in a particular way, they feel like they can go out and play at Wimbledon. So rituals bring emotion and meaning.
You write that rituals can also reinforce or even create a sense of identity.
Think about families at dinner. At a very basic level, they’re putting calories in their faces. But when families are eating a cake that their great-grandmother made, it’s a connection to the past and a sense of “who we are as a family”.
Do you think there’s something deep in the human brain that attracts us to ritual?
There is some neuroscience on this, but from my perspective as a behavioural scientist there are very few things that humans use in every situation, in response to various problems, and ritual is one of them. I think that suggests there’s something inside us that turns to ritual. Go back thousands of years and you can find evidence that we were doing them then too – ceremonial burials, for example.
Why do so many top athletes and musicians rely on rituals before they perform?
This is one of the most fun things to study. There is research showing that, as things become more stressful, we’re more likely to behave in ritualistic ways. I have stress in my life, but not like Beyoncé has stress, and I’d look very strange if I did her elaborate rituals before teaching a class. Culturally, we allow people who are doing very stressful things to do elaborate rituals without really judging them. Research shows that they also help us to be a little less reactive to our errors during a performance.
From your research, how important are rituals in romantic relationships?
Sometimes people ask: “What’s your favourite ritual that you’ve ever come across?” And there are lots, but my favourite is this couple who said they clink forks three times before they eat. If I say that to an audience, there’s an instantaneous “Awwwww”. We do see in our research that rituals serve as a signal of commitment (we don’t know fully whether couples who already love each other are more likely to engage in rituals – the causal arrows are hard to tease apart). You can get married and sign papers to show that you’re committed, but day to day it’s these little actions that we’ve been doing for years that signal “we’re in this, this is us, we’re going to keep doing this”. And when couples stop clinking forks, it’s often very upsetting.
When history, culture and tradition come into play, even minor differences can become a real point of contention
What about rituals in family relationships?
Families that report having rituals around holidays are more likely to say that they feel close to one another, and they’re more likely to get together for those holidays. So there’s a cementing function that draws us back. As with couples, we don’t know if families that love each other are more likely to develop rituals, but there is something there.
Rituals aren’t always beneficial, they can be damaging at both individual and societal levels.
On the individual level, if a ritual gets interrupted, it can really throw us off. And as rituals become too central, they can start to interfere. And that’s where we see issues such as obsessive compulsive disorder, where the ritual itself becomes the goal. Instead of checking the door is locked so you can get on with your day, the checking itself becomes the goal and you don’t end up doing the thing you had to do.
On a societal level, rituals can divide as well as unite.
I taught a class the other day, and I often do this thing where I have everybody stand up and perform a made-up ritual that involves clapping, and it’s very fun, but if somebody claps at the wrong time, people look really annoyed. If that happens with a made-up ritual, you can see how, at a broader level, when history and culture and tradition come into play, even minor differences can become a real point of contention.
What do you hope people get out of the book?
I really love when people notice the things they’re already doing. It’s almost like you laugh at yourself a bit, but from then on, when you do it, it has a different resonance because you owned it – it’s your ritual. And I want to encourage people to experiment. If you don’t do a ritual before your big stressful presentation, try something out. If it doesn’t work for you, that’s fine, but I like the idea of having these tools that we can experiment with and see if they can help us.
The Ritual Effect: The Transformative Power of Our Everyday Actions by Michael Norton is published by Penguin (£20). To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/26/hurricane-maria-puerto-rico-youth-mental-health-study-report | World news | 2019-04-26T15:00:23.000Z | Amanda Holpuch | Hurricane Maria's lasting impact on Puerto Rico's children revealed in report | More than half of young people in Puerto Rico saw a friend or family member leave the island after Hurricane Maria, according to a study published on Friday which reveals the dramatic extent to which young Puerto Ricans were exposed to damaged homes, shortages of food and water and threats to their lives.
Despair and anxiety: Puerto Rico's 'living emergency' as a mental health crisis unfolds
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In contrast to most comparable disasters, the physical and mental effects of the category four storm which hit the island in September 2017 were “nearly ubiquitous regardless of geographical location or socioeconomic status”, according to a study about its impact on young Puerto Ricans published on Friday in the journal Jama Network Open.
“The magnitude was so large that all children were exposed,” said Joy Lynn Suárez, a psychology professor at Carlos Albizu University in San Juan and a report co-author.
The death toll from Maria is estimated at between 2,975 and 4,645. The storm cut nearly all communication across the island and destroyed the power grid.
Those who survived still feared for their lives. According to the new study, 30% of children reported that they perceived their lives or the lives of people they loved to be at risk – a strong predictor of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Researchers tied to Puerto Rico government agencies and universities also found:
47.5% of children’s family’s homes were damaged, while 83.9% of children saw damaged homes
24% of youth helped rescue people
25.5% of youth were forced to evacuate
32% of youth experienced shortages of food and water
16.7% of youth still did not have electricity five to nine months after the storm
The study is one of the largest attempts in US history to survey young people after a major natural disaster. It is also the largest sample ever of Hispanic youth impacted by disaster, a group underrepresented in existing research.
Nearly 100,000 of 226,800 Puerto Rican students eligible for the study were surveyed from 1 February to 29 June 2018, in the island’s seven education districts. Overall, about 6,900 students, 7.2%, reported “clinically significant” symptoms of PTSD.
Suárez said the report showed the need for evidence-based mental health services.
“This study shows significant evidence of the need for additional funding to hire and train mental health professionals who can provide evidence-based therapies for children in need,” she wrote in an email.
“It also means that we really need to pay attention to preparedness for future disasters and making sure all this potential disaster related exposure – that agencies have a plan of how to be prepared and be able to provide support if this ever happens again.”
Before the hurricane, Puerto Rico’s population was declining due to recession. The hurricane inspired another exodus. About 4% of the population – 130,000 people – left the island after Hurricane Maria, according to the US census.
In the survey, 57.8% of respondents said a family member or friend had left Puerto Rico after the hurricane.
Months-long school closures left children isolated. At home, many were sheltered indoors, to protect them from downed trees, precarious structures and snapped electric cables. Electricity outages splintered communication and access to television and cellphones.
Erica Vera, a social worker in a New York state school district, said Puerto Rican children who left for the mainland after Maria showed signs of emotional distress.
“A lot of kids have a fear that this will happen again and a lot of them have nightmares about it,” Vera said.
She said children were still moving to New York from Puerto Rico because of Maria. A majority of such students she has evaluated did not move with their parents, but to live with family members already based on the mainland.
“What really hurt me was the concern of these young kids who are seven to eight years old, them being so scared for their uncles and grandmothers,” Vera said. “I think it’s a feeling that the family is not safe over there.
“The feeling of loss and concern of these young kids for the safety and resources that the family members they left behind haunts them.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/mar/24/turnbull-leaves-open-idea-of-carbon-credits-to-meet-emissions-target | Environment | 2017-03-24T04:04:21.000Z | Katharine Murphy | Turnbull leaves open idea of carbon credits to meet emissions target | The Turnbull government has left open the prospect of using international carbon credits to help meet Australia’s emissions reduction targets at lowest cost, a practice Tony Abbott ruled out when he was prime minister.
While Abbott used to characterise the trade of international credits as “money that shouldn’t be going offshore into dodgy carbon farms in Equatorial Guinea and Kazakhstan” – a new discussion paper, released on Friday, notes that “high quality international units could contribute to lowering the costs of meeting [Australia’s] 2030 target”.
Renewable energy spike led to sharp drop in emissions in Australia, study shows
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The discussion paper is being used by the federal government to open a conversation about its heavily criticised Direct Action climate policy. The government established a review of the policy last December.
And despite ruling out an emissions intensity trading scheme for the electricity sector late last year, the new discussion paper is completely open ended about what policies might be required to drive the transition to lower emissions technologies in Australia’s energy sector.
The paper notes that executing the necessary transition in the electricity sector will require “careful consideration of its enabling conditions such as the investment climate, security and reliability”.
“Implications for electricity prices, jobs, regions, cost of living and international competitiveness need to be considered,” the paper says.
Noting that the electricity sector is currently Australia’s largest source of emissions, the paper says “a less emissions‑intensive electricity sector can also support emissions reductions elsewhere by replacing other, more emissions intensive, fuel sources — for example, in industrial facilities and through electric vehicle uptake”.
When he launched the review of the Direct Action policy in December last year, the energy minister Josh Frydenberg left open the option of reinstating a form of carbon trading in the electricity sector.
But that idea was quickly quashed after a brief government revolt with various figures, including Abbott, declaring the Coalition could never adopt any policy resembling carbon pricing.
Subsequent to that Coalition boilover, the Liberal New South Wales government, major energy users, manufacturers and businesses including BHP Billiton have used the Finkel review – a review of the electricity market running in parallel with the Direct Action review – to reopen the debate about carbon pricing.
These groups have urged the Finkel review of the electricity market to urge the Turnbull government to put a price on carbon or adopt a market mechanism to drive emissions reduction.
A string of peak bodies have already called for the adoption of a market mechanism, including the National Farmers Federation, the Investor Group on Climate Change and the Business Council of Australia, which explicitly called for an emissions intensity scheme.
The current consensus around carbon pricing is a major turnaround in a very short period of time. Three years ago some of the same groups urged the parliament to get out of the way so that Tony Abbott could repeal the Gillard government’s “carbon tax”.
Given most major stakeholders have used the Finkel inquiry to push the government to consider a market mechanism to deliver investment certainty in the electricity industry, and drive emissions reductions at least cost to households and businesses, it is expected these arguments will be submitted by the same groups to the Direct Action review.
The discussion paper released Friday reopens the debate about using international permits by noting the rules for trading international emissions reductions after 2020 are yet to be established.
As the paper notes, international trading of emissions units allows countries to count emissions reductions delivered in another country towards their own targets, which helps to minimise the global cost of achieving abatement.
The paper says Australian carbon credit units are not currently allowed to be exported into international markets.
“Some businesses and business groups have raised the possibility of exporting Australian emissions reductions. This would mean allowing Australian businesses generating ACCUs to sell emissions reductions from their projects to overseas buyers.”
The paper notes that any import and export of carbon units must be done under the rules that facilitate trade of international units, which will be determined under the Paris climate agreement.
Business groups and some of the government’s climate advisers have argued for years that it would be significantly cheaper to meet Australia’s emissions reduction commitments by purchasing international permits.
The paper does not open a discussion about whether the current renewable energy target should continue beyond its current legislated life, noting only that it exists as one of the suite of climate policies. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2010/apr/20/the-cherry-orchard-review | Culture | 2010-04-20T22:30:01.000Z | Mark Fisher | The Cherry Orchard | Theatre review | The story of Margaret Thatcher's premiership is usually told in terms of a right-left struggle between establishment and workers. But as John Byrne sees it in this invigorating and very funny retelling of the Chekhov classic, it was also a conflict between old money and the self-made man.
The Lopakhin who triumphs over this family estate in north-east Scotland at the end of the winter of discontent is, like Thatcher, the child of a grocer. Renamed Malcolm McCracken – and played with outsider toughness by Andy Clark – he represents the first stirrings of the loadsamoney generation: cash-rich and empathy-poor. His vision for turning the land over to holiday homes ("City living in the heart of the Highlands") is preferable to a rival scheme for a leisure centre and golf complex, but it is insensitive to the priceless beauty of the cherry orchard.
Not that the old guard are any better. They are an anachronistic bunch even for 1979, all tweedy superiority with a gift for blanking out anything they don't want to hear. We feel no nostalgia for their decadent spending on boozy lunches and helicopter rides around the Eiffel Tower. Only Maureen Beattie as an elegant Madame Ranevskaya – renamed Mrs Ramsay-Mackay – shows a level of sensitivity beneath the fecklessness.
What is remarkable about the switch from pre-revolution Russia to pre-devolution Scotland is how snugly it fits. Unlike similar transpositions, Tony Cownie's production – weak on thwarted romance, strong on comic timing – works on its own terms and allows you to forget the context of the original. Faithful to the line if not the letter of Chekhov, Byrne's adaptation trades serfs and samovars for Bagpuss and chicken chow mein, giving the play an immediacy that makes sense of its dramatic conflict while reflecting on the political movements of our own times. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/jun/24/arctic-monkeys-at-glastonbury-review-pyramid-headline | Music | 2023-06-24T00:40:27.000Z | Alexis Petridis | Arctic Monkeys at Glastonbury review – breaking rock’s rules at their own strange pace | “T
he Monkeys are back on the farm!” bellows Alex Turner. “Wow!” Indeed, a day ago, it seemed fairly dicey as to whether Friday night at Glastonbury would have a headliner at all thanks to Turner being struck down with laryngitis – presumably, the worst-kept secret set by the Foo Fighters would have been shunted up the bill had the Arctic Monkeys frontman been unable to perform. But he sounds in remarkably good voice. He looks good too: shirt open to reveal a silver chain, foot on the monitors at the front of the stage, emphasising lyrics by raging his right hand in the air, index finger aloft in the manner of John Travolta on the cover of the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack.
But Arctic Monkeys are a conundrum. On the one hand, they are probably the biggest alt-rock band in Britain: in an era when alternative rock doesn’t really sell, their albums consistently remain in the charts. On the other, only some of their albums are consistently in the charts. Their 2006 debut Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not and 2013’s AM seem to have achieved the kind of sales ubiquity usually reserved for best-ofs by Fleetwood Mac, Elton John or Oasis. But there have clearly been substantially fewer takers for the band’s more recent excursions into more expansive and serpentine realms, Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino and last year’s The Car. You suspect that may be the point – they’ve successfully rid themselves of the beer-chucking lads in their audience, who were frequently the subject of much mortified eye-rolling on Turner’s part – but it makes for a curiously uneven headlining set. The response to the opening Sculptures of Anything Goes – a single from The Car – is decidedly muted. And the crowd only respond in the way the crowd are supposed to respond to a Glastonbury headlining set – ie rapturously – when they play AM’s Snap Out of It.
Arctic Monkeys at Glastonbury. Photograph: Jonny Weeks/The Guardian
Occasionally, their set displays the impressive distance the Arctic Monkeys have covered over the last decade. In theory the kind of NME-hyped band who appeared fully-formed, as exciting as they were ever going to be on arrival, they turned out to be more interesting and talented than that, a point proven not just by the muscular, vaguely heavy-rock-influenced riffs of AM’s Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High?, but the beautifully-turned songcraft of Cornerstone and Fluorescent Adolescent. Equally, there are moments that feel like lulls, when the audience lose interest and start drifting elsewhere: there’s always something else to do at Glastonbury. It’s a state of affairs not much helped by the persona Alex Turner inhabits onstage. A kind of deliberately mannered oleaginous lounge crooner, he somehow sounds like he’s being sarcastic every time he says “thank you”.
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Foo Fighters secret Glastonbury set review – a band who have learned to fly again
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It’s a strangely paced set: the euphoria induced by Mardy Bum is deliquesced by There’d Better Be a Mirrorball and the lengthy closer Body Paint. Their version of John Cooper Clarke’s I Wanna Be Yours – a huge song on TikTok, but one that proceeds at a painfully slow pace – makes for an unlikely encore. But the mood in the crowd is rectified by I Bet That You Look Good on the Dancefloor and AM’s R U Mine? The sense of a band marching to their own tune – uninterested in providing the fabled Glastonbury moment, when music and surroundings coalesce into something magical – is hard to miss, and it’s simultaneously admirable and underwhelming: an odd way to feel about a headlining set at the world’s most famous festival. “You’ll be alright,” Turner tells the audience, as proceedings draw to a close. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/nov/11/england-new-zealand-rugby-league-international-match-report | Sport | 2018-11-11T19:45:21.000Z | Aaron Bower | England end Test series on sour note with thrashing by New Zealand | This has been a year of encouraging, perhaps unprecedented, progress for England but this was a firm reminder the job is far from complete in terms of desire to become the world’s best side.
Of all the positives displayed over the past few months it is the strength in depth England possess that augers well for the World Cup in 2021.
To cope this autumn without 10 of the squad who reached the World Cup final last year, plus their captain, Sean O’Loughlin, for all but 16 minutes of the series, and still win the series is hugely encouraging. It is evident the depth can be stretched only so far, however. Here, without another three of the squad who won the first two Tests, there was not the same edge and how the tourists made them pay.
Tommy Makinson hat-trick carries England to series win over New Zealand
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Despite losing the first two Tests, New Zealand were far from second best and their quality was underlined with a ruthless display of the highest order. Had one or two moments gone England’s way in a closely contested first half a clean sweep might have been on the cards but seven decisive minutes before half-time swung the match firmly in the Kiwis’ favour.
Already leading 6-0 thanks to Ken Maumalo’s try, further tries for Isaac Liu and Kodi Nikorima – after England had two tries disallowed – opened an 18-point half-time margin. The Kiwis head home with the victory their endeavours perhaps merited from a series that hopefully sets the tone for the international game.
With a fixed long-term calendar in place – including a Great Britain tour of the southern hemisphere next year – the game has a solid platform on which to build; as do England. With players such as Sam Burgess, Kallum Watkins and Ryan Hall returning from injury for that tour next year, Bennett and England have never had more players of international standard at their disposal.
This was a sour end to 2018 but 2019 and beyond should be exciting under Wayne Bennett’s guidance. “You’ve got to keep in perspective that we’ve had two great games, played great stuff and we won the series,” the England coach said.
“We’re going in the right direction. I’m pleased with where we’re going. We had 13 players unavailable by the end of this series … we’ve got a good squad to go at going forward.”
Despite Maumalo’s try breaking the deadlock, England responded well, twice going close to scoring. First, the Golden Boot winner Tommy Makinson appeared to have finished superbly in the corner, before the play was pulled back for an obstruction in the buildup. Twelve minutes later Oliver Gildart had a try ruled out, this time when Jermaine McGillvary was adjudged to have been in touch.
The Kiwis made the hosts pay in clinical fashion. First, Nikorima teed up Liu to cross, before linking magnificently with Shaun Johnson – the latter converting both to make it 18-0 at the break.
To stand any chance of a comeback it was clear England had to score first after half-time but when Maumalo outjumped McGillvary four minutes after the resumption it killed off any hopes of victory for England.
Makinson was denied a try for a second time on 58 minutes, this time wandering into touch after Jared Waerea-Hargreaves was sent to the sin-bin for a professional foul. The Kiwis would not be so profligate when McGillvary was shown a yellow card – scoring two more tries via Jesse Bromwich and Joseph Tapine to compound the misery on what is at least becoming a rare off-performance under Bennett.
A disappointing end to the season without doubt: but do not let that overshadow the bright future ahead for perhaps England’s most talented group for more than a generation. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/culture-cuts-blog/2011/jan/13/arts-funding-local-authorities | Culture | 2011-01-13T13:45:01.000Z | Mark Brown | Arts funding dilemmas for local authorities | Mark Brown | I mentioned in the G2 arts diary this week those 50 brave souls in North Finchley who, on Monday evening, stood in the freezing cold to protest against Barnet council's proposal to cut all its funding from the successful artsdepot mixed arts venue.
That amounts to £194,000 – or 11% of its income.
Well here are some pictures from the silent flashmob – many thanks to Vikki Mizon of artsdepot. If you're organising any sort of protest at arts cuts in your area then let us know.
Protest against funding cuts in Barnet, north London. Photograph: artsdepot
There was what sounds like an absurd overreaction with the closure of the main gates to the business park that the offices are on, plus extra security and a police presence.
In the next few months I suspect we'll hear a steady stream of stories about councils cutting arts projects but hopefully we'll also be able to reflect the huge dilemmas local authorities are facing. Dilemmas caused by central cuts. I travelled to Newcastle yesterday and the Evening Chronicle and the Journal have stories about Newcastle city council forced to make £50m of savings this year and Northumberland county council £60m. And of course, local councillors are not dunderheaded philistines. Not all of them anyway.
People protest against Barnet council's proposal to cut funding for the successful artsdepot venue in North Finchley, London. Photograph: artsdepot
But what do you make of the Barnet decision? One of the council's arguments is that people in Barnet can jump on a tube and within 30 minutes they can have access to lots of arts, much of it free, in central London. That comes courtesy of cabinet member Cllr Robert Rams, quoted in his local newspaper. So no need for any arts provision in Barnet, he seems to be saying – in direct contradiction to Boris Johnson who has consistently argued that the outer boroughs do not have enough arts provision.
Who's right?
The consultation ends on Monday so it's not a done deal. Details of how to protest are on artsdepot's website.
This from director Nigel Cutting:
"I am shocked and disappointed at this proposal as I have been in constant dialogue with Barnet Council for the last six months, and at no time had it been suggested to us that funding would be withdrawn in 2011. Whilst we recognise that in times of reduced public expenditure, arts provision will need to take a share of the cuts, this is hugely disproportionate and short-sighted, especially with artsdepot being only 6 years old, and being a council initiative. If it goes through, Barnet will be one of the largest councils in the country to spend nothing on the arts. A local authority area with twice the population of Oxford at least deserves a degree of arts provision. We are all aware that central government is reducing what it spends on the arts, but isn't cutting it altogether. Neither should Barnet Council." | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/sep/19/power-halve-greenhouse-gas-emissions-2030-climate-scientists | Environment | 2019-09-18T23:00:13.000Z | Fiona Harvey | Scientists set out how to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 | Greenhouse gas emissions could be halved in the next decade if a small number of current technologies and behavioural trends are ramped up and adopted more widely, researchers have found, saying strong civil society movements are needed to drive such change.
Solar and wind power, now cheaper than fossil fuels in many regions, must be scaled up rapidly to replace coal-fired generation, and this alone could halve emissions from electricity generation by 2030, according to the Exponential Roadmap report from an international group of experts.
If the rapid uptake of electric vehicles in some parts of the world could be sustained, the vehicles could make up 90% of the market by 2030, vastly reducing emissions from transport, it said.
Avoiding deforestation and improving land management could reduce emissions by the equivalent of about 9bn tonnes of carbon dioxide a year by 2030, according to the report, but contradictory subsidies, poor planning and vested interests could stop this from happening.
Key to any transition will be the growing social movements that are pressing for urgent action on climate breakdown. By driving behavioural change, such as moving away from the overconsumption of meat and putting pressure on governments and companies, civil movements have the power to drive the transformation needed in the next decade, say the report’s authors.
Christiana Figueres, a former top climate official at the UN, said: “I see all evidence that social and economic tipping points are aligning. We can now say the next decade has the potential to see the fastest economic transition in history.”
Christiana Figueres, a former top climate official at the UN. Photograph: Julien Paquin
The experts identified 36 developments that would produce the emission cuts needed, from renewable energy to changes in food production, the design of cities, and international transport, such as shipping. All of them are judged possible to achieve by 2030.
“While the scale of transformation is unprecedented, the speed is not,” said Johan Rockström, the director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. “This is now a race against time, but businesses and even entire industries have made many significant transitions in less than 10 years.”
Social movements will be a top priority because consumers can put pressure on the companies whose goods they buy, and public support makes it possible for political leaders to adopt bolder policies. Countries including the UK, France, Sweden and Norway have adopted a net-zero-carbon target for 2050.
Owen Gaffney, the director of strategy at the Stockholm Resilience Centre, a co-author of the report, called on digital platforms such as Facebook, Amazon and Google to play a part.
“Given that [these platforms] are now mediating behaviour and consumption, they might do more to support societal goals, for example around advertising and the promotion of high-carbon [activities]. Governments might look here too as a place for policy innovation.”
He said governments also needed to do more to support behavioural change, from dietary choices to making public transport more available.
However, the detailed policy measures required to meet 2050 net-zero-carbon targets have yet to be worked out by national governments. The report’s authors believe they can demonstrate that taking action now across sectors such as energy generation, buildings, transport and food production and consumption will make it possible. Putting off taking action will result in higher costs and make more rapid change necessary in the future, they say.
The report did not examine the potential costs but Gaffney pointed to a study last year by the New Climate Economy that estimated the economic benefit of a lower-carbon future at $26tn (£21tn) by 2030. The UK’s Committee on Climate Change has estimated the cost of reaching net zero at 1-2% of GDP by 2050.
The need to move to net zero carbon by 2050 – effectively reducing most of the world’s output of carbon dioxide emissions, and increasing the absorption of carbon by vegetation and other means – is based on the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
In its report last year, the body of leading climate scientists found there would be dire effects if temperatures were to exceed 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, and found reducing carbon to near zero by mid-century was the best way to avoid this.
The organisations behind the Exponential Roadmap report included academic institutes, green campaigning groups and private sector companies. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/nov/05/frances-far-right-party-rn-elects-new-president-to-replace-le-pen | World news | 2022-11-05T11:48:39.000Z | Kim Willsher | France’s far-right National Rally elects new president to replace Le Pen | France’s far-right National Rally (RN) has elected a 27-year-old from the Paris banlieue who joined the party as a teenager as its new president to replace Marine Le Pen.
The result means that for the first time since the party – originally the National Front – was created in 1972, it will not be run by a Le Pen.
Jordan Bardella, Le Pen’s protege, who has been caretaker president for a year, beat Louis Aliot, 53, the mayor of Perpignan, a party heavyweight as well as Le Pen’s former partner, by 85% to 15% of party members who voted.
There were cheers and a standing ovation as Le Pen announced the result. The handover comes at a tense time for the RN after one of its MPs was suspended from parliament for a racist outburst last week.
Addressing the party, Le Pen said that after more than a decade it was time to make way for someone new. Le Pen’s father, Jean-Marie, handed the reins to the youngest of his three daughters in 2011, who changed its name at a party conference in 2018.
Marine Le Pen is standing down as RN president to concentrate on directing its actions in the national assembly. She is still expected to wield significant power within the party’s leadership.
“I am not leaving RN to take a holiday. I will be there where the country needs me,” Le Pen told Saturday’s party convention. She is widely expected to make another presidential bid in 2027.
In legislative elections earlier this year that robbed Emmanuel Macron of his parliamentary majority, the party won a record 89 seats.
Bardella, known as a smooth orator who is rarely seen publicly out of a sharp navy suit and tie, has been standing in for Le Pen while she campaigned in this year’s presidential election, which she lost to Macron in a run-off in May this year, a repeat of the 2017 result.
In February, Bardella was put under investigation after describing the banlieue town of Trappes, home to a large immigrant community, as an “Islamic Republic” within France. He is a firm Eurosceptic, though the party under Le Pen has dropped campaigning for Frexit.
After Giorgia Meloni won the Italian elections, Bardella described it as a “lesson in humility for the European Union”, accusing it of trying to influence the vote. “No threat of any kind can stop democracy. The people of Europe are lifting their heads and taking their destiny in hand,” he said.
Born in the Paris banlieue of Seine-Saint-Denis to a French father and an Italian mother, Bardella has risen rapidly through the ranks of the far-right party he joined when he was 16, first coming to public prominence in 2017 when he became its spokesperson. He enjoys a privileged and personal relationship with the Le Pen family as his partner is Nolwenn Olivier, Le Pen’s niece.
While Bardella is an idealogical hardliner, Aliot had positioned himself as the man to continue the process of “de-demonising” the party that Le Pen began more than a decade ago.
After Le Pen took over the FN she set about cleaning up its image, at the time inextricably linked to the xenophobic, shaven-headed neo-Nazi thugs who supported her father. Members were expelled for racist and antisemitic remarks or for defending Philippe Pétain, the head of France’s Nazi-collaborating Vichy government in the 1940s. In 2015, after several warnings about his behaviour, she expelled her own father.
Critics said the laundering operation was more about style than substance, but it worked. In 2012, Le Pen polled 17.9% of votes in the first round of the presidential election. In 2017 that rose to 21.3%, and in 2022 to 23.15%. In 2014, the RN’s list of candidates, headed by Bardella, won the European elections in France, with 24.9% of the vote, sending 25 representatives to the European parliament.
However, the RN was one again at the centre of a racist row last week as its MP Grégoire de Fournas was banned from parliament for two weeks and fined half his salary for two months after shouting “Go back to Africa” when a black member of the lower house was questioning the government about migrants.
Asked last week who she would support in the party leadership race, Le Pen refused to say. “I said I’d remain neutral,” she told Télématin television. Appearing on BFMTV she added: “There’s no difference in [political] line between Jordan Bardella and Louis Aliot.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/sep/09/michael-moore-documentary-makers-entertaining-toronto-film-festival | Film | 2014-09-09T17:05:00.000Z | Henry Barnes | Michael Moore tells documentary-makers to be more entertaining | Documentary film-makers have lost sight of why people like to go to the cinema, said Michael Moore during his keynote speech at the Toronto film festival.
The Oscar-winning film-maker is in town to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Roger & Me, his movie on the closure of General Motors plants in his hometown of Flint, Michigan. He used his talk to criticise the joyless nature of many modern documentaries and said that many film-makers, particularly on the left, had lost their sense of humour.
"People don't want medicine, they want popcorn," he said. "Entertainment is the big dirty word of documentary. 'Oh no! I've entertained someone. I've cheapened my movie!'"
Moore recalled taking a cinema seat around in a van when he shot Roger & Me ("to remind the crew about the audience"). "If you want to make a speech, join a political party," he said. "If you want to give a sermon become a priest. Want to give a lecture? Be a teacher. Make a movie! If you make a movie, people might go and see your documentary."
Michael Moore in Bowling for Columbine
Moore's 2004 film, Fahrenheit 9/11, is the highest-grossing documentary of all time, taking close to $120m (£75m) at the US box office to date. The film, which won the Palme d'Or at the 2004 Cannes film festival, uses Moore's trademark mix of comedy, factual analysis and on-camera confrontation to deliver a stinging attack on the Bush administration's case for the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the subsequent lack of dissent by the press.
The director, who won the best-documentary Oscar for his 2003 film, Bowling for Columbine, suggested that documentaries should be judged as an entertainment product like any other – as something to entertain on a night out.
"People want to go home and have sex after your movie," he said. "Don't make them feel 'Urggggghhhh'. Don't do that to your fellow sexually active people.
Michael Moore in Roger and Me. Photograph: Ronald Grant Archive
"If you can't accept that you're an entertainer with your truth, get out of the business," he said. "[America] needs more teachers ... and we need to pay them Hollywood wages."
Moore's speech, which overran by almost double its allotted time ("I told them I wouldn't go more than 50% longer than Fidel would normally do"), was well-received by an audience that included a good number of his fellow documentary film-makers. He said he hoped that a resurgence in the form was not far off, but that directors needed to stop looking for excuses as to why their films weren't getting a bigger audience.
"Blame studios, blame distributors, blame financiers, but let's take a moment to blame ourselves," he said.
Full coverage of Toronto film festival 2014 | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/sep/03/rj-ellory-secret-amazon-reviews | Books | 2012-09-03T12:24:39.000Z | Alison Flood | RJ Ellory's secret Amazon reviews anger rivals | Bestselling authors including Lee Child, Ian Rankin and Joanne Harris are queuing up to condemn the posting of reviews under false identities after it emerged this weekend that the award-winning crime writer RJ Ellory had been criticising his rivals and praising his own work under pseudonyms on Amazon.
Ellory, who won the Theakstons Old Peculier crime novel of the year prize in 2010 for his novel A Simple Act of Violence, was exposed by the crime writer Jeremy Duns on Twitter for posting reviews on Amazon under various identities. Under the pseudonym "Nicodemus Jones", Ellory called his own novel A Quiet Belief in Angels a "modern masterpiece" and said that readers should "just buy it, read it and make up your own mind", because "whatever else it might do, it will touch your soul". "All I will say is that there are paragraphs and chapters that just stopped me dead in my tracks," he wrote. "Some of it was chilling, some of it raced along, some of it was poetic and langorous and had to be read twice and three times to really appreciate the depth of the prose … it really is a magnificent book."
But "Nicodemus Jones" was less positive about some of his fellow novelists: Stuart MacBride was dismissed for his novel Dark Blood with one star, with the book described as "another in the seemingly endless parade of same-old-same-old police procedurals that seem to abound in the UK". Duns spotted that Ellory wrote the MacBride review under the pseudonym Nicodemus Jones, but later in the conversation began posting as RJ Ellory, in a continuation of the discussion. "Nicodemus Jones" also repeatedly signs himself as "Roger" in another discussion, in which he writes that "I won the Nouvel Observateur prize last year for AQBIA [A Quiet Belief in Angels]".
Mark Billingham was also slammed with a negative review from Nicodemus Jones, since removed, from one of Ellory's accounts. "It was just a very nasty one-star review, very snipey, saying I'd ripped off another writer and the book was just imitative," said Billingham.
Ellory has admitted posting the reviews on Amazon, and apologised for his actions, issuing a statement in which he said: "The recent reviews – both positive and negative – that have been posted on my Amazon accounts are my responsibility and my responsibility alone. I wholeheartedly regret the lapse of judgment that allowed personal opinions to be disseminated in this way and I would like to apologise to my readers and the writing community."
But Ellory is only the tip of the iceberg, according to Duns and Billingham. Two years ago, the historian Orlando Figes admitted to trashing his rivals and praising himself on Amazon, and at the Harrogate crime festival earlier this summer, the bestselling thriller writer Stephen Leather said: "As soon as my book is out I'm on Facebook and Twitter several times a day talking about it. I'll go on to several forums, the well-known forums, and post there under my name and under various other names and various other characters. You build up this whole network of characters who talk about your books and sometimes have conversations with yourself."
"[Ellory] absolutely isn't the only one," said Billingham, adding that Ellory had also apologised to him personally. "It's very widespread … And what has been most shocking about some of the more recent revelations is that up until this moment most of us had presumed that the people doing this stuff were self-published writers with no other means of marketing. But these most recent revelations prove this is not the case and it is very worrying."
"It's absolutely rife," agreed Duns. "It's so tempting, it's so easy … and it's very very hard to prove it."
The Crime Writers Association has issued a statement condemning the practice of using fake identities on blogs, Twitter or Amazon to promote a writer's own work and give bad reviews to others, calling it "unfair to authors and also to the readers who are so supportive of the crime genre", and adding that it is looking to set up a membership code of ethics.
Duns has also been helping put together an open letter from writers slamming the practice, which has been signed by names including Child, Rankin, Billingham, Val McDermid, Harris, Tony Parsons, Roger McGough, Peter James, Charlie Higson, Mo Hayder, Linwood Barclay, Andrew Taylor, Michael Connelly and others.
"Maybe we are fighting an uphill battle because it is very widespread but we are taking a stand," said Billingham. "It's an incredibly difficult thing to police though – whatever statement writers make, those intent on doing it will ignore it. [But] I hope at the very least it serves as a wake-up call to people – those who have been doing it for a while and thinking they will get away with it. At the very best [being found out] is embarrassing. At the worst it will cost people careers."
Duns suggested that sites such as Amazon could instigate a system whereby only accounts linked to Facebook pages, or to verified purchases, could post reviews. "It's not just Amazon, it's all of these sites. They have put in place these systems that are totally open to abuse, and then when people say this is going on they say we can't possibly police it."
Amazon did not respond to a request for comment before publication. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/dec/03/uk-manufacturers-stockpile-goods-ahead-of-brexit | Business | 2018-12-03T06:01:13.000Z | Phillip Inman | UK manufacturers stockpile goods ahead of Brexit | Manufacturers are stockpiling goods ahead of March’s Brexit date as the prospect of queues at Britain’s ports grows more likely.
Production remained strong across the manufacturing sector in recent months, with firms fearful that imports of raw materials will dry up in the event of a no-deal Brexit or go up in price should a deal go ahead. In response, they are making as many goods as possible and piling them up in storage, according to a quarterly survey from the EEF, the manufacturers’ trade body.
The EEF said this precautionary stockpiling had allowed firms to maintain production levels despite a sharp drop in export orders over recent months.
Stephen Phipson, chief executive of EEF, said: “The moderation in manufacturing performance over the course of this year appears to have gathered pace during the final quarter, with more clouds on the horizon than there have been for some time.
“This should come as no surprise given the significant political uncertainty at home, which is why it is essential that there is an agreement for the UK’s withdrawal as soon as possible.”
Last week the governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, warned against a no-deal Brexit, saying a majority of Britain’s businesses were unprepared.
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He called on MPs to agree a transition deal with the EU as a minimum requirement to prevent the UK suffering its biggest recession in decades.
According to the EEF’s survey, the output order balance for the sector was +22%, which is high by historical standards and represents the ninth consecutive quarter of positive output balances.
The forecast for the next three months has drifted down to +19%, but according to the EEF, “evidence suggests current output maybe more a reflection of precautionary stockpiling rather than production driven by demand”.
Investment across the sector was also down, with the balance measure used to judge the level of spending dropping from +20% to +7%.
Manufacturers have come under pressure from subdued global growth, the fading effects of sterling’s post-referendum devaluation and more protectionist trade policies. The EEF said these factors were now taking their toll on confidence and output growth.
Tom Lawton, head of manufacturing at the accountancy firm BDO, added: “The sharp decline in export orders is a real cause for concern. There are likely to be a number of causes for the fall in exports this quarter; uncertainty over our future relationship with the EU being the main one.”
He said overseas demand helped sustain manufacturing growth over the last few years and the EU remains the most important trading block for UK manufacturers.
“It is crucial that Britain is seen to be open for business with the EU and other key global markets,” he added. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/apr/03/toymaker-hornby-seeks-new-finance-deal-model-railway-scalextric-sales-slump | Business | 2018-04-03T16:56:51.000Z | Zoe Wood | Toymaker Hornby to seek new finance deal after sales slump | The struggling toymaker Hornby has been given breathing space by its bank to nail down a new finance deal despite a fresh slump in sales.
The loss-making model railway and Scalextric maker said poor sales in the first three months of 2018 meant it had breached the terms of its loan agreement with Barclays, but the bank was not taking any action.
Hornby’s new chief executive, Lyndon Davies, said the 117-year-old company was in the final stages of negotiating a new, larger loan facility with another lender. The agreement is expected to be in place by the time the company updates the City on its annual results in June.
In 2015 Hornby shares were changing hands for over £1 but several torrid years punctuated by profit warnings, cash calls and leadership changes have had a dramatic effect on the company’s value. Things got so bad in 2016 that the former Top Gear presenter James May intervened, urging Britons to “buy a train set today” in an attempt to shore up the troubled company’s finances.
The shares have shed a fifth of their value in the past 12 months and on Tuesday closed at 23p, valuing the company at £30.7m.
Davies, who is the founder of rival model business Oxford Diecast, is the third chief executive to attempt to get Hornby back on the tracks since 2014. He was installed by the company’s majority shareholder, Phoenix Asset Management, which took control last year.
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Analysts say Hornby is struggling to stay relevant in a cutthroat industry where it has to compete with toys linked to the latest blockbuster films as well as online games. Last year Toys R Us, the world’s largest toy retailer, filed for bankruptcy and its UK stores are closing after a buyer failed to emerge.
Hornby, which also makes Airfix kits and Corgi cars, made a loss before tax of £9.5m in the year ended 31 March 2017. One of Davies’s first actions has been to stop the discounting he said had been damaging its brands. But he admitted the tactic meant sales and profits in the fourth quarter were lower than a year ago.
“As the dust settles on the changes to the strategy ... morale is starting to build in our hardworking staff and some trust is coming back with our retailers and customers,” he said. “Whilst we have managed to make a lot of progress in the first few months, there is still much more to do in terms of reducing costs, streamlining processes and adding routes to market.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/07/northern-ireland-abortion-ban-sarah-ewart-interview | World news | 2016-01-07T10:58:49.000Z | Amelia Gentleman | I needed an abortion but my consultant told me: 'I'm not going to prison' | When Sarah Ewart went for a 19-week scan, she was told that the baby she was carrying had a fatal defect. The brain and skull had not developed properly. It would inevitably die either before it was born or moments afterwards.
Profoundly upsetting though this was, it was the treatment that followed which really disturbed Ewart and her husband, Jason.
Ewart returned to the hospital in Belfast to ask about having an abortion. Doctors informed her that this was not an option in Northern Ireland, and when she inquired where she might go to seek a termination elsewhere, they said they were unable to give her any information about where to get help.
“They were frustrated, but they said their hands were tied,” she said, recalling events that unfolded in the autumn of 2013. “They said: ‘We can’t tell you anything, we would be prosecuted if we gave you that information.’ They weren’t allowed to talk about the options; no phone numbers; no clinic address.”
Some days later, having consulted as many people as she could, and certain that her case was one of the rare and exceptional cases when an abortion could be performed in Northern Ireland, she met a second consultant.
In their own words Guardian
This woman “banged her files on the desk and said: ‘I’m not going to prison for anyone,’” Ewart recalled, in an interview at the east Belfast home of her mother, Jane Christie. Punitive draft guidelines, stating that healthcare workers risked life imprisonment for performing an unlawful abortion, had been published by the health minister earlier that year. The issue was making doctors very nervous.
Instead, Ewart, 25, resorted to searching the Yellow Pages for guidance. After consulting the Northern Ireland Family Planning Association, she made an appointment to have the procedure done in London, at a cost – with flights and hotels included – of more than £2,100. Ewart had recently got married, and the family had to go to their local bank to ask for a loan to cover the cost.
The sense of injustice she felt at her treatment compelled her to add her voice to the campaign to get the law on abortion changed, a campaign that had some preliminary success in November when the high court ruled that the near-blanket ban on abortion breached European human rights legislation. With her mother’s support, she contacted all 108 members of Northern Ireland’s legislative assembly, and all Westminster MPs from the region, demanding their help in changing the law.
When only two responded to her initial email, she went to the media, and BBC Radio Ulster’s very popular Nolan Show highlighted her difficult journey to England, bringing the issue to the top of the political agenda.
Becoming the poster girl for a campaign to liberalise Northern Ireland’s rigid abortion legislation has not been much fun. A soft-spoken administrative assistant in a healthcare clinic, Ewart had no burning desire to take on this explosive issue in a political environment still very hostile to reform.
For her efforts, she has received considerable online abuse. Following the high court ruling, she was sent numerous images of bloodied corpses of aborted foetuses. Her mother has been told that she is a “cruel, callous woman” who conspired to “murder her grandchild”. Ewart has been told repeatedly online that she is a murderer who will rot in hell, and describing the detail of the abuse makes her cry.
Sarah Ewart alongside her mother outside Belfast magistrates court after the abortion ruling. Photograph: Charles McQuillan/Getty Images
Sometimes the abuse comes in person. Leaving the family planning clinic in Belfast in October 2013, just days after she was given the news about the baby’s condition and when she was seeking advice about travelling to England for an abortion, Ewart was pursued down the road by protesters, screaming abuse at her. Refusing to let her go, one woman stuck her head in the door of Ewart’s grandfather’s car as he tried to drive her home, shouting: “You are destroying the baby.”
One of the worst moments came when she and her mother went to visit the then health minister, Jim Wells, a member of the Democratic Unionist party, to explain why she wanted a change in the law to allow women carrying babies with a fatal foetal abnormality to seek a termination.
“He said that I had destroyed a baby that would have survived, that the consultants get these diagnoses wrong,” she said. “He was blunt and direct. I was sitting in tears the whole time that I was there. I couldn’t speak. We got up and left.”
She was dismayed that the health minister had no grasp of the medical condition, anencephaly. “It was horrible. I was so upset to think that people in power could speak like that. It was extremely hurtful. He didn’t know what he was talking about. I didn’t kill a baby that would have survived – the baby was never going to survive. That’s what makes me angry. I didn’t utter a word, I couldn’t because I was so upset,” she said.
The DUP initially indicated that it supported her campaign, but subsequently reverted to a firm position of refusing any amendment to the law. Elsewhere, she has had more success. She met Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness, who was sympathetic, and following their meeting the party changed its position to support an amendment on the law on abortion, allowing it in cases of fatal foetal abnormalities.
Her campaign is limited to a very modest change to the law to allow women in her situation to get medical treatment in Northern Ireland, rather than having to undergo the trauma and inconvenience of travelling abroad and having to pay for private treatment.
She is not in favour of a broader liberalisation of the law to bring it in line with the rest of the United Kingdom. The vast majority of women currently travelling to England for terminations would still have to do so even if the changes she proposes were implemented.
Now I say, don't judge me until you have walked in my shoes. I wouldn't want to judge anyone else
Sarah Ewart
“I don’t agree with getting rid of a baby that would have survived,” she said. But her experience has made her thoughtful about expressing an opinion on anyone else’s decision. “Now I say, don’t judge me until you have walked in my shoes. I wouldn’t want to judge anyone else until I’d walked in theirs.”
Ewart has been working with Amnesty, which is lobbying for a broader reform of Northern Ireland’s legislation. There was some disappointment in December that the high court judge referred legislation change to the Northern Ireland assembly rather than giving guidance himself. With the DUP opposed to change, there is recognition that political change may take some time.
But Ewart is inclined to feel optimistic. “I do have a sense that things are changing. Before people wouldn’t have even talked about it. Me speaking out has made the public understand that there are more reasons why you might need an abortion,” she said. A poll conducted by Amnesty last year showed that two-thirds of people in Northern Ireland support reforming the law, in cases of fatal foetal abnormality, rape and incest.
Last October Ewart gave birth to a healthy son, Jacob. She would like to have more children, but hopes the law will change first. There is a raised risk of a recurrence of anencephaly, and she does not want to be put through the trauma of having to travel again. Aside from the expense, which pushed her family into debt, she found the practicalities of having to travel to an unfamiliar city, to an unknown clinic, for a serious medical procedure, very distressing.
“I could never do that again. It was a horrendous experience,” she said. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2014/dec/08/consign-jurassic-world-to-prehistory-give-me-studio-ghibli-films-any-day | Television & radio | 2014-12-08T01:12:27.000Z | Jazz Twemlow | Consign Jurassic World to prehistory, give me Studio Ghibli films any day | Jazz Twemlow | Watching the current barrage of sci-fi movie trailers, it’s hard not to let out a hideously outdated analogue sigh before breaking into a strobe-lit panic attack.
The new year offers both Jurassic World and Terminator: Genital Synthesis (or however you spell it), essentially making a trip to the cinema in 2015 an expensive resuscitation of your VHS collection. Soon you’ll be telling me the next big thing I should be getting excited about is a new generation of genetically modified Pogs.
However, there is one trip down cinematic memory lane that requires neither an expensive reboot nor a truly absurd storyline (sure, after three dino-disasters, let’s reopen that theme park anyway, only with worse dinosaurs we’ve invented without even the pretence of grounding them in scientific fact).
SBS is running a season of movies by Hayao Miyazaki, of Studio Ghibli fame, which is another way of saying it has opened the door to a dimension of pure naive wonder that will render all other aspects of your life drab and miserable in comparison. You should totally watch them.
Kicking off on Saturday night was My Neighbour Totoro. As is often the case with Miyazaki, his protagonists are young but the themes decidedly adult: mortality, fear, loss, growing up, and the bond between humans and the natural world.
Satsuke and Mai move to a country home with their father while their sick mother is in hospital. Once in the countryside, the two girls befriend a series of mystical forest creatures at once cute and utterly terrifying. I can never decide if O Totoro is a giant fluffy bunny I want to snuggle into, or a hairy steroidal psychopath who will lure me in with the promise of snuggles, only to commence my disembowelment with his adorably powerful paws.
That confusing feeling – of something enormous being a fragile ally – is a hallmark of Miyazaki’s imagination. Enemies aren’t always dark and threatening and allies can often be unnerving on first meeting. When the kids need to get somewhere fast, for example, they climb into the friendly innards of a giant, nightmarish cat. I’d rather wear away the flesh from my feet, you freaky grinning bus from Hades.
What lends My Neighbour Totoro a sense of giddy adventure, beyond these bestial characters, is Miyazaki’s animation. Shots are often framed to make you feel miniscule in a burgeoning landscape or drawn in such a way as to elicit a bizarre sense of nostalgia for a time and place you’ve never actually experienced (there must be a German word for that).
These adventures are for adults who want to recapture a childlike mindset as much as for children. To remember a time when things appeared huge and daunting and we were close enough to the natural world to see its threats – and its mystery. Give me that over a T rex expensively screaming into my face any day.
Today is the greatest
Another friendly face who has assumed a threatening demeanour over the past week is Karl Stefanovic, surely now Australia’s most viral political commentator. It was all rather baffling, with Stefanovic first laying into the prime minister, Tony Abbott, and then the education minister, Christopher Pyne, in an emboldened style that felt like Network Ten’s The Living Room tackling the global financial crisis.
It was certainly an interesting watch, though I’m not entirely sure why the internet decided to go into celebratory meltdown. Getting excited about a man on television telling another man to “man up” isn’t the mark of a society that’s quite made it yet.
How’s a woman supposed to get legislation through the Senate anyway? You might be better of sticking with Leigh Sales. I doubt she’d ever tell a female minister to, well, what? Womb-it through? Go lady the crap out of them?
My Neighbour Totoro is on SBS’s on demand service – Kiki’s Delivery Service is on 13 December. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/postcolonial-blog/2022/may/27/every-hill-got-a-story-collected-first-nations-oral-histories-are-a-profound-gift-to-national-memory | Australia news | 2022-05-27T01:32:17.000Z | Paul Daley | Every Hill Got A Story: collected First Nations oral histories are a profound gift to national memory | Paul Daley | Massacres recounted in chilling detail, recollections of the first time an Aboriginal person saw a camel or a car, and the double-edged harshness and compassion of missionaries might, for many non-Indigenous Australians, seem like the preserve of a foreign and distant world.
But these experiences, bequeathed from memory to memory of central Australian First Nations peoples, are a startling testimony to the very recent nature of the cataclysmic upheaval of ancient Indigenous civilisation in the continental centre.
To mark its 40th anniversary in 2016, the Central Land Council (CLC) published Every Hill Got A Story – an oral history recording these times of momentous change through the recollections of 127 Aboriginal men and women. As an exercise in linguistics alone (many contributors recounted their memories in traditional language before translation to English), it is remarkable. But it is even more so as a broad sweep of personal history that bequeaths a profound gift to the national memory.
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The free secondary and tertiary study guide of Every Hill Got A Story is also an invaluable resource for schoolteachers looking to engage students on how colonialism and its many legacies have had an effect on the traditional people whose country the land council covers.
“We see our oral history collection as an important offering for the wider project of truth telling. We would love to see Every Hill Got A Story used in all schools and universities, not just in Australia,” says CLC chief executive, Lesley Turner.
“It is the first comprehensive history of Central Australia’s Aboriginal people, as told in their own words and their many languages. Many dozens of people, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, have contributed to this feat of reconciliation that took years to compile. Sadly, about one-third of the story tellers have passed away since we launched the book.”
The recollections of massacres – including that at Coniston in 1928 perpetrated by policeman and former Anzac George Murray – that have been handed down by direct survivors to descendants are recounted vividly and in chilling detail.
“My father and mother took me north to Willowra, where white people with camels were shooting our people,” recounted Liddy Walker Napanangka. “Those whitefellas on two camels came sneaking up quietly. My father stood up with his shield and asked them for tobacco. They shot my father, Japangardi, then – in front of me and my mother in daylight.”
Christobel Swan recounts her family’s experience of a massacre around Twenge.
“The police went there, and shot people at Henbury at Twenge. They shot them like dogs. I was told this story by my mum, Joyleen, and old people. They are the people that used to tell us the stories about what happened there. They were really cruel to our old people,” she says.
Ned Kelly, perhaps the closest living relative to one of those murdered at the Coniston massacre, says, “They [Constable Murray and his men] were heading east, straight to Hanson Creek, where all my mob was there – my grandfather and Johnny Nelson’s father was there too, and they killed my old grandfather, and they killed Jonny Nelson’s father. Johnny Nelson was only a small baby.”
Every Hill Got A Story is replete with early contact stories that occur well into the mid-20th century. Some of the oral histories recall a time when the white man was traversing the desert in vehicles under the cautious observance of the Aboriginal people unseen to them. Others recount Aboriginal people coming out of the bush, making contact with white men and leaving – or being removed from – their country.
Alec Peterson Apetyarr talks about watching the white people in “rubbish olden-time” cars from the safety of the scrub.
“We travelled in the hills – not along the road where the cars went. No swag – just nothing. No clothes. If we saw motorcars, if we saw those rubbish olden-time motorcars, going ‘KrrKrrKrrKrrKrr’ – they used to be cranked up, started with a crank handle – we’d run away. And after that motorcar go past, we’d come back again. We were watching out from the scrub just in case another car was coming.”
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In 1961 a national mapping survey team established a base camp west of present-day Kiwirrkurra to sink Jupiter Well. The locals, attracted by the surveyors’ caravans, began cautiously coming out of the scrub to investigate.
“We walked over there and we saw there were caravans everywhere. And the older men from the water Ngumal, they came in slowly and looked around, each putting their spears down on the ground one by one. They came in with their weapons [spears and spear throwers]. They were nervous, they didn’t know about these people and those things,” Charlie Tjapangati recalled.
The white men gave them food and invited them to drink from the well.
The spiritual and physical complexities – and to outsiders, apparent contradictions – of mission life also play out in Every Hill Got A Story.
Speaking of life at Hermannsburg mission, Warren H Williams recounts, “My grandfather was an evangelist, but he was also a traditional song man, a traditional leader … Lot of the open singing and dancing were taken away when the mission first came, they took it away because it was deemed evil … I would go to sleep listening to them [the old single men] singing. I loved it. They were singing traditional songs. Then they would go to church and sing the gospel songs.”
Turner of the CLC says many other remarkable elders with equally unique stories – among them “some of the last people who grew up on the land before settlement” didn’t make it into the book.
“They are quite elderly now and we’re in a race against time to document their profound cultural and ecological knowledge for future generations. We would love to include more of them in a follow-up volume, but it’s a matter of how we best use our limited resources. And I’m not just talking money. A project like this takes experienced, talented and passionate staff who can spend many hundreds of hours out bush to record, translate and edit the stories for a wide audience.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/feb/02/british-library-magna-carta-copies-800 | Books | 2015-02-02T00:02:03.000Z | Mark Brown | British Library reunites Magna Carta copies for 800th anniversary | The only remaining original copies of Magna Carta, one of the world’s most enduringly influential documents, are to on Monday be brought together for the first and probably only time.
Two copies in the British Library’s collection will be joined by one from Lincoln Cathedral and one from Salisbury Cathedral to mark the 800th anniversary of an agreement that has become a symbol of liberty and law.
The four copies will remain at the British Library for three days. On Tuesday 1,215 people who won a ballot to see them – randomly selected from 43,715 applicants from 20 countries – will be given access.
The following day, the world’s leading academic experts on the document will get their turn, part of a research project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
On Thursday, the manuscripts will travel to the House of Lords before being returned to their separate homes and exhibitions. The British Library’s display, Magna Carta: Law, Liberty, Legacy, runs from 13 March to 1 September. All four copies have differences, including their shape, with one of the two at the British Library and the Salisbury version being in portrait format, while the Lincoln copy is square and the other British Library version is landscape.
Claire Breay, head of medieval manuscripts at the British Library, said: “Magna Carta is one of the most famous documents in the world, let alone one of the most important things we have in the collections at the British Library. We’ve been working towards this with Lincoln and Salisbury since 2010, so it is very exciting to see it come to fruition.”King John agreed the terms of the charter at Runnymede in 1215, sealing it on 15 June. Most of Magna Carta’s clauses dealt with specific grievances England’s barons had with the king, but buried within the document are agreements that have become totemic across the world, not least the 39th article giving all “free men” the right to a fair trial.
At least 13 copies were made on sheepskin parchment and sent out to bishops. The two copies in the British Library came into the national collection in 1753 as part of the enormous library of the MP and antiquary Sir Robert Cotton.
Seeing Magna Carta is an almost spiritual event for many visitorsto the Library . Breay said: “People really want to have stood in front of this incredibly famous document. Even though it is written in medieval Latin and in medieval handwriting and most people can’t actually read it, people recognise its historic and symbolic importance as a symbol of freedom and rights and liberties.”
She said it seemed a fitting start to the Magna Carta anniversary. “It is a unique opportunity, a never-to-be-repeated opportunity, to see them side by side.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2011/aug/09/zinnie-harris-next-stop-nam | Culture | 2011-08-09T20:59:01.000Z | Charlotte Higgins | Zinnie Harris: Next stop Nam | Zinnie Harris is standing on the landing of her Edinburgh flat, sending her three children out into the rain (with a grandparent, admittedly) so that she can talk about her new play, The Wheel. It's an entirely benign and everyday moment, of course, but a strangely appropriate way to encounter a writer whose latest work is concerned with the manner in which a child goes out into the world; with how he or she is formed. The play seems to have at least a touch of maternal anxiety at its heart.
Set in 1880s Spain, against a backdrop of war, The Wheel centres on two sisters who find their peaceful morning interrupted by the arrival of soldiers. The commanding officer banishes a deserter, a man from a nearby farm; shortly after he has fled, his young daughter turns up. One of the sisters, Beatriz, takes the girl and sets off in pursuit of her father, hoping to reunite them. But the journey takes them through time and the conflict zones of the first and second world wars, through Vietnam and to our own era of dusty desert wars. While peppered with wit and genuinely funny moments – speeded along by Vicky Featherstone's production for the National Theatre of Scotland – the play is a largely gloomy business, though Harris argues me into finding a streak of light at its end.
She says that Lionel Shriver's novel We Need to Talk About Kevin was an inspiration: she admires it for "not falling down on one side or the other" in its examination of the extent of a parent's responsibility. "The Wheel is exploring what happens when a child goes wrong. And yes, because I am a person as well as a playwright, one is always thinking about how one is forming and shaping them, what one is doing to them. And because I have a dark imagination, one unpicks things and replays them again in my head: what if I had done this thing differently? What would have happened?"
On the gloomy point, Harris laughs. "I'm a kind of counterpoint to David Greig, aren't I?" she says, referring to her Scottish playwright colleague, whose plays The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart and The Monster in the Hall, are currently cheering Traverse audiences to roughly the same degree that The Wheel is churning them up. But darkness seems to be Harris's stock-in-trade, starting with the multi-award-winning play with which she made her mark a decade ago: Further than the Furthest Thing, about the inhabitants of a remote Atlantic island based on Tristan da Cunha.
She cheerfully ascribes some of her love for the large canvas and bold plot move to writing for the BBC's Spooks, which she did for three seasons. She is now writing a crime-related two-parter for the BBC set in Portobello, on the edge of Edinburgh, as well as working on a "four- or five-hander for the Royal Court, about psychological healing – though I am searching for the metaphor or theatrical language that will help me dramatise something that is so internal". Having worked through the arrival of three children, she gave herself a month's rest recently. This resulted in her not so much taking a break as starting a new venture: a novel for 10- to 12-year-olds.
For most of us, this would be enough, but Harris is also working on a short opera with her composer husband, John Harris, to be premiered in Aberdeen in October 2012. It will be their second collaboration; their first was a 15-minute work for Scottish Opera called Death of a Scientist, based on the suicide of weapons expert David Kelly. The next piece is an operatic adaptation of her play The Garden, a twist on the Adam and Eve story. Spooks, she says, encouraged her to develop the discipline to lay out "a theatrical backbone" with the sparest of verbal means: an essential skill for a librettist. "It's lovely working with John. And we don't have to go to endless meetings: we can work things out on long car journeys."
The Wheel, she thinks, marks a turning point in her writing. "I used to look down the lengthy cast lists of Arthur Miller plays and think, 'When am I going to write something on that scale?'" With its cast of 14 and its vast historical sweep, the play does not lack heft. Nor does its author lack ambition: "It would be great to feel that one was part of the British canon," she says, "and that one was contributing to the writing of this half of the century." | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/sep/02/jesus-vr-the-story-of-christ-review-virtual-reality-cinema | Film | 2016-09-02T09:05:55.000Z | Peter Bradshaw | Jesus VR: The Story of Christ review – virtual reality cinema gains disciples | The acting? Dire. The direction? Awful. The adaptation? Conservative and pedestrian. In conventional terms, everything about this new retelling of the Jesus story – showing here in Venice in an abbreviated 40-minute cut – is ropey. It is all too clearly influenced by Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ: the film has the same executive producer, Enzo Sisti and the same religious adviser, Fr William Fulco. But technologically it’s a different story. It’s the first feature film to be presented in complete wraparound 360-degree virtual reality. And it’s a startling, bizarre, often weirdly hilarious experience. With your bulky headset on – it began to overheat during the crucifixion scene, alarmingly – you have the urge to giggle. Not necessarily mocking. You just feel skittish.
The camera position is fixed and so are you. You can’t walk up to people or back away. There is little or no intercutting within scenes. But you can revolve around completely on the spot and look up at the roof/sky or down and even back through your legs to look at people upside down, should you so wish. I was filled with the weird, paranoid urge to turn my back on the main action and check that reality really was carrying on as normal and that the actors weren’t having a cheeky cigarette.
As the wise men presented their gifts to the baby Jesus during the nativity scene, I spin round to be confronted with a large, placidly chewing cow. During the John the Baptist scene, I tuned out to watch some people at the far edge of the water, busily and continuously doing – what? I couldn’t quite see. And during the sermon of the Good Samaritan I found myself watching two actors pretending to fix a cart at the edge of the crowd.
The film works reasonably well in the crucifixion scene, which is conceived on intimate terms with just a small gathering of centurions, believers, etc (though where were Mary and Mary Magdalene?) and there is a reasonably bold Christ’s-eye view shot. Very Mel. Weirdly, there are no close-ups of Jesus, who is kept in respectful medium- and long-shot. But unimportant villagers will get right up in your personal space.
What could not be achieved in VR if you had someone who knew what they were doing? Someone who could see the potential and the limitations and work with them? The producers of the VR Jesus say they’re targeting the 2 billion-plus smartphone users worldwide (you attach your handset into the VR headset gear) and also the 2 billion-plus Christians. It’s a smart initial move. But this is a home entertainment market and I have a feeling that virtual reality is going to be driven by the same thing that drove the internet and VHS in the early years. And that is … erm … not Bible stories.
Photograph: PR Company Handout
The screen quality needs work. At present the focus is soft and it often feels like putting your face up close to the TV.
VR is a novelty and perhaps it’s going to be like scratch’n’sniff cards at the movies. Or purely a gaming platform. Or perhaps it will be something more. It needs someone who can respond creatively and originally. At any rate – it’s something new. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/mar/14/ed-sheeran-copyright-fight-court-sami-chokri | Music | 2022-03-14T16:24:10.000Z | Nadia Khomami | Songwriter felt belittled in Ed Sheeran copyright fight, court hears | Ed Sheeran “belittled” a songwriter who accused him of ripping off his song in the 2017 hit Shape of You, the high court has heard.
Sami Chokri said he was hurt by the tone of Sheeran’s lawyers’ emails after he noticed similarities between his song Oh Why and Sheeran’s Shape of You.
“I feel like I’ve been robbed by someone I respect, or respected,” he told the court. “This is years of a cloud over my head. All I heard and read was emails belittling me and my questions … All I wanted to do was ask for an explanation. If I’d had one, we wouldn’t have had to go through with this rubbish.”
The grime artist called the trial “the most horrible weeks of my life”.
Chokri, who performs under the name Sami Switch, claims Shape of You infringes “particular lines and phrases” of his track, which was released in 2015.
He and his co-writer Ross O’Donoghue argue that a central “Oh I” hook in Sheeran‘s song is “strikingly similar” to an “Oh why” refrain in their own composition.
Sheeran and his co-authors, the producer Steven McCutcheon and Snow Patrol’s John McDaid, deny allegations of copying and say they do not remember hearing Oh Why before the legal fight.
In his written evidence, Chokri said he was shocked when he first heard Shape of You on the radio in 2017. “I was a passenger in my girlfriend’s car and Shape of You came on the radio,” he wrote. “She and I were both shocked to hear the similarities … She pulled over the car and we said this is what everyone is talking about.”
He later posted on Facebook: “Anyone else think Ed Sheeran’s new song Shape of You chorus sounds familiar lol?”
“I had lots of responses,” he said, including one from Sheeran’s friend Jamal Edwards, the late SBTV founder, who posted the “shifty eyes” emoji (which was later deleted). “I thought maybe he had played a part in showing [my song] to Ed,” Chokri said.
Before his death last month, Edwards gave a written statement denying playing Oh Why to Sheeran. “Even if I was sent a copy, I did not share it with Ed,” he wrote.
Chokri told the court that while he respected what Edwards had said, “I also believe that Jamal would share music with Ed Sheeran.”
He said he believed Sheeran had heard Oh Why “through the many points of access that me and my team have shared” and “the closeness in our circles musically”.
Last week Sheeran told the court that the contested element of his song was “entirely commonplace”. He added: “Even so, if I had heard Oh Why at the time and had referenced it, I would have taken steps to clear it.
“I have been as scrupulous as I possibly can and have even given credits to people who I believe may have been no more than a mere influence for a songwriting element. This is because I want to treat other songwriters fairly.”
But Chokri told the court on Monday he did not accept Sheeran’s explanation. “I’m not sure if he lied or doesn’t remember,” he said.
The songwriter, from Reading, said Oh Why was written in June 2014 during “a difficult period of time”. The court heard how he registered the song with PRS for Music – the industry body that collects and distributes royalties – only in 2017.
Ian Mill QC, representing the Shape of You co-writers, suggested that “the reason you registered then was because you had in mind the claim about copyright infringement”.
The court has previously heard that PRS for Music has suspended certain payments to Sheeran and his co-writers for the performances or broadcasts of Shape of You.
Chokri said he knew about the suspension but “didn’t know that signing up to PRS was for that purpose”.
Sheeran and his co-authors launched legal proceedings in May 2018, asking the high court to declare they had not infringed Chokri and O’Donoghue’s copyright.
The pair issued a counter-claim for copyright infringement, claiming that Shape of You infringed “particular lines and phrases” of their song.
The trial before Mr Justice Zacaroli continues. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2017/apr/27/why-we-should-all-be-afraid-of-ivanka-trumps-mismatched-earrings | Fashion | 2017-04-27T16:28:27.000Z | Jess Cartner-Morley | Why we should all be afraid of Ivanka Trump's mismatched earrings | Just when you’re thinking geopolitics can’t actually can’t get any more hostile to progressive values, Ivanka Trump weaponises the mismatched earring. Is nothing sacred? What next, Steve Bannon in a Cos long-sleeved T-shirt and Adidas Gazelles? Kellyanne Conway arriving for a weekend at Mar-a-Lago with a Daunts Bookshop tote bag?
Odd danglers … JW Anderson earrings, spring/summer collection, London fashion week 2016. Photograph: Estrop/Getty Images
Ivanka’s mismatched earrings are sold as an off-the-peg non-pair from Marni for around £500, although you can replicate the look on the high street for the price of a sandwich, or for free by matchmaking waifs and strays from your jewellery box. Wearing mismatched earrings is this year’s catwalk-to-front-row breakout trend. Celine, JW Anderson, Mary Katrantzou and Simone Rocha have all abandoned symmetry in favour of odd danglers. Gwyneth Paltrow does it on the red carpet. I am wearing mismatched earrings today, as it happens. One is by Pamela Love, a safety-pin shape with two pearls, the other a pink marble on a gold chain that I bought from Monoprix for a few euros. Such is the pervasiveness of the vogue for odd earrings in my industry that if your front-row neighbour admires your earring, she will then likely crane her neck around to see what you’re wearing “on the other side”. Oh, the shame of being outed as a dullard in a matching pair.
As a political statement, Ivanka’s earrings go beyond mere glamour. They go beyond dressing on-trend as a device to look in touch with the modern world. They go beyond, even, the ability of an eyecatching look to steer media focus away from Ivanka’s lead-balloon panel appearance earlier in the day, although they did this with aplomb. Statement earrings have always been a conversation piece, this being one of the reasons I love them and am currently obsessively stalking Dolce & Gabbana’s crystal-studded lobster earrings (£504), but Ivanka has taken this to a new level. Her earrings make Lynton Crosby’s “dead cat” manoeuvre look kittenish by comparison.
Mary Katrantzou show, backstage, spring summer 2017, London fashion week. Photograph: WWD/REX/Shutterstock
But more insidious than all this is that the Picasso-asymmetry of mismatched earrings suggests an independent-minded, creative-thinking outlook, an identity Ivanka Trump deliberately flirts with. We should all be scared of Ivanka’s earrings, because they represent what makes her the most terrifying of all the Trump circle, which is her Bladerunner-replicant-like ability to make you believe – just for a second – that she is a bit like us. Remember when she wore a Hillary-esque white trousersuit to the inauguration, deliberately fuelling dangerous nonsense-talk that she is in some real sense a secret feminist?
She has the cash to blind us with diamonds, but the smarts to seduce us with the kind of jewellery that a gallery curator might buy to jazz up her Margaret Howell apron dress for a cocktail party at Frieze instead. Her dad may not be able to string a basic sentence together, but Ivanka is a virtuouso of visual messaging. Be afraid.
Audience groans as Ivanka Trump defends father at G20 women’s summit Guardian | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/oct/22/liverpool-rubin-kazan-europa-league-match-report | Football | 2015-10-22T21:00:36.000Z | Paul Wilson | Liverpool and Jürgen Klopp frustrated by draw against 10-man Rubin Kazan | It was a good night on Merseyside for Germans – Jürgen Klopp received a rousing welcome and Emre Can scored Liverpool’s only goal – yet at the end of the evening the result and the performance remained stubbornly the same. A disappointing 1-1 home draw with FC Sion of Switzerland was one of the reasons the Brendan Rodgers era came to a close. Considering Liverpool were playing against 10 men for more than 50 minutes following the dismissal of one of Rubin Kazan’s defenders, this was not quite the fresh start the club was looking for.
The Jürgen Klopp Revolution – copyright a few thousand scarves and T-shirts on sale outside Anfield – began with a selection of fairly naff German Europop tunes as the sharp-suited new manager took the field before kick-off to watch his players go through a slightly altered warm-up.
Perhaps the stadium announcer needs to update his heavy metal collection, although the reception from the Kop was a warm one, right down to the assortment of banners relaying various positive messages beneath iconic artwork involving club caps and spectacles. Far From Normal, read one, while another referenced The Monkees and Klopp’s initial plea to supporters: Then I Saw His Face, Now I’m A Believer. Wigan Athletic actually had that idea first, and look where they are now, but Liverpool went ahead and played the record anyway.
Liverpool’s Jürgen Klopp praises his players for wholehearted effort
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By the time a full-throated You’ll Never Walk Alone had been rendered it was becoming necessary to remind oneself that the purpose of the evening was a football match and not an evangelist meeting, yet once the game started there was an undeniable zip and purpose about the home side that the crowd was all too happy to applaud. The hitherto languid Can took up where he left off at White Hart Lane and charged about the pitch as if he had been personally tasked with bullying the visitors into making mistakes, while Adam Lallana again played like a man worried he might have only half an hour or so to show what he could do.
Broadly speaking, the high-energy pressing worked, in that Rubin Kazan were never allowed any time to settle on the ball, much less set up attacks, though it worked for only 15 minutes. Perhaps suspecting Liverpool were rushing around a little too frantically for their own good, the visitors took an early lead with a goal that demonstrated that good sides do not need a great deal of time on the ball to get results. All it took was a well-timed run into the area by Marko Devic, an accurate ball forward from Oleg Kuzmin in the centre circle to find him, and the manner in which the striker held off Nathaniel Clyne’s challenge while controlling the ball on his chest before beating Simon Mignolet was skill of the sort Anfield must have enjoyed in spite of itself.
Liverpool attempted to hit back immediately, with Lallana first shooting wide then heading narrowly over from Alberto Moreno’s free-kick, then Divock Origi was unable to score when Clyne’s cross reached him in front of goal. Philippe Coutinho was presented with the ball by a defensive mistake but did not get his shot away decisively enough and eventually missed the target, and for all the home side’s efforts it was the Russians who came closest to scoring before their numbers were reduced, Georgiev bringing a fingertip save from Mignolet when unmarked near the penalty spot.
The game changed 10 minutes from the interval when Liverpool got lucky, or conversely when Kuzmin of the away side grew stupid. Already cautioned for a foul on Moreno, the right-back dragged down Can blatantly and unnecessarily and collected a second yellow from the Austrian referee.
Gegenpressing will obviously work that bit better when facing 10 men for more than half the game, although in the event Liverpool rubbed salt into Kazan’s wounds by equalising directly from the free-kick. Coutinho angled the ball in, Origi headed it down across goal and Can was on hand to hook the ball over the line from close range. As countless managers down the years would confirm, all the tactics in the world can still be confounded by a bit of luck. Liverpool could even have ended the first half in front had not another Coutinho shot rolled inches wide.
Rubin Kazan withdrew their main striker at half-time and settled for damage limitation, a prospect made more remote when Klopp sent on Christian Benteke for the last half hour. Liverpool had made several second-half chances before then but contrived to miss them all, with Coutinho and Can the most conspicuous offenders. Benteke’s first chance came 15 minutes from time when he volleyed rather wastefully over from Clyne’s cross, and by that time Klopp had decided to bring Roberto Firmino into the action as well.
Benteke then hit a post from Lallana’s pass as the visitors began to ride their luck, but though the traffic was all one way the 10 men held out. While pressing may be Klopp’s priority, the new manager also needs to take a look at Liverpool’s creativity when in possession. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2024/jan/18/joe-schmidt-replace-eddie-jones-australia-head-coach-rugby-union | Sport | 2024-01-19T01:16:45.000Z | Angus Fontaine | Joe Schmidt confirmed to replace Eddie Jones as Wallabies coach | Joe Schmidt has been confirmed as the next head coach of the Wallabies, as Rugby Australia’s “reset” of the code gathers pace after the tumultuous reign of Eddie Jones.
New Zealand-born Schmidt, 58, will coach the Wallabies for the next two seasons, leading the embattled national side through to the 2025 British and Irish Lions tour, where Schmidt will match wits with his former Ireland protege, the new Lions coach, Andy Farrell.
“I am conscious that the Wallabies have weathered a difficult period,” Schmidt said. “And I am keen to help them build a way forward, with greater alignment and clear direction from RA.”
The appointment of Schmidt, who won three Six Nations crowns and the 2018 grand slam in a seven-year stint as head coach of Ireland, is a coup for RA which is desperate to move on from the Jones era.
Eddie Jones: ‘I let people down … Not good enough. I carry the scars’
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Under Jones, the Wallabies won just two of nine Tests, plummeting to No 9 in the world rankings and enduring a humiliating 2023 World Cup where they were eliminated in the group stages for the first time.
Jones later walked out on his five-year deal with RA and promptly signed as head coach of Japan.
As chief adviser to New Zealand coach Ian Foster, Schmidt helped the All Blacks to the 2023 World Cup final.
He becomes the third New Zealander after Robbie Deans and Dave Rennie to coach Australia and beat out former Wallabies coach Michael Cheika and highly respected Brumbies coaches Dan McKellar and Stephen Larkham for the job.
But the RA chief executive, Phil Waugh, said Schmidt’s coaching record was undeniable and he was the unanimous choice of a selection panel including Waugh, RA chair Dan Herbert, president Joe Roff and former Wallabies captain John Eales.
“Joe has delivered success at every stop in his career,” Waugh said. “Given our stated plan to build a unified Australian Rugby system, Joe’s experience with Ireland and New Zealand – two of the most aligned Rugby nations in the world – will no doubt prove valuable as we move forward.
“He has a global view of the game from his experience in both the northern and southern hemispheres, and his appointment puts us in a strong position as we build towards the 2025 British and Irish Lions tour.”
Schmidt will report to RA’s new director of high-performance, Peter Horne, who he worked closely with at World Rugby’s high-performance team.
“It has been a thorough process to make sure that we have landed the best and most suitable candidate,” Horne said.
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“Throughout his career, Joe has demonstrated an ability to take a leadership role in structural reform while developing a strong culture and world-class players.”
Schmidt will also reunite with Australian David Nucifora, who will return to RA in an advisory role after concluding his role as Ireland’s high-performance director after the Paris Olympics.
Together, Schmidt and Nucifora made Ireland the No 1 team in the world in 2019, a feat they will aim to emulate with the Wallabies.
Schmidt starts with the Wallabies on 1 March with his immediate focus the tour by Wales in July.
“The upcoming Test matches against Wales will arrive quickly,” Schmidt said.
“Super Rugby and the program through to the British and Irish Lions tour next year presents plenty of opportunities and challenges – which I am sure will invigorate players and staff.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/jul/06/cameron-norries-coach-lugones-claims-semi-finalists-fitness-levels-insane | Sport | 2022-07-06T19:26:00.000Z | Tumaini Carayol | Cameron Norrie’s coach Lugones claims semi-finalist’s fitness levels ‘insane’ | A day after Cameron Norrie outfought and outlasted David Goffin to reach his first grand slam semi-final at Wimbledon, Norrie’s coach, Facundo Lugones, has hailed his fitness levels as “insane” and he believes that few players train as hard as he does.
“He does a lot of fitness, probably more than anyone,” Lugones said. “I don’t even know how much other players do, but it would be hard to beat how many hours Cam does., especially when he’s fitness training with Vasek [Jursik], they do some really intense conditioning sessions on the court where he stays in that red zone where the heartbeat is just insane.”
‘Pretty special’: Kyrgios looks ahead to Nadal semi-final after sailing past Garín
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Norrie’s fitness is the asset he takes the most pride in and over five-set matches he carries himself with the belief that he can outlast and break down even the fittest opponents. After his match against Goffin, Norrie said he sat with Lugones and made a plan with a clear goal: “Let’s get to two hours in the match and then the match starts then”. As Norrie opened the fourth set while trailing by two sets to one, the match passed the two-hour mark. He did not lose another set.
According to Lugones, in those training sessions, Norrie can compete for six to seven minutes with his heartbeat above 200 beats per minute. “I think a normal person can’t even do a minute and a half on that. They would be close to passing out. He can play tennis for eight, nine minutes on that.”
This successful partnership between Norrie, 26, and Lugones, who turned 30 on Wednesday, is a rare sight in the ever-shifting world of tennis coaching. They are close friends who met as students at Texas Christian University, and upon Norrie’s graduation they began working together. Lugones has accompanied Norrie as he has risen from college, to ITF Circuit events, to Challengers and finally to the top of the sport. Lugones has been on a similar trajectory in his first tole as a top coach, learning on the job.
“Now he’s a man,” Lugones said. “Before he was just a kid. I mean, his maturity, the way he goes about his business. It’s still improving. He’s really, really mature. His tennis now is his priority number one, where before he had a lot of different things going on.”Maybe tennis was really important, but it was not the only thing.”
The victory on Tuesday, in front of 4.5 million viewers on BBC Two, even as British government ministers resigned every other minute, was the moment Norrie’s success and story was finally thrust into full view after flying under the radar for so long. To his team, whether or not he received sufficient credit is not important. “Maybe he was underestimated, but we don’t really care,” Lugones said. “Doesn’t really matter what people say or think. At the end of the day, the results are what matters.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jun/26/johnson-johnson-opioids-deal-letitia-james-new-york-state-settlement | US news | 2021-06-27T06:00:16.000Z | Chris McGreal | ‘Johnson & Johnson helped fuel this fire’ – now it’s out of the opioids business | Johnson & Johnson said it had already jumped. New York’s attorney general suggested the pharmaceutical giant was pushed.
Either way, the American drug maker is the first to formally agree to get out of the multibillion-dollar business of selling the powerful narcotic painkillers that drove the US opioid epidemic.
Johnson & Johnson pays $230m to settle New York opioids case
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J&J made the deal, along with agreeing to pay a $230m settlement, to avoid the first jury trial of major pharmaceutical companies over the opioid crisis, which is scheduled to open in New York state on Tuesday.
The trial comes as the drug industry faces a reckoning for what its accusers describe as cynicism and greed in creating an epidemic of addiction to prescription painkillers and illicit opioids, such as heroin, that has killed more than 600,000 since 1999 and caused misery for millions more.
Ongoing trials in West Virginia and California have pressured J&J, other opioid makers, pharmaceutical chains and some of the largest US drug distributors into settlement talks amid shocking revelations about their business practices.
A trial of drug distributors accused of illegally flooding West Virginia with opioids and driving the highest overdose rate in the country revealed that executives circulated rhymes and emails mocking “pillbillies” who became addicted to painkillers.
That trial is one of a series of bellwether cases to establish whether opioid makers, distributors and pharmacy chains are liable to pay out billions to thousands of counties, cities and Native American tribes harmed by opioids. Another trial, involving two Ohio counties, was settled minutes before it was to begin with four big drug companies agreeing to pay $260m.
J&J did not admit liability in settling the New York suit brought by the state and two Long Island counties. It said its “actions relating to the marketing and promotion of important prescription pain medications were appropriate and responsible”.
But the risks of going to a full trial were clear after a judge in Oklahoma found against the company two years ago after weeks of testimony, which revealed a pattern of disdain among employees toward the risk of addiction from powerful painkillers and contempt for those who became hooked.
In one company memo, a rep said she dismissed a doctor’s fears patients might become addicted by telling him those who didn’t die probably wouldn’t get hooked.
Consultants hired by J&J recommended its sales force focus on increasing sales by looking to “target high abuse-risk patients (eg males under 40)”.
The judge ordered J&J to pay $465m in restitution after finding that it deceptively and aggressively pushed false claims that its powerful opioid painkillers were safer and more effective than they were. He also found that the company made “substantial payments of money” to front organisations to resist curbs on prescribing.
The New York case threatened further embarrassing revelations for a company that has sought to restore its reputation after other scandals, including over contaminated baby powder, with its anti-Covid vaccine.
New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, heralded the settlement as not only providing funds to repair some of the damage caused by the epidemic but cutting off a path to addiction.
“Johnson & Johnson helped fuel this fire, but today they’re committing to leaving the opioid business – not only in New York, but across the entire country,” she said.
J&J said it had already decided in 2020 to “discontinue all of its prescription pain medications in the United States”.
Big pharma executives mocked ‘pillbillies’ in emails, West Virginia opioid trial hears
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If the decision was indeed made last year, then it came not long after Oklahoma judgment.
The New York trial will go ahead against other drug manufacturers and distributors. The state also sued Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, the drug widely blamed for kickstarting the opioid epidemic, but that has moved to a separate bankruptcy court.
Other drug firms will be closely watching what the jury decides, along with the verdicts in West Virginia and California, to decide whether it is worth pressing on in court or finally reaching a comprehensive agreement to settle more than 3,000 cases.
One indicator of which way they think the wind is blowing is that some drug makers and distributors have told shareholders they have set aside billions to settle cases.
Chris McGreal is the author of American Overdose, The Opioid Tragedy in Three Acts | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/jan/17/michael-morpurgo-backs-call-to-ensure-poorer-children-have-access-to-books | Education | 2024-01-17T06:00:21.000Z | Richard Adams | Michael Morpurgo backs call to ensure poorer children have access to books | Deprived children are being robbed of a lifetime of reading for pleasure, by governments that are “simply blind” to the benefits of loving literature from an early age, according to the author Michael Morpurgo.
Morpurgo and a coalition of leading authors, including Julia Donaldson, Malorie Blackman and Cressida Cowell, are backing a call by BookTrust to ensure that every child from a low-income family has access to books and reading activities by investing in a programme across schools and nurseries.
“We have to acknowledge the right of every single child in this country to have access, physically, intellectually and emotionally, to reading. And that will not happen unless the books are there, and it will not happen unless books are shared early,” said Morpurgo, the author of well-loved classics such as War Horse and The Butterfly Lion.
Morpurgo said the UK had a “division of opportunity” between children with access to books, whose lives and education were “massively enriched” as a result, and those from deprived backgrounds that did not.
“Any government that doesn’t recognise this is simply blind,” said Morpurgo.
“We do have a hugely divided society, particularly at the moment when we have so many millions living in poverty, and these are the very children who are exposed to this lack of commitment to passing on what is arguably the greatest asset we have in this country, our literature from this remarkable language we have got.
“These are also the most likely children to be suffering from mental health issues, from lack of self-worth and from family problems at home. These are the very children who most need to find the pathway to fulfilment and achievement that books can bring.”
Research by BookTrust has found that only half of children aged between one and two from low-income families are read to every day.
Morpurgo is one of the 12 past and present children’s laureates who have signed the BookTrust’s letter to Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer, as well as to the first ministers and opposition leaders in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Library closures by local authorities were particularly likely to affect disadvantaged families, according to Morpurgo, by closing off a vital source of access to books.
“We should never, ever, in this country close down a library again,” he said.
“I live in the middle of Devon, where the nearest library is a long way away, we’re talking about a 35-minute drive if you have a car and a lot of people haven’t. There’s no local bookshop, even if you had the money. The library is the last lifeline to reading.”
Morpurgo also called for government to allow schools more time to encourage reading for pleasure, rather than as tools for passing exams.
“That’s what we have got to get away from, the idea that English literature and books are just something to study. They’re not. They are there to enjoy and become part of your life, not just to be studied and quizzed on,” Morpurgo said.
“That is where governments can help. In schools, teachers complain all the time that there is no room in the curriculum, there’s no room for just sitting and telling and reading a story.
“When I go to schools, time and time again teachers say it’s so important but there isn’t time. Well, the government can provide that time and recognise that the enjoyment of a story when you are five, six or seven is so important, not just for your education but throughout your life.”
Morpurgo said the call by BookTrust and Scottish Book Trust applied across the UK’s national boundaries.
“We are part of the same society, and it’s important for our democracy in all our countries that we understand truth. There is great truth in literature – it sound ridiculous but fiction is rather a wonderful way of accessing truth.
“What do you learn from the plays of Shakespeare or the books of Dickens? You learn about how deceitful and wretched and vile people can be, you learn about the spread of humanity – it’s so important that children are exposed to this, and quite young too, so it means something to them and not just something they study at school.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/mar/14/sweaty-after-a-bike-ride-hair-wrecked-by-the-rain-you-need-one-of-my-adult-changing-stations | Opinion | 2024-03-14T11:00:18.000Z | Nell Frizzell | Sweaty after a bike ride? Hair wrecked by the rain? You need one of my adult changing stations | Nell Frizzell | Please excuse the state of my leggings, but I have an idea. What all major cities need – other than better social housing, affordable childcare, joined-up public transport and a compulsory living wage – is public changing stations.
As a cyclist – and someone who often commutes for meetings and events from far away – I am almost always caught having to wriggle out of a sweaty T-shirt and into a suit while crouched under the hand dryer of a burger chain’s toilet. Once, summoned to an early meeting with my publisher, I had to sneak past a glass-walled room in a pair of Lycra shorts and a T-shirt that said “I ❤ Preston” because there hadn’t been a single public toilet or other suitable venue to change in anywhere between the train station and the office ladies’.
How much more civilised would it be to have a space – ideally free – in which you could change your clothes, dry your hands, put on your makeup, brush your hair or just swap bras without having to sneak into a pub toilet or beg a shop assistant to use their curtained-off area? Parents who have just been vomited on, freelancers who want to put on a pair of tights, anyone who has ever turned up to an event with chain-grease-stained trousers, rainwater hair or bird mess on their jumper – all would benefit.
These pods could be staffed, of course, and the staffers’ wages could be paid by some of the billionaire landowners carving up our cities. We could put in a couple of baby-changing tables and a bin, too.
If you are thinking: “But what if people go in there to do illegal things?” my only response is: people were doing illegal things in Downing Street and nobody is making them get changed in a bush.
Nell Frizzell is the author of Holding the Baby: Milk, Sweat and Tears from the Frontline of Motherhood
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 | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/20/pope-francis-stance-gays-women-progressive | Opinion | 2013-09-20T14:27:00.000Z | Kate Childs Graham | Pope Francis: music to my progressive Catholic ears | Kate Childs Graham | From the moment Pope Francis stepped out on that balcony, I knew that something was different. Maybe it was the shy smile, the warm wave. The choice of "Francis" perhaps. Or his Jesuit roots, his Argentinian homeland. But still, I was waiting for the Prada loafer to drop.
I was waiting for Francis to bash gay and lesbian people and advocate against our equality. And then he said not to judge us. I was waiting for him to wash over the sex abuse scandals as if they never happened. And then he authorized new laws for the Vatican City State that criminalize sexual abuse of children.
I was waiting for him to be silent on issues that matter to me, issues of worker justice and human rights. And then he spoke out against corporate greed and called for a day of prayer for the people of Syria.
This isn't to say that he's been perfect. We're still trying to help him find the key to that door Pope John Paul II shut on women's ordination. But he's got many progressive Catholics enthusiastic about our church again.
Yesterday, when @pontifex was showing up on my Twitter feed at a rather alarming rate, I expected the worst. Decades of secrecy and scandal from popes and bishops alike taught me that, when it comes to the church hierarchy, the worst can too often be expected.
But Francis, as he's done since the white smoke rose, confounded my expectations. His words from a lengthy interview in the latest issue of America, a Catholic weekly, rang more like poetry than prose to my progressive Catholic ears.
The church should be a "home for all" and not a "small chapel" limited to a chosen few? Yes.
"I have never been a right-winger"? Me neither.
"I believe consultation is very important"? Call me anytime.
The church is "the people of God, pastors and people together"? Amen.
All I could think was, "This guy gets it". He gets what Catholics have been saying for years. He gets that Catholics don't want our hierarchy to have limited views that don't reflect our own. He gets why so many Catholics have been searching for the nearest exit. He gets that things need to change.
I wish that I could just bask in the knowledge that the pope and the people in the pews share many of my views for a transformed church. But I can't. American Catholic that I am, I've got the bishops to consider.
Since Francis' election, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops hasn't seemed to reverse course. The bishops are still advocating against the rights of LGBT people with both money and voice. They are still undermining women's access to reproductive healthcare. They are still hard on nuns. They are still maintaining the very small chapel they've carved out over the years.
Perhaps the bishops can't go cold turkey and they need to wean themselves off their "obsession" – Francis' word – with abortion and gay and transgender people. I'd suggest silence as a good option. Or a stop payment on their checks to anti-gay, anti-women organizations. Or both.
If this were a game of chess, it'd be the bishops' move. I hope they choose to "find new balance" with me and my friend Francis. If not, I too fear that the church we love could crumble like a "house of cards".
Pope Francis is different. He isn't willing to settle for mediocrity or myopia, and that alone is refreshing. What we need now is quick and decisive action – or inaction, as the case may be – by the pope and the US bishops that reflect these transformational words. Until that happens, I'll still be waiting. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/sep/25/625000-genius-grants-go-to-ocean-vuong-writers-macarthur | Books | 2019-09-25T14:04:44.000Z | Alison Flood | $625,000 'genius grants' go to Ocean Vuong and six other writers | Ocean Vuong, the award-winning poet who came to the US with his family aged two as a refugee from Vietnam, is one of seven writers to be awarded a so-called “genius grant” of $625,000 (£504,000) by the MacArthur Foundation.
The no-strings-attached fellowships are intended to allow recipients to “continue to innovate, take risks, and pursue their vision”. Vuong was chosen alongside six other writers: graphic novelist Lynda Barry, cultural historian Saidiya Hartman, the Booker-longlisted author Valeria Luiselli, American historian Kelly Lytle Hernandez, literary scholar Jeffrey Miller and classicist Emily Wilson, who in 2017 was the first woman to publish a translation of Homer’s Odyssey in English.
The MacArthur Foundation praised Vuong for poetry that marries “folkloric traditions with linguistic experimentation”. His is a “vital new literary voice demonstrating mastery of multiple poetic registers while addressing the effects of intergenerational trauma, the refugee experience, and the complexities of identity and desire,” it added.
Ocean Vuong and the new Great American Novel - books podcast
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Winner of the TS Eliot and Forward prizes for his debut collection, Night Sky With Exit Wounds, Vuong recently published his first novel, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous. “Often we demand of the American novel to be cohesive, a monolithic statement of a generation, but having grown up post-9/11, cohesion was not part of my generation’s imagination nor our language or self-identity, and I felt if I was to write my version of the American novel it would have to look more like fragmentation,” said Vuong in an interview for the MacArthur Foundation.
The loosely autobiographical novel is written as a letter to a mother who cannot speak English or read. “I grew up surrounded by Vietnamese refugee women who used stories to create portals,” said Vuong. “I use language and literature as a way to orchestrate a framework to think and inquire about American life, including the legacy of American violence.”
In total, 26 fellows have been chosen by the foundation this year, from geochemist Andrea Dutton to visual artist Jeffrey Gibson. President John Palfrey said that all the fellows “give us reason for hope, and they inspire us all to follow our own creative instincts”. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2014/nov/20/get-free-apps-apple-app-store | Technology | 2014-11-20T07:30:08.000Z | Stuart Dredge | Got to 'get': the end of free apps on Apple's App Store – Open Thread | It’s the end of free apps for iOS! Well, sort of. Apple quietly made a design tweak to its App Store yesterday, replacing the “Free” button for apps that are free to download with “Get”.
So, no change to the actual price, but the new wording is one way of sidestepping the debate around “free” apps not actually being free if they use in-app purchases – an issue that regulators in various parts of the world have been looking into.
Now, freemium apps will have the new “Get” button, as well as a prominent “In-App Purchases” notification, to ensure that people know they’re downloading something that will, in some way, be hoping for some of their money at a later point.
Is “Get” a good choice of wording in this case? You might argue that it makes it harder to tell that an app is free to download, although iOS users will surely pick that up by noticing other apps still have prices on their download buttons.
The comments section is open for your thoughts on Apple’s change, and the rise of freemium apps in general.
What else is bubbling in the technology world this morning? Some links:
Senator Al Franken has some questions for Uber
Uber’s bad week just stepped up a notch: US senator Al Franken has written to its chief executive Travis Kalanick with some pointed questions about the company’s privacy policy, statements by senior executive Emil Michael about using private information to target journalists, and its “God View” tool for tracking users. “I would appreciate responses to these questions by December 15...”
Chrome now has 400m monthly active mobile users
Google has announced new stats for mobile usage of its Chrome web browser: 400 million monthly active users. That’s impressive growth given that it was on 300 million as recently as the company’s I/O conference in June.
DOJ: children will die due to Apple encryption
As arguments why technology companies shouldn’t introduce new encryption features go, this is pretty startling, from the US Department of Justice: “Mr. Cole offered the Apple team a gruesome prediction: At some future date, a child will die, and police will say they would have been able to rescue the child, or capture the killer, if only they could have looked inside a certain phone...”
Jolla tablet crowdfunding campaign is soaring
Finnish firm Jolla is pitching its tablet as “the world’s first crowdsourced tablet”, and there are plenty of people rushing to pledge their money for one. The company launched an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign earlier this week with a target of $380k, and is already past $878k in pledges.
Firefox switches Google for Yahoo as search supplier
Mozilla has signed a five-year deal to make Yahoo the default search engine for its Firefox web browser in the US – a big win for the latter company, given the 100bn+ annual searches by Firefox users. Meanwhile, Yandex is now its default in Russia, although users can of course still switch to an alternative if they prefer.
Family makes $7k a month from Disney covers on YouTube
The Bagley family in Utah are proving quite the hit on YouTube with their cover versions of Disney songs: 86m views of their Do You Want To Build A Snowman? cover alone so far. Tubefilter notes that their income is more than $7k a month from an average of 18m views a month.
Barbie Computer Engineer book causes a stir
A book that sees Barbie turning computer engineer hasn’t gone down well. “Barbie is featured in the book as a stylishly pink-clad computer engineer that somehow breaks everything and doesn’t know how to code. She does draw puppies though...” Mattel has pulled it from Amazon and apologised.
Dive in below the line with your own link recommendations and comments on the stories above.
And, yes, Guardian Tech has switched to the new website design: if you’re having trouble finding the daily post, the Technology Blog tag homepage is the quickest route – the latest open thread should be at the top left every day. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/nov/03/how-to-avoid-dry-painful-skin-in-winter | Life and style | 2019-11-03T15:00:29.000Z | Lucy Campbell | How to avoid dry, painful skin in winter | Our skin tends to get drier in the winter, not only because of the cooler air, but also because of central heating, which can cause conditions such as eczema to flare up. Consider turning the thermostat to a lower temperature: 16C-18C is best. If you can, invest in a humidifier, which puts moisture back into the air.
Moisturiser is especially important in winter, so use a richer product than in other seasons – and don’t forget your hands. Your lips will benefit from balm.
It is also important to minimise exposure to agents that strip the skin of its natural oils. Water – especially hot water – dries the skin, so make sure you’re using warm or lukewarm water for baths and showers, as well as washing your hands and doing the dishes. Sweating also dries and irritates the skin, so after strenuous exercise change into something clean and dry as soon as you can.
Steer clear of alcohol-based skincare products such as cleansers and toners. Try also to avoid bubble bath and opt instead for bath oils.
Dr Anton Alexandroff of the British Association of Dermatologists was speaking to Lucy Campbell | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/apr/10/richie-benaud-crickets-permanent-witness | Sport | 2015-04-10T06:59:33.000Z | Richard Cooke | Richie Benaud: time to say goodbye to cricket's permanent witness | Of all the words used to pay tribute to Richie Benaud, “inimitable” shouldn’t be one of them.
Cricket’s greatest commentator was unique in a way that made people want to copy him, and the tribute of imitation – what Coco Chanel called “the homage of the street” – has been paid for decades.
You could see it in the stands at the SCG, Benaud’s favourite ground, during Australia’s whitewash of England in 2014. He hadn’t presented for almost five years and hadn’t worn an off-white blazer for even longer than that. But there was a battalion of Benauds over the concourse, a sea of silver-haired wigs, ivory jackets and oversized microphones.
Richie Benaud: a personal reflection on a colossus of cricket
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Among their number were the two sons of Billy “The 12th Man” Birmingham. Birmingham tweeted a picture of them captioned like this: “Life can be weird,” he said. “This pic is of my choo sons dressed as ‘Richies’ at the SCG today. Richie put them thru school !!”.
Mimicking him wasn’t just a lucrative cottage industry for Birmingham but a family practice that would span two generations. That was the depth of Richie Benaud’s memetic power.
He didn’t like being called a doyen but even he couldn’t deny being part of the fabric not just of cricket, but of Australian culture.
February 2014 marked the 50th year since his retirement as a player. He was already a commentator while captain in 1963 and did not take long to become indivisible from the game. He called or played in almost a third of the Tests that took place in his lifetime, more than 500 of them. Add countless one-dayers and Twenty20 games (which he loved), and Benaud saw more cricket live than anyone else alive. Probably more than anyone else alive will ever see. He was not just the face and the voice of cricket, but its permanent witness.
Outside the commentary box Barrie Humphries might be the only other Australian to reach his fifth decade undiminished in the public eye.
It’s perhaps not a coincidence that Benaud had a touch of Humphries’ character Sandy Stone about him: the apartment in Sydney’s suburb of Coogee he shared with his wife, Daphne; the “prized” Sunbeam Alpine that he ran into a wall; the pink ladies; even the tooth whistle.
But there the two period pieces part ways: while Sandy was stuck in the twilight of his life looking back, Richie was curiously free of reminiscence. He wasn’t a nostalgist but an enthusiast. He turned down the Australian TV industry’s offer of a Hall of Fame award year after year.
Other commentators in the Alan McGilvray mode were purists, harking back after times long gone, but Benaud seemed to take a real curiosity and joy in change, even in novelty. The game was not the same, but that was part of what made it great.
“Tradition is wonderful and I’m all for it,” he wrote, “but never forget the evolution of the game,” going all the way back to the village greens of Kent to draw a continuous line of innovation.
Richie Benaud presenting for Channel 4 cricket in 2004 Photograph: Sean Dempsey/PA
When others were huffing and puffing over Twenty20 he said simply that “any kind of cricket able to bring to the ground thousands of spectators and have hundreds of thousands, even millions, watching around the world on television must be good for the game”.
He compared it to an exciting situation that could develop in a Test match, trying to bridge the divide between two forms of cricket before it became a gulf.
Part of Benaud’s love of the new came from his instincts as an egalitarian, a captain who believed in the intelligence of the group over the individual.
In the commentary box it was almost always “you”, seldom “we” or “I”. Journalist Gideon Haigh wasn’t the only person to notice that “perhaps no commentator with a playing record so distinguished invokes his own experience so seldom”. He never retreated into an anecdotage.
Also seldom invoked was high praise. Hyperbolic fans like Bill Lawry or Mark Nicholas have to reach higher than Icarus to commentate anything extraordinary. Benaud could simply say “that’s one of the best catches I’ve ever seen” or “Tendulkar is the best batsman I’ve seen since Bradman” and you would believe it, knowing he wouldn’t say it next match, next month or next year. Scarcity meant the currency of his opinion wasn’t debased.
But neither was it sclerotic. Benaud announced as captain he was going to do away with “dull cricket”, and did. He also did away with “dull cricket” as a commentator, but not by embellishing it. Instead of calcifying, he became more wise and ironic in age, Yoda-like in philosophy and countenance.
Fittingly, his real farewell was in England, the place where he first started commentating. It was during the 2005 Ashes series, perhaps the finest ever. Always the democrat, Benaud was standing down in quiet objection to cricket’s disappearance from free-to-air television.
“We’ve had all sorts of music here today,” he started. “Land of Hope and Glory, the national anthem – Jerusalem before we started. I always carry a lot of music around with me and one of the great ones for me is Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman, singing that duet, that wonderful duet, Time To Say Goodbye. And that’s what it is as far as I’m concerned – time to say goodbye. And you can add to that – thank you for having me. It’s been absolutely marvellous. For 42 years I’ve loved every moment of it. And it’s been a privilege to go into everyone’s living room throughout that time. What’s even better is that it’s been a great deal of fun.”
At that point Kevin Pietersen was bowled by Glenn McGrath, and Richie incorporated it effortlessly. “But it’s not fun for the batsman …” before introducing his fellow commentators.
Dictating the pauses would take a whole page, but in between them we see everything that was great about Benaud. The effortless segues, the thematic detail, the easy professionalism, the ironic touch of sentiment and above all the restrained but emphatic sense of fun, not spread thinly but suffusing everything he did. Even his farewell.
“There’s always been something new coming up,” Richie Benaud said, and that’s true. But now that he has completed what he called his “meander around sport”, we can say that whatever new is coming up will not be as good. Nothing could be. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/feb/16/boohoo-boss-could-be-in-line-for-50m-bonus | Business | 2023-02-16T14:42:24.000Z | Joanna Partridge | Boohoo boss could be in line for £50m bonus | The boss of Boohoo could be in line for a bonus worth as much as £50m as the fast fashion retailer seeks to overhaul its management incentive scheme and put the business back on track after a slump in its share price.
The online retailer – known for its brands including Pretty Litle Thing and Nasty Gal, and for tie-ups with celebrities including Kourtney Kardashian Barker and Megan Fox – has announced a new performance plan making it easier for the senior management team to hit targets.
Boohoo’s share price has halved over the past year from just over 98p to about 48p today, giving the company a market value of about £610m, and sales have struggled in recent months as consumers have cut their spending.
The retailer said on Thursday there was “little or no value” in its existing incentive plans, as the targets were too difficult to achieve for leaders including the chief executive, John Lyttle.
Boohoo said in a statement to the stock market that its market value had significantly decreased “against the background of the unique and unprecedented set of macroeconomic and market headwinds experienced over the last three years”.
This was “despite the strong efforts of Boohoo’s executive and senior management”.
Under Boohoo’s new “growth share plan”, Lyttle could receive a maximum of £50m in Boohoo shares out of a total £175m payout to executives, if the company’s share price reaches 395p, more than eight times higher than current levels – and remains there within a 90-day average window within the next five years.
Boohoo executives would start to receive initial payouts once the share price returned to 95p, close to the level it was at in February 2022.
Carol Kane, who co-founded Boohoo in 2006 along with the executive chairman Mahmud Kamani, would also receive a bonus under the new scheme, which will require shareholder approval.
A portion of the payout would be made available to Boohoo employees as well as senior leaders.
The retailer said incentives were needed for the executives “responsible for driving business performance and delivering Boohoo’s strategic objectives”, and in order to retain and motivate bosses and staff.
Previous plans, designed to grow the company and drive up its market value, were first introduced when Lyttle took over as chief executive. Under these plans, he would have only earned a maximum £50m bonus if the company had achieved a market value of £6bn – more than 10 times its current level – by March 2024.
Iain McDonald, the chair of Boohoo’s remuneration committee, said the incentives were needed to retain executives “particularly in an era where the recruitment of such quality is more competitive than ever before”.
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Activists to question Boohoo on living wage for Leicester garment workers
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Kamani, who remains the company’s largest shareholder, said “these are extremely ambitious targets in a changed world” and called it “absolutely the right thing to do to align the interests of the management team and all of our hardworking colleagues with those of all of our shareholders”.
Analysts at broker Jefferies said “the terms of the plan look stretching enough”, but noted that shareholders had been consulted in advance, which “has presumably helped shape the plan”.
Boohoo’s sales dropped by 11% over the crucial Christmas period after trading was knocked by longer delivery times and disruption to deliveries in the festive season.
Like its online rivals, including Asos, Boohoo has struggled to retain the high levels of sales it experienced during the pandemic, when many physical stores were closed for long periods during Covid lockdowns. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/aug/08/filthiest-kitchen-porn-worst-news-fail-alternative-tv-awards | Television & radio | 2017-08-08T08:00:33.000Z | Jack Seale | Filthiest kitchen porn! Worst news fail! Who won trophies at our alternative TV awards? | How American Gods rewrote the rules for taboo TV
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The ‘years of therapy’ scary sex award
Winner: American Gods
Amazon’s crimson fantasy announced its WTF credentials in an early scene where a paunchy duffer (Joel Murray – Bill’s brother!) can’t believe his luck: he’s making love to a smoking hot, younger woman (Yetide Badaki). But she’s actually Bilquis, the immortal Queen of Sheba and, as the ageing geezer pops, he’s consumed whole by the goddess’s hungry magic vagina, never to be seen again – giving a new meaning to the phrase “putting the old chap in”.
Most surreal cock-up
Breaking news ... the BBC’s Huw Edwards is caught out by a technical glitch. Photograph: BBC News
Winner: Huw Edwards, BBC News
Thanks to a system malfunction, viewers tuning in for the start of the Beeb’s 10 o’clock news on 20 June got a disorientating experimental montage instead. The Breaking News ident. Huw Edwards sitting silently. A photo of four bankers. Huw Edwards sitting silently. A snatch of music. Huw Edwards sitting silently. The ghostly face of Philip Hammond. Huw Edwards, sitting silently. David Lynch narrowly failed to do something weirder with episode eight of the new Twin Peaks.
OJ: Made In America – the Oscar winner that's the most in-depth look at race in America yet
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Most false dinner-party binge claims
Long player ... OJ Simpson in OJ: Made in America. Photograph: ESPN
Winner: OJ: Made in America
“Yah, you have to watch it. We’ve done all of it. Yes, all seven hours. We set aside a whole week. It’s not just about the OJ Simpson murder trial; it’s a profound and devastating treatise on race, class and the media that tells us as much about America now as it does the 90s. Yes, we saw all five episodes. No, we didn’t abandon it halfway through the first one, which was mostly about American football, and whack Love Island on instead. Oh, you’ve not seen it? You really must. Mmm.”
Sickest bastards
To the power of sick ... Steve Pemberton as Professor Squires in Inside No 9. Photograph: Sophie Mutevelian/BBC
Winners: Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith
Forget the cry-laugh: Inside No 9’s creators perfected the vomit-laugh with an emetic twist in the season three episode The Riddle of the Sphinx. Pemberton’s Cambridge don, after some already-nasty japes where a colleague (Shearsmith) forces him to eat flesh cut from the buttock of a just-murdered student (Alexandra Roach), is told that he is, in fact, her father. He’s chewing his dead daughter’s arse! Steve, Reece, get help. No, wait: finish season four. Then get help.
The five hours of our life we’d most like back
Bore war ... Sam Riley in SS-GB. Photograph: Sid Gentle Films
Winner: SS-GB
In 2017, we don’t need much persuading to ride with a Nazi-punching thriller about Brits not tolerating totalitarianism. BBC1’s dramatisation of Len Deighton’s alternate-1940s novel had a promising opener and – for those who hung in– a half-decent finale, but mostly it inched agonisingly forward as if it was afraid a bomb might go off, or Hitler had instructed his men to peacefully bore us into surrender. SS-GB pioneered a new genre: the low-stakes war drama.
Taboo review – Tom Hardy brings extra swagger to Regency London
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Juiciest self-parody
No Mirage ... Tom Hardy prefers Taboo. Photograph: FX Networks/Robert Viglasky
Winner: Tom Hardy, Taboo
If there is a peculiar satisfaction in actors pushing their screen personae to the extreme, Tom Hardy’s turn in BBC1’s grit-flecked period vengeance drama Taboo – co-creator, T Hardy – was a full-fat treat. Enigmatic and brooding to the point where he often just stared at people because words themselves were too scared to be in his mouth, Hardy was a glorious cartoon of grunts, whispers and intimidating noises. Sample line of frightening dialogue: “Hh. Nggggg.”
Worst losing of the news
Fake news ... Jon Snow gets the wrong man. Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian
Winner: Channel 4 News
In March, a Channel 4 scoop on the story of the year at that point – the Westminster terror attack – collapsed while the show was still on air. The channel had won the race to identify the attacker, only for the named guy to pipe up with a solid alibi: he was in jail. As Jon Snow read out a grovelling U-turn, other newshounds trapped in the mad breaking-news cycle sighed with relief that it hadn’t happened to them.
Filthiest kitchen porn
Kitchens of distinction ... Reese Witherspoon in Big Little Lies. Photograph: HBO
Winner: Big Little Lies
Ultimately, HBO’s drama might have been about the hidden pain of the parents in super-flash Monterey, California – but oh, get those kitchens. Reese Witherspoon and family, trading brittle barbs across a black-marble island countertop bigger than some London flats; Nicole Kidman blankly loudhailering her kids from the other end of a kitchen-diner where the table and the hob are 25 yards apart … this was TV’s first drama to be set entirely inside an aspirational Pinterest board. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/jun/29/lewis-capaldi-at-glastonbury-2019-review-laughter-through-the-tears | Music | 2019-06-29T17:03:17.000Z | Ben Beaumont-Thomas | Lewis Capaldi at Glastonbury 2019 review – laughter through the tears | “‘Glastonbury, do you like rock’n’roll?”, Lewis Capaldi asks the sprawling Other stage crowd at the start of his set, as if about to launch into a rollicking Great Balls of Fire. And then, with perfect comic timing: “Well, you have come to the wrong fucking set my friends. However, if you like questionably chubby young men from Scotland to sing sad songs, you’re in for a treat.”
And boy, are they sad. So universally so, that they start to bleed into one another like the ink on a tear-stained love letter. Beats from Carl Cox’s four-hour set in the Glade cut into Capaldi’s more spartan songs, like a mate telling him to cheer up. Had it been raining, as it so often does at Glastonbury, this could have been insufferably dreary. But Capaldi has such charisma, and such a beautifully burnished soul voice, that the majority of this set is engaging, and at times moving.
He begins with a flourish of the banter that so importantly offsets the sadness of his songs: the video screens play Noel Gallagher’s disparaging “who’s this Capaldi fella”?” interview, and Capaldi emerges dressed as Gallagher in a parka, swiftly removed to reveal a T-shirt with Gallagher’s face embedded in a heart. This breezy piss-taking is quickly directed towards himself. “I hope you don’t hate it” is how he introduces Hollywood; “Man with breasts plays Glastonbury” is another self-descriptor. Headspace is introduced thus: “This one is really fucking sad, and it’s six minutes long, so hold tight.” This schtick could tire quite quickly from here on out – he’s playing to thousands of people who love him and his album has been at No 1 for five of the last six weeks – but for now it’s a tonic between the devastating heartbreak of his piano-and-guitar ballads.
Lewis Capaldi. Photograph: Aaron Chown/PA
He could do with more songs like Hollywood, which has a George Ezra-ish bounce to it along with a touch of the Mumfords, and Grace, a slick and sturdy piece of soft-rock gospel (he sadly ducks out of trying to reach its arresting top note, though). Hopefully, come album two, he’ll let his songwriting elide with his more buoyant side – there could be such joy in seeing him be joyful. But when those power ballads have melodies as sturdy as Someone You Loved, they hit you right between the tear ducts.
On record, there are times he can tend to be mannered: letting his voice break to denote the most acute sadness, and doing some very strange bleating things with his vowels that go way beyond his broad Scottish accent. But live, these are bled out as he projects his voice towards the hills surrounding the Glastonbury site. There’s an almost doo-wop quality to the way he brings in his falsetto; when he deploys it on Forever, it is eerily like fellow bantering blubberer Adele.
After all the self-deprecation, his evident joy at seeing thousands of people sing Someone You Loved back at him has hopefully persuaded him that he really is adored. But he has a final quip to anyone who remains unconvinced: “If you haven’t enjoyed it, keep it to your fucking self.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/jul/06/let-the-battle-commence-france-uruguay-world-cup-fiver | Football | 2018-07-06T11:43:44.000Z | Paul Doyle | France, Uruguay … let the battle commence | World Cup Fiver | LUIS ATTAQUE
No matter what anyone says, The Fiver is no Albert Camus. So we’re not certain what the Nobel laureate was driving at when he declared: “All that I know most surely about morality and obligations I owe to football.” But we think he meant he was a big Uruguay fan.
That’s the country to which The Fiver looks for moral guidance anyway, and not just since they legalised the use of Giddy Leaves. Consider, for instance, the instructive time in 1925 when Uruguay were playing in Argentina and home fans began lobbing stones at the visitors’ best player, José Leandro Andrade. The whole Uruguay team picked up the rocks and flung them straight back. A riot ensued, the match was abandoned and one of the players was arrested. But a valuable lesson was learned about not messing with Uruguayans. And, of course, most of that gifted team went on to win the first World Cup, a sensational achievement for a country containing fewer people than an average rush-hour train in England.
What is 'shithousery'? And why it's the World Cup's biggest problem
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In short, The Fiver has long been charmed by Uruguayan players’ simultaneously life-affirming and homicidal determination to stand up for themselves. It is, of course, at its most endearing when they feel most threatened so The Fiver was concerned when the country’s manager, Óscar Tabárez, spoke in the buildup to Friday’s first Ethics World Cup quarter-final about his Francophilia. Tabárez revealed that he went to a French school, has visited the country many times and cherishes the various links between French and Uruguayan football. “That is why, although they will be our big rival [on Friday], they can never be our enemies,” he chirped ominously.
Antoine Greizmann was at it, too. The France striker devoted his match preview to declaring himself to be not only the anti-Phil Neville – an enthusiastic drinker of maté – but a lover of all things Uruguayan, even a paid-up member of the Peñarol fan club. He explained he developed his passion thanks to the friendships he has formed with the many Uruguayan team-mates he has had in his career, particularly Diego Godín, who is the godfather of his daughter and will be marking him on Friday. “I almost feel Uruguayan,” simpered Griezmann. All very unsettling for neutrals hoping for a spectacular quarter-final.
Fortunately there’s at least one man on whom we can always rely to set the right tone. “The reality is he doesn’t know how it feels to be Uruguayan,” roared Luis Suárez when told of Griezmann’s goodwill. “He doesn’t know the efforts you have to make, what you have to give.” That’s more like it! Let the battle commence.
LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE
Join Barry Glendenning from 3pm BST for hot MBM coverage of Uruguay 1-1 France (4-3 on pens, aet), while Scott Murray will be on hand at 7pm for Brazil 2-1 Belgium.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“As a team player he always sees that every action is the end of the world and that makes him a warrior and someone that every coach and manager would love to have in his team” – given Belgium’s embarrassment of riches, it was no great surprise to hear one of their number extolled in this way. De Bruyne? Lukaku? Mertens? Hazard? Er, no, Bobby M was describing none other than … Marouane Fellaini.
RECOMMENDED LOOKING
It’s your boy, David Squires, on the Ethics World Cup.
Oh aye. Illustration: David Squires/The Guardian
RECOMMENDED LISTENING
Here’s the latest World Cup Football Daily podcast, with Max Rushden and co, and you can find it in this general area every matchday evening.
SUPPORT THE GUARDIAN
Producing the Guardian’s thoughtful, in-depth journalism [the stuff not normally found in this email, obviously – Fiver Ed] is expensive, but supporting us isn’t. If you value our journalism, please support us. In return we can hopefully arm you with the kind of knowledge that makes you sound slightly less uninformed during those hot reactive gegenpress chats you so enjoy. And if you think what we do is enjoyable [again, etc and so on – Fiver Ed], please help us keep coming back here to give you more of the same.
FIVEЯ LETTERS
“We get it. The FiveЯ managed to predict the result of the England v Colombia game in the manner of a stopped clock. Does that really justify publishing the same letter twice, albeit in slightly amended format?” – Tim Birdsall (and 1,056 others). [Yes and this makes thrice – FiveЯ Ed].
“At first read, Tom Barneby’s World Plate idea (yesterday’s FiveЯ letters) sounded great, but after a Tin or two’s worth of contemplation I realised it would leave the door open to teams who can’t qualify to rest players for their final group game a la England v Belgium. If South Korea had saved their better players against Germany we’d potentially have been robbed of the best moment of the World Cup so far. However, after Tin Nos 4, 5 and a glance at the TV schedule, it started to seem like a good idea again” – Philip C0ckburn.
“Last night I dreamt that I grew 11 thick talons on my feet which I was unable to trim. All of a sudden, Gary Neville walked into the room, sat down, told me to relax, and then promptly trimmed and manicured all 11 toes. This is quite obviously a message from the footballing gods. So I have withdrawn my life savings and stuck it on Valencia to win La Liga” – Michael O’Donnell.
Send your letters to [email protected]. And if you’ve nothing better to do you can also tweet The Fiver. Today’s winner of our letter o’the day and, with it, a copy of World Cup Nuggets by Richard Foster is … Rollover.
BITS AND BOBS
Waistcoat ambassador Gareth Southgate is keeping a close knack-watch on his England squad before their quarter-final with Sweden. “Oddly enough, when it gets to these games, they’re not always as honest as they might be about how fit they are,” he tooted. “So you’ve got to have a racehorse trainer’s eye at times.”
England in training on Friday. Photograph: Georgi Licovski/EPA
Wigan legend Andreas Granqvist has got his eye on England after wife Sophie gave birth to their second child. “[She] did a wonderful job back home,” he cheered. “Everything went well and both baby daughter and wife are doing really well.”
Vlad Putin reckons Russia 2018 has helped debunk stereotypes about the country. “People have seen that Russia is a hospitable country, a friendly one for those who come here,” he roared. “I’m sure that an overwhelming majority of people who came will leave with the best feelings and memories of our country and will come again many times.”
Russia coach Stanislav Cherchesov believes messages from Vladdy P are providing extra motivation for him and his players. Bet they do. “Putin has been calling me,” he cooed. “It is just an extra boost in terms of motivation.”
And non-World Cup dept: like a desperate Love Island contestant, West Ham are ready to have their heart broken by Dimitri Payet once again.
STILL WANT MORE?
The Joy of Six: World Cup goal celebrations.
Just the 24 years ago. Photograph: Mark Leech/Getty Images
From stylistic perfection to mutiny: the history of France v Uruguay.
Paul Doyle on how Gareth Southgate has risen above the blather.
Nick Ames on T1te.
A chat with Brazil’s 2002 World Cup-winner Lúcio.
Samara: the once-closed city opening its doors to fans. Nick Ames reports.
The loneliness that comes with loving Tomas Brolin. By Marcus Christenson.
More on the “Brolin-Dahlin-Brolin” Euro 92 game, from Ed Aarons.
The Dozen: our pick of the best last-16 pictures from Russia 2018.
Oh, and if it’s your thing … you can follow Big Website on Big Social FaceSpace. And INSTACHAT, TOO!
THE GENERAL STATE OF IT | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jul/01/upper-crust-and-caffe-ritazza-owner-to-cut-5000-jobs-ssp-group-coronavirus | Business | 2020-07-01T06:17:18.000Z | Kalyeena Makortoff | Upper Crust and Caffè Ritazza owner to cut 5,000 UK jobs | The owner of Upper Crust and Caffè Ritazza is to axe 5,000 jobs in the UK after suffering heavy losses during the coronavirus crisis lockdown.
SSP Group said the cuts, equal to half of its 9,000-member workforce in Britain, were focused on the UK because the economy and travel industry had been slower to bounce back from the pandemic.
The company, which operates in 35 countries, said other parts of the business would largely avoid sweeping job cuts and restructuring “due to our expectations of a more rapid recovery, the longer durations of furlough support or our contractual layoff arrangements”.
The cutbacks follow a dramatic fall in domestic and international travel, which has hit the company’s sites at railway stations and airports. Almost all of its UK outlets closed during the lockdown.
SSP’s chief executive, Simon Smith, said Covid-19 was having an unprecedented impact on the business and while there were early signs of recovery in some parts of the world, the UK had been slow to bounce back.
He said the cuts would ensure the company survived the pandemic. “We are now taking further action to protect the business and create the right base from which to rebuild our operations,” Smith said.
“We have therefore come to the very difficult conclusion that we will need to simplify and reshape our UK business, and we are now starting a collective consultation on a proposed reorganisation.”
The food and drinks company has an extensive business. Apart from its Upper Crust and Caffè Ritazza brands, it operates bespoke food outlets, as well as hundreds of of Starbucks, Burger King and Jamie Oliver sites at airports and railway stations across the world.
SSP, which has put a number of workers on furlough, said it had originally planned to reopen its sites and bring staff back to work as quickly as possible once passenger demand had recovered.
Sales in April and May were down 95% compared with a year earlier but even after some restrictions lifted in continental Europe and North America, June sales were 90% lower than the same month in 2019.
“The reality is that passenger numbers still remain at very low levels,” SSP said. UK rail passenger numbers are 85% lower year on year, while UK air travel has been largely non-existent, it added.
Smith said the company would be able to increase operations and reopen additional sites if sales improved over the summer.
However, even with the introduction of “air bridges” between countries and the start of the summer holiday season, the company expects only 20% of its UK sites to have reopened by the autumn.
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SSP said it had already taken action to preserve cash during the Covid-19 lockdown, including suspending its share-buyback programme, slashing spending and investment, and cutting pay for for executives, board members and senior managers by about 30% until at least September.
The news continues a grim week of job losses across the travel industry. On Tuesday, the plane maker Airbus announced plans to axe up to 15,000 jobs – including 1,700 in the UK. EasyJet said it was planning to cut up to 727 pilot jobs and up to 1,200 cabin crew posts across the UK and close its bases at Stansted, Southend and Newcastle airports.
Retailers have also taken a hit. The furniture chain Harveys and the shirt maker TM Lewin have called in administrators, resulting in the immediate loss of more than 800 jobs, with more than 1,300 others at risk. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/apr/19/global-heating-2c-climate-paris-agreement | Opinion | 2022-04-19T09:00:38.000Z | Christiana Figueres | Should we feel joy or despair that we’re on track to keep global heating to 2C? | Christiana Figueres | The atmosphere does not react to pledges for the future or reports about past achievements. It only reacts to real emission reductions. The research published in Nature last week showing that the pledges by countries to reduce emissions made since the Paris agreement could keep warming within 2C, if met on time, has therefore understandably sparked a series of conflicting reactions. Outrage that even if the promises are met, they don’t come close to 1.5C; and optimism that 2C is such a huge improvement on where we’d be headed without the Paris agreement.
On the one hand, we have to acknowledge this looks very much like failure. A 2C world will not be livable for vast swathes of humanity, and half of the world’s children are already at extremely high risk from the impacts now, including hunger-inducing floods and droughts.
A 2C future may even lead us into conditions that insurers would deem uninsurable for practically all businesses and homes, and that’s only if the pledges are met. There will never be a shortage of excuses for slippage on these promises. The atrocious invasion of Ukraine, which has brought our deadly addiction to Russian oil and gas into shocking view, is just one of them. Short-term arguments to push decarbonisation down the road will always find a way to rise back above the parapet.
On the other hand, we have to agree that this new projection based on national commitments portends a far better outcome than we would get without them. Bending the curve of future emissions down – from 4.5C or higher as it was projected to be in 2015 – to within the stated goal of the agreement would be a huge improvement.
This is a real result stemming from the difficult, intricate and decades-long multilateral process of negotiations as well as from the power of the decreasing costs of clean technologies. The Paris agreement is working, even if not fast enough.
This process has been enabled at every turn by extraordinary momentum for action from all sectors of society, activism of all stripes from all corners of the globe and individual leadership. It’s also just the start: once action unleashed by these commitments begins to really kick in, and the non-state actor community continues pushing their additional pledges, the progress will quickly become exponential.
So we are caught between two truths, and two deep feelings in our bones: outrage and optimism. Both are valid responses and both are necessary.
Those in the community who have contributed to the provenance and ongoing implementation of any commitment to reduce emissions – national or corporate – would do themselves a great service by celebrating the tectonic shift. I know that these pledges are nearly always the result of dogged hard work and determination combined with deep-seated effort to develop a shared understanding and collective action.
Yes, they are not yet enough, but behind each one are individuals who share the increasing pain about the ecological devastation we are witnessing and the anxiety about what we will continue to lose as a result of unambitious choices.
Celebrating what we have on the table so far doesn’t mean we should not continue to challenge the commitments made, ensure their base in the latest science and call for proper accountability. After all businesses and governments pledging action cheat all of us, including themselves, by saying one thing and doing another. Integrity and transparency must be at the heart of all efforts.
Delving into the actual work going on on the ground is absolutely inspiring. I know this first-hand from working closely with the Climate Pledge, in which 300 companies are aiming to accelerate solutions to the climate crisis and reach net zero by 2040. There is a treasure trove of future possibility burgeoning, even as we constantly read of new fossil fuel projects the atmosphere cannot afford being developed.
By assuming one reaction or the other – outrage or optimism – we force ourselves into a box. We risk reducing our thinking and acting according to a binary mentality that can drive polarisation at a time where acting in solidarity with each other is ever more important.
The complexity of the climate crisis and its solutions mean we need to get used to holding complex emotional reactions, and to pursuing complex solutions. The path ahead will be full of outrage and optimism. We can use both of those to push for the policies we know we need: policies that will enable every commitment and pledge to reduce emissions to be met not just on time, but ahead of schedule.
Christiana Figueres is co-host of the Outrage and Optimism podcast and a former UN climate chief | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/feb/09/corporate-ngo-campaign-environment-climate-change | Guardian Sustainable Business | 2015-02-09T21:36:54.000Z | Marc Gunther | Under pressure: campaigns that persuaded companies to change the world | Hard-hitting activist campaigns against big corporations have become part of the sustainability landscape. Some change the world. Some change little. Telling the difference between one and the other isn’t easy.
Consider this example of a victory that is less than it seemed at the time: when the Breast Cancer Fund accused Revlon of using chemicals linked to cancer in its cosmetics, the company called the charges “false and defamatory”, demanded a retraction and threatened to sue.
Instead, last month, Revlon for the first time published an ingredients policy. The activists declared victory. “It is now one of the most comprehensive cosmetic-safety policies,” says Janet Nudelman of the Breast Cancer Fund. Renee Sharp of the Environmental Working Group, which also campaigned against Revlon, says: “They’re definitely a leader.”
So what happened? Not much, according to Revlon. The company reformulated some products to eliminate certain chemicals of concern – long-chain parabens and DMDM Hydantoin and Quaternium-15, which release tiny amounts of formaldehyde – but the company says the process was well under way before it began talking with the Breast Cancer Fund.
“This was happening,” says Alexandra Gerber, vice president and assistant general counsel. “But [the critics] helped us to realize what a poor job we’d been doing in getting the message out. The change was just the transparency.”
Transparency matters – without it, buyers of shampoo and nail polish can’t make informed choices or avoid potential allergens. But Revlon, and regulators at the Food and Drug Administration, say its products, including those using the dispute ingredients, are safe, and always have been.
Then there are game-changing battles, like the decade-long campaign waged by green groups against Indonesia-based Asia Pulp & Paper. In 2013, AP&P, as it’s known, committed to a no-deforestation policy. It went a step further last spring, promising to restore 1m hectares of natural forest and other ecosystems in Indonesia, where it is the biggest forest-products firm.
AP&P’s efforts are being monitored by respected NGOs Rainforest Alliance and The Forest Trust. The Indonesian company’s efforts have won cautious praise from Greenpeace and WWF. Rhett Butler, the founder of mongabay.com and a forestry expert, says: “The paper products giant may be abandoning business as usual for a very different approach – one that could change how forests are managed worldwide.”
So far, the signs are encouraging. Following AP&P’s commitments, Asia Pacific Resources International Limited (April), Indonesia’s second-biggest paper company, promised to stop pulping that nation’s natural forests. US food giant Cargill and Singapore-based Wilmar, the world’s largest palm-oil trader, have also taken no-deforestation pledges. At the UN Climate Summit last September, more than 150 governments, businesses and nonprofits signed the New York Declaration on Forests, committing to do their parts to halve deforestation by 2020 and end it by 2030.
“I believe we got the ball rolling,” says Aida Greenbury, Asia Pulp & Paper’s sustainability director. “If we can deliver, other companies can deliver, too.”
If the Revlon turnaround was mostly cosmetic (pun intended) and the AP&P commitments were earth-changing, what can we learn about NGO campaigns targeted at big brands? Some produce little more than press releases, intended to generate attention and funding for activists. Others set off important changes. Here’s an admittedly subjective sampling, ranging from the important to the trivial.
In 1998, Nike CEO Phil Knight said: ‘The Nike product has become synonymous with slave wages, forced overtime and arbitrary abuse.’ Photograph: Michael Regan/Getty Images
Nike
It was the grandaddy of all activist campaigns. Throughout the 1990s, Nike was targeted by labor activists, campus organizers and anti-globalization forces for allowing its suppliers in poor countries to abuse and exploit workers.
At first, Nike said it couldn’t be responsible for conditions in factories it didn’t own. Protests and media reports proliferated. In 1996, Life magazine published a story headlined “Six Cents an Hour,” with a photo of a Pakistani boy sewing Nike soccer balls.
Phil Knight, who was then CEO, promised reform in a 1998 speech. “The Nike product has become synonymous with slave wages, forced overtime and arbitrary abuse,” he said. “I truly believe that the American consumer does not want to buy products made in abusive conditions.”
It was slow in coming but Nike eventually set up an extensive and expensive system for monitoring and remedying factory conditions in its supply chain – and the rest of the footwear and apparel industry followed.
Today, Nike is a corporate-sustainability leader. “Our greatest responsibility as a global company”, it says, “Is to play a role in bringing about positive, systemic change for workers within our supply chain and in the industry”. On the website of the Fair Labor Asociation, a coalition of brands, colleges and NGOs, Nike makes public inspection reports from its contract factories.
Some factories in poor countries still abuse workers, of course, but the Nike campaign transformed the debate about who’s responsible, and how to make improvements.
Kimberly Clark
For five years, Greenpeace campaigned against Kimberly Clark, which makes Kleenex, Scott tissues, Huggies and Pull-Ups, accusing the company of destroying old-growth forests for throwaway products.
When they made peace in 2009, Greenpeace produced a clever video to mark the reconciliation. Today, K-C and Greenpeace continue to collaborate.
Lisa Morden, K-C’s senior director of global sustainability, says the company was moving towards sourcing more recycled and certified fiber before the activists came along, but the campaign “really did accelerate our work and our progress”. Kimberly Clark turned around when it faced defections from campus customers and reputational damage. “It was becoming challenging, commercially, for us,” Morden says.
K-C increased its use of environmentally-preferred fiber, which includes recycled and Forest Stewardship Council-certified fiber, from 54 to 83% in its global tissue-products. Richard Brooks, director of the Canadian forest program for Greenpeace, says the company’s actions have “had a ripple effect on other companies in the tissue-product sector”. For example, Procter & Gamble, which makes Bounty, Charmin and Puffs, exceeded its fiber-purchasing goals a year ahead of schedule by achieving Forest Stewardship Certification for 54% of the virgin fiber used in its tissue.
Last fall, Greenpeace Canada launched a campaign accusing Best Buy of buying paper from Resolute Forest Products, the largest and most controversial logging company in Canada, according to Brooks. Within days, Best Buy agreed to move millions of dollars worth of business away from Resolute, Brooks says.
Lego
Under the headline Save the Arctic!, Greenpeace mounted a campaign to get toymaker Lego to stop distributing its toys at Shell gas stations. “Shell has launched an invasion of children’s playrooms in order to prop up its public image, while threatening the Arctic with a deadly oil spill. We can’t let Shell get away with it,” the group said.
Greenpeace won, thanks in part to a wickedly clever YouTube video that has attracted nearly 7m views.
But to what end? Keeping Shell out of children’s playrooms won’t keep the oil giant out of the Arctic.
And while Shell’s Arctic drilling plans are risky, if not foolhardy – particularly in today’s environment of low oil prices – Shell is far from the worst of the fossil fuel companies. Shell says that CO2 emissions must be reduced to avoid serious climate change, it supports a carbon price and it is one of the very few fossil fuel companies to sign the Trillion Ton Communique.
Then again, if Shell someday judges that Arctic drilling is doing serious damage to its brand and reputation, it could decide to seek oil elsewhere.
General Mills
Anti-GMO groups like the Organic Consumers Association declared victory a year ago when General Mills announced that it would make GMO-free Cheerios. It was a small victory. Oats are the principal ingredient in Cheerios, and there are no GMO oats. General Mills made the shift by sourcing small amounts of corn syrup and cane sugar from GMO-free sources. Its Honey Nut Cheerios – which outsell the original Cheerios – continue to source GMO corn and sugar, and they are the next target of activists.
What did the Cheerios campaign accomplish? Very little. As the Cheerios website notes, General Mills makes a variety of organic cereals that are GMO-free – including Cascadian Farms Honey Nut O’s – so consumers who want to avoid GMOs can do so.
As for the non-GMO Cheerios, they no longer contain vitamin B2, also known as riboflavin, because vitamins fail the non-GMO test. In other words, Cheerios today are less healthy than they used to be.
The values-led business hub is funded by SC Johnson. All content is editorially independent except for pieces labelled ‘brought to you by’. Find out more here. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2012/dec/05/china-due-contribution-emissions-cuts | Environment | 2012-12-05T18:59:22.000Z | Fiona Harvey | China pledges 'due contribution' on emissions cuts | China has pledged to make its "due contribution" to cutting greenhouse gas emissions and tackling climate change, but said developed countries must do more.
Xie Zhenhua, head of the Chinese delegation at the Doha climate talks, said: "We are working together with other countries on global climate change, and we will make our due contribution to that end. If different countries have different situations, that is understandable, but we are seeking common ground."
Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, said: "The climate change phenomenon has been caused by the industrialisation of the developed world. [It is] only fair and reasonable that the developed world should bear most of the responsibility."
Ministers prepared to move into the final stage of negotiations at the UN talks, aimed at producing a continuation of the Kyoto protocol and a new agreement to be signed by all countries in 2015 and to come into force from 2020.
China's contribution to future emissions cuts looks set to become a major issue for the next three years, as countries work towards the deadline. A research paper by Lord Stern, the former World Bank chief economist, found that China – the world's biggest emitter – and other rapidly industrialising nations would have to make substantial cuts in their carbon output if the world was to avoid dangerous levels of climate change. China has resisted this, saying developed countries bear more responsibility.
"Climate change is due to unrestricted emissions by developed countries in their process of industrialisation," Xie said. "Developing countries are the victims of climate change."
He said China had already invested 2 trillion yuan (£200bn) between 2005 and 2010 in cutting emissions, excluding renewables, and would invest double that amount from 2011 to 2014 if renewable energy was taken into account. He said China had created 28m jobs as a result, and that would rise to 40m.
"If we want to devise a long-term goal on emissions reduction by 2015, it is inevitable that we will have to find a way to allocate emissions. But these allocations must be equitable. It's very important therefore to talk about equity."
Todd Stern, the US special envoy for climate change, signalled that the US was prepared to have such a discussion. "Let's provide a thorough opportunity for all parties to discuss all critical issues, including the principle of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities," he told the conference. "The US would welcome such a discussion, because unless we can find common ground on that principle … we won't succeed."
His words surprised some because of an impression that the US was unwilling to talk about these issues. However, by initiating such a discussion Washington is able effectively to call Beijing's bluff – because as China is the world's biggest emitter, and set to be the world's biggest economy within a few years, it may be expected to take on a greater share of emissions cuts.
These issues will not be solved at the Doha conference, which is scheduled to finish on Friday evening. Another key issue – that of finance from developed countries to help developing countries cut their emissions and adapt to the effects of global warming – is also likely to be left hanging.
Three outcomes are hoped for from this year's talks: a continuation of the Kyoto protocol beyond 2012, when its current commitment period ends; an end to the "twin track" of negotiations that was insisted on by President George W Bush; and the drawing up of a work programme to set the timetable for the talks to 2015.
Stern said progress had been made on these fronts. However, in some of the negotiations there have been setbacks as some countries have insisted on reinstating passages of text removed in previous days.
Connie Hedegaard, the EU's climate chief, said the discussions on the future of the Kyoto protocol – which only the EU, Australia and a handful of other developed countries are joining – were "moving forward". She said the EU had been leading the way on finance, pointing to announcements made by the UK, Germany and the European commission, among others.
Green campaigners have said much of the money promised by rich countries – supposed to amount to $30bn over the past three years – is not new but has been announced at previous talks, and some comes from existing aid budgets or in the form of loans. They want to see more pledges on finance to be provided after the end of this year. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2013/apr/30/rohan-silva-interview-david-cameron-open-data | News | 2013-04-30T11:11:09.000Z | Simon Rogers | Meet the man who turned David Cameron onto open data | "We will unleash a tsunami of data."
This was a quote from a "government source" I reported back in May 2010. It was written just after the Coalition had been formed, and had promised a new era of open data and transparency. This was also a year after we launched the Guardian Datablog. Following on from the Free Our Data campaign, we called for government data to be open transparent and available.
It's a good quote and one we've used several times since, but never revealed who said it. Up until now, that is. That man was Rohan Silva, the 32-year-old senior policy advisor to David Cameron who recently resigned.
He will be leaving Downing Street in June to set up his own internet education business. Conservative Home blogger Paul Goodman wrote: "A true radical is leaving the building - perhaps one of the last". And, whether or not you support the government, many open data campaigners may find themselves agreeing.
A true radical is leaving the building - perhaps one of the last
It's certainly a moment: Silva has been a driving force inside the UK government for the open data agenda, chivvying and pushing and crucially making things happen.
It started for him in 2006, inspired by the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Bill proposed by, among others, Barack Obama. That Bill became an act - it led directly to data.gov in the US.
He drafted the key May 2010 letter from David Cameron to every government department which promised unprecedented transparency. In that moment the then-new government pledged to release a lot of data - and even set itself deadlines. It pledged to open up all government spending over $50,000. It turns out this is why the UK's government publishes all data over £25,000.
"It really caught my imagination and I managed to persuade George Osborne we should make the same commitment," recalls Silva. "I just did a crude comparison - and it was back when the pound was strong - which is why we ended up with a £25,000 commitment in the UK."
That commitment followed the party through the election and into government, although it was not universally popular. "The reaction we got from the greybeards was 'that's a mad commitment because it'll cost a fortune to implement." So he tested that objection, calling a friend at Windsor Council, Liam Maxwell, asking him to see how long it would take to make the local authority's data transparent. "He did it in an afternoon". Maxwell - who is now the government's Chief Technology Officer - became part of a core team, which also included MySociety's Tom Steinberg.
It's important to note that the process didn't begin with the Conservatives. Asked by then Prime Minister Gordon Brown what the UK could do to use the internet properly, the man credited with inventing the worldwide web, Tim Berners-Lee, replied that the government should put all its data online. He later reported Brown saying, "OK, let's do it." Brown's government launched data.gov.uk and members of that first team stayed on with the new administration, most notably Berners-Lee himself and Southampton University's Nigel Shadbolt.
But it took MPs' expenses to push the Conservatives into adopting Silva's agenda. "We kept setting out these different open data commitments and had no coverage at all. It was proving increasingly challenging in truth to persuade George [Osborne] and David [Cameron] to create more commitments. No-one was writing about this stuff. But our repsonse to MPs expenses was to push for greater transparency. That was great - the challenge can be in opposition that its kind of abstract. You're committing and you can't make it real. MPs expenses converted a lot of Tory ministers to the cause."
"There is this much government data". Rohan Silva (left) with David Cameron Photograph: Steve Back
But how could that enthusiasm be maintained? "My trick when we got in was that I inserted as much ambitious and bombastic language as possible on open data into the speeches I wrote for George and David. Opposition tends to be very ambitious on open data and then back down in government. I was keen we avoided that cycle. I put all these ambitious verbal statements into the speeches - things it would be hard to back away from when we got into government."
One of the first big releases was Coins. The Coins (Combined Online Information System), data was going to change the world. The government's spending database, we reported at the time that The Treasury had repeatedly refused FoI requests for it in the past (it is 24m items long). This is what we said about it then:
"It is the mother lode for central government," says Rufus Pollock, the director of the Open Knowledge Foundation and one of those behind Where Does My Money Go? – a site that breaks down government spending. He says it could change local reporting for journalists. "The big deal with Coins is that when you get a figure like £6bn-worth of cuts it is useful, but what you really want to know is much more granular – how much is spent on police in your parish, for instance. Coins is that kind of data – the lowest and most granular level that government collects."
In fact, the data was a mess - tricky to use even for those in government, for those outside it's almost impossible. It showed to the world that the data the government relies on can be pretty poor at that. But Silva was keen to get it released, in the teeth of stiff civil service resistance. To make matters worse it almost didn't get released at all amid the realisation that the site it would be published on was not secure.
Our Coins navigation page Photograph: Guardian
"We'd always known that coins was a bit of a dogs breakfast of a dataset. At the same time we knew we could get it out relatively quickly - internally showing that we could release it and the world didn't fall apart was really important," says Silva. "We were always careful to say that Coins is not the be all and end all - but the beginning of the process. "
The same thing happened with the crime map - which showcased how many police officers would simply put their police station as the location of a crime, even if it had occurred miles away. Interestingly, the crime map is now the Government's most popular open data initiative - and it broke the rules too. The rules were that 'if you release it, they will build it' - that just get the data out there and developers will do the work. This didn't happen.
"The Home Office defied us on crime and signed a contract to build police.uk - in direct breach of our edict on this," says Silva. "It's interesting because it had 3m views in the first six hours. It was the first of the open data releases that had real public consciousness breaking through. We've not built tools ourselves since."
Senior civil servants wanted to include this text in all government pronouncements on open data:
No government data shall be released unless its quality can be assured
Silva refused. His argument was that sunlight would drive improvements in the data itself. "They kept writing that in - I kept taking it out. I got into an argument with the civil servants about it. That would mean essentially no data ever released. That would have choked off the open data agenda from day one. They said if we release poor quality data it will embarass the civil service - but I believed the only way to improve that data would be to release it."
These were the commitments the government made in May 2010:
• Historic COINS spending data to be published online in June 2010.
• All new central government ICT contracts to be published online from July 2010.
• All new central government lender documents for contracts over £10,000 to be published on a single website from September 2010, with this information to be made available to the public free of charge.
• New items of central government spending over £25,000 to be published online from November 2010.
• All new central government contracts to be published in full from January 2011.
• Full information on all DFID international development projects over £500 to be published online from January 2011, including financial information and project documentation.
• New items of local government spending over £500 to be published on a council-by-council basis from January 2011.
• New local government contracts and tender documents for expenditure over £500 to be published in full from January 2011.
• Crime data to be published at a level that allows the public to see what is happening on their streets from January 2011.
• Names, grades, job titles and annual pay rates for most Senior Civil Servants with salaries above £150,000 to be published in June 2010.
• Names, grades, job titles and annual pay rates for most Senior Civil Servants and NDPB officials with salaries higher than the lowest permissible in Pay Band 1 of the Senior Civil Service pay scale to be published from September 2010.
• Organograms for central government departments and agencies that include all staff positions to be published in a common format from October 2010.
The full list is actually longer. In fact, the government has done most of what it said it would. The National Audit Office reported in April last year that 23 out of 25 key commitments had been achieved. However it also pointed out very few people actually look at the data the government produces.
Public spending 2011-2012 graphics and interactive Photograph: Guardian
And we have been critical of the way government releases spending data. Silva accepts those criticisms: "When it comes to the spending data we've come light years forward. But I think the big to-do on data is to go back and improve the quality of spending data. It's still too difficult for people to easily see where their money goes."
The world has changed now, and it's arguably the case that Silva is one of key people in making that happen. "It's amazing to look now and say it was only two and a bit years ago that we didn't have crime data on a street by street basis, we didn't have central and local government data released on a contract by contract basis. It's almost seen as a given now that all data's released."
"The test of policy should be: would it be possible for the next government to reverse what you've done in a term or two. No government would reverse this."
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https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/the-running-blog/2018/apr/16/how-was-your-weekend-running | Life and style | 2018-04-16T07:06:26.000Z | Kate Carter | How was your weekend running? | In the last week or so, I’ve seen friends complete 150-odd miles of the Marathon des Sables, triumphantly PB at Brighton marathon, get amazing parkrun PBs and generally be awesome. Having still been in downtime mode after Seville, it’s made me want to pull my metaphorical socks up and get back into training. Well done everyone who raced this weekend - from Tara’s brilliant PB at parkrun (and amazing age grading) to my friends Susie, Sophie, Shaun and Tim for conquering the desert in the MdS. You are all heroes.
My significant achievements in the last week include ice cream eating PBs (both for speed, and quantity, naturally - it’s important to go all in on these things you know) and generally having a lovely time in sunny Barcelona. Oh, and being consoled for being back in London by getting to wield the scanner in junior parkrun yesterday: I tried not to let the power go to my head. I also did a spot of parkrun tourism myself on Saturday, heading over with some teammates to Dulwich Park. And what a glorious day for it was - the first real warmth in the air, a beautiful park, a flat and fast course and bonus cake and prizes. The run was celebrating its sixth birthday and I won a huge gold chocolate medal (the best sort of medal, clearly) and a water bottle for coming third lady. My teammate Mark ran a brilliant PB of 16:54 - a whopping 88% age grading - which bodes well for London next weekend.
And talking of which ... All London marathoners: an important service announcement for you. Step away from the weather forecast. There’s nothing you can do about it, it is what it is. Stay calm, stay relaxed, do not waste emotional energy worrying about it. (And yes, I know that’s a lot easier said than done).
So, over to you, come and share your weekend triumphs below the line. And a note to anyone who has the day off work today - Boston Marathon is on the BBC on the red button ... | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/film/australia-culture-blog/2013/aug/05/the-turning-tim-winton-review | Film | 2013-08-05T00:25:23.000Z | Jim Poe | The Turning – first look review | In the midst of an off-season for Australian cinema comes a bold and audacious crazy quilt of a film that resembles its own mini-Aussie New Wave. Tim Winton's The Turning, which premiered at the Melbourne International Film Festival on Saturday, is being marketed as "a unique cinema event." That it is to say the least. The passion project of creator Robert Connolly, this three-hour epic is a wholesale adaptation of Winton's short-story collection. Each of the book's 18 stories is interpreted on film by a different team of filmmakers, including collaborators from the worlds of theatre, photography, visual art and dance.
Connolly has said he wants the film to feel like a group exhibition. To that end he's secured quite a slate of notable Aussie directors, including Warwick Thornton (Samson and Delilah), Tony Ayres (The Slap), Claire McCarthy (The Waiting City) and Justin Kurzel (Snowtown). Two high-profile actors, Mia Wasikowska and David Wenham, make impressive directorial debuts. Connolly and crew have hedged their bets with formidable stars on the other side of the camera, too, including Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving, Miranda Otto and Richard Roxburgh – which should help entice viewers into cinemas on September 26 for the film's special limited Australian release.
The idea of such a curated project is noble, but it wouldn't be worth much if The Turning didn't work as feature-length entertainment. Omnibus films often feel like the cinematic equivalent of a meal of cocktail hors d'oeuvres; one of the achievements of The Turning is how well-crafted, cohesive and satisfying it is as a film. Despite its sprawling ambition and daunting runtime, it's surprisingly light on its feet – engaging, entertaining and frequently mesmerising throughout, with only a few missteps along the way.
It also effectively recreates the experience of being sucked into a top-notch short-story cycle by a gifted author. While most episodes here would stand alone, it's hard to recall another omnibus film with such narrative unity. Characters re-appear in different episodes at different stages of their lives, fleshed out in snapshots that explore recurring themes from different angles. In that sense it works a bit like a TV series, where different creative teams adhere to one master vision (with Connolly as showrunner, perhaps). The different disciplinary approaches and mixed media generally keep things fresh and interesting.
It's also a beautifully, unapologetically Australian film, imbued with the rhythm and detail of life in the remote coastal towns and hinterlands of Winton's home in Western Australia. The lives of fishermen, surfers, AFL players, the working class and angst-ridden suburbanites are chronicled with sometimes dark themes, including alcoholism, child homicide and police corruption. A number of key episodes feature Aboriginal characters and symbols. Though the film courts the mystical, it's grounded with romance and macabre suspense.
The collection begins with a stunning animated preface from director Marieka Walsh that establishes central motifs, including the sea, fishing and fire. The first story, Thornton's Big World, draws the viewer in with a story of boyhood friendship and regret that's as affecting as it is evocative. Like the best pieces here (especially the outstanding centrepiece stories, Aryes' Cockleshell and McCarthy's The Turning) it succeeds by avoiding the precious, one-dimensional quality of so many short films; it trusts the audience enough to present a tantalising glimpse of a fully-formed dramatic world. Most episodes are strikingly open-ended; the same characters are played by different actors, often of different races, creating a dreamlike quality.
The film's ambition occasionally gets the best of it. The interwoven stories aren't easy to track if you haven't read the book. (A glossy 40-page guide to the film and its characters will be handed out at each screening.) A couple of episodes intended to flesh out the overarching story are muddled, especially Reunion from theatre director Simon Stone, which despite the heavyweight presence of Roxburgh and Blanchett can't seem to find its tone. Wasikowska's blackly comic piece Long, Clear View is excellent, but the transition from the catastrophe at sea which ends the previous episode is awkward. Yaron Lifschitz's modern-dance piece Immunity, though gorgeous, disrupts the overall flow. Even supporters will admit the film as a whole is too long.
Despite these stumbles, Connolly and his collaborators have come up with something really special. Like a good compilation album it sticks with you as an organic whole and should reward repeat viewings, especially in home formats. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/sep/01/wim-wenders-ground-zero-911-atrocity-horror-legacy | Film | 2021-09-01T05:00:22.000Z | Phil Hoad | ‘A horn blew when human remains were found’: Wim Wenders’ six hours in the hell of Ground Zero | As a boy growing up in the rubble and ruins of postwar West Germany, Wim Wenders would often dream of falling towers. So at the age of 56, when he watched the twin towers of the World Trade Center blaze and then plummet into the streets of New York, the impact hit him hard. “It started to haunt me badly,” he says. “I mean, I saw everything live on TV like everybody else. All of mankind was badly shaken. But I kept dreaming of being stuck in collapsing towers. I wanted to somehow exorcise these things. And I figured if I could go to New York and see for myself, that would help.”
That was how Wenders came to be at Ground Zero in the aftermath of the attacks and took the five large-format photographs now showing at the Imperial War Museum in London as part of its 9/11: Twenty Years On programme. They are extraordinary works, capturing great horizontal and vertical swathes of this steel-and-concrete apocalypse, with cranes, diggers and firefighters standing out in heroically bright colours. Shattered pillars jut out from piles of warped girders in a hellish crucible of chaos and destruction.
A longtime champion of the American highway in films such as Alice in the Cities and Paris, Texas, Wenders was actually resident in US at the time, although he had returned briefly to Berlin the day the towers fell, the Pentagon was attacked and another plane crashed in Pennsylvania. The director was friends with Joel Meyerowitz, the only photographer with official permission from the city to document work on “the pile”, as it became known, at Ground Zero. Meyerowitz could take an assistant, so under that guise Wenders managed to get inside the cordon.
‘The sun never shines in this hellhole’ … Joel Meyerowitz said this Wenders – and then this happened. Photograph: © Wim Wenders
“It was like working on a huge graveyard,” the 76-year-old remembers two decades on. “It was all silent and quiet. Conversations would happen in whispers. Every now and then, there was a horn blowing. And everyone would take off their hard hats because it meant somebody somewhere had found human remains.”
Wenders spent about six hours at the site and shot sparingly. As ever, he was hoping the surroundings would reveal something to him. “I’m a photographer of places, I practically never take portraits,” says the director, a hale and strapping figure these days. Wearing braces and a black polo neck, he’s speaking via Zoom from an austere-looking apartment he’s renting in the countryside around Berlin. “I feel places talk about us, they tell us about ourselves. As a photographer, I become the listener.”
At one point at Ground Zero, the sun suddenly came out, glinting off the adjacent skyscrapers. “Joel, who had been there for weeks, said, ‘I’ve never seen this. The sun never shines in this hellhole.’” Ground Zero, Wenders felt, was telling him “an unbelievable thing”. He explains: “It was like the place was talking about healing instead of perpetuating this madness and shedding more blood.”
We are discussing his work in the week the Taliban retake Afghanistan, a chilling new chapter in what 9/11 set into motion. Wenders shares the general sentiment that this development is “absolutely horrifying” – but believes there was a brief window when the attacks could have taken history down a different path, away from the endless cycle of war, imperialism and self-interest. “I attended some services in which all the world religions took part,” he says. “It seemed for a while that this event could have an amazing cathartic effect. Bush could have made such a name for himself as a peacekeeper by not reacting with that old and worst reaction, which is revenge.”
Instead, history took a darker course, the way of “fucking lies”, as Wenders puts it. He was proud when Germany and France refused to join the invasion of Iraq in 2003, forming what the New York Post dubbed an “axis of weasel”. At the time, Wenders wore a T-shirt declaring: “Proud to be a weasel.”
Difficult though it was to be there, in many ways Ground Zero was familiar territory for Wenders. Always drawn to emptiness and desolation in his films, using them as places for existential contemplation, he cast Bruno Ganz and Otto Sander as angels picking through Berlin’s pre-reunification wastelands in 1987’s Wings of Desire. The scenes were unforgettable: history gaped through wounds in the landscape, just like it would later do in Manhattan.
It feels obvious to draw a line back to his childhood in the husk of Düsseldorf, 80% of which was destroyed in the second world war. Wenders lived until he was six in the former shopfloor of his grandfather’s pharmacy, housed in a building that lost all but two of its storeys. As the future director dreamed of collapsing towers, he also had a realisation that would make a traveller of him: “There was no television and we never went to see newsreels at the movie theatre. But I knew of other places from paintings and photographs. I realised the world elsewhere was very different to mine. Mine was probably the shittiest of all.”
History gaped through wounds in the landscape … Wings of Desire. Photograph: Cinetext Bildarchiv/Allstar/ROAD MOVIES FILMPRODUKTI
Wenders doesn’t like destruction for the sake of it. He believed Hollywood’s newfound love in the 1990s for digitally assisted demolition – such as blowing up the White House in Independence Day – gave 9/11 a terrible “familiarity”. Immediately after the atrocity, he suggested Hollywood was guilty of a kind of hubris of the image and expected a correction. “The attacks,” he said, “will now have consequences for a specific genre and a specific kind of special effects.”
As anyone who has watched a Marvel movie will testify, that has not exactly come to pass. Yet, if audiences’ perverse love of watching their own metropolises getting trashed hasn’t diminished, Wenders is refusing to buy in. “I don’t watch these movies any more. I just walk out.” He lets out an exasperated sigh. “I have no interest. There are very few movies that can really do something with that except create a feeling of doom.” If a city must get stomped, he prefers the “innocence” of earlier blockbusters, the King Kongs and Godzillas. He sees something in their playfulness: “Especially the ones that came out of Japan. It was maybe even a necessary way to come to some sort of catharsis or exorcism [following the atomic bombings].”
After the photographs, Wenders’ next response to 9/11 was the 2004 drama Land of Plenty. It starred Michelle Williams as a young Los Angeles woman attempting to bring her uncle – a Vietnam vet on the trail of a supposed terrorist cell – out of his patriotism-induced paranoia. After they witness the murder of a young Pakistani, they decide to take his body to his family, the resulting road trip providing an education for both.
Echoes of the second world war … another of Wenders’ Ground Zero shots. Photograph: © Wim Wenders
Finishing with the pair gazing out over Ground Zero, the film was Wenders’ somewhat laboured attempt to work through his complicated feelings toward his adopted country: America’s neglect of its own, its refusal to admit any vulnerability. Filmed semi-improvisationally in LA and the Mojave desert, it was another of Wenders’ attempts to “listen” to a place.
This open way of working is virtually impossible within fiction film-making now, he says. That is why he has gravitated increasingly towards documentary-making, with the likes of the critically praised Pina, about the great German dancer Pina Bausch. “Fiction has become a different business,” he says. “Fiction is very formulated. I did my best work with an unfinished or nonexistent script. Wings of Desire was done without a script. I always looked at film-making as something in which you want to learn about a story, and not just know it beforehand and then merely execute it. That is no longer possible.”
Unsurprisingly for this witness of Ground Zero, this director who finds potential in wildernesses and no man’s lands, Wenders is interested in how to rebuild correctly. His next project is a documentary about Swiss architect Peter Zumthor, whose philosophy of buildings as centred around personal experience, with a fastidious feel for materials and respect for local culture, appeals to the director. It’s not just about Zumthor, but about “architecture in general, how buildings and houses influence us”.
Wenders has an architectural project of his own at the moment. He is busy restoring a rare mid-century brick barn, the reason why he is living in an apartment next door. He was supposed to be in this summer, but the pandemic had other ideas. “The whole building industry in Germany went berserk. All of a sudden it gets tough to get people because they’re building everywhere like there’s no tomorrow. And now you can’t get any wood and prices have skyrocketed. It’s very strange. We live in a country with many forests, but all our wood goes to China. And we need big beams!”
Wim Wenders: Photographing Ground Zero is at the Imperial War Museum, London, 10 September to 9 January. The IWM is also launching 9/11: A Global Story, a public appeal to collect stories and memories relating to the attacks. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2013/mar/07/gareth-bale-spurs-inter | Football | 2013-03-08T00:18:00.000Z | Paul Doyle | Gareth Bale gives Spurs head start but old foible returns with a fall | Paul Doyle | In 2010 Gareth Bale burned himself into the folk memory of one of Europe's giants by following up a scorching hat-trick at the San Siro with an explosive performance in a 3-1 victory at White Hart Lane – and the way Italian journalists quizzed the Internazionale manager, Andrea Stramaccioni, before this reunion about how he would neutralise the club's nemesis was vaguely evocative of medieval villagers imploring their chief to protect them from some fearsome monster who had visited unspeakable cruelties on their forefathers.
In his short career as a senior manager the 37-year-old Stramaccioni has earned a reputation as a man who always has a plan. He has become known as something of an anti-Arsène Wenger: whereas the Arsenal manager always sends his team out to play the same way, seemingly believing it is a sign of weakness to alter his approach in recognition of the opposition's strengths, the Inter manager has turned the Nerazzurri into a chameleon-like creature, continually changing appearance to factor in enemy threats.
He regularly tinkers and there was much talk in the Italian media of the manager devising a "cage" to lock up Bale for 90 minutes. If what he produced was intended to be a cage, then remember never to leave Stramaccioni in charge of a zoo. Because Bale was free to romp as he pleased.
Stramaccioni, it seemed, opted for the Wenger method after all, electing to erect no anti-Bale barricade and just hope the beast did not turn up. That did not work for Arsenal in Sunday's north London derby and it was quickly exposed as folly here.
Bale should have opened the scoring in the second minute but miskicked after Aaron Lennon had alerted the visitors to the presence of another dangerous winger by flying down the right and presenting Bale with a perfect cut-back.
Walter Gargano was the closest opponent to him and was about eight yards away, suggesting the deep-lying midfielder was not detailed with tracking Inter's notorious tormentor. Or maybe he was and just did not bother doing so, which would have been in keeping with a slovenly performance by the Italians, who started this season by taking the Europa League seriously but appeared to have changed their mind before this game owing to complications in Serie A, where they are just outside the Champions League places.
It would have been interesting to see whether the superb right-back Javier Zanetti would have fared any better against Bale than Maicon did in the side's last encounter but Bale's conversion from rampant wide man to wandering destroyer meant the pair seldom came into direct confrontation.
At 23 Bale has become at home with having no fixed abode. He has outgrown the limited sprint-cross-shoot role and amassed enough wisdom, versatility and physical power to choose where he goes and how he wreaks havoc. Three years ago he would not have surged into the box to bang a header into the net but that is what he did here in the sixth minute, when he leapt like an all-star basketballer above Esteban Cambiasso to meet Gylfi Sigurdsson's cross and slamdunk Spurs into the lead.
Part of Inter's problem was that Tottenham were proving they are not a one-man team: Inter were being over-run everywhere so could ill-afford to start concentrating on Bale. "Bale is a great player and he exploited his physicality well for the first goal but this was a Tottenham victory, not a Bale victory," Stramaccioni said afterwards.
True enough, Lennon and Scott Parker dazzled but it was Sigurdsson and Jan Vertonghen – from a Bale corner – who plundered the next two goals. A Bale charge on the hour-mark must have seemed like a flashback to 2010 but, after blasting past three opponents, he shot wide from 18 yards.
The only other mercy on a grim night for Inter was that Bale showed there is one part of his game that has not improved: he remains a poor simulation of a clever simulator, as demonstrated by his deserved booking in the 14th minute, when he left his leg to collide with Gargano's before tumbling over it in the box.
Bale denies he dives, claiming that previous bookings for simulation this season – against Liverpool, Sunderland and Fulham – were instances of him taking evasive action to avoid fouls. Here he sought contact. André Villas-Boas declined to explain: "I don't want to go into that. We have a wonderful player to enjoy and it's ridiculous to go into anything else." Bale will miss the return leg at San Siro. Inter will not miss him. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/may/21/sequester-cuts-make-america-third-world-country | Opinion | 2013-05-21T17:15:00.000Z | Mattea Kramer | How America became a third world country | Mattea Kramer and Jo Comerford for TomDispatch | The streets are so much darker now since money for streetlights is rarely available to municipal governments. The national parks began closing down years ago. Some are already being subdivided and sold to the highest bidder. Reports on bridges crumbling or even collapsing are commonplace. The air in city after city hangs brown and heavy (and rates of childhood asthma and other lung diseases have shot up), because funding that would allow the enforcement of clean air standards by the Environmental Protection Agency is a distant memory. Public education has been cut to the bone, making good schools a luxury, and, according to the Department of Education, two of every five students won't graduate from high school.
It's 2023 – this is America a decade years after the federal budget cuts known as sequestration. They went on for a decade, making no exception for effective programs that were already underfunded, like job training and infrastructure repairs. It wasn't supposed to be this way.
Traveling back in time to 2013 – the moment the cuts began – no one knew what their impact would be, although nearly everyone across the political spectrum agreed it would be bad. As it happened, the first signs of unraveling which would, a decade later, leave the United States looking more like a third-world country, could be detected surprisingly quickly, only three months after the cuts began. In that brief time, a few government agencies, like the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), after an uproar over flight delays, requested – and won – special relief. Naturally, the Department of Defense, with a mere $568bn to burn in its 2013 budget, also joined this list. On the other hand, critical spending for education, environmental protection and scientific research was not spared, and in many communities the effect was felt remarkably soon.
Robust public investment had been a key to US prosperity in the previous century. It was considered a basic part of the social contract and economics 101. As just about everyone knew, citizens paid taxes to fund worthy initiatives that the private sector wouldn't adequately or efficiently supply. Roadways and scientific research were examples. In the post-WWII years, the country invested great sums in its interstate highways and what were widely considered the best education systems in the world, while research in well-funded government labs led to inventions like the internet. The resulting world-class infrastructure, educated workforce and technological revolution fed a robust private sector.
Austerity Fever
In the early years of the twenty-first century, however, a set of manufactured arguments for "austerity", which had been gaining traction for decades, captured the national imagination. In 2011-2012, a congress that seemed capable of doing little else passed trillions of dollars of what was then called "deficit reduction". These across-the-board cuts, instituted in August 2011 and set to kick in on 2 January 2013, were meant to be a storm cloud hanging over Congress. Sequestration was never intended to take effect, but only to force lawmakers to reason – to craft a less terrible plan to reduce deficits. As is now common knowledge, they didn't come to their senses. Although Congress could have cancelled the cuts at any moment, the country never turned back.
It wasn't that cutting federal spending at those levels would necessarily have been devastating in 2013, though in an already weakened economy any cutbacks would have hurt. Rather, sequestration proved particularly corrosive from the start because all types of public spending – from grants for renewable energy research to disadvantaged public schools to HIV testing – were to be gutted equally, as if all of it were just fat to be trimmed. Even monitoring systems for natural disasters, like flooding or a volcanic eruption, began to be shut down. Over time the cuts would be vast: $85bn in the first year and $110bn in each year after that, for more than $1tn in cuts over a decade on top of other reductions already in place.
Once lawmakers wrote sequestration into law they had more than a year to wise up. Yet they did nothing to draft an alternate plan and didn't even start pointing out the imminent havoc until just weeks before the deadline. Then they gave themselves a couple more months – until 1 March 2013 – to work out a deal, which they didn't. All this is, of course, ancient history, but even a decade later, the record of folly is worth reviewing.
If you remember, they tweeted while Rome burned. Speaker of the House John Boehner, for instance, sent out dozens of tweets to say Democrats were responsible: "The president proposed sequester, had 18 mo. to prioritize cuts, and did nothing," he typically wrote, while he no less typically did nothing. For his part, senate majority leader Harry Reid tweeted back: "It's not too late to avert the damaging #sequester cuts, for which an overwhelming majority of Republicans voted." And that became the pattern for a decade of American political gridlock, still unbroken today.
Destruction Begins
The deadline came and went, so the budgetary axe began to fall.
At first, it didn't seem so bad. Yes, the cuts weren't quite as across the board as expected. The meat industry, for example, protested because health inspector furloughs would slow production lines, so Congress patched the problem and spared those inspectors. There was a sense that the cuts might not be so bad after all.
They were to be doled out based on a formula for meeting the arbitrary target of $85bn in reductions, and no one knew precisely what would happen to any given program. In April, more than a month after the cuts had begun, the White House issued the president's budget proposal for the following year. But across thousands of pages of documents and tables, the new budget ignored sequestration, and so reported meaningless 2013 numbers, because even the White House couldn't say exactly what impact these cuts would have on programs and public investment.
As it happened, they didn't have to wait long to find out. The first ripples began to spread quickly. Losing some government funding, cancer clinics in New Mexico and Connecticut turned away patients. In Kentucky, Oregon and Montana, shelters for victims of domestic violence cut services. In New York, Maryland and Alabama, public defenders were furloughed, limiting access to justice for low-income people. In Illinois and Minnesota, public school teachers were laid off. In Florida, Michigan and Mississippi, Head Start shortened the school year, while in Kansas and Indiana, some low-income children simply lost access entirely. In Alaska, a substance abuse clinic shut down. Across the country, Meals on Wheels cut four million meals for seniors in need.
Only when the FAA imposed furloughs on its air traffic controllers did public irritation threaten to boil over. Long lines and airport delays ensued, and people were angry. And not just any people – people who had access to members of Congress. In a Washington that has gridlocked the most routine business, lawmakers moved at a breakneck pace, taking just five days to pass special legislation to solve the problem. To avoid furloughs and shorten waits for airline passengers, they allowed the FAA to spend funds that had been intended for long-term airport repairs and improvements. Flights left on time – at least until runways cracked and crumbled.
The Pentagon, the military behemoth of planet earth, which in 2013 accounted for 40% of military spending globally and its outlays exceeding the next 10 largest militaries combined, too, wanted a special exemption for some of its share of the cutbacks.
Meat inspectors, the FAA and the Department of Defense enjoyed special treatment, but the rest of the nation was not so lucky. Children from middle-class and low-income families saw ever fewer resources at school and doors of opportunity closing. The young, old and infirm found themselves with dwindling access to basic resources, such as healthcare or even a hot dinner. Federal grants to the states dried up, and there was less money in state budgets for local priorities, from police officers to streetlights.
And remember that, just as the sequestration cuts began, carbon concentration in the atmosphere breached 400 parts per million. (Climate scientists had long been warning that the level should be kept below 350 for human security.) Unfortunately, as with the groundbreaking research that led to the internet, it takes money to do big things, and the long-term effects of cutting environmental protection, general research and basic infrastructure meant that the US government would do little to stem the extreme weather that has, in 2023, become such a part of our world and our lives.
Looking back from a country now eternally in crisis, it's clear that a rubicon was crossed back in 2013. There was then still a chance to reject across-the-board cuts that would undermine a nation built on sound public investment and shared prosperity. At that crossroads, some fought against austerity. Losing that battle, others argued for a smarter approach: close tax loopholes to raise new revenue, or reduce waste in health care, or place a tax on carbon, or cut excessive spending at the Pentagon. But too few Americans – with too little influence – spoke up, and Washington didn't listen. The rest of the story, as you well know, is history. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/music/shortcuts/2012/oct/18/eton-gangnam-video-viral-sensation | Music | 2012-10-18T14:56:40.000Z | Tim Jonze | Eton Gangnam style: the story of a viral sensation | Allow Spotify content?
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Has the era of the New Posh finally faced a crisis in confidence? That would seem to be the message from Eton Style, the biggest viral sensation since, ooh, that Mitt Romney one five minutes ago, which sees the poshest of pupils remaking Psy's Gangnam Style on their hallowed school grounds.
Even as "comedy" virals go it's rather cringe-inducing. Yet an indepth analysis of the new lyrics – for it deserves nothing less – reveals that these over-privileged little herberts are just as needy, insecure and rubbish with the ladies as the rest of us plebs.
So whereas there's a whole rap sheet of hip hop braggadocio on display here ("I've got a lot of land to show," they sing at one point; elsewhere there are references to drinking Moët like water) there are also some insights into the damaged psyche of the fragile Etonian.
"We may be awkward, frustrated, lonely and insecure (hey), yes insecure (hey)," they sing, before adding. "We're not too social, can't talk to women, although we try (hey), we're just too shy (hey), If you approach us then we'll just break down and cry."
This doesn't sound like the kind of bold talk you expect to hear from someone who will one day be deciding your basic rate of tax. One Old Etonian we spoke to agreed. "Some of the lyrics, about being awkward and not so confident struck me as very un-Etonian. Most of the people there like to make out they're confident, nothing can get them down, and that they're all louche womanisers. It might be over-stating it but to me it almost seemed as if there was a glimmer of acknowledgement here that private education was a bit strange."
So is this the message that the school really wants to put out? After all, the normally uptight school must have loosened the rules somewhat to allow them to film it on the grounds.
"The boys were completely open about making their film," says Eton's headteacher Tony Little. "It's a self-deprecating piece of fun by some boys who are parodying themselves."
As the boys involved give us a tour of their school, often in language that requires some kind of translation service (sample: "We go to chambers here, it's where you go to speak to beaks") you notice that a couple of masters (translation: "teachers" I think) even join in – one of them dancing wildly before getting back in his Jag.
"Eton's normally rather po-faced and serious," said our man in the know. "I don't recognise that liberal attitude to filming. And they weren't rebels in the video, they were prefects – I know this because they were walking over special grass reserved especially for prefects."
Special grass reserved just for them? Ah, and we were so close to concluding that those Etonians were just like you and me … | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jun/18/trumps-infrastructure-plan-pillar-agenda | Opinion | 2017-06-18T13:36:51.000Z | Mariana Mazzucato | Trump's infrastructure plan is a pillar of his agenda. It also isn't very smart | Mariana Mazzucato | After years of austerity economics, talk of big infrastructure projects are back in vogue. Trump has made fixing America’s crumbling infrastructure a pillar of his Make America Great Again agenda. But the Trump administration is missing the bigger picture when it comes to what makes a smart infrastructure investment – and what doesn’t.
Infrastructure isn’t all the same. Depending on what it is, it impacts the economy in different ways. If infrastructure is simply about more bridges and roads, it will steer the economy in a emissions-heavy direction. If the infrastructure is electric trams in cities and battery storage facilities for electric vehicles, this could pave the way towards a low carbon future. This is the future that was imagined in the Paris agreement, which the US tragically pulled out of.
The future imagined in Paris requires not only an informal agreement but concrete visions and plans on how to line up policies for infrastructure with policies for innovation, green growth, and financial market reform. Patchy policies won’t do.
How to line up the infrastructure agenda to the innovation agenda, and the green growth agenda is key to our future. Improvements in broadband should not be seen as simply a “speed” problem, servicing a digital agenda, but as an opportunity to use IT to create healthier and smarter lives. How to connect digitalization, with a sustainability agenda, is perhaps one of the most interesting questions that can be asked today.
Innovation can be used to fundamentally change the high carbon content of production, distribution and consumption. Germany – as usual – is an interesting model. Its Energiewende policy has created a vision on how to steer the economy towards green growth across all sectors, not just renewable energy. Transport infrastructure has been planned at city, regional and national levels in ways that lower the carbon footprint of the country.
Traditional industries like steel have been forced to innovate to lower their material content, through strategies of repurpose, reuse and recycle. In the UK, instead, the steel industry remains highly polluting and has not undergone a modernization agenda.
Indeed, it was recently left to rot so badly that it needed to be saved by Tata, the Indian conglomerate. Similarly, it was left to the Chinese to invest in the UK’s nuclear infrastructure. But it is not surprising that in a country with such impatient finance, foreigners end up investing in its infrastructure which requires patient finance.
Countries with patient finance are better able to finance long-term investments. Public banks, like the China Development Bank, or the KfW in Germany, have been playing a leading role world wide in climate protection projects and green infrastructure. Obama had plans for the nation’s Export-Import bank to become an innovation bank but those plans have been put on hold as Trump has decided to bet on private not public actors to foster US growth.
But green growth requires both public and private actors. And while the austerity seems to be fading, the wave of privatization has not. Teresa May’s government – if it survives – has been behind the plans to privatize the Green Investment Bank, one of the only sources of patient finance for green infrastructure in the UK.
Similarly, Trump’s infrastructure plan is increasingly one seen to be driven by private investments – while also cutting the agencies that can help steer progress in clean energy. Darpa, a public agency inside the Department of Defense, was the engine behind the internet, and Arpa-E has been a source of innovation inside the Department of Energy. But his plans are to cut its budget to such an extent most experts believe it will not survive.
Infrastructure should not be seen as a quick fix, and it should equally not be seen as an opportunity for the private sector to make a quick buck. In the same way that speculative finance led to the financial crisis, speculative infrastructure is not the solution. What is needed is a vision for the economy that lines up financial market reform with innovation policy, and infrastructure plans.
As the US retreats from the Paris accord, China and Germany continue to provide global leadership. But others are learning quickly. The UK Labour Party’ recent election manifesto emphasised the need for a green ‘mission’ to drive innovation and industrial strategy, and the need for a public banks to provide the patient finance for innovation that private financial markets are not providing.
Public and private must work together, but this will only work if the process is steered, towards the type of growth we want. Only this way will the world economy have hope for a future that is both smart and sustainable. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/sep/29/peter-ridd-endorses-one-nation-bid-to-protect-academic-free-speech-in-australian-universities | Australia news | 2020-09-29T07:42:55.000Z | Paul Karp | Peter Ridd endorses One Nation bid to protect academic free speech in Australian universities | Contrarian academic Peter Ridd has endorsed a bid by One Nation to protect freedom of speech on university campuses as part of a deal to pass the Coalition’s higher education reforms.
In comments to Guardian Australia, Ridd said legislating a definition of academic freedom devised by former chief justice Robert French would improve the “disastrous” state of freedom of speech and boost legal challenges such as his unfair dismissal case against James Cook University.
On Tuesday, the Sydney Morning Herald reported One Nation had offered to support the jobs ready graduate package in return for the legal protection, a 10% discount for students who pay fees upfront and reinstating a seven-year limit on full-time students deferring fees with government loans.
James Cook University wins appeal in Peter Ridd unfair dismissal case
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One Nation provides the Coalition with two crucial Senate votes, leaving it just one short of passing the bill which increases fees for some courses, including humanities, to fund fee cuts for other courses such as sciences and an overall cut in the government contribution.
Senators Pauline Hanson and Malcolm Roberts are outspoken defenders of Ridd, who expressed controversial views about climate change and the health of the Great Barrier Reef but was sacked by the university for the manner of his advocacy, not its content.
Ridd’s dismissal was upheld by the full federal court on the basis academic freedom does not give an “untrammelled right” to express professional opinions in breach of university codes of conduct.
In a 2019 review into freedom of speech on campus, French recommended that as part of academic freedom, academics should be allowed to “to make lawful public comment on any issue in their personal capacities”.
Universities fear legislating the definition could protect offensive speech outside an academic’s area of expertise, including racist or sexist speech.
Asked about the potential One Nation deal, Ridd said he supported “any moves to improve the disastrous situation at the moment where academic freedom of speech effectively does not exist”.
“At present universities are applying their vague codes of conduct on top of academic freedom of speech – this means academics have to be ‘respectful’ and ‘collegiate’,” he said. “Any robust debate is likely to seem disrespectful to somebody. If the French definition were applied, JCU would have been on even more shaky ground legally for my case.”
Innovative Research Universities executive director, Conor King, told Guardian Australia although universities all have policies to protect academic freedom, the French definition “drifts into” the separate issue of freedom of speech.
Australia's public servants and the right to free speech
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Including it in the bill would allow academic staff to comment on any issue – even unrelated to their field of research – in ways that are regulated for general staff.
King said One Nation appears to have negotiated amendments that are “politically fun” for them but have minor impact on the jobs ready graduate package.
“Universities are dealing with the reality of an agreement between those whose interests are not necessary aligned with the university sector,” he said.
“The Hanson amendments are at the edges … We would cope and adjust [if legislated].”
The National Tertiary Education Union national president Alison Barnes said although it agrees protections around academic freedom need to be strengthened this should not be done by “conflating it with the principles around freedom of speech” as Hanson’s amendment appears to do.
Academic freedom should “cover all staff” but only provide protection when they speak “within their field of expertise, not when they are speaking in a private capacity”.
Protection should be included in pay deals between university and their staff, not legislation, she said.
The Australian Technology Network executive director, Luke Sheehy, noted the proposal appeared to pre-empt the findings of a fresh review launched in August on adoption of the French model code on freedom of speech and academic freedom.
Higher education expert at the Australian National University, Andrew Norton, said the One Nation amendments leave the architecture of the package mostly intact.
The discount for students who pay upfront will largely benefit permanent residents and New Zealanders, who get commonwealth-supported places but not student loans, he said.
Norton said reforms that have already set a $100,000 cap on Help loans are a “better way of controlling” concerns about students over-using the system rather than a cap on time at university.
Lecturer says foreign students need clarity on 'academic freedom' after row over UNSW Hong Kong article
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On Tuesday, Norton released an analysis challenging one of the government’s central claims about the package: that it will pay for 39,000 extra university places by 2023, including up to 15,000 in 2021.
Norton argues that increased flexibility will allow universities to dedicate spare funds from one course type – sub-bachelor, bachelor and postgraduate – to another, but in many instances this will apply a subsidy to existing students enrolled over the cap in each category.
As such they do not create “additional” university places but apply subsidies to students who already attend university.
Norton noted the package reallocates funding from metro universities to regional universities, but concluded that “the commonwealth’s estimate of 2021 places created by [the package] should be revised down to zero at a system level”.
Labor’s shadow education minister, Tanya Plibersek, said the analysis was “further proof that Scott Morrison would rather see young people on the dole queue than get an education”. | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/jul/05/chinese-owned-firm-acquires-uks-largest-semiconductor-manufacturer | Business | 2021-07-05T18:13:38.000Z | Mark Sweney | Chinese-owned firm acquires UK’s largest semiconductor manufacturer | The UK’s largest producer of semiconductors has been acquired by the Chinese-owned manufacturer Nexperia, prompting a senior Tory MP to call for the government to review the sale to a foreign owner during an increasingly severe global shortage of computer chips.
Nexperia, a Dutch firm owned by China’s Wingtech, said on Monday that it had taken full control of Newport Wafer Fab (NWF), the UK’s largest producer of silicon chips, which are vital in products from TVs and mobile phones to cars and games consoles.
Tom Tugendhat, the Conservative MP for Tonbridge and Malling and the chair of the foreign affairs select committee, told CNBC on Monday that he would be very surprised if the deal was not being reviewed under the National Security and Investment Act, new legislation brought in to protect key national assets from foreign takeover.
“The semiconductor industry sector falls under the scope of the legislation, the very purpose of which is to protect the nation’s technology companies from foreign takeovers when there is a material risk to economic and national security,” he said.
The business secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, has previously said that the government was monitoring the situation closely, “but does not consider it appropriate to intervene at the current time”.
Nexperia, which also has manufacturing operations in Stockport and Hamburg, said that the deal would help it to keep pace with global semiconductor demand.
“Nexperia has ambitious growth plans and adding Newport supports the growing global demand for semiconductors,” said Achim Kempe, the chief operations officer at Nexperia. “The Newport facility has a very skilled operational team and has a crucial role to play to ensure continuity of operations.”
The value of the deal was not disclosed but has been estimated at £63m, according to CNBC. Paul James, the operations director at NWF, said that the deal will secure vital investment for the business.
“The acquisition is great news for the staff here in Newport and the wider business community in the region, as Nexperia is providing much-needed investment and stability for the future,” he said. “We are looking forward to becoming part of the global Nexperia team and are keen to keep the current workforce. Additional local resources may be required too.” | Full |
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/oct/03/purring-parasites-and-pure-love-what-exactly-makes-someone-a-cat-person | Life and style | 2023-10-03T09:00:19.000Z | Sirin Kale | Purring, parasites and pure love: what exactly makes someone a cat person? | My moggy Larry is the very best of cats. Affectionate, loyal, endlessly patient – even when my baby son whacks him with a hairbrush, or yanks his tail, he never swipes. Sometimes, when my son is crying in his cot, Larry reaches a paw through the bars, to comfort him. Beautiful, of course. Clever green eyes, and a pink button nose. I think of him as a sort of honoured house guest. He really is the very best of cats.
The two kings of the pet world, dogs and cats, inspire desperate tribalism from their respective camps. In the cat arbour: Albert Einstein, Abraham Lincoln and Florence Nightingale. But what is it about cats that makes someone a cat person? And what can our love for these animals teach us about ourselves?
The social psychologist Samuel D Gosling of the University of Texas has studied the personality traits of self-identified “dog people” and “cat people”. He found that cat lovers score higher on neuroticism and openness to experiences, whereas dog people are more extroverted, agreeable and conscientious. “I wasn’t surprised by the findings,” he says. “If you think about the role that dogs and cats play, they afford different types of interaction. If you like to go walking and get out and about, a dog is a more obvious choice. But if you are more introverted and like to sit in a chair and spend time at home, cats demand less social interaction.”
But this is not to say that cat owners aren’t interested in the world around them. Far from it. Rather, they contemplate nature’s ineffable mysteries not on a muddy trudge through the park, but from the comfort of their own homes. “Openness,” says Gosling, “is about ideas and intellect. People who are high on openness tend to be more abstract thinkers, and more creative and imaginative and philosophical.” Not for nothing is the philosopher with a cat on their lap a beloved internet meme.
Sirin Kale and her cat, Larry, in 2021. Photograph: Linda Nylind/The Guardian
The Turkish-American film-maker Ceyda Torun documented the rambunctious street cats of Istanbul in her award-winning 2017 documentary Kedi (“cat” in Turkish). Among the local people who loved and cared for these cats, one quality stood out: “Their capacity for philosophical thought and introspection,” she says. “It didn’t matter where they were from, or what level of education they had. You could see it in their eyes. They had that flicker of light. The light was on.”
It is the wildness of a cat – how distinctly non-human they are – that draws us in. Unlike humans, who are social creatures who live communally, and dogs, which likewise live in packs, cats “are solitary hunters”, says the philosopher John Gray, author of Feline Philosophy: Cats and the Meaning of Life. “Female cats are deeply attached to their kittens. But that’s about the limit of cat attachment. Cats can grow fond of the company of particular humans. But they don’t need them.”
Gray believes that “if you are the kind of person who wants to see the loyal, loving, trustworthy part of yourself in an animal, you will look to dogs. If you want to see out of the human world, into another world, where a different animal lives without these defining human needs, you will love cats.” In other words, loving a dog is like gazing into a particularly flattering mirror. Cat people look outwards, through a window into nature.
What cat lovers derive from their interaction with cats is “a lesson in the relationship you can have that is non-human”, Torun says. “We feel these non-human relationships in bits and pieces when we go out to a forest, and sit under a tree. But they’re often harder to describe or hold on to, because it’s not an actual animal that can sit on your lap. It feels one-sided. But with a cat, it’s that nature experience that keeps getting validated.”
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While cats recline at the apex of the animal kingdom – not for nothing were they worshipped by the ancient Egyptians – their owners are perhaps the most despised of all pet owners. We all know the stereotype of the crazy cat lady who lives alone in a home that smells of stale litter. But how unjust is it really? If anyone is likely to know, it’s James Buzzel, publisher and editor-in-chief of Your Cat magazine, the nation’s only specialist cat magazine.
“They do exist,” Buzzel says gravely. “There are a number of people with multiple cats [in their] households who tend to live alone. They adore the magazine and write to us frequently.” His readership, he acknowledges, skews female. But, he caveats, “anyone can be a cat person … men appreciate cats too. Maybe they won’t admit it as much. They won’t have the jumpers, or the matching umbrella. But they do.” What unites the cat people who subscribe to Your Cat, or Cat, as Buzzel abbreviates the magazine, is “a deep admiration of their independence and arrogance and aloofness. They know who is boss.”
If you seek a toadying proxy-human (a dog), a cat is not the pet for you. A cat does what it wants. It cannot be trained to catch, or carry, or sit, or fetch. “When a cat is tired of a human being,” says Gray, “they don’t recriminate. They don’t try to change the human being. They just leave.” A cat’s affections must be earned. “They aren’t desperate to please you,” says Buzzel. “So when they do come and sit on your lap, it’s an absolute honour.”
Cat people choose a life of service. We are willing handmaidens to our luscious-furred friends, and in return are rewarded handsomely, with nibbles, purrs and licks. If either of Buzzel’s two cats, a ragdoll called Binx and a Russian blue called Uma, deign to sleep on his lap, he’ll remain still until their nap is complete. “You’d never move or disturb a cat,” he says, appalled.
‘That text message would be much better with a picture of me in it.’ Photograph: RF Pictures/Getty Images
In this, Buzzel evokes the Islamic legend that tells the story of how the prophet Muhammad cut off part of his robe, so as not to disturb a sleeping cat. Cats are particularly beloved across the Muslim world, in part because they are considered ritually clean, and can roam as they please. “I think the fact that cats are indigenous to this region is a big factor,” says Torun. (Cats are believed to have been domesticated in the Fertile Crescent about 10,000 years ago, in what is modern-day Syria, Iraq and Egypt.) “Coupled with the Muslim element, that means that cats are allowed greater access into the family home, more so than any other animal.” As a half-Turkish Cypriot person, I agree: I have never met another Turkish person who wasn’t devoted to cats, and if I did have the misfortune to meet one, I wouldn’t trust them. (Turkey is even renowned for its cat houses, where strays can shelter during the winter months.)
When she was growing up in Istanbul in the 1980s, says Torun, “cats were my best friends”. There was one cat in particular: a grey-and-white tabby with green eyes. Her name was Boncuk. “I was around six when she appeared,” says Torun. “I fed her and she stuck around. Even if I petted her too aggressively, she was never harsh with me. She adopted me and I was her human servant, fetching salami and bowls of milk.”
What this relationship taught her, says Torun, is that “it is possible to love something, but not want to possess it”. Boncuk was her own creature, utterly free – requesting Torun’s assistance, yes, but never expecting it. They had a relationship that existed outside the servile ties that bind dog to master. “It’s about having that relationship with an animal,” explains Buzzel, “that chooses independence, but at the same time, chooses you.”
Cats’ baby-like features at a subconscious level tap into our emotions and make us want to care
Daniel Mills, vet
Torun believes that the charm of a cat is even coded into their genetics. “We’ve messed with dogs too much,” she says. “We’ve bred them too much. They no longer resemble their authentic selves. That’s why people are so attracted to dogs that look like wolves. Because it’s that wild beauty that you don’t see in a chihuahua.” (Torun hastens to add that she has no particular animus towards chihuahuas. “Bless them,” she says.)
Cat faces are so attractive, says Prof Daniel Mills, an expert in veterinary behavioural medicine at the University of Lincoln, and co-author of Being Your Cat: What’s Really Going On in Your Feline’s Mind, because they resemble human babies. “The high forehead, big eyes and small nose,” he says. “These baby-like features at a subconscious level tap into our emotions and make us want to care. They have simple features that we find naturally attractive.”
You have to squint hard to find the beauty in an XL bully, or a Chinese crested. But I’ve never met an ugly cat. We can talk about their grace. About the high arch of their torso, like a ballerina’s foot. The fluid swish of their tails. How they stretch so prettily after a nap. The noiseless way they enter a room, like a debutante descending ballroom stairs.
Cat lovers, Torun argues, are beauty-seekers. “There is something very aesthetically pleasing about a cat,” she says. “That’s why most artists are drawn to cats. Painters and poets tend to have relationships with cats, rather than dogs. Any feline of any size has this graceful athleticism, this prowess, this physical superiority that you can sense.”
Purr therapy is a form of ASMR. Photograph: Betsie Van Der Meer/Getty Images
And the contented purrs of a prone lapcat are a form of natural ASMR. “Probably the best sound in the world is the purr in your ear of a cat,” says Buzzel. “I don’t think any sound works better than that. There’s a natural therapy about it.” Mills explains that purring “is a care-soliciting behaviour. Cats show it when they are very happy, but also when they are seeking help and assistance, which is probably why cats do it when they die.”
There is one less appealing characteristic of cat people: the infection toxoplasmosis. It’s believed that 0.6% of the UK population is affected with toxoplasmosis each year – about 350,000 new cases. “Cats can be carriers of toxoplasmosis,” says Mills, “and they may show no signs of it. It’s of particular concern to pregnant women, because it can cause [miscarriage].” If you have an outdoor-roaming cat, it’s possible you already have toxoplasmosis without knowing it. But if you want to avoid contracting the parasite that causes it, it’s best to change cat litter regularly, and wear gloves while doing so.
A small price to pay, for all the joy that cats bring their owners. “It’s pure love really,” says Buzzel, of the cat people he’s met over his 20-year career on Your Cat. “They live for their cats. They lead a cat-centric life. It doesn’t mean they fit into the crazy cat lady stereotype, although some are proud to say they do. They’re always thinking of the cat. They buy the cat food and pay their vet bills before they buy their own food.” Cat people also have a sense of humour. Your Cat runs a regular column written by the cat sitter Chris Pascoe, in which he recounts his clients’ antics. “That goes down really well,” Buzzel says.
But even a vibrant and engaged cat community cannot protect Your Cat from economic reality. The December print issue of Your Cat will be its last. Falling circulation figures and decreased advertising spend have proved fatal. (The magazine will continue to exist online.) “We’re feeling a bit emotional about it,” says Buzzel. When we speak he’s planning their final issue. “I’m half thinking of a grumpy Sphinx with an Xmas hat on,” he says.
‘People see something in the cat that they would like to have more of in themselves.’ Photograph: Kilito Chan/Getty Images
Buzzel has a unique insight into the dog and cat owning communities respectively – as well as working at Your Cat, he’s also the publisher of its sister magazine, Your Dog. “The sense of community is stronger in the cat world than the dog world,” he says. “The dog people are busy out with their dog. They like the fact that the magazine is more practical and about how-tos and travel inspiration. Your Cat readers love reading about cats. That’s the difference. If you have a dog, you love your dog. If you have a cat, you love all cats. You’re fascinated by everyone’s story about their cats.”
But in truth, the distinction between dog lover and cat person is somewhat artificial. We all drink from the same bowl. “Something cat people have in common with dog people,” says Gray, “is that they see something in the cat that they would like to have more of in themselves. Maybe they want to be more independent. More self-steering. Less needy of other human beings, and less dependent on their praise. So there is that in common.”
Torun identifies herself as a lover of all animals. “I wonder how much people make themselves believe they are a cat person or a dog person,” she says. “And part of that way of thinking is just a way to belong to a group. It’s tribalistic. It’s kind of unfair to cut yourself off from any possible relationship you can have with a dog or a cat by saying you’re a dog person, or a cat person. That’s limiting to me.”
She never knew what became of her beloved Boncuk. Torun thinks she crept off, when the time was right, and found a quiet space to die. She lived on her own terms, and died on them too.
“She taught me smaller lessons about boundaries,” says Torun, “attachment, letting go. But the bigger lesson was of knowing that I am not alone in this great big world. If you restrict yourself too much to human relationships, it’s very easy to feel alone.” | Full |
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